Chapter 10 – Saving Jade Collective
"You got a new ship." Obi-Wan stroked the stubble on his face.
"Yes, I thought it was wise. The empire's probably got their eyes out for my old one by now," Anakin said.
"Yes, yes," Obi-Wan thought hard on what to say. This wasn't good.
"You're not impressed?"
Obi-Wan winced. "It's just not something I ever imagined you driving. You're usually a lot more particular about the ships and speeders you take."
Anakin laughed. "Well I got this one used and cheap. She's not that bad of a model though. Very safe, according to the crash test reports. I'm gonna replace the hyperdrive and give her a new Accelerator." Anakin tapped the side of his ship appreciatively.
Obi-Wan shook his head. "Come on Anakin."
The two walked into a meeting room on the Alliance to Restore the Republic's temporary base on Alderaan. There Yoda was consulting with Bail and Ahsoka Tano.
"Disturbing news, this is. However, surprising, it is not," Yoda said.
"I've just been briefing Master Yoda on the latest information we have on the force-sensitive infants the inquisitors have been taking." Bail Organa brought the new arrivals up to speed.
"Long story short. They take them, and treat them very badly until they turn to the dark side," Ahsoka summarized.
"You don't need to say more. You wanted us to help you rescue a group of the younglings?" Anakin sat down to listen.
"We believe these younglings are a ticking time bomb for the universe. If we wait too long, they will grow up to be Sith servants, and nothing 'll stop the emperor." Bail pushed a button and a holo-map appeared. "We have intelligence that there is a group of younglings they've named the Jade Collective here on this moon. The place is extremely difficult to get into, but we hope for a Jedi it will be different. Some time ago we raided a transport shuttle going to this moon. But they don't know it is gone yet. If we send a team down in that shuttle they'll be arrested within minutes of landing, but we might just be able to get another pilot in at the same time, without anyone noticing. If they fly fast that is." Bail turned to Anakin. "I know it's risky, but I've seen your piloting skills in action. You're the only one I know of who might be able to make it. Once you're close enough, you'll dock with the side of the moon-station here, and enter this way…" While he talked the hologram showed the tactics he was suggesting.
As he spoke, Anakin remembered how anxious Padme had been after his last risky mission. That was only a broken arm. He could really loose his life doing a stunt like this. Especially in imperial occupied space. The others were looking at him. "It is risky, almost an impossible move," he acknowledged.
"I've already volunteered to do it," Ahsoka said.
Anakin turned suddenly to stare at his former Padawan in disbelief.
"We're leaving that as a plan B. Our first choice is you for this mission, Anakin. If we're going to do this, we have to do it today. The commander of the base was just called away to Corescant, and if we wait too long they'll classify the shuttle we have MIA." Bail said.
"Okay, I'll do it." Anakin put his head in his hands. His wife was going to kill him, if he survived this. But the thought of watching Ahsoka try a move like that was out of the question.
After the meeting the others scatter around the base to prepare for the mission. Anakin walked back to R2-D2 in his shuttle. He and Padme had discussed telling the Jedi about his family, but he was always too nervous to do it.
"I'll let you decide what to tell them and when, Ani." Padme had said.
Right now, Anakin wished he had already come clean. There was a real chance that he could die in this upcoming mission, and then who would tell Padme? Who would help Padme raise and train his children. He didn't want to give Ahsoka such a big responsibility, even though he knew she'd always be there for them. He entered the ship and found R2-D2.
"R2, I need you to do something." Anakin wiped his face. "If something happens to me. If I don't come back from this mission, I want you to give Obi-Wan the home coordinates."
The droid beeped a concerned set of beeps.
"Yes, those are your orders. If I die, give Obi-Wan the home coordinates." He sighed, about to get up, find Obi-Wan, and have a long conversation with him.
Then a light knocking from outside the ship startled him. Anakin walked out to find Ahsoka standing there.
"I was wondering if you'd have a few minutes to spare?" she asked.
"For you, Ahsoka, of course."
Anakin followed Ahsoka to one of the residential apartments on the base. Ahsoka walked up to the front door, and was about to open it.
"Wait, isn't this Bail Organa's private residence?" Anakin put up his hand to stop her.
"Yes, I have permission." Ahsoka opened the door and walked with Anakin through a living area, then down a hallway. She stopped him in front of one of the open doors. Inside was a baby's nursery. Breha Organa was in the room and was rocking a baby to sleep. Anakin could feel the love radiating from the room.
Breha gave a short wave, which Ahsoka returned. Then Ahsoka pulled Anakin back to the living area of the appartment.
"Do you remember the ship Bail said the rebellion raided?" Ahsoka asked.
"The one headed to the Imperial base," Anakin filled in.
"She was on it. Her name is Mara, and she was another force-sensitive destined for the Jade collective. Since we rescued her, Bail and Breha have been taking care of her. I know I should bring her to the Jedi, but they've formed a bond. I just couldn't…"
"Don't worry, I felt it too. But what about when the inquisitors come after her again?"
"That's a problem, but then I thought about the way it felt on Tatooine. I couldn't sense a presence, not from you, your children, not even myself. It was like a cloud was over everything. And I hoped…"
"I created a shroud. I think I did it years ago, when I was a boy, without even realizing it. It might be why Master Mundi never sensed me when he was on Tatooine. It took a lot of experimenting, but I figured out how to strengthen it, since you were there last. I think I can teach you to build one too. Sit down, we won't have a lot of time."
By the time Ahsoka was building up and strengthening her shroud, Bail walked in.
"Anakin, the teams are ready to depart," Bail said, after Anakin looked up at him.
"I think we're done here, then." Anakin said to Ahsoka as he got up.
"We've got an X-Wing for you to take. Obi-Wan and Yoda will be taking your shuttle to the meet up point. They say it's large enough to hold the rescued children, but not fast enough for the maneuvers you'll be making today." Bail explained. "This is the team that will be taking the empire's shuttle in. Once you get into the base, find and free them. Together you can liberate the younglings, and if possible, I'm sending enough charges to have them rebuilding till next year with this team on their shuttle."
Anakin saluted Bail and ran off to the X-Wing.
"Here Anakin, may the force be with you." Obi Wan offered Anakin his helmet as he climbed into the shuttle.
"And with you," Anakin returned. He wanted to say so much more, but there just wasn't the time. "Wait, if something happens to me, R2's got a set of coordinates for you." He paused a second "Be kind to them, it isn't their fault," he squeezed out before the hatch was closed.
Obi-Wan watched the hatch close with a confused expression on his face. What did he mean? Another set of coordinates, maybe he knows something. Some tactical reason to change our destination. I wish he would've said more. Obi Wan thought about this on his way to Anakin's new shuttle. Hmm, Be kind to who? The younglings, he'll have to rescue them first. And what isn't their fault? They're younglings. Why would he think I'd blame younglings for being kidnapped and abused by the enemy?
Obi-Wan entered the ship without answers. Inside, Yoda was already making himself at home, or trying to, as the case may prove. "Uh. Ooh. Ermm." Yoda was struggling with something by the sound of it.
Obi-Wan peeked his head into the rear of the ship, and saw Yoda struggling to open one of the many compartments on the ship. "Here, let me try." Obi-Wan was as helpless as Yoda.
Then one of the Rebels came by to check that they were ready for take-off. "Here," she said. The compartment opened easily to her hands. "We have safeties like that at home, so my baby doesn't open anything she shouldn't. Lift up and pull."
"Thank you. We were quite stuck there," said Obi-Wan.
"Why this ship is such a mess, it explains. Been able to get to the cleaners, Anakin likely has not." Yoda added as he pulled out a cleaning spray from the now opened compartment.
"Yes, there are a lot of crumbs back here," Obi-Wan acknowledged. "R2, is there a vacuum droid around here?"
Ahead of Anakin the rebel filled empire ship sent their codes to the base. He clutched the throttle in anticipation. Any second now.
Shields down. The words came on the screen.
Anakin pushed his ship forward as fast as he could, heading straight for the moon. It looked like he was intending to crash. Then at the ideal moment he felt a feeling in the force and he pulled up, avoiding certain death.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Anakin steared his ship around to the side of the base and latched on. Then he opened up the hatch and climbed through.
Anakin entered and clenched his nose immediately. This was the trash chute hatch, and the room was full of baby diapers, amongst other trash. Anakin supposed it was lucky he got chosen for this mission. With two poopers at home, Anakin was used to the smell. He pulled a rope from his belt and used the force to send it up to the top of the chute. Then he climbed up and kicked open the cover.
He exited in a hallway, and rushed down a few hallways. The alliance never got their hands on the blueprints for the base, so Anakin was on his own to find his way around. He used the Force. Up ahead there were force-sensitive signatures. Likely the younglings. Two floors down from him was the brig, where yes, four familiar rebels were being kept. Anakin went for the lift and was surprised when it opened and a man walked out.
Anakin pulled out his lightsaber and the man put his arms up and melted immediately.
"No, Please don't," he cried.
Choosing mercy, Anakin whacked the man over the head with the blunt handle to his saber, and then pulled him into what looked like a nearby closet. Anakin then stripped the man of his uniform and put it on. He left his old clothes behind, thinking he'd never be able to wash out the smell of dirty diapers.
Also in the closet Anakin found a trolley and filled it with supplies. He took it to the lift and pushed the button to call it. When the lift opened it was empty, but Anakin took the trolley onto the lift with him. He pushed the button for two floors down. One floor down the door opened and another man entered. Anakin used the trolley to hide his face and he fingered his lightsaber belt just in case.
When the lift opened next, Anakin tried to step off, only the man put his foot out to stop him. Anakin took in a deep breath and clutched his lightsaber.
"When you're done, there's a mess on seventh to clean up. Make sure I'm not waiting too long for it," the man demanded.
Without turning Anakin nodded, then proceeded out of the lift.
By the time he got to the brig he had to abandon the trolley. The excuse that he'd just come to mop the floors would likely not work, and it would get in the way if there was a fight.
Anakin opened the door to the brig and a tall burly guard walked up to him. "What'ya doin here?"
"You seen a toddler 'round here?" Anakin bent over, as if he were examining the floor in the corners of the room. "Ya know, when the little ones start to crawl it's almost impossible to keep track of 'em."
The guard gritted his face and stepped forward. Anakin could tell that this one wouldn't give up without a fight, and he was going to give him one. Anakin pulled out his lightsaber and in one fluid motion twisted it round to slice the man's chest open. He fell back after that. Anakin grabbed the keys and rushed to open the cells.
The men gathered their blasters from the guard's office and followed Anakin out of the brig. There they split. Two men went down to the hanger to distribute their explosives, while two went up with Anakin to rescue the younglings.
Upstairs, Anakin led them to the room where he sensed the young force signatures. The walls were all painted green. Not a pretty green that reminded you of a forest or grass, but a sickly green. Anakin opened one of the cribs to find a wire droid holding a bottle to an infant that just wouldn't settle. Anakin remembered feeling critical of Yoda using droids to raise the younglings, but atleast those droids had soft arms and heated patches under the artificial skin. After Anakin pulled the youngling out he pulled out his saber and destroyed the device. The rebels smiled and nodded in understanding.
The rebels wore special harnesses under their suits which allowed them to hold multiple younglings at once. Anakin went ahead of them with his lightsaber, prepared to fight their way through. When they got to the hallway with the lifts one of their fellow rebels was just coming up.
"News, they've got a fleet of TIE Starfighters. We've got explosives in the command hub, but it's still likely that they'll chase us on our way out. Is there any way you can get back to your X-Wing? The imperial shuttle doesn't have guns." he explained.
Anakin put his hand through his hair. "I was really hoping to avoid climbing through the trash shoot again." He breathed out loudly. "Okay, I'll be there. Take off in Twelve."
Anakin climbed down the trash shoot and climbed into his X-Wing. Taking off at the designated time he flew around to the main hanger where the other shuttle was leaving. He saw lights and sections of the moon base collapsing as the rebels took off. Before they were away a squad of Eyeballs took off and Anakin pulled out his guns to cover.
Anakin was a good shot, and he used the Force to disrupt the aim of the other guys. Still, his one gun wasn't enough to defeat an entire fleet. When the rebels were almost far enough away to jump to hyperdrive, Anakin noticed a single fighter which had a clear shot. Anakin pulled his X-Wing around to steer directly for it. It turned it's guns for him instead. Good, one part done. Now the other part. Survive. Anakin turned his ship suddenly towards a burned out Tie he had already shot down.
Obi-Wan and Yoda sat in Anakin's shuttle waiting at the meet-up point. The Alliance had released several droids in the region of the moon-station to keep tabs on the mission and Obi-Wan and Yoda were watching it on a live feed.
"That's Anakin's X-Wing there. Why did he leave the base again? I thought he was going to leave with the others." Said Obi-Wan, "Oh, he has to fight their way out. This looks bad, there's a whole fleet of TIE Fighters."
When they watched Anakin perform his stunt to attract the guns of the lead TIE Fighter, Obi-Wan stood up and shouted. "What is he doing? NO!.." Obi-Wan felt his heart gripped by a pain he hadn't felt in a long time as he watched the debris explode around Anakin's X-Wing.
In the corner of the cockpit R2-D2 beeped a sad string of beeps, as he too presumed his master to be deceased.
Obi-Wan fell back in his seat, not having the strength to remain standing. Then suddenly a droid tapped the side of his leg. He looked down. "R2, I'm sorry about Anakin." An arm came out of the droid an attached to the ship. Then a set of coordinates appeared on the screen, interrupting the live broadcast.
"What is this? A new set of coordinates, this is." Yoda curiously piped up behind him.
"Anakin said, if… if this happened, R2 had a set of coordinates for us." Obi-Wan struggled with his tears. "He never explained."
"Trust Anakin we will. Go here, we will. After we pick up the younglings," said Yoda.
Anakin pulled his ship in a spin. There was burning debris all around him, and some of it was hot enough to damage part of his X-Wing's hull. He managed to shoot a hole in the TIE fighter, through the debris and it destroyed the TIE's canons. By the time Anakin pulled away from the debris and back into the fight, the Rebels had already left the system. Anakin still had to fight his way through an entire fleet of TIE fighters to escape though. It was difficult, but without the other ship to protect, he was able to shoot them down until he got far enough away. Also, with a damaged control tower, the more primitive TIE systems were increasingly bad shots farther away from base.
Anakin flew to the meet-up point and looked around. Not a ship was in sight. "Wha-at? Where are they? I know they made it out of there. And even if the rebels had to go back to base, Obi-Wan and Yoda would've waited for me… Unless, No. They think I'm dead. Which means R2… Uh Oh! Anakin rushed to plug in new coordinates.
When Anakin arrived he saw his own shuttle leave orbit and fly in towards the point the coordinates specified. His home.
Anakin tried to comm them, but discovered that his comm system was damaged. So he flew down after them. Anakin landed outside and ran into the garage, where Obi-Wan and Yoda were exiting the ship.
"Anakin! You made it. When we saw that explosion we feared the worst." Obi-Wan reached out to touch his former Padawan, almost to be sure he was really there. "What is this place? The garage opened for us automatically, is this where you've been staying?"
"Yes, now before we go in, I want to talk with you," Anakin began.
"Daddy," The voice of a two year old came from behind him. Anakin turned and Leia ran up and threw her arms around him.
He bent over and breathed in her scent. Tears of relief from seeing her again leaked off his face. Anakin thought he should probably scold her for coming out to the garage alone, but when he looked into her soft brown eyes, his heart melted.
"Daddy, you stink?" Leia pointed out.
Anakin let out a sad laugh. "Yeah, daddy had to climb through some trash to rescue a bunch of younglings today. Do me a favor, go tell Mommy I'm home." And with that the little one ran off back into the house, stopping by the door to force-push it open.
Hi guys. I am really excited about this chapter and I hope you like it as much as I do.
The first part is my nod off to Anakin gets the star wars version of a Minivan. And his single friends don't understand it at all. Then of course kids leave crumbs and junk in the back seat all the time. And I've never been able to open anything baby-proofed either, so I find having it be Jedi-proofed… Well, I hope you get my humor.
This chapter contains a lot of action, and I find I still struggle with this type of chapter. The hard part for me is figuring out how to accurately describe what's going on without bogging you down with too many tactical details that it gets boring. So if you don't usually leave comments or reviews, if you could leave one this week, I'd appreciate it. After all, feedback is how I learn to improve my writing.
Also, Yes, I did just make young Mara Jade into Princess Mara Organa. Where I'll take this, well I'd pretend I don't know, but I do. I'm just not telling ;) The shroud that Anakin teaches Ahsoka to build is not really canon. It's based on what I read on the Wookieepedia page for Force Sensitives, Legends. I figured It's Sci-Fi, so if it sounds good, It'll stand. And the description of the sith baby cribs was inspired by a psychological experiment by Harlow involving monkeys, from before animal cruelty laws.
Next week is the reaction chapter. I think I'm gonna make it in Obi-Wan's POV, but it's still early to say for sure.
