Precipice by shadowsong26
Part 4: Commander
Commander: Chapter 11
Obi-Wan had long since missed his rendezvous with Moonshot and Reckoning.
Not that he'd particularly expected otherwise. The upper route was the longest, and the most exposed. And he was-distracted. Still.
(Anakin remained a faint pulse in the back of his mind; alive but not safe and in pain.)
At least he'd managed to draw enemy fire away from the others. He hadn't seen or sensed much commotion from down in the valley, even along Moonshot's likely route. Chances were relatively good that at least one of them had made it out all right.
As for himself…
Well, he was still alive; still intact. He'd thus far managed to stay ahead of the ground troops deployed after him, and the air support he'd been worried about hadn't been nearly as aggressive as it could have been. Either because someone in charge wanted him caught alive, or they were concerned about their troops getting caught in the crossfire, or there was some compound in these rocks that made a general strafing run unwise, or some other threat had jumped into the system and the fighters were needed elsewhere, or the fighters were spread out to help hunt down the rest of the team as well and only so many could be spared for him…
That last, he thought, was the likeliest explanation, though any of the others could have played a role as well. Especially if Cleaver and the others had done any significant damage during the earlier skirmish. He had seen at least one shoulder-mounted anti-aircraft gun in the stockpile Cleaver had bought from Hondo. If they'd thought to bring it along…
Still, that speculation didn't particularly help him right now, as he was not really in a position to take advantage of any options to interfere with the pilots. Besides, these moderately favorable circumstances were unlikely to last much longer. He didn't have quite enough of a lead to set up decent traps along his trail (though he had successfully bought himself some time that way); the local garrison knew the area in a way he didn't; and it was getting dark.
So, it was time to change the game.
Hopefully, the hours spent leading his pursuers on a wild chase around the mountain had lulled them into complacency-patterns often did; particularly patterns that were seemingly to one's own advantage, even if the adversary was setting them. If so, he would have just a little bit of an edge when he suddenly switched tactics and lured them into an open fight.
There was a rock formation, a set of column-like stones set close enough to form almost a crevice or ravine in the mountainside, about half a klick back. He could use those to reasonably decent effect-he would be at an advantage in close quarters, as he could tangle the troopers up with each other, force them into a bottleneck. The problem was, it wasn't particularly covered from above, leaving him more vulnerable to the TIE fighters than he liked.
On the other hand, it was the best ground he'd seen for dealing with the troops on foot, and the longer he delayed his stand, the likelier they'd regroup and summon reinforcements, or any TIEs scattered to deal with the others would be recalled and sent to focus on the target they could find. And further delays made it likelier his-distraction-or fatigue would start to significantly hinder his performance.
So, the question then became-what was the best way to double back and get into position?
Up and over, I think, he decided. A maneuver like that would not go unnoticed long enough for him to get back to his ship, of course, or he would have tried it already. It might have been enough to get back to Cleaver's base, but in addition to being unwilling to risk compromising it by heading there, he needed to get off planet and back in touch with Anakin and Rex as quickly as possible. Even without his commlink, he could collect and respond to any messages they'd sent from the unit in his cockpit.
Regardless, it should fool them long enough for him to set himself for the standoff. Particularly if he provided a bit of a distraction first.
He turned his lightsaber on and off twice in rapid succession; the flickering shone through the dim twilight and drew their eyes and their fire; most of which went wide, though he smelled scorched wool as one bolt caught the hem of his cloak.
He moved aside, in the opposite direction of his actual goal, and gave them another glimpse just over a minute later. The burst of fire in response came closer this time-one bolt nearly connected with his hip, but he twisted out of the way with about a centimeter to spare.
Once more, to cement the pattern, and then he changed course, using the Force to still any tell-tale movement of his cloak or the vegetation he passed through, darting in a wide arc up the mountainside that would end at his rock shelter. He estimated that it would take the troops roughly twice as long as he'd left between flashes to realize he'd shifted, and perhaps a third such period for them to figure out which way he'd turned.
Plenty of time.
His estimate, as it turned out, was a touch over-generous. It was closer to two and a half minutes later that he sensed them back on his trail.
Damn. Well, he could make it work. He was nothing if not adaptable.
He skidded into the quasi-shelter of the rocks, found the most defensible position in easy range, reactivated his lightsaber, and closed his eyes to center himself and wait.
It didn't take long for the troops to catch up. To their credit, they seemed to grasp fairly quickly that he was making a stand, and actually took a moment to study the ground he'd chosen before taking the bait.
The first attempt had them holding their distance and firing at range, rather than coming closer and risking getting caught up by the rocks and each other. Obi-Wan sank into the Force and deflected the volley smoothly, removing three of his attackers with their own reflected shots.
Hopefully, they would adjust their tactics soon. While he could pick them all off this way, it would lengthen the engagement significantly and that would likewise increase the risk posed by the fighters in the air.
No sooner had he thought that when the Force shouted a warning in his ear, accompanied by the scream of one of the TIEs above cutting through the atmosphere. Obi-Wan launched himself to one side just as the rock he'd been standing on exploded. He landed badly; felt his left shoulder jolt out of its socket.
Not good. Shoulder throbbing and ears still ringing from the blast, he switched to a one-handed grip and got to his feet just in time to deflect the next hail of blaster bolts from the troops on the ground. Considerably less gracefully than the first one; and he gained no further advantage from the reflections.
He heard the fighter coming around for another pass and braced himself to-
The TIE fighter exploded, lighting up the area nearly clear as day, and sending a shower of molten metal fragments down over Obi-Wan and the stormtroopers; parts of the grass even began to smolder.
Startled, he looked up to see a snub-nosed little ship of unfamiliar make shoot through the wreckage and squeeze off a handful of shots at the stormtroopers, killing two and driving the rest back just a bit, towards the rising smoke.
Obi-Wan felt himself relaxing at the sight and, despite the disasters of the day and the dangers of the moment, he smiled.
Because, while he might not have recognized the ship, the bright, spiky presence at the controls was very familiar, indeed.
He lifted his saber in a brief salute, and Ahsoka dipped her wing slightly in response before wheeling to deal with the TIE fighter's wingmates, leaving the stormtroopers to him.
From there-well, it was brutal, inelegant work, but essentially a foregone conclusion, once Obi-Wan had air support of his own.
When the stormtroopers were all dead, he took a moment to brace himself against the rock and pop his shoulder back into place. Then he signaled Ahsoka again, leading the way back to where he'd left his ship.
He didn't wait for her to land; lost no time climbing into his cockpit and activating his comm unit. There was a brief message from Anakin, requesting an immediate meeting at the Cinna rendezvous point. A followup, from Rex, that there had been a delay. Another, also from Rex, clarifying the length of the delay. A third-upgrading the requested meeting to urgent status, because Anakin was hurt. And a fourth, requesting contact for an updated rendezvous, which meant it was not the prepared safehouse.
Obi-Wan closed his eyes, let out a slow breath. There is no emotion, there is peace.
One last message, from Bail. He decoded it as quickly as he could. Specter has left Coruscant. Unscheduled.
Obi-Wan went cold. Because, yes, Specter was a neophyte, nothing compared to the adversaries he and Anakin had faced before, but still a Sith Lord. Still something that should not be faced alone.
And Anakin had done exactly that. And he had been-
He had to fight, for a moment, to avoid being overcome by bitter memories.
There is no emotion, there is peace.
He put the messages aside. Whatever had happened had already happened. There was nothing-nothing he could do about it now. What he needed to do now was focus, speak with Ahsoka-who was here, who was alive, despite all that had happened-and plan what to do next.
Calm and centered again-or as close to it as he was likely to get without extensive meditation-he stood up and made his way back outside, to where Ahsoka was waiting, hovering next to her little ship.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"Yes, I'm-oof!" She had taken that as permission and slammed into his right side, wrapping her arms around him and clinging tight. After half a startled heartbeat, he put his good arm around her shoulders, hugging her back. Neither of them said anything more-they didn't need to; the Force around them hummed with muted, weary joy.
Obi-Wan had never expected to see her again. And just because he'd long ago accepted what had appeared to be reality didn't mean he wasn't quietly thrilled to be proved wrong.
"It's so weird," she said after a moment, finally pulling back. "Being taller than you."
She wasn't wrong; it was decidedly odd to look up at her. It was also not an entirely unfamiliar sensation. He still remembered when he'd realized Anakin had gotten taller than he was-and, despite not having a six-year separation to make the change more obvious and jarring, it had still surprised him.
"Well, it was bound to happen sometime," he said. Togruta were taller, on average, than Humans, after all.
"Fair enough," she said, with a brief, pointed grin before her face turned serious again. "You sure you're okay? You went down pretty hard back there."
"Dislocated shoulder," he said, refraining from touching it. That would only hurt, and to no purpose. "I already set it, and it seems to be holding. I'll live."
She nodded. "All right. Let me know if you want me to take a look, too."
"I will." He smiled briefly. "And...thank you, for earlier. I'm very glad you were able to help," he said. "But how did you find me?" If he'd somehow left more of a trail than he should have-well, someone decidedly less welcome might have found it, too; and it wasn't just his own safety at risk if he'd been compromised.
"Rex told me," she said.
Ah, of course. "Rex," he said, with a faint sigh, "is supposed to wait twenty-four hours." But he relaxed anyway-no chance of compromise after all; more importantly, if she'd seen Rex, she'd seen Anakin. Which meant she could tell him what the hell had happened.
"Notice how Rex isn't here," she pointed out.
A fair point, and a loophole that had almost certainly saved his life earlier. So he let it pass. "And Anakin?" he asked quietly.
"I didn't-I don't know all the details, I got there after," she said, then took a breath. "Rex told me they were ambushed, by Specter."
Confirming what Bail's message had already told him. There is no emotion, there is peace.
"How bad?" he asked.
"Bad," she said. "Specter cut off Anakin's leg."
Which called up a different set of unpleasant memories; of the first battle of Geonosis, and Anakin's arm, of seeing him in pain and adrift in the aftermath-but this time, they didn't have the resources of the Temple and its healers behind them to help put him back together.
Oh, Anakin… Obi-Wan closed his eyes. The Sith keep taking pieces of him away, and I can't-we will manage this time, we will find a way, but I don't know...I don't know how much harder it will be.
"He's safe now," she went on, putting a reassuring hand on Obi-Wan's arm. "Rex and I got him to a doctor I know. Dr. Naar's good people, he's helped me out before." She paused. "He said-there's an infection, and he said that he couldn't fit a prosthetic 'til he cleared that up, or it might mess up the neural mapping."
Which was-not good. But Anakin is alive, he's in good hands, and he's-he's survived worse than this. Which was a poor choice, so far as train of thought went; Geonosis and the Temple faded and he once again pictured Anakin on the Tantive, unnaturally still but for his labored breathing.
Concentrate on the here and now, he reminded himself sternly. And there was a set of immediate, concrete problems that he needed to solve. Focusing on those would help him pull himself together in the short term. He could worry about the long term once he'd actually seen his brother again.
"Right," he said, clearing his throat briefly. "How long to get back there, roughly?"
"A couple hours," she said. "But we might want to delay a little, approach the clinic after dark. Less chance we'll draw attention."
A good point. Still, they could hardly wait here. "We'll get to the planet and lie low for a few hours," he said.
"Got it." She frowned. "Any ideas for getting past that Navy ship? I slipped past before, but they'll recognize me after what I did to their fighters. I don't know if they know what your ship looks like, but…"
He grimaced. "They'll be looking for suspicious departures. Possibly stopping any non-official traffic as it leaves." It's what he would have done, searching for a fugitive back when he'd had an extensive military apparatus backing him up.
But Anakin had planned for this particular problem. It was simply that the solution was-extremely unpleasant.
"What?" Ahsoka asked.
"There's a modification on my ship's hyperdrive," he said. "Allowing it to enter hyperspace from within a gravity well. It can cause significant seismic and meteorological backlash as gravity compensates, and it's...disconcerting, from inside the ship."
"I'll bet," she said. "So they'll still see us going, but they won't be able to stop us."
"Yes," he said. Though that could be a problem, too. If the Navy was watching closely enough, they might well pick up on his departure vector, which could lead them to Ahsoka's medic.
Unless…
"...how do you feel about using your ship as a decoy?" he asked. They'd have to leave it behind, anyway, to avoid her getting arrested, but there was a difference between the two.
She blinked, then smiled slowly. "Well, I can always get another. I've only had this one for about three months, anyway."
Right. For as much as she'd picked up Anakin's habit of working with engines when stressed or bored, she didn't have quite the same tendency to cling to them.
"Get the autopilot set," he said. "We'll send it off against the Thunder Wasp, then take off once it clears the atmosphere."
"Sounds good," she said, then grinned and hugged him one more time. "It's good to be back."
He smiled back at her again. "Yes," he said, softly. "It is."
Commander Thrawn watched the starfighter pierce through the atmosphere, on a collision course with the Thunder Wasp. It matched the markings of the one that had come to the Jedi's aid earlier that evening, destroying several TIE fighters in the process.
But based on what he'd observed today, it was likely a decoy-his opponent shown had a preference for sleight of hand and building layers of misdirection into his plans. Observing its flight pattern only confirmed the suspicion. While it had been programmed fairly well, its reactions to the Wasp's guns were not the reflexes of a sentient being. Certainly not the type of acrobatic flying the pilot had shown during the skirmish.
It was on autopilot.
Which meant that the real departure-or departures; Thrawn couldn't yet rule out the Jedi and his ally leaving the planet separately-would be in a different direction. One camouflaged, in some way, by the decoy's vector. Probably not the exact opposite direction. That would be too obvious. An angle, then, moving through one of the Thunder Wasp's few blind spots.
He had his remaining TIE fighters split between the two likeliest paths for the actual ship, with orders to harry it within range of the tractor beam if at all possible. The decoy, he left to be destroyed by the Thunder Wasp's guns.
But then there was a sudden burst of atmospheric disturbance, from near where the decoy had taken off. Not another launch. Not anything Thrawn had seen before.
A storm blew up out of nothing, and sensors indicated a sudden, sharp, gravitational shift, resulting in a minor earthquake as the planet tried to compensate.
It was theoretically possible, according to research Thrawn had done in the past, for a ship to enter hyperspace from within a gravity well. And projections indicated consequences similar to what he was observing now.
He left his TIE fighters in place for a few minutes more, just in case, but did not expect them to find anything. The Jedi was gone; his insurgent allies, while only stealing a small fraction of the ammunition, had also gotten away, other than one casualty on the larger team; a Nautolan male who had not yet been conclusively identified.
The overall engagement had ended in a draw.
At least the image reconstruction and identification program he'd been running had at last turned up a result, by the time he ordered his fighters to stand down. The mystery Jedi proved to be Obi-Wan Kenobi; a name Thrawn recognized. General Skywalker had spoken extensively of him years ago, when they'd met. And, based on Kenobi's quick reactions and strategies when working with extremely limited resources, the praise Skywalker had given was certainly merited.
Thrawn made a mental note to acquire as much of Kenobi's record as he could. Carefully; without drawing too much attention to that or his other semi-legal research. The majority of it would be heavily redacted, of course, and it might take several months or years before he got his hands on what was left, but there would be something.
And, after an introduction like that one, he highly doubted this was the last time his path and Kenobi's would cross. It wouldn't do to be unprepared when they met again.
Besides, he was a survivor, and an extremely clever man. Both of which made him a dangerous adversary to face. That next engagement, when it came, would certainly be one to remember.
Thrawn was already looking forward to it.