*I would like to start by apologizing for spelling Ahsoka's name wrong in the previous chapters. I will correct them going forward.
Part 14 – Medical Assistance – Part 1
Most of the clones that needed medical attention were well enough to be able to walk out, a few of them that were able to carry those that couldn't walk on stretchers.
As Ahsoka was being placed on a stretcher, and had a cannula inserted, Bruce first covered her up with his robe before he and Vekkif each strapped on a pack to hold additional cans of bacta.
"This amount of bacta should last about ten minutes," one of the medics said as he pulled out a surplus can from the med bay and screwed the end onto the IV line.
"How many bottles do we have?" Bruce asked.
"We can each carry three," the medic said, "But we can only spare about twelve."
"Which means she has about two hours." Bruce said.
"Unfortunately," the medic said, "Which means we have to move."
"Can you hold the bottle?" Bruce asked.
"I'll do it," Jesse said as he walked over, and held up the bottle above Ahsoka's body, "He's needed for the others."
"What's the fastest way to the hanger," Bruce asked, grabbing hold of one end of the stretcher as Vekkif took hold of the other end.
"Hanger's just down the hall." Jesse said.
"Good," Bruce said, him and Vekkif both lifting the injured Togruta, "Let's move!"
"Padawan Kirkwood," Cody said over the communicator.
Jesse reached over to pull out Bruce's commlink, and hold it up to him, "Thank you," he said, "Go ahead."
"We have transports on their way," Cody said, "We also have fighters to provide overwatch."
"Good," Bruce said, "We've got most of the crew ready. We're heading to the hanger now."
"Get the clones inside out," Cody said, "If the plan works, there's not going to be much of the Tribunal left to bring back to Coruscant."
"We'll keep them safe," Bruce said, "Just let us know when."
"Copy that." Cody said.
The trip to the hanger was only a short jaunt, and when they arrived, the clones inside the hanger were still providing fire for their brothers and Obi-Wan.
Jesse used his free hand to press on his wrist-comm, "Men," he said, the clones looked down at their communicators, "Out of the hanger, let's go!"
They looked up to see Jesse standing there, they grabbed their weapons and helmets, and took off running toward the exit, and clamored into the hallway.
"Kirkwood are you there," Cody asked over Bruce's commlink.
Jesse retrieved the commlink and held it up to Bruce's mouth, "Go ahead."
"We have gunships on their way," Cody said, "Are the men out of the hanger?"
"Affirmative." Bruce said.
"Then you might want to instruct them to get down," Cody said, "We have bombers and gunships inbound to blow those doors wide open."
"Copy that," Bruce said, "See if you can soften the droid's offensive capabilities. We'll see you on the ship."
"See you there." Cody said.
"Shut the door," Bruce said as he and Vekkif lowered the stretcher onto the ground, "Everyone, brace yourself!"
Thirty seconds after he said that a group of ten Y-wing bombers dropped their entire payload of bombs onto the central hanger doors which sent shrapnel and bits of metal everywhere.
The explosions shook the ship like a category seven earthquake had just hit a building, causing small bits of ceiling and loose panels to shake loose.
When the shaking ceased, Bruce pointed at the door controls, and the nearest clone opened the doors to reveal a group of LAATs coming through the hole that was big enough for them to fly through.
"Not a bad use of firepower." Vekkif said.
"Not at all," Bruce said, grabbing ahold of the stretcher, "Come on boys, let's get you off this rock!"
The clones cheered as Bruce and Vekkif carried Ahsoka's stretcher over to the LAAT that landed first, followed by Jesse.
Ridge was the next to enter, along with several other clones carrying stretchers, one of them reached up to grab the overhead handle before Jesse put his hand on his shoulder, "Not yet," he said, "Stay here, help the others load the ships."
The clone nodded, and ran off, allowing Jesse to hang a new bottle of bacta from the handle.
"Get us in the air!" Bruce exclaimed.
"Yes, sir." The pilot said.
The LAAT rose into the air as Anakin was dispatching the eighth tank that the droids had sent out to attack them. He had just cut the barrel all the way from the muzzle down to the breach and used the force to split them open when he saw the LAATs lifting off. He looked up and could sense his new Padawan on the ship along with Vekkif and sense a presence he hadn't felt that close in so long.
He quickly jumped as the tank fired, exploding as soon as the gunner tried in vain to fire a shell at Anakin who was clear of the explosion when it when off.
That was in conjunction with the Y-wigs dropping another payload of bombs onto the Munificent-Class weapons that were facing Obi-Wan and Anakin.
"Sir," the sergeant B-1 droid said, "The clones are evacuating from the ship."
"I'm sending the vulture droids," the T-series said over the static that the bombs just caused.
"Sir," one of the B-1s on the bridge exclaimed, "All weapon systems on the port side have been destroyed!"
"Insufficient," the T-series said as he pointed to the B-1, "You. Get those systems back up," he then turned toward the screen, "You focus on the Jedi."
"Roger, roger." The sergeant B-1 replied.
"Cody, are you there," Bruce asked into his wrist-comm.
"I read you." Cody replied.
"Are you holding out down there?" Bruce asked.
"We're doing ok," Cody said, "We have a few injured, nothing major."
"Good," Bruce said, "We have a bunch of injured clones on the Tribunal. Can you hold off until we get them off?"
"I think so," Cody said as he saw the Vulture droids leaving the hanger, "But it looks like you have trouble coming your way."
"I see it," Bruce said, seeing the Vulture droids taking off, "Retask the bombers to support, and we'll get the wounded back. See you back on the ship."
"Copy that," Cody said, ushering his men to take aim at the vulture droids, "We'll do what we can from up here. Good luck."
"What do we do," Vekkif asked as he grabbed Bruce's shoulder, "There are still a lot of injured clones down there?"
As the blast doors closed, and the LAATs climbed out of the atmosphere, Bruce turned toward the pilot just as one of the vulture droids fired at them, "Pilot," he said as he braced himself against the side of the cabin entrance so the jolting around wouldn't send him to the floor, "As soon as we offload, you immediately take off. You make fast refuels, stretch the fuel to the absolute limit, but we need those clones back very rapidly."
"I won't let you down, sir," the pilot said as a vulture droid who had flown ahead to attack from the front exploded having been hit dead-on by a shot from one of the Vigilance's cannons.
"I know you won't," Bruce said as the explosions from the Vigilance's cannons and turrets caused the LAAT to start rocking even harder.
Vekkif kneeled next to one of the clones who checked Ahsoka's vitals, "How's she doing?"
"Her vitals are weak," the medic said as he used one of his hands to brace himself, "But they're there. I don't know how we can help her back on the ship."
"We can probably stabilize her," Bruce said, grabbing onto one of the overhead handles and scratching the side of his face, "We need to get her back to Coruscant as soon as we can."
"The medical droids on the Venator should be very competent," Jesse said as one of the explosions nearly caused him to lose his grip on the overhead handle he was using, "They should be able to help her."
"Which reminds me," Bruce said with a snap, "When you've all been given clean bills of health, you all need to go to the med bay for an operation."
"Operation?" Jesse asked.
"New orders from High Command," Vekkif said, "It's a minor operation, a few minutes under the knife, a couple bandages, and you'll be finished."
"Ok." Jesse said.
"We're approaching the Vigilance, sir." The pilot said.
After landing, Bruce and Vekkif were followed, very rapidly by Jesse toward the med bay. The hanger was now a hot-bed of activity as the clone pilots were now running to power up their V-wings, ARC-170s, and Z-95s to cover the LAATs heading to the surface to evacuate clones from the Tribunal. One of them nearly knocked Jesse to the ground, running into the hanger while simultaneously trying to secure the clamp on his boot.
The on-hand 2-1B medical droid saw them entering, and pointed to the nearest bed, "Set her down over there," after laying her down, the medical droid went over, and began to examine her, "What were the extend of her injuries?"
"Blast and shrapnel damage," Jesse said as he handed the bacta jar he was carrying to the FX-7 that rolled over to them, "Maybe some concussive damage."
The 2-1B removed the bandages to show a series of nasty scratches on Ahsoka's dress top, "The bacta she was in seems to have stabilized her condition," he said, "But she will need surgery to fix the damage caused by the shrapnel."
"Just let us know." Bruce said.
"Of course," the droid said, "Please, wait outside."
"We will," Bruce said before noticing something, "Wait, where are her lightsabers?"
"I have them," Jesse said as he carried one of his injured brothers into the room.
Bruce and Vekkif walked over as Jesse reached into his pack to retrieve the sabers, and handed them both to Bruce, "Thanks for saving them," Bruce said as he transferred the short saber to the hand holding the other one and grabbed Jesse's shoulder.
"No problem," Jesse said as he looked over to see one of the medical droids prepared to operate on Rex.
Bruce and Vekkif turned around, saw the droid about to start work, and decided to distract Jesse, "Why don't we go help the others?" Vekkif asked.
"I think that's a great idea," Bruce said before turning to the medical droid, "Let us know the second their surgeries are over."
"Yes, sir." The medical droid said.
"Can you send a few medical droids with us," Vekkif asked, "We might have to turn the hanger into another hospital."
"I can spare a few." The medical droid replied.
A few hours later, Obi-Wan and Anakin were practically swimming in the parts of all the droids they had destroyed when Cody contacted them, "Generals," he said, "The last have been evacuated from the Tribunal."
"Roger that, Cody," Obi-Wan said as he deflected another series of blasts before turning to Anakin, "Anakin, let's go!"
"Coming," Anakin said as he the legs off one of the vulture droids that had been sent out in place of the destroyed AAT-1s, then turned as it fell to slice the vulture droid's head clean off.
"Sir," the sergeant B-1 said, seeing Anakin running away from the "The Jedi are retreating!"
"Just get the droids back to the ship," the T-series said, in an I-am-now-questioning-my-life-choices kind of way, "We'll chase them our way."
"Roger, roger," the sergeant B-1 said signaling his troops to withdraw.
Obi-Wan and Anakin ran back to the cliff, and in one bound made it back to where Cody and the clones were.
"Let's go," Obi-Wan exclaimed, "Back to the ship!"
The group made a very hasty run for the LAATs as the engines on the Munificent-Class began to power up, "Not good!" Anakin exclaimed.
"They won't have enough time to catch us," Cody said, turning toward the pilot, "Get us in the air!"
Needless to say, the engines on a small troop carrier vs a large frigate? The LAATs were in the air before the Munificent-Class's engines were even hot.
Once they were clearing the atmosphere, Anakin turned to the pilot, "Pilot, there any word on anyone from the 332nd?"
"None that I've heard, sir," the pilot said, "I'm sure we'll hear something once we land."
"Hope she's ok." Anakin said.
"We'll know when we get there," Obi-Wan said, "She's in good hands."
I'll see you in the next chapter…