Chapter 21 - They Only Have to go Through Tunnels with 200 Junctions, They'll Be Fine
Sulani had not allowed herself much rest after finally exiting the cockpit of Luminara's fighter when she heard her brother was now in the medbay of the Negotiator. Seeing as she had time to spare, she had called on Commander Cody to send over a transport to get her on the ship. She had hung around in the hangar of the Negotiator long enough for Cody and a group of clones to welcome her aboard and for them to lead her to the medbay. They were nearing the medbay when Cody finally spoke again, "He's okay General, the initial crash onto the ground roughed him up a little and then the following battle took the remainder of his energy. He isn't seriously hurt."
"I'm aware Cody," she assures him, "I would know if he was more seriously injured, he'd be able to hide the pain from others, but not from me."
He nods in acceptance as they finally reach the medbay, she does not waste any time and walks right in. She looks around a moment and spots him on the farthest bed from the door. He was sitting on the edge while the medical droid checked him over. As she walked closer, she noticed it had already bandaged one arm and was working on his leg. It looks like she go here just in time, just before they threw him into a bacta tank. He must have heard her walking as he looks up to face her, his face then turns to shock when he sees who it is. "Su? Shouldn't you be with Master Luminara getting ready to join Anakin on the ground?"
"Oh I have time, I'll join her down there, hopefully arriving at the same time. I just figured I'd come see you before I went down."
"I see," he says, "Well, then why don't we talk about your exploits in the air?"
Oh dear, it appears he found out about the space battle, "Who told you?"
"Luminara actually," he answers, "she wanted me to know that I should be proud of you and how you handled yourself out there. Apparently, you did very well and kept your head on straight even when faced with danger."
"That makes it all sound so much better than it was," she says, almost bashful, "I flew around, fired at ships, watched my squadrons backs, so on, so forth, nothing too impressive. I almost got myself killed by getting too relaxed."
"Relaxed?" he asks incredulously, "You were in the middle of a fighter battle in space, how could you get relaxed?"
"Well, I started to appreciate why Anakin likes flying so much."
"Oh no," he says despondently, "what has he done to you. You weren't even on board his ship that long and he's already corrupted you with his crazy piloting."
"Oh hush now, he's done no such thing," she shakes her head, "this was the first time I'd actually flown around so fast, it's not Anakin's fault."
"But you do admit you've flown around with him."
"Obi-Wan," she says deadpan, "my fighter is on his ship, I've spent a few months aboard it, of course I asked him to help me get used to its controls."
"So again, I say," he nods to himself, "he has corrupted you."
She can only shake her head in dismay and looking for a way out of the conversation, she looks over towards the chronometer on the wall. It appeared she had been here longer than she thought, "Well, as lovely as it has been having this conversation with you dear brother, I must be off."
"Now you're just trying to get out of it," he says, watching her back out of the room.
"I'm sorry, what was that, I don't think I heard it," she says jokingly, her hand cupping her ear as if to hear better.
He does not bother answering and continues to watch as she finally exits the room. When the door closes behind her, she turns to see Cody had waited for her, "Okay Commander, I need someone to spare a bit of time to get me to the surface."
"Of course General."
She followed him back down to the hangar so that she could go down to that dreaded place.
As it turned out, her timing was perfect as her gunship arrived together with Master Luminara's. She walked over to where Master Luminara was exiting her own ship and Rex met them both there, "Good day, Generals. Skywalker's waiting for you both."
They nod toward him and they, along with Barriss, walk over to where Anakin and Ahsoka were. It was as they got closer that Sulani realised what was going on, it appeared Anakin and Ahsoka were arguing again. Master Luminara noticed as well, "At it again are they?"
"'Again' Master?" Barriss asks.
Sulani tried to hide herself by walking slightly further behind the two while also looking into the sky in order to ignore the two they were heading for, all while Master Luminara answered her Padawan, "Let's just say they have a penchant for playing loose with regulations and rules of command."
They were finally in hearing range as they heard the tail end of whatever Anakin had been saying, "…if you listen to me."
"Well, if you don't trust me, then maybe you should send me back," Ahsoka argues back.
Sulani quickly realised what this argument was about, she had actually been present the last time they had this exact same fight. Anakin chuckled without humour, "Oh, don't tempt me, Snips."
Though it seemed unkind of him to reply like that, Sulani knew he would never. Ahsoka was his Padawan and he would never send her away, no, she meant much more to him than that. When the three of them finally got closer, Master Luminara cut in, "If you're both finished with your little discussion, we do have a factory to destroy."
Anakin and Ahsoka did not have anything to say to that and stood straighter as the trio now stood before them. Master Luminara, realising this, continued, "Well Barriss, aren't you going to introduce yourself?"
"Padawan Learner Barriss Offee at your service," Barriss says as she curtsies towards Ahsoka.
Anakin sends Ahsoka a very telling look, but Ahsoka is too busy wondering what in the world was going on. She settles on stretching her hand towards Barriss with her own introduction, "Glad to meet you. I'm Ahsoka."
The two Padawans share a smile, it was always a nice occurrence for Padawans to run into each other out away from Coruscant since they were spread so far around the galaxy the moment they started their apprenticeship. Sulani hoped this meant Ahsoka would make a new friend despite the weird niggling she got from that thought, because she chose to ignore it. Anakin, looking away from the Padawans, finally speaks, "It's good to see both of you again."
"I wish it was under more peaceful circumstances," Master Luminara says.
With the injured clones now being loaded onto the gunships to return to the cruisers seeing as they had been replaced by Master Luminara's men, the five Jedi head for stable ground to set up a portable holo-emitter. It is currently displaying the droid factory they were bound for. "A frontal assault is risky," Master Unduli says, "our losses will be high."
"But not as high as they'll be if that factory comes online," Anakin points out.
"Indeed," she says, "but there is an alternative."
She changes the map to now display the tunnels beneath the building, what Sulani knew to be what Barriss had been memorising as she realised what was going on. Master Luminara continued after it became visible, "Every Geonosian building has a series of catacombs beneath it that run deep underground."
"Some of the tunnels are close enough to this cliff wall so that you could cut a hole and make an entry point," Barriss adds, while showing it on the map.
"Once inside," Master Luminara takes over again, "we could find the main reactor, plant the explosives and blow the factory inside out."
"Oh, looks like a good way to get lost if you ask me," Anakin says.
"For the unprepared perhaps," she replies, "but I have instructed Barriss to memorise the labyrinth, all 200 junctions."
"You always were thorough," Anakin says appreciatively.
"It pays for one to be prepared, right Barriss?" she says, looking towards her Padawan.
"Especially when other people's lives depend on your success," Barriss concludes.
"How do we keep the Geonosians occupied while someone else is setting the bombs?" Ahsoka asks.
"Good point, Snips," Anakin says, "If whoever is going in there is going to be successful, we'll need to create a diversion."
"Precisely, that task will be carried out by you and I, Skywalker," Master Luminara says, "while the destruction of the factory falls to the Padawans."
"Now hold on," Anakin asks abruptly, "who decided that? Walking into that factory could be suicide."
"Not if you and I are successful holding Poggle's attention at the bridge," she explains.
"Master, I can do this," Ahsoka says. "I've had riskier assignments."
"But unlike Barriss, you aren't prepared for this mission," he tries to reason, while Sulani was over by the side, looking away so that she could secretly roll her eyes.
"Not to worry," Master Luminara tries to assure him, "my Padawan is reliable. She can lead them both through the maze."
"We'll be in and out, Master," Barriss tries to help reassure him.
"See?" Ahsoka says, "Dependable Barriss will get us through. Don't worry Master, as you well know, I can follow orders."
Sulani tried to hold back her chuckle, though it came out as a humoured scoff instead, while Master Luminara said, "It's decided then."
She then hands Ahsoka the pack full of explosives which Ahsoka then puts on her back. "I guess it is," Anakin finally says.
"We'll monitor your progress on these chronometers," Master Luminara says as she holds them up. "Synchronise on my mark."
All five of them put the chronometers on their wrists, holding them up ready to sync, "Three, two, one, mark."
In tandem, they press the button and they hear the synchronised sound they make when they do.
"Let's get going," Ahsoka says, "after you, Barriss."
The two Padawans go off and the three older Jedi watch from the ridge as they disappear from view. Sulani has a sudden sinking feeling, but she cannot place what it was. She hoped it had nothing to do with watching Ahsoka's back disappear. "You feel Ahsoka's not up to the task," Master Luminara says to Anakin.
"I never said that," he denies.
"What is it then?" she asks.
"Nothing," he tries to brush off. "Let's prepare the men."
He walks away to do that, Master Luminara frowning at his retreating back. She then turns to Sulani, who had not taken her eyes from where she had last seen Ahsoka. Master Luminara did not need to say anything, Sulani knew what she wanted to ask, "He won't ever admit it," she says as she finally turns to face her, "but he doesn't like her going off on dangerous missions where he can't easily reach her."
"So he's worried about her?"
"In a sense," she says as they start walking towards where Anakin had headed, "he cares for her deeply, as I'm sure you do for Barriss, however, loss is something he never handles well. If anything happened to her, well, the loss would crush him in ways it would not crush other Jedi. I know that if anything happened to Barriss, you would be upset, yes?"
When Master Luminara only nods in response, Sulani continues, "Well Anakin would take being upset to a whole new level. I've felt his emotions when Bane had Ahsoka and was causing her pain, Anakin was a lot more than simply unhappy. I've begun to realise, as time has gone on and they've gotten closer, that Anakin, well, I think Force forbid anyone lays harm to her, because he would hunt them down to the far reaches of the galaxy to find them and nothing, absolutely nothing, would stand in his way."
She probably should not have revealed too much, but she knew, that of all the Council members, Master Luminara would be the least likely to immediately reveal any of this to the rest of the Council or to even fully judge Anakin for it. As she expected, Master Luminara did not try to speak about why that is a bad thing, she simply frowned and kept her thoughts to herself. For this, Sulani was grateful.
The two female Jedi continue the walk to where Anakin was in silence. They had not gone far from the holo-emitter when the Padawans had left, Anakin was already back beside it, looking again at the map of the factory. Master Luminara stepped up beside him, "We'll have to make a bold move if we're to draw them out of the factory," she says, "and keep their attention on us and not the Padawans."
"The best way to do that," Anakin begins, "is to march our troops straight up the middle, parade style. They can't resist that."
"With no cover?" Master Unduli asks.
"Well we have to make it tempting."
"Mother," Master Luminara says as she turns to her, "you've done plenty enough today, so you don't need to push up the front with us. I suggest you hang back around the centre of the troops as back up if either of us need to fall back temporarily."
"Hang on," Anakin interrupts before Sulani could even say anything, "Mother only just came down, what has she done today that I missed?"
"The air support you all received earlier was partially due to Mother Sulani leading the fighter pilots from inside a fighter," Master Luminara explains, "she spent almost an hour in the cockpit."
Anakin took a moment to process this, "So you're telling me, Mother finally entered a real space battle in a star fighter and I missed the whole thing?"
"Of course that's what you take away Anakin," Sulani shakes her head.
"Hey I wanted to be there when it happened, I'm just sorry I missed it," he says, raising his hands in surrender.
"Well I'm not," she throws back, "Anyway, I'm quite happy to do that Master, if you need anything, just let me know."
"Thank you Mother," Master Luminara nods to her.
A/N: this here be part 2/5 for the Second Battle of Geonosis arc, Luminara gets a little more insight on Anakin and Ahsoka via Sulani, because Sulani is around to voice all those little things we think to ourselves but characters generally don't mention at all. I'd like to thank the guest who reviewed in the last chapter, it's always nice to see that people are enjoying my stories :D
Anyway, until the next chapter,
Seza, out.