Chapter 90
Ahsoka rattled off her plan for destroying hundreds of war droids with what little they had on hand.
It was crazy and simultaneously so brilliantly obvious Barriss couldn't believe that she hadn't thought of it immediately.
"They are approaching from the north-west. The marshlands in that direction means very slow going for any landbound force. It's one of the reasons the Rimsoo was placed here and the local command never imagined the Separatists would ever have the patience or capability to use it. Given the nearest enemy base is 190 km away, these droids were probably issued some form of disposable power storage, giving them the extra range and uptime to make a long multi-day march."
Her friend tapped the current GAR positions on the map. Most were patrolling and guarding the closest bota fields. The game of numbers, time and priorities was not looking good. They couldn't leave the fields unguarded and pull all their units away to defend the Rimsoo. What numbers could get there in time was simply too few.
"The Rimsoo will have to leave, even if your crazy plan succeeds," Barriss concluded. "If the GAR pulls all its units in, that leaves the harvesters open to attack by commando droids, which are notoriously hard to detect."
"I have to give Klo Merit or his handlers credit, this attack is perfectly timed. In all the chaos of evacuation, he has a free hand to do what he wants to the cargo ship," Ahsoka tapped the position of the ship in question, which had now landed in a large clearing south of the Rimsoo, that had been cleared for ships picking up bota. It was still being loaded with the precious cargo and going faster with it was not an option.
"We should really stop him, Ahsoka," she just had to argue. Letting the ship, its crew and all that bota just go up in smoke was difficult to accept.
"We should, but we can't. Not if we want to root this corruption out, Barriss. By the way, can I see your lightsaber for a moment?" Ahsoka traced her fingers along a terrain contour map she brought up.
Barriss blinked at the sudden question. "Sure, why?"
She unclipped the weapon from her belt and held it up. Ahsoka walked over to scrutinize it, before reaching out to turn it around and see the small panel that held the knobs to control the various aspects of the weapon.
"I see," the togrutan murmured to herself. "Barriss, for this battle I'm going to ask you to trust me and do something that is going to seem rather strange."
"At this point Ahsoka, strange is a word I think you should have as your middle name," she teased her friend with a grin.
The enemy was near.
Barriss stood in the aft cockpit of the Juggernaut, only two clone troopers were here at the controls, but the rest of the space was dominated by the six mandos with their slugthrowers resting on the edges of the vision slits. The transparisteel lowered to allow the barrels to poke outside.
A small line of troopers waited in the tiny corridor outside the cockpit, each one with more slugthrowers and ammunition, who would have the job of passing freshly reloaded weapons back to the mandos the instant their guns ran out.
"All right everyone, we've found our way up, it's going to be a bumpy ride so hold on to your behinds!" shouted Dozer's voice over the tank's PA.
The tank's reactor audibly began increasing output and Barriss could even hear the various electric motivators begin straining as they were pushed and pushed to give more momentum to the mass of the tank.
She had to push with her hands against the low ceiling of the cockpit to keep her balance as the speed increased over the beach terrain to levels it was certainly not recommended for the tank.
Then the tank swerved to her right and the breath was nearly knocked out of her lungs from the abrupt impact.
The giant wheels groaned and grinded against their impromptu natural ramp in the cliff face, which was at just enough of an angle to count as such.
It was still at the edge of performance of what the tank could handle, but there was no choice in the matter if they wanted to achieve anything.
Barriss gritted her teeth as the view outside was replaced with the churning white beach they had just driven over.
The tank climbed, wheels chopping up the slanted cliff as the tank grasped for traction… and found it.
Barriss felt the surge of acceleration in her stomach and the beach in front of her lurched away as the tank climbed.
In barely a few seconds the front wheels cleared the upper edge of the cliff, the nose of the Juggernaut briefly surging into the air.
'Surprise, frakking shabla!' she heard Ahsoka thinking with a vicious triumph.
The Juggernaut's center of mass passed over the lip and nearly thirty meters of tank stuck up in the air, before it began tipping over.
Barriss felt like her stomach wanted to fall to the floor as the tank regained its equilibrium, subjecting the rear of the tank to a nasty upward acceleration.
The front of the tank fell right on top of a full squad of mixed B1s and B2s, struggling slowly to move through harsh terrain.
"OPEN FIRE!"
The slugthrowers began roaring.
In the confines of the cockpit it would've been enough to shatter anyone's hearing. Barriss was very thankful at that moment for the trooper helmet she was wearing. In any other circumstance she wouldn't have needed it, but her full concentration and power would be needed for her job ahead.
Through Ahsoka she began to feel the light touch of Battle Meditation from her friend.
It was like a very subtle warm blanket of comfort and confidence wrapped in the occasional suggestion and pull of her attention. Her awareness of the battlefield was also like a brief snapshot of a holo coming through.
"Blades!"
As one, every mando stopped firing and shoved their right arms out the cockpit windows.
A dozen Whistling Bird smart munitions erupted from the tank.
Barriss hadn't even known such a weapon could really exist, but it made so much sense for the Mandalorians to have developed a weapon meant to equalize a playing field where numbers were usually against them.
In one fell move, between the tank acting as a hammer, the first slugthrower volley and now the Whistling Birds… nearly 173 droids were crushed, dead or reduced to combat ineffectiveness by being blinded from smart munition hits.
And that was just the beginning.
The Juggernaut pushed its speed hard and began aiming to drive and crush over more of the enemy.
The element of surprise was spent though.
This was not dense jungle but open marshland and upwards of six hundred droids now had a clear line of fire on the tank.
'Barriss, now!' Ahsoka thought.
She felt her friend in the forward cockpit almost exploding with the Force.
Barriss closed her useless eyes at this point and joined in, pulling with all her strength and letting the Force flow.
Through their thin Bond, their actions unified, their senses were shared.
They both PUSHED!
This was not the technique she was used to however, so she let Ahsoka take the lead, much like someone taking the lead in a dance.
The explosive slugs of nearly twelve droid companies began halting in mid-air then detonated on the effective Force Shield they were projecting outward. A constant unidirectional kinetic event horizon they were holding around the speeding tank. Barriss couldn't help but marvel inwardly at the technique. This was definitely not something she'd ever heard of or studied in the Jedi Temple - which meant Ahsoka had to have developed it herself.
Every slug coming towards the tank stopped, but every slug the mandos were firing in the other direction was actually given an effective boost to double their velocity.
She saw a B1's chassis literally shredded, leaving its legs and head to fall into the wet marsh, whilst the chest became shrapnel.
A B2's armor was actually pierced before the explosive shell detonated inside.
More droids died thanks to the tank squashing them continuously under its massive nine meter diameter wheels.
"Yeah! Eat my armored wheels, clankers! Ha ha haaa!" shouted Lt. Dozer with glee.
The closest droids tried to scatter out of the way, but the muddy terrain made things extremely difficult and the tank was hitting speeds of 90 kph.
Water and mud fountained into the air from the massive front wheels.
Dozer ordered his tank to begin a curving back and forth course, to run over as many droids as possible.
The mando's were firing non stop, passing their empty weapons back to be reloaded whilst the troopers handed them freshly loaded slugthrowers.
That was when the first thermal detonator went off.
The explosion slammed into the shield and fended it off but Barriss felt like someone had just taken a hammer to her focus and strength.
'Ahsoka!'
'Figured they'd try that eventually. They're not going to let us just crush and shoot them indefinitely. There's a clever organic commander in charge of this attack.'
Another B1 charged itself into the tank, setting off its detonator just before the shield.
Barriss gritted her teeth, calling more on the Force to shore up the technique. She felt Ahsoka do the same, but it was equally taxing to her friend.
What were these B1's doing equipped with grenades?! It was insane. The explosive effect in the hyper oxygenated atmosphere was significantly worse. The detonations were bad enough to devastate nearly eighty square meters of land and it was also killing more droids in the process, but the enemy commander clearly didn't care. They also probably thought the wet marshlands would be enough to prevent runaway fires from potentially affecting any nearby bota fields.
'Focus Barriss,' Ahsoka encouraged. 'The Force is our ally. We will keep the shield up as long as we need to.'
She pulled with all her might to internalize that thought and make it a reality. Drawing on the odd yet familiar Force energies of the planet around her, shoring up the shield after another B1 detonated itself against it.
The mando's stopped firing and Barriss realized they were taking a few precious seconds to reload their right arm bracers with another Whistling Bird shot.
Three seconds later a volley of smart munitions burst out of the tank, whistling and zooming in all directions with faint vapor trails behind them.
They sought the fragile B2 sensor clusters and with B1s the thin neck joint to the main body.
Only 86 droids died, the chaotic conditions of the battle fouling the small sensors of the smart munitions as they lost targets and ran out of propellant.
Three B1s detonated themselves at the front of the tank just as it was about to run them over.
The metaphysical blow, which was shared between them almost had Barriss keeling over from the shock, as the technique greedily pulled more of the Force to shoring up the defense.
'Shabla!' Ahsoka groaned. 'Stay with me, Barriss!'
How could she expect this from me?! She thought irrationally. They were channeling more power than what most Masters came close to expending in a year!
'No doubts, Barriss!' Ahsoka admonished immediately. 'Follow!'
She did and felt the shield being pulled back until it was almost an extra skin around the Juggernaut.
That felt much better but it merely delayed the inevitable.
'How many Whistling Bird shots do the mandos have left?' she thought desperately.
'Enough,' thought Ahsoka flatly.
A few seconds later, the mandos fired another volley.
104 droids died, including a number of B1s who's thermal detonators went off prematurely and devastated any nearby droids, killing dozens.
Barriss imagined it would have killed more in any other situation, but the droids were in a dispersed formation in the marshlands, to avoid potentially getting bogged down with so many heavy steel footsteps churning up the muddy earth.
"Dozer! Fire the flex launchers!"
Barriss was momentarily surprised but realized it was just thought leakage from Ahsoka's urgent order.
She felt the clone tank commander immediately object, as it went against standing orders.
"I'm overruling that. The theater commander is not in this tank, you and I are! Do this or we're dead!"
An agonizing few seconds passed and Barriss felt the side mounted panels of the tank open.
Dozens of anti-droid cluster rockets burst out of two launchers.
They turned and burst in the air.
A rain of submunitions fell from the sky and swept away every droid within a ninety meter diameter area around the rushing tank. The explosions sent large geysers of mud and water shooting into the sky.
Barriss felt her mind beginning to get fuzzy, her concentration slipping as the first symptom of Force overuse manifested.
'That's enough, Barriss, you did good. Well done.'
She felt Ahsoka break the Shield technique, just as the tank hit the brakes and came to a stop.
Her attention was immediately turned inward as she opened her eyes back in the aft cockpit.
The mandos were now back to firing the slugthrowers but Barriss could only do one thing at the moment - sit down on the floor and focus on regaining her internal equilibrium and slowly easing the flow of the Force.
She could just imagine her own Darkness gloating over her current weakness.
I'm not weak, she thought firmly. Anyone using an unfamiliar technique like that would be thrown off. Her mind marveled somewhat at it again. It was ingenious and she could imagine holding that shield around her body with little problem for long enough to stop anyone trying to use slugs or other slower attacks, such as gas or fire.
The flow of the Force began to taper off and she carefully managed to return it to a healthy normality. She would have to be careful for the next few days, nothing strenuous and with regard to the current battle she would be down to only her lightsaber and related internal techniques.
A few deep breaths and she opened her eyes in time to hear the flex launcher firing another volley.
"Barriss? Good. You're back. Are you feeling up to some blade work?"
The concussion of the defensive cluster munitions blowing up thundered against the tank.
"Yes."
She carefully stood and brought her lightsaber to hand. It's comforting presence and strength in the Force soothing and calming her further.
"Get ready at the aft exterior hatch," Ahsoka instructed.
The mandos stopped firing their slugthrowers at this point, accepting a final reload from the troopers and hurried out of the cockpit.
Barriss followed in their wake and found herself at the back of a line as the mandos also awaited a signal to leave.
Through the Force and conventional coms, Ahsoka said one word.
"Go!"
The hatch was pushed open, allowing the ever present rain to shower into the tank.
The mandos climbed out as quickly as possible and Barriss heard their jetpacks firing as they went airborne immediately.
Then it was her turn, she used the small ladder and stepped onto the upper hull of the tank, igniting her green blade immediately.
A few running steps forward brought her to the edge and without pause she jumped.
Before she could even think about it, she used the Force to slow her fall and to her amazement saw that she had no problem. Her internal equilibrium was normal and that early sign of Force exhaustion wasn't present at all.
Could this be the bota's true effects? She thought as her feet touched down and she sprinted forward towards cover.
The tank's driving had clearly not been just random before Ahsoka had ordered it to stop. It had been making a large circle, between the massive wheels and the munitions exploding it had churned up an artificial circular embankment in marshland. The mandos were now spread out and firing upon the remaining enemy that was slowly making their way towards them.
She sensed that the droid remnant, which numbered just under 130 droids were split into two groups of seventy and sixty respectively and were trying to catch their impromptu defensive position in a slow pincer that would eventually encircle and overrun their position. Then there was also the matter of the threat of B1's using their thermal detonators.
For the longest time she hardly considered those droids a threat except in large numbers. Now they were definitely more dangerous than B2s! She had never imagined that their programming would accept orders that blatantly used them as a disposable munition on two legs.
"Barriss, I need you to join the south-eastern defense. I will go to the north-west. Remember your blade adjustment."
"On my way, Ahsoka."
She wanted to object that Ahsoka was sending her to the side that would face the least droids, but there was no arguing at this point.
Barriss ran around the tank, the wet mud splashing with every footfall around her.
Enemy fire was already sparking and thudding into the upper portions of the thirty meter high tank.
She joined six mandos and five troopers crouched at the mud embankment, just in time to witness them hefting their weapons and starting to fire over the edge of their cover.
"B1! B1! Kill it!"
Their fire shifted with amazing coordination and reduced a detonator wielding B1 to scrap metal.
"Incoming!"
Another B1 had thrown his grenade and Barriss didn't hesitate in reaching out with the Force and slapping it back at the droid who had thrown it.
The overpressure from the magnified explosion rattled her lungs even behind cover, and it sent the B1 and 2s flying apart from the epicenter.
The Separatist commander seemed to finally decide that he was decimating his own troops more with Jedi around than achieving anything else. The B2s formed a focused skirmish line, with the B1s using them as cover, achieving a volume of fire that kept the defenders suppressed.
Barriss' own sense of tactics could see what was coming next or was that Ahsoka's Battle Meditation?
The ranges were closing and in a last ditch effort, the clones handed out droid poppers which they threw overhead to land in the droid formation.
Seven droids fell to the energy discharges, but it did little to stop the bulk of the formation.
"Get back! Give me space!" Barriss ordered.
The mandos and clones quickly obeyed, rolling out of the way and heading down the embankment.
They spread out, reloading their weapons as they went and fell prone, aiming their weapons upward, awaiting the droids who would have to crest over the obstacle and present themselves easy targets.
Barriss lifted her lightsaber, bringing the hilt to her face, the blade stabbing upward and hissing as each drop of rain flash boiled with steam.
She placed her thumb at the appropriate spot and fell into a Soresu stance. The tip of the blade and her left hand now pointing where the enemy would appear.
The instant she saw the first hint of a droid head appearing over the crest of the embankment, she flicked her thumb.
Her blade, which ordinarily was set at a length of 85cm, extended itself to the maximum length it could handle whilst still retaining its cutting power, just under two meters.
She ducked and twirled the blade in a classic overhead right to left cut.
Three B1s lost their heads and a single B2 was shortened significantly with a single swipe.
Her allies opened fire as well, their accurate slugs also hitting home and killing more droids.
They toppled backward falling into their brethren and slowed them down further, in some cases even causing a snowball effect and upsetting the balance of an entire droid squad, causing them to tumble down the slope.
"Poppers!" shouted one of the clones.
Ten droid poppers were hurled into the air as Barriss swung her lengthened blade again, managing to fell six droids with a single swing.
The poppers fell and burst into clouds of EM energy, catching and shorting out seven droids.
On and on it went.
The droids tried shifting their primary angle of attack but Barriss and the men behind her were always there.
The B1s desperately tried to throw more grenades whilst B2s simultaneously rushed over the crest.
Barriss sent them flying back whilst cleaving three B2's in half before they could even bring their own guns to bear.
If only all battles could be like this, she thought briefly, as she cleaved off the heads of another cresting line of B1s as their own thermal detonators exploded with a thunderous roar in the rear of their advancing lines.
There were very few left now on this side and they kept coming. Any organic soldier would have fled at this point or surrendered, but the droids would fight to the last unit.
The tank's flex launchers above her opened again, now reloaded and they belched out a full volley of rockets into the air.
Another thunderous series of detonations that encircled the entire tank beyond their cover heralded the death of the last droids.
The defense of Rimsoo 7 was over.
I was found in the commander's dome of the tank by Barriss.
It was the only place for a bit of privacy and as such was the only place I could afford to practically collapse after the mental effort of Battle Meditation, fighting a battle and holding the Force Shield for so long over the tank.
It had only been possible at all with a combined effort between the two of us, with me directing the technique whilst both of us provided the power. That she was standing over me looking in concern at my condition was just another bit of proof of the bota plant's effectiveness. Even entertaining the thought of standing up right now was not on the cards for me. It had been all I could do to make it back into the tank without passing out.
"By the stars, Ahsoka! Are you alright?" Barriss scoffed at herself in annoyance. "Sorry, that's a stupid question."
She knelt next to me and placed both her hands on my shoulders. I grabbed her hands to stop her, knowing she intended to try to ease my exhaustion.
"No, Barriss. No shortcuts. I must pay this price."
"Don't be ridiculous."
"Right now, I'm not your friend, but your patient and I'm refusing your treatment," I retorted, pushing her arms away. I was tired to the bone and she could've forced the issue, but I had said the exact right words that would stop her.
I had developed that Shield with Anakin and Obi-Wan in Mortis and I knew it would be an entirely different kettle of fish to use in the normal universe, but I hadn't expected its cost to ramp up that badly. It was all well and good for Yoda to prattle on about the difference only being in the mind. You didn't channel the Force like this without consequences and I had taken them mostly on myself as I didn't want Barriss to suffer for my choices.
"Are you sure about this, Ahsy?"
I groaned as she used her own abominable nickname for me, it served me right I suppose.
I let my arms drop into my lap, "Yes, now do me a favor and get this helmet off, please. Yes, twist that way…"
She pulled off the helmet with a slight hiss of equalizing air pressure and I twitched as she touched and carefully threaded my lekku out of it. Her palm rested briefly on my right cheek as she checked my temperature.
"You've got a slight fever."
"Feels like it," I sighed and rested my head back against the uncomfortable durasteel cabin.
"What was that technique, Ahsoka?"
"You saw and felt what it does," I replied, my eyelids really felt heavy at the moment.
"Yes, but where does it come from? Is this something Knight Skywalker or Master Kenobi taught you?"
"We had a lot of time to kill when we were trapped, Barriss. Time to think, plan, reflect and even come up with a number of solutions to problems we've experienced in the war so far. The Shield is meant to protect a Jedi against multiple attackers from any possible direction, no prescience needed or any lightsaber."
"But it clearly does more," she pointed out.
I nodded, "It also amplifies anything the Jedi sends outward. Think of what would happen should you throw sand, rock, anything you can get your hands on whilst holding the Shield around you."
"Instant slugthrowers shooting in all directions."
I nodded, "We are always outnumbered in this war, Barriss. As much as we hope for things to never deteriorate to that point, we must be prepared for it. Now you know and can teach the others here when the time comes."
She frowned in confusion, "Why me? Why not bring this to the Council?"
"Master Kenobi knows already obviously, but we must be careful Barriss. Our enemies have eyes and ears in the Temple."
"What?!" she exclaimed with alarm, standing up and gazing at me with wide eyes.
"Yes, it's true," I said with simple honesty, something she immediately picked up on. "Only a select number of masters know and now, so do you."
She was clearly struggling with the concept and her internal panic was somewhat palpable.
"Why tell me? And how do you know anyway if this is so secret?"
I chuckled blearily, "You're as far from the Temple as it's possible to be, Barriss. By the time you return, you'll have internalized and come to terms with the truth. You'll also be armed with the tools to keep this secret."
"I don't understand, what tools?"
"You will soon understand. As for how I know, well, that's something that I won't be able to explain right now. I need a very long nap and time. When I pass out, carry me to the internal sickbay and take command. Get us back to the Rimsoo. Keep an eye on Merit. M8 will help-"
"Oh, Ahsoka," she sighed in annoyance, looking down at her unconscious friend.
Passing out in the middle of a sentence was not good at all.
Barriss placed her fingers to find her friend's neck and checked the pulse there. It was steady and relatively slow, but not in dangerous territory.
"M8, you there?"
"I'm always here, Padawan Offee," the droid intellect chirped from Ahsoka's helmet in that pleasant slightly youthful female voice.
A notion occurred to her at this point, "Please, call me Barriss. Can you move the armor you're part of?"
"Of course I can, Barriss. I am a power armor, after all."
"Interesting. Quarters are a bit tight in this dome, would you be able to carry Ahsoka at least down the ladder?"
"That is a good idea, Barriss. I'm rather surprised the mistress didn't inform you of the possibility. Then again, she's not at her best at the moment is she?"
"No," Barriss said with slight wonder, as M8 began moving. The whining of electric motivators, typical of humanoid droids reached her ears as M8, with an unconscious Ahsoka inside the armor stood up.
She winced as Ahsoka's head lolled limply to once side with the movement and she rushed forward to stabilize her neck.
"Barriss, might I suggest you put the helmet on again, it will support the mistress' neck."
It was rather difficult and M8 had to clarify a few things, such as how Ahsoka's lekku was supposed to fit inside. She winced as she was forced to delicately grab a handful and thread it into the rather ingenious internal supports.
"There we go, all set, Barriss," said M8 cheerily.
She shook her head at the eeriness. To her eyes Ahsoka was now standing in a perfectly normal manner and M8 was doing a very good job at imitating that there was a conscious person inside. It was only her other senses through the Force that told the truth.
She pulled open the hatch and climbed down, leading the way through the cramped central corridor of the tank, before finding the next hatch that would let them climb down directly into the small sickbay.
The resident 2-1B medical droid immediately activated itself upon detecting lifesigns and stepped out of its recharge alcove.
"What is the nature of the emergency?" it droned in a flat monotone.
"No emergency, just need you to keep Commander Tano under observation. M8 go ahead and lie down on the bed."
There were only four biobeds in the cramped bay and M8 simply picked the closest one to lie down on.
The med droid stepped over and played its scanners over Ahsoka's form.
"Warning low heart rate-"
"She's a Jedi, that's normal."
"Understood, calibrating medical scans."
"What's going on?"
Barriss turned around to see the senior mando in charge and Ahsoka's apparent bodyguard, Ursa Wren climbing down into the sickbay. Then as if that wasn't enough, Chewbacca also climbed down and roared with alarm at seeing his life debt holder flat on her back.
"Easy, easy," Barriss waved her hands frantically. "She exhausted herself keeping this tank from being summarily blown up by those crazy B1s."
Wren's eyes grew wide with disbelief at first then shook her head with exasperation, "I thought it strange that suddenly the Juggernaut had a deflector shield, but if it was her… then I can only say that's another one I owe her, which I have to add to the very long list. By the Beskar, this battle will go down in the history books of Clan Vizsla and Mandalore. Curse the extenuating circumstances, 823 war droids defeated by a single squadron of Mandalorian warriors, ten clones, a wookiee, two Jedi and a Juggernaut tank."
The wookiee stomped over to the bed and took off his helmet, before grunting and growling in Shyriiwook.
"Don't worry, Chewie," M8 said with very well-simulated peppiness. "I'm monitoring her vitals and will call the med droid the instant anything looks to be going wrong. Which it shouldn't, she's just in a deep meditative sleep."
Wren gave Barriss an evaluating look. "She put you in charge, didn't she?"
"How did you know?"
"I know my manda'lor," Wren said sternly. "What was her last command?"
"Return to the Rimsoo, we have a spy and saboteur there that needs watching."
The voice of Lieutenant Dozer was piped into the sickbay.
"Commander Tano to the command center, Commander Tano to the command center."
"What now?" Barriss asked with annoyance and rushed for the ladder.
When she and Wren rushed through the thick hatch that protected the nerve center of the tank, it was to find Dozer and his crew already at their stations.
"Commander Tano is in sickbay and has given me command," Barriss said immediately.
The clones looked at each other and nodded. "Understood, ma'am. We're being hailed on the com by Colonel Karred Hon. He wants to know our status."
"Tell him we're operational and on our way back to the Rimsoo. All enemy units defeated. Once you've done that, get us back there as soon as possible."
"Yes, ma'am." Dozer put on a headset and began having a one sided conversation with the colonel. However, it was clear that it wasn't enough to satisfy the commander of Rimsoo 7. "Sir… yes sir, we're en route… I under- … Yes sir. Sorry, ma'am. He wants to speak to Commander Tano."
Barriss had to suppress a surge of irritation. "Give me the headset." Dozer handed it over and after adjusting it on her head, she cleared her throat. "This is Padawan Offee, temporarily in charge of Tank A634. Commander Tano is indisposed in our sickbay, colonel."
"Healer Offee? Oh, well. I'm sorry to hear that. I hope it's not too serious." Hon was a decent officer, if a little pompous and self-absorbed, as with most core world military officers that were being fast tracked through to front line positions after retraining courses.
"No, she's expected to make a full recovery. How can I help you?"
"You can start by explaining what we saw on our sensors for one. We were halfway through getting the Rimsoo packed up when my tech called me to the command center. Now we can postpone the evacuation indefinitely."
"Colonel, a debrief like that is best done in person."
"I must insist, Healer Offee. Admiral Bleyd is demanding a report from me, especially given the accident we just suffered."
"Accident?" Barriss asked, a sinking feeling in her stomach.
"Our transport ship must've been used on one run too many. It was destroyed as it went through one of those blasted spore clouds. Months of bota just went up in smoke!"
"Well, colonel, I must insist on only speaking to you in person. Barriss out." She ripped off the headset. "Dozer, get us back there, max possible speed and turn the radio off."
When the tank finally stopped back at the organized chaos of Rimsoo 7 unpacking itself again, it was to be met by a full squad of clone troopers with Colonel Hon at the lead.
Barriss only had to take one look at the situation, combined with the agitated flow of the Force, to see and sense that something was very wrong.
She paused at the top of the embarkation ramp, gave a glance to Wren and the two mandos at her side. They were all tense as if they too sensed something wrong on an instinctual level.
"Dozer," she carefully said, making sure her words only reached the tank commander standing by her left side. "Stay on board, close the ramp behind us. Radio remains off and only accept orders from me. Regulation 17-4. That is an order."
"Yes, ma'am."
She gave a last significant look at Wren before setting off.
"Colonel Hon," Barriss greeted when they neared the man, who was standing rod stiff and very anxious.
"Healer Offee," he said and his eyes widened as the tank's ramp retracted. "What are you doing?"
"Doing Colonel? Oh, there's nothing to unload or load so why bother keeping the ramp down. All this extra oxygen and rain isn't good for the interior systems after all," she said nonchalantly.
"I'm sorry to do this, Healer, but I've been ordered to take Commander Tano into custody."
Barriss felt a surge of anger and had to work hard not to give in to the dark impulse to strangle this pompous fool! Arrest Ahsoka? As if!
"On what charge?" she retorted.
"Violating the admiral's orders on acceptable use of ordnance on the surface of Drongar."
"And just how would he know so quickly, colonel? Was he keeping a direct sensor watch on us from orbit? Did you relay the Rimsoo's sensor readings to him?" She barraged the poor man with questions, all the while carefully sensing his every reaction. That last question hit close to the truth.
Hon's dark eyes reflected his discomfort and it was clear he didn't agree with the order either. He tried to keep his formal stance, but the rain finally got to him and he relaxed a bit to rub the water from his bald head.
"Look, Offee, all of you and Commander Tano saved my command. It was looking like we'd not make it. Then you guys appeared seemingly out of nowhere and somehow smashed over eight hundred droids with a single Juggernaut Tank. Then the transport ship was lost and it naturally garnered the admiral's attention after I reported it. He demanded all sensor logs to confirm if it was an accident. That included the logs of your battle."
"And in his mind, the only way a single Juggernaut can take out so many droids was if it used all the firepower available to it," Barriss concluded. "The sensors would've detected multiple clustered explosions and the only logical deduction was that the Juggernaut had fired its flex launchers."
"Which is in violation of the admiral's prohibition and against the conduct of the war on Drognar. The Separatists will now have free reign to escalate in their engagements with us. We can only be thankful this happened in the wet marshlands."
"It seems the admiral is being rather selective in his interpretation of those sensor logs," Barriss frowned severely at the colonel. "I wonder what the logs of Tank A364 will show when it's downloaded? What will the visual sensors that are in every mandalorian's helmet reveal? Not to mention Commander Tano's own armor, which is even more capable."
"That determination is not under my purview and if there's been any mistake, it will surely help justify Commander Tano's actions," Hon said, regaining some of his formality. "It doesn't change my orders."
"She's currently unconscious in the tank's sickbay and will remain there, colonel. As she is currently my patient, it would be disastrous to move her in her current condition." For anyone else, she thought. Chewbacca would swiftly make anyone regret the attempt to move Ahsoka. "You can keep a guard on the tank, she's not going anywhere and you can report to the admiral that she's safely in custody."
Hon frowned for a moment before a small smile quirked his lips. "Yes, I see. Thank you for your cooperation, Padawan Offee."
Later the same day, Barriss found herself in Colonel Hon's office in Rimsoo 7.
The small space was barely nine square meters and was currently in a bit of a shamble as the module it was part of had only recently been extended outward from the Rimsoo's main superstructure again. The small desk was strewn with datapads and flimsiplast that had fallen out of their binders, the walls were bare and no other furniture was evident. The main terminal was the only thing functional in the entire space, as it was needed for the holocom system to be working.
Standing next to her was the owner of the office and they were both facing the full body holograms of Admirals Bleyd and Yularen.
Bleyd looked to be in a towering temper, his bronze sakiyan face flushed and his eyes flaring, spitting figurative blaster bolts at Barriss and Hon.
"This has the potential to ruin everything! Everything we've worked for on this blasted world! I've just gotten off the com with Commander Plaith and his finger is hovering over the button that would launch his Hyena bombers! The only thing that stopped it was my agreement to cede control over three entire bota fields!"
Barriss let the admiral vent, the sakiyan had balled his fists and his arms looked as if he wanted to punch something. He then visibly composed himself, tugging on his gray uniform to return it to his typical standards of perfection.
"When will Commander Tano be fit to travel? I want her in my brig on board the Furor as soon as possible."
"The admiral is unaware of the ordeal the commander suffered protecting the tank we were in," Barriss said calmly. "She and myself effectively, through the Force, created the equivalent of a deflector shield around it. The strain and backlash of such an action she took upon herself. It could take anywhere from a day to even three days before she can safely emerge from the protective coma she induced in herself."
"Preposterous," Bleyd sneered. "You would have me believe a Jedi is capable of protecting a fifty meter long tank from enemy fire, just using their mind?"
"What you believe admiral is irrelevant, when we have the tank's visual data logs showing it happening," Barriss retorted dryly. "Those same logs also show that it was the local Separatist commander who then first began using his B1 droids to run into the tank whilst setting off full strength thermal detonators. Trying to deplete what he saw as a deflector shield around the tank."
She tapped her own comlink which began beaming a montage of those recordings that M8 had wonderfully put together.
Admiral Yularen turned to his fellow admiral, his mustache twitching with repressed anger. "So Bleyd, does it say anything in your little agreement with Plaith that he may use thermal detonators?"
Bleyd visibly flushed again, his anger spiking, "All high explosive weapons are prohibited!"
"Well, then we have a clear case of the Separatists breaking that agreement first, then in the face of her command being overwhelmed, Commander Tano escalated in proportion," Yularen declared.
"She shouldn't have been there in the first place," Bleyd ground out, glaring at Yularen.
"Is the admiral suggesting that Commander Tano should've been derelict in her duty to protect GAR assets when she identifies a clear danger to them?" Yularen asked mildly.
"No, of course not."
"Good. You would do well to remember Bleyd that she and I are here under the direct order of the Jedi Council and GAR High Command. If in her opinion, the situation on Drognar becomes unsustainable, then she has the authority to order the evacuation of the entire planet."
Barriss had to greatly resist the urge to smirk as she sensed Bleyd squirm under pressure. If that happened the entire cozy arrangement he had out here would vanish into a black hole and all his actions and inaction would come under close scrutiny. That the Jedi he had just tried to throw into his brig had that power, was not something he had ever thought possible.
"I was not aware those were your orders."
"They were only contingency orders and as such you didn't need to know. Now, while Commander Tano may have disobeyed the letter of your specific orders, she acted in the interests of preserving her command, only escalating when the enemy did. If you still insist on pursuing these charges, I will remind you that she would be brought before a Jedi tribunal, not a GAR military court. Whereupon the truth of your actions would swiftly be determined and she'd at the worst get a slap on the wrist."
Bleyd's mouth twisted, "Very well. Charges withdrawn, you can return your troops to normal duty, colonel. Bleyd out."
The admiral's holo faded away.
"Blasted fool," Yularen muttered. "Padawan Offee, please tell me you and Commander Tano found something down there that can help me relieve this sorry excuse for an officer of his command."
"Unfortunately we don't, admiral," Barriss moved her hands to her sides and made a subtle hand signal she hoped the man knew.
He made no visible countersignal, "I see. We will just soldier on then. Yularen out."
His holo vanished.
Barriss felt like hitting something in frustration.
"Wake…!"
"Wake up… wake up, Chewbacca! Help!"
Chewbacca blinked his eyes open and the scene he was greeted with sent his heart racing and mind instantly coming awake.
He saw Ahsoka wrestling against the 2-1B medical droid. No, he corrected himself, he had heard M8's voice and she was wrestling the droid, whilst Ahsoka was still inside the armor and unconscious. The 2-1B had one of its arms configured with a long syringe, whilst the usual right claw was holding a short range surgical laser that was trying to stab right through the weaker joints in the armor.
It should've been no contest in any normal situation, but a 2-1B had to be able to move heavy patients and M8 was fighting against the uncooperative mass of her own mistress.
He gave a roar of challenge, leaping from the seat he had been sleeping in and slammed his right palm onto the head of the 2-1B, whilst grabbing the limb that held the surgical laser.
A quick twist of his arms and a flex of strength sent the medical droid flying, only to crash against the wall of the small sickbay.
The instant it was prone and on the floor, M8 lunged and pounced down on it, stabbing a logic probe into the medical droid with an accuracy only achievable by a computer.
"Thank you, Chewbacca."
"What's going on?!" he growled.
"That pathetic meatbag Merit decided that the opportunity to kill an unconscious Jedi was too good to pass up," she explained with anger. "He breached the tank's systems from an exterior maintenance port and sabotaged the 2-1B."
He felt anger roar through every fiber of his being.
"Where is that cowardly madclaw?!"
"Currently sneaking away from the tank and back into the Rimsoo. I will guide you over the comlink. Chewbacca, I know it will be hard… but we need him alive."
"Oh he will live," Chewbacca growled. "And will regret every second of it."
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