Hondo's once secret mansion
Master Hett jumped into the system and was relieved to see no sign that the Empire had beat him to the punch. However, the feeling of discomfort still had not disappeared. He shook it from his head as he took the ship into atmosphere. A radio controller challenged his entry, and he gave what would be a recognized alias. Moments later, the familiar voice of Kit Fisto came online.
"Hett?"
"Kit, yeah, it's me. Nice place you found, but you're going to have to leave. The Empire probably isn't far behind me."
"Set down on the east wing pad, I'll meet you there," Kit responded.
Kit got off the radio with Katoonie watching him.
"What's wrong?"
"We may have been discovered. Have everyone start preparing to leave. I'm going to meet Master Hett," Kitt said as he headed for the door.
Master Hett sat the ship down on the landing pad on the side of a mountain that looked out on the vast plain that stretched for miles, only broken up by an occasional lake, river, or set of trees. But the Jedi Master was in no mood to enjoy the scenery. He had just reached the edge when Kit Fisto came out.
"My friend, how did you find us?" Kitt asked.
"The Empire's after Hondo. Graballa sold this place out to them to stay on their good side- in his defence, he thought it was unoccupied," Hett said. "So the Empire will be here sooner rather than later."
"I've already started the evacuation process," Fisto said, walking beside his friend into the compound.
Hett nodded, then stiffened.
Kitt had a sinking feeling when he saw Hett's actions. "They're here, aren't they?"
Hett nodded, realizing this was the sinking feeling he had been having for several weeks.
Imperial Star Destroyer, Orbit
A nervous lieutenant walked up to the strange man in dark garb. "Grand Inquisitor, we have arrived."
The Inquisitor opened his eyes and looked out the window. "It would appear we have found our ultimate prey and not the lowly scavenger we were searching for."
"Shall we wait for reinforcements?" the lieutenant inquired.
"No, the Jedi will have escaped us by the time they arrive; we will need to proceed immediately prepare the troops for landing," was the reply.
"At once, sir."
Mansion Basement
Scout was furiously working the controls of the shield generator to get it online when it finally hummed to life.
"It's about time," she muttered.
One of the older initiates was peering over her shoulder. "Can we escape with the shield on?"
"Not while its running. The plan will be to shut it off when we make the escape, but we don't want that Star Destroyer blowing our ships up from orbit before they get off the ground," Scout replied.
Scout was fifteen years old and had lost two masters in the Clone Wars. However, she had been given an exception from the general rule of aging out since she had, in fact, been chosen. Due to her losses in the Clone Wars, Yoda had said that she would be given peace from the war until its end, when she would be able to find a new master. The Old Grandmaster had taken on much of her teaching himself in the meantime when he was on Coruscant, with other older Jedi teaching her when he was off planet. Thus, she was still technically given the rank of padawan learner, she just did not officially have a master. This didn't bother her as it had when she was younger. Several masters had stated an interest in taking her on after the war was over. Right now, though, she was concerned about their current situation.
(Head canon: Scout rescued baby Yoda from the Jedi Temple. Her inherent low level of Force power kept her from being an active target by Vader.)
Kit Fisto and Hett were in the makeshift command room, feeling rather grim at what they were seeing. A Venator class Star Destroyer was in orbit and it was dropping assault ships to the surface. It didn't take a general to figure out the strategy. Send in wave after wave of troops and take down the shield, then blow away the starships and force a surrender or, in this case, likely kill everyone in the building. One Star Destroyer in the Clone Wars was 1/3 of the invasion force for a planet. Right now they were only hoping this Star Destroyer did not have an entire battalion and was only equipped for naval battles.
"What's the plan, Kitt?" Hett asked.
"We have nearly two dozen starfighters, each with a Jedi pilot, and the transports for the younglings. We have two dozen Jedi masters and a score of knights along with the younglings, most with a lightsaber. We can manage a battle against a single Star Destroyer as long as we're not in the open and the shield holds. Once the troops engage, we have the children in the transports ready to go. We take down the shield, fire two shots from Hondo's hidden ion cannon into the Destroyer, then use the starfighters to clear a path for the transports and break for hyperspace the second we clear the grav well."
"Are you sure this won't be like Geonosis?" one of the younger knights asked nervously.
"No, on Geonosis we were out in the open against 30,000 battle droids of various kinds, with over a million more behind them. Essentially, we had 1,000/1 numerical odds against us. When the troopers came it cut the numerical advantage down to 100/1, which was the normal ratio on battlefields throughout the Clone Wars and we prevailed, usually. Right now, assuming they have 1,000 troops, we have approximately 20/1 odds, just by the numbers, but we use the building and the shield to lower that number even more. Besides our goal is not to win but to escape," Kit said, smiling.
Hett, meanwhile, was running through what his friend was saying. Everything sounded good and the plan was sound, yet that nagging feeling had not disappeared.
Then the shields fell.
Star Destroyer
"Status change," a lieutenant yelled.
"What is it?" the captain asked calmly.
"Shields around the target have dropped."
"Grand Inquisitor, shall we not just blow them off the planet?" the Captain inquired.
"The suggestion has merit," the Inquisitor responded when the com system went off.
"Priority communication from Coruscant," said the Comms officer.
The Emperor's silhouette appeared in the hologram.
"My lord, the shields have fallen. The captain was just inquiring whether we simply blast them from orbit. Several very powerful Jedi masters are below," the Inquisitor said.
Sidious looked thoughtful, and the Inquisitor thought he detected the smallest hint of doubt. "No, we need the children alive, but be wary. This was unforeseen. Kill the others."
"So it shall be done." The Inquisitor looked at the captain. "Prepare the troops for landing and don't permit any ships to leave the planet."
Hyperspace
The Millennium Falcon screeched through hyperspace at full speed, the occupants desperate to arrive in time. After stopping in the Lothal Jedi Temple to have an across the Force communication with Master Yoda, the crew had briefly returned to Ossus. But Master Yoda had seen a vision of impending peril for the younglings, so with the crew back together the Jedi had meditated, and Ben and Vestara had recognized the planet that the children were on. Now the Falcon crew, including Padme, were hoping to beat the Imperials (Authors note need a name for the planet) to the children. Ben was at the controls, with Han in the copilot chair.
"1 minute out; everyone strap into your seats," Ben said "I'm going to bring her in on the edge of the system."
While Ben would have to preferred to bring the Falcon in as close to the planet as possible, a close hyperspace point would register on any Imperial warships. The Falcon could beat any Tie to the surface and likely evade target fire from any Imperial Dreadnaught, but the Falcon crew didn't know exactly where Hondo's mansion was located on the planet. Therefore, stealth in this case was preferred. The Falcon came out of hyperspace.
"Uh oh," Han said, "we have a Star Destroyer in orbit over the planet."
"That isn't good. Did the Jedi get away?" asked Padme.
Ben closed his eyes and was about to reach out in the force to see if he could detect any Force sensitives when he felt several Force signatures reaching out to him. Ben stiffened and rapidly punched a set of coordinates into the hyperspace computer.
"What are you doing? Our people are down there; I felt them," Anakin said.
"Yeah, there's a Sith Lord down there, too. We got to get down fast," Ben replied with more fear in his voice than Kenobi or Anakin had ever heard before.
Anakin and Obi-Wan looked at each other. "We can handle the Sith."
"Not a chance; he's out of your league. Leave him to me and get the kids out," Ben muttered typing in a few last calculations. "Ves, stay with them."
Anakin frowned. "Are you sure? I felt the presence of an acolyte like Ventress, but not a full-fledged Sith Lord."
"Yes, I would know that presence anywhere," Ben said.
Ves eyes were boring a hole in the back of Ben's head and she sent, "Who's down there that we can't take together?"
"Darth Krayt is on the planet," Ben sent back right before he activated the hyperdrive.