Chapter 13
He hated the aftermath of battles. Even in victory, the procedures and reports to go through were tedious and numbed the mind in a way that had no equal in the galaxy. It was midday over the Sissirgo swamps and Anakin was at last boarding a LAAT gunship that would take him back to Theed. The gunship only had a few troopers on board, the last few who had remained on site until the RNSF had taken over security of the bunker. The free space allowed his padawan to sit for some much needed rejuvenative meditation as there had been almost no opportunity for her to sleep normally during her recon mission, relying on brief twenty minute naps every four hours and the Force to sustain her alertness. The fifty minute journey to the capital of Naboo would allow her to make some headway on regaining a normal equilibrium, but she would need to crash into a full sleep soon.
It was only half an hour into the flight before the mental serenity he had achieved vanished when his thoughts inevitably turned to Padme. This was the closest he had been to his wife in months and now his traitorous heart and mind was beating him over the head with that fact. How he could discreetly meet with her in the midst of everything going on was going to be a distinct challenge. He gazed mentally along his Force bond with Ahsoka, making sure that it was under control and the 'door' was closed. He was confident enough in his control that nothing could 'leak' across the bond, but was less sure of that fact when in the middle of 'passionate negotiations' to use Padme's whimsical phrase for it.
He pulled out a datapad to compose a suitably subtle and encrypted message to send to Padme over the local net and spent the rest of the journey trying to find the right words. It wasn't easy, he didn't want to appear too presumptuous or needy but also didn't want to give off the idea that he hadn't missed her terribly. By the time the gunship was approaching the royal hangar of Theed palace, he had arrived at what he hoped was a perfect composition and sent it off.
Ahsoka emerged from her meditation at this point and he nodded at her in approval. It was a rare padawan that could maintain such a level of localized awareness of their surroundings at such a level of meditation. She rose to her feet, ruefully scrunched her nose and grimaced.
"I'll be organizing you some quarters in the palace, snips," he gave her an amused look.
"Thanks master, I don't sense the queen nearby thankfully. Don't want to give her a noseful of dirty swamp."
The gunship flared and landed, opening its side doors. Waiting for them was Obi-wan who had a certain bearing about him that immediately sent warning bells ringing in Anakin's mind. He was flanked by Padme, whose presence he had sensed but the sight of her slammed into his brain like someone was stabbing it with a lightsaber. He forcefully banished thoughts of her outfit, which seemed like she designed it in typical high-society Naboo fashion, but somehow it managed to push every single button to accentuate, entice and make her seem like this vision of beauty. It seemed like a crime for her to be in that outfit.
Typho in turn, flanked her and completing the welcoming party was Jar-Jar, who somehow managed to make wearing a stately outfit perfectly at home in the Senate look chaotic.
"Senator," Anakin bowed briefly to her and nodded at everyone else.
"There's been some developments Anakin," Obi-wan began.
"What's the problem?"
"The RNSF have taken custody of Vindi."
Anakin wasn't sure if his ears were hearing correctly and his mind whirled at the implications, "Are you kidding?"
"Afraid not," Obi-wan replied dryly. "Since the Naboo are going to be tasked with managing the Blue Shadow Virus, they feel they need to keep Vindi here for interrogation and will only release him to Republic custody when they feel they've learned everything they need."
He turned to Padme and didn't even have to ask the question.
"I'm sorry," she shook her head. "The Ministry of Health and RNSF has advised the queen on this and she agrees. With something as critical as this virus, they believe they can't afford the time for him to be first shipped to Coruscant and having his interrogation be filtered through Intelligence and other interested parties before it even has a chance to reach us here."
"Do the Naboo even have the capacity to be able to do a successful and useful interrogation of Vindi?" Anakin asked pointedly, turning to Captain Typho.
"We will do what we must, if it means protecting the life of every single sentient on this planet and the galaxy," Typho retorted.
Anakin shook his head, "I know the Naboo, Captain. What you mean is you're willing to use an interrogation droid."
He managed to catch the slight flinch in Padme's bearing and sensed her disquiet. Interrogation droids skirted a barely legal gray area in the Republic. It was but a tweak of few settings to turn their function into torture. The only reason they hadn't been outright banned was because there were just too few Jedi who specialized in information retrieval from the mind. Any Jedi could theoretically do it, but the variables and reliability of the information was sometimes too great and the talent for Force telepathy varied even among Jedi.
"In the interest of time and finding a solution, I intend to volunteer to do the interrogation in cooperation with the Naboo," Obi-wan explained. "I don't foresee that the Council will object."
"The other issue we have," Typho continued, "is contingency planning. We fully expect to destroy the virus, but we must also plan for the worst. The Ministry wants to begin work on a vaccine or even cure if possible."
"You're thinking of others following in Vindi's footsteps," Anakin nodded.
"Exactly, Vindi wasn't working in ideal conditions, yet he managed to recreate an extinct virus and give it greater lethality. Others will see that and think they can succeed where he failed and let's be honest, we only stopped this thanks to Vindi's ineptitude with combat droids."
"How long is this going to take?"
"It will take as long as it needs to," Obi-wan answered, stroking his beard, "I will ask for a Jedi specialist to join me as soon as possible."
"Very well," Anakin sighed and turned to Padme, "Senator, you wouldn't happen to be able to arrange some suitable accommodations for my padawan to recover?"
Padme stared at Ahsoka briefly and a slight twitch of a smile graced her lips as she beheld her disheveled state, "Of course, I know a perfect place."
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Anakin awoke feeling the most comfortable he had ever felt in his life, surrounded by silky smooth bedsheets and his arms wrapped around his wife. The sounds of early morning birdlife carrying to his ears and the pleasant smell of Padme's loose hair hitting him with each breath. It was a moment he basked in and wished it would just keep on stretching into forever.
It was unfortunately shattered when he realized what had actually woken him up, a dreadful combination of his full bladder and the gnawing of an empty stomach. The slight movement he made in an attempt to get out of bed as carefully as possible also alerted him to the predicament that all human men suffered from in the early morning.
It took very careful maneuvering and even a bit of subtle telekinesis use, but he managed to get out of bed without waking her. He hurried to the en-suite refresher, while using a bit of internal Force Control to prudently cause some strategic internal blood redistribution and seeing to the call of nature. He emerged from the fresher and also used the Force to soothe away the worst of the hunger before grabbing a robe to tie around himself.
Now dressed, he padded over to the other side of the bedroom and emerged onto the balcony that gave a generous view of Padme's estate. The grounds were as beautiful as always, filled with carefully tended gardens and trees that surrounded the main house in a dazzling display of colors. Beyond the property, endless grasslands and hills. It was so easy to fool oneself that you were completely alone but Padme's closest neighbor was twenty kilometers away.
Before he could get really lost in the idyllic view though, his nose picked up a very familiar scent being wafted by the breeze from the lower floor of the house. He felt a pang of alarm. Padme had no household droids besides C3P0, and the chatty droid was deactivated aboard her star yacht at the moment. She did have a groundskeeper, but had indicated yesterday that she had given him some vacation to ensure their privacy. There should be no activity in the large house, yet he could now also hear the searing of meat on a griddle.
He tied his robe closed more securely before heading back to the bed, carefully reaching out with his hand to caress Padme's forehead. Her eyes fluttered open and she instinctively smiled at him before frowning in confusion at the worried expression on his face.
He held a single finger to his lips for silence. His lightsaber came flying into his hand a moment later and he tapped his ear, pointed outward.
She stared towards the bedroom door for a moment before realization came upon her face.
He nodded at her before approaching the door and paused, looking back at her. She was now sitting up in bed with her trusty personal blaster already in hand. The view was almost enough to distract him, but he kept his focus and nodded at her before carefully easing the door open.
The hallway had no surprises and using both physical technique and the Force, he silently ghosted down it towards the stairs.
The ground floor hallway of the house also had not a soul and he pushed his awareness into the Force, throwing out the metaphysical equivalent of a search light.
Suddenly a very familiar presence blossomed into his senses, as if she had been waiting for that moment.
Anakin burst forward and pushed open the kitchen door, feeling an awful mix of relief, dread and hints of anger.
Ahsoka turned around from her place at the stove, dressed in a sleeveless top and shorts, with an apron covering her front, with a pan full of sizzling meat in her left hand and a spatula in her right. She had a wincing smile on her face as she beheld him.
The next few seconds as he tried to master himself felt very awkward. Finally, he took a deep breath. "Ahsoka," he said flatly. "What are you doing?"
She pointed at the pan, "Breakfast, master. Nerf meat, bread, and a few local vegetables that your wife indicated she liked." It was at this point that Anakin wondered if he was dreaming or perhaps that this is what that old Tatooine expression of 'the sand swallowing you up,' truly felt like. Before his inner turmoil could even really take root, she placed the pan on the stove and switched it off, before raising her palms towards him, "All joking aside, I really apologize, master, for violating your privacy like this. I will explain my actions but this is a conversation that must be had with your wife as well."
He stared at her, unable to keep the frown off his face and pushed open their bond. Ahsoka opened her own feelings to him and despite the whimsy and humor, there was a strong undercurrent of deep concern and determination. She was not doing this for fun and was willing to tolerate any censure from him for this.
"Fine," he said eventually. "Get the table ready."
The walk back to the upstairs bedroom had his thoughts racing in seemingly a million directions. The look on Padme's face when he explained just who was downstairs was rather grim and he could feel her self-recrimination.
"This might be my fault," she said as she dressed into what passed as casual clothing to her sensibilities. "On the journey here, I was just… I wanted to know about your true daily life in the war and…"
He stepped closer and gathered her hands in his and kissed her softly on the forehead. "No, don't blame yourself. I've only known my padawan for less than a year, but we've been through a lot and I know enough about her and from what I sense from her, that this was just her being her usual insightful self."
"What is she going to do?"
"If she was a normal, dutiful padawan, she would've had Obi-wan downstairs as well. She is far from a normal padawan and Obi-wan is not here."
"So there's a chance she would be willing to keep this secret?"
"So it seems, but there's more to this that I'm sensing from her."
"Well, there's only one way to find out," Padme declared before purposefully marching towards the door. Anakin smiled at her expression and followed.
Soon enough they were seated around the kitchen table downstairs to a breakfast that seemed to waft into your nose with purpose and demand you eat everything. He hadn't known that Ahsoka was so good at preparing food but in retrospect, there had never been an opportunity for the skill to be shown.
They tucked into the food and Ahsoka began to speak.
"I first want to apologize again for this, to both of you. Yes, I snuck onto the yacht before you left Theed and pretty much infiltrated the house. This was the only way this conversation could happen properly without interruption and as I will explain, I had to make use of the opportunity now. With the war happening, there's no telling when another such chance could arise before it's too late to have it at all.
"Firstly, yes, I know that you are married. The how? Well, a combination of things, my conversations with you senator, deduction and the Force did the rest. I will caution you to avoid being in close proximity in the same room as Master Mace Windu. To those with the proper perceptions in the Force, when together it's like you're looking into a star. The Force sings in joy when you are together."
Anakin blinked in alarm, if this was how Ahsoka felt and saw them through the Force, then how didn't the entire Order know?
"Now that you know I know, and I'm not about to report it or sing it from the rooftops, you can avoid the mental exercise in trying to keep me in the dark or busy when you would have otherwise had the opportunity to be together. I know as clear as day, that you were both meant to be together. Anyone or anything that would seek to object can go jump into the Kessel Maw in my opinion. Oh and a belated congratulations on the wedding."
"Thanks," Padme said distractedly, her mind reeling still, while chewing on a vegetable.
"Secondly, I wish to convey a warning. Just because the Jedi Order or the Senate is blind to your marriage, do not assume that the master of the one who killed Qui-Gon Jinn is unaware." She raised her hands in a warding gesture. "Do not say their name or speak of the enemy's name. Not now."
If Anakin had been merely alarmed at the knowledge that his padawan knew of his wife, then the Resolute's self-destruct alarm was going off in his head at the idea that the Sith knew. But he was curious about her caution in merely saying the name…
"I say this because the enemy is extremely gifted with Force Foresight and it is for this reason that I'm also here, now. This action I'm taking now is with barely any planning and I've been waiting for the stars to align, so to speak, to take this spontaneous action. I don't say his name or speak of the general name of his Order when I want to speak covertly, since it gives his vision focal points through which he can sift through all the myriad of futures and possibilities."
Anakin had never given so much thought to the mechanics of such foresight but ruefully conceded that this was the reason he wasn't a Consular. He much preferred the predictability of machines and purity of combat with a lightsaber.
"Now let us go through a thought experiment. The enemy knows you are married, what would he do?"
"Attack me? Arrange to kill me? Given that he possesses such power," Padme posited.
"The enemy is not prone to such direct tactics," Ahsoka shook her head. "Another piece of the puzzle to consider is what your husband represents to both the Jedi and the enemy." She looked him square in the eye. "Master, have you properly studied the prophecy that refers to you?"
Anakin sighed wearily, taking a deep sip of his caf. Ever since he was a young initiate taken in by Obi-wan, that bloody prophecy had been hanging over him, coloring everything - from his relations with his peers to how the other masters had treated him. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you did, in detail I assume?"
She shrugged, "Master, we didn't exactly have a traditional apprenticeship assignment. In peacetime, we would most likely never have been assigned together. You would've remained a solitary knight for another decade or so before it even crossed your mind that perhaps you should pick up a padawan learner. As such, because I was assigned to you outright during wartime, I felt it wise to brush up on everything relating to the prophecy. Master Yoda even gave me higher level clearance on it, since as the apprentice of the 'Chosen One', I might even have a part to play in the prophecy."
"I'm also rather curious about the exact wording," Padme mused. Anakin gave her an annoyed look. "He told me about it, of course, but the specifics weren't important, in his words."
"In a way, he's correct," Ahsoka nodded. "Prophecy has power, but it's a power that's like a deadly lightsaber in the hands of a novice. It cuts in any direction. The Jedi accept the prophecy because it was made by the kind of prophet that only comes along every millenia and he was extremely gifted in seeing the future. Now, because of that, the enemy accepts the prophecy as well and just as the Jedi acted to bring their interpretation of the prophecy into reality, now the enemy acts as well to bring his own twisted version of it into reality. Therefore, he will attack you master, not by crude weapons but by striking at the pillars of everything that supports you."
Anakin felt like he was standing near a sarlacc maw that was impossibly steadily creeping on him.
"The prophecy goes, 'A Chosen One shall come, born of no father, and through him will ultimate balance in the Force be restored.'" Ahsoka shook her head sadly, "That so much can change, just by the words spoken by one man. The enemy does not want this to happen. He wants to drown the Force in the darkness of his own vision, reign it in like a beast of burden that serves at his whim and ensures his immortality."
Anakin almost couldn't believe the words coming out of his apprentice. She spoke with no hesitation or uncertainty but firm belief, truth and knowledge. Knowledge that shouldn't be coming from a fifteen year old padawan.
"So as I said, he will attack the pillars that support you, everything you love and value. Your wife, me, Obi-wan, the Jedi Council, the Order as a whole, everything that makes you Anakin. And again, these attacks will not be direct or crude. With your wife, he'll attack your relationship itself. Get you to the point where you think she'll betray you or something to that effect."
Anakin struggled with the anger brewing up from these words, even as his traitorous mind imagined all manner of awful scenarios which could make such things happen.
"How would he do that?" Padme asked softly.
"Honestly, you're the better person to answer that, senator. You're rather older than Anakin by a degree, if I'm not mistaken?" She nodded. "Any old flames in your past then?" Padme opened her mouth to begin answering and then reluctantly nodded. Before he could even begin to feel indignant… "Master, she was a powerful and attractive woman for nearly ten years before you met again, walking among the elite of Coruscant and Naboo, with even more powerful and handsome young men around her. Don't tell me you expected her to hold a candle for you and live like a nun of the Whills."
"No," he admitted reluctantly.
"In any event, I suggest you both have a long talk about this issue in private, today. The war and its demands, including your need for secrecy are robbing you of the time any couple would have to naturally discover these issues and grow your marriage and relationship. I don't know what you could do to solve this problem besides maybe finding a way to communicate regularly and securely, no matter the distance."
Anakin met Padme's eyes and after reading them for a moment, "We'll figure something out."
Ahsoka nodded, "Good, the enemy's other target would naturally be your former master. In this case it would nicely mirror his efforts against the Jedi Council. He'd simply attack any confidence and faith you have in the Council and Obi-wan, to the point where you'd consider them the enemy and traitors to the Republic."
It took quite a bit of effort to prevent himself from gaping stupidly as the words registered in his mind. Eventually he shook his head, "I'm not even gonna ask."
She nodded, "The ways he'd use are simply too varied and any guesses or foresight I could try to divine could actually be wrong and might divert your eyes away from seeing where the true attack would come from. I mean the idea that the Jedi would be traitors to the Republic is ridiculous on the face of it and it's precisely that mindset that the enemy exploits. In the minds of nearly the entire galaxy, the Jedi are visible symbols of the Republic itself. Some conspiracy theorists on the holonet would argue that the Republic is the facade that the Jedi are using to rule the galaxy in secret."
Anakin rolled his eyes at the idea and Padme even quirked a smile at the idea.
"Nevertheless, it's a goal the enemy is actively pursuing. Perhaps engineering conflicts which would force the Council into making decisions which would be extremely unpopular, decisions which even goes against the spirit of the Jedi code, causing fracturing and unhappiness within the Order itself. Using his contacts in the media and business to push the idea that the Jedi are the bad guys. After all, it's Count Dooku, a former Jedi leading the Separatists and it's therefore the Jedi's fault by association. Eventually portraying us as warmongers and incompetent when we can't reign in people like Dooku."
Anakin sighed and fixed his padawan with a look after she nibbled at her cooling plate of food, "And how would he attack you, snips? Have you thought of that?"
"Quite often, the easiest way would be to simply demonstrate that no matter what I do, he'll always have an answer or contingency ready. That his ability of foresight is superior. He'd engineer events that force me to leave the Jedi Order, frame me for a crime of some sort or make it appear that I was responsible for some disaster. Then even if I'm absolved, it'd leave me so disillusioned and jaded that I'd grab the first ship I could and just leave. It's a big galaxy to disappear in, after all."
Anakin sat back and wearily rubbed his face as he considered the admission that his padawan had layered into her answer. "You have full blown Force Foresight."
"Technically and metaphysically speaking, yes. My manifestation of it is in seeing probabilities of actions and prediction of certain future outcomes. I rarely get the out of context 'visions', as most often happens to Jedi. It's something that I've hidden from even Master Yoda as it's not safe to speak of it on Coruscant. The enemy's presence on the planet combined with the Force Shroud he projects to conceal himself and obscure all sight of the future makes it extremely dangerous to speak or even do certain things. I've made it a point of assuming that everything that happens on Coruscant, even within the Jedi Temple itself, will eventually reach his eyes and ears."
"He can even spy on the Temple?" Padme asked with an aghast expression.
Ahsoka nodded, "I will not speak of how he does it, if you do not know it, it can't be interrogated or pulled from your mind by him. It has to remain in place, as if the method was to suddenly stop working he'd know something was wrong or if he knows that we know, he'd change the method. It can be used carefully now, to feed the enemy false information. I must also now ask for an afternoon of your time, senator, to instruct you on how you can deceive the enemy, even as a person who is non-Force sensitive."
Anakin was distinctly surprised such a thing was even possible, even as he inwardly reeled with the implication that Ahsoka foresaw the need for such a thing.
Padme's eyes widened, "Are you telling me… "
"The true enemy walks the halls of power on Coruscant, yes and you've almost certainly met him. I will not tell you who he is."
"Ahsoka…" Anakin shook his head incredulously. The true identity of the Sith who trained Maul… it was a mystery that had plagued the Order for slightly more than a decade and of all people, his own apprentice knew who it was!
"Master, the consequences are too great. I have foreseen what happens if you force his hand too early and it leads to nothing but more misery and death than what is currently happening or would happen. The enemy has extreme foresight and an ability to plan which is hard to put into words how good it is. He makes sure that no matter what happens, things will somehow go his way through contingencies upon contingencies."
"If you exposed him, that would force him to reveal himself and even if he retreats, at least then we wouldn't have his blade near our back," Anakin argued.
Ahsoka closed her eyes for a moment, then shook her head, "No, he kills too many critical people, Jedi and other Senate leaders, on his way out in the confrontation. It fractures any confidence member worlds still hold in the Republic's institutions and leads to even more worlds seceding. He then lets Count Dooku and the Separatists off their leash. CIS shipbuilding is increased to maximum and the Republic, divided with it's political and public morale in tatters is defeated within less than three years."
Anakin felt a chill run down his back at the thought, "He's that strong?"
"There are only two Jedi currently in the galaxy who can match him in a straight fight, Masters Yoda and Windu. Anyone else would be cannon fodder. Yes, even you Master. You might have the strongest connection to the Force of any recorded sentient in Jedi history but it's not just a matter of fighting him with blade and the Force, you have to defeat his plans as well and he never fights fair."
The conversation lapsed into silence for a while, the only sounds being that of cutlery as they took advantage to eat their cooling breakfast.
Eventually, Ahsoka took one last sip of her caf and stood, "With your permission senator, I would like to stay in the yacht, this would allow you to regain some measure of privacy and allow me to be on hand for Master Skywalker's training." She gave Anakin a meaningful look.
Padme eventually smiled and nodded, "A convenient and plausible excuse to Master Kenobi?"
"It would work," she shrugged. "After all, circumstances have forced me and your husband to miss out on quite a bit of master-padawan training. We have to thank you for allowing us the use of your estate for the next week or so. We can spend the mornings on that and that will leave the rest of the day free for the two of you."
She bowed briefly at them and carried her dirty cutlery away and exited the kitchen.
"Rather interesting padawan you have there, Anakin."
"I knew she was unconventional to say the least, but this…" he rubbed his hair in frustration and yet, a sense of relief and elation was filling him. It was as if a weight that had always been there on his shoulders was suddenly not pushing down so hard anymore. The fear of discovery and its consequences had been a constant nagging companion since the marriage and now that particular rancor was looking rather toothless in retrospect. If his padawan who had been raised in the Order could accept it, then couldn't others?
The answer was obvious, the younger and more open-minded would, but the hidebound monks on the Council would not.
On the other hand, he now had something that felt like balm on his mind and a gift that his padawan had given him… hope.
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My left blade lunged forward.
Anakin fended it off with the barest of margins and charged forwards, slashing down in a riposte to my head.
Instead of bringing my right blade to block, I simply stepped left and backwards, but with the extreme speed of Force enhanced movement, turning a kill strike to the head into a missed slash.
My right blade instead came down on Anakin's blade, keeping it out of the fight as my left blade came around, slashing horizontally for his back.
A burst of Force movement from him and a swift retreat had my left blade slashing the air, missing his chest by inches.
We took the respite of the separation to reset our stances.
He was idly twirling his lightsaber and studying me, searching for gaps and weakness.
In turn, I was staring forwards, my focus taking in his entire form but not pinpointing any spot, preventing my eyes from giving away any tell of my intent.
Suddenly he was on my left, his blue blade stabbing towards my shoulder.
My left blade twirled into a desperate deflection, while my right leg stepped forward, the right blade surged tip first under my left elbow, seeking to stab its tip right into Anakin's stomach.
He had to retreat again and used his own blade to fend off the stab, directing it away from his body.
Next thing I knew he had jumped and brought down his blade in a classic Falling Avalanche.
My blades were in reversed positions, my right blade to the left, and left blade still recovering from the deflection. Clever, he was trying to tangle me up. There was no way I would have the strength to resist his attack if I tried to block with my arms like this.
So I didn't block.
The Force Push blasted outward with no warning and caught Anakin whole body.
It wasn't enough to send him flying backwards, as I really didn't feel like trying to explain to Padme why I sent her husband through the walls of her estate's small gym. It was strong enough to blunt the attack and stop his momentum short of reaching me, giving enough time for me to recover my lightsabers properly and attack.
I slashed for his head and stomach, which he expertly defended with a simple left and right flick of his blade. Those mere flicks were enough to almost rip my lightsabers from my hands. Urgh, that was nuts. The amount of strength he could channel through his cybernetic arm was ridiculous. Any other Jedi with flesh and blood for their arms would have torn muscles trying to do that.
It was only my grip technique and the Force which kept my blades in hand and under control, but it briefly left my center open.
Anakin smirked before tossing a Force Push into that opening.
My own counter Push was just enough to keep me from getting the breath knocked out of me, but also allowing me to somewhat control my sudden backwards momentum as I flew through the air. A twirl and somersault had me landing feet first onto the wall, before my own Force Push from my feet sent me shooting back, to deliver the mother of all Falling Avalanche attacks.
Anakin was forced to defend by using both hands on the hilt of his saber and he actually winced when our blades connected, his legs bent to absorb the blow.
I let the momentum of my legs come forward, landing with my left foot on his bent knee.
My right knee tapped him in the stomach lightly, before I pushed off into a Force assisted jump over his head, keeping my blades pushing down.
It forced him to keep his blade raised above his head in defense as he twirled on the spot to face me.
I landed lithely but aborted my planned follow up when Anakin sent a pulse through our bond, signaling that he wanted to end our session.
I was rather thankful for that. We were nearing the end of two hours and my stamina was nearing exhaustion levels.
"Nice blending of some Ataru moves there, snips," he nodded and his lightsaber extinguished.
I shrugged and also extinguished my lightsabers, "I figured it was the only way to give you a Falling Avalanche that'd actually challenge you a bit."
"That it did," he acknowledged with a smile as I picked up our respective towels and threw his towards him with a bit of Force-assist.
We started wiping off the accumulated sweat of the sparring session.
"That was a good session, snips. It was a bit touch and go last week, but that's usually the problem when you train for a long time by yourself. Little mistakes and issues begin to creep in that you miss. You end up building upon those mistakes, they become bad habits and the next thing you know you have to unlearn those before you can move on."
I nodded in understanding, "What about recording solo training sessions and reviewing them?"
"It can help you catch some things, but your personal point of view and bias will still leave you missing others. Trust me, I've tried that trick and Obi-wan was very helpful in kicking my ass afterward by exploiting every mistake that I had trained into my combat form."
Any further conversation was interrupted by Anakin's communicator beeping for his attention from a nearby bench. Both he and I felt the shift in the Force and we knew our idyllic time on Naboo was over.
He sighed and picked up the small communicator, thumbing it into life and opening the connection. "Yes, Master Kenobi?"
"Sorry to disturb, Anakin, but I'm afraid we've got our marching orders. The Separatists have invaded Ryloth."
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I glared into the giant holotank in one of the primary RNSF briefing rooms, as it displayed a tactical replay of the CIS invasion of the Twi'lek homeworld. It was like staring into a holographic nightmare. There had been no way for the GAR garrison force to effectively resist, they had been outnumbered from the start and the CIS had come in with strategic and tactical surprise on their side. The garrison had done its job though in the end, putting up enough of a fight to slow down the invasion and get at least one ship out that brought with it the tactical intel of the composition of the CIS invaders.
The problem was that the force disparity meant that the CIS invasion group had no need to use any actual tactics to fight against the garrison and as such it made getting any idea of the type of commander we were facing impossible. A bloody B1 commander model droid could've pulled off the invasion with no problem.
The thing was, the CIS would not entrust the invasion of an important world like Ryloth to a droid.
Ryloth was a world on the galactic south east in the Outer Rim, situated on the tail end of the Corellian Run hyperspace lane. It was an important world for two main reasons, the twi'lek labor it provided throughout the Republic and even in Hutt space. The latter being mostly in the form of outright slavery. It was a key world for spice production, trade and also a full Republic member world. Its invasion couldn't be left unanswered.
Now a Republic task force was being created to take it back from the CIS and the job was going to Obi-wan and Anakin.
"So what space based assets can we pull besides our respective flagships?" Anakin asked, stepping to the holotank controls and canceling the battle replay. The tank now displayed both the Resolute and Negotiator.
Obi-wan frowned for a moment at his datapad, "As usual, not as much as we'd like or need to ideally break a Seperatist blockade."
Four more Venators appeared in the holochamber, Avenger, Colossus, Fury, and Euphoria.
"The enemy?" In red, appeared a Lucrehulk battleship, escorted by eight Munificent star-frigates and twelve cruisers. "What are the chances they've pulled some of these units back to the front lines?"
"Intelligence estimates about thirty percent of these forces were detached for the invasion from known front-line CIS formations."
Anakin frowned at his old master, "So they assume that those units will just merrily leave and we won't be facing a 3 to 1 disadvantage?"
"That is their determination," Obi-wan said dryly, his tone communicating as clear as day what he thought of that.
"No," I declared, turning both of their attention to me.
"You have an opinion, padawan?" Obi-wan questioned kindly.
"I think not a single CIS ship has left and the odds will remain as unfavorable as they are."
"There would be no need for this many ships to enforce an effective blockade," Obi-wan pointed out.
I shrugged, "Sure, but we must also ask ourselves, why would the CIS invade Ryloth in the first place?"
Obi-wan nodded and stroked his beard in thought, "Besides the obvious, that the Twi'leks are a long standing member of the Republic, a perfectly legitimate target in this war. If we can't show that we can properly defend our holdings in the Outer Rim, then it would just lead to more worlds seceding to spare themselves from a possible invasion."
"That is perfectly reasoned and what the enemy wants us to think."
He nodded, "You believe there is a more hidden reason behind this invasion."
"Did you read the reports of Master Ima-Gun Di?"
Master Di had been the Jedi General who had led the GAR garrison and the twi'lek resistance fighters. He had been killed in a last stand type battle against the droid invasion, that was easily worthy of being entered into legend and remembrance in both Jedi and general military history. His reports had been carried out by the last ship to escape.
Obi-wan frowned in thought and began tapping on his datapad. "I think I see where you're going, young one." He tapped the controls of the holotank and in it appeared the image and file of Skakoan male encased in extremely stylized, silver life support armor, which was required for any member of that species to leave their high-pressure atmosphere homeworld. "Wat Tambor, Foreman of the Techno Union, member of the Seperatist Council, is at this moment on Ryloth and it is at his order that the invasion happened at all."
"Did someone in Intelligence have one too many spice sticks?" Anakin asked with disgust. "There's no way the CIS would withdraw any defense assets from Ryloth with Tambor himself on the surface."
"Well, that pretty much sets our course," Obi-wan declared. "Everything we can scrounge together must be put in our order of battle. If it can fight, it must come."
Any further discussion was interrupted when the image of Wat Tambor was replaced by an incoming comm request, the codes indicating it came from the Jedi Council.
All three of us shared ominous looks and Obi-wan keyed the controls to initiate the connection.
Appearing larger than life due to the scale, the forms of Master Yoda and Mace Windu appeared in the holotank.
"Master Kenobi, bad news we have to share," Yoda declared gravely.
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Very few things compared to the satisfaction of just unleashing strikes and fists on a punching bag. Of course, I had the little complication that I had to be careful not to push the Force into the mix, but otherwise it was still a nice little tool of venting frustration that neatly carried over from my previous life. Thankfully the RNSF annex had a gym for their troops and personnel which they graciously let me use with but a polite request. It also let me see quite a bit of buff eye candy from both genders in the process.
My presence also engendered quite a bit of attention. It wasn't every day that the RNSF troopers got to see a young Togruta in light workout clothes of a tanktop and shorts, pummeling a bag to death with what to their eyes seemed a very calm expression and some crazy Jedi martial arts.
Of course, it wasn't anything the Jedi taught and while it would've been nice to go study with the Matukai, there just wasn't time or the opportunity.
"Really Snips, what did that poor punching bag ever do to you?"
I threw two flat palm strikes together that rocked the bag backwards significantly before catching it swinging back and calmly regarded Anakin standing a few feet behind me.
"Nothing Master, though I did briefly consider putting the images of certain senators, who shall remain nameless, on the bag before I began."
Anakin folded his arms and looked pointedly at me, "I can understand the sentiment, Snips."
"So while the politicians in the Senate argue and bicker pointlessly over details that are oh so important to them, we have the Twi'lek homeworld under hostile occupation. Every day of delay is one where more lives are lost, more infrastructure destroyed or looted."
It was utterly ludicrous, until you really did a bit of research on the senators who were the loudest voices in delaying the launch of the liberation of Ryloth. More often than not, they belonged to worlds that actually employed a lot of Twi'lek labor. Their objections were simply based on the fact that any full scale liberation operation would cause more death to the Twi'lek and while a noble sentiment it was but a veneer of virtue over the awful motive beneath. After all, maybe Twi'lek labor negotiated and obtained under the CIS would be better?
Other senators objected that the effort and resources required to achieve the liberation would leave more critical sectors and planets vulnerable. While certainly true from a certain point of view, it wasn't like we were going to strip the fronts of combat forces to do this.
The senators who argued for full scale liberation as soon as logistically possible, were naturally all those in the Loyalist committee and those with more realistic heads on their shoulders. Unfortunately, the side arguing against it was just a tad too numerous to ignore. Spurning them would potentially mean a loss of their support in the future for just as critical endeavors.
It was times like this where you really began to appreciate the more agile nature an autocratic government like the Empire would be. If only it didn't come with someone like Emperor Palpatine, the Grand Moffs and the ruthless exploitation and oppression of worlds.
"Is there any indication when the debate is going to conclude?"
Anakin sighed and shook his head, "The best Senator Amidala could give me was a month or two at the very worst."
"There's a kriffing war going on, you can't win it if the Senate is going to butt its head in like this," I groused. "I thought the Loyalist committee was supposed to stop stuff like this from happening."
"It tried," Anakin shrugged. "Apparently, there's some or other clause or something that the Senate at large can use to overrule them if a certain number of votes are brought to the table."
I tried to put myself in Palpatine's shoes on why he would even order the full scale invasion of Ryloth in the first place by the CIS. The only thing I could think of was to give another example to the galaxy why the Republic didn't work. Ryloth would be a testament of the necessity of accepting the New Order, his New Order.
"So how are we going to proceed?"
"Well, I think we've been given a blessing in disguise here," Anakin smirked. "Let's use this extra time. Our strategies and battle plans could always use more refinement. Then there's those wonderful upgrades we've designed for the Resolute. Just think what a few extra months of testing and iteration would do for their performance."
"I suppose there is a way to spin this into a positive," I conceded. "The problem is we're giving the CIS time to fortify and it will also mean more chance that their spies will discover what we've done to the Resolute."
"True, but it's better than going in before we're truly ready. Perhaps these next few months we'll achieve a breakthrough in the battle spaces that'll force them to pull units off Ryloth. Anything can happen, Snips."
I knew and sensed what he was trying to get through to me. My foresight couldn't perfectly predict everything.
"I understand, Master."
"Good, now show me what you're working on. Those were some interesting unarmed moves."