Back in the Game (COMPLETE)

9.15.3

The worst part about all of this was that Ahsoka had no way to know which of the clones had their inhibitor chips removed because all of them had their helmets on. She knew Jesse was trying to help her, and Rex too, but other than that, she had no idea. Every time she saw another clone, her heart rate spiked and she felt a moment of sheer panic as she raced past them, hoping they wouldn't try to shoot her down. 

So far though, all of the clones she had passed were only chasing her towards the hangar with Jesse. They shot periodically, but just enough to make it look like they were trying to hurt her. They had done a good job of clearing the way otherwise, thanks to closing certain blast doors so no one else was in the way. Some of the hallways didn't have doors to close, but the clones who saw her fly past saw Jesse and the others chasing her and let them be.

She was about halfway to the hangar when the ship started to shake. Oh, come on! How much worse can this get??? Ahsoka stopped running as her balance was disrupted, thankfully in a section of the hall that had been mostly closed off, so no one saw her. The clones behind her paused too, trying to stay on their feet.

"What's going on?!?" One of them shouted, but Ahsoka only had a vague answer. 

"Something must be wrong with the hyperdrive, the engines aren't engaged right now!" She looked back at Jesse, and he patched into the public channel for the battalion. 

Sure enough, someone from the command center was trying to reach soldiers in the hyperdrive room. "Trooper? Trooper! Status on target number two!"

They all waited for a response, but none came. Ahsoka's face fell. "Maul went for the hyperdrive, that Sith piece of sh-"

"Jesse! Jesse, come in!" Rex interrupted her, over the lieutenant's comlink. "Keep the general moving! Do you hear me? Someone just opened the hangar doors, and we're headed right for a moon! We need to get her out of here!!!"

Ahsoka darted off, continuing in the direction she had been going, and the troopers tailed her as Jesse responded. "We're getting close, no more than two minutes until we're there."

Her mind raced as she pushed herself to run faster. If Maul had already destroyed the hyperdrive to the point where it was no longer operational, the damage would probably affect the engines as well. They were too close together: if one went down, it was almost guaranteed that the other would too. This cruiser wasn't going to stay in the air for much longer. Everyone needed to evacuate. 

Rex's plan had been under the assumption that the cruiser was going to make it to Coruscant, but that clearly wasn't going to happen now. If Ahsoka had to guess, Rex was guarding a shuttle meant for a few people at most, and probably less than the number of troopers helping her. There were already eight troopers following her, and there were probably a couple more with the commander. That wasn't going to work.

"Jesse, get ready to improvise!" she called behind her, hoping no one other than his men had heard her. There was no time to check, though, they needed to keep moving.

The doors to Hangar 12 slid open to reveal Rex and three other troopers standing guard next to a shuttle that was too small for all of them, as Ahsoka had predicted. She ran straight for it, but instead of boarding she tackled Rex (she was doing that quite a bit today) and held him in front of her, pretending to use him as a shield. She pushed him down on his knees and held her lightsaber in front of his neck. Her other hand was on his shoulder, trying not to shake and failing miserably. All the other troopers pointed their blasters in their direction, but no one fired anything other than empty threats.

"Is there a bigger shuttle nearby?" she whispered, trying not to hold her lightsabers too close to him. Her hand wasn't that steady right now and Ahsoka absolutely could not hurt Rex.