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Bespin. It was a sickly yellow.
Ahsoka swallowed. She had never been undercover before.
Gazing down at the gas giant from Cora Dii's YT-2000 ship, the Togruta was reminded of an old mission with her Master. They had been on Naboo, Padme and JarJar had been captured by the scientist Nuvo Vindi. They discovered that he was recreating the Blue Shadow Virus and she had barely escaped from his lab alive, let alone prevent a galaxy-wide pandemic.
Taking a deep breath she began to bring the ship down to the surface.
The Council had given her the coordinates to the bounty hunter's rendezvous point and slowly Ahsoka threaded through the fluffy clouds, stained pink from the planet's nearest star. The buildings here were so different from Coruscant's. These were round and disk shaped, some suspended in the air whilst others were supported by a single pole that extended down into the gaseous centre of the planet.
She flew passed over Cloud City, admiring the beautiful architecture as it glistened in the sunlight, but her mind was distracted with thoughts of the mission.
In a few seconds the metropolis passed and Ahsoka found herself alone in the clouds once more. They seemed suffocating, pressing in on the ship. She felt like any second a huge skyscraper would suddenly rear up and she would crash into it.
Nothing happened and she was surrounded by cloud for a long time.
And then below her the remains of a city could be seen.
It would have been rich, long ago. The buildings were grand and imposing, constructed with expensive materials. Docks, refineries, power generators and loading platforms were scattered here and there, suggesting it had grown rich from tibanna gas exports.
Tibannopolis.
The great city had been the second largest in Bespin, after Cloud City, growing rich from mining the precious gas. Had been. After the start of the Clone Wars it was slowly abandoned until the place had been completely deserted. Now, all that was left was a sparkling, slowly decaying city.
This was also where Cora Diis and the others would be meeting up.
Ahsoka landed the ship on a platform. It was a ghost town. No busy buzz of traffic or chattering of citizens.
Exiting the ship, she immediately reached to check for her lightsabers, a habit she had developed, only to remember they weren't there. Being disguised as a bounty hunter meant that the only weapons she had were two E-11 blaster pistols and a small vibroknife. She felt uncomfortable too, instead of her normal outfit she had a tight, constricted black bodysuit.
Glancing at the small computer screen on her armguard, Ahsoka looked around the city and began to head into the nearest building. She could sense life forms inside, and could tell they knew she was there. They were probably going to ambush her, but nevertheless she continued.
As soon as she stepped through the doorway the Togruta felt cold metal press against her temple. Just as expected. Her eyes darted to the barrel of the blaster and she caught sight of a tall, rigid silhouette.
"What do we have here?" a mechanical voice spoke and there was a whirring sound before a red light-the droid's eye-was shone onto her.
"I am Cora Diis," Ahsoka responded calmly, though her muscles tensed as she prepared to pull out her own guns and fight.
"Is that so?" Two new forms appeared out of the shadows of the room. Ahsoka saw who the first one was and immediately drew in a sharp breath. "Let her go, IG," Aurra Sing commanded to the droid as she walked up to her. The other bounty hunter stayed a few metres away.
"Cora Diis huh? Then you know what we need to do," they said. Their voice was neutral and deadpan, making it almost impossible to tell which gender it was.
Ahsoka nodded stiffly as the IG-series droid removed his blaster from her head. She made her face unreadable and looked directly into the Aurra's eyes as the latter walked up to her. The Togruta had to act superior, cold and spiteful. That much she had learnt about Cora's personality during the brief interaction they had before Ahsoka left on the mission.
"Nice place you got here," she said sarcastically, looking around the building. It used to be impressive but now the huge floor to ceiling windows were covered in grime and everything was beginning to rust. Ahsoka kicked at the dirty tiled floor and glared at each of her mission partners. Her voice was still odd, higher and a little nasal than her own.
"If you want this mission done then you'll have to ignore the state of this place," Aurra bit back. "Unlike you not all of us have the luxury of sitting back and conducting business from Naboo."
Ahsoka smiled. "Ah, so I see my reputation precedes me," she mocked.
"She will be a disadvantage to the mission," the unidentified bounty hunter growled. "Look at that ego, and we were easily able to put a blaster to her head."
The Togruta rolled her eyes, having let them do that for the sake of meeting them.
"Declined," IG said. "These are Count Dooku's orders. Additionally if Cora Diis does not join us on the mission we will have a 32.39% decrease in the chance that we complete said mission."
"Yup," Ahsoka said, popping the 'p' and crossing her arms. "You hear that? Now introductions. I have no idea who any of you are."
"Aurra Sing," she said with a thin smile. "I like this one's attitude."
"Bon Wentiza," answered the bounty hunter, rather grudgingly.
"I am IG-24T."
"Cora Diis," Ahsoka nodded. She took her blaster out of her belt and smirked slightly when she saw Bon flinch. Instead of shooting she stuck her finger through the trigger hole and spun the gun around before throwing it up in the air and catching it by the tip of the barrel.
"Let us get started," IG said, his eye trained on Ahsoka's blaster until she placed it back in her belt.
"Well, show me the way," she grinned, sauntering after the droid.
y/n yawned and stretched in the cockpit of his Interceptor starfighter. A few seconds passed and then there was the pop beside him as Aayla's ship appeared as well.
"Nice of you to join me, Master," he said through comms, grinning.
"Ah, you beat me again."
"Don't I always?"
"Stop rubbing it in my face, y/n," she chuckled good naturedly. "Alright, let's go."
They descended down into Bespin's atmosphere and were soon engulfed in clouds.
"Catch me if you can!" y/n said as he zoomed forwards with a burst of speed in his fighter, leaving Aayla cruising behind.
"I'm not as unskilled as you may think," the Twi'lek scoffed and chased after her Padawan, smiling broadly.
It was rare for them to have missions with just the two of them. Usually it was with the entire 327th or a few large squadron of clones. The only other time they would have alone were the training sessions, but it wasn't as enjoyable and hands on as actually going on a mission. Aayla adored her apprentice; y/n was a mix between a little brother to her, and she would give everything for him to become a Jedi greater than herself, especially considering his Dark Side past.
The two starfighters gradually stopped playing games in the clouds, pulling up and flying side to side instead.
"Do you know what happened to Tibannopolis?" Aayla asked, seeing a possibility of making the experience a little educational.
"Obviously they're a tibanna mining city," y/n said. "But no, not really."
"There's the rub," Aayla began. "They were, not are. The city's abandoned now. They had been very prosperous and rivalled Cloud City. It's citizens hoped that one day it would become the most popular and wealthy metropolis on Bespin, but that never happened. Then the Clone Wars came and encouraged more and more people to leave, until now."
"Oh," y/n said. "So basically it's deserted now."
"Yes, in short"
"Well then I'm glad I learnt the interesting parts," he grinned back. "And have more evidence that this war is one of the worst things that have happened."
Aayla sighed and nodded. "It is true that the Clone Wars have ravaged the galaxy, but perhaps we must look farther than that. The future, whatever it holds, will still have the Force for us to rely on, and we must not lose hope for a world that may be bettered. We Jedi are fighting for what we believe is right, and that is all that matters right now."
y/n nodded and turned his attention back to navigating. Suddenly the clouds cleared and in the distance shining buildings were visible.
"Ah, so that's Tibannopolis. Sick!" he commented.
"Yes. That's where we'll find Cora Diis and the other bounty hunters."