The Jedi had their first experience in an ornithopter. These ships were sturdy, quick and effective in travelling above the desert.
Instead of blast jets, ornithopters had three wings on either side of its hull. They each flapped at their own speed until they would synchronise to lift the ship off the ground. This made the ship hum as it flew over the sand, and the extreme, early morning heat didn't seize their engines.
Much to everyone's relief, Mon vin Cuss did not accompany the group into the desert.
In fact, Ahsoka and Sidra believed that the man had never ventured out of Arrakeen's complex. They almost giggled at the thought of him burning to embers at the first exposure of the Arrakis sun. They joked that he would cry out and disintegrate to join the sand that he so loathed.
Instead, the Jedi were accompanied by Glossu Rabban and his men.
Anakin and Obi-wan stood in the cockpit, where they looked over Glossu and his co-pilot to the outside desert. Ahsoka and Sidra were forced into the back, where seats lined the walls.
Like children, the Padawans were strapped in by seatbelts while their Masters were able to stand at the front of the ornithopter. Ahsoka made sure to voice her opinions while Sidra sat with her hands clasped in her lap and her lips fighting a smile.
'Master, if we need to balance out the ship, shouldn't you be sitting back here? We can switch,' Ahsoka called over the hum of the engine, but she was ignored. Anakin barely gave a glance over his shoulder with a hand on his hip, before he looked back to the blinding windshield.
Sidra was able to see the desert and opaque blue sky through a window beside Ahsoka's montrals. She had been excited to see the Spice in person, and experience the constantly hot weather. But after flying over each sand dune that was a near copy of the last, Sidra found her eyes drifting elsewhere.
The Harkonnen soldier who stood at the back of the ornithopter added to Sidra's distraction. With one hand through a ceiling loop, the Harkonnen acted as a guard, as if one of the Jedi was prepared to leap to their death.
Sidra wished that Luvis had travelled with them, but she knew that it would be pushing Mon even more than Anakin already had.
'There. They are mid-harvest as we speak,' was heard from the pilot's seat.
Sidra perked up and she noticed Ahsoka do the same in the opposite seat. They stretched their necks as if to peer over the shoulders of their Masters, but it was useless.
From Obi-wan and Anakin's view, the repeated desert was broken by a large man-made structure. Grey and rustic, like the city of Arrakeen, the harvester crawled through the sand. It's model, the MENG MMS-013, was bulky but efficient in the way its claws prodded at the sand.
It was slow, so slow that a team of masked Harkonnen were able to walk alongside it. In the soldiers' hands, were slow-pellet stunners. Unlike blasters, these weapons were built to paralyse.
The invention of the Holtzman shields had caused a ripple in the Galactic Republic. The Great Houses began using them in their armies, but the Republic stopped their extension to The Core. The shields' outlaw of blasters and most weaponry made for a dangerous way of war.
So, the Senate made it so that Holtzman shields could only be used in duelling and in very specific circumstances. But on Arrakis, their use had just made hand-to-hand combat the favourable technique, meaning every Great House army was trained to kill with their fists and swords.
'Is that your defence against the Fremen?' Sidra heard Obi-wan ask Glossu, and she wished that she was up front to see what he was talking about.
She didn't hear the man's reply. Instead, Sidra looked back to the window beside Ahsoka's head. She stared in hopes of getting a glimpse when the ornithopter tilted on its side.
Through the slanted frame, Sidra saw where the sand met the sky. It continued to rise and fall in the shapes of hills and the dips of slants. But instead of seeing the MENG MMS-013, which she had seen in files and holograms in the library, she saw a disturbance in the sand.
Ahsoka must have seen the way Sidra's forehead creased with the arch of her eyebrows. The Togruta craned her neck to look through the window beside her, and saw the sand that flew into the air.
As if shifting through the grain, something was creating a path over the dunes and into the dips. It was large enough to see even from the ornithopter's window, making it difficult for the Padawans to keep it to themselves.
'What's that?' Sidra asked aloud.
Anakin and Obi-wan turned from the windshield. They saw the back of Ahsoka's blue and white striped head, and followed Sidra's gaze that joined her friends at the window. The Jedi moved in sync as they looked to their left to look out the windshield once more. There, they too saw the clouds of sand that flew on the horizon, and the co-pilot Harkonnen joined the stare.
'Maker, we've got a worm,' the man announced, and Glossu joined in his concern.
Sidra took it upon herself to unbuckle her seatbelt. With a quick call to the Force, she powered her legs to keep her steady in the moving vessel. She stumbled once she reached the other side of the hull and slammed her hand against the wall to keep her steady. She barely noticed Ashoka's stare on her side as the sight of a sandworm in the wild captivated her.
'Sir, we've got rats, as well.'
Ahsoka and Sidra whipped their gazes to the cockpit. They heard the frantic flipping of switches and pressing of buttons from the co-pilot. With that came Glossu's voice talking into a microphone.
He spat a rush of orders to a drop ship as well as the harvester, which was in the direct line of the in-pursuit sandworm.
'I want them dead! Kill them all!' Glossu yelled, making Master Obi-wan jump in his place. 'I want every rat dead once that worm arrives!'
'Haven't you done enough killing?!' Anakin burst, but was ignored.
Anakin could see the figures emerge from the sand and attack the floor soldiers. They almost materialised from their undetected hiding places and swarmed the armed Harkonnen. Despite their lack of blasters or guns, the Fremen appeared to be picking the soldiers off one by one.
'Looks like one of them has a launcher,' Obi-wan commented with a mix of awe and haste. His pointed finger made the Harkonnen look to the Fremen that had a large weapon on their shoulder. While other warriors attacked the soldiers, the launcher wielder lowered to one knee and took aim at the harvester.
'The dropship is five minutes away-'
'That's not good enough! I've got a worm in range and rats on MY harvester!'
Sidra was getting irritated with Glossu raging and the lack of action from her Masters. The way they stayed behind the pilot seats with useless comments was frustrating. And it seemed that she wasn't alone in feeling this way, because Ahsoka unbuckled her seatbelt and rose from her seat.
'Drop us down there!' Ahsoka demanded. 'You'll lose your harvester before the worm gets here! Drop us!'
Obi-wan and Anakin whipped around with wide eyes. Anakin should have expected as such, but Obi-wan was grim to see Sidra push her stabilising hand off the wall and stand beside Ahsoka. The Padawans were straight-faced, and their hands that reached for their utility belts (which they added to their still suits) said they were prepared for battle.
'And who will you be attacking exactly?' Obi-wan questioned, but he knew the answer would be vague.
'Whoever attacks us,' his Padawan shrugged.
Sidra held the silver canister in one gloved hand, while the other reached up to pull her suit's mask over her nose and mouth. The drinking tube sat aside, while the mask supplied clean air to her senses.
If they were going into the desert, they couldn't let the Spice effect their defences. She had read about how the first intake of Spice can be startling, so Sidra would ensure to stay alert.
Anakin and Obi-wan turned to each other, while Glossu continued his rage into his microphone. The Harkonnen were dropping down below and the sound of the launcher taking down one of the harvester's crawlers boomed from the desert. The sandworm was less than four minutes from impact, and the drop ship had only just shown up on the radar.
Whatever the Padawans had in mind, it was better than their Masters'.
'Lower the hatch,' Obi-wan said to the cockpit after a while. 'We'll hover until the dropship arrives.'
The ornithopter hatch lowered and the Harkonnen in front of it stepped back. He said nothing to the two Padawans that approached the opening to the desert. The sounds of the wings flapping filled the hull and the heat lashed at their exposed skin.
Sidra looked down at the sand. The sound of another crawler being hit made its way through the engine's hum, and the rumble of the worm's approach shook deep within her core.
The learner tried to not fear the battle ahead, and instead, remembered what she read about the Fremen's fighting style, and the behaviour of the Arrakis sandworm.
If she and Ahoksa didn't make it off the sand before the worm arrived, it was all over. And if Sidra didn't remember her combat training, the Fremen would claim yet another victim in the desert.
'You've got about three and half minutes before that worm makes impact!' Obi-wan yelled, making Sidra and Ahsoka turn to see him in the hull. 'We'll leave the hatch open! Don't do anything foolish!'
'This is already foolish, Master!' Sidra yelled back.
From what she could see through her squint, Sidra saw her Master's flapping brown hair and concerned eyes. He knew that she was responsible, but dropping into the desert with two offences was ludicrous.
But looking past it all, Sidra saw it as her first opportunity to make contact with the Fremen, and experience what she had been researching.
'Watch your back! They're trained in combat!' Anakin followed, aiming it more towards Ahsoka than Sidra. If Obi-wan was trusting Sidra to drop in, then Anakin shouldn't be questioning her ability in combat.
'May the Force be with you!'
With Obi-wan's final call, Ahsoka and Sidra stepped out of the ornithopter together. Their descent was short, as Glossu had been gracious enough to lower the vessel for a softer landing.
Sidra used the Force to cushion what her legs wouldn't be able to take, and heard the muffled thud of Ahsoka's boots landing beside her. The ornithopter's wings faded from above them but not disappearing completely. It hovered nearby as the drop ship secured its place above the harvester, and lowered the latches to its roof. It wouldn't be long until the drop ship lifted the harvester out of the sand, that was unless the Fremen didn't destroy it before then.
The Jedis' arrival didn't go amiss. The Fremen turned their focus from the harvester what they thought were Harkonnen reinforcements. Sidra and Ahsoka wasted no time in igniting their lightsabers, but kept a defence as they became the new centre of attention.
Ahsoka's dual blue blades brought as much attention as Sidra's yellow. It was obvious that the Fremen had never seen a Jedi's weapon before, making them react with hesitancy. This gave the Harkonnen the opportunity to use their stunning guns and take down some of the distracted warriors.
Sidra watched the Fremen fight and fall. Their stillsuits were the same as hers, but they had wraps around their heads and goggles over their eyes.
Some wore thin robes over their suits, which Sidra heard they were called Jubba cloaks. The masks over their mouths were the same, and they held knives that were made from the teeth of sandworms. Named Crysknives, the Fremen used their intensive combat and weaponry to take down the Harkonnen.
They were successful in some cases. The Fremen to Harkonnen ratio was 3:1, making the dark armour of Harkonnen litter the sand.
But the Fremen had no Haltzman shields, making the imperial stun guns effective in their seizing of some unfortunate warriors.
The sound of another crawler being damaged made Sidra look to the harvester. The Fremen with the launcher was still on one knee, and had successfully taken out three crawlers. But it was futile, as the drop ship had begun to lift the harvester from the sand.
This made the Fremen's aim swivel around to the ornithopter, which was circling the area. While another blast was being loaded, Sidra jumped into action. The harvester meant nothing to her, but the ship with Master Obi-wan and Master Anakin on-board meant everything.