Chapter 1
Ahsoka Tano swerved through an onslaught of blaster bolts as the vulture droid chasing her Jedi Fighter refused to back down. Using a maneuver her master had taught her, she finally caused the droid to crash and she continued on her current flight course.
"Nice job, Snips," Anakin Skywalker praised through the comm. Ahsoka smirked, hiding the fact that she hadn't been sure if she would shake it. "Lock onto him, Artoo," Master Skywalker commanded his ever-present white and blue astromech, who whistled in response.
Ahsoka, Anakin, and Master Obi-Wan Kenobi had been called upon to lead a hasty rescue mission. General Grievous, leader of the droid army, had surprised everyone when he ambushed Coruscant and captured Chancellor Palpatine. The Jedi Council had immediately dispatched the three Jedi Knights to attack General Grievous's fleet and prevent him from leaving at least until they had rescued the Chancellor. While the large battleships fought, the Jedi and their clone squadrons flew through the space battle in smaller ships in order to board Grievous's ship and rescue the Chancellor. If they succeeded in obtaining Grievous along the way, all the better.
Ahsoka smiled at the thought of her Jedi Knight status. The Jedi Council had deemed her escape from prison, temporary experience on the run from the Republic, and eventual clearance of all blame for bombing the Jedi Temple and Letta Turmond's murder, worthy of her promotion. Her Padawan chain had been removed by Master Yoda's lightsaber, and seventeen-year-old Ahsoka had been granted the rank of Jedi Knight, becoming one of the youngest ever Knighted.
An explosion rocked her ship, shaking Ahsoka from her thoughts. "Watch it, Ahsoka," Anakin warned.
"Got it, Master," she shot at the droid which had fired at her, successfully taking it out. She silently vowed to keep her mind on the mission at hand.
Ahsoka glanced over at her master's yellow star-fighter, seeing him spinning and shooting down enemy ships each second. Nearby, Obi-Wan followed in his red starfighter. "Let's show 'em what we've got, Arseven," Ahsoka coaxed her own astro droid, R7-A7.
Ahsoka flipped over her two companions' ships and fired at the oncoming droids.
"Master, General Grievous's ship is directly ahead. The one crawling with vulture droids," Anakin reported and Ahsoka located the ship he was talking about.
"Oh, I see it. Oh, this is going to be easy." Master Kenobi commented sarcastically. "Oddball, do you copy?"
"Copy, Red Leader," came Oddball's voice.
"Mark my position," Obi-Wan said, "form your squad up behind me."
"We're on your tail, General Kenobi. Set S-foils in attack position."
"This is where the fun begins," Ahsoka could hear the grin in Anakin's voice.
"You got that right, Master," she agreed. Ahsoka never got used to the thrill of battle.
"Let them pass between us," Obi-Wan said, focused on the mission as they flew through a cluster of droid tri-fighters.
"They're all over me. Get them off my—" A clone trooper's voice crackled in Ahsoka's ear.
"Trooper? Trooper!" Ahsoka demanded.
"I'm gonna go help them out," Master Skywalker said.
"Me too," Ahsoka agreed.
"No. No, they are doing their job so we can do ours," Obi-Wan commanded.
Anakin's sigh came through the comm, but he stayed on their current course, and Ahsoka obeyed too. Then Anakin spoke again, "Missiles! Pull up!"
Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka swerved in separate directions, all of them some version of up. The missiles passed by them harmlessly.
"They overshot us," Obi-Wan stated.
"Not for long," Ahsoka glanced back at the returning missiles.
"They're coming around," Anakin said, voicing what Ahsoka was seeing.
Ahsoka dropped below the other two starfighters. In the corner of her eye, she saw Anakin shoot off to the left and Obi-Wan to the right. Two missiles followed each of them, and two followed Ahsoka.
"All right, Arfour. No, no, no, no. Nothing too fancy." Obi-Wan said as he tried to avoid the missiles on his tail.
Ahsoka twisted her head around to look at the missiles, seeing that they were much closer than she had thought. "Blast it," she muttered. "I've got to shake 'em," Ahsoka told herself.
Ahsoka zig-zagged through space, moving up, down, right, and left. The missiles followed her every move. She groaned as she continued to swerve madly to no avail. The missiles remained close behind.
"Surge all power units, Artoo. Stand by reverse thrusters." Anakin said. Ahsoka spared a look over to him and saw his ship spinning over and over. The missiles following him spun as well, eventually coming too close and colliding.
"We got 'em, Artoo!" Anakin exclaimed, zooming along now free from pursuit.
"Good idea, Master. Get ready, Arseven," Ahsoka said and then began spinning. She laughed, enjoying the feeling and loved getting to fly the way she liked to. The missiles behind her hit each other and exploded.
"Flying is for droids," Obi-Wan grumbled. Ahsoka began to worry, seeing that he was still being followed by two missiles.
Obi-Wan's ship dropped and the missiles flew by him. They hit a stray piece of debris and detonated. Five silver spheres floated away from the explosion and attached themselves to Master Kenobi's ship.
"I'm hit! Anakin? Ahsoka?" Obi-Wan sounded slightly panicked, but stayed calm and collected as usual.
"I see them . . . buzz droids." Anakin stated. Ahsoka looked closer at the droids crawling across Obi-Wan's ship and recognized them.
"Buzz droids?" Ahsoka was annoyed, "how many times have we had to deal with these guys?"
"Too many," Anakin answered.
Crackling came over the comm as Obi-Wan's ship was drilled into. The buzz droids never stayed in one spot too long and kept breaking into the wiring of the ship, making sparks fly up. One of them started after Obi-Wan's astromech.
"Arfour, be careful. You have a—" Obi-Wan was unable to finish warning his droid because the buzz droid had successfully ripped off the R2-unit's domed head.
"Oh, dear. They're shutting down all the controls." Obi-Wan warned.
Ahsoka flew closer, trying to figure out what she could do. She could try shooting the droids off of Master Kenobi's ship, but she didn't have that much faith in her ship's guns. She wasn't sure what else to do.
"Move to the right so I can get a clear shot at them," Anakin said, moving in behind Obi-Wan's ship.
"The mission. Get to the Command Ship. Get the Chancellor! I'm running out of tricks here." Obi-Wan ordered, but Anakin and Ahsoka both ignored his command.
Instead, Anakin began firing at Obi-Wan's ship. His first two shots vaporized two of the buzz droids, but the third took out the left wing-tip of Obi-Wan's fighter.
"Master, what are you doing?" Ahsoka shouted. If Anakin still manages to hit Obi-Wan's ship, there's no way I can do any better, she thought. She switched her focus between Obi-Wan's increasingly difficult situation and the vulture droids in front of them. It only took a few blaster bolts to take them out.
"Oh! In the name of—" Obi-Wan exclaimed, taking a few moments to steady his battered ship. "Anakin, hold your fire. You're not helping here."
"I agree, bad idea." Anakin said.
"Now you realize," Ahsoka muttered.
"I heard that." Ahsoka laughed at Anakin's comment.
"I can't see a thing. My cockpit's fogging. They're all over me, Anakin. Ahsoka, any ideas?"
Before Ahsoka could answer, Anakin said, "move to the right."
"Hold on, Anakin. You're going to get us both killed, and then Ahsoka will have to explain to the Council that you tried to save me instead of the Chancellor, and instead managed to save neither of us, and kill yourself." Ahsoka laughed, but it didn't last long. Obi-Wan's ship did not look good. "Get out of here," Obi-Wan continued, "there's nothing more you can do."
"We're not leaving without you, Master," Anakin said.
And then Anakin commenced another reckless plan. He angled his ship towards Obi-Wan's and tried to physically knock the buzz droids off. Despite the danger, Ahsoka did the same, knowing it was their best shot.
One buzz droid was crushed beneath the wing of Ahsoka's ship, and left minimal damage on Obi-Wan's. Anakin destroyed another droid but dented Obi-Wan's ship. The remaining droid pulled off a piece of Obi-Wan's ship, causing a fire to burst into life. Smoke covered the viewport of Kenobi's fighter. The buzz droid then climbed across the cockpit and onto Anakin's ship, where it then approached Artoo-Detoo.
"Blast it . . . I can't see . . . my controls are gone," Obi-Wan reported, but somehow his ship flew straight. Ahsoka took care of any obstacles in his path while Anakin and Artoo dealt with the final buzz droid.
"Get 'em, Artoo! Watch out!" Anakin yelled at his beloved droid. Artoo whistled in response but remained focused on his fight, brandishing his tool that delivered dangerous volts of electricity.
"Artoo, hit the buzz droid's center eye," Obi-Wan instructed.
Artoo did exactly as he was told, hitting the buzz droid's center eye directly. The droid convulsed before going limp and sliding off of the ship and into the endless expanse of space.
"Yeah! You got him," Anakin praised.
"Great, Artoo," Obi-Wan said as he continued to struggle with his ship.
"Nice job, Artooie." Ahsoka grinned and Artoo let out a string of whistles and beeps, celebrating.
"The General's Command Ship is dead ahead," Anakin informed them. Ahsoka looked up, recognizing the Separatist ship known as The Invisible Hand. The were rapidly approaching it, but Ahsoka noticed something troublesome.
"But Master," Ahsoka interjected, "what about—"
"Have you noticed the shields are still up?" Obi-Wan nearly shouted, noticing the same object of Ahsoka's concern. Their rescue mission would be a whole lot shorter if they didn't take out those shields.
"Sorry, Master." Anakin said, sounding annoyed but not at all apologetic. His ship zoomed ahead and he quickly fired at the shield generator, easily destroying it.
"Oh, I have a bad feeling about this," Obi-Wan moaned as the blast doors began closing in order to keep the ship aloft.
Ahsoka pushed her ship forward as fast as it could go, pausing only for a moment when she failed to dodge blaster fire, and Arseven's cry of alarm was abruptly silenced. She continued on, squeezing into the hangar of the enemy ship in the nick of time. Anakin and Obi-Wan were right on her tail.
Ahsoka jumped out of her ship as it landed, knowing that it was moving too fast to be salvaged. The ship crashed into the wall and she ignited her two lightsabers, swiping through two droids as she landed nimbly on her feet. Obi-Wan followed her example, launching out of his ship when it hit the ground and slicing through multiple droids.
"There they are, get them." A droid said from across the hangar and Ahsoka rushed toward the large cluster of battle droids.
Anakin was nicer to his ship than Ahsoka and Obi-Wan had been, landing it somewhat neatly and climbing out of his ship slowly before jumping into the fight. Four beams of light whizzed through the air as the three Jedi Knights attacked the droids, calmly making quick work of them.
"Artoo, locate the Chancellor," Obi-Wan told Anakin's droid, who rolled over to the wall and plugged his arm into the computer socket.
Ahsoka cut through the last droid, smoothly deactivating her neon green and yellow lightsabers and attaching them to her belt. Obi-Wan and Anakin sheathed their electric blue blades and clipped them to their waists as well, and the three of them made their way over to Artoo.
A hologram of The Invisible Hand appeared. "The Chancellor's signal is coming from right there—the observation platform at the top of that spire," Obi-Wan pointed at the area he was talking about. Ahsoka studied the layout of the ship, trying to figure out what sort of surprises could be hidden.
"I sense Count Dooku," Anakin said as the hologram vanished.
"I sense General Grievous," Ahsoka added, trusting the Force and what it was telling her.
"I sense a trap," Obi-Wan finished.
"And?" Ahsoka prompted.
"Next move?" Anakin asked.
Obi-Wan flashed his standard sly grin, "spring the trap."
A/N: If anyone's curious, the starfighter they are flying in this scene (the same one from the movie) is called the "Eta-2 Actis-class interceptor."
Anyway, what do you think so far?
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