Chapter 19: 19. Chapter

In the council room, when I managed to destroy the dark energy force field that surrounded the temple, I highly overstrained and emptied my force reserves. This was the reason, why I only woken up two and a half days later. My new master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, told me about the council decisions, that my official rank will be as padawan; it will be a secret that I am actually on a master rank, and I am not allowed to tell that even to Ahsoka. On the other hand, every council member will know of my capabilities, and treat me as such; a few other masters like Aayla will also know of this, but not many. That means I basically have the responsibilities of a jedi master, without a padawan, but in public I will be treated like a nosy padawan or even worse, a simple little girl. Which I was, I guess, but it was not something I wanted to be reminded of everywhere I went. I was actually beginning to rethink the use of this age-slowing technique; maybe I should stop with it at least until I reach eighteen properly and finally go and relax in a cantina. I wanted to listen to the bith jazz music and drink cold whisky with ice. 

If I sneaked out and went into one of these bars, I would probably only get the ice. Even that I would have to use as a cold pack after I got kicked out of one most likely. 

Anyway, there is no chance that I could run away; I just tried. Obi-Wan also asked me a bunch of questions about my order. They wanted to make a basic file of it in the jedi archives. I only told them simple things, like how I trained, that we have some secret temples, and bases around the galaxy; of course I didn't give them any location. I told them, that if I told anyone the location of one of our temples, without the elders explicit consent, I would be exiled, and they would hunt me down. They were pretty surprised by hearing this. They also sensed that I wasn't lying, which made them stop asking those kinds of questions. How did I manage to lie about something like that? Simple, it is actually not a lie; secrecy is taken very seriously in our order. We can tell basic things about it to people we trust, family, friends, but it cannot be anything concrete, especially not locations. The temples, are only available for the masters and the apprentices. Their locations are only ever known by the masters. 

It is pretty extreme, I know, but you have to guard your secrets, not even speaking of my items and cash. In our bases there are many old relics hidden too. Some hold great power, dark relics and light-powered ones just the same. Anyway, Obi-Wan seemed to be happy about what I told him. He told me before he left my room, that today I can freely rest, but from tomorrow my five years of duty will begin. I will have to meet my newly trained clone squad; they are waiting for us in orbit, on a Venator-class cruiser. From what I realized, it is some special force, an elite strike team of the sort. Why would I get an elite strike team? I had no idea, most likely to catch me, if I decided to act as a bad girl and try to run away in the middle of a mission. It's not that I didn't think about doing exactly that, but I had no money at hand. My ship is stolen, and there isn't a hidden base on Coruscant. I would be caught in the city sooner or later, and then I would have to go mine for probably fifty years in some asteroid fields... 

Sounds good, but for now I would like to skip that part.

Ahsoka was all over the place since she heard that we would serve on the same ship, as squad commanders. It was a rare thing to get two jedi and two padawans on one ship. The council allowed it, since this is our first official mission. Oh, the mission is fairly simple as our first assignment. The cruiser will patrol the K-10 grid territory, in the core words near Coruscant. It is a relatively safe space, usually, but nowadays there are a hundreds of reports from traders and civilians of some kind of suspicious pirate activity. We will go and search for this so-called group of pirates. I was thinking that it would be a brutal overkill to send a battle cruiser to harass some small time pirates; but who am I to reject an order only because it sounds easy? Well, I think I will just laze in my bed for the rest of my day, while listening to Ahsoka's happy tirades about finally going on a real mission. Rika was also here, dear girl was already worried about us; she was also a bit stumped since she couldn't come along. The council is yet to assign another master to her; but because of us she is getting out of her depression; so it is only a matter of time now. 

I suddenly heard a familiar beeping sound. It was the signal for an incoming holo-call, as my wrist communicator showed. Oh yes, I finally got one of my own. It is basically  like a small computer that is attached to your wrist; you can use the web, start and receive calls, and even watch movies with it. Cool stuff. 

I answered the call. It was the sewing droid. 

- Good afternoon miss. Your urgent order has been verified. I will do my best to finish it by tomorrow morning. I am afraid, that some parts of the armor have to be improvised from already finished parts. 

- It is acceptable, just create another one for the time I come back from my mission. Until than this improvised armor should suffice. 

- I understand, it is a very unusual request; very few jedi use full body armor, especially not with a headpiece. 

- Well, I am not really a jedi, you know. 

- Ah, of course, I remember, it is just a habit. 

- No problem, did you find enough materials? 

- Surprisingly, yes, there was enough durasteel in the storage of the temple. It wasn't used for decades; I don't think that anyone even remembers, except maybe master Yoda, that we have it. There is enough to make a few more armors, and repairs if the need arises. 

- That is fantastic! Thank you very much. 

- I am happy to serve. I will print the base part of the armor from plastoid composite, then cover it with the durasteel plates in more critical areas. The whole outfit's color will be dark gray as you requested. I am afraid that I couldn't find any type of exoskeleton upgrade for your armor to boost your movement ability. 

- It's okay, but if you have the chance, please search for it on the galactic market while I am away from the temple. 

- Of course. Your armor will be delivered to your room in the morning. Good night. 

- Thank you, bye!

The call ended, Ahsoka was looking at me skeptically.

- What? - I asked.

- Why would you use such a restrictive armor? You have your lightsaber, too. Did you forget perhaps?

- I don't understand, is there any connection between my armor and my lightsaber?

- Nizzy! Your lightsaber is your weapon and your defense at the same time!

- That may be true to some extent, but what would you do if two shots were sent towards you at the same time from different angles? 

- I could still defend myself. I used two sabers, remember?

- Then what if there is five or ten shots at the same time? 

- I would dodge. 

- Hmm, and what if you can't for some reason? 

- Eh, I would figure something out in that case. 

- You would die. 

- She froze for a moment surprised by my sudden serious tone. 

- Nah, I would escape somehow even if they captured me. 

- You don't get it. They never intended to capture you. They wanted to kill you. 

She rolled her eyes. 

- Okay, tell me, what would you do in that case? 

- I would, block the shots that were aimed at the most critical spots on my armor, like my neck and joints. Then I would let the others hit me. With a durasteel armor I could fight in this manner for quite some time. Show me your battle gear, and I will give you some tips on how to reinforce it to not lose much from its flexibility. 

Ahsoka looked at me with a thoughtful expression playing out across her face. 

- Okay, show me. 

- Where is your battle gear? 

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- I am wearing it. 

- Hehe... nice joke.

- Her gaze suddenly became annoyed. 

- Wait, you are not joking? 

- Of course not! 

I looked over at her with a dumbfounded expression. 

- You are in a crop top, and sweatpants. 

- Yeah, I like it since I can move as freely as I want. 

- ... are you retarded? - The question simply left my mouth without any further thinking. 

The next thing I realized was a pillow hitting my face with quite the force, but it was not the end of it. She began to beat the crap out of me with another pillow while she jumped on top of me, effectively pinning me down on my bed while I was too surprised to move. 

Rika was laughing in the background. 

I tried to move, but Soka tackled me and also began to tickle my sides while she was basically sitting on my back. 

- Do you plead for mercy? - She asked while I tried to push her off my back futilely, it was hard to breath from the constant laughing I was suffering from her tickling. 

- Yes! Please leave me be... 

- I didn't hear you clearly? 

- Please, have mercy! I can't... 

She stopped, for a while, to let me breathe, but she was still comfortably sitting on my back. 

- Hmm... Should I let you go, I wonder? 

I felt a bad premonition, would she really continue to tickle me?  

- It seems that I have found your weak spot finally. I would let you go, but I haven't even heard the magic word yet? 

- Wh-what? Magic word?

She began to tickle me again.

- Noo! Stop! - I screamed like a five year old. I could feel my tears flowing from my eyes as the ticklingture continued for about a minute. 

- Now do I hear the magic word? 

- Sorry! Sorry! Please just let me go this time! 

- Much better, she jumped off my back and sat down on the chair with a satisfied bossy expression. 

Rika wasn't laughing anymore. She was looking at Ahsoka quite wearily. Then she said. 

- You know Ahsoka, sometimes you are very scary. 

She looked at Rika with a smug smile, than asked. 

- What was that again? 

- No-nothing! - Squeaked Rika while hastily turning away from the sinisterly smiling togruta. 

- I thought so. - Said Ahsoka nodding to herself. 

After that, all of us calmed down, and played a few matches of battle chess. Then we told our goodbyes to each other, and Rika, since we would be away for the next few weeks. We also agreed to speak on the net every day. 

That night I slept like a rock. I was still tired from the overexertion, but the next morning I woke up fresh. There were more than a few good sides to be so young and full of energy. I washed up and also showered. One thing that is good about being a twi'lek, is that you don't have to dry your hair, since you don't have any. But seriously, even my eyebrows are painted; the only natural hair I have is my eyelashes. Soon after that my armor had arrived. I thanked the droid that brought it, than as it left I decided to dress up in my full battle gear.

The base cloth was created from a simple, moderately strong, but still highly flexible type of cloth; this part of the armor was in a simple black color. This base part was covered with dark gray durasteel plates at the chest, shoulders, shins, forearms, back, and stomach. My thighs were covered in the much weaker but easier and more flexible plastoid composite, just as the other unmentioned areas like my butt. The latter was in a light gray color. I also had a full face helmet with it. My face area was covered in a durasteel plate, when the front of the helmet was closed. My most obvious weak spot was my two lekku. They weren't covered with anything and they were sticking out of my helmet at the top. I hated the feeling when my leks were covered. This was the reason why I never used the usual traditional head pieces of the twi'leks. 

I fastened my armor in some places where I didn't feel it was tight enough. Obi-Wan said, that my normal clothes were already sent to the ship while I was out cold in the last three days. Now the only thing that had to be sent was me and the other jedi. 

I walked out of my room. In the meantime, I pushed up the front part of my helmet to be able to see more easily. We are meeting at the seventeenth landing pad. It was time to leave the temple, finally, not in the way I had hoped for when I entered about a week ago; but it could have been much worse. 

As I closed on the place, I saw the trio standing before a small passenger transporter ship. It will serve as our ride to the Venator. Ahsoka was already waving at me with a giant smile. The others were somewhat taken aback by my obviously epic outfit, yet I also realized something. Anakin and Obi-Wan also wore some type of minimalist battle armor. How didn't Ahsoka realize the usefulness of the armor until now, if she saw armor on Obi-Wan and Anakin too? She was a complete mystery to me sometimes. When I arrived we greeted each other, then we entered the ship and soon we were flying towards our Venator class cruiser. Through the window, I watched as the temple became smaller and smaller in size as we continuously raised our altitude. Let me see that elite clone squad; I can already see the reaction, a bunch of elite troops would show me a thirteen year old girl as their new commander. I hope they don't throw a grenade at me in the first five seconds. Well, they are probably used to being led by padawans and jedi overall, so maybe there is no reason to fear. I gulped unconsciously. 

 

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