Chapter 21: 21. Chapter

After my epic lightning show, I decided to end today's meeting. I gave the clones my holo contact just as they shared their own with me. Now I was sitting in the lower part of my bunk bed, since I had to share my rooms with Ahsoka, who immediately decided that she would sleep on the upper part. It was not a problem for me. I didn't really care where I slept and it was the same bed, basically. She was giving me a nasty look right now, what did I do? Now she is rolling her eyes at me... 

- You!

- Me? - I questioned hesitatingly. 

- Argh! How is it that you've got an elite clone team to work with? While I have to share Obi-Wan's and Skyguy's team? You basically have a bad-ass team that is entirely under your command! 

- Now, that is not really true. I also report to General Obi-Wan Kenobi as my immediate superior. 

- Yeah! But you only get the missions from him, and you are sent out to solve them alone, with your team! The general never leaves the ship with the special operation teams, everybody knows that!

Wait, is she seriously envious because I will have a much greater chance of being killed or captured and tortured to death by droids? Not even talking about the responsibility... 

- Well, it's not like I asked to be placed in the special force? You know, it's a bit easier to die there... I didn't realize that you hated me so much... - I pouted and looked at my boots, fidgeting with my right lekku and also making a sad face. 

This level of destructive combination will utterly destroy Ahsoka, I thought. 

- Cha! - She slapped my forehead with her full palm from the top of the bunk bed. 

- Bwaaah! - I shouted from the surprise and pain, instinctively trying to roll backwards, only to hit my head in the lower part of the upper bed... I felt as a few teardrops appeared in my eyes, this time it was genuine. 

- Ouch... What the hell Ahsoka, do you want to seriously kill me? - I whimpered heartbroken from the utter rejection of my attempt to be cutesy. 

 - Humph, I won't be that easily manipulated anymore, like at lunch, when I gave you one of my favorite desserts, just because you asked for it in that devious manner. Shame on you! - Than she started giggling, she even turned towards the wall, to try and hide the fact that she was laughing her ass off at my demise. 

Who is the devious one now? I thought to myself. Ouch, I will have to stop further aggravating Ahsoka, or my forehead will have a palm-sized red mark in the middle of it soon, if it isn't there already. 

I lay on my back on the bed while thinking over the situation. I sighed... 

- What do you think about this pirate activity so close to Coruscant? Do they have a death wish or something? - I asked Ahsoka, trying to raise my mood. 

I heard and felt as she turned over the upper part of our bed. 

- Who cares, they just want to steal and they are stupid enough to think they can get away with it. Pirates are one of the worst! They have no discipline, no honor, and the only thing they are interested in is credits! Not even mentioning their smell, urgh...

- That is an oversimplification.  

Ahsoka was already growling, hearing the beginning of my usual scholastic answer. Maybe, I will save my forehead from another slap and let that great opportunity for an explanation slip away.

A few minutes later, the atmosphere didn't change much. It seemed to be even gloomier right now? 

This situation is seriously bad; Ahsoka is picking at me for no logical reason. Maybe, I should just try to sleep for now? I guess that is the best thing to do. I pulled off my boots, then draped the blanket over me, and proceeded to sleep soundly. It was already nine PM by galactic standards, so there wasn't much to do anyway. 

- Good night Soka. - I said, while Ahsoka only mumbled something, but I didn't hear it clearly as my consciousness slipped away; I guess I was more tired than I thought. Sometimes later I felt as if a warm smile had formed on my lips as a kind memory resurfaced from the depths of my mind. I saw my master's warm brown eyes watching over me in my sleep, so many years ago, and it only felt like a second. It is still better this way, when you don't realize that time is passing, you usually spend it well. Now I could also see the memory from my master's perspective as he watched over me, still holding my hand even when I was already sleeping. Strangely, I felt as if my hand was really being held by someone. I must be dreaming already... 

---

Great job Tano, you are such an outstanding big sister figure... I thought sarcastically, as I watched the small twi'lek girl silently crying in her sleep. When I realized how rude I had acted after she came back, I wanted to apologize, but the words didn't seem to come out of my throat. What the hell, I could cut down a bunch of droids, but I couldn't force myself to apologize to my friend. It wouldn't be that bad, if I had a bunch of friends... But I only got these two, Rika was even younger then Nizzy... Come to think of it, I don't even know how old she is exactly? I watched a few more teardrops slide down her cheeks. She looked so small and innocent right now, but when she was awake she acted like a little devil that always gets under my skin. How is it, that she knows everything much better than me? I wasn't the sharpest knife on the shelf, but I wasn't stupid either. Except I looked like one when she was around.

I carefully climbed down the bed and sat next to Nizzy. She is still crying... This feeling of guilt in my chest, ugh, if this goes on, I won't sleep at all tonight. In my slightly raised panic, I decided to grab onto her hand. Oh no, she will wake up, I thought suddenly. Will she jump at her with an activated lightsaber like in the case of Rika? She told them multiple times, that she was trained to be guarded against ambushes... 

Ahsoka was bracing for impact, but the only thing that happened was the feeling of the girl's hand grabbing onto hers with natural ease. A smile appeared on her face, then she said in her sleep. 

- ster you are back... don't leave... again...

Ahsoka suddenly felt a lump form in her throat. Her voice this time sounded so, different? Was that her real voice, it reminded her of Rika, when she was in the middle of her depression, but not entirely. Rika's voice sounded more lonely, while Nizzal's didn't; her's felt, hmm... tired? She never really thought about this from her perspective. She just got dragged into a galactic civil war out of nowhere, and was assigned to a clone special force as Commander... What did the council even think, did they lost their minds, to act like this? Cornering a child into a military assignment, I mean, she almost cooked that stupid jedi with that mask, but if he hadn't appeared at that time, nothing drastic would have happened. Sigh...

She at least stopped crying now; I set the blanket over her than I wanted to climb back to my bed to sleep, only, she was still clutching to my hand... Ugh... What should I do? I don't want to wake her up, but I am kind of sleepy now... Uuu... I guess. No other choice then... I slipped under her blanket, too, and soon we were sleeping soundly, side by side. Now this is a much more worthy act from a proper big sister, I thought while I slowly entered into the world of dreams. 

---

My eyes suddenly opened wide in the darkness as a force warning screeched in my head. I looked around, my awareness constantly rising. The room was empty, except Ahsoka? She was sleeping beside me? Why? Through my force senses I already realized that the room was safe, so the warning most likely came outside of the room, or even the ship. I looked at my still attached wrist computer; it was currently 3:34 AM. Six and a half hours later than I began sleeping. I sent a message to Crusher, warning him of a possible danger and also telling him to get ready for anything; it's not a practice! Then I proceeded to wake up Ahsoka. 

- Ahsoka, wake up! Hey, wake up Soka! - I shook her shoulders slightly; she continued to sleep like a log. - AHSOKA! 

Now that, did the job, she bolted up, and with that speed head-bumped the upper bed's bottom part. I winced as she instinctively curled into a trembling ball of pain while partially holding back a flow of curses.

- Ahsoka, you must wake up; we are in danger! - I said immediately as her angered eyes turned towards me, promising doom if I didn't have a very good reason to wake her like that. I gulped as I saw the quick change in her features. I just avoided a doom scenario... I see... 

She nodded at me, realizing that I hadn't just pranked her for fun. Would I do something like that? No way!

She crawled out of bed, looking around carefully. She then began to dress up in her usual gear. I also joined in that process, taking up my armor as fast as possible. Ahsoka even helped me in this. I gave her a warm smile as a reward. We just finished dressing up, when the familiar sound of an incoming holocall appeared. 

- It's yours. - Said Ahsoka, while pointing to my blinking wrist communicator. 

I took up the call. The already armored form of Crusher appeared in a full body hologram. 

- Reporting for duty, Commander. We got your warning. What are the details?

- I sensed a powerful premonition of danger in the force just minutes ago; but I have nothing more to go by. 

- Understood, what are your orders?

- Meet me at the gunship hangar. Be ready for battle against unidentified enemies. 

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- Yes Commander, should we warn the Generals?

- I don't think, that there is a need; they must have sensed it too. Probably, they don't want to create chaos, or maybe they have some other plans in their pockets. 

- Understood ma'am. We will wait for you at the hangar entrance. 

- Affirmative.

Ahsoka watched our little conversation, then asked.

- So, what should I do? 

- Of course, you should come with us! We may need a proper jedi if things turn nasty. 

She smiled at that, and we ran out of the door. We entered the closest turbolift and went down to hangar level. We ran towards the rendezvous point when suddenly the whole ship began to shake forcefully, as a bunch of different alarms started to scream in our ears. I stumbled to the wall, as another powerful shock ran over the ship's hull. 

- What the hell is happening? - Shouted Ahsoka over the screeching sirens.

I grabbed hold of her, before she accidentally fell on the floor and told her. 

- We are under attack. Do you hear those distinct screaming sounds, appearing periodically? Those are our heavy turbo-laser turrets; they are firing at the enemy ship or ships! We had to reach the hangar, and wait for further commands, follow me!

We ran towards the hangar as fast as we could. Ahsoka was running in front of me, since she had no armor to carry, and she knew the ship much better than me. I only learned the most crucial areas of it. We finally reached the main hangar entrance, and as we ran in I immediately saw my squad. 

One of them I think it's Handy waved towards us, and we ran to their position. They created a small barricade from empty but still heavy steel crates around an LAAT gunship. It must be ours than. 

- Commander! - Crusher nodded towards us, with some small surprise to see another padawan. 

- Report soldier. 

- Yes, we created a small defensive area around our LAAT in case of an enemy boarding attempt. There are already other clone troops arriving at the hangar. The general must have ordered the fighter pilots to join the fray. 

- Ahsoka? What the hell are you doing here?! - Came a sudden and quite frustrated voice out of nowhere. 

We turned around, seeing General Skywalker running towards his interceptor, only to freeze when he saw us crouching behind the piled up crates with the company of clone commandos in battle formation. 

- Master? We are defending the hangar in case of a boarding attempt? Are you going out to fight with the other pilots? 

Anakin heavily blinked at that. He gave me a sidelong glance, seemingly only realizing that I was there, then turned back to Ahsoka. 

- Well, do your stuff, then, I have to go, there are three separatist ships attacking us, right now! They came here, straight from hyperspace, which means this whole pirate story was probably a trap to lure us out!

- General Skywalker! - I shouted after him before he left. He looked back towards me with a questioning expression. 

- What type of ships are attacking us? 

- One Munificent-class frigate, and two Recusant-class light destroyers... Obi-Wan is trying to position our ship under the Munificent-class frigate. We can't handle the bombardment from their heavy forward turbo-laser cannons. Defend the hangar! We need every fighter plane out there!

- Understood! - I shouted back, and the clones joined too. With that he ran away.

I turned towards the clones and shouted.

- Gamma Squad, get ready for incoming droid forces, we need to defend the hangar until new orders arrive! 

- Understood! 

I looked around the place, and there were a bunch of clones also taking up defensive formations around the perimeter of the dock. They seemed to follow our good example. I smiled at that. 

There was a series of blasts hitting one of the closed hangar doors from the outside. I watched as a red circle began to extend outward as the metal super-heated and quickly expanded. It didn't even break away, when an already burning droid transport ship rammed through the damaged door. It crashed into one of the LAAT gunships parking nearby and immediately blew up. 

Ahsoka laughed at that.

- It seems the droids took care of themselves. 

I had no time to comment as another two transport ships flew through the already activated atmospheric shields.

Dozer aimed his grenade launcher at the closer one and shot without a second thought. 

We watched as the grenade hit the side of the ship, dealing heavy damage to it, but it still landed mostly in one piece. It's doors immediately opened as a small army of b1-type battle droids marched out of it. 

- Here it comes boys! Lets' give them a warm welcome! - Shouted Crusher - Fire at will! 

The others immediately began to blast away the surprised droids, they didn't expect such a fierce reception. Yet, they seemed to catch on soon as they changed battle program. Immediately dispersing and searching for cover while shooting back to the clones. 

Now, let's see what this new war looks like. I thought to myself while aiming and shooting down one of the b1-s that hadn't found any cover yet. Ahsoka gave me a surprised look, then mumbled something unintelligible. 

 

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