Chapter 6

Zule felt the death of Vaabesh through the force. She could feel the pain he was in as he suffocated. Vaabesh was wound too tight to do his job but he was still her friend and she was angered by his death. She vowed to herself that his death would be avenged.

"Commander Xiss, Sergeant Orar!" shouted Griff. "I have positive I.D. on several Nationalist leaders heading for the eastern landing pad!"

"Mak and Kass are closer than we are, tell them to get over there now!" ordered Zule.

"Right away!" shouted Marik as he opened a communications channel to Mak and Kass.

Elsewhere…

Shortly after sensing the death of Vaabesh, Mak received a call from Marik who told him the Nationalist cabinet were escaping and he and Kass were the only ones close enough to stop them from doing so.

"Rex, continue destroying Stratus's army," ordered Kass. "Mak and I will be back as soon as we can."

"Understood, ma'am," the captain answered. "Good luck!"

After departing from the rest, Mak and Kass ran toward the landing pad where they heard the Nationalist council was heading. They arrived at the landing pad, where they encountered a large number of strange looking battle droids. Their bodies were entirely gray, several of them wore cloaks, they had glowing red eyes, including one on their chests, and instead of blasters, they were carrying electrostaffs as their weapons. They rushed forward swinging their staffs at the two Jedi. Kass evaded the strikes and swung back, discovering that the staffs were impervious to lightsabers. Mak beheaded one and moved onto the next, unaware that it was still moving. Kass blocked the attack of the headless droid and sliced it in half diagonally. Mak impaled one from behind before it could strike Kass.

"Behind you!" she shouted. He ducked before he could be struck on the back of the head, slicing off the feet of the droid as he did so. The droid then started a high pitched whine while crawling rapidly towards them. Realizing what was about to happen, the two Jedi jumped behind cover to avoid the explosion as well the shrapnel. The other droids followed and continued their attack. Their attacks intensified and Kass was hit on the leg, causing her to grunt in pain. Another hit Mak on the left hand causing him to drop his lightsaber. Kass blocked their next strike and kicked Mak's lightsaber back to him. One droid swung his staff forward, barely missing Kass. Mak attempted to send them flying with a force push but they stabbed their staffs into the ground and used them to hold on. The droids continued their attack immediately afterward.

"I'll handle things here, you stop the Nationalist council from escaping," said Mak.

"I'm not leaving you," Kass retorted. "If we die, we do so together." She had no intention of letting the man she loved die. She opened a channel to Rex and ordered him to help them. After fighting off the droids for another minute, Rex arrived and blasted them with a rocket launcher. Kass picked up one of the staffs and used the force to sprint to the landing pad. When she arrived the Sheathipede-class shuttle had just taken off. Unwilling to let them escape, she jumped up and threw the electrostaff through the cockpit windshield, impaling the Nimbus Commando piloting. The damaged ship swerved out of control and crashed into a nearby missile battery. The resulting explosion destroyed both the launcher and the shuttle, along with all of its occupants, and knocked Kass flat on her back.

"Kass!" shouted a distorted voice. Shortly afterward, her vision stopped shaking and she realized she was being held by Mak.

"I am fine, Mak," she said. "It looks like you are as well." She then surprised him with a kiss, and he responded in kind.

Elsewhere…

"Where are you going?!" exclaimed Stratus as Durge loaded Ventress onto his ship, docked at the North landing pad.

"This planet is lost," Durge stated. "The Count, knowing our value, has ordered Asajj and me to retreat. You, on the other hand, have no further use to us." Durge then picked up Stratus and tossed him off the roof. He boarded his ship and took off, unaware that Stratus had used his repulsor boots to fly to an adjacent building.

With Anakin and Warble at the launch facility…

The provisional General and Warble were fighting a large number of the new battle droids with electrostaffs. Warble had taken several hits but Anakin hadn't been so much as touched. Warble parried an attack from one of them while Anakin utilized his prosthetic arm to rip off the head of the droid he was fighting. Warble tried to keep up but another droid got behind him and shocked his back, causing him to fall to the floor. Before Anakin could stop the droids, they stabbed Warble in the head with their electrostaffs.

"No!" he shouted, calling his fallen friend's lightsaber to his hand. Using his lightsaber in conjunction with Warble's, Anakin sliced through the remaining droids. He then rushed over to Warble but, as his head was smoking from how his brain had caught on fire, it was clearly too late to save the Aqualish. "I'm sorry, Warble," he said over his fallen friend. "I should have done this alone and sent you with Aubrie and Vaabesh." Then, the building started shaking. Anakin looked out the window to see two of the missiles launch. He ran to the control room. He saw Stratus in front of him.

"You think you've won!?" the Jabiimi Separatist yelled. "I will turn this into a day of mourning for the Republic and its lackeys! You can't stop the missiles!" He then threw the keycards containing the killcodes out the window. Anakin rushed forward and caught one of the cards before it fell into the abyss.

"You will not stop the missiles, no matter what you do!" shouted Stratus as he jumped onto Anakin. Anakin threw Stratus to the floor and beheaded the Separatist with a single stroke off his sword. He rushed toward the missile control. Looking at the missiles, one was headed for the Republic medical facility in Choal, another was headed for a refugee center on the outskirts of the city over a thousand people who had fled Stratus and his forces. Knowing that Obi-Wan was at the hospital, Anakin sent the killcode to the missile headed for the hospital. He then wearily walked out of the room to help end the battle below.

This chapter was much shorter than most, because I was adding what I couldn't fit in the previous chapter. I know that the assassin droids in the comic were a different model than the Magnaguards but I like the latter more. I hope that I captured their effectiveness in this chapter. As always, read and review.