80I'm starting to feel better, despite what happened. Taking a life like that was… jarring to say the least. But as my master had said I would have had to eventually. Considering who I had to kill and who he was planning to hurt, I can't say I'm too choked up about it. That's not really something I'm sure the masters would approve of in thinking but at the very least its what's helping me to better cope with it. He didn't deserve to die but he didn't make it easy in making sure we held back to keep him alive. Turning his blaster on one of his own just when we had peace was just the final straw that forced my hand.
"Mat? You okay?" I'm brought out of my thoughts from the question.
I turn to look at Ahsoka as we sit on the transport ship. "Yeah. Yeah I'm alright. Just got some stuff on my mind."
"Is it because of…?" She doesn't finish the sentence. Just leaves it hanging enough.
I nod a little. "A little."
"Well, I'm sorry I wasn't there to help you. If you ever need someone to talk to…"
"I know you'll be there Ahsoka." I turn and smile at her. "You're a good friend like that. I know you got my back, just as I have yours."
"I'm glad to hear that." She returns the smile.
"I am glad to see your doing better my padawan." I nod to my master. "Just remember to be mindful of how you are feeling. If you're not careful then they may overtake you." He warns me and I nod.
"I understand Master. I'm okay for now but… I'll make sure to me mindful later on, especially on this mission." I try to reassure him. The whole thing still weighs on me, but nearly as much. Now that I mentioned the mission, this gets me curious as I look to my master. "By the way Master, what's this mission we're on again? The info we got was kind of vague."
"That's because the info we got was limited at best." Master Skywalker cuts in.
"Indeed. All we surely know right now for sure is that their have been a number of droids spotted on Naboo and the people there are worried the Separatists are going to stage an attack or forward base here." My master answers, looking to his former padawan before turning to Ahsoka and I.
"Usually a few droids wouldn't warrant our intervention, but it seems they were able to get some additional information from the droids they destroyed and captured and found out that they are in fact doing something here."
"Something that involves a lab." My maser finishes grimly.
"A lab?" Ahsoka asks confused.
"That doesn't sound good." I comment as we both look at each other, sharing the same feeling of unease on what kind of lab this is going to be.
"It never is when it involves the Separatists." Master Skywalker comments.
"Ready to test out your new blaster?" Ahsoka asks cheekily once the original conversation ends, throwing me a smug look.
I return the look as I pull up my new blaster pistol. After having done what I did to the Chairman, using his GL-77 blaster doesn't feel right. So as a means to take my mind off it, I worked double time in repairing my mystery blaster pistol. Had to get some special cleaning solutions, tools and oils in order to clean off the who knows how long algae, seaweed and grim that's been caked onto it, and I had to order some more parts, mostly internal stuff, to get it back in working order. The frame itself wasn't degraded or anything so I'm confident I can fire it without too much trouble on my end. All in all, it looks like an awesome blaster but I haven't been able to use it yet. I had just finished it when we got the call to come to Naboo. I don't have the specs on what exactly this weapon is capable of but I know I have plenty of shots to use before I have to reload. That was one part I especially needed to fix up. "You know it. I haven't had time to test it out so when we got this call to go out, figured it'd be the best time out of any to take it."
"Just be mindful of it Mat." My master chimes in. "Bringing an untested weapon out into the field can spell danger so be careful." He warns me.
"No worries Master. I'll be mindful." I do what I can to reassure him and I do a quick examination of my blaster again to be thorough.
"… Mat, can I see your blaster for a second?" My master asks. I look at him confused, to see him staring at my weapon specifically.
"Oh, uhh, okay." I stutter a little before handing it to him, being mindful of where the trigger is and so we don't accidentally discharge it. He takes the weapon carefully and stares at it intently. He turns it around and examines it from different angles a couple times before ultimately stopping and staring at it for a long period. I end up staring at Ahsoka, who looks confused as I do, and then to Master Skywalker, who shrugs at me. When I turn back to my master he's still staring at the weapon. "Uhhh, Master?"
"Hm?" He snaps out of it and looks back at me to my concerned face.
"You okay?"
"Oh, yes. I'm fine. Sorry about that." He hands the weapon back to me with a smile. "I was just remembering something. That's a good blaster. Make sure to take care of it." He answers the last part when he turns away from me. I continue to stare at him confusion before quickly glancing to the others but when I get shrugs, I decide to drop it. I do however stare back at my blaster again. Seeing my master stare at it like that, I remember that I'm still a little confused on just how Master Windu knew just what type of company I needed to contact in order to get the parts I needed, but as long as I got the parts I needed and its working I'm good overall.
After we finish talking I feel the ship begin to ease up and land. "We're here everyone." The pilot informs us.
"Thanks pilot." Master Skywalker replies and lets go of the rail, followed by the rest of us as the doors open. "Let's go everyone and see what all this is about." Ahsoka and I follow our masters as we disembark the ship and are met by a guard, C-3PO and a pink gungan.
"General Kenobi, Anakin, we're so glad—"
"Where's Senator Amidala?" Master Skywalker immediately interrupts the guard and asks hastily.
"She went to look for the lab." He answers.
"And you let her go?" Master Skywalker does not like the answer.
"Senator Padmé can be very hard to stop once she has made up her mind." 3PO chimes in.
"Good point. I know what you mean."
"This is Peppi Bow." The guard motions to the pink gungan as she steps forward. "She was the last person to see them. Padmé sent her here to safety."
"Theysa looking for the sick maker." Peppi informs us.
"'They'?" My master repeats to his confusion. So far we were led to believe that the senator was alone when she left but apparently not.
"Representative Binks was with her." I don't know this Binks person but from the looks the masters sport I don't think its all that good when the guard mentions him. Master Skywalker sighs before turning to Ahsoka.
"Go with the Gungan. See if you can find them." He orders her.
"Better go with her Mat and back them up." My master sends me off too with them.
"Yes Master."
"You've got it, Master." Ahsoka and I reply to our masters and follow Peppi to where we need to go.
Because of the rough, swampy and rocky terrain we are going to, we can't exactly use ships or speeder bikes in order to get there, nor did we agree that if we go by ship, we may get ambushed if the enemy sees us coming if we use the vehicles.
That's why we decided to use one of Peppi's animals as our transport. She's has a herd of animals known as Shaak, big bulbous beasts that are raised and eaten for their meats but of course now, Peppi, Ahsoka and I are riding one such beast towards the coordinates provided by Senator Padme.
Peppi rides on the front while Ahsoka rides behind her and I behind her. I have to admit, I think both Ahsoka and I have to keep ourselves from blushing considering I mostly have to hold onto her in order to stay on. At least I have to keep from blushing, not sure about her though. Still we don't have to move too long as we eventually come upon a ship that landed in the swampy area.
"These the ship belonging to them." Peppi informs us, talking about Senator Padme and Representative Binks.
"Yeah that's not inconspicuous at all." I mutter. Flying a ship like that here is a pretty big beacon to the enemy if they want to keep this area a secret.
"So where are they? Their tracks end here." Ahsoka asks as we come to a stop and disembark our ride. We look and see that the tracks do indeed stop cold where we are. No other tracks or anything seems to indicate that they've been tampered with so its like they just stopped.
All of a sudden, Peppi begins to gain some height on us. A small telescopic scope seems to poke itself out from the ground and begins scanning around us "Watch it!" I quietly yell and pull Ahsoka behind the camera. Ahsoka and I immediately put ourselves behind the lens to avoid being seen and we step behind it while Peppi is doing everything she can to keep her balance on the tiny object.
"Peppi, it's a scope. Don't let them see you." Ahsoka warns her. When the right moment comes, I quickly grab Peppi's flailing arm and pull her down out of the view from the scope and behind a fallen tree log. As we hunker down, Ahsoka jumps and lands next to us. After a second we look back over at the scope, being mindful to not get spotted as it turns. Interestingly enough it seems to focus on Peppi's beast for a bit before eventually retreating.
I let out a sigh and sit back down against the tree. "Good. It looks like the scope just assumed whoever tripped the sensors was an animal." I comment in relief. The security cameras just may have assumed that whoever tripped the sensors was just a wandering wild animal and not two Jedi's and a gungan.
"At least we found the lab. I'm calling the others." Ahsoka says and activates her commlink. "Master, are you there?"
"Did you find her?" Master Skywalker asks, talking about the senator.
"Negative on that Master Skywalker." I tell him. "We found their ship but no sign of them personally."
"Although we did find the lab. We're pretty sure she's inside it. The whole area is wired with pressure sensors and camera's. There's no way to get in without being detected. But I think we can break in—"
"Do not attempt to get inside." My master suddenly chimes in and tells us. "I need you to detonate a bunker bomb at the south end of the facility. It should cause a nice distraction and seal off the bomb area while we come in through the hatches."
With the plan given to us, Ahsoka looks at me where I shrug in agreement. "Sounds good to me."
She nods. "You can count on us."
"Rex and his men will be right behind you. They'll have your back you two." Master Skywalker tells us.
"Appreciate Master Skywalker. We'll see you when the plan goes down."
"Be careful."
"We will."
After a bit of time passes, for the night to crawl around and for our reinforcements as well as our Masters strike team to get into position, Ahsoka and I go ahead and get started on getting ready to initiate the attack. We use Peppi's animal to trick the sensors into revealing themselves, where they spot the animal then tuck back into the ground without seeing us. While we were waiting, Peppi went ahead and informed us of the virus in the water that killed a bunch of her animals and nearly killed her as well, no doubt a result of whatever this 'sick master' whipped up to cause damage, chaos and innumerable casualties.
All the more reason to get in this lab and take down what they are making and the person who's making it. Once Peppi herds her animal back to us and out of harms way, we go ahead and get ready to blow up the hatch. Using the force, Ahsoka begins to levitate a thermal detonator over to the hatch where we are supposed to detonate for the distraction. She floats it over slowly to the hatch, low to the ground and being mindful about anymore cameras. Soon though a camera pops up and begins turning towards the detonator.
With a swipe of my hand, I too use the force and pull a large bushy shrub in front of the detonator before the camera spots it. The both of us concentrate hard in keeping the force placed on our objects until the camera descends back into its place.
We both let out breaths of relief at the close call. "Thanks." Ahsoka thanks me. I nod back to her and let the shrub go. She begins moving the detonator again and as she does I make sure to keep myself ready to help make sure the detonator is out of sight from the security. Thankfully, we don't have to do anything like that again because with slow ease, she manages to transport the detonator right to the hatch.
And then about a half dozen cameras spring up and look at it.
"Now!"
We take cover just as she drops the grenade. A powerful explosion happens, tearing through the entrance of the lab and when the initial blast sound dies down, we hear the telltale sounds of an alarm going off in the secret facility. Once the explosion happens, that's the signal for our backup to fly overhead towards us. We watch as several of our LAAT gunships fly overhead towards the other entrance of the facility where our Masters are supposed to enter the facility. "That did it. C'mon we need to get moving." I tell Ahsoka, who nods in agreement.
"Meesa come too?" Peppi suddenly asks, prompting us to stop and turn to her, to make sure she doesn't follow us into a firefight when she's not trained to be in one.
"No. Stay here and make sure no one escapes." Ahsoka quickly and firmly tells her what she should do. For a second I see the annoyed frustrated look she has at being told to stay back and not help directly.
"We are going to go in and take anyone we can in that lab but we can't take any chances of them escaping and possibly releasing whatever they are cooking in that place. Stay out here keep an eye out for anyone coming out and take them down. Anyone who escapes, droid or even the sick maker, could continue to do harm." I do what I can to make it so her job is indeed important and not just so she doesn't get in our way. We kind of don't want her to get in our way but we really don't need to take any chances of anyone escaping, droid or not.
Realizing just how important it is for us to not let anyone escape, she nods and holds her staff firmly. "Okidee." She agrees and nods. With our new friend staying, Ahsoka and I run forward and jump down the hole we blew open right behind Rex and his men who repel in.
In an instant we are beset by blaster fire from all around. We both ignite our lightsabers and begin deflecting blaster bolts away from us and our men. She stays at the front of our group while I move behind slightly to cover our back.
I use the Soresu lightsaber form to help with deflecting the blaster bolts back at the enemy droids firing at us. My master is particularly proficient with this type of lightsaber form and he's made it sure that I knew how to best use it. I've had to try to modify the form itself for my own style to compensate for one-handed movements since I'd be using my blaster in the other hand.
"Forward! Come on!" Rex calls out to his men as they push forward. As they move forward I do what I can to bring up the rear against the droids. Soon the droids behind us are taken down and all that are left are the ones in front. However its not going to be easy as I hear the familiar yet horrifying rolling sounds of a type of droid. When I look towards the front, my fears are true as the droidekas roll down the hallway towards us.
"Destroyers!" I shout as the droids stop and get ready to fire so I proceed to move to the front right next to Ahsoka. We both go side by side and do what we can to deflect the blaster shots away from our men as they unless a flurry on us. Unfortunately because of the droids shields, our deflected shots and our men's blaster shots can't hit the droids themselves are just absorbed by the shields. I don't even bother pulling out my blaster just so the shots will get soaked up by the shields. "Their too strong!" I yell as I'm barely able to keep up with the shots.
"Fall back!" Ahsoka and I put ourselves in front of the clones and deflect the blaster shots heading for us, providing cover for our men as we try to fall back away from the destroyers. They don't let up as they continue to rain blaster bolts on us relentlessly.
"Theirs too many of them!" Rex calls out as another one of our clones is taken down.
"We can't hold them!" Ahsoka calls out our attempts at deflecting become more and more difficult.
"We need back now!" I yell into the comm.
Our backup finally arrives as an explosion takes place in front of us, the hallway tunnel collapsing and kicking up a massive amount of dirt and dust in the air. Ahsoka and I grunt as we bring our hands up to cover ourselves from the dust. Once the sound of rubble dies down, we look back to where the droids were.
"Need some help?" Our help happens to come in the form of my master as he stands atop the rubble that crushed the droids that were attacking us. Their shields may have been able to block blasters but its not so good against hard materials like rocks.
"Master… thank the force." I can't help but sigh in relief at his entrance.
"So good to see you, Master Kenobi." Ahsoka is also relieved to see him as well. We turn off our lightsabers and head up to him as he steps down from the rubble.
"The rest of the facility has been locked down by our troops and I decided to come give you all a hand." He explains, then he turns around and looks at the droids crushed under the rubble. "It looks like I got here just in time."
"Well, when your dealing with Destroyer droids, any help would be appreciated."
"Definitely." Ahsoka says relieved and in agreement with me.
"Glad I could help. C'mon we should get going and clear out the rest of the facility." He begins walking down the hallway.
"Right behind you Master! Rex, lets move out!" I call out and follow my master.
"You heard him men! Let's go!" Rex calls out to the rest of our men and follows after us Jedi.
"How's the mission going so far Master Kenobi?" Ahsoka asks as we run as fast as we can down the hallway.
"Things are going well. The lab is secure, and hopefully Anakin has reached Padmé by now." He quickly informs us without stopping. As soon as we turn a corner though more droids are waiting and immediately open fire on us. "I'll get the bombs!" My master calls out and begins to head in the opposite direction of the droids.
"We'll keep the droids occupied!" Ahsoka shouts to him as we both go back to deflecting blaster bolts. While Rex's most of his men stay with us to help take down the droids, my master takes Rex and the orange armor painted clones specialized in defusing bombs with him to find the bombs and render them inert and harmless.
"Never gets dull does it Ahsoka?" I can't help but ask her as we deflect the blaster bolts yet again.
"Never does!" She replies with a grin.
"Forward! Take them down!" I rally our men and push forward with Ahsoka. The droids don't have anymore droidekas attacking us so this time we are able to move closer without risk of getting shot down by a massive flurry of blaster bolts, as well as able to damage these droids as well. Ahsoka is more acrobatic than I am and it shows as she ducks low to the ground and rushes forward under the blaster fire. In an instant she slices a couple B1 droids in half before jumping off the wall and slashing a Super battle droid in half from above. Before some more droids can shoot at her I deflect several shots back at them, dropping a few droids before I rush forward, deflecting shots all the while. This time I move past Ahsoka and begin cutting down the droids. When I get close enough I cut down two B1's in one swipe and cut off the shooting arm of a B2. Without its blaster, it brings its other arm up and tries to cave in my skull. I duck under the swipe and stab the Super from below right into its chest. I stay there for a second as the droids behind it perforate the body to get to me before I roll along the body to the left, tearing my lightsaber out the side and following up with a wide sweeping slash, felling the last of the droids we are currently dealing with. "That all of them?" I ask out loud, holding my lightsaber up and close, ready to fight some more just in case.
"For now." Ahsoka grimly states as she walks up to me, turning off her lightsaber. I do the same. "Let's move. We should go find our Master and help them."
"Right behind you." I agree with her and we start running. As we go deeper into the base we are contacted by Master Skywalker.
"Ahsoka, Mat, we've got another situation. Send all the clones to search the facility. We've got a mis—"
"Wait…" I mutter in confusion as we come to a corner.
"Master?" Ahsoka mutters in confusion as well at the fact we just came upon her master who was just talking to us over the comm.
"We've got a missing bomb and a trigger happy mad doctor on the loose." He quickly informs us of the situation in person. 'A missing bomb? Okay, that's pretty bad.'
"Missing bomb? I saw Dr. Vindi give a little droid a bomb." The senator, now safe, tells us.
Hearing this, Master Skywalker nods and turns to us. "Okay, Mat come with me. The rest of you split up and find that droid."
"Yes Master Skywalker." I nod.
"You heard him. Let's move!" Ahsoka tells everyone and takes off with the Padme and the clones down a different hallway while I follow Master Skywalker.
"Master Skywalker, do you have any idea where the doctor is?" I ask him as we run through the hallways.
"Not exactly! But I doubt he's going to leave on foot or by land. He wants to leave now and quickly."
"And the best way to do that is by air." I surmise by what he's thinking.
"Exactly. And from the layout of this place that your Master and I saw, theirs a large open room we'll be coming to that I'm betting is a hanger for him to fly out of here." He informs as we come upon a straight hallway. True to what he says, we spot a ship on a platform and the doctor himself with a guard of droids there protecting him. "Bingo." He smiles as we come up to the hanger.
"Jedi!" One of the droids call out, alerting them all to our presence as we ready our weapons.
"Leaving so soon, doctor?" Master Skywalker asks Dr. Vindi, who is wearing an environment suit, no doubt to protect him from the virus should it escape.
"You are running out of time. Catch!" Vindi really teases us hard when he pulls out a vial from his little suitcase and tosses it into the air. In an instant Master Skywalker jumps to catch the vial before it breaks and its content is released. At the same time, Vindi takes the distraction and begins ascending on the platform.
"Hold it!" I yell and go to intercept him but his droids open fire on me as he sneers a creepy smile. I'm forced to stop and block the shots with my lightsaber.
"Goodbye Jedi!" Vindi says loudly in playful tone as he ascends the platform.
"Obi-Wan, Dr. Vindi's escaping! He's at the landing platform." Master Skywalker calls my master and informs him of what's going on. With the Doctor in possession of the virus and his droids protecting him, we can't move in close. The clones begin shooting at the enemy but all they manage to do is take down a couple droids before they are stopped by Master Skywalker. "Don't shoot. If he drops one of those vials, we're finished." He pushes one of the clones blasters down. "Mat, with me." He calls to me and uses the force to jump up onto the platform. I follow him and land next to him. "You're under arrest, Dr. Vindi." The doctor himself sneers at us for getting to him just as the platform closes and we are up and on the surface. His sneer though seems to fade away to a smile as he slowly lowers his virus container with his free hand held up in surrender. Before we can stop him he grabs two vials from it and holds them up. Master Skywalker and I freeze up at the deadly vials he holds in his hands threateningly. He lets out a loud laugh at his apparent easy victory over us.
Vindi attempts to break one of the vials but out of left field Peppi tackles him to the ground. The both of us bolt as the vials go flying through the air. Master Skywalker dives low to the ground to grab one vial while I jump and run up Vindi's ship to prevent it from breaking on top of it. I throw myself onto the roof of the ship and catch the vial just in time before it breaks. I let out a sigh of relief at the close call.
"Mat!"
"I got it!" I call out at the sound of Master Skywalker's voice. I also roll to the edge and hold up the vial to show its undamaged state. At the same time I spot Peppi as she manages to subdue the doctor quite painfully. She smacks him a couple times with her staff before hitting him with a nasty shock from it. Master Skywalker and I walk up to the two of them where I hand the vial to the master, seeing that we now have the doctor ready to be arrested.
The ominous beeping we hear kind of makes us worried though, especially with the doctors loud laughing. "Yeeeess! The bomb's going off, and we're all going to die! Yeah, die!" He boasts as the beeping gets louder and louder until…
*…*
Silence. "Oops. What happened?" Vindi asks confused. Master Skywalker, Peppi and I look around confused at the lack of noise and how theirs no longer any explosions happening.
I pull up my comm. "Uhhh Ahsoka? Senator? Master? What's going on?" I ask everyone for clarification.
"I'm here, Mat." Ahsoka replies. "You can relax everyone. The missing bomb has been deactivated. Were you and my aster able to find Vindi?" She asks us as well.
"Deactivated as well." My master tells her. "Have you seen Padmé?" He asks concerned for the Senator.
"She's right next to me." She answers. "I'm okay too. Thanks for asking." I chuckle a little at her tone as Master Skywalker begins to talk to the senator.
"I'm glad your okay Ahsoka. Up here we had to deal with a crazy doctor throwing bottles of deadly virus all over the place."
"That sounds like fun." She says in a sarcastic tone.
"You'd think it would but it was surprisingly heart stopping." I reply in my own sarcastic tone. "Thankfully, Peppi here was able to blindside the doctor and incapacitate him." I step up to the gungan in question and smile at her. "Nice work Peppi. I told you we needed you out here."
This makes her smile at the praise. I think the fact that she was able to take down the sick maker that was going to destroy so many lives probably also makes her feel better considering she wasn't able to go down into the lab. With the doctor now in custody and the bombs deactivated, all we need to do now is mop up the droids, gather the bombs, grab all traces of the virus, and demolish the lab and its equipment so it'll never be used by the Separatists again, nor be used to manufacture anymore biological weapons.
What could go wrong?
Mat is going to come to regret those words isn't he? Anyway, their really isn't a lot that went on that Mat overall changed, besides making it so that Peppi knew her role in staying outside was indeed important and thanking her for her actions. While yes she wouldn't be able to do much inside the lab seeing as she doesn't have a blaster, her role in staying outside, while boring, was indeed a very important one. That's something I can respect.
GIANTPANDAMAN: I'll do what I can to maybe make her appear more, although I don't know exactly when and at what points I could add her again, but I'll do what I can. Sorry for not updating soon. Things kind of just got really distracted for me.
Ironknight3307: Yeah, originally I wasn't intending to kill him but while I was writing the chapter I just thought of it and started to see it as a good idea to do. It was a little satisfying to write as well, though of course pretty traumatizing for Mat. As for pairings, Ahsoka being one obvious choice, Chuchi being another as I always liked her and would like to add more of her. Its still kind of up in the air to be honest.
His-Lady-Outlaw (Ch.1): Sorry about that. Pretty much I wanted something to grab peoples attention right off the bat when they read the story. Worked most of the time but yeah, I can see what you mean. Sorry about that. Hopefully the rest of the story is to your liking.
I got to be honest, I was debating between whether or not I should actually devote a chapter to this one episode and just skip to the aftermath episode, but then I figured I should just go ahead and do it. Mostly filler I guess you could say but I just wanted to get something out seeing as how I have been sorely overdue for a chapter on this story and for that I apologize. Hopefully, I won't take as long in writing a new chapter but I expect some things to change in my everyday life within the next few weeks. Still, I'm sorry for the delay.
Thank you all for your support. Go ahead and fave, follow, review, don't, whatever you want, but make sure to have fun reading, and most of all have a great day everyone.