Ahsoka kept pacing in front of the gunship, rubbing her knuckles together. Anakin was sitting on the gunship, his head resting on the side, his legs spread out on the ground in front of him. His eyelids flicker every now and then from exhaustion and Ahsoka realized that it was probably late on Coruscant, the planet they had just come from. What the kriff was taking Al so long?
Anakin let out a sigh. "Alright Snips. Look, it's getting late, it's hotter than Tatooine, the humidity is killing me, and I need a drink. Why are we still here?"
"I told you already," Ahsoka snapped, irritated. "Al's going to get the team that was sent to blow up the droid base before they all get themselves killed and if she needs help, she's supposed to call for backup. How can she call for backup if I'm not here to give it to her."
Sighing again, her Master rubbed his forehead. "Why can't we just send a team to destroy the base and get it over with?"
"Because Master Krell will get upset."
"What if he's not here when it happens?"
Ahsoka raised her eyebrows. "How do you expect to get him off the planet without rising suspicion?"
"I have an idea."
"Great."
"Sarcasm is not appreciated by my young apprentice. Trust me, this worked on Obi-Wan a few months before I was knighted, it's sure to work now."
"Was Master Kenobi mad at you?"
"Naturally. He gave me a three-hour lecture about how it was completely ridiculous and I should never have done it."
Ahsoka wrung her hands uneasily. "I don't like this plan."
"You don't even know what it is," Anakin snapped. "Now stay here, I've got to make a few calls."
He left her by the gunship and walked away, catching Rex halfway to one of the tents and pacing the captain next to him. Ahsoka sighed and looked down at the silent comlink. "Where are you Al?"
<~>
Al had absolutely no idea where she was.
She had abandoned her speeder and decided to take the rest of the journey on foot. A horrible decision, she realized, after walking for a few minutes the humidity began to get to her. Sweaty and out of breath, she collapsed at the base of a tree and pulled out her comlink. It was still working, but she couldn't remember Ahsoka's frequency. Sighing, she played around with it, hoping to connect to some Republic channel, maybe even Red Hawk's. After a few minutes of no success, she rested her head on the tree, wiping sweat from her brow and wishing it was raining. Judging by the moon's place in the night sky, it was a little past midnight. She wasn't going to get anywhere tonight, since the only way she could see was by reaching out in the Force and connecting to the life force within the plants. It took incredible amounts of energy to connect with them, but Al had always felt a strong connection with the earth, so this wasn't as big of a problem as another Jedi would think it might be. The tree she was sitting under had a soft sense about it, almost calming. It wasn't hiding anything up (most jungle plants had poisonous flowers that ate you when you weren't paying attention) it was just calm. Sighing constantly, she curled up in its roots and soon fell asleep. When she woke up what felt like seconds later, there was something standing over her, casting a cool shadow. She blinked in the early morning light and let out a little yelp.
Above her stood a large varactyl-like-animal. Except this one had wings and only two legs. Everything else looked the same; the green-blue color, the feathers around the head, the pointy beak. Al had never seen a varactyl seeing as she'd never been to Utapau, but she and Ahsoka had researched them a while ago. She didn't understand why this one was standing over her and she could sense the creature was just as confused as she was.
"Um, hi?" The creature squaked in response, and for some reason Al understood what it was saying.
"Uh, no I don't know who your master is, sorry." The bird looked at her comlink, which was flashing and began to move it around with it's beak.
"Hey! Careful with that!" She picked up the comlink and held tightly in her fist. "I need that to try and contact my friend."
The bird squawked again and flapped its wings. Al smiled kindly. "I don't think you can fly me there buddy. I don't even know where it is."
The bird continued squawking and flapping its wings. Al stood up, brushing herself off. "Thank you for the offer, but I don't think your master can help me. I'm trying to find my brothers you see, they went missing a while ago and if I don't find them then...well I have to find them."
Now the bird began to walk around in a circle, flapping and squawking louder. Raising her eyebrows, Al stepped back, avoiding the bird's large wings. "Um, look, I know you want to take me to your master, but I'm not sure he'll--"
She paused, her senses prickling. Something was coming. Thankfully the bird could tell as well and stayed silent, crouching into the brush. Al followed it, her hand on her lightsaber. Across the path ahead of them, a squad of droids marched through foliage, talking to one another about protocol.
"--personally I hate it here. The humidity is killing my circuits."
"Mine too."
"DId you ask the general to repair them?"
"Yes, but he said it wasn't a priority."
"We'll be out of order in the next week if we don't get repairs soon..."
The noises drifted off into the distance and Al let out a sigh. "That was close." The bird squaked in agreement.
"I guess we should go to your master after all, huh?"
The bird squawked happily.
<~>
"So we don't have a plan?"
"Not yet, no."
"Lay off it Axe, your negativity is killing us."
Axe glared. "Well it seems that everything happening at the moment is negative, so forgive me for stating the obvious."
"Cut it out, both of you," Red Hawk snapped. "We're working on a plan, but we need everyone to have a positive outlook on it."
Axe muttered something incomprehensible and slouched back.
"Alright, we know we have to sneak into this Separatist base and blow it up. We have the ammunition, we just need a plan that will actually work. Any ideas?"
"What if we sneak in and set up charges on the four walls then once we're a safe distance away, light it up."
"Or target a ship or fuel station," Data cut in. "Those things could cause more damage seeing as they're highly flammable."
Red Hawk began pacing. "It seems to be the only plan we have since blowing it up is our own objective."
There was a flutter of wings and Crusher rushed to look outside, his blaster in hand. When he got to the entrance, he hesitated then laughed out loud. "You boys are gonna want to see this."
Sharing a glance with Blue Jay, Red Hawk stood up and approached Crusher at the entrance. His eyes grew wide. "Al? What are you doing here?"
"And what the hell are you riding?" Blue Jay added.
"Nisu said her Master could help me find you." Al looked up at Crusher, her hand still on the bird skeptically. "I'm assuming that's you."
"You assumed correct kid," Crusher said with a chuckled. "Nisu? I didn't know you were called Nisu, let alone the fact you can communicate."
Al grinned. "She can, you just have to listen carefully."
As Crusher examined his bird, Al approached Red Hawk and Blue Jay, embracing them both in turn. "I'm here to help!"
Red Hawk sighed. "You should have stayed back at the camp."
"I couldn't just sit around and watch you die!" Al protested. "Krell doesn't have an extraction team set up for you guys, this whole thing is a trap."
"That bitch!" Blue Jay exclaimed. "He sent us on a suicide mission!"
"We can't go back," Red Hawk said. "He would just kill us there."
"So either way we die?" Axe asked from the entrance. The others were crowded around him and Red Hawk knew they had heard what Al said.
"No," Red Hawk said seriously. "We can do this mission and make it out alive."
"How?" Dyn asked from inside the cave.
Red Hawk sighed. "I...don't know."
"I do." Everyone turned to Al, who had raised her hand slightly. "Well I have something that will help at least."
"What is it?" Crusher asked.
Al took a deep breath. "While I was on my way here, a patrol of droids went through the woods nearby. I overheard them talking about how the humidity was slowing down their circuits and their general wasn't letting them refuel. So they'll be much slower when you sneak inside to set the charges."
"The kid's right," Data piped up, pushing his way to the front. "The humidity is frying all circuits seeing as none of our devices aren't working."
Beaming, Red Hawk turned to Al. "You might have saved us."
She grinned back. "Still wishing I stayed behind?"
"Eh a little. Come on, let's blow this thing."
<~>
The humidity was awful around the afternoon. Al pulled at her clothes and was constantly rubbing the sweat from around her eyes where the binoculars touched her skin. She kept her eyes on the base closely, thankful it was going well. The day was slowly fading into night and they needed to hurry this up.
"C'mon guys, it's getting late, let's move."
"Working on it," came the raspy response from the comlink she was holding. "Just got a few more charges to set."
"Okay," Al said nervously. "But I'm just being--"
She stopped talking as a dreadfully familiar sound filled her ears.
Hyena bombers.
Dyn, Bits, Axe, Brer, and Crusher clambered up the hill and collapsed next to her. Al's eyes grew wide. "Where are the others?!"
"They're just setting the final charges, calm down," Axe said. "Look, they're leaving now."
"Red Hawk! Blue Jay! Data!" Al screamed into her comlink. "There are bombers headed your way get away from there NOW!"
Her cries, unfortunately, came too late.
The bombers were over the base in seconds, and like fire from heaven, bombs tore it to pieces. Two of the three clones flew foreword and covered their heads in attempts to protect themselves, but one didn't make it in time and was blown back into a tree from the explosion. One of the fallen clones shouted something inaudible and limped over to the one who had flown into the tree. The second clone was still on the ground, but visibly paralyzed and couldn't move, but kept yelling at the other two. It all happened so fast and Al was down the hill in seconds. The scraping of boots behind her gave her the assurance the others were following. Dyn and Bits moved to the clone closer to the blast which Al could tell was Data which meant--
No no no no no no NO. Her legs seemed frozen in place, unable to move as she stared at the scene before her.
"Is he--?"
"Not yet, no." Blue Jay was just staring, speaking as if on autopilot. "But he's close." His eyes fell on Al. "Kid..."
"H-h-he can't be--"
"He's not. C'mere, he'll want to say goodbye."
Slowly, she staggered towards the motionless figure on the forest floor. Everyone else had gathered around, their faces downcast.
"Please don't leave me," Al whispered, her hand on his. "I can't do this without you."
"You're stronger than you think kid," Red Hawk coughed out, his voice raspy. "And you'll never be alone...I'll...always be here...waiting...for you..."
It was as if the world fell silent.
As Red Hawk breathed his last, the world around him lost itself.
The sky filled with smoke, the sun was covered in darkness, and the animals screeched and cried as a battalion lost their leader, a teacher lost their pupil, and a sister lost her brother.