Star Wars: The Rogue Knight

Part 2

The Negotiator, Obi-Wan Kenobi's Flagship

Ryndellian Sector, near Naboo Star System

From the bridge of the Venator class star destroyer, our target looked positively huge. The Malevolence dwarfed the three cruisers which were unleashing hell on the crippled dreadnought. Its stabilizers were destroyed yet that did not deter the Flagship of General Grievous from attempting to flee.

For the last few hours, the Negotiator, Resolute and their sister ship Dauntless were sending barge after a barrage of blue turbolaser bolts at the battlecruiser, yet the colossal energies bombarding the enemy had no apparent effect. The sheer bulk of its energy-dispersing armor was absorbing the onslaught without a scratch. It was meters thicker than any smaller ship could boast in its wildest dreams, then there was the sheer size of the ship itself which would be able to take a lot of punishment even after its armor was compromised. Frankly, finishing mission killing it would be much easier but the Republic lacked the firepower at hand for even that lesser feat.

The disheartening sight which could be seen from the command tower of the Negotiator was observed by four Jedi one Sith and a Republic admiral. We all knew that the best bet of dealing with this monstrosity was with the help of reinforcements. Unfortunately, the nearest fleet, which was under Jedi Master Luminara was engaging a Separatists force in a nearby system. No help was coming from that direction any time soon.

"They are not making a jump to hyperspace. Their hyperdrive is down." declared Yularen.

"For how long?" I asked. "The fleet could batter at that thing for a week. If nothing changes its crew will have more than enough time to repair their hyperdrive."

"The enemy ship is losing speed." reported one of the clones manning the bridge.

"Concentrate all fire on their command tower!" ordered Kenobi.

The fire from the three-star destroyer's slackened for a few seconds while the turrets acquired a new target. Then death rained all over the bridge of the Malevolence. We stared at the behemoth. The effect was underwhelming.

"At this rate, we'll be here for a long time," I said with a hint of exasperation in my voice. We were unbelievably lucky that the attack run on the Ion Cannon disabled the rest of the dreadnought's weapons. Otherwise, that thing would have made a short work of the Venators. These carrier/battleship hybrids were clearly outclassed by such an adversary. "You should redirect fire at the engines."

"That might be prudent. With the engines crippled it will be much easier to outmaneuver and we might get another chance at it if it flees to hyperspace." Yularen nodded and looked at Kenobi.

"Do so." The Jedi sighed. "We need more sh.i.p.s." He muttered.

What happened next confirmed something I was suspecting – it's been too long since I've seen anything about this era otherwise I might have remembered an important detail of the current mess we were in. It all started innocently enough. Ahsoka, who was looking over the sensor feeds was the first to detect a small transport ship exiting from hyperspace on top of the Malevolence.

"Are those enemy reinforcements?" asked Anakin just as the Admiral opened his mouth to do so too.

"No..." the Padawan trailed off. "It's just one small craft. It looks like a Naboo ship..." Tano grimaced.

"Cease fire!" exclaimed Kenobi. "What in God's name is she doing here?"

Now I remember. It figures. Thanks, brain. I decided to play dumb because there shouldn't have been a way for me to know who arrived unless I wanted to play the card of the vague Force related visions from this era I was going to be using to cover any unexpected insights. It was better this way I think – no need to make myself stand out more than I had to for the time being.

"Is that a friend of yours?" I asked innocently. Or as innocently someone like me could.

"Ahsoka, contact that ship!" snapped Anakin, rudely ignoring me. I couldn't blame him really – if my wife had just jumped on top of an enemy ship in the middle of a battle, even one as weird as this one, I wouldn't have patience for a snarky Sith either.

"Naboo transport, identify yourself! You are in the middle of an active war zone!" The communications officer spoke urgently over the comm.

"This is Senator Amidala from Naboo!" a distorted female voice came over the comm system. "I need assistance!"

A small hologram of hissed to life over the control station on which Ahsoka was working. To tell you the truth, the former queen looked better in real life than in either the Clone Wars or the movies. While her features were generally the same, they were softer and had few minuscule differences which made her look stunning. I could see why a nine years old Anakin thought that she was an angel.

"Padme! What are you doing here?!" Anakin exclaimed.

"I am on a diplomatic mission!" Amidala sounded peeved at her predicament. "Which your battle interrupted!"

"Tell that to Grievous. I have the feeling he won't be impressed." I snarked.

"Anakin, what is that bounty hunter doing on your ship?!" Amidala glared at me.

Skywalker winced. I wondered how he was going to explain who I was and why I was tolerated. I did not think that Padme would feel generous towards a Sith. Not after that mess on Naboo while she was still a queen.

"Later, just get out of there." Anakin implored.

"You have bigger problems senator," I added unhelpfully earning myself a glare from Skywalker. I couldn't help it – messing with the Jedi was turning out to be an unexpectedly fun pastime.

A moment later we could see her rocking in her seat. There were even more alarms blaring in the c.o.c.kpit of her transport.

"It's a tractor beam." I deadpanned. "Our cyborg friend intends to use the senator as a hostage I reckon."

"I won't be used by the likes of Grievous as a bait! Continue the attack! Destroy that monster!" Amidala's mood suddenly changed. Did it just register who caught her ship?

I could feel a rage awakening within Anakin. He gripped his right fist so hard that the metal of his prosthetic fingers g.r.o.a.n.e.d in protest. He fought with his anger and subdued it into a controllable, cold determination.

"Admiral, order all attacks stopped." Skywalker sounded deadly calm.

That's one way to properly channel your anger – I approved.

"Grievous will use this opportunity to repair the hyperdrive," I said.

"What would you have me do, Sith?! Destroy the cruiser while Padme is on it?" Anakin snapped at me. "Oh, but we can't – we've been shooting at it for hours!"

"I propose that we go with plan 'B'." I calmly ignored his sarcasm.

"And what is that?" asked Kenobi who looked relieved that I was not baiting Skywalker.

I pointed behind my back at the smoking Malevolence.

"We go over there, save your girlfriend and deal with Grievous the old fashioned way. We either capture or destroy that ship, whatever's practical."

"Padme... She... She's not my girlfriend!" Anakin spluttered.

Then he headed towards the exit and I followed suit. It was time to see if Skywalker was all that he was hyped out to be.

"And where are you two going?" asked Kenobi.

I could sense a tiny bit of forlorn hope that Anakin was not about to do something dangerously stupid. That was promptly dashed.

"Someone has to save her," Skywalker shouted over his shoulder.

"And I have an appointment with Grievous. I hear he's a warrior of some renown. I'm going to put that to the test." I added. Taking the cyborg out would be a good way to get myself some goodwill with the Republic and enhance my reputation. It would be fun too – three birds with one lightsaber throw.

"I knew you'd said that," Kenobi muttered and followed us.

Behind us, Master Koon showed his pessimistic side "I am afraid that they are making a terrible mistake."

The last thing I heard from the bridge was Asoka's voice: "Master Skywalker's brainstorms are an acquired taste. You'll get used to it. Hopefully..."

=RK=

"Skywalker, you need a new ship." I g.r.o.a.n.e.d when we ended in the c.o.c.kpit of the Jedi's flying scrap pile. What is it with ugly rustbuckets and 'heroes' in this universe?!

"Well, it flies..." trailed off Kenobi. He apparently wanted to defend the choice of the personal ship that his former Padawan had made but the words refused to exit his mouth once he carefully looked around. "Anakin, the last time this thing at least looked barely space-worthy."

"What can I say, master? These things happen." Anakin shrugged.

"Only to you Anakin. Only to you. I gather that you have a plan?"

I smiled at the banter between master and padawan but it was short lived. It reminded me about one of the few regrets I had – I had never taken an apprentice, which in a sense was the ultimate test for one of my kind; that crazy Jedi I made fall and used to follow me around under Bara's orders certainly doesn't count.

"In fact, I have." Anakin nodded happily.

"And a plan B?" Obi-Wan asked.

"And a C and D? Having contingency plans is important, Skywalker," I added my obviously unwanted advice.

"That I don't have yet. Why don't you two grouchy old men figure it out while I get us to that cruiser?" Skywalker grumbled.

"You, know Kenobi. It's your fault." I smiled at the bearded Jedi.

Said "elderly" man slumped in his chair.

"So they keep telling me," he grumbled. "Where did I go wrong?" he asked of the heavens.

'Where do I start?' I thought.

=RK=

The Force was with us. That is the only explanation why the first part of Anakin's plan went flawlessly. We just flew to the Malevolence and docked to an airlock in a sector of the ship where the sensors were down. We didn't get noticed by one of the thousands of droids crewing the leviathan. If we were somewhere else I would have said that it was pure luck, but with the Force in existence and sometimes playing favorites...

Kenobi agreed with me. He also didn't like Anakin's piloting. That was captured a spot on in the movies. The boy was crazy.

We exited Skywalker's scrap pile and found ourselves in a small elevator. Most of the floors to which it led were blocked by debris or fires. We headed upwards in a search of a free passage until the elevator stopped on one of the upper decks and the doors opened. We were greeted by a pair of unarmed B-1 droids.

To my surprise, the robots really bantered just like in the cartoon.

"I knew it! It's them!" said one of the machines while it was carefully stepping back.

"Oh, no! There are three of them this time!" added the other, which was waving its hands in resemblance of panic.

The Jedi make a short work of the unfortunate synthetics and we raced down a long hall. The side corridors were blocked, so for the moment, we didn't have much choice in picking up our direction. We had run a couple of hundred meters from the elevator when Skywalker's comm started beeping.

"Master, we have found the Senator. I am patching you through."

Skywalker's flame was on one of the lower levels. While I listened to the exchange between the married couple I wondered how no one besides Palpatine figured out that those two were madly in love. I could hear it in the inflection of their voices; the way Anakin's aura flared protectively when he spoke with (or about) the senator while she was in trouble. My lips twitched with amus.e.m.e.nt. Amidala was not glad that we were here to rescue her if the angry shouting was anything to go by.

The lovebirds finally agreed that we should meet into a big open space that was detected by Ahsoka in the middle of the dreadnought – probably a tram line to shuttle men and equipment. It was the only practical way for something this big to operate.

Few minutes and five unfortunate droids later we were overlooking an internal monorail system which had multiple levels. Not too bad way to move vast quantities of supplies and spare parts quickly but to me, it looked like that the empty space in that compartment was too big for the task. Perhaps if it was used to transport more vulture droids or very big single parts, because there was no other way to justify such cavernous tunnel… or perhaps it didn't matter – it wasn't like the Malevolence hurt for internal space.

Finally, Anakin decided to use his Jedi senses and confirmed that Padme was nearby. Considering that besides us and Grievous, she was probably the only other living sentient being on the super cruiser, it should not have been hard to sense her position. I shook my head in exasperation and pointed to a corridor on the other side of the monorail tunnel. Then I cringed seen Amidala's companion. It was the contender for second place in the race for most annoying being in the galaxy. C-3PO. I started crafting plants for disposing of goldenrods. If Padme really needed a protocol druid I probably should find her a nice HK model which could mask as such.

Kriff it! I was starting to miss my faithful companion HK-117. I wondered if by any chance his data core has survived the millennia.

I should have known better. There was no way for those two lovebirds to reunite without drama. A squad of B-1 droids chooses that moment to appear behind Amidala. The husband and life had just laid eyes upon each other when Padme had to duck under not particularly accurate blaster fire. She was forced to abandon her position and jump on a speeding train. The annoying droid stumbled after her and fell on another of the loaded transports.

The two Jedi activated their lightsabers and started jumping all over the trains speeding on the monorails. I drew my heavy blaster pistols and followed suit, but much more careful. I never understood why most force users did not carry at least a pistol as a backup weapon. You never knew when you needed to take out something at range and there are some things resistant to the Force.

Another group of clankers showed at one of the corridors overlooking the monorail. One of their numbers was dumb enough to shoot at the Jedi and was promptly blown away by its returned blaster bolts. The apparent leader of the squad said something that suspiciously sounded like 'I told you so!'.

Those were its last words because a second later a hail of bolts shot from my blasters demolished it and its remaining companion. My weapons, which were designed to take out heavily armored troopers made short work of the mass-produced cannon fodder.

Then I was jumping over the carts of a speeding train, which were loaded with various crates. I was submerged in the Force, using it to guide me to a safe course.

Soon enough I caught with the Jedi just in time to see Amidala jumping from the train she was riding. I noticed that the monorail it was riding was a blown up in front of it, making it a twisted, burning wreck.

Anakin plucked his wife from mid-jump and guided her to his embrace using the Force. I had a good vantage point to watch the cuddling couple when I landed on the wagon behind them.

From above them Kenobi shouted that he was going after the golden droid. A waste of time in my opinion.

Anakin was about to kiss Padme and give me a bit of blackmail material when Obi-Wan interrupted them. The damn protocol droid was in trouble. Fatal I hopped.

That was not the only snag. Kenobi had overheard droids talking about the hyperdrive. Soon the Malevolence would have a way out of here and this whole exercise would be for nothing. The Jedi Master, who was closer to the hyperdrive told us that he'll deal with it.

"Skywalker, get your girlfriend to safety. I'm going to assist Kenobi. With any luck, Grievous will be there." I shouted to the lovers so they could hear me over the noise of the rail.

I left the married couple behind and ran back to the monorail tunnel. If the scans taken by the fleet were accurate, I could reach the FTL engine by passing through there. It appeared to be the shortest way from my position.

=RK=

Today the Force was with me. I didn't have to fight my way to one of the best-guarded locations on the ship. Instead shortly after I came back in the tunnel I saw a train heading my way from the side of the cruiser where the hyperdrive was located. Obi-Wan was on it and Grievous was chasing him. The cyborg had a lightsaber in each hand and was demolishing the containers that stood in his way. I raced towards my prey.

Grievous had Kenobi cornered on the train engine when I reached them. I vaulted over to the high tech locomotive just as the Jedi jumped away. For the first time since finding myself in this universe, I drew my lightsaber from its hiding place. Gripping its curved handle gave me a measure of comfort I had not felt in a long time. I grinned maliciously and pressed my weapon's activation button. With an angry hiss, a crimson blade snapped to life.