The Clone Wars: Path of the Force, A Star Wars Story

11

Rex stepped onto the bridge of the massive Republic cruiser to see the blue and white glow of the hyperspace lane outside the bridge's viewing windows. Rex was pleased to see they were already well under way. He knew his General would not want to waste any time. General Skywalker nodded to him as he approached the holo-table. Generals Skywalker and Kenobi as well as Commander Cody and trooper Echo were already gathered around.

"Echo," General Skywalker said. "What can you tell us about the Cominis system?"

Echo gestured with his droid-like prosthesis to several blue orbs projected above the holo-table.

"The Cominis system is a part of the Neutral Systems Alliance. Our intelligence reports that Count Dooku has been putting pressure on the Comini to join the Separatists for some time. The capital planet, Cominis, is heavily populated and has a diverse amount of resources that would benefit the Separatists should they join the Confederacy. There is one other habitable planet in the system, N'Divrens. But, N'Divrens is an old mining planet, depleted of most of its resources and sparsely populated. It wouldn't make sense to set a trap there, if the Separatist's goal is draw Cominis into the Confederacy."

"We'll need to send scouts onto Cominis to get an idea of where, if any, of the droids are hiding out," General Kenobi said.

"That will take too long," General Skywalker said slamming his fist down on the table. Rex looked at his General. He had seen General Skywalker angry before, several times, but this was different. He almost looked in pain.

"Anakin, volunteers or not, we can't just take a thousand troops gallivanting about a neutral planet," General Kenobi said. "We don't even know for sure if Padme is in this system."

Rex cleared his throat and spoke, "If I may sir."

"By all means, Captain," Kenobi said folding his arms.

"I already sent scouts ahead of us. I commissioned them as soon as we knew that the ship was tracked to the Cominis system."

"Good job Rex," General Skywalker said.

"Thank you sir, but the scouts were too late to see where the ship landed. However, one of the scouts just called in and reported that a ship matching the description of the one we tracked from Coruscant was seen leaving N'Divrens moments ago."

Rex touched the hologram of N'Divrens in front of him, enlarged it and pointed to a dark spot on the southern hemisphere of the planet.

"The ship took off from here, a mine and warehouse, surrounded by a dead-tree forest, we believe it to be abandoned and well away from any population centers. We don't know how deep the mine goes exactly, but it looks large enough to hold thousands of battle droids and Separatist fighters without detection."

"Good job indeed Rex," General Kenobi said. "This is good news. We can land and not risk bringing the Comini into an unwanted war."

"Good news?" General Skywalker raised his voice, staring at Kenobi. "I can feel her suffering."

Rex made eye contact with Echo, who raised his eyebrows. There was always something new to learn when it came to Jedi powers. But Rex made a decision long ago, possibly when being forced pushed off a crumbling fortress wall, to trust his General.

"Bad choice of words. I'm sorry Anakin." Kenobi said putting a hand on Anakin's shoulder. "What I mean is that this frees us up to pursue the recovery of Padme without risking the lives of innocent civilians. Padme, herself, would be pleased about that."

Anakin looked away from Kenobi and out the front viewing window of the bridge.

"You're right. She wouldn't want anyone to be hurt."