Life Of War

Chapter 32

Standing in the battlefield of a familiar separatist planet, we had once again been caught up in a battle. Anakin had been fighting back with the 501st as my hair had been blowing in the wind, echos of a familiar woman telling me to run.

"Lyra, we have to go!" Anakin urged as I quickly blinked to remember the blaster fire being shot around us. Anakin had been standing in front of me, deflecting the blaster bolts away as I had spaced out. as "What's gotten into you?" He questioned, noticing I wasn't fully focused like usual.

"Nothing" I shook my head, regaining focus. "I'm fine"

"The gunships are here!" Jesse called back to us.

"Let go! Move! Move!" Rex started ordering his men out of the battle.

"Get onto a gunship" Anakin ordered.

"Not until—"

"Go, now" Anakin ordered sternly, knowing I wasn't fit to stay in battle any longer. I nodded to him before rushing off to jump onto a gunship. "Let's go!" Anakin called to the pilot after he joined the rest of us. I had sat down on the gunship floor, crossing my legs to meditate on my clouded thoughts as I flew away from the planet for the second time during the war.

"What's wrong with her?" Rex looked down at my focused figure while talking to his General.

"She's probably just trying to clear her head. It took a lot for her to come back here" Anakin replied simply, remembering and realizing why I had been so unfocused.

"Come back?"

"She was on a negotiation mission here with Master Nadir before they were ambushed by the droids, her Master didn't make it out" he sighed, explaining to the clone why this mission was so difficult for me. "That was her last mission before becoming Obi Wans Padawan." Rex nodded in understanding, eyes drifting back towards me with sorrow and pity.

Once the gunship set down on the Cruiser I swiftly stormed off towards my quarters to have a moment alone. Rex noticed the rush in my step and moved to chase after me when his path was cut off by one of his brothers.

"Captain, General Skywalker would like to speak with you in the bridge" a clone approached him and Rex silently cursed under his breath as he looked past the clone to see that I was already gone.

"I'll be there in a minute" Rex replied before walking towards the bridge, desperately wishing he was walking towards my quarters to check on me.

I reached my quarters and slammed the door behind me, leaning my back against it as I let out all of the emotions that I should have never had bottled up. Anakin tensed up and Rex noticed this.

"Is there something wrong, Sir?"

"No, no" Anakin shook his head, feeling silence take over once again.

~~~

"General" a clone called out, pausing my movements. I turned on my heel to see Rex rushing over.

"Captain, Ready to go?"

"Yes. We are going to need to get into their main ship and take down their shields" Rex reminded me of the plan.

"I know" I smiled back at him. "But, I still don't like this plan"

"I don't either"

"Neither of us are pilots" I added to my own worry, walking beside Rex onto our shuttle.

"How hard can it be?" Rex shrugged, taking the wheel. He carefully pulled us out of the hanger, crashing into a few things on the way.

"Everything alright in there?" Anakins voice crackled through the radio.

"Everything's great" I snapped back with sarcasm.

"Keep up the good work" Anakin told us as we exited the cruiser and flew towards the blockade of separatist ships.

"Okay, I'm going to send in the codes" I reported, pressing buttons and sending our codes we had taken.

"Shuttle 678 you are cleared for boarding." A droid responded over radio, unaware they would soon be under attack.

"All good so far" I commented wearily. Rex nodded at the confirmation and flew the shuttle into the hanger of the separatist ship, landing with a crash. "We don't have much time until they find out it's a trap" I tell Rex, pulling my hood over my head as he pulled his helmet on.

The two of us made our way through the base towards the shield generator where we spotted two human guards standing outside.

"Great" Rex muttered under his breath. "Guards"

"I've got this" I stated, walking forward openly.

"Have you done this before?" Rex caught my arm, pulling me back towards him behind the wall.

"Uh, yeah, mainly in training though" I shrugged sheepishly as he started to panic.

"I don't know about this" Rex began to protest but I was already seen by the guards.

"You there" the guards pointed.

"Too late" I told Rex. I walked towards them calmly, Rex staying hidden. "You will let us pass" I waved a hand in front of their faces.

"We will let you pass" they repeated, moving to the side for us the pair of us to pass through.

"Come on" I waved Rex over who held up his blaster, ready to fight if caught. He rushed towards me as we entered the shield generator. I was setting charged under the panels along the wall when I heard the door open and close. I took my place, hiding in the shadows while watching the two battle droids enter, making their rounds of securing the ship.

"The shuttles was empty? How does that work?" One droid looked to the other at the news.

"Kriff" I muttered softly, knowing the droids were suspicious now. "Oh, no" I gasped, watching as Rex stood against the wall, nowhere to hide while the droids walked closer to his position. I thought quickly and stretched out a hand, using the force to lift him above the droids so that they wouldn't spot him. A muffled gasp came from Rex at the sudden weightlessness of his body. The weight of the clone grew to be too much, I reached out with my other hand and closed my eyes for extra focus, hoping that neither of us would get caught.

"It's clear now, you can put me down" Rex's voice brought me out of my focus. "Woah!" He shouted out as he started to fall through the air. I caught him just before he could hit the ground, losing him gently to his feet.

"Let's finish this before we get caught" the two of us scrambled around to set the charges.

"All done?" Rex looked over at me.

"Yeah"

Suddenly an alarm blared through the ship.

"Incoming attack! Prepare for battle!"

"We have to get out of here now" the clone warned, dragging me behind him. The republic forces had arrived to take on the separatists, waiting for us to give the signal. Rex rushed to the pilots seat where he pulled us out of the ship with a struggle, taking us towards the republic fleet.

"You are all cleared Skywalker" I announced once we were at a safe distance.

"Let's blow it up" Anakin told me. I pressed the detonator that rested in my hand, blowing up the shield generator and allowing Anakin and his flight squadron to fly in and win the battle with ease.

"Good work you two" Anakin commented proudly.

.......................................

Question of the day: Did you like the callback to Master Nadir?