Survival: A Star Wars The Clone Wars Story

Chapter 16

Ahsoka, Barriss and the clones had not seen many droids in the lower levels, because any that could possibly be spared were now waiting for Anakin and Rex behind the doors of the upper hanger.

But they didn't know that yet, well, they would soon enough, as Anakin had almost finished cutting though the heavy doors.

On the other side of the metal barrier the droids waited, their mechanical eyes all tracing the movement of a startlingly blue lightsaber cut a hurried rectangular shape into them. We've got them now, thought OOM-26 as he stood in the battle-ready position at the head of the battalions.

"On my mark!" he shouted. The slab of metal began to slide out of position, the edges glowed red where it had been cut by the blade. The sound of metal scraping against metal broke the silence until it finally fell to the floor, sending a heavy clang echoing into the mountains beyond.

"Now, blast them-!" His whiny battle-droid voice was drowned out by the barrage of blaster fire all around. The landing platform could have been seen from space by the sheer amount of blaster bolts. Hey, they didn't wait for me to finish giving- OOM-26's last thought was cut short by a wave of blue severing the connection between his head and the rest of his body.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Even Anakin had to admit, there were a lot of droids. But still, he and Rex had gotten out of tighter squeezes than this before. A constant stream of battle droids poured down the centre of the landing platform. Anakin leaped and darted between them, taking them down with a swing at the torso or the head. Rex's blaster fire mingled with the cloud of red which clung to the air; droids dropped like flies when the bolts hit the mark.

Taking down hoards of a battle droids was all in a days work after all. Anakin ducked and dodged out of the way of each blaster bolt that came his way with relative ease, swinging his lightsaber through any droid foolish enough to get too close. Rather than barrel straight down the middle of the droid battalion, Rex had found sufficient cover near the wall, R2 squealing as the red bolts grazed his white and blue dome.

One Jedi, one clone and an astromech was less than ideal, but they could manage. If they kept this up the platform would be cleared soon enough.

BOOM!

Anakin was forced to dodge out of the way as an enormous chunk of a ship's hull flew past him. Above him he saw a cloud of dust and debris shooting up into the dark, purple sky. The moment of distraction nearly cost him as he quickly rolled to the side to avoid another round of blaster fire.

The ships! The clankers were blowing up the ships!

"Rex!" he shouted over the storm of the battle. "If we want to get off this dust ball, we're gonna need a change of plans!"

Captain Rex scurried over to take cover behind the still smouldering piece of hull that had almost crushed Anakin moments before. "I agree, General." He yelled back. "No point in taking them all out if there's no ship left to escape with."

"Watch out!"

The shockwave of another explosion crackled through the air as the nearest ship fell to the same fate as the first. A quick exchange of nods was all they needed to know that they were both thinking the same thing. Without another moment of hesitation Anakin shoved the broken piece of hull, sending any droids in its path flying as it hurtled across the landing platform.

The Jedi and his clone captain put on a burst of speed as they dashed after the explosives droids, already moving on to the next ship in the row. If they could just catch them before they set off the next fuse. Anakin swung his lightsaber wildly, deflecting the continuous barrage of laser that followed them across the platform as they closed on the ship. The droids remerged on the ships boarding platform, having already planted the explosives.

Another second later and they would have been blown to smithereens, but luckily Anakin's blue blade severed the head of the droid, just as its robotic finger was poised above the ignition. He kicked it to the ground and scrambled after Rex and R2 into the third Neomoidian shuttle of the day. They were really making a habit of this.

Now that they had another ship, escape was back on the cards. He had to remember, though, that there were still a few dozen battle droids with their blasters trained on them at the other end of the platform. As he sprinted up into the ship he caught sight of the unexploded bomb, still pulsing with an angry red glow. He knew exactly how to deal with that: a stunt he and Rex had pulled off many a time. In typical impulsive-Anakin-fashion, he scooped it up off the boarding ramp.

"Rex!" He called out over the chaos. Weighing the bomb in his hand for a moment, he tossed it back out towards the remaining battle droids.

The captain froze at the control panel for the boarding ramp and caught onto his idea immediately. Anakin watched him carefully trace the bomb as soared through the air across the platform, then with single well timed shot the bomb detonated, turning the remains of the droid battalion into a heap of dismantled parts.

With a satisfied smirk, Anakin turned to the still squealing astromech. "Get the engine warmed up R2. Rex, we need to deal with those vulture droids."

It hadn't escaped his notice that the opposite side of the platform was lined with those beastly droids. They weren't going to make the same mistake as last time. If Anakin and Rex had anything to do with it – which as it so happened, they did – those oversized clankers weren't even going to make it off the ground. With himself manning the gun turret and Rex on the rear cannons, the vultures would be scrap metal in minutes.

Anakin smiled as he threw himself into the turrets swivelling chair. This was far more difficult than the days earlier attempt at seizing a ship, but decidedly more fun.