Life Of War

Chapter 97

"Hold your fire!" Rex shouted his orders to the men, walking out with Ahsoka and I in front of him with our hands behind our heads and his blasters pointed at our backs. He nudged me forward with his blaster as a silent way of telling me he was there for us.

"Hang on. We have Tano, the Commander and the General. Send all remaining troops to my position." Jesse ordered as the men moved to get a good aim at us all.

"I said hold your fire, Jesse. I have the situation under control." Rex repeated.

"You have your order, sir. Now execute it or I will!"

"The order was to execute the Jedi for treason against the Republic. The problem is, Ahsoka Tano is no longer a Jedi. Hasn't been for some time." Rex stopped a few feet away from the others with us in front of him still and our sabers on his belt.

"Sir, you said yourself we're under special order from Darth Sidious to eliminate Ahsoka Tano and Lyra Jayko and any other clone who disobeys Order 66." Jesse reminded. Our team of droids had rolled around to get to the controls.

"Just keep him talking, a little bit longer." Ahsoka whispered to Rex.

"Jesse. Jesse, listen to me. We've known each other a long time. If we don't get this right, we will be the ones committing treason, not them." Rex tried talking him down, but knew he would fail in the end.

"Commander Rex, you're in violation of Order 66." Jesse pointed his blasters at Rex harshly, showing us how deep this really was. "I accuse you of treason against the Grand Army of the Republic. You'll be demoted in rank from commander and subject to execution along with the traitors Lyra Jayko and Ahsoka Tano."

"Ready?" Ahsoka asked as the droids waved us over.

"Ready" I nodded.

"Yeah, I didn't much like being a commander anyway." Rex commented as he looked back at us.

"Company, ready. Aim!" Jesse started. An alarm blared out in the hanger suddenly, catching everyone's attention.

"Now!" Ahsoka shouted to us all, the men in front of us were dropped down a level on the platforms only a few remained on our level. Ahsoka used the force to push Jesse down with them while Rex tossed us our sabers to fight with. Cutting the ends of the troopers' blasters Rex would stun them and I gave him cover by deflecting the blaster bolts.

"The ship!" Ahsoka warned as she noticed Maul running over towards it. She jumped over while Rex and I ran, still fighting off clones who were shooting at us.

"You wanted this chaos." Maul told her as he began throwing crates at her harshly. She jumped over and swiped her saber at his neck, but he moved back before she could kill him. He had pushed her back and she tried to use her sabers to keep herself up, but slid down one of the platforms. R7 caught her with his rope, Rex and I running to help her when Jesse ordered his men to shoot up at us. She used her saber to deflect shots as I reached to help her, but she was too far and Rex stunned as many men as he could to help us both.

"Move it. Move it. Get these lifts activated. Get us up there." Jesse ordered his men.

"Our panel's locked out." A clone reported.

"Fire on those droids." Jesse told him men, knowing they were helping us. They shot towards Rex, the droids and I, Ahsoka climbing up on her own now.

"Ah!" I stumbled back, nearly getting shot.

"The shuttle!" She jumped over and tried to catch it. Holding it with the force as Maul tried to escape she started to slide. I turned around to help, grabbing onto it with the force, but the engine was too strong, pulling both of us with it until I felt a gloved hand grab our hands to hold us in place. Looking over at Rex he gave a nod to us before we continued to hold the shuttle.