Wartorn

Chapter 9 - Lasan

Author's Note: Enjoy these not-quite-but-almost cameos! :D Some of these characters will be around/important-ish later. ^-^

~ Amina Gila

They were sent to evacuate a Jedi duo – Caleb Dume and Ezra Bridger. Luke has met a large number of Jedi, and none have been more impressive than the last. Anakin told him that these two are a bit more... rogue than most, but that doesn't mean Luke is expecting to have a high opinion of them.

He's not.

Other than his father, he's close with Aunt Ahsoka and Obi-Wan of course, but they rarely work together. Otherwise, all he has is the clones. Not that that's bad. Despite how most people are about them, they're quite unique.

Even from space, though, the cruisers don't look good.

"Whatever information they have must be awfully important," Luke remarks as he, Anakin, and Rex stand in the gunship together along with some other clones, heading towards the ship. "How are we gonna board?"

"I'll cut through the roof," Anakin says as they move closer.

It's been a few months since they started fighting together. Long enough that Luke no longer starts panicking the way he used to right after Geonosis at the mention of his father doing something that would kill anyone else. Anxiety twists inside him, but he lets it go, leaning a bit over the side to watch, anyway.

Just to make sure.

Anakin jumps off the ship, taking a ride down on one of the flying droids that was sent up to attack them. He cuts a hole big enough for them to make it through – that area is already damaged, so Luke doesn't think it's too deep anyway. Mostly, Anakin is just clearing up the debris, because a lightsaber wouldn't normally be able to cut through part of a cruiser so fast.

Luke jumps out, using the Force to cushion his landing, and the clones slide down on cables.

Anakin pauses to comm the General while Luke, Rex, and the others keep pressing through the droids' lines. It's no wonder the ship is in such bad condition from the outside. It's damaged badly even inside here. The droids are everywhere. If Anakin wasn't here, Luke would question if anyone would make it out.

Neither of the Jedi pair are that old. Ezra is about Luke's age, and Caleb is... a bit older than that obviously, maybe around Ahsoka's age. Probably a little younger.

"Oh, you made it," Caleb says.

"Of course, we made it," Anakin replies, moving to the front to cover for the others. "There's a shuttle docking. We have to hurry."

"Hi," the black-haired padawan volunteers, "I'm Ezra."

"I know," Luke answers. "I'm Luke."

"You don't have to have a padawan braid?" he grumbles, "That's not fair."

"Ezra, focus," his master calls, annoyed.

A bit rogue, indeed.

"What about the rest of your fleet?" Anakin asks.

"We told the clones to get to the escape pods already," Caleb says as they move, "Most of them are... either gone, or cut off."

It's horrifying, but normal. It happens so much in war. Most people aren't nearly as careful with them as his father is, and nor are they skilled or smart enough to protect them as much as they should.

They keep moving. It's all they can do right now. From the number of droids they keep seeing, it's easy to know why they were sent in to evacuate the survivors.