Traitors To The Heart

Chapter 32: Pirates

After making the short pit stop on Sacorria to rescue some friends of Nova's, the quartet of Jedi made their way to the other end of the galaxy to Felucia. Something happened to the medical station orbiting the planet, so the two Jedi Knights and their Padawan's were dispatched to investigate.

"Coming out of hyper space. Hopefully Snips got the coordinates right." Despite the obvious teasing tone behind Anakin's words, Ahsoka still felt offended.

"I'm not the one who made us stop mid hyperspace." Ahsoka and Anakin both swerved their heads to the side to give Nova a coy look. She rolled her eyes, turning away from them in her back seat next to Obi-Wan to see if her Master shared her annoyance. Unfortunately, he shared Anakin's smirk as he helplessly shrugged her way.

"Look, my friends were in trouble. I couldn't just not help them." Nova defended herself. Again.

"We're just joking around, Novs." Ahsoka glanced over her shoulder to share a certain look with Nova. The two busted of laughter with just one simple look, silently conveying their mockery of Anakin. Obi-Wan and him shared a confused look, sometimes not understanding their Padawan's friendship. Anakin shrugged and merely looked back to the planet ahead.

"That's Felucia, dead ahead. Good job, Snips." Anakin gave her a playful elbow, but Ahsoka saw nothing to smirk about.

"But where's the medical station? I don't see anything on my scanners." Nova was about to suggest they check the other side of the planet's orbit, but before she could, Ahsoka's scanners picked up something large and unmoving in front of them.

"Wait, there's something." Unfortunately, that something was nothing to smile about. Nova watched as Anakin's face became laced with panic.

"Vulture droids." Ahsoka growled, trying to shoot down the incoming droids with her firm glare.

"Hang on!" Obi-Wan took a large gulp, and whether it was subconscious or not, he gripped the edge of the seats arm rests like his life depended on it. His grip softened when a soft, slightly calloused purple hand rested on top of his. He let out an airy laugh, happy to have a distraction from Anakin's flying.

"Well, I guess we know what happened to the medical station." Obi-Wan tried to lighten the mood. Nova tried to laugh, but all she could think about was the hundreds, maybe even thousands of wounded men who could've perished during the Separatists attack on the medical station.

Nova's solemn thoughts were interrupted by the lurching of the ship when the culture droids hit their target. Obi-Wan grabbed her one arm and Nova could touch the ceiling to push herself back into her seat, now holding the edge of her own seat and Obi-Wan's wrist in a death grip.

"That's not good!" Obi-Wan shouted to the pilots in front of him.

"They took out the plasma conduit!" Nova didn't know what any of the buttons Ahsoka pressed meant, but she didn't feel like they were as important in the moment as keeping the ship up in space. Her fear truly spiked when they entered the atmosphere and a little alarm felt the need to warn them of impending doom.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Anakin tossed the comment over his shoulder to his Master in particular. Nova saw Ahsoka already putting the oxygen mask from below her seat tightly over her nose and mouth, being gentle with her lekku in the back so she started doing the same.

"Almost certainly not!" Regardless of the hasty exit of space, and Anakin's haphazard flying, Obi-Wan did not want to die so he strapped the oxygen mask around his ears to cover his face too. He leaned over to help Nova who was struggling to get the straps over her large back lek.

"Looks like we're doing this the hard way." Ahsoka took over the controls for a brief moment to allow Anakin to strap his own mask on. He gave her a swift nod, slipping his hands back onto the controls, roughly yanking upwards as far as the steering stick would permit.