The Pulse of the Republic

Game On

Night was Ahsoka's favorite time at the temple. She loved the stillness of her room and the deserted corridors. It was during these brief intervals of peace that she regained her strength and received a taste of what the temple might have been like if there was no war. After all, ever since the war started, there had never been time for extended meditation, and when she was back at the temple, eyes closed, reaching out with her mind, Ahsoka felt less like a general and more like the Jedi that she was. Now, technically she wasn't supposed to be outside her room after curfew, Jedi or not, but if she got caught wandering the halls, she could just claim that she had heard a disturbance and was going to investigate.

The holo-lights suspended on the walls of the temple were dimmed down to a comforting blue glow, but despite the soft light and the familiar surrounding she still felt a little on edge. Maybe it was the way the shadows fell across the life-sized statues of past Jedi masters who had become one with the Force. Ahsoka chewed her lower lip, glancing anxiously up into the face of Master Arc Sosa, the best double blade fighters of the past millennium and one of Ahsoka's personal heroes. Even so, from this particular angle and with the eerie shadows cast by the holo-light, Master Arc looked angry and forbidding.

"Well, that's your problem then." Ahsoka whispered to Master Arc, turned away from the dormitories and headed towards the classrooms. Maybe if she went into the planetary room and activated one of the holograms she would be able to relax and concentrate. Just the thought of the uniform motion of the planets and their tiny little moons, all spinning slowly on their own axis, made her feel more relaxed. Ahsoka nodded to herself and started walking in that direction. As she entered the main corridor, she passed the stairs which led to the technical room without sparing them a glance, but hesitated for a second at the main staircase which led from the atrium up to the library. She wasn't sure why she stopped. Had she heard something? Seen someone else's shadow cast along the opposite wall? No, it wasn't a sensory disturbance, but a disturbance in the Force. Like a sickeningly hollow feeling invading your stomach...

Ahsoka had been on the battlefield long enough to know that when she felt the Force move like that, she should pay attention. She stepped silently into the blind spot of the holo-lights and began working her way toward the place where she had felt the disturbance. As a Togrutan, she was naturally more stealthy than the average humanoid, but Ahsoka still winced every time her toes brushed against an unexpected obstacle. Her nerves hummed in her ears, making every little noise seem ten times louder, and at first she thought that she was just being paranoid. "I'm just used to the constant sounds of being on the Outer Rim." she thought to herself, "If this war goes on much longer, I'm not going to be able to sleep at night without the sound of gun fire around my head." she thought sarcastically, and then froze. There it was again, that undeniable feeling an alien something...or someone!

Just as she came to this realization, she heard a distant, but very real rumble coming from the west wing of the temple, and then another from the east wing. She instantly recognized the sound of a shock wave bomb detonating and started running towards where the healing ward and Knighting towers were located. Like the paranoid general that she had become, she hadn't left her bedroom without her lightsabers. Ahsoka drew them, holding one up to light the way as she ran towards the sound of the bombs. On her way past, she smashed open an emergency box and pulled down the lever that would sound off alarms and wake up every Jedi in the temple. Whoever this invader was, he was about to make a lot of new friends.

 ***

(2 minutes and 40 second earlier. Outside the Jedi temple.)

The team had been climbing for over an hour. Aided by five pairs of smuggled Clone trooper clamp boots, Quinn, Armada, Gill, and Tabitha scaled up the outer wall, did a nice little balancing act around a extremely tiny ledge, and went up the central tower. The four of them stood on top of the Jedi council chamber, safety cables attached to their belts, then clipped them onto the decorative spike that rose up about five feet in the air.