Survival: A Star Wars The Clone Wars Story

Chapter 5

Luminara and Barriss continued to travel as far away as possible from the Citadel. Their speeder was still moving along, but they realised they could only go so far until the small fuel tank would run out.

Aside from all the lava rivers and lakes, this is a very dull planet, decided Barriss, as they sped over the dry, and barren landscape. All she could see for miles, all around them was purple dust. There was no movement or noise, aside from the faint humming of their speeder; no signs of life anywhere. They had been traveling for a few hours and Barriss was beginning to feel tired from using the force to hold their supplies for that long.

"Master," she called out to Luminara, "I think I need to stop for a minute."

Luminara brought the speeder to halt and Barriss dropped the containers she had been holding up with the force to the ground.

"That's fine, I was just starting to get hungry actually," said Luminara as she went over to find which container they had put the ration bars in. Finding them, she took two out and passed one of them over to Barriss, who was stretching due to the uncomfortable position she had been sitting in on the speeder. Barriss murmured thanks and ate it in two, swift bites. She sat down wearily on one of the boxes and allowed herself to close her eyes for only a second, but suddenly felt a lot more tired. Even though she had only been holding boxes, it had been quite a tiring task.

"The tank has about a quarter left, I'd say," Luminara broke the eerie silence. Barriss snapped her mind awake and turned her attention back to her master.

"We should keep going." Said Barriss, as she pushed herself off the container.

"Are you quite sure you're ready to continue?" Asked Luminara in reply.

"Yes, I'm quite sure."

"Well then, hop back on."

The pair climbed back onto the speeder and continued their journey away from the dreaded Citadel.

~*~*~*~*~*~

By the time they stopped again, the suns were setting. The horizon was a brilliant red that stretched high into the sky, like droplets of ink in water. The speeder had suddenly shuddered, the lights on its dashboard flickered and it all came to a stop. Sighing, Luminara leaped off the speeder, beckoning for Barriss to follow her.

"I guess we'll have to stop here then," said Barriss. The place they had stopped was in a wide flat plain, with nothing for miles around. "Although we won't have any shelter."

"That won't matter now." Replied Luminara who had fished the makeshift transmitter out of one of the boxes and laid it out on the ground in front of them. Carefully, she connected some of its extending wires into a battery pack and pressed one of its buttons. Nothing. She tried again, still nothing. After trying it a few more times, she gave the machine a hard thump with her fist, and it finally sprang, grudgingly, to life.

"There we go, now Barriss could you put in the Temple frequency?"

"Yes master," said Barriss as she crouched down on the dust coated ground beside her master. She tapped in a few numbers on the transmitters small screen and then looked back at her master.

"If I touch these two together," Luminara held up two red wires, "we should begin transmitting a signal to the Jedi." Using the force, she wound the two wire ends together and the transmitter then began to make a soft, pulsing beep.

The waited anxiously for a couple of minutes, until the transmitter started to make a crackling and hissing noise, and they could almost make out words.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Ahsoka hadn't realised she'd been dosing off, until the screen in front of her made a sudden beep, forcing her to refocus on her task at hand. A signal? She thought to herself, that has to be Barriss and Luminara! At last, I knew they'd get in contact. She quickly pressed a few buttons around the controls and then leaned closer to the screen.

"Is there someone there?" Ahsoka said into the screen. "Barriss is that you?"

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Yes, I'm here," said Barriss. "Who am I speaking to?"

"Thsissohka." Came the reply.

"Sorry? You'll have to repeat that, and speak a bit louder, I think."

"This-is-Ahsoka."

"Thank the force!" Said Barriss, while Luminara spoke up. "Ahsoka, can you hear me?"

"Yes, I can. What is your situation?"

"This is Jedi master Luminara Unduli, and I'm with my padawan Barriss Offee. We are stranded on Lola Sayu, our ship beyond repair."

There was silence, for a second on the other end, then came Ahsoka's reply. "We are going to send a rescue mission in five days, possibly sooner. We have to wait for Anakin and Obi-wan to come back from their mission. I can't tell you much about it in case we are intercepted, but they are helping in a battle, and if they win, the Republic should get some more funding for the army. I'm sure they won't have to stay for negotiations."

"Right," replied Luminara, "it's good to know help should be on its way soon. And make sure the rescue plan is thought over carefully, we really don't want a repeat of what happened last time here."

"I know, we all don't." Said Ahsoka, gravely. "But yes, help is coming, and in case we don't speak again, just be ready for when it does come."

"We will be ready." Said Luminara as she cut off the transmission. The transmitter stopped buzzing and the world was silent once more.

"I guess we'd better sleep then," muttered Barriss.

"Yes, well, there's nothing else to do. You're not hungry are you?" Asked Luminara, as she laid down on the hard ground next to their speeder and supplies. The last of the two suns was fading, as it clung desperately to the horizon.

"No, I'm not," replied Barriss and she too, laid down to face the sky, which was mostly obscured by dark purple clouds. Well it's a relief to know help is on its way, Barriss thought, although fancy the Jedi, valuing money before a rescue mission. She let sleep come over her.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Back at the Citadel, the Jedi had left behind earlier that day, a battle droid sat before its post, at a scanning screen, in a row of other battle droids. The room they were in was not brightly lit, most of the light coming from the screens. There was nothing on the droid's screen as usual, although wait, no, there was something in sector J-16. The droid rose from its position and marched over to its superior, watching over them in the corner of the room. A metallic clang echoed every time one of its feet hit the floor. Reaching its superior droid, it stood to attention.

"What is it RB-392?" Came its cold, electronic voice.

"Sir, the computers have picked up some kind of transmission in sector J-16."

"Interesting. Send a patrol to investigate."

"Roger, Roger."