Of Love and War Book 4: When Darkness Falls

Chapter 1: Dooku's Fate

Blaster fire flew past the viewport of Zelina's Jedi Interceptor Starfighter in dizzying patterns, too complicated for Zelina to follow with her eyes. However, she did possess the skill with the Force to avoid the blasts that came too close to her ship.

She wasn't the only one navigating this colorful battlefield, however. Two other Jedi Starfighters were close to her position, a squadron of clone pilots assisting in a mad dash for the Separatist ship looming over the planet of Coruscant as it attempted to escape.

The Invisible Hand.

Grievous.

And Chancellor Palpatine was also on that ship, and also the reason they were rushing towards it in the first place.

Can't we just leave him? A small part of Zelina complained, but she snuffed the little voice out, focusing on flying through the explosion of two ships just ahead of her without hitting any shrapnel. Around her, vulture droids chased Republic fighters, warships exchanged fire against surfaces both shielded and vulnerable, chaos reigned.

But it all boiled down to one small group for her, three ships, with the squadron covering them background noise as well.

Yellow, red, and purple pained Jedi Starfighters. Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Zelina.

A Separatist ship exploded, causing the three to pull up to avoid the falling mass, one last futile missile launching from the ship to cause perhaps a scorch mark on the Republic ship that had shot it down.

While the kidnapping of Chancellor Palpatine by Grievous was daring, and the Republic Forces were the ones scattered thin all across the galaxy right now, the sight was rather...pitiful.

But that was just one ship in a very large-scale battle, and if they didn't hurry, the Separatists would get away with a prize too valuable for the Republic to lose.

Unfortunately.

Maybe the Senate shouldn't have given him so much power, then we could elect a new chancellor if something happened without utter chaos occurring, and we'd all be better off, Zelina thought bitterly.

"General Grievous' ship is dead ahead—the one crawling with vulture droids," Anakin's voice suddenly came over through Zelina's headset, causing her to smile slightly.

It had been too long since she'd last heard her friend's voice.

"I see it. Oh, this is going to be easy," Obi-Wan said sarcastically. Zelina brought her ship into position just between and above them, trailing slightly behind as she too focused on the ship ahead.

Obi-Wan connected to the troops that were flying behind them over their communications unit, giving orders for the squad to form behind Obi-Wan. Zelina automatically adjusted her position, coming even with Anakin's and Obi-Wan's ships but giving them enough room they could carry out evasive maneuvers if they had to.

"This is where the fun begins," Anakin declared, the vulture droids speeding towards their group.

"Let them pass between us," Obi-Wan reminded him, the three Jedi angling their starfighters so that the vulture droids would be assaulted by Oddball's squadron, allowing the Jedi to pass the vulture droids and keep racing for Grievous' ship before it could escape.

The vulture droids weren't even past the three Jedi before the firefight erupted, explosions occurring almost immediately as ships on both sides were blasted away. The Jedi starfighters rushed ahead, rapidly closing the distance between themselves and Grevious' ship.

Over their communications, they heard the sounds of overwhelmed pilots, the outbreak of dogfighting coming to an end as quickly as it started.

"I'm gonna go help them out," Anakin announced as one of the soldier's announcements ended with an abrupt loss of contact.