Eye Of The Needle (Star Wars)

Chapter 60: Mortis

Days after the ceremony, the Republic finally believed I was innocent. The entire media, including HoloNet news, only mentioned positive things about me. Part of me knew that Palpatine had much to do in this, but I tried to push that side. Right now I had more important things to focus on like the war. Currently, I was in a Eta-class shuttle with Areria, Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Ahsoka. We were sent out to the Outer Rim, deep in in the Crelythiumn system to try and search for the source of a Jedi distress code that had not been used in over 2,000 years. Anakin was flying the ship, so I knew to expect a crash landing if we had to land on a planet.

I had my regular Jedi robes along with my clone trooper gear. My hair was pulled back in a ponytail with a braid across the top. We made our way over to the source, while we'd meet with a heavily armed Jedi cruiser in case of a Separatist trap. We contacted Rex in the cruiser. Once the hologram appeared, Anakin spoke up. "Rex...Rex, do you read me? We're at the rendezvous point awaiting your arrival."

"Where are you?" I asked.

"Generals, we are at the rendezvous point and there's no sign of you on our scanners." Rex informed us.

"Oh, come on. That's impossible." Anakin protested.

"Something's wrong." Areria stated.

"Indeed my padawan. We're at the exact coordinates where the distress signal originated, but there's nothing here." I agreed.

"Rex is at the exact same coordinates and he's not here." Anakin commented.

Obi-Wan placed a hand under his chin, rubbing his beard. "This is getting interesting."

Rex's hologram then faded in and out. "...unable to find you. Where are you, sir?"

His hologram then vanished altogether, making me worried. This was definitely a trap. I exchanged a look of uncertainty with the others.

"Something's blocking the signal." Ahsoka informed us. 

At that moment, all the lights turned off. Everything went offline, making me panic. Please tell me we have a way out of this. I glanced over to see Obi-Wan also looking troubled.

"Not good." Obi-Wan said.

"Everything's dead, even the life support." Ahsoka mentioned.

Obi-Wan furrowed his brows. "Hmm, this is really strange."

Out of nowhere, everything came back. I furrowed by brows. This is definitely strange. There's no reason everything would malfunction like that.

"There. See? Nothing to be concerned about after all." Obi-Wan assured us.

Ahsoka then pointed out the window. "Then what's that?"

We looked out to see a monolith ship heading towards us. In a heartbeat, it began to pull us in. My eyes widened. Oh Stars' end!

"I believe it's time for us to leave." I advised.

"Uh, don't think that's possible. It's pulling us towards it." Areria stated.

We then saw a bright light emerge at the monolith opened. There was no way we could avoid its pull now.

"Everyone, strap yourselves in." Obi-Wan advised. "Looks as though we're going for a ride."

We then strapped ourselves in. A few moments later, we were consumed by a bright light, knocking us all out.

•••

When we awoke, the ship had safely landed. I glanced around to see the others barely waking up. Anakin groaned. "I must have blacked out."

"That explains why the ship is still in one piece." I teased.