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Rex ran through the corridors, both searching for threats and trying to get to the training room. The first part was the easiest, as he almost ran smack into a weequey pirate. Hondo's men, alright. He mentally named off every curse he knew for not having his blasters as he grasped his lightsaber. 

"Oi, it's a clone!" Exclaimed the pirate. Rex powered the blade on, seeing no other option. The pirate laughed. "Oh, did you steal your master's fancy laser sword?" He mocked. Rex gritted his teeth and wracked his brain for some other option. 

The weequey drew a blaster and Rex moved, slicing the end of the blaster off and whipping his blade around to strike the pirate across the face with the butt of it. He crumpled, and Rex still searched the unconscious body for a blaster. The only one he found was the one that he had destroyed. He swore again and took off at a run once more. 

"Huyang, Rex, get the younglings to either the hold or the cockpit." Ahsoka's voice crackled over his commlink. 

"Acknowledged." He reported, making for the training rooms. He opened the doors, then shut it almost immediately as several training drones rose up. Smart kids. He headed to the hold next, having to face off two more pirates before he got there. He rejoiced when the second pirate had a small blaster on him that Rex confiscated. 

He ran through a different hall way, and screeched to a halt as he took in a wall of black smoke. Even with the glow of his lightsaber, he couldn't see a thing. He didn't want to risk going through there and running into pirates when he was practically blind. But did he have a choice? He had to get to the hold, if Ahsoka was planning what he thought she was. He hoped she made it back safe. 

He closed his eyes and made his way cautiously into the smoke. To his relief he found no pirates, but a hole in the floor nearly swallowed up his foot. He stumbled out of the smoke to find the door of the cockpit. Two pirates were trying to crack it open. R2 was already in there. He electrocuted one of them, and Rex lunged at the other, managing to knock him off balance and throw him to the floor. He staggered into the cockpit and heard the door seal behind him. Zatt was already in there with Gungi. 

He glanced at them. "The others?" He asked, panting slightly. Zatt seemed to come out of his surprise. 

"Everyone is accounted for except Padawan Tano." He reported. "But master Huyang is in pieces," He pointed to a pile of scrap on the floor that Rex hadn't noticed. The droid's tinny voice warbled out. 

"They didn't get a single crystal captain." He reported. Rex furrowed his brows, and Zatt filled him in. 

"That's what they were after, kyber crystals." 

The commlink came on. "On my mark, Zatt, I want you to put all power into forward thrusters." Ahsoka's voice crackled. He heard the sound of blaster fire from her end and her voice was strained. 

"Ahsoka no! You'll be sucked out too!" He said anxiously into the comm. Ahsoka gave a grunt of frustration and pain on her end. She ignored Rex's pleas. 

"Now!"

Zatt looked worriedly at Rex. The captain swallowed his concern and fear and nodded. 

"Do as she says." He ordered. The young nautolan grabbed the controls and shoved them forward with all his strength as R2 rerouted power. The lights flickered briefly and the ship lurched. Tense minutes passed by. Finally, Ahsoka spoke over the commlink. 

"Close the docking bay doors- AHH-" 

She yelled above the roar of wind before choking out a scream. The line went dead just before R2 shut the doors. As soon as he reported that the ship pressure ha stabilized, Rex raced out the doors and to the docking port that Hondo had used to board the ship. Ahsoka was gone. He didn't see her floating in space, so she must've been sucked onto the pirate ship. 

He reached for his bond with her, tugging it slightly to try and determine her location. He had assumed correctly. She was on that ship. He stamped his foot in frustration, suppressing the urge to throw a temper tantrum worthy of a cadet. She was gone. She was in the hands of pirates, and she was still fighting a terrible cold on top of it. 

He became aware of the younglings gathering around him as he felt Ahsoka growing farther and farther away, until he couldn't sense more than the fact that she was still alive. He turned back to the gathering of kids. Kantooni looked up at him. 

"What are we supposed to do, Captain?" She asked in a tremulous voice. Rex closed his eyes briefly as he attempted to quell his rising anger and panic. 

"We start by running a diagnostic of the ship, see what's broken and what we can fix." He ordered. "Then we send out a distress beacon on all republic encrypted channels, try to contact somebody to come get us." 

"What about Ahsoka?" Asked Petro. "Florrum's right there, and if the ship is damaged shouldn't we land it?" 

"Are you suggesting we rescue her?" Asked Master Huyang, who's head was in Gungi's hands. Petro nodded. "Kid, if we could get down there with out crashing and manage to even land on the same continent as Hondo then we'd be lucky. We have no weapons to speak of, and no reinforcements."He said solemnly. 

"We have our lightsabers. We could finish those while the diagnostics are running. And if a ship is close enough to contact, then we do have back up if we need it, right?" Zatt piped up. Rex sighed. 

"Kid, a rescue mission against Hondo normally needs a fully armed platoon of clone troopers. I doubt we could get those men here in time." He reasoned. He saw the looks on several of their faces fall. 

"So, we're just going to sit here?" Asked Ganodi. Rex's shoulders slumped.

"We don't have much choice. Zatt, you did bring up a point though. You all still have your lightsabers to finish. R2 and I'll run diagnostics and the distress beacon, you guys finish your blades." He instructed. "Dismissed."

A/N - Sorry for the chapter being kinda rushed. I'm tired, and I spent all day working on other projects, like finally getting around to editing Cuyanir. I almost entirely rewrote several different key parts for the first six chapters, so you might want to go and check that out. It doesn't affect a huge part of the overall storyline, so the reread is optional, although recommended.


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