Here is the chapter promised! I'll get another out tomorrow, don't worry.
Hope you enjoy! đ (ALSO, this counts as the extra chapter... I could have gone to sleep but chose not to, you're welcome, XD )
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"Hah! It seems we've drawn quite the bit of attention to ourselves, doesn't it?" Sirius's voice echoed through the bridge as we watched two Republic capital ships and an equal force from the Separatists.Â
"I wonder if dad would have been proud of this prank..." The-boy-who-lived murmured softly as he watched the massive hulking spaceships drift ever closer to us, their Ion engines leaving an ominous glow in their wakes.
The old dog dropped his smile into a supporting grin, his right hand resting on the younger man's left shoulder. "He would be so proud pup." I smiled at the touching moment. Unfortunately, my new force senses chose this time to start pinging two signals in the recesses of my mind. There was a Jedi and a Sith after me, each present on one of the capital ships coming towards us.
No hailing attempts had been made since the vessels started their voyage towards us. It was incredibly eerie to simply watch these hulking ships come towards us without any attempt at communication. I had attempted to hail them but each try was met with silence. Perhaps it was a result of the gravitational field? Maybe our receiver and transponder, as it were, were broken? The answers didn't matter, only the results. Currently the results were anxiety inducing.
"Sirius, is it possible to rapidly apparate me and Harry out and onto one of their ships if the need comes?" The old man blinked a couple times before turning to regard my question.
"It is actually really easy. I just need to see some element of their ship's internal space, and be close enough." Sirius intoned confidently.
Harry grinned at the idea and quickly stepped in on the conversation. "Why don't you use the force-conduit technique? Simply draw on the force surrounding us and encapsulating space-itself and then power the apparition with it...?" My smile turned into a roguish grin at the teen's rhetorical questions.Â
"Excellent idea pup!" The old dog was metaphorically wagging his tail in pride at Harry's words, his eyes gleaming with unshed tears of pride and happiness. This was probably what the man needed after 12-13 years in Azkaban and several years on the run from their magical government, a holiday with his Godson.
"I could probably crush one of their ships using a combination of the external force and the force created by my magical core... It would tax me though..." Both of the wizards turned to look at me as I finished my statement, their faces painted with incredulity.Â
"What?" They both shook their heads in unison before having a hushed conversation with one another.Â
In response I sighed and simple rolled my eyes, going back to monitoring the communication frequencies for any attempted hails. I didn't know what the Jedi was thinking but this wasn't how you approached a situation such as this...
~~~
Obi Wan was confident this was the best approach to the situation at hand. An unknown force signature just randomly emerging from Hyperspace, only to fade away to a trickling stream of unadulterated emotion and power a second later, yes, caution was needed.
His gut had at first suggested contacting the ship and yet his mind could not keep images of previous missions where Jedi had been baited into contacting a random vessel and then suddenly suffering an ambush. That had been a painful report to receive. especially considering the echoes of pain and anguish that could be felt from the Padawan who had survived.
No he was correct, this was the best way to approach the situation for now. They would apprehend the vessel and keep it contained in the hangar of The Negotiator. After containing this mystery a swift retreat would be called to the other two ships that would be serving as a distraction.
"General Kenobi, the Separatist task force is arranging itself into a spear pattern sir." One of the officers off to the side shouted aloud as the rest of the bridge continued the organised chaos that could be associated with preparation.Â
"It means they are going to be the aggressors. Hmmm, enter into an arrow formation on the y-axis. At the first sign of combat deploy a screen of fighter and bombers from the lowest ship on that same axis. We'll fight in the third dimension, using bombers and fighter to harass them into an awkward position..." The officer nodded swiftly and started rapidly covering with the deckhands around him, no doubt spreading the word to them so they can include every other officer in the plan and commence the fleet stance.
The change was immediate as the enemy fleet adapted their course to intersect in several hundred-thousand metres along the X-axis. Their formation slightly altered into an open spear formation that has a singular prominence-class vessel at the tip and the other two arranged at a diagonal angle from the point and staggered behind by a couple thousand metres.
"Change the arrow into a bar formation. Have each vessel stay on the exact same y-axis and tilt upwards to keep the hangers free of turbo-laser fire." The same officer moved to complete the orders, the stance of the fleet immediately adapting with minutes as clones rushed to the hangars.
"Hot zone is one minute out General!" Kenobi nodded and rubbed his beard before reaching out with his force powers to establish a sense of calm over the bridges of his three ships. They would need the stability and calm in this skirmish.
"Thirty seconds out!" Obi Wan opened his eyes and watched as several of the officers held tightly onto their consoles and watched the enemy fleet stab through space ever closer to the projected vector. Any moment now the two fleets would be in range for a n exchange of firepower.
"I want the priority to be obtaining that trapped vessel gentlemen. We will wrap around the enemy force if need be to stand between it and their objective... I want this ship to tractor beam that vessel as quickly as possible so we can avoid unnecessary casualties." Just as he finished his statement the first flickers of light sparked in the frigid void of space, the plasma glowing powerfully as it splashed against the deflector arrays.
"WE ARE HOT! WE ARE HOT! ALL WINGS ARE A GO! I REPEAT, ALL WINGS ARE A GO!" The Negotiator and its two escorting Venators sparked as hundreds of Turbolaser blasts vibrated through the structure and out into space, creating a wall of plasma that splashed against incoming enemy fire or splattered against the Separatist deflectors.
"May the force be with us..." Obi Wan intoned as he placidly watched several fighters burst apart at the seams as an errant turboblast consumed them.
~~~
"Are these fuckers crazy!?" I couldn't help but agree with the old dog.
The two fleets were exchanging intense fire and desperately trying to claw past one another to get to us. Two capital ships were practically at knife-point of one another and still exchanging massive salvos that created residual explosions that were visible from our still semi-distant position.
"I mean, there is a scale with insanity. I can't really talk since I fought a 60 foot long basilisk with a sword when I was 12..." Sirius worriedly glanced at his godson and gulped a little. No doubt the man was wondering just what the fuck the teen had been through throughout the years.
"This is probably a normal engagement for them. It doesn't seem like they have weaponry that is further range... So this is usually how naval combat would go." Both wizards stared at the sight and shook their heads.
"You'd think they'd invent something that could increase their range or something." I chuckled and attempted to manoeuvre the ship in such a way that it would become easier for the Republic vessels to get to us. My attempts weren't all that effective to be honest, the battle was far too chaotic to predict where the best position would be.
~~~
"Fighters have reached critical losses General! The bombers have had minimal success in penetrating vulture-droid screening. The Enforcer has suffered debilitating damage to its engines and is now out of commission..."
Obi Wan was not enjoying the outcome of this engagement. After the first minutes of weapons exchange the Separatists switched to a vanguard-type formation that prioritized screening defence... He had given orders to change the formation to adapt to it but the movement was too slow as the Separatists carved up the first few wings of fighters and bombers before pivoting into a spear formation again.
"Retreat all fighters and bombers. Pull the Enforcer back and bring the Vigilance into a dagger formation with us. We'll punch through their damaged ship and then pivot onto another... Hopefully we can take two out before sustaining critical damage." He murmured the last part of his speech, his own uncertainty hidden from the majority of the bridge crew. They didn't need to know that he was uncertain at a time like this.
 Within moments the damaged Venator was sluggishly fleeing the battle as the Negotiator charged forwards guns blazing. A wave of turbolaser fire sundered from the decks of the flag-ship, the plasma beams burning through the remining deflectors of the Prominence-class vessel before colliding harshly against the durasteel hull. The effect was immediate and grizzly. Metal warped and bent, burning under the intense heat of the plasma and the unique nature of the gas that made it.
The ship's bridge was the first to disappear in the blasts followed soon by the engines and the keel of the ship. Within thirty seconds the vessel was venting atmosphere, splitting into three sections and silently exploding in space.
"The next!" Obi Wan's voice boomed over the bridge of the Negotiator, the officers scrambling to dictate the next target to the Vigilance.Â
Turbolaser fire struck the side of the Negotiator in a massive wave, the attack a constant blurring mirage of red. Alarms were blaring throughout the bridge as the officer in charge of the deflector systems started rapidly striking buttons and diverting power from non-integral systems.
"FORWARD AND AXIAL DEFLECTORS ARE 20% !" That same officer shouted moments later.
"Order the Vigilance to shield us as we get closer." The communications officer nodded and quickly started shouting into his station.
The Negotiator started exchanging fire with the other two Separatist ships as the Vigilance unleashed onto a singular target whilst arraying itself in-between the vast majority of the incoming fire. The flagship followed in its targeting and started to focus fire onto the engines and bridge of the next target, this ship being the tip of the spear formation.
Fires broke out across the ship as the deflector flickered on and off under the sustained bursts of plasma. The shields of the Vigilance were struggling now and the Negotiator started adjusting to compensate... Unfortunately the Separatists had found the tactic of focussing on one target superbly interesting and decided to use it against them.
"It has been an honour General." The commander of the Vigilance sent through that single message as the Venator dumped all of its power into its deflectors and engines, plotting a ramming course with the undamaged ship.
"No! You don't need to-" Kenobi stopped speaking as he watched the Vigilance start fracturing, its engines lasting just long enough to allow momentum to carry it into the side of the undamaged Separatist ship, tearing into its side and bending it in half. What followed was a massive implosion that, whilst silent, expressed the sheer determination and loss of the crew of that ship. The once intact enemy ship was now floating space-dust and the other ship was floating adrift in space, half of its engines dead.
A small tear slipped from the edge of Obi Wan's right eye as he felt the death of thousands through the force. It was akin to getting stabbed and slashed by a vibroknife but internally.
"Disable that last ship..." He whispered the order.
It may as well have been a shout for the silence on the bridge of the Negotiator. A single officer responded to his command, the rest watching as the remnants of their sister ship drifted through the emptiness of space.
Naturally the sith chose this very moment to contact them...
"Kenobi... We meet again..." The Jedi turned and faced Ventress, her impish smile making the stabbing pains in his heart worsen.
She took his silence for permission to monologue.
"It is unfortunate that you weren't the one to die. Nonetheless, you will never reach that ship." He grit his teeth in frustration, his emotions draining into the force as he worked through meditative exercises.
"I'm afraid it is too late for you to decide, my dear. It seems we have you at a bit of a disadvantage." She sneered verbally and physically at his tone, her smile still plastered on despite the sneer.
"That's not true... Obi Wan... Just watch me." The projection shut down immediately, his eyes whipping over to her damaged ship.
The force screamed in his ears as he witnessed a single turbolaser bank light up, the eerie red glow blurring into the space around it as the battery charged and then dispensed. Dread filled his stomach and he grimaced as the blast incinerated the simple freighter.
~~~
"Uhhhhghhhh, we're never doing that again Sirius... A blind teleport is just reckless!" The old dog rubbed the back of his head before grimacing as he noticed the blood leaking from my leg.
"Ohhh, shit... Are you okay Elsa?" I huffed at his use of the nickname before looking down at my leg.
"Well, fuck. I suppose I need a new leg?" Harry guffawed as he straightened himself out and looked around.
"I don't suppose these guys have a spare leg just hanging around, do they?" I looked up and around from my sitting position and simply sighed.
"Not on a Separatist ship anyway..." Both wizards awkwardly looked at one another.
I ignored their antics and began looking around.
"Have you seen where my leg is?" They both shook themselves out of their stupor and started helping me find my missing leg.
Never again was I trusting Sirius to use teleportation.
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