Alright, guy, big news, I got my first negative review. They complained about the AI using single-word sentences, which is fair, but I feel they're just being picky and looking for Tolkien in this smut-infested slop sight. Anyway, sorry for the late update, holidays, university, work, lots of stuff.
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The ground shook in steady intervals.
Artillery fire rolled across the crystalline plains of Christophsis like distant thunder. Smoke rose in jagged spirals from shattered spires. The sky above was bruised violet and orange, lit intermittently by turbolaser exchanges far overhead.
Anakin moved through it all without hesitation.
Long strides. Cloak snapping behind him. Mask fixed forward.
Ahsoka had to quicken her pace to keep up.
Ahead, a fortified command position had been carved into the remains of a collapsed tower. Red-marked clones clustered around a portable holo-table projecting shifting blue terrain models. Tactical overlays flickered across the surface.
At its center stood two men.
One she recognized instantly from holos and rumors — Captain Rex. White armor marked in deep crimson. Helmet tucked under his arm.
Beside him stood the man second only to Anakin, Commander Virek of the 501st.
If Rex carried quiet confidence, Virek carried something sharper. His armor bore heavier red striping — the markings darker, more aggressive. His posture was rigid, hands clasped behind his back as he studied the projection.
Neither man looked up when Anakin approached.
They felt him.
Virek straightened immediately.
Rex followed half a second later.
"General," Virek said, voice steady.
Anakin stepped to the holo-table, glancing down at the projection. His gloved hand hovered over it, shifting the display with a flick of his fingers.
"The shield generator's still operational," he observed.
"Yes, sir," Rex replied. "Obi-Wan's pushed the outer line back, but the main holdout's dug in tight around the generator complex."
Virek added, "Their droid artillery is cycling through rotating cover. We've mapped the pattern. There's a twelve-second window between shifts."
Anakin tilted his head slightly.
"Twelve seconds," he repeated thoughtfully. "More than enough time."
Rex followed half a second later.
"General," Virek said, voice steady.
Anakin stepped to the holo-table, glancing down at the projection. His gloved hand hovered over it, shifting the display with a flick of his fingers.
"The shield generator's still operational," he observed.
"Yes, sir," Rex replied. "Obi-Wan's pushed the outer line back, but the main holdout's dug in tight around the generator complex."
Ahsoka stood slightly behind him, watching the exchange.
These weren't standard troopers.
They didn't defer blindly.
They spoke like professionals.
Like soldiers who had survived too much to waste words.
Anakin turned at last.
"Captain. Commander. This is Ahsoka Tano."
Both clones looked at her fully now.
Rex gave a small nod and a faint half-smile.
"Welcome to the 501st, Commander Tano."
Virek inclined his head more formally.
"Ma'am."
No warmth.
No hostility.
Just acknowledgment.
Ahsoka felt a prickle of awareness.
These men were disciplined in a different way than temple guards or younglings.
They weren't polished.
They were sharpened.
Anakin continued, "She's my new Padawan."
There was a slight pause.
Not judgment.
Not doubt.
Just recalculation.
Rex gave her another look — this one measuring.
"Then you'll want to stay close, Commander," he said lightly. "Our General doesn't do things the easy way."
Anakin didn't respond to that.
Virek glanced at the map again. "General, what's your intent?"
Anakin leaned forward slightly, studying the generator's position.
"We hit the shield directly."
Rex blinked once. "Front assault?"
"Not exactly."
Anakin zoomed the map in, isolating a side access corridor — partially collapsed, partially obscured by rubble.
"We punch through here. Fast. Rex, you take first platoon with me."
"And me?" Ahsoka asked.
Anakin's mask turned toward her.
"You're with me."
She straightened slightly.
Virek interjected calmly, "General, that corridor narrows near the core. Droid density spikes by approximately thirty percent."
Anakin nodded once.
"I know."
A faint ripple passed through the Force around him — not visible, but palpable.
Confidence.
Control.
Something coiled.
Ahsoka felt it.
And for a brief moment, she understood the rumors.
Not darkness.
Not yet.
But intensity.
Anakin looked at Rex.
"You and I push through the corridor. Once we're inside, we split their line at the generator's base. Disable it manually."
Rex nodded immediately.
"And the fallback?"
"There isn't one."
Virek didn't argue.
He simply turned to his comm and began issuing quiet orders.
"Red squads form on General Skywalker. Second wave staggered entry. Heavy support hold for signal."
The clones moved like machinery snapping into place.
Disciplined. Efficient.
Ahsoka watched them adjust weapons, lock helmets into place, check each other's armor seals.
The red markings of the 501st caught the light like war paint.
Anakin's cloak shifted as he turned toward the open battlefield.
Obi-Wan's voice crackled faintly over comms — calm, measured — announcing pressure on the Separatist general's flank.
The final assault had begun.
Anakin glanced at Ahsoka.
"Snips."
She bristled slightly at the name but didn't argue.
"This is your first engagement, so try not to get tunnel vision, and stay close."
"You should be the one staying close to me, sky guy," she shot back. \
Anakin ignored the nickname.
"Move."
The line surged forward.
Blaster fire streaked across the crystalline terrain. Explosions erupted along barricades. Droid forces rotated positions exactly as Virek had predicted.
Twelve seconds.
Anakin counted it instinctively.
"Now."
The 501st sprinted.
Red-marked clones advancing through a storm of fire without hesitation.
Ahsoka ignited her blade — green light cutting through smoke.
Her heart pounded.
This was no training room.
No controlled exercise.
Real shots.
Real casualties.
A clone beside her deflected incoming fire to cover her advance without being asked.
She leapt over shattered crystal, slicing through a battle droid's torso as it turned too slowly.
The corridor entrance loomed ahead — partially collapsed, heavy with debris.
Anakin didn't slow.
He lifted his free hand.
The Force roared outward.
Stone and crystal exploded apart in a violent shockwave, clearing the path in an instant.
Clones poured in behind him.
Inside, the fighting intensified.
Narrow passage.
Concentrated droid lines.
Blaster bolts ricocheting off walls.
Ahsoka ducked under a volley, rolled, slashed upward.
A droid collapsed in pieces.
Rex moved like a second shadow to Anakin, covering angles with precise bursts of fire.
Anakin's blades ignited fully now — purple and black-red humming in deadly symmetry.
He advanced like a storm.
Measured.
Calculated.
Unrelenting.
Droids fell in precise arcs.
The corridor buckled under the assault.
Ahsoka felt the rhythm of it.
The way he moved.
Not reckless.
Not chaotic.
He was directing the flow.
Pulling it.
Shaping it.
They burst into the generator chamber.
A massive energy core pulsed at the center, shield emitters humming along its circumference.
"Set charges!" Rex barked.
Clones fanned out instantly.
Ahsoka deflected a close-range blast, flipping to strike down a pair of droids flanking the console.
Anakin stepped directly toward the core.
He planted his feet.
Closed his eyes.
For half a second, the battlefield noise faded.
Then he thrust both hands forward.
The Force slammed into the generator housing.
Metal shrieked.
Power conduits ruptured.
The core flickered violently.
Rex finished arming the final charge.
"General!"
Anakin nodded once.
"Fall back."
They sprinted.
Explosions rippled behind them.
The shield dome over the Separatist holdout flickered.
Faltered.
Collapsed entirely.
Outside, Republic artillery seized the opening instantly.
The final defensive line began to crumble.
Ahsoka slowed as they emerged from the corridor, smoke trailing behind them.
The battlefield was shifting.
The tide had turned.
She looked up at Anakin.
He stood tall amid the chaos, blades deactivating as clones regrouped around him.
The legendary 501st.
And she was in the middle of it.
Her first engagement.
And she was still standing.
Anakin glanced at her briefly.
"You kept up."
She lifted her chin.
"Told you I would."
Behind them, Rex and Virek began coordinating the next wave.
The campaign for Christophsis wasn't over.
But the final holdout was breaking.
And Ahsoka Tano had just taken her first real step into war.
///
Christophsis burned behind them.
The crystalline spires of the city still smoked in the distance, fractured towers catching the low light of the planet's sun. LAAT gunships ferried troopers back toward the Venators waiting in orbit, engines howling as they cut through ash-filled air. The orange-white armor of the 212th moved in disciplined columns toward their transports, while the red-marked 501st stood in tighter, more watchful formations.
Victory had come—but it had not come clean.
Inside the forward command center of the reclaimed capital, a circular holo-table cast pale blue light across three figures.
Obi-Wan stood composed, hands folded into his armored sleeves, the polished plates of his battle-worn armor catching the light. Ahsoka stood at his right, trying her best to look like she belonged there. Her montrals twitched faintly with nerves she refused to show. Across from them stood Anakin Skywalker.
Even in stillness, he felt like gravity.
His black and dark-silver armor was scarred from battle. His hood was down, but the mask remained firmly in place, dark lenses hiding whatever expression lay beneath. The air around him felt heavier than it should have.
The holo flickered to life.
Grand Master Yoda appeared, small and luminous in the center of the table. The background behind him showed the dim interior of the Council chamber.
"Christophsis secured, it is," Yoda said, ears angled slightly forward. "Well done, you have."
Obi-Wan inclined his head politely. "The 501st and 212th performed admirably. The separatists have been broken."
Anakin did not speak.
Yoda's eyes shifted toward him.
"But finished, your work is not."
A faint crackle passed through the holo-projector.
"A change of plans, there is."
Anakin's head tilted slightly. "What kind of change?"
"To the planet Teth, you will go."
Ahsoka blinked. Wild Space. That was… not where she expected her first real deployment to be.
Anakin folded his arms across his chest. "Teth," he repeated. "That's wild space."
Yoda nodded slowly. "Kidnapped, the son of Jabba the Hutt has been."
Silence.
Even the hum of the projector seemed to dim.
Yoda continued, "Find him, you will. Return him to Jabba."
A long second passed.
Then another.
When Anakin spoke, there was no humor in it.
"Why," he asked quietly, "am I being sent to rescue the slug's son?"
The temperature in the room seemed to drop.
It wasn't shouted. It wasn't defiant. It was edged. Controlled—but edged.
Obi-Wan shifted slightly, sensing the shift in him.
Yoda did not flinch.
"Nearest, you are," the Grand Master said calmly. "Secure Teth quickly, we must. Alliance with the Hutts, the Republic requires."
Anakin's hands tightened slightly at his sides.
Politics.
Again.
He had just broken a blockade, shattered a Separatist stronghold, buried hundreds of thousands of droids, and more than a few clones.
And now this.
Save the son of a crime lord.
His voice came back colder. "And Kenobi?"
"To Tatooine, Obi-Wan will go," Yoda replied. "Negotiate with Jabba. Assure him, we will."
Tatooine.
That word struck deeper than it should have.
Anakin's shoulders stiffened, but he said nothing.
Yoda watched him carefully.
"Necessary, this is."
A beat.
Then Anakin gave a single, sharp nod.
"Understood."
But it wasn't warmth. It wasn't acceptance.
It was obedience.
And obedience from Anakin Skywalker always came with a cost.
The holo flickered and vanished.
Silence settled in its wake.
Ahsoka glanced between the two men. She could feel it—something coiled beneath her new master's armor. Something restrained.
Obi-Wan stepped forward gently.
"Well," he said lightly, trying to ease the air, "it appears we are dividing forces once more."
Anakin turned away from the table.
"I'll prep the 501st for immediate jump to Teth," he said.
No joke. No quip. No smug comment about glory.
Just a mission.
He started toward the exit.
"Anakin," Obi-Wan called.
He paused but did not turn.
"You will handle this," Obi-Wan said evenly. "The Republic needs this alliance."
A slight nod.
Then he continued walking.
Ahsoka hesitated, then looked to Obi-Wan. "Master Kenobi… is he always like that?"
Obi-Wan allowed himself a small smile.
"Not always," he said. "But when politics become involved, he finds it… distasteful."
"That didn't feel like distaste," Ahsoka muttered.
Obi-Wan studied her for a moment.
"No," he admitted quietly. "It didn't."
He straightened.
"You'll do well, Ahsoka. He may not admit it, but he needs someone to temper him."
She swallowed. "I thought I was supposed to learn from him."
"Oh, you will," Obi-Wan said. "In more ways than you realize."
He placed a hand on her shoulder briefly.
"May the Force be with you, Padawan."
"And with you, Master."
Outside, the 501st were already mobilizing.
Red-marked clones moved with brutal efficiency. Gunships lifted. Transports loaded. Captain Rex stood giving clipped orders, Commander Virek overseeing tactical assignments with cold precision.
When Anakin emerged, the movement subtly shifted.
Clones straightened.
Helmets snapped into place.
Even the air felt sharper.
He surveyed them silently.
Then spoke through the vocoder of his mask.
"We leave in 2 hours, get everything loaded."
No flourish. No speech.
They did not need one.
The 501st went into double time.
Ahsoka joined him, trying to match his long stride as they walked toward the shuttle.
"So," she ventured carefully, "we're saving a Hutt."
"Yes."
"Is that… normal Jedi business?"
"No."
She nodded once. "Okay."
They walked in silence for a few more steps.
Then she added, "You seemed pretty mad back there."
He didn't look at her.
"Focus on the mission," he said.
"That's not what I asked."
That got a slight pause.
Under the mask, something almost amused flickered.
"You're bold."
"I've been told."
A faint breath left him—almost a quiet exhale of a laugh.
"Teth will be dangerous," he said, "The jungle can hold many mysteries, and sometimes those mysterious lead to things ones not prepared for."
She straightened.
"Yes, sir."
He stopped walking.
Turned slightly toward her.
"I'm not your sir," he said. "I'm your master."
Ahsoka blinked.
"Yes, master."
He studied her for a long second.
Then nodded once.
"Stay close. Watch. Learn."
He resumed walking toward the waiting gunship.
Above them, Venators of the Republic fleet began lifting from Christophsis' orbit, engines burning blue against the stars.
Obi-Wan's fleet peeled away toward Tatooine.
The 501st aligned for hyperspace.
And as Anakin's Venator rotated to jump coordinates, the crimson markings of his legion gleamed beneath the hangar lights.
Wild Space awaited.
Teth awaited.
And Ahsoka Tano was about to discover that being apprenticed to Anakin Skywalker meant stepping directly into the storm.
...
Alright, another chapter. Man, I can't wait for you guys to see Ahsoka meeting the murder droids, but that's not till later, also Oblivion Cell, that's my favorite. Anyway, im getting close to all my pre-made stuff running out, so I have to start letting the AI go Crazy again, fun editing ahead, enjoy.