Chapter 40 - The Battle Begins

“Get ready to come out of Hyperspace,” Mace Windu’s voice came on over the comm speaker.
Ash pulled back on the throttle of her starfighter and watched the starlines turn back into stars. She watched as Kiro and hundreds of other Jedi starfighters came out of hyperspace all around her. Echo and Xiang’s ship caught her attention. They were riding in a double seated starfighter. It was pretty easy to find in the mess of the other fighters.
As they got closer to the system, the Anti-orbital cannons began to fire at them. Mace was right when he said to be prepared. Ash watched ad people around her burst into flames as their ships got engulfed in cannon lasers. A beam came soaring straight at Ash and she had to turn her starfighter into a hard spin out of the way. The laser went soaring harmlessly past her.
Kiro’s voice came over her comm unit.
“Looks like you have more talents than you told me,” he said.
Ash blushed. She was just glad Kiro couldn’t see it.
She focused back on the mission and continued to poor laser onto the GATs and Hailfire droids on the surface of the planet as they entered the atmosphere. Soon enough, Ash saw all but one of the cannons explode. She silently congratulated Mace Windu, who he and Luminara Unduli had went down to destroy the cannons. There was only one left, and that was inside a crashed republic cruiser. By now, there were no droids in sight. The Jedi had taken care of them all. It was all going so fast.
Ash took her starfighter up higher to where other Jedi were, waiting for the last cannon to be destroyed. Within minutes, Mace Windu’s voice came over the comm channel.
“Jedi Strike team, prepare to land in a captured Confederate outpost near the arena.”
Ash has learned on the hyperspace jump that she was a part of the strike team, along with Kiro, Echo, Xiang, and many other Jedi. Ash turned her starfighter towards the planet and headed down to the coordinates Mace had just sent them.
Ash landed her fighter silently and jumped out. Kiro landed right nest to her. They walked over to where Mace and Luminara were standing and issuing orders.
Mace pointed at Echo and Kiro.
“Head over to RTT convoys and pick your transport. We have to get going,” he said.
Ash and Kiro nodded and ran to the RTT convoys. She sensed her sister’s presence nearby and headed to the RTT that she felt it coming from. She ran to it and sure enough Echo and Xiang were already in there, along with a few more Jedi.
“You’re a little to slow for me,” Echo said.
Ash just laughed and tried to focus on the upcoming chaos. The doors of the RTT closed and they were on their way. It was dark inside; the only light was a dull red one.
Mace and Luminara were leading the way to the arena catacombs in tanks, taking care of the droids that dare stand in their way. Ash heard multiple explosions outside. One was so close to their transport that she actually was startled.
“You aren’t scared are you?” Kiro said smiling.
“Me? Scared? You must have me confused with my sister,” Ash said. This made Echo frown.
The doors of the RTT opened and everybody rushed out. They worked their way to the perimeter of the arena, taking out numerous droids. Then they silently made their way inside.
It was dark and musty. Ash stuck close to Kiro, maneuvering around workers and trying to stay quiet. On the way there they had went over a schematic of the arena so they knew where they were going. Ash had a pretty good memory, and could feel the presences of the Master Kenobi and Skywalker in the middle of the arena. Twice they almost got caught by Geonosian guards. They had to silently flip over the guards to get past them.
There were many droids walking around as well. If a droid got in their way, she and Kiro quickly ignited their lightsabers and sliced them into pieces, then clipped the sabers back on their belts and continued on their mission. She trusted in the Force and let it guide her to the right place.
Once when she and Kiro were walking down a hallway, they heard talking on the other side.
“Ssshhh!” she whispered to Kiro. He stopped and leaned up against the wall like Ash. She snuck closer to the edge of the hallway and sneaked a peak out onto the other side. There were about 5 Geonosians walking towards them, but oblivious to their presence. As they got closer, Ash used the Force to make a distraction on the other side of the hallway. She reaching into the Force and yanked a big chunk of rock out of the wall and sent it flying towards the Geonosians. They ran past them screaming in their shrieky language.
“You’re just full of surprised aren’t you?” Kiro said.
“You have no idea what I’m capable of,” Ash said with a smile.
They continued down the hallway, twisting and turning down ever other hall until they finally saw light at the end of one of them. They peered out and saw their fellow Jedi coming up on the other side of the arena and some on the floor as well. Kenobi, Skywalker, and Amidala were sitting on top of a reek surrounded by battle droids. They were looking up to a tower where they say Mace Windu holding his purple lightsaber to a mans neck. Ash and Kiro stepped out onto the balcony and ignited their lightsabers, Ash’s blade green and Kiro’s blue. Slowly, Ash began to hear hundreds of mechanical foot steps behind her.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” she said.
Then she heard blaster fire from up above, and the foot steps growing louder and louder. They turned around and saw hundreds of droids running at them down the hallway. Ash looked down below and started to see more droids down below and countless more Jedi. Ash stood in defensive position and got ready.
“Do you still have a bad feeling about this?” Kiro said.
Ash looked at him.
“What do you think?” she said with a smile.
With that, the droids attacked, blasters fired, lightsabers sprang into action, and the battle of Geonosis had begun.

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