Chapter 97

"I still think this is a bad idea."

"Yeah, you mentioned, but don't you want your senator friend to stay alive for the foreseeable future."

"I'd rather you stay alive, idiot."

"And I'd rather you and the other's stayed safe and were nowhere near the epic clusterfuck that's about to erupt on the planet below us."

Opal glared at Renn as they both waited next to the loading ramp in the speedy vagabond's cargo bay but didn't respond.

They both knew why Renn was about to do what he was about to do, and while she thought that it was quite heroic and cool, she was also extremely worried about him.

"I'll be fine, don't worry." Renn said softly as he rested an armoured hand on her shoulder and gently pressed his forehead against hers.

By the time they had arrived in orbit around Geonosis they had come up with a plan, and while it had been altered somewhat because they had discovered that the prisoners, they were on their way to rescue where about to be executed by giant monsters in an arena, it was still basically the same.

The plan had been created by Renn to a lot of opposition from the others, mainly because it involved him jumping from high orbit into the centre of an arena full of Geonosians and battle droids.

He had decided on that because he didn't want Dia, or the others, anywhere near a full-scale battle. Especially seeing as it was likely to involve capital ships firing their massive main cannons at each other.

It would only take one lucky or unlucky shot from one of the main guns of a republic or separatist capital ship to cripple or outright destroy their own ship, and Renn wasn't willing to risk that with the girls on board.

So, the speedy vagabond would be in the system for as little time as possible. It wouldn't even enter Geonosis atmosphere, Sapphire had calculated the optimum place for Renn to jump from the ship and then she would fly it out of the system.

Unlike the others Renn's armour would allow him to survive a jump from high orbit and would give him enough of an advantage to survive the coming battle as long as he didn't do anything overly stupid.

"Thirty seconds to target, all personnel not equipped with breathing apparatus please leave the area before depressurisation." Sapphire announced over the speakers built into the cargo bays bulkheads, doing a pretty good impression of a sanitised robotic announcement.

"That means you Opal, or did you somehow learn how to breath in the vacuum of space," Sapphire said a moment later after the girl made no attempt to leave the cargo bay.

Renn smiled at the pouting expression on Opal's face as she glared at the ceiling, where Sapphire was watching, and pulled his helmet on over his head.

He was slightly surprised when as soon as his helmet's pressure seal had clamped it into place Opal lunged forward and planted a kiss in the centre of his visor.

"Come back safe…or else…" She muttered before retreating out of the cargo bay, Sapphire sealing the door behind her.

As soon as the door was sealed Opal vented the atmosphere from the cargo bay, to prevent an explosive decompression when a moment later she lowered the loading ramp exposing the bay to the cold void of space.

Renn stepped carefully to the base of the ramp and looked down on the planet bellow him, preparing himself to jump.

He had a thruster pack strapped to his back, and that plus his armours built in jump jets should hopefully help him survive the fall.

Renn was also carrying enough weaponry that he could probably kill several buildings, never mind any droids or geonosians that were unlucky enough to cross his path.

His slugthrower and his blaster pistol were magnetically clamped to his armour, along with his custom-made blaster rifle.

And he also had a bandolier crammed full of grenades to act as extras for all the ones hidden in his armours internal ammunition storages.

"This is it. Jump now." Sapphire's voice sounded inside Renn's helmet, and he leapt out of the ship without hesitation.

-

Renn could hear the wind rushing against his helmet as he began to rocket through the planet's atmosphere but ignored it.

He instead focused on the holographic nav-points that Sapphire was projecting on his HUD to show him the best course to take to reach the arena where his friends were being kept.

"The jedi task force has just entered the upper atmosphere and begun their descent, their heading indicates that they are planning to land some distance away from the arena.

It doesn't look like they're making any attempt to hide their presence and the separatist droid army has gone on high alert and begun moving on the arena as well, but for some reason the separatist forces at the arena aren't on alert.

The more I look at this the more it looks like those two jedi and the senator are being used as bait to lure the jedi into a trap.

I just don't get why the jedi are going along with it. If the jedi task force goes in on it's on like they seem to be planning to they'll get massacred." Sapphire said as she monitored both sides of the coming conflict.

"Where's the republic fleet and the clone army?" Renn asked as he adjusted his body slightly to change his trajectory.

"Still in hyperspace, even my earliest projections don't have them arriving before the jedi fall into the separatist trap, unless the jedi wait… but it seems that they are being led by Mace Windu…"

"So, no chance of that then. Windu doesn't not how to solve a problem any other way than running at it and trying to stab it… kind of weird that he's part of an organization that goes on about being pacifists.

It's not hard to predict what's about to happen. The jedi are going to run in and get themselves slaughtered and then the clones are going to arrive and get shot to pieces as they try to pull the jedi out of the mess they've gotten themselves in.

I just need to get Anakin and Padme somewhere that isn't the middle of the fighting, and I guess Obi-wan too seeing as Anakin's so attached to him, then I'll probably activate my active camo and hide under a pile of rubble, or something till things quiet down.

Have the girls gotten to safety yet?" Renn said as he saw the arena beginning to appear in the distance.

"I've just initiated the ship to jump out of the system, they'll be safely out of the system by the time the battle starts and be able to pick you up once it's finished." Sapphire told him and he smiled.

"Okay," He muttered as the arena began to get larger as he started to get closer to it, "What's going to be the situation when I land?"

"The three captives have just been chained to giant pillars in the centre of the arena and the Geonosians are preparing to lead out three beasts to serve as their executioners.

There are only a few geonosians in the arena, but thousands of them in the stands plus the massive droid army that's waiting for the jedi." Sapphire told him and Renn grimaced.

"Greaat, this is going to be fun." He muttered darkly.

-

Anakin glared at the geonosian in front of him as it chained him to a massive pillar in the centre of the sandy arena.

Two identical pillars stood to either side of the one Anikin was chained to, and he glanced to his right to check on Padme, the memory of the kiss they had shared before they had been led out into the arena flashing through his mind.

While Anakin was furious with himself for allowing Padme to talk him into letting her join him in this rescue mission, and he couldn't stop worrying about her safety, he couldn't deny that he was happy about how it seemed to have brought them closer together.

He just hoped that they would be able to live long enough to further explore their feelings for each other, which he thought was looking a bit unlikely as three gates slid open to reveal three deadly beasts.

"Fancy seeing you here." The snarky tone of his master forced Anakin to turn to his left to see the man regarding him with an eyebrow raised in amusement.

"Someone had to save you after you got yourself captured once again," Anakin said as he tried to shrug but failed due to the fact that his hands were chained above his head.

"Yeah, and how's that working out for you?" Obi-wan said rolling his eyes.

"Amazing, my plan is coming together perfectly." Anakin lied and put what he hoped was a heroic expression on his face.

"… You lost your lightsabre didn't you…" Obi-wan said with a deadpan expression as he looked seriously at Anakin.

"Maybe…" Anakin said embarrassed and looked away, unable to hold his master's gaze.

He then looked in front of him as the three beasts that the geonosians released into the arena began to get closer to them.

One was a vicious looking Acklay, a massive carnivorous crustacean native to the planet Vendaxa, that was snapping angrily at the geonosians trying to prod it towards Obi-wan.

The second was a large Reek, and the muscular horned creature was pawing at the ground as it was prepared to charge towards Anakin.

A screech sounded from the final creature, an angry little Nexu, as it was stabbed by a geonosian wielding an electric pike before the feline pounced forwards to tear its tormentor apart.

More geonosians arrived to force the Nexu away from their dead colleague and towards Padme and Anakin narrowed his eyes in concern.

"Well, whatever happens we need to protect Padme." Anakin said looking back at Obi-wan, "the two of us can probably take these animals but I'm worried about her."

"I don't know," Obi-Wan said looking past Anakin towards Padme, "She seems to be on top of things."

Anakin turned to see that Padme had managed to use the chain she was manacled with to climb to the top of her pillar and was in the process of unlocking her shackles.

Anakin saw motion in front of him and realised that the Reek was about to charge at him and braced himself.

But before it could reach full speed a boom sounded as something fell from the sky and impacted the sandy floor of the arena in front of the Reek.

The Reek reared back in surprise as a cloud of sand billowed up from the ground, obscuring whatever had crashed into the arena from view.

Anakin stared at the cloud in surprise and wondered what was happening, when suddenly the sound and the unmistakable slash of blaster fire ripped through the dust cloud in front of them.

The blaster fire waws followed by the boom of a slugthrower, and Anakin recognised it from all the times he had seen his friend using it.

And suddenly Anakin knew exactly what had fallen from the sky, and sighed as he realised exactly how much abuse he was going to get from Renn in return for being rescued by him.