The Unchronicled Adventures Of Ahsoka Tano, Book Ten

Chapter Twenty: Into The Base

LUX BONTERI

For a moment, all was quiet along the narrow mountain pass except for the distant chatter of the battle droids. Try as he did, Lux could do nothing but stay in place and watch, a hundred memories of his years as a Separatist supporter coming back to him as he watched the clunky humanoid machines go about their duties.

Ahsoka was the first to react, pulling Lux back into the shadows. "Aargonar?" she echoed, her face pale. "Are you sure?"

"I... Now that I think about it, I recognize it from the holos that came with the reports," Lux mumbled, almost too dumbfounded to speak. He took a deep breath in hopes of regaining his composure. "Ahsoka, it has to be. I feel like I've been here before – and as a Force-sensitive, you know that never happens without a reason."

"Okay, hold up!" Kaya Ti exclaimed. "I'm not following you. What the hell is Aargonar? Or where?"

"It's a planet that was held by the Confederacy for the first half of the war," Lux clarified, his voice hollow. "When I was fourteen, the man I knew as my father for most of my life was assigned there to establish a base. And he... he..."

Lux couldn't finish the sentence.

"So, if this is Aargonar... Oh, Saint Murphy." Janira put a hand to her mouth, the horror and sadness in her grey eyes a reflection of his own. "This is the planet where your stepfather... This is where Zakhan Elt was killed."

"But... you go by the last name Elt," Kaya said, turning towards Janira and then Lux. "And if he's your stepfather... Okay, I am confused as hell right now."

"Janira was raised by her birth father, but she chose to take Lux's stepfather's last name to keep a low profile." When Kaya Ti still shook her head, Ahsoka sighed. "I'll explain it better later."

"One thing's for certain: we have got to get inside that base. I mean, look at this stuff! The droids alone are old enough to have been made during the Clone Wars – you can tell by the degradation of the paint. Seps always bought the cheap stuff." Janira put a hand on Lux's shoulder. "This could be the opportunity you didn't know you were missing, ori'vod. You can finally start making amends with the past."

"I agree with you about the base," Ahsoka said. "These droids should have shut down at the end of the war like all the others, but here they were. We need to figure out why everything is still operational."

Lux managed a faint smile. "So which way are we getting in, General Tano? Sneak in or guns-a-blazing?"

"I'm not a General, Lux," Ahsoka told him, shaking her head. "I resigned my military title when I left the Order – even calling me Commander is pushing it. But we'll go for a sneak attack and fall back to fighting our way out if things go sour."

"Look – that makes five minutes since the last patrol, and ten since the one before that," Kaya told them. "I think it's safe now."

Lux grabbed his lightsaber in one hand and one of his blasters in the other, clicking the safety off and priming the power pack. Ahsoka nodded, and together, the four of them filed out of the mountain pass and raced across the clearing.

As they grew closer to the metal structure, Lux nearly tripped on a vibrantly colored root of that he could have sworn hadn't been lying in his path a few moments before, but he decided to think nothing of it. He was still a little frazzled, and the most important thing to do now was to focus.

Once Kaya Ti had made sure it wasn't ray shielded, they flattened themselves against the wall beside the door. Ahsoka, who was unquestionably the strongest out of all of them in the Force as well as the most experienced in battle, reached out towards the heavy locking mechanism on the door, her eyes fluttering shut.