The Unchronicled Adventures Of Ahsoka Tano, Book Ten

Chapter Thirty-Four: Into The Debris Field

AHSOKA TANO

Ahsoka brought the ship out of hyperspace just beyond the edge of the debris field of charred durasteel and blackened Imperial logos Phoenix Squadron had left in its wake. Although it was on a far smaller scale, she was still struck by how eerily similar it all was to the incident with the Malevolence.

This is probably how Anakin felt when I dragged him out on that impromptu mission to save Master Plo, Ahsoka thought. She glanced over at Kaya Ti and back at Ezra. The two Padawans both had within them a reflection of herself, and she realized that their roles had been switched.

I guess I'm stepping into your shoes now, Anakin.

"Wow," Ezra breathed. "She... she did all this..."

"What do you mean?"

"Phoenix Four – Janira – she took out a transport and downed over three dozen TIE fighters, all on her own," Ezra replied, still in awe. "And then there was the light cruiser..."

"Ezra, the odds of that–"

Ezra shook his head in a forceful negative. "No, I saw it with my own eyes. Swooping and spinning every which way; swerving back and forth... She was like nothing I'd ever seen. She pulled missiles in after her just so she could use them to blow up the larger ships."

Sounds like my sister-in-law, Ahsoka thought. The barest hint of a smile came to her face as she remembered the times she had seen Janira in action, but it sobered with bitter-sweetness as she realized, with all their similarities, how much Anakin Skywalker would have loved her.

Finally, it sank back into a frown as the glow of memory faded away and Ahsoka was left with nothing but her worries.

Ahsoka turned back to the debris field that extended for miles out before them. Amidst all the misshapen pieces of machinery and sparking wires, she could still make out the remnants of the troop carrier and Imperial light cruiser.

Ezra and Kaya Ti stared, openmouthed, at the carnage surrounding them. Ahsoka nodded knowingly to herself. Even though she had borne witness to the wake of destruction Janira's fighter left in its path before, it was still hard to believe one woman had been the cause of almost all of this.

As she maneuvered the Hope into the trench that had made up the very front of the cruiser, she caught sight of an escape pod. Curiosity piqued, she trained her eyes on a spot just beyond it. Her attentive gaze soon found three more.

Her guess was that the Imperial survivors had already been picked up. The escape pods dotting the debris field must have short-circuited. But whether they had done so with people inside them or not, she didn't know.

It wasn't extremely vast, but it was still large enough to allow for some areas too far for Ahsoka's senses to get a good fix on them in a preliminary search. She pushed the reach of her senses out as far as it could go, searching every nook and cranny for any signs of life that matched up with her sister's presence in the Force.

She was suddenly acutely aware of how much was riding on this. Ahsoka didn't even know for sure if Janira was alive. All she had to go on was impulse and a strange mix between desperation and hope that her sister by marriage was still out there somewhere.

But that desperation fuelled her. It gave her the strength to push on. She wouldn't leave the fate of those she called family up to chance – not this time.