The Negotiator and the Fire Fang

The Interlude: Over Coruscant

Zap. Crash. Explosion.

Space. Lasers. Ships.

Droids. Clones. Jedi.

Generals. Counts. Chancellors.

That pretty much summed up Sahrea Shan's day. She was supposed to go with Anakin Skywalker to assist with the Siege of Mandalore, but then Separatists appeared above Coruscant, the Chancellor was abducted, and a full scale battle broke out above the capital.

So that's where she was now. Shan was given command of the Ro-Ti-Mundi, one of the many capital ships involved in the fight, while Skywalker and Kenobi went to rescue Chancellor Palpatine on The Invisible Hand.

The Gray stood on the bridge, watching the chaos unfold before her. She had been in space battles before, but never one like this. There were so many ships this tiny portion of space. How were the clones and droids not flying into each other? How were the CIS and Republic dreadnoughts not colliding by now? How were they able to tell who was friend and who was foe at that speed?

Sahrea didn't know. She wasn't much of a pilot, which is why she was on guard duty rather than out there, shooting down vulture droids.

Her eyes couldn't even take it all in. It was a flash of white, a flash of grey, bright red blaster bolts, bright green blaster bolts. There was a pattering in background as a Separatist ship peppered their hull with blaster fire.

Shan gripped her forearms, her eyebrows pulled taut, caught up in her own thoughts.

She hated standing here not doing anything, especially while Kenobi and Skywalker were risking their lives heading for Dooku. She tapped her fingers against her biceps.

Obi-Wan was giving her anxiety. She knew he was a strong, capable Jedi, but she wasn't foolish enough to believe he couldn't die. Many strong, capable Jedi had already been killed in this war and her Jedi was headed straight into a Separatist nest.

Her grip tightened over her armor clad arms as her heart constricted in her chest. She had to relax. Obi-Wan had survived this long. He would be fine, and besides, Anakin was with him. She let a breath loose through her nose.

Shan was taken off guard as the ship rocked beneath the crew. Her feet slipped out from under her. She and the clone troopers all stumbled about, trying not to fall.

Lights flashed, things began to beep. A holographic model of the cruiser had a big blinking red circle on it. Sahrea didn't know what that meant, but she assumed it wasn't a good thing. She rebalanced herself and looked up to Captain Null.

"What happened?" she called over the wailing. The noise stopped as suddenly as it began. The clone captain began to tap on the console, his face full of concerned determination.

He was in the gold painted armor of Ghost Company. His hair was dyed orange and was completely shaved except for the top. The hair there was long, almost to his eye, and combed over to one side. His face relaxed.

"Ok, it's not too bad. We got hit with a proton torpedo. It damaged some of our outer hull and the comm relay." he explained as he looked over the damage report. Sahrea stepped closer to the panel.

"It can't be too severe, I can still hear the pilots." she said, tuning her ears into the feed. Oddball was assisting the other pilots with an issue that was being drowned out in panicked voices. Kenobi was currently dealing with buzz droids cutting away at his ship. Skywalker was attempting to help with said buzz droids, but from the sounds of the dialogue, Sahrea wasn't sure if he was making it better or worse.

"Yes, but the issue is, we can't transmit out." Shan's eyebrows pulled together. Ok, that wasn't the worst possible thing that could have happened, but it would certainly be a problem if they were to be boarded.