Chapter 10: Hunters and Hunted
POV: Kael Vorn
The proximity alarm shrieked like a dying animal.
On the sensor display, a massive signature materialized from hyperspace—three kilometers of Separatist engineering that dwarfed every Republic ship Kael had ever seen. The Malevolence hung in space like a mechanical predator, its ion cannon ports glowing an eerie blue that promised annihilation.
Grievous had found them.
"Kriff," Anakin cursed, his hands flying over the engine controls. "All power to thrust! Everyone hold on!"
The Twilight lurched forward as her engines screamed to maximum output, but a cargo freighter was no match for a battlecruiser designed for pursuit. Warning lights bathed the cockpit in crimson as systems strained beyond their safety limits.
"We can't outrun that thing," Commander Wolffe stated with flat military precision, his scarred face grim as he studied the tactical display. "It's got twice our speed and ten times our firepower."
Kael's mind raced through his canonical memories, searching for the escape route he knew existed. The Kaliida Nebula—they had hidden there in the show, waiting for Republic reinforcements while the Malevolence searched fruitlessly through the gas clouds.
But they weren't there yet. They were still in open space, naked and vulnerable against a hunter that could vaporize them with a single shot.
"Asteroid field!" Kael shouted, the Codex highlighting a dense cluster of space rocks two degrees to starboard. "We hide in the rocks!"
[BATTLE ANALYSIS: EVASION PROTOCOL ACTIVATED]
[OPTIMAL HIDING SPOTS: CALCULATING...]
[SUCCESS PROBABILITY: 34%]
Anakin didn't hesitate. The young Jedi threw the Twilight into a steep dive toward the asteroid field, trusting Kael's guidance with the absolute faith of someone who had learned to follow his instincts without question.
They plunged into chaos.
Massive space rocks tumbled past at lethal velocities, some large enough to have their own gravitational fields. The Twilight groaned under the stress of constant course corrections, her hull plates shrieking as Anakin threw her through gaps that seemed too narrow for anything larger than a starfighter.
Kael's consciousness exploded with sensory input as Battle Analysis and Force Sense worked in perfect synchronization. Danger indicators cascaded through his awareness—collision vectors, gravitational anomalies, structural weak points in asteroids that might break apart at the worst possible moment.
"Down! Down! LEFT!" He shouted warnings microseconds before impacts that would have reduced them to cosmic dust. "Barrel roll NOW!"
His voice guided Anakin's piloting with desperate precision, while Ahsoka manned the shield controls and frantically redistributed power to compensate for impacts they couldn't avoid. Behind them, the Malevolence followed into the asteroid field, but its massive bulk worked against it.
Space rocks that bounced harmlessly off the Twilight's reinforced hull smashed into the battlecruiser with the force of orbital bombardments. The larger ship was forced to slow, picking its way carefully through obstacles that the smaller freighter could navigate with reckless abandon.
They gained precious distance.
"You perceive the future paths," Plo Koon observed, watching Kael's trance-like state with obvious fascination. "The Force flows strongly through you."
Kael gasped between warnings, his consciousness stretched thin by the constant stream of calculations. "Just... really good... instincts!"
[BATTLE ANALYSIS RANK INCREASE: APPRENTICE]
[PROGRESSION: 250/500 USES]
[PRECOGNITIVE ACCURACY: 87%]
[MENTAL FATIGUE: ACCUMULATING]
They found salvation in the hollow heart of a asteroid the size of a small moon, its interior carved out by some ancient mining operation. Anakin guided the Twilight through the narrow entrance and powered down to minimal systems, leaving them drifting in darkness while their hunter searched the field outside.
In the sudden silence, everyone exhaled.
The tension that had gripped them for the past hour released like a snapped cable, leaving behind the giddy relief of people who had just cheated death through superior piloting and sheer audacity.
"Okay, that was actually kind of wizard," Ahsoka said, breaking the spell with typical teenage irreverence. "Kael, you're like a really anxious protocol droid, but for danger!"
Despite everything—the destroyed fleet, the injured clones, the superweapon hunting them through space—Kael found himself laughing. The sound was half hysteria and half genuine amusement, but it felt good to release some of the pressure that had been building in his chest.
"I've flown with the best pilots in the Republic," Anakin added with a grin that made him look years younger. "And that was... okay, that was definitely top five."
Even Wolffe's scarred mouth quirked upward in what might have been a smile. The clone commander had seen more combat than most beings experienced in a lifetime, but the Twilight's mad dash through the asteroid field had apparently impressed even his professional standards.
The moment of levity was brief but vital—it bonded them together in the way that only shared danger could, creating connections that transcended rank and species and ideology.
Plo Koon removed his breathing mask long enough to sip water from a emergency supply, and Kael caught a glimpse of the Kel Dor's orange skin and large, dark eyes. The alien features were kind but ancient, marked by centuries of wisdom and sorrow.
"Your abilities are remarkable, Kael," he said, his voice slightly different without the respirator's electronic filtering. "The Council was wise to accept your aid."
"They didn't have much choice. I was too dangerous to ignore and too useful to waste."
"I'm just glad we found you, Master Plo," Kael replied instead. "Ahsoka was... worried."
The understatement drew a soft wheeze of amusement from the Jedi Master as he resealed his breathing apparatus. Through the Force, Kael could feel the deep affection that flowed between Plo and his former student—a bond that transcended the usual Master-Padawan relationship and approached something genuinely familial.
R2-D2 chose that moment to chirp urgently from his communication station, his dome swiveling as he intercepted transmissions from the Malevolence. The astromech's electronic voice carried obvious agitation as he relayed what he was hearing.
"Grievous is furious," Anakin translated, studying the droid's readout. "He's demanding his crew expand the search pattern. Apparently losing us in the asteroid field was not part of his plan."
But buried in the intercepted communications, Kael's Codex flagged something that made his blood run cold. Encrypted coordinates being transmitted to a location deep in the Outer Rim, marked with a designation he didn't recognize from any episode or expanded universe material he'd ever consumed.
Project Shadowfeed.
"That's not from canon. That's something new, something I changed just by being here."
He tried to mention the transmission, tried to explain its potential significance, but the curse activated the moment he attempted to reference his meta-knowledge.
"The evil robots are feeding shadows in the kitchen beyond space!"
Anakin gave him that look again—the expression of someone seriously considering a psychiatric evaluation—but Plo Koon leaned forward with sudden interest.
"R2, isolate that transmission," the Kel Dor commanded. "Display the coordinates."
The astromech complied, projecting a star map that showed a location far beyond the galaxy's rim, in regions that most civilized beings considered empty space. The coordinates pulsed ominously against the stellar backdrop.
"This is not standard Separatist protocol," Plo observed, his respirator wheezing with concern. "Something else is happening here. We must report this to the Council immediately."
[NEW MYSTERY THREAD: PROJECT SHADOWFEED]
[TIMELINE DEVIATION: CONFIRMED]
[UNKNOWN CONSEQUENCES: CALCULATING...]
Hours crawled by as they waited for the Malevolence to move its search elsewhere. Finally, long-range sensors showed the massive battlecruiser departing the asteroid field, apparently convinced that its prey had escaped to a different system entirely.
Anakin restarted the engines with careful precision, bringing the Twilight back to life one system at a time. They limped toward the edge of the asteroid field where Republic reinforcements were beginning to gather—a small fleet of cruisers and escort frigates responding to the emergency beacon that had been broadcasting since Plo's task force was destroyed.
Kael collapsed into his seat as exhaustion finally claimed him, the mental strain of extended Battle Analysis leaving him feeling like his brain had been wrung out and hung to dry. Ahsoka noticed his condition and draped a spare blanket over his shoulders with gentle consideration.
"Rest," she said simply. "You earned it."
As consciousness faded, Kael's last coherent thought was relief mixed with growing dread. They had saved Plo Koon, preserved one of the few truly good beings in a galaxy rapidly sliding toward darkness. But in doing so, they had also uncovered something new—a mystery that hadn't existed in the original timeline, a variable that his presence had somehow introduced into the galaxy's delicate balance.
[MISSION STATUS: PARTIAL SUCCESS]
[PLO KOON: RESCUED]
[PROJECT SHADOWFEED: REQUIRES INVESTIGATION]
[TIMELINE INTEGRITY: 95%]
[WARNING: MAJOR DIVERGENCE EVENTS APPROACHING]
In changing small things, had he triggered something much larger? Something that was never supposed to exist?
The questions followed him into unconsciousness, where dreams of shadow and flame waited to show him possible futures too terrible to name.
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