On The Run

19 BBY: Geostationary Orbit, Coruscant

"YOU ARE SURROUNDED!"

The comms blared within the master's and the padawan's ship, which overtook the loud hyperspace engines in the back. They paused, thinking of their next move as outside hovered twenty clone starfighters that targeted their weapons on the two 'fugitives'. Ready to kill! Kema fueled by her past horrors, pain and anger plotted a genius plan. Dangerous, but genius.

"Master, let's try Flash!" she started up her engine and began a daring sequence.

"Kema, that is suicide!" Xido glared in horrific concern, "we won't make it!"

"How hard can it be?" she scoffed but kept the ship steady and waited. Xido sighed and began starting her engine up right before the troopers took notice.

"Sir, their engines are firing up!" a clone trooper mentioned while he waited for orders.

"They won't go anywhere, ready your fire!" the squadron captain barked his commands.

The standoff felt subtle but fearful when none of the parties yielded. The Jedi had a question here while the clones had a mission. To be 'good soldiers who follow orders'

"Wait," Kema paused.

"Fire!" the captain roared as the blasts flung towards the ships, but a swift move Kema sensed the triggers from a mile away. Remaining steady she watched ready to strike.

"Three, two, one!" after a sequence of countdowns the two starfighters bent the rules of spacetime, thus entering hyperspace. As they disappeared, the debris of the torn ships joined them.

"Sorry," Xido uttered a lament before she turned away towards their new aim.

"They're all trying to kill us!" Kema shivered. Her losses overflowed, "we have to disappear!"

"We can just go back to Pantoine," Xido prompted.

"If they tracked us here, imagine if they did that back in Pantoine!" she remembered that Pantoine was a hidden world. If the empire dared, she knew the population would be in grave danger.

"So where do you plan to go, when we're being hunted by our comrades?" Xido laughed.

"Somewhere where they would never suspect,"

-

18 BBY: Arjo City, Cif.

Cif looked different, not the entire planet but enough for an observer to notice. Kema and Xido exited hyperspace above Cif and watched the now changing world. It looked different: dirtier, grittier, but still maintained that green/brown hue it had in the past. They were out of options, and this was the only place the clones probably wouldn't know. She wanted to find answers; she wanted to know why her friends desired to kill her.

"Have patience, Kema," Xido warned as every Jedi would. It felt repetitive to Kema, but to her, it was one of the most important lessons.

"Yeah! right," Kema scoffed under her breath.

She sped up the starfighter further and entered the atmosphere, only to pierce it and hover down to a new place she never knew. She felt like she'd never visited in ages and as the two landed in a nearby hangar. They hopped out to survey the changing world. Cif became a scavenger's world. The empire never had interests in worlds like these because of lack of resources.

"Where are we?" Xido asked before she shut off her engine.

"This, this is Cif," she gazed around. There was construction everywhere, with even a bunch of star destroyers that hovered the sky.

"Hey! You can't park here!" the garage keeper treaded her way onto the platform to ward off the newcomers. She walked with a limp as a pit droid rested on her shoulder. "The empire will burn my workplace down,"

"The empire?" Kema questioned before a shuttle came into the hanger. The two Jedi hid their weapons in their pockets to hide the fact that they were Jedi. Their fate would be uncertain if the empire found them.

Just while the two were speaking, another ship headed towards the hangar and hovered right inside. Three clone troopers made their way down from the lowered ramp, and the commanding trooper surveyed the hangar and the building surrounding it.

They looked…different. No colours or insignia, just plain white armour but the same helmets. Kema vaguely gazed at their new fit, wondering when the republic died.

"Who's in charge here?" the commanding trooper lifted his voice.

"Umm. Me sir," she startled. "I operate the hanger,"

"We're here to inform you that those two right there are fugitives of the empire," The latter troopers held up their blasters towards the master and her padawan. Kema shook in a fearful jolt, but Xido remained still. Kema considered running her lightsabre through them but hesitated.

"We're not who your-" she attempted to speak before a trooper shot her flank as she fell to the floor. In a quick flash, Kema ignited her sabre in anger and dashed towards the two. Deflecting the blasts and running several cuts on their sides before she targeted the commanding trooper.

He drew his blaster and fired staccato blasts towards her as she deflected with ease. She slowly treaded with each step, pounding harder before she cut the trooper down. The trooper fell on the floor and she turns it off and slides down to her master.

"Master, are you alright?" she called onto her.

"Yea, I'll be okay!" she grunted as Kema surveyed the blast injury. It was a mere scrape.

"Help us stay here, we'll help you and do whatever, but we have to keep ourselves hidden!" she barked.

"This workplace needs a little bribe to keep it up," the woman smiled.

"Fine," she chucked a box of credits she kept in her pocket.

"Begin by cleaning up this mess and destroy those ships!" she walked to her post, towards the building while her pit droid kept its eye on the two.

Kema carried her master inside, and the woman showed her to an extra room. She found the nearest bed and laid her down, scurrying through her pocket to find her first aid kit.

"You two are Jedi?"

"Used to be," Xido spoke while she hissed in pain.

"They branded us fugitives and now our friends are hunting us!"

"Friends?" she questioned.

"We served in the war," Kema answered promptly.

"Oh," they left the woman thunderstruck. "Well, if you want to stay safe, you must cut those locks and get some new clothes. You, too,"

"Thank you," Kema acknowledged her, "what's your name?"

"Vinnie Vikkor," she smiled. "And yours?"

"Kema," she responded.

"No, from today you're Corde!" she scoffed as she made her way out to her post and tended to her day-to-day customers. "As for your mother, Sirlin!"

"She's not my-" she laughed as Vinnie practically left the room.

-

Back at Coruscant, a starfighter dropped from low-orbit and pierced through the atmosphere and parked a hangar; where Captain Sharpe awaited the arrival. The clone exited the fighter and reported to the captain.

"I'm sorry, captain, we've lost the signal!" the trooper said. He activated his transponder to show a map of high-orbit Coruscant, "we lost the signal right at the egress point, right as they left Coruscant."

"Estimate!"

"Somewhere probably near Florumm maybe?" the trooper suggested.

"Begin there, I have requested troops from Lord Vader. Find anything that seems even close, we need to do our duty as soldiers," he explained as he placed his helmet over his head. "Understand? Failure isn't an option!"

"Yes, sir!" the trooper barked as he jogged into the hangar's building to gather soldiers.