Republic forces had completed their sweep of Separatist resistance and reached an entry hatch.
"R2," Anakin called to his trusted astromech droid, which immediately jetted toward him. The droid interfaced with the cruiser's systems and opened the hatch to allow the others inside.
Meanwhile, Bane departed the bridge with his hired muscle.
"Why are we abandoning the bridge to the Jedi?" a tactical droid asked.
"Because those were our orders."
"I hate this assignment."
As soon as the droid finished complaining, the bridge doors suddenly burst open, and War Machine, Anakin, Ahsoka, and Spider-Man rushed in with clone troopers following close behind.
It was a swift engagement, and the B1 battle droids were instantly destroyed, leaving only two survivors.
"Don't shoot!" the yellow droid pleaded. "I'm not the commander—he's the commander."
The droid beside it was immediately blasted apart.
"Well... I suppose I'm the commander now."
Then it too was destroyed.
R2-D2 continued rolling forward.
"R2, see if you can locate Master Ropal," Anakin ordered, and the astromech immediately began working.
After interfacing with the ship's computer, the droid quickly discovered something for all the Republic forces on the bridge to see.
"—an authentic Jedi holocron," Cad Bane's holographic recording stated, "and the memory crystal I was contracted to obtain."
Upon seeing both items in the bounty hunter's hands, Ahsoka exclaimed, "No! He has both pieces now."
Anakin turned to his clone commander and issued orders. "Rex, deploy a squad to secure the hangar bay and destroy all escape pods. No one leaves this ship."
"We need to locate Master Ropal immediately."
"No need," Pietro's voice crackled through the comm, his tone grave. "I found him, but he's dead."
"The enemy escaped though," Pietro added apologetically. "That monster killed Ropal."
Ahsoka's expression fell, and Anakin clenched his fists tightly.
"Rex," Anakin contacted his commander, "have a team recover Master Ropal's remains from the detention level. We're taking him back to Coruscant for proper burial."
Suddenly, the spacecraft began shaking violently. "What's happening?"
"General Skywalker, this is Admiral Yularen. One of the frigate's engines has suffered a catastrophic failure. Clear the aft sections immediately."
Anakin activated his wrist communicator and responded, "How severe is the damage?"
"I recommend immediate evacuation of all personnel."
Ending the transmission, Skywalker looked toward his team.
"So what's our next move?" Spider-Man asked urgently.
"We need to find Cad Bane and recover the holocron," Anakin declared.
"Master, we might not be able to retrieve the holocron in time," Ahsoka argued, "but if it's destroyed with the ship, the Separatists won't be able to use it either."
"It's not that simple, Ahsoka," Anakin explained. "Remember what Master Windu said—that holocron contains the identities of every known Force-sensitive child in the galaxy. It's irreplaceable information. I'd rather return it to the Jedi Archives personally than see it destroyed."
Having heard her Master's reasoning, Ahsoka knew there was no point in further argument.
As some troopers turned back to retrieve Master Ropal's body, the rest of the team began navigating through the Separatist cruiser.
"What's with all the lighting? Why is everything so dim?" Fives asked.
"Stay alert," Anakin warned. "This could be an ambush."
"Most likely," War Machine agreed.
Continuing through the corridors, R2 whistled and beeped as they spotted a figure running past them.
The group pursued the figure and entered a large chamber aboard the vessel, where they were confronted by Cad Bane and a substantial force of battle droids positioned behind him.
"Ah, Skywalker, how pleasant to see you again," Bane said condescendingly. "We've been expecting you."
The Jedi, clones, and two Avengers all aimed their weapons at the bounty hunter, while the droids behind the Duros did likewise.
"It's over, Bane," War Machine declared, targeting the bounty hunter. "Hand over the holocron, and we might go easy on you."
"Oh, I will, trust me," Bane scoffed. "But first, I have work to complete, and I need Jedi assistance for it. Besides, what's the hurry? My associate has been eager to see you again."
"Who?"
A menacing chuckle echoed throughout the hangar, sending chills down the spines of several clone troopers.
"That would be me..."
A massive figure dropped from its concealed position in the hangar ceiling, landing with a thunderous impact that left a substantial crater in the deck plating.
"Hello again, War Machine," growled the bounty hunter Durge.
"Oh, hell no!" War Machine and everyone else reacted with shock.
"Him?!" Ahsoka cried in horror.
"Fall back!" War Machine shouted to the clones, raising his arms. "I know this is bad, but now we're really in trouble."
A weapons compartment opened on his forearm.
War Machine fired his micro-missiles, but Durge was more than prepared.
The Gen'Dai extended one of his appendages, caught the missile within his biomass, then detached the limb and hurled it away.
The missile-wrapped appendage landed among several vulture droids and exploded violently.
"Yeah, that's just perfect," War Machine muttered.
Bane smiled smugly, activated his jetpack thrusters, flew to safety, and called out, "Have fun, Durge!"
Durge's body began expanding, and the battle droids opened fire on the Republic force.
Spider-Man shot a web-line and pulled himself up to the ceiling.
"Hmph, that pest again," Bane muttered, recognizing Spider-Man.
The clones returned fire on the droids while War Machine, Anakin, and Ahsoka engaged Durge directly.
Durge laughed maniacally, swinging his elongated limbs wildly as he fought the Jedi and Avengers simultaneously.
While War Machine's newly addition shoulder-mounted blaster continued firing at the massive opponent, Anakin and Ahsoka sliced through Durge's biomass and tissue.
However, for every wound they inflicted on the bounty hunter, he healed and regenerated almost instantly. It was incredibly frustrating.
The remaining clones maintained their offensive, keeping distance from the chaotic melee ahead. The battle droids weren't so fortunate.
"So who exactly is that?" Pietro asked, pointing at Durge, who was now attempting to attack Spider-Man as the young hero swung around him while trying to entangle the creature.
"That's Durge."
"The bounty hunter freak Rhodes told me about?"
"Exactly," Anakin confirmed, reigniting his lightsaber.
Pietro narrowed his eyes, cracked his neck, and accelerated forward.
Durge threw a massive fist at Spider-Man, but Peter nimbly dodged, and suddenly the Gen'Dai felt himself being struck repeatedly at superhuman speed.
"What is this?!" Durge roared.
"What's wrong, freak? Too fast for you?" Pietro taunted.
"Insufferable pest!"
"We'll see about that," Bane said, pressing a control on his wrist device.
Immediately, everyone began floating as the artificial gravity was disabled, clones and droids alike suspended in mid-air.
"Whoa, zero gravity? That's actually pretty cool," Spider-Man exclaimed, earning a glare from Ahsoka.
"I mean, this is really bad!" Spider-Man said sheepishly, then shot a web-line to Pietro and pulled him to a solid surface.
War Machine encountered minimal difficulty and flew directly toward Durge.
Anakin and Ahsoka worked together to deal with the floating droids while Rex had the clones activate their magnetic boots.
"Well, aside from that giant scary mosnter, my first space battle is pretty awesome!" Spider-Man declared.
"Kid!"
"Yes, Mr. Rhodes!" Spider-Man leaped from his position, gliding effortlessly through blaster fire and floating droid debris, quickly firing multiple large web-nets to ensnare Durge.
Durge struggled briefly and tore through the webbing, but at that moment, War Machine unleashed a sustained blaster barrage at the Gen'Dai.
What War Machine didn't anticipate was Durge screaming in apparent pain before slamming him violently against the bulkhead. Everything happened so suddenly that War Machine was struck in the head before he could react.
"Mr.Rhodes!" Spider-Man shouted.
"Colonel!"
Anakin rushed over and severed Durge appendage with his lightsaber.
As War Machine fell, Pietro quickly ran up the wall, caught him, and carried him back to the clone troopers.
"Colonel, are you alright?" Fives asked with concern.
"Splitting headache."
Anakin, Pietro, Spider-Man, and Ahsoka focused their attention on Durge.
He was becoming even more frenzied now, and nearly caught Anakin and Ahsoka before Spider-Man pulled them aside with his webbing.
"Okay, seriously, is this guy insane? Or was he already crazy before this?" Spider-Man asked.
Cad Bane observed the chaos with satisfaction.
It was time to implement his real plan.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Support me at [email protected]/goldengaruda and check out more chapter of this or more early access chapter of my other fanfic translation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~