Chapter 1: Order 66

Clone Captain Rex

Clone Captain Rex was conflicted. For five years he had served the republic, sometimes under the very man leading him towards the Jedi Temple, but the man he had once known was gone, replaced by the Sith Lord Darth Vader. His fellows seemed to be blindly following the Sith Apprentice's orders, but Rex was not going to. Using the attack as cover, he snuck away, taking off his helmet, he slipped away down a corridor and started looking for younglings before the Sith could find them. Soon, he found a few, who were cowering in a cupboard, their eyes closed.

"Step away, Rex," said a familiar voice behind him. He turned, to see the familiar Togruta padawan, both lightsabers drawn, but not ignited.

Rex turned, his hands up at his helmet. He unclasped it, and took it off.

"I am not here to hurt you, Ahsoka Tano, nor these padawans," said Rex "If my brothers are willing to stoop to this level, I no longer consider myself one of them. I am a soldier of the Republic, but it's not the Republic anymore. I'm going AWOL."

Ahsoka looked directly into Rex's eyes, then lowered her lightsabers. "You three can come out," said Ahsoka "He's not here to hurt us."

The three younglings, two humans and a twilek, scurried out of the cupboard to hide behind Ahsoka. Rex holstered his weapons and walked out of the room, Ahsoka and the three younglings following behind.

"What's your plan?" asked Rex "Surely you didn't mean to fight the whole Republic army in here?"

"Protect the younglings, try and get to the hangar, steal a ship and run," Ahsoka shrugged "Improvise around that if needed."

"You really are Anakin's apprentice," said Rex

"What happened to him?" she asked "I've not seen him since the Chancellor was kidnapped, he told me to stay here."

"It's a long story, and I don't have time to explain it now," said Rex "I'll let you know once we get out of this mess."

Ahsoka nodded. As they got towards the hangar, they found their way blocked by three clone troopers. Rex drew his guns, firing at one, while Ahsoka buried her lightsabers in another. The three padawans deflected fire from the third trooper, taking him out as well. Ahsoka continued towards the hangar. When they arrived, the hangar appeared deserted, all the Jedi that usually manned it, apparently fighting in the battle.

"We should take the gunship," said Rex "It looks enough like one of ours, it'll go unnoticed, we take a Jedi ship we'll be sitting ducks."

"Agreed," said Ahsoka "But we should ditch it as soon as possible, get a less recognisable ship."

Ahsoka

They entered the small gunship. The Jedi had heavily modified it to give it hyperspace capabilities, which other gunships, designed as troop transports, did not have. While this made the compartment space smaller, it was plenty large enough for the five of them. Rex and Ahsoka went into the pilot compartment and powered up the ship, Ahsoka piloting, while Rex manned the guns. Ahsoka used the force to open the bay doors, flying the gunship out and into the upper atmosphere, looking down mournfully at the fires that were growing at the Jedi temple. Then, her Jedi training kicked in, and she locked away her feelings. After all, grief could lead to the dark side.