Posting this in two locations to maximize awareness. Reviews appreciated, but not necessary.

Hyperspace, it was more than just a method of faster-than-light space travel. Being in hyperspace evoked a sense of calm into even the most restless soul. Such were thoughts that graced the mind of Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker as he gazed out of the viewport on the bridge of his Venator-Class Star Destroyer flagship, Resolute.

Anakin took a calming breath to centre his turbulent thoughts; the Jedi Council had tasked him and his Togruta Padawan, Ashoka Tano, with destroying a droid manufacturing plant recently discovered by Clone Intelligence. Taking out the factory would go a long way to evening the odds of the war, particularly since these automated factories were known to build up to a hundred battle droids in a standard galactic day. Despite the obvious benefits success would bring, Anakin had a bad feeling that he just couldn't shake down.

"General?" A voice responded from behind Anakin. The Jedi Knight turned to see the Resolute's commanding officer, Admiral Yularen. He had closely cropped brown hair, blue eyes, and a neatly trimmed mustasche. The officer was fairly young for someone of his rank and was among the growing number of non-clone fleet officers.

"Yes, Admiral?" Anakin asked as he looked at Yularen.

"We're about ten minutes out from the insertion point General. You did say you wanted to be informed."

Anakin took a moment to push the bad feelings he had about the mission aside, now was not the time for such distractions. "Yes, I did. Thank you Admiral."

Yularen gave a slight nod in acknowledgement before spinning on his heels and moving away to ensure that the rest of the battlegroup was so informed. The Jedi General watched him depart before scanning the rest of the bridge. Amid the various officers and troopers working at tactical displays and consoles, there was the unmistakable sight of a certain red and white skinned Torguta. A slight grin formed on his face as he watched Ashoka studying a holo-projection. As he moved closer he could tell she was going over the battle plan he'd laid out for the assault on the droid manufacturing centre, on the planet Crato.

"Let me guess," Anakin said as he stepped to her side causing the young padawan to jump in surprise, "you've already seen flaws in my plan."

"Why Master," Ashoka said as she gazed up at him with innocent looking eyes, "I would never suggest such a thing."

Anakin had to raise an eyebrow at that, "Of course not."

Ashoka's smile seemed to fade as she turned back to the tactical display detailing Anakin's plan. "I am concerned about getting to the surface though Master. Their bound to have weapons emplacements protecting the factory," Ashoka turned back to her master, "I don't think a gunship insertion will be quick enough."

Anakin grinned at his padawan, and Ashoka could've sworn she saw a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, "Don't worry Snips. I've got it all under control. Trust me."

Ashoka looked as though she wanted to argue the point, but whatever she was planning to say was interrupted when Captain Rex entered the bridge. The officer was fully suited in the traditional white armour of the clone trooper, though his armour was blue-stripped in order to display his affiliation with the 501st Legion. The stripes ran down the armour covering his arms, the middle of his chest, his legs, and his currently donned T-visor helmet.

"General," Rex said as he came to attention and snapped off a crisp salute, "All preparations for the mission are complete. The gunships are fully prepped and all troops are on standby."

"Excellent work Rex," Anakin said with a grin, "Let's get underway."

Rex nodded and sidestepped to let Anakin and Ashoka pass before following in their wake. Jedi Skywalker led the way to the closest turbolift and, once Rex and Ashoka were inside, he keyed for a descent to the ventral hangar bay. Ashoka took notice immediately, "Shouldn't we be going up Master?"

Anakin didn't bother to turn around, "Not this time Snips."

Before his apprentice could inquire further the turbolift came to a halt and the doors parted. Anakin quickly disembarked from the lift and moved through the enormous chasm. Ashoka followed her master in awe as she gazed out at a hangar bay she had never seen before. A large blast door stood in the centre of the hangar, it was clearly the loading area of the hangar. It alone was big enough to allow a Republic cruiser to fit inside. Even from this distance, Ashoka could see that a squadron of low altitude assault transport (LAAT) gunships were resting on the loading hatch, with what looked like a total of a company's worth of clone troopers clustered near their respective transports. That was the only loading area alone, the rest of the hangar was devoted to the storing of ships. Everything from gunships to ARC-170 starfighters were placed throughout the hangar, mechanics and pilots alike moved around to ensure that the ships were in compliance with the Grand Army's standard.

Ashoka ceased her gazing as the three drew closer to the gunships. When they were twenty metres away, one of the clone troopers spotted Anakin and snapped to attention as he yelled, "Group! Officer on deck!"

The remaining soldiers immediately stopped talking and came to attention where they were standing. The one who'd shouted out the warning saluted Anakin at his approach. The young General only smiled at the soldier as he passed, "At ease."

The group immediately relaxed, though Anakin did want the soldiers closer to make sure they could all hear his last briefing. Anakin motioned to Rex who was immediately at his side, "Get them in ranks, Captain."

"Yes sir," The Captain said in acknowledgement before turning to the now relaxed troops. "Form up in five ranks!"

The command was acknowledged immediately; one of the soldiers off to the far right stepped forward and announced himself as the right marker. Three others stepped behind him to set the fall-in position for the rest of the company. Not being ones to waste time, the remaining clones fell in until twnety stoodat-ease in each of the five ranks.

Captain Rex moved to the centre of the formation, positioning himself so that he was on the opposite side of the clones, but facing the comapny. The veteran officer came to attention and shouted, his voice carrying to the far ends of the hangar bay, "Company, atten-tion!" The clones responded by quickly moving their legs from a previous position of shoulder-width apart to the new position of both legs together; their heels only made one sound as the entire movement was conducted in perfect synchronization. Rex nodded in approval at their actions, "Stand at-ease!" The Clone moved back to the normal parade stance. "Stand easy!" The soldiers brought their hands from behind their back to being relaxed at their sides.

Rex turned about face, so that he was 180 degrees from his previous position, and looked straight at Anakin. "Company is awaiting your orders sir."

The Jedi nodded his thanks, moved a bit closer, with Ashoka at his side, and began. "You all know the mission; our target is the droid factory. We won't be able to get a very smooth insertion this time." He paused to sweep his gaze across the company before continuing, "The Resolute and the rest of the fleet will disengage from hyperspace only 20,000 kilometres from the planet. While the rest of the fleet deals with the droid defences, the Resolute will move toward the planet's atmosphere, as soon as we hit the outermost layer the gunships will be dropped." Anakin paused to look at the clones with a small grin, "And I mean dropped. We'll go in hard and fast, no engines, just gravity."

One of the troopers gave a small whistle, "Gives a whole new meaning to the word 'dropship.'"

"At twenty kilometres above ground level the engines will be engaged," Anakin continued, "That will be our cruising height to the rendezvous point. You all know what to do from there, any questions?"

The soldiers remained quiet. Anakin wasn't surprised; they'd been thoroughly briefed on the mission plan over the past day. Rex took this as his cue to dismiss the troops. He called them back to attention before giving the command for dismissal. As one, the clones turned to their right and took three paces forward before breaking the formation to head to their assigned gunships.

Anakin watched them leave, part of him knowing that some of them would not be coming back. He turned his attention to his padawan, a nervous expression was etched on her face. "You look worried Ashoka."

The padawan in question tore her gaze away from the gunships to look at her master. There was a feeling of uneasiness that she just couldn't shake down. At first she thought it was because of the way they would be inserting, but now she thought it was something else. No matter how hard she tried to concentrate on the feeling, she couldn't pin it to anything. It was like a quiet warning bell in the back of her mind. "I don't know Master, maybe I'm just nervous about how we're getting in."

"Don't worry about it Snips, it'll be fine."

Ashoka had to admire his confidence, "If you say so Sky Guy."

Rex led the General to his gunship, which was placed at the front of the squadron. As Anakin boarded the LAAT the pilot closed the gunship's doors, leaving only the small grating panels open. Light was reduced dramatically, but it was still fairly easy to see. The vehicle's occupants reached for handholds as they felt the gunship descend. Ashoka looked up in slight alarm, "We're not dropping already, are we?"

"Not yet Snips. Loading area is descending so the shield above can activate," Anakin said with a grin and just because he couldn't risk teasing her said, "Dropping in a gunship isn't a problem, is it?"

"No," Ashoka spoke a little too quickly, "No problem."

"Glad to hear it," Anakin said with a half smile before turning to Rex, "Tell Admiral Yularen I want an updated E.T.A to Crato."

"On it sir," Rex activated the COM built into his helmet and reset the frequency to match the Resolute. "Captain Rex to Admiral Yularen."

"Yularen here," the Admiral's voice came back a few seconds later.

"Sir, General Skywalker requests an updated E.T.A."

There was a slight pause before the Admiral spoke into the COM, "The fleet will drop out of hyperspace in twenty seconds."

"Understood sir, Captain Rex out," Rex cut the channel, set the frequency back to the standard of the 501st and turned his external speakers on in order to communicate with Skywalker. "General, the Admiral reports arrival in twenty seconds."

With nothing else to do, Anakin counted down from twenty in his head while he looked at the others.

Twenty. Aside from Captain Rex, seven other clones occupied the LAAT. They stood with their usual collected and calm demeanours; most of them were simply gripping the handholds in anticipation, while a few inspected their weapons one last time.

Fifteen. Ashoka grimaced, the quiet warning in the back of her mind was growing steadily larger with every passing second. It was like a steady build up of adrenaline, she had an instinct to flee, but for the life of her, she couldn't figure out why.

Ten. The warning was magnifying. Ashoka had first attributed the uneasy feeling to nervousness about the insertion. But now, now she wasn't sure what to think. "Ashoka, what's wrong?" Anakin whispered to her, "You seem almost…afraid." Anakin chose the word reluctantly but it was the only thing he could think of to describe his padawan's feelings.

Five. Ashoka took a deep breath to try and steady herself, but nothing was working. "Master, something's wro—"

Ashoka's words were cut off as something collided with the Resolute, sending the ship rocking. Anakin immediately activated his wrist link COM, "Admiral Yularen, report!"

Instead of answering on the COM, the Admiral's voice was heard throughout the Resolute, "This is Admiral Yularen; we are under attack! Pilots to your ships, all hands man your battle stations."

I know some of my readers are going to be wondering why the hell I haven't finished Empire Beneficiary- if they're even reading this. The answer is because I've finally started working on a novel, which I hope will be well received when I'm done with it. As to why I am even bothering to write fanfiction now, it's becuase writing this story has fillen in some gaps to my novel that I might otherwise have never filled.