Another blast rocks the ship, sending Obi Wan and Satine rolling onto the floor, with him landing beneath her to cushion the fall. With a grunt, she pushes off his chest and gets onto her feet, running to the cockpit of the ship, Obi Wan only a second behind.
“Who’s shooting at us this time?” Obi Wan asks sarcastically, flipping only a few switches before his hands are on the controls, putting the ship into a nose dive towards the planet, dodging a few more blasts.
“I don’t recognize the ship, definitely Mandalorian though” Satine says, reading the scanners. Obi Wan looks over for only a moment before moving the ship into a barrel roll, narrowly avoiding another attack.
“Whoever they are, they know what they're doing,” Obi Wan says, directing the shields towards the rear of the ship with a few flicks, and making a 90 degree turn to the left, a blast grazing the hull of the ship.
“Satine, see if you can direct the guns backwards,” Obi Wan grunts as he gives the ship another spin, before diving again, the assailant still right on their tail firing away. Satine looks over the controls, before looking back to Obi Wan, a look of conflict plastered on her face.
“I can’t Ben,” She says, shaking her head, looking at him with a heartbroken expression, knowing that she’s failing him with her inaction. He’s getting closer and closer to the planet, just a little less than a parsec, and then they can hide.
“Try communications then, see if we can get in contact with them, we’ll have to see if they like money more than us dead,” He says jerking out of the way of another shot, almost clipping them again. She nods quickly, and hits a few buttons, watching the scanners intensely as she waits for it to patch through.
“Only less than half a parsec, gonna make it, just a little longer,” He mutters, cursing whoever’s attacking them in his head. Satine looks at him again, her hands gripping the sides of her chair as she shakes her head.
“It’s not getting through, our communications are jammed,” She says quickly, a jolt of fear hitting her the same time another blast hits the ship. Obi Wan tunes out the alerts and sounds of the ship telling him the sudden problems he’d have to deal with later. He arches around a blast, the atmosphere of the planet starting to burn the front of the ship's hull.
“What's our plan?” She asks with a yell, her stomach in her throat at the sudden grasp of gravity pulling her down. Obi Wan looks over to her for just a second before his attention is taken again by the attacker.
“We need to land and find cover, whoever this is, they somehow found us, and we need to leave before more show up,” He yells back trying to see past the flames of reentry. He flicks a few switches and brings another 20% of the shields back to the front, hoping that the shots coming wouldn’t suddenly become precise. Satine braces herself, pushing herself as deep into the seat as she can and holding onto the armrests like her life depended on it.
Obi Wan flies the ship low, only a few thousand feet above the surface of the planet before he levels out, heading towards one of the few mountain ranges Mandalore has outside of its mighty dome. He dodges and spins out of the shots coming at them, submerging himself in the force completely, just as he’d done back in the war, even before then actually.
“Blast!” He yells, a lucky shot finally finding its mark in one of their thrusters, as he circles the mountain, bobbing and weaving in between high towers of rock, trying to get out of view for just a moment, just enough to try and recover. Satine has a death grip on her chair now, her usually fair skin now deathly white as she sits there, praying that Ben could handle this.
Obi Wan flicks a few switches again, and sees to his relief the dead thruster stabilizing, not able to be fixed, but at the very least not on fire anymore. That leaves him with just one more, he could work with that.
“Hold onto something my dear,” He says quickly before he puts the ship in a steep incline, riding up alongside the mountain’s side, reaching the peak before spinning the ship, the top of it now facing the mountain as it flies back down, picking up speed faster and faster.
“What are you doing?” Satine asks with a scream seeing the ground coming up to meet them much too fast for her comfort. Obi Wan looks at her for just a second, a strained smile on his face before facing their incoming doom again.
“Hopefully something that won’t kill us,” He yells back only seconds away from the ground, shots firing at him from behind as they go. He closes his eyes, calling the force to surround them.
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Things begin to slow, the ship, the blasts following them, their breathing, and he takes it in, and uses it to grasp the ship. Pulling on the controls as hard as he can, and using the force to help, he flips the ship completely upside down the thrusters barely stopping them from hitting the ground as he faces their attacker.
Taking the shot, Obi Wan fires, the blue rays hitting the strange wing of the enemy ship, as they pass each other, having to jerk the controls to get out of the way of the now crashing ship. He flies up quickly, before making a much more reasonable turn and see’s the ship on the ground burning, smashed to pieces as it finishes sliding through dead trees.
Satine breathes heavily next to him, her eyes wide as she stares down at her failed pursuer. He stops the ship, letting it hover momentarily as he slumps into his seat, his hand running through his hair as he takes a deep breath, adrenaline pumping through his body fighting the calm he wants.
“W-who was that?” Satine asks with a stutter, shaken, looking at Ben. He stares back, and seeing the state of her, moves closer, sitting on the edge of his seat as he takes her hand. Using the force, he reaches forward trying to convey calm, peace, and love, rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand as he does so.
“I have no idea,” He says with a shake of his head, “But he most likely has friends coming, and we really shouldn’t be here to meet them,” He continues, moving back to take the controls. She nods her head to his words, crossing her arms, as she bites her lip, trying not to think of the life lost for hers.
----------------------------------------
He lands the ship slowly in one of the hangars in Shuror, a small town on the edge of a few major cities. A frown marring his face as he senses Satines feelings, her grieving of an enemy, someone that had wanted to kill her. He hates how much he understands that pain, and doesn't want her to be feeling anything like that.
He heads down into the hangar living space they’d made and finds her laying on her couch, with her back to him. He gently pads his way over to her, and sits on the edge of it, right next to her feet, trying to be gentle as sends more comforting feelings through the force.
“Satine,” He softly prods, his hand resting on her shoulder as he leans closer. She rolls over, barely looking up at him as he looks down at her. He takes a breath, sensing her sadness, her despair, but above all, how tired she is, he can sense her growing weariness with how long this unending conflict has been raging.
She looks up, and he feels a bit of despair seeing a few tears leaving her eyes. In an instant, he has his arms wrapped around her, gently holding her to him as pours out all of his love for her, trying to let her know that she isn’t alone.
“I can’t keep doing this Ben,” She whispers, a little hiccup interrupting her words as she tries to get them out. Her arms wrapping around his body in the same manner he’s holding her, holding him tighter even, needing a life line.
“My people are dying and there is nothing that I can do to stop it, and even if I could… even if I had the chance too, I have to…,” She says trailing off, getting lost in the dark abyss that she thought was her future.
“Whatever you need to do, you don’t need to do it alone,” He whispers in her ear, holding her close to him, his forehead pressing into her golden hair. She can’t help the sigh that she lets out at that, though she can’t tell if it's from comfort or from the knowledge that he would have to leave eventually.
“I’m not going anywhere,” He says with finality, “as long as you need me Satine, I’m always going to be here,” He says closing his eyes, a deep and truthful love filling every word as he tries and makes her believe it.
“You have a duty Obi Wan, I will not ask you to abandon it,” She says resolutely, eyes still full of tears as she pulls back, looking into his own eyes. He stares back, his hands on her waist now as he presses his head against hers again.
“You are my duty Satine, you and everyone I love, you will always be my duty,” He says quietly, thinking of all the people he had a chance at helping now, just like her, he could save everyone.
“Ben you… you can’t do that… I-I know that we’re doing this, but I can’t ask you to stop being who you are…not for me,” She says shaking her head sadly, knowing that without him, losing one of her people will be much harder the next time, without the comfort and safety of his arms, his sweet words, his love.
“Satine, I wouldn’t be myself if I left you,” He says, “please, let me help,” He begs, gently taking hold of her chin with a few fingers and lifting her head, staring into her eyes as he pleads.
“I can’t be here all the time, you're right, but please, let me help… please,” He whispers. She stares into his eyes, and her eyes fill with slight wonder, but also with that same sadness as before, the part of her that keeps dragging her down.
“The only way anyone could help me, Obi, is if they stopped my people from dying,” She says knowing that it’s impossible, the only one who could have even tried being her father, and he died trying. Obi Wan straightens his back a little, his hand moving down to hers, and leans in, giving her a chaste kiss.
He pulls back with a light smile, feeling a spark of love and joy coming from her as she gives him a smile back, a soft one. He takes her hand and brings it to his lips, kissing the back of her hand, and takes it in both of his, looking directly in her eyes.
“Satine, I will do everything in my power to make that a reality,” He says with a finality, his eyes full of determination, as he gives his promise. She tightens her grip in his hand, shaking her head slightly at the insane vow.
“And how do you plan on doing that?” She asks, her voice dripping with a new hope, thinking of all the things she’d seen him and his master accomplished. He leans in and grins, his own voice full of hope, for her, for the future, for everyone he loves.
“I’ll do what I always do my dear, I’ll negotiate,” He says, standing up, her hand still in his as he starts thinking of the first major changes to the galaxy he’s going to be making, and he can’ help the excitement building up inside of himself as he plans it.