Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage

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About fifteen hours after we discovered the carbonite-encased clones, the Talos Chariot took off from the large hangar bay. Tatnia, myself, and Allum were all on board, as well as Luke and Ahsoka, with Calima as our pilot. Our hold was full of fifty-three slabs, all hooked up to a temporary power generator and a crude monitoring system, which Miru set up for us. We ended up having to leave the Arrow, our speeders, and a crate of Gozanti parts behind to make room for our cold guests, but that was fine.

According to Ahsoka, Alpha Base was already preparing everything they would need to treat the clone troopers, including removing their bio-chip. I wasn't really surprised that they were so eager to help. One of the Rebellion's biggest deficiencies was truly experienced soldiers and leaders. It was, by its very nature, a rag-tag bunch of freedom fighters, locking experience and training. Having fully trained soldiers join would always be met with excitement and eagerness.

We had barely jumped to light speed when I stepped out of my room, dressed in my uniform. I had told the crew that it was up to them whether they wore them consistently, but so far, everyone was wearing them nearly constantly. They felt official, like a constant reminder that we were a solid, well-put-together group, with real tangible resources.

As I turned to head to the lounge, I caught Ahsoka coming out of one of the bedrooms. She was looking around, confused about something. After a moment, she walked to the door that led to my enchanting room, which I kept locked because not only did it have my enchanting set up, but it was where we kept our stash of precious metal ingots. She fiddled with the door controls, only to frown when it refused to open. She looked around and spotted me.

"Deacon! Sorry, I… I don't want to be nosy, but…' She trailed off for a moment before continuing. "Why does it feel like you have an entire zoo of near-comatose animals in this room?"

Her question threw me for a loop, my brain trying to parse out what she was talking about. Finally, after a few seconds of looking confused, I managed to figure out what the hell she meant.

"Uhhh, that's a bit difficult to explain," I responded before stepping past her and tapping in the code on the door, which sprung open. Before she could step in, I turned around in the doorway and held my hand out. "So I'm going to say a lot of words, and some of them may be confusing. The important thing is that you understand that when I say Soul, I mean life force. I'm not fucking around with actual souls, alright?"

I knew that I could have told her just to buzz off and mind her own business, but Ahsoka was an ally. Someone whom my team and I would hopefully be working together with a lot in the future. Not to mention, she was someone I would like to think was a friend, and I wanted her to understand what I was doing rather than watching me with suspicion. I turned and walked into the room, leaving the ex-Jedi standing at the door, looking around with wide eyes. I followed her gaze first to the enchanting table, which very much looked like a ritual table, then to the boxes full of soul gems, before finally resting on the few dozen bars of platinum and gold tucked into the corner. When she was done, she looked back at me.

"Fine… despite that statement being very concerning, I will listen."

"So, my magic has a method of instilling effect into objects that you wear," I explained, pulling off one of my rings and tossing it to her. "It's called enchanting and requires a few things. The first is a specially designed table, like this one. The second is the object you wish to enchant. The third is something called a soul gem…"

I spent about fifteen minutes explaining the process of enchanting. I assured her that despite the name, I was not stealing souls, merely gathering the dispersed life force that animals release when they die. She seemed uneasy about the idea, but after examining a filled soul gem, she seemed to accept I wasn't somehow dabbling in Sith alchemy or anything. Apparently, that kind of thing was hard to ignore. What she was instead agitated about was what I used to make soul gems.

"Are you telling me all of those were once Kyber crystals?" She asked, looking down into the large, full box of filled soul gems. "And they turn to dust when you are done? Do you have any idea how rare Kyber crystals are now, with the Empire cracking down on their sale and blockading Ilum with an entire armada?!"

Instead of responding, I reached under the table and pulled out another crate, clicking it open and turning it to her, showing off the massive pile of Kyber crystals. Her eyes went so wide they looked like they were about to fall out of her head.

"Wh-what? Where did… where did you get these?" She asked, leaning down and running her hand over them. "I can feel them, but I've never seen some of these colors… is that pink? And black? Where did you find these?"

"In a cave on Dantooine," I explained. "If you'd like, I could show you and Luke exactly where sometime. But this isn't even a fraction of what the cave contained. There was enough crystal in that cave for a couple thousands of lightsabers. Probably more if you were careful."

"Dantooine? That… How did we not know about it?"

"Because it was a very well-kept secret of the Jedi Enclave that resided there," I explained. "So when the enclave was destroyed nearly four millennia ago by Darth Malak, the secret was lost."

"... how could you possibly know that?" She asked. "I barely know anything about that time period, and there was an entire class about it at the temple."

"Because I am the reincarnation of Revan, here to create a new empire," I explained with a shrug. "Wanna join up? We have great benefits."

She stared at me, her eyes wide again, her mouth hanging open as well. After a long moment, I finally lost it, cracking up and laughing. Finally understanding that I was joking, she punched me in the shoulder, her own annoyed smile on her lips. I kept chuckling even as I rubbed the spot she hit. At that moment, I was pretty sure I had gotten a glimpse of Ahsoka before the darkness of the galaxy had settled over her. Before the Jedi Order tossed her to the side and her Master murdered them.

"No reason to be violent. If it helps, I promise that whatever Jedi group Luke starts after this war, I'll keep them supplied with naturally grown Kyber crystals, even if I have to find them myself."

"You seem pretty confident that's going to happen," She responded, ignoring my remark about her punch. "Something you'd like to share?"

"Sure," I responded, the Togruta leaning in to listen. I grabbed one of the pink crystals and handed it to her. "You can have this one."

She frowned and accepted the crystal with a confused expression, the dark pink chunk of Force-connected stone about twice the size of anything that could fit into a lightsaber. She looked lost for a moment before finally realizing I had made a joke. She scoffed and rolled her eyes but didn't push for more. Instead, she slipped the crystal into her pocket and nodded.

"Thank you. I will put it to good use," She said, before looking past me and around the room. "So what sort of effects can you achieve with this enchanting?"

"Well, I can increase your dexterity, your strength, your resistance to fire, cold, or shock-"

"Shock? Like electricity and lightning?" Ahsoka asked, suddenly very interested.

"Yeah, it's one of the main types of magic combat spells," I said, holding my hand out and sending a single, low-power spark of electricity to the stack of ingot against the wall. "You've seen me use some of those spells. But to answer what I know you're thinking, I don't know if it would help against Force lightning. If it was just electricity, it would, but it's also full of malicious intent and rage, fueled by the dark side. I could make both you and Luke something with that enhancement, but I can't promise it will actually help."

"I… couldn't pass up a chance to get some protection from one of the Sith's most powerful weapons," She responded after a pause. "Even if that chance is small. You don't mind?"

"No, I've got no problem making you and Luke something. It will probably take the rest of the trip, but I'll get them done."

"Do you mind if I observe?" She asked, looking genuinely curious.

"You can watch if you want, but it's not very exciting unless I fuck up," I explained. "Grab a chair from the lounge and a pair of safety goggles from Miru's workshop. I have time to make one now, but I will make the other tomorrow."

She nodded and left to find a chair and the goggles while I grabbed two soul gems and sat down at the enchanting table. She returned and picked out a simple metal cuff with carvings in it that almost looked Celtic, handing it to me so I could get to work.

Over the next seven or eight hours, I concentrated on the cuff, making sure to go nice and slow to make the defense as potent as possible. I could feel the progress I was making, the process was significantly easier than it had been when I first started. Pretty soon I would be ready to try using three soul gems instead of two.

By the time I finally finished, I looked around the room, not surprised to find it empty, though the chair was still there. I quickly cast Clairvoyance and followed it to the first deck, where I found Ahsoka meditating on a cargo crate, her legs crossed as several small objects floating around her. Luke was nearby, doing the same thing, though he only had one object, and it was stationary in front of him, floating at eye level.

Rather than interrupt their meditation, I gently placed the cuff next to Ahsoka on the corner of the crate she was sitting on. After that, I went upstairs to check on Calima and Allum, making sure they were good, before crawling into bed and calling it a night.

When we finally arrived at Alpha Base three and a half days after we left the station, both Luke and Ahsoka disembarked wearing enchanted cuffs. Luke had gone as far as to ask me to help test them, asking me to shock him with and without it on his wrist. He confirmed they worked and that my ability to heal away things like minor burns and aches from meditating all day was the best thing ever.

As we made our way down the ramp and into the hangar reserved for us, we were greeted by nearly a dozen people. More than a few of them shared the same face, though a few seemed to be a bit older than others. Ahsoka headed straight for one of them, not hesitating to give them a hug.

"Rex, it's good to see you again," She said, the bald, salt-and-pepper bearded clone nodding as he returned her hug.

"It's good to see you too, Commander," He responded. "I heard you found a whole lot of my brothers."

"We did, fifty-three to be exact," She answered, pulling back and patting his shoulder. "It was quite the shock."

"I can imagine."

"This is Deacon Roy, leader of the Skyforged Vanguard," Ahsoka said, turning slightly to gesture to me. "His second in command, Tatnia. Without their help, we would have never found them."

"Good to meet you both," He said, holding out his hand, which I happily shook. "Thank you for helping my brothers. We should talk more once they are being properly checked over."

The frozen clone troopers were slowly and carefully unloaded from the Chariot and guided to a singular large room, where they were hooked up to monitoring equipment. Several medical droids and doctors, a few of whom I recognized from my time healing people from the Yavin rescue mission, scanned and took notes about the clones as they came in.

Eventually, everyone was transferred over to the new room. We watched from the sidelines as doctors and medical droids continued to scan them. General Syndulla joined us once things had settled down. She greeted us each with a handshake.

"We have medical teams working to prepare the surgery rooms as we speak, as well as three medical synthesizers working to put together the rapid aging cure injections," She explained. "We should be able to start within the hour. Any luck identifying the highest rank?"

"No, General, none of the usual changes to the armor are present," Rex explained, brushing his beard before shaking his head. "Either they are all troopers, or they never bothered to change their armor."

"Unfortunate. Ahsoka, I know you wish to be there as they are treated, to assist and keep them calm, but..."

"We can't risk them identifying me, even just by my voice," She agreed with a nod. "As small of a chance as it is, it is not worth the risk."

"As long as you don't say anything, there's no issue," Rex tried to counter. "I don't think there's much point in sending the Commander away, not when hibernation sickness means they will be completely blind."

"Better safe than sorry, Rex," Ahsoka said, the technically younger clone eventually frowning. "I'll be waiting in the observation area should anything go wrong."

The ex-Jedi patted her long-time friend's shoulder before starting to leave the room. Before she could get far, Luke caught up and left with her. Rex was clearly annoyed at the necessity of the situation but eventually let out a sigh and focused on his brothers.

While we were all waiting for the process to begin, Captain Rex finally got a good look at Allum. Somehow, despite looking nothing like his genetic donor, the "older" clone trooper recognized him for what he was.

"One of the face changers, eh?" He asked. "I considered it once I got the treatment, but I could never commit to it. Got one other here that did, though."

The clone captain gestured to the nearby gathering of several other clone troopers, all here to support their brothers. Only one of them had a modified face, though it was much less dramatic than Allum's, as they could have passed for a close relative of Jango Fett rather than his clone.

"I didn't have much of a choice, captain," Allum explained with a shrug. "My chip was damaged during a head injury just before the… order came through. The war was still technically going on when I ran, rather than getting accused of treason. My soon-to-be wife smuggled me out to her home planet, where I was quietly given citizenship. I had no choice but to change my face since there was no Rebellion to seek safe shelter in."

Rex nodded in understanding, slapping Allum's shoulder. I couldn't help but smile at the instant camaraderie between brothers. They continued chatting before Rex eventually guided Allum over to the rest of the troopers, introducing him to the group and leaving Tatnia and me alone to wait.

After twenty minutes or so of watching multiple people scanning and monitoring the trapped clone troopers, one of the doctors began to guide one of the carbonite slabs out of the large room. Surprisingly, it was the same Mon Calamari who had been in charge of the reception at Thila Command, along with a medical droid. As they moved, Captain Rex followed behind them, and after motioning for Tatnia to stay behind, I did as well. The medical droid of all things, spotted me first and attempted to convince me to return to the rest, but the Doctor, seeming to recognize me, ordered it to let me follow.

As we stepped into a much smaller room, one clearly converted into a sterile operating theater, with a hospital bed and several machines I didn't recognize, the Doctor pulled me aside. Behind them, others began preparing to defrost the trooper.

"I've seen how much good your abilities could do at Thila, so I will allow you to remain in the room. But, for now, I want you to keep your… magic to yourself," He explained, staring me down with the confidence of an experienced doctor in their domain. "We have absolutely no idea how your ability works, so predicting how it will interact with our equipment and treatment is impossible. If the situation spirals out of control, I may call for you to help. You may also help once the patient is calm and capable of giving informed consent. Understood?"

"I understand, Doctor. I'll keep my magic to myself," I said before quickly adding. "I should also say I have a spell that calms an individual, should that be useful."

"I will keep that in mind," He said with a nod before turning back to the rest of the room.

I walked over to stand in a clear corner, out of everyone's way. Once I was sure I wouldn't cause any issues, I gave a nod to General Syndulla, who was standing outside the operating room behind a clear barrier with several other people of various species. I turned back to watch the carbonite slab float down onto a bench of some kind, its onboard repulsors turning off.

"We are deactivating the carbonite slab's repulsors to remove one more complication from the equation," The doctor explained, seeming to treat this like any other operation under observation, dictating his methods and plan. "We will begin the defrosting process, with Captain Rex on standby should the patient awake confused or distressed. Should the patient refuse to calm down, we will administer a sedative. After much discussion, it has been concluded that, due to the non-life-threatening nature and the risk of the procedure, we must ask for consent before attempting to remove the bio-chip."

I looked over at Rex, who caught my look and shook his head.

"Don't look at me. I told them that every single one of them will want it removed," He responded quietly as the Doctor continued to talk. "We may have differing opinions on some things, but not wanting to be mind-controlled slaves is pretty consistent. The only reason they might say no is if the carbonite leaves them confused. It's not a fun process."

"You've been frozen in carbonit?" I asked, surprised.

"A crazy scheme from Commander Skywalker."

"Ah, yeah, that makes sense."

"The technician will now begin the defrosting process," The Doctor explained before focusing on Rex. "Captain Rex, if you would be so kind as to come closer."

The aforementioned technician leaned closer to the carbonite slab and began taping and shifting the controls along the side of the slab. The temperature control systems built into the frame began to hum, and after a few seconds, the relief of the trooper began to glow red. The controls began a quiet warning whistle before the thing thin-casting encapsulation the cloned warrior began to melt, releasing bright beams of light as it did. It looked almost identical to the process I had seen in the movies. The sound was the same as well, though a bit louder than I remembered, a wet crackling sound that made me think of stepping on something crunch andy goey.

Thankfully, unlike in the movies, the doctors had the foresight not to dump the clone out onto the floor. Instead, they stayed lying in the mold of their body, shivering and twitching.

"Hello!? Who's there?" He called out, reaching out wildly, gripping the edge of the, trying to pull himself out but failing due to the weakness caused by being frozen. "W-whats happening? Anyone?!"

"It's alright, soldier, you're safe," Rex said, stepping closer to take his clone brother's hand. "You're in the medbay now."

"Who are you? What happened?" He asked, no longer flailing around but still on edge, looking around blindly, his eyesight obviously gone.

"We found the station and pulled you and the rest of the survivors out," Rex explained. "My designation is CT-7567. Captain Rex. What is your designation, soldier? You have a name?"

"CT-14-2839, Sir," He responded almost instantly." He responded. "Looker, Sir. How many did you pull out, Sir?"

"... We have fifty-two slabs remaining, Looker, you are the first. Is that everyone?"

"Yes, Sir. That is everyone who was stuck on the station," He answered confidently, the tension he was holding slowly sliding away. "We thought… we had no idea if anyone would ever find us, Sir. How long has it been?"

"It's been a good chunk of time, Looker. Over twenty years. A lot has changed since you went under."

The clone soldier, who was wet and still shivering, stilled as Rex explained how long they had been frozen. Before he could react, Rex continued.

"I know it's a lot to take in, Looker, but there is something very important we need to talk about first. During the time you were asleep, a conspiracy in the Republic was revealed. Certain members of the government conspired with the Kaminoans to have biological control chips placed in our heads. Every clone ever born has them."

"What?" Looker asked, once again trying to push themselves up. "That… What happened?"

"A civil war," Rex answered solemnly. "But luckily, with the right preparation and some more advanced medical technology, the chip is removable. The operation is safe but not infallible, so we need your permission to try."

For a long while, the trooper was silent, their mind working through everything that Rex had just revealed to them. Eventually, after nearly a minute, the trooper nodded, still gripping Rex's hand like a lifeline

"Do it," He said with a nod. "I won't be a threat to the Republic. Not after having sacrificed so much to protect it."

"All right, trooper. A doctor is going to administer some anesthetic, which will knock you out. Next time you wake up, you will control chip-free. Most of your symptoms from the hibernation should have faded as well, so you should feel better."

"Thank you, Captain Rex. I'll see you on the other side."

The older-looking clone trooper reached out and patted the soldier's arm while one of the doctors put an injection tool against his neck and administered the sedative. The soldier was asleep moments later, and Rex stepped back to let the doctors work.

"I would like to note that if that was barely passable as consent," The head doctor said as he confirmed the clone soldier was unconscious. "In any other circumstance, I would have refused to perform the surgery. Unfortunately, we do not have the luxury of being one hundred percent truthful in this circumstance."

As we watched, the clone trooper was transferred to the hospital bed. An expensive-looking machine was wheeled over, the top of which was a plate-sized sensor unit attached by sturdy multi-jointed limb. Over the course of five minutes, the sensor developed a detailed scan of the trooper's brain and identified the bio-chip.
"The location of the chip follows the notes we have from several other procedures performed on other clone soldiers," The Mon Calamari doctor explained. "Which means the standard procedure should work without issues."

Once the scan was complete and the chip located, the Doctor and his aides began preparing the soldier for surgery. They shaved his head, then used a solid-looking contraption to stabilize his head. Once they were ready, they began the procedure, first sterilizing the scalp, then cutting into it to create a flap of skin, and pulling that back to reveal the skull. They then used what almost looked like a miniaturized drill pressed, which attached to the same mount the soldier's head was secured to cut into his skull. Once the baseball-sized hole was cut into his skull, the Doctor used a remote manipulator, the kind that translated large movements into tiny, microscale shifts to perform the actual surgery. I didn't have the best angle to see everything, but I could see when the Doctor pulled out a thin slice of flesh.

It took another stretch of surgery to undo the incision and reconnect the circle of the removed skull, but when his scalp was finally re-attached, the Doctor stepped away from his tools.

"Alright, everyone, that went very well," He said. "But the tide has only begun to rise. One down, fifty-two to go."

The turnaround was rather quick, all things considered. The hospital bed was wheeled away, replaced by another identical one, and the nurses and droids re-steralized the tools. Soon, another slab was on the table, and the process began again.

Over the next three hours, fifteen of the fifty-three soldiers went under the knife with no real abnormalities, save when we stumbled on the highest rank of the survivors, a Lieutenant who went by Rider, CT-4478. He was the only one so far to suspect something was going on beyond what Rex was saying.

"What were they conspiring to do?" He asked when Rex explained why the chip existed, managing to sit up despite his obvious temporary weakness.

"To take control of the Republic and turn it into a dictatorship," Rex explained, wincing but ultimately refusing to lie directly.

"... if they controlled all of the clones, the Republic would have been defenseless," Lieutenant Rider guessed. "They would have taken over in days, weeks at best…"

I could feel the tension ratcheting up, the guards stationed just outside the surgery theater preparing to intervene as the medical staff started to back up. I made a calming gesture, General Syndulla nodding and relaying the order to her men.

"Since you are offering to remove the chip, that must mean you are rebelling against the new dictatorship," He guessed again, proving his intelligence. "Unless this is all an act…"

"Not a ruse Leuitenant. We are part of the Rebellion," I said, getting a look from Rex and a few people behind the protective screen. "We are worried about triggering anything hidden inside the chip. That's why we are feeding you and your men as little information as possible while still giving you enough so you can give informed consent to remove the chip."

"Who are you?" The clone asked, his sightless gaze turning towards my voice.

"My name is Deacon Roy, leader of the Skyforged Vanguard, a rebel-leaning mercenary group. We were part of the group that found you and your men."

"Why are you here?"

"My team found you," I explained. "I didn't want to pass you off to someone else, I needed to see it through."

"... What's going to happen to my men?" He asked after a long pause.

"If you consent to getting the chip removed, you will spend some time recovering, then you can do what you want. Leave, stay, whatever you want," I responded. "You are not going to be held against your will, nor are you going to be forced to join up. Your war is over. What you and your men do is up to you."

"...And if we say no?" He asked, his muscles shaking as he prepared himself to do something stupid.

"Then you can spend some time recovering from hibernation sickness, and I will personally bring you somewhere you can bum a ride," I explained. "We need to keep Opsec, so it might not be a luxury trip, but I promise you, you will be treated humanely. I'll even make sure you have some credits, so you're not just stuck somewhere."

Just like Looker, Lieutenant Rider spent a long while considering the offer before finally nodding. Eventually, his posture shifted and he lay back down in the carbonite mold.

"Fine, I consent to the procedure. I'm trusting you, Deacon Roy, and you, Captain Rex."

Once the officer was under and the procedure began, Rex leaned over to talk to me.

"What was that?" He asked, his voice more curios than accusing.

"He had already caught you trying to hold back the truth," I explained. "He was beginning to question if anything you said was true. I was a different voice, answering his questions fully. Would have preferred it to be someone higher up than me, like the General, but I was here, so what can you do?"

When the Doctor finally called the procedures for the day, Rex headed to the room where the treated troopers were while I headed back to the Chariot. Before I had gotten more than a dozen feet, someone called out for me. General Syndulla, with heard guards nearby, was waving to me.

"General Syndulla, it's good to see you," I said as I made my way to her. "I gotta ask, how did everyone react to the news of the troopers?"

"It certainly threw off everyone's orbit for a moment," She said with a chuckle. "I'm glad we found them. I can't imagine drifting through space for all eternity like that. I wonder if they would have ever been found."

I had to bite my tongue from mentioning that, as far as I knew, they never would have been. My teasing about just knowing things had been fun so far, but I'm not sure how people would react to me having concrete foreknowledge too.

"I just hope that whatever they choose, they can find some peace or at least a place in this world," I said, shaking my head. "What the Republic did to them makes me sick."

"It definitely puts things into perspective," the General admitted, shaking her head. "Unfortunately, besides treating them better, there is not much we can do about it now."

I nodded, and for a second, we both stood silently in the hall. Eventually, she cleared her throat and continued.

"Do you have a moment? We wanted to discuss Omega Station and the preliminary result of the inspection," she explained.

"On an official level?" I asked, getting a nod of confirmation in return. "Because I would prefer to have Tatnia with me if we are going to be shaking hands on deals."

"That's fine, I can have someone escort her to the conference room."

"In that case, lead the way."

She nodded and, with a gesture, headed off down the hall, her guards following behind us. I let out a sigh, knowing that it was very likely this would turn into a long, drawn-out conversation depending on who else was in the meeting. I shook my head, resigning myself to the situation and, with fingers crossed that no politicians would be involved, followed after the Rebel leader.

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General Syndulla led me to a small conference room not too far from where the clones were being kept and processed. We settled down and, after a few minutes of waiting, we were joined by Tatnia, as well as another individual that I recognized but couldn't put a name to immediately. He was older than me by at least twenty, maybe even thirty years, with white hair and a white beard. After a few moments of wracking my brain, I finally realized who it was, which was shocking. As far as I knew, he shouldn't have escaped from Yavin IV.

"General Dodanna, it's great to meet you," I said, standing slightly to shake his hand. "Its good to see you made it off of Yavin IV safe and sound."

He seemed shocked that I recognized him, taking a moment to look me in the eye, before shifting a look to his Twi'lek comrade. He shook my hand with a firm grip, before sitting down in one of the many seats around the table.

"It was a close thing," He admitted, a shift in his eyes belaying just how close it had been. "If General Syndulla hadn't arrived with considerable support from CIS salvage… We would have been looking at a very different scenario."

"I'm glad it worked out," I said with a nod. "And I'm glad that the Rebellion is learning how useful the old droids left behind by the Separatists can be. Even if it means we might end up competing for resources."

"They certainly make excellent disposable assets," Hera agreed with a chuckle, shaking her head and leaning forward. "With what the engineers are reporting from Omega Station, you won't lack droid parts for some time."

"Unfortunately, we don't have the time or support to take them all apart and reassemble them correctly, if that is even possible with what the damaged ship's droid brain did to them. With any luck, there might be some intact droids stored deeper in the ship."

"Well… we did agree that all salvage was yours…" General Dodanna said. "If you can't do anything with them, perhaps we could purchase the parts?"

I gave him a look, leaning back in my chair. While more money would certainly be useful, as usual, assets and physical materials were worth more. After chewing my lip for a moment, I nodded.

"I have a better idea. You take the parts, disassemble them, and build however many droids you can from the good parts," I offered, getting both of the general's attention. "And in return, we get forty percent of the resulting functional droids."

"Twenty-five percent," General Syndulla countered. "We will be doing all of the work after all."
"Thirty, and you can use the Munificent as the base of operations for your repair program," I counteroffered. "There should be plenty of facilities on board to repair droids and plenty of space to store them. Just keep in mind that already functional droids are fully ours."

"We would have to repair all of the facilities… But having an off-site facility for droid repair and distribution…We might even be able to start a minor production facility…" General Dodanna said, almost mumbling to himself as he stroked his beard. "As long as we can move droid assets to and from the station fully, then that is agreeable."

"We will have to come up with some sort of security process to protect the station. The best defense it has right now is the fact that it's lost in deep space," I pointed out. "As long we can figure out a way to do that, then yes."

Again, I stood, my hand reached out to shake each of their hands, sealing the deal. As far as I could tell, this was a win-win for me. We would get twenty-five percent of the repaired droids for our use without having to invest any of our time into doing the actual work. On top of that, if the Rebellion had any sense, they would repair the weapons and shields of the Munificent, giving us another layer of defense. Even the fact that they would be setting up what would probably become an important facility, one attached to our station, would mean they would be invested in its overall survival.

When I sat back down, General Syndulla was the first to speak up.

"I'm surprised you would hand over the control of a portion of the station so easily, even with how unorthodox a portion it is," She said, studying me closely. "Especially after what happened with the negotiations."

"General, I think we both know that the Skyforged Vanguard is incapable of keeping that station running for very long, even with the large infusion of credits we are expecting from our cut of the supplies," I admitted, getting a nod of understanding from both generals, though they looked surprised I would freely admit it. "It's too big, uses too much fuel, and would require too much maintenance. Meanwhile, I know for a fact that having a safe haven to keep supplies and stage assets would be a huge boon for the Rebellion."

"What are you suggesting, Deacon?" General Syndulla asked.

"The main station belongs to the Skyforged Vanguard, and the Rebellion has already agreed to use its manpower to repair it. For the low cost of the resources needed to repair it, as well as assistance in keeping it running, the Rebellion would gain a safe haven, a distribution point, and a rallying point."

"I will admit, that was the primary reason we sought out the station in the first place," General Dodanna said, his elbows on the table and his hands bridge in front of his mouth. "But, that is a lot of resources to put into an asset that isn't ours."

The room was quiet for a while, everyone considering the conundrum we had found. I really did need the support to keep the station running. Sure, I could shut down two-thirds of the station and cut the costs of maintenance and supplies, but that would just leave the station vulnerable. The Rebels desperately wanted a station like this they could use as a distribution point, something secure they could use as a buffer from their larger bases.

"How about this," I started, getting everyone's attention. "The Skyforged Vanguard goes out, and we do what we do, this time focusing on a larger ship. Something Imperial, probably, and a combat focused ship. Then, we hand it over to you. A functioning warship whose primary role would be to defend the station, but if something should happen, for example, you dislike the way I am running the station, it would act as collateral for abandoning an asset you invested in."

"I… It would have to be a significant ship to satisfy some of the more… stubborn and controlling leaders of the Rebellion," General Dodanna pointed out. "Something bigger or more powerful than your Intervention."

"That's fine. We've gotten a bit stronger since we took that anyway," I said confidently, dusting off my uniform with a smirk. "We can handle it."

"We would need to discuss this with others, especially Admiral Ackbar, though he isn't who I'm worried about convincing," General Syndulla explained. "But I like the general idea. I think we can pitch it properly. Plus, having an asset specifically for defending the station will be reassuring, especially since we will have more control over the Munificent, even if it remains attached to the station."

We continued to discuss the deal, eventually deciding that the idea of dividing the station up now, without knowing how extensive the damage was throughout all of the decks, was pointless.

We did come up with a basic security system for protecting the ship. Once the station, including the Munifinct, was sufficiently repaired, we would turn on its engines and accelerate the station, which at this point was already stopped. We would then put a comms beacon somewhere far away in deep space. People would leave hyperspace at the beacon and then use it to communicate with us. They would then go through the security checks, which would involve passwords, codewords, scans, and visual inspections from cameras posted on the comms beacon, or maybe even stationed ships. If they passed, we would feed them our new location.

It wasn't foolproof, as someone could transmit the location, but since we would constantly be moving around in deep space, our location would constantly change. At the very least, it would give us enough time to evacuate.

Once we finished discussing security, we ended the meeting with the two generals promising to know the answer to my proposal by the next morning. After Tatnia and I left, we headed straight for the Chariot. As we were walking, I looked over at my second in command.

"Awful quiet in there," I pointed out, the woman wincing slightly.

"Sorry, Boss. I'm just a bit tired. Besides, you did pretty well," She admitted with a shrug. "I think we could have gotten a few more percentage points in the droid deal if you really wanted to get aggressive, but that's fine. Though, I will say it's unfortunate that we will be spending so much effort to steal a ship only to hand it off to the Rebellion."

"Tatnia, please, you know how we work. Do you really think I would let us invest our time and effort into something if I didn't think we could make a profit off it?" I asked rhetorically, putting my hand on her shoulder and giving her a nudge. "I'm sure we can find an appropriate target, one that lets us profit too. If not, theres always next time."

"Most of that was dumb luck," She pointed out, though she was now smiling as well. "You have any brilliant ideas yet?"

"No, but I don't claim to be the only one coming up with good ideas. You guys beat me out more often than not."

"Yeah, yeah, fair enough, Boss."

We made it back to the ship not long after that, both of us splitting off to go to our rooms for a while.

Over the next three days, we spent most of our time split between the ship and the rooms where the clone troopers were being kept and watched over. I sat in for all of the surgeries, the procedure getting so repetitive that, for the most part, they bled together. The clones who had already gotten their chips removed were slowly recovering as, apparently, the symptoms from hibernation sickness scaled slightly to the length of time spent in stasis. Since they had been stuck for over twenty years, the clones had around a week or so of recovery time ahead of them. Luckily, all of the clones were grateful once we were able to explain the situation to them fully. Even better, once the first round of patients had woken up and learned the truth, they could help the next ones.

More than a few of them were not happy about the idea of working with the Rebellion. Instead, they demanded that they be dropped off somewhere. Still, the vast majority seemed to be at least entertaining the idea of hanging around.

We also received word that the powers that be accepted the bargain we made, as long as the ship we managed to get was of good enough size and quality and not stolen from allies. Some of the more controlling leaders wanted to demand we leave a ship behind as collateral, but General Syndulla was able to shut that down. I struggled to imagine what they could have meant but brushed it off for the sake of my sanity.

With our new deal set, Tatnia, Allum, Calima, and I left Alpha base behind, setting our course to Omega Station. On the way, I spent some time working on my enchanting, practicing on a few strength and dexterity-enhancing rings. I didn't have anyone to hand them out to at the moment, but I could feel myself at the cusp of being able to handle a three-soul gem enchantment, so practice was what I needed.

Thankfully, my practice paid off because, on the last full day of travel, I successfully struggled through a full, three-soul gem enchantment. It was a strength amulet, one for me to wear while I was wearing my armor, and I could easily feel the difference when I put it on. It wasn't exactly an incremental increase, but it was definitely noticeable just from moving around.

Of course, it also took nearly twelve hours and nearly broke my mind. When the enchantment was finally done, I spent a good while drooling on the enchanting table, unable to remember who, what, or when I was. When I eventually recovered a basic sense of sentience, I made it only a few steps out of the enchanting room before I collapsed. Which was where Tatnbia found me three or four hours later.

"Boss!" She shouted as she rushed to me, her words not entirely making sense. "What the hell, Deacon? What happened?"

I felt her roll me over, and my eyes struggled to focus on her face. Attempted to tell her I was fine, but only a slight groan came out. For a moment she looked like she was about to panic before she looked around and spotted the still-open enchanting room door.

"Did you over do your enchanting again, Boss?" She asked her voice taking a turn for annoyed.

I managed to nod slightly, but apparently enough for her to pick up on. She let out a long groan and shook her head.

"Shivering Hells boss, you scared me. Thought we might have picked up something dangerous at Alpha Base," She said, struggling to help me to my feet while adding. "We need a medical droid or something in case you get hurt, by the way."

I did my best to help as she mostly carried me to my room, laying me back on my bed before dropping into my chair.

"Didn't using your magic help with all this?" She asked. "I've never seen you this bad."

I let out a long groan, which transitioned into a sigh of relief as I managed to cast Respite on myself. I followed it up with a few castings of Fast Heal and repeat Respites. After draining my magicka, I held up a thumbs up.

"Thank you, Nia," I said genuinely. "I tried to enchant with three soul gems for the first time."

"You haven't gotten nearly this bad before," She pointed out.

"I've been enchanting for… like twelve hours?" I admitted. "It does a number on my brain. But it should get easier every time I do it."

"Well, maybe next time you have someone nearby to help, just in case."

"Do you want to sit in the enchanting room for twelve hours?" I asked, "I'll be more careful next time, but there's not much I can do beyond working hard and getting better."

"Did you at least do it?" She asked, looking curious. "The enchanting, I mean."

"I did. It turned out pretty good, as far as I can tell."

After a few seconds of silence, where I was letting my mana refill so I could cast more healing and Respite, Tatnia stood up from her chair and made her way to the door.

"Try not to fry your mind for a few days, at least," Tatnia said as she stopped by the doorway. "It would be hard for you to lead the team if you became a vegetable."

"I'll keep that in mind," I said, managing to sit up slightly. "Thanks for the help."

She nodded and left, the door sealing itself behind her. When she was gone, I looked down at the amulet I had just finished, sitting in my hand, before putting it on my nightstand and crawling under my blankets. I earned an early night.

When we arrived at our destination the next morning, I had recovered enough to make my way around under my own power. I still felt a little well done around the edges, but it faded more the longer I was awake. Frequent healing and Respite spells helped the process.

We spent a few minutes approaching the station at sublight speeds, dropping out of hyperspace far away from our destination. Omega Station was now the center of a lot more activity, which meant approaching it took more time and a lot more communication. While we were gone, several ships had arrived with more personnel, including a few repair ships that floated along the hull of the station and around the Munificent. As we came in to land in the same massive hangar bay as before, I could see people inside thick, bulky space suits, sealing up holes by welding plates over them. Quite a few droids worked alongside them, walking around the hull, carrying supplies, and assisting in the welding.

When we finally touched down and I made my way down the boarding ramp, I was immediately greeted by Miru, who had a hug for each of us. She was clearly excited, though I couldn't tell if it was because of something that had happened or if she was just that excited to see us. When I asked, she laughed and told me to wait for the meeting.

With that bit of information, I immediately started getting everyone together. It took about twenty minutes for everyone to make their way to the hangar and then to the Chariot lounge. Once we were all there, I gave everyone who stayed behind a look and a gesture.

"Well? You're all clearly extremely pleased with something, so lay it on us," I said expectantly. "Tell us the good news."

"We completed our primary inspection of supplies," Nal said, reading from a datapad. "The results are encouraging, to say the least."

"We found three hundred tons of foodstuff spread between several different storage locations," Julus explained, reading from a datapad. "Our cut of that is a bit over one and a half million credits."

I looked at Julus with wide eyes. We had expected a pretty large payout from the supplies, but hearing that we had just made that much money… it was still rather mind-boggling.

"That is not all. We located two intact large-scale armories," Nal added with a smile. "All Clone War era arms and armor, but all fully functional. Our cut of that is just over eight hundred thousand credits."

My surprised look switched over to Nal, who was smirking, his sharp teeth exposed. After a long moment, I shook my head, focusing on the moment and what he had said.

"We should see if we can't convince them to let us keep some of of the weapons and armor," I suggested, rubbing my chin. "The armor is far below anything we have, and the weapons are basic, but a solid stockpile of weapons would be nice. I'm sure there are probably things like grenades and other stuff, which we desperately need a source of."

"They seemed pretty interested in it, Boss," Julus responded. "But I can check. How bad do you want it?"

"Not that bad. We can always buy some if we need it."

"That's not all, Boss!" Miru said, practically bouncing in her seat. "Nal, tell him!"

"We found the hangar where the station's starfighter complement resided," Nal explained. "It was along the side opposite the collision sight and was sealed with blast doors."

"Then… It still contained the starfighters, I'm guessing?"

"Nearly two full squadrons," Nal answered. "The hangar bay contained twenty-one Nimbus-class V-wings and two LAAT Space variant gunships."

"What kind of state were they in?"

"There was damage from the impact and some drifting after the artificial gravity failed… and then more when it kicked on again," Miru explained. "But if I sacrifice two, maybe three of the worse-off V-wings, I could get the rest working. The LAATs were mostly fine, save some minor hull damage. Everything needs a thorough look over and testing before they are used, but as far as I can tell, everything looks good!"

"Wait... Why didn't the clones take them?" Tatnia asked as I tried to visualize what the V-wing looked like in my head. "They were stuck here. Did they not know about them?"

"'Cause neither of them have hyperdrives," Miru explained. "The V-wings also don't have shields."

"Damn… I forgot about the no shield thing," I admitted, shaking my head. "I don't think I'm willing to put people in them if they don't have any shields."

"Even if we don't keep them, Boss, they should fetch us another million credits, at least," Julus explained. "I don't know about the LAATs. Didn't know they even made a space version."

"Holy shit," I said, my eyes wide, looking down at the datapad that Nal had passed me with all the information we had just discussed. "That's more than 2.3 million credits and then another million worth of military hardware."

"Do not forget we also gain any intact droids, plus whatever the rebellion salvage," Vaz pointed out. "They have been surprisingly useful so far."

"All while securing a solid base of operations for ourselves that, apparently, we won't have to staff or fund the upkeep ourselves." Julus finished.

"...And you doubted that we could find a way to profit from our next mission in multiple ways," I said, looking over at Tatnia, who rolled her eyes in response. "I'm going to go ahead and divide up another hundred thousand credits and distribute them to everyone. Everyone has more than earned another chunk of credits. When we get paid our share, I plan on doing that again."

Everyone cheered, slapping shoulders and sharing high fives at my announcement. While Julus grabbed some drinks for everyone to celebrate with, I made the first transfer, prompting another round of cheers. When we finished toasting each other, Vakim pointed out that we had a new mission.

"Right, so the deal I struck with the Rebellion was for them to use the Munificent as a droid repair or production area. As I mentioned, I also separately convinced them to pay for and supply fully repairing the station," I explained. "The cost was that they would be using a good chunk of it for their own people, as a safe haven and distribution center. The station would still be ours, meaning that, at the end of the day, we get the final say. This is our home. They would just be tenants."

"That… seems like a remarkably one-sided deal for them," Dazem pointed out, confused as to why they would accept.

"Which is why I had to sweeten the deal," I explained. "We are going to steal a nice big ship for them, something that they can show off as compensation for investing so many resources into something they technically wouldn't own."

"What sort of ship?" Miru asked. "Do you have a target?"

"Nope," I admitted, popping my "P" deliberately. "The first step will be selecting our target. It will have to be something of significant tonnage, bigger than the Intervention for sure."

"How much bigger?" Julus asked. "The Imperial Navy doesn't have that much in the way of variety."

"That is not entirely true," Vaz said, shaking his head, gesturing to Pola.

"That's right, I was serving as an engineer on a CR70," The young Ex-Imperial pointed out. "Coreward, sure, variety is low, but out around the mid-rim, the ships get more varied."

"Older as well," Nal pointed out. "Though that is not necessarily bad."

"They keep most of them up to date with refits," Pola pointed. "The Empire is terrible, but they take their navy seriously."

"Well… Let's start by looking through some of the patrols around the Mid and Outer Rim," Tatnia suggested. "We might get lucky."

We spent the rest of the day, and into the next morning, looking through news reports, planetary gossip, and any other resource of information we could get our hands on, trying to find a suitable target for us to steal. It was also an excuse to relax from the constant movement and work over the last few days. The entire crew had essentially been working and doing things nonstop for nearly a week, so sitting down and doing some simple research was good for everyone.

As we did our research, we quickly realized that gleaning the kind of knowledge we wanted, while not impossible, was definitely not simple. We started by choosing worlds with smaller populations, scanning their news for stories about their patrol fleet landing. After the seventh lead burned out because the patrol fleet didn't have anything worth taking, I finally realized what the problem was.

"If we are looking for ships that are landing on the planet, we are never going to find anything bigger than the Intervention," I pointed out, putting my datapad down on the table.

Miru, who was the only other person at the table with me, looked up. She scrunched her face as she was thinking, eventually nodding in agreement.

"I've been ignoring anything I learned about ships that didn't frequently land planetside," She admitted, confirming my suspicions. "But you're right. The Intervention is already pushing its size, at least for ships that can frequently land for maintenance. If it was any larger, you would start running into more issues than it solves."

"So what, are we looking to disable a ship in a space battle?" Julus asked from the couch, sitting beside Tatnia.

"No, this is supposed to be compensation," I said, shaking my head. "Handing over a damaged ship isn't going to go over well."

"What about commandeering a shuttle?" Tatnia asked, still looking intently at her datapad. "I found something that might fit the bill."

We gathered back around the table so we could go over Tatnia's suggestion, the crew of the Intervention tuning in through the holoprojector. They were still in the same hangar as us, still inside their ship, but they had been working on finding a target as well, sitting in their lounge space. When we were all set, Tatnia sent us what she had found.

Her suggested target was a small Imperial patrol fleet made up of four ships. Two Imperial Gozantis, an IPV-1 System Patrol Craft, and one Bayonet-Class light cruiser.

"I'm guessing the Bayonet-Class is our target?" I asked, getting a nod in confirmation. "What is it like? I don't recognize the class name."

"It's a bit of an older ship, but quite a bit younger than the Intervention," She explained, finding a picture and showing it to me. "It's also got about sixty meters on it."

The ship followed the usual Imperial design of being vaguely triangular, though not nearly as drastic as the Star Destroyer. It had three raised sections on the back top of the ship, with a command tower behind that. The central raised section was a small hangar.

"It's heavily armed, armored, and shielded for its size," Tatnia added. "Eight heavy turbolasers and lighter laser cannons… It would definitely beat the Intervention, though its upgrades would give it plenty of time to escape."

"So what makes this ship a solid option?"

"Well, its patrol is stationed over a planet called Lipsec," She explained. "The IPV and the Bayonet-class stay in orbit permanently, while the two Gozantis ferry supplies and people to and from the surface. According to local gossip, Commodore Distani, the young officer in charge of the patrol, takes a shuttle down to the surface every two weeks to see his mistress."

"That's… damn."

"Yeah. He rides down on his ship's shuttle, spends two days at her large home mansion, and then flies back up to his ship."

"So, our plan would be to commandeer his shuttle, use it to get on board the Bayonet-class, take over the ship, and then escape?" Allum asked with a frown. "There's an awful lot of firepower around that ship. If they realize we trying to commandeer their ship, even a ship like the Bayonet-class won't last long. Especially if we are inside it, taking out the people in charge of keeping it alive."

"We would only need to take over the bridge," Miru pointed out. "From there, it would be much easier for Racer to take control of the systems. Right buddy?"

Racer warbled and beeped, ending with a long whistler. His top spun, shiny, and unblemished. Miru had been working on some upgrades and repairs and had finished off with a fresh coat of paint. After a moment of listening to the energetic droid, Miru frowned but nodded in understanding.

"With the right codes, he could do it. Otherwise, he doesn't think he could beat modern Imperial digital security, at least not consistently and quickly," She explained. "We would need to get them from someone high up, probably the Commodore."

"Well… we can try my Calm spell trick, but no guarantees it will work," I admitted, making a mental note to check if my Grimoire had any info on making my Illusion spells harder to beat. "We could also try good old-fashioned threats of violence. Depending on how much of a dirtbag he is, they might not even be empty threats."

I could tell a few of my crew weren't exactly up to the idea of torturing for information, so I held up my hands. Pola, Dazem, and Miru specifically did not look happy about it."

"I'm not saying we break out the interrogator droid and go to town," I assured them. "But a few shocks and the right words could make the process much easier. I'll even heal him up when we are done. And again, that's only if my Calm spell doesn't work.

That seemed to appease them, at least slightly. Tatnia, blessed second in command as she was, quickly brought our attention back to the topic at hand.

"Okay, so we show up, abduct the Commodore, get him to give us the codes, then take over the ship through force and slicing," She listed. "How do we keep the other three ships from taking us apart as we try to take control?"

"The Intervention and Talos Chariot would be sufficient to distract them," Vakim pointed out. "We wouldn't even need to engage. Simply jump in with weapons charged and begin targeting them actively. That will light up their sensors, and as long as we remain out of weapons range, they won't be able to do anything but shout at us over the comms."

"Okay… It seems like we have the foundation work for a solid plan," I said, putting my hands on the table. "Let's start refining it until it is fully fleshed out. Let's start by finding out more about this guy's mistress and what her house looks like. In the meantime, Calima will start working on a jump plan to the CIS base. We are going to need the Starcaller to infiltrate the planet."

Calima nodded and stood from the table, making her way to the bridge, where she could start the astronavigation calculations. Meanwhile, all of us started pouring through the local Lipsec net sources, connecting through the Holonet. Pouring over gossip rags of a small, lightly populated planet wasn't exactly my idea of a good time, but the more information we had, the better.

We just had to sift through all the bullshit first.

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---

By the time we were done doing our muckraker research, we were well on our way to our pseudo-CIS base. It was only a day-and-a-half-long journey from the station, which was close enough that the base could come in handy. I asked Nal to investigate the idea of making it an emergency meeting point should Station Omega come under attack. Nothing too fancy, just a safe location we could limp to, fix ourselves up, and disappear from, with enough supplies and materials to keep us going should we need to. He seemed to like the idea and promised to look into it.

It did take us a few hours to pull out of the station since the Chariot had emptied quite a few things out of its main hold in order to make room for the clone slabs, including the Arrow and a large crate full of parts. Once again, I was confronted by how annoying it would be to move things on and off the Chariot, and how much time it would take if we needed to move fast. I wanted us to be able to load almost anything on as quickly as possible without having to worry about space or playing cargo Tetris.

Seeing an opportunity, we went through both of the large cargo crates, doing a more detailed inventory and splitting the contents more evenly. When we were done, both of them were filled with more generalized parts, rather than one containing all the repulsor parts and the other holding all of the life support parts. This meant I was more confident leaving one behind, tucked into the far corner of the hangar. It freed up a good chunk of space in the Chariots cargo hold without too much risk.

When we dropped out of hyperspace above the CIS base, we immediately started to descend. I was sitting in the lounge, waiting for us to make landfall so we could start moving everything over to the Starcaller. We had decided that this would be another all-hands-on-deck mission with the entire ground team going. Each of us would need our armor, which unfortunately meant we couldn't take any extra droids with us as most of the spare space in the smuggler's compartments would be taken.

As we descended through the atmosphere, suddenly, the ship shifted and pulled out of its descent, hard enough that we could feel it through the ship's inertial compensator. Calima called out from the cockpit, sounding concerned.

"BOSS! You need to come see this!"

I was already standing from my seat, but her call prompted me to rush forward onto the bridge, leaning on her seat, only to find she was pulling away too hard for me to see what had spooked her.

"There was a ship landed on the landing strip," She explained, pulling the ship up and above the Intervention, letting the tougher, more powerful ship go first. I nodded and turned to the comms and sensors display, leaning on the droid's seat.

"Show me," I instructed the droid, who immediately brought up the scans on what had prompted Calima's response.

"No fucking way…"

The scan showed a ship that I was only briefly familiar with but, surprisingly, not from my out-of-context Star Wars knowledge. I had only seen it once in passing, as it whipped by me during our precious metals heist, but it was enough to recognize it easily.

"The fucking commando droids! They escaped!" I shouted, unable to keep the laughter out of my voice. "I can't believe it! Run a scan and contact them, see if they respond."

Immediately, we got a response, though it was only a brief flash of static, which, according to Calima, could be from their comms being damaged.

"Calima, take us in, Comms, tell the Intervention in the air with weapons charged. The fact that they managed to survive and make it off the planet is insane enough that I'm struggling to believe it."

"You think it's a trap?" Tatnia asked, having joined us when I started shouting and laughing.

"It could be, and that is a good enough reason to be careful," I responded with a frown. "Calima, have weapons deployed and ready. Tatnia, go tell Racer I want him ready to analyze the commando droids programming from top to bottom."

Both of my crewmates nodded, my second in command leaving the bridge to find our slicer droid. I could see Calima tapping something on her console, and suddenly, all the gunner droids in the bridge shifted as their consoles lit up.

We landed quickly, stepping out of the ship and approaching the other. It was an absolute mess, with damaged and carbonized armor over at least a quarter of its hull. The ventral laser cannon was a slagged mess, and I could see inside the ship through a hole in the port side.

"Holy shit…" I said, eyes wide with shock as we approached. "I didn't know ships could get that damaged and still fly."

"Must have been difficult," Nal pointed out before adding. "If they flew here."

As we got closer, I could feel the tension rising in the group, ratcheting up even more as three BX units descended down the boarding ramp. One of them appeared to be partially damaged, missing its left arm, its shoulder blackened from heat exposure.

"Unit BX-O1 reporting, Boss," the closest droid said, stepping forward. "Unit BX-05 was lost during the last phase of our mission. Unit BX-04 has received major damage but is still minimally functional. Final phase of our mission... Complete."

"BX-01… well done. You guys really surprised us," I admitted. "However… We need to check you over to make sure you're not compromised since you have been gone for so long. Units 03 and 04, please power down for physical inspection. O1, disarm and allow Racer to connect to your processor. And tell us what happened in more detail."

Without hesitation, the two further back droids powered down, leaning forward slightly, their arms hanging down. BX-01 knelt down, pulling his blaster rifle and vibrosword and tossing them aside. Racer slowly approached and connected to the droid, his head spinning as he analyzed its programming.

As Racer did their work, BX-01 regaled us with his tale, starting with their initial attack. After a minute or so, Racer actually started projecting the commando droids' point of view from his holo projector, letting us watch as well.

It was incredibly, and a bit terrifying, watching the five, then four droids cutting through the compound's security. They dropped from their speeders before they smashed into their targets, which was where BX-03 was destroyed, having dropped smack dab into a stormtrooper patrol. From there, the remaining droids regrouped and infiltrated the hangar, tearing through the security in the process. Once they were on board, they made quick work of whatever crew was on board before taking off, blasting out of the hangar.

Then, watching the droids fly the ship, BX-01 makes an actually impressive play at a ship captain, flying around and wreaking havoc on the base, then on various Imperial assets on the planet. They blew up several Imperial depots, seven Tie fighters, nearly two dozen Imperial air speeders, and several other smaller assets before spotting that we were in trouble and blasting off to help. They made one more run after they pulled our asses out of the fire, then returned to finish off any assets around the compound before finally taking off into space. They were then intercepted there by Gizer's patrol fleet, which managed to get quite a few shots on them, doing significant damage and ultimately destroying BX-05 before they jumped to Lightspeed.

When the "show" ended, we were all stunned, eyes wide and jaws dropped. At some point during our watching, Racer had given the droid what was basically a clean bill of health. As we all slowly recovered from watching the BX-01 droids be badasses, he warbled a question, which Nal translated.

"He is asking if he should wipe his memory."

"...no. We are going to let him develop for a while," I finally said, surprising a few of my crew. "That performance deserves a reward. Giving them a chance to develop a bit sounds like a solid start."

"And the other two?"

"One science experiment at a time," I answered. "BX-01 was really the one who went above and beyond there. Let's give them some time to develop, and if he seems solid, we can keep him at that level. We just need to keep an eye on him."

We spent a few hours going over the droid and the ship they had brought with them. It was honestly shocking that they had managed not only to jump to hyperspace but survive it long enough to pop out here. The fact that they landed was also incredible, seeing that a large portion of the engines and repulsor emitters were heavily damaged as well. Miru kept on shaking her head as she inspected the damage.

"I'll be honest, Boss. This thing is toast. I could fix it, but it would take a while and maybe… fifty or sixty thousand credits, maybe more," she said. " And that's just getting it up and running, back to its baseline. I would just assume we give the Rebellion the location so they can strip it for parts."

"Any reason we shouldn't leave it so we can strip it down for parts?"

"I'm not the biggest fan of Kuat's higher-end ships," she explained with a shrug. "They try and get every little bit of efficiency and power they can from every part, but fine-tuning stuff like that tends to make it much more finicky. Parts fail faster, there's more wear and tear, and they can't take any punishment. But why would they care? They get to brag about their slightly higher stats."

I couldn't help but chuckle at the young engineer's mini-rant, though I definitely agreed with her. Give me an older, chunkier, slightly less powerful version of something, so long as it is dependable. Besides, older model ships tend to be more refined and predictable than new, top-of-the-line, high-tech, high-spec stuff.

"Well, that's fine. Let's just cover it up with some tarps to keep any weather from affecting it," I said, shaking my head. "It sounds like it's not worth it, so we'll probably end up handing it off to the Rebellion. If we need a ship that bad, we can buy it or steal it."

Thankfully, the commando droids had landed their ship in front of the secondary hangar, meaning that they weren't in the way of the Starcaller. Didn't even want to think about how we would have moved the broken, heavily damaged ship at that point.

We spent an hour or so loading up the Starcaller with some basic supplies, plus all of our gear, before we climbed on board, settling into the various rooms and beds. It was a bit cramped, as we had learned before, but with Allum staying behind this time to pilot the Chariot by himself, nobody had to actually share a bed.

We were finally ready to leave once we had moved all our gear in, including our armor. Calima, with the help of the astromech we assigned to the ship, took off from the old CIS base, and we took to the sky. It was a long jump from where we were to the Lipsec system, so we settled in. I spent most of my time learning magic, adding a whopping four spells to my arsenal. Detect Life, Ice Storm, Fireball, and Night Eye. All of the spells were potent, but none of them had been important to learn. Both Fireball and Ice Storm were powerful spells that could outright kill dozens of enemies at once, but they were also unpredictable, just as likely to catch a friend or an innocent civilian as it was to kill the actual target. Night Eye was pointless when we already owned night vision and had it built into our helmets. Detect Life was extremely useful, but it shone the brightest when you were trying to avoid being spotted, and… we weren't really about that kind of stealth.

I also learned a whole list of small tricks and improvements to my Illusion magic. With any luck, the new level of potency for my Calm spell would make the difference in convincing the Commodore to spill his secrets. The less powerful version worked on a dark Jedi, and that had to count for something.

When we finally dropped out of hyperspace, we still hadn't arrived at the planet. Instead, all three of the ships dropped out together, just on the edge of deep space surrounding the planet. There, the Intervention and the Talos Chariot would wait for word that our attack was commencing, which would come in the form of the Starcaller, who would be hanging around, waiting for our word.

Everyone's timing was a bit tight, making the plan a bit more finicky than I would have liked, but with any luck, we would come out on top. We were counting on the natural and normal hesitation that would come from being ordered to fire on your own allies to cover any gaps in our timing, should it come to that.

Once both of our warships were in position, everyone save Calima climbed into our compartments, the small, sealed spaces closing around us in total darkness. Thankfully, we had learned from the last time, and we all had brought datapads in with us, both for light and entertainment. Their wireless connections were all off, as was their sound, but reading was enough of a distraction to keep me from working myself up into a minor panic.

Once safely sealed inside our smuggler's compartments, the Starcaller jumped towards Lipsec, arriving near the plane less than ten minutes later. We were almost immediately intercepted and boarded. Unlike our previous experience, however, this inspection barely lasted for fifteen minutes before we were released to continue to the planet's surface. The ground team remained in our sealed compartments until we had landed, which was when Calima finally signaled for us to come out.

"Guess I shouldn't be surprised that the inspection for a much more remote world was so short," I said, climbing out of the compartment. "How did it go?"

"Fine," Calima responded. "They didn't even pull out scanning devices, just visually inspected everything."

"Gonna regret that," I said with a snort. "Not that it would have helped. How far are we from the mistress's mansion?"

"Not far, had to pay a little extra… to get one closer to the city, though."

I waved off the charge and made my way deeper into the ship, letting the rest of the ground team out. Julus and Tatnia looked a little worse for wear, flushed, and damp, but everyone else seemed to have endured the smuggling trip well.

"Alright, Calima, I need you to rent a speeder, just like on Gizer," I said, getting a nod in response. "Once we have some transport, we can find a bigger transport to steal and stash somewhere. I want to be ready for when the shuttle comes down."

The prep for our next mission, compared to the last time we smuggled ourselves down to the planet's surface, didn't take nearly as long. A few hours after we arrived, Calima dropped Nal and Tatnina off somewhere in the city and picked them up about three hours later, after they had stolen a large airspeeder. They had a bit of a hard time finding a speeder that was big enough, but once they did, they made quick work of claiming it and hiding it away.

Once they were done, we settled in to wait. Calima ordered a decent amount of supplies and topped off the Starcaller's fuel tanks. We also picked up a bunch of stock and materials for Miru. She planned on taking over one of the smaller workshops on Omega Station, one that branched off from the main hangar we had claimed, and she wanted a few extra things to keep there. Like usual, the Skyforged were footing most of the bill, save a few specific expensive tools that she was covering since they were for her own creations.

Filling up the cargo hold of the Starcaller took a few days, mainly because Calima was purposely delaying her orders to buy us more time to wait. On the third day of us watching the sky, waiting for the custom shuttle that fit into the Bayonet-class's tiny hangar to make an appearance, Vaz spotted it flying over the city. Just as predicted, it landed just over fifteen miles away, on land owned by the Commodore's mistress.

Rather than head out immediately, we waited for the rest of the day, sleeping soundly and waking up very early the next morning. Calima ferried us to our stolen transport, which we piled into and lifted off, making a beeline towards the mistress's compound.

Now, during the three days of waiting, we had plenty of time to scout our location. The large chunk of land that the mistress owned was surrounded by four-meter-tall duracrete walls. Inside those was a green oasis, with a pool, a beautiful garden, and meticulously maintained trees and shrubs. The mansion itself took up only a quarter of the compound but was still massive, with several buildings leading to a central structure. Everything save the duracrete walls was done in what I would have called a futuristic minimalism, with cool white surfaces shaped at right angles.

While investigating our target, I did a couple of passes with Detect Life cast, and as far as I could tell, there were no guards stationed at the compound, despite there being an obvious guard house by the front entrance.

We landed the speeder along the back end of the compound, the large trees and foilage making the perfect cover for our air speeder, all but completely obscuring the vehicle. While the sun still hadn't peeked over the horizon, it was already starting to lighten the sky. We were all dressed in our uniforms, obscuring the obviously militant clothes with cloaks and other coverings.

The second our feet hit the ground, we split up. Tatnia and I made a beeline for the main building while Vaz and Julus charged around to come from a separate angle. Nal and Racer both headed for the landing pad along one of the corners of the compound to claim and protect the shuttle, since it was our ticket to our target. We also didn't know if there was some sort of security watching it, but if there was, the sooner we knew about it, the better.

As we entered the mansion, Tatnia and I started searching it room by room, looking for anything that could screw up our plans. I had Detect Life up, so I wasn't worried about being ambushed by living security, but we were forced to disable any droids we saw since any one of them could call in the cavalry should they see we were holding people hostage.

After searching nearly a dozen rooms and disabling a handful of droids, Tatnia and I finally found our target. A large, luxurious bedroom, with one wall almost entirely open, the entire space oriented for a fantastic view of the compound's gardens. There was a singular large bed in the center of the room, with two large lumps sleeping under the covers. I gestured for Tatnia to deal with the windows while silently dragging a chair over for myself, stopping a few feet in front of the bed. When the large open windows were closed, Tatnia flicked on the lights, and our target and their partner began to stir.

The lump on the left was the first to realize something was up, beginning to shift and look around as the light woke them up. Eventually, they sat up, bleary-eyed and confused about what was happening. It was a black-haired and brown-eyed man with a head and obvious fatigue on his face. When he finally locked eyes on me, his fatigue vanished, replaced by fear and shock.

"Who the hells are you?" He called out. "What are you doing here?"

The lump beside him was now moving, sitting up quickly now that their bedmate was shouting. Another man, with a short redhead and a well-maintained mustache, shouted at me as well. This was the Commodore.

"Huh… well, we are here for him," I explained, raising my blaster as Distani scrambled for the nightstand beside him, prompting Tatnia to step forward with the pistol raised, aimed directly at his head. "Easy now. I know you must be confused, but let's not do anything stupid."

Both of the men settled back down, watching Tatnia as she did a thorough search of each nightstand, removing comms device from both of them. When she stepped back, I finally spoke up again.

"Okay, so before we start… who are you?" I asked, looking at the black-haired man. "We came here expecting to find a mistress…"

"I-I'm nobody," He said. "H-he paid me-"

I noticed that Commodore Distani frowned at the implication of hiring a prostitute, so I shook my head. I raised my hand and cast Calm on the black-haired man, the pale green magic gathering in my hand and launching out to hit him in the chest.

"There's no reason to lie to me, friend," I assured him. "Who are you really?"

"I'm Captain Senita, of the Demanding Fury," He responded, with a small smile on his face.

The Commodore's eyes went wide as I cast Calm, even more so when the Captain answered me fully. He looked back at me, even more pale than he had been before.

"That's right, Distani. You are in over your head, so just do as I say, and everything will be fine," I assured him before looking back at the Captain and re-applying Calm. "What is the Demanding Fury?"

"It is the IPV Patrol Craft that is part of Lipsec's patrol fleet," The ensorcelled man explained. "It is made by Sienar Fleet Systems and-"

"Thank you, Captain, that's enough," I said with a smile, giving him a nod before looking over at Distani. "Sleeping with a subordinate? Naughty Commodore, pretty sure that's not allowed."

"What do you want?" He said, focused on me a bit, watching as the Captain shifted from calm to confused and scared as the Calm spell faded. "Whatever you think you're going to do, you are not going to get away with it! The Empire-"

"Alright, calm down, that's enough. You can twirl your mustache later," I assured him, shaking my head. "We are here to take your ship. I tell you that because I want you to know so that you can do everything you can to help us succeed."

"Why would I do that?" He asked, still struggling to keep a brave face.

"Because your survival depends on us succeeding," I explained with a smile. "If we succeed, you live. If we fail, I'm going to make sure you die with us."

He opened his mouth to respond, but rather than let him lift his own spirits with a witty comeback or a statement of superiority, I raised my hand and cast Sparks. While I knew it was a relatively weak spell, visually, it looked scary as hell. Lighting arc from my hand and slammed into the wall between the two Imperial officers, sizzling and burning, sparking and crackling. They both screamed as I held the spell for a long, extended moment, finally letting it fade after I used half my mana.

"Any questions?" I asked, getting rapid, near manic head-shaking negatives from both of them. "Good. Now, let's start off with a few basic questions, like why you are here, and where is the woman who owns this building?"

"We… needed a private place to meet," The Captain admitted, looking rather defeated. "And she is a friend, someone we met while performing our more social duties. She… well, she saw through us immediately and offered her home as a meeting place. She and her husband leave for a small trip to their vacation home when we come over."

"We purposely spread the rumor that she is my mistress," Distani continued. "The Empire doesn't frown upon its officers occasionally indulging, but if command found out that I was in love with someone under my command, they would demote and separate us instantly."

Despite the situation they were in, the admittance of love seemed to catch the other man off guard. He looked at Commodore with wide eyes, and shifting below the covers made it clear he had grabbed his hand. It was adorable, honestly.

I met Tatnia's eyes, seeing that she was struggling to maintain a straight face. I shook my head, before standing from my seat.

"Alright. My friend here is going to keep an eye on you while I talk to the rest of my team," I said, giving them both harsh looks. "Do not give her any trouble. I would hate to have to demonstrate my other abilities."

I turned and gave Tatnia a nod, stepping out of the room and taking out my comms, selecting Vaz.

"Hey, how's the clearing going?"

"No complications so far, Boss," The Shistavanen responded. "We found a security room deep in the main building, but it is empty. It appears to normally be staffed by at least two individuals."

"That makes sense with what we learned. You're not going to believe this..."

I explained the situation to them, Julus laughing in the background as Vaz relayed the information. I connected to Nal as well, telling him to have Racer lock himself up inside the shuttle so that Nal could join us. I wanted to meet with everyone so we could discuss a shift in the plan.

"So, we now have the captain of the IPV and the Bayonet," I pointed out. "I wanted to propose a bit of a mix-up. We were concerned about finding a way to make a profit off of this mission while we would be handing over stolen ship…"

For a moment, my crew, minus Tatnia, looked at me, their gears turning until Julus finally seemed to figure it out.

"Boss… Are you suggesting we should steal both of them?" He asked, his eyes wide. "How would we do that? We don't have enough people or equipment."

"One, I can use magic to level that playing field a bit more," I pointed out. "Plus, the IPV has a significantly smaller crew. I can handle taking that down by myself. That leaves you guys to focus on the Bayonet class. If we can convince the Captain to give up their codes, I could take control over the entire ship without Racer's help."

"You don't know how to pilot anything." Nal pointed out, stopping my plan in its tracks. "Never mind how to punch in hyperspace coordinates."

"Okay… well…" I trailed off, wracking my brain, trying to work my way through his point. "Well, if I can convince the captain to defect… or at least betray the Empire…"

"Do you think you are capable of doing that?" Vaz asked, sounding skeptical.

"I can try," I responded, turning around and heading back to the room.

When I stepped inside, Tatnia was sitting in my chair, and both of the men were now dressed, sitting on the edge of the bed. They turned nervously, looking at me with worried eyes.

"Alright. So, I have an offer for the both of you," I said, sitting down in the chair after Tatnia stood up. "I-"

"We are not interested in joining the Rebellion," Commodore Distani said, Captain Senita. "It is obvious who you are. The Empire may not be perfect, but the anarchy you Rebels wish to spread is far worse."

"No, well, kind of, but that's not what I was going to offer," I insisted, holding up a hand to hold off his rebuttal. "I was going to offer the two of you, together, two hundred and fifty thousand credits to help us. Then, when we are done, we can help you set up some new identities and maybe get some work done to fool anyone looking for you. You could retire early, buy a ship, a home somewhere. This is your ticket to an easier, slower life, one where you could openly be together."

The first clue that I was on the right track was the silence I was met with. Tatnia managed to clear her face of surprise pretty quickly, but both of the officers looked stunned. I let them collect their thoughts for a moment, before Distani spoke up.

"Why? You can clearly manipulate us into speaking the truth, like you did earlier. Why do you need our willing help?"

"Because. Originally, our plan was only to take your ship, Commodore, and we have what we need to do that," I explained. "But with the Captain here, we have an opportunity to take his ship as well. I want both of them. This makes us a bit tight on a few roles. Namely, someone who can control the ship, pilot it, and jump to lightspeed."

"And why should we trust you?" The Captain asked. "You're just as likely to kill us when you are done than anything."

"If that was the case, you're already dead," I pointed out before shaking my head. "I give you my word that we will not just kill you when we are done. I'm a mercenary, leader of the Skyforged Vanguard, and while yes, we may have Rebel leanings, a mercenary's word is their bond."

The two partners share a look, a long one that you could just tell was an entire silent conversation. Eventually, the Commodore snorted and looked away, shaking his hand.

"I guess my father was right," He said, sounding annoyed but with just the slightest hint of acceptance. "I would end up being an embarrassment."

"He won't get off lightly…" Senita pointed out. "He will likely get in trouble."

"I'm already considering their offer, Seni. Don't make it sound even better."

After a long moment, they shared another look, and this time, the Captain nodded, leading to the Commodore meeting my eyes.

"Four hundred thousand."

"No, I'll go to three hundred, and that's it," I responded, shaking my head. "I'm not cashing out four hundred thousand credits just so you can both press a few buttons. Three hundred thousand is a fantastic start to a new life already."

The Commodore looked at me for a long while before eventually giving me a small nod.

"Fine, three hundred thousand credits… and you keep your weapons on stun."

"We will try our best to take as many of your men alive as possible, including the two of you," I said solemnly. "But I can't promise all of them will make it, especially any stormtroopers on board. Their brainwashing runs a bit too deep to meet them with anything other than overwhelming force."

The Captain snorted, and Distani shook his head.

"Stormtroopers are not my men, they are barely men at all," He explained. "They are men-shaped droids, their thoughts so scrambled they would attempt to clean the hull in skivvies while in space if you ordered them to."

I couldn't help but chuckle, standing from my chair and stepping forward to the edge of the bed, my hand extending. After a long moment, Commodore Distani took it, shaking it once as he stood.

"Welcome to the mission, Commodore, Captian. Things just got a bit easier with you two on board."

---

Just a small note: the IPVs of this universe have hyperdrives, because the idea of a large ship without one is laughably stupid, and whoever decided that they didn't clearly didn't understand how space works in the slightest. Also, the Bayonet-class is listed as having nearly two hundred crew, which is insane for its size. I'd say its minimum level of crew, around fifty, is much more reasonable.