40 – A New Challenger Approached
"We can't use the ships!"
"We already have been!"
"But we can't know if he – they – one of them might have done something! Hell, they might have done nothing but left behind some kind of coding!"
"Then how-,"
"To take control of it and kill us all!"
"Listen, man, I've been over and under those computers more than my wife, I'm telling you they're
clean!"
Mon Mothma did not pause as she walked past them, merely crinkling her eyes slightly before turning her head away. She had heard that argument before, and many more like it besides. There had been some like it before, but now that seemed to be the only thing that anyone was talking about.
The whole of the Alliance had been thrown into mass confusion by what had been done at Kuat. Many had immediately voted to disabuse themselves of every single asset that the droid known as 'Theta' had given them, others had begun treating the scientists that 'Beta' arrived with even worse – save for Xux who the Lady Organa had taken an almost motherish approach towards – while still others were clamoring that the one known as 'Alpha' be contacted.
For
what, precisely, she did not know. Surely they did not think that these…droids…would willingly give them some of the most powerful starships in the galaxy. The Katana fleet had been a wondrous boon, allowing the Alliance to expand their operations ten-fold, the credits transferred to them had allowed them to make long standing payments to numerous underworld contacts, find new information and technologies, and more. The Cluster fleet had allowed a great many covert operations that brought them ever closer to bringing down the Empire.
Yet not once had Theta or Beta hinted at their organization – for it surely had to be a group of them – giving them some of their truly advanced technologies. Their weapons and bodies defied even the most powerful of scans, their ships had not been present to anything but the naked eye the whole of its time there at Haven Base, so why would they give the Alliance something like the
Executor? That did not even account for the fact that they would have no way to even
crew such ships.
"Lady Mothma," a warm drawl called out to her, revealed to have come from General Calrissian swaggering up to her from another passageway. "What brings you here to this fine base of ours? I thought you'd have left the system right after The Network did."
"I would have, yet for the heist at Kuat – the Network?" She interrupted herself as his emphasis caught up to her.
"Yeah, that's what I've been calling them. Theta described it as 'the Network' when he went crazy for a little there. He and Beta were so familiar with one another it was like they were related."
Mon considered that, humming as the two of them continued to walk.
"The Network…I suppose that does make sense. Enough that they were connected apparently across the galaxy and were able to transfer pain amongst themselves…"
"Can I mention how odd it is to see a droid in that much pain?"
"It was almost…organic, in its pain, true," she murmured. "Droids can feel pain, we know this, but nothing like
that."
Conversation was forced to a halt, however, as they arrived at a pair of guards standing in front of a door to the meeting room. A second later the soldiers stepped aside, the door whooshing open to reveal the High Command of the Alliance that had been so separated after the Battle of Hoth. Murmured conversations came to a halt as they beheld one of the main architects of the entire Alliance standing before them before the woman entered alongside Lando.
"Chancellor," one nodded to her before the rest of the High Command returned to their seats.
"General Madine," she nodded back before sitting herself at the head of the table, General Calrissian moving to a seat offered to him. "Friends, we are assembled here to discuss the latest events to shake the galaxy by the organization of droids which I have elected to call The Network, as named by General Calrissian."
"The Network, eh? Works as well as any," one of the more grizzled generals grunted.
"They're dangerous, can we afford to use the resources they gave us?" Another asked.
"Can we afford
not to?"
It was no secret that Admiral Ackbar was rather possessive of his now greatly expanded fleet, and considering that he had been using it to great effect against the Empire he was right to disagree with the notion that he should cede control of it out of fear.
"I can't believe they stole those super star destroyers right out of Kuat," Lando chuckled. "Sure, they might be crazy and too powerful for their own good, but you have to admit that takes some-,"
"It's this 'Alpha' I'm more worried about. Theta and Beta were much calmer, but
that one was almost manic," General Madine said.
"At least we have a name for the reason the Empire has been going crazy lately. It wasn't just us, it was the disappearance of their best ships across the galaxy!"
"Is no one concerned that it was likely The Network that intervened at Hoth? Blue Squadron was talking about mysterious transports for months after that but there were no sensor recordings proving it. The
Death Squadron disappearing afterward might mean that The Network has been involved even longer than we thought?" Yet another member of the High Command called out.
That too, was troubling to Mon Mothma. How long had The Network been watching? Waiting?
She still shivered when she viewed the audio recording of Theta when the reasoning for so casually delivering what almost amounted to salvation to the Alliance was demanded of him.
'That you
win."
What did 'winning' mean, for The Network? By now almost everyone was blaming them for the war in the underworld, the theft of a rumored trillion credits at
minimum, and to be honest with herself she couldn't be sure they were wrong.
"I'm more concerned about what they've been
doing with all the super star destroyers they've taken."
That too, was most certainly frightening. It had cost many Bothan lives to discover just why the Empire was so frantically searching across the galaxy – not for the Alliance as suspected but for
The Network and their various ships.
"If they are indeed responsible for the theft of every single currently missing super star destroyer…they may possess the greatest single concentration of firepower seen since the Death Star."
"At least they're against the Empire."
"No, not at
least, they might be worse! What if this is the beginning of another Droid Rebellion?"
Mon Mothma closed her eyes and let the now raging debate wash over her. Generals and admirals alike were calling out and yelling, not about what to do further against the Empire…but about what to do about The Network.
Intended or not, those droids had thrown the entire Rebellion into chaos.
