Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage
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AldariSiradla
Knight of the Fountain Pen
Better safe than sorry bruh.
A few blind jumps and run-arounds...
And maybe look behind your shoulders too.
Because they might be tracking you.
Embrace the paranoia!
A few blind jumps and run-arounds...
And maybe look behind your shoulders too.
Because they might be tracking you.
Embrace the paranoia!
Chapter 198
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After jumping at shadows and running from people who apparently weren't really chasing us, K'Kruhk and I spent some time calming everyone down and organizing everyone. To their credit, the younger Force-sensitives took directions well, moving and shifting our cargo around to create plenty of room for beds. We even set up a significant amount of crates and other stuff to act as chairs. It wasn't exactly a five-star resort, but it would do for an emergency evacuation.
Technically, if we were really in trouble, with damage or some other issue, I could have called in the Whale Shark or even Boxi's Fury to pick us up and take us into their hangar bay. However, I didn't want to get into the habit of calling the Fury at the drop of a hat since I really wanted to cement it as a forward operating base and part of the defensive force around Nirn. As for the Whale Shark, it was undergoing heavy maintenance and upgrades, as were a lot of our ships. Miru was spending a good few million credits making all our ships the best versions of themselves that we could afford.
Once everything was organized and set, and after explaining that no, I wouldn't be sharing Nirn's coordinates, as the fewer people that knew them, the safer we were, it was time to settle in for the trip. It wasn't too long, thankfully, the journey passing through two major trade lanes, meaning we made good time. I tried to spend most of it enchanting, but unfortunately, I realized something not long after we settled in.
I still hadn't explained magic to this group.
Now, normally that wouldn't be a massive problem, but as we were all crammed into a relatively small ship, I didn't want to stir up anything. I would tell them after we landed, with Yoda and Amescoll there to calm them down and assure them that, yes, I was not using the Force. I even warned Julus, Calima, and Nal about it, so that they didn't mention it by accident. However, all this meant that I didn't have an excuse to sit in the enchanting room for the entire trip, trying to get ahead of the ever-increasing size of the Skyforged Vanguard.
In the end, I split my time between meeting and chatting with our guests and enchanting. We also spent a good chunk of time checking everything we brought with us for tracking sensors. I knew I was coming off as paranoid, but thankfully our guests played nice, seeming to understand the scale of what I was trying to protect.
The days passed quickly, thankfully, and before long, we dropped out of hyperspace above the surface of Nirn. When we did, I was sitting on the first deck, sharing lunch with one of the Jedi Masters who had found their way to the hidden temple when the ship shuddered out of hyperspace. Suddenly, the hold went quiet, and everyone, even the youngest child, looked off into the distance, as if they could see through the hull of the ship.
"I can feel it…" The Jedi I had been talking with said. "You were right, Deacon. This planet… is teaming with life… Alive with the Force. I have never felt anything like it."
"Well… never say I don't deliver, I suppose," I said, looking around at everyone as they slowly broke out of the spell that Nirn had cast on them. Whispers and muttering spread through the deck, people excitedly talking about getting down to the planet.
I excused myself and headed up to the bridge, only to find that several people stuffed inside, peering out of the viewport to see the planet. I rolled my eyes and told them the sooner they left the pilot to their job, the sooner we could land. They sheepishly headed back down to the first deck, leaving Master K'Kruhk standing there, politely standing to the side.
"Calima, getting any messages?" I asked. "We free to land?"
"Just a bunch of greetings from the fleet… and now we are free to land," She said with a nod. "Starting our descent."
As we pulled through, making our way down to the planet, we passed by all three of our groups, most of our fleet in orbit around Nirn. It was an impressive sight, seeing the entire fleet surrounding the Lucrehulk and the Dreadnought.
As we slowly made our way down to the surface, I sent a message warning Amescoll that we were almost there, while K'Kruhk left to calm and guide the rest of his group. When we finally landed, the group inside was eager to disembark, and frankly, I didn't blame them, as the Chariot had never seemed so small after three days of being filled with so many people.
My crew and I were the last to descend from the ship, walking down the forward boarding ramp. We were greeted by the beginnings of a celebration, the two groups of jJedi meeting in a moment filled with laughter, cheers, and not a small amount of tears. From what I could see, there weren't many among the younger generation that knew each other beyond just passing association, but the simple fact that they were all Jedi, young, old, trained, or just barely starting, was more than enough for them to greet each other as old friends.
Unsurprisingly, the meeting celebration quickly turned into a feast, as I noticed they tended to do. I already foresaw some interesting shenanigans when the population started to rise, and we couldn't just shut everything down for a party.
As usual, the Mandalorians were eager to use the excuse to go hunting for big game, rushing out to stalk food for dinner. This time, a dozen or so other people went out as well to gather wild fruits and vegetables.
While the party was nice, and it was good to see Amescoll's group explaining how everything worked, I couldn't help but feel a bit melancholy without Ahsoka around. Toasting Amescoll as Yoda promoted him to Jedi Master, for at least as long as that role meant anything, was nice, but I was still out of it. I ended up retreating early to the Chariot, using the hyperspace to send a message to her. Unsurprisingly, she wasn't on board the Starcaller to receive it, but she would get it the next time she was. I ended up sleeping on the Chariot, as I didn't feel like making my way back through the crowds to my home.
The following day started with a meeting between Amescoll, Yoda, K'Kruhk, several other Jedi or Force-sensitives, as well as Tatnia and myself. By the time we had all piled into the Amescoll's dining room, I was once again sorely missing Ahsoka, this time for the stability she represented between the Skyforged Vanguard and the rest of the once Jedi and Padawans. I wasn't expecting trouble, but it was nice having her there just in case.
"It's good to see none of you were too affected by the celebration," I said with a smile, getting a chuckle or smile from a few of the attendees. "At this point, I think the Jedi or Force-sensitive portion of our population is large enough that some things need to be addressed. For instance, I believe you should select a councilor of sorts. This doesn't have to be the leader, spiritual or otherwise, of the group, just someone I can talk to, spread the word, and be informed of issues or anything else."
"Discussed something similar, we have. Suggested a new Jedi council, some did. A mistake, we decided, a new council would be," Yoda explained. "Jedi Master Amescoll, our councilor is. You, our leader, will be."
"Amescoll is a good- wait, what?" I said, my mind screeching to a halt. "You want me to lead you? But I'm not even one of you?!"
"And yet you have done more for the Jedi than anyone has in many years, even those among our ranks," Amescoll pointed out. "My padawans already agreed to join the Vanguard, so for us, this is a formality."
"To be clear, this is not without limits," K'Kruhk pointed out. "We will follow you, but not blindly."
"Good, I have no use for blind underlings. I want allies and friends," I confirmed, mind still reeling a bit. "I… If this is what you want, then I will accept. I will lead the Jedi faction here on Nirn… under two conditions. First, the day-to-day needs to be handled in-house. I have too much on my plate to settle daily issues. Second, this is only until the Empire is defeated, or at least defeated to a degree in which large portions of the galaxy are free. Once that happens, I expect you to create a new council or something else."
"Agreed."
"Very well."
Both Amescoll and K'Kruhk said, while Yoda simply nodded.
"Well, if that's the case, we need to talk about what we are doing with the vault treasure we brought back with us."
At the mention of the treasure, I could see visibly who really trusted me and who was still on the fence. Both Yoda and Amescoll simply nodded, as did most of the older padawans. The newer additions, as well as K'Kruhk, tensed slightly as if waiting for me to prove them right.
"I made a deal with the Vault, and I intend to honor it, but we cannot pass up the precious metals and other valuables, so I propose an alternative," I explained, leaning back in my chair. "I suggest we delicately modify the Vault's programming. We remove the fanatical desire to keep everything and shift his focus toward preserving the things he is tasked with protecting. With a soft touch, we could task him with curating and protecting the Jedi museum or memorial we have floated several times while also taking the unrelated general valuables and putting them to better, namely as funding."
"Best option we have, that may be," Yoda said.
"Good. On top of that, there is obviously some work to be done in terms of preserving the more delicate things, like the books and paintings. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about that process, so we need to find someone who does," I said. "Hopefully, that person will know a way to scan them so that everyone can read them without risking the originals. I'm willing to bet we could find an archeologist or specialist who would be happy to do that for simple pay and the chance to research what we have found. We will have to be careful about security, but that's a bridge we can cross later."
"I'm concerned about the Holocrons," Amescoll admitted, and I nodded in agreement. "I know we are working hard to find a new path, a mix of old and new, that is more stable and less detrimental, but I feel like letting Jedi Lords teach our Padawans and younglings might be a mistake."
"I'll be honest, I don't know much about that era," I admitted with a frown. "But I agree. The Holocrons should be reviewed in depth before they are spread among the students, and the students should never use one alone. Let the holocrons teach two or three at once. That increases how many can learn at once, and will hopefully mitigate any… unsavory influences."
We discussed some of the teaching methods, including the public meditation spaces and setting up classes with the Jedi Masters teaching. I made a mental note to find out if we needed to start doing classes for younger kids, those not among the Force-sensitive. Eventually, when we finished talking about teaching the younger generation, the conversation switched back over to what we had found in the vault.
"The treasures we can store easily, probably on the Fury since we can more easily control the temperature, humidity, and other factors. It's probably where we should put the books as well," I pointed out, scratching my chin as I thought it out. "As for the treasures that aren't related to Jedi, I would just assume that we sell them after modifying the Vault intelligence. They have no value to your people, we have no reason to gather paintings, statues, and other things, so we may as well sell them and use the credits to fund Jedi training."
"There is a substantial amount of precious metals as well," Amescoll pointed out. "Both in ingot and coin form. They would go a long way in outfitting newcomers in beskar uniforms and armor."
"It would, and it will go a long way to keeping everyone kitted out. It's complicated, however. Your people are all members of the Skyforged, so they automatically get at least the uniform, and they also get their own armor if they are fighting on the ground," I said, more or less just stating the obvious. But if our newcomers don't want to join, then… I don't know if they get their own armor or uniforms. Even if they supply the base metal. I cannot just be handing out beskar, in armor form or not."
K'Kruhk looked a bit confused, trying to figure out when beskar had become part of the conversation. He opened his mouth, but Amescoll spoke up before he could ask for clarification.
"Hmmm, that is tough, especially because it will make the difference between those of us who are part of your group and those who are not," The recently promoted Jedi stated. "Your beskar uniforms are expensive and represent our group. There is no reason to distribute it or the armor to people who will not be joining, as they won't be fighting."
"Anyone who wishes to join can. I will not order anyone to, even if I am technically the leader," I said, shaking my head. "Those that joined will be armed and armored to fit their role. That's not to say that people who don't volunteer won't be working. Every adult, even Jedi, will have to work in some way to help grow this city."
"Hold on, please. Where are you getting this beskar?" K'Kruhk asked, still confused. "I know that the Skyforged Vanguard has Mandalorian members, but they guard their metal closely. I cannot imagine that has changed with their planet being decimated."
I opened my mouth to say something, wincing as I realized that I still hadn't explained magic to K'Kruhk. Before I could say anything, Amescoll began to explain.
"It is one of Deacon's many abilities," He explained with a casual shrug. "It is truly interesting to watch, using his magic to shift one material into something totally different."
"Magic? Surely you are joking, Master Amescoll?" K'Kruhk asked, skepticism clear on his face. "There is only the Force, and it is clear Deacon, not to belittle him, has a very low connection."
Both Amescoll and Yoda turned to look at me, eyebrows raised. I couldn't help but sag a little, feeling tired.
"We… didn't get quite that far," I admitted, running my hand through my hair. "My magic never came up."
K'Kruhk began to protest again, but I shut him up by conjuring a dagger.
"K'Kruhk, I have something that I can only call magic…"
For a while, the meeting devolved into me showing off my magic, slowly convincing the newcomers that it was definitely not the Force. When I felt like I was successful, we took a break for lunch before reconvening the meeting afterward, which continued for another few hours after that.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the only meeting I would gather.
As our crew worked on upgrades, our membership was due to swell again, final expansions to the fleet were made, and we had gathered another group of Jedi survivors, I felt it was time for the Skyforged to truly rest and consolidate our growth. I gathered every major player in our mercenary crew, from our captains and the leaders of the expansion teams working on Nirn, to the leaders of the ground teams and everything in between. I even got the recently reprogramed B4-88, the super tactical droid from the bridge of Boxi's Fury, to join us. I then gathered the massive groups several times over the next week or so.
These massive all-hands meetings would be used to discuss the future of our group, plan upgrades, raise issues for discussion, and discuss ideas to benefit our strength. Then, during our downtime, we planned on implementing those ideas and upgrades, working on solving the raised problems, and working together to increase our effectiveness. It would take time and effort, but I could hardly wait to get to work.
If you are interested in those benefits or just want to support my attempt to become a full-time writer, stop by and show your support. Every dollar helps!
After jumping at shadows and running from people who apparently weren't really chasing us, K'Kruhk and I spent some time calming everyone down and organizing everyone. To their credit, the younger Force-sensitives took directions well, moving and shifting our cargo around to create plenty of room for beds. We even set up a significant amount of crates and other stuff to act as chairs. It wasn't exactly a five-star resort, but it would do for an emergency evacuation.
Technically, if we were really in trouble, with damage or some other issue, I could have called in the Whale Shark or even Boxi's Fury to pick us up and take us into their hangar bay. However, I didn't want to get into the habit of calling the Fury at the drop of a hat since I really wanted to cement it as a forward operating base and part of the defensive force around Nirn. As for the Whale Shark, it was undergoing heavy maintenance and upgrades, as were a lot of our ships. Miru was spending a good few million credits making all our ships the best versions of themselves that we could afford.
Once everything was organized and set, and after explaining that no, I wouldn't be sharing Nirn's coordinates, as the fewer people that knew them, the safer we were, it was time to settle in for the trip. It wasn't too long, thankfully, the journey passing through two major trade lanes, meaning we made good time. I tried to spend most of it enchanting, but unfortunately, I realized something not long after we settled in.
I still hadn't explained magic to this group.
Now, normally that wouldn't be a massive problem, but as we were all crammed into a relatively small ship, I didn't want to stir up anything. I would tell them after we landed, with Yoda and Amescoll there to calm them down and assure them that, yes, I was not using the Force. I even warned Julus, Calima, and Nal about it, so that they didn't mention it by accident. However, all this meant that I didn't have an excuse to sit in the enchanting room for the entire trip, trying to get ahead of the ever-increasing size of the Skyforged Vanguard.
In the end, I split my time between meeting and chatting with our guests and enchanting. We also spent a good chunk of time checking everything we brought with us for tracking sensors. I knew I was coming off as paranoid, but thankfully our guests played nice, seeming to understand the scale of what I was trying to protect.
The days passed quickly, thankfully, and before long, we dropped out of hyperspace above the surface of Nirn. When we did, I was sitting on the first deck, sharing lunch with one of the Jedi Masters who had found their way to the hidden temple when the ship shuddered out of hyperspace. Suddenly, the hold went quiet, and everyone, even the youngest child, looked off into the distance, as if they could see through the hull of the ship.
"I can feel it…" The Jedi I had been talking with said. "You were right, Deacon. This planet… is teaming with life… Alive with the Force. I have never felt anything like it."
"Well… never say I don't deliver, I suppose," I said, looking around at everyone as they slowly broke out of the spell that Nirn had cast on them. Whispers and muttering spread through the deck, people excitedly talking about getting down to the planet.
I excused myself and headed up to the bridge, only to find that several people stuffed inside, peering out of the viewport to see the planet. I rolled my eyes and told them the sooner they left the pilot to their job, the sooner we could land. They sheepishly headed back down to the first deck, leaving Master K'Kruhk standing there, politely standing to the side.
"Calima, getting any messages?" I asked. "We free to land?"
"Just a bunch of greetings from the fleet… and now we are free to land," She said with a nod. "Starting our descent."
As we pulled through, making our way down to the planet, we passed by all three of our groups, most of our fleet in orbit around Nirn. It was an impressive sight, seeing the entire fleet surrounding the Lucrehulk and the Dreadnought.
As we slowly made our way down to the surface, I sent a message warning Amescoll that we were almost there, while K'Kruhk left to calm and guide the rest of his group. When we finally landed, the group inside was eager to disembark, and frankly, I didn't blame them, as the Chariot had never seemed so small after three days of being filled with so many people.
My crew and I were the last to descend from the ship, walking down the forward boarding ramp. We were greeted by the beginnings of a celebration, the two groups of jJedi meeting in a moment filled with laughter, cheers, and not a small amount of tears. From what I could see, there weren't many among the younger generation that knew each other beyond just passing association, but the simple fact that they were all Jedi, young, old, trained, or just barely starting, was more than enough for them to greet each other as old friends.
Unsurprisingly, the meeting celebration quickly turned into a feast, as I noticed they tended to do. I already foresaw some interesting shenanigans when the population started to rise, and we couldn't just shut everything down for a party.
As usual, the Mandalorians were eager to use the excuse to go hunting for big game, rushing out to stalk food for dinner. This time, a dozen or so other people went out as well to gather wild fruits and vegetables.
While the party was nice, and it was good to see Amescoll's group explaining how everything worked, I couldn't help but feel a bit melancholy without Ahsoka around. Toasting Amescoll as Yoda promoted him to Jedi Master, for at least as long as that role meant anything, was nice, but I was still out of it. I ended up retreating early to the Chariot, using the hyperspace to send a message to her. Unsurprisingly, she wasn't on board the Starcaller to receive it, but she would get it the next time she was. I ended up sleeping on the Chariot, as I didn't feel like making my way back through the crowds to my home.
The following day started with a meeting between Amescoll, Yoda, K'Kruhk, several other Jedi or Force-sensitives, as well as Tatnia and myself. By the time we had all piled into the Amescoll's dining room, I was once again sorely missing Ahsoka, this time for the stability she represented between the Skyforged Vanguard and the rest of the once Jedi and Padawans. I wasn't expecting trouble, but it was nice having her there just in case.
"It's good to see none of you were too affected by the celebration," I said with a smile, getting a chuckle or smile from a few of the attendees. "At this point, I think the Jedi or Force-sensitive portion of our population is large enough that some things need to be addressed. For instance, I believe you should select a councilor of sorts. This doesn't have to be the leader, spiritual or otherwise, of the group, just someone I can talk to, spread the word, and be informed of issues or anything else."
"Discussed something similar, we have. Suggested a new Jedi council, some did. A mistake, we decided, a new council would be," Yoda explained. "Jedi Master Amescoll, our councilor is. You, our leader, will be."
"Amescoll is a good- wait, what?" I said, my mind screeching to a halt. "You want me to lead you? But I'm not even one of you?!"
"And yet you have done more for the Jedi than anyone has in many years, even those among our ranks," Amescoll pointed out. "My padawans already agreed to join the Vanguard, so for us, this is a formality."
"To be clear, this is not without limits," K'Kruhk pointed out. "We will follow you, but not blindly."
"Good, I have no use for blind underlings. I want allies and friends," I confirmed, mind still reeling a bit. "I… If this is what you want, then I will accept. I will lead the Jedi faction here on Nirn… under two conditions. First, the day-to-day needs to be handled in-house. I have too much on my plate to settle daily issues. Second, this is only until the Empire is defeated, or at least defeated to a degree in which large portions of the galaxy are free. Once that happens, I expect you to create a new council or something else."
"Agreed."
"Very well."
Both Amescoll and K'Kruhk said, while Yoda simply nodded.
"Well, if that's the case, we need to talk about what we are doing with the vault treasure we brought back with us."
At the mention of the treasure, I could see visibly who really trusted me and who was still on the fence. Both Yoda and Amescoll simply nodded, as did most of the older padawans. The newer additions, as well as K'Kruhk, tensed slightly as if waiting for me to prove them right.
"I made a deal with the Vault, and I intend to honor it, but we cannot pass up the precious metals and other valuables, so I propose an alternative," I explained, leaning back in my chair. "I suggest we delicately modify the Vault's programming. We remove the fanatical desire to keep everything and shift his focus toward preserving the things he is tasked with protecting. With a soft touch, we could task him with curating and protecting the Jedi museum or memorial we have floated several times while also taking the unrelated general valuables and putting them to better, namely as funding."
"Best option we have, that may be," Yoda said.
"Good. On top of that, there is obviously some work to be done in terms of preserving the more delicate things, like the books and paintings. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about that process, so we need to find someone who does," I said. "Hopefully, that person will know a way to scan them so that everyone can read them without risking the originals. I'm willing to bet we could find an archeologist or specialist who would be happy to do that for simple pay and the chance to research what we have found. We will have to be careful about security, but that's a bridge we can cross later."
"I'm concerned about the Holocrons," Amescoll admitted, and I nodded in agreement. "I know we are working hard to find a new path, a mix of old and new, that is more stable and less detrimental, but I feel like letting Jedi Lords teach our Padawans and younglings might be a mistake."
"I'll be honest, I don't know much about that era," I admitted with a frown. "But I agree. The Holocrons should be reviewed in depth before they are spread among the students, and the students should never use one alone. Let the holocrons teach two or three at once. That increases how many can learn at once, and will hopefully mitigate any… unsavory influences."
We discussed some of the teaching methods, including the public meditation spaces and setting up classes with the Jedi Masters teaching. I made a mental note to find out if we needed to start doing classes for younger kids, those not among the Force-sensitive. Eventually, when we finished talking about teaching the younger generation, the conversation switched back over to what we had found in the vault.
"The treasures we can store easily, probably on the Fury since we can more easily control the temperature, humidity, and other factors. It's probably where we should put the books as well," I pointed out, scratching my chin as I thought it out. "As for the treasures that aren't related to Jedi, I would just assume that we sell them after modifying the Vault intelligence. They have no value to your people, we have no reason to gather paintings, statues, and other things, so we may as well sell them and use the credits to fund Jedi training."
"There is a substantial amount of precious metals as well," Amescoll pointed out. "Both in ingot and coin form. They would go a long way in outfitting newcomers in beskar uniforms and armor."
"It would, and it will go a long way to keeping everyone kitted out. It's complicated, however. Your people are all members of the Skyforged, so they automatically get at least the uniform, and they also get their own armor if they are fighting on the ground," I said, more or less just stating the obvious. But if our newcomers don't want to join, then… I don't know if they get their own armor or uniforms. Even if they supply the base metal. I cannot just be handing out beskar, in armor form or not."
K'Kruhk looked a bit confused, trying to figure out when beskar had become part of the conversation. He opened his mouth, but Amescoll spoke up before he could ask for clarification.
"Hmmm, that is tough, especially because it will make the difference between those of us who are part of your group and those who are not," The recently promoted Jedi stated. "Your beskar uniforms are expensive and represent our group. There is no reason to distribute it or the armor to people who will not be joining, as they won't be fighting."
"Anyone who wishes to join can. I will not order anyone to, even if I am technically the leader," I said, shaking my head. "Those that joined will be armed and armored to fit their role. That's not to say that people who don't volunteer won't be working. Every adult, even Jedi, will have to work in some way to help grow this city."
"Hold on, please. Where are you getting this beskar?" K'Kruhk asked, still confused. "I know that the Skyforged Vanguard has Mandalorian members, but they guard their metal closely. I cannot imagine that has changed with their planet being decimated."
I opened my mouth to say something, wincing as I realized that I still hadn't explained magic to K'Kruhk. Before I could say anything, Amescoll began to explain.
"It is one of Deacon's many abilities," He explained with a casual shrug. "It is truly interesting to watch, using his magic to shift one material into something totally different."
"Magic? Surely you are joking, Master Amescoll?" K'Kruhk asked, skepticism clear on his face. "There is only the Force, and it is clear Deacon, not to belittle him, has a very low connection."
Both Amescoll and Yoda turned to look at me, eyebrows raised. I couldn't help but sag a little, feeling tired.
"We… didn't get quite that far," I admitted, running my hand through my hair. "My magic never came up."
K'Kruhk began to protest again, but I shut him up by conjuring a dagger.
"K'Kruhk, I have something that I can only call magic…"
For a while, the meeting devolved into me showing off my magic, slowly convincing the newcomers that it was definitely not the Force. When I felt like I was successful, we took a break for lunch before reconvening the meeting afterward, which continued for another few hours after that.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the only meeting I would gather.
As our crew worked on upgrades, our membership was due to swell again, final expansions to the fleet were made, and we had gathered another group of Jedi survivors, I felt it was time for the Skyforged to truly rest and consolidate our growth. I gathered every major player in our mercenary crew, from our captains and the leaders of the expansion teams working on Nirn, to the leaders of the ground teams and everything in between. I even got the recently reprogramed B4-88, the super tactical droid from the bridge of Boxi's Fury, to join us. I then gathered the massive groups several times over the next week or so.
These massive all-hands meetings would be used to discuss the future of our group, plan upgrades, raise issues for discussion, and discuss ideas to benefit our strength. Then, during our downtime, we planned on implementing those ideas and upgrades, working on solving the raised problems, and working together to increase our effectiveness. It would take time and effort, but I could hardly wait to get to work.
Chapter 199 - Ahsoka Tano Interlude - I
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Ahsoka and Vaz watched as the 1st group, carrying their friends, allies, and lover, took off and headed out towards deep space with a final message goodbye. Once they had jumped out of sensor range, Ahsoka turned to Vaz, standing up and out of the Starcaller's captain's chair.
"Well, Vaz, tell me, do you have experience with investigations?" she asked, passing the Shistavanen to head deeper into the ship.
"I have experience tracking bounties and hunting," Vaz responded, following after the Togruta, still dressed in full armor, only her helmet off, clipped to her hip. "I believe that is why the Boss instructed me to remain with you. I also have basic Mandalorian training from my adopted father, with a focus on heavy weapons. Beyond that, I am afraid I lack any experience."
"I would think that's more than enough experience for this," She assured her, patting an armored pauldron. "For now, I want you to act as my bodyguard of sorts, looming behind me, the hard to my soft approach. Does that make sense?"
"It does, I am familiar with intimidation and negotiation tactics," She explained, Ahsoka smiling.
"See, more experience than you thought," She responded, releasing the warrior's shoulder. "Our first stop will be Alliance Intelligence, which probably means we will be interacting with Draven. Don't let him get on your nerves. We are still guests, so anything we do might negatively affect or restrict our access."
"Very well."
"Good. I don't know how difficult this will be or how long it will take," Ahsoka admitted, now making her way to the lounge area, where a pair of beskar-clad commando droids were waiting. "It all depends on what sort of information security the Rebellion employed for the mission. We could puzzle it out in a few minutes, or this could take weeks."
"I am here for the long haul, Ahsoka," Vaz assured her, prompting another smile from Ahsoka.
Rather than respond, Ahsoka focused on the two Commando droids, who were armed and ready for battle. They stood at loose attention, tightening up when Ahsoka focused on them.
"As for you two, I expect you to stay quiet unless Vaz or I address you," She explained. "I don't think we particularly need you accompanying us, as Vaz and I are perfectly capable of defending ourselves, but I promised Deacon that I would take you with me, so I will. Keep your sensors going, guard doors as we enter rooms, and I don't want your weapons to leave stun unless I give you a direct order. Understood?"
"Roger roger," Both of the droids said in unison, switching their weapons to stun, before saluting the young Jedi. "We follow your command."
Ahsoka gave them a nod before pulling out her comms and contacting the number she was given to start their investigation. After a quick conversation with an intelligence agent on the other end, they were invited back into Alpha Base to begin, with a transport sent out to collect them. Thankfully, they didn't even have to wait long, as the wheeled transport showed up to pick them up in only a few minutes. From there, they were guided through the base until, eventually, they arrived at an office space of sorts, with people sitting at computers, looking at projections and analyzing data and machines. Quite a few people looked up as they entered, but most focused back on their work soon after. One woman, a female Kel Dor spotted them and approached.
"Ahsoka Tano, I assume?" she said, reaching out to shake her hand. "I am Agent Yos Yuca. Draven wished to meet you, if you'd follow me?"
She gestured to the direction she had come from, carefully guiding the two further into the room. The two BX droids stood at attention at the door, following Ahsoka's instruction, as the Kel Dor guided them to a small conference room turned office. A desk sat tucked in the corner with a holo-projector on it, while the center of the room was occupied by a large table. There, by the conference table, standing above several data pads, actual printouts, and a second larger holo-projector, was General Draven. When they stepped in, the head of intelligence operations looked up, nodded, and gestured to the pile.
"Welcome, I'm glad to see you are so eager to start, "General Draven said, cutting through any sort of small talk. "As you can see, we have compiled a lot of data concerning the most recent collaborative mission."
Draven leaned forward and tapped a particular datapad, sliding it toward Ahsoka.
"On here is a list of our people who knew about the mission far enough in advance to somehow communicate the knowledge to an outside source," He explained. "It is cross-referenced with people who didn't actually participate in the gathering of the fleet, so they were never in danger."
Ashoka approached the table, focusing on the tablet directly in front of the General of Intelligence. He picked up the tablet and handed it to her, activating the screen. Ahsoka scrolled through the names, noting its relatively small size before looking back up at the General.
"I understand that we have our differences, but if there is anything I dislike more than wild card variables and opportunists like your leader, it is traitors and spies," He explained, gritting his teeth as he shook his head. "This is our best place to start."
"I understand your sentiment, General Draven," Ahsoka said, keeping her response diplomatic. "How have you ordered the suspect list?"
"Those at the top have somehow tripped our suspicions already. The lead suspect was already under surveillance for "losing" a shipment he was in charge of, while the second, third, and fourth, have some suspicious credit activity," Draven answered with another tight scowl. "Anyone past the third page is suspicious in some way, but not worth investigating immediately because of an alibi or some other evidence."
Ahsoka raised an eyebrow at the general's dismissiveness, realizing that, as much as it was unfortunate, it was necessary. The size of the list and the distance some of the people were spread out meant that a bit of practicality and generalization was needed to focus the search.
"Unfortunately, the list is only so short because we have avoided the influence of zealotry," Draven admitted, shaking his head. "If the traitor or spy was willing to sacrifice themselves by setting up an ambush they would be caught in, the list becomes significantly longer."
"Yes, but thankfully, out of all the possible motives, the zealotry is the easiest for me to detect," Ahsoka explained. "Such blind faith and belief leaves a stain on someone's mind. Should it come to that."
Draven didn't seem to know how to react to that statement, so he simply stayed silent. After a minute of looking through the list, Ahsoka nodded, looking back up at Draven.
"I would like to interview as many people on the list as I can," She said. "Certainly any that are suspected or have a motive."
"That can be arranged, we have been working to keep those we suspect from being moved off the planet," Draven explained. "I will have a room set up for you so you can meet them. Keep in mind that bringing these suspects in will likely let them know we are onto them, should they be guilty."
"I am aware," Ahsoka responded. "But if there is one thing a Jedi is good at, it is establishing guilt."
"I was under the impression that a sufficiently strong-willed mind could resist such attempts," the general said with a frown. "Is that not true?"
"For some of the more complicated mind techniques, yes, but reading surface emotions is as basic as breathing for a Jedi. I will be asking questions while probing their mind, not bending them to my will," she assured him. "Unless one of these suspects has an especially willful mind that is trained in repelling a Jedi's senses, I will most likely be able to sense something. I do not imagine the interviews will take long."
Draven seemed a bit skeptical, but nonetheless nodded. Ahsoka had no illusions that the General of Intelligence would be continuing his own investigations while they worked on theirs, but she had faith that the Force would find the truth.
"I should also point out that, as agreed, you will be accompanied by an Intelligence agent," he added. "I believe Agent Yuca was the one that greeted you? She will be your escort during your investigation."
"Very well,"
It took about an hour to start the interviews, with Draven selecting a nondescript room not far from the Intelligence office. Ahsoka, with her years of experience and prior training, worked hard to streamline and interview each suspect efficiently. Unfortunately, there were quite a few people on the list, even with the generalizations and assumptions that Draven had made to cut down the list.
One by one, suspects were brought to the cordoned-off room, and Ahsoka would ask them simple questions designed to prompt their emotions, using the small psychological description provided for each Rebel member by Agent Yuca. For some of the suspects, Ahsoka complimented their cunning to foster their pride. For some, she belittled their uselessness to incur anger in failure. In others still, she shouted at them, working their weak wills to push for a response.
Soon, a day passed, and then another, Ahsoka interviewing nearly two dozen people each day. Some only took several minutes, while most took around fifteen or twenty, while others with stronger, more controlled minds took quite a bit longer.
In total, she had managed to uncover a small smuggling working out of a nearby rebel cell, an illicit relationship between a high-ranked official and a subordinate, as well as an actual traitor who had been selling secrets to the Hutts. Unfortunately, her investigation into the one who sold out the Skyforged Vanguard was coming up short. Within a few days, she was forced to reconsider the list, wondering what she was missing, the Force tugging at her mind.
"What sort of reasoning pushed certain people down the list?" Ahsoka asked General Draven after another day of interviews. "Is there a concrete reason for all of them?"
"They have alibis or witnesses saying they weren't able to reach out to anyone. Some of them also maintain an otherwise clean record," the general explained. "It's obviously not completely foolproof, but we needed a way to consolidate and organize the list."
Ahsoka frowned, going through the whole list again. She was missing something, and the Force fluttered at the back of her mind to pay attention. It had been pushing her to step further and do something else, but so far, she had been unable to figure out what. As she was scanning through, a single name caught her eye. It was familiar, but she couldn't quite place it.
"Who is this?" She asked, pointing to the name and showing Draven.
"Commander Neshweh Gadic… A Mon Cal who has been with us for years. He is one of the leaders of an important station near the Hydian Way," He said, pulling up a datapad and reading from it carefully. "He was moved down the suspect list because of the intense security of his post. No electronic messages go in or out, and everything is heavily monitored."
"Why was he made aware of the plans in the first place?"
"We had to call in quite a few assets to put together the fleet we sent with you, fat lot of good that it would have done against that monstrosity of a ship," He explained with a growl, before shaking his head. "His post deals with several cells dropping off goods they procure from the Empire, then shipping them off to other cells, a distribution point, much like Omega Station. We wanted some of his people on board to help with whatever goods we found. We would have loaded them up with supplies, and they would have taken it back to their base and disseminated it through their usual routes."
"I take it he isn't here?" Ahsoka asked, feeling the Force tugging at her.
"No, he never left his post," He responded with a frown. "Why? He is only on the list because he knew about the mission. Otherwise, he has a clean record and no reason to betray the Alliance."
"The name… it sounds familiar," She admitted. "The Force is telling me he is important."
"Ahsoka, Apologies, but I recognize the name. It simply took me a moment to place it," Vaz explained, stepping forward from her position by the door. "Vakim, the captain of the Intervention, as well as his brother and husband, were Rebels before coming to work with us. According to them, they left because of rumors and slander that Commander Gadic spread in order to stiff them on compensation for their work."
"Ah, right, I remember now. The Mon Calamari who worked with General Syndulla," Ahsoka said, her mind's eye providing a mental image of the aquatic humanoid. "Interesting. He did interact with Deacon and his crew in the early days, just around when I first met them… He did not seem to appreciate their success or me leaving to join them... In fact, he was quite vocally against it..."
"That is hardly motive, no one was exactly happy about that," General Draven pointed out. "You were legendary among the ranks, after all. Losing you to a mercenary branch was a hit to morale."
"Perhaps, but if you say he has no record of issues, and yet our people say he was the reason they left the Rebellion… that says to me he is just good at covering his tracks," Ahsoka pointed, shaking her head. "The Force is pulling me towards him, so I can only think he is important to this investigation. Can you get me access to his station?"
"I… I believe I can, if that's what you want to do," He said, a frown on his face. "But I reiterate, there are no comms going in or out of that base, we monitor it too heavily for him to have snuck a message by. All communication is done by courier, which is also heavily monitored."
"Perhaps… But the Force is telling me that there is something there," Ahsoka reiterated, standing up from her seat. "We will be visiting his post so we can question him directly."
"Very well, I will get you the passcodes on a datapad," He agreed with a shrug. "Agent Yuca will be accompanying you, of course, so she can handle the contact."
"Of course," Ahsoka agreed with a smile. "In the meantime, we will head back to the Starcaller and prepare for departure."
General Draven nodded, and Ahsoka returned the gesture, turning and leaving the room. Vaz followed after her, as did Agent Yuca. Finally, as they left the intelligence office, both of the beskar armored commando droids followed after them, trailing behind like an honor guard.
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Ahsoka and Vaz watched as the 1st group, carrying their friends, allies, and lover, took off and headed out towards deep space with a final message goodbye. Once they had jumped out of sensor range, Ahsoka turned to Vaz, standing up and out of the Starcaller's captain's chair.
"Well, Vaz, tell me, do you have experience with investigations?" she asked, passing the Shistavanen to head deeper into the ship.
"I have experience tracking bounties and hunting," Vaz responded, following after the Togruta, still dressed in full armor, only her helmet off, clipped to her hip. "I believe that is why the Boss instructed me to remain with you. I also have basic Mandalorian training from my adopted father, with a focus on heavy weapons. Beyond that, I am afraid I lack any experience."
"I would think that's more than enough experience for this," She assured her, patting an armored pauldron. "For now, I want you to act as my bodyguard of sorts, looming behind me, the hard to my soft approach. Does that make sense?"
"It does, I am familiar with intimidation and negotiation tactics," She explained, Ahsoka smiling.
"See, more experience than you thought," She responded, releasing the warrior's shoulder. "Our first stop will be Alliance Intelligence, which probably means we will be interacting with Draven. Don't let him get on your nerves. We are still guests, so anything we do might negatively affect or restrict our access."
"Very well."
"Good. I don't know how difficult this will be or how long it will take," Ahsoka admitted, now making her way to the lounge area, where a pair of beskar-clad commando droids were waiting. "It all depends on what sort of information security the Rebellion employed for the mission. We could puzzle it out in a few minutes, or this could take weeks."
"I am here for the long haul, Ahsoka," Vaz assured her, prompting another smile from Ahsoka.
Rather than respond, Ahsoka focused on the two Commando droids, who were armed and ready for battle. They stood at loose attention, tightening up when Ahsoka focused on them.
"As for you two, I expect you to stay quiet unless Vaz or I address you," She explained. "I don't think we particularly need you accompanying us, as Vaz and I are perfectly capable of defending ourselves, but I promised Deacon that I would take you with me, so I will. Keep your sensors going, guard doors as we enter rooms, and I don't want your weapons to leave stun unless I give you a direct order. Understood?"
"Roger roger," Both of the droids said in unison, switching their weapons to stun, before saluting the young Jedi. "We follow your command."
Ahsoka gave them a nod before pulling out her comms and contacting the number she was given to start their investigation. After a quick conversation with an intelligence agent on the other end, they were invited back into Alpha Base to begin, with a transport sent out to collect them. Thankfully, they didn't even have to wait long, as the wheeled transport showed up to pick them up in only a few minutes. From there, they were guided through the base until, eventually, they arrived at an office space of sorts, with people sitting at computers, looking at projections and analyzing data and machines. Quite a few people looked up as they entered, but most focused back on their work soon after. One woman, a female Kel Dor spotted them and approached.
"Ahsoka Tano, I assume?" she said, reaching out to shake her hand. "I am Agent Yos Yuca. Draven wished to meet you, if you'd follow me?"
She gestured to the direction she had come from, carefully guiding the two further into the room. The two BX droids stood at attention at the door, following Ahsoka's instruction, as the Kel Dor guided them to a small conference room turned office. A desk sat tucked in the corner with a holo-projector on it, while the center of the room was occupied by a large table. There, by the conference table, standing above several data pads, actual printouts, and a second larger holo-projector, was General Draven. When they stepped in, the head of intelligence operations looked up, nodded, and gestured to the pile.
"Welcome, I'm glad to see you are so eager to start, "General Draven said, cutting through any sort of small talk. "As you can see, we have compiled a lot of data concerning the most recent collaborative mission."
Draven leaned forward and tapped a particular datapad, sliding it toward Ahsoka.
"On here is a list of our people who knew about the mission far enough in advance to somehow communicate the knowledge to an outside source," He explained. "It is cross-referenced with people who didn't actually participate in the gathering of the fleet, so they were never in danger."
Ashoka approached the table, focusing on the tablet directly in front of the General of Intelligence. He picked up the tablet and handed it to her, activating the screen. Ahsoka scrolled through the names, noting its relatively small size before looking back up at the General.
"I understand that we have our differences, but if there is anything I dislike more than wild card variables and opportunists like your leader, it is traitors and spies," He explained, gritting his teeth as he shook his head. "This is our best place to start."
"I understand your sentiment, General Draven," Ahsoka said, keeping her response diplomatic. "How have you ordered the suspect list?"
"Those at the top have somehow tripped our suspicions already. The lead suspect was already under surveillance for "losing" a shipment he was in charge of, while the second, third, and fourth, have some suspicious credit activity," Draven answered with another tight scowl. "Anyone past the third page is suspicious in some way, but not worth investigating immediately because of an alibi or some other evidence."
Ahsoka raised an eyebrow at the general's dismissiveness, realizing that, as much as it was unfortunate, it was necessary. The size of the list and the distance some of the people were spread out meant that a bit of practicality and generalization was needed to focus the search.
"Unfortunately, the list is only so short because we have avoided the influence of zealotry," Draven admitted, shaking his head. "If the traitor or spy was willing to sacrifice themselves by setting up an ambush they would be caught in, the list becomes significantly longer."
"Yes, but thankfully, out of all the possible motives, the zealotry is the easiest for me to detect," Ahsoka explained. "Such blind faith and belief leaves a stain on someone's mind. Should it come to that."
Draven didn't seem to know how to react to that statement, so he simply stayed silent. After a minute of looking through the list, Ahsoka nodded, looking back up at Draven.
"I would like to interview as many people on the list as I can," She said. "Certainly any that are suspected or have a motive."
"That can be arranged, we have been working to keep those we suspect from being moved off the planet," Draven explained. "I will have a room set up for you so you can meet them. Keep in mind that bringing these suspects in will likely let them know we are onto them, should they be guilty."
"I am aware," Ahsoka responded. "But if there is one thing a Jedi is good at, it is establishing guilt."
"I was under the impression that a sufficiently strong-willed mind could resist such attempts," the general said with a frown. "Is that not true?"
"For some of the more complicated mind techniques, yes, but reading surface emotions is as basic as breathing for a Jedi. I will be asking questions while probing their mind, not bending them to my will," she assured him. "Unless one of these suspects has an especially willful mind that is trained in repelling a Jedi's senses, I will most likely be able to sense something. I do not imagine the interviews will take long."
Draven seemed a bit skeptical, but nonetheless nodded. Ahsoka had no illusions that the General of Intelligence would be continuing his own investigations while they worked on theirs, but she had faith that the Force would find the truth.
"I should also point out that, as agreed, you will be accompanied by an Intelligence agent," he added. "I believe Agent Yuca was the one that greeted you? She will be your escort during your investigation."
"Very well,"
It took about an hour to start the interviews, with Draven selecting a nondescript room not far from the Intelligence office. Ahsoka, with her years of experience and prior training, worked hard to streamline and interview each suspect efficiently. Unfortunately, there were quite a few people on the list, even with the generalizations and assumptions that Draven had made to cut down the list.
One by one, suspects were brought to the cordoned-off room, and Ahsoka would ask them simple questions designed to prompt their emotions, using the small psychological description provided for each Rebel member by Agent Yuca. For some of the suspects, Ahsoka complimented their cunning to foster their pride. For some, she belittled their uselessness to incur anger in failure. In others still, she shouted at them, working their weak wills to push for a response.
Soon, a day passed, and then another, Ahsoka interviewing nearly two dozen people each day. Some only took several minutes, while most took around fifteen or twenty, while others with stronger, more controlled minds took quite a bit longer.
In total, she had managed to uncover a small smuggling working out of a nearby rebel cell, an illicit relationship between a high-ranked official and a subordinate, as well as an actual traitor who had been selling secrets to the Hutts. Unfortunately, her investigation into the one who sold out the Skyforged Vanguard was coming up short. Within a few days, she was forced to reconsider the list, wondering what she was missing, the Force tugging at her mind.
"What sort of reasoning pushed certain people down the list?" Ahsoka asked General Draven after another day of interviews. "Is there a concrete reason for all of them?"
"They have alibis or witnesses saying they weren't able to reach out to anyone. Some of them also maintain an otherwise clean record," the general explained. "It's obviously not completely foolproof, but we needed a way to consolidate and organize the list."
Ahsoka frowned, going through the whole list again. She was missing something, and the Force fluttered at the back of her mind to pay attention. It had been pushing her to step further and do something else, but so far, she had been unable to figure out what. As she was scanning through, a single name caught her eye. It was familiar, but she couldn't quite place it.
"Who is this?" She asked, pointing to the name and showing Draven.
"Commander Neshweh Gadic… A Mon Cal who has been with us for years. He is one of the leaders of an important station near the Hydian Way," He said, pulling up a datapad and reading from it carefully. "He was moved down the suspect list because of the intense security of his post. No electronic messages go in or out, and everything is heavily monitored."
"Why was he made aware of the plans in the first place?"
"We had to call in quite a few assets to put together the fleet we sent with you, fat lot of good that it would have done against that monstrosity of a ship," He explained with a growl, before shaking his head. "His post deals with several cells dropping off goods they procure from the Empire, then shipping them off to other cells, a distribution point, much like Omega Station. We wanted some of his people on board to help with whatever goods we found. We would have loaded them up with supplies, and they would have taken it back to their base and disseminated it through their usual routes."
"I take it he isn't here?" Ahsoka asked, feeling the Force tugging at her.
"No, he never left his post," He responded with a frown. "Why? He is only on the list because he knew about the mission. Otherwise, he has a clean record and no reason to betray the Alliance."
"The name… it sounds familiar," She admitted. "The Force is telling me he is important."
"Ahsoka, Apologies, but I recognize the name. It simply took me a moment to place it," Vaz explained, stepping forward from her position by the door. "Vakim, the captain of the Intervention, as well as his brother and husband, were Rebels before coming to work with us. According to them, they left because of rumors and slander that Commander Gadic spread in order to stiff them on compensation for their work."
"Ah, right, I remember now. The Mon Calamari who worked with General Syndulla," Ahsoka said, her mind's eye providing a mental image of the aquatic humanoid. "Interesting. He did interact with Deacon and his crew in the early days, just around when I first met them… He did not seem to appreciate their success or me leaving to join them... In fact, he was quite vocally against it..."
"That is hardly motive, no one was exactly happy about that," General Draven pointed out. "You were legendary among the ranks, after all. Losing you to a mercenary branch was a hit to morale."
"Perhaps, but if you say he has no record of issues, and yet our people say he was the reason they left the Rebellion… that says to me he is just good at covering his tracks," Ahsoka pointed, shaking her head. "The Force is pulling me towards him, so I can only think he is important to this investigation. Can you get me access to his station?"
"I… I believe I can, if that's what you want to do," He said, a frown on his face. "But I reiterate, there are no comms going in or out of that base, we monitor it too heavily for him to have snuck a message by. All communication is done by courier, which is also heavily monitored."
"Perhaps… But the Force is telling me that there is something there," Ahsoka reiterated, standing up from her seat. "We will be visiting his post so we can question him directly."
"Very well, I will get you the passcodes on a datapad," He agreed with a shrug. "Agent Yuca will be accompanying you, of course, so she can handle the contact."
"Of course," Ahsoka agreed with a smile. "In the meantime, we will head back to the Starcaller and prepare for departure."
General Draven nodded, and Ahsoka returned the gesture, turning and leaving the room. Vaz followed after her, as did Agent Yuca. Finally, as they left the intelligence office, both of the beskar armored commando droids followed after them, trailing behind like an honor guard.
- Location
- USA
If this were a film or television episode you would be right. So since this is a fanfic based on a television series and film series... you may be right.
Or it is a subordinate. Or he has information that will lead to the traitor. Being unlikable and without redeeming personality traits does not establish guilt...
But you could be right.
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ScreamyBirb
Here is Screaming
- Location
- Outside your window at 5AM
I think there are decent odds that this Commander could in fact be doing his own investigation on how the operation leaked, probably expecting Decon set the whole thing up to muscle the Rebellion out of salvage and credits, and has discovered a lead. One that noticed their discovery. That is why the Force is nudging Asoka to hurry there. I give 50-50 odds that the suspect is about to assasinate the Commander, or they've called in the Empire to attack so they can have a clean escape in the chaos.
Chapter 200 - Ahsoka Tano Interlude - II
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Getting the proper security codes and clearance to engage with the base where Commander Gadic was stationed took only a few hours. General Draven presented Agent Yuca with a specialized Datapad containing clearance codes, as well as a verbal code that would essentially get them through the door. It would be her responsibility to make contact and introduce Ahsoka and Vaz. Which obviously meant she was going with them. Thankfully, the serious and professional agent was ready to go immediately, simply grabbing a go bag on her way out of the facility.
Within an hour of getting everything sorted, they had taken off from the landing pads around Alpha Base, Ahsoka sitting at the helm while Agent Yuca sat in the co-pilot's seat. The Togurta wasn't particularly worried about her doing anything, but common sense told her to keep her as close as possible so she could keep an eye on her. Even so, the Starcaller would need a thorough scrubbing for listening devices when they got back to Nirn. She was an intelligence agent, after all.
The trip would take a total of three days, which Vaz and Ahsoka spent sparring and Yuca spent reading in her bunk room. It was quiet, uneventful, and boring. Ahsoka, settling into the captain's quarters that she now usually shared with Deacon, had resigned herself to mediating to sleep, since she struggled to fall asleep without him. She did get a message from him during the tale end of their hyperspace journey, though she missed the direct connection since it was in the middle of the night and everyone had been sleeping.
Eventually, after three and a half days of travel, they finally arrived at the distribution point.
This particular Rebel cell had been set up inside of an abandoned mining guild asteroid facility, stuck in a relatively calm and stationary asteroid cluster on a system unimportant enough that its designation was simply two letters and a string of numbers.
The facility itself was built into a massive asteroid, the central facility being a simple squat and heavily armored structure that was carved right into the rock and sealed in place. Two other small asteroids were attached by rigid scaffolding, with enough distance that, as we approached, I could see dark tube-like reinforced corridors leading between all three asteroids. Around the facility were three large hangar bays, open and powered down, with no mag shielding in sight.
To the outside observer, the facility appeared abandoned, its lights off, and its atmosphere completely drained.
"According to the info that General Draven gave me, they will keep the facilities dark, until we land and close the hangar doors," Agent Yuca explained, peering out the forward viewport. "I'll admit, this is much larger than I had assumed when he described the operation to me, just from what I can see. According to records, they use the mines as cold storage for supplies that are coming in, before distributing them to other cells that need them."
"An interesting setup, efficient and well hidden," Ahsoka admitted. "I'm not picking up any power sources that might indicate that there may be people living in the facilities. What I am picking up could easily be blamed on emergency power slowly fading out around the facility. It's well done."
Slowly but surely, Ahsoka slowly landed the Starcaller in one of the smaller hangar bays available. Once they touched down, she turned the ship into standby mode, letting the power core spin down while the rest of the starship remained ready for an emergency takeoff. Once everything was set, she scanned for any local access to the hangar systems around us before eventually finding the open controls. With a tap, she activated them, a large metal dome slowly closing over the small hangar, sealing it shut.
"Do we now simply wait?" Vaz asked, sitting in the comms chair on the other side of Ahsoka from Agent Yuca.
"According to the sensors, the hangar is already filling up with breathable air," Agent Yuca said, leading forward to examine her console. "Everything seems clean. We just need to wait for our friends to step out so I can greet them."
After a few minutes, when the hangar had warmed up and filled with breathable air, Agent Yuca stood at the back end of the ship, special datapad in hand. Ahsoka activated the cargo bay door of the Starcaller, the back of the ship slowly opening and the ramp descending, revealing two dozen Rebel soldiers with a variety of weapons aimed at them. Agent Yuca quickly called out the verbal code, which, after a moment, seemed to be confirmed as valid as the soldiers slightly loosened up, though they stayed in place. After a moment, a human male stepped out of cover and approached the hangar bay.
"I'll need to confirm the rest of your security codes, ma'am," he said, holding out his hand expectantly.
"Of course," she responded, holding out the datapad, before pulling out a second and passing him both, one after the other. "This is our clearance code's and mission objective, and this is an update on recent activity. I'm sure you must be starved of news."
The man nodded and disappeared around the corner, leaving the same way he entered. For a long while, the hangar bay was quiet. There was tension in the soldiers, but since agent Yuca had already given the initial codes, and by all appearances, seemed to be waiting patiently, the tension stayed at a low level, the soldiers' weapons aimed firmly away from the ship and its occupants.
Eventually, the human male appeared again, this time in a bit of a rush. He quickly dismissed the soldiers, sending them away before addressing the Ahsoka and the Rebel agent.
"Jedi Tano, Agent Yuca, I am Commander Recito. My apologies for making you wait," he said, his tone apologetic but with no hint of groveling. "We will, of course, cooperate fully with your investigation."
While it was important to keep suspicions low and not show their hand, they did need to have a reason to be sniffing around for the traitor, specifically Commander Gadic. Their mission, according to the information Agent Yuca had handed over, was to investigate a potential issue with supplies not ending up where they were supposed to. While this would involve Commander Gadic, since he was in charge of logistics and the supplies that passed through the base, as opposed to Commander Recito, who was in charge of personnel and the facility itself, Commander Gadic had no reason to be nervous. As far as anyone could tell, including General Draven, not a single pound of equipment or supplies had been misplaced in months. Gadic might have spiked Ahsoka's connection to the Force as suspicious, but it was fairly clear he wasn't skimming off the top.
"I appreciate the cooperation," Ahsoka stated. "I understand you are not expecting a delivery for several days?"
"As far as I am aware, that is correct," the human responded.
"Good, that simplifies things," She responded with a nod. "I apologize for taking such drastic measures, but if you would have someone escort these droids to the station's freighters? They will be standing guard to prevent any unauthorized access while we do our investigation."
Ashoka gestured behind her, and the pair of beskar commando droids made their way down the ramp, causing the Commander's eyes to go a bit wide. Nevertheless, he nodded and quickly relayed his orders through the comms. A minute later, a pair of soldiers arrived and left with the droids.
"What else can I do to assist you?" He asked patiently.
"I would like to review your security records, both internal and external," She responded, hands crossed behind her back, her beskar uniform cutting an impressive image. "Then I would like to interview several of your people."
The man nodded, quickly turning around and leading Ahsoka and Agent Yuca down the cargo ramp and out of the hangar, a modified slicer astromech following after them. The hangar bay was left empty, with the Starcaller's cargo bay still open.
The vast majority of the abandoned mining facility was either empty or repurposed as temporary cargo holds. The abandoned portions were sealed shut, with some doors even welded shut to reduce the energy costs of heating the base. Even with such measures, the facility was very cold. Most people were wearing winter gear as they went about their business.
Commander Recito took them directly to the security room, which was staffed by several people. Quickly and efficiently, he got his people to transfer the records to an open terminal, allowing Ahsoka, Agent Yuca, and the astromech slicer to view them at their pleasure.
It didn't take long to see, that unless there was a major conspiracy going on, that General Draven had been correct. There was no way an unregistered message had gotten out from the repurposed facility. First off, the comms bay was the only place such a message could go out from, at least without smuggling in some complicated equipment. That wasn't impossible, but in a place with such tight security, it was at least unlikely. Second, any communication of any form struggled, as the high metallic content of the surrounding asteroids made sending and receiving signals almost impossible. Third, the base was continually being scanned for outgoing signals.
It was honestly a pretty tight setup.
"It might not look like much," one of the nearby Rebels explained when asked about the tight security. "But this is a crucial supply point. We supply a good percentage of Alliance cells on this chunk of the Hydian Way. If we went down, a lot of freedom fighters would start running out of food and supplies. Hard to fight the Empire when you're hungry, and your blaster is empty."
Despite the increasing unlikelihood that Gadic had somehow gotten a message out, they left the astromech working on the scan data and records just in case. While that was happening, Ahsoka walked through the halls, doing her best to listen to the Force. Agent Yuca was not helping this, as, despite her entirely professional outward demeanor, her internal thoughts were filled with doubt, focused on the trip and on Ahsoka herself.
Eventually, after a few minutes of aimlessly exploring the facility, Ahsoka turned and began to move with a bit more purpose. Soon, the pair crossed into the now shut-down mine portion of the facility, the hollowed-out asteroid filled with cargo containers, boxes, parts, scrap, and everything in between. It was clear this was a sizable operation, and from what Ahsoka could see, it was running like a well-oiled machine.
"Ahsoka, where exactly are we going?" Agent Yuca finally asked, following behind the Force-sensitive. "I assumed you would want to talk to Commander Gadic? Recito said he would be in his office, in the upper facility… where it is warmer."
"I do wish to talk to the commander," Ahsoka agreed, looking over her shoulder with a smirk. "And I have no doubt his office is where Commander Recito said it was. But clearly, that is not where Gadic is."
She gestured forward, and sure enough, the Mon Calamari was standing by a cargo container, bundled up in heavy clothing. He was looking down into his datapad, hardly aware of Ahsoka walking up to him.
"Commander Gadic," The Togruta called out. "A moment of your time?"
The aquatic humanoid started, whirling around towards Ahsoka, clearly caught off guard. After he recovered from his shock, he lowered his datapad. He then carefully pulled some of his coverings down to expose more of his face.
"Ahsoka Tano, I must say I did not expect to see you here," He said, quickly adjusting to her presence. "What can I do for you?"
"I have several questions for you," she repeated, continuing before he could cut her off. "I have been empowered by General Syndulla, Draven, and Dodanna to carry out a crucial investigation. Please, let us find someplace private?"
For a moment, the humanoid's mouth hung open, before he finally nodded, silently agreeing to her request. Not five minutes later, they were sitting in a small break area not far from the entrance into the now-defunct mines. It was several degrees warmer than the adapted cargo space, a fact Agent Yuca clearly enjoyed as she rubbed her hands together.
"Commander Gadic, I was asked as a favor to several people to investigate a troubling string of missing equipment and supplies," Ahsoka lied, now sitting opposite Commander Gadic. "Do you know anything about that?"
"Missing supplies....? No, absolutely not!" The humanoid said, sounding genuinely insulted. "These supplies are set for local Rebel cells, keeping them fed and armed. I wouldn't dare…"
Ahsoka let him rant for a moment, not quite listening to him. Instead, she was far more interested in his emotions. A strong layer of concern had been prevalent from the moment they had first found him, spiraling and swirling stronger the longer they were together. Then, she falsely revealed they were hunting for missing supplies. Outwardly, his expression and voice did not change, but the second she explained what her "mission" was, the growing concern almost instantly began to lessen. He wasn't nearly as nervous as he had been before, and he was only getting more calm.
"How are you communicating to whoever you're selling these supplies to?" she asked, cutting off his long-winded rant. "You must have a buyer or some way to communicate with them?"
The more she asked about missing supplies, the more confident Mon Calamari felt. For ten minutes, she fed that confidence, watching as frustration also began to leak into his mind. She was questioning his loyalty to the Rebellion, and it was making him angry. Suddenly, Ahsoka stood, giving the male a nod.
"Very well, Commander Gadic, you have convinced me," She said, giving him a nod. "I apologize for accusing you, but I am sure you understand how serious these matters are."
"I… I do," He agreed, visibly reigning himself in. "I am sure you are just being thorough."
"Thank you, Commander. If you notice anything suspicious, please let me know."
The humanoid nodded, watching as Ahsoka walked out of the room, Agent Yuca following after her. The Kel Dor female was buzzing with curiosity, but her training kept her from asking in earshot of the commander. Eventually, after walking for a few minutes, she spoke up quietly.
"Does this mean you are satisfied?" She asked, eyebrow knotted.
"I am satisfied that I was correct," Ahsoka revealed with a smirk. "Commander Gadic is guilty of something. He was very close to complete panic before I started accusing him of skimming supplies. After that, he immediately began to calm down. He suspected I was here for something, but was relieved when I accused him of smuggling your supplies."
"I… you truly felt that?" the intelligence agent asked, skepticism clear on her face despite her breathing apparatus. "The Force can tell you that?"
"It can, and it did," Ahsoka confirmed with a confident smile. "But I am also aware that we need more concrete evidence than my own empathic abilities. Plus, we need to uncover how he is communicating with his contact. He is most likely putting the base at risk."
"I would say so," Agent Yuca agreed with a nod. "Do you have a plan?"
"Yes. We are returning to the Starcaller," she responded, a shiver running down her spine before she managed to get control over herself again. "I feel as if my montral are freezing off. We can warm up at the ship and plan our next move."
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Getting the proper security codes and clearance to engage with the base where Commander Gadic was stationed took only a few hours. General Draven presented Agent Yuca with a specialized Datapad containing clearance codes, as well as a verbal code that would essentially get them through the door. It would be her responsibility to make contact and introduce Ahsoka and Vaz. Which obviously meant she was going with them. Thankfully, the serious and professional agent was ready to go immediately, simply grabbing a go bag on her way out of the facility.
Within an hour of getting everything sorted, they had taken off from the landing pads around Alpha Base, Ahsoka sitting at the helm while Agent Yuca sat in the co-pilot's seat. The Togurta wasn't particularly worried about her doing anything, but common sense told her to keep her as close as possible so she could keep an eye on her. Even so, the Starcaller would need a thorough scrubbing for listening devices when they got back to Nirn. She was an intelligence agent, after all.
The trip would take a total of three days, which Vaz and Ahsoka spent sparring and Yuca spent reading in her bunk room. It was quiet, uneventful, and boring. Ahsoka, settling into the captain's quarters that she now usually shared with Deacon, had resigned herself to mediating to sleep, since she struggled to fall asleep without him. She did get a message from him during the tale end of their hyperspace journey, though she missed the direct connection since it was in the middle of the night and everyone had been sleeping.
Eventually, after three and a half days of travel, they finally arrived at the distribution point.
This particular Rebel cell had been set up inside of an abandoned mining guild asteroid facility, stuck in a relatively calm and stationary asteroid cluster on a system unimportant enough that its designation was simply two letters and a string of numbers.
The facility itself was built into a massive asteroid, the central facility being a simple squat and heavily armored structure that was carved right into the rock and sealed in place. Two other small asteroids were attached by rigid scaffolding, with enough distance that, as we approached, I could see dark tube-like reinforced corridors leading between all three asteroids. Around the facility were three large hangar bays, open and powered down, with no mag shielding in sight.
To the outside observer, the facility appeared abandoned, its lights off, and its atmosphere completely drained.
"According to the info that General Draven gave me, they will keep the facilities dark, until we land and close the hangar doors," Agent Yuca explained, peering out the forward viewport. "I'll admit, this is much larger than I had assumed when he described the operation to me, just from what I can see. According to records, they use the mines as cold storage for supplies that are coming in, before distributing them to other cells that need them."
"An interesting setup, efficient and well hidden," Ahsoka admitted. "I'm not picking up any power sources that might indicate that there may be people living in the facilities. What I am picking up could easily be blamed on emergency power slowly fading out around the facility. It's well done."
Slowly but surely, Ahsoka slowly landed the Starcaller in one of the smaller hangar bays available. Once they touched down, she turned the ship into standby mode, letting the power core spin down while the rest of the starship remained ready for an emergency takeoff. Once everything was set, she scanned for any local access to the hangar systems around us before eventually finding the open controls. With a tap, she activated them, a large metal dome slowly closing over the small hangar, sealing it shut.
"Do we now simply wait?" Vaz asked, sitting in the comms chair on the other side of Ahsoka from Agent Yuca.
"According to the sensors, the hangar is already filling up with breathable air," Agent Yuca said, leading forward to examine her console. "Everything seems clean. We just need to wait for our friends to step out so I can greet them."
After a few minutes, when the hangar had warmed up and filled with breathable air, Agent Yuca stood at the back end of the ship, special datapad in hand. Ahsoka activated the cargo bay door of the Starcaller, the back of the ship slowly opening and the ramp descending, revealing two dozen Rebel soldiers with a variety of weapons aimed at them. Agent Yuca quickly called out the verbal code, which, after a moment, seemed to be confirmed as valid as the soldiers slightly loosened up, though they stayed in place. After a moment, a human male stepped out of cover and approached the hangar bay.
"I'll need to confirm the rest of your security codes, ma'am," he said, holding out his hand expectantly.
"Of course," she responded, holding out the datapad, before pulling out a second and passing him both, one after the other. "This is our clearance code's and mission objective, and this is an update on recent activity. I'm sure you must be starved of news."
The man nodded and disappeared around the corner, leaving the same way he entered. For a long while, the hangar bay was quiet. There was tension in the soldiers, but since agent Yuca had already given the initial codes, and by all appearances, seemed to be waiting patiently, the tension stayed at a low level, the soldiers' weapons aimed firmly away from the ship and its occupants.
Eventually, the human male appeared again, this time in a bit of a rush. He quickly dismissed the soldiers, sending them away before addressing the Ahsoka and the Rebel agent.
"Jedi Tano, Agent Yuca, I am Commander Recito. My apologies for making you wait," he said, his tone apologetic but with no hint of groveling. "We will, of course, cooperate fully with your investigation."
While it was important to keep suspicions low and not show their hand, they did need to have a reason to be sniffing around for the traitor, specifically Commander Gadic. Their mission, according to the information Agent Yuca had handed over, was to investigate a potential issue with supplies not ending up where they were supposed to. While this would involve Commander Gadic, since he was in charge of logistics and the supplies that passed through the base, as opposed to Commander Recito, who was in charge of personnel and the facility itself, Commander Gadic had no reason to be nervous. As far as anyone could tell, including General Draven, not a single pound of equipment or supplies had been misplaced in months. Gadic might have spiked Ahsoka's connection to the Force as suspicious, but it was fairly clear he wasn't skimming off the top.
"I appreciate the cooperation," Ahsoka stated. "I understand you are not expecting a delivery for several days?"
"As far as I am aware, that is correct," the human responded.
"Good, that simplifies things," She responded with a nod. "I apologize for taking such drastic measures, but if you would have someone escort these droids to the station's freighters? They will be standing guard to prevent any unauthorized access while we do our investigation."
Ashoka gestured behind her, and the pair of beskar commando droids made their way down the ramp, causing the Commander's eyes to go a bit wide. Nevertheless, he nodded and quickly relayed his orders through the comms. A minute later, a pair of soldiers arrived and left with the droids.
"What else can I do to assist you?" He asked patiently.
"I would like to review your security records, both internal and external," She responded, hands crossed behind her back, her beskar uniform cutting an impressive image. "Then I would like to interview several of your people."
The man nodded, quickly turning around and leading Ahsoka and Agent Yuca down the cargo ramp and out of the hangar, a modified slicer astromech following after them. The hangar bay was left empty, with the Starcaller's cargo bay still open.
The vast majority of the abandoned mining facility was either empty or repurposed as temporary cargo holds. The abandoned portions were sealed shut, with some doors even welded shut to reduce the energy costs of heating the base. Even with such measures, the facility was very cold. Most people were wearing winter gear as they went about their business.
Commander Recito took them directly to the security room, which was staffed by several people. Quickly and efficiently, he got his people to transfer the records to an open terminal, allowing Ahsoka, Agent Yuca, and the astromech slicer to view them at their pleasure.
It didn't take long to see, that unless there was a major conspiracy going on, that General Draven had been correct. There was no way an unregistered message had gotten out from the repurposed facility. First off, the comms bay was the only place such a message could go out from, at least without smuggling in some complicated equipment. That wasn't impossible, but in a place with such tight security, it was at least unlikely. Second, any communication of any form struggled, as the high metallic content of the surrounding asteroids made sending and receiving signals almost impossible. Third, the base was continually being scanned for outgoing signals.
It was honestly a pretty tight setup.
"It might not look like much," one of the nearby Rebels explained when asked about the tight security. "But this is a crucial supply point. We supply a good percentage of Alliance cells on this chunk of the Hydian Way. If we went down, a lot of freedom fighters would start running out of food and supplies. Hard to fight the Empire when you're hungry, and your blaster is empty."
Despite the increasing unlikelihood that Gadic had somehow gotten a message out, they left the astromech working on the scan data and records just in case. While that was happening, Ahsoka walked through the halls, doing her best to listen to the Force. Agent Yuca was not helping this, as, despite her entirely professional outward demeanor, her internal thoughts were filled with doubt, focused on the trip and on Ahsoka herself.
Eventually, after a few minutes of aimlessly exploring the facility, Ahsoka turned and began to move with a bit more purpose. Soon, the pair crossed into the now shut-down mine portion of the facility, the hollowed-out asteroid filled with cargo containers, boxes, parts, scrap, and everything in between. It was clear this was a sizable operation, and from what Ahsoka could see, it was running like a well-oiled machine.
"Ahsoka, where exactly are we going?" Agent Yuca finally asked, following behind the Force-sensitive. "I assumed you would want to talk to Commander Gadic? Recito said he would be in his office, in the upper facility… where it is warmer."
"I do wish to talk to the commander," Ahsoka agreed, looking over her shoulder with a smirk. "And I have no doubt his office is where Commander Recito said it was. But clearly, that is not where Gadic is."
She gestured forward, and sure enough, the Mon Calamari was standing by a cargo container, bundled up in heavy clothing. He was looking down into his datapad, hardly aware of Ahsoka walking up to him.
"Commander Gadic," The Togruta called out. "A moment of your time?"
The aquatic humanoid started, whirling around towards Ahsoka, clearly caught off guard. After he recovered from his shock, he lowered his datapad. He then carefully pulled some of his coverings down to expose more of his face.
"Ahsoka Tano, I must say I did not expect to see you here," He said, quickly adjusting to her presence. "What can I do for you?"
"I have several questions for you," she repeated, continuing before he could cut her off. "I have been empowered by General Syndulla, Draven, and Dodanna to carry out a crucial investigation. Please, let us find someplace private?"
For a moment, the humanoid's mouth hung open, before he finally nodded, silently agreeing to her request. Not five minutes later, they were sitting in a small break area not far from the entrance into the now-defunct mines. It was several degrees warmer than the adapted cargo space, a fact Agent Yuca clearly enjoyed as she rubbed her hands together.
"Commander Gadic, I was asked as a favor to several people to investigate a troubling string of missing equipment and supplies," Ahsoka lied, now sitting opposite Commander Gadic. "Do you know anything about that?"
"Missing supplies....? No, absolutely not!" The humanoid said, sounding genuinely insulted. "These supplies are set for local Rebel cells, keeping them fed and armed. I wouldn't dare…"
Ahsoka let him rant for a moment, not quite listening to him. Instead, she was far more interested in his emotions. A strong layer of concern had been prevalent from the moment they had first found him, spiraling and swirling stronger the longer they were together. Then, she falsely revealed they were hunting for missing supplies. Outwardly, his expression and voice did not change, but the second she explained what her "mission" was, the growing concern almost instantly began to lessen. He wasn't nearly as nervous as he had been before, and he was only getting more calm.
"How are you communicating to whoever you're selling these supplies to?" she asked, cutting off his long-winded rant. "You must have a buyer or some way to communicate with them?"
The more she asked about missing supplies, the more confident Mon Calamari felt. For ten minutes, she fed that confidence, watching as frustration also began to leak into his mind. She was questioning his loyalty to the Rebellion, and it was making him angry. Suddenly, Ahsoka stood, giving the male a nod.
"Very well, Commander Gadic, you have convinced me," She said, giving him a nod. "I apologize for accusing you, but I am sure you understand how serious these matters are."
"I… I do," He agreed, visibly reigning himself in. "I am sure you are just being thorough."
"Thank you, Commander. If you notice anything suspicious, please let me know."
The humanoid nodded, watching as Ahsoka walked out of the room, Agent Yuca following after her. The Kel Dor female was buzzing with curiosity, but her training kept her from asking in earshot of the commander. Eventually, after walking for a few minutes, she spoke up quietly.
"Does this mean you are satisfied?" She asked, eyebrow knotted.
"I am satisfied that I was correct," Ahsoka revealed with a smirk. "Commander Gadic is guilty of something. He was very close to complete panic before I started accusing him of skimming supplies. After that, he immediately began to calm down. He suspected I was here for something, but was relieved when I accused him of smuggling your supplies."
"I… you truly felt that?" the intelligence agent asked, skepticism clear on her face despite her breathing apparatus. "The Force can tell you that?"
"It can, and it did," Ahsoka confirmed with a confident smile. "But I am also aware that we need more concrete evidence than my own empathic abilities. Plus, we need to uncover how he is communicating with his contact. He is most likely putting the base at risk."
"I would say so," Agent Yuca agreed with a nod. "Do you have a plan?"
"Yes. We are returning to the Starcaller," she responded, a shiver running down her spine before she managed to get control over herself again. "I feel as if my montral are freezing off. We can warm up at the ship and plan our next move."
Chapter 201 - Ahsoka Tano Interlude - III
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After warming up and having something to eat at the Starcaller, Agent Yuca and Ahsoka discussed their plans with Vaz, who had remained on the Starcaller as a sort of trap. With the doors open and the proverbial keys in the ignition, Vas was waiting on the off chance Commander Gadic tried to run. Since the station's own ships were clearly guarded by commando droids, the Starcaller was a purposeful, tempting target.
When they finished filling Vaz in on their progress, the two investigators made their way out of the ship and towards the security office, once again leaving the ship open and tempting. This time, both of the warm-blooded humanoids were wearing a few more layers, with Ahsoka wearing her temperature-controlled undersuit for her armor, with some light clothing over it for modesty's sake. Agent Yuca borrowed a heavier jacket and pants from the ship's stores, wearing them both tightly and covering the Starforged symbol on it. Ahsoka was now toasty warm, while Agent Yuca was no longer suffering from the temperature.
When they arrived at security, they found it a bit more active than it had been before, with Commander Recito standing by with his arms crossed and a pair of Rebels kneeling beside their astromech slicer. They were attempting to get inside the droid's chassis but were utterly failing to breach even the thin beskar plating that the vital droids were covered in. When the astromech spotted the new arrivals, it whistled and beeped, making an almost bored sound with their attempts.
"Commander Recito, is there a problem?" Ahsoka asked, in a tone that demanded attention.
"Yes, in fact, there is. Your droid here was done reviewing our security records and began slicing into our database," He said, frustration clear in his voice. "It was accessing our docking and supply records. That is highly sensitive information that contains logs on all the cells that come to us for supplies, as well as the ones that deliver them."
"And?" Ahsoka asked, the commander looking surprised at her response. "Did we give you the impression we would only be investigating half of what was going on here? And what do you think gives you the right to start prying at the droid we brought with us?"
"We… we have to protect the cells that depend on us and the soldiers who help keep us supplied," The leader explained with a frown. "We can't do that with your droids slicing and revealing the locations and names."
"Commander Recito, need I remind you who exactly gave us the authority to do all of this?" Agent Yuca asked rhetorically. "Not only was Princess Leia speaking with the authority of Mon Mothma, but General Dodanna, Sydulla, and Draven all charged us to investigate this issue."
Commander Recito began to shrink a bit as Agent Yuca got her steamrolling. The intelligence office was doing a great job of keeping their story going while assuring the man that they did, in fact, have the proper authority.
"You read our security codes, did they say anything about only getting access to certain amounts of data?" the agent continued. "Did they say anything about taking matters into your hands when you thought we had gone too far?"
The commander was silent now, standing at partial attention, seemingly by instinct, his hands behind his back. The two kneeling by the droid seemed to have gotten the memo as well, as they had both scrambled to their feet and settled in at attention.
"The droid would not have had to slice anything if he had been given the access we requested," Ahsoka pointed out, giving the commander a focused look. "I suggest you correct that mistake so that it can continue its task uninterrupted."
"...Very well," Commander Recito confirmed with a stiff nod before looking to one of the technicians, who quickly got to work on the console system that the astromech had been working on.
It took a few minutes to set it up, but soon, the astromech was back at it, scanning files and compiling records that the two investigating women would go over when it was done. Eventually, after a few minutes, Commander Recito left, leaving a technician behind to answer our questions. Ahsoka watched him leave, waving away Agent Yuca as she opened her mouth to speak.
"He is only trying to do his job," Ahsoka explained, letting out a long breath. "This is the cost of the many-cell system, the cells don't always line up, and even if they do, sometimes there are miscommunications. It was logical to him that the information we would have access to wouldn't include the most dangerous data they have here. After all, it could be used to attack everyone they supply and those that keep them supplied. We expected one thing, and because this cell is different from others, there was a miscommunication."
"How did he… feel about that?" Agent Yuca asked, her tone leading as she referenced the Force without mentioning it. "How did he feel after?"
"Worried, as he truly wants to protect the information, as it is very sensitive," Ahsoka explained with a frown. "He was also frustrated for being strong-armed in front of subordinates."
Ahsoka gestured around the room to the five other people working around them, all of them very specifically not looking their way. Most of them tensed when she mentioned getting shown up in front of the people he was meant to be in charge of.
It took about another hour for the astromech to complete its task of scanning and compiling. Once it was done, all three of them left the security room to find somewhere more private, eventually finding a small conference room that was actually heated.
With no one around to interrupt or overhear them, Ahsoka and Agent Yuca sat down and began to go over the data that the astromech had found and collated. It was a thorough composition of what the droid tagged as important, dating back two days before Commander Gadic even knew about the mission. The report quickly confirmed that no comms had gone out and that the freighter records confirmed that no hyperwave messages were sent as well. Even worse, the sensors hadn't picked up any extra signals, originating from the base or not.
"If he didn't send a message through technological means," Agent Yuca said quietly, putting down the datapad she had been reading from. "Then that just leaves physical means. Could he have ejected something? A physical container perhaps that someone picked up at a distance?"
"In an asteroid field?" Ahsoka responded, raising an eyebrow. "They would have better luck shouting messages through the vacuum. At least then they might be able to read his lips."
"Then he has a conspirator," The Kal Dor woman settled on, leaning back in her chair. "Someone who passed on the information for him."
"Most likely," Ahsoka agreed, crossing her arms and chewing the inside of her cheek. "But why? He was genuinely offended when I suggested he was stealing from the Rebellion. He is loyal, in his own way... why sell the mission out?"
"Because... the Rebellion was never the target," the agent pointed out. "Not to him. The Skyforged Vanguard was. He knew the plan, knew your team would be heading in first…"
"I mean, yes, that is the obvious point. But at such a risk? With a difference of just a few minutes, that entire Rebel fleet would have been trapped," Ahsoka countered with a frown. "He… didn't feel capable of that. He wouldn't have been willing to risk that loss, just to get rid of us."
"Why does he want you gone in the first place?"
"That's easy. He sees the Skyforged Vanguard as a threat, not an ally," Ahsoka explained, shaking her head. "When I left to join, he saw it as a betrayal, I could feel it. And with Deacon at the helm, we have grown drastically and rescued dozens of my brothers and sisters. To him, it would seem like we were stealing resources and people from the Rebellion, especially with these CIS missions."
"So he assumes if the head of the Vanguard was destroyed, the rest would fall in line with the Rebellion?" the agent asked, sounding baffled. "That is ridiculous. Our data says the Skyforged is too mercenary-focused to simply fall in line."
"You're not incorrect," Ahsoka admitted with a smirk. "The Skyforged would likely simply break up into groups. It's also possible that the ship captains would form a council of sorts. Clan Syr might also make a play, but if my judgment of Corvak is correct, he would do his best to run the group as Deacon has, rather than turn it into a Mandalorian clan or something similar."
Agent Yuca filed the information away in her head, Ahsoka perfectly aware of what she was saying and who she was saying it to. The Rebel Alliance needed to understand that the Skyforged was not a minor group anymore, and that picking off the leader or even the entire leading group would not destroy them.
Sure, the group would inevitably have to adapt. Deacon had a unique style of leadership, to say the least, so removing him from the equation would inevitably lead to change…
"What if the plan changed by Gadic's messenger?" Ahsoka said, her thought sticking for a moment before an interesting thought popped in. "Gadic knew the mission plan, knew that once we arrived, the mission would likely take some time. We were infiltrating in disguise, so we couldn't rush. If he doctored the information he passed on, said that we were just scouting, quickly popping in and out…"
"The window of attack would have been much smaller," Agent Yuca agreed, nodding along. "The Imperials would have had to attack the second you appeared."
"The risk to the Rebel fleet would have been considerably smaller, almost non-existent, since we weren't going to call them in until everything was ready."
"Then why change the message at all?" Agent Yuca asked. "The plan was less risky and would have worked, hypothetically. Why change it?"
For a moment, Ahsoka had no answer. Then, she happened to look down as she fiddled with her datapad. The data she had been idly looking at was gone, having scrolled away while she was talking and not paying attention, by the will of the Force.
"Because…for them, it wasn't about resources or bringing back the Jedi to the Rebellion," Ahsoka said with a growing smirk. "It was about revenge."
On the screen were names and dates, the list of incoming and outgoing Rebels groups, both those coming for supplies and those dropping them off. As Yuca peered at it, Ahsoka tapped the screen, her finger pointing to a single name.
Nevue Loc.
"Nevue was the one who brought the Skyforged to the Rebellion in the first place, before I joined up," Ahsoka explained. "After they escaped Nar Shaddaa, Nevue was basically their point of contact, their handler. He was promoted and given his own team, making a name for himself in the process. Unfortunately, he took advantage of the Skyforged several times to do that, cutting them terrible deals and taking advantage of Deacon's goodwill, all while using it to make himself look good in the process. When one of his team members blew the whistle on him, he was demoted down to a private, stripped of his position, and shipped off to another group, with a harsh warning and a promise he would never be promoted again. He was not happy about the demotion and claimed the Rebellion was playing favorites because Deacon is a little special."
"Okay, so he has motive," Agent Yuca agreed with a nod. "But why would he change the message?"
"Because if the Empire jumped in while we were still flying around the fleet, there was a chance we could escape," Ahsoka explained. "No of us could have predicted just how intense the Empire's response would be. If it had been more reasonable, say, a few Star Destroyers and some smaller ships, there was a very good chance that the Talos Chariot could have escaped. But, once we landed and were inside the Lucrehulk, exploring and completing our mission, the Empire would have all the time in the world to wipe us out."
"So if you're correct, then Nevue was willing to risk the fleet being stuck fighting the Empire, and potentially CIS assets as well because it would confirm you would be stuck, with nowhere to run," Agent Yuca said, rephrasing what Ahsoka had just explained. "What a karking bastard!"
"I would have to agree," Ahsoka said, standing from her chair. "C'mon, it's time to confront Gadic again. I have a feeling he will be a bit more pliant if our theory is correct."
Ahsoak and Yuca left the private room, while the slicer droid left to return to the ship. It wasn't difficult to find the Mon Calamari traitor this time, as he had returned to the warmth of his office.
"Jedi Ashoka, Agent Yuca, is there something I can help you with?" He asked, looking up from his computer. "Have you had any luck locating the thief?"
"In fact, you can help us. You can tell us exactly what you told Commander Loc to do when he was last here," Ahsoka demanded, calmly standing in front of his desk. "I want to know, in exact detail, what you instructed him to do and who his contact with the Empire was."
The Mon Calamarian stared at Ahsoka for a long pause, his large eyes focused on her, his expression unreadable. Suddenly, he moved, reaching under his desk to pull out a hold-out blaster. Before he could even aim it, Ahsoka's lightsaber, a dark magenta, sliced through the barrel. By the time the traitor pointed it up under his own chin, all it did when he pulled the trigger was shoot out sparks.
"Neshweh Gadic, with the power given to me by Generals Syndulla, Draven, and Dodanna, I am placing you under arrest for betraying the Rebel Alliance," Ahsoka said as Agent Yuca stepped around him, pushing him down against the desk and roughly locking his wrists behind him. "I suggest you cooperate and admit your guilt clearly so that when Nevue comes to visit, we can catch him as well. It is just about the only thing you can do to make up for your crimes."
The damp-skinned humanoid sat back up straight, his webbed hands cuffed behind him, nodding slowly after a long moment. For the next fifteen minutes, he explained his plan, which he had passed onto Nevue, knowing that the beleaguered Rebel would jump at the chance to get back at the Skyforged. He had no idea that the bastard would go so far to ensure the Deacon and his team would be destroyed.
"The risk to the fleet was minimal! It was only your leader's ridiculous abilities that garnered so much attention," The traitor spat, shaking his head. "I was only trying to aid the Rebellion, General Draven will agree with my plan! He knows that the Skyforged is only hurting the Rebellion."
"General Draven was just as angry about the situation as Deacon Roy was," Ashoka explained, shaking her head. "You will find no kind words from him."
The traitor was moved to a secure room, guarded by both of the beskar-clad commando droids. Meanwhile, Ahsoka, Vaz, and Agent Yuca settled in to wait for Nevue Loc to return to the base as scheduled. It took nearly a week, but it was well worth it when Ahsoka and Vaz stepped out of the shadows while he and another Rebel were unloading cargo. Unlike Gadic, who first tried to hide his guilt, and then tried to end his shame, Nevue's first instinct was to run. He barely made it a few feet when Ahsoka slammed him into the ground with the Force.
If it was perhaps a bit harder than was strictly necessary, no one commented.
If you are interested in those benefits or just want to support my attempt to become a full-time writer, stop by and show your support. Every dollar helps!
After warming up and having something to eat at the Starcaller, Agent Yuca and Ahsoka discussed their plans with Vaz, who had remained on the Starcaller as a sort of trap. With the doors open and the proverbial keys in the ignition, Vas was waiting on the off chance Commander Gadic tried to run. Since the station's own ships were clearly guarded by commando droids, the Starcaller was a purposeful, tempting target.
When they finished filling Vaz in on their progress, the two investigators made their way out of the ship and towards the security office, once again leaving the ship open and tempting. This time, both of the warm-blooded humanoids were wearing a few more layers, with Ahsoka wearing her temperature-controlled undersuit for her armor, with some light clothing over it for modesty's sake. Agent Yuca borrowed a heavier jacket and pants from the ship's stores, wearing them both tightly and covering the Starforged symbol on it. Ahsoka was now toasty warm, while Agent Yuca was no longer suffering from the temperature.
When they arrived at security, they found it a bit more active than it had been before, with Commander Recito standing by with his arms crossed and a pair of Rebels kneeling beside their astromech slicer. They were attempting to get inside the droid's chassis but were utterly failing to breach even the thin beskar plating that the vital droids were covered in. When the astromech spotted the new arrivals, it whistled and beeped, making an almost bored sound with their attempts.
"Commander Recito, is there a problem?" Ahsoka asked, in a tone that demanded attention.
"Yes, in fact, there is. Your droid here was done reviewing our security records and began slicing into our database," He said, frustration clear in his voice. "It was accessing our docking and supply records. That is highly sensitive information that contains logs on all the cells that come to us for supplies, as well as the ones that deliver them."
"And?" Ahsoka asked, the commander looking surprised at her response. "Did we give you the impression we would only be investigating half of what was going on here? And what do you think gives you the right to start prying at the droid we brought with us?"
"We… we have to protect the cells that depend on us and the soldiers who help keep us supplied," The leader explained with a frown. "We can't do that with your droids slicing and revealing the locations and names."
"Commander Recito, need I remind you who exactly gave us the authority to do all of this?" Agent Yuca asked rhetorically. "Not only was Princess Leia speaking with the authority of Mon Mothma, but General Dodanna, Sydulla, and Draven all charged us to investigate this issue."
Commander Recito began to shrink a bit as Agent Yuca got her steamrolling. The intelligence office was doing a great job of keeping their story going while assuring the man that they did, in fact, have the proper authority.
"You read our security codes, did they say anything about only getting access to certain amounts of data?" the agent continued. "Did they say anything about taking matters into your hands when you thought we had gone too far?"
The commander was silent now, standing at partial attention, seemingly by instinct, his hands behind his back. The two kneeling by the droid seemed to have gotten the memo as well, as they had both scrambled to their feet and settled in at attention.
"The droid would not have had to slice anything if he had been given the access we requested," Ahsoka pointed out, giving the commander a focused look. "I suggest you correct that mistake so that it can continue its task uninterrupted."
"...Very well," Commander Recito confirmed with a stiff nod before looking to one of the technicians, who quickly got to work on the console system that the astromech had been working on.
It took a few minutes to set it up, but soon, the astromech was back at it, scanning files and compiling records that the two investigating women would go over when it was done. Eventually, after a few minutes, Commander Recito left, leaving a technician behind to answer our questions. Ahsoka watched him leave, waving away Agent Yuca as she opened her mouth to speak.
"He is only trying to do his job," Ahsoka explained, letting out a long breath. "This is the cost of the many-cell system, the cells don't always line up, and even if they do, sometimes there are miscommunications. It was logical to him that the information we would have access to wouldn't include the most dangerous data they have here. After all, it could be used to attack everyone they supply and those that keep them supplied. We expected one thing, and because this cell is different from others, there was a miscommunication."
"How did he… feel about that?" Agent Yuca asked, her tone leading as she referenced the Force without mentioning it. "How did he feel after?"
"Worried, as he truly wants to protect the information, as it is very sensitive," Ahsoka explained with a frown. "He was also frustrated for being strong-armed in front of subordinates."
Ahsoka gestured around the room to the five other people working around them, all of them very specifically not looking their way. Most of them tensed when she mentioned getting shown up in front of the people he was meant to be in charge of.
It took about another hour for the astromech to complete its task of scanning and compiling. Once it was done, all three of them left the security room to find somewhere more private, eventually finding a small conference room that was actually heated.
With no one around to interrupt or overhear them, Ahsoka and Agent Yuca sat down and began to go over the data that the astromech had found and collated. It was a thorough composition of what the droid tagged as important, dating back two days before Commander Gadic even knew about the mission. The report quickly confirmed that no comms had gone out and that the freighter records confirmed that no hyperwave messages were sent as well. Even worse, the sensors hadn't picked up any extra signals, originating from the base or not.
"If he didn't send a message through technological means," Agent Yuca said quietly, putting down the datapad she had been reading from. "Then that just leaves physical means. Could he have ejected something? A physical container perhaps that someone picked up at a distance?"
"In an asteroid field?" Ahsoka responded, raising an eyebrow. "They would have better luck shouting messages through the vacuum. At least then they might be able to read his lips."
"Then he has a conspirator," The Kal Dor woman settled on, leaning back in her chair. "Someone who passed on the information for him."
"Most likely," Ahsoka agreed, crossing her arms and chewing the inside of her cheek. "But why? He was genuinely offended when I suggested he was stealing from the Rebellion. He is loyal, in his own way... why sell the mission out?"
"Because... the Rebellion was never the target," the agent pointed out. "Not to him. The Skyforged Vanguard was. He knew the plan, knew your team would be heading in first…"
"I mean, yes, that is the obvious point. But at such a risk? With a difference of just a few minutes, that entire Rebel fleet would have been trapped," Ahsoka countered with a frown. "He… didn't feel capable of that. He wouldn't have been willing to risk that loss, just to get rid of us."
"Why does he want you gone in the first place?"
"That's easy. He sees the Skyforged Vanguard as a threat, not an ally," Ahsoka explained, shaking her head. "When I left to join, he saw it as a betrayal, I could feel it. And with Deacon at the helm, we have grown drastically and rescued dozens of my brothers and sisters. To him, it would seem like we were stealing resources and people from the Rebellion, especially with these CIS missions."
"So he assumes if the head of the Vanguard was destroyed, the rest would fall in line with the Rebellion?" the agent asked, sounding baffled. "That is ridiculous. Our data says the Skyforged is too mercenary-focused to simply fall in line."
"You're not incorrect," Ahsoka admitted with a smirk. "The Skyforged would likely simply break up into groups. It's also possible that the ship captains would form a council of sorts. Clan Syr might also make a play, but if my judgment of Corvak is correct, he would do his best to run the group as Deacon has, rather than turn it into a Mandalorian clan or something similar."
Agent Yuca filed the information away in her head, Ahsoka perfectly aware of what she was saying and who she was saying it to. The Rebel Alliance needed to understand that the Skyforged was not a minor group anymore, and that picking off the leader or even the entire leading group would not destroy them.
Sure, the group would inevitably have to adapt. Deacon had a unique style of leadership, to say the least, so removing him from the equation would inevitably lead to change…
"What if the plan changed by Gadic's messenger?" Ahsoka said, her thought sticking for a moment before an interesting thought popped in. "Gadic knew the mission plan, knew that once we arrived, the mission would likely take some time. We were infiltrating in disguise, so we couldn't rush. If he doctored the information he passed on, said that we were just scouting, quickly popping in and out…"
"The window of attack would have been much smaller," Agent Yuca agreed, nodding along. "The Imperials would have had to attack the second you appeared."
"The risk to the Rebel fleet would have been considerably smaller, almost non-existent, since we weren't going to call them in until everything was ready."
"Then why change the message at all?" Agent Yuca asked. "The plan was less risky and would have worked, hypothetically. Why change it?"
For a moment, Ahsoka had no answer. Then, she happened to look down as she fiddled with her datapad. The data she had been idly looking at was gone, having scrolled away while she was talking and not paying attention, by the will of the Force.
"Because…for them, it wasn't about resources or bringing back the Jedi to the Rebellion," Ahsoka said with a growing smirk. "It was about revenge."
On the screen were names and dates, the list of incoming and outgoing Rebels groups, both those coming for supplies and those dropping them off. As Yuca peered at it, Ahsoka tapped the screen, her finger pointing to a single name.
Nevue Loc.
"Nevue was the one who brought the Skyforged to the Rebellion in the first place, before I joined up," Ahsoka explained. "After they escaped Nar Shaddaa, Nevue was basically their point of contact, their handler. He was promoted and given his own team, making a name for himself in the process. Unfortunately, he took advantage of the Skyforged several times to do that, cutting them terrible deals and taking advantage of Deacon's goodwill, all while using it to make himself look good in the process. When one of his team members blew the whistle on him, he was demoted down to a private, stripped of his position, and shipped off to another group, with a harsh warning and a promise he would never be promoted again. He was not happy about the demotion and claimed the Rebellion was playing favorites because Deacon is a little special."
"Okay, so he has motive," Agent Yuca agreed with a nod. "But why would he change the message?"
"Because if the Empire jumped in while we were still flying around the fleet, there was a chance we could escape," Ahsoka explained. "No of us could have predicted just how intense the Empire's response would be. If it had been more reasonable, say, a few Star Destroyers and some smaller ships, there was a very good chance that the Talos Chariot could have escaped. But, once we landed and were inside the Lucrehulk, exploring and completing our mission, the Empire would have all the time in the world to wipe us out."
"So if you're correct, then Nevue was willing to risk the fleet being stuck fighting the Empire, and potentially CIS assets as well because it would confirm you would be stuck, with nowhere to run," Agent Yuca said, rephrasing what Ahsoka had just explained. "What a karking bastard!"
"I would have to agree," Ahsoka said, standing from her chair. "C'mon, it's time to confront Gadic again. I have a feeling he will be a bit more pliant if our theory is correct."
Ahsoak and Yuca left the private room, while the slicer droid left to return to the ship. It wasn't difficult to find the Mon Calamari traitor this time, as he had returned to the warmth of his office.
"Jedi Ashoka, Agent Yuca, is there something I can help you with?" He asked, looking up from his computer. "Have you had any luck locating the thief?"
"In fact, you can help us. You can tell us exactly what you told Commander Loc to do when he was last here," Ahsoka demanded, calmly standing in front of his desk. "I want to know, in exact detail, what you instructed him to do and who his contact with the Empire was."
The Mon Calamarian stared at Ahsoka for a long pause, his large eyes focused on her, his expression unreadable. Suddenly, he moved, reaching under his desk to pull out a hold-out blaster. Before he could even aim it, Ahsoka's lightsaber, a dark magenta, sliced through the barrel. By the time the traitor pointed it up under his own chin, all it did when he pulled the trigger was shoot out sparks.
"Neshweh Gadic, with the power given to me by Generals Syndulla, Draven, and Dodanna, I am placing you under arrest for betraying the Rebel Alliance," Ahsoka said as Agent Yuca stepped around him, pushing him down against the desk and roughly locking his wrists behind him. "I suggest you cooperate and admit your guilt clearly so that when Nevue comes to visit, we can catch him as well. It is just about the only thing you can do to make up for your crimes."
The damp-skinned humanoid sat back up straight, his webbed hands cuffed behind him, nodding slowly after a long moment. For the next fifteen minutes, he explained his plan, which he had passed onto Nevue, knowing that the beleaguered Rebel would jump at the chance to get back at the Skyforged. He had no idea that the bastard would go so far to ensure the Deacon and his team would be destroyed.
"The risk to the fleet was minimal! It was only your leader's ridiculous abilities that garnered so much attention," The traitor spat, shaking his head. "I was only trying to aid the Rebellion, General Draven will agree with my plan! He knows that the Skyforged is only hurting the Rebellion."
"General Draven was just as angry about the situation as Deacon Roy was," Ashoka explained, shaking her head. "You will find no kind words from him."
The traitor was moved to a secure room, guarded by both of the beskar-clad commando droids. Meanwhile, Ahsoka, Vaz, and Agent Yuca settled in to wait for Nevue Loc to return to the base as scheduled. It took nearly a week, but it was well worth it when Ahsoka and Vaz stepped out of the shadows while he and another Rebel were unloading cargo. Unlike Gadic, who first tried to hide his guilt, and then tried to end his shame, Nevue's first instinct was to run. He barely made it a few feet when Ahsoka slammed him into the ground with the Force.
If it was perhaps a bit harder than was strictly necessary, no one commented.
At this point with all of the build up you simply have to make Nevue do a full on villain speech expanding how they deserve what was coming to them and what not, you simply have to, and then also slap him down with consequences because you know
all that being said
I liked the investigation, was pretty solid
cheers
all that being said
I liked the investigation, was pretty solid
cheers
Chapter 202
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I stared out at the forward viewport, watching the slowly shifting stars and the planet below. I knew that below us, there was a mining colony, slowly recovering from the latest raid of bandits. With any luck, it would be the last time they would have to deal with that.
"Sensors?" I called out, keeping my eyes forward. "Anything?"
"No, sir, no readings of any kind. Save the normal background noise from the colony," said the Bothan behind the sensor terminal. "The fleet is on standby with no change."
I nodded idly, leaning back in the command chair of the Forge, our newly refurbished and upgraded Dreadnaught-class heavy cruiser. The Forge was now aligned with the standards of the Skyforge Vanguard fleet, meaning it could punch firmly above its weight class, and take the same punch right back. It had cost nearly a million credits and some lucky purchases from our lead acquisitions manager, but considering the ship itself had been free, it was hard to complain.
Currently, through the forward viewport, I could see the Anvil, our Arquitens-class cruiser, which we thankfully only had to spend about five hundred thousand credits to upgrade since the Empire had already modernized it before we stole it from them. Flying around the Anvil in formation were the Hammer, Chisel, and Punch, our heavily modified C-Roc Gozanti-class cruisers. Affectionately called the Tool Trio or the Tools, they were the brainchild of Miru, who had taken the already improved designs of the Talos Chariot and taken them another two steps forward. The design had turned out so well that we were already looking to make more.
As I watched our ships float, the new and improved 3rd Group, I did my best to settle in. I idly noted that the countdown to the projected arrival of our target was still a far way off, before checking the viewscreen built into the command chair. I did my best to distract myself, trying to keep the tension in my back and neck from showing to the rest of the crew. This was an important mission, as were the missions that the 2nd Group and 1st Group were on.
It had been several months since our big sit down and negotiations with the Rebel Alliance, and the Skyforge Vanguard had not been idle. We poured a considerable amount of resources into our ships, our people, our gear, and into Vercopa'Yaim, the first and prime settlement of Nirn. Now it was time to show the Rebels that what we had claimed, the stance we had taken and forced them to dance to, had not just been theatrics. We had talked the talk, and now that we were back in business, it was time for us to walk the walk.
The 1st Group was currently being led by Tatnia to engage an Imperial depot. Our intelligence said that quite a bit of equipment and supplies ran through the location, and we hoped to secure a good chunk to sell to the Rebels. The 2nd Group was working on a pair of modern Imperial Gozanti-class cruisers, which had landed and were basically sitting ducks. We, the 3rd Group, were currently waiting to ambush a well-equipped bandit gang that had been feeding off Mid and Outer-Rim colonies.
The idea was to present the Rebellion with another large shipment of ships and resources, therefore proving our previous claims were serious, not hot air.
As I considered our plan, I looked over my shoulder at the corner of the bridge to a slightly raised platform. I could just make out the sound-dampening field around it, sort of a slight discoloration in the air. I knew from the description Miru gave me that the area also included its own inertial damper and gravity generator, all three of which could run even if the ship ran out of power. All of this sat underneath a simple raised bench covered in thin padding, where the newly raised Jedi Knight Loran was sitting on the padded stool, his legs crossed and his eyes closed. The entire platform was designed to help him, or any other Force-sensitive person, maintain a deep meditative state.
"Nothing has changed that I can feel," he said, answering my unspoken question, despite the fact that he couldn't even see me. "Knight Vilo feels nothing either."
I nodded, turning back and splitting my focus between the viewport and my console, unable to keep the smirk off my face. While Miru's design team had made the idea for the platform possible, I was the one who had thought it up. We had been working on the best way to implement the Jedi into the Skyforged without just throwing them all into open combat and turning them into commanders.
Here, on the bridge, they could sink deeply into the Force, feeling the minute ebbs and flows, the subtle changes and warnings it provided. They could feel ambushes coming, warn us about incoming tricks, and even let us know if something was wrong without strategy. They weren't Bastila Shan, and it wasn't Battle Meditation, but even having just a few seconds of warning to an incoming ambush could still make all the difference.
With double confirmation that everything was okay, I closed my eyes and let out a slow and quiet breath. My rising anxiety was not only because I was leading this battle, but because I wasn't with my team, with 1st Group. We had yet to find an acceptable captain and commander for the 3rd Group, so until we did, I was filling the role. I was hoping we would find someone soon, especially as we would need to start staffing the 4th group.
With all of our groups mostly complete, we decided it was finally time to start working on the next one. For now, 4th group consisted of only a single ground team, made up of seven single Mandalorian warriors as well as five Jedi volunteers from both Master Amescoll and Master K'Kruhk's groups. The mixed group was led together by Sabine and Ezra, who had joined officially after returning from Sabine's Mandalorian search. Their current mission was to steal themselves an appropriate transport ship, the start of the naval side of the 4th Group.
A few more minutes passed, then fifteen, before Knight Loran finally stirred, speaking without opening his eyes, though he did wince.
"They are on their way, sir. We can feel them coming," He explained, his voice filled with distastes. "...Bloodthirstiness and greed… I don't feel much beyond that..."
"Alright, that's a good sign. Let me know if that changes," I said with a nod before leaning forward. "Have the Tools scramble their A-wings, and scramble the Bulbs too, but keep them back. This is an acquisition mission, so let's focus on that."
My orders were acknowledged, and within a few seconds, I could see the full squadron of A-wings pouring out of the tool trio, the Hammer, Chisel, and Punch. This was the first A-wing squadron we had produced in-house, a version of the iconic ship that Miru had tweaked to better fit our situation. First to go was the concussion missile launcher. Not only did I prefer weapons that didn't require expensive ammo that was incredibly hard to find for a civilian, but the A-wing was not a bomber, so why would you try to shove that into its frame? Instead, we filled the space with starship-rated ion cannons. This meant our little A-wings could take down starfighters without destroying them, meaning we could swoop in and collect the ships and the bounties if the pilots had any.
Miru's team also downscaled the hyperdrive considerably, effectively taking it from class one to class four. This made them considerably cheaper and faster to make, easier to maintain, and made the starfighter lighter, meaning faster. Quite a few people questioned my sanity when I asked them to do it, but I explained that I never had any plans to send any of my starfighter pilots out without a carrier to support them. Not only would they arrive at their destination fatigued and tired, but also with no way to recover any pilots who ejected from their ships. As far as I was concerned, the hyperdrives on our starfighters were for emergency purposes only and, therefore, did not need to be top-of-the-line military versions. They only needed to get the starfighters home if their ride was destroyed.
It also had the bonus of clearing up some space to add some safety features for the pilots, like an improved environmental shield for the ejection chair. That alone would close to double an ejected pilot's estimated survival time.
As the A-wings left their hangars, they zipped around their carriers, staying in position with them as a defensive screen for now. We knew the bandits were coming and had a general accounting of their strength. We just didn't know their overall positions.
The Forge's own starfighters, the Belbullab-22's that I had started calling Bulbs, were also flying forward, setting up a formation to screen any starfighters that headed our way. The Bulbs had been updated a bit, but honestly, I was on the fence about them. They were a halfway decent starfighter, but they weren't anything special. Slower than the A-wing, not as beefy as the X-wing, not to mention only one weapon system… They lacked the level of high quality I really preferred for my people. I was pretty sure the next two squadrons of A-wings would be stationed on the Forge since the bay could fit them, and I would set the Bulbs as part of the planetary defense force by stationing planetside on Nirn.
Our starfighters were just dropping into position when our enemy finally dropped out of hyperspace, just in the general area we thought they would be. Twice over the past three months, they had come and stolen from this and another nearby mining outpost, stealing ships, credits, and some of the more valuable metals they were extracting. The bounty hadn't been very high since they couldn't afford much, but that really didn't matter that much to us. Credits were credits, of course, but the Skyforge dealt in goods, and judging by what just dropped out of hyperspace, our goods had just been delivered.
"We have confirmation on the DP20 gunship," sensors called out. "As well as two AEG-77s, a trio of ST-70s, and several freighters. Starfighter complement is… three Z-95s, six ARCs, and two Y-wings."
"Dammit, that's too many starfighters," I cursed, shaking my head. "Send the Bulbs in to act as a counter while Sparks Squadron picks them apart with their ions. Bring us over the DP20 with our ions charged and ready. Tell the Tools I want them on the AEGs and ST-70s and bring the Anvil around to keep them from running around the planet. Then broadcast the order to surrender."
My orders were quickly disseminated, and I watched, both through the viewports and on the main holo display in front of me, as the fleet began to move. The Bulbs thrusters flared as they headed directly for the fight, as Sparks Squadron, the A-wings from the Tools Trio, waited for their backup.
Of course, as we were moving, so was the enemy. Without bothering to respond, most of them attempted to turn tail and run, most likely buying time to calculate and input a jump.
"Hit the DP20 with an opening barrage to weaken the shields, then send the ion cannons," I ordered, despite the great distance. "Everyone else, pick your targets and hit them. I want them down before they can jump!"
A slight thumping reverberation played through the large bridge of the Forge as several beams of thick green energy fired out from our forward-facing turbolasers. At that range, most of them missed, which I had assumed, but two had at least struck glancing blows, no doubt draining the shields significantly. Immediately, the forward ion cannons, which had replaced two of the medium and two of the heavy forward turbolaser cannons with appropriately sized cannons, fired as well. This time, three of them hit, instantly disabling the larger gunship as sparks and lightning danced across its hull.
While we moved to get the gunship in a tractor beam to keep it from falling into the atmosphere, I could see the rest of my ships engage. First, the starfighters clash, the A-wings holding back as the Bulbs push forward. As they caught up, the enemy ships gave up running and scattered, our A-wings giving chase, firing their own small ion cannons, darting around like nimble dancers on a stage. They wove in and around the Bulbs as they push and force the enemy starfighters away from each other, making them easy targets for Sparks Squadron.
Unfortunately, as I watched, the Y-wings proved resistant to such maneuvers, using their resilience to focus fire on the Bulbs as they attempted to pressure them. The A-wings still managed to take them out, but not before a pair of Bulbs were destroyed, and only one of them managed an ejection. I could see the blinking red light of their locator beacon on the holoprojector battlescreen.
As the starfighters were clashing, the C-Rocs were chasing after their targets as well. Their engines burned bright as they showed off their upgrades, catching up and pulling into range quickly. Then, they showed off their major hidden upgrades.
The C-Roc Gozanti had an incredible amount of room in the lower deck, its shovel-like nose almost completely empty. For people looking to carry cargo or run a business from their ship, like we did on the Talos Chariot, all of that space came in handy. But for a dedicated combat ship, that space was just wasted. So Miru and her team filled it.
The front paneling along the curved nose of all three ships pulled to the side, revealing four large barrels stacked on top of each other with two on each side of the mainline, with about a two-meter gap between them, to make room for maintenance and the boarding ramp. The first layer was a large ion cannon, and the second was a turbolaser. Both of them were way beyond what a ship of that size would typically have access to, the weapons and power systems for each taking nearly sixty-five percent of the forward cargo bay. It was a high cost, but the result was that what could have been just a trio of pocket carriers were now heavy hitters, outgunning anything their size.
The Tool Trio opened fire on the AEG-77s first, hitting them with the turbolaser, then the ion cannon, damaging their shields before hammering their equipment with energy until it gave out, leaving them floating in the void.
The Tools immediately broke off, each of them heading out to attack and disable one of the ST-70s before going after the freighters. Before long, the fight was over, and the attacking raiders were completely disabled, free-floating in space.
"Okay, send a message to the salvage team, get them here," I called out. "Pass on the emergency beacon for the ejected pilot…. And start looking for the remains of the one that didn't. Keep the Tools on high alert and their ion cannons charged in case any of the ships manage to get their systems started again."
Before I had even finished my order, the salvage fleet, newly formed from half stolen half half-purchased assets, micro-jumped into the planet's orbit. The fleet was made up of two L-2783s, the same ship as the Whale Shark. These didn't contain any starships, though, but instead were filled with salvage machinery, tug boats, and battle droids. Some of the tugs would focus on small ships, the ones that could fit inside the large recovery ships, dragging them inside so that nearly two hundred battle droids on each starship could safely clear them out of any resistance.
The remaining tugs would drag over specially designed containers with custom airlocks. The commando droids inside would breach the airlocks and take care of business. I watch the ships slowly work, transporting and clearing out starfighters. Eventually, I step away from the bridge and head down to the main hangar, intending to meet the Bulbs squadron as they return.
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I stared out at the forward viewport, watching the slowly shifting stars and the planet below. I knew that below us, there was a mining colony, slowly recovering from the latest raid of bandits. With any luck, it would be the last time they would have to deal with that.
"Sensors?" I called out, keeping my eyes forward. "Anything?"
"No, sir, no readings of any kind. Save the normal background noise from the colony," said the Bothan behind the sensor terminal. "The fleet is on standby with no change."
I nodded idly, leaning back in the command chair of the Forge, our newly refurbished and upgraded Dreadnaught-class heavy cruiser. The Forge was now aligned with the standards of the Skyforge Vanguard fleet, meaning it could punch firmly above its weight class, and take the same punch right back. It had cost nearly a million credits and some lucky purchases from our lead acquisitions manager, but considering the ship itself had been free, it was hard to complain.
Currently, through the forward viewport, I could see the Anvil, our Arquitens-class cruiser, which we thankfully only had to spend about five hundred thousand credits to upgrade since the Empire had already modernized it before we stole it from them. Flying around the Anvil in formation were the Hammer, Chisel, and Punch, our heavily modified C-Roc Gozanti-class cruisers. Affectionately called the Tool Trio or the Tools, they were the brainchild of Miru, who had taken the already improved designs of the Talos Chariot and taken them another two steps forward. The design had turned out so well that we were already looking to make more.
As I watched our ships float, the new and improved 3rd Group, I did my best to settle in. I idly noted that the countdown to the projected arrival of our target was still a far way off, before checking the viewscreen built into the command chair. I did my best to distract myself, trying to keep the tension in my back and neck from showing to the rest of the crew. This was an important mission, as were the missions that the 2nd Group and 1st Group were on.
It had been several months since our big sit down and negotiations with the Rebel Alliance, and the Skyforge Vanguard had not been idle. We poured a considerable amount of resources into our ships, our people, our gear, and into Vercopa'Yaim, the first and prime settlement of Nirn. Now it was time to show the Rebels that what we had claimed, the stance we had taken and forced them to dance to, had not just been theatrics. We had talked the talk, and now that we were back in business, it was time for us to walk the walk.
The 1st Group was currently being led by Tatnia to engage an Imperial depot. Our intelligence said that quite a bit of equipment and supplies ran through the location, and we hoped to secure a good chunk to sell to the Rebels. The 2nd Group was working on a pair of modern Imperial Gozanti-class cruisers, which had landed and were basically sitting ducks. We, the 3rd Group, were currently waiting to ambush a well-equipped bandit gang that had been feeding off Mid and Outer-Rim colonies.
The idea was to present the Rebellion with another large shipment of ships and resources, therefore proving our previous claims were serious, not hot air.
As I considered our plan, I looked over my shoulder at the corner of the bridge to a slightly raised platform. I could just make out the sound-dampening field around it, sort of a slight discoloration in the air. I knew from the description Miru gave me that the area also included its own inertial damper and gravity generator, all three of which could run even if the ship ran out of power. All of this sat underneath a simple raised bench covered in thin padding, where the newly raised Jedi Knight Loran was sitting on the padded stool, his legs crossed and his eyes closed. The entire platform was designed to help him, or any other Force-sensitive person, maintain a deep meditative state.
"Nothing has changed that I can feel," he said, answering my unspoken question, despite the fact that he couldn't even see me. "Knight Vilo feels nothing either."
I nodded, turning back and splitting my focus between the viewport and my console, unable to keep the smirk off my face. While Miru's design team had made the idea for the platform possible, I was the one who had thought it up. We had been working on the best way to implement the Jedi into the Skyforged without just throwing them all into open combat and turning them into commanders.
Here, on the bridge, they could sink deeply into the Force, feeling the minute ebbs and flows, the subtle changes and warnings it provided. They could feel ambushes coming, warn us about incoming tricks, and even let us know if something was wrong without strategy. They weren't Bastila Shan, and it wasn't Battle Meditation, but even having just a few seconds of warning to an incoming ambush could still make all the difference.
With double confirmation that everything was okay, I closed my eyes and let out a slow and quiet breath. My rising anxiety was not only because I was leading this battle, but because I wasn't with my team, with 1st Group. We had yet to find an acceptable captain and commander for the 3rd Group, so until we did, I was filling the role. I was hoping we would find someone soon, especially as we would need to start staffing the 4th group.
With all of our groups mostly complete, we decided it was finally time to start working on the next one. For now, 4th group consisted of only a single ground team, made up of seven single Mandalorian warriors as well as five Jedi volunteers from both Master Amescoll and Master K'Kruhk's groups. The mixed group was led together by Sabine and Ezra, who had joined officially after returning from Sabine's Mandalorian search. Their current mission was to steal themselves an appropriate transport ship, the start of the naval side of the 4th Group.
A few more minutes passed, then fifteen, before Knight Loran finally stirred, speaking without opening his eyes, though he did wince.
"They are on their way, sir. We can feel them coming," He explained, his voice filled with distastes. "...Bloodthirstiness and greed… I don't feel much beyond that..."
"Alright, that's a good sign. Let me know if that changes," I said with a nod before leaning forward. "Have the Tools scramble their A-wings, and scramble the Bulbs too, but keep them back. This is an acquisition mission, so let's focus on that."
My orders were acknowledged, and within a few seconds, I could see the full squadron of A-wings pouring out of the tool trio, the Hammer, Chisel, and Punch. This was the first A-wing squadron we had produced in-house, a version of the iconic ship that Miru had tweaked to better fit our situation. First to go was the concussion missile launcher. Not only did I prefer weapons that didn't require expensive ammo that was incredibly hard to find for a civilian, but the A-wing was not a bomber, so why would you try to shove that into its frame? Instead, we filled the space with starship-rated ion cannons. This meant our little A-wings could take down starfighters without destroying them, meaning we could swoop in and collect the ships and the bounties if the pilots had any.
Miru's team also downscaled the hyperdrive considerably, effectively taking it from class one to class four. This made them considerably cheaper and faster to make, easier to maintain, and made the starfighter lighter, meaning faster. Quite a few people questioned my sanity when I asked them to do it, but I explained that I never had any plans to send any of my starfighter pilots out without a carrier to support them. Not only would they arrive at their destination fatigued and tired, but also with no way to recover any pilots who ejected from their ships. As far as I was concerned, the hyperdrives on our starfighters were for emergency purposes only and, therefore, did not need to be top-of-the-line military versions. They only needed to get the starfighters home if their ride was destroyed.
It also had the bonus of clearing up some space to add some safety features for the pilots, like an improved environmental shield for the ejection chair. That alone would close to double an ejected pilot's estimated survival time.
As the A-wings left their hangars, they zipped around their carriers, staying in position with them as a defensive screen for now. We knew the bandits were coming and had a general accounting of their strength. We just didn't know their overall positions.
The Forge's own starfighters, the Belbullab-22's that I had started calling Bulbs, were also flying forward, setting up a formation to screen any starfighters that headed our way. The Bulbs had been updated a bit, but honestly, I was on the fence about them. They were a halfway decent starfighter, but they weren't anything special. Slower than the A-wing, not as beefy as the X-wing, not to mention only one weapon system… They lacked the level of high quality I really preferred for my people. I was pretty sure the next two squadrons of A-wings would be stationed on the Forge since the bay could fit them, and I would set the Bulbs as part of the planetary defense force by stationing planetside on Nirn.
Our starfighters were just dropping into position when our enemy finally dropped out of hyperspace, just in the general area we thought they would be. Twice over the past three months, they had come and stolen from this and another nearby mining outpost, stealing ships, credits, and some of the more valuable metals they were extracting. The bounty hadn't been very high since they couldn't afford much, but that really didn't matter that much to us. Credits were credits, of course, but the Skyforge dealt in goods, and judging by what just dropped out of hyperspace, our goods had just been delivered.
"We have confirmation on the DP20 gunship," sensors called out. "As well as two AEG-77s, a trio of ST-70s, and several freighters. Starfighter complement is… three Z-95s, six ARCs, and two Y-wings."
"Dammit, that's too many starfighters," I cursed, shaking my head. "Send the Bulbs in to act as a counter while Sparks Squadron picks them apart with their ions. Bring us over the DP20 with our ions charged and ready. Tell the Tools I want them on the AEGs and ST-70s and bring the Anvil around to keep them from running around the planet. Then broadcast the order to surrender."
My orders were quickly disseminated, and I watched, both through the viewports and on the main holo display in front of me, as the fleet began to move. The Bulbs thrusters flared as they headed directly for the fight, as Sparks Squadron, the A-wings from the Tools Trio, waited for their backup.
Of course, as we were moving, so was the enemy. Without bothering to respond, most of them attempted to turn tail and run, most likely buying time to calculate and input a jump.
"Hit the DP20 with an opening barrage to weaken the shields, then send the ion cannons," I ordered, despite the great distance. "Everyone else, pick your targets and hit them. I want them down before they can jump!"
A slight thumping reverberation played through the large bridge of the Forge as several beams of thick green energy fired out from our forward-facing turbolasers. At that range, most of them missed, which I had assumed, but two had at least struck glancing blows, no doubt draining the shields significantly. Immediately, the forward ion cannons, which had replaced two of the medium and two of the heavy forward turbolaser cannons with appropriately sized cannons, fired as well. This time, three of them hit, instantly disabling the larger gunship as sparks and lightning danced across its hull.
While we moved to get the gunship in a tractor beam to keep it from falling into the atmosphere, I could see the rest of my ships engage. First, the starfighters clash, the A-wings holding back as the Bulbs push forward. As they caught up, the enemy ships gave up running and scattered, our A-wings giving chase, firing their own small ion cannons, darting around like nimble dancers on a stage. They wove in and around the Bulbs as they push and force the enemy starfighters away from each other, making them easy targets for Sparks Squadron.
Unfortunately, as I watched, the Y-wings proved resistant to such maneuvers, using their resilience to focus fire on the Bulbs as they attempted to pressure them. The A-wings still managed to take them out, but not before a pair of Bulbs were destroyed, and only one of them managed an ejection. I could see the blinking red light of their locator beacon on the holoprojector battlescreen.
As the starfighters were clashing, the C-Rocs were chasing after their targets as well. Their engines burned bright as they showed off their upgrades, catching up and pulling into range quickly. Then, they showed off their major hidden upgrades.
The C-Roc Gozanti had an incredible amount of room in the lower deck, its shovel-like nose almost completely empty. For people looking to carry cargo or run a business from their ship, like we did on the Talos Chariot, all of that space came in handy. But for a dedicated combat ship, that space was just wasted. So Miru and her team filled it.
The front paneling along the curved nose of all three ships pulled to the side, revealing four large barrels stacked on top of each other with two on each side of the mainline, with about a two-meter gap between them, to make room for maintenance and the boarding ramp. The first layer was a large ion cannon, and the second was a turbolaser. Both of them were way beyond what a ship of that size would typically have access to, the weapons and power systems for each taking nearly sixty-five percent of the forward cargo bay. It was a high cost, but the result was that what could have been just a trio of pocket carriers were now heavy hitters, outgunning anything their size.
The Tool Trio opened fire on the AEG-77s first, hitting them with the turbolaser, then the ion cannon, damaging their shields before hammering their equipment with energy until it gave out, leaving them floating in the void.
The Tools immediately broke off, each of them heading out to attack and disable one of the ST-70s before going after the freighters. Before long, the fight was over, and the attacking raiders were completely disabled, free-floating in space.
"Okay, send a message to the salvage team, get them here," I called out. "Pass on the emergency beacon for the ejected pilot…. And start looking for the remains of the one that didn't. Keep the Tools on high alert and their ion cannons charged in case any of the ships manage to get their systems started again."
Before I had even finished my order, the salvage fleet, newly formed from half stolen half half-purchased assets, micro-jumped into the planet's orbit. The fleet was made up of two L-2783s, the same ship as the Whale Shark. These didn't contain any starships, though, but instead were filled with salvage machinery, tug boats, and battle droids. Some of the tugs would focus on small ships, the ones that could fit inside the large recovery ships, dragging them inside so that nearly two hundred battle droids on each starship could safely clear them out of any resistance.
The remaining tugs would drag over specially designed containers with custom airlocks. The commando droids inside would breach the airlocks and take care of business. I watch the ships slowly work, transporting and clearing out starfighters. Eventually, I step away from the bridge and head down to the main hangar, intending to meet the Bulbs squadron as they return.
ScreamyBirb
Here is Screaming
- Location
- Outside your window at 5AM
It's a huge shame that it's Skyrim's magic he's working with, having the Mark and Recall spells from Morrowind (and the ability to enchant items with them - and stack them with a concurrent heal to boot) could have saved that pilot.
- Location
- Australia
I've really been enjoying the story so far love the way you have used skyrim magic and how everyone reacts to it.
But i won't lie ive been turned a bit off the story because the last few chapters have felt disjointed and like I've missed a ton of stuff. I even went back thinking I had missed a threadmark.
But i won't lie ive been turned a bit off the story because the last few chapters have felt disjointed and like I've missed a ton of stuff. I even went back thinking I had missed a threadmark.
I absolutely adore the concept of remote controlled containers filled with droids that you just attached to enemy ships airlock
clearing enemy ships with your robo squads without having to even risk approaching them
it's brilliant and I love it
cheers
clearing enemy ships with your robo squads without having to even risk approaching them
it's brilliant and I love it
cheers
Chapter 203
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Most of the 3rd Group and Salvage Fleet stuck around the mining colony planet for around a day, cleaning up our battlefield and shipping the bandits we collected from their disabled ships off to the nearest bounty collection station. We made just about two hundred thousand credits on that alone. In the end, we took the payment for stopping the bandit group in materials, namely a chunk of the precious metals the bandits had stolen in the first place.
The stolen haul was recovered when slicer droids broke into one of the captured ship's hyperspace logs, allowing us to head straight for their base. There wasn't much to it, just a half-burned-out Clone Wars-era fort. It had a single turbolaser turret that was cobbled together from several broken ones, but it was no match for the Tools Trio, who immediately disabled it and forced the remaining bandits to surrender. We got a few thousand more credits from bounties there, and we were able to return most of the stolen goods to the mining colony, while also packaging up a good chunk of equipment to sell.
We appraised the turbolaser for repurposing, but it was barely holding itself together. We disabled the weapon by removing a few crucial connections before noting the location and leaving.
Meanwhile, around the colony planet, the asset gathering was just finishing up. Our two L-2783s were filled with freighters, starfighters, and two ST-70s. The DP-20 was being piloted directly by a temporary crew of droids and my pilots, as were the pair of AEG-77s and the remaining ST-70. Once we were sure there weren't any hidden boobytraps or beacons, we jumped to lightspeed.
Our first destination was empty space, somewhere around halfway between our starting point and our eventual destination. There, we waited for an extra day, spending it going over every inch of every ship with a fine toothcomb. When everything came up clear, we finally made the last jump.
As we dropped out of hyperspace, we were greeted by a familiar site, Boxi's Fury, slowly moving as it stayed in geosynchronous orbit with Nirn, high above Vercopa'Yaim. The ship, even from a distance, looked massive and impressive, the small fleet of starships flying around it looking small in comparison. The large capital ship was slowly in the process of being painted, but since it was so massive and it was such a low priority, only a few dozen droids were assigned to the task, meaning it was taking quite a while. The new look was the same as all of our starships, big or small, white with purple highlights.
Around the large capital ship were five floating space stations, each one a vague rhombus shape, just over two hundred meters long and seventy-five meters wide. They were armed defense stations, meant to augment the already impressive firepower of Boxi's Fury. Two of the stations were heavily damaged and were currently being stripped down for parts, which were then shipped over to the other three, which were in a much better state, though they still needed some repairs.
We picked them up for next to nothing from a now-defunct mining colony on the inner line of the Outer Rim. They had been attacked one too many times, and while we had offered to take down some of the pirates and bandits harassing them, they were determined to evacuate. 3rd Group hung around for a week, guarding the incoming and outgoing ships, even taking down a small group of raiders, and as payment, we were given a massive discount on the stations.
One would think that, after the colonists left, there would also be some good salvage opportunities where they had set up, but when the colonists left, they all but scraped the ground clean. There was nothing but some empty structures left behind, with even the wiring and piping removed. Still, the buildings were sturdy, so we marked the location as a potential gathering point should we ever need someplace to hide, away from Nirn.
We ended up having to use the Fury to move the stations to Nirn, the large stations a bit too big and unwieldy for our other transport methods. Once we did, we started retrofitting them. Each got an extra set of sublight engines, as well as big slabs of ship armor, which we bought used for cheap. They didn't exactly look pretty, but since they were all staffed by robots, each one was also a hefty battering ram waiting to take down ships several times their size, if necessary, on top of having some decent firepower. The two more damaged stations were even more heavily reinforced, since we didn't have to worry about the decks or even keeping an atmosphere inside.
Once the Forge had settled into position near the Fury, I was shuttled over to the larger starship, where we landed in "my" hangar, one of the smaller ones nearest to the command sphere in the center. I could see the Anvil settling into its position nearby as well, while the Hammer, Punch, and Chisel waited in line to make their way into the right-arm hangar bay.
As we passed through the space between the two primary hangar openings, I could see down both of the curved massive hangars, both of which had gone through some changes.
The left side was almost entirely converted into a repair and production wing. I could already see some of the starfighters we had just claimed, as well as other starfighters and ships that the other groups must have gotten, being moved around, landed, and worked on, checking for any lasting damage from our ion cannons. Once they had gotten a good checkover to confirm they were in good enough condition, they would be moved around to make room, ready to be sold to the Rebellion or one of the various contacts we were fostering. This was also where heavy modifications to our ships, the ones that fit, at least, were done.
The left side was also storage for most of our droid army. Deployment was not the fastest since the C-9979s that functioned as our army deployment fleet were pretty large and cumbersome, but we did have a few rapid deployment crafts ready to go as well, just for smaller groups of droid troops.
On the right arm of the large warship were the hangars for our ships. The roof contained bays for all of our droid starfighters, a good mix of bombers, vultures, and tri-fighters, two hundred and fifty-four in total. On the ground and along the walls were bays for our own starfighters. Racks inspired by the Force Awakens ran along a good chunk of the wall closest to the entrance, filled primarily with A-Wings, but also containing Y-wings and V-wings. We had three squadrons of A-wings racked and ready, with only two of them currently assigned to pilots. A squadron of Y-wings was also assigned pilots, but the V-wings were not. In all honesty, if we didn't have such a surplus of parts, and they weren't such good ships, I would have already sold the V-wings. We kept the Y-wings because they were some of the best bombers money could buy at this point, and even if explosives were expensive, they were still valuable capital ships killing starfighters.
Boxi's Fury had plenty of other modifications, but most of it was on a smaller scale. Despite having acquired a veritable army of autonomous workers, the Fury was still a lot of ship, so significant upgrades would be incredibly difficult to do, and extremely costly. By and large, the ship was stuck how it was.
Luckily, the robot workforce that had been maintaining it before we found it had done a good job. We had yet to find any major faults, even in some of the deeper bowels of the ship.
As I made my way to the bridge, I was greeted and saluted by droids and people alike, some of them in uniform and others in civilian clothes. The ship had a population of nearly thirty families, all of whom were waiting for homes to finish up down planetside. A lot of building had happened in the close to four months since we had buckled down and focused on settling in, but with our most recent expansion of people, they couldn't keep up.
Finally, after a five-minute walk, I entered the bridge of the Fury. Immediately the captain of the Defensive forces spotted me, giving me a light salute as I made my way to him.
"Admiral Deacon, good to see you," He said, shaking my hand. "How did your mission go?"
"We captured the whole bandit fleet, but we lost one of the Bulb pilots," I said with a frown. "I think we are going to put the bulbs up for sale next time we meet with the Rebellion. They are decent starfighters, but I want my people to have the best. I shouldn't have put the decision off for so long. Even the V-wings would have been a better option."
"We have racks that fit them for now, and we can transfer our empty A-wing squadron over," The captain responded with a nod. "
"I want two squadrons on the Forge, so reserve the next batch for it. With the racks, there is room for them and two transports," I said, the captain nodding. "Put one squadron in there for now. For our next recruitment drive, we will have to lean heavily toward starfighter pilots."
"I'll put the work order in."
"Good. I won't keep you."
The captain nodded, and with a salute, he returned to his duties. His assistant, the reprogrammed Super Tactical droid B4-88, approached me next, carrying a datapad that he handed to me.
"The checking process for the last batch of starfighters went well, we have twenty starfighters ready for sale," It explained. "The freighters cleared as well, but one of the two C1-A62s had a major issue and will take some time to finish."
"That's alright. We haven't contacted the Rebellion yet, so we still have time to polish our wares," I assured the droid. "We have a lot of larger ships coming, so feel free to shuffle things around at the starport or in the right arm to keep room free for incoming ships. Any news from away groups?"
"All away groups hit their last check-in, save for 4th Group, which is in deep cover," The droid assured me. "1st Group believes they will be engaging within the next seven hours, and 2nd Group is still waiting for their targets to arrive."
"Still no hints about what 4th Group's target is?" I asked the droid, who simply shook his head. "Alright, I really hope they took everyone's advice to heart."
The 4th Group, which again was only a single ground team of Jedi and Mandalorians, had volunteered to prove themselves by stealing their first ship. Sabine and Ezra, both of whom were experienced in fighting and stealing from the Empire, had unsurprisingly chosen an Imperial target. They also asked to surprise us with their target, inspired by a joke from Julus. I agreed that I would let them design and implement their plan on their own, but only if Vaz, who I considered to be the most down-to-earth member of our team, could sit in on their planning and offer advice, as well as veto anything too crazy. Ahsoka had actually been the one to convince me to let them work on their own project, making the very valid point that while Ezra and Sabine had a considerable amount of experience, but very little of that experience had been in a leadership position. They both had what it took, they just needed to build on it.
It was a risk, but I had faith. Plus, Vaz knew their general schedule. If they missed their mark by too much, she would reveal their target, and a rescue operation would commence.
After the super tactical droid finished its update, and I finished giving my own instructions, I headed back down to my hangar, finally taking the shuttle down to the surface. As we slowly made our way down, I got a bird's eye view of Vercopa'Yaim, as well as the starport, which was only a mile away. The spaceport was primarily made from the massive trees they had to cut down to make room for the ships. The droids had cut them down, sliced them in half, and laid them down with the flat side up, filling the gaps with relatively cheap soil hardener. The result was a strange striped look, especially from the air. The first time I saw it, I called it Z-base, for zebra, which, funnily enough, stuck around.
Z-base was surprisingly large, and could easily land all of our ships that could land planetside. There were several structures, including some rather large hangars we bought as kits and a large tower that rose above the treeline for about fifty feet. The road to and from the base was built in a similar way to the base itself, with half-cut trees laid down. Eventually, all of the wood would rot, but by then, I was hoping to have a much larger, official starport up and running with proper facilities and everything.
The closer we got to the city, the harder it was to look away. Vercopa had grown massively, and every time I saw it, I thanked my people for convincing me that a proper city planner was a must-have. The entire city was focused around the two massive lakes at the heart of the raised plateaus. A huge path ran around both lakes, connected by a set of stairs that ran up along the different levels. It had been a massive undertaking, but with droid workers working essentially non-stop, it had only taken a few days past a month to complete.
The path was three meters wide and made of reddish brick we made ourselves from a mix of sand from one of the planet's many deserts, bound by a neutral binding agent. The path specifically hid a barrier system designed to prevent runoff and other contamination from getting to the river, assuring it would be clean and safe to swim in no matter what. Several bridges passed over the ponds and rivers at different points, giving the place a look that felt like an outer rim Naboo.
The city itself was filled with greenery and trees, with stone roads that split off into gravel paths, weaving between homes. There were two primary business streets, filled with shops and other services. Currently, we had no large-scale production infrastructure, but we were already looking to decide where we would put that. Personally, I wanted to turn the moon into a factory station. It would be dreary as hell, as we would have to basically dig into the moon or build sealed domes, but I thought that was a small price to pay for keeping the planet pristine.
I felt the transport shift slightly as it flew over the city, setting a course for one of the several small landing pads on the upper plateau. It was pretty active, unsurprising, considering we had just finished a mission, which meant plenty of leave time for people to see their families. I would have likely been moved ahead of the line if people knew I was there, but I told the pilot to hold back.
Eventually, we did land, and I stepped out of the transport, taking a deep breath of the fresh air. I needed to see some people, check in around town, and see how everything was going, but for now, I wanted to enjoy the moment.
I was home, and I could feel the anxiety and stress falling away. Only a small portion, currently worried about my team, 4th Group, and Ahsoka, remained.
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Most of the 3rd Group and Salvage Fleet stuck around the mining colony planet for around a day, cleaning up our battlefield and shipping the bandits we collected from their disabled ships off to the nearest bounty collection station. We made just about two hundred thousand credits on that alone. In the end, we took the payment for stopping the bandit group in materials, namely a chunk of the precious metals the bandits had stolen in the first place.
The stolen haul was recovered when slicer droids broke into one of the captured ship's hyperspace logs, allowing us to head straight for their base. There wasn't much to it, just a half-burned-out Clone Wars-era fort. It had a single turbolaser turret that was cobbled together from several broken ones, but it was no match for the Tools Trio, who immediately disabled it and forced the remaining bandits to surrender. We got a few thousand more credits from bounties there, and we were able to return most of the stolen goods to the mining colony, while also packaging up a good chunk of equipment to sell.
We appraised the turbolaser for repurposing, but it was barely holding itself together. We disabled the weapon by removing a few crucial connections before noting the location and leaving.
Meanwhile, around the colony planet, the asset gathering was just finishing up. Our two L-2783s were filled with freighters, starfighters, and two ST-70s. The DP-20 was being piloted directly by a temporary crew of droids and my pilots, as were the pair of AEG-77s and the remaining ST-70. Once we were sure there weren't any hidden boobytraps or beacons, we jumped to lightspeed.
Our first destination was empty space, somewhere around halfway between our starting point and our eventual destination. There, we waited for an extra day, spending it going over every inch of every ship with a fine toothcomb. When everything came up clear, we finally made the last jump.
As we dropped out of hyperspace, we were greeted by a familiar site, Boxi's Fury, slowly moving as it stayed in geosynchronous orbit with Nirn, high above Vercopa'Yaim. The ship, even from a distance, looked massive and impressive, the small fleet of starships flying around it looking small in comparison. The large capital ship was slowly in the process of being painted, but since it was so massive and it was such a low priority, only a few dozen droids were assigned to the task, meaning it was taking quite a while. The new look was the same as all of our starships, big or small, white with purple highlights.
Around the large capital ship were five floating space stations, each one a vague rhombus shape, just over two hundred meters long and seventy-five meters wide. They were armed defense stations, meant to augment the already impressive firepower of Boxi's Fury. Two of the stations were heavily damaged and were currently being stripped down for parts, which were then shipped over to the other three, which were in a much better state, though they still needed some repairs.
We picked them up for next to nothing from a now-defunct mining colony on the inner line of the Outer Rim. They had been attacked one too many times, and while we had offered to take down some of the pirates and bandits harassing them, they were determined to evacuate. 3rd Group hung around for a week, guarding the incoming and outgoing ships, even taking down a small group of raiders, and as payment, we were given a massive discount on the stations.
One would think that, after the colonists left, there would also be some good salvage opportunities where they had set up, but when the colonists left, they all but scraped the ground clean. There was nothing but some empty structures left behind, with even the wiring and piping removed. Still, the buildings were sturdy, so we marked the location as a potential gathering point should we ever need someplace to hide, away from Nirn.
We ended up having to use the Fury to move the stations to Nirn, the large stations a bit too big and unwieldy for our other transport methods. Once we did, we started retrofitting them. Each got an extra set of sublight engines, as well as big slabs of ship armor, which we bought used for cheap. They didn't exactly look pretty, but since they were all staffed by robots, each one was also a hefty battering ram waiting to take down ships several times their size, if necessary, on top of having some decent firepower. The two more damaged stations were even more heavily reinforced, since we didn't have to worry about the decks or even keeping an atmosphere inside.
Once the Forge had settled into position near the Fury, I was shuttled over to the larger starship, where we landed in "my" hangar, one of the smaller ones nearest to the command sphere in the center. I could see the Anvil settling into its position nearby as well, while the Hammer, Punch, and Chisel waited in line to make their way into the right-arm hangar bay.
As we passed through the space between the two primary hangar openings, I could see down both of the curved massive hangars, both of which had gone through some changes.
The left side was almost entirely converted into a repair and production wing. I could already see some of the starfighters we had just claimed, as well as other starfighters and ships that the other groups must have gotten, being moved around, landed, and worked on, checking for any lasting damage from our ion cannons. Once they had gotten a good checkover to confirm they were in good enough condition, they would be moved around to make room, ready to be sold to the Rebellion or one of the various contacts we were fostering. This was also where heavy modifications to our ships, the ones that fit, at least, were done.
The left side was also storage for most of our droid army. Deployment was not the fastest since the C-9979s that functioned as our army deployment fleet were pretty large and cumbersome, but we did have a few rapid deployment crafts ready to go as well, just for smaller groups of droid troops.
On the right arm of the large warship were the hangars for our ships. The roof contained bays for all of our droid starfighters, a good mix of bombers, vultures, and tri-fighters, two hundred and fifty-four in total. On the ground and along the walls were bays for our own starfighters. Racks inspired by the Force Awakens ran along a good chunk of the wall closest to the entrance, filled primarily with A-Wings, but also containing Y-wings and V-wings. We had three squadrons of A-wings racked and ready, with only two of them currently assigned to pilots. A squadron of Y-wings was also assigned pilots, but the V-wings were not. In all honesty, if we didn't have such a surplus of parts, and they weren't such good ships, I would have already sold the V-wings. We kept the Y-wings because they were some of the best bombers money could buy at this point, and even if explosives were expensive, they were still valuable capital ships killing starfighters.
Boxi's Fury had plenty of other modifications, but most of it was on a smaller scale. Despite having acquired a veritable army of autonomous workers, the Fury was still a lot of ship, so significant upgrades would be incredibly difficult to do, and extremely costly. By and large, the ship was stuck how it was.
Luckily, the robot workforce that had been maintaining it before we found it had done a good job. We had yet to find any major faults, even in some of the deeper bowels of the ship.
As I made my way to the bridge, I was greeted and saluted by droids and people alike, some of them in uniform and others in civilian clothes. The ship had a population of nearly thirty families, all of whom were waiting for homes to finish up down planetside. A lot of building had happened in the close to four months since we had buckled down and focused on settling in, but with our most recent expansion of people, they couldn't keep up.
Finally, after a five-minute walk, I entered the bridge of the Fury. Immediately the captain of the Defensive forces spotted me, giving me a light salute as I made my way to him.
"Admiral Deacon, good to see you," He said, shaking my hand. "How did your mission go?"
"We captured the whole bandit fleet, but we lost one of the Bulb pilots," I said with a frown. "I think we are going to put the bulbs up for sale next time we meet with the Rebellion. They are decent starfighters, but I want my people to have the best. I shouldn't have put the decision off for so long. Even the V-wings would have been a better option."
"We have racks that fit them for now, and we can transfer our empty A-wing squadron over," The captain responded with a nod. "
"I want two squadrons on the Forge, so reserve the next batch for it. With the racks, there is room for them and two transports," I said, the captain nodding. "Put one squadron in there for now. For our next recruitment drive, we will have to lean heavily toward starfighter pilots."
"I'll put the work order in."
"Good. I won't keep you."
The captain nodded, and with a salute, he returned to his duties. His assistant, the reprogrammed Super Tactical droid B4-88, approached me next, carrying a datapad that he handed to me.
"The checking process for the last batch of starfighters went well, we have twenty starfighters ready for sale," It explained. "The freighters cleared as well, but one of the two C1-A62s had a major issue and will take some time to finish."
"That's alright. We haven't contacted the Rebellion yet, so we still have time to polish our wares," I assured the droid. "We have a lot of larger ships coming, so feel free to shuffle things around at the starport or in the right arm to keep room free for incoming ships. Any news from away groups?"
"All away groups hit their last check-in, save for 4th Group, which is in deep cover," The droid assured me. "1st Group believes they will be engaging within the next seven hours, and 2nd Group is still waiting for their targets to arrive."
"Still no hints about what 4th Group's target is?" I asked the droid, who simply shook his head. "Alright, I really hope they took everyone's advice to heart."
The 4th Group, which again was only a single ground team of Jedi and Mandalorians, had volunteered to prove themselves by stealing their first ship. Sabine and Ezra, both of whom were experienced in fighting and stealing from the Empire, had unsurprisingly chosen an Imperial target. They also asked to surprise us with their target, inspired by a joke from Julus. I agreed that I would let them design and implement their plan on their own, but only if Vaz, who I considered to be the most down-to-earth member of our team, could sit in on their planning and offer advice, as well as veto anything too crazy. Ahsoka had actually been the one to convince me to let them work on their own project, making the very valid point that while Ezra and Sabine had a considerable amount of experience, but very little of that experience had been in a leadership position. They both had what it took, they just needed to build on it.
It was a risk, but I had faith. Plus, Vaz knew their general schedule. If they missed their mark by too much, she would reveal their target, and a rescue operation would commence.
After the super tactical droid finished its update, and I finished giving my own instructions, I headed back down to my hangar, finally taking the shuttle down to the surface. As we slowly made our way down, I got a bird's eye view of Vercopa'Yaim, as well as the starport, which was only a mile away. The spaceport was primarily made from the massive trees they had to cut down to make room for the ships. The droids had cut them down, sliced them in half, and laid them down with the flat side up, filling the gaps with relatively cheap soil hardener. The result was a strange striped look, especially from the air. The first time I saw it, I called it Z-base, for zebra, which, funnily enough, stuck around.
Z-base was surprisingly large, and could easily land all of our ships that could land planetside. There were several structures, including some rather large hangars we bought as kits and a large tower that rose above the treeline for about fifty feet. The road to and from the base was built in a similar way to the base itself, with half-cut trees laid down. Eventually, all of the wood would rot, but by then, I was hoping to have a much larger, official starport up and running with proper facilities and everything.
The closer we got to the city, the harder it was to look away. Vercopa had grown massively, and every time I saw it, I thanked my people for convincing me that a proper city planner was a must-have. The entire city was focused around the two massive lakes at the heart of the raised plateaus. A huge path ran around both lakes, connected by a set of stairs that ran up along the different levels. It had been a massive undertaking, but with droid workers working essentially non-stop, it had only taken a few days past a month to complete.
The path was three meters wide and made of reddish brick we made ourselves from a mix of sand from one of the planet's many deserts, bound by a neutral binding agent. The path specifically hid a barrier system designed to prevent runoff and other contamination from getting to the river, assuring it would be clean and safe to swim in no matter what. Several bridges passed over the ponds and rivers at different points, giving the place a look that felt like an outer rim Naboo.
The city itself was filled with greenery and trees, with stone roads that split off into gravel paths, weaving between homes. There were two primary business streets, filled with shops and other services. Currently, we had no large-scale production infrastructure, but we were already looking to decide where we would put that. Personally, I wanted to turn the moon into a factory station. It would be dreary as hell, as we would have to basically dig into the moon or build sealed domes, but I thought that was a small price to pay for keeping the planet pristine.
I felt the transport shift slightly as it flew over the city, setting a course for one of the several small landing pads on the upper plateau. It was pretty active, unsurprising, considering we had just finished a mission, which meant plenty of leave time for people to see their families. I would have likely been moved ahead of the line if people knew I was there, but I told the pilot to hold back.
Eventually, we did land, and I stepped out of the transport, taking a deep breath of the fresh air. I needed to see some people, check in around town, and see how everything was going, but for now, I wanted to enjoy the moment.
I was home, and I could feel the anxiety and stress falling away. Only a small portion, currently worried about my team, 4th Group, and Ahsoka, remained.
Ah yes, lets turn the moon into one big bomb, and fastball it into the Deathstar!!!
🤓Honestly do whatever you want with the moon but by focusing the entire engineering and manufacturing infrastructure in one spot what you're creating, is a juicy target for the eventual enemies to bomb the hell out of
my point is you should also create a secondary location on the planet, smaller, more reduced, whatever, you need a backup in the event of the moon going kablooey
never put all your eggs in one basket
that aside, loved the update
cheers
my point is you should also create a secondary location on the planet, smaller, more reduced, whatever, you need a backup in the event of the moon going kablooey
never put all your eggs in one basket
that aside, loved the update
cheers
Chapter 204
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Once the area around the landing pads had slowed down, I made my way to the garage unit that had been built nearby. It mainly contained transport speeders for moving materials and goods when they got delivered, but tucked in the back was my own personal speeder bike. It was nothing complicated, just a civilian model that was reliable and not too expensive. I had the two-person model, which could carry two passengers and some cargo, but I knew that there was a sleeker, single-person model.
Once I had slowly guided the speeder bike from storage, I climbed on and flew away, rising up above the buildings and up around the city, enjoying the slow pace and fantastic view. My first destination was the various spots around the city that were still under construction, eager to check out what sort of progress had been made while I was gone.
I was unsurprised to find that a few multi-family homes had been completed, as well as a two-floor apartment complex designed for single people to live on a budget. Having been inside one of the rooms already, I had been reminded of those stereotypical Japanese one-room plus apartments that appeared in anime all the time. It was simple living for sure, but as long as it was only one person, it was livable.
As usual, I found myself amazed at just how much could get done with the help of a few high-tech machines, the help of droids, and some hard-working people. Already, the construction group was making considerable progress on their next batch of homes, working hard to make room for more people.
After checking out the construction, I flew around the edge of the plateau and looked down at several acres of cleared trees and jungle. A tall wall, built from the trees that had been cut down, encircled the area, ensuring the many wild animals that lived in the surrounding jungle could not get in. Inside those walls were our first forays into farming, with rows of plants, a mix of native and staple crops, being tended to by several families. A few of the families had been brought in specifically for their knowledge of farming, including one who specialized in xeno-agriculture.
There was another clearing not too far from the crops where several animal farms were also being run. Again, it was a mix of staple farm animals, as well as some of the native animals were placid enough to domesticate. Both farms were interesting projects, and should either of them take off, they would probably be moved far away from the town so they had more room to grow. Thankfully, with the newly finished planetary shield projector facility, we had plenty of room for expansion.
Setting up the shield projector had taken a good chunk of time, after all, just the facility alone had been an enormous undertaking. It was really one of the primary reasons why we didn't have enough homes for everyone to move down to the surface, yet. All of our construction resources were diverted to making the site, first clearing trees, laying down duracrete foundations, constructing control buildings, and digging an underground, sealed bunker to house the power generation. The entire complex was surrounded by walls, with a large droid presence as security, as well as a substantial amount of biological staff. The facility had been a significant investment, but well worth the price.
The shield itself was substantial, capable of protecting nearly fifty miles of land at once, almost twice the surface of Rhode Island, if it was all mushed together. We currently had it set to a much smaller portion of land, which substantially improved its strength. The Rebellion had genuinely delivered on its promise to secure something that matched the ten million credit worth that I had invested into it, especially since the power generation was of excellent quality as well.
On top of all that, Miru and her team were working on secondary protection measures, some of which were already being implemented.
With my curiosity about the farming and construction sated, I made a beeline for my home, the speeder bike making short work of the distance. Once there, I parked the speeder bike and left it in the garage. While it would have gotten me to my destination in a fraction of the time it would take to walk, riding the bike was a luxury, and riding it down and around people was more than a bit rude, especially when most people were just happy to walk around, without having to worry about being run over by someone in a rush.
Plus, my people had worked so hard to make our streets and paths beautiful, the least I could do was appreciate that beauty on foot.
I made my way from my house through the city, eventually passing by a food vendor. On a whim, I dropped a few credits for a few boxes of some sort of warm meat and noodle mix. The smell honestly reminded me of the meal Nal had brought back to our hotel room, which was oh so long ago, when we had just first met and teamed up. It was a dose of delicious-smelling nostalgia that made me think of just how far the Skyforged had come. Even the vendor itself represented progress, as the owner was making money in a way that wasn't directly tied to the Skyforged, a good step towards the city becoming legitimate, rather than just fancy company housing.
I continued walking through the streets, doing my best to ignore the incredible smelling food, before eventually making my way to my destination. Eventually, I arrived at one of the many meditation and park combinations across the growing city, filled with native plants and flowers, as well as a small Uneti tree. There was plenty of space for people to picnic, and as I crossed it, I could see Jedi and civilians alike spread out across the area.
It was a peaceful space, and one of the more popular parks, mainly because Yoda was a frequent visitor, the green goblin giving advice and enjoying the sun. Unfortunately, the reason he frequented the park was because it was the closest to his small home, and while he was doing remarkably well for the state he was in, moving around was getting noticeably harder for him. He rarely stepped down from his hover chair, and a young member of Clan Syr was helping to take care of him.
The ancient Jedi's time was quickly approaching.
Still, the ornery old gremlin refused to sink into sadness. He laughed and helped the younglings and older Jedi alike, handing out advice as often as he could. It was his right, after all, having earned it by making plenty of mistakes over the nine centuries he had lived. He had also finally made a holocron, though he made Amescoll swear he would not activate it until he had been one with the Force for many years.
With his end approaching, it was unsurprising that quite a few people wanted to spend time with him, including Luke, who had been returning frequently over the last few months to train and learn from him again. I would have expected that the higher-ups would have complained about him coming here and refusing to tell his superiors where the planet was hidden, but according to him, Leia was just happy to have a connection to us and a way to contact us informally.
As I approached the old green alien and the rebel hero, I could see that Luke was practicing his fine control, floating a dozen small rocks around himself. He was deep in concentration, so I walked around him and sat next to Yoda, whose floating chair was next to a bench.
"You awake, old man?" I asked, reaching into my bag and holding out a container of noodles for him. "Got you some lunch."
"Mhmm, good timing, you have. Hungry, I am," He said, ignoring my needling and happily floating the box to himself, as well as the offered fork. "Good to see you, it is, Deacon. Your mission, successful, it was?"
"From a numbers perspective, it went about as well as you could hope," I responded, opening my own box of food. "Doesn't feel like it, though. We lost a starfighter pilot."
"Sad, the loss of life is, no matter how small or big," Yoda responded. "Solace, you must take, in the lives you have saved. Otherwise, crush you, your guilt will."
"Yeah, easier said than done," I admitted, the Jedi master nodding in agreement.
"Indeed."
We silently watched Luke's practice for a few minutes before I smirked and reached out my hand. I cast Telekinesis, focusing on a single stone. I could see my magic snag it, and I could immediately feel the drag Luke was imparting it. Unfortunately for the Jedi in training, he was purposely being as gentle as possible, so my spell won, and I yanked it out of his mental grasp. This startled him enough to lose concentration, the pebbles floating around him falling to the ground. He frowned and looked around, spotting me as the glowing pebble slowly settled into my palm.
"Hey, Luke. Feeling hungry?" I asked, gesturing to the bag of food.
"Welcome back, Deacon," He said, standing up and stretching for a moment. "Just to let you know, I knew you were here. I felt it when you first made it planet side and started flying around on your speeder."
"What would Leia say, hearing you ignored an important dignitary to train?" I shot back, the younger man sitting down beside me, snagging one of the remaining boxes of food.
"If she knew you like I do, she would have told me to keep practicing," He commented, cracking open the box. "Thanks, I was just getting hungry."
All three of us were quiet as we ate, enjoying the greasy noodly goodness and the pleasant environment. We watched Jedi and civilians as they enjoyed the park, walking around or sitting and meditating. I even spotted Felia with another youngling about her age, listening to a holocron. When we broke off from the Rebellion and pulled out of Omega Station, Sheora reached out shortly after we left, asking if she could join us. After some debate, we allowed it, and the once Rebel agent had come to our planet, with Felia and Claron in tow. We were still trying to find the best place to utilize the agent's talents, but for now, she was working with our planning committee, coming up with missions and vetting bounties as reliable and legitimate.
We were making a serious name for ourselves in the Mid and Outer rims as a successful anti-pirate and raider mercenary group, and with fame came the wrong kind of attention. Not only could the Empire conceivably set up an ambush with a fake bounty, but pirates and slavers could as well.
On the plus side, being well-known made the recruitment process much easier. Gone were the days when we needed to explain how we worked and what we did. Now, more often than not, in places where pilots and fighters gathered, looking for work, our name was already being spoken. Some didn't think it was smart to join a group that pissed off the Empire, but plenty liked the idea. Even more people loved how we stuck it to the pirates, wiping them out, stealing their stuff, and selling it to people for a significant profit.
As we finished our food, I took a look around, spotting a nearby sparring pit. Usually, it was occupied by younglings and older going through the stances of various lightsaber forms or actually sparring, but it was now actually empty. I couldn't help but smirk and nudge Luke.
"You up for a spar?" I asked, getting an eager grin and nod in return. "Great, go get your stuff. Master Yoda, do you want to watch? Do you need a hand getting over there?"
"Hmmm, watch, I would like to," He agreed. "Move myself, I can."
I watched as he manipulated some controls along his chair, the repulsor seat moving slowly, turning to follow the path down to the sparring pit, which was basically just a slightly sunken down oval with some seats around the upper parts. The floor was black-gray sand, and as I walked with Yoda, I grabbed a wooden sword and a shoto-style faux saber from one of the racks. Luke soon joined us, sporting a surprise I had not expected.
His lightsaber was clipped to his hip, as was a bright blue training saber, but along his left arm was an honest-to-god shield. It wasn't massive, but it was built like a standard heater shield, meaning it had a point on one end and a wider "top." It was also not just simple metal plated but clearly built with some technology involved. When he spotted my look, he couldn't help but smirk.
"I toyed around with the idea like you mentioned, and I liked it," He explained. "I commissioned Miru once I knew I needed one, and even supplied the beskar from the Rebellion reserves. Oh! And watch this!"
The kid was clearly excited by his new toy, as he raised the shield up defensively, before activating something on the inside. Suddenly, from both the bottom and the top, two separate energy shields extended out, down to the ground and the other up to cover his head. He was now completely protected. From one direction, at least.
"Damn… That's impressive," I said with an appreciative nod. "Miru really likes spoiling you, huh?"
"She does good work for everyone," Luke responded, just a hint of a blush on his face, the energy shield shrinking back into the physical one. "Are we gonna spar or what?"
I gestured to the pit, and we both walked down into the sandy surface, separating by about ten feet. Luke pulled out the bright blue training saber, igniting it as I conjured my armor. I would leave it up without recharging it, which we had decided was a good handicap since I didn't have access to the Force.
"Ready, are you?" Yoda asked, up by the seats, sitting on his hover chair. When we both nodded, he paused for a moment, before finally saying. "Go!"
Both Luke and I rushed in, Luke raising his shield and saber up, the blade reaching past the protective equipment. Rather than meet him head-on, I spun left, using my shoto to deflect a shield bash by laying it against my arm. I let the impact spin me faster, coming around with a slash of my sword. Of course, Luke saw it coming, deflecting it with his lightsaber as he absorbed our impact. Just as I used the energy to spin, he used to pivot, bringing up his shield to try and jab at my wrist. I let my conjured armor take the blow, blocking a cut with his saber before putting my foot between me and heaving him back, my enchantment-enhanced strength letting me push him up off his feet and several feet back.
"No bad," I said. "You've clearly been training with the shield."
"I've had to look up some old fighting styles, not used by the Jedi, but yeah," He responded, settling into a stance that wasn't too dissimilar to the forms I would have used with a shield. "It feels good, balanced. I'm glad I listened to your recommendation."
"Happy to-"
I leaped forward mid-sentence, stabbing with my sword, trying to catch him off guard. Of course, that was futile, as he had plenty of time to block with his saber. He tried to punch with the point of his shield, but I dropped my shoto and reached out, catching it. My conjured armor absorbed the damage because, otherwise, I would have definitely broken a few fingers. Still, I managed to catch him off guard, letting me get inside his defenses and mime slamming my fist into his elbow, which, if I had done it in earnest, would have at least dislocated it temporarily.
"Not bad. It is definitely possible to use the shield as a weapon, too," I confirmed as we separated. "But you're reaching too far with it, leaving yourself open. Here, stand like this with your saber across, then punch."
I took a stance similar to his, motioning with my sword as I lashed out, keeping the training blade up and in play. The angled position of my blade would keep anyone from sliding into the space the punch opened up.
"You have to watch out for your saber, since there is no safe side, unlike a normal sword, but it should help."
Luke nodded and tried to replicate my movement, before chaining them into a block and strike, weaving it into a combo. It was impressive to see how quickly he adapted, a sign of just how hard he worked, as well as his monstrous talent.
We continued to spar and train for another few hours before I needed to head off. While I would have liked to spend more time hanging out and training with Luke, there were still a few stops I needed to make before I could settle in for the day. I said goodbye to both Luke and Yoda before leaving the sparring pit. As I did, a pair of Jedi and one Mandalorian stepped down to talk to Luke, hopefully to keep him busy and learning.
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Once the area around the landing pads had slowed down, I made my way to the garage unit that had been built nearby. It mainly contained transport speeders for moving materials and goods when they got delivered, but tucked in the back was my own personal speeder bike. It was nothing complicated, just a civilian model that was reliable and not too expensive. I had the two-person model, which could carry two passengers and some cargo, but I knew that there was a sleeker, single-person model.
Once I had slowly guided the speeder bike from storage, I climbed on and flew away, rising up above the buildings and up around the city, enjoying the slow pace and fantastic view. My first destination was the various spots around the city that were still under construction, eager to check out what sort of progress had been made while I was gone.
I was unsurprised to find that a few multi-family homes had been completed, as well as a two-floor apartment complex designed for single people to live on a budget. Having been inside one of the rooms already, I had been reminded of those stereotypical Japanese one-room plus apartments that appeared in anime all the time. It was simple living for sure, but as long as it was only one person, it was livable.
As usual, I found myself amazed at just how much could get done with the help of a few high-tech machines, the help of droids, and some hard-working people. Already, the construction group was making considerable progress on their next batch of homes, working hard to make room for more people.
After checking out the construction, I flew around the edge of the plateau and looked down at several acres of cleared trees and jungle. A tall wall, built from the trees that had been cut down, encircled the area, ensuring the many wild animals that lived in the surrounding jungle could not get in. Inside those walls were our first forays into farming, with rows of plants, a mix of native and staple crops, being tended to by several families. A few of the families had been brought in specifically for their knowledge of farming, including one who specialized in xeno-agriculture.
There was another clearing not too far from the crops where several animal farms were also being run. Again, it was a mix of staple farm animals, as well as some of the native animals were placid enough to domesticate. Both farms were interesting projects, and should either of them take off, they would probably be moved far away from the town so they had more room to grow. Thankfully, with the newly finished planetary shield projector facility, we had plenty of room for expansion.
Setting up the shield projector had taken a good chunk of time, after all, just the facility alone had been an enormous undertaking. It was really one of the primary reasons why we didn't have enough homes for everyone to move down to the surface, yet. All of our construction resources were diverted to making the site, first clearing trees, laying down duracrete foundations, constructing control buildings, and digging an underground, sealed bunker to house the power generation. The entire complex was surrounded by walls, with a large droid presence as security, as well as a substantial amount of biological staff. The facility had been a significant investment, but well worth the price.
The shield itself was substantial, capable of protecting nearly fifty miles of land at once, almost twice the surface of Rhode Island, if it was all mushed together. We currently had it set to a much smaller portion of land, which substantially improved its strength. The Rebellion had genuinely delivered on its promise to secure something that matched the ten million credit worth that I had invested into it, especially since the power generation was of excellent quality as well.
On top of all that, Miru and her team were working on secondary protection measures, some of which were already being implemented.
With my curiosity about the farming and construction sated, I made a beeline for my home, the speeder bike making short work of the distance. Once there, I parked the speeder bike and left it in the garage. While it would have gotten me to my destination in a fraction of the time it would take to walk, riding the bike was a luxury, and riding it down and around people was more than a bit rude, especially when most people were just happy to walk around, without having to worry about being run over by someone in a rush.
Plus, my people had worked so hard to make our streets and paths beautiful, the least I could do was appreciate that beauty on foot.
I made my way from my house through the city, eventually passing by a food vendor. On a whim, I dropped a few credits for a few boxes of some sort of warm meat and noodle mix. The smell honestly reminded me of the meal Nal had brought back to our hotel room, which was oh so long ago, when we had just first met and teamed up. It was a dose of delicious-smelling nostalgia that made me think of just how far the Skyforged had come. Even the vendor itself represented progress, as the owner was making money in a way that wasn't directly tied to the Skyforged, a good step towards the city becoming legitimate, rather than just fancy company housing.
I continued walking through the streets, doing my best to ignore the incredible smelling food, before eventually making my way to my destination. Eventually, I arrived at one of the many meditation and park combinations across the growing city, filled with native plants and flowers, as well as a small Uneti tree. There was plenty of space for people to picnic, and as I crossed it, I could see Jedi and civilians alike spread out across the area.
It was a peaceful space, and one of the more popular parks, mainly because Yoda was a frequent visitor, the green goblin giving advice and enjoying the sun. Unfortunately, the reason he frequented the park was because it was the closest to his small home, and while he was doing remarkably well for the state he was in, moving around was getting noticeably harder for him. He rarely stepped down from his hover chair, and a young member of Clan Syr was helping to take care of him.
The ancient Jedi's time was quickly approaching.
Still, the ornery old gremlin refused to sink into sadness. He laughed and helped the younglings and older Jedi alike, handing out advice as often as he could. It was his right, after all, having earned it by making plenty of mistakes over the nine centuries he had lived. He had also finally made a holocron, though he made Amescoll swear he would not activate it until he had been one with the Force for many years.
With his end approaching, it was unsurprising that quite a few people wanted to spend time with him, including Luke, who had been returning frequently over the last few months to train and learn from him again. I would have expected that the higher-ups would have complained about him coming here and refusing to tell his superiors where the planet was hidden, but according to him, Leia was just happy to have a connection to us and a way to contact us informally.
As I approached the old green alien and the rebel hero, I could see that Luke was practicing his fine control, floating a dozen small rocks around himself. He was deep in concentration, so I walked around him and sat next to Yoda, whose floating chair was next to a bench.
"You awake, old man?" I asked, reaching into my bag and holding out a container of noodles for him. "Got you some lunch."
"Mhmm, good timing, you have. Hungry, I am," He said, ignoring my needling and happily floating the box to himself, as well as the offered fork. "Good to see you, it is, Deacon. Your mission, successful, it was?"
"From a numbers perspective, it went about as well as you could hope," I responded, opening my own box of food. "Doesn't feel like it, though. We lost a starfighter pilot."
"Sad, the loss of life is, no matter how small or big," Yoda responded. "Solace, you must take, in the lives you have saved. Otherwise, crush you, your guilt will."
"Yeah, easier said than done," I admitted, the Jedi master nodding in agreement.
"Indeed."
We silently watched Luke's practice for a few minutes before I smirked and reached out my hand. I cast Telekinesis, focusing on a single stone. I could see my magic snag it, and I could immediately feel the drag Luke was imparting it. Unfortunately for the Jedi in training, he was purposely being as gentle as possible, so my spell won, and I yanked it out of his mental grasp. This startled him enough to lose concentration, the pebbles floating around him falling to the ground. He frowned and looked around, spotting me as the glowing pebble slowly settled into my palm.
"Hey, Luke. Feeling hungry?" I asked, gesturing to the bag of food.
"Welcome back, Deacon," He said, standing up and stretching for a moment. "Just to let you know, I knew you were here. I felt it when you first made it planet side and started flying around on your speeder."
"What would Leia say, hearing you ignored an important dignitary to train?" I shot back, the younger man sitting down beside me, snagging one of the remaining boxes of food.
"If she knew you like I do, she would have told me to keep practicing," He commented, cracking open the box. "Thanks, I was just getting hungry."
All three of us were quiet as we ate, enjoying the greasy noodly goodness and the pleasant environment. We watched Jedi and civilians as they enjoyed the park, walking around or sitting and meditating. I even spotted Felia with another youngling about her age, listening to a holocron. When we broke off from the Rebellion and pulled out of Omega Station, Sheora reached out shortly after we left, asking if she could join us. After some debate, we allowed it, and the once Rebel agent had come to our planet, with Felia and Claron in tow. We were still trying to find the best place to utilize the agent's talents, but for now, she was working with our planning committee, coming up with missions and vetting bounties as reliable and legitimate.
We were making a serious name for ourselves in the Mid and Outer rims as a successful anti-pirate and raider mercenary group, and with fame came the wrong kind of attention. Not only could the Empire conceivably set up an ambush with a fake bounty, but pirates and slavers could as well.
On the plus side, being well-known made the recruitment process much easier. Gone were the days when we needed to explain how we worked and what we did. Now, more often than not, in places where pilots and fighters gathered, looking for work, our name was already being spoken. Some didn't think it was smart to join a group that pissed off the Empire, but plenty liked the idea. Even more people loved how we stuck it to the pirates, wiping them out, stealing their stuff, and selling it to people for a significant profit.
As we finished our food, I took a look around, spotting a nearby sparring pit. Usually, it was occupied by younglings and older going through the stances of various lightsaber forms or actually sparring, but it was now actually empty. I couldn't help but smirk and nudge Luke.
"You up for a spar?" I asked, getting an eager grin and nod in return. "Great, go get your stuff. Master Yoda, do you want to watch? Do you need a hand getting over there?"
"Hmmm, watch, I would like to," He agreed. "Move myself, I can."
I watched as he manipulated some controls along his chair, the repulsor seat moving slowly, turning to follow the path down to the sparring pit, which was basically just a slightly sunken down oval with some seats around the upper parts. The floor was black-gray sand, and as I walked with Yoda, I grabbed a wooden sword and a shoto-style faux saber from one of the racks. Luke soon joined us, sporting a surprise I had not expected.
His lightsaber was clipped to his hip, as was a bright blue training saber, but along his left arm was an honest-to-god shield. It wasn't massive, but it was built like a standard heater shield, meaning it had a point on one end and a wider "top." It was also not just simple metal plated but clearly built with some technology involved. When he spotted my look, he couldn't help but smirk.
"I toyed around with the idea like you mentioned, and I liked it," He explained. "I commissioned Miru once I knew I needed one, and even supplied the beskar from the Rebellion reserves. Oh! And watch this!"
The kid was clearly excited by his new toy, as he raised the shield up defensively, before activating something on the inside. Suddenly, from both the bottom and the top, two separate energy shields extended out, down to the ground and the other up to cover his head. He was now completely protected. From one direction, at least.
"Damn… That's impressive," I said with an appreciative nod. "Miru really likes spoiling you, huh?"
"She does good work for everyone," Luke responded, just a hint of a blush on his face, the energy shield shrinking back into the physical one. "Are we gonna spar or what?"
I gestured to the pit, and we both walked down into the sandy surface, separating by about ten feet. Luke pulled out the bright blue training saber, igniting it as I conjured my armor. I would leave it up without recharging it, which we had decided was a good handicap since I didn't have access to the Force.
"Ready, are you?" Yoda asked, up by the seats, sitting on his hover chair. When we both nodded, he paused for a moment, before finally saying. "Go!"
Both Luke and I rushed in, Luke raising his shield and saber up, the blade reaching past the protective equipment. Rather than meet him head-on, I spun left, using my shoto to deflect a shield bash by laying it against my arm. I let the impact spin me faster, coming around with a slash of my sword. Of course, Luke saw it coming, deflecting it with his lightsaber as he absorbed our impact. Just as I used the energy to spin, he used to pivot, bringing up his shield to try and jab at my wrist. I let my conjured armor take the blow, blocking a cut with his saber before putting my foot between me and heaving him back, my enchantment-enhanced strength letting me push him up off his feet and several feet back.
"No bad," I said. "You've clearly been training with the shield."
"I've had to look up some old fighting styles, not used by the Jedi, but yeah," He responded, settling into a stance that wasn't too dissimilar to the forms I would have used with a shield. "It feels good, balanced. I'm glad I listened to your recommendation."
"Happy to-"
I leaped forward mid-sentence, stabbing with my sword, trying to catch him off guard. Of course, that was futile, as he had plenty of time to block with his saber. He tried to punch with the point of his shield, but I dropped my shoto and reached out, catching it. My conjured armor absorbed the damage because, otherwise, I would have definitely broken a few fingers. Still, I managed to catch him off guard, letting me get inside his defenses and mime slamming my fist into his elbow, which, if I had done it in earnest, would have at least dislocated it temporarily.
"Not bad. It is definitely possible to use the shield as a weapon, too," I confirmed as we separated. "But you're reaching too far with it, leaving yourself open. Here, stand like this with your saber across, then punch."
I took a stance similar to his, motioning with my sword as I lashed out, keeping the training blade up and in play. The angled position of my blade would keep anyone from sliding into the space the punch opened up.
"You have to watch out for your saber, since there is no safe side, unlike a normal sword, but it should help."
Luke nodded and tried to replicate my movement, before chaining them into a block and strike, weaving it into a combo. It was impressive to see how quickly he adapted, a sign of just how hard he worked, as well as his monstrous talent.
We continued to spar and train for another few hours before I needed to head off. While I would have liked to spend more time hanging out and training with Luke, there were still a few stops I needed to make before I could settle in for the day. I said goodbye to both Luke and Yoda before leaving the sparring pit. As I did, a pair of Jedi and one Mandalorian stepped down to talk to Luke, hopefully to keep him busy and learning.
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Chapter 205
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For the rest of the day, I traveled around, meeting with different people and groups to discuss the future and the plans people were making. So far, a few groups had started to form, most of of them looking like the precursors to guilds and unions. The various vendors around the city had selected a spokesperson, as had the various shops and the construction workers.
I was happy to listen to what they had to say, wanting everyone to feel like they were being heard, but I was also very careful in the messages I was sending while doing so. While it was important that problems were brought to my attention and that the people had a voice, I was not about to let power blocs or any sort of group capable of political influence take shape.
Basically, I was trying to set a delicate balance as Vercopa grew. People could work together and build what they wanted, but the second that corruption, controlling factions, or anything else like that started to crop up, I was going to be the one to squash it, and I would not be holding back. It would be a tightrope walk the whole way, but I was determined to keep politics, and power grabs from ruining our home.
So far, people still saw me as the leader of both the Skyforged and Vercopa, but I was sure that would change over time as the city grew. Personally, I was pushing for a council with short turnovers, as well as some sort of built-in anti-gridlock system. Before that could happen, however, we needed to have a solid foundation that could withstand people grasping for power and wealth. I would put boots in asses if it did, but I would very much prefer if I didn't have to.
These meetings took the rest of the afternoon as well as the following day, spending two nights planetside before hopping back on a transport to head up to the Fury. 2nd Group had reported that their mission was a success, and that they were on their way home during my first afternoon, and I wanted to be there to greet them when they arrived home.
When they finally arrived back in the system, I happily shook hands with Lieutenant Rider and Lefty, the respective clone and commando droid leaders of the two 2nd Group ground teams, as well as the captains of the various ships. I pulled them all aside for a short, unofficial debriefing, listening to how the mission went.
"The hardest part was getting down to the surface without alerting the Imperials," Lieutenant Rider admitted. "We ended up hiring a freighter to land us near the Imperial starport for the planet."
"How did you manage to make it through the defenses?" I asked with a frown. "I can't imagine they just leave those open to the public."
"My team infiltrated the base at night, scaling the walls along a metal reinforcement point," Lefty explained. "Our primary mission was to destroy the security systems of the facility, giving the other ground team the opportunity to engage. They boarded the first ship, and we boarded the second."
"And how did that go?" I asked curiously, turning to the clone lieutenant.
"The droids had the security system down in minutes, it was honestly impressive," The lieutenant admitted. "It reminded me how karking terrifying it was fighting them during the war. I'm glad they're on our side now.
"We did incur casualties. Three droids were damaged but remained at fighting capacity," Lefty explained. "One droid intercepted a grenade, and diverted its explosion using their body. We managed to recover seventy-eight percent of that droid's chassis.
"Good work. Have the damaged units report to the droid repair shop," I said, referring to the chunk of space near the hangar Miru converted into a large droid upgrade and repair facility. "Have them bring the chassis with them so they can salvage the beskar. Rider, how did you do?"
"Our mechanical expert has a bit of a concussion, and we have a couple of scrapes and bruises, but besides that, we are good to go," Rider responded.
"And your target?"
"We successfully made off with both of the Gozantis, sir," Rider responded. "Both seem to be in good order, stocked with supplies. The mech crew will have a better idea, but we never ran into any issues. I will say we took some fire from some TIEs, but the shield handled most of it."
"Alright, you two, well done. Rider, I'll get the payment moving early so you can see your profits even if the ships have not been sold yet," I said with a smile. "In the meantime, enjoy your leave, get some rest, and restock. Start working with the planning teams to find your next mission, but keep in mind that the Whale Shark will likely end up being borrowed to transport starfighters and equipment once 1st Group returns."
Both of the leaders, droid and clone, nodded and stood to leave, saluting as they left the room. It seemed that, despite a history of being enemies, the two ground teams were working well together. Perhaps it was because they had once been enemies and would have to be very familiar with the other's capabilities and methodology.
With my schedule clear until 1st Group arrived, I spent some time with Miru, who, at this point, was running a whole research and development team. She loved the position and happily showed off some plans she had for a new A-wing design. Where her first attempt replaced the missiles with ion cannons, this new one replaced them with an energy torpedo system like the Vulture droid starship. Where the droid starfighter had two, the new A-wing design would have one heavier option, giving the A-wing just a bit more firepower without sacrificing speed.
The design was still in the works, and a background project as well. I didn't quite see the point in having a light ship like the A-wing pack a heavy weapon as it would only result in trying to use the ship in ways it wasn't intended. She knew this and was only working on the design for fun and just in case.
Eventually, after a few more days in space, organizing the latest goods and preparing for a trip to the Alpha Base to sell them, 1st group finally returned home. They entered the solar system late in the afternoon, the fleet approaching and settling into orbit with Boxi's Fury with two additional ships. A pair of Imperial Cargo Shuttles, one in perfect condition and the other with some carbonized marks along the back end, one of its engines taking the brunt of the damage, the thruster off and sparking. The rest of the fleet seemed to be fine, and while the Talos Chariot landed inside the Fury, the fleet descended to the planet's surface.
Of course, the two cargo ships landed in the left hangar, where they could be inspected for hidden damage, and the visible damage could be appraised properly. That could wait, however, because I was more concerned with meeting my team. I was waiting in the hangar as the forward boarding ramp lowered, laughing as I caught Ahsoka, who jumped down before it had finished. For a long moment, we simply enjoyed each other's presence, silently holding each other before pulling back just enough to look into each other's eyes.
"It is so good to see you," She said, her arms wrapped around me tightly, holding me close. "I missed you."
"I missed you too, love," I said, holding her back just as tightly. This was the first time I'd seen her in nearly two weeks, after all. "How are you? Did everything go well?"
I let her go, pushing her back slightly to look her up and down as if inspecting her for damage. She chuckled and slapped my chest, pushing back in to lean on me. My head rested on her montral gently.
"It went well, save a little issue at the end," She explained. "An overzealous Imperial ship chased us far beyond what was smart. Took down the shields on one of the cargo ships and knocked out one of its engines."
"Blew it up before it could do any more damage," Tatnia added, having made her way down the ramp while I was greeting Ahsoka. "We didn't expect it to pull so far out of ranks with the other ships we were racing to escape."
"Likely a captain looking to further their career," Nal guessed. "No career now."
I snorted and shook my head, giving Ahsoka one last squeeze before pulling away and turning to the rest of my crew. They were all in their uniforms and looked unharmed. A knot that had been coiled around my heart slowly unraveled, and I felt considerably lighter.
"Well, if that's all that happened, I'd call that a pretty solid win," I said with a nod and a smile, ignoring the sense of relief, even as Ahsoka squeezed my hand, no doubt feeling it through me. "You guys wanna show me the loot and fill me in on how it all went?"
Tatnia, Ahsoka, Nal, and I traveled across the entire ship to the left hangar bay. The rest of the crew took the Chariot down to the planet's surface. While we walked and rode turbolifts across the ship, they gave me a short debriefing. Tatnia and Nal would write up a report for later, I was just curious how it went.
Apparently, most of their time was spent sitting around and waiting for cargo vessels large enough for their liking to arrive. The plan had always been to snag a ship, stuff it full of loot, and burn atmo, but the depot wasn't populated enough to see a consistent stream of large enough starships. So, when the two Imperial Cargo Shuttles landed, they jumped on the opportunity.
Working with the Mandalorian ground team, they took control of the entire depot, clearing it out of any hostiles, before stuffing both ships full of supplies, taking everything from crates of stormtrooper blasters and other weapons to two dozen C-PH speeder bikes, just like the ones we had been using for months. Food, armor, weapons, and tools were all stacked and shoved in as jam-packed as possible.
Some of it, like the three massive crates of grenades and at least half of the speeders, we would be keeping for ourselves. Everything else was destined to be sold to the Rebellion. I wouldn't subject my people to Imperial rations unless it was life or death, but the Rebels seemed to be fine with it.
Beyond giving a look at the more obvious and impressive items they had taken, we didn't dive too deeply, since it was clear everyone was tired. I would receive an updated report once they finished cataloging everything anyway, so there was no point in hanging around, especially since the labor droids would do most of the work for us.
The next day was spent preparing to travel to Alpha Base, loading up all of our L-2783s, including Whale Shark, with the nearly three dozen starfighters we planned on selling, as well as the ten remaining Bulbs and whatever small freighters we could fit inside. The rest of the ships, the ST-70s, DP-20, AEG-77s, C1-A62s, the two Gozantis, and both cargo ships were piloted by a skeleton crew, usually only two or three people. It was an incredible procession of firepower, protected and escorted by the 3rd Group.
While my team and I were traveling on the Talos Chariot, the rest of 1st Group remained at home, as did 2nd Group. They were basically waiting in case 4th Group needed help. They were due back in two days, so the rescue operation would start if they didn't make it back by then. I wanted to make sure that there were plenty of resources to make that happen, and I gave them permission to even take the Boxi's Fury out of orbit if they required any serious firepower.
I was not about to leave any of my teams hanging, especially not in the hands of the Empire.
When everything was prepared, we left Nirn behind, our nav computers set for Alpha Base. I had already set up a meeting with General Syndulla and General Rieekan to hopefully sell the majority of our recovered equipment.
When we arrived at Alpha Base, we were directed to land, but 3rd Group stayed in orbit while Talos Chariot escorted the fleet of products down to the surface. We landed among a cleared-out section of their landing space, probably set aside so we could land in a group. Not long after we had settled in, General Syndulla and Rieekan arrived, stopping outside the Chariot to meet us. With them were about twenty Rebel engineers, ready to look over our work. I quickly made my way down to greet them, Vaz following behind silently, fully armored as my bodyguard.
"It is good to see you again, Admiral Deacon," Syndulla said, reaching out to shake my hand. "I'm excited to see what you have for us today."
"It's good to see you as well, General, and you, General," I said, reaching out to accept both of their hands, one after the other. "We have a variety of freighters, starfighters, and warships. I suggest we start with the starfighters since I suspect they will be the easiest to inspect."
"That sounds like as good a place as any to start," General Rieekan. "We are also very interested in the freighters you mentioned, specifically for this base. We are looking to beef up our supply capabilities."
"Well, we have three dedicated freighters, as well as two Imperial Cargo Vessels, though one of them has some damage to one of its thrusters," I commented, leading them towards the Whale Shark while gesturing to the cargo ships. "We also have some ST-70s. Technically they are assault craft, but they make great rapid distribution ships."
Me listing off what we had brought seemed to trigger something, causing Syndulla to frown with a confused look.
"... just which of these ships are for sale?" the Twi'lek rebel asked, stopping as we walked up the Whales to look out at the around ten ships outside the carriers.
"For the big ships, all of them but the L-2783s and the Chariot," I said with a smirk. "For the starfighters, only the A-wings and the LAAT gunships aren't for sale."
Both of the Generals eyes went wide, suddenly realizing just how many ships we had brought to the table to sell. It clearly caught them off guard, and I couldn't help but chuckle.
"We have a few days, so don't worry about signing for them all now," I assured them. "Take a look, let your people go over them, then reach out to anyone you need to talk to. No rush to sell them all right this minute. For now, let's just take a look at the starfighters.
We continued to climb the boarding ramp into the ship, walking down the interior. We passed several of the crew, all of them respectfully nodding as we passed.
"Now, on this carrier, we have a mix of heavier starfighters, including some headhunters…"
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For the rest of the day, I traveled around, meeting with different people and groups to discuss the future and the plans people were making. So far, a few groups had started to form, most of of them looking like the precursors to guilds and unions. The various vendors around the city had selected a spokesperson, as had the various shops and the construction workers.
I was happy to listen to what they had to say, wanting everyone to feel like they were being heard, but I was also very careful in the messages I was sending while doing so. While it was important that problems were brought to my attention and that the people had a voice, I was not about to let power blocs or any sort of group capable of political influence take shape.
Basically, I was trying to set a delicate balance as Vercopa grew. People could work together and build what they wanted, but the second that corruption, controlling factions, or anything else like that started to crop up, I was going to be the one to squash it, and I would not be holding back. It would be a tightrope walk the whole way, but I was determined to keep politics, and power grabs from ruining our home.
So far, people still saw me as the leader of both the Skyforged and Vercopa, but I was sure that would change over time as the city grew. Personally, I was pushing for a council with short turnovers, as well as some sort of built-in anti-gridlock system. Before that could happen, however, we needed to have a solid foundation that could withstand people grasping for power and wealth. I would put boots in asses if it did, but I would very much prefer if I didn't have to.
These meetings took the rest of the afternoon as well as the following day, spending two nights planetside before hopping back on a transport to head up to the Fury. 2nd Group had reported that their mission was a success, and that they were on their way home during my first afternoon, and I wanted to be there to greet them when they arrived home.
When they finally arrived back in the system, I happily shook hands with Lieutenant Rider and Lefty, the respective clone and commando droid leaders of the two 2nd Group ground teams, as well as the captains of the various ships. I pulled them all aside for a short, unofficial debriefing, listening to how the mission went.
"The hardest part was getting down to the surface without alerting the Imperials," Lieutenant Rider admitted. "We ended up hiring a freighter to land us near the Imperial starport for the planet."
"How did you manage to make it through the defenses?" I asked with a frown. "I can't imagine they just leave those open to the public."
"My team infiltrated the base at night, scaling the walls along a metal reinforcement point," Lefty explained. "Our primary mission was to destroy the security systems of the facility, giving the other ground team the opportunity to engage. They boarded the first ship, and we boarded the second."
"And how did that go?" I asked curiously, turning to the clone lieutenant.
"The droids had the security system down in minutes, it was honestly impressive," The lieutenant admitted. "It reminded me how karking terrifying it was fighting them during the war. I'm glad they're on our side now.
"We did incur casualties. Three droids were damaged but remained at fighting capacity," Lefty explained. "One droid intercepted a grenade, and diverted its explosion using their body. We managed to recover seventy-eight percent of that droid's chassis.
"Good work. Have the damaged units report to the droid repair shop," I said, referring to the chunk of space near the hangar Miru converted into a large droid upgrade and repair facility. "Have them bring the chassis with them so they can salvage the beskar. Rider, how did you do?"
"Our mechanical expert has a bit of a concussion, and we have a couple of scrapes and bruises, but besides that, we are good to go," Rider responded.
"And your target?"
"We successfully made off with both of the Gozantis, sir," Rider responded. "Both seem to be in good order, stocked with supplies. The mech crew will have a better idea, but we never ran into any issues. I will say we took some fire from some TIEs, but the shield handled most of it."
"Alright, you two, well done. Rider, I'll get the payment moving early so you can see your profits even if the ships have not been sold yet," I said with a smile. "In the meantime, enjoy your leave, get some rest, and restock. Start working with the planning teams to find your next mission, but keep in mind that the Whale Shark will likely end up being borrowed to transport starfighters and equipment once 1st Group returns."
Both of the leaders, droid and clone, nodded and stood to leave, saluting as they left the room. It seemed that, despite a history of being enemies, the two ground teams were working well together. Perhaps it was because they had once been enemies and would have to be very familiar with the other's capabilities and methodology.
With my schedule clear until 1st Group arrived, I spent some time with Miru, who, at this point, was running a whole research and development team. She loved the position and happily showed off some plans she had for a new A-wing design. Where her first attempt replaced the missiles with ion cannons, this new one replaced them with an energy torpedo system like the Vulture droid starship. Where the droid starfighter had two, the new A-wing design would have one heavier option, giving the A-wing just a bit more firepower without sacrificing speed.
The design was still in the works, and a background project as well. I didn't quite see the point in having a light ship like the A-wing pack a heavy weapon as it would only result in trying to use the ship in ways it wasn't intended. She knew this and was only working on the design for fun and just in case.
Eventually, after a few more days in space, organizing the latest goods and preparing for a trip to the Alpha Base to sell them, 1st group finally returned home. They entered the solar system late in the afternoon, the fleet approaching and settling into orbit with Boxi's Fury with two additional ships. A pair of Imperial Cargo Shuttles, one in perfect condition and the other with some carbonized marks along the back end, one of its engines taking the brunt of the damage, the thruster off and sparking. The rest of the fleet seemed to be fine, and while the Talos Chariot landed inside the Fury, the fleet descended to the planet's surface.
Of course, the two cargo ships landed in the left hangar, where they could be inspected for hidden damage, and the visible damage could be appraised properly. That could wait, however, because I was more concerned with meeting my team. I was waiting in the hangar as the forward boarding ramp lowered, laughing as I caught Ahsoka, who jumped down before it had finished. For a long moment, we simply enjoyed each other's presence, silently holding each other before pulling back just enough to look into each other's eyes.
"It is so good to see you," She said, her arms wrapped around me tightly, holding me close. "I missed you."
"I missed you too, love," I said, holding her back just as tightly. This was the first time I'd seen her in nearly two weeks, after all. "How are you? Did everything go well?"
I let her go, pushing her back slightly to look her up and down as if inspecting her for damage. She chuckled and slapped my chest, pushing back in to lean on me. My head rested on her montral gently.
"It went well, save a little issue at the end," She explained. "An overzealous Imperial ship chased us far beyond what was smart. Took down the shields on one of the cargo ships and knocked out one of its engines."
"Blew it up before it could do any more damage," Tatnia added, having made her way down the ramp while I was greeting Ahsoka. "We didn't expect it to pull so far out of ranks with the other ships we were racing to escape."
"Likely a captain looking to further their career," Nal guessed. "No career now."
I snorted and shook my head, giving Ahsoka one last squeeze before pulling away and turning to the rest of my crew. They were all in their uniforms and looked unharmed. A knot that had been coiled around my heart slowly unraveled, and I felt considerably lighter.
"Well, if that's all that happened, I'd call that a pretty solid win," I said with a nod and a smile, ignoring the sense of relief, even as Ahsoka squeezed my hand, no doubt feeling it through me. "You guys wanna show me the loot and fill me in on how it all went?"
Tatnia, Ahsoka, Nal, and I traveled across the entire ship to the left hangar bay. The rest of the crew took the Chariot down to the planet's surface. While we walked and rode turbolifts across the ship, they gave me a short debriefing. Tatnia and Nal would write up a report for later, I was just curious how it went.
Apparently, most of their time was spent sitting around and waiting for cargo vessels large enough for their liking to arrive. The plan had always been to snag a ship, stuff it full of loot, and burn atmo, but the depot wasn't populated enough to see a consistent stream of large enough starships. So, when the two Imperial Cargo Shuttles landed, they jumped on the opportunity.
Working with the Mandalorian ground team, they took control of the entire depot, clearing it out of any hostiles, before stuffing both ships full of supplies, taking everything from crates of stormtrooper blasters and other weapons to two dozen C-PH speeder bikes, just like the ones we had been using for months. Food, armor, weapons, and tools were all stacked and shoved in as jam-packed as possible.
Some of it, like the three massive crates of grenades and at least half of the speeders, we would be keeping for ourselves. Everything else was destined to be sold to the Rebellion. I wouldn't subject my people to Imperial rations unless it was life or death, but the Rebels seemed to be fine with it.
Beyond giving a look at the more obvious and impressive items they had taken, we didn't dive too deeply, since it was clear everyone was tired. I would receive an updated report once they finished cataloging everything anyway, so there was no point in hanging around, especially since the labor droids would do most of the work for us.
The next day was spent preparing to travel to Alpha Base, loading up all of our L-2783s, including Whale Shark, with the nearly three dozen starfighters we planned on selling, as well as the ten remaining Bulbs and whatever small freighters we could fit inside. The rest of the ships, the ST-70s, DP-20, AEG-77s, C1-A62s, the two Gozantis, and both cargo ships were piloted by a skeleton crew, usually only two or three people. It was an incredible procession of firepower, protected and escorted by the 3rd Group.
While my team and I were traveling on the Talos Chariot, the rest of 1st Group remained at home, as did 2nd Group. They were basically waiting in case 4th Group needed help. They were due back in two days, so the rescue operation would start if they didn't make it back by then. I wanted to make sure that there were plenty of resources to make that happen, and I gave them permission to even take the Boxi's Fury out of orbit if they required any serious firepower.
I was not about to leave any of my teams hanging, especially not in the hands of the Empire.
When everything was prepared, we left Nirn behind, our nav computers set for Alpha Base. I had already set up a meeting with General Syndulla and General Rieekan to hopefully sell the majority of our recovered equipment.
When we arrived at Alpha Base, we were directed to land, but 3rd Group stayed in orbit while Talos Chariot escorted the fleet of products down to the surface. We landed among a cleared-out section of their landing space, probably set aside so we could land in a group. Not long after we had settled in, General Syndulla and Rieekan arrived, stopping outside the Chariot to meet us. With them were about twenty Rebel engineers, ready to look over our work. I quickly made my way down to greet them, Vaz following behind silently, fully armored as my bodyguard.
"It is good to see you again, Admiral Deacon," Syndulla said, reaching out to shake my hand. "I'm excited to see what you have for us today."
"It's good to see you as well, General, and you, General," I said, reaching out to accept both of their hands, one after the other. "We have a variety of freighters, starfighters, and warships. I suggest we start with the starfighters since I suspect they will be the easiest to inspect."
"That sounds like as good a place as any to start," General Rieekan. "We are also very interested in the freighters you mentioned, specifically for this base. We are looking to beef up our supply capabilities."
"Well, we have three dedicated freighters, as well as two Imperial Cargo Vessels, though one of them has some damage to one of its thrusters," I commented, leading them towards the Whale Shark while gesturing to the cargo ships. "We also have some ST-70s. Technically they are assault craft, but they make great rapid distribution ships."
Me listing off what we had brought seemed to trigger something, causing Syndulla to frown with a confused look.
"... just which of these ships are for sale?" the Twi'lek rebel asked, stopping as we walked up the Whales to look out at the around ten ships outside the carriers.
"For the big ships, all of them but the L-2783s and the Chariot," I said with a smirk. "For the starfighters, only the A-wings and the LAAT gunships aren't for sale."
Both of the Generals eyes went wide, suddenly realizing just how many ships we had brought to the table to sell. It clearly caught them off guard, and I couldn't help but chuckle.
"We have a few days, so don't worry about signing for them all now," I assured them. "Take a look, let your people go over them, then reach out to anyone you need to talk to. No rush to sell them all right this minute. For now, let's just take a look at the starfighters.
We continued to climb the boarding ramp into the ship, walking down the interior. We passed several of the crew, all of them respectfully nodding as we passed.
"Now, on this carrier, we have a mix of heavier starfighters, including some headhunters…"
- Pronouns
- She/It/They
Did I miss something or did we never get a followup for the whole thing with Gadic and Nevue?
- Location
- USA
In what way? Like are you not sure if they were caught, are you looking for an official response from the Rebellion, or are you curious what happened to them?