Prologue
A Separatist fleet hung above the atmosphere of the planet Reshan like bits of flotsam drifting in a pool. Droid fighters poured from the cruisers, accelerating at high speed through a hailstorm of enemy fire. They ducked and weaved through the blasts, many of them caught in fiery explosions. Republic v-wing fighters and arc-170 bombers swooped down to meet the incoming threat, firing spreads of missiles that connected with some of the droid fighters, which exploded in colorful fireballs of superheated gas and shrapnel.
Still in hyperspace, an arrowhead-shaped Venator-class star destroyer approached the battle. The Hunterwas painted in the typical Republic red and white colors, with only a small blue and green circle painted to the starboard side of the bridge towers indicating any unusual providence. An announcement rang out throughout the ship as it approached the exit point of their journey through hyperspace. In the hanger clone and recruited pilots alike began donning their flight gear and mounting up inside their fighter and bomber craft. Clone troopers began boarding their armed dropships at a run in an example of extraordinary efficiency.
On the bridge the crew began checking the readiness of the flight leaders and the gun crew chiefs, a flurry of frantic but ordered activity. The huge blast-resistant doors at the back of the hangar spread open and through them strode Captain Jaelin Teiken.
"Captain on the bridge!" the door sentry announced.
The first mate, currently overseeing the sensor station crew, turned and saluted. Teiken was unorthodox in appearance and manner compared to most captains in the Republic fleet. He was not from Coruscant or any of the other core worlds. He wore a blaster at his hip, even when on the bridge. And he hadn't graduated from the Republic fleet academies, or trained with the cloners on Kamino. He had earned his position in battle, rescuing the very Republic cruiser he now commanded from a Separatist boarding party when he had served in a planetary security fleet.
"At ease," Captain Teiken nodded towards his first mate, Commander Cronus. Cronus had more than a decade on the captain, his carefully styled hair having gone mostly white.
"We've almost arrived at Reshan," Cronus informed him. "We are going in hot."
"Looks like the admiral couldn't wait for us," Teiken said. "Drop us out of hyperspace a little closer to the battle, otherwise we may miss out. Report on the enemy fleet composition?"
"Half a dozen cruisers and another dozen large transports. Looks like they were spotted making their way down the Rimma trade route. They seem to be left-overs from the attack on Coruscant."
A lieutenant handed Captain Teiken a datapad and he scanned the intelligence report that was already brought up on it. Not being a very enthusiastic skimmer, he decided to check with his loyal first mate. Cronus had served with him for years, before Teiken had taken command of the Hunter. Unlike Teiken he had always devoured every report he came across.
"Know anything about the planet?" Teiken asked.
"It's a backwater," Cronus answered. "Unremarkable in every way. The Separatists apparently have a supply depot down there." Teiken found a picture of the planet on the datapad. It was an ugly bluish green world, with very little water. The tallest plants on the surface were waist high ferns, and there were no large mountains or canyons.
"Yeah, unremarkable..." Teiken agreed. He returned the datapad to the lieutenant and began walking past the various crew pits. Unlike most Republic cruisers the Hunter'screw was majority non-clone. He had brought them with him when he had taken his command in the Republic fleet after rescuing the Hunter from a Separatist boarding party, despite reservations from high command. The war had stretched the Republic's resources thinly, and as long as Teiken kept the Huntercombat effective, they were allowed to continue on. It was one less cruiser for the Republic to staff.
As he approached the front of the bridge and the giant viewport, he noticed the Hunter'sresident Jedi, Priva. Priva was a Sephi, a near-human species from the Thustra system. Their defining features were their pointed ears, and they also had a wider variety of skin tones than humans. Priva's was a light blue color. She was also a teenager, by far the youngest person aboard. She was also probably the strangest, at least in Teiken's opinion.
Teiken approached her casually, and without much noise. She noticed him all the same, although she seemed to be entranced by the swirl of hyperspace. "Captain..." she greeted.
"Commander," Teiken answered.
"Hmm...it's Padawan," she corrected. Teiken knew from the report he had received from the fleet that Priva's master had died in a battle with the Separatists. The Jedi were stretched thinly across the galaxy, and yet the Republic badly needed their strange abilities against the enemy, and so she had continued her service alone.
"While you are on the ship, it's Commander. You know you outrank most people aboard, right?" Teiken asked.
"Padawan," Priva responded stubbornly.
"Okay...Padawan," Teiken said, giving up.
"Since I outrank them, they will call me Padawan," Priva said, sticking up her chin.
Teiken shrugged and began to walk back towards his first mate. "Teenagers..."
Before he got halfway back he heard Priva call out from the viewport. "We should reinforce our bridge shields," she said. "In this area..." she waved her arm around vaguely to the right. The crewmen in that area glanced at her nervously.
Teiken already had enough experience with Jedi and their premonitions to take her seriously. He walked quickly to the navigation crew pit, intending to get the time until their arrival, when a warning klaxon sounded, along with a flash of yellow light. They were one minute from dropping out of hyperspace and entering the system.
Teiken turned sharply and yelled into the weapons and shield crew pit. "Bridge shields up, two hundred percent power!" The lieutenant at the shielding control panel followed his order without question. In the forward view port the barely perceptible blue glow of the shields became more opaque.
"Captain," said Commander Cronus. "At two hundred percent power the shield projector will only last a few minutes without blowing out. Any reason for the extreme caution?"
"Something the Jedi said," Teiken answered simply. The ensuing half minute seemed to stretch for an eternity. Despite her warning Priva didn't move from her spot in front of the forward viewport.
"Dropping out of hyperspace now," the navigation crew chief announced. As if on cue the swirling wormhole of hyperspace dissolved into starlines, and then points of light.
Almost immediately there was an enormous explosion as a massive chunk of debris smashed into the bridge. The floor shook and the lights flickered but Teiken maintained his balance. Cronus nearly fell into a nearby crew pit.
"Status of our shields?" Teiken asked.
After shaking a moment of shock from his face the crewman answered, "Fifteen percent sir!"
"Without the reinforced shields that would have punched through," Cronus commented, straightening his disheveled uniform. "What was it?"
The sensor station officer supplied the answer. "Sir, we got hit by a piece of a separatist cruiser, a blown out engine pod," she revealed. Without Priva's warning they undoubtedly would have died.
Without much more hesitation the bridge crew resumed their duties. The Hunteraccelerated to full sublight speed before opening the hangar doors. In front of the bridge viewport squadrons of fighters and bombers sped up and out of the Venator-class cruiser's hangar that ran the length of the ship's centerline. The battle ahead of them was already winding down, despite their closer than usual drop-in point.
Regardless, Captain Teiken received a warm welcome from the fleet Admiral, who had just commanded the dropships to enter the atmosphere in order to take control of the Separatist supply depot on the surface. The Hunter's numerous dropships sped outwards, joining up with the rest of the Republic force.
"Encrypted communication for Commander Trepp," the communication chief announced.
"Patch it through to him," Commander Cronus nodded. Trepp, the Commander in charge of the Hunter'sbrigade of clone troopers, was currently aboard one of the drop ships that were entering Rehan's atmosphere. However, a small contingent of clone troopers remained aboard, just in case of an emergency.
Captain Teiken checked the main holoprojector and opened up the latest intelligence reports. Battles were currently raging across the galaxy, mostly in the outer rim. After their devastating defeat at Coruscant the Confederacy seemed to be on the defensive. The Republic was making gains in almost every contested sector. Finally Teiken read the latest alert.
"Cronus!" Teiken called. His first mate approached the holoprojector. "It's General Grievous. He's been killed."
"Is that confirmed?" Cronus asked before reading the message and confirming it for himself.
"Perhaps the war is finally beginning to burn out," Teiken remarked, half to himself. He gazed absentmindedly towards the viewport. The galaxy seemed completely different, before the war compared to now. Remembering a largely peaceful and prosperous galaxy was like trying to remember a faded dream.
Teiken continued to monitor the progress of the battle for next hour or so. The remaining Separatist ships were attempting to flee the system but were having little success, harried as they were by the forward cruisers and squadrons of Republic fighters. The bridge's blast doors opened and out strode three clone troopers armed with heavy blaster rifles. They passed by the Captain, who noticed their presence with only a slight hesitation. At first the oddness didn't register. After all, clone troopers were more than a common sight aboard a Republic cruiser. However they were incredibly well armed.
Before he thought to question their presence all three raised their blasters and aimed them at Priva, who appeared to have her eyes closed in meditation. Alarm bells immediately went off in Teiken's head. Without forethought his hand went to the blaster he usually wore as a mere flair of decoration.
Taken by surprise, his reflexes weren't fast enough. All three of the troopers opened fire at once, burying their shots into the Padawan's back. Teiken's blaster shot was late, but accurate, and he landed a blow into the back of one of the clone's helmets, blowing it apart and killing him instantly. The other two spun around, taken by surprise. It took them a moment to identify the Teiken as the threat, but once they did they got their rifles up with military precision.
Teiken fired off another pair of shots, wildly, while he dived behind the command console. Throughout the bridge, the officers were ducking for cover or stood petrified in shock. Commander Cronus, unarmed, had crouched against the wall. Even in a firefight his eyes were narrowed with his usual presence of mind and focus.
The security officer next to the lift had his blaster carbine up, aiming it at both Teiken and the clones, one after the other.
"What are you doing?!" he shouted at the clones, his trembling voice rife with confusion.
"She was an enemy of the Republic!" one of the clones answered. "All allies of the Jedi are enemies of the Republic!"
Teiken couldn't help but notice that the troopers voice seemed a bit...off. Robotic, almost.
"You are an officer of this ship!" Teiken shouted at the security officer. "I am the Captain of this ship, and the bridge is under assault! Remove the threat!"
The security officer sided with his captain, but, as soon as he moved his carbine back to the troopers, they opened fire, blowing him away in a hail of blaster fire.
Teiken responded as soon as he heard the troopers fire. He heard an alarm on the console, sounding the red alert. A warning klaxon sounded overhead and the lights switched from yellow to red. It distracted the troopers for only a fraction of a second, but that was all he needed.
Teiken popped up from behind the console and immediately opened fire. His first pair of shots struck the trooper on the right in his breast plate, right above his heart. The other trooper opened return fire while reflexively ducking for cover. But exposed on the catwalk at the front of the bridge, there was no cover. Teiken's next pair of shots struck the trooper in the forearm and the hip.
Teiken strode out from behind the now damaged command console and quickly closed the distance between him and the trooper, who was attempting to raise his heavy rifle with his one undamaged hand. Teiken stepped on the rifle and pointed his blaster at the trooper's face.
"Remove your helmet," Teiken commanded darkly. With only a short painful delay, the trooper lifted his hand and removed his helmet. The familiar face of a clone of Jango Fett was revealed, with a small decorative tattoo above the left eye. Teiken had been wrong, they weren't the commando droid infiltrators he had suspected they were.
With one finger he flicked his blaster to stun and buried a shot right into the clone troopers face.