Chapter 2 Plans for the Future
Rendezvous Point, Location Unknown, Outer Rim
Randal pushed the hyperdrive lever forward and brought the Destrier out of hyperspace. There was nothing around them except for open space, the nearest star being a parsec away. It was a dreary and oppressively lonely spot to be in, and reminded Randal of the dangers of hyperspace travel without a back up hyperdrive. If a ship were to get stranded this far away from a hospitable system, they were as good as dead. No long range communications worked this far out because the nearest communications hub was too far away. Some spacers called these open desolate areas of space No Man's Lands. The name fit.
Visual light was nearly non-existent this far out, so Randal engaged the running lights, if merely for his own comfort. Rika turned the short range scanners on and they located Orena's ship, the old Republic Consular-Class C70 Charger retrofit that they had seen in the hangar bay. Their sensors must have picked up the Destrier, because they turned their running lights on as well. Randal guided the Destrier to a position alongside and lined up the port side docking ring.
At this point, the two ship's computers started to communicate, and when they were properly aligned, the C70 extended its docking tube, a flimsy corridor made out of plastoid and durasteel. The tube connected with the outer hull of the Destrier, and began to pressurize. Randal shut the engines down and got out of his seat.
"I guess you'll have to stay here, unless you want to go through the tube?" Randal commented jokingly to Geefive. The droid turned back to his interface and gave an off handed remark that he would rather scrub down latrines for the rest of his serviceable life than get into something as frail and dangerous as a docking tube. Randal patted Geefive on the dome and led the way to the airlock door, Rika close behind and still anxious.
Randal made sure that the docking tube's pressure was now equalized, and then undid the manual control to open the airlock. The airlock disengaged with a hydraulic hiss, and as it split down the middle as it opened, the air from the tube wafted in, smelling of stale hydraulic grease. Randal looked into the tube and then stepped back and made an overly done gesture with his hand to allow Rika to go first. Rika let out a sigh and then grabbed the two handles before she thrusted herself into the tube.
"Always the gentleman," she said mockingly before she entered the docking tube. Randal shrugged and then followed her through. The plastoid tube didn't have an artificial gravity field like the interiors of most starships, so as they passed through they were weightless. Add this to the fact that the plastoid was clear, and it took a focused mind to not get a severe case of vertigo as they looked at a vast open emptiness all around them.
Rika pushed herself along and reached the open door into the waiting ship and stumbled as she entered the gravity field. Orena was there to help her out of the tube and then turned to assist Randal, though he seemed to be more accustomed to transferring out of zero-g and simply stepped out and onto the deck.
"Welcome aboard the Lion's Head. Well, at least now we can talk at our own pace. Please, follow me," Orena said as she started to lead the way through the ship. Randal and Rika fell into step behind her, and as they walked, Orena gave a brief tour.
The corridors were rather thin, but the C70 was never designed to be an overly comfortable class of ship. Randal was sure that Rika had been in one of these before, but he hadn't been in one that had undergone the wartime refit. As they walked, he noticed that several of the more comfortable lounge rooms for the crew were replaced with durasteel tables and stools that were bolted to the deck. What used to be a lounge that had accommodated a crew of about five was redesigned to be a galley and house several squads worth of troops. Undoubtedly the rather plush, at least for a military transport, cabins were replaced with something more utilitarian. He also noticed that the outlying secondary cargo bays were now filled with gunnery equipment.
Orena led them to a turn in the corridor which led to an open door that led to a strategic meeting room in what was once called the salon pod. Inside, there was a large circular war holotable with chairs situated around it. Orena offered two of the seats to her guests and then sat down in another. Rika sat closest to Orena, and Randal chose the one on Rika's opposite side. Orena looked up when she heard the servo motors of a protocol droid and motioned for the military-esque painted droid to come over.
"Arby? Can you fetch us some refreshments?" she asked. The droid stopped in his tracks and saluted with his right hand before he turned back around and headed towards the galley.
"Yes sir!" Arby said. "Humph, perfectly good use for a military service droid; doing menial tasks befitting of a standard protocol droid..." whatever else he said was lost when the door closed behind him. Orena laughed lightly and turned back to her guests.
"Don't mind Arby. He was basically programmed to be a military staff officer. Something that he constantly reminds me of. So Rika, tell me how you survived the end of the war."
Rika then spent the better part of the next hour recounting how she had escaped Guannk with her life, wound up on Nar Shaddaa, then partnered up with Randal and escaped from the Empire to the Tingel Arm. She then told her about what had happened on Dienzo III, and the unfortunate ending of the village that they had helped.
Orena nodded solemnly and then shook her head as she looked at the table.
"Unfortunately, that's the way things are now under the Emperor's oppressive regime. It's strange, but I never would have thought that Palpatine would be capable of such atrocious actions." Rika cocked her eyebrows at Orena's statement, and then realized that she simply didn't know the truth about the Emperor. Rika and Randal had learned of his true nature from Senator Organa back when they first partnered up when she made a fool hardy attempt at learning what had really happened at the Jedi Temple. Her original question wasn't answered fully, but she did learn that the entire galaxy had simply been pawns in the Emperor's game.
"Perhaps not the man we thought he was, but unfortunately the truth is only more depressing." Orena shook her head lightly to show that she didn't follow. Rika took in a deep breath and told her what she knew. "You remember how the Council was searching for the Sith Master Darth Sidious, right? Well, when we were on Coruscant after the end of the war, we found out from Senator Organa that Palpatine was Sidious, and that the entire war was his own ploy to get rid of the Jedi." Orena leaned back in her chair and took a moment to let it all sink in.
"That's... disturbing, to say the least," was all Orena could say. "Well, that only adds more support to the fact that the Empire needs to be stopped."
"Yeah, but how?" Randal said as he took a sip from his glass of water that Arby had brought while Rika was telling Orena her tale.
"Well, I'm glad you asked. Obviously everything you see here; Arby, this ship, even its crew, play a much larger role than just being a cargo ship. You see, after I managed to escape Order 66, I took this ship and planned on making a run for it the same that you did. However, I happened on a small reserve of military materiel and I had a vision. You said that the masters always told us that nothing happened by accident, well, I felt that the Force led me to this reserve. I made the decision then and there to use all that I had to take the fight to the Empire." Orena paused for a moment to let what she said sink in. "Now, I know that the two of you might have different plans, but I'd appreciate it if the two of you considered joining me."
Rika blinked several times and sat back in her seat. She herself felt that it was a noble enough cause. After all, the Empire had all ready decimated over a dozen different worlds all in the name of what it considered peace. If there ever was going to be a true peace in the galaxy, it certainly wasn't going to come with the Empire in existence. But while she was willing, Randal would be the one to resist. It had taken a near fight to get him to agree to help the beleaguered miners on Dienzo III. He always told her that it was best to just sit out and watch from the fringes of civilization. How was she now going to convince him that fighting the Empire was what they should do?
"Sure, I'm in," Randal said matter-of-factly. This sudden change in heart caught Rika by surprise and she merely looked at him in shock.
"And what about you, Rika? I could use a fellow Jedi in this," Orena said. Rika stared at Randal for another moment and then turned back to Orena and shook off her confusion and nodded her head.
"Of course. The Empire needs to be stopped, and the oppression of the Sith has to be ended." Orena smiled widely and then shook both of their hands before she toasted their good health and success.
After another hour where the two Jedi caught up with each other, they parted ways at the docking collar and Randal and Rika went back to the cockpit of the Destrier to follow the Lion's Head back to Orena's base of operations.
Once both ships had entered hyperspace, Rika leaned back in her seat and looked over at Randal with a questioning expression.
"You know, you surprised me back there. I was sure you were going to refuse her offer and I was going to have to try and twist your arm to change your mind." Randal smirked back and shrugged his shoulders as he reclined back in the pilot's chair.
"Well, if we had met up with her a week ago and she asked us to join her, you'd be right. But after Dienzo III, I realized that I can't think like that anymore. If no one ever stands up and tries to fight this Empire, then they're just going to continue to keep doing what they did. And if they think that Randal Sarn is just going to let them get away with killing innocent people like that, then they don't know me very well." Rika nodded and then looked back at the crystalline tunnel of hyperspace.
"You know that however large of an operation Orena may have, we're more than likely not going to be able to take on the Empire directly." Randal nodded, but then shrugged his shoulders as he put his hands behind his head.
"I know that. You'd have to be pretty stupid to think it'd be easy to take down a powerful figure like ol' Palps. But doing something, regardless of how little it would be, is better than just running back to the Tingel Arm and doing nothing."
"You're right about that." Rika then cocked one of her eyebrows and looked back at Randal while trying to suppress a smile. "And I thought it was Captain Randal Sarn?"
Jomoire. Outer Rim.
The Destrier exited hyperspace alongside the Lion's Head, and the first thing that Randal thought was that they had jumped somehow back in time. But once the ship fully reverted back into real space, he saw that the fourth planet orbiting Jomoire Prime was surrounded by the wreckage of two battle groups, both Republic and Separatist. All of the ships were merely pieces of those that weren't able to leave under their own power at the end of the battle that was fought here.
As Randal piloted the Destrier through the wreckage as he followed the Lion's Head, he could tell that the battle had been fought early in the war, judging by the type of wreckage he could see. Many of the Republic ships were either Acclamators or the old Dreadnaughts from the days before the war even broke out. As they passed some of the ships, Rika pointed out several salvage crews rummaging through the wreckage, looking for anything that might still be useable.
Once they passed the wreckage, the planet of Jomoire rapidly approached. The entire planet was gray in color, the entire sky covered with thick unyielding clouds. The Lion's Head entered the atmosphere and Randal followed. Rentry was about as rough as it usually was, but once they entered the clouds, Randal had to use his scopes to follow the engine signature of the Lion's Head. As they passed through the thick gray blanket, random flashes of lightning lit up the haze around them. Eventually they passed through the thick high cloud cover, wisps of the thick blanket still sticking to the hulls of the ships and trailed along with them until they lost their grip and eventually drifted back up.
Randal could now fly by sight and briefly looked down at the ground below. The ground looked relatively flat and covered with random patches of water and long winding rivers. Plant life was abundant, with long lanky trees with roots stretching far around their trunks and branches that reached far out, but oddly not up. They must have adapted to gather as much of the light as they could that was able to filter through the large gauze like cloud layer above.
After a short time, they started to pass over an area that wasn't covered in water and must have been one of the only areas that weren't all marsh-like. Old rusting relics of buildings and facilities littered the area, and occasionally they passed a structure that was obviously newer judging by the small amount of rust present on their surfaces. Rika could see the parts of hulls of old Separatist ships and looked up to see that they were heading for the largest intact remnant that she had seen so far.
As they drew nearer, both Randal and Rika could see that the weather beaten Lucrehulk core-ship was the only one that still had lights. The Lion's Head banked to starboard and headed towards the open landing bay on the equator of the large spherical ship. Randal followed suit and powered down the throttle and lowered the gear, and settled in the landing bay alongside the larger Lion's Head.
While Randal shut down the engines, Rika stood from her seat and leaned forward in the cockpit to look around.
"Wow. It looks like her operation is a lot bigger than I thought it was."
"Yea. Let's take a look," Randal said as he powered down the ship's primary components and then exited the cockpit. As the entry ramp lowered, the smells and sounds of the hangar bay flooded in.
The hangar smelled of grease and welding flux; a smell that was common throughout the galaxy in any heavily worked in and often repaired station. The sounds of workers welding and grinding filled the entire hangar, and the echoing sounds of a voice saying something barely discernable coming from a loudspeaker reverberated off of every surface. It all reminded Randal of being in the Judicial Corps, and he bet himself that it must have reminded Rika of being back in a Republic cruiser during the Clone Wars.
When the two followed by Geefive exited the Destrier and stood in the hangar looking around, Orena walked over from her ship and smiled widely as she gestured to everything around her.
"Welcome aboard the Herald. She may not look like much, but we're working on getting her space-worthy again."
"It's wonderful. I wasn't expecting anything like this," Rika said as she looked around. Randal nodded and hooked his thumbs onto the buckle of his gunbelt before he spoke.
"You're operation's a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be," he said. Orena shook her head with a light laugh and motioned for the trio to follow her.
"Don't let the size of the ship fool you, we are a very small operation. The last head count we had was around 250. Volunteers continue to keep coming in, so our numbers keep growing. But all in all, we're still rather small." Orena started to lead them through the hangar bay towards the central bulkhead and the open turbolift doors.
"So volunteers aren't hard to come by then?" Randal asked as they entered the turbolift.
"At first it was hard to find anyone willing to fight a government as large and strong as the Empire. But after they showed their true colors on planets like Gibad and Naboo, volunteers just started to pour in. The entirety of our fighter division were members of the Naboo Royal Spacefighter Corps who defected after the assassination of Queen Apailana."
"Assassination? I thought I heard she was killed by terrorists?" Rika asked.
"That's what the Empire's propaganda would have you believe. But the truth is they killed her for harboring fugitive Jedi." Orena stopped the turbolift and got out on an observation level. As Randal and Rika followed her, they could see out of the transparasteel windows to all of the large open areas below, like the docking bay that they had just left.
"This is the observational deck. From here, you can see everything that we have so it makes a good spot to give a tour of our operation. Below's the hangar bay we just left. This ship has two other main bays, attached by the large blast doors on either side. In the far one over there," she pointed to their right, "we mainly just keep storage containers filled with parts and other equipment. But in the other, we keep our fighters," Orena then led the way to the window where they could look down into the fighter holding bay. Randal looked down and saw the familiar profiles of one of the most common fighters in the galaxy.
"Z-95's. Not bad." He quickly did a count of what he could see and came up with twenty three. He raised his brow and gave a complimentary whistle before he turned back to Orena.
"How'd you get so many of them?" Orena shrugged and answered as she looked out the window at the pilots and crews going over the fighters.
"They were on this ship when I "rescued" it from a band of pirates. There was also a large number of droids aboard; mainly service models, but a few military grade ones too. We have tech crews working with those to see if we can configure them to run without having a control ship present. You see, the Herald was abandoned here early in the war, so many of the technological advances that were made later are absent here."
"So was the Herald a derelict when you found it?" Rika asked.
"No," Orena said as she shook her head. "She had apparently crash landed here during the battle that left all that debris in space. When I came here, the pirate band was all ready well on their way repairing this core ship back to its former state. Since that time, I've had crews of both droids and organic technicians working around the clock to fully repair the ship. Most of the parts we needed were salvaged from the other wrecks around here, and we were even able to secure a hyperdrive from the wreckage of an Acclamator. Now, she'll never be as fast as one of those, but she'll still be a formidable ship once she's ready to go. Now if you'll follow me, I can show you our communications center." Rika nodded, and they followed Orena back to the turbolift.
When they exited after a brief ride up, they walked down the corridor and entered a set of double doors. Randal remembered the layout of the Lucrehulk class from two years ago, when Rika and himself were trying to find a way of escaping from a pursuing Imperial ship. The double doors here opened up to a large room next to the bridge that was filled with computer stations and several holographic glass panels showing various data streams that scrolled across their surfaces. Sitting at the central terminal with all four hands busily working at four separate tasks was a Xexto male. He briefly turned his head away from his monitor and nodded before he went back to his work.
"This is Trl Wann, our expert slicer. Trl... Trl!" Orena yelled loudly. Trl turned his head and with one of his hands removed the pair of headphones he was wearing and cocked one of his large eyes at her.
"What?"
"This is Randal Sarn and Rika Tymor. They've joined our operation."
"Hi, hi, hi. Pleased to meet you, lots of work to do," Trl said rather quickly and went back to rapidly working the four different sets of controls. Orena shrugged and then started to head towards the doors that led to the bridge.
"I keep telling him to lay off the caf, but he still drinks several pots a day. We were lucky that this ship's communications arrays were still complete. From that room, Trl can monitor any transmissions made within a hundred parsecs. He's also able to slice into any Imperial communications array too, but we try and not do that too often. We don't want to draw any attention to us before the ship's mobile."
Orena continued to walk through the bridge and then entered a room on the opposite side of the bridge from the communications room. The dimensions of the room were identical, but instead of all the communications equipment, there was just a round table with chairs. When she entered, two human males and a Wookie stood from their chairs and welcomed the newcomers.
"I called a meeting of the division commanders before we landed so you could meet them in one place. Everyone, this is Rika Tymor, a fellow Jedi that has agreed to join our operation."
"Another Jedi? Always glad to have another Force user on our side," the male on the far left said.
"And this is her partner, Captain Randal Sarn," Orena said as she motioned to Randal. Randal nodded to the group, and the man sitting beside the first crossed his arms and raised a brow as he looked Randal over.
"Captain? You give that rank to yourself 'cause you fly a freight-can across the galaxy?" Randal smirked and shrugged his shoulders.
"I got that rank a long time ago."
"Did you now?" Orena lightly coughed into her hand to diffuse the staring match that the two were having and motioned for everyone to sit down before she went around the room introducing everyone else.
"This is Commander Allin Oannes, formerly from the Alderaanian Guard and now the leader of our ground forces," Orena said as she introduced the man on the far left.
"This is Commander Marcus Fah from the Naboo Royal Spacefighter Corps. Obviously he's in charge of the fighter squadron," Orena said as she introduced the man to Allin's left. Rika nodded and Randal gave him a smirk, but Marcus only looked away disgustedly at Randal.
"And this is Tholkurtii, or Thol as I call him. He's the head engineer aboard the Herald and he's been with me since the end of the war. He's in charge of the reconstruction of this station and the maintenance crews who work on the fighters." The Wookie nodded his hairy head and leaned back in his chair. "Well, that's everyone. Do either of you have any questions?" Orena asked with a smile.
"Well, I was wondering one thing," Rika said. Orena nodded for her to continue. "I know that we're all here to fight the Empire, but I'm just curious as to how we're going to do it."
"That's easy," Marcus said. "Anywhere the Empire decides to poke its nose where it doesn't belong, we're going to make them regret it."
"Yeah, but how?" Randal asked.
"By taking the fight to them," Marcus said in a manner as if he were talking to a child. Randal shook his head and let out a laugh before he continued to argue.
"Look, this is a pretty big operation you've got here. Hell, I've seen planetary defense forces with less equipment than what I've seen so far here, but you can't tell me you honestly expect to go head to head with the Empire and think you're going to survive longer than thirty seconds, do you?"
"Maybe it's hard for some scruffy haired smuggler to comprehend, but this isn't just some band of illiterate unruly pirates. This is a disciplined, well organized military style of organization, and I'll be damned if I have to sit here and be ridiculed by someone who thinks they deserve the title of Captain because they fly some hunk of durasteel from one rock to another!" Randal was about to come back with another quip, but Orena held her hands up and spoke loudly and with an authority that one wouldn't expect from a female of her size.
"Gentlemen! Let's all take a deep breath and settle down." Orena let a moment of silence pass and took notice of both Randal and Marcus's body language. Randal crossed his arms and looked irritated, but Rika gave him a sideways glance and he lightly shrugged his shoulders and seemed to calm down. Marcus was still furious, but his years of military indoctrinated discipline kept him in line.
"Now, let me answer your question, Rika," Orena said more calmly than her tone before. She opened her hands widely and with her palms up as she explained. "When I first had the idea to start this operation, I had originally wanted to fight the Empire everywhere and anywhere possible. But, of course, common sense told me that if the Separatists couldn't defeat the Republic with all that they had at their disposal, there wouldn't be any way I could stop the Empire, at least not in any traditional manner. But there was one way I saw that I knew could help lead to their end.
"You see, about six months after the end of the war, Thol and I had all ready found the Herald and were starting to rebuild it. I then had a chance meeting with the senator of Chandrila, Mon Mothma, whom I had originally met several months before the end of the war. We both agreed that the Empire needs to be stopped, and that it would take a great effort by many to do so. She said that there were several senators who shared our beliefs, but they were all reluctant to proclaim an outright revolution against Palpatine just yet. She said that they were biding their time, slowly building up their reserves to when the time would be right. Of course she's a politician, so her time table could be many years. And while that's fine for politicians who would fight such a war from behind closed doors, I knew that it would be the people of this galaxy that would be doing the fighting. Years, possibly decades, would simply be too long for them to hold on to any hope of freedom to return. And that's where the goal of this operation comes into play.
"We don't have to engage Imperial forces directly in combat the way the Republic and the Separatists fought, but we still have to let the people know that there are those who are willing to stand up against the Empire and fight. By doing that, I know that we can keep some hope alive in this galaxy."
"So does that mean raids on Imperial outposts? Maybe hit a shipment or two?" Randal asked. Orena lightly shook her head and shrugged her shoulders.
"Somewhat. At first, I thought doing hit and runs against targets such as those would be enough, and at first they were. But after the fifth attack run against Imperial cargo barges, they started to have armed escorts. It started to become apparent that the more attacks we did, the more dangerous they would become. Add to that the fact that the cargo we would confiscate didn't really provide much of a profit, and we had to start looking for something else."
"Profit?" Randal said as he perked up and sat up in his chair. "Sounds like you had some piracy going on."
"Well, yes, if you want to call it that. As much as I didn't want to have to think about credits, they are needed for something like this. Everyone here is working basically for free, but it still takes a steady flow of credits to keep everything running. Everything from supplies for the personnel, armament for both the soldiers and the ships, parts for the fighters, even food to keep everyone up and running costs credits. What credit income we were able to get from selling what supplies we took from our raids kept us going, but with more volunteers coming in, and the more resistance we meet, the less the raids become feasible. That's why we recently made the decision to branch out to other forms of hostility against the Empire, and another reason why I've gathered everyone here today."
"Did you make contact?" Allin asked. Orena nodded, but when she saw the confused look on Rika's face, she smiled and explained.
"The decision was made to hire ourselves out to any who could use our services as long as it was against the Empire. I was on Ascension Station to meet a contact."
"So it's mercenary work then? Sounds good to me, so long as it's against the Empire," Randal said as he nodded.
"That's the first thing you've said that I agree with," Marcus said from across the table. Randal smirked but let the jibe go unanswered.
"I made contact with an operative for a potential client. He wants to meet in neutral territory to discuss the job he wants us to do."
"Can he be trusted?" Throl asked in his native Shyriiwook. Orena translated what he had said to those at the table who didn't speak the language, and then answered his question.
"I highly doubt a Count of Serenno would be in league with the Empire."
"Count of Serenno? I thought he was killed?" Randal commented.
"Count Dooku was killed, but he was only one of them. Each of the six great houses are led by a count," Rika explained. Randal raised both of his brows and was impressed with Rika's amount of randomly useless knowledge.
"Yes, our contact is Count Nalju. He wants to meet me at a preselected rendezvous point and discuss our business there. I was planning on taking the Lion's Head there, but now that the two of you are with us, I was hoping you could take me in the Destrier. I think it would be less alarming if we arrived in a freighter and not a frigate." Randal shrugged and nodded his head.
"Sounds good to me. When do we leave?"
"Whenever you're ready," Orena said with a smile. Randal nodded and then everyone at the table got up to leave. As the meeting broke up, Marcus Fah came up to Randal and spoke curtly.
"You had better bring Orena back in one piece. She's the only thing keeping this operation together, and if we lose her, it's all gone. And I'd put the blame entirely on you."
"Of course, I wouldn't want it any other way," Randal said as he stared Marcus back in the eye, all the while smirking widely. Rika touched Randal on the arm and pulled him away.
"What's gotten into you? The two of you're acting like a couple of children."
"Well he started it," Randal said jokingly. Rika lightly shook her head, but couldn't keep from smiling. "Where's Orena at?"
"Right here. Let's go, shall we?" Randal nodded, and then led the way back to the turbolift that would take them back down to the hangar bay.
When they reached the bay, Randal told Geefive to bring the Destrier online. Once they were all onboard, with Randal and Rika in their usual spots, Geefive jacked into the ship's computer, and Orena standing in the middle of the cockpit, the Destrier lifted off and headed out from the cloud covered planet and off to the rendezvous.