Jez was carried along with the mob as they rushed out of the Viewing Center.
"Tip!" Jez called. The little Chadra-Fan would be easily trampled in this mess of tall Duros. Jez and Tip had been a team for years, and Jez wouldn't just abandon his friend.
"Here!" Jez heard Tip call back. The rodent-like alien was a few paces behind him, barely managing to stay on his feet.
Jez gritted his teeth, planted himself firmly, and went against the tide.
He got shoved, pushed, cursed at, and punched in the eye, but finally Tip reached him. Jez just grabbed the small alien, swooped him around his shoulders. Tip wrapped his furry arms around Jez's neck and his short legs around his torso, holding on for dear life.
"Hang on," he said. Now that Jez was going with the tide, he received much less abuse. Then they were out on the Promenade, but the rioters didn't stop there.
"Where are we going?" Tip gasped into Jez's ear. "Beats me," he replied.
Sirens began going off in the Promenade, and security personnel rushed out of doorways, trying to calm the angry crowd.
"Hang on, I'm going to try to get into one of these shops," Jez growled.
Making his way across the mob was almost harder than going against it, but luckily they were only a few meters from the wall. Jez crashed into it, and made his way along the wall till he came to a clothing shop.
He fell through the doors and Tip rolled off him. The Chadra-Fan offered the little help he could give to get Jez back on his feet.
"What's going on out there?" asked a shaky voice from behind the counter.
Two female humans were cowering behind the cashier counter, looking at Jez fearfully. The sirens continued whooping, and Jez heard the distinctive whomp-shhh of tear gas canisters being fired into the crowd.
"My gods," Jez said. He turned back to the women. "The three Star Destroyers in orbit around Duro just left."
"Why are people stampeding?" One of them asked, standing up now.
"The leaving of the destroyers practically invites attack. Everyone knows: If you want the Core, you need Duro."
That puzzled her. "Why?"
"Well, it's one of the farthest Core Worlds, making it easier to attack from one of the Colonies. It's also a good staging area to launch strikes at other systems."
"Oh. But, uhm, when I asked 'why' I mean, why did the destroyers leave?"
"Oh! Well, I'm not sure, exactly. But to the Duro people—and to me—it looks like the Republic's leaving Duro."
She bit her lower lip. Then she looked down at her companion, who was still crouched behind the counter. "Go to the back, gather our things. We may need to leave in a hurry."
The younger woman, probably her daughter, nodded and went to do her task.
"Do you have a ship?" Jez asked. Getting out of Jyvus seemed like a good idea at the moment. Jez and Tip had come in on a public transport from Coruscant, and they had no ship. Perhaps they could hitch a ride with this lady and her daughter down to the surface, and much safer alternative than staying here on Riot Central.
"No," she answered with a frown, "Public transport is still up, right?"
Though Jez's hopes were dashed, he shrugged. "Far as I know. But I wouldn't try making my way through all of that right now." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder to emphasize his point,.
He glanced over his shoulder. The air was smoky, and people were still screaming and running about.
"When things have died down, Tip and I will escort you to the hangar, maybe catch a ride ourselves."
She looked at the Chadra-Fan. "You're Tip." He nodded.
She looked at Jez expectantly.
"Oh, excuse me. I'm Jez Debalto, HoloNet News Service."
She studied his face. "Yes, I've seen you on the holo."
"Wonderful. And you are?"
"Misty. In the back is my daughter, Hazel."
"Well, Misty, looks like we're stuck her for the foreseeable future." A thought crossed his mind. "Do you have a holo-camera, by any chance?"
She frowned. "Yes, a small one. We take pictures of inventory to put on our HoloNet site if people want to order it. Why?"
Jez grinned and glanced at Tip. Tip smiled back up at him, seeing the question in Jez's eyes, and nodded.
Jez clapped and rubbed his hands together. "You're about to be on the holo, love," he said with a big grin.
"Hello, this is Jez Debalto, HoloNet News. I need to be patched through to HNN headquarters on Coruscant, please."
Jez was leaning on the counter, speaking into a comlink to Jyvus City's comm-center.
"You'll have to wait, sir," came the weary voice of the Duro on the other end. Jez could only imagine the amount of people asking to be patched through to different worlds. "We have about a million messages going through the transceiver at the moment."
"Yes, but I am a reporter for HNN. People need to see what's going on here! The Republic deserves to know of Duro's fate!" Jez made his voice sound panicky. Appeal to the Duro's patriotism, and he may just get through. "You're planet's been abandoned, man! The person who ordered this needs to pay. And in order to do that, we have to make what's going on here a public spectacle. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
There was silence on the other end. "In ten minutes, I can patch you through. That's the best I can do."
"Thank you for your time. I'll await your message."
Jez put the com down.
Tip snorted. "You should have been a politician."
Jez grinned at him. "No sir. You can't really speak what you feel when you're a politician. When you're a reporter, you get to act like a polly, but talk like a space pirate."
Misty and Hazel were busy packing their personal belongings. Tip was sitting on the counter, tinkering with their small holocam. "How's that going, Tip?" Jez leaned over the counter, folding his arms under his chest, watching Tip's work with a suspicious eye. But then, Jez knew next to nothing about holocams.
"Well, the people will be able to see us," Tip said. "How clear the holo will be on their end, I'm not sure."
"I don't really care if they can see us, though that'd help. I really want them to hear us, hear about what's going on. I can only imagine the uproar going on in the Chancellor's Office right now."
"They'll be able to hear us, that's for sure," Tip said, turning the cam over in his hands, touching a small hydrospanner to a compartment. "Don't you think there are any other HNN reporters out here? Ones with working cameras, and are probably already broadcasting?"
Jez frowned. "We were the only ones scheduled to be out here. Everyone's either focused on the victory at Nadiem or the disaster at Dreighton, so most of our reporters are at one of those two sites. Duro isn't really news-worthy as of late. At least, not until the terrorist attacks. But inter-system travel to Duro was shut down after the attacks. So unless they came on personal ships, I don't see how they'd get here."
Tip shrugged. "They'd be stuck in the same situation we're in anyway." Because of the state of emergency and chaos, all power and resources were being diverted to the main transceivers in Jyvus. So now, all planetary messages going off-world had to be relayed through Jyvus.
Jez spent the reminder of the ten minutes watching Tip mess with the cam, drumming his fingers on the counter-top, and watching with remorse the chaos going on outside the shop. Ops must have put a lockdown on the Promenade, because when Jez tried the door to let someone in, it would not budge.
His comlink chimed, then. "Thanks, man," he said to the Duro on the other end.
He was patched through to HNN HQ then.
Silence, then static. Then, Marci's voice: "Jez! By the stars, what happened over there?"
"Someone stepped on my camera, Marc. But we've got a replacement. Can you put us on the main feed?"
"I'll see what I can do. Standby."
Jez waited. "Done," Tip said.
Marci came back on. "All right, Jez! Give me your cam's freq, and you'll be live."
Jez handed the com to Tip, who gave Marci the frequency.
Jez stepped out in front of the camera. Marci counted down, and then Jez was live.
"Hello, people of the Republic, Jez Debalto here reporting live from Jyvus City, Duro space." He paused a moment for people to let his sudden reappearance sink in, to call allow people to call family members into the holo area, that the great reporter Jez Debalto was alive and reporting again!
"When I last left you, three Star Destroyers had left the Duro system, and utter chaos had ensued." Tip panned to the smoky chaos outside the shop.
"My cameraman and I managed to make it to safety inside a clothing shop on the Promenade. No official word from the Duros government has been issued as of yet concerning the disappearance of the warships, but even if one had been given, I don't think the outrage of the Durese could be doused."
"Jez," said Thom in his earpiece. "How is the rioting mob being treated?" Thom and his co-anchor had been reporting before Jez interrupted, but they took his reappearance in stride.
"Tear gas has been shot into the crowd and things seem to be calming down, somewhat. Ops center has issued a lockdown on the Promenade, though, we are unable to leave our temporary sanctuary."
"How're you doing, Jez? Are you all right over there?"
How am I doing? Jez thought to himself. How am I doing? He was slightly shaken at being almost trampled by the mob, but the warships' departure hadn't really phased him. True, this wasn't his home, so he wasn't expected to be as outraged as the Durese, but he was extremely curious as to why the cruisers left.
Jez shook his head and gave an honest answer. "I'm shaken, Thom, still functioning, still moving on, but I'm shaken."
"Ronet Coorr," Amedda's holoprojection told Dictio in the com room. Dictio sneered. "Coorr. I want him detained, Amedda!"
Mas Amedda smiled patronizingly at him. "You do not have the authority to do that, Dictio. But we're taking care of it."
"Well, what's the reason he's giving for pulling the ships?"
"Rodian Senator Onaconda Farr bribed Coorr with a ridiculous amount of contracts for building on Ando, where Coorr lived at one point and still owns a large portion of real-estate there. Farr bribed him to move the ships to Rodia in exchange for the contracts."
Dictio shook his head. "Unbelievable."
"Both senators are resigning, don't worry, Dictio. Since we can't communicate with them while they're in hyperspace, when the ships enter Rodian space we will order them back to Duro. Do you think you can salvage what's left of the talks with this information?"
Diction pursed his lips and readjusted the ice pack on his knuckles. "Perhaps, but it's not likely. I'll need you to send all of your evidence to my datapad. We'll do what we can. Can you charge the senators with anything?"
"Perhaps Coorr can be charged with acceptance of bribery, but we'll need to take this ordeal to the Senate."
Dictio sneered, but a feeling of relief coursed within him. "Wait till I get there before we hang him."
Amedda chuckled deeply. "I wish. I'll send the data to your 'pad. Amedda out."
Dictio turned to his entourage and sighed. "Let's get back in there and sort out this mess. Kerton, I want you to skim through what we've got, see if there's anything we can put out there that will calm them and the public down immediately. Signla, let's see what we can do about getting more ships out here..."
Noona led the three V-19 Torrent fighters on a sweep around the defensive perimeter. From here, Duro was about as big as her thumb.
That's when Yoda and Master Windu called. At first, she just about choked—for it wasn't everyday a Padawan received a call from the Jedi Grand Master and the best sword fighter of the Order—but she quickly regained her composure.
"Masters Yoda, Windu," she said as their images appeared before her on the small holopad in the cockpit.
"Padawan Qolid," Yoda said in warm surprise. "Contacted your Master's comm frequency, I thought we had."
Noona nodded. "Yes Master, you did. She asked me to take over her freq because she's in the moutain ranges on the planet below and wasn't sure your message would get through. Let me see if I can contact her on her secondary freq. Standby, please."
Noona tapped a few buttons and waited for Aylee to answer. Her Master did not.
She called up the images of the Masters again. "Sorry, Masters, she's not answering."
"That's all right, you can give her a message," Windu said.
Noona nodded and they told her about Ronet Coorr and Onaconda Farr and their shady dealings. She could only shake her head at the end of the story. "Humans will do most anything for money."
At first, she thought Windu would take offense, but he was technically a Korunnai, hailing from Haruun Kal.
Either way, he let the comment slide. Yoda chuckled. "Can and do indeed, young one," Yoda said. "Pass along the message to Mast—"
That was as far as he got before proximity alarms started going off inside the starfighter.
"Contact!" came her wingman's voice from the speakers. "Bearing mark one-one-three mark two-six! Confirmed hostile!"
Noona twisted her craft about on the bearing her wingman gave her. She clicked her shields on. "Masters, there appears to be enemy contacts exiting hyperspace," she said to images. She closed down the holopad to allow her to see out the cockpit viewport better, but left the audio on.
"They're projectiles!" her wingman cried. "Heading for the nearest Defense Platform."
"Padawan Qolid?" Came Windu's alarmed voice from the speakers, no doubt having heard the alarms and her wingman's report.
Noona turned the craft in a tight loop to get a visual on the Golan Platform. Three blue streaks veered off from a group of five to attack the Platform, the remaining two continuing on an unknown course.
"The Confederacy has launched some kind of hyperspace-capable projectiles, Master!" Noona cried as the first missile made contact the the Platform's shields. The brilliant flash of kinetic energy on the shields made her blink away spots. When she looked again, the second one collapsed whatever remained of the shields, and the last missile slammed home. A terrible explosion rippled the surface of the space station, spider-web cracks appearing along its hull.
"Blue Squadron, form up!" she ordered her fighters.
"Masters," she said to the concerned Jedi on the other line. "The Confederacy is here! Or they're coming, at least. Three missiles just took out a Golan station! We need help! Send help!" She cut the transmission because she couldn't have any distractions right now.
To her squadron, she said, "We're going after the last two!"
She punched the sublight engines to their extremes. "Blue Two, on me," she ordered. "They're heading for Jyvus!" she cried.
Though, the missiles wouldn't be enough to penetrate the shields, they would do much damage to them, and if a Confederate fleet was behind these missiles, they needed those shields. "Arseven," she said to her droid. "Get me an estimate on how soon the projectiles will reach Jyvus."
The droid whistled at her and gave her his best estimate. "Damn!" she swore.
"Contact the city, tell them to fire on the missiles, even if it's blind firing! Just do a sweep with turbolasers!" R7 tootled an affirmative.
With her own weapons, she got the targeting cross just above the nearest projectile as it cut a swath through Duro space and pulled the triggers.
Blue laser fire cut across the space between her fighter and the missile. Her wingman's red lasers joined hers, and then the whole squadron was firing. By the missiles were too far away, and the lasers did nothing.
"How far are they from Jyvus?" she asked no on in particular, her voice hollow.
"Seven klicks and closing, Commander," replied one of her pilots.
Jyvus opened up with their turbolaser defense, raking space before the missiles. One bolt caught a missile, and it exploded. Unfortunately, the missiles weren't close enough to each other that the explosion of one would take out the other, and the remaining one proceeded through the laser volley.
"No!" Noona cried as the hit the shields.
But nothing happened.
It was a dud.
She gasped in relief as whoops and laughs came through the comm.
Starfighters were launching from Jyvus and the surrounding Golan stations already. Noona sat back in her seat and awaited further instruction. Disbelief and horror fought for control over her emotional state.
A planet's worse fears had been realized.
The Confederacy was coming to Duro.
A/N: More battles to come in the next chapter, guys. Thanks for reading!