The Dark Times
Chapter 11: Royal Entanglements
Naboo, one week later
The space surrounding the planet Naboo was tranquil and relatively peaceful, except for a number of Golan III defence platforms and the relatively few ships that were entering and exiting the atmosphere. In a high parking orbit the Tector-class star destroyer INS Retribution stood vigil over the planet and launched a single Lambda-class personnel shuttle from its small starboard hangar bay. In addition to its two person crew there were two passengers and one piece of 'property' along with their luggage.
Commodore Jack Hawks lounged in his seat as the shuttle made its entry, almost nodding off since he had gone through such atmospheric entries plenty of times before, it had now become routine for him. With him was Commander Mirialia Hess, and she was not anywhere near as laid back as Jack was, still sitting at rigid attention and concentrating on a set of manuals she had downloaded to her personal data-pad. The last member of their group, and publically known as Jack's property, was Kayla Macula, also known as Aayla Secura, sat in between the two officers and was leaning on Jack, softly caressing his right arm as her right foot played a little with Mirialia's leg, which had caused her to stiffen and try to ignore the attractive blue skinned twi'lek's teasing actions.
"Have you been to Naboo before, Commodore," the commander asked in a slightly higher pitched tone than usual, to both Jack's and Kayla's bemusement.
"Once a couple of decades ago, just a few months after the Trade Federation Occupation ended. My dad was doing some contract work for CEC on Naboo; they were upgrading their military forces. Me and my mom tagged along and spent most of the three months that we were there helping out wherever we could. My dad somehow arranged for me to meet the queen at that time, Padme Amidala, as a small treat." He chuckled a little. "Imagine me as a wide eyed teenager from Corellia actually meeting royalty."
"And now you're going to meet another and this time you're a military officer," said Mirialia as she relaxed a little and even started to enjoy the attention Kayla was giving to her leg, but it was soon cut short as the pilots announced that they had begun the landing cycle.
The shuttle travelled gracefully through the atmosphere and made its approach to Theed Spaceport. The spaceport was a typical Naboo structure, intricate stonework blending seamlessly with the natural environment. The shuttle touched down softly and the three passengers immediately felt the pleasant warmth of the local sun caress their faces as they felt a gentle breeze whisper past, cooling them as a human in Naboo servant's attire approached them.
"Welcome to Naboo, Commodore Hawks, I am Dell Garner, I have been assigned as your butler for the duration of your stay," he announced as he bowed respectfully to his charges. "If you would follow me please I will take you to your lodgings." He snapped his fingers and a number of servant droids began to take their recently offloaded luggage. The three new arrivals followed their butler to a speeder, a local model that spoke of the Naboo sense of style and environmentally sound technologies that they were renowned for. They sped off towards the centre of the capital Theed and took in its beauty. The palace itself seemed to dominate the city, yet still blended in with nature successfully.
They were led on a short tour of the palace by the butler, explaining the various pieces of artwork along the way to their suites, which ranged from beautiful statues to oil paintings, along with the spectacular architecture. Soon enough they were shown their suites, a pair of single bedroom apartments with a very luxurious feel to them, and both were connected via a removable wall which could effectively combine the two into one.
"If you like I could have the dividing wall removed," said Mister Garner.
"That will not be necessary," said Jack quickly to pre-empt the commander's angry outburst of such an invasion of her privacy.
"Very well sir! You should also note that these two suites share a bathroom, so I respectfully suggest that you knock every time before you use it," he said with a dignified poise. "I assume that your body servant will be staying in your suite, Commodore?" the butler asked politely.
"No, she'll be sleeping in the Commander's suite, but if anyone asks tell them that the twi'lek slave is sleeping in the same bed as me," said Jack with a pointed look at the butler, which brokered no argument.
"It will be as you say, sir. Your luggage has already been delivered to your rooms and the Festival of Lights begins at sundown, so you have plenty of time to get ready. Call me if you need anything."
"Thank you mister Garner," said Jack as the butler left, leaving behind Jack and his two companions who immediately began to help him unpack. As Jack was unpacking he groaned in annoyance. "I wish I didn't have to wear this damned dress uniform," he said as he fished out said dress uniform from his luggage and looked at it in undisguised loathing. "The damned thing is so tight and uncomfortable. Is there any way I can get away with just my duty uniform?" he asked his two female companions pleadingly.
"Sorry sir, but it is protocol for such functions to wear full dress uniforms. At least we female officers get to wear a dress," said Mirialia smiling, along with Kayla who hadn't seen him in his dress greys before.
"I look forward to seeing you in your dress uniform Jack," said Kayla. "I bet you would look rather dashing in it."
"And I look forward to seeing the two of you in dresses. What exactly did you buy back on Corellia?" Jack asked.
"It's a surprise," said Mirialia with a smile as both she and Kayla sauntered off towards their own suite. Both added a little extra sway to their hips.
"I swear those two are going to be the death of me," said Jack as soon as the door closed behind the two and out of earshot.
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Theed Royal Palace Courtyard
Just before sundown
Just before dusk began to settle in the west the guests began to pour out of the palace and into the courtyard, and Jack was waiting patiently outside his suite in his Dress Greys waiting for his two companions to come out. The first one out was Kayla who was dressed in a traditional twi'lek ceremonial dress, which was an all white outfit with a headdress that covered and restricted her lekku, silk veils that hugged her body contours, particularly around her bust and exposed a fair amount of cleavage, and a pair of white high heeled shoes that forced her into a constant elegant poise. Her outfit was definitely made to entice and enflame any male's libido.
Next to come out was Mirialia. In stark contrast to Kayla she wore a slinky black dress that emphasized her own athletic physique. It seemed to loop around her neck, expose a generous amount of cleavage and left her back completely exposed down to the small of her back. There was a slit that went along her side from her waist and as she walked she enticingly exposed her legs, just for brief flashes, but it was enough to get Jack's blood hotter. She also wore black high heeled shoes, and to Jack's surprise she seemed just as comfortable in them as she was in normal boots or shoes.
Both females took in the look in Jack's eyes and saw that they had both achieved their objective. Turn Jack a drooling idiot at the sight of them.
"Like what you see, Commodore?" Mirialia asked impishly, just as both she and Kayla stood closer together and linked their arms together, contrasting with each other, yet still they were the same. A pair of attractive ladies, and Jack was tongue tied.
He finally shook himself out of his stupor. "Ladies, if I didn't know any better I'd say the pair of you were goddesses."
Both women smiled and both linked their arms with his. Kayla on his left and Mirialia on his right, and he led them down to the palace courtyard where the rest of the guests were congregating, all wearing their best outfits. All three of them enjoyed the last few rays of sunshine as the sun set and the sky began to turn blood red, which slowly faded over the next half hour into dark blue and the stars began to shine and the local nebula became visible which combined with the few clouds in the sky to create some interesting shapes in the night sky.
A floodlight suddenly flashed into existence and illuminated a nearby balcony and the young Queen Apailana stepped into the light, resplendent in a ceremonial red dress, her face a powdered white with dark red lips, standing serene and proud as she looked out upon her guests.
"Welcome to the opening of the Festival of Light. It has now been eight-hundred-and-fifty years since we first joined the Republic, and two-and-a-half years since the end of the Clone Wars and the beginning of the New Order. May it last forever," she concluded with her arms raised and outstretched with bilious robes extended from her arms down to her legs like wings and the fireworks began.
Small rockets flew high into the air, leaving behind thin trails of multi-coloured sparks then exploded, lighting up the sky with small shockwaves of reds, blues and gold. Several silver rockets flew up then separated into many more smaller silver darts that drew pictures of various native animals, from aiwhas to sando aqua monsters, while still more multi-coloured rockets continued to rise up to splash more colours in the sky.
As the grand finale a massive red rocket rose up from behind the palace. Suddenly it began to come apart. First the nose cone split open like blooming flower, revealing a krayt dragon's head, then the main cylinder broke up and fell away, disappearing in showers of red sparks that fell harmlessly upon the guests, and revealed a huge red krayt dragon with skeletal wings that extended from its back and spread wide. It banked almost lazily to the left then began to dive towards the courtyard. Everyone, but the queen and the few military officers in the crowd, became nervous as it dove towards them, and several of the guests began to flee before it. The dragon flew only a few feet above everyone's heads, and everyone either ducked or dove instinctively to avoid it, and the queen smiled mischievously in mirth as she watched the politicians dive for cover in fright.
The dragon flew far away into the distance after it made its dive until it could barely be seen, then exploded in a cacophony of light and sound, colouring the horizon with all the colours of the rainbow, and everyone applauded the display in awe of the show that the Queen had put on for them.
With a sweeping gesture the queen continued, "If everyone would join me in the ballroom, the dance shall begin!"
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Naboo,
Theed Royal Palace
Ballroom
Minutes later everyone was gathered in the ballroom. It was a vast circular chamber within the palace with a high domed ceiling with a number of crystal chandeliers floating in midair with a central light source within each one that cast a shimmering light and created a vast kaleidoscope of colours that reflected off the shimmering white marble walls and high up the curving walls were a number of tall mirrors that reflected the light back again to the dance-floor.
The dance itself was opened by the queen herself with her current suitor, a young nobleman, and everyone joined their dance partners. Jack was not comfortable at all in this setting. The music was not something he was used to, and the atmosphere was stifling. Too many stuffed shirts and not enough genuine fun, but he was ordered to come here by his superior officer and it did have its perks at least. He loosened himself from Mirialia and Kayla and extended his hand in an invitation to dance to Mirialia. At Kayla's confused look he quietly said, "Begin looking around for your hidden friends. See if they are anywhere close."
She nodded and moved away, heading for the any dark spots she could possibly conceal herself in as she began to extend her senses to search for any Jedi that might be hiding in the palace, possibly hidden in plain sight as guards or servants.
In the meantime Jack and Mirialia began to dance a simple waltz through the crowd of dancers, both surprised by the grace and skill they both showed each other.
"I didn't know you could dance," said Mirialia in surprise.
"I'm a man of many talents," he answered with a playful smile as they continued to dance.
In the meantime Kayla mingled with the other guests, her senses at maximum sensitivity. As all three of them suspected no one paid much notice to the exotic slave walking among them, and those that did notice was only interested in her enticing form and not truly questioning her presence. She soon sensed a familiar presence, but did not immediately recognise it. The presence revealed itself to be the young nobleman dancing with the queen. He was roughly the same age as Queen Apailana, with light brown hair and wore maroon robes customary of Naboo royalty.
Her eyes narrowed in suspicion as she searched her memory for people she may have known or have seen in her years, but she just couldn't place his face.
"I see you have recognised one of your own," said a rather quiet, yet masculine voice right next to her left ear. She froze for several seconds, since she had not sensed his presence at all until he began speaking to her.
"Who are you?" she asked in a quiet yet deadly tone as she surreptitiously fingered a tiny white holdout blaster concealed in the folds of her dress as she turned towards this unknown adversary and her eyes widened in surprise as she instantly recognised the yellow kiffar facial tattoo that went across his face and nose.
"Don't you recognise your old master?" he asked bemused as he quickly took her hands and began to dance with her.
"Maser Vos, I thought you were dead?"
"Almost was my dear former apprentice. I was badly burned on Kashyyyk and took a long time to heal," he said quietly. His eyes wandered to the slim leather slave-collar on her swan-like blue neck and the other changes to her body. "You've changed, and you're a slave. What happened to you?"
She gulped nervously. "I have been hiding in plain sight as the 'indentured servant' of Commodore Jack Hawks. He found me in my starfighter and has since been hiding me from the emperor's eyes and ears." She saw that this angered her former master. "He is a good man who believes in democracy, but now lives in a world of darkness and terror. I am trying to be the guiding light he needs to stay true to his beliefs."
Vos looked deep into Aayla's hazel eyes and saw that things had changed on the inside just as much as on the surface. "You have a connection to this Commodore Hawks, don't you?!"
She could only nod yes in response.
"It's ironic isn't it? You were the one who warned me not to get too attached to my wife, and now you are the one who is in love with someone special."
Her eyes widened again in surprise, both at the irony of her situation and at the revelation that her former master is now married. "You married that purple haired thief?" she said in astonishment, almost loud enough to be heard.
"Careful Aayla, you don't want everyone to hear us talking. Besides, what are you and your master doing here anyway, this isn't exactly his scene?" he asked.
"My name is now Kayla Macula! My true name is used only in private and where there are no prying ears to hear it. Besides what are you doing here?" she retorted.
"I asked first. Your master is the commanding officer of an Anti-Piracy Fleet battle-group. No offense to him, but he is small-fry in comparison to most of the big-wigs that were invited here!"
"He was sent here to be the representative for Admiral Rod. Apparently he hates these sorts of events. He also believes that we would have a better chance of speaking with the queen without drawing too much attention." Aayla lowered her voice even further. "We have reason to believe that the empire may soon catch wind of the queen's hiding of Jedi on her planet and may be considering military options for dislodging the emperor's hold on her planet. Our main objective is to warn her and any Jedi in hiding here and make her reconsider such plans."
Vos' face took on a worried look. "It may be too late for that." Aayla looked confused for a moment and Vos elaborated. "Some of the Jedi in hiding here have already talked both the queen and the gungans into attacking the local Imperial garrison and power station."
Aayla's face took on a horrified expression. "But that's not the Jedi way. Why are they doing this?"
"They are angry and not thinking straight. They cannot see the possible consequences of their actions. They have been hurt and they feel the need to hurt the Empire in any way they can, to show the galaxy that the emperor's war machine is not invincible. I myself am against such action, but the angriest of us have the loudest voices and seem to have the ear of both the queen and the gungan bosses."
"This is not good. I need to tell Jack," she said as the last waltz began to die down and the dancers slowed to a stop. She quickly curtsied to her former master and left him, making a beeline for Jack.
She could see him smiling with Commander Hess who was heading for the buffet table for some reason. Aayla quickly reached Jack's side just before the next slow-dance was about to begin. Seeing Aayla coming towards him with a very serious look upon her face he quickly reached her side and as the music began again they danced, with Aayla hugging close to his body, almost grinding into him.
"We have a serious problem on our hands!" she said quietly into Jack's ear.
"What is it?"
"I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that I found my former master, Quinlan Vos. The bad news is that several of the Jedi in hiding here have convinced the queen that military action is required to get rid of the empire at this time."
Jack had the same look in his eyes as Aayla had in hers. "This is bad. If they move now the empire will just send in Vader and the 501st to crush them before they can free this world. We need time to prepare a real rebellion. Not this haphazard half measure this surely will turn out to be."
"I agree, but how do we approach the queen without looking suspicious?"
"We don't. She will approach me. By tradition the queen dances with all of the highest ranked people at any ball. As a representative of Admiral Rod it will soon be my turn. She has just finished a dance with the governor, now it's the emperor's representative's turn, after that I will no doubt get my chance," said Jack confidently.
"Be careful Jack. She may not receive you well, seeing as you've brought along a slave with you to the ball," Aayla cautioned.
"Don't worry, I can handle the young queen, you just keep your senses on alert, and it's good that you and your former master are reunited again," he said smiling as the waltz came to an end and another began. Mirialia had just returned to Jack's side as the queen gracefully approached the Commodore.
"Commodore Hawks, I see that your reputation is well deserved," she said in greeting to both him and his two companions.
"And what reputation would that be, if I may ask your highness," he said with a gracious bow of the head. His first impression of her was that she was short, seeing as the queen's head barely reached his chest.
"That you always have at least two beautiful women at your side at all times, as evidenced by your two companions. I have also heard that you are a most capable ship-handler, having just recently defeated the Separatist pirate Captain Arulo Csalas."
"Both are true and one of them is well-deserved, but Csalas has only been defeated and still has a sizeable force hiding out in the Outer Rim. He may have escaped my clutches, but rest assured we will catch him, sooner or later!"
"Well, enough of such serious talk. I feel the need to dance, and this song just happens to be one of my favourites. Care to join me?" she asked, though it sounded more like a command.
"It would be a pleasure your highness," Jack replied as he reluctantly disentangled himself from his two lovely companions and joined the queen on the dance floor.
The music had a slightly faster rhythm to it, and Jack noticed it was mostly younger men and women and a small minority of officers who had managed to maintain their fit physique who were dancing to this tune. By the look of joy that seemed to break through the queen's ingrained neutral expression he could see that she was enjoying this dance, and surprisingly he was having a little bit of fun too.
Soon enough the music slowed for a little while, and Jack took the opportunity to talk with her. "Imperial Intelligence knows about the Jedi you have in hiding here on this planet, and I just found out that you and the gungan Bosses have decided to follow the advice of a few angry Jedi."
The young queen looked back into his eyes and Jack saw terror in those warm brown eyes of hers. Her voice barely above a whisper she asked, "If they know, why haven't they deposed me yet?"
"Because the reports haven't reached Vader and his Emperor yet and our allies in Imperial Intelligence cannot sit on this forever. I suggest that you call off this attack immediately and get the Jedi off-planet as soon as possible! "
"It is already too late, Commodore. The attack commences within the next couple of hours. The Jedi and the gungans are committed, and so am I. If we are successful it may be enough to show the other worlds that the Imperial war-machine is not invincible. If the attack fails and Vader comes then our deaths will show the Empire's true face," she answered her face a stone mask.
"Then I hope for your sake that you have a very good escape plan, otherwise I don't see you surviving long," said Jack as he broke away from the queen as the last song came to an end. As he walked away the queen stood straight and regal, giving nothing away as she moved onto another high profile guest.
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Theed Palace,
Servant's Walkways
In the hidden servant's walkways there was constant activity as various servants and droids in the employ of the palace came and went, carrying various luxury food items and drinks for the palace' near thousand guests of the evening.
Among the many servants in the walkway a single tall and slim servant stood stoically as one of the higher ranking servants, one of a dozen managers began to give him orders. "I need you to get these up the ballroom bar, the place is starting to run dry, and help out with mixing and serving drinks when you get up there," the manager said shortly as he shoved a case of expensive wine from Alderaan into his arms.
"I'll get it up there," the servant replied as he took the case and set off towards the ballroom, following the helpful signs that lined the many walkways and tunnels. He soon came to a flight of stairs that would take him up behind the bar, out of sight from the guests. He grumbled to himself as he ascended the stairs. "This is a job for droids!" For a brief moment the air around him flickered and revealed beneath his holographic disguise his true appearance, a blue skinned duros with cold calculating red eyes that glowed with malevolence. "Next time I'll get a droid to do recon."
Soon enough he got up the flight of stairs and entered the ballroom bar, just in time to see one of his secondary targets was about to order a drink, the human Commander Mirialia Hess, and now that he was seeing her in person he could see why his employers wanted her captured, preferably alive. He also quickly spotted his primary target, Commodore Hawks, dancing with the queen of all things. He quickly set aside the case he was carrying behind the bar and moved towards the bar to serve her.
"What can I get you?" he asked politely.
"Two glasses of wine please?" she requested.
"Coming right up!" He quickly brought up a pair of glasses and began to pour the wine into the glasses. As he poured he applied a wafer thin membrane underneath the base of the glasses, a tiny listening device so he could listen in on the Commodore's companions and anyone within a one metre radius. The Commander was absorbed in watching her commanding officer dancing and talking with the queen and never noticed the seemingly common bartender apply the listening devices.
"Your drinks madam?" the duros in disguise prodded lightly.
"Thank you," she replied shortly and stepped away from the bar, and took a quick sip from her glass as she walked back to her friend, the duros' second target he instantly recognised from Csalas's description on the chip he got on Nar Shadaa. He quickly put an earwig into his ear and remote activated the two listening devices. There was some static at first, then voices came in loud and clear. Without anyone noticing he slipped away and headed for a quiet little hideaway he had scoped out earlier, a little used storage closet deep in the bowels of the palace in the servants wing, and the holographic camouflage dropped away as its power source ran out of energy, revealing the bounty hunter Cad Bane in all his blue glory, with brown leather trench-coat, trousers and boots, sans his trademark hat which he had take off for this occasion.
He quickly fine-tuned the listening devices to amplify the voices of Commodore Hawks and his two companions so he could hear them clearly using sound bites provided by his employer of the Commodore and his companions' voices. The recordings of Hawks and Hess he could understand how Csalas could get, but how he got access to a recording of the commodore's twi'lek slave he couldn't even guess, but he was thankful for it as they made his job that little bit easier.
Soon enough the conversation became interesting, after both Commander Hess and the twi'lek slave had fended off multiple suitors, the Commodore finally returned to them.
"You look as if someone shot your kath hound, what happened with the queen?" Commander Hess asked worriedly.
"It's as bad as we feared. There is going to be an attack upon the local Imperial Garrison by local gungan and Jedi. The queen believes there is no time to get them to call it off, but she doesn't know that we have an ally in this ballroom, does she, Master Vos?"
At that Bane's eyes widened in surprise as another voice he recognised from a confrontation with the Jedi during the Clone Wars joined in the conversation.
"Indeed! I have already sent word to my compatriots. There may be a few dissenters, but most of them were against this action. I am worried though that those few dissenters will not listen, and may just attack anyway."
"Leave that to me. Do you have the location of where the staging area is?" Bane wondered what the Commodore was planning.
"Yes, what do you intend to do?" Vos asked worriedly.
"Just leave them to me. If they don't see reason I'll have to call in the Retribution to conduct an orbit-to-surface bombardment!"
Bane's eyes widened in surprise at the steel in the commodore's voice, having heard that Commodore Hawks was rumoured to be a big softie.
"You cannot be serious?" said Vos, clearly alarmed by the Commodore's statements.
"As serious as a heart-attack. If they are not stopped a potential ally for the future could be lost!"
"And if you conduct an orbital bombardment you'll lose any possibility of support for any rebellion from any of the factions on this planet or anywhere else in the galaxy. Let me put a stop to this my way, before you unleash hell on this planet!"
Bane could not imagine what was going through the Commodore's mind, nor did he care. What he did care about was that this was evidence of his collusion with the Jedi, enough to put him away without necessitating him to kill him, plus when he inevitably escaped he might just get rehired to kill him, doubling or possibly tripling his profit margin, which made him pull his signature greedy grin, which got wider as he continued to listen in.
"Fine, we'll do it your way, but mark my words Vos there will be severe consequences if you fail to convince them."
"Oh the consequences are going to be most dire for you commodore once my employer has this recording of you conversing with that Jedi, which you so helpfully named, you will be the one in chains." He continued to listen in for a little bit longer.
"What are the chances of your former master convincing the gungans and the Jedi to call this off?" he heard the commodore ask.
"I'm not entirely sure. I do not know who they are or what they've been through, but I can tell you this. If they all felt the death screams as acutely as I did, then they are most likely extremely angry and would do anything to get back at the Empire and the clones who serve him!"
"You are an interesting man, commodore. Not only do you associate with Jedi, you're also harbouring one. This could be more profitable than I ever could have imagined," Cad Bane mused to himself, but then remembered, "but then that would also mean abandoning the bounty on your head which clearly states they want you terminated, and that could leave a stain on my otherwise perfect record."
Seconds later the voices of his three targets vanished, most likely a servant had taken their glasses and now he was only hearing the constant background chatter of the other guests. He turned off his listening devices, which immediately fried the micro-circuitry in them and turned them into useless films of plastic, and began to study the layout of the palace, also procured by his employer, but he still needed to find out where the Commodore and his companions were staying.
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Naboo
Lianorm Swamp
Former Jedi Master Quinlan Vos was racing through the forest, dodging past various trees and animals, both small and large, on foot, using the Force to boost his speed. He was racing against the chronometer, he needed to get to the staging area before it was too late. He had to convince the gungans and his fellow Jedi not to attack the local imperial garrison. Finally he reached the staging area, a wide open clearing in the middle of the swamp, where he could see several squads worth of gungans and a small group of four Jedi in robes and armour. A human, an iridonian and a pair of twi'leks, a male and female .
He soon spotted the one responsible for this little gathering. "Knight Finn Shysanar, we need to talk!" he said quickly with no room for argument in his tone.
The younger man looked at the older kiffar in a slightly annoyed mood, but followed him off to the north side of the clearing, out of earshot from both the Jedi and the gungans.
"This better be good, Master Vos, we're just about to commence our attack on the garrison and their power generator!"
"Listen to me young man, Imperial Intelligence already knows we're here on this planet. The only reason Vader and his 501st has not come down on us is because of our hidden allies in Imperial Intelligence is keeping the information from him and his emperor, but that can't last forever. We have to leave now, while we still have a chance!"
"We can't, we are committed to this. We must show the galaxy that we are still here and we are willing to fight!" Knight Shysanar retorted harshly.
"And risk all of these people's lives and the life of the Naboo queen, just for revenge?" Master Vos asked harshly.
"It's not revenge, it's justice! They destroyed the Order. Our home. The only home I have ever known, and the clones, Vader and Palpatine are the ones responsible for all of this," Shysanar shouted, not knowing that his voice was carrying and attracted the attention of the gungan general and the other Jedi.
"What's going on here?" the iridonian Jedi asked.
"Nothing is going on, Mekat! Go back to the others," said Shysanar in a strained voice.
"Then why are you yelling at Master Vos loud enough for everyone to hear?"
The atmosphere became ever more tense as Shysanar's temper began to flare and Vos began to stare Shysanar down, hard!
"What's going on Master Vos?" Mekat asked nervously.
"Imperial Intelligence knows we're here. If you attack now you'll bring the entire empire down on our heads and we will all end up dead before the week is over, and this planet will fall under a military occupation and the queen will be deposed and replaced by a figurehead that will follow all of the empire's directives. Including the oppression and enslavement of the gungans, is that what all of you want?" said Master Vos loudly to the crowd.
The crowd became quiet and sombre as they took a moment to think about what they were about to do, and the possible consequences. However Shysanar wasn't going to let go.
"You cannot be serious. We must fight! We must show the galaxy that we are still here, willing to fight this regime and bring peace once more to the galaxy," he loudly proclaimed to the crowd, but no one offered any words or cheers to his declaration.
Master Vos could only shake his head in sadness at the young man's anger. "The war is long since over. The galaxy is exhausted and if we do this now, before the galaxy has properly recovered, we will be seen as nothing more than terrorists by the general public. Right now public support for the empire is at an all-time-high, and the best course of action right now is to lay low and prepare for the right moment to free it from Sith rule."
The crowd seemed unsure of what to do. Both arguments had their merits, but even the Jedi that had come with Shysanar were unsure.
This seemed to just make Shysanar's blood boil. "What are we waiting for? We are supposed to be freeing this planet!"
"From what?" Master Vos asked. "So far all the empire has stationed is a small garrison for planetary defence and currently has done nothing, but stayed out of local matters that are handled by local police and security forces. This is not the Jedi way, and we will accomplish nothing with this attack. Everyone should just go home. We need to evacuate the padawans, knights and masters in hiding here before the empire comes looking for us!" Master Vos concluded.
After a few more looks between themselves the gungans began to disperse and retreated back into the deep swamps while the Jedi came forward, except for Shysanar.
"Where are you going? Come back here!"
"Wesa goin home. The older Jedi is right. We cannot fight the empire now, but wesa know time will prove the Jedi right. I wish you luck, Jedi," the gungan general stated before he disappeared into the jungle.
"Looks like you just lost your support!" Master Vos commented lightly, relieved that the disaster had been averted. "Now come, we have much work to do if we are to leave this planet undetected, and very little time to do it."
"We could have freed this planet if you hadn't interfered!" stated Shysanar heatedly.
"And you would have only held the planet for about a day before the empire came and took this planet back. Let's get back to the enclave!" he ordered, and the four Jedi followed him, with Shysanar following reluctantly.
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Theed Palace
Guest Wing
Several hours later
All was quiet this night, but there was still an atmosphere of foreboding, as if a great sword was dangling above the palace and everyone in it, and Jack felt it most acutely. He was physically exhausted, but there would be no sleep for him this night as he waited for the sound of explosions, though he hoped that Master Vos would be successful. Both he and his companions had retired to their respective suites to rest, but he knew that both Aayla and Mirialia wouldn't be able to sleep anymore than he did.
He lay there in bed, eyes staring up at the ceiling, hoping that simple exhaustion would allow him the sleep he so desperately wanted and needed, yet no matter what he did, from simply counting sheep to trying a few of Aayla's meditation exercises, nothing seemed to make him go to sleep.
Unbeknownst to him a small mouse droid was watching him from a small air-vent in the wall opposite his bed, its multiple cameras zoomed in and recorded everything then transmitted the recording to its master. It then trundled along to the next suite and discovered his master's secondary targets, took a few pictures, transmitted them and stayed there. Kayla was meditating on the bed in a simple silk bra and panties while Mirialia was pacing the room in her own nightwear, a simple Imperial Navy issue black female's sports bra and panties.
"Have you considered meditation to calm your nerves?" Kayla asked, finally having enough of the anxious human's pacing.
"I don't have the patience for meditation, plus I never seem to have the time," said Mirialia hotly as she continued pacing. "I prefer to exercise before bed, but I can't exactly do that here beyond the basics," she said annoyed as she continued to pace the room.
Kayla merely smiled serenely. "I had much the same trouble in the beginning of my training. I didn't want to just sit around contemplating the Force all day. I wanted adventure, excitement, and all the things a youngster craves. Of course in time I realized that sometimes you need to just sit down and catch your breath let your mind wander and let go of everything, for a little while. I can help you," she offered.
"No thanks," Mirialia rebuffed. "I just can't stop thinking about what might have happened tonight. There are no explosions yet, and the queen told Jack that the attack was going to start two hours from then. It's now been a little over four hours since."
"Then our mission has been accomplished. We have averted a potential disaster here on this planet, we now have a two week vacation, and I noticed that you just called your commanding officer by his first name," she ended mischievously.
"No I didn't," Mirialia quickly denied.
"Oh yes you did!"
"No I did not!" she denied again vehemently.
"Mirialia I heard you say his first name clear as day just seconds ago. There is no use in denying it!" Kayla told the still in denial commander.
"A slip of the tongue, that's all," she tried to excuse.
"Maybe," Kayla acknowledged. "Or maybe it's a small piece of what you truly feel underneath that cold mask of yours escaping out into the light. You're not really a full on lesbian are you?" she asked directly, which made Mirialia stop dead in her tracks.
"What gave you that impression?" she asked surprised.
"Your general attitude towards most men, and that the only few men you've shown respect to is your commanding officer and your old friend Commander Ganto, and if I remember correctly scuttlebutt says that you nearly broke his arm the last time he touched you!"
Mirialia sighed in resignation at her friend's pointers. "It's true that I haven't been with a man in a while, a long while, and I've been seeking comfort from mostly women ever since the incident with Riskovat," she admitted with a slight sneer as she said her rapist's name. "Commodore Hawks is the man who saved my career, and he actually sees me as an equal, unlike some men who see me as just a sex object. Plus he's also an attractive man," she reluctantly acknowledged.
"That he is," said Kayla in complete understanding.
Mirialia's face quickly turned mischievous. "So, have you been with him?"
"What?" Kayla asked in confusion.
"Well, you've spent most of your time pretending to be his body servant. Something must've happened between you two?"
Kayla became slightly nervous at her friend's assumption. "We've never gone that far," she said reluctantly. Mirialia looked at her in disbelief.
"Come on, you just agreed with me that he is an attractive man, plus you've been playing the part of servant for a long time, you sleep practically right next to him!"
"I sleep in the servant's quarters that's joined directly to his stateroom. Sure, I have given him a rub down every once in a while after a very stressful day, but we've not gone any further than some light flirting there, a quick kiss or two here..." she trailed off and Mirialia looked at her twi'lek friend in disbelief.
"And he hasn't jumped you yet?" she asked incredulously.
"He's too noble for his own damned good," Kayla responded ruefully.
"Then he has shown just as much restraint as a Jedi!" Mirialia concluded.
"To both our detriment," Kayla lamented, then suddenly her eyes shot open and snapped towards the door to Jack's room. "He's in trouble!" she quickly stated as she made to get off the bed when suddenly a pair of silvery grenades shot in from an overhead ventilation vent and detonated between the two of them, unleashing a powerful concussive wave that knocked them both out before they could react.
Jack heard the twin explosions of the grenades and pulled out the small holdout blaster he kept under his pillow and scanned the room. He didn't see anything for a moment, but a sudden shattering of the glass balcony doors caught his attention. A small white sphere was lobbed in and Jack instantly recognised it for what it was. A frag grenade!
He quickly dove behind his bed and hoped that it would be enough to protect him from the blast, and barely a second later it went off. A deafening blast and scorching heat washed over his head, but he was still alive. Deafened and dazed he stood up and roughly aimed for the window, thankful that at least his eyes were still in perfect working order, as a duros in a big hat and leather trench-coat flew in on feet mounted jets.
"So, you're still alive. I'll just have to make sure you stay dead, Commodore!" the bounty hunter said, smiling evilly as he drew his pair of customized blasters and aimed.
Jack didn't hear him, but he did recognise the duros before him as Cad Bane and everything seemed to slow down for him. With ingrained reflexes, honed over hours of practice drills with his marines, he aimed and fired his little blaster without hesitation and managed to score a hit on the flying bounty hunters left upper arm which sent him spinning into a wall with an annoyed grunt.
"So, your even tougher than you look," said Bane as he started blasting.
Jack dove once again to the side just before the bounty hunter opened up on him, but was too slow this time as a blaster bolt hit him in his left leg. Red hot pain shot up his leg as he returned fire, which threw off his aim and missed his target, Bane's head, but instead hit the main light fixture, blacking out the room for a few precious seconds as Jack scrambled to find some sort of cover, and found some behind an overturned table. Soon enough both parties eyes adjusted to the darkness, the only source of light being the moonlight that filtered in through the short gaps in the drapes.
"I enjoy a good hunt as the next bounty hunter, but you are definitely making me work for my money, unlike the two lovely ladies in the next room. I might just have a little fun with them before handing them over to my employer," he said with an evil grin.
Jack's hearing had recovered enough to hear that last part and his blood boiled. His hand tightened around his holdout blaster's grip, then he calmed himself as he checked his blaster's energy level. Enough for another couple of full powered blasts. He heard the bounty hunters jets roar to life as Bane took flight again, setting himself up to attack from above. Jack quickly rolled away from the table, just as Bane started shooting again, and Jack fired his two last shots, hitting centre of mass and Bane came crashing back down to the floor and rolled through the broken glass of the balcony doors.
Jack ran to get his own DC-17 blaster, before the bounty hunter could get up, but before they could continue their fight a squad of Naboo security guards barged into his suite with blasters at the ready and scanning for targets.
"There's an assassin outside on the balcony, shoot him!" Jack ordered shortly and immediately the guards opened up on Bane. Seeing his chance slip away the bounty hunter slipped over the balcony railing and fell a metre before activating his jets and sped off to safety, growling at himself at his failure. Jack and the guards ran onto the balcony and continued shooting at him, but he was long gone.
As the action ended and he began to come down from his adrenaline high Jack felt every little bit of pain from his wounds and began to collapse, only to be caught by a pair of guards.
"Relax sir, we've got you and medics are on the way," said one of the guards.
"Would you mind checking on my companions?" Jack asked and the guard quickly directed two of his fellows to do so, while the two guards holding him upright moved him away from the room and into the hallway where they laid him down.
The pain from his wounded leg threatened to make him black out, but he gritted his teeth and stayed conscious. One of the guards quickly returned. "They are both fine sir, the gas grenade just knocked them out."
Relief flooded through Jack's mind, now that he knew that Kayla and Mirialia were safe he drifted off onto unconsciousness.
(((((((((((((((The Dark Times)))))))))))))))
Theed Spaceport
Cad Bane barely managed to get to his own personal starfighter, a modified Rogue-class fighter, before Naboo security could apprehend him. He mentally patted himself on the shoulder for his preparedness as he could still feel the intense heat of the two blaster bolts that had hit him square in the chest, luckily he wore armour-weave underneath his clothing, otherwise he'd be a dead man. He quickly ignited his fighter's engines and blasted off out of the hangar and straight up and out of the atmosphere.
He growled in annoyance as a pair of N1-Starfighters caught up with him just as he exited the atmosphere, and there was an Imperial warship in orbit that he had to get past. He tried to alter his heading and increase speed, but the N1s were still hanging on to his tail with green laser canon fire blasting through space, scoring a number of hits to his shields and forced him into a roll, which just so happened to bring him back on course towards the Imperial warship. He could now make out some details on the vessel blocking his path. It was a Tector class Star Destroyer, a flying weapons platform optimised for bashing other warships into submission.
So, you are forcing me towards an Imperial warship with little point defence weaponry. Fine! I'll take your bait, he thought to himself as he pushed his fighters engines to the maximum as he set his computers to calculate a hyperspace jump to one of his many hideouts in the Outer Rim. He put his fighter on a highly erratic course and set his ECM generators to maximum as he approached the warship which was coming closer. He noted the alarms that alerted him that it was trying to lock him down with a tractor beam, but so far all they were getting was stray particles. He savagely grinned as he closed in, but noted that the two N1s following him had fallen behind and were maintaining a steady one and a half kilometre distance. He was then surprised as more alarms from his threat indicators went crazy, and checked his scopes.
His eyes widened in surprise and horror as he saw the incoming shells and massed laser cannon fire come straight at him. He put his fighter into a tight corkscrew and avoided the majority of the incoming fire and focused all of his deflector shields forward. His fighter was jolted by multiple laser canon hits and energy pulses from the exploding shells all around him. He pushed his fighter's engines past the red line and continued to accelerate, aiming to get below the massive warship in front of him.
What to him felt like hours took only seconds in real time as he managed to corkscrew his way through the relentless barrage, hug the ventral hull of the Tector and passed right by it. A simple beep told him that the hyperdrive was ready and he pulled the activation lever, jumping the ship into hyperspace and frustrated his hunters.
He let out an expansive sigh as he felt relief that it was over, for the moment. He began looking through his pockets, then got worried as he checked his right breast pocket of his armour-weave shirt. He quickly saw the data-disk he had stored the commodore's conversation with the Jedi had been burned to a crisp by a lucky shot from that same commodore's holdout blaster. An almost indescribable rage came over him as he crushed the remains of the disk, then calmed down.
"Alright, you got lucky this time, Commodore Jack Hawks, but next time you won't be so lucky," he vowed as he began to plan his next attempt.
(((((((((((((((The Dark Times)))))))))))))))
AN: That's another chapter completed. Thoughts and comments are very much appreciated, most especially constructive criticism.
