Orbiting one of Chandrila's moons the Pride of the Jedi's com-tech begins receiving a transmission from Utapau. The com-tech summons Captain Balek to the bridge and informs him of the new orders to head for a planet called Ryndori.

"This is gonna be messy, Commander Kaeon sound general quarters and ready the ship for battle." Balek orders. "Pilots need to be in their ships and ready to deploy once we reach Ryndori."

"Aye, Captain." Kaeon replies.


On the Rampant Rebel, currently over Mon Calamari, Lt. Covell is greeted by Captain Rassae once D6 docks the N-1 in the hangar bay. After quick introductions the Captain informs Covell they've received orders to rendezvous with the rest of the fleet over Ryndori.

"Ryndori?" Covell states not knowing the planet.

"Yes Lieutenant, it may soon fall under occupation or attack by an Imperial battle group." Rassae informs him handing him a holopad with the orders on it.

Rassae also informs him that they are supposed to remain over Mon Calamari until the rebel smuggler team leaves the system. She shows him to his station introducing him to his protégé.

"While we're here I'd like you to monitor all inbound transmissions checking for Imperial codes." Rassae orders.

"Yes ma'am." Covell replies.

On the planet surface below Gleim and his team are being loaded with the last crates full of medical supplies. He receives a transmission from the Rampant Rebel, which he was told would be stationed there for support, that they're headed to Ryndori to help defend against a possible Imperial attack on an ally.

"I copy, you go ahead and split we're almost done here." Gleim states over his comlink.

"Negative Arawak we've been ordered to remain in orbit until you launch."

"Are you sure Rampant? If you're needed elsewhere more important you better get going, like I said we're just about done here." Gleim replies.

"The fleet is mobilizing in preparation for some kind of diversionary strike force. Major Garan seems to be pulling out all the stops, he's even supposedly enlisting the help of a Jedi." Rassae says over the comm.

"He's got a point though Captain, the coordinates for this planet, Ryndori, that we're headed to is halfway across the galaxy." says the Rassae's executive officer.

"Copy that. Are you sure you don't want us to wait Arawak?" Rassae says back to the Arawak.

"Copy that Rampant, you said there's no chatter on any of the Imperial frequencies currently in the system. We'll be fine, the only thing we may have to worry about is pirates, hehe." Gleim says joking.

"Affirmative Arawak, good luck." Rassae replies. "Helmsman take us out."


Gleim switches off his comlink as the last hover bed full of crates is loaded. He turns slightly to the right as he'd heard a noise from Ez-6 during the transmission with the Rampant Rebel. "Everything alright Eazee?"

"Um . . . no . . . uh master Gleim I have something to tell you." With word of another battle involving the rebels and the mention of both Major Garan and another Jedi Eazee calculates the possibility that it might be Jori who is involved. After a moment she decides to tell Gleim the truth; however before she can R5 begins emitting a series of beeps and chips trying to dissuade her.

"Back on Agamar, R5 and I weren't late to the ship because we got lost, we . . ."

"Yeah?" Gleim says curiously.

". . . .we saw mistress Jori."

The thought doesn't register in his mind right away, assuming he misheard her he asks Eazee to repeat herself. The second time he hears her perfectly.

"What, Jori died Eazee." Assuming now she's malfunctioning.

"Apparently not, she said Major Garan used a hologram to fake her death. She was gravely injured when he found her and thought it be best that everyone thought she'd died to protect her." Eazee explains Jori's recount of the situation.

When the Rampant's captain mentioned Garan enlisting the help of a Jedi Gleim didn't pay any attention to it but after hearing Eazee's claim he begins rethink things. "I don't believe it, where is she?" Gleim asks.

"She said she was going into exile."

"On Agamar?" he asks.

"No she was looking for someone there." Eazee states.

"The Solusar kid, she's alive?" Gleim says to himself still shocked by the revelation.


Back on Fresia Kesaro opens his holoprojector to find a message from Consul Harke as well as one from General Marin. Both state of the situation on Ryndori and that they request he return with reinforcements as soon as possible; however he finds Consul Harke's message has another file attached to it stating it will explain the mission. He opens the file as it plays a recording of a transmission between Ryndori's Prime Minister and Consul Harke speaking with Senator Taneel, Zaphael and a rebel officer he learns is Major Garan.

As the last T-55 is brought out of the manufacturing plant he informs his pilots that there is a situation back home. "Finish preflight checks on the double and man your ships, your squadron leaders will brief you once airborne."

Kesaro then discreetly gathers the two other squadron leaders by his fighter craft as his droid handles the preflight inspection and briefs them on the situation. "Once your in space set course for home to drop out of hyperspace at these coordinates." Kesaro orders.

"Commander we can come out of hyperspace a lot closer than that." one of the flight leaders says noticing the coordinates.

"Follow your orders Lieutenant."

"Yes Sir."

"Good, now let's get gone!" Kesaro says jumping into his Sabre.

A few minutes later he leads seventy-four T-55s into hyperspace along the Metallos trade route.


After a short hop off the Hydian Way Zaniel brings his ship out of lightspeed just over Naboo, as he enters the atmosphere he checks the coordinates of the lake house again. As he breaks through the clouds in view of the expansive green pastures he spots the solitary house sitting in front of a small lake. He lands just a few yards from the house and opens his cockpit, before he even moves to pull off his helmet a yellow lightsaber is brought to bare at his neck! He looks up and spots the female human Jedi standing on the nose of his ship, to the right he finds the other Jedi with her weapon drawn as well.

"Zaniel!" Jori says having not identified the presence they felt nearby. The girls deactivate their blades as they greet their new friend. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you, uh I seem to have lost my train of thought." Zaniel says pulling off his helmet and crawling out of the ship. "Why the fierce welcome?"

"Sorry about that, we had an unexpected visitor the other day." Jori says.

"The Empire?" Zaniel asks.

"No a bounty hunter but it's all taken care of now." Jori adds. "To what do we owe the pleasure?"

"Yes, I'm sorry to disrupt your solitude but we need your help. My brother's home planet, Ryndori, is in danger of being discovered, maybe even attacked, by the Empire. I have a message here for you from Major Garan." Zaniel states turning to R9 to initiate the recording. R9, still sitting in the socket behind the cockpit, rotates his dome clockwise a few degrees and displays the holo of Major Garan as the message begins."

"Greetings Jori. Please don't be alarmed, once I heard that the senator assisted two Jedi in escaping Agamar I figured it had to be you. However based on her report and description of you I gather the other Jedi was not the boy you were looking for. Hopefully this finds you still in contact with that other Jedi because the Rebellion is in need of your help." Garan says as he explains the situation and their part in his plan. "If you are unable or unwilling to get involved believe me I understand and won't hold it against you. However if you are willing, Lt. Brath will escort you to Ryndori. Either way . . . may the Force be with you." Garan's image bows respectfully before flickering off.

The girls hesitate wondering if they should put themselves back into the fray. Zaniel pleads with them stating he just found his brother whom he'd never known existed and that Ryndori is where his mother lives as well.

"Please help us."

Jori looks at Ahsoka and then agrees with one condition. "If Vader shows up, Ahsoka and I will have to leave. We cannot be forced to confront him again." Jori states.

"Deal, by the way now that we're working together again might I have the pleasure of your names?"

"Sure, I'm Jedi Knight Jori Kai." she says figuring there's no harm in releasing her name now.

Ahsoka notices it almost immediately, Jori identifying herself as a Knight. Sensing a similar feeling she felt after waking up in the Skylux Ahsoka begins to wonder again if Jori's keeping something from her. Suddenly she realizes the pilot is speaking to her.

"I'm sorry what did you say?"

"I was asking what your name is?" Zaniel says.

"Oh, um . . . Jori, a word please."

Curiously Jori steps away from the fighter craft for a moment as Zaniel explains that they need to leave now.

"Just hold on a moment flyboy." Ahsoka replies.

"What's going on?" Jori asks following Ahsoka out of earshot. "Are you having second thoughts about going?"

"Not exactly but why do I get the feeling there's something you're not telling me." Ahsoka replies confronting her openly.

"What do you mean?" Jori says genuinely confused.

"When we met you told me you were still technically a Padawan and yet you just told flyboy that you are a Jedi Knight?"

Suddenly she realizes the problem, it was her first slip since receiving Master Yoda's instructions. While she was granted the rank of Knight Ahsoka wasn't supposed to know about her encounter with Yoda. Luckily she doesn't let her lapse show in her expression and she quickly deflects the inquiry.

"I see what you mean, I guess I just felt it was deemed by the Force given the circumstance we're in."

"What do you mean?" Ahsoka asks.

"The Order is gone, the only thing we can hope to do is survive until the Empire can be defeated. You said yourself you'd felt your destiny was to continue to uphold the ideals of the Jedi, peace and justice and what not. Things may be different but I consider you a Jedi Knight too Ahsoka." Jori says.

Ahsoka stretches out with her feelings into the Force trying to sense if that is the truth or if there is more that she's hiding. She realizes she might still not be able to find out either way; given the story about the holobooks her and her master studied while stranded on Rhen Var. Either way Ahsoka can determine no reason not to trust Jori, she knew too well the Force works in mysterious ways.

Jori looks are her curiously for a moment then says, "So we good?"

"Yeah, we're good."

"Ladies if you're still on board we should really get going." Zaniel says.

"Yes we're on board." Jori replies.

"Awesome, I never got your friend's name though."

Feeling a prompting from the Force Ahsoka is somewhat hesitant to release it. "Just call me Snips."

"Oh . . . okay Snips, Jori, where's your ship?"

Jori tells him to take off and he will see it. The girls quickly run to the waterfall where their scout ship is hidden.

"Why didn't you want to give him your name?" Jori asks as they walk up the gantry to the ship inside the cave.

"I dunno I just felt the Force nudging me to keep it to myself." Ahsoka says honestly.

Once airborne Zaniel spots the ship emerging from the waterfall and leads the way out to space.


Within a few minutes the Arawak is ready to lift off as Gleim checks in with his team to ensure everyone else is ready to go. The quintet of freighters take off exiting Mon Cala's atmosphere a few moments later. Once in space they wait for Tarmy, the unit's primary navigator to send hyperspace coordinates.

"Make ready to jump in five minutes." Says the female Er'kit.

"Uh anyone else see those two large blips on the scope coming from that nebula ahead?" asks Pomek over the comm.

Gleim checks his scope and pulls up what technical data he can on the two inbound ships. "Son of a bantha!"

"What?" Xafus asks.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Gleim adds.

"What!?"

"Pirates, it had to be pirates. I was joking when I mentioned pirates to the Rampant." Gleim says flabbergasted.

"I guess that will teach you to dispatch our escort before we leave the system next time, they must have been waiting inside that nebula for the Rampant to move out." Xafus says.

"But why, all we've got onboard is medical supplies."

"They don't know that, besides you really think they'll believe us if we told them so?" Xafus says making a good point.

"What's the plan Gleim? Those ships just launched short range fighters." reports Cyprus.

"Yeah and my navicomputer is still calculating the jump to lightspeed." Adds Tarmy.

"Tarmy how soon can you get us those coordinates?" Gleim asks.

"Two minutes max but I won't be as confident in that short of time."

"All ships power up your weapon systems and prepare to defend yourselves, we've got no chance of outrunning these guys." Gleim orders as he turns to Xafus. "I'll take the rear gun, Eazee get up here and take my seat to assist Xafus. R3, plug in and monitor the shields to revert power bow to stern as needed." Gleim orders as flies aft of the ship to the deck above the cargo hold.

He straps into the gunner seat, modified for just his size, as he looks out the three sided viewport facing out the back of the ship. He puts on the headset comms on testing communication with the cockpit and the rest of the unit and grabs the dual pistol grips thumbing the trigger.

While most of the other pilots in Gleim's unit are forced to man their weapons while piloting their ships due to each being the solo crew member Mishi, the Twi'lek, is the only exception.

Her ship, the Ryloth's Revenge, was named for her people's steadfast resolve to fight back during the Separatists occupation of her homeworld during the Clone Wars. The Revenge was not only the biggest ship in Gleim's unit but it was also bristling with firepower! Boasting three separate gun emplacements on the bow of the ship; one located just starboard of the cockpit, another below the cockpit at the base of the main deck and the third just aft of the cockpit on the port shoulder. The ship looked like a cargo container on steroids, with its two engines located over the main cargo hold capped off by tails on the exterior sides. It also features two small wings flaring out at the sides just forward of the engines and bearing an array of proton torpedoes, missiles and rocket fired tracking beacons. However the most impressive and usually deterring feature, of any would be aggressors, on the Revenge was the long barreled point-defense dual laser cannon located on her back. While considered a light weapon by a Venator's standards, it was the heaviest weapon in Mishi's as well as the entire team's arsenal.

However due to the fact that the cannon couldn't be operated from the cockpit Mishi came up with a fairly simple, albeit ironic, solution. She hits a switch on her control console summoning her gunner, the cockpit door slides open a moment later as a B1 battle droid with a custom paint job walks in.

"You summoned me Captain?" says the droid.

Having been present during the occupation of Ryloth by the Confederacy of Independent Systems and subsequently part of the Twi'lek rebellion, Mishi had plenty of opportunities to procure a few battle droids for herself to serve as her crew. With the help of a friend she spent weeks reprogramming and refurbishing them for various functions aboard the Revenge. All of them had been damaged to some degree but with thousands smashed, sliced, blasted or ripped apart during the many battles that took place during the Republic liberation of the planet, Mishi had ample replacement parts. Once they were functional she adorned each one with a custom paint scheme. She gave Gunny streaks of black camouflage across his entire body resembling the stripes of a Nexu. The other two she planned to use to primarily to help load cargo in and out of the ship although she equipped them with their standard droid blasters mounted on their shoulders in the event she needed some backup while in port. She gave them each a fairly simple scheme, blue graphics adorning their heads and torsos and feet.

"We've got incoming, man the gun!" Mishi says.

"Roger, roger!"

"Form up around Mishi and distract the fighters while she hits those yachts." Gleim orders through the comm.

When the various array of fighter craft close in range they open fire on the group, the team responds back by shooting down two of the nine craft right away. As the two yachts close the distance Gleim recognizes the larger of the two as an old Corporate Alliance frigate predating the Battle of Naboo by at least three decades.

Mishi's droid fires on the old frigate but doesn't even dent it's shields.

Gleim aims and fires the Arawak's rear gun on a weary looking CoreSec Starfire as he tells Mishi to target the smaller yacht figuring the frigate won't be able to keep up.

"You hear that Gunny." Mishi says over the comm to the droid.

"I copy Captain, switching targets."

The droid acquires his new target and unleashes a salvo as the yacht passes by, the shell hits the ship's port side engine taking out its shields protecting it. The pirates circle around for another pass as Tarmy reports less than one minute until jump coordinates are available. Meanwhile Gleim blows apart the Starfire as he spots the Revenge resume fire on the yacht as it comes in fast with guns blazing.

"Evasive maneuvers!" Gleim orders Xafus.

Mishi throws extra power into her rear shields giving Gunny more time to pound on the yacht. He lands a salvo on one of the yacht's weapons emplacement then finally hits that port side engine again blowing it to pieces. With one engine down and on fire the yacht pulls back. Gunny fires a few last pot shots at it as the yacht slows to increase the distance between them but the rounds hit their forward shields weakening but not penetrating them.

With their heavy escort gone the ragtag group of remaining pirate ships try one final time to disable at least one of the freighters to raid its goods. However the combined strength of the rebel unit and the weapons at their disposal prove to be too much for them. Two more fighter craft burn up in flames before they finally call it quits retreating to their frigate.

"Nice work everyone, Tarmy you have those coordinates yet?" Gleim says.

"Transmitting now." she replies.

"Good, everyone set your navicomputer to drop us out of hyperspace when we reach Saleucami." Gleim orders.

"I know we're zig zagging our way back to HQ but why are we dropping out so soon?" Cyprus asks.

"I've got to get some answers, we may not be heading back to HQ just yet." Gleim says.