Chapter 35
A Fools Gambit
It was an oppressive sight. Serenno's once-proud spaceport, situated at the edge of the Capital, whose berthing docks and landing pads had once provided landing space sufficient to house entire armadas of civilian transport and merchant vessels ranging from simple freighters and shuttles to hulking merchant starships and luxury cruise liners, no longer possessed the vibrant life it was renowned for not one year ago. Since being commandeered by the Imperial Military, commerce and passenger ships had been replaced by Frigates and Capital Ships, shuttles and freighters by gunships, blastboats and the Empire's new TIE Fighters. All one would feel by gazing upon the spaceport now is cold, brutal, efficient functionality and despair. It was an oppressive sight, indeed.
The Imperial War Machine had quickly established a strong presence here, converting the spaceport into the Main Command Center of the Imperial Military in this entire sector. Countless thousands of Imperial Stormtroopers could be observed marching in perfect synchronization to and fro, their white carapace-armoured forms patrolling the grounds in platoons of twenty to thirty two as the steps of every trooper hit the deck as one, at the exact same millisecond in time, giving off a sound like a drum beating that could be heard from miles off.
Engineers, technicians and other maintenance and support personnel, garbed in black jumpsuits, were swarming around docked vessels - repairing, refuelling, and rearming them so they could return to the battle taking place in orbit. Spotlights and lamps illuminated the base in the fading dark. Hidden by the night, one could hear the roars of several pairs of Imperial TIE Fighters patrolling from the air, visible only by the flashing of their running lights.
Many would be impressed at the efficiency with which the base ran. The routines and standard operating procedures of those stationed there, and of the base as a whole, could easily be discerned by observing the comings and goings of its personnel. The Empire's policy for maintaining order was to use the fear of force upon the populace before using force itself. To the vast majority, their sheer efficiency would make them appear to be ready for anything.
Naruto was not in the vast majority. Where most people saw efficiency designed to invoke fear and intimidation, he saw routines and patterns of a hulking machine that were so predictable he had to suppress both laughter and disgust. Most people wouldn't begin to attempt the mission he was about to. Naruto looked at the installation and knew exactly where to plant explosives, when to plant them, and even when to set them off so that the greatest number of casualties could be inflicted before any of them even knew what happened, or even that something had happened.
Using one of the power lines to the base as a zipline, he landed silently on the rooftop of one of the great hangars, garbed in black from head to toe, and looking to his right just as a soft thump from behind him heralded the arrival of his partner. Celeste was also garbed in black, looking over at him and nodding her head.
"You know what to do," Naruto whispered, pointing to her utility belt, "Plant the bombs, set the timers and then get the hell out of there. You know the patrol routes and how they operate, so you shouldn't have too much trouble, but keep an eye out for surprises. We only have one shot at this and timing will be everything."
Celeste nodded, and was gone like the wind, merging with the darkness of night just as Naruto had taught her, though her former occupation as a Shadow of the ancient Jedi might have helped her along.
Naruto watched her go before reaching up to tap his right ear, "Rex, you hear me?"
"Loud and clear," came a quiet reply.
"Line secure?"
"You bet. Imps haven't changed their codes yet," the former Captain replied, "You in position?"
"Give us five more minutes," Naruto replied as he took a running leap, jumping across the thirty-meter gap between the hangar he landed on and the adjacent hangar, managing it with ease.
In mid-jump, he whispered back into his earpiece, "Celeste is preparing the surprise party as we speak, and I'm halfway to the objective. Are you sure this is where those Sep prisoners are supposed to be?"
"I'm certain. It's the only empty hangar in the spaceport," Rex's voice blazed crackly over the comlink as Naruto landed on the second hangar's roof, "there's nowhere else on the base that's big enough to house that many."
"I hope you're right," Naruto said as he moved across the roof he'd just landed on without slowing, taking another running leap and traversing the distance once more in a single jump. He looked down to see a line of dim glow lamps, a trio of Stormtroopers moving through them slow and alert, not even looking up as he flew by overhead, "What about the boarding party? Have your boys found a suitable transport?"
"Echo thinks he found the perfect ship to highjack; looks like a captured Munificent."
"He wants to commandeer a Frigate?" Naruto asked, bewildered for a short moment before a feral grin twisted his features. Of course, it had to be a Frigate! Anything less would be considered an insult to an ARC Commando's ego!
"Sounds about right," Naruto added with quiet satisfaction.
"It's big enough for the job and it only needs a skeleton crew to pilot," Rex explained in a slightly irritated tone, "wouldn't need to highjack one if you'd only had the hindsight to take a larger ship with you."
"Will you stop going on about that?!" Naruto nearly snapped as he landed on the fourth hangar's roof, his target hanger, "I already said I was sorry. Anyways, you should have had the hindsight to point out that little hiccup in the plan."
"It wasn't a hiccup, it was a full blown seizure," Rex bit back, obviously still finding that huge hole in the plan as a never-forgettable annoyance, half because he should have seen that little problem coming himself, "I now know why we need Aayla. She's the only one who can keep you under control, and make sure you're hare-brained plans actually make sense."
"I was wondering how long it would be before you figured that out," Naruto chided with a slight chuckle as he came to the spine of the hangar, searching along it until he found an entry hatch.
"I'm at the objective," Naruto informed Rex as his demeanour became detached and professional, "Beginning comm. silence. Make sure Echo has that Frigate under control when we set loose this little jail break, and make sure those Seps know their roles."
"They're filtering through now. Another fifteen to twenty minutes and they'll be in position," Rex informed, taking a breath as Naruto pictured him massaging his temple, "Beginning comm. silence, and good luck, moron," he finished with annoyed, yet good-natured sarcasm.
"Yes, dear," Naruto muttered just as sarcastically as he turned off his earpiece and leaned down into a crouch before the hatchway. He felt along the sides, quietly breaking the locks with a chakra-coated kunai before pulling it open with a low whine of old disused joints which made him flinch. Fortunately, no one's attention had been drawn to the sound, so he jumped in, closing the hatch behind him and grabbing a support beam that was a few meters above the metal walkway that was his intended destination. Letting go, he landed on the walkway in a crouch so as to muffle the sound, and began to look down and scan the hangar floor some eighty meters below him.
After a few moments, he silently traversed the walkway, moving to the side, using the shadows for cover as he peered down once more into the main bay. His eyes narrowed as he studied what was before him. Rex's intel was accurate, it seemed. The deep engineer pits had been caged over, and a horde of beings were trapped within, sentient beings of at least a dozen races. Naruto saw Wookiees, Nosaurians, Muun, Neimoidians, Devoranians, Humans, Zeltrons and a dozen other races he was unfamiliar with. Each of the twelve engineer bays had been converted to such a purpose: to house enemies of the empire, slaves, political prisoners, opposition soldiers, and the like. In the centre of the hanger was a circular platform which seemed to have been converted into a makeshift viewing gallery.
He also spotted two platoons of twenty Stormtroopers each guarding them, as well as what he would estimate was nearly five times that number in mercenaries, most likely of some Imperial-sponsored slave ring. Naruto narrowed his eyes at the sight, before once again tapping on his comlink, turning it to the secure frequency between him and his co-conspirator.
"Celeste, what's the word?" he asked in a near-whisper, his tone taking on a dark edge
"Almost finished, just three more charges to plant then we can get this party started."
"How much time do you need?"
"Twenty minutes."
"Beep me when you're done," Naruto acknowledged, turning off the comlink before looking down again to scan the hangar-bay-turned-slave-pit, trying to find a vantage point, or a circumstance, that he could use to get a closer look. He had his own objectives to meet, and he couldn't do it hiding up here. His glowing azure eyes picked out a target: a black-garbed lieutenant checking on a datapad in the shadows…that appeared to be almost the exact same height and build as Naruto.
As Naruto moved silently, he couldn't help but reminisce with a silent chuckle that most of his Chūnin lecturers back at the academy would have been either horrified or awestruck at his ability to keep hidden. He climbed and jumped from rafter to rafter before silently dropping the few hundred feet that separated him from the main bay's ground floor. He landed behind the lieutenant with not even a slither of noise. The man didn't know what hit him until a kunai raced across his throat. He was pulled further into the shadows as he gurgled, vanishing from view only to reappear, unharmed, a few moments later.
Ah, the Henge, such a simple technique, made much easier when the image of the person you transformed into was closer to your own height and weight.
Garbed in his new form, Naruto began walking crisply from the shadows, datapad in hand as he pretended to study its contents. He moved haphazardly until he reached the nearest slave pen, and ignoring the fearful to downright murderous glares he received, silently tied a small explosive tag around the transparisteel locks, casting a basic genjutsu to mask his efforts from the guarding Stormtroopers, silently thanking Kurama for his returned chakra control after they had both gotten back into sync with each other. To the Stormtroopers, he was simply inspecting the prisoners.
Naruto remained for a few moments after setting the tag, seemingly inspecting the catch. This pen housed women and children, not soldiers and doubtfully political prisoners, just people on the wrong side of a losing war. They were garbed in what could only be termed as rags; dirty, malnourished and dehydrated. They were being fed the absolute minimum - just enough to be kept alive, and the fetid odour told him that they weren't given any sanitary applications or even any means for basic waste disposal. He gritted his teeth in anger as he was reminded of Bomo and Resa, losing a wife and mother to the slave pits as well as everyone they knew. It angered him further that such pits were becoming commonplace throughout Imperial Space, showing the high cost of being a pawn of the Sith and their games.
He repeated the gesture, moving from pen to pen in the guise of an officer, secretly planting explosive tags precisely where they needed to be in order to do the most damage to the locked cage doors while doing minimal damage to those inside. Another three pens held yet more slaves: more women, old men and children.
Naruto was standing in the shadow of the central platform, looking down discretely at his chrono watch to check how long he had been moving: ten minutes. He still had another ten minutes before Celeste was expected to beep in and the fireworks were set to go off. If he continued with this kind of pace, he estimated that he should be ready to go just in time.
A growl of anger assaulted his ears from atop the platform, followed by other, more humanoid sounds, pleading and crying. The Shinobi in him told him to continue on with the mission and that he couldn't help them, at least not yet. The compassion within him told him to look, and if need be to step in and fight.
He moved the same way he had done until now, moving with the authority and pomp that he had seen Imperial officers move as he walked towards the steps linking the platform to ground level. The two Stormtroopers guarding the entrance didn't even flinch as he passed, which was good. It looked like he had taken the guise of someone with a bit of authority.
He made it up the steps and onto the platform. It was spacious with plenty of room to manoeuvre, but provided no cover or places to hide. As he continued walking, he saw a small group of men, wearing black uniforms and caps similar to what he was wearing, and a few others wearing more casual clothes. Naruto saw a few humans but also Trandoshans and Zygerrians.
The Shinobi stifled a growl; these were races stereotyped as slavers.
There were five other figures, these ones were on their knees, heads mostly bowed and chains on their ankles and wrists, dressed in torn rags barely deserving the name of clothes. It was while looking at them that Naruto found the source of the crying. It was a small Twi'lek child, maybe two years old, sobbing and snivelling, obviously terrified by what was going on. Another Twi'lek, this one a middle-aged woman, attempted to reach out a hand to her, but was kicked viciously away by one of the Trandoshans towering over them.
Beside the woman was the towering form of a Wookiee, who snarled at the slaver and attempted to move, only to be hit in the side by another Trandoshan carrying a stun staff. The proud sentient roared in pain as thousands of volts coursed across its fur-covered hide. He attempted to lash out at his attacker blindly, only for the original one to mirror the actions of the other by plunging his own stun staff into his other side, another surge of electricity, another roar of pain.
Naruto heard one of the officers, "That one's not going to be broken so easily."
The slaver standing beside him, a Zygerrian, grinned, "That's half the fun, Imperial. The longer it takes them to break, the more satisfaction there is to be had."
The officer nodded, then turned in Naruto's direction, hardened features turning into a scowl, "Alores, what the hell are you doing here? Get your ass back to your post!"
Naruto knew he was talking about him, snapping off a stiff salute he hoped was accurate before turning on his heel and making his way to the exit. He looked back, seeing the child continue to cry and her mother continuing to try and reach out to her. He made a promise that once the fireworks go off, this was where he would strike the Imperials and their unsavoury allies first. With that thought solidified into a personal promise, he left the platform and continued on with his "work".
The fifth and sixth pens housed mostly humans and near-humans: political prisoners who spoke out against the Empire, from what he could gather. The seventh through the tenth held Confederate prisoners, soldiers, engineers, technicians and medics.
The last two held Wookiees. Naruto had seen them before, on Kashyyyk during the conclave, the warriors and hunters who had guarded their borders during that important meeting of Jedi. They were huge, strong and powerful. Compared to those warriors these Wookiees looked a little worse for wear, malnourished and dehydrated. Aayla had told him that Wookiees were carnivorous, and their great size meant that they needed to eat considerably more than the usual sentient. These Wookiees looked exhausted and sick, to such a degree that many of them were wobbling on their feet and struggling to remain standing.
He placed the last tag on the cage, managing not to flinch as the nearest Wookiee emitted a feral growl. He had to further hide his surprise when he realized that this was the first female Wookiee he had ever seen, if her six protruding breasts were any indicator, as she was using one of them to nurse the unconscious infant in her long arms. Naruto ignored the feral warning, turning on his heel and passing by the two Imperial troopers guarding the gate, looking back at his wrist chrono for the time: another minute, maybe two, then all hell would break loose.
Naruto smirked as he walked back into the shadows and ducked out of sight. With a chakra-propelled leap, he flew up, landing a foot onto the flat wall and placing just enough chakra into it to allow him to stick to the surface. He began to walk, allowing his henge to melt away as he resumed his usual appearance. He made it a few confident steps before using the surface as a springboard to launch himself the additional length towards the rafters.
He walked along his chosen path, looking down at the sight below him for a long moment before checking his chrono. The timer was counting down; reaching ten seconds by the time he had a look at it. His attention was suddenly diverted as a blaster shot rang through the air.
Naruto's head darted to the left, taking in the sudden, eerie silence as he looked down at the central platform of the hanger. He couldn't see much from this height, so he pumped some chakra into his eyes to sharpen his senses. His vision magnified, and his mind took in the sight.
A Tygerrian was standing over the prone form of the Twi'lek mother, wisps of smoke rising from a burn mark on her chest. The toddler was lying on her stomach, crying, and was kicked away by the slaver. Naruto knew the plan, but everything in his brain was rewired by the carnage before him.
He broke out into a run and jumped off the edge, diving down just as the explosives Celeste and their ARC Troopers planted across the space port went off with a series of dull booms. Naruto didn't hear them, and didn't care as he saw the confusion of the Imperials and slavers below, his target was in his sights and with a few seconds remaining between him and the ground he performed a somersault, pumping chakra into his feet to cushion his fall.
He landed on the platform, right in front of the Tygerrian slaver. The furry mammal could only look at him, cruel smirk giving way to surprise as Naruto drew a kunai and imbedded it in his neck, a spurt of blood exploded from the wound as the slaver fell to the floor, gurgling.
The Shinobi wasn't finished, using the confusion of the explosions to draw one of his blaster pistols and aiming it right at the group of officers, dropping three of them as the rest retreated to the cover of the stairs. Naruto then spun around, just as a Trandoshan rushed him with a knife. He sidestepped the lunge, grabbed the outstretched hand and snapped it like a twig, following up by grabbing the sentient's neck and snapping it in a similar fashion with a twist of his wrist.
He used the now-limp body as a shield, allowing it to take blaster bolts from the last two standing slavers on the podium. He aimed down the sight of his own pistol, and killed both of them with quick successive shots, putting one to their foreheads and two into their chests each to make sure the job was done right. Satisfied, he dropped the dead Trandoshan and with his free hand made a basic sign and whispered a single word, "Kai."
There was a quick series of echoing bangs, and then all hell broke loose. The eerie silence, before being broken by the sounds of booted feet as the Imperial troopers began surrounding the central dais, was now filled with the sounds of shouts and roars, followed a handful of seconds later by blaster fire and the sounds of combat.
Naruto began to move, drawing his sword from the sheathe at the small of his back as he approached the slaves, the little girl seemed completely unaware of what had just happened, continuing to cry over her mother's still form. The other two slaves shrunk back in fear, while the Wookiee didn't move, simply looked at him with dark, unreadable eyes.
He started with the Wookiee, pumping chakra into the blade of his katana as he swung, cutting the chains holding the great creature at bay before moving onto the others, finishing with the little girl. He checked the child's parent for a pulse, finding none and with a shake of his head he closed her wide eyes and then proceeded to break the inconsolable child's chains. The woman looked roughly the same age as Aayla, was all Naruto could think about as he broke the links with his bare hands instead of his katana, not wanting to scare the child any further.
Naruto couldn't help her, not at the moment. He rose to his feet and walked to the Wookiee, who was rising to his full intimidating height, looking right at him as he stopped right in his path. The blonde Shinobi craned his neck up to look the creature right in the eyes, and then grinned, "Do you know how to use blasters?"
The hulking Wookiee nodded with a grunt.
"Excellent," Naruto chirped as he reached into the folds of his long-coat and pulled out a scroll, tearing off the seal and placing it open onto the ground. He searched the list of kanji until he found what he was looking for, "then you're going to love this."
A puff of smoke heralded his weapon of choice for the towering creature, a heavy weapons blaster cannon. A weapon that would take a fully trained and fit soldier to operate and even then just barely, though for a Wookiee it would be the perfect weapon. It was obvious the great creature shared that sentiment, barking in agreement as he knelt down to pick the huge weapon up with little effort.
A unit of Stormtroopers had just reached the edge of the stairs when the Wookiee brought the weapon in their direction and pulled the trigger, releasing a torrent of red bolts into their ranks, a five second barrage left five dead on the ground and another falling off the edge with a cut off scream.
"Huh," Naruto murmured as he looked at the carnage, "that worked better than I thought it would."
His words were punctuated as the Wookiee made a series of noises which could only be laughter.
"Glad you agree," Naruto replied as he walked towards the edge of the platform and looked down at the chaos below. The fighting below was obviously going in favour of the recently released prisoners, but it was at a heavy cost. The bodies of at least five people were lying around each dead Stormtrooper.
The chaos he saw was something that would destroy their plan, recently freed men, women and children were rushing to the exits while the soldiers and Wookiees took the blasters from the dead soldiers. Naruto saw the danger immediately; at the moment, only death awaited those who left this hangar.
"No," Naruto shouted out into the hangar, "No, don't go out there! You'll die if you go out there! Don't go out there!"
His words were falling on deaf ears.
"NO!" Naruto shouted, feeling his voice go hoarse from his shouting, "Listen to me, please don-"
He was interrupted by an echoing roar which was so loud that it almost brought Naruto to his knees, bringing his hands up to hold his ears which were ringing. Where his voice didn't reach them the Wookiees did, and the clamour and chaos stopped. Every one of the freed slaves and prisoners looked up at the platform to see a blond haired human man flanked by a huge Wookiee.
Naruto looked up at the Wookiee – this one was male - with an exhale of breathe, "Thanks for that."
The Wookiee answered with a low mewl.
"Yeah, I know my ears are ringing too," he looked out over the scene, now silenced as nearly a thousand faces all looked up at the podium, "Wow, kind of intimidating now."
He looked at the Wookiee, then back at the crowd and cleared his throat.
"All soldiers and those with combat experience grab a blaster and secure the exits. Anyone who looks like a Stormtrooper comes through, shoot him until I say otherwise," Naruto shouted into the crowd, seeing that people were already moving to commandeer the blasters from their former owners, "All non-combat personnel, please stay out of the soldiers' lines of fire until I say otherwise! Help is coming people! Just be patient and don't panic!"
Orderly movement was now taking place. Civilians who were at one point running to the exits were now moving back, replaced by former Confederate troops and Wookiees armed with blasters, setting themselves up into ranks and firing positions. Naruto watched as the mass of people below him got themselves into place, all following his instructions to the letter.
Once they were all in place, he turned back to his temporary aide and lieutenant, "You understand Basic, right?"
The Wookiee nodded in affirmative.
"Good," Naruto nodded, "I'm expecting some visitors, a Jedi and a handful of guys wearing old Clone Trooper armour, get these guys to not shoot at them; they're friendly."
The Wookiee hesitated a moment, before nodding his head.
"Alright," the Shinobi grinned before looking up at the rafters, seeing movement, "I couldn't have said that any sooner."
There was a soft thumb representing her arrival, followed by a quartet of black cables landing on the ground a moment later. Celeste landed in a crouch and the four ARC Troopers zip wired down the cables and landed in a protective circle, blasters pointing to the four directions of the campus.
"Excellent, you're here," Naruto exclaimed, walking over to the former Shadow and placing his hands on her shoulders, "Just curious, where did that big explosion come from?"
She smiled a little shyly, "Oh, err…Those were the buildings the garrison used as a barracks."
"I love you so much right now," Naruto smirked before turning back to the four ARC Troopers, clearing his throat before he spoke in a commanding tone, "Secure the stairs to the north and the south, two man fire-teams let's move!"
The ARC Troopers moved with purpose, breaking off into their two man teams without a moment of hesitation and moving to their task. Naruto watched them work before turning back to his friend, "I love watching these guys work."
"Military precision usually does that to soldiers," Celeste replied with a nod.
"Good point," Naruto agreed as he looked over the hanger bay, "Let's hope the other units complete their jobs or this will be a really short trip."
"They'll get it done."
"I know; just worrying is all."
Celeste looked at him with a wry smile, "Since when were you a pessimist?"
Naruto looked back at her with deadly seriousness, "Since now."
Nath Swell was not a man to be taken lightly. The ageing Neimoidian took pride in his reputation and experience. While not nearly as well known or feared as the likes of Grievous or Count Dooku, he was well-known enough to make an enemy commander stop and think before engaging him.
He heralded a now-lost time amongst his people, before the Trade Federation became the dominant force in his people's politics, a time when the Neimoidians actually had some fight in them and didn't fit the now-stereotypical persona as businessmen and cowards. The ageing Admiral sighed in his chair, one of the last of a dying breed.
It was his fleet who fought the Republic, and later the Empire, in the territory of the Purse Worlds. The home fleet had been whittled down thanks to the war, more and more droids began to replace flesh and blood soldiers, training had become lax and as the war intensified, and his ships had been commandeered for what was now considered fruitless offensive actions.
When the Republic struck the Purse Worlds, they came in force, and his own defensive fleet had been too small to successfully repel them. Instead, the ageing Admiral had opted for hit and run tactics: come in fast, hit them fast, and leave fast, not allowing his squadrons to be bogged down and destroyed by the bigger and more powerful Star Destroyers. No, speed was the key with his Carriers and Frigates.
But they had been fighting another seasoned commander, Jedi Master Plo Koon, a skilled tactician, a fine and fearless warrior. Swell had felt great pride in fighting one of the oldest and wisest blades of the Jedi Order. Ancient warrior blood, which he had thought was long spent, began to boil and tingle as he locked horns with one of the finest the Jedi could offer.
Order Sixty-Six came around this time. Koon had been shot down and killed by his own pilots while fighting in the atmosphere of Cato Neimoidia. A few hours later, half of Swell's vessels turned from great warships belching turbolaser and ion fire to becoming nothing more than derelict hulks floating in space as the droid command controls on Mustafar were deactivated. In one stroke, he had lost half of his remaining armada.
He ordered a retreat.
To continue to fight would have doomed what was left of his fleet, and it would have also brought the wrath of the enemy upon his home worlds in retaliation. His thoughts were to retreat now and live to fight another day. It was then that his ship was hit, right in the main engine nacelles, leaving the Hammer of Neimoidia, his flagship, a crippled animal in space. She was immediately surrounded, boarded and taken.
He was now a prisoner of the Empire. He remained a prisoner, for almost two years.
For the longest time, he wondered why they had kept him alive, then he realized…they were using him and a few other Confederate commanders as bait, luring in the last great Armada of the Separatists to rip apart and destroy them. He knew their plan. The Inquisitor who tormented him so frequently had made it quite clear what they were going to do - first to his fleet, and then to him.
Life expectancy was short, chances of survival nil and now chances of his fleet getting out of this ambush the Imperials set were slim at best, non-existent at worst. The fleet that had escaped Neimoidia, coupled with remnants and survivors of at least ten other battles which ended the same way would meet their end here, in the orbit of this unknown lump of rock in the middle of the Outer-rim.
It was…absolutely infuriating! The despair that came with his righteous fury only made it worse.
His anguished thoughts were interrupted by the unmistakable sounds of blaster fire, followed by shouts and screams. He did not hide. He was not a Trade Federation lackey. He continued to sit in his chair, eyeing the steel door, clasping his hands together for his chin to lean on as he waited.
The door opened, slowly with a great creek.
A Stormtrooper, minus his blaster, was the one who opened the door. The clone staggered into the room, attempting for a brief stuttering moment to reach for his blaster pistol holstered to his thigh before the last of his life left him and he fell face first to the ground. The Admiral looked down at the body, noticing a black charcoal mark on his back.
"Wow," a gravelly voice echoed through the darkness behind the now half opened door, "I'm a little disappointed. I remember my brethren being tougher than this."
A clone, dressed in now-ageing Advanced Recon Commando armour, entered the room. He was holding a smoking blaster pistol which he holstered in a smooth motion as he looked over at the Separatist Commander glancing back at him with a calculating eye. Swell could tell almost immediately that he was looking at a clone of a far earlier generation than the Stormtrooper types which guarded him.
"Admiral Swell, I presume?"
The Admiral studied the clone who had invited himself into the interrogation chamber, seeing the familiar face of the long deceased Mandalorian bounty hunter and assassin Jango Fett looking right back at him. He studied the tanned face, dark eyes and short black hair.
"Are you here to kill me?" he asked with wary confusion.
"Not right now," the clone replied, pointing a thumb towards the door, "I'm just a representative."
"Oh, a representative you say?" the Neinoidian replied dubiously, "and just who do you represent?"
"Someone you'll want to meet," Rex replied, "On your feet, Admiral."
"Do I have a choice?" the Admiral asked as he stood up, hand moving instinctively to catch a thrown blaster pistol by the barrel. He checked the weapons cartridge, half listening as his supposed rescuer replied to his sarcastic question with a sadistic smirk.
"Not really. But I'm pretty sure that you'd rather come with me and have the possibility of a chance to fight again than stay here knowing you're going to die a meaningless death."
"I see," The Neimoidian narrowed his eyes, unbuckling a utility belt from around the dead Stormtroopers waist and fastening it around his own, holstering the pistol before answering the former Commander, "Very well, then. Lead on."
"What's happening out there?" Naruto tapped the earpiece, settling it into his right ear as he listened in for his partner in crimes response.
"Seems that troop movements are concentrated mainly around the barracks," Celeste replied, safely tucked away on the roof of the closest hanger to the scene of devastation, "They're going to start fanning out soon enough, though."
"Gotcha," Naruto nodded his head, eyes closed and frown in place as he thought, turning to the nearest ARC Trooper and motioning him to come to him. The soldier looked at his partner; both stationed at the far exit, before moving towards his proxy commander, "Are you able to check with the hijacking team?"
The clone hesitated, and then nodded.
"Good! Set up a secure line and check to see if they've taken the ship."
The ARC Trooper nodded, hand clasping onto the right side of his helmet as he began finding a secure line between him and the hijacking team barely a hundred meters away from the entrance to their hangar. The soldier purposefully ignored the glare from the crouched Wookiee as he continued his work.
Naruto eyed the clone before bringing his attention back to the small bundle in his arms. The Twi'lek toddler had cried herself to sleep, but he swore he could still hear a slight hiccup escape her cracked lips from time to time. He had placed a blanket over her guardian's body; the woman could have been a mother or an aunt, maybe no blood relation at all. He didn't know, but she deserved the decency to having her body covered.
"I think we've waited on Rex for long enough," the blond murmured as he got to his feet, catching the glances of the ARC Troopers and the Wookiee, "If I know Rex, he'll make it to the rendezvous on time, so we need to as well."
"Yes sir."
"Send word to all soldiers and militia, let them know we're going to be making a run for it," Naruto ordered as he drew his dual blaster pistols to check their energy packs, quickly holstering them again as he picked up the semi-comatose child, "Armed personnel are to create a perimeter around civilians, herd the non-combatants away from the hangar and towards the rendezvous point. Hail the hijacking team and tell them to watch their fire. That goes for the Seps as well."
"Yes sir."
"You hear that Celeste?" he asked, pressing the earpiece into his lobe.
"Loud and clear," came her reply.
"Good! Get your ass down here! I'm going to need your blade!"
"On my way."
Naruto nodded his head to himself before changing the frequency, "Rex, do you read me?"
There was nothing but static.
The Shinobi drew in a shallow breathe, "Shit."
He then made his way towards the stairs, four ARC guards and towering Wookiee flanking him as he descended the steps two to three at a time. The moment he hit the floor he was assailed by stares and looks from the recently freed prisoners, the majority shying away the moment they saw the ARC Troopers and Naruto was sure he could feel the trigger fingers tightening on those who were armed, but a raised hand from him made them stall.
"Ladies and gentlemen, sorry for the delay…" he began, raising his voice for those in the immediate vicinity to hear, wincing a little when the child in his arms stirred, "…but we'll be making a move shortly. My hijack team has managed to get us transportation and the interceptors have created enough confusion so that the majority of the Imps will be too busy to notice us. There is going to be a firefight though, so I would recommend civilians and untrained personnel remain here until we soldiers clear a path for you."
"Why should we trust you?" a human woman, holding a terrified child in her arms, demanded.
"Well, for starters," Naruto began with a grin as he activated his transformation technique, features and clothes melting into the visage of the Imperial officer he masqueraded barely half an hour before, "I was the one who got you out of your cells. Remember this ugly mug?"
His demonstration got what he was looking for, a collection of gasps and widened eyes, and his visage of the Imperial officer smirked before melting back into the tall, muscular and blond original. The woman was indeed very speechless, for she swallowed a lump in her throat, "What... what are you, a Jedi?"
"Good guess, but no," Naruto replied nonchalantly, "I'm kind of a different breed of animal, though for those of you wishing to see something more familiar, I am working together with a former Jedi."
There was a soft thump, and he turned his head slightly to see Celeste landing in a crouch, rising to her feet and hissing in discomfort as she began to shake her legs. The shining metal of her lightsaber hilt did not go unnoticed by their small crowd of onlookers.
"Speak of the devil," Naruto finished as he looked down at the former Jedi Shadow, "What's the word out there?"
"They're getting over the confusion," she replied, "We got five, maybe ten minutes before this whole area is swarming with Stormtroopers and militia. I recommend going now."
"I second your recommendation," Naruto nodded before turning back to the ever-increasing crowd, "I want anyone with authority front and centre, right now, time is not on our side."
One by one a dozen individuals made their way through the throng of people. Naruto eyed a few towering Wookiees who gave growls of greeting to the one watching his back, a few humans, a Neimoidian, a Mon Calamarian and a Utupaun. He eyed them, noticing their torn and ripped military fatigues and the blasters at their hip, commandeered from the dead Imperials and slavers who now littered the floor.
"You heard my original command?" Naruto asked.
They nodded.
"Good, then step to it. You have two minutes," he ordered with a sweep of his hand, and they moved without hesitation or complaint. The civilians may not completely understand their situation but these guys certainly did, any argument or vendetta could be finished some other time, for now they were all unlikely allies in the middle of enemy territory.
He then turned to Celeste and handed her the child, a look muffling her protest, "This is going to be a fight with blasters, not lightsabers. You're going to lead the civilians to the Frigate. The ARC Troopers are yours to command for this. I'm going to help lead the spearhead."
Celeste glowered at him for a long moment, before relenting and nodding her head, "Good luck."
"You too," He replied, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder before turning and making his way to the front, the crowd of onlookers parting for him. He looked over to see the Wookiee from earlier shadowing him, hefting the large blast cannon as he walked, "I take it you're going to be my wingman for this?"
He got a low howl of agreement in response.
Rex looked down at his chrono, frowning as he cleaned the blood from his combat knife, "Time's running out; Naruto is going to need to make a move soon."
He turned to his squad, eyeing the two high-profile targets they had acquired from the Imperials: A Separatist Admiral and a high-ranking operative in their Intelligence Service. If anyone had told him a few years ago that he was going to be taking part in such a mission, he would have openly laughed at whoever said it.
But now?
'How things change over the course of time,' he thought to himself as the irony of his situation wasn't lost on him.
"It'll take another four minutes to reach them," Jolt said from the rear of their little team, his blaster carbine trained at the corridor they had just come through as his gaze was set straight ahead, over the dozen bodies lying on the floor.
"By then, they're going to be making their way to the Frigate. We're going to need to change plans," Rex agreed as he looked ahead.
Carmine and Lev were in the lead, their illegally-modified blaster rifles trained on anything which came at them. He turned to the Admiral, who was busy reloading his pistol, "When we get you to a comm. unit we're going to need you to send a message to the fleet. Order them to withdraw to the coordinates my people give you."
"I would ask if this were a trap," Swell replied as he slammed the fresh energy pack into his pistol, "But if you wanted to wipe me and my fleet out, then here would have been the easiest and most precise route."
"I agree," the Intelligence Director replied in agreement.
Ruk Sull was a calm and shrewd individual, definitely one of those agents who got to where they were through field work rather than a desk job.
Sull continued, "The only thing I can think of besides their proposal was that they were trying to see if we had any fleet units in reserve, but the Imperials are aware of our desperate situation. It would be a waste of time and resources if they were planning on betraying us."
"As intriguing as that option would have been to me a year or two ago, I can say that Director Sull is correct," Rex nodded his head, eyes snapping behind to see a trio of black clothed Imperial Regulars skid around the corner, quickly dispatched by Carmine and Lev, "The man I answer to believes that the only way the Confederates, us and the Jedi are to survive would be to work together."
"So the rumours were true," Sull said with narrowed eyes, "There is someone gathering the renegades and supposed traitors together."
Rex's reply was accompanied by a knowing smirk, "Our choices are only two: we either die apart or work together and survive. We can't fight as we are now - a few hundred Jedi and ARC Troopers - but if we had the guns of a former Separatist fleet? Well that changes the game, now, doesn't it?"
"Changes the game, indeed," the Admiral smirked, raising his pistol and putting a crimson bolt into another Regular who skidded around the corridor before Carmine could fire, "Ask me that a year ago and I would have called you an idiot, but at the moment an alliance with the Jedi sounds more appealing than the alternative. Get me to a comm. unit, and I'll get my forces out of here. You'll get your fleet, Commander."
Rex offered a quick mock salute in response, "Much obliged, Admiral."
Author's Note: Bought the new Halo game during the weekend, just finished playing the campaign... it was great, as a Halo fan I was a little worried when Bungie sold the rights to the franchise to this new band, 343, but after playing the game I can say that it was a great start to a new saga. The graphics, the gameplay, the action, cut-scenes, even the storyline was great. I ain't going to spoil anything but I think this game feels like a reboot to the entire franchise and it was worth the wait.
On another piece of Sci-fi news Lucas Arts was taken over by Disney, and they have announced that they will be doing another trilogy of Star Wars movies... this can either go very well or very wrong very fast. Then again, they can't do much worse than Jar-Jar, can they? If they are going to do a new trilogy I hope it'll be from the books, mainly the Thrawn or Dark Empire Trilogy, I would pay to see those in cinema! If I don't see a red-head in the first trailer then I will be sorely disappointed. That's right. I'm a Mara-Jade fan!