AN: This part was betaed by the following people on the Space Battles forum: Gatemaster! Thank you for the great work!

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed or Star Wars. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not created with commercial aim. I make no money from it.

Phase 15: Intrigues

=RK=

Part 3

Great Hall, Jedi Temple, Coruscant

I shouldn't be surprised. Not at all.

What was irritating me wasn't the dirty looks many Jedi were giving my apprentice or me. It was kind of expected. It wasn't a problem with the inspection either, which was a pleasant surprise. The GAR engineers working on the Temple were a competent bunch.

It was the damn alarm which started blaring that soured my mood. The building was being put on lock-down.

The clones who were on guard duty scrambled to seal up the exits and cover the various civilians that were in the building for one reason or another.

I turned to the lieutenant who was our guide and ordered: "Take us to the security control room at once."

The clone gave me a crisp salute and headed to the far end of the Great Hall, and we followed suit.

The damn Jedi just couldn't stay out of trouble!

=RK=

Bane finally reached his destination, and started slicing through the vault defenses. Behind him, the irritating tin-can provided by the Sith Lord's agent's was doing the same.

The mercenary was already starting to regret agreeing to this assignment. He was almost caught by a clone patrol before entering the ventilation shafts and then he was moments from being sliced into salad by a giant kriffing fan!

That didn't even take into an account the insane extraction plan, which apparently consisted of five idiots raising hell within the Temple so he could get away with the prize.

=RK=

My apprentice and me were admitted into the security center of the Jedi Temple, after another round of scans and checks. I left the troops outside and entered, accompanied only by Aria.

Inside we found the Clone commander, who was in charge of the troopers protecting the building, four of his men working on various consoles, and of course a group of Jedi. Those were Yoda, who had a deep frown on his face, Ayala Secura, who until recently was leading the GAR forces on Felucia. To my pleasant surprise, the third Jedi in the room was Shaak Ti, who have me a curt nod. My only disappointment was that she was wearing heavy robes, which hid her mouth watering figure.

"Deep in the Temple, the intruders are." declared Yoda.

I smirked at his words.

"I hope you don't mean us, Master Yoda." I said, unable to keep the amusement from my voice.

He glanced at me. The look he gave me was enough to summarize his feelings on that question. It practically screamed "Children, these days..."

Yoda closed his eyes for a moment and I could sense him drawing on he Force, which swirled around him, caressing the small being like a gentle wind.

"Possible it is, inside help help, they have." stated the Jedi Grandmaster. He went to a nearby console with a built in comm unit and spoke with deceptive calmness in his voice.

"Possible deception I sense. Disguised as a Jedi, the intruder may be. Find Madam Jocasta, you must."

"I take it that Ahsoka is in for some fun time." I muttered. Unless they found her another job to keep the little spitfire busy.

=RK=

Archives, Jedi Temple, Coruscant

"Bane, the two Jedi have turned around and making their way towards you." said the Archivist.

Ahsoka frowned. That was the old woman's voice, all right. However, the padawan couldn't really believe that the sweet old lady was the one helping the intruders. She tried to feel that person through the Force and frowned. Whoever was masquerading as madam Jocasta was someone Ahsoka had never met before.

She drew her lightsaber and used the Force to pull the stranger as well as the chair she was sitting on towards her. The doppelganger shouted in surprise as she flew backwards and landed in a heap at Ahsoka's feet.

The Padawan glared at the confused expression of the old woman, who in turn was starring at the green lightsaber blade pointing at her head.

"Who are you? What did you do with the Archivist?" growled Ahsoka.

The shape-shifter sneered: "The same thing I'm going to do to you!"

Ahsoka felt a warning coming through the Force and jumped back. She barely evaded the needles which were shot from the wrists of the Archivist's double.

The impostor wasted no time and jumped to her feet, grabbing the lightsaber hilt she had retrieved from the old woman. She had to deal with this girl fast and get away from the Temple while she still had a chance.

The mercenary charged at the padawan, holding the saber in a comfortable two handed grip. She hoped that her skills with a vibroblade would be up to the task.

For an instant, Ahsoka was surprised by the sheer ferocity of the onslaught. She hadn't expected that someone who wasn't a Force sensitive to be more than marginally proficient with a lightsaber.

The Togruta fell back, deflecting the blows raining on her with practiced ease. A powerful strike pushed her to a nearby table, and she twisted to her left, avoiding the next attack which sliced through the furniture.

Ahsoka glared at the impostor and went on the offensive.

In the next few seconds, the padawan found out, that despite somewhat skilled with a blade, her opponent didn't really know how to use a lightsaber. Tano locked their weapons together and used the Force to pick up a nearby chair, which she used to strike the impostor in the back.

The doppelganger was smashed against a computer console and slumped to the ground. The intruder's shape blurred, revealing her true form, that of a green alien female.

Ahsoka used the Force to slam her adversary to the ground, so she was on her back and her arms pointed away from the Jedi.

"I want answers!" hissed the padawan.

=RK=

Security center, Jedi Temple, Coruscant

"Master Skywalker, I caught the impostor. She says that the target is the holocron vault."

"That makes no sense!" I could hear Kenobi's exclamation over the comm. "The holocrons are protected. You need a genuine Jedi to retrieve the information."

Or a Sith who knew what he was doing, but I didn't say that aloud. If they thought that the holocrons could really be accessed only by Jedi, well, that was a delusion I was glad to let them keep.

"You can reach the communications tower from the vicinity of the vault if you cut through a few walls." said one of the clones, who was examining the Temple schematics.

"The vault is a decoy. We are going to the communications tower!" Anakin's distorted voice rumbled through the comm's speaker.

A moment later, we all could hear a subdued rumble.

"That was an explosion at the Vault!" informed us one of the clones.

"Is this a diversion?" wondered Master Secura.

"Perhaps. Cloak's the future, the Dark Side does..." murmured Yoda. "See the truth I can not."

"Sirs, we just lost the sensor grid over the comm tower!" shouted one of the clones.

"I'm detecting a jamming field there too!" added another.

Anakin and Obi-Wan, who were patched through to the Security Center, could hear that too.

"The Vault is a diversion! We are heading towards the tower."

"Seal that section of the Temple at once!" ordered Shaak Ti. "No one leaves it without being cleared by a Jedi Master first!"

I heard a clicking sound from the right, where the panel covering the air vent fell into the room. A short droid looked at us.

"Hey, guys!" it waved at us.

I could swear that this machine was acting nervous.

The Force screamed a warning, loud enough to cause a headache.

I acted without thinking, and grabbed Aria's arm, pulling her behind me. In the same time I was wrenching as much Force power as I could into my grasp, and desperately molded it into a shield in front of us.

The Jedi's were scrambling too. Shaak Ti, who had the bulk of a massive holoprojector between her and the small droid grabbed the surprised commander, and dragged him to the ground.

Yoda and Master Secura, who were next to the robot sent telekinetic waves at it. I could see a shield flaring to life around it, absorbing most of the power which struck it.

Nevertheless, the droid was pushed back. I could hear it impacting the wall of the air-duck.

Then it exploded, showering Yoda and Ayala with a stream of liquid fire. The geometry of the air-shaft worked against the Jedi, channeling a significant part of the blast-wave straight at them.

My hastily erected shield was buffered by the dissipating blast wave, but it held easily.

I could sense that the two of them were alive. Through the smoke, I could barely make out a shimmer where the two Jedi Masters stood. I waved my hand, sending a telekinetic wave of my own, which dispersed a lot of the smoke, revealing that Yoda had erected a shield to protect them.

My estimations of the little fellas abilities were raised up even further.

"This is another diversion." I stated, meaning the attempt to bomb us. I could feel clones dying in the Temple.

=RK=

Holocron Vault, Jedi Temple, Coruscant

Bane could hear a pair of Jedi running by near his hiding place. He smiled when they passed him without taking any note. So that medallion he was carrying actually worked. How interesting. The possibilities...

But this was not the time for scheming. He had work to do.

The mercenary moved to the half blown Vault door and squeezed himself through the hole. Once inside he looked around. Three of the walls, as well as a vast column, which was taking most of the space in the room, were covered top to bottom with small niches. Big enough for cubes little bigger than a grown man's fist.

He walked to the column and retrieved three of the objects at random. Bane knew that his client needed only one, but he wanted to have few spares. Just in case.

Now, it was time to see if the extraction plan would work...

=RK=

Communications Tower, Jedi Temple, Coruscant

When Kenobi and Skywalker reached their destination, they found pandemonium waiting for them. There were three squads of clones cut to pieces with lightsabers as well as the bodies of two Jedi Knights and their padawans.
The armored doors leading to the comm center were a twisted ruin. That caught Anakin's eye.

"Obi-Wan, those doors were blown from the inside!" exclaimed the younger Jedi.

"So it appears." agreed Kenobi.

They carefully entered the comm center. Their eyes were scanning all around for traps, and the Jedi searching for threats through the Force.

Inside they found only dead equipment and the bodies of the men and women who were supposed to operate it.

What got their attention was the ragged hole in the ceiling. It was painfully obvious how the intruders had gained entrance to the comm center.

"This section of the temple is being sealed off. They won't get away with it!" hissed Skywalker.

Obi-Wan looked at the mangled bodies lying around. Most of them had died in the explosion which had caved in the ceiling, but a few were finished with lightsaber strikes.

"I agree." whispered the Jedi Master.

=RK=

Security Center, Jedi Temple, Coruscant

"Commander, I want this whole building sealed off. No one leaves the Temple. Is that understood?" I ordered the clone officer.

"Yes, sir!" he answered and started snapping orders of his own.

"This is an internal Jedi matter." protested Master Secura, who had escaped the explosion intact.

"We can argue about it when the intruders are caught!" she was cut off by Shaak Ti. "We have bigger problems, so I don't want any bickering about who is in charge!" she glared both at her fellow Jedi Master and myself.

"There will be no problems from my side, Master Shaak Ti." I answered formally.

"Stopped, the intruders, must be." declared Yoda. "Deception within deception, I sense. Careful, we must be."

"Sir, we just lost contact with one of the detachments escorting a group of civilian contractors." informed one of the clones.

=RK=

The two female infiltrators nodded at each other. They had acted a bit sooner than expected, but that was only because a golden opportunity had fallen in their hands. A pair of Jedi had ordered their padawans to help the clones escorting their group of civilians. So, a few minutes later, when they were reasonably sure that there were no Jedi in their immediate vicinity, the covert operatives pounced.

They used the Force to surprise the wet-behind-the-ears padawans, summoning their blades and slamming the unfortunate youngsters in the nearby wall. Then, they ignited the weapons and pounced on the squad of clones escorting them.

Before the padawans could recover, the troopers were dead and the assassins cut them down as well.

The stunned civilians were next to fall.

The pair of assassins then separated, running towards their assigned targets.