The Silent Prayer skipped twice and then carved a deep groove into the ground, vitrifying it as it slid across the gap and slammed into the wall. The front of the ship crumpled, but its massive size and speed shattered the historic stone walls around the ancient city of Lessu and stopped, wedged into the city like a knife lodged in the body of the city.
The once elaborate design of the ship had been melted smooth by reentry, antenna, airlocks, everything was gone, replaced with a smooth, glowing metal shell that hid the horrors within and then that shell was ripped apart with the impact of the ground, the cliffs and the wall, revealing an interior twisted by the forces which had finally stopped the ship.
Even before it stopped moving, Mace Windu was running forward, his troopers at his back. The Twi-lek's mounts couldn't fit through the ship, or run atop it, so they had to get the plasma bridge up, which meant getting through the Silent Prayer. Oppressive heat hit him in the face as he approached, but a glance showed a jagged tear in the bottom of the ship near him. Focusing his will, he Force pulled the tear upwards in a shriek of tearing metal and created an opening for himself and his men and began racing forward into the belly of the ship.
XXX
"I'm stuck. Engineering is completely collapsed. It's going to take me hours to dig my way out. You'll have to get to Leo, Jedi."
"You have contact with the outside and my people?" Aayla asked, looking around the vast open space of the hanger. No one was hurt. The last bump had actually been less bad than the second one, though the lights were flickering and everything else had stopped.
"Of course. Go, now, I'll direct the rescue teams to your people. Get Leo, now."
Aayla nodded and excused herself from the group so as to not start a panic and then was running. She was following SIS's directions, even as the ex-slaves she left behind were contacted by SIS began giving them instructions on how to rendezvous with the advancing clones and gave Windu instructions on the fastest route through the ship (that didn't intersect Leo's position) and began digging herself out and worried about Leo.
"Tell Master Secura we have two targets. Tambor, who should be heading for the palace shuttleport and the plasma bridge controls. The Twi'lek forces are waiting by the bridge to join us. Our troops alone may be insufficient given the number of droids still in the city."
"I will pass your message along and let you know what objective she will target," SIS said. "Communication difficulty prevents immediate response," she lied.
Aayla moved through the hallways, easily clearing damaged sections, or carving through the occasional jammed door. "Are there any Black Sun troops left?" she asked as she paused, cutting through a door.
"You're probably walking through some of them. You didn't feel it, but that impact was…intense. I think the whole ship probably has a thin coating of Black Sun jam over it."
"Any survivors?" Aayla asked, trying not to let that image soak in too deep.
"Power is down. No surveillance is left. It's possible they survived, but only in the same way that it's possible for a Twi'lek to survive a fall from ten thousand feet. It occasionally happens due to fluke circumstances, but is incredibly rare."
"I see."
"The Separatists are attempting to shove the Prayer off. They're mostly burning, but I may need to pull the Balls back to provide air support."
"What?"
"Oh, sorry, running a few too many things. Forgot I didn't tell you that, I'm also flying the Balls to deal with the bomber raids."
"The Balls? Blazer's ship is called the Balls? Why am I not surprised?" Aayla asked as she moved through the hole she'd just carved and moved forward to the last door.
"Because you're idealistic not stupid."
"I'm also here," Aayla said, arriving at a door with a hole already blown through it. She flicked her lightsaber to life in order to widen the hole.
"If you use your lightsaber on Leo, you will not wake up tomorrow morning," SIS said. "Also, he heard you and is coming."
Aayla could feel that the later statement was definitely true. Pure aggression was coming at her, shockingly fast for a non-Force-using Human. The lightsaber died and she dropped it. Meeting his aggression with hers would be a mistake.
Leo dove through the hole and she a Force-push slammed him into the ceiling. Blood dropped from the blade in one of his hands and the ripped-off table leg he held in his other. More blood dripped from his mouth, not his own. His helmet was lost somewhere, armor torn, metal stuck from his flesh where shrapnel had buried itself in him and there were flash burns from near misses, or hits that his armor, or other people prevented from having their full effect. Looking into his eyes, she saw only hatred and felt only mindless aggression, nothing in him of the man she could almost claim to know.
She let him drop towards her. His weapons came towards her as he kicked off the ceiling and turned to land on his feet. The Jedi caught his head as he fell, setting him on his feet and using the same technique she'd used to put him out to prevent exactly this scenario from arising back on Vraxis. He collapsed backwards, weapons falling from his hands and he would have fallen backwards, but for her hand holding him up.
She bent and lifted him up over her shoulder, grateful that the Force strengthened her. He wasn't a large man, but he was heavy enough, even without the armor. When she was certain she had him properly balanced, she Force pushed the door open. It peeled back like a Meiloorun fruit, opening wide enough for both of them to fit and stepped through. It was like a scene out of a horror vid. There were bodies and body parts everywhere. She recognized a clone, its face half caved in from what was clearly post-mortem trauma, a few Twi'leks whose corpses were in a similar state, but mostly the bodies were slavers. They had not died easily, or well. Nor had their corpses remained unmolested.
There were bite marks, knife wounds and crushing injuries as well as marks from what were clearly Human fingernails, or fists.
"This is Master Aayla Secura of the Jedi Order. Is anyone still alive in here?" she yelled.
The doors opened, and blasters stuck out, held by clones, so Aayla relaxed. "General!" they said, simultaneously from both ends of the corridors, then looked down at the mass of blood and body parts that covered the floor.
"Ma'am? I think there's something out here. We heard some…noises," the senior clone trooper said as he walked delicately forward and gave Leo's unconscious body a remarkably suspicious look.
"I've dealt with it."
"General Secura," SIS put in. "General Windu wants to know whether you want to capture Wat Tambor, or put the plasma bridge back up?"
Aayla's eyes sparked. "Tambor."
"I've got directions for you."
Aayla nodded and passed Leo to the nearest clone, along with orders to get him back to the advancing troops for treatment. A moment of searching found an intact comm unit and SIS was inside it a moment later. "Get them back to the rest of the army," she ordered them, realizing that taking Leo's comm would be a mistake. They nodded, obedient to the command of a General, even if they had their own doubts and began gathering the other wounded. Those wounded included some whose wounds were not from the rescue, or the attempted counter-rescue. Instead they were clearly more deliberately and cruelly inflicted.
Aayla smiled to herself as she remembered Lithin being shot down by the survivors of his raids, then forced the smile off her face as it was both inappropriate to the circumstances and inappropriate for a Jedi at any time.
She was out of the room within the minute and sprinting towards the bridge. It was open to the air from the explosive Leo had dropped, or from the reentry, or from the crash. Regardless, it gave her a view of the spaceport and the city beyond, though it did put her more than a hundred feet up in the air. The hull was still so hot it was literally glowing. She sprinted forward and Force jumped up, onto the wall, rolling free and wishing once again for her own clothing as she painfully jarred her bare knee and then she ran. SIS's words were just background noise providing her direction.
She had been using the Force endlessly for most of the descent and her connection was not the strongest at the best of times. This needed to be ended fast, or she might not be able to end it at all. Traditional anti-Jedi techniques rely on either use of attacks which cannot be parried and are difficult to dodge, or on tactics which exhaust the Jedi combined with a single overwhelming final strike.
It would be embarrassing indeed to do that to herself, but she would not allow Tambor to escape. Not after all this. The man needed to face justice and he needed to face Ryloth. So she ran. It took only a few minutes, sprinting and jumping roof-to-roof for her to reach the palace shuttleport. There were three guard droids, which fell before they even had the chance to see her or make stupid comments, but Tambor wasn't there.
Aayla practically vibrated with the need for this to be done. "Where is he?"
"I don't have access to the palace security systems. Sorry, should have had you grab Leo's spike. I can give you the best route to the throne room, but I can't promise Tambor is on it."
"I've got a better idea," Aayla said, a tired smile appearing for a moment before she managed to force it off her face. "You can call the palace up, right?"
"Sure, off-planet communication is mostly jammed, but I can call it from the Balls."
"Good. Call every open communicator in the palace and tell them that the Jedi are coming."
"Okaaay. Usually Leo ad I try not to warn our target before we go after them, but we can try this the Jedi way," SIS responded even as Aayla watched a nearby wall communicator flash to life and reveal the twin wings of the symbol of the Jedi Order.
"The Jedi Order has come to arrest Wat Tambor for his many crimes. Do not resist and you will not be harmed," SIS said, voice blurred into ambiguity by the communicator.
Aayla focused and despite herself, she felt the smile grow again, "I feel his fear. It will be his undoing," she said, more to herself than to SIS and was moving through the halls. It wasn't a map, so she had to cut through a few walls to get where she was going, but she got there before Tambor could get his act together.
The communication room was full of droids, with Wat Tambor as the only organic in the entire place. Aayla entered from the back and Tambor was already running for the main entrance by the time she got through the hole she'd carved in the wall. "PROTECT ME!" Tambor yelled as he tried to open the door, only to find himself caught by a Force pull and yanked back painfully through the swarm of droids which had tried to obey his command.
He landed face-first on the ground before the Jedi, whose lightsaber hung over his head like certain doom. "Order them to stand down. Order all your troops to stand down," she said, voice a low whisper that went right through him.
He scrambled to his feet, "Stand down, all of you."
The tactical droid spoke, "Count Dooku's orders were to destroy all remaining population centers, including the capital if our control was at risk."
"I am countermanding those orders. Stand down, now!"
"We are not Techno Union droids, Emir. All units kill all T—" the Jedi ripped the droid's head off with a single wave of her hand, then bisected it as it flew towards her.
"Stand down, now!" Tambor screamed as the blade flickered right by his head.
"Roger-roger," all of the droids said. Then one, painted yellow stepped forward. "Uh, sir?"
"What?"
"We don't have control over the field or fleet units. Only he did," it waved a hand at the extremely disabled tactical droid.
"SIS?" Aayla asked.
"The order wasn't completed, units are still standing by, nothing has changed," SIS said. "The fleet engagement is almost over. Skywalker is preparing to strike at the carriers momentarily and air support should be available any time you need it."
"These droids listened to Tambor. Could he tell the ones outside the city to stand down?"
"Maybe, but the tactical bot was probably running all communications simultaneously. You'll have to contact each individual unit commander. The bots in the room should be able to set that up."
XXX
And so Aayla and Tambor ordered each individual platoon commander to stand down, until Master Windu got the bridge up and the rebels ripped the remainder apart. Between that attack, the clones moving through the city from the other side and Aayla continuing to order them to stand down, the capital was taken with shockingly few lives lost. As many of the hospitals doctors had been pillaged by the Black Sun and were suddenly all back on duty at once, the hospital situation was actually pretty good, even with clones and resistance fighters coming in.
SIS was most of the way out, but not entirely free yet and had lost most of her available activities with the destruction of the Separatist fleet and the capture of Tambor. She was finding digging her way out of the rubble of the ship quite dull and was, therefore, bugging Aayla to go check on Leo.
Aayla was not surprised to find Leo had a room of his own, the other bed in it left empty. Though, even under those circumstances, she was a bit surprised to see three doctors hanging around his room, examining things and chatting with each other. She took a quick glance at Leo, who appeared to be sleeping comfortably. Sometimes she'd heard other Jedi wax poetic about how innocent their Padawans looked while sleeping, but to her a sleeping person was almost like a corpse. Whatever spark made the person a person and not a droid was missing. Even if that spark was a sly cynicism masking something far, far deeper and potentially darker.
"Is he all right?" she asked.
They looked at her, saw the costume and she saw contempt and pity, which was replaced by confusion when they finally spotted the lightsaber hanging from her belt. Well, two of them did, the third was one of the liberated slaves and he bowed deeply to her. "Yes, we believe so, Master Jedi," he said. "However, we are very confused by his condition. We've provided a number of neutralizing compounds, for the drugs we could identify, however several are outside our combined experience and not recognized by the computer either. They appear to stimulants, or anesthetics, perhaps? Either way, we cannot account for his unconsciousness. Given the substances we neutralized and our theorized functions of the others it should be quite impossible for him to be unconscious."
"I did that," Aayla explained. "The Force makes many impossible things possible."
"I see. May I ask why?" the doctor asked curiously. "Does this man needs guards?"
"Not once the drugs are out of his system. He works for the Republic and was in the other set of cells."
One of the other doctors shook her head sadly. "I've been doing what I could for some of them. They've been tortured quite badly, but," her eyes narrowed, "it was entirely trauma torture, no pharmacological activity."
"Oh, he wasn't a prisoner. He went in to get them out with me. We didn't know about the other cells, so had to adapt our plan on the fly. Landing wasn't part of it originally either. Those changes left them trying to hold the area against overwhelming force. When it became clear they were going to lose…well, he doesn't like to lose."
"He did this to himself?" the third doctor asked.
"Yes. He said it was battle drugs and adrenaline stimulation?"
"Well, I mean, I guess that would be one set of effects, but the toxicity and side effects are—"
"Rather less than death."
"Which substances haven't they been able to neutralize?" SIS asked.
After a moment of acting as a pass-through for medical jargon, Aayla pulled the earpiece off her ear and passed it over to the doctor in charge and got out of the way. She did take a quick moment to look at the screen and memorize the compounds identified. It wasn't certain, but a suspicious part of her nature thought that somehow the doctor's notes would not survive SIS's first visit to the hospital. At the same time, she took a look at his bloodwork. Most of it was almost unpronounceable medical nonsense, but she was able to find the line she was looking for. Unless he had some way to fool the machines, even while unconscious, he definitely wasn't a Force user, not with those midi-chlorian
She had managed to grab some food at the palace before turning Tambor over to the joint resistance-Republic force that was going to decide what to do with the man. The locals wanted him tried under local law and either executed or imprisoned on planet. The Republic wanted him sent back to face trial on Coruscant, under the eyes of the galaxy.
That looked like a massive brewing fight which Aayla wanted no part of. But she did need rest and some more food, which the doctors actually pressed upon her, as well as offering her the use of the other bed in Leo's room. After a moment, she did so, only opening her eyes again when food arrived and when they announced they'd gotten everything out of his system and needed him awake to check for mental issues.
Aayla got up, restraining a groan at that, as strained muscles which had finally relaxed now lodged their formal complaints about mistreatment. "What about physical issues?"
"Some cuts and bruises, flash burns, an impressive bite on his shoulder, probably some pain issues with movement. But we shoved him in the hospital bacta tank for a while and got those handled, we think."
"I see," Aayla was impressed. Even a major hospital like this one would have a maximum of three such tanks and they were usually reserved for critical injuries. Though she supposed those were mostly in short supply, thankfully. Less thankfully, lots of people were either dead, or suffering from malnutrition, neither of which the tank could help with.
"Several of the other patients insisted he go before them, we didn't question it at the time, but I guess that's explained now."
"I see. You'll want to step back. A familiar face should be the first thing he sees."
SIS agreed with that, but disagreed on which familiar face it should be. Unfortunately, there had been a delay getting the droid out, due to a certain amount of concern over some leaks coming from the Prayer's power core and drive system, which SIS was trying to resolve on her end while Lessu engineers were still trying to get access from their end.
Aayla placed her hand on Leo's forehead and winced slightly as she noticed small bruises from where she'd grabbed his head a bit too hard when she put him out. And now she brought him back. His eyes opened for a moment and hands tightened on the sheets, "You're fine. It's over," Aayla said, even as SIS said something very similar in his ear. The odd echo was enough to bring him into the present.
"I take it we survived," he said after a long moment of looking around the room.
"Indeed, complete victory."
"SIS?"
"I'm fine," SIS said.
"She's fine," Aayla said, unable to hear SIS's comment.
"What happened? You don't appear injured and SIS isn't here, so you took me down? Without injury?" she felt how impressed he was by that.
"Indeed. What do you remember?"
"We'd been pushed back. I ordered everyone else into the secure rooms and told them to lock the doors, then…nothing until now. No, that's not true. Interesting, I don't think this was true last time, but that was against a bunch of Trandoshans, so…"
"What was true?"
"I said I didn't remember, but that's not quite right. I don't remember seeing, or hearing anything, or smelling, or feeling anything, but I do remember tastes. I think I bit some people. Hopefully pirates?"
"The only people you hurt were pirates," Aayla said and she was pretty sure that was true. It was, alas, certainly possible that one of the other prisoners had only been injured before being left behind and in his madness, Leo had finished them off. But that would only be speculation and do no one any good to consider.
"Oh, good. Now I know what Black Sun tastes like. I need some water. And probably some tests. That can not be sanitary."
Aayla glanced over at the doctors. "Nothing on the original tests, but if you only bit them a few hours ago it probably won't show up."
"Okay. And just to confirm my memory is actually working right. We really did crash a massive colony ship into the planet, aiming to bridge the Lessu Gap?"
"Yes."
"And saved approximately fifty thousand people from slavery?"
"Yes."
"And busted up a Black Sun slaving operation?"
"Yes."
"All while wearing these ridiculous costumes?"
Aayla laughed. "Yes."
"We're pretty frelling awesome," Leo concluded, then closed his eyes and went to sleep.
"Yes," she agreed, patting him on the shoulder.
XXX
Internal Partition * HIGHEST SECURITY * Chat Log
SisterSays: Are you okay?
Wrathbone: Not great, but brain is functional. I trust I don't need to say that the recordings from my eye of that…incident are not to be used as part of your ongoing crusade to win a video award?
SisterSays: I'm not that much of a bitch. Everything else is fair game though, including some vids where Aayla went outside the slave zones. Let me say, watching her slice up slavers is so much better than watching her slice up droids. Now, small talk over?
Wrathbone: For now.
SisterSays: Okay, then, what the frell?
Wrathbone: Our goal here was always threefold:
1) Get the information we needed to leak to the Republic in order to move to step two of the operation and leak it. We can still do this.
2) Get a ship to get everyone out at the end. We're going to need a replacement ship. I checked, Cale's is in the area, we can get her to help. Contingency. Always a contingency.
3) Rescue the slaves. We did this, better than we would have with your plan.
SisterSays: Because we were lucky. You know better than to rely on luck. Unless you're starting to buy this Jedi Force bantha shit, or are just entranced by the pretty faux-slave.
Wrathbone: Okay, let's start at the beginning. We both know gravitic systems. They either work, or they fail. The options were everyone lives, or everyone dies, there's no partial failure, 1% bantha shit you pulled with Aayla.
SisterSays: It can happen.
Wrathbone: SIS.
SisterSays: Fine.
Wrathbone: Next step. I agree, your plan was preferable, before we knew that the Separatists did not care about public outrage. At the point when you're engaged in a genocidal planetary bombardment, blowing up a civilian ship is not, actually, going to stop you now is it? As soon as they realized we'd taken over, they would have blown us up. The only escape would have been hyperspace, which would have meant we definitely missed the window on part two of this operation, would it not?
SisterSays: We could have kept it quiet.
Wrathbone: As we dumped the fighters and flushed assholes out airlocks?
SisterSays: I could have killed them other ways.
Wrathbone: SIS.
SisterSays: Okay, yes, taking over the ship was probably going to be visible in some way to other folks. And yes, we, or at least the second part of the plan were at risk, if we couldn't simply move a bit away and start shuttling everyone back down under cover of 'the refugees changed their minds,' or 'mechanical difficulties,' or 'we're on the other side of the planet from the remnants of your fleet, you can't see what we're doing.' Based on their actions, especially the last strike on the capital, it seems likely they would have attempted it, but didn't bother to fire on a crashing ship. Shit. Sorry.
Wrathbone: Apology accepted.
SisterSays: And sorry for suggesting you were only taking that position because Aayla said it.
Wrathbone: Yeah, that was a dick move. Apology accepted.
SisterSays: I won't do it again.
Wrathbone: Accuse me of thinking with my dick? Much appreciated. Question whether I'm right, or my motives are right? You frelling better. It's like a third of your job description, partner. I've been wrong plenty. Hell, remember Maridun? I honestly don't know what I was going to do to that sanctimonious little pacifistic elder back there. I think, I hope, it was just give him the spiel and show I gave the others, but I was so frelling angry, if you hadn't stopped me…
SisterSays: Fair. Still partners?
Wrathbone: Still partners.
SisterSays: Okay, so how do we salvage the rest of this op? I assume you've got a way, because otherwise the comparison to the hyperspace jump is total bantha shit.
Wrathbone: I do. I think. The Republic has been jamming off-planet communication, right?
SisterSays: Yes. It looks like only the high-powered array in Lessu could break through and Tambor reserved it for his own use. What a tool.
Wrathbone: You have the comm records?
SisterSays: Please.
Wrathbone: Did they mention anything about the crash?
SisterSays: No. It was more him whining to Dooku and Separatist command for more ships and them complaining about his incompetence and him refusing to retreat.
Wrathbone: And the remnants of their fleet?
SisterSays: Raining down on us now. They held position too long trying to commit genocide and the Republic Navy finished them off.
Wrathbone: So, as long as it doesn't go out on Republic, or civilian channels, no one off-planet should know what happened to the Prayer, right?
SisterSays: Right. And futzing up the offworld civilian communications wouldn't be hard. Honestly, unfutzing it is going to be the hard part. If we can get the Jedi to order it not mentioned for a couple of days…Doable. Just barely. It helps that the Balls is faster. I assume we're taking the Balls?
Wrathbone: Of course. The Black Sun is about to renegotiate their deal with the Separatists.
SisterSays: Risky, but might work. Still, that's a lot of moving pieces that had to go right for this to still be doable.
Wrathbone: Please, you've seen Skywalker's record. That's one Jedi who doesn't understand what overkill means. Wat Tambor is an egomaniacal asshole whose undoubtable technical ability does not make up for his personality. And, admittedly, I was originally going to suggest we crash on the other side of the planet, then claim we jumped to hyperspace. The shift to 'make the ship a bridge' plan was a surprise to me too.
SisterSays: You could have said something at the time.
Wrathbone: I honestly missed that entire conversation until you guys said my name again. Sorry, I almost ran into a Trandoshan and was a bit occupied. But, if we're counting that against the plan, we have to count the lives saved by allowing the Republic to take the city and capture Tambor. Besides, I was able to hold out for the thirty-five minutes.
SisterSays: By using, for the second time, in public, your LastChance pack, which I will remind you, is incredibly classified cocktail, which I'm going to have to fill out about fifty million forms about before we can get refilled. Oh, and it almost destroyed your liver.
Wrathbone: Pshaw. Livers.
SisterSays: Leo.
Wrathbone: I hear you.
SisterSays: You know, the Jedi isn't stupid. She's already interested, especially since she doesn't know any stories of Trade Federation agents going crazy like that. I fried the files, but I can't fry her memory. Well, I can, but you would probably object to that.
Wrathbone: Yep.
SisterSays: Fair enough. Let's get going. Can you stand, or do I need to wheel you out of here?
Wrathbone: You're going to need to wheel me out of here. I feel like shit.
SisterSays: The second part of this plan is going to be super fun.
Wrathbone: Especially for me.
XXX
Aayla Secura was meeting with Masters Windu and Kenobi, along with Cham Syndulla, discussing operations to cleanse the remaining droid forces from the planet. Tambor was more than willing to keep giving override commands, but the groups still out there were the ones out of communication and operating according to their last orders, namely to target any Twi'leks and kill them.
Aayla didn't actually have much to offer, as she had brought no forces and was so exhausted she was only sort of tracking what was going on, but the locals wanted her there. Upon discovering that it was a Twi'lek Jedi who had captured Tambor and freed the prisoners, as well as breaching the city, they had been ecstatic. Images of her dragging Tambor out and handing him over to Cham's cavalry were all over the place.
She hadn't had a chance to get back to the Balls and pick up her own clothes, but Master Windu had been kind enough to offer her one of his robes, which she marginally preferred over the slave costume she'd been wearing. Standing in the 'wise Jedi master' pose she could hold in her sleep, she tried not to actually fall asleep. The combat itself hadn't been too long, an hour or so, but the acting beforehand, plus the constant use of the Force, plus the stress afterward as she dealt with political nonsense combined to be as exhausting as anything else she'd done.
"General Secura," a voice said from the entrance of the room as the guards (a clone and a resistance fighter) stood aside. She looked to the side and tried not to look like she'd been startled.
Leo was sitting there in a repulsor chair, being pushed forward by SIS. The guards didn't move to stop him, as she hadn't said anything.
"What is it, Agent?" just enough brainpower sparked to remember Leo's comment about Black Sun targeting and to not give his name. She forced her mind through a Jedi focusing technique. She was going to need to lie down, soon.
"In reviewing the data extracted from the Prayer before other matters required a shift in focus, we have uncovered something which may affect our next step."
"Something about Separatist or Black Sun operations on Ryloth?" General Kenobi asked, surprised. "I didn't think they had any left given the attempt to destroy the place."
"No, General. When I said we, I meant General Secura and myself. And perhaps some additional forces if they can be spared. We have an immediate opportunity we should take advantage of."
"At the moment, you don't look like you could take advantage of anything except a bed. Who is this man?" Cham asked.
"My apologies. Cham Syndulla, commander of the Ryloth Liberation Army, please meet Agent—Did they ever give you a codename?"
"I was informed that, as they do not actually believe my last name is Theoprus, I might as well use that," Leo said.
"Agent Theoprus of Republic Intelligence. He provided the information regarding the Prayer and was crucial to the success of the operation."
"Flattering. Our assumption that Tambor was solely after his own profit was inaccurate. The prisoners were to be sold to the Dagoola Shipyards to replace those lost to a recent outbreak of Trellaxian Pox, to which Twi'leks are immune. We have an opportunity here to strike a significant blow against the Separatists. So long as we can prevent word of the Prayer's destruction from leaking off-world."
"Why use slaves at shipyards?" Cham asked. "Surely droids would be more efficient. They certainly have no shortage of the damn things."
"Because Jedi ethics prevent them from standard anti-shipyard tactics, namely, blowing them up, when they are crewed by slaves."
"You disagree with those ethics?" Master Kenobi asked.
"I merely note that the end result is that you incentivize your enemies to make use of the very tactic you deplore," Leo said with a shrug.
"How do you know all this?" Master Windu asked
"We were inside the Prayer's system, which gave us their destination," Leo evaded, rather less skillfully than usual.
"And the news from Dagoola? They're the largest Separatist shipyards in the sector. I'd have heard if the Republic knew that there was a serious issue there."
"My information sources are not Republic Intelligence. There are several Spaceways cells on Dagoola," Leo said, a little reluctantly.
"Spaceways!" Cham and Windu chorused, though in remarkably different tones. Cham was clearly impressed, Windu was horrified.
"What is Spaceways?" Kenobi asked, before Aayla could.
"Terrorists!" Windu put in.
"Freedom fighters!" Cham argued.
Leo cut them both off. "Spaceways is an anti-slavery advocacy group, with, admittedly, something of a lack of surgical precision in its targeting."
"That's one way to put it," Master Windu said. "Their favorite weapon is a speeder with its trunk packed full of explosives."
"You use the weapons you can access, especially if no one is just giving you Star Destroyers!" Cham argued.
"This is irrelevant."
"You can't trust Spaceways!" Windu said, turning back to the topic at hand.
"On saving fifty thousand slaves? Yes, I can. Just as I can trust you on defeating the Separatists and you," he turned to Cham, "on freeing Ryloth and you," he looked over at Aayla, "on doing the right thing. Now, shall we go rescue fifty thousand more slaves and destroy a Separatist shipyard and maybe leave behind some evidence implicating the Black Sun to see if we can spark a little war between slavers?"
Cham smiled broadly. "I like this man."
"How would this work?"
"The Black Sun is going to show up at the Shipyards to negotiate a new deal, given the changed circumstances. The Shipyards have a minimal Separatist staff in a command tower here. They're mostly technical with a small droid security detail. Commando droids, approximately twenty. Security in the main compound is maintained by automated systems and crusher droids, as they don't want to risk blasters falling into the hands of the slaves. Technical staff are about forty. Theoretically soldiers, and armed, but they haven't fired a weapon since basic training. Still plenty for them to be comfortable letting a ship with a few Black Sun thugs board their command tower to avoid the risk of their communications being intercepted and them being caught dealing with criminals. On the way in there's a sensor shadow where we'll drop a cargo container of blasters. Spaceways distributes them. They strike while they're ready and while we're negotiating a new deal. Then we take the control tower. Well," he looked down at the chair, "you and SIS take the tower while I stand in the background and look handsome."
"I really like this man," Cham said. "But three against sixty is bad odds. Let me send a few of my fighters along. Make the odds a little better. Six against sixty. Much better. More artistic. More proportional. And any fighter of mine who isn't worth ten droids isn't a fighter of mine."
"I could spare a squad and some blasters," Kenobi said.
"Clones might be a bit difficult to disguise," Cham pointed out.
"Not if they're wearing full masks. But it will depend how much equipment the folks SIS has looking can salvage from the Prayer."
Cham looked at him. "You're in Lessu, the capital of Ryloth. There are tailors here who can turn out anything. You give GOBI," he yelled the man's name and the other Twi'lek ducked into the room a moment later, "your designs and he'll be back here in an hour with your costumes as well as your volunteers. Ryloth will be happy to assist General Secura, regardless of what the Republic can spare."
"Enough. SIS, give him the designs and bring down the ship. I'm going to go take a nap. We need to leave within the next three hours. We'll take the first five volunteers who show up with their own gear that can pass for Black Sun gear. I'm going to spend those three hours asleep," Leo snapped, as Windu and Kenobi moved to take the bait. "Assuming General Secura agrees to the operation."
"I'll want full details while we travel. I assume there will be some time during the travel for you to finish recovering?"
"A day. I'll be functional by then, even if I end up needing a stimulant to be able to move properly," he smiled. "Even drugged I'm the best liar you know. SIS, I'll leave this in your hands. I assume you have control of the chair and will get me where I need to go?"
"Yes," SIS agreed and the chair began to move away. A moment later a data drive flashed out of her and she passed it to Gobi.
"If you could include my information on there as well, SIS?" Aayla requested. "I don't think I need to go into this one as a slave, yes?"
"No need. Every reason not to. Though we are going to be a bit Twi'lek heavy, still I'm sure Leo can lie about that," SIS agreed and ejected another disc. "Is there anything else you need? I should make preparations and get the ship refueled."
"Thank you, SIS," Aayla said after a moment and the droid walked off.
They resumed their planning session and Aayla felt exhaustion burning at her. When the meeting finally ended, she was ready to go where her earpiece (which, if she hadn't been suffering from Force exhaustion, she would have remembered could transmit as well as receive and appeared to be constantly open) told her to. Unfortunately, Master Windu and Master Kenobi indicated they had more to say. Cham left with a deep and appreciative bow to her. He was, in many ways very simple, for all the complexity of his plans. He was loyal to what he was loyal to, attracted to who he was attracted to and hated who he hated. And he had no hesitation about making sure everyone knew where they stood relative to him. That was something she missed sorely at the moment.
"Do you trust Agent Theoprus?" Master Windu asked.
Aayla forced herself to focus again, holding her eyes open with sheer force of will. "As the man said, I trust him to act in accordance with his nature. In Leo's case, his hatred of slavers is obvious and, I believe, genuine. Though I doubt he cares much about the war either way, this is a simple matter. Free slaves. For that, yes, I trust him."
"I am…impressed you were able to read so much," Master Kenobi said. "To me, the man was a jumble of contradictions, what little I could feel beyond the pain he was in."
"The pain he was deliberately focusing on. He knows enough about our abilities to attempt to manipulate us, or hide from us. Nothing about that man, or his plans, is simple," Master Windu added.
"Indeed not," Aayla agreed, choosing this time not to request an order she did not agree with. "But he has proven useful, thus far. If that should change…I remain a Jedi Master."
"So was Dooku," Kenobi said.
Aayla looked over at him. "I know four things about him which I believe. One, he loves his droid an absurd amount. Two, he hates slavers. Three, he will see the Crimson Dawn virus destroyed. Four, he does not care about the conflict between the Sith and the Jedi."
"I hope you are right. The Dark Side clouds everything these days and I begin to believe that the strings tugging us into place are not the Force, but our enemy manipulating us. We face a subtle and dangerous enemy, even beyond Count Dooku. Does that remind you of anyone?"
"Are you truly suggesting Leo is the Sith Lord?"
"I doubt it, but a tool of them? A man motivated by his hatred? Subtle and filled with secret knowledge? That sounds like an agent of the Sith to me."
"It sounds like most every agent to me, Master. But I hear your words and appreciate your thoughts," she said, before nodding to the other master and heading out.
Kenobi followed her out, as his forces and Skywalker's were to return to Coruscant. Windu's men had taken the most casualties and participated in the liberation of Lessu and so were going to rest, recover and play the representatives of the Republic for the upcoming celebration, as well as provide some support for the rebuilding.
Aayla kept up her stoic Jedi front as she rather mindlessly followed SIS's directions to the ship. Occasionally someone stopped her and pressed fruit, or flowers, or something else into her hands. Gracious responses flowed from her lips, even as she tried desperately not to just lean on the people and fall asleep. Darkness had fallen over the city, but that did not slow the celebrations at its liberation and rescue.
She made it onboard the ship, to her quarters and sat down, intending to take off her shoes, only to fall asleep in the chair before she could.
XXX
SIS's body moved quickly, subject to neither drug-induced, nor Force-induced exhaustion. She followed Gobi around discreetly, but he seemed to only be doing what he'd been told as he gathered clothes and volunteers. Finding some scavenged, non-Republic issue blasters for the team that was going in as Black Sun agents was easy enough as well.
The bot's mind moved even more quickly, scattering around the fragments of the planetary data net, helping reconstruct much of it as she disassembled the parts that flowed off world. Another part of her filled out requisition forms for the weapons they needed, then argued with the supply sergeant who wouldn't move them, then talked with General Kenobi, who had to have a quiet word with the sergeant, then provide a signed order in triplicate before her blasters finally showed up. Another part of her did the prep work to follow up on the stolen account information from the people who'd talked under Black Sun torture. Still more of her worked through what they'd learned from the Prayer's databanks on how the ship had gained the registration of the Neutral System's Refugee Aid Organization, less to assist them in plugging the gap than in figuring out how to exploit it herself.
Another part did the prep work for where the soon-to-be-ex-slaves went. Fortunately, they now had a number of contacts with the Republic Refugee Fund, thanks to their very generous donation. Unfortunately, the screwing she was doing with the planetary communications net meant she wouldn't be able to actually execute any of off-world tasks, or contact Cale until they at least got off the planet.
In the end, they decided against taking any clones. Jango Fett's face was the most famous in the galaxy, except perhaps for Supreme Chancellor Palpatine and Count Dooku (and, for the less politically active, any of several dozen major galactic cultural figures, though most had a hard time transcending species/language barriers). Gobi showed up with four other resistance fighters, as Cham could spare five people easily enough. They already had their gear and SIS showed them to their own quarters before the ship took off. In the end, they were waiting on the blasters, but those eventually arrived and SIS's body got to work on rigging it up for the drop while her mind took over getting them off planet and on their way.