As the negotiations went on both sides had to realize that their positions were rather dug in. Especially the republic couldn't afford this after their last defeats. "As I have already said, we are willing to establish a demilitarized no fight zone in the western part of the mid rim but it will need to stay under imperial rulership. We won't give up any ground without a significant counter offering." Revan finished his explaining his position. "We are ready to hold referendums on the mid rim planets about their allegiance under imperial as well as republic supervision." The republic chancellor tried persuading the emperor. An imperial senator answered for him "We appreciate the gesture but the fact remains that there is no reason for us to even risk territory in such a matter without anything in return. I personally already believe it a generous move to demilitarize the systems. Especially considering we will obligate ourselves not to launch any attack through said areas." A republic colleague nodded his head in agreement "it definitely is but there is just no way we can decommission our stealth destroyers, without at least having the opportunity to retrieve the lost mid rim systems."
Revan laughed which earned him a few unpleasant looks from some republicans but the majority, mostly the ones that already knew Revan back in the days of the Mandalorian war, were already accustomed to this. "I don't recall these stealth ships of yours, holding up to the value your trying to give to them." Bastila called his bluff "we have already figured out the error in the destroyer that was damaged and we are certain that this was an exception. Furthermore, even while flawed I think the cloaking technique brought heavy losses over your troops." Revan was fuming, he didn't want her at the negotiations to disrupt his efforts. Keeping up his plain face he was silent for a few seconds, she would have to pay for this. He then proceeded to smile right at her like one would at a small child who had done good. "Would you like to eat with me tonight Commander Shan" he asked her over the whole table. A lesser audience would have gasped but most of the people present were veteran politicians or force users, so he was left to feel the shock in all of them. "I will have to look over my schedule" Bastila said coldly and pretty diplomatic as well she thought to herself. The negotiations were even more difficult afterwards but Revan didn't really care about that. He was going to get his revenge on the little jedi.
When the negotiations were ended for the day two hours later, the jedi council called her to them. "Commander Shan," Grandmaster Vash said "you have served the jedi order extremely well and the republic stands in your debt." Bastila felt herself swell with pride. "The jedi council decided it would be futile to appoint a new master to you, so hereby you Bastila Shan, are a jedi knight." Bastila fell on one knee and thanked them all as was expected of her. "There is however a second matter we need to address," started Master Zestin "Revan invited you to dine with him." Bastila nodded "it caught me off guard but that won't happen again masters." Zestin now nodded "that is good knight Shan but the fact of the matter is that the chancellor asked us to have you attend the dinner." Bastila opened her mouth in shock and closed it again staring at them. "You can't be serious, you yourself told me how dangerous he was, especially how dangerous he could be for me." The grandmaster took over "look Bastila, we don't like this either but the chancellor is right in one point, the negotiations are rather stuck and if we can't make any progress quickly this is going to look bad on the news. If you could get him to give us even another inch, we could mark that off as a success." Bastila was even more shocked than before "Are you seriously suggesting I entice him by going to this dinner so we can make political progress? Should I wear a short dress? I think you are better of calling on a prostitute to do this for you, because it seems you have forgotten I am not one." With that she stormed out of the room leaving the masters to discuss the matter. "You now she is not wrong, it is not right off us to ask here this, she is also right that this could endanger her, if Revan decides to simply kidnap her, we have a problem." One of them said. "You know I don't like this either" Lonna Vash said "but I simply don't see many other options. Let's send a courier to ask her again and explain why this is necessary and if she doesn't want to do it, we will have to accept that." She finished, most of the masters agreed.
20 minutes later a courier knocked at Bastilas door to ask her to overthink her decision. "Of course, I'll do it it's not like I can simply say no, I'm surprised the council didn't know this, or pretended not to know" she finished frustrated, closing the door in front of him. As a jedi she knew that she had an obligation and unfortunately that definitely included dining with somebody you don't like. Bastila thought about what to wear. She eventually smiled and pulled out her very conservative standard jedi robes. When she left her quarters, she noticed that she no idea where Revan actually lived during the negotiations so she went to the Sith embassy on hapes. The receptionist was quick to tell her his address. Arriving at his apartment she nervously looked into her mirrored image in the glass door. When he opened, he smiled at her, taking her hand and leading her inside.
"It has been some time since we really talked alone" he said sitting her down in front of her food at his dining table. After a few seconds of awkward silence, he said: "So what brought you to the decision to come here?" She put her fork down "It was the wish of the jedi council." Revan nodded "yes I was aware that they would want that besides the obvious danger for you. But then they have always been ruthless and backstabbing, haven't they?" Bastila looked up from her food "actually there have been some major changes within the council. Atris and Vrook have been arrested for the murders and the attempt on my life and several other masters have been suspended." Revan smiled "and that is all it takes a little padawan to run back to the people who wanted her dead." She glared at him "I got promoted and I think you know that." After taking a sip of his wine he answered "I did actually my secret service is much more competent than one would think. Whereas the republic had no knowledge of the Omega-unit until it was far too late and still don't have much intel on Marius and his soldiers." She shrugged "first of all you can believe me that we have secrets you don't know anything about." "I doubt that" he interrupted her. "Whatever what is Marius doing at the moment anyways? I haven't seen him today." "Oh, he is conducting a raid on one of your outposts in the vicinity. You thought I didn't know about the facility on rendelli but I assure you I do." He said smugly. She pulled out her commlink "Can someone check on the outpost at rendelli, we may have a situation there." Putting it away again "you know if any other imperial told me something like this, I would laugh but I think you may actually smug and overconfident enough to tell me this if it was legit.
Firing of two rounds into the guard lying on the ground at the gate he finished him off. Two of his men threw grappling hooks over the fence and started climbing it helping up their comrades behind them. Another soldier ran up firing his blaster but he wasn't able to hit anything due to the generally poor accuracy of standard issue laser weapons. Omega 6 took him out with his semi-automatic precision rifle, afterwards adjusting the sight to a fifteen times magnification, scouting the facility. They moved up the driveway in two rows, one on each side. They were met with mild resistance out of the second story of the building. One of them suppressed the resistance with several longer automatic bursts out of his assault rifle, pulling out the mag afterwards and sticking in a new one, as he hit the bolt release four guards came storming out the front door. Omega-Actual took out the one nearest to him putting several rounds in the second one while stepping over the first one. Omega 4 dropped to the ground firing of nine rounds all around the last two. Killing both with several hits penetrating their body armor. Marius was the first to enter slightly bend forward clearing the corners of the entrance signaling for two of his men to take the stairs and go through the second floor. "There isn't supposed to be much more personal in here." One of the others said right as he was hit in the chest rig by a blaster bolt. Marius pushed up into the hallway from which the shot had come with his gun up in front of him. Until the female soldier the pursuit grabbed the barrel of his gun pointing at away from her. Within a second, he let go of it instead punching her in the throat which made her drop the weapon before pulling his pistol jamming it under her chin. "You better hope that you didn't seriously injure one of my men." He pulled her up against the wall putting hand cuffs on her before pulling her back to his group. "Is he alright" Marius asked Omega 11, their medic. "Yes, the vest caught the bolt, but the impact probably will leave a pretty good mark." The two omegas from upstairs were back down. "We placed the explosives with the radar equipment, even if they dare to come back here, they won't be able to surveille the system." "What do we do with her" one of them asked pointing at the republic soldier. "Just leave her here I don't feel like letting her go is a great idea." Marius ordered at which the women squealed and tried to get out of his grip. "Ok" Omega 11 said "maybe we don't have to blow her to pieces just because she works here, just take her with us." "She doesn't look like she wants to come with us" Marius argued. "No, no I want to come with you please don't leave me here." She pleaded with them. "Ugh you take her eleven, this is not my problem." The man nodded grabbing her by the arm and pushing her outside "Don't even think about running, just because I didn't want to blow you up doesn't mean I won't put a round in your back." He whispered to her while walking through the back alley, where they met a homeless man looking right at the soldier. "Nothing to see her, mind your own business" Omega 10 ordered him pointing his rifle at him from the chest. They put the weapons on their back as they reached the end of the alley. Not that anyone wouldn't notice the military grade weapons just because they were slung to the back but people were generally less likely to shoot at you when you if you didn't scare them.
Omega 11 still had his sidearm pressed to the republic soldiers back. They quickly noticed that this was not as unusual as one would think in this part of the galaxy. One particularly brave pirate walked up to them "how much do you want for her; I pay in cash." He said grinned which revealed several missing teeth. Marius noticed how the girl almost cowered behind them. "Not for sale" he said pushing him out of the way. "Ey what's that supposed to mean" he shouted angrily following them a bit left of them until he finally gathered the courage to throw a punch at one of them. The punch was intercepted about 30 centimeters from its target and he earned a hit to the head for his struggle that knocked him out. "Let's move I don't think we should stick around." When they reached the landing pad several thugs were already waiting for them. The omegas pulled their weapons from their back and up to their chests. Marius aimed his pdw at one of them through its side. "We aren't worth the trouble believe me" he said holding up his second hand to pacify them. The pirates tensed up seeing the weapons aimed at them. Several reached for their own holsters but none dared to pull their weapons. "Don't do it," an Omega said "just walk away, you don't need to do this." Two of them had their hands directly on their weapons now. Several clicks were heard as the omegas disengaged their safeties.
One of the pirates put his weapon to the ground slowly and another one slowly raised his hands to chest height when a third one ripped the pistol out of its holster. Before he finished the movement, Marius had put a four-round burst into him, splattering his blood all over the concrete. He snapped to two other targets taking both of them out as well. The medic let go of their captive for a second and fired several rounds out of his blaster right beside her. Before her scream was over all seven pirates lay dead or almost dead on the floor. Blood pooled out of them painting the landing pad red. Several metallic noises could be heard as magazines dropped to the ground and were replaced. They kept the weapons up against the chest as they moved through them and to the ship.
Marius reached for his buzzing comm link. "This is Revan, I just had a little talk with Commander Shan and there may be several warships en route to you. Maybe don't go straight back into imperial territory." Marius sighed his acknowledgment as he got behind the stick of the shuttle. "We are making a small detour" he called over his shoulder. "Where are we going if we take the hyperspace lane in the other direction, we will just end up in republic territory fairly quickly." Ryad asked dropping into the chair next to him. "Then I fear that's were we are going" Marius said "because I sure as hell do not plan to go through that." He pointed at the republic cruiser that had just fallen out of hyperspace. He ripped the controls around and plotted the jump to hyperspace, as they were contacted by the republic vessel to ask for ID, they made the jump.
"The council wont like this, you can't just raid republic facilities while we are in the middle of negotiations." Bastila said after putting down her commlink. "Well I'm fairly certain they will forgive me, that's supposed to be their big strength right." Bastila groaned "was this really necessary, and you will have to tell us were the one soldier is that isn't at the house anymore." Revan pulled up an eyebrow "the what? You know, if one of your men isn't accounted for, they probably threw him into the garbage behind the house or something but I don't go through every little detail with Marius before I send him to kriff something up." "You don't need to pretend that you don't know who I am talking about. We are gonna need her back before we can resume negotiations." The emperor smiled at her "sweety believe me I have no clue who you are talking about, I can ask Marius if he knows what's going on but it would really help if you tell me who you are missing." Bastila glared at him "if this is a trick." "It is not I assure you." She nodded "the daughter of the senator of the Alderaan system was stationed at the outpost since she joined the army. If you murdered her this is really going to be a diplomatic disaster." Revan laughed "why do you republicans always put persons you don't want lost directly on the front line?"