Chapter Thirteen

It was long past sunset in Sundari. The entire city was blanketed in the darkness of night and there was little activity to be had. Except for the fast moving shadows that darted across the city in search of their designated prey. These shadows were Neko Intelligence Officers who scoured every single building in the Mandalorian capital, looking for those individuals who seek to harm the Soviet Union.

There were quite a few figures the Nekos deemed harmful to the Union. Those included ranking members of Death Watch, corrupt government officials, even Imperial spies. The catgirls were careful and meticulous, ensuring that every person they found to be a problem disappear without a trace before their bodies were delivered to a secure warehouse near the space port. Not one target knew what hit them until their necks were already snapped and their bodies taken from wherever they happened to be. The job took all night and by morning, the cargo ship containing all the bodies departed for places unknown. There was still clean up to do across the rest of Mandalore, but so far, Sundari was clean for now.

-o0o-

Janko sat in his office slowly doing paperwork as Ayana stood next to him, peering at the documents below. While he did become literate in Aurabesh, he still struggled somewhat reading the word-heavy documents while also juggling with learning the Mandalorian language. Ayana was there to help him read the documents in front of him, which were mostly boring stuff.

About a half hour after he started, there was a chime from the office door, indicating someone was outside intending to come in.

"Enter." Janko said. The door slid open, revealing middle-ranked government official and Bo Katan.

"General Secretary, we have a problem." The official stated worriedly. "Several government officials have not shown up for work this morning. We're running behind on our tasks and need assistance."

"Several of my Death Watch troopers are missing as well." Bo Katan replied. "What is going on?"

Janko looked up in concern. He knew what happened, but he must keep up the appearance.

"Do you know for sure if they are missing?" He asked. The official and Bo Katan looked away, thinking.

"I'm not sure. Perhaps we should go looking for them?" The official said slowly. "Permission to search?"

"All of the Death Watch members that disappeared weren't fans of yours." Bo Katan stated. "I will also look from them, but if I cannot find them by the end of the day, I will need new men to replenish our numbers."

"That is fine." Janko said. "You may search the city for the missing individuals, but if you cannot find them, then we must assume they deserted and will need to be replaced."

The official and Bo Katan nodded and left Janko's office. As they left, Janko smiled to himself, his plan worked as intended.

-o0o-

The Emperor sat in his office stewing while looking at recent battle reports from the new war. His forces had been kicked out from half of the Outer Rim and now was facing pressure from the west as the new enemy controlled a large part of the Unknown Regions. Then, his desk began to chime, indicating a call is being made to him. Palpatine answered the call, the resulting hologram being the head of Imperial Intelligence.

"What is it, Director?" The Emperor growled. The man took a deep breath.

"Bad news, my lord." The Director started. "We have lost all contact with our agents in the capital of Mandalore and we have not been able to reestablish communications. We do not know what happened to them, but we fear the worst."

The Emperor snarled in frustration before turning his attention back to the Intelligence Director.

"Are the agents elsewhere on Mandalore still in contact with us?" He demanded.

"Yes, my lord. I intend to ask them of the status of our agents in Sundari."

"Good. I want daily reports on this."

"As you wish, my lord."

-o0o-

The next night on Mandalore was just as fruitful as the previous. This time, the Neko Intelligence Officers spread out across the planet and to Concordia, efficiently and quietly purging the government and military of dissidents. The morning afterwards was just as chaotic, with many branches of the government in disarray with the disappearance of the corrupt officials.

The clean up was done and with that, Janko had all the government officials replaced and permitted Death Watch to begin recruiting efforts. No one would know where the missing had gone and even when the truth would be revealed later, it wouldn't matter anyway.

One evening, Janko was outside the Sundari citydome with Ayana and a couple of Mandalorian medics on stand by. The leader of the Soviet Union was beginning his training with the Neko's Skytrooper equipment and now was currently wearing it and holding the standard issue rifle.

"First thing to using Skytrooper equipment is that the calculation gem is a delicate instrument." Ayana stated. "While it does allow you to fight for long periods of time, damage or overuse of the calculation gem can lead to serious consequences, up to and including death. Most times you would just be forced down from flight as the equipment's safety algorithms deactivates the gem to cool down. Though, some particularly brave Skytroopers would deactivate those safety features. It does lead to more effective combat capability, but if the gem gets too hot, it explodes."

Janko raised an eyebrow but did not comment.

"To start off, in order to make use of the calculation gem, all you need to do is to reach out to the Force and focus on the gem." Ayana said. "The gem will respond to you like any normal computer system that can be found on many starfighters."

Janko reached out and focused on the calculation gem on his neck. He felt surprised as the gem responded, opening up a HUD that only he could see.

"To fly, all you must do is to imagine yourself flying where you need to go. The calculation gem will interpret your thoughts into action." Ayana instructed. With a look of concentration, Janko slowly and carefully rose above the ground, eventually hovering at two meters above the ground.

"Wow!" He exclaimed. "If I had known I could do this when I was younger..."

Janko then tried flying around, which eventually led him to zoom across the sky as Ayana and the medics watched from below. Ayana looked very happy as Janko set himself down.

"I'm glad to see you are learning as fast as I hoped." She said. "Most Skytrooper recruits pick this up quickly, so good to see you aren't struggling. Now that you have the basics of flight with Skytrooper equipment, you must now learn your weapon."

Ayana handed Janko a standard issue rifle. It looked a lot like the rifles used during the Second Weltkrieg back on Earth.

"Skytroopers use a couple of different types of main weaponry, but the most common is the rifle." She started. "The rifle allows you to shoot off spells one at a time. While the rate of fire is slow, the potential power behind each shot is very good and the range will allow you to hit targets from a large distance away. The calculation gem has a few different spells programmed for use with one of the few different types of weapons the Skytroopers use."

"Before we get to the spells, what other types of weapons do you use?" Janko asked.

"Our equipment also includes a carbine, which has a shorter range and less potential power than a rifle, but boasts a much better rate of fire. Sometimes, we would use wide-barrel launchers, but their use is limited to setting traps with timed or proximity explosive spells or in desperate cases as anti-starfighter 'missile' launchers. The spell for the last one is kind of complicated and taxes the calculation gem much more than the other spells, so we don't use it that way a lot. Besides, Skytroopers are vulnerable to enemy starfighters and short ranged anti-air, so wide-barrel launchers aren't used as much as the others due to their bulk." Ayana answered. "First, I want you to learn how to use the rifle before I introduce the carbine to you."

Janko nodded and inspected the rifle more closely.

"Doesn't this rifle look like a 'slugthrower' or whatever they call firearms?" Janko asked. At this, Ayana smiled widely.

"Technically, they are slugthrowers, but they do not shoot slugs." She stated. "Our Skytrooper guns are more blaster-like, except they use no blaster gas. Meaning, these guns have as much ammunition as you have stamina. You see that wooden structure over there?"

Ayana pointed to a small wooden cabin a fair ways away. It was empty and decaying, a perfect practice target. Janko nodded.

"You are going to destroy it with a high yield high explosive spell. This spell is the basic combat spell used to destroy buildings and groups of infantry, lightly armored vehicles, and if you are accurate enough, starfighters." Ayana instructed. "This is the default spell, so just aim at the structure and pull the trigger. Put as much power into the spell as you can for maximum effect. You can change the explosive power of the spell, but for this practice, use full power."

Janko nodded and lifted off to about two meters above the ground. He raised the rifle and carefully aimed at the wooden cabin. With as much power into the spell as he could put in, Janko fired a shot. The bright yellow light came out the barrel with a bang and raced towards the target. Five seconds later, the spot where the cabin was exploded, sending sand and wooden bits high into the air.

"Excellent shot, Janko. The target was three clicks away and you got it. That shows how far and accurate the rifle is in combat." Ayana praised. "The next spell is the Armor Piercing spell. It is a variant of the high explosive spell designed to destroy heavy vehicles and fortified structures. The explosive yield isn't as good as the normal high explosive spell, but there's just enough to do the job. One of the special features of this spell is that it ignores shields altogether; it isn't an energy round that can be deflected by ray shields nor is it solid, ignoring particle shields. The drawback is that it not effective against infantry and light vehicles. The spell doesn't have the yield to take out large swathes of enemy troops and light vehicles are weakly armored enough that the spell just over-penetrates and explodes outside the vehicle. In addition, poor shots can cause the spell to not penetrate the armor enough. One of the only things that can defeat an armor piercing spell is if the physical armor is thick enough."

"How fascinating that this round can ignore shields." Janko said. "Have the Nekos tried to adapt this on capital ships?"

"Yes, we conducted numerous experiments on this, but we have never been able to make such breakthroughs feasible. The Force power demands are too great to put this in practice." Ayana said sheepishly. "Now back to the topic at hand. You see that AAT over there?"

Ayana pointed to one, sitting closer to the group, but still a bit far away. The formerly Separatist hovertank was sitting on the ground, unmanned and unused.

"We managed to dig up this model from a storage unit just outside of the city. Use an AP spell to destroy it. To change spells, use Force suggestion on the gem and command it to change spell. No verbal commands are required as the gems can sense your intent."

Janko aimed his rifle at the hovertank and fired. A silver beam quickly emerged from the rifle barrel and hit the tank a little right and high of the center. The spell briefly disappeared before the AAT exploded into a fireball. The turret blew itself off from the main body and landed next to it. Ayana smiled widely.

"Nicely done. I think that's it for today. We will continue this training at a later time." Ayana said. "A final note, a third spell Skytroopers use is a target marking spell. It does nothing except emit a bright glow of color, chosen by the individual of course. This is mainly used to mark areas of bombardment by artillery or air support."

Janko nodded as he handed the rifle and combat boot back to Ayana. Then, he, the catgirl, and the medics returned to Sundari.

-o0o-

"Oh feck, oh feck, oh feck!" Jek Maribus cursed quietly to himself as he ran through the dark alleyways of Ronion. He just watched his partner get murdered by one of those catgirls that appeared on Mandalore recently. It appears that he has been compromised and now needs to let Imperial Intelligence know. He quickly dialed back to HQ as he hid in one of the dark alleys.

"Agent Bromma, state your reason for calling." A hologram of the Director appeared on the Imperial spy's communicator. Bromma looked around quickly, moving away from his hiding spot as he kept moving.

"I've been compromised!" He said quickly and quietly. "I just watched a catgirl wearing a black uniform kill Agent Trautner and I am currently on the run. I need help."

"Get to the-"

The Director's response was interrupted when the spy began to choke, dropping the communicator. A Neko Intelligence Officer stepped into view with her left hand raised, apparently the one holding the Imperial spy in a Force Choke. The catgirl picked up the spy's communicator and looked at the hologram of the Director with a disgusted look.

"Your kind isn't welcome here, Imperial scum." She said sternly. "Do not attempt to return to Mandalore, this is our territory."

The transmission was cut off as the Neko crushed the communicator with the Force, but not before the spy finally succumbed to his fate and fell to the ground as the Neko released him, in full view of the Director.

"Urgh, the Emperor is not going to be pleased about this." He mumbled as he left for the Emperor's throne room.

-o0o-

The Emperor was indeed pissed at the loss of all of the Intelligence agents on Mandalore and took some pleasure in punishing the Director for this failure. Still, the incident with Agent Bromma did provide with some important knowledge. Regular agents cannot be sent to Mandalore lest they get killed, but perhaps agents of the Dark Side could prove more resilient.

Unfortunately, the hunt for Jocasta Nu did not provide any useful information to use, but that was only a mere set back. The Empire will have to find Force-sensitive children the hard way, but with how the war is going, the Empire will need as many spies as they can muster. But in the short term, all focus must go into the war against the Soviets.

-o0o-

On a lonely planet deep in the Unknown Regions, a blue skinned figure watched as a fiery comet streaked across the sky and crashed into the mountain near a small cabin next to a river. Of course, the Chiss man knew that this "comet" was a ship, but he did not know which faction it was affiliated with. The burning wreckage slid down the slope of the mountain until it came to a rest on one of the flatter parts of the mountain slope. The man quickly ran up the mountain to the crash site, intent on looking for survivors and inspecting the wreckage for himself.

After five minutes of climbing up the mountain, the Chiss reached the crash site. A quick go around of the wreckage made it clear that there were no survivors. There were five bodies that could be seen, and considering that four of those bodies wore clone trooper armor, it was evident that this ship was an Imperial shuttle. Blast marks on some of the more intact debris pointed to an ambush; the shuttle was attacked and shot down by a group of starfighters, probably light carrier-borne fighters with standard armament and no hyperspace capability. The Chiss looked up into the sky and took out his electrobinoculars, peering into them.

High above, he spotted a small group of Soviet capital ships, only a scouting group. It's possible that they arrived at the same time as the Imperial shuttle, and considering the state of war between the Soviets and the Empire, the shuttle was an easy target. While observing the Soviet ships, the Chiss spotted another ship emerging from the lead capital ship, a troop transport coming down to his position.

"It seems like I have visitors." Mitth'raw'nuruodo finally spoke. A few minutes later, the troop transport landed in front of his cabin. The Chiss man left the wreckage of the Imperial shuttle behind and returned to greet his visitor. The troop transport's forward opened up to reveal a sight that intrigued Thrawn greatly.

A lone catgirl stepped down from the ship as it powered down. Unlike most people in the galaxy, Thrawn knew of the Nekos as a species. The former Chiss officer couldn't help feeling very intrigued at the sight in front of him.

"A Neko?" He said. "I was under the impression that your civilization is highly insular and prefer to stay inside your cluster."

At this, the Neko, which turned out to be General Kaguya, looked surprised then shook her head in amusement.

"Why am I surprised that a man of your talents knows about us before we revealed ourselves?" She said. "I assume you know why we are here?"

"I presume you are here to recruit me into your war." Thrawn replied coolly. The Neko nodded.

"Tell me then, do you believe you can defeat the Empire?"

"Losing is not an option, not for me, not for my people, not for anyone." Kaguya replied strongly. "Losing means the end of the Neko people, and the end of the Mandalorian people. We will never surrender."

"I see. If you did somehow defeat the Empire, do you think your Soviet Union will not fall into corruption and decay like the former Republic had?" Thrawn asked.

"Where are you going with this? I sense a greater meaning to your questions."

Thrawn had turned away, gazing upon the wreckage of the Imperial shuttle, which at this point the flames began to subside.

"I am unsure if you are aware of this, but there exists a threat to this galaxy, something far more dangerous than petty political squabble. Something that can spell the end of our existence as we know it." Thrawn began, turning back to the Neko. "I need a galaxy united under a martial government who is prepared for every possible outcome there is to the future, including an unconventional war where everything we know about war is rendered moot. Can the Soviet Union fulfill that role?"

"I may not be the leader of the Soviet Union, but if I know anything about the General Secretary, it's that he is determined to destroy his opponents no matter the cost." Kaguya replied. "Tell me, are you referring to the Void Outsiders?"

A raised eyebrow from Thrawn prompted Kaguya to elaborate.

"I believe your culture calls them the Far Outsiders?"

Thrawn smirked slightly.

"I see you are aware of the threat poised by these creatures." He said.

"Only the highest levels of the Neko government know about them. Their existence is an anti-thesis to us as we cannot feel them in the Force. All of our weapons projects prior to our rediscovery is focused on combating them." Kaguya replied.

"Very well then. It appears your faction are well suited to stop the Far Outsiders should the time arise." Thrawn said. "However, should your faction sink to an unrecoverable level, I will not hesitate to leave."

Kaguya looked suspicous, but dismissed the last comment. She and the Chiss stepped inside the transport ship and lifted off, returning back to the warships waiting above…

TBC...