Few weeks had passed ever since the second encounter between the imperial agent Riser Mack and the Freedom Ringers. Although, tensions were still high as of now because they were about to board a Zygerrian slave ship. They got word from a secret informant, only known by the rebellion as Fulcrum agents, about this slave ship. The following transmission for this mission went down like this:
As Ulysses and Isslarok were sitting in the cockpit of the freighter when they noticed a blue light was flashing, indicating that a transmission was coming in. They were rather hesitate to communicate with whoever was on the line but Ulysses told Issla to mask their transmission code, when the trandoshan complied with the orders and followed them through, the transmission went like this.
A rather feminine voice came through the intercom, "This is Fulcrum, FR, We have a report of a Zygerrian slave ship soon entering the Raxus system in 21:00 as we speak now. We need you and your team to intercept this slave ship and release the slaves. After this transmission ends, coordinate points will be transmitted to your ship anonymously and proceed to prep your team for inception. Fulcrum Out."
"It could be a trap Ulyssesssssss," commented the trandoshan.
Ulysses quickly commented back saying, "Issla, You should know that only the Rebellion knows about the Fulcrum frequency. I highly doubt the Imperials have caught on to this frequency."
"Do you think that damned agent could be in charge," questioned the trandoshan.
"Highly unlikely, A high ranking *snort* empirical officer like him? There's no way in the galaxy they would send him on this mission. I suspect that it's just some rotten Trandoshan, no offense, *snort* slavers working dirty work for the Empire for a quick pay."
The Trandoshan scoffed at this bad retort of a joke whilst proceeding to roll his eyes, albeit, annoyingly, and informed the ugnaught that he would gather the group to be debriefed on the mission.
Tania, who for once, didn't like what they had planned for the mission. They were planning on using the Black Pearl's unique escape pod to shoot her near the slave ship and have her be captured by the slavers, feigning herself as an escaped slave. Once inside, she was meant to make contact with the slaves and gain their cooperation so that they could all escape. Although she couldn't find it in her to argue about the plan: It was, in all fairness, a rather good plan by Karus.
The thing she felt most uncomfortable about this plan was the rather skimpy and revealing slave clothes she had to brandish. A gold leathery bikini top with a black ring, holding the two pieces in place. Along with this was a scraggy and dirty cloth that acted as her under piece for the outfit. Although there was a galactic multi-tool, which included a picklock, laser cutter, and a small arms blaster, between her chest, which was big enough to conceal it enough to not look inconspicuous.
"Ugh, this feels so, just, wrong," she said to herself.
"You look very pretty," Hailey innocently said to cheer her up. She could, though the force, understand the twi'lek's uncomfortable feelings with this plan. The young miralukian woman comforted the older twi'lek as she rub her back. Tania did truly accept the young woman's concern for her and thanked her for it. Afterwards, Hailey left her room.
"You ready for this," questioned the older jedi as he walked into Tania's room.
"How could anyone be ready to act as a slave," replied Tania back to Karus with nervousness.
Karus came over and also sat next to the younger twi'lek and turned to face her whilst sitting.
"You are being sent since there's Twi'leks on that ship and they will listen to you easier since you're one of them. If the Twi'leks listen to you, the Togrutas will follow suit," explained Karus before he ended off with, "This is a huge service you'll be doing for the rebellion cells, these slaves are special in a sense."
Tania was confused what he meant and Karus could sense it and before she could get a word out, he answered her impending question, "Don't worry, we'll be on the black pearl, waiting for your sign to board the ship with the Pearl herself. Here how about I do this," as Karus proceeded to recite some unknown, weird chant. When he was done, he gave her a hug which she buried her face into the nook of his neck.
"What was that silly chant," inquired the twi'lek, her voice murmured by the older man's skin.
He chuckled a hardy, old veteran's chuckle as he followed with, "It is just a silly chant my old padawan would do before a mission, I see why she did it now."
She had only heard stories of her padawan: A Mon Calamarian Jedi who was strong in force. She had never actually learned what happened to her but knew it wasn't the time to ask the older jedi.
She withdrew herself from the friendly embrace and stood up and gave him a firm nod to indicate that she was ready. Karus was knew that when it came to Tania, she was a special case when she first entered the Order: Glad-hearted and she would act through her emotions. He was glad to have met her before the fall of the order and that ex-Jedi Master Plo Koon was her master.
Few more hours had now just passed, they had just dropped from hyperspace and Tania was now in the pod, waiting for the order to eject. Karus, Isslarok, and Ulysses were all located in the Cockpit at the moment with Ulysses in the driver position and Karus as the co-pilot for this operation. The trio waited with anticipation inside the cockpit of the freighter and had their signature scramblers already going to work to mask their mark. An hour or two would pass before the silence would finally be broken by the trandoshan.
"A sssship issss dropping out of hyperssspace in an ETA of few sssssecondsss," hissed the old lizard-folk.
"Now," exclaimed the old jedi.
Tania got the affirmative over her intercom inside the escape pod and proceeded to eject the pod from its container forward into unknown space. A feeling of anxiousness and anxiety filled the middle-aged twi'lek as she drifted further and further away from the Black Pearl. As a last gesture of good faith, Karus sought deep into his connection with the twi'lek and gave her force aura a comforting embrace and reminded her that she could do it. With one last deep breath and Karus' force embrace, she got ready to put on a show for these slavers.
As the crew entered the Raxus system, the captain hissed, "Ok, you sssscum, check the radar to make ssssure no rebel ssssshipssss enter thissss ssssysssstem."
The crew nodded in agreeance to the captain's words and kept tabs on all the systems and controls. When they drew closer to the planet known as Raxus Prime, one of the workers, an Ugnaught, who worked comms squealed open his mouth and said, "Captain, someone *snort* is trying to make contact with us!"
"Who," yelled the captain at the small pigman.
The ugnaught played the transmission and a feminine voice came over, "Help! Please! I was captured by slavers and I need help! I managed to escape luckily but I am stuck in an escape pod!"
"Where are you," commanded the captain.
He noticed that on the main terminal, a note of coordinates popped up and directed the crew to intercept the escape. When the crew asked why he was helping them he just replied with that the Empire wouldn't mind one more worker on the workforce for Raxus Prime and It would also just mean that they would just be paid more now. The ship crew rejoiced at this fact but the Captain reminded them that you can be happy when we get paid.
Stuck inside one huge metallic jail cell, Tania stood their, using her multi-tool to disarm and unshackle all of the prisoners. Once she was done she counted the number of heads in the cell: 6 Twi'leks and 4 Togrutas, 10 total prisoners of war. The prisoners were scared and confused but were self-aware enough to realize that she was helping them.
"So you're helping them as so I was sent also to by another cell huh," a disembodied voice echoed in the crowd. She looked around to see who the voice belonged to but didn't have to look long before a orange Togruta in her same old jedi knight inner robe appear before her. She had two lightsabers clipped to her belt alongside with a certain wise aura to her.
"Ahsoka Tano…" she quickly hugged her old friend, "what are you doing here also?"
"I was also too sent on a mission by another rebel cell to rescue these prisoners," Ahsoka responded.
"I am never more glad to see you honestly, old best friend," the only slightly older twi'lek proclaimed.
"As for I am too, but you do have a plan to get out of here because you wouldn't wear clothes like that if you didn't," replied the younger tortuga woman.
She informed the crowd on her plan to have two of the prisoners act like they needed serious medical attention. Once that would happen, they would sent a few guards to keep on the "merchandise" since she knew that they wouldn't risk confrontation with the Empire if they didn't get its full package of new slaves. From there, they would overpower the ship, submit them into submission as to not kill the crew and then signal the Black Pearl for EVAC when they were successful.
As the crew drew closer to Raxus Prime, one of the crew members signalled for the captain to come here. The captain sighed of annoyance and proceeded to make his way over to the Zabrak member who was signalling him.
"What do you need, you incompetent reject rancor," the captain hissed angrily.
"Well s..sir, there seems to be a problem in the slave quarters, our guys are reporting that two of the slaves need immediate medical attention now," the zabrak said, stumbling over his words, "Should we give them clearance to enter?"
"Oh, you fucking ssssstupid horned reject rancor," he hissed loudly, "Of courssssse they sssssshould invessssstigate! I am not getting my paid docked just becaussssse a couple of sssssoldiersssss can't follow damn ordersssss!"
The zabrak signalled back to the guards to escort the two injured to the medical bay to be treated by the droids that occupied. As minutes passed, awaiting a response from the two guards, he heard blaster fire within the ship and it startled the entire crew. The entirety of the crew, immediately, stopped working that instant and slowly turned their heads towards the door that led out to the other parts of the ship. Silence filled up the lack of sound of the command room as they all waited in anticipation for something to happen next. Then suddenly, a white lightsaber pierced through the metallic slide door as it slowly cut its way through. Once there was now a orange oval-like circle in the door, it was forcibly removed from its position as a orange Togruta and red Twi'lek, both of them wielding one white lightsaber. Both of them had a crew member of the ship restrained right there and that left the captain on his own. Realizing he wasn't in a position to fight, he dropped his DH-17 blaster pistol and raised his hands in a surrendering position.
She was surprised that the plan went off without a hitch or hiccup in it. The guards believed that the two prisoners were actually injured but then again, she could sense foolish from a member of the crew, maybe the captain? As Ahsoka and Tania made their way down towards where the cockpit is, they fought their way through multiple guards; slashing, deflecting, and pummeling through the merger resistance the guards portrayed. That was until they came up to a heavily armoured rodian wielding a E-Web heavy repeating blaster cannon. Ahsoka told Tania to prep the slaves for extraction and meet up with her in front of the cockpit. Tania nodded complying with the command and took off down the corridor towards the right, leaving the Rodian and Ahsoka alone.
She entered into the Shii-cho saber form and readied herself to face this rather difficult-looking foe. The rodian acted quickly, bought his cannon to a fire stance and started letting shots fly through the air, which sailed right past her. She did a force push on the heavy target, which caused him to stumble back a bit before Ahsoka connected his chin with her fist. This caused the rodian's head to jerk upwards and felt a jolting pain in his stomach as Ahsoka channelled some of her force into her next move, which was a punch to his stomach. He quickly composed himself. Dropped his repeater and threw a punch at her face, rather rashly and ended up missing. She followed through with his punch by grabbing his thrown fist, twisting it behind his back and throwing him over her shoulder. The rodian was, indefinitely, now out colder than the space's atmosphere and made her way towards the cockpit.
"Ringer 1, We have the captives secured and near the docking board, readied to be extracted," said Tania over the comms to the Black Pearl.
"Great job Ringer 3! We are now boarding the zygerrian slave ship, get ready for a boarding party," responded the voice over the comms. This voice was feminine and definitely no-one she knew.
After the call ended, she turned towards Ahsoka and commented, "Be ready, our escape may have been compromised…"
Ahsoka said whilst chuckling, "Oh no no no, I know who that was, she's with us, so don't worry."
She shrugged nonchalantly, thinking that if Ahsoka knew her then that meant they were fine. They made there way towards the docking tube where all the other freed captives and saw the docking tube door open and a blond, caucasian woman stepped into the premise. She was fresh into her twenties, wearing a green rebellion jacket and white tank. Her hair was tied back into a rather long ponytail as she made her way towards the two jedis whilst the captives piled into the rebel ship.
"Who are you," questioned the red twi'lek.
"Well Tania, I am Captain Juno Eclipse of the Rebellion," said the younger woman.
Tania couldn't lie when she thought this woman was absolutely beautiful but she didn't let her appearance distract her from her next question, "Well Captain, what is to happen with the freed captives as of now?"
"As of now, I can't say much but I can say that they will be crucial to building a larger rebellion force to take on the Empire," before then turning to Ahsoka and asking her a rather cryptic question, "Did you get any word on him?"
Juno was shocked to see Ahsoka smile and knew that it would be good news, "I didn't hear much from the captives but the specific contact was on this ship and told me that the real one lived but didn't have a location yet."
Juno started tearing up as an even huger smile plastered her face as she spoke, stuttering over herself, "I can't believe… and you're sure this is confirmed? I don't want to lead the rebellion into a trap, I couldn't live with myself if I did that even if it was for him."
"Shared the same cell and everything before being put on this transport by mistake, told me that if you didn't believe them, to tell you that, the phoenix rises when the jedi rein triumph."
Juno's tears started running in bunches now as she muttered to herself, "I can't believe he's alive, by the force, I am so happy…"
Ahsoka comforted the woman and told Tania that her ride was the next ship. As Ahsoka held the woman and walked towards into the other ship, Tania waited as the tube door closed and a rebellion capital ship departed from the docking area. As she heard the ship take to hyperspace, another ship docked the docking tube: The Black Pearl.
Few seconds passed before the door opened and a familiar older jedi appeared with his arms stretched out. She ran to him and proceeded to cry into his arms as he wrapped his arms around her smaller body in a tight embrace. He rubbed her back and told her she did a damn good job. As this happened, the Black Pearl undocked from the slave ship and proceeded to jump to hyperspace in a different direction from where the other ship did. Mission Accomplished.
That's a wrap for this chapter. Hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did writing it! give your feedback on how you think the story is going so far or advice you'd give me. I enjoy feedback and constructive criticism. Anyways have a good day, afternoon, and/or evening.
~Skully