Alright everyone, here is chapter thirty-four! We're now firmly back in normalcy after I took a vacation last month. By the way, this chapter gets into a bit of a dark moral area when it comes to the greater good and it references the asphyxiation scene from last chapter. I don't really do trigger warnings but I felt one was appropriate here because, while writing the dialogue, I got into some uncomfortable territory.
Secrets of The Outer Rim.
Act III.
The Hunters and The Hunted.
Chapter XXXIV.
Shock and Awe: Part II.
I laid in the Chancellery's medbay, wearing a breathing mask on my face, a mask with a tube attached to some sort of machine. It's exact functionality eludes me, but the device is supposed to filter out any remaining toxic air in my lungs and is laced with a gaseous form of bacta to help repair any and all damage done to my lungs as a result of getting my mask blown off on Quesh. An unfortunate incident, a near-death experience that sullied an otherwise very successful mission. The fact is we got in and got out, eliminating any potential witnesses in the processes - well, except for those scientists I spared, but Phanza doesn't need to know about that - and we got the navigational computer that Sarna Lu needs. I'm sure the Empire will launch an investigation of the sight, any they probably will find some lightsaber marks, but they'll also find a lot of blaster bolts, a lot of explosives, and won't have a single working computer left to tell them more. The Empire will have suspicions, many of them tied to us I'm sure, but they won't be able to tell our numbers, our goals, or where we're going to attack next.
This is exactly how this strategy is supposed to work: we hit the Empire where we're least expected, we hit them hard, and we make the day-to-day operations of the Empire a nightmare. If this plan can continue, pretty soon, every Imperial outpost in the galaxy will be on edge and Palpatine will have to think and rethink every single deployment of clones. Any time the Empire wants to assert its control over a new world or concentrate force around a particular position, they'll have to think about the fact that they can be attacked anywhere, by anyone, at any time. Quesh was, in many ways, the perfect trial of that, but there was just one problem. The fact that I was injured and almost killed by Hutt security of all things. I leaned up to take the mask off and position it on the table next to me, but, as I moved, I felt the soreness in my chest, I felt a lingering difficulty breathing, and it felt almost like my ribcage collapsed in on my lungs. I was pretty sure my ribcage was fine, so that says a lot about the state of my lungs, something I must have not been entirely aware of until now. The affect of adrenaline and focusing on trying not to die, I suppose. My moment was apparently noticed, because, when I took the breathing mask off, Phanza rushed into the medbay.
"Hey," I shot her a somewhat pained smile, my voice hoarse from a combination of disuse and the trauma I went through on Quesh. Of course, it wasn't only the getting the mask shot off and inhaling toxic air that did damage, I was also Force choked. I felt Phanza rip the air out of my lungs and constrict my throat to forcibly block the entry of anything else as she mended the mask with a bandage of all things and handed the makeshift solution over to me. The Force choke saved my life most likely, but I also now knew the feeling of my master's grasp on my throat. At the start of our assault on the recovered Terminator and the Imperial base around it, Phanza waved her hand and suffocated two clone troopers, sending them to the ground grasping at their throats without a second thought. An hour later, and that same power was on my throat. There wasn't any deadly intent this time, Phanza did it to save me after all, but I had to address the blue elephant in the room: I was Force choked and some of my difficulty breathing may be my master's fault.
"Hey," Phanza replied, the Nautolan's face colored with a mixture of emotions. At one point, it might have been difficult for me to tell how Phanza was feeling, with her big, glassy black eyes, lack of eyebrows or eyelids even, and her usual above-it-all attitude, but I knew her better by now. I could tell the odd cocktail of relief, regret, compassion, and joy all showing on her red-skinned, tattooed face. Relief because I was awake, alive, and feeling fairly good, all things considered. Regret because Phanza was just as aware of the fact that she had to Force choke me back on Quesh. Compassion for me, her apprentice, her friend I would like to think, and the girl she has a Force bond with. Then joy, a Sith Lord was legitimately happy, and not because of death and wanton destruction, the complete opposite actually. Phanza was overjoyed to see me alive and talking after what happened, what could have happened, on Quesh.
"You saved my life." I croaked out, trying to make sure that Phanza focused on the positive side of all this. Yes, Phanza Force choked me, yes it was probably a rash decision, but we didn't exactly have time and if she didn't get that toxic air out of my lungs, the results could have been far, far worse. Even if I managed to stop breathing, the toxic air that was in my lungs would corrode them inside out for as long as they were inside, polluted, inhospitable, rotten air from a world that has been an industrial wasteland for almost as long as it has been known to the rest of the galaxy. Phanza did a bad thing to me, and we would have to talk about that at some point, but doing that bad thing prevented an objectively worse thing from happening. Phanza saved my life, I'm only here because of her, and I can tell that she regrets the fact that she had to resort to such measures to keep my alive.
"I saved your life by endangering it." Phanza countered, immediately going to the negative. Perhaps it was the natural tendency of the Sith to be pessimistic, especially Phanza's brand of Sith which seem to place survival above all else, seemingly even compromising the traditional values of the Sith - no matter how evil they are - for the sake of the survival of their state. I wasn't sure how I was going to argue with this, because I had the same realization and I had to struggle with the same debate within my own head, but I knew that I didn't want Phanza to feel guilty, and I knew that I wasn't holding her responsible for her reactions, even if some certainly would. Is it wrong that Phanza Force choked me in those circumstances? The objective answer is probably yes. Am I going to have permanent damage to my respiratory system because of that? Quite possibly. On the other hand though, am I only alive because of Phanza's intervention? Absolutely. Would I have done any better under those circumstances? Absolutely not. I cannot blame Phanza for what she did, she did the best she could and released the Force choke at the earliest possible opportunity, all I can do is be grateful that we both survived that whole ordeal and can live to argue about it.
"You did the only thing you could think of. I know it's not a good thing, I don't think so either, but I'm alive, I'm here, and I'm not mad at you." I replied, my voice still retaining a bit of a rasp but sounding much closer to normal than it has since Quesh. Of course, I still felt a lingering pain down through my throat into my lungs, but even that wasn't as bad as it once was - likely the result of a combination of the gaseous bacta and the fact that Force users in general tended to heal rather quickly. That didn't mean we were invulnerable, of course, Order 66 is proof of that, but the Clone Wars have also shown countless Jedi taking utter beatings and being back in the fight, usually before the end of the very campaign they were injured on. I'm not sure if all that strain will catch up with me one day, maybe it will, because old Master Yoda walked with a cane after the centuries of strain his body went though, but, on the other hand, Yoda was still able to leap across the room and do battle with fully-fledged Sith Lords when the situation demanded. I also don't know nearly enough about Yoda's species to know how his physiology compares to my physiology. Hell, I don't even really know what my physiology is.
I spent all my life thinking I was a Zeltron, and, with my red skin, purple eyes, and generally rather attractive complexion, it made sense to me. Now I've found out that was a lie, and the truth was that I was some sort of hybrid, half human, half Sith Pureblood. That also meant I didn't truly resemble either of my species, because, while I generally felt I looked more human, I had an unnatural skin tone and and even more unnatural eye color. Meanwhile, from everything that I've seen about the Sith Pureblood species, I don't have the bony protrusions on my face, I don't have a spiky bone structure jutting out of my cheeks, and I didn't have any connection whatsoever to the Sith species. At least I've known and interacted with humans, I can't say the same about Sith Purebloods. Of course, part of that can be attributed to the fact that the Jedi separated me from my parents - and, to my understanding, my father was killed by the Jedi when they found me - but still, all I inherited from the Sith is my coloration. What value does color really have in a galaxy with hundreds, perhaps even thousands of species of sentient humanoids? I had the red skin of the Sith, which was treated as a big deal by the Sith of Taaszon, but Phanza wore red skin too, even E'verta, the Twi'lek apprentice travelling with us, had red skin. Why is it important in my case? I am the last of a species I didn't even know I belonged to until recently.
"Perhaps you should be." Phanza brought me back into the present moment as she sighed and sat down in the chair next to my bed, still not entirely convinced that what she did on Quesh was the right thing. I don't think we'll ever be fully comfortable with what happened there, but we succeeded and we pioneered a strategy that we can use to great effect against the Empire, not only that, but we succeeded in our mission and may have gained a valuable ally in the form of Sarna Lu and his faction of Lost Sith. No matter how we look at it, gaining a small battleship with a fully trained crew under the command of a Sith Lord and their apprentice was a positive boost to our side in this struggle against the Empire. There was a positive side to this situation, and I think there are more positives than negatives. Quite frankly, I think the ends justified the means in this case. Phanza may disagree, but, as I reached over and grabbed her hand, the two of us made eye contact, and I tried to convey through our bond that I was grateful for what she did to save me. Honestly, I was grateful for everything that Phanza has done since I escaped Order 66 on Ypherro, so, in many ways, this is the second time that Lady Attam has saved my life.
"The navigational computer, Lord Sarna." Phanza announced as the three of us entered the bridge of the Elysium. E'verta Ne'ull had already taken her position next to her Kaminoan master as Lady Attam levitated the navigational computer over to them as Sarna Lu watched, hands held behind his back. The Sith Lord definitely enjoyed that pose, I think it was his way of showing absolute control and confidence, where he felt comfortable appearing vulnerable even in the presence of three trained Sith, r at least what he perceived as three trained Sith.
"Excellent, how did the operation go?" Sarna Lu asked, interested in hearing the details about how the mission went. I was under no illusions that he wouldn't be receiving detailed reports from his apprentice later, with E'verta detailing everything she saw - our level of technology, our tactics, our plans, how we fought, and how we conducted ourselves during the mission - but, for now, the Kaminoan wanted to hear it from us. I imagined that this was perhaps another test, the Kaminoan comparing what we told him with the "truth" he would get from his apprentice, and that would leverage as to whether or not he could trust us. In short: Sarna Lu wanted to know if he could trust us to tell the truth before he could know if he could trust us as allies.
"Pretty well, all things considered. I pulled some strings with the Hutts to get us on the planet discretely and secretly. This inspired an idea that we believe we can use to great effect against the Empire: hard, fast, unexpected strikes. We covered our tracks on Quesh by destroying the entire base and leaving no witnesses, meaning the Empire will be struggling to find out who attacked them, why, and for what. This is exactly the kind of affect we want to leave upon the Empire: we want them to become paranoid, we want them to waste resources, and we want to prove to the wider galaxy that the Empire can be hurt. In that respect, the operation was a complete success. The only problem we faced was when one of my apprentices had an air filter destroyed by a Huttese sniper, but, as you can see, she's alive and well." Phanza reported on the operation honestly and decided this was the time to share our wider strategy with the Lost Sith, presenting it before them, and Phanza also skimmed over the incident that happened to me. She told enough that, when E'verta reported to her master, he would see that we told the truth, but Phanza kept her real worries and regrets over the incident private: that was a matter for the two of us.
"Oh? Is that true?" Sarna Lu asked, turning to me, his expression practically daring me to speak. I spoke during our last visit on this bridge, trying to intervene and find a peaceful solution, so that meant he knew my voice. That meant he would notice if my voice was significantly damaged, and, if my voice was significantly damage, that would raise questions as to just how injured I was during the course of this mission and just how sustainable the strategy was. The Kaminoan didn't see much point in allying with us if it seemed like we were going to get weaker and weaker with every attempt on the Empire. Granted, the Empire would get weakened too, but, I think the Kaminoan honestly has a point - if we keep almost dying on these missions like I almost did on Quesh, then we're going to exhaust our ability to fight a lot quicker than the Empire is going to lose any of their ability to wage war.
"Yes, it is true. I feel a bit sore here and there but that's to be expected so soon after the incident. I expect to be making a full recover by the time we return to Dromund Kaas." I replied, trying to minimize the rasp in my voice and playing down the pain. The truth is, I had no idea when I was going to recover from this and I would be truly surprised if I was fully recovered by the time we returned, but that's not what the Kaminoan needed to hear. Sarna Lu needed to hear that the injury was minor and that I'm recovering, and it is in the best interests of the Grand Duchy for me to lie about this. This is all in service of the greater good.
"Very well then. If I may ask, what are your plans now, Lady Attam?" I wasn't sure how convincing I was to Sarna Lu, he kept his voice even and his face expressionless as he replied to me, then, as soon as he was done, he turned his attention to Phanza and changed the subject, transitioning to where we plan to go from here. A return to Dromund Kaas, I had to imagine - we've already extended this mission out as much as we possibly can, we need to head back home to refuel, resupply, and rest before any further operations. We also needed to figure out what are next targets were going to be with this strategy: planning and preparation really was the key here: we needed to know where we were going to hit the Empire, when, and why, we needed to plan what weapons we were going to use, both with considerations on protecting our identities and to avoid implicating any existing local resistance groups. For example, given we used our equipment during the assault on Quesh, out of an abundance of caution, we may disguise ourselves as commoners and use separatist equipment on our next attack, unless of course that attack was in separatist space, where such a resistance group may well existence. Where such an existence group really does exist, based on Senator Cenetta and the Loukhamii resistance we encountered last time we tried something like this against the Empire.
"Well, we are going to return to Dromund Kaas and present this strategy to our fellow Sith. We are going to plan on which targets we are going to attack next and how we can most effectively weaken the Empire, while also making sure the attacks are dispersed enough and random enough to avoid giving the Empire any noticeable patterns to go off of. The whole point is to make sure that every Imperial position is frightened and that any investigators they send after us won't be able to identify any clear pattern behind this attacks." Phanza answered, her answer being rather similar to what I expected, but also with her expanding this strategy to include the rest of the Dark Council and, presumably, the military of Taaszon as well. This means the likes of Darth Mesiphis, Lord Korzytkos, and Darth Rezivara could be involved in our future attacks on the Empire. Yevenna Aphlen may be involved as well, the Mandalorian joining combat operations again for the first time since losing her mentor, Ceyla Ordo, during the Battle of Taaszon. This actually left me with a lot more to consider, going forward, because I didn't know who exactly would be serving with us in the future, what numbers we would be acting in, and, in fact, there is even the possibility of simultaneous attacks on the Empire.
"Very well then. Here, an encoded holocommunicator with my frequency on it. We will be in touch." the Kaminoan replied, effortlessly levitating a handheld holocommunicator over to Phanza before turning his back, once again looking out onto space. Sarna Lu was now in the exact same pose as we found him, standing here looking out at the same stars he's been looking at for his entire time onboard the Elysium. The only difference is, this time, the Kaminoan isn't going to be anchored to these stars in the Telos system, he has a navigational computer, and, once that is installed, he'll be one step closer to being able to travel across the galaxy. We fulfilled our end of the bargain, but, with his abrupt end to the meeting, Sarna Lu was being noncommittal about entering the alliance with us. He did give us his holofrequency though, so perhaps this does means he wants to confirm the story with his apprentice before agreeing into an alliance. I glanced over at Phanza, wondering what she was thinking about doing. For a moment, she glared at Sarna Lu, perhaps considering a sharp retort, perhaps prepared to demand he commits to an alliance, but, after a moment, I saw Lady Attam hesitate, smirk, and turn around. Phanza was confident that this situation would play out to our advantage after all.
A few days later, I was laying in my bed on Dromund Kaas, happy to be back home. R9-W3 sat offline in the corner, enjoying the droid version of a restful sleep I suppose, my lightsaber sat on my counter, off my belt for the first time in weeks, or, at least, it felt like I could be without my weapon for the first time in weeks, and the seemingly endless patter of Dromund Kaas rain quietly struck against the window behind me. True to form, Sarna Lu called Phanza mid-flight and accepted the alliance, mentioning at the same time that the Elysium was now mobile and that the ship was being relocated. Phanza went to talk with Darth Rezivara and Inquisitor Baracyn - the pair of women seemed to be our closest allies on the Dark Council, after all - along with Admiral Wurrathu, who, again, was already one our side. I assumed that this was about getting the women on board with our plan before presenting it to Darth Mesiphis, Darth Xelecon, and Lord Korzytkos, as they may be more reluctant to go along with the plan.
Elsewhere, as I closed my eyes, I could sense Schweva in the room next to mine, sat on her bed meditating, being two Force users in proximity to each other, I could tell that Schweva noticed me reaching out in the Force, but the Chiss didn't seem to react to it - she could tell that I wasn't trying to prod her mind or interfere with her meditation, I was simply feeling - I also felt another presence, something much older, but also something not quite as tangible. Then I remembered Phanza mentioning that this was a place where Darth Imperius lived, and, even now, her presence has left an impression on this apartment. I felt the first footsteps the young Twi'lek Sith took as she entered this place, dressed in black and purple robes, a double-bladed purple lightsaber at her waist, and a familiar set of tattoos running down the two Lekku she had draped over her shoulders. There was a certain sense of uncertainty in her as she looked at the gray, unfurnished walls - something we experienced as well the first time we entered the now long deserted apartment - but the uncertainty ran deeper than that.
The young Darth Imperius - well, I say that, but she wasn't even know as Lord Kallig at this point yet, in fact, I don't even know what her name was all the way back then, when she was only an apprentice - was not nearly as committed to the Dark Side as her contemporaries, the impressions in the Force left here are proof of that, and she was scared of what would happen if she was found out. Imperius had just been a slave, she fought for her life just to maintain a semblance of dignity, she had even managed to become a Sith, but now, as she began seeing Lords, Darths, and even Dark Councilors in her day-to-day life, she was quickly realizing that she was still vulnerable. Then, there was yet another thing Darth Imperius was uncertain about. She didn't enter the apartment alone, following her, always watching, was her Dashade Assassin, Khem Val she called him, the deadly warrior who was bound to her service when she defeated him in his weakness, but now, with blue and red patterned skin, heavy pieces of armor being to cover his bare chest, and a massive sword on his back, Imperius was wondering just how long the ancient Jedi killer was going to be weak enough to control.
Of course, Khem Val would eventually become a loyal and obedient servant to Darth Imperius by his own free will, but the uncertainty of the very first moment in this apartment was striking. Darth Imperius was a young, scared, out of place woman at one point in time, and I could certainly relate to being a frightened red-skinned girl on a Sith planet, wielding a double-bladed lightsaber and surrounded by companions she couldn't be entirely certain about. I say how I first felt on Taaszon and Castle Attam in these three and a half thousand year old experiences of the ancient Sith who effectively serves as the inspiration for all of the Sith of the Grand Duchy of Taaszon. I expanded my reach with the Force, feeling out further, and feeling ancient darkness in contrast to this place, meaning that this place was almost like a bastion of the light on a planet so deeply, deeply entrenched in the Dark Side. The darkest place of all being the Dark Temple, the very place where we fought a Terentatek and sealed the whole place off with the Force.
I also felt the rest of the Grand Duchy forces here, numerous Sith, some meditating, some still working as our efforts to make this city livable again were far from complete, and some in various stages of mourning lost apprentices or masters or loved ones after the Battle of Taaszon. Some of these Sith were darker than Phanza, some were lighter even, but most fell within a gradient that wasn't quite as dark as the ancient Sith, but also wasn't quite as light as the Jedi, or at least how the Jedi should have been. I suppose this fits into my interpretation of the Grand Duchy of Taaszon as whole: it's a Sith state, but, in terms of the Force, it's somewhat of a middle ground: if the Dark Side was red, as I often picture it, and the Light Side was blue, then Taaszon is purple, like Phanza feels in the Force, like the robes Darth Imperius wore in that vision of the young Sith, and like the color Taaszon most often associates itself with. Some Sith, like Darth Mesiphis and Darth Xelecon, for example, were on the darker end of the spectrum, but that didn't mean they were like Palpatine. Mesiphis even, the first time I saw her, she was mourning the loss of her apprentice, and that already shows a greater compassion than I ever thought possible from a Sith. Once I expected all of Taaszon to be pure evil, now, looking at some of the darker elements of Taaszon, I see them as infinitely better than even my most generous view of the Sith back when I was a Jedi.
In many ways, the label of Sith is unfair for the Grand Duchy of Taaszon. It's too harsh, it carries too many connotations: I cannot comprehend Phanza and Palpatine coming from two different interpretations of the same ideology, they just seem too far apart for that, yet, at the same time, I suppose that Phanza is the product of the bastion of comparative light that is this apartment, while Palpatine is the product of the Dark Temple: the darkest of dark on Taaszon, the domain of the ancient Sith Emperor who would leach his own people and genocide entire worlds to fuel his mad crusade. The Force users of Taaszon use Dark Side powers, but they also use Light Side powers, they may use the Sith Code, but their interpretation of it as significantly more liberal than whatever interpretation Palpatine believes in, assuming that Palpatine is even all that interested in ideology. I wouldn't necessarily be surprised if Palpatine simply saw the Dark Side and the Sith as a means to an end, seizing it as his path to absolute power and utter domination over the galaxy.
I sensed something besides these varied Force users though, I sensed Yevenna Aphlen walk out onto the balcony of her room in the Mandalorian enclave, the Mirialan Mandalorian dressed casually in a long-sleeved gray shirt and black leggings, she was leaning against the entrance to the balcony to avoid the bulk of the rain and simply looked across the city. She was lost, lonely, in an unfamiliar city without the woman who has been her mentor since she joined the Mandalorians of Taaszon as a foundling. Yevenna worked so hard to impress Ceyla and Ceyla didn't even get to see Yevenna blossom into a proper Mandalorian warrior, now, she was alone on a balcony on an ancient world, not knowing exactly where she belongs or what she is going to do. In many respects, we were all in the same place, trying to rebuild our civilization, but at least Schweva and I get to do so under the supervision of the same mentor we've always had, Yevenna doesn't have that, and I suspect she was closer to Ceyla than she was to any other Mandalorian, significantly closer. I needed to talk to her, see what I can do to try and make things better.
I opened my eyes and rose from my bed, still feeling a weight of pain in my chest, but it was a lot more manageable than it had been. I was dressed in a pair of black robes with a sort of grayish, shadowy pattern across them, and some thin orange pinstripes for detail. I put my hood up to protect from the rain and headed down the stairs to the speeder garage, planning on taking "my" speeder to the Mandalorian enclave. Phanza requisitioned multiple speeders for this apartment, considering it was a couple hundred stories above the chasm below, one of them, a closed top purple and black speeder, was assigned to me. I slid the top open, sat down, fired up the speeder, closed the top and then headed off to the Mandalorian Enclave, crossing the chasm that cut Kaas City in half, the bottom shrouded in fog in such a way to make it appear almost like an endless abyss. Perhaps that was part of why the ancient Sith chose to build a city on this site, both to give the impression that their Citadel was a truly monumental structure and to strike fear into the hearts of any young apprentice journeying to that very Citadel for the first time. Young newcomers like Darth Imperius wouldn't have been able to see the ground as they rode their ancient speeders across this impossibly deep canyon.
The same was expected of high-ranking Imperials I suppose, Intelligence operatives in particular, based on what we've been able to identify from the right wing of the old Citadel. The left wing, meanwhile, was the old Mandalorian Enclave, part embassy to the ancient warrior race that proved an invaluable ally to the Sith Empire during their invasion of the Republic, and part training ground for the conquering warriors and their bounty hunter allies as they established themselves as servants of the Empire. Now, all these years later, we were trying to replicate the original functions of the Citadel: the Sith Sanctum in the center has become the home of Taaszon's new governing body: the Dark Council, the Mandalorian Enclave, meanwhile, has become home to the Mandalorians once again. The Imperial Intelligence Headquarters, meanwhile, is beginning to host members of the Intelligentsia, many of whom trace their routes back to that very building, others do not, but it will do for them. Worlds like Cipher Nine and other outlying worlds that the Empire may not know of yet are being slowly evacuated, bringing the people here before the Empire can uncover the rest of the Grand Duchy of Taaszon.
In any case, I landed at the Mandalorian Enclave and headed up to speak with Yevenna.
"Hey," I greeted as I stood in the doorway to her room, hand lightly knocking on the wall next to her open door. The Mirialan jumped a little bit, startled from her spot on her private balcony, but then turned around and greeted me with a slight, somewhat forced smile. I looked around her room. The furniture was rather simple: a couch and holoterminal in the living room, a bed and some end tables from what I could see of the bedroom, and a modest kitchenette in the corner. It all came across as very standard, and that's because it was: I'm sure this was all standard lodging for the Mandalorian Enclave: Yevenna hasn't felt the motivation to personalize this place as all, she's done nothing to make it home. I saw her armor set up on a mannequin in her bedroom, but, other than that, if the woman wasn't here herself, I wouldn't be able to tell this was Yevenna's room. All except one thing. Out in the living room, mounted to the wall, sat one of Ceyla's silver helmets, an older one, I was sure, but it was the one thing she had to remember Ceyla by, and that one shrine was indicative of the larger theme of this blank and sterile room: Yevenna felt like she had nobody and, to be fair, I haven't done anything to help her, being preoccupied with my own struggles.
"Hey," Yevenna replied with a sigh, walking over to the couch and sitting down, offering me a seat next to her. I joined her and thought about what I was going to do here: I wanted to extend an olive branch of some sort, find a way to reach out and effectively apologize for my absence in her life, even if Yevenna didn't seem like she was expecting one. At the same time, I also wanted to find a way to distract her from her loneliness and feeling of loss: I felt that, if I offered Yevenna a place on our team once again, I could solve a number of problems at one. It would give Yevenna something to do, people to be around, and some sort of purpose in life, which I think she needs right now. At the same time, it would give us another gun and another perspective during these shock and awe attacks on the Empire. Finally, this would also put Yevenna and I together, giving me the chance to atone for my absence and to try and be a better friend to the Mirialan Mandalorian who, in many ways, has effectively been orphaned for the second time in her life.
"How are things?" I opted to focus on her first, figuring that if I went straight into the offer, it would come across like I was just looking for someone to join our group, and like I was only reentering Yevenna's life to use her for our purposes. I needed to make sure that Yevenna understood that this was about more than just trying to fight the Empire, in fact, my reason for being here has very little to do with our current strategy. This is about her, this is about me trying to be the best friend possible right now, and this is about me trying to help Yevenna find her place in the world now that her mentor and the path she thought she had ahead of her is gone. Yevenna must have always imagined herself as following in Ceyla's footsteps and being inducted into the Mandalorians properly by her, but now, with the Echani Mandalorian gone, Yevenna's presence in the Mandalorian ranks must feel rather hollow.
"Oh, I'm uh...I'm fine. I was just looking out the window and I guess, because of the rain, or maybe just because of my own thoughts, I was distracted. I'm sorry I didn't notice you earlier." Yevenna replied, she was still talkative and still had that awkward streak about her, but awkward in a cute way, I thought, but it seemed different right now, lifeless in a way. It seemed like Yevenna was robbed of all purpose and life when the woman she admired so much, the woman who she was determined to impress, the woman who she based her whole existence as a Mandalorian upon, was gone. I didn't like that. Now, more than ever, I was determined to try and insert some life and energy back into Yevenna's soul. I wanted to hear bubbly energy and excitement when she got into a nervous ramble, not sadness and markers of low self-esteem. I wanted to show her that she belonged, that she mattered, and that she was appreciated.
"You don't have to be sorry. I actually sensed you standing on the balcony lost in thought. That's kinda why I wanted to come here, I wanted to try and make you feel better." I revealed, deciding that this was as good of a time as any to make my pitch about joining us again "Look, I know it's hard for you right now, I can only begin to imagine what Ceyla meant to you, but I know what it's like to lose a master, and I know that you can't stay in your room all day. Sitting around, unmotivated and depressed, it's not going to make coping with the loss any easier, in fact, it's just going to leave you sitting there, trapped in your own uncertainty, self-loathing, and loneliness. You have to find something new, something greater than yourself, and, if you're interested, I have a proposition."
"...What would that be?" Yevenna asked, rather simply, her expression and her voice both difficult to read, but I continued in spite of that.
"Lady Attam has developed a new strategy for fighting the Empire: we infiltrate their worlds secretly, at seemingly random points in random areas of the galaxy with no clear purpose linking them together, then we attack as quickly and as brutally as we can, trying to inflict as much damage and as much confusion as we can before slipping away and leaving the world. The whole plan depends on causing chaos within the Empire and making it a nightmare for whoever they send to investigate the attacks. Hopefully, the result of all this is what we get to show the galaxy over and over and over again that this new Empire is not perfect, not invincible, and not the right thing for the rest of the galaxy. With any luck, our attacks will empower resistance groups, giving them inspiration and showing them that the Empire can be hurt, while also making sure that we leave no evidence behind that could possibly implicate them. This way, the Empire has no standing, no justification for any reprisals, this way, we can stand up to an enemy that is stronger than us in every metric, this way, we can fight a war by ignoring conventional strategy entirely." I explained. This wasn't about capturing systems or defeating armies like in a conventional conflict, this was about inflicting as much damage as possible on the Empire and trying to make the every move a massive headache for Palpatine.
"Well...if you'll have me, I may have an idea." I watched a smirk developed on Yevenna's face as she glanced back at her armor, the Mandalorian already having an idea that could fit squarely into our strategy.
Not very long after that, Yevenna, Schweva, and I were all dressed in red and black suits of feminine style Mandalorian armor, all armed with two blaster pistols as we assaulted an Imperial orbital munitions depot over Geonosis. I blasted up from cover using the jetpack and fired off volleys of red lasers - purple was considered too indicative of Taaszon for this particular surprise mission - at the defending clones, floating down rather easily in the limited gravity of this artificial atmosphere. This place was likely built during the Clone Wars, the product of the fact that the fighting on Geonosis didn't really stop, and now the Empire was continuing to use it, likely for their own nefarious plans against the bugs of the planet below. Declaring that the Geonosians outlived their purpose and were now expendable would be hardly out of the ordinary for Palpatine, and, if this orbital station was being used for genocide, that was all the more reason to destroy it entirely.
Phanza, meanwhile, was flying around in a Mandalorian corvette, doing battle with some ARC fighters that were protecting this place. Lady Attam's Nautolan physiology meant that she couldn't exactly impersonate a Mandalorian, well, she could, but we were using older suits that belonged to Yevenna Aphlen, and Phanza obvious wasn't going to get her head-tails into a helmet made for near-humans. That left her in a mission control and air support role for this particular mission, but Phanza didn't much mind that, because, while she was taking on Imperial pilots, she was also in contact with Mesiphis, Rezivara, Xelecon, Korzytkos, Wurrathu, and General Zeno'kahanni'photon as we committed simultaneous attacks on a number of Imperial installations at once. Phanza figured this out during the meeting with the Dark Council: if the Empire were attacked at the same idea by various different teams and, as far as they could tell, no evidence linked them together, then even Palpatine would have a difficult time blaming Taaszon for all of this. That suited out strategy just fine.
Meanwhile, my understanding is that Darth Rezivara and her apprentice, Inquisitor Baracyn, were impersonating a pair of Jedi, Master and Padawan - with the aid of some manufactured brown and tan robes and a pair of green lightsaber crystals - as they attacked an Imperial refueling station about halfway between Coruscant and Kamino. This was judged as a location that was quiet enough to attack with just two individuals, but could still prove that the Empire was not untouchable anywhere, we could hurt them on Coruscant and we could hurt them on Kamino. The cover of them being Jedi would also send Palpatine on a wild goose chase, trying to figure out who these Jedi might be and how they possibly survived Order 66, in that respect, we were distracting Palpatine by disguising ourselves as the one thing that he considers a higher priority than the Grand Duchy of Taaszon: the Jedi Order.
Mesiphis, meanwhile, traveled with Xelecon and his band of Kaleesh warriors to Ilum, on somewhat of a multi-purpose mission: they were to destroy the existing Imperial presence on the world, infiltrate the ancient crystal caves, secure as many Kyber crystals as they could - we no longer had access to the supply on Taaszon and, with us disguising ourselves as Jedi at times with this new strategy, it may be a good idea to get our hands on some more blue and green color crystals - finally, they were to collapse the cave entrances with Imperial explosives. This wouldn't exactly do much to keep the Empire out of the crystal caves for long, I'm sure Palpatine has the time and resources to commission a heavy duty drill, but it would delay them, it would make whatever they want to do with the crystals significantly harder, and, well, it would hurt them. That was the recurring theme of this strategy: we didn't have the resources to fight the Empire head on or force them off worlds, but we did have the ability to sew chaos and complicate the day-to-day running of the Empire.
To that end, Lord Korzytkos and General Zeno'kahanni'photon were once again acting as a pair, along with a team of Zeno's elite Chiss Commandos, as they launched a stealth raid on the Kuat Drive Yards. Now, their team had neither the resources, the men, or the time to destroy the entire manufacturing center of the Kuat Drive Yards, but they could hit a number of key installations while remaining undetected, so, in this attack, they were aiming to engineer a failure on one of the massive assembly lines - which, say there are fives main assembly lines producing Venator-class Star Destroyers, would reduce Imperial Naval expansion by twenty percent, for a time anyway - and they also wanted to recalibrate some of the smaller, earlier operations in the assembly process. This was actually the part of the operation that required more stealth: the Imperials were supposed to discover the failure, it was supposed to shut down manufacturing after all, the Imperials weren't supposed to notice the little things that they did in the assembly process. Korzytkos and Zeno would do little things: change a few integers in the factory algorithms, change the angle on a few blades just slightly, and just ever so slightly adjusting values in the assembly process. The point of this was to make sure that panels didn't quite fit right, that dimensions were just slightly off, and that bolts were misaligned. The Empire would see a visible decrease in reliability and quality in their star ships and, if the strike team did their job right, the Empire wouldn't even know where these problems were coming from.
So, the four of us were attacking a munitions station above Geonosis dressed as clones, Rezivara and Baracyn were interfering in Imperial supply lines between the capital and the clone homeworld, Mesiphis and Xelecon were raiding Ilum, and Korzytkos and General Zeno were on an industrial sabotage mission. The seeds of asymmetrical warfare were being planted throughout the galaxy and, as I lifted my head from cover and shot two Imperials dead, we were really beginning to make progress and have a noticeable effect on the Empire. That left us with what Admiral Wurrathu was tasked with: the Chiss Admiral and once-upon-a-time pilot of the Ultimate was tasked with commanding a group of "pirates" as they acquired an entire Venator-class Star Destroyer. This mission was more just to show the galaxy that not even the Star Destroyer, the symbol of Republic naval strength turned symbol of Imperial oppression, was invincible, a crew of supposed pirates using speed, maneuverability, and a number of ships, along with good planning and the element of surprise, could steal a Star Destroyer. What were they going to do upon acquiring the ship? Well, raid it for supplies and blow up the remaining carcass. We couldn't risk taking a Star Destroyer back to Dromund Kaas as Palpatine might be able to track it to our homeworld, but we could steal its supplies and redistribute them amongst ourselves and our allies.
We were hitting the Empire everywhere and we were shattering the myth of Imperial invincibility, so, to that end, the three of us pushed forward. Schweva was the first to pop out of cover, standing up to her feet and shooting as she moved sideways towards a nearby pillar, planning on repositioning there and using it for cover, meanwhile, Yevenna and I provided cover for her, firing from behind the low barrier and making sure that as many clones as possible were under suppressive fire. At the same time, in the skies above us, I watched as Phanza spun her starship around and blew up an ARC fighter, more importantly, the Imperials saw it too. That explosion almost seemed to turn the tides in the battle here on the space station as, the clones, seeing one of their brothers get shot down above them, were distracted as I moved forward to another pillar, shooting three clones dead on the way. Meanwhile, behind me and to the right, Schweva was making good use of her new position as she unloaded her blaster pistols, taking down four Imperials outright and knocking a fifth down to the ground. I acted quickly and shot him dead with the blaster in my right hand, finishing him off.
That finished off all the clones out here, but that didn't meant the end of this battle, because, at the far end of this outdoor compound beneath the dome of an artificial atmosphere, a blast door opened and a group of clones prepared to enter battle. Schweva and I braced ourselves, getting prepared for another shootout when, from behind us, still behind the first barrier, Yevenna leaned forward, looking almost like she was slumping herself over the barrier, but, in reality, she was angling her jetpack towards the clones. I watched as Yevenna fired the missile off her back and set it into the narrow corridor the clones were exiting from. It seemed to be a timed detonation because the missile exploded right in the middle of the group as it reached the hallway, but the air burst was more than capable of dispatching the entire squad of clones. I suppose the backpack missiles are a useful weapon, if a bit circumstantial.
"We're heading inside now." Schweva reported into the comlink of her red Mandalorian helmet. Like all of Yevenna's helmets, this had the feminine style Mandalorian visor, with the little peak as the eyes curved in and then a thinner, more pointed bridge down to the bottom of the helmet, in contrast to the more straight and square appearance of the masculine visor, though, as I've come to realize, it's not a clear cut masculine and feminine thing. This style is predominantly feminine, but there is no rule keeping men from wearing such visors, such as there was no rule preventing Ceyla from wearing the masculine visors, in fact, Mandalorian women wearing the masculine visor is actually more common than males wearing the feminine equivalent. Phanza didn't respond for a moment, but she had a good reason for that, given that, beyond the atmospheric dome of this space station, I could see Phanza maneuvering behind the final ARC fighter and shooting it down, having been busy finishing the battle in the skies before responding.
"Excellent, I'm going to land the ship and connect the boarding ramp. If I need to disconnect for whatever reason, I'll let you know." Phanza replied, docking with the space station and keeping a watchful eye, providing mission control, but remaining ready to disconnect and defend our mission in the event that an Imperial response would arrive before we finished up. With that, the three of us entered, Yevenna, being the most familiar with this equipment, took point, with me on the left and Schweva was on the right. it was a funny in a way, we weren't following Phanza for once in these missions, yet we still found our way to our usual positions, flanking the leader. We walked past the blown up clones and down the thin corridor, with Schweva and I covering two small alcoves with our blasters as we came across a point where the hallway widened just before it thinned down again for the last stretch before the command center.
"Argh!" all of a sudden, our attention was torn forward as Yevenna was jumped by a surviving clone as soon as she entered the command center, the clone was armed with a vibroknife and was trying to take a struggling Yevenna as a human shield against us, I panicked, trying to find a solution to this that would minimize risk and keep my Mandalorian friend from getting hurt, but Schweva didn't panic, instead, she just shot the clone dead, the shot well clear of Yevenna. A moment of calm descended on us as we scanned the rest of the room, making sure that was the last surprise as I released this clone must have hung back as the last line of defense, desperately clinging to the wall and waiting for us to enter so he could try his ambush technique, maybe dying in the process, but maybe avenging some of his brothers as well. Instead, the clone is just another casualty of war, just another identical face lost. I still don't entirely know what to think of the clones: brainwashing seems to be the case, but, in some ways, the answer feels too easy, it feels like the cold, hard, malicious truth is that the clones knew Order 66 was coming from the beginning, but maybe that pessimism is just the result of all these months fighting against the Empire against impossible odds. All I knew for sure is that I didn't like seeing all the dead clones after a mission like this, even if I realized it was an unfortunate necessity in the battle against the ultimate evil that is Palpatine.
"Okay, thanks for the save, I umm...I appreciate it, Lord Schw - err...I appreciate it, that's all." Yevenna replied, very nearly giving up the Chiss apprentice's identity, not that it mattered much considering that the witnesses were dead and we were about to blow up this space station, but still, the Mirialan seemed pretty embarrassed as she turned her attention to the command console, though, once she got to work there, she was all business "Alright, the space station is circular with the munitions basically lined up around the radius of this command center, but, there's a catch. Half of the level is lower than the rest, that would be the side we came from, the other half, the higher half, is part of this interior structure. Not only that, but the security doors to the upper munitions are operated from right here...so, we open these doors, plant a couple thermal detonators, and then these stacks of explosives blow up all the way down and all the way around."
"A chain reaction," I surmised as Yevenna opened the blast shields and revealed the stacks of munitions. Wall panels retracted to reveal that this room, this room we just shot a blaster in, was practically enclosed in a cocoon of artillery shells, the exact kind of thing heavy Republic guns would use to batter separatist bunkers or to collapse Geonosian cave systems during the battles on Geonosis in the Clone Wars. They were in orderly rows, one above the other, separated by two bars of metal that basically just served to hold the shells in place. Just like Yevenna reported, the shells went all the way down and, as I reached the floor level, I could see they were also going all the way around, enclosing the entire space station. Not only did this go all the way around and down, but it also extended out, out all the way to the edge of the space station, where I imagined the outer walls and shield generators were held at extra strength. The space station knew the risk of a chain detonation, unfortunately for them, this particular chain detonation was going to come from inside.
Schweva and I started planting thermal detonators on the sections of explosives, knowing that a couple of thermal detonators would be enough to blow up the artillery shells and their own explosive payloads would do the rest of the work. Quite frankly, there were probably hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of artillery shells on this station, it wasn't going to take very much explosive power at all to blow this whole station away. Meanwhile, Yevenna was still at the computer, operating with a dual purpose, both trying to disable any and all potential countermeasures that could try and contain the explosion or limit the damage, and to collect any useful information that might be on the computer. Now, I imagined the information here would be rather mundane, mostly just shipping manifests, supplies coming in and explosives coming out, but, it didn't hurt to look, especially if she was doing this while we were setting this base to blow.
"Umm...I still can't tell why, but the Empire is definitely still campaigning on Geonosis, because a lot of these explosives have been going to the surface, like..,a lot." Yevenna reported, conforming many of our suspicions: the Empire was doing away with the Geonosians now that their purpose was fulfilled. Insectoid, known for their hive mind and even possession at times, and known to have collaborated with the separatists, I doubt the Geonosians are going to be particularly missed by most of the galaxy, but this is how genocide becomes accepted. Those who won't be missed, those who won't draw complaints, are the first to go, but they are never, and I mean never, the final victim of any genocidal tyrant. If Palpatine is willing to wipe out the Geonosians once he is done with them, who isn't he willing to kill? So, here the Empire was, using these explosives to destroy the surface architecture of Geonosis, to level the mountains and cave systems that the Geonosians call home, and to let the bugs be crushed by a mountain of orange rock collapsing on top of them.
"Bombs set." Schweva reported when she finished, I turned around too, done with the bombs and facing Yevenna. I watched the Mirialan quickly download any remaining data to her datapad before, just to be certain, raising a blaster pistol and shooting up the computer console, destroying any evidence that she was ever here or what she looked at, not that the rest of the base was going to survive long enough to be investigated, to be fair. Soon enough, this would just be a metallic addition to the tumbling rock and ice making the rings of Geonosis. We didn't exactly want to be around for that though, so, Yevenna turned around and led the way out of here, the victorious trio walking back down the hall and out into the artificial air door, not breaking stride as we continued to the air lock, crossing over to Phanza in the AVV-138 Morningstar-class Mandalorian Corvette, a very useful vessel as it turns out, and one of the finest ever produced by the Mandalorians of Taaszon.
The Morningstar took off and, once we were at a safe distance, we detonated the explosives. The explosions shot all the way through the space station, blowing away the back half first as the air dome failed, then the explosions continued, spreading down and around, until, eventually, the whole damn thing was engulfed in so many small explosions it was perhaps more appropriate to call it all one big fiery mass. The Imperial munitions station over Geonosis was gone, the supply lines between Coruscant and Kamino were disrupted, the Kuat Drive Yards were sabotaged, and an Imperial capital ship was hijacked. All in all, I think today was a pretty successful day for the shock and awe strategy. So, with that, the four of us headed back to Dromund Kaas to reunite with the other strike teams.
Alright everyone, ciao!
