The door to Tahiri Veila's cell opened up, and Imperial Head of State Jagged Fel, with a stormtrooper at each side behind him, walked into it. On the cot at the other end of the cell was a woman who looked over similar to Tahiri—one could even mistake her for the former Jedi with a passing glance—but she had a slightly different face and grey eyes (as opposed to the green eyes that the real Tahiri had). The impostor looked indifferently back at Jag, as if she hadn't just been caught pretending to be Tahiri.

"Who are you?" Jag asked in his most strict and authoritative voice just as the cell door closed behind him and the troopers.

The woman chuckled mildly. "I was wondering when you Imperial idiots were gonna find out I wasn't your prisoner."

Technically, they didn't actually figure it out; when Jaina told Jag about Tahiri's escape from Bastion in their last holocomm call, which took place after the former Jedi's disappearance on Dathomir, Jag had ordered the prison warden to send someone to look in on Tahiri's cell and verify that the prisoner was indeed her.

Apparently, the guard who gave Tahiri food and water everyday hadn't been doing his job properly; he never actually got a solid look at her face until he had been ordered to do so. The warden assured Jag that the guard who was supposed to be responsible for Tahiri would be fired immediately for his incompetence.

But Jag wasn't gonna tell the impostor any of that. Instead, he demanded, "Answer my question."

"It doesn't matter who I am, Fel," the woman said. "What matters is how useful you can be to the Lost Tribe of the Sith."

Jag froze when he heard bones suddenly being snapped from behind him; he turned and watched as his guards suddenly fell dead to the floor from broken necks. He then looked to the woman, who rose from her cot as if it were a throne fit for her.

Before Jag could try to call for security or turn to hurry out of the cell, the Tahiri impostor lifted a hand and restrained him in a bodily Force-grip. Jag heard the cell door open behind him, and a man in a guard's uniform walked in to appraise the captive Head of State.

"Let me guess," Jag said in spite of himself. "You were the guard assigned to Tahiri who did poorly at his job?"

The man nodded. "And in case you're wondering, I already took care of the ysalamir that you had restraining my colleague from using the Force. As for the warden firing me-"

"Kade, enough," the Tahiri impostor snapped. "Let's not waste time explaining everything to the Head of State here; you do your job just as I'm doing mine right now."

The man named Kade looked slightly downcast at his colleague. "Oh, c'mon, Huras, don't you want to do a little reveling at his circumstances? I so want to tell him how we infiltrated the Imperial Remnant just like we-"

"Kade!" the woman exclaimed. "I can only hold him for so long before I get tired!"

Kade sighed. He then turned back and approached Jag to lay a hand on his forehead.

"What do you intend to-"

Jag's question was cut off as he seized up from the initial stage of the trance that Kade had started.

. . .

After Partner's Firespray dropped out of hyperspace, he and Jaina saw through the ship's forward viewport that there were only slightly more than a dozen Bes'uliik starfighters patrolling the world of Mandalore.

Jaina would have remarked that it wasn't much of a defense, but she was still in a bitter mood over Tahiri's dark side-fueled actions back on Dathomir. She only hoped that when she learned who Tahiri got to fill in for her in her cell on Bastion, Jaina would give that person a piece of her mind. But as it was right now, Jaina let Partner take the helm here figuratively as well as literally and hoped that word about Partner working with two Jedi—well, one Jedi and one former Jedi—hadn't travelled here yet.

When Partner received a transmission and answered it, the masculine voice on the other end asked, "What's your business here, Partner?"

"I don't suppose a simple visit to the homeworld for some downtime would be a suitable reason, Djenar?" Partner replied.

"If you're not on any bounties at the moment," Djenar said, "you're helpin' us with the war effort; there's no time for idle strolls on any of the farmland down there."

Partner sighed. "Fine. I'm investigating a warehouse on Mandalore for a job."

"Care to tell me which warehouse, Partner?" Djenar asked.

"Does it really matter?" Partner countered evenly.

"In times of war, everything matters; including why you'd be visiting one of our warehouses for a bounty."

Partner looked at Jaina, who nodded. The Mando looked back and said, "Warehouse 66."

"Warehouse 66? What about it?" Djenar asked.

"I think there may be some beskar in it," Partner explained.

"Well, of course there is, it's a storage facility for beskar for both personal and ship armor."

"Yes, but I think there's some special beskar there that may be tied into this war somehow."

"What are you talking ab-"

Static that was consistent with a jamming frequency cut off Partner and Jaina from hearing the remainder of Djenar's question. Then, out of the fifteen Bes'uliiks that guarded Mandalore, eight of them began soaring toward Partner's Firespray while four others began peppering the remaining three with turbolaser fire.

"Fel, operate the weapons!" Partner ordered as he began putting his ship into evasive maneuvers.

"Hope we're not turning back!" Jaina exclaimed as she manned the weapons controls.

"Not a chance, not at this point," Partner replied as he started a wide circle around the incoming eight Bes'uliiks.

Naturally, the Mando fighters tracked him, preventing him from passing them before they opened fire. In response, Partner took his Firespray into a deep dive before abruptly pulling up, allowing for half the pursuing Bes'uliiks to pass him while the remaining half stayed on his rear to chew at his rear deflectors with their laserfire.

Still, Jaina began to focus her fire on the Bes'uliiks that overshot Partner's Firespray in a wide dispersal pattern; they did very little damage to either their energy shields or reinforced armor before they pulled up and began coming at the Firespray with laserfire of their own.

But by that point, Partner quickly leveled his ship out and shot through the gap in which his enemies had sandwiched his Firespray; he now had a clear path to Mandalore ahead, even if he still had to jink and juke out of the way from fire coming from the rear.

In spite of his attempts, Partner's ship was taking on a heavy amount of fire; by this point, his energy shields were gone and even his reinforced beskar hull plating was starting to buckle.

"Any ideas?" Jaina asked. "I'm doing the best I can here!" Indeed, the laserfire that Jaina directed their enemies' way was still not doing much even when she did land hits.

"Press the button labelled SC!" Partner exclaimed.

It took Jaina a couple of seconds to find the labelled button, but when she did, she landed a fist upon it out of desperation.

"Hang on to something!" Partner said.

But before Jaina could do so, the seismic charge that she had unleashed went off in the midst of the eight Bes'uliiks that were chasing them, completely overwhelming their energy shields and tearing large chunks out of their beskar hull plating; what remained of those ships became lifeless, drifting hulks in the aftermath of the explosion.

Although Partner's ship was out of the blast radius, it was still caught within the concussive shockwave that threw the Firespray forward in an uncontrollable spin toward Mandalore's atmosphere.

"Trying to level out, trying to level out!" Partner exclaimed as he wrestled with his vessel's pilot stick.

Regardless of his efforts, however, they were still spinning even as they entered the atmosphere.

As the Firespray went down, chunks of its beskar armor were being torn away from the friction that she was enduring. Immediately, Partner activated his vessel's backup internal energy shields to keep out the heat, but even now, Jaina was beginning to sweat profusely (she had no idea if Partner's armor gave him some defense from the heat, but right now, she didn't care too much).

"If you don't level out soon, Partner, we're gonna be-"

As if by a miracle from the Force, Partner finally managed to get the Firespray to a leveled descent and was now going down through the atmosphere at a much safer trajectory than before.

Moments later, they were past all the friction and soaring down at a much more leisurely rate in Mandalore's skies; from the copilot seat, Jaina sat back in relief.

"I wouldn't start celebrating yet!" Partner exclaimed. "We got incoming; back to weapons with you!"

Without hesitation, Jaina was back to operating the lasers as Partner once again began evading rear fire from two damaged Bes'uliiks; apparently, they must have been the survivors who killed the three Mandos who weren't in on Warehouse 66.

Jaina was able to take out the one to the left with ease; a few shots to its engines, and it dropped like a stone for some farmland below. The other, however, began jinking and juking in the skies, making it hard for Jaina to get a lock even as her opponent managed to score hits on the Firespray's damaged hull.

After several moments, Jaina got an idea.

"Fel, what are you doing?" Partner asked as Jaina closed her eyes.

"Seeking," she said.

"Look, this is no time to-"

"Got it."

She then had her own laserfire set in a wider dispersal pattern to better track the evading Bes'uliik; a few hits managed to graze its armor, but one pinprick of light found its score.

It only took a single hit at the Bes'uliik's underside to begin a very brief but very fatal chain reaction that ended up cracking the Mando fighter into millions of pieces, as if it were a very large egg. The pilot in it, who hadn't been equipped with a jetpack, began a long, flailing descent for the ground below.

"What'd you do?" Partner asked.

"Found its shatterpoint. You'd be surprised at how easy it can be to destroy something that's seemingly so invincible."

"Hmm. Well, we seem to be safe for now. Let's check out Warehouse 66, shall we?"

:"Yeah."

Minutes later, they finally landed outside Warehouse 66, which looked like a glorified barn in the middle of even more farmland, and both Jaina and Partner disembarked from the Firespray to head to the "barn's" entrance.

A retinal scan, a palmprint scan, and a sixteen-digit passcode was required to even enter the warehouse.

"Mind if I use my lightsaber to cut this open?" Jaina asked.

"That might be a bad idea; could spring a trap," Partner stated. "Besides, I have something to counteract all this."

He then took out a small, black, ocular device from one of his belt pouches and waved it in front of both scans and the number pad for the passcode.

In an instant, they all flashed green and the door opened for them.

"I gotta get one o' those," Jaina said in amazement.

"I'll send you my dealer's number when this is all over," Partner stated as he replaced the device in his pouch; he and Jaina then entered the warehouse.

Indeed, the large interior showcased a large selection of beskar that ranged in use from personal armor to hull plating; but none of that attracted Jaina or even Partner's attention.

Instead, it was what was placed as the literal centerpiece of the warehouse: the remains of Boba Fett's personal Firespray, the Slave I.

"Partner?" Jaina asked in amazement.

"Yes?"

"Please tell me you still have that sliver of beskar from Hagamoor 3?"

Without hesitation, he brought it up and out from another pouch. He and Jaina then walked to the Slave I before Partner compared the sliver to the composition of the rest of the damaged ship.

"It's a match," Partner said almost immediately. "So this is what was taken by Velias from Hagamoor 3 and brought to Kendros and his pals; Belok Rhal must have told them to store the Slave I here. My money is that they did it just so Rhal can have it as his own personal trophy for getting Fett killed; and Mirta Gev, not being to step foot on this planet without dying, would never know about it."

"Not unless someone told her," Jaina said.

"She wouldn't believe it," Partner countered.

"Not without evidence, obviously."

"Holocam footage can be doctored; no doubt Rhal can have some buddies tell Gev that's the case."

"Then we're gonna need to get this ship off the planet," Jaina said. "Hopefully, it can still run; and, also hopefully, we'll still have time before whatever backup forces those Bes'uliiks called arrive." She then hurried into the Slave I while Partner returned to his own Firespray.

In spite of its condition, Jaina got it up and running within a few minutes; Fett's legendary ship hardly needed any fixing aside from some minor hull repairs.

With the Slave I's twin blaster cannons, Jaina fired at the roof of the warehouse, blowing open a hole large enough for her to fly the ship out of; Partner's ship followed in her wake as they soared out toward the skies.

And just as both Firesprays made it to space, three whole squadrons of Bes'uliiks dropped out of hyperspace to enter the Mandalore system.

Immediately, from within the Slave I's cockpit, Jaina was getting a holographic transmission that she answered.

"Jaina Solo Fel," the representation of Mirta Gev growled. "How dare you pilot my grandfather's ship, you-"

"Do you know where I got this ship from, Mirta?" Jaina asked.

Mirta stopped as her expression became curious. "You stole it, of course."

"More like liberated; I got it from Warehouse 66 down on the planet behind me. Did you have any idea that it was here and do you know where it was before?"

It was then that a holographic transmission of Belok Rhal interjected itself next to Mirta's curious visage.

"My Mandalore, don't listen to this Jedi liar!" Rhal exclaimed. "She tried to reach out to you before, and you wisely ignored her then as you should now! After all, you only have her word that she got it from-"

"Rhal's manipulating you, Mirta! He killed your grandfather and-"

"Enough of this!" Mirta shouted. "Fel, if you don't surrender that ship to me, I will-"

"You want proof that it was down on Mandalore?" Jaina asked. "Run a trace for any signs of the nanovirus that would affect you because of your lineage to Boba Fett on this ship. Scan the interior!"

"Ha!" Rhal shouted. "That won't prove anything, either! You could have come to Mandalore beforehand to collect some of the nanovirus and put it into that ship to try to fool our leader, Fel!"

"Wait, how could she have come to Mandalore beforehand, Rhal?" Mirta asked.

Behind his helmet, Rhal's expression couldn't be read; but his brief silence heavily suggested hesitation that would correspond to hidden fear.

"Well, she could have had someone do it for her, my Mandalore," Rhal suggested in a tone that Jaina found surprisingly confident.

"You mean one of our own could have been working for her?" Mirta asked.

"Well, yes! After all, she has the Mandalorian known as Partner to-"

"I haven't been to the homeworld for years, my Mandalore," the voice of Partner came over the transmission. "This can be verified through an extensive record of my activities since the end of the Second Galactic Civil War; you'll find that I haven't been to Mandalore until a few minutes ago, and you will find that none of them have been doctored. Would you like me to send them to you?"

"That won't be necessary!" Rhal said. "If not you, then some other traitor in our midst could have done it! My Mandalore, let's not waste anymore time with these aruetii and blow them away to-"

"Silence, Rhal!" Mirta exclaimed.

Rhal, indeed, fell silent.

"Tell me, Jaina," Mirta said. "Can you give me a record of the Slave I's logs?"

"Please give me a moment," Jaina said.

She looked through the ship's records, and...

"They've been deleted!" Jaina shouted.

"Well, then, Fel," Rhal said, "you have no proof to-"

"Check the backups, Jaina," Mirta interrupted.

Jaina did. "They're gone, too."

"You still have one option left," Mirta said. "It was something that my grandfather initiated not long before he died. Look through for records of deletion."

Jaina commenced a systemwide check for evidence of deleted records in the Slave I.

"Yes, I found a record of a major deletion of both the main and backup records on... the very date Hagamoor 3 was attacked."

"My Mandalore-" Rhal tried to begin.

"Quiet, you!" Mirta said. "Now, Jaina, since you have evidence that there was a deletion, try to initiate the RRP."

"RRP?" Jaina asked.

"Record Recovery Program," Mirta elaborated.

It took her a few moments, but Jaina brought it up. She then spared Mirta a look. "Would you like me to send you over the records, Mirta?"

"Please, do."

Moments later, after the records were transmitted over to her Bes'uliik, Mirta was looking over the records on her monitor.

"The Slave I was at Hagamoor 3?" she asked. "I was told that my grandfather never made it there!"

"My Mandalore, these are all lies, all fabricated! They-"

"I did a verification scan of the records, Rhal," Mirta growled. "They're authentic. Which means you lied to me; my grandfather did make it to Hagamoor 3. And since he was there on the day it was attacked, that means that a correlation between those two facts isn't unlikely. So then: what else did you lie to me about? Were those stormtroopers actually working for the Imperial government or were they false flag operatives?"

Rhal was silent before Mirta asked, "Well?"

He was still silent before he said, "All forces, move out! We've been had! Go, go, go!"

Several of the Bes'uliiks broke away from the rest of the fleet and were scurrying away,

"Get them!" Mirta commanded to her loyal forces.

Those Bes'uliiks that didn't immediately scurry away began firing at the retreating forms of Rhal and his subordinates; but not one of the treacherous Bes'uliiks were blown away before they launched into hyperspace.

"Jaina, would you and Partner care to join us in hunting Rhal and his ilk down?" Mirta asked.

"I'd love to!"

The remaining Bes'uliiks, and both Firesprays, then launched into hyperspace in pursuit of Rhal and his forces.