Chapter 8: Chase on Bothawui
After getting clearance for parking into one of the minor spaceports of the capital, the Falcon touched down. Since Bothawui was a planet that prospered with free trade, all the rebels practically had to do was registering the ship, without even having her inspected, something for which Han was more than happy about.
Then they gathered around the dejarik table and projected the holomap of the city.
"The strongest imperial presence would be here." Kallus said, indicating a building that had a square perimeter to separate it from the rest of the buildings. "The Imperial Consulate. They send out patrols regularly, but the people sent here are political proteges, it will be easy to slip past them."
Ezra lightened up his omni-tool and inserted a code into it. "Jinx, localize the meeting point with our contact." he ordered.
"Calculating." the AI replied, before highlighting a tavern on the map.
The group analyzed the map and decided the route.
"Han, Leia, you guys stay here and be ready to hightail out of here." Ezra said at the end.
"Let me come with you." Leia asked, but Ezra shook his head.
"I need you to listen to imperial chatter and inform us whether there are movements on the streets. Here…" he said as lifted his arm again to set a command on the omni-tool. "Now we have a safe line." he concluded as Leia's tool illuminated as well.
"All right, then. Have fun." Leia concluded in a slightly sarcastic tone, before turning around and going to sit at the console of the Falcon, where R2 also went to plug in.
Ezra motioned his two friends to follow him and they walked outside of the room.
"She didn't look happy." Luke commented.
"Leia is not the type to just wait around." Ezra said calmly. "But she has a hell of a bounty on her head, I don't want to risk someone recognizing her if our holograms disappear."
"Speaking of which, we better switch them on." Kallus suggested.
Agreeing with the idea, the three men lightened up their orange devices and activated the command. Soon enough, they took the faces of three anonymous humans, and since they already changed their clothes, there was a good chance they could walk undisturbed. Thus, they walked down the access ramp and headed out.
After leaving the spaceport, they were immersed into the bustling streets of the bothan city, with its unique architecture and crowded squares. Bothans were the majority of the population, of course, but the planet was an important junction in the region, so it was easy to spot humans and tons of different species.
Wearing capes to hide mostly their weapons, the three men headed as quickly as they could toward the meeting at the tavern. As Kallus anticipated, along the entire trip they only crossed a patrol of 6 Army troopers of the Empire and easily slipped past them before reaching the tavern.
They walked inside the structure and quickly stepped inside the loud environment, with music, people speaking without much restraint on the tone of voice and other factors that made the bar pretty chaotic. Perfect for a secret meeting, as nobody would be able to eavesdrop on them. They also disabled their holograms, so their contact might recognize Ezra.
"Ok…" Kallus whispered his comment. "Who are we looking for?"
"From what I was told, a middle-man should come to us and then…" Ezra started to explain, but a voice that he hadn't heard for months surprised him.
"My friends!"
Ezra jolted around with his eyes wide open, in a mixture of excitement and total disbelief. As he turned around, he quickly spotted an old Weequay with a pair of goggles and a hard hat.
"Hondo?!" the Jedi exclaimed as he turned around and the two shared a vigorous handshake.
The pirate cackled openly. "Yes. It is I. Hondo!" he then proclaimed. "Here to save your neck again, Ezra."
The young man chuckled, then turned toward the Padawan. "Luke, meet Hondo Ohnaka. Despite being an avid pirate, he helped us liberate Lothal." he said with a joking tone.
"Nice to meet you." the Padawan said cordially with a nod of the head.
Hondo though squinted his eyes and examined Luke with a face that seemingly tried to remember. "You look...familiar." he said with a curious tone.
Ezra realized that Hondo was probably guessing who Luke's father was, since he had heard from Obi-Wan that the old Weequay met both him and Anakin Skywalker during the Clone Wars. Presumably they were the 'Jedi friends' Hondo spoke about on the first adventure with Ezra and Jaral.
However, this was not the time for another reunion, especially since Ezra knew that Hondo might overreact and draw attention to them.
"Let's discuss this at another time." he intervened with quietness. "Once we all get paid for the job."
Hondo chuckled. "Ezra, my boy. You really know how to talk to a pirate. Now, follow Hondo." the Weequay concluded as he turned around and led the group to table at the edge of the tavern, where a Bothan with a brownish fur was waiting with a glass in his hand.
"Greetings, gentlemen." the alien said in a cordial tone. "Please, take a seat."
Ezra observed the fur of the Bothan. He had read that, apparently, it changed color according to their emotional state. Since nothing happened, he tried to reassure himself that the man was not hiding a thing from them.
So he sat at the bench opposite to the alien, with Luke and Kallus following quickly after.
"The pleasure is all ours, mister…" he started.
"My name is not important and we don't have much time." the alien replied, then his left hand disappeared briefly from the table, slid into his pocket and came out of it with a small data disc. "Here's the list of planets where you may establish a new base in this region. I suggest you return to your ship immediately. Most of the clans might sympathize with you, but the Empire has many ears as well." he concluded quite ominously before standing up and walking away, but not before handing over a few very valuable credit bars to Hondo.
"That was quick." Kallus commented as they stood up again.
"He has a point, though." Ezra said. "This is the planet of spies and the Empire surely will have many of them on their paychecks. Let's get back to the ship."
"Well, my friends." Hondo interjected as he lifted his cap to do a bow. "It's been a joy to work with you again. I hope we meet again."
Ezra smiled. "Stay safe out there, Hondo."
"Safe?" Hondo asked surprised before making a laugh. "Come on, partner. What's life without a bit of danger?" and then he left.
The humans did the same. They put their hoods back and headed outside, back into the streets.
However, it didn't take long before Ezra started to feel like a hitch on the back of his neck. That was a symptom of his gut telling him that he was in danger, that someone was observing him and not in a positive way.
A bit to his surprise, Luke closed on him and asked with a whisper: "Do you also feel like something's off?"
"Yes." Ezra answered. "Someone's is tailing us?"
"How?" Kallus asked. "Our holograms are still up."
Ezra thought about it, but the answer was pretty evident to him. After cursing himself mentally for not taking that into consideration, he turned toward Luke. "Suppress your Force signature." he instructed while he did exactly that.
Luke, however, hesitated. "Suppress my…? I still haven't learned…"
"Learn it fast, then, or we won't be able to leave." Ezra insisted as he pushed his friends to accelerate the pace.
"What's happening?" Kallus asked in confusion.
"We're being followed by a Force-sensitive." Ezra quickly replied, making the other two really concerned.
Ezra then brought his left wrist near his mouth to contact the Falcon. "Falcon, this is Ezra, do you copy?"
Leia's voice came through. "Did something happen?"
"We got the map, but there's an imperial Force-sensitive following us, we'll have to make a detour." he communicated, then pushed his comrades into an alley as nonchalantly as possible.
The reports of the ISB confirmed his theory: the Federation was preparing a push down the Perlimian Trade Route to take the pressure off the rebel fleet, which was now heading toward Saleucami in order to rescue Garm Bel Iblis and what was left of his forces. Finally, the Mandalorians were still besieging Taris, but they were also trying to grab as much territory as they could along the Hydian Way, meaning that they were spreading their forces.
For the latter issue, it appeared that the imperial commanders were applying Iulius' orders to trade territory for time, applying scorched earth tactics and evacuating as many civilians as they could on other manufacturing worlds, especially skilled workers, in order to keep the factories going.
This was only one of the many reforms that Iulius had applied in the Mid Rim, using his newfound authority as the regional warlord. Despite some resistance by the Moffs and some wealthy corporations aligned with the Empire, slavery had been heavily regulated. He couldn't and didn't want to abolish it right away, knowing that the million of freed slaves, after 20 or so years of being brutally treated by the Empire would join the rebellion in seconds. He needed to win their loyalty back, or at the very least ensure their neutrality in the conflict.
Truth be told, Iulius was already pondering the idea of creating segregated regiments for aliens, entirely made of volunteers, who would receive the same pay as the regular imperial soldier and would be treated fairly. The separation would be mostly for logistical reasons, as different species would require different uniforms and rations. But at the moment, such a proposal would certainly spell doom for him, politically speaking.
The victory against Iblis had made him extremely popular among the soldiers and the civilian population of the Core, but the Grand Admiral knew how these two categories had little to no political weight, so he needed to thread carefully with the Moffs until he knew who was on his side and who was waiting for him to make the slightest misstep so they could use that to have him demoted as quickly as possible.
Because, after all, the main problem was that the Moffs, and the imperial administration at large, was unbelievably corrupted and the Governors were like territorial beasts, always bitching when a patrol from another sector chased pirates or rebels into their own, with the result that said criminals always slipped away.
Iulius would need to change the rules. His final ambition was to make civilian and military careers completely separated, so the problem of overlapping responsibility would be canceled. But to do that, he had to make the Moffs comply with his wishes or, even better, find a way to get rid of them and make sure the Emperor put the Grand Admiral's favorites in charge of the most strategic sectors.
And in the midst of all of this, he still had to worry about the Coalition threatening the imperial borders. If anything, though, the prospect of losing their territory and resources to the rebels had convinced the Moffs to avoid scheming against the Warlord...for now.
His thoughts were then interrupted when Qathora spoke up.
"Hey, Mara is calling you." she said as she looked at the beeping holo-communicator.
Iulius motioned for her to pass the device and after he took it, he took the call. The small scale of Jade's hologram appeared on the palm of his right hand.
"Grand Admiral, I followed the enemy ship all the way to Bothawui and I've some urgent news." she said immediately.
"Report." Iulius calmly replied.
"I have confirmed that there are at least two Jedi on this ship. I'm confident that one of them is Ezra Bridger, but the other one...I don't know, it's too unfocused to be his sister."
"Are you following them?"
"Yes, but they noticed me. I ask permission to establish checkpoints at the local spaceports. Even if we don't catch them, I'll try to identify the ship they used."
"Permission granted. If there's another Jedi, we must find out."
Mara nodded quickly, then closed the communication to go inform the commander of the imperial garrison on Bothawui.
"Guess we found out where the boy went." Qathora commented.
"Yes, but why have they traveled all the way to Bothawui?" Iulius asked as he pondered. Then he pressed a button and the holomap appeared on his desk. He zoomed on the Trailing Sectors and started to analyze the region.
"Bothawui is perfect for gathering information." the Togruta said. "Perhaps they're there to buy some."
Iulius hummed, not entirely convinced. "Perhaps, but my instinct says there's something more." he replied as he kept staring at the map. He then pointed the hologram, zooming out so he could take a look at the Northern Fringe. "Vader and Tagge are still suppressing revolts in this region. What are our latest news?"
"It appears they have found an organized band of rebels, called the Brotherhood of the Eclipse. Well, they call themselves rebels, but I can assure you that the Rebellion doesn't have any official ties with them, in fact, they despise them."
"How so?"
"It is a band created by former members of Saw Gerrera's group, who then joined forces with mercenaries, pirates...people I certainly wouldn't go out with."
"If they are not supported by the Rebel Alliance, how can they elude Vader and Tagge so easily?"
"I asked the ISB to look into it, but there are rumors within the Rebels, that these guys are supported by that guy, Tyber Zann."
Iulius hummed silently again as he leaned his head against his hands, one closed into a fist and wrapped by the other. His mouth was covered while his mind projected all sorts of scenarios.
"We already know that Zann's base of operations is in the Trailing Sectors, is he already so powerful that he can reach the opposite side of the galaxy?"
"Remember, we're dealing with a crime lord, here. That kind of people doesn't have to occupy entire planets with blatant shows of military might, they're much more subtle. And besides...imperial security forces are extremely easy to corrupt, so it's no wonder his forces can move freely around the galaxy, as long as they got money to buy the passage."
Iulius grunted slightly. Corruption: probably the biggest cancer that was rotting the Empire from the inside. The most hateful legacy of the old Republic that made impossible to establish order and progress throughout the galaxy. It was something he intended to eradicate, but he knew that it was such a consolidated practice, and it tended to crush whoever tried to fight it.
The Grand Admiral leaned back on his chair and relaxed his hands on his lap. "I guess we'll have to wait Mara's next report. If the Rebels have found a third Jedi, the consequences might be devastating."
"What do you intend to do?"
"I need Marek here, so the only thing I can do is inform Lord Vader, if Jade will confirm the existence of this new enemy."
The beeping of the communication panel drew his attention. He pushed the button and the voice of Ciena reported. "Grand Admiral, we're two minutes away from Kashyyyk."
"Thanks, Lieutenant-Commander." he replied, then turned off the holomap, making the lights of the office reignite, and stood up from the chair.
The Grand Admiral took a breather to prepare mentally to the task in front of him: meet with the Wookiee chieftains and try to make amend for the decades of savage exploitation by the Empire that he just stopped by decree.
"Ezra, the imperial garrison is mobilizing to lock down the spaceports." Leia warned on the omni-tool.
"Jinx, how long till they block the one with the Falcon?" the young man asked.
"Approximately three minutes." the AI responded.
He didn't waste a second to adjust the plan. "Han, take off immediately, we'll have to regroup some other way."
"All right, General. Don't get killed before I get there." the smuggler replied.
"Take care of yourself, Commander." Ezra concluded before closing the transmission. Then he quickly realized that Luke was still trying, with limited results, to suppress his Force signature. "Kallus, let's split up. They're after me and Luke, so you go ahead and try to make contact with the Falcon."
The former ISB agent nodded and quickly slipped away, while the two Jedi went deeper into the alleys of the city, seeking to draw their stalker to an isolated place and maybe lose them in the confusion.
"I'm sorry, Ezra." Luke said in ashamed tone, but the Jedi Knight put a hand on his shoulder as they kept walking.
"No, it's my fault. Given the mission, I should've prepared you beforehand. Now let's just focus on getting out of this planet."
Accelerating their pace, they found a street that was particularly crowded, hoping that Luke's signature would get confused in the midst of all that life. The sensation of being observed had subsided, but Ezra was sure that this wasn't over. An imperial gunship heading toward the spaceport reminded him that their presence had been detected and their escape wasn't going to be easy.
Confident that Kallus would manage to rejoin the Falcon and come to their rescue soon enough, Ezra quickly took a look at the map of the city and led Luke in a twisted path to confuse their pursuer. But the Force probably wasn't on their side entirely, as they crossed path with a patrol of Army troopers.
"Halt." their commander ordered the two Jedi. "You're under arrest." and his soldiers pointed guns.
Realizing that they had been discovered despite the holograms, Ezra had no other choice. He quickly stretched his arms forward in the blink of an eye and Force pushed the group of five soldiers, who all fell backward, yelling for the surprise.
"Run." Ezra instructed, dashing into another alley. Luke followed suit and the two finally deactivated the holograms so the energy of the omni-tool could be given back to their personal shields, which happened right on time: the soldiers had quickly gotten back on their feet and started shooting.
Of course, the imperials called for reinforcements and a gunship soon appeared above them, following their movements. It didn't open fire, though. Ezra reasoned that the Imperials wanted to avoid using heavy weapons that could damage the city and severely undermine their relations with the Bothans.
Then he saw an opportunity. "There. On the roofs!" he exclaimed to Luke, and jumped on top of a low hut. Luke managed to keep pace, more or less, thanks to the intense physical training that he was undergoing aboard the Amerigo, using the Force to enhance his agility.
Soon enough, army and stormtroopers did the same and the tightly packed buildings of that side of the city were swarming with imperials.
Some bolts flew their way, but it was clear that they were meant to try and intimidate the Jedi than actually hitting them. Nonetheless, the roof suddenly ended and the two had to jump down. Ezra materialized his armor before rolling on the ground. Both of them also materialized their lightsabers, but didn't ignite them yet.
Not until a barrier of imperial soldiers halted their escape. They tried to turn around, but the men chasing them before had caught up. They were surrounded.
The imperials aimed their weapons and loaded them. Ezra and Luke went back-to-back and ignited their sabers.
"Do Jedi missions always end up like this?" Luke asked.
"Like you would not believe." Ezra replied.
They gripped the hilts of their weapons, preparing themselves for the possible storm of bolts. Truth be told, Luke might have made significant progresses against the training remote, but the chances of him surviving the fire of so many trained soldiers were slim. Ezra prepared the bubble shield, though his attention was drew again by the appearance of two Death Troopers, who rushed into the scene and aimed at his direction.
Wondering what they were doing there, Ezra kept composure, and the answer to his question arrived quickly after.
A young woman, probably around the two Jedi's age, with a black set of clothes, a cape and crimson medium-long hair walked into the square.
"Ezra Bridger." she said with a calm tone. "Jedi Knight and General of the Rebellion."
Luke slightly turned his head to take a look as well, and it just so happened that he crossed eyes with the woman, who was scrutinizing him.
"I understand you found an apprentice for yourself?" she asked.
"More like a fellow student." Ezra quipped. "You seem pretty knowledgeable about Jedi affairs, Miss…"
"Mara Jade." the woman calmly presented herself. "On behalf of the Emperor, I'm helping Grand Admiral Iulius Tanis to specifically hunt you and your sister down. However, it looks like my workload has just increased." she said with a pinch of sarcasm as she tilted her head toward Luke.
Ezra assumed the ready position.
"Come on, General." Mara said with a lightly annoyed tone. "I've had my men set their weapons to stun. Your lightsabers won't deflect them."
"So I suppose you will offer us a surrender?" Ezra asked.
"I have been tasked with taking you alive. So you can cooperate, or we can go with the uncivilized way."
Ezra slowly moved his head. Behind the visor, his pupils were running around to analyze the situation. There were snipers taking position on the other roofs, and the gunship was hovering and rumbling over their heads. There seemed to be no hope to escape.
"So? What is your answer, Jedi?" Mara asked after a few seconds.
Only now, Ezra felt that help was coming.
"Not exactly a lot of choice here, uh?" Ezra said as he turned off his lightsaber, to Luke's astonishment.
"What are you doing?" the Padawan asked.
"Easy, Luke. You need to learn when it's time to fight, and when it isn't." Ezra calmly stated as he put his hands behind his head.
"Don't you think I'm stupid, Jedi." Mara retorted. "Lower your armor, as well."
Ezra clicked his tongue in defiance. "That's not very polite to ask. And I'm afraid our conversation ends here."
Mara had just absorbed those words, then the gunship exploded in air, making her duck along with the rest of the troopers while Ezra raised the bubble shield.
The Falcon quickly passed over their heads with a speed at such a low altitude that the imperials were slammed on the floor.
Right after it, a modified and painted transport halted over the Jedi heads. The access ramp opened and the most improbable savior appeared from it.
"Over here, partner!" Hondo exclaimed enthusiastically.
Ezra turned around and grabbed Luke with an arm. Materialized his jetpack and flew both of them into the cargo hold.
Hondo turned toward the direction of the cockpit. "Go, my friend!"
A familiar squelching scream replied and the transport flew away while the enraged imperials fired at it with their rifles, but having little to no effect.
Before heading into the cockpit, Hondo took a look at the two Jedi and finally noticed Luke's lightsaber.
"Hold on...I recognize that…" the Weequay whispered.
"Right," Ezra said in a hurried tone. "Hondo, this is Luke Skywalker. I'm sure you got a lot to share with him while I lead us out of this mess." he said as he quickly patted Luke's shoulder and Hondo's jaw fell to the floor.
Ezra dematerialized his helmet and rushed to the cockpit.
As he entered, he spotted Melch at the commands, happily veering the ship away with the Falcon flying right in front of them.
"Is there a comlink, here?"
"It's waiting for you, General." another familiar tone said.
Ezra turned on his right and spotted the smug smile of a Devaronian.
"Vizago? What happened?" Ezra said with an amused surprise, but at the same time he took the headset and Vizago rolled his chair aside to let him speak.
"Bridger to Amerigo, do you copy?" he said after Jinx established a line with the cruiser.
"We read you, sir." the voice of Riccardi came through.
"We're chased by enemy forces. Prepare the jump for hyperspace, we'll be there shortly."
"Understood. All hands to battle stations. Code red."
Ezra put down the headset and, while looking outside, reiterated his question to Vizago. "So, what are you doing with Hondo?"
Vizago got back to work on the sensors as he replied. "Well, the Empire had scrapped the Broken Horn, and Ohnaka needed to replenish his crew, so we decided to associate until I can earn enough to buy a new ship."
"Well, if we leave the system alive, I'll make sure the Rebellion gives you a very generous tip for this rescue."
Vizago cackled in amusement while the two ships headed straight for orbit, soon leaving the atmosphere. The sensors picked up an imperial light cruiser coming to intercept them with its fighter load-out.
But just as the TIEs took off, they were attacked by none other than Red Squadron.
"Specter-7, this is Red Leader, we'll keep these guys off your tail, return to base." Biggs proclaimed into the comlink.
"Glad to see you, Red Leader, be sure to follow us, though." Ezra replied without hesitation.
The Amerigo appeared shortly after on the sensors. Red Squadron made sure to take out the TIEs, then retreated without losses as the light cruiser was too slow to catch the rebel freighters. Thus Hondo's ship and the Falcon were allowed to land into one of the hangars, the X-Wings quickly regrouped around the cruiser, then they all jumped into hyperspace following a casual trajectory hastily calculated by Jinx.
March 6
As he finally reentered his office, Iulius made a breather with his nose, finally relieved that his objective had been achieved.
"I hate politics." he grunted as he headed toward his desk.
"Come on, considering the nature of the Wookiees you've done great." Qathora quipped.
"How can you tell?"
"Because they didn't try to rip your arms off, despite having every reason to hate the Empire."
Iulius sighed. "I guess. But it's not over yet, I need to prepare for the next round of talks, tomorrow."
"Before we get to it, Mara has tried to reach you for a while."
"All right, I'm available, now." he said as he sat on his chair.
Qathora dialed the contact with Mara on her datapad and the communicator started beeping, waiting for the other side to pick up. Which occurred a few moments later.
"Grand Admiral." Mara said with a rigid tone.
"Sorry for the wait, Agent Jade. Tell me what happened yesterday."
Mara thus proceeded to give a detailed report, including the name of the new Padawan: Luke.
Iulius mumbled in thought. "Any chance of tracing where that ship went?"
"We tried, but it seems they have a cloaking device and it is quick enough to do multiple jumps into hyperspace before we get to their first predicted jump point."
"I see. Thanks, Agent Jade. Return to the Admonitor at once." Iulius concluded. Mara made a bow with her head and closed the transmission.
Wasting no time, the Grand Admiral turned toward his assistant. "Call Lord Vader." he calmly ordered as he stood up from the chair and walked around it to greet the Sith Lord in a fashionable way.
Qathora nodded and dialed the contact on the datapad. The lights of the room remained off so the hologram became clearly visible a dozen seconds later.
"Pardon the intrusion, Lord Vader." Iulius started with a calm demeanor. "But there have been critical developments."
"Speak, Grand Admiral." the Lord simply commanded.
"Agent Jade has just incurred into the rebel Jedi known as Ezra Bridger on Bothawui. However, along with him, Jade also identified another rebel wielding a lightsaber. And, according to her, he had a connection to the Force."
"A new Jedi?" Vader asked more curious than enraged.
"It would appear so, My Lord. Since you and Grand General Tagge have been tasked to reassert imperial control in the Trailing Sectors, I thought you had to be made aware of this."
"You did well to call, Grand Admiral." Vader said in his robotic voice, even if there seemed to be a little bit of praise in it. "Do you have any idea why the rebels were on Bothawui?"
"Right now, it's only speculation, My Lord." he started. "However, they are very far from their territory and they brought a new kind of stealth cruiser. A ship too big to be a simple recon. My analysis suggests that the rebels and the Federation want to establish a base of operation in the Trailing Sectors, perhaps to assist the various insurrections that are taking place in the region."
A mechanical breathe of Vader was the only sound that followed, though it was clear to Iulius that Vader was considering those words.
"Grand Admiral, keep your focus on the Outer Rim. I'll investigate this new Jedi myself."
Iulius made a respectful bow. "As you wish, My Lord."
Vader's hologram disappeared and lights returned into the office.
"You don't seem convinced." Qathora commented after looking at her master's face.
Iulius slowly walked around the room, thinking loudly. "Vader's squadron is too small. Catching a stealth ship is not going to be easy, especially in such an extensive region and with many systems ready to offer assistance to the enemy."
He silently kept thinking for a while. There was a solution that he actually disliked very much. However, in the end he sighed loudly and accepted it.
"Send a message to my father." he said unwillingly to finish the phrase. "The Fondor Sector Fleet has to move in and assist Lord Vader in the hunt for the rebel vessel."
Qathora made a whistle of amazement. "This will be one hell of a show."
Iulius lowered his head in frustration. His father was the last person he wanted for such a delicate mission, but he had no choice: his plan to repel the Coalition in the Mid Rim was entering its final stage and he needed his experienced personnel, including Starkiller, to be at his side.
After Qathora sent the message, Iulius decided he wanted to stare a bit at the stars, so the two headed toward the bridge, where the Grand Admiral could meditate a little on the situation at hand and prepare for the next round of talks with Wookiees.