Chapter 8: Remnants
Hi there.
I apologize for missing so long, but I had to finish my final thesis for my History Master Degree and it took all of my energies. Screw my interest for dark and barely known stories!
March 12.
It was safe to say that the Angara had appreciated and admired the successful attack of the galactic powers on Eos. The swift conquest of the Kett's main stronghold had left an impression on Jaal, who reported it to Evfra. The Resistance was now sending in troops to participate in the sweeping of the planet. After all, the Kett had other minor outposts on the planet, particularly, it seemed, around some strange structures that Jordan had never seen before. The same ones he was discussing with the leaders of the expedition and the Angara ally.
"Commander Jaal, what can you tell us about these buildings?" Thrawn asked.
"There are several, disseminated on planets all around the Sector. Even on our home planet of Havarl, since the dawn of the Angara, those structures were there. We don't know anything about who built them, but they are fiercely guarded by machines left by their creators. We call them with a word that we can translate for you as 'Remnants'."
"So it wasn't the Kett who built them." Darvos said. "If they precede your people, could it have been the Rakata?"
"If I may give my input as an archaeologist," Dr. T'Soni intervened. "it's pointless to stay here and wonder. We will find answers only inside."
"What's the input of our AIs?" Jordan asked, summoning Jinx, EDI, Cortana (since Chief was in the room listening) and even the new imperial AI, Steve, which had been detected by the other three in the latter days anyway.
"We completed the scan of the planet." the latter said. "This structure seems to be the access to an underground vault."
"A vault?" Iulius asked. "Any idea what they're hiding down there?"
"Negative." EDI replied. "The structure goes several hundred meters downward. However, right now the vault is sealed, lacking energy."
"How do we plug it back?" Rex asked.
"There are three identical obelisks set in a circular diameter around the main vault. Our hypothesis is that they might be the main source of power, but someone will have to investigate how to activate them." Jinx explained.
"Well, numbers aren't a problem. How do we split up?" Wilhelm asked.
Jane didn't hesitate to speak up. "Liara, you take the site on north-west. Scott and Sara will cover you. Tali, me and Garrus will look up the one in the south. Any volunteer for the third one?"
"I am going." the Tanis brothers said in unison, which made them look at each other in surprise, then turn away their gazes as an awkward atmosphere was descending on them.
"My lord," Thrawn intervened most likely ignorant to the air limping around. "while I consider your willingness to take risks for knowledge to be one of the highest virtues possible, I have to point out the dangers to your safety."
"We need to do this, Grand Admiral. We must understand what our enemy is looking for in order to decide our next move. You taught me that." Iulius replied.
The Chiss made a quiet sigh. "I certainly encouraged that behavior of yours."
"According to scans, the switches are not particularly defended. Only a few Kett stragglers have taken shelter there." Steve said. "If you insist to take part in the action, my lord, I at least recommend you bring a decent escort and do not venture inside the vault."
"You too, Steve?" Iulius asked a bit annoyed.
Jordan thus decided to intervene. "He's right, though. This collaboration can work as long as the two of you are alive and kicking. You two are far too important to play Indiana Jones. Let us clean the area, then you can look at those things as long as you want."
The brothers seemed hesitant, but eventually conceded. "Fine, who are you taking?" Darvos asked.
"I'll take your commanders, if you got no objections." Jordan replied, pointing at the two clones. They were both standing at the side of their commanding officer, which put them in front of each other on the opposite sides of the table.
The clones looked at him with confusion. It was no secret that, after meeting each other again, Rex and Cody had been stone cold to each other, barely interacting, yet Jordan reasoned that they were clones, bred to fight side by side. When blaster and plasma bolts started flying around, there would have been hardly better soldiers to have by his side.
"I have no problem if you got any, sir." Rex eventually declared to Darvos.
"Me neither." Cody said to his own commanding officer.
The Tanis looked briefly at each other and then agreed to Jordan's request, so the three teams all took some land vehicles and headed toward the activation towers. Jordan was assigned a light armored truck, enough to bring him and the two clones at destination, which meant a crevice that would allow them to approach the tower with good cover, instead of the open road that directly led to it.
"Tea break's over, lads. Come on." the Captain said as he turned off the engine and opened the door. The clones did the same, so the three armored men started walking through the rough terrain, climbing over rocks and descending small cliffs until they found a trail that would bring them behind the main access of the tower.
"Say, Cody…" Rex said as they climbed. "How can you even see through that helmet?"
"You wore it?"
"A couple times. I still wonder why your Empire discarded the good old clone armor."
"This one is a new model, actually. The Lord-Protector commissioned a new version with micro-visors. Right now I see as if the two eyes didn't have the plasteel in between." the clone commander replied with absolutely no concern.
"Well, good for you."
"I thought you would be more interested in the my color scheme."
"Yeah. Haven't seen other stormtroopers allowed to paint their armor, except for specialized units."
"I was surprised as well when I heard Iulius colored his stormtroopers like this in my honor."
"In your honor?" Jordan couldn't hold back the curiosity.
"Yeah, guess he liked my stories when he was at the Academy on Coruscant. Maybe it doesn't look like that, but the kid got quite the romantic side."
"Romantic like blowing up a planet full of innocents?" Rex asked with much open sarcasm.
"You still think you know everything?" Cody replied with a sincere will to defend his commander. "I saw him after Alderaan. Trust me, had it been for him, he would have never allowed it."
"Cut the chatter, we're almost there." Jordan interrupted with a hushed tone into the communicator.
The clones obeyed with no objection and prepared their rifles. Jordan however signaled them to hide behind two different covers at the sides of the road while he activated the tactical cloak and sprinted toward the tower to give a quick look. The scanner picked up five Chosen and an Anointed with a heavy repeater patrolling the main platform. They had quite the amount of covers on that small stand, but nothing the Legionnaire and the clones couldn't handle.
"Rex, Cody, you hear me?"
"Affirmative." the identical voice of the clones arrived almost in unison.
"I count six hostiles We go shock and awe. Once they focus on me, you charge in."
"Yes, sir." they replied instantly. Really, the nature of artificial humans bred to be soldiers was so ready to accept orders that made even Jordan feel uncomfortable.
But now it wasn't the time to think about such things. He checked his Mattock rifle one last time and then dashed to cover right before the cloaking ran out. After letting his armor systems wholly recharge, Jordan grabbed a grenade and jumped on the Kett with total surprise. He the grenade at the Anointed, whose shields were broken but the alien survived, only being knocked down for a few precious seconds that allowed Jordan to gun down the first two Chosen soldiers. He then had to take cover as the other Kett quickly reacted and fired at him.
In doing so, however, they offered their backs to the clones, who quickly used the chance to take a good firing position and engaged the aliens, quickly taking down the remaining Chosens and leaving Jordan to deal with the Anointed, who had got back on his feet and was aiming his machine gun at the Legionnaire. A burst of metal shards flew toward Jordan who quickly dived behind one of the pillars. The alien kept firing, pinning him down behind the cover while slowly advancing toward him. He needed to act fast and so he did.
The Legionnaire used his improved muscles and the agility given by his nano-suit to bounce on the pillar, shooting himself up, overload the Kett's regenerating shields with his omni-tool and then fire three shots at the alien's head before landing a strong punch on the hole that created on the cranium, reducing it to a pulp.
As all the external sites were captured, the assault teams reported no casualties, which was a promising start.
"So, can you activate them?" Wilhelm asked over the radio.
"It looks like we have to complete a puzzle sequence, but we miss a few glyphs." Liara said from her end.
"This thing looks a lot like Sudoku." Scott commented.
"Blast, I'm terrible at that." Sara added.
"I'm ready to bet they must be around here somewhere. Keep your eyes open." Jordan invited.
Just a couple seconds later, the Asari spoke again. "Found them. Seems like they're on top of these obelisks. Somebody has to climb."
"Oh, we got this. Sara, you pick the higher one." Scott said, then the sound of his shield booster came through the mic.
"Hey, not fair!"
Iulius heard Jordan Bridger do the same, materializing his jetpack to go scan the missing pieces.
"I'm too old for this." Shepard joked. "Tali, time for Chiktikka to shine."
"With pleasure." the Quarian said amused.
The Lord-Protector didn't know who this Chik-something was supposed to be, then he understood when Shepard's helmet-cam showed a holographic drone, typical of the Milky Way engineers, manifest up and fly upward to make its own scanning.
"All assault teams, this is Central," Iulius said suddenly in an imperative but also cordial tone. "As soon as you find the missing pieces, transmit them to us, as well. Acknowledge, please."
"Want to help us solve it? Be my guest." Shepard eagerly replied.
Indeed, shortly after appeared the three tables with their grid and the symbols. They had to complete it by making sure that no same symbol was in the same square, line and column.
Of course, for the puzzle-loving Tanis and for Thrawn, this was like eating cake. In barely ten seconds they had already solved and sent the solution to the ground teams. After they keyed in the correct scheme, the terminals retracted into the floors and from the three external sites departed three visible rays converging on the central vault.
"Lord Tanis, I detect a spike of energy coming from the vault." the ISB cyborg notified.
"Whatever they did, it worked." Wilhelm commented. "I'll take a squad and secure the entrance."
"I'll come with you. I always wanted to see one of those vaults up close." Jaal added.
As the two officers walked out, Iulius glimpsed at his brother. "Say...how about we take a look at one of those obelisks, now that the area is safe?"
"Sounds good. Let's just call up our escorts and go take a look."
"Mind if I participate as well?" Thrawn asked.
"Would be surprised if you didn't ask." Iulius quipped.
After gearing up and putting together a mixed group of Rangers and Death Troopers, they all mounted on an M110 of the Alliance, an infantry armored carrier that brought them to the nearest obelisk. The assault teams had already abandoned the place, leaving it to wait for the rest of the army and the Angara to send someone to garrison them in case the Kett tried a counterattack. But at least they were safe for the three senior officers to inspect.
The troopers spread out and secured the perimeter, allowing Iulius and his colleagues to enter. They first took a look at the position where the control panel seemed to have irreversibly disappeared from and the obelisks with the symbols. Thrawn was clearly taking a much more detailed look at the structure, using his unique talent to identify his enemy through their architecture and art in general.
"Found anything?" Darvos asked after taking a good look at the area and finding nothing of interest.
"The architecture is extremely standardized and functional." Thrawn said. "I wonder if this was built by these Remnants or by their creators."
"Would that make a big difference?"
"If the Remnants had simply been instructed to build these towers, then not much. But if they projected them themselves, then it means we are dealing with real artificial intelligence, which would make our contact with them much easier or almost impossible, according to what we'll find out in the future."
Darvos hummed. "Yeah, I see your point. What do you think, Iulius?"
The Lord-Protector, however, though had registered the conversation in his brain, was kneeling down in front of the hatch of the panel, trying to figure out where it had gone. What else was the metal floor hiding from their sight?
"Does any of you see any irregularity around here?" he asked, gently sliding his left fingertips on the ground.
The others started to take a closer look at the platform as well. Meanwhile, Shepard updated them on the fact that they had reached the vault. Right now, Chief was bringing Cortana downward, accompanied by the twins.
Then Thrawn stared quite intensely at one of the lights on the platform. Iulius had just the time to notice that, that the Grand Admiral stepped with a foot over it and the light increased in intensity, a buzzing sound followed and the sound of a mechanical whirring caught all of them by surprise as a part of the platform lowered to transform into a set of stairs heading down.
"Well done, sir." Iulius said.
"How did you grasp the idea that there might have been something more?" the Chiss asked in his usual calm tone.
Iulius shrugged. "I just imagined there had to be something more to these towers. They are way too big to act just as power generators."
"We don't know anything about what we're dealing with." Darvos objected. "They may have been simple generators. Still, good thing you thought about it."
"Then maybe the Force helped, as your friends would say." Iulius replied sarcastically.
"That might be true if you were a sensitive. But scrap that, you want to take a look?"
Iulius sighed silently but replied. "Of course. After you."
Darvos didn't seem to mind as he jumped on the stairs, pointing his rifle inside. The Lord-Protector followed soon after.
After ensuring that there was nobody inside, the trio lowered their weapons and started taking a look around. It didn't take long enough for them to find a door on the side behind the ramp. Such door opened as soon as they closed in. The officers looked at each other and Darvos signaled his men, who had reached them, to wait outside as they inspected the thinly illuminated room in front of them.
It looked much like a server room, and perhaps it was, for there were several small ports on the walls, walls crossed continually by blue light bulbs going from the door to the opposite end of the room.
"I suggest we call up a recovery team." Thrawn said.
"Agreed." Darvos said, quickly walking back at the door. Iulius heard him talk to his Lieutenant to go out and call the main base.
"Any idea what we're looking at, sir?" Iulius asked as he kept making his own hypothesis.
"I doubt my conclusions differ much from yours, my Lord. We'll have to wait for the technicians to answer that question. Or maybe Dr. T'Soni has already found out."
They looked around once more, but they couldn't find another access or hint about the real nature of all these structures, but nothing that could be deduced with simple observation, so they eventually decided to walk back in the open.
Just in time to hear a rumble on that clear day.
"Look!" one of the Rangers pointed toward the main vault.
They turned just in time to see the top of the structure open and a ball of blue fire and smoke came out.
"What in the…?" Darvos said, then he took his electro-binocular and looked toward the entrance of the structure.
Iulius did the same, just to see in the distance the Shepard twins and Master Chief running outside before a blast of smoke caught them as well. The Lord-Protector put a finger at the side of his helmet. "Tanis to vault team. What's happening?" he asked as he saw Jane Shepard run toward her kids.
Curiously enough, it was the AI Cortana the one to answer. "People, you'll never believe what we found down there."
"Care to elaborate?"
"The vault hosts a massive terraforming device. You remember we wondered why this region is the only one on the planet with acceptable radiation levels? It was because of this thing."
The Tanis brothers looked at each other. The helmets couldn't hide the mutual sensation of astonishment. But it also underlined a certain fear of what this new discovery might mean: if the Kett put their hands on the relics of a civilization that could create such a powerful terraforming device, who knew what else were they going to take.
For now, it was agreed to return back to the main base and discuss the new developments.
March 20.
As they reached the outskirts of the academy, Ezra whip out the folding chair and put it on the ground.
"Ezra, I seriously don't need…" Jaral objected, but the younger brother didn't let her finish.
"Come on, sit." he said in an imperative yet cordial tone, pointing with a finger at the sit.
His sister rolled her eyes but took it lightly, knowing that Ezra simply cared a lot for her and his future niece. But by now, her belly had grown a lot and the final stage of the pregnancy was taking a toll even on her body. Ezra hadn't missed that, even avoiding intense physical activity, Jaral tended to grow tired after half a day. In fact, she had just woken up from a small nap. He wasn't certainly going to let her stand around.
"Listen to your brother. He just wishes you the best."
That invite came from Kota, who was standing now in front of them along with Yoda and Cal, both of them looking serenely at the scene.
"I know, Master." she replied gently. "And thank you all for coming here."
"What's happening? Why you summoned only the three of us?" asked Cal very curious.
"Of course. The matter is, this morning I received a private call from President Mothma. Put it bluntly, she wants the Jedi Order to become affiliated with the Republic, just like the old ones. Before we discuss the matter with the Padawans, me and Ezra were hoping to hear your opinions on the matter."
The Masters and the Knight assumed meditative expressions, pondering on the matter, but they also seemed to search for each other's gaze, indicating that they were probably approaching to the same conclusion. Ezra wondered what that could be.
Then, Yoda spoke up. "A difficult question, this is. The old Order, too close to the Republic. When the Republic corrupt was, unable to see it, we were."
"Yes, that is our fear." Ezra finally intervened. "History shows that the Order can't align itself with a single nation, if we are supposed to protect everyone."
"However, we won't be able to do much without the authorization to act inside a nation's border." Cal warned.
"There's also the problem that the Empire is still ruled by the Sith." said Ezra. "It's not something we can overlook. We believe that, until we can at least destroy them, then we have to side with the UACT in this war, there is no doubt about it."
Yoda hummed. "What you say, true is, young Bridger. But in the end, the final decision, you must take."
"What do you mean, Master?" Jaral asked.
"He means that you two are in charge." Kota limpidly said. "No matter if we hold a higher rank than yours, this new Order and the New Republic wouldn't have existed at this point if it wasn't for your efforts, Bridgers. So even if you're not ready to become Masters, you are more than qualified to decide the course of the Order."
Cal nodded in agreement, and so did Yoda. The siblings were not completely caught by surprise, in fact, they had the impression that everyone in the new Order was leaving the major decisions to them without question exactly because they were the one who put it together. Still, this matter would impact the galaxy as a whole, it wasn't just like establishing the internal rules of the Order. They were now called to decide whether the Order would become a tool for supremacy of one side or struggle to be the great mediator.
Of course, a brief exchange through their minds left no room for doubt: they couldn't accept to become weapons for a single side, but they couldn't stand aside while the Sith still threatened to conquer and oppress the galaxy. So what to do?
For that, too, they quickly reached their answer.
"All right, then this how we're going to do this. We are going to need your help to convince some of the Padawans, perhaps." Ezra started.
"You can count on us." Cal reassured.
"I'm going to call a meeting of the UACT and tell them that we wish to have the order align with the alliance as observers. We will fight against the Empire for as long as Palpatine and Vader are in charge, or for as long as they harbor anyone related to the Sith. Once these will be out of the picture, we will turn into mediators. For everyone, not just for the Republic. We will focus on brokering peace and prevent future conflicts from escalating, and we will also use our resources to assist the poor all around the galaxy that will allow us in."
The other Jedi nodded.
"Sounds like a plan. I agree." said Cal.
"Me too." Kota added.
"A good proposal. For you to achieve it, I hope." Yoda concluded.
"All right. We'll inform Ahsoka as soon as she's back from her assignment." Jaral declared. "Maybe the Nimbus network can be of use to us, too."
"For now, let's crack to the news to the others. I'm not sure everyone will agree right away." Ezra added.
Indeed, they went back into the grand courtyard used by the students. For now everyone was present, for they hadn't received other requests for help from the UACT, so the siblings used the chance to gather the Padawans and announced their decision. Of course, the younglings and the younger Padawans had nothing to say, for none of them had a real political conscience to speak of yet, and the debate boiled down to the adults. To Luke, Kyle and the six new Knights.
Byph whistled with his voice, saying that he felt like they should align with the Republic, instead.
"Yeah, the Jedi have always protected the Republic. Why change now?" Petro agreed.
"Times have changed." Zatt intervened. "And there isn't just the Republic, now. We need to help everyone without being bound to a single institution."
"But the Republic is the greatest democracy around." Luke said. "With their help, our job will be much easier."
Ezra suspected that Luke's opinion was mostly swayed by the fact that his twin and many friends were part of the Republic, but luckily Kyle stepped in.
"Okay, so let's assume we become part of the Republic. What are we going to do if, in the future, comes a President that comes out as a piece of fodder and tries to aggressively annex their neighbors? If we are dependent on the Republic, the other nations will never trust us again, and we'll just become a tool."
The debate went on for around 20 minutes. The younglings walked away just a few minutes into it, for they found it boring, and returned to their training. Eventually, though, the doubts were gone and all the adults came to agree: the Jedi needed to stay independent. It was now time for Ezra to go and set up a meeting.