Chapter Two – Cloud City
A large open spot was the destination. Face had pointed it out to himself and the rest of the Wraiths flying. Adra looked towards the other X-Wings and A-Wings as they arranged themselves in a semi-formal assembly.
Face's voice came over the comm, his tone carefully neutral. "There, let's land our crafts there and, with any luck, Computer Girl can hack into their communications." Face's X-Wing touched down, landing smoothly on the far left in the 'field'.
Adra smiled slightly at the reference to herself and hacking, and she nodded an unseen nod by way of response. "Sounds good to me Poster Boy. Hacking these babies should be fun. I've heard they've got an actual human to keep the datafiles." Her X-Wing lowered carefully to an open spot, landing after Face.
Cloud coughed slightly over the comm, though his X-Wing remained in the landing pattern the squad seemed to have adopted. "Oh, you mean Lobot? Yeah, he's got the datafiles. But, urm, Poster Boy? If Imperial Force representatives are here and have been working here for more than a week, there's a pretty good possibility that they might have tabs on any radio waves in the area. Meaning, our comunits."
Kell's laughing voice followed Cloud's comment; it was very easy to tell that the mechanic was, to say the least, new to the squadron. "Let me answer this one Face." At Face's unspoken acceptance, he continued. "You don't have to worry about that Mechanic Boy. My sister, Tyria, and Adra took care of that a few years ago. All squadron fighters and tools, meaning Computer Girl's hacking material, have a program built into them, making them all but invisible to enemy scanners." During his shpeel, his X-Wing had landed right next to Face's.
Adra nodded again, still knowing no one could yet see her do so. "Yep, that's about right. I'm such an asset." Laughing at the last part, as it dripped sarcasm, she got out of her craft and walked toward Face's X-Wing, where everyone seemed to be congregating.
Bror's A-Wing landed just as Adra hopped out of her X-Wing, Nicola's not far behind his. That wasn't an uncommon thing, considering the two of them were Jedi master and padawan. Adra smiled at them as she passed Nicola climbing out.
Face jumped out of his X-Wing, glancing at the assembled group. "Alright, Adra get those machines of yours workin'. The rest of you, get ready to supposedly check out this factory. But, as we all know-" he grinned mid-sentence- "We're actually going to draw on Kell's stash and blow those Imps to hell."
Thracia smiled dimly. She watched Adra take out whatever 'those machines' were, she grinned slightly at Face's terming. Of course, that was always his way of doing things. Thracia paused to embed herself a bit more to the Force, just to be on the safe side, but then her eyes snapped open again. "Hey Computer Girl? How...er...quickly did you activate those machines once we got into the "atmosphere? 'Cause I think you might've done it a second late."
Adra looked up quickly from her datapad and micro-computer, her eyes glancing quickly to the scanner on the former. "Uh...Face? You're not going to like this. I think I did flick them a second too late. Looks like we've got stuff going down. Some datafiles have been disconnected... I'm guessing those are the ones we'll need." She sighed, then shrugged, continuing, "That at least proves they're here. It just gives me more to hack. I'm hoping they don't have a blip." With that, she sat down under the shadow of the X-Wing and began fiddling with another datapad-like device, leaving Face to fume silently.
Thracia, perhaps wisely, took that moment to take a step or two away from Face and Adra. It was a good thing she had. The look Face wore was not something she wanted to have aimed at her, even as a Council Jedi.
"What!?" Face exploded, all but announcing to all of the surrounding buildings and their occupants of a mistake. He sprinted over to where Adra was working. "You have got to be kiddin' me!" He cracked his knuckles, his expression stormy. Adra, though, could've cared less.
Kell glanced over at Adra and her tools briefly, smiling all the while. He laid a 'comforting' hand on her shoulder, speaking at the same time. "Tough luck, Computer Girl. Just wait till Circuitry Girl hears about this! If I know my sister, she won't let you live this down." His expression seemed to grow ten times brighter. "But on the plus side, now I get blow more things!" His jovial expression was caught at once by Cloud, who began grinning like the maniac he was.
Their appreciation for their own joke, however, was cut short as Yaddle's activated lightsaber flew up to hum just under Kell's chin. "Blow up a Jedi, you will not."
Kell backed away from Yaddle, his hands moving up in a form of petulant surrender. "Hey! I wasn't referring to blowing Adra up! I was talking about Imp buildings! And besides, I've been better about blowing up everything I see lately. I only blow up every other thing I see." This last remark drew a chuckle from both himself and Cloud, though not from Yaddle.
Nicola, head shaking, stalked over, and she dragged Kell away, out of danger. "Alright Kell, you go sit in your corner with your explosives. And keep your mouth shut! Maybe, if you're lucky, no one will fire a blaster at you." Her right hand rested suggestively on one of her blasters; then she turned back to Yaddle. "Excuse him Master Yaddle, he's not learned to keep his mouth shut yet." The last several words were heavily enforced and aimed directly at the sulking Kell.
Yaddle couldn't help but smile at the padawan. Complying amiably, she turned her lightsaber off, speaking both to Nicola and Kell. "Smart at least you are, Padawan Nicola." She glared at Kell, as if trying to drive into his thick scull that he needed to shape up.
Nicola smiled slightly at the Master's comment. "Thank you, Master Yaddle." She risked a quick glance at Bror, before continuing, "And, could we drop the Padawan part of that, Master? I'm a plain type of girl and titles distract me." Even while speaking lightly, she kept a silver eye glaring at Kell, daring him to take out his explosives
* * * * *
Adra had remained blank-faced as she punched in orders to her datapad. After a minute though, a slight frown creased her expression. "Would all of you just shut up!?" She looked up only once to glare at Kell and Face, then returned to her screen. After only another second, a smile reappeared on her face. "There, Mister Celebrity, is your hacked Imperial Information. Or was that not fast enough?" Sarcasm dripped from her voice again as she handed Face the datapad.
Face's annoyance and anger matched hers for all of a second, then his annoyance from before was forgotten. He took the datapad from Adra and skimmed it, his eyes moving rapidly. "Excellent!" his exclamation was all of five seconds after he had taken the datapad. He looked up from it for a moment, "And Adra, if you ever find a way to shunt your sarcasm into our shields, I wish you'd tell me. Because there'd be plenty for the entire squadron."
Adra raised an eyebrow, clearly unimpressed but laughing all the same. "So now you're my best friend, eh? Oh well." She turned the other datapads off, then looked back over at Face. "Oh, and Face? Yeah, I do know how to do that. I just hadn't told you yet."
He rolled his eyes at Adra. "Do you have any idea how much that sarcasm of yours could help us?" he questioned, then turned his back to the datapad. As he came to one particular line, he did a double take, nearly dropping the datapad. "Oh sithspawn. Sithspawn, sithspawn, sithspawn."
A slight grin flicked over Adra's face as she looked over Face's shoulder to see the screen. "Oh, you've gotten to the good parts have you?" her voice was cool and absolutely unperturbed. "And as to your comment as to my sarcasm, I know that. I was working on something for it, but you didn't give me a chance to perfect it before finding out about my ideas." At that, she went back over to the Suprosa, climbed up to lean into the cockpit, and rummaged for something under the controls. At last finding the thing she needed, she jumped down and came back over.
Nicola glanced at her chrono, smiling slightly, then looked over to Face. "Hey Poster Boy! If the Imps had gotten some sign of us being here, they would've tracked it by now." Unfortunately, she'd spoken too soon. Thracia and Yaddle both glanced at Adra, but the young Jedi already had her attention fixed. And it wasn't by Face.
A black-robed figure was standing silently above where their ships had landed, on a nearby balcony. The hood lowered itself and the Jedi found themselves staring at the long-since-seen face of Darth Maul.
Adra was the first to have her lightsaber raised and activated in her hand, Nicola just after her with her blaster. Kell and Cloud, however, ran off to Kell's X-Wing. Darth Maul sneered coldly at them, only one end of his lightsaber activated. He brought it down to meet the edge of the metal balcony, sparks flying off in his silent threat. At last he spoke, allowing his lightsaber to cease its motion. His eye locked with that of the squadron leader, glaring at him. "And they have, Rebels," his voice echoed over the oddly-silent grounds. It was obviously an 'answer' to Nicola's statement.
Nicola lunged to go after the Sith as he disappeared, but almost at once Master Yaddle's lightsaber was there to contradict her steps. Bror had run over to his padawan at nearly the same time, grabbing her blaster arm. Then a memory seemed to click in his mind and he grabbed the other arm as well; Nicola was equally able to fight with either arm, thanks to her Targeter days. "Don't even think about going after him, Nicola. You'll just get yourself butchered," Bror's voice seemed to fall on deaf ears.
The Jedi padawan stopped moving, but her eyes never left the spot at which the Sith had disappeared. She gave one last attempt to throw Bror off, but didn't succeed in that either.
Adra looked past Yaddle, her eyes darkening slightly. Master Yaddle remained squarely in her path, having moved away as Bror dealt with his own padawan. Then Adra looked to Face. "He's right, you know. Face? What's the call?"
A strange expression came over Face's face as he watched the two Jedi trying to go after the Sith. "They're both right Nicola, just let it go for now." He glared straight back at her as Nicola cursed him under her breath. Then he shook his mood away, clapping his hands together sharply. "Alright people, they know we're here, so there's no real point in sneaking around. So let's just destroy whatever of those ships we can and have a 'lil fun with Kell's stash."
Nicola continued to glare at Face, then abruptly twisted her arms out of Bror's grasp. This time he let go and didn't stop her. She turned to glare at him as she reholstered her blaster. Though not letting her voice get louder than a whisper, she did speak. "I hate being wrong. And I hate being shot down."
Having been looking at Bror and Nicola, Adra turned back to Face, sighing heavily. She took a step away from Yaddle, though her agitated manner towards the Sith was still in place. After a moment, though, it had passed as her face drew upon the expression the Jedi wore and she spoke directly to Face, "I request permission to withdraw from actively attacking in this mission, sir. I would prefer my ears be spared Mace Windu's wrath, sir."
Nicola stopped halfway in the middle of drawing her blasters, getting ready to have a bit of fun with the Imps. "Sithspawn! I had forgotten about that!" She rolled her silver eyes in a clearly annoyed expression. "I'm the last person who would want to say this, Poster Boy, but getting a lecture from Master Windu is definitely not on the top of my priority list. Or for the rest of the Jedi here."
Face winced at the mention of a lecture from Windu. Under any other circumstances he wouldn't care, but Wedge had lent the Wraiths to the Jedi for this mission, so technically they'd all get yelled at. Pushing his own blaster down firmly into its holster, he nodded to both Adra and Nicola, "Alright, you guys are probably right, as usual. Adra, do you have all the information you can possibly get from their computers?"
Adra took her datapad back, pressing a few of the buttons and reading what the thing had to say. Every so often she answered one of its few questions; however, the process didn't take more than a minute. She nodded to Face, "Yep, this thing's leeched every detail of information from the files."
All of this brought a seriously pissed look to Kell's face. He glared at all of them, his eyes locking on Face's. "That's not fair! I didn't even get to blow up one thing!"
He turned, as if to get back in his X-Wing and head to Coruscant, then turned sharply back again, flinging a grenade towards an Imperial storehouse. The majority of the storehouse destroyed, a smug look crossed his face. "Now I'm happy. I've destroyed my one mandatory item."
All of the pilots returned to their crafts, each of them lifting off with a curse already on their lips for Kell. All, that is, except Cloud.