This one's a bit long, but we finally get to the objective everything since chapter 9 has slowly been moving towards. There's also a another Krennic segment that is setting up his subplot, and Darthensmirtz and Ferb have their first showdown.
Candace, alone and unhappy, wandered the empty corridors of the hijacked freighter. The alone was not unusual; she had no real friends inside the Alliance or out. Even Buford and Baljeet did not view her as a friend, rather they feared her, and expressed this fear by doing everything she asked, albeit with varying degrees of respectfulness depending on the situation.
Liea, although she attempted to be kind to Candace, would, through no fault of her own, never view the ex-Imperial as much of an equal. Candace, due to years of no appreciation from her superior officers in the Empire, along with a tad of slight sociopathy caused by growing up on a harsh desert world ruled by the Hutts, and the fact that she was just plain neurotic, had evolved into a very brash and outspoken young woman who was very unresponsive to orders.
In addition to this, her relationship with her brother was dying a slow, bloated death. Between the awkwardness that ensued whenever his girlfriend decided to tag along when they saw each other, and the..secret Candace was keeping from him, not to mention they had spent nearly 12 years apart during her stint with the Imperial Army, it came as no surprise to her that he seemed distant every time they saw each other.
The secret itself was a subject that Candace preferred to not think about too much. A month previous to the assault on Grange, she had been called to Leia's ofice. Inside, she had been told that her family, including Perry, had gone missing, and the Empire was to blame. The Intelligence officers would not tell her all they knew, but Candace had decided to keep it a secret from Phineas. Perhaps she should tell him…
At that moment, a door to her left opened. She turned, slightly startled, and was surprised to find a droid. An Imperial KX-series Security Droid to be exact. She yelped, dropped her blaster, and cartwheeled backwards, ducking behind a bulkhead.
"I'd advise you to stand down." the droid calmly warned her. Candace frowned. The KX-series were not programmed to speak during combat. Sure, maybe when they were stuck doing data entry in a command center the droids would say a word or two regarding computer efficiency, but never during combat. What the hell was going on here?
She decided to muse over Imperial programming discrepancies later, and focus on getting out of there alive. She reached for her com, hoping to tell Solo, tell the Princess, tell someone that there was still an Imperial left aboard. Reaching for her waist, she gasped in surprise. Her com was in her cabin on the Tantive V. Damn. It looked like she'd have to take care of this one on her own.
She reached for her blaster next, but it too was not there. With a deep horror rising inside of her, she realized it had dropped out of its holster when she had flung herself behind the pillar.
"How many more of there are you?" she shouted, hoping to stall for time.
"How- how many more?" the droid said in a confused tone, repeating her question back to her. "Well, there's you for starters, and then the Captain and…"
"The Captain?" Candace replied, perplexed. She herself had shot the captain of this stupid little Gozanti-class cruiser. "I killed the Captain."
"That is not-is not true." the droid retorted. Candace was sure this droid was suffering from some severe programming glitch. "I just saw him a minute ago."
Candace's brow furrowed. Him? She was definitely sure this vessel's late captain was a woman.
"Cassian told me to come here, and find the princess." Cassian? Who was he?And what the hell was going on?
"Kay!" Someone shouted. Candace frowned. It was a man's voice, and a young man by the sound of it. He was also clearly not Imperial, which could be deduced from the evident lack of haughtiness and conceit in his voice. "K2-SO! What are you doing?" Appearing behind K2-SO was indeed a young man. Candace recognized him as the Alliance Intelligence captain whom she had spotted outside Bohdi Rook's debriefing onboard the Freedom, standing between General Draven and Ensign Carl. Slowly, the wayward rebel Sergeant drifted out from behind her metal bulkhead.
"Cassian, she was acting suspicious!" the droid protested with indignation, pointing at Candace. If his face could've made an expression, Candace guessed it probably would have been a scowl. "She was-she was hiding behind the bulkheads and whatnot!"
Cassian-Candace guessed he was the captain K2-SO had been referring to- sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He turned to Candace, and kicked her blaster across the floor.
"I'm going to assume that's yours." He remarked. Wordlessly, Candace nodded.
"Sorry about Kay." he gestured to the droid. "Our shuttle on the way here-an ion converter fell out of a plasma conduit on the way over and hit him in the head. His reprogramming had already caused a few glitches over the years. I think that bonk just made things worse."
Candace nodded awkwardly. "Uh-huh." She said.
"Sergeant Flynn." A voice behind her said. Candace's back stiffened as she recognized it as Liea's. God, had the Princess been following her? Slowly, she turned around to face the Alderannian monarch.
Liea, accompanied by a Rebel soldier and a very displeased looking Han, was standing behind her.
"I see you've met Captain Andor and his...pet droid." Liea remarked.
"Uh...yeah."
Liea smirked at the Sergeant's clear lack of comfort regarding the Security Droid standing next to her, before turning to Cassian.
"I trust your voyage was...pleasant, Captain Andor."
Candace noted the tension in Liea's words. Her eyes narrowed.
"It was not exactly...enjoyable..your highness." Cassian smiled grimly on the last word. "However, I have what we need. Here are the Imperial key cards and code cylinders we'll need to infiltrate the facility." He produced a set of cards and small Imperial code cylinders from a small satchel slung over his shoulder, and handed them to Liea.
"And the pilot?"
Captain Andor nodded.
"Bohdi!" he shouted over his shoulder. "Bohdi Rook, get up here now!" Behind K2-SO's and Cassian's combined frame in the doorway appeared the familiar, nervous face of that cargo pilot Isabella had rescued the previous week.
"I don't see why he's here." Han grumbled. Bohdi cowered. "I could fly this stupid freighter. Hell, even Luke could fly this thing, that crazy kid." Liea actually growled and whirled on the smuggler.
"Listen to me, Captain-and I use that term lightly-Solo," retorted the princess, "he is here because he has a unique knowledge of Imperial Transit Protocols which will allow us to dock with the facility without raising any attention."
"So? He could just tell me how to access their com channels or fly..erm, in a particular formation or whatever it is he has to do." Liea scowled, and rolled her eyes. The crowd of rebels watching grew.
"Yes he could, but no matter how much detail he goes into, you in all of your stupidity will no doubt panic and do something wrong." Han glared at her. She simply turned away and smirked. "Besides, you'd probably feel uncomfortable without the ship falling apart around you." Many rebels familiar with the inadequacies of Han's ship snickered, while Cassian just looked uncomfortable. Han darted in front of Liea, and this time it was his turn to growl.
"Let me make one thing clear, Your Worshipfulness, no one insults the my ship you hear me? No one."
"Oh, I'm sorry!" Liea responded in mock apology. "I didn't realize that garbage scow was actually a ship!"
At that moment, both started shouting at equal volume, and a very high pitch. As their verbal sparring began to intensify, Cassian slowly navigated the growing crowd of Rebel spectators to Candace's position, having recognized her as possibly having experienced this type of event before.
"How much longer is this going to last?"
"If we're lucky, one of them will lose consciousness, and collapse from severe lung exhaustion in a few hours." Cassian gave a small chuckle.
"And if we're not lucky?"
"Then in 50-70 years, we start dying of old age."
The Shock Troopers started firing, and Ferb reacted instantaneously. He lept up, darting backwards up the Kaminoan spire. Once on a higher maintenance platform, Ferb paused to look at his opponents. The two patrol gunships carrying only stormtroopers moved up and closer, coming in for the kill. Colonel Crefet's ship, on the other hand, just shot up straight into the air, hovering above Ferb.
The young Jedi wasted no time, and leapt onto the right gunship, landing on the roof. He swung his wrench at one of the solar panels powering the thing. His tool made contact with the panel's base connecting it to the hull of the craft. It sparked as the piece of tech fell off the craft, falling several hundred meters to the ocean below.
The patrol gunship started tilting severely to the right, as the pilot struggled to right the ship. Seizing the opportunity in the confusion, Ferb hooked his wrench on a small railing, and swung himself down into the open troop bay.
As he entered, he used his left leg to kick a Stormtrooper out the other side. The other troopers reacted surprisingly quickly and started firing.
Ferb ducked behind one of the troopers, using him as a shield while he got his wits about him. His 'cover' was quickly cut down by the trooper's comrades, and Ferb was exposed.
The young Jedi grabbed the fallen soldier's blaster and started shooting at the six remaining troopers.
With the Force guiding him, holding his own against the hardened stormtroopers proved surprisingly easy. Within the first thirty seconds, he had already eliminated four of his foes with his weapon.
He then force-pushed the next trooper out of the gunship, having him knock into her companion on the way out. Both troopers screamed as they fell down to the swiftly moving sea below.
Turning towards the cockpit, Ferb picked up his wrench.
The door was sealed from the inside, but that proved no problem for the Jedi, who opened it with a simple wave of his hand. Inside sat the pilot. The unfortunate driver attempted to stop Ferb, but the boy simply cracked the wrench down on the man's skull lightly.
The young Jedi sat down at the carrier's controls, and began compensating for the drop in altitude caused by the removal of the solar panel. By now, the other gunships had realized what was going on, and had begun reacting. They moved farther back, into attack position.
As they began firing, Ferb goaded his new ship to give it its all, and moved up to meet them. His gunship sputtered and groaned as he moved it into position; a collision course with the Colonel's gunship.
Federal District,
Coruscant
Imperial Center
If asked, any non-comatose inhabitant of the Galaxy what the true power of the Empire was they'd correctly answer that it was the Imperial Military. However, most were unaware of the flipside to the Empire coin; the Imperial Government.
Headquartered in the old Republic Senate Executive building, now dubbed the 'Imperial Administration offices", the purpose of the Civil Government was in theory to hold a degree of restraint over the Imperial Military. Rather, it did just the opposite, and instead suffocated the populace with endless levels of paperwork to fill out. Following the pivotal Battle of Yavin, the citizens began complaining, which irritated the Emperor. Following yet another grisly mass execution of dissidents, Sidious somehow realized that the bad publicity was only furthering the aims of the Rebel Alliance, and ordered the various bureaucratic agencies to begin regulating the Military as well.
Which is why, after being summoned to Mas Amedda's office in the old Senate Building, Director Krennic was feeling some trepidation. He and the Grand Vizier had known each other since the Clone Wars, but those memories did nothing to quell the uneasy feeling growing in the Military Director's stomach.
He had heard horror stories of other high-ranking Imperial Army and Navy officials, even a Moff or two, despite technically not having real military oversight, being dragged in front of the Emperor's chief proxy and being stripped of all honours, some even being demoted to be a simple garrison commander on some backwater Outer Rim world controlled by Black Sun or the Hutts.
"Director." Pterro's voice said over the com. "We have landed in the Senate Docking Bay."
Saying nothing, the morose Director simply got up and, accompanied by a duo of Death Troopers, stormed out of the troop bay, off of his shuttle and into the docking area.
Krennic's expression soured the moment he saw the massive interspecies crowd consisting of civic government officials, various military officers and ISB operatives, and aides to planetary governors waiting in several depressingly large official queues. A headache began to creep in at the back of the Director's mind, and he almost growled.
Clearly, today was not going to be a good day.
"And I am sorry for being such a jerk in you eyes, your worshipfulness. May your royal ass please give me a thousand pardons!" screamed Han, his face turning purple. Liea's already crimson features flushed some more.
"Why you sniveling, whiny little son of a-"
"Oh and one more thing." the smuggler interrupted. "I don't know what they taught you at whatever Princess School you attended, but amongst us 'common folk' it is considered polite to actually freaking thank someone after they repeatedly save your life." Liea's face flushed some more. Instead of retorting, rather she simply turned about her heels, and stormed off.
"Candace!" she snapped. "Follow!" Giving a nervous smile to the gathered rebels, the ex-stormtrooper darted loyally after the princess.
As she followed Liea down the empty corridor, an uncomfortable silence descended.
"Ugh." Liea groaned. "He is so...infuriating."
"Are you sure about that, Your Highness?"
"I-Yes-wait, hold on-" the Princess stammered, struggling to find a proper verbal footing. "Uhm, let's just talk about something else."
"Okay." agreed the Sergeant. "How about that tension between you and Captain Andor? Can I ask about that?" Liea scowled some more.
"Captain Andor….is one of Draven's operatives."
Candace blinked. "Er...sorry. Does that mean something?" Liea sighed.
"Draven has a reputation for being….pragmatic." The princess replied, a hint of anger in her voice. A gesture from Candace prompted this statement. "He is willing to do anything to accomplish his objectives. Anything."
Realisation dawned on Candace's face.
"He's...Draven is one of the extremists that the Empire uses as a tool to deface the rest of the Alliance." Liea grimaced.
"Not exactly. Draven is essentially a spy, so he's for the most part out of the limelight. It's extremists like Saw Gerrera that the Empire's propagandists focus their smear campaign on."
"But still, I take it Draven's tactics are not...popular with the Alliance Council, and and ostensibly myself."
"Assassins, saboteurs, and hiring mercenaries, that's his line of work isn't it?"
Liea nodded. "It's hard being an idealist during wartime." she said
Candace smirked. "Try cynicism. It does wonders for the dry wit." Liea gave a weak smile.
"I try to avoid cynicism. I might, er, end up like Han."
"Ah. And we don't want that, do we?"
"He's heading right for us, sir!" the patrol gunship's pilot shouted.
"Evasive action!" Colonel Crefet barked. The gunship shifted to the right, but unfortunately this action exposed them to fire from Ferb's transport.
The first blast knocked out the only one of the police gunship's cannons that was positioned to defend against Ferb's assault. The second and third did enough damage to the stabilizers that the gunship was temporarily knocked off balance.
The other gunship tried in vain to target Ferb, but his latent Jedi abilities allows him to spin and pirouette his transport to avoid most of the blasts.
The Colonel's transport sputtered and stopped, only hovering in the air.
"He's taken out the main stabilizer!" the pilot informed him, a note of panic in his voice. "It will be a minute before the systems can repair themselves. Until then, we're stuck here. Any movement, and we risk losing all power and falling into the ocean."
We're a sitting duck! Crefet realized. His throat tightened in panic, and his pulse quickened. Through the cockpit's viewport, he witnessed several bright red energy blasts emanate from the exposed troop bay. With a grim smile, Crefet realized that his Shock Troopers were trying to side their heavy blasters in a vain attempt to stop the hijacked patrol transport in its tracks. They'll do their duty to the end. the Colonel thought.
As Fletcher's ship came closer, Colonel Crefet simply accepted his death and closed his eyes.
"Ten seconds to impact." the command center technician announced. Darthensmirtz scowled. The rotating holographic display showed the situation above one of the older industrial buildings in Tipoca City. "Six." the tech said. "Five, four thre-what the hell?"
Suddenly, on the display, the hijacked craft broke its collision course, and headed straight for the third gunship.
"What?" breathed Yaami, standing behind Darthensmirtz. "What is he doing?"
The third gunship had no time to move, and was unable to maneuver out of Ferb's way. The gunships collided in a formidable, yet colorful, explosion, twisted pieces of durasteel bulkheads flying off.
In the command room, Darthensmirtz and his assembled subordinates could only see blue holographic circles fill the space where the two gunships had been. Smaller red dots indicated the scattering of debris in the atmosphere.
Darthensmirtz was the first one to react.
"He's dead." The Sith Lord said dumbly. "Ferb Fletcher is dead."
"We'll need a new hostage to motivate the genetic template to submit to medical scans." Yaami remarked callously. "Perhaps I should contact the Moff in charge of the Lola Sayu prison complex to see about possibly getting one of Fletcher's parents back here."
"THERE'S ALSO THE TRAINING DRILLS!" N0RM said, seemingly appearing out of nowhere. "WE'LL NEED TO FIND A SUBJECT AGILE ENOUGH TO SLIGHTLY CHALLENGE THE PLATYPUS CLONES IN THE FUGITIVE RETRIEVAL AND HUNTING TRAINING EXERCISES!"
"Wait, sir!" the tech said. "Sensors indicate that a small humanoid male jumped from the hijacked gunship shortly before the collision."
Darthensmirtz's eyes narrowed.
"Where did he jump?"
Slowly, Crefet opened his eyes. He was still alive.
In the troop bay behind him, he heard blaster fire, then two screams. The door hissed open. Crefet didn't have to turn around to realize who it was.
"Hello, Colonel." Ferb said icily.
The primary docking bay of the Senate Executive Building was swamped in chaos.
The massive crowd, being pressed into orderly lines by patient receptionists and less patient Stormtroopers, was pressed against several troop carriers, as well as the various shuttles they arrived in.
Krennic was mildly surprised when, after giving his name, rank, and reason for being there to a tired-looking Devaronian, he was directed to bypass the main queues, much to the chagrin of most of the patiently waiting officials. He and his guards were escorted into the rounded dome of the Executive Building, to an elite turbolift.
The turbolift stopped, and the human male operating the machine motioned for him to exit. He stepped through into a well-decorated atrium. A tiled fountain spitting out aquamarine and pink water burbled in the center, and plants of various colours and worlds were scattered around the edges.
A single door was on the other end of the room, guarded by two Navy Troopers and a bored-looking Lieutenant. Krennic headed towards it, but was stopped by the officer
"I'm sorry, sir," he said. "But they'll have to wait outside."
"Who?"
"Your bodyguards, sir. They can't come in. We have regulations against it."
Krennic sighed, but relented. His Death Trooper escort took up defensive positions near the turbolift door.
The Director headed through the door into a smaller, but equally exquisitely decorated waiting area.
An ancient human woman sat at a desk, typing on a computer. Two Royal Guards stood behind her.
"Hello." Krennic said curtly. She looked up from her computer screen and peered at him through a pair of primitive corrective ocular lenses.
"Do you have an appointment?"
"Yes, with the Grand Vizier. Tell him it's Krennic."
"Ah, yes." she said slowly. "The Advanced Weapons Group Director. Please have a seat. He will see you in two minutes."
Without so much as a customary "Thank-you" Krennic turned and sat in the least ornate Corellian Velvet and Nerf-Calfskin chair. Orson had grown up on Lexeruul, far from the luxury of the rich and lavish societies of the cosmopolitan Core Worlds, and as such, was not accustomed to ornately built furniture. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Krennic had little use or love for anything that either didn't serve a purpose, or did anything beyond that specified purpose. It was that reason he chose to travel in the uncomfortable simplicity of the Delta-class troop carrier, rather than a relatively more comfortable Lambada-class.
Well, the simplicity, and the fact that the bird-of-prey look Krennic's shuttle had in flight mode was sodding cool.
"Taylander Shuttle 605-A, this is S8-8117. You are cleared to un-dock." Liea said into the com. She was on the bridge. Candace, in a sullen mood, was standing to one side of her, and Captain Andor and K2-SO on the other. Han and Bohdi sat at the pilot's stations. "We have received all passengers and cargo."
"Roger that, S8-8117. Unlocking docking clamps now."
The cruiser shook some as the shuttle detached, and ignited its thrusters. 605-A appeared in the transteel viewport, before jumping to hyperspace.
Near the shuttle's jump point, floated the now derelict and empty Mining Guild Corvette, evacuated of all personnel, and the equally empty TIE Fighters.
"Target the Guild ships." Liea ordered. "Forward turbolasers at medium power only. And make sure to damage the weapons systems first, before hitting the fuel cells. We need to make this look like a pirate attack."
Han snorted.
"If we're gonna get rid of those ships, at least let me take the Falcon in first, and salvage what I can. Some of those starship components could fetch a small price on the-"
"No." Liea cut in. "We need to cover our tracks completely. If and when the Mining Guild discovers the wreckage, they'll know something's wrong. Pirates would simply destroy the escorts, attack the Corvette, and take any cargo-in this case the mining droids that would have been exchanged with the Throlide shipment."
"Both of which you loaded up into your shuttle." Han mumbled. Liea nodded.
"Exactly. If they find the TIEs destroyed, the CR90 everything but, and the cargo missing, they will simply assume a pirate attack and note as such in their report to the Empire.
"However, should the cargo not only be missing, but the ships stripped of several minor components that would only be of major use to Rebel Alliance affiliates or sympathizers, they will immediately inform
the Imperial Naval High Command of the assault."
"So what?" Han retorted. "A group of Rebels attacked an Imperial-affiliated ship, stole some droids and precious metals used in shipbuilding. What's out of the ordinary there?"
"The fact that there a several targets of interest in this sector."
Confusion flickered across Han's face.
"So? There are targets of interest in every sector!"
"Yes, but there's something else that would draw the Empire's attention to the seemingly-innocent raid."
"Which is?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. Liea gritted her teeth.
"If you would let me explain, I would be able to tell you that three of the potential targets are ones that our defector" at this, she gestured to Bohdi Rook, "made regular cargo runs to in his capacity as an Imperial pilot." Han eyed Bohdi warily.
"You flew Gozanti-class cruisers?" he asked suspiciously.
"What? No, no." he answered. "I-I flew the cargo shuttles, Zeta-class." Han scowled slightly, but said nothing. Bohdi turned to Liea. She nodded.
"Fire when ready, Ensign." she said.
Bohdi pressed a button, and flipped a couple switches, and several repeating twin beams of green energy blasts flew through the empty space, the first and second hit the Mining Guild TIE fighters. The third and fourth hit the primary weapons and shielding systems for the corvette, making it look like the theoretical "pirates" had disabled the ship before boarding it. The fifth and final of the turbolaser energy blasts hit the edge of one of the CR90's fuel cells, finally causing the whole craft to explode.
Liea smiled grimly. Both Han and Bohdi looked back at her.
"Ensign, set a course for the Armengoltiax Cluster." Bohdi gulped, and inputted the coordinates. Han threw a lever, and the Gozanti-class cruiser jumped to hyperspace.
Swiveling his chair around, Han scowled at Liea.
"The Armengoltiax Cluster is near-impossible to navigate!" he said. "The only way in or out is a small corridor patrolled by the Empire."
"Which is why we have these." she said, revealing a set a datacards from a satchel she was carrying. "Clearance codes that will allow us passage through the blockade."
Han's frown hardened.
"For what exactly? What is so important about this nebula that you want to risk our lives to get there?"
"The Empire's foremost facility for dismantling old Clone Wars-era capital ships, and repairing the new ones."
"What do you want, Mr. Fletcher?" Crefet asked. Ferb blinked, and the Colonel frowned. "How did you get past my Shock Troopers?" Ferb blinked again.
"They couldn't fly, so I threw them out of the troop bay."
Crefet frowned, and reached for his blaster. Right as he grabbed the handle, Ferb dove into his stomach, knocking the Colonel down onto the floor.
Trying to shoot Ferb, Crefet pulled the trigger and his blaster rang out several shots. Two of these hit the rather unfortunate pilot, the second killing him. The craft started to tilt backwards, and Colonel Crefet and Ferb fell out of the cockpit and back into the troop bay.
Rolling around on the floor of the falling gunship, Crefet landed several punches on the boy's face. Ferb responded by wrenching free from the older man's grasp, and then cracking his wrench across the colonel's right shin. With a wail of pain, Crefet realized that he would lose the battle. Even if he could, by some stretch, beat Ferb, they both would die when the gunship hit the water.
That meant he had one option left; Jump.
Pushing Ferb out of the way, he dove for one of the jump packs fastened in the back of the bay. Strapping it to his back, he looked at Ferb once before leaping out of the falling carrier, and igniting the pack. Ferb watched as he flew downwards towards Tipoca City, towards safety.
Smiling grimly, Ferb turned, and climbed up the steeply angled gunship floor into the cockpit.
Strapping himself into the pilot's seat, Ferb righted his new ship and pointed it towards his target.
The Tipoca City Military Hangar.
"The Grand Vizier will see you now, Director Krennic." the aged secretary said slowly. Looking up from the tablet on which he had been reviewing supply allocations for the labs he controlled, Krennic stood up, his back feeling stiff.
The door behind and to the right of the secretary's desk hissed open. Krennic stepped through. He found himself in an ornately dressed office far surpassing the waiting room and lobby he had come from. Rich tapestries, depicting ancient battles of ages past, hung from the walls, and bronze and golden statues of the Grand Vizier in various poses stood on obsidian pedestals.
Mas Amedda himself, clad in blue robes, sat behind a desk carved out of Kashyyyk Worshyyr wood, in a chair reminiscent of the Emperor's throne. A pair of Royal Guards stood behind him.
"Director Krennic, a pleasure I'm sure." the Vizier said, one of his lethhorns twitching. Krennic tried to keep a neutral and diplomatic expression firmly fixed on his face.
"Likewise, Vizier." Krennic said, keeping his voice flat and even. He hated dealing with politicians. They all reminded him of Tarkin. "But you did not call me here to exchange perfunctory greetings, I assume?" The Chagrian gave a thin-lipped smile.
"Of course not, Director. I must say I've..forgotten your...lack of comfort around the Core World politics. But please, sit down." Krennic looked at the chair on the other side of the desk. It was built out of a dark oak-worshyyr hybrid, and upholstered in velvet. Krennic sat down, his white cape wedging uncomfortably around his backside.
"So, if not to verbally parry through greetings, then what is the purpose of the meeting?"
"I wish to discuss the Death Star Project's revival."
Krennic fought to keep a sigh from forming. Ever since the Imperial Ruling Council had sent him a communique ordering him to task Heinz with redesigning the Death Star, he knew he would be summoned to some high-ranking Imperial official's office to be given more details regarding the implementation of the plans.
"Which aspect, specifically?"
Amedda gave a toothy smile.
"Your role, Director."
"So according to the schematics Captain Andor obtained, in addition to the description Ensign Rook gave us, we have this image of the facility in the Armengoltiax Cluster." Liea said, and pressed a button on the remote she was holding. The crowd of rebels, consisting of the various pathfinders chosen for the mission, Cassian, K2, Candace, Han, Luke, Bohdi, Candace, Buford and Baljeet. Isabella and Phineas were also present, but strangely kept to the back.
The temporary holographic display table that Alliance Engineers had hastily installed in the cruiser's primary car bay whirred to life. The hologram showed a massive space station, with several ships of varying size and era docked with it. The central area of the station appeared to be a modified Core Ship from an old Trade Federation Lucrehulk-class freighter. Three gigantic blocky rectangular prisms protruded off from the station, serving as the docking place for the ships. Turret emplacements bristled all along the giant arms, and a light cruiser hovered above the station. Liea pressed another button, and a red dot appeared, near to the center.
"Infiltration team A, led by myself, will infiltrate the central reactor deck, and initiate a complete shutdown of the primary power." She paused to take a breath. "Following this, Team B, led by Captain Andor, will be waiting in the server room," A blue dot appeared on the diagram. "..to slice into the station's control systems while the security subroutines are down, and rewire the turret and security droid protocols to allow us access to them. Following this Team C," A yellow dot appeared near the Core Ship's bridge at the top of the sphere. "..led by Han and Luke, will breach the station's central control room, and take control of the station. All of this will take place, if everything goes according to plan, under the space of ten minutes."
"And when has anything ever gone according to plan." Han grumbled. Candace could see Liea grit her teeth, but to the Princess's credit she did not react.
"I actually agree with Han, surprisingly." Like said. He bit his lip, almost as though he too was confused by his decision to speak up. "This is pretty big. What if the Empire destroys the whole station just to get rid of us? Or Vader and Sergeant Kreel show up again and try to -"
"Which is not going to happen." Liea said firmly. "Everything will be fine."
"I find that answer vague and unconvincing." K2-SO said, almost disapprovingly. If he had a mouth, Candace swore he would've been frowning.
"Any questions?" Liea asked, tactfully ignoring the droid.
"Ah, yes actually." Bohdi said. "What should I do?"
"Ah, yes ensign. You will stay with the ship in case something goes wrong." Liea replied.
Bohdi gave a blank look.
"What?"
"Keep the engine running." Cassian supplied. "You're our only way out of here."
"Ah. So it will be just me, then?"
"No, actually." Liea said. "General Syndulla loaned us a pair of droids that belong to her. She says they have had experience with operations such as this one." Behind Liea appeared two droids entering the room from the hallway. One, an RA-7 protocol unit, was intensely arguing with the other, a C1 Astromech painted in Imperial colours. Strangely, the astromech droid was smoking.
"..that's why I told you not to touch that spark plug. It would have ruptured your whole processor had I not kicked it out of the way." The droid responded with a series of indignant grunts, followed by waving around one of the tiny 'arms' the C1 model was equipped with. The RA-7 gave what Candace assumed was meant to be a sigh. "Your logic circuits are malfunctioning again." He turned to Liea. "Princess, please forgive our tardiness. My friend here got us lost, and on accident, nearly terminated himself." Liea gave a small, diplomatic smile.
"You are forgiven AP-5." she said, before turning back to the rest of the group. "Okay, if there's no more questions, I think we're done here."
"Actually," Han began. "I have several questions about-"
"Good. We arrive in four hours. May the Force be with us."
As soon as the briefing was over, and all the other rebels and droids had drifted out of the room, Phineas walked over to Isabella.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"I'm fine." she snapped irritably. "Why do you ask?"
"You just seem...upset."
"When we were hijacking the freighter, Commander Skywalker chose me to serve as his wingman during the operation." Phineas frowned slightly, as though he was confused.
"I wasn't aware starfighters were used during the commandeering of the ship." he mused. Isabella looked at him.
"You weren't onboard the CR90?" She asked, arching one of her eyebrows.
"No, I just arrived on that shuttle."
"Oh. Huh."
"So anyway, you were saying?"
"The Unrefined Fury- the corvette-came with a TIE escort of two fighters-to prevent piracy and the like. When we seized control of it, the Nebulon-B that delivered us simply rendered them useless with an ion cannon. We removed the pilots, and Commander Skywalker and I climbed into them."
"Why?" her boyfriend asked. "To prevent suspicion amongst the Imperial craft's crew or-"
"Yes, that exact reason."
"So what's the problem? I mean, unless you have an aversion to TIE Fighters, or something that'd give you PTSD or something like that, I don't see what the problem is and-"
"During some evasive action I had to take, I crashed into Commander Skywalker,"
"So? Like can't get too mad at you-I grew up living next to him on Tatooine you know. He's not gonna be hard on you."
"Thanks." she said. The two embraced. There was nothing romantic about the hug; it was simply something a friend would do for another friend. But to Isabella, it was perfect.
Ferb jumped from his gunship just as it entered the hangar. The craft collided with a row of TIE Fighters, running through three of them before hitting a fuel tank and bursting into an explosion.
Dusting himself off, the young Jedi casually walked past the twisted mess of burning wreckage that he had arrived on.
"Stop right there!" a stormtrooper shouted, raising his blaster. Ferb lazily shot him, barely even glancing at the soldier. Another tried to shot him, but Ferb simply called on the force to push the man against the wall, knocking him unconscious. He headed towards a shuttle, a Sentinel-class troop carrier, intending to take control of it and fly it out. He was reasonably confident he could evade TIE patrols and the light cruiser, and escape to hyperspace. After that, he had no idea where to go. Tatooine held nothing for him now, and he would not be able to rescue his parents from Lola Sayu for a while, and certainly not without support from Phineas and the Rebel Alliance. Perhaps an Outer Rim planet.
He settled on Takodona; remote, peaceful, and relatively low imperial presence. He could lay low there for a while and plan his next move.
"I wouldn't go there if I were you." a voice warned. He turned to find Darthensmirtz stanning there. Behind him, two Death Troopers exited the shuttle, blasters raised to their shoulders. "Now.." Darthensmirtz intoned, glaring insanely. "You will find what happens to little brats like you who escape from custody." Suddenly Darthensmirtz stopped walking slowly towards Ferb, and instead adopted the posture of one contemplating an idea.
"Interesting. The way I worded that, it almost sounds like a court order required that you were placed in my care against your will. I wonder-" Seizing the opportunity, Ferb kept towards the Sith Lord, knocking him to the ground.
"Gah! Cheese and crackers! Death Troopers, help m-" Ferb cut the man's request short by punching him in his long nose." Darthensmirtz's eyes went wide with pain.
"Ouch! That hurts." he said, shoving Ferb aside and standing up. "Now you will realize how foolish it is to attack someone who owns a lightsaber." He reached for his belt, and pulled out his saber, switching it on.
However instead of a red blade, a beam of yellow light shone, illuminating a portion of the darkened hangar bay. It was not a lightsaber, Ferb realized, but rather a flashlight.
"What?" Darthensmirtz said, beginning to realize what was going on. "Oh come on, not aga-GAHH!" Ferb seized the opportunity and landed a punch in the man's abdomen. Darthensmirtz clutched his stomach, gasping in pain, Ferb then kicked his groin, causing further damage.
Darthensmirtz fell to his knees, wailing in pain. With the Sith distracted, Ferb scrambled up the side of a TIE Reaper. Evading fire from the Death Troopers, he scrambled over to the top of an aquatic combat vehicle. Pausing to catch his breath, he noticed a massive fuel tank sitting in front of him, not unlike the one his gunship had crashed into. An idea began to form in his mind.
Below, the Death Troopers helped Darthensmirtz to his feet.
"Kill him." the Sith Lord said, breathing heavily. "We'll get Dr. Tanmi to clone a new Ferb from the body. Just kill him!"
The Death Troopers obeyed, but as they began to follow Ferb's path up the solar panels of the TIE Reaper, a massive container of Rhydonium, a heavily volatile fuel substitute, flew above their heads. Realizing what was about to happen, Darthensmirtz and the soldiers ran for cover as the container fell. A massive, purple-and-green explosion rushed outward, flipping the TIE Reaper over, and consuming several airspeeders. The outward most part of the blast caught Darthensmirtz's backside, throwing him to the ground. As the Death Troopers helped him up, firefighter droids dropped down from the ceiling, and began spraying the flames caused by the explosion with a fire retardant.
No one noticed Ferb slip into an air duct.
S8-8117 exited hyperspace outside of the glowing pink nebula that made up the Armengoltiax Cluster. The Gozanti-Class cruiser headed towards an opening in the gaseous cloud.
Inside the cockpit, the atmosphere was tense. Bohdi and Han sat at the helm. Behind them stood Liea, Cassian, AP-5, and Candace.
A Victory-class Star Destroyer, accompanied by a trio of Raider-class corvettes appeared near the mouth of the corridor.
"S8-8117" a voice on the com said. "You are late!"
"Uh, roger." Bohdi replied nervously. "We ran into engine difficulties en route."
"Do you require assistance?"
"Negative, negative. Our engineers were able to repair the systems. We are requesting entrance to the cluster."
A long sIlence. Then;
"Please transmit your codes."
"Transmission commencing," Han muttered. Bohdi threw a switch, and a string of numbers flashed across the screen before disappearing.
"You are cleared for entry, S8-8117. Welcome to the Armengoltiax Cluster, and watch out for the ion storms."
The group breathed a collective sigh of relief. Bohdi guided the cruiser past the flotilla and into the cluster. Lighting flashed in the nebula, indicating the presence of ion storms, as the voice had suggested.
" If our engine systems are functioning perfectly, we have 27.3 minutes before we reach the facility." AP-5 droned.
"Good." Liea said. "Bohdi, AP, stay here. Han, Cassian, Candace, with me." The four left the cockpit, leaving Bohdi alone with the inventory droid.
"Ready the ship for docking." Bohdi told AP-5. "Prepare the throlide crates." The RA-7 nodded and walked over to a computer station. Bohdi drummed his fingers on the console nervously.
"I'm doing it as fast as I can." the droid said, mistaking Bohdi's tapping as a sign of impatience. Bohdi did not reply.
He was definitely nervous, that much the cargo pilot could tell about himself. If something went wrong, the facility's turbolasers would obliterate the small cruiser, or stormtroopers would board the ship, killing everyone.
The cruiser passed a smaller defense station, essentially a large asteroid towed into the corridor. It was bristling with weapons emplacements,
He tried to relax, to focus on the beauty of the nebula. He tried convincing himself it was just a regular supply run to the station. He was back in his old Zeta-class shuttle, just here to pick up starship parts to be delivered to shipyards at Kuat and Bilbringi. He didn't have a hold full of rebels led by a murderous princess intent on avenging her homeworld.
Nothing like that at all.
"My role, Grand Vizier?" Krennic's expression and tone were neutral, though his feelings certainly were not. Was Amedda trying to take his station away from him? Or was the Vizier acting as someone else's proxy in this matter.
"Yes, the Emperor has become aware that you feel...ignored regarding your role in the Death Star project." Krennic kept a curious frown from forming on his face.
"I was not aware he knew of my dissatisfaction." the Director replied.
"There are a great many things the Emperor is aware of, Director Krennic."
Krennic gave a nod of agreement.
"True." he said. "So what does the Emperor want?"
"His Excellency has requested your presence in the Imperial Palace in two standard day's time." Now Krennic frowned, this time in confusion.
"What does His Excellency wish to speak with me about?"
"That," Amedda said, "is for me to know, and for you to find out."
Lieutenant Yaami and Darthensmirtz strode briskly through a corridor, a pair of balaclava-suited Navy Troopers following. The Death Troopers were in the medbay, being treated for injuries sustained during the explosion. Yaami was swiping through reports on a tablet.
"The fires in Hangar Bay Seven has been neutralized." he reported. "Total casualty report: 27 stormtroopers, two Shock Troopers, three pilots and their gunships, three TIEs, and several airspeeders. A couple of ground technicians were also killed in the ensuing explosion, and a TIE Reaper was heavily damaged."
"And Colonel Crefet?"
"He was reported to have landed at a maintenance hatch shortly before the confrontation in the hangar bay. He claims to have attempted to stop Fletcher, before being forced to flee the gunship via jump pack."
"Interesting." Darthensmirtz replied. "You want to speak your mind, Lieutenant."
"Yes sir " Yaami replied. He had long grown used to the Sith Lord's habit of casually reading his mind randomly.
"Well, go on then."
Yaami sighed.
"Lord Darthensmirtz, how could a simple child doing so much damage! He has evaded capture for a week in this enclosed city. And then, when finally located by our scouts, he eliminated nearly all the forces sent to retrieve him!"
"You forget, my faithful aide, he is of the force."
Yaami frowned.
"Yes, but it doesn't make sense. I watched holovids of the Jedi during the Clone War, and only one of them behaved like our young Mr. Fletcher today. His name was Anakin Skywalker, I think."
"No, Lieutenant. Not a Jedi would be so 'brute' in his actions. Fletcher has been tainted by the dark side. And that is an advantage I intend to cultivate."
"We are set to exit the corridor in five minutes." AP-5 said. "We are about to come up open the empty space in the center of the cluster."
"Good." Bohdi said. The sensors beeped, and he checked them. "Wait, that can't be right."
"What?" the droid asked.
"Scanners are reporting two ships orbiting the facility."
"But there is only supposed to be a single light cruiser and some smaller defense stations, in addition to the flotilla at the mouth of the corridor."
"Exactly." Bohdi said. "The-oh, nerfshit."
"What?"
"The second ship-it's a star destroyer."
So thus ends another chapter in Tales from the Rebellion.
I must say, I'm surprised by how many people started following after the last chapter. Your reviews and support really help me finish chapters faster.
Also, the next chapter was originally part of this one, an I split them up, so I'm currently halfway through Chapter 14, meaning it won't be as long as it usually is between updates.