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Rescue Operation
A stormtrooper shoved Damian and he snapped at him in Mando'a, Mandalore's primary language. the trooper glanced at the other, who shrugged, and Agent Kallus sighed.
"He's speaking Mando'a," Kallus said as one of the stormtroopers reached for the life support mask Damian was wearing, only for Kallus to catch his arm. "it would be best if you left that mask on. It's a life support mask. Take it off and our new prisoner will die in seconds. probably agonizingly."
"Yes sir," the stormtrooper said as AP-5 and R3 rolled out of the shuttle Damian had had to use for the mission. "What about these two?"
Kallus looked over at them, humming thoughtfully.
"We were on board when our shuttle was boarded by that man," AP-5 said.
"Stay here and wait for processing," Kallus said. "Now, shall we take our guest to the detention center? And someone bring me a translator."
One of the stormtroopers ran off and Kallus followed the others to the detention center before throwing Damian into it, a stormtrooper arriving with a handheld translator.
"Very good," Kallus said. "Leave us. I'll interrogate him myself."
The stormtroopers saluted and left. Damian waited for Kallus to deactivate the cameras, then close the door before speaking.
"You've been compromised," Damian said. "The Empire tracked your last call."
"So you got captured to warn me!?" Kallus demanded.
"Of course not," Damian snorted. "I'm smarter than that. I came to get you out of here."
"Well I guess I have no choice now!" Kallus growled.
"Hey, one Fulcrum to his successor, don't question a professional spy telling you you're burned," Damian said. "Trust me. Thrawn knows it's you."
"So, what do we-"
"Open this door!" the commanding lieutenant's voice ordered.
Damian grimaced and used the force to slam Kallus's fist into his face, falling back against the stairs of the cell. As the door opened, he raised his arms to shield himself, shouting in Mando'a that he'd comply.
"What's he saying?" the lieutenant asked.
Kallus looked at his translator, which had only been recording any words it heard in Mando'a, and then smirked. "Well, it appears he's agreed to confess."
"Already?" the Lieutenant asked. "Very impressive. "But it'll have to wait. Admiral Thrawn's fleet's just arrive, and he has summoned us aboard his ship. Bring the prisoner."
"The prisoner?" Kallus asked.
"To show the Grand Admiral how effective I am in dealing with the Rebel threat," the Lieutenant said.
"He's a bounty hunter," Kallus said. "Not a rebel."
"He's from Lothal," the Lieutenant said. "That's enough."
"He's from Mandalore," Kallus said. "That's why he's speaking Mando'a."
"That hardly matters," the Lieutenant said.
Damian was brought to the airlock where AP-5 and R3 were still waiting.
"Excuse me," AP-5 said.
"I did not request any droids to accompany us," the Lieutenant said.
"My counterpart has a recording of the shuttle theft," AP-5 said. "Protocol is for us to provide it as testimony against the thief."
"Very well," the Lieutenant said, continuing past them.
They all boarded a shuttle and took off, Damian remaining under heavy guard. Time to see if Thrawn was as genius as his reputation said. Damian was suddenly glad he'd left his lightsabers and blaster behind for the mission. Once they landed, Damian was transferred to Thrawn's stormtroopers and taken to Detention Block B7. R3 and AP-5 both knew their part of the plan. R3 would also know he had to find Clearance Cods for Thrawn's ship now, which would be tricky. However, once they'd acquired it, Kanan and Jek, dressed as stormtroopers, would be coming after him. Rex originally wanted to do it, but it was decided he would wait on the shuttle as the getaway pilot, since he had put on weight since his days of wearing armor and would be called out on it.
He sighed, sitting down to meditate, remaining there for nearly forty minutes before sensing Kallus coming. He stood as the cameras shut off and the door opened.
"Please tell me that you used your own codes," Damian said.
"No," Kallus said. "Why?"
"Thrawn met you, right?" Damian asked.
"Yes," Kallus said.
"Who was there?" Damian asked.
"Myself and Lieutenant List," Kallus said.
"And you used his codes?" Damian asked.
"Yes," Kallus said. "But I don't see..."
"You've just cleared his name," Damian said. "A spy, even if it's List, wouldn't use their own code cylinder to shut off surveillance. Since you two were the only ones there, that means it's not him. Leaving one person."
Kallus sighed, lowering his head. "We'll have to deal with that later. Thrawn is very close to finding your base. I need to know where it is so that I can delete it from his database."
"Thrawn's too smart for that," Damian said. "He'll have backups of the selected list. If we delete one, he'll compare the lists and have his answer."
"Then what do we do?" Kallus asked.
"Delete three," Damian said. "And leave the right one. Then get you the hell out of here."
Kallus nodded and they left the cell. After a few minutes, they had found Damian a new disguise, an Imperial Officer's uniform. Then, they headed to Thrawn's office. On the way, they passed AP-5 and R3, Damian having AP-5 stand watch, bringing R3 with them. As they were walking over to Thrawn's office and the stormtrooper guarding it, Damian turned his hand backward and Kallus slipped List's code cylinder into it. As they reached the stormtrooper on guard, Damian waved his hand and the guard let his arms fall. Damian used the cylinder to open the door and Kallus walked inside.
"Remain on guard," Damian said. "Knock on the door if you see Lieutenant List, Thrawn, Governor Price, or Colonel Yularen."
"Yes sir," the stormtrooper said.
Damian closed the door behind himself and Kallus raised an eyebrow.
"Most impressive," Kallus said. "I've never heard of someone making someone so...subservient with a mind trick."
"The more powerful and skilled you are, the better you can do," Damian said. "I call that particular one Conscription. It's temporary, unfortunately, but it works well."
"How loyal is he?" Kallus asked.
"If I tell him to, he'll die fighting for us," Damian said. "Makes for a good distraction, no?"
"Indeed," Kallus nodded. "And how did you know that Yularen and Price were on the ship?"
"I sensed them while I was meditating," Damian said. "Now, you want to play twenty questions, or you want to fuck with Thrawn for a bit?"
"Good point," Kallus said, accepting the code cylinder and inserting it into the computer.
As he did, R3 jacked himself in and downloaded the codes, transmitting them to Kanan directly."
"They'll intercept the transmission!" Kallus said.
"What, that a secret code was sent from Admiral Thrawn's office?" Damian asked. "That's going to confuse everyone who's supposed to report it, buy us a couple more minutes, and by the time they figure out it wasn't List, we'll hopefully be on our way out."
Kallus hummed thoughtfully. "You really were a good Fulcrum."
"I was part of a set," Damian said. "I just happened to be raised by a manipulative backstabber and was taught in the ways of the scum of the universe, spies included."
"That explains a lot, actually," Kallus said as the map finally popped up.
"Okay," Damian said. "Let's see about this wild goose chase, shall we? R3, delete this planet, this one, and...this one."
R3 removed the three he'd chosen.
"Good," Damian said. "Now, for the finishing touch. Add the planets Umbara, Dathomir, and Abafar."
R3 added the three planets and Kallus nodded in approval.
"Not bad," Kallus said. "That should keep them busy for a while."
"Bad news," AP-5 said. "Grand Admiral Thrawn is headed for his office."
"How long?" Damian said just as the stormtrooper knocked. Damian looked up and quickly used the Force to pull a vent off an air shaft, taking the Code Cylinder out of the computer as R3 put everything as it was. Then, Damian used the Force to quickly lift everyone up into the shaft, spreading them so they wouldn't collapse it, and put the grate back into place just before the door opened, the stormtrooper looking around for a moment and slumping slightly in relief before turning back to the front. Damian focused, waving a hand and transmitting a new order to the stormtrooper. The trooper glanced back at Thrawn, then turned back to the front. Then, Damian turned to the front, floating all three of them along with the Force before finding another vent near AP-5.
"AP Five," Damian hissed. "Is it clear?"
"For now," AP-5 said.
Damian quickly dropped them out of the vent, then secured the grate. Then, they quickly headed for the hangar.
"Well done," Kallus said. "Only one step left."
"Agreed," Damian nodded.
As they reached the hangar, the stormtrooper who had a standing loyalty to Damian ran into it from a door off to the side. Kallus reached for his blaster but Damian waved him off. Ahead of them, Governor Price was heading for the shuttle to arrest Kanan and Jek. Jek saw it coming a mile away, however, and was about to raise his blaster, when the stormtrooper threw his helmet off so he could see, then opened fire. The first shot hit the stormtrooper escorting Price in the head, killing him. The second hit her in the side. List stood and turned to stop the stormtrooper, only to take a shot to the chest. The stormtrooper turned to where Yularen was watching them, wide-eyed, and opened fire rapidly, grazing his arm but not doing any more damage.
"Get out of here!" the stormtrooper yelled. "I'm burned anyway! Just go!"
Damian and Kallus ran onto the shuttle, Damian pausing to salute the stormtrooper.
"It's been an honor, sir!" the stormtrooper said, saluting him back. "Thank you for freeing my mind from the Empire."
Damian nodded before the shuttle took off. He walked to the cockpit with the others and sat down, sighing and resting his face in his hands.
"You brainwashed him into taking the fall for us?" Kallus asked.
"Like I said," Damian said. "Hell of a distraction. His standing orders are to kill Thrawn and Yularen or die trying."
"So he'll die trying!" Kanan said. "That's wrong!"
"My options were limited," Damian said.
"Controlling someone like that...that sounds like a Dark Side power!" Kanan said.
"It's not," Damian said. "Even the Light Side can have that level of control. It just requires you to be stronger. Remember I can't use the Dark Side."
Kanan hesitated before sighing and nodded just as Damian sensed the stormtrooper die. "What happened to limit your options?"
"Kallus accidentally burned himself by playing into Thrawn's hands," Damian said. "He and List were alone in a meeting where Thrawn showed how close he was to finding our base, so Kallus responded by using List's codes to free me and disable security."
"How is that bad?" Kanan asked.
"Because there were only two of them present at the time," Damian said. "Whoever's codes were used, it was the other person who was responsible. Since he was burned anyway, we went ahead and switched around a couple of the planets Thrawn had narrowed it down to in order to buy time. Then, since you two were about to be arrested when you landed no matter what, I had to buy you guys time and create chaos, so I tried to use the opportunity to take out Thrawn if we could."
"Did he succeed?" Kanan asked.
"I doubt it," Damian said.
Kanan sighed.
"I think you did well," Jek said.
"Suck up," Damian chuckled.
"You made sure to erase our planet, right?" Rex asked.
"No," Damian said. "Thrawn would have had backups of his star map. He'd have just checked the discrepancy. So we switched out three different planets to make it look like we were hiding one of them."
"So he's either going to focus on those three, or ignore them completely," Rex said.
"It doesn't matter, we can leave inside of an hour anyway," Damian said.
"Still," Rex said, then sighed. "Well, whatever the case, you did good, kid."
"Thanks," Damian said.
"Shame we lost Fulcrum, though," Kanan said.
"It's fine," Damian said. "Ahsoka and I still have our Fulcrum networks. We can tug a few strings and get spies planted."
"Good luck," Kallus snorted.
"It'll be easy," Damian smirked. "One of my contacts is another ISB agent."
Kallus stared at him. "If that's true...you're an even more incredible spy than I could ever hope to be."
Damian grinned and leaned back in his chair, folding his hands behind his head. "Helps when you can brainwash people to have them tell you everything without them remembering."
Everyone nodded in agreement, then fell silent for the rest of the trip home.
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