Chapter 9: Jazal

Aboard the Onager, in orbit of Murkhana

Jazal had been aboard a ship that was boarded. She had never been aboard a ship that was partaking in boarding.

The R/AC Onager was a long and thin Pelta-class frigate reconfigured as a boarding vessel. Thin enough that, when the Miraluka stood in the middle, she could sense all four walls to the outer hull in every direction. It had limited weaponry, but was perfectly configured to deploy platoon-sized elements of personnel onto an enemy ship. In this particular case, the enemy ship was a mostly-inactive Separatist Lucrehulk, tumbling away as its skeleton crew of organic sentients struggled to regain control in the face of a deactivated droid crew.

Wearing a spacesuit, Jazal stood alongside a squad of ARC troopers and thirty Clone engineers in the airlock. A clanging noise echoed in through the walls as the Onager aligned itself on the central core, deploying directly onto the bridge deck.

Her plan was risky and entirely focused on taking the bridge. Hypothetically, if any organic Separatists were down on the engineering level, they could override the bridge controls and vent the entire deck into space. Hence the spacesuit.

The sound of her own breathing intensified as the klaxon sounded and the airlock doors slid open, exposing a portion of slightly-sloping spherical hull of the Lucrehulk.

It's go-time. The Miraluka ignited her saber, stabbing it into the wall.

"I still think we should use explosives, General," grumbled Satchel, one of the combat engineers.

"Step back," Jazal ordered through gritted teeth, straining as she dragged her blade along the top of the wall.

"Sorry sir," the Clone stammered, stepping back and away from the potential line of fire. Jazal sensed the ARC troopers looked back at him, with scathing expressions on their faces.

"And eyes forward," Jazal yelled back to the ARC Troopers as she sliced downwards, forming half of a rectangular-shaped slice. "We're nearly through. We need to be prepared for anything. Prepared for—"

—A blast went off, faintly echoing through the metal hull of the Lucrehulk. The sound was soon followed by another, then another, spaced a few seconds apart.

"Is that laser fire?!" Jazal asked in alarm.

"Sounds like it," answered Minder, one of the ARC troopers, in a dark tone.

"Turbolaser fire!" one of the Clone engineers corrected. "That means—"

—The sounds of a commlink opening chimed in her helmet. Jazal moved her fingers to the answer button on the wrist panel of her spacesuit. "General!" Tarkin's panicked voice screamed into Jazal's helmet comm. "The droids are back. You need to send out the deactivation code—"

"—On it," Jazal interjected, terminating the line. "Jazal to Bisectrix. We have an emergency. Send out the droid shutdown code again!"

"General, we already tried that. The reactivation signal was sent out from the command ship you are about to board. They seem to have somehow invalidated Krataa's Permissive Action Link. I recommend withdrawing to the Bisectrix before the droids begin manning that Lucrehulk's turrets. "

In a moment of surprising calm, Jazal pondered that suggestion for a moment. If the signal came from this Lucrehulk… "Negative Bisectrix," the Miraluka said firmly. "We are going ahead with the breach. I'll advise when we've secured the bridge."

"Roger that," the Clone said in a surprised voice.

Jazal was already reaching out to the sliced piece of the Lucrehulk's hull. She strained for a moment, pushing it inwards. As a gap opened towards the top, he forcesight extended, no longer muffled by the meters of durasteel.

Beyond the hull, she could sense four droids gripping blasters.

Jazal had been unsure as to whether or not she wanted to push or pull the hull, but now her mind was settled. Push it is. With a grunt, she force-pushed the sliced section of hull into the Lucrehulk. The four droids standing immediately in front of the hull cried out as they were squashed flat.

"Drop it!" Jazal screamed as she stepped into the Lucrehulk. On the bridge up ahead, a fleshy bulbous Mon Calamari crew member was drawing a blaster. The other seven organic crew members she could sense, all Mon Calamari, yelled in surprise as the Clones spilled onto the bridge. The two nearest to the door were immediately tackled.

The armed Mon Calamari squeezed his blaster, sending two shots at Jazal.

Deflecting both shots, Jazal grunted angrily, pulling the Mon Calamari out from his staton with the force and hurdling him onto the hard floor.

"We should have evacuated the bridge!" one of the tackled Mon Calamaris yelled to the group.

"So the Republic could vent out the atmosphere in the lower decks? Send us all conveniently out into space!" another warbled back.

"SILENCE!" Jazal shrieked, brandishing her lightsaber. "Our PAL, what did you do?" she asked, approaching the one standing with his hands up in the middle of the bridge.

"Your PAL?" the Mon Calamari scoffed. "The one the Jedi stole, you mean. We used standard protocol. I suggest, Master Jedi, that you invaders withdraw from the Murkhana system or surrender. When all of the droids get to their station, you will be—AHHH!"

Without hesitation, Jazal grabbed the squishy wet side of the Mon Calamari's face. She reached out with the Force, feeling his brain. It was truly massive. She wasn't quite sure where any of the particular parts were, but she began probing the unfamiliar anatomy.

"What are you doing?!" the Mon Calamari gasped, struggling to pull away from her vice-like grip.

Jazal grimaced, sensing his pain. "I am going to find out how to reactivate our PAL. You can make this as easy or hard as you want."

o.o.o.o.o

Lir Sey'les

"CLANKERS IN THE WATER!"

"Say again Indigo, clankers in the water?" Sey'les growled incredulously, sniffing the breeze blowing in from the open LAAT hatch. Of course there are clankers in the water… We saw the transports full of droids crash into Murkhana Bay. There are undoubtedly—Oh.

One of the 12th Army's 133rd support and hazardous material response brigades had set up their makeshift operating point on the beach down below the jungly mansion-lined hills of West Murkhana. It was supposed to be well behind the frontlines of combat.

The blue and white armoured Clones with red sigils on their shoulders were now taking cover behind crates, LAATs, and parked medevac vehicles as hundreds of B 1 battle droids surfaced in the shallows. Their security detachment was just twelve Clones, lightly armed and primarily equipped to secure chemical spills or nuclear waste.

"Disregard, Indigo," Sey'les gasped. "I have visual on the clankers. All forces on the beach, withdraw to a safe position and take cover."

"Copied. Trying to comply," a panicked Clone voice stammered. "This is—Blast it. We're pinned down!"

E-5 blasterfire from the droids ripped the medical tent to shreds. One of the two parked RTT-04 ambulances smoked as its gleaming white and blue chassis was riddled with blasterfire.

"Lay laser fire on the clankers," Sey'les yelped to the pilot. "Hold back on the torpedoes."

"Yes Commander," the co-pilot and pilot responded in unison.

As the LAAT descended onto the beach, Sey'les stammered into the comm as quickly as she could. "Indigo, take cover. We're engaging the clankers, danger close!"

The droids who had advanced the furthest now stood on the sand, mindlessly shooting at the tents and vehicles from a closer vantagepoint. They ignored the LAAT until it was hovering right in front of them.

Sey'les thought she could hear one of the droids say uh oh right before the green laser beams sliced through him. The water steamed, boiling and shooting up hot geysers as the LAAT blasted away into the surface indiscriminately. Every droid which had its torso above the water was soon hit.

"What the kriff is going on?" Sey'les snarled to no one in particular, staring at the steaming water below. "Wulf," she growled into the comm, "any trouble on your end?"

"No ma'am," the Ardennian answered cheerily. "Pax's house is secure. Conducting a search action now."

"No clankers?"

"Uh, ma'am…" Wulf said uneasily, "the clankers were deactivated."

"Not all of them," Sey'les grunted.

Another group of droids was emerging from the waves. The LAAT began firing down again without Sey'les prompting them.

"Well, that's uh…" Wulf said uneasily. Just from his voice, Sey'les could hear he was shifting position, looking each way as he spoke into the comm.

"Just keep an eye out," Sey'les ordered. "Reporting this to Tarkin."

"Roger that," Wulf sighed.

o.o.o.o.o

Fen Kar'fon (CT-0099 'Buzz')

"Oh what a surprise," Tarkin said sarcastically into his wrist-comm.

Blasterfire from B 2 battle droids flew indiscriminately up the hallway, taking out chunks of the stairwell door behind the corner where Fen, Tarkin and the others were taking cover.

"Governor," Sey'les reported in an urgent tone, "B 1 battle droids are surfacing from the waves. Unable to ID their point of origin, but they keep coming."

"Muun Leader we have—" Tarkin started, then his voice died as an office ceiling tile fell down onto his grey-green helmet. "BLAST!" he yelled, tone changing to furious. "RETURN FIRE! WE AREN'T GOING TO MAKE IT ANY FURTHER STAYING IN COVER BACK HERE!"

"Actual, can you say again? I am sorry Governor, I missed that," Sey'les growled worriedly.

"I AM NOT TALKING TO YOU!" Tarkin screamed. "HOLD POSITION AND AWAIT FURTHER ORDERS! AM I UNDERSTOOD?!"

Fen swore under his breath before emerging from around the corner. He fired three shots into silver chestplate of the frontmost B 2, to no effect, then retreated back around the corner.

"Yes Governor," Sey'les's voice answered nervously. "We'll hold the line."

In other circumstances, Fen might have found Sey'les and Tarkin's interaction amusing. But as blasterfire continued flying down the hall, it became increasingly clear that the Admiral did not have a strategy to address the droids waking up all over the city.

"Governor," Fen yelled over the blasterfire, "we should loop around! Hit them—"

"I ORDERED YOU TO ADVANCE!" Tarkin yelled back, losing his temper further. "USE SMOKE GRENADES IF YOU MUST!"

"All right," Fen said to Mesh, Saul, and Cash, "smoke grenades." He turned across the hall to Miralo, Team Cresh, and the squad of regular 12th Army Clones. "Hold your fire while we advance. I don't want to get shot in the back."

"Understood," Miralo said, holding his blaster so loosely that it looked like he would drop it at any moment.

Fen took a deep breath as Mesh, Saul and Cash threw visual and infrared screening grenades. The thick mist of water vapour and metallic particles emanated into the air, decreasing visibility ahead to just a few centimeters while simultaneously reflecting any infrared scanning. Once the droids faded through the smoke on his own infrared HUD, he crouched into the hallway, trying as best he could to avoid the blasterfire.

o.o.o.o.o

Jazal

Aboard the C/LHC Sulooskid

"Huh," Jazal muttered to herself. A memory flashed into her mind. She could see the grey bridge in a distorted, telescopic vision. A blue-skinned Mon Calamari, the only one on the bridge, was typing furiously into a console.

"We can't ID Krataa. He's nowhere in our databanks. Locking his access code out."

"Good," the warbly disembodied voice of the captain croaked, both in Jazal's memory and also from the being right in front of her. "Good, how long until the droids have the fleet back up and running?"

"So you don't know how to then, Captain Skudack," Jazal muttered.

"No," the Mon Calamari replied, shaking his teary eyed head with an emphatic no.

"Scabus knows!" Jazal yelled yelled to the Clones.

The Clones stood there. Latch and Baller gave each other quizzical looks. "Scabus?"

"The blue one!"

"Ah," Baller replied, nodding in acknowledgement. "Good."

"Which one is the blue one?!" Jazal asked exasperatedly, reaching out to the seven fearful Mon Calamaris lined up against the wall.
"This one, General," Satchel said helpfully, grabbing a quaking Mon Calamari by the shoulder and dragging him to his feet.

"All right, Scabus," Jazal said reassuringly, reaching out to the Mon Calamari's face. "Just hold still and—"

"—Wait!" Scabus screamed, recoiling from the Miraluka's grip. "I'll do! I'll do it! Please Master Jedi, I am cooperating!"

"You weren't cooperating a second ago," Jazal noted through gritted teeth. "Do it! Deactivate the droids!"

As the Mon Calamari dropped into a chair and began frantically typing, Jazal could sense both fear and some level of deception.

"Scabus, whatever you are doing—"

"—You are the enforcer of an illegitimate regime!" Scabus screamed as Jazal and Satchel grabbed his arms, pulling him away from the terminal. "We only wanted to leave. Is that so much to ask for? The Republic will never get away with this!"

"No," Jazal muttered bitterly, gripping the Mon Calamari's head, forcing him to stare into her eyeless face. "Enough lives have been lost. Your little rebellion ends here."

As she forcibly reached into the Mon Calamari's mind, she grew angry with herself. She did not believe her own conviction. Jazal had been disgusted when the Republic attacked Geonosis, but if it was going to come to war, and if the war was going to drag on, ultimately she had to pick her people over theirs. The longer the droids remained active, the more likely it was those she cared about would be killed.