The next evening, the Sister was on her way to meet Grievous. Thankfully for her, they had finished their negotiations by the given deadline and she didn't have to worry about them anymore. Everybody lived.
As her ship flew through hyperspace, the Sister reflected on the whole experience. She took off her mask again and massaged her lekku as she thought. It was so different from all of her past experiences with politicians. Her biggest tool was their fear of her, and she was free to use it. She could scare them into being productive, and Darth Sideous wouldn't think any less of her for it. Kriff, he had even told her to do so. The Sith, and the Separatists as a whole, didn't care how a job was done, so long as it was done.
Maybe she could capitalize on that.
She thought long and hard on the matter, weighing and calculating how the blind eye of the Separatists to her advantage. She did, after all, have her own agenda. It just so happened that the easiest way to make her agenda work was by teaming up with the Sith.
At least she wouldn't see them for a while, at least not in person. She had received her orders to meet General Grievous near the Christophsis system from Darth Sideous, who had again cloaked himself in the guise of Chancellor Palpatine. They would be working together for the next few rotations to try and take a Republic base, but there was a hidden mission within the blatant one. The private goal that Palpatine had given her was to create as much tension and confusion in any Jedi that was sent on the mission. He had doubted that the Council would send Skywalker again, but he argued that she could still create problems for whoever was sent.
She jumped out of hyperspace and sent her landing codes to the Separatist cruiser that was waiting there. They went through the system quickly, and the droids let her know which hangar to go to. Readjusting her mask for the final time, she began the landing sequence. She didn't bother to activate her face shield since the only people on the ship weren't really people, but droids and a cyborg.
She walked through the hangar, looking around. The Sister had been on these ships before but this was the first time that neither Sideous nor Tyrannus were breathing down her neck. She took the opportunity to look around without being hurried on.
It wasn't all that big, especially compared to many of the other hangars she had been in before, but it made sense. Not many ships came on or off the cruiser, and the droids could be compacted when not in use. They didn't need much room for droids, which was why the Republic cruisers always had bigger hangars and storage units. Clones were nice, but they required all of the same resources that civilians did. Droids did not.
The Sister found herself comparing the Separatist ship to Republic ships in other ways. All of the fighters were, again, droids, but they were very crudely built and had no fine details save for their weapons. Tanks were not built to be safe or blast-resistant, but powerful and easy to produce. It was a trend in the Separatist Alliance, mass production. If it can be replaced easily, it didn't have to be quality, although it helped. Therefore, the tanks, while small and ugly and easily damaged, were also armed with powerful cannons, and plenty in quantity.
It was good she wouldn't be in those tanks, the Sister thought. If she had read between the lines correctly she would be doing more work behind the scenes than on the battlefield.
When she had gotten her fill of the hangar, she turned and made her way to the bridge. Grievous would be waiting for her there, she knew. As she approached the elevator that would bring her up to the room, she was met by a pair of battle droids standing guard.
"The Inquisitor, oh good," said one of the droids. "The general has been expecting you."
"Is he ready for me now?" She asked, stopping in front of them.
"Roger roger," the other responded. They opened the doors, and the Sister stepped in the elevator and rode up.
She had no ounce of affection for those droids. In her early days, the droids annoyed her to no end. She used to belittle the Separatists about how annoying their 'useless robots' were, but that was before she had even dreamed of allying with them. Now she suffered from the dumb droids as much as the rest of them. It was almost enough to make her go back to the Republic. Almost.
The elevator slowed to a stop and opened, and the Sister stepped out. Grievous was paying attention to some screen next to him and didn't see her come in, so she walked up next to him and waited for him to turn around.
Being a cyborg, he hadn't really been scared when the Togruta seemed to teleport to his side, but it did take his processors a second to kick in. "Ah, Sister, you're here. I didn't think you would get here so soon."
"I almost had to make a detour," she commented. "The Vancorians almost didn't meet their deadline."
"I see," the cyborg, not really caring. "Come, we've already started the preparations." He coughed as he led her to a hologram projector in the center of the bridge walkway. He activated it, and the Sister looked it over.
It was another map, this time of Christophsis. This section of the planet showed a very secure and stable Republic base. This one had been there almost since the very beginning. The Separatists had failed to ever take this base, or this system, for that matter. If they succeeded in the next few rotations, it would be a landmark victory for the Separatist Alliance. It would also look very good on both Grievous' and the Sister's record, so they were both eager to defeat the Republic.
"We are going to drop tanks here," said the cyborg, pointing to an exposed road that was just large enough for two tanks to hover side by side. "I will be leading this charge. I'm going to guess that twenty tanks will be enough to overrun the clone forces."
"I would take more, General," the Sister warned. "I would take all of them."
"Why do you say that?" He turned to her, his tone harsh. "Twenty is a lot of tanks, but thirty is...excessive."
The Sister could tell that he felt insulted by her lack of faith, but she did not waver from her point. "It's just a recommendation, but I used to fight for the Republic. Our tanks are powerful, but they get destroyed easily. The more you drop here," she pointed to the drop zone, then drew her finger to the entry point of the Republic base, "the more will make it here."
Grievous brought his robotic fingers to his metal chin. "It's true," he mused. "The tanks don't last long. I've been meaning to bring it up with Darth Sideous for some time now."
"Well, it's too late to get new tanks, but we might as well use the ones we have." She turned to face the general. "They'll be replaced, anyways."
Grievous turned away from the small Togruta. He didn't like the idea of taking advice from a child, but she had a fair point. Everyone knew that Separatist tanks were easily destroyed. Even battle droids were reluctant to man tanks, nowadays. If the Republicans knew it too, there was no point in trying to pretend otherwise.
"I will tell the droids to prepare all of the tanks, then." He succumbed to her advice. "Besides, I'd rather not take chances on this mission."
"What is my role?" She asked, spinning the hologram so she could see all sides of the base.
"You will be sneaking in from behind," he explained, stopping the rotating image and zooming in on a hidden door. "You can make your own arrangements for getting there, but you will be distracting the Jedi while we take care of the clones."
"Perfect," she said, smiling mischievously. "I need someone to take out my anger on. Politics tend to irritate me."
"Darth Sideous will be informing us soon about who will be on duty when we attack," he commented, "but we haven't heard anything yet."
"He will tell us soon," she told him, waving off his concern. "At any rate, it doesn't matter who the Jedi send."
"We are planning to attack in thirty-two hours. Do whatever you need to prepare before then," he instructed her, before turning away to return to the rest of the ship. "I will be in the military hangar."
"Yes, General," she said, watching him leave.
Grievous took three steps, then he turned around and looked at her. "You never told me you used to work for the Republic."
A sour expression contorted the Sister's face. "Don't remind me." She turned back to the hologram and spun it again. Behind her, she heard the elevator seal, and soon, the machine whirred, and Grievous was gone.
She stared a few seconds longer at the map of Christophsis, then deactivated the projector. She didn't need the map. She already knew the layout of the base perfectly. How could she not?