Chapter 5: The Pursuit
The Present
Maz walked down a dirt path, winding around the short hills and through grassy fields, The trees swayed to the mysterious creatures' song. As the bright suns cast their light on the green forest floor. The trees protruded shadows on rocks, grass and dirt everywhere creating a bright but subtle ambient. Maz always had appreciated the forest, making use of it, finding joy in it, using it for cover. Maz would never want to live on any other planet, well, Takodana is the only planet she's ever lived on, and by that, she means stay. Maz has gone on plenty trips to various systems, establishing connections, traveling for the fun of it, and, back in the old days, doing pirate business.
Maz finally reached the small plateau of a hill and quickly found the power converter box, this place was one of few that could produce mass amounts of energy and fuel her ship, the Valley 1.
Maz slipped a backpack off her shoulders and unzipped it to see a shiny red, metal box, She unlatched it and snatched a silver tool out of it, she pried open the converters large panel, and started to rerouted the systems, making them restart and shut down its power signature, With that checked up one, Maz turned her attention to a large antenna, propped by a solid block of concrete.
The plateau, Maz called it, was her favorite place to hang out and tinker, so she built a few metal benches, and a little open building for if it was raining. Few grates ran along the outside of the long slabs of concrete, the ventilation system had helped Maz exit compost or used energy, which was turned to steam, into the forest. With that set up, it helped more trees grow and fertilize the land.
With everything running Maz closed her tool box, stuffed it into her bag and started towards the castle. Maz followed the twisted trail down to a small field surrounded by more forest. There lay the Valley 1, Maz's pirate freighter. At the sight of her ship, Maz bubbled with excitement flying Valley 1 again, trying to make a change, despite her hate for politics. Maz had left her droid Emmie, back at the castle to take care of while she was gone.
Valley 1 was one of a kind, with a sleek orange trim, and a solid gray finish, the ship looked good. Maz's ship was a long skinny ship on it's side, with rear automatic cannons and a whole lot of firepower. Maz's ship was meant for battles and getting in and out of places quickly, perfect for what she was getting herself into. Maz pressed a few buttons on the ship, and the middle of the ship opened up, the hatch door ramp swung down to the forest floor, supported by two orange bars that held it in place. Maz walked up the ramp and looked around through the interior of the old freighter, buttons lined the walls, Maz even had a starmap table filled with planets from all systems in the center of the long ship. Maz brushed past her controls and into her cockpit, flipping switches and setting coordinates to the ship, she slid into her seat, and put on her headset.
"Here we go." Maz said, lifting off the ground and watching the trees fly by while leaving the atmosphere. "Set course for Ryloth." Maz's ship zoomed forward into the stars, now feeling comfortable in her ship again. Maz grabbed a lever and pulled back, taking Valley 1 into hyperspace. Maz left her seat after turning auto-pilot on, heading to the other side of the ship to start scrambling the ship's signature. Unfortunately Ryloth was not as hidden as Hondo had suggested, and under Imperial security. A whole blockade of star destroyers had recently formed over Ryloth, making the whole operation more difficult.
Ludrik had been expecting her after their holovid conversation before she left Takodana, Ludrik had successfully gone through the blockade with a fake transmission code a few days ago, leaving Maz to meet up with him at a cantina.
After Maz scrambled the ship's signature, she headed back to the ship's cockpit, and got ready to emerge from hyperspace. The swirling blue vortex ceased, and the ship came out of hyperspace. Three star destroyers hovered around the desert planet, right in front of her.
"V1-4189, we have a visual." The star destroyers operator boomed.
Maz's heart raced, hoping the codes she would transmit were enough to pass through the blockade.
"V1-4189, we need your clearance codes." The voice transmitted through Maz's ship.
Maz scrambled to get the codes ready, toppling a few things over in order to send her clearance number. Only a select amount of people could get past the blockade and land on Ryloth, especially people who aren't originally from Ryloth. Mostly it was business that brought you to Ryloth when you were not from there, and that was her cover.
"V1-4189, we need your clearance codes, now." The operator repeated, this time more stern.
"Here we go." Maz whispered. "Resurgent-class Star Destroyer, sending clearance codes now." Maz waited clenching her fists, praying that it would be enough for her at least to get on the planet.
"You must also state your business here on Ryloth." The operator added.
"Yes, I am delivering a set of ore and other resources to the capital city of Lessu."
"We need to know which material."
"Corax."
"V1-4189," the man on the comm paused, "you are free to land."
Maz let out a breath of relief, and responded, "What docking bay?"
"Docking bay 23, sector 2."
Maz closed the comm channel and looked up at the wide planet stretching, ever so slightly bigger, as she entered Ryloth's atmosphere. Ryloth was a vast planet, it had a bit of everything, large mountains, large forests, huge cities. But what really intrigued Maz was the oppression, twi'leks and other species lined the streets, hungry; of course, they were nothing more than specks from Maz's view, but it still felt like a weight on her chest.
As she zoomed past a few cities of Ryloth she arrived at Lessu. Buildings surrounded the tall mountain, creating a majestic feel to the city. She needed to meet Ludrik at a nearby Cantina, he had said it was relatively quiet, and they would fit in; for the most part.
Ludrik had still insisted on doing it alone, and was quite surprised when Maz offered to help. The pirate queen, trying to find an old senator rumored to be dead,Ludrik had thought. Ever since the destruction of Alderaan, many said he died in the events, luckily, his daughter had not been on the planet at the time, like she was supposed to.
Maz also had wandering doubts about Ludrik, how does he know Bail? Has he been part of the rebellion all along? Why am I here? Maz stopped on her last internal question. Why am I here? Her subconscious thoughts floated over that question. Why was she here? To help? To get answers? For what? Maz decided to conclude her thoughts and focused on pilioting.
Eventually Maz reached her designated docking bay, and headed towards the city's cantina. Maz walked through the doors, and looked around at the "empty cantina's" tables. Ludrik was very wrong. It was filled with people. Maz sighed, and found Ludrik in a corner sipping a Dingleberry shake. Ludrik. Always drinking something exotic.
"Hey." Ludrik said casually.
"Ludrik." Maz returned.
"Well, you're here." Ludrik acknowledged. "Why?"
"I've told you about this on the holocall."
"I know." Ludirk paused. "But still. You didn't have to come here. This is something I can do alone."
"Ludrik. Do you even know what you're up against?"
Rhetorical.
"I have seen the rise and fall of many generations, the beginning of the Sith, the start of the republic. I've lived in ancient times. Ludrik. I'm old."
Ludrik chuckled.
"I've hidden from my beliefs, when I should have been fighting." Maz said.
Ludrik nodded, "come on, let's go talk in a more private space."
The two walked over to a corner, where the fewest people were. "So, where are you staying."
"Don't know yet, just got here."
"Well, make sure you get a place soon, presumably on the outermost properties. Also, I just got a few cheap speeders, we'll need a fast ride and an easy way to get where we need to go."
Maz reckoned it would be good to have a few vehicles, whether for escape or maneuverability.
"Anyway." Ludrik continued. "We'll set out tomorrow, I have a few people who'll have some information on where we can start."
"So what is your plan?"
"I told you, tomorrow mor-" Ludrik started.
"I mean after, what do you even have to start?" Maz interrupted.
"Well, Hondo had mentioned where he would most likely be."
"How much did you pay him?" Maz said cautiously.
"A couple thousand credits."
"I thought so." Maz murmured.
Ludrik stared at Maz, confused. Did I do something wrong? Ludrik thought. "Is that a problem?"
"It's just, Hondo has been acting mighty helpful lately, odd. And with the amount of credits you gave him, don't be surprised if Hondo lied about the place, location, people." Maz admitted.
Ludrik blushed. "You know what, I like those odds. It's important to me, to find him." Ludrik said aggressively.
"I know, I know." Maz calmly. "So we'll start tomorrow, get some more information, and hop from city to city in hope to find him?"
"Oh, there's more than that to it."
Maz looked blanked faced.
"You said you were ready to fight." Ludrik stated.
"Yeah…" Maz trailed off.
"Well, the empire has records, tons of them. There are many imperial strongholds on this planet. Many."
Maz didn't like where this was going.
"Several Imperial records are stored in these strongholds, and I know people who have blueprints of one of them."
"You don't know them do you?"
"Well, locals. We need to find Bail, we need to. We will break into Twilight Rock and steal their records on all Core Worlds political figures. These records will have information including their estimated location, their aliases, and imperial activity. Specifically, we'll find the records of Bail Organa."
Maz nodded. This might just work.