4 A.B.Y - Lothal System
After several hours the stars rushed back into view across the cockpit screen. The crisp planet of Lothal slowly encompassed the view as the T-6 shuttle turned to enter its orbit. The planet's long low mountains and golden grassy plains covered most of the surface. The spine tree forests were sparse and bordered its large freshwater seas. Several other freighter class starships and transport shuttles were being ferried down to the planet, dropping off shipments of merchandise and passengers. Ahsoka breathed a short sigh, almost relief, as she looked out over the familiar landscape.
"This is Lothal control, shuttle please identify for landing directives." The crackle of comm static filled the cabin. A pair of X-Wing fighters moved into escort positions on each side of the shuttle.
Sulahaan pressed the com button down, one set of his eyes looking over to where he stood.
"This is Lt. Crest with republic command, authorization codes being sent now."
Crest turned to the crew. "Complete landing procedures, when we land see about getting us some extra supplies. The rations are fine and dandy but a little extra never hurt. The ambassador and I will head down and do our inquiries. Double check the gimble, want to make sure it's in good order while we're somewhere we can fix it." Giz nodded while tapping away at her screen. Lindmon turned around and returned to the holotable where Ashoka was seated.
"So what's our contact here?" He walked over to a cabinet and pulled out a glass and a bottle of liquor. The vessels clinked against each other as the brown liquid poured out.
Ahsoka watched Lindmon take a few sips of his drink in the holo room. "Our contact is the Head of Security and Contingency Planning for Lothal. She was there when the Empire was driven out of Lothal and our Jedi disappeared."
Ahsoka rose from the table and walked over to the view port in the cockpit, the golden grassy plains quickly passing underneath the shuttle as the capital city came over the horizon. The tall clustered spires of the city were newly constructed, the polished metal reflected the bright sunlight and engulfed the city in a dreamlike glow.
Ahsoka looked over her shoulder at Lindmon from the cockpit, "I've already told her we are coming, we won't have to wait long." She finished with a smile.
"Good, I don't want to spend more time than we have to sitting around. The sooner we find this Jedi of yours the better for us and the Republic." He finished off his drink and set the glass down on the counter. "R3, you're with us. If we need data sent back in a flash I want you there." The small droid chirped several times and drove around in a tight circle. Excitement, one would gather. The shuttle set down on a small pad just inside the city walls. As the walkway extended and dropped, two rows of security officers stood to the sides. The woman standing at the end waited patiently for the small group to descend.
"You're lucky you called, I was about ready to leave without you." The women called out from the end of the rows of security officers, she started to approach the ramp of the shuttle waving off the security detail. "Alright! That's enough of the welcome party! Stocche get the flight deck operator, he should be out here already." On her command the rows of security snapped to attention together and fell out. Stocche, the aforementioned human guard, spoke into his comm device and after a few moments a portly flight deck officer ran out onto the pad to service the ship.
"It's been a long time." Ahsoka said from the bottom of the ramp alongside Lindmon and Reed. Lindmon noticed the distinctive Mandalorian armor immediately. The Empire had conscripted several groups of their clans into service and they proved their reputation as fearsome warriors. Her hair was cut short and artificially colored various shades of violet. Her armor was a tapestry of crimson, silver, and purple, the emblem of the Rebellion emblazoned on her right shoulder, and on the left some kind of creature surrounded by a burst of blue. A large duffel was strapped across her shoulder, the distinct outline of blaster rifles and other provisions poking up against the cloth.
She had a stern expression, no doubt from the years of being head of security and her Mandalorion heritage. In spite of that she gave Ahsoka a warm smile, "It has hasn't it..." She turned to Lindmon, inferring that he was the shuttle's officer, and introduced herself "Sabine. Come on, I'll show you what I've got so far." She said motioning back inside the shuttle, "I'm guessing that Ahsoka hasn't told you much so far, she never does. Always so mysterious." Sabine said teasingly as she passed by Ahsoka.
Lindmon watched as Sabine plowed past them and into the T-6. He looked at Ahsoka who shrugged and followed her.
"She hasn't, I assumed that was protocol. You sure are packed up, If at all possible we would like some extra provisions and my mechanic is taking a look at some maintenance concerns if she could get some help from..." He looked over at the operator who was breathing heavy onto his datapad. "The more time we can spend on the trail the less time we have to lose it." He finished. A gentle breeze sent the waves of tall grass cascading about. "Looks like a pretty tight ship for an outlying planet. I will make sure to make note of that. R3, make a note of that." He said, tapping the droid on the dome. The droid chirped and beeped before making a strange, almost grinding, noise. A small slip of paper, presumably the note, slid out of a small port and floated harmlessly into the breeze.
Sabine glanced at Lindmon as she walked toward the holoprojector, unceremoniously dumping her bag and placing her helmet on the table. "Thanks, it's an outlier for sure but I had to make sure the Empire wasn't able to come back and take it. We've lost too much for that to happen." After a heavy pause she returned to her work, removing several data cards from the bag and flipping them over quickly to see a crude label scrawled across it before tossing them back inside. She rifled through the bag like that for a few moments before shouting a quick exclamation as she pulled out another. "This is the most recent one."
Sabine slid the datacard into the terminal and the table projected a bright blue holo image of Lothal across the room, it slowly shrunk in size and then a small red triangle blinked over an area designated as Capital City. With a press of a button the triangle accelerated out of view leaving a dotted red line denoting it's path. "We were able to get a general heading of his last known hyperspace trajectory." Sabine narrated, pointing across the screen along the dotted red line, "During the war there weren't many analysts to go around. It took some time but going off of this bearing we were able to narrow the possible locations they could have ended up." With another button press the image zoomed quickly out, now displaying a large portion of the galaxy and the entirety of the Unknown Region. The dotted red line started from Lothal, on the fringes of the Outer Rim, and slashed through the dark patch of the galaxy map indicating the Unknown Region. "I tried to take the Star Destroyer's mass into account, and how much it would be thrown off course from various black holes and other anomalies. It's not a perfect calculation but it's all I've got so far." The holoprojection expanded the dotted red line, filling about five percent of the Unknown Region.
Ahsoka stepped forward to investigate the projection, "Not having a full map of the region makes it hard to determine where they could have emerged from." She said simply. "It was almost five years ago...maybe we should work on a projection for planetary movement since then?"
Sabine didn't say anything in response to this. She silently pressed the holotable and hung her head. The galaxy projection shifted slowly across the room, the tiny specs of planets hurtling around their designated stars as it rotated. Outwardly from Lothal, hundreds of stars started to blink into a green color, stopping as they reached the end of known space at the border of the Unknown Region.
The projection stopped rotating in its simulation. Sabine didn't raise her head, she had seen this a dozen times already. She only glared at the floor, biting her lower lip in frustration.
The dotted line that once covered five percent in a red triangle across the Unknown Region, had since grown to fifteen percent.
An impossible task.
Lindmon studied the map as it zoomed out. He staggered a moment when he saw the size of their search area. "This is the best we can get? That's a huge swath of space, no telling how many habitable planets there are in there. And we're looking for one person? Four months of rations is not going to do us any good." He stood a moment, aghast. He placed his hand out and pulled the image closer.
Keeping her eyes on the daunting image of the holo map, Ahsoka walked around the table, inspecting it carefully. "I think making the best of what we have for now can give us a good starting point, Lieutenant. We will have to come up with alternative ways to narrow this search."
Lindmon zoomed the map in closer, to the edge of the search area. "The path seems to come directly into this small cluster here, we could start there I suppose. Maybe request some recon droids to throw some eyes out? I'm not sure, this is really not the most prime information." He tapped on the holo and it highlighted a small red star.
Looking up to see which area Lindmon indicated, Sabine responded "There's pirates in that sector. They cling to the border and raid any smugglers and explorers that get pulled out of hyperspace from the nebula here." She encircled a portion of the map with her finger, around the red dot that Lindmon pointed out. "I'm not sure how the Chimaera made it through, maybe it was just big enough to not be affected by the nebula. I'm not sure, but I've lost several X-wings trying to figure out what was in this region. They have at least a few frigates in the area, maybe more."
"The Chimaera? What sort of ship are we talking here" Lindmon moved the map again, pressing a few buttons on the console to bring up hazards. A large swath of the map blinked red, showing clouds of debris and magnetic spikes. Other sections blinked blue indicating unknown space where sensors hadn't been able to pick up anything. A couple more button presses brought up a map of possible habitable planets. "The trajectory may have brought it here... XP325-232...we really don't have any info this far out do we..." He sighed.
With a press of a button the map disappeared and the holotable projected the image of a massive Imperial-1 Class Star Destroyer. Engraved on the underside of the battleship was the massive image of a two headed Chimaera, it's necks twisting up to the tip of the ship.
"This is the Chimaera." Sabine replied, "Grand Admiral Thrawn used it as his flagship to rip the Rebellion apart in our early days." Her tone was icy, as if just speaking his name would cause him to somehow reappear. She crossed her arms and looked at Lindmon seriously. "If Ezra didn't surrender himself, and force Thrawn's fleet into hyperspace, not only would Lothal be destroyed. So would the Rebellion."
"Has this Thrawn made any appearances since then?" Ahsoka asked.
"Not that I know of. I think if he had we'd all still be waving the Imperial flag."
Lindmon ribbed his temples, turning slightly towards Ahsoka. "Ambassador? I leave the call to you. Normally with a squadron we could handle some pirates but the T6 is only hooked up with a couple of laser cannons. She's not made for combat."
Ahsoka turned to Lindmon and spoke softly, "We can try to set up a manual hyperspace route to XP325-232. Now that Lothal is secure, we can take a longer path around to avoid the pirates at the border nebula. It may take some time, but it may be a good point to start. From there, we'll have to see where the Force will guide us."
Lindmon pressed a button causing the display to dissipate. "I will get Giz working on a path. Hopefully won't take longer than an hour, maybe two. It would seem you're packed to accompany us. I'm not sure if we have the cot space, but if there's an extra rack you are welcome to it." He turned around and headed towards the cockpit, returning a moment later. "According to her, finding a new route won't be the problem. Skirting around that nest is going to take us at least a couple days worth of extra travel." He moved back over to the cabinet and poured himself another small glass. "Either of you care for a drink? I made sure to bring my own collection along."
"I'll join you, only if you've got a drink that'll knock a bantha's fur off!" Sabine replied enthusiastically, grateful for the change of topic. She plucked the data card out of the holo terminal and stashed it back in her pack.
Ahsoka politely bowed and excused herself, moving up to crew's quarters to meditate on the journey to come.
Sabine stepped up to Lindmon and took the offered glass of Antakarian Fire Dancer. She took a large swing of the potent drink, refraining from drinking it all at once due to it's unexpectedly strong smell. Her eyes shifted from the drink and onto the Lieutenant. "So how did you end up on this mission? When Ahsoka called me I didn't realize there was going to be a full crew." Sabine said, gesturing towards him.
"I'm not entirely certain. I have a history with piloting fighters, spent some time working in some classified projects when I was with the Empire. I suppose the hush hush nature of my past work made something like this, where maintaining secrecy is so important, a desirable choice. I only just picked up Lieutenant a couple weeks ago." He took a swig of his own drink, motioning towards the crew quarters. "You and the ambassador seem close. Anything you can tell me there? She's been all business since we boarded. Spends a lot of time in the crew cabins napping, or something to that effect." He shifted over to the bench by the table and took a seat, setting his drink down.
"Meditating most likely. Jedi seem to do that a lot, but I guess Ahsoka isn't really a Jedi, not anymore. That's what she says anyway, she's always helped us though, especially in the early days of the Rebellion." Sabine paused to take another sip of the drink, "She's a good friend."
Sabine jolted suddenly and she looked at Lindmon abashedly, "I'm sorry!" Embarrassment and drink flushing her face. "I guess I got so caught up in the mission details I didn't get your name."
Lindmon chuckled. "Lindmon Crest. A pleasure to have you aboard. Although, if you wanted to come you could have simply put in a request." He said with a laugh. "A Jedi thing huh? I suppose a good thing to have for tracking down a Jedi, is another. Would have been helpful to have known that previously. My report didn't say anything about that past." He tapped the holotable and the projection coalesced. He studied it half-heartedly, taking another sip of his drink.
"That kind of information is something we both want to keep hidden. I've given over the security detail for Lothal, but on paper I'm still there. We may have won a few battles against the Empire and defeated their leadership but they're still a threat." Sabine sighed and finished her liquor, "Lothal has great natural resources, the Empire used it to build factories for the elite TIE Defender project years ago. I don't want them thinking there's some opening they can exploit."
Sabine grabbed the bottle of Antakarian Fire Dancer and poured another glassful. "Being a Jedi, even an Ex-Jedi, can make you a lot of enemies. Some you can't prepare for. It's better for her to be cautious." She set the bottle back in its cabinet and left the shuttle bar, walking over to Lindmon at the holotable "What is this?" She asked Lindmon simply, pointing at the projection.
"I find staring lackadaisically at things often helps me figure out what I'm trying to figure out. Whatever feels right. Hasn't steered me wrong yet. So, I'm just blankly looking at the star map and waiting to see if something jumps out at me." He said offhandedly, sipping his drink again. An excited chitter emanated from the cockpit, quickly followed by Reed. He beeped a couple of times, followed by more electronic chattering.
"Got is a decent heading so we can get started L-T, will keep working on the manual lanes." Giz called out from the cockpit.
After that the T-6 shuttle lifted off from the landing pad near Lothal's capital city. Flying away from the gleaming white towers and up into the planet's atmosphere, leaving the spine tree forests and golden plains far below. Once the shuttle was far enough past the traffic above the planet the X-Wing escorts broke off, wishing Lieutenant Crest a good journey.
The first day of hyperspace travel remained pleasantly quiet, there was some idle chatter amongst the crew but otherwise it was uneventful.
The morning of the second day, right before the crew were to break through the border of the Unknown Regions, the holotable blinked and beeped in a low trilling tone. An incoming message. Lindmon activated the call and the image of Admiral Cest Sev'esa formed above it, his demeanor was calmer and more measured than the last meeting aboard the Blue Diver.
"Lieutenant." Sev'esa said briskly, "I'd like an initial report on your progress with this witch-hunt. I have some updates on command intentions as well."
Lindmon popped off a salute as the admiral came on. R3 rolled up next to him. "Of course, Sir, we're currently enroute to a planet just inside the unknown region, we had to take a longer route to avoid some unpleasantness. We received what intel was available from the chief security officer on Lothal, details of which I will have R3 foreword to you. The planet in question is a habitable planet that is, so far as recent scans can tell us, mostly islands. No current information about locals to report. I will also have R3 route you the data from the trajectory, to have it analyzed and give us possible lanes of travel and viable planets." R3 chirped several times before shifting to the holotable and plugging himself into it.
Admiral Cest Sev'esa nodded half-heartedly as he listened to Lindmon. Reading the transmitted report R3 uploaded on his datapad. "Right... I'll make a request for our spies in the region to send some of their navigational routes back to New Republic hands if at all possible."
Normal procedure for many spies would be to dump the nav logs after every few jumps, in case of capture or remote hacking of their ship computer.
"Mmm, this is the general route you're using as the basis of your search? It's quite large, which is good in fact." He said with more aplomb than was present in his previous musings. "I'm assigning a secondary directive to you and your crew. In my opinion, it's the only reason you're going out there at all, not to waste time looking for someone who should've been declared dead years ago." Sev'esa said, his normal grumpiness returning to his voice.
"We're getting an increasing amount of reports that the Empire is retreating into the Unknown Region, and I don't like it. I want to know what they're up to in there. We have other spies in the Unknown Region, but if we can work around where you are searching we can cover more ground. I want to know who's leading them, where they're massing their fleets, what kind of influence they're gaining among the planets in the region, if they have Star Destroyer factories." He counted off his fingers to emphasize his points. "Anything you find that can help the New Republic push the Empire out of the galaxy entirely."
"Aye Sir, we'll keep our eyes open for any Empire activities. Last I heard they didn't have plans for construction, maybe an outpost at most. Perhaps they are trying to reopen lanes with the Chiss. We will do what we can to expand our search parameters to fill that role. I will make sure we send regular reports, likely through Lothal. We aren't sure how the hazards out here are going to affect communications, so we'll do the best we can." As the conversation began to come to a close Giz entered from the cockpit.
"L-T, we're coming out of hyperspace in a couple of minutes near 325. We need a better name than that. Anyways, she should be in view for scans within the hour."
Lindmon nodded and returned to the Admiral. "Sounds like it's showtime Sir. I will get you a report once we finish looking into this lead."
"Very good Lieutenant Crest. Your dedication to the New Republic's priorities is commendable." Admiral Sev'esa said, switching off the holotable. "I'm looking forward to your findings." The holo image of Admiral Cest Sev'esa then quickly winked out of existence.
When Lieutenant Crest finished the conference with Sev'esa he joined the rest of the crew of the shuttle in the cockpit. Suhlahaan quietly sat in the pilot's seat, occasionally smacking his thick jowls each time he glanced at the navigational computer. In the copilots' seat, Giz clasped a set of earphones to her ears with her small hands, eyes closed in concentration, listening for any comms noise that might present itself before they exited the jump. The slightest bit of forewarning to danger can be the difference between life and death out in the unknown.
Sabine leaned on the back wall, the thin short distance jetpack keeping her from being up against it completely. She stared out into the hyperspace tunnel through the viewport. Since Lindmon had met her, Sabine had been self-assured and stoic, and even though her face remained impassive he could almost feel the anxiousness coming off her in waves. The prospect of finally being able to find her long lost friend was enough to stir the emotions of the hardened Mandalorian warrior.
Ahsoka sat on one of the rear chairs in the cockpit, her face calm and serene. She smiled at Lindmon as he stood next to her. A veteran of the clone wars, who at the end watched her order burn around her, it's Republic replaced by the Galactic Empire at the hands of her old master, had turned her emotions into cold durasteel. During the time of the Rebellion she charged herself against the Emperor, preventing him from dominating the galaxy with the twisted energies of the Force. Now that he was defeated, Ahsoka was determined to find the secrets of the Force that lie hidden in the darkness.