Chapter 11
Dressed as factory workers Ben and Jysella follow the crowd down the brown colored hallways. Ben looks around furtively, seeing nothing but that great see of brown, the brown walls, the brown ceiling, the brown flooring, and everyone wearing identical brown jumpsuits with brown cloaks.
Dropping his gaze once again, Ben wonders about the utterly depressing color scheme. Then they are at the entrance way to the factory, and swiping their badges gaining entrance. Once in, they continue following the crowd going deeper into the planet's crust, until they come to a huge room, filled with various equipment used in the construction of various types of armaments.
Ben suppresses the desire to whistle, as he sees the thousands of people all silently working to build weapons, everything from blasters and vibroblades to proton torpedoes. Once more walking down the hallway, Ben spies a room off to the side, and quickly ducks within it.
Jysella enters a few moments after him, and mutters a curse as she looks around the room. Ben finally looks at the crates stacked in neat precise rows, and mutters the same curse. For each crate is clearly labeled as containing twenty thousand thermal detonators.
And from where Ben is standing, he easily sees a hundred crates.
Working quickly, he pulls out his communicator and thumbs it on, trying to hail the Jedi Temple. Instead he gets a response on a military frequency.
"This is Gavin Darklighter commanding the Viscount, is this Jedi Skywalker?"
"Yes, this is Jedi Skywalker, I have found a rather large munitions operation on Adumar, and Jedi Horn and myself have become," Ben pauses here for a second, thinking of an appropriate phrase. "Well, we've become wanted felons by the government because we were looking into this."
To his surprise Gavin laughs. "I see the both of you have too much of your parents in you. Okay, we're enr-"
Then the signal cuts out, and Ben frowns at the com unit. A tingling in the Force and Ben yanks out his saber, just as four guards burst into the room with blastswords drawn and activated. Two guards steps towards each of them, and the two Jedi ignite their sabers, and go on the offensive.
Ben dives between his two, and slices at the sword of one, and leans into a punch to the jaw for the other. Smiling as he hears the clatter of a chunk of the sword fall to the ground, Ben twirls around, and plants an elbow in that man's face. Then he brings his saber up, and deftly disarms the second guard. At the guard's scream of pain, Ben looks down and notices that he had chopped of his entire arm.
"Oops."
Jysella looks up from where she had quickly rendered her two unconscious. "What?"
Ben leans down, and pushes a Force compulsion into the man to sleep, and then drops him into a healing trance. "I accidentally cut this man's arm off."
Jysella steps closer to Ben, looking down at the sleeping man, who was still holding his arm to his chest. "You know he's not a Skywalker, he didn't have to sacrifice a part of his arm."
Ben laughs and leans over to kiss Jysella on the cheek. "Come on, let's get out of here."
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Gavin frowns as the com goes down with a burst of static. He turns towards the communications officer. "Ensign, what happened to the signal?"
Ensign Sliah looks up from his station. "It's being jammed sir."
Gavin nods his head slightly. "Helm, plot us a course for Adumar, best possible speed." Then he reaches over and punches a button on his command station. "Commander de Hanadi, you are green to go as soon as we reach the system. Expect hostiles in the form of Blade-32's and Blade-33's."
He can hear the pinched pain in her voice. "Aye sir."
Then with a jolt, the Viscount jumps into hyperspace, as her crew begins to ready themselves for the upcoming battle. With a flicker of pseudo-motion, the Viscount and her tenders find themselves circling the planet Adumar, as he watches he can see a bulk cruiser to the starboard unloading her fighters.
Ensign Sliah's voice attracts his attention. "Sir, I have a communication from the Perator of Adumar."
Gavin nods his head. "Put it on the con, Ensign."
"Aye sir."
Gavin sits down and finds himself looking at the image of a dark-haired middle-aged man. One who is visibly angry. "Can I ask what you are doing in the Adumar system, deploying fighters?"
Gavin smiles at the man. "You have been found in violations of the Military Procurement and Nationalization Act. As a duly-empowered representative of the Galactic Federation, I hereby insist that all weapons manufacturing facilities be turned over to me."
"This is an outrage! We will protest in the Senate."
"That's fine Perator." And then he cuts the signal.
The officer sitting at the sensors station suddenly speaks loud enough for all on the bridge to hear. "Incoming enemy fighters, current readings indicate thirty-six, repeat three six, blade thirty-three craft, and seventy-eight, repeat seven eight, blade twenty-twos."
Gavin frowns, having not expected quite that many fighters. He flips on the com, and sets the signal to the all-fighters channel. "All starfighters this is Admiral Darklighter, you are free to engage the enemy at will."
He flips off the com, and then turns his attention to the tactical data, watching as the little dots of light which represents the lives of the men and women under his command mingle with the dots of lights of the planetary defenders. As lights begin to extinguish from both sides of the fight, he once again finds himself wondering about the rightness of this mission. If the blood shed by those pilots is really worth that law, and that government.
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Cheriss ke Hanadi launches from the hanger of the Viscount, Twin Suns squadron lining up behind her, with two more squadrons from the Viscount lining up behind that. She frowns slightly as the Viscount announces their odds, and then pushes that from her mind, focusing only on the battle ahead.
"Okay Twin Suns, we have the enemy incoming, stick close to your wingman and we'll see you when this is over."
Eleven com clicks confirm to her that her squadron is ready for the battle ahead, and she speaks the final, traditional words. "Lock s-foils in attack position, and may the Force be with you."
Then she pushes the confusion and worries and problems from her mind and gives herself over to the dance. Swinging her craft around, she locks onto the first blade and starts firing her laser canons, part of her heart tearing as the craft shreds under her sustained blast.
Rolling away from the explosion, she searches for the next one of her countryman to come against her, the next one of her countrymen that will be her next kill. Finding it, she dives against the blade that is on the tail of Twin Suns 4, her lasers shredding the engines of the blade, causing it to pull up and away from the battle.
She reaches up and wipes away a tear that escapes as she considers what she's doing.
She doesn't know why she's here. She doesn't know what she is fighting for.
She doesn't believe in it. It is no longer the same thing which she joined while following after Wedge Antilles.
She switches to the general command frequency. "Twin Suns, return to the Viscount and stand down."
She smiles as she hears the eleven com clicks, and her squadron disengages from the fights and begins landing on the Viscount.
Then the call that she had been dreading comes in. Gavn Darklighter is on her personal command frequency. "Chreiss what do you think you're doing?"
She can once more feel some tears. "I'm sorry Gavin, I can't do this anymore, leave Adumari space immediately; I resign my commission."
She can feel the frustration in his voice. "This will be viewed as treason Cheriss."
"That doesn't matter anymore Gavin. The government I cared for, the government I, we, served, it doesn't exist anymore; now please either join me or leave before I have to fire upon you."
Gavin's voice is sad and filled with pain. "I can't do that Cheriss, I have my orders."
She banks her fighter away, her tears starting to flow once more, as Twin Suns once more launches.