Warning: The beginning of this chapter may contain some boring material, however the author advises you to read it as it is vital to future events to take place, this in no way indicates that future events implied in the beginning of this chapter will take place (though most likely they will happen) but simply implies that they might possibly take place. Also I would like to thank Darth Gladiator45 for beta reading this chapter since I am not so good at correcting myself, I felt since this chapter is so pivotal it should also have the best mechanics possible (when I say mechanics I mean punctuation and whatnot.) Enjoy.
Chapter 8: The Insignificant Hand
Yavin IV
Anakin was probably one of the last to step into the large auditorium room of the Rebel Alliance's secret base. Solders and high-ranking Alliances officials occupied rows of chairs alike. Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, and Admiral Ackbar all sat on seats on the stage around a large holo-projector, they conversed with one another silently, or maybe they were speaking audibly, no one would be able to tell since the room buzzed with the dull roar of voices. Anakin treaded down the central aisle between the lines of seats to the very front row where is family sat, Luke at the end, Leia next to him, and Padmé next to her. Next to Padmé was an unoccupied seat that was next to a chattering Weequay.
Anakin took the seat and kissed Padmé briefly.
"What's going on?" Anakin asked.
"You didn't get the memo?" Padmé asked curiously.
"What memo?"
"Bail Organa sent out a memo, Dad." Luke said. "This meeting is being held because they've finalized…"
But Luke ceased talking as the lights dimmed; even the annoying chattering Weequay shut its frog like mouth. Anakin directed his attention to the brightly lit stage as Mon Mothma stood up and walked in front of the holo-projector. With the bright, hot spotlights, shining down upon her she looked like the radiant red head angel that had come to save them all from the Empire.
"Quiet please," She said softly, her voice amplified by a small microphone clipped to the collar of her gown, it was barely noticeable from even the first row, and impossible to see from the second. The remaining conversing beings finally fell silent. "We have called you all here today to discuss a plan, a plan to bring down the Empire's super weapon, the Death Star. As you may or may not know Grand Moff Tarkin provided us with the technical specifications to the Death Star, he was desperate to betray the Emperor and conquer the Empire and I believe he wished to use us as insurance for his plan to succeed. He failed however, in killing the Emperor and is now an Imperial prisoner, as most of you know. From the plans provided by Tarkin, we have created a plan to destroy the Death Star. Admiral Ackbar, please."
"Thank you, Mon Mothma." Ackbar stated in his gravelly Mon Calamarian voice as he stepped up and took center stage. The spotlights dimmed slightly and a huge hologram of the Death Star sprang up, it was a wire frame mockup made of blue, semi transparent lines. A small trench on the station was highly noticeable, as it was the only thing made of yellow lines.
"The trench in yellow," Ackbar began, "is one of the main trenches of the super station. At the end is a thermal exhaust port which leads directly to the main reactor."
At that moment, the image of the Death Star disappeared and replaced by another hologram, except this one detailing the main reactor of the station and the exhaust port.
"In theory if a missile was fired down the exhaust port it would travel to the main reactor and destroy the station." Ackbar said. An animation then came to life. An orange dot zipped down the yellow line representing the exhaust port and smashed into the main reactor. The virtual station exploded, and in its ashes was born a detailed three-dimensional diagram of the trench.
"We have planned for several squadrons to fly down this trench; it is narrow so we will be using X-wing fighters. Once these fighters reach the end of the trench the lead one, will fire a proton torpedo into the exhaust port, then the Death Star destroyed and we can all celebrate, however in the event the leader misses the other ships in turn will fire at the exhaust port. Once a torpedo successfully goes down, we will retreat. That is our plan, we have decided to send Rogue Squadron on this mission, of course they will be accompanied by more ships as the Empire will likely send fighters after them, members of Rogue Squadron be prepared, the shaft is ray shielded and little more than two meters wide."
"Two meters!" A pilot of Rogue Squadron cried out. "That's impossible, even for a computer!"
"I used to be a podracer when I was nine." Anakin replied to him. "Only human who could do it, don't tell me anything is impossible."
The pilot did not speak again. Ackbar resumed the briefing.
"This plan is useless however, until we locate the Death Star." He said. "For that we have chosen General Anakin Skywalker, and Captain Luke Skywalker to lead a small attack force to ambush some supply ships on a known Death Star supply route. We know where a certain point of the route is but we don't know where it leads. Therefore, we will arm all ships with a new kind of torpedo that hit the hull of a ship directly and explodes, but before doing so launches several tracking devices onto it effectively fooling the enemy into thinking they have been hit with a regular missile. We will then let the ships escape and track them to the Death Star. General Skywalker and Captain Skywalker, are you up for the job?"
"We are." Anakin and Luke said in unison.
"Very well then," Ackbar said. "meeting dismissed."
XxX
Mara found herself bound to a small, cold, uncomfortable metal chair in a large pitch-black room; she and the woman next to her, a smuggler whom she did not know were only visible because of a ridiculously hot, bright interrogation light. Why did she have to go through this? The same thoughts were running through the other woman's mind, accept the other woman feared for her life, she had long blonde hair and draped in a dark gray prison uniform, as was Mara.
They both looked up as Darth Vader entered the light; he wore his usual menacing black garments and that sinister looking ancient Sith mask that had a voice scrambler installed in the mouthpiece.
"Welcome," Vader said, little did they know Vader was simply a title possessed by Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Sith Lord, even Mara Jade did not know his true identity. "To the Executor."
"Hey!" Mara snapped. "This is getting a little irritating; I'm an agent of the Empire! I demand to be set free; I want to speak with Lord Sidious at once!"
Under normal circumstances, Obi-Wan might have slapped her, or perhaps driven a dose of Force lightning into her body. However, if she was indeed the agent the Emperor had tasked him to locate… he had a way of knowing.
"If you are who you claim to be then tell me your ID number." Obi-Wan said.
"Jack-four-seven-alpha-five-six-three-delta-three-four-two-four…..."
"Something wrong?"
"I'm thinking of what to say for E!"
"Just say E!"
"No, it's more technical to say something like... emancipation."
"Come on…"
"Alright, the last ones are E-nine-one-two-eight-seven."
"That matches up with the code the Emperor gave me." Obi-Wan said. "Very well."
Mara leapt out of her seat as the Force undid her bindings. She stood next to Obi-Wan and looked down at the innocent blonde woman.
"I was told you were searching for a woman." Obi-Wan said.
"This isn't her." Mara replied. "I think she escaped."
"I'm sorry to hear that, the Emperor will be most displeased. This one is of no further use to us then?"
"No," Mara said, "the blonde-haired person was only the simple slave girl who cleaned the dorm rooms, or so she thought. Obi-Wan extended his hands, the girl cried out in terror as a wave of blue-white lightning slammed into her. Obi-Wan's last words echoed in Mara's mind as the woman's grim, shrieking screams filled the room. The Emperor would be disappointed in her, probably extremely angry, Mara snapped out of that train of thought when she saw the woman's body go limp, and the lightning stop. This she took as an ironic… almost prediction of the future, this seemed to suggest what might happen to her once Sidious discovered Raz Vena had escaped, if it was anything at all about this situation would in the future be reminiscent to hers then she feared, if she died, it would be far more odious.
XxX
Grand Moff Tarkin was now nobody, stripped of his rank, his title, his fortune, everything. He was now no better than a lackey. He was a poor humiliated man who sat adorned in an iron gray prison uniform, all alone in a dank and grimy cell waiting for his life to end. He looked up as the devil himself entered his prison, Lord Sidious had come unarmed, and there were no torture devices to seen. Tarkin waited, expecting a probe droid to enter or something more sinister perhaps, however the door slammed shut behind the Emperor who approached Tarkin slowly.
"I believe you are more intelligent than you appear to be, Tarkin." Sidious said. "I think you know why I am here."
"I am confused why you didn't bring any truth serum with you." Tarkin said back.
"I see, I thought I would just ask you first before I resort to torture, something I would just hate to inflict upon you." Sidious hissed sarcastically. "You will tell me why you tried to kill me and who is working with you."
"Perhaps I overestimated your intelligence, Emperor." Tarkin retorted. "I thought you would know that I would never willingly tell you anything."
"I'm giving you a gift Tarkin, take it, or you will regret your decision." Sidious hissed.
Tarkin refused to talk anymore. The Emperor shook his head slightly and extended his long, clawed, gray fingers.
"Fool," Sidious whispered hatefully as he pumped thousands of volts of lightning into Tarkin's body. The former Grand Moff convulsed in dreadful agony. Screams left his mouth as small clumps of skin began to tear themselves away from him and land on the floor, leaving a pinkish layer of new skin exposed and sending shocks of pure anguish through his nerve system. With one last dose of lightning the Emperor stopped, he looked at Tarkin's withering form on the floor. "Who is working with you? Why did you betray me? TALK!"
"No!" Tarkin cried, wincing as he moved.
"We'll see how well you resist when—"
Sidious whirled around as the cell door flew open; his eyes matched the color of the red robed guard's attire that entered.
"Milord," The guard said. "Mara Jade has just arrived, she requests an audience with you."
"Get out!" Sidious barked forebodingly. The guard knew better than to question, he promptly left the cell. Sidious turned to face Tarkin and delivered a swift and hard kick to his nose gushed scarlet blood all over the floor.
"I'll return Tarkin," Sidious warned. "When I come I hope that for your sake you'll be willing to cooperate."
XxX
Mara turned as the Emperor entered his throne room; she stood near his chair and awaiting his return. Before her brain could so much as register the command it received to open her mouth; she found herself flying through the air, her back slammed into the wall to the right of Sidious' throne; she slid to the floor and landed on her rear end, any attempt to stand was futile, held in place firmly by the Force. The Emperor's robe came into view; she raised her head to look into his eyes, which were a mixture of a sickening yellow and an evil red.
"You," Sidious rasped, extending a finger. Mara could not reply, she screamed out in pain as Force lightning slammed into her body. "Do you know what you have nearly cost me?"
"What? What the hell are you doing?" Mara cried over the cackle of the lightning and between her own screams. This seemed simply to fuel the Emperor's fury and the wave of lightning steadily increased in power, up to the point where Mara wondered if she could take it anymore, her suit to smoke and caught fire before Sidious ceased the onslaught of lightning and extinguished the fire with a wave of his hand.
"You nearly cost me my apprentice!" Sidious croaked.
"What?"
"You pathetic moron, are you blind as to why I had you hunting Raz Vena?" Sidious cried. He was trapping himself in an ever-going circle of rage; he sent another dose of Force lightning her way.
"Why?" Mara asked, her curiosity sparked, despite the fact she could barely move without a burst of agony surging through her body.
"Because I think Siri Tachi is alive!" Sidious cried, he was so enraged he didn't even realize he was revealing all of his plans to her. "Raz Vena is working with her!"
"Who is Siri Tachi?" Mara cried, and then screamed as Sidious randomly tossed a wave of lightning at her.
"The wife of Obi-Wan Kenobi! DARTH VADER!
"What?"
"She's supposed to be dead, that's why he became my apprentice, do you know what could happen if he finds her? I'd lose so much power… I ought to just kill you now, the like insignificant lackey you are."
"I'm your Hand! Your assassin, you cannot kill me!"
"You're as replaceable as a stormtrooper; do you honestly think you are my only servant?"
The next wave of lightning that hit her didn't hurt as much, she barely registered it, and a million different thoughts were rushing through her mind. She was replaceable, she was nothing, as worthless as a single stormtrooper… and she hadn't even screwed up on anything, if this bastard in front of her wasn't so ignorant, so blind, and so arrogant he would see that. She ought to just kill him… the lightning was becoming too much for her, it was so painful and so hot, she felt like she was submersed in molten carbonite! She had to save herself.
"I PUT A TRACKING DEVICE ON RAZ VENA'S SHIP!" She bellowed over the crackle of the lightning, which immediately disappeared, as though it had not even been there at all.
"You what?"
Why should I even tell you? Go to hell! Mara thought, but then said. "I put a tracking device on Raz's ship."
"Really?"
"Yes." Mara said through gritted teeth, passing her attitude off as a gesture of pain, though in reality she was seething with rage, she hated this man, she despised him, she realized she had for a long time… he had been a plague on her life for as long as she could remember. He took her from her family, probably killed them, he repulsed her, all she could think about now was slashing his ugly throat. Therefore, she decided immediately that she would sabotage whatever attempts he of killing Siri Tachi. If she was indeed alive, she would do anything at all she could to kill him, and if what he said about Vader was true… perhaps she could enlist him as an ally, but she needed Raz Vena, just as Sidious needed her, for the same reason. To find Siri, she would show him who was insignificant.
"Well, for your sake it better be functional."
My weapons are functional too!
"It is functional." Mara groaned through gritted teeth as she stood up. "Go check."
Mara Jade was not harmed in the production of this chapter, however she did realize what the Emperor thought of her and remains exceedingly ticked off. The author of this fan fiction (namely me) wishes to remind you to leave feedback. Thank you all for reading this story. By the way the only thing I could think about while writing this chapter was making this last scene, I've given you golden clues about what is to come, maybe… maybe Anakin won't have to kill Obi-Wan at all? Maybe Siri is alive, maybe she isn't….