Chapter 13: The Beginning of Mara's Plan

Mara had been ready for a while. Daala was making preparations that took a distastefully long time. Mara stepped onto the bridge of the Gorgon finding her crew busily checking systems, rechecking, priming, and then reporting to Commander Kratas. Daala herself was in front of the bridge's viewport in conversation with Kallisto. Mara noticed she had several of the crew members attention, most of them were staring at her chest or her rear. Mara walked over the metal bridge above the crew pit, as she brushed by she lightly kicked a crewperson's hat off. He didn't bother to retrieve it and continued to stare at Kallisto. Mara resisted the urge to stick her tongue out. Kallisto was old, well she wasn't, but she was not young. She had to be at least thirty something. While Mara, who turned seventeen like Ravan just a while ago, should have seemed a lot more attractive. Not that she was jealous.

"And might my smugglers be any help?" Kallisto asked Daala. Mara wondered exactly what the conversation was leading up to this, since it seemed to be mid stream. "They are expertly trained in combat, piloting and smuggling of course."

"It is an excellent idea I believe." Daala said. "Where is your base?"

"It's on Cato Neimoidia." Kallisto replied.

"So close to the core worlds, and Coruscant." Daala commented. "Strange, I would have thought a smuggler would pick a more… inconspicuous location."

"Inconspicuous?" Kallisto asked. Mara was starting to see some annoyance in her with Daala. "Cato is deserted. The Neimoidians all fled. Its as inconspicuous as they come."

"Of course, of course, I don't mean to offend you Lady Kallisto," Daala said, Mara rolled her eyes, being called Lady did offend Kallisto. Perhaps it was more accurate to say Daala didn't want to offend Kallisto, though she did unknowingly. "We will contact them once I create a rendezvous point for those still loyal to Palpatine. Agreed?"

"Agreed." Kallisto said. And they shook on it. Now it was Mara's turn.

"What is it?" Daala asked.

"You said you were prepping your crew to go." Mara stated matter-of-factly.

"And they are ready and prepared, all that remains is the order. I trust you're giving it to me now."

Kallisto couldn't help but roll her eyes at the fact an Imperial admiral was taking a command from Mara.

"It is." Mara confirmed. Daala nodded.

"Commander Kratas!" She barked. Kratas came jogging up to them. He bowed to Daala.

"Yes Admiral?"

"We are ready, set a course out of the Maw. I want gunners at their stations and pilots in their TIE's. There is a Skyhook above Kessel that I want destroyed. Get the turbo laser batteries fully charged, after the Skyhook is taken out we're going to bombard the old Imperial prison on the face of the planet."

"Yes Admiral."

XxX

The four star destroyer's spit out of the Maw like arrow points of the primitive Ewoks. Immediately their turbo lasers took aim at the skyhook above Kessel, firing green lances of raw laser at it, which impacted and left scorch marks or rips in metal. Several potshots flew by the skyhook and either traveled near Kessel's atmosphere and burned out, or continued on through space until they vanished into nothingness. Admiral Daala stood at the head of the bridge on the Gorgon which was head of their diamond shaped formation. The Manticore flew to her ships right, the Basilisk to her left and the Hyrdra down below. Daala smiled as the skyhook mustered it's tiny ship army, which wasn't very tiny but it was tiny compared to her own arsenal of them. Mara sat on a chair with a view of the window, legs crossed and smiling. Kallisto seemed board, she was leaning onto the wall gazing out of the window and, despite Daala's insistence, smoking another organic cigarra. The tattoo on her head was glinting almost, it had some sort of sheen to the ink that glittered in the light. He shiny black smart disc did the same.

"Concentrate all fire on their hanger bay." Daala commanded to whomever was operating the system of communication with the gun bays. "I don't want any ships getting through."

"To late for that Admiral." Kallisto said after blowing a ring of smoke, which had the slightest green tinge to it, and that was enough to prove to Mara there were lung cleansing herbs in it, that and their sweet and spicy smell. "There are already ships out."

"I am aware of that." Daala replied without turning. "Perhaps a better choice of words would be I do not want anymore ships getting through."

"Pff." Kallisto puffed, ejecting an enormous amount of smoke out of her nostrils and mouth. It floated about the bridge. Mara, from the side view of Daala she had, saw he nose wrinkle at the smell.

"I wish you wouldn't smoke that garbage." Daala said.

"I told you it cleanses your lungs. Trust me I am doing you and your crew a big favor by blowing it out."

"I am aware that is cleanses your lungs, but after you breathe the smoke out its full of the… whatever it is you're cleaning out of your lungs."

"Oh…" Kallisto said trailing off. "I guess you're right, I never thought of it that way."

"Then will you stop smoking it?"

"No."

"I expected as—" But Daala was cut off by a great rumbling throughout the ship. Mara stood up straight as she felt it. "Just what the bloody hell was that!?"

"Admiral!" An officer cried. "My god, one of their fighters flew straight into our right engine!"

"They what!?" Daala cried leaping into the crew pit and looking at the officer's monitor. Mara came as well, but Kallisto just stood where she was, smoking away and now twirling her smart disc around.

Mara looked down at the monitor which showed a technical layout of the ship's systems. The right engine, just next to the main one seemed to indeed have been hit, it had partly exploded, and now a small alarm was blinking throughout the ship.

"Can you fix that?" Daala asked.

"No, not right now. We'll have to wait until the battle is done."

"Is there any major damage?"

"Hell yes! Our engine exploded! We're stuck right in this spot till we get it fixed. I'm shutting down the other engines. We're just lucky the entire thing didn't explode and kill the main reactor, then we would all be dead." The officer said. He was about to hit a switch or two on his control board when Kallisto's smart disc flew right through his finger, slicing it off neatly. It bounced off another officer's chair and flew towards Kallisto, she caught it in mid air and clipped it back to her belt, her cigarra hanging out of her mouth.

Daala turned swiftly around to face her as the officer fell to the floor clutching a bloody stump that used to be a finger.

"Damn it Kallisto! You just cut one of my officer's finger off! Explain yourself!" Daala shouted.

"You imbeciles! You realize how close we are to the Maw? You don't do you! My god how the hell did you become Admiral? You shut off all our engines and we get poof—sucked right into a black hole."

"I…." Daala trailed off. "I…."

She turned to the officer on the floor and kicked him right in the groin. He let out of loud breath of air and lurched back, now one hand held the place where Daala's foot made contact and another officer put pressure on his bloody finger, which was rapidly making a small puddle on the floor. Daala looked down at the officer who was holding the one's finger she just kicked. She had the most wretched look on her face, a warning threat. The crew member slid back to his post.

"You moron! How the hell did you not know that!?" Daala yelled at the officer on the ground.

"How could you not?" He spat out painfully.

"Oh you little—" Daala cut herself off, she seemed angry beyond words. Not being able to talk anymore she simply pulled out her blaster and shot it, one two three four five six seven time right into the place she kicked. The raised it a little and shot him in between the eyes.

"You!" She barked, pointing at another officer. "You had better do what you can with the engines! And you had better be able to do a lot!"

"Yes Admiral." He stuttered. Daala stepped out of the crew pit as did Mara, walking back to the bridge viewport. They got there just in time to see the top section of the skyhook's hanger collapse just as another wave of ships tried to fly out. Each one collided with the debris and the entire top of the station blew. Daala jumped back a little, shocked.

"How did that happen?" She asked no one in particular. Kallisto huffed again, this time no smoke came bursting out of her nostrils since her cigarra was now spent.

"The skyhook was obliviously not well constructed and the explosion from the ships hit a generator or something, which in turn hit another until the top of it blew." Kallisto said in somewhat of a know-all tone.

Daala nodded, thinking to herself. "Perhaps…"

And then another wonderful, and shocking thing happened, a flurry of turbo laser blasts that came from the Manticore smashed into the station, and it literally disappeared. In a cloud of hot gasses that is. The orange light made Kallisto's tattoo shine. Mara smiled and laughed, for the first time in a long time she felt something so like joy.

"Alright commence bombardment on the planet! Destroy the Imperial prison center."

"We… cant Admiral." An officer said. "The engines…"

"Ah yes, in that case order the Manticore, Basilisk, and Hydra to commence bombardment. See what you can do about the engines then wait for further orders, Mara, Kallisto, I want to see you in the briefing room, head there now, I'll be there in ten minutes."

XxX

Daala was not there in ten minutes, really. More like fifteen, and by the time she arrived in the white chamber of the briefing room Kallisto was halfway through another organic cigarra and Mara was halfway done tapping her fingers on the table. Both stopped what they were halfway done doing when Daala entered, only Kallisto went back to her activity.

"What took you so long?" Mara asked.

"I was five minutes overdue, that's not long."

"I suppose not." Mara replied. Just then Commander Kratas entered the room and sat next to his commanding admiral.

"Now," Mara said. "what about the engine?"

"My maintenance crew tells me it'll be a day. On the bright side we have successfully destroyed Mourth Doole's facility."

"Impressive, I'm surprised it took you such a short time." Kallisto commented. He eyebrows raised and she shot needles of smoke out of her nostrils.

"Must you be suspicious of my every action?!" Daala asked loudly. "I said I destroyed it, that should be enough for you." She turned her head back to Mara, Kallisto's eyes narrowed, a plume of smoke escaped her mouth. "Now I came here to consult you, and for you to consult me."

"About…?"

"A rendezvous point!" Daala snapped. "We can gather our forces here."

"How are you going to filter out who gets it?" Kallisto asked.

"Because, there is a certain protocol if the Empire were ever to split apart. Those still loyal to the Emperor would put in a certain code in the computers, if I transmit a message to all computers with that code then only the Emperor's loyalists will come."

"Hmpf." Kallisto puffed, not seeming impressed at all. Mara had to agree, it was exceptionally stupid since those loyal to Vader might just plug the code into their computers to intercept messages. Though it was clear Daala seriously doubted it.

"Alright." Mara said. "Create the rendezvous point."

"I will," Daala replied. "Just as soon as I know exactly what you plan to do."

"I have no plan set in stone! It all depends on how many join us, and I am no tactician. I only have an overall goal. That is to take Coruscant and throw down Vader and his son and anyone loyal to him."

"And what about my smugglers?" Kallisto asked. "As I said they are expertly trained, if we want to storm Coruscant we'll have to bomb the palace—"

"No!" Mara cried. "No, there will be no bombing the palace. I want to take it myself, I want to make sure I see Vader and his son die with my own eyes."

"Then perhaps these smugglers would be useful for storming the palace." Kratas suggested.

"An excellent idea." Daala conquered.

"Shall I make contact?" Kallisto asked.

"Yes." Mara, Daala, and Kratas said in unison.

Kallisto left the room. The war was beginning.

Dang, this chapter looks short, but it is 2015 words or close without this little note. I felt like I didn't type it to the best of my ability.