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The first clue that Jem Virray was not meeting a dealer of rare pre-Clone war Jedi lightsabers was when he entered the ship with the broker and saw only the bare seats of an empty passenger area. His second clue was when a Twi'lek woman covered in Bogan warrior tattoos entered from the cockpit area and blasted him into unconsciousness with a stream of blue energy summoned from her bare hand.
When he woke up, his arms were zip-cuffed to the handrails above the sitting area and his feet were tied to duracrete blocks that were too heavy for him to lift. Thankfully, the blocks were tall enough to be on the ground so he was not left hanging. In front of him were the 'broker' he had spoken to sitting upright and the Twi'lek lounging on the couch beside him lazily. Her scant outfit showed a lot of skin that normally would have enticed Jem, if he was not convinced he was about to die.
"Nice of you to join us," the broker said pleasantly. "Would you know why we are here, Mr. Virray?"
"I-I-I don't know," Jem stuttered. "I'm loyal to the Bogan Empire! I did nothing wrong!"
"If that's the case, then you will be free to go," the man said. "But I'm sure you understand that we need to verify your claims. Do you know something interesting about the Bogan Warriors, Mr Virray? They can sense when someone is lying. My friend here, as you can tell, is quite conveniently a Bogan Warrior. Do you think I should ask her if you're lying?"
Sweat began to pour down Jem's hairline. He could feel it trickling down his back, soaking his shirt, as he tried looking at her without staring at her chiseled abs or long red legs. She lazily turned her head toward him and he locked eyes with her.
"I-I don't know w-what you m-m-m-mean," Jem said, trying to look away from her startling yellow and red irises that looked like they could bore a hole through his soul.
"Oh, come on, Mr Virray, even I can tell you're lying," the man stood up and looked into Jem's fearfully widening eyes with a glare that turned into pure ice. "And I think you need to know something about me."
"W-wha-what's that?"
"I spent four months being tortured by the Yuuzhan Vong," he said. "I think I could re-educate you on what you think pain is, if you'd like. I find pain can often help someone find the underlying truths they seek, if you understand my meaning."
The man sat back down on the couch and smiled warmly at his Bogan associate. "I think I could also find motivation to not re-educate you if you think there is information that I might need to know."
"Yes, yes," Jem exclaimed. His legs began to tremble. "Th-this is about the w-weapons! The missing weapons!"
"Go on."
"O-one of my captains orchestrated it," Jem said. "Kept going around security."
The Twi'lek ignited her lightsaber and pointed it at Jem lazily. "Liar."
Jem started crying, his knees giving out on him and his weight settling on the zip ties around his wrists.
"Th-th-they t-t-told me they'd k-k-kill m-me if I t-t-talked!" Jem sobbed. "I c-c-can't!"
"And what do you think we were planning on doing to you when we found out you betrayed your Emperor?" The man asked, standing up again so their eyes met at the same level. "I'll make you a deal. You tell me everything I need to know, and you'll get a second chance to prove your loyalty. This meeting will not have happened and you get to go back to being a very faithful governor. I think that would be a very fair arrangement, wouldn't you agree?"
"Yes!" Jem exclaimed. "Very fair. Very loyal. I..."
"I want the names and affiliation of the people you supplied the weapons to and where I can find them." He leaned forward and lifted Jem's chin with one finger to force eye contact. "And if you give me the right information, I won't have a reason to come back and find you, will I?"
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The Jade Shadow touched down at Mos Eisley's docking bay 83 with a flourish of sand spraying in every direction, contributing to the years of sandblasting everything on the planet seemed to suffer from. As soon as the ship was powered down and the post-flight checklist completed, Mara retreated to her small walk-in armoury and closed the door behind her. She removed her casual clothes and grabbed a small length of string from a shelf. She looked in the mirror at her determined expression and pulled her hair back, tying it in place with the string so it would be out of her way when things got ugly. She opened the cabinet that the mirror was hung on and selected a skin-tight dark crimson armoured jumpsuit that would provide her some impact resistance, but not impair her movements. After putting the jumpsuit on and stretching slightly to adjust the fit, she selected a vibro-knive and a hold-out blaster, each in holsters, and strapped one to each calf, then covered them with a pair of high leather boots that were just loose enough to provide her access to her weapons. Next she donned a utility belt which included various small explosives, a thermal detonator, rappelling line, slicing tools, and her communicator. She magnetically clipped her lightsaber to the back of the belt and stuck a DL-88 blaster in the holster. Her holdout blaster was strapped it to her forearm, and, finally, she selected a comfortable calf-length light brown leather jacket to cover her weapons.
Mara closed the cabinet door and caught her reflection in the mirror once again. She stared for a moment, noticing how old the reflection in the mirror looked – lines were starting to appear on her face, her hair was not as smooth and shiny as it had been in the past, and her eyes carried a weight that the Emperor's Hand never did. However, she did see one thing that never changed any time she had looked in the mirror – resolve. She knew that she would rescue Ami, and she knew she would get her nephew back to save her husband if it was the last mission she'd go on. She owed them that much.
By the time Mara reached the boarding ramp, Ben was already there with Artoo, himself in a smaller version of the armoured outfit with his Jedi outer robe over top.
"Ben, I need you to stay here with the ship," Mara said. Before he could protest, she continued as if she did not notice he was going to complain. "I'll give you more details as I'm en route. Artoo, stay and help him fly."
"You want me to fly the ship?" Ben asked, his previous objections forgotten. "By myself?"
"Yes," Mara said and punched the ramp release. "Stay on channel 12, encryption protocol Rodia-Four-Whyren. You'll be able to hear everything."
"What if you get captured?" Ben asked as Mara walked down the ramp and reached up to key in her lock code.
"If I get captured, take off and find Lowie," Mara said and pressed her code in to close it. "'Cause I'll be dead if that happens."
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Jaina came across her mother on the way to a meeting in the war room two levels below the main bridge on the Screaming Ewok. She jogged ahead a couple steps and matched pace with her mom, giving her a smile.
"Any idea what this meeting is about?" Leia asked, noticing that a woman with Colonel rank bars supplemented with a Wing Commander emblem and a Rogue Squadron patch on her uniform a few paces ahead of them.
"No clue," Jaina replied and gestured to the woman Leia had noticed. "That's Alinn Varth. She's about the only surviving member of Rogue Squadron, except for me, Wedge, and Uncle Luke."
"Looks like Wedge made her commander of the fighter squadrons."
"And she's reconstructing the Rogues," Jaina pointed out. "Maybe I should try out."
Before Leia could comment, they reached the war room and Alinn turned around. She smiled at Jaina and Leia, letting them enter the room while she waited at the door. Jaina looked around the darkened room and saw the typical holographic display in the centre of the room and the coliseum-style bench seating surrounding it. She expected to see lots of people in attendance, but she only saw Wedge, Danni, and five others around the holographic display. Wedge gestured for them to come closer, so Jaina led the way to the centre of the large room.
"Thanks for joining us," Wedge said. "Jedi Masters Jaina and Leia Solo, I'd like you to meet my command staff:"
Wedge gestured to a short, angry-looking man with bright red hair standing beside Danni and only coming up to her shoulder. "Vice-Admiral Prus Onasi, commander of the Executor-class star destroyer Telosian Jewel."
He gestured to the next man, a Duros about Jacen's height who looked back at her with bright orange eyes. "Vice-Admiral Otac Stazi, commander of our other Executor-class star destroyer, Moc'toc'nor. I hope I didn't butcher the pronunciation."
Stazi smiled and shook his head as Wedge gestured to the next person in line, a young man a bit taller and younger than Jaina with blonde hair and striking blue eyes. She returned his smile easily and looked back to Wedge before she could start blushing from the handsome young man's attention. He gestured to the next two in line, two young women who looked remarkably like her friend Tenel Ka. "Commodores Marth Cerb, Trista Zel and Taryn Zel, commanders of the new Mark-III Imperial Star Destroyers. As you've probably guessed, the Zel sisters are Hapans."
"We escaped with what was left of our people," Trista said. "One hundred Battle Dragons and fifty Nova-Class battle cruisers are all that's left of Hapes. We were on a training mission under radio silence in the Transitory Mists while our people were annihilated."
"The Queen and Prince Isolder escaped as well," Leia said.
"Are you related to Tenel Ka?" Jaina asked. "You could pass as triplets."
"That's classified," Trista growled, her eyes narrowing at the young Jedi Master.
"I'm here," a bustling man approached Jaina and Leia from behind and smiled at them awkwardly, interrupting any continued questions Jaina might have about their lineage. He reached the holodisplay and held up a data card, his grin widening a bit further. Jaina noticed that the door was now closed and Alinn had silently joined them, standing between Wedge and Jaina. They all watched as the man tried putting the data card into the reader upside down, backwards, and finally upside-down and backwards before getting it right, all while swearing to himself under his breath.
"This is Major Arthur Daniels, the engineer working on the refit process for our ships," Wedge finally said. "Danni has been assisting him with working out the bugs in the technology."
"Kriffin' bugs," Daniels said. "Lots of them kriffing every-karking-thing up. Frak you, Palpatine. Sithspawn of a..."
"We found out what was wrong," Danni interrupted the rant. "These schematics are fakes."
"Fakes?" Leia asked.
"A f-farkled d-d-d-decoy," Daniels stuttered angrily. "We-we think that s-shavit of a skrogging dwang Palpatine let out farking false schematics so the the rebellion would be f-fraked if they t-tried to-to r-replicate it."
"We need a legit copy," Danni said, taking over for the socially inept scientist. "This one has the structure designs correct as far as we can tell, but the focusing configuration is all over the place. Leia, did you keep a copy of the original Death Star schematics?"
"Not personally," Leia said. "The plans were kept on a secure computer on Coruscant, but they were wiped out when the Yuuzhan Vong invaded. I know for a fact the data centre auto-destruct was activated successfully."
"What about R2-D2?" Wedge asked. "Did Luke have him keep a copy?"
Leia's hesitation gave Jaina all the answer she needed. She looked at her mom with a mixed look of betrayal and surprise as Leia leaned forward against the railing around the holoprojector and stared at Wedge. Uncle Luke had been sitting on Death Star plans for most of his life?
"Yes," Leia finally said, an admission which seemed to age her about ten years on the spot. The light of the holoprojector seemed to enhance every wrinkle and line on her face, and give her eyes a haunting glow. She glared at Wedge as if daring him to ask her to retrieve them. "But we locked them down with a three-part encryption sequence. Retrieving them will be impossible."
While everyone else looked confused, Jaina, Wedge and Danni seemed to decode her statement at the same moment. They realized that the three parts of the encryption sequence had been codes input by Leia, Luke, and, of course, Han.
"Who else might have a copy?" Wedge asked softly. "I already asked Booster and the Chiss. Neither has it or is willing to admit to it."
"Karrde?" Danni asked.
"That's where I got this copy," Wedge pointed to the display in front of them.
"The Maw facility was destroyed," Leia said, looking into the holoprojector light as if it might provide inspiration. "So were the plans the Hutts stole. Byss was destroyed. The Wayland mountain database was wiped out."
"What about that guy uncle Lando and Aunt Mara were looking for years ago?" Jaina asked. "The one Karrde had to get the Caamas Document from."
"Jorj Car'das might have a copy," Leia admitted, speaking slowly. "But if I remember correctly, he was out in the Kathol sector. It'll take weeks to get out there, even if we redline the Falcon the whole way there. We don't have that much time."
"There is no way you can recreate what you need?" Stazi asked.
"Fraking stupid-ass Admiral," Daniels muttered, earning a shocked glare from everyone except Wedge, who merely closed his eyes and shook his head. "What kind..."
"No," Danni interrupted Daniels again with a bite of irritation in her voice. Jaina smiled to herself when she realized that Danni's patience seemed to be running out by working with Daniels. "The math is too complicated for simulations to run efficiently on the equipment we have available and we don't have the resources to test the system in live fire models."
"There's another possibility," Trista said with a predatory grin. "We know of several ships that have figured out the math."
"You want to steal the schematics of a Bogan warship?" Jaina asked. "They've mowed through entire fleets like they're not even there. What chance do we have without a super laser to fight them with?"
"We have several stealth ships we brought with us from Hapes," Taryn replied with a much nicer smile than her sister wore. "We were trained in stealth and espionage from birth. If we have the location of the ship, we could retrieve it."
"The ships are designed to infiltrate up to three people and exfiltrate with minimal visible damage to the ship," Trista said. "We've infiltrated ships as small as Corellian freighters without being detected. Something this big would be easy."
"How would you get there?" Jaina asked.
"They have a hyperdrive that's only good for an hour at most," Taryn laughed. "Any longer and you wouldn't want to be in there anymore!"
"Speak for yourself," Trista growled. "The real range is eighteen hours at point-four. Life support is good for forty hours."
"Trista would wait for Hoth to melt if she thought she might find a missing data card under the ice," Taryn snickered.
"You'll need a Jedi skilled at hiding people in the Force to go with you," Leia said. "Unfortunately, that's neither of us. We should see if we can find Kyle Katarn. He was one of our agents that originally found part of the Death Star schematics."
"Last I heard he's at the Vornskr base," Wedge said. "I'll make a call to see if they can locate him. You're all dismissed."
Daniels yanked his data card out of the holodisplay and took three steps away from the console before he turned around.
"Well, Danni, let's farking get to it! We don't have all karkin' eternity!"
Danni shrugged and followed the scientist out of the war room, muttering to Leia on her way out. "You'd think he outranked me."
After the door closed behind Danni, everyone turned their attention to Wedge.
"I know," Wedge held his hands out in front of him as if to ward off an attack. "He's crazier than a gundark and has a third of the social skills, but he knows his stuff. He already came up with a dozen ways to improve energy and shield efficiency fleet wide. We can't afford to be picky about personnel right now."
"Not a problem at all," Admiral Stazi said with remarkable compassion in his voice. "I was thinking we might have some good strategic use for him."
"What's that?" Wedge asked.
"We'll put him on the air and have him tell the Bogans what he thinks about them," Stazi said. "That'll piss 'em off."
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A startling calm came over Eriana as the timer above her ticked down the last minute of hyperspace. As Stragoron's fleet hurtled toward Fondor, she took a deep breath and slowly let it out. Their plan was solid. She knew that. She knew her people would execute it flawlessly. She knew they would face strong opposition and they would have to strike hard and strike fast. And she knew they would.
At thirty seconds left, Eriana finally turned around and walked down into the command pit where Stragoron was leaning over the holographic display that already showed the battlefield.
"All fighters launch in thirty seconds," Stragoron ordered. "Turbolaser crews and ion control stand by. Arm forward torpedo batteries and mass drivers."
Crew members echoed his orders and acknowledged readiness, bursting into action the second the ship dropped from hyperspace. Data began automatically flowing into the terminal, updating the battlefield in real time with the Black Vornskr ships in red and the Bogan-allied ships in green.
"Enemy fleet is scattered like grain," Stragoron growled. "All ships, move forward in delta formation. Keldabes take the outer wall, everything else on the inside. Fighters, get in there and clear us a path."
Eriana watched as the fighters lurched ahead of the fleet and hammered the weapon emplacements with torpedoes and making them vanish one after another. One hundred Keldabe-class warships created a spear point perimeter around the rest of the fleet, launching their heavy artillery at the Fondor defense fleet with deadly precision. Eriana watched as the defending ships scrambled to get out of the way of the invading fleet, nearly five hundred capital ships strong, and nodded.
"I'm going to join one of the assault ships," Eriana said to Stragoron and picked the helmet for her Jensaraai armour off the table. He nodded, barely acknowledging her, and barked out more orders to his personnel.
Eriana ran out of the bridge and sprinted her way to the nearest turbolift. Everyone kept out of her way, busy with their own tasks during battle, so she rode alone to the hanger bay and ran out before the door opened the whole way. She ran into the chilly hanger and sprinted right up the boarding ramp of the last ship that was still open just as it began to close. She sat down beside the last trooper in the row against the wall and strapped herself in. Everyone seemed confused about her appearance in their ship, then, as if they were governed by a group mind, they all clued in at the same time. It was her.
"I trust you'll all do your job well," Eriana said to the team of raiders. "But, if you don't mind, I'd like to be the first one out."
"Be our guest," one brave Raider said. Eriana smiled at him, and put her helmet on.
The ship lurched, and they were off.
Two minutes of being jolted around, Eriana felt the ship land on their destination and, as one, everyone unbuckled their safety restraints and readied their weapons. With her still-injured but mostly healed left arm, she decided to stick to the basics and only drew a lightsaber with her right hand. Eriana walked directly to the back of the ship and slammed the pommel of her lightsaber against the release.
"Who authorized...?" Eriana heard someone – probably the Captain – ask, but she ignited the yellow lightsaber blade to use the distinctive snap-hiss to drown out the question.
She ran up and over the ramp before it fully retracted, landing on the ground in a roll and deflecting a stream of blaster bolts back at the point of origin. Eriana noticed seven raider ships all lined up inside the shipyard hanger bay and a team of spaceport defense personnel streaming into the hanger. She sprinted across the hanger and charged at the incoming defense team with a Force-enhanced inhumane roar that shook everything in the hanger. The defense team dropped their blasters and ran back the way they came.
"Move your asses Raiders!" Eriana shouted at her own stunned personnel, pointing her lightsaber at the stacks of metal crates against the walls. "Double-time, girls! Alpha crew on defense. Beta and Gamma, get those crates loaded! Let's move!"
Four members from each ship joined Eriana in building a defensive perimeter and took up position waiting for the next round of Fondor Security personnel to arrive. Using the Force, Eriana levitated eight crates at a time to the drop ships, moving enough material to fill one ship in a fraction of the time it was taking the raiders. Each crate was easily six hundred pounds, so Eriana moved as many crates safely as she could to make it easier for her raiders. They worked efficiently, and soon had everything loaded.
After ten minutes, the raider ships were back in space and Eriana assessed the damage from the co-pilot's chair of the assault ship she arrived on. Half the Fondor defense fleet was in ruins, the Keldabe-class heavy cruisers, having absorbed the brunt of the damage easily, looked no worse for wear, and the Black Vornskrs had everything they needed bundled up and were on the way out.
Eriana smiled to herself and started running over the checklist for the next stage of her plans. Nothing was going to get in her way.
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