Hello! I really wanted to update this for you guys before I go away on holiday on Friday. I'm hoping to get in as much work as I can on my current stories as well as the plot bunnies that are stalking around inside my head. Plus, its been a month since I updated this and I hate to leave you hanging. So I hope you enjoy this next chapter! :)
Surveillance and arrival.
"So where do we go from here?" Satine's soft voice crackled through the recording Kit Fisto was watching intently, illuminated by the pale blue light stretching across his face.
His black eyes sparkled at the prospect her question held. Few of the council were aware of Obi-Wan's feelings for the former duchess of Mandalore, yet he was now positive the entire council was aware, after their last encounter with the stressed Jedi Master and their discussion after he took his leave.
"All there is now is for me to protect you," Obi-Wan's soft Coruscanti accent answered. Kit's eyes zeroed in on the two figures as they shifted in their current position. His brow furrowed, eyes widening in surprise, as he watched the two embrace each other near the archway to the kitchen, out of Senator Amidala's, who lived in this building, sight. Surely Kenobi wasn't acting on his feelings, was he?
Their tender caress enough alerted the Nautolan Jedi Master that the young human Jedi was showing his attachment. It was again reinforced when they jerked away from each other as Senator Amidala's soft voice called out to them from the other side of the archway and the brunette Senator appeared on the surveillance. 'Has he engaged his attachment? It looks as if they don't want to be discovered...'
Without saying anything else the two visitors followed the Senator in, Kit losing sight and hearing of them. Realising that he wasn't going to gather any more information on his friend soon, Kit slid out from his seat, leaving everything un-tampered with, as he slipped out of the recording room and dashed to his speeder, making his way to the Jedi Temple.
It wasn't much, but he would have to report his findings to the council and await their judgement as well as further instructions.
The four Jedi stood at the bridge of the Enforcer, gazing wistfully out at the bright blue streaks of hyperspace and its brilliant vortex swirling before them.
During the three hours they had currently spent in hyperspace, the four Jedi had been standing around the comms unit, strategizing a plan on entering Mandalore's atmosphere.
They were sure that they would not receive a warm welcome if the battle, as Kenobi described, was still raging; tearing the once peaceful planet apart.
The plan was simple; they would stay high up in the Mandalorian sky, just below the atmosphere, so that they had an increased chance of not drawing too much attention to themselves, being only one cruiser. The Jedi, along with a squadron of clone troopers would then proceed to guide their fighters down towards the landing platforms, engaging any resistance along the way and wiping out anymore upon their landing.
Each of them were aware that they could not sense the Sith brothers as well as they would normally do so due to the darkness clouding their vision, so they would have to search themselves for any sign of them.
Not only did they have trouble sensing them, but whatever little flicker they could detect, they only caught it briefly before it sparked out of their reach completely. The four stretched out further, searching for the other, yet nothing appeared.
Shaak Ti, being the most powerful at sensing life forms out of the four due to her natural ability to sense the presence and bond with other creatures that originated from other systems, shivered inwardly as a bad sensation crawled over her.
"We are approaching Mandalore now, Generals," Admiral Gorgio announced as the bleach whited-haired man approached them. Admiral Gorgio was a weary, near middle-aged man, once a soldier upon the front lines of small skirmishes himself. He had the three identical pink scars along his left cheek to prove it. His pale blue eyes held back a haunting that told anyone who could read it that he had seen horrors. His face was aged much older than his actual age of forty-five years, age lines sinking into his face.
"Very good, Admiral," Plo Koon answered, turning to the Admiral. "How soon are we able to mount our attack?"
Due to the likelihood of resistance the Jedi were bound to meet, their only way through to the landing platform was through an attack position.
"We'll be arriving just outside Mandalore's atmosphere in five standard minutes, General."
Plo nodded his thanks as he turned his serene gaze back out to the vortex whirling in front of him.
"My friends," he breathed in a long drawn breath, mentally preparing himself for the following, "let us be on our way."
The four Jedi spun on their heels as they strode out of the bridge and towards the hanger bay, brown cloaks billowing behind them.
Through their journey they each called up their men, having brought their top troopers from each of their own battalions, as they made their way through the silent halls, the only sound being the rumble of the cruiser's engines as it ploughed the magnificent ship through space.
The blast door swished open upon their approach, gaining them access to the hanger where more clones worked furiously on all the shuttles that were present. Sparks flew from their engineering as they fixed, modified and replenished ammo on the structures.
As Plo approached his own white and blue streaked starfighter his clone commander, donned in white and brown armour, jumped down from the fighter's wing to meet his General.
"General, the ship is fully functioning and is completely replenished in weapons systems. The navigation is accurate as are all other systems."
Very good, Commander," Plo nodded, crossing his arms over his chest.
"I've also taken the liberty of upgrading your fighter, General. I had an engineer install more powerful shields and an upgrade on the proton torpedo ammunition as well as the turbo cannons speed to cool down."
Plo felt a spark of impression surge through him at his Commander's boldness and thoughtfulness. "Thank you, Commander."
"Be careful, General," the Commander saluted sharply. "The other boys have speculated that it's a hot zone down there."
The Jedi Master nodded silently as the Commander excused himself, joining up with more clones not too far off by the crates. His sharp voice rang out throughout the hanger as he ordered them to 'quit messing around and get on with their work.'
Stepping into his fighter along with the other Masters and their troopers, his fingers glided unconsciously over the controls, starting the fighter's engines with a low growl, before he grasped the control stick before him.
Easing his fighter off of the ground he guided it, leading the group out of the hanger and through the opening doors of the cruiser's roof.
The Jedi Master took a deep breath, centring himself within the Force. Balance came more difficultly now due to the war's scale. It had the Force in constant vibration.
"Squadron, this is Jedi General Plo Koon. Comms check, do you copy? All fighters respond."
Immediately a wave of static charged through his comm as each fighter announced themselves. The last voice crackled through after a few short moments. "This is Jedi General Mundi, gold leader."
"Excellent, " Plo commended, grateful that everyone had contact with one another. He could relax more easily knowing that they were all connected, ready to call for assistance if required. "May the Force be us."
The endless vacuum of space stretched out around him as his eyes focused on the sand-coloured planet they were approaching. The planet grew in size as they drew closer and Plo's scope of vision altered from the black of space to the cloudy vapour of the clouds around his fighter as he entered the atmosphere smoothly.
All too soon, however, that smoothness was shattered abruptly as blue and red blaster bolts began raining upon them, haring past his fighter and the single file line the others were in behind him.
"Spread out!" Plo yelled through his comm channel as he flipped his fighter up and over the onslaught to the right. The other ships followed his example, each fanning out in varying directions, yet the Jedi remained at the front of the line.
"Try and stick together!" Shaak's voice echoed through the channel. "Don't break away too far or you'll be shot down or lost to the group!"
The onslaught increased as they continued their way down. Plo could just see the landing platform through the thick black smoke down below. The place had become a warzone, scarred with blast holes, bodies and ravenous flames.
He brought his attention back onto arriving there in one piece as steel grey fighters began surging up towards them, releasing their own blaster fire.
"Incoming fighters! Engage!" Stass Allie shrieked.
The Jedi, with the aid of the Force, allowed it to control their fluid movements as they performed an array of flips, rolls, dives and evasions, trying to confuse the enemy. Plo caught, out of the corner of his eye, Ki-Adi-Mundi and Stass Allie perform a figure of eight, causing the two pilots who followed them separately to clip each other's wing before their fighter plummeted towards the ground, spinning wildly out of control in a corkscrew dive before exploding upon impact or before they even fell completely out of the sky in a ball of fire.
Grunts and cries crackled through the comms channel in Plo's fighter as the clones fought valiantly. Some grunts were simply from the heat of battle or a near miss whilst others were cries of fear, which were shortly cut, like a knife, with silence.
The Force vibrated with sorrow at the deaths ensuing, both for their own men and the opposition's.
The fire began to steadily die down as the remaining squadron approached the landing platform. The four Jedi lined themselves up once more at the front of the line as they released their cannon fire. Plo, realising that he had yet to try out his upgraded proton torpedo's, and spotting a medium sized pile of explosives, aimed the guided projectiles towards the target and pulled roughly back on the trigger.
With a slight jolt upwards from his fighter and a hiss, the torpedo barrelled forth from underneath his fighter and towards the pile, making impact within a few seconds and igniting the pile into a burst of brilliant orange flames. Moving bodies upon the platform were blasted away from the power of the explosion, either stunned or dead as the Jedi and their troops landed shortly after.
The four Jedi immediately leapt out of the now open cockpit of their fighters, their lightsabers blazing to life with a sizzling snap hiss, and whirling in motion as they leapt high into action, landing back to back from one another and deflecting blaster fire, throwing grenades back with the Force to their enemy, and taking out anyone who came near them with a swift stroke of the blade.
The clones sprinted forwards, taking cover behind crates, durasteel slabs that had buried themselves into the ground, and whatever else they could find. Each trooper lay their left arm, that held the belly of the rifle, on top of their cover and began unleashing a rain of blue fire upon their enemy, gunning them down with precision. Another clone, his armour painted with red streaks, activated a thermal detonator as he lobbed it towards a cluster of five men who were unable to escape the blast in time as it vaporised them.
All too soon the battle was won by the attackers with a final swing of Plo's blue blade across the chest of a Death Watch member. He gave a final grunt of pain, his cauterised chest smouldering as he fell lifeless to the ground.
Extinguishing their blades they rendezvoused with the squad of clones that survived who, thankfully, had all survived once again. Some of the best had been lost, but many still remained.
Plo looked on the scene around him curiously. He spotted a few Death Watch members clad in red, the opposite to the durasteel grey some others wore.
'They must be different,' he thought.
He remembered in Obi-Wan's briefing that there had been a few renegade members who had turned against their new leader after the slaughter of their original, and who had then fought for Mnadalore's survival against Maul and Savage's tyranny.
'But where are they now?' Only a few of the bodies of these people remained, and from Obi-Wan's briefing, there had been quite a number. Not all of them were dead.
All male too.
Obi-Wan had informed them of a female member who had assisted in his escape; Bo-Katan. The only female and leader of the group she had started.
'Bo-Katan must be nearby,' the Jedi Master mused to himself. 'Perhaps if we find her, she may be able to help lead us to Maul.'
"Master Koon," Shaak's concerned tone pulled him out of his reverie. He turned his head to meet the concerned Togruta's gaze with complete serenity.
"You are the leader of this group," she began again, realising that she now held his attention. "What is our next course of action."
Plo placed a hand under his chin in thought, his right arm wrapping itself around his midsection. "Master Kenobi mentioned a female member of the renegade Death Watch members who helped him in his escape. One he mentioned in particular was Bo-Katan Kryze, the former Duchess's sister. If we find here then perhaps she can help lead us to Maul."
"How can we be sure to find her?" Stass questioned sceptically, slowly raising one eloquent eyebrow.
"Her body is not among those we see here," Plo answered, gesturing to the battlefield with his arm. "My assertion is that she is alive. I doubt that she will hide far. It's possible that she may herself be located near the palace." He pointed towards the shadowed tunnel that stretched out into the diamond looking city.
"Shall we split up into groups, Master Plo, to cover more ground and possibly find her more quickly?" Ki asked gently in his ever calm and confident tone.
Plo nodded in acquiescence. "A sensible suggestion, Master Mundi; let us take five troops each, that way we have more guard as well as ground."
Each of the Jedi gathered five troops, most, if not all of their members being from their squadron. Plo's squadron consisted of three of his men from his squadron and the other two from separate ones, one being from Master Allie's whilst the other was from Master Ti's.
"We'll meet there at the tunnel entrance into the city in oh-three-hundred hours. Three hours to search. If anyone finds any sign of the renegade members sooner, contact us through our channel." He slowly drew his right arm up, his forearm hovering just beneath his lips as he spoke. "Final test, over?"
A chorus of voices buzzed once again through his comm as everyone spoke one after the other. All comms were operational.
With a final traditional 'May the Force be with you,' the four squadrons entered the tunnel, fanning out upon exit as they began to scour the dead city.
And there we go! There'll be more after I'm back from Tunisia after the 23rd. Hope you enjoyed, as always! :)