Chapter 25: Rats
The current was strong, much more than what it looked like from afar. Jaral struggled a lot to keep orientation, but that made little difference as she suddenly was spitted out of the stream and down the waterfall.
The thrusters might have cooled down right now, but she was spinning around quickly and didn't have the time to balance out before she hit the lagoon at the bottom, but at least there was no strong current there. After finding sense, she swam toward the light of the local star that was filtering across the water. As she remembered that she wasn't the only one who fell through that, she jerked her head around.
"Ezra!" she called, but no answer came. "Ezra!"
"Don't yell, I'm at the shore." a thought arrived down the bond, reminding her that she could do just that.
She followed the trace given by the bond and swam toward the right bank of the pond, not far from where the waterfall ended. There she spotted Ezra in his orange and green armor, his omni-tool lit up and seemingly trying to reach some part of his lower body.
A horrible feeling crept on her mind. With two larger strokes she managed to get out of the water and rushed next to her brother's side.
"Are you all right?!"
"No. I landed on a rock." he said with gritted teeth. "I think I broke my leg." he said, pointing at his right one.
Jaral promptly made a scan and Jinx confirmed their worries.
"I detect a fracture in the tibia. Nothing too extensive, but you need to rest for a few hours before your body can heal it.
"Right, we don't have time for that." Ezra said with the same struggling tone.
To reinforce that concept, in the distance they heard the clear rumble of ionic engines. The imperials were coming around to scope the area and the Jedi needed to find some cover quickly.
"Come on." Jaral said, putting her brother's arm around her shoulders and helping him to stand up while leaning on her. Despite some grunting and a pain that she could partially perceive through the bond, Ezra didn't complain in the slightest.
"A jungle should be full of hideouts. Let's take a look around." he said.
Jaral thus started moving, going as fast as she could allow Ezra to limp around.
Lexi and the medical team were ready with the stretcher and the first aid kit as the shuttle managed to dock and urgently opened the doors. Jordan had the time to see that the ones ready to dismount were Cal, holding Kubari down in his arms, while Michalina was knelt down applying some medi-gel on a horrible blaster burn on the Padawan's chest.
Quickly enough, the group loaded the young man on the stretcher, who grunted for a moment but overall just held tight. The medics brought him away, with Cal jogging next to them to reassure his Padawan.
"Any other is wounded?" Jordan asked to Michalina.
"Ernesto got a bolt on his arm, but it's not that bad."
Indeed, the Legionnaire walked out with a clear burn on his left arm's undersuit, but seemed unfazed. "It only grazed me, then went on its way. Aside from Kubari, I say we're all fine…" he suspended the phrase, not sure if he wanted to finish it.
The mood of the survivors was gloomy: not only they had failed the mission, Ezra and Jaral were now missing in action.
For Jordan it was particularly painful. He had to give the order of evacuation even knowing that his children were still on their own. However, he couldn't allow himself to show emotions now: he was a Specter, and the Captain of the ship. He needed to show absolute control over his feelings.
"Ezra and Jaral have each other, and a whole jungle to hide into. They will hold out until we can come back to pick them."
"What do you intend to do?" Thabo asked, seemingly ready to get back on Wayland and recover the kids immediately.
"The Ghost is staying behind to pick them up, because the Constantinople is following that Destroyer."
The Legionnaires, Ahsoka and the others were stunned.
"We're leaving?!" Chuvi asked baffled.
"The imperials are preparing to leave this system. This might be our only chance to follow them and find out where they are gathering the materials for Palpatine. The mission must come first."
Even if it was clear that the entire crew would have been ready to do everything to save the siblings, whom everyone considered an integral part of the Constantinople, everyone understood the logic behind Jordan's decision: they had come all the way here to find out what the Emperor was planning, and the Constantinople was the only ship that could hope to track that imperial cruiser back to its main base of operations. Ezra and Jaral would have wanted this, too.
The Jedi decided to trust the crew of the Ghost, who after all had been working with the siblings since the very beginning, and to continue the chase for Palpatine's secret.Merrin and Cere informed Greez that he should head back to the nearest UACT base and wait for their return. The old alien resented that, but the Mantis was not suited for the task at hand, so he accepted.
"Jinx, try to break into their navicomputer and find out where they're going." Jordan ordered once he returned to the galaxy map.
He quickly analyzed the report and saw that the imperial vessel was already halfway toward reaching the hyperspace access point.
The Constantinople turned her cloaking on and her superior speed allowed her to catch up as they passed the last planet of the system.
"Jordan, I've entered their communications. It appears Commander Zahra is in charge and is assuming that you are staying behind to rescue Ezra and Jaral."
The Spectre was secretly reassured by those words: this meant that his plan had a fair chance at succeeding, if the imperials didn't think they were being followed.
"Where are they headed?"
"They are programming a series of jumps. Their final destination is still unknown, but I can easily follow them for now."
"Do it." he calmly ordered.
And as the frigate chased the imperial convoy, the Ghost was heading straight back to Wayland for a rescue mission.
The whirring of the gunships above them was getting steadily closer, and the fact that the light of the day was still bright didn't help the siblings. If they weren't moving inside a dense jungle, where by lowering and standing still under a bush the scanners easily lost them, they would have been caught immediately.
But walking around hastily was not helping Ezra. The more they moved, the more his fracture was getting larger. He needed to take a rest to allow his enhanced body to start healing the wound, and even that might have taken several hours. Also, Jaral could perceive that, even if her brother was hiding behind a helmet and not lamenting in any way, the pain was enormous for him.
She kept looking around and using the Force to try and find any large irregularity in the terrain around them, and eventually they managed to find one. Hidden behind a fair amount of creepers and thick bushes there was the entrance to an underground cave. As the noises from the aircraft and the incoming stormtroopers became increasingly nearer, the siblings managed to sneak inside it, barely managing to fit with their armors, but then the inside of the cave expanded into a vast room, with even an underground stream.
"Here seems good, put me down." Ezra said.
Jaral complied. She helped him lay on the floor and quickly applied the medi-gel. The substance wasn't good for broken bones, as it only capable of marginalize soft organic material and restore a certain amount of blood, but at least it would still suppress the pain.
Ezra made an expression of relief and seemed to relax, meanwhile, Jaral tended her ears and she quickly understood that there was a patrol of imperials passing in front of the entrance, searching the area for the Jedi.
The siblings held their breaths for probably two or three minutes. Eventually, the footsteps and the voices faded in the distance and there was no sign that they imperials had even noticed the entrance of the cave.
Jaral sighed relieved and then spoke her mind. "We can't stay here forever. We need to contact the Constantinople."
"If I know dad…" Ezra replied with a tone still partially inebriated by the analgesic, yet confidently optimistic. "he is probably chasing the imperial cruiser. You should try to contact Hera."
The girl was left wrong-footed in seeing her brother's lucidity even in that state, but she recognized that his words made sense. She stood up and peeked outside their hiding place. After making absolutely sure that there was nobody around, though she knew she still wasn't able to detect the twins like Ezra was capable of, and cautiously stepped outside, since under the cave her comlink wouldn't be able to pick a signal.
She made a scan on all frequencies with her omni-tool. This was a very useful software that allowed her to see if there were friends or enemies around before attempting contact and risking a signal tracing from the latter.
And just as Ezra predicted, she found out that the only allied ship left in the system was the Ghost, just as the imperials had only left a couple Arquitens in orbit.
"Specter-6 to Ghost, do you copy?"
She waited a few seconds. Then the worried voice of Hera replied. "Ghost here, Spectre-6. Are you all right?"
"I'm fine, but Spectre-7 broke his right leg. It's too risky to attempt an extraction now."
"Then what do you propose?"
"Just wait until night falls on our zone, we'll contact you later, and hopefully Ezra's will be able to stand on his feet by then."
"Understood." Hera replied, clearly not happy at how the situation had developed. "The Constantinople is chasing the imperial convoy. We won't have any other support."
"I figured. But the Ghost is certainly the best thing I could hope for a pickup." Jaral replied in a more positive tone. "Stay out of their radars and we'll see you tonight."
"Copy that. Be careful, kids."
Jaral closed the transmission and promptly returned into the cave, where she was staggered to find Ezra finishing to assemble a small fire pit by simply using the Force. He had already removed his armor, which was the thing that made her mad.
"What are you doing? You need the medical IV of the armor!"
"It already said me that there is nothing to do but wait. Rather, see if you can find a stick to immobilize my leg." he replied carefree.
Jaral sighed, rolled her eyed very quickly then took a look around. In the cave there was no wood, so she had to once again sneak outside, but luckily she found a sturdy enough piece of wood that should have been enough for what she needed to do with it. She reentered the cave and applied the improvised bandage with what she had in her first aid kit of the omni-tool.
Meanwhile, Ezra used his own omni-tool to lit the fire pit. Not by burning some kind of fuel that would quickly intoxicate the closed space or spread smoke that would give away their position, but simply by using a small amount of concentrated nanobots heated at very high temperatures. This caused a small fire that emanated more light than heat, but it was enough to keep them warm in the humidity of that place.
"Feels like the old times on the streets of Lothal, uh?" he joked with a completely innocent face, which in turn made Jaral wonder if he was all right.
"I just don't understand you, sometimes." she commented.
"What?" he asked unfazed.
"You literally just fell down so hard that you broke one of your durasteel-hard bones that was even protected by the best protective technology known in the universe, and yet you are laughing. Where do you find all that spirit?"
"Hey, it's not like it doesn't hurt like hell, bu complaining won't get us out of here, right?"
"Still...you usually take these situations more seriously, when it's about the others."
"Well, of course I do. I can't ask somebody to smile when they are in pain. But if I show you my suffering, it's you who would feel bad. And that's not something I will allow to happen."
Of course: Ezra was putting up a calm face so his sister wouldn't get more unsettled than she already was, knowing that they were stranded on the planet and their ability to move was severely limited by Ezra's injury.
Jaral shook her heads slightly. Her brother would always be like that, and perhaps she should have not worried about him being wounded so much: a leg can easily be fixed. And with that thought, she decided to put the matter to rest, preparing herself to wait for at least 5 hours in that cave until night came.
September 5.
Even though the family heads had eventually broken and agreed to submit to imperial arbitrate, Mara's recon on Anturus had revealed that the local force had no intention of giving up, and intercepted transmissions confirmed that Crimson Dawn was influencing the garrison to stand up and fight, most likely having the planet already under their influence.
With that in mind, Iulius simply thought that this was a perfect baptism of fire for the Executor. With the Admonitor being the first to enter the system and quickly picking up the signals of the local Senex clan, the Norsyd.
"Profile confirmed, Grand Admiral." Maurice said. "This fleet is made up of modernized Clone Wars vessels. There is a Venator among them."
"Thanks, Lieutenant." Iulius replied as he was using the holo-table to prepare the arrival of Death Squadron. Just like the officers of the Milky Way could do, Iulius was using Steve to drag the holograms of allied ships on the map, which then the AI would transmit to the other ships so they could come out of hyperspace in the formation the Lord-Protector thought necessary.
He only needed a few seconds to finish his adjustments, then he sent the all-clear signal to Lord Vader and his ships, all the while Steve was already providing the Executor with the list of targets.
The Senex fleet had already started its approach toward the Admonitor, seeking to destroy her, so when the rest of the imperial fleet came out of nowhere they were caught with their guards down. The Executor came out with her port aimed at the rebels.
Even if the fleets were still far to engage with conventional weapons, the Executor turned her cannons and opened fire, unleashing a rain of turbolaser and ion bolts that still reached the enemy.
Explosions started to blast in the middle of the rebel fleet. The imperial Star Destroyers and other escort ships were keeping the line of sight clean for the dreadnought, but were ready to intervene in case the Senex tried to charge.
"All ships hold position." Iulius ordered as he enjoyed the show. "They will either come to us or box themselves next to their space station."
Both things came to realization: the Senex fleet turned around and started moving toward their main orbital defenses, which was a station built onto an asteroid. An economic solution usually used by the criminal syndicates.
Of all those ships, only the Venator grabbed a very small escort of small crafts and two frigates and charged at the point of the Executor, past the rest of the fleet.
"All ships, focus fire on the Venator." Iulius calmly instructed, understanding that the rebels were going to ram the ship in a desperate attempt at putting the dreadnought out of commission. Still, Iulius didn't feel like letting that expensive toy getting scratched. "Defenders launch and aim at their port engines."
The fleet moved according to his orders. The Procursator-class opened fire with their ion cannons and taking the shields of the old cruiser down, which in turn gave the perfect opening to the rest of the fleet to bombard it.
The Defenders swiftly reached the port engines, while the TIE Avengers and Fighters covered their approach from the V-Wings and LAAT gunships used by the rebels. The cruiser had been upgraded with a very sturdy armor, and indeed it took quite the beating while keeping its suicide run, but when the Defenders blew up the left half of its engines, the ship started to drift away from the Executor, as the rest of the engines was still going at full power and the lack of balancing from the other side made it capable of simply going in circles.
It still passed barely above the point of the Super Star Destroyer before the intense fire of the imperial flotilla eventually shot it down by blowing up one of the major ammo magazines.
After that, it was easy picking for the imperials to take out the last small crafts of the rebels.
"Well done, gentlemen." Iulius said on the main channel. "Admiral Ozzel, the station is all yours."
"Understood." the Admiral replied. Despite his general antipathy for Iulius, the Admiral seemed quite pleased that he was given a chance of making multiple glorious kills.
Most of the remaining independent ships had gathered across the space station, which apparently had some jamming devices that made the targeting a bit more difficult. But against the sheer amount of guns of the Executor that amounted to very little. Ozzel simply had to order a barrage in that general direction and it was bound to hit the tightly packed ships.
In fact, even if it took around five minutes of bombardment, eventually the space station was damaged enough and some of the cruisers started to blow up.
Eventually, just as Iulius expected, the Senex fleet charged forward, trying to break out of the blockade and try to escape into hyperspace, but the imperial line easily repelled them with grave losses, especially because the closer they got, the more accurate the weapons of the Executor became.
"All forces, press the attack." he calmly ordered. "Force them to ground."
The imperial flotilla switched on the offensive. The TIEs dared to go beyond the range of the Lancers protecting them and started to cut down the enemy crafts. Iulius instructed each Star Destroyer to use their tractor beams on the small frigates, slowing them down significantly while the batteries dealt with the slower cruisers. Once these were destroyed, the frigates were now crushed. After seeing their comrades decimated, the rear guard of the Norsyd decided that their best chance of survival was to escape on the surface of the planet below.
Allowing them to escape like Loth-rats, Iulius noticed that even the space station was being evacuated, and presuming that it had been mined, he instructed the Executor to finish it off.
The battle of Anturus was over in barely 20 minutes. Aside from a few TIE fighters, the imperial ships were practically intact.
"Tell Cody to prepare his forces and get me Lord Vader." Iulius calmly instructed Ciena, who promptly relayed the message and then made the call.
The hologram of the Dark Lord appeared standing on the bridge of the Executor.
"Lord-Protector." Vader started with his mechanical voice. "I'm pleased to see your ability to bring results has been improving."
"Thank you, my Lord. But it's not over yet. We're scanning the surface in search of the main pirate base, then I'll be down with my stormtroopers. Would you like to join?"
"I'll inform Commander Kimmund to prepare the First Legion. Don't make me wait too long."
"Of course. See you on the ground." Iulius simply replied before ending the transmission.
"Sir, most of the fleeing ships are landing on a specific region of the planet. Perhaps their main base is located there. I'm focusing ours scans there." Ciena reported.
"Good. I'll go get ready for the ground assault, Commander. Keep looking."
Ciena nodded and the Grand Admiral headed for the armory, followed suit by his Togruta.
Ezra was getting visibly better, but he still couldn't use his right leg properly, still limping on that. At least he could move on his own and wield a one-handed weapon, which at least meant he wouldn't be completely defenseless. But now the problem was to reach the area that the Ghost had designated for its landing: an open space nearly a klik away from their hiding place.
"Hop on." Jaral said, kneeling down and presenting her back with her armor on.
"I must say, this doesn't feel quite right." Ezra quipped.
"Just get on." she said, getting quite annoyed.
This time Ezra decided it was enough with the quips and leaned on his sister's back. She grabbed his legs underarm and they finally ventured outside. There was no sign of the imperials, and by now she had hoped that they would've given up the search, but the truth was that the imperial transports were still in orbit, and the Ghost had not signaled an evacuation of the patrols. After all, the Astartes were dead set on getting rid of the Jedi, and this might be their greatest chance ever.
The siblings had already understood that the imperials were most likely waiting for them in the few places in the area where they could be picked up by any rescue.
Nonetheless, they had to do that. They needed to go back and pick up with the Constantinople before she ran into something the Legionnaires alone couldn't handle.
Jaral started walking. Ezra had an arm around her neck to hold himself while the free one had his lightsaber ready to be ignited in case blaster bolts started flying their way. Or rather, he didn't feel confident in his aim enough to fire while on sister-back, so he preferred to use the weapon he needed to defend the two of them.
Following the instructions of Jinx, she walked into the jungle. Through the Force she could feel the presence of night predators lurking around but staying away, maybe thanks to the fact that they were scared by the woman's armor. The trail was very irregular, though, and with her brother's weight on her, walking in that jungle, at night, was not an easy task. It took nearly 50 minutes for them to reach the vicinity of the extraction zone, and while they couldn't see the imperials, they could sense their presence nearby. Luckily, not on their side of the forest.
"Put me down." Ezra whispered. "Take a breather."
She complied. Indeed, making it in a single walk hadn't been easy, and before calling in the Ghost and start running again, they needed to be ready physically and mentally as much as possible.
They spent a minute catching their breaths, and Ezra materialized his armor, which might not be helpful for his broken bone, but for this sprint, he would have to bite the pain.
They exchanged one last glance through their visors, then Jaral spoke into her mic.
"Ghost. This is Specter-6. We're in position."
"Copy that. ETA 2 minutes. Get ready." Hera replied, understanding full well that they were most likely running into a trap.
"You ready?" she thought one last time.
"Let's do this." Ezra replied down the bond, gripping his lightsaber while his sister had her TL-50 ready.
They waited until the rumble of the Ghost became evident in the distance, then the ship appeared above the designated LZ. Hera lit up the floodlights of the freighter and pointing exactly in the direction of the siblings.
As soon as they saw the lights turn up, the Bridgers stood up and ran. Ezra made his best but it was still impossible for him to use the right leg at its full extent, so his speed was still halved.
And the moment they left the cover of the forest, blaster bolts started raining from their right side. Ezra ignited his lightsaber and parried a couple of them away, as it was much less straining to deflect them than taking them on with the directional shield. Meanwhile, Jaral had spotted two or three muzzles and laid down some cover fire with the repeater.
Then, at the exact same moment she saw the Astartes jump out of the forest, rushing toward the siblings with their sabers shining in the night...and then a rocket departing at full speed against the Ghost.
In the nick of time, Jaral reacted. First she used the Force to make the rocket smash immediately on the ground, not hurting anyone. At the same time, her right hand was still holding the repeater and charging the secondary shot.
As the small bomb of energy finished accumulating in the cell of the repeater, Jaral swung the rifle to launch it like a hand grenade. The projectile landed on the attack pattern that the twins were taking, forcing them to dodge at the last possible moment.
"Ezra, jump!" she ordered.
The young man activated his armor's jets and arrived on the open cargo door of the freighter, where Zeb was providing additional cover with his rifle, but he was forced to fire almost blindly inside the forest, so it wasn't much effective.
Ezra kept his calm and managed to land on his left side, avoiding the need to use the wounded leg but grunting a bit nonetheless.
Jaral promptly put her repeater on the back and flexed her body for the jump.
A sudden jolt crossed her whole body, her armor fizzled and was surrounded by streams of electricity crackling all around. She screamed for the sudden surge of pain but she kept her consciousness. The HUD of her armor signaling that the shields had failed and the systems were overloaded, trying to dissipate the excess of energy that just hit the armor.
Jaral turned her head and did it just in time to see the twins with their left hands tended and their inner circuits glowing down, then they charged at her again.
"Sis!" she heard Ezra over the rumble of the Ghost, but she had other problems.
She pushed herself to roll away in time to avoid a slash coming from Morit, then she used the momentum to stand up and ignite her lightsaber.
Only that then Aiolin fired a small electric net from her right wrist, but Jaral realized it after she instinctively raised her left arm to defend herself and was assailed by another electric discharge. The armor took the brunt of it but some of the voltage made its way into her muscles and that hurt.
The female twin was now on her, but Jaral still managed to block the following attack.
"Hera, take off now!" she yelled with a firm tone in the comlink.
"Not a chance!" the Twi'lek replied.
But there was little time to argue, as a squadron of TIEs was rushing and screeching toward the location.
From the ramp, Ezra took his Predator pistol and fired at the twins. The bolts of the Milky Way are faster than the blasters, so he caught them, but the twins had their kinetic barriers and Ezra couldn't risk hitting his sister by firing without restraint.
And if things weren't critical enough, the stormtroopers were coming out of the forest and moving toward the Ghost, there was the serious risk they could open the path to the TIEs for a clean shot.
"This ain't the time to debate!" Jaral insisted. "Go!" and before the twins reached her she did one last thing: magnetically transfer her Jinx's processors toward Ezra's omni-tool so long as it was in range.
"No!" Ezra yelled furiously.
However, put in front of the chance of being destroyed, Hera had no choice but to close the cargo door and rush back toward the orbit.
As Jaral was locking sabers with Aiolin, she found some solace in the knowledge that Hera would certainly be able to escape with the rest of the group.
The twins kept assaulting her relentlessly, and cornered her until the troopers arrived and delivered at least five stun shots at her.
Jaral kept swinging her sword and delivered a couple of omni-tool's abilities around, but in the end even her body had limits. Groaning for the fatigue given by the stun shots, she collapsed on her knees, at which point the twins ordered the troopers to stand down.
Morit and Aiolin walked in front of her. The former had a triumphant grin on his face, the latter didn't seem to find particular solace in this victory,
"You better kill me while you're in time." Jaral managed to say defiantly, despite the inebriation.
"Maybe." said Morit with his grin. "But the Emperor would prefer you very much alive."
She groaned, unsure what to say back.
It didn't matter since Aiolin stepped a bit closer and extended her right hand just in front of Jaral's visor. The palm illuminated and then flashed before she lost consciousness.
The last Tambaran left in the corridor, seeing his brethren gunned down, entered into his berserk rage. Jane couldn't help but think that it was like a very dumb version of the Krogan Blood Rage: the individual alien entered into a frenzy that made him faster, stronger and overall more dangerous, but at least the Krogan didn't discard a firearm when they were in that state. The Tambaran, on the contrary, seemed like they simply wouldn't be satisfied if they didn't get close enough to their enemy and tore it apart with their bare hands.
And this tactic was particularly counterproductive when the enemy had a sniper rifle and was seven meters down a completely open and cover-less hallway.
Without even the need to peek inside the scope of his 'Krysae' rifle, Garrus placed an explosive round in the head of the alien, which exploded and let the rest of the body fall on the floor, the neck still spilling blood.
From the corridor on their right a small biotic explosion sent another Tambaran warrior to skid violently on the floor and stop moving. Just a moment before Wilhelm appeared with Sara and Chief behind him.
"Tell me this is the bridge." Sara asked once they gathered in front of a door at the end of the hallway. "Because we have a horde coming our way."
"The ship plans I found are quite clear." Cortana said from Chief's armor.
"All right, then." said Jane. "Chief, you aim for their captain, we take care of the small fries for you. Be careful where you shoot, people, we want this ship functional."
"Yes, ma'am." Scott said next to her.
"Don't worry. I never miss." Garrus added.
They rushed for the door, and Jane for a brief moment couldn't help but remind herself that this dreadnought could not have been possibly built by the Tambaran: the design, both external and internal, suggested a mastery of the alloys and a precision that the Tambaran simply had not mastered yet. Somebody else built this ship for them, and that was the reason why John had sent them to board the ship.
While the Amerigo and the Vasco de Gama were hitting and running the Tambaran fleet using their speed and cloaking devices, Jane and her boarding party were to take the bridge and make Cortana take control of the ship.
So far it went well: thanks to their better targeting systems, the cruisers had managed to send some phase torpedoes right into a couple of magazines and weak points of the dreadnought, creating a couple of openings for the shuttle of the boarding party.
Said shuttle had already left, meaning that now they were do-or-die.
Scott reached the door and lit his omni-tool, being the hacker of the team. After quickly rewiring the circuits of the door, he managed to unlock it and the bridge was laid bare for their takeover. Inside the relatively compact structure, they quickly spotted the Tambaran captain, wielding one of their launchers and surrounded by a group of guards.
A firefight quickly followed. Using the usual piercing rounds, the Systems Alliance soldiers could easily fire as if the armors of the Tambaran were non-existent. Avoiding the explosive shots of the captain and making full use of their omni-tools' abilities, the crew managed to take out the guards, leaving room for Chief to first fire a burst at the captain's hands, making him drop the launcher, then rushed at him knocked him out cold with a few punches and an electric baton.
"Scott, seal the door. Cortana, whatever your plan is, do it quickly." Jane ordered as she stood in the middle of the corpses.
Chief instead reached what seemed to be command console and found an access socket where Cortana could hack into the ship's systems.
"Is this Atriox?" Jane asked looking at the unconscious captain.
Garrus knelt down, turned the alien's face and ran a scan with his omni-tool, then let the head drop again. "Negative. Name is Cordox. He is a follower of Atriox, but very deep down the food chain."
"Copy that." she replied, before hearing some heavy knocking on the door. Sara and Scott were there and raised their rifles in case somebody tried to enter, but it was clear that they were in trap.
"Cortana?"
"And...I'm in!" the AI replied just in time.
The video-feeds and consoles started changing colors and images. Whatever Cortana was doing, she had the control of the ships.
"Hold on, now. I'm going to make an FTL jump with all the doors except ours open."
"You intend to send them all to disintegrate into space?" Wilhelm asked baffled.
"EDI used this trick when the Collectors boarded the Normandy. I don't see why it shouldn't work here. There are only a lot more doors." the AI quipped.
For the next 30 seconds, the dreadnought ceased fire and started pointing the bow toward empty space. The knocking and the muttering behind the door became louder and louder, then the Tambaran outside started to beating the door directly.
Luckily for Jane, the door was sturdy enough and it held its own until Cortana declared the ship was ready for the jump.
"Then go!" Shepard ordered.
Since she was facing the door herself, Shepard only heard the sound the emulators did of the ship entering the speed of light and the sudden recoil. Then the door became entirely quiet.
The dreadnought returned to normal space a few light-years later, still in sight of the Tasale system.
"All lights are green." Cortana said. "No other lifeforms detected aboard. I say the ship is ours."
The boarding party breathed a sigh of relief.
"Contact Command and tell them we have a new ship to dissect." she ordered.
"At once, ma'am." Cortana replied.
"Also, can you find out if there's any register indicating who built this ship?" Wilhelm intervened immediately after.
"Just a moment...here."
On the main holo-table came up the manifest, sporting the symbol of what seemed to be a corporation.
"Terminus Drive Yards?" Garrus read and was confused. "Never heard of that."
"Then I guess we found some new work for the people at MI6." Scott commented.
Indeed, Jane thought. The implications were massive: any corporation able to build a ship of this class either had a large amount of money or the backing of a powerful government, but to the knowledge of the Federation, the Terminus were a melting pot of small nations and species that shouldn't have been able to provide all the resources necessary.
Unless they worked together…
September 6.
Sitting in one of the cabins, alone and in the dark, Ezra was once again trying to reach his sister with the Force bond, but no answer came.
He knew that the bond was there, he could feel it. But there just wasn't an answer from her.
Most likely, he concluded, the imperials had come to understand that the two of them could communicate with their minds and were keeping Jaral sedated or in a dizzy state where she couldn't use the Force like she usually did.
He tried a couple more times, but eventually he had to face the truth. His sister was a prisoner of the Empire now, and he had no idea where she had been brought. And she wasn't just any prisoner: she was one of the greatest public enemies.
By now he hoped that the imperials would be gloating all over the HoloNet about this event, which should have been a major victory for them. Instead, there was nothing. The imperial HoloNet was all about the advance of this new Admiral Rax and there were even some news about Iulius slowly taking over the Senex-Juvex Sector, but nothing about the capture of Jaral.
Which meant the Emperor most likely had some special plans for her.
He sighed and rubbed his face with one hand. Breaking the news to his father had been one of the hardest things he ever did, and his mother still wasn't aware of the fact.
He now had to tell Darvos. He had to know. And what about Samira? Worst case scenario…
No. Ezra shook his head. He mustn't think about that.
He stood up and left the cabin, finding Sabine waiting patiently for him. She stepped forward and gently took his hands. "How do you feel?" she asked softly.
Ezra couldn't bear himself to lie, but every time he acknowledged the fact that his sister's life was hanging on a very small thread of hope he felt all strength leaving him. He simply lowered his head, not feeling like talking.
Sabine put her fingers on his chin and gently made him turn toward her and her resolute look. "We will find her." she said firmly but gently.
Finding a bit of will in his wife, he hardened his look and made a nod. "Come on. I have a few calls to make." he said before heading toward the cockpit.
There he found the rest of the crew sitting in their chairs or Chopper standing next to his socket. The mood seemed quite gloomy in general, and only when Ezra entered did they turn their gazes on him.
"Ezra." Hera started, but was unsure over what to say.
"I'm fine. I'm not going to give up on Jari. But we need a plan." he replied with a calm demeanor.
"Got any lead?" Kallus asked.
"No. For now I will inform Darvos and…"
His omni-tool started beeping. An unknown contact was hailing him.
This was weird: exactly like that time when Jaral had been captured by Maul.
Still, if this was the way of the Force of repeating the same thing again, he certainly wasn't going to turn it down. He linked to the comlink of the Ghost to improve the signal and picked the call.
To his displease, there was no hologram of a real person, but a video-feed showing the vocal track, and the voice that came out of it was distorted, making it impossible to understand the species or gender of the person on the other side.
"Greetings, Ezra Bridger, Jedi Knight. I'm contacting you regarding your sister."
Ezra's first reaction was of joy, but his rational side of the brain took control and he didn't show any hint of emotion. "Who are you? Are you with Fulcrum?"
"Not quite. I represent a party that has a lot of reasons to see the Empire weakened."
There was a little of silence. The crew looked at Ezra, with mixed feelings about all this.
"I'll have to work with that. What do you want to tell me?" Ezra continued.
"One of my sources has confirmed that she has been transferred to an imperial research facility on the planet Denevar. It's deep into the Core, and they have deployed an entire stormtrooper legion just for her. But if your reputation is even half true, that should not be a problem for you."
"And what do you get for helping us?"
"The laboratory in question is apparently specialized in genetics. Did you know that the Empire never managed to capture a living Legionnaire? At least, since they are aware of their existence?" the voice replied, referring to the fact that Jordan himself had spent almost a decade in an imperial prison, but the Empire still didn't know his real nature of genetically engineered super-soldier.
"Are they going to study her?"
"It's way too easy to understand that the Empire wants its own super-soldier, or they might be working on a biological weapon made specifically for the Legionnaires. Either way, they would come out of this much stronger than before, which would be a problem for my party, as well."
"Then thank you. I will make sure to repay the favor." Ezra said.
"I know you will. Best of luck, Jedi."
The transmission ended, leaving the crew puzzled.
"Shouldn't you at least try to figure out if this is a trap, first?" Zeb reprimanded him.
Even Chopper had to opposed the idea of trusting that unknown person so easily.
"Don't worry. I already assessed it. Jinx?"
"The signature belonged to a shadow IP that I traced back to the syndicate known as Crimson Dawn. They are currently in a state of open hostility with the Empire." the AI explained.
Kallus sighed. "Ok, so assuming all we heard is true, how do we get that deep into imperial territory without the Constantinople and overcome an entire legion of stormtroopers?"
"Alone we can't. But I know a few people who will gladly help us." Ezra said optimistic.
It was time to make that call to Darvos, and also a few more.
"Just hang on, Jari. We'll bring you home." he reassured, knowing that at least he could put her soul at ease.