Chapter XXVI

"You are not the Jedi we were expecting." Seventh Sister garbled through her mask.
The Inquisitors stand before Titus with their lightsabers ready. Not opened, but ready.
"Sorry to disappoint you." Titus tests, "I expected more of a challenge." he looks towards the Grand Inquisitor. "Where is your Master? Lord Vader. Why would he send his dogs to do a Sith Lords work? Given how powerful I have heard him to be."
The Grand Inquisitor smirks and scoffs, "I was trained by Lord Vader personally, as I to all his agents and by his teachings. You underestimate the power of the Inquisitors."
Grand Inquisitor unleashes his blades, the Seventh Sister follows suit.
Titus pulls out his two lightsabers and opens their red blades before making a defensive stance. "Your move, Inquisitor."
The Grand Inquisitor twirls his blades as he walks calmly up to Titus. Once he is within ten feet of him, the Pau'an lunges at him with a swipe to the left shoulder. The attack however, fails as Titus knocks the blade back with a strong backhand swing with his right blade.
Titus takes a jab with his left blade at the Grand Inquisitors middle, to which he dodges with a wide side step to the rear. With the Inquisitors footing now off, Titus uses the Force to push him back and put some distance between them.
Titus can sense the Grand Inquisitors prodigy behind him. Somehow, she was able to sneak past him. he spins around, using his momentum to throw his right blade at the Sister like a spinning top.
The Seventh Sister is almost too slow to react. However, she is able to activate her blades, set them to spin fast, and repel the what would've been a deadly blow.
Titus Force jumps backwards, avoiding an upward strike by the Grand Inquisitor, then calls his lightsaber back to him.

Ahsoka circles her A-wing around the duel bellow.
"Everyone has been extracted from the mountain." Saws voice comes through the coms.

"We're alright, Ashla." Ahsoka is relieved to hear Cassian's voice.
Ahsoka hits her com, "Good to hear. Saw, can you bring your U-wing down close enough for Titus to get on?"
"Need you ask?" Saw laughs.
Ahsoka smiles as she watches Gerrera's ship swoop down to the tall grass with the bay door open. However, her feelings become mutual yet again as she watches Titus call on the Force to send the Inquisitors flying backwards with a blast of lightning.
She watches as he Force jumps into the U-wing.
"We got him." Saw says.
But Ahsoka questions if that's a good thing or not. Her opinions of Titus have rapidly begun to chip away with every passing heartbeat.
"We're not out of the woods yet." she says, "We still have to get past those Star Destroyers."
"Don't worry. Leave them to me!" Saw says.

A Lieutenant sitting at the Imperial transports controls spins his chair around to face Thrawn. "The Rebels have made their escape, Grand Admiral."
Thrawn's pale blue face shows no emotion or response to the Lieutenant.
"Get me the Chimaera." Thrawn orders.
A moment later and the familiar voice of Lieutenant Dalmer is heard over the comlink.
"Yes, Grand Admiral?"
Thrawn stares blankly out of the viewport towards the smoldering, empty, battlefield. "Lieutenant Dalmer, put me through with Captain Pellaeon."
A second later and a new voice comes through, this one older and a tad gruff. "You summoned me, Grand Admiral Thrawn?"
"Captain, the Rebels are making their run into orbit. I have no doubt they are readying their ships to make the jump to hyperspace." Thrawn pauses briefly. "Calculate their cruisers projected jump location and move the fleet in their path in Formation Delta-Three."
"...But, Sir. Our fleet will collide with their cruisers once-"
"Do not question, Captain Pellaeon. Just execute the orders. You are also to ready the tractorbeam on the Chimaera. Understood?"
The com is quiet. "Yes, Grand Admiral." Palleaon mutters.

The squadron on U-Wings - and one A-wing - breaks through Thakwaa's gravitational pull and into the vacuum of space. There, they can see the continuing battle between Titus's cruisers and Thrawn's Star Destroyers. Only, the Star Destroyers appear to be moving into a different formation and attack position.
Titus's voice is transmitted through all allied transmitters, "All ships, set hyperspace coordinates Zero-Six, One-Twelve, Eighty-Seven and prepare to jump."
Another voice comes through the coms, the signal coming from the dreadnaught. "Impossible, Sir! The Empire has moved their ships to block the jump. They have left however, a small enough gap to get all fighters and light craft through. You make the jump, Sir. We'll cover you!"

Titus transmits, "Callan, did you get that?"
"Loud and clear, Sir." Callan's voice comes through.

"Good. Move your freighter into the lead of the fleet and make your jump. We will follow behind you."

Ahsoka shakes her head. "No, Titus, what about the cruisers? We can't just leave them, they will be destroyed."

Titus transmits back to Ahsoka over a private channel so that no else would receive the feed, "They are doing their job, Lady Tano, sacrificing themselves so others may fight another day. It's a nobel act."

Time around Ahsoka feels to freeze for a very brief moment. For one, it's profound for Titus to willingly accept these men to die, a good leader is one who searches for all possible solutions and lets sacrificing their men be the absolute last resort. Second, Ahsoka is baffled how Titus addressed her.

'Lady Tano'? Ahsoka thinks to herself, The only person who has ever called me 'Lady Tano' was….Ahsoka tries to tie the sinister voice saying that name in her head with a figure, when suddenly it comes back to her.

Maul.

She hasn't thought the horned Zabrak with a red face like fire much since she joined Bail's rebellion, odd how memories of him have resurfaced in the past few days. But she can still remember facing him on Mandalore years ago, and him referring to her as 'Lady Tano'.

Ahsoka moves to hit the com button when Titus's cold voice comes back over the open channel. "Callan, move the freighter ahead of the cruisers and make the jump."

On the control consul of the transport, which moves through Tunka City and back to the Imperial compound, a hologram appears of Captain Pellaeon before Thrawn. "Grand Admiral," the audio stutters, "The fleet has moved into position and the tractorbeam is primed and ready. The Rebels have moved the stollen Imperial freighter at the lead of their cruisers."

Thrawn humbly nods, "Very good, Captain. Engage the tractorbeam on their lead ship, bring their freighter into the docking ramp and prepare a boarding party. I want them taken alive."

"Yes, Sir." Pellaeon looks over his shoulder clueing to the tractorbeam technician.

"Grand Admiral?" Captain Pellaeon turns his attention back to Thrawn, "May I inquire why the freighter?"

"You may, Captain. The projected hyperspace lane the cruisers have chosen to jump is the same route the freighter previously made getting past the blockade, and the individuals piloting the freighter are the same as who stole it."

Pellaeon thinks, "They could have made a switch between the cruisers."

Thrawn shakes his head and grins only slightly, "Unlikely. Both the freighter and the cruisers arrived prior to the battle from two seperate hyperspace routes that remained at a constant sixteen parsecs from each other. Impossible to make a switch given the short amount of time between the Rebels departure and return to Thakwaa. Therefore, the pilots are the same and are moving to the same rendezvou as the cruisers, as evident by them taking the lead. Considering the freighter has frequented the same hyperspace route, it can be inferred that the rendezvou point is the location of the Rebellions hidden base."

"They've locked us into a tractorbeam!" Shila yells through the comlink, "All primary functions have been disabled."

Saw hits the transmit button and calls back to the freighter, "Hold tight and get ready to reactivate your thrusters!"

Saw turns to look behind him in the pilot's seat towards the cargo hold. "Idryssa! Get those ion bombs ready and open the cargo bay door!"

Idryssa nods as she opens the massive bay door, the shield gate keeping them from being sucked out in the vacuum of space. Beside her, two clusters hold four ion bombs in each.

Saw looks out the viewport at the fast approaching Star Destroyers. He weaves the ship past the hail of fire from their flagships batteries, his target being the command deck.

Lieutenant Dalmer steps up to Captain Pellaeon and the life size hologram of Thrawn.

"Sir," he says, "a single enemy fighter has moved into attack position."

Pellaeon doesn't look at the Lieutenant, only out the viewport. "They're mad. Destroy it."

Thrawn strokes his chin, curious to the Rebels bold move.

The Star Destroyers bridge is all that can be seen through the U-wing's viewport.

"Get ready to drop the load!" Saw calls back, "Then hold on tight, we're going to have to get out of here quick!"

Saw counts six heartbeats before taking an incredibly sharp left turn and calls back 'now'. In the cargo hold, Idryssa pushes the ion bombs through the shield gate and let them run a drift towards the Star Destroyer.

"Bombs deployed!" Idryssa yells.

"Hold onto something!" Saw warns as he hits the excelerator.

The tech officer looks up from the crew pit. "Sir, ten seconds until the freighter is docked."

"Ready the boarding party in the docking bay." Pellaeon orders.

"Sir!" an enlistee calls from the opposite crew pit, "The attacking fighter has dropped two unknown projectiles, they do however possess a high level of energy."

Captain Pellaeon cannot remember the last time Grand Admiral Thrawn ever showed concern on his face as he does now. His red eyes go wide, his jaw just slightly dropped, and chills run across his blue skin. "Ion bombs! Cease fire on all batteries!"

"Cease fire!" Pellaeon orders right as a huge white flash erupts over the Chimaera's bow as the ion bombs are hit by the ships fire.

The bombs blast radius spreads from the Chimaera to the adjacent Judicator. The bombs current pulses through the two ships as they shake to the shock wave. The thousands of lights across the two Star Destroyers flash until all power is lost.

The hologram of Thrawn flickers on and off. "Cap-tain!" is all Thrawn can say before the transmission dies.

Captain Pellaeon can only look outside the now dark bridge and watchs the bow of the Chimaera dip down into the black abayas with the Judicator. The fleet's formation has been broken.

"There!" the Twi'lek captain of Titus's dreadnaught says confidently, "Their fleet has broken, there's enough of a gap for our cruisers to get by! Make the jump!"

The three cruisers disappear into the stars as they make the jump between the downed Star Destroyers."

Ahsoka hits her comlink to the freighter, "Callan? Shila? Are you there?"

"We read you Ashla!" Callan comes through, "Their flagships tractorbeam has let go of us thanks to Saw, and functions have been returned to normal. We'll make the jump and meet you on Panantha."

Ahsoka smiles, "Will do, see you there." She transmits to Saw's U-wing. "Saw, Titus, the fleet and the freighter are clear. We are good to make the jump."

A single voice replies, "Jump." it's Titus.

Ahsoka plugs in the coordinates and activates the hyperdrive. The stars pull back around her as she jumps into hyperspace with Saw, Callan, Shila, and Titus behind her.