Chapter 3: Secret Wars
February 2.
"Master Bridger, Luke and I have secured the prisoners." Jaden said in the comlink.
Ezra parried another blaster bolt that one of the Pyke guardsmen fired at him. "Excellent. Bring them on the Silver, we'll decide a rally point later."
"Do you need help?"
He dodged another bolt. His personal shields were still almost untouched and he had a way to escape. "Just go, I'll be there."
More guards amassed on the opposite side of the corridor and their fire was becoming too intense as Ezra slowly paced backward.
"Can I go?" he asked.
"Just a few steps back." Jinx instructed with his mechanical tone.
Ezra kept moving as he deflected bolts and also cut down two Pykes who tried to attack him with some kind of spears.
"Here." Jinx said suddenly.
Ezra put forward his left arm and activated the directional shield of the omni-tool. While Jinx took control of the device to keep it pointed toward the aliens, Ezra quickly planted his lightsaber on the floor beneath him and with a swift circling he cut the ground, letting himself fall into the lower level and away from the infuriated Pykes, who intended to recover the intel that the Jedi had taken from them.
Yet, Ezra managed to run away and reached the end of a plumbing shaft that just so happened to exit in front of a deep canyon, where the Silver Bullet could hover and let him jump aboard while Sabine fired at the few chasing pykes who were catching up. As the Bullet started to fly away, Sabine pulled out a trigger and pushed it with her left thumb. An explosion rocked the base of the pirate's lair. She had placed the demolition charges not just at the weight-bearing columns, but also in the ventilation system, in a way that the fires and the violence of the blast reached all three upper levels, making the building go down in a blazing inferno with presumably all the gangsters inside.
Even under her helmet, she sniffed the air around her husband as the ramp closed. "You better take a shower before getting into our room." she commented while waving a hand in front of the helmet.
"You'd stink as well if you had to run through operating sewers." he replied in an ironic tone.
Sabine chuckled and put away the WESTAR rifle she had recently added to her arsenal after the first meeting between the students of the Academy and the mandalorian colony of Atin, back on Lothal.
"Is everyone on board?" the Jedi asked.
"Yup. I left Luke piloting. Jaden should be taking care of the prisoners down in the cargo hold."
"Okay, let's go take a look."
But first, he realized that he really needed something to remove the stench, so Ezra first went toward the decontamination threshold that the engineers of the Federation had installed per his request. From six different nozzles came out a special spray that removed any potential pathogen and also hid his smell for a few hours.
While he waited the few seconds needed for the process, he looked at Sabine, observing her new color scheme on her armor. Now she had gone for a mixture of silver and a deep purple, the latter one being how she tinted her hair. She had just changed those colors a few minutes before this last mission. It seemed a bit minimal compared to her previous schemes, but he found that it fitted her anyway.
They then headed into the hold. There were twenty people, mostly humans but a few aliens too. Jaden was distributing a few energetic bars and those who had already received it either were devouring it or had finished it.
"Is everyone all right, here?"
"Yes. Thank you, Jedi." one of the liberated persons replied in a tired but grateful tone.
The Twi'lek girl finished distributing the bars then reached her teacher. "They are tired but in good health. We were lucky to arrive before the pykes sold them into slavery."
"There is no such thing as luck." Ezra corrected her. "You and Luke made a great job in finding this lair. These people will have a second chance, thanks to you."
The girl arched her head forward. "Thank you, Master Bridger."
After that, Ezra quickly asked those people where they came from. As he expected, they came from the three nations around the unclaimed system they were rescued from. There were citizens from the Overic Authority, the Raxus Conglomerate and the New Republic.
"Hey. Nice work down there." Ezra said to Luke as he entered the cockpit and found his friend at the pilot seat, just giving the helm to Jinx.
"Thanks. What's the plan, now?"
"We will have to set an itinerary to drop these people into their borders." the Knight replied. He was about to bring up the holomap and set the course when Luke notified him of something.
"Hey, Darvos is calling you."
A bit surprised, Ezra nonetheless picked the call and Darvos appeared as a small hologram of his entire body on the console.
"Ezra." he greeted. "Hope I'm not interrupting something."
"We just finished our mission actually. We got a few prisoners to bring back home."
"So I suppose the Pykes are finally out of the Pakuuni Sector?"
"For now. The Republic and the other two really need to decide who gets what and police the trade routes correctly." Ezra lamented.
"I know, but those few systems hold little of value in the current conflict. I'm afraid we'll have to wait until the end of this war."
"Right...so, how can we help?"
"It's something I can't exactly discuss on this channel. Can you come here on Lianna? President Mothma will explain everything."
"All right. I'll report to Lothal, drop the prisoners and head straight for Lianna."
"Good. See you soon." and the hologram disappeared.
"They want to meet you in person?" Luke asked. "Must be something big."
"Something big equals trouble. Okay, we'll go in this order: first Pakuuni in the Overic Authority, then Raxus, and finally we leave the Republic citizens we rescued on the space colony over Caluula before heading for Lianna."
"All right, I'll set the route. Go inform Jaral." Luke reassured.
Ezra acknowledged the fact and stood up from the co-pilot seat, heading for the quantum communication relay installed on the freighter, but before that, Sabine peeked out from one of the doors in the corridor.
"Hey, I just finished painting your armor, come take a look!" she said excited before disappearing back into the workshop.
Ezra rolled his eyes, silently wondering why she deliberately waited until the end of the mission before concluding that job that she insisted on doing when the new armor from the Legion had arrived. Still, he took the invite and entered the small workshop the two of them had set up on the ship, in particular there was a crafting table designed to modify or repair lightsabers, vital for the three Jedi that were part of the crew.
On the other crafting table, the one reserved for the creative mandalorian, lied the pieces of Ezra's new armor. A new 'Hamata' model, with many more perks compared to the Lorica he used to wear. He had selected a configuration of pieces that would allow him to move nimbly and the helmet included thermal vision, night vision and a software capable of translating on-screen every script that differed from Galactic Basic. The armor also had improved shields durability and recharge; the nano-suit could inject medi-gel automatically or other chemicals that helped the wearer under various types of stress.
Sabine had decorated the helmet, torso and legs with the orange that was Ezra's symbolic color. The shoulders were yellow, reminding a bit the old color scheme, but this time Ezra asked her to paint the arms green, like his lightsaber. It was a way to completely acknowledge his Jedi identity along with that of being a Legionnaire.
"Looks cool. Let's see if it fits." he commented nicely as he touched the trigger.
The protections dematerialized, allowing Ezra to take the trigger. He observed it for a moment. It had been so long since the first time he and Jaral wore their first armors. More than five years ago, they took that leap and their destinies changed forever. Yet this was another passage in Ezra's life.
This time, Jaral would not be there to get her own armor, since she wasn't rejoining the field for a few months more.
Ezra unzipped the top of his jacket and exposed his chest. He approached the trigger, which then stuck to his body and sank a bit into the skin, connecting to his nervous system.
Perhaps because he had become accustomed to much stronger forms of pain, Ezra barely felt anything when the device was inserted.
A few seconds later, the omni-tool confirmed that the connection had been established successfully and the armor could be materialized, which was exactly what Ezra did. The undersuit was the first to appear, covering his body except for the head in the bat of an eye, then the pieces of the armor took form at the exact place they were supposed to.
He stretched the arms a bit, made sure that the gloves were in place, but they were merely movements just for show and to convince himself that he finally had an armor again. It fit him perfectly.
"Now that's what I call a piece of art." Sabine said satisfied, going to pat her husband on the chest.
February 4.
The Normandy left hyperspace above Dantooine and the sensors quickly caught up with the New Republic fleet in orbit. The planet had been abandoned right before the battle of Yavin, but after the allied offensive at the end of last year, the Republic had managed to re-establish a foothold in that region of the Northern Fringe.
It wasn't just to protect the population of Dantooine, which had been steadfastly loyal to the Rebellion, but also because from there, the Coalition could strike at Muunilinst, Mygeeto and other important worlds of the region that might even threaten the Core. Muunilinst had been the seat of the Intergalactic Banking Clan, and they may have been more willing to join the New Republic if they were allowed to operate freely from the nationalizations the Empire had subjected them to.
For now, all Shepard cared for was to buy the proton fuel necessary to run the hyperdrive. The updated FTL, based on Reaper technology, didn't need that, but it was only useful to make in-system jumps or to travel between relatively close star systems, part of a same cluster.
Still, the hyperdrive mounted on the Normandy was a new model, built by the Quarian and the Geth to optimize the consume of the fuel and that Tali was able to exploit it at the very best. Technically, they could slip down one of the major hyperspace lanes, reach Coruscant and return to allied space in time to refuel.
Of course, it didn't mean that they couldn't be spotted, and there was no intention of doing so in the short period. Right now the point was to refuel and return into the edges of imperial-controlled space to keep intercepting transmissions and at the very least find out where the hell Iulius Tanis had gone. EDI had found a few messages that indicated he was visiting the Kuat shipyards, deep into the Core of Andromeda, and there was no saying when he would move again.
"Mazak, I leave the bargaining for the fuel to you." Jane said on the intercom, hopeful that the only Andromeda-born member of the crew would be able to avoid any misunderstanding with the crew of the space station.
"Leave it to me, ma'am." the Zabrak replied confidently.
Just at that moment, Liara called over and informed Jane that she had something important to discuss.
Shepard headed down to Deck 3 and entered Liara's cabin, finding the Asari already waiting for her with a datapad in her hands.
"What you got, Liara?"
The asari touched the datapad and the screens on the wall brought up a list of imperial moffs, military officers and governors.
"I used my contacts within the UACT intelligence networks and came up with this. A list, though minimal, of high-ranking imperials who we know have a grudge or openly oppose the Lord-Protector. While most of their friends have been recently rounded up by the ISB after the failed attempt on Tanis' life on Naboo, there are still many who see him as a threat either to the Empire or to their own power."
Jane took a look at the list while Liara approached the terminal so she could start saving and transferring the project onto a data-disc that she could hand to the Captain.
"Good work, Liara. Give me a copy and send me an update if there is something to add." Shepard replied satisfied.
"Sure thing." Liara replied eagerly before taking the disc and handing it over.
"You have any suggestion over who we should start with? You are an expert at manipulating politics at this point."
"I consider myself quite experiences, sure." Liara said blushing a bit, then turned serious. "But I honestly never found myself in something similar. The Shadow Broker never takes part in a conflict between two nations, so I'm not entirely sure what to do here."
"Well, tell me your first thoughts and we can work it from there."
"As you wish, Captain. In my opinion, we have two possibilities when dealing with these guys. We can either storm their fortresses and kill them, or we can go a bit more subtle and, whenever we see they oppose the Grand Admiral, we can raid their most precious installations and destroy those."
Jane hummed a bit in thought. "I see. Since the Empire is a military stratocracy, every high officer that is unable to defend his resources will be severely smeared."
"You know your way about politics." Liara said admired.
"Well...yeah." Jane simply replied.
For a moment, she remembered the period between 2183 and 2185. When John was killed by the Collectors and she was only four years old. Yet Benedetta immediately took her as a ward and took care of her until John had been brought back to life and returned to the Alliance in time for the Reaper War.
The entire reason she knew so much about politics was because Benedetta had been her mentor. She had been the mother Jane never had. The main reason she would go any length to help the Empress, no matter how seemingly impossible a plan of her was.
"We'll have to play our cards at the right time." Shepard went on. "Have you managed to contact that Fulcrum agent, Qathora?"
"Not yet. Since we don't want too many people to know about our mission, I have to take a few back doors, making sure even the Republic intelligence doesn't know what we're doing." Liara replied.
"Keep trying. I need to judge personally how reliable she is."
"If I may, based on what Bridger told you, I'm sure she works as a double agent for Tanis."
"Yet, Jaral said that she does want him to climb the ranks. Perhaps she really believes in the dream of reforming the Empire. That would be enough for me to trust her."
"Perhaps. Personally, I would be more lenient to trust the other Grand Admiral, Thrawn. He's an agent of a foreign power. We can rely on the fact that he wants an Emperor he has more influence over."
"Fair point. For now, though, we know how to contact Fulcrum, so we'll have to start from there."
"All right." Liara conceded. "I'll notify you as soon as I find something."
"Thanks, Liara." Jane concluded before leaving the cabin.
Just in time to receive a call on her omni-tool from Sara. "Mom, there is a transmission coming in for you. It's Colonel Tanis of the New Republic."
Jane almost stumbled for a second, but quickly replied. "Send it to the comms room, I'm on my way."
"He's already waiting."
Shepard quickly got the elevator, reached Deck 2 and headed straight toward the comms room, past the strategic one and found the hologram of a young man with the uniform of the New Republic's Inter-branch Coordination Office.
"Captain Shepard. Honored to meet you." he started politely.
Jane made a respectful salute. "A pleasure for me, Colonel. I assume you talked to your wife?"
Darvos made a nod. "Indeed. She told me about your mission. I must say that I don't think your Empress understands that she gave you an unattainable goal."
"You mind share why you think that?"
"Because there is no matter how much influence you can direct toward Iulius, he simply can't defeat Palpatine. I saw what the Sith are capable of. Right now, they're keeping him in his position because they have nobody else who can hold the imperial line like he does. But I assure you, the moment they feel they can discard him, or that they think he might become too dangerous, the Sith will find a way to get rid of him."
Jane crossed her arms. "Are you talking as an officer...or as his brother?"
Darvos lowered his head a bit. He understood that he shouldn't have been thinking that way, but he simply couldn't help it. Not that Shepard was going to blame him for that.
"Both things. I don't want Iulius to be killed, but at the same time, if you end up favoring him too much, Palpatine and Vader might end up thinking that he's preparing a coup and deal with him accordingly. That said, I can't say I dislike the base idea."
"Weird. I was under the impression you two weren't on good terms."
"Believe me, Captain. Not a day goes by without me wishing that I could just sit down and talk with him. But I followed his career and I can say with certainty that my brother is still the honorable person I admired as a kid. If we find a way to take out Palpatine and Vader, leaving him next on the line of succession, then I am willing to try."
"I see. So, what do you suggest?"
"Well, for starters, I thought you may want to come along with my fleet. Did you notice the carrier right outside your viewport? That would be me."
Shepard thought for a moment, recalling the image she saw of the republic fleet as they approached the fuel depot, and only then she remembered that there was a Liberator carrier among them.
"Sounds good enough. Give us the time to refuel and we'll join you."
"Excellent. There is a problem in this region and we could use all the help we can get. See you soon, Captain." and the hologram disappeared.
Shepard stayed there for a second, wondering what kind of problem colonel Tanis meant, before realizing that she should just go and ask Liara if she knew anything. Still, she had a feeling that, after more than a month simply exploring Andromeda, her crew was about to find some action.
February 5.
As the Admonitor reached the orbit of Bettok, Iulius stared at the continental, temperate world in front of him. The Carunoans had signaled strange movements in the sector and by pure chance, Starkiller claimed that he had had a vision saying that the small colony on the third planet of the system was in danger.
He turned his head toward his left. Soon, right after the Admonitor's escort ships finished to break out of hyperspace, two more ships arrived: the new Chimaera and Palleon's new Victory-class cruiser, the Graywind. They had just come out of the Kuat shipyards, and Iulius wanted to test them out in this mission. The Chimaera had been now upgraded to the new 'Imperial II' Star Destroyer model, which had just been proposed by the Fondor DriveYards and approved by the Lord-Protector, though he was going to need some time to update the Admonitor as well and the rest of the fleet.
In fact, with the reduced budget he eventually had to accept, it might not be possible to upgrade all the existing ISD. He decided for now to prioritize his and Thrawn's fleets.
The only thing Thrawn regretted was the fact that they didn't have the resources to replicate the cravings of the snake-like creatures that were on the belly of the previous Chimaera.
Now, however, there were bigger problems than the Chiss' craving for nice drawings.
As Iulius kept the helmet of his armor under his left arm, he ordered a long-range scanning to both ISD.
"Sir. There is a small fleet right above the colony. Unknown manufacture." Echiris reported.
"Warships?"
"Yes, sir. They have quite the arsenal."
"All hands to battle stations. Deploy the fighters." Iulius promptly ordered.
The alarm started blaring. The officers on the deck rushed to do their tasks and voices started to overlap. Iulius paced quickly toward the holotable to take a look at the enemy formation as the sensors could pick up.
Indeed, he never saw that design, but it was clear that there was a flagship around which the other smaller vessels were gathering. And they were quickly switching to a defensive position.
"News from the surface?"
"I detect no signals, sir. They're probably jamming all communications."
"Very well." Iulius replied before taking the small cone that was his comlink. "Captain Eclipse, is the shore party ready?"
"Everybody is on board and accounted for, sir." Juno replied.
"Good. Warm up the engines. I'm on my way."
"Sir, if I may…" Ciena started a bit timidly, but Iulius ignored her and instead called Thrawn, whose hologram appeared briefly after, standing with his hands clasped behind, his body and legs so aligned that formed a single block.
"Grand Admiral, I'm leaving this battle to you." the Lord-Protector simply said.
"Yes, my Lord. However I would like to point out that it's too dangerous for you to get on the surface, given our non-existent intel on the enemy."
"Noted. Now see if they want to surrender. Otherwise, blow them up."
"As you wish." Thrawn said with a resigned tone.
"He does have a point." Qathora intervened firmly. "We don't know who these guys are. And what about those swarms of seeker bugs?"
"The Carunoans provided us with the countermeasures. I'll be fine."
"Which they haven't been tested yet!" she replied out of patience.
True. The Carunoans had developed a special device that every soldier carried during their war with the Yavzakhs, making sure that the Cuspids couldn't detect them. After Inferno recovered the new version of those mechanical bugs, the scientist of Carunoia had come up with an updated version, but nobody knew if it was effective, yet.
"Then we will find out." Iulius said without budging. "Commander Ree, the ship is yours until I come back."
"Yes, sir." Ciena replied even though she shared the sentiment of Qathora.
As the first TIE Avengers sped outside of the hangar and took offensive formation, Iulius headed straight toward the hangar, leaving Qathora behind to keep track of the daily reports that constantly flooded his terminal in the office.
"Head for the colony. Quick." he ordered once he was inside the Rogue Shadow, where Cody, Starkiller, DT-518 and the Inferno were waiting for him in the cargo bay.
"Aye, aye." Juno replied with the engines still rumbling on the background.
After leaving the time necessary for the last squadron of TIE Bombers to deploy, Juno lifted the Shadow and flew outside, engaging the cloaking device right when the imperial flotilla approached the unknown fleet enough for the two sides to start shooting at each other.
Confident that his mentor had everything under control, Iulius sat in the co-pilot seat to take a look at the planet as they descended. They had to break through a small layer of clouds before spotting the colony on the surface, which was just a small town with probably no more than 2000 people.
But there was one thing that was definitely out of place: a ship of a similar design of those in orbit was parked in the plain right next to the settlement. This one, though, was unarmed.
"Seems a transport of some kind. Now we know that the other colonies were kidnapped as well." Iulius commented.
"Where do I drop you, sir?" Juno asked.
Iulius took a quick look and spotted the warehouse of the town right outside of it, surrounded by a small wood.
"There." he said. "We don't want to end up inside their crossfire."
Juno nodded and veered the ship in that direction. Iulius instead put on his helmet and returned to the cargo bay. Cody handed him his E-22. Starkiller took point and finally the Shadow touched down and the ramp opened. The squad dashed outside. Juno had left them on the other side of the wood, which was dense but thin, leaving them to cross only a few rows of trees before reaching the warehouse.
"Iden, you and your squad circle around and close the access toward the city." the Lord-Protector ordered.
"Yes, sir."
"Steve, can you see anything on the sensors?"
The AI answered with the comlink. "I detect several heat traces inside the settlement, but they are too few to be the inhabitants. Also, there are seven unidentified targets inside that warehouse. I suggest you prepare your weapons."
"Understood. Move out, people."
With the Sith assassin opening the road, Iulius, Cody and 518 jogged toward the courtyard and the old industrial buildings they saw on the other side of the wood. Peeking downward in order to find anything that could resemble a trail in the terrain, the group didn't take too long before reaching the gate of the warehouse.
"I sense something." Starkiller said in a grim tone and dashed toward the end of one of the buildings.
The others followed suit and as they turned the corner, they spotted somebody.
Three aliens. Iulius couldn't recognize them and they had a biology he couldn't understand. At first impression, they seemed to have some kind of dark skin, but mostly covered by what seemed an armor made of some rock usually found at the bottom of an ocean. Their eyes had iris and corneas of various shades of azure. Hands had three fingers, while the legs were not humanoids, instead similar to the rear ones of four-legged animals.
Also, while the armor around the head and the arms were light beige, the rest had a distinctive color: some of them were green, a couple were blue.
But what caught Iulius' attention were two metallic devices similar to pods that they seemed to be protecting.
"Freeze!" the Lord-Protector intimated.
The aliens raised their rifles instead and a firefight ensued.
They didn't have blasters. Their rifles were quite elegant, and they fired what seemed some kind of slugs, but magnetically accelerated. Still, Starkiller managed to cut two of those with his lightsabers, protecting the three imperials who fired back at the aliens. Their armors apparently weren't much of a match for blasters.
As their three opponents fell, Iulius and his team then heard a brief concert of shots not far from their positions and they understood that the Inferno had just dealt with their opponents as well. In fact, Iden and her subordinates appeared a few seconds later.
Iulius then stepped close to the devices and his intuition turned out to be true: those were pods. Two colonists were inside those, seemingly in a coma.
"I guess we know what happened to the other colonies, now." Cody commented grimly.
"Indeed." Iulius replied, turning his head toward the town, where the alien transport was. "So that ship might already be packed with them. We need to move."
"What do we do with the pods, sir?" Hask asked.
"We don't know how they work." Meeko pointed out. "If we force them open, there is a risk we kill the civilians inside."
"Precisely." replied Iulius. "All we have to do is wipe those bastards out. Our techs will find a way to free the civilians, later."
"We're right behind you, Grand Admiral." Iden reassured.
The group thus ran toward the settlement, but didn't found many other people or aliens. The houses were empty and it was clear that the kidnappers were almost done. Only when they approached the village square they encountered another group of aliens who opened fire. The imperials rushed to cover, with only Starkiller dashing forward to slash through the enemy formation.
Then the aliens came under fire from their left side. Iulius tried to see who was helping but they were hidden behind a corner.
Still, the sound of the weapons emitted by this new party were not unfamiliar.
"Stay sharp, we got more targets on the left." he said.
Nonetheless, the aliens were quickly dispatched, but they must have been only a rearguard, because then their transport fired up its engines and started its takeoff.
"Tanis to Chimaera. An alien transport is leaving the surface. Intercept it with ion cannons. I repeat: only ion cannons."
"Acknowledged. We already destroyed their fleet in orbit. Sending in the interceptors." Thrawn calmly replied.
"Sir!" Cody yelled as he spotted the newcomers.
Iulius turned around just like the rest of his squad but he froze when he saw them.
A group of four men. Two were Legionnaires and he clearly recognized the armor of Jordan Bridger. The other one took out a green lightsabers, and his scheme color left very little to the imagination. There was then a man with a jacket and only a pauldron on his left shoulder. He had brown eyes and short hair, plus a trimmed beard with a mustache.
The final rebel was wearing a full combat equipment of the New Republic Army, including the helmet with the opaque visor that didn't allow to look at his face.
Yet, Iulius felt like he knew exactly who that man was. And then that man looked at him while pointing his rifle. His head tilted in surprise and he slightly lowered his weapon.
"Lower your weapons." Iulius ordered calmly as he walked to go in front of his men.
"Sir?!" Iden asked.
Iulius didn't reply. He lowered his rifle along his right side and took off his helmet, staring directly at the rebel soldier, who did the same with his weapon.
"Settle down, boys. We're not here to fight them, today."
Iulius' heart skipped a beat when he heard that voice, but he managed not to show it on his expression.
The soldier walked forward and finally removed his helmet as well.
For the first time after more than two years, Iulius finally stared in the eyes of his brother.
