Chapter 29: Rescue

October 7, 2226.

Jordan kept looking at the planet below. Down there, into an imperial research complex that the scanners had already identified two days ago, his daughter was locked up into some cell, if not strapped to an operating table and submitted to gods knew what kind of experiments.

But that was about to end. The Liberator Task Force was waiting outside of Denevar. After the raid on Null, just as Ezra had hoped, the imperials had been forced to redirect most of the resources of the Northern Fringe into the Hydian Front, which left the rescue fleet pretty much unchallenged as they carefully traveled toward Jaral's prison.

There were a Star Destroyer, three Arquitens and a Victory II cruisers in orbit. The only space station was a small dockyard to refuel the ships and it probably hosted a small patrol of TIEs, but aboard the ships there were probably dozens of fighters ready for launch.

"Cloaking device engaged, Captain." Rut said from his seat. "Doesn't look like they know we are here."

"Copy that." Jordan said, then turned around as he had heard heavy footsteps on the main walkway.

There stood Gutierrez, in full armor, who halted next to the main hatch. "The squads and the vehicles are all ready, Jordan. We're waiting your signal."

Jordan made a firm nod. "Get ready, then. We'll drop as soon as the main relay is destroyed."

Gutierrez turned around and hurried back to the elevator.

Rut was setting the Constantinople for full combat readiness. "Of all things, I never thought I would have to make a dive bombing with a frigate." he commented.

"There is a first time for everything, my friend. You think you can pull it off?" the Legionnaire asked with regard.

"Oh, I can. If we crash on the surface, blame Jinx." Rut quipped.

Jordan made a smirk. His crew was prepared to do anything, just like he was, to retake Jaral. He then turned to the same AI. "Jinx, is the Liberator in position?"

"Affirmative. Ezra and Darvos already gave their green light. I will signal them whenever you deem it opportune."

"Then it's time. Rut, go past that fleet and prepare to strike." he concluded.

As the Constantinople moved to reach the surface and launch a surprise missile strike on the comm relay of the lab, Jordan reached the hangar. There, most of his marines, led by Gutierrez, Ahsoka and her two Padawans, were preparing to disembark once the frigate hit the ground. Meanwhile, Jordan would lead Thabo, Michalina and a small team with the dropship that would anticipate the general assault and find an opening to hold until the main force made planetside.

Ahsoka and Gutierrez would instead secure the landing zone that had been designated: the base just happened to be in the middle of an open plain, with a mountain range a few km on the western side. A river ran on the southern side, but in the north-western quadrant it was all open plain with basically no natural obstacle. The imperials knew it, and there were at least three lines of defense that needed to be broken through. The marines of the Constantinople had to establish a beachhead and keep the imperials occupied while the transports in orbit dropped the first shock troopers.

It was a very risky tactic, but the first line of defense wasn't too strong and the vehicles on the Constantinople (particularly the tank and the Atlas mech) should've been able to take out the imperial turrets. Plus the marines had Mau'kur carrying two heavy mortars on his back, and three Jedi.

Jordan was conflicted: of course he wanted to rescue his daughter, who also happened to be a leader of the very important Jedi Order and a high officer for two allied armies, but he always found distasteful to risk the lives of more people just to save one.

The time came. The Constantinople easily slipped past the imperial ships and entered the atmosphere of Denevar, heading straight toward her objective. Before starting the main run, the hangar opened and the dropship flew outside. The frigate started to accelerate to attack speed and Jordan observed the scene from the cockpit of the dropship.

Catching the garrison completely by surprise, the Constantinople appeared out of nowhere thanks to the cloaking device and launched two laser-guided torpedoes that blew up the comm relay.

"Jinx, send the signal." Jordan calmly instructed, then ordered the pilots to land on the shore of the river, hoping that the imperials would never expect an attack from there.

The Constantinople came under the fire of the few anti-air turrets of the complex. Rut used the two torpedoes left to hit some of them, which was probably going to be helpful for the allied dropships from orbit, then the frigate braked a few hundred meters from the first line of defense and started lowering. The alarms blared from the complex and sensors indicated that the imperials were completely distracted by the Constantinople.

And just as the Kodiak hit the ground and Jordan led his team outside on the bank of the river, right below the walls of the research compound, communications arrived that the Republic ships had come out of hyperspace and were moving to engage the imperial ones.

With the imperials completely distracted, the infiltration team had a free hand to lurk around and find a door which wasn't very guarded. While explosions started resonating from the expected frontline, Jordan let Jinx hack the door and the team easily entered. They knew that they were basically in the waste depot, and so they found container full of disposed medicines and machinery, some with blood on the point, and Jordan shivered just thinking that it could have been his daughter's.

What was important, was that the huge section was unguarded, as nobody expected an attack from there, apparently, or not a surprise one at least.

This hadn't been improvised: Galen Erso knew how imperial research compound were usually done, and he had advised to look for the trash depot to take the garrison by surprise. All the while, the marines had disembarked, with the Jedi leading the charge and the ship's tank firing at the turrets.

Before they ventured inside the hallways of the base, meaning that they would soon have to fight, Jordan halted the team and turned toward Sellion and Lissia. "All right, kids. I need to ask you if you can feel your Master."

The two youngsters pursed their lips in a bit of shame. "We know she's here." said Sellion. "But we can't tell exactly where she is. I'm sorry."

"Hey, hey. It's already great to know that she's here." Jordan immediately reassured them. "Now, any secret lab will have a surveillance room. Let's find that, and we will find Jari."

Thabo knelt down and ignited his omni-tool, projecting a model of the compound. With that, they started planning according to the intel provided by Galen Erso.


The battle in orbit has opened better than Ezra could have hoped for. The imperials had been caught with their pants down, and the squadrons opening the battle were Rogue and Red, both led and composed by veteran pilots who knew exactly where they had to strike first: the comm relay of the Star Destroyer, which was the only device present that the jammers of the Liberator couldn't entirely suppress.

The X-Wings and Y-Wings used the surprise to its full extent, and in the meantime the major vessels engaged the imperial cruisers, easily disposing of the Arquitens while the Victory-II opposed a sterner resistance.

The Star Destroyer was still around, but the two Calamari MC-80 were definitely giving it a hard time, meaning that the ground force was free to start the landfall. Ezra was already on the Silver Bullet, ready to lead the first wave of Pelicans in the dive. The Jedi was in the cargo bay, as two republican pilots had taken over the commands of the freighters so that he and Sabine could drop with the mandos.

Ezra felt the bond kindle a bit. He was sure that his sister was down there, but even if they were this close after a month, there was still no answer from her.

He tried to strengthen his heart. He needed to be prepared for whatever he was going to find out. As he lowered his security bar and held tight, next to him Sabine reached his hand next to her and intertwined their fingers. Even through the helmets, Ezra knew that she was giving him a reassuring smile.

The Bullet jerked a bit before starting to tremble. Everyone understood that they were diving through the atmosphere of Denevar. The Pelicans should have been right behind them.

"Visual contact with the objective. One minute to launch." one of the pilots announced on the speakers.

"Here we go. Hope you checked your jetpacks." Tristan said to his fellow mandalorians, especially a group of three young warriors who had just come of age. "Remember, when you touch ground, your first priority is to reunite with someone, then you all fight your way toward the platoon."

The mandos nodded or said yes, meanwhile the lower hatch beneath the racks opened, letting the squad look down on the surface. Ezra prepared himself for the jump, and when they spotted the river appearing on the forward side of the freighter, he knew it was time to jump.

The Jedi was the first to let himself fall. Sabine followed immediately after and the mandos launched with a coordinated sequence.

The freighter was flying 200 meters above the lab. The fall was relatively short, but the squad had plenty of time to open the jetpacks and land on the roof before the small force of imperials stationed there had the time to realize that they were being attacked. Ezra ignited his lightsaber and went straight to cut a pretty big cannon that was firing on the position of the Constantinople's marines while the mandos quickly cleared out the roof.

Ezra took a quick look in the direction of the main attack. The Constantinople had lifted in the air after unloading the marine company. He even saw the thin lines of Ahsoka, Chuvi and Newak's lightsabers deflecting blaster bolts to protect the marines. The frigate was providing support with her GARDIAN lasers while the Pelicans were now lowering and the first shock troopers of the New Republic, including a few Rangers, rushed out and joined the attack.

This wasn't going to end well: as Ezra had already noticed, the defenders were all stormtroopers. He and the mandos quickly got rid of them because of numerical superiority and surprise, but out there this was going to be a bloody battle.

The only way he had to put a stop to this was to find Jaral as soon as possible and get her out. Only with her could the allies pull out.

"Tristan, leave someone to guard this roof so we can use it for extraction." he ordered.

Tristan nodded and chose five of his warriors to stay there. After that they found a maintenance door and entered through the stairs, finding no resistance.

Ezra tried to reach his father, who luckily answered and informed him that they had located the surveillance room and were storming it.

Then the voice of Kota broke into the comlink. "Ezra, this is Kota, come in."

"I'm here, Master."

"We neutralized all imperial ships in orbit. It's now completely ours."

"Excellent. We already broke inside the lab, send all the air support to the marines."

"Understood. Trust in the Force, my friend. You will find her." Kota eventually encouraged.

"Thank you." Ezra said simply.

As the group made way through the hallways, at first Ezra was directing them toward the security room, but then he felt a pull from the Force bond. He halted in his tracks and looked on his left, down a corridor that headed to an underground level.

Sabine noticed that right away and so did the mandos.

"You sure she's down there?" Sabine asked.

"I am." Ezra replied with a clear voice, free of any doubt. Then opened the channel with his father. "Spirit, this is Spectre-7. I found her."

"Where?"

"An underground level. Keep going toward the command center, once you are in control, use the cameras to guide us." he calmly said

"Don't worry. Just go get her."

Ezra recommended his companions to watch out then he took the lead down the stairs. He realized that he was being too focused on his sister, rather than his surroundings, so he quickly remedied, in time to realize that beyond the corner they were about to turn there was a danger. He raised a fist to have the squad stop and wait while he deactivated his lightsaber, ignited the cloaking device and peeked over.

What he saw was a small group of Shadow Guards, blocking a door with a makeshift barricade and even armed with an E-Web blaster turret, if the huge T-21 and other large rifles were not enough to take down whoever would have walked past that corner.

He turned back toward Sabine, reappearing from the cloaking.. "Heavy nest in front of us. I draw their fire, you bomb them."

"I love when you say that." she replied mischievously, then holstered her pistols and took out two small detonators.

With a swift movement, Ezra jumped into the hallway and ignited his lightsaber, immediately drawing the fire of the Shadow Guards. Focusing all of his strength and senses he twirled the saber around with an impressive speed, parrying all the bolts that would actually hit him while Sabine quickly took cover behind him. After taking the measures, the mandalorian woman primed the bombs and threw them one at a time.

Those weren't exactly explosives though: they were stun grenades that released a series of smaller packs of fireworks that overwhelmed the senses of the guards. That gave Ezra the chance to charge and cut the turret before jumping over the barricade and starting to cut or beat down the guards. The charge of his mandalorian allies helped him finish the job in just a few seconds.

Finally, the bond signaled that she was behind that door the guards were defending. It was locked, but for Sabine that was nothing. Ezra stood in front of the metal slab, mentally preparing for what he was going to see.

But after the door opened and he took a good look inside, his heart just couldn't stay calm.

Jaral was hanging on a mobile table, which was now vertical and she was held tight by metal grips on the wrists and ankles. Her body was covered only by a set of sports underwear that the imperials had had the decency to leave on her, but she was covered in bruises, sutures where wounds had been open. Her right shin presented a black edema beneath the skin, her left eye had a horrifying bubo covering the skin around it.

She looked nothing but deteriorated. She had lost most of the plump and only a small albeit strong strata of muscles covered the bones, but it was still a miserable view.

Ezra just couldn't stand it. He dematerialized his helmet and rushed forward, his face contorted in a mix of horror, fear and anger. He used the Force to open the cuffs and grabbed his sister as she fell forward, then carefully made her lean on his knee as he held a hand behind her shoulders and brought the other on her face, gently slapping it.

"Jari! Jari, talk to me!" he whispered with a knot in his throat that he couldn't dissolve. Sabine also rushed next to her and quickly started a bio-scan with her omni-tool.

To Ezra's relief, Jaral made a tired exhalation and then tried to open her eyes, managing to do it only partially, yet she turned her gaze on him.

"Ezra…?" she whispered with barely any strength.

He caressed her cheek. His sight was blurred as he couldn't hold back the tears anymore after hearing her so exhausted. Yet he kept talking to her. "I am here, Jari. I'm here…"

The mandalorians were keeping an eye on the hallway, and only Asha and Tristan approached to see if they could help.

"She's not okay." was Sabine's harsh judgment. "We must take her into an infirmary immediately."

Ezra nodded, trying to recollect himself.

"Sabine, Asha, take her." Tristan ordered, taking the situation in hand. On his right shoulder he had a small cape as a count. He took it off and handed it to Asha, who then used it to wrap up at least Jaral's upper body.

After taking a moment to breathe, Ezra informed Jordan that they had found her.

"I see it on the cameras." Jordan replied, already discouraged. "How is she?"

"Better if you wait and see for that." was Ezra's meager answer.

"I see…" Jordan said. Then added something in a more formal tone. "Anyway, we captured the head-scientist, a guy named Cylo. There's also all sort of data here on the main computer."

"Good. Take whatever you can and then withdraw. We have no reason to stay here anymore."

"Sellion and Lissia are heading your way. Take them with you."

As if that was a signal, the two Padawans arrived running in front of the door, just as the mandalorian women had made a human chair to hold Jaral up and take her away.

"Oh, spirits." Sellion said when he saw his Master. Lissia gasped and brought her hands at the mouth.

"Come on, guys." Ezra said calmly. "We need to get out of here."

The Padawans snapped out of their horror and stopped him as they brought out something each from a pocket. Ezra was surprised to see that they were the lightsaber and the armor trigger of Jaral.

"We felt the kyber crystal resonate while we passed in front of a lab. So we found both." Sellion said.

Ezra carefully took the lightsaber and looked it. Then nodded to them. "Excellent work." then transferred the trigger into his omni-tool. "Now let's get your Master out of here."


October 10, 2226.

"The Coalition has not attacked us again, though in all honesty, I don't think they were actually trying a counter-offensive." Sloane reported.

"I see. They only tried to shorten the front."

"Yes. If they are planning another offensive, I doubt it will be in this sector."

"Copy that, Admiral. Maintain and fortify your position. What can you tell me about Admiral Rax?"

"At least he had the sense to withdraw when all his ammo went up in smoke. But unless Coruscant sends something more, I can't provide for all of his ships."

"Yes, I already reported that to High Command. Let's just hope Rax is connected enough to earn some quick delivery." Iulius tiredly stated. "Now, then...there is a matter that requires my personal attention. I won't be reachable for a couple rotations."

Sloane nodded. "We will manage, sir. Good luck."

"You too, Admiral."

The hologram disappeared and Iulius decided to go back to the bridge of the Admonitor. The MTC had just sent in another report and Ciena explained what there was written in it.

"Scans confirm that the Consortium has established an outpost on the first planet of the Crait system."

Iulius hummed in thought. "Aren't all the planets in that system hostile to life?"

"According to the database, yes. Crait I is probably the only one where it's not impossible to establish an outpost, but it's still quite challenging. It's just a huge desert of salt with a few rocky ranges. However, it appears these have a network of caves. Perhaps there is some water there, or something that makes it livable for sentients."

Ciena tapped her datapad and the holo-table showed a projection of what the geo-scanners of the recon ship had caught up: an outpost built at the base of a mountain and a heavy blast door covering the entrance. Just outside there were three lines of trenches with bunkers and some heavy turrets, which looked more like old Republic naval cannons scavenged and used as fixed weapons.

"Weird." Iulius hummed. "This setup looks more like a secret rebel base. Zann usually doesn't squander all these resources on a temporary hiding spot."

"Funny for you to point that out," said Ciena with a friendly smugness. "because among the various things, the crew intercepted several transmission. They weren't able to decode all of them, however I cross-referenced their encryption with our database and...well, look for yourself." she handed him the datapad.

Iulius quickly looked at the two sequences of codes that were on display, and he didn't take long before noticing the similarities. "They are basically rebel codes. Just slightly altered." he said, hiding his surprise.

Ciena nodded with a straight face. "It might be a ruse, but if I'm not wrong you were looking into the possible presence of the rebel Garm Bel Iblis in the Trailing Sectors, right?"

Iulius took a moment to raise his eyes and look at her. Ciena had really grew up a lot since she had come aboard the Admonitor and he felt a great sense of satisfaction in seeing what she was capable of. That reminded him that High Command was still denying his request for her promotion and killed his mood instantly.

"Yes, Commander. But we will have to find out in a more direct approach. I see there is no fleet in orbit of Crait."

"No, sir. It's probably a way to avoid any attention. They don't know that we have made a lot of progress in search operations."

"Indeed. But this gives us a chance to retain the surprise. Call General Veers, I need his opinion."

"Right away, sir."


October 11, 2226.

The Liberator and her Task Force were finally reaching the orbit of Dantooine and the safety of a New Republic naval division that marked the entrance into allied territory. The members of the expedition could finally draw their breath and take a moment to mourn.

While the attack on Denevar had been certainly a masterpiece of in-depth incursion, it wasn't without losses. On the ground, 20 allied soldiers had lost their lives, all from the New Republic and other volunteers. The Marines of the Constantinople enjoyed personal shields and heavy firepower, so all they took was 4 wounded, all of which had already recovered completely or partially. In total, there were also 62 wounded. Some had recovered, others were still in the infirmary.

In orbit, all squadrons had suffered some losses, except for the aces of Red and Rogue, who managed to get out at most with a few scratches. The ships had all come back without any major damage.

What was lowering the morale was that the reason they had fought for was still lying in a medical bed, attached to several tubes and apparently comatose.

Doctor T'Perro had come off the Constantinople to help aboard the Liberator and to visit Jaral personally as she had experience with the biology of the Legionnaires. What she had discovered seemed to come out of a horror movie.

Doctor Cylo and his staff had been testing pathogens on her, trying to figure out a biological weapon that would target the specific nature of the Legionnaires, and that explained the several deformation on the woman's body. She had been cut open and kept alive only to see how fast her regeneration happened and to study it, deprived of food and water for the last week to see how much she could resist without them and kept under sedatives for a month to keep her from escaping. The only method with which they kept her muscles from atrophy was through forced movements and low electric discharges.

When all that had become apparent, Jordan had almost stormed the cell of the Constantinople with the clear intent of killing Cylo in the most gruesome way he could imagine. Ezra and Thabo had managed to restrain him and the doctor had been transferred on the carrier. Even if all the members of the crew weren't there because they cared about the woman he had tortured, human experimenting was certainly a way to earn the disgust of pretty much everybody.

Ezra himself had been tempted to join his father in finishing the prisoner, but he kept repeating himself that such a meaningless action would only deprive the Coalition of a valuable source of information.

The data recovered by Jordan and his squad had turned out to be incredibly more important than anticipated, as an analyst officer was explaining on the bridge of the Liberator.

"The structure on Denevar was only a part of a larger imperial research project. They named it 'Necromancer'."

"That doesn't sound ominous at all." Ezra commented coldly. A suspicion, almost a certainty, was creeping through his mind. "What was its purpose?"

"They were studying the possibility of transferring a man's conscience into another body different from the one of origin."

"Isn't it what Palpatine was trying to do last year on Dromund Kaas?" Hera asked. "When Jaral killed his puppet?"

"That was just it. A puppet." Darvos replied. "He was controlling the body from a distance. Here we are talking about transferring all mental faculties from a body to another in case anything happens to the original one."

The group of officers fell silent. Palpatine was still trying to attain immortality, after all.

"But why was Jaral there, then?" Ezra asked, feeling the disgust and rage come back at him. "Why were they studying her biology?"

Darvos seemed hesitant as well, but eventually nodded to the officer, who tapped his datapad and a document appeared on the holo-projector.

"According to Cylo's personal logs, they were trying to see if they could improve Palpatine's clone. Other than maybe copy the Legionnaire modifications to create their own super-soldiers."

That was it. Ezra took a huge nasal breath as he needed to push back that thought. The simple idea that his sister's DNA was being used to feed the psychotic ambitions of the Emperor was nothing short of revolting. But now that plan wouldn't have come to fruition, so he forced himself to calm down and chase away that expression he was wearing.

"Okay. So we shut down that lab, but I doubt we stopped the project. Do we know where their main base is?" he asked.

"The coordinates we found lead to nothing. But then we found out that they actually bring to Byss. The planet you uncovered, Jordan." Darvos said to the Captain of the Constantinople.

On his part, the Legionnaire was clearly feeling uneasy, even if he was standing composed around the table. Still, he replied without much delay. "Then I guess it's settled that we must return there."

"Yeah, but what can we do?" Rex asked. "Reaching Denevar was difficult, but reaching that place...we would have to go through Coruscant."

"I have a plan. But I will need the approval of the Council." Jordan said, Ezra noticed, with a grim note in his voice.

The Jedi was about to ask what was wrong when he felt a strong pull in his heart. He jolted his head toward the door, hesitated for a moment, then he felt the bond rekindle like never before. The other just had the time to start realizing what was happening and Ezra was already running outside, sprinting toward the infirmary. There were soldiers in the hallway who saw him running like crazy and many guessed why. Shortly after his passage, a small crowd started to converge toward the infirmary where Jaral was laying. Inside a more secluded room at the edge of the infirmary, past the few convalescent soldiers still there, Ezra reached the bed where his sister was.

And found her with her eyes open, tiredly looking at the threshold as she waited for him to arrive.

Already ragged by the mad dash, Ezra's breath became even more irregular as he witnessed the scene. Thanks to the modern surgery tools and genetic restoration, the signs of the plagues had disappeared from her body and now she was smiling at him even though she still lacked some energies.

"Hey Ez." she said with a feeble but happy voice. She raised a hand as if trying to reach him.

Ezra tried to say something but the emotions turned the phrasing into a short moan. He knelt next to the free side of the bed and grabbed her hand with both of his. Staring at her eyes, tears started to quickly accumulate, blurring his sight, and then to stream uncontrolled.

"Jari...you…" he said in a euphoric voice that was however strangled by the knot in his throat.

The dam finally broke and Ezra leaned his front on Jaral's hand as he started sobbing without restraint. Finally, after a month, he was free to discharge all the anxieties, all the fear that had persecuted him and that he had struggled so much to keep bottled inside his heart so he could think of the best plan possible to take back his sister. Now, everything was over, and he could afford to let it all go.

"Oh, come on...don't be a crybaby…" Jaral mocked him, but that didn't sound very convincing because she, too, had her face already full of grateful tears.

Shortly after, as Ezra was pouring out his last emotions, the rest of the family arrived. The place next to the bed was left for Darvos to finally reunite with his wife. Soon followed by the father and then the friends. Only at that moment did Lexi arrive, after she had noticed the commotion and the amount of people waiting around the infirmary. She ordered them all out for a moment so she and her assistant could do some quick exams, but eventually Jaral was allowed to stand up.

Problem was, her muscles had almost turned into butter, since they had not been used correctly for a month. Jaral only managed to limp around when Sabine and Hera went to sustain her, but at least she could walk outside after they had given her the old uniform as Marshall, since her blue outfit had disappeared and she only had the sports underwear.

It was only at that time that she noticed that they weren't in the infirmary of the Constantinople or the Ghost and she was shocked to see a few troopers on their beds with small mutilations while three of them felt good enough to play Sabacc, but when she was brought outside the soldiers greeted her with friendly waves and smiles and affectionate "ma'am".

Her stunning became even stronger when she was accompanied at the entrance of the medical wing and saw the huge crowd of soldiers, pilots and crew members who acclaimed her with a loud applause. Wedge and Biggs gave her a salute, a smile, and welcomed her back.

"All these people came out of their way to get you out." Ezra commented.

He felt that Jaral was on the verge of crying again, but instead she took a deep breath and refrained from shedding more tears. Her expression was still very emotional and grateful.

When silence fell for a moment, she used it to speak as loud as she managed. "My friends...I have no way to express my gratitude with words. But I will still try it: Thank you. Thank you so much. All else I can do is to give you my word. That as soon as I can, I will gladly come at your side again. We shall not stop until we destroy Palpatine's Empire and until we build a better galaxy for our children."

A round of cheers followed. Eventually, Jyn and Cassian came in the front and told everyone to leave the General some room, instead inviting them to reach the bar for a round of toasting. The soldiers eagerly followed the suggestion.

With that settled, Jaral was already feeling her legs heavy, so she was accompanied back to her bed to recover.

"You too, guys." she said tired and happy. "Thank you for coming after me."

Hera, who had ended up sitting next to her, put a hand on Jaral's knees. "You wouldn't have hesitated to do the same for any of us, dear. Don't even mention it."

"But it's not over yet, isn't it?" Jaral asked a bit discouraged. "I was sedated, but I got a glimpse of what was happening there. Cylo was working on Palpatine's immortality, right?"

"Unfortunately, yes." Ezra replied calmly. "However, we know where the main base of Project Necromancer is. It's safe to assume even the Astartes will be there to protect what is left of it."

"You know, if you leave me a few minutes with him, I'm pretty sure I can get something useful out of him." Jordan said as he visibly closed one of his fist.

Ezra, however, replied in a very peaceful tone. "No, Dad. I will be the one to interrogate him. You are comprehensibly filled with rage, but that doesn't help in an interrogation."

Jordan seemed hit where it hurt, but he had to concede.

"Sabine, you come with me. If he doesn't want to spill the beans, it's your job to intimidate him." the Jedi calmly instructed.

The mandalorian replied with a grin that anticipated the pleasure of doing such a thing.

"Meanwhile, ask Lexi when Jari can be loaded up on a transport for Lothal."

"We'll bring her back with the Constantinople." his father replied. "I need to contact the Empress and the Council anyway."

"Good. Then I guess it's time doc Cylo and I have some good face-to-face." and he walked out followed by Sabine.