Chapter 13
20 minutes earlier
The Pantoran Assembly building was located in the northern neighbourhood of Harent, one of the boroughs of Fortress, Pantora's Capitol. Harent was the political borough, with the main administration buildings, the Assembly member's personal residences, and some of the ritzier hotels all being found within the area. The Assembly building used to be centrally located, but with new urban projects continuing to grow, it had become a far less central structure. The huge round building dwarfed its neighbours, at least twice the size and three times the width.
Chi Cho, the current chairman of the Pantoran Assembly, stood on the small balcony of his office, gazing up at the sky. It was a gracefully beautiful morning, though the clouds were thick, they were also patchy. Perhaps it would rain this evening. Below him, the lights of speeders blurred together into lines of white and red across the streets below where the sun rays hadn't quite reached yet.
His assistant, Ful Man, stood beside him, staring at the datapad he held. "Are you sure that letting an army of Republic soldiers land here is the wisest move, Chairman?"
"Perhaps it is not wise.", Chi answered, not taking his eyes off the sky above them, "The Republic is fickle when it chooses allies. The Senate change sides and opinions four times every day. But we must see if the Republic is reliable enough to help us with our… problems here on Pantora. It is regrettable, but the people need their help."
"According to our intelligence database, Master Windu is one of the best Jedi in the Order.", Ful gestured erratically, "I say that we trust him. But what of these other Jedi. I don't even recognise half these names. Do we trust them?"
"A complication I did not foresee.", Cho admitted, "Get our intelligence services researching them."
A loud rumble sounded above the two men and their heads swung around to watch as five huge ships appeared above them. As they watched, four of the ships, recognisable as the smaller Pelta-class supply frigates, slowly dropped out of the sky, growing larger as they entered low orbit. Anything more was unfortunately obscured by the thick clouds . Chi glanced over at Ful, "I suppose they will be landing soon."
"I suppose so, sir. Though I still don't understand why you wanted them here."
And to both their surprises, the clouds suddenly opened up, and the lightest of showers began to mist down on Fortress. Perhaps this was a good day after all.
Now
"This is Republic Frigate Gonzaliz coming in for the final approach.", the radio buzzed loudly around the bridge, "The crates are locked down and all personal are in the quarters. Admiral Yularen, do we have permission for final approach?"
"Permission granted.", Yularen lowered his hands to the console, tapping in the commands for the docking coordinates, "The local security forces have given us control of the orbit for the next rotation, so let's make this quick. Prepare to dock with the Halo landing platform, near the education district. You'll be near the medical centre there. They should be ready for you to land and refuel. It is in Quadrant 7T."
"Preparing now.", the Gonzaliz off to portside started lowering through the clouds. "Coordinates have been received. I'll tell you how our reception is, Admiral."
Telle watched as flames started licking at the ship's hull, indicating it's hurried decent into Pantora's atmosphere. The bright light made her wince, and she backed away from the viewport for a second. The flames had only just diminished when the radio crackled again.
"This is Medical Frigate Neutron, ready to dive. Do we have permission?"
Yularen clicked in the commlink button. "This is the Resurrection. You have permission. Good luck, Donavin."
The next Pelta-class cruiser twisted and dove towards the planet. Yularen looked over at the nearest Jedi, who happened to be Bultar Swan, "Master Windu said that you wanted to study the areas where the bombs have previously gone off."
Bultar nodded, her braid bobbing up and down her back. "I do. We believe that an arms dealer on Coruscant traded parts with these terrorists here, but we need proof for an arrest. My mission is to track the payments. Obi-Wan is going to be hunting for any shipments with the other pieces of the bombs in them. We are having a bit of a of a competition about who will find the terrorists first."
"You might want to get your team ready, then.", he nodded toward the doors, "People might get suspicious if we land and then a shuttle leaves our cruiser. Better to leave in the confusion of our landing."
"Understood, Admiral.", she nodded and turned to march out the doors, pointing to several of the other Jedi standing around the bridge at different stations. "Quinlan! Get your butt moving! We leave in five."
Telle stared at her father, slightly nonplussed by the comment. She had heard nothing about the Jedi leaving the cruiser. Cautiously, she leaned over to his ear and whispered, "I thought that Master Windu was leading the negotiations. Isn't that why he is on the Helios now? To get down there and talk with the Chairman first."
"He is.", Yularen answered. "But Bultar has a theory about where the attackers are now. She suspects that although the bomb pieces came in separately, to different cities, that they were smuggled out during the attacks. If she wants to find this proof for the Jedi Council, then she requires time that the Assembly won't give her. But I trust her judgment. She saved my life once, after all."
Telle's eyebrow quirked up, "I don't remember that story."
"Before you were indoctrinated into my fleet.", Yularen told her, smiling fondly at his adopted daughter, "But she was still a padawan at the time."
"And what are we doing while they are gone?", Telle asked, trying to remain professional.
"We wait.", Yularen looked out of the window, watching as the two remaining cruisers began their descents.
Captain Kindred Coulson shooed the young technician at the controls away. He was an older man, and he had spent years in charge of the Gonzaliz. He knew her back to front. It had also been years since Kindred had been at the helm of his ship, usually relying on the younger, fitter men to do it. But they were navigating a tight landing zone at the moment, and he had decided soon after receiving the coordinates that he needed to be responsible for getting the ship down safely. He gripped the controls with both hands and carefully manoeuvred the huge frigate over the landing zone.
The light rain that had begun slapping against the roof upon entering the city airspace pounded in his ear, amplified by the cybernetic hearing implant. He supposed it was the lightest of noises, but to him, it was deafening. Still, Coulson was a military man, and he pushed back the mild annoyance and focussed on landing the ship. The landing pad was located on the roof of a squat, circular building squashed between two tall, curving skyscrapers. He thought they were hotels at first, but looking closer, they seemed to be one complex, making up a hospital. To successfully land the ship, he needed to put his ship right between the two curved structures and use the manoeuvring jets to slowly lower it to the ground. He gestured at his second in command to lower the landing gear and felt the floor rattle in response, violently vibrating as the struts extended below. He eased up on the nearby thrust compensator levers, slowing the ship's decent as quickly as he could. He was just about to engage the repulsor lifts when his earpiece picked up a series of loud clanks above him, drowning out the rain. Distracted, he looked up. Three round, metallic devices he couldn't identify were stuck to the transparisteel. He squinted to get a closer look. The device was locked on, a red light blinking insistently in the centre. As he watched, the blinking accelerated. It blinked once, twice, three times. Then there were three rapid blinks, and the blinking abruptly stopped. And was Coulson watched, the world flared to life, then went dark, even as the explosion ripped into his ear.
To Chairman Cho, safely on his office balcony, it seemed that the ship above the distant Marina Grand Hospital in the education district was coming in for a controlled landing, when suddenly, smoke and flames erupted from the bridge. The ship listed sharply, starting to slide to the left, until it slammed into one of the taller, curved towers of the complex. Ful Man gasped beside him, his face paling at the sight. Cho kept his composure, but he knew what had happened. The terrorists were back, and they were attacking the relief that he had ordered in. Most of the chaos had been away from the Capitol, spread along the outer cities like Turrent, Doralin and Simbit. The fool in him had decided, no, had believed, that the terrorists wouldn't dare come to Fortress. Now his hubris was going to be his city's downfall.