Chapter 17
Pantora – Industrial Sector of Fortress
Rain had continued throughout the night. It dribbled from the overhanging clouds. It was not like Coruscant rain, which fell fast and light, soaking the air as it did. It was unlike the drizzle that would soak Taris almost constantly. This rain fell like tears, fat and slow, as though the moon's atmosphere was mourning the loss of life that had occurred at the three crash sites scattered around the city. The huge drops of moisture fell fast and hard around Caloc's head, soaking his robes and running down the creases of his cloak. He gripped the leather hilt of his weapon loosely, letting it sit naturally in his hand as he faced his opponent. Stass' own green blade hummed before her, her eyes watching Caloc steadily.
The aftermath of chaos was always an interesting process. Three of the four medical frigates had been destroyed after their bridges went up in smoke. The Gonzalis had been the first to go, crashing belly first into a park. All that was left was a burning husk. The Underling was the next ship to be destroyed, though it had already landed in time, and the damage had been minimal. However, a third of the cargo had been lost when one of the engines erupted, spraying the crates with a coolant that ruined the contents. The Neutron had caused the most damage, and it now lay in a mess of twisted metal across the city financial district.
Mace and Fay had set up a control centre at the Helios, coordinating the Republic operations. Yularen had reported in not long after. He reported that a satellite blocking their offworld communications had been destroyed, but there must have been a second device further out. Communications out of the system were still blocked. They were effectively on their own. To beam a message back to Coruscant, someone needed to pilot a ship out of the Pantora System and hope that they had a strong enough signal.
Mark Antilles and the people of Green Squadron were searching for the jammer now, leading the teams of starfighters around the atmosphere of the system in some bizarre pattern that Yularen had devised. The city was being searched for enemy droids and agents by Jedi Knights Aayla and Luminara. So far, they had found nothing, but there were still thirteen more districts to search.
Both the Jedi and local Pantoran forces had spent the last day scouring the crash sites of the three downed frigates, searching for the injured, or dying. There were too many. Master Rolland Veer had been aboard the Neutron, he was now dead amongst the fields of covered bodies that were set in rows. Padawan Noran Keys, one of Caloc's old rivals from his youngling days, had been on the Gonzaliz. He was also now covered amongst the many bodies. Five more Jedi he had not known were also there, waiting until they could become one with the Living Force. He had carried the fallen's lightsaber's to a crate in the Jedi's temporary quarters. They had been laid in the crate, waiting for transport back to the lightsaber archives. Still, soldiers were being pulled from the wreckage, more dead than injured.
After being tasked to the search for a full twelve hours, Master Windu had declared that the task would take far longer than anticipated. Half of the Republic teams had been ordered to the barracks for rest. Stass had seen that as more of a suggestion.
Fixertown was a district near the coastline of Fortress. It had been nicknamed that because the district was full of industrial service buildings and warehouses. There were a few factories in the area, kept closer to the inland side of Fixertown. These manufactured the materials used by the coast side industries. Fixertown also held the main facilities for the city. The power station was buried deep underground beneath Fixertown, protected by a series of tunnels that were constantly under guard by alert droids. The food processing plants were to the east of the district, allowing easy access to healthy and fresh food for the citizens. There was a new water filtration plant to the along the coastline, which would filter the salt out of the sea and alter it for nondrinkable needs. But the old facility was still standing, unused, on the borders of the city. It was the perfect playground for Stass and her padawan to train in.
Twelve large empty water tanks stood around the perimeter. Huge turning blades were suspended in the centre, ready to churn up the air inside each tank at the push of a button. Boardwalks and pipes were suspended above the tanks, extending from each of the small platforms that held control terminals. The boardwalk bridges snaked their way between buildings, and there were multiple levels that that formed a patchwork of ramps and stairways between them. The pipes ranged from a series of thick pipes about a metre in circumference, and smaller ones that were only about an arms width. Stass and Caloc were currently precariously balanced on one of the thinner pipes, each trying to keep their balance on the slippery metal surface.
"So why are we here, exactly?", Caloc dropped off the pipe, grabbing the beam's slippery surface to swing back up and into the air, twisting his blade as he flipped over his master's head to land behind her on the pipe. "Did you just need to get away from the screams too?"
Stass bent back under his flaring blade, barely missing the glowing blue plasma. "I will admit that the crash sites were horrifying. The pain did linger in the air. Every Jedi there could feel it. The Force is a powerful ally."
"But it comes with a terrible curse.", he finished, catching her forehand strike on his own.
Stass nodded slowly. "It certainly comes with its responsibilities. But I could see that you were getting antsy. You could feel it better than most. For someone who still struggles to fully open yourself to the Force, you seemed to feel the pain of every single person who died yesterday."
The two blades danced back and forth, crashing against each other rhythmically, sending sparks hissing through the rain. Stass grunted as one of her padawan's strikes forced her to slide backwards across the slick metal. Caloc smiled tightly, but he managed to pull his blade away just enough to force it over his Master's. Violently twisting his sapphire blade, he wrenched the metallic hilt from the Tholothian's hand. It spun end over end through the sky above them, before reaching its apex and falling again.
He swept his blade towards her, "So why did you choose here? Why an abandoned facility?"
"This place is both isolated and has equipment no one will miss. We can destroy it with no one to tell us we cannot.", Stass answered, leaping up to catch her hilt and ignite the emerald blade, "It is far away enough from the sites to keep a clear head. My mind lingers on other planets at war. The entire galaxy is in chaos. It isn't just Pantora. The bombings here have just made this moon the centre of the galaxy's focus. Therefore, most people are looking away from the other worlds in jeopardy. They ignore Mon Cala, Yerbana, Utapau, even Togo. And now the Jedi are too."
"And that makes you want to scrap some things?", Caloc sliced through the pipe below, sending the metal twirling through the air below them. The two Jedi fell, flipping through the air to land on one of the near platforms. He shrugged, "Go ahead. I'll try to accommodate."
"I have a bad feeling about being here on this planet, Caloc.", Stass spun her blade behind her back and dodged another attack. "There has to be more happening than we know."
"Why do you say that?", he asked. "What more is there that could happen? A war?"
"Perhaps. But I think that someone is actually pulling the strings. A mastermind is orchestrating this entire operation, like a conductor directing an orchestra."
Pebbles scattered about violently as the Eta-class shuttle thudded into the barren ground, the heavy boarding ramp lowering with a resounding clank. The strike team's boots thudded against the thick metal as they disembarked, weapons at the ready. Bultar exited last, glancing around the small, isolated cove they had landed in. The Grenworst Plains, one of the larger swamplands in the Harshplains, were spread around them now, almost impossible to cross except for the numerous small wooden paths set through the marshes. The plainlands consisted of a mix of harsh swampland and grassy plains. Unfortunately, the plains blended in with the marsh, making it hard to tell what was solid and what wasn't. Many farmers attempted to cultivate the inhospitable landscape, and with time, several small villages had grown over the plains, though they were extremely remote and hard to reach.
The soldiers filed out cautiously, their rifles swinging around the underbrush. The lights attached on the blaster scopes brushed over each clump of leaves carefully, searching for anything hostile. Once the original scan was complete, they split into two teams. One moved quickly around the perimeter, setting up a row of proximity sensor spikes around the ship. The other pulled out a tarp of grey and green strips woven together and threw it over the shuttle, disguising it. Commander Altinrose gave her a stern nod, signalling that the team was ready, even though she could clearly see that wasn't the case. She rolled her eyes and chuckled. Trust a Wookiee to be impatient.
"I imagine that you are all wanting to know more about our mission here.", she yelled, trying to be heard above the wind whipping above the cove. The ragtag squadron of soldiers looked over at her, moving to surround the Jedi, until they formed a rough circle around her, "To put it simply, we are looking for the terrorist activities in this sector. We have confirmed that a speeder used by the terrorists was seen heading in this direction. We believe that these coincide with thefts of materials used in the explosives."
"Shouldn't we be looking for a place they could use as a base, then?", one of the soldiers, a young Cerean female, spoke up. Her elongated head tilted to the side slightly, "Why are we down here in the swamps? We should be looking for cave systems or structures!"
"Careful, Sergeant Junt.", Altinrose growled, "Know your place."
"One of our Jedi… seekers found a link to a mining corporation, sergeant.", Quinlan stood beside his fellow Jedi, arms crossed, and addressed the soldier. No one seemed to notice the slight pause between 'Jedi' and 'seeker'. He wondered what the soldiers would think if they learned it had only been through the information illegally gained by Caloc's criminal brother. "It is rumoured that there are veins of rare minerals deep below the Harshplains, and they may be connected to the terrorists."
"We need to narrow down the area we are searching.", Altinrose growled out.
"Precisely.", Bultar nodded in thanks to the Wookiee, then gestured for Quinlan's astromech, R3-T5, to come closer. The droid rolled closer and projected a flickering image of the surrounding planetary area. Four dots marked a series of villages, and there was a green shimmering building near Prague, the largest of the settlements, "This is the main communications tower for this entire sector of the planet. It monitors the plainland's communications and links them to Fortress once a month. Any rouge transmissions between the terrorists will be recorded there."
"I was under the impression that we were looking for droids.", another of the soldiers spoke up, a young Quarren, "One of the other officers said they were part of the terrorist's communication tactics. Untraceable transmissions."
"We are.", Bultar answered, "I have asked another Jedi, Obi-Wan, to investigate that back in Fortress. But he will be looking to connect that droid to us. There are only two fixed points in the droid's path. The destination, and the place that they leave from. We shall attempt to find where the droids go after they disembark. We have to find the enemy's base as quickly as we can, before other attacks can occur."
"For that,", Quinlan gestured at the projection. "we need to get to Prague."
"Simple incursion.", Altinrose knelt and studied the diagram. "We have practiced manoeuvres like this a hundred times. Junt, you will take Squad A. Ressa, Squad B. Toto, you will need to secure us transportation, and the others are with me and Jedi Swan."
The Chadra-fan nodded, "Understood, commander."
Quinlan pointed to at the edge of the town, "With any luck, there will be some speeders there, or possibly here in the market. We can use those to reach wherever these bombers are coming from. I'll lead the final team to grab those. Remember, this is a stealth operation. These towns will have villagers in them. Be careful, and more importantly, be smart. Arthree and our pilot will stay with the shuttle in case we need a getaway."
"Seconded.", Bultar nodded. "Now who will my slicer be?"
The town was deserted. The buildings stood still and dusty, their shadow's long and the windows rusted shut. The strike teams split up at the town's border. Squad A, two men led by Sergeant Junt, split to watch the north perimeter of the town. The diminutive Chadra-Fan Ressa took her troops, one a lanky human and the other a tall species Bultar did not recognise, towards the south. The two teams were to find areas that provided a vantage point and good cover so that they could watch for anyone both inside and out of the town.
Not long after, Quinlan and Toto, the soldier who had spoken before, split off, trying to find anywhere that might store speeder bikes or mounts that the squadron could use. They also took two men with them, both capable soldiers, according to their commander.
Altinrose stayed with her, his heavy bowcaster at the ready. Behind him was Deron, an Ithorian who held his DL-90 scatter rifle steadily, swinging it back and forth. He was the slicer in Altinrose's team and carried a huge pack on his back full of tools. The other member of the group was a Yinoshi. The species were rarely seen off their homeworld. They had thick grey skin and a large horn sitting high on their snout. He wore the traditional helmet of his people, a thick black metal semi-sphere with three long gaps along the nose for him to see through. The Yinoshi's name was Hellu, which meant 'runt' in his native tongue. Hellu was the brother of nine identical kids, and he was determined to prove he was the best of his litter.
Up ahead, the communications antenna towered above the town, a small green light blinking at the top of the satellite. Most planets relied on a series of central relay stations, which gathered transmissions from anywhere in the planet and connected them to a central hub. Pantora relied on an older communication method. Because half the moon was unexplored, it relied on a line of sight system, a configuration of satellites and antenna towers that spread across the surface.
"This doesn't feel right.", the Yinoshi growled, keeping his TR-7 heavy repeater up as they neared it, "Doesn't anyone feel like we are a little exposed here?"
"We are.", Bultar slashed through the locked door to the control room with her lightsabre, "But we need this intel. Hellu, you guard the door. Altinrose, you get sniper duty. Deron, you work your magic on the console."
"I hate this kind of work.", Deron grumbled as he linked up to the tower. The Ithorian had been on Altinrose's squad for the past five years. He was a former prisoner who would crack the electronic safes of cities and steal their credits. Normally, those credits would be given to a charity, but eventually he had been caught trying to crack the vaults of the Banking Clan capitol planet, Scipio. He had apparently been a model prisoner as he spent his time behind bars. That was until the Republic military had drafted him into their surface, placing him under the command of the towering Wookiee. No one would be willing to double-cross a Wookiee, they reasoned.
His droid, a small BD-series explorer unit, turned his scomp link in the data probe socket, trying to bypass the tower's control. "How's it going, BD-98?"
The droid blooped happily, despite the news being less than encouraging. Deron hung his head and looked up at the Jedi who had accompanied him, "There seems to be a problem. This control unit was designed to need an authorisation key to access. Those are hard to fool. I'm going to need a few minutes to see which kind of key is needed. After that, I need to make a new one."
Bultar nodded, "Understood. I'll keep an eye on things out there. You keep working."
She moved onto the exterior balcony, where Altinrose was leaning against the balustrade, peering through the disconnected scope of his bowcaster. He nodded in greeting, growling a question.
"Deron says he needs more time to trick the system.", Bultar answered. "Have all the teams reported in?"
Altinrose shook his head, pointing to the west and growling with annoyance.
"That does sounds like Quinlan.", the Jedi nodded, "But he does usually get results. I've never heard of a mission he botched. Be thankful we aren't here with…"
A fireball suddenly soared into the air, illuminating the cloud-filled sky. It burst into grey air, blinding light blanketing the clouds. The commander stared out at it, anxiety leaking into his next words.
"I figured.", Bultar frowned at the flare with interest, trying to figure out which team sent it. "I'll go see what it is. You keep an eye on Deron. Everything rides on him now."