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Phase 12

=RK=

Part 1

=RK=

"Royal" cells

Royal Palace

Theed

Naboo

What was it? The fact that Mundi was one of the few Jedi I liked? The fallout of killing him here? My conscience stirring despite the fact I kept it under Dark Side provided lock and key since Kamino?

While stranger things had happened, I couldn't see Mundi coming and staying on my side. That by itself was a very good argument for ending it all here and now. On the other hand, his death in the future could prove more useful and more dangerous for me. Well, there was the delicious irony of using Mundi's eventual attempt to stab me in the back to further tarnish the Jedi – they did an excellent start but would need a bit of help to see their reputation stay in the gutter for at least the next thousand years or so.

"Master Mundi." This time my smile was actually a pleased one. 'Welcome to the GAR."

This statement along with its delivery took him off guard. His grey eyebrows raised high and for a moment his surprise echoed upon my emphatic senses.

"Why?"

"Isn't it obvious, Master Mundi?" I very impolitely answered his question with one of my own. "I'm giving you enough rope to hang yourself. I don't know if it will be over ideology, misplaced sense of what's right and wrong or simply your Jedi need to stick pointy glowsticks into Sith, but I fully expect you will betray me and thus the Republic. When that happens it is going to be yet another nail in the coffin of the late and very unlamented Jedi Order. A Jedi, a Master no less biting the hand outstretched in mercy despite what your kind did to me. Just think about the propaganda value!" I got up. "Prepare to leave. A security detail will be down here to escort you to the fleet soon."

Oh, he could try to run I guess. That would be a great excuse to track him down and deal with him.

"That's how it is going to be them." Mundi concluded. "Veil, how long would it be before you put me into a position I have no choice but to poke you with a glowstick?"

"Why, my friend, that's entirely up to you." I answered and made my way out. Once outside I called Rex to come down with a platoon of soldiers trained in anti-Jedi tactics.

I stretched my will through the Force and used the Dark Side to ensure my conscience wouldn't be bothering me again in the foreseeable future; I couldn't shake the nagging feeling that not killing Mundi now was going to bite me in the ass even if keeping him around for now did make sense too.

=RK=

Observation lounge

Republic cruiser Shinning Light

Naboo

Firmus thought he was getting accustomed to rubbing elbows with top brass; he was wrong. Piett sat at a table with two Admirals, possibly the most senior General the Republic had at this time and a foreign head of state no less and Max, who looked even more uneasy than he himself felt.

Strictly speaking, only Admiral Rufaan Tigellinus and Veers were the only newcomers. Firmus should have been more or less at ease at the presence of the other two – he was the Veil's adjutant after all.

He was anything but. Probably it was the fact that after a very brief recovery period they were going to get back into the thick of it at a rate that before the war would have been considered insane for even high intensity combat operations. What was the last time the fleet had a proper recovery period? After Kamino above Belsavis?

At least Max turned out to be alive and physically intact. However, Firmus could see that whatever happened between the last time they saw each other and now weighted a lot upon his friend.

The General waved a hand and a small holoprojector came to life above the table they sat upon. The glow of the hologram drowned the lights coming from outside where thousands of salvage crews crawled all over the wreckage left by the most recent battle. Swarms of shuttles and tugs flew around collecting debris and pushing them into stable orbit. Others brought useful equipment to pre-designated areas where it could be sorted and examined for damage. To the side hung rows upon rows of ship captured more or less intact when the enemy surrendered – they all had Clone detachments in their reactor rooms along with enough explosives to blow up the whole vessel if the enemy somehow managed to regain control of them.

The General's words brought Piett's attention back to the discussion at hand – how they were going to get home in one piece.

"Thoughts?" Veil asked.

"Option One." Admiral Tigellinus suggested. "From the files we cracked – both from this battle and Eriadu, it appears that the enemy gathered almost all mobile forces in that region and threw them at us to be destroyed. We should be able to get at least to Tatooine without meeting any resistance. Then we can decide if it's worth it to go for Rishi and Bothawui. We'll have to hit only a single Separatist world – Molavar, if we go deeper in Hutt Space before swinging towards Nar Shaddaa. If we're lucky we might not face any notable resistance before we hit Randon and Kashyyyk is just a jump away from there."

"That's the safest option, yes." Admiral Holt agreed. "However, Option Three offers some benefits of its own. But first let me state for the record I'm against Option Two – it brings us too deep in Separatists space for no real gain. If we go there, the risk of being trapped and destroyed is too high to compensate for any soft target we might find there."

"That would see is hit just two actual Separatist worlds, though we'll have to pass through more recently captured ones." Admiral Tigellinus hummed. "If we can get past Milagro, the only place the enemy can intercept us before Randon is Daalang and that isn't a world they would have fortified."

"Firmus, Max, thoughts?" The General asked making Piett freeze.

Admiral Holt's lips twitched. "We did call you here for a fresh perspective."

That really didn't reassure Piett.

"Ma'am, I'm a ground ponder. Armour officer no less. What do I know about space operations?"

"That's right." The General chuckled. "So if you or Firmus here see a problem with our plans it means we really need to overhaul or scrap them and start from scratch."

Piett grimaced. He knew that being this close to the brass was going to bite him in the ass sooner or later. Sooner it was.

"I have to agree with Admiral Holt, sir." Firmus temporised. "Option Two, while good on paper – it would allow us to strike at a lot of Separatist worlds, is a great way to get the fleet destroyed and all of us killed. We lack the supplies for such a campaign, especially considering we don't know how many battles we'll have to fight past Randon before reaching friendly space. Ideally Kashyyyk will be in Republic hands when we get there, but we can't count on it." Piett hoped he didn't just make a fool of himself.

"I agree." Max nodded vigorously then went very, very quiet just as he was ever since the meeting began.

"Both Options One and Three will allow us to get to Bothawui by just hitting couple of actual Separatist aligned systems." General Veil nodded thoughtfully."

"One gives us the option to get deep in Hutt Space and run for it if we encounter an unexpected large enemy force we rather not engage." Admiral Tigellinus suggested. "Our objective is to get home as many intact ships as possible, is it not?"

"Correct." General Veil declared.

"One?" Admiral Holt asked.

"One." Admiral Tigellinus nodded. "General?"

"One it is. Get to your ships. Resupply and repairs should be finally done in couple of hours and we're leaving the moment that happens." The General turned to look at Piett. "Firmus, check with Commander Rex to see how our Jedi guests are behaving and report to me."

"Aye, sir!" Piett snapped at attention.

"Veers, you're getting a bit of well deserved rest until I decide where you're needed. Dismissed."

=RK=

Part 2

=RK=

CIC Republic cruiser Shining Light

One light minute from Enarc

This was the second time Republic forces came to visit in the last couple of weeks and this time the enemy presence here wasn't even a pale shadow of the navy Tarkin engaged during his raid.

The holo-tank updated with the types and positions of enemy units in the system and I smiled. "My compliments to Admiral Tigellinus. He is to engage the Separatist naval elements. Admiral Holt is to neutralize the stationary defences protecting the orbital industry. Our own battle group will cover our recovery teams."

Five Munificent frigates and three cruisers of a type I wasn't familiar with. The Tactical officer was running them through the warbook because no one on the bridge was able to tell me what those were, and that was it. Those ships wouldn't even slow down Rufaan's battle group and Joanna had more than enough fire-power to dispatch the Golan I stations between us and the local industry.

It was good to have the initiative and know that at least for the next few days it was highly unlikely that the Separatists would be able to muster overwhelming forces against us. Besides, for all they knew right now, this was just another raid for supplies and to reduce one of their systems in the region – which it was. For this first stop on our way home we took the bulk of the operational forces left at Naboo after the battle there and some of those ships will be going back soon - this time loaded with stolen supplies.

"Admiral Holt request release of our remaining Y-Wing assets. Optical observation of the Golans suggest they aren't equipped with UMBRELLA system."

"Granted." On the tactical display, a third of Tigellinus' ships separated into smaller battle groups and accelerated towards the Separatist ships, which were divided in two groups hanging around the poles of the planet. Rufaan kept the rest of his forces back ready to make a hyperspace jump and reinforce his hunters if something went wrong.

The Separatist ships accelerated towards the equator and a group of Golan stations ringing it, however the group at the north pole had been heading in the wrong direction and took them too long to bleed off acceleration and change vectors. Both groups were too deep in the gravity well to clear it before our ships got to grips with them so they did the only sane thing they could – go for the dubious protection of the battle stations. If they weren't upgraded like the outer ring covering the industry, we might make a clean sweep of enemy assets in orbit and leave Enarc open for whatever mischief Tarkin might come with.

Predictably the northern group didn't make it – three times their number of Republic ships – all larger and better armed, converged upon them and annihilated them before they could enter the Golans' effective engagement range. Speaking about those stations...

"It's confirmed, the outer ring isn't upgraded. Y-Wings commencing bombing runs."

Politely no one mentioned that in the whole fleet we had only three bomber wings left after the battles since the Separatists grand offensive began. Our fighter squadrons were in somewhat better shape – about eight wings, though all of them were somewhat understrength. That wasn't even a fraction of the small craft that a fleet of the size we brought at Enarc should posses, however the UMBRELLA and the swarms of Vultures the enemy used to deploy led to catastrophic casualties among our fighter and bomber contingents.

Well, not this time. For a change, out small craft actually outnumbered the Vulutres the enemy deployed to cover their Golans. Four Torrent wings slammed into two made of droid fighters – those weren't the upgraded little horrors we faced a few times in the past and the result wasn't nice, for the enemy. The following bomber strike went in virtually unopposed and when Joanna's capital ships engaged a minute later, they faced only sporadic resistance from significantly softened up battle stations.

The same couldn't be said about Tigellinus', however he didn't have a lot of orbital industry go get in his way. His main force slammed into what was left of the enemy SDF and two Gollan stations close enough to support each other.

It was short, ugly and very much fatal for the enemy. We did lose an unlucky frigate and our only remaining light cruiser got mauled when it intercepted a proton torpedo barrage meant for one of our Venators, but that was it. Soon enough, Joanna wiped out the resistance covering the bulk of the enemy orbital industry and busied herself with dismantling it. Meanwhile, my own force advanced at a sedate pace and unleashed LAATs and assault shuttles crewed by marines and salvage crews.

=RK=

Twelve hours later I was back on the bridge. The looting was still underway and the system's industry was either turned in so much confetti or in a few notable cases being disassembled for transport back to Naboo. The ships we would take home got their ammo restocked and we were already forming up for the next leg of our journey. Behind us a small armada of freighters covered by a screen of warships were still busy looting everything of use.

"The fleet is in position, sir." The Captain announced. "Hyperspace calculations complete and logged on."

"Synchronise with the rest of the fleet and jump when ready."

=RK=

At the next stop – Ryndellia, there was nothing to see. There was just a single Munificent in system that turned around and jumped in hyperspace the moment it saw us. Ryndellia was a neutral system taken by the CIS in order to keep better control of the hyperlanes, however the place itself didn't warrant any significant naval presence. Before we jumped again we got some broadcasts from the ground – the enemy was light on the ground – just some forces at the capital and major spaceports.

We ignored the place and soon jumped again.

=RK=

Soon enough we arrived at Llanic – another neutral world. This time we found somewhat larger Separatist presence in low orbit above the largest local spaceport – a single Luckrehulk battleship escorted by six Munificent frigates.

"They have to be there to police the local smugglers." Tigellinus suggested. "Llianic is a criminal heaven with somewhat better reputation than Tatooine – no deserts for once, decent climate and tons of spice."

"Make sure they don't get to leave."

The enemy ships were too deep in the gravity well – positioned ideally to take out any smuggler they didn't like the look of before said contrabandist could flee to hyperspace. However, that meant when we arrived Joanna's forces, which were best positioned to intervene, had enough time to spin their hyperdrives for another jump and intercept them on the edge of the gravity well. The small Separatist battle group ran headfrist into a phalanxs made of Venators and died before managing to do anything more than lightly damaging one of our cruisers.

Twenty minutes later the fleet left for Tatooine where we paused to restock both ammunition and fuel while I called another command conference. The moment we arrived the locals either scattered or went to ground making themselves as inconspicious as they could. I entertained the thought of glassing Jabba's palace from orbit for the hell of if but decided that at this time he wasn't worth the ammo.

Joanna's and Tigellinus' images appeared in the main holo-tank.

"So far everything went better than expected." Rufaan smiled. "I'm waiting for everything to go to hell." He added.

Joanna snorted but voiced her agreement too.

"It's decision time again – we can either swing deeper through Hutt Space or go for Molavar and after that head for Rishi, perhaps Bothawui too."

"Rishi is supposed to be a major staging ground just like Naboo was." Tigellinus said. "There are rich exodium mines there and that's why it was chosen. Besides, Manda is another Republic stronghold just a single jump from there and able to support and re-supply our forces at Rishi. If they still hold we can do some good by swinging that way."

"I concur. Besides, if there is one place likely to hold in this region it will be Bothawui – major industrial centre, powerful SDF and there was supposed to be a whole Sector Fleet reinforcing the place before the Separatist offensive began. However, if we want to spent the time we can get there by swinging deeper through Hutt Space and avoiding Rishi and the Separatist worlds between us."

"In that case we'll have to backtrack from Nar Shaddaa or waste a lot of time and fuel going through less travelled hyperlanes and reaching at least one the hard way." I said after calling up the most detailed map of the region we had. "If we go for Rishi and Bothawui we'll be heading there directly. It's been about thirty hours since we left Enarc. Any further delays will give the enemy more time to gather forces and send them after us if they deem us a large enough threat."

"I'm for going to Rishi." Tigellinus said.

"Me too. If we can help some of our forces, we should. General?"

What I wanted was to head for Nar Shaddaa, see what my black ops people were doing there and if there was another refitted ship available to pick up and head directly for Randon and friendly space. Yet, both Rufaan and Joanna made good points – the opportunity to gather more ships and ruin the enemy's day wasn't one to miss.

I closed my eyes and concentrated my thoughts upon Rishi. There was no particular danger I could sense heading that way and the same was true about Nar Shaddaa.

"Rishi is it then. We're leaving the moment the fleet finishes topping off its supplies."