Chapter 73
Pantora
Three escape pods had survived their descent into the Southern Swamps. Their landings had been rough, and each was half-buried thick, sticky mud. It had taken about half the Resurrection's crew of engineers to come up with a way to safely remove them. Eventually, they had rigged a crane system to the bottom of a shuttle and sent it to heave the pods out. The first two that were sliced open by Kit's lightsaber contained Taggart's Special Forces team. The men climbed out and were bustled into the Venator's medical suites to be scanned and medicated.
The final pod could only be found because of it's locator beacon. It was nearly entirely buried beneath the swamp. As the crane pulled it from the viscus liquid, it squelched and nearly pulled the entire shuttle under. But eventually, it too was placed on the deck of the Resurrection's hanger. Kit drew his blade and sliced through the locks, shoving the door aside with a nudge from the Force. Inside, he found a very impatient Skakoan being held at lightsaber point by an equally impatient Jedi Skrilling. Apparently, both had places they would rather be.
"I never want to see you again, Ord Enisence.", the Skakoan yelled as she was carried across the hanger to a waiting prison cell. "If I do, then I am going to run your own blade through that wrinkled head of yours!"
Kit suppressed a grin as he watched Ord disengage his blade and slip it onto his belt. He gave the Skrilling Jedi a nod, then turned back to follow the rest of the troopers back towards the starfighters. He needed to get back to the ground and scan for any more survivors. Surprisingly, he found that Ord was following him.
"What will happen to the lovely Amilia Nubon now?", Ord asked when he drew level with the Nautolaun, "Will she be questioned or imprisoned for later interrogation?"
"I believe that the Admiral wanted to question her personally.", Kit answered, "I think that he feels responsible for this disaster. We simply need to stand there and watch."
The Republic Camp was being dismantled. The dozens of tents were carefully folded, then placed in crates that were loaded onto the shuttles. Modular hospital buildings were being transported back up to the Resurrection via shuttle or corvette. Yularen watched as the shuttles landed along the Venator's landing strip, their wings folding up as the landing gears lowered. If he could stay here forever, then he probably would, watching the cruiser function perfectly. But he was needed in the cells below.
When he had been given control of the Resurrection, he had questioned the inclusion of prison cells in a star cruiser usually used for peaceful or diplomatic missions, or for light defence. Now he understood. They were for these exact situations. The times that the inconceivable occurred, and when no one had answers to the questions that plagued them all.
He prepared himself for the interrogation, going over the rules that his teacher, Republic Intelligence Admiral Hellax Kann, had drilled into him. A good interrogator knew the difference between weakness and kindness. He knew the difference between pain and torture. And he knew the difference between digging for answers and refusing to acknowledge the truth. Finally, he knew exactly how much you needed to know about your opponent before you went into the room to speak with them. If you went in without a clear goal, you would flounder early, allowing the prisoner to control the situation. If they controlled the situation, then they only gave you the information they wanted you to have.
Yularen had spent the past hour going over every piece of information he had on their guest. Captain Amilia Nubon was relatively unknown in the Republic files. A Navy officer in the Techno Union, she normally transported cargo to and from Union-controlled planets. She had fought in one battle of note that stood out in her military documents. It was a small skirmish against a group of pirates. By the looks of it, she had only been a Major at the time, but had been promoted for the actions she took to protect the Techno Union assets in her care.
Nodding to the guard at the door, he watched the orange-tinged energy shield disengage, and stepped inside. Amilia was standing before the small bed, staring at the wall. Yularen pressed a button on his comm, signalling the guard. A second later, the floor shifted, and a table rose into the cell. A chair soon followed. Yularen took his place, and placed the datapad on the table with a sharp, audible rap.
Amilia turned to look at him. It was hard to describe the average Skaoan, since almost 97% of their body was encased in the shapeless pressure suit they wore. What Yularen could see was the silver chest plate and the flowing purple pressurised suit below it. The chest plate had a strange device welded to it, a glowing cube that beeped irregularly. Was that a heart monitor? Interesting.
Yularen feigned indifference, flipping through a datapad full of reports from Mel Hullt. It was something he had been meaning to do before Honey Grassi and the remnants of Green Squadron had appeared and told him of the situation that had arisen in his absence.
When he placed the datapad down and finally looked up at her, he was unimpressed by what he saw. The Skakoan's face was covered by her mask, only her eyes were visible. They stared back at him through the transparisteel lenses of her glasses, hardened with war. But he could see a slight unease there too. She had no ledge to stand on, and she knew it too. He started to casually flip through the file he brought, then stopped on a random page that had no relevance to his line of questioning.
"So you are Captain Nubon.", he gave her a fierce grin, not unlike that of a ravenous, moustached Nexu, "It says that you are usually a Captain in the Techno Union mercenary fleet."
"I am.", Amilia replied through her vocabulator. "I am one of the best officers in the fleet."
Yularen barked a short laugh. "I have to wonder though, what exactly is a Techno Union captain doing on board a Commerce Guild Recusant-class destroyer? And with a D'brathi platform as your reinforcements? It just seems like an unusual combination for a fleet who attacked a peaceful moon. Two ships from complete opposite sides of the galaxy combined to assist a terrorist threat."
"Pantora's resources could power both companies for the next five decades, Admiral.", Amilia leaned forward. "Our usual diplomatic routes have stopped us from claiming them so far, and my boss ordered me to intervene."
Yularen's eyes narrowed, and he began to flick through the pages again. "And who is your boss?"
Amilia eyes darkened significantly. "Have you never heard of Wat Tambor, head of the Techno Union?"
"I know of Foreman Tambor, yes.", Yularen scratched at his moustache for a moment. "However, he is currently away from Skako, using a pair of your Hardcell transports to speak with dignitaries on Mustafar. If he were to contact you, our Republic Security team there would have intercepted his message. Is this a splinter group of the Techno Union?"
"Not exactly.", Amilia said. "I am a leader in the Confederacy of Independent Systems. You will tremble before our might…"
Yularen tuned out her rambling. Count Dooku's political movement had been making their way into nearly every conflict lately. Honestly, they were becoming a nuisance. Amilia said nothing more, leaning back in her seat. Yularen stared at her for a moment, then turned and began to exit the room. Clearly, she was a fanatic freak. He wouldn't get much else from her today. Perhaps in a few hours, when she had calmed down, they could start again.
When he lowered the ray shield on the door, he heard a sudden high-pitched hum, rising slowly in pitch until it disappeared into the hypersonic range. He frowned and turned to look at the Skakoan. Her gloved hand had grabbed one of her exosuit's dial and had turned it sharply to the right. Yularen gaped with horrid fascination as the woman's suit ruptured. Amila's head slowly expanded as it filled with oxygen and chemically altered fluids. It grew and grew until it was roughly the size of a grav-ball. And then it exploded. Violently. Fire ripped from the suit and threw him back against the door. A second later, the rayshield's electronics failed, and Yularen found himself falling into the opposite cell's rayshield.
He picked himself up slowly, his entire right side numb. Looking up, he saw the charred scar on the wall of the Skakoan's cell, and the still flaming carcass and remains of the exosuit that had been Captain Nubon. His head dropped to his chest, and he groaned.
"Honestly, I forgot they could do that."
Pilios March wandered amongst the rest of her fellow pilots, watching as they checked over their ships. She walked past Torres Squadron, talking to Sergeant Deeks and his second in command briefly to commend them for their bravery. Deeks' blue skin was pale. He had lost many men during the battle.
"We need better equipment.", he told her, "Not too many of our fighters were combat ready. Next time. Next time we will be prepared."
Pilios left them to ponder their new defence proposal. Still, she wondered quietly what could have gone differently. If the Pantoran's were better armed, would they still have been targets? If the city had been protected by a ray shield? If they had planetary shield to begin with? What about a Pantora Defence Fighter Core, like on Naboo.
She noticed her fellow Republic pilots nearby, most sitting on their craft's wings and sharing a small flask of non-regulation drinks. Now that Yularen was back, they felt secure enough to take the time off and acknowledge those they lost. Grieving would come after they got off this planet and back to Coruscant.
Mito Reed sat with the remaining dregs of her pilots. Only six of them remained – the bothan herself, a Sullustan named Ten Numb, Molly Kim the Gran, Theluma the Kiffar, and two human men, Drago Veen and Graydun Ne'vere. Pilios glanced over at Green Squadron's pilots, nearly all twenty who remained. Having a pilot and co-pilot for a Gladbron meant that they had double the staff of a normal twelve member unit, though it wasn't something Pilios regretted. Diverting to the Shocker Squadron pilots, she sat down beside Reed and sighed.
"You did good work today, mate.", she said. "That strike was spot on."
The bothan's fur rippled with pleasure at the remark, then returned to it's flattened position. "You got us there, sir, and you took down the shields before the Helios…"
She trailed off, and Pilios understood why. Gibbs and many of the bridge crew had gotten off the doomed Helios. The engineers and support staff in the hanger, including the member's of Shocker Squadron still inside the hanger, hadn't.
Ten muttered something in Sullustan that Pilios couldn't understand, but Reed smiled at him and nodded. "Hero's indeed, my friend. We will remember them forever."
"I know it is too soon after this battle to think of anything else.", said Matron Trass from the far side of the pilot's loose circle, "But has anyone considered why this attack happened?"
Mito snorted, her fur flicking out with amusement. "That's easy enough to figure out. Whoever was in charge of the attack saw the Jedi as a challenge against their little bombing plan. They bring in ships to remove the pesky Republic, and in the confusion get whatever they came to Pantora for in the first place."
Several members from both squadrons nodded in agreement. Molly Kim and Frone exchanged a knowingly glance that spoke volumes. Both believed that Mito was right, but were concerned she was playing the motive off too casually. Drazen, Elen Marth and Kira Kath, the younger members of the Green's, accepted the knowledge without a second thought.
Honey Grassi tapped away at her bomber's side, grinning like she was either unstable, or had drunk a little too much from the flask. "But we showed them. You mess with the Jedi, you get defeated."
A sharp pain made Pilios gasp, and she looked down to see her hands balled into fists, nails digging into her palms enough to draw blood. She hadn't even realised that her pulse had spiked at Mito's comment, then escaladed with each acknowledgement. Taking a deep breath, she calmed her thoughts, and relaxed her hands. The Jedi hadn't done anything to really help during the battle. She and Mito had done the hard work, while Gibbs had planned Operation Locket based on intelligence from previous Republic battles against Recusant's. And yet they got all the credit? It didn't seem fair.
"I am sorry to bother you all.", said a quiet voice. Pilios looked up to see the Nautolaun Jedi, Kit Fisto, standing before them, his tentacles draped over his shoulder's like dreadlocks. He gave them a small, awkward smile, "I wanted to give my condolences. Your fellow pilots fought and died bravely. I wish I could have saved them, but…"
He trailed off, and Matron spoke into the silence. "Don't worry, Master Jedi. This was an unprecedented attack. Those who died did it with honour, and will be honoured by us."
A ripple of 'ayes' rumbled around the circle. Nelion Dare spoke up next. "They were the best of us, sir. Thank you for coming here and letting us know."
Fisto nodded his head, and went to rejoin with Master Windu and Obi-Wan Kenobi, standing nearby talking. Pilios shook her head. Out of the three Jedi, only the Nautolaun had seen fit to come and give his condolences? Were the others too proud of their superior ways to talk to the lowly pilots and thank them for flying with them? It was wrong, and somehow, Pilios would deal with it.
But for now, she and the other pilot's were in mourning.