Chapter 17 - Intruder Alert
One word could sum up Ahsoka's mood right now and that word was 'bored.' Very few Jedi walked into the archives and most that did knew what they wanted. She spent most of her time wandering the archives, doing nothing much except for greeting the occasional Jedi and asking if they needed assistance. She was walking back towards the entrance when she noticed Master Ord Enisence had entered, "Good afternoon, Master Enisence."
"Good afternoon, young one," he greeted back.
"May I be of assistance?" she asked.
He paused on the stairs, "No, uh, no thank you, my dear, I don't want to bother you."
"Oh, it wouldn't be a bother at all Master," she says back, following behind him, "Things are slow right now. I could use something to do."
"Oh, uh, uh, I…" he seemed to hesitate for a moment before continuing, "Thank you, I'll be fine on my own."
"You sure?"
"Look, youngling," he suddenly turned and pointed towards her, "I said I was fine. Now let me go about my business."
This startled Ahsoka and as he walked away she sighed, "Can't do anything right these days."
Sulani was still wandering the halls when all the power in the temple seemed to shake for a moment, it was quick, but enough that she noticed. Then she felt it, a small disturbance in the Force and she knew, the intruders were inside. She quickly made her way to the security station to meet up with Obi-Wan, hopefully he had an idea on what was going on.
He was leaving when she neared the door, Master Yoda was with him, "Master Yoda, Obi-Wan, I felt a disturbance in the Force, I believe the intruders are inside."
"Feel that, I did," Master Yoda says.
"We think they may be after something else," Obi-Wan says, "they appear to have entered in the South Tower ventilation."
"The South Tower? Not the East then?"
"No," Obi-Wan says, "so we're unsure what their exact target is."
Sulani thought to herself, but she kept having this strange feeling like every thought they had on where the intruders might go was wrong. She tried thinking, but then she noticed what part of that feeling was telling her. It kept coming back around to Ahsoka, and she wondered what that meant. "Master Yoda, I'm going to the archives, I'm going to check in with Ahsoka," she informs him.
"Go you shall, to where the Force wills you," he says in reply, he saw through her words easily.
"The archives?" Obi-Wan asks curiously, "Why there?"
"Just a feeling I'm getting," she explains, "It keeps sending me towards Ahsoka."
"Well then you better hurry, your feelings are usually correct," Obi-Wan urges.
So she did, she left immediately for the archives and she hoped that Ahsoka was okay.
Ahsoka was doing her wandering again when her communicator indicated Master Yoda was contacting her, she accepted it immediately, "Padawan, alert you must be. Sense deception I do. Posing as a Jedi, the intruder is. Find Master Jocasta you must."
So she closed the communication and went looking for Madame Jocasta. As she neared where she had last seen her, she heard her voice and looked from around the data shelf, "Bane, the two Jedi have turned around and are making their way towards you."
Ahsoka quickly ran over to confront the imposter, "Who are you and what have you done with Madame Jocasta?"
"The same thing I'm going to do to you," they say in return before reaching for Madame Jocasta's lightsaber.
Ahsoka quickly grabs her lightsaber to defend herself, they move around the archives, using the lightsabers to try and get one up on the other. Ahsoka was grateful that in the end, the imposter may look like Madame Jocasta, but they did not have her skills with a lightsaber. It was easy to see in their utter lack of proper lightsaber form. They were nimble, she would give them that, but nothing could replace decades of experience and skill. Ahsoka was managing to push them back and they must have realised they would not win this for they started to run. Ahsoka chased them and used the Force to tip a chair into their path which they promptly tripped over. She runs over and places her lightsaber at their neck, "You may have Madame Jocasta's shape, but not her skills."
It was at that moment that the shape shifter changed back into their true form, that of a female Clawdite. "Alright, what's going on? Spill it?"
"Alright, alright, I was supposed to help him get into the holocron vault," she says.
Ahsoka quickly contacted her Master, "Master Skywalker, I've captured the imposter disguised as a Jedi, she says the intruder is in the holocron vault."
"A holocron is no good without a Jedi to open it," she hears Master Obi-Wan say. "What are they up to?"
"They must be trying to gain access to the communication centre from the vault," Anakin deduces.
"Let's get in there," Master Obi-Wan says before her connection with them is gone.
Sulani was entering the archives when she sees Ahsoka standing beside a captured Clawdite, "Ahsoka, who do we have here?"
"Oh, Mother," she says in surprise, "this is one of the intruders, she disguised herself as a Jedi to gain access to the systems in order to assist her partner into getting into the holocron vault."
"Oh really?"
Ahsoka was about to respond, but then they felt the ground shape, "Mother, was that a bomb?"
"It appears so, it must be in the vents nearby, the temple is sturdy enough that they would not have felt it on the other side of the temple," Sulani surmises.
"Yes, they must have used it to get to the communications centre," Ahsoka says.
"The communication centre? Why do you think so?"
"Because that's where Master Skywalker and Master Kenobi believe the intruder to be going," Ahsoka explains.
For some reason, this still did not sit right with Sulani, it seemed like a long convoluted way of getting information. So much effort has been put into something that could reasonably be taken from somewhere a lot easier. That's when she felt it, another disturbance in the Force, a stronger one that made her realise why the archives kept coming to her, the disturbance was coming from the vault. She quickly ran towards the back of the archives where the vault was, she needed to hurry. She got there, and rules be damned, she used the Force to open the vault and entered when it opened. No one was in there and she looked around. She quickly realised why they were gone, they had got what they came for as she observed the empty space where a holocron used to be. She was ready to contact Master Yoda when she felt the building shake again, another bomb.
She used this opportunity to contact Master Yoda, "Master Yoda, my feelings were right, they were after a holocron and I'm afraid I was too late to stop them."
"Hurry over, we shall Mother Kenobi," he replies.
She waited inside the vault for them to arrive, and she could not believe they had gotten away with the holocron while she was right there. She was thinking too hard on it, because she almost did not notice when Master Yoda, Master Windu, Obi-Wan and Anakin entered the vault. "Our war operations, it was never about," Master Yoda says as he enters.
Ahsoka, who had also entered with the captured Clawdite, turned around with her, "Come on changeling, we have a new home for you."
Sulani walked with Anakin and Obi-Wan as they left, "What would someone want with a holocron?" Obi-Wan asks.
"That is yet to be determined," Sulani says.
They continued to leave, Masters Windu and Yoda following as well, when the changeling stopped, "Wait, Bolla Ropal."
"What did you say?" Master Windu asks.
"Bolla Ropal," she repeats. "That's who Bane's next target is, some Jedi."
Master Windu and Master Yoda share a look and Anakin notices, "What's wrong? Who's Bolla Ropal?"
"He is the keeper of the Kyber crystal," Master Windu explains, "the data on which can only be read by holocrons."
"What's on the crystal?" Ahsoka asks.
At this moment, Sulani has a sinking suspicion she knows the answer, it is a Kyber crystal that all Guardian Mothers learn about. Master Windu answers, "A list of every known Force-sensitive child in the galaxy. The future younglings."
It was as he said that last part that he looked over at Sulani and saw the pained look on her face. "The future of the Jedi Order," he continues.
"We have to warn him," Obi-Wan says.
"That's going to be hard to do," Master Windu says. "He's out of contact, somewhere in the Devaron system."
"Seek him out, you must," Master Yoda says.
"Ahsoka and I will set out immediately," Anakin says.
"If this Cad Bane is still here on Coruscant, I'll find him," Obi-Wan says before taking away the Clawdite.
As everyone else left, Sulani was still in the archives, Master Yoda beside her. "Fear and uncertainty, I feel from you, Mother Kenobi," Master Yoda says while continuing to watch the others as they left.
"I feel somewhat responsible for not catching him before he got the holocron," she admits, "I'd had the feeling since you mentioned intruders, but I was never sure about what to do."
"Responsible for this, you are not," he assures, "but find the intruder we must, before use the holocron, he does."
Even Master Yoda's assuring words could not stop the fear she feels for the future of those younglings. She preyed to the Force that they would all be alright.
Sulani was now aboard the Resolute, weeks after she was last out in the far reaches of space. Why? Because she wanted to make up for allowing Bane to take the holocron by assisting Anakin in his mission to find Master Bolla Ropal. She also felt she had a stake in this problem, any one of those younglings at risk could one day be her own to raise and train as an Initiate. Her calling as a Guardian Mother gave her a higher compassion for the children of the universe than would usually be expected of a Jedi. Having made a commitment to the Jedi Order meant she could never have children of her own, so raising the Order's younglings was a blessing and a privilege for her. The fact that someone was targeting these children made her sick to her stomach, whether they were Force-sensitive or not, a child being kidnapped by people with very bad intentions was wrong. She needed to stop Cad Bane from unlocking that holocron somehow and passing on the list of children.
At the moment, they were nearing the Devaron system where Master Ropal was supposed to be, and their last transmission from the area mentioned a small fleet of Separatist frigates in the area. This did not bode well for them, so they were prepared for battle the moment they exited hyperspace.
Sure enough, as soon as they stopped, there was the three frigates mentioned and they were heading away from the planet, giving Sulani a very bad feeling. "General," Admiral Yularen said to Anakin who was on her right, "are we clear for attack?"
"Yes admiral," Anakin replies, "all guns aimed on those two nearest frigates, I want them out of the way."
"Yes, General."
Those two ships were clearly only operated by droids as their defense was weak and were destroyed rather quickly. The two frigates were going down when Admiral Yularen, who had momentarily left the room, returned with a message, "General, we're receiving an urgent transmission from the planet."
Without a word, Anakin followed the Admiral to the meeting room, Sulani right behind him. A trooper was accepting the message and Ahsoka was standing behind him, the clone sending the message was glitching in static and he appeared to be fighting. "General Skywalker, our base has been overrun, there's no possibility of evacuation. Aah! They've taken General Ropal and the holocron memory crystal," he says as he fights off a droid visible in the holo-image.
"Do you know where they've taken them?" Anakin asks.
"Sorry, sir," the clone replies, "We tried to stop them, but they've left the outpost."
It was at that moment a droid came up from behind and grabbed him, the image disappearing. The clone who had received the message spoke, "Wait a second, there's too much interference. The transmitter's been destroyed at the source, sir."
"We need to find out what ship Master Ropal is on," Anakin said hurriedly, realising they may have destroyed the ship he was on.
They searched as best they could and Sulani was even trying to reach out to Master Ropal with the Force, if only to brush up against his mind enough to locate him. They were having minimal success and she was beginning to worry he was already dead. She watched out the windows with Anakin when Admiral Yularen noticed something, "General, a Separatist command ship is fleeing the battle."
Ahsoka and Anakin got closer, "You think they have Master Ropal on board as a prisoner?" Ahsoka asks.
"I'm sure of it," Anakin says. "Admiral, intercept them before they can jump to hyperspace. I'll ready the troops for boarding."
"Boarding?" Admiral Yularen asks, "We have no boarding craft. We were prepared to land on the planet, not to board another ship. You can't be serious."
Sulani was sure this was going to be one of those times that Anakin brought out a ridiculous plan that was so out there, it made her worry beyond belief and yet somehow, they worked. To an extent anyway. "I am Admiral," Anakin says, "Thank you for your opinion. Now target their hyperdrive, we don't want them getting away."
Sulani could see the utterly affronted look on Admiral Yularen's face as the bridge crew of the Resolute followed Anakin's orders. They quickly caught up to the enemy ship, fired upon it's hyperdrive and disabled it completely. They were not going anywhere in a hurry now. They continued to approach the crippled ship and Sulani could see the look on Anakin's face, she just knew things were going to get strange soon enough. "Alright, let's go down to the hangar Snips and see what we can find. I'm sure we have something lying around we can use to board that frigate."
"Anakin, Admiral Yularen has already said we don't have anything like that," Sulani cuts in.
"Don't worry Mother, there's always something useful."
He did not wait for an answer before leaving for the hangar, Sulani decided to tag along to see if he really could find something useful. They went straight down and met up with Rex alongside a few clones, "I've rounded up three brigades, sir. Where are we going?"
"We're going to board a Separatist frigate," Anakin explains, "rescue Master Ropal, and recover an archive holocron."
"We have no assault craft, sir," Rex said, repeating what Yularen had already told him, "only a couple of fighters and the Twilight."
Anakin just stared him down in response, making Rex stand straighter, "Waiting for orders, sir."
"And the plan is?" Ahsoka finally asks. "Just curious."
That last bit was said because Anakin had given her a similar look to the one he had given Rex. So Anakin started looking around the hangar, trying to find something they could use. It was at this moment that Admiral Yularen came over, "I came down to see if I could be of any help, General Skywalker."
"Actually, you can," Anakin replied, a little upturn of his lips to go with it, "activate those walkers Admiral."
Sulani followed where he pointed with her eyes, and sure enough, he was pointing at the walkers. If she was not a Jedi trained to mind her emotions and her reactions, her eyes might have widened in surprise.
"You cannot be serious?" Sulani said at the same time Admiral Yularen said, "You are not thinking of using those to transport the clones to that frigate."
"Well, they are pressurised," Ahsoka points out, a thoughtful look on her face.
"And they're equipped with magnetic feet," Rex adds. "Hmm, good call."
"You have got to be joking?" Sulani says, feeling as if she was parrot.
"Master, you're a genius," Ahsoka says appreciatively.
"Those walkers are designed for terrain, not space," Admiral Yularen cuts in.
"Rex, load them up," Anakin says, ignoring what the Admiral had just said. "Let's go, Snips."
Without further ado, Anakin and Ahsoka were off to get into the walkers, Rex shouting orders, "Execute battalion, take ATAT300! Carnivore battalion, walker 773! Let's go!"
Sulani and Admiral Yularen just watched them go, the latter shaking his head, neither could believe this was happening. Sulani sighed, "Let's go to the bridge, there's no use stopping this now."
"Agreed General," he said as they turned and made their way to the bridge.
They were nearing their destination when she felt it, it was like a shock to her system and it caused her to double over. She took a moment to recover herself, and searched the Force only to find it was coming from Master Ropal. He was being tortured, Cad Bane was probably trying to get him to open the holocron, but he was resisting. "General, are you alright?" Admiral Yularen, who had tried to steady her, asked her with a furrow in his brow.
"Yes Admiral, I'll be fine," she said, catching her breath, "it was not my pain, but Master Ropal's. Cad Bane is torturing him, most likely to get him to open the holocron."
"Then I guess we best hurry to assist General Skywalker," he said.
A nod and a step forward was her only reply. She got only a few metres before she felt it again and a lot stronger this time, it made her verbalise her pain with a small scream. Admiral Yularen was looking much more worried this time as he caught her falling form. She did not understand why she was feeling this so strongly, she had never met Master Ropal before and therefore had no bond with him besides that of fellow Jedi. She ran out of time to contemplate the matter, because she promptly passed out. Master Ropal had died.
A/N: part two of four of the stolen holocron arc, a bit longer than the last chapter, but this was a good point to end the chapter. Things are getting pretty intense for Sulani at the moment, for various reasons. I won't say too much more, leave most of the stuff to say for the last chapter in the arc, so until the next chapter…
Seza, out