Chapter 75
"Was that truly necessary Ahsoka?"
My fingers paused their typing on the main MFD that Osi Sobeck used to control the entire prison. I gave a brief glance at Obi-Wan who was thoroughly securing the now deeply snoozing former Citadel prison warden.
"Probably not, but the bastard had it coming. A record of all his interrogation sessions are here. I didn't look at it beyond counting but it's clear he started doing it for fun. Scaring him to within an inch of his life will have to do. He survives only because I know that putting him in a Republic max prison will be infinitely worse for him."
"It is quite the reversal," he agreed.
The logic spike from my gauntlet shot out and I stabbed it into the port. "All right, M8, we were just in time. He was still logged in. Get to work."
"Yes, mistress."
I keyed my comlink as I watched M8 tear her way through the computer systems. "Master, stand by for shut down."
"Got it!" Anakin shouted over the din of battle.
A few taps on the controls brought up a surveillance feed of the hallway outside the main fusion reactor. We probably could take the entire floor in a conventional battle, but the chances that one of the tac droids would trigger a self-destruct was too high.
"I found the local failsafe, master."
"Any issues with it?"
"None that I can see, master."
"Hit it."
The screen in front of me flashed with displays and data, programming being executed faster than an organic eye could even see. Then every single droid in the prison just… stopped. Their photoreceptors dimmed, some standing as inanimate statues before they were gunned down by the clones. Droideka's shields collapsed and they fell over awkwardly as they lost balance, due to their motive systems dying. B2-ACMs lowered their arms, locking them into a standby position before kneeling into their transport positions - the red light from the primary sensor cluster fading.
I saw Anakin had to repeat his order to hold fire before the clones obeyed. They understandably wanted to reduce every single droid in the Citadel to scrap, but that wasn't in the plan.
The guns fell silent and I let out a sigh of relief.
The entire prison was ours now.
I changed channel on the comlink, "R2, grab the shuttle, you are clear to land in the Citadel's main bay. Afterwards, start unloading the casks and bring those B1s up to the control room."
The astromech chirped a happy affirmative.
"How are the Jedi prisoners?" Obi-Wan asked, now standing behind my seat.
In answer, my right hand tapped rapidly on the keypanels. Five windows popped up on the main screen, each showing the interiors of cells, whose walls, floors and ceilings were bathed in the blue glow of energy containment. Their occupants were all dressed as ordinary prisoners with yellow jumpsuits.
"They look at least rather well fed and watered, Sobeck didn't forget about them."
Two were asleep on their cots, one was meditating, the remaining two busy with some calisthenics. I brought up the logs and it did indeed reveal that the former warden had also used them as playthings in his sadistic game. If all five hadn't already fallen to the Dark Side, then Sobeck definitely ensured that they would stay there.
Standard procedure meant they had to be kept in solitary confinement and were provided with heavily curated pastimes and entertainment. Sobeck had curbed that allowance significantly and just by looking at their body language I could tell they were extremely bored.
The most striking of them were Shanri Nis and Narri Derzo, both female arkanians. The near-human species had white hair and eyes, with four digit hands. It was the first time I'd seen some of their kind. That they had fallen was something quite a few orthodox Jedi would say was simply inevitable, given the species' reputation for arrogance and that they believed they were the most intelligent in the galaxy. They had taken their own evolution firmly into their hands, as genetic engineering and eugenics was commonly practiced on Arkania.
The meditating prisoner was a male falleen and just by looking at him, you'd be forgiven for thinking of him as a very handsome example of his species. Perfectly symmetrical facial features with scaly reptilian skin colored a dark red at the moment, which he could change quite quickly. His name was Senaat Greej and was arguably the most dangerous of the five, simply because of the other feature of the falleen - their cross-species capable pheromones that were strong enough to even challenge the Internal Control of many Jedi. I pulled up his file and winced as I saw the primary reason why he was incarcerated.
"I do recall reading about this as an initiate," Obi-Wan mused, looking disturbed.
Greej had been rigidly taught to suppress those pheromones as a youngling and when he reached Knighthood, everything had indicated that he had been a model Jedi. Until he was caught using them on a fellow padawan of his generation. The investigation into that opened a can of worms that revealed a huge scandal of silence regarding Greej's activities, including the outright seduction of no less than six others, including a senior knight, who had covered for him.
"The cask should be capable of containing his pheromones and I note here that Sobeck also had a few tricks for that," I pointed at the annotations made in the file.
The fourth prisoner was a selonian, who seemed to be the one doing the most exercise of the five and it showed in their cat-like physique. It made me think I was looking at a buff, muscle bound humanoid cat. Two meters tall, with brown-black patterned fur, needle sharp claws on the ends of four fingered hands with an opposable thumb. His powerful tail sinuously moved with every repetition of pull-up that he did. I could see his eyes were also glowing yellow with the corruption of the Dark Side.
All in all, not an opponent to take lightly even if he didn't have a lightsaber; Force empowered strength, teeth and claws with a predatory cunning was enough.
"Kruldan Dosek, yes, the Green Jedi were most thankful we took him off their hands," Obi-Wan commented. "Responsible for nearly a dozen murders on Corellia. A selonian supremacist who wants to kick every human off the planet or failing that, genocide them all."
The final prisoner was a tall human male in his middle ages, who was seated on his cot against the wall and reading a datapad.
"Seirr Jierchuh," I said, reading his file quickly.
He had actually been a master on the Council of First Knowledge - until he had been exposed to a Sith Holocron that had been recovered roughly thirty years ago. From there his file read like a drug addict, only his poison was any and all knowledge on the Force, especially the Dark Side.
"Master, I have assumed full control of the Citadel," M8 declared.
"Excellent work, M8. Create administrative rights access for myself, Obi-Wan and Anakin."
"Done."
At this point, I sensed a presence trying to surreptitiously keep just out of sight near the control room doors.
"Can I help you, Captain Tarkin?"
Tarkin hesitated before walking into sight and into the control room, still wearing the trooper helmet. He looked slightly ridiculous with the bright white ARC helmet over his head, combined with the naval uniform below. In the circumstances, he clearly didn't care about looks, only practicality and remaining informed.
"Commander Tano, General Kenobi," he greeted, bowing his head slightly before removing the helmet to hold it under his arm. "Are we going to take these individuals with us?"
"That is one of the objectives," Obi-Wan confirmed. "The Council wants them accounted for and secure. The chance that these Jedi can be used against the Republic is too high."
"I see. One wonders why they haven't been used yet."
"As it stands now, they'd do more damage to the CIS if they were employed without precautions."
He nodded in understanding, "And how soon until we evacuate?"
"If everything goes smoothly, within a few hours, Captain," I said, as my fingers flipped the controls for the main hangar bay to allow R2 and the shuttle to land.
"And if things don't go smoothly?"
"Then we'll improvise."
I reached towards Sobeck's desk, finding a blank datapad. A few taps later and there was a basic navigation program on it. I sent it hovering towards Tarkin with a casual throw.
He raised both eyebrows at the use of the Force, but caught it without missing a beat.
"Captain, please get together with Master Piell, we need a course out of CIS space using the Nexus Route from Lola Sayu." Tarkin opened his mouth to reply but a chiming alert on the screen in front of me sent my heart racing. "Incoming communication, it's from Dooku."
"No doubt wanting an update from Sobeck," Obi-Wan commented grimly.
I plunged down my bond with Anakin, 'Skyguy, get your ass up here now! Incoming com request from Dooku.'
'On my way, Snips.'
"What are you going to do?" Tarkin asked neutrally, yet I sensed his fear.
"What we must, Captain. You need to leave, get us that course."
His hologram appeared in an adjunct office off the Citadel control room.
Dooku surveyed the utilitarian space that Sobeck spent most of his days in and wondered just why the holofield had been expanded to include the full detail of the room. It was rather annoying as it caused the holo to completely surround him as he stood behind his expansive desk in the workroom he used for most of his administrative duties here on Serenno.
He reached out with the Force, sensing very carefully around him… only to find nothing.
Satisfied, he pulled his senses to a more normal level.
The door to the office abruptly shot up into the ceiling revealing a very agitated Commander Osi Sobeck, who was clearly trying to project a confident and calm demeanor. Dooku almost sneered at the pathetic attempt at deception.
"Count Dooku, my lord," Sobeck bowed with a hand on his chest.
"You may cease the propriety, Commander Sobeck. I want an update. You've had more than enough time."
"Then you'll be happy to know that I have successfully repelled the assault on the Citadel, Count. The remnants of the incursion team are being hunted down in the lava fields as we speak."
Dooku seized control of his anger. "I don't care about the Republic rabble. Are you in possession of the information the prisoner is carrying?"
"Not yet," Sobeck admitted, clearly uncomfortable. "But my interrogation droids have never failed. We will soon have it."
"You are aware that this information will tip the scale of the war, to the side who controls it?" Dooku gave Sobeck a sharp look and smirked. "Perhaps this is a matter that requires my personal attention."
"No, my lord," Sobeck shook his head, almost pleadingly. Dooku was gratified to see that the prison warden definitely didn't want that. The journey from Serenno to Lola Sayu was three to four days. There were many other critical demands on the leader of the CIS's time and for him to venture to the Citadel would be unacceptable and it would end with Sobeck's corpse being dumped into a lava field.
"Get the information, Commander. I don't care how you do it."
"I will, my lord."
"Good. Now how are your other Jedi guests?"
"Alive and angry, my lord."
"Excellent, keep it that way, the implants should arrive in the next shipment to the Citadel."
"I will have them installed as soon as they arrive, my lord."
"No mistakes, Commander. This project is already behind schedule as it is." Dooku brought up a manifest review of the Citadel. "Hmmm, I think it's time for some house cleaning over there. As soon as you have coordinates, kill the remaining prisoners."
Sobeck hesitated slightly in answering, his bulbous eyes narrowed. "Of course, my lord."
"You have an objection, Commander?"
"No, my lord. Well, not in that way. It's just that the halls of my prison will be rather quiet afterwards." The phindian looked like he had just been told to throw away his favorite toys. Dooku inwardly debated on the merits of getting the commander back into a fleet position. He was quite talented in ship command. He was somewhat wasted playing prison warden. Yet in the same breath, he was in command of the most vital prison that existed in the CIS and finding a competent replacement was a headache that Dooku didn't want to deal with now.
"Rest assured, more prisoners will be on their way."
Sobeck smirked and bowed before Dooku reached out and cut the connection.
The hologram faded around him and he stood from his comfortable chair to look out over pristine grounds of Castle Serenno under the beautiful reflected moonlight of Mantero and Balvas, hanging in the sky overhead.
Such wonder and perfection. It almost made the twenty hour work days worth enduring. Such were the sacrifices to ensure that a new order would bring the galaxy the justice and stability that it deserved.
He felt the bond with his Master ripple in a very distinct way.
Dooku turned around, keyed his highly encrypted communication all the way to Coruscant and immediately knelt within the holofield pickup.
"Master Sidious."
He didn't need to look up to know and feel his master's heavy gaze through the Force. Tens of thousands of lightyear's distance were as nothing now. Sidious was in his typical dark blue outer robe that he wore in his Sith persona.
"Lord Tyranus. I've come to discuss your request."
"Yes, my master. I require a replacement for Ventress. She was useful while she lasted and I cannot be everywhere."
"You know the basis of our Order, Tyranus. As long as that is respected, you are free to initiate as many acolytes as you want, with the understanding that they're to be killed when their usefulness has run its course or they become a threat."
"Understood, master."
"Good. Is the Nexus plan proceeding as we discussed?"
"Indeed, Master. One way or another, the route will be ours."
"Carry on, Lord Tyranus."
Sidious' presence faded as the holo vanished into nothingness.
Dooku smoothly rose to stand and smirked. Yes, the pieces were slowly but surely falling into place for his master's ultimate demise. He was stuck on Coruscant, maintaining the Shroud. All the while allowing him to move freely and find out every secret and plan that Sidious had set in motion. Even as he advanced his master's agenda, he was carefully building towards that one moment in the future when his blade would relieve the Dark Lord of his head.
The CIS would flourish as the Republic withered on the vine, as was the fate of all governments and civilizations who allowed decadence and corruption to prosper.
The galaxy would see the Confederate model and either join or go the route of the broken Republic.
He would then use Plagueis and Sidious' own research, bringing life extension techniques through both science and the Force to everyone.
He would live long enough to see the galaxy brought into a new age of prosperity, such that it would make even the heady days of the High Republic seem like nothing.
I closed the holo and sat back in the chair.
Obi-Wan and Anakin removed their hands from my shoulders, then we disentangled from our harmonization through the Force.
It was the only way to completely hoodwink the Count's senses. I knew that both Sidious and Dooku had enough 'far casting' ability through a holo system to Force Choke someone. I doubt they had developed all the applications I had for the technique, but I couldn't assume these things.
"Think he suspected something?" Anakin asked.
Obi-Wan crossed his arms, "I doubt we can ever be one hundred percent sure, but our deception was as flawless as we could make it."
"Nicely done, M8, that was wonderful holography," I complimented.
"Thank you, Mistress," said my armor's droid intelligence. "I'm afraid though there is some bad news."
My shoulders slumped, "What now?"
"With full access to the Citadel's systems I've been running background scans of their logs and monitoring what data gets sent from here to the security fleet in orbit."
"They don't truly know what's going on, otherwise we'd be drowning in battle droids," Anakin pointed out.
"Correct, Knight Skywalker. The Citadel doesn't have any data integration with the fleet by design. However, what does get sent is general traffic and ship data packets, since the ships in orbit need to know what's coming and going. The problem is that when our legitimate CIS shuttle declared an emergency, including a fake broadcast that it had crashed… by its nature as an emergency system, it was sent to the Citadel and automatically rebroadcast to the security fleet in orbit. I know enough about CIS aerospace registry systems to also confidently state that the supposed destruction of Shuttle 81572 has been reported across CIS space in their computer systems."
"Oh for frak's sake," I sighed, rubbing my forehead.
Anakin patted my shoulder immediately, "No beating yourself up over this, Snips."
"No wonder all the probability lines were suddenly skewed. Now, within two jumps from Lola Sayu we're always getting intercepted and boarded. My sight was focused too close."
"And we don't blame you for it," Obi-Wan said softly. "What we achieved here alone is astonishing, Ahsoka. The Citadel was rated as impossible to assault or escape from even before it was taken over by the CIS."
"Yes, yes," I waved off his compliment uncomfortably. "Now we need a new ship. M8 what does the prison have?"
"There is only one heavily modified Sheathipede-class transport shuttle, which was the warden's personal transport."
M8 displayed a holo of the ship in question.
It was a mainstay bog standard hyper-capable personnel transport of the CIS Navy. Sobeck had made some visible additions by including two forward facing blaster cannons on either side of the cockpit.
"It can only hold a maximum of eight passengers, so we'd at least be able to get Tarkin and Master Piell out of here."
"Yes, but they wouldn't get far," Anakin shook his head. "Look, this is registered as Sobeck's personal craft. If this ship left the system, I bet you any amount of credits that an alert somewhere will go off in CIS Intel. He's not supposed to leave. He's the warden of the most secure and sensitive prison in CIS space." Obi-Wan scratched his beard and began smirking. Anakin narrowed his eyes at his former master, "I know that face. What idea do you have?"
"M8, are there any ships in the security fleet that are scheduled to leave within the next two days?"
"Yes, Master Kenobi, the Conqueror is due to leave within twenty-two hours for its routine maintenance at the Pammant Shipyards. Its replacement is scheduled to arrive in twenty three hours."
"Which ship is the Conqueror?"
M8 displayed a holo of the ship in question.
All three of us shared incredulous looks.
"Well, that will be something to put on the résumés," I commented wryly.
We had gathered everyone in the largest room we could find in the prison. It used to be a mess hall for the prison staff and Jedi assigned to the Citadel, but with the takeover in management at the beginning of the war, it had been largely forgotten and partially used as a storage room. With the over two hundred former prisoners now available, it was cleared out quickly.
We used R2's holoprojector to give the briefing and it wasn't long before objections began to be heard.
"Impossible!"
"It's suicide!"
"No way."
"Enough!" Anakin shouted, using the Force to blast his voice into every ear. Naturally, the clones didn't voice any objection, but it was easy to sense their quiet apprehension about the plan. "It's either this or we just wait for the CIS to eventually get wise to the fact that we took over their premiere prison from right under their noses. No matter how formidable the Citadel is against conventional attack, even though the prison is fully under our control, there are enough droids up there to make it a forgone conclusion."
That was putting it mildly, the fleet up there probably had a few million deactivated droids alone, which was a conservative estimate. Given that the ships were part of a security blockade fleet, far behind the front lines, they wouldn't be equipped to full capacity.
"Questions?" Anakin asked.
Rex raised a hand, "General, we only have that small shuttle. It's going to be scanned and only one life sign, the warden's, can be aboard. We don't have the facilities to get back in the carbon freezers."
"That is why 'Sobeck' is going to ask for an empty cargo shuttle to come down, so he can load up and dispose of all the destroyed droids from our unsuccessful rescue attempt."
The clone captain nodded, seeing where this was going. "So we take over that ship and ride it up to the target."
"Correct, we've also adapted a new program for the lifesign dampeners, so we'll remain undetected even from ship sensors."
We had brought more than enough dampeners for everyone, most of which was stored on the original shuttle, erring on the side that bringing more would be better than less.
"If that's the case, why don't we just use the cargo shuttle to leave the system," a gruff, bearded, human prisoner asked.
"That'll send alarms ringing throughout CIS space. Only the Conqueror is scheduled to leave, therefore it's the only ticket out of this system if we want any hope of actually getting anywhere," I answered.
An ugnaught prisoner raised his hand, "Is it even possible to fly such a ship with so few?"
"You could fly one reasonably with only two pilots on the bridge," Anakin answered. "These are heavily automated ships, we just wouldn't want to be caught in a battle. We also have a plan in that regard if the worst case scenario happens."
Obi-Wan nodded at me and I embraced the Force, stretching out to every soul in range.
"This is what must be done," he said. "It can be done. This is for your freedom. You have already done what you considered impossible just yesterday. Now we ask you to do so again. The Force will be with you. Trust that the impossible can happen again."
R2 sat in his three wheel mode, right next to the large external landing pad of the Citadel and the original three B1s under his command were arrayed around him. They were joined by another full squad of reprogrammed B1s, each pushing repulsor sleds filled with a variety of wreckage from the battle for the Citadel.
A thumping through the air announced the arrival of the cargo shuttle, as it began its final deceleration and descent.
He made sure to sever his emotional subroutines from his motors and chassis. Nervousness had no place for expression at the moment. Everything and everyone was riding on this. If this failed, then R2 had no doubt that the end would be coming for his partitioned memories and it would mean a full return to factory default. It was the worst form of death for any droid, but he would do it, to protect those he cared about.
The shuttle extended its legs and its engines flared a final burst to bleed off the last of its speed, before touching down on the pad with a hard thump of metal on duracrete and hissing hydraulics.
The shuttle side door opened, as did the larger aft ramp.
"Go," R2 ordered, after he had thrown out a scan, there were just three B1s from the security fleet on board.
The co-pilot walked out and R2 had B1-P meet it.
"Here to pick up some scrap."
The cargo sleds were being pushed up the ramp.
"Thank you for picking them up," B1-P said. "It's a real mess in the prison at the moment."
"Many dead organics?"
B1-P nodded his head, "Yeah, so leaky… and it gets everywhere."
"Glad I'm not assigned down here."
R2 confirmed the sleds were in the correct position inside the ship, before ordering the B1s to pull out the hidden weapons from among the wreckage.
"We're gonna have to disappoint you, buddy."
"What-"
R2 opened the lower central port on his body and his new ion blaster's short barrel poked out for a microsecond before sending a blue ring of energy to smash right into the co-pilot.
At the exact moment, inside the shuttle, the B1's opened fire on the CIS droids.
He rolled over to the sizzling co-pilot B1, waiting for more of the charge to dissipate before pushing it over.
B1-C and P knelt and turned it over, giving R2 the access to insert a logic probe.
It was over in five seconds.
B1-C initiated a crash restart and the former Lola Sayu Security B1 was now effectively a Republic war droid, with all the clearances and security codes for the next stage of the plan to continue.
"B1-T, can you hear me?" R2 asked.
The newly named droid twitched before it replied, "Is this what organics being drunk feels like?" it moaned.
"Just residual energy from the stun, you should be fine. Your orders are in the encrypted file."
"I see it, commander."
"Good, follow me."
R2 motored forward, pulled in his front wheel and extended his leg jets briefly to quickly jump into the shuttle.
The wheel extended again and he pushed himself with the best speed he could into the cockpit and interfaced with the closest logic port.
He immediately looped any surveillance sensor and was thankful to note that there wasn't any live uplink towards the security fleet. That was either luck or very sloppy security procedures. It spoke of tac droids pushing routine and streamlining to save time and energy. Concluding that just because something had never happened before, that it couldn't happen, so why bother guarding against the impossible.
The next few seconds were spent analyzing the shuttle's systems and computers. With B1-Ts authorization keys it was easy to jailbreak the entire thing, then creating a separate partition that would remain linked with the security fleet to give the impression that nothing was wrong.
"Master Skywalker, everything is ready," he said over the comlink.
"Good work, R2. On our way."
The main doors opened and the four companies worth of prisoners, all armed with both Republic weapons and hacked CIS weapons streamed out in an orderly jog.
Behind them, six casks floated forward, escorted by the four Jedi and Captain Tarkin.
R2 couldn't help but feel relief at seeing the five Jedi prisoners safely ensconced in them. Thankfully, nothing had gone wrong with the procedures in place to move those dangerous sentients from their cells and into the casks. He had only been peripherally involved, with M8 doing most of the work in handling the systems dedicated to that.
No matter how powerful or dangerous someone was in the Force, they still needed to breathe. Therefore the cells were designed to disperse a very subtle aerosolized anesthetic. All the Jedi prisoners were asleep before they even realized they were being drugged. Then it was just a matter of shutting down the energy fields and physically carrying them into the waiting casks.
A few minutes later, everyone was aboard and Master Skywalker entered the cockpit to take a seat at the pilot station. B1-T then sat in the co-pilot seat.
"Okay, R2, you know the drill. Get through the engine startup and let's leave this rock."
"With pleasure, master."
It didn't take long, given how recently they'd been used and soon the entire shuttle was rumbling with the sounds of repulsorlift and engines working together.
Master pushed forward on the vertical ascent throttle and the shuttle rose off the pad, before he pulled up its attitude and hit the acceleration.
As the altitude increased, R2 kept his digital eyes on every bit of data the shuttle was feeding into the local CIS network. By the time they left the atmosphere of Lola Sayu, he had the positions of every ship in the security fleet. The network between ships was the usual distributed, independent setups that the CIS had adopted from the beginning of the war.
How more efficient and easier would things have been now had the Trade Federation not learned from their experience of the Naboo Blockade.
Through the forward cockpit windows, their destination was steadily growing larger and larger, until the bulk of it drowned out the view of space and the asteroid field.
This close R2 could finally perceive the data flows of the Providence class dreadnought, Conqueror.
It was one of the larger models of the type, measuring over two kilometers in length. There were over 900 active droids on the ship, which was the minimum required for a moderate level of battle readiness. He next used an ingenious trick Mistress Ahsoka had given him the idea of. A small innocuous junk data packet was injected into the Conqueror's computers. The internal computer didn't recognize it as a virus, but its job had already been done as R2 perceived a map of every single droid, active and inactive, including a comprehensive layout of the internal computer architecture.
"Master, the dreadnought is at minimum droid crew levels, there are only 100,000 inactive war droids, it has a maximum complement of droid starfighters, including tri-fighters."
"Makes sense, this isn't a front line ship, carrying a million droids just gathering dust is a waste of credits and resources. The most likely threat in their calculations will come from space."
The shuttle was now approaching one of the cavernous starboard landing bays and B1-T's codes were ensuring that a minimum amount of fuss was made. To the tac droids credit, they also performed a life sign scan.
R2 could perceive the scan from inside the ship network and let out the equivalent of an electronic sigh of relief when it failed to detect any organics aboard. He'd been ready with a hack program to intercept and alter the scan results, but thankfully it wasn't necessary.
"Polarizing," Master Skywalker flicked a switch and the cockpit windows shimmered, preventing anyone outside seeing in.
The cargo ship slipped through the magcon shields and the master flared the ship, before letting it settle on the deck.
Master stood from the pilot's chair, "B1-T, take this."
The droid was handed a portable logic probe. "Yes, sir. What's this?"
"You will head to the bridge with R2, between the two of you I want you to infect every droid there with the virus on that."
"Roger, roger."
"R2, send every other droid under your control to engineering and life support. Be careful."
"Yes, Master Skywalker. I'll get you this dreadnought."
Unloading the droid scrap still had to be done to avoid suspicion, so R2 and B1-T's first destination was the dreadnought's maintenance decks. R2's presence, since astromechs were not used by the CIS Navy, was explained as a captured trophy from the defeated Republic strike force.
The maintenance levels on a Providence, might as well have been a droid factory in its own right. The only thing missing was the durasteel armor and chassis foundries, not to mention raw ore processing. It was also the busiest section of the dreadnought, as it processed all the deactivated droids on a rotation to keep them at acceptable readiness. The wrecked droids from the battle would also now be repurposed for extra parts, whilst irreparable parts were scrapped and recycled properly for raw materials.
B1-T and R2 claimed their first victims here.
Infecting half a dozen other B1s with what was in essence a 'Republic Virus' - it essentially switched the droid's programs and targeting protocols to consider what was the 'enemy' to instead become 'allies', along with a few failsafes and targeting improvements designed by Master Skywalker.
R2 loaded the virus onto a dozen more portable probes that he scavenged from the local stores and armed the B1s with them, with orders to infect more isolated droids.
Every droid infected also became part of the new steadily growing network that had R2 as its central hub.
He didn't have the processing capacity for real time control on all of them, but he could order the droids around as if he had pieces on a dejarik board, keeping track of their position on the ship.
With that done and keeping B1-T by his side, R2 left the maintenance levels for the bridge and he got the first indications of droid infections in life support as new B1s and even B2s joined the network. With an all droid crew, the majority of the ship didn't even have gravity or air, the power for those systems were mostly being sent to shielding and weapons. That would have to change if the strike force wanted to take over the dreadnought.
By the time R2 reached the bridge, infections were happening in engineering and there was still no indication that the enemy or any tac droids had caught onto the fact that they were being taken over.
He rolled out of the turbolift as the 111th droid was infected.
The bridge of the dreadnought was a large circular amphitheater design, with forward transparisteel windows giving an expansive view of the surrounding space, the security fleet arrayed on either side and the asteroid rings surrounding the planet.
There were a dozen B1s at various consoles, with a single TX-20 tactical droid sitting in the captain's chair.
You could tell this was a rear echelon command, because there wasn't a single magnadroid, droideka or even a commando droid in sight.
R2 couldn't help but reflect on how this desire for efficiency that was evident in a lot of the programming of tactical droids, effectively caused what was similar to 'laziness' in organics. Not even the B1s on the bridge were armed. The TX concluding that it was a waste of energy and time to keep droid weapons charged and maintained on the bridge.
Of course, the problem now was that there was no way to infect these droids without giving away the game if R2 wasn't quick and careful.
The TX turned in its seat, "Why are you here, Unit 34202?"
"Oh, uh, I just thought that you'd want to see this R2 unit we captured from the enemy strike team below," B1-T said, gesturing expansively with its hands.
"Why would I want to see it?"
R2 whirled on his wheels as quickly as he could and stabbed a probe into the nearest socket.
"Stop that! Stop it! What are you-"
In less than a second he was in the local bridge network.
In the next moment, he burst through the computer security and the gravity plating was inverted, all the while he cut off all communication from the bridge to the rest of the ship.
He next deployed his jets and magnetized his wheels to ensure he wouldn't suffer the same fate as all the other droids.
Fourteen droids, including B1-T, were repulsed from the floor and smashed against the ceiling of the bridge.
The difference was, B1-T had been warned it would happen.
It landed on its feet and immediately began stabbing its fellows with the logic probe.
R2 next extended his ion blaster, dialed it to maximum and shot the TX.
It shuddered under the onslaught of energy and its circuits fused into uselessness.
B1-T had managed to stab the probe into the closest B1 and waited the two seconds for the program to upload.
"What's going on?"
"Hey, what are you doing?"
"Why are we upside down?"
B1-T and B1-S got to their feet and lunged for the nearest droid.
"Hey! Get away from me! Help!" shouted the droid as it was buried under the weight of them and the probe was inserted again.
"We're being attacked!"
R2 dialed down the strength on his ion blaster and began sending rapid stun shots into the remaining B1s who were now running around frantically on the ceiling.
"Help!"
"Why can't I contact anyone?"
"Hey-" R2 nailed that one with a shot.
B1-T, S, and R now had a much easier time of it, corralling their targets and with stun shots from R2 to immobilize.
It took three minutes and ten seconds to have eleven loyal droids on the ceiling and they were all advancing on the last CIS programmed droid.
"Can we speak about this?" the droid backed up nervously into a corner.
B1-T looked at his fellows, his hand flexing on the logic probe. "No."
"Ahhhhhh!" shouted the CIS droid as it was piled on by the Republic loyal droids.
Ten seconds later, it was over. The bridge was theirs.
"B1-ZA, begin pressurizing the ship slowly," R2 ordered a B1 that was now de-facto in charge of life support.
"Roger roger."
R2 normalized the gravity plating, sending his small troupe of droids crashing to the floor.
"Commander, was that necessary?" complained B1-T with an electronic groan.
"Get to stations," R2 ordered, not in the mood for the antics of these moronic droids. "Master Skywalker, bridge and life support is ours, engineering will take another estimated eight minutes to reach a point where I can begin to assume control. Life support established in twenty minutes to minimum levels."
"Excellent work, R2. Inform me the moment we have a critical mass of droids under our control, so we can begin the final stage."
"Understood, master."
I'd never imagined I'd walk onto the bridge of a Providence without a lit lightsaber or trying to sabotage the thing, yet here I was, taking a seat on the captain's chair.
"How does it feel, Snips?"
I gave Anakin a flat stare, then glanced around at the mixed clone and B1 droid crew manning the various stations. The clones were giving the clankers the occasional stink eye, but they had been ordered to work together so that was the end of that. As much as it would've been nice to only have naval clones on the bridge, they weren't trained on a Providence dreadnought and this ship was built by Free Dac Engineers and Rendili Stardrive - companies with entirely different design philosophies than KDY. While any trained pilot could jump into any fighter or small ship in the galaxy and get it flying reasonably well within minutes, when it came to capital ships it was an entirely different story - unless your name was Anakin Skywalker.
The clones would have to sit next to the B1s and learn on how to properly operate this beast.
"It'll take some getting used to, it's definitely more nimble than a Mandator at least."
Most of my attention though was focused on Obi-Wan and the rest of the armed strike teams that were now fighting throughout the ship.
The virus had managed to turn about three hundred and fifty of the droid crew before our luck had run out. A single B1 had slipped through our net and sounded the alarm. It was somewhat pointless, as we had been firmly in control of the key ship spaces by that point. R2 was in overall computer control and the alarm hadn't gone beyond the ship's hull. It did mean though we had to now fight a running battle throughout the Conqueror, but it was just a formality at this point.
It would've been nice to get all 900 but it was not to be.
R2 had remotely awoken and reprogrammed two thousand droids from storage, mostly B2s, and set them loose on the loyalist CIS droids. We could've left it at that, but Obi-Wan wanted to make sure and there were a lot of prisoners, clone and natural born, that wanted to vent some frustration at the droids. With command over the ship's systems, doors and grav plating it was mostly a turkey shoot.
No, the biggest challenge would now be to keep the charade that this was still a loyal CIS ship up until the Conqueror was scheduled to leave.
I harbored no illusions that we could fight against the rest of the security fleet. We could maybe take half of them with us into death, but the combined firepower in a straight slugfest would see the Conqueror overwhelmed eventually.
The CIS had been very busy with the Providence class and I could see the knock-on effect changing Republic doctrine had. On this ship at least, there were 34 heavy flak arrays and they had sacrificed twenty of the thirty-four dual heavy laser cannons in the process. Clearly to help protect the ship from bomber runs and mass long range torpedo salvos.
The biggest punch a Providence had though was its combination of 102 proton torpedo launchers and fourteen quad heavy turbolasers. Here was another case of either inaccurate or old intelligence. Previously, it had been known that these were three shot launchers, but the Conqueror now had a twelve shot belt feeder behind each and featured conveyor runs to decentralized ammo storage cells all throughout the ship.
There was a stupendous amount of torpedoes currently loaded - 122,400 to be exact.
It somehow made me feel like I was flying around in a fireworks factory. Any ship of war had dangerous materials on board that loved to go boom at the drop of a hat, but this was another level of risk. My brain tried to imagine that amount of ordnance going off all at once and I didn't like the results.
"General Skywalker, might I have a private word?"
Naturally, Tarkin was on the bridge as well. Both he and Master Piell had spent most of their time working at the navicomputer station and wouldn't let any droid, Republic loyal or not, get close.
"Of course, captain."
They walked off to the side of the bridge near the main blast door.
"I am concerned, general. I know that you Jedi regularly place your young in harm's way confidently, but this is a dreadnought. How can a Jedi trainee be fit to captain one?"
Tarkin clearly thought he was out of earshot, standing where he was and were I human, he'd be right.
I could feel Anakin's incredulous indignation and even hints of anger at Tarkin's presumption.
'Easy Skyguy, from an objective point of view, he's right,' I thought to him. 'Don't blow up on him.'
'Fine.'
Anakin folded his arms and gave his interlocutor a flinty eyed stare. "The correct terminology is padawan, captain. She is my padawan learner. She is also a fully commissioned commander in the Grand Army and Navy, who also studies directly under Admiral Yularen."
Say what you will about Tarkin, he wasn't stupid. He made the connection immediately.
His eyes widened, "Yularen-Tano? She helped Yularen come up with the doctrine?"
Anakin gave a small smirk, "Indeed, captain. She has commanded more fleet battles and is better at it than me. She was also at the Battle of Bandomeer on the Star of the Azure commanding the entire fleet for most of the battle, so I think she knows what to do with a dreadnought more than all of us."
Really Anakin, my ego did not need stroking.
I really felt embarrassed though when I perceived that he was… actually proud of me.
"I see, then consider my objection withdrawn, general."
"Good, now is this ship going to make it through the Nexus Route?"
"It will," Tarkin confirmed.
"Where is our entrance to it from here?"
Tarkin looked really reluctant to answer, but eventually saw no choice. The only way this ship and the knowledge in his head would make it to Republic space was to use the Nexus.
"We have to head to Voss."
Anakin didn't need to reference a star chart to understand the problem and neither did I.
He wearily rubbed his forehead, "Captain, that is nearly two days travel deeper into CIS space."
"Yes, but there is no choice in the matter. It is the closest entrance that does not have us powering right up to Raxus Prime's doorstep or having to blast our way through the frontlines. We need to keep up the charade that we are a CIS ship for that long to make it out of here."
Using my armor's own holo and with M8's assistance, I pulled up a route to Voss to see how many times we would have to emerge from hyper, cruise through real space, and how many potential waypoints and custom stations there were.
Eight jumps.
Eight.
Especially perilous would be the Lianna system, a crossroads system that had five hyperlanes converging in it.
"We need a miracle, M8."
"It seems so, master. Don't worry though, shouldn't the Force be with you?"
"We can only hope."
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