Chapter 4
A stroke of good luck for once
The flight crew was standing by to revert to realspace. This time they had added personell in the cockpit
"Trainee pilot Arc, what is the steps before are needed before reversion to realspace.?" Jaune asked Mari as she was perched on his lap
" Bring the shields up, make sure engineering is on standby in case of mechanical failure, check for communications and check the scanners for traffic." Mari replied
"Go ahead then"
Mari toggled the intercom
"Bridge to engine room. Jade are we ready?" She asked
Jaune cleared his throat and Mari corrected herself
"Sorry. Bridge to engine room, Assistant engineer Hopps are we ready for reversion."
In the engine room assistant engineer Hopps was revealed to be a bunny eared girl with blonde hair and a button nose, she was dressed in a flight suit with a toolbelt over her shoulder as the toolbelt was too big for her waist. She looked to Yara who nodded to her
"Engine room to bridge. Assistant engineer Hopps to trainee pilot Arc. We are green and standing by." She reported
Jade looked to Yara who knelt and hugged the bunny girl
"Well done, you did it just right." Yara congratulated her.
Jade beamed and Yara pointed to the air conditioner unit.
"Ready to learn a bit more and make a real mess while doing it?" Yara asked
The girl nodded eagerly and lived up to her surname as they moved over to the indicated unit, a bright gleam in her sea green eyes
Mari looked over Jaunes side to the navigation and communication terminal where Violet was seated on Hina.
" Assistant navigator Fox, are we detecting any communications?" She asked
"No communications pilot Arc." Violet replied
Finally Mari turned to the co pilot seat where a human boy was with Katya
"Trainee pilot Green, shield status."
Katya helped him pull back the correct lever
"Shields to full." He report
"Stand by on scanners." Mari ordered
Jaune nodded to her and she reached for the hyperdrive lever and Jaune added his hand to it to help her pull it
"Exiting Hyperspace in five four three two one." Mari counted down
On one she and Jaune pulled the lever and the blue lines disappeared as the ship shuddered as it reverted to realspace
"Scanners." Mari ordered
" Contact to front, uh stern." Colin Green reported
The boy pointed to a large shape hanging in the space. Jaune opened the intercom
"Al hands stand to, yellow alert. SCD to the bridge"
"No movement, no engine emissions." Katya reported
"No signals." Hina reported
The wallowing Bantha came to a complete and full stop as the crew studied the vessel before them. SCD stepped onto the bridge and Jaune pointed to the ship. SCD Tilted it head to the side before correcting its posture and speaking
"Correllian Engineering Corporatian, Class Frigate. Named Green Dawn registered to the Green Council of Correlia. No active battle reports available."
"Curious." Katya commented
"Very curious." Hina amended
"How so?" Monica asked
The teacher had walked unnoticed into the cockpit. Hina spun in her chair to face her holding on to Violet as she did so
"A frigate is a heavy combat ship and considering we just had a war for it to have no combat record is very strange as every ship was needed. Secondly the Green Council was the Jedi Council of the Correlian sector and should not have possession of a military vessel. That does not even begin to explain why she is hanging here dark in space." Hina said
"Dark? We can see her clearly." Monica replied
Katya grinned
"Dark, as in no communications at the very least we should be able to pick up a proximity beacon. Millitary vessels only went dark pre combat, at all other times they are legally required to have at minimum a proximity beacon and friend or foe beacon active as well as a location beacon."
"Power failure?" Colin suggested
"Good guess, but no. The beacons have their own power supply and the power supply on that class of ship will last at least a decade." Katya replied ruffling his hair
"So it is deliberate then. Do you think it is the slavers?" Monica asked worriedly
"No, we are well out of range of their nav point. Secondly if they had access to a frigate it would not be here instead of being used to attack larger settlements." Jaune replied, shaking his head
Jaune turned to SCD
" Get two suits ready and tell Laid to get ready to go EV." Jaune ordered
"I am more suited for ship infiltration." SCD3 pointed out
"Normally yes, but that ships active defences would be geared specifically to counter you." Jaune replied
"Do we really need to go to it?" Monica asked
Katya spoke up
"It is not ideal but we are required by law to investigate if we can, a ship like that had at least a thousand beings on it. We have to check if there are any survivors. It is the right thing to do."
"Secondly we can refuel and refill our water supplies from that ships tanks." Yara said having come up
"And if their sensors are operational we can scan the original nav point for contacts at no risk to us." Hina added
They assembled in the loading bay and Jaune and Yara took their suits before stripping down behind some crates and pulling them on. They stepped out and pulled the cowls of the skintight suits over their heads before stepping into the bulkier outer suits. Laid was attaching itself to a crate. Katya and Hina checked the seals on the suits after the two clicked the helmets into place
"Oxygen check." Katya demanded
"Green, thirty minutes." Yara reported
"Green, thirty minutes." Jaune echoed.
Hina threw two buckets of soapy water over them and when no bubbles betrayed a potential leak reached for the prepared fire suppression hose and sprayed them off. Monica looked on as the kids giggled at the scene
"Not the way it gets done in the fleet, but we do not have the credits for the sensors in military ship airlocks. And a leaking EV suit is lethal, nor do we have credits for the emergency shields the military version comes with." Katya explained
The two plodded heavily over to the boarding ramp followed by the droid pushing the crate repulsor coils on the crate activated. The inner doors closed behind them and sealed. They maglocked their boots and Yara pressed the control to lower the boarding ramp and when prompted clumsily tapped in an access code. They watched the inner lights go from green to red as the loading bay door opened and the air escaped into space.
Jaune lifted a rifle like device and fired. The device bucked as a grapnel was fired towards the other ships airlock, the thin durasteel cable spooling out behind the grapnel. The grapnel struck the hull and the magnet deployed three prongs sprung from the body of the grapnel and three more struts maglocked onto the hull. Jaune checked that the device was clipped properly to the Bantha before placing an arm around Yara and they ended their boots macglock. They drifted in the air before Jaune pressed a button and the device starting pulling towards the grapnel spooling in the main wire unreeling the secondary coils as they went. Laid lifted from the deck and fired its thrusters as it too pushed towards the other ship
They stepped into darkness as the inner airlock cycled. Lights lanced from Laid as the droid spun its dome. They opened the crates and pulled out two helmets and made sure the air cartridges were secure. Yara unclipped Jaunes EV suit helmet and Jaune rapidly placed the new helmet on. The helmet hissed as he took a deep breath. He stripped off the outer suit before helping Yara into her new helmet and out of the EV suit. Reaching up they activated lights mounted on the helmets. Touching the side of the helmets they activated the comlinks.
"Bantha this is Rover One, do you copy?" Jaune spoke
"Rover One this is Bantha signal is three five." Katya replied
"Bantha. Rover Two how is my copy?" Yara spoke next
"Rover two copy is three five."
Laid has advanced onto a dataport and inserted a dataspike. Lights came on inside the surrounding plate as the datasppike slowly sank into the dataport. Yara pulled a probe and datapad from the crate.
"Bantha, we have power to dataports and Laid should be able to link our com relay to the ship." Jaune reported
Yara looked at the readout on the pad before showing it to Jaune
"Can this be right? Ship atmosphere eighty percent carbon monoxide."
"It looks right but that would mean some serious shit went down here. This level of carbon monoxide can not be accidental." Jaune replied
"One watch the language, little ears are listening." Katya chided
"Roger that Bantha."
Lights flickered on as Laid restored power to the room and the two exclaimed harshly in surprise.
"One, Two what is going on?! Activate your cameras at once!" Hina demanded
"Not till you clear the cockpit, this is not for little eyes." Jaune replied
Carbon scoring littered the wall and piles of white armoured bodies littered the floor. All of the armoured bodies had the iconic T shaped visor that is missing from the new armour of the Stormtroopers. All showed scorch marks on the once pristine white. They looked down and saw that they were standing on a tunic and an overrobe, a tube lying close to the robe. Yara reached down and picked up the tube. She pressed a stud on the tube and a green blade sprung forth with a snap-hiss
"Laid get the schematics we need to get to the bridge." Jaune ordered
They moved rapidly down the corridor. More bodies littering the passages, destroyed droids were present in large numbers. However none of them were separatist droids. Astromech, protocol and various Republic models, not one of them a combat capable droid. Here and there they found another set of robes. Usually a heavy conflagration of carbon scoring would mark the spot.
They reached a set of turbolifts and Laid started slicing the controls. Jaune pressed against a panel revealing a service ladder
"Well go ahead to the bridge." He said to the astromech
The climbed rapidly up to the command deck level, breathing heavily they paused to change the air cartridges on their helmets. More bodies filled the passageway leading to the bridge. At points they had to climb over piles of white armour to move ahead. The blast door to the bridge had been forced. The distinctive charring of a breach charge present on the half open door. The stepped into the bridge and played their lights over the darkened room. A sole blinking light was visible on one terminal
They moved over and Yara pressed the blinking button
A hologram sprung to life. A heavily wounded female appeared
"This is my last recording. We were betrayed by the clone battalion we were forced to embark and transport. Master Yalled was right we should have ignored the order and jumped away. They attacked without warning or reason. Masters Kato and Arec were able to launch the shuttles with some of the younglings aboard. Dantooine is abandoned and they should be safe till they can be rescued, the shuttles were specifically stocked for this eventually. May the force protect them."
The female took a shuddering breath
"They cut the rest of us down where and when they could, we are few left on the bridge, all of us wounded in some way."
Her expression firmed
"We activated the doomsday protocol. Should the door be breached the ship will launch to the blacksite and go dark. They will not have the ship as the second protocol will have the air be replaced with carbon monoxide. Sooner or later they will suffocate. The third protocol will lock down the controls. Not that it is needed as it is an infantry battalion being shipped to reinforce Master Secura on Felucia, they should not have any technicians among them."
The wounded woman looked directly at them
"If all went well the ones watching this came from the temple on Coronet. If not be aware that this ship belongs to the Green Council of Jedi on Corellia. They will pay you more for the return of this ship than what you would get for salvage. We carry no valuables and you would make a loss on salvage. This terminal contains a direct comlink channel to the temple, they will make it worth your while to return the ship to them and no questions will be asked."
There came the sound of a charge going of and the hologram faded away. Jaune activated his comlink channel to Laid
"Laid where are you buddy?"
Bleeps and squeaks followed
"No, don't come to the bridge you won't get through. I need you to access the crew manifest and find the captains quarters and send me the location and go there. I want you to use the sonic resonator to scan for any cavities in the wall panels. We need to find the Ship Masters safe."
"Also check the crew manifest if someone is listed as a senior Master and send us the cabin location as well." Yara added
Jaune nodded at that
"You think there might be a copy of the doomsday code hidden there?" He asked
"I think so, it only makes sense that they keep a record of the activation and deactivation code somewhere. A doomsday protocol code is not something you would give to everyone on the ship that can fly it. Nor would you keep it in the general database." Yara explained her reasoning
"So flight crew, captain and senior Master, that makes sense." Jaune agreed
Katya and Hina were starting to get nervous as time dragged on and all they received were al clear report every thirty minutes. Outside the cockpit SCD and Monica were having their hands full containing and corralling the kids. Katya breathed in relied when lights came on in the other ship and they had clear communications
"Bantha, Rover on. Proceed to dock but do not step onto this ship we are coming to you." Jaune ordered
The Airlock cycled and the two stepped into the inner airlock of the Bantha as a precaution the decontamination cycle was activated. Theystepped onto the Bantha, taking the salvage helmets off with patent relief. Yara immediately started rubbing her ears her ears having been squashed by the helmet, she followed this by lowering the body suit releasing her tail and she sighed in relief, Jaune was carrying a portable terminal
"Go and change." He suggested
Yara walked away rubbing her abused tail and ears. Jaune walked to the machine bay and placed the terminal onto the workbench. He opened the intercom.
"SCD come to the machine bay. Bring some dataspikes with."
Hina and Katya followed the droid down and stood by and watched as the droid started slicing the terminal
" Where is Laid?" Hina asked
"Plugged into the Green Dawn, restoring emergency power levels and purging the atmosphere. It will take twelve to thirteen hours for that alone." Jaune said
"Do we have an idea what happened?" Hina asked again
"The same what happened to the other Jedi. The clones attacked them" Jaune replied
He pointed to the terminal
"That was in the Senior Masters cabin, I hope we can find some answeres there."
SCD 3 stepped back from the terminal
"That was quick." Jaune remarked
"Even the inferior model would not have struggled. It was a very basic Republic code" SCD 3 replied
"Thanks SCD, please go over and start policing the bodies. Put them and their armour in separate piles in the launch bay where the shuttles were, weapons and ammunition in a third pile. For what it is worth record their vat and batch numbers" Jaune ordered
"Roger. Roger." SCD 3 stalked off
Yara joined them rubbing a cream into her ears. She pointed to the terminal
"Let us see if we can get answers." She suggested
Hina took over and perused the files
"This one looks like a log." She said
"Take a closer look." Jaune suggested
A hologram appeared. The were surprised on seeing the Selonian male. It was beyond rare to see a Selonian male outside of the nests on Selonia. The unfertile females were more often seen in the Correlian sector and more rarely outside of it. They are matriarchal by nature and kept close to their nest. There was a large mismatch in number between males, fertile females and the unfertile females. This male had white markings around his eyes and the greyer tha average fir indicated an advanced age
The being seemed to look at them before speaking
"I am starting this log as a means to report our activities. As per decision of the council we will report only once every six months. This initiative was decided upon as the council is growing increasingly worried by our inability to breach the net of Darkness veiling the force. Like the High Council on Coruscant we believe there is more to this war than what is seen on the surface. We fear the Dark Side is in Ascendance. Unlike the High Council we are taking steps to prevent the tragedies of the past when the Dark was Ascendant."
The Selonian paused
"As far as the High Council is aware we collected the last of the wandering Nursery and Collection ships and kept the younglings at the temple allowing their crews to become available in the war effort. This is a deliberate deception. Once this ship has been fully refitted and stocked in CEC facility called the Maw we will launch it again as a training ship. Apart from the younglings we have copied the contents of the archives and secured it onboard. We can not risk the order being extinguished again and the loss of knowledge each fall brings, already too much was lost after the last Fall and the so called Ruusan Reformation. We are certain the High Council will not approve but we of the Green Council feels it is essential."
The recording stopped and Hina activated a new one. The same Selonian appeared
"We have finally launched, our launch was delayed by the need to find competent and qualified flight crews. By necessity they come from the fleet and this fuels some of my misgivings. Technically this mission is under my command but the non Jedi crew are obligated to report in when we should encounter any Republic fleet ships. The captain can be ordered to divert from this mission by those higher in command. I have decided to keep the true nature to myself and the senior Masters, the republic crew can not report what they do not know. We will leave with the ship partially crewed. This might tamper the zealof the captain as this vessel will not be fully combat capable. As a deviation from standard training the younglings will also learn skills taught to fleet personell. We are hoping to make this ship fully self sufficient for crew by Jedi only."
The file ended. Hina opened the directory
"I am going to skip to the last few entries. There is at least two years of entries in between." She said
"Okay, we can always come back to it." Jauned nodded his approval
The Selonian looked greyer and appeared to be tired
"It has finally happened. We ran into a Republic Battle group. This ship has been suborned to carry Clones and equipment to Felucia. They have taken over the lower decks and cargo bays. I am not the only one to feel unease the Masters and Knights share my trepidation, the force is warning us of danger but of what?"
The last entry was played
"We are under attack by the clones. The internal defences are slowing them down, We managed to drop out of hyperspace and sirupt the signal they were transmitting. We are outside of Dantooine, Masters Kato and Arec and few knights will launch with al the younglins that managed to reach the flight deck. Many are trapped and can not reach the deck. The clones are hunting them and us equally. Knight Widlier reported he is picking up a constant signal being transmitted through the hyperspace channel. It is from the one calling himself Emeperor urging the clones to execute order sixty six. There are few of us left. Once the shuttles are clear we will fall back to the bridge and launch to the site selected by the council in case the ship is likely to fall and initiate the doomsday protocol, I hope the trapped initiates, apprentices and the few knights trapped with them can forgive us. The clones will not have this ship. The force will be with masters Kato and Arec and with us even if it means rejoining with it. The Green Jedi will endure."
Unnoticed they had been joined by Monica
"Those poor people." Monica said sadly
"I think we can relax the no drinking unless in port rule for once." Katya suggested
"Seconded." Hina and Yara echoed
"Just this once." Jaune agreed
They settled down in the crew lounge. Jaune was reading through the data they had salvaged so far. He paused as he read the cargo manifest, he went back to read it again. He placed his drink on the ground before jumping up
"I have to go check on something." He said rapidly
He did not notice that he kicked his bottle over as he rushed from the room. Katya looked up from where she was playing on her datapad
"What is up with him?"She asked
"Don't know. Sour cream maybe?" Yara shrugged as she was playing with a ball of yarn
Hina looked at Yara
"Could you be any more stereotypical." She said with a sniff
"Says miss I stash catnip in the airvent of my room." Yara replied as snootily
"That is not true that is just air freshener, that room stinks" Hina objected
"And you just happen to be stoned silly every evening obviously there is no correlation" Yara drawled
"I do not get stoned." Hina pouted
Yara send a file to the holomap and the hologram activated. It showed Hina crawling around on all fours in her underwear every few moments she pounced towards a the flashing of Laids dome as the droid was cleaning
"Obviously not stoned, just getting happy time with your favourite droid. Did you tell Moms about your true love for your metallic lover?" Katya snickered
"Ignore them Hina." Monica spoke up
"Thank you! Finally somebody is on my side." Hina exclaimed
"The will never understand the agony of a forbidden and unrequited love." Monica added solemnly
Monica leaned forward and patted Hina's hand
"I feel your pain sister. But know true love will prevail." She added
The pout intensified as snickering laughter filled the lounge, it got worse as Yara played traditional Yuki love songs from her tablet
Jaune woke to giggling. Blearily he opened his eyes and winced as numb muscles protested the movement. He had been draped over the prep area in the kitchen several datapads scattered around him, his hair a mess and dried drool on his face. Monica reached over him to give a bowl to one of the kids in line, the source of the giggling at his position
Yara placed a cup of the engine cleaner she called caf in front of him. For a moment he could believe he smelled the sizzling as if the spoon was dissolving, the cup was half caf and half milk with an unholy amount of sweetener in it
"What had you so excited last night?" Katya asked biting down on a fish stick
"Everything." Jaune replied with a shudder, having taken a sip of the unholy concoction before him
"Could you be more cryptic?" Katya stated
Jaune shuddered as he took another sip
"We hit the motherlode. That ships tanks are full she is fully stocked with rations and water. She has a class five hyperdrive. The best part is that she is carrying enough equipment to outfit a regiment of clones with equipment to repair and reforge said equipment, the real prize as far as I am concerned is enough equipment to outfit a company of Republic commandoes. There is also enough materialsfor repairs, schematics for the armour and for the ordinance they carried."
Yara whistled, impressed at the list. Katya and Hina was shocked into silence
"Could you explain please?" Monic a asked
Jaune rubbed his hair into place and wiped his cheek with his sleeve
"The hyperdrive alone will allow us to shave of six days of jump time at least never mind being able to move faster at sublight. We no longer have to worry about our food and water consumption. And we finally have some decent protection should we need it. The old clone armour is superior to anything available on the market now and the commando armour is even better than the clone armour. With the tools and machinery available we can craft custom and fitting armour." Jaune explained
"The weapons of the clones are superior to the Blastech's we have and the commando weapons are even better. The commando weapons have interchangeable components giving you different weapon systems in one weapon." Yara added
" Like Mechashift components," Monic a tried to put it in terms she understood
Yara shook her head
" Nothing like you described changing the modules take longer than your mechashift but it is more robust and wont leave you weaponless like your mechashift would should it jam."
Jaune motioned to the kids
"Once we clear the ship out they will have more space to sleep and move about than the cargo bay, they can have actual beds and don't have to continuously wait for an open refresher." He said enthusiastically
"But will you be able to fly it, that ship is at least twenty times larger than the Bantha. If not a lot more" Monica pointed out
"We can. I am the better pilot but Katya actually trained as a pilot on frigates while she was fleet and with SCD and Laid connected to the mainframe we can operate all the systems. Sure we will not be able to fight but the other positives outweigh that downside." Jaune said firmly
"There is a difference between the soft ware on the Mandalorian frigates I trained on and Republic frigates but the controls are mostly the same. Jaune is right this is a game changer in a lot of ways."
Monica bit her lip
" But what if these Green Jedi come looking for their ship?"
"Apart from the temple on Coruscant all known temples and outposts have been destroyed. From the thousands of Jedi I doubt more than a few hundred survived the purge. And the number drops continuously as the empire hunts them. If there are any green Jedi they have more important problems than try to reclaim a ship they can effectively do nothing with." Yara replied softly
"I don't understand why were the Jedi attacked, they and the clones served the republic after all." Monica said
Hina sat down on a chair
" I believe I am more qualified to answer that. Officialy the Jedi were declared traitors by Canchellor Palpatine now the emperor when the Jed Master Skywalker destroyed the Seperatist hig command on Mustafar. Palpatine claimed both he and Skywalker were than attacked by the Jedi as they wished to overthrow the Republic. Skywalker was said to have died on Mustafar. The clones allegedly helped the chancellor maintain control of the Republic by taking out the usurpers but the damage had been done and the only way to have stability os to reform the Republic into an Empire."
Hina shook her head
" For the most part the masses bought it hook line and weight. Those capable of independant thinking don't agree. And that was propably why the Caamasi were nearly wiped out. They had been some of the more vocal protesters against the Empire. Yet taking them out was pointless it is like taking out Ithaor both are totally pacifistic." She asid tail and ears drooping
"What do you think it is about?" Moinica sked
Hina gestured and a bowl shakily lifted in the air
"The force or the presence as Yuki call it. The Jedi and the Republic had been intertwined for thousands of years. And for just as long there had been wars between the Jedi and off shoot call the Sith. The Sith is all about destroying the Jedi and total domination so the purge and the reformation into the Empire has a lot of beings thinking very hard."
Hina raised a hand to stop any questions
" The force is something of a galactic religion, it is a very poor description of what it is. It is part of everything , you me the ship. it is believed to guide us, then you get beings that can interact with it and use it. Some species are more adaptable to it and have more affinity for it. We Yukis have very few that can interact with it as a species and our control is very weak with it, I think the two were the toatal of Ykis that made knight level. For the most of us we will not even rate initiate. That display of mine will have me taking a nap for hours."
Hina shifted
"There had been and have been other beliefs in how to do use it but the Jedi system was the most dominant a lotof beings believe mostly due to their supporting the Republic and vica versa. In short to control the Republic you had to eliminate its guardian and the purge achieved that"
Monica frowned as she assimilated the information
"So to follow that reasoning the war that cost billions of lives was just another chapter in a millennia old war."
"That is what some believe to be the true motivation or another is that the Sith used the growing unrest to clear the board so to speak."
"So the belief is that the emperor is a Sith?"
"His enforcer is called Darth Vader, you do not get a more Sith title than that." Katya pointed out
"None of which matters as we are well and truly away from that mess and will be even further away shortly." Jaune broke in
Jaune finally had energy to dare eating the food Katya had prepared. He paused before eating
"I nearly for got the second cargo hold is filled with captured Seperatist droids. They were supposed to be delivered to a research station on the way to Felucia. With SCD and extensive reprogramming we can now also field ground forces if necessary. We even have a spider droid and two Republic walkers available with several speeders bikes for ground transport."