Hey folks, Grubkiller here.
Here is a new story that i've been wanting to do, which combines parts of The Force Unleashed II novel by Sean Williams with Rogue One.
Hope you enjoy.
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Alliance warship, Salvation, Jedha system, Mid Rim territories.
Juno Eclipse stood with her hands behind her back and stared down at the planet Jedha with her piercing blue eyes, which complemented her shoulder-length blonde hair and her fair skin.
From the bridge of the Salvation, the rocky desert world shone a brilliant tan against the star-dusted black, and she was keenly reminded of many of the other worlds she had visited during her career as an Imperial pilot.
Callos was one that continued to haunt her dreams. There she had obeyed orders that had resulted in the death of the entire planet's biosphere.
Her career in the Empire had culminated in the resolution made in the ruins of a jungle hut, where a handful of people had vowed to rebel against the Emperor and free the galaxy's tormented trillions.
Given luck, then, untold thousands of other worlds in the galaxy would be spared the fate that befell Callos.
But Juno remembered wondering how she herself could possibly be forgiven. The pain she felt had been too great, the sense of loss too deep. Every living thing reminded her of the part of her that had unexpectedly wakened within her and then died just as suddenly. Her heart beat with a heaviness that hadn't been there before-not even when she'd been held captive for months the Emperor's personal research vessel, Empirical, expecting to be executed at any moment.
This rebellion had started when she and a Sith apprentice defected and gathered the Emperor's enemies.
Sometimes she woke in the night, still feeling his lips against hers. They had kissed just once, but the memory of it was burned in her brain. He had died, and she lived on. It had taken a year before she finally felt as though she might be over him.
But she may never be.
She told herself to get it together. Juno Eclipse had bigger things to worry about.
"Excuse me, Captain," barked a voice at her elbow. "Our probe droids are picking up an atmospheric disturbance in the vicinity of the target."
She turned away from the view to face her Bothan second in command. "What kind of disturbance, Nitram?"
"Explosions."
"Show me."
The circular display screen in the center of the bridge zoomed in tight on the city closest to the Imperial stronghold. Secondary-screens flashed infrared images conveyed by heavily encrypted transmissions from the droids on the ground. The ancient walls of Jedha City, the planet's largest settlement, stood like a vanguard urban hammock from its overarching stone spire. Several thick supporting cables were glowing red. One was actually burning.
"Looks to me like nothing more than local insurrection, " she said. "If it keeps the Imperial governor off our backs, all the better."
"Uh, yes, ma'am." Nitram cleared his throat.
Juno studied his long face. "Speak your mind. That's an order. "
"Well, there were some unusual heat readings immediately prior to the blasts. You can see them here, and here." He pointed to a recording time-stamped an hour earlier. "It looks like a ship's exhaust. "
"So where's the ship? I can't see it. "
"That's exactly my point, ma'am." He looked around the bridge, then leaned in closer to whisper, "I think it might be General Kota. "
Juno didn't know whether to be annoyed or amused. For such a young officer, Nitram was good: he had, in fact, stumbled across the truth of their mission with impressive and inconvenient speed. Fortunately, Juno had learned fast under her Imperial masters to keep every emotion well concealed.
"You've been listening to too many stories, Nitram, " she said, clearing the incriminating secondary screens. "Wherever Kota is, he's not slumming here with us. "
That was a lie, of course: She would recognize the signature of the Rogue Shadow anywhere, even when it was fully cloaked.
"Yes, ma'am."
Nitram had no choice but to accept it as the truth. She was, after all, his superior officer. But that didn't have to be the end of it.
"Sound the alert. I want twelve fighters strafing that city in the next five minutes. Let's take the chance to strike while the Empire is busy."
Nitram saluted. "Yes, Captain." He swiveled briskly on one heel and snapped out a string of orders.
Juno turned back to the window, hiding a smile. The EF76 Nebulon-B frigate Salvation was a valuable part of the growing Alliance navy, and she had no intention of putting her inexperienced crew in serious harm's way. But it was a training run, she told herself, and what better way to learn than in the thick of combat? She was sure, anyway, that the local Imperial garrison would soon have more to worry about than her green hotshots.
Sirens wailed through the ship. Feet thundered on bulkheads. With a string of distant thuds, a dozen Y-wings launched and, wobbling only slightly against the starscape, grouped in two six-ship formations rocketing down into the atmosphere.
"Take us out, " she told Nitram. "No point hiding now. "
The Salvation's seven ion engines roared into life, thrusting it from its redoubt behind Jedha, opposite of where the garrison was stationed to give them some cover. The deflector shield generator was running at full capacity, ready for immediate reprisal.
The Imperial garrison in Jedha city was heavily guarded for such a seemingly insignificant location. It consisted of a number of ancillary buildings, including barracks, laser batteries, and TIE fighter launchpads. A constant stream of freighters came and went from the world, redistributing the Empire's ill-gotten gains extracted from Jedha's mines. Intelligence made very clear that the Empire had a massive mining operation underway. They weren't sure what it was, until small parts of the shipments were ending up on the black market, likely being used by the local governor to bribe other Imperial officials while at the same time selling excess numbers to the criminal gangs and smuggler working for the Hutts.
Jedi General Rahm Kota was most interested in this mining operation, when he discovered that the objects being mined were kyber crystals, the focusing crystals that went in Jedi lightsabers like Master Kota's. But with the Jedi extinct, what would the Empire be interested in kyber crystals for? Master Kota had a theory, that they were being used to power the dreadful battle station that Galen Marek and Ahsoka Tano had infiltrated last year, leading to their ultimate demise.
She winced when she recalled that fateful mission to rescue General Kota and the other Rebel leaders.
Knowledge of the existence of this battle station was still very privileged, known only to the Alliance leadership, the Intelligence service, and a few select officers like herself.
If Kota's theory was correct, then this mining operation had to be put out of commission for the sake of the Rebel cause and the galaxy at large.
That wasn't the Salvation's, job, however. Juno's orders were strict: Prick the Empire's defenses and see how strong they were; shake her young crew into battle readiness; and under no circumstances risk the integrity of the ship. All while General Kota and his spec-ops unit fomented an insurrection against the garrison and siezed the mines, and destroy them.
The official line was that resources were more valuable to the Rebellion than tiny-victories-at least at the moment. When the navy was big enough and the lines of supply more secure, then the fight could begin in earnest. Not everyone agreed with the official line, though. Some thought the fight had already begun and could be pursued by a small force as readily as by something larger and therefore less defensible. Take out the right target, the naysayers said, and entire star systems could be disrupted. Like the ripples that spread across a pond's surface at the drop of a single stone, every Imperial facility and processing station that relied on slave labor, or Imperial projects that relied on these shipments, would be slowed down by a successful attack on worlds like Jedha.
Juno had heard the argument a thousand times. She knew just how much difference even a single person could make. The newly formed Rebel Alliance wouldn't exist at all, most likely, but for him.
She shook her head, annoyed at letting herself be distracted again. Kota needed her. She wouldn't let him down.
News of the frigate's presence spread fast through the freighters orbiting the plant. Many vanished into hyperspace, taking their cargo with them. Others broke orbit and began to descend dirt-side. Her fighters dodged among them, increasing the chaos of the skylanes. Red dots on the display screen signaled the launch of a TIE defense squad: ten ships, exactly as expected. Laser batteries swiveled to track the Rebel squadron.
She tuned half an ear to the star pilot chatter even as she monitored Nitram's handling of the crew.
"Watch that tower, Green Six."
"On your tail. Blue Four."
"Arm turbolasers. Target those batteries."
"Keep it tight, Green Two. Keep it tight!"
"Fire at will."
The Salvation rocked as its powerful lasers unleashed their deadly energies onto the planet below. Juno felt a rush of cautious pride. Her people were nervous, excited, and occasionally frightened-as was perfectly appropriate. Jedha might be an outpost, but it was fundamentally connected to the Empire as a whole. Stick around too long and the whole weight of the enemy would come to bear on them. Everyone understood that they had to be in and out fast, or they'd never get out at all.
The turbolasers missed, but someone else didn't. The ground-based lasers exploded into a million pieces, destroyed by unknown fire.
Juno gave silent thanks to Kota and his invisible militia on the surface, and readied herself for Nitram's excited announcement that his theory had been confirmed. Kota was indeed active in the galaxy, striking hard and fast against the Alliance leadership's express orders. They couldn't stop him, and they had many reasons to be grateful for his activities. The Jedha Garrison would soon regret ever coming to his attention.
Instead of gloating, Nitram said in a worried tone, "Launches-ten more TIEs!"
"That can't be right, " Juno said, leaning closer to check the data. It was all too right, unfortunately; intelligence had gotten the fighter strength wrong. Worse still, the TIE fighters were coming their way. "Launch all remaining Y-wings. And put someone else on turbolaser control. I want the roof of the barracks in flames in the next two minutes if I have to come down there and press the button myself. "
"Yes, Captain!"
The crew's energy level ramped up a notch. There was no time to hold back out of nerves or uncertainty. Intel flooded through the ship like an invisible gas. Within moments, they would be under attack, and all were aware of the frigate's strategic disadvantages. It was well armed and well shielded for a vessel of its size, but the slender midsection connecting the engineering and crew quarters could be ruptured by concentrated enemy fire. Were that to happen, the atmosphere would vent immediately, killing everyone aboard.
The turbolasers fired again. Targets on the ground burst into brilliant balls of fire.
Rebel and Imperial starfighters met in the vacuum between the frigate and the planet. Energy weapons flashed and ricocheted. The screens were full of light. She wished she was out there with the pilots, breathing acrid cockpit air, thumb growing tired on the firing stud. Her heart beat faster for them even as she reminded herself of her new duties. War was simpler in a starfighter, but it wasn't better. The bigger picture was what mattered. Winning the war, not the battle.
In that sense, she had some sympathy for those who opposed Kota's way of thinking. Going in too hard, too fast was a sure way to be encircled and wiped out. A degree of caution never went astray. That was why she surreptitiously helped him-to keep him in check as much as to watch his back. Someone needed to make sure he didn't go AWOL as he had before. The Rebellion needed him.
Thinking of the downsides of Kota's campaign made her frown. What was taking him so long? They should have gotten a signal by now, mission accomplished. Objective destroyed. Instead, static.
"Nitram, concentrate fire on those cannon emplacements there and there." She indicated two locations near the barracks. The fire coming from both was much greater than intelligence had indicated it should be. Maybe that was the problem.
"Yes, ma'am."
Rebel starfighters changed course to attack the targets. The exchange of weapons fire intensified.
Juno squinted at the data, worrying at the inconsistencies between the intelligence gathered from Imperial sources and what lay evident before her. "Get those probe droids closer to the barracks. Something doesn't look right to me. "
Finely balanced forces jockeyed for position on the ground and in orbit as she waited for the data to trickle in. From a distance, the Imperial installation looked perfectly normal. It possessed a spaceport, shield generators, security compound, and so on-all the same as on any occupied world. But it was better defended than most, and the spaceport was crowded. Why were Imperial records on Jedha so wildly different from what was actually here?There was little to tell from the data, so she turned her attention to the starscape around them. No sign of Imperial reinforcements.
"Why hasn't the local garrison called for help yet?" she asked Nitram.
"I don't know, ma'am. We've been monitoring signals closely. "
She cupped her chin and thought hard. It was only a matter of time before the Imperial fleet showed up, whether the local governor called for it or not. All it took was just one fleeing freighter to sound the alarm and the Emperor's boot would descend to crush the Rebels. Really, with forces evenly matched and Kota dragging his heels, she should already have sounded the retreat rather than risk the Salvation.
"Give me the comm," she said. "Don't listen."
Nitram's ears went up and then flattened down against his skull. "Whatever you say, Captain."
She selected a little-used channel. "Blackout to Blackguard. Respond, please."
The line crackled for a moment, and then Kota's gruff voice came on. "I don't have time to talk."
"Bad luck. This is taking too long. You need to pull out. "
"Negative, Blackout. Leave if you want to. I'm staying to finish the job."
She ignored the implied reproach in his words. "How? You're never going to get close enough to the mining operation. It's too well defended. "
"Maybe, but it won't matter if those crystals reach their destina…"
Kota's signal disappeared into static in time with a bright flash of light from below. Two of the probe droids winked out. The location of source of Kota's last known transmission disappeared into an expanding ball of fire. Someone had dropped something big on Jedha, taking out several Rebel and Imperial starfighters at once. Fire licked at the walls of the Imperial compound, making them glow bright green in an explosion brought on by the crystals in the mine.
The crackle over the comm intensified.
"Respond, Blackguard. This is Blackout. Do you need help down there. Blackguard?"
Nothing.
Juno tried again, forcing herself to speak calmly. Nitram was watching.
"Blackguard to Blackout. Respond immediately!"
Nothing. The bridge was silent.
She stood, frozen, with one question echoing in her mind: What would the man she had loved have done now?
She knew the answer. He would do everything in his power to rescue his friend and Jedi Master. He would fight with every drop of energy in his body. He would let nothing stand in his way.
But she wasn't him. She didn't have his powers and she did have responsibilities he never had to consider. Besides, he was dead, and now there was no sign of Kota, either. What was she supposed to do-rescue a ghost? If she knew how to do that, she would have done it a year ago.
An alarm sounded. The bridge came to life around her.
"We've got company, " said Nitram, gaze dancing across the rapidly filling display screen. "Two frigates, a cruiser, and-yes, a Star Destroyer, Imperial-class. Could be the Adjudicator. It's launching fighters. Captain?"
Everyone on the bridge was looking at her."Recall our pilots, " she said in a clear and level voice, knowing that her hand was being forced. There was only one responsible decision open to her now. "Bring everyone aboard, then get us out of here, fast."
"At once, ma'am."
Juno stepped back from the display screen in order to let her officers go about their work. Tiny dots converged on the Salvation as its starfighters broke off their engagements with their enemy and raced for safe harbor. She counted eighteen, which meant six pilots wouldn't be going home. In exchange for what?
Again, the answer lay before her. Her crew was functioning perfectly well, and they knew through hard experience that Jedha was better defended than they had expected. More important. The Salvation had pricked the Empire and forced it to respond. Someone, somewhere, would be grateful for the Adjudicator's unexpected absence from their skies.
But where did that leave her?
"Take us the long way to the rendezvous," she told Nitram. "We don't want anyone on our tail. "
"Yes, ma'am."
Nitram didn't question her order, even though the reason she had given him was meaningless. The truth was that she needed time to think.
Kota was gone. How was she going to explain that to the alliance leadership?
Farewell, old friend, she thought. What kind of mess have you landed me in this time?
"Calculations complete," said Nitram.
"Ready the hyperdrive, " she responded automatically. The shields were taking a heavy pounding, making the floor sway beneath her. Just two starfighters remained outside. When they were aboard, she gave the order.
"Jump. "
The Salvation rushed into hyperspace, leaving the ill-fated world, its mysteries and its ghosts, far behind.
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Hey folks, hope you enjoyed.
Until next time, Grubkiller out.