Chapter 73
I leaned back in the pilot's chair of the Emissary, feet up and perched to the side on the bracket I had installed at the appropriate level, just so I could do this.
The sight, sound and feeling of hyperspace streaming past the ship, including all the cockpit sounds was the best ASMR that I didn't know I had missed, until we had effectively exiled ourselves into Mortis for a grand total of one year, three months and sixteen days.
The place might have been a pocket universe all on its own, with so many varied massive landscapes and fantastic skies, but it hadn't taken long for us to get the weirdest form of 'planet fever' ever recorded. We had gotten so used to flying amongst the stars, moving from one battle and crisis to the next, a 'hyperdrive-set life' so to speak, that by month two both Anakin and I had grown quite unsettled. Even taking the Emissary for a few flights above Mortis' seemingly endless landscapes didn't help much.
Obi-Wan, naturally, experienced none of this and quite easily settled into the typical day-to-day life experienced at a Jedi Chapterhouse.
The cockpit door opened and Anakin entered.
"Snips, armor's done."
I huffed in annoyance, pulled my legs down, stood and accepted the cuirass chest piece and helmet he held out to me.
I tested the former by pushing it against my abdomen and getting a feel of the adjustments. "Seems comfy," I pronounced, handing it back to him and then tested the helmet, threading my longer lekku and more pronounced montrals into it. "A bit more room on the right montral," I pulled that off and held it out.
"Really?" Anakin asked, giving the helmet an annoyed look.
"Yep," I dumped myself back in the chair, perching my legs again.
"Might as well get that done now then," he grumbled and left the cockpit.
I idly tapped the navicomputer panel, refreshing it to display the ETA.
We were a few minutes out from the Dorin system and a further two days from Coruscant after turning onto the Namadii Corridor hyperlane.
Two frakking more days until we were back in the bloody charade of the Clone Wars. Three days since we had submitted our edited reports to the Jedi Council on what had happened in the Chrelythiumn system.
Since then, not a single holocom request or debrief, not even from the Council of First Knowledge. Either the CFK was still busy analyzing the data or they had something else on their plate that was taking up the majority of their time.
Sure, there was a war going on and our experience, while unique, was not something to bother every single Jedi Council member, either on the high council or the CFK. You would think though that we'd at least get a flunky or an incredulous archivist on the line, who wanted our first hand account of a newly discovered active Celestial structure, that unfortunately vanished after trapping us in a Singularity Field.
On the other hand, this was a good thing. It meant that something was happening back on Coruscant that was reducing our 'ordeal' to a footnote. Therefore, something less likely to come to the attention of Sidious. However, the moment he learned just how we were effectively marooned in time, something that had happened to the Chosen One and his padawan… Well, I think we were soon going to get an invite from the good chancellor for another friendly chat to discuss our experience.
My thoughts were disturbed by an alert from the navicomputer and I flicked a switch to bring up the ship intercom. "Hyper emergence in ten seconds."
I pulled back on the motivator throttle and the hyper tunnel broke apart into countless motes and streaks of light before the view outside was replaced by the emergence point in the Dorin system.
A quick scan showed the system was as busy as befitting a major intersection of hyper routes; the south-west bearing Celanon Spur intersecting into the south-easterly Namadii. The Kel Dor homeworld was also looking normal, signals showing both Republic and Kel Dor military ships on combined maneuvers - likely training.
The com system blurted at me for attention as a… message from the Jedi Council arrived
I pushed my thoughts through the Force, "Masters, incoming holo from Coruscant, Council encryption. It's addressed to all three of us."
"We'll take it in the ship lounge," Obi-Wan returned.
"On my way," Anakin mentally sighed.
I set a proximity scan, calculated a course to bring us to the onward Bilbringi hyper point then engaged the autopilot.
When I arrived in the small crew lounge, it was to find Obi-Wan already talking to a life sized holo of Master Plo Koon.
My heart clenched a bit as I was hit with the need to hug the stuffing out of him. I hadn't seen him in so long…
The Kel Dor Jedi's reaction to seeing me was clear astonishment. "Little 'Soka," he breathed, his brows climbing behind his eye shields.
I bowed to his holo and used a bit of internal control to stop my tears from flowing. "Master Koon, it's…" I swallowed a bit, "...good to see you again."
"I read the report, but seeing you… more than a year of your life, just lost, passing in a moment to the rest of us," Master Koon shook his head.
"At least I wasn't alone, master," I shrugged.
Anakin entered the lounge, "Master Koon."
"Knight Skywalker," he nodded. "I wish I was contacting you all under better circumstances and if things were different, the Council would have decided it would be prudent and wiser to bring you back to Coruscant for a few weeks of leave but… we must ask you to change your course."
"Where?" asked Obi-Wan.
"Taris. There you will rendezvous with the Resolute which is bringing a stolen CIS cargo shuttle with current codes and an ARC trooper assault team."
"So we're infiltrating Seppie space, but without cloaks? Why?" Anakin asked.
"To answer, a bit of background. Since the beginning of the war, the Jedi Explorer corps and archivists have been searching for new hyperspace routes to give us a strategic edge, with limited success. Their efforts have now yielded a major lane route of such significance that it could change the course of the entire war. Master Even Piell and his Star Destroyer were dispatched to scout and map the new lane." A holo of the master in question appeared, he was a 1.4 meter tall lannik, with a grisly face bearing many scars and even missing his left eye. "Due to the secrecy of what they were doing, everything about his voyage was classified, even the mapping data. Something went wrong during a hyper jump which we're still not sure about, but our intelligence suddenly indicated that his ship, the Guardian, was suddenly spotted in the Rudrig system, deep behind enemy lines."
"That's just half a day away from Raxus Prime," I said, feeling quite intrigued as I explored my Prescience.
"Yes, which indicates that Master Piell was highly successful. However, he was quickly detected and engaged by a CIS response fleet. Therefore, they now know that we have a new hyperlane directly into the heart of their territory. The last communication from Master Piell indicated he was memorizing the coordinates and wiping his ship's computers."
"Wait, where was the other end of this new lane?" Anakin asked with alarm.
"Nicely intuited, Skywalker," Master Koon complimented. "Metellos."
"That's practically next door to Coruscant!"
"So you begin to see the problem. Our astrogators have already given the new lane the codename of Nexus Route. We have only supposition at this point of its precise path through the galaxy, but it more than likely cuts straight over the Hydian, Vathkree and Salin routes to deliver you right into the heart of CIS space. Master Piell also confirmed that it was stable enough to easily accommodate major fleet formations."
"So we're to try and rescue Master Piell and the coordinates he holds in his head," Obi-Wan concluded.
"The Separatists have taken him and the majority of his officers and senior crew to Lola Sayu."
Obi-Wan stroked his beard in his typical 'I'm very troubled' way. "Oh dear."
"The Citadel?" Anakin asked grimly.
"Yes, Skywalker," Koon nodded and turned to me. "Ahsoka, we are talking about one of the facilities that the Jedi use to incarcerate those of us who have… lost our way."
"No need to mince words, Master Koon, fallen to the Dark Side," I folded my arms.
"Very well, little 'Soka. Lola Sayu is in Outer Rim Sector R6 and as a result was swiftly lost at the beginning of the war when the battle lines were drawn all over the galaxy. The Jedi stationed there managed to evacuate with some of the inmates but not all. It is unknown what the fate of the remainder is or what the Separatists have done to the prison itself since then. All we know is that there is a significant security fleet in the system. Cloaked scouts have gotten close enough for detailed scans so we at least have a general overview."
"So why aren't we using them? We could even take the Emissary, keep it cloaked, land near the prison, assault it, then exfiltrate," I said with a shrug.
"We have to allow for the possibility of retrieving not just the crew of the Guardian, but also any other prisoners that might be there. There is not enough room aboard the Emissary or any of the cloaked scouts or ships we have in range for that many. That is why we need the CIS cargo shuttle, you will need to use deception as your cloak in this case."
"What if we find other Jedi inmates still there? They're not exactly going to be thrilled about being 'rescued' from the Separatists only to be transported to another prison," Anakin pointed out reasonably.
"Leaving them in the hands of the CIS and Dooku is also not acceptable either. Those Jedi are there for a reason, their rehabilitation is near impossible. The Council is concerned that Dooku will use them as either disposable operatives or as propaganda against the Order. The cargo shuttle has been loaded with an appropriate number of casks."
"Casks?" I asked in confusion.
"They're a secure method of transporting a belligerent Force Sensitive," Obi-Wan explained. "It uses elements of stasis pod technology, combined with internal energy and neuro dampening, physical restraints and sound proofing. It's generally used when carbon freezing is impractical or unavailable."
Now that rang a bell. The Vizsla Archival vaults had a number of Mandalorian versions of such mobile prisons for Jedi. They were very ancient holdovers from a time when Mandalorian and Jedi were in open conflict with one another. It was just such a pity that even such casks had their limitations, as I think someone as powerful as Sidious would find it amusing to be placed in one, before he busted out and went on a rampage.
"Liberating an entire prison is not going to be something we can do without pulling down the entire security fleet down on our heads," Anakin looked a bit grumpy. "How are we supposed to be able to escape in a CIS cargo shuttle?"
"You should have the Nexus Route coordinates from Master Piell at that point, he will be your guide to an entry point, where you can use it to return to the Core Worlds directly," Master Koon explained.
"And if he dies or is already dead?" I asked flatly.
"Then you will have to improvise, Ahsoka."
Why did I hear the awesomeness of Suicide Mission by Jack Hall playing in the back of my head?
This mission had pretty similar stakes. If the Nexus Route fell into the hands of the CIS, it would leave the Republic Navy caught flatfooted and it would be the greatest outflanking maneuver in the history of warfare in the galaxy. If the Republic had it, we could drive a major fleet, perhaps even a Mandator dreadnought, right into the heart of CIS space.
"There is another complication to the security of Lola Sayu that must be addressed," Master Koon continued. "The security fleet has been equipped with the latest generation of scanning technology, which will obviate current smuggling techniques. The fleet is entirely run by droids and tac droids. If you try to approach, your lifesigns will be detected and your assault is over before it's even begun."
"Well, R2 can pilot the shuttle alone no problem, getting us and the clones through though… will require carbon freezing," Anakin winced with distaste. "We'll also need a few captured CIS droids, B1s preferably, I'll reprogram them myself."
"I'll make the arrangements," Master Koon nodded. "If that is all? May the Force be with you."
The holo of the Kel Dor Master rippled and vanished.
"I'll get this ship turned around," I muttered and hurried back to the cockpit.
After five days of pushing the Emissary hard through hyper, we emerged into high orbit of Taris and rendezvoused with the waiting Resolute.
She was looking in tip top shape after the battle damage sustained at the Battle of Sullust and I could see nothing obviously wrong with the flight bridge. Even a cursory scan showed the shipwrights on Corellia had done a fine job with her.
We landed Emissary in the port main hangar bay and were greeted by a reasonably sized ARC trooper company of the 501st led by Rex and Admiral Yularen.
"Attention!" barked Rex.
Nearly eighty booted feet thumped on the hangar floor, echoing impressively across the large space, as the clones presented and moved their rifles around into a forward salute position.
Anakin and I reflexively saluted the men in acknowledgement as we walked forward.
"Generals Skywalker, Kenobi, Commander Tano," Yularen also saluted at our approach. "Welcome back to the Resolute."
"You have my thanks for taking care of her, admiral," Anakin grinned.
"All systems and personnel are available for your review, general."
"Excellent, we'll have a formal brief in one hour under full EMCON and classification procedures in Briefing 2. Time is against us and we need to be underway no later than 0600 tomorrow."
"Understood, general."
Anakin gave another salute to the clones before we headed into the turbolift as Rex dismissed his men.
Our first destination - my quarters.
I entered first and held out both a scanner and my bug control. It took me nearly six minutes of thorough scanning of every inch of my little corner of the Resolute, before I was happy and pocketed both devices.
Anakin and Obi-Wan entered after I gave the all clear.
"No new surveillance, old one's still there and hacked, we're in the clear to speak here," I reported, pulling out a chair.
"Good," Obi-Wan said and after giving my quarters a cursory inspection out of interest, leaned against the wall, whilst Anakin sat on the edge of my work table. "What can your Prescience tell you of this mission?"
I chuckled mirthlessly, "It's going to be bantha poodoo from one end to the other. The number of probability lines which end up with us dead or captured are depressingly large. The odds of getting Master Piell alive off the planet are also bleak. His incarceration and torture is taking a toll and he will struggle to properly defend himself as we make our way out of the Citadel. The CIS has spent the last six months making the place even more formidable, with both active and passive defenses and outright traps throughout the entire complex. We'll be facing energy shield bearing commando droids in close quarters, tac droids, B1s and B2-ACMs. The final layer of this poodoo cake will be an organic CIS commander, acting as the prison warden, who is a very cunning strategist but also sadistic. None of the prisoners are having a good time in these walls and he really likes to watch the torture sessions, though he doesn't partake in administering it himself."
"Any indication of who this is?" Anakin asked.
I frowned with annoyance, "He's a phindian and in none of the probability lines does he really say his own name or introduce himself, even in those where he captures us. He's also quite prideful of his own reputation as the warden of the most secure prison in the CIS. No one has escaped under his watch so far."
"Pride such as that can be exploited," Obi-Wan smirked at me. "Any specifics on the new defenses?"
"Too long to go into before Anakin has to give his briefing, I'll write up a list of equipment we have to requisition, we'll also have to probably even go down to Taris and the black market for some rather exotic stuff."
"Snips, you get started on that with my full authority and the Resolute's discretionary budget. I don't care if you run our funds dry, but I want us in and out of there with Master Piell and all the prisoners we can fit in that cargo shuttle."
I smiled devilishly, "As you wish, master."
My master is crazy.
That was the constant determination that was circulating through R2-D2's logic processors.
The astromech sat in his upright mode and twisted his dome to scan the darkened interior of a carbonite freezing chamber owned by the local Tarisian branch of Fergris Pharmaceuticals. It had taken quite a bit of doing to get access to it in a clandestine fashion for the purposes of the mission.
R2 reflected on the vagaries of the organic sentient condition, how people could be bribed and corrupted to allow actions or inactions to occur which ran counter to what was supposed to be their primary operational parameters. That such action was even required when Fergris was supposed to be a company firmly on the Republic side of the line, meant that not even patriotic sentiments motivated the local director of the company.
Master arrived, followed by Ahsoka, Obi-Wan, Rex, Cody and twenty-two more ARC troopers from Alpha company of the 501st.
"Hey R2, all systems look good to you?" Master asked and patted him on his dome.
"Parameters are within expected norms for this kind of facility, master. The chance of a fatality occuring during the freezing process is too high," R2 blurted rapidly in binary.
"It'll be fine," his master disagreed with a kind smile, then produced a data chit from his armor's belt pouch which he slotted into the main port on R2's cylindrical body.
The droid felt the chit enter his internal dataverse and his automatic security checks and filters got to work, interrogating the onboard programs. Every single one had the appropriate keys and R2 recognized the distinct programming work of his master, so allowed the programs to execute.
"Programs loaded and instructions understood, master."
"Good, you're all set now to control the reprogrammed B1s. They'll follow your every command and you can even control them directly with the override if they become too annoying."
"Thank you, master," R2 said as he felt his circuits brimming with an odd satisfaction. He interrogated the feeling and could only conclude that it was his anger at CIS droids in general that was the cause. His logic concluded that it was also rather unfair. They were simply droids doing what they were programmed to do by organics.
Master patted him again before they all began stepping onto the circular pads of the carbonite freezing machines.
R2 engaged his wheeled mode before moving across to the control platform that overlooked the entire carbonite freezing line.
Tapping away at the controls and many interactive screens was a rather grumpy ugnaught that was identified as Kan Snavro.
"No need to look over my work, droid," Snavro frowned, flaring his upturned nasal cavities at R2.
'Your competence is not in question, I have seen your employment performance results.'
"What?! How by Gentes did you get access to that?" Snavro asked.
"That is irrelevant. I also know that you are a compulsive gambler with many debts. Debts that you are desperate to pay off. What you see here today would be very valuable to certain parties. My master's life and many others are in your hands and I was entrusted with looking after them whilst they are frozen."
"What are you getting at, droid?" he sneered.
"If you check your accounts, you will find them flush with enough credits to pay off half of the current debts you owe."
"You're pulling my snout, droid."
"Check," R2 retorted with a harsh tone.
"Fine," Snavro pulled out a small pad and began tapping his taloned finger rapidly on it, scrutinizing the small screen. "Well, I'll be a green uglett, you're telling the truth. Why-"
"Motivation to keep your mouth shut, the other half will be paid if our mission proceeds relatively smoothly. If despite this, you find your greed getting the better of you… your death will be ruled an accident."
The ugnaught laughed, "You're threatening me, droid?"
"This place just has so many computers governing everything; turbolifts, hazardous materials pumping and disposal. It'd be a shame if one just happened to malfunction at the wrong time."
Snavro's beady eyes became wary, "You're kidding right? Wh- what kind of astromech droid are you?"
"One who is an excellent mechanic and programmer," R2 snarked.
He quickly looked away from R2's main optical sensor, which was blending various shades of green and purple. Colors that were considered very bad luck and creepy in the ugnaught culture. "Consider me warned," he pocketed his pad and began pulling a number of levers on the main controls.
The circular pads began descending with their humanoid cargo, massive pumps began spooling up, filling the entire space with a sharp ascending tone as carbonite liquid began surging through all the overhead piping.
The now recessed pads began erupting with gaseous carbonite one after the other, quickly filling the entire area with ambient spillover gas, turning the place into a misty haze that was quickly cleaned up with giant fans recirculating the air.
Overhead multi-limbed dextrous claws descended into each recess, gently manipulating and coaxing the mass of newly generated carbonite into their respective freezers.
Their job done, a simpler claw now descended and stabilized the upright freezer, before the entire pad rose up back to its original position, revealing twenty-seven carbon-frozen humanoids, safely ensconced in repulsor driven freezer slabs.
"Everything good so far, reading no problems in any of the freezers," Snavro tapped a few buttons on his controls and pulled out a control pad. "This is the remote control for the freezers and moving them."
R2 opened up a panel with a manipulator arm and snatched it from the ugnaught, before also stabbing a logic probe directly into the remote, brute force downloading all its programs after giving them a thorough scan for anything nefarious.
"Hey! That's a proprietary system program."
"I don't care and I won't upload it to the Holonet," R2 retorted and threw the remote back, before swiveling on the spot and trundling away.
The droid examined the programs for control of the freezers, finding them to be over-coded, bloated and even filled with organic humor as junk code. Within a few milliseconds he had tossed the junk code away, distilling the program to something that didn't offend his sensibilities and was acceptably functional.
He sent out a signal and every freezer lifted slightly into the air before tipping themselves over, into the horizontal position and hovering flat.
R2 led the way and the very precious cargo behind him began following.
It was rather fortunate that Fergris's factory here on Taris was built with maximal efficiency in mind as well as keeping its competitors in the dark regarding its affairs in every way possible. This meant that the factory had large internal bays for cargo starships to land in, large hallways for moving large amounts of cargo at once and all sorts of security to prevent corporate espionage, including the ability to section off and isolate entire production lines and cargo flow.
This extended to the factory workers as well, which was why R2 could guide the freezers all the way to the internal hangar bay and not see a single employee. The surveillance system would also come down with a nasty virus which would neatly erase everything the moment he sent a signal to it.
The moment R2 entered the bay, he sent a signal and his small squad of three reprogrammed B1 droids activated inside the ship. One he ordered to begin pre-flight, whilst the remaining two would come out to help and store the freezers inside one of the shuttle's cargo bays. He also piped their visual feeds directly into his processors, just to keep a close 'eye' on them.
They were met outside the 110 meter length, cylindrical CIS cargo ship by a hovering holoplatform, on which was projected Master Plo Koon to supervise that everything was going to plan.
"R2, are they stable?"
"Yes, Jedi Koon. All systems report nominal and the freezing process is going well."
"Good, on your way, we can afford no delays."
R2 chirped an acknowledgement and rolled up the ship's embarkation ramp.
Ten very efficient minutes later, all the freezers were on board and secured. R2 double checked the equipment for the mission in their pallets, before rolling into the forward cockpit of the shuttle.
The engines were already whining and systems coming awake under the command of the two B1s seated at the controls.
"Embarkation ramp secured, all cargo secured and ready, sir," reported the third B1. R2 gave it the designation of B1-O.
"Make sure our transponder is on the Republic ID for the moment," R2 ordered.
"Roger, roger," B1-P responded eagerly, using its large metal digits on the MFDs.
"Open bay doors and get us to the hyper point."
"Yes, sir," B1-C saluted its hand and grabbed the control yoke.
The shuttle's engines and repulsors whined in concert, growing in power until it lifted off the bay floor and pulled in its landing struts.
CIS Shuttle 81572 ascended through the tubular bay, only pausing for the irised upper doors to properly open, allowing it into the darkened night sky of Taris.
R2 pulled in his front wheel, locking himself into a stable standing mode, before interfacing a logic probe into the dedicated port built for astromechs.
He immediately had to make corrections to the course that B1-C had set.
'Stupid B1s,' his logic center couldn't help but observe. For all that his master had done a wonderful job reprogramming these three, he was still working with mass produced, sub-standard hardware made by Baktoid Automata. R2 could already see problems developing because of that. The heat generated by the internal processors working at higher and higher speeds to accommodate the improved code and logic, was steadily increasing. As these B1s would learn and experience more, that would only get worse.
R2 reached into the code of the B1s, made a few adjustments here and there. Neatly staving off the processors melting into slag within five days as the droids literally thought themselves to death.
The shuttle transited beyond the atmosphere and immediately began powering into an intercept trajectory towards the Resolute, not even bothering with a stable orbit.
This would've normally had every space traffic controller on the planet hitting their emergency buttons and screaming over the radios at the offending ship.
As far as anyone else was concerned the shuttle was going to rendezvous with the Star Destroyer carrying classified cargo.
R2 continued making slight adjustments to the course as Resolute began rapidly growing closer through the forward transparisteel of the cockpit.
Finally, the shuttle blinked past the massive ship, shooting over its dorsal structure with a few hundred meters clearance at a relative velocity of a few kilometers per second.
He assumed control of the hyperdrive and after checking the coordinates a few dozen times in a millisecond, engaged it to full power.
"Ah, sir, I wanted to engage the hyperdrive," complained B1-C.
"I'm the astromech here, not you," R2 retorted as the shuttle shot into hyperspace.
Four days later the shuttle emerged into the Lola Sayu system.
The main planet itself was the fourth in this particular solar system and R2 hummed with wonder at the strangeness of this particular one.
It had suffered from a clear catastrophic event in the distant past that had caused it to become almost half-a-planet, losing what could be considered the crust and mantle of its southern hemisphere, totally exposing its core to space. Whatever the cataclysm, it was not able to overcome the gravitational binding energy inherent in the total mass of the planet, so the galaxy became witness to a planet slowly pulling mass back into its core and healing itself over hundreds of thousands of years.
In the meantime the planetary debris had formed a super ring system around it, which made any approach a perilous endeavor. The mass shadow was also uneven, which made safe exits from hyperspace a problem the closer you tried to appear.
All ships were forced to make a relatively long approach in normal space, which is part of the main reason why the Republic and Jedi had originally built a prison here.
Now, the CIS had taken what the Republic had built and made it even more difficult to escape.
The security fleet in orbit consisted of a Providence class dreadnought with four Lucrehulk battlecarriers and a squadron of Munificent star frigates.
R2 ran a number of simulations within his dataverse on what it would take to destroy this fleet and didn't like the results he was getting. The closest reinforcements that could theoretically come to aid any escape was more than two days away, approaching from the south-eastern lines and Hutt space, which would also require the Republic to breach those battle spaces.
No, this mission had to succeed, or everyone would be stuck behind enemy lines.
It took a full five and half minutes to traverse the distance to the security fleet blockade from the hyper emergence. B1-C was doing an adequate job at least of avoiding the orbital debris.
"Citadel command just contacted us," B1-P announced.
"Open a channel and make sure our transponder is online," R2 ordered.
"Roger, roger."
After a few moments, the droning voice of a tactical droid echoed in the cockpit. "This is central command, please identify yourself."
"This is Shuttle 81572, requesting access to Citadel Prison," B1-P broadcasted steadily.
"What is your cargo?"
"Uh, supplies and frozen rations."
R2 felt like prodding his stun rod up the B1s back. He'd had to remind it over their datalink of the appropriate response.
"Do not deviate from your current course until we have confirmed your cargo."
"Roger, roger."
B1-C turned in his seat, "We're being scanned for lifeforms."
"Of course they are," R2 snorted electronically. "Make sure all our own sensors are getting good readings on the wavelengths and frequencies they're using."
"All passive sensors are on, sir."
R2 made sure to copy the incoming data into his own partitioned memory, so that they would have a record even if they lost the shuttle. He was sure both the master and Ahsoka would be interested in studying this new scanning technology, not to mention using it to adapt their own lifesign dampeners.
"Shuttle 81572, scan complete. You are cleared to approach the Citadel."
"Roger, roger."
The shuttle's approved course had it passing right through the dreadnought's major firing arcs. It was a cheap intimidation scare tactic that was illogical, totally wasted on an all droid crew, yet clearly the tactical droid had them do it anyway.
"Make sure all our passive systems are also focused on the Providence, if they want to give us free close range intelligence on their gun layout and system heat signatures, we should take it."
"Yes, sir."
The shuttle streaked through the security blockade without issue and was soon decelerating for an atmospheric insertion.
When they approached the Citadel itself, R2 directed nearly all his computing cycles to analyzing it and comparing it to the old schematics.
It was a towering structure built out of the side of an expansive cavern system, that speared into the air ominously over two hundred meters. The caverns themselves were part of a very active lava flow system. Most of the stable northern hemisphere could be considered a giant volcanic region. Yet life still managed to thrive in the very fertile soils away from the many lava flows.
The results came back and R2 found it very concerning. The CIS had indeed made extensive changes. Passive scans showed extensive modifications to the internal layout and additions to external defenses. A magnetometric scan showed strong readings throughout the facility, suggesting EM field emplacements with outputs that R2 didn't want to get close to. Gravimetric scans also showed the paradoxical placement of gravity plating on a planet. There were even readings showing that the CIS had installed a large fusion reactor to supplement the geothermal power taps that the Republic had originally equipped the facility with.
"I'm assuming control," R2 declared and overrode the inputs of the flight yoke.
He dove the shuttle abruptly below the Citadel's scanner horizon and into the canyons.
Then leveled it off just two meters above the ever flowing rivers of lava.
"Whoa! Sir, our hull temp sensors are registering warnings!" B1-C screamed.
"We're going to die now, aren't we?" B1-O asked from the engineering station, his nasal voice turning depressed.
"Silence!" R2 growled in binaric.
He banked hard right, firing port and starboard thrusters precisely enough to slip the shuttle perfectly through a sharp gap in the canyon that flowed in that direction.
The spot to land covertly was already identified thanks to the detailed scans from the Jedi Archives, which were just a year old at this point and geological activity wouldn't have eroded it in that time.
He flared the shuttle to a stop at the exact coordinates and scanned the cliff face. Sure enough there was still a large cave here that the shuttle would be able to fit in.
With forward port and aft starboard thrusters twisting the shuttle around, he fired the forward thrusters to back the ship precisely into the cave, before canceling the momentum with rear thrusters and dialing the repulsors down.
The landing skids were extended and the shuttle thumped down in a perfect landing.
"That was impressive, sir," B1-C commented.
R2 pulled out his logic probe, "Begin the thaw on the freezers."
"Roger, roger," B1-O exited the cockpit.
"Keep our passives online, it won't take them long before they realize something is wrong."
Being carbon frozen sucked.
Getting unfrozen was a cast iron, gold plated SOB level of suckage that I never wanted to experience again.
The lethargy and torpor that lingered on you like a wet blanket was just awful. I felt it into my very bone marrow.
My eyes blinked and the instant I could, I pulled on the Force to jumpstart every biological process I had into proper functioning.
If this was what a mere four days felt like, then I tipped my metaphorical hat to Han Solo for enduring months and those early space explorers that had to spend decades carbonite frozen using the early hyperdrives for interstellar travel.
I stepped out of the freezer slab and did a few stretching exercises to help get everything flowing again.
Around me the clones were doing things the hard way, stabbing themselves with stims in their necks to get their internal processes recovering faster than natural.
I put my helmet on and activated M8.
"Running full diagnostic now, master," the armor intelligence announced. "Complete. There is minor degradation in the battery backups; all other systems are nominal."
"Everything good, Snips?" Anakin asked, rolling his shoulders, flexing his artificial hand, staring at a small internal power readout for the limb.
"Recovered, master. No carbon sickness."
"Then let's get our equipment and start this race."
By the time the entire assault team had gathered outside the shuttle, everyone had donned their assault harnesses and backpacks.
I had taken license from many old Earth spec ops groups in designing these. It functionally doubled the ammo count of a standard ARC trooper, they could now carry eight droid poppers each, there was also a number of integrated devices in pouches, including an extra armor plate on the front and back that gave them the same survivability in those areas that Clone Commando Katarn armor offered. They weren't happy about the weight, but that was preferable to being killed.
"All right, Alpha squad, make sure your lifesign dampeners are on with the new frequencies, we didn't come all this way to just be detected making our final approach," Anakin ordered.
Each clone thumbed the device on their belts and I carefully sensed to make sure that everything was working.
"We're good, master."
"R2, stick with the ship and execute the planned schedule. Get the casks ready as well, just in case."
With that Anakin gestured forward and the entire team fell into a covert line advance formation with their DC carbines pulled into their shoulders and moving out of the cave, following the narrow rocky path formed here by hundreds of years of workers and excavator droids. Much work had to go into stabilizing the earth around the Citadel so that the foundations weren't compromised by the geological activity - building great pillars of durasteel that speared through these narrow canyons.
After a good amount of time following this canyon going east, it sloped north and finally the path entered into a tunnel bored out of the rock.
"All right Ahsoka, take point," Anakin ordered.
I walked forward and knelt at the entrance to the tunnel, carefully using technometry to sense surveillance and other detection technologies. M8 was also busy, using passive sensors only, as throwing active scans now was suicide.
Nothing.
I gave a forward gesture and entered the tunnel.
M8 was projecting an internal map on my HUD of the ideal route we would take to infiltrate and I was relieved to note that everything was lining up when we reached the first intersection. It made sense that the CIS wouldn't mess with these tunnels too much, since they needed to do infrastructure maintenance to the geological struts as well.
We turned left as the path dead-ended against a major geo-strut stained with dust, then followed it for nearly fifty meters, climbed a short ladder, then took the next right.
I held up a fist and kneeled.
Everyone immediately stopped.
'Snips?' Anakin thought to me.
'Seismic sensors, enough to pick up our footfalls easily.'
We couldn't use our radios and even point-to-point systems were very risky. The only way we talked was via the Force and hand signals from here on.
'Can you override?'
The first sensor was about ten meters down the tunnel from our current position and it took me a few moments to piece together everything at this range.
It was wireless, buried like a landmine and was sending a constant low level pinging signal back to the Citadel. With careful application of the Force, as if I had manifested invisible fingers, I cut, moved and pushed the interior circuitry, connections and induced electric currents. M8 also sliced in and managed to spoof it into keep sending its all clear signal, despite me having cut its link to the seismic sensor itself.
I gestured for an advance and we moved on.
We had to stop again at the next intersection for more seismic sensors.
'These can't be reliable,' Anakin thought irritably. 'Must give false readings all the time due to natural seismic activity.'
'Unless they have a program on the other end that discriminates and filters, it's not hard to code that.'
After getting through that we were nearing the Citadel's lowest levels and security naturally toughened. The first of which was actual visual surveillance units of the tunnels. These I had to tackle with M8's help. Again we were dealing with wireless systems and it took my droid intelligence forty seconds of slicing to penetrate the system - then we let it record a full boring minute of footage before doing the old loop-the-feed trick.
We rushed past the camera as quickly as possible, before returning everything to normal behind us. The chance was too high that the tac droids would eventually spot the anomaly of our hack if we left it as is.
The tunnel opened here into a narrow chasm, which was bridged by a durasteel grid walkway spanning over one of the seemingly never ending rivers of lava below. Ahead of us was only a jagged rock face that stretched upward for nearly 130 meters. It was usually traversed by an exterior elevator on a track, but the lift car was at the top.
The elevator controls at the bottom were hard lined directly into the Citadel's central computer. It could be sliced but not without alerting the entire place. Prescience showed me that even if M8 pulled off a flawless slice, the alarm would go off the instant the lift car moved. So more than likely there was a redundant isolated hardline sensor somewhere out of reach.
The biggest problem was the magnetic mines partially buried in the rockface itself that spanned the height of the rock face and ten meters to either side of the elevator track. It precluded using ascension cables and whilst Anakin and I could use boot jets to fly up there, it would mean leaving the clones behind as their jetpacks were less maneuverable, therefore impossible to safely fly in this tight space. Trying to actually free climb to the left of this defense, meant you were out of the chasm and in full view of the Citadel. Trying to go right, meant an extremely perilous and difficult climb that even the madmen free solo climbers of old Earth would think twice about even attempting.
The only point of vulnerability was the mines. They had to be shut down before the lift could be used and were again wireless as a result.
"M8 what do you think?"
"Mistress, I can definitely slice and spoof them to the Citadel central computer."
"Do so," I gave a look at the mission time counter.
'R2 should launch our fake distress beacon in three, two, one,' I thought to both Obi-Wan and Anakin.
Exactly on time, our radios picked up the beacon which would give the impression that the shuttle had crashed at the point where it had disappeared from the scanner horizon, after experiencing engine problems. Hopefully, the droids would conclude the shuttle had met its end in the deep lava rivers.
The magnetic mines shut down under the deft electronic fingers of M8.
The clock was now ticking in earnest.
I gestured upward and we all pulled out ascension guns and fired.
I gave my line a tug to check it and after clipping it on my harness, gunned the motor and shot into the air.
The entire team followed suit.
I held my fist into a hold signal the moment we were hanging off our hooks underneath the lip of this entrance into the Citadel. Then gave a low profile hand sign.
Everyone grabbed onto the rockface and flattened themselves as best they could against it.
Two B2-ACMs and a droideka were approaching on a standard patrol.
I heard the distinctive sound of a ray shield powering down, then the heavy stomping of the B2s and the clunking tumble of the droideka before it deployed its legs and all three droids started scanning.
The Force was summoned and I induced an electrical short in their optical sensors. We were well below their sightline and neither droid could bend down, but I wasn't taking chances that those sensor's line of sight hadn't been improved.
"Optical sensor malfunction," reported one B2. "Patrol group 31534, heading to maintenance."
The droids defaulted to using inertial guidance, turned around and walked through the ray shielded door.
We waited a long minute for them to get some distance from us, before we finished our climb and stacked up on either side of the entrance.
M8 had been monitoring the droids and had caught their key transmission to the shield system. It was the work of a few seconds to decode and properly sequence a key of our own that wouldn't get flagged in the system as anomalous. Then properly spoofing the camera that looked down at the shield door from inside and hallway beyond.
The shield flickered and dimmed.
We sped through as quickly as we could, the team divided on each side of the hallway, every blaster up and ready to instantly take out any threat perceived.
We paused at the first intersection, as M8 and I got to work on the next surveillance cams.
This was slowing things down, but the closer we got to Master Piell's cell before the alarms were triggered, the better.
'I've sensed where Piell's being held,' Obi-Wan thought, as he poked at a small holo diagram of the Citadel hovering over his arm. 'Thirteen floors up, in the central spire. Here, it's listed as a solitary isolation cell in the schematics, but has been repurposed into a torture chamber. They're not currently doing anything to him. Probably letting him recover before the next session.'
My focus was completely on technometry and Prescience at the moment, so Obi-Wan and Anakin were handling strategic awareness.
'Can you thought-project to him?' Anakin asked.
'No, he's asleep at the moment and too withdrawn in self-defense.'
'What about other prisoners?'
'They're in five different detention levels, numbering two hundred. There are four Jedi among them, held in the specialist cells meant to contain them.'
'There were supposed to be seventeen.'
'It seems the warden has been busy then or they've been transferred elsewhere.'
'Clear,' I thought, gesturing for us to advance.
The fastest way up was a turbolift, but presented too great a risk of detection from too many sources and getting trapped. So we moved steadily in the direction of a maintenance access point, which contained an auxiliary ladder tube that spanned the height of the Citadel.
When we successfully breached into the tube, I saw that the warden had been very busy here. It was a clear vulnerability in the entire Citadel, so it had a wide array of systems to either detect or outright kill an intruder. Hypermagnetic EM plating so strong that it would strip you of anything metallic if you tripped a laser grid sensor. Grav traps that would expose you to sudden instant G-forces of 50Gs or higher. Electrofields that would stun or even kill you.
Anakin winced as I transferred everything M8 and I was detecting to his HUD. 'Snips, can you and M8 manage this?'
'Yes, we can, Skyguy," I thought with determination. 'Let's go.'
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