Dalek Wars! Death Ship.
By TimeTraveller-1900.
-8-
Sitting in the lounge of the Republic passenger cruiser, Anakin Skywalker and Barriss Offee were enjoying a drink. The two apprentices had just spent a gruelling time on the planet Ansion, both of them working with their respective Masters, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luminara Unduli, to stop the planetary government from leaving the Republic and joining the growing Separatist movement.
Or more accurately, the Jedi Masters were the ones working with the team to prevent the government from leaving. Anakin and Barriss had spent the trip becoming bored out of their mind despite their Jedi training, or rather Anakin was, but he had sensed the irritation in the calm Mirialan apprentice.
"What are you going to do when we get back to Coruscant, Anakin?" Barriss asked.
Anakin had a few ideas in mind, but he was worried they might make their way back to Obi-Wan. "I dunno for sure, but I hope there aren't any more wastes of time."
Barriss sent her friend a reproachful look, but she still nodded in agreement with his words. Anakin had made it extremely clear where he stood on the last mission. He had hated it. He had believed the Jedi should be out in the galaxy doing better things to help the rest of the people, and they should leave politics to the politicians.
Deep down, Barriss had agreed wholeheartedly with Anakin; while she served as a Jedi, she had grown up hearing from her Master and others, that politicians were not to be trusted. There was simply too much evidence to prove they were untrustworthy. The corruption and incompetence of the Galactic Senate of the Galactic Republic were too well known.
But things had changed violently, during the entire mess with the Invasion of Naboo. If there was one thing the whole mess had proven, it was the senate was incapable or unwilling, to protect worlds supposedly under their umbrella. Even the Jedi hadn't helped, they had only sent two Jedi Knights to Naboo to try to end the invasion, which was ended during a rare alliance between the people of Naboo and the Gungans, which was an achievement as both sides historically had issues with each other.
Anakin himself had been instrumental in destroying the droid control ship, but the repercussions were felt to this day. To this day, many of the core founders of the Separatist alliance were formed of commerce guilds that were still reeling from the taxes and embargos imposed on their trade routes, and many of them had to form militaries to deal with pirates, which targeted them as ripe, plump morsels.
What made the whole thing worse was a former Jedi Master was the leader of the organisation.
Barriss had dim memories of Count Dooku, but she had remembered him as a great Jedi, one of the most respected, and part of Yoda's lineage. Dooku's messages and propaganda had rallied thousands of worlds, using his observations of the Republic's bloated corruption as weapons to cut deeply into the rotting flesh of the Senate.
And so many had joined, especially those who'd been hurt by the Republic, who saw it as old, corrupt, unworthy of membership. The Jedi had done their best to mitigate, or to stop as much of this chaos, but they were being spread out too far.
But the Jedi Order was affiliated with the Republic, so they had to do what the Republic wanted, or as many Jedi saw it, to clean up messes, and many worlds thinking of leaving the Republic, either saw it as proof the Republic was worthless, or they just felt intimidated which was not what the Order were trying to do.
Anakin saw the look. "You can't deny it, Barriss," he said, "Too many worlds are leaving the Republic for the Separatists. They think the Separatists and Dooku will bring something new to the galaxy. And the Jedi are too overstretched as it is."
Barriss sighed and took a sip of her drink. "I'm not in the mood to talk about politics, Anakin," she mumbled. "To be honest, I know how you feel. And you're right. We know that, but I don't want to think about it."
"Okay, sorry," Anakin said, flashing her a smile.
Barriss smiled back, rolling her eyes at the roguish smile on Anakin's face. Despite the Jedi Code, a part of her couldn't help but have a crush on him. Anakin had grown into quite a handsome man.
But before she could say anything else, their Masters walked in. Barriss smiled at her Master, but then she saw the look of concern on their faces.
"What's wrong?" Anakin asked.
Luminara Unduli sighed, she was a Mirialan like Barriss, only her clothing choice was more elaborate, until she didn't even resemble a Jedi, aside from her lightsaber. Anakin thought she looked good. "We've been ordered to Cloud City, Bespin."
"The gas mining colony?" Anakin whispered.
"Why are we going there?" Barriss added.
"A few hours ago, their space patrol force detected a passenger liner. According to the transponder on the ship, it's not even meant to be there. It was launched from Alderaan, passing through Malastare, and then to Coruscant," Obi-Wan replied. "The checks show it was meant to arrive at Coruscant three days ago."
"So, what's it doing at Bespin?" Barriss asked.
"It was drifting in space."
"Drifting?" Anakin echoed.
"Yes, when investigators got inside, they found the ship badly damaged, and everyone on board was killed. The Bespin authorities don't have the resources to investigate this, so they reached out, and since we're the only free Jedi, we were told to go," Obi-Wan replied.
"Now, that's a job a Jedi should do," Anakin ignored the looks from Luminara and Obi-Wan, but Barriss chortled under her breath.
-8-
The moment the four Jedi arrived at Cloud City, Anakin mentally added the Tibana gas mine to his growing list of worlds he had visited in his lifetime. Ever since he had joined the Order, and he had begun going out on missions, the list of planets had grown and grown. As he had once told Qui-Gon Jinn on Tatooine, he had ambitions to visit all the planets in the galaxy, and he was going to fulfil that promise.
The investigators hadn't wasted any time. The moment the Jedi ship arrived, they had handed in the landing permit, and they'd been escorted to a landing platform. As he looked at the massive mushroom-shaped station above the planet's atmosphere, knowing the atmospheric pressures were so great, that they would crush anything that fell inside. But the city was awesome, and Anakin wondered if he and Barriss would get a free minute or two to explore some of it.
He doubted it, but he would prefer this place to a political nightmare like Coruscant or Ansion right about now.
"We brought the ship back to the landing platform after we reviewed the transponder network, but when we got a closer look, we saw the ship was heavily damaged," one of the officers was saying.
Anakin tuned himself into the conversation, "In what way?"
Another officer - there were four of them escorting the Jedi to the ship - (Anakin sensed through the Force they were… less than thrilled that they needed to call for help, and he also felt the resentment they were not able to deal with the crime rates here) turned to him. She blushed when she caught his intense look, but her voice was still kept professional.
"The aft section of the ship's gone. Melted. And there are blast patterns that look like they were meant to destroy the communications array, and the weapon systems, and disable what other engines there were," she said.
Barriss had caught the interested look and felt a wave of protectiveness. "What about the crew and passengers?"
The investigators stopped. "It's not pretty," the older one replied at last.
"I've been in this business my whole professional life, Jedi, and I can tell ya, it's like nothing I've seen before," another remarked.
"Why, what's happened to them?" Luminara asked calmly, but Barriss, who knew her better, knew she wanted to get to the bottom of this.
"It's best if you see it," the older investigator said, either not seeing the annoyed look sent his way by Anakin, or not caring. "We've left everything how we found it, but don't touch anything," he said as he led them out over the platform.
Anakin was pleased the investigators hadn't described in too much detail the level of damage the ship had suffered, and the aft section was not doing the word melted justice. It looked like a clump of metals had been exposed to incredible heat and melted until there was nothing left. The smaller engines were long gone, and there were enormous blast marks all over the hull.
But as he looked at the ship, Anakin sensed fear, horror, and death. What in the name of the Force happened?
"You didn't find the black box?" He asked.
"First thing we looked for, but it's gone," the older investigator said.
"What?"
"Cargo?"
"Still onboard."
"That doesn't make sense; even pirates just starting would steal it, so why not take what they could?"
"Dunno."
"Any droids?"
"Melted like the ship."
With some trepidation, the four Jedi slowly walked onboard. The moment they did, they found flickering lights and sparking displays. But it was when they reached the passenger compartments, they found a scene of death.