Chapter 103
My bootjets flared as I landed on top of the AAT.
Lightsabers slashed downward, cutting through the hatch.
A Force Pull sent the hatch flying away, exposing the B1 droids inside.
"Hey, that's rude," the B1 objected in its nasal mechanical tone.
My only reply was to arm and drop a thermal detonator into the tank.
One Force Jump upward later, I flared my armor's jets to gain horizontal velocity.
A jet of fire shot up from the AAT as the interior was destroyed, then the entire tank bulged outward as internal munitions and volatile power sources cooked off.
Gravity reclaimed it as the repulsors failed and a loud thump of wrecked durasteel meeting earth echoed in the street.
A twist of the Force, combined with the thrust of my armor, brought me into a brief flight to land next to the ARC squad's position where they were taking cover behind a building.
They were already rising and surging down the street with raised weapons, scanning and securing it.
I landed next to Rex, "And that's all the tanks down," I sighed wearily.
"Thank you, commander. Wish we could've been more help, but these new droidekas-"
I held up a hand, "I understand, captain. No need for that."
The sniper droidekas were nasty. They only had a single centrally mounted gun, but the fire rate was crazy high for such a weapon, add their shields and the only way for an ARC trooper to take them out reliably was the RPS-6 missile launchers meant for tanks. After nearly six hours of battle throughout the settlement, every missile had long since been expended.
But now, it was thankfully over.
I looked up at the central colony building of the settlement that towered over the entire place.
It stood nearly twenty stories tall and was the only building that still had elements of industrial mass production still visible, though the colonists had gone to great lengths to try to hide the sharp lines. In a rather self-aggrandizing gesture, the top part of the building had been capped by a sculpture that mimicked the prominent pointy montrals that most male togruta had.
It was almost vulgar and I really wanted to question the artist responsible and Governor Roshti about their thinking in allowing that.
"All right, only the colony administration building left, with droids and the zygerrian inside. I want a perimeter around it, we'll regroup and assault in ten minutes after the men catch their breath."
"Roger, commander," Rex said and began issuing orders into his comlink.
The whine of thrust from the sky heralded Anakin coming in for a landing nearby.
"Ahsoka, all bombs subverted. If he tries to detonate, nothing will happen," he said.
I breathed a sigh of relief, "Excellent, now we at least won't all die in a fire-"
"Mistress," M8 interrupted me and my HUD began displaying a radiograph analysis. "I'm detecting a signal coming from the colony building, unencrypted and broadbeam. I believe it's from the enemy."
"Anything nasty in that transmission?"
"Analyzing… nothing, mistress. It is safe to accept."
Anakin nodded and tapped the controls on his gauntlet.
The full body holo of a zygerrian male appeared in front of us. They were a felinoid species and this one had brown hair that was just beginning to gray. Silver eyes glared at us and he was dressed in a navy blue uniform with light gold accents, which formed an elaborate triangle on his chest. Further elaborate accouterments on the uniform clearly indicated a high rank, some of which was made of auridium. Even his belt, which was festooned with pouches, was made of the stuff, though it was clearly plated.
"Jedi Skywalker," the zygerrian said in a listing accented Basic. "You can enter the colony tower. My droids will not attack. We will negotiate terms for… surrender."
Anakin scowled briefly, anger rising, but managed to get it under control. "Very well. And to whom am I speaking?"
"Commander Darts D'nar of the Zygerrian Empire."
"Should that not rather be of the Confederation of Independent Systems?" I retorted pointedly.
D'nar turned to me and frowned with confusion briefly, "Ah, no, Commander Tano, you think we've given up our sovereignty? Nothing could be further from the truth."
"If you say so, D'nar," I said skeptically.
"We will come up to negotiate," Anakin continued smoothly. "Any treachery will mean forfeiture of this temporary truce and immediate resumption of hostilities."
D'nar simply nodded his head, then cut the connection.
"Let's go and meet our kind host. Rex, we'll be sending out visual and audio feeds from our armors to you, make sure you're ready to act."
"Yes, general."
The first floor of the colony building was a general mess.
The lobby was strewn with baggage; suitcases, backpacks, sling bags. All of it filled with clothes and other personal items. It was as if the colonists had decided they were going on a field trip. Yet everything was nearly piled to the ceiling alongside the walls…
"What is this?" Anakin frowned.
"More than likely they were told they would be relocated for their own safety until the war's end, so they packed. Despite being a bunch of artists, they are still togruta and they would have resisted or at least scattered into the wilderness if they knew they were going into slavery."
"Bunch of hutt-spawn," he swore, as we approached and entered the central elevator.
The grav lift carried us up swiftly and soon enough the doors opened up to the highest floor.
Most of it was dedicated to the governor's office and administrative archives. It was a wide open plan office, with very little furniture, a singular integrated wooden desk that looked like it was grown out of the floor. Behind this desk was a massive slab of transparisteel that gave a breathtaking view of both the settlement, the surrounding grasslands and distant mountains. That view alone was worth capturing as a terminal desktop wallpaper and it seemed the governor agreed as he had traditional painting equipment to one side of his desk.
Sitting behind this desk was D'nar himself, who had his feet contemptuously rested on it. He was also feeding a kirosian bird that was perched eagerly on his shoulder and pecking at seed in his hand.
Four armed commando droids flanked the desk, including a tactical droid standing behind D'nar's chair.
"Welcome, Master Jedi," he graciously gestured with palms to the ceiling. "Come let us talk of your surrender."
We walked straight forward to stand in front of the desk and Anakin pulled off his helmet, tucking it underneath his arm. "Our surrender? Surely you're misunderstanding, D'nar. Your droid forces are down to a mere handful. If we wanted to come in here by force, nothing you have would be able to stop us."
"You've broken through some of my defenses, yes, but not all of them. Don't think you've won, Master Jedi," D'nar sneered. "I have planted bombs all over the settlement. At a gesture from me, the bombs will detonate and no one will survive."
"You're willing to die to your own bombs?" Anakin scowled.
"I'm not stupid, Jedi," he sneered in return. "They are precisely calibrated to obliterate everything around the colony building, but leave it intact. Your precious clone troopers will all die. The city, the life work of the togruta, gone." The commando droids raised their blaster pistols and unsheathed vibroblades from their backs. "Now you will bow down and surrender to me."
"I sense you tell the truth," Anakin said grimly.
"I do, how convenient, but I think a demonstration is still in order," he made a beckoning gesture to the tactical droid.
The droid tapped a datapad…
I folded my hands behind me, then began using my eyes to interface with my HUD.
D'nar frowned and swiveled his seat to look at the tac droid, "What are you doing? Detonate!"
"I did send the signal, commander," the droid reported in a monotone. "There is a response signal, it should be working. All bombs are online."
"Problem, D'nar?" Anakin asked with a smirk.
The zygerrian whirled around, "What did you do?!"
Anakin chuckled, "You got sloppy. I'm not about to explain how to an enemy, but we found them and altered them to no longer respond to your commands. So you see, it is in fact, you who are trapped and are in no position to negotiate terms but your full unconditional surrender."
I fired off a Whistling Bird munition, which separated into submunitions and crossed the room in the blink of an eye.
The commando droids sparked briefly as the projectiles burrowed into their chassis and exploded.
All four toppled onto the ground, sparking and twitching.
D'nar surged to his feet, drawing a blaster and aiming it alternately at both of us. I had to give him some credit here, he had mastered his panic and fear very quickly at the sudden disappearance of his trump card. He also had something else he was hiding behind his back in his left hand that he had gotten there through some pretty good prestidigitation.
"It's over, D'nar."
His sharp teeth gritted fiercely, "It'll never be over-"
He froze, becoming as stiff as a statue, unable to speak and his eyes rolled frantically in panic.
Anakin huffed in annoyance, "Snips, what did you do that for?"
I glared at him, "Never let a bad guy monologue. He was stalling." I hurried around the desk and once I was behind D'nar, wrenched the device he was holding out of his hand. "See," I held up the small detonator.
The Darksaber was lit in my hand and held against the tac droid's neck the next moment. "Drop the datapad."
The droid properly calculated that it had no chance or gambit left to pull off against two Jedi in close proximity and obeyed.
"Thank you."
My wrist flicked and the droid's head came off. No point in letting it conclude that it should also activate an internal self-destruct. Tac droids generally wouldn't unless it was absolutely clear that rescue or recovery by the CIS was impossible.
Anakin disarmed D'nar by pulling on the blaster pistol. "What was he trying to set off?"
I regarded the zygerrian's detonator for a moment, probing it with technometry. "A separate bomb." I turned over the chassis of the tac droid and found a small backpack with a baradium explosive inside. "Looks like his last attempt to distract or even kill us all."
Anakin walked up to D'nar, "He doesn't feel the fanatical type in that mind of his. He really hates Jedi though, it's all over his surface thoughts and emotions." He tapped his comlink. "Rex, it's over. I need a prisoner escort detail here."
"On our way, general."
I picked up the tac droid's head, placed it on the table upside down and carefully looked for any point M8 could use for a direct interface.
"M8, visual analysis only, are you seeing any interface points?"
"None, mistress. This is clearly an improved model. I'm not even detecting a wireless receiver. The droid will need to be shipped to the Resolute and an interface welded in place on the severed neck circuitry."
I looked up, just in time to see Anakin poke D'nar on the forehead. The zygerrian's eyes rolled upward and he fell into a deep sleep.
"Nicely done, Skyguy." I smirked and released the Stasis.
D'nar collapsed into an uncomfortable heap of limbs.
He shrugged modestly but smirked at the compliment, "Let's get R2. I'm eager to go and see that ship of his."
The next half day was spent doing intelligence legwork.
Most of Resolute's Intelligence division was either gathering evidence on the ground, working through Governor Roshti's files and going through D'nar's ship with a fine tooth comb.
They did this with some alacrity since we didn't know when a Separatist fleet would show up.
I eventually called it and ordered everyone off the surface of Kiros, whilst Anakin personally flew D'nar's Aurore class freighter, which had the wonderful name of Punisher, to land in the Resolute's forward bays.
D'nar himself was currently enjoying his new accommodations on the Detention level with a prison jumpsuit, gruel for food and I was letting RI have the first try at interrogating him.
Resolute and her single Acclamator escort left orbit and used a microjump to rejoin the fleet in their hiding spot in the Oort Cloud.
"All right, tell me we have some good news."
Anakin, R2, Chewie and Yularen looked up at my entrance to Briefing Room One.
The large holotank was currently displaying a massive high detail rendering of the local sector, overlaid with hyperspace routes, major space-time gradients and all major gravitational sources.
"That we do, Snips," Anakin nodded, tapping on the holotank controls to display a brand new hyperspace route.
I frowned at the holotank, "It looks like it goes straight from Genassa on the Cenalon Spur, meanders south, avoids a few nasty black holes and pulsars, before terminating right here in Kiros."
"It's a new hyperspace route," Chewie growled.
Something about the way he said it and his emotions clued me in that he was actually being literal when he said that.
"Wait, Chewie, are you saying that this isn't something they found on an old ancient chart somewhere?" Anakin asked.
The wookiee nodded and pointed at the new route, "You can see it in the way the route is drawn. It's sloppy, inefficient. See here, they could've avoided taking this route around this neutron star entirely if they had just gone two lightyears z negative here. It was like they just bashed their skulls forward through the galaxy in the most direct manner towards the Hydian and when they found resistance, flowed around it."
"Undoubtedly losing ships every time they did that," Yularen shook his head incredulously.
"In war, the usual rules stop applying eventually. Necessity certainly has a unique way of breaking the barriers we consciously and subconsciously build for ourselves. They need to break the stalemates in the battlespaces, well, this is certainly one way to do it," I said with exasperation, my mind trying to tally the credits worth of ships and droids that would've been lost. The computing power and time required to forge a path through hyperspace from scratch. You couldn't just use tiny scout ships. You needed at least a frigate, to house all of the specialist astrometric sensors. The number crunching also meant you either had to send the data back planetside or bring the computers with you, which meant bumping up the ship sizes to a cruiser.
My com link chimed for attention, it was the bridge. "Yes, Comms?"
"Commander, incoming transmission from Shili for you. It's… from Regasa Yovet."
My back seemed to shiver slightly. "Lieutenant, that's the subchannel ID? The Queen of the United Tribes is calling me?"
"Yes, commander. The aide I spoke to indicates she wants to speak to you personally."
My hands seemed to automatically move towards my neck, so I could pull off my helmet but I consciously stopped myself.
I stepped over to the other side of the holotank, working at a terminal where I could properly isolate the holo to only scan me into the transmission.
"Send it to Briefing One."
"Yes, commander."
The gazes of my friends, mentors, companions and master felt particularly acute as I worked at the terminal. My hand paused briefly at the final tap which would connect the transmission. I cleared my throat and banished the nerves surging up and down my spine. Why was I feeling this way? I had not sworn myself to her, she wasn't technically my sovereign at all, yet… She spoke for my race in this galaxy and guided it.
I pushed my finger down and stepped back, keeping my arms down at my side.
The symbol of the Shili royal family appeared briefly before the holo was resolved and Queen Yovet herself was rendered full body.
She was in her late sixties, which was generally considered mid-life for togruta who lived on Shili. Her montrals had a prominent upward slant and curved beautifully like horns inward, nearly five times the size of my own, her lekku hung down almost to her waist, with tattoo patterns that were extremely elaborate and complex. It would take almost a few weeks to do if you had a dedicated artist working on it. Her face, in contrast, was simple, with red skin and her forehead covered in white ovals with red diamonds inside. Her crown of golden akul teeth sat prominently on her head.
As befitting of a queen, her outfit was a long, elaborate golden yellow dress that accentuated and emphasized a figure that was quite attractive, but was now beginning to show hints of age. She also visibly wore no shoes, as was traditional.
"Regasa Yovet," I greeted her, bowing in Jedi fashion.
"Commander Tano," she said with a raised brow, her eyes clearly assessing my appearance and what it communicated. "We are eager to hear your report of the situation in Kiros."
"Yes Regasa, we have some preliminary findings and intelligence. No contact with any enemy fleet as yet. We did have to fight a ground action against a landed force of war droids within the Kiros colony."
"I see, has there been many casualties among the colonists?"
My hands briefly closed into fists before I consciously relaxed them. "Regasa, I'm afraid to report that all the colonists of Kiros, have been forcibly abducted from their settlement by the CIS, at the direction of the Zygerrian Empire, who are now part of the Separatists."
My senses were already there around Yovet as she stood in the throne room of the palace. I could see the reaction of the ministers and royal family. I felt her initial disbelief, astonishment and anger, before rationality kicked in. Her face was implacable as she studied me intently.
"The Regasa should also be aware of a new hyperspace lane terminus that now exists in the Kiros system, the other side of which is in the Genassa system, a full sector inside CIS space on the Celanon Spur. This is how the enemy fleet arrived in the system behind Republic defenses. We will be sending you the full data on it momentarily. "
She didn't respond for a very long few moments and I could see the ministers around her babbling, arguing and generally acting like headless chicken. The only exceptions were two togruta in senior military naval uniforms who were whispering to each other.
Finally, Yovet made a flat gesture with her hand, glaring at everyone.
They quickly shut up and now that she could hear herself think, she said, "Commander, we would ask you to also send all data on the colony's current condition. We believe you, but we will need proof for those who would not wish to see this as fact. How do you know that it was the zygerrians?"
"We have the zygerrian responsible for coordinating the abduction in custody, Regasa. He's undergoing interrogation now. His ship's flight log and database clearly show the Separatists loading the colonists forcibly onto Hardcell transports."
"Therefore we are to assume that the colonists have been taken back to zygerrian space through this new hyperspace lane."
"He has proudly admitted to it already, Regasa. The kirosian colonists are just the first slaves they intend to take with the CIS backing them up, rebuilding the old slave operation they had."
"What does the CIS get in return?"
"That information, he has not yet disclosed, Regasa. I can only guess at the moment that it's zygerrian troops for the war effort. Their military capabilities were smashed by the Jedi, but it's highly possible they've regained some measure of it by now."
The queen nodded regally in understanding, "Commander Tano, I am sending you six cruisers from the Royal Fleet. We can not allow another enemy fleet to slip past you and into the Hydian. The fleet that is already there has not shown itself yet, but it's only a matter of time."
It would definitely be nice to have more firepower on my side. "Thank you, Regasa."
"You will not thank me for my next action. I've studied your war record commander and while you'd be an asset in the fleet action against the enemy, we still have over fifty thousand togrutans that have been kidnapped into slavery. That is unacceptable and cannot be allowed to stand."
"I agree, Regasa."
"Good, which is why we're going to request the Jedi Council send you and whoever else they deem appropriate to lead a rescue mission as soon as possible."
Oh yes, Regasa, infiltrate all the way into the Separatist north-east, find thousands of togruta and hope they haven't been scattered all over Zygerria yet. Steal a ship that can hold all 50 000 of them and smuggle them out of the CIS without being detected. Coming right up, Regasa. For my next trick, I'll fight Sidious in a lightsaber duel and slap him around easily.
Naturally, I didn't voice those thoughts.
"Consider it done, Regasa."
With confirmation and coordinates of the new hyperlane, the Republic was racing with whatever ships it could gather on short notice. The first of those arrived two days later with Obi-Wan's Negotiator at the head of a full squadron of Gun Acclamators and another three Bastion cruisers in support.
"Well, I'm here, tell me you've got a plan," Obi-Wan said wryly as he walked into Briefing Room One.
Anakin and I looked up from the mess of datapads containing a plethora of intelligence reports that we were barely keeping track of.
"The beginning of one," Anakin confirmed. "Ahsoka's managed to pull more up to date intel from our captive zygerrian and based on that, we're pretty sure we can now manage an infiltration. That's the easy part. The hard part is this."
He brought up a galactic map of the far north-east, at this resolution a large portion was dedicated to Wild space and the outskirts of the galaxy itself.
"Here is Zygerria, sitting on the crossroads of the Listehol Run and the Shaltin Tunnel hyperlanes. It acts as a southern gateway to the Cantonica Cluster and joins up with the far northern end of the Hydian." He tapped a few buttons on the holotank and another system nine hundred light years east was highlighted. "This is Kadavo in Wild Space. It's the primary slave processing center that the zygerrians use."
Obi-Wan nodded, "Makes sense, their homeworld is the market, it will only house representative samples of the slaves on offer. Keep the ugly business of housing millions of slaves out of sight and mind on another less pleasant world."
"We are already busy reconfiguring D'nar ship. Using it we will pose as slavers and gain landing clearance on Zygerria."
Obi-Wan frowned, "To what end? If the kirosian slaves are on Kadavo…"
Anakin scowled at me briefly, "We're going to purchase roughly eighty thousand slaves on the Zygerrian market."
"Oh," the Jedi Master folded his arms, caressing his beard in thought, "You're thinking of making such a large purchase that the zygerrians will solve the logistical problems for you."
"D'nar has revealed that any purchase above seventy thousand slaves, will mean the Zygerrian Empire will arrange for bulk cargo ships to be procured as a valued added service to the client, which they can now do easily thanks to their alliance with the CIS," I explained.
"So you'll buy the kirosian slaves and fly them out then? Forgive me, but I doubt that any of our ships have enough liquid funds available for such a purchase, even if we pool it all."
"Yes, which is where the togruta government comes in. Regasa Yovet has offered to cover eighty percent of the purchase amount, if the Republic contributes to the remaining balance. We can just about cover it with a percentage of the funds of all the gathered Venators and Acclamators of this fleet, without crippling each unit financially."
I picked up a datapad and walked over to the holotank, tapping on the controls to bring up various displays from Republic Intelligence.
"Naturally, we're just going to use the money to get the ball rolling. We will not be contributing one credit to their coffers at the end of this. It's one thing to rescue the togruta, but we want to also cripple the zygerrians on the way out and Regasa Yovet wants a message to be sent."
"How?"
"Now that's where this becomes rather… interesting."
Traveling through the new hyperspace route took barely a day in the Punisher, but most of it I spent in the emptied cargo hold in meditation, wrestling with myself into letting go of the stupid pride and guilt that I was leaving behind the fleet.
Admiral Yularen was perfectly qualified and experienced to defend Kiros and plug the hole the CIS had poked. When that elusive CIS fleet finally showed itself, he would be ready and able to turn them into space debris.
That was easy to say, but it was another thing entirely to conquer my own feelings on the matter.
We emerged from hyperspace in Genassa, where a combination of R2's magic with a hologram and D'nar's access codes got us straight through the CIS fleet that was watching over the emergence point.
It wasn't particularly large, a wolfpack of six Munificents that we could easily roll over with the fleet in Kiros. The problem was it would be a deep strike at best and unless the Republic could roll over the Ord Mantell battlespace, any Republic fleet pushing in would be at the end of a very thin supply line.
A two hour jump to Ithor later, we were on the CIS side of the Celenanon Spur hyperlane.
Two days of travel followed, where our only source of connection back to Republic space became the public Holonet. We couldn't afford for any GAR equipment to possibly compromise our cover. Our lightsabers were concealed within R2's scanner proof smuggling compartments and Anakin and Obi-Wan now carried common blaster pistols and wore suitably fancy clothes befitting their new stations.
For Chewie and myself, that was a far different story. Both of us had to pretend to be 'samples' of slaves for sale and so we had to dress the part.
Not something to look forward to, so we put it off for as long as possible.
Systems passed by such as Agamar, Shaum Hii, Vinsoth, and we finally returned to the Hydian Way at the Thesme system, avoiding the back and forth battlespace of Celanon and Botajef.
We followed the Hydian north-east for two days, until we reached Listehol and turned south, now racing along the Listehol Run hyperlane for another thirty six hours.
At last, the Punisher emerged from hyperspace in the Zygerria system.
Only to immediately have to take evasive action to avoid running into a large freighter.
The hyperspace point closest to the planet was doing a fair imitation of Coruscant traffic.
Ships of all sizes and types were coming and going towards Zygerria and a very frantic traffic controller immediately hailed the Punisher with instructions for a parking orbit and that we were 23rd in the queue to land.
"Popular place," Anakin commented from the pilot seat. He and Obi-Wan were dressed in an ostentatious semi-armored outfit of purple, gold and browns, ostensibly representing a very wealthy buyer on the fringes of Republic space who wanted to remain anonymous in his purchase of a slave workforce.
"These ships are practically from every part of the galaxy," Obi-Wan grimaced. "Clearly word of the zygerrians return to the business of slavery has been spread through the criminal underworld."
"Well, we're just going to disappoint them all, won't we," Anakin smirked, then looked at me. "Comfy, Snips?"
I gave him a slight glare and raised my left brow, folding my arms, "It actually is, believe it or not," I said with an airy dignity.
My 'slave' outfit was basically a thin, blue thong panty, whilst the strings radiated outward before dividing into two thinner strings on my hips. Over this was a gossamer thin transparent loincloth that hung in front and over my butt. My breasts were covered by two thumb-width blue cloth strips that snaked down from a jeweled choker around my neck, before they were secured by a thin golden string tied around my chest. It barely provided any support and I did not look forward to having to run or fight in this barely-there outfit. Completing the look was a green jewel encrusted auridium plated akul-teeth tiara that I wore over my montrals, which was suitably gaudy, along with golden sandals on my feet.
Making the outfit with the Resolute's quartermaster had been a very embarrassing experience, though his expertise using the fabricators to make the jewelry had been an eye-opening surprise. Perhaps there was some promise that the clones could find civilian occupations after the war… if all went well.
"You should not be taking on such a role, Ahsoka," Chewie grunted next to me. He was back to full au naturel wookie, with only his utility sash hung from around his left shoulder and a fake shock collar around his neck. "Only I should be playing the role of slave on this mission."
I shook my head, "There's no way I'm allowing that to happen, Chewie. You know the plan."
He grunted in acknowledgement, but it was clear he didn't like the idea.
It took another eighty odd minutes before we were allowed to descend into the atmosphere of Zygerria and given a landing pad on the outskirts of the capital city.
It was located on a huge flat plateau, which was carved out of the largest mountain I had ever seen so far in the galaxy. It reminded me of Olympus Mons on Mars, except flatter and shallower in the atmosphere. It was so large that if you didn't have scanners to provide the big picture, you'd think you were simply landing on a higher elevation of the planet's normal curvature.
The entire city was over 331 square kilometers, home to nearly five million sentients and stretched to either side of our vision as we came in to land on the outskirts. It was surrounded by a stupendously tall wall that seemed like both an external defense against conventional land assault and a way of keeping people inside it.
There was no anti-air or space weaponry that I could see but it could be cunningly hidden - the buildings on the inside near the walls were certainly big enough for that.
The Punisher's nacelles swiveled into landing configuration, legs extending from around the thruster exhausts. The rumble of those engines were so nostalgic and pleasantly resonated in my montrals - reminding me of all those chemical rockets that ascended into the heavens from old Earth. These old engines weren't completely chem based, but were an ultra-efficient hybrid of chemical and limited fusion propulsion, with the inertial dampeners canceling out the majority of the ship's effective mass.
I shook my head out of geeky mechanic mode and slipped on a gray robe and hood.
Anakin and Obi-Wan put on their own rather ridiculous flared headdresses that also doubled to mask their faces somewhat. The final effect was to make them look like the royal guards of a random rich planet somewhere in the galaxy. Our cover story was fleshed out significantly more, but hopefully we wouldn't need to actually use it completely to achieve our objectives.
The massive angular front nose of the ship split open and the wide embarkation ramp meant to load large volumes of cargo ran outward.
R2, Anakin and Obi-Wan led the way down it, with myself and Chewie walking a few meters behind, our heads slightly bowed in an outward display of subservience.
The temperature was rather hot, with the sun hanging directly overhead with few clouds that could provide shade.
When we were far enough, R2 sent the signal and the Punisher locked itself down completely.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw other ships landed in the distance and hunchbacked groups of slaves, easily numbering from fifty to two hundred being led out from the city towards the waiting transports.
As we approached the massive gates set in the city walls, it was rather curious that those massive durasteel gates were wide open, there was no visible security checking or regulating entrance rights. D'nar had said that there was an 'open door' policy in effect, customers coming were generally invited and advised that if they were to break any zygerrian law, that they would forfeit their freedom and become the product that was sold.
In the first street just beyond the gate, we got our first look at how they built and my first impression was one of color. The city walls were all painted a deep blue, with elaborate patterns, some of which clearly represented slaves in bondage. The buildings were all variations of layered pyramids.
Speeders were the primary form of conveyance, but many streets seemed only designed for pedestrians.
We didn't have long to walk to enter our first market and it was here that I spotted someone being transported by an actual rickshaw being pulled by a burly twi'lek slave.
Then the first stall we saw featured a zygerrian selling kowakian monkey lizards that were trained to fight each other. He even had two of the small semi-sentient creatures on a proportionally sized stage that were dueling each other with daggers. A bunch of potential customers were eagerly watching and shouting encouragement.
The din of the market and shouting sellers grew only louder from here.
There were exotic food stalls, art, sculptures, jewelry, clothing, electronics… it was a bazaar of everything. About the only thing not on offer were actual finished hand weaponry, but the components for them were there. Behind each stall was a zygerrian seller, usually with a slave nearby working on the wares.
The first actual slave 'shop' was a small affair, featuring a handful of twi'leks.
The customer was a Trade Federation neimoidian judging from his rank and attire. A rutian blue twi'lek female was being presented to him by two zygerrians. She was only wearing a loincloth bikini in black. It was almost exactly the style that Jabba had forced on Leia in the future-that-was. She was also quite beautiful, with a face and body that would see her being a model in the Core Worlds, but now it was a curse to her.
The slave's entire demeanor spoke of her being new, her head bowed in shyness, fear and humiliation.
At the next intersection we had to pause to allow a group of two dozen male twi'lek slaves walking in formation to pass in front of us. Their clothes were stained with the sweat of manual labor, including splotches of paint and plaster. All of them were huffing and puffing with exhaustion and I could sense their general medical condition as extremely poor, with mineral deficiencies that came from little food or a poor diet.
One slave collapsed before our eyes.
The zygerrian master, wearing an auburn gold uniform of their city guard, who was in charge of the detail immediately spotted it and halted the procession, charging through them.
"Get up! Move! This is no time to be sleeping, scum!"
The male twi'lek who was in the middle ages for their race, struggled and pushed himself up onto his knees. "Please, master…" he gasped. "I can't…"
"Tell it to my whip!"
The zygerrian produced an ornate hilt from his belt holster, which extended into a loose physical whip, but immediately energized into a glowing orange and crackled with electric energy.
It twirled through the air and snapped on the back of the twi'lek slave, delivering a punishing charge.
"Aaaah!"
He fell forward immediately on his face and began twitching.
"Get up!" the master snarled, bringing the whip down again and again.
I glared at the zygerrian from underneath my robe's cowl, before reaching out with the Force, making sure to give no twitch or outward mnemonic sign.
The master pulled back on the whip to deliver another hit, but my intervention nudged the trailing thong and cracker just enough that it clipped him right on the neck.
The zygerrian didn't even make a sound as the electric charge thundered through his body instantly, freezing every muscle to contract painfully and he fell to join his own slave on the hot surface of the street, twitching.
The nearby twi'lek slaves gasped in shock and immediately tried to make as much distance as possible from the scene of the incident, but another zygerrian master at the head of the column, this one wearing a navy blue version of their uniform intervened.
"Halt! Don't move, slaves!" he shouted, pulling out a blaster and firing a stun ring into the air.
They obeyed and fell back into line.
He rushed to his now unconscious comrade and carefully removed the shock whip from the ground, securing and deactivating it. The blue zygerrian's head whipped up and looked at our little party with suspicion. He pointed at Anakin, "You! Did you see what happened here?"
"Your friend got too enthusiastic and angry in punishing the green twi'lek," Anakin said with an unimpressed sneer on his face. "His own shock whip clipped him in the neck as he was using it."
"You expect me to believe that?! Toltas is an expert with that whip."
"I don't care what you believe, that is what happened. R2 display your visual memory of the incident."
The droid chirped an affirmative and his holoprojector lit up, displaying a flat screen above his head with a perfect rendering of Toltas making his 'mistake'.
The zygerrian master scowled down at his unconscious comrade, then scoffed, tapping a large comlink mounted on his belt. "This is Officer Aros, 3rd Brigade. I need a medical speeder at my location, a downed slave officer."
"Confirmed, dispatching now."
"You, you," Aros pointed to two nearby slaves in the detail. "Pick him up!"
The two twi'lek in question picked up their unconscious fellow, slinging his arms across their shoulders and falling into line.
"What else can go wrong?" Aros scoffed, standing back up and brushing dust off his trousers.
"Something the matter?" Obi-Wan asked casually and I felt him using the Force in a subtle mind trick. It wasn't the full mesmerizing version, but rather just suppressed the natural reticence and filters that would usually make a person disinclined to talk or respond.
"Oh yes, something's the matter," Aros said with disgruntlement. "Slave detail, to the side of the road! Make way!" The twi'lek slave laborers quickly complied, taking advantage of the shade there, huddling together. "You potential customers?"
"We hope to be customer and seller," Anakin answered, gesturing to me and Chewie.
"Nice," Aro gave both of us an appraising look, then leering at my obvious female features that the robe gave tantalizing hints of. "To answer your question, we've had a bad run of luck around here lately. Speeders crashing, equipment malfunctions, it's causing casualties. We even lost a fuel tanker yesterday, crashed right into a guard station and… well, we lost a lot of people to that one."
I inwardly smirked as it seemed HK had been rather busy since his arrival.
"That is unfortunate," Obi-Wan said sympathetically. "Perhaps you can help us. We're looking to acquire a fair amount of labor."
"Define what you consider a fair amount."
"Eighty thousand," Anakin said bluntly.
That instantly made Aros' cat-like ears twitch and his heart began racing with an eager excitement. "That is a substantial amount. Are you thinking of a particular product?"
"Our sovereign has a number of new factories that require workers," Obi-Wan answered.
"Meaning skilled, intelligent, five fingered hands, not cheap," Aros warned.
"Cost is not an object for what our sovereign requires."
Aros reached to his belt and pressed a large orange button on his comlink, which remained lit. "I've just summoned an eye droid. For a transaction this large, you'll need to directly negotiate with Queen Scintel."
An insistent hooting drew our attention as a small speeder wanted to pass by.
Aros stepped over to his fallen partner, grabbed him under the arms and dragged him over to the side of the road.
We followed and so began a wait to see who would arrive first, the medical transport or the droid.
It turned out to be the latter, as a spherical black droid appeared flying over the nearby building and hovered down to us, approaching Aros with a casual speed. It had a large black glass eye, with a single antenna that stuck up to the side.
"Officer Aros, why have you summoned me?" asked the droid in a low pitched artificial tone.
"We have potential clients with a substantial purchase request of over eighty thousand."
The droid zipped towards Obi-Wan and Anakin, then looked down to take in R2, before focusing on me and Chewy.
"Is this true?" asked the droid insistently, coming to a stop a few inches from Obi-Wan's face.
"Of course, we have been fully authorized to make this purchase and potential sales on behalf of our sovereign."
"You would also sell? Are the wookiee and togruta examples of what you have on offer?"
"Correct."
The droid zipped to Anakin. "And just who is your sovereign?"
He shook his head, "We are not at liberty to name him out in the open street, through a transmission that could be channeled anywhere." He reached to his belt and pulled out a large pentagonal credit chit, tapped its side and showed it to the droid. It was the closest the Corusca galaxy had to an eWallet, as these chits could be loaded with credits using the proprietary IGBC programming. They were also only given to certain select customers and it essentially proved that Anakin was a trusted 'high roller'. There were a quarter of a million credits in the palm of his hand at the moment.
It was just a fraction of what we had come with on this mission, but was enough to prove our bona fides.
The droid turned to face Aros, "Officer, you will wait for your backup, after which you will escort our guests to the palace. Is that understood?"
"Yes, at once," he saluted whoever was on the other end of the connection, by thumping his chest with a closed droid immediately zipped up into the air and disappeared from view.
As befitting for a monarchy with the nature of the Zygerrian Empire, the royal palace was the tallest structure in the city and no other buildings were allowed to go higher.
It was a vast, stepped pyramidal structure, the exterior of which was made of colored stone with durasteel reinforcement. It climbed 220 meters into the sky at its highest tip, easily beating the tallest Giza pyramid on old Earth.
Inside, the first room we were greeted with was a vast lobby area that was clearly made to impress with sheer wealth and opulence. Auridium plating and even solid auridium was in use liberally on most surfaces. Intricate hung tapestries so large and ancient that I could almost sense they had been worked on for decades by thousands of slaves. Tall statues depicting former zygerrian kings and queens standing in epic heroic poses, sometimes wielding a sword, whip or merely a scepter. Ancient paintings and standing holos depicting historical zygerrians scenes of battle, slave raids on other worlds. The overall interior design was aesthetically breathtaking, if you ignored the overall theme.
Beyond the lobby, we passed into an equally opulent maze of corridors, purposefully made to confuse those who didn't belong. Aros had no problems, which made sense, since you didn't want your own soldiers to get lost navigating the palace if he had to protect it and the zygerrian sovereign.
"Make sure your droid takes no scans, we will know, it will be destroyed and your freedom forfeit," he had warned us.
Another eminent safety precaution.
It was not the only one, as on many occasions during our walk through the palace, we encountered cunningly hidden scanners built right into the walls or various potted plants. Visual sensors were emplaced everywhere, in addition to motion sensors and recessed turret emplacements from the ceiling. It was an infiltrator's nightmare. Aros was also wearing an IFF on his belt that was interfacing with the palace's systems. It was probably the only reason we hadn't been sprayed with blaster fire.
We passed many zygerrians of varied importance, judging by uniform, dress and the general emotional smugness that radiated from them. It was rare to see one that didn't have a slave in tow, who mostly carried things for the official in question. These were mostly human, with the occasional twi'lek and rodian.
Finally, after what felt like forever, we paused outside a large set of heavy relief inscribed doors, with two armed zygerrian guards standing on either side.
"This is where I leave you," Aros said with a frown. "You are about to enter into the presence of Her Majesty, Queen Scintel of Zygerria. You will leave your weapons with the guards. Your every move is being watched in there. If you so much as twitch in a way that might seem threatening to the queen, you will die instantly. In the same way, the queen may kill you with but a word."
"We understand," Obi-Wan said reasonably.
The doors opened with a ponderous groan as both men handed over their blasters.
Anakin led the way inside and we got our first look at a large room which was both an opulent throne room and office for the queen.
She stood facing the massive floor to ceiling transparisteel windows that gave the best view in the palace; the city beyond was draped like a carpet towards the horizon and I could see that the buildings all formed a combined artwork towards this one window of the palace. It depicted a rather mesmerizing pattern that I had to pull my senses away from.
Scintel turned around at our approach and my eyes were drawn to the fact that she had a kirosian bird on her shoulder and was lazily feeding it seeds.
"Ah, welcome guests to Zygerria," she said grandly, walking towards a curved throne that sat at the apex of a small set of stairs. "To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking?"
She was the picture of nobility and beauty in equal parts to zygerrian taste; pointed chin and high cheeks, tan skin with minimal makeup to emphasize the natural color of her red-brown hair. Her golden eyes sparked with intelligence and she was assessing all of us intensely whilst not outwardly appearing to do so. She wore an elegant long dress of green and gold that showed off a tall female figure.
"I am Lun Vestret, your highness," Obi-Wan bowed and we all followed suit. "My colleague, Alad Rutirr. We represent the House of Iballa on Orvax IV."
"Fascinating," Scintel said with clear interest. "Our southern galactic competitors in the slave trade."
"Just so. Sovereign Iballa has sent us with an offer of purchase as we said and wishes to establish trade relations, now that you've resumed your operations in the north."
She idly scratched her chin, her eyes zeroed in on Anakin and clearly liked what she was seeing, even though the mask of the headdress was partially hiding his face.
"And how do I know you speak the truth? You carry a lot of wealth on you, but so can many in this galaxy."
"I'm carrying something in my belt pouch that will confirm it, highness," Anakin said easily. "So if the snipers in the walls will not shoot me, that'll be appreciated."
She nodded and gestured regally with a hand signal.
Anakin pulled out a large signet ring of the House of Iballa. It was actually the real thing, shipped over by Republic Intelligence and stolen from Orvax IV in an operation that took place shortly after the beginning of the war that even Obi-Wan didn't have the clearance to unlock. Why RI had targeted Orvax in the earliest days of its existence was a question that I was still tumbling around in my head.
Scintel flicked her fingers and a door to the side opened, revealing a female twi'lek slave dressed in a figure hugging blue outfit, who hurried forward to take the ring and bring it up the stairs to her master.
The slave pulled out a scanner, waving it over the ring, before holding it out to the queen.
Scintel carefully regarded the ring before she gestured to the slave to hold out the handheld scanner so she could see the results.
"Very well," she nodded in satisfaction, handing the ring back.
The twi'lek was shooed away before she hurried down and returned the signet to Anakin.
Scintel stood from her throne and began to leisurely walk towards our party, her eyes now turning to the 'slaves'.
"The wookiee is an impressive specimen," she commented as she walked around Chewie. "How well trained is he?"
"He has a full technical acumen, highness. He's well behaved but the shock collar is still needed for insurance," Anakin smirked.
"And I can't help but notice the togruta, may I?"
"We're in your throne room, highness."
Scintel didn't hesitate to grab my robe and practically tear it off me.
I bore the reveal of my form with an outward mask of pleasure and seduction, immediately adopting a pose that emphasized my bust, calves and hips.
"I see the House of Iballa's reputation has not deteriorated. She is magnificent."
Scintel trailed a finger down my arm, before her hand grabbed my right thigh. "Trained, strong, a dancer?"
"She can," confirmed Anakin. "Her talents are also in the exotic and esoteric."
I almost giggled at how open ended that statement was, letting Scintel form her own conclusions within the framework he gave.
"Well, I think we can do business after all, Rutirr of the House of Iballa. Let's negotiate."
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