Chapter 109
It didn't take long for Anakin to determine that he was speaking to someone who was both very intelligent and dangerous.
The Meese Caulf language by its very nature was designed to minimize any potential for misunderstanding, which would naturally be bad for business. You didn't want your future business partner drawing a blaster because you accidentally insulted his family line or any other manner of personal offense or slight. It unfortunately meant that Meese Caulf was a bit dry and lacked many colorful metaphors that most organic languages picked up over the eons. It had only a few curse words in its vocabulary, mostly to allow some form of emotional release for the speaker, but it was generally accepted that you really shouldn't use them at all in a trade negotiation.
Commander Mitth'raw'nuruodo's Meese Caulf was utterly perfect.
There was no stumbling with words, no pauses for thought mid-sentence. His tone was level and had just enough feeling in them for the purpose of conveying that it was not a droid speaking.
It was his other senses and the way Ahsoka was carefully controlling her masks and emotions that further illustrated just how dangerous this alien was. He had to clamp down on his own frustration at her being rather tight-lipped about what her Prescience had shown about this Mitth'raw'nuruodo.
"It's an honor to make your acquaintance, General Skywalker," said the chiss commander. "As this is the first formal contact between our species, I've prepared a data set for transmission that you can read at your leisure and send to your superiors."
"I trust there are no malicious programs within this data set?" Anakin asked with as much politeness as he could inject.
"None, general. It's benign information about my people, the Chiss Ascendancy, everything you need to know about us."
He was very tempted at this moment to project his sight straight in the Chiss scout ship but resisted. Both prudence and a strong insight from the Force was advising against that, so he contented himself with just a general sense of whether he was being lied to or not. In this case, Mitth'raw'nuruodo was telling the truth.
With a twirling of fingers through the holographic controls, Anakin opened a channel and isolated a partition of storage. "Very well, we're ready, you may transmit, commander."
Using the old comm standard was making things quite slow and from the amount of data, it seemed the chiss were not flying blind here. The data set was meticulously crafted and designed for its purpose.
"Are you receiving?"
"It's coming through, commander," Anakin confirmed. "In the meantime, let's speak of your more immediate purpose here."
There was a slight pause on the other end and Anakin felt the first clear emotion from Mitth'raw'nuruodo - a pleasantly surprised satisfaction. "You deduce correctly, general. If formal relations were the only objective, the Ascendancy would've used a very different ship to greet you."
"I'd imagine so, the militarized scout and only two representatives say that you want to keep this contact quiet, not only from your own people but your enemies as well."
"Again, correct, general. I'm here on a multi-faceted mission, the primary goal of which is recruiting allies against an expansionist enemy that not only designs on conquering Chiss space, but also intends to go beyond the Galactic Wall. The first target naturally being the very planet below us, which I understand belongs to the Republic."
Anakin just felt a frustrated annoyance sink into his stomach, Sithspit.
"Next, we wish for knowledge of the war that has engulfed the majority of the galaxy, the so-called 'Clone Wars' and a generalized overview of the eastern regions."
"Those are conversations that will take a long time, commander. Time I unfortunately do not readily have available as I'm on my own urgent mission. I will ask, do you know if this enemy of yours intends to invade Republic space within the next two weeks?"
Mitth'raw'nuruodo again paused, but he sensed it was more that he was consulting the chiss next to him for something. "That is very unlikely, General Skywalker. Our enemy, the Nikardun, would have to conquer a sizable portion of chiss space before the way through the Wall would be open to them. As of the latest reports, they have yet to encroach on our borders. Yet our strategists predict that invasion is inevitable within the next three months. The Nikardun Destiny fully believe it's their right to conquer and rule over what we call the 'Chaos' or you would call the Western Galaxy."
There was so much to unravel and consider from those words that Anakin was sure he could spend weeks and not even come close. He also had the sinking feeling that this entire conversation was going to be dissected and scrutinized by entire departments of Republic Intelligence and even future generations of historians.
No pressure, Skywalker, he thought sarcastically.
"You know we just can't take your word on that, commander."
"Yes, which is why the data set I'm sending you also has a generalized briefing on the political situation in the Chaos, including who the chiss are allied with and who the Nikardun have subjugated and conquered. Naturally, you can conclude that it's faked or embellished. In time, the Ascendancy would be amenable to escorting your own scouts to confirm the reports."
The computer chimed. "File transfer complete."
"Confirmed. General, in the interest of promoting trust and I suspect related to your presence. I also now offer something I believe would be of interest to you."
More data was streamed, but this time it was uncompressed and in an old holo format. The computer easily transposed it to modern standards with minimal issue.
It was two images and a communication file.
The first was a very detailed sensor image of a Nomad 4 class civilian courier ship. They were a near artistic blend of saucer shape that blended into a narrowed delta prow towards the fore section. They could move at a blistering pace for a civilian ship and were generally used to ferry information too sensitive to entrust to the Holonet or people who had to get somewhere in a hurry. The ship itself was named the Possibility according to its transponder.
Ahsoka was already hard busy with researching, digging into the Holonet and soon found that ship was registered to a Jaille Kelt from Naboo whose ID holo was a perfect match for Duja.
Great so we found one of her aliases.
The second image was an exact match for Padme's yacht - caught at a more distant angle as it was descending down to Batuu.
The communication was a rather short conversation, presumably cut for brevity between Duja and Mitth'raw'nuruodo.
Duja, also in Meese Caulf, asked whether the chiss had seen any Nubian starships landing. He naturally had no firm idea of what a Nubian starship looked like and so she sent him an image. Mitth'raw'nuruodo visibly took the time to search his ship's records and replied in the negative. She rather rudely cut the comlink and blasted toward the planet's surface.
First contact with a new species and she cuts them off, Ahsoka thought incredulously.
Anakin sat back in his chair and asked the chiss the first pertinent question, "Why would you think this is important to me?"
"I am an attentive observer, general. I wouldn't be a good scout otherwise. I'm also a student of a variety of arts - I look at all three of your ships and while there may be some differences in the details, they all speak the same language to me. Kelt arrived first, seeking the Nubian ship, which only arrived nearly eight days later. Now nine days later, you arrive. It's clear to me you are all part of a pattern, seeking the same thing."
Ahsoka smiled ruefully, shaking her head and staring into the ceiling of the cockpit.
Anakin's mind was racing, if the chiss had truly been observing Batuu for that long, then it was clear that he'd also have data on all the ships coming and going.
He might know where Padme had flown off to in Duja's ship.
"All right, Commander, I think we have the beginning of a deal. Knowledge for knowledge. We'll tell you about the war, you give me the data on where Kelt's ship went."
"I'd like to add our assistance to that bargain. Whatever overall mission you are all here for, it's not difficult to surmise it relates to the Clone War. I'm sure you could use an extra weapon at your side."
Anakin frowned, "You would fight alongside us if it came down to it?"
"If it would foster trust to reach my objective, yes, I would, General Skywalker."
Anakin gave Ahsoka a questioning look.
She folded her arms and gave a quick nod.
"Very well. I'm sending you coordinates. Are you biologically cleared to land on Batuu?"
"We will be wearing isolation suits, general."
"Good, I'd hate for a cross-species disease on Batuu to mark first contact. See you groundside."
They deorbited in a least time course directly towards Black Spire Outpost.
Problems began immediately when the plasma of atmospheric entry subsided and Ahsoka's holopanels beeped a warning.
"Eight lifesigns detected around Padme's ship, along with five speeder bikes," she reported.
"Sithspit, ship must've been standing there for too long."
"It's actually 30 clicks outside Black Spire, in a forested landing site. It's not on any approved landing zones for space traffic."
Anakin slapped his own leg in annoyance, "And of course she used a smuggler landing site."
"Think they can get inside?"
"Ordinarily, no, but there's no telling what tools they have." He enabled the ship's PA, "Chewie, R2, get up here and take over. Ahsoka and I need to go for a skydive."
It didn't take but a few moments for the wookiee to storm into the cockpit and switch seats with Anakin. Ahsoka secured her station, grabbed her Mando helmet and began the process of putting it on, which she'd perfected to take a few seconds at this point, using the Force to get her lekku arranged and sleeved properly.
He donned his own armor's helmet, which hissed as a seal was established and the HUD blossomed in front of his eyes.
R2 rolled into the cockpit and both Jedi hurried out, sliding down the small ladder to the troop deck.
Ahsoka took the lead in working the controls near the front of the deck for their deployment. One of the inherent design features of the Kom'rk was to make it easy for Mandalorians to jump out right into battle with their flight packs. Keeping the ship airborne and available to provide ground fire support.
"All right, sealing off and equalizing pressures…"
The air in the deck suddenly turned misty for a moment and a hiss of shifting air was heard.
"Shields up and opening."
The floor ahead of his feet shifted and split open, revealing only darkness beyond, before the ventral hull doors opened.
Natural light and wind streamed into the deck.
The Omen was now hurtling towards the parked Nubian ship in a near dive and it took a further fifty seconds for it to reach a six kilometer altitude.
Ahsoka gave him a nod before stepping out over the void and letting the planet's gravity claim her.
He followed suit, making sure to keep his arms locked around his body.
The interior of the ship lurched and accelerated away above his head as he fell away from it.
He only saw the angular, ventral gray hull for a moment, before he lost sight of it and the vast open forested terrain loomed in every direction below.
With shifts of his arms, he quickly changed orientation to a head first dive before triggering his armor's flight systems.
"43 seconds to target." Ahsoka announced over comlink.
The HUD helpfully scanned and brought up the position of the Nubian ship, to the south-east of Black Spire Outpost. It was a small city in the distance, a dense cluster of gray and black buildings that speared into the sky.
At two kilometers altitude, details became clearer and with twitches of fingers, movement of his eyes and the minor amounts of technometry that he had mastered; an overview of the landing zone unfurled in his HUD.
'Snips, you take the north side of the clearing, the bunch clustered around the ship's fore, I'll take the rest at the starboard side,' he thought through the bond.
'Got it. No scan emissions from them so far, their emotions are nice and stable, if frustrated.'
'No one on overwatch then.'
The clearing was now looming in view, he reached out to the Force and dumped nearly half his velocity in one stroke. In a final maneuver he switched his body to fall feet first, before triggering full thrust on his armor's boot jets.
He snagged the remaining kinetic energy of his fall, pulling it in before radiating it outward into a Force Push as he touched down on the ground a mere two meters from the grouping of smugglers.
The surprise was total and all three were sent flying, lifted off their feet and tumbling through the air.
One smuggler clipped his arm on the forward landing strut of the yacht. The human's scream of pain echoed across the small clearing, whilst his fellows fell and tumbled, losing their tools and a couple of blasters. They rather painfully hit the trees, getting winded, dazed and breaking bones in the process.
Ahsoka's solution was more conventional, releasing a non-lethal Whistling Bird munition just before she landed.
It took out the three humans immediately, releasing calibrated stun energy that sent them dropping the clearing floor, but the last smuggler, a rodian, was spared the assault when a smart munition failed and bounced off his chest.
He had an impressive draw speed, managing to get off one shot against her.
The Darksaber burst into life with a crystalline hiss and the bolt was deflected harmlessly into the air.
The Force twisted as the rodian was disarmed with a Pull, then lifted off his feet with a theatrical gesture from her.
He also felt her attempt to use a Force Sleep, but something about the rodian's physiology wasn't letting it happen.
She solved the problem by a quick draw from the holster on her right thigh, sending a stun blast from her WESTAR blaster pistol to knock the smuggler out.
Anakin surveyed each smuggler and only had to Force Sleep two of them, the rest were completely unconscious and probably needed to see a med tech soon, but none of them were critically injured. In reflection, he probably could've done things different, but the idea of this bunch stealing his wife's yacht was somewhat infuriating.
The strange thumping whine of alien engines reached them and the chiss scout ship slid into view overhead before hovering to a stop for a smooth landing on remarkably thin landing struts.
He sensed that Ahsoka was staring hard at the ship as she idly extinguished the Darksaber and clipped it to her belt.
'There's a Force Sensitive on board,' she thought.
Anakin was somewhat surprised at the announcement. He carefully turned his senses towards the chiss ship. It was very subtle and it was almost as if the Force sensitive was hiding… herself, but after a moment, he realized it was just because of the minimal impact she was having on the Force.
The ship's embarkation ramp lowered from the central hull and two humanoids emerged.
Both were wearing a dark green uniform, with armored pads over their shoulders, elbows and knees. Shin length synth boots that seemed designed for rough terrain covered their feet and both were armed with pistol pattern weapons that seemed to adhere directly to their hips with no need for a holster. Their heads were covered with a helmet that only partially covered the back of the neck with solid armoring, before becoming a transparisteel equivalent that almost perfectly conformed to the wearer head shape.
One was significantly taller and well built, easily topping 1.9 meters, whilst his female fellow soldier was significantly shorter.
They approached with a calm, confident assurance, evaluating them in turn.
When they were close enough to see their faces properly, Anakin's first thought was that he was looking at pantorans. They had blue skin and the same shimmering blue-black hair, but the immediate difference became evident in the eyes.
Naturally red sclera, pink irises with a void black lens.
Their imprint on the Force was also quite different and it left Anakin feeling rather unsettled or perhaps it was just these two specifically.
The chiss came to a polite stop two meters away before the familiar voice of Mitth'raw'nuruodo came from the male, filtered through a tiny external speaker. "Greetings General Skywalker." He thumped a right fist lightly on his chest before the same hand opened and he presented his palm towards them.
"Greetings Mitth'raw'nuruodo," he replied and immediately picked up on the extreme amusement from the female in response to the name. She kept her body language mostly neutral, but a twitch of her light red lips betrayed her mood outwardly.
Mitth'raw'nuruodo folded his hands behind his back and gave his female colleague a sideways look of remonstration. "I apologize for Sky-walker Che'ri. She finds your mispronunciation of my name amusing."
Now the Meese Caulf language was running straight into the problems it could not solve, jargon and seemingly a specialized name for a rank that literally translated to someone whose job was to walk in the sky.
Anakin shook off his family name somehow being used in such a fashion, before asking the pertinent question, "How am I mispronouncing it?"
"Less emphasis on the first part, more on the center, and a rising intonation near the end."
Anakin tried and immediately felt his tongue stumbling over it. He quickly buried his own astonishment that he was struggling with it and tried again, only for his mind to slam on the repulsor brakes.
Mitth'raw'nuruodo raised a hand to halt his next try. "General, in the interest of time, you can simply call me Thrawn."
He felt Che'ri's brief astonishment before she cleared her throat and settled herself.
It was clear that there was cultural baggage or significance to 'Thrawn' offering the use of his core name like this, but Anakin decided to file it for the linguists and cultural experts.
"To clear up another potential misunderstanding, because of the limitation of this language, Sky-walker is indeed a rank in our military. It refers to someone capable of high levels of hyperspace navigation."
So Che'ri was essentially the chiss version of a Jedi Navigator. That went some way to explain her signature in the Force - if that was all she was trained to do or capable of.
"I see. Thank you for the explanation."
Thrawn now surveyed the clearing and was clearly impressed with what he saw. "You dealt with the scavengers efficiently."
"This is a smuggler's illegal landing zone. My actual purpose here is to track down a Republic ambassador that went missing. This is her ship, she would know this is a smuggler landing site, yet she chose to land here anyway."
Thrawn took that in thoughtfully, "She wanted to leave no possible record of her presence by landing in a spaceport. Is your ambassador also a spy?"
"Not professionally, but her training could qualify her easily." Anakin realized Thrawn's open implication that he somehow knew that Duja was a spy as well.
Ahsoka took the moment to talk to Chewie who was still orbiting nearly five hundred meters above the clearing. "We're all right down here, Chewie. Not enough space for you to also land so just bring her to a hover nearby." She walked towards the ventral belly of the yacht and placed her hands directly on the smooth chromium plated hull near the entrance.
Che'ri looked with thinly disguised curiosity as she felt Ahsoka's use of technometry.
'Skyguy, the ship has scanned me. Padme has keyed us for access, but it still requires a passphrase.'
'Try the passphrase, 'Luviad Rhilt Varykino' and whisper it please.'
Just saying those words brought warmth to his heart. As the memory of his secret, very simple marriage ceremony at Varykino Villa before Clergy Rhilt played out in his mind behind every mental defense he could construct.
The H-Type Nubian yacht abruptly showed signs of life and the starboard embarkation door was revealed as the smooth hull opened up and lowered a short ramp.
"It seems your apprentice was successful," Thrawn commented, watching Ahsoka walk into the ship. "Shall we commence with our transaction?"
Anakin gathered his thoughts. He was going to have to approach this from the perspective of firmly believing in the grand deception that Palpatine was weaving for everyone. The chiss represented the first species that had actually reached out from the Unknown Regions - that he knew of, at least. It was historic, to put it mildly and the chancellor of the Republic would not waste one moment to take every advantage he could, both politically and for his eventual New Order.
He also now began to understand why Ahsoka was so reluctant to reveal anything about her Prescient vision regarding the entire situation. If the Chiss Ascendancy was a major power of the Unknown Regions, their weight brought into the equation of the Clone Wars for either side could be a game changer.
"The galaxy has become divided. On one side, the Republic, the government that has stood for a thousand years in its current form and whom I represent and fight for. On the other, an alliance of separatist worlds and business interests that has formed the Confederation of Independent Systems…"
The consoles in the luxurious cockpit of the yacht came to life under my hands and I quickly brought the ship's main computer interface to the forefront in a holo screen.
I began a search but most of my mind was occupied exploring the future probability lines that stretched out in front of me.
Frakking Thrawn!
The chiss who would become a perpetual thorn in the side of the Rebellion and the New Republic, who would almost succeed in bringing the latter to its knees. Someone with the most dangerous weapon in the galaxy - an unparalleled genius mind for strategic and tactical thinking. Who would go on to infiltrate the future Empire on behalf of the Chiss Ascendancy, but was then further molded by Imperial training and doctrine.
Now he was here, in his mid-thirties, with a meteoric career and a Senior Captain in the Chiss Expansionary Defense Force. He had downplayed his rank on purpose.
How easy it would be to just…
I took a deep breath… no Ahsoka.
My vision and plans could not afford to look just thirty years down the road, I had to be thinking in terms of centuries. Events beyond my own biological lifetime.
Thrawn was a perilous danger, yet represented an equally powerful opportunity.
I wanted him.
I wanted to harness that genius towards my cause somehow.
The computer chirped that it had completed my instructions, pulling me firmly back to the present. I now had Padme's flight log and a number of personal ship diary entries she had made. It was at least good that she had foresight to make them, given the potential danger she was flying herself into.
I played this first file and she was looking as beautiful as ever, hair tied back into a singular bun, wearing a figure hugging light brown bodysuit with a purple-pink sleeveless utility jacket over it. I could just barely spot a belt with her Naboo pattern blaster holstered on her hip.
She stared into the visual sensor with a look that I never wanted to see in her hazel brown eyes - one of sorrow. She wiped away fresh tears from under her eyes and brought up a tissue to blow her nose. Only Padme could make such an action look elegant, despite its disgusting nature.
"I'm too late. Duja is…" she swallowed heavily. "Duja is dead, murdered. The local constabulary said it was a speeder bike accident but I know better. Given what I know now, it's certainly local corruption at work."
She took a deep breath in through her nose and blew out from her mouth, employing some of the control techniques I had taught her.
"Thankfully, they didn't think to scan her thoroughly. I was able to use her brooch to remotely summon and access her ship, the Possibility. She'd planned for the possibility of her own death, keyed me for complete access so I was even able to read her RNSF mission file. Duja…" Padme smiled fondly, her eyes deep in memory. "... ever my loyal spy."
She visibly composed herself and wiped her eyes with frustration. "It is now up to me to finish what she started. It is something I must do. Her sacrifice must not be in vain. Oh, I can already imagine the faces of those close to me and their arguments to try and stop me. My heart will allow nothing else."
The vid file ended at that point.
I stopped myself from slamming my fists against the consoles. "Really, Padme, just…" I cast off my frustration and played the next file.
"...finished preparations. Transferring most of my provisions and critical luggage to the Possibility and parking the Tustan in a nearby clearing that's definitely being used by smugglers. It's the best option for the ship to remain out of sight and not impounded by the corrupt authorities. Smugglers will at least keep the Tustan in one piece to sell her off due to her inherent value. If it comes down to it, I'll just buy it back from them."
Padme looked down and in her hand was an elegant oval brooch, with a ruby colored gem set into it.
"You'd think they would steal this from her body, but from the weight it's easy to tell it's completely fake, which is precisely what she counted on."
She stared into the visual sensor with an intensity and determination that I could feel like a punch to my stomach.
"I'm ready. I leave for Mokivj after I do a final check on the Possibility's engines. When I get there I had no idea how I'm going to finish what Duja started. The only plan I have now is to improvise, find and recruit some locals for my cause. There must be some who don't like the idea of a war droid factory pumping out weapons for use by the Separatists. I don't have to be a military commander to know that would be catastrophic for the southern battlespaces."
Frak, of course it wouldn't.
If the CIS managed to keep it hidden for long, they could pull off dozens of war droid infiltration attacks all over the southern galaxy via shipping. It was impossible for RI to have eyes everywhere and the one place no one was looking was right here on the borders of the Unknown Regions.
Seed them strategically behind the front lines, near major shipping hyperlanes and you could create chaos for Republic logistics and military response. There'd be too many fires to put out.
A quick consultation of the local hyperspace map told me there was an eighteen hour trip ahead of us to reach our new destination.
My hand was already inserting a data chit to download the rest of the data, after which a quick deletion removed those files from the ship.
Padme had purposefully yet subtly left us a trail of breadcrumbs, one which only we could follow. The encryption on the files left no room for any slicing. If anyone other than Anakin, R2 or myself had tried to access them, the files would've been deleted immediately. I marveled somewhat at her precautions and it clearly spoke of someone who was taking their role in the Fulcrum conspiracy seriously.
With a few taps on the console, I locked the system down with my own passcode on top of Padme's, shut everything down and hurried back outside.
Anakin and Thrawn were deep in a serious discussion about the whole Republic vs. CIS dynamic. The chiss senior captain asking quite a few probing questions for clarification.
M8 was keeping a running translation going in my HUD.
I really needed to learn a trade language as well, perhaps using the time on the way back to Coruscant.
My attention was drawn though to Che'ri, who was listening with rapt attention to the discussion of her superior officer.
My senses carefully fell around her like the softest mist, trying to be as subtle as possible.
It didn't seem to matter, because she picked up on me. Her emotions became amused, even playful and she even had to fight down a giggle. Her painfully cute eyes flicked to me briefly.
She was young, roughly 14 years old.
Now I was the last person who had the right to throw stones about being in a military uniform at that age, but mentally she hardly seemed to fit the mold of having undergone that kind of training at all. She was a sky-walker, a hyperspace navigator, who could find the path between stars among the chaotic Unknown Regions. Did they have to be young for some reason?
Jedi Navigators started their specific training during the Academy at nine years old in most cases, though I had heard of some of them starting at thirteen.
'Got anything, Snips?' Anakin asked as I came to a stop next to him.
'Duja found an operational CIS droid factory secretly operating within the sector. More than likely a refurbished local facility. She paid with her own life to gain this intel. Padme is already there. Mokivj. 18 hour trip from here.'
His jaw muscles twitched as a slight bit of emotion managed to leak through his outward control.
'Any indication of local security? Are there CIS droids active?'
'We have to assume the worst, Anakin.'
We were having the discussion even as he and Thrawn were talking about the current outlook for the war resolving in either direction.
Anakin held up a hand to halt the discussion and both of us had essentially a repeat of the conversation in Basic to keep up appearances. He then repeated the pertinent information to Thrawn in Meese Caulf.
'Mistress, I could speak Meese Caulf on your behalf,' M8 offered.
"That would make things easier, M8," I subvocalized. "But I want to keep you under wraps on this occasion. Thrawn is a deadly, potential adversary and keeping the language barrier between us can only work to my advantage at the moment."
"Understood, mistress, I'll switch to text only mode in your HUD."
"Good girl."
That conversation continued for a few minutes as Thrawn offered his personal assistance in our new mission to neutralize the factory.
"What do you think, Ahsoka?" Anakin asked aloud in Basic.
"We're going to be outnumbered as usual, I won't say no to another blaster at my side, master."
He nodded to Thrawn.
The senior captain turned to Che'ri and they both had a quick conversation in what had to be the native chiss language. The young navigator was not happy about it, but accepted it with the chiss version of a salute. Turning around and heading off towards the scout ship.
"Where's she going?"
"She's taking off so we can land the Omen. We could probably carry Thrawn up between us," Anakin jerked a thumb in the direction of the hovering Kom'rk. "But he preferred this way. He was rather impressed at the idea of an armor for soldiers that could fly as ours do."
"I bet he was," I muttered. Republic Jump Troopers were excellent shock troops, making most terrain obstacles irrelevant and what some of my Mandalorian Blades could do with jetpacks was crazy considering they didn't have the Force to call on. It was just sheer skill, experience and training done in a large indoor anti-grav facility on Concordia. Most traditionally raised Mando children got their first taste of jetpack flight when they were tall enough for the pack to fit on their backs.
I corralled my wandering thoughts as Anakin got on the comlink with Chewie to land the Omen in the newly vacated space.
The chiss scout ship hovered up, angled itself upward and blasted away out of sight.
"By the way," Anakin's mouth twitched with humor. "It seems Thrawn thought we were Sith."
My brain screeched to a halt as I considered that thought. "Uh, what?"
"Old Chiss mythos on our respective orders, that was distorted over many thousands of years of retelling. At this point the Sith are portrayed as capable and clever warriors with armor, usually with more than one lightsaber. Whilst the Jedi act illogically, even foolishly to the detriment of their own cause whilst espousing their beliefs as superior to the Sith."
I couldn't help but laugh, even though I knew quite a few Jedi who fit that mold in the current era. "I hope you set the record straight?"
"Yes I did, he appreciated being corrected."
"Oh, now I want to be in the room at the Council of First Knowledge when they get their hands on those Chiss myths… with a holocam."
"You and me both."
With hands folded behind his back, Mitth'raw'nuruodo entered the Republic ship and was careful to keep his eyes forward and disinterested at his surroundings, even as he took in every detail he could about the vessel's interior.
Already he was seeing a multitude of different approaches to solve problems that the engineers of the Chiss Ascendancy had never considered. The most glaringly obvious one was the combined use of physical interfaces and holographic. He watched as the young female apprentice of General Skywalker closed and sealed the ship's embarkation ramp - her hand touching the interface holographs in a specific pattern, the ship's computer obviously tracked with fine precision where her fingers were going, to determine what the intended command interface was.
Already he felt the ship's subtle rumbling under his feet and the harmonic sounds of many systems working together. The alien engines had a more constant, higher tone to his ears than any he had ever heard among the species of the Chaos.
The general's apprentice now approached him and he allowed himself to critically examine her properly. His first immediate conclusion, besides her differing species and what biological differences there were, was that she had to belong to an entirely distinct culture among the Republic. A culture that had remained somewhat insular and perhaps even opposed to the Republic itself, before being either subsumed or conquered. Her armor's differing lines was the clear work of a sentient being's hands as opposed to a mass manufactured machine doing the job. It was also of a clearly different metallic material than her master's armor, including an ingenious patterning that he could tell was working as a camouflage for a city environment.
Her helmet's unique visor shape elicited a familiarity, something he had long ago read about in the ancient histories of the Jedi and Sith. It was something more than just being viscerally intimidating on a subconscious level.
She stopped a polite distance away and said in a phrase she had just learned in Meese Caulf from her master, "Greetings, Commander Thrawn. I'm Commander Ahsoka Tano. Jedi Padawan of Knight Skywalker. Follow me."
They had to awkwardly squeeze past a large cylindrical hypermatter fuel tank, something that clearly didn't belong in the middle of what was a troop compartment. It was so new that he could even see the uncovered welding joints that connected it to the greater structure of the ship through the decking.
She led the way to the far end of the deck and gestured to a seat designed for the small troop complement that the ship was designed to carry. Just from its shape and the extra accouterments around it he could see that it was designed for soldiers wearing armor like Tano's. A quick count revealed 24 such seats.
Thrawn imagined what 24 flying, armored, highly trained soldiers to Ascendancy standards could do, even with conventional arms.
He definitely enjoyed exploring the notion and took the offered seat.
Tano now projected a hologram over the vambrace of her armor, her fingers fiddling and tapping into the ethereal buttons before a screen appeared above that to give even more feedback in Republic standard language.
The floating holo screen turned around so that he could read it properly and now the written form of Meese Caulf began appearing as she typed.
A rather cumbersome but useful solution to bridge the language barrier he supposed.
"Will you be requiring any food from our stores? We have neutral proteins that according to our scans should be compatible with chiss."
A marginal concern. He could go without solid foodstuff for a full week and he had nutri-pills within his helmet, which would keep him content for the duration of this journey, until he could be reunited with his ship. His true concern was that she had admitted to a scan done on his person without his knowledge or consent. He had seen no indication or evidence of it being done. Therefore, it was completely non-invasive and invisible.
"No, commander," he purposefully shook his head side to side.
Tano fiddled with the hologram, stepped closer, and a holographic keypad appeared in front of him, showing Meese Caulf characters.
"Just to clarify that body language, it means 'no' in your culture?"
Thrawn had to take a moment, his fluency in the written form was not as great, something he resolved to correct as soon as possible. He managed to reply, "Correct, commander."
The ship shuddered under his feet and the engines changed pitch. He felt the acceleration briefly but the rest was quickly canceled out by the dampeners.
"I hope you'll indulge me with a few questions now that we have 18 hours of waiting ahead of us. Republic law requires that a certain protocol be followed when meeting new species."
Thrawn nodded with the reply, "Please go ahead."
The exchange that followed was a question and answer session that had definitely been written out in a bureaucratic committee. It was an almost sad conclusion that sentient nature bore out similarly in the Republic as it did in the Ascendancy and the other major polities of the Chaos. It seemed to be even worse for them, given the massive amount of the galaxy that fell under their sovereignty. He could see his interlocutor had very little enthusiasm for the procedure, but nevertheless, Thrawn was learning a lot from the exchange and from Tano.
Her bearing, demeanor, the way she moved, even if her large helmet hid her facial expressions, he was painting a picture in his mind of her.
The fact that she hadn't taken that helmet off whilst her master had done so, once inside the ship also spoke to something. There was no practical reason for it.
His own isolation equipment was working, unless she doubted their adequacy… no.
She would have objected to Skywalker uncovering himself.
That left only one likely reason… culture perhaps?
Movement caught his eye to the left and he struggled to catch his startled reaction to the massive furry alien that climbed down the ladder from the upper deck. It was over eight sha tall, also wore fitted armor similar to Skywalker's and looked physically strong enough to rip a chiss in half. The beady black eyes radiated a cunning intelligence and the huge fanged mouth set under a black nose was incredibly intimidating. It communicated with a nuanced set of grunting, groans and other sounds he didn't have the words for.
Tano understood and responded in Basic, gesturing to Thrawn.
The fierce alien stepped closer and his mind reasserted itself over the shameful loss of control to base instincts.
"This is Technical Sergeant Chewbacca," she typed. "He's a wookiee from Kashyyyk, a system on the eastern Mid-Rim."
Thrawn gave a salute and bowed his head.
The wookiee returned a Republic style salute before speaking to Tano rapidly.
She nodded to whatever was said and the large alien hurried back to the ladder, climbing down into a lower deck this time.
"Do you have many wookiees in the Republic Army?" he couldn't help but ask.
She shook her head, "Chewbacca is the only one and he's a special case. His people are not numerous enough for them to be used in offensive operations beyond the defense of their homeworld."
Thrawn couldn't help the relief he felt. As much as it was unlikely the Ascendancy would go to war with the Republic, the idea of facing down an entire army of giant aliens with that kind of technological level behind them would be the stuff of nightmares for a number of strategic and tactical planners back home. The implication of low population numbers showed a function of biology and environment that was thankfully keeping wookiee numbers in check.
"Now for some more informal questions if you don't mind?"
Thrawn shook his head, his eyes meeting the upper horizontal portion of her visor.
"Now that you know more about the Republic, do you think your government would actually want support from us in fighting the Nikardun?"
Thrawn saw immediately what she was getting at. The Ascendancy ruled over roughly eighteen sectors of the Chaos. It was space that they guarded zealously, information about those locations was guarded and blood was spilled to keep it that way. It was most curious that she had somehow inferred or deduced the inherent reluctance of Ascendancy for any external support from other powers.
He stared, trying to imagine the face and eyes behind that visor, the mind that was in there and with a flash of insight he realized that as he had been painting a picture of her, she had done the same to him.
He almost felt naked, wishing his own helmet was fully opaque.
"They would, if it got to the point of the Nikardun actually threatening our home space. I suspect your own government would only commit resources once the enemy threat has been sufficiently demonstrated. The Nikardun believe themselves to be the only species with true sentience and everyone else is just potential resources to be utilized. They see us no differently as you would look at a vein of ore sitting in a mine, for example."
Her hand moved on the holographics with a subtle extra speed that spoke of anger. "If that is indeed their belief, it is high time for them to be educated differently. How much space do they control and what is the size of their fleets?"
"They control only eight sectors, but qualitatively their worlds are richer and their conquest is expanding with every standard month. We are not completely sure we've seen their full strength, but we know of four major fleets, each centered around a Battle Dreadnought with sixty to eighty ships of various classes in support."
Tano was silent for a few moments as she digested the information. Her lack of reaction to what should've been an overwhelming enemy force in most situations told him she didn't truly consider it as such.
She nodded, "We are clearly going to need to get some clarification on our respective warship classification methods. Which we won't get until we get some conversion of our respective matter measurement systems."
It took some work, but with the amazingly versatile hologram projector for demonstration purposes and advanced internal computer system of Tano's armor, a conversion equation was written.
With that done, she showed him what the Republic considered a dreadnought.
Thrawn again struggled to contain his outward reaction.
She has to be exaggerating, he thought incredulously.
He was looking at what should be a space station of over 27 000 sha, yet it was shaped in the pointed arrowform the Republic seemed to favor in their ships. It had engines that were absolutely stupendous in size arrayed on the rear flanks. His mind tried to imagine how many capital lasers you could fit on that amount of hull space and the number he arrived at dwarfed the amount his species had probably constructed within the last century.
Thankfully, his mind also informed him on the impossible problem such a ship would face in the Chaos. It would be equally slow and finding a safe path through hyperspace for such a monstrosity would challenge even the most legendary sky-walkers the Ascendancy had ever trained in the past. He struggled to imagine anyone capable of it today.
"You are not getting that ship through what you call the Galactic Barrier," Thrawn said.
"You're correct, the combatant we'd most likely send would be this."
She now showed another ship, much smaller, but it was still just under 4000 sha in length and was 600 sha larger than a Nikardun Battle Dreadnought and 1000 larger than the Chiss equivalent. It was much more feasible to use within the Chaos but he could see many sky-walkers balk at the notion of guiding such a vessel through hyperspace.
Thrawn drank in the surface features of the Republic ship - noting the eight emplacements for capital weaponry, numerous smaller ones, the curious ridge along the ventral hull that ran its length all the way to the rear tower superstructure.
It truly crystalized in his mind how different ship building could be in what the majority of chiss would consider 'Lesser Space'. The hyperlanes could be enormous and stretch for days on end without a ship needing to drop out.
He also imagined that such a ship came standard with the energy shields he had detected around the very craft he was now inside. A technology only theoretical to the Ascendancy and fantasy to everyone else in the Chaos. Ships used superior armor and electrostatic barriers for passive defense… not so in the greater galaxy.
"That would be a more reasonable ship to use inside the Chaos," he confirmed.
Tano's hand swiped the ship holo away in a negligent fashion. How casually she used such a novel, more intuitive method for interacting with data. He could just imagine how much more simplified, quicker and efficient it would be to command a ship or even a fleet squadron with this method.
"Tell me, if the Ascendancy is so sure the Nikardun will attack, why haven't you done some preemptive clandestine operations against them? Unless you have and naturally just won't tell me."
Thrawn allowed a small smile to show on his face. "Commander, what I'm doing right now is such an operation. The Chiss Ascendancy as a rule likes our privacy and it's against our doctrine to engage in preemptive military actions."
The Syndicure would have the head of any senior defense commander that unilaterally broke the isolationism of the Ascendancy in such a flagrant manner.
The problem was that even though the Ascendancy's capital world of Csilla had already suffered an attack by three Paataatus warships, which had been duly punished in reprisal raid by Admiral Ar'alani, there was no hard evidence that it had all been done at the behest of the Nikardun. Everyone knew the Paataatus were puppets of the Nikardun Destiny, but the veil of deniability was maintained. The Destiny vehemently and officially denied any wrongdoing or that they had usurped the Paataatus.
In that manner, they played right on every chiss' desire for the rest of the Chaos to stay away.
"So our first contact is not even officially sanctioned by your government."
Thrawn nodded, "My sanction comes from my direct superior, General Ba'kif, who has recognized the long term threat of allowing the Nikardun to continue unchecked in its expansion on our neighbors."
Tano shook her head and tapped out one word with evident disgust in her body language. It was translated to, "Politics."
It seemed she was no stranger to how politics could interfere and dictate unreasonable conditions on military operations and practicalities.
She took a step back and typed out, "Thank you for indulging me. You are free to wander and stretch your legs about the troop deck and you may come up to the cockpit. Lower deck is off-limits."
Thrawn nodded. As much as it would've been nice to get the opportunity to scan this ship's shield generator. There were much easier ways to gain the technology without having to potentially ruin a potential alliance with the Republic. He had a strong suspicion the armored wookiee would object with more than just words if he snooped around down there.
He watched her leave and had the strangest feeling.
It was something he didn't have a word for.
Not attraction, nor love, nor friendship, he had just met her. Yet…
He allowed himself a deep cleansing breath and relaxed, letting his mind drift. Her presence had an intensity that weighed on you. The only time he had felt something remotely similar was in the presence of an old member of the Mitth family when he'd been a child. She was called Mitth'ewuok'rusu, a formidable female sky-walker who had been long retired but was also gifted with what the chiss called Third Sight - the ability to walk in the minds of others.
Had Tano walked in his mind?
Would he even know if that was the case? Thewuok had playfully done so to him as a child, guessing every number he thought of and even made him see illusions of his favorite animals dancing in the room.
No, his intellect could only come to the conclusion that she would only do so as a last resort. If the Jedi mythos held true.
He was going down a wrong path. The word he was seeking would not be there.
It would come by the time of their arrival, of that he was sure.
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A/N: 3.47 sha - 1 meter
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