Chapter 113
"Excuse me, General, Commander, Senator."
Dilvosh nodded at each of us in turn, downed a final glass of wine before striding out of the sitting room, to begin to set the overall plan in motion.
"What was that?" Padme asked in exasperation.
'That was Fulcrum basically gaining a planet of its own,' I thought to her.
Her thoughts became disjointed in astonishment and with a bit too much force she thought, 'Please explain. How is that supposed to stop the disastrous events you foresaw?'
'Well, we have to take the cortosis off the table, without leading the planet to disaster.'
'Fine in theory, but how does that work in practice?'
Anakin's thoughts answered, 'Mokivj becomes a neutral planet, enforced not just by its militia, which will get the cortosis armor, but by a cortosis droid army. Ahsoka and I will reprogram them to obey Dilvosh initially and whoever becomes governor after him. There'll be a number of failsafe scenarios we'll program in as well and we'll also have master keys to shut them down should a tyrannical governor take office. A low percentage possibility but one which we have to make provision for.'
'And how will you account for an assault from space?'
'The big prize is the cortosis mine. Ahsoka and I will join our strength, we'll collapse the mine safely using the Force.'
'Preventing more cortosis from being mined. The CIS is bottled up in the south, so they can't send a warship either or equipment to restart it. The Jedi wouldn't want that to change and I can see the decision being stalled in the Senate committees for months. What about other interests who don't want cortosis to enter common use? Remember, these corporations think in centuries.''
I smiled, 'Kina Ha has been asking me for something new to do. She'll head off any such covert attempts from the megacorps.'
'What of Palpatine?'
'That's the beauty of this. He has so many plots and contingencies. His foresight sees the consequences of widespread cortosis droids and armor, just as well as I do. He wanted the whole thing as a surprise in the south to shake up the tactical and strategic landscape - killing more Jedi and clones. The Jedi and GAR then naturally react to counter the threat. Eventually, he would've also destroyed the mine and this planet. Our actions have brought it all into the light faster and as a result he doesn't want the fast escalation of the war either. He wants grinding attrition, not a complete collapse of the southern fronts. That is why he'll endeavour to support this new status quo. In this way, we've also saved the lives of millions who would've died originally.'
'This world is effectively seceding then.'
I shook my head, 'They'll continue to pay their taxes, Padme, so the Senate blowhards can relax. They'll join the Council for Neutral Systems.'
'A neutral system with an army that almost no one can effectively defeat.'
'And just like that we've also greatly secured this sector against the threat that Thrawn warned us about from the Unknown Regions.'
Padme eyed me with an annoyed look, 'You still haven't gone into much detail about that. Not to mention you're both going to sit down with me so I can write a full report for the Senate about the Chiss and their enemy-'
'The Nikardun.'
'Yes, them. I also want to speak to Thrawn, officially put the Republic's best foot forward as much as can be done in the circumstances.'
'Dear, he's not a diplomat,' Anakin thought pointedly.
'I know, nevertheless, he's representative of his people. I won't drown him in legal verbiage but this needs to happen. This is history in the making.'
It wouldn't be smooth sailing though.
The captain of the Zeewneel had finally broken radio silence, relating a tale of hijackers, forcing them to take off with the Tantros. A counter-mutiny had successfully taken place in the aftermath of Chewie and Che'ri's attack on the ships.
Chewie had also docked and physically confirmed the situation, also that the Zeewneel was not carrying the cortosis droids.
The Tantros on the other hand was still just a silent floating leviathan in space, coasting on its momentum. It had long since left the mass shadow, but its engines and hyperdrive was still down and there were no indications that the crew on board were affecting any repairs.
"Life signs?" Anakin asked as the Omen approached the ship, its bulk dominating the forward view.
"272, most of which are clustered in the forward cargo module," I swiped the holoscreen to enlarge it. "There's a small cluster of eleven in the bridge, these Action IV's only need five people to operate that space."
"No one in the engineering module," Anakin frowned. "So we can assume that we're dealing with more of Solha's smugglers, only they've now taken the crew hostage."
"You'd think they'd be telling the crew to repair the ship at blaster point."
"They'd know we'd detect that and they still think that Solha has the governor in his pocket."
"The fact that the militia fighters are still surrounding them should be a big clue that things are different on that front," I chuckled.
"They'll eventually realize that. The Solha siblings are in local prison and the militia cleared out their estate of combat droids just a few hours ago. Now, I'm going to take us to the starboard docking port, see if you can gain remote access."
On thrusters, Anakin danced the Omen up and over the dorsal hull of the Tantros.
The computer blared a warning at me, "Nope, standard docking sequence has been locked down. M8, can you slice it?"
"Of course, Mistress."
He looked at the sensor readouts and poked it with a finger, "Well, that certainly stirred the mynock nest. I count… nine lifesigns heading for that docking port."
"Some from the bridge, some from the cargo pod," I nodded. "How do you want to play this, master?"
"As we always do, only this time it's your turn to be the obvious hammer, I'll be the sneaky one."
I climbed down the ladder and into the troop compartment.
What greeted me was two squads of Mokivj militia men and women, who were either going through weapon and equipment checks or just sitting back and relaxing. They weren't full time soldiers as Mokivj just didn't have the resources for it. Everyone who was of fighting age for their species could be called up at any time to serve, unless a medical condition prevented it.
My presence was soon noticed and it was interesting to see how the din started to diminish until the only sounds were that of the Omen's ambient engine noise.
There was a mix of astonishment, awe and in some edge cases even fear as I started to walk forward amongst them.
"Militia of Mokivj," I said, pushing outwards with the Force to augment my words. "You don't truly know me, I don't know you. Those of you who follow the war on the Holonet, only know me through Republic propaganda, put that out of your mind. I'm a citizen of this galaxy, I wish for peace, but know that only comes with strength and courage to defend it. I wish for freedom, but know the price of achieving it is eternal vigilance. I know you as militia who have answered the call for defending your world from the dangers of space in the far frontier. You are mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, farmers, builders, teachers… to name but a few of your professions. For some of you, this is your birth world, you are second or third generation, others are fresh colonists, but this is your home.
"Through fate and the Force, your world has been both blessed and cursed with cortosis. You've been briefed on what it is, what it can do and now you are shouldered with a new burden. To defend your world from a galaxy that would see it taken from you or would see your home burned before it can threaten their profits or be used by their enemies."
I felt the combination of anger and determination begin to spark in their hearts.
"Will you let them?!" I asked abruptly, flaring my emotions outwards so they could feel them.
Their answer came in a unified chorus, their spirits swept up.
"NO!"
"Then join me and walk through that airlock. I will lead the way and shield you as best as I can, as you take the means to defend your home. Are you ready?!"
"YES COMMANDER!"
"Again!"
"YES COMMANDER!"
"Then follow me, sons and daughters of Mokivj!"
"YEAAAHHHH!"
"On your feet! Fall in by squad!"
For being a planetary militia, they at least had their basic drills in order. It was nothing compared to the perfection of clone soldiers marching, but it was serviceable.
I led the way to the Omen's port airlock and felt the two rows of militia come to a stop behind me.
There was a slight thud through the deck as the ship made contact with the docking collar.
My hand began working on the airlock panel, opening the inner door as M8 brute forced the Tantros' airlock on the other side into operation.
I stepped forward into the Omen's airlock, with five other militia behind me, the whole line moving up.
The outer door opened, revealing the shut outer door of the Tantros. The durasteel outer hull was clearly older and definitely needed a good clean.
This door opened after a few minutes of M8 equalizing the pressure.
I reached out with the Force, snuffing out the surveillance sensors before advancing the militia column.
A light Battle Meditation fell on my troops, whilst I also began suppressing the spirits of the enemy beyond.
There were nine of them, all a mix of species and general smuggler scum that Solha had hired with his very deep pockets.
If that was all, then I could breeze through them by myself.
They were not alone and through technometry I could sense a full squad of active cortosis B2 droids waiting for us.
That we hadn't detected them conventionally wasn't a surprise; as the cortosis could disperse and shield from a blaster bolt, so could it foul an active scan pulse.
"No matter what we find beyond this door, we will defeat it!"
"HAH!"
My lightsabers burst into life in my hands and one floated above my head, everyone took that as the clear signal to remove the safety from their weapons.
With the Force, I flickered the lights of the hallway beyond, before snuffing them out, plunging our enemy into darkness.
I found the thickest sidewall panels made of durasteel and wrenched three of them into the air, before willing them to shoot forward.
Two of the closest smugglers were beheaded in the darkness with the edges of those panels.
Next they slammed into the two closest B2s, wrapping around their gun arms and torsos, before constricting, crushing and crumbling the cortosis armor.
My hand slapped in the inner door controls.
"Go!"
I let the lights return to full illumination.
Utter chaos broke out.
Blaster fire streamed in both directions.
The enemy, however, found their shots being either blocked by my cortosis B2 shields or my lightsabers.
The militia quickly got the gist of the fight, with a mental nudge through Battle Meditation. The squads hunkered right and left, using the cortosis shields as mobile cover and firing into the enemy.
The remaining smugglers died within a few seconds of this very lopsided fight, but now the problem came of the remaining B2s.
The blaster bolts from the militia just splashed off them, leaving behind just slightly glowing spots to indicate the hit.
I dropped the shields to the floor for them to hunker in a line behind me on each side of the corridor.
The front four B2's in the line, now focused their fire solely on me.
That would be challenging to keep a defense for with only lightsabers, but my focus was now free to get… creative.
I ripped off more side panelling and crashed them into the gun arms of the four B2s, their rapid fire shots spraying off target.
A Force Wave would finish it all off, but I had to be conservative and efficient with my strength.
The panels constricted, ripping the gun arms off the B2s, where they became kinetic missiles that I hammered home into the single vulnerable point of their red sensor eye in their left shoulder.
That line of droids crumpled to the floor, and just became more ammunition for me.
My cortosis projectiles blasted forward, felling another line of four before they could open fire.
I sent the final two droids catapulting into the ceiling, before smashing them down into the floor so hard that it left deep dents and their cortosis armor chassis shattered under the onslaught.
"Clear!"
My militia stood out of their cover and joined my march onward.
I took us right at the first intersection, flicking my finger and snuffing out ship surveillance sensors as we went.
The enemy shut a bulkhead door in my face, cutting off our advance to the bridge.
A gesture sent my lightsabers forward, spinning in their drill formation.
It took a bit longer, since I needed a greater diameter so my militia could fit through side by side.
The newly shaped plug got a small Force Push to send it crashing inward with an echoing, ominous clang of metal on metal.
Speaking of, though the mood of my militia was confident and buoyant, their astonishment at my supernatural feats was steadily building. These weren't psycho-conditioned clone soldiers and if I wasn't careful they were going to fall into stupefied dazes.
"On your left, next intersection, two hostiles."
Three militia surged forward, leaned around the corner and sprayed blaster fire down it.
It caught a twi'lek and devaronian mercenary flatfooted.
They both screamed as their bodies were peppered with shots that tore through the old armor chest pieces they wore.
"Double check," I ordered as we continued marching.
The three militia surged left, pumping more bolts into the heads of the mercs, before running back to rejoin our column.
It figured that Solha wouldn't just rely on his smugglers for security, since their job was mostly to run resources secretly to his factory. He also couldn't use CIS droids extensively either, due to his need for secrecy.
Another bulkhead door was thrown in our way.
Honestly, I wondered if I should stop blinding the sensors of whoever was in charge here, just so he or she could see that it was a pointless gesture.
My lightsabers cut through in six seconds and we were marching again.
Three mercs were waiting to ambush us at the next intersection and this time they threw a sonic grenade towards us.
If they were moderately competent, they'd have cooked the grenade so it exploded mid-air.
They didn't do that, so I had all the time in the world to telekinetically catch and crush it before it could go off.
"Stars! Is that a Jedi– aargh!'
All three mercs kissed the ceiling with bone breaking force before I let go, letting gravity and the three meter fall do the rest.
My militia wasn't feeling merciful, they needed no order to check and finish them off.
Our advance through the ship continued unopposed for the next few minutes and I was pleasantly surprised to stand outside the firmly shut bulkhead door of the main bridge.
Given that this was the most important space in the ship, these were armored double doors so thick that my lightsabers wouldn't ordinarily be able to pierce all the way through. It had also been reinforced with magnetic polarization fields that would even cause blaster bolts to ricochet off. You could tell that this was a ship built for a lawless frontier.
Recesses in the ceiling opened and two Repeater turrets lowered, aiming towards us.
My telekinesis grabbed both and I crushed the barrels before they could open fire.
I looked towards the surveillance sensor in the corner of the armored door.
"Open this door and surrender. You will be taken prisoner. You have five seconds to comply. If I have to force myself in there, you will regret not having taken up my offer."
I could still sense eleven people in there. Their emotions marked who was who. Despair and hopelessness from the crew hostages, a savage defiance from the person in charge, whilst his underlings were beginning to feel rebellious at the idea of taking on a Jedi. That no amount of credits was worth losing their lives.
The man in charge also had an admirable hope, determination and confidence that Duke Solha would not let this stand, that they only needed to hold out for long enough. He thoroughly believed in the CIS cause with a passion and if the mercs that surrounded him had to die to achieve it, then that was how things had to be.
"Your five seconds are up."
That was when I felt Anakin's presence and lightsaber burst into life within the supposedly sealed off bridge.
Everyone's astonishment peaked at the impossibility before he threw a Force Push that bowled over four mercs, whilst his lightsaber flew through the air to cut off the arm of the leader.
He had been holding a blaster to the captain's head.
Anakin's blade removed the legs of two mercs on the way back to his hand as he burst into a spinning kick straight out of Ataru that sent a third merc flying to collide with a bulkhead.
Those who could still get up from the Force Push, were sent into la-la land when he slammed down a Sleep onto their minds.
The bridge crew burst up from their seats and hurried to secure the enemy's weapons.
Anakin had a brief discussion with the captain before the main bridge doors demagnetized and rose upward to allow access.
"You were late," I grinned at him.
He gave me an indignant expression, "You try to cut through a half a dozen bulkheads and maintenance conduits, not to mention hacking an exterior maintenance airlock that hadn't been used in decades."
"Excuses, excuses," I smirked, then caught sight of the unconscious instigator who Solha had entrusted with delivering this cargo.
He was in his late fifties, dark black hair in an immaculate short style, thin moustache, impeccably groomed and dressed in a style that made me think of Dooku; calf length boots, dark trousers and tunic, with a half-cape over one shoulder. He was slumped on the floor against the central captain's chair, his skin pale from shock from losing a limb.
Anakin shook his head, "I'll watch over him, you need to secure the rest of the ship and the hostages."
"Militia! Turn about!" I ordered. "Some visual surveillance and coordination would be nice since the bridge is ours now."
"You'll get it, off you go, Snips."
"Yes, master."
Actually doing that turned out to be more of a painfully boring slog than anything exciting.
Eight mercs were watching over the remaining crew within an empty cargo hold. With control of the bridge, it was easy to dial down the oxygen content of the air just enough to make everyone rather sleepy, but not to dangerous levels. Two of the mercs were twi'leks and weren't as affected as the majority of humans were.
The militia breached into the hold with rebreathers sourced from the Omen's combat stores and with me in full Battle Meditation, they quickly and efficiently gunned down the mercs.
The crew cheered and rose to their feet the moment their last captor fell.
Beyond that, it was an hours long session of physically searching every hold and room within each module. Sensors couldn't detect active cortosis droids, so I had to play that part with technometry. Anakin also covered a lot of ground using the visual cams to search a lot of ship real estate, but they didn't cover everything.
It was made even worse when I sensed active B1s hiding in their storage forms in maintenance ducts and even the ventilation systems.
By the time we could pronounce the Tantros as mostly secured, it was well into late evening for my body clock, my militia and I wanted nothing more than to return to the Omen and collapse into sleep.
We had to babysit the engineering decks at this point, as repairs to the engines were given the go-ahead by the ship's captain.
Chewie was very bored and wanted to help speed things along, but I had to nix that idea. It'd be a wet day on Tatooine before I'd allow any ship of mine to have no one at the controls whilst docked to another.
I let half the militia sleep in a shift for four hours when I sensed they were truly on their last legs and of no use to anyone.
My own revitalization was done with a mediation and I had barely done two hours of this when I had no choice but to emerge.
'Frakking shabla!'
I stood in the next moment and gave the crewman who was on duty in the ship's fusion reactor control a near heart attack.
"Ahh! Wha!?" He jumped in his seat and looked at me with wide eyes, clutching his chest.
I ignored him and slapped my comlink, "Master, we have incoming."
"I sense it too, we're now getting emergence signatures at the Panatha hyper point."
A tense few seconds passed.
"An armed patrol cruiser, I think it's an old Pacifier class, modified, one squadron of fighters, Uglies, think we're looking at pirates from Rattatak."
"Do we have engines?"
"If we had another three hours, the answer would be yes. Good thing I didn't use thrusters to slow down our momentum, the pirates have 4 light seconds of distance to cover before reaching us. Snips, you stay and organize a counter-boarding defense. I'll take the Omen and join the militia fighters to intercept the enemy."
"Master-"
"I can feel your weariness, you're no good in a space fighter at the moment. I'm fresh off hours of meditation."
I gritted my teeth, "Fine."
"Relax Snips and enjoy the show."
My comlink changed channels, "All militia, report to starboard airlock."
Through the Force, I pulsed my words with a sharp intent and a telekinetic poke. It was enough to wake everyone who had been on their sleep shift.
"We have incoming Rattataki pirates who want what is not theirs. We will show them the depths of their error in coming here today."
Really should've figured the Rattataki would jump on the chance to nab two disabled freighters.
Anakin thought to himself as he and twelve militia fighters burned to intercept the incoming pirates.
The Mokivj militia used the Hammerhead fighter - it was shaped as its name implied, except some long dead Incom engineer decided to stick wings on it. For its day it was a marginally effective fighter and cheap, which was why it was snapped up by all the old colonial expeditions that went out into the deep unknown over a century ago. It had blaster cannons on the tips of the wings and either side of the wide nose.
It was rather easy in the expansive holographic cockpit of the Omen to spot the hallmarks of age, repairs and some rather ramshackle upgrades the fighters had been subjected to over the years. They had clearly seen battle and their opponents were usually these same pirates.
He switched his com frequency, "Grazer squadron, this is General Skywalker. Grazer lead?"
A gruff voice replied, "Grazer lead here, general or Grazer One if you want. I know that's how you Republic Navy lot do it."
"You've fought the Rattataki pirates before, any pearls of wisdom you can share?"
"They value their hides, general. When we show up with enough force, we can usually chase them off without a single shot fired. It's why we usually escort our freighters more than four hyper jumps until we hit the Trade Route. Of course, now that the Tantros and Zeewneel are hanging out here with their butts in the wind, they can't resist."
"And that old Pacifier?"
"Now that is a surprise. We knew they had it, but they usually keep it in the Rattatak system. Don't let its age fool you. Successive warlords have had decades to upgrade that thing. If Warlord Gerg feels confident enough to risk it, then I'm worried, general."
Chewie from the co-pilot station brought up a very detailed scan result that supported those words.
The old Pacifier usually only had two turreted turbolasers on its central hull, with two smaller cannons on the flanks to support the fighters it could launch, which was usually three squadrons of Z-28 Skywings.
This pirate modified version had added three more turbolasers and eight more anti-starfighter cannons, with a concussion missile launcher in the aft section.
It was the latter that would prove nasty in this fight.
The shields were not to modern military standards, but they would at least stop a single proton torpedo hit without any problems. The issue was getting a torpedo through all those cannons.
"Grazer One, what's your name?"
"Captain Fykent Lar, Mokivj Militia."
"Well, Captain Lar, you let me worry about that cruiser. You and your wingmen take on those Uglies."
"Roger that, General."
"It's got a concussion missile launcher so I'll take point, I want your squadron in a single file right behind me."
"You can tell that from so far away?"
"That's a roger, Grazer One."
"You heard him, Grazer squad."
The Hammerheads of Grazer squad maneuvered with reasonable efficiency and skill into the line formation. There were a few who overcorrected and wobbled about but soon they were all behind the Omen with a general thirty meter separation between each fighter.
It was not the perfection of a Republic Navy clone pilot team, but it'd do.
"Good enough, Grazer squad," Anakin complimented. "We'll enter active enemy missile range in seventy seconds. No matter what happens you keep this formation. Break and attack only when I give the order."
"Confirmed, general," Lar reported for his squad.
"Pirates aren't changing formation," Chewie said.
Anakin didn't need the Force to tell him that whoever was in charge of this pirate gang on that Pacifier was feeling confident about their odds.
The range ticked down.
"Targeting lock from the Pacifier," R2 reported.
"Hold back on the ECM until they launch."
He tapped the controls for the forward cannons, switching them to rapid fire.
"Extreme range in 3…2…1…"
Nothing.
Ten seconds later…
"Why aren't they firing?" Chewie asked in annoyance.
"Targeting spike. Nine missiles launched. ECM engaging." R2 reported with a low tone of determination.
Anakin immediately began firing thrusters, throwing the Omen into a series of jinks and maneuvers specifically designed to confuse the relatively simple seeker heads on missiles.
R2 managed to outright spoof four missiles to fly off into nowhere for long enough that their fuel loads would run dry in their attempts to correct, turning them into easily avoidable dumb projectiles.
The remainder kept on course, firing tiny thrusters to compensate and keep the Omen in their sights.
Anakin pushed his sight into the Force and saw the path.
At the extreme range of his cannons he pulled down on the triggers.
A stream of bolts sprayed forward, he both maneuvered the Omen and adjusted the cannon angles.
The result was a spray of rapid blue plasma that seemed to be completely missing at first. Right until the missiles, in their efforts to stay on target, steered themselves right into deflection fire.
Only one missile got through and R2 managed a jam on it that caused a miss at the last possible moment.
"That was close," Anakin smirked with satisfaction.
The pirate fighters burst out of their loose haphazard formation, spreading out in courses that made their intent to attack Grazer squadron from high and low angles all along their line formation.
"Break now!"
Six Hammerheads turned to port, whilst six went starboard, choosing their targets and burning into cannon range intercepts.
"R2, I've detected no general scans from that Pacifier, can you confirm?"
"They're only keeping a missile lock. I'm also seeing no missiles being reloaded into that launcher."
"I doubt they've got a feeder system from within the hull to the launcher, look," Chewie threw up a holoscreen that showed a detailed scan of the Pacifier's concussion launcher.
Anakin smirked, "They have to go EVA to reload."
He hit the over throttle and angled for a course under the enemy cruiser's port bow.
The Pacifier immediately tried to maneuver, to keep all its guns bearing on the Omen. It was technically a patrol cruiser at just over three hundred meters in length and was nimble for its size for ships in its weight class, but it had no hope of keeping up.
"R2, prepare two torpedoes, but keep it to passive targeting."
Anakin jinked and dove as cannon range was reached.
Light turbolaser blasts streamed past the Omen's starboard flank.
He brought forward cannons to bear and started peppering the ventral shields of the Pacifier.
The shields flared into visibility as they shrugged off the hits, but it nevertheless cost power and integrity. These shields were black market, but not military and the computer calculated some sectors already going into two-thirds yellow status.
Now that he was in the ventral quadrant of the Pacifier's aim, he started to pull upward, keeping the enemy at a 45 degree angle, angling to keep the Omen's nose pointed at the enemy.
The result was what Ahsoka called inward spiraling.
It maximized the deflection angle and traversal that the enemy cannons would need to make to even aim properly and fire.
It somewhat worked against big CIS capital ships, but it was especially good against an organic gunner sitting in a targeting seat. Against the old turrets of a Pacifier, it completely outpaced their cannon traversal.
He transferred his rear shields forward, angling them against the enemy.
"R2, we're going to deliver this torpedo straight down their throats. Get ready to steer it to their port engine."
"Ready."
"Two enemy fighters on attack vector, trying to stop us," Chewie declared, grabbing his controls for the rear cannons and firing.
Anakin could only nod, normalizing the shields absently, as his sole concentration was towards flying the Omen and the timing for these torpedoes.
The two Uglies fired, sending bolts of red plasma streaking ahead and behind the Omen's wild spiraling course.
Chewie's accurate fire slammed into one of them, shearing the mismatched engine nacelle off to spiral out to infinity, whilst the main hull sparked with leaking fire from vented oxygen that was promptly snuffed out. In the next moment the Ugly became a shattered expanding sphere of debris.
The second Ugly scored two successive hits on the rear shields.
Chewie roared in annoyance and fired again.
His shots missed but orange plasma cannon fire from a Militia Hammerhead streaked in and immolated the enemy fighter.
Merely 20 km away now, Anakin pressed his thumbs down on the launch button on his yoke and twisted the Omen away, using all the gathered velocity to roar past the Pacifier and put as much distance between them.
The two torpedoes left travelling in their wake ramped up to a full velocity burn at 4000 G.
They crossed that distance in less than one and a half seconds and detonated.
A bright flash heralded the proton hammer that slammed into the Pacifiers shields, popping them instantly.
The second torpedo detonated microseconds later and ripped apart the entire rear section of the ship, leaving nothing but fist size debris and smaller, scattering upwards into space at considerable velocity.
Anakin had shunted full shield power into the rear emitters just before what felt like a giant had slapped them.
His body strained against the combat harness as forces leaked through the inertial dampeners.
The shields held against the onslaught.
With a grin of triumph he checked the sensors.
Five Uglies were now powered down and coasting in space, signaling their surrender. Seven small expanding spheres of debris represented the rest.
"General Skywalker, that was some impressive flying." He could hear the smile in Captain Lar's voice.
"Thank you, how many did you lose?"
"This victory was not achieved without loss, Grazer Four and Seven," he said solemnly.
"Their sacrifice will be honored, Captain."
"Thank you, general. We're all volunteers, we'll take care of that."
"What are you going to do with the surrendered pirates?"
"I've called for a ship to come up and gather them. They'll get a trial and given all the evidence we have, a firing squad."
Anakin nodded in agreement, even though he was sure Padme would object. Frontier worlds like Mokivj just didn't have the resources to house prisoners for any long term duration. It was the unspoken rule amongst most worlds that far out from the core of civilization. Mokivj was also in a constant state of undeclared war against Rattatak.
"If they know they'll face the death sentence, why surrender?"
"They hope the governor will use them to trade for any mokivians taken prisoner or enslaved on Rattatak. Vain hope, especially given what they tried to steal today."
"All right, Captain. I'm heading back to the Tantros, thanks for your help."
"No, thank you, General. Without you, that fancy ship and your torpedoes, we'd have all been very dead today and Mokivj would've faced the prospect of dealing with that pirate cruiser dominating our space. I'll definitely be recommending you get some form of reward from the governor."
Anakin chuckled, "It's not necessary, but I'll be gracious and accept."
"Good, I also invite you to our pilot watering hole in Yovbridge, I'm sending you the coordinates. You'll have free rounds from our entire squadron!"
"That's an invite I'll definitely accept."
"Good! Ha ha! What a day! See you there, Skywalker!"
The Tantros finally landed in Yovbridge spaceport in its own dedicated spot roughly a day later.
Repairs took longer than expected because of a discovered lack of on-board critical spare parts, which had to be quickly shuttled in from the planet. It was a blessing in disguise as it allowed the four of us to begin the process of reprogramming the droid army on board.
It was quite handy that Solha had packed the droids into the shielded pallets in their storage forms, allowing us to do batches of nearly 200 droids at a time. CIS droids had to get situational updates and operational parameters whenever they were deployed for the first time to a planet. Something that usually happened via the encrypted network of the carrier ship.
The programming that was already in the droids was also a small goldmine of intelligence, as it neatly laid out the possible usage scenarios that the CIS had envisioned for the cortosis droids. It wouldn't be of direct use, but it offered a window into the thinking of their strategic planners and would inform the Republic's own conventional predictions in turn.
We left the Tantros via the giant loading ramps that opened from each cargo module. Spaceport workers and equipment were already there to begin offload but someone else was waiting as well.
"Commander Thrawn," Anakin greeted the chiss with a quick bow.
"General Skywalker, I was wondering if we could have a moment of secure privacy."
The chiss stood with arms folded behind his back, the picture of a military professional in an immaculate uniform, his face practically carved out of duracrete.
"The most secure place on the planet at the moment, would be on board the Omen," Anakin gestured the way graciously towards the nearby exit from the Tantros' landing berth.
Thrawn nodded and joined us.
I really wished I had a cam drone at this point; a human armored Jedi, a togruta Mandalorian Jedi, a towering armored wookiee, an astromech droid and a chiss walking down the spaceport hallway.
We were distinctly memorable as evidenced by the expressions of the random people we passed in the spaceport corridors. On a number of occasions we even caused a few accidents by people bumping into each other or walking into the advertising board of a restaurant.
"So how was your talk with Senator Amidala?" Anakin asked lightly.
"Informative."
Anakin chuckled. "I think it was more than that."
Thrawn's face showed a slight twitch and I clearly felt the chiss was secretly rather grateful that he had finally escaped Padme's version of an ad hoc first contact negotiation.
"Your senator is certainly persistent, though I can see it stems from her heart and a desire that there be peace between the Republic and the Chiss Ascendancy."
"Off the record, do you think there will be?"
"We have enough problems of our own in the Chaos. Whilst I can't speak for the Syndicure, I would be highly surprised if relations ever deteriorated to such an extent. It remains to be seen if there will even be formal relations. The Senator has indicated she is willing to sponsor a motion in your Senate to open an embassy on our homeworld, Csilla."
"Will your Syndicure even be open to that?" I asked, knowing how isolationist the Ascendancy was by nature.
"That is a good question, Commander Tano. The easy answer is no. However, events in the Chaos might force us out of our treasured isolation."
We approached the Omen's docking bay, the doors parting for us after R2 broadcasted the code key.
The ship was locked tight and only in a partial self-defense mode to allow a trio of local spaceport techs to work on refueling it.
Inside, Chewie excused himself to work on some minor repairs, whilst we all took a seat in the troop compartment.
"So did you find a shield generator to your liking, Commander Thrawn?" I asked, injecting a tinge of humor to my voice. M8 was now doing the talking for me in Meese Caulf.
He visibly didn't react at all, which was just as bad as a full gasp in this circumstance. I could feel he was debating with himself on whether to answer the question at all, play dumb or just admit it. He was also very weary of me.
"I did," he finally said with a nod after pointlessly scrutinizing my helmet's visor. "A reconditioned model from a Hammerhead fighter. It is far from state of the art for your current technology base, but it will possibly make all the difference in the coming fight against the Nikardun, when we study and replicate the technology for our own ships. Will there be a point if I ask how you knew?"
"Simple deduction, commander," I shrugged. "Your scout ship is the latest tech of your military, yet its defenses are clearly suited to an entirely different tactical paradigm and technological environment. I then placed myself in your shoes and asked what I would want to gain from a trip into this strange and unknown space, besides allies. The answer, from my point of view, is obvious."
Thrawn stared at me for a few silent moments, his tightly controlled emotions were like a conductor in front of an orchestra. "I see, but we must get to the point. I speak now as a representative of General Ba'kif. Whatever happens between our respective governments, we must prepare for the possibility of a Nikardun attack on this side of the Wall. The systems of Batuu, Mokivj, Gannaria would be first to come under attack. Your military assets here are too scattered and few. They will be overwhelmed despite the relative inferior weaponry of the enemy."
"You think they might bypass the Ascendancy?" Anakin asked.
"The Chaos by nature is an ever changing space. Hyperspace is constantly in flux there. It is the reason why we are so dependent on Sky-walkers. The Nikardun have their own form of navigators and it is highly possible that at any time, they may find a route straight to the Wall and breach it. When the Nikardun gains access to Republic technology from battle salvage it'll alter the balance of power significantly for the worse in the south-west of the galaxy."
"Chiss warships with shields are going to do that anyway."
"Yes, but we will not be invading Republic space."
"So what are you asking for, Thrawn?"
"One of the ships you call a Venator class, stationed centrally in this sector."
I can already hear the grumbling of the clones at being assigned to such a posting. It would be a boring, mindless, milk run. Where the worst thing they'd face would be the occasional skirmish from the Rattataki pirates.
Speaking of…
"I don't know if I can justify it to the Jedi Council or-"
"Master, Rattatak."
Anakin sighed, "What about it, Snips?"
"The place has been a blight on this sector of the galaxy for centuries. It's where Knight Ky Narec resolved to campaign against the rampant gangs and pirates. Where he found and trained a young Asajj Ventress. She eventually rose to become the warlord of the planet before she was defeated by the machinations of another warlord. My point is, let us justify assigning a Venator here with the aim of ending the pirate domination of Rattatak and doing justice to Narec's sacrifice and memory."
Anakin perched his elbow on his knees in thought before eventually nodding, "Given that history alone, I can make a compelling case. It'll certainly keep the troops occupied… at least until they're successful. Then the issue comes of filling in the void left. Someone will have to guide the Rattataki to become a prosperous peaceful neighbor."
"Kina Ha can work behind the scenes, but the public face of the effort must be the governors of Batuu and Mokivj. It'll be in their best interest to see such a transition take place."
"Very well. I will make the request, Thrawn. My own request will be for you to hand over known tactical specifications on Nikardun ships. Our men will have to know who to be on the lookout for."
"Eminently practical, consider it done," Thrawn reached into his belt and in his palm was a Republic standard data chit.
I took the liberty to grab it and have M8 begin an immediate review.
'It's exactly as he said, Skyguy. A mostly complete Chiss ship book on the Nikardun and a few other subjugated species. There's only a few redactions.'
"With this in hand, I'll do everything in my power to see it happen," Anakin nodded.
Thrawn stood, "Thank you, general."
"When are you leaving for Chiss space?"
"As soon as possible. Our scientists need to get to work on the shield generator."
"Before you go, there is something that you need to see, commander. As you warned us about a threat from your space, I feel it only fair and prudent to warn you of another threat… that concerns the entire galaxy."
Thrawn blinked, openly showing his astonishment at that pronouncement. With that as my queue, I stood and pulled off my glove and held out my hand to him.
"The entire galaxy?" he asked, staring at my bare hand.
"Yes," I answered and quicker than he could react, my hand snatched his.
I established the connection and pulled his mind inward.
Our perceptions of the Omen's interior dissolved and was replaced by an absolutely frigid landscape.
Snow and crystalline glaciers as far as the eye could see. Biting winds stirring water crystals so fine it might as well be white dust. A dark tapestry of sky above with minimal clouds and a breathtaking star scape stretched across it majestically, with distant multicolored nebulae.
Closer to home, two moons were in direct sight.
To the west, the distant lights of multiple domed cities.
In the middle of it all, Thrawn stood like an unmoving bastion of calm, despite his senses being hijacked. I marveled at his orderly, disciplined mind.
"You've brought me to Csilla," he stated, looking up into the starry sky. "A place you have never seen. Are you sourcing this from my mind?"
"No and yes, I am showing you this because at the moment, we are linked in time and space. It allows me to venture forth, so to speak."
I gestured to the sky and Thrawn looked up, just in time to see multiple large, organic masses, mostly colored in green and brown, shaped in a flat oval, descend at extreme velocity towards the distant city.
The masses shattered the domes instantly, light visibly bending around them - the manifestation of gravity being turned into a weapon and a shield.
Thrawn's astonishment soared and in the blink of an eye, we were much closer. Just a few kilometers distant.
The organic masses were still in one piece, suffering no injury and the only damage was a faint scorching from atmospheric entry, which was healing before our eyes.
The mass split open near the ground and the final truth of their nature as a troop carrier was revealed.
Emerging were tall humanoids, faces and bodies horribly scarred, lacking any nose. Each encased in matt black organic chitinous armor that actually seemed alive. Every part of the armor was sharp, with some spiked ornamentation which was entirely functional as these parts moved as well. The warrior carried only one weapon, a staff as tall as he was, but this weapon was also alive. In fact, it was a creature in itself, its head hissing with two baleful beady eyes, a long tongue and fangs of molecular sharpness.
Where this warrior went, only death followed as he killed chiss, making no distinction between civilian or soldier. Laser weapons only ablated the enemy warrior's organic armor and it moved so fast, that the chiss soldier was bisected with the staff weapon before he even realized he was dead.
The staff also acted as a fearsome ranged weapon, spitting something like acid at over thirty meters that ate through armor, skin and bone with rapidity.
"Welcome, Senior Captain Thrawn, to the Yuuzhan Vong invasion of Csilla."
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