The Force Wills - Chapter 146

The hiss of the brig doors opening brought me out of my meditation.

Calling it a brig was a slight misnomer as it could be mistaken for an economy class cabin aboard the Aurodium Star minus a few conveniences like the ability to leave or use the entertainment systems. It was mostly used as a drunk tank for guests who had generally overindulged.

Captain Tommir Hathen of Corellia, master of the ship and ultimately responsible for every soul on board, stood like a pillar of stoicism as he regarded me with pursed lips and narrowed blue eyes. His emotions betrayed him though as he was torn between a mix of grateful relief and resignation to his own perceived fate.

“You’re free to go, commander.”

I nodded, donned and sealed my helmet before standing to leave.

He escorted me personally through the stupidly luxurious corridors of the ship; endless soft red carpeting on the floors, glossy white walls with multifunction screens advertising ship amenities and schedules. He was taking a route to avoid exposing me to his passengers as much as possible, but it was inevitable that we’d have to pass through some centralized areas to make it to the hangar bays where a Navy shuttle was waiting for me.

Our route therefore took us through one of the massive viewing domes of the ship, which to my eyes looked like someone had taken the upper recreation and swimming deck of an ocean-going old Earth cruise liner and stretched it out over a crazy amount of space. A quick mental calculation from a 250 meter radius of the dome gave me a rough figure of 196 000 square meters. I was looking at swimming pools from the smallest cosy jacuzzis to the largest Olympic size pools, water slides from the most anemic to terror inducing, roller coaster style super tubes.

Above it all was the dome with a beautiful view of Carida, being maintained with a medium orbit. It was made even more impressive due to the multi-hued gaseous nebula type aura slowly being pulled inward by gravity. A very visible reminder of what had nearly happened here.

No one had ever detonated so much refined rhydonium fuel close to a planetary gravity well for obvious reasons and I could already imagine Carida becoming home to many scientists studying how the residual particles and byproducts from the cataclysmic detonation were behaving.

The ship passengers were mostly ‘oohing’ and ‘aaaaing’ about the spectacle, whilst swimming, diving, drinking and eating.

Revealing the true cause was something that was being delayed as much as possible.  

It didn’t take long for the first of the joyful or relaxing civvies to recognize me.

Gasps from amazed kids and visible double-takes from the adults. 

The captain’s presence and our strident walk mostly discouraged anyone from approaching us as we weaved through the main thoroughfare of the dome. However, a gaggle of kids and to my eternal embarrassment, a fair number of teens and young adults, mostly human, twi’lek and togruta whose hormones were ruling their emotions, intercepted us before we could leave the dome. 

I ended up signing a number of random items that they’d had on hand; towels, datapads, swimming caps and other odds and ends. I firmly drew the line at signing any ‘naughty’ body part though and sent those ones on their way with subtle Mind Tricks after signing their swimming trunks on their ass whilst they were still wearing them - much to the amusement of others.

The line was drawn at fifteen signatures before I firmly ended the impromptu event.

“I’ve never seen a Jedi act like…” Hathen trailed off uncomfortably as we entered a turbolift.

“A celebrity?” I finished for him.

“Yes.”

“The unavoidable perils of being a COMPOR figurehead for the war. I can’t say no in this situation where I clearly have the time to spare, captain. It will also make for another distraction that will fly at the speed of gossip through your passengers. At least until someone tunes into local Caridan news.”

He coughed uncomfortably, “I instructed the crew to disable any holofeeds from Carida, citing technical issues to any passenger who asks.”

I sighed, “You’re delaying the inevitable, captain.”

He gave me an annoyed glare, “Do you know what it’s like to ride herd on the typical passenger of the Aurodium Star?” 

“Given their general net worth, I can well imagine.”

“Precisely. The company has already received complaints about the delay your intervention caused. There’s a StarLine internal affairs inspector on the way, who’s going to turn my ship into an even greater headache to run.”

“You have my com code, captain. I will explain everything to this inspector to the limits of security clearance. Your career will not end because of this.”

“Until that inspector finds out I threw the very Jedi who saved the company from going bankrupt in liability claims, into the ship’s brig for her efforts,” he said bitterly.

“There was no way you could know. You were acting as any good captain would after their bridge had just been attacked. I don’t blame you for it and I knew you would calm down, especially after you arrived in the system.”

Hathen shook his head, “The moment the company learns that I threw Commander Ahsoka Tano in the brig, it’ll all be about optics. That will also make the news eventually. People won’t see the context and the board will do damage control first, to hell with the consequences.”

The turbolift doors opened and we walked out directly into the primary hangar bay where a military shuttle from the Resolute was waiting for me.

“Captain, how far from retirement are you?”

He gave me a weird look but answered anyway, “Twenty-three years.” 

I gave him a raised brow in surprise, “You don’t look it.”

“Premature graying is in the family.”

There was much more to it than that, his health wasn’t the best, but I couldn’t exactly give a firm diagnosis without touching him. “Tell you what, captain. Should the worst happen and you find yourself without a job, contact me. I am on the board of MandalMotors and have contacts in Kalevela Spaceworks. I’m sure that we can find a captaincy worthy of someone of your caliber.”

The captain of a ship like this was vetted and trained to a degree that beggared belief, considering the very important and rich people whose lives he’d be responsible for at the end of the day. You didn’t hand over the reins of the Aurodium Star to a rookie captain who’d just gotten his stripes.

He folded his hands behind his back as we walked. “I know my employer well, my days are numbered with them. It’ll certainly be an adjustment to go from this to a mere Nau’ur class passenger yacht, but I can’t exactly throw this lifeline back in your face, Commander Tano.”

“I think we can do better than mere yachts, captain,” I gave him a smile and a mysterious wink, then held out my hand.

He frowned briefly, but took my hand and shook it. “I’ll look forward to hearing from you then.”

“Good luck, captain. Force be with you.”

I gave him a final wave and jogged up the embarkation ramp.

Anakin was waiting for me in one of the trooper seats with folded arms.

“Snips.”

I dumped myself into a seat next to him, “Skyguy. Did you enjoy the fireworks?”

He chuckled lightly, “Despite the initial moment of terror, yes, it was quite pretty.” He gave me a flat stare. “Now where is D-Squad?”

“Cloaked in a suitably random high orbit around Carida, waiting for my signal to land on the Resolute. Everyone is fine, including R2, so relax.”

He visibly did so and nodded. “Thanks. We’ll be having the debriefing with Master Windu in Intel immediately after we land. However, expect the Council meeting to happen directly afterward.”

I huffed as the shuttle began to lift off, “Fun.”

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The handover of the CIS encryption module was done quickly and Captain Vaad slotted it into a specially built terminal.

A press of a button and a few seconds later, her face twisted into a very satisfied smile. “Decryption complete.”

“Well done, to all of you,” Mace Windu gave me and Vaad a respectful nod. “We’ll have to be careful in how it’s utilized. If we suddenly act in ways that anticipate their attacks, they’ll know their communication is compromised again.”

“So we’ll have to actually let ourselves be caught flatfooted again,” Anakin folded his arms, clearly not liking the idea at all.

“Naturally, for any threats to strategic or critical points, we will respond. At some point, it’s inevitable that the enemy will discover we’ve cracked their coms. The actual point of this was just to buy time for our own secure communication system to come online.” He looked at his chrono. “Council meeting is almost due to start, let’s go.”

We left together for Briefing One.

The actual meeting would be conducted in a secured room of Valor station, since so many council members were actually here in person. Those on Coruscant would attend virtually via holo, whilst Windu, Anakin and myself would do the same from Resolute.

“No Master Yoda?” asked Master Plo Koon as Windu began the meeting in his capacity as 2IC of the Jedi High Council.

“No, he has a mission of his own,” Windu’s tone clued everyone into the unsaid order to not press the matter further. The meeting was using a brand new encryption in its holo transmission, prepared specifically for the occasion, but no one was going to take chances. “I will bring him up to date on events here in Carida and this meeting as soon as possible. Our first item on the agenda is Knight Skywalker’s actions during the hunt for the Separatist Shadow Fleet.”

“I bring forward that a formal motion of censure should be placed on Knight Skywalker,” declared Master Saesee Tiin. “He allowed the enemy to attack Champala when he was clearly in a position to prevent it. Tens of thousands are dead because of his inaction.”

I just barely stopped myself from rolling my eyes in exasperation.

Windu tented his fingers together, “So noted. Does the motion have a second?”

“It does,” confirmed Master Ki Adi Mundi.

No surprise there. Honestly, I wish these two could get smashed over the head with a clue-by-four. It’s a frakking war and they still commanded it from their own personal ivory towers. You would think almost two years of destruction and death would’ve done something to drag them out into the land of rationality and military pragmatism, but nope.

That they were going for censure and not expulsion showed that they at least had some sense of proportion and could read that the politics of the Council was now firmly against the traditionalists. 

The subsequent vote was a bloody formality, with Mundi, Tiin and Eeth Koth voting in support of censure, whilst the rest voted against.

“I just wish to state for the record,” began the rough voice of Master Even Piell. “That while I voted against the censure…” He turned to look at Anakin directly. “Knight Skywalker, I can fully appreciate the dilemma you were faced with. There was no ending to this that wouldn’t have caused some other world to pay the price that the people of Champala had to pay. I trust that you will in the future, however, do everything in your power to find a path that does not put you in such a position.”

It was an entirely useless statement, we couldn’t dictate the enemy’s actions. There would be other Jedi in the war who would have to make similar decisions, but the sentiment of not becoming cavalier and expedient about such sacrifices was delivered.

Anakin nodded, “I will, Master Piell.” 

“We now come to the matter of Padawan Tano,” Windu and the council turned to me. “You were entrusted with the escort and protection of the latest group of adepts for their Gathering ceremony. First defending them against the pirate assault of Hondo Ohnaka and then keeping them safely out of harm's way when elements of the Shadow Fleet attacked Ansion. You made an alliance with the pirates when the Crucible’s hyperdrive failed, and aided them in the subsequent battle. It was during this that you infiltrated an enemy Lucrehulk, where General Durge himself was and you defeated him.”

I bowed in the ensuing silence. There was also a mild burst of pride from Master Plo Koon that he allowed me to perceive because of my accomplishment. “It is as you say, Master Windu.”

“From this Council, you have our profound thanks for not only saving our young, but also defeating a scourge that has taken many lives across the galaxy for thousands of years, including dozens of Jedi over the centuries. It’s also my duty to inform both you and Knight Skywalker that the Chancellor has put both your names forward to receive the Cross of Glory, for consistent service, above and beyond duty, with direct contributions to the Republic in combat operations. It will require a vote by the Senate Army oversight committee to confirm, but it’s a formality as I understand it.”

Anakin and I bowed in acceptance.

Windu looked around the council, “I open the floor to any questions regarding these events.”

“I for one would like to know how a padawan, as accomplished and strong of the Force as she is, had managed to do what literally thousands before her have failed to do,” asked Master Kit Fisto.

“I can answer that,” Obi-Wan declared. “A plan Anakin, Ahsoka and I had developed since our previous run-in with Durge. One which she was in a position to execute since she had found him on a ship. It’s not a matter of fighting Durge conventionally, but more outmaneuvering him into a position where you can string him along and lure him into an escape pod. It’s then a matter of controlling the ship and the pod to send the gen’dai into the nearest star - where no amount of his regeneration will prevent him from being reduced to less than his constituent atoms.”

“I see,” Fisto smiled with satisfaction in his big black eyes. “An idea so obvious in retrospect. My congratulations on successfully implementing it, padawan. It couldn’t have been easy.”

“It wasn’t, master,” I confirmed.

“We must now think of the consequences,” Master Koon began. “Count Dooku is now without a high general of the droid army. Who will he choose as a replacement?”

“Does he truly need one at this point?” Master Rancisis stroked his long hairy beard. “We all know Durge, despite his long experience, was actually a terrible general who was more a figurehead than anything else. A locus of to instill fear, much like Grievous before him. The true decisionmakers and planners are behind Durge and all intelligence indicates it's not one person, but rather a small group of strategists working together with Dooku.”

Windu nodded, “Your point is well made, Master Rancisis. It is high time that our full resources will now be devoted to unmasking this group and bringing them into the light of day. That being said, I can now reveal that as of just before this Council meeting began, a covert operation has concluded successfully to break the latest Separatist communication cypher.”

I felt the entire Council perk up with an intense interest, before quite a few of them stared at both Anakin and I. It was as if I could almost see the machinations in their minds as they made their deductions by what Windu was revealing, combined with the fact that we were still in the room on something that was hyper secret.

“Padawan Tano, your full report, please,” Windu gestured graciously with the invitation.

I stepped forward slowly into the virtual center of the holographic council chamber and began to recite the relevant points of D-Squad’s mission to obtain the encryption module.

“Very well done, Ahsoka,” Master Shaak Ti bowed her head slightly to me. “I suggest Padawan Tano be given an assignment to the CFK; her infiltration talents could flourish there.”

It went unsaid that the actual suggestion was that I be assigned to the two remaining Jedi Shadows who worked for the CFK.

“Your suggestion is well received Master Ti. I personally would like our talent pool in that area… to increase,” Windu said delicately. “The final say must come from Master Yoda, however.”

“I thank you Master Ti, for your consideration,” I said serenely and bowed to her. “I must also report to the Council, that by providence of the Force, I was given warning regarding the Separatist plot to destroy Valor space station and the strategy conference, using the hijacked GAR star destroyer, Vanguard.”

My report went on for nearly a full hour as I was asked for clarification or explanation by various council members as it went on.

I had to very carefully dance around Captain Gregor’s survival and aid, but it wasn’t too difficult.

After the main gist of events was related, I became rather aware that the entire council was feeling a profound sense of gratitude to me. Even Ki-Adi bloody Mundi looked at me with a grudging respect, whilst Tiin and Koth nodded stiffly with thanks at me saving their lives from utter immolation.

“Well,” Windu gave one last look around the room. “I think I speak for everyone here, Padawan, that we will give you more than mere thanks for saving the lives of the entire High Command, the Council and the entire Caridan local defense fleet. Not to mention the people aboard the Aurodium Star. I will personally recommend to the Chancellor that you be awarded the Hero’s Cross and I’m sure you can expect the Caridans to do something as well.”

The Hero’s Cross was a specific GAR award that applied only to non-clone officers and was essentially the second highest award for valor that could be given by the Republic. The only way to go higher was to receive the Star Clustered Hero’s Cross - which hadn’t yet been awarded to anyone and it required a full Republic Senate confirmation.

I bowed in simple thanks.

“Further questions or comments,” he invited.

“I’m quite concerned over the new ion weapon used to capture the Vanguard,” Obi-Wan stated. “Have you and R2 looked further over the data you were able to retrieve, padawan?”

“No, master. Further evaluation will require time, dedicated researchers with labs and a budget behind them. I suggest an all-command’s bulletin be sent out warning about it in the meantime.”

“It will be done,” confirmed Windu. “I will advise Republic Intelligence to go over our list of missing ships in the last year. It seems quite strange that the Separatists would have such a potentially decisive weapon, yet fail to use it on a wide scale.”

“I would also advise that all fleet commands be on the lookout for similar ‘fireship’ tactics,” I cautioned with a grim look. “It will not take great effort to use, for example, a stripped down Munificent, in a similar role. It remains in hyperspace and jumps to within range of our fleet, much like a torpedo bomber and detonates, wiping out an entire part of a fleet that’s too clustered together.”

“The suggestion being that we have to spread our formations even further out?” Obi-Wan asked pointedly.

“Correct, Master. At least an eighty kilometer separation between each ship. Yes, we will lose AA fire concentration, but as recent battles have shown - the distance between competing fleets are increasing as torpedo technology and penetration aids advances. Our main fleet elements will need to increase their individual anti-fighter defenses.”

“How likely are the Separatists to actually employ this fireship tactic?” Master Adi Gallia asked thoughtfully. “As relatively cheap as a Munificent is, it’s still a considerable waste given the strategic assets such as hyperdrives, power plants, shield generators and armor that you’re throwing into the fire.”

“The idea is out there now, Master. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see it being tried already as we speak out on the frontline battlespaces.”

Windu nodded, “We will communicate with the frontline commands as soon as this meeting concludes regarding this danger. We must now speak of the results of this Conference in private. Knight Skywalker, Padawan Tano, thank you for your time. You are dismissed.”

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D-Squad’s debriefing after they clandestinely landed on the Resolute was not something that I relished doing, but there was no choice in the matter.

With the exception of R2, all the droids were put through memory wipes of the mission, which I had to oversee personally.

QT-KT, U9-C4, M5-BZ, R4-K7, were all lined up on a conveyor in the Resolute’s droid maintenance bay, plugged into the local systems, which were in turn all under the control of M8.

“What happened to Captain Gregor, commander?”

Colonel Gascon stood next to my right leg, barely coming up to my knee. His tiny eyes alight with concern and curiosity.

“Classified and compartmentalized, colonel,” I sighed as the inevitable question came. “He sends his goodbyes and well wishes and hopes that one day he can visit again. Clone commandos don't exactly get much downtime.”

“Hmmm, thank you. That’s a pity, it would’ve been nice to see him off,” Gascon mused. “What’s going to happen to D-Squad?”

“It’s not going to disband, if that’s what you’re worried about. The idea is too good, especially now that it’s been proven to work in certain scenarios. You’re going to get your promotion to General, at which point you’ll have your choice of assignments.”

I smiled at his stunned look.

“General Gascon,” he muttered to himself, clearly liking the way that sounded. “Ha! And those bastards on the homeworld thought I would never even get my foot in the door at the Army!”

I chuckled, “You certainly proved them wrong… general.”

He folded his arms, chest puffing with satisfaction. “That I did and I can’t wait one day to shove it in their faces.” 

“Not too strongly though,” I cautioned.

“Of course, of course, now what to do? Go back to strategic planning or…” He trailed off, now looking visibly conflicted.

“You’ve gotten a taste of fieldwork, general. It’ll not be easy going back to a desk. If I may make a small suggestion?” He nodded. “D-Squad is uniquely qualified to be invisible in a galaxy that only sees droids as labor that works in the background. Imagine your command center implanted into a B2, then with a squad of reprogrammed B1s sent behind enemy lines for intel and sabotage work.”

“That’s a… very intriguing idea, commander,” he scratched his chin in thought, a smile slowly growing on his face. “Why stop there? Any droid in use by the enemy that’s large enough to house my command center can be used as a disguise - Magnaguards, tac droids, the list of industrial droids is too long to name!”

“Precisely, you can potentially go where Republic Intel can never hope to go. As we’ve just proven, the most secure spaces that the Separatists have are no barrier to D-Squad.”

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The rest of the day was a non-stop marathon of getting caught up with the backlog of 2IC work for the Resolute that had been piling up in my absence. Baylan Skoll had done a reasonable job of it, but I found myself having to redo a fair number of his flimsiwork to my own personal standards. It would’ve been nice to just have a chat with him, yet it wasn’t to be as he had already been recalled to Coruscant to take up the full mantle of his generalship and command of a fleet.

Then if that wasn’t enough, ensconced in my quarters under intelligence misdirections and ECM, I also caught up with the doings of the Fulcrum network.

The biggest issue coming through was HK’s final plan for infiltration of Sidious’ lair in the Industrial Works of Coruscant.

It was one of the most horrific gambles that caused a black hole to pop into my stomach at the mere thought. Made even worse, that the infiltration could only happen while I was on Coruscant, to at least make use of the limited prescience there to divine if there were any major problems with the plan.

I tapped the encrypted datapad slowly, letter by letter - each tap feeling like the gongs of doom going off in my montrals - ‘Proceed and prepare for my eventual arrival.’

My finger hovered over the encrypt and send button, now it felt like my spine wanted to crawl out of my skin.

“Frak,” I muttered as my finger pushed onto the large datapad.  

That die was cast.

Now to deal with the next major issue.

Savage Opress, his training under Dooku was nearing a point where he would be sent out into the galaxy. In fact… he was going to be replacing Durge!

The burst of incredulous laughter spilled out of me. “Oh boy, ah ha ha. That’s… that’s classic.”

Fulcrum would soon have access to even more juicy CIS military secrets and if Savage was careful enough - even Palpatine’s side of the shadow war may soon be open to him. However, I wasn’t blind to the cost or what one of Savage’s primary directives would be - hunting Jedi.

There would be few who could truly stand against Savage - in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the job of bringing him down would fall to Obi-Wan, Anakin or myself. Though they could send Windu and that was another story in itself. I’d have to impress on the zabrak that he was only to engage the Master of Vaapad in order to retreat.

It was close to midnight in ship time when I felt Anakin approach the door to my quarters.

Quickly hiding my encrypted datapads, I resynced and disabled my intel ECM, just in time for him to press the entry chime.

“Come in, Skyguy.”

He walked in, waiting for the door to close before looking at me with an expression I knew all too well.

“What’s wrong now?” I sighed, leaning back in my chair.

“Word just came through, both Chancellor and Senate have authorized the use of orbital strikes for the Navy.”

I gave him a flat stare, “With no conditions?”

“Well, some, it has to at least go to a general or admiral for authorization and it’s also a guarantee that you’ll be brought before the Council to defend the decision after the fact. If it’s found to be unjustified, GAR military tribunal with a potential death sentence.”

“Well, that’s something at least.”

The nightmare scenario that had been running in my head was every captain in the navy running around with that authority completely unchecked.

I felt the probability lines shift around me before my personal comlink went off.

My eyes widened as I began to comprehend the reason for the change.

“Shabla,” I muttered and quickly donned a casual Grand Army exercise shirt to at least look presentable on holo.

The stern, royal visage of my Mandalorian sovereign, Duchess Satine Kryze appeared over my arm. However, it seemed we were both in a very casual setting, because her blond hair was not tamed by any head-dress or weave. She was wearing her royal robe, but it was as if she had been caught mid-makeup session and had no choice but to make this call. Through the Force, I could perceive it was very early morning in Sundari.

“Duchess,” I bowed my head. Trying to ignore how more beautiful she was with her hair like this and minimal makeup.

“Manda’lor Vizsla… I apologize, I didn’t think of the time difference,” she sighed, I could feel despair and fear coil tangibly around her spirit, yet she was keeping her poker face with a beskar iron will. “Mandalore and… me personally, are in need of you urgently.”

I frowned, “What’s the problem, highness?”

“As of a few hours ago, Lieutenant Korkie Kryze of the Mandalorian Blades, has been reported as missing in action.”

My stomach twisted and my mind raced to remember where the various Blades squads were deployed and Korkie’s in particular.

“His squad should be on Raydonia along with the star destroyer Avalanche, on recon patrol.”

The Raydonia system was a dozen lightyears north-east beyond the Mandalorian sector that straddled the theoretical front lines between the CIS and the Republic in that region. It wasn’t a particularly important one to fight about, but it served as a useful early warning station to Separatist movements along the Salin Corridor hyperlane which drew a line along the sector’s northern frontier.

It wasn’t exactly a milk run, but I had thought the assignment was well within the capabilities of my own secret apprentice in the Force.

Korkie had grown considerably strong for someone who had begun the training so relatively late in life. Clan Vizsla instructors had also put him through hell, combined with quite a handful of successful combat deployments and he had become someone any of my clansmen and women would fight alongside in a heartbeat.    

“Details are still few, Manda’lor. The Avalanche's captain believes the Blades squad is still somewhere on the planet, but out of communication for some reason. Conventional means of search have all been exhausted and the ship can’t stay in orbit for much longer.”

I pushed through the fog of the future, scanning along probability lines for the best immediate approach, “Duchess, if you can make an urgent post-facto request for my aid through Master Kenobi, it would help to smooth things out a lot. I’m just coming off a mission and I don’t want the Council to throw something else on my shoulders.”

She nodded, “He was going to be my next call in any event.”

“In the interest of time, I will use a proxy holodroid and take a ship from Concordia.”

Satine’s blue eyes stared at me with a tumult of mixed emotions, but a measure of relief and thankfulness surged forward. “Thank you, Manda’lor Vizsla. I’ll forward all the data I’ve received to you.”

My comlink chirped and flashed with a compressed file downloading, “Received. I’ll find him, Duchess.”

She nodded, turning her head to begin wiping away a tear from her left eye before she quickly cut the feed.

Anakin folded his arms, giving me a knowing glare, “You sure you don’t want to sleep first, Snips?”

I shook my head, “I’ll sleep after I get the holodroid on its way to Raydonia.”

“I’ll get the Omen ready then. First get something to eat before you join me, consider that an order.”

“Yes, master.”

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It was good to be back in my own Kom’rk class fighter-transport after so long.

She hadn’t just been gathering dust at Hangar Bay One since I last used her, as Resolute’s own Mandalorian Blades squadron sometimes used her as their primary mode of transport.

The Omen hadn’t changed all that much, except under the hood, where the hyperdrive modifications and further tinkering allowed the ship to reach a 0.65 rating. The holodroid proxy interface chair and systems had been moved further aft of the ship, and placed in its own partitioned space in the troop deck. This afforded a measure of privacy and security so that no one could just hop on or mess with the system.

When I arrived, both Anakin and R2 were busy with a thorough system diagnostic.

“Get comfortable, Snips, this is going to take a few,” he said distractedly, staring into a large datapad.

I got out of my beskar’gam and took a moment to re-attach the helmet to it. “M8, go ahead and plug in for a recharge.”

“Of course, mistress.”

After a few minutes, Anakin patted the interface chair, “Go ahead.”

I hopped on and thumbed the controls to recline it, “Any problems?”

“A few accumulated program errors, nothing R2 and I couldn’t handle. The system is physically healthy, no bugs or spy programs either.”

I couldn’t help the big grin on my face, “Oh master, could it be you’re finally learning something about proper levels of paranoia?”

He rolled his eyes as he fitted my head with the interface circlet and sensors. “Comfortable?”

I nodded.

“System startup, we have a signal at 96%,” he frowned into the holoscreen as the data stream from Concordia came through. “This is a new model proxy.”

“Yup, you can gush over the specs later, Skyguy. Hit me.”

He nodded, “Syncronizing… three… two… one… brace yourself.”

I closed my eyes and…

The disjunction was acute and for the briefest of moments it felt like I was in two places at once, my mind beginning to bend awfully… threatening to tear…

I gasped harshly and opened my eyes to regard a completely different room, my HUD vision overlay scanning and flickering over the contents.

This was the large droid workshop in the basement of the Vizsla compound, filled with tools, fabrication machinery, computers and an oil bath.

My new holodroid body was currently suspended in the air by a large robotic claw hung from the ceiling.

“Security key recognized,” declared a harsh electronic voice that rumbled throughout the room. “State password.”

I used my thoughts with the interface in my vision to dictate: Do androids dream of electric sheep, in English.

“Password accepted. ID verified. Defenses standing down. Welcome, Manda’lor.”

The workshop security system brought the arm down and the large claw let go, letting me stand and move freely.

I looked down at myself and marveled somewhat. Vizsla techs and engineers had outdone themselves with this one. The proxy droid looked like it could easily walk the future battlefields of Skynet in another universe. It was inspired by the classic T-800, but given a female base chassis, which made it more like the T-900 ‘Cameron’ infiltrator model. Its armoring was a 20:80 beskar-titanium alloy, which made it as durable as a B2 with none of the weight problems. It was essentially the hunter-killer variant of the holodroid proxy, given the designation of HK-HP.

A flick of my wrists and two clawed vibroblades popped out of each hand, another flick and they smoothly retracted in the blink of an eye.

Compartments in the upper thighs opened, revealing dual lightsaber hilts ready for use and two WESTAR blasters.

Satisfied, I closed them up and engaged the default holosheathe.

“Funny, Skyguy,” I commented wryly in the holo body and voice of Ki-Adi Mundi. “Now fix it.”

I felt his amusement, “One sec, that expression is perfect, just getting a digital render for posterity. Done. System is released to you.”

The holosheathe shimmered and changed to me in full beskar’gam.

My comlink interface opened, “Tano to Togai.”

I left the workshop and took the stairs directly into the lower floor of the Vizsla mansion. It took a while for the governor of Concordia to respond, since the local time was just before five in the morning. 

“Manda’lor?” he said blearily - he was still in bed upstairs, awkwardly speaking into his comlink whilst entwined around his sleeping wife, Oba.

“Apologies for waking you. I’m just informing you I’m downstairs in the HK proxy. I’m taking a Kom’rk from the hangars. Don’t be alarmed if you see one leaving.”

Togai Vizsla knew immediately that something was very wrong. “What happened, Manda’lor?”

“Korkie Kryze is missing in action along with the entire Blades squad with him.”

I heard him cursing under his breath for a few moments and then heard the groans of annoyance from Oba as she was disturbed from her sleep. “Sorry dear. I understand, Manda’lor. I’ll get the ground crews to assist your preflight.”

“That would be much appreciated.”

I closed the channel and hurried out of the mansion, taking the opportunity to test the pure physical capabilities of the HK-HP, bursting into rapid sprint. It easily held a speed of just over fifty kph and while it could go faster, I didn’t want to make a mess of the Vizsla grounds and walkways.

The hangar bays were four large domed cylinder buildings in the west of the compound. There were currently two Kom’rk’s and a single Fang fighter parked inside.

I approached the Kom’rk that looked in best shape and had the name Aurna, stenciled on its side in Mando’a.

The four starship techs that served these hangars burst in about ten minutes later, out of breath and clearly having suffered verbal encouragement from Togai to hurry their asses out of bed.

“Manda’lor,” they chorused, saluting me with clenched fists to chest.

I returned the salute, “No time for pleasantries, I’m afraid. I’m a quarter of the way through pre-flight inspection. I need to be airborne yesterday. Let’s get cracking.”

“Yes, manda’lor.”

With the extra hands, the Aurna was refueled and readied within eight minutes, but the moment I started the engines from the cockpit, the hyperdrive motivator threw a few error codes our way. Instead of troubleshooting, we just straight replaced it from spare parts, which took just under an hour due to the complexity.

Finally, when it was done, I got green across the board and lit the engines properly for takeoff.

Togai had worked his own magic to get my flight clearance through the system and so I didn’t hesitate to guide it out of the hangar and push the throttle to max to get me out of the atmosphere.

“R2 has already interfaced with your navicomputer, hyperspace course should be uploaded,” Anakin told me.

“Have you daisy chained with the Aurna’s transmitter?”

“Already done, Snips,” Anakin said patiently. “Now get it into hyper so you can sleep.”

The moment I crossed the mass shadow, I pushed forward on the hyperdrive lever and the Aurna shot itself forward, leaving the Mandalore system behind.

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Raydonia was a sixteen hour trip so I put the Aurna on autopilot and disconnected from the HK-HP to grab a full eight hours of sleep directly on the interface chair.

M8 brought me breakfast, which I quickly wolfed down before she handled the job of reconnection.

Another disjunction of perspective, and I was back, with a body of metal and hurtling through hyper thousands of light years away from my true meatbag self.

The remainder of the trip was spent doing training to see if the droid techs had managed to replicate a near organic dexterity and fluidity to the movements of the HK-HP. The platform used a combination of HK-47 and the droid commando’s motivator/movement system, further improved and iterated upon. I was very satisfied that I could still pull off most of the Ataru forms with a bit of aid via the Force. I could even imitate some of the inhuman moves that Grievous could do with lightsabers, spinning my hands rapidly at will to make red lightsaber buzz saws on command, contorting myself in half or crawling about on the ceiling.

When the Aurna emerged from hyper just outside the mass shadow of Raydonia’s second lifeless moon, it wasn’t a surprise to find that there was no Venator evident anywhere in the star system.

“M8, what’s your evaluation of the data from the Avalanche?”

“Worrying, mistress. The Blades squadron took the opportunity to head planetside for some training purposes, deploying from their own Kom’rk transport. They practiced high-altitude insertions and jet pack flight, before landing at coordinates near the equator in a dense forest belt, 43 km east of the Khelid mountain range. Contact was lost on the second day and the Avalanche launched clone trooper search parties in gunships, including low level scans to a radius of 100km from their camp site. No sign of them was found and Captain Krut had to call off the search and declare the Blades squadron MIA.”

“So did they send back their Kom’rk via autopilot or is their pilot still on the Avalanche?”

“The former, mistress.”

“Live together, die together,” I muttered, staring at the sensor readings of the planet beyond.

Raydonia was a temperate, forested world sparsely populated by mostly human farmers and nomadic herdsmen. There were only villages and minor towns at best, as it was a world that was only settled more than fifty years ago. None of the original settlers had come here to pack themselves into tight spaces, wanting to get away from the overcrowded core worlds. That sentiment had been preserved through to the next generation from the looks of these readings. They were true frontiersmen, who were the type who became uncomfortable when they spotted their neighbor’s fireplace smoke on the horizon.

That meant huge swathes of open space, valleys, plains and mountains which were just begging for the CIS to come in stealth ships to set up shop. They wouldn’t even need to use cloaked ships really, given how the locals didn’t even have a dedicated spaceport or aerospace control in place.

How the Avalanche could theoretically miss a CIS presence was easy to explain given sensor masking and underground construction.

I set a course for a low orbit around Raydonia, holding out the bait for any cloaked ship that wanted to try an ambush, even keeping my shields offline and taking passive readings with the occasional active ping towards the planet below.

Nothing caught on my hook after five complete orbits, so I made a deorbit burn.

After riding the heat of atmo entry deceleration, I set up an 8km altitude cruise that would take me over the Khelid mountain range. 

I pushed outward with the Force, opening up my senses to encompass most of the planet.

Korkie was my pupil, but our long distance learning meant that I didn’t really have a strong enough connection with him to solidify an actual Bond. That meant I had to do this the hard way. 

‘Korkie,’ I pushed the word through the Force, sending the call outward.

I felt the slightest resonance, as if it had found purchase in a mind somewhere nearby, but only just.

‘Korkie!’

There was a definite resonance this time, which told me that he was either asleep or unconscious. The good news was this confirmed he was still alive somewhere. He’d need to wake up properly before I could get more meaningful information.

I changed course for a direct flyover of the campsite coordinates, lowering altitude to a mere 300 meters and slowing down considerably.

Visual scans showed it was a small depression in the lee of a hill covered by the near endless forest, with no signs of life besides local insect fauna.

“No convenient landing spot. Going to need a ground level look, M8. Switching the ship to drone mode, she’s all yours.”

After a quick climb down to the troop deck, I opened a single troop deployment door and just dropped through.

I let the fall accelerate me for a few seconds before beginning to bleed away momentum into the Force and letting the HK-HP’s feet jets in the ankle flare for the final part of the landing.

My metallic feet touched down on soft loamy earth and tall blue-green trees towered over me by more than thirty meters in all directions. Below the canopy of the forest, the fantastic sounds and cries of alien fauna bounced and echoed from bough to bough. The mid-morning sun threw picturesque light rays through the gaps in the canopy, letting precious sunlight reach the forest floor. The HK-HPs olfactory sensor did an amazing job of even letting me smell the humid air, that my mind interpreted as a pleasant old pine with an exotic twist, even though there was not a single pine tree on the entire planet.

It was just a few meters walk from this point to reach the campsite.

As expected it was a mass of disturbed ground thanks to countless footsteps, first from the Blades preparing to sleep for the night and pitching their one-man tents, then in the subsequent arrival of the clone search parties who had spread outward from this point.

“M8, please tell me the Avalanche search parties took image scans before they trampled all over the place.”

“They did follow procedure, mistress.”

“Integrate the data into an augmented reality overlay in my vision.”

It took my droid intelligence a few minutes but eventually a curtain of light fell over my visual perceptions, before resolving into how the campsite had looked before the clone troopers landed.

I took a few steps forward and knelt near where the sole small camp fire had been, then looked around at the footstep pattern as a whole around it. One thing was immediately clear.

“Something disturbed their sleep and they all ran to the north-west before using their jetpacks.”

“Jetpack fuel byproduct residue from your olfactory sensor supports that conclusion, mistress.”

I headed in that direction and looked up, spotting numerous small branches, either bent or cracked as they had ascended through the canopy.

“Remove the AR layer.”

Now the same disturbance to the flora was less visible, but the evidence was clear.

“M8, narrow hires scan to the north-west, what do you see?”

“Nothing immediately noteworthy, mistress. There is a farm 130km into that direction. Nine human lifesigns and considerable amounts of domesticated fauna.”

“Is there any indication that the Avalanche crew interviewed any locals?”

“None, mistress.”

“All right, bring the Aurna overhead for rendezvous.”

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I brought the ship to a hover a few hundred meters away from a large farmhouse, before initiating landing.

The house was a curious mix of imported modular plasteel construction and local brick on top. The exterior was painted in earthy browns and greens, with some parts of the house even built into the hill it was situated on, giving the impression that it had sprouted from the ground. The farm itself was hundreds of acres of grassland supporting huge herds of nerfs that merrily grazed under the supervision of spherical droids that hovered in overwatch. 

Coming out to meet me was the human owner of the farm, with his wife and three grown sons and two daughters, all of them armed with long blaster rifles. They weren’t exactly brandishing them, nor was their body language or presence in the Force aggressive. They merely casually cradled the weapons in their arms and looked both self-assured and defiant.

“Well, let’s get this started,” I sighed.

I emerged from the Aurna’s embarkation elevator and made a casual walk towards the farmhouse with my hands in plain view and palms outward.

At eighty meters the farmer raised his voice, “That’s far enough Mandalorian.”

I took the hint and stopped. “My name is Commander Ahsoka Tano of the Jedi Order and Grand Army of the Republic. I apologize for disturbing your fine morning but I would appreciate it if you could answer some questions.”

“No, take your ship, your war, and leave,” he said with a scowl on his full bearded face.

“It will take barely a few minutes,” I said leadingly, weaving the Mind Trick carefully on his mind.

He gave a look to his wife and eldest, having a silent conversation. The Trick had at least managed to break down the inherent hostility and suspicion. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn Raydonia had suffered quite a few rogue Mando or Deathwatch raids in the last few decades.

“Ask your questions, Mando,” he allowed grudgingly.

“Did your herder droids or security system see any Mandalorians fly overhead a few days ago?”

He snorted, “Fly? More like had a battle in the air over my farm in the middle of the night. Nearly gave us all heart attacks.”

I sensed immediately he was speaking the truth as he knew it and that worried me. Why would the Blades engage an enemy and not relay that fact to the Avalanche? The obvious answer was they wouldn’t, but that they had been prevented. Their coms had been jammed.

“Did you see who they were fighting?” 

The farmer looked to one of his younger sons and nodded. The boy hurried back inside the house before returning with something carried in his arms and throwing it contemptuously onto the grass before them.

A droid commando head, cleanly severed by a vibroblade.

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A/N: The aftermath and clones are clearly not CSIs ;-)

Have a great weekend and stay awesome folks.