The Force Wills - Chapter 97 (Patreon)

My hologram appeared in the center of the Jedi high council chamber.

Awareness of the space blossomed through the Force into my mind quickly; it was second nature by now.

It was a bright sunny day on Coruscant with hardly any cloud cover around the Jedi Temple, a welcome contrast to Umbara’s constant night. The sunlight streamed through the curved ceiling windows in a manner that made me long for just a canvas, pencil and paint, just so I could capture the image and feeling in some permanent manner. Grief, how long had it been since I had indulged in that hobby? If I had to ask the question, then I knew the answer. I had always been just too busy to justify it, with my own studies and practice in the Jedi arts.

I wished I could be there in person just to feel the warmth of the sun on my skin.

Anakin’s holo appeared beside me and I took in the Jedi Council, who were there in person and virtually as holograms.

Naturally, Master Yoda was in his customary seat, with Mace Windu next to him. Kenobi, Tiin and Master Plo Koon also appeared in their seats as holos, whilst Mundi and Piell were there in person. Kit Fisto was a holo and he floated above his seat as he was overseeing Republic rebuilding efforts on Mon Cala. The rest were there in person and it didn’t take a Force sensitive to tell that the mood in the room was tense. I could pick up all sorts of non-verbal communication going on between those who were there in person, including outright thought projection but Yoda tapped his gimer stick on the floor.

It made an almost gentle tapping sound, but it might as well have been the gong of a giant church bell with the authority it carried. 

“Called to order, this council is,” Yoda declared. Silence fell in the Force. “Master Kenobi, your report on the situation on Umbara? Hmmm?”

“We have taken the government complex and the royal caste is in custody. There are still sporadic insurgent attacks throughout the city, but they’re reducing in number. I’m still in negotiation with the royals for them to declare a general surrender.”

“What’s the delay?” Mace Windu asked.

“Stubbornness and the faction within the royal caste that wanted secession from the Republic are unfortunately in the majority.”

It was a strange quirk of the Umbaran system that there wasn’t a ‘king’ or similar executive leader. The royal caste were essentially the UK’s ‘House of Lords’ with an actual body count, to use the closest old Earth analogy. There was a council that was elected from the caste and they got there by playing a cutthroat game of spying, assassination and subterfuge.

“Did they give any other reason for why they wanted to secede? Was Deechi the only thing keeping them in the Republic?” Mundi asked.

“He was the swing vote on the Rootai council, it seems,” Obi-Wan answered. “His replacement was all for Umbaran independence and so a vote was held. There is a considerable underlying sentiment that I’ve sensed among the Rootai. They thought the Republic, with the demands of the war ever increasing, would begin to put pressure on them to release their technology for use by the GAR, even putting umbarans on combat warships.”

“Ridiculous,” Mundi scoffed.

“Quite so, yet when they jumped into bed with the Separatists they were perfectly willing to share that technology the other way,” Obi-Wan agreed. “Now, one way or another, it will invariably come into the Republic’s possession anyway.”

“They still hold out hope that the Umbaran militia can rescue them,” Master Tiin declared. “They refuse to believe that Knight Skywalker and the 501st defeated the last organized remnants yesterday.”

“What about the rest of the planet? Are we sure there’s no hidden militia formation in another city?” Windu asked.

“We’re as sure as we can be,” Kenobi nodded. “The Umbaran defense strategy was always to use superior technology in orbit and the air to prevent any landing. What ground forces they have was always clustered around the capital and this is confirmed by my own interview with the Umbaran loyalists among the Rootai. Their population isn’t large enough to support more than what they had to fight us with.”

“What is the opinion of the Umbaran general public?” Master Adi Gallia asked. “Will there be a resistance movement that will soon contest the GAR?”

“It will depend on how heavily we invest our troops here. If we limit ourselves to the capital then, to the average umbaran, we are here simply to keep them out of the Separatists. If we present that our quarrel is not with them but rather the royal caste, then things should be relatively peaceful except for extremist elements,” Obi-Wan explained.

I saw Yoda and Windu looking at each other briefly.

“Very well,” Windu leaned back in his chair, tenting his fingers. “We will bring this recommendation to the chancellor; the 212th Legion will be designated as the security force for the Umbaran system, with at least one Venator backing them up from space.”

It went unsaid that this was Yoda’s way of making it up to the men of the 212th for having to put up with Krell for so long.

“To the matter of former master Krell, we turn now,” the grandmaster said sternly.

Yoda’s words might as well have been a slap on the council member’s various hearing organs.

Mundi turned his head to Yoda, “Master, are you sure you wish to strip a master of his title with no formal hearing on the matter?”

“Get his formal hearing he will. To decide the manner of his punishment only. All the preliminary evidence, you have seen. Of Knight Skywalker and Padawan Tano, their testimony. Heard the words of former master Krell, himself. Only in retrospect, do I see, mistake his promotion was.”

That Krell could become a master so rapidly was quite surprising to me. You’d think with the prejudices of some senior Jedi of the last decade, especially when Darth Maul made his debut with a saber staff, that it would shut the besalisk out of gaining that rank.

Yoda had perhaps done it especially because of those prejudices. Making Krell his comment against those who would deny someone with talent a position they deserved.

It was unfortunate that those masters would now see themselves as vindicated.

I made a mental note to see if I could question Professor Huyang on the construction of those big sabers, from when Krell was a padawan. 

“Are we sure that… former master Krell,” Adi Gallia said awkwardly, “truly fell so long ago? Are we so distracted by this war, that we can’t even tell when one among us gives in to the Dark Side?”

“He was very careful to hide it,” Windu pointed out reasonably. “The scrutiny it would’ve taken for us to sense it at all, would’ve been an unacceptable invasion of privacy in any other circumstance, Master Gallia.”

“Perhaps,” she allowed, though I could tell she wasn’t happy. I didn’t blame her really. It was sentient nature to form cliques and the masters had their own understated version of it. Was she perhaps something of a friend or acquaintance of Krell? Was she now feeling guilty that she hadn’t been there for him? To warn him off from his path or be a sympathetic ear for him to confide his worries to?

“Knight Skywalker, what is Krell’s status now?” Master Piell enquired gruffly.

“Awake, not saying a word, recovering from his wounds and safely ensconced in a cask, with 501st ARC troopers and Mandalorian Blades guarding him round the clock. Still awaiting transport back to the Resolute.”

“I can supervise that, given how busy Master Kenobi is with the Umbarans,” Tiin volunteered.

“Do so,” commanded Yoda. “Mandalorians and the 501st, return with Resolute, they will. Former master Krell is to appear before us, no interference.” 

Anakin, Tiin and I bowed in understanding and acknowledgment of the grandmaster’s order.

“To me of this holo droid you used, speak, Padawan Tano.”

I bowed again, understanding the question. “It is a development of a MandalMotors subsidiary.”

“Of which, you are on the board,” Mundi stated dryly.

“Correct, Master. I gave them some ideas I’ve had on the use of holographics that they found intriguing enough to run with and I assisted their engineers personally on the occasion of my visits to Mandalore. The holo droid proxy, as their official designation names them, allows the user to technically visit any planet with sufficient Holonet or high bandwidth mobile transmission infrastructure. No need for days spent in hyperspace on boring or even unsafe journeys through the dangerous hyperlanes.”

“But which allowed you to infiltrate the ranks of the 501st,” Windu stated. “Then using your skills in Remote Alter, which now Knight Skywalker has as well, you were in a perfect position to intervene when Krell began his rampage. Remarkably fortuitous.”

“Is there a question there, Master Windu?” I asked with a slight smile.

His lips thinned, “How did you know to use the proxy droid? What prompted you to send it?”

“I make a habit to study everyone who fights against me and alongside me,” I answered the dangerous question smoothly without skipping a beat. “Naturally, since this was the first time I encountered former master Krell, I made a point of it by thoroughly scrutinizing the tactics he’s used in the war so far with the 212th. I was not impressed.”

Mundi forgot himself and actually scoffed aloud when I stated my opinion. Yoda and even Windu, gave the cerean Jedi Master harsh remonstrating looks.

“Continue,” invited Windu.

“Every single battle he fought was so simple that a tactical droid could’ve been used and it would’ve achieved better results,” I said bluntly. “Always he just drove his men into constant frontal attacks, increasing the dead and injured by orders of magnitude that was totally unnecessary. Whether by happenstance, fate or the Force, this never resulted in a defeat. This meant that the GAR high command was naturally inclined to ask less questions when the butcher’s bill reached their desks.”

The fact that the ‘high command’ included Yoda, Windu and Rancisis, the latter who was actually in the council meeting today, rang through the minds of everyone present, including my own implied criticism.

Master Rancisis didn’t react at all. The old thisspiasian, who looked like he was completely made up of hair like a wookiee, except much shorter, simply stared at me and I wished I had an idea what was going on in that wizened head. Windu clearly didn’t approve and his eyes grew slightly lidded. Mundi puffed his chest, clearly working up a head of steam to lay into me.

Yoda stopped it by raising a single gnarled finger from his hand resting on the gimer stick in his lap.

“So when Master Skywalker and myself,” I continued, “were ordered by this council to return to Coruscant in the middle of an ongoing battle and I heard that Krell was taking over command of the 501st whilst staying on as commander 212th, I knew immediately that it was inviting disaster. Put simply I didn’t trust that Krell wouldn’t drive the 501st into the first meat grinder he could find. Therefore, I deployed the holo droid proxy, which we could control whilst our ship made its way to Coruscant. We could follow our orders to return and keep an eye on the 501st at the same time.”

“Padawan Tano,” Master Gallia prompted. “How easy is it to learn to use this proxy droid?”

“Relatively easy, it has a manual,” I said, my mouth twitching with a suppressed smile. “It’s more a matter of acclimatization, as Master Skywalker can testify. Your mind has to get used to the idea that the proxy actually is your body now. Testing on Mandalore has found that some people can either quickly get used to it and others not at all. It’s also recommended that there is always someone who watches over every proxy user and can act as a supplementary controller in managing the interface systems.”

“I see, and you both can use the Force through the proxy, how taxing is it?”

I gave Anakin a look.

He cleared his throat and said, “It certainly helped that my own lightsaber was being used by the proxy when I fought Krell, Master Gallia. Otherwise, it really depends on how trained you are in Remote Alter.”

Good, Anakin didn’t forget we were also putting on a performance for the enemy.

“That is amazing news,” she enthused. “Think what it could do for response times for Jedi in the Core, Mid-rim and Expansion regions. We’d also not have to worry about Jedi being killed when they go out into dangerous situations-”

Windu held up his hands, “It is too early to speak of this, Master Gallia.”

Master Kit Fisto’s numerous lekku lazily wove around in the holographic water as he shook his head, “While I can certainly see the practical advantages of that, it does feel… rather hollow. Knowing that you are safe in a fight or any situation, no matter the circumstance, changes the way you approach things and make decisions.”

“Agree, I do. Master Windu, correct he is on this matter. Discussion for later,” Yoda nipped things in the bud. “Speak we will, of Krell’s foresight. What led him down the dark path, this is. Knight Skywalker, Padawan Tano, sense any deception did you, hmm?”

Anakin met my eyes briefly and then we stared stoically forward.  

“None, Master Yoda,” he answered. “He believed his vision wholeheartedly. There was no reservation or uncertainty. He saw the Jedi defeated in this war and the Republic will be, quote, ‘ripped apart from the inside.’ He even wanted to join Dooku after the battle of Umbara.”

The council fell into silence, communicating at each other in silence before they turned to await the final word from Yoda.

“See I do,” he eventually said. “Very well, meditate on these words, we will. Already invalid, perhaps his vision is.” He nodded at Windu.

“Knight Skywalker, when you arrive on Coruscant your ship has been given clearance to dock directly to the Senate. The chancellor wishes to deliver the reason for your recall in person, there is an element of urgency to this, so please avoid any potential delays as best as possible.”

“Understood, Master.”

“Safe journey, may the Force be with you both.”

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Four days of travel passed in hyperspace and both Anakin and I made turns to connect back to the holo droid on Umbara to deal with the nitty gritty post-battle issues that always occurred after a major campaign.

Despite Master Tiin being there, Anakin also supervised the transfer of Krell’s cask to the Resolute and he had to deal with the logistics of getting the 501st back on board.

It was all busy work to distract us from the worry of meeting Palpatine.

No matter how hard I tried, my prescience once again terminated within the Shroud. My training with Bendu in Mortis hadn’t really helped deal with it and even the Celestial himself was doubtful that even he could pierce it, at least until the Sith Shrine was dealt with in a decisive fashion.

He had also been very helpful in explaining the very complex yet somehow simple mechanics behind the Shroud. The thing was being fed from every negative or dark emotion felt by every sentient on Coruscant. Every time a death happened it also served to fuel the blasted thing.

That the ancient Sith had even been capable of such a ritualistic working of the Force was rather mind boggling. Even Palpatine, for all his knowledge and power, had still only done the equivalent of a slight ‘metaphysical rewiring’ of the Shrine and flicked the switch.

The instant we emerged from hyper, we both got our game faces on.

Anakin looked cocky and even slightly eager to meet the chancellor, whilst I stayed neutral and slightly nervous at the thought of once again meeting the leader of the Republic.

When the Omen entered the atmosphere, Anakin smiled at me, his movements on the ship controls were assured and confident, even as we moved into a high priority lane which would take us directly to the Senate district, “Relax, Snips.”

“It might be just another meeting and day for you, Skyguy. This is still our boss we are going to meet.”

“True, but he’s been a good friend and mentor to me. He can be yours as well.”

Behind my many masks, I was shuddering at the very thought.

“And what will he teach, politics?”

“Well, that’s not exactly one of my favorite topics. No, he’s quite a history expert and his wisdom about life in general, especially when I was struggling as a teen, had been very helpful to me. Don’t be afraid to ask him anything, Snips. Of course, be respectful about it.”

"I’m more interested in why he asked for us. He had to use quite a lot of political capital with the Jedi to make it happen.”

“Worrying or speculating will not help us at all, Snips.”

I had to wonder if we were hamming it up a bit too much. Palpatine had to have more pressing concerns on his mind than using farsight to spy on us now, but we couldn’t take that chance.

The Omen just about fit into the northern docking bays of the Senate building itself, so there was no need to use the many floating platforms that larger ships had to use.

For the occasion, Anakin was in a more comfortable Jedi half-armor/robes combination, whilst I fell back to my Hapan outfit with a Jedi robe loosely worn over it.

I was very tempted to go full beskar plated Aegis including my new Mando helmet, but I didn’t want to give the Senate Guard any excuse to possibly delay us.

We were met outside the ship’s embarkation ramp by two Senate commandos in their characteristic blue armor.

“General Skywalker, Commander Tano,” the more senior commando said neutrally. “Welcome to the Senate. If you’ll follow me.”

“We know the way, Captain.”

“You may, but with the recent security lapses, a new system has been installed that monitors the exact location of lifesigns, including assigning an identity to it that the system keeps track of.” The commando reached into a pouch on his belt and handed us two small discs that were clearly designed to hook onto clothing.

I rolled it around in my hand, evaluating it with technometry briefly; nothing untoward, explosive, chemical, biological or even nanotech. It was the Coruscan version of RFID. I shrugged and pinned it to my outer robe. Anakin did the same.

“As you are both Jedi, you may keep your lightsabers. I ask that you don’t draw them, unless an emergency arises.”

Anakin was using my own left hand saber at the moment, whilst I made do with the Darksaber and my right hand saber. He bowed patiently, “Lead the way, captain.”

It was a much longer walk through expansive hallways and large turbolifts, including going through three more security checks before we were standing in the reception room to the chancellor’s primary office.

As it was just after midday and the chancellor was undoubtedly having his lunch, we had to wait for roughly forty minutes before we were allowed to walk in. Doubtlessly some schedule rearranging had happened behind the scenes to account for our arrival, as the secretary only had a general time of our arrival.

“Ah, Anakin and Ahsoka,” Palpatine said genially, stretching out his arms in welcome and standing up from behind his official desk. “Welcome back to Coruscant.”

My outer mask was one of veiled politeness with a nervous tick and we both bowed in greeting.

“Thank you, chancellor. It’s a relief to be back,” Anakin nodded, a pleased smile on his face.

“I can only imagine my boy, please sit,” Palpatine gestured to the visitors’ chairs. “This war is running you both ragged, but it can’t be helped.” We took our seats. “If there were more Jedi, generals and commanders of your caliber in the GAR, we’d probably already be at the gates of Raxus Prime by now.”

It was amazing how Palpatine could compliment, stroke your ego, then in the same breath criticize an institution he helped create and lump in the Jedi with that. 

“Everyone’s doing the best they can, chancellor,” Anakin said mildly, with the tiniest hint of rebuke.

“I’m sure they are, Anakin,” he sighed wearily, his shoulders slightly drooping to give the impression he was a tiring Atlas carrying the galaxy on his shoulders. “If only that was enough to secure victory…”  Palpatine trailed off, his eyes gaining a thousand yard stare.

If he was using the Force, I had to tip my hat to him.

I still detected nothing, even using techniques learned with my training under Bendu .

Sure I wasn’t probing him actively, but his Stealth was still masterful and flawless. In the Force, he still looked exactly as he appeared to everyone else. He was definitely leaning on the Shroud to help, but that was just the ‘power source’ of the technique. The shaping of the Stealth was all down to his skill. 

“But come, we’re not here to waste time boring each other with the past and I certainly didn’t pull you out of Umbara in the middle of a battle on a mere whim. Though I must say, the holo droid proxy was an inspired idea. I didn’t think the day would come where we could be in two places at once. Am I correct in thinking it was your idea, Ahsoka?”

“The broad general idea, chancellor,” I confirmed, making my outward mask show discomfort. Presenting the point that I was still not used to the idea of being in a casual conversation with someone so important as Palpatine. “The technologies for direct mind-machine interface are quite common in the core and highly industrialized planets. We have a very good example right here,” I lightly thumped Anakin’s artificial right forearm, who gave me a mock-stern look. “The proxy interface is just taking that further into a non-invasive input and output form factor.”

“Fascinating,” Palpatine murmured. “I’ll definitely have to try it myself someday. Imagine, with the demands on my time, I could experience another world for an hour or two of relaxation without having to travel there first by starship.”

“It has many potential applications, chancellor,” I said with slight eagerness, pretending to come a little bit out of my shell. “Mostly I got the idea out of sheer necessity, because of events in the war and the time it takes to travel anywhere to intervene in them. So much could’ve been different.”

“I understand well, my dear. Believe me.”

I’m sure he did.

RI had an agent in MandalMotors and Palpatine had his own personal spy from his own network embedded on Concordia, who was in turn checking the RI agent and doing more work in the deeper shadows.

For the most part, I let them both do their thing with no interference. Both were there just for info gathering and no wetwork.

HK had trained a deniable counter-spy from Clan Vizsla to keep an eye on both, just in case Palpatine ever ordered something regrettable. The crazy ancient droid had further created and reprogrammed a spy droid to keep a general eye on the whole potential clusterfuck of spy vs spy, just in case.

“Now,” Palpatine broke the thoughtful silence we had lapsed into. “Anakin, I’m sure you remember both you and Master Kenobi’s efforts to capture Count Dooku, which was mostly successful until he reached Coruscant’s orbit. Where he was, much to everyone’s frustration, rescued by mercenaries facilitated by the Separatist spy ring on Coruscant.” Anakin only nodded. “Well, I’m pleased to report to you that there’s been a major breakthrough by Republic Intelligence. That ring has been found and quietly arrested. However, RI is maintaining the illusion that the spy ring is still operational to the Separatists.”

“Impressive,” Anakin smirked. “So we’re feeding false information back?”

“Only slightly, my boy,” Palpatine cautioned with a raised finger. “We can’t outright send back lies that can be easily disproved from other sources by the Separatists. Nevertheless, through careful deliberate leaks this has allowed RI to slowly work its influence all the way to the Outer Rim. Honestly Anakin, the minds of some of these spymasters baffle me. Yet it has given us this one opportunity. For the next two weeks, we know exactly where Count Dooku is and we’ve gained access to enough information about the location to where we’re confident a very special operation may succeed in capturing him.”

“And we’re going to be part of that operation,” Anakin deduced looking at me briefly. I adopted an impressed look on my outer mask.

“Precisely, my boy. Both you and Ahsoka, will infiltrate into the heart of Separatist space, capture Count Dooku and just as secretly bring him back to Coruscant to face justice for his many, many crimes.”

I did not need to fake any astonishment.

My wide eyes met Anakin’s and I could sense he was in the same boat.

“Chancellor,” he coughed. “You’ve always thought highly of me and my abilities, but what you ask is…”

“Impossible?”

“Extremely difficult,” Anakin clarified.

“No doubt it will be, Anakin. However, I’m not throwing you both to the rancors. RI has come up with a plan that has a high chance of success, but only if a small team of Jedi do it.”

Palpatine tapped on controls that were hidden from view behind his desk.

The expansive rear windows were closed behind armored shutters that raced across them. Then a moment later I sensed an extensive suite of counter-surveillance devices activate, in addition to the ones that were already running in the background.

A holo of a planet appeared above Palpatine’s desk.

“Obviously, Serreno is Dooku’s primary residence, but he must occasionally make a journey to Raxus Prime in person to conduct matters too sensitive to trust for even an encrypted Holonet communication. Sometimes he even uses an old fashioned message courier, carrying his orders. The journey between the two worlds, by nature of the hyperspace lanes in that region, is a convoluted mess at the best of times. Now with the Lianna and Felucia systems under threat from the GAR, Dooku’s travel time has been made even worse. Therefore he’s established a secret residence here,” Palpatine finger gestured to the holo. “The planet Stenos. A half-way stop to refuel and experience sun and air over his head, to relax from dealing with endless gripes and bickering of the Separatist parliament.”

Palpatine looked up at us and I could see the slight hint of the sinister pleasure he was getting from this. What was amazing to me was that to anyone else, it would just look like a cunning politician and statesman, who was plotting the downfall of his avowed enemy. Unless you knew the truth and then things came into hyperfocus on what was truly happening here. 

“He landed three days ago. This little retreat of his was the first piece of aurodium that RI discovered.” He reached into a compartment behind his desk and carefully placed a data chit on the surface close to Anakin. “There you will find all the details you will need and the logistical arrangements of getting you both there and back.”

My master stood briefly to pick it up before he tucked it away in a belt pouch. “Why send only us? With, for example, Master Windu or any other Jedi Master, our chances of success increase.”

“That is getting into the minutia of the plan, Anakin. I will say that it has to do with secrecy and that RI could only manage to arrange two cover identities. I also understand that to someone of Dooku’s powers, he can clearly sense someone with the strength of a Jedi Master from orbit and he knows them too well. Whereas you both can make yourselves hidden to him. I hope I have that correct, Master Yoda did explain it to me.”

Anakin nodded, “Has the Jedi Council seen this plan?”

“Only Masters Yoda and Windu, they also refined some aspects of it,” Palpatine answered with a slight smile. “I must admit I’m surprised they agreed to the compartmentalization. It’s not Jedi nature as far as I’m aware to keep secrets from each other, especially on the Council.”

“The war is teaching us all different lessons,” Anakin said with a sage air.

“Quite right, my boy. Quite right,” Palpatine was quite pleased now. “The only question then is if we are learning the right lessons from them.”

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The ship we would be using for the journey was berthed at the Jedi Temple complex, so we left the Senate aboard the Omen to park it in one of the deep hangar bays.

The plan unfortunately didn’t allow us to at least spend a day off, so we literally had to land, transfer our baggage immediately and move into the new ship to familiarize ourselves with it.

The moment I saw the ship in question though I had a brief stutter in my step, before I stopped to give it a critical eye.

“So what do you think, Snips?” Anakin asked, seeing me hesitate. “It’s brand new from CEC, a line they’re calling the VCX model. Meant to be lighter than the YT, carrying high value, small volume cargo through dangerous, contested space lanes. This one is built from the ground up to house a cloaking device, instead of an aftermarket add on.”

It was like I was looking at a sleeker and less bulky VCX-100. A ship that in another time and place, would be used by Hera Syndulla and her rebel cell.

The ship was quite hard to look at, because the hull was painted in a type of black that seemed to drink in all light. The only transparisteel window was in the forward bubble cockpit and there didn’t seem to be any obvious weapons on the thing.

“What’s it called?” I asked, pushing my other senses forward instead.

“A VCX-88, prototype stealth reconnaissance and transport ship. CEC wants this to be what the GAR thinks of when it comes to using cloaked scouts for fleets. It also doubles in the role that we’re going to be using it for; special operations.”

“Interesting,” I mumbled. “No missiles, no mounted turrets or cannons, but is that a tiny fighter docked in the dorsal structure?”

“Yes, that’s its last ditch defense. Everything on this ship is dedicated to stealth and keeping it that way. If that fails then you either hyper away, you abandon ship or die.”

“Bah,” I scoffed, “CEC is not thinking out of the box enough. Kuat is gonna beat them if this is what they’re putting forward to the Grand Army.”

We walked to the rear of the ship and its ventral embarkation ramp opened. I idly noted it was wide enough for three troopers to come down abreast at once.  

Inside it had that shiny, new ship feel and the interior felt like I was in a subdued Millenium Falcon, with military ruggedness evident throughout. The crew bunks were enough for nine people at once. Three would fly and manage ship systems, six would be for the embarked troopers or commandos, though that could be increased to twelve with a hot bunking system in place.

I sat down in the co-pilot seat and already missed the interfaces and controls of the Omen. This was the typical hard controls of buttons, knobs, levers and touch screen interfaces, with the only holo being the single small projector in front of me for communication and navigation visualization.  

If this is what CEC was doing in their prototypes, then I could already see KDY start to make inroads in their market share. Sure, CEC was known to be the rugged, almost apocalypse-proof starship maker, so they built to last and that design philosophy translated over into everything, but at least KDY built knowing that biological beings needed a bit of creature comfort to use their ships.

“Everything straightforward there, Snips?” Anakin asked, sitting down next to me.

“They’ve moved things around a bit, but it’s still CEC. Got the cloak and engineering panels, I need to sit down with the manual for an hour or two, but I’ll get the hang of it, master.”

“Good, our consumables are being loaded, we should be ready to leave then.”

“How much are they loading?”

“Two months worth for three people.”

“We might need to make a surreptitious stop along the way, master.”

He raised an eyebrow in my direction, “Oh?”

I smiled and shrugged, “You know me, master. I always like to have a three month consumable rating on any ship I generally fly.”

“You forget Snips, that our ship is not exactly stealthy if it's parked in plain sight in a civilian space port. Then next time we land, we’ll be on Stenos.”

My hand slapped my own forehead lightly, “Oh, forgot about that. I’ll go and tell the loaders to increase our consumables then.”

I got out of my seat.

“Snips-”

“Relax, master,” I said, giving him a subtle hand sign at my hip.

“Oh, all right. Get to it then.”

I rushed outside and gave the loading master the bad news. The man accepted the instruction with weary acceptance. He was an old hand civilian contractor working in the Temple hangars, so he was very used to quirks, odd events and requests around Jedi.

Back in the cockpit, I brought up the other thing that had been bugging me, but for this topic I had to switch completely to sign language, “Master, did you speak to Padme yet?”

Anakin’s eyes slightly widened, “Thanks, Snips. Do you mind…”

“Fine, I’ll handle the take-off if you get… delayed in the mindscape.”

“Thanks, you’re the best padawan in the galaxy, you know that?”

I folded my arms, giving him my best unimpressed look before shoo-ing him out the cockpit.

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It would be an eight day journey to Stenos.

Mostly because our route would require us to once again sneak straight through the front line battlespaces of the Hydian Way, then turn into the maze of hyperspace corridors of the Korphir Trace. The most notable destination of that maze was the Yavin system. We would turn out of the Korphir maze onto the Daragon Trail, follow that for a day before turning south onto the Ardan Cross, which would eventually curve into a north-east direction and finally let us arrive in the Stenos system.

The navigation challenge would’ve made both R2 and Chewie very happy, but alas neither of them could come with us on this one. Even if they could’ve just stayed on the ship the whole time, it wouldn’t have helped on the return journey, when we would hopefully have Dooku in custody.

And Dooku was not someone I wanted to expose Chewie to. The wookiee had been dreadfully unhappy about it, but eventually accepted that there was no getting around a plan that had been organized and ordered by so many important people. So I left him in Yoda’s capable hands to keep the big lump busy and suitably occupied in the Jedi Temple until our return.

“We’re a day away from Coruscant,” Anakin announced as he fell into the pilot’s chair. “Let me hear it, Snips.”

With my prescience now clear of the Shroud, things naturally became clearer, but in this case I only needed it for confirmation of what I already suspected and deduced.

I stared into the mesmerizing tunnel of hyperspace and began speaking. “The thing you must understand about the Sith, is that the relationship in their order between the master and apprentice is not sunshine and flowers. Both of them are always in a very dangerous and lethal competition with each other. The master must always test his apprentice to see if he is worthy of his position. The apprentice must always seek to rise and eventually destroy his master to claim the position of Sith Lord. For all that the enemy desires to end the Rule of Two, with regards to the competition between master and apprentice, he wants that to continue.”

“Great, so we’re being used as the weapon of the enemy,” he said with a sarcastic grimace.

“Yes, but he’s also shooting two targets with one bolt in this. We’re being tested as well, to see if we would make fit, vital and young replacements for crusty old Dooku.”

“He still hasn’t given up on that?” Anakin’s face twisted in distaste.

“No, and he will not. He’ll twist this galaxy asunder to bring us to his side and if we don’t, he’d sooner kill us than allow us to become a true threat.”

He leaned back in his chair, the Force twisted and bent around him, his own gaze rippling outward. “Are we even meant to succeed at all? He still needs Dooku for this war.”

“Contingency plans, Skyguy. If we fail, that failure in itself has planning and goals he wants to achieve. If we succeed, the same thing.”

“Will we succeed?”

I sighed, mapping the probability lines on this one had been enough to give me a solid migraine for hours. “Honestly, Skyguy. I’m not sure about this one. On the one hand, as much as I want Dooku out of the picture and rotting in a secure cell in the bowels of the Jedi Temple for the rest of his natural life - his absence will throw the CIS into a chaos that I don’t think the Republic can afford. Executive power will be squabbled over by the CIS Council and parliament for a while but Durge will step in on Palpatine’s behalf.”

“Durge?” Anakin asked in astonishment.

“Yes. However, he’s just there as an enforcer. He has no patience for the minutiae of leadership or natural charisma that Dooku had. He’s only there to tell the CIS council where to jump or else he kills them in a nasty fashion. He’s just there to buy time for Palpatine to organize a direct attack on the Jedi Temple, which liberates Dooku from his cell and in the process kills many Jedi just going about their day. Dooku is humbled before his master, the enemy adds more Jedi to the casualty list of the war. The entire probability line is a win-win for him.”

Anakin suddenly slammed his right fist onto the side console in frustration, “Kriffing Sith spit!” He fought for a while to regain his equilibrium, breathed deep and gave me a pointed look, “Tell me we have another option.”

“There is,” I smiled as a plan crystallized in my mind. It was something that I had been toying with for many months but now the stars began neatly aligning and slotting into place. “We will fail, but understandably, plausibly and in so doing pave the way to finally penetrate into the very heart of the enemy.”

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The VCX-88 that Anakin had named ‘Invader’, burst out of hyperspace and started cloaking even before the final deceleration was complete.

The stealth scout would’ve been a brief blip on anyone's scopes even had there been a full taskforce with active sensors beaming in our direction.

Ahead of us the planet Stenos began steadily increasing in size as we stealthily powered in for an atmospheric entry.

From space, the planet was a mostly green sphere writhed in fluffy white clouds with minimal oceans. It was also mostly a place of mountain ranges, pinnacles, high plateaus and rocky deserts.

As the Invader breached into the atmosphere and I could see a general view of the horizon, the reason why this could be a spot of relaxation became apparent. It was like I was looking at a planet sized Switzerland.

The scenic sights were to die for.

Some of the plateaus we flew over could’ve been idyllic, were it not for the bad part of this planet.

The locals who called this place home.

I was not looking forward to meeting any of them.

The natives were a race called the Stenax. A reptilian species, two and half meters tall on average. The least of them would look at bodybuilders on old Earth and declare them scrawny runts. Three sharp claws on each bipedal foot, five on each hand and additional spikes that grew out of their shoulders and the back of their calf muscles. They generally had scaly, purple-gray or red skin with fearsomely sharp faces and pointy ears. Then to add the final layer of nope to this cake, the stenax featured wings on their back that were fully functional and stretched out to the wingspan of a small plane.

I had the idle ridiculous thought that I wanted the Doomguy on speed dial and send him down there to do his thing.

At least the planet also featured an immigrant population of humans and bith, though most of them were involved in the criminal underworld.

The Force itself had a fierce, ill-tempered stain on it from the collective unconscious of the stenax.

That was probably why it was the ideal place for a Sith to do their version of meditation. I could just imagine Dooku tapping into that to fuel his strength in the Dark Side.

The Invader soon cruised invisibly over what passed for the capital city of the planet.

It was a partial ruin thanks to a series of cataclysmic quakes that had hit large sections of an entire continental plate more than a century ago. It had been so destructive, that it had regressed the stenax from a partially spacefaring species to one that was firmly planet bound. Their religion had decreed it was a punishment from their god, Vol, and until they had paid enough penance that they were not allowed to fly using their wings or with machines. Nor could they repair the damage.

That didn’t apply to off-worlders naturally and so it was largely only due to ‘aliens’ that any rebuilding was done, out of sheer necessity to have a roof over their heads.

What passed for a stenax government was an assemblage of family clans, almost in the Mandalorian model, but vastly more insular and if you weren’t ‘of the blood’ you were an outsider. The only policy that the outside galaxy knew of from this government, was that they didn’t care about outsiders, their ways or their doings, even if they were on the planet.

If an offworlder was to involve themselves, they would quickly find themselves regretting it and being ‘quartered’ in a very public killing.

This meant anyone could do business on Stenos, as long as they kept out of stenax business and didn’t upset the applecart of paying their penance to Vol.

No one had yet figured out just what the penance involved, besides being angry, miserable and stuck on the ground, eking out a meager existence.

Anakin brought in the Invader to land on the other side of a small forest on the expansive plateau that the capital was built on.

“We’re going to have to do a bit of acclimatization, Snips. The high altitude and low oxygen content this high is problematic.”

I glanced at the readings on the central MFD and could only nod. The capital sat at an altitude of just over 5800 meters above local sea level. We would have to use some internal Control to boost our breathing efficiency and carry a breather mask for supplemental oxygen.

We headed into the cargo bay to dress and assume our new identities.

If anyone had been outside, they would be astonished to see an embarkation ramp of a ship appear out of thin air. 

I tugged on my faded long sleeve shirt, sleeveless leather jacket with a million pockets, then fiddled with my gun belt to tighten it around my waist a bit more and ruffled my rugged blue pants to make them appear a bit more creased.

“Doing okay there, Snips?” Anakin asked with amusement.

“Fine, this stuff might look old, but the shirt material is itchy, the belt and shoes are too stiff and I’d really like to meet whoever at RI thought it was a good idea for us both to look like disreputable smugglers out of Tatooine who are just about making ends meet.”

Anakin at least looked somewhat cool; he had brown pants, leather boots up to his calves, blue tunic and a long brown coat that hung all the way down to just above his ankles. He even had knee pads and the visible holster for his heavy blaster pistol, which gave just the right aura of potential danger to him. The makeup on his face to give him a tan again, plus pulling his long hair into a severe short ponytail did wonders to make him at least not look like Anakin Skywalker at first glance.

It took much longer for me to not recognizably be Ahsoka Tano, given I had to use my facial tattoo patterning kit to put on an entirely different look. Gone were the diamonds on my forehead, the white pattern that imitated eyebrows and flared patterns on my cheeks. Now I essentially had a broad upturned ‘C’ stamped on my face in white, with two small curved rectangles on my forehead. I also took an airbrush to my lekku and montrals, changing my natural purple pattern to a burnt orange.

I hated it immediately, which was good, from a disguise point of view at least.

“I guess they thought they were doing me a favor, since I know very well what those are like,” Anakin guessed. “Now, Ahne Zam, time to get in character.”

I didn’t have to put up a mask to adopt a perpetually displeased and surly persona at the moment. “Zam? Now I really have to give the RI analyst a piece of my mind. On Shili, the Zams are usually perceived as the hicks, idiots and entitled fools.”

“Are they actually?” he asked as we walked down the ramp.

“No, of course they’re not, Geinn Sevam,” I retorted with his alias, then looked back at the invisible Invader. “It’s just a memetic perception created by popular media on the homeworld.” My hand reached into a belt pouch and after a few taps on the ship’s remote control, the embarkation ramp retracted. I couldn’t help but giggle now, “We better remember where we parked.”

“I don’t think we’re in danger of that, Ahne, unless we develop amnesia for some reason. Now let’s get going, we have an appointment to reach.”

The walk to the city outskirts was an easy, flat three kilometers, but I couldn’t help but become nervous as we passed the first wrecked buildings of what had been tall circular houses, left to erode in the elements for nearly a century. Native plant life was hard at work taking root and further eroding the structure.

I braced myself but I just barely suppressed a flinch when I saw my first stenax in person.

The guy was just going about his day and was oblivious to my struggles to not whip out my hidden Darksaber and end the threat.

They’re not demons, Ahsoka, get a grip, I remonstrated myself.

I let the fear pass through me, found my equilibrium, using the energy to spur myself and push it into my mask of perpetual surliness.

The roads were at least in a mildly good condition, again due to offworld labor working on them. It was a weird sight to see the haphazard reconstruction, with the new or rebuilt structures sprinkled among the ruins of old.

Each such building were havens for off-worlders and the stenax, who were invariably only dressed with raggedy skirts of various colors avoided the buildings like they had the plague.

With another few minutes of navigating by using a datapad with a map from our contact, we arrived at our noisy destination.

“A cantina, what a breathtakingly original meeting place,” I said sarcastically.

“It’s always in a centralized location and everyone wants something to drink, especially in this heat,” he looked up at the cloudless sky with the single bright sun beating down on everyone, before he briefly pulled out a respirator to take a hit of oxygen. “You doing okay with the altitude, Ahne?”

“I’m managing,” I grumbled, shrugging off his concern.

He rolled his eyes, playing his part as the long suffering partner-in-smuggling, forced to put up with me.

Inside the reasonably large cantina, the music was pretty good, with a pleasant ring to it and the occasional bass element. There was no live band and it was only coming from a music system. I couldn’t imagine Stenos being an attractive destination for any musician. The air was heavy with the stench both pleasant and unpleasant of smoking from all manner of devices; bubblies, electronic vapes and even hand rolled cigars. Inside there was a menagerie of humans, bith, twi’lek and other species, chatting, drinking and laughing. All of them were some flavor of scum and villainy as Obi-wan would put it. Nevertheless, it was a welcome change from the dour exterior of the ruined city.

We found ourselves an empty booth and it wasn’t long before a bith waiter came up and asked for our order in their chittering language.

“Yes, two of your best local brew,” Anakin ordered casually, immediately dropping an appropriate credit chit on the table.

The waiter snatched it up and assured he’d be back quickly with the order.

Moments later, we both had mugs of beer that reminded me in smell at least, of a dark beer, but looked like it came from a hypermatter reactor, as it glowed blue and frothed in a satisfying manner.

I casually stirred it with a fingertip, as if I was testing the temperature. It was satisfyingly cool but there was nothing in it that was either poisonous beyond the obvious alcohol.

‘Now, after all this time, Skyguy?’ I thought to him with amusement.

‘Figure you can handle it and it's part of our cover.’

Any further conversation was interrupted when he whipped out his heavy blaster pistol in a flash, stopping it on the forehead of a scrawny human male, who looked like he needed a shower and new clothes desperately. The wastrel, who had clearly tried to pickpocket Anakin, hastily held up his empty hands.

“Sorry, sorry, didn’t steal, nothin!”

“Really?” Anakin said dryly. “Ahne will be the judge of that.” He pulled away the blaster and gestured with it for the wastrel to sit opposite him.

I grimaced with distaste and scooted over to make space for the stinky human to sit down. His oily, clumped brown hair was dripping with sweat. “Really, Geinn?” 

“Yes, the faster you get it over with, the faster we can be sure.”

My pat down of the guy was suitably awkward and I kept my face sporting a disgusted look. Sure enough, in the inner pocket of his torn jacket I found a data chit, which I palmed surreptitiously.

“Nothing, bare pickings today, pickpocket?” I asked with a curled lip.

“Yeah, yeah, let me go already. If you were gonna fry my brains, you would’ve already. Besides, you’d also have to pay for the cleanup costs,” the pickpocket drawled in a strange accent of Basic… perhaps it was local.

Anakin sighed and gestured with the blaster, “Scoot, get out of here.”

The pickpocket bolted impressively. He had a good turn of speed.

I drank from my beer as I lifted a small datapad from my pocket, having already slotted in the chit under the table. The beer was wonderfully cold, refreshing, with a strong taste on the front end, alcoholic bite in the middle, with a hint of sweetness in the aftertaste. Pretty good.

What wasn’t good was what I was reading from our local contact disguised as a pickpocket.

“And?” Anakin thought.

“It seems the other RI agent, who was supposed to put the finishing touches on our potential infiltration of Dooku’s estate in the western highlands, has had the misfortune of getting on the bad side of a local stenax.”

“That’s not so bad.”

“The stenax in question is the son of a major patriarch in one of the most prominent clans of the capital and our agent’s due to be executed tomorrow.”

“Oh… frak.”

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A/N: A new arc begins. Hope you enjoyed and that your weekend will be great. Stay awesome folks.