The Force Wills - Chapter 43 (Patreon)

“Do you see it?”

I took a deep breath, even though I was pretty sure I wasn’t breathing air at the moment and nodded at my interlocutor.

“Yes, but actually doing it without relying on you as a crutch for the process is not going to be the work of a few hours of meditation,” I said to the image of Tarre Vizsla.

“Yes and no,” the kyber sentience of the Darksaber said sternly at me, his eyes narrowing between the vision slit of his ancient Mandalorian helmet. “You’ve seen the process, you’ve felt it, you even could do it right now. Put out of your mind the notion that you can’t unless you’ve bashed your skull against it for ten thousand hours. It certainly applies to mastery and how efficiently you achieve the result, but in this there is a point where it’s good enough for your purposes and with the time constraints we have.”

I stared into the infinite black and white landscape and dimension of the Darksaber, casting off my thoughts and doubts. You’d think that after achieving this for other skills, I would have no problems with Tutaminis. As many advantages and experiences I had from my previous life, they could also just as quickly become disadvantages. Just because Satele Shan had no-selled a lightsaber blade with her bare hands, didn’t necessarily mean I’d need to wait until I was at her level of experience or age before I could pull off the same thing. Shaking that notion off me at a subconscious level was proving extremely frustrating.

“Look, again,” Tarre snapped in command.

He turned, his robes whirling as he brandished the Darksaber. Immediately appearing opposite him in an instant was Darth Malgus.

The Sith Lord of old stood a domineering 2.1 meters in height with dual ruby red lightsaber blades already lit and in a Jar’kai stance. He was wearing his respirator and numerous bits of cybernetics were visible, added due to his many injuries over the years. His ribbed intimidating black armor in the low natural lighting of this dimension made for a very frightening sight. It was something slightly worse than a future Darth Vader, because with Malgus, he actually displayed to the world his injured bald head and Dark Side corruption with no hesitation.

Tarre had been steadily throwing all the various Darths I knew at me in this dimension and it was not a pleasant or fun experience. The sense of cloying corruption of these various Sith Lords was not at all apparent to you through a mere monitor. Just being in the undiluted presence of them was something that tore at your mind and soul. Tarre Vizsla had fought near the end of the previous era, he had experienced the apex of corruption that the Sith had sunk to and it was ghastly.

Malgus instantly threw out Force Lightning from both his hands.

The strength of it was such that it made what Ventress threw at me look like a bit of static electricity.

Yet Tarre calmly faced the incoming storm and gave a sweeping slice of the Darksaber that pulled all the lightning in, then threw it off to the side, where it spent itself on the nothingness of the Darksaber dimension’s infinite black floor.

To think that there had been Sith Sorcerers in the past that made Malgus’ lightning look ordinary. It really drew home the point that there had been an interregnum. That both sides had suffered in the skill, knowledge and usage of the Force. From that point of view, the past thousand years had really done no favors to either Jedi or Sith.

“See?”

I nodded, “Yes.”

Then Malgus raised his hands and lightning shot towards me.

I was seated in meditation posture, no lightsaber on hand, no warning.

The surprise was complete and utter.

Death and pain was streaming towards me.

No wimping out Ahsoka! I screamed to myself

Do or do not.

I raised my hands in the brief moment afforded to me to react and pulled.

The lightning slammed into me and for an instant that bordered on eternity, it was like I had been hit by a truck. Every muscle in my body began to twitch as the energy began to overload me…

Pull you bastard!

I am not just a collection of crude matter, a biological machine obeying set laws that even the best scientists could only scratch the true surface of.

The lightning writhed and danced all over my body, the pain vanished, my control returned.

That was all fine and dandy, but now the energy began to pool within, building and building nightmarishly quickly.

What to do with it? How?

Fear began to raise its ugly head. If I didn’t find a way quickly I’d…

Just as quickly everything stopped. Malgus vanished, the Force lightning and its energies were no more. No longer was I threatening to explode and die in a conflagration of out of control energies.

I glared at Tarre. “You’re a real bastard,” I groused.

A smile threatened to crack his usual stern visage. “When I was alive, I didn’t have the time for a padawan, but I had instructed many younglings and initiates. They espoused similar views about my teaching methods. I am a being of kyber, channeling the energies of the Force comes as natural to me as breathing does to you. Darth Nox could be here, throwing the best and largest Force Storm she could and it’d be no different to me. Again, you’re internalizing judgements about power and what you should and should not be able to handle.

“Kyber is a crystal, and by its nature in the natural universe, very fragile. Yet extremely strong when used to the correct purpose and conditions. In comparison a human or in your case, togruta, is a carbon based fleshy being, very strong in certain respects but weak in others. You must learn to bridge this gap. You must eventually learn to channel the Force as kyber does, strengthening your spirit while also insulating the weaknesses of your flesh to the various energies you’re juggling.”

I fought very hard against myself at this point, biting back the first thing I wanted to scream out. “I will,” I declared with as much conviction as I could muster.

“Good, I think we should end it here for today, it’s about time for your meeting.”

A brief look at my metaphysical anchor indicated that he was correct. “See you tomorrow then.”

“What nonsense,” he scoffed. “You must stop thinking about here and out there. This ‘place’ is not going anywhere when you ‘leave’, Ahsoka.”

“It was just a figure of speech, Tarre,” I sighed wearily.

I blinked and the world was replaced by the interior of Anakin’s quarters in the Jedi Temple. A beeping from my chrono indicated it was nine in the morning at my current position on Coruscant.

“Six hours,” I muttered. A decent amount of training under meditative conditions. I just wish there was a hard and fast rule to how time passed in that ‘dimension’. It felt sometimes as if it was days and other times barely an hour would pass to my perception but eight hours would pass in real time.

I did a quick stretch routine before rushing to dress in my Hapan outfit. A quick check of the mirror revealed the need for a bit of moisturizing of my left lekku, but I did all of them anyway.

That done, I emerged into the living halls of the Jedi Temple and power walked with speed in a way that was probably not at all proper in the stately and serene atmosphere of the giant temple. The frowning, disapproving looks of a number of knights and masters followed me all the way to the central command and communication center.

“Ah good morning, little Soka.”

I smiled warmly and bowed to Plo Koon, “And to you, Master.”

“I trust you are ready?” The Kel Dor Master asked perfunctorily, his cheeks twitching behind his breather mask in amusement.

“Of course,” I said, pulling out a data chit from my belt and slotting it into a port on the giant central holotank.

“Excellent, let’s get this over with then. You still owe me a long conversation of your doings of late.”

He stepped forward and after a few button presses the two holoforms of Master Adi Gallia and Master Ki Adi Mundi appeared around the tank.

Both masters bowed in greeting to their fellow.

“Master Koon,” said Mundi neutrally, merely giving me a glance of acknowledgement. “This was to have been a discussion of fleet and asset deployment in the north. Was there any change in agenda?”

“No, Master Mundi, I just believe and it has been agreed at a higher level, that Ahsoka would benefit by observing and occasionally participating in select strategic discussions.”

“I see,” Mundi folded his hands formally in front of him and why could I imagine flames billowing out of his ‘ears’?

“Interesting,” Gallia smiled crookedly at me and winked. “It’d certainly liven things up in some of the meetings then.”

“Yes quite,” Master Koon coughed delicately though I was utterly sure he was just doing it to hide his own amusement at Mundi’s reaction. “Between us three, we are responsible for the north and north eastern galactic fronts of the war. We are caught in a duality of static laned warfare and maneuver warfare. If this status quo continues we are essentially caught in a constant back and forth, with nothing in near to mid term that will change it. We achieve victory in the north, we push forward, our logistics are stretched ever further while the CIS logistics is shortened and simplified. Eventually, they push back and we have no choice but to retreat.

“In the north-east, our gains are even more nebulous. We destroy a ship here, there, we take a loss here and there. We take a system, but can’t afford to hold it because we can’t guarantee security when there are three or more hyper points to defend.”

“The forward supply bases can only be built at their current rate,” Mundi pointed out. “Which for my liking is too quickly, the amount of safety regulations being discarded in favor of speed will lead to disaster eventually.”

“We’re fighting a war, Master Mundi,” Gallia gave him a pointed stare. “If our base construction doesn’t go faster this back and forth attrition will eventually break the GAR’s back.”

“When a base with shoddy construction standards blows up and destroys a link in the supply chain at a critical time-”

“Masters,” Master Koon interrupted what I could sense was an old argument. “We are not here for another debate. We are here to find solutions. Something that our resident padawan might set us on the road towards.”

Mundi huffed in obvious disbelief and Gallia smirked.

Koon gestured for me to go ahead. A few taps on the terminal brought up my first holo.

“A dreadnought?” Mundi questioned, shaking his head. “That-”

“The floor currently belongs to Padawan Tano, Master Mundi,” Koon grumbled.

“What you are currently looking at is the Mandator-II class of star dreadnought,” I continued, careful to remain serenely neutral in body and emotion. “It’s generally the same hull as the Mandator to ease construction, though slightly bigger by five hundred or so meters. It has the upgrades and improvements done to make the old Mandator a viable combatant in the current war built in from the ground up. This has resulted in a speed improvement to a Class 2 Hyperdrive, meaning that it can now form a meaningful part of singular fleet formation that can cruise through the galaxy in a reasonable timeframe. The first unit will finish construction at KDY in eight months, with a further six months of minimum space trials before it can be commissioned.”

“Such a vessel at the front lines, while very welcome, is going to make our supply situation even worse, padawan,” Master Gallia said reasonably.

“It would, if you thought of the Mandator-II as just a better dreadnought,” I tapped the terminal and highlighted a few areas on the ship modified to my own design. “This ship, with a few compromises made in weaponry and consumable stowage could also function as a hybrid factory ship. It’ll sit out in Oort clouds or around gas giants, send out dedicated mining and harvesting ships, which will return where the ship will refine and build using those resources.”

Yes, I had just essentially built a mothership from the Homeworld universe with Coruscan tech, except one with very sharp teeth of its own and could move relatively fast.

Masters Gallia and Koon looked like their brains had exploded from a moment of revelation. Master Mundi just glared at the holo and looked like he needed to break wind.

“This… this could work, padawan? You’ve tested the feasibility?” Gallia composed herself quickly but her excitement was palpable.

“I did the math, yes,” I nodded and boy, did my brain hurt from all the numbers involved. “The power requirements, space, crew, onboard factory workers, internal and external supply. It’s even technically cheaper in real credit cost. The Mandator-II can do it, it’ll make the big gun crowd unhappy because it has to sacrifice about thirty percent of its guns, but it’s well worth it. This is a ship that can theoretically last for generations, do its own maintenance, build its own ships that operate off it. It’s a literal mobile supply line that we can put wherever we need it.”

“Most intriguing,” Master Koon folded his arms. “It’s an amazing idea, Padawan Tano. Do you think KDY could make it happen?”

“There’s no technological challenges that I can see if this change is made beyond the small details. I doubt I’m going to make friends among the shipwrights, but the necessity is clear, Masters.”

Master Koon stared at the holo of the gigantic ship thoughtfully. “This will require careful thought and consideration, even if it's agreed among the Council, it’ll be up to the Chancellor’s office for the final political decision.”

I nodded in agreement. A mothership would be just the ticket to potentially insure the survival and continuity of civilization from any number of galactic wide disasters. In the long term, I wanted to see the days of planetbound civilization end and for the galaxy to move to a hybrid model of sorts, with Halos, Orbitals, hyper-capable O’Neill Cylinders, motherships the size of moons with their own artificial ecologies.

“The other topic I wanted to discuss with you today was the recent success in the use of the Electro-Proton weapon,” Koon continued. “As Padawan Tano was there and involved in the planning for its use by the 501st, I’d thought she would have some valuable insight on the future deployment of the weapon.”

“Isn’t it supposedly the answer to all our prayers?” Gallia asked sarcastically with a crooked smile.

“Things are never that simple, Master Gallia,” Mundi declared. “Just a cursory read of the reports highlights a number of problems.”

“Master Mundi is correct,” I said in agreement. “The EP Bomb is a tactical scale battlefield weapon used on a planetary surface. It needs aerospace superiority over the battlefield before it can be hooked onto a Y-Wing. It cannot be used on an occupied city with civilians, as its initial blast to generate the greater EM effect is substantial. Even if there were no civilians, you’d be looking at the loss of twelve percent of an average city’s physical infrastructure and close to eighty percent of its civilian data and power infrastructure. It’d essentially make it uninhabitable for modern civilization without extensive time consuming repair and replacement of that hardware.”

“Problematic in the extreme,” Koon mused. “So only usable in outlying open field warfare. Something the CIS is already beginning to show an aversion for.”

“This weapon will only encourage them to disperse forces even more, meaning we would need to drop dozens of EP bombs in saturation strikes to guarantee that droid forces are wiped out,” I explained. “This brings us to the next problem, currently to produce the EP bomb requires specialized laboratory conditions and equipment. The techniques and practicalities for the large scale production required for extensive use still needs to be researched, engineered, built and implemented. Until such a time, the cost per unit of this weapon is going to be enormous.”

“How many can be built at the moment?” Master Gallia asked.

“The best estimate Doctor Boll could give me was three devices per month for the foreseeable future, perhaps five as they refine their methods further.”

Master Mundi shook his head, “It’s ridiculous, all that effort and resources and we’re left with an albino terentatek.”

“The best use case I’ve brainstormed for the EP bomb is in special operations, it represents the best cost to benefit. If it can be smuggled into a primary droid factory, complex or command facility it has the potential of sowing extreme chaos behind enemy lines.”

“An idea that warrants further study, Padawan Tano,” Master Koon nodded, scratching his leathery chin.

“There’s another idea that I also brainstormed in this line of thinking, that is worth mentioning, Masters. I’ve already done some of the preliminary groundwork of this and it will take minimum relative effort.”

Master Koon looked at Gallia and Mundi for a moment.

“Might as well, padawan, go ahead,” Gallia gestured to the holo.

The holo changed to show a large, flat profiled armored speeder that had rather aesthetic curved lines, with a very shiny chrome-like hull, with sections of green painted over it. Sticking up and mounted on its aft was a large articulated box with twenty openings.

“This is the Naboo Mobile Missile Launcher, something that the RNSF has just recently fielded a production variant of. It’s designed as an anti-air platform that will swat anything from the skies and only needs a single pilot. My idea is to tweak the onboard software and for it to fire a new missile type at droid ground targets.” I tapped the terminal and the missile in question appeared in the holotank. “This missile is not so much a single target weapon as it’s designed to distribute submunitions of dozens of droid poppers onto an area.”

“Impressive padawan,” Gallia smiled. “You could make it rain droid poppers over a very large area. Creating a similar effect as the EP bomb but with much less damage.”

“It won’t be as thorough, but it’ll definitely make a mess out of any CIS army occupying a city in the open. It also fills in a gap in the GAR artillery platforms. The AV-7, SP-HAAT and even AT-TE are all anti-vehicle or starship weapons. To target small droid units we’ve had to use splash damage on congerated unit formations, often creating damage to roads and areas that we have to fight and drive over. The Naboo MML will handily fill in this gap. It’ll also help in a dedicated air-defense against Vulture and Hyena droids, which the SP-HAAT is not nimble enough to reliably engage.”

“I want them,” Gallia declared immediately with an almost evil smile on her face.

“Now, now, Master Gallia,” Koon chuckled. “Are we sure the Naboo will even let us have them?”

“Senator Amidala was amenable when I spoke to her,” I grinned briefly. “While they are willing to donate a squadron or two to the GAR, the majority of their production is intended for the defense of their homeworld. Rothana Heavy Engineering should be able to get reasonable terms in the license agreement, the Naboo are not greedy people.”

“Well, this has been a very productive meeting… Ahsoka, what’s wrong?”

The Force flexed around me and shifted. I felt like I had the metaphysical equivalent of a searchlight focused on me while my eyes were opened. “Apologies Masters, I need to step out for a bit.”

I practically fell into a meditative position and plunged into the Force so quickly that it was like I had taken a cliff dive.

That dive took me right along my bond with Anakin.

“Master, ease up on the pressure!”

His thoughts blasted me. “Oh, sorry, Snips, I guess distance truly doesn’t matter.”

“Skyguy, after all the times I said it, only now it gets through your thick skull? You might as well have Force Pushed me from across the galaxy.”

“Yes, you can berate me later. Need a bit of help here. Come through.”

Thankfully he wasn’t asking me to Force Project, which was something I gladly left to future me to figure out. My Farsight would have to do in this case…

… all around me was wreckage, destroyed and bent bulkheads of what was clearly the starboard bridge of a Venator. Beyond the gaps in the walls and forward transparisteel was an eerie sky that looked rather familiar. My perspective was hovering over a large collapse of what should’ve been a ceiling panel and durasteel girders, and all around was scorching indicative of an explosion.

Poking out from underneath this mess were the shoulders and heads of Anakin and Windu, clearly trapped and unable to free themselves.

“Dare I even ask, Master? This is the Endurance?”

“Yes, it was sabotaged, during the training cruise, by one of the clone cadets, but who was actually Boba Fett, the adopted clone son of Jango Fett, the original clone template. Boba was actually after Master Windu…” A spike of pain lanced through Anakin, disrupting his focus. “Thanks for the warning by the way. Saved Windu’s life from an earlier bomb.”

“I wish I could’ve done and said more, Master.”

“Stop that, we both know the drill on this Foresight ability. Now do hurry to our rescue. Boba is not alone and has a bounty hunter group helping him, one of whom is a former Jedi that Master Windu is pretty sure is Aurra Sing. R2 did a good job faking our escape and Master Windu has clouded our presence from Sing sensing us. We’re also sure she took Admiral Kilian and two other high ranking clones as hostages.”

“And this planet is?”

“Ah, yes. Sorry, Vanqor.”

“Master, even in an Acclamator, Vanqor is three days away at top speed. Can you hold out that long?”

“We will.”

“Very well, I’m coming as soon as I can. Don’t die, Skyguy.”

“Not planning on it, Snips.”

I broke contact and reversed course instantly, opening my eyes to regard Master Koon looking down on me with visible worry, and he had his hand on my brow. “Ahsoka? You were in contact with your Master?”

“Yes, I’m back. There’s a serious problem.”

I jumped to my feet and hurried to the holotank terminal, interfacing with the emergency distress network. It was the work of a few keystrokes to focus it towards Vanqor. Sure enough, the Endurance’s destruction beacon was blinking in orbit of the planet. Next a query to the military network brought up a report from a medical frigate that had responded to the beacon already, including the tidbit that Master Windu and Anakin was investigating the wreckage for possible survivors of the Endurance - that it had crash landed under a degree of control by Admiral Killian and a skeleton staff of naval clones. As I was doing this I also rehashed what Anakin had communicated to the masters present.

“We can do more research on the way, Ahsoka, we will leave immediately. Thank you, masters, this meeting is adjourned,” Master Koon declared, before he made a small gesture of his hand.

“Now wait just a moment-” Master Mundi objected before his holoform vanished along with Gallia’s.

I narrowed my eyes in suspicion at Master Koon. “Was it my imagination or did I sense a bit of satisfaction from you, interrupting the comlink, master?”

“Why padawan, I would never stoop to such antics. Time is after all, of the essence.”

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Seeing how quickly things could get done when a Jedi High Council member was figuratively cracking the whip and when the person holding it was Plo Koon, was a sight to behold. By the time we had reached the hangars and gotten onto a shuttle bound for the shipyards, we already had a ship, an Acclimator with a rather fitting name, Defiance.

It was in dock doing a routine resupply before returning to the northern battlespaces. Master Koon’s commandeering of the ship resulted in that being put on hold. The ship wouldn’t lose out on critical supply items, such as ammo, fuel and so on, it was only the ancillary supplies that the crew would have a bit of shortage of and rationing would have to be implemented for those.

It still took a rather agonizing two hours before everything was buttoned up and ship shape for departure. Our military authorization and Master Koon’s authority managed to bump us to the head of the queue for using the northeastern Anaxes outbound hyperlane to eventually intercept the northward stretch of the Hydian Way. Even that took still another twenty minutes until the Defiance streaked into hyperspace and accelerated to its max sustainable hyper velocity.

The naval clone commander of the Defiance, Captain Drea, naturally didn’t object to his command being taken on an emergency mission, but I could tell he was irked that he didn’t finish the ship’s resupply. Just like Velos, he also had a streak of what I could almost call outright OCD. It was a trait for detail that was probably encouraged and trained among the naval clones, which had the potential to further bloom into minor obsession.

Master Koon and I had taken our seats in the rear of the bridge, close to the tactical command holotank, where I used the opportunity to do a bit of research on Aurra Sing, now that I had the excuse.

The palliduvan had been born into poverty and given to the Jedi Order by a mother who couldn’t afford to feed her own child. Nothing was known about her father. Sing was quite gifted in the Force but not a standout student and just faded into the background of one among many initiates and adepts. Her academic transcripts showed someone who just did enough and no more. She built her own lightsaber, even attained padawan rank, but in a complete surprise move by everyone who knew her among the adepts, she simply left the Order. Leaving only a resignation letter addressed to the High Council, just so it wouldn’t be assumed she needed to be searched for.

Then for five years she vanished into the great big galaxy. The only hint as to what she did in that time became apparent when she registered openly with the Bounty Hunter’s Guild at the tender age of nineteen. She quickly developed a fearsome reputation in her own right within just two years, with dozens of successful bounties to her name. The information the Guild had on her was naturally sparse, but her skill with a sniper rifle and as a general assassin quickly spread among their grapevine.

Her usage of the Force was never overtly present in any of the reports that I could call up, which neatly explained why the Order was never called in to apprehend her in any capacity. She kept her nose clean in the core worlds and her wetwork was always in the practically lawless Outer Rim. As far as I could tell, she didn’t even carry her own lightsaber anymore. She only used blasters and knives in her work.

The next time she popped up on the info grids was on Nar Shaddaa, just prior to the Trade Federation invasion of Naboo. A twi’lek Jedi padawan had been kidnapped by the Xresus Cartel and Sing was observed attending the auction, along with Cad Bane and a crew of other bounty hunters.

The Jedi team sent to pursue and rescue the padawan only caught up to her on the moon of Drazkel close to Hutt space, where they found her body and her broken lightsaber.

The lead Jedi master could only conclude that padawan Eldra Kaitis had been in a heavy fight with another lightsaber wielding opponent, there had been extensive usage of the Force and TK, and she had lost that fight. The only probable suspect being Aurra Sing, even if it didn’t fit the bounty hunter’s MO anymore, it was the best theory available to the Jedi at the time.

She disappeared into the Outer Rim again, continuing the bounty hunter life with Bane’s crew probably, but her efforts to remain off the radar in the core worlds hit a snag. She was suspected in the disappearance of a podracer, after being hired by Coruscant based podracer manufacturer Farwan & Glott. The CSF inspector was forced to declare the case cold as his only evidence was a circumstantial hologram that was missing its authentication codes.

“Interesting reading, little ‘Soka?”

“Somewhat, Master, though it does beg the question, how often do padawans just leave like Aurra Sing did? Certainly none did amongst my own peers, even those who went into the service corps.”

Koon folded his arms and stared at the latest holoprofile for the palliduvan. “It is something rare, padawan. Sing’s case was before my time on the Council, so I can’t share any personal insight on the matter. It’s clear though that she is by now a highly dangerous and effective bounty hunter that we would do well not to underestimate. The fact that she is partially responsible for putting a Jedi of Master Windu’s power in such a helpless position speaks for itself. Now that we are underway, it is pointless to get underfoot in the running of the ship. Let’s find a space where we can meditate and train.”

“Yes, master.”

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Two days and twenty-two hours later the Defiance roared out of hyper beyond the mass shadow of Vanqor.

A squad of Recon clones from the 104th Battalion joined us in three LAAT gunships and we launched the instant scans of the system indicated that it was all clear of any CIS presence or signal that could be overtly detected.

“General Koon, a hyperspace ring just popped up on scanners, it was in EMCON mode, we also have the crash site locked in and should be overhead in nine minutes,” reported the gunship pilot.

“Thank you, Lieutenant. Make your best speed,” he ordered.

I threaded my lekku and montrals into my helmet and secured it into its locked position. The internal Aegis systems booted up fully and I tried to get it to sync with Anakin’s armor. Only for the system to return an error message in my HUD. He had indicated his armor had been damaged and it seemed its communications had been affected as well. The onboard system was usually good enough for over 300km line of sight range by themselves, and generally piggy-backed off Republic ships to extend that range even further.

“Snips? Ah, at last. Not to hurry you, but the bridge superstructure is really on its last legs.” Anakin’s thoughts were steady but there was an undercurrent of alarm.

“R2’s patch jobs not holding up?”

“He’s done his best, but he’s not a construction droid. If it wasn’t for him, we’d both be dead already from smoke inhalation or conduit explosions.”

“We’re close, Skyguy. Hang on.”

The gunships finished their entry translations into the atmosphere and at five thousand meters opened the side doors to give an impressive view of the landscape. Unlike the last time we had been here when chasing Count Dooku, this part of the planet was more flat rocky plains than the mountainous caves. It made sense that Admiral Killian had aimed his doomed ship for this part of the planet.

The gunships made a smooth turn and soon we could see the crashed Venator rapidly approaching in the distance.

The ship’s back had clearly been broken as the aft section was sticking up into the air at a roughly 45 degree angle, whilst the front was flat on the earth. It had dug an impressive trench that would probably become a permanent scar on the landscape that nature would take a few thousand years to smooth over with natural erosion. The major problem was that even after all these days since the crash, there were still fires burning all over the superstructure, from either ammunition or fuel feed lines.

“I sense them. Lieutenant, approach the starboard bridge, hover in place,” ordered Master Koon.

It was rather agonizing to just stand and watch as the gunship swooped around the main superstructure and began a slow hovering approach to the utterly wrecked bridge section. It was bent and the supports that connected it to the ‘tower’ below it was warped and breaking before our eyes.

“Ahsoka, we must both hold it steady,” Koon said and raised both hands towards the bridge.

The Force began flowing in a torrent under the direction of the Jedi Master.

I took a deep breath and raised my hands as well to join him in directing the feat of telekinesis we were about to perform.

Our combined will wrenched on the metaphysical plane of the Force, translating into the real.

I abandoned all notion of conventional physics from my being.

The weight of that much durasteel and assorted debris began shifting and instead of falling, it was now arrested and supported by the combined strength of Koon and myself.

“Cables!” he ordered.

Four troopers shot high strength lines from the ascension attachments of their rifles, which punctured into the floor of the bridge. The lines were then quickly connected onto the gunship’s tow points.

“You’re clear, sergeant, we’re holding steady.”

Two clones made rather impressive jumps over the gap and hurried towards the two trapped Jedi. I did my best to push away some debris as well for them with precise TK and lightened the load of some of the bigger pieces, so the clones could work easier.

Finally, both Anakin and Windu were free, and the clones helped them to their feet.

Both men’s physical condition was not the best. R2 had at least been able to feed them water, but had been unable to salvage either food rations or get them from either Jedi’s D7 Aethersprite fighters - which had been destroyed and used as a diversion.

The metaphysical effort really began to hit now.

“Hurry, sergeant!” ordered Koon urgently.

The entire bridge module began cracking and I could distinctly hear that our TK was actually hurrying the overall collapse, despite the temporary stability it was providing.

“We’re losing it, sir!”

The gunship pilot had no choice but to lower altitude a bit to avoid the module’s sudden shift.

“Jump! Jump!”

Anakin, Mace, and two troopers practically fell into the gunship’s troop bay. I refused to let the impact of bodies distract me and gave a final metaphysical heave with the Force, pushing the entire collapsing section away from the gunship.

Master Koon’s lightsaber burst into existence and he swiped them through the cables.

“Go! Go!”

I lowered my hands and pulled out of the river of the Force, letting it resume its normal flow.

I vaguely sensed the gunships gunning their throttles to put as much distance from the wreck as possible. Then the bridge module crashed into the main body of the Venator below, setting off a fresh series of explosions and multiple shockwaves buffeting through the air.

“You okay, Snips?” Anakin took off his helmet, revealing a rather bruised face and he winced as the trooper holding him up settled into a more comfortable position.

“I should be asking you that, you’ve spent the last three days with a bridge on your back,” I put my hand on his forehead and pushed my awareness into a general health checkup. “Three broken ribs, a broken leg, muscle strains, bruising, you’re also starving but your meditation trances have staved off the worst effects of that. A night in the bacta tank, a solid meal and you’ll be fine. Where is R2?”

“I sent him to hide nearby until I gave a signal…” he tapped his comlink. “Which I just did. He should come flying at us at any moment.”

I tapped my own comlink to the pilot, “Lieutenant, if you see a blue astromech approaching us, open a door for it to… uh, land I guess.”

“Roger, commander.”

I hurried over to Master Windu and also proceeded to give him a checkup. “No broken bones, Master, bruising and strains only, but you’ve got some damage from smoke inhalation to the fine tissues in your lungs. I can begin the healing process now if you wish.”

He coughed, “That I could’ve guessed, padawan, but… thank you.”

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It took most of a day before the med techs and droids of the Defiance gave the all clear for Anakin and Windu to receive visitors. The ship had in the meantime, retreated into hyper and headed for the nearby Stenos system to rejoin the major hyper lanes of the sector.

I sat down next to Anakin’s biobed and gave him a stern look, sending him a memory of a nice slap upside the head that Padme had given him on Naboo. He rolled his eyes at me and shrugged, accepting the remonstration. His wife had designated me to deliver such tough love whenever he was injured.

“Now, can either of you explain just what the Endurance was doing all the way out here?” Master Koon asked.

“Admiral Killian has lately taken to bringing the clone cadets to less friendly neutral space in the Outer Rim, to bloody them on pirates or criminals,” Windu explained from his bed. The senior Jedi Master, never to spend time idle even when healing, was working on a large datapad. “He generally has them manning the AA guns of the ship under supervision.”

“What of Boba Fett? How did he manage to infiltrate the CYB?” I asked. Young clones were not just identified by their faces after all.

“I’ve been giving some thought to that. It’s possible he was implanted with a black market spoofer. It’s what most criminal slicers use for infiltrating areas that require biochip IDs. Physically infiltrating Kamino is also possible, since they’re now openly trading with the Republic. Boba only has to smuggle himself in with a smuggler compartment built into a shipping container. Then it’s just a matter of walking in and appearing to be an out of bounds young clone. He’d be scooped up quickly and reintegrated into the system.”

“While certainly a useful mental exercise in possibly improving security on Kamino, we must consider the hostages Sing took, that is more urgent. The secrets Admiral Killian holds would fetch a high price from the CIS,” Master Koon said.

“As would Clone Commander Ponds and the Endurance’s navigator,” Windu pointed out.

The chirping of a comlink interrupted further conversation and Master Koon raised his arm to tap on his vambrace. A small holo appeared of Master Gallia. “Greetings Master. The Temple just informed me of a transmission they received a few hours ago. They tried to do a trace, but the best they could narrow it down to was somewhere within your current slice of the galaxy.”

Her holo vanished, only to be replaced with a larger one. Prominent were the bound and gagged figures of Admiral Killian, Commander Ponds and the clone navigator. Standing over them was Boba Fett holding the WESTAR blasters that had to have belonged to his ‘father’, Jango - given that the young Boba wasn’t really sized for them. The holsters on his legs looked almost comically big on his small frame. Yet it was clear that Boba could still handle the blaster to deadly effect by how he was brandishing it at the heads of the hostages.

Standing behind Boba was Aurra Sing. The female palliduvan was clearly not modest about herself at all, given that she was wearing a red catsuit that might as well have been painted on, so tightly did it hug her every curve. She also kept herself in very good shape and would be considered attractive to a vast majority of humanoid species in the galaxy. It was clear immediately that she considered her looks as another weapon in her arsenal, to distract her opponents so she could use the blasters holstered in belts around her shapely hips. The only thing to detract from her appearance was the odd style of fiery brown hair, a single tuft of which sprouted from the top of her head then blossomed into an expansive mane of hair. It was an odd hybrid of baldness and its opposite. She was also cyberized to a minor extent, with a com implant directly in the left side of her head, that stuck out a thin antenna into the air.

“Mace Windu,” Boba sneered. The expression was honestly adorable on that young face and I struggled a bit to bury my amusement and a giggle. It was like being threatened by a baby akul. “You were lucky to escape. Your friends here were not so fortunate.”

“Until you face Boba,” Sing continued, her icy green eyes glaring into the holoreceiver as she threateningly kicked Commander Ponds in the back. “These men will be killed, one at a time. What’s your name?”

Ponds naturally didn’t answer the bounty hunter’s question and received another kick for his trouble. The clone reluctantly said, “CT-411.” Exactly obeying the regs for when a clone was taken prisoner.

Sing scoffed, “Pathetic, Boba do it.”

Boba shifted the aim of his WESTAR to the back of Pond’s head.

The young clone’s grip on the weapon visibly tightened and his teeth gritted as he glared at the back of Pond’s bald head. It was immediately clear to me that he couldn’t do it. He still had the innate human natural programming that prevented him from pulling the trigger in this circumstance. The conflict in his eyes was visible. Made worse by the fact that he was technically trying to kill a clone that shared his blood and face.

“Boba!” Sing snapped.

The young clone suddenly lowered the gun and shook his head.

Sing didn’t waste a second and shot Ponds immediately. The effects of a close range blaster to the back of the head was not pleasant to look at - as Pond’s eyes bulged out awfully and almost burst from the sudden thermal shock transfer through his brain and connected tissues. He slumped forward and the grisly sight was pushed out of the holoreceiver field of view.

“Only two to go, Windu,” she said mildly, a cruel smirk on her face. “Come and find us, we’ll be waiting.”

The holo winked out.

“Was there anything else included in the transmission, Master Gallia?” Koon asked.

Gallia’s holoform winked into view. “None. It seems they want to delay us in finding them. Sing’s endgame is clearly just monetary in selling the hostages. Master Windu’s potential assassination is just a side-benefit and closure for young Boba.”

“I’ll go,” Windu said flatly.

“I thought you had bigger concerns, Master,” Anakin stated - clearly they had spoken at length during their forced convalescence.

“That was before Sing escalated to actually killing hostages.”

“You are still in recovery,” Koon pointed out logically. “Your presence would also only aggravate the boy. Padawan Tano and I will move forward on this.”

Windu clearly didn’t relish the idea of sitting back, but he was old and wise enough to recognize that it was for the best.

“Very well.”

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It must be very nice to be a Jedi High Council member.

Master Koon had taken a small briefing room for our use and not a minute later we were both looking at confidential records that in normal circumstances a padawan or even a commander in the GAR wouldn’t see in a million years. The moment the holographic renderings appeared he just gave me a pointed look and I felt across our bond his clear warning.

I just nodded, bent down in front of the holotank and got to work.

Between the two of us we began reviewing all the records on Jango Fett that were available. I was sure there were probably more at an even higher classification, but those would only be viewable by Chancellor Palpatine.

The first thing we did was find a list of known associates, suspected and confirmed, then started plotting their potential locations on the galaxy.

This started adding too many hits, as many locations were only of sightings and areas where Jango’s associates operated in, not where any potential base of operations or safehouses were.

Many of these data trails inevitably led right back to Coruscant and its undercity levels, usually around sublevel 1300 or more - where most of the criminal underworld lived and operated out of.

Other significant clusters were around typical locations you’d expect like Nar Shaddaa, Tatooine and Mandalore. Looking at it all being plotted out on the galaxy really hit home how well-traveled and successful Jango Fett became as a bounty hunter in the wake of the Mandalorian Civil Wars.

The files even detailed how he had come to own the Slave I - something I honestly couldn’t recall at all from my previous life. It had come originally from the prison moon Oovo 4 in the south-eastern Outer Rim - where the Firespray-31 class starship was used to patrol the space around the prison. Jango stole one for his own use on a contract to organize the extraction of a wealthy prisoner - then later upgraded it into the well known, very deadly starship that it was today.

I brought up the detailed reports on it, not because I wanted to geek out on its tech specs, but because it was highly likely that Sing had inherited Slave I and I could soon be shot at by the ship.

It was really impressive work and made me wonder if Jango was a skilled tech in his own right or if he sub-contracted the upgrade work over the years to successive starship engineers. I would not want to take on this ship even in the Kote, not without upgunning my ship considerably.

Slave I could push 2700Gs of acceleration, could break Mach 1 easily in an atmo and was only slightly less maneuverable than a Jedi D7 starfighter, as Obi-Wan could testify to. His report was included in the documentation. It’s weaponry list was ridiculous - twin rotating blaster cannons that could fire extended duration bursts, missile launchers that carried military grade proton torpedoes, concussion missile launcher, an ion cannon, tractor beam projector and last but most assuredly not least, a bloody singularity bomb launcher.

Yeah, thankfully the absurdity of a seismic charge in space was not a thing.

The singularity bomb was an equal misnomer but merely described a weapon that used hypermatter to create a tiny, very unstable hyperspace event within it. It naturally collapsed as the universe didn’t like having such a type of hole poked in it and in the process released a shockwave of expanding exotic particle radiation. These were radiation types which had equally exotic names from my old life - tau, gluon, muon, tachyon, graviton and boson. They had radically different names here, such as Ter, Dix, Nuk, Gallern, Crim and so on.

Of course, the deeper down a gravity well you detonated a singularity bomb, the worse the effect got, which is the only point you could draw to it being ‘seismic’ in nature.

All in all, the only conclusion I could come to for fighting Slave I, was don’t. I would need my own personally modified Fang fighter that was still being worked on back in Mandalore space to have a decent chance.

“I understand you have an enthusiasm for starships, little Soka, but do keep your focus,” Master Koon’s amusement in his voice was palpable.

I closed the file, “Sorry, Master.”

“Worry not, I think I have deduced a destination for us.” He tapped the terminal and began filtering out scores of locations, until he had reduced it to Sector R5, which the Defiance was currently hypering through. “It was buried in a report on pirate activity, but the Stenos local authority, such as it is, had filed a report of a raid on a local tramp freighter, which further produced a match with our confidential files.”

A profile image of Aurra Sing appeared and right next to it a familiar face appeared. I wasted no time in facepalming rather hard. “Of course.”

Koon chuckled, “Yes, it seems that Sing is linked to the pirate Hondo Ohnaka, who has an operation merely five hundred light years from here in the Florrum system. They were business partners for a time when Sing was seemingly a bit cash strapped and she turned to piracy for a while before returning to the bounty hunting business.”

“So you think she’ll turn to him for a place to conduct this hostage business.”

“Yes, it’s also conveniently on the way to CIS space in the far north-east Outer Rim. There are many minor routes for a ship the size of Slave I to take the long way around, but such a journey will require an extensive fuel resupply, which Florrum has.”

“Hondo didn’t exactly take me on a tour when I was there last,” I said recalling the negotiations that had been done with the pirate to hand over the captured Count Dooku. “But if his operations have only grown he must have some local way of fueling his ships and make a nice profit from any passing starship in the area.”

“We’ll also have to choose a suitable ship to approach Florrum. Approaching openly in an Acclamator is not ideal if we want a chance to rescue the hostages.”

“Nu-class military shuttle? It’s what we used the last time, master.”

“Yes, that will have to do. Ideally, I’d use diplomatic transport and not even hint that we have a military cruiser behind us.” He tapped the terminal, secured the files and powered the holotank down. “Come, we must get this ship turned around.”

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Nine hours later, Nu military shuttle 1313 exited hyperspace beyond Florrum’s mass shadow. It was somewhat of a first for me, as I was the one in the forward cockpit, flying the ship. Thank goodness for GAR military standardization - which meant that once you learned to fly anything designed for the clone army, you could fly all the different Republic craft. The Nu was way more agile than any craft its size had a right to be and all its military defensive systems and ECM would come in handy - though still wouldn’t help against Slave I.

A short two minute journey later and I pulled the shuttle up, decelerated, switched on shields and began an entry translation.

It wasn’t long after, that Hondo’s much expanded operation came into view. Numerous buildings around the original colony center had sprung up, some of them rather industrial in nature and most clearly not conforming to any building code or safety standard. There was even a starship salvage scrapyard on the northern edge of the collective compound.

This place was in effect a freeport town in size and scope, with the understanding that it all belonged to Hondo Ohnaka at the end of the day.

My cursory scans were detecting no sign of Slave I in the freeport or within range but it would be very easy to hide. Most likely sitting powered down a dozen kilometers away in a depression.

As this was a freeport, no one challenged me for my right to land over the radio, so I just picked an empty spot closest to the main colony building and guided the shuttle in for a landing.

The amount of people of various races coming and going was substantial for such a small port, but I could see a lot of upturned curious faces regarding a landed Republic military shuttle with understandable weariness.

I powered down the systems and secured them with my personal codes and biometrics. No one was stealing this ship.

A flick of the switch and my seat lowered into the main personnel bay.

“Nicely flown, Soka. I half-feared you would treat this ship like one of your fighters.”

“Master Koon, a fighter this ship isn’t. Master Skywalker is the one with a penchant for pushing everything that flies into roles that they weren’t designed for.”

“Then I’m glad you’re applying some discernment into what lessons you learn from your master,” he chuckled heartily.

He flicked the switch to open the rear embarkation ramp.

Already standing there, waiting to greet us was the effective pirate mayor of the Florrum freeport.

“Hello, hello, and welcome to Florrum,” Hondo Ohnaka greeted us genially, almost theatrically gesturing around him to indicate the people, buildings and facilities the place offered. The weequay pirate lord certainly also liked to dress the part, with an elaborate red and gold overcoat, high knee boots, brown armored trousers, white shirt and armored cap. He also now wore green aviator goggles over his eyes that I could sense actually held a HUD component.

“Hello, Ohnaka, you’re certainly doing well for yourself.”

The pirate squinted at me. “I know that voice… oh, Jedi Tano?” He laughed in delight. “You’ve certainly grown in many ways… nice armor.”

“Thank you. This is Jedi Master Plo Koon, who’ll be mostly handling the trap you’re about to walk us into.”

Hondo clutched at his heart, “Ah, young, sweet, Tano, you wound me. Would I do that? To you?”

“Yes,” I said flatly.

“Ah well, you’re correct of course,” he smirked and gestured for us to follow him. “They’re waiting inside the bar and I have no idea what she is planning for you.”

The walk to the local cantina was naturally a short one from the landing strips.

“And the reason you are telling us is?” Master Koon questioned.

“So you know that I am not involved in this.” We stopped outside the nondescript cantina entrance, which was suspiciously quiet inside.

“Wow, either Sing is richer than we know or you owe her, Ohnaka - emptying your entire cantina just for our little song and dance,” I pointed out.

“Yes well, just a favor for an old friend,” he demurred, though from what I was sensing from Hondo, that was a friendship with some extreme benefits.

Master Koon paused at the doors, giving me a significant look, before pushing them open.

We both strode into the darkness beyond without hesitation.

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A/N: Hondo returns. Hope you enjoyed, have a good weekend.