The Weaving Force: Chapter 107 (Patreon)

Chapter 107:

Taylor:

Duro.

That was the rally point.

It’s where all the fleets, all the soldiers, all the supplies, all the Jedi and everything else, gathered.

They came in great heaving masses. They came in small columns. In dribs and drabs, quietly or loudly.

But it’s where everyone arrived.

The Jedi were the first to come, of course. They were already on a war footing; it was about loading Knights, Masters and clone troopers onto their ships and leaving. Mostly.

After them, Corellia. They took a bit longer, but not much.

As they’d promised, they had dedicated the whole of their Home Fleet to the operation. A little under three hundred vessels, showing signs  from the mauling they’d taken during the opening of the war when the Separatists attacked Coronet City… but still formidable and ready for revenge. 

But there was even more than that.

Corellians themselves. Citizens, hundreds of them. They came in freighters, in personal starships, some even in large cruisers. Each volunteered in whatever capacity the fleet would have them; as fighter pilots, supply runners, support craft or literally anything else, forming an almost ad-hoc militia of a fleet cobbled together with bale wire, spit and elbow grease. 

The Duros lived mostly on massive orbital stations around their mostly abandoned planet these days. And it was no exaggeration to say the space surrounding their world was choked with the sheer mass of vessels.

And finally… the big ones showed up.

“Impressive, aren’t they?”

I nodded. “What are they?”

“Praetor-class battlecruisers.” Alexandria answered, marching up to stand beside me, three… mind bogglingly large ships cruising past the viewport. “Corellia had one, and from my understanding they got Kuatt and Alderaan to volunteer their Praetors to the effort, making three.”

Her presence here was a reminder that this wasn’t just a physical battle, but a political one as well; of moves being made behind the scenes by people in back rooms and far beyond and above what I could see or influence.

I pushed it out of my mind. There was no point in focusing on it. 

“I didn’t realize you’d be joining us.” I said

She answered quickly. “I’m not. Mandalore, or more specifically in my case, Hannah will be. And I believe Cook will be joining her as well. So I’m here to get the details straight to make sure… that they’re positioned correctly, so to speak. But no, I won’t be joining any of you in a collection of ships that might blow up in the middle of an airless void..”

I turned, looking at her out of the very corner of my eye while she kept staring straight out of the window.

I was a different person than I was then, and maybe she was too…

But that didn’t change that we both carried the memories that shaped us with us. 

Emma, Jack, Scion.

And for her… I was probably one of those memories.

One of those nightmares.

It was… sobering, I suppose. Chilling even.

A part of me wanted to apologize.

Another part of me wondered if it’d even make a difference.

I wasn’t sure it’d make a difference for me if I heard it from my nightmares.

“If Hannah and Dennis are coming, where will they be?” I hadn’t really heard about anything from the Jedi High Council.

Not that I blamed them, really. They were still pretty much trying to arrange and coordinate with everyone.

To go from engagements with maybe a hundred ships at most, to suddenly ballooning that to almost a thousand across three different governments and about ten different command structures must’ve been a logistical nightmare.

I did not envy Rancisis’ position as Warmaster, or Tiin’s role as Fleetmaster right now. 

Alexandria shrugged, “I’m pulling strings to have Hannah stationed near the medical wing of the fleet.” She admitted. “Far removed from the combat. I imagine Dennis will be sticking beside her as a volunteer.”

“Why send her here at all?” I asked, genuinely curious. While I didn’t have the highest opinion about Alexandria, placing Hannah, or even Dennis for that matter, in needless risk seemed out of character for her at this juncture.

“Mostly for political reasons.” The woman answered. “Hannah has been leading the Death Watch taskforce and her name is recognizable to people on Mandalore, and that consistency will make it known outside of Mandalore as well, reminding the general public of the Republic that Mandalorians have indeed ‘stepped up’ in other ways, even if Satine wasn’t willing to outright provide another hundred or two hundred ships to the fleet.”

“Are you seriously getting into a fucking pissing contest with Corellia right now?” I sighed, shaking my head as my palm planted itself over my brow. 

Alexandria snorted. “Hardly. It’s more to limit the moves the Chancellor can make against us, rather than any short sighted stupidity Corellia might have planned.”

Huh?

“The Chancellor?” My eyebrows hiked up very, very high on my forehead. “The hell does he have to do with Mandalore?” As far as I saw, the one with a low key problem with Mandalore was Corellia, who blamed them for the attack on Coronet City since Death Watch had been part of that.

Alexandria shook her head. “It's convoluted, but suffice to say ‘politics’ and let's leave it at that.” She crossed her arms. “What of you and Dallon? I imagine you’ll be at the speartip of the ground offensive.”

“We haven’t finalized all the details.” I answered as cagily as I could. 

It wasn’t a lie per se. Rancisis, Yoda, Windu, Tiin, Poof and Obi-Wan were the most experienced Generals in the Jedi Council, and they were all getting a lot of sleepless nights these days trying to come up with a solid strategy once boots hit the ground.

General sense I got was, as callous as it sounded, that there was a debate going on who should be deployed first. Traditional military wisdom said you lead with the green troops first. The canon fodder, as callous as that sounded, to soften up targets and secure landing zones so the veteran troops could come in behind them in full force.

Problem was, the longer those veteran troops remained on their ships, the more you ran the risk of outright losing them.

Vicky, Yoda, Mace and other Jedi were very powerful…

On the ground.

In space, if their ship blew up… well… they were as dead as the nameless janitor next to them. 

Same applied to the veteran, experienced clones.

Either way the… steps, I suppose you might call them, were by and large the same.

Secure a landing zone, expand outward from that landing zone with priority targets being anti-orbital defenses, star ports, and command and control bases, in that order.

Once the fleet had one zone on the ground, as far as I understood, they would be soft locking themselves into a geosynchronous orbit above said location to protect the ground troops from orbital bombardment, deploy more ground troops, provide orbital support and, hopefully, be free of anti-orbital surface fire in short order as the facilities around the landing zone were seized or neutralized. 

Again, the sheer logistics involved in just planning this, let alone executing it, were not something to envy.

Me, I just had to wait for someone to hand me my assignment, keeping in mind Master Plo’s earlier warning.

“Fair enough.” Alexandria shrugged. “If you want my suggestion,” She gestured towards one of the three, titanic ships cruising across the inky blackness like whales past schools of fish. “I’d try to get stationed on those ships. Or, something directly behind them.”

—

“We agreed…”

“I know. I’m sorry. But… as far as I’ve heard, we’ll be stationed far from the front.”

“Unless the Deathwatch is found. And it does not change the danger in the void.”

I opened the door… and glared…

Vicky turned, a handful of popcorn halfway to her mouth, and a wide eyed, deer in the headlights look- the various screens glowing brightly across her face and the faces of the gathered crowd.

“Vicky!” 

She tried to talk no doubt to make a million and a half excuses and swallow the mouthful all at once. 

I marched forward, wondering if there was a damn off switch on all the screens. 

“You can’t go spying on people through the ship security camms!”

Keto hesitantly raised her hand. “Ummm… Don’t you spy on everyone… everywhere?” 

“All the time?” Aayla added.

“Not private moments!” I defended.

“You have bugs on them right now don’t you?” Anakin asked with a cheeky smirk.

“That is not the point!”

“I think this is a very important point that should be explored further in the interest of full disclosure.”

I turned my glare towards Dennis, who was laying down, his head resting on a very bored looking Ventress’ lap; though I did notice her eyes fixated on the screens. 

“I can make bugs eat your eyeballs while you sleep.” I reminded.

“Shhhh! It’s getting to the best part!” Vicky hiss whispered, leaning towards the screen. 

“Best par- It's not actually a soap Vicky!”

“Shhhh!”

“The children?”

“With Shmi, of course. She’ll take care of them… and… well… other plans are in place too.”

“I know. Let us not speak of it-”

I didn’t need to look at the screens to know that Aras brought Militia’s hand up to plant a kiss against her knuckles. 

“Just promise me… you won’t fight… unnecessarily.” 

“Unnecessarily?”

“It’s war. I would be stupid to demand the unreasonable.”

“You’re allowed to-” She leaned up on her tippy toes to give him a rather solid kiss. “My very reasonable husband.”

The large Mandalorian made a very pleased sound-

And then…

“Fuck- are they- they’re not-”

“They are.” Ventress nodded.

Dennis rushed out the door, suddenly desperate to reach the ship that Hannah and her husband were making their way towards as Vicky hooted, hollered and cackled

… 

“Is he gonna remember that the hangar bay where he left that ship is like a kilometer’s running distance?”

“Probably not-” The pale haired Rattataki woman smirked. 

I shook my head. “Honestly-” I chastised. “It's not a Tv Drama Vicky!”

She smiled, only a little sheepishly. “I know. But… its sweet ya know-” Her smile turned toothy and mischievous. “Besides-” She coiled her arms around Aayla and Keto. “These two could use some of that -not Jedi approved- media diet! Live a little!”

“The ‘Perfect Jedi’” Asajj drawled sarcastically “What will the tabloids say”

“That I’m awesome!”

Her energy was infectious and I found myself smiling in spite of myself. “Incorrigible more like.”

“You know you love it.” She waggled her eyebrows. 

Ten. Years. Old. Forever.

“Still-” She continued. “Its good to see.” She said, Aras might be my Mandalorian Lieutenant but we do have quite a few of them in the army as officers now; much as I love the clones its a good reminder for me that a lot of those men DO have families to get back to-”

Ahh… 

My eyes darted towards Aayla and Keto, who were still looking at the screen, and Anakin who’s gaze had narrowed ever so slightly.

I saw the play now.

And I think he did too.

Vicky was always always smarter than she made herself look. And the Mandalorian’s proclivity with always wearing their helmets made them seem… faceless. As faceless and… well expendable as the clones- horrid as that might be to say.

Aayla and Keto were just two Knights, but they were two knights that would be seeing front line combat…

And it might make a difference.

In this battle, and all the battles to come afterwards.

If Vicky had one skill, one talent alone… it was winning over hearts.

And with hearts, soon minds would follow.

It was Aayla and Keto today.

Maybe tomorrow it would be Yoda. One of her closest friends. Or Gallia. Or Billaba. Or Windu. Or any of the hundreds or thousands of others that would call her friend. 

I nodded. “I’m glad they got to see eachother before the big battle; Hannah was always one of the better ones…” Then I smirked. “And the fact that they get to defile ‘The Stalker’ is a nice bonus.”

“I never did get the story on why you hate the name.” Ventress said. “Its perfectly serviceable-”

“Long story- I’ll tell you but answer me this first-” I demanded. “Where will you, Dennis and Hannah be during the actual battle?”

The woman shrugged. “Dennis is only here because Hannah is here. He’ll stick by her or run interfleet transport as needed. In the event Death Watch is reported and the Royal guard is going to be deployed, his ship is on call to make the drop.”

“So where is Hannah going to be?’ Vicky asked. 

“Medical frigate.” Her eyes rolled upwards thinking. “The Preserver’s resolve? I think?” She shrugged. “It has ‘The Preserver’ as part of its name. Shouldn’t be too many of those, even with Mandalorians being an unimaginative bunch.”

“Hey don’t knock it.” Vicky smirked. “Way you two were snuggled up with eachother, you might be talking Mando’a before too much longer.”

“Dennis is no Mandalorian-” Ventress shot back.

“That’s not a no on marrying him tho-” Vicky sang smugly.

“Speaking of fleet placements-” Aayla began hesitantly. “Umm… Well… do any of you know where you’ll be deployed?”

“Not yet-” Vicky shook her head. I did the same when all eyes turned to me.”

Anakin shrugged. “No. But I can’t imagine Master Tiin will hold me in reserve for the orbital battle… not trying to brag but I’m probably the best starfighter pilot the order has beyond Master Tiin himself.”

“I have to imagine we’ll be first to touch the ground-” Vicky sighed, referencing the two of us. “But honestly it's not worth losing sleep over right now. We don’t even know what the battleground is even gonna look like, in space or on the ground.”

True- Still.

“Let's head out-” I said. “Pretty sure we all have work to do somewhere, and Master Plo isn’t exactly getting paid overtime to take care of Iskt and Karla right now.”

“Grandparents have rights too Tay!”

“He’s not- Urgh!”

—

The Dark Side of the Force… was heavy in this place. 

Thick. Cloying. It choked the air like a visible miasma, filling their lungs with every breath.

It was not a temple… but it felt as though it very easily could be.

They were steeped in it. Submerged in it. Drowning in it.

Jorus’ influence in his workplace nearby, along with the arcane power of the witches could be felt quite keenly

“So… its finally happening then?” Sev’rance asked

“It is” The Master confirmed. “The Jedi will arrive… in force. I trust every preparation has been made to… welcome them… appropriately.”

The question was directed towards all of them, but particularly, to Jorus

“The Dathomiri have been… useful.” The Necromancer admitted, however begrudgingly. “The abominations, and the order housing them; will soon understand the depth of their own weaknesses and inneptitudes.”

The Master said nothing, turning instead his gaze towards Sev’rance.

“Everything is in place.” She nodded. “I even have reports that the Geonosians have finished their final touches on a weapon that can, in theory combat Dallon. With some very useful data provided by the Mandalorians that Komari secured for us quite recently.

“Good.” The Master smiled, his voice carrying a malicious glee. “I will enjoy watching the fruits of all your efforts… as they play out before the galactic stage.”

(X)(X)(X)

So, not joking, this chapter came together ridiculously fast. Mostly because it was just dotting I's and crossing T's, making sure all the final pieces were in place.

And that's it. That's all the setup done.

Next chapter we're jumping straight into Geonosis.

I'm definitely not gonna promise you'll have a fast turnaround like this one. I honestly think it'll take me a full week or even 10 days to finish up that chapter if my own internal estimates are anywhere near accurate on the sense of scale and the amount of moving parts that will be present in the battle.

So ya'll might have to wait. But grab your popcorn like Vicky did for the Aras/Hanah soap. Cause its gonna be a wild ride.