“Tatooine? One Hutt controlled slag heap, for a Hutt controlled wasteland? Beat’s the Empire I suppose. When were clear, head to sector 35.2, jump point for Bothawaui.” Kowani finished.
“Got it.” Ahsoka reported as three images appeared on the threat board. Two of the signals she was familiar with but the third had her stumped. “Ah, Kowani, we have incoming. Two Star Destroyers and…. something else.”
“Already on it.” Kowani said. “I haven't seen this type before but it’s like schematics smuggled from Zann Consortium. R3, plug in and get whatever intel you can on the ship coming...up...now.”
Boop...beep...beep
“Ahsoka, class unknown, however…. we’ve...engaged it once before according to the data banks.” Kowani began…
“BEEP...BOOP!” The diminutive astromech chirped.
“Not we’ve as in us you rust bucket!.” “Ion pulse generator, trailing plasma bolt.” Kowani finished.
“Deadly combo.” Ahsoka thought out loud, her mind tugging and toying with the notion that she had heard of the configuration before. “We have no weapons, we absolutely cannot be hit by that thing, dodging turbo laser fire and at least three flights of TIE’s. Got it, just tallying up the odds here mentally.” Ahsoka said shaking her head.
“3….2….1” Kowani finished.
“Goliath, we have you on scanner, we were unaware you were on this assignment.” Came a crackling voice through the comm board.
Kowani was quick to respond, “Eruptor, assignment classification delta nine zero, operating under code 9052, what’s our quarry?”
“You enjoy this don't you?” Ahsoka had to ask in a chiding whisper.
“Maybe a little too much at times.” Kowani answered.
“Goliath, assist in apprehension of fugitive Tano, ship still planet bound, waiting up the well for interception. How many flights on deck?”
“Ahsoka, how many flights can the ‘Goliath’ hold?” Kowani asked, a hand covering the mic on her headset.
“How the hell would I know, how about six?” Shot Ahsoka grasping for an answer quickly.
“Sixteen Eruptor, standing by.” Kowani guessed.
“I said six not sixteen!” Ahsoka shot back.
“Sixteen flights?” the comm buzzed in her ear.
“Uh six, who said sixteen?” Kowani returned, playing through the confusion.
“Whatever you have, deploy, signal coming up the well.” The comm fired back confusing Kowani briefly before she understood the Eruptor was tracing the tracking device she had removed and not the ship itself. “Goliath target that ship, relay beacon is active, Tano is escaping.”
Crackling in her earpiece coupled with a skewed signal reversion told Kowani immediately that something was not right. A new voice crackled into clarity. “Y’mmat power down the Liberator immediately and prepare to be boarded.”
“Ahsoka, I don’t know how but we’ve been compromised.” Kowani said, sounding dejected as she removed the headset.
“R3, distance to unknown ship.” Ahsoka commanded.
“Beep...whirl...boop” he chirped back in short order.
“That’s going to be cutting it close,” she responded.
Checking her navcom board for figures to sector 35.2, she settled on a high loop and course designed to bring them back toward the moon. At that Kowani buckled the remaining four points of her six-point harness and prepared herself. Engaging sub lights to fire at 100 percent, the ship shot forward in a lurch, and they were on the drop ship leaving Nar Shaddaa in no time.
“Damn, this things fast.” Ahsoka was astonished to admit.
“Second fastest ship in the galaxy!” Kowani said proudly.
“Behind what may I ask?” Ahsoka was curious.
“The Millen……” She started, distracted by a new signal.
Lights flashed in rapid succession across the threat board. High pitched audio warnings catching their attention.
“Save it for later, we’ve got incoming torpedoes.” Ahsoka cut her off. Pushing the yoke as far forward as she could and routing all power to the engines, she was able to push them past the 115 percent threshold. Coming in faster hadn’t given the torpedoes time to compensate and with a few deft twists of the craft she had muddled the tracking in them completely. One shot straight out for Nul Hutta which essentially equated to becoming space junk as it would deplete its fuel cell long before reaching the gravitic pull of the planet. The second re-acquired a signal, but unfortunately for the drop ship, the secondary programmed signal was the relay device it had acquired thanks to Kowani. In a flash of white light, the drop ship evaporated from view, both physically and electronically.
“Good, one dummy down.” Ahsoka said. “The least of our worries though, I am afraid.”
The two star destroyers were moving away, in separate directions, from the unknown vessel. The threat board lighting up anew as an Ion pulse was registering on aft sensors. Knowing the star destroyers would employ flanking maneuvers from either side to keep the Liberator pinned in firing line with the unknown she reverted her course towards the unknown and angled for the destroyer port side.
“R3, distance to star destroyer forward.” Ahsoka demanded.
“Boop...beep” the chirp came instantly.
“This is going to be close.” She said in return, shaking her head.
She slid her hand immediately onto the grip of the hyperspace lever and began counting down in her head. “2….1” she finished out loud and slammed the lever forward, counted another 2 seconds and returned it home. They were practically looking through the command deck viewport on the opposing Star Destroyer before them as Ahsoka pulled back on the yoke with everything she had. In the time it took for the star destroyer to employ its own evasive maneuvers, Ahsoka had already hewed the Liberator starboard and was rolling under the solar ionization reactor. “That should buy you some time, we need to get out of this system.”
“Right, I’ll get us tied in to Eruptor’s sig so at least tracking will be useless. That’ll give me time to circumvent whatever was used to cut through my net. The closer we get to their hull the better our scramble will be.” Kowani said.
“R3, prep the mag clamps and engage on my command.” Ahsoka returned, immediately granting Kowani her wish.
“That’ll solve the proximity issue.” Kowani said knowingly.
Ahsoka, inverted as she had the ship, already positioned to match the destroyers speed but had to wait on the buck and yaw to decrease to safely engage the mag clamps. “The destroyer is completing its compensation, R3…. NOW.” She directed.
“Beep...boop,” R3 bleated out as he engaged the clamps with an adroit twist of his control link arm. A dull thud and hull shaking shiver let all on board know that the action was completed.
“For all intents and purposes, at least for the time being, we are now the Eruptor.” Kowani said firmly. “Give me a minute to factor in power signature, if that other ship has the ability to cut through my transmission masks it will be able to locate our power signature and relay that to any TIE’s targeting array.” She finished matter of fact.
“As fast as you can, I’ve already got visual on three incoming.” Ahsoka said.
“I can deal with that directly.” Kowani counseled while dialing up a tertiary screen and setting her masking routine to run interference on the lead TIE with her right hand, her left hand continuing her sequencing to suspend the transmission crunch issued by the unknown ship. “Lead TIE is now the ‘Liberator’.” Green laser canon fire and the ensuing ball of light that the lead TIE had become had assured Ahsoka of just that.
“Remaining TIE’s are peeling off.” Ahsoka said, giving her partner some audio intel of the unfolding events.
Kowani worked the keys feverishly, knowing full well it was the technology she was engaged against, not another signal hacker as the responses to her efforts were coming back as registered invalid through binary routing. Assured of her ability, then, to route her efforts through feedback loops causing either the software or the droid operating the routine to operate outside parameters thus reverting to protocol and defined programming, knowing that would give her time to bypass the mess and head straight in for the ship’s massive transmission array. A green indicator slide began to blink on her primary keypad alerting her to that fact and she quickly had an idea. “R3, tap into the Eruptor and link me with the ships signal generator.” R3 completed the request immediately and beeped in confirmation. The link, confirmed on Kowani’s secondary screen, was fresh for manipulating. She ran through a keyset identifying the Eruptor as the Liberator with both hands, the screen refreshing with an authorization key relay, she shot back to her primary keypad with her left hand while hovering her right palm over the blinking authorization relay. Swift and authoritative strokes through a newer sequence and a similar authorization key refreshed on the primary interface. Both hands now palm down over their respective relay’s, she glanced at Ahsoka who was staring intently at the most aggressive hacking she had ever witnessed. “R3, were going to have a few seconds of latency free and unrestricted access to that ships databanks, be prepared to pull as much as you possibly can.” 2 blips and a hearty whistle followed as confirmation. “Ahsoka, I’ll have to assign a centralized origination for the signal transfer for targeting purposes. What, and where, would be the best target for that Ion pulse?.” Kowani hurried out the words.
“Hell, target the bridge, The Ion pulse would phase out everything and with a little luck the plasma shot will take out everything important, signal relay, shield generators and most of the decision making…” Ahsoka relayed.
“The intention here is to stay close as long as possible before we emerge from the confusion with the Eruptors signal. Right now, they are SURE they’ve either incapacitated or destroyed this ship twice and they're about to pat themselves on the back a third time, but our escape is crucial for the deception, specifically to give them a fourth Liberator to destroy. The signal damping coming from that ship is extensive and the timing needs to be exact to prevent any override of the circumvention I’ve employed.” Kowani spat out in a fevered rush of instruction.
“Say when and we’re off this hulk.” Ahsoka said assuring. “I’ll set about and relay an intercept course for the unknown.” She finished.
“Perfect. The more confusion the better as I am certain the subroutines or fail-safe falls within protocol and programming on their end. On my mark.” Kowani said completing the task list so that everyone was in sink. “Mark!” She barked with emphasis as she slammed both palms down on their respective targets. Ahsoka immediately released the mag clamp and engaged the sub light engines at a full 100 percent to clear the aft of the destroyer just as the Ion generator was firing up in the unknown vessel.
R3 ran through every audible signal an astromech was capable as it ran through the information it was pulling from the unknown ship’s databanks. ‘Aggressor’ was the first thing mentioned that caught the attention of both Ahsoka and Kowani. Signal capacitator, third gen transmission enabler, static relay waylay redundancy array…. the list was extensive and also came as relief, in a sort, to Kowani, understanding now why she was compromised. “That thing, outside of being a big cannon, is like a gravity well for communications…. all communications.” She said, almost jubilantly. R3 was still chirping away, and it then fell to Ahsoka to drop her mouth in awe…. “Battle station?” She mumbled to herself as she fled and set an end-run course for the “Aggressor.” “R3, file that data and copy it to flimsee, were going to need it later.” Kowani said.
“You are now in command of the ‘Eruptor’” she said, turning her head to Ahsoka.
Signal lights flaring on her comm board, Kowani flipped the headset back on and addressed the communique. “Aggressor, we have engaged and were eluded capture of the ‘Liberator,’ the ship does not appear on our scopes. Please advise.” Kowani stated.
“Eruptor, we have your signal, as well as the ‘Liberator.’ Ion pulse engaging, remain on your current course.” The return command came.
“Good shooting.” Added Kowani with a wink.
The course Ahsoka had set was deliberate, she wanted to get a visual on this Ion discharge to give her a clear picture of the ship’s capability. With the sensors now in complete compliance and R3’s intel, she was able to gather that the ship was essentially built around a cannon with little else in the way of armament. “Kowani, they must have been playing a bluff earlier.” She said exactly what she was thinking.
“I don’t understand your meaning.” Replied Kowani.
“Well, that weapon is all but useless against a ship this small. That thing was meant to tear apart capital ships and wreak havoc on planetary targets. They must have limited intel on your ship, although they do have your name.” Ahsoka explained in all honesty, holding back the hesitation she felt toward the familiarity of the encounter.
Kowani did catch it earlier but wasn’t quite sure what it meant, and still wasn’t. “Your right about that, but it’s about to tear the ‘Liberator’ to shreds…...we hope.” She said in return, somewhat pensive.
From their view out of the cockpit, they couldn't visually see the Aggressor but saw the discharge like a nova on the horizon. The brilliant flash of purple and blue followed with a band of white, hot with raw energy, as it spilled forth from its unseen source. It moved slowly at first, and a side long glance to their left alerted them that the Eruptor was seeing the same thing as it pitched quickly starboard, all port thrusters blasting full force. They returned their gaze to the approaching ball and concentric Ion blast then noticed the twirling light behind it. A short distance from its source, the entire package picked up momentum and screamed forth heading directly for the central bridge of the Eruptor. There was no escape for the doomed ship as the Ion charge smashed full force and concentric ring enveloped it, disabling all systems just in time for the plasma shot to tear the ship apart before their eyes. The light was intense and instantaneous as the reactor was both knocked offline then torn to shreds igniting the entire vessel. Kowani feeling a little guilty for hoping as much.
Ahsoka noticed it first as they were closing on the ‘Aggressor’ and in line with their original trajectory, a slight wave that caused the stars distant to flicker momentarily. “Kowani, I need to reroute power to the engines and get aft of that thing as fast as possible.” She spoke. Kowani, understanding that would put them in dangerous proximity of the exit point for the hyper lane, put full trust in her pilot. Relinquishing power to Ahsoka’s command, the ship reverted to its original signal.
“Ahsoka, I am sure you know this, but the ‘Aggressor’ is maneuvering to intercept and recharging the Ion generator.” She stated.
“I sure am and am counting on their full compliance.” Ahsoka returned. Much like before, the speed the ship was capable of in sub light at full throttle, and with rerouted power, brought them to their aggressive counterpart quickly. “I am going to make one more burst jump to clear the lane, and also give them time to align.” She said. Ignoring Kowani’s sigh of comprehension, she lined up her burst to a point slightly below the flicker and slammed the hyperdrive lever forward and back again just as quickly. The ship protesting the makeshift use of its facilities and Ahsoka glad that Kowani hadn’t spared any expense on the Hyperdrive, the fast reversion almost incapacitated the gravity compensator which would have turned everything and everyone inside out.
“Ahsoka, our current position is directly under the reversion point for the hyper lane. You are aware of this, correct?” Kowani said somewhat skeptical.
“Why did we meet again?” Ahsoka asked. “Ah yes, something about my otherworldly piloting skills and how much you can’t live without them?”
“At the moment, that is truly an understatement, smart ass condescension notwithstanding.” She remarked.
“The blur is what I am looking for.” Ahsoka half explained.
“Boop…. Boop...BOOP!”
“I know R3, and I am counting on it” Ahsoka assured them all at the unknown vessels angling to bring her about 180 degrees. “And the Ion pulse generator should be charging any second now.”
“Beep...Whoop!”
“Right on cue.” Ahsoka said more to herself. And then she saw the fuzzy haze for which she was silently hoping. “That! Spatial distortion caused by the decant out of hyperspace and reversion to real space. Learned from a lunatic Weequay.” She added with not so fond memory.
“I’ve only come across one Weequay crazy enough to drum up a scheme as suicidal as this.” Kowani added.
“Yup, never tried it myself before now though.” Ahsoka admitted.
“WHAAA….”
The enormous behemoth was not what was expected. Reverting from the hyper lane above them was the Executor and right into the Ion pulse issued forth, mere seconds before, from the unknown vessel, the plasma shot spiraling behind it rendering the forward third of the ship useless. Ahsoka counting down again prepared the ship for its third and final jump of the engagement. “A few more seconds...need to clear the Ion wake from its thrusters and we should be able to slip under the envelope without anyone the wiser.” She laughed, audibly, as she punched the lever forward for the last time.
2 DAYS AGO
Sidious was furious. In his haste to complete the task of navigating the ritual to forcibly open a portal to the nexus, the information coming from Lothal was exasperating. The Mandalorian girl had proffered information vital to the project but was then influential in not only the project’s demise but the destruction of the temple and all the research that had taken place. The fact that Sidious was furious was commonplace amongst his advisors and attendees, that he was furious with himself was a fact no one else would ever know. In his haste, and amid distraction, he had focused so profusely on the emergence, and sudden disappearance, of Anakin’s former padawan and what that could have affected, he had missed the vergeance he so desperately sought. Cursing all else as distraction. Cursing Vader for not containing his quarry and having to be apprised of all his failings. That Vader continues to fail under his watch. For a moment he cursed his inability to foresee the weaknesses in Vader or to identify the hidden elements of his apprentice that he knew could thwart his best efforts to prolong the grand plan. The future of the Sith! Had he made the grand error in selecting the appropriate apprentice? Everything about Anakin Skywalker dripped of Sith corruption and decadence! There was no limit to his potential, providing the rage and anger within where channeled toward a shared objective. In Anakin’s case, Sidious was having his doubts, even after nineteen years of being that channel for him. Sidious could feel the constant inner conflict and turmoil in his apprentice, despite Vader’s assurances of the opposite. But it was his own egregious error his current ire was directed at. A vergence that could have given birth to a Universal Empire, that those groveling at his feet would be so much more represented than by the Galactic standard that would be his only reach, for the time being. The Togrutan seemed a piece in a much larger puzzle and game than even he was playing was a maddening aspect of the entire quandary. Her unpredictable nature, in all its frustrating beauty, had always set her apart as an unknown element. In her presence she felt no fear of him, he remembered, and was now thinking on. The thoughts it brought about made him recoil immediately. Wide eyed at the prospect of losing his quarry in the nexus was borne more from his decisions decades ago and was directing his anger along another path entirely. An anger that was still directed at himself completely, at the misguided foolishness of not seeing the path that was right before him from the start.