“A problem? When have we NOT had a problem?” Hera chimed in Ahsoka’s ear. Ahsoka had little by way of retort to respond with.
“Hera, this is calculated, precise. It is designed…” Ahsoka began but was cut off right away,
“To draw us out.” Hera finished for her. “We’ve seen this before. We specifically. But this is on a galactic scale Ahsoka.”
Ahsoka didn’t respond immediately, lost for the moment in thought as she looked on at the troopers resting solemnly against the hull plating and each other. “It explains those reports Miara continuously mentions.” She managed, shaking her head slightly, knowing full well her response was less than groundbreaking. Ahsoka shook off a sudden wave of anger, knowing full well what sourced it.
“Your mind is its own battlefield Ahsoka.” T’zar whispered.
Ahsoka chose not to respond immediately, acutely aware of the lack of his insights thus far. ‘My mind is far from something so demure T’zar,’ she thought her response.
“Precisely my thoughts. We don’t have much time in any case.” Hera responded with an upper inflection of urgency and concern.
Ahsoka entertained a thought, “Hera, I would suggest Kowani and Sabine head over to that LC, in the meantime Zeb and I will load our captives into the phantom.” She voiced into her comm, Zeb shrugging his shoulders in response to the suggestion.
“And me?” Hera spoke sullenly after a few long seconds.
Ahsoka watched as Zeb rolled his huge yellow eyes in their sockets and stretch a sarcastic smile across his face. “Better you than me.” He said with mock enthusiasm.
Sabine turned her head away from Hera in the cockpit as Kowani turned from the doorway, slight smiles creasing their own faces, respectively. All of them waiting patiently for Ahsoka’s response.
“You’re heading back to Lothal. Because your pregnant, have already endured one episode of intense cramping and need to be ready to help me interpret my findings after we cross reference our data mining efforts with this massive code cylinder in my cargo hold.” N’dali broke the tenseness with her electronically modulated reason. “And no buts Hera, Specter seven is just as important as Specter one.”
Ahsoka winced along with Zeb in the cargo hold of the Ghost, both thinking identically that N’dali may have laid it on a little too directly but certainly agreed without uttering a word that Hera had no way of talking herself out of that one.
Hera didn’t say anything in response immediately, knowing the Thebeskan was right didn’t take the sting out of her words. Sabine reached a hand over to Hera’s shoulder and squeezed it there, Kowani, suddenly behind Hera, did the same to her other shoulder. Both of them willing to add further words of wisdom or encouragement if the need were to arise, however realizing after a few seconds, Hera only had need of their supportive actions. She lowered her head in the pilot’s seat and blew out a long breath.
“You two get in position, R3 I’ve got the ship.” Hera said, devoid of emotion. She did, however, reach up and touch each hand about her shoulder with a small squeeze of her own hands. “Ahsoka let me know when you and Zeb are in position.” She finished turning her voice back to the comm link.
Zeb didn’t waste a second, wanting to be away from the palpable tension within the ‘Ghost,’ he tapped Conda on the shoulder motioning for the ladder and pulled Tovic to his feet, the latter moribund and requiring a full-on assist. Ahsoka, reading Zeb’s lead, reached a hand down to Bren and pulled her to her feet. They all ascended the ladder and padded toward the aft docking hatch leading to the ‘Phantom’ above. Conda and Bren secured themselves into their respective acceleration seats, Zeb physically doing likewise with the listing Tovic. Ahsoka waited patiently seated before them all in the lead seat deferring to Zeb to pilot them. When all were secure, He strapped himself into the pilot’s seat, “We are in position and ready for go Hera.” He updated.
“On your mark Zeb, lock away.” Hera returned with a mechanical cadence.
Ahsoka could feel the exchange from solidity and stationary to free floating zero gravity as the various mechanics finalized their respective duties with audible chirps and hisses.
“Phantom away, see you at rendezvous.” Zeb said hurriedly before locking in the navicomputer with Radaa’s coordinates.
Hera watched as the ‘Phantom’ disappeared from both scope and view, “You two be careful over there.” She said with a little more feeling as she turned to the cockpit hatchway, her inner turmoil easing.
“Get us over there, then get out of here Hera, we’ll be fine.” Sabine said with sincerity, “We’ll be right behind you.” She finished with encouragement as Kowani handed her helmet. Hera smiled briefly then spun around to face the canopy before her, hiding what remained of the sting from N’dali’s comment earlier, one she knew was true.
“C-1, peel off, Ghost on approach.” She commanded, alerting the initial ‘Challenger’ shuttle to clear the light cruiser’s port docking collar. With a simple exchange the shuttle veered out of the way as Hera piloted the ‘Ghost’ into position flawlessly and turned her attention fully to the secondary and auxiliary control panels to her left. She heard the audible clank and hiss of the outer lock seal breaking away from the ship and the hull lurch, cementing her knowledge that the seal between the ships was engaged. Twin red lights flashing rapidly gave way to static green ‘all clear’ indication as she heard a rapid tapping on the outer hull, ‘Sabine no doubt.’ As the audio exchange rose in volume again with blasts of forced air in sharp hisses, she finally let herself slump into the pilot’s seat and let loose all the tears she had been holding back. Attempting to disengage the magnetic lock through the flood of emotion, she felt every one of those tears fall down her cheeks. “I need you more than ever Kanan.” She whispered into the empty cabin, glancing at the co-pilot’s seat out of compulsion, before disengaging the ship’s lock entirely with the light cruiser and setting her own navicomputer with her hyperspace coordinates. She eyed her original entry before clearing the field entirely and, with hesitation, entered in the coordinates for Lothal.
She distanced herself from the cruiser, “Hera, we’ll be with you soon.” N’dali voiced over the Tacnet, a lamenting voice that carried both sorrow and apology.
“Stay safe….all of you.” Hera replied with complete solemnity and engaged her hyperdrive.
“That could have gone smoother.” Kowani stated a minute later.
Sabine turned her helmeted head toward the Mirialan, “She needed to hear it, whether she liked it or not.” Sabine let escape a short exhale, “She’s been fighting since she was a child, and she knows the fight is far from over. The only thing she cares about is life Kowani, at the expense of her own sometimes.” She let the words settle in as the two, accompanied by R3, made their way to the ship’s command center. “She is tired.” The statement hung in the air between them, becoming a tangible thing that everyone in the galaxy, in one way or another, could relate to.
“We all are.” Kowani responded in earnest, knowing the rhetoric filled response was the only one to match the rhetoric filled comment.
Sabine smiled under her helmet, “you’re becoming more Mandalorian every day.”
Kowani slipped on her helmet with a short chuckle, then turned her body adopting a rugged and menacing stance, “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“I wouldn’t mean it any other way.” Sabine returned as the two cleared the opened expanse of the bridge hatchway.
Static filled Kowani’s helmet before N’dali’s voice echoed in her head. “I just need the uplink installed Ani, I can take care of ninety-eight-point three percent of the exchange from here. Please hurry though, we have less than three minutes.”
“Really? How many times have we been through this and you’re still guiding my hand?” Kowani smacked back with feigned indignation.
“Just ensuring the complexity of the task at hand is formally understood by all parties Ani, nothing personal.” N’dali sounded in return, her voice stately yet subdued.
The change of inflection was not lost on Kowani, “What is it?” She asked immediately, without pausing in her own haste to retrieve her data pad and uplink cylinder spike from the pockets of her leggings.
“We have attracted attention.” N’dali stated with a certain measure of immediacy.
Sabine turned to Kowani while pulling up the ship’s registrar of onboard munitions, fuel levels and other available consumables, “What does that mean...I mean, specifically, because you two can’t seem to go anywhere without attracting attention.”
Kowani, a blur of motion of tapping between her data pad, the ships central control access terminal, and subsidiary communications suite, “It means we have two minutes. R3, uplink and get ready for N’dali’s access ping.” Kowani answered as feverishly as her hands were moving.
N’dali studied the attempted intrusion that had garnered her attention and signal traced the host back to its source. “Coruscant?” She said to herself in the cockpit of the Gozanti. A sharp static chirped through the cabin, “Did you say Coruscant?” The question came from Captain Larte, the modulation couldn’t hide her surprise one bit.
“Affirmative Captain, locking in on the source as we speak.” N’dali pondered for a second through her branching thoughts and the possible information that could be gained from a varying degree of different paths converging simultaneously. “Perhaps we could learn more about these initiatives if we let this play out for a burst period.” There was no response forthcoming over the Tacnet, most in wonderment over the possibilities they themselves could concoct and the others hopelessly out of sync with the context of the comment to begin with.
“Follow that thought.” Miara crackled feverishly, understanding they were running out of time.
“It will give me a chance to see where the directives are initiated, to whom corresponding actions are dictated and by what degree any resulting response may be escalated….hang on, Coruscant, ISB HQ….office of Deputy Director Audenhoen….”
“Who the hell is Audenhoen? And your uplink is ready N’dali.” Kowani burst over the comm.
Without a thought, N’dali executed the complex algorithms she had prepared for slaving the light cruiser to her whim, seeding deep within its internal central core the authority to override all external commands or connections, save her own. “R3, execute.” An affirmative ping through her neural implant confirmed he had done as asked. “She is ours.” N’dali said to everyone’s relief. ‘Now to see how deep the womp rat hole goes.’ She thought to herself.
Miara cast her gaze in all directions after boarding the light cruiser, the scent of depleted blaster scoring and burned flesh was at once overwhelming. Her team had done an admirable job of containing those Imp’s that had fallen to their own fire and removed the lot to the half empty hangar bay. “Naykie, need your twenty.” She said with haste into her wrist comm.
“Officers’ quarters presently, heading back from the last haul to the hangar bay.” He responded without hesitation.
“Copy, by the sounds of things we’ll have to deep six at rendezvous. Commander, you still with us?” Doing her best to shore up any loose ends, Miara was mentally running through personal checklists to maintain that everyone was on the same page.
The undeniable gurgling intake of breath, heard through the entirety of the Tacnet employed, assured Miara, and everyone else, the Commander was at the ready, “Awaiting orders Mum.” Aturg responded with an amazing amount of clarity.
“Hold defensive position Challenger, on the off chance this situation escalates any further we’ll need line of fire to break out for separate jumps. Prepare your own jump to rendezvous following N’dali’s lead. I’ll stay with the LC. C-1, let me know when your home.” Miara was certain she wasn’t forgetting anything as she hurried her way to the starboard docking collar. If they were staying with the light cruiser, she wanted to ensure the second shuttle wouldn’t be ripped from its magnetic mooring.
The Tacnet crackled yet again in her ear, “on board cams are feeding live to our audience at ISB HQ. You know in case someone had a message they wished to send.” N’dali was awash in playful exuberance. Miara thought about it for a second as she came to a sudden halt in her haste. Posited in the upper right corner of a conjoining intersection of corridors, a cam array moved ever so slightly. Noticing it peripherally, she had a moment to meet out possible actions. Although she knew she should continue with her objective she found herself wanting whoever was watching to know it was her, a captain of the Rebel Alliance, a homeless veteran of a war for freedom. The Alderaanian turned to face the cam deliberately, revealing every inch of her face and slowly lifted her Blastech DG-29, leveling it at the central photocell of the cam array, snapped a crooked smile across her face and pulled the trigger. The array sparked wildly for a few seconds before rocking on its mount and clanging to the deck plating below in a heap of twisted metal and smoldering components. Miara re-holstered her firearm and bolted for the docking collar.
Although upgraded and retrofitted to her liking, N’dali’s neural implant was having a challenging time keeping up with the myriad data feeds she was actively manipulating. Breaking the light cruiser free of Imperial tethering while maintaining its connection to the dearth of the Imperial data network, coupled with running a masking routine that identified her own cruiser and the new acquisition as one and the same were made possible by the new appendage she had made specific to the task being utilized by R3. Although lacking in emotional response, she was far from devoid of the ability as made apparent by the smile stretching from ear to ear across her face. The words to describe her elation were present and ready for use but she felt no need to delve into personal achievement. The tasks immediately at hand now complete, she re-centered her focus on the extensive number of digital paths at her disposal, where they may lead on their own but more specific to her abilities, how they could all tie together. She watched the thread taking place in real time from far away Coruscant, reverse tapping into Audenhoen’s investigation, and found herself curious about his methods, “he is meticulous, I’ll give him that,” she said to herself, inspired by the man’s thought processes. She was both enthralled and amused by the complexity of what she was witnessing, following the intricacy of the algorithms and networks involved to allow an individual so far removed to respond so quickly to any number of incursions on a galactic scale. She was particularly interested in the man’s examination surrounding the irregularities involved with Botajef, irregularities she herself found to be counter intuitive. Her attention was suddenly snapped away as discernment was involuntarily taking place. Understanding was swift as all the specific points she had been monitoring began to sum themselves into a logical conclusion. With that understanding came the horrific sentient response and reaction that churned her stomach into a maddening agitated roil. ‘Using their own as bait?’ Although she still wanted to get her hands on the captured protocol droid, she was certain she had just divulged the very query she would have posited.
“I think we may have underestimated the reach of this new protocol.” N’dali admitted to everyone, a sickening wave of nausea washing over her. She had no way of articulating the urgency of her perceived danger or the magnitude of what was transpiring through her digital ‘eye.’ A cadence of signals at the Botajef terminus of the Imperial network drew her attention back to the irregularities she had witnessed earlier. From her brief, although in-depth, perception of the enacting protocols, she understood that fleet orders coming from Coruscant were above reproach. That the queried vessels would be unquestionably tasked with carrying out their objectives was apparent, however, those directives were either being waylaid, redirected, or ignored outright. ‘Fraction cells?’ She voiced the thought for her own benefit. ‘Or perhaps overriding directives from a separate protocol.’ She brought the thought to an end without any gleaned clarity. Whatever the case, the newly acquired light cruiser needed to exit the system. “Captain Larte, may I request that the ‘Challenger’ stay behind with me for a few more minutes?” N’dali asked directly, yet with a measure of enthusiastic grace into the Tacnet.
“N’dali, that isn’t the plan. We need to keep the vessels together. If there is an escalated Imperial response there would be limited defensive capabilities otherwise. You know this. If you need more time, we’ll stay with you but keep it short.” Miara commed back immediately, her modulated voice direct and stoic.
Before N’dali could even respond, her synaptic link to the Imperial network identified an upgraded threat through the digital battle being waged between Coruscant and Botajef. Audenhoen, or someone with access to his credentials, was overriding the commands being negated at the Botajef terminus. Two Star Destroyers were now being tasked with response to the incursion at the Trunion moon.
“Never mind, we must go. Now!” N’dali commed back with immediacy, “Incoming.” She said while locking her navicomputer with Raada’s coordinates.
“Affirmative Fardi, Captain?” Came the gargling voice of commander Aturg.
“Affirmative Commander, meet at rendezvous.” Miara stated.
N’dali watched through the open canopy before her as the light cruiser and the Nebulon frigate snapped themselves from view, enacting their respective jumps. Although curious about the intricacies of the network within her hijacked purview, she wasn’t certain she could mask the identity of her own liberated vessel from the probing eyes of Star Destroyers actively searching for her. She blew out an exasperated breath and slammed her palm into the hyper drive yoke just as the threat indicator on the tactical board lit up like a Coruscanti night.