Chapter 53: Chapter 53

A Young Girl’s War Between the Stars

Alaris Prime, 39 BBY/961 GSC.

Well, there goes that plan!

I ducked under a blaster bolt and dodged into a side corridor, running flat out as I tried to outpace the enemy security team, while three more teams closed on my position. Apparently, someone with more than two brain cells to rub together had the bright idea of checking the ship’s internal sensors and had asked themselves what a lone signature was doing deftly avoiding their security teams. Then, upon figuring out that I was making my way to the bridge, they had apparently decided to send everyone. So now, the element of surprise was completely lost and I was running through corridors trading shots with the security teams trying to close around me like a noose.

Coming to a four way intersection and sensing the team set up on my right to fire into the corridor, I grabbed one of the three gas grenades off of my belt, twisted the timer to three seconds, and dropped into a slide. Beskar plated armor scraped on the durasteel deck as I slid through the intersection. The grenade pinged off the wall as I threw it, bouncing into the middle of the enemy as red blasts flew over my head.

“Grenade!” someone yelled, just in time for the knockout gas to explode outwards.

I rolled out of my slide and back to my feet, leaving them behind to deal with that as I turned left, pulling and lobbing another grenade the same way as I approached the next intersection. The team that I’d effectively circled around stopped just in time for it not to land dead center in their group, but the gas spread quickly and acted as a very effective smoke screen as I ducked into the corridor and turned right, spotting the heavy door to the bridge ahead.

Unfortunately, a fifth security team had already set up in front of the door, and this one sported heavy machine guns—or the blaster equivalent. A stream of red bolts flooded the hallway and I rushed into it, dodging what I could and smacking away what I couldn’t. The few shots that made it through splashed on my armor, only to disappear—Tutaminis converting them from plasma to pure Force and fueling my speed as I cleared the distance between us. Reaching out, I grabbed their guns with Force Telekinesis and jerked them away, flipping them around and laying down a stream of fire over their heads that had the security team hitting the deck.

A twitch of my hand had them flung out from in front of the doors and back down the hall, the blasters turning to track them and firing once any time one moved. Studying the blast door, I hummed.

“You’ll never get through that door, Jedi! It’s three feet of solid—” My lightsaber flashed out and I cut a hole in the wall to my right, opening a hole into what my scans told me was an elevator shaft, which opened directly onto the bridge. “—oh.” Follow current novels on Nove1Fire.net

Stepping into the shaft, I used the Force to pry open the much weaker elevator doors and launch myself onto the bridge. I twisted through the air as I was met with a hail of small arms fire from the crew. Landing, I reached out and began separating people from their weapons, then jerking them out of their seats and tossing them against the big blast door—leaving them piled up there.

“Stop!” the neimoidian who I presumed was the captain yelled, his hand hovering over a button on the console on a central console. “One more move and I vent the ship to space!”

I paused and stared at him as the bridge crew complained from where they’d been pinned against the door. The captain chuckled quietly. “Yes, I knew it. You Jedi are all alike. Weak!”

When he didn’t immediately figure out the problem with that plan, I pointed it out for him. “So your idea of a threat to stop me is to vent the atmosphere, holding the lives of all of your living crew hostage.”

He frowned, and I was pretty sure the emotion I sensed from the frog was confusion. “…Yes.”

“A Jedi. In full Mandalorian armor. The fully sealed, vacuum rated suit I used to board this ship in the first place.”

“Erm…” He looked unsure now.

I pointed to the pile of bodies in front of the door. “Come over here and sit down with the rest of your crew, before you kill yourself and everyone else on this ship aside from me pointlessly. If you all cooperate, you will not be harmed. We intend to ransom you back to the Trade Federation, as soon as we can.”

The crew exchanged glances and I felt their fear and anger fading as they settled down. Finally, the captain asked, “You aren’t going to torture us?”

“No,” I shook my head, shutting off my lightsaber.

The neimoidian nodded once and moved away from the console, over to the door. Once he sat down, I said, “If any of you are carrying weapons, tools, or anything else along those lines, now is the time to get rid of them. Pile them up in front of you. You will be searched after this, and I’d like to avoid any incidents.”

They began removing holdout blasters, knives, and other tools and I watched them carefully, feeling out which ones felt like they were attempting to hide something. It only took picking up one with the Force, turning him upside down, and shaking him until the knife he’d tried to conceal fell out before the rest of those planning to keep something to themselves got rid of it.

Gathering the pile of tools and weapons, I moved them away from the crew and left them there, making my way over to the controls. Finding what I was looking for, I deactivated the shields—leaving only the primary deflector shield online. Moving over to the comms panel, I pointed the main comms dish at the rock I knew my ship was hiding behind and initiated a tightbeam. It only took a moment before I had a hologram of Lt. Taris projected from their holocom.

“Captain,” he saluted.

“Lieutenant, send the boarding party. There is a much larger non-droid force here than we expected, so tell them to be careful. I suggest two teams, one docking aft and the other entering through the fighter bay, but I’ll leave that decision to our boarding team.”

I cut the comms and watched the sensors. After a few moments, our two boarding ships became visible on the scope and quickly closed with the Munificent. Pointing to the captain, I motioned for him to join me at comms. “Captain, in just a moment, the rest of my team will be joining us. A hundred very angry Mandalorians are going to storm this ship, looking for trouble. They’re going to sweep this ship from stem to stern and round up your people. If your people put up any kind of resistance, my men are going to mow them down. I don’t want that. You don’t want that. Lost crew means payouts to the families, the value of which will exceed the ransom the Trade Federation will pay for them alive, and we both know it. So, do us both a favor. Get on the shipwide and make an announcement telling your people to stand down and disarm, and head for the main hangar.”

The neimoidian nodded jerkily and tapped a few keys. “Attention crew, this is your captain speaking. The ship has been boarded. Lay down your arms and surrender peacefully, and you will not be harmed. Assemble peacefully in the main hangar bay. That is all.”

He shut off the broadcast and studied me as he slowly moved back to sit with the others. After a moment, he asked, “Did you really storm this ship and take it all by yourself?”

“Yes,” I confirmed, crossing my arms and splitting my attention between the internal security feeds and the prisoners. “That’s not to say we didn’t have a plan. If I hadn’t taken key locations, we would have destroyed the bridge, and killed everyone on it, then my team would have boarded and gone deck by deck wiping out anyone who raised a weapon. So you’re lucky I got here first.”

“‘Lucky,’” he echoed, shaking his head. “What is your name, Jedi?”

I refused to answer. Soon enough, a group of Mandos approached the blast door. I opened it up and had them escort the prisoners to meet with the others, a pair of them taking over the bridge to relieve me and let me go back to my ship. From there, it was business as usual—just at a larger scale.

Pulling out my personal holocom, I called Obi as I made my way towards the hangar, where I found Arthree waiting for me with the Dagger. Obi picked up after two rings. “Tanya—” she paused, then her eyes narrowed. “What are you doing?”

“Going back to my ship. Why?”

The girl studied me. “What have you done?”

I smiled under my helmet as I climbed into the fighter and closed the hatch. “We captured an enemy ship in orbit. A big Munificent-class capital ship, flying the Trade Federation flag. You should let Master Qui-Gon know. That should give him some leverage to force the Senate to stop dragging their feet and call this dispute in favor of Kashyyyk. Let him know we’re going to be ransoming the crew back to the Trade Federation.”

Obi’s eyes narrowed. “By ‘we,’ do you mean ‘you?’”

“Hm? What was that? Your transmission is breaking up.”

“What? No it isn’t! Tanya!” the girl whined, and I was thankful the helmet hid my smile. “Don’t tell me you took that thing on alone!”

“Very well,” I agreed easily. “I have to go. I’ll speak with you later.”

The girl blinked, then frowned as she realized what I’d done. She opened her mouth to say something and I disconnected the call, chuckling quietly to myself as I started up the fighter and headed back to the ship.

I believe with this, we’ll leave the system for a time. I’ll have Lt. Taris keep in contact with Master Qui-Gon until he confirms the enemy are done with Alaris Prime, but after the theft of one of their capital ships and ransoming the ship’s crew, they’re going to know for sure that a hostile force is operating in the area. Best to clear out and let things settle down. That will give me some time to visit Corulag and meet Master Dooku as he requested.

Corulag, Corulus System. 39 BBY/961 GSC.

Looking at Corulag from the transparisteel viewports as the Rusted Silver came in following directions from Curamelle ground control, I found myself unconsciously searching for familiar shapes in the formations of the continents, and a bit disappointed when I saw none.

The planet was very Earth-like. Temperate climate. High water to land ratio. Fluffy white clouds, blue oceans, and green and brown land. It had a twenty-five hour day and a solar rotational period of three hundred and seventy-one days. Atmosphere and gravity were standard—in other words, within tolerances for Earth norm. The system’s star, Corulus, was yellow.

Fighting down the feeling of homesickness, I focused on bringing the ship in. As I descended, I could make out Curamelle below, and reinforced my shields against the unpleasant feeling of being in a large city. Thankfully, while the system was in Inner Core, technically The Slice, it wasn’t a city-planet like Coruscant.

I set down at the airport and looked to Arthree. “Stay with the ship for now. I won’t be long.”

The droid beeped and I opened the hatch, stepping out into the warm sun and cool air of early to mid autumn for the planet’s northern hemisphere. An automated, droid-driven, open-top speeder taxi stopped beside my ship and I locked up behind myself before climbing in. The speeder took off and I watched the city pass us by as we quickly left it behind and flew over miles and miles of forest.

A relatively short flight later, I raised an eyebrow as I spotted what looked very much like a military base—specifically a training base. It was like looking at a more advanced version of the one I had attended in the Empire. One would think that with all the advances in technology that it would look vastly different, virtually unrecognizable even, but no. Many things were simply universal and there were only so many ways to fill a role—especially on the smallest budget possible, which was the very definition of ‘military grade.’

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Barracks to house troops, facilities to handle the day to day, machine shops and vehicle storage, parade grounds, obstacle courses, firing ranges. All familiar to me. All easily recognizable.

Curious. I wonder why Master Dooku wanted to meet here.

My interest was thoroughly piqued when the speeder set down in front of an administration building—the squat, reinforced duracrete structure labeled as ‘Corulag Military Academy. Administration.’ The front door opened and Master Dooku walked out, another man following behind him—basic human, from the look of it, and a colonel judging by the rank insignia on his green uniform.

The state of the uniform drew a raised eyebrow—rumpled, open. Not a dress uniform but a combat uniform. That, combined with the man’s physique and just outside of what was probably regulation haircut gave me the impression that this was an actual field soldier who had seen combat and been promoted through the ranks on merit, rather than someone who had kept their head down, followed the rules, and advanced by time served. His outwardly laid back attitude belied scrutiny and wariness as he assessed me as I stepped out of the speeder. For a moment, like recognized like—before I felt him dismiss it and second guess his initial assessment as doubt crept in.

“Master Dooku,” I greeted, and the man gave a nod and a smile.

“Tanya. This is Col. Wilhelm Cagilo—an old acquaintance,” Master Dooku said.

“‘Acquaintance?’ Is that how they say ‘pulled my squad out of the fire’ on Coruscant?” the colonel asked, chuckling.

“Only on the upper levels.”

“Mm,” Col. Cagilo nodded, his eyes shifting to me as he frowned. “Dooku, when you said you wanted to have your Padawan come train with us, I thought you were talking about Qui-Gon.”

“I was not,” Master Dooku gave an amused grin. “Qui-Gon is a Master in his own right now, with a student of his own. This is Tanya Mereel, my new Padawan.”

“Yeah, I guess it’s been a few years,” the colonel sighed. “Listen, I’d love to help you out, but the brass isn’t going to go for it. For one, she’s a child.”

The old Jedi shook his head. “Tanya is a citizen of Mandalore, through her adoption into Jaster Mereel’s clan. She has passed Mandalore’s rite of adulthood and the Republic has legally recognized that. Regardless of her numerical age, she is considered an adult in the eyes of the law.”

“Maybe. And maybe the brass would even allow it, if they saw that. But the simple fact is, if she can’t meet the physical requirements, I can’t do much.” He paused, before scratching his chin. “Maybe I could have her sit in on classes as a guest, but that’s about it.”

Master Dooku’s smile turned sly. “Well, if that is your concern, why not test her?”

“What do you mean?” Col. Cagilo asked, raising an eyebrow.

“What physical requirements would she need to pass?”

Crossing his arms over his chest, the colonel eyed Master Dooku skeptically. I could feel when the man decided to humor Master Dooku, but give me a task he felt would be impossible, so that the colonel could back out gracefully and steer him towards accepting the classroom option. “I’ll make you a deal. If she can satisfy my minimum requirements I’ll drop her in with one of the other groups. She’s going to need to carry a sixty pound ruck, cross the obstacle course, and make it twelve miles in three hours. Then qualify with both our standard blaster pistol and rifle. Then, if she passes all of that, she’ll need to beat… call it three of the current students in a spar.”

“At the same time, or back to back?” I asked.

The man sent me an amused grin. “She speaks. Tell you what. I’ll make it your choice.”

“If it will hurry this along, you may as well send all of them at the same time.”

“Cocky, aren’t you? Alright. But no Jedi bullshit.”

Sighing, the man waved for us to follow him inside. “Let’s go get a uniform in your size for now.”

The colonel left us with a quartermaster and went off to start setting things up. After having my measurements taken, Master Dooku pulled me aside while the woman went hunting through shelves and boxes for clothes that would fit me—which was less of a problem than I had assumed it would be. I supposed it made sense that occasionally, the Republic saw aliens who were small in stature enlist, even if, to my knowledge, the Republic Army was all but a ceremonial position these days—and those that weren’t were relegated to dealing with pirates and peacekeeping duties. Joining the navy and Jedi in effectively being space police.

As soon as we were alone, Master Dooku laid a hand on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze as he smiled down at me. “You’ve done exceptionally well, recently. Jenza is pleased that you’ve sent so many new recruits her way, and that Munificent-class ship will give us an edge on the Trade Federation in the coming years. I am only sorry that we must wait a bit longer to officially knight you.”

I waved his concern off. “I understand the reasoning behind it. What’s all of this about?” I asked, indicating the base around us.

“I need you to pass this test and enlist.”

Nodding, I asked the obvious question. “Why? An infiltration mission? Investigation?”

The man chuckled and shook his head. “No. The war is coming eventually, whether we want it to or not. We know the Trade Federation are already building up, and our own alliance is growing. I’ve already recruited two more systems into the fold.”

“It is, but it also paints a target on us. We will eventually declare independence openly, and when that time comes, the Republic will be forced to act.”

I nodded at that—we’d already assumed as much, after all. That was why we were building up a fleet— “This isn’t just about building fleet numbers. You’re preparing for a ground war.”

Master Dooku chuckled, nodding. “Quite perceptive. Yes. It is very likely that they will attempt to occupy planets we hold. We need someone with firsthand, up to date knowledge of current Republic ground and naval tactics. Those skills will prove useful against both the Trade Federation and the Republic. And the only way to get them is the hard way. Manuals and intelligence reports can only teach us so much.”

“So you want me to go through their infantry training here, then move on to their naval school?” I asked.

“This place is not simply for infantry training. It is the Republic’s officer training school—one of them, anyway. It is assumed that everyone here will have already passed through the basic training courses, at a minimum.”

It sounds is the closest thing the army has to a war college, I mused. “How long?”

“From what the good colonel has told me, it takes twelve weeks to complete the basic officer training course. However…”

“I should stay longer and learn as much as I can, from as many relevant fields as I can,” I guessed, and he gave a nod. “How long can you afford for me to be away?”

“I cannot say,” he shook his head. “There are some things I will certainly need your help with, but I believe they will not come to pass for some time, should everything go according to plan. Trust in the Force.”

Play it by ear, then.

Footsteps drew our attention to the quartermaster approaching with a stack of clothes. “Here you go. There’s a restroom just down here to change in.”

Taking the clothes, I followed the woman to the restroom and quickly doffed my robes. I ignored the underwear in favor of my body stocking and pulled the rest on. The pants were a woodland camouflage pattern—green and black on dark brown. The tee-shirt went on over the armor piece covering my chest, and a bit of turning this way and that to look at myself in the mirror showed it didn’t print too much. The jacket matched the pants and hid what the shirt didn’t. Given that of all my new clothes, it was two sizes too big, that was to be expected. I rolled up the sleeves so they wouldn’t get in the way and moved on.

Frowning at the boots once I’d gotten them laced up, I realized I’d have to break them in if I was going to stay, and that would be a pain in the ass. Luckily, I had some low tech techniques for that, learned from my time through the Imperial army from older soldiers.

Finishing up quickly, I frowned as I considered my weapons. If I was staying, it wouldn’t be without my gear. Pulling off the belt I wore normally, I threaded it through the pant loops and moved everything over. Thankfully, the jacket was long enough to cover what I needed it to.

I’m going to have to head back to the Rusted Silver and collect some things. Then call Lt. Taris and let him know I’ll be staying, and to send Cindy to retrieve my ship and Arthree.

Folding my clothes, I carried them out to find the colonel waiting, holding a large rucksack. “Here you go. Borrowed one from the unit you’ll be assigned to,” he offered the pack.

Accepting, I frowned as the unexpected weight nearly slipped out of my hands. Hefting it, testing its weight, I met the colonel’s eyes and the man simply sent me an expectant look.

Sixty pounds nothing! This is easily ninety!

Sure, there had been times in the field in my last life when I’d had to ruck this much across country without the benefit of magic, when we had to carry a large amount of supplies and ammunition in behind enemy lines. But those were the exception, not the rule! We usually traveled light, for better speed.

I could practically feel the thought of ‘This is for your own good’ coming off of the man. Well, if he wasn’t going to play fair, then neither was I.

I opened the bag and stuffed my things inside, before shouldering it. He raised an eyebrow as I awkwardly strapped it into place, given that it was a standard human size pack, not a pack meant for someone of smaller stature—as I’m sure they had, just as they had clothes in my size. Once it was secure, I gestured towards the exit. “After you.”

The man radiated a sort of resigned amusement as he turned and led us out of the building. Stepping out onto the parking lot, he straightened up to his full height. “Alright. Let’s see how you march. Fall in!”

My body moved practically on auto-pilot as I fell into the marching step drilled into me during my time in the Empire. He eyed me critically as we marched towards the obstacle course, before grudgingly nodding as we stopped at the beginning of the course. “Passable. Make it through the course, then follow the trail. It loops around the perimeter for four miles, then it’s back through the course. You need to make three loops in three hours.”

Pulling out a blaster pistol from the holster at his side, he adjusted the settings and grinned. At my raised eyebrow, he wagged it. “Don’t worry, it’s set to non-lethal. For motivation. Keep your head down! Now, move out!”

I took off at a Force empowered run for the obstacle course, treating it as I had the one on Dathomir. I aimed to cut the entire test down to half an hour if I could manage it. It had been a while since I had pushed myself this hard—not since Tython. If I was being honest, I was kind of looking forward to it.

Col. Cagilo frowned as I tossed the last of the three soldiers he had chosen to fight me into the pile with the others, then sat down on the man’s back, drawing a groan from the pile—and considering I was still wearing the rucksack, I didn’t blame them for complaining. Crossing my arms, I met the colonel’s gaze and raised an eyebrow.

The man barked out a laugh. “Alright, fine. You’re in. Dooku told me you needed to do something about a ship parked at the spaceport. Take the rest of the evening, get your affairs in order, and be back here before nineteen hundred. We’ll have your bunk sorted and gear issued by the time you make it back. Report in at the front desk and they’ll send you where you need to go.”

He turned away and headed for the admin building, leaving me sitting on top of a group of groaning men and a woman. Hopping off, I pulled off the rucksack and took my things out. “Please take this back to whoever the colonel borrowed it from. Thank you,” I said, before walking away and leaving them there.

I called a taxi back to the training base and rode in silence back to my ship as I thought.

I’ll need to get a list of all the courses they offer. Go over it and see which are the most relevant to any potential conflict, then see what it’s going go take to get into them. I don’t want to spend too much time here, however. Two years, perhaps. Five at the most. I still need to go through the equivalent naval academy afterwards, and I don’t want to be stuck there when, not if, the war kicks off.

First things first, though. Find their code of conduct, manual, code of military justice, or whatever set of rules they use and memorize it tonight. Take notes. Find every obvious loophole, then start digging for the not so obvious ones. One night will be a good start, but I have a feeling I’m going to need to dig into established case law at some point.

The speeder landed and I slipped out, telling the droid driver, “Wait for me.”

The machine beeped and I made my way into the Rusted Silver. Using the holocom terminal to call my ship deeper in the system, I moved out of the feed and got to work as it picked up, Lt. Taris’s voice calling after me. “Captain?”

“Lieutenant. Something has come up. I’m going to be staying here on Corulag for a while. I’ll be forwarding you any missions worth going after that I hear about from Master Dooku or Jaster, but I want you to keep an ear out for work. Do what you need to in order to grow the business and turn what we have into a respectable fleet, but don’t put profits above the safety of the crew. Can’t spend it if you’re dead.”

“Understood, ma’am. What about you? How long will you be on planet?” he asked, as I began packing a bag with the necessities.

“I’m uncertain. Perhaps as long as five years. Then, I need to go off for the naval college.” Sticking my head around the corner, I looked at the color hologram display. “I’ll take time off as I can to rejoin you for the occasional mission and check on your progress. Also, I expect bi-weekly reports on intelligence, operations, and finances, and report anything urgent immediately. Congratulations on your promotion, acting captain Taris.”

The man snapped off a salute. “Thank you, ma’am.”

“Do good work and we’ll make that permanent,” I promised, and he nodded. “Now, I can’t leave the Rusted Silver down here. Please have Cindy come pick it up. She knows the entry and startup code. Just make sure she knows not to touch anything in the work area.”

“Will do, captain. Anything else?”

Something warm and fuzzy bumped my ankle and I glanced down. Sighing, I added, “Look after my cat.”

The man chuckled. “Have you named her?”

“Yyyes,” I drew the word out, stepping back off screen.

I could hear the doubt in the lieutenant’s voice. “Really? That’s good. A ship’s cat needs a name. Bad luck not to have a name, and you know how superstitious sailors are. So, what is it?”

“Cat—” I answered reflexively. Fumbling for some answer, my brain latched onto one of the few names I had fond memories of. “—sha.”

“Sorry, I didn’t hear you, ma’am. Did you say Catsup?”

The cat looked up and tilted her head, before falling onto her side and latching onto my ankle, biting and kicking with her back feet. I sighed as Lt. Taris said, “I’ll let Ms. Cindy know you asked her to look after Catya.”

Was that teasing I heard in the man’s voice?! The nerve! The cheek! The insubordination! I’d have him scrubbing latrines with a toothbrush—!

“Thank you,” I acknowledged. “That’s all for now.”

“Of course, captain.”

The call disconnected and I shook my head, finishing my packing. I stopped by Arthree long enough to ask, “You heard all that?”

The droid beeped and bobbed its projector in a nod. “Help out around the ship where you can. I’ll see you in a few months.”

With that, I made my way to the speeder, leaving Arthree and the cat behind.

Later that night, laying in my new bunk as I drifted off, I momentarily roused to the feeling of something warm and fuzzy landing on my chest. Curling up, Catya began to purr where she lay, and at that moment I realized it was probably futile trying to convince the cat who could teleport through the Force not to follow me when she felt like it.

“Fine. You can stay. Just don’t cause problems.”

The cat’s tail batted me in the face as the animal stretched out and began to dig her claws into my stomach. Somehow, I had a feeling the rest of the facility would know about her by morning.