‘Hondo told me about his so-called plan. We are going to attack another pirate group, one that had attacked Hondo’s pirate team multiple times. They are pretty strong and well equipped, that is why they want my help. I could be their joker, as no other pirate would expect a force user to appear on the side of a pirate group.’
‘They told me what the transport they are carrying is. more than half of it was spice, and that was what Hondo cared for, but he was right when he told me that I would be more interested in the other half. This pirate transport was carrying twi’lek slaves, woman and man too. Even children weren’t spared from the cruel fate of slavery. I knew it well, since I myself experienced the coldness of this world as a child... If you had no power, knowledge, money or connections. You were nothing more than prey in a large part of the galaxy. There were far from enough humanitarian services and their backings were less and less by the passing days, as the founds are constantly rerouted and pumped into the galaxy-wide war machine.’
‘These twi’leks are much like I was back then. The only exception, that master is no longer here to help them. He gave the mantle to me the knowledge to use for good or bad. I am no longer powerless, and I have decided to help them. Hondo told me that he was also sold to a slaver when he was a child, by his own parents, none the less. He didn’t tell me the details, but he assured me with a serious voice that he does not trade with slaves because of his personal experiences in slavery. Actually, half of his crew were slaves at some point in their lives. Therefore, they also hated the prospect of slavery from their very guts.’
‘I didn’t see any trouble with that, since I was more than ones chased around by slavers, in the slums of Ryloth. It was a terrifying experience to live through. Now I know that the only reason I was able to escape was the force subtly guiding me on the right path. The bastards left me after they felt that I was too troublesome to chase around, only to try it again a few days later. Hondo promised me that the twi’leks would be left alone on their own, or if they wanted, they could join his pirate group and seek their own fortune from now on.’
‘Hondo also told me that they had a base in the outer rim, where they usually spend their free time. It sounded like a pirate colony. It was their safe heaven, where their families lived a somewhat cultured life among the outer rims colonies. It was a secret base, therefore, he didn’t mention its location. Clearly he didn’t trust me enough, not yet. I guess it was normal. I didn’t trust him either. I hoped that he will prove me to be wrong about not trusting him, since I wouldn’t want to fight against someone who saved my life... Even if he just wanted to make a profit, it still doesn’t change the fact that I was saved, thanks to them.’
‘Well, I can’t really speak of an actual battle plan here. It was more like a trick, since we would simply attack their ship after they came out of hyperspace to meet with the spice buyers. This spice buyer will be me, and a few of Hondos men disguised. I will play the rich, spoiled brat, who likes to spend money on goons, bodyguards and buy illegal stuff using her rich dad’s money just like slaves and spice.’
‘I was sitting on a chair, still in that same room, eating some soup with deep fried nuna legs. It was a bird-like creature that was easy to domesticate because of its trusting nature. It was widely used in every corner of the galaxy as a cheap yet delicious meat source. I was really hungry and was devouring the food in big immodest bites. Hondo decided to actually join me in the feast. He was smiling at me, and seeing my lack of manners, his smile only grew.’
“You must have been really hungry, to not even check the food before eating it. You are either someone who is very confident in her abilities or has a stupidly trusting nature, just like this nuna bird, my little twi’lek friend.” — Noted Hondo.
‘I looked up at him half-heartedly, rolling my eyes in a way that it was impossible to miss. He only smirked as a reaction, then picked up one of the nuna legs from our shared plate and began to eat too.’
“I realized as much. Why would you poison me when I am already in your hands? It sounds like overkill to me...”
‘He chuckled heartily at that.’
“You never know what a crazy pirate captain from the rim is capable of doing...”
“That might be true…” — ‘I said, and took a particularly big bite from the tasty meat, then continued with my unfinished sentence.’ — “However, you don’t look crazy to me. Your act is convincing, but you can’t really lie to an empath who is also armed with the force.”
“An empath?” — He asked, genuinely confused.
“Someone who is especially sensitive towards other people’s true intentions. People like that are rare in itself, but this ability is much-much rarer when it comes in a combination with force sensitivity.”
‘It is a lie, of course. I am not an empath, but if he believes that, he may decide to actually tell me the truth, or at least half-truths instead of outright lies, to confuse me.’
“Hmmm... I guess, I will have to sell you to the hutts in the end... If you have such a rare combination of abilities, I know multiple buyers who would pay for you so much that I could build a new ship from scratch...” — He smiled thoughtfully. — “Yes, that sounds like a good idea...”
‘I almost choked on the food which I was currently attempting to swallow. I began to cough forcefully while trying to spit out the bite that went down in the wrong pipe and immediately told him that I was actually not an empath at all...’
‘He was watching my clearly comical reaction, and began to laugh.’
“I already knew that, girl. You can calm down. It was only an innocent joke on my part. You are seriously bad at lying, though. Every time you tell a lie, you break eye contact at the last second. You should watch out for this…”
‘Hell, that may actually be true. I was so focused on hiding a lie in my force presence that I didn’t learn to hide it from the more mundane methods of detection. What a ridiculous flaw indeed.’
‘In the meantime, I finally stopped coughing. My pride felt somewhat tarnished as I realized how stupid of a mistake I had made. I clearly looked dejected, as even Hondo tried to cheer me up a bit.’
“You shouldn’t be that disappointed girl. The fact that you are not accustomed to lying tells a lot about you in itself. Either way, in my line of work, you either learn to differentiate lies from the truth, or die.”
‘I sighed, then nodded towards him, acknowledging the statement, then continued to eat my food.’
‘My gaze once again hovered over the dim room. This place was dirty. The shelves probably never saw a duster in the last few years. Strangely enough, it kept reminding me of the sith temple I lived in. I mean, the rooms we actually used were, of course, cleaned. Yet, there were hundreds of rooms, and each of those were in much of the same conditions as this room, buried under five centimetres of thick dust.’
‘Maybe this was the reason why I felt so relaxed here. Or, maybe, because there was not a bunch of jedi around me, who were just waiting to condemn me.’
‘Before I knew, I was smiling to myself comfortably. Hondo was watching me while also partially lost in his own world. It was a simple and nice early afternoon.’
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~oOo~
“But master! We will have to go back and search for her! She is lost somewhere, I just know it!” — Ahsoka demanded.
A clearly troubled looking Anakin answered that question.
“Ahsoka, I know that you are afraid for your friend’s wellbeing, and believe me that I would like to help her too. But our ship is heavily damaged. We were lucky to get away from that trap. Sadly, there is nothing we can do right now to help her. We can’t risk the lives of more than five thousand clones just like that.”
“Then, we should go back only with one ship, and...”
“Clear your mind, Ahsoka.” — Said Obi-Wan this time. — “Your judgment is clouded by your feelings. We don’t even know if Nizzal was indeed kidnapped, or she herself killed those two clones and escaped using the general chaos.”
Ahsoka was horrified by the suggestion and vehemently defended her friend.
“She wouldn’t do such a thing! She risked her life in that battle to defend the hangar. You weren’t there to see it!”
“General, if you allow me to say this.” — Started a soldier standing behind Ahsoka. Obi-Wan looked at the man and nodded, allowing him to speak his mind. — “I agree with Commander Tano's statement on this. Commander Nizzal would never do such a cowardly deed.” — Added Crusher.
The door opened behind them, as Handy helped Watcher walk into the room. He was heavily injured, in multiple places, and needed to lean on his brother to walk.
“General, I have something to report.” — Said Watcher.
Everyone’s attention simultaneously turned towards him. Obi-Wan gave the permission by gesturing with one of his hands.
“By all means, trooper. As we understand, you were the last person who is still alive and saw Commander Nizzal being escorted by two clones under my command.” — Obi-wan stated.
“Yes, General, but she couldn’t do it. I mean, she couldn’t kill them.”
“Continue trooper, and tell us why exactly did you come to this conclusion?”
“She was heavily injured, couldn’t even stand on her own. Even if she surprised them, in that condition, she could only kill one of them at best, while the other would have put her down. I know my brothers. They wouldn’t go out so easily.”
Obi-Wan’s shoulders seemed to relax somewhat, but only for a second. Then he steeled himself and asked.
“Describe her injuries as much as you can.”
“Yes, sir. She was blown away in the explosion of a self destruction droid. She crashed into a pile of steel crates. Her left shoulder and back got the brunt of it. I think her shoulder was momentarily dislocated, but it resettled itself back in place naturally. She most likely had heavy internal bleeding and concussions. Her limbs also suffered surface cuts, bruises, along with burns. She also seemed to utterly exhaust her force energies.”
Ahsoka and Skywalker seemed to be taken aback by the extremely detailed observations of this particular clone. Especially the ones that were describing her exhausted force reserves.
Ahsoka seemed to be the most shocked and angered for a variety of reasons. First of all, she just got the information that her dear friend was not just simply kidnapped, but kidnapped in a state when she had not even a chance to protect herself. She unknowingly bit into the inside of her lips, as she began to blame herself that she had to leave behind her new friend, in a completely vulnerable state. She was worried to the bone, and anxious to get back and search for her.
Obi-Wan seemed to finally relax... His previous dark expression now was dire for a different reason. That was none other than a sense of guilt. He eventually added.
“Thank you for your report, trooper. You can go back to the infirmary for your well-earned rest.”
“Yes sir! Thank you, sir!”
As the three troopers left the bridge, Obi-Wan finally sat down in a close-by armchair, exhaling deeply. Anakin knew, from the start, that something was fishy about this mission, but he didn’t mention it since he knew that his master would tell them when the time came.
“Master, I guess it’s time to share what our actual mission was from the beginning.”
“What do you mean? Master?” — Asked Ahsoka, confusion settling over her features.
Obi-Wan wetted his throat and said.
“I guess it didn’t matter anymore, since we failed spectacularly. Sigh... Well then, in all honesty, we didn’t come here to chase some small time pirates...”
“What!?” — Exclaimed Ahsoka. — “So there aren’t even any pirates here?”
Obi-Wan grinned at that.
“Of course there are pirates here. Otherwise they wouldn’t serve as an ideal alibi for us to lure out a certain sith lord.”
“What?!” — Said this time Ahsoka and Anakin at the same time.
Obi-Wan only shrugged his shoulders.
“Did you really think that the Senate could spare a venator with over seven thousand clone troopers, two jedi knights, and two padawans in the middle of a galactic civil war, only to chase around some stupid pirates? Please, don’t make me doubt my teaching even more…”
Ahsoka and Anakin looked at each other, then back at Obi-Wan with a gaze that practically radiated discomfort and embarrassment.
Seeing this, Kenobi’s shoulders sagged dramatically, and he was forced to exhale an even longer, almost desperate sigh.
“Really now... We were creating a trap for this supposed sith lord to lure him or her out. We know that there are spies in the Senate, and we suspected, based on the result of our mission rightfully so, that there are spies even in the Jedi Order itself. Our enemies have ears everywhere, it seems. We tried to use this information to surprise them, or at least gain more information from the nature of our enemy.”
“So what was the trap?” — Asked Ahsoka. — “Because it seems to me that we were the ones who got kicked in the booty.”
Anakin coughed drily, pointing a warning glare in his padawan’s direction.
Obi-Wan generously ignored their usual antics and continued with his explanation.
“We were supposed to ask for reinforcements, at the moment we encountered the enemy, there were another two venators following us at the distance of a ten-minute hyperspace jump.”
“Yet the enemy was clearly aware of our plan from the very beginning, and in a much greater detail we ever anticipated. They created a widespread communication disturbance field around our battle, that was activated a few minutes before the enemy ships arrived.”
“We, as of me and your master, also sensed a strong disturbance in the force at that time, but weren’t able to identify the true nature of the danger fast enough.”
“The force disturbance only made us more confused. While we were looking for immediate threats, we didn’t realise that our long distance communication was disrupted. Then the battle began.”
“One of the smaller enemy frigates was constantly positioned in a way that we couldn’t jump into hyperspace unless we intended to crash into them and blow ourselves to smithereens. Thankfully, to Ahsoka and Nizzal’s actions in the hangar, we managed to send out almost all of our fighter ships. And with Anakin leading the attack, our fighters managed to destroy the forward heavy turbo lasers on the munificent class ship. Which caused a turning point in the battle.”
Anakin nodded to that conclusion. He also explained to the seemingly confused Ahsoka the meaning of that information.
“Those pair of turbo lasers are incredibly powerful. They are capable of melting a smaller ice planet by continuous shooting in a day, completely changing its climate.”
“Wow...” — Exclaimed the girl, genuinely surprised by this information.
“As you might expect, based on Anakin’s example, our shields couldn’t take more than a few shots from such a weapon.” — Continued Obi-Wan.
“That was the reason why we positioned our ship under theirs. Those cannons, thanks to their sheer size, are very slow to aim and have a limited angle to turn. This way, giving time to the fighters to do their part.”
“After the biggest threat was no more, we could freely turn the ship in a way that allowed us to focus the majority of our firepower on the Resuscant-class frigate. The one blocking us from entering hyperspace. It couldn’t possibly handle that level of firepower, and soon jumped away to save itself. Its place was taken by the second one.”
“This time, we focused the cannons on that one. However, it didn’t run away. We most likely managed to damage its hyper-drive. Under the continuous heavy barrage, it eventually exploded. Leaving us alone with the munificent class ship, which was barely damaged aside from its main cannons, while our ship was barely holding together at this point.”
“Luckily, the munificent was much slower. It couldn’t effectively block our escape path. Therefore, we called back the fighters to the recaptured hangar. And finally entered hyperspace. This is where we are right now, after realizing that Commander Nizzal was most likely taken by enemy forces...”