Destruction, Infiltration, & A New Alliance
Chapter IV | Episode IV | 11/18/2017
Not letting the thug get away that easily, Zanroy reached out with the Force, grabbing the man who had threatened him just seconds ago, and pulled him back. As the bounty hunter flew through the air, he collided into the newly arrived group of other bounty hunters, causing them all to fall to the ground like a bunch of marshgammon pins. As the man reached Zanroy, Zanroy caught him in a tight grip, activating both lightsabers, holding them to his throat.
Before any of the men could react further, Twil attempted to infiltrate the mind of the bounty hunter in Zanroy’s grip, figuring him to be the leader of this ragtag looking army of bounty hunters. Using the Force, he convinced the man that they were not his enemies, and that he should order the others to drop their weapons.
“Drop your weapons!” The man suddenly shouted.
Ignoring him completely, the other bounty hunters regained their footing, and began to ready their blasters.
Seeing this, Baruda let loose with another volley from his light repeating blaster. Killing one, and severely injuring another.
Just then, unbeknownst to the men, and the crew, Idozzi came up from behind them all, aiming a shot at one of the men, severely injuring him.
Seeing the situation, and understanding that they wouldn’t listen to reason, Twil invaded the man’s mind, once again, to find out who he was and why he was attacking them. Although the images were fast and not entirely focused, Twil was able to determine that this man had been hired by none other than Duke Erron Irbian, of Cato Nemoidia. He had been sent here to hunt down Saral Aenet, and recover the holocron she had acquired. Twil then signaled to Zanroy that he had all the information he needed.
With a wicked grin, Zanroy loosened his grip on the man, and in one fell swoop, cut the man in two, at the waist, killing him instantly. As the legs dropped to the ground, a thermal detonator bounced free and rolled along the floor. Quick to catch the torso in mid air, Zanroy had wanted to take the jetpack strapped to the man’s back. Unfortunately, the second the man had been killed, the jetpack began beeping. And in Zanroy’s experience, that was a bad beep. With great force, Zanroy hurled the jetpack, along with the upper half of the corpse’s torso, right into the middle of the group of bounty hunters.
Seeing this, the remaining living bounty hunters scattered in a panic, some running towards a ship docked in the hangar, some running just outside of the hangar, one running past Zanroy (picking up the thermal detonator), and one running towards Idozzi.
Rath heard the explosion just outside, but couldn’t be bothered with such matters. He knew what was happening, and he knew they would be capable of handling it. Focusing all his attention on cracking the shipping logs of the port, he had found the information he was looking for. The ship containing Kor Zoroc and Ari Diggersby was clearly a shell ship for transporting slaves. And the records indicated that the ship had just docked with an Imperial mining station, “Station 115.” It wasn’t far from where they were. With any luck, they’d be able to reach it in time before the ship headed off somewhere else.
Finding all the information he needed, he decided to turn his focus on the battle raging outside. Delving deeper into the hangar’s computers, a devilish smile played across his lips as he found what he was looking for. Over comms, he warned Twil to tell the others, “Get away from the ship.”
The scene back outside was pure chaos. Idozzi had killed her attacker, and was now out of her cover, taking aim at another bounty hunter near the docked ship.
Zanroy had killed two more men, and sliced off the arm and leg of a third, with his lightsabers.
Meanwhile, Baruda had let loose another volley of blaster fire. Surprisingly, he missed the shot completely, but the sheer intimidation factor caused his target to drop the thermal detonator he had picked up off the ground.
Seeing how close the detonator was, Twil had no choice but to use the terrified Bounty Hunter as a shield. Invading his mind, Twil convinced the man that the detonator was in fact his wallet, and everyone around him was trying to steal it.
“My credits!” The man suddenly yelled. He then pounced onto the detonator, shielding it with his body. Seconds later, the man erupted in a gory, but contained explosion. Viscera flew everywhere, but luckily, Twil and Baruda were safe from the blast.
They weren’t safe, yet, however, as one of the men near the ship chucked yet another thermal detonator at the two.
Seeing this, Idozzi took her shot and killed the man dead, leaving him to slump over the landing gear.
In a panic, Baruda quickly scooped up the second thermal detonator and hurled it back towards the ship.
The detonator’s explosion, however, was drowned out by an even more deafening noise. The docked ship in the hangar was suddenly whirring to life as its thrusters had been activated, and overloaded by Rath. With no time to react, the two remaining bounty hunters were instantly disintegrated by the ship’s thrusters, as it shot out of the hangar at an impossible speed (barely missing Idozzi, who had been in it’s pathway mere minutes ago), causing untold destruction to that section of Nar Shaddaa.
Speechless, and seeing that the fight was done, the crew headed back to the ship.
Upon arriving in the Sovereign, Twil could hear pounding coming from the guest quarters door. Remembering that he had left that door locked for Saral’s protection, he quickly rushed to unlock the door.
As the door slid open, it revealed a fuming Saral Aenet. She tried to slap Twil in the face, but Twil could read her intentions, and caught her arm mid swing.
“Why did you lock me in?” Saral yelled, filled with anger.
“For your own protection.” Twil explained, “You were still recovering, unconscious, when last I saw you.”
“I don’t like being held prisoner, Captain. Let me off of this ship, now.”
“You’re free to go at any time.” Twil said, standing aside to allow her to leave.
“Give me back my artifact.” Saral demanded.
“I can’t do that.” Twil said.
Fuming, knowing that she wasn’t getting what she wanted, Saral began to leave, however, Twil called back to her, “You know, I had intended to offer you a job. I run a fairly successful shipping company. I think you’d make a good addition.”
Saral stopped dead in her tracks, and turned to face Twil. “Fine, I’m interested in seeing where that artifact takes you, anyway.”
“Oh, no.” Twil replied, “You won’t be flying on the Sovereign. I’ve got another ship, whose captain I’m not too crazy about. You’d be replacing him.”
Saral let out an annoyed grunt, “And what happens when you start to get ‘not too crazy’ about me? You just gonna replace me too?”
Fed up with the woman and her toxic attitude, Twil said, “You know what? We’re done. Get off my ship.”
“Give me back the artifact!” Saral demanded, again.
“No.”
Acting like a spoiled child, Saral stomped back into the guest quarters and sat stubbornly on the floor.
“Leave.” Twil ordered.
Saral said nothing in response, not even looking at Twil.
“That’s it.” Twil muttered under his breath. Using the Force, he performed a simple mind trick.
The next instant, Saral got up, walked up to Twil and said, “I never want to see you again.” Before walking out of the Sovereign in a huff.
Having overheard the entire conversation, Rath walked up to Twil after Saral had left and said, “Well, I’m certainly glad I risked everything to save her.”
“Yeah, she definitely wasn’t what I was expecting.” Twil replied.
Rath shrugged, “She was a liability anyways, what with that Imperial Duke chasing her. But it hardly matters, We’ve got more important things to discuss.”
Now back in the Sovereign’s lounge, Rath was explaining his findings.
“It’s an Imperial mining station, according to the official records. But I highly suspect that mining is only half its purpose.”
“What do you mean?” Twil asked.
“Mining stations like this are often fronts for other activities of the Empire, too shady for public knowledge.” Rath explained, “Considering that the ship that went there was obviously a shell for a slavers ship, I’m guessing that station deals in the slave trade.”
“So, how are we going to get in there, if it’s run by the Empire?” Zanroy asked.
The group discussed their options, none of which were terribly good. They didn’t have enough information to make a plausible reason for suddenly appearing there. Until Rath realized something obvious.
“Mining stations are constantly used as refueling stations. It would be very unusual if it didn’t have that service. We could go there, pretending to be on contract with the Empire. Just say, we’re passing through on a job for the Empire, and we need to refuel. That would get us onto the station, albeit briefly.”
“And once we’re on board, we can fake some sort of issue with the ship, forcing us to stay there for a little while.” Twil added.
“Buying me enough time to sneak inside and get to a terminal to find where Zoroc and Ari are being held.” Rath concluded.
“What do we do, when we get that information?” Zanroy asked.
There was a slight pause, before Rath responded, “We improvise.”
“I like it.” Twil said with a smile, “Idozzi, can you forge us some paperwork, documenting that we are on a job for the Empire, maybe doing some more clean up of the DS-1?”
“Of course.” Idozzi replied.
“Alright people, let’s get moving!” Twil said excitedly.
As the Sovereign pulled out of hyperspace, at the mining station, the view was not at all what anyone expected. The station was practically barren, save for dozens of TIE fighters paroling the region.
“I have a very bad feeling about this.” Zanroy said, looking out the viewport.
“No kidding.” Rath agreed. “Something is very wrong here. There’s no civilian ships. No mining ships. No proof of mining activity at all.” Thinking instinctively, Rath then activated his stealth gear, preparing for the worst.
Before anything more could be said, a call came on over comms, “Unidentitified YT-2400 state your name a business immediately.”
The three could see a squadron of TIE fighters approaching the Sovereign, quickly.
“Absolutely! This is Captain Twil Pinn, of the Sovereign. We are on a long flight clean up operation for the Empire, and we seem to have underestimated our fuel levels. We just need to stop off here, refuel our ship, and then we’ll be on our way. Here is our contract, for proof.” Twil replied over the comms, sending through the forged documentation.
There was a long silence, before the Sovereign’s holocall began lighting up. Answering the call immediately, Twil was face to face with a rather ravaged human cyborg, dressed in a high ranking Imperial uniform.
“Sovereign, this is General Ord. Are you aware that this is restricted space?” The man said, more than asked.
“I was not aware of that, General.” Twil replied, “As I said, my crew and I are just on a job for the Empire. Just need to refuel.”
“Of course, Captain.” The General replied, in a tone that made all who heard it, feel uneasy. “I will send out a fueling ship, so you can be on your way.”
Twil was about to respond, but the call was cut off immediately.
“A fueling ship?” Zanroy asked in annoyance, “That’s not gonna help us one bit.”
“Especially when they see we don’t actually need any fuel.” Twil replied.
“Hmm.” Rath mused aloud.
“What are you thinking, Rath?” Twil asked.
“Well, this will be extremely risky, but I could hack into the fueling ship’s systems. The second they dock with us, I could make something go wrong with their fuel lines. Some sort of technical error on their part. That would force both of us to land, so we could ‘refuel’ there. Once on the station, I can make it seem like they damaged our fuel lines, causing an issue with manual refueling too. It would buy us time. Not much, but some.”
“Do it.” Twil said.
Just then, the fueling ship docked with the Sovereign, and another call came on over comms. “Sovereign, we will be boarding your ship, open your airlock now.”
“Sure!” Twil replied, “Can I ask how many will be boarding?”
“Sovereign, open your airlock. Now.”
“Uh, yeah, yep. Opening now, preparing to receive boarding party.” Twil complied with the order, and rushed to the airlock to greet the Imperials.
As the airlock opened, an Imperial officer walked in, along with six stormtroopers.
“Hello!” Twil greeted them with a smile, “Welcome to my ship. Is there anything I can do for you?”
The officer looked at Twil with a mixture of surprise and disgust, but said nothing. The stormtroopers then began filing out, searching the entire ship.
“Is there anything I can help you with?” Twil asked.
Again, the officer ignored him. Instead, he looked all around the ship, investigating the ceiling and flooring. Spotting one of Twil’s disco lights, he pointed to it and said, “Check it.”
Before Twil could plead for understanding, a nearby stormtrooper bashed the light open with the butt of his rifle. Causing Twil great anguish.
As the stormtrooper scattered the pieces of glass with his boot, he shook his head at the officer.
The officer just replied with a grunt of indifference.
Just then, another trooper smacked R5 on the side of his head. R5 flew into a rage, and extended his electrical prod, but Twil was quick to jump in.
“Hey! Please don’t antagonize my astromech. He’s a moody little thing, and will give anyone a nasty shock for much less then that.”
The trooper looked at the droid, and moved on, uninterested.
Meanwhile, in the hold, another stormtrooper was questioning Zanroy, “What’s your business here?”
Zanroy just shrugged, “I’m his body guard. I just go where he tells me.”
“Bodyguard? Why would he need a bodyguard?” The snide stromtrooper asked.
“Are you kidding? Do you not know who that is?” Zanroy asked, “He’s a celebrity in the Outer Rim. I’m here to keep him safe from his more zealous fans.”
The trooper just grunted.
“So, how do those blasters handle?” Zanroy asked, in an attempt at nonchalance.
“Why, what are you gonna do with it?” The trooper asked, defensively.
“Nothing.” Zanroy said, putting his hands in the air, “I was just curious what they were capable of.”
“Well, why don’t you put your face in front of it, and I’ll show you.” The trooper said, pulling it up to aim.
Not intimidated by the empty threats, Zanroy foolishly put his face right up to the barrel.
The trooper immediately bashed Zanroy’s nose with the barrel of the gun, causing to to bleed profusely.
Before anything more could be said, or done, however, the Imperial officer got a call on his private comm. He then addressed Twil, “Captain, I don’t know what the deal is with this scrapheap of yours, but it’s not able to connect with our fueling ship, you will need to land, immediately.”
“Understood sir, thank you.” Twil replied, as the officer and his men all left the Sovereign, as quickly as they boarded.
The second the airlock closed, the entire crew tool a collective breath of relief.
“Now the real difficult part begins.” Twil said, as he got back into the cockpit. “You ready, Rath?”
“As I’ll ever be.” Rath replied, still stealthed. Thinking of the best way to make the ship look like it’s malfunctioning, without anything actually being wrong.
As they landed, the ship was immediately surrounded by dozens of stormtroopers.
Twil and Rath watched, as a fueling droid approached the ship, and began attempting to connect the fueling hose to the Sovereign. They could see the droid approach one of the stormtroopers, obviously the captain of this squadron. The two seemed to be having some sort of discussion.
“I have an idea.” Rath said, realizing a foolhardy and desperate plan.
“Let’s hear it.” Twil said.
“When we find Zoroc and Zanroy’s mother, we’re gong to need time to extract them. If we need time, then we need more than just this. We need a massive distraction.”
“What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking that we fool them into thinking that they are being attacked. If I can hack into their systems, I can fool them into seeing multiple ships attacking them from all angles. Of course, if they bother to look out a veiwport, then they’ll know it’s all a ruse. But with enough alarms blaring, at enough locations, they’ll be in a panic for some time. And we will be the least of their worries.”
“I like it.” Twil replied.
“I need you to get our boarding ramp open. I can’t access their terminals from here. I need to get inside.”
“Right.” Twil replied. “Twil then hopped on the Sovereign’s loudspeakers and asked the stormtrooper captain, “Hey, captain, is there a problem? Maybe I can help you figure it out.”
The stormtrooper looked at one of the ship’s exterior cameras and nodded.
Immediately heading to the boarding ramp, Twil lowered it, and he walked out, with Rath stealthily sneaking out behind him, and past the troopers surrounding the ship.
“Captain, something’s wrong with this rustbucket of yours. Our droid says the fuel lines won’t connect. Now you either need to fix it or get out of here now.” The stormtrooper ordered.
“Absolutely.” Twil agreed, “If you could just give me a few minutes, my astromech can take a look at it, and hopefully we’ll be out of your hair soon.”
“Just get it done.” The stormtrooper replied, annoyed.
Twil called for R5, and as the droid rolled down the ramp, he approached him, and very quietly said, “Okay, R5, this is crucial. We are in very dangerous territory right now. We need to buy Rath as much time as possible. So, do your best to pretend like your fixing the ship, without actually fixing it, because there’s obviously nothing wrong right now. Also, do your best not to agitate the stormtroopers. We can’t afford to get on their bad side.”
R5 let out a disappointed, but confirming beep. And went to work at pretending to repair the ship.
As he did so, the Imperial fueling droid headed over to R5 to observe him, making various comments on how R5 was an idiot, and not doing anything right. “No, that’s not right. What are you doing? Stupid droid, that’s not the fuel line.” And so on.
Twil watched in amusement, hoping and praying that Rath was having some success on his end.
Rath had successfully infiltrated the “mining station,” although at this point, it was clearly obvious to him that this was no mining station. The station seemed brand new. Not only that, it was clearly still under construction. In the are that he had entered, there was an incredibly long vertical shaft that had rows upon rows of what looked to be offices, or other rooms. It was all very strange. On the other end of the chasm, Rath could see a computer terminal.
Using a narrow walkway, Rath made his way to the terminal, and hacked into the system. It was surprising to Rath just how well protected this terminal was. It had security systems in place that were far beyond a simple mining station.
Working at the terminal as quickly as he could, he set up his phony attack on the station. There would be multiple breaches in various sectors of the station, dozens of heavy cruisers and hundreds of starfighters would show up on the Imperials scanners. It would take some time for them to realize it was all fake. Rath just hoped it would be enough time to secure Zoroc and Ari. Just as he was about to execute his plan, a thought occurred to him. He immediately stopped what he was doing.
Instead, he began searching the records for info on Zoroc and Ari. It took little time to find it. The “cargo” as they had been referred to as, had been dropped off at the station just hours ago. Less than an hour ago, however, the two had been transferred to another ship, labeled “IB-418.”
Rath knew instantly what that coded name meant, the Immobilizer 418. The ship he had learned of years ago. The ship that they had had a run in with, when getting rid of Doc Barris.
Scanning the logs further, he had the exact location of the Immobilizer’s destination. What’s better, they arrived there a mere thirty minutes prior. “I have you now.” Rath thought to himself. After years of chasing ghosts, his chance had finally arrived.
Clearing the terminal and erasing the slightest trace of his activities, Rath began to exit the station as quietly as he entered. Halfway through his trip back, however, he received a mental ping from Twil. Rath recognized this as Twil asking for permission to enter his mind.
Allowing it, He could hear Twil inside his head, “How’s it going? Zanroy said he couldn’t sense his mom here.”
“I’ve got the coordinates, we need to leave now.” Rath thought, in response. Uncomfortable with the idea of having a discussion inside his mind.
R5 received the signal, and gave a positive beep that the ship was fixed.
“What? No! Your stupid astromech did nothing!” The Imperial droid complained.
Twil laughed and said to the stormtrooper captain, “You should look into getting a new fueling droid. This one doesn’t seem to be working to great.”
The stormtrooper mostly ignored Twil and said to the droid, “Just fuel up the ship.”
“But I-” The droid began to complain, but just sighed in defeat, hooking up the fuel hose. The way Rath had worked it, it appeared as if the Sovereign was empty, and they really were being fueled up, so there was nothing the Empire could suspect.
“Rath, are you here?” Twil asked, entering the seemingly empty cockpit.
“I’m here. We need to get to a safe location before we do anything else. And we need to go now.” Rath replied.
“I hear ya.” Twil said. The second that he got the okay, Twil lifted off, headed away from the station, and made the jump to lightspeed.
When they reemerged into real space, Rath finally deactivated his stealth gear, took off his helmet, and sighed the biggest breath of relief he had ever breathed.
“What did you find out?” Twil asked.
“Right.” Rath replied, shaking his head, “I’ve got the coordinates. Kor Zoroc and Ari Diggersby specifically, were unloaded from that shell slavers ship, and transferred onto a ship code named IB-418. In other words, the Immobilizer 418.”
“You mean.”
“Yes. The ship I warned you about. The ship that Doc Barris had pick her up after the Yavin incident.” Rath answered. “It’s quite possibly the Empire’s most dangerous ship in their fleet.”
“So how do we take on a ship like that?” Zanroy asked.
“Twil, I have a proposal, and you know the implications this will have, but I fear we’ve little choice. We don’t stand a chance against that thing on our own.” Rath said, “We might want to consider… the Rebellion.”
Twil was silent for a time before replying, “Yeah. You’re right.”
Knowing that Ota was still on Hoth, and that it would be impossible to contact him from where they were, Twil made a call to Aklee on Coruscant, and had her transfer the holocall to Hoth.
Twil and Rath were then greeted by an old familiar face. “Captain Twil, it’s been some time!”
“Ota! It’s so good to see you!” Twil replied, happily.
“I think you’ll be happy to see what we’ve just accomplished here.” Ota said, gesturing behind him. In the distance, they could see an incredibly large ion cannon mounted into one of Hoth’s mountains. Twil recognized it immediately as the cargo he liberated from the Wheel all that time ago.
With a laugh, Twil replied, “It’s good to see you’ve got it up and running! Hopefully, you’ll never have to use it.”
“Let’s hope.” Ota agreed, “Now, what can I do for you?”
Twil’s demeanor instantly changed, “Ota, we need a favor. A big one. We have a lead on the location of a powerful Imperial ship. Rath, you want to explain it?” Twil said, turning to the Chiss.
“The Empire calls it the Immobilizer 418.” Rath began, “It is equipped with four powerful gravity wells capable of pulling even heavy cruisers, out of lightspeed. Because of this technology, it is quite possibly the most powerful ship in the Imperial Navy. Capturing this ship would be a great boon to the Rebel’s. Not to mention, capturing the officers on board might provide some valuable intel in your fight.”
“But here’s the thing.” Twil cut back in, “There are two people on board that ship, being held prisoner, that are very important to us, and we need to free them. We know where the ship is. It jumped there a mere thirty minutes ago. If we act fast, we can take it by surprise. But we need to move, now. Ota, we can’t take on the Immobilizer alone.”
Ota considered their words carefully before responding. “How important is this?”
“We risked certain death to get this information.” Rath replied.
Ota nodded solemnly before saying, “Please excuse me for one moment.”
He then disappeared from the holoterminal’s veiw. Shortly after, he returned, “I would like to introduce you to someone very important.”
Just then, an elegant human woman walked into view. Twil and Rath instantly recognized her as the former senator of Chandrilla, and leader of the Rebel Alliance, Mon Mothma.
“Captain Twil, Ota has told me much about you. He speaks very highly of you and your crew.” Mon Mothma said, greeting the two.
“Senator Mothma!” Twil said surprised, “It is an honor to meet you!” Twil then went in to the same explanation that he had just given Ota. He finished by saying, “Senator, this is crucial for us. If you cannot help us, then we will attack the ship by ourselves. Even though it most likely means that we will die in our attempt.”
Mon Mothma raised her hand, before saying, “Captain Twil, I believe everything you’ve said, and I believe in the abilities of you and your crew. In this endeavor, you will have the full support of the Rebel Fleet.”
