Chapter 25: 25. Chapter

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 in most parts 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, and 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 once chased around by slavers, in the slums of Ryloth back then. It was a terrifying experience to live through, now I know, that the only reason I was able to escape was the force, that guided me unknowingly 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 big 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, yet, I guess it was normal. I didn't trust him either. I hope, that he will prove me to be wrong in 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. It was more like a trick since we would simply attack their ship after they came out of hyperspace to meet with the spice buyer. 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 have a stupidly trusting nature, just like this nuna bird, my little twi'lek friend.

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...

-You never know, what a crazy pirate captain from the rim is capable to do...

-That might be true, - I said, and took a particularly big bite from the tasty meat, then continued with my unfinished sentence. - but 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 peoples true intentions. People like that are rare in itself, but this ability is much-much rarer when it comes by 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. - Yes, that sounds like a good idea...

I almost choked on the nuna meat that I was currently chewing. I began to cough forcefully while trying to spit out the meat 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 knew that you were not an empath, girl. So relax, you are seriously bad at lying. Your eyes, always break eye contact in the last second when you tell a lie.

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 normal methods of detection. 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, 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. I know that this place was dirty; the shelves never even saw a duster, but it reminded me of the sith temple I lived in most of my life. 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, covered 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 as a sith. I was smiling to myself comfortably, while Hondo was watching me while also partially lost in his own world. It was simply nice.

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-But master! We will have to go back and search for her! She is lost somewhere, I just know it!

-Ahsoka, I know that you are afraid for your friends 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 Ahoska. - Said Obi-Wan this time. - Your judgment is clouded by your feelings. We don't even know, that Nizzal, was kidnapped or that she herself killed those two clones and escaped after that.

-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, I agree with Commander Tano, 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.

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-By all means trooper, we understood, that you were the last person, who is alive and saw Commander Nizzal, who was escorted by two clones under my command.

-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 would only be able to kill one of them, while the other would 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 me her injuries as much as you can.

-Yes, sir, she was blown away from the suicide bomber droid's direct explosion waves, 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 and bruises. 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... He then 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 as he sighed 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 its time to share what our actual mission was from the beginning.

-What do you mean? Master? - Asked Ahsoka with confusion.

-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!? - Asked Ahsoka. - So there aren't even any pirates here?

Obi-Wan, grinned at that.

-Of course there are pirates. 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?

Ahsoka and Anakin looked at each other, then back to Obi-Wan with a gaze that practically radiated discomfort and embarrassment.

-Really, hmmm... I guess, the bait was actually better than I first thought, or maybe I underestimated the general stupidity of the Senate? Well... but before I wander off any further. 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 suspect that even in the jedi order itself our enemies have ears. 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.

-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. They created a wide spread communication disturbance field around our battle, that was activated a few minutes before the enemy ships arrived. We also sensed a strong disturbance in the force at that time, but we weren't able to identify the danger fast enough. The force disturbance only made us more confused, and we didn't find the already activated communication disruption field in time. Then the battle began. One of the smaller frigates was constantly positioned in a way, that we couldn't jump into hyperspace. Thankfully to Ahsoka and Nizzals heroic stand in the hangar, we managed to send out almost all of our fighter ships. And with you leading the attack, they managed to destroy the forward heavy turbo lasers on the munificent class ship. That was the turning point in the space battle.

Anakin nodded to that conclusion. He also explained to the seemingly confused Ahsoka the meaning of that information.

-Those pair of turbolasers are incredibly powerful. They are capable of melting a smaller ice planet by continuous shooting in a day, completely changing its climate.

-Wow...

-Our ship was also unable to 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 forward cannons, because of their size, are very slow to aim. Thankfully, the biggest threat was no more, and we were able to freely turn the ship in a way, that allowed us to focus our complete firepower on the Resuscant-class frigate, that couldn't handle that level of firepower, and soon jumped away. Its place was taken by the other one. This time we focused on that one. However, it didn't run away. We most likely managed to damage its hyperdrive. Under the heavy barrage soon, it blew up into smithereens. Since the munificent was much slower, it couldn't effectively block our escape path, and after that the fighters came back to the recaptured hangar. We finally ran away. And this is where we are right now, after realizing that Commander Nizzal, was most likely taken by enemy forces...

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