Chapter 8

If there was one thing I appreciated lately, it was the moments of solitude. In the bustle of an active duty warship such as Resolute, such moments were at a premium. My tiny quarters didn't really count, as I was always busy with something, even during my off-duty times and the din of an active warship didn't help. Precious little time could be devoted to silent meditation. This longing for solitude was something that had come with me from my previous life. The idea of just finding a place somewhere, where you were completely self-sufficient, where the closest neighbor was beyond the horizon had this innate appeal to me. Nevertheless, I appreciated my fellow sentient and no one could be an island forever, so to speak.

This rare moment of solitude came in the form of me being all alone on the Twilight, powering through hyperspace towards Rodia, which finally allowed me to catch up on some much needed meditation time. The fact that the autopilot was doing the work meant that it would take just over a day to make the journey but it was a relief to just let the constant hum of swirling hyperspace settle me into my plunge of the currents of the Force.

As usual when you were experiencing a good thing, it was over all too quickly and both the autopilot's alarm and a prompting from the Force had me emerge from my meditation. I took a good long stretch before entering the cockpit and after consulting the navcomp, determined that I had another fifteen minutes before the ship was due to revert to real space in orbit of Rodia.

I headed into the small crew quarters and got armored up properly.

Twilight snapped into existence beyond the gravity well of Rodia and I dropped behind the controls, switched off the autopilot and keyed up the scanners and coms. My first impression of the world was simply the word 'green'. It was utterly lush green with streaks of white clouds all over. This was a world of swamp, jungle and minor oceans. The Rodians themselves lived in climate controlled domed cities as the planet in general was just too uncomfortably hot and humid to live naturally on without unacceptable levels of wear and tear on buildings and machinery. This meant that while for the most part they could farm for most of their diet via fishing and some aquaculture, it was not enough for their entire population and they still depended on imports. Therefore, with the war restricting and drastically curtailing trade volumes, it meant that the world was prey to CIS machinations via the Trade Federation.

Hence why recently, Senator Amidala and the avatar of chaos himself Representative Binks had had an adventure so to speak where they foiled a Seperatist plot to bring Rodia into the CIS fold and in the process captured an enemy VIP.

My scans finally pinged on my destination.

"This is Commander Tano on the Twilight, calling Republic Corvette Justice, permission to dock."

The radio crackled to life, "Welcome Commander, permission granted for port airlock."

"Thank you, Tano out."

I gunned the throttle a bit to close the distance to the T-shaped corvette faster, before finally flipping the Twilight over and beginning a decel burn. Thankfully the pilot of the Justice was just coasting on an easy and predictable orbit over Rodia, so it was an easy maneuver but I relished the chance to use my middling piloting skill whenever I could. The corvette grew in my rear camera view and at the appropriate moment after matching velocities and steadying the closure rate to safe docking speed, I yawed the Twilight until it's dorsal airlock was aiming right at the Justice's airlock. I augmented the last bits of piloting with a bit of Force prescience to judge the last moments before the two ships made contact.

"Contact successful, docking shows green across the board."

I consulted the navcomp a brief moment before loading a course program that both Anakin and R2 had written, then linked it to my wristcom before grabbing my duffel bag and heading to the airlock.

The moment I crossed through the airlocks and stepped onto the Justice, I was met by the person in charge of the mission.

Jedi Master Luminara Unduli was a green skinned Mirialan that was just slightly taller than I was, wearing her personal style of Jedi robes in a dark brown, with a wildly impractical head dress that had flaps of material hanging down to her shoulders that neatly framed her face. She even sported some form of traditional looking tattoos in a diamond pattern that covered her chin.

Her tone was neutral and her sapphire blue eyes regarding me with a slight hint of disapproval, "Padawan Tano."

"Master Unduli," I bowed. "How is our guest?"

"He's a model prisoner, when he's not trying to bribe his way out. I don't think the clone officers aboard have ever heard of half the things he's offering them."

I rolled my eyes, "Typical."

I keyed the airlock to shut behind me before sending a signal from my wristcom. The Justice shuddered as the Twilight undocked and powered away from Rodia on autopilot, where it would jump back into hyperspace and begin the journey back to Bothawui and the Resolute.

Unduli led me to the small forward bridge deck of the corvette and there was the Neimoidian of the hour. Nute Gunray was handcuffed and seated at an empty corner of the bridge deck, with three burly clone troopers standing guard over him, one of which had the green stripe of a commander on his armor.

"Welcome Commander Tano," said the clone, "I'm Commander Gree, glad to have you on board."

We exchanged casual salutes, "Greetings Commander." Gree had individualized himself as most clones of high rank did, by cutting his hair in a unique style, with two thumb width strips of hair remaining and dyed to an auburn color. It was pretty cool and badass looking. "There's no brig on this ship?"

"Not one that I would trust to leave the prisoner alone in, best he rather stay in sight at all times."

I could understand the sentiment. Nute Gunray in person was not someone I was enjoying sensing with the Force, he just oozed a sleezy cunningness and also had one of those looks that almost made you want to give him a good ass kicking just for existing. It wasn't a charitable thought, but it was there nonetheless. Then there was his rather pivotal role in kicking off the entire mess the galaxy was currently in all those years ago on Naboo and his current role within the CIS as one of the principal members and throwing the Trade Federation's droid facilities into the war effort.

At the moment though, Gunray was looking thoroughly bored but he was eyeing me with a sharp evaluating stare.

"Get us underway, Captain, we don't want to be late for the rendezvous," Unduli ordered.

"At once, General," the clone pilot acknowledged and began working at his controls.

Justice swiftly broke orbit and headed on a new course, that would take us on a two hour journey to Christophsis to meet up with a Venator Star Destroyer that would be the ship that would make the main journey along the Corellian Run Hyperlane, which would take a further twenty-two days to reach Coruscant.

It was ridiculous.

If the Senate had an ounce of practical common sense they would've tasked myself and Anakin with the job, and we'd use the Twilight to fly an unpredictable course and deliver Gunray straight into prison on Coruscant in less than five and a half days. However, Palpatine didn't want Gunray in prison. So here I was, the closest backup the Jedi Council could send for Master Unduli and about to fly through the galaxy with a huge bullseye painted on our backs.

The ideal time to spring Gunray would've been when we were in this dinky corvette but the short hop proceeded uneventfully and I let out an inward sigh of relief when we emerged from hyperspace to find the large dagger shaped form of a Venator waiting for us in interstellar space.

"Incoming transmission," announced the clone pilot.

Unduli stepped forward into view of the com pickup, "Jedi Cruiser Tranquility, this is General Luminara Unduli requesting permission to dock."

The screen resolved to show three blue armored forms of Senate Commandos. They were an oddity in the GAR in that they were the only soldiers that were not clones, being an elite division of the Senate Guard that were recruited and trained to the highest standards. They were essentially the precursors of the red robed Imperial Guard that would guard Emperor Palpatine in the future. Their armor was a deep purple blue and almost identical to those that front line clones wore, except with much better quality and was rated to let the occupant survive quite a few hits from blasters without much issue.

"You are cleared General, we eagerly await your prisoner's arrival," declared the commando.

"Thank you Captain Argyus, I look forward to delivering him to you."

The corvette banked under the Tranquility and slotted itself into the ventral docking bay of the cruiser, which allowed a docking tube to be easily extended to the Justice.

Commander Gree pulled Gunray to his feet to help with the escort, but it was largely ceremonial as between myself and Unduli, the Neimoidian was going nowhere. It was only when we were walking in the bowels of the cruiser itself did something seem to snap within Gunray and I could sense fear begin rising from him rather alarmingly. It seemed he had been hoping for a rescue mission from his allies while he was on the corvette, now that he was within a Venator, that rescue to him was looking less likely.

"This is an outrageuous miscarriage of justice, I demand my litigator."

"Keep moving," grumbled Gree and shoved Gunray forward.

Approaching us was Captain Argyus with four commandos on his heels. The captain removed his helmet and I was rather taken aback by the fact that he looked like he could've walked off the cover of a magazine or one of those sappy romance novels in my previous life. He was utterly handsome and judging from what I was sensing in the Force, he had a narcissistic streak that showed he knew it.

"Greetings General, we have the brig all ready for this traitor."

Unduli nodded, "Very good Captain, Commander Gree, let's get underway."

"Right away, sir."

Gree gave Gunray another shove and the clone commander escorted him off to the detention deck, with the Senate commandos falling in formation behind. Unduli gestured for me to follow her as she headed for a lift that would take us to the bridge.

I felt it was time to bring my misgivings about the mission to light, "I'm surprised Senate commandos are here."

"The powerful allies that Gunray has merits the security, Padawan."

"Oh, I realize that Master, I just think the shield of subterfuge, speed and guile would've been a better fit for this mission. This cruiser is going to take so long to get back to the Coruscant that it's all but inevitable we're going to be attacked. Either to rescue Gunray or assassinate him before he can spill any secrets."

"That may be," Unduli admitted, "but it is why I'm here as well. We'll make use of the time we have for an interrogation."

"I'm not sure how successful that could be, Master. Ideally we'd have a Neimoidian Jedi do it, to correctly interpret his thoughts, but Jedi of that race are rare."

Unduli nodded, "Even so, I can at least understand Neimoidian well enough and any glimpse of information I can possibly interpret from him would be very valuable. This is a rare opportunity to get a glimpse into the working of the highest echelons of the CIS."

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A few hours later the Tranquility was in hyperspace well on its way to the next stop in the journey, the Druckenwell system. This part of the Corellian Run was straightforward and the ship wouldn't need to transition to real space for another five days. Thankfully the very highly illegal technology of hyperspace interdiction would not be fielded on a modern warship platform for another decade and would be done so by the Empire, so the Tranquility was safe from attack as long as it remained in hyperspace.

The time was well used by Master Unduli, who began the interrogation by placing Gunray in a force-field cell in isolation and left to stew in his own thoughts for nearly a day, while only giving him the minimum to eat and drink. She also had the guards leave the lights on and make enough of a racket in their duties so that he only got at most only a couple of hours of sleep. They even faked a plumbing accident that caused Gunray's last bodily waste that he got rid of in the cell's small refresher to be blasted back into the cell. The clone technicians rather took their time to respond, fix and clean up the mess.

It wasn't outright torture as I knew it from old Earth, but enough to ensure that Gunray was utterly uncomfortable and grumpy.

It was only then on the second day of the journey, that Unduli began her interrogation. I had to be there both to observe, learn and to watch her back as she would be required to do some deep Force immersion for this to work.

"Shall we begin, Viceroy." Gunray stared at her mulishly, but he shifted uncomfortably in his prison jumpsuit. "Already your thoughts betray you, I can sense your concern. The fear that you will lose the wealth and power that the war has given you."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

And the award for best actor goes to… I thought with amusement. I was left somewhat with a conundrum. Gunray could truly tell me nothing that I didn't already know, but it was more a matter of what he could let others know. If he truly broke and Unduli learned a secret that would be severely damaging to Palpatine and his Darth Sidious persona, then it would cause all sorts of ripple effects, the most immediate of which was that he'd have to kill me and Unduli with priority and advance a lot of plans.

"You hide a great many things," Unduli closed her eyes and I could feel the Force rippling and flexing in the cell as she gathered her focus and strained to interpret Gunray's thoughts and mind. "The names of your secret allies, the locations of their bases."

Gunray's voice trembled slightly, "I am an innocent pawn in all of this."

Unduli scoffed and opened her eyes, "If you're really a pawn then who are you protecting?"

"No one, I know nothing."

"Really?" I laughed.

"Yes!"

"You are well known as one of the primary figures involved in the Naboo Crisis thirteen years ago. Your Trade Federation practically contributes a quarter of the CIS budget and is a primary contractor for defense provision. The Federation has probably the largest collection of mercantilists in the galaxy under one roof of which you are the head, so naturally you must know something to have gotten one over all those greedy and clever people to rise to the top."

"I, I, those are trade secrets, nothing to do with-"

"Thank you, Viceroy," Unduli said with a mild smile and turned around to leave the cell abruptly.

"What?!"

The force field flickered off and I gave Gunray a mocking two finger salute before leaving as well.

I followed Unduli silently and she stopped but a few meters away from the main doors to the detention area, closing her eyes again. I was surprised to sense her turn her mind towards Gunray through the Force again. It seemed she was not a Jedi Master for nothing, as she did not truly need to be within line of sight of Gunray to probe his mind, in fact she could probably be anywhere on the ship and do so with equal impunity. It required a high degree of mastery and enlightenment to throw away the concept of space and distance mattering at all in the usage of the Force. Finally after a few minutes she opened her eyes.

"What did you learn, Master?"

"I must first thank you for your measured words there, rather clever Padawan Tano."

I nodded, "If there's one thing that's universal about how the mind works, no matter the species, then it's by association. You mention a concept or idea, you can't help but think about it."

"Indeed, Gunray has received some training it seems in learning how to direct his thoughts away from what he doesn't want revealed but your words managed to stir his mind. I was able to gleam the location of a secret Seperatist listening post hidden in the outer layers of a gas giant in the Roon system."

"A post there could conceivably listen in on hyperspace comms and monitor ship traffic of the Arcanis and Abrion sectors in this part of the galaxy."

"Yes, it's essentially the eyes of the entire Seperatist fleet in this front of the war." Her eyes closed again and faint twitches of her mouth showed amusement. "Now Gunray's frantically trying to figure out what he may have let slip in his thoughts to me and… well, I think I also now know the location of one of Grievous' main bases in the southern part of the galaxy.."

"Not as important anymore but it could be a valuable source of intel, but more than likely it will have been scrubbed of anything truly sensitive by now."

Unduli shook her head, "It's a personal base that is not known to the rest of the CIS senior leadership. Gunray only knows it because he sold Grievous a state of the art droid tooling and fabrication line, to build custom parts for himself no doubt."

"It would make sense that Grievous would want a base that even Dooku doesn't know about, given how paranoid and fearful they are about treachery, even amongst themselves," I reasoned and then after debating it internally and weighing the risk and reward, then making doubly sure no one was nearby. I reached out to Unduli with the Force, while outwardly saying, "When will we next interrogate…

"Master Unduli, sorry for this form of personal contact, but if I might make a suggestion," I sent through the Force in mindspeak.

"We will give him another eight hours of boredom and conduct it in the middle of his sleep cycle," she replied. "Go ahead." her thoughts sang to me over the small connection I had made.

"Let's share the intel of the listening post directly to Master Skywalker, he'll know what to do with it and he's bored since his task group is stuck protecting Bothawui at the moment. It would be no problem to send him and a special ops detachment to destroy the post. If we send this through the usual channels back to Coruscant it would risk the very intel we have from having any value at all."

"Any communication we send from this vessel directly to Bothawui would also be at risk of interception, Padawan."

"Which is why I will send my thoughts to Master Skywalker directly."

"Your bond is truly that strong already?" her skeptical tone was quite pronounced over the mindspeak.

"I can do it, Master."

"I will meet you at your temporary quarters when the time comes," Unduli nodded. "I trust your Master has given you instructions with what to fill your free time with?"

"Most definitely," I nodded and departed with a bow.

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The journey to Druckenwell continued and I spent most of it only superficially helping with Gunray's further interrogation. The rest of the time I was coordinating with Commander Gree on getting the ship prepared for the inevitable battle ahead. The clone divisions aboard were mostly veterans of Christophsis and no hand holding was required here. So I focused my efforts at organizing effective cover at the areas where boarding pods were likely to breach, mostly the hangar decks. Of course, cover worked both ways, but only when you were facing another organic army whose members didn't want to die. B2 Droids were walking tanks and the nasty versions came with arms that could fire rockets, therefore they didn't care about cover one bit.

"What?" Commander Gree and the Clone Captain of the Tranquility chorused at me in astonishment.

I sighed and leaned against a regulator control console of the Hyperdrive. We were in one of the main cavernous engineering spaces that allowed the giant drive to be monitored and maintained. The noise and electronic interference would make merry havoc with listening devices.

"We cannot hold onto Gunray. He is too important to the Seppies and they will do everything and anything to get him out of our hands. If we had a task force around us I'd be inclined to think differently but Tranquility and the clones aboard her, Master Unduli and myself is all that stands between Gunray and the Seppies."

"Surely we'd gotten some warning from Druckenwell that the clankers are waiting for us." Gree pointed out.

"If it were me, I'd have sent in commando droids to disable the system's long range communications. We'll get no warning."

The Clone Captain pulled out his datapad and began tapping on it, performing navcomp calculations. "Assuming you're right Commander Tano and given the closest Seperatist fleet elements, they could only intercept us at Druckenwell with light units."

"Yes, no heavy ships, but enough hyperspace capable droid carriers to drown us in clankers. That is why I want you to instruct the troops that there will be no fighting to the last man. I want them to live to fight another day. I consider Gunray not worth the lives of all the clones on this ship," I told them earnestly. The two senior clones on Tranquility couldn't conceal their surprise from me. "So if they see they're going to be overrun, they retreat. This battle will in any case be a distraction. Gunray has an ally on this ship that will aid his escape and there will be another coming. If your men see anyone with a red bladed lightsaber, they will not shoot either. If they truly have to defend themselves from such a person, retreat then cook droid poppers or thermal detonators and throw them. General Unduli and I will deal with them directly."

Gree and the Captain looked at each other with doubt.

"Look, I can't make this order official, nor can General Unduli, it's why I'm here and not her. I just already told you that there is a traitor on this ship and his presence makes things very complicated. We need Gunray to be sprung because there is a larger picture at work as well."

The two clones looked troubled but eventually both nodded.

"Very well, Commander."

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I stared at the chrono on my wrist as it counted down the time until our arrival in Druckenwell. Then glanced through the forcefield as Master Unduli tried for a final time to milk any more information from Gunray. The Neimoidian visibly looked like he had been put through the ringer by this point. He was operating on very little sleep, though we kept his belly full this time but with the least pleasant rations that we could scrounge up for his alien palate. In the past few days he had not let slip much more of immediate consequence, mostly trade secrets and blackmail information that he kept on his competitors. Though there were quite a few senators that were going to be getting uncomfortable scrutiny as a result of what we uncovered. As much as the Trade Federation had thrown in their lot with the CIS, the under the table and very profitable trade links that quite a few senators benefited from by continuing their relationship with the Federation was rather damning.

"Master Unduli, time."

"Thank you, Padawan."

She emerged from the cell and the ship shuddered as it dropped out of hyperspace. I reached out with the Force, expanding my localized awareness to beyond the ship itself and out into the cold void of space. The localized space traffic of waypoint on the Corellian Run hyperspace lane blossomed into my awareness.

"They're here," I nodded.

Not a few seconds later the general battle alert alarms started wailing throughout Tranquility.

"Captain, status report," Unduli ordered into her wristcom.

"Two full squadrons of droid fighters and three boarding pods. They were waiting for us right on our emergence."

I tapped my own wristcom, "Commander Gree, time."

"Understood Commander."

Unduli looked at me with a quirked eyebrow but I didn't want to elaborate further. Captain Argyus and his squad of commandos were right there. The hull began to thump as all the main guns began firing to repel the enemy. Then I felt three distinct tremors through the soles of my boots. How those Droch class boarding pods managed to pierce a ship's shields was something that was still giving many Republic military scientists sleepless nights. Surely if something could pierce shields to ram a ship as the Droch pod did, why didn't the CIS use it on a kinetic weapon on a starship scale. Clones gave the rather grim nickname of 'juicers' to the Droch, after its other use, to pry open escape pods in the aftermath of battles. My own personal theory was that it was a combination of things, the material the penetration blades were made of and some form of resonator that could perhaps negate the deflection ability of a shield, but there was some limitation or caveat that prevented its use in other applications.

It didn't take long after that for reports of the battle to reach us.

"The pods are filled with rocket B2s! We are in a fighting retreat, they're heading for the detention level!"

"I will go and cut them off," Unduli declared, "remain here with Captain Argyus, Padawan."

"Very well, Master."

And so it was just me and Argyus, along with his other commandos.

"So, Gunray," I grinned at the Neimoidian through the forcefield, "think they're here to rescue you or just kill you? We have after all worked you over pretty thoroughly these last few days." Gunray just stood there and nervously wringed his hands. "Oh, and even if they do get you back, well don't expect that you'll get royal treatment either. They have to know what you spilled after all."

The din of battle, blaster bolts sizzling and the thumps of explosions was getting closer and closer.

Then it all just stopped.

Argyus looked at me with a raised eyebrow before hurrying off to the main terminals of the detention level and then coming back.

"I've got the all clear, the enemy has been repelled."

Two ruby shafts of light seemed to sprout from the ceiling before starting to turn and cut the thin durasteel paneling.

My lightsabers were in my hands and lit an instant later.

"Don't point your weapons at her or shoot, you'll just be killing yourselves," I barked at the two commandos flanking the cell, who had reflexively done just that.

Asajj Ventress dropped straight onto the two commandos who had been manning the main consoles and with two economical kicks swiftly knocked both out. Argyus rushed to get behind me and join his remaining two men in guarding Gunray's cell while I rushed forward to intercept Ventress. She had ditched the wildly impractical dress for this mission, and was clad in dark form fitting wraps, shorts and shirt. Her near ivory white skin glistened in the overhead lighting making her facial tattoos stand in stark relief.

"Greetings Asajj, had a nice trip in that cramped boarding pod?"

She regarded me with narrowed ice cool eyes. "Now just what is Skywalker's obnoxious little pet doing here of all places?"

"Oh, just seeing the sights, interrogating a Neimoidian, that's war for you-"

I burst into motion with both my blades seeking to literally cut her legs off from her elevated position on the consoles.

She nimbly somersaulted over me, slashing downwards in mid air to cleave my head.

I was already ducking and turning, deflecting both blades away with only my left lightsaber and a pinpoint use of a Force Push, stabbing forward into a forward lunge at her landing point. That would've bisected her groin to head had she not done her own fancy bit of TK to frantically push herself out of the path of my right blade and land beyond it.

With her feet back under herself she charged at me with both her blades in an overhead strike, that was swiftly proven to be a classic feint and instead transitioned into side swipes that tried to attack my legs and head at the same time. My blades defended and intercepted hers in the middle ring of defense in a blur of speed, but I followed through with a Sparta style kick straight to her stomach, and I also let off with a Force Push through my foot that surprised her and sent her flying.

Let it not be said she wasn't resilient though as she went with it, shutting off her lightsabers to allow her to control her tumble with the Force and pulling her arms inward. She was barely back on her feet and had to defend frantically from my Falling Avalanche attack. Relighting her blades and managing to deflect my blades and do a backwards somersault to gain more room.

It was easy to sense her goal though.

Argyus and his two commandos had wisely retreated away from the battle to the side corridor, but was still relatively close to Gunray's cell.

Ventress grabbed the Captain with the Force and flung the guy at me with a burst of TK.

I had to use my own TK to deflect the Captain from barreling into me, but the distraction was enough for Ventress to open Gunray's cell. (Why didn't they secure these things with a code lock?!) The two remaining commando's clearly wanted to shoot but remembering my warnings and facing Ventress in person (and why didn't I tell them the idea of cooking a droid popper?), were merely used as further missiles, flung at me with TK.

Damn, why do bad guys always exploit that.

By the time I had saved the commandos from potentially lethal deaths after being used as cannon balls, Ventress had Gunray out and was charging at me again.

Our deadly dance began again.

It was clear immediately that she was off balance in the fight. Her training had perhaps been a bit too focused on only facing an opponent with a single blade, like most Jedi. Her usual tricks and style that would force an opponent with a singular blade to do evasions and dance to her tune wasn't working at all. Her experience and age gave her an edge over me, and all things being equal I wouldn't be a match for her on paper, but my intensive practice with Anakin and physical exercise under Cody was paying off in spades now and my unconventional blade style, plus Force Pushes that I could throw with none of the silly mnemonic gestures most Jedi needed was enough to even the playing field.

"What would he say now, seeing you?"

Our blades were locked, essentially forming a crooked hashtag of lightsabers as we warred in a strength contest. She was physically stronger, but the Force was with me. Her eyes narrowed in anger at my words, her teeth gritting with effort. This was me taking inspiration from Vader and the Sith a bit, attacking an opponent psychologically, a Light side version that used the truth as a blade. Yes, I was also cheating with metaknowledge and not actually probing her mind, but if you weren't cheating you weren't trying.

I turned abruptly, pulling and pushing with TK that I only got through her passive Force defenses with an effort that gave me a tingling feeling in my head that was one of the first signs that I was pushing it too hard in my use of the Force.

Ventress rolled forward and did a somersault flip, opening up more room between us.

At the end of the detention level, a lift opened and Master Unduli sprinted toward us with her own green lightsaber lit, "Assassin!"

I charged forward as well, and now Ventress had to fend us both off. Splitting her blades between us.

Then instead of pressing the damn attack, Unduli simply blocked, locking Ventress' blade with her own and calmly stating, "Surrender."

A clone squad was piling into the deck at this point.

Ventress promptly deactivated her blades and clipped them in the small of her back and raised her hands. She looked at Unduli with a smirk and then promptly lost that look when I spoke.

"He was never abandoned by the Order, he chose to stay."

Then the entire world seemed to upend itself, as if an earthquake had hit the ship. Try as I might, I couldn't keep my feet under me and ended up falling to the side, managing an awkward roll to at least bring me out of the immediate range of Ventress.

Showing why she was a Master, Unduli didn't lose her footing but was distracted enough to take a Force Push to the face. Then avoid being filleted by Ventress who powered into a Force Leap that sent her soaring down the corridor.

The clones tried to take pot shots at her from their own prone positions on the deck, but Ventress easily deflected them harmlessly.

I genuflected to my feet and charged after Unduli who had already set off in pursuit.

Ventress used the Force to open the lift doors, vaulted over the control banks and plunged fearlessly down the shaft, stabbing her lightsabers into the sides to control her descent.

Unduli and I stopped at the open lift shaft and chanced a quick look down. Ventress was already far below and exited through the tube after forcing another door open but any thoughts of immediate pursuit were stopped when a malfunctioning lift plunged past us.

"Everything's running haywire," reported Argyus, surveying the control desk and pushing a few buttons. "Doors, lifts, communications are down, propulsion dead. She's crippled the entire ship."

"Our attacker has come for Gunray," declared Unduli somewhat unnecessarily, "stay here and guard him, I'll confront her myself."

"Master, be very careful, she's had personal instruction from Dooku himself, do not underestimate her."

She nodded, "I see, how would you rate her?"

"Very deadly, opportunistic and will use the environment as a weapon as well, add the dark side to that mix and it's not a healthy combination."

"I see, keep a clear head, Padawan," Unduli nodded at me before abruptly stepping off into the lift tube and controlling her descent with the Force.

I keyed my wristcom, "Captain, this is Commander Tano."

"I'm here," the Clone Captain of the Tranquility responded eventually in a rough voice.

"Sorry to bother, but I need you to make sure you keep your engineers and droids out of the engineering spaces for the moment. We have a CIS assassin and saboteur on board, and she wants to keep this ship from going anywhere. That will include butchering anyone attempting to fix the hyperdrive. Master Unduli is tracking her down now."

"Understood Commander, I'll relay my orders accordingly, they've got enough work fixing up the battle damage in the hangar bays anyway."

"Assuming we can deal with the saboteur, how long until we can have hyperdrive, best guess."

"Judging from the readouts up here, just over a day and even then we'll be flying at a crawl."

"Then it's not worth it, best to sit tight here in Druckenwell anyway for full repairs. I have a feeling our mission will end here. Focus on the sublight engines and get us to the local starship pit stop."

"Roger that, Commander."

Captain Argyus had in the meantime kept himself busy by beginning to order his troops and dismissing a lot of the clones to return to typical duty stations or help with damage control. I myself started pacing in anxiousness and just wanted the whole damn charade over with and Gunray out of my non-existent hair. Then the Force had to butt in as well, giving me a nicely laid out future probability line, in what was probably the most clear and concise bit of Force Foresight I had ever gotten.

I began an angry rant in my native Torgrutan, berating stupid, stubborn, even arrogant Jedi Masters, and even had a few choice words about the Force, before finally throwing up my arms in exasperation, "Fracking fine, Captain Argyus, I have to go, have fun."

I sprinted for the open lift tube and fell.

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I caught up with the fight in one of the cavernous starboard hyperdrive engineering rooms. The place had definitely seen better days, piping was loose, components that used to be attached to others were in pieces all over, control panels smashed and burning fires. The place would have any OHSA agent in my previous life screaming in horror and that was before it was wrecked by Ventress's sabotage.

Unduli had a leg trapped underneath quite a large pipe that had fallen on her and Ventress was standing there on an elevated pipe with blood red lightsabers poised and smirking darkly with a savage victory. She could just finish off Unduli with the thrown lightsaber technique but instead opted for going in up close and personal and jumped into a somersault. Spinning her lightsabers like she was a demented dark side version of Sonic the hedgehog.

I gathered the Force and threw out a Push with such strength that it actually attenuated the air enough to become visible. It smashed into Ventress who was still in midair and sent her flying abruptly backwards with such speed that it actually got a scream of pain and fright out of her. She was blown straight into the open maw of a large bisected pipe and vanished into its depths.

I landed next to Unduli and a few quick precise swipes of my lightsaber had her leg freed from under it. I also held out my hand and Unduli's own lightsaber slapped into it from where it had fallen amongst the wreckage.

She accepted it with a nod of thanks, "I'm sorry Master for abandoning my post but I sensed staying would not have led to a happy outcome."

"Then I thank you, together we…"

The dual snap hiss of two lightsabers activating heralded Ventress's return. She stormed out the pipe with a burst of Force Speed but was met with our three green blades waiting.

She slashed at Unduli who blocked her cold, whilst I blocked the other slash meant for me with my left blade and lunged into a totally unorthodox forward stab.

Ventress was forced immediately to evade by bursting up into a Force leap that had her clear over eight meters to land on an upper walkway that surrounded one of the large hyperdrive motivators.

She made another leap and was out of sight.

"We have to find her," Unduli declared. "We can't let her get to Gunray."

My only motivation in this was to take Ventress off the board and not necessarily by killing her. Unduli, powered into her own Force leap towards the upper levels of the deck. Up here footing was more precarious, with thin catwalks and didn't leave a lot of room to really maneuver. My senses strained into the Force, but Ventress kept her presence well hidden. She was still here but nowhere I could pinpoint.

Unduli led us in a search pattern of the upper deck, which only turned up a maintenance droid which had been stuck under a bit of fallen debris. It thanked us in its electronic screeching and wheeled off indignantly as it regarded the mess that had been made of its domain.

"Ahsoka," said Unduli as we continued searching with our lightsabers humming ominously and casting a green glow all over. "I feel I must apologize, for all that you warned me of Ventress, there was a part of me that didn't take you seriously. I let pride in my position get in the way, you were after all just a Padawan, what could you teach me."

My respect for Unduli shot up by quite a few notches, "And there you prove why you deserve that title, Master."

"This assassin, I've never faced an adversary like her."

"She's a Sith, Master, or at least she fancies herself that after Dooku no doubt pumped her head full of manipulation, carefully twisted truths and a few scraps of Sith lore."

"Indeed," Unduli frowned at me in thought, before the chime of her comlink went off.

"General Unduli," Gree's voice echoed, "we've been betrayed, Argyus has freed Gunray."

"So the true plot reveals itself at last," Unduli sighed. "Even Ventress was just another layer of distraction." She abruptly turned and slashed, bisecting a large piece of piping that had been flung at her back with the Force.

Ventress herself landed on the catwalk behind us nimbly like a cat with her red lightsabers adding eerily to lighting of the area.

"Why are you trying to fight us, Assajj?" I held my blades ready, in the inner and middle rings of defense, "Trying to prove you're worthy of the title of Sith to Dooku? You do know that Sith have a rule of two, only a master and apprentice, always. You are supposedly Dooku's, but do you think he does not have a master?"

That finally broke through and she charged us with an animal ferocity. Her blades slashing through the air, trying to decapitate both of us. I blocked her with a method of aggressive defense, ducking underneath at the last second and stabbing forward with both my blades at full extension that forced her to abruptly dodge to her left and right into Unduli, who managed to catch both Ventress's blades into a lock.

My blades came around, seeking to slice into her briefly unprotected back, but her nimbleness saved her with a pinpoint leap upward that tucked into a backwards somersault and landed in a crouch a few meters away.

Seeing that lightsabers weren't doing the trick she switched to TK and started hurling debris at us with the Force with such speed that a hit in the wrong place could be lethal. We were forced to play whack with our lightsabers, and use TK ourselves to deflect the projectiles.

Unduli managed a deflection and caught a piece, which she sent soaring straight down Ventress's throat, forcing the assassin to jump to avoid it.

She shot forward again trying to engage us with lightsabers. Unduli met her charge, but was forced away with a kick that managed to tag her in the stomach. My blades sought to cut her legs out from under her, Ventress intercepted in a blink of an eye, but was surprised to find only only one of my blades actually locked there.

Her prescience was the only thing that saved her life as my other blade shot towards her under direct control of my TK. Forcing her to flip backward furiously. I pulled my left blade into a two handed grip, my other lightsaber now hovering by my side and charged forward.

Ventress's eyes widened and had to furiously and desperately defend against my single blade that fell on her with all the strength I could muster, while my TK'd lightsaber spun in a lethal fan of light around me, that slashed and probed at her defenses in very awkward and odd angles. Putting her on the defensive. If the fight had gone on for a bit longer I might've even broken through, but Unduli rejoined at that point and Ventress finally decided to call it quits.

She jumped into a leap and springing off the upper wall in a very impressive bit of Force Parkour, shot off into an open AC duct, flinging a thermal detonator behind herself.

I hastily grabbed the explosive with TK and sent it off course to explode below us. We still had to take cover as best we could, curling into smaller profiles and Unduli even held what could only be a Force TK shield of sorts that managed to absorb the overpressure enough to the point that our ears were only slightly ringing.

We set off in pursuit, tracking Ventress towards the engineering deck escape pods. The deck shuddered with a launch and we watched the drum-like escape pod shoot off into the distance, towards the lazily cruising Justice, which had also undocked. I could sense both Argyus and Gunray on board, and the escape pod which contained Ventress also docked.

The hijacked corvette did a lazy turn, cruising away for a minute or so, then vanished into hyperspace.

"Well, I hope this was all worth it in the end."

Unduli stared out of the viewport, "If your Master has managed to destroy the listening post, then I would consider it a fair trade."

"A mission killed Venator, in exchange for blinding the Separatists in this sector, Gunray free but hopefully disgraced, though his position and wealth will insulate him against most of the fallout."

Unduli nodded, "But we also exposed corruption within the Senate Guard. Come Ahsoka, we need to make our report."

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"I regret that we could not complete our mission," I said to the life sized holograms of Anakin and Master Yoda.

"That's okay, Snips, I know you did your best."

"Troubling is the treachery of the Senate Guard, Captain Argyus. Revealed all around us, our enemies are."

"Gunray's escape is an opportunity as well," Unduli pointed out, "his accomplices stole a Republic ship to make their getaway. Even if they disable its main transponder, there are hidden ones that they would never be able to disable, not unless they were willing to destroy the ship itself."

"It could be tracked. See what other hiding places Gunray flushes out for us."

"Unless they arranged for CIS transport to meet them at another rendezvous and ditch the Justice somewhere, which in itself is another opportunity for them to trap whoever we send."

"I never fail to be amazed at how your mind works, Snips," Anakin laughed.

"Powerful allies Gunray has," Yoda declared, "swiftly we must move if we are to recapture him."

I inwardly groaned. It was utterly pointless to keep trying to capture and hold Gunray and expend lives and resources in the process. Even if we had the slimy bastard in a cell on Coruscant, Palpatine would just engineer his escape using layers of deniable patsies and operatives through his Darth Sidious persona.

"Master Fisto's fleet is in the direction of the hyperspace trajectory the stolen corvette escaped in," Unduli reported, "I've already contacted him to begin a search for it."

"Ahsoka, grab yourself some transportation and get back to the Resolute, we'll be leaving Bothawui the instant you arrive."

"Yes, Master." Both Jedi nodded to us before their holograms vanished. "Master Unduli, it was a pleasure to work with you."

"I owe you my life Ahsoka and you've opened my eyes in more ways than you realise. Thank you."

"You're welcome, Master," I let a bit of a teasing smile slip onto my face, "We, Padawans have to after all watch the backs of the Masters."

She raised an eyebrow, "And you did it superbly, I hope Skywalker appreciates what he has in you, Ahsoka."

"I'll be sure to remind him when he doesn't by kicking his ass."

Unduli showed a rare smile, "Farewell."

"Thank you Master."

Unduli and I bowed to each other and departed.

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