Not original

716 FNM (22 BBY)

Month 6

Coruscant, Senate Building

Mace Windu

I shook my head as I watched out over the Senate auditorium as the Gungan finished his speech about giving the Chancellor emergency powers. How did we get to this position?

Three hours ago, a report came in from Kenobi about a large number of various ships and other equipment on Geonosis belonging to several mega-corporations, all having known to have a security force of droids under their control. On their own, that may not have been an issue. Geonosis is a massive producer of droids and this could have simply been the corporations restocking their supply.

However, Kenobi was meeting with Count Dooku on Geonosis and we have not heard anything from him since that message. There really is no other interpretation of events that can explain what happened to Kenobi other than that he is being held prisoner. Likely after coming across something he shouldn't have while meeting with the former Jedi Master. There is the possibility he is killed, an unfortunate reality of Jedi work, but one that I hoped did not come to pass. If it was, it would settle the matter that Count Dooku had in fact fallen to the Dark Side. Perhaps he is not at the level of Sith, but he is very likely to no longer be serving the light. If he is building an army for this Separatist Alliance, no doubt he would be attempting to conquer the rest of the Galaxy like every other Darksider.

It is a shame, he had been a good man and I have trouble believing that, as much of a political idealist that he was, he would fall to the Dark Side. But what other possibility is there to believe at this point? He has assembled an army, he has planets under his banner, and he was most likely holding a member of the Jedi Order prisoner at best or seen to his death at worst.

Shaking my head, I looked on as Chancellor Palpatine began his speech on accepting the emergency powers. We shared the knowledge of the clone army as soon as we found out about it, wanting this not to be kept secret from the Chancellor. And now he was going to use these emergency powers to authorize the use of the clone army, most likely to defend the Galaxy from the threat of the Separatist's droid army. The fact that it would take time to organize the clone army and get it sent to where it was needed, so for the time being Obi-Wan would be on his own on Geonosis. Which leaves the burden to carry out his rescue squarely on the Jedi Order.

While I and many others would not hesitate to save a fellow Jedi, I didn't like the existence of this clone army at all. The details of who had created it and why were still a mystery. The claims of Sifo-Dyas being responsible seemed unlikely, considering they had died around that same time. It was plausible, barely, but why would Sifo-Dyas go behind the backs of the Jedi Council to create such a force? It doesn't speak well to his intentions or what intentions he had for this army. However, if the Separatists were raising an army, the Republic would need one as well.

The Supreme Chancellor finished his speech by promising that he would remove the emergency powers granted to him when the crisis had passed. I could only approve of that statement as the audience erupted into cheers and applause, indicating that any discontent over it was completely put aside. Everyone is in favor of giving the Chancellor more power. Or at least the majority of them support it for a more responsive Republic, which will be crucial in a state of war. I saw a few people here and there trying to indicate they were not happy with the result, but the majority ruled on this one.

Seeing as this gathering had concluded, I turned to my old friend Master Yoda and said, "It's done then." Yoda made a noise that indicated he is thinking on the matter deeply and likely trying to parse at what the future would lay as well. I wish him well on that, but I could only focus on the here and now.

"I will gather what Jedi that still remain at the Temple. We will go and rescue Kenobi. See what we can do about maybe negotiating some sort of end to this conflict before it becomes a real war."

"To Kamino, I will go." Yoda said, nodding his head, "To this clone army, I will inspect. See how well it will do, for the Republic."

I nodded my head in agreement and started to leave before he continued, "Master Windu, keep your eyes open when you arrive at Geonosis. I feel as if there's something moving that we do not yet know and we must be prepared for what is to come."

I looked at him and asked, "Do you have any idea what that might be? Have you had any insight from the Force, Master Yoda?"

You could make out a grumble before he said, "Not sure, I am. A dream I had. A strange one, a Shadow moving through the backstages of a play trying to not affect the scenes playing out before them, but inevitably doing just that. Altering the story of what is meant to be shown."

I raise an eyebrow before asking, "Do you have any idea who this Shadow is and what their goals could be?"

Yoda chuckles before saying, "I suspect I know exactly who it is. What their goals are? I'm not certain. Keep your eyes open Master Windu or I suspect this Shadow will play a role in what is to come on Geonosis."

I knew that but there is one question I needed to ask. "Is this Shadow an enemy or an ally?"

Yoda smiled before saying, "They're a friend, that I am sure."

I narrowed my eyes in skepticism before I nodded, "Let us hope this friend comes through for us. May the Force be with you."

"May the Force be with you too, Master Windu." Yoda said, before turning back to look at the still cheering crowds that are going a little bit too long. I left the overlook to head towards the Jedi Temple, I have a rescue mission to organize.

Tatooine, H-Type Nubian Yacht

Anakin Skywalker

"Senator, we cannot go and rescue Tanya." I said for the fourth time.

Padme merely shook her head saying, "It'll take them too long to get over there since they have to come from halfway across the Galaxy."

"Uhh, not exactly. Mandalore is right next to the Hydian Way and then they can cross over down the Corellian Run at Denon. The trip should take about a day and a half, quicker if a faster hyperdrive is used. Not to mention the fact that we aren't supposed to get involved in this situation at all. We're supposed to stay here on Tatooine, transmit a signal to Tanya's X4 Droid and let him handle the situation."

"We have to do something, Ani. Tanya is in danger and her ship was probably shot down."

I sighed saying, "I know, I know. But my duty right now is to protect you, not to go on a rescue mission to Geonosis. Even when we had a chance to go with her when she first was called to Geonosis by the Count, Tanya said-"

"That we should stay here because it would be safer. I know." Padme said with a huff and then let out a sigh before taking a seat across from me. She put her hand on her face, looking very tired. "We should have never let her go alone. We should have gone with her."

"If we'd gone with her, we would have crashed with her. Then no one would know what had happened to any of us." I pointed out as I leaned back in the chair. I was talking good game before, but the fact of the matter was, I agreed with her on all of this. I wanted it to rush off and save Tanya too, but I have a duty to the Jedi Order to maintain. I would not shirk that duty again so soon. I'm already skirting the line with even coming to Tatooine to find out what happened to my mother.

"Maybe Obi-Wan will find her and look after her." Padme said with a shake of her head. "After all, his signal came from the planet of Geonosis as well."

I nodded at that. We had relayed the signal from R4 about the information about the Corporate Alliance and Trade Federation ships in orbit around Geonosis. Apparently we were the only ones who the droid could reach in an emergency.

Chuckling, I said, "He really should, considering." I was a bit amused as I leaned back.

"Considering what?" Padme asked, looking at me a bit confused.

I blinked at her before asking, "What color is Tanya's hair?"

"Blond?" She said with a raised eyebrow. Causing me to realize that maybe I'd been the only one to see her with a real hair color.

Smiling, I said, "Between you and me, that's actually a dye job. Her hair color is actually auburn."

"Okay, why does it matter that her hair color is auburn?" Padme asked, still sounding confused.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe nothing, maybe something. Did you know that Obi-Wan has known Satine for almost twenty-one years now?"

Padme blinked as she tried to piece together what I was saying before her eyes widened, "Wait Ani, are you suggesting that Tanya is Obi-Wan's child?"

"I'm suggesting that it's rather interesting that as soon as Tanya showed up on Coruscant, the first thing Obi-Wan wanted to do was go meet this random Mandalorian girl who happens to have the exact same hair color as him."

She blinked a couple of times before saying, "The attachment thing, he keeps a far enough distance away from her to not grow too attached."

"Exactly what I'm thinking." I said with a nod.

"Does she know?" Padme asked.

That made me pause and think about it before answering, "I'm not sure. Sometimes I think she does, sometimes I'm not sure. I generally just don't touch the subject because I don't think Obi-Wan wants to get too attached to her. Jedi Code and all." While it was frowned upon for Jedi to father or, in rare cases, mother children, it's not an actionable offense. What is against the code was pursuing relationships with offspring.

"I think he's probably going to have to reevaluate that. If she really is his daughter, I suspect he will do something to try and save her." I nodded in agreement before she continued. "And that's why we need to go, to give them a way to get off that planet as fast as possible."

I sigh as this comes up again. I shake my head, "Padme, I get it. I want to go too, but the Jedi Council's order left very little room for interpretation. I am to protect you, not leave you to go on a rescue mission to save Obi-Wan and Tanya. No matter how much I want to."

"So what you're saying is if I were to fly off and go to rescue them, you would be forced to go with me now wouldn't you?"

I blinked before saying, "Okay yes, yes that is true, but putting you at risk to save them is not a good idea. It is what I think Obi-Wan would call a bad idea. Plus, you're not the one who has to explain themselves to the Jedi Council if you get hurt."

Padme tapped her chin before saying, "That could be considered true, that it is a bad idea. But it's also my ship so if I decided to take the ship to Geonosis, what would you do?"

"I would not be happy, but I would go with you to Geonosis and we would work together to try and save Obi-Wan and Tanya." I relented. She could sneak out and take the ship to rescue Tanya without me when I inevitably have to check on the vaporators. So the only way to keep her safe would be to either go with her or tie her up, which I doubt would make her happy with me. I would rather have the Council be mad at me than to lose her trust in me.

"Wonderful and if that's all, help me prep the ship." She said, turning in her seat and started to do pre-flight checks. I sighed and turned towards the console in front of me. Checking over the readouts, I made sure everything was running properly and I was about to help lift off when there was a loud knocking from the rear of the ship.

Both of us turned to look back there in confusion. C-3PO spoke up then from where he had been standing behind us. He and R2 had just been listening to the conversation, so he asked, "Should I go see who's at the door?"

"It's probably the Larses, right?" Padme said.

"Probably, but I guess I should probably talk to them before we set out on this adventure." Getting up from my seat, I brushed a little bit of sand that had built up on my clothing. It'll probably take a few days for Padme's servants to clean this shuttle out. I walked over to the panel that would lower the back door, as it was lowered I looked through and expected to see Owen or maybe Cliegg, maybe even my mother. I should probably go say goodbye before I rush off.

What I saw was neither of that, as standing at the bottom of the ramp was a Mandalorian woman in silver armor with a white shoulder cape blowing in the wind. Behind her is another Mandalorian man in a silver and white colored clothing that seems to have sort of a short armored kilt as its most defining feature. Their holstered blasters were a design unfamiliar to me, which was a bit embarrassing. I had been paying attention to the Council's Mandalorian briefings recently, or so I thought. Engineering has always been a hobby of mine and the Mandalorian designs have a very unique sleek look to it that I rarely see elsewhere. While the pistols are easily recognizable, their blaster rifles are not. It looked like a combination of the sleek Mandalorian design with a black frame more common on conventional blasters. The most notable feature is the frankly massive power pack in-front of the trigger.

About half a dozen other Mandalorians waited behind, although they weren't wearing armor as uniformly striking as the two in front of me. I can see a shuttle or a heavy fighter behind them. It's likely the ship they used to get here. The only thing that seemed to unify them are the white markings of a pair of four wings inscribed on their left torso armor.

I blinked a couple of times not really sure what to say before the female Mandalorian said, "Jedi, Anakin Skywalker I presume?" in a strangely mechanical altered voice.

"Yes?" I answered, how did she know my name? My hand hovered over my side, just in case I was about to have to defend Padme from an assassination attempt. With so many Mandalorians around, each of them would require perfect strikes to take advantage of the gaps in their armor to incapacitate and I would need to jump around with Ataru so that I don't get hit. But then Padme would be vulnerable while I'm busy dealing with the Mandalorians. I could use Soresu to deflect their blaster fire but then they could just keep shooting until someone managed to get a lucky hit, with the size of those blaster's power packs I doubt they'd run out of bolt before I get exhausted. It was simply impossible for me to dispatch so many attackers and defend Padme at the same time. I would have to strike the leader and have her be my hostage before attempting to escape with Padme so they won't shoot us down.

"Good, makes my job easier." The woman said, shaking her head before giving a bow. "I am White Silver, I have reason to believe you have intel on the last known location of the Representative of Mandalore, Tanya Kryze."

"Perhaps I do?" I said, a bit confused at what I am seeing here but the Force is only slightly stirring. The Mandalorians at the back are merely measuring themselves to me without any real intent to act upon such fantasies. I also wasn't feeling any malicious intent from the leader. I lowered my hand away from my lightsaber, as this seemed to be a time to heed the teachings of my master in diplomacy, ugh. "Why are you looking for her?"

"Well, we have reason to believe she's in danger and I am here to rescue her. After all, she is an important asset to Mandalore and our return to a thriving economy. Her service to Mandalore aligned with my own, thus I see no reason why I should not come to the aid of a Mandalorian in need."

I blinked to process what she said, before nodding my head in understanding, "Alright well, come on board, there's a couple seats that we can use to have a chat."

"Good." The Mandalorian said.

I stepped back into the main area of the ship and took a seat next to Padme. "What's going on?" she asked.

I just shrugged before saying, "More of Tanya's friends showed up and are willing to help, I think?"

White Silver and her bodyguard or second in command took seats across from us.

"Ah, you mean terrorists?" Padme said, giving the two a bit of a raised eyebrow. I turned to look at her, but my expression of frustration seemed to be lost on the senator who wanted to antagonize a pack of heavily armed and armored Mandalorians.

The female Mandalorian laughed, seeming to take the insult in stride, "Some say terrorist, others call me freedom fighter. Personally? I just prefer Mandalorian. At the end of the day, it's all just politics, war is merely the continuation of politics by other means."

"So you confess it! You admit you are a terrorist." Padme announced to no one in particular. "I know who you are, I read your little book, you are a warlord with a penchant for philosophy that in no way justifies your actions. As far as I know, you kept the holdings on the planet you attacked."

"They practically begged me to stay and clean up the place, even now Gargon is getting more civilized. I'll concede that I used violence to resolve the situation and I stand by my decisions. It is hardly the worst crime in the world and Gerr was not innocent as he had broadcasted his intention to start a coup to dethrone the legitimate government of Mandalore under Duchess Satine. Besides Senator, I know who you are too, I read the biographies on your life. A little war goes a long way for one's political career, wouldn't you agree?"

"I was the officially elected Queen of Naboo when the Trade Federation invaded my planet, thus the well-being and freedom of my people are my responsibility. You were just some writer with a penchant for violence who had never been seen before coming in to take advantage of a rebellion! We are not the same."

"Yes, I didn't spend time fleeing under the skirt of the Republic only for them to say, 'We'll get back to you in a couple of months'. I moved to handle the problem in a quick and decisive manner myself. All to prevent my sector from erupting into war."

"Oof Burn." The bodyguard muttered, and I had to hide my chuckle with a cough there because they weren't wrong. The whole expedition to Coruscant had ended up being a waste of time. Yes, it had brought me into the wider Galaxy, but Coruscant itself wasn't exactly helpful to Naboo. Okay, besides the fact I had maybe shot a missile into the power generators of a Trade Federation Lucrehulk, but again that was not because the Republic had stepped in.

Though I kept that to myself because Padme did not look happy about that statement and was glaring daggers at the so-called terrorist with her mind.

"So, White Silver," I said to move things along, "what brings you to Tatooine? What plan do you have to help Tanya?"

"Well first off I need a sitrep before deciding what to do next. What's going on, where is Princess Kryze exactly, and what has happened along with any other relevant information you can give me."

I nodded and answered, "Tanya's on Geonosis. The Ratio, her ship, was shot down before it could enter orbit and crash landed on the surface. It might be unrelated, but Geonosis appears to also be a well-armed factory for producing wardroids for the Separatist Alliance."

"Great, that means she's either injured, captured, or on the run on the planet's surface with several armies worth of droids in pursuit."

"Excuse me, but what if the good mistress Kryze is, unfortunately, no longer with us?" C-3PO asked, drawing all eyes towards him.

"I don't think she's dead," I said, shaking my head. "I sense she is still alive somewhere."

"Your Jedi sorcery?" White Silver asked, looking straight at me.

I shrugged before saying, "I guess."

"Well then, we'll be happy to have your magic with us when we stage the assault. I had a Jedi at my side during the war on Gargon, it will be interesting to see how you measure up."

"Assault?" Padme spoke up.

"I've acquired a couple ships and enough men to rescue the Princess, no matter what mess she has gotten herself into. It'll be a bit of a challenge sneaking past the security forces in orbit, but I'm sure it's not an impossibility. The ships are registered as cargo vessels, so if this planet is producing droids, we could give the impression that we're there to collect droids for one of the many factions present. Once we reach the surface, nothing could stop the sons and daughters of Mandalore."

"That's a risky plan, but it might just work." I noted, nodding my head in approval. "We could sneak in, posing as a cargo fleet, drop off a few of your men to search the area for Tanya. I assume they have jetpacks?"

"Of course mobility is one of our greatest advantages." Silver said with a dismissive wave of her hand.

"Then all we need to do is pick up Tanya, find out where Kenobi is, break him out too, get everyone on board one of these cargo vessels, and run like hell. We don't even need to bring this thing." I said, indicating Padme's yacht.

"How are we going to pose as a cargo vessel?" Padme asked. "I mean sure if the ship looks like a cargo vessel they'll probably think it's a cargo vessel but the moment they hear one of our voices they're going to be asking questions. Do any of us look or sound like a cargo vessel's crew? I don't speak any of the proprietary corporate languages. Do you?"

The bodyguard spoke up at this point, "Well then we just have to find a droid that speaks Geonosian. Since it'll be the Geonotian security that will talk to us from their space control center."

"I speak fluent Geonosian." C-3PO said from the back of the ship. "Oh dear, I should not have said that." R2 beeped something at C-3PO causing him to shake his head, well, entire body. "I dare say I wanted to avoid deadly heroics." He complained, while the rest of us had moved on to discussing how that would work.

"So we have a plan to get in, fine." Padme conceded, "Now how are we going to get out once the Separatists know that we're there? What about the security forces on the planet that would double their efforts to prevent us from leaving?"

"Maybe I can find a snubfighter and shoot the core of another Lucrehulk again?" I suggested.

"Unlikely to work," the bodyguard said before adding, "after Naboo, the Trade Federation moved away from the idea of using a core ship to run their entire army. Some of their older armies still use them, as it'd still take years to replace every Trade Federation army to newer models and can use them well, but now they have redundancies in case they are damaged."

"Hmm, maybe we don't need to escape then." I said, raising Padme's eyebrow.

"The Jedi and the Republic will have to respond to what's going on in Geonosis, right? They are raising an army and they've taken a Jedi and Representative of the Republic as a prisoner. All we need to do is make sure that they're kept safe until the response arrives."

White Silver nodded her head in agreement. "Leave the heavy lifting of breaking through the blockade to the Jedi or escape while they're breaking through. Good idea, we would need to be careful not to get shot down by our own side but it's not impossible to pull off."

White Silver leaned forward before adding, "However, there is one problem. Why do you think we would bring you along, Senator? Aren't you supposed to be staying out of the way in case an assassin takes a shot at you? "

Padme scoffed, "Tanya is a friend, a friend who risked her life to try and help me. The very least I could do to come along and help. I'm a skilled negotiator. I can negotiate her freedom."

"Ah huh, another one for the harem." Silver's bodyguard muttered, while shaking his head. I looked at him, only to catch the others' expression.

"Harem?" I asked before White Silver interceded, drove her elbow into the man's gut causing him to double over and whimper out an apology and spoke with an amused tone.

"Don't concern yourself with that comment, it's just a joke that goes around the Mandalore sector about the Princess. She may be a prodigy in economics, but she has a bit of a… what's the term I'm looking for here? Reputation around her. Some claim that Coruscanti life agrees with her too much."

I decided that I'll look into it another time before getting back on the subject, "Well Padme is going anyway. No matter what you decide. She has her own ship and I can't dissuade her from going on her own. I think it would be safer if we go with you than have her go on her own aboard this ship, don't you think?"

White Silver clicked her tongue before answering, "I don't like it, but I won't contest it. We'll get you some armor. I'm sure we have something that fits you somewhere." She said looking at Padme, her T-visor hiding whatever expression she had underneath the mask.

Nodding towards me, she said, "You are of course welcome to come as well. I don't know if we have any armor compatible with Jedi sorcery, but if you find some, you may take it as needed."

I grunted in acknowledgement, but I was not really sure on that matter. Armor would probably just get in the way of my force abilities, better to trust in the force and my reflexes than inert metal.

"Now that the plan is settled," White Silver said, getting up from her seat, "I'll give you about an hour to get yourselves ready. We have a ship that landed about twenty minutes that way." As she pointed to the west, "Join us there and we'll take off. We'll see if we can rescue young Miss Kryze from her misadventure."

I nodded as White Silver and her bodyguard descended from the ramp, leaving us alone with the droids. "Well, that was a surprise."

"Very surprising." Padme agreed before adding, "Maybe a good one in the long term. A little extra support would be useful in this rescue attempt."

"Huh, I thought you disliked her?"

"Oh I do, she is a violent brute, but they have their uses at times." Then she gave me an odd look.

I nod in agreement before getting up, knocking some sand off my robes again. I said, "I'm going to go down and say goodbye to the Larses and Mom. Also need to explain to them why I'm borrowing C-3PO for this mission."

"Good luck," she said and she got up herself.

Anteevy, Office of the General Secretary of the Anteevy Workers Council

General Secretary Liliya Vhekayno Shepest

Even as deep underground as my office was I could still hear the omnipresent howl of the storm. An endless dirge that crawled across the planet and left regions sunless and stripped of all life for months at a time. There's an odd feeling of comfort that welled up within me at the distant sound as I paced around the wooden paneled room. The howls that had been with me every moment of this difficult but rewarding second chance.

I tapped the terminal on my desk to bring it out of a power saving mode and display the time. Having a little less than I expected, I tapped a few keys before checking myself in the wide mirror that dominated the room. Looking sharp as ever in my professional dress, this style had become the height of fashion on Anteevy for women in the party.

Parts of it had even begun to be incorporated into more masculine attire, it was rather amusing how ties had become a feminine article ever since my ascension to General Secretary. The dress was rather light however and had to be accompanied by a rather thick overcoat and hat for general traversal of the planet, even underground.

I had set the room's climate control to be raised by a few degrees before sitting down and waiting for the problem to arrive. I did not have to wait long, there was a chime from my terminal and the pretty young thing I liked to keep around as my personal secretary informed me about the lieutenant who was responding to my summons.

I had to restrain my smile as the officer walked into my office in the customary Anteevy thick fur overcoat with gloves. She practically lost her footing as the warm air of my office struck her and her eyes darted around for a place to doff her coat.

"Ah, Lieutenant, please take a seat." The worm had begun to squirm already but did as I had instructed. No doubt sweating under all of that fur already.

"Miss Vyeka." I said looking across the table at the unfortunate lieutenant who'd been pulled into the room before me. Today was not a good day for her. She had just returned from Tatooine, a rather hellish world that is on my to-do list of places that needed to be dealt with eventually. The planet itself isn't all that important, it is on the other side of the galaxy and produces nothing of importance, it is the ones who control that are my main targets. Gangsters are useful when you control the gangsters. The Hutts were not something I could claim to have any real control over, an example of one of the few species that were simply not compatible with moral systems that did away with inherited wealth. Eliminating a dissident factor such as the Hutts totally would be difficult but necessary in the long term.

But today was not that day, today I am dealing with the rather foolish individual who'd run off with a combat unit of my droids. It was not done without my notice and required a careful operation to clear the various obstacles to the officer's absconsion. She didn't take the advanced model of droids. Only I and my top generals would have the necessary authorization to utilize them. She only has access to B1 droids. B1s that we've been supplied with from the slowly growing stockpile of military equipment that the Separatist Alliance are funneling to us, in exchange for some more high-end armor and class M durasteel plates.

It was incredible just how many of the units we have been supplied with. After the first thousand or so, I had ordered the Institute of Technology to reverse engineer them so we could produce them ourselves. Slicing through the extensive copy protection and making comparable prototypes had taken a while but it was worth the effort for the experience and knowledge we had gleaned.

Of course, about a week in we had received ten thousand more units. I began to suspect that the war material the Separatist Alliance was providing us are substandard droids. What with the amount of units that had cracks in the outer plating or seemed to have irrational errors in their behavioral matrix. However, I fully intended to make use of every single droid. Even a defective automaton could carry a blaster.

It had been demonstrated that reproduction of the B1 line is simply not worth the effort of reconfiguring the droid foundries we had. But several of the B1's design principles had allowed the more mature and effective designs that we produced locally to be produced with less material without compromising functionality, at least according to my advisors anyway. We had various similar general purpose combat droid projects in development that looked far more promising than the B1. Project Terror was one of my favorites. An alternative to the SD-4K assassin droid Dooku continually refused me.

If Lieutenant Vyeka had taken the good stuff, the Battle Legionnaires, she may have been successful and been able to capture the young Representative of Mandalore. However, I hadn't ordered her Tatooine excursion and the BL were meant for the real war on the horizon, not for a joyride to cut a young revolutionary's teeth.

If she had been able to accomplish the mission on her own, should she have come home with a young royal to present to the Council, I would have celebrated her success. After all, any blow against the decadent monarchy that ruled over the oppressive Mandalorian caste system is a victory for the party! It would have been one step closer to taking control of the sector.

Such deniable operations are the bread and butter of our slow dispersal of influence across the sector and galaxy, followed by infiltration units dedicated to cleanup up after the more ambitious and driven officer core. It also provided my officers with much needed battlefield experience without weighing upon the reputation or prestige of Anteevy. More than a few overconfident commanders had died in raids against isolated Mandalorian communities and pirate outposts. Such losses were disappointing, but in their defense none had been so foolish as to declare themselves openly. Vyeka had somehow managed to escape the clutches of thousands of Hutt mercenaries, likely due to Dooku's intervention. Frankly, I'd prefer her dead than having to owe the Count a favor or pay more in terms of our limited resources than I have too.

Of course, if she had managed to capture the royal brat alive, I would have also engaged in a little bit of extended interrogation to try and get her to give up her royal ways. Having a noble renounce their nobility and claim that socialism as the true way forward would most likely have fueled the recruitment drive that is currently non-existent. Set her up in one of the safer factories with a humble apartment and she would be an endless source of propaganda to the party. Besides, I had little else to entertain myself with these days. There was little in the ways of power politics in the party, I was simply too good at my job.

Not surprising really, I had more experience than anyone else could even dream of in the management of a communist state. If I had even a fraction of the resources and technology I had now in my past life, I could have run the NKVD with a mere fraction of the men I had required.

But back to the problem at hand. Lieutenant Vyeka had failed. Not only have she failed, they have drawn the eyes of Count Dooku on us and made him dissatisfied with my efforts. I had a feeling that we may not be considered part of the Separatist Alliance proper because of that screw up or at the very least delay our integration, which could be terrible for us in the long term or good in the short term. I was not utterly married to the cause of the CIS and had made various overtures to the Republic. Sadly, my efforts to court Republic investments were largely ineffective.

Political games would have to be played and that meant more work for me to do. Despite the setback with the CIS, our operations across the Mandalorian sector are still progressing nicely. I had taken quite drastic actions to scale down things and to clean up any evidence of our operations after the brazen attack against the Royals, but our hooks are deep within the fat and muscle of the growing Mandalorian state. I just needed to be patient and wait for the perfect opportunity to perform a decapitation strike to take control of the sector. Hopefully I'll be able to pull it off. I required a great deal more war materials to begin a successful great revolutionary war against the Mandalorian Monarchy, especially now that they have established numerous PDFs across the various loyalist planets, making any hostile takeover a larger challenge.

The foolish girl who had delayed the revolution is currently squirming in front of me while I gather my thoughts while tapping my finger on my desk. Silence was always a good way to ratchet up the tension and make sure the reprimand sticks. I began to shake my head, "This was a rather large failure, my dear. Because of your adventurism, I have Count Dooku asking rather pointed questions. He is probably going to demand more resources from us as the price for your failure, lowering what we can bring to bear in taking part in the liberation of Mandalore from the Royalists. Your glory seeking has cost us our hard-earned wealth out of the pockets of your comrades. Do you have anything to say before I have you sentenced by a jury of your peers and sent to the lower mines to work off your debt to society?"

"General Secretary, I know I made a mistake, but you must understand this was a time sensitive operation. There was no way I could wait for the council to debate our involvement! It's not often that information like this falls into our lap. It was not a complete success, but it showed that we can actually reach out and touch the nobility. They fled from our droids. We showed we have the ability to fight."

"You have drawn the eye of the Royals, comrade. You have demonstrated that we exist and stand opposed to their oppressive rule. You showed that we are dangerous and you failed to accomplish either of the things necessary for that to be worth it. I'm afraid my dear you have simply demonstrated to me that you are a liability, a selfish parasite, a gloryhound." She seemed to turn in on herself as I elucidated her true failure. "But, comrade, this is not the end, it is a communist ideal to offer everyone a path to redemption. Take her to her jury of her peers, make sure they know exactly what I think of her."

"Yes, General Secretary." The two Battle Legionnaires that guarded my office said in unison, giving a salute before grabbing the girl by her shoulders and dragging her out into the cold. The droids almost look like the 3P0-Series protocol droids, but that was to obscure what they actually were. They were plated in a series of lesser alloys with Beskar added to the mix and had quite a robust set of internal mechanisms allowing them to lift more and move much faster than any 3P0 droid would ever be able to with the more articulated joints on the Legionnaires made them one of the most agile battle droids in production. On the field of battle they would obviously be superior to a B1, but as a bonus they could also function as infiltration units. Already they were doing that for us in several places, collecting intelligence for the party across the sector.

The girl was shaking as she was pulled through the door, and I was left alone with my thoughts with one of the B1 heads that she had sent to my office ahead of time. What a foolish girl and I had such high hopes for her. Not that she would have gotten too far, but she would have at least made a good Commander down the line. Talented officers were rarely politically incompetent, the few that were, proved themselves to be worth their weight in gold for their ease of disposal as a deniable asset. If my last life had taught me anything, it was the necessity of a talented and creative officer corps, one that could operate without the direct oversight of the state.

I ordered a recording be made of the trial and an official condemnation of Lieutenant Vyeka's actions to be sent directly to Mandalore. No doubt if the people heard about this diplomatic overture to Satine that they would protest, so I also sent pings to my various slicers to spread misinformation about the event throughout the local net. To the Galaxy at large Anteevy needed to appear apologetic and outraged at the attack, internally the people needed to be confused or ignorant of the issue altogether. Clarity on matters such as this only caused problems for the state.

Perhaps Vyeka was not an entirely lost cause, I would have to make a note to revisit the officer in a few weeks after the cold of the lower mines had taken a finger or two and give her another chance. Nothing inspired loyalty quite like the terrible embrace of winter. I would override the decision of the court and confide in her that such treatment to an officer so loyal to the revolution was unjust. I would need to massage the database a little and keep her release obscured, of course. She would be very grateful that I had personally gone to such lengths for her. It was rather cliché, but demonstrably effective.

I picked up the B1 unit's head and attached a cord from the table to it. Even though she'd failed, she provided meaningful Intelligence, understanding how the Royals fought will be of use the next time we launch a similar operation. I might as well also take a look to see the face of this Representative Kryze, to put a face to my eventual enemy. It's most likely that Vyeka had uploaded an image to our database, but it is easier to look her up on the holonet. I had never bothered to look too closely into the Mandalorian Royal Family as I had no way of reaching out and touching them yet as well as having a somewhat busy schedule until recently. Soon enough, I would soon have... What the fuck!?

My thoughts were interrupted as the face of the Princess was displayed before me, causing my eyes to widen at the familiar face. It's just ever so slightly different but yet it was definitely her! The girl I'd seen all those years ago floating above Moscow! That angelic demon decimating the heart of communism. I felt that old familiar need to correct, to reform and control what was before me again. Looking upon her, my smile widening as a familiar feeling in this life bubbled up within my core. Fantasies causing me to shift in my seat and lick my lips.

She was gorgeous, where others would have been ruined by the passage of time she remained as enticing, as valuable and pure as the soft maidens who had taken the first unsteady steps into womanhood. A prize like no other, a royal princess no less. I could envision her now, the big sister for all my other girls. A centerpiece rose just for me. Ah, glorious.

Was this some play by that foolish creature who called himself God to draw me away from my path of proving its uselessness? If it was, I would have to move carefully, it was a perfect chance to demonstrate exactly how little a well oiled centrally planned state needed the petty opium of the masses. I would have that girl. I would convert her to Communism and I would prove God as useless as I promised I would. The foolish thing that had given me this form as 'punishment' for my perfectly natural appetite.

A lifetime shouting into the cold wind, of careful plotting and killing when necessary. Networking in cold cantinas and making speeches to tired and angry workers. Creating the conditions for a revolution that would free the workers of Anteevy, that would one day free the Galaxy. After I had suffered so much, worked so hard, did I not deserve personal attendants? Was it so much to ask that I surround myself with nubile beauties? Of course not. For as ever, I was simply on the right side of history.

Geonosis, Wastes

Engiz Ordo

Grunting, I continued my trek across the red sand to get to another set of cliffs, trying to find somewhere that we would be out of sight. All this while I'm carrying Tanya over my shoulder as best I could. It had been a close call, the ship had been hit by some sort of Ion weapon that knocked us out of the sky. Thankfully, the redundant systems had kicked in at the last minute, which provided enough energy to the engine and shields that when we had crashed into the surface of the planet, we didn't explode into a million pieces. However, it wasn't enough to save the ship as it crashed into the side of a mountain. When we inspected the damage, we found that the engines were crushed in the impact and the hull was ripped in several places, which meant we were grounded.

We had a couple choices at that point, either stay there and surrender or walk as a group and be caught or split up into group pairs and try and keep ourselves moving until rescue arrived. Knowing Tanya, she probably already had some form of rescue on the way, she always had plans for backup plans.

We had decided to split up, get as far away from each other as possible, and just try to hold out until rescue arrived. So we'd split into three groups, me and Tanya, who is not conscious as she's been knocked out in the crash and we hadn't had time to see to inspect her before we split up.

Captain Struc and Kastel headed north towards some spires, probably intending to see if they could get inside them and find some way to get in contact with anyone else, just in case we needed another word out.

Morson and Mok headed east, deeper into the canyons that seem to make up the majority of this planet's surface. I had elected to carry Tanya south, into what looks like the most inhospitable piece of terrain on the entire planet. Mainly because it looked like they didn't have any signs of civilization in this area for at least a millennia.

I don't know what had happened to the others, as we have kept radio silence, but so far we had managed to avoid detection. This terrain was very dry even more so than some of the planets I had seen so far. It wasn't like there aren't any non-desert regions on this planet, but in this area there are sand dunes, buffeting cliff sides of rock while most was just flatlands and just dry sand. It made it a little bit harder to cross but the cliffs did provide enough cover so we were not seen by anyone looking for us.

When the crash happened, everyone else had been rather okay. Tanya on the other hand had been knocked unconscious due to where she'd been. As a result I had to carry her the entire time, which is kind of hard but I figured out a way to do it using magnets in her vambraces. I had connected her arms together and put them around my neck. Then I simply just carried her with my two hands holding her legs to my sides. So far it worked out fine, even with the extra weight from her wearing her full armor, it was not that big of an issue. And that didn't include the extra weight from the pair of blaster rifles I had strapped to her armor before we started off. All those months of doing PT are really coming in handy right now.

Even though she had been out for almost 2 hours at this point, I think I needed to take a break somewhere and see to her wounds soon. There's a possibility that perhaps she had some deeper damage than just the forehead bump, I'll have to check to make sure.

I'm still wearing my Royal Guard armor, since we didn't exactly have time to switch from that to something that offered a little bit more protection after the crash. But I worked with what I had as I carried the force staff in between me and Tanya by magnetizing it to my back. Though I think I'd also magnetized Tanya's front plate of her armor to my back as well. I wasn't exactly sure how powerful the magnet is and if it would work that way.

Either way, I need to take a stop soon to rest and possibly pull off the blue robes and rub it around in this red sand. Blue would stand out too much in the soil here, the silver armor would also stand out as it is a reflective beacon if it is illuminated by the desert sun. So I probably should coat it in some dirt too to try and make it harder to spot us from a distance.

I think I saw a cave coming up on the side of the cliff not too far in front of us. It would be a good place to rest, to cover my armor in dirt, and check on Tanya's condition. The cave is also a good place to take shelter from the elements as well as prying eyes from above. There was of course the chance that there might be some bugs in that cave. I supposed all the cave systems on this planet were interconnected in one way or another, but hopefully we'd get lucky and that no one would be living in it. Just to be on the safe side, we'll rest at the opening and not go any deeper.

My thoughts were interrupted as I heard a mumble of annoyance from behind me, causing my head to tilt a little bit, but not too much. I didn't want to whack Tanya unconscious with the crest of my helmet. "Tanya?" I asked, trying to see how she was doing.

She muttered something in gibberish that sounded fairly angry and barky before I felt her shake her head and say, "Where are we?"

"About a mile south or more from our crash site." I said as I turned back towards the cave and started walking again. "They shot us down, but we managed to not end up splattered in a crater thanks to the Captain and the redundant systems kicking in at the last second."

"Remind me to give him a pay raise when we get out of here." I saw her hands working the mechanism that kept her vambraces magnetized together.

"Do you think you can walk?" I asked as she pressed the button releasing them.

"I can walk." She said as I lowered myself so she could get off my back. Once she's on her feet I stood back up to check on her.

She looks alright, a little unsteady on her feet. I offered an arm for her to hold on to and said, "Yeah, best to hold on until we get into that cave, just so you don't go tumbling down the sand dunes."

She nodded her head and draped her arm over my shoulder and we started walking again. We're only a few yards away from the cave at this point, so it wasn't that far of a walk. We soon passed from the glaring sun that was soon to pass beyond a nearby mountain range into the darkness of the cave. Carefully, I turned on a light on my armor's vambrace. Now we could see where we were going. Soon we found a place where we can rest out to the side of the entrance. I took the staff off my back and left it against the side of the wall before lowering Tanya so that she is resting against the side of the cave. I followed suit and leaned against the wall across from her.

Resting her head Tanya said, "How long have I been out? What's going on? And how many emergencies have come up since I've been out?"

"You've been out for a couple of hours." I said, "Not many emergencies happened after the crash. We decided to split up and head in different directions so it'll be harder to track us. We kind of assumed that you were making a call for aid before the ship crashed and assumed that staying free was the best option."

She made a pained noise as she pulled off her helmet, revealing that the bruise on her forehead was going to be a bit of a shiner for sure. It was definitely looking a bit inflamed, as she's rubbing it gently as if trying to get to go down. She then said, "You're right, I was calling for help. We should have someone on the way to help us out. Although something tells me it'll probably be twenty-four hours before they show up."

Pulling my helmet off, I opened up a side bag on my belt and pulled out some pain medication and offered it to Tanya. "Well twenty-four hours isn't too bad. I think we can hide out in some of these caves for that long. The question is, how are we going to get in contact with the help you called for?"

She smiled and took the medication from me, popping the pill into her mouth before saying, "That's not a problem, the help I called will have our transmitter codes so they'll call us. We just need to be somewhere on the surface to pick it up. The real problem will probably be escaping this planet with the help. The droids are most likely on high alert now and a high alert security is generally not good for people who want to escape a planet."

She leaned her head back and closed her eyes making a humming sound as she thought of a solution before adding, "Of course it might not be as hard as I fear. They probably have plenty of ships lying about and they need to load them up with droids after all. It's probably a good idea to track one of them down and steal a ride on one. We need to hope that they aren't scanning for lifeforms or there's some sort of biological crew."

"Hmm, that doesn't seem too hard." I said jokingly before adding, "We're going to need a lot of energy to pull that off and to make sure we're well hydrated." I reached into my side and pulled off the canteen there before offering it to Tanya.

She chuckled and quickly took a gulp or two of water before closing it up and asked, "What kind of gear do we have?"

"My staff and armor, your armor, and that blaster rifle I grabbed before we left the Ratio." I said matter of factly with a shrug.

"Not a lot but enough." She said with a nod. Grabbing the rifle, she checked it over before saying, "Vai's going to bring in some help to get us off-planet. Most likely within the next twenty-four hours, we'll need to be somewhere that they can find us easily enough as well as finding the others and get them together as well.

"Have any ideas?" I asked.

"One, it's not a good one, but it's one. We need to find out what they're doing with Kenobi."

I blinked before asking, "Okay, Kenobi's been taken prisoner. Are we going to execute a rescue mission?"

"Exactly, we need to find out what happened to him, where he's being held, and move to rescue him. We do that and it should be a big enough noisemaker that the others should find us quickly enough. Not to mention if the Republic's going to do anything about what's going on here, they're going to come here to rescue Kenobi. The Jedi would probably do that as well, so we improve our chances of survivability if we have him on our side."

I nodded my head as what she said made some sense. "How are we going to track down Kenobi though?" I asked.

"That's simple," she said while getting back up. She holstered her rifle as she continued, "If they shot us down, they'd probably assume that anyone from the Republic who's not on their side is a spy. Spies usually end up executed, which means a Jedi spy it's most likely to be ruled as an enemy agent and be set for execution. And executions will usually be very public. They want to encourage their people to see the Jedi as the bad guy and that they can be killed."

I nodded along following this train of thought. "Why does this sound so familiar?"

"Which means they're going to pull a Gerr."

"… Tanya no."

"Tanya yes."

"But we don't have your silver armor and you can't exactly pose as a regular civilian in this situation that was drafted to be shooting the prisoners."

"True," Tanya said with a smile reaching down and picking up her helmet and sliding it back on, "but we don't need to take part in that sort of theatrics, we just need to rescue him before they march him out into the public square and shoot him. They'll most likely be in a cell close to a coliseum. So we just need to get a map of the area, find out where the closest coliseum is, and be in a position to rescue him when the time comes."

"I'm not sure about this, Tanya." I said getting up and putting my own helmet on. "We're putting a lot at stake in this sort of situation."

"Of course we are, but there's a good chance that the Jedi will be doing something as well. If we run into them, that means we can ally with them quickly and increase our chances of survival. With enough chaos that will hopefully draw the others of our party to the coliseum and we'll just get the hell out. Perhaps even the aid we're trying to bring in will arrive before then as well."

"So we're basically hoping for enough chaos that the droids would be too busy to have the attention to prevent our escape."

"If you want to put it in those words, yes. I would rather say we're making enough chaos that we can escape."

Letting out a deep breath, I wanted to bring up some way of saying that this was a bad idea. But, well, the fact of the matter was it could work and knowing Tanya she seems to have the ability to pull it off, I will just have to trust her luck. "Alright Tanya, I know better than to argue with you once you've made up your mind. Let's do this."

Geonosis, Underground Network

Kor Kastel

Strangling a being is not exactly easy. There's a lot of muscles in the way of closing a person's air hole at play. Of course they would also fight you for every last breath they could get in, not wanting to fall unconscious and be left at your mercy.

Thankfully, Geonotians don't follow that rule well. I mean they were trying to fight back and prevent me from choking them out, but they didn't have a lot of muscles around the throat area. In fact it was just enough that… with a sickening crunch I crushed its windpipe and the creature slowly asphyxiated until it went limp on the ground dead with its tongue laying loose from its mouth. Its wings flickered up and down as if it was trying to fly away even in death. Shaking my head I said, "Oops." which got me a look from Struc as if he didn't believe me. He rolled his eyes as the one he'd been strangling fell over unconscious.

"That could have gone better." He said, shaking his head as he stepped over the body into this command and control center we found. It looks like this was the center where they controlled most of the factories in this region. Going by the information displayed in Basic, they were producing a lot of droids. I don't even think there were that many droids inside the entire Mandalore sector. How are the numbers correct? There might even be more droids here than there were civilians on Coruscant.

"That is a massive army." Captain Struc commented, as he shook his head while looking over the screams in front of him. He then leaned over and started to attach a cord of his vambrace to the console.

"What are you doing?" I asked as I kept an eye on the hallway that led us here, making sure no one was following us or would catch us by surprise.

"We can run around this planet all we want, but sooner or later we're going to need to try and find the others. If I get access to these computers we'd have a general idea of all the goings on on this planet. I might not be a very good slicer, but Mok wrote a very easy to use slicing program that does most of the work for me. Now my vambrace should get updates about any troublemakers who are on the planet, troublemakers like Ordo and Tanya."

"What about Morson and Mok?" I asked.

I looked over at him only to get a shake of his head in response. "Morson's not an idiot. I don't think she'd get herself in trouble. Mok could fuck it up, but it's more likely they're not going to be doing the exact thing I'm doing, only better. In fact, there's a better chance of me fucking this up and starting an alarm than anything going wrong with Mok."

He said with a shrug as he pressed a few buttons and said, "Program's finished." As he disconnected his vambrace, he continued, "Now let's get back out of here." Nodding in agreement, we quickly left the small security office and started to make our way deeper into the facility trying to find somewhere that wasn't exactly that well patrolled.

Thank the Manda that droids were absolutely stupid. Since several patrols had passed us and all we had to do was pop into a room as soon as we heard the clanking of their heels on the ground.

We played this game of cat and mouse with the droids, with them occasionally walking past our hiding places for a good thirty minutes before we found a supply closet to hide in. I figured we were probably as deep into the facility as we could go, not too far away from some of the main production areas, but an area that doesn't appear to be patrolled as much. Makes sense that the deeper into the facility you are, the less likely you are to run into a patrol. After all, if they believe that they would catch you in the outer layers, they wouldn't look as closely at the inner layers.

Taking a seat by a box of robotic factory arms, most likely as replacements when one of the assembly line arms broke, I asked to pass the time, "So, was this what you were expecting when you signed up to be a guard for a New Mando Princess? Cuz I'll be honest, none of this was what I ever expected I would be doing."

The Captain was standing by the door with a B1 droid head in his hands. He was examining it as he looked over it. "Same, I did not expect any of this to happen. I was quite sure that it would be a rather peaceful posting till I retired. Finding out that my charge is a revolutionary was a surprise. But I should have expected it since she was trained by Bo Katan, a known follower of the Old Ways."

"Ah, now I see where she got her Old Mando way of thinking from. At least I didn't get left behind with Vai and Tabi again." I said while shaking my head. "Felt like I kind of lost out on all the fighting last time."

The Captain shook his head before he took a seat on another crate across from me. "Thing is, we didn't actually get that much fighting last time. I mean we fought, but most of the city was already against Gerr by that point. We just directed the revolt in the right direction."

"Still better than watching the couple go clothes shopping, you have not known absolute boredom until you watch a man and his girlfriend model clothing for each other for hours on end."

Captain chuckled at that comment while nodding his head in agreement, "Believe me, I know the feeling. Had to watch over my sister's kids for a few weeks, and my niece usually spends her time with her friends at the mall. Being the only adult to a group of teenage girls at the mall is a tiring and thankless job. Anyway, I'm kind of glad that Tanya sent them away to Gargon. With any luck they won't get involved in this situation by being Tanya's alter ego. But if they do, it'll at least it's the alter ego and not her identity."

I nodded at that before adding, "Yeah, I'm surprised she didn't decide that this whole assassin problem is her alter ego's problem and go posing as Silver again to solve it."

He shrugged before saying, "I think it just got a little bit personal for her. The senator is her friend and someone attacking her friend might have been one of those things that's unforgivable. As well as the fact that Silver had no reason to personally care for Amidala, so showing up as Tanya is a reasonable decision. There's the whole fact that last time someone assaulted the identity of White Silver she needed to respond as White Silver herself in that situation."

"So because it affects one identity she only deals with it in that identity. Okay, that makes sense. It means we'll never see White Silver handling issues for Tanya, right?"

Captain Struc shrugged before saying, "No idea, I would like to think so. She obviously uses her money as Tanya to finance White Silver's gear and she's obviously made profit as White Silver for Tanya, so it's very likely that those two are intermingled to some extent. It's just a matter of if she'll decide to intermingle more than just finances."

"Wonderful, I can't wait to lead a crusade at Anteevy." I said with annoyance, shaking my head.

"Why's that?" The captain asked.

"The planet those droids came from on Tatooine. Apparently they were there to assassinate or arrest her and Tanya gave the impression that she really did not like that. I wouldn't be surprised if White Silver would find herself not liking that soon too."

"Hmm, that's probably the best route to handle them when you think about it. Anteevy does not play nice with the rest of the Mandalorian sector so the Royal Guard can't go in there and deal with them. But if mercenaries under the aegis of White Silver started to cause trouble for those ice-worlders, that would handle that problem I would say."

"Oh boy, that's going to be a hell of a fight when that happens." I said with an amused smile while leaning back and thinking of the possibility of leading some men to battle.

Before I could raise any other thoughts, Struc stopped me by raising his hand and raised his vambrace closer to his eyes to read something before sighing, "That's just great, according to this Tanya and Ordo have been captured."

I blinked a couple of times and then swore. "Any idea where they're taking them?" I asked starting to get up.

"From what I'm reading they've been judged criminals of the state and are going to be executed along with the criminal Obi-Wan Kenobi tomorrow. Wonderful." he said sarcastically while shaking his head. Getting up, he grabbed his own staff, "Looks like we're going to have to rescue them."

"Looks like." I said, shaking my head.

Geonosis, Prison Ward

Khae Morson

"Hey, watch it." I said as I was shoved through the steel door into a cell next to Mok's.

"No one cares about your opinions, Princess." Came the voice of the former leader of the Trade Federation, who stepped in front of the cell I had just been shoved into.

"You have been judged a criminal and a spy, Princess of Mandalore. As a result, you and your friend there will be executed with the other spy, Obi-Wan Kenobi, tomorrow. Enjoy your last few pitiful hours Republic scum, for tomorrow we will see just how good of a fighter you Mandalorians really are. I doubt you'll even survive ten minutes against the beasts of the coliseum." Nute Gunray laughed as he walked away, leaving me alone with Mok as he did.

I waited till I heard the automatic doors close before saying, "Can he not tell the difference between brown and green armor? You think he's colorblind?"

Mok looked up from where he was attempting to investigate the wall panels, most likely trying to find some way to get out and said, "I would guess so, since he thinks you're Tanya. It is funny though. It is your job to impersonate her, so congratulations."

I roll my eyes, "Mission accomplished then."

We had screwed up, our resident genius here had made the idea that we'd go into the tunnels and see if we could find our way into a factory and hack the droid brains to see if we couldn't get ourselves more help or at the very least sabotage the factory so that we have less droids to deal with. That had gone over as badly as one would expect, I mean he managed to get a couple droids online and fighting with us before we had basically been overwhelmed under a wall of new droids with shields that mowed down whatever droid that we managed to reprogram because we couldn't exactly pierce their shields. So we basically were pinned behind cover until they stopped firing and demanded our surrender. From there they'd stripped us of our guns but left us in our armor and shoved us into a transport.

From there we've been transferred to this coliseum building and had to deal with Nute Gunray gloating about our capture for the last half hour. He was just so smug about catching Tanya that I just couldn't bother to even correct him. Well that and it was again my job to pose as Tanya. I didn't expect them to not be able to tell the difference between brown and green armor, but hey a victory is a victory. I wouldn't put it past him to think that all humans looked alike.

Sitting down at the back of the cell I asked, "So what's our plan now?"

He replied, "I'm working on it." before he continued to work on whatever it is he's doing, leaving me alone in my thoughts.

"Well, I would assume the plan is to escape." A voice from the cell next to mine called out. I pressed my face against the bars and I could just barely see into the next cell. I managed to get a glimpse inside the next cell and noticed their prison arrangements were a bit more spacious. More importantly, the cell was blocked by a red shield and occupied. Inside is one Jedi Knight we had just seen not four hours ago, looking rather annoyed as he's floating around continuously in a circle at a slow rate.

"Kenobi?" I asked.

Getting a smile from him as he turned to me saying, "Yes, that would be me. I assume that you're part of Tanya's party?"

"Yeah, that would be us." I responded, looking around the hallway to make sure that there were no guards listening in. If they thought I was Tanya, it was probably better for Tanya that it stays that way. It would mean that they wouldn't go looking for her anymore. So I thought I better keep an eye open and make sure that no one overheard our conversation. "Do you have any ideas for how to escape this situation, Jedi?" I asked while looking around.

"Well, the easiest way would be to somehow disable this ray shield. Without it we could break out of here rather easily. We'd still have to fight our way out, but it is possible. Unfortunately, I can't exactly reach the shield controls and something tells me you can't either."

I looked at our slicer who responded with a hum before saying, "I could probably cut my door open with my plasma torch, but it'd take a few minutes and it isn't exactly subtle. If there is a panel that I can slice into, I'd probably be able to unlock the bars. But there isn't any way for me to access the controls from here. So I can't do that either."

"Well that's unfortunate. I guess we'll have to go with plan B."

"What's plan B?" I asked.

"I'll let you know when I have plan B. It'll most likely require us to break out when they take us to the coliseum. Hopefully we'll have help coming or assume the others that are with Tanya are still on the loose."

"They are."

"Then we are not without hope. That and I trust in the Force that something will come to give us a way out of this situation. We just need to wait long enough for help to appear."

I blinked before saying, "I guess we have to trust your wizardry and Tanya then, Jedi. Personally, I would prefer to have some sort of blaster and just break our way out of here."

"I know you Mandalorians prefer your blasters. Sometimes you need to be patient for more civilized weapons to make their move."

"Hmm, alright." I said before taking a seat again under the window and asked, "So, does anyone know any games? We are kind of just stuck here, might as well try and kill time until tomorrow."

I heard Obi-Wan chuckle before saying, "Well I guess we could play 'I spy' but I think mine would be rather boring considering I can only view everything around me in a circle."

Mok shook his head before saying, "I got a chess board hologram on my vambrace, give me a minute."