Twelve Days Before The Assault On Cor’neria

General Darien, the general usually in charge of the training of soldiers, leads a briefing of five choice people from Clan Odan Urr. Darian being the lowest seniority in the ground command was chosen for the role by the other generals who preferred to not lead a briefing with four people higher in rank than them.

“We have called the five of you here today,” the general says, “for a very important task, even if my peers did not want the job of sending you off. We need intelligence from behind enemy lines. Your task will be to enter the Cor’neria system and find subject Nova, Rath Oligard. You will not refer to him using his name after you leave this briefing. Subject Nova has around twelve known safe houses which we have under watch already your task is to search positions we have not yet been able to infiltrate, his main estate, Isabella shipyard, and both moons of Elizabeth I and Elizabeth II. How you will enter the system if your puzzle to solve. In front of each of you are identity packets, they are your new identities forget who you are now. If you get the shot terminate subject Nova, if not broadcast their location when the brotherhood does their ground assault. Ask any questions now otherwise you will leave with haste.”

Len looked at his identity. Partisan soldier with decent access, there were holes sure, but they were meant for infiltration and to get lost in the crowd. “I’m no spy but I have done many infiltrations. This cover is decent enough I can carry my equipment with no real concern.”

The Chiss turned to the Kiffar who he had worked with many times before and was somewhat surprised at how he was throwing his espionage weight around. “A master spy like you could make due with this identity? Certainly the Collective has mistakes in their database with people floating in and out all the time.”

I think these identities will be fine sure there are some gaps but let’s just hope they don’t look to hard and then we will be fine.“ Edgar commented and nodding to his old Chiss and Kiffer friends. "Worst case, the mission becomes more interesting than intended.” he jokingly laughed,

As Edgar took out a data pad He looked over at the two new faces and Introduced himself to the new Chiss Jedi, Eeno I believe I’m Edgar Drachen Quaestor of our House Hoth", then quickly pointing to the Zeltron standing next to him, “and this here his our new Aedile Dr. Corinna Magarin. It’s pleasure to meet you and please understand I have fought besides both Len and Tisto so we will know how to handle things if they go sideways.”

pausing for a moment Edgar looked at the data pad and started reviewing the mission briefing and the equipment loadouts they had available for the mission.

“Oh, yes, hello. Dr. Corinna Magarin. It’s a pleasure,” she said, with a certain kind of rehearsed unease, as Edgar introduced her. She had been quietly reading her assigned identity, examining it with the same kind of focused intensity she might give to a study of an ancient manuscript. Her pink face lit up with genuine warmth as she spoke, though her timing was slightly off; she accidentally interrupted Edgar with a false start, letting him finish before she greeted everyone.

“These will do,” she added after a beat, realizing Tisto had posed a question. The Zeltron wasn’t much of a spy, but she was used to making do. And being an eminent good girl. As aedile, she may have technically outranked the general, but she still sought the approval of authority figures.

Darien regains his composure and looks at Tisto, “SenNet agents are not within the same rank system as the military, unless you are declaring some form of investigation I do outrank you here. It is a simple matter to change your profile’s race to kiffar. As I said we had very little information about you and in the little we had, an image and a name, you seemed to be human. What even is the difference between you and a human? Are you born with those tattoos?”

“You are all dismissed,” General Darien says aloud, “Hopefully I never see that man again,” he proceeds to say under his breath a good ten seconds after Tisto has left the room.

Turning his Head toward his old friend, “I guess Tisto is the same old hot head, and I used to the be one they called difficult”. Shaking his head he spoke to the general for a couple of minutes and then followed the group and boarded the young Kiffar’s ship. The ship was a older Hammerhead corvette and it looked rough but for where they were going it should be able to get us to the target without much fuss. Assuming we keep a low profile till we are on the ground.

Edgar found his cabin and dropped his gear off and then went to meet up with the rest of the group in the briefing room he first went to the cantina to grab a hot beverage and was the first to arrive in the briefing room. This was Edgar’s first real mission since being reassigned as the Quaestor of House Hoth and even thoguh he has been on missions recently the extra weight of caring for an entire House and their new Aedile made him extra cautious. He wanted this mission to succeed but he also wanted to be sure everyone came home alive.

So as the ship took off and hearing loud comotions from other parts of the ship Edgar studied the mission plans and blueprints of the target location. Spending a good long while and his concentration was only broken when he looked up as the door opened.

Stunned Len stood and helped the General back to his feet. “Don’t take it too personally, he is this brash with everyone. He is effective. You completed your orders and we will execute the mission.”

Iode took his leave following Edgar to the Hammerhead corvette. It had been some time since he had been onboard the ship and it took a minute to find the quarters he had used previously. Setting his gear down he sighed and cleared his mind. Becoming Councilor of War had not been easy for the officer. He was used to leading from the front, but now he had been behind a desk for a long time almost since the last war. This time it would be different, he was number two in the Clan which had its own burdens of leadership along with the actual fighting that was to come when the operation began.

The former colonel took his time stowing his gear and then made his way up a few decks to the flight deck. He stepped into the room and surveyed the stations taking the communications booth, as it was the only system he was truly familiar with, figuring that the others would follow soon.

Corinna blinked, her lips pursing slightly. She knew the Jedi weren’t exactly the navel-gazing pacifists they had been stereotyped as, but she certainly didn’t expect to find bickering generals or spies storming off in the Brotherhood’s only light-sided clan. What have I gotten myself into?

“General,” the aedile said with a nod as she stood and stepped away after the others. She tucked the datapad into an inner pocket of her Shadow Academy-issued robes next to the one she’d already secreted away; the romance novel it contained was so enticing she couldn’t wait for this mission to end before finishing it.

Her boots echoed on the aged deckplates of the corvette as she boarded. The ship had character. Its durasteel walls bore scratches and laser burns, dents and discolorations. She wondered where it had traveled, what sorts of souls it had shepherded through the galaxy, what kind of combat or traffic it had seen. Alas, she thought. No time for dowsing or idle musing.

She strolled into the flight deck, stepping in one direction uneasily, then the other, finally just standing still to observe. Edgar and Len had already set their minds to productive tasks.

“I suppose you all find this pretty routine,” Corinna said to no one in particular.

“I’ve only been awake a day longer than you’ve been here,” Eeno, who had followed Corinna to the vessel, said, “The last I knew was that the Jedi were gone. I’ve come back to find nightsister magic and uncontrolled emotion prevalent throughout the ranks of those who call themselves Jedi.”

He realized he had not introduced himself to you and said, “I’m Eliwufe’en’ofmo most call me Eeno. Who are you?”

“You say that like it’s a problem,” Corinna replied. “Cultures thrive through syncretism and evolution. The Jedi tradition in its many expressions is no exception.”

As she continued her voice fell into the same enthusiastic cadence she employed in lectures.

“Emotions give vibrancy to life, and life is what the Force is. Love, grief, fear…they’re currents for tapping into the bond that animates us all.”

Pausing to breathe, she caught herself. Carried away again. “…But you’re not a student. You’re in House Hoth. I read your dossier. What do you mean you ‘woke up’?”

“Fifty seven years ago I was placed into cryostasis. Sunrider’s Jon Silvon found me while going through the wreckage of a ship. I was there for the fall of the republic. I saw Palpatine’s inquisitors, I even killed one. I have lost everything I know but Nemo.” He pauses for a moment, I’m not actually sure if chiss can cry but if they can he’s stopping himself from doing it. “The Jedi would never have allowed one of their own to act like that. Maybe, maybe the nightsisters of the time were evil and not their power but the Jedi were trained for peaceful relations all. It was the base of our entire identity to keep and return times to peace, if that is lost the Jedi are no more.”

As the Quaestor sat back down after getting his third cup of coffee, his concentration was only broken by the familiar announcement that the ship was taking off and engines roaring to life. It was only at this time Edgar looked up from the gathered intel and realized he was in the room alone for almost an hour. Feeling the ship lift off and make it’s ascendent into outer space, he thought to himself, “This mission is complicated as it is, and we are already behind schedule. I hope this ship is as fast as Tisto always brags about.”

Another 15 to 20 minutes later, the speaker system crackled to life, and a young female officers voice came through loud and clear, “To all passengers and crew, we have made the jump to lightspeed, and we should arrive at the target on time. Further updates will come as we get closer to the target. That is all.”

Looking over at the time on the data pad, the grey Jedi was beginning to think he was going to have to go and drag each one of his teammates to the briefing room by their ears. Sighing, Edgar started to stand up just as the door opened, with Len gesturing to his new Aedile Dr. Corinna Magarin, “After you, we should be the first ones here….” Then his old friend Len, stopped in the middle of his sentence once he noticed they were not the first ones there, in fact Edgar was standing there with his arms crossed staring at them both. Stepping into the room and as the door closed behind them, the Chiss war councilor remarked. “Ah! Good Edgar, you’re here. I hope we didn’t keep you waiting long?”

“Just thought you fell in or something” Edgar replied with a half smile. “I see you’ve met my new Aedile.”

The Chiss nodded, “We bumped into each other on the way down and were discussing our backgrounds on the way down. It has been a long time since we had a proper researcher in a leadership position, especially one who studies cultures.”

The War Councilor sat down at one of the seats around the briefing table. “I assume Tisto has a plan to get us planet side unnoticed.” Len paused and thought over everything in his mind from the shortened briefing and everything he had seen in the intelligence reports over the last three months. Ticking over each item was like a pin being set in a lock. Then inspiration struck

“My guess is that NOVA…er Oligard, is hold up at his estate. He has always shown a deep affection for his family. After all it drove him to form the Partisan Front then the Collective, and start an all out campaign against Force users. Would you agree Doctor; Edgar?”

He looked between the two Force users, trying to analyze if they thought the Councilor was crazy or not.

Eeno walks into the briefing room and finds a seat, unaware you had just asked a question, “I have an idea for our entrance plan,” he said as the three of you began looking at him. “During the clone wars me and my master had to infiltrate a separatist stronghold that, like the Cor’neria system is more or less at the end of a hyperspace route. What we did was disable our hyperdrive’s cutoff switch so instead of having to explain why we were in the system unannounced we were there, in our enemy’s eyes, accidentally. We were allowed to land to effect repairs and we bought passage out onto the wider planet. The only problem we had was that we did too good a job at breaking the hyperdrive and we had to steal a ship for our exit but we have a crew to effect repairs. This mission might take longer but with that kiffar spy able to make us identities for after the infiltration they shouldn’t be able to tell the difference. We could have the ship take off and wait for our call in the outer system. I have a comm link that can reach it. As long as this Cor’neria place is not a planetary stronghold they probably won’t suspect us much. Unless they would recognize any of you?”

Corinna frowned, shifting in her seat at the briefing table. Tisto’s assessment was correct, of course. It wouldn’t be wise to make a show of Force sensitivity while among those who disdained it. Still, the prospect made her uncomfortable.

“You’re right,” she said through a sigh. “At least we won’t have to go through the trouble of concealing our Force signatures, since there’s no one to detect us that way.”

She shifted her gaze to Len, her normally distant eyes laser focused. “I agree with you, too. In every culture I’ve studied, people retreat to what they love and where they feel safe when they’re threatened. Oligard will be at his estate.”

Edgar sat kind of listening to everyone while he was typing things into his datapad, but his attention was piqued when he heard that the ship was low on fuel. The Quaestor stood up and went over to the comms station, punched in a frequency, and opened a commlink. “Come in, Bahamut. Are you still trailing us?”

“Yes, sir, as is the escort wing. Do you need assistance?”

“Hold that thought. I’ll call you back,” Edgar responded excitedly, closing the commlink.

Everyone was now staring at the Grey Jedi, confused. Edgar just looked at Eeno. “You young, old, young, whatever you are, sir, you are a genius. Tisto, this is a Hammerhead, right? She can take a hit?”

“Yes?!? What are you on about”? The redheaded Kiffar asked with a worried tone.

“Meet me at the bridge. I’ve got to go down to engineering and see if this will work. Oh, and see if they can delay our arrival a little bit, maybe another 20 minutes or so.” Edgar spoke quickly, leaving the room without waiting for or taking any questions.

As he hurried down to the engineering section, he just happened to run into the head engineer talking with members of his team in the hallway. Getting the engineer’s attention and quickly asking questions and going over the plan, the men felt the ship come out of hyperspace. Tisto’s voice came over the loudspeaker: “We have temporarily stopped ahead of our target to finalize our approach. Edgar, you’ve got about 10 minutes before they will catch us on their long-range sensors.”

After another minute or two, the head engineer commented: “That’s going to be a large hole, but I think we can manage it. Just make sure they hit the bullseye; we will be cutting it close with the engines.”

“Understood. Get your men working on it, and I’ll have additional personnel assigned to you right away,” Edgar ordered as he was already walking to the lift. “Tisto, assign as many free hands as you can to the head engineer. I’m on my way up to the bridge, and he will need all the help he can get to make this work.” Without waiting for a reply, the Quaestor opened the commlink to the Bahamut, “OK, Captain, listen up. Here is the plan: I want you to take the ship and one flight from Kappa Squadron and come out of hyperspace behind us. Then you will fire a reduced power shot on our port side hull just in front of the engine. We will rig an explosion that will mask the non-lethal shots; then we will fake an emergency landing as you and the fighters get out of there. As the lift doors opened, Edgar arrived on the bridge, and before Tisto could say anything, “Helm, jump to light speed to these coordinates and be prepared to raise shields only on my command”.

The helmsman looked at Tisto, who would only just nod, and was about to question his old friend when Edgar cut him off.

“So here is the plan: before we left, I had my ship, the Bahamut’s Pride, and a squadron from Hoth follow us just in case we needed backup. After listening to Eeno’s plan, I came up with this. We will come out of lightspeed shortly with the Pride and fighters in pursuit. They will get some ‘lucky’ shots on us, and engineering will set charge to safely cause damage to the ship without any real damage to major ship systems. Under that cover we will be so ‘out of control’ that we will crash land on the son of a bitch’s house.”

“As always, Edgar,” interjected Len, “you will blow the stealth portion of this mission before it even starts.”

“Normally you would be right, but we, being innocent and chased by enemies, wouldn’t have a choice on where we come down. Never mind, I’ll be steering us in under power, and once we land, then Tisto’s ID and our story will get us in the front door. Or, at least we could get the ship repaired and refueled while we spring trap. Now how is that for a plan?”

“Oh frack it, let’s do this!” Tisto exclaimed, then turned to open the intercom again. “Attention all personnel, we will be arriving shortly. Red alert and secure all important areas of the ship. We will be coming in for a very hard landing!”

“Edgar, she is all yours,” the Kiffar said, turning to the human. “But if you wreck my ship, you’re buying me a new one!”

“Deal!” He said, walking over to the helm and reviewing the details.

A few minutes later, the ship came out of hyperspace a lot closer to the planet than was originally planned. The communication officer started reporting that the moon’s comms network had come alive and was trying to send a dispatch just as a Marauder-class corvette and 4 Cygnus Missile Boats exited hyperspace behind them and started opening fire.

The security officer instinctively reached for the shield, and Hoth’s Quaestor ordered him to hold. Then it happened: the Bahamut fired its forward guns and struck the port side of the Children of the Weeping Woman.

The ship rocked with a large explosion. Plasma leaked from the ship, and the engines started flickering and smoking.

On the bridge, besides the hull breach, no other damage was being reported. The head engineer opened the commlink: “Sir, the charges went off without major damage, and the smoke screen is activated. It will become more prevalent once we hit the atmosphere.”

“OK, boys and girls, now take us in and make sure you look like you’re out of control,” Edgar directed, grinning with chaotic glee. “Comms, issue a mayday and report we have no control and are coming in with little to no control.”

Noticing a lot of concerned faces, Edgar straightened himself and said: “Look, I know what I’m doing. And come on, what could possibly go right with this plan?”

Edgar’s face was focused and his concentration were all directed towards that helmsman and flying the ship. Replacing the navigator the quaestor sat down and took a moment to look over the landscape. Hevthen ordered “Pull hard to to the starboard that bastards house is within range. It’s time to kick in the door!”

There was a soft metallic thud as R3-N0, or Nemo as he was more normally called, activated his magnetic locks. Eeno, wishing he could do the same, followed the order and found a seat to one of the automated system and strapped himself in.

A corona of fire set itself around the front of the ship as it entered the atmosphere. As it descended the comms system began to explode with different voices all overlapping each other. Many of them saying for the ship to turn from its course, some evacuation orders, and others threatening to destroy the ship. If there was anything fired at the ship none would ever know as the ship very quickly descended to crash into the manor in the center of the Oligard estate. Hitting the south side first multiple shuttles were destroyed as the hammerhead corvette continued pressing into the building. Fires began braking out and something might have exploded. The ship continued its course the engines off now its momentum not only brining it out the other end of the manor but as far as the wall surrounding the estate crumbling a section next to the entrance.

As the dust settled only one transmission was recieved, “Children of the Weeping Woman you are going to have a lot of explaining to do. You are lucky our leader was able to evacuate you just destroyed his house. We are sending a team to take you in for questioning don’t resist and we will probably accept that you were out of control.”

Remember the limitations we have. Tisto had thus admonished the group, but Corinna needed no reminding of her limitations. Two months ago she was giving lectures and brushing dust off of buried holocrons, after all.

She found a seat, yanking the harness tight around her. But then she immediately decided it wasn’t quite tight enough and yanked it again. This is fine. This is a controlled crash. Edgar said so. Edgar is grinning. Edgar is always grinning, though, so that is not reassuring data.

The impact interrupted her thoughts with not so much a sound as a physical fact. A sudden lurch made Len swear. She may have sworn as well, given how violently her body jerked against the restraint straps. A few more shudders, then the ship went still.

Corinna unclenched her fingers from the harness straps. Her ears were ringing. Dust settled, drifting down through a shaft of light that had no business shining inside a corvette. She trembled as she unbuckled herself and stood, patting her robes in a reflexive check for her lightsaber and datapad. Shockingly, neither had moved.

Her eyes found Tisto, Len, Edgar, and Eeno. She’d have to follow their lead.

Corinna ran a hand down her robes again, this time comforting herself with the repetitive motion rather than reassuring herself she had her belongings. She looked to her teammates for guidance, but they were each…going through something, to say the least.

“WOOOOO!” Edgar shouted at the top of his lungs, crazy grin plastered across his face. “Now that was a landing!”

“Shut up, Edgar,” Len said matter of factly. “Didn’t you hear? He’s not here. They wouldn’t have said ‘evacuate’ if he hadn’t been here to begin with. We crashed into an empty kriffing house.”

Eeno seemed stuck in some sort of meditation that must have carried him through the crash. A Jedi through and through.

Tisto paced, a look of deep concern on his face. “My ship,” he mumbled again and again. “My ship.”

Then, in the middle of all the emotions running high, Corinna felt it. A faint, but unmistakable, presence pressing at the edges of her senses. A quivering fear and burning anger.

“Wait,” the Zeltron said as she held up a hand. “They’re bluffing. He’s still here. Below us, I think. I can feel it.” Her eyes half-closed again as she spoke, almost like she was reaching for a half-remembered passage in an old text.

Edgar wasted no time in drawing a blaster from his belt. “Let’s go, then!”

“Old estates like these usually have escape routes close to the master suite,” Tisto said blankly, eyes somewhat dead, as he followed the Quaestor.

The intrepid band trudged through rubble. Len and Eeno dug through collapsed stone for what seemed like an eternity before they found it, a reinforced durasteel door. Between the four of them, prying it open proved an easy task.

Rath Oligard crouched against the far wall of a narrow bunker, half-packed satchel lying at his feet. He appeared less like the architect of a systems-wide crusade against the Iron Throne and more like a hollow man who’d run out of road. Still, his expression quickly rearranged into defiance as he beheld the Odanites before him.

“Rath Oligard,” Eeno began a spiel he’d undoubtedly recited many times in his younger years as a Jedi, “you are under arrest in the name of—”

But Tisto had already launched himself at the leader of the Collective. The Kiffar pummeled the man, the electric discharge of his shockboxing gloves lighting the room with a strobe-like effect and buzzing sound that wouldn’t be entirely unwelcome at a night club. “This,” he said, punctuating each word with a punch. “Is. For. The. Weeping. Woman.”

Len pulled him off all that remained of Oligard’s face was merely a bloody pulp.

“Well, that’s one way to win a war,” Len said, putting on sunglasses. “How are we gonna get home, anyway?”