Ascension - Jedi: Fallen Order (Fanfic)

Chapter 18: Plan

"Y/n."

I was lying prone on one of an X-wing's left wing, hovering over a tiny, open control panel. I looked away from my work, lifting my tool off of the wires and raising my goggles to my forehead. Cal stood a few feet from me, arms crossed over his leather jerkin.

"What do you want? Can't you see I'm a little busy?"

He gestured for me to follow him. "The council want's to talk with you."

"About what?"

"Just come, please, Y/n."

Letting out an exasperated sigh, I set my tool and goggles aside before sliding off the wing, landing on my feet with a tight-lipped groan. 

It had been roughly a few weeks since my talk with Cal, and I'd continued doing what I was told for the sake of my own neck. Although I'd found comfort in the new lifestyle, I wasn't about to admit it to a single soul. It was still rough some days for me, having dreams and thoughts about being an inquisitor; that lifestyle still lingering like a shadow as a constant presence.

Following Cal, we made our way to the meeting quarters. It was the first time I'd stepped into the place. A few dozen voices, people hovered over monitors and 3D images of ships, terrain, and galaxies. As soon as I entered, the two of us were stared at. Well, more in my direction as the seconds ticked by. I kept my eyes on Cal's back, arms folded tightly against my sternum. After venturing down a separate hallway and, descending a flight of stairs, we made it to a meeting room were several higher ups were waiting. Khosuh was there too, right up against a center table with a tablet in his hand, tapping away furiously at the informational contents.

"Welcome back, Cal." Khosuh looked up from his tablet and set it aside, eyes sweeping in my direction.

"General Khosuh, sir." Cal replied.

General?! A lick of irritation swept over me and my lip curled. Of course they'd place me under someone like that. Who better to keep an eye on me, and make everyone else feel at ease. Letting out a small tsch, I gave a glare in his direction before looking away although the ferocity soon vanished, leaving soft annoyance in its wake. These Rebel Alliance people were something else entirely. 

Khosuh tapped a few buttons on the table in front of him, allowing a 4D image of a planet to appear, slowly rotating on its axis. "Now that everyone is here, we can begin. This is Gilvaanen. It's a home base for factories that supply the empire with storm trooper equipment as well as uniforms in the Inner Rim of the Galaxy. From ears and eyes on insiders, its a perfect opportunity to slow down the Empire, even if it is a small act such as this. We will only need a crew of at least five, as this will be an insider job."

As soon as he'd started talking, I knew why I was here. They were going to have me help, just because I was Ex-Empire. This was some type of ploy to keep me from doing anything, not that I didn't really care anymore. Neutrality was my middle ground for now.

"We have good leverage now" - Khosuh continued - "so we shall set out as quickly as possible."

                                                                       ***********

"No one seemed very enthusiastic about my coming along."  I stated, leaning up against the door to the cockpit. Cal, Khosuh, Jesdan, Trevan, and myself were along for the ride. Jesdan, and Trevan were brothers, and strong fighters, young and impressionable. We were using a Zeta-class, imperial cargo shuttle. Khosuh and Cal were in the two available seats, the other two occupants were in the belly of the ship, most likely prepping weapons and artillery.

BD-1 trilled, and I raised an eyebrow. "Well yeah, why else would they not be happy with me, BD..." The little droid was staring at me, clinging to Cal's armrest. 

Khosuh glanced at me. "We're almost to Gilvaanen. Y/n, can you get us through whatever blockade there might be?"

I beckoned Cal to get out of the way, who obliged, but stood next to me as I sat down at the controls. I picked up a headset, rotating dials and flicking a few switches. The ship would be already outputting imperial signals by the time they dropped out of hyper speed. 

"How the hell did you acquire a Zetta?" I asked, eyes focusing on the monitors. I'd flown one once or twice to get to a desired destination during my days as an Inquisitor, but other than that it had been barely used. 

"A few years ago, we use it now and again. We are dropping out of hyper space in a few seconds here."

I felt my chair move as Cal gripped the back of it to steady himself when they came to a near dead stop right over Gilvaanen. Doing a quick check of the scanners, and a look out the window, there seemed to be one ship blocking the way. Keeping out power signatures low, motioning for Khosuh to go slow whilst talking to someone over Comms we descended past the barrier and through the clouds. Everything below was lush and mountainous. Even from this distance up in the sky, three factories could be seen near a cliffside, smoke curling up from high-rising pipes. There were pipelines connecting the three buildings. 

'Zetta, go ahead and pull into dock six, we've got some room for you there.' A light down below on building three lit up, a flashing beacon to indicate where to land.

"Thank you." I replied into my headset. Khosuh flew down and pulled slowly into the loading dock. As soon as our ship touched down the three of us went into the cargo hold by the door, meeting with Jesdan and Trevan. I'd only been to this base three times whilst working under the Empire, but it had been enough to memorize a rough outline of the place. 

Cal handed me a couple of blasters, which I inserted into my shoulder gun holster. I grabbed a blaster rifle, slinging it on my back. "Where's the power core?"

"Second building. There's a railway that connects all three. With the charges we brought, three every one hundred feet or so should be enough." I replied, going over to the cargo door. 

Once everyone was ready, we opened it, gunning down several troopers before making sure the rest of the dock was clear, and went into a nearby hallway. 

"We just need to make a few more turns and then we can start laying charges." I stated as we jogged down one hallway. Stopping at a T, I peeked around a corner, looking left and right, seeing that it was oddly empty. "This isn't right..."

"What's wrong, Y/n?"

"There's usually people in this section of the factory. It's too empty," - I leaned farther into the corridor, spotting a droid consul - "BD, you think you could go check that out? Could you get a layout of this place?"

BD said okay, hopping off Cal's back and peeked around the corner before running over to the consul. I followed with Jesdan at my side to more-or-less keep an eye on me, watching our surroundings as BD finished what he was doing.

A large, blaring noise made the three of us jump, a hallway door slid quickly down from above, separating us from Cal, Khosuh, and Trevan. Soon after than the whole hallway began to shudder and move.

Crouching down, I looked at BD-1. "Can you show us the map please?" The little droid complied, and a fuzzy layout appeared. I stared at it for a minute. "Well...shit."

"What?" Jesdan asked. Not that I could see him, but his tone was filled with anger and uncertainty. "Did you trigger something? You knew this was going to happen, didn't you!"

I ignored the jab. "These tunnels rotate on an axis. Looks like there's no set time, its just whenever a new shipment of trooper armor is ready for the next stage. Not that any parts or people come through here regularly, its just incase someone needs to in this part of the factory."

I held out a hand to BD-1, who looked at it for a second before climbing up my arm and clung to the back of my shoulder holster. I turned to Jesdan. "We can still get to the main hallway from here. Come on."

Grabbing a blaster, i held it toward the floor as I ran, slowing enough to look around the corner before continuing. This factory was mostly all machine ran, needing barely anyone to function.

"You kept that little detail from us, didn't you?" Jesdan brought up the topic again as we continued onward. He was so intent on getting an answer out of me that I had to throw an arm out to stop him, a blaster bullet blowing right past his face and into the wall.