Back in the Game (COMPLETE)

9.2.4

"A slave house?" Aayla questioned. "How do you know?"

Ahsoka didn't make eye contact with her as she explained. "I traveled the galaxy for nearly a year before I moved back to Coruscant. Lokori was one of the planets I visited. The Separatists grow their rations here for the few staff they have that are not droids. They enslave citizens of Lokori every month, only allowing them to leave when the month is up if they do not die before then."

Caleb stared at Ahsoka. "They're being turned into slaves? How? Can't they escape?"

"If they escape, the slave masters go back into the villages and select new slaves to work for them. Their freedom comes as the cost of someone else's, and it is seen as cowardly to force someone else to enter the slave house. If they get captured during their escape, the slave house also functions as a jail, where I suspect the Jedi are being held."

"What is this base named?" Aayla asked, crossing her arms.

Ahsoka sighed, looking back to the warehouse that was no more. "It has no official name, but the people of Lokori call it 'Scarlet Haven,' for the blood that has been spilled because of it."

Jinx, under his breath, commented, "It doesn't sound like much of a haven to me."

Aayla looked around at all four of them. "Are you sure this is where our Jedi Council and the Chosen One are being held?"

"Yes, Master," the other three responded, and Ahsoka nodded with them.

"Padawans, please leave the room. I would like to speak with Miss Tano alone." She instructed.

They began to shuffle out the door, but Caleb kept looking back at Ahsoka. She could tell that he was worried, afraid of what Aayla could say to her. Ahsoka, though, gave him a stern look and nodded out the door. Chances were that this discussion could get heated, but Ahsoka was a civilian, and Caleb was not. If he spoke out in her defense, he might pay for it later.

When the two women were alone, Aayla turned to Ahsoka. "First of all, I would like to apologize for the lack of trust earlier. I'm afraid your reputation in the Order has not been what it once was."

"I can't say I expected anything different," she replied, leaning against the counter. "The Inquisitor hardly helped my cause."

"That much, at least, is for certain." Aayla looked back over at the hologram. "I believe we have a Jedi in the area that can rescan the planet and give us the proper schematics of the base, but if that fails, what should we expect upon arrival?"

It was a distant memory, but Ahsoka had spent a week there while she was the Inquisitor and thankfully, she had been paying attention during that week. "The slaves work from sunrise to sunset, at a large farm about 10 kilometers from Scarlet Haven. During that time, all of them, except for the ones in cells, are away from the base. As long as an attack occurred during the day, none of them should be in the line of fire."

Aayla nodded. "I appreciate it, but I was referring more to the structure of the building, or the landscape of the area."

"The base has multiple entrances, one to at least every cardinal direction. The real danger is on the edge of the base, though. Five towers create an energy shield, preventing all blaster bolts from passing through. If you want to launch an airstrike, you would have to destroy the towers first. All in all, you would need at least four teams. One to destroy the towers, one to retrieve the Jedi, one to lead the airstrike to destroy the base, and one to rescue the slaves."

The Jedi Master seemed thrown off by her last statement. "Rescue the slaves? Our mission is to save the Jedi. Once the base is destroyed, the slaves can-"