June 14
Establishing a base had been surprisingly easy. From the bridge of the Admonitor, Iulius coordinated the efforts of the various Army and Stormtrooper battalions sent to the surface of the planet to establish a fortress, with six outposts interconnected by covered trenches.
For now, the Hybrids had only sent what seemed to be scouting parties against the base, which had been easily driven off, however, the scanners indicated that they were amassing forces in the region. Iulius had found a simple way to delay them: every time they spotted a large enough formation, he sent one of the Star Destroyers to bomb them from orbit. After around 3.000 of them had been wiped out two days before, it looked like the Hybrids were starting to dig tunnels to approach the base, which could have been more difficult.
The Imperials could have simply glassed the planet, but Iulius wanted to make contact with the Humans on the surface. He had hoped that establishing the base and see other Humans from space would convince the indigenous to come out in the open, but so far nothing.
Perhaps there were no more Humans in that part of the planet.
Ulterior studies on the killed Hybrids had only brought marginal results, though there was an interesting aspect: it seemed like all those creatures were Humans mutated through some sort of virus, but there were also many specimen that had the same exact code, sign that they probably were also using some sort of cloning technology.
And after the bombardment of three days before, the Task Force had discovered that there was a much greater variety than just the Hybrids and the Steel-Heads: among the corpses they found the literal pieces of a creature that must've been massive and couldn't have been born by mutating a single Human, plus they also found some four-legged walkers, smaller than an AT-ST, but they seemed to have been designed to be fast and able to pass over any terrain.
Iulius had a lot of questions, though he believed he had part of the answers. He was sure, at this point, that the Hybrids were created by another species, perhaps the Grysks, and used to convert the population of that planet into slave soldiers.
The cloning technology could mean two things: either the indigenous had found a way to cure the virus, forcing the Hybrids' masters to use cloning, or maybe the number of indigenous had shrunk so low, and they became so good at guerrilla fighting, that trying to capture them had become just a pain with more losses than gains.
The concentration of hybrids seemed to be higher in the cold regions of the planet, which confirmed the thesis of the imperial scientists that those monsters largely preferred low temperatures to counter the body heat given by their increased metabolism.
The Admiral was now with the communication team, listening to the few transmissions that could be heard from the surface.
By listening for days, the protocol droid had come up with a rough vocabulary for the language used in the transmissions. Since the indigenous Humans were still separated into different nation before this catastrophe, Iulius assumed that what he was hearing was simply the trade language, and not everybody down there would be able to speak it even if he managed to make contact with the locals.
Still, Iulius did his best to learn that language as much as he could. Because if and when they managed to make contact with the locals, he was sure they would prefer for a flesh and bone Human to speak with them, not a machine.
Their recalcitrance to show up was probably also due to the fact that the first contact with extra-planetary beings had turned into a nightmare for the locals.
While he waited there, he received the news that the smaller outposts, named Cyclops 1-6, had finished construction, while Titan Base, the main stronghold, was at around 70% toward completion.
But most importantly, Commander Bolo entered the room, walking with an almost rushed step, before standing near Iulius, who turned around.
"Admiral," he said. "we managed to establish contact with Coruscant. The Emperor requests your presence."
"Right away." Iulius replied, dropping everything he was doing and going toward the door.
Bolo followed him once the Admiral walked past him.
"Has Agent Jade been notified?" Iulius asked as they walked toward the room of the holo-projector on the bridge.
"She's already waiting, sir." Bolo replied.
Indeed, when they reached the door for the room, Mara was waiting patiently in front of it.
"Commander, keep monitoring the progress on the base construction." Iulius ordered as he opened the door.
"Yes, sir." Bolo replied before heading toward the bridge.
Iulius stepped into the room, let Mara enter and then closed the door again.
They reached the front of the holo-projector and knelt down as the hologram of Emperor Palpatine himself appeared in front of them.
"My Lord." Mara greeted.
"Your Majesty." Iulius said.
"Admiral Tanis." the Emperor said with his slow tone. "Why this delay in contacting me?"
"I apologize, My Lord. We reached the coordinates you sent us after a month, but it took us time to establish a line of communication with the rest of the galaxy." Iulius replied calmly.
The Emperor hummed. "What have you discovered?"
Iulius explained as briefly as he could about the hybrids, how he believed that they were created by the Grysks and that he was trying to establish contact with the Humans on the planet.
"That is all, My Lord. I would've asked your commands before, but there was no way to call you."
"That is why I gave you autonomy, Admiral." Palpatine replied calmly. "As long as you destroy the threat lingering on our borders, I don't care how you will achieve the goal."
"Yes, My Lord."
The Emperor then turned toward Mara.
"What is your opinion, Mara?"
"These aliens are dangerous, My Lord, and I could tell through the Force that they are being controlled by someone else, though I would require to try and read the mind of one of them alive to carve anything else from them."
Palpatine pondered for a mew seconds.
"I sense that you're on the right path. However, I need you back here, Mara."
The young woman raised her head in confusion.
"What could be more urgent than this, My Lord?" she asked.
"The Rebels and their allies have proven to be a larger threat than anticipated. I need you here to hinder their advance."
Iulius listened quite alarmed.
"Admiral, I will need you as well, but first you must finish your mission. We need our northern flank secured before crushing the Rebellion once and for all."
"As you command, My Lord."
The hologram disappeared, leaving the two Humans to think about their next objectives.
----------------------
With the orbit secured, preparations for the ground assault were on their way.
Jaral was following the developments from the bridge of the Protector. Despite the objections from Raddus and General Moot, she had announced that she was going to land with the second wave of the invasion.
Right now, she was planning the first landing with Prince Claudio, Rex, Moot and Raddus, who was present as a hologram like Ezra, Jordan and Sabine.
The reason why they had been waiting for three days, was because the local Resistance of both Quarren and Mon Calamari had warned that Moff Hubi had holed up his forces into Mon Cala City, the biggest floating city left standing after the destruction of Dac City. But, worst of all, he was using several hundreds of civilians as shields for his anti-air turbolasers.
Darvos came into the room with the latest intel.
"All right, here's the situation." he said as he inputted the new data into the holotable and a map of the city appeared. "The Imperials have established their anti-air batteries on a small island a few kliks away from the capital and transferred the civilians in a nearby village. An orbital bombardment is out of the question. Even with the precision technology from the Federation the risk of harming them is too great."
"So our only chance is a ground assault." Jaral said after hearing that. "Perhaps a small team should be able to infiltrate the island and rescue the civilians, then use the laser pointer to direct a precision strike from orbit against the turrets."
"Who shall lead the strike team?" Jordan asked.
Jaral turned toward her brother. "Ezra, you and Sabine shall lead a frontal charge." then turned toward the old clone. "Rex, you and Thabo will take another squad and try to infiltrate the village. While Ezra distracts the Imperials, you guys shall secure the hostage and find a safe spot for them. After that, Ezra shall use Jinx to direct the orbital strike on the turbolasers."
Since all the officers agreed, the plan was a go. Aboard the Constantinople, Ezra and Sabine mounted on a shuttle and were joined by a group of Marines of the Alliance, including Aun'Roi'Ka and another Tau warrior, three Turians, two Humans and a squad of four Legionnaires with jetpacks.
Meanwhile, Rex (who was now wearing an armor of the Rebel Army), Zeb, Kallus, Thabo and their team were mounting on the second shuttle and they exchanged a nod of good luck before the doors closed.
The Constantinople was already inside the orbit, since her cloaking device allowed her to fly over the vast waters of the planet without the risk of Imperials spotters seeing her, as long as she didn't fly too close to one of the cities. The first shuttle left the hangar and started flying toward the island by staying very close to the water. Luckily the weather was clear, so there was no risk of sudden waves bringing them down.
In a couple of minutes they entered in sight of the island and could spot the pillars on top of which sat the turbolasers. By flying so low, the shuttle could also stay out of their range of fire, but it was going to be different with the stormtroopers around.
"Commander, this must be real quick. If they shoot us with rockets we'll be sitting ducks." the Human pilot said loudly to Ezra.
"Copy that, Lieutenant." the Jedi replied, then he materialized his armor. "Everyone, get ready to jump." he ordered.
Those who were sitting immediately stood up and grabbed their weapons. Sabine was already next to him and spoke softly.
"Hey, I was thinking: what if they have TIEs to cover them?"
"According to the scanning, there is no airfield on this island, but they might call them in from the capitol. If that happens, you and the Legionnaires take the fly and try to see what you can do, but be careful not to enter into the turrets' range."
Sabine hummed and kept staring at him through the helmet.
"Something else?" he asked.
"No, I'm just thinking that you look really cool when you come up with a plan on the spot." she said in a complimenting tone.
Ezra chuckled, amused at how weird his wife's compliment sounded at that moment. "Don't I always look cool, in your eyes?" he whispered.
"Most of the time you're actually a-dork-able. But that's the main reason why I married you."
Ezra gently nudged her and she nudged back while they still were pointed toward the door.
"20 seconds!" the pilot announced.
Ezra grabbed his lightsaber in his right hand while keeping the handrail on the top of the shuttle. Sabine grabbed her pistols.
20 seconds later, the shuttle lowered on the beach, without actually touching the ground, and the doors opened.
"Go! Go! Go!" Ezra ordered, jumping down as soon as he finished.
The Marines quickly disembarked, right when Jinx signaled that the Imperials had spotted them.
They had landed at the bottom of a slope which wasn't much steep. On top of that sat one of the turbolasers, while on their left there was a small strip of trees and dense bushes that could provide some cover, and Ezra had an idea.
"Sabine, you and Bravo Team take cover between those trees." he ordered. After his wife nodded an affirmative, he turned toward the Legionnaires. "Lieutenant, you do the same. Wait until we draw enough imperials then sneak behind them and take them out."
"Yes, sir!" the Squad Leader replied and motioned his brethren to follow him.
"Alpha Team, up the slope!" Ezra ordered, running at the head of the remaining soldiers.
It didn't take long for a large number of stormtroopers, some with the armor of shoretroopers, to come out from the tower of the turbolaser and run straight at them.
Roi'Ka and his fellow Tau knelt down and pointed their weapons, firing just a moment later.
Ezra could finally witness the full capability of Taus' weapons: they had an extremely long range, even those who just seemed assault rifles for medium distances.
The two gunned down some of the imperials before they closed too much, at which point Ezra ignited his lightsaber and repelled some of the red bolts coming at him.
"Keep pressing forward." he ordered in his helmet.
While the Taus kept firing, even taking out the officer that was leading the Imperial troopers, Ezra kept deflecting bolts while the rest of the Marines kept jogging forward while firing toward the enemy.
The personal shields and overall superior equipment (which included a targeting software in the helmets) gave the Marines an edge against the imperials, who were also quickly threatened by the timely intervention of Sabine's squad, who started targeting them from the side.
The imperials asked for reinforcements, which started to pour in from the nearby village, and it was at that point that the Legionnaires charged in, quickly decimating the Imperials.
By that point, the second shuttle had already deployed the second team. To ensure that their job could go on as hoped, Ezra ordered the group to proceed toward the tower, since such a threat should have been taken seriously by the Empire.
It worked, in fact, but the Imperial reinforcements had to be moved from the other towers, so it took them a few minutes to organize a counter-attack, and by that time, the allied forces had taken the tower and Sabine was already planting some explosives while the others dug a trench around the structure.
Ezra even took out his M-8, since the TL-50 was a bit imprecise on long distances, and pointed the weapon toward north-west, where Jinx was picking up the signals of multiple ITTs moving toward the tower.
To stop them, one of the Legionnaires took out a rocket launcher, which was way smaller than the ones usually used in Andromeda, but was still enough to blow up the face of one of the vehicles and convincing the others to get out of range again.
Thus, the stormtroopers disembarked and were forced to charge on an open field. The defenders easily cut them down in the span of a few minutes.
Then Ezra received a transmission.
"Ezra, this is Rex. We brought the civilians to safety, signal the turrets to the fleet so they can blow them up.
"Copy that, keep the civilians safe." Ezra ordered, then opened the channel with Sabine.
"Specter-5, get on the terrace of the tower and signal the other turrets."
While he and the Marines shot down the last stormtroopers, Sabine used her rangefinder to signal the two turrets on the island, which could be easily spotted from their position. Then she used her jetpack to fly down toward the Jedi.
"All done. Let's get out of here so I can blow this thing."
"Everybody, get to the beach." Ezra ordered.
The group jogged toward the beach near the village, where the second team had herded the civilians. Once they were far enough, Sabine detonated the charges, right when the plasma cannonades of the Federal fleet rained down on the turrets.
After that, the Ghost accompanied a 'Gallofree' transport to pick up the civilians, while the fighters all mounted on the freighter, which headed toward the capitol.
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With the turbolasers out of the way, the fleet was finally able to descend toward the planet. For this, Jaral transferred aboard one of the GR75s that were carrying the Rebel Army. Platoons of soldiers were rushing onto the Pelicans, some of which had even vehicles attached to the belly.
She, however, was headed for one of those vehicles, specifically: the Elephant.
According to the plan, the Calamari resistance was going to stage an uprising very soon and liberate some key points that could serve as landing zones, one of which, hopefully, was going to be the Imperial air base in the capital. That would have made an excellent command post for Jaral while she waited aboard the giant mobile Command Center.
Thus, she stepped into the Elephant, escorted by an officer and the Rhino Squad, which had now been reassigned as her escort for this specific mission. The crew of the Elephant saluted her and she returned as she went to meet with the Commander of the vehicle.
Around 50 minutes later, the transports of the first wave and its support vessels were in orbit and in sight of the capital. An MC80 cruiser and a York-class cruiser, together with a Nebulon-B that would act as medical outpost.
The Rebellion deployed the 2nd Division of the Army, composed of three infantry battalions, two motorized infantry battalions and an armored battalion.
The Systems Alliance was deploying the 392nd Division, along with two Tau battalions.
The Taus had been unable to send their fleet to Andromeda: apparently, their borders were threatened by a military dictatorship in the Terminus Systems that was making aggressive moves on the frontier, but the Ethereals still wanted to show their commitment to the Federation and had sent an expeditionary force, which had now petitioned Jaral to be allowed the honor of fighting in the first wave.
The Divisions in the Systems Alliance were multi-ethnic, and while each individual was assigned to a unit based on their own skills, usually the various roles were notoriously filled by certain species: the vanguard units were mostly made up of Krogans and Batarians, whose natural aggression made them fearless and a terrifying presence on the battlefield.
The Turians made up most of the line infantry, and recently the Taus had also earned a reputation, since the long range of their weapons, combined with their discipline, made them a tremendously effective force to repel an enemy wave.
Heavy weapons and the various logistical roles were usually filled by Humans and Asari, who specialized in moving large firepower from a point of the battlefield to another.
Still, for this mission, the Allies were going to use also a very peculiar unit: a group of Hanar infiltrators were going to dive under the ocean below the Capitol and use their natural speed in the water to help the resistance sabotage a generator that was in a submerged bunker and powered the defense systems of the Governor's palace.
"Edrix to Bridger." the Admiral spoke in her comlink. "All units are standing by and await your order."
"Acknowledged. All units, proceed with the mission."
After she sent the signal, the Pelicans in the hangar rumbled up their engines, closed the cargo doors and lifted one after the other toward the outside.
They formed a column which was soon joined by Alliance and Tau's dropships together with a fighter escort. The Resistance had already begun the insurgency and it appeared like they had managed to conquer the biggest square of the city and some platforms at the edge of the city.
Using the command room on the Elephant, Jaral ordered the Rebel forces to proceed to the platforms, because the square was under Imperial siege and the Kodiaks would offer smaller targets.
The sensors showed that there were various fires coming from the main square, but at least the imperial garrison was focusing there and the Rebel forces managed to land almost undisturbed.
In the main square, the resistance fighters had established a perimeter with portable shield generators and were now trying to hold back an imperial counter-attack that also included an AT-AT, and that was bad news because they didn't have enough heavy weapons against it.
They had also managed to penetrate the air base and there was heavy fighting to contend the structure, so Jaral diverted an assault battalion of the Systems Alliance to help securing the airfield, along with Jordan and his Legionnaires.
As all of this was going down, Jaral suddenly felt her brother's presence and turned around, seeing him, Sabine and the others step into the command room.
"Good job with those turrets, guys." she said jovially.
"I could never fail my big sis." Ezra quipped. "How's it going?" he then asked with a nod toward the holomap.
"The 2nd Division has secured its landing zone and it seems like we'll secure the main square shortly. You guys stand ready, because as soon as we can land, we're going straight for the Governor's Palace." Jaral replied.
"Have they deactivated its defenses?" Hera asked.
Jaral lifted three fingers and made a countdown with them. Right when she finished, a signal arrived from the underwater team, signaling that they had completed their task.
"Ma'am, the shield around the Palace has been deactivated." the radar operator announced.
Jaral turned toward the Commander of the vehicle.
"Take us into the square." Jaral ordered.
"Yes, ma'am." the officer saluted.
She did that at the right time, because the forces in the main square had managed to blow up the AT-AT attacking them and the imperials were falling back.
The Elephant was dropped into the main square right when the Alliance forces were starting to advance into the city, supported by tanks, and the Kodiaks were unloading mortars and loading up the wounded.
Jaral put on her helmet and prepared for the battle, the others loaded up their weapons while Hera and Kallus remained aboard the Elephant on Jaral's request to take her role as overseers of the battle and keep her updated with the tactical situation of the two armies.
However, when they stepped out of the Elephant, the group was met with no other than Prince Claudio, who looked quite alarmed.
"Marshall. The Imperials are retreating toward the airbase and the Palace, but it seems like they're targeting all the civilians they find along the way.
Jaral was caught off-guard. Why would they waste time and ammo to target unarmed civilians. Then the answer dawned on her: this was nothing but blind revenge.
"Highness, get your troops and push toward the airbase, I'll lead the charge toward the Palace." Jaral sentenced and Claudio nodded in agreement before turning around and shout orders to his men.
"Come on." she then said to his family. "We need to link up with the Division." she put a finger on the side of her helmet. "General Moot, order all Rebel forces to attack the Palace, the Alliance will take care of the airbase."
"Order received, Marshall." the Kel-Dor replied.
The Specters linked up with the Resistance fighters and they all moved toward the Palace, leading the way for the Elephant to move forward.
Along the way, they spotted a group of stormtroopers pointing guns at a group of civilians that were amassed against a wall.
"Damn, stop them!" Ezra yelled.
But it was too late. The stormtroopers shot multiple bolts at the group of men, women and children, who fell down lifeless on the ground.
Feeling a surge of rage, the siblings ignited their lightsabers and made a long Force jump, enhanced by the armors, and landed next to the surprised stormtroopers.
Two of them were cut down mercilessly, of the remaining three, two were Force-pushed away and the last one received a kick in the stern from Ezra and crashed unconscious on the floor.
The siblings checked on the civilians, but there was nothing they could do.
"Marshall..." Rex said with a hint of pain in his voice. "We need to proceed."
Jaral sighed. "Right. Moff Hubi will have to answer for this, as well." she said in a menacing tone and stood back up.
The Mon Calamari and the Quarrens were only invigorated by their thirst for revenge and it didn't take long for the group to reunite with the first column of the Army that was proceeding toward the objective.
Jaral assumed command and the column, which included various tanks and the APC, now included the Elephant in the center.
The siblings led the charge, handguns and lightsabers in hand, which had an incredible effect on the Rebel's morale.
"Just like old times." Rex commented at a point, remembering the time when the Jedi led entire armies of clones from the frontline.
The column soon arrived at the gates of the palace, where the imperials were digging in for a last stand. However, the airbase had been finally secured, so Jaral started to call in the air support, while ordering the MC80 to move over the Palace, so it could use its ion cannons to disable the few imperial vehicles and turrets left.
It was indeed a bloody fight and the attackers had multiple combatants left on the ground, but the count of the dead would have had to wait.
Thanks to Jaral and Ezra literally dancing around the battlefield, destroying the imperial fortified positions with ease, the Rebel finally shot down the last Imperial soldier and took possession of the courtyard.
---------------------------------
Jordan placed the breaching charge and laid against the wall next to it, meanwhile the Legionnaire on the other side was preparing a stun grenade.
When the door was quickly incinerated, the grenade was thrown into the room and it didn't take long for it to detonate and be followed by the screams and groans of the imperial officers who had no protection against it.
The second the grenade exploded, Jordan used and adrenaline injection from the Factotum and almost teleported inside of the room, pointing his SMG, but there was no need to use it. The Imperial officers that were in command of the base, including the General, were too busy holding their heads and stumbling to the ground because of the effects of the grenade. Soon, Jordan and the other soldiers of the Alliance pushed them down and arrested them.
"Nice job, lads." Jordan said. "Bring these gentlemen to the shuttles."
Alliance troopers entered and secured them while the Legionnaires started to leave the building to be ready in case they were needed somewhere else.
Then Jordan received a transmission from Prince Claudio.
"Captain Bridger, this is Apollo, come in."
"I read you, My Lord." he promptly replied.
"The Rebels are storming the Palace. It seems like they've captured Moff Hubi, but we need you to...calm down the siblings."
Jordan raised an eyebrow. "Why? What's happening?"
"They're becoming a bit extreme in their methods. I don't know what happened but I would like for you to go and see if you can calm them down considering your kinship."
"Send a shuttle and I'll be on my way." Jordan replied, his fears rising.
The Kodiak arrived shortly after and Jordan jumped on it in order to be brought in the courtyard of the Governor's Palace, where the Rebel Army was rounding up a few Imperial prisoners, mostly officers and clerks.
The Elephant was already into the courtyard and Jordan spotted both Hera and Kallus giving orders, but as soon as she saw him, Hera stepped reached the Legionnaire.
"Jordan, thank goodness." she said with a bit of anxiety. "The kids are acting too weird, I'm worried."
"Calm down, where are they?" he asked calmly while gesturing with a hand to reassure her.
Hera pointed a blasted entrance to the Palace.
"They just cleared out the Palace and unlock the access to the underground vault. I guess they're going that way."
"Thanks." he said before dashing away.
He entered the Palace and into the Vault, which was presided sparsely by Rebel forces, and he quickly encountered Rex, who looked quite shaken himself.
"Rex, what happened? Where are the kids?"
The old clone pointed a door next to him and went to push the control panel to open it.
"You better look at this, first."
Jordan entered the room. It was quite dark, with only some few, faint lights on the walls, and on the sides there were a couple cells. At the end of it, another room, and Jordan almost hesitated to look into it.
And he regretted doing it: that was a torture room. There were spurts of blood on the various devices and pieces of Calamari, Quarren and even other species. It looked like Moff Hubi had quite the callous hobby.
It didn't take long for Jordan to realize what must have happened: if the simple sight of such a disgusting place wasn't enough for the kids, their connection to the Force meant that they probably felt all the pain and suffer of the victims. That was probably what made them snap.
Without losing much more time, Jordan ran back into the main hallway that led to the lower levels of the bunker. He found dead bodies of imperial soldiers, some of them decapitated or even cut in half.
That was bad: Ezra and Jaral usually tried to knock out their opponents, but now they were killing indiscriminately and even in brutal ways.
He finally reached what seemed the end of the descent and found a platoon of soldiers and Sabine who were waiting outside of a door, almost afraid of going in.
Sabine turned around and saw Jordan.
"Are they in there?" he simply asked.
Sabine nodded with a frightened look on her face, since she was holding her helmet in her hands.
"You guys wait here." Jordan concluded as he stepped forward and went for the door's controls. He passed the first one and entered an antechamber.
While he was going for the second and last door, he could hear a fain cry.
"Please, mercy!" the voice of an old man pleaded.
"Mercy?!" Ezra's voice resonated even if through the speaker of his helmet. "Like the one you gave to those people in the streets?! Or to your prisoners?!"
Jordan managed to open the door and entered the office. The lights were out, but the one from the antechamber was enough to illuminate the other end of the room.
There, a frightened Moff Hubi was shaking on the ground, his back against the wall while the siblings, still in their armor, were pointing their lightsabers at him just a few inches from his neck.
"Guys, stop!" Jordan said resolutely.
The siblings seem to snap out of it and turned their heads toward their father, tough they kept the sabers pointed at the Governor.
"But he deserves nothing else!" Jaral protested.
Jordan raised his hands and dematerialized his helmet.
"I know. He is a monster and he deserves punishment." he stated with an incredibly calm tone. "But if you kill him here and now, you are only giving him the easy way out, and we will lose our only chance to rescue the King."
The siblings hesitated. After all, capturing Hubi was necessary to find out where he was keeping the Mon Cala King, Lee-Char.
They still didn't deactivate their sabers.
"Kids, the soldiers were armed, but if you kill him now, then you will just become killers. And you are not assassins."
The siblings' hand shook a bit, but finally they deactivated their sabers.
"No." Jaral agreed with her father.
"We're not monsters like him." Ezra added with a still shaken tone.
The two dematerialized their helmets as well and looked at their father before stepping closer to him.
"Thanks, Dad." Jaral said on behalf of both of them.
Jordan made a nod and touched both of them on the shoulders.
"Go get some fresh air. You did great, I'll take care of him."
The two nodded and headed out. Jordan stepped toward the Moff, who was trying to get back on his feet.
"Thank you, sir." he said with a complacent tone that disgusted Jordan immediately. "I thought I..."
Jordan took out his pistol and pointed it at Hubi's head.
"Let's make this clear, you vermin." he hissed. "You will talk only when you get questioned. Understood?"
The Moff became pale again and stammered. "Y-Yes."
"Good. Now get your hands where I can see them."
The Moff complied and then Jordan dragged him out of the room to deliver him to the Rebel soldiers waiting outside.
"Get him back to the Fleet. I'm sure Admiral Raddus will want to have a talk with him." he said.
"Yes, sir." one of the NCOs replied as he put some handcuffs on Hubi's wrists.
He couldn't see his kids or Sabine, so Jordan walked until he went back outside in the courtyard and saw them talking with the Specters. He reached them and then they turned around to give him a small hug, which he returned.
The battle was won, but now, the siblings had seen how low sentient beings can sink into evil. Even if that shook them to the core, it also strengthened their resolve: now more than ever, the Bridgers wanted to destroy this rotten Galactic Empire and made the galaxy a safer place for everybody.