Shaak Ti entered the flagship's Command Bridge. It was very similar , almost identycal to the fallen Invisible Hand. One difference was the coloring. This one had blueish color rather than grey and green lights and some red stripers on the consoles. The Throne of the room where the commander was staying was occupied. Only two antennas could be seen from the back of it, but the Togruta knew they were the cyborg's nonetheless. Two magnaguards were positioned at the entrance and some B1 droids were at the consoles, continuingly typing coordinates and issuing orders to the rest of the ship. Shaak Ti approached the chair and put her hands on it, startling Grievous. He recognized the red skin and stood up, almost hitting his dark cape to redress it's form to look better. He turned around to see the Togruta with a neutral stance on her face. His raspy voice broke the silence of the bridge.
'Yes?he asked curious.
'Hello there, General. May I ask why I have been left in the dark?
'I fail to see what you mean-
'Then I am sure you can tell me what you and Kaden discussed.
The General stopped and felt like gasping for air but obviously nothing happened.
'My discussion with the smuggler was ... unncecessary for you to know.
The Togruta crossed her arms at her chest and raised an eyebrow. She stared at him expectangly. Grievous waved his hand weakly:
'Don't look at me like this... go, I have work to do. Fighting against a genius mastermind is hard...
'I am sure you can handle that. Aren't you one too?
Grievous grinned at the sudden compliment.
'Still, even if that is true-
'How modest of you... Anyway, what is this ship?she asked taking her hands to motion a circle before her at the bridge.
'The Lucid Voice!he proudly stated.
'Your flagships have really strange names...
'The Lucid Voice is a Providence Class Ship but modified. It is the sister of the Invisible Hand. Along with the Colicoid Swarm, these three ships have spread terror in the Clone Wars, mostly because both sides knew they were mine.
'So you mean you had three super powerfull flagships during the war?
'Yes...most people don't notice, but each ship had stripes on it's hull. The Invisible Hand- yellow. The Lucid Voice has red stripes.
'Well then, I am sure you don't miss your old cruiser. Where is the Colicoid Swarm?
Grievous growled when he heard the question.
'It is... on Zygerria.
Shaak Ti frowned. A subliminal stare appeared in her eyes that looked at Grievous suspiciously.
'I assume you have a plan about retrieving it?
'I do... but it is confidential.
Now Shaak Ti had enough. Her calm yet neutral stance disspeared, leaving fire in her eyes. She outbursted and clenchted her fist angrily:
'How can you keep these things CONFIDENTIAL?! I deserve to know! Why you keep it so secret?!
All the droids, even the magnaguards turned their heads around and stopped their work, curious to see the outcome of the conversation. The General backed a step away, fearing the newly-discovered anger in the Togruta.
'I... I am not sure how to explain it....
'You'd better do it now! Besides... I already know it!
'It is... wait what?!
Shaak Ti checked her belt and revealed a listening tracker.
'You aren't as cautious as you should be, but that doesn't matter now.
Grievous was so ashamed by his stupidity, he slowly tooka few steps and placed a hand on a console with a false tired look.
'Allright... we are going to Zygerria... to strike a deal with the Slave Guild.
'A former ally of the seperatists?
'Yes, I even knew one of the slave masters, Darts o'Nar. He has the Colicoid Swarm under his command.
'But the Zygerrians deal with selling entire Togruta and Twi'lek populations! We can't deal with them! We must disemble their system!
Grievous shook his head.
'Impossible. They are a key player in my designs. We need them and forcing them to stop selling Togrutas would be unproductive.
Shaak Ti frowned largely at his opinion.
'They are my people, Grievous... very well. But I won't take part in this!
She turned her body and left the room quickly with heavy steps. One of the droids commented:
'That wasn't very nice, was it General?
The cyborg snarled furiously and took the foolish droid and tore him apart. He threw his broke parts away while breathing heavily and went to his chair. He couldn't do it. Even if Shaak Ti wanted the right thing to do... without the Separatist fleet that Grievous knew the Zygerrians had, the General would be unable to attack Coruscant. No, he was right. It was a small sacrifice the slaves will have to endure in order to stop Palaptine. When everything will end, he will deal with the Zygerrians, but now it wasn't the time. The cyborg waved his hand and from a lower level, General Kalani appeared.
'Prepare to jump into Hyperspace. Location: Zygerria.
'Yes, General.
In the Hangar of the Lucid Voice, the Twi'lek was repairing his Corellian starship. It had suffered some blows to it's hull during the escape from Coruscant and he decided that since he had nothing to do, he will work. The Togruta appeared at his back and patted his shoulder softly. Kaden took off some goggles that protected his eyes while using the fusion cutter.
'Yes, Shaak Ti?
'I wanted to thank you for letting me listen to... your deal.
'No problem. Anything else?
'Yes... I need your services too.
The smuggler smirked.
'Boy, am I a wanted man... The General and now you want to make bussiness with me.
'It's not bussiness...
'Oh?
'I actually want to ask you to help me, but as a favour.
'Fine... I suposse I can do that for such a beautifull lady.
The Togruta couldn't hide a red blush on her white cheeks. She stopped it eventually and came closer to the Twi'lek. She whispered.
'I want to stop Grievous from allying himself with the Zygerrian Slave Guild.
'That is highly impossible.
'No, it is actually easy. You only need to inform them about our situation and tell them that the General is too weak to carry a war against the Empire and that if they do choose to side with Grievous, they will pay dearly. They will understand the situation and cease the intentions to ally us.
'But that is... wow, are we on the same side with Grievous?
'Mostly...but that doesn't mean we can't stop him from making bad decisions that he doesn't realise.
'But... it wasn't a bad decision this one... it was actually beneficial... I can't agree with you on this one. But I will help you. I just finished the repairs anyway, so...
'Can I come?
'Sure... are you sure the General won't notice your absence?
'He shall but I don't care.
'Alright! Hop in and let's jump into Hyperspace!
The two quickly entered the ship while two droids were curiously eyeing them.
'Did you hear what I did?the left one asked.
'Indeed, unit B1-123K5! They plan to thwart the General's plans!
'So, are we going to inform the General?
'The General ordered us that the Togruta is to be listened so maybe he wants that she would thwart his plans?
'This is so confusing... but I don't want to disobey the General.
'Yeah, neither do I... I think it is best not to do nothing.
'Agreed.
With that, the two battledroids departed from each other, both of them going to carry out their own duties.
Zygerria
The Corellian freighter jumped out of Hyperspace. Kaden immediately noticed a relatively big Separatist fleet orbiting our the planet. The hugest of them all was a darker Providence Clasa Destroyer but... certainly bigger than the normal one. Like the Invisible Hand.
'That one must be the Colicoid Swarm.
Shaak Ti startled the Twi'lek who thought that the Togruta was in the communications room.
'The big one?
'Yes, it matches the General's description. Did they hail us?
'They are indeed. Answering the call right now...
On the small holoprojector of the cockpit , a medium figure of a man appeared, but it wasn't a human, but rather a catlike humanoid. He was wearing a tunic crossed by yellow lines and some normal pants. Quite simple for a leader, but a common clothing for slavers. He inquired finally after staring at the two:
'Who are you? What brings you to Zygerria?
'I am Kaden...
The neutral zygerrians frowned and showed his sharp teeth.
'Shut up, pilot. Do you take me for a fool? I will speak to the Jedi, not you.
'What, how do you...
'I see the bounties, especially the huge ones posted by the Emperor himself. Master Shaak, am I correct?
'Yes...
'I hope you know you just walked into a trap, right? I would have destroyed your ship, but the bounty wants you alive. You can either surrender or prepare to face our numbers!he saud sternly.
Kaden was quite shocked and remained with his mouth open. Shaak Ti was sharing his feeling but masked it with a scowl.
'Since you are so accustomed to the galactic events and bounties, then you know the Empire is not left unchallenged.
'You reffer to General Grievous? I must say, I am impressed by his resilient tactics. And by his former ship, to be honest. But he fights a pointless war. Even I, a slaver, can see that he lackes the necessary resources.
'He is coming this way.
This time, the Zygerrian was taken aback by her sentence.
'For what purpose?
'He wants you to join him.
'I am afraid that is not possible. An Imperial delegation is already on this world, discussing our terms of entering the new Galactic Empire.
'Very well. I had come here to announce you not to join him.
'Heh, of course... a Jedi hating the General. A pity he didn't manage to complete his vendetta, I am sure he would have loved to massacre the Jedi Temple himself.
'You bastard!
Shaak Ti glared at him intensely. She had been there, when the Temple had been destroyed. Reminding her of it's fall and her brethren's deaths was crushing. She had been the commander and she had failed to defend it.
'I don't take insults very lightly, Jedi. Now, I must thank you for informing me about the General's arrival. So, what do you choose, the easy way or the hard way?
The Jedi closed the holo-projector by hitting it with her fist.
'That was rather intense wasn't it?
'Shut up! We just crashed into a huge mess...
'I had a feeling this won't go well...
'You aren't helping...
She buried her face into her palms and started thinking.
'Can you outrun the fleet?she muttered still hidden in her arms.
'I'm afraid they will shot us down quickly. Even now, the Colicoid Swarm is approaching us.
'Can you warn Grievous?
'I can try, but...
He started typing some coordinates but ended up swearing.
'They are jamming our comunnications obviously... this js horrible.
'I won't go down without a fight!
'No, that is stupid. You would make our situation worse. Surrende and let's wait Grievous to arrive.
Shaak Ti frowned. She had been reckless...
'Fine. Go towards their hangar.
The Corellia freighter warmed it's engines and sped up towards the Providence Class Destroyer. On the bridge of the Colicoid Swarm, Darts o'Nar observed as the Jedi's ship passed by the bridge and went to enter the hangar. He smirked triumphantly. A strange sight to see, the Providence's command bridge was inhabited by slaves and Zygerrians rather than droids. The slavemaster put his hands at his back and tilted his head towards a Twi'lek slave.
'Contact the Sith Lord.
'Yes, master!
He returned his eyes to look at the blank space before the windows until a hologram appeared in his face. The threatening pose and helmet that the dark Sith was wearing would have intimidated many but Darts o'Nar had dealt with many powerfull individuals in his life:Dooku, Grievous, Jedi Masters, powerfull crime lords. Another one wasn't going to impress him. The Dark Lord's continuous mechanical breathing was however creeping in the Zygerrian's ears very annoyngly.
'Lord Vader.
A cold and voidless voice responded:
'Yes, master o'Nar. What is the meaning of the call?
'I have good news. While you know that the Slave Guild is preparing to join the Empire, I belive we have some more to offer you.
'Get to the point, slavemaster. What do you have to bargain?
'Bargain? Who brought this up? Fine, we have caught the Jedi Master Shaak Ti. She is in our cell as we speak.
The Dark Lord didn't made any sign of happiness or anythings. He just crossed his arms at his chest and nodded.
'Very well. She may know informations about the other Jedi survivors. I will arrive to question her.
'But, lord Vader, there is more! I have just found out that a certain General Grievous is going to come to Zygerria to ask us to join him. My fleet and soliders are not strong enough to...
This time, Vader snapped his fingers and told somethings to an imperial officer.
'These are good news. Don't engage the General. My fleet will arrive shortly and we will capture and kill that Separatist. Anything else?
'Yes, the price of all of this... is it going to be in credits or favours?
The dark lord frowned behind his helmet.
'We shall discuss that in person.
The hologram faded away. Behind the Zygerrian, a Togruta slave appeared and asked with humility:
'May I speak master?
'Yes, worm, what is it?
'The two individuals have been locked in their cells as you requested.
'Very well. Be gone!