A Young Girl's War Between the Stars [Youjo Senki/Star Wars]

96

A Young Girl’s War Between the Stars96

Mandalore. 33 BBY/967 GSC.

I sat in Capt. Keen’s chair with the captain stood to my right, hands tucked behind her back as she watched over the bridge while the clock counted down to our exit from hyperspace. Obi stood to my left, looking around curiously as she watched everything.

“Exiting hyperspace in three, two, one…”

The ship shuddered as we returned to normal space and the fishbowl hologram came up as sensor readings poured in. I looked over the readouts, nodding as we flagged the local patrol fleet, the orbital works, and several other ships. Nothing seemed to be engaged in combat, but I did notice a patrol turn sharply and start burning for us.

“We’ve got Master Qui-Gon’s ship on the scope. System patrol fleet picked him up and they’re heading this way,” our sensor operator reported.

“They’re sending a wide band hail,” our comms officer reported, before hitting a switch and setting the audio to broadcast over the bridge.

“Unidentified vessel, you have entered Mandalorian space. Activate your transponder and identify yourself or state your intent to vacate the space as soon as your hyperdrive is able.”

“Let’s pick up that call, shall we?” I asked.

“Transmitting now, Mandalore.”

“This is Mandalore Mereel aboard the . Friendly patrol, identify yourself.”

There was a pause, then, “Mandalore! Lt. Xian, 11th CAP group!”

I nodded. “Lt. Xian, flag that ship as friendly. It’s a Jedi vessel carrying civilian refugees. Your orders are to escort it down to the surface, where it will land at Sundari. Understood?”

“Yes, ma’am!”

“Excellent. Mereel out.” The broadcast light went out and I ordered, “Send a flight path to Sundari to Master Qui-Gon and let him know we’ll meet him planetside. We’ll probably be here for a few days, so captain, feel free to let the men have a little shore leave. No more than three days for now, to be on the safe side.”

“Yes, Mandalore,” Capt. Keen nodded.

“I’ll be in my quarters. Let me know when Master Qui-Gon begins his descent. Also, please send a message to Satine, letting her know Qui-Gon is coming in with refugees and asking her to arrange something,” I said, and Aylin nodded. I stood and left the bridge, Obi following along behind me.

The blast doors closed behind us and she asked, “We’re not leaving now?”

I shook my head. “No need. We’re not in a hurry. We’ve got time to pack before we head down.”

“Mm,” Obi murmured, nodding. We made our way up to my section of the ship and she hummed. For a few moments, I felt her radiate a mixture of confused feelings, before finally settling on a mixture of amusement, mischievousness, and petty spite. “Where will we be staying?”

I started to reply that we would be staying with Satine, only to stop as I remembered a few things. Firstly, the way those two had parted on… I wouldn’t say terms, but both of them had been upset and unsatisfied with the resolution.

And then, Satine had stirred the pot by picking up the holocom…

So there were sure to be some lingering feelings there. In fact, that was probably what I had just picked up, before she made up her mind about whatever it was she was going to do—which was surely going to cause drama. Drama I wanted no part in.

There was also the fact that, while Satine would be happy to have me, as Mandalore . I vaguely recalled reading about it in a report not long after I had ascended to Mandalore, some years back—from my perspective, at least. I hadn’t had much to do with it—hadn’t ordered construction, hadn’t approved anything, they had just acted on my behalf and Satine and Jaster gave it the green light. I hadn’t even set foot in it!

.

“I have something in Sundari. I haven’t seen it yet, so I suppose we’ll see.”

Nodding, the girl grinned as we entered my quarters and I began packing a few things while she watched, since her own things were all aboard the other ship. “In that case, could I ask for a favor?”

“I seem to recall that I did you one recently,” I pointed out, “but you’re welcome to ask.”

Obi rolled her eyes, but explained, “I’d like to get Satine back for that little ‘prank’ she pulled—”

“,” I cut in immediately, hoping to head off any potential complications before they could start.

She pouted. “I was going to wear the slave outfit.” My thoughts immediately went back to Obi in that costume… and I hesitated. Like a shark smelling blood, she went in for the kill. “We could put on a little show. I’ll dress up in my slave outfit and put on a chain. You put on your armor. Invite her over…”

A distressed sound escaped my throat as I was caught in indecision. On the one hand, I really didn’t want to get between those two or help instigate some sort of petty power play. On the other hand, that could lead to all sorts of fun, the likes of which I’d only seen in hentai or on the holonet.

I knew I really shouldn’t—

Obi pressed herself into my back and a pair of warm lips found my ear, her tongue running over the edge as hot breath washed over it and I shivered, my body reacting entirely on base biological impulse. “.”

“…Nn. Temptress! Seductress! Get off me!” I pushed her off, trying and only mostly failing to suppress my body’s reaction as I stood and moved away from her.

Obi laughed, dropping onto her stomach on the bed as she stared up at me with an amused smile. “For someone so , you are innocent at times like this.”

Taking a breath, I forced myself to think. When that didn’t work, I fell back on what usually did—. If she wanted to play silly games, then she was going to be responsible for them. But I needed her to really understand where we all stood and the potential ramifications involved. So, I laid it out for her.

“Your problems with Satine are your own. I’ll call her but will reconcile things with her. You two work things out without me and let me know what you decide. But I will not be manipulated, one way or the other! Nor will I be made to choose sides in this, this, petty disagreement between you.You are both people I consider friends, but at the end of the day, while we can set aside politics and position for a while they can’t be done away with entirely. and she is the voice of half of my people. And are a representative of the enforcement arm of the government of an enemy nation, visiting under my protection on a humanitarian mission of peace. Please be mindful that any personal issues between the two of you could have much further reaching repercussions than the lovers’ spat of some years ago.”

Obi blinked, taken aback as the amusement drained away. After a few moments, she sighed and rolled over onto her back. “I get it. Things are different now.”

Studying her for a moment to make sure she understood, I eventually nodded and made my way over to the holocom terminal. Selecting Satine’s contact, I hit ‘connect’ and waited. A few moments later, the older blonde picked up. She wore a happy smile as she answered, “Tanya, it’s good to see you again. Capt. Keen contacted me and I’ve begun making arrangements to accommodate and possibly integrate your refugees. Are you just visiting, or are you staying for a while?”

“We’ll be here a few days,” I confirmed, and her smile brightened.

“Excellent! My home is, as always, open to you,” she offered.

“Actually, I was thinking about finally settling into the quarters constructed for me.”

She grinned, nodding. “Even better. I’ll be happy to show you around.”

“Very well. However, I have a guest.”

“Oh?” Satine asked, curious. “Who is it?”

Obi-Wan chose that moment to step into frame. She gave Satine a rueful smile and waved. “Hello, Satine.”

Satine’s smile cooled considerably. “Obi-Wan.”

“She’ll be staying with me,” I put in, and Satine’s blue eyes snapped to me, picking up entirely too much at a glance. I disliked being that easy to read for anyone, but she had always been perceptive.

“I see,” she murmured.

Standing, I moved aside and guided Obi into the chair. “I believe you two have some things to talk about. We’ll head planetside shortly, so don’t take too long.”

With that, I grabbed my bag, zipped it up, and left the room to head down to my ship and stow my gear—and give them time to work things out. I stopped on the way and knocked on Asajj’s door. The blonde opened it, carrying her own bag as she smiled up at me. “Are you ready?”

“Mm! Ready to go, Master,” she confirmed with a nod.

“Good. Let’s go put these things away. Then we’ll meditate for a while, since we have some time to kill before we arrive and Qui-Gon begins his descent.”

Stepping off the , we were met with a group of speeders and an honor guard of armed and armored Mandos in very shiny armor, along with Satine, Jaster, and Jango.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

I nodded in approval, checking out their weapons. They were a combination of heavy blasters, flamethrowers, and slug throwers. Humming, I wondered how much trouble it would be to arm each of them with a pretty basic lightsaber. You didn’t actually need the Force to use one, it just .

very

For that alone, I would do it.

Was it petty and spiteful? Yes. Absolutely. I should probably be beyond that, but I wasn’t. Too many on that body had been a thorn in my side over the years, and the few good people on it didn’t make up for the bad. Not when they moved at a glacial pace when it came to removing problem elements within their own ranks, and their own lack of foresight or disinterest in worldly affairs had led to the state of the current Jedi Order.

I was pulled from my thoughts as we came to a stop in front of the welcoming party. “It’s good to see you all again,” I greeted the three of them, before sending a questioning look at Jaster. “Finally found a replacement?”

“Yup,” the older man nodded, grinning as he reached out and slapped an armored glove into Jango’s back with a clang of beskar on beskar. “Managed to talk him into it.”

Jango rolled his eyes. “His memory’s starting to go in his old age. Figured I’d step in before he goes senile.”

“Oi. Listen here, you little shit. I can kick your ass,” Jaster grumbled as Jango smirked.

“I said your memory, old man. Is your hearing going, too?” the younger man taunted.

Satine gave a polite cough. “Ahem. If you gentlemen are done? Master Qui-Gon is in the next bay over. We had to move a few things around to accommodate his ship, but offloading of the refugees is proceeding apace. Would you like to see them?”

I felt Obi’s attention shift from Satine to me and I nodded. “Yes. We should also probably check in with Qui-Gon.”

Satine nodded and our group started making our way over to the neighboring landing bay. As we went, I asked Jango, “Any thoughts so far?”

“Yeah, what were you doing while you were gone for a year?”

“She went to school,” Obi answered, her tone somewhere between amusement and sarcasm.

Jango raised an eyebrow, but Jaster nodded. “We can discuss that indoors and get you briefed when we’re not worrying about people listening in.”

“Understood,” Jango agreed. “Our planetary defenses seem lacking. Not just here, but I saw the same on Serenno when we visited to do some inspections. We’re leaning too hard on the defense and patrol fleets to do the heavy lifting. Fleets can be lured out of position.”

I felt a smile pulling my lips upwards as I nodded. That was pretty much exactly what I had seen in the simulations. If anyone managed to get past our fleet, we didn’t have enough on the ground to deter a particularly determined or suicidal attacker. “I understand. And your proposed solution?”

“Aside from more ships and more and bigger guns?” he asked, and I nodded. “Ray shields and better early warning systems. Planetary shields like in the Core are expensive, maintenance intensive, and take forever to construct. City shields are simple, cheap, and easy by comparison and ray shields block everything, even if they’re power hogs. Get sensors out in the asteroid belt, on the moons and around the other planets, tie in our ships’ sensors and turn the whole system into a battle net. We can leave the shields down for most of the time and only bring them up when something trips the sensors. That still leaves us vulnerable to a ground assault and saboteurs. More men and equipment would mitigate the first, but I want permission to have auto guns mounted on every city to deal with aerial threats. And the second is our Intel agency’s job—what’s her name?”

“Xana,” Satine supplied, making an annoyed face. “She and her people have actually been very useful in sniffing out infiltrators, saboteurs, and spies.”

“Approved,” I nodded. “Shields, sensors, more training and more people, more guns, guns on the cities—all of it. If you think of anything else, run it by me, but assume I’m going to green light it if it’s not unreasonable. Satine, any concerns?”

“Republic rhetoric has begun dehumanizing us,” she began, and I nodded.

“Justifying killing us when the war inevitably goes hot. That was expected.”

Obi frowned. “What do you mean?”

I turned to send her an incredulous look while Satine answered. “They’ve begun painting us as monsters and making up new crimes to accuse us of, while repeatedly running segments on Mandalore’s past and pointing out how our current re-militarization is and implying that perhaps we’re really the ones behind the Confederacy and we’ve been pressuring other planets to join. That this is all a prelude to another Mandalorian Crusade. We can’t argue the past—it happened. But I’ve got Xana’s people working on counter propaganda. She’s got some lovely hit pieces lined up on many of our , dearly departed senators and on those who have taken their place.”

“Should you be telling me how you plan to lie about the Senate?” Obi sighed.

Satine’s lips curled into a sardonic smile. “Why would we need to lie, ”

Obi blinked. “What?”

“Tell ‘em about the pedo moon,” Jaster chuckled.

Obi’s mouth worked, while I sighed. “Of course. Why am I not surprised? Let me guess. The holonet conspiracy theories were right?”

Satine looked briefly green and I felt disgust roll off of her. “No. They barely scratched the surface. It all started coming out in the wake of the Sith attack on the senate. Without those people alive to pay to keep it quiet, the web of corruption began to fall apart. There are very few who have managed to come out looking clean. The new Supreme Chancellor among them.”

I hadn’t spoken to him since going under cover, but I had heard that Senator Palpatine had been elected to that position during my time in the academy. Most of the students hadn’t seemed to care at the time. To them, it was some far away thing. The results of an election that didn’t directly effect them. A surprising number of them didn’t understand that the man had just become their new Commander in Chief until I explained it to them. At the time, I’d blamed it on the Republic’s lax education standards and had made some mental notes to look into our own education system while I was here.

Before the conversation could continue, Master Qui-Gon and his ship came into sight and the man waved—the one-armed redhead beside him looking up and spotting us, sending a nod our way. We made our way over and as we approached, I inspected the goings on. Satine had done good work, organizing this on such short notice.

A security team had the entire section of the bay cordoned off, not letting anyone in or out. A medical team was currently screening the former slaves and sorting them into those that needed various levels of care and those who could be moved directly into temporary housing. Another group of Mandos looked to be questioning them and, catching a few snatches of conversation, it seemed they were asking questions about where they came from, what skills they possessed, if they wanted to go back where they came from, if they would be willing to learn new skills, and so on.

We stopped in front of Qui-Gon and the man’s eyes shifted between myself and Obi, before an amused smile tugged at his lips. Obi turned faintly pink and I felt a bit of embarrassment from her, as her Master didn’t even need to say anything to set her off.

“How was the trip?” I asked, deciding to cut off any potential teasing—or at least delay it until we weren’t in public.

“It was fine,” he nodded, glancing towards the refugees. “You did a good thing, freeing those people.”

There were greetings exchanged as we observed the formalities, then Knight Veridi asked, “What do we do about our prisoner?”

I hummed. “What’s her condition?”

“She woke up during the trip. She’s been silent, but she has made a few attempts to cause trouble using the Force,” Qui-Gon supplied.

“And you left a Force using prisoner ?” Jaster asked, as Jango drew his pistols and up the ramp. I followed on his heels. Logically, I knew we were close enough that if she tried something, Master Qui-Gon could sense it, but the military minded part of me agreed with Jaster.

We found the door to the quarters where she was being held and stacked up. I held up my hand and silently gave a three count, before slapping the door open controls and pulling my own hand cannon. Jango swept into the room ahead of me, blaster pistols covering the room as I came in right behind. What we found was a bed sealed in with some welded on sheets of metal that looked like they had been attached in such a way as they could be removed quickly if needed.

Holstering my blaster, I motioned for Jango to cover me while I made my way over. Carefully opening the box, I found the prisoner inside. Danger flared in the Force and I focused, reaching out and grabbing with the Force as a shiv made of durasteel flew at my eye. I caught it and easily overpowered the prisoner, crushing it onto a ball even as I reached in and punched her in the nose.

“Stop that,” I warned, hitting her again with my beskar armored knuckles when she didn’t immediately comply, rattling her skull and leaving her stunned.

Undoing the straps holding her in place, I hefted her out with the Force, before pulling the straps out as well. Tying them around her, I made a handle behind her back and hefted her up like luggage.

“This is going to look very bad if the press get ahold of it. I need you to go send for a medical bed and bring it up. I’ll watch her. Oh, and get me some of those things that knock patients out.”

“Got it. I saw one outside. I’ll ask the medics about the other,” he supplied, tucking away his weapons and hurrying out of the room.

The woman I was holding hissed and spat, thrashing as she tried to lean in and bite me. “You won’t get anything out of me, Jedi! I’ve been trained to resist torture!”

“Good for you. Resist all you like, but there is no amount of training that can prepare you for what I’m going to do to you.”

I felt the woman’s anger turn to fear and went quiet as I waited for Jango. After a few moments, she asked, “What are you doing to do with me?”

When I didn’t answer, she growled and thrashed, spitting and snapping her jaws as she tried to bite me again. I felt her flailing with the Force and fired off a low intensity blast of Force lightning into her back, making her squeal in pain and tense up, before going limp and panting.

Finally, Jango pushed a floating medical bed in—this one having a top that could close to isolate a patient from the outside. I hefted the woman up and dropped her onto it, then we took a moment to strap her down. Jango then planted a couple of round pads on her head as she screamed and snapped at him. A moment later, he touched the one on her forehead and her eyes rolled in her head as she groaned, eyes fluttering as she clearly fought the effects.

“Sleep.”

I hammered her with the Force and, between that and the device, she lost her fight and passed out, her body going limp. The medical monitor on the side of the bed immediately calmed as it noted her heart rate dropping down into a resting pace and her brain activity dropping into sleep patterns.

“Was she like that the whole time?” he asked as we closed up the top and I pressed a button on the side to frost the dome so no one could see in.

“It’s fine,” I waved his concern off. Taking hold of the push bars on one side, I began maneuvering it out of the ship as Jango walked alongside.

“How do we want to handle her?”

I considered the question with a frown. “Firstly, I want to know what those cybernetics do, then I want them . And make sure security understands that if I’m not in the room with her, they’re to keep her under. When she’s stored, keep her in a room with constant surveillance and someone monitoring at all hours. No one goes in alone. Tell them to break out the slug throwers—they’re cleared to shoot to kill if she wakes up and starts using the Force or attacks someone. Their lives are worth more than hers, so don’t hesitate.”

“Understood,” Jango agreed as we hit the ramp leading out. “I’ll pass it along.”

By the time we exited the ship, Satine and Jaster had left—returned to their duties. Qui-Gon looked up at us as we walked down, a frown on his face. “What happened?”

“She collected a piece of scrap metal and sharpened it into a shiv,” I explained as I pushed the medical bed over to a parked ambulance and slid it into the back, in the slot made for them. “She fought practically the entire time.”

“We missed something,” he sighed.

“It was easy to miss. The measures you took would have been enough ordinarily, but the woman’s a trained assassin. We have to assume she has a tricks up her sleeve.” Looking between the three other Jedi, I asked, “How do you want to deal with her? Do you want to interrogate her here, or would you prefer to keep her under and call in a dedicated prisoner transport? If you guarantee they won’t attack or attempt to use Force manipulation on my people, I’m willing to allow a prisoner transport into the system and a shuttle to come down and pick her up.”

If I were being honest, I wanted to wash my hands of the entire affair and make her someone else’s problem. I was fairly confident that, if she knew anything at all, it would eventually lead back to Senator Palpatine and Hego Damask—two of the currently active Sith.

“I believe I’ll contact someone at the Temple to send a ship,” Qui-Gon nodded. “Better than trying to risk it with only the three of us watching her.”

“You’re welcome to stay as long as you need, in the meantime,” I offered, gesturing for him to follow as my Mandos sealed up the ambulance and Jango got in with them to take the prisoner away. “Though, I’m afraid I will need to limit where you can go and will have to assign an escort. That is more for appearances than anything, though.”

“I understand. That’s fine,” Qui-Gon agreed.

“If you’d like, I believe I have room in my home. I’m not entirely certain because I haven’t actually seen it yet—”

Qui-Gon chuckled, nodding and motioning towards one of the speeders waiting for us. “No time like the present, then.”

With that, we climbed into a speeder and I followed the directions one of my honor guard, riding with us. Our destination quickly became apparent as we approached a building in the center of Sundari—a single, wide column that stretched from the top of the enclosed city to the bottom.

From the outside, it looked like a fortress. The building was huge, taking up an entire city block in the heart of Sundari, with cleared space around it making it impossible to approach without being seen. It was covered in defensive gun emplacements and AA, heavily armored. The space around it was empty of other craft as we flew in, the honor guard beside me radioing ahead to clear us for entry.

As I approached, a section of the wall opened up, revealing a private hangar bay. Slipping inside, I spotted a number of gunships inside, lined up and waiting to deploy.

“That’s a lot of firepower,” I murmured.

The man beside me apparently heard my comment, as he nodded. “Yes, ma’am. The entire building isn’t your residence, just two of the floors. It’s a new addition, meant to act as a security hub for the city. A central location we can deploy forces from in the event of an invasion. It connects to series of tunnels leading away to the city to emergency evacuation sites, hidden underground, where we have ships waiting to evacuate the population if we have to.”

“I see.” Nodding, I set us down and shut off the speeder. “I’m glad we didn’t waste this all on me. Where are we staying?”

“This way,” the man motioned for me to follow as the other speeders containing my honor guard landed and they formed up around us.

It seemed Satine at least had gone on ahead as she met us at an elevator. I raised an eyebrow as we stepped inside.

“You’ve been busy. I wouldn’t think this would be something you’d approve of.”

The older blonde sighed. “Yes, well, not all that long ago, forced me to reconsider my ideas about what pacifism means. This,” she gestured vaguely at the wall, and I took her to mean the building, “is a purely defensive structure. One part evacuation shelter, one part fortification against enemy incursion. If our enemies make it this far, I’m hoping they break against it and it buys enough time for our people to escape.”

“Assuming they don’t hit the city with an orbital bombardment,” I pointed out.

“Yes. Assuming that,” she nodded. “We’ll begin construction of city shields as soon as possible. It’s going to mean improving our power infrastructure and more fuel requirements. Our refineries extracting tibanna gas from the Bonagal won’t be able to keep up with the demand over the long term, so we’ll need to expand or begin importing—and fuel is expensive at the moment if we have to import. The fear of war has caused the price of all fuel sources to go up, and the Trade Federation have been moving to secure several fuel producing worlds and cut them off, further inflating the price. I don’t know where we’re going to get it cheaply, in the sort of supply that will let us build up a stockpile. Most of our allies can barely supply themselves.”

“That is unfortunate. I imagine that everyone—both on the Confederate and Republic sides—is feeling the pain of the Trade Federation’s blockades and piracy. That’s the point of them doing it, to apply pressure to get what they want. However, even if this is common knowledge the Republic could easily acquire and something they themselves are experiencing, we should keep it as a conversation for another time,” I reminded, and Satine nodded.

“Do you hear that, Master? We’re not Jedi on a diplomatic mission anymore, we’re How exciting~! Is that an upgrade?” Obi teased.

Reaching up to stroke his beard, Qui-Gon hummed as he played along, putting on a serious face. “Hmm. I suppose it depends on how you look at it, Padawan.”

“Cut out the stand up comedy routine,” I grumbled as Satine chuckled and the elevator came to a stop.

The older blonde swept forward, only to find a hand pressed firmly into her stomach and be pushed back by one of my honor guard as four of them stepped out and closed the door behind them. Satine sent the one touching her an annoyed look. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Our jobs, ma’am.”

“Let them work,” I told Satine, who huffed in annoyance.

“They don’t do this at my home,” she complained.

“With respect, you’re not the Mandalore,” was the immediate and brutal answer, that had the woman wincing.

It was only a few minutes later that the team sent to sweep the floor reported back in and the doors opened. We moved out of the elevator into a large, open room with what looked like marble floors and wood paneling on the walls.

, I mused.

Looking to Satine, I asked, “Care to give us a tour?”

The woman’s mood brightened and she nodded. “Of course.”

With that, she led us into the first of two city block sized floors to explore.