ED : Chapter 24: Welcome to the Jungle II
"The only other detail I can provide is the Argent Bulwark's hyper-comm signal frequency.
Useless, I know, unless they call in while someone's scanning for the frequency. I'm sorry there's nothing more, but I'll keep digging." The Jedi Master supplied in a worried yet completely trusting voice.
...
A ship designed almost specifically for extremely hostile atmospheric flight, Jedi Researchers, and a Force-relic being sought by Yoda himself. The picture had come together for him even as this trusting imbecile was still speaking.
Filling Palpatine with a savage, bestial longing to choke the life from Vergere with his bare hands. Not since his final confrontation with that petty, unambitious weakling who'd sired him had he felt such a visceral and all-consuming fury.
It was solely a testament to his skill at deception that his voice remained steady as he pointed out to the Jedi his fictitious fears that any attempt to contact the members of a mission they weren't supposed to know existed would be the equivalent of screaming in the terrorists' faces that their intentions had been discovered.
Given the Bando Gora's infamy for destructively acting out when the cult's primary aim was thwarted, Palpatine didn't need to waste time or effort convincing his too-trusting informant to keep what they'd discussed between them.
It was the one tiny spot of light amid a disaster in the making. Not needing to worry Kim would pass on his "concerns" to the other Jedi.
With the hyper-comm call ended, Palpatine's mind whirled as he considered the various possibilities. All the while moving toward the secret lift that would whisk him from his office and deep into the bowels of the building.
Where he could take his private mag-lev to an initial hideaway, and from there to the speeder-car that would get him to his concealed complex in the Works as soon as humanly possible.
He needed to be able to drop his Mask and reach out through the Force to determine the immediacy and overall scale of the peril. There was still the chance enough time existed to get ahead of this disaster.
"I'll contact Lord Ximshak and reveal I care nothing for his indiscretions with Maul. Once he understands our shared peril, we can focus our efforts on preventing that little green monster from grasping the means to so damage our plans in his revolting little hands.
I'll-" Palpatine's train of thought was shattered as the Dark Side prioritized his continued survival over the tiny chance of discovery.
The premonition screaming across the turbid surface of the constantly roiling sea of vacuum cold fury and hatred within him.
Despite the roiling surface, an image came to him out of those frothing shadows. It was a razor-sharp shard of blinding, repugnant light erupting into being.
Ripping a wide rent in the carefully cultivated shroud of the Dark Side as a maddeningly familiar large brown eye peered through the rent like a man peeking through an ancient keyhole.
Not some vague vision of a possible future weeks, months, or years in the future. The certainty integral to the mental images was as absolute as the coming darkness of nightfall. Their visceral surety like repeated hammer-blows to his awareness.
Now, as he sped toward his hideout, there was only coming to terms with the onrushing wave of resulting danger. Yoda would gain the Kaiburr Crystal, and with it reveal him.
It wasn't illegal to be a Sith, but quite a few Republic worlds had laws on the books proscribing involvement in official political or diplomatic activities without disclosing that one was a trained Force-sensitive.
These were bitterly ironic relics from the days of the Jedi Lords and Ladies in a time before the Reformation. When Jedi Chancellors of the Republic had been the unbroken norm for centuries.
The majority of worlds had long since removed such statutes from the books as unnecessary anachronisms, but Eriadu, Mon Cala, Onderon, and his own homeworld all retained them.
These were all worlds he'd unquestionably visited on official business during his stint as Senator of Naboo, so not even an argument of Executive Privilege would protect him from Jedi-instigated extradition efforts.
Saying nothing of his having caused medical records to be falsified to conceal his midichlorian count, and a dozen other serious crimes he would easily be charged with once it was revealed he could use the Force.
It was more than conceivable that, like rats from a ship they feared to be sinking, one or more members of his inner circle could turn their coat and pass on damaging information in exchange for leniency.
He'd done well to insulate himself in most such situations for precisely this potential eventuality, but no one could be perfectly distanced from their every illegal act.
"The Jedi are absolutely relentless, once roused. They will tug at each thread, explore every possible avenue, and interrogate my every associate" The snowy haired, lean, patrician featured Sith concluded as still more rage bubbled just beneath the surface of his outward veneer of control.
While it was likely his political, judicial, and corporate allies would be enough to keep him free on bail when considered together with his other assets, it wouldn't matter.
He didn't yet control enough Senators outright to prevent the inevitable alliance of the reformers under Bail Prestor Organa with Seti Ashgad/Legends opportunists, and now he never would. That was what the trap which was the planned Outbound Flight had been meant to accomplish.
Being it's most ardent supporter, the project's catastrophic failure would have placed Vice-Chair Mas Amedda entirely at his mercy. Giving him the lever required to move beyond mere manipulation of the members of the Rim Faction to total control of reactionary simpletons like Orn Free Taa/Legends .
He'd been so close to in truth being the Senate in every practical respect, but even if he managed to escape the legal consequences of his actions, this scandal would be enough to see him ousted as Chancellor.
"Iteration A of the Grand Plan is no longer viable, so be it" Palpatine considered with a spider's inhuman deliberation as he suddenly changed the car's direction to head for his private landing-pad.
A mysterious disappearance that was coupled with "evidence" of a Jedi kidnapping attempt carefully supplied by Doriana and Pestage would delay matters and cause a chaotic uproar his lieutenants would do everything they surreptitiously could to prolong.
Getting him out ahead of this, and providing opportunity for him to become ensconced in Iteration B before the Jedi could capitalize on their unexpected success.
"The Jedi claim to be protectors of the people and the peace. Each of them willing to lay down their lives, so that others might live. I would have brought them their end with sudden efficiency, but most of the cattle they care so much for would have been spared in Iteration A.
They seem to prefer the horrors of galactic war, however, so I will give them war. Let a millennium of failure to redress the tensions between Core and Rim drown them all in blood.
It will give me the opportunity to rebuild all as I would have it, anyways" It was the wintry, rage-filled vow of a controlling sociopath whose aims had been thwarted.
One delivered to the empty air with a calm so sudden and so purpose filled it would have terrified the most serene of Jedi beyond the capacity for rational thought as he sped off into the lengthening shadows of evening.
...
Mimban (Day 15 of the expedition)
The temple was covered in a strange, spiraling, blue-green ivy with tendrils as thick as my wrist in places. Where it's dark gray walls could be seen in rare gaps of the climbing plant life, I could tell the people who'd built it had progressed to at least a medieval level of development.
The construction of the tremendous gateway's arch made that much obvious.
It had been gratifying when my droids had found us a path along the bank of a shallow river that allowed us to cover the final fifteen miles to the Temple of Pomojema in a fraction of the time the previous thirty had been traversed, but I'd played it cool while my elders complimented my scouting-by-proxy efforts.
That earned me a brief smile of approval from my Master when Jedis Darys and Krintu had expressed shock and surprise to discover that I was the builder as well as programmer of the droids, and not simply their minder. Yoda simply chuckled and shook his head.
Waiting patiently for said droids to return from their penetration into the temple's precincts. I'd pleaded for the group to permit my sending of the dragonfly-hawks ahead, rather than doing the initial scouting personally.
There had been a bit of consternation from the two Jedi Researchers eager to finally achieve the goal of the mission, but the Grandmaster had taken one look at my worried expression and made the executive decision to give my droids their chance.
Only two of the three droids emerged from the temple, and one of these was sparking and smoking. Missing the final rear quarter of it's body and one of it's four wings, as the damaged and undamaged scouting droids made their way back to me and powered down.
The two Jedi Knights looked concerned by the absence of one of the three droids to enter, and the substantial damage to a second, but Dark Woman and Yoda both seemed unsurprised by this development.
Walking over, I held out the control interface where both the Jedi Masters could easily see it's screen, then shifted the display from the visible spectrum to scans provided by the six mass-sensors that had been housed by twos within each droid and deployed about the large building's interior at my command during their initial entry at ceiling height.
It had been the need to drop lower as the ceiling lowered near the rear of the temple which had caused the loss of the third droid, as something which could not be seen snatched it from the air, then lashed out and nearly caught a second droid in similar fashion as it's autonomous evasion protocol was lifting it back toward the structure's higher ceiling and safety.
"Curious, it is. The creature's stealth, your apprentice anticipated. Another vision's result, it seems." Yoda's remark was outright needling. His alien facial structure made it difficult to tell, but I thought the look he was giving me was meant to communicate.
"You don't really believe I'm buying this anymore, do you?"
The picture obviously lacked detail, being nothing but a rough visual compilation of dimensions and movements of the object tracked based on the readings gleaned from the deployed sensors.
It showed something significantly longer than it was tall. Stockier at the fore, and tapering to a more narrowed end one could easily infer was a tail.
Other than it's ability to move fast enough to pluck an extremely agile droid capable of near-instantaneous changes in direction and altitude from the air when the spirit moved it, little more could be gleaned from the constructed image.
Leaving me with the quandary of whether or not to warn my compatriots specifically about what they were facing.
...
I'll appreciate if you guys can throw some power stones to keep the story going.
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