Robert Meta
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Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 252
🕑 Added 2025-08-08 14:58:16 +0000 UTCStar Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 252
We arrived at our target planet two days later, having spent most of that time familiarizing ourselves with the area and the planet itself. Or rather, we familiarized ourselves with the moon itself. Our target was called Nalux-4, a large moon orbiting a blue gas giant. Its atmosphere was breathable, and the moon's primary source of income was tourism, with several dozen large resorts and spas spread around the planet. Apparently, the night sky was particularly beautiful with Nalux, the gas giant Nalux-4 orbited, playing a significant role.
Either way, we would be landing in one of the moon's largest cities, the moon's most significant trade hub, which was responsible for most of the planet's incoming and outgoing goods. This would hopefully mean that customs would be quick and relatively painless. Either way, before we dropped out of hyperspace, all of us armored up and crawled into the smugglers' compartments, now hidden from sensors and scanners.
Not long after we were sealed and hidden away, I could feel as we dropped out of hyperspace. After that, our movement was subtle, the ship slowly maneuvering around with our sublight thrusters as we waited to pass through customs. Eventually, after being scanned approximately fifteen minutes after we arrived, we were given the all-clear and allowed to descend to the planet. It wasn't until we touched down safely that we climbed out of the smuggler's compartments, once again meeting in the cargo hold.
"Okay, so we made it planet side, which is encouraging," I said with a nod. "According to our scans, there was an Imperial fleet around the planet, but nothing big enough to threaten 3rd Group. In my mind, it's becoming increasingly clear that this is not an ambush, but an attempt to infiltrate the Skyforged. With any luck, that means we won't be stumbling into anything we can't handle, since they want us to escape. Still, we need to keep every possibility in mind, so keep your eyes open for anything that might hint at an incoming attack."
"What's our plan for finding Jade?" Tatnia asked. "Just walk around with our fingers crossed?"
"Well… if she is trying to lure us in by pretending to be a Jedi…It stands to reason she may continue to play the part?" Tatnia asked, before looking over at my partner. "Ahsoka, can you feel anyone calling out through the Force?"
"Not at the moment," She said with a frown. "I suggest we start where the 'incident' occurred that 'forced' her to reveal her presence. We can expand from there. She probably left a clue there to direct us to her."
"Or, you know, I could just use my magic?" I pointed out, holding back a chuckle. "You know, the bit that lets me track people anywhere in the galaxy?"
Julus, Vaz, and Nal, who had clearly remembered my ability to track people, were holding back smiles and laughs. I simply raised my eyebrows, wondering if the two were feeling well.
"Right…yeah, that would work better," Tatnia admitted, Ahsoka raising her hand to rub her eyes, letting out a long sigh. "It's been a bit. How are we getting around the city, then?"
"Transport speeders. We get two, put one driver and two in the back in armor," I suggested, the rest of the crew nodding along. "I'm thinking of myself and Ahsoka as drivers, since we have the most unarmored options in terms of self-defense."
We talked for a few more minutes, but once our plan was set, we quickly got to work. Ashoka and I stripped down from our armor, packing it away to bring with us. It was a pain to have to lug it around, but for now, it would be better to have civilians driving the speeders. Not to mention, it would allow us a bit more flexibility in terms of leaving and walking around outside. Leaving the armor behind was also not an option, since we might be forced to abandon the Starcaller for a different source of transportation if things spiralled. On top of that, we would probably need it eventually, which meant carrying it around with us, just another thing to worry about.
It took about an hour for our rented cargo speeders to arrive, and when they did, Tatnia, Nal, and I shared a laugh.
"Oh man, that certainly brings back memories," I said with a smile. "Makes me want to see if we could go back to Nar Shaddaa and find the original."
The renting company had delivered a pair of worn but functional A-A5 Speeder Trucks. They had been disarmed, so there was no laser cannon mounted on the roof, and it was clearly not upgraded as ours had been, so we would be sticking to the ground. However, it was still a ride down memory lane.
Our very first vehicle, right after I had arrived in this reality and we were still stuck on Nar Shaddaa, was an A-A5 Speeder Truck. Nal, Tatnia, and I, along with Miru and that prick Nevue, had lived out of it until we were forced to run from the planet. I had almost died in the process, taking a blaster bolt meant for Miru. I kind of regretted having to leave the vehicle behind. Although, if I recalled correctly, part of me almost dying was because I had nearly cracked my skull open on the side of the speeder, after being knocked back by the aforementioned blaster bolt during our escape.
The A-A5 was a workhorse, and the one we found had extra armor and the air speeder upgrade, making it a damn useful cargo speeder for a group of wanted criminals on the run.
Nostalgia aside, we quickly piled into the vehicles. While most of the crew settled in the cargo areas, Ahsoka and I climbed into the cockpit. It took a few minutes to re-familiarize myself with the controls, but when I was done, we pulled away from the berth and headed into the city.
Our primary goal for tracking Mara was to avoid being too obvious. We needed to keep the fact that we knew exactly what we were walking into to ourselves at all costs. So, rather than making a beeline towards her, we spent some of the morning driving around, investigating different spots, and heading around the scene of her crashed landing. Eventually, as most of the day had gone by, we pulled around closer to her location. Turns out she was holed up in a seemingly abandoned, or at least shut-down factory of some kind, just several miles away from where her "attempted escape" failed.
We pulled into a nearby parking lot, after which Ahsoka and I stepped out of our vehicles to find a vantage point, leaving the rest of the crew to stay hidden in the speeders. We both carried our armor with us, locked in their crates, since there was a pretty good chance we would want it. If we had to move fast before we put the armor on, we would leave it behind and have the commando droids pick it up.
After a few minutes of wandering around, we finally managed to find a ladder to a rooftop vantage point. A quick climb later, and we were lying out on the perfect spot to watch the quiet, dark factory.
"So… what are the chances that they just seized the factory and kicked everyone out?" I asked as we lay down on the roof, watching the large building with binoculars. "This city doesn't seem to have a lot of abandoned real estate."
"Your guess is as good as mine," Ahsoka responded, passing me the electrobinoculars back. "Is she still inside?"
I raised my hand and cast the visual version of the Clairvoyance spell, the version I recently created for triangulating objects in deep space. She looked at it and nodded, and I dropped the spell.
"How long do we wait before going in?" She asked, lowering her head for a moment as she checked her comms. "Hours or days?"
"Depends on when Cal shows up," I responded. "Amescoll seemed pretty rattled, which could mean we were on a tight schedule…"
"Maybe. But it's hard to judge, some people do not take Force Visions or dreams well," She explained. "Even those that aren't foretelling horrible events can still be traumatic."
We settled in to watch the facility, waiting for the eventual arrival of Cal. Unfortunately, we had no way of knowing how Cal would figure out where Mara was, or how he would end up in danger, only that he would. Eventually, after about an hour, Tatnia volunteered to take off her armor and drive one of the A-A5s back to the scene of the "accident" since there was a good chance he would end up there, looking for clues.
Meanwhile, as we waited for something to happen, Ahsoka and I had the pleasure of watching as Mara Jade slowly went stir crazy. At this point, it was all but confirmed she was attempting to get picked up as a victim, to infiltrate our home, because she obviously knew we were watching her, but made no moves to have us killed or detained.
How did we know she knew we were there? As time continued to pass, she occasionally revealed herself, doing whatever she could to seem like a Jedi, without giving away that it was all an act. At first, it was subtle, a shadow inside the building getting too close to the window, a hand on a door frame as someone peered out. Over time, however, the act got more obvious. After three hours, Mara spent a few minutes sitting perched on an open window frame, one leg hanging out as she pretended to meditate, her eyes closed and her head bowed. She was dressed in civilian attire, but it was all in creams and browns, the colors of the Jedi. She even had a loose hood up and over her head, covering her face.
She even made sure to flash her lightsaber at us as she checked to make sure it was still there.
Her acting was actually pretty good, unsurprisingly. If we didn't know what we knew, I would have assumed she was an overly dramatic Jedi on the run, not exactly something out of the ordinary for us. Perhaps the funniest part was that, whenever she was gone from our view, she was pacing around the building, the arrow of my Clairvoyance spell going back and forth.
As the sky began to darken, a low, blue light replaced the standard color of sunlight as the blue gas giant above us shone down through the night sky. It was still early in the night when Tatnia contacted us through the comms.
"Someone just started poking around the accident," she informed us. "Snuck past a few stormtroopers around the perimeter by jumping on a few nearby buildings… They seem to know what they are doing."
"That would probably be Cal," I nodded, letting out a long breath. "How much do you wanna bet he's going to find all the clues they left for us?"
"No deal," Tatnia responded, pausing for a long minute before continuing. "Okay, he is leaving now, made it back out past the stormtroopers. Looks like he is heading your direction."
"Alright. Make your way back to the parking lot, then stand by," I said. "I want you guys ready to go the second we need you."
"Not sure I like you two going in alone," Tatnia commented. "You could take a few more of us."
"I'm hoping this whole thing can be solved with minimum conflict," I responded. "The best way to kick off conflict is barging in with a bunch of armored people backing me up. If it comes down to it, abandon your speeders and use your repulsor packs to skip the buildings. It should only take like thirty seconds to reach us then."
Tatnia begrudgingly agreed and hung up to focus on driving. Meanwhile, Ahsoka and I prepared to move, donning our armor while we waited for our target to arrive. We had no idea how Mara or the other people she undoubtedly had posted around us would react to Cal approaching, so we needed to be ready. I had little doubt that, with how wanted Kestis seemed to be, that Mara would recognize him on sight. But if her cover reacted before she could make a call, clearing who they saw as potential civilian out of their baited trap, the situation could quickly spiral.
We had more than enough resources to pull him out, but no way of knowing what sort of Imperial resources would pop up out of the woodwork to chase us. Who knows what sort of assets were in play, ready to take over should Mara's plan fail? Assuming she was in control in the first place.
We were barely waiting for fifteen minutes before a shadow along the alleyway, scarcely visible by the glow of the massive gas giant in the sky, pulled away and began making its way to the building. I couldn't help but notice that the shadow had a slight limp, though they still moved smoothly. As it approached the building, it circumnavigated the main entrance, instead walking around before jumping up off the wall, using a dumpster as a bouncing board all the way up to a second-story landing. Despite their limp, they were clearly still pretty agile.
"Damn, he has moves," I commented. "Can you bounce around like that?"
"Yes, but tapping into the Force to move like that makes you easy to track. I could feel every bit of that movement," She explained, her face hidden behind her helmet. "I've learned the hard way to keep my feet on the ground unless necessary."
I winced and nodded, watching as who we assumed was Cal Kestis pried open a door and slipped inside the building. For a moment, we paused, waiting for stormtroopers or even Dark Troopers to pour out from every nearby building. When nothing happened, we both stood up and leaped off the roof, using our repulsor backs to slow our descent. After checking that the coast was still clear, we then followed the same path as Cal, jumping up to the second floor, and entering the same door. Once inside, I used my trail version of Clairvoyance to lead me to Cal. Though that wasn't necessary for long, since we were only walking for a few moments before we heard voices.
"-people keep an eye out for situations like this," A male voice said. "Your crash made enough waves that we picked it up."
"And you're, what? A Rebel?" A female voice asked.
Ahsoka and I came around the corner to find a red-headed man, about my age, his hands raised defensively as he stood about two dozen feet away from another redhead, this one with brilliant, deep red hair. She had an unlit lightsaber in one hand and a blaster in the other, the latter of which was aimed at Cal. The younger woman looked around nervously, eyes darting to a nearby window as if looking for an avenue of escape.
"I'm a Jedi. Well, I'm also a Rebel, sort of," he explained. "The point is that you've gotten lucky, your escape and crash seems to have fallen through the cracks. The fact that there aren't a couple of Star Destroyers in orbit and a few Inquisitors poking around is a miracle. But that could change quickly, so we need to get you out of here."
I popped the seal on my helmet, and Ahsoka did the same. I gave her a nod before stepping out from cover, making sure not to sneak up on them. I didn't want to scare either of them into shooting us out of surprise, if for no other reason than it would probably spook the hell out of Mara's backup. Instead, I approached calmly, my hand clear of my pistol, my other hand resting casually on my sword.
Comments
JKarrde
Gotta admit, this was amusing. It was funny imagining Mara slowly going bonkers as she sat there, knowing the crew was out there. And then there's Cal. Good to see he still has his moves. And how long will it be before Deacon outright trolls Mara into the ground? I mean he has her number...save for her childhood most of her past is known to him.
Heidao
Oh this is gonna be funny, Mara's in full swing of her rehersed plan, Cal is completely unaware of the trap, and now our people watching the silliness unfold finally step in
Fortunis
😁 fun
Nathan R Chase
So, they goanna take her to a place where they can isolate Mara and get a chance to deprogram/unbrainwash her just string her along, but she'll think they are trying to brainwash her and try to escape, they Deacon will come up with a plan to flush her into the arms of Luke who's not going to be the exact catnip that Deacon thinks Luke is, and Cal goanna be very confused Ezra gets to pull him over and be like yeah this is a fanfic and we're just side character don't worry about the craziness its part of a larger plot have a snack
Robert Meta
technically she was waiting for them, and they were waiting for cal, but yes >_<
Duke of Coffee
Mara Jade, the Hand of the Emperor has finally waited long enough for Cal to show up. Deacon and Ahsoka were just watching her, giggling and laughing at her antics. 😜
OmegaNano
Damn Cliffhangers
Katherine
Thanks for the chapter! :D
