Wrath of the Outer Rim : Episode VIV

Captain Drunna had come to the conclusion that the TFS Demand was a fantastic ship. He had been surprised when Montoo had selected him to be captain, most in the Trade Federation had assumed that command of the ships would go to his "aides," Sylee and Madeen. It was something of an open secret among the Trade Federation's fleet that Montoo had been spending a good deal of money educating them, far more than one could possibly need to spend on training mere servants. While no one was entirely certain what the two Twi'leks were being taught, most had assumed they were being groomed for command of a ship. It wasn't an uncommon practice for a successful captain to groom a talented subordinate for command, especially among the Lucrehulk captains. Having wealthy subordinates that owed you everything was a good way of securing their genuine loyalty. Usually Neimoidians only groomed other Neimoidians, but Montoo had always been a bit eccentric, and there was no reason the practice wouldn't work with Twi'leks.

Still, whatever was going on in Montoo's head, Drunna was grateful. Most Neimoidians would be reluctant to take command of a ship so clearly designed to be sent into combat. Oh, Montoo's reasoning for the design was certainly solid; as profitable as, say, Honoghr's spices were, the natives didn't grow enough to justify a full sized Lucrehulk making trips there, and the region was far too dangerous for one of the Trade Federation's smaller ships to make the trip. Kuat's Venators on the other hand, were intended to be heavily armed and armored strike carriers. Strip out the planned fighter contingent, and you had the second most heavily armored freighter after the Lucrehulk. Add in Montoo's modifications, and you had the most heavily armed ship to travel Republic space since the Ruusan reformation. Still, it was an untested design, and where as the Lucrehulk was intended to survine the dive into Hutt Space by laughing off any and all attacks, Montoo's Venator refit was intended to survive by ripping apart attackers.

Drunna was nervous, certainly, but a part of him was thrilled at the challenge. The Hutts were scum; uppity, arrogant thugs that thought themselves the peak of power because they battered all comers into submission through brute force. They thought themselves better than the Trade Federation. Nevermind that the Trade Federation could afford to literally bury the decadant worms in ships, if only they stopped obeying the law, nevermind the fact that they had that respecting the rule of law didn't stop them from becoming far wealthier than any of the damn slugs had ever even dreamed of becoming. No, nervous as Drunna was, he relished the opportunity to prove the power of the Trade Federation. A fact Montoo had obviously picked up on.

"TFS Demand to Hutt ships. I am giving one last opportunity to surrender before I rip apart those disgusting rust buckets you claim are ships."

The pirate fleet surrounding his ship didn't respond to his ultimatum. Well, not verbally anyways. Captain Drunna supposed the turbolaser fire impacting his ship's shields counted as a response. Getting yanked out of Hyperspace had been a rather unpleasant experience, but he doubted the fact that it was his ship the pirate trap had caught was appreciated by the pirates.

"Violence it is then. Weapons, start with the smallest ships, we don't want to scare them off just yet. Lieutenant Falleer, prepare a boarding team for that Leviathan-class they have. I suspect the good Captain Montoo would be most pleased to add an interdictor to his fleet."

-----

Falleer grunted as the shuttle craft shuddered violently, likely taking a glancing hit. Ostensibly for cargo and personnel transfer, the shuttle just happened to have armor and shielding heavy enough to feasibly make runs on hostile capital ships. Wouldn't want to lose valuable cargo to, say, a freak meteor shower. It just happened to have a docking tube capable of breaking through an airlock. You know, just in case they had to perform rescues on ships that had lost power to their airlocks. It certainly wasn't designed to board hostile, armed ships, no sir, building assault shuttles was quite illegal for anyone other than Republic peacekeepers.

That said, it was certainly convienent that it could be used as an assault shuttle.

The Demand was shrugging off the combined firepower of what looked to be at least a dozen pirate frigates. Her return fire, on the other hand, was shredding the scum. The first few volleys from the rail guns had caught the pirates with their pants down, shells passing right through their particle shields, ripping through the thin armor plating, and detonating violently inside the ships. The Demand's turbolasers meant the pirates couldn't risk lowering their ray shields to power the particle shields, they had to run both at the same time. The ship's AI had noted a few failed hyperspace jumps, some of the more cowardly pirates seemed to have already attempted retreating, only to be caught in their own interdiction field. As amusing as the thought was, it was only a matter of time before whoever was in charge to decide to cut their losses and have the outdated Leviathan-class interdictor shut down her gravity well generators.

Hence Falleer's assault. As fantastic as capturing the old ship intact would be, the Ryloth Veteran's primary objective was to stop them from shutting off the interdiction field for as long as possible, allowing the Demand to make a statement. The shuttle latched on to the Leviathan's hull, and the engineers began cutting.

The airlock fell to the ground with a resounding clang. Four Trandoshans carrying massive blast shields and blaster pistols stormed through, creating a line of cover for the rest. Manufacturing a physical, truly blaster proof shield tended to either be horribly expensive, or far too heavy for most species. Falleer chose to solve the issue by giving shields to one of the few species strong enough to carry blast shields without issues.

Fortunately, there weren't actually that many people guarding the airlock. A few bolts harmlessly impacted the shields, and the few pirates that had been waiting for them were put down with a few well placed shots from the assault team. Falleer felt his contempt for the disorganized rabble rise, he certainly wouldn't have been so lax in organizing a response to boarding craft. One of the shield bearers surged forward, slamming his shield into a pirate and cracking his skull open with a vicious headbutt.

"Move up! We're just a few levels beneath the bridge, look for a maintenance hatch."

The shield bearers moved first, taking up the front and rear of the team. Within moments, they ran into more of the pirate crew, blaster fire impacting the shields harmlessly. His troopers responded in kind, dropping the scum with precise bursts. Corridor by corridor, they stormed through the ship searching for a way to the bridge. Surrounded at this point, not that it helped the defenders.

The defenders were disorganized, clearly not used to being on the receiving end of a boarding party. They were trying to use tactics designed to terrify civilians into compliance; bursting through doors with a warcry and blasters blazing, shouting vile threats and curses, trying to get into fistfights with his Trandoshans. It was easy.

"Lieutenant, found the lift! Maintenance hatch can't be far!"

Falleen paused, glancing at the blastdoors the trooper was indicating. Using the elevator was just begging for the pirates to cut power and drop grenades on them through a service panel. A ladder wouldn't exactly be safe either, but conning tower bridges rarely had stairs leading to them, and it'd still be better than the elevator.

"Get those doors open. Leviathans are pretty old, they might not have maintenance shafts leading to the bridge," he ordered. The trooper looked slightly uneasy, but shoved a splicer into door controls anyways. The blast doors opened moments ladder, revealing the empty elevator shaft.

Falleen peered in and spotted the service ladder om the opposite side of shaft. Better still, the ladder was nestled into a small conclave, meaning his troopers wouldn't have to worry about being crushed if the turbolift came down while they were climbing.

"Well well, we're in luck. Shield bearers first."

-----

Falleen's men stacked up on the door to the bridge, ready to storm in. Once they seized the ship's computers, they'd open a channel to the Demand so she could seize control of the ship and vent the atmosphere. The doors open with a hiss, and they burst through, shields first.

There was only a single person on the bridge, the rest were already dead. A Zabrak.

Falleen hesitated for a moment, and that was all it took for everything to go to hell. The Zabrak moved, the taletell hiss of a lightsaber activating. "Jedi!" someone shouted, moments before he was cut in half. One of the Trandoshan shieldmen caught the Zabrak's lightsaber on his shield, even the famous blade slowed by the thick durasteel. The trooper shot his pistol into the force user's gut, which only earned an enraged roar. The trooper was hurled back with a force empowered shove, slamming into the bulkhead with enough force to leave a dent.

Another Trandoshan fired his repeating blaster, only for their foe to deflect the bolts right into another trooper, killing him instantly when a bolt went right into his helmet's eye sockets. The Trandoshan quickly realized his mistake, and promptly threw his rifle at the Zabrak, forcing the force user to block it with his saber. A movement the Trandoshan exploited instantly, following his throw by lunging forward and tackling the red skinned warrior. Unfortunately, the brave trooper ultimately only bought a few seconds, as another swing of the deadly, red blade went right through the man's head.

One of Falleen's Twi'lek troopers drew a vibroblade, just in time to block a vicious swing from the lightsaber. The trooper threw a wild haymaker right into the "Jedi's" jaw, and again, the blow only seemed to enrage the Zabrak. He retaliated in kind, the force user's fist punching clean through the trooper's chest. Then the monster turned his attention to Falleen. Falleen met the challenge the only way he could. Knowing his blaster would merely be deflected, and likely right into either him or one of his men, he drew his combat knife and charged.

Pain. Lightning streamed from the bezerker's hand, arcing over Falleen's entire body and lighting every last nerve with agony. Still, he moved forward, fighting past the pain and driving his blade right into that thing's eye. He twisted, and the pain stopped. The "Jedi" fell to the ground, dead. Moments later, Falleen fell too, everything fading to black.

-----

Drunna frowned as the pirates' comms chatter intensified. The Demand lacked the hardware to properly decrypt their transmissions, but it was clear they were starting to panic. If the "battle" kept up much longer, they'd break and flee. Despite the immense capabilities of Drunna's ship, his shields would break before too long, meaning he couldn't afford to simply ignore the Hutt Mercenaries until he had control of their interdictor. He had to drive off this attack, one way or another.

"Away team to Demand, we've secured the bridge. We're opening up the ship's computers to you now. Be advised, heavy losses sustained."

Drunna smiled as the Demand reported taking remote control of the Leviathan.

"Very good. Demand, handle our new ship as you see fit, and prepare a skeleton crew for her. Droids only and a medical team. Weapons... that scrap heap they call a destroyer is making me nauseous. Deal with it."

The Demand lurched to the side, bringing her port broadside to bear on the Hutt destroyer. The combined fire of sixteen, twenty inch rail guns began tearing into the ship's particle shields. Moments later, faced with a display of overwhelming firepower that hadn't been seen in the galaxy since the fall of the ancient Sith Empire, the shields failed. The high velocity shells ripped through the hull, detonating on the inside. Explosions began coming from the inside, something critical failing. Finally, the Hutt destroyer disappeared in a blinding explosion.

When the Demand departed an hour later, followed by her prize ship, it left behind only drifting debris. By order of the Trade Federation Directorate, there was no quarter to be given to pirates.

-----

Sidious frowned ever so slightly as the recording of the experiment's final moments ended. The Kaminoan clone technician that had created him, seated opposite of Sidious, was unphased by the creature's death.

"You consider this a success?"

Sota Wai inclined her head slightly. As a species, Kaminoans had very few ethical boundaries, at least, few in regards to interactions with outsiders. They were hardly cloning themselves, for example. That said, there was exactly one boundary that was under no circumstances to be tested. Do not attempt cloning force users. Granted, it was likely stemming from experience in just how badly attempting to do so can go, but the practical reasoning made it no less a hard rule. Sota Wai had been caught asking dangerous questions, and was quickly blacklisted across the entire planet. She probably would have been rotting in a cell right now, had Sidious not decided he needed to make adjustments to the Great Plan.

Jango Fett had canceled his contract with the Kaminoans, and even paid out of pocket to cover the associated fine. They still had his DNA stored, but as good as their training simulations were... they could make decent soldiers on their own, but they had never been able to recreate the truly fine touch a talented instructor had, nor did they have the military tradition to make up for it themselves. Already, Sidious was searching for new potential instructors, but he doubted he'd be able to use Mandaloreans, and even then, it was becoming more and more likely that he would lose control of the upcoming war. If he was being honest with himself, he probably already had lost control of events. He needed to prepare a few... contingencies.

"An unprecedented one. The Sith records you have provided for me were quite clear, while cloning force sensitives is always dangerous, with care, it can be done. I identified multiple factors that contribute to the stability of the clone. The largest is simply allowing the clone to mature naturally, rather than accelerating it. While I still wish to work on accelerating growth... it is safe to say that force users are rare enough, and their births unpredictable enough, that simply establishing a reliable method of producing them is an achievement in and of itself. There are several, less important factors that are showing promise in mitigating instability. Traditional mentor and student training, for example, rather than memory uploads or virtual reality training, for example," she explained. Sota paused, frowning as something occurred to her.

"Really, clone instability can be summarized by stating that the more 'natural' a force clone's growth and education are, the more stable it is. I lack the expertise to evaluate the clone's performance in utilizing the force, but I assure you, we have accomplished something quite significant here. The clone followed orders reliably, showed no signs of mental instability beyond that which you explained as being typical of the... dark side, was clearly able to use the force, and again, while I cannot evaluate his usage of the force, he did kill several well equipped, well trained, and experienced soldiers before his demise. In my opinion, this is a solid baseline from which to make adjustments from... though I would like to maintain a core of stable clones before taking risks on adjusting the cloning process."

Sidious stared at the hologram, paused on the moment of the clone's death. Perhaps he had been a bit hasty at dismissing the clone... while clearly not as skilled as the original had been, and Maul was hardly a high standard to aspire to, a few hundred angry, sith-trained Zabraks could certainly ruin someone's day. Plus, he didn't have time for perfect. He could work on perfect once he had a safety net.

"You have my permission to begin production. I can get you equipment for batches of ten for now, I will look into acquiring more. Go now, I must see to other matters."