Chapter Eight: Finding Kota

While the Gamer made the quest seem straightforward, it was anything but that.

The mission to Fondor to locate, assist, and gain Rahm Kota's trust was off to a difficult start as soon as Luke and Obi-Wan asked for Bail's assistance.

All Bail knew was that the Empire had cut off all non-military transport into and out of the system. He had the resources to falsify transfer orders and military records using a local Imperial training facility whose commander was loyal to Bail's cause. 

As relatively scattered as the Rebellion seemed to be, Luke had to admit, he was impressed that Bail was able to come up with a plan in half a day.

Luke would have to impersonate a Stormtrooper, and Obi-Wan would pretend to be a fellow diplomat. Bail would be 'sent' to oversee the successful transfer of volunteers in the Imperial Army. 

When Luke donned the white armor, he really wondered why the Empire ruled over most of the known galaxy. It was decently impractical, the material it was made from seemed to barely protect him at all, and the helmet wasn't impossible to see out of, but it also wasn't enough to defend him from a clean blaster shot.

What Luke was most interested in was how the armor fared against [Force Strikes], those being melee attacks Luke augmented with the Force, in some cases damaging or staggering enough as lightsaber strikes in the right scenario. And they cracked like dry bread against his fist, telling him that a successful hit on a single Storm trooper was very likely to disable them. 

All he could reason was that the Empire massed so many troops at once that regardless of poor equipment they would still overwhelm whoever they were facing. 

The small bits of training on Alderaan Luke went through in a few days were decent gains of EXP, but it told Luke that the Empire's combat training needed critical amounts of improvement. While Luke had never seen his first glimpse of combat, fighting the Krayt Dragon told him that basic Storm trooper training wasn't exactly the best.

He wondered how Biggs was doing now that he joined the Imperial academy to become a pilot, and if he'd ever see him again now that he was on a quest to become a Jedi, and reshape the Outer Rim on the way.

…

"How do I look?"

Luke grinned under his helmet. "Very official."

Obi-Wan was wearing something that wasn't his usual Jedi robes for the first time in over a decade. He was dressed as a typical dignitary from Alderaan, very noble and wealthy.

It seemed a bit out of character for someone who Luke considered to have almost no interest in anything material other than his dedication to never separating himself from his lightsaber, urging Luke to do the same.

Admittedly, it was always with him, just in his Inventory in most cases.

The other troopers strapped in for the ride as Luke sat down and spoke to Obi-Wan, as Bail went to the cockpit to get ready for their flight to Fondor.

"So what exactly is the plan? I'm not technically part of the Empire, I don't care how it looks. I just hate how useless this uniform is."

"Of course not," affirmed Obi-Wan with a slight grin when he strapped in next to Luke. "No, at some point, it will be easy to make it seem like you were disabled or unfit for duty. At which point you'd be sent back here to Alderaan, giving Fondor's Imperial command the impression you left, and instead stayed on the planet looking for Rahm Kota."

Luke understood, still glad no one was able to hear them.

"So I'd have to fake my death?"

"Or a serious injury."

Luke was taken aback. "You make it sound so casual."

"I faked my own death for a mission once." he stroked his beard. 

Luke laughed a bit. "Why do your stories always sound so interesting? But I almost never get to hear them?"

"When you're a Jedi Master, you can tell the stories instead of asking about them."

Luke sighed quietly before the Lambda class transport shuttle began to lift off the loading dock.

Leia was on a nearby balcony, watching from the royal palace with her mother, slightly worried for her father, and unknowingly, her brother.

…

The Lambda shuttle came out of hyperspace, and it was a matter of two minutes before the Empire noticed an unannounced transport was approaching.

"Unidentified shuttle, state your business immediately."

A stormtrooper appeared on the small hologram projector next to the pilot's main console.

Bail Organa spoke up calmly. "I am Senator Bail Organa from Alderaan, I'm here to oversee a transport of new recruits from my home planet and capital city."

"Please approach docking bay 3B, sir."

After the hologram shut off, Obi-Wan turned to Bail. "I sense they know something is wrong."

"It's standard Imperial procedure." Bail said as the two pilots, Alderaan royal guards wearing long white helmets with a black cap over the front, began to steadily fly the shuttle towards the main space station nearby the orbiting shipyards above Fondor.

"Tread carefully." muttered Obi-Wan.

…

The door from the shuttle opened downwards as Obi-Wan, Bail, Bail's two bodyguards and Luke and another trooper walked downward.

A small detachment of Imperial Stormtroopers all stood to in a square formation.

An officer dressed in grey saluted Bail with a tip of his cap.

"Your majesty, we weren't expecting you here at all today." the middle-aged man said.

"I'm sorry for showing up un-announced. But there was a spike in recruitment in Aldera, I decided to show my loyalty to the Empire personally and transport these young men here myself."

The nearby squad of Alderaanian storm troopers were all still standing at attention, visible in Bail's shuttle.

"A tall order for a Senator and someone running an entire planet." he looked at Bail up and down. "But I understand the sentiment. Can I see the transfer order?"

"Of course."

The Imperial officer reviewed the paperwork on a holopad Bail handed him. "Hm, I can approve the transfer. Just not today, it takes a week for new soldier transports to be allowed. It happens, the Imperial registry is efficient, but it's so large with so many new systems and platoons that it can take time to allow new stations."

"Why's that?" asked Bail, no stranger to bureaucracy but slightly nervous nonetheless.

"The ID number for the squad is correct, I just don't see the right code for a few other forms. I'll have to elevate this and ask command for the next steps."

Obi-Wan waved his hand slightly. "You don't need to ask command."

The officer was confused for a moment, but when he snapped out of it, he asked. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"This is Ben, he's helping teach my daughter diplomacy, to replace me in the senate someday."

"Okay Ben." the officer chided. "I can't let troops down to the surface without the proper clearance. No matter who's asking the favor, royalty or not."

"Well what if we-"

"Imperial protocol and procedure is very clear." said the officer the moment Obi-Wan began to try to negotiate. "Troops can't be moved into restricted areas until a week after a request is submitted. More if processing time requires it."

"You will allow the transfer." Obi-Wan waved his hand again.

It almost seemed to work again.

"N-No, I won't." the Imperial officer was confused. "Come back next week, I'm sure I can have the squad registered on the surface no problem, I'll submit the request as soon as time permits."

"You don't have to elevate this."

"Yes I do," the officer's tone became a bit stronger.

"No, you don't."

Obi-Wan, Bail, and the officer all turned to Luke, attempting the same use of the Force as Obi-Wan.

"I'm sorry, who asked you to speak trooper? What's your ID number?"

"You will allow the transfer order." Luke waved his hand, his other hand still holding his E-11 standard issue blaster.

The Imperial officer squinted, shaking his head. "I-I I won't. I can't, please, you-"

"You will allow the transfer order," Obi-Wan said in unison with Luke, catching onto his gamble.

The other soldier standing next to Luke appeared a bit uneasy with how he shifted around, but ultimately said nothing.

"I-I can't without the proper clearance."

"You will allow the transfer order," they repeated. "And you will allow it." Obi-Wan said.

"Now." he repeated firmly. "As if we were never here."

The Imperial officer's face switched from confused and a bit worried to completely calm and obedient.

"Fine." he handed Bail the holopad and tipped his cap. "I'll alert our base on the surface. Apologies for the confusion your highness."

"Thank you."

The Imperials walked off when Bail and his entourage boarded the shuttle again.

"What in the world was that?" the other Stormtrooper asked Luke as they began to leave the space station and fly towards Fondor's surface.

"Diplomacy." joked Luke.

[You've unlocked Jedi Mind Trick LV 11 (14.01% to LV 12)]

[You've gained +500 EXP from improving your use of the Force!]

[You've leveled up to LV 94! Check your Status page to add unallocated Attribute and Skill points.]

…

Fondor was perhaps the ugliest planet Luke had ever visited in his life.

In fact, he greatly wondered why anyone would want to leave a place like Alderaan or even Tatooine to be stationed here. Granted, he knew troops never had a choice where they were sent, but still.

Fondor was a city wide planet built directly onto what was likely a wasteland or dry desert, with mine shafts, cooling towers, power generator facilities, apartment buildings and other simple structures as far as the eye could see. The buildings were several stories tall, some so high up Luke could barely see the tips.

Immediately something was strange to Luke.

Air traffic, all the airspeeders and smaller transports around in the air traveling in designated lanes, were all avoiding a massive Imperial facility, one that was blocks and blocks and blocks wide, in what appeared to be a rectangular shape.

If Luke had to guess, it was housing a large mine the Empire controlled, but what was the reason for shaping air traffic all around and away from site?

Unless, there was something the Empire didn't want anyone to see or know about.

That seriously interested Luke.

…

Luke was barked at and ordered around for about an hour, being added to a large detachment of soldiers protecting the tall black walls protecting something out of eyesight, from such a massive city around it.

By large, the detachment was so large that Luke had never seen so many Imperial troops in one place. He had never seen any to begin with at a station besides from the few actual troopers helping train other recruits back on Alderaan before today, but there were easily upwards of nine thousand Storm troopers guarding the building.

Perhaps more, possibly more than ten thousand.

[You have leveled up Marksmanship to LV 24!]

[You have gained +1 DEX!]

[You have gained +300 EXP from leveling up Marksmanship.]

Luke lowered his E-11 blaster and stopped firing at the target along with the other soldiers.

He knew he had to pretend to be a soldier until Obi-Wan and him found Rahm Kota, and the disguise was only a means to an end for the mission. But practicing with a blaster instead of his lightsaber just felt so wrong to Luke.

The rewards the Gamer gave him were nice, and he ultimately didn't mind. But he still wondered about the effectiveness of Obi-Wan and Bail's plan.

Luke had been asking himself the entire day, just what was the building guarding? A Jedi in training disguised as a storm trooper, he of course wasn't allowed to ask questions, but finally, the answer came.

"You and you." an Imperial commander pointed at Luke and the other trooper who guarded Bail on the space station interview. "Walk point out on walkway 4 until sunset."

Luke and his friend, an older teen from Aldera's middle class, looked at each other, and put their spoons away. The boys stood up, put their helmets on, and picked up their E-11s.

After another storm trooper checked the ID numbers Bail had provided, they were allowed to go out on the walkway and man the walls.

Luke was blown away, his shocked expression hidden completely by his helmet.

"That's some ship," said Luke blankly.

"Tell me about it." the other soldier shrugged, walking on, his boots clanking quietly against the steel of the cat walk.

Luke could see sparks fly all around the ship in progress, and it was a ship the size of which Luke could never imagine.

Luke had often heard that the Empire pushed the limits of the size of star cruisers for their battleships to make the greatest Navy the galaxy had ever known. But nothing like this.

Almost twenty thousand meters long, and still mostly an unfinished project, the Imperial Dreadnought looked large enough that it was almost a city in its own right.

Luke now knew why the Empire wanted to hide its existence so badly. As controlled as traffic was in and out of the system, if anyone happened to know of its existence while being built in orbit around the shipyards, it could cause quite a problem.

Luke also realized there were tunnels leading into and out of the grounds of the giant rectangle carved into the floors of Fondor. Mine carts were moving men and material all around the site, meaning the Empire saved time and money building the behemoth on the surface as opposed to in orbit.

It could also be moved, reasoned Luke as he walked along, even if it wasn't finished.

Luke realized why exactly Obi-Wan had wanted him to infiltrate the compound. Not just to find out why Rahm Kota cared so much about Fondor, but as much about the facility as he could.

Its weak points, blind spots in the guard towers and where the walls were weakest. Admittedly, Luke wasn't experienced enough to spot such things just by looking at them, but he understood what Obi-Wan had wanted.

…

When returning back to their barracks, both boys saw Obi-Wan approaching.

Obi-Wan assumed they were both just ordinary storm troopers until Luke spoke to his comrade.

"I'll catch up with you later."

The soldier barely shrugged at this while Luke hissed to Obi-Wan.

"Hey!"

Obi-Wan was confused.

"It's me," Luke said waving Obi-Wan towards a door.

Obi-Wan sensed it was Luke, and trusted the trooper in disguise, the door to an empty barracks room sliding open.

After Obi-Wan checked to make sure it was usable, and Luke had the door hiss close, they spoke to each other.

"Any word from Rahm Kota?" Luke asked after taking his helmet off in the dark room.

"None, I'm afraid." Obi-Wan said. "The few rebel cells Bail still knows of went quiet when he asked for an intelligence report from the few officers able to help him for news on the war. It appears even the Empire has better intel than he does."

"They're building a giant battleship, miles and miles long. I've never seen anything like it."

"It probably won't be finished for years I imagine," Obi-Wan surmised. "Until it's in a decently capable enough state of defending itself or moving, I don't think they'd let it be finished in the orbital stations."

Luke watched Obi-Wan in deep thought.

"I suspect Master Kota knows the Empire is hiding something here, and is intent on finding out what it is. But his failure is what kept him here, and cut him off from Bail." muttered Obi-Wan. "I think I have a lead."

"What if this doesn't work? What am I, stuck here forever pretending to be a stormtrooper?"

Obi-Wan chuckled. "I imagine after what we both accomplished in the depths of Tatooine you'd be able to escape with ease. And find me soon after, but regardless. Be patient, I'll return soon, use the time to train."

Luke nodded, and the Jedi Master slipped out of the room and soon, out of the facility.

…

"They're calling it the Executor," whispered Bail.

Bail and Obi-Wan started walking back to the ship.

"Hm." Obi-Wan shrugged, along the bustling streets of Fondor back towards Bail's shuttle. "If there's one thing the Empire lacks, it's subtlety. But I don't appreciate the use of puns either."

"What have you been able to learn from Luke? How's he doing?" asked Bail.

"Not much more than what we already know, I'm afraid. As for pretending to be a stormtrooper, I don't blame him for being frustrated."

"And, about Leia."

Obi-Wan nodded. "He knows, his decision to immediately join this mission after finding out speaks volumes about him."

The ship was in sight.

Bail smiled. "I'll return soon after you've contacted me when you've finished your mission."

"Stay safe," the two shook hands. "May the Force be with you."

As soon as Bail was about to turn around again and board the Lambda class shuttle, Obi-Wan sensed danger through the Force.

"Wait!"

He used a Force pull to draw Bail towards him, but the Alderaan royal guards with him weren't so lucky. Either way, the landing platform was rocked by the explosion, and the attempt on Bail's life failed.

…

…

…