Chapter Text
Mandalore, ancient home of the Mandalorians, once the center of a coalition dictating thousands of neutral systems during the Clone Wars, now a deeply scarred and fringe world within the Outer Rim. After the purge five years earlier in the aftermath of Endor few would think to come to the sector, let alone the planet that many Mandalorians scattered across the galaxy considered cursed. To those that did they would be surprised to find the planet was still inhabited, and even more so to find an Imperial Fleet stationed above the world.
It was not a large fleet, at least compared to the great Imperial fleets of the past such as Death Squadron, but more than enough to dominate the beaten and battered world. Above the planet itself was the bulk of the fleet, two Arquitens-class command cruisers and four Gozanti-class cruisers flanking the lone Imperial-II class Star Destroyer that was the center of power for the faction that ruled the world. The Avenger, once part of the feared Death Squadron, had fallen into the hands of its current master after Darth Vader’s death at Endor and the destruction of the Executor. Further from the planet, close to the usual dropping point of any ship coming from hyperspace to the planet, was a Cantwell-class Arrestor Cruiser, the sword shaped ship ready to trap any unexpected ship before it could escape to report on the hidden Remnant.
A ship did indeed drop out of hyperspace close to the Cantwell but it was an expected ship, a modified Arquitens, the original personal ship of the ruler of the remnant, Moff Gideon, and his chief ship for any expedition beyond Mandalore. Its clearance codes were sent to the fleet and the small alerts that came with the cruiser’s arrival ended, reverting to sentry duty while a Lambda-class shuttle dropped from the Arquitens towards Mandalore.
The shuttle flew over ruined wastelands and scattered patches of life, the world had been deeply scarred long before the Empire, or more specifically Gideon, had been finished with it, the product of generations of internal warfare. Great chasms and cliffs that had been formed during the Imperial bombings remained as burned as they had been when they were formed, the cities left to their crumbled ruins, likely invested with the native primitive Alamites. The shuttle flew past it all towards the one city that, while damaged and unrepaired, remained intact, the capital city of Sundari.
Its dome had been shattered during the bombings with an energy shield set up by Gideon to replace it, several towers laid in ruins while others looked almost the same as they had been in the days of Duchess Satine. The city remained home to around half a million people, the only known Human survivors who remained on the planet, they served as laborers and servants to the Imperials. None were allowed to join the army except for the one hundred loyal commandos from the Saxon Clan, Moff Gideon had ordered for the warrior spirit of Mandalore to be broken and forgotten till all that remained were submissive servants of his ideal Empire. The shuttle set down on the landing pad next to the Royal Palace, which had been repaired to a pristine state for its current owner, and Moff Gideon departed with a team of Imperial Super Commandos.
He was an older Human man, dark in color, his dark hair turning to gray, with hard cold eyes, he wore pitch black armor with a cape fluttering behind him. At his side was the hilt of the Darksaber which gave him dominion over the planet. The commandos at his side in contrast were dressed almost purely in white with the exception of the red Imperial insignia at their shoulders. Gideon paid neither them nor the at-attention Stormtroopers any attention as he strode into the palace, one hand clenching and unclenching the Darksaber.
“I am not to be disturbed unless the palace itself is under attack, not even by Captain Saxon,” Gideon ordered to his commandos.
“Yes, my lord,” They said in unison.
They had marched to a secluded part of the palace where none but Gideon himself were allowed to enter. The commandos took up place at both sides of the door, Gideon giving them one more look before entering. Inside was a dark circular room lit by a single light to the ceiling and the faint glows of nine different holographic figures. The figures were the other members of the Shadow Council, a secret Imperial organization made up of what was left of the Empire after Endor and Jakku. Most were already in the midst of discussion but their host still had his back turned so Gideon wasn’t late.
“Ah, Moff Gideon, it is good to see you safe,” the overweight Commander Barro, who called himself Lord which was something Gideon would never call the man, said with a rather smug edge to his voice. “We heard that you had been killed on Nevaro.”
“Rumors of my death seem to follow me wherever I go,” Moff Gideon responded, not meeting the man’s eyes.
Nevaro, just hearing of that planet inflamed Gideon. A simple retrieval mission had cost him dozens of troopers, which in itself was no great loss, but the Child managed to escape with that treacherous Mandalorian. But they would not be free for long, he already had agents searching for the Mandalorian and his prize and then his special troopers would make short work of them. For now though it would be best to focus a little on the meeting, as they were the best way to squeeze more resources loose.
Counting Gideon himself there were ten of them in total. At the bottom of the list were Commanders Barro and Coin. A pair of moderately ranked officers who escaped the rebel forces with some troops they had set upon the vacuum in the underworld left by the deaths of Prince Xixor and Jabba along with the disappearance and presumed death of Qi’ra. Since then the two had taken to raiding trade routes in the Outer Rim, a lucrative if potentially risky endeavor that had left them far more wealthy than they deserved. Then there were the two members who still controlled territory known to the rebels, Sander Delvardus of the much reduced Eriadu Authority, and Delak Krennel of the Cieutric Hegemony. Both had thought to go completely independent after Jakku, as did several other high ranking imperials, before the rebels destroyed most of the territorial warlords until only Delvardus and Krennel remained and suddenly they were more willing to join the Shadow Council. Besides Gideon there were two other Moffs on the council, Moff Leonia Tavira, whose faction consisted solely of her Imperial-II Star Destroyer Invidious, and Grand Moff Randd who led the naval battle at Jakku and commanded ten Star Destroyers in his current hiding place, known only to their host. General Brendol Hux was the only member who did not control a remnant, instead being a liaison from Grand Admiral Rae Sloane, they had more resources and manpower than any of them it seemed but were loath to share any, while Admiral Karyn Faro’s faction was practically a sub-faction of their host, who turned to face them now that Gideon had joined.
His blue skin was visible even through the filter of the hologram, his red eyes seemed to take in everything at once. Dressed in the crisp white uniform of a Grand Admiral, the last one chosen by Emperor Palpatine himself, Thrawn was the master of the Shadow Council. The influence of the Grand Admiral though, was less absolute than his title would imply, they were so few and so scattered across the Galaxy that they had long gotten used to fending for themselves and so while all deferred to Thrawn and his vision for a restored Galactic Empire, the way forward they all intended to do on their own terms.
“Moff Gideon, a pleasure as always,” Thrawn said, his smooth voice rolling over them all. “Now we may begin.”
It was a familiar situation for Sabine Wren, she was in the training room but wore none of her Mandalorian armor, only her undershirt and pants, a helmet with a blinding shade over her eyes, and her green lightsaber humming in front of her. Hovering above were a pair of training remotes, small orbs that shot stinging blasts, swiveling up and down, focused solely on Sabine. To the side stood a droid that over the last four years Sabine had become very acquainted with, Huyang, an ancient droid that had served the Jedi Order for over a thousand years until the Empire wiped them out, now he served Sabine’s Master and was one of her training instructors.
One of the remotes fired a blast. Sabine couldn’t see it, but she could sense where it would go, her lightsaber came up in a flash deflecting the blast, doing the same with two more blasts that came from the remote. Now the second one joined in and the two began to circle her, firing away, Sabine spinning in place as she blocked and deflected blast after blast with perfect timing. But deflection wasn’t the only part of the test, the remote’s next blast came for her arm and this time Sabine hit it the bolt at the right angle sending it straight back at the remote which sparked and collapsed to the floor. Two more blasts from the remaining remote before it joined its twin on the ground.
“Well done, it seems you have been getting better,” Huyang said. “Perhaps you will be ready for field missions soon enough.”
Sabine removed the helmet, shaking out her short dyed blue and red hair, brown eyes flickering with amusement. “You know, I have been on field missions in the past, a lot of them actually. And I always do fine.”
“So you say but you always manage to come back with a new scorch mark on that armor of yours,” Huyang said dryly.
“Not every time,” Sabine protested, looking down at her lightsaber. “And it hasn’t happened in a while anyway.”
“I guess that is true, still keep up with your training then maybe in a few more years you will be ready for the Trial of Skill,” Huyang shuffled away.
Rolling her eyes at the droid’s way of giving a compliment, she glanced down at her now deactivated lightsaber. Over the last four years it had become her constant companion and her usual weapon when she entered combat, though she still carried a WESTAR-35 as a sidearm, to where it was hard to imagine being parted from it. Clipping the hilt to her belt she did a quick stretch before heading to the bridge, if they were on schedule they would be dropping out of Hyperspace soon and Ahsoka would want her to be in the cockpit.
They were on course to visit Lothal for its Liberation Day festival, every year they invited the surviving members of the Ghost crew to participate in their opening and closing ceremony. Normally it was Hera who made the trip, sometimes with Zeb, but this year she was called away for a mission that required her attention on the other side of the Galaxy while Zeb was on Coruscant getting his own assignment, which left Sabine. She hadn’t been back to the planet in four years and hadn’t wanted to go this year but Hera had asked her, Ahsoka also thought it would be good for her to return to where their partnership started, and Sabine had no valid excuse to say no to Governor Azadi and so now here they were.
Her master was seated in the pilot's chair when she arrived. Ahsoka hadn’t changed much in the years they had been together, as graceful and deadly as always. She had added a white cloak to her usual outfit, which Sabine thought made her look more like a wise master, something she’d teased Ahsoka about a few times now. Off to the side, plugged into a terminal was Ahsoka’s red, green, and silver astromech R7-A7, a droid Ahsoka had had since the Clone Wars and been with her ever since. Sabine had grown to appreciate the little droid’s company, even if she did still miss Chopper’s grouchy presence.
“How was training?” Ahsoka asked when Sabine sat down.
She shrugged. “Went fine, Huyang doesn’t think I have much left for the remotes to teach me, I think I have the forms down.”
“You have made a lot of progress since we started,” Ahsoka commented.
That was true, when they first started Sabine hadn’t been able to block a single bolt with the visor, and barely any better without it. It had taken months before her connection to the Force grew strong enough that she’d been able to start blocking the bolts with any consistency, now they couldn’t touch her.
A blip flashed on the navicomputer, Ahsoka worked with the controls until everything was set. “We’re coming out of Hyperspace, are you ready for this?”
“A bit late to be asking now,” Sabine said. “But yeah, I’m ready, it’s just a big party after all.”
They dropped out of hyperspace above a planet that was half dead, Lothal had suffered heavily under the rule of the Empire, the northern hemisphere being subjected to the terrible ore crawlers that fueled the factories and destroyed the land. By the time the factories were shut down after Kanan’s death nearly ten years ago there was practically no life left outside Capital City on the northern half of the world, the southern hemisphere by contrast remained as lush and beautiful as it had been before the Imperial occupation. Even now the world was split in half, lush green in the south, dull brown in the north with only the barest specks of green from the growing efforts of the people. Unfortunately they wouldn’t be seeing much of the south as the festival was always held in Capital City so the ship turned towards the dead half of the world.
“I thought they would have had some progress by now, it's been years but it doesn’t look any different,” Sabine dismayed.
“The Empire left scars that will haunt this world for generations, but there is always hope Lothal will one day recover,” Ahsoka tried to reassure her, but it didn't help much, before guiding their ship towards Capital City.
Their ship, the Phoenix Talon, was a former Imperial Ship, a Raider-II class corvette that had been captured by the duo early into their partnership and given to them by the New Republic. Externally it remained largely unchanged, with an added starbird symbol on the hull designed by Sabine. They had removed most of the old Imperial equipment inside for New Republic designs, along with removing the TIE fighters for an Eta-class starfighter for Ahsoka and an A-Wing for Sabine. Besides the two of them the only other crew members were the two droids, but that worked fine thanks to the ship's minimum crew requirements.
Sabine glanced at a screen, a group of signatures popping up. “We got ships incoming.”
“Just our escort,” Ahsoka said, a group of X-Wings flew into view confirmed her statement. The ships took up formation around the Phoenix Talon, following the corvette into Capital City.
Up close the scars on the planet were even more evident, dead earth littered with ruined machines and ore crawlers from half a decade ago. Small patches of green had started to return but even from a distance Sabine could tell how fragile they were, how easily they could die and the land returned to its state of desolation. The lone contrast was Capital City which, compared to the wasteland surrounding it, was a shining city greater than it had even been under Imperial Rule, from above the city appeared cleaner, the streets more filled, and not a single decrepit building could be seen by either Jedi. The landing pad waiting for them was one of the larger ones meant for ships of the Talon’s size, built close to the large governor’s mansion which in turn was not far from the Senate Building which housed the mural Sabine had made the last time she had visited the planet before becoming Ahsoka’s apprentice.
And now I’m back, Sabine thought as the landing ramp lowered. She had a real bad feeling about coming here, but whether it was the Force or just her own head Sabine couldn’t say.
Waiting for them at the landing platform was a pair of familiar faces, one an old man with short white hair and a full snowy beard dressed in a blue and grey uniform, a cape flowing behind him, the other was a young man, younger than Sabine, in robes similar in color to the older man, his features softer than the last time Sabine saw him. Governor Ryder Azadi and New Republic Senator Jai Kell, their hosts and the organizers of Lothal’s Liberation Day Festival. As they got closer Sabine got a feeling of nervousness from Jai Kell, his hands were rubbing together and he kept looking around like he was expecting an attack but Sabine sensed no danger and neither could she feel any concern from her Master.
“Commander Wren it’s good to have you back on Lothal after so long, we are happy you could participate in this year’s Liberation Day,” Governor Azadi greeted them, pulling Sabine into a hug before she could say anything, clapping her on the back.
“Er, good to see you again Governor Azadi. How’s reconstruction going?” Sabine asked once released from Azadi’s embrace.
“Very good, we finally started to see some recovery of life on the Northern Hemisphere beyond the city, shows that the land isn’t as dead as we feared, but there will be time for that later, plenty to talk about before the festival and I’m sure you want a chance to see your rooms and explore around the city, it has changed much since you were last here.”
“That sounds like a good idea Governor,” Ahsoka said, coming up beside her. When she looked at her Master, Sabine noticed that Ahsoka’s gaze was more on Jai Kell than Ryder’s.
“Right this way then,” Governor Azadi proclaimed, striding off.
Sabine and Ahsoka fell into step alongside Jai Kell, the Senator seemed a little more relaxed being close to them but was still glancing around nervously.
“Is something wrong Senator?” Ahsoka asked, quiet enough not to be overheard by anyone besides Sabine.
“No, nothing’s wrong, honestly,” Jai Kell said, he didn’t sound as nervous as he looked. “Just been feeling anxious lately, just nerves from the festival I’m sure.”
“I wouldn’t dismiss your feelings, they could mean something,” Ahsoka advised.
Sabine remembered Ezra had said a long time ago that he suspected Jai Kell was Force Sensitive, Sabine didn’t have the talent to feel if that was true but it was possible, especially if he was feeling nervous over something he couldn’t tell.
Senator Kell sighed, “It just feels like something is about to happen here, something important but I don’t know what. I feel better now that you are here, especially you Sabine. It’s nice to see you again.”
“Yeah, it has been a while, Jai,” Sabine nodded, four years now really. “And I promise you that if something happens here we’ll be here to help.”
“That alone makes me feel better,” Jai said, relaxing further. “We better pick up the pace before we lose the Governor.”
Jai Kell’s words did bring some of Sabine’s concerns back to mind, however, as they walked through the mansion, she couldn’t help but think of what almost happened at the last festival she attended, and whether someone would try to repeat it with her or her Master. She shook those thoughts from her head, worrying about it wouldn’t do her anything except cloud her judgement, that was what she’d been taught, she would just have to be prepared over the next few days till the festival, and on guard when Liberation Day came.
And hope that it would be enough for whatever was to come.