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Alarm spread steadily across Albingi, as various sensors detected the massive spacecraft that had just arrived in orbit.
But before even that, three people had noticed it first. Those trained in the Force.
Qui-Gon came to a full stop in the midst of his walk, his eyes wide and back rigid.
"Something wrong, Master Jedi?" Carnon asked pointedly.
Qui-Gon didn't even look at him, merely glancing in a general upwards direction.. "I believe you're about to receive word of his arrival."
Carnon blinked, and then his communicators went off.
Elsewhere, Plagueis inhaled sharply in shock while in the midst of studying his floral specimens.
Anakin, however, had raced to the computer instantly, his expression just a hint paler.
Plagueis took the opportunity while it was still viable. "Padawan Skywalker? Is something wrong?" he asked, his concern more real than feigned.
Anakin just blinked as he looked at the monitor. "Vader is here," he said absently.
Plagueis approached him and eyed the screen. It was a feed to one of the cameras monitoring the skies. It was zoomed in and enhanced to show several large spaceships and one truly massive one. The Executor, it could be nothing else.
"And he apparently brought friends," Anakin added on.
Plagueis frowned from behind the Jedi. "So it would seem," he said, and thought of what Hego Damask might say in this situation. "Perhaps you were wrong, Padawan," he said uneasily.
"About what?" Anakin asked in confusion.
"About the mastermind of this conspiracy," Damask answered.
Anakin frowned but didn't retort.
Plagueis knew Vader wasn't behind any of this, and normally wouldn't imply as such. However, Vader's arrival looked suspicious on principle. It would seem odd if he wasn't worried about Vader attacking the planet after such a fleet arriving!
He almost regretted not publicly removing himself from this situation after he had been "rescued" by the young Jedi. If he had, triggering the blight's next phase to dispose of a planet full of witnesses might be a viable option without implicating his public persona. But that would just implicate Vader, so it was rather a moot point. Still, at least he would be able to contact Vader and figure out what was going on.
Elsewhere, Vader stood on the bridge of the Executor and stared down at the planet of Albingi with narrowed eyes. To most of the Death Squadron, it would just appear to be another planet. But to Vader, it was something else: a time bomb of some sort, the Dark Side lurking all about in delight, as if awaiting something. Disregarding that, their arrival was causing no small amount of panic and alarm.
And with Qui-Gon and his younger self here, it would seem the slim chance of slipping away had become null and void.
"Lord Vader, we have multiple transmissions coming from the planet in an attempt to hail us," Piett informed from the side. "However, there is one coming in on one of our secure lines; she is requesting to speak to you personally."
"Patch her through," Vader instructed, Lynn's image appearing as a hologram nearby.
The ancient dark warrior knelt to him. "Lord Vader."
"I take it your mission has proven successful, Lynn?" Vader acknowledged.
"I have dealt with the deserters, Lord Vader. They seek to cripple this planet for another benefactor via a virus. I shall elaborate later, but the ship near where you orbit is their secondary means to do so."
Vader scowled as he looked to Piett, who stood a bit straighter. "It would seem our arrival came at a most suspicious time," Vader noted, the captain nodding and moving to give orders to the crew.
"If you don't want the Death Squadron implicated in a potential genocide, I suggest not letting that ship fire any missiles at the planet," Lynn informed quickly.
"Very well. We shall speak at length later," Vader accepted as the hologram vanished.
Meanwhile
Captain Marnon looked out of the bridge of his makeshift battleship with terror. "What...what is that...?!"
"Unknown ships, Captain!" one of the bridge attendants answered. "And...and that monster is over nineteen kilometers long!"
"Impossible...! No ship is that large!" another cried out in terror.
Marnon gritted his teeth. He could see this craft was heavily damaged, but if it was even slightly battle capable, they were outmatched. And that was ignoring the other sizable ships accompanying it.
"Sir, our escort is breaking away! They're abandoning us!"
"Get those Blazing mercenaries on the coms!" Marnon ordered his crew.
On the screen in front of him, a feed appeared to show a rugged human glaring back. "What did you idiots get us into?"
"I don't want to hear it! You've been paid, handsomely, so what do you think you are doing?!" Marnon demanded.
"Going up against Darth Vader was never part of the deal!" the mercenary countered.
"...Vader?" Marnon questioned in confusion.
"He's here. We can sense him, on that ship," the mercenary said warily. "And we're not about to stick around and get in his way. You'd best do the same."
"Wait, you craven-!" Marnon stopped as the communication was cut off.
"...Sir? They're gone. They jumped to hyperspace," one of the attendants informed fearfully.
"Damn them," Marnon murmured as he wiped a hand over his face. "Okay...okay. Prepare to make a hyperspace jump. We'll fire the payloads and jump out before they can attack us."
The crew shared nervous looks. "But...Captain, if we jump before they reach their target, there is a chance the missiles will land in an ocean or burn up on ent-"
"I don't hear any better suggestions!" Marnon roared in frustration.
It was supposed to be an easy assignment. Warp in, launch some bombs, maybe fight a few of the planet's militia ships, and then leave before local defenses could bog them down too much. There weren't supposed to be any absurdly large battleships involved!
He shook as the alarm went off and the ship jolted. "What is that...?"
"Captain, we've been hit by ion beams, we're dead in space!" one of the crew explained grimly. "One of the ships caught us in a tractor beam. We...we can't break free!"
"Damn," Marnon said in defeat as he slouched against the controls.
Meanwhile, news had rapidly spread across Albingi. And with it came panic.
The idea of sending up fighters to even attempt to intimidate the newcomers was not even suggested by any who saw the size of the battleships.
But the silence, the lack of response, was just as intimidating as their arrival.
The High Counselor almost regretted that he hadn't attempted to drink himself to sleep or death. His son's death, his brother's treachery, and now this?
He rose from his self-pity as one of his attempts to personally hail the ships was answered, a hologram of a woman in military attire appearing on his small projector.
"Hello. I am Admiral Pryl, the leader of this fleet. I presume that you are the representative of this planet?" Pryl offered civilly.
"That I am High Counselor of Albingi, Admiral," he answered warily. "You have caused us quite a fright. May I ask what your intentions are in our system?"
"We were just passing through, to be frank," Pryl answered bluntly.
The High Counselor blinked. "I'm sorry, I'm not sure I follow?"
"As you may or may not have noticed, our flagship needs significant repairs. We were forced to exit hyperspace earlier than intended," she explained with a rueful smile. "A rather sorry reason for this to be revealed, I know."
The High Counselor could only stare. It was hard to believe, but it made sense, given what he had seen of the ship from the displays. "Not to be rude, but why have you not left then? I imagine it was not just to assure us that you had no ill intentions?"
"We were about to leave when we took notice of this craft near our orbit," Pryl mused, the hologram showing a diagram of a ship. "We have reason to believe it has some rather nefarious connection to your current epidemic."
His suspicions grew at that. "You know of that, then?"
"I, myself, do not, but my Lord prefers to keep up to date about the deteriorating state of the republic," Pryl explained simply.
"Your lord," he said slowly. He had a good suspicion of just who that was.
Pryl pressed on. "We intend to depart once this transmission ends. One of our capital ships will remain behind for one standard hour, to allow your people to apprehend the ship and deal with them as you please, before departing as well."
The High Counselor stared for a minute. He didn't really have any choice but to accept, and honestly, it was hard to point to anything outright nefarious. Their arrival here was rather strange, but he couldn't very well turn down apprehending the ones who tried to bring devastation to his world. "Thank you, Admiral. I don't suppose your...Lord has any information about this plot?"
"Nothing that I am aware of, Sir. Good day to you," Pryl said before the communication ended.
The High Counselor took a deep breath to collect himself, knowing he'd have to send out some orders and statements; People to direct, people to calm. There would be a lot to mention to the Republic in the future as well. The Jedi would obviously report this, and the bureaucrats would want information about this sighting of what was likely the military force of Darth Vader.
Perhaps that was something for his successor to worry about.
Meanwhile
"They left, except one," Anakin remarked to himself as he studied the feed. "Maybe there was a problem with the hyperspace jump?"
Still, that seemed like a very strange coincidence, but there was something much more concerning.
Anakin quickly got in contact with Qui-Gon. "Master Qui-Gon?" He greeted through the communicator.
"I'm here, Padawan, and alone," Qui-Gon answered knowingly. "Are you...?"
"The Magister is using the lavatory of the laboratory," Anakin couldn't help but quip.
"Anakin," Qui-Gon snorted, but the humor died quickly. "Vader is still in the system."
"I sensed it too," Anakin agreed, glancing to the door at the far side of the lab, where the restroom was. No one yet, good. "Should we...?"
"Our duty now is to guard the magister and keep this plot from unfolding further," Qui-Gon reminded.
To others, this would be a simple reminder to remain on their mission. But from Qui-Gon? There was a question in there- did they think Vader was involved in this conspiracy? If not the mastermind, then perhaps aligned with them?
"I feel that Vader isn't behind this," Anakin mused. "But he's not here by coincidence either."
"No, Padawan. No, he is not," Qui-Gon agreed.
Plagueis couldn't agree more. He stood silently off in the back of the room, cloaked in his own illusions and yet not daring to press his luck with one of untapped potential such as Skywalker. If Skywalker noticed his presence, it would be easy to feign having just returned.
The Sith Lord glanced down at his hand, a communicator in his hand. It was tempting to slip away and try to contact Vader, but Plagueis was not so green and foolish as to draw such attention to himself. Still, what strange manner of events had brought his fellow Sith here, and to reveal his great prize in such a vulnerable state?
Though that in itself was something of a boon to Plagueis. Vader's monster of a ship would need repairs and shipyards, engineers, and material that would not be easily obtained by most people. He had expected as much. After all, the Star Destroyers required the same. But this was going to take much more. And he wondered what information Vader had kept to cash in on such a favor.
He could feel Anakin's focus in the Force shifting, as if noticing something, and knew he'd have to dwell on this later. Plagueis would help repair the Executor another day; Damask had a blight to help deal with.
With that, he used the force to open the door so that he might appear to have emerged and wandered over to Anakin. "I take it that by the lack of alarms we are not under attack by this Vader?" he asked, feigning some weariness.
"Most of the ships left," Anakin answered idly, and Plagueis was well aware that the young Jedi was not mentioning that Vader himself was still here. "I'm not sure what's going on, to be honest."
"Well, keep me posted if anything changes, my young friend," Plagueis said, patting him on the shoulder. "I shall return to my work."
Anakin nodded idly while staring at the Star Destroyer on screen.
Meanwhile
"Lord Vader, the Executor has arrived at the D'Qar system."
"Very good, Admiral. I shall return in due time as well," Vader informed over the communications.
While the Albingi forces were busy taking the conspirators' ship into custody from the remaining Star Destroyer, Vader had taken his personal ship off the Executor before the departure and headed down to the planet Albingi.
He had to be a tad stealthy in his approach, but he soon reached his intended location, a desolate settlement amongst the forest. Finding a suitable location to land had been somewhat difficult, given the size of his ship, but he managed it.
He disembarked and, just as expected, he was greeted by Arden Lynn. "Lord Vader, welcome to Albingi," she greeted him with a quick bow before smirking at him. "I wasn't expecting you to give me a lift back to base."
"You are hardly my only reason for remaining on this world," Vader stated simply.
Lynn hummed, having deduced as much herself. "Would you like a proper run-down of events now?"
"There is one other matter to address," Vader said simply.
"Yes, that," Lynn said, glancing behind Vader. "Is there a reason there is a child on your ship, pointing a blaster at me?"
"Hello!" Farmile waved in greeting, still holding the blaster aimed at her.
"Farmile, lower your weapon. She serves me," Vader instructed firmly.
"Yes, but does she 'work for you' or really work for you?" Farmile questioned suspiciously.
Lynn blinked twice. "Is he accusing me of sleeping with you...?" she asked in confusion. She was very sure no one had made such an insinuation about Vader, especially after meeting him in person.
"No, he is inquiring if you are going to attempt to kill me or not," Vader specified flatly.
Lynn glanced back at the child. "I don't have a death wish, little boy. And I don't think he requires your protection."
"Oh, this is for my protection, not his," Farmile answered as he placed the weapon over his small shoulders. "Sorry, but it seems like a lot of people that he says are supposed to be working for him have tried to kill him. And they're usually trying to kill me too, so..."
Lynn raised an eyebrow at Vader. "Did you already grab another student just after the Twi'lek?"
"Wait, what did he lick?" Farmile asked dubiously as he came down the ramp.
Lynn looked only more curious at that.
Vader, however, ignored the question. "Farmile, remain with the ship."
"This is my first time on another planet," Farmile reminded, as if he found Vader's directive insane.
Vader walked on, Lynn following him with a very intrigued look. "So, why did you bring him here, exactly?"
"I was concerned he may kill more troopers if he were left alone and misread their intentions," Vader explained bluntly.
Lynn stopped and looked back at the boy. Vader? Concerned? About this child killing MORE troopers? "I see?" she said, filling away that this Farmile child was a killer of some degree.
"He's a child of a planet that has been in a multi-generational civil war and survived on his own, even among mutated bestial lifeforms and other dangers," Vader elaborated.
"Ahh. You could have led with that," Lynn mused before clearing her throat. "The rogue agents were helping an unknown mastermind behind the plot on this world. The locals they were 'helping' thought it was part of a scheme to help their subrace of Albingi overthrow the other two, with them being a potential ally of this mastermind when he went public."
"With Sidious gone and Plagueis allowing things to deteriorate naturally, warlords and conspirators have been freed to make their own plays," Vader mused in acknowledgement. "What was the actual intent?"
"Open-ended, from what I could obtain from them," Lynn explained. "Either they would have made the Albingi reliant on them, or they killed them off enough to take the planet for themselves. Though I wonder why this planet?"
"Albingi is unimportant to the galaxy at large. They are not human, so many would turn a blind eye to them for that alone. But most importantly, they are on the edge of the Unknown region," Vader stated factually.
"Right, I still don't fully understand why that half of the galaxy is so blocked off," Lynn muttered. "But since most see it as a dead end of sorts, it's an appealing position in a potential mass civil war, as they expect to have no major enemy to come from that direction. One less front to defend."
Vader nodded. "A foolish assumption. More than one power lurks there, waiting to make themselves known."
Lynn raised an eyebrow at that. "I suppose this is one of those things you haven't bothered to tell me yet?"
Vader gave no answer, which was answer enough.
"So, why did you bring your great prize here, if you didn't know of this plot?" Lynn asked curiously.
"I would say that the Force led us here," Vader said darkly. "But it may have been the ship itself."
Lynn raised an eyebrow at the cryptic words. "Sabotage?"
"The explanation is longer and more complicated than this planet's own situation," Vader said dismissively. "For now, pay it no mind."
"As you wish," Lynn remarked in acceptance. "So, how long do you think until the Jedi come searching for you?"
"That depends," Vader answered knowingly.
"On?" Lynn cocked her head.
"Skywalker's patience."