Chapter 133: Unexpected Help
Chapter 133: Unexpected Help
– Kamino – 21.7 BBY –
Celeste Morne blinked, an expression of surprise crossing her face as she descended toward the surface of Kamino. Rather than direct her toward the surface cities, the Force was demanding she head into the ocean. She pursed her lips at that realization and considered her options. Virtually all starships, including hers, were rated for at least some submersion in water. Yet, she was getting a sense of depth, and her ship wasn’t rated for more than a few hundred meters. That meant she was going to have to acquire local transport. Which was a bit of a problem, given that she’d come in under concealment of the cloaking device that Mei had installed for her the last time she visited the strange-but-gifted girl.
Well, she supposed she was going to run into the problem of sneaking in one way or another. After all, so far as she could tell, this planet was entirely aquatic, with the only place to land being cities on the surface of the water. Still, the largest of those cities was reading to her passive scans as covering over a hundred kilometers of the equator, with numerous satellite cites around it. Nor was it the only such surface city, with several other smaller examples farther away from the equator.
Well, the primary city was out of the question. Even her passive scans were picking up a lot of activity from defensive systems. Only a complete idiot would try to land there when they were investigating the planet for something. Seriously, if she met a Jedi who thought that was a great idea, she’d have to smack some sense into them. Hopefully by assigning them somewhere that their clearly inadequate intelligence couldn’t get them or someone else hurt. Perhaps the Senate, where they could be safe among their intellectual peers?
Snorting at her own dry, derisive thoughts about politicians, gained over the last year or so as she’d done deep investigations on far too many of them, she shifted her landing trajectory. There were a couple of cities in the southern hemisphere, which is where she’d found the Force was pointing her. Even better, as she closed in far enough to make out more detail past the constant storms of the planet, she noted that the one nearest what she’d felt appeared mostly industrial. Slowing and hoping the stealth systems were up to this, she crept in on the city…and was even more pleased when she saw it focused on Deep Sea Mining. Such an operation would almost have to have the sort of craft she would require.
Focusing on finding somewhere inconspicuous to land and hide her ship, she idly wondered just what the Force was drawing her towards...
… … …
It had taken Celeste three full days to hide her ship, find a place with Deep Sea craft capable of going where she needed, and figure out how to make one of those craft disappear for a bit without triggering alarms. The answer, as it turned out, was to find a shop that specialized in servicing such transports. Specifically, a shop that had recently had a turn of bad fortune with improperly filed paperwork that resulted in it being temporarily shut down. The population of this planet, she had quickly realized, were downright anal retentive and obsessive compulsive about such things, to a point that hovered somewhere between Insane Bureaucrat and Sociopathic Scientist on her personal spectrum. Two groups she had, sadly, entirely too much experience with.
It wasn’t an encouraging mix, as a whole, given that she’d also discovered the primary export of the planet was Clone Armies.
That little detail had certainly had several worrying possibilities popping into her mind, but the Force was still insisting that it was more important to go somewhere in the deep ocean of the southern hemisphere. If she was a normal investigator, or even a normal Jedi, she might well have gotten distracted on the need to find out about the Clone Army thing. But she was a Shadow, one who had been trained to operate in a time where Sith artifacts were everywhere. Her entire job, in fact, had been to hunt down those remnants and destroy or contain them. Even with the Darkside Veil in place, she could still get more guidance from the Force than nearly anyone else alive. The result of long experience dealing with Dark Side tainted locations, or artifacts that tried actively to conceal themselves from hunters.
The Veil would have likely kept another Jedi, short of someone like Fay perhaps, from noticing the current of the Force pulling them downward into the ocean.
Celeste had noticed, and now she was following that trail in a deep submersible which had been present in the shop for routine service. Routine service that she, herself, had been more than capable of completing. Now, she was approaching 10,000 meters below the surface, pushing the limits of the craft as she dove into a canyon on the ocean floor. She’s been surprised at first to see various ruins, but by the point she found the canyon she’d come to the conclusion that this world must not always have been covered in water. Some calamity had buried whole cities, as far as she could tell, though it appeared to be an ancient calamity from the state of the ruins she’d seen.
She noticed the lights, first.
For a moment she’d thought it was a bioluminescent creature or plant of some sort, but as she closed in on it, it became obvious it was an ancient outpost of some sort. One that, somehow, still had power. Looking for a way in, she was startled, blinking, as an airlock opened…and she felt a gentle brush of Force power washing over her.
There was someone else already here.
A Force Sensitive with enough training that even she hadn’t noticed them, despite the Force calling her here. Cautious and guarded, but not getting the feel that this was any sort of trap, she steered for the airlock. There was just one other vessel inside the lock, a starship of some variety, though the model wasn’t one she recognized. That didn’t mean much, though something about it had the feel of age. Not quite as much age as the facility, but she got the feeling the ship itself might be as old as she, very technically, was.
The water drained and Celeste put the submersible into standby, exiting the ship…and seeing a Kaminoan waiting for her. Abruptly, the Force Stealth the woman had been under, possibly even better than her own, eased…and Celeste blinked at the sheer depth of the Force signature. Not even Master Fay or Ood Bnar, in the few moments here and there she’d gotten glimpses of their unshielded Force signatures, matched what she was feeling. She barely had time to react before the woman, and given how little she was wearing this Kaminoan was definitely female, was abruptly right next to her.
“Oh, thank the Force, a person!”
Celeste’s mind record scratched as she realized she was being hugged, rather than attacked. Thankfully, given she wasn’t much of a hugger, the alien woman seemed to realize she’d given her guest a fright. She backed off, but was still smiling hugely. Which looked weird. She hadn’t seen a single native smile until now!
“Ah! I’m sorry, it’s just been so long since I spoke to someone! The last conversation I had was just to buy spare parts, and that was 1,200 years ago! I think I smothered that poor young one a bit, but it was just so nice to speak to a Kaminoan that wasn’t so stuffy. Bit of an oddball that one, but it was a nice conversation!”
Okay…what?
“Errr, how long have you been down here, Master…?”
The Kaminoan Jedi Master, and Celeste was confident this person was a Jedi, made a noise of distress.
“Oh dear, I’m being a terrible host! My name is Kina Ha! Come, come, I felt you coming and prepared some human-friendly food! All grown here in the labs, or hunted up closer to the surface! I’ve had quite a long time to experiment with many aquatic dishes! I hope you like it!”
Only the unspoken question had been answered immediately, but as Celeste found herself drawn along in the wake of Kina Ha, the woman kept chattering.
“As for how long? Well, the dating system has changed a few times, so it can be a bit confusing. Somewhere closer to 4,000 years than 3,000, I think. Really, I didn’t expect my watch to be this long or I might have brought more entertainment! Or waited a while to come, for that matter!”
Trying really hard not to gape, Celeste tentatively probed.
“I can understand that, I’ve had difficulty in translating my own date of birth to modern systems. I was born on Ossus, as best I’ve been able to tell, roughly 4023 standard years ago now. Though I was in stasis for most of that time. I was a child when Exar-Kun invaded Ossus, having escaped aboard one of the evacuation ships.”
Kina Ha, if anything, seemed even more excited.
“Ah! You’re from close to my own time, then! I was active for a few decades before that, wandering the Outer Rim, then for several centuries afterward. I was just relaxing on Vorusku, a few decades after that mess with Vitiate and the Eternal Empire, when I had a vision that had me rushing back here. Only to find no evidence it was coming to pass just yet. I set up a watch to look out for it, only to be here ever since! But come, food first, before serious things!”
Kina had led her into a rather cozy space, with a meditation mat that looked out a porthole into the dark of the ocean, partially lit by the Outpost but still dim and murky. There was an ancient holo-projector, a rather impressive array of nicknacks from various eras…and a table set for two with food that smelled genuinely delicious. Sensing no malice and getting the idea that going along with this ancient hermit would probably get her answers faster than trying to insist on anything, Celeste took one of the seats and tentatively tried the food.
It was even better than it had smelled.
Enough so that she unconsciously let out a little moan as the fish in the dish positively melted into pure flavor in her mouth. She caught what she had done and blushed lightly, yet Kina Ha just laughed in delight, before starting to eat herself.
“I’m pleased you like it! I admit I’ve grown rather tired of anything fish related myself. But I’ve had a lot of time to learn various skills and try to make it as palatable as possible. There is only so much one can contemplate even something as wonderful as the Force before you need a break, after all! So little hobbies picking up various skills have been one way to stay sane. Truly, it’s lucky my batch was originally intended for long deep-space missions, or I might have not been suited for such an arduously long watch.”
Well, that bit about the Force was certainly true. Even without accounting for a couple of thousand years stuck done here with little else to do. Though it certainly explained how deep Kina Ha’s Force signature was. So many years spent meditating on the Force even part of the time would have a major effect. Celeste herself spent a lot of time in hyperspace, chasing between planets for leads, and even that was enough to have gained a deeper connection to the Force than most boasted. Kina Ha was built different if she was still sane, more or less at least, after so long. Possibly literally built different, actually, if Celeste was interpreting that comment about her ‘batch’ correctly.
“I’ve even taken to following quite a news broadcasts from this interesting League of Free Stars! I admit, I was never so tempted to end my watch for a bit. Imagine, someone actually having the sheer grit to take on the Hutts like that! Still, I suppose I have a bit of a cost sunk fallacy in my current mission. I would purely hate to miss the danger my vision showed me after all this time.”
There was the opening she needed. The food was spectacular, but Celeste was certain she hadn’t been drawn here just for that.
“I suspect you have not missed it, given that the Force brought me to you, and I came tracking what I suspect are Sith dealings to this world.”
Kina Ha went still, focusing on Celeste with extreme intensity.
“Sith dealings? The vision that brought me here was of countless soldiers of the Dark Side emerging from my home and its cloning program. Yet, in all the many centuries I’ve carefully observed them, I have not yet identified such an army.”
A tingle of absolute certainty ran down Celeste’s spine. Something half of the Force, and half of her own intuition. She put down her fork, thankful she’d finished the amazing fish at least, and focused on the subject just as intently as Kina Ha.
“The current Sith is from a line that favors subtly and deception over all else. A single Master and Apprentice system, with no others raised to Darth status or fully trained, only occasional assassins or throw away assets. We are nearly one hundred percent certain that Count Dooku is the current apprentice, and we are one hundred percent sure that the previous Master was one Hego Damask. What we are missing is the link between them, who his Apprentice, now the current Master, is. I managed to track funds from Damask holdings through numerous cut-outs, to an order placed here by one Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas.”
Kina Ha jerked, a light of recognition lighting in her eyes.
“But that army was ordered for the Republic, by the Jedi Order!”
Celeste straightened, heart beating wildly in triumph.
“Yes! Yes, that must be the one! We’ve seen signs that the Sith may be behind both the military build up of the CIS and a quieter build up for the Republic. I’m virtually certain the current Master is within the Republic Senate. Which means…”
Kina Ha was sharp, if nothing else, finishing Celeste’s thought easily.
“They are playing both sides! No matter who wins the upcoming war, the Sith come out on top! All while they can hide any assassinations or clearing away of opponents to their rule in the chaos of the war!”
Yes. Yes, it all fit. Particularly with the way this ‘Banite’ line of Sith had been focused on manipulating things from the shadows. A war would likely even deplete the number of Jedi that they would have to face in the end, by spending Jedi lives attempting to preserve the Republic against Count Dooku. The problem, though…
“How do we stop it? There’s no way to prevent the war at this point. The issues, even if they were influenced by the Sith, are real now. Hundreds of trillions of credits have been spent by both sides, at minimum, to prepare for a war that both sides want. Even knowing that Sith have been behind some of it, the Jedi Order has struggled to do more than slow it down and make preparations. Even if we stopped the Clone Army, who must be the solution that the Republic is counting on to man all the ships and such they have prepared, then it would just be Dooku that won. The Sith win either way, by their own plan’s design.”
Kina Ha’s brow furrowed, clearly understanding the issue. Her long fingers thrummed on the table, before she abruptly nodded, the sharp motion almost violent with her anatomy.
“We need more information. We have the beginnings of knowing enough, and you’ve brought much of the who’s and the why’s with you. But we still don’t know who the Master is, or how they intend to utilize the army. Is it just one big gamble? Set loose both sides in the galaxy, let them wear themselves down, then take over the winner from the inside? Or is there more to the plan?”
Celeste frowned at that, instantly shaking her head.
“No. Not a gamble. Not with these Sith. They’ve been working on this for literal centuries, closer to a full millennium. On the CIS side, the answer seems obvious. A fully droid army would be almost too easy to take control of once the critical point was reached. But what about the Republic side? How easy would it be to take control of the clones? Are they indoctrinated? Programmed to obey someone or something specific?”
Kina Ha blinked but provided the answer almost immediately.
“Yes to the indoctrination. All Clone Armies produced by Kamino are genetically tweaked for loyalty, then trained in such a way that refusing orders is almost impossible. It is why they are considered such a ‘valuable product.’”
There was some serious derision in that term, coming from Kina, which Celeste could certainly understand. There was a moment of hesitation from the woman before she continued.
“Outright control is a different question. I wouldn’t put it past my people to do such a thing, but I’m currently unaware of a means they could do so. I’m only tapped so far into their feeds, however. Enough to assess each Clone Army, but not to be aware of all of their research projects. It is possible they’ve found some more overt method of programming. Certainly, such methods have been found before and will be found again. I am merely unaware of any that would work on such a scale.”
Celeste frowned at the odd tone in Kina’s voice at that final sentence, something twigging in her mind. The thought formed properly a second later and she found herself voicing a question almost before it fully finished forming.
“Wait, just how large is this army, anyway?”
Kina Ha blinked, coming out of her contemplation about possible mind control methods.
“Ah. Well, the original order was for 1 million units. A Kaminoan Clone Unit is, for clarity, a battalion of 576 troopers. Five hundred combat troops, with seventy-six combat-capable support staff. Medics, pilots, that sort of thing. Currently, only about half are ready, but the total ordered number would amount of six hundred and ninety-two million, two hundred thousand, troops.”
Celeste cursed. She couldn’t help it. Logically, it made complete sense. Even for just the core of a new Republic military, capable of fighting a droid army the size the CIS was building, you’d need extreme numbers. So much so that even close to 700 million would likely only be a fraction of the total required. But as an elite core for a conscripted or drafted army to form around, it would be enough to get a war truly moving.
Kina Ha, rather than being offended at the cursing, merely snorted, lips twitching.
“Quite. It’s easily the largest army I’ve seen my people put together before, but their stated purpose made that logical enough, and I had detected no direct Dark Side influence in the process. Yet, if what you say is true about this new brand of Sith being subtle, a control mechanism of some sort would make sense. Even looking for it, the Jedi wouldn’t sense the danger if the clones themselves were unaware.”
Nodding grimly at that, Celeste began putting together a plan.
“Then we need to know two things. First, who can give commands to this army. That would reveal a list of the possible Sith. Second, does a control mechanism exist and, just as importantly, can it be disabled? If it can, we could at least disarm part of the trap. Even if the army might be fundamentally required to protect the Republic from the other Sith’s forces.”
Kina Ha nodded, her energy seeming to spike.
“Excellent! Well, not excellent, terrible of course. But, I must say, I’m pleased to finally know the threat I sensed and be acting against it! I’ve infiltrated enough of the systems of this world to have a good idea where we can start getting answers, too!”
Feeling as if she was both onto something important and racing against the clock, Jedi Master Celeste Morne settled in with her host. They knew what to look for now, and she was determined to do whatever was possible to derail the Sith plan, now that she had a piece of it right in front of her…
... ... ... ... ... ...
A/N 1: What, you didn't think all of Celeste's efforts and running around in the background were going to be pointless, did you :-p? Even if I no longer follow the fic, a slight shout out to 'The Force Wills' for the idea of using Kina Ha and even a little bit of the personality I used for her. Though I'm not copying it entirely and she certainly isn't going to be used in the same way that fic used her.
A/N 2: Clone Numbers. I've mentioned this before, but the numbers given in the films are crap. I've chosen to run with a somewhat common adaptation that many internet Star Wars lore champions have come up with. That a 'Unit' is actually more than one troop. Someone, somewhere, took the time to figure out how many clones are actually in one of the Battaltions shown on screen. I took that number and ran with it. The resulting army is viable at least as a CORE for a much larger military. Enough to actually make some degree of sense.