Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 183

Calima followed the flight path that was sent to us, diving into a slop that brought us directly to the jaws of the Lucrehulk. According to our sensors, none of the ships that surrounded the large circular starship were waking up, which was a good sign. However, sensors said that the Lucrehulk was just about fully operational. The fact that its weapons weren't charged was about the only reason I didn't order a retreat, despite the fact that things seemed to be going as well as we could hope for. 

We approached the large ship, passing through the gap in its outer ring. As we slowed, the Chariot shuddered around us as the Lucrehulk's loading tractor beams passed over us, releasing us once we had sufficiently slowed. Once we passed, we were in the inner area, the main core ship just ahead. We slowly turned left and followed around the inside of the ring. Eventually, we came to our directed hangar bay, and Calima brought us in. 

As we landed, I left the bridge behind, nodding to the slicers who would be accompanying me. They stood quickly, and we prepared to head down to the first deck when Ahsoka stopped me. 

"May the force be with you," she said before leaning in and kissing me quickly. "And good luck."

"Same to you," I said, my hand coming to rest on her hip. "Kick some ass if this goes sideways." 

She nodded, and the slicers followed me as I made my way down to the first deck, the rest of the crew staying on the second. Boxi followed as well, his team falling in behind us as we made our way to the boarding ramp. I stopped by the last door, turning to look at my two organic accomplices. 

"You two ready?" 

"Yes sir," They both responded, their faces determined and clear, which I took as a positive sign.

"Alright, into the belly of the beast," I said with a smirk. "Let's hope it's not hungry." 

I slapped the controls for the boarding ramp, waiting patiently for it to deploy, silently resting against the hangar floor. Once the ramp was set, we slowly made our way down and out. I took the lead, with my accomplices walking slightly behind me on my left and right. Behind us, Boxi and his second in command led his troops down, quickly taking a more defensive position beside us. 

I had a moment to look around, pretending as if I was inspecting the facilities rather than looking for potential dangers. I spotted our escort, the Rogues, still inside the cockpits of the Belbullab starfighters. Wedge gave me a salute when I looked at him, and I simply nodded back. After a few moments, a pair of B2s arrived, charged with escorting us to the bridge. 

"Well, let's get going then," I said, shaking my head. "We have quite a few ships to inspect. The sooner we start, the better!"

We made our way through the cold ship, walking through corridors that were mainly empty save the occasional groups of droids. As we passed, they would step to the side, making room for my entourage. After a good five-minute walk and a turbolift ride, we arrived at our destination and finally got a good look at the bridge. 

It was an ample, open space, with the front curved in a semicircle, with large viewports looking over the massive ship. I could see the edge of the rings, even as I just stepped through the doorway inside. There were a few oversized chairs, as well as circular consoles dotted along the forward curve, all under the viewports. Everything was either gray or black, with quite a few droids working the consoles and walking around, perhaps as security. As we stepped into the room, I could hear Boxi's team spreading out slightly along the edges of the room while Boxi himself and three other BXs followed us as we walked further into the room, heading towards the super tactical droid. 

"Admiral Deacon, welcome to the bridge of the Lasting Profit," the droid said as he turned to face us. "I am super tactical droid B4-88. How may I be of service?" 

"You can start by giving full core access to my subordinates here," I said, gesturing to the slicers. "They have come a long way to confirm your computer core is functioning properly. While they are doing that, you can brief me on the readiness of this fleet as you know it." 

For a moment, I stared at the droid, waiting for it to respond. If there was ever a point that the droids would reveal they knew something was up and that they had been lying just to force us into their grip, this was it. Thankfully, that didn't seem to be what was happening, as B4-88 responded quickly.

"I apologize, but I must confirm their credentials before they are allowed that level of access," the embellished droid responded. "As I am sure you know, core access requires special permission due to its sensitive nature." 

"Of course I do. Give it to them," I said, turning and gesturing to the two slicers, who stepped forward and provided their clearance. 

My security access was built from information that the Rebellion's slicers constructed from the data we got from the computer core. The slicers, however, didn't need a high rank, they required special acknowledgments of specific roles. So, instead, they built their IDs using data stolen from Alpha Base data, a CIS base whose whole purpose was programming. Assuming everything was done correctly, their clearance would be just about as high as a computer expert for the CIS could get. 

"Hmm, it seems we have run into the same problem we had with your identification, Admiral," B4-88 said. "Their identifications check out, even if their names are not in any of our databases."

He seemed to pause before returning the identification tablets back to the slicers, and I had to fight to keep from breathing out in relief.

"We will have to update them as soon as possible," He finished, giving us a slight nodding bow.

"Of course, that is one of the tasks we are hoping to accomplish today," I confirmed, the droid nodding in response. 

"Very well." 

The tactical droid escorted us personally back down the turbo lift, Boxi and his team following after us. As we walked, B4-88 gave me an overview of the fleet's strength. According to him, all of the ships that surrounded the Lucrehulk were fully functional, while the starships stationed inside the repair bays of the station were, unsurprisingly, still under repair and would remain that way until they received their next delivery of parts and materials.

There were a surprising number of ships in the patchwork fleet, meaning our initial count had definitely been off. This was obviously concerning, but the fact that the ships being repaired were not staffed, including the Providence, meant we could still handle the situation. After detailing what the unfinished ships required, the tactical droid began discussing the resources each ship in the fleet had on hand. It was a lot of numbers, but I did see a pattern. Most ships were low on starfighters, but those that had full starfighter complements were always low on droids. I wasn't exactly sure why that was, but I listened and nodded as the droid continued to talk. 

I'm sure we would figure it out after we got access to more information.

Eventually, finally, we reached the central computer core for the ship. The tactical droid guided us to a series of access terminals, and the slicers, with barely a look back at me, got to work. I did my best to ask intelligent-sounding questions about the fleet strength and the composition of droid forces, keeping an eye on the slicers as they worked. About fifteen minutes in, they stopped and looked at each other, whispering quietly before the Quarren returned to typing, and the Duros looked back at me. 

"Mission complete, sir," he said simply. "We have them."

I looked at him in surprise before looking at the super tactical droid, who was just standing there with no discernible change in attitude. I then looked back at the Duros with confusion.

"We have what? Control of the ship? The droids?" 

"Yes, sir," he confirmed. "We have patched in an update to their loyalty programming. It's a bit complicated, but for now, they will follow your commands."

"Holy hell, that was fast. Well done!" I said, turning to look at B4-88. "You are relieved of command. Return to the bridge and await further orders." 

"Yes, sir, Admiral Deacon."

Without another word, the supposedly super-intelligent droid left, leaving through the same access door we had entered in through. I rubbed my hands together, eager to move on to the next step. 

"Alright, let's get back to the bridge, I want to confirm that the rest of the fleet is-"

"Uh… sir?" The Quarren said, his voice sounding a bit squishey due to his biology. "I think there is more... There is some custom programming here... This is the central command ship for the entire fleet, but it also controls their direct command and update processes. All of the ships follow the directives of this ship completely, and it can update them at will."

"For the layman, what exactly does that mean?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Someone modified this ship, and I believe the other ships so that this core has complete control over everything," He explained, sounding just as shocked as I was. "All we have to do is wake them up and send the update."

"... I'm sorry, did you just say we could control the entire fleet?" I asked, doing my best to stay calm. "No combat, no fighting, just turn them back on and give them the command?" 

"Yes, sir." The Duros responded 

"The ships are set to take cues from this ship, sir," The Quarren explained. "From what I know, this is very much not standard code. It's not very smart either, so I don't know why someone would do it. But either way, we have control over the core, and the core has complete control over the fleet." 

For a moment, all of the numbers, the hundreds of thousands of battle droids that the B4-88 had just described, and several thousands of starfighters buzzed through my brain, not to mention the incredible fleet of capital ships. I couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity. Whoever had set this all up had just handed us everything we needed on a silver platter.

"Well, boys, congratulations," I said with a smirk. "You two just became just became a really big fucking deal. How long will this take?" 

"Not long," The Quarren responded. "It can be done from the bridge once we are done here."  

"Good. Let's get it done so we don't have to risk waking any of the fleet up when we message the rest of your people." 

Both of the slicers nodded and got back to work, finishing up their jobs before shutting the terminals off and stepping back. We quickly made our way back up to the bridge to find B4-88 already there, silently waiting for more orders. As we began the process of waking each of the fleets ships up, we made sure to keep it all in small batches so that we could easily take them down with the Lucrehulk if they resisted the update. 

Over the span of two hours, we connected to and updated every ship, shifting them around in the fleet and scanning each of them with the Lucrehulk's sensors to make sure they were in good condition. Unsurprisingly, a few of the smaller starships did have some minor damage from staying in the vacuum of space for so long with no maintenance. Still, it was mind-boggling to see what we had just found and snagged for ourselves.

During that time, Ahsoka, Tatnia, and Vaz left the Talos Chariot to join me on the bridge, while Nal and Julus, as well as half of the BX commandos, including Boxi, took the Talos Chariot out of the hangar to inspect the repair station.

The station was under the same rules as the rest of the fleet, meaning once it was on, they would be under our command. However, unlike the starships, the station could not be turned on remotely. Its reactor needed to be manually activated, meaning a team needed to be sent.

I was nervous about letting them go off on their own, but within twenty minutes of them landing inside one of the station's hangar bays, we were passing commands to the station, the entire thing under our control. It was completely seamless, once again making it clear that someone had specifically made it so they could come here, activate the Lucrehulk, and suddenly gain access to a fleet of ships.

Thankfully, as the new free second half of our team started investigating the station more, as well as the ships docked in the repair bays, Vaz and Tatnia investigated some of the crew quarters. Within a few minutes, they stumbled upon the answer to this whole place in a log that was over twenty years old.

The entire setup was a ship-skimming scam. CIS warships would engage in battles with the Republic and, in the process, get damaged. Then, someone in the CIS navy would wipe a few droids and grease a few palms, all to have some of the ships that were reported as damaged by the fleet battle records declared as totaled. They would then haul off the slightly damaged starships and set them into the repair bay.

In record time, and for chump change, they would have a manned, mostly stocked ship all to themselves, with the CIS records calling it totaled and scrapped.

It wasn't a bad racket, even if it only worked because the starships were staffed with droids. Still, judging by just how many ships they, now we, had, it clearly worked. It made me wonder if the people responsible died in the CIS purge or if the station was lost for other reasons.

Once the ships and the station were all under our control, I activated the hyperwave and reached out to General Syndulla on board the Rapid Tides. 

"Deacon, I assume from your lack of haste that the fleet hasn't been activated?" She asked, sounding a bit concerned. "What's going on?"

It was understandable that she was a bit confused, since my message was supposed to come in when it was time for them to jump in and help take down the fleet. Instead I was smiling, with no sign of any fighting. 

"Oh, it's activated," I said with a smirk. "It's just doing what it's told, waiting for further orders." 

For a moment, she looked confused until her eyes went wide, and she realized what I was implying. 

"The whole fleet?" She asked, clearly not believing her assumption. "The entire fleet is…"

"Completely under our control," I confirmed, my smirk stretching to a grin. "We just scored big time, General. Congratulations o-”

Ahsoka, who was standing next to me, put her hand to her forehead, catching my attention. I frowned and reached out, putting my hand on her shoulder to steady her. After a moment, she recovered, looking at me with wide eyes. 

"Something is coming," she said. "I think it-"

"Hyperspace signature incoming!" A droid voice called out from a nearby console. 

I looked up just in time to see an absolutely massive ship drop out of hyperspace. It was angular and sharp, with jagged lines and what looked like an entire cityscape sitting on top. The engines were red, almost angry, and it filled the Lucrehulk viewports, dwarfing the normally massive ship.

The super star destroyer Executor, the flagship of Darth Vader, had arrived.

The bridge was silent, all of us frozen, as three more ships jumped in, all of them using the absolutely massive flagship as cover, appearing on the opposite side of the warship. Three Interdictor-class Star Destroyers, with their four bulbous gravity well generators, sat behind the Imperial Behemoth. 

I barely even heard the droids report that we were suddenly in a gravity field.