101 Chapter 91
"So, when can we expect the jedi to pay a visit to their so far neglected army?" The holographic form of Jango Fett said with mock sullenness and Renn grinned at him while shrugging.
"Who knows, I just thought I'd give you a heads up before a jedi turned up on kamino and you tried to have a scrap with them in the rain or something." Renn said still grinning before his smile dropped.
"But the fact that there's an assassin out there using Kamino sabredarts is a bit of a problem though, you know the kaminoan's don't leave their home world so there's only a small group of people who could have used them." Renn said coldly.
Whatever was happening with the assassination attempts on Padme and the link to kamino couldn't be a coincidence.
Padme was the leading voice in the republic senate opposing the republics re-armament, as well as being one of the main senators campaigning for the republic to avoid going to war with the separatists.
So, it was very suspicious that someone with ties to the planet where the republics secret army was being trained was trying to kill her.
Renn didn't know if it was some kind of shadowy plot within the republic to remove the opposition to the chancellor's desire for war and be able to pin it on the separatists for a justification for starting the conflict at the same time.
Or, if it really was the separatists trying to kill the senator. They would probably claim it wasn't them, knowing the republic would declare war anyway, and then they could claim they were attacked unprovoked by the republic and try to gain support from the neutral systems.
Whatever was happening it was clear that a war was going to break out soon and that the issues with Padme were probably going to be what sparked the conflict.
So Renn's priority was making sure his friends were ready for it.
He had become close friends with quite a lot of the ARC troopers in both the Alpha and Null classes and he knew when the coming war kicked off, they would most likely be on the front lines.
And while currently he didn't have the ability to help the majority of the republics clone army to desert unnoticed, and most of the clones wouldn't desert if they knew they would be leaving their brothers to fight without them, he could at least offer them some advanced warning before them were dumped into a warzone on short notice.
The other problem was whoever the assassin was, and they were most likely one of the training sergeants Jango had hired, clearly wasn't working to the best interests of the clones, which was automatically putting them at odds with Renn, Jango, and several of the Mandalorian training sergeants who were already laying down plans to help and protect the clones post the inevitable coming war.
"I don't think the assassin's one of the Mandalorians, although with the losses we took during the civil war and the fact all the members of the Cuy'val Dar have had to disappear for almost ten years I've had to make some concessions and hire some who were… less then ideal," Jango said and Renn knew exactly which Mandalorian he was referring to.
Dred priest was an evil minded Mandalorian who seemed to have managed to unite the rest of the Mandalorian members of the Cuy'val Dar in hatred against him due to him expressing opinions that hinted in him leaning towards an allegiance to Death Watch.
He was even able to get Kal Skirata and Walon Vau to put aside their hatred against each other and unite in their loathing of him, which wasn't an easy accomplishment.
The two, along with Renn, Jango, and a Mandalorian doctor named Mij Gilamar, had nearly beaten priest to death when they discovered that the man had been forcing his clone commando trainees to fight in a battle circle resulting in most of his trainees having some form of injury and several even dying.
"It's probably one of the non-mandalorians, maybe one of the corellians? A couple of them are a bit dodgy but I needed people to round out the numbers," Jango continued snapping Renn out of his thoughts of the past.
"I might not have needed to hire them though if you'd accepted my invitation to train a commando company," Jango added somewhat teasingly.
"Maybe I refused because I was only like eight? When you offered," Renn shot back with an eye roll.
After Seeing Renn's combat ability, as well as the skills of Alpha and the other droids, Jango had tried to get Renn to train one of the companies of clone commandos several times, but ultimately had to accept that Renn wouldn't be able to stay on Kamino for an extended period of time.
"Please, like that mattered. Mandalorian kids would already have gone to war at that age. And besides look at how much my Alpha lads have improved from you training with your help." Jango said dismissively, and Renn gave a small grin at Jango's use of 'my Alpha lads' to refer to the Alpha ARC class.
Renn knew that when Jango had first set about creating the clone army with the kaminoans he had been emotionally detached from all the clones except his son Boba, treating them only as future soldiers for the republic.
But after he had been reunited with his sister Arla, and as the bounty hunter had started forming a bond with Renn himself, it had become harder to remain as emotionally distant and over time he had begun to see the Alpha ARCs in a similar way as Kal Skirata saw his Null ARC's, as his own suns.
Jango still wasn't able to admit that openly though, but Renn knew that the second Arla Fett had forced the four year old Alpha ARCs to refer to her as 'Aunty Arla' Jango had lost all ability to see them as anything but members of clan Fett.
"What do you want done with the traitor then?" Jango asked curiously, "I don't especially like the idea of helping the jedi but if someone's making moves behind my back that's a problem too."
"I'm not fully sure… The jedi will probably send Kenobi to investigate and he'll just charge in blindly and end up finding and fighting whoever the assassin is out of pure luck." Renn responded deep in thought.
"It'll probably be best to just leave the two of them to it, rather than get involved and risk our plans for the future."
Renn and Jango talked some more about some general things after that, mainly Jango boasting about what either Boba or the Alpha ARCs had accomplished since Renn had last seen them.
And after some time, they finally ended the call and Jango's holographic image vanished from above the console in front of Renn, only to be replaced moments later by Sapphire.
"We may have a problem," she said emotionlessly, and her tone instantly caused Renn to snap to attention from his laid-back posture.
"What's wrong? Is it the assassin or has something else happened?" He said in worry, as Sapphire stared morbidly towards him.
"No… It's more personal… Involving you and the girls," she said with a sigh and Renn's blood ran cold.
"What's the problem?" He said almost tentatively as a pit of worry began forming in his stomach.
"I intercepted a transmission and it's… It's probably easier if you just read it." She said and the console in front of Renn sprang to life and began displaying a short letter.
Renn read the letter slowly, a frown on his face as he didn't quite believe the words in front of him. And by the time he had finished reading his frown had transformed into a look of cold fury.
"How did they even find out about any of this?" He asked quietly, not taking his eyes of the offending letter.
"I can't say for certain, but there have been quite a few holo-news articles about Dredd Industries due to its sudden rise to power and you and the girls have appeared in some of them, may guess is that's how they found out." Sapphire explained and Renn just nodded.
A silence then settled over the room, and neither Renn nor Sapphire looked willing to break it.
"So," Sapphire said giving in first, "Do we tell her?"
"Of course, we do!" Renn said, slightly more forcefully than he meant to, as his eyes snapped back up to meet Sapphire's.
"She has a right to know plus I'm not wiling to lie or hide things from her," he said firmly.
"Knowing might hurt her," Sapphire said solemnly, but not unsympathetically.
"Not-knowing could hurt her too, its better if she finds out now when the rest of us are there to support her," he said rising to his feet and walking out of the room.
He left Sapphire's avatar staring silently at the floor, deep in thought, for a few seconds before she winked out of existence, plunging the room into darkness.
-
Opal, Shae, and Seela were sat in the Speedy Vagabonds lounge area relaxing on a pair of sofas and drinking tea while they chatted excitedly about recent events.
They smiled at Renn when he entered the room but soon went silent when they saw his expression.
Shae moved over slightly to allow Renn to sit down next to her on the sofa opposite to the one Opal and Seela were sat on, and all three girls had concerned expressions as they waited for what Renn had to say.
Renn sighed deeply and looked up at the ceiling, hating having to be the one to relay the news, before resting his eyes on Seela.
"I want you to know, that whatever you decide to do after reading this, we will all support you in no matter what," he said, gesturing around at himself, Opal, and Shae, who nodded but sported confused expressions, not knowing what was happening.
"Okay?" Seela said a bit unsurely as Renn handed her a data-pad, a grim expression on his face.
"Sapphire intercepted this message and she's verified it's origin… it's legitimate," he said, not taking his eyes of Seela.
"I'm sorry…" Sapphire said compassionately as she appeared next to Seela, who didn't show any reaction at the A.I. popping out of thin air next to her.
Seela just stared at the data-pad in her hands, and Renn could see her hands tensing and jaw clenching as she tried to maintain a neutral expression while she read what was written on it.
Everyone was silent as they watched Seela quietly struggling with something before, she placed the data-pad gently on the coffee table between the two sofas and let out a quiet, "Oh…"
Renn looked at the silent twi'lek girl with sympathy clear on his face and reached across the coffee table to hold her hand, trying to offer some comfort.
"Do you mind if I…?" Opal asked quietly reaching towards the data-pad tentatively as she tried to figure out what was happening.
Seela nodded and gave Opal a go-ahead gesture, who then scooped up the pad and began reading.
It took less than a few seconds of reading before Opal's expression had set into a scowl, and she began shacking with barely concealed rage.
"I'm. Going. To. Fucking. Kill. Them." Opal said slowly, enunciating each word meaningfully and menacingly.
"No," Seela said quietly but clearly as she turned to face the furious Opal, "I need to be the one to deal with this… please…" She said almost begging and Opal softened instantly and wrapped her arms Seela to draw her into a hug.
"Of course, but don't think you need to do any of this on your own. Like I said earlier, we're here for you," Renn said standing up and moving round the coffee table so he could join Opal in comforting Seela.
Shae briefly scanned the data-pad after picking it up from where Opal had thrown it in disgust, and she let out her own string of expletives before joining the rest of them in their protective huddle around Seela.
"Thank you all… can we go after we're done here?" She said before looking worriedly at Opal, "I mean we can stay and finish protecting Padme first, I know you brought us here to do that and I'm not suggesting we stop or anything—" Seela began rambling before Opal cut her off.
"No. This is important, your important." Opal said firmly staring into Seela's eyes, "If you want to go now, we'll go now."
"Besides, Padme will be fine, she's got the jedi baby sitting her now anyway and they seem to be coming up with their own plan that we aren't allowed to know for 'security reasons'" Opal added spitting the last words distastefully, clearly annoyed at being lest out of the loop.
"Are you sure?" Seela said still slightly worried about forcing Opal to chose between her and her friend.
"Of course, like I told you we can go right now if you want." Opal said smiling at Seela before turning towards Renn, "Right?"
"If you want, we can set a course for Tatooine immediately, or I can call Gex and his Kaleesh mates and let them burn the place down for you." Renn said, only slightly joking about setting his band of Kaleesh mercenaries loose on the crime infested planet but it was enough to earn him a small chuckle from Seela.
"No, that's alright." She said giving him a weak smile, "I would like to go myself though." She added with some resolve and Renn nodded.
"Consider it done. I'll send Anakin a message to let him know we'll be leaving and then we'll plot a course straight to Tatooine."
-
Seela,
It has recently come to our attention that you are not dead in a ditch somewhere like you deserve to be and are instead strutting about the galaxy leeching of the rich and powerful.
No doubt you have sold yourself to some wealthy merchant and are probably trading your body for them to let you live in luxury, just like how you stole our hard-earned credits, while giving nothing back in return.
Your disappearance cheated us out of the credits we were promised, and your selfishness has caused us nothing but suffering.
We are owed compensation for all the problems you have caused us, and we expect to receive that compensation soon or there will be consequences.
It would not be too complicated for us to cause you problems in your new life. You belong in the gutter after all, and it won't take us much work to drag you back there.
We expect your response soon,
Your Parents.
