chapter 42

Aboard the spirit of fire

Aayla secura woke up with her head throbbing. The last thing she remembered was ordering her troops to retreat in exchange for her surrender. The last few moments before getting knockout after that was blurry to her.

Looking around she noticed she was in a cell while her hands were in cuffs with parts of it glowing a white color as it faded before glowing again. Right away she knew they were meant for Jedi because her connection with the force was almost completely blocked. All because of these simple cuffs.

The cell she was in wasn't all that bad like the ones she knew on Coruscant and some of her wounds were even bandaged. She sighed before going to the middle of the cell before sitting down crossing her legs.

She started to meditate trying to calm herself down. She didn't know what the terrans was going to do to her, but she didn't get to far with it until she heard footsteps coming towards her cell.

"Your finally awake. I did as much as I could to fix your wounds." A feminine voice says as aayla slowly open sher eyes.

"I didn't know how your body would react to our medicine, so I didn't give you any which is why you still fill pain around your body." The voice says.

Once aayla opens her eyes she sees a woman in a lab coat looking at her closely like she was trying to study her. It was like she was trying to memorize every detail about her.

"Why did you want to capture me. I have nothing of value that you would want." Aayla says interrupting her out of her thoughts

"Sorry. I never seen your species up close like this before. But to answer your question it wasn't me who specifically wanted you captured." She says.

Before she can go on two pair of heavy footsteps grow louder to show two Spartans coming there way.

"Professor anders. Captain cutter wants you and the Jedi on the bridge." One of the Spartan says as the other brings the Jedi out of her cell.

"Lead the way." She gestures as they escort them towards the bridge of the ship.

As they exit towards another part of the bridge she sees a handful of clones in different cells. Once a few of them see her they immediately stand up and salute to her. But there was also a few who couldn't look at her in the eye because of guilt.

Once they exit the prison cell into a hallway she couldn't help, but notice how the interior of the terrans ship was drastically different from theirs and the separatist.

A few crew members they pass by give her a look before walking off. She had no doubt in her mind that most of them must have hated her. Unlike the clones they had families and connections with other people other than themselves. Too her this was seen as an advantage and a disadvantage for them.

After a few more minutes of walking down hallways they make it towards the bridge and there was things that aayla had never seen before. It was like walking into a whole different world. Everything looked more complex

Captain cutter was over looking his troops that was on the ground as an orange looking hologram of a human female appeared in the middle of a table.

Once the two enter the bridge the two Spartans who had escorted them stay a little behind making sure the Jedi didn't do anything.

"My name is captain James cutter and you are?" The man says looking over at aayla.

"My name is aayla secura." She says.

"I'm sure your wondering why I wanted you captured. And I assure you it's not to get information about your military."

"I want to know more about the enemy me and my men are fighting against personally. But more specifically, you Jedi." The captain says.

"The clones don't really have a valid reason because they were made to fight, but you. You Jedi do and what exactly is it?"

"For peace and justice. That is what we fight for." She says.

Anders look at her weirdly like she said something mind-blowing while cutter had a stoic look on his face. Before either of them could respond Isabel talks first.

"But if you fight for peace, than why were you all fighting a war with the separatist before we came in." The A.I. says.

"As far as I know the separatist wanted to break free from the republic because they were so corrupt. In their eyes you are the bad guys and you are stopping them from being free."

The separatist government was also corrupt as well, but Isabel didn't bring it up because that was an entirely different story.

"But without those planets, the republic will lose key planets that could help the galaxy. Without them all the planets under the republic could have an economic crisis."

"And forcing them to stay is better!? They tried to do the same thing against Zeridian! That's not how a democr-"

"That's enough Isabel." Cutter interrupts her.

Isabel looks at the Jedi for a few more seconds before disappearing off towards another part of the bridge.

"I haven't seen her get that wild up since her time against the banished." Anders says looking at Isabel as she goes through different files.

Aayla looks at Isabel as he eyes widen a little. She was so focused on taking with her that she didn't even realize that she was an A.I.

"I-I've never seen an A.I. with that much emotion in them. How is that possible." She says a little shocked.

"The improvement of technology can do wonders. And it's getting better everyday." Anders says.

"You said you fight for peace, but why did the republic attack us first." Cutter says getting on topic which causes aayla to raise an eyebrow at him.

"If I remember correctly. Wasn't it you who attacked both the republic and the separatist?" She says causing all eyes to go directly to her. The two Spartans as well as Isabel who was still mad looked at her confused.

"I don't know what they told you, but a small fleet of republic ships entered into Zeridian and attacked one of our ships when the planet refused to join." Cutter begins.

"The same thing happened with the separatist, but on a greater scale. They did a full-scale invasion on the planet. That's why we did one of our own."

"No. That's. That's not true. The republic would never do something like that." She says worried that they might be telling the truth, but what made it worst was that she could feel that he wasn't lying.

"It's true. We even have videos of it. It caused outrage across the Terran republic." He says as Isabel puts a hologram video of a the republic and separatist attacking their forces.

Once the hologram starts it burst outwards showing a 360 degree angle of a Terran bridge over Zeridian as they neared a fleet of republic ships.

"Unidentified ship. Identify yourself and state your purpose in republics territory or you will be considered hostile." A person says as the captain of the Terran ship can be seen narrowing his eyes.

Aayla eyes widen hearing the voice. That voice was a Jedi knight who was regarded as one of the upcoming masters soon once his padawan learned everything he could from him.

She remembered clear as day when he came back from Zeridian saying an unknown faction had attacked them first.

"Republic territory? They don't even control this sector. What is he talking about!?" A Terran officer on the side says.

The captain chuckled to himself knowing the UNSC wasn't going to like this if they don't leave.

"Well that's funny. I was going to say the thing same thing because you are in the territory of the Terran republic near one of our colony planets. So I suggest you identify yourself before we open fire and consider you hostile." He says threatening them.

"I've never heard of your so called Terran republic." Remarks the Jedi.

"Besides your all alone against us. You're outnumbered." Says the Jedi.

The captain only shakes his head as his officers on the bridge starts to get mad as he calls for any nearby ships to enter the system in case something happens.

"So I suggest you turn yourself in to the republic or leave." Says the Jedi full of himself.

As things escalate the republic ships starts to fire at the Terran vessel once they refused to leave.

"Shoot the archer missiles at the small vessels, while getting the MAC gun ready to fire on my command. What a fool. Starting an engagement with the Terran republic. Does he have a clue what he just did." He says as Isabel stops the video before getting another one ready.

"He lied. He lied to us. He said the terrans attacked him first without reason." Aayla says sadly.

"This isn't how the order and the republic was supposed to act like." She says completely shocked about this.

"And the separatist. I don't know why they attacked us. But something isn't right about them. I think they are hiding something." Cutter says as another video starts.

"Umm. Ma'am, we have multiple ships about to enter the system."

"That's weird. We wasn't supposed to have another fleet coming here until another week." A woman says confused.

"Tell all ships to get their men into battle stations. The republic might be coming." She says.

Moments later a fleet of separatist ships arrives in the system. The woman looks at the fleet in surprise.

"What is the separatist doing here?" She says confused.

"Ma'am one of the ships is hailing us." The same officer says.

"Put it through."

Once they open communication with the flagship of the separatist fleet a cyborg appears looking at them like they weren't worth his time.

"What are you doing in Terran territory with a fleet. We're neutral with you. This could misunderstood for war." She says trying to avoid a conflict.

"Listen to me well, Terran. I do not care about your politics. I do not care about your Republic. I only live to see you and your faction burn beneath me along with the jedi! Hahaha!" He laughs before going into a coughing fit. As he coughs the transmission with him is cut.

"Ma'am they're charging weapons. They're about to fire!" The officer says eyes widened.

"Tell all ships to fire at that fleet. And tell any nearby ships that Zeridian is under attack." She says as a hail of bolts and bullets fly at them and their new enemy.

"It seems you were lied too. We never wanted this war. We already had a war back in our galaxy that lasted twenty-eight years. To us this war is nothing compared to the one we had years ago." Cutter says once the video ends.

"Twenty-eight years!? That must have been a very costly death toll for a war lasted that long." She says thinking about the deaths.

"It was, but now that you know you were lied too. Do you still think fighting for the republic is worth it?" Cutter says.

"Do you still think they're in the right?"

Aayla looks up at him lost. The order was basically her family and she was very close to some of the clones. She didn't think she had it in her to say it. To her it was like betraying them.

"I don't know...I don't know anymore. I gave my allegiance to the order and the republic, but I don't know who to trust anymore." She says looking down.

"Everything we fought for was basically a lie."

"There could be a different path for you to go, but you'll have to make that decision yourself." He says as the two Spartans go to drag her back to her cell.

"Was this your plan from the start?" Anders says to cutter.

"Originally no. I just wanted to see what one of the Jedi felt about this war face to face. But now I know with confidence that some organized group or person wanted this war to happen." Cutter says thinking.

"It's just trying figure out who and why they wanted this war in the first place." He says thinking to himself.

Tatooine

Noble team had been hunting down numerous hideouts throughout the planet and it always ended the same way. They would go in and kill anyone deemed a hostile while getting information from the leader before leaving with all evidence of what happened gone.

Currently Waneta and noble team were outside of the small town awaiting for the few pelicans to make their dropoffs of various weapons and vehicles.

Once the first pelican landed Waneta was going to get on it and fly to the Terran ship it had come from. Once there she was going to be able to notify her superiors that she had finally finished her mission.

She had information about the galaxy which had all came from the Jedi library. But the must important information she had was the knowledge of what a Jedi was. She didn't know, but her betraying the order and the republic had a greater impact than she thought and the first one to fully see it was in the custody of the crew of the spirit of fire.

"I guess this is it." Waneta says as the first arrival of pelicans make it's way down to the ground.

"Don't worry about us. By the time you come back this entire planet will be free from these hutts." Kat says.

"Once that happens this war will take it's first step in ending." She says as a pelican lands in front of them.

"Kid good luck out there. And word of advice. Watch your back because now that the republic knows that you betrayed them. You have their eyes on you." Jorge says as Waneta enters the pelican.

As they finish their conversation the pelican doors close and it starts to takeoff towards the Terran ship that it had came from.

After Waneta gave the information she acquired. She wasn't going to be ready for the next tasked they gave her. 

Unknown regions

A fleet of science and military ships belonging to the Terran republic was making it's way across the unknown regions.

They were mapping every system that they came across and so far the only thing they spotted was storms,  black holes, and other things that made this area dangerous for them to actually explore in.

They did find planets, but they were mostly near a dying Star or they were just completely destroyed.

"Man. The unknown regions look pretty dead to me. You sure theirs people out here." A Terran says after the continues amounts of dead planets spotted.

"Well we're going to see a habitable planet or at least one we could transform eventually." Another says.

"Wait. Is my radar acting up? It says a fleet is about to enter the stytem." He says confused.

"You guys getting readings on your radar as well?" Someone on the comms says.

"Yes we're getting the same thing."

"Everyone get ready to open fire if needed. But hold your fire until I say to. If their not hostile we're going to need to make a good first impression." The commander over the fleet says.

"Get ready. They're about to enter the system." He says as they all prepare for the arrival of this unknown fleet.