Chapter 263 - A Prison In Sull.u.s.t

Four Jedis - General Kenobi, General Skywalker, General Gallia, and General Koth - as well as Commander Cody, Captain Rex, and Captain Lock were looking at a hologram of Seleucami, trying to pinpoint General Grievous location. Several Separatist C-9979 had landed on the planet, so they would have to go through them one by one until they found the clancker.

When Dageer entered the command bridge, after leaving Hell Squad on the infirmary - aside from a few laser wounds, and the cut that Cell received, they weren't too hurt, and even the fight with General Grievous had only left a few bruises - the first thing he saw was the black and red head of a tactical droid.

He was anxious to have Tech have a look at the droid's circuits, but he was disciplined enough to hold himself back. Instead, he took out the two lightsabers that he had found, and put them on the hologram table. Instantly, they became the focus of everyone, and Dageer could feel the questioning gazes of the Jedis.

"The clancker, Grievous, dropped those when Hell Squad confronted him. I thought you would be interested in them, generals."

The Jedis exchanged glances, and General Kenobi picked up the two lightsabers. He ran his fingers through them, feeling the engravings.

"Those... They belong to Master Berreck and Master Moudama. We already knew that monster had killed Master Berreck, but Foul went missing before this war even started. For how long have Grievous been killing Jedi?"

"And how many did he murder?"

The Jedis went on deep thought for a few minutes, after which General Kenobi put the two lightsabers away, and nodded at Dageer. He then turned back to the hologram table, and continued explaining their plans.

"I will take Cody and Rex to the planet, and we will search for Grievous. Meanwhile, Anakin will engage his forces up here, and make sure Grievous have no reinforcements. Master Gallia, if you could take Master Koth to Coruscant..."

"I don't need that much help, Master... Cough..."

"Obviously, you do. Leave it to me, Master Kenobi."

General Kenobi nodded, and General Gallia helped General Koth out of the command bridge. Then, the bearded Jedi turned to Dageer, and knocked the tactical droid head with his fingers.

"Get your man to crack this open as fast as he can. We only have about eleven hours before the automatic burn process begins."

The automatic burn process that General Kenobi referred to was a command in the circuits of the tactical droids, which deleted every information they had, in case they were killed. After all, tactical droids carried lots of Separatist plans, so the seppies couldn't risk it. However, by cutting or tearing off the droid's head, this process wouldn't start immediately, but only after a few hours. Because of this trick, the Republic had foiled several Separatist schemes before.

"Right away, general. Tech, come to the command bridge, and bring your toys."

"Yes, sir."

Soon, the clone arrived, carrying two different datapads, as well as a few cables and a hologram projector.

"General Kenobi, General Skywalker."

"Tech, is that right? Discover everything you can, and transfer it to our databases. Of course, if you can find anything about the trooper your squad lost, gather it too."

"Understood."

Tech immediately got to work, connecting the cables to the droid head, and then to the datapads. He completely immersed himself in it, and spent several hours breaking down the defenses around every bit of information he could get his hands on.

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General Kenobi was already on Seleucami, in hot pursuit of General Grievous and his forces, while General Skywalker was still on his command ship, analyzing the Separatist plans and data that Tech had managed to hijack before the tactical droid's circuits were burned.

"Did you find anything useful, Tech?"

The clone shook his head, and then shrugged. He turned to General Skywalker, and the data that he was reading.

"I'm not sure yet, sir. General Skywalker is looking at it, but the information was mostly outdated. Up till now, the only useful piece of intel we found is about three or four Separatist bases we didn't know about."

"Anything about Brain?"

A trace of sadness flashed through Tech's eyes before he gave his answer.

"Nothing, commander. I think... Brain is gone. We already knew that."

General Skywalker heard them talking, but just slightly paused before resuming what he was doing. Dageer, on the other hand, just sighed. He knew it was wishful thinking of his to believe that Brain was still alive. He saw his brothers die every day, he just didn't want to believe that Brain was one of them.

Taking control of his emotions, Dageer started looking through the intel. Brain was another death he would make the seppies pay for, but, as a clone, Brain was always prepared to die, and Dageer, also as a clone, was always prepared to see his brothers fall.

...

"What? Uhmm..."

After over twenty minutes, General Skywalker made some surprised sounds, prompting Dageer and Admiral Yullaren - the 501st Legion admiral - to look at him. Tech had already returned to his quarters.

"Did you find anything, General Skywalker?"

"Maybe. You two, have a look at this."

The Jedi pulled up a projection of a weirdly shaped building. It looked like an inverted pyramid. It wasn't like any Separatist base Dageer had ever seen.

"What is this?"

"The building plans of a Separatist space base, orbiting Sull.u.s.t. A prison, to be exact. The prisoners appear to be mostly clones, with a few insurgents from the planets the seppies captured."

Dageer frowned. That was something he had never seen. And, apparently, Admiral Yullaren agreed with him.

"The Separatist never kept prisoners before, unless they were of a high position, like a Jedi Master. Why would they have a prison for clones?"

"That isn't true, Admiral Yullaren. When the seppies need someone to do the hard work for them, they keep prisoners. It happened to my legion on Mygeeto, and to General Fisto's troops on Mon Cala."

Admiral Yullaren and General Skywalker frowned. What Dageer said brought up another question.

"What are they building that they need so many workers?"

"I don't know, but we gotta find out. Admiral, I will leave Seleucami to you. Dageer, prepare your squad. You have a new mission."

"Right away, general."

"Be careful, General Skywalker."

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A few hours later, an Arquitens-class Light Cruiser left the 501st fleet, and jumped to hyperspace. It was one of the smallest cruisers the Republic had, so it wouldn't be detected as easily, and, in case it was, it was fast.

"Remember, we aren't attacking the prison. We will infiltrate, free the prisoners, and then the ship will dock, and we escape. Remember, our objective isn't to destroy it. If we can find anything about what they are building, better."

"How will the cruiser dock? And how will we get in without them noticing?"

General Skywalker acknowledged Dab's questions, and turned to Dageer.

"Commander?"

The clone stepped forward, and showed a hologram of the building plans that they had recovered from the tactical droid.

"After we get inside, Tech, Metal, and Cell will deactivate their weapons system."

"And how are we getting inside?"

Dageer looked at his squad, and shrugged. They wouldn't like it, but they would do it all the same.

"General Skywalker said he did this before. We will follow his lead."