"He may have taken the planet," Steve declared, his voice cutting through the despair that hung over the room, "but he didn't get all its people. That's where we can still beat him. We need to focus on evacuating the native population and every soldier we brought to this world. Ultron may have won Jabiim, but he hasn't defeated us."
"How can you say that?" Anakin growled, frustration boiling over. "We lost, Steve. We actually lost."
"What matters is getting everyone off this planet alive," Steve shot back with fierce determination. "This isn't about winning battles—if it were, we'd have lost the moment we arrived here."
"I agree with you, Steve," Aayla said, adjusting her torn sleeve, "but our troops are exhausted. If we're going to do this, we need to be smart about it."
"I have a plan." Steve moved to the holo-table and activated the display.
Several topographical maps of Jabiim materialized, with multiple areas highlighted in urgent red markers.
"According to our scouts, Ultron's forces are concentrated here." Steve pointed to the largest concentration on the eastern continent. "There's a massive deposit of cortosis ore in this region—metal that's unique to this planet."
"He's already strip-mining it," Anakin observed, his voice dark with anger.
"That's where we hit him," Steve announced, silencing the room.
"What?" Anakin exploded. "Steve, are you—"
"You handle the evacuation," Steve interrupted. "Get everyone off this planet. The Avengers will deal with Ultron."
The silence that followed was deafening.
"Captain Rogers," Rex said, his voice tight with concern. "You can't be serious."
"I am, and I will," Steve replied with uncharacteristic intensity. "I'll do it alone if I have to. Ultron may be calculating, but he's built from human psychology. That means he has emotions, obsessions, weaknesses. He hates the Avengers—has wanted us dead since day one. That's what we're going to exploit. He'll focus on us while you get everyone else to safety."
The weight of his words settled over the assembled leaders like a shroud.
"You can't run this suicide mission without me, Cap," Sam said after a long moment.
"I'll brief Rhodey on the plan," Natasha added, rising from her chair with lethal grace.
"Count me in," T'Challa said, nodding to his fellow Avengers.
"You can't seriously be considering this," Anakin stepped forward, his blue eyes blazing.
"I couldn't agree more," Obi-Wan said with obvious disapproval. "Steve, this mission is tantamount to suicide."
"When has our job ever been safe?" Steve replied with a wry smile that didn't reach his eyes.
"Hang on," Sam interjected, raising an eyebrow at Anakin. "Aren't you the most suicidally reckless Jedi in the Order?"
Anakin's jaw twitched. "I'm bold and decisive, not insane. Well... I can be a little crazy, but not suicidal." The stress was clearly getting to him.
"This is our enemy," Pietro said in his measured way. "That means we fight him on our terms. We'll keep Ultron busy while you get people out of this hellscape."
"There's no way I'm letting you walk into certain death to save the rest of us," Anakin declared.
"Anakin—" Obi-Wan began, but Aayla cut him off.
"No, Anakin stays here and focuses on the evacuation," the Twi'lek Jedi said firmly. "We don't need every Jedi charging into the same battle."
"But—"
"No buts," Aayla said sharply. "Think about your Padawan, Skywalker."
Anakin flinched and glanced over his shoulder. Ahsoka was sitting beside Barriss, both young women speaking in hushed tones as the Mirialan continued her healing work on Peter's unconscious form.
A familiar hand settled on his shoulder. Obi-Wan's calm presence was both comforting and frustrating.
"I'm just as unhappy about this as you are, believe me," his former Master said quietly. "Much as I want to help Rogers and the others, we need to focus on the immediate crisis at hand."
Anakin sighed, the weight of responsibility settling on his shoulders like armor.
"Fine," he said reluctantly, then fixed Steve with a hard stare. "But you better come back alive."
"I intend to keep that promise," Steve replied with genuine warmth.
His shoulders slumping slightly, Anakin simply nodded his acceptance.
Steve walked over to Peter's makeshift medical bed and addressed the two Padawans sitting vigil beside their friend.
"Do me a favor—take care of him."
"Do you really need to ask?" Ahsoka replied without looking up.
Barriss simply nodded her agreement, her attention focused on the gentle healing glow emanating from her hands.
As she worked, her mind wandered to what she'd witnessed between Cass and Mak earlier—how close they'd become, their fierce determination not to leave each other behind. The olive-skinned Padawan found herself wondering if something like that would ever happen to her... with Peter—
No. She forced the thought away. She had to focus on healing him.
"Barriss," came Ahsoka's soft voice beside her.
She looked up to meet her friend's concerned expression.
"Are you okay?"
Barriss blinked at the question, then reached out with her free hand to gently squeeze Ahsoka's fingers.
"I'll be fine," she said quietly.
Scott Lang chose that moment to enter the operations center, immediately seeking out Steve. "Captain."
"Scott. How's Hope?"
"Concussion," Scott said wearily. "But she'll pull through."
Steve exhaled slowly. "Okay. Good."
"What's the plan, Cap?"
"Suicide mission," Sam said with dark humor.
"Every available team member is going out to help take down Ultron," Steve explained. "With Hope, Matt, and Peter all injured, we're running a bit light on manpower."
"When aren't we?" Scott couldn't help but ask.
Steve chuckled grimly and clapped the man's shoulder in appreciation. "Fair point. Avengers—let's gear up."
The base Ultron had claimed was rapidly transforming into an industrial nightmare. Thousands of drones worked in perfect synchronization, extracting the planet's precious metals with ruthless efficiency.
While he had access to various strategic resources, the ore Jabiim possessed was particularly valuable—cortosis steel, one of the few metals that could resist lightsaber strikes.
This rare material was scattered throughout the galaxy, but Jabiim held one of the largest known deposits.
Perfect for constructing more warships and battle droids with superior defensive capabilities.
From intelligence recently acquired from Palpatine's archives, Ultron had learned that Republic scientists were close to developing synthetic cortosis plating. Such an advancement would make ship armor exponentially stronger—a significant advantage for any fleet in the coming years.
Ultron planned to build something far more ambitious based on his research.
The only problem was the lack of detailed development data on cortosis refinement. For security reasons, Ultron suspected the critical files were stored in isolated servers, completely disconnected from any network he could access.
Whatever this project was, Palpatine was ensuring only a select few knew its true scope.
Ultron was tempted to broach the subject during his next communication with the Chancellor, just to observe the old man's reaction.
Who knew what other secrets he might—
BOOM.
Ultron's digital consciousness snapped to attention as a massive explosion rocked the mining facility, followed by a series of secondary detonations.
One of his drones' optical sensors flared from blue to crimson as it looked skyward. Several LAAT gunships descended through the smoke, disgorging familiar figures in distinctive armor and colors.
More transports followed, revealing yellow-marked clone troopers who had apparently decided to attack his operation directly.
Transforming into his primary ten-foot chassis, Ultron couldn't suppress a mechanical chuckle. "It appears I have some uninvited guests."
His repulsors activated with a low hum as he lifted off from the mining platform.
"Time to give them a proper welcome."