"What's the situation looking like, General?", Commander Wolffe questioned, stepping out of the med bay. Despite receiving treatment for his wounds, courtesy of Adam, his eyes still flickered with sharp awareness. Raising his hand upward, he brushed a medical adhesive strip that was placed alongside his cheek. Unlike the other two clones, Commander Wolffe had it much easier. This bit of damage was nothing to him. Seeing Master Plo in the main chamber, he paused before continuing to speak.
"And that was a pretty surreal experience, by the way. No droids. No crew. Just complete autonomy. To think I'd stumble across a self-driven ship managed completely by artificial intelligence. Whoever built this thing must be quite wealthy. This ship doesn't run cheap. I'm beginning to see the bigger picture as to why this bounty hunter wasn't detected by those hunter droids that came knocking on our doorstep. There's simply no droid to detect. That's a scary thought, now that I'm thinking about it.", Commander Wolffe said, musing at the gunship's design. He was alone, his two remaining clones that were part of his personal squad were still receiving treatment in the med bay, Boost and Sinker.
Seeing Commander Wolffe arrive, Master Plo gave a slight tilt of his head, acknowledging his arrival into the main chamber.
"That does seem to be the case here.", Master Plo said, welcoming the Commander. "This ship is even equipped with a full surveillance system, so Samus knows when to come to us if the need arises. Still, are you sure you should be moving around like that? Only a little bit of time had passed since Samus rescued us. You should continue resting."
Commander Wolffe shook his head, denying Master Plo's suggestion.
"Boost and Sinker are still healing up. They had it worse than me. Mine was just a few cuts and scrapes at most. I know we aren't that suited to fighting in outer space, but I'll take it easy for a little while. I figured I'd check to see how things are going. Have we left the star system already?", Commander Wolffe questioned.
"Not exactly.", Master Plo said, his tone dipping lower. His answer soon trailed into a sigh. After that, Master Plo's gaze shifted toward the sealed cockpit door. Commander Wolffe noticed his shift in tone, and couldn't help but shift his eyes to the door too. Muffled voices were bleeding through the vertical partition that divided the main chamber and where the cockpit was located.
"...Kick it, Adam!", I said, unaware that Commander Wolffe had already received his treatment by Adam. That voice was unmistakably me. It didn't waver, and sounded quite resolute. I had already decided on my next course of action. Ahsoka was beside me now in the cockpit, clear with a frown on her face. Her reply followed, full of disbelief.
"Y-You can't be serious, Samus. You want to engage with that gigantic thing!?", Ashoka exclaimed, seeing a massive shadow cast over the ship.
"How else are we going to acquire data for the Jedi to launch a counteroffensive? If we send in probes, they'll detect them and tear them apart before they can even get to that ship. Adam can go in unannounced, gather what we need, and leave.", I replied.
"Then why is it looking like it's starting to launch an attack!?", Ahsoka replied, pointing her finger beyond the glass of the cockpit. Following her fingers, we saw a massive ship in the near distance. Like it wasn't within the gunship's proximity, but it was well within the Abregado System we were currently in. And let me tell you, this thing is HUGE. EXTREMELY HUGE.
"You do make a point. That's why I am having Adam activate the ship's thrusters.", I stated. In response to that, Adam spoke to us.
[Now activating thrusters. Defense system is now online and ready. Shields have been erected around the ship. I'd hang on tight as it might get a little bumpy.] Adam stated. I could see his hologram face looking at us.
"You're crazy. Even Master isn't this daring. And trust me, I know.", Ahsoka retorted.
Hearing this muffled exchange, Commander Wolffe frowned.
"I don't like the sound of that. What in blazes is going on in there?", Commander Wolffe asked. He was already moving toward the cockpit. Both he and Master Plo even heard Adam speak into the main chamber. Master Plo remained calm, not disturbed by Commander Wolffe's panicked look. Instead, he decided to speak out to him.
"You missed the earlier announcement, Commander.", Master Plo replied, keeping his voice steady. "It seems our enemy found us first. We're going to need to make it out of here alive."
"You've got to be kidding me. That ship is back already!?", Commander Wolffe exclaimed in similar shock to what Ahsoka saw.
Despite the short distance, Commander Wolffe broke into a sprint. The cockpit door hissed open at his approach. Both Ahsoka and I came into his view. Ahsoka was bracing herself against the left side of the pilot's seat. Commander Wolffe saw Ahsoka's wide eyes, only to see the gigantic shadow cast over them. It was then Commander Wolffe saw it. Observing it from our viewport was a gigantic ship, spanning for at least two or three miles. You heard me, miles. Not feet or meters. That's how big this ship was. It was well over the size of forty football fields lined up together. It dominated the void of outer space like a predator stalking its prey. And well, it couldn't exactly see us. It only latched onto our position once while I brought our survivors on board, before the cloaking initiated again. But that was enough to allow this ship to get a rough idea where we were. This thing is practically a fortress.
Seeing Commander Wolffe arrive, I greeted him without turning around.
"Glad to see you joining in on the fun, Commander.", I said from the pilot's seat. Normally I'd have my hands on the controls but I'm not exactly equipped with that skill set just yet. Don't get me started on the fact that I have Samus's original memories. It's like having logic without the application. I still need Adam to teach me how to use this ship. I could let muscle memory take over, but I wouldn't know what I'm doing.
As I said that, we saw the distant glow of weapons cycling their energy, and were being prepared to fire. It wasn't just that either. On the ship's bow, its triple-barrel turret was starting to ignite aglow. I don't know how long it actually takes for the Malevolence to prepare this ion cannon, but I didn't want to find out. Instead, I spoke back to Ahsoka and Commander Wolffe. I saw that Master Plo decided to remain behind in the main chamber. It was just us three.
"Our real test is just about to start.", I stated.
"I can see you aren't taking this as a joke. Samus, was it? I do thank you for rescuing our men and our General, but are you that confident you can outrun this thing?", Commander Wolffe questioned. As she said that, Ahsoka pointed her finger outward again.
"We don't have much time. Those cannons are starting to take aim!", Ahsoka said. In response to that, several of the Malevolence's forward cannons were shifting around, trying to track where we were. We were currently cloaked right now so doing that appeared useless, but this was a small ship versus a gigantic one. They likely didn't even need to track our exact location to start firing their cannons off. If one stray hit manages to reach us, it could be deadly. I don't know how my shields will hold up against one of the strongest weapons in all of Clone Wars. Honestly, I kind of wanted to test it out.
But I'm not an idiot. As the saying goes...
I'm not courting death~
I'm just here to make a living. All I need to do is gather data on this thing and report back at Anakin's fleet nearby and collect payment. I'm expecting a decent amount too. Enough to make a down payment on a space on Coruscant, if it ever tickles my fancy.
Still, I should appease their worry, I simply nodded my head.
"Just leave it to me. We'll be back at the Bith System before you know it.", I stated, oozing confidence. "The system's running all nice and easy. The tricky part is leaving with what we came here for.", I continued.
"Then why is your console blinking like it's wanting to be used?", Commander Wolffe said, pointing at the console. Sure enough, it was blinking, waiting to be turned on. Adam knew he was doing so I simply smiled within my helmet, and this time, turned around to look at Ahsoka and Commander Wolffe. To be honest, I didn't think I'd get a makeshift crew like this. My smile turned into a grin.
"Have you two ever learned how to fire turrets?", I questioned. I was just one person, if I was here in the pilot's seat, I could leave it solely to Adam to fire off our weapons. But I have some people available to me to use.
So why not use them?