STS. LOG-019. (Patreon)

LOG-019.Getting to Teth was a process which involved going through several separate ordeals, the first of which being getting my new flagship repaired to a state that could actually be considered war capable.Bracca didn't have shipyards, unfortunately. It was a junkyard world however, so it had the next best thing, that being salvage yards. It was with that in mind that Silent Guardian was ordered to set down within one of the largest of said yards, now long since occupied by a veritable army of reactivated battle droids.Most were, as befitting the fact that they'd been stored inside of their ships while waiting for smelting, still entirely armed and operational. But only a fraction of the veritable legion of machines were actually used for their original purpose of security.Instead, the vast majority were repurposed as a labour force to work on fixing up the Venator, even as the rest of my fleet assets continued to either gather in orbit, or undergo their own repairs within the confines of other occupied salvage yards.In turn, that meant I had little more to do than sit around and wait, so I spent the time as productively as I could, namely by drafting up a comprehensive list of potentially useful information for Kalani to exploit while I was gone.Cal Kestus. The identities and possible locations of other surviving Jedi that might prove amenable to joining our cause. Potential neo-rebel factions that could be swayed into supporting us. No stone would be left unturned, no potential resource left untapped.It proved an excellent way to distract myself until a B1 that I was fairly sure was sporting Geonosian battle paint strode into the bridge, declaring that my flagship was as operational as she could get, her guns either repaired, retrofitted, or outright replaced, her engines reburned, her fuel reserves topped up, and her cargo capacity filled to the veritable brim with tools of war, Republic and Separatist alike.The irony of several droid Tri-fighter wings nesting within a Venator's hangar bays was not lost on me, even as I finally gave the order for Silent Guardian to bring us up to join the rest of the now mobile fleet.—"Report fleet status."Huntsman was quick to incline his head from the tactical droid's position at the command table, gesturing towards the frontal viewport and the variety of ships waiting beyond."Sir, all elements have been assembled. Shall I list our allocated vessels?"I technically already knew all of the starships involved, considering I'd been the one to pick them out, but I nodded nonetheless, for the refresher if nothing else.My second in command was quick to bring up several holographic lists, reading them out as he did so."Munificent class star frigates Platinum Accord, Iron Investment, and Golden Dividend have fallen into formation, alongside ten additional vessels of identical class that have been deemed fit for immediate service, those being Crimson Aegis, Profit's Shadow, Banner of Koorivar, Last Surety, Zezak's Venture, Azure Scythe, Endorsement, Carrion, Nova and Snaggletog."Several of the blue names within the long list turned red, before a shift from Huntsman's hand moved them over to a separate category."Recusant class light destroyers Klaatu's Honour, Retaliator, Shard of Justice, and Tidebreaker have also been sorted into the fleet."I glanced at the names for a moment, tilting my head as I did so."A rather diverse naming scheme."Huntsman nodded in response, already sorting through the next batch."A vast majority of the mentioned vessels have no relation to each other, and were brought in from separate postings. This will be their first time serving in a combined force together."Something for the droid brains of each respective ship to deal with then. I crossed my arms, watching one of said vessels pass Silent Guardian's starboard side on its way to get into position with the rest of the fleet."In addition to our capital class assets are two dozen Hardcell class transports, modified to act as a corvette swarm, a pair of C-ROC Gozanti class cruisers, the factory vessel Industrious Profit, and a Diamond class cruiser. In turn, there is also the variety of dedicated transport ships that you requested-"…Wait a minute."Diamond class cruisers aren't sub-capitals. Why are you sorting it with that grouping?"Huntsman paused, before pointing to the vessel's designation in question, which just seemed to be a string of numerals rather than a name."The vast majority of the vessel's structure appears to have been salvaged, rendering it significantly smaller than designs would indicate. However the core engine assembly and frontal weapons array remain online, rendering it relatively functional for warship based duties."I stared at the tactical droid for a moment, resisting the urge to vocalise the rough approximation of a sigh, and nodded."Very well. Assemble the fleet into long distance travel formation, pattern three, and inform all relevant captains that we will be embarking soon."Huntsman's photoreceptors blinked twice, before the machine nodded."By your command, fleet commander."—Hyperspace remained disturbing to look at, as per usual. It was harder to ignore it from the bridge of a Venator as well, what with the abundance of view ports.One of my fingers idly tapped at my metallic thigh, a slight click sounding out as I continued to try and fail to analyse the swirling patterns, head moving at near microscopic angles as I took in the other dimension and its utter emptiness.Save for…"Sensors, what are those dots?"The relevant B1 (marked with a blue painted head from whatever previous post it had once held before being assigned to serve aboard the bridge) glanced up."Sir? We're not picking up any dots."I stared at the droid for a few seconds, then turned back towards the viewport.And promptly fucking flinched, self preservation protocols forcing me a step backwards at the gaunt, emaciated thing staring at me through the transparisteel.It looked...vaguely humanoid, in the same way that a mummy was also humanoid, though the details quickly began to diverge from there. It was tall, unnaturally so, with a protruding rib cage pressing against skin that looked brittle and almost painfully tight, and long white hair that seemed to flow as if submerged in water.Claws that looked as long as some short vibroblades twitched idly as a rictus grin stole my attention, the thing's milky white, borderline luminous eyes almost seeming to scan me."Security to the bridge! Now!"The bewildered tones of several B1's were interrupted by the sound of mechanical feet slamming against deck plating, an entire squad of commandos storming inside and surrounding me, even as Huntsman and I unholstered our own holdout blasters, moving close to each other and aiming up at the creature currently floating through the frontal viewport.The memory came to me right as the tactical droid raised a hand, digits clenching into the approximation of a fist."All units, open fire-""Belay that command!"I recognised it now, barely. A random image that had led me to a short wookiepedia page, which in turn had haunted me for a few minutes before I'd moved on with the rest of my day.The urge to berate myself for not researching that damned page more intently grew as the Starweird continued to glance around, seemingly searching for something."Sir, orders?"Fingers clenched tightly around the handle of my own blaster, I stared back at the thing as it in turn inspected me once more, tilting its head and letting out a rasping breath that shouldn't have been possible, before it twisted about and slowly hovered out the side of the bridge, several dozen blasters all levelled and tracking the creature as it made its exit."...Lower weapons. The odds of encountering an entity in hyperspace are astronomically low, yet we have just come face to face with one. I want all fleet assets to run scans and for security teams to search each ship's interior from top to bottom until we exit hyperspace, am I understood Huntsman?""...Affirmative."The tense moment was broken by the same sensor technician from before idly raising a hand to scratch the side of its head, glancing around as it did so."Well…that was creepy!"I resisted the urge to facepalm, I really did.Clank.