Chương 6: Saboteur
*Security Breach - Starboard Engines: Section 24*
Jaden walked quickly down the corridors as he made his way towards the hanger bay, he couldn't of convinced a better opportunity to escape if he'd blown up a section of the engines himself. While everyone was distracted he'd steal a ship and escape, they would be too focused on the saboteur to put up any real effort to stop him from leaving.
A grin spread across his face as he turned a corner, walking in the opposite direction was a squad of clones who immediately stopped when seeing him and saluted "General!" They all said in unison as their feet clapped together and they stood up straight.
"At ease men, don't you have somewhere to be going," Jaden said as he quickly tried to get rid of the men.
"Yes sir!" The Clone Troopers shouted before rushing past him, he then walked in the opposite direction "Sir the engine room is this way." The Clone Sergeant informed him as he saw Jaden walking towards the hanger.
'Shit...' Jaden thought to himself as he turned around and tried to come up with an excuse, but he was coming up blank as the admiral had called hall hands on deck to find the saboteur "Thank you, Sergeant, I'm still getting used to the layout of the ship," he said with fake sincerity.
"No problem sir," he stated before continuing to lead his squad to the Starboard engine room with Jaden following close behind. Jaden couldn't help but scowl as he followed close behind the clones, he could've ignored them but he didn't want them reporting back to the Admiral over the comms. Admiral Novak was no idiot and his heading towards the hangar just after someone sabotaged the engine would raise suspicion on himself.
"Sir we are coming up on the engine room," the Sergeant stated as the clones covered both sides of the corridor.
Jaden sighed he might as well get into character "Sergeant how many entrances are to this engine room." He asked with a serious expression as he unclipped his lightsaber.
"One other entrance sir, there is a door that connects the port engines to the starboard, if the saboteur goes through there then they'll be able to escape through the port engines doors. But when the Alarm sounds the door between the engines seals, but by the time they get through more squads should've arrived by then." He explained.
Jaden nodded "Is that standard procedure?" He asked.
"No sir it's been implemented for this ship as the engine room design was overhauled." The Sergeant replied.
Jaden nodded "Keep four men on this door the rest of you come in with me and keep your weapons trained and your eyes open for anyone not in clone armour." He said as he approached the door.
"Yes sir!" The sergeant said before signalling four of his men to take a position on either side of the door while the other four followed him and approached the door with Jaden.
Jaden took a deep breath before tapping on the panel by the door and opening it, he had to cover his face as a plume of smoke erupted out of the engine room covering them in fumes "General take this," the Clone Sergeant said as he handed a small breathalyser to him off his belt. Jaden took it and put it in his mouth before entering the room, he used a small burst of force to push the smoke away and then walked into the engine room.
As he walked in he saw various bodies strewn all over the engine room, it seemed that the explosion from the saboteur had managed to catch everyone off guard, but it did beg the question of where they were now. Jaden spotted a dead clone on the ground that had a blaster shot through his chest making it clear there was a struggle before the saboteur managed to plant the explosive "Sergeant keep an eye out I'm going to assess the damage the engine," he commanded.
"Yes sir!" He replied as they split into groups and started sweeping the room.
Jaden made his way towards the engines if he couldn't slip away at the moment without gaining notoriety then perhaps if he could fix the engines and capture the saboteur he'd be watched less by the Admiral and gain a bit more leniency 'I should just leave, I should just take a ship and damn the consequences, I can't go onto a real battlefield,' he thought to himself as he made his way to the Ion engines.
He could immediately see where the problem was in the engine room as smoke was shooting out of one of the pipes connecting to the engine. Jaden raised his personal communicator to his mouth "Admiral Novak come in!" He said as he jumped over the railing and down onto the piping.
"General! Report!" He replied
"The engines seem to be in good condition however there's a coolant leak if it's left alone then the ion rods are going to overheat, then we will have a lot more problems than a saboteur," Jaden replied over the comms as he inspected the pipes.
"Can you fix it, I've had multiple explosions going off all over the ship so we are quite stripped for engineers at the moment." Admiral Novak stated.
"I should be able to stop the leak, though I'm not sure if we are alone here," Jaden replied as he looked around. He hadn't had any experience with engines of this size but they shouldn't be too hard to figure out, he'd been tinkering with engines since he was a boy.
"I have four squads heading towards your position to secure the engine room they'll be with you momentarily, Novak out." He said before cutting off the comms.
Jaden put his comms down before walking across the pipe closer to the damaged section. He could see that the smoke being shot out of the pipes wasn't smoke but steam, the coolant was leaking onto the ion rods evaporating it instantly and causing it to come out of the damaged sections of the pipe.
"Sergeant is there an emergency repair kit up there," Jaden called out above.
"Yes sir there's one right here," he called back and a moment later he appeared over the top of the railing and threw it down to him. Jaden caught it and then quickly jumped onto the engine core, before climbing down under the piping and getting to work.
Opening the repair kit he got to work sealing the leak, they were lucky that the saboteur was either incompetent or valued their own life too much otherwise the engine explosion might've taken out the whole ship. Taking the plasma cutter he started working on the repairs, only when he started to feel a whisper in the force and he ducked only for a blaster shot to immediately hit where he was.
He turned around and saw a pale white woman who was bald with only a ponytail sticking out the back of her head. She scowled when she saw that she missed and she shot a grapple hook up and over the railing which started to pull her up.
Jaden force-jumped onto the pipes as he took out his communicator "Sergeant the saboteur is here, prepare yourself." He stated as he followed the woman who hopped over the railing. She then turned around and started firing her rifle at him, which he ducked under before igniting his lightsaber and deflecting each shot which was a lot harder than Satele said it would be.
"Jedi..." the woman said with disdain as she stopped firing and turned around running away, Jaden jumped again flipping over the railing as he followed.
Clone Troopers started firing at the saboteur as she ran however she slid behind a console before pulling out a blaster pistol and shooting two clones, however, the Clone Sergeant managed to hit her shoulder sending her to the ground. She then grabbed a thermal detonator and threw it over by the troopers who jumped for cover, this allowed her to rush towards the exit.
'She's a lot faster than a normal person,' Jaden thought to himself as he rushed towards her using the force to enhance his speed. The woman turned around and fired at Jaden with her pistol which he avoided by sliding under, he wished he had a blaster as the lightsaber was useless at ranged combat.
The woman got to the entrance to the engine room and it opened automatically, the clones stationed there held their blasters up and began firing at her, she cursed as she took cover behind the door and began firing around blinding around the corner. In a burst of speed, she rushed into the corridor running up the wall while she fired four shots taking out two of the clones while the other two were able to avoid the shots.
She pushed off the wall barging into one of the clones while she fired at the other. She then grabbed the clone she was on and snapped his neck "Pathetic, shadows of the original." She said before getting up, she was about to rush off until she had to duck under a swing from Jaden's lightsaber.
She twisted out of the way before holding up her blaster but was promptly cut in half before she could shoot it. As Jaden swung overhead she struck his elbow making his lightsaber fall out of his grasp before kicking him in the stomach sending him toppling over one of the dead troopers.
Jaden rolled with the fall and then pushed back up, he reached out with the force and grabbed the woman as she tried to run again, and while he couldn't stop her dead he slowed her down enough that he could reach her quickly. She turned around and drew out a small vibro-blade and thrust it at him, he stepped aside before striking his palm against her face, the woman switched her grip and then tried to stab him again but Jaden grabbed her arm. However, she was a lot stronger than she looked and she pushed Jaden up against the wall as she tried to sink the blade into his chest.
"If this is what Jedi amount to these days, you're all weak." She said as she laughed and pushed the blade closer and closer to him. Jaden drew on the force before pushing both physically and with the force sending the woman to the wall behind her which sent her knife flying out of her hand, he then rushed towards her and slammed his palm into her face and then hit his knee into her stomach.
She elbowed him in the face before pushing him away and attempting to run again, though when she ran she felt something wrap around her arm and grab her. Jaden had swiped her grapple gun off her belt and fired it at her, he dragged her back before running and drop-kicking her making her fall to the ground.
"Enough you filthy Jedi!" She said before unholstering her rifle and pointing it at him and pulling the trigger, though Jaden managed to alter the direction of her rifle so she shot the ceiling above though the sound did hurt his ears. The woman kicked Jaden before firing again forcing Jaden to roll to the side, as he rushed to her she tried to hit him with the butt of her rifle though he caught it with his hand and they entered a struggle where they tried to grasp the rifle from each other "You don't fight like a Jedi!" She said with narrowed eyes before headbutting him and booting him a couple of feet away.
"No matter, you'll die regardless," she said with a malicious grin before pointing the rifle at Jaden and firing.
*BOOM*
The rifle exploded in her hands sending her crashing to the floor, Jaden smirked as he stood up and pulled his lightsaber into his hands from where it fell. While they were grappling with each other trying to get the rifle Jaden managed to fiddle with the power core and overload it causing it to explode when she pulled the trigger 'Not a very Jedi way of winning but then again I'm not a Jedi,' he thought with a grin as he ignited his lightsaber and held it against her neck.
"Surrender..." he said, though when he looked at her she didn't have the look of defeat on her.
"Have a nice trip," she said as she waved before pressing a button on a panel on her forearm. Jaden frowned but then he looked down and saw he had a device on his chest 'Is that a portable thruster?' He thought to himself just before it activated and sent him flying down the corridor right back into the engine room slamming him into a wall and knocking him out.
———————————————————
Jaden woke up with a massive amount of pain in his head, he groaned as he leaned up from the bed he was in. As his vision cleared he looked around and saw a medical bot standing over his bed "What happened?" He asked.
"You were diagnosed with a stage 3 concussion, minor bruises and lacerations to the body," the Medical bot stated as it read the diagnoses on him.
Jaden breathed out a sigh as he lay back down "Give me something for the pain," he ordered, the medical bot grabbed a syringe and injected it into Jaden's arm giving him slight relief from the pain he felt.
However, it seemed Jaden wasn't going to be allowed to relax as Admiral Novak walked into the medical bay "General." He said bluntly as he walked over towards the bed.
"Admiral, did you manage to catch her?" Jaden replied though he didn't bother to stand or even lean up.
"Unfortunately not, she took an escape pod down to her planet though we did manage to confiscate her ship," Novak informed him.
"Who was she?" He asked.
"She's a rather well-known Bounty Hunter who goes by the name Aurra Sing, you should count yourself lucky she didn't kill you, you wouldn't be the first Jedi to be killed by her." He stated.
"I don't feel particularly lucky," Jaden said as he rubbed his head.
"How's the engine," he then asked
Admiral Novak sighed "It seems Aurra didn't account for the modifications made to the Defender's engines and so when she attempted to blow them up the yield was only enough to burst the coolant," Novak explained.
"The repairs are underway and shouldn't delay us too much, but republic command will want to have a full inspection done before we make the jump," he continued.
Jaden nodded "Then I'll make sure to stay out of your way," he said.
Novak chuckled "Once you're healed I expect you to resume your training," he stated, Jaden had to try hard to stifle a groan as he turned around. Novak took the hint and turned around and left the medical bay but before he did he turned around "Oh I almost forgot," he said as he handed him his lightsaber.
"Thank you, Admiral," Jaden said as he took the lightsaber from him.
"Think nothing of it, it's the least I can do to thank you for your assistance," Novak said before nodding and walking out of the medical bay.
Jaden just lay there as he looked at his lightsaber 'I should've just tried to escape,' he thought to himself.
(AN: Next chapter will finally have the Defender finally getting underway and hopefully will end with the fleet battle starting, don't quote me on that though as I make this stuff up as I go along. Anyway Aurra would probably defeat Jaden pretty handily but she wasn't trying to, she was trying to escape. Anyway hope you enjoyed the chapter.)
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