Guarded (#2 Post-Order 66 Series)

Guarded - Part 25

"Keren. That's the place."

Sabé tapped her finger on the glowing red dot on the holo map they had pulled up of the planet. Echo stroked his chin as he considered it. He knew the city of Keren was the largest trading city on Naboo. It was one of the first places he'd identified early on as a potential target but had pushed it to the bottom of his list due to its size and value. It won't be easily taken.

He, Sabé, and Senna were alone in the dining area once more. Senna had taken over the opposite end of the large wooden table with her tools and datapad. A courier had delivered Gadge's belongings well before the sun rose, and Senna had been working at it ever since. Echo had lost count of the number of cups of caf she'd consumed, but he guessed it had to be at least five. The tip of her tongue poked out as she concentrated on soldering wires in place for the cable she was creating. When he'd asked, she'd muttered something about it being an adapter that would allow her datapad to plug in through the comm port along with some other technical stuff he didn't understand, but he'd nodded and let her be.

Turning back to Sabé, he zoomed in on the city she'd selected. A three-dimensional map of Keren popped into view. The central part of the city was bordered by Lake Varum on the northern and eastern edges with the various industrial districts surrounding residential areas and the Government Education Center. Kwilaan Starport, the heart of the city's trade enterprise rose from the city's southwestern corner, an impressive complex able to manage the bustling traffic that travelled there when Naboo had been an unoccupied planet. Now, Echo assumed it was mostly planetside traders that used the port, hopping in from the various cities around Naboo. From what the spies had told them, the Empire had taken over the Government Education Center as their main point of operation, using the starport to transport their troops and supplies in and out.

In Echo's mind, it could be taken, but only really from one direction. They'd have to drive a wedge in between the starport and the Education Center, taking the port first to keep reinforcements from being able to arrive. After that, it'd be a matter of fighting their way into the Government Education Center and gaining control there. If they could do that, they'd have access to whatever ships were at the starport, plenty of intelligence from whatever was being stored at the Education Center, and access to the city's marine district. He finally paused, looking up at Sabé from across the table. She was watching him intently, trying to gauge how he felt about her proposal.

"Not a bad idea," he said quietly. "We'd have to throw all of our chips on the table to make it happen though. Call in every unit we can to support and then hold once we take it. It's a major port, more important than Spinnaker in my mind due to its central location to many large cities. Might not be a terrible idea to sneak in a little early and do some recon if we can with a smaller group. At this point, might be best if it's the people in this house to keep it close to the vest."

Sabé nodded. "The residential neighborhood is fairly large and hard to monitor since it's so spread out. Sneaking in there shouldn't be an issue. I have an old family property there that's been sitting unused for years. We could use that dwelling as our base of operations while we scout it out."

Echo considered it. "Could work. We'll have to run it by Iden, Typho, and the queen of course."

"Kriff."

Sabé and Echo paused, turning to Senna, who had her head in her hands, the soft green glow of the datapad screen illuminating the creases in her forehead and the bags under her eyes.

"What's wrong?" Echo asked.

The Jedi lifted her head to meet his eyes, grimacing. "Well, the good news is it looks like it was only Gadge. But she was the mole." She turned the datapad towards them. "I was able to recover deleted communications to an encrypted address. She detailed everything, the plan at Spinnaker, the date and time we were targeting, even personnel numbers. She's been feeding them info since they showed up." She ran her fingers through her hair, which hung loosely around her shoulders in tangles, poking out at odd angles. She interlocked her fingers behind her neck, bowing her head as she exhaled deeply. "How are we going to tell Iden? This is going to crush her."