HTTYD-Star Wars: ECLIPSE

Part 8

244CORE Part 2

C473 eyed the blue-skinned humanoid that stood in front of him. His space suit had seen better days and was caked with space dust. "Thrawn" He said with a raised eyebrow as the man gave a short nod. "Call me Tris" He told the man as he indicated for him to follow. They entered the room that the clone woke up in and Navida came from the cockpit. "A Chiss?!" Navida exclaimed in surprise as she saw the person they rescued stand at attention. "A Chiss with an old Empire SOS beacon?" She mumbled more to herself as her eyes narrowed.

"And this is Navida." He introduced and wondered what she was going on about.

"Ah, this charming young lady is the pilot of your vessel. I am Thrawn." Thrawn stated as he observed the blue Twi'lek. "I'm surprised, you remind me of another Twi'lek pilot I used to know years ago."

Tris raised a brow feeling that there was a story behind that but before he could ask anything he heard Navida say in an icy voice "I know who you are Grand Admiral. You were sent to snuff out the Twi'lek rebellion on Ryloth afterall."

"I will not excuse any actions I have taken during my military career." He told Navida pointedly. "But I am however no longer a Grand Admiral. I haven't been one for several years."

"Why were those men chasing you?" Navida now asked.

"I would assume that they wanted me dead." Thrawn stated.

"Well, we'll be at 244CORE within a few hours for a resupply." She told both of them. "I'm sure you can find your way from there."

"Very well, but I don't know how welcome I would be on 244Core now." Thrawn stated as Tris raised a brow. "I owe you both my life and wish to repay it properly."

"Well, maybe you could tell us why you were being chased?" Tris asked and tried to appeal to the tactician's side he observed from the man, afterall you don't get to be Grand Admiral of any galactic power without being able to back it up. "If you're coming with us then it would be prudent to know what dangers we might face being associated with you."

Thrawn gave a small nod as he sat down, fingers laced in front of him, back straight. The Lothcat, who had been lying under an ornate metal table, popped its head out and observed the man with caution before jumping out entirely and making his way quickly to the bridge where C1 gave a startled beep and was followed by a crash and more annoyed beeping. Thrawn raised a brow at the Lothcat but then turned back to his two rescuers that had also taken a seat.

"To explain this in detail I would have to go back to before I joined the Empire." He stated. "I was part of the military belonging to the Chiss Ascendancy. One day I was tasked with an important mission, to evaluate the Galactic powers outside the Unknown regions and determine if either the Republic or the Empire would be valuable allies for my people."

"Why?" Navida asked.

"That I cannot tell you. It is of no relevance to what happened here." He stated. Tris swept a light tendril of the Force at Thrawn to read his surface thoughts to see what he was hiding. He found Thrawn's mind guarded extremely well. The Chiss merely raised a brow in Tris's direction, indicating that he knew what the clone was doing, but said nothing. He must be used to mental probing Tris mused and wondered if he had been subjected to it repeatedly to build up those defenses.

"As you can imagine. I successfully infiltrated the Empire and afterwards rose through the ranks fairly quickly. I was to secure the Empire as an ally to the Chiss but was defeated on Lothal before that could happen. My stardestroyer was sent flying into hyperspace and ended up somewhere in the Unknown Regions. When I managed to make it back to my homeplanet, Csilla, they were less than pleased with what had transpired."

"So you got into trouble with the higher ups." Navida commented as Thrawn gave a nod.

"The Chiss Ascendancy is not so forgiving for failure." he sighed. "I was exiled after a farce of a hearing and sent into space with minimal provisions."

"How do the people chasing you factor in?" Tris asked.

"My provisions, of course, would not last indefinitely so I sought other employment. That was how I came to 244Core. As you must know, it is a corporate controlled government. The main mining companies vying for control of the planet are Eeook Mining and Reclamation and Tor-Ro-Bo Industries."

"Well, both companies employ their fair share of industrial spies." Navida thought out loud. "You'd be right at home there."

"Yes, my unique skill set did get me employment swiftly, however I was not engaging in industrial espionage yet."

"Yet?" Both asked skeptically.

"It was after a certain incident that it became necessary." Thrawn stated as he looked straight at the two. "I was employed as the mining supervisor for the western region belonging to Eeook. The area contained several mines. That was where I met Dro. He was the foreman of the largest rare metal mine in that area and he quickly became one of the few I consider a friend."

"Did this incident involve your friend then?" Navida asked.

"It involved his daughter." Thrawn admitted. "A young girl. She was kidnapped by spies employed by Tor-Ro-Bo. They threatened Dro to halt mining operations in return for his daughter but the company president would not listen and ordered the mining operations to resume. Closing that mine would have had a major impact on the finances of the company and that would have been enough to tip the ongoing power struggle."

"That's heartless!" Navida exclaimed.

"Indeed," Thrawn stated. "Dro asked me if I knew of a way to save his daughter and that was where the plan began. I planned to infiltrate Tor-Ro-Bo Industries and find the whereabouts of the girl."

"You didn't succeed?" The Twi'lek now asked as she looked concerned.

"I did. Dro and his daughter have already been reunited. They decided that 244Core was much too dangerous and opted to find a new planet to settle on." He explained. "The plan however needed me to give up my job. The men that shot down my ship and subsequently chased me were most likely bounty hunters hired by both companies."

"UGH, well you certainly know how to make waves." Navida grumbled as Tris caught on to what was happening. "So Tor-Ro-Bo sent hunters after you as retaliation and Eeook sent some to silence you in case you took company secrets with you." He stated as he assessed the blue man.

"Can we have a moment?" Navida asked as she quickly grabbed Tris's arm and dragged him to the bridge. Once the doors wooshed shut C1 beeped annoyed and pointed to a console the droid had been using where the Lothcat languidly lay with not a care in the galaxy.

"No C1, you may not throw the cat out of the airlock." C473 groaned as the droid started cursing Lothcats in general now. He then looked at Navida. "What did you want to talk about?"

"We can't go to 244Core now. We'd be considered accomplices. The bountyhunters will be after us just as much as him." She reasoned.

"They would already be after us since we rescued him. I doubt that they aren't searching for this ship now as it is." Tris told her. "Do we even have enough fuel to make it to another planet?"

"No" Navida sighed. "The fuel cells were already half depleted when we stole it."

"What if he stays on the ship while we resupply." Tris suggested. Navida shot him a look of disbelief and put her hands on her hips. "You are actually suggesting that a former Grand Admiral of the Empire, a spy, and Makers knows what else stays unsupervised on my ship!!!" She incredulously exclaimed. "Have you gotten a read on him?"

"Not exactly. His mind is guarded." Tris mentioned.

"So we don't even know if what he told us was the truth at all. I certainly don't want to get stranded on a mining planet again."

"Again?" C1 asked with a beep.

"Long story." She grumbled. "I'm not leaving him unsupervised." She stated and then suddenly smiled as she looked at Tris. "I have a solution though. You stay with Thrawn on the ship and I go to gather the supplies."

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" Tris mumbled.