Star Wars After the Awakening Part II: The End

IC: Bron Dooku
Ando mountains, secret tunnels

Dooku glanced back briefly at the debris blocking the secret entrance to the tunnel, feeling a pinch of guilt in his stomach while thinking of the dead and the wounded still in the library. But she was right, of course. Just the two of them (mostly her, really) could not have saved everyone. The Force, he thought, would have to provide for the afflicted. Question time or not, Jade had started walking, so the scholar followed suit. Dassid tagged along, rolling so silently one could have sworn he was gliding. In fact, the droid was uncharacteristically quiet, perhaps the effect of a mild shock—or the robotic equivalent thereof.

Despite the tense situation, Dooku allowed himself a small smile. "Well met then, Mara Jade. I suspected as much, indeed." As she did not react, he continued: "I wish we'd become acquainted with each other in different, better circumstances. As you probably know, I grew up with your sister-in-law, and I did meet your husband twice." Upon mentioning Luke Skywalker, Dooku knitted his graying eyebrows. "If you need someone else to find him, I take it that he's somehow disappeared? Was he captured?" To the Serennian, that was some distressing news. He'd been working in near total isolation for over ten months, and it seemed that galaxy-shattering events had taken place in the mean time. With the Grand Master of the new Jedi off the charts, the entire universe instantly became a more hazardous place.

The red haired woman seemed to need to compose herself. "The Order was destroyed. By his nephew - Ben. He refused to accept what had happened was not just his fault - that Ben clearly had planned the destruction of the Temple for some time... that Snoke was the true darkness."

She released a breath in the still air of the tunnel. "He had... he had taken some kind of terrible wound. It was not fear - but guilt. He took it so deeply into him, that he would not tell me what happened." There was a bite of her lip, but Dooku would not see that. She was unburdening herself to a stranger. Perhaps that showed just how desperate things truly were. "The New Republic has been shattered - destroyed by a superweapon that took down the capital, and High Command. The Senate is gone." Facts. Much easier to convey and grapple with. "We need to rally the galaxy against the First Order - the Imperials who never gave up. They’ve hid - rebuilt - in the Unknown Regions."

The woman paused. Her throat was dry in the dust. It was the longest she had spoken in days - since she set out on this quest.

Almost hit by the train of bad news, Bron felt something caught in his throat. Dassid, who'd remained eerily silent while running a self-diagnostic program, emmitted a metallic squeak. Never in his worst nightmares had Bron expected such a disaster to take place while he was away from civilization. Another man would have fallen short for words, but a count of Serenno could not afford that luxury.

"Needless to say, the fate of the entire galaxy rests within the hands of a few heroes. It's happened before, and I'm fairly confident those heroes will triumph again. They have to. I will, of course, stand beside you, as should every gentlebeing worthy of the name." Raising his eyebrows and blinking, he added: "What I'm not sure about, is what kind of hand I can lend a resourceful woman like you; I'm afraid I am mostly a dull professor in a cape. Also, what was House Borgin doing here? I take it they're working with this First Order?"

A curt nod. "You are correct. House Borgin is aware that the neutral systems will look to Serenno for their leader, much as it did before the Clone Wars, and even after the Battles of Endor and the destruction of Byss. They seek to command that momentum and steer it towards the First Order." She paused. "As such even though you are a lowly professor in a cape, you command respect by your lineage on Serenno... and if Serenno is divided, then the neutral systems could be steered back towards the Galactic Alliance... even if we do, we’ll be delaying the galaxy's fall to weeks plural rather than days..."

She said little else as they made it to the end of the tunnel. Peering across, she glanced back at Dassid. "Can you scan ahead? I’m sensing something electronic but can’t pick out what."

"What" was a YVH-1 battle droid, standing in-front of the yacht, the Jade Shadow. It was armed, and had been alerted to expect an arrival from the way of the Temple even if the agents of House Borgin did not know precisely how.

It was as if Dassid had suddenly awaken from his slumber. "Oh, Maker!" he cried. "Master Bron, there seems to be a battle droid standing between us and the ship… and my sensors detect laminarium alloy!" His photoreceptors flashed in yellow robotic terror.
The Count of Serenno shook his head in disbelief. Never had he imagined people would sic such a rare killing machine on him.

"A Tendrando YVH 1! First a gunship, and now this? I may not think of myself as important, but it seems clear that House Borgin does not want me to partake in your cruisade." Jade did not say anything, but Dooku saw that she was now clenching her jaws. "What shall we do?"

TAG: @Sinrebirth