Revan stared down at the planet from the bridge of her flagship.
It was fairly unimpressive, all told. A mostly barren rock only just capable of supporting a breathable atmosphere. If it weren't for the valuable minerals found there, Revan was quite confident no one but the most desperate would consider living there.
But since those minerals were there, there were several large mining communities scattered across the surface that were in constant communication with each other.
So when one of those sites issued an invasion alert about pirates, every site capable of it went into lockdown and a call was almost instantly sent out to the wider galaxy asking for help lifting the siege.
A call that was nearly prevented thanks to some concerningly broad and powerful signal jamming that was only foiled thanks to one of the new hyperwave communications terminals the Empire had started rolling out across the Terminus systems.
In fact, if the jamming effect truly was planetary in scope, the pirates might have been expecting each mining community to be cut off from each other – allowing for a series of lightning raids at each one while the miners struggled to figure out what was going on.
This was not something the average group of pirates was capable of.
Another thing they shouldn't have been capable of was spotting Revan's battlegroup as it dropped out of hyperspace and relocating to the other side of the moon without an active scan or dedicated line of sight. If they had arrived by Mass Relay or more conventional FTL Revan could have maybe chalked it up to some impressive sensors, but the enemy fleet had already been in the process of maneuvering before the fleet actually arrived.
Which meant a Force User.
"Admiral Zorah, report."
To her credit the young quarian didn't hesitate to step forward. Despite the largely political reasons for her promotion, Tali'Zorah was performing very well.
"According to the distress call that was sent out, the planet was being attacked by fourteen destroyer to cruiser class ships." She read off a datapad. "We can update that to eighteen based off our own scans. Though six of those seem to be modified cargo haulers than actual warships."
"And what do you suspect their goal is? A slave raid?"
Tali'Zorah shook her head. "Unlikely. If that was their goal they would have chosen a more populated world or attacked several mining sites at once. If they can jam an entire world, they can definitely coordinate several simultaneous raids, but their ground forces are mostly camped out in just one so far." She thought about it for a moment before hesitantly offering an answer. "They could be trying to steal the minerals stored there. With the Reapers around, raw materials are going to be more valuable than ever and it would explain the cargo haulers. Lithium, cobalt, and platinum specifically are going to be worth a fortune even in a raw state."
It was a decent guess considering the information available to her and Revan was sure to tell her so, but that wasn't the reason for this attack.
"I'm sure that's what most people would assume after investigating the aftermath of the attack, especially since that has been their objective the last several times they have attacked our shipping lines. But no, they are likely after a 'prototype weapon system' currently being built at the facility our pirates seem to coincidentally be attacking."
"A prototype weapon? But how would they even know about something like that?" Tali'Zorah asked. "The Geth manage most of our security and with all due respect, these are pirates. There's no way an informant with high enough clearance to know about a secret project would be willing to work with them."
That was very true.
Thanks to most of the current Empire consisting of what used to be the Migrant Fleet or planets that had to deal with the occasional warlord, there were very few people that would even consider having a casual conversation with a known pirate, let alone passing along vital information about secrets.
It was a distrust bred from decades of wondering if the next pirate raid would be the end of their homes or lives. But the answer was also very simple.
"I leaked the location." Revan said simply.
"...what?"
Tali'Zorah wasn't the only one shocked. Several bridge officers ceased pretending to not be listening in on their conversation to openly stare at the Sith Empress.
"To be more accurate, I suspected there was someone backing the pirate fleet we've been dealing with and set a trap for them. There is a reason a backwater like this has a hyperwave transmitter after all." Revan said as she brought up the image she had seeded to several information brokers. "I simply set out the right kind of bait."
"I recognise that device." Tali'Zorah murmured. "It's the thing you took from Haestrom, right? I think you called it a holocron? How could something like that be a weapon?"
"It can't. Or at least not in the way most people consider things to be a weapon." Revan replied. "A holocron is a tool to preserve the totality of a Sith or Jedi's knowledge and pass that down to those that pass certain requirements."
"How does it do that?"
"The creator makes an imprint on the holocron through the Force. If you were capable of using one and had one made by me, it would be no different than if we were discussing something over a holocall."
"So it's like an AI?"
Revan paused to consider her answer. This wasn't exactly a conversation she had been expecting to have, but it could be beneficial to have others capable of recognising a holocron and what they could do. "Not…in the sense that you mean." She said eventually. "The imprint is intelligent to a degree, but it is…static is probably the best word for it. To use my earlier example, if you had a full holocron made by me and asked about a topic I am well-versed in – it could explain as well as I could with little to no distinction. But if you asked it something I have no knowledge of, say the biology of a newly discovered species, it could make assumptions and inferences based on what was available to it but it would not be able to truly learn anything new."
"Ah, more like a traditional VI then. It can assist with a task but it is not sentient." Tali'Zorah made a noise of understanding, only for Revan to shake her head.
"That is actually a topic of much debate among Jedi and Sith. It's true that a holocron cannot generally learn past its creation, but there are several examples of holocrons – usually Sith created ones – influencing their users in complex ways that should be beyond an imprint. Convincing them to follow certain rules of thought that go against their default personalities, guiding them to locations even when the creator had never been there, and at least one attempt that I know of at overwriting whoever accessed the holocron with the creator's personality."
Tali'Zorah gave the image a concerned look. "And that was just laying around for nearly three hundred years. I'm almost afraid to think of what our ancestors were attempting to use it for."
"They were actually using it as the processor for starmap." Revan said, a hint of a smile in her voice. "I should probably mention what I described is not the only use for a holocron, some are also capable of storing and processing vast amounts of raw data. Comparatively few are created with a full imprint, most are simply restricted to a singular topic."
"I get it. So most would only create a holocron for something like mechanical skills." The young admiral nodded. "Then why were you so sure the pirates' backer would try to take it?"
"Because creating even a simple holocron is the work of a master. And a nichely skilled one at that." Revan explained. "The one I have seems to have actually originated from my home galaxy as well, so it would not surprise me if the Jedi I've run into are unaware of its true origin and think there are a limited amount throughout this galaxy. The Jedi using these pirates as a screen simply cannot leave one in my possession and will obviously do their best to 'reclaim' it as soon as possible."
It was one of her favorite strategies for dealing with other Force Users – especially ones that relied on Force Visions of the future. Even though Revan was notoriously unskilled at divining the future herself, all she had to do was set things up so that her opponent would be forced to come to her.
Most of the time, they would be blinded by their own visions and taken by surprise when Revan's trap was sprung, or they would convince themselves that they could beat her regardless and face her directly. Not that that usually worked out in their favor.
Much like what had happened here.
This Jedi had either missed that this world was a trap or had blindly trusted their divinations to see them through whatever Revan had planned…only to be caught with their pants down as Revan's battlegroup jumped into the system.
The Jedi was powerful enough to see the pirate fleet needed to retreat to a more defensible location, but not without stranding their ground forces in the process.
Right where she wanted them.
"Prepare the assault teams for landing and transfer control of the fleet to Captain Nulan."
-o-
-Nulia D'ysero POV-
She should have known that working with a Justicar would come back to bite her in the ass at some point.
Sure, raiding some backwater Empire set up by the newest Terminus warlord was fun and set to make her crew richer than the last decade of raiding had, and Justicar Lymrase had somehow been able to predict whenever the defense patrols were coming so they could slip away without much effort…
But now the game had ended and she and her crew were stuck on an almost literal dirtball while their rides had to run away from dreadnought class ships. Leaving them on their own while over a dozen shuttles were headed right towards the mining facility they had only mostly taken over.
In short, they were fucked. And Nulia was fully aware what happened to pirates and raiders in this section of the galaxy.
Lymrase had fucked off at some point too, which wasn't surprising but wasn't helpful either.
"Captain, what do we do?"
Surrender and hope the Imperials had a thing for pleasure slaves? It wouldn't be the first time Nulia spent a few decades dancing on a pole. But no, that would only work if they had been minor annoyances instead of a large pirate fleet.
Surrendering without assurances was a good way to get a bullet in the head. Which meant they needed to put up enough of a fight that the Imperials would cut a deal instead of flushing them out of their hole or Lymrase found an escape route.
Instead of answering her subordinate directly, Nulia pulled up her omnitool. "All right everyone, the free ride is over and we've got incoming. Bunker down and get ready for a fight!" She closed the device and looked at her panicked squad. "Grab what you can and get everyone ready to sprint right for the closest shuttle to land."
"We running, Captain?"
"We're securing a way off this rock. Anything we get our hands on is probably newer than the pieces of shit we came here on. We can meet up with the fleet in orbit once they swing around again." Nulia countered. Never let the underlings know how bad things were until they couldn't do anything but follow or you had a solution. Rule number one for managing a pirate crew.
Running implied they were completely fucked and it was everyone for themselves. Stealing a shiny new shuttle? That was just business as usual.
At least, that's what everyone would pretend.
Nuila didn't care as long as that meant she escaped with her life. She could always try building another pirate fleet later if she wanted…or finally take her mother's offer about joining the family business.
Her musing about the future was interrupted by the sounds of rockets exploding overhead. All of them looked towards the sky to see a boxy shuttle with angular sides shake off the explosions and land on the other side of a cluster of buildings.
"Durable fucking things." Someone commented, and Nulia agreed. Three rockets to the hull and the shuttle barely looked scuffed. It must have had some really good shields.
Wonderful. Exactly what they needed to help them get out of this mess.
"There's our ride. Let's get moving, last one on board buys the drinks!"
There weren't any cheers or shit like that, but that got the whole group of pirates moving towards the landing zone. Nulia hung back around the middle of the group for maximum protection and to load up the listening program she had installed on every member of her group's omnitool.
Screams, gunfire, and other general sounds of combat.
Nothing she could use to tell which side was winning, but nothing that changed her plan to get the hell off this goddess-forsaken rock. Lymrase had mentioned the leader of the Empire wouldn't hesitate to order an orbital bombardment if it suited her, and Nulia wasn't going to stay long enough to find out if that attitude was shared by the rest of the Empire's officers.
Her group continued through the buildings in the hope that they would be undiscovered until they were in a position to sneak up on the shuttle. That hope was dashed when their group turned a corner and found a squad of Quarian marines in some new design of dark grey armor.
"Contact! Blast them!"
Nulia cursed as bright red bolts of energy streaked by them as most of the pirates moved to dive into whatever cover they could find as fast as possible. She said most because one unfortunate bastard caught a bolt in the face. Kinetic shields barely did shit to plasma or energy shots and without a helmet, half the poor Batarian's face was blasted off. At least his death was probably quick.
The surviving members of her group started to return fire but Nulia already knew this wasn't a fight they could win straight up.
The marines had kinetic shields and weapons that almost ignored the shields her group did. They probably had reinforcements on the way too, so Nulia needed to get moving.
She popped out of cover and fired at one of the marines until the old Banshee assault rifle overheated. Fucker didn't even have the courtesy to die either. He just screamed in pain as a shot finally got through his shields and armor and fell behind a crate, clutching at a bleeding shoulder.
Nulia was still going to count it as a kill. With how fucked their immune systems were, chances are the marine would drop dead from an infection a few days from now anyway. No amount of antibiotics would do shit about the Polonium Rounds weapon mod she had installed.
Still, that was only one down compared to the thre– there was a scream and a thud a few feet away – four that the marines had killed. She needed to find a way to turn this fight around quickly.
As if mocking that idea, one of the nearby doors exploded and two Geth Juggernauts walked in through the smoke. The pirates froze at the sight of the massive murder machines and only snapped out of it when they both focused on the one engineer in her group and hosed her down with their rifles. Between the two of them, the unfortunate asari was nearly cut in half from the sudden onslaught of energy bolts despite having one of the better armors in the group.
That was it. Time to leave.
"Everyone fall back!" She shouted, already running back the way they came.
She needed to find Lymrase ASAP. If anyone had a plan to get out of this mess it was going to be that bitch.
And Nulia was now at the point she didn't care what she had to do, she was going to be following along.
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