As Revan closed in on her target, she took a moment to check in on the other operations both inside the mining facility and in orbit. She sank her perception deeper into the Force and focused her Farsight on the fleet first.
Unsurprisingly, the pirate fleet was in full retreat without having done much actual damage to her own battlegroup. Without the Jedi to give them an advantage, the pirate fleet was just an amalgamation of stolen, refurbished, or outdated ships mostly chosen for speed and cargo capacity. Certainly one or two of the ships could put up a decent fight against something like a light cruiser if the situation demanded it, but the rest were largely facing the problems that the Migrant Fleet had before Revan annexed them into the Empire.
Poor maintenance, subpar repairs, aging weapons and technology.
The average Turian patrol group would have been enough to destroy this fleet, let alone a Harrower.
The Pirates obviously recognized that fact as well, because most of the fleet was accelerating away from the planet as fast as their engines could take them, while others looked like they were striking off independently. Those that were either too slow or had tried to fight back and were now getting picked apart by turbolaser fire.
Which meant besides the Jedi the entire attacking force was basically dealt with within…
Revan checked the timestamp from when her battlegroup first arrived in the system.
…two hours.
Not a terrible time considering her military was still getting used to their new equipment and working together after three centuries of fighting a cold war between themselves. But if they were going to retake worlds from the Reapers they would have to be better. There had been moments of hesitation and confusion as groups ran into resistance or orders being unclear. Something normally unavoidable in a military operation outside rare occurrences, but when their enemies were enslaved to an overmind that could coordinate the entire battlefield at once even those small errors could be fatal.
Unfortunately Revan could only rely on others to solve that issue.
She made a note to bring up the errors with the officers in charge of the ground detachment just as she and her two Geth guards reached the final door to the central power generator.
Unless she somehow slipped past Revan's senses, this is where the Jedi was waiting. It was the only place in the facility secure enough that the 'weapon' Revan hinted was on this planet could be stored.
A weapon that did not exist.
The Empress wondered if the Jedi had realised that yet. Or if assumptions and arrogance had blinded them to the possibility.
The door opened as the group of three approached. Inside were the remaining survivors of the pirate group Revan had run into earlier, but they were not the Sith's focus. That was reserved for the Asari in black Justicar leathers who was similarly watching Revan with absolute focus despite the leader of the pirate group screaming in her face.
The pirates eventually noticed Revan's arrival as well. There were several spikes of fear from each one as they realised the Sith had caught up with them followed by relief and acceptance as the Jedi muttered something to the group.
Revan was half expecting it to be some promise she would protect them or that Revan could be defeated by them working together, so she was actually surprised when the pirates simply ran deeper into the power generator, completely abandoning the Jedi to face Revan and her Geth alone.
It was also more tactically sound than Revan was expecting. Because while, yes, Revan currently had the Jedi outnumbered, she couldn't just leave pirates running around the main reactor without risking them either damaging something important and disabling the whole facility for an unknown amount of time at best…or them causing a reactor to go critical and kill them all in a massive explosion at worst.
So Revan was left with no choice but to order her two bodyguards to hunt down the remaining pirates and leave the Jedi to her.
As the two Geth Juggernauts skirted the edge of the room before taking after the pirates, Revan stepped forward while pulling her second lightsaber to her hand with the Force but left both of them off for now.
"I'm surprised, Jedi. No attempts at all to protect your followers? It's thanks to you that they are being hunted down right now, I'd have thought you would at least try and work with the few that managed to reach you after you led them into a trap." Revan deliberately taunted.
The Asari Jedi didn't react beyond reaching for her own saber. "You overestimate how much value I place on thieves and murderers, Sith. They served their purpose and if they are finally punished for their crimes here, then that was simply the will of the Force."
Revan frowned at the answer. That was very against the general attitude of the Jedi Order she was used to.
Certainly there were individuals that had a more pragmatic outlook to killing or allies being killed, but not many of them would be as callously indifferent about their deaths as this Jedi seemed to be. Only those on the verge of 'falling' would dismiss their deaths as punishment for past deeds.
Either there had been some significant drift from when the Order was first established in this galaxy or this Jedi Order followed a very different philosophy from what Revan was familiar with because that remark was almost Sithlike. But then Enes Daliza had been more inline with what she had expected from a Jedi Master. Was it just different individual outlooks in the Order? Separate factions and how they operated? Revan didn't have enough information to know for sure.
…No matter. Obtaining a source of more information about the Jedi was the whole reason for this trap in the first place. After this hopefully Revan would have a much clearer picture on who was attempting to stop her from saving the galaxy from the Reapers and whether they did so out of dogma…or incompetence.
"Is that so? Then know this, Jedi, I am Darth Revan, Empress of the Sith and I will not allow you and your band of thieves and murderers to continue terrorizing the innocent citizens of my Empire. I will give you one opportunity to surrender and face fair judgement for your crimes."
Revan's words had their intended effect. The Jedi's eyes widened in disgusted disbelief that a Sith was proclaiming to be protecting the innocent from the Jedi and immediately responded, "Any that willingly follow a Sith are not innocents. If they stand between us and our mission, they will be removed."
The Empress looked around the generator room. "Yes, your mission to…do what exactly?" She said sarcastically. "Besides killing miners and raiding transports carrying supplies for the refugees fleeing the Reapers. And don't say it was to draw me out so you could kill me. You obviously had no idea I would even be near this planet when you began your attack."
"Don't twist the truth, Sith, we know you have a weapon being developed here. You were not the first to attempt perverting the Saint Stones to cause harm. The Goddess sent visions of your heresy and I know that the people here are just shields for your ambition. I am Jedi Master Lymrase Jatora. And your empire of darkness falls today!"
"How dramatic." Revan stated, lightsabers igniting in her hands. "As long as you ignore the Reapers burning their way across the galaxy. The Reapers that my Empire is fighting while your Order works to stab every sentient in the back."
Lymrase Jatora had no answer for that. None beyond igniting her own lightsaber and launching herself at Revan, anyway.
The Sith ducked under the attack and responded with a slash of her own that was quickly parried as the two fell into a deadly dance of blades.
-o-
Tali'Zorah vas Normandy POV
"The last group of pirates located in this sector have been eliminated, ma'am. We're ready to move on your orders."
Tali desperately wanted the fidget with her hands as everyone looked at her, but somehow held off.
She had some experience with leading people as the head of a Science Team, but that wasn't the same as being an Admiral! What drugs had the Admiralty Board loaded their suits with that they thought promoting her to fill the empty spot left by her father had been a good idea?!
"Thank you, Reegar. Any sign of enemy reinforcements?" She asked mostly to buy time to compose herself.
"Nothing coming groundside that we can detect and if they manage to slip something past the fleet we have topside, I'll eat Vall's rifle." The marine replied, getting an offended glare from his squadmate.
"Not your own?" Tali asked curiously, knowing that wasn't how that phrase was typically used.
Reegar huffed indignantly. "Of course not. My rifle is a meticulously maintained precision instrument. Vall's is just mass produced garbage you can grab in any old armory."
"They're the same damn rifle." Vall protested. "We were issued them at the same time!"
"And I can hit a target from 500 meters with mine while yours can't hit a bulkhead from the inside of a ship."
Tali chuckled at the byplay and felt some of the tension bleed out of her shoulders. "Alright, if we're sure the way is clear we can begin transporting the rescued miners to one of the other facilities."
"Aye, aye Ma'am." Reegar straightened up and lost some of his joking tone. "We'll also have squads start making sweeps for any traps or sabotage the pirates might have left behind."
Tali hadn't even considered that but she had learned enough about leadership from Shepard that sometimes it was better to just act like you already knew what was going on when a subordinate made a good suggestion.
"Do it, and speaking of sabotage, have we re-secured the main generator? I haven't heard anything after the security alert sent the notification that the doors had been overridden."
"Not yet, but we were told Empress Revan was heading there personally to deal with the leader of the pirate fleet so it should just be a matter of time."
Tali nodded at that, it was hard to imagine a pirate doing much to stand up to the force of nature Revan seemed to be.
Just when she was about to excuse herself and let the marines get back to doing their jobs, one of the Geth stepped forward. "Tali-Admiral, we believe there is an anomaly that requires your judgement." they said and immediately produced a data tablet showing one of the security feeds. On it was a group of workers exiting a security door of some kind before a young looking Asari walked up to them. The group looked cautious and afraid until the Asari just…waved a hand and said something? The workers simply let her join their group after, so Tali wasn't exactly sure what she was supposed to be looking for.
"When this group was secured by an Imperial squad in the area all individuals were asked to provide identification. This individual was identified as Teveezra Nuraora, a member of the cleaning staff."
Tali racked her brain trying to think of why the Geth would call out this asari in particular. The obvious answer was an infiltrator but if that was all they would have simply notified the squad that brought that group in and apprehend her.
"Is she not in the system?"
"Teveezra Nuraora appears in several systems as a newly hired employee that has been on site for the past three months. When other members of the group were asked about her presence, several of them confirmed that she had been present for at least that long."
"What's the problem then?"
"Teveezra Nuraora appears in several separate systems, however upon reviewing the facility's security footage for the past three months the Geth have been unable to locate her once before today."
Definitely an infiltrator then. And one that was only caught because the Geth could review months worth of footage in minutes. But then how did she convince the other workers that they knew her in seconds?
Tali had a sinking feeling in her stomach as she asked the Geth to provide all the images they had of Teveezra. A feeling that was confirmed when one of the earliest of them showed a familiar metal cylinder peeking out from the Asari's probably stolen jacket.
There was a second Jedi among the pirates' forces.
And they had at least fifteen hostages nearby that would be put in danger if Tali didn't handle this correctly.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Support the Author at ko-fi.com/azurawriting
or over at patreon.com/AzuraWriting to read a few chapters ahead in the rotation