Star Wars: From the Clone Wars to Starfaring Heroes

Chapter 95 - The Horrifying Truth
Fourth Fleet?

After Diedrich finished speaking, he fell into an eerie silence.

After a while, Simon lightly changed the subject: "You've got the tickets you needed, and we've assembled our fleet. Now, let's see how you deliver on your promise, Brigadier General Bontri."

Rein immediately felt several gazes fall on him, especially on Carly Trilm.

If looks could kill, he would probably have been ground to dust ten times over by now.

He understood Carly's anger. From her perspective, Ryan had threatened her not long ago because she was spying for Dooku, but then he did the same thing himself.

As for the differences?
Ryan thought it was unnecessary to say.

Dooku is loyal to Palpatine, the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic, and to the Sith Lord!

He is a user of the dark side from beginning to end!
Of course, nobody knows this.

In the public eye, Dooku enjoys an astonishingly high approval rating and is the spiritual symbol of the Independent Galaxy Confederation.

“Now? Are you sure you want to go public here?” Renn’s gaze swept over every face around the round table.

Simon and his cousin Diedrich were no saints, but that's how political deals work.

If Rennes wants to build a solid alliance to counter Dooku's growing power, the Community Organization, a behemoth, is definitely the ideal starting point.

This organization has a relatively neutral political stance, possesses one of the largest independent fleets in the galaxy, and its core star system happens to be located in the Confederacy's vital industrial foundry belt.

If we can successfully win them over, the future strategy will become much clearer.

Dooku concealed his identity as a Sith Lord, a double-edged sword.

His identity as a "former Jedi Master" has long been overshadowed by his carefully crafted image as an "upright, idealistic separatist leader."

If a shrewd politician like Simon Greshad dares to openly challenge Palpatine in the Senate of the Republic, then he would also raise the banner of rebellion against Dooku if the interests were sufficient.

But if everyone knew that Dooku was a dark wizard who could manipulate Force lightning and used murder as a primary political tool, Raine would have no chance at all.

Therefore, he must seize this brief window of opportunity following Dooku's major setback in Parliament.

This is the perfect opportunity to persuade these wavering individuals, taking advantage of the first cracks appearing in their minds regarding Dooku's absolute authority.

Vinok and Ryan can be trusted.

His ultimate allegiance was to Severn Tann.

From the moment "Operation Flanking" began, General Tann was destined to part ways with Dooku.

Rael Hathor... He is a man of great depth and elusiveness, but with immense potential.

Despite his seemingly cynical appearance and his tendency to operate in gray areas.

Ryan intuitively felt that he still had a moral bottom line deep down. He might not be an idealist, but he was definitely not the kind of person without any principles or bottom line.

Hathor was originally the captain of a Consular-class cruiser of the Republic, but he defected to the separatist camp after witnessing the corruption at the heart of the Republic.

However, during his defection, he inevitably made contact with the underworld of the galaxy and met many other like-minded exiles.

The most troublesome one is undoubtedly Carly Trilm.

The reason is self-evident.

The harsh reality is that Ryan has no choice but to try to win her cooperation.

Regardless of what happened here before he came in, Carly now knows that Raine was secretly investigating Dooku.

If Ryan doesn't get her on board, Dooku will soon find out that Ryan is investigating him.

"What? You're too scared to reveal your 'major discovery' in public?" Carly's voice was hoarse, filled with undisguised sarcasm.

'You have no idea what you're going to be facing.'

Raine sneered inwardly, but said seriously, "If the information here is made public, it will be enough to tear the entire Confederation apart."

This earth-shattering assertion made Carly sit up straight instantly, her previously hostile gaze turning razor-sharp as she locked onto Renn.

In contrast, Simon Greshard's hologram leaned forward excitedly, his signature blue scanning eyes gleaming with greed and anticipation.

He even subconsciously reached out to grab the holographic projector in the center of the table, but only halfway through when he suddenly remembered that he was just a virtual image and awkwardly withdrew his hand.

"Oh? That sounds...very interesting." Simon grinned, trying to cover up his earlier lapse in composure.

“Geb should be ready, Hal…”

Renn nodded to Hal beside him.

Hal shook his head slightly and quickly entered an encrypted address into the data panel.

Raine leaned forward and carefully adjusted the angle of the holographic projector to ensure that the scanning lens was only pointed at him, preventing the receiver from seeing anyone else.

The communication request was accepted almost instantly.

A miniature image of a man and a projection of a dome-shaped astronaut robot popped out from the holographic projector.

The man wore a professional smile, but it was somewhat stiff, and his eyes darted around, revealing a strong sense of unease.

“I remember I paid you a lot of money, and the core requirement was absolute confidentiality, right?” Ryan got straight to the point, his tone carrying an undeniable pressure.

“It’s all clearly written on the bill, sir!” Geb quickly assured him, speaking rapidly. “In our line of work, a client’s trust is our most valuable asset! Everything you asked me to check is safely stored here—”

He patted the dome of the robot beside him. Was that dome made of black metal or painted?
The resolution was too low; even Renne couldn't see it clearly.

"So, what exactly did I ask you to investigate?" Renn asked deliberately, mainly for the audience in the room to hear.

“Uh, it’s like this.” Geb cleared his throat. “Back then, you gave me… about twenty modified CR-90 light frigates, specifically for communications relay and eavesdropping. At that time, the size of my ‘fleet’ was definitely one of the largest in the bounty hunter circle…”

He tried to lighten the mood with a joke, but it didn't work. After taking a deep breath, he continued, "The mission objective is to...access and monitor the core relay station of the holographic network across the main air route between Coruscant and Sereno, with a focus on capturing any...abnormal or highly encrypted communication traffic."

"Coruscant and Sereno?"

Carly's voice suddenly rose, filled with surprise and doubt.

The Greshad brothers, however, were clearly more enthusiastic.

Ryan's mind raced, needing to concoct a plausible, superficial motive.

He couldn't directly say that his target was Count Dooku himself; that would be too blatant and cause more trouble.

He quickly formulated a story in his mind.

“The Republic’s Senate recently passed the Corruption Control Act,” Raine said in a matter-of-fact tone, as if that explained everything.

“Uh—sir, are there... other people over there?” Geb tentatively glanced behind Renn.

“Never mind them, let’s get to the point,” Ryan said casually, then turned to the others in the room to explain, “This bill is incredibly harsh, practically useless. There’s bound to be people who will take the risk of violating regulations. Sereno is Dooku’s stronghold, and Laxus is where the Confederation Congress is located… I’m thinking of digging up some valuable political inside information. That shouldn’t be too much to ask, right?”

Hathor raised an eyebrow and said, "Using more than twenty light frigates for this? That's a huge military resource."

“Just consider it an unofficial naval intelligence gathering operation,” Ryan replied casually, even winking playfully. “The funding comes from General Tann’s secret project budget… Please go on, Geb.”

“Okay…okay.” Geb seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, inserting a micro data chip into the robot interface beside him. “By the way, I’m really sorry for the delay. First, it took a lot of effort to get the latest relay station topology map that wasn’t marked by the Republic’s surveillance, and then sorting through the massive amount of data took even longer. The initial screening results were pretty boring, mostly politicians secretly contacting their mistresses in the secession zone or their stewards hiding slush funds…but then, I caught this ‘little thing’.”

The aerospace mechanic robot emitted a series of confirming beeps and forwarded an encrypted data packet via HAL to the personal data boards of everyone at the round table.

"I...can't understand these coordinate sequences."

Vinok stared at the data panel, his voice tinged with tired confusion.

“These are virtual path addresses that have undergone multiple encryptions and redirects,” Diedrich squinted, his finger sliding across the data panel as he analyzed. “I suspect the sender broke a complete intelligence report into countless fragments, letting them wander aimlessly through the galaxy’s communication relay network before finally reassembling them at the receiving end? Quite the covert operation.”

Although Geb couldn't see the speaker, his tone was full of admiration for someone with expertise. "Exactly! Whoever's behind this, they must be incredibly wealthy to afford this level of counter-tracking expenses. This level of caution would put even the most paranoid senator to shame, but the key is where these addresses point; they all ultimately converge on a crucial hyperspace route node between Coruscant and Sereno. This intelligence itself is invaluable, but the client's trust is paramount, and..."

“So you want to present me with the ‘complete puzzle’,” Ryan finished for him, his tone tinged with approval. “Well done, continue.”

“Yes.” Geb understood immediately, while his robot grumbled in dissatisfaction, “Another reason for the long time is that I had to trace all these fragments back through the relay stations to find the optimal solution for covering and listening with my twenty-odd ‘little ears’. Later, I discovered that these fragments would reassemble at several key ‘core convergence relay stations,’ which made tracking much easier.”

He took a deep breath, as if he were about to open Pandora's box. "Well, you can see for yourselves. I couldn't capture it 100% completely, but TK has done his best to reconstruct and restore it."

He patted the robot's dome.

Robot TK's sensors flashed rapidly a few seconds later, and everyone's data panels beeped again, announcing the transmission of a new file labeled "Reconstructed Intelligence Summary".

Vinok pressed his temples wearily with his knuckles.

Looking at him, Ryan felt a strange sense of resonance, guessing that he was also experiencing some kind of "Force-level hangover".

Thinking back to his experience in Centares, Renn simply couldn't imagine the terrifying impact it would be for a Force-sensitive person to personally witness the instantaneous annihilation of hundreds of thousands of lives.

It could have been worse for Vinok, as most of the Republic’s casualties in that battle stemmed from the swarm tactics of the robotic fighters he commanded.

He might even have sensed the moment when his former Jedi comrades fell amidst the sea of ​​fighters.

The fallen Jedi slowly read the document summary on the data panel.

His eyes were initially half-closed due to fatigue, but as he read on, his pupils suddenly dilated, revealing extreme shock, before snapping shut again!
The temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees instantly, and Renn could even vaguely see the air around Vinok's skin distorted and twisted like steam rising due to the violent fluctuations of the Force.

The energy of the dark side of the Force became almost visible to the naked eye, spreading out with a chilling sense of oppression.

Simon's holographic image looked around in confusion, clearly unable to understand why everyone else was staring at Vinok in horror as if they had seen a raging Rank beast suddenly appear in the conference room.

"This is... the detailed deployment coordinates, ship types, and troop movement schedule of our separatist navy in the vicinity of Pelmian!" Rael Hathor's voice was filled with disbelief as he slowly read out the core contents of the document, word by word. "Where did this intelligence... originate? To whom was it sent?"

"Sent from Calania, the capital of Sereno, the destination is an anonymous receiving node in Coruscant's 943rd district." Geb translated the robot's complex beeping and whistling in real time based on the information provided by TK. "This is not an isolated case. I later successfully intercepted two more similar transmissions with higher integrity, as well as several fragments. The sender and receiver on Coruscant's side kept changing—in the industrial area, the Senate's annex building, even near the Republic's administrative center... but on Serenot's side, it remained consistent; the signal source always pointed to the core area of ​​Calania... Count Dooku's private castle district."

Ryan deliberately avoided looking at Carly, letting her process this explosive information on her own.

Rael Hathor subtly moved his chair back, trying to distance himself from Vinok, whose Force fluctuations were becoming increasingly unstable, while muttering something under his breath.

But the Greshad brothers reacted the most strongly.

When they fully understood what this intelligence meant, the playfulness and ease on their faces vanished instantly, replaced by shock and solemnity.

Renn keenly noticed the extremely complex look Diedrich gave his cousin Simon, a look that was a mixture of warning and "You see, I told you things weren't simple."

“Wait, you mean the intelligence was sent from Sereno, not received?” Simon Greshad’s voice lost its usual smoothness, trembling slightly, as he confirmed again.

Geb nodded affirmatively. "Yes, sir, the source is in Sereno, in the Carania Castle district, and the destination is Coruscant."

A cold smile appeared on Renn's lips. "Please present the next piece of evidence."

The hacker was clearly struggling between immense professional satisfaction and a profound fear of facing the truth. "The next report... is a detailed analysis of the separatist parliament's key recent legislative agenda, including predictions of the voting tendencies of peaceful members of the coalition faction and... an assessment of potential weaknesses..."

Simon Greshard let out a mocking chuckle, shaking his head as his blue scanning eyes stared intently at Ryan. "You're wrong, Bontri. With these... the Confederation won't just 'collapse,' it will be torn apart from within and burned to ashes!"

(End of this chapter)