Star Wars: From the Clone Wars to Starfaring Heroes

Chapter 281-283 - Boarding the Ship
Luminara Anduly gazed silently out the shuttle window, her face expressionless, though her heart was far from calm.

The cockpit was unusually quiet, with only the low hum of the systems and the occasional static noise from the communicators.

Outside the window, the Separatist forces' superweapon cast a massive shadow in the void; its very existence was a tangible pressure, enveloping everything around it.

The Jedi Master could clearly feel that the lightsaber at her waist seemed heavier than usual. No, she felt an indescribable weight all over her body, as if the pressure emanating from the entire warship had seeped into the cabin.

She could also sense the pilot's tension.

As they drew closer to the behemoth, the clone commander Gerry's jaw visibly tightened; he was clearly using all his willpower to control himself, unlike the recruits who stared in stunned disbelief.

“The Separatist forces are really ‘generous,’” the clone commander said in a strained voice, “they’ve actually invited us to tour their latest superweapon.”

This so-called superweapon is actually a warship, longer than the Jagdpanzer-class and twice as heavy.

Its unique shape resembles a tuning fork, with two huge sharp teeth extending from its bow, and the largest cannon barrel Luminara had ever seen inside.

She stared at the hollow muzzles, each one large enough to accommodate their shuttle.

His gaze then swept over the glowing energy conduits and faintly flickering navigation lights on the ship's hull, which pulsated slightly like the veins of life.

Maintenance robots and remote control devices float around, crawling busily inside and outside the gun barrel, while a small team of engineers and technicians in EVA spacesuits coordinate the work on the network of bridges and passageways.

Perhaps this is internal or external damage caused by the recent firefight?

There are no nameplates on the ship, but there is a unique badge in the middle of the main structure on the back.

The modified hexagonal symbol of the Separatist forces features a roaring snake head extending from each corner, arranged clockwise.

The shuttle suddenly jolted, caught by the warship's traction field, and slowly pulled closer until it slid into the shadow between the two gears, plunging the surroundings into darkness.

At this point, the only light sources were the starry sky framed by the upper and lower teeth and the small, luminous hangar at the end of the tunnel, where maintenance drones were constantly going in and out.

The heaviness she had felt before was now magnified several times over, as if she were tightly enveloped by the pressure of the deep sea.

“Let’s take this as a gesture of goodwill, Gerry,” Luminara said softly. “Not all intentions stem from hostility.”

The clone commander, Gerry, remained silent, almost pressing his face against the porthole to examine the area closely. "...Did you find anything, Commander?"

“…I don’t want to speculate, General,” Gerry replied after a moment’s hesitation, “but to me it seems like Anker technology.”

Commander Gerry's name comes from a little-known alien race deep within the Outer Rings... the Anxians.

This is quite fitting, as the 41st Elite Legion has been on missions in remote alien worlds for many years, such as Teth, and Gerry himself has quickly become an expert in various alien cultures in order to prepare the Legion for deployment in harsh environments.

As for the name "Grey," the clone believes that if someone can recognize its origin, they will understand that they share common interests in extraterrestrial culture.

Therefore, if Gerry believes he has insight into the nature of the weapon before him, Master Luminara is very willing to set aside his status and listen carefully to his professional opinion.

"Anxians?" she asked with a hint of doubt. "The Anxians from the Anx star system?"

“Exactly,” Gerry nodded, squinting. “Their home planet… Graflex Med is a high-gravity planet. To leave the planet, they had to build giant acceleration cannons to launch their ships into orbit. And to counteract the gravity of their home planet, they had to specifically research technologies that directly combat gravity… such as anti-gravity fields, traction beams, and so on.”

"You mean..."

“This weapon is actually a supermassive mass accelerator,” Gerry concluded, “just as the Republic’s intelligence agencies speculated… except that no one expected them to use gravity technology to achieve a weapon of this scale… I dare say that the Separatists sought the professional assistance of the Anxians, and it cannot be ruled out that the Anxians were directly involved in its construction.”

“It seems Hydra has obtained more than he expected,” Master Luminara responded in a low voice, her tone still calm.

"Didn't you say that the separatist forces were doing this out of goodwill, General?"

The docking procedure was initiated, and the hissing sound of the metal clamps locking echoed inside the cabin.

A moment later, the shuttle ramp slowly descended with a decompression sound, revealing the welcoming personnel who were lined up at the end of the docking passage.

Master Luminara stood up, her lips twitching slightly, and walked steadily down the slope, with the clone commander Gerry following closely behind.

The air inside the warship was cold and dry, and the ship's systems emitted a constant low-frequency hum.

A tall, serious human officer stood at the front of the formation, wearing an immaculate, neatly pressed gray uniform with commander's insignia on his shoulder straps.

Behind him, robots and Scakoran naval commandos stood at attention on either side of the passageway.

The officer stepped forward and nodded slightly, a gesture that could barely be considered a form of courtesy.

“General Anduly,” he began, his voice steady yet chilling, “welcome aboard the Intruder. I am Commander Grenifmark Demura, at your service. The Admiral eagerly awaits your meeting.”

“I believe this meeting will proceed smoothly,” Luminara replied calmly. Demura’s lips curled slightly upward, but there was no smile in his eyes. “The Confederation’s ability to unite the outer forces is not solely due to military force, Jedi Master. Rest assured, we place great importance on diplomacy.”

"But some Confederate generals don't seem to think so."

“So it is you who have come here, not them,” the officer replied politely.

They proceeded into the ship, the Jedi Master's clone guards moving in unison with the Separatist escort team.

The clone commander, Gerry, put his helmet back on, most likely to make it easier to scan the interior of the Intruder.

Master Luminara also used her senses to visualize the internal layout of the warship.

Surprisingly, despite the massive size of the ship, the interior space was unusually cramped. The corridors and cabins felt somewhat oppressive, as if all living areas had been deliberately compressed to make room for something much larger... some enormous device.

Each passageway feels like a compromise, with living and operational areas clearly sacrificed to a great extent.

Her doubts deepened when she noticed the dense array of maintenance hatches on the wall.

Each door was tightly sealed, reinforced with bulkheads, and marked with clear warning signs.

Moreover, at regular intervals, Skakoan combat engineers were stationed there, and as they passed by, these men peered at her team through their sealed pressure suit masks.

It appears that the technology alliance played a significant role in the construction of this ship.

Just then, Commander Gerry approached her, his voice coming through the internal communication in a low voice: "General, I have been tracking our position relative to the external structure. According to the scans, we are actually traveling around a huge hollow section that takes up most of the ship's volume."

“The scale is truly astonishing,” Luminara exclaimed. Demura did not respond.

"Judging from the bulkhead..." Gerry continued his report calmly, "I dare say that space is not suitable for habitation; it's a vacuum."

The weapon's ammunition was neither plasma nor ion beam, Luminara thought to herself; it was solid projectiles.

Judging from the size of the cannon barrels they had seen before... that vacuum chamber was likely a giant ammunition depot.

This ship may be able to load munitions directly from space through a huge cargo door on its ventral side.

Those shells... each one is the size of an apartment building, and they will be stored in a zero-gravity vacuum chamber in the center of the ship, waiting to be sent into the gun barrel.

“…Ha,” Commander Gerry couldn’t help but exclaim, clearly having reached the same conclusion, “It really is a ‘warship,’ but it’s basically just an empty shell, and… seventy or eighty percent of it is empty? A single precision strike would be enough to completely disintegrate it.”

Grenifmark Demura's shoulders tensed slightly, but he did not deny it: "So the 'Intruder' was never locked on in Talis."

"Does it have enough space to accommodate an antimatter annihilation reactor?" Gerry continued to press.

The most advanced antimatter reactors are difficult to place due to their spherical structure. The Republic Navy's newest Victory-class warships are known for their reactors protruding from the bottom of the hull.

Ironically, the Jester-class Star Destroyers also faced a similar problem due to the large amount of unused space in their central storage, although the Jester-class did have an antimatter reactor, albeit with many compromises.

“This is probably classified,” Commander Demura stopped in front of a turbine elevator hall, his posture unchanged. “Please come in.”

The elevator was silent, except for two Skakoan commandos who exchanged a few brief words in their native language.

They stared intently at her, or rather at Gerry, as if anticipating that he would continue to test them.

But he didn't ask any more questions.

However, the superstructure on the back of the warship meets the specifications expected of a ship of this class.

As soon as the turbine elevator arrived, Master Luminara felt as if she had stepped from a machine shop into the formal crew living quarters.

The passageway was wider and better lit, and the people coming and going were all in uniform, not in engineering armor or combat uniforms.

She couldn't help but ask, "Isn't it safe to show us so much of the ship's internal structure?"

“I advised against it,” Demura replied briefly, leading her toward a door. “Your guards will remain here. The clone commander may accompany you inside.”

Luminara nodded.

The door slid open, and they went inside.

Inside the room was a small table covered with a bright purple silk tablecloth, and opposite the table stood a dead person.

(End of this chapter)