The moment we popped into the blind spot, everyone was sitting still, waiting for the warning signals to start... but we were safe. I did my best to cover only the ship and the surrounding area with the Force, not wanting to give away our arrival just yet. To my relief, I couldn't sense anything that would try to sweep over us or come our way to examine what the disturbance was. We were, as best as we could be, hidden.
"Hold us there," Adrian muttered, his fingers quickly dancing across the armrest to take back control over the ship. "Don't drift, my computer will monitor the shifts and keep us within the hole."
"Do as you see fit, it's your ship," I replied, though my eyes were still closed, doing my best to check our surroundings. "Adjust two degrees starboard," I said quietly in the end, and although I just said what I said, I heard Adrian grunt... but he didn't argue and did it anyway.
"I told you my computer will follow it... It already projected the shift."
"Sorry." I smiled somewhat, opening my eyes a little, confirming that all was safe, well, as safe as it could be.
"You're... Eh... whatever..." Adrian muttered, ignoring me in the end.
[Observation: Meatbags attempting precision maneuvering without proper hardware assistance remains an actual wonder.]
"Not helping," Vila shot back with a smile growing on her face, trying to hide it.
"Oh come on, let's not start it, hm?" My brother threw him a glance. "Alright," He said after a moment because HK stayed silent, doing his best not to get insulted. Seeing him just stand there, Adrian turned back forward, continuing, "Let's see what they're actually doing. We are super close, so give my computer time to adapt for a silent sweep, and we can see everything."
It took about ten minutes to get something as the projection shifted again, zooming in on the gridlock patterns of the system, now following all the moving details within the entire region. The ships, dozens of them, became perfectly marked and pinpointed, the computer tracking their movement, layering their trajectories over time, reconstructing their routines from all the fragments it could gather, showing which were patrolling and which remained inactive. The latter ones were probably being repaired or used as donors.
"Huh... They're moving in cycles," Sareh said, watching it play out over and over again.
"Yeah," Adrian agreed. "They are most likely automated, going by the regular intervals they cross paths on repeated routes, between all the defensive platforms. A droid is a droid... after all."
[Statement: Meatbags.]
"It's organized," Vila added while HK kept grumbling, "So Adrian is right, and we can use that fact to our advantage. Sith or AI, we can't know yet, but this type of organization can also be a weak spot. There is no randomness or chaos in it, so it can be exploited. It is... predictable."
I didn't speak, mostly because she was right. So, I was already watching the ships themselves. I was looking for a pattern we can exploit, indeed, maybe... something along their speed, bulk, weapons, or maneuvering capabilities. Anything. At first glance, they looked like any other vessels, freighters, transports, escorts, but the longer I stared, the more something about them felt… wrong. I expected... warships.
"Can we zoom in?" I asked. "To get a clearer image of the ships... Have they already been rebuilt, or are they testing them half-repaired? Something is off."
"I am working on it," Adrian answered, and when the data came back, the projection switched, isolating one of the vessels for a better look. "Huh... What the hell?" Adrian muttered.
"That's not normal," Sareh said, noticing what I also picked up on.
"It's not," Vila agreed, even though she wasn't proficient in ship designs; anybody could pick up on the irregularities with how blatant they were.
The ships' hulls were uneven, but not because they were damaged or anything like that. More like... No matter which one we signaled out, they were constructed that way. Which, after remembering the ship that ambushed us, made sense why its panels didn't match. Sections of plating belonged to entirely different design philosophies; one part of the vessel we focused on bore smooth, modern Republic-style alloying, while another partition looked jagged, angular, probably local, old Sith design, if Sareh's previous explanations were anything to go by.
"Running composition analysis," Adrian said, his brows furrowed. "It's... operating on a reactor from the mid-rims, as far as its emissions read," he added a second later, "Tsk... You've got to be kidding me."
"What is it?" Vila asked, a bit nervously.
"It's a patchwork," he said, sounding angry and offended, "That is. I thought the ship they sent to deal with us was because of a rush job, but... come on! Multiple material types, different manufacturing eras… some of this stuff shouldn't even be compatible. This is an affront to shipmaking!"
"And yet it flies," Sareh offered with a smile, "Not that they can choose to wait and develop ships from the ground up. They need to spread out, and this is the most efficient way, any droid would agree with that."
[Statement: I won't. With such machines, you can't infiltrate high-security areas.]
"For sure," Adrian agreed. "Look at this mess! If a ship like this plopped out within the Remnant's territories, it would be detained on the spot." He grumbled as he highlighted several points across the vessel. "There's too much structural stress along the seams," he continued. "Power distribution is uneven, and that reactor is overcompensating like crazy just to keep the thing on stable orbit."
"Then why build it like that?" Vila asked. "Suicide missions?"
"That could be one thing," I agreed, "If they attack others with something like this, maybe kidnap people or whatever else, it will be hard to identify them. Most governments would chalk it up to raiders, pirates, and whatever else."
"Yeah," Adrian muttered after thinking about it, "That makes sense. I don't think we would even take it seriously..."
"It's not just one ship either," Sareh added, her eyes moving rapidly as she scanned the rest of the projection. "Most of their functioning ones are like this."
As more vessels were highlighted, all of them were of different shapes and sizes, but none of them reached the size of anything... big. Like a Star Destroyer, for example.
"They're kind of rebuilding," Adrian said with both a smile and not, "Which is not good, but they lack proper materials, so their works are whacky as any junk you would find in any Wild Space colonies. If they think they can conquer the Galaxy with something like this, they are not even a danger."
"Yet." I warned him, "They don't need conquering, not openly if they are still moving invisibly across the systems, infiltrating and mind controlling key figures. Junkers like these are great for that..." And I just finished speaking when it happened.
"What is that?" Vila asked, noticing the red pop-up on the projection.
"Something is coming in," Adrian said at once, as he zoomed out, "It's a hyperspace rupture, pretty violent and unstable, which means that whatever is coming has a damaged drive. Wait... The readings..."
The projection flickered at once, and then something emerged, dropping out into real-space... something huge. Even in the hologram, it dwarfed everything around it, even the running stations. As the shape of the new ship slowly, piece by piece, became visible, I couldn't help but grimace. That triangular shape... Everyone could recognize that, and it wasn't just like a simple Star Destroyer.
"That's... A... Proper warship. We shouldn't have said anything!" Vila cursed quietly, breaking the silence.
"Not just a warship," Adrian gulped, looking at her, then back at the readings, focusing on the new arrival, "It's worse than that..." He leaned forward, his fingers began flying across the controls, "Let me see… let me see…"
"It's smaller than an Executor-class should be." I offered, but it only garnered me stern looks, making my brother moan.
"Stop jinxing us any further..."
The image then zoomed in, enhancing the projection, isolating the massive vessel from everything else. Soon, the picture was modified to reflect the readings, and it showed us how much its hull was scarred and battle-torn. Sections were missing from its bulk; whole blocs of its structure were dark and lifeless, out of power. I held back from reaching out to not alert anyone about our presence, but I was sure that no living being was on that ship. The ship itself looked like a corpse after all.
"I know this, design..." Adrian said, biting his lips, not sounding happy about it. "But I don't think it has been in production for a few decades now; it simply isn't worth maintaining."
"Is it from the Remnants?" Sareh asked.
"No, this one dates back to the Imperial days, and maybe after Palpatine's death," he continued, looking for details in his databanks, "Give me a second…"
Soon, right next to the ship, thousands of lines of data scrolled rapidly across the projection. What I caught were old records, Imperial records, and comparisons from our times.
"Yeah…" Adrian suddenly stopped and exhaled with a weird smile.
"What?" Vila pressed him, not really understanding all the data.
"That's a Bellator-class Dreadnought," I said, before he could, as I also recognized the design.
"You're sure?" Sareh asked, crossing her arms, "I only heard about it... Damn."
"One hundred percent," Adrian confirmed it for me, giving me a look that told me he was surprised that I knew it. Well... I was his brother, after all. I did learn under our Father for years, too... "That hull profile," He continued, "the spine structure, which is warped, mind you... And the weapon placements… It's Imperial, alright, old Imperial to be exact. This vessel was probably one that fought against the rebellion all those years ago."
"From when?" Vila asked, getting curious, "Can you tell?"
"From before the fall," Adrian said, pursing his lips, "I am getting a reading, and the computer is looking for the matching emission signature... But it has already been confirmed that this one was built way before the battle at Endor. Hm... It… went missing," Adrian continued, his voice humming as he kept reading his computer's output. "Apparently, at the tail end of the war. Ah, found something, there should be a name here... Bingo. The Dominator," he said with a smile. "That was its designation."
"Do any of you know about it?" Sareh asked, glancing at him then at me, but I just shook my head.
"Many such ships went missing, especially after the fall," Adrian offered, "In the Warlords' Era, when everyone was trying to be the legitimate successor, many of the greatest ships of the Imperial Navy got wrecked. Do you know how many Executor-class ships they had lost? ALL OF THEM!" He snorted, but then added quietly, "Okay, not all of them, but almost all of them... Smaller classes were totally wiped out, too... total waste..."
"Why is it here?" Vila asked, just to make him shut up, as Adrian kept mumbling about wasting resources and beautiful ships.
"Why else?" Sareh shrugged, "To harvest it."
Just then, another ping drew our attention as we saw countless new signatures appear.
"They're everywhere," Adrian groaned, moving his fingers quickly as we kept watching the projection shift, showing hundreds of signals... wait... no... thousands.
"Are those...?" I asked, a bit unsure.
"Droids." Adrian nodded as we watched them swarm across the massive structure like tiny insects, crawling along its surface and pouring into its open wounds. "Brr." My brother groaned, shivering, and I had to agree with him.
"That's not repair crews," Vila said, looking at me with a forced smile.
"No," I replied, shaking my head.
"Oh, they are! They're rebuilding it," Adrian stated, watching the readouts, "I thought they would strip it for parts, it is a big hunk of metal after all. But I guess, they decided against it."
We watched as entire sections of the hull lit up at once as the tiny droids' welding arcs flared to life and they began replacing panels, power conduits, whatever else... And it was happening at a speed that made no sense.
"That should take months to get back to a functional state," Sareh whispered, "No...?"
"They're doing parts in hours that would take days for a human crew," Adrian said, grimacing, "So I can't give you an exact date when they will finish..."
The dreadnought flickered just then, and another section of its hull came alive, turning on its lights.
"Holy fuck..." Adrian cursed openly, "I don't think this will take them months... Damn it!"
"We're too late," Sareh whispered, "Even if we try to get close to the planet, how are we going to slip in?"
"We could use the fact that their attention is on the big ship?" Vila offered, and as they kept going back and forth, I just shrugged.
"We need a proper distraction to get down to the surface." I offered them, "It is time to ring the warning bells. Adrian, transmit all the readings in a neat package to everyone we agreed upon. If they see this... They will know they must not dally. And when the cavalry gets here," I said, watching the grim picture of a dead dreadnought being brought back to life, "We can use the chaos to get down and find our Sith droid... or AI. Whichever it is."