In this case, however, he had no ill will for this Inquisitor, since Heller, too, had intended to take the ship. Or have a go at it, at least; the Marathon had been assigned to patrol this region, and, as a result, its stormtrooper complement had been cut in half. Still, half of 9,700 was quite a lot, but if this rebel ship had been able to find itself a crew of droids, what if it had an army droids, too? Unlikely, of course, in a ship of that size, but Heller cringed at the thought of any of his men being killed. He was loathe to take a life, something ironic for a man in his line of work.

Heller welcomed the Inquisitor to return to the Marathon, if he wished, to supervise the operation and provide assistance if need be. Then he swiveled his chair to face the holoreciever once more, and nodded to the man who, despite Heller's request, had not identified himself or what was causing his engine problem. He decided not to press the point. "Very well," he told Drace, "We're sending a team to assist you now. Stand by." He pressed a key on the arm of his command chair and muted the channel, then turned to face his executive officer. "Lieutenant Duvall," he said, "Is the boarding party prepped?"

"Yes, Sir," Duvall confirmed.

"Good," Heller said, "They are go. And I want reinforcements at the ready, too. If there is a Jedi on this ship, he will be very dangerous."

"Really, Sir?" Duvall sounded skeptical, "I thought they were just a lot of magic tricks and wizardry."

"Have you seen what a Jedi's 'magic tricks and wizardry can do to a squad of stormtroopers, Lieutenant?"

"No, Sir."

"As I said," Heller glanced to his tactical display, showing the Marathon and Draco on the map and the Sentinel-class landing craft closing the distance between them, "Have reinforcements at the ready."

The Sentinel-class landing craft was a tight fit in the Draco's small hangar bay, which included, also, the Inquisitor's ship. Once the shuttle had set down, its ramp opened and a stormtrooper marine with an orange command pauldron--"Rabbit 1"--descended the ramp with a rifle in hand, followed by 5 other stormtroopers similarly armed. 18 more stormtroopers waited inside the safety of the shuttle, as did a duo of Imperial engineers who stood ready to inspect the Draco for damage once the ship was deemed secure. The stormtroopers (and the Sentinel, which maintained its power levels enough to raise its deflector shields at a moment's notice) were ready for anything. Assuming that Drace came to meet them in the hangar, Rabbit 1 would approach him and ask, from beneath that pale helmet of his, "Are you the captain of this ship?" If yes, he would add, "Our engineers will need access to your bridge to run a diagnostics scan to find out what's causing your engine problems, and to shut down any malfunctioning systems if necessary. In the meantime, Sir, your presence is requested on the Marathon for... debriefing."

Enough time would have gone by that Thanatos must have returned to the scene, by now. He would be cleared to land in the Marathon's hangar, or in the Draco's hangar if he preferred.

Clive Winston Heller
Captain of the Marathon
The Galactic Empire

He wouldn't confide this to Thanatos, however, inviting the Inquisitor instead to inspect his tactical display, showing the progress of the boarding party. It had feeds to Rabbit 1's helmet camera and a comlink to hear what he, and the suspect, were saying. At that particular moment, Rabbit 1 held a respectful hand to up to the engineering droid, a "halt" gesture. Rabbit 1 glanced at Drace. "My team will need access to your bridge, first," he repeated to him, in case Drace hadn't heard or, perhaps, hadn't understood him, "We will need to run a diagnostics scan and be able to shut down any malfunctioning systems, if necessary. In the meantime, Sir, will you accompany me to the Marathon for debriefing?"

Rabbit 1 didn't like repeating himself, and a part of him suspected that Drace might be delaying them. Maybe his story about Kal Thanatos was true; Rabbit 1, as a mere commander, didn't know or need to know. His assignment was to see to the Draco and to deliver its captain to the Star Destroyer Marathon for questioning. And if he didn't come quietly, well, he and his team were prepared for that too.

Clive Winston Heller
Captain of the Marathon
The Galactic Empire

Rabbit 1, having been told only an instant before that Drace would now lead him and his team to the bridge, did the obvious thing; nodded and followed Drace, as instructed. When the suspect began to walk unusually fast (as he must have done, in order to be somehow "out of range" of the stormtroopers who were dutifully following behind him), Rabbit 1's suspicions were aroused. The possibility of simply shooting Drace in the back—with a stun blast, of course, incapacitating him rather than killing him—entered Rabbit 1's mind, and became much more appealing when he noticed Drace hitting so many buttons on the control pad on his wrist that it looked as if he were playing it like a piano (it was utterly beyond possibility, after all, that Drace would have had the forethought to program one button to do all of these things—shutting down the ship's systems, blowing up one of the engines, etc.—at the same time).

When the lights went out and an explosion rumbled the deck beneath his feet, Rabbit 1 set his E-11 to stun and ordered his squad to do the same. But before he could fire on Drace, the suspect, somehow, disappeared. Perhaps he'd darted around a corner, or into a secret door. However it happened, Rabbit Team had lost him, and Rabbit 1 ordered them to proceed back to the hangar where the rest of the troops, and the shuttle, were waiting. They would arrive there at about the same time Drace launched his escape pods from the ship. "I think it's about time we leave," Rabbit 1 said through his helmet comm to the pilots of the shuttle. Then, the shielded droids appeared in the hangar, having been released from their oh so cunning and smart hiding places. "Better make it fast, too," Rabbit 1 added. The pilots acknowledged him, and the gunners on the shuttle opened up on the droids with covering fire to allow Rabbit Team to enter the ship safely. With 8 laser cannons, 2 blaster cannons, 1 ion cannon, and 2 missile launchers, the shuttle turned the hangar into something resembling an Independence Day fireworks show—easily disposing of the superior number of droids with the superior firepower of the shuttle. Once everyone was back on board, the shuttle lifted off.

On the Marathon, Captain Heller nodded in grim agreement at the Inquisitor's suspicion that Drace would attempt to escape, as, indeed, a life form was detected in one of the escape pods. "No need," Heller said to Thanatos, raising a dismissive hand at the Inquisitor's concern that Drace would escape to the moon. "Tractor beam, acquire a lock on that escape pod," he ordered. This would be easy to do—only one of them had life readings and it was, thus, obviously Drace. "He's been controlling his ship's systems from that wrist control pad of his, though," Heller observed, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, "Now that he's not on the ship, he might attempt to self destruct it, and I don't want to lose this trove of evidence. Lieutenant Duvall, have unauthorized communications jammed at once." The Lieutenant nodded, and passed the order along to comms. It was done, and it would stop Drace from sending any more signals to his ship and his droids, and stop his droids from communicating with one another, too.

"Tractor beam?" Heller inquired.

"Acquiring the lock now, Captain," an ensign reported.

Indeed, Drace would feel the escape pod jolt around him as it came to a rather abrupt halt, then begin to move, slowly, back in the direction of the Marathon. "Inquisitor," Heller glanced to Thanatos, "It would by honor, if you will kindly proceed to the hangar, to assemble my troops for you there. I can do far better than a squad, though," he added, "Would a brigade be satisfactory? It's not often we capture a Jedi, you see, and my men could use the training and experience." If Thanatos agreed, the brigade would be waiting for him in the hangar, and ready for his orders, by the time that Drace's escape pod was finally pulled inside. Heller was confident that a trained Inquisitor and 1,000 Imperial stormtroopers (and Rabbit Team, which had returned from the Draco along with Kal's ship and crew) assembled in a large hangar bristling with blaster cannons and other defenses would be enough to subdue one Jedi. But just in case, he ordered all blast doors to and from the hangar closed; this Jedi was unpredictable, and the last thing Heller wanted was for him to be loose in the Marathon.

A bit too cautious, perhaps, but Clive Heller was of the opinion that there was no such thing as being too cautious. Trying to anticipate everything, he even ordered the Marathon's starboard ion cannon banks 3 and 4 to stand by to fire on the Draco's engine assembly, just in case it attempted to run—somehow.

Clive Winston Heller
Captain of the Marathon
The Galactic Empire

"Yes, Captain," Duvall said, upon glancing at his datapad to be certain of this.

"Good. Have them reinforced as needed, and assign them a squad from the 110th engineers division. Once prepared, send them back to the Draco to assume control of the vessel."

"Yes, Sir. And shields?"

Heller raised an eyebrow. "Once Rabbit Team is clear, keep particle shields and deflectors up, even displacement," he said. He felt a need to explain himself, however, and went on, "One thing we know about this suspect is that he's modified his ship in unusual ways. If he has more droids on it, and if Rabbit Team is repulsed, I don't want the Draco opening fire on us when we least suspect it." Again, he was being, perhaps, too cautious. But considering the number of things that could go wrong in this unusual case, he wasn't going to take any chances. "Ion cannon batteries still standing by?"

"Yes, Captain."

"Good, good." Heller directed his attention back to the holofeed from the hangar, watching as Rabbit Team's Sentinel-class landing craft once again lifted off, then focusing his attention back on where the Inquisitor had the escape pod surrounded. He couldn't help but notice, out of the corner of his eye, that Duvall and a number of other officers leaning over to do the same—the Jedi were legendary; they'd heard a lot about them, but never seen one and couldn't resist trying to (especially from the safety of the bridge). Heller didn't blame them, and didn't say anything about it as he continued to watch, unaware that the so called Freedom was fast approaching the scene in hyperspace. It couldn't be too close by, however, or else Heller would have detected it long ago, before he received the distress signal. Upon receiving it, it had taken 15 minutes for the Marathon to travel to the scene ((see post #49)). It would thus take at least 15 minutes and possibly 20 to 25 for the Freedom to arrive there, too. So far, only 5 or so minutes had elapsed and, thus, the Freedom couldn't be expected immediately ((not within the next round of posts)).

Clive Winston Heller
Captain of the Marathon
The Galactic Empire