The Force Shall Guide Me

Nothing is over.

The ship emerged back to normal space relatively close to Pangalor. The planet was now under the Republic's protection, and another Venator class star destroyer was orbiting the planet and scanning all the civilian traffic. The ship Riv and Shiri were flying was not an exception.

'Approaching ship, we have you on a scanner. Identify yourself!' Contacted one of the officers from Venator via video commlink.

'Private ship, approaching to land on planet Pangalor. No cargo on board!' Riv replied.

'Proceed with approach vector to our ship for scanning. We shall inspect your ship under temporary military protection status of the planet,' informed officer.

'Guess they don't really know who we are,' said Riv, adjusting autopilot.

'Are you sure about that? That officer saw our faces,' Shiri pointed out.

'He won't even inform command about us,' said Riv, not being worried about it.

'Scanning complete, you are clear to land on the planet!' The officer informed them shortly.

'See? No problem!' Riv smiled.

Their ship passed the cruiser and began landing on the planet. Riv found the place to land the ship at the edge of the forest, not far from the site their other cruiser crashed.

'Alright, I'm going to find Spike and talk to him. Might be he could have some ideas about what is going on, or at least help us with the investigation,' Riv said when they went out of the ship.

'Or shoot us...' said Shiri gloomily. She wasn't glad to return to the place where her master died.

'Hey, I told you, Spike is my best friend. He won't shoot us. I know it!' Riv insisted.

'I wouldn't be so much optimistic after what we have seen,' the girl sighed.

'Those were just clones. Spike is my friend. You need to learn what friendship means,' said Riv.

Walking through the forest, Riv and Shiri saw a military camp assembled near the crash site. It looked more like an occupation forces base. The camp was protected by the wall, with watchtowers and patrols guarding the perimeter. Riv wanted to go towards the center, but Shiri held him.

'Are you insane? They shall blast you to pieces!' She said, trying to keep her voice down. Riv quickly glanced over the fortress with numerous weapons pointing in all directions. If something goes wrong, it would be a challenging escape.

'Yeah, we better meet him on a neutral territory,' said Riv.

They walked around the camp, avoiding patrols, leaving the forest to see a small settlement. The nearby town was pretty small, with only a few buildings being higher than three floors with no factories, or other heavy industrial facilities, just a tiny rural hamlet.

'We can hide here and try to sneak into the camp later,' said Riv.

'And we could have some rest here too,' Shiri added.

They both were halfway to the town when a giant Juggernaut turbo tank and several scout walkers left the forest and moved right towards the city.

Seeing this, both Riv and Shiri sprinted towards the hamlet to make sure they can vanish in a local population. They reached the town border when a massive Juggernaut stopped at the central square and deployed troops.

'Can't recall we've been doing such sweeps before,' said Riv, hiding at the nearby building.

'Just like separatists did on their conquested planets,' sighed Shiri. 'They deployed droids in the cities and enslaved the local population. And now Republic is acting in the same way.'