20221022 Maybe Butler Was Right

With goals to rescue Ivan, split up the strange teaming of the Killian and Tilles pirate clans with Crimson Nova bounty hunters, and put a stop to the supply of tremendously powerful weapons that they have been developing, I had a bit of work ahead of me.
 
The total of eight "Dark Trooper Mark 4" in the form of sentient AT-ST combat vehicles with droid brains had a debate. I eavesdropped. I whispered over our comm links to Vanya (& So'Zen), "These four Dark Troopers are debating between an order to kill all Jedi, an order to bring all Jedi alive to Emperor Palpatine, and the regulations of a Trooper manual called, "Proper Care and Feeding of Your Jedi" which involve protecting (or just placating) Jedi. I expect within 30 seconds they will likely go with the kill option. Not definitely, but likely."
 
Vanya did her typical Jedi Mind Tricks(TM) and offered to connect these sentient machines with the ancient ongoing battle of the A'wakeen and the Eboreans, (machines which are more than meets the eye) in which they would be a valuable addition. And on top of that, interfering with Vanya would be against their own best interests because Vanya has been secretly on a mission for the Queen of the A'wakeen aiding these people. So that's another thing I need to research sometime.
 
 
Next, I need to sew some arguments in the pirate ranks too. I'll add these urgent messages to the pirates' message feed.
"The Killian Weapons are shooting the Tilles Pirates!"
"Jedi Master Vance Kerplokken is slicing his way through the lowest ranks first! Our leaders don't care!"
"We have saboteurs in the organization! This conspiracy goes right to the top! The Bloodsmiths!"
"Black Sun sabotaged the shield generators! They sent us here to die to kill off their competition!"
"Evacuate! It's every man for himself!"
"I think Vance Kerplokken is a woman!"
 
That appeared to cause the amount of mayhem I had hoped. The pirates were in disarray, some retreating. The lady Jedi (whom some of the pirates suspect of being Vance Kerplokken) and Ios (the real General Vance Kerplokken) did well in a combat with the power going out due to the overhead sand storm and the sabotage we had engineered earlier, and with the AT-ST's holding a moment to figure things out.
 
As pirates appeared to be choosing who they trusted at random, I grabbed Ivan before he again disappeared into the crowd headed for the turbolift. We conversed a bit and he gave me a couple copied datachips containing information on the men copied into these Dark Troopers.
 
One type of soldier was called an Inquisitor, whose main purpose was to capture Jedi alive and take them to the Emperor for "questioning". That would be easy. I had certified historical data which showed the galactic republic was now overseen by an Empress who was once a Sister of Battle (devoted to freeing the universe from thinking-machines). So, that info slipped to the Dark Troopers would result in a very loud tea party.
 
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/star-wars3A-shards-jarissa/a/jenna-martovich-article
 
Another was the original Dark Trooper program, who are trained to obey Order 66, "Jedi are to be immediately exterminated for treason against the empire". That can be solved by sending them certified historical records of Order 65, which rescinded order 66. Unfortunately, the original Dark Troopers did not have a Celebration Protocol if their prime directive were accomplished or rescinded. They supposedly would just go dormant indefinitely, which might not be so bad.
 
And the third input into these significantly powerful killer droids were the ancient Clone Troopers. They had hundreds of Orders to obey. In their time Jedi were in the imperial command structure, and thus were to be obeyed. Also, the Camino clone-makers allowed them interests beyond combat.
 
I slipped the above information to the AT-ST's with appropriate certificates of authenticity to prove them historically accurate.
 
Ivan pushed me into the wall! I felt the heat of a blaster bolt pass by my face. Ivan collapsed to the floor. Ignoring all else, I used my medical scanner glove and 1st-aid kit with its Bacta-spray to ... well, I'm not a doctor, but I was able to stabilize him for now.
 
He saved my life, now I planned to save his.
 
Captain Koleene managed to open the door manually. I dragged Ivan into the relative safety of the supply room.
 
Koleene had a couple of surprises. Tau Ceti worms. I had the impression that they controlled people's minds by crawling into their ear canal, but these were as large as the Hell-Walruses that Vanya had mentioned earlier. I found with some quick experimentation that they took great interest in the smell of (of all things) my ammonia spray cleaner pen. It appeared almost like catnip to them. That kept them occupied while ...
 
The Jedi won the fight, allied with the killer-abomination-Dark Troopers Mark 4, and gained the surrender of the pirates and a few bounty hunters. The lady Bloodsmith Raider managed to escape, but we had fairly safely collected Ivan and the scouts from among the pirates.
 
All in a day's work.