Age of the Old Republic - Jace Malcom

**Age of the Old Republic - Jace Malcom** is the third one-shot issue of the comic-inspired series of the Star Wars - Age of the Old Republic series. This issue centers around Jace Malcom and the special forces squad that was send by General Elin Garza into the Unknown Regions, ordered to take down a Hidden Hand operation.

## Synopsis

An Extince-class Battlecruiser arrives above Ocul, a pirate outpost on the edge of the known galaxy and the Unknown Regions, where they met up with a small Defender-class Light Corvette that docked within the hangar of the Battlecruiser. Jace Malcom and his squad of Troopers met with the passengers of the Light Corvette, Satele Shan and Kao Cen Darach and a few more Jedi, including fellow Padawan Roa Veel. While Satele and Jace are having a pleasant conversation with one another, Roa feels left out but is convinced by Master Darach to map out the most direct route through the known border space of the Unknown Regions, as he is one of the better mappers of the Jedi Order. Together with a few of the SIS Agents aboard, he finds a way to get into the Unknown Regions without the Sith Empire taking notice, while Jace and his squad of Troopers are adressed by Master Cen Darach and Satele. They are informed that they will be taking a small assault shuttle into the area that they thought the transport was in, but they should expect it to be worse, they don't know what other assets the Hidden Hand has out there and whether or not they'll run into the Sith Empire there. Roa then relays the route to the nearest point of intercept of the shuttle. As they enter Hyperspace, Satele and Jace share a moment, realizing that they do not know what they are getting into, but nevertheless are going in with full confidence, the Hidden Hand operation must be stopped before those slaves disappear from the sights of the Republic forever.

The Hidden Hand transport with Hand One makes its way to the destination, when one of the droids that surround Hand One on the bridge informs the operative that they are being tracked and Hand One tells them to keep up the distance and speed, there is no need to hurry. He also activates a few switches on his hand gauntlet and admits that the Republic and the Sith Empire won't know what hit them. As the shuttle proceeds on its current course and speed, the assault shuttle carrying the Republic troopers and Satele Shan enters the system with Jace ordering the pilots to keep it at a distance from the Hidden Hand shuttle. Right then the Republic Battlecruiser enters the system, but it becomes apparent what trap Hand One and the Hidden Hand had ready for them. From hidden parts in the system suddenly two stealth squadrons of droid starfighters appear from nowhere launching missiles at the Republic Battlecruiser, but instead of destroying it, they launch waves of EMP pulses, effectively knocking out the Battlecruiser leaving on the Republic assault shuttle. Jace demands to know if they can get a trace on the squadrons before they can launch again, but the pilots come up with nothing. Satele reaches out through the force to see if she can find the pilots that way, but finds out nothing happens, and she realizes that the pilots must be droids. Strangely enough they have not noticed them yet. Hand One is satisfied that the Republic pursuers are taken care off, but still notes that the Sith Empire has not shown up yet. As he moves into a nearby asteroid field, it is revealed that the Hidden Hand has built a large base there.

The Republic assault shuttle manages to maneauver undetected through the asteroid field towards the base. Jace notices an access hatch that they can use to covertly enter the asteroid base of the Hidden Hand. Satele uses her lightsaber to slice through the hull and Jace contacts the Battlecruiser with their current location and what they plan to do. Jace and Satele clear the hallway killing a few security droids before they can contact Hand One. They move through the hallway and Jace uses his armor to check where the inhabitants of the temple are and the other slaves, finding them stored on a different level. Satele and Jace decide to each take a squad and split up to make the attack on the base two ways. Jace agrees and they set off to their respective coordinates. What they don't know however is that Hand One has allowed them access onto the base and had traced them since the moment they breached. Jace and his troopers make their way to the level where the slaves and inhabitants are being held, but are horrified to find out that they are strapped onto machines with wires attached to their body parts and droids working on the machines controlling the wires. Jace has one of his troopers inspect them and they find out that they can detach them without killing the others. Jace relays this to Satele and she tells him to meet him at the bridge, they may be able to force the commander to stand them down. Jace has the troopers round up whatever droids they can and disable them and see if they can take away the edge they have over him. Jace heads towards the bridge where Satele was waiting for him in meditation and while he respects it, he was surprised that the droids from inside did not attack her. He forced open the doors, finding Hand One already waiting for them. Hand One activates remote turrets to attack Jace and Satele but Satele uses the Force to remove them from their sockets and Jace destroys them with his rotary cannon.

They then confront the operative, but Hand One was prepared for the both of them as he has various hidden deflector shields set up around them as he reviews their files publicly. They learn that the Hidden Hand has various files on all of them. Jace keeps continuous fire on Hand One and Satele attempts to get close, but the reflector shields stand in her way as well. Ultimately she gets close and Hand One reveals he knows about her ancestors and her ties to the Jedi Crusaders. She then kills him after he pulls a blaster on her, but he is revealed to be a holodroid all along and he activates a hidden self destruct switch. Both Jace and Satele then learn that all of the slaves and inhabitants that were aboard the asteroid base were holodroids and that the Hidden Hand had tricked them. They are then forced to abandon the base and flee back to their shuttle to get out of there in time before the base completely implodes. The shuttle then experiences power failures and Jace contacts the Battlecruiser asking them for assistance, who are just in time to help them out, before an Imperial taskforce arrives to check out the scene. As the Battlecruiser jumps away, the Imperial taskforce sends fighters to check out the remains of the asteroid base. They report that none is found and Darth Marr tells the commandos to return to their ship, this is a lost cause. The cruiser of Marr then jumps back into Hyperspace. Back at the space station of the Republic, Jace and Satele say goodbye to one another, hoping to soon run into one another again, when Master Cen Darach comes to them and gives Jace new order from High Command to take his squad to Ord Mantell. He also tells Satele they are heading back to Tython, the Jedi Council wants to see them.