Chapter 25: The Infiltration - Part 1
POV: Oliver
The corridors of Gideon's Star Destroyer stretch ahead like arteries in a mechanical heart, their sterile walls gleaming under harsh fluorescent lighting that makes everything look surgical and cold. Oliver's wrists burn where the genuine restraints bite into his skin—not the breakaway binders Cara wears, but real Imperial shackles that leave him genuinely helpless.
[DANGER SENSE: MAXIMUM ALERT]
[MP: 116/116]
[HP: 160/240 - STABILIZED INJURIES]
[RESTRAINT STATUS: GENUINE HELPLESSNESS]
[ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS: STERILE SHIP - LIMITED BIOLOGICAL TARGETS]
Every enhanced instinct screams warnings as they march through corridors filled with Imperial personnel. His artificial nervous system catalogs threats with mechanical precision: armed guards at regular intervals, security checkpoints equipped with scanning equipment, and the omnipresent hum of Dark Troopers in standby mode throughout the ship's superstructure.
"Stay close," Cara whispers beside him, her own restraints designed to release with a hidden mechanism.
Din marches them forward with the mechanical precision of Imperial discipline, his stolen uniform fitting well enough to pass casual inspection. But Oliver can sense the coiled tension in the Mandalorian's movements—a predator forced to walk among prey, waiting for the moment to strike.
"This feels wrong," Oliver thinks as they approach a security checkpoint. "Too easy. Like we're walking into—"
"Halt for inspection," an Imperial officer commands, stepping into their path.
The officer is human, middle-aged, with the particular bearing that speaks of competence earned through years of service rather than political appointment. His eyes study Oliver's face with uncomfortable recognition, then shift to a datapad that makes Oliver's blood run cold.
"Dr. Elias Voss," the officer says with satisfaction. "Director Kain will be pleased to know you've been recovered."
Oliver's stomach drops into free fall. Kain is here. On this ship. The Syndicate has been coordinating with Gideon all along.
POV: Din Djarin
Din sees the moment recognition dawns in the Imperial officer's eyes and knows their cover is blown. The officer's hand moves toward his comlink with the measured confidence of someone reporting a significant success.
Time dilates into microseconds of tactical assessment. The corridor contains six armed personnel. Security cameras at two angles. Reinforcements approximately forty meters away based on ambient sound patterns.
Din moves with the lethal efficiency that forty years of survival have taught him, his hands closing around the officer's neck before the man can activate his communication device. The vertebrae separate with a wet crack that echoes through the sterile corridor like breaking kindling.
Alarms begin blaring before the officer's body hits the deck.
"So much for subtle," Cara mutters, her breakaway restraints releasing with hidden mechanisms.
But Oliver's binders are genuine Imperial hardware—designed to restrain enhanced individuals with failsafe mechanisms that resist conventional tampering. Din draws his sidearm and fires a precisely aimed shot that severs the restraint chain without damaging the flesh beneath.
"Run," Din commands, and they comply.
POV: Oliver
The Star Destroyer transforms from sterile maze into active hunting ground as stormtroopers converge on their position from multiple directions. Oliver's enhanced hearing picks up the distinctive sound of reinforcements mobilizing throughout the ship—hundreds of Imperial personnel responding to security alerts.
[SENSORY SHARING ACTIVATED]
[MP: 106/116]
[TARGET: SHIP VERMIN - MAINTENANCE ECOSYSTEM]
[SCOPE: VESSEL-WIDE RECONNAISSANCE]
Even a sterile Imperial ship hosts microscopic ecosystems—rats in the ventilation systems, maintenance creatures that clean waste recycling, the small life forms that find ways to survive in any artificial environment. Oliver reaches out to these tiny allies, creating a surveillance network that spans the vessel's interior.
Through dozens of small eyes, he maps Imperial movement patterns with real-time precision.
"Left corridor! Three squads converging from mess deck seven!"
His intelligence keeps them ahead of pursuit as they fight through the ship's mechanical maze. Cara moves with the fluid violence of someone who's killed professionally, her weapon finding targets with surgical precision. Din advances like an unstoppable force, his beskar armor turning blaster fire into light shows.
But Oliver knows their tactical situation is deteriorating rapidly. They're outnumbered, outgunned, and trapped in enemy territory with nowhere to run.
"This was always a suicide mission," he realizes with crystalline clarity. "We just convinced ourselves otherwise because the alternative was accepting Grogu's loss."
Through his controlled vermin, Oliver tracks their destination: the detention level where Grogu should be held. But his enhanced awareness also detects something that chills his artificial blood—the systematic activation of Dark Troopers throughout the ship.
Gideon knows they're here. And he's prepared.
POV: Cara Dune
The detention level's entrance is defended by a squad of death troopers—elite Imperial infantry whose black armor speaks of competence earned through selective survival. Cara engages them with the cold professionalism that served her during the Rebellion, each shot placed to maximize lethality while conserving ammunition.
"Sublevel 3, section 7!" Oliver shouts, his rat-scouts providing real-time intelligence. "He's there!"
They descend through levels of increasing security, leaving bodies in their wake. Cara fights with controlled fury, each dead Imperial representing a small payment on the debt the Empire owes for Alderaan's destruction. Beside her, Din moves like a force of nature, his beskar spear carving through opposition that would stop conventional soldiers.
But it's Oliver's contribution that proves most valuable—not through combat, but through the psychological warfare his abilities enable.
[SENTIENT INFLUENCE ACTIVATED]
[MP: 66/116]
[TARGET: PURSUING IMPERIAL FORCES]
[SCOPE: CONFUSION AND MISDIRECTION]
Oliver reaches into the minds of their pursuers, whispering subtle suggestions that send squads racing toward phantom explosions, investigating sounds that exist only in their manipulated perceptions. The ability costs him significant energy, but it buys precious seconds when every moment matters.
They reach Grogu's cell with hope and desperation in equal measure.
The cell is empty.
Oliver's heart stops as a holographic projector activates, revealing Moff Gideon's face with its characteristic expression of controlled satisfaction.
"Did you think it would be that easy?" Gideon asks with theatrical amusement. "The child is with me. On the bridge. Come claim him... if you can."
POV: Moff Gideon
From his command bridge, Gideon watches security feeds with the analytical pleasure of someone who's orchestrated events to his exact specifications. The rescue attempt is proceeding precisely as anticipated—desperate, emotional, tactically unsound.
"Predictable," he thinks, observing Oliver's anguished expression through high-resolution cameras. "The enhanced individual's attachment to the child creates exploitable psychological vulnerabilities."
The real test will come when his guests encounter the ship's full defensive systems. Dark Troopers throughout the vessel have received activation protocols, their mechanical minds calculating optimal engagement patterns for maximum psychological impact.
Gideon keys his communication system, broadcasting to Imperial personnel throughout the ship: "All units, hunting protocols are now active. The targets are to be driven toward the bridge, not eliminated. I want them functional when they arrive."
Through his command displays, he can see Director Kain observing from the ship's secondary bridge. The Syndicate representative has insisted on witnessing Oliver's performance under extreme duress—apparently, stress testing is a crucial component of their enhancement evaluation process.
"Fascinating how personal attachment compromises tactical judgment," Gideon muses as he watches the rescue team discover their predicament.
Soon, they'll understand the true scope of the trap they've entered.
POV: Oliver
The Dark Troopers activate throughout the ship like a mechanical plague, their heavy footsteps reverberating through the Star Destroyer's superstructure with the rhythm of approaching doom. Oliver's controlled vermin provide terrifying intelligence: dozens of mechanical warriors moving with coordinated precision, their objective clearly focused on separation and psychological pressure rather than immediate elimination.
[MP: 66/116 - ABILITIES LIMITED BY ENVIRONMENT]
[HP: 140/240 - COMBAT EFFECTIVENESS REDUCED]
[TACTICAL ASSESSMENT: OVERWHELMING OPPOSITION]
In the chaos of Dark Trooper deployment, the team becomes separated. Bo-Katan's forces fight through the hangar bay while Fett and Fennec breach from above. But Oliver and Cara find themselves cut off, forced to retreat through maintenance corridors that echo with the mechanical thunder of pursuing enemies.
Oliver's abilities, so overwhelming in natural environments, prove tragically limited aboard a sterile starship. He can control the ship's few biological systems, provide tactical intelligence through small creatures, but against pure machinery, his enhanced biology offers no advantage.
When a Dark Trooper corners them in a narrow maintenance passage, Oliver's contribution is reduced to desperate improvisation and terrible marksmanship. His blaster shots scatter wildly while Cara's rifle provides professional covering fire.
But mechanical precision eventually overcomes human desperation. Cara's weapon overheats at the critical moment, leaving them defenseless against an enemy that knows no fear, feels no pain, requires no rest.
Oliver throws himself between the Dark Trooper and Cara without conscious thought, his body intercepting a blow designed to crush beskar armor.
The impact feels like being hit by a speeder at full velocity. Ribs crack. Internal organs shift. Blood fills his mouth as his enhanced nervous system floods with damage reports that paint his condition in clinical terms that don't capture the overwhelming agony.
[HP: 140/240 - CRITICAL INTERNAL INJURIES]
[SYSTEM WARNING: MULTIPLE RIB FRACTURES, INTERNAL BLEEDING]
[COMBAT EFFECTIVENESS: REDUCED 40%]
[PAIN THRESHOLD: EXCEEDED]
Cara's thermal detonator detonates at point-blank range, the explosion consuming the Dark Trooper and sending Oliver flying into the corridor wall with bone-jarring impact.
She drags him behind cover as debris rains down around them, her hands already moving to apply emergency medical aid.
"Don't you dare die on me!" she shouts over the sound of approaching reinforcements.
Oliver coughs blood, tasting copper and defeat in equal measure. "Still... trying to avoid that."
Through his controlled vermin, he can see Din fighting alone toward the bridge, the Mandalorian moving with desperate determination through corridors filled with mechanical enemies.
"He's going to reach Grogu," Oliver realizes through the haze of pain and medical trauma. "But he'll be alone when he faces Gideon."
POV: Cara Dune
Cara applies bacta patches with the efficiency of someone who's treated battlefield trauma countless times during the Rebellion. Oliver's injuries are severe but not immediately fatal—internal bleeding controlled, fractured ribs stabilized, pain managed enough to maintain consciousness.
[MEDICAL ASSESSMENT: STABLE BUT COMPROMISED]
[ESTIMATED RECOVERY TIME: 72 HOURS UNDER OPTIMAL CONDITIONS]
[CURRENT CONDITIONS: SUBOPTIMAL]
"Din's there," Oliver whispers, his enhanced abilities providing intelligence despite his physical condition. "He's going for Grogu."
"Can you move?" Cara asks, though she already knows the answer from his pallor and the way each breath seems to cost him significant effort.
Oliver forces himself upright, every movement sending waves of agony through his damaged torso. "For Grogu? Yeah."
They stumble toward the bridge together, leaving a trail of blood that speaks of determination exceeding physical capability. Oliver's datapad buzzes with an incoming transmission—Director Kain's face appearing on the screen with characteristic smugness.
"Still alive? Impressive. When Gideon fails, we'll be waiting. Your body belongs to us, Oliver. One way or another."
Oliver's response is to crush the datapad against the corridor wall, its components scattering like digital confetti.
No more messages. No more distractions. No more threats from people who think they own him.
Only getting Grogu back matters now.
Even if it kills him.
+1 CHAPTER AFTER EVERY 3 REVIEWS
MORE POWER STONES == MORE CHAPTERS
To supporting Me in Pateron .
Love [ The Mandalorian and the Transmigrator ]? Unlock More Chapters and Support the Story!
Dive deeper into the world of [ The Mandalorian and the Transmigrator ] with exclusive access to 25+ chapters on my Patreon, you get more chapters if you ask for more (in few days), plus new fanfic every week! Your support starting at just $5/month helps me keep crafting the stories you love across epic universes like [ Game Of Throne ,MCU and Arrowverse, Breaking Bad , The Walking dead ,The Hobbit,Wednesday].
By joining, you're not just getting more chapters—you're helping me bring new worlds, twists, and adventures to life. Every pledge makes a huge difference!
👉 Join now at patreon.com/TheFinex5 and start reading today!