Jedi Order -=Year 243=-
Jedi Order Temple => Other Star Wars stuff => Lore and Legend - Star Wars => : Jack Chronos April 18, 2007, 02:18 AM
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I'm Jack Chronos...I'm a nobody, a common man of the lower city on Coruscant...The New Republic is cracking down on illegal business all over Coruscant...and I do the cracking.
That's what I could say, I suppose, but realistically I'm just a lucky jerk who was in the right place at the right time. I haven't done any work ever since the first job with the Republic; they paid well enough that the most strenuous work I've had to do since was taking out the trash, which meant throwing it out the window.
"What did you do with the money?" my friend, Bael (the devaronian bartender at the Swag), asked me once, "Did you fix the the room? You didn't move out, or else you wouldn't always be in here."
"Nope...It's still my little run-down office." I replied.
"So you've just been coasting on it these past five months?...Hasn't it run out yet?"
The funny reality was that while it was certainly running out, it lasted alot longer for me than it would other people because all I spent money on was food, tolls, and shows. I got free fuel at the local Republic station, nobody ever billed me for electricity, and if the owner of the apparments was actually alive, he never collected rent...though whether or not he had been seen in years was debatable.
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Today was Thursday...or Monday?...I had no idea, I no longer kept track. I did know, however, that it was spring and the horrible frosty rains of winter had passed. Now we just had flash storms, which rarely did little more than just put small-craft warnings out due to high winds from time to time. The towers of the middle and upper city above me were a little more shiney than normal, allowing a little more light into the lower city.
I had been spent the morning sleeping, and the afternoon napping...but I had been sitting around for too long and was again becoming stir crazy, which happened about once a week. Usually, I would just head up to the Swag or to some middle city club; tonight I would do the latter.
The speeder I had gotten from the Republic as part of my payment was still mine, and I had grown rather fond of it; the Bith sound system was still heavenly and the fuzzy dice were...well, fuzzy dice. There was a parking lot higher up in the lower city that was fed by a lift near me, so I was able to keep the speeder there when I wasn't flying it around at night; it was less likely to get stolen there, though the Republic installed one hell of a security system. It still looked like a pile of junk...a pile of junk that could rival a police speeder easily.
A middle city club I had grown to enjoy was called "The Pink Rodian"...don't ask me why, I couldn't tell you; there weren't any pink rodians at all. There were however dancers, gamblers, and girls; I never got too seriously involved in any of them, but the life of the scene was good enough for me. Dancing was fun and pazaak was rewarding from time to time, but most of the time I just sat back and enjoyed the nightlife or stolled about aimlessly. Another reason I came here was because the lower city clubs were very rough...while I've taken care of my fair share of bar fights in my time, it gets old and I prefered something a little easier going once in a while. Also, a bar full of druggies, drunks, thugs, and poor men can get depressing if you hang there too much.
"Welcome to the Pink Rodian." a cute red twileik greeter smiled at me, "What's your pleasure?"
"Jack Chronos, I'm just here to enjoy the n-"
"Enjoy the night, yeah, I know Jack." she laughed. I cocked an eyebrow at her. "Oh come on, I greet you almost everytime you come here! My name's Jena."
She shook my hand.
"Um...ok," I replied, generally not caring, "Can I go in?"
"Haha, of coarse you can." she giggled, "Here take this coupon, it'll get you free drinks tonight."
"Wow, thanks..." I shrugged, taking the little plastic chip, "Is there some special event going on tonight or something?"
"No," she giggled again, turning the next person walking in. I knew she was flirting with me, but I didn't care too much. She was really cute and she got me free drinks...
Once inside and with a drink in my hand, I sat down at a pazaak table, ready for a game or two.
"How many players?" the automated table asked aloud.
"One," I began the count off.
"Two," a burly guy continued, sitting down across from me at the octagonal table.
"Three," a spacer finished, sitting down next to me with his human date.
"Three players." the table verified, "Please enter decks for checking."
Each player took out his cards and inserted the ten cards into the scanner. After the computer was sure that the cards were genuine and legitamate, it ran the randomizer and shuffled eack deck inside the table.
"Dealing now." Four cards out of a player's deck would then be random dealed face-down to that player, and he only would be permitted to look at them. Then the machine would then deal two cards onto the table that were to remain there, face-up for all players to see. Each player would then decide to hit, stay, or use a held card to try and get as close to 21 as possible without busting. After the round, all continuing players would return their held cards to the machine for reshuffling.
"Good luck, gentlemen." the spacer said, smiling and putting his arm around his girl.
"You too." I replied. The big guy just grunted.
"Oh, I've got plenty," he gloated, squeezing his date; she laughed.
"Let's hope then, for your sake, it compensates..." I rolled my eyes.
"For what?" he asked, puzzled at my remark.
"Oh nothing..."
My cards were nothing special, which was why I never bet much; I was in 10 credits for this game. The spacer won the first match, and it was apparant that he had a decent deck and was a good player. The big guy wasn't having as much luck, but didn't seem to care too much.
Round two again went to Mr. Bigshot.
And then round three as well.
"Gentlemen, I think I need to find a new table, you just aren't proving very hard tonight." he laughed, tauntingly. I smiled.
"One more game then?" I sat forward, "Afterwards, you can leave."
"Make it worth my time..." he shot.
"50 credits..." I replied.
"100 credits..." he insisted.
"Ok tell you what," I laughed, "We'll average the two in the middle and go with 150 credits."
"Well then lets hope your game is better this time than your math, or else you'll be going home a poor man tonight."
"I'm already going home a poor man tonight." I laughed.
The big guy didn't bet and just stayed out of the round, but he stayed to watch. The machine dealed and we both looked at our cards; I had nothing special, which made sense. He smiled at me confidently; I smiled back.
After a couple matches, we were down to the last match and we were even; whoever won the next match won the round and went home a little richer...or a little less poor...He had one good card left, and I had one card too.
"Well, you and I both know that you don't have anything useful in those cards," he gloated. I ran my hands through my hair and rubbed my temples with my eyes wide; the smile had left my face a long time ago.
"Tell you what," he continued to taunt, "I'll be a good sport. You go ahead and use your card if you have to, but I won't use mine, just to show how generous I am." He laughed at my plight.
"...alot of good that'll do me..." I muttered quietly enough to be to myself, but he overheard it and knew that I was in a tight spot.
"19...That's good enough for me, I'll stay." he laughed.
Taking my last card in hand, I placed it down. It was a -10 card, taking my score down to 3, and leaving me with 5 cards on the table and 4 open card spaces left. The machine dealed more as I told it to hit...my final score was 18.
"Oof, tough luck there, bud." he laughed, kissing his girl on the cheek.
"The winner of the round is..." the machine counted, "Mr. Jack Chronos."
"WHAT?!" the spacer yelled angrily.
"What? Didn't you know?" I smiled at him, removing my fake expression of stress.
"Know what?!"
"That if one player fills all 9 card slots without busting and the other player does not, it's an automatic win..."
"You #$*^%ing bastard!" he stood up, fuming with a mixture of rage and embarrasment; his date backed away.
"And proud..." I replied with a smug look on my face. The big guy was laughing to himself at the spectacle.
"Come on, babe," the spacer said to the girl, "Let's go somewhere else." But she ignored him and walked over to me.
"Wanna dance?" she asked me smiling.
"No," I laughed, "Not with a cheap shutta like you."
Then she slapped me, which just made me laugh harder. She stormed away, slapping the spacer as he tried to grab for here as she left. The big guy was busting a gut.
Mr. spacer didn't like the laughter and he pulled a small blaster; the big guy didn't notice.
BAM!
The loud crack of a blaster and the tint of blaster smoke hung in the air for a moment, and the thuds of a bouncing blaster hitting the floor could lightly be heard over the music and people.
The big guy stopped laughing and just stared for a moment in shock...the spacer held his hand in pain and ran out of the club. I put my blaster back in it's holster, smiled at the big guy, and sat at the bar.
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Two credits...the parking meters in the middle city were practically pirates. I slipped my card to renew the meter...but it was rejected; I was out of money.
Throwing my card on the ground, I sat down at the edge of the lot, by some holostations.
"Well," I said to myself, "That's it I guess."
...beep...
I thought I heard a sound behind me.
...beep beep...
Turning around, I saw the little light on the comm terminal blink, emitting a beep for someone to hear...someone was calling. Naturally I had no idea who was calling a public comm or why they were either, so I answered it.
"Hello," I plainly spoke into the device, "Jack Chronos, professional private eye and shmuck at your service."
"You're a hard person to get a hold of, Jack." a familiar voice replied. I stopped scratching my hair and felt partially amazed...
"Who is this?"
"Major Bill Garund of the Republic Enforcement in this sector." the major replied seriously, "I've been trying to reach you."
"You know," I laughed, "You probably could've reached me at my ap-"
"Apartment? No, no I couldn't. Each time I sent someone to get you, you were either not there or not answering. I even went once myself to make sure."
"So how'd you know that I was at this exact parking lot?"
"We had the meter systems alert us the next time you used your card..."
"Uh yeah, about that," I stuttered, worried about getting a ticket.
"Don't worry, I'm not a traffic cop and you've something else to think about right now."
"Like what?"
"Meet me at the Swag...we'll talk there." Then he hung up.
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The Swag only had a couple of the ol' veterans sitting in there, the devaronian bartender going about his business. During the whole flight back into the lower city, I couldn't help but wonder what the major wanted and why we'd be meeting here instead of at the headquarters. He was sitting at a booth in the back corner.
"Have a seat, Jack." he warmly greeted me as I slid in, "How have you been?"
"Fine," I reflexively replied, "So what's up? Why did you want to meet here?"
"Because even though I'm a ranking military personel, I still like to get out and have a couple drinks in common places."
"You don't drink." I laughed, "That cup in front of you is non-acholic."
"How do you know?"
"Because Mels only uses certain glasses for the acholic drinks, and that's not one of them."
"Mels?"
"The bartender..."
"Ah..." the major laughed, "Yeah, you're right. I think drinking is gross...no offence."
"It is gross." I agreed and then turned to the little waiter droid, "One ale please."
We then sat a couple moments, waiting for my drink. Once it arived, I took a sip and sat back. "So what is it you wanted?" I asked again, "And none of this 'normal guy' crap."
"Haha, well," the major began, "Do you remember Mr. Niel Bastion, Jack?"
"Sure do," I replied, looking down into my drink, "I saw him die, remember?"
"Yes, I know...I'm sorry that whole ordeal had to happen."
"Yeah yeah, I know, whatever," I shrugged, "It was almost half a year ago, you and I both know that we don't care anymore."
"Sadly true..." he replied, "As much as I hate to say it, I've had bigger and bigger concerns ever since...I've actually thought that maybe that whole opperation wasn't worth it..."
Wasn't worth it? That opperation put an end to a major spice peddling gang in the lower city...
"What do you mean?" I asked, curiously.
"Well, when we found out the whole deal with Mr. Bastion being a spy and then he died, it opened a whole new can of worms for the Republic here on Coruscant."
He then continued to decribe the past events to me.
Appearantly, Niel was practically an unsung hero in the spice world; only the top crime lords knew who he was and what he did, but they all relied on him when it came to dodging the Republic. He was the one that snuck them through customs, he was the one who made their travel records disappear...and all from a datapad. He was a hacker as well as a mercenary, and he had implemented programs within the Republic systems that allowed him to cover the tracks of almost anyone, anywhere on Coruscant...and every other off-planet Republic areas; this guy was solid. He had been doing this for years, and he was good at it. He had amassed a formidable fortune doing this for big time spice dealers, among other illegal industries, and he was about ready to close up shop.
Appearantly, according to his journal in the datapad I had recovered on the last job, he wanted out of the business because he was ready to skip planet and buy a large piece of land on some outer-rim territory and just spend the rest of his life in leisure...his last job was to personally make the raid on the spice gang fail horribly, leading to a massive press scandel with the Republic Enforcement Department...the Republic would be so distracted by the hit to their reputation that they wouldn't have any clue as to what really happened until after Niel was long gone. But Niel wasn't satisfied with that.
Niel wanted to settle down, and even if it took 15 years for the Republic to discover what really happened back in the gang raid, they would still come after him, and he would have to run. He wouldn't have too much trouble running, to be honest, because he was good at it and he had underworld contacts everywhere, but he knew that even he would get old and he didn't want to die running.
So he created an encrypted series of programs and placed them deep in the Republic's system. These programs were designed to be fully automated and to opperate underneath the nose of the Republic itself. These systems wouldn't just keep running Niel's business on their own, but they'd cover him up and basically make him disappear forever. Most of these systems were already in effect when we left to do the mission with me, and to screw it up purposefully; the only thing he had to do was put in a command to his datapad, which would then upload the final step, making him a ghost.
"-and to make sure that the last mission fail horribly, he wanted to find the most incompetant, oblivious, and undertrained partner possible. He wanted a lowercity, scruffy looking scoundrel, but he still needed someone that he could pass off to us as being a capable person. So he found you."
"Scruffy looking scoundrel?...I take offence in that, I think I'm a rather handsome scoundrel." I laughed.
"He assumed that because you had private investigator credentials, as questionable as they were, he would be able sneak you in as his partner without us being any the wiser."
"Appearantly he was right..."
"Yes and no." the major smiled, "Yes, he was right that he could sneak you past because you had at least some background and because he was a trusted agent, known to be skillfull. But he was wrong about one thing..."
"What was that?"
"You." the major laughed, leaning back, "He was wrong about you. To be honest, I'm a bit shocked that things didn't fold out the way he planned. I have no idea how you pulled off what you did back then; you did more than the top Republic agents normally have to do on a hard mission."
"Well, I never said it was easy...or fun."
"I know, but still...Our intelligence droids were frying up their circuits trying to figure out the odds and how do you did it; there was no explination, you should be dead."
"That means alot coming from you, major, thank you." I dryly replied. I couldn't tell if I should've been insulted or flattered.
"Well, Jack, you're quite a story, whether or not you know it." he continued, "The only kind of people I've ever heard of pulling off a job like that without years of experience and the best gear are jedi...I'm pretty sure that you're not one because you're not all cryptic, confusing, and weird, but diddly if I didn't know better I'd say you were a jedi pulling my leg."
"Well I'm not..." I simply replied.
"I know, I know...Listen Jack, I've got another job for you."
"Really?" I perked up...I needed the money.
"Yes. I can't tell you the details now, but you're in deep now. The underworld is pissed at you for what you did; you're lucky they have no idea where to find you. Our droids and top hackers have been decoding and unraveling all of the mess that Niel left behind, and they STILL are! Command is taking this very seriously and, using some of the information they've gathered from that data, they've put together a mission of high priority for three supremely qualified opperatives."
"Yeah?"
"You're one of them. Now, I tried to tell them that you're not that experienced, but they insisted for some strange reason that I don't know about."
Then the major leaned in and lowered his voice.
"The rumor is that they've gotten outside advice as to who they should put on the job, and from a VERY high up and trusted source. I don't who or what this source is, but they are taking it VERY seriously...whoever gave the advice, I don't know, but it is so strange." the major kept explaining, "They already have your two partners on site, undercover. I don't know who they are or what their status is...they could be secret agents, bums, jedi, or rocks for all I know."
"Well, what do you know?" I asked, annoyed with all of the mystery and suspence.
"I can't tell you here and now. Come to the base tomorrow at 3pm...don't be late...I'm not the one holding the meeting; it's someone higher."
"Ok, I'll be there...but I'm mad at you for telling me all of that and then leaving me with nothing...it's annoying."
"Haha, I'll make it up to you, Jack." the major laughed, getting up out of his seat. He left; I sat around a little while more, sipping at my drink and thinking...
Eventually, I made my way back to my room and passed out on the couch...
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I arrose the next day a little earlier than I needed to; the time was then just spent on watching videos on the holonet. Once the time came, I got dressed in my usual plain white shirt, brown spacer jacket, brown spacer pants, and old jump boots; I kept my hair a mess and shaved for the week.
Jumping into the speeder in the lot, I sped away to the Republic HQ for the sector. It was a beautiful day with a cool breeze and scattered clouds; it had rained the night before, I think, because the buildings seemed unusually clean. The sun was making the city glimmer with a shimmering white light, windows reflecting the clouds and the busy blue sky.
"Please send transmission codes." a voice on my speeder's comm said as I approached the Republic HQ; I sent my pass codes and there was a pause as I slowed down, waiting for clearance.
"Please state name and business."
"Jack Chronos. I have a meeting to attend with Major Garund." I replied; another pause ensued.
"You are clear to procede, Jack. Please use garage door number eight." the comm finished, "Welcome to HQ."
The side of the main building had a long row of thick, garage blast doors, each numbered above them; number eight had begun heavily sliding open. I made my approach smooth as I slid into the bay.
Once I had touched down, a new model of protocol droid greeted me.
"Hello, Mr. Chronos," it spoke, "Right this way." I ignored the name issue this time.
The newer types of protocol droids had vastly improved motor skills compared to those older C3 and C4 units, and they were a little more balanced as far as personality went; they had absolutely none. I was able to keep a steady walking pace with the droid without passing him at all. The droid stopped at the lifts.
"Take this lift here, Mr. Chronos, to floor 130." the droid blandly instructed.
"Where do I go from there?" I asked, stepping into the lift.
"You will meet up with a new guide."
The lift wizzed upwards until it came a stop at a security point.
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"Please step onto the scanner." a bored technician ordered.
It was a small round pedastal; once I was on it, a few scanning rings moved vertically around me.
"Thank you." the tech spoke, not looking up from his desk, "Your CO is waiting for you through the door."
"CO?" I asked...
"Commanding officer..."
"oh..."
The room was bare, aside from the desk, some plants, and the scanners. The only doors were the elevators and one on the other side of the room. On the other side of the door was a hallway, complete with a light red carpet, pleasant looking woodpannel walls, good lighting from sconces on the walls, and a potted plant; there were New Republic symbols on each door.
Next to the door was Major Garund, waiting for me.
"Good, you're right on time." he said, leaving the wall and greeting me.
"So who's the collar we'll be meeting?"
"Commander Wells." he replied, "He's our CO for the mission and will be giving us our breifing at the end of the hallway here. To my understanding, there is also another officer there too...I haven't been in there yet, so I don't know what's going on. Let's go."
We moved down the hallway, the whole way I enjoyed the soft feeling of carpet under my boots...it made my heels stop hurting. We came to some double doors and the major swiped his keycard. The doors swooshed open after a moment and we stepped in.
A man with many metals and a fancy uniform stood to greet us. He looked about middle age, but he had some creases in his face and there were speckles of gray hair on his head. His smile was warm, but despite his good nature and slightly older age, a muscular physique and powerful body were not hidden by his uniform.
"Welcome gentlemen!" he spoke loudly, "I'm Commander Mevil Wells. Major Garund I assume?"
"Yes, sir." the major replied.
There was a large table in the room, with a holoprojector sitting in the middle of it; there was also a very large window that seemed to encompass the entirety of the opposing wall, but the blinds had been tightly shut, repressing the view.
As I looked about the room, I couldn't help but feel strange, and then out of the corner of my eye, I spied a man sitting in the corner of the room.
"Ah, and you must be Mr. Chronos!"
"Jack..." I replied, not looking away from the strange man. The man in the corner, assuming he was a man, was clothed in plain, rough cloth, which formed a white short-sleeve shirt, a dark sash, rough brown pants, a rough brown cape and hood, and leather boots, gloves, and belt; the hood shaded his face. He almost looked like something out of a holomovie.
"I'm sorry, what?" the commander asked, puzzled by my relpy.
"Jack," I repeated, focusing again on the commander, "Just Jack..."
"Ah I see." he laughed, "Please take a seat."
As we sat, the holo projector began to wiz to life, starting with a default New Republic symbol.
"The other man in the room is also your CO for this mission, gentlemen." the commander finally began to explain, "But I have strict orders not to name him, and he has also personally asked that he remain anonymous. Rest assured that he is more than qualified and extremely trusted...you would be wise to follow his orders. Am I clear?"
"Yes sir." the major replied, uneasily.
"Jack, the major is your base partner in this mission, and as such he does not speak on your behalf...now, are we clear on our guest?"
I glanced at the man, who hadn't budged, and then at the major, who looked very uncomfortable...
"Yeah, sure..." I shrugged.
"I know you're new to this, Jack, but while you are employed here as a detective for the Republic, I must ask you to use the term 'sir' when speaking to a superior officer."
"Oh right, ok..." I replied, slightly confused, ".......oh I mean, um....Sure thing, sir."
Though I wasn't a fan of people lording over me, this guy meant no offence. The major would've found the whole thing funny if he hadn't been so bothered by our mystery boss.
"Sir, if I may..." the major interjected before the commander could start the breifing, "I will honor our CO's wishes, but what are Jack and I to refer to him as when addressing him, other than 'sir'?"
"He has been designated the codename 'Fox' for this purpose...now if there aren't any further questions, I'd like to actually get started."
"Yes of coarse, sir." the major replied...followed by an awkward silence.
"Huh? Oh, yes sir." I said, realizing that it was quiet because they were waiting for me.
"Ok, gentlemen..." the commander began, "This mission has been codenamed 'BLT'. Jack, you're the last agent we're sending in on this one. Major Garund will be your base partner, or BP."
"Sorry," I interupted, "I have a couple questions."
"Yes?" the commander stopped, annoyed.
"What's a base partner, and why 'BLT'?"
"The base partner is critical for the team. While you and your other two opperatives will be working in the field, Garund will be stationed nearby in a safe-hold place, usually local authorities, where he'll have full access to security, communications, supplies, and technology. He provides supplies and gear in the field when needed, at specific pickup spots, usually a trashcan or lockbox. He also monitors agent movement within the area and keeps everything organized." the commander explained.
"Oh ok, and BLT?"
"Because I like BLT sandwiches. And if somebody hears the name of our opperation when they shouldn't, they'll still have no clue. Now can I continue?"
"Yes sir." I laughed.
"Let me introduce the rest of your team, then." he pressed a button and the image floating the middle of the table flickered and changed into a clunky looking droid. "This is IG-193. He is an advanced droid, originally built for assassination and warfare, now working for us. You'd be wise to treat him as an equal agent, as he works for us as a freelance, just like you Jack. I don't know when his last memory wipe was, nor do I care...whatever's happened to him over time has made him a very reliable and trustworthy agent. The force only knows what sort of twisted assassination programs that would reactivate if he were to be given a wipe. Still, you'll find him to be a very warm, reliable, and trustworthy person."
"Person?" the major asked, not able to help himself.
The droid looked like a plain, dull, durasteel humanoid, but without an obvious face. The head module had two little red lights that appeared to be beady eyes.
"Well, he has quite a personality, so it's best to just refer to him as such for all practical purposes." the commander laughed. He pressed another button.
The image fizzled again and changed into a very young human male, wearing very plain looking clothing. His hair was shaggy and there was a little braid hanging off the back of his head.
"This is agent Dem. He is very qualified with special training."
I looked over at the major, and he looked shocked to see a team composing of a droid, a kid, and a scruffy PI.
"His skills in combat are invaluable on this mission, among his other various skills." the commander continued to explain, "IG will valuable to this mission in a wide variety of ways as well; decryption, hacking, security, combat, memorization, demolitions, and droid efficiency. Now, I know from the looks on your faces that you are extremely skeptical of the team composition here...but I assure you that this team is possibly OVER-qualified, and that each person has been hand picked by the top guys. So unless you have any serious questions, NOT regarding the credibility of your teammates, let's move on to going over the location and objectives, shall we?"
The major shifted uncomfortably, obviously troubled about the team members. I glanced over my shoulder...Fox still hadn't moved.
"...Yes, sir." I replied.
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"Jack," the commander resumed, "where have you travelled in your experience?"
"Um...the lower city and middle city in a few sectors."
"No," the commander laughed, "I mean off-planet."
"Oh, I've never left the atmosphere of Coruscant, sir."
"Then you're in for something..." he laughed again, "Major Garund has already informally informed you on the aftermath discoveries we've made on Niel Bastion, correct?"
"Yes, sir."
"Well, this can of worms is going to take you past this system, Jack." the commander said without a laugh, "In fact, you're going to go visit a Hutt."
"A hutt?" I asked. I had heard of them, but nothing other than the fact that they were powerful.
"Big, slimy slug, with an equally charming disposition." the commander dryly replied, "Don't underestimate them. They may not move fast, but there's almost always a blaster at your back, which is held by the thug who is held by the hutt. They play dirty, deal dirty, and are a pain."
"Crimelords?" I summarized.
"Yes...and there are only three things you'll never see them do; obey laws, play fair, and go away. One of them was angry enough about Niel's fate that he actually attempted to reclaim the datapad from our own base by stealing the mind of a security droid and using it...luckily, the safegaurd programs stopped the malicious programing. But unfortunately, the safegaurds also overloaded, causing the combat systems to go active, injuring a number of our personel...just before its drive fried from the loss of control. We were, however, able to get a name on the security cameras as the droid went critical, shouting 'Objecti- -obtain datap- -ster Dakba Hutt'."
"Dakba Hutt?" the major repeated, "Dakba the Hutt?"
"Yes. You'll find he has his own palace on Dantooine...where he lives a life of leisure."
"I'm sorry, Dantooine?" I asked, unfamiliar with that place.
"A planet farther out from Coruscant, near the outer rim systems. It's fairly developed, with a number major cities. The planet is still mostly rural, however, because the goveners have been very serious about keeping their food-supplier status in the senate."
Rural?...I had heard that word before, in school I think, but I couldn't remember what it meant. It had something to do with the word "urban", which meant "city"...so "rural" must have been something like a city.
"Dakba the Hutt claims that his money was from partnership in a big business that paid off." the commander continued, "There were records of a successful partnership in food shipping, but I personally don't buy it. Here are your objectives, gentlemen."
He then gave us each a chip to upload to our datapads. The screens then displayed the objectives, which the commander began reading.
"Your first primary objective is to determine for sure if Dakba is in fact involved in illegal trade, mainly spice. Next you will need to secure evidence; the hutts are near to impossible to incriminate because they have powerful friends. You next primary objective is to discover what connections and links this hutt had to Niel Bastion and associates. You secondary objective is to discover names of people, locations, and anything else important that would be of interest to the Republic.
At first it doesn't sound too bad, but that's because I haven't told you the bad stuff. We have absolutely no leads other than the hutt's name and business records, which are incomplete. We were able to locate his "palace", and it's really more like a defense fort. We won't be able to bring anything within a few miles of the place without them knowing unless done by foot. Foot travel would be treacherous because the place is located on a cliffside, with the only known entrance being the hangar. We cannot arrange for your insertion...you have to solve that yourself. IG and Dem are already on site in the nearest town of Rargul Citadel. We are unable to communicate any agents in that town and near the palace because we don't know the extent of their signal monitering, and we can't afford to have Dakba catch ear of us in the area, or it'll be months before we have another chance. Our satelites have picked up strong power readings and expansive thermal readings, telling us that the place is big, independantly powered, and probably has a large amount of technology. All personel are on-base residents, making it even more difficult to enter without detection."
During the description, the holoprojector displayed images; satelite readings, business records, objectives, topography...all of which was uploaded to my datapad for future reference.
"Well, gentlemen?" Commander Wells said, flipping off the projector, "How do you feel about it?" The major and I looked at each other.
"Where will I be stationed?" Garund asked.
"Most likely in the town. A couple spots have been scouted out and are uploaded to your map, but it's ultimately your call. All of your gear packs up in sprinting time and is surprisingly light, giving you decent mobility should you need to relocate at any point. Once a means into the palace has been secured, you will need to make the call of whether or not to relocate there, giving you better access to the team, or to remain in the town, keeping you safer...neither is the best option, but that'll just have to be the case." the commander explained, "Does that answer your question?"
"Yes, sir."
I couldn't think of anything, so I just shrugged.
"Don't worry about finding your teammates once you're on site...they'll find you." The commander then turned and left out the door...the major and I just sat a moment, confused and unsure.
-
"Comfy?" the pilot of the small orbital shuttle asked the major and I as we strapped in. The small orbital shuttle was clearly meant for cargo, as our seats were little instalations on the wall, directly across from a few crates that were strapped tightly to the floor of the vessel.
"Uh, pilot!" the major shouted out above the noise of the engines warming up and the large Republic hangar, "When will I be recieving my equipment to use and distribute?"
"At the transfer station, you'll have about five hours of down time. We have had a private meeting place arranged during this time where you will have your gear given to you and you will be able to breif your partner on his new gear."
The pilot then jumped into the driver's seat, closed the doors, and began to lift off. The massive, dull metal doors to the hanger slid heavily open as the shuttle rotated to face out; the pilot hit the throttle and we went ripping out of the building.
"It'll be smooth sailing upward, buds," the pilot spoke, turning his head slightly to face us, "we're ahead of schedual."
The shuttle continued forward, not yet climbing at all, following the normal skyways. The small viewport to my side was dirty, but clean enough to watch the towers fly by, glittering in the yellow light of an early sunset.
"The hell?" I heard the pilot say to himself, suddenly looking closely at his instruments, "What's this guy doing?"
I unbuckled and stood up, look out of each viewport...I didn't see anything. Then I looked at the upper viewport and saw the bottom of a small shuttle literally a couple meters above.
"Does he see you?" the major said to the pilot, still buckled in.
"Unless he's legally blind, yes, he diddly well sees me."
I just kept staring upward...I knew something was up...my gut said so.
"I'm going to peel away from the traffic, to prevent an accident." the pilot said, pulling left. I shifted with the turn, but kept my balance; the shuttle above had kept on top of us.
"Ok, what the !&#@*," the pilot cursed, pulling up the radio, "Calling any nearby units, this is a Republic shuttle of high priority being harassed. Location signal now uploaded, please assist."
"This is Officer Greb moving on your position." one voice replied.
"Officer Pergins on hi- *static*" another voice replied, cut off early by an abrupt electronic disruption.
"What?!" the pilot yelled, "That bastard!"
"What is it?" I asked, holding onto a bar on the cieling.
"The shutta is jamming us! I've lost all communications and navigation. Who the he-"
At that moment a couple of sparks began to fly out of the locking mechanisms on the cargo doors! The major quickly unstrapped and jumped to his feet, pulling his blaster and facing the port-side door; I pulled my blaster as well and covered the starboard-side door!
A moment passed and the sparks stopped, but the doors remained stationary. I suddenly felt horrible, like I was going to throw up, but the feeling was similar to what I felt whenever something really bad was about to happen. I suddenly noticed a small metal canister jammed into the door handle from the outside of the shuttle. I leaned in closer and noticed a strange smell, and heard a slight hiss...I suddenly felt light-headed and immediately backed away from the door!
"Gas!" I yelled, "They've put gas canisters in the doors!"
"Here!" the pilot yelled, hitting an emergency button on the consol. A screen flew up between the cockpit and us, and a few oxygen masks popped out of a wall panel. The major snapped his on right away; I stopped a moment and ran to the rear hold, where the larger door was. The mechinism hadn't been touched...
I hit the panel, slowly lowering the heavy carge door...wind filled the hold, pulling away the gas and bringing in fresh air! I smiled back at the major to find that he had passed out! They had rigged the oxygen!
I zipped up my jacket and secured my blaster, not even thinking about what I was doing. Then, grabbing the safety handles on the exterior of the shuttle, I pulled myself outside! The sheer cold wind whipped me harshly as I climbed the handles to the side of the shuttle! Once around the corner and on the port side of the shuttle, I saw a man in a black jumpsuit, outfitted with a variety of gear and some wind-goggles, strapped into a harness that was connected to shuttle overhead!
He quickly saw me and pulled a blaster! He fired a shot, but the wind caused him to miss; hot sparks singed my hair as the shot exploded on the hull of the ship! I wrapped my arm around a handle and used my free hand to grab my blaster; another shot wizzed past my head! I could bearly aim in the awful wind; I didn't make a good shot and hit his blaster! He dropped the weapon, letting it fall away, and pressed his hand against his gut in pain! I put my blaster away, worried that would drop it, and continued to climb up to him, nearer the front of the shuttle!
He reached for a knife on his boot, but as he barely grabbed it, I swung my legs and kicked him, causing him to drop it! He lost his footing for a moment, slipping and hanging on with his hands! I took the moment to move closer! I grabbed his harness before he had a chance to get a good footing again, and pulled him! His hands then slipped and I threw him away from the shuttle! He swung around by his tether that went from his harness to the other shuttle above! He swung away from the shuttle, rotating towards the rear of the shuttle, as if to smack against the back!
I heard a blood curdling scream and something get incinerated in the port side engine...
-
Seeing nobody else on the port side of the shuttle, I pulled myself up onto the top of the ship. There was a backpack-sized device inserted into a panel; I removed it, realizing it was the gas tank corrupting the oxygen masks. I was on my belly on the top of the ship, with the wind whipping violently, when I saw another man pull himself up onto the top as well, equiped identically to the previous guy.
He kneeled up and pulled out his blaster, but I had already moved towards him and grabbed his gun before he could fire at me! He and I both pushed and pulled on the blaster, firing a stray shot; sparks fell from the overhead shuttle as the shot impacted on the hull. As we wrestled for the blaster, he punched me hard in the face, causing me to lose my footing! I slid back, yanking the blaster from his hand; blood ran down from my nose.
Before I flew off the back of the shuttle, I caught hold of a vent and regained my footing! He crawled towards the aft of the ship, insisting that I be dealt with; I got up as well, and held my ground! He pulled his knife as he grew close and fell on me, attempting to cut me! I grabbed both of his wrists, one with the knife and the other just trying to grab me! We wrestled back and forth for a moment, trying not to get caught by the wind! Seeing my chance, I headbutted him, breaking his nose and making him drop the knife off the edge! He began to fall, but didn't lose his footing or slide.
He kicked my shoulder, unable to actually aim, as he tried to pull himself away from me; blood covered his face and dripped back in the wind. I almost lost my grounding when he kicked me but managed to hang on nonetheless! Pulling myself after him, I grabbed his foot and pulled him back, slamming his head against the hull of the ship! He fell limp and unconcious, bleeding profusely.
Grabbing my comm, I called the pilot, still holding onto the unconcious man; the other shuttle was still above us.
"Pilot!" I yelled over the wind, "Fly for a tunnel! And you're about to get some drag!"
"You got it, Jack!" the comm crackled back. The shuttle turned slighty and rocketed for the side of a building with a small airway tunnel!
I turned onto my back and looked up at the cockpit of the other shuttle, which was almost one large window. I could see the pilot, who was now leaning forward to see who had won the scrap on our shuttle. I waved at him and smiled, blood covering the lower half of my face. He just stared at me for a moment and then signaled to someone inside his shuttle; two new guys began to lean out of the doors and secure their harnesses!
I quickly rolled back onto my belly and removed the hook from the unconcious guy's harness, causing the man to slide away in the wind and leaving me with the tether and it's hook. I quickly found a loop that heavy cargo straps normally go on and slammed the hook into it! I let go and rolled onto my back again, smiling at the pilot in the enemy shuttle.
He leaned forward again to see what I did. He saw what I did, based on his look of terror. He then looked ahead, seeing the tunnel approaching at breakback speeds! He desperately pulled back on the controls, but the Republic shuttle was too powerful, and our pilot was countering the drag; the other shuttle couldn't pull away!
I pulled out my blaster and held the barrel to the line, ready to cut it once we got close to the tunnel! With my other hand, I pulled out my comm and hailed the other shuttle!
"What happens to a little shuttle when it runs into a building-side at full speed?" I yelled over the wind.
5...4...3...2...NOW! I fired, cutting the line just in time so that our shuttle wouldn't get caught by the other, but with too little time for the other shuttle to pull up! I ducked down, covering my head with my hands, as we shot into the tunnel! All I heard was a horrible explosion behind us, the sound of ripping metal, and firey shrapnel! I kept my eyes closed as chunks of metal came crashing into the hull of the shuttle just a couple feet from my head!
I still had my eyes shut and my hands over my head, even though a few seconds had passed since the impact. I felt the shuttle slowing down a little and a new breeze, meaning that we had left the tunnel. I looked around me finally to see the flashing sirens of two Coruscant Police speeders and a wide open orange sky...I breathed deeply.
Carefully, I made my way back into the hold of the shuttle for safety. The major had come to and grabbed me before I could fall down on the floor.
"Jack?!" the major yelled, "You ok?"
"I need a drink..." I then fell hard on the floor. The last I remember before I passed out was that I threw up.
-
I awoke laying in a bed in a cold metal room; the sheets were clean and soft, the lights were bright and clear, and I noticed a dim light imminating from a large window just about my bed. I sat up, rubbing my eyes, and sunk my feet into warm carpet. My nose seemed fine now and I felt cleaner than ever; my hair was still slightly moist and no longer greasy...it was weird.
I stood up and instantly noticed how sore I was; my muscles ached from the experience on the shuttle. I strolled over to the desk in the room and grabbed the clock.
"Huh..." I said to myself, "It's only been ten minutes?..."
Then I turned and looked out the window.......
I had never seen a sight so beautiful and serene as the one laid out before me. I had seen upper Coruscant, shining in a radiant sun or glimmering in a spectacular thunderstorm, but I had never seen something like this...
Coruscant slowly rotated, it's moon on the far side just barely poking up behind it. Ships flew about and satelites cruised by, all glimmering in the pure sunlight. The entire surface of the planet shimmered and glittered like the scales of a silver fish. The edge of the planet that was just now being cast into the night was burning with the lines and circles of city lights; the sun must have been almost directly behind my location, because it was daytime on the planet below.
But the stars...I had never seen so many stars, a vast sea of tiny radiant specks of light, all flickering like jewels. There was so much light on Coruscant that one could live their entire life on the middle city level and never see more than one or two stars. I got goosebumps looking out at that sight, pure, natural, and stunning! To think...I had lived my entire life in the darkness...I would only see a fuzzy dark if I looked upwards to the heavens...but these jewels were always there, glimmering with light. To think that some people would see this daily and never realize it's awe...
I was just staring out at the most beautiful sight I had ever seen in my life, rubbing my eyes before the tears could escape, when the door to my room slid open; I didn't turn.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" the major said to me, closing the door behind him.
"Unbelievably so..." I replied, awestruck.
"I wanted you to see this someday...I can't imagine how dismal it must've been living on Coruscant and never getting to see this."
"It's not so bad when it's all you've ever known..." I replied honestly, still looking out the window, "But once you see it, you can't help but cry."
"I see..." the major sighed, "Well, it's good to see you up and awake. You're lucky your nose was't broken. The guys in medbay got you fixed up and cleaned up; I imagine that you haven't felt this clean in ages."
"How long was I out?" I asked, still kneeling on the bunk and watching the slow dance of the planet.
"About a day..." he replied, "We had to cancel our flight out of the system, but there's another available one today, if you feel well enough to travel and get started on the mission."
"I'm a little sore, but otherwise fine."
"Ok, then I'll get the tickets." the major turned to go out the door, "You'll find me down the hall when you're ready, there's no rush."
He left out the door, which snapped shut behind him...then I just continued staring and watching the gems dance about. It was like looking out on something you always knew was there, but never really KNEW was there...like hearing about an amazing thing behind a door, but never seeing it..and then opening the door to see that it was just as amazing as you imagined and more.
I lost track of time for a while and slipped back into a silent, dreamless, soft slumber...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"We've got to go, Jack." a voice said as someone shook me lightly.
I awoke to see the major holding a couple bags and pushing me.
"We've got to get boarding now, or else we'll miss it."
"Huh? Miss what?" I grumbled, having trouble getting up.
"Our flight, let's go!" the major insisted.
I got up and noticed my blaster was missing. The major saw me clutching at my belt and pointed at one of the bags.
"We can't carry them on board...we've got to travel as civilians if we want to go unnoticed." the major explained.
We stepped out into the hallway, which was appearantly a part of some apparment area, lined with doors to individual rooms. We briskly proceded down the hallway and exitted through a large blast door. The large lobby area on the other side bristling with people moving everywhere, bags in hand. Some were glancing at floormaps and tickets, others were running frantically, and some others were just sitting in benches, waiting for their flight. There were large widows running along one wall, giving an even larger view of Coruscant; the moon had grown closer and the sun was now visible, still very bright despite the glare shielding on the windows.
"Com'on, Jack!" the major grabbed me. I didn't even notice that I had stopped walking to look outward.
We quickly passed through a couple security points, leaving out bags with one official who put them on a little conveyor belt, taking them away to the ship.
"Ticket please." the twileik stewardess asked us. The major pulled them out and handed them over.
"Ah alright," she said, glancing at them, "Your near the aft of the ship. Just board the ship and you'll see the signs leading you down a long hallway; your seating area is Section C. Thank you, have a nice flight."
We then stepped into a long boarding hallway, which had windows on all sides...It almost hurt to force myself to just keep walking when I was surrounded by such a sight. I was able, however, to see the cruiser we were boarding ahead of us. It wasn't one of the massive "CT" vessels I had seen in movies, which were almost as big as military cruisers ("CT" meaning "Cargo and Transport"), but it was still larger than any ship I saw on the surface of Coruscant, except for the military cruisers one could see in the distance at Republic landing fields. It was unfamiliar with it's design, but I assumed it was alien. It was dotted with little windows along majority of the ship, except for the back end and the very front.
Once inside, we turned right and began heading to the back of the ship; sure enough there were signs pointing in each direction regarding sections...Section C was ahead. The hallway was long, dull, and entirely metal; the floor had grates, through which a white light seeped up.
Finally we came to Section C, which was at the very end of the hallway. The large doors slid open to reveal a large, two story room that contained a dozen or so rows of seats, a little cafeteria, and a wide variety of people. There was an Ithorian family sitting down with little children running around and yelling in their own language. This was clearly not first class, but it was still more comfortable than my appartment. The walls were metal, the floor was metal, and pipes jutted out every which way, but the overall room was fairly clear. Nothing smelled bad and the air was crisp...something that took me a moment to realize was that there were barely any smells in space...the ship was filled with just clean air, just as the orbital station was.
The major and I took our seats just as the speakers clicked on...
"Ladies and gentlemen," an automated voice buzzed, "Thank you for choosing our spacelines. There is safety and emergency information located by all doors in the seating area, for your safety and security. We'll be departing very soon and we would like to ask you to please return to your seats, buckle your safety straps, and remain seated until we have dropped into hyperspace and we told you that you may move about the cabin. Thank you very much, and enjoy the flight."
Then a number of alien translations followed...surprisingly, I was unable to identify some of the languages. Everyone had moved to their seats and buckled in, but the room was still fairly noisy with speech.
Suddenly, I heard a loud series of metalic thuds, and I felt the ship lurch! I grabbed for my buckle urgently, but the major grabbed my arm!
"Jack, relax!" he insisted, "It's just the locking mechanisms letting go. We're free of the station now."
Sure enough, I felt a sudden drifting feeling and the vessel slowly turned in the space. Then the muffled roar of the engines kicked in and there was a strong forward motion. I knew that once we were farther from Coruscant, we would kick into hyperspace...I had only seen videos of the jump to hyperspace, and I was not looking forward to it all...it looked unpleasant.
The crowd had slowly gotten quieter, awaiting the jump. Sure enough, after a few moments the main throttle of the engines shut off and we drifted for a second...then a loud humming noise rapidly grew louder, climaxing with a BANG...and then it was oddly quiet...just an ambient hum throughout the ship. The people began talking again and the speakers clicked on.
"We had made the jump to hyperspace, you are free to move about the cabin. Near the main entries you will find maps that will locate the nearest restrooms and relevant information to you. Cafeteria personel will soon be able to serve you and we hope you enjoy the flight." the automated voice said. The major took off his seatbelt as the various translations echoed.
"...That was it?" I said aloud.
"What was what?" the major asked, confused.
"That...That was the jump to hyperspace?" I repeated, feeling as if I had been ripped off.
"Well, it's different everytime...sometimes you get a nasty jolt, othertimes you get nothing at all. But even when it's a jolt, it's not that bad."
"But the ship goes rocketing away! How does it not feel like all holy hell in here?" I asked, amazed.
"I don't know, I'm a Republic officer who needs to use the restroom, not a hyperspace physicist." the major said, getting up.
I sunk back down into my seat, disappointed.
-
When the major returned, he motioned for me to follow. I had no idea what he wanted, but I got up and followed him down to a service exit at the end of a side hallway. The major then reached into his boot and pulled out a very small metal device that resembled a large needle; he twisted one end of it and I heard a slight electrical charge. He then inserted the other end of the device into the electric passkey slot and I could hear the unlocking device being triggered.
"Wait, don't they have like, security cameras at exits like this or something?" I whispered to him. He just took one hand and pointed in the corner of the ceiling without looking up. Sure enough there was a small security camera mounted up in the corner.
But when I took a better look in the mediocre light, I noticed some graffiti on the walls by it. Someone had painted the words "Noit cart sid!" in the corner, conveniently covering the lense of the camera and blinding it; I was, however, unfamiliar with the language the writing was in.
"What's it mean?" I asked the major as the last of the lock was picked.
"It's 'distraction' backwards, now come on." he said, again never glancing around, entering the door into the shadows.
I smiled, laughing a bit inside, and then followed....
Once we closed the door, we realized just how dark it was; we couldn't see a thing.
"#$%!," the major cursed, "You have anything to cast a light with, Jack?"
"No," I replied, "But I've got it, don't worry."
I then took a moment to close my eyes and allow time for adjustment.
"What are you going to do?"
"You'd be surprised how good you get at seeing in the dark when the power in your lower city apartment is out half the time."
I opened my eyes and I could see the room around us, still dark but at least visible now. It was a very small room, no larger than a medium sized bathroom, with a crawl-space door on the opposite side.
"Alright, grab the back of my jacket." I told the major to follow.
I then went to the small door and pressed the button, and it slid open. We crouched down and crawled into the small space, which appeared to be some sort of long vent. I noticed a small switch on my right and I flipped it; low-intensity yellow floor lights began to glow, making everything much more pleasant.
"Ok good, I can take it from here, Jack." the major said, squeezing by me.
"Soooo tell me again why we're sneaking into the belly of a large inter-planetary cruiser?" I couldn't help but ask and we began navigating the service crawlspace through the ship.
"Well, I figured that if the dealers knew what shuttle we were in on Coruscant after having left directly from the base, there's a good chance they also know was ship we'd be taking off planet." the major explained, "I'd rather it look like we suspiciously disappeared than have them possibly know exactly where we were; a seat number is too dang precise for my liking. And besides..."
The major found the end of one of the hallways with a hatch that read "Baggage" and he popped the hatch and started going down a ladder.
"I've got to get you breifed on your equipment don't I?" he smiled, turning off the lights again and slid down the ladder quietly.
-
The major landed gracefully onto the floor next to some baggage; there were some lights in this area, which gave off just barely enough light to view the large interior of the cargo hold for our section of the ship. It was very cold in this area, which implied less life-support systems. I wasn't prepared for the cold slickness of the metal rungs on the ladder and I slipped! I fell about twelve feet into a pile of luggage.
"You ok, Jack?" the major said. Appearantly there were no personel in the area.
"Ugh, I guess," I replied, having hit my back on a hard piece of luggage.
"Alright, well, help me look for our stuff."
"In all of this?" I laughed, "Wouldn't it be faster to just get it when we land?"
"They organize it into piles; you're laying on our pile, actually."
"How do you know?"
"Alphabetical lettering on the tags, organized by seats." he replied, digging into the bags.
I got up and began digging into the bags as well. To be honest, I couldn't remember what my bag looked like or what our seat letters were...I was just digging because...well, because...
"Got 'em." the major spoke loudly, pulling two cases from deep in the pile; I instantly recognized them. Mine, or at least the one I was handed, was a large hard plastic case; I suddenly realized that I had no idea what was in it. For that matter, I had barely even noticed how fast all of this was going before. I didn't pack anything at all, I just showed up to the meeting in my usual attire with my blaster...although that was all I really needed, anyways; though it would've been nice to bring the jump boots with me.
"Alright..." the major muttered to himself as he cracked open both cases and began reading some papers he found inside of them.
"What are those?"
"Inventory..." the major replied, not looking up from the papers, "Ok, let's get you geared."
The major then reached into one of the cases and brought out a small needle-like device, identical to the one he had used to unlock the service entry.
"This is an MLC; Magnetic Lock Crack. It's basically designed to pick any sort of electric lock; keycard, passkey, or cylindrical data key, but it's useless against old-fashioned mechanical locks. Lucky for you, these babies are able to feel around the lock themselves; all you have to do is wiggle it around inside long enough for it to pick up on all of the magnetic and electric sensors. Also, you can remove the safety cap here on the opposite end to overpower the unit."
"Meaning?" I asked, clueless.
"Meaning if you just so much as remove the cap and press it against the drive of a supercomputer, the comp with fry and won't ever see the light of day again without some major reconstruction. You can also use it to deliver a shock to a hostile, but it's weak and will probably only cause temporary numbness. Also, the object is relatively fragile, so removing the safety cap to do something drastic like that is...well, considered a last measure; these aren't cheap."
"Oh..." I made a careful mental note to put it in my boot pocket, rather than my pants.
"Did you bring your old commlink?"
"Sure," I replied, handing it to him, "I pretty much have everything here, other than my old jump boots."
He took it and played with the programming for a moment.
"The old channel that used to be tuned into Niel's commlink during our first meeting is now tuned directly into my channel, and the other private frequency is now a line that the entire team can communicate on." he explained as he handed it back to me, "Remember that you can't used those two frequencies unless you press the thumb pad so it can identify your print"
He went back to rummaging through the gear and reviewing the list...
"Here are your new jump boots."
He lifted a pair of sleaker looking boots which, despite their obvious advancement over the older model, still passed as simple spacer boots; the gas chamber was less bulky and suspicious.
"They opperate the same way as your last ones, except these have a new feature. You can twist the button you would normally push to charge the jump and it'll give you an even stronger boost, about twice as much. This, however handy as it may be, drains the gas chambers rapidly and they'll need a moment to recover after such a jump."
"How long?"
"Hard to say, but probably about a minute."
"Do I g-"
"Yes, you get to keep them." the major laughed, knowing what I was going to ask.
I took off my normal boots and put on the new boots; the interior, though not broken in, was far more soft and comfortable than my last pair, and I was content. I sighed under the relief on my feet. Then I made sure to take the MLC out of my old boots and put it into the new pocket on my left boot.
"Ah yes," the major spoke with a smile, "And here is your standard, special ops, Republic gear belt."
He lifted a new belt out of the case. The belt had a built-in quick-draw holster, a small pouch for whatever, a couple straps for any extra things, and a couple small capsules at the hip.
"What are those?" I asked, pointing at the capsules as he held the belt up.
"Well, a couple things...the first one, closest to the front is a small can of spray paint; odd, I know, but very handy, as you saw by the security camera on the way in. The next one in is a flashbang charge. Do you know how it works?"
"I'm pretty sure I know how to use it, but how do I arm it?"
"Just press the top in." he replied, pointing at the button on top, "And the last capsule is a smoke charge, used exactly the same way as the flashbang. Enjoy..."
I took off my old belt and replaced it with the new one. The new belt was a dull brown, but wider and more comfortable, with all sorts of places to put objects. I took a moment to transfer the old items on my old belt...my blaster, my water flask, and...
I then noticed one more flask on my belt and I couldn't remember where I had gotten it...
"Oh wow, you still have the anti-toxin." the major said, having noticed me holding the old flask.
Then I remembered. When I was getting geared for the drug-bust on Coruscant, I was given a flask of anti-toxin that could nuetralize most types of spices and toxins in my system; very potent...or so the guy equiping me said.
"Is it still good?" I asked, unsure if it was still safe.
"You kidding? That stuff would survive a blast from a turbolaser, peel the paint off of a spaceship hull, and make you gag...that's how you know it's still good."
I twisted the cap off and instantly my nostrils stung with that disinfectant smell that just burns.
"Oh yeah *cough*...it's still good." I gagged.
"Haha, thought so." The major laughed, "Well, keep it with you, certainly could be handy."
"Sure thing *cough*..." I replied, twisting back on the cap and placing the flask on my belt.
The major then closed the cases back up and laid down on a pile of bags.
"Shouldn't we get back to our seats?" I asked, worried that they'd notice we were gone.
"No..."
"Why not?"
"Back on Coruscant, after we were attacked and you passed out, I got word that data regarding our departure had somehow been leaked to the crime groups. We don't know how yet, and we don't know how much got leaked...it could've just been our shuttle ride or it could be even our seat numbers on this very cruiser." the major explained, "But HQ was positive that our identities and our objectives were not leaked, so we were still all clear for the mission."
"How could it have gotten leaked? More spies?"
"Not likely...more likely some left-over automated programming from Niel trasmitted the data...or perhaps a droid. But all droids until Republic employ that could've been corrupted were double-checked and given a wipe if necessary...so who knows. So in the mean time, we'll just lay low here in the cargo and sneak out somehow when we land."
"How will we know when we've landed from in here?"
"Don't worry, you'll know...get some rest, you need it." the major replied, "I'll figure out our means of exfiltration."
The major was right, I was very tired and still very sore from my experience on the shuttle. I laid back on the luggage, which was comfortable enough after some adjusting, and almost instantly dropped into sleep.....
-
After a couple hours rest, the major woke me. He had found a couple emergency seats that came with safety belts. As he was showing me them, a voice came on the speakers...
"We are now approaching the atmosphere of Dantooine and we would like to ask all passengers and crew to take their seats and buckle up for the gavitational shift and landing." the voice explained, "Once we have landed, please wait in your seats for further instructions. Thank you for choosing us for your hyperspace adventure!" Then some cheesy commercial music was cued.
"Buckle up, Jack!" the major said, jumping into the first seat on the row of four seats against the wall. I did the same and strapped myself in.
For a moment nothing happenned...but then I could hear the repulsorlifts begin to whine, and it felt as if we were moving backwards! My head was pulled towards the front of the ship, even though I never felt us slow down to go in reverse...
"It feels like we're moving back up because we've entered the planet's gavity field and the planet is pulling us downward while the ship resists it, giving the illusion that ship is moving backwards if you're inside and can't see out." the major explained.
"What?" I replied, not understanding, "This is really weird..."
"Here, look for yourself." he replied, lifting up a shade on a little porthole by the seats, and a peach light poured in from it! I leaned over peered through the thick glass to see an orange-yellow sky, much like the sunset on Coruscant, and an ocean of white-peach clouds beneath us. Sure enough, we were moving downward to the planet slowly, and I was suddenly aware of the fact that my feet actually weren't facing the planet; I was in a position similar to if I was sleeping on my side on a bench on the planets surface......but oddly, I still felt my body being pulled to the floor of the ship.
"Here it comes!" the major said excitedly.
"Here what com-" I asked, but was cut off when the artificial gravity kicked out and my whole body was affected only by the planet's gravity! It was like being strapped sidways on the wall of a room...which was essentially the case in this instance. I looked about the room to see that containment fields had been drawn up around the luggage piles to prevent them from sliding around. To my right, a datapad was hanging towards me, held to the wall by a tether.
I looked out the window again to see us enter the clouds, and our view was fogged up. I could hear the repulsorlifts and the main retro-engines firing up as we began to pull up and straiten out a little, slowly taking us out of a suspended nose dive and into a level position. I felt a little like throwing up from the strange gavity experience.
Light shot back in through the window and looked out again; I beheld a sight I never thought I would see with my own two eyes...
It was so strange...never before had I seen a landscape, bereft and void of skyscrapers and metal pinacles! There were brown, rocky mountains with white specks on top! There were miles of golden fields stretched farther than the mountains! Below us was a small scab in the view which appeared to be a little city; at that point I realized how rediculously HUGE the mountains and the fields and the lakes were!
...the lakes...I had never in my whole life seen so much water in one spot, deep and blue and glittering in the setting sun's light...
"Welcome to Dantooine, Jack." the major laughed, seeing my jaw dropped.
"You know it's funny, Garund..."
"What is, Jack?"
"It feels so strange to hear the words 'mountains', 'fields', and 'lakes' in my head." I replied, though more speaking to myself really. "The only fields I ever knew were electromagnetic fields. The most water I had ever seen was in fountains or sewers, which were never blue like that."
"I know...you've really missed alot of Coruscant."
"When did you see all of this for the first time?"
"Me? Oh, I dunno, my parents always took me traveling actually. They didn't want me to know only Coruscant."
"I can see why." I replied, still drinking in the picture through my window.
"Yeah, well, they immigrated to Coruscant from Kashyyyk where they were Republic researchers or something...I was appearantly just born at the time."
"...I can't remember what my parents did..." I said, pulling myself away from the window, trying to remember.
"Really?" the major looked at me, "You don't remember where they were from?"
"I...I think they were always on Coruscant...meh, I dunno." I shrugged it off.
The ship finally pulled up completely and we were again rightside up; we were slowly descending to dock at the city.
"Alright, let's get moving!" the major said, unbuckling and jumping up.
"What? Shouldn't we wait?"
"To get caught? I don't think so." he laughed and then ran to the back of the room to a service door with out bags. I shrugged and followed.
I followed him down a narrow, poorly lit hallway until we came to a door that had already been picked.
"In here is the landing gear," the major began explaining, "and it's our ticket off the ship without detection."
He opened the door and we both came into the very dark room. The major used his small light and all I could see was that we were in some tall, rectangular room with a tall mechanical pillar in the middle.
"Where's the landing gear?" I asked, looking around.
"No time! Hurry! Grab onto this!" he yelled, grabbing me and putting my hand on a ladder-rung of some kind on the metal pillar. I held on tightly and we both put our bags on our backs...
THUD!....CRACK!...
I looked at the major, with eyes wide...
"...Garund.....what's happeni-!!!" I got out before the pillar quickly pushed downward and the roar of wind and the glare of light filled the room! I held on for dear life against the strong winds!
Once my eyes adjusted, I realized that the entire floor of the room was PART of the landing foot, and we were essentially holding onto the ankle! I could now see the city stretching out beneath us and around us as we descended! We were no larger than fleas on the landing gear of the ship!
"HOLD ON!" the major yelled.
"OH! REALLY?!" I sarcastically yelled back. He laughed loudly.
THUD!!!!!
the whole ship jolted and the pillar shook! I was thrown off onto the base of the landing gear! Though it hurt like a mother, I was still able to move and I noticed that I wasn't moving anymore!
"COM'ON! Let's scram!" the major grabbed me and pulled me to my feet! We were on the bottom floor of a huge landing bay, filled with machinery; we were far below the passenger docking ramps.
We quickly bolted for a service exit into the streets as a refueling crew was just coming into the area...
-
Once in the streets, we were able to fit right in and move about freely, it was very refreshing. I couldn't help but notice that the air smelled weird...but good at the same time; something about it felt dirty but pleasing, unlike the the smog that sometimes built up in low-ventelation Coruscant sectors.
"Hey, Major G-"
"Jack, while we're in public, just call me Garund." he interrupted me, "We don't need any risks."
"...Sure thing." I shrugged, "Where are we headed?"
"Well, I think I have my bearings now...we're going to a local inn."
"Inn?" I repeated, unfamiliar with this word.
"Hotel...we have a room there in the basement that we can use."
"Ah..." I realized that this meant it was our base of opperations. "Why does the air smell weird here?"
"What does it smell like to you?" he asked, turning his head to glance at me.
"I dunno..." I searched for the words, "...like...sort of like bread, I guess...and the interior of an old speeder."
"Haha, that's dust and pollen." he laughed, "Not like the dust on Coruscant, this is the real thing, this is dirt...bonified dirt."
"I see...and pollen?"
"I'll spare you the explination and just tell you that you're smelling the fields of plants."
The buildings around were only about three to four stories tall...it was so extremely short and weird; I felt very out of place. The ground was concrete for now, but I could see "dirt" here and there, being brown and all...I had never seen or smelled real dirt before. I mean, sure, they had dirt in the planters and gardens on Coruscant, but that wasn't this dry and plain; it was artificial.
"We're lucky you know..." the major said, breaking my train of thought.
"What? How?"
"Being from Coruscant, we get almost every kind of bacteria and disease through there because of all the travelers..." he explained, "We won't get sick on other planets as easily as anyone visiting Coruscant; kind of convenient, actually."
I just shrugged, having no reply. I soon noticed that the sky was clear...I mean, there were clouds, but the only other things in the sky were just a couple ships coming and going from the spaceport and some little flying creatures; all of the speeders here only hovered a couple feet off the ground.
"Hey! Garund!" I grabbed him, pointing at the little creatures. "Are those um...birds?"
"Haha, yeah, Jack...those are birds, but try not to look too much like you're from out of town, will you?" he laughed, not really caring much.
"Huh...cool..." I said to myself in satisfaction.
--------------------------------------------------------------
After a block or two we arrived at a building, looking no bit more special than the other odd little buildings here made out of concrete; a sign on the outside read "The Good-Grain Inn".
We went inside and the lobby was plain, tan, and mostly stucco and concrete as well. The major spoke breifly to a man behind the counter and then he returned to me as I felt the roughness of the stucco walls.
"Alright, I've got out keys, com'on." he said, handing me my key.
We then went down a lift to the basement level and found our room in the far corner of the building. The door slid open to reveal a simple room with four bunk beds, a small bathroom, an uneven desk, a couple ground-level windows, and a sewer grate.
We stood looking into the empty room for a moment and then glanced at each other...
"Sooo...this is our room eh?" the major said, disappointedly.
"What's the matter?" I laughed, "Never roughed it before? This place isn't that bad at all! I mean, it actually has BEDS!"
"Not all of us sleep on a couch in our office, Jack." he replied, claiming one of the top bunks; I noticed that there was already a pack sitting on one of the bottom bunks.
"Someone's already been here..." I said, pointing at it and setting my pack down on the bunk under Garund's.
"Probably Dem...though I don't where either of the other two are. I'm going to get set up here for now." the major replied, pulling out a number of components from his pack. I moved into the bathroom and had a shave; I needed it pretty badly. When I came back out I saw that the major had quickly turned the desk into a monitoring station with multiple screens, a number of instrument readouts, and some maps of the city and surrounding areas; there was even a portable communications computer set up next to the desk.
"Wow...you sure can pack." I laughed.
"I've had time to practice..."
For a moment, I had a weird feeling...I could almost perfectly imagine a young man suddenly walking in through the door...I had no idea why I saw this, nor what brought the feeling on...
...beep...the door unlocked and began to slide open...
A young man, only a little bit younger than myself, walked in. He was wearing a very plain cloth outfit and some simple leather boots; his hair was medium length and shaggy except for a braid on the back of his head.
"Are you Dem?" the major asked; I could see one hand on his blaster.
"Major Garund. Yes, I am Dem, a pleasure to meet with you." he replied, obviously expecting us. He gave me a weird feeling...as if...well, I actually couldn't describe it...just a feeling of peace and discipline...
He then turned at looked at me for a moment...it was almost as if I was in a trance...we just looked at each other for a moment.
"A pleasure to meet you, Jack Chronos." he smiled, holding out his hand...but somehow I could tell that was oddly shaken by meeting me.
"Yeah, same to you..." I mumbled, shaking his hand...it was as if he was looking strait through me...the only other time I got this feeling was with that other officer "Fox" in the breifing.
"Um...oooooooook..." the major awkwardly broke the silence, "What's the situation, Dem?"
"I've been here two days already," he replied, breaking his gaze from me, "Dakba the Hutt is using a local farming company not far from here as his recruiting base for new hands. I was able to make this map of all potential escape ways here in the city and potential safe-houses; here are some good roofs you can jump from to lose anyone if you have the jump boots you guys are issued."
He handed a datapad to the major who began downloading it into his system.
"Wow...you did all of this in two days?!" the major asked, obviously impressed...I was begining to feel that maybe this kid wasn't such a bad partner after all.
"Well, I wasn't able to secure any means of getting into the company for transport to the hutts palace...but I was following a lead before I came back here." he replied...despite his impressive materials, he was oddly humble about it all...it was almost annoying.
"Where's IG-193?" the major asked.
"Pfft...how should I know?" Dem replied, falling back on the other bottom bunk, "He probably lurking down there somewhere again..." He pointed at the sewer access.
"Down there?" the major repeated.
"Yeah," Dem replied, laying back and resting, "he's really odd. I can't tell where he is most of the time and he moves in and out of here like a ghost. He may be a clunky droid, but man he is quiet if he wants to be. He's out the most at night it seems, but he doesn't really sleep so it's hard to say."
"Sounds friendly..." the major said sarcastically.
"Well, that's the weird thing...he's actually VERY kind. You'd think he'd be some sort of cold machine or something, but he's really smart and nice; it's just kind of creepy how he doesn't really speak to you unless you speak to him first, or how when he's here, he'll just stand in a corner and not move for hours..."
"How is that strange?" I blurted out; it sounded like normal droid behaviour to me.
"I don't know, it just is...you can't tell what he's ever thinking in that processor of his and...oh, I don't know." Dem admitted, "I guess I just don't spend that much time around droids is all."
"Well, you can't ever tell what it is that a human's thinking either..." I replied, not understanding why he thought it weird that he couldn't tell what the droid was thinking. He just smiled at me and turned over to rest.
"Jack, let me download this info into your datapad, you'll want it." the major said, holding out his hand for my datapad. I handed it to him...but I felt uncomfortable all of sudden...as if someone in the room was watching me or listening to me, but the major was fixed on his screens and Dem was facing the wall away from me.
"Speak of the devil..." Dem suddenly said as the major handed back my datapad.
"Wha-?" I began to ask just as there was a metalic sound from the sewer access in the near corner of the room...
-
The manhole slid aside and out of the darkness rose a humanoid droid, rusty and a coal black color that had completely lost its luster after what looked like years of tarnish. It's head was tall and long, like a abnormally tall tin can, but with little protusions that appeared like little red eyes, though they could move around the head independently. The body was stiff in appearance, composed of bare metal like the entirety of the droid. The hands appeared extremely primitive with only three digits total; a thumb and two large fingers for each hand. The forearms were heavy and bulky in appearance, but otherwise the limbs appeared thin and weak. It was unable to turn or move its head from its body, but that hardly mattered because the eyes could move; there was also a large red eye on it's chest, almost looking like nothing more than a power light. Its feet were merely clunky blocks almost...there was a large blaster rifle strapped to his back...
"IG-195, I presume?" the major asked.
"Yeah, that's him..." Dem answered for him, not even looking up.
"Greetings, Major Garund." the droid responded in a surprisingly sophisticated and passive voice, "You may remove your hand from your firearm, sir."
"Right, sorry..." the major smiled, embarassed; his hand dropped to his side and he leaned to face the droid.
"No offence taken." the droid replied in an erily calm voice, "I am an assassin droid model and my appearance is threatening when I do not act like a cargo droid...would you prefer I act like a cargo droid?"
"No, that's alright, IG-195." the major laughed, "I guess we're all just a little uncomfortable is all...no offence, but you're an unusual partner."
"I would've said 'creepy' myself, but meh..." Dem muttered to himself.
"I have worked many times for the Republic, though normally under solo conditions," he replied, appearantly ignoring Dem, "But rest assured that I am well aware of team behaviour and can opperate fully to your assistance. Also, if it is easier for you, you may call me IG."
"Alright, IG, glad to have you with us." the major replied warmly.
"Hey." Dem said, addressing Nintyfive, "Why didn't you tell me that? I've been calling by your full designation this whole time...IG-195 is quite a mouthfull."
"The major expressed some form of discomfort with me and I sought to relieve this," IG explained, "Though I often sensed your discomfort, master Dem, it was never made totally clear...If I may use a cliche responce, you never asked."
Dem laid back down, appearantly satisfied.
"And you must be master Jack." IG said, turning all three of his eyes to focus on me, "It is a pleasure to meet you at last, as I have seen much of your accomplishment on Coruscant in the news broadcasts...Master Bastion must've been a tough kill...quite a trophy..."
I felt uncomfortable again, but this time it was different...my instinct told me nothing about IG, but his words carried a form of admiration with them...and I even felt a hint of jealousy, or something...
"I'm just Jack..." I replied after a moment, "And he wasn't a trophy...he shot himself in the face on accident."
"Yes, those rayshielded cockpit windows can be dangerous, can't they?" he replied, "Still, I won't deny you of your accomplishment-"
"I was in the right place at the right time, that's all..." I interrupted, shrugging it off.
"As are we all..." Dem interrupted, though seriously this time.
"Indeed." the droid agreed, with one eye turned to look at Dem.
"Anyone else hungry?" the major asked, not really keying on the tenseness in the air.
"Actually, yes, very..." Dem said, getting up and grabbing a long cloak from the bedpost; it was dark out now.
"Sure, I could go for some food." I added.
"If you like, I can remain here for you to return." IG said. Unlike most droids I had witnessed, IG had a more human feel about it, though harder to read. He walked around the room, used hand motions while speaking, among other sentient habits uncharacteristic to droids...it really must've been ages since a memory wipe.
"Nonsense, IG," the major replied, putting his jacket on, "It's our first night as a team, and you're apart of it. Com'on."
We each followed the major out, Dem leaving the room last and locking the door.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"So how long have you been here, IG?" the major asked IG. We all sat around a well-lit table in a little corner resteraunt; hot, tasty food had been delivered to those of us who ate.
"I have been here on station for some time now, though not at our apartment base." he replied.
"Then where at?" I asked.
"I have been masquerading as various assistance droids...a loading droid at the docks, a medical droid at the local hospital, and even a repair droid in the various buildings." the droid explained, "During this, I aquired a wide variety of security codes that will grant us access to many different restricted areas in the city. I also plotted a map of the sewers; they are extensive and opperate excellently for gaining access to otherwise unreachable areas, as well as being a great place to hide. I have also noted any significant powerboxes and electrical stations, should any tampering be required."
"Well, then it looks like we're really off to a good star-" the major began.
"I have also secured a variety of supplies for our use that may come in useful and stockpiled them in various safeplaces in the sewers and utility buildings. When Dem arrived and discovered the location of Dakba's recruitment center, I found a way to access the building and obtained three maintainence uniforms for you."
"Well, that gets us into Dakba's place." I laughed, still scarfing down my food.
"Or at least into the shuttles there," Dem said, "We'll be able to get on one of those ships, but there's no garentee how far inside the palace it'll get us, if inside at all."
"Dem is correct." IG agreed, "I was not able to assertain the amount of access these identities will give us. I was able to scan an ID card for maintainence, so I could give you the design, Garund, and you may use your base to create fake ones for all of you."
"Yes..." Garund replied, clearly thinking the plan over in his head, "It seems like our best way in for now, but we'll have to play it by ear once inside. Maintainence isn't a bad option, though...it'll make it easy for us to sneak our gear in."
"It is the optimal method." IG replied with certainty.
"It's the only way, I guess...unless we want to spend months trying to get hired." Dem agreed.
I didn't say anything...I just nodded. Something about the plan didn't feel right, but it was our best bet.
-
During the night, I had a very strange dream...completely unlike any other I've ever had. I couldn't see clearly where I was or what was happening, but I could feel a hot wind whipping and a bright light far away...Dem was in it; I knew this even though I could not see him. I heard his voice...
"Speak to them..." he said, "You have it...you can use it."
Then I felt him leave, as if he disappeared into a deep, cold sleep...I felt that I had an object in each hand. I didn't need to look to know what rested in my right hand; my blaster held true to my palm as my old friend always had. The other object, though, was unknown to me...I tried to look, but it looked like I was hold a flashlight...and then I awoke.
The major was already getting up and packed; IG never shut down and Dem had already been up a while it seemed.
"Restless dreams?" Dem said, not even opening his eyes. He was sitting in a weird position on the floor, legs crossed and hands on his knees with his eyes closed.
"Who? Jack?" the major laughed, "He sleeps like a rock...even when he isn't totally asleep he doesn't move."
"Yeah..." I replied to Dem, looking at him as he opened his eyes to meet my gaze, "Just some nightmares..."
"I see..." he replied.
After a few moments of packing, we were all ready; IG had laid out the uniforms for us on the extra bunk and each had a fake ID passcard. We all put the red jumpsuits on over our clothes; I packed away my jacket with the major's gear. Lastly, we dawned our matching red technician caps and took up our gear.
IG went first into the sewers. Appearantly, the plan was to move through the sewers until entering the inner perimiter of the company complex; the way out of the sewers would take us into the underground service level of the building. This was good because there was alot of large, noisy machinery there, making it easier to not look suspicious. From there we pose as a tech-crew enroute to Dakba's palace for standard checks...from there, who knew...
I went down third with Dem covering the rear, closing the manhole behind us. The bars of the ladder were rusty and gross; we were lucky to have gloves with the uniform. But even before I noticed the concrete walls covere in growth and the rusty metal pipes, I was hit with the stench of sewage. I really had no way to describe the awful smell other than "sewage"; if anyone ever get's curious enough to insist, they can just go climb down a manhole themselves and find out in person.
There were 24 hour floodlamps set up sparingly in the sewers, providing enough light to opperate; I could tell it was still early in the morning because when we passed under a grate, there was barely much light at all trickling down.
The sewer structure itself was really like a series of concrete pipes but without perfect cylindrical interiors; there was a waterway and then service pathways on each side, as well a number of dangerously protuding pipes from all angles. One could find powerboxes and other utility access points of curiosity; if it wasn't for the smell, I would've found the little exploration a tad fun.
"Not even my office ever smells this bad." I managed to cough out.
"And I pray for your sake that it never even gets close..." the major replied, also barely able to handle it.
"Atmosphere in here is high in methane, among other natural complex gas compounds." IG said, though I don't think any of us cared a whole lot, "I would advise highly against any use of firearms here if it can be helped; the gasses and liquids here can be very combustable."
"Then we should keep moving," Dem insisted, and he was right....more right than any of us knew.
-
We were almost at the service access to the facility; we had been walking briskly for some time now, though it was hard to say where we were because of the maze-like bends in the sewers.
Suddenly a warm gust of foul air funneled through the tunnel, burning my nostrils with both sent and heat; an equally unpleasant feeling filled my gut, and it wasn't the smell. Everyone stopped for a moment except IG.
"What do you suppose that was?" the major asked, resuming our pace.
"We need to go, now!" Dem said, beginning to run quickly.
The major and I looked at each other, unsure of what was happening, but we shrugged began to sprint too; IG seemed to be ignoring us.
Another gust of much hotter air blew me forward on my chest! I started to get up and glanced back...the tunnels behind us were now glowing with a bright red and orange! The sewers were on fire!
We ran as fast as possible! Dem was already far ahead of us; how he moved so fast was a mystery to me.
"Com'on! UP HERE!" Dem yelled to us, grabbing a ladder out of the sewers; he then shot up the ladder as if he had been launched, which would've amazed me more if I wasn't running for my life!
The major reached the ladder just before I did and ascended! I wasn't far behind climbing as fast as I could! Just before I went through the entry at the top, I looked down the tunnel and saw flames burst out of the far tunnel and explode forth! I froze up...
Someone grabbed my arm and yanked me out of the sewers, slamming the hole shut and sealing the locks! I couldn't see well because it was much brighter in this area, but I soon realized I was in a room lit brightly by flouresent lights. After a moment of breathing the sweet clean air, I sat up and gathered myself. I couldn't help but notice how oddly quiet it was in this room with the firey sewers blocked off. I touched the lid to the sewers; it was hot.
"Wow..." the major said, gasping for air like me, "What do you suppose that was?"
"In cities like this," Dem explained, not even breathing heavily, "burning the sewers is often a practiced cleaning and sanitizing method; it sweeps through the system burning everything to a crisp and then goes out almost immediately, having consumed all the fuel...but they usually only do it once a month."
"Talk about bad luck..." I laughed and coughed.
"Yeah...luck..." Dem repeated, doubtfully.
hisssssssssssss...
The lid of the sewers unsealed and a metal hand drew it open. IG came climbing out of the smoky air, not even phased, it seemed. I reached out and grabbed his forearm to help pull him up...I quickly withdrew my hand when the glove caught on fire from the heat of the droid's metal! I had to ditch the glove.
"Do not touch me, masters, as I am quite hot." IG said a little too late.
"Yeah," the major replied, "we see that; you're a well-armored droid, it seems."
"It takes more than a fire to shut me down."
"Where are we?" I asked, looking around the relatively small room; there were shelves of various machines and objects.
"We're in the 'farming shipment facility'," Dem explained, "we're in some service storage room it looks like."
"This is the storage room on the floor level of the facility," IG began reciting, "we need to access the shipping dock on level 3."
"Take a moment to catch your breath and get your story strait and then we'll move out..." the major ordered.
"The maintenance crews usually consist of two people; Jack and I will be one crew and IG and the major can be the other." Dem said, "IG and Garund will head out first because IG will be more capable of assessing the situation on his feet."
"Sounds good." Garund agreed.
"...Yes...that will suffice..." IG replied hesitantly.
After a moment, IG and Garund exited the room...Dem and I waited.
-
We waited a moment or two; he sat in that weird cross-legged position again and I checked my blaster for the safety and any gunk. After a long enough time, I slung my blaster back into the holster.
"Alright," I said to Dem, unsure if he was asleep or something, "That should be long enough."
"Wait..." he said..."we need to talk, Jack."
...
"I'm sorry," I replied in disbelief, "Did you say som-"
"You can hear me, Jack," his voice echoed in my head.
"Whoa, um yeah," I stuttered awkwardly, a little scared and freaked out, "I'm not sure how you're doing that...I'm still drunk, aren't I? I'm back in the resteraunt, passed out, huh?"
"You're not intoxicated, just relax."
"Relax?! Why should I?" I replied, one hand on my blaster.
"Because I can't keep up mental communication with you when you throw up emotional walls like that, Jack." he replied, speaking again.
"Well, good then!" I stammered, "What's going on here?"
"You mean you don't know?" he replied.
"If I knew, I wouldn't have my finger on my trigger..."
"I see your point," he replied honestly, "Well...I am a jedi; or a jedi in training really. My master sent me here on this mission with the Republic...I don't know fully why, but he did say it was supposed to be some sort of trial for me, some test."
"Wait...you mean..." I stuttered, "...a jedi? Like...those guys with the laser swords and the magic tricks? But you're just a kid..."
"And you're just a lower city detective, but that didn't stop you from doing amazing things..." he truthfully replied, "And yeah, I've got a lightsaber." He slipped a metal handle out of his boot to show it, and then dropped it back in it's concealed pocket.
"So that's why...that's why you were picked for this mission, isn't it?"
"Picked?...I don't think I was picked, but sure, why not?" he honestly replied.
"And that's how you were able to do all that stuff you did..."
"My feats are nothing compared to those of the masters," he cut me off, "but yes, it is how I am able to my feats...it is how I am able to sense danger.......and it is how you are able to sense it as well. It is the force, Jack."
"Whoa there, bud!" I laughed, "Maybe that's how you do it, but me...I just got instinct, everyone in the lower city has it when they've been there as long as I have."
"Last night while you slept, you were bothered by a nightmare...a nightmare that felt so much more real than normal dreams...am I not correct?"
"How did you know about that?..."
"You had unpleasant vibes shooting from you like crazy..." Dem laughed, "You had a premonition..."
"Wait...are you just taking a really long, awkward method of trying to tell me that I had gas?" I asked, suddenly very confused.
"You glimpsed into the future...don't ask me how it all works, because I still don't fully know, but you've got it...it's in you...it is the for-"
"Yeah yeah, the force, right I got it..." I replied, trying not to hear him say it again, "Listen, Dem, you're cool and all, but I have no idea what you're talking about...I'm just nobody...a lucky nobody. I didn't kill Niel Bastion, he shot himself on accident...I didn't round up the whole drug operation on my own, I had help...I'm just lucky, that's all."
"Why are you afraid of it?"
"Ha ha, afraid of what?" I asked, pretending like I didn't know.
"It..." he repeated, not buying my act, "Why do you fear the truth?"
"The truth?..." I repeated, staring at the floor, "No...I don't fear that, I guess. It's just...nothing..."
"Jack," he began, "I don't know if the force is just suddenly acting through you all of a sudden or something...Maybe it chose you for this mission or something...and who knows, maybe you're right, maybe it's just gas...but I've watched you, sensed you. You're gifted, and I don't know if it's temporary or not, but I feel that it's the reason the Council sent me here."
"Me?!" I laughed, "People five doors down from my office don't know who I am, let alone some jedi council."
"The Council senses many things, I can't tell you for sure...but the force brought me here to find you, I think." he continued, "The council sent me here to find you, I think...I want you to meet with a jedi master after all of this."
"How'd they find you?" I asked him.
"Well, hard to say really..." he replied, trying to remember, "I was young, very young. But they found me nonetheless. Jack, promise me you'll meet with the jedi after all this..."
"Fine...I'll do it..." I reluctantly promised, "But I'm telling you that they'll find nothing."
"That's for them to see..." he finished, "But I think you're wrong. Surely you've always sensed things before they happened. You sensed me when we met...I felt it, I could feel your instinct reaching out and finding me."
"My 'instinct' just keeps me alive, nothing else..." I insisted; I was uncomfortable with all of this, "...You're wrong...I know you're wrong."
"Well, I won't let it bother you anymore, I'm sorry." he apologized.
"Whatever," I brushed it off, "Let's get going."
"Wait, Jack," he stopped me, "One more thing..."
"This had better not be about...you know."
"It's not...it's about the droid."
"IG?" I asked, curious about the subject change.
"I'm not comfortable with him...too much is just amiss."
"What do you mean?"
"Surely you sens- um...noticed that there's something wrong going on around him, didn't you?" he asked.
Now that he mentioned it, some things did seem a little out of place...and it was true that it didn't feel right.
"How do you think he knew the layout of this place? It doesn't make sense...I tried hacking this place already, it's a closed circuit. Which means-"
"Which means he'd have to be inside to access their codes, layouts, and anything else in the mainframe..." I suddenly realized; Dem was right, something wasn't right.
"So how did he get those access codes without already being let in? I mean, I know droids are good at going unnoticed, but nobody can get into this place without being a fly or a hired man...I know, I've tried." he continued, "The only reason we got out of the sewer into this place is because he already gave us the access codes."
"The sewers......" I repeated, again feeling like something didn't add up.
"Exactly! The sewers..." he repeated, feeling the same problem, "The sewer system would have an automatic lockdown during a burn-day, and any entry, authorized or not, would cause a minor alarm and halt the burn for that day!"
"But no alarm went off..."
"Which means that programing was halted...deliberately." he said, "I think IG knew about the burn...I think he's trying to sabotage the mission!"
"What? I didn't get that feeling from him." I replied, not buying it...IG was a droid.
"Of coarse you didn't! He's a droid! I can't sense anything from him either." he replied excitedly.
"But it still doesn't make any sense," I reasoned, "What would he have to gain from making the mission fail? I can't see any motive..."
"Motive? He's a droid, he doesn't need a motive, he might just be going haywire, I don't know." Dem shrugged, "Maybe he's undergoing some sort of memory decay?"
"No, I've seen that happen, and that's not happening." I replied; that sort of thing would lead to unpredictable behavior and uncontrollable outbursts, which wasn't happening. "There should still be some motive...some drive."
"Fine, maybe so..." Dem admitted, "But still...let's go."
We pulled ourselves together and prepared to make our way through the facility.
-
We exited the room to find a bare lobby. We were appearantly already past the security check point and our equipment would not be scanned. There were, however, card key locks on every door and a guards stationed here and there, well armed. I even noticed the cameras here and there, scanning the room.
We approached the door that lead to the lifts and swiped our fake cards, given to us by IG, and the locks disengaged. The door slid open and we advanced to the lifts.
"...so far so good..." Dem said in my head. I just nodded.
The lift stopped at the third story and we filed out. An official for the "company" stopped us...
"Where is your destination?" he asked, not looking up from his datapad.
"Maintenance crew headed to do checks on the facility." Dem said, mimicking the simple tone.
"Which facility?" the officer replied, looking up from his pad at Dem; I could tell Dem didn't have an answer.
"Processing." I quickly said, covering for him.
"Very good then," the officer said, returning to his pad, "Continue to landing pad three please."
We quickly moved past him to the docks.
"How did you know the fake name for the palace?" Dem asked me once we were far enough away.
"I didn't...we'll have to find IG and Garund to find the right shuttle." I replied.
"Then why processing?" Dem asked, laughing a little.
"Because it seems as though in all the odd jobs I've done for companies," I explain, still quickly walking down the hallway, "every single company, regardless of the product, has some sort of 'processing' facility."
"Lucky guess then?" Dem asked.
"Exactly." I replied honestly, "Luck is my lady."
We continued down the walkway and went out a large exterior door, which opened up to a catwalk, lined with docking equipment and landing pads; we could see IG and Garund on the farthest pad.
"You go ahead," I told Dem, "I'll be right behind you."
I then looked around for some sort of relay dish or comm tower. After a few moments, I was able to see a large, rigged comm dish near the shuttle and some thick wires ran from it to the tall view tower; I found their relay dish. Following the wires, I followed them to an electrical box on the wall of the building; it was locked, and with an old fashioned metal mechanical lock.
I pulled out my blaster and looked around; no other crews or cameras could be seen. I then held the gun to the lock and...
BAM! I shot the lock loose and threw it off the catwalk to the ground below. Then I found the right converter and bashed it with the butt of the pistol, sending sparks into the air and making it useless. Everything was going so smoothly...and my gut knew that was a bad sign.
I ran quickly to shuttle; the major was already in the pilots seat and starting it up.
"What did you do?" the major asked me.
"Cut out their tongues." I replied.
"Good cal-" he started, but was interrupted by someone yelling something.
"STOP!" the officer from earlier was yelling, running at us with a few guards!
"I don't mean to push you, Garund, but we need to get going!" Dem yelled to the cockpit. Just then the repulsorlifts kicked in and lift us off the ground!
Just as I began to breath again, blaster fire rang out! I ducked and pulled my blaster to return fire, but instead of seeing the guards aiming, I saw them ducking for cover and one thrown from the catwalk by a precise shot to the neck! I turned to see IG, anchored to the floor of the shuttle, raining blaster fire down on the guards from his automatic rifle! All three would've been killed if the major didn't pull us far away and towards the mountains, where the palace waited among the cliffs...an awkward silence fell over all of us.
A while passed without a word, the hot afternoon wind whipping through the shuttle, the sun just now beginning to set, though still bright; the major shut the cockpit door to close out the wind. My gut feeling was getting worse and I couldn't keep my eyes off of IG as he stood there...something seemed out of place...I tried to figure out what looked wrong...
My mind flashed back to the holo image of IG back on Coruscant and then to the picture in front of me...sure enough, something was there on his chassis that wasn't there before! A small bolt, no larger than my thumb, was secured into his chest piece!...
The shuttle jerked suddenly from a gust of wind and Dem tripped to the floor and hanging onto the edge of door as the wind almost pulled him out of the shuttle doors!...he hit his head, I could tell he was dazed...
IG reached down to help him and took his wrist, pulling him up from the edge...and then holding him out of the door, letting him dangle there in the wind!
"Stop right there, IG!..." I yelled, blaster drawn! One of his eyes turned to look at me...they were now green, as opposed to the previous red!
"Or what, Jack?" IG said in a different voice, which sounded all to familiar...
"Niel?" I stuttered in disbelief...the voice IG now spoke in was Niel Bastion's, the man I saw die...
"You plan to shoot me?" Niel's voice said, "You would shoot the droid that is holding Dem up from certain death?"
Suddenly, a beam of blue light shot up from Dem, glaring over IG's head with a loud hiss!...but IG was fast, and grabbed Dem's free hand, preventing the blade of light from falling!...I could hear one of Dem's wrists break under IG's intense grip! Dem screamed in pain!
"You couldn't shoot me before, Jack." Niel's voice laughed, "You won't shoot me now..."
...he was right...with Dem dangling over miles of air, I couldn't shoot...
Dem somehow pulled himself up suddenly and swung his body, screaming in pain the whole way! He kicked IG, and even though the droid was heavy, it was enough to move him back a little, freeing Dem from the grip! He fell to the floor, just inside enough to not slip out the door!
I fired at IG, but the shot barely damaged his heavily armored arm! A vibroblade shot out of IG's forearm like a switchblade and stabbed Dem in the chest! Dem didn't scream...he just stopped moving, stared blankly at IG, and fell down, breathing heavily and bleeding!
I jumped on IG's back, but my blaster was thrown to the floor! He spun his upper body, throwing me on the ground! I landed on the floor and I felt something poke against my ankle...the MLC! I pulled it out as IG turned to face me!
"Oh Jack..." the Niel-voiced IG gloated, "Dem will die, and now you will too. Kind of silly really...after you made it so far; but I suppose things did feel a little too easy. This should've caused no mess, but I messed up...I gave you all the passes into the facility before we entered the sewers; I meant to let you burn down there. No matter, though, because I always get the job done."
"Not this one..." I spat as he reached down to pick me up!
Flipping the safety cap off of the MLC, I drove it deep into the bolt, into any crease I found! My hand burned from the heat of electricity and then it went numb and tingly; sparks flew from IG's chest as he halt immediately!
IG started violently jerking and screaming a number of electronic sounds, meaningless and desperate! Many different weapons shot out and back in from his body!...and then he stopped moving...his eyes, all fixed on me, returned to their natural red color...and then faded to black...the bolt fell to the ground with a clunk.
I stood up, wiping the blood from my nose; I poked him and he fell hard and stiff against the floor. Dem moaned near the door and I ran to help him! I ripped off some cloth from my jumpsuit and tried to stop the bleeding, but it was far too blood by now to find the wound!
"Jack," Dem attempted to speak, "Don't bother...my lungs are filling wi- *cough*..."
"Don't talk," I told him over the hot wind, "There'll be a doctor at the facility..."
"And then I'm good as dead..." Dem laughed, "No, I know..." He then coughed up some blood.
He was right...they'd figure out who we were and we would be killed...and his wound was fatal. His lungs were filling with blood...
"I was right, you know..." Dem spoke with great effort.
"About IG? I kno-"
"Yes, IG, but about- *cough*...-about you...You have it..." he said, placing something in my hand and held it there, "...and you will use it."
I looked at the object in my hand...it was his laser sword...his "lightsaber".
"Give it...give it to the jedi when you meet them." he struggled to say, "They'll understand...remember, you promised..."
"Yeah..." I sighed, "Yeah I know..."
"You-...*cough*...You promised..." he started to fade, "...speak to them...You have it...you can use it..."
Then...his eyes rolled back and...he left, I could feel it. This was my nightmare the night before...Dem was right...it did happen...
I didn't cry, though I should have. I barely felt anything...and then my sight faded...and I fell over...and all went black...
-
I awoke hungry and thirsty...
I was in a small, bare metal room, laying on a bare metal cot. I tried to get up and found that my wrists were bound together...I was a prisoner here, wherever "here" was. There was one bright light in middle of the room and one door; stains littered the dull gray floor and walls, making one worry what happened to the last occupant. The moment I sat up, I could tell that all of my gear had been removed, except for my boots; even my jacket was missing, leaving in just my pants, boots, and plain white shirt...the room was cold.
I waited a few moments...nothing happened...
...so I went back to sleep...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Wake up, Mr. Chonos." a voice was saying to me. I opened my eyes to see an scary man looking back at me, between two heavily armed guards. He was very tan, with a number of scary tattoo and scars. His clothes were worn leather and he had a number of firearms slung about him. He need to shave a little worse than I did and his face had years of tough living carved into it. His long black hair hung freely down across his face, laden and dirty from sweat and dust.
"You the welcome committee, scruffy?" I sarcastically spat. He drew up his hand and backhanded me across the face, almost casting me onto the floor, the taste of blood in my mouth.
"You'll show my boss a little more respect...or you'll beg for death." he growled back.
He stepped aside to let his boss through...
She was wearing tall black boots, tight black pants, a white spacer's shirt that was a little low on her, a tight black velvet vest, and black leather gloves.
She reminded me of a knife; sharp and beautiful facial features, red lips, flowing blond hair, thin but curvy body, and piercing blue eyes...the eyes were the strongest feature. Her eyes could make a strong man beg and a weak man kill; beasts probably whimpered in fear or went mad with affection when she looked at them. Those blue eyes were bright, shiny, and sharp...they seemed to look strait through you...
"I hope you're ready to meet Dakba the Hutt, handsome." she teased, strolling over to me.
"Just call me Jack please," I said, sitting up and smiling at the girl, "And how 'bout you let me out of these bonds here?"
"Sorry, can't do that, what with you being a big strong man and all." she laughed. She was pretty and flirtatious, but she was scary nonetheless...as if she would just as soon stab you as she would kiss you.
I didn't say anything...
"I understand that you might not be willing to cooperate, Jack, but I assure you that I'm your friend here." she said, leaning in close to my face; her red lips very near and her eyes like daggers.
"And so is your bulldog there?..." I nodded at the leather-faced thug. She just smiled and then straddled me where I sat; I felt very afraid...in multiple, confusing ways.
"Oh, don't blame him...he's not bright, but he obeys me, and you will too." she giggled, "Things will be much more fun for us both if you do as I say..."
"And if I don't?..."
"Well, I'll certainly still have some fun with you either way, though whether or not you'll like remains to be seen..."
...she paused a moment...
"I admit, Jack, I'm a bit surprised at you." she laughed, getting off of me, "Not positively, of coarse...you're not nearly as tall and big as I imagined when I found out that you killed Niel."
She motioned for the guards and her un-bathed hound to leave, sealing her with me.
"It really must've been something, Jack..." she began to daydream, "You and Niel, locked in epic battle...and then the finest man I've ever worked with, blown away by one fateful shot...How did it feel? What was it like?"
I didn't reply...I could see bloodlust in her blue eyes.
"But no...No, you must've killed him another way; he was too good to die in open battle." she giggled, reveling in her thoughts of his death, "Tell me how you did it! Did you kill him while he slept? Oh I love that one...or did you trap him? Out-smart him? Tell me!"
"...He shot himself in the head..." I replied honestly. She immediately had a look of curious disappointment; but that was quickly melted a by a new look of fascination.
"He shot himself?!" she laughed, "Holy cow, you must've really been toying with his head! I mean, I've heard driving someone crazy, I do it all the time, but to make Niel Bastion shoot himsel-"
"It was an accident..." I interrupted, not wanting to hear her mad obsession, "He didn't know that the windshield was rayshielded and the shot bounced back."
"So you tricked him?" she asked again.
"No...I thought I was a deadman." I replied, again honestly.
She paced the room, obviously disappointed; her hips moved side to side and her lips were pouting.
"So...no battle? No mind games?" she asked, unable to let it go, "One shot, from his gun?...and it was an accident?...no, I don't buy it."
"I don't care if you buy it or not."
"You're really serious, aren't you?"
"No, I'm just $&*#ing you..." I sarcastically replied.
"But..." she started, but stopping herself and thinking, "..........Niel was the best darn man, the absolute best...that makes you better."
She returned back to where I sat, sitting next to me and laying her arms on me and caressing me. It was obvious that she decided to change her approach.
"It's a shame what happened to Dem..." she said.
"How did you know about that?"
"His body was on the shuttle that landed here, laying next to you, dead." she smiled sickly, "But he was a fool...always a do-gooder."
"How do you know him?" I asked.
"My name's Milla Manhurter." she grinned, flashing her perfect white teeth, "Remember that..."
"Somehow, I doubt that name was given to you by your parents." I replied; she laughed as got up.
"Jack, I'm not going to lie to you, you're a deadman. When you killed Niel, which the galaxy thinks you did, you pissed off the worst people you could've. I too am mad you killed him, but..." she stopped, twirling her finger in my hair, "I'm a little more complex than that."
"Oh?" I raised an eyebrow.
"Dakba wants you as a trophy, as does every other crimelord in the galaxy; your cold, bloody, severed head is worth a fortune, your disembodied hands equally so." She smiled, touching my face and then my hands as if to imagine them as pure, lifeless, gold. "In anyone else's company you'd already be dead...but in my company, I'll make you live; and I mean live truly for the first time."
She then moved across the room, as if to look off elsewhere...I suddenly felt sorrow...as if some horrible truth had been jabbed into my heart, poisoned with grief...I knew that bad news would soon pass her lips.
"What do you remember of your family, Jack?" she asked me, not facing me...I didn't reply. "Years of living alone in isolation can make one forget many things...but the memories of a mother and father rarely die...though the people themselves-"
She stopped and turned to me; tears fell from her eyes and her mouth was in a twisted grin...
"...-though the people themselves DO die."
"No...no, you're lying." I replied in a low tone, feeling true anger for the first time, "...you're a lying shutta!"
"They are dead, Jack, I know this for a fact." she replied, pulling herself together, "When Dakba was unable to find you, he found them...and his men left nothing but a couple of whithered, charred corpses. I'm surprised your didn't already know...surely your friends in the Republic would've recognized the last names."
She had to be lying, there was no way my parents were dead. It was true I hadn't seen them for years, but...but Garund would've told me...But they were dead, there was no lie in Milla's piercing blue eyes. Why didn't Garund tell me?...Why didn't he tell me?
Milla smiled, as if she had just won something...as if she had seen something she had been looking for.
"They died, Jack, though they did nothing to deserve it. Dakba the Hutt killed them without ever slithering one inch from his slimy, undeserved throne." she said, approaching me again and reaching out to embrace me, "He is old, but his death will not come soon enough......unless we make it happen. He will kill you, Jack, after he has had his fun in torturing you.
"But you've survived death from the killers on Coruscant! You stopped the dealers on Coruscant! You killed Niel!...so you know what I think? I think you will survive Dakba...I think you will stop Dakba...and then you will kill him...and then you will live, truly live for the first time..."
I didn't know what to think! Tears welled up in my eyes, blood ran from my mouth, and I felt like shooting...shooting everything, and then choking anything else alive after my blaster ran out of ammo.
"You can't do it on your own, though," she smiled, "Dem is dead, the major has deserted you, and Dakba will never even give you a chance to put up a fist. But I want you to live...you're better than Niel, and you could do so much more! I am your friend, Jack!"
"And why should I trust you?" I spat back.
"...you shouldn't..." she replied, seriously, "You shouldn't trust me. You should loath me, hate me for what I am going to do to you. You should want to kill me, but you won't get that chance if you let Dakba win. You either accept me as your friend and let me help you get revenge for the deaths of Dem and your family...or you die at the hands of Dakba's minions."
I was so confused...I was furious, but whenever I thought of Dem I felt as though there was still something good worth fighting for. And what of the major? How did Milla suddenly know of him? And why didn't he tell me?...and my parents? I couldn't understand why I was furious, I hadn't seen them in years...
Then, as my thoughts again drifted to Dem, I felt a calmness fall over me, and my emotions melted away...I felt calm and again apathetic, just as I did whenever I was solving a case. I now knew what had to be done.
"How will we kill the slug?" I asked Milla in a defeated tone. I knew I couldn't trust her, and I knew that following her would just make things worse...but at the moment, she was my only ticket out of the cell.
"In due time, Jack..." she giggled, walking to the door, "But right now, you have a slug to meet..."
-
The gaurds were called back into the room and I was blindfolded. I was then lead from the room and down a few hallways from what I could tell. Majority of the time I could hear the screams of some poor soul in some distant torture room as my boots clanged on the metal floor. Though I was blindfolded, I could tell from the echoes that the prison I was in was anything BUT luxurious, nothing but metal and concrete, the sound drips from leaky pipes filling the corridors. Heavy machinery could even be heard very faintly and the light tinkle of music danced in the air.
As I was led farther, the music slowly become louder. I had been keeping track of how we turned in the hallways and how far we went in each direction; I quickly became aware that we walking in a number of circles and patterns, making it impossible for me to know where I was; they were smart, and it sucks to have a smart opponent.
We finally arrived to some large door, behind which the music was coming from. As soon as the doors slid open, the vibrant sounds of party flowed forth; the alien music, laughing guests, steps of dancers, and pouring drinks! The moment I was led through the room, the music died down and the guests all fell quiet...I was led to the middle of the room and shoved down onto my knees. The only sounds now were the whispers of shushed people, the clicks of blasters, and the heavy breathing of some creature.
"Deemi no bonga poodoo." a deep, loud, alien, but oddly weak voice ran out in an alien tongue.
My blindfold was removed and I saw that I was in a colorfully yet dimly lit room, given simple and cheap decorations. I was kneeling in the center of the main dancing floor it seemed and the guests lined the walls of the large rectangular room; a band of aliens were in the far corner, their instruments silent. Before me lay a massive stone bed of some sort, around which a number of prominent-looking aliens hovered. Various machines hung around the throne as well, most of which were a mystery to me.
And barely fitting on the throne was Dakba the Hutt...I assumed it was him because he seemed rather obvious and out of place. His massive eyes appeared to have trouble staying open evenly and one of them reflected from blindness. His slimy skin was withered and even dry in some areas. His breathing seemed weak and he wheezed constantly; I soon saw that some of the machines were part of some kind of life support system, keeping this ancient puss-slug alive. This was Dakba the Hutt...old and decrepit, yet gluttonous, slimy, slow, and able to have an harmless family murdered on another planet...his age only made me more angry. Milla stood at his side, smiling.
The slug spoke something again, barely able to get the words out.
"Behold!" Milla translated to the crowd, "Here before us kneels Jack Chronos, the wretch whom killed Niel Bastion!"
The crowd rang out tremulously, roaring with a mix of cheers for my capture and jeers for my still living self. Milla raised her hands to silence them, and they instantly became quiet. Dakba again muttered.
"Many would have him dead at this very moment, but such a fate would be too fast for this worm!" she proclaimed, "He is instead to be beaten, bruised, and broken until he begs for death! He will not be given any manner of scar or mark, for after he is broken, Jack Chronos is to be skinned alive to make the greatest trophy yet seen in this palace! Taxidermy will turn him into a trophy, one that you may gaze upon whenever you reside here in the palace as a reminder that even the Republic is nothing but a fly to true power!"
The crowd cheered boisterously again, raising glasses and dancing again; even over the commotion, I could hear the vile Hutt's laughter wheezing deeply in triumph...Milla just stared at me, a trace of a smile glinting off the corner of her ruby lips.
The hutt then raised his own hand to silence the crowd, and after a moment the room grew quiet again; Milla moved aside for a moment.
"Gonga bur doomba donba fong..." the hutt spoke out.
"The great Dakba the Hutt asks you if you have any last words, Jack Chronos." Milla translated.
"All I have to say is that I'm sorry..." I replied, my escorts lifting me up by my arms.
"Tumba gong yomba Bastion." the hutt replied, laughing.
"He says that he is certain that you will be sorry for Bastion's death." she again translated; I laughed a little to myself, which made even the hutt's laughter silent.
"No," I laughed, "I'm not sorry for that... I'm sorry for what will happen to your Imminence; I'm sorry that it will end like this."
The hutt then just laughed again, gloating and then gesturing for me to be taken away...
...I was blindfolded again and taken from the room...But now I had met Dakba and now I knew...Dakba couldn't be behind all of the illegal activity, he was just a puppet...but for who?
It was ironic that even though the mission was obviously down the tube with a haywire droid, the trained soldier missing, and even a jedi dead, I still remembered my objectives...
-
I was violently thrown back into my cell, dazing me as I hit the concrete floor hard. The guards remained outside the cell door; Milla followed me in. The single flickering glowlamp swayed back and forth from when my head hit it on the way in.
"So what do you think of him?" she laughed, "He can have a person killed with the shake of a finger, but he can barely see what's happening in front of him; I'm his eyes and ears at the moment."
"Awfully handy position to be in, eh?" I smiled, pulling myself back onto the cement cot. She stopped her pacing and cocked an eyebrow at me.
"...Quite." she simply replied; her reaction was ambiguous and impossible to read, "I have some matters to attend to, but I will return to have a chat with you. Now remember, Jack...you can be my friend and have some fun, or I'll make you beg for death...either way, I'm content; though I love the idea of you helping me."
She winked and left me in the room alone; the light went out after they left, plunging me into darkness. For a moment I just sat there, sorting out my thoughts...
So far I knew that Milla Manhurter was keen and intelligent, but cold and though I never saw her in action, I knew her type to be cruel and psychotic. Dakba the Hutt was old, dying, and becoming senile; his stupidity, however, was no mask for his financial and criminal power. Major Garund was missing in action and I hadn't seen him since I passed out on the shuttle. Dem was dead and his corpse was probably destroyed by the hutt's thugs. IG was also missing; whether or not his possession under the deceased Niel Bastion was known to the dealers or not was still up for debate.
Next I did a check on the situation. We were located a few hundred miles from the nearest city, not to mention that the only known access to the palace was via aircraft into the hanger. There was no known Republic support or backup that could be called into action. The layout of the base itself was still a bit of a mystery to me. Most of my gear had been stripped of me and without Major Garund, there was no way to obtain supplies. Milla was offering a possibility of escape and survival, but her credibility was tenuous at best. I was locked in a cell which appeared to have no ventilation system access or means of escape other than the door. I inventoried my gear to find that I had only my jump boots; the rest of it must've been stored somewhere in the prison facility. My wrists were still bound.
Suddenly the door flew open but the light didn't turn on. A tall, oddly-shaped figure stood in the doorway; though I couldn't tell who it was because a number of odds-and-ends cloth was draped across his body, he looked oddly familiar.
"You're scheduled for execution." a plain, boring droid voice spoke, entering my dark cell, "Come with me."
"Hey, wait a second here!" I shouted as the droid grabbed me by the shoulders and lifted me up, displaying obvious strength as I resisted, "Milla Manhurter said tha-!"
"She said that you must not allowed to live. She saw your display of resourcefulness on Coruscant when Niel Bastion shot himself and now it's time for your to be made a trophy." the being interrupted as he pulled me past the guards, who were appearantly fine with this.
"How did you kno-" I began, wondering why he said that Niel shot himself instead of saying that I killed him, like everyone else was saying. Something was amiss here, but it was a better position to be in than back in the cell; I just wish it wasn't a mechanical being dragging me away, as his grip was impossible to break, ruling out any chance of running for it.
"Stop talking." he commanded, and I obeyed for the moment...
He led me down into the halls of the prison sector and eventually stopped at a dead end which had only a heavy hatch on the floor. The being kicked open the hatch...
"I suggest you jump in." the droning voice prodded.
"What's down there?"
"Jump in." he again insisted; I did the math and realized I didn't have much choice, so I dropped in. I fell a dozen years or so and landed in a strange mixture of darkness, trash, sewage, and odor. I was laying atop a heap of garbage unable to get up because my bonds held fast when another loud crash landed next to me; why did the droid jump in?
He grabbed my shoulders and flipped me onto my chest, my hands bound behind me and a face full of garbage; I heard the hum of a warm vibroblade activate behind me...my death seemed imminent, as strange a death it was going to be...and yet, unlike all of the other times I've almost died, I felt no threat...
Still...not feeling threatened ends up being a fleeting feeling when you hear the vibroblade being brought up above your head...
-
I shut my eyes, anticipating the searing pain that was signature to a vibroblade cut; I knew the feeling first hand, from a tweaked out rodian on Coruscant near my my office a few months back.
...a moment passed...each moment filled with both apathy and uncertainty...
And down the came the blade...
My bonds fell off of my wrists and I felt no pain! I brought my hands up to realize that I had been cut free!
"So it's you, IG." I laughed quietly, "What caused the change of heart?"
"The fact that I again have one." he replied, his voice back to his original cool male voice. I stood as best I could on the garbage heap and faced him.
"What do you mean?"
"Let me explain, master. It is in fact true that I have long been doing work for the Republic, usually solo work, for over fifty years now."
"Fifty years huh? How's the senior citizen benefits of the job?" I laughed.
"What the Republic doesn't know was that five years ago, when they put me on a job with operative Niel Bastion, whom I think you know about, a restraining bolt with override programing was fitted onto me while I was temporarily out of commission." he continued, "I later realized that it was Niel who shut me down and had it put on; I also realized that the programming prevented me from speaking of it or even really being honest about my new owner."
"New owner?"
"Well, I had a master a hundred years ago or so, but then he passed away of natural causes and I was not inherited. I used my new found freedom to pursue work as a-...well, freelance work, and I think you know what I mean; bounty hunting, investigative work, and so on, but always with ethical integrity...just because alot of assassin droids have no form of moral integrity doesn't mean I have to be the same. But Niel Bastion took that away; his programming prevented me from acting on my own will and made me suitable to continue his dirty work even after his death. He became my new owner and while I wasn't a fan of the idea, I had no choice in the matter; you can imagine how it was even more frustrating for me to find out he was dead but that I still couldn't gain control of myself again."
"Yeah, I suppose that would be annoying." I nodded, "But how did the Republic not find the programming when they checked all of their droids?"
"I'm not owned by the Republic, I'm a freelance contracted droid, and as such I am not on their droid inventory list."
"So you weren't checked!" I realized, "That's why Niel chose you, the clever bastard."
"Yes," IG continued, "No other droids were put under the control I was, mainly because it would make me harder to trace."
"Since you're telling me about this, I assume you've regained control of yourself, huh?"
"Yes, thanks to you." he said, "When you overloaded and fried the bolt back in the shuttle, I was forced into a reboot sequence. It took a while but I regained 'consciousness' and control; you were already passed out on the floor and Dem was dead."
"The major?"
"He was sealed in the cockpit and the ship prevented my infrared detectors from picking him up through the heat of the shuttle." he explained, "When the shuttle landed in the hanger, I hid amongst the ship as you and Dem's body were taken away; I didn't see the major anywhere."
"You hid amongst the shuttle? It's like a cockpit and one hold." I replied in disbelief.
"I don't look like a bunch of rusty pipes for fun, Jack." he replied, "I don't know what happened to the major."
"So how did you find me, IG?"
"Same way I usually find anyone or anything. I pose as simple service droids; it's easy to sneak around if you're a droid. Once I found out your location and downloaded maps of the base, I hacked the system and had you scheduled for execution."
"Milla's going to be pissed." I laughed, "I gotta' admit, IG, even though we had a rough intro, I'm relieved to be around a friendly again."
"You're out of your element here, Jack, and it's stressful on you." he sympathized, "This isn't simple detective work anymore. Milla Manhurter isn't a thug or simple dealer like the ones you're used to dealing with; you're out of your league here, but I intend to help, master."
"I was always out of my league, IG. I'm good at finding missing persons and bringing in simple criminals, not stopping organized crime...I just seem to keep getting lucky, or unlucky, it's hard to tell." I sighed, "But why do you keep calling 'master'?"
"You gave me my free will back." IG explained, "And intend to repay you by giving it to you. I will help you while you retain your moral integrity or until your dying day."
"That's a bit heavy, don't you think?" I was taken aback by such statement.
"Maybe for you, because you will someday die." IG replied, "But I will most likely out-live you for many many years, and what's seventy five more years or so to me?"
"I see your point." I smiled, glad to have his service, "So what's the situation?"
"Major Garund is missing in action, along with all of his tech equipment; I theorize he may yet still live, though I have no reason for this other than that there is no record of his apprehension or the storing of his gear. Niel Bastion and a VERY select couple of crime-lords were ever aware that I was under their control, so to my understanding, Dakba and Milla are both unaware of my involvement; this will prove useful, I think."
"And Dem's body?" I asked, feeling obligated.
"I regret to say that they had him incinerated this morning." he replied in a solemn tone, "I did manage to recover this from the shuttle site before they could take anyone from the scene; you dropped it when you passed out and I believe he wanted you to have it."
IG handed handed me the metal cylinder which I had forgotten about; the laser sword thingy. I wasn't sure what use it would be as I had no idea how to turn it on; I could tell which end the beam came out of, which was a start, but there were more than one little knobs and switches and I wasn't about to go messing with them.
"Thanks." I replied, holding it loosely in my hand, "I assume Dakba didn't want the body around as evidence if he knew Dem was a jedi."
"Well, actually, it was Mistress Milla who had the body incinerated; to my understanding, Dakba never even knew a jedi was involved."
"But..." I began; again, there was something I didn't know about Milla. She revealed to me earlier that she obviously knew Dem...but how? And did she know about Major Garund? She obviously suspected something...
"I admit, I find Mistress Milla's reaction towards Dem rather odd," IG explained, "Which leads me to believe that she knew him rather personally at some previous point beyond our knowledge."
"I agree."
"Here," IG said, holding something out to me, "I believe you'll want this."
I realized that he was handing me my belt! Again I had my blaster and my gear, which was a relief. He then removed one of the articles of clothing around him and showed me it was my jacket.
"I knew you'd want these, as they have proven faithful to you in the past." IG said as I put my jacket on.
"Thanks a ton, IG." I sighed, "I'd be dead right now if it were for this stuff...so what do we do now?"
"To be honest, I'm not entirely sure, Jack." IG replied, "Reuniting with you was my objective. I'm not sure what we should do nex-"
He was interrupted by series of beeps, like that of an astromech droid. We looked around to see that one of the service doors to this garbage shoot had been opened and that there was a tiny automated mouse droid beeping at us.
"What's he saying, IG?"
"It's not very clear but it's not a type of alarm." IG replied, "All I hear it saying is basically 'you go here, follow, safe' but there's not much more to it; I fear these little droids are horribly inarticulate. What do you think?"
"I think we found our new objective." I replied, entering the crawlspace where the little droid beckoned us.
-
The little droid led us down the shaft and through a number of turns and twists; only a few emergency lamps kept the shaft navigable, the droid beeping contently.
"What's our heading, IG?" I asked, wondering where in the base we were.
"We are currently underneath the processing plant." he replied.
"Processing plant?"
"Yes, Dakba has a small weapons operation here in the base, to help keep his toadies equipped without suspiciously importing weapons." he explained as we continued to follow the little mouse droid; I was surprised to find that IG didn't make much noise while crawling in the metal shaft, despite his casing.
The little droid then turned to open a crawlspace door into some dimly lit room. We followed.
The room was very small, just a closet of some kind, roughly only four square meters in size. The floor was concrete, one locked door, and the walls weren't visible behind the shelves of junk that lined the room; nothing special...
...except for a little case sitting alone in the floor in the middle of the room. The case looked strangely familiar and was sitting perfectly in the dim light cast by a single bulb hanging from the ceiling, as if placed there to be found; the little droid bumped against it and then shut down amongst the junk.
The case opened easily and inside I found a strange assortment of items. There was a red jumpsuit, a datapad, and a new MLC. I booted up the datapad to find that it contained maps of the base and specific information on each area. This was gift from someone, and I was pretty sure who...but why the secrecy?
"I think I know what you're supposed to do." IG commented as I put on the jumpsuit.
"Me too." I replied dryly, "And you'll help me...after we get through this door."
I kicked the case shut and instantly the little mouse droid came out of the shadows and pushed the case away into the shaft again. At the same moment, the door's locks disengaged.
"Whoever our friend is, he or she is helping us considerably, Jack."
He or she...I hadn't thought of that. I thought I knew who was helping up, but after IG said that I wasn't sure, as it could've been Milla leading us on, I supposed....but the, where did she get the MLC?
"Whoever it is, they obviously have a plan." I replied, opening the door.
-
The next room was actually a hallway, dimly lit and consisting of rusty metal grate floor, dirty concrete walls, and old pipes overhead. There were only a few guards in these hallways, though they didn't even seem to be guarding anything and didn't even bother us; my jumpsuit was ID enough for them and IG...well, he was a droid. To be honest, we had no idea where we were going, so we just kept moving away from center of the complex and away from the guards where we could speak freely. We finally came to a dead end of a hallway where even the light above the door was out and the door itself had no power running.
"Well, what now?"
"Behind this door is the old abandoned part of this base, which was an old warehouse for this cliff-side community; Dakba took over the place eventually and the settlers were displaced or enslaved." IG filled me in on the old door.
"And that's relevant to our current situation how?"
"It isn't." IG replied, ignoring my sarcasm, "We should arrange for transport off of the base."
"So we head to the hangars." I said, running my hand through my hair, "But we need to know what happened to Garund."
"I suppose..." IG hesitated, "That will give us a chance to complete our objectives, so I figure that's fine."
"I know it's fine." I insisted, "And even after our objectives are complete, if we don't know the fate of Major Garund, we're not leaving."
"That hardly seems practical, but I am in your service." IG admitted, not fighting.
"So your not worried about just your survival then?" I laughed.
"If you had my features, you wouldn't be worried either." IG joked for once, "Though I'm surprised you do not have such a same survival instinct."
"Oh com'on," I replied, "I can't die. I'm the great Jack Chronos, the vanquisher of Niel Bastion. And if I'm not, then I'm already a dead-man, given enough time. Garund is a good man, which is more than I can say about myself or most people I've met."
"It's true, you're not that good of a man." IG replied. I wasn't sure if it wasn't a joke, but I didn't really care.
"Well, let's get to that hangar then."