Originally posted by Jack Chronos
It had been some time since the job involving the dealers. A couple friends told me that I should've moved into a nicer neighborhood with my new earned credits, but I didn't feel like it; I was fine where I was, just lazing my days away in the lower city, watching sleazy movies, eating at greasy food joints, drinking at dirty bars, and sleeping roughly the whole day. I hadn't done any odd jobs for a while simply because I didn't have any need credits at the time being, I could get by with the amount I had received for the Republic job for quite some time.
But I was starting to run low on funds now, I had about 40 credits to my name collectively; poverty to most, normal to me. The Republic kept giving me little job openings, but nothing interesting and as long as I had enough money to get by I didn't plan on doing anything constructive at all; being worthless was very comfortable for me.
It was the rainy season in this region of Coruscant again, and it never stopped pouring; some people found it depressing, but I didn't mind the rain. The water that leaked down into my room, however, I didn't care for much. Everything was damp as hell and I was already starting to catch my annual cold; I had actually spent some credits on vitamins because I was just not a fan of pneumonia anymore. The year before, one of my friends wanted to take me to the local emergency infirmary, but I had no insurance or credits. This year, I was actually putting some effort in trying to stay warm; an effort in vain in my small leaky room.
The window was now clean and instead of the dark view being blurred by grime, it was distorted by water cascading down from the building above. The first year in my apartment, I was unaware of the fact that the first rain washes all of the muck and grime that builds on the towers down into the lower city, and your room will be ruined if you don’t close your window to keep out the flash flood of sludge. Then, once things were clean, everything got wet. I often felt as though I was sitting in a metal room surrounded by ice because water beads would condense on the walls and ceiling, making the rag of a carpet a soggy mess and making everything wet and cold.
The rainy season was always slow, even if I did need money. Pets just didn’t try escape in the rain, so I didn’t have poor old women knocking at my door or sending me messages. People got lost, but all of my bounty listings were often taken up by more wealthy, established bounty hunters and investigators, leaving me proudly unemployed. I was pretty sure that the sign on my door that read “C-PI: Jack Chronos” was starting to peel off from the moisture. The Republic mostly just had security and escort jobs, stuff I had no interest in and didn’t pay well for the hours.
This day, I was finally just sick and tired of the dank room, so I headed up to The Swag to get something warm to eat and get out of the moisture. As I passed down the hallway, everything was fairly quiet, save the light rumble that was the entire building being pelted by heavy storm rains; no twitching spicers, no dealers looking for a sale, no prostitutes also looking for a sale, no bums...it was annoyingly calm. Once I was off of the lift and emerging into Imerg Plaza, I saw that the normally bustling plaza was also empty and being beset upon by a barrage of heavy rain, making it difficult to hear; the wind wasn’t bad down here, but I knew that a storm was raging at higher elevations.
Inside The Swag wasn’t much different, the place was just about abandoned except for the bartender/cook, whom I had come to know personally as a friend. He was funny older Devoronian, slightly overweight and very greasy, a good guy.
“Sorry, Jack,” he began, “We’re booked for tonight, there are just too many people here. You’ll have to leave.” He made a gesture to all of the empty seats and tables, laughing a little to himself.
“And if I don’t?” I replied with a grin.
“Then I’ll be forced to serve you anyways.” he chuckled, “What’re you doing in your wet clothes in here?”
“Freezing, what’s it look like I’m doing?”
“Well, get the heavier stuff off and I’ll hang it near the stoves so it can dry.” he offered.
I stripped down to just my undershirt, spacer pants, and socks; I liked the idea of warm dry clothes.
“What’s your soup?” I asked, dying for something warm.
“Dimi Son Soup, like normal.” he replied, “How much you want?”
“Well, I’m kind of low on-”
“Don’t worry about it, it’s on the house.” he interrupted, “I made a batch and so far all it been doing is sitting on the stove, so if you don’t eat it all it’s just going to get thrown out.”
“Alright, bring me a large bowl then.”
He left to the back of the kitchen to fetch the soup. Looking around the room, which was better lit than normal because there weren’t any of the weird aliens that prefered special lighting around, I discovered that there was a waitress sleeping on a booth with only her boots hanging out in the open. Mels, the cook, returned with my soup which was steaming and smelled delicious.
“Who’s the help?” I asked, nodding at the waitress.
“Huh? Oh, that’s a waitress I hired. The waiter droids kept getting overloaded and they’re in for maintainence and repairs, so I had to hire some cheap help.”
“Because of all this business, huh?” I smirked.
“Yeah, sure, let’s go with that.” he replied, cleaning some dishes.
The soup was mediocre and a little greasy, it was the best food I had in quite some time. The storm outside was getting worse; no doubt the sky was empty of traffic other than larger vessels, as all smaller vehicles would be grounded if they weren't taking the tunnelways.
As I looked back down to finish consuming what was left of my soup, I couldn't help but notice the tiny ripples in it, slowly getting bigger...I was suddenly also aware of the fact that the room was shaking and I could hear a low rumble! The waitress began to stir, being awoken by the growing sound and vibration. I ran over and pushed her under the table, and she screamed; I jumped under another table and braced myself as well!
The rumble got extremely loud and then the floor jolted with a massive shock! Now I could hear was sounded like a loud screating outside, ripping through metal, and small explosions! I poked out of my table and looked out the front window just as a large dark object skidded past the window, covered in flames! I could hear whatever it was slowly coming to a halt, leaving only the sounds fire and creaking metal straining under the blow.
The waitress was still screaming under the table and I figured it best to leave her as she was, cause I just didn't care. Mels came running out of the back to the emergency holocomm to send for the officials, but the second he began to patch through, the lights and all the power clicked out; the room was very dark now, with only the faint blue light from the outside and the few emergency lights in the area. The flickering of fire could be seen in the window's glare. Mels stood awkwardly, waiting for something to come to him, looking around.
Getting up, I got to the door, which didn't automatically open as I approached. The door could still be opened, though I had to pry it open with my hands; the moment it was open, wind and rain came showering on me. Mels tossed me my jacket and belt with my blaster, I put them on and stepped outside.
It took a moment for my eyes to adjust outside because it was fairly dark, but the flames from the wreckage could be seen clearly; there was no doubt it was a crash, and it had just barely missed The Swag, much to my relief. Crashes and wrecks were more common during the storms because stupid people would often ignore the warnings and go flying anyway...
"Mels," I said, leaning back into the doorway, "Go down to Jeso Plaza through the allyway and get the authorities, that area doesn't run on this power cell." He nodded and went out the back.
I stepped back outside and approached the burning wreck to see if there were any survivers, but I was careful because there was the possibility of a fuel leak. As I got closer though, I began to notice more details about the vessel.
It was a small military vessel of some kind, not a fighter but a low-stock freighter. Once I was at the site, avoiding the ripped metal on the path it slid in on, I looked about the ship, trying to find where the cockpit was. It was difficult to orient myself to the ship's layout because it was bigger than a fighter and more oddly shaped, though it look vaguely familiar. I was walking around the exterior, trying to discern one end of the ship to the next, when I stumbled on something large; on the ground was a large wing with a large New Republic insignia on it. It was a Republic small transport... just like the kind I managed to crash here in Imerg Plaza a few months before, but this one was in much worse condition, leading me to believe that it had absolutely no control during the crash. Unpleasant memories of that ordeal came back to me for a moment.
I found the cockpit entrance. Both pilots were either unconcious, or worse; I layed them out in the shelter under some overhangs away from the wreckage. Next, I returned to see if there were any passengers in the larger cargo/troop compartment. The door was jammed, but the locking mechanism broke open with a couple blaster shots; the door slid open to reveal black darkness...something was wrong.
Normally, these kinds of crashes happen because of the storm causing the pilots to lose control. But even then, they can normally retain at least a little bit of control, and a military vessel with trained pilots shouldn't have problems with this weather anyway. So the next possibility was mechanical or computer failure, but the Republic was paranoid and kept its ships is prime condition, ruling this out. Lastly, there was the chance that something had exploded or gone off in the holding area, but if that were the case there would be fire or some sort of damage on the interior, yet there was none...
My blaster had a small light installed on it from when the Republic techies upgraded it to military standards, and I flipped it on to see inside of the slightly sideways hold. It was mostly bare, with no personel seats or any troops, and only a couple small crates. There was, however, one large box of some sort that had strange markings on it; it was also very heavily clamped down and restricted with armoring...still, the clamps didn't look like they were made to keep someone out, but instead more as if to keep something in...
I stepped inside to get a closer look and I saw that the large holding box was supposed to be strapped down by four high-tension bands, but one of them was broken. It had probably snapped when being jostled by the storm, but even then it had to be one hell of a jostle. The crate appeared as though it had then slammed into the side of the hold, breaking it open slightly, letting out a faint red glow. I didn't get any closer because in my experience, if it was glowing and I didn't know what it was, I stayed away from it.
I paused for a moment, thinking as I ran my free hand through my hair, as was my habit. As I paused, though, I thought I heard a soft tapping on the outside of vessel that was different from the rain. Thinking it was Mels having returned, or someone else, I climbed out only to find nobody and the tapping had stopped. I did notice however that there were small red glowing dots, like little drips, on the exterior in a sort of path-like pattern. I followed this trail with my eyes and saw that it lead into the shadows.
It was at this point that I realized just how creepy the area was withough main power online. The towers overhead were out of power, casting dark giants across the sky, becoming black when the lightning flashed. Only a couple emergency glow-lamps were on still, and they didn't provide much light; the flickering fires casted odd shadows, but they were almost dead by now. The plants that weren't taken out by the crash were flailing in the wind.
For a moment, the wind died down almost to a halt, and the lightning paused. The plants stopped moving, and all that remained was the patter of the rain on the metal.
Again, I heard the tapping! But this time it was in the shadows of the nearby building, and I thought I saw a faint red glow. I raised my blaster to cast light on the shadows, but saw nothing except old boxes, trash, and the rust on the walls...but then something moved! I only just caught a glimps of what looked like a-
A hand landed on my shoulder and I spun around!
It was Mels. He was staring at the wreckage, but jumped when I pointed the blaster in his face.
"Gah! Watch where you point that!" he jumped, "Don't tell me you crashed this one too."
"No, this isn't my handywork this time," I replied, lowering my weapon and turning back to the wreckage...whatever had been in the shadows must've been gone by now.
"I think I should find work somewhere else..." Mels stated, "This place seems prone to having things fall out of the sky onto it...not my favorite feature in managing a resteraunt." I didn't reply...I couldn't look away from the shadows...I couldn't help but feel as though something was near...it was a primal and fearful feeling, like the kind you get when you think something bad is watching you...but suddenly, the feeling was gone.
"You ok?" Mels was asking me when I snapped out of it.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine."
"What's wrong? Is there someone over there?"
"Not anymore, I don't think so...Did you get ahold of the authorities?" I asked, changing the subject to something more important; these pilots probably needed medical attention.
"Yeah, they're on their way. They asked that you, the waitress, and myself stick around for questioning."
"Sure, whatever, it's not like I have anywhere else to b-"
There was a scream from The Swag; the waitress! We turned and I began to run to the door; on the way, I thought I heard a second scream, though it was more of a hiss or screach!
The door was still open and the power was still out. I ran inside with my blaster up, peering around in the darkness, my small light casting erie shadows all over the place. Suddenly I saw the waitress run out of the dark to my left and grab onto me for protection.
"What's wrong? What happened?" I asked her, still looking around.
"SOMETHI- *gasp* There was something!" she said, gasping for air; her eyes were wide with terror. Again I got the strange feeling that something was near, but again it left.
"It's gone now." I comforted her, "Now, calm down, you're safe. Can you tell exactly what happened?"
"I was s-s-sitting over there, trying to use my commlink to call someone, when I looked up to see a strange red glow from the side window, near the allyway in the shadows!"
"A red glow? Anything else?" I asked, now begining to take out my datapad and record her account.
"Yes," she stuttered on, "I didn't really notice it at first, but I did a double take...but when I looked this time, there were these little red beads, or dots, or eyes, or something in the window looking in!"
"Anything else?"
"N-no...I couldn't see anything else, it was too dark."
She thrusted her face in my jacket and I held her to keep her calm. The authorities would be there soon...and whatever it was, it was gone by that point, though I couldn't really tell how I knew this...I just seemed to know somehow, I felt it kind of.
Soon I could hear sirens approaching and I took the waitress outside with Mels.
"So tell me what happened next..." the balding and grey Coruscant Police officer asked me, not looking up from his data pad.
The power had been restored and the wreck was in plain veiw, though it was still pouring. The wind and storm had calmed down a little, but it was probably just taking a break. A number of police speeders and paramedic speeders were parked in the square, people bustled about to analyze what had happened and clean things up; repair droids were already on the scene, ready to fix the floors once the officers gave them the green.
"I pulled the pilots from the wreck and layed them out over here." I replied, bored of this annoying conversation.
"Playing hero huh?" the officer cinically remarked, "Did you give them any medical attention?"
"No, I didn't have any bandaids on me to take care of their boo-boos." I laughed.
"Whatever," he shrugged it off, "And how did you know how to get them out and where? That's one hell of a wreck, and it's a-"
"Republic troop shuttle, I know."
"You're familiar with this craft?" he asked suspiciously.
"Not this one, but I know the model. I crashed one into this square a few months ago myself, actually." I laughed. He got mad and stood up, shaking his finger as me.
"Listen, it is VERY late and VERY wet, so cut the smart buttocks crap and-"
"He's telling the truth, officer." said a familiar voice off to the side. We both looked to see a Republic Officer getting off of a Republic shuttle.
"What's going on here? Who're you?" the police officer asked, annoyed.
"Republic Major Garund, and I'm relieving you of this case, officer." Major Garund said, parting his rain coat to reveal a Republic Officer insignia on his uniform, indicating his superior rank. "He did in fact crash one of these here a few months ago and he is an important asset to the Republic here on Coruscant, so I suggest you lower your finger, I don't know if it's loaded." he finished with an abnoxious smile.
The officer's face was red and unhappy, but he was now out of his jurisdiction. He looked at me, huffed, and then began to pull his men out. Soon, more Republic ships were landing and troops and high level investigators began to shuffle through the area.
"God I love doing that." Major Garund said with glee, "Those old police officers sometimes get a little too stupid for their own good, and I love taking over their jobs."
"I can see why, Major." I smiled.
"So Jack, what do you think happened here? You're my best source right now."
I went over my account of the accident with him, leaving out nothing.
"I see..." the major said, thinking to himself and then looking at me, "Jack, I've got to level with you. That wasn't just an ordinary shuttle making a supply run or something, as you've probably figured out."
"Yeah, I kind of guessed. What was it?"
"Remember those dealers you helped us with a while ago?"
"How could I forget?" I replied honestly.
"Well, they were in deep. They had links HIGH in the galaxy, and when we took them out, we only caught a glimps of the size of this we think."
"What do you mean?" I asked, knowing that there was something he wasn't telling me.
"When we were going through the contraband from the dealer's base that you helped comprimise, we come across some equipment, tools, and substances that...well, let's say they weren't spice dealer tools. We found a number of highly mutagenic substances, most of which were not in their natural state; they had been experimented on and used." The major continued with solemn face that had a look of genuine worry about it. "I want your help with this, but I don't feel comfortable telling you more out here. Can we continue this inside or something?"
"Sure..." I could tell something wasn't right. We went inside The Swag, which was still empty, and took a seat in the back booths.
"Anyway, as I was saying, we were naturally obligated to report these substances to higher command when we found them, and they had to be dealt with by a biohazard unit. The brass wasn't too happy by this developement."
Things were winding down outside, the repair droids had the go-ahead to start repairing the damage, and ships were already begining to haul away the wreck. A large crew of biohazard units were cleaning and securing the ship's hold where I had seen the odd crate.
"So what happened tonight?" I asked, cutting to the chase.
"That Republic carrier transport was headed to a secret testing facility here on Coruscant for the Republic. There was a piece of cargo in it that had not been opened because the scanners picked up high amounts of biohazardous material as well as radiation, among...other readings."
"Other readings?"
"Well, the machines couldn't pinpoint the signals and had difficulty telling us what exactly was inside, which was worrysome because we have some of the best gear in our facility. Occassionally, the scanners would say that we had a life readings, but then it'd be gone moments later. Other times, we'd get high levels of electric feedback, or sudden jumps in radioactivity. Naturally, we chose not to open it and just wait until we could get it to a better facility. That's where it was headed tonight..."
"And it crashed..." I finished his thought for him.
"Yes...it crashed...We chose this night to do the transfer just in case some of our codes were still comprimised by Neil's mess. If we did it tonight, nobody would be in the skies due to the weather and the ship could easily identify any hostile vehicles attempting to intersect the transfer."
"Is that what you think happened? Do you think they were attacked?" I asked.
"No, we don't think so. They had an emergency button under their thumbs the whole time, and they would've signalled us if a suspicious vehicle came within even eyeshot of them. We think something else happened, though we have no idea what, it's very frustrating."
"The weather?..." I asked, knowing that this was probably not the real cause.
"No, our pilots are damned good, this is pleasant flying weather for them."
"Mechanical or computer failure?" again asking something that I knew was probably not the case.
"No, we tested the ship theroughly before even considering using it, considering how unstable the shipment was. It's parts were better than new and the computer was perfectly shielded."
"I figured so. So you've really got quite a mystery on your hands, don't you?" I replied.
"Well, yes and no." he said looking down at his drink that Mels had brought him. "Yes, it's one hell of a mystery. But we're not completely in the dark..."
"How so?" I asked.
"We know it has to do the spice lords, but we don't know much more on that subject. We also know that only the Imperial Remnant ever messed around with testing things like this, but they've been nearly extinct for ages, so we've pretty much eliminated them from the picture. Still, this type of testing doesn't fall under any sort of vice, it's got to be for some sort of military purposes. So we need to know who intends on using this stuff. The Republic has a strict ban on mutagenic testing and weapons, as well radioactive warfare; it has to be someone who's underground. We suspect a hutt, but it's just a speculation."
"This is all good and well," I replied, "But do you have any leads?"
"We do," he replied, setting his drink down, "That's what I want to talk to you about."
"Really? Where'd you get this lead?" I asked curiously.
"From the records of an old aquaintence of ours, if you recall?"
"...Niel Bastion..." I thought aloud.
"Yes...When we went through his records in his datapad, we found extensive details regarding the underworld of the galaxy, Niel was in very deep. Unfortunately, he had a habit of codenaming his contacts, so we had no way of knowing who was who. We do, however, have one name that he didn't bother making a code for. It's a man here on Coruscant by the name of Tello Mika, an Iridonian who supposedly runs a cheap droid foundry."
"Yeah, I've heard the name..."
"You have?"
"Yeah, I see his name on all crappy droids here in the lower city...and occassionally on a blaster part that tends to malfunction." I replied, recalling my couple bar fights in where the guy pulled a crappy blaster and it would explode in his hand.
"Interesting...he's not cleared for weapons production..." the major noted, "But that's not a surprise, given the situation."
"So I take it you guys haven't taken him in yet, huh?" I asked, realizing just how little he knew about this guy.
"No, we don't want to risk comprimising our only lead. That's why I want to hire you again."
"Me?" I asked, a little surprised, "Don't you guys have some crazy special ops guy you can send in or something?"
"In all honesty, you did more than a special ops guy would be asked on the last mission. When you killed Niel Bastion, you essentially took his place."
"But I didn't kill hi-"
"Yes yes, I know the details. But as far the brass is concerned, you killed him and put an end to the mole...they made their own file for you appearantly."
Wow...the high Republic command appearantly had a file for me...I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not, but it was pretty cool.
"So you're not really the one hiring me, are you?" I asked.
"No, I'm still your employer. But this time, I had direct orders to hire you. If I decided to make a team instead of one opperative, I was required to put you on the team." he seemed reserved on the matter.
"Is that a bad thing?"
"No, not at all. I probably would've hired you anyway; I'm just concerned that they'ed hire you without even meeting you. But then again, they had input from a particular third party that is notorious for having strange habits..."
"Third party? I didn't know that the Republic allowed a third party to give input on secret opperations..."
"Well, there's only one such group they would ever trust with such sensative material; the jedi."
I had heard of the Jedi here on Coruscant, though I've never met one or seen one. To my understanding, they were like super-cops or something; magicians and powerful warriors or something. Some said that they could "see" more than the common person, but like I said, I've never met one.
"The jedi? They gave input on this case?" I asked, puzzled over their involvement.
"Well, appearantly the high command found other readings in other crates we had sent that only their instruments could pick up that caused them to seek the advisory of the jedi council...but this is all WAY out of my jurisdiction and I don't know anything more than that. All I can tell you is that you'll be acting as our lone opperative for this case...naturally, you'll paid VERY nicely."
"I see...Well, I'll need to think it over..." I said and then paused a moment..."You have yourself an opperative." I replied after the pause.
"Alright." he laughed, "Just a couple last things. I won't be your commanding officer for this one, in fact, I'll be your partner essentially. Tomorrow, I'll be picking you up here at 09:00 hours to take you to the high command building for this system where we'll get our briefing."
"Why so early? I won't get much sleep at that time..." I whined.
"Trust me, you'll have time to sleep in the transport..."
"So I'm guessing it's a little farther away than your office and base, huh?"
"Yeah, just a little. Technically, it's almost on the opposite side of the planet, locating just between the Senate building and Jedi Temple...but who's counting miles, right?" he laughed, "Oh, one more thing. Try and wear a clean shirt, ok?"
He got up and left out the front. I watched him climb into the large doors of the last Republic troop transport as it began to lift off...
"...holy crap..." I thought, "What the hell have I gotten myself into?..."
The next morning I found myself posed with possibly the most challenging situation I've ever had in a loooong time...I needed to find a clean shirt...
After literally an hour of tearing my room apart for anything, I gave up and grabbed what few credits I had left and made way for the nearest clothes shop, which was ironically in Imerg Square.
Once I had purchased my new threads (a simple spacer white shirt, some padded spacer pants, and a padded spacer jacket), I waited at the landing pads for Imerg Square. Soon, a small Republic shuttle, similar to the one Major Garund had arrived in the night before, dropped out of the sky and touched down on pad eight, not bothering to turn off the engines. I was helped into the troop compartment by a soldier and the ship immediately began lifting off.
This particular shuttle was the same model as the small gunships and troop shuttles, but they were versatile ships and the interiors were easily changed. Though this one still had the makings of a crude metal troop carrier, it was outfitted with a few nice seats at the last second to make it a little more suiting for long distance trips for civilians. The major was seated inside; I sat across from him and the small portable holoprojector on the ground in the middle, the door sliding shut and sealing.
"Good morning, Jack," Garund greeted me, "I almost didn't recognize you in those clean clothes, but your hair gave you away."
"Yeah, really funny. So how long is this flight anyways?" I asked, annoyed at being awake.
"I guess about five hours, assuming we don't hit traffic in the skylanes." he replied.
"So it'll probably take longer than five hours, huh?"
"Yeah, probably." he laughed. "Well, before you fall asleep on me, I might as well tell you what to expect when we get to the HQ: Expect a therough and annoyingly tedious security search. You brought your blaster, I see." He pointed at my holster.
"Should I not have?"
"No no, it's fine. I just don't know if they'll outfit you with a new one or not, depending what they think of it."
"Well, if they give me a new gun, I won't complain, but I'm not tossing this one. I like this one, she's been with me for a long time and done me good."
"Fine whatever, but they may make you carry a second one or leave that one in storage." he told me; I just shrugged.
"Anything else I should know?" I asked.
"Well, you'll want to adress everyone there as 'sir'; they tend to be a little stiffy up at HQ, I think it's just the collars cutting off their air, but still you don't want to make them mad. I've noticed that the guys who make them unhappy tend to get more paperwork to fill out for themselves, and TRUST ME...you DON'T want to fill out Republic Military paperwork..."
"I'll take your word for it."
"Also, when they're briefing you, hold your questions until afterwards and take notes if you can." he said.
"Take notes?" I repeated in annoyance, "What the hell am I doing back in freaking school? I bearly made it out of school with a degree in the first place and now you're telling me to take notes?"
"Well, it's your call, but they tend to pile on the information and they won't always give you a handy datapad like I did for you on your last mission." he replied with a shrug, "Also, they don't give you as many luxeries when you get this high up and your not actually working in the HQ building...we'll probably have to figure out our own means of insertion or whatever else is required of us."
"Whatever," I sighed, "Is that it or will there be homework?"
"No, that's it, Jack." he replied, ignoring my smart-buttocks remark...I hated it when people ignored me when I was being a jerk, it was annoying.
I immediately turned my seat to face forward in the ship and layed back to sleep. I was out cold in moments.
I was awoken by a sharp jolt and then a drop! My vision focused as I looked about; one of the large sliding doors on the side was open and I saw the metal pinacles of Coruscant rising up at us! At first I was afraid that we were falling, but the engines were sill controlled and it become clear to me that the sudden manuver was intentional.
I looked over to see the major leaning out the open door, looking behind us and upward as we dropped steadily. Suddenly, shadow fell across the door as we feel beneath the towers, catching only glimpses of the gray cloudy sky between the towers as we sped by. It wasn't raining yet, but it was completely overcast.
The major ducked back in and moved to the front of the hold, hitting the comm at the door to the cockpit; just as he moved away I swore I saw large blaster shot wizz by!
"GET US AWAY FROM MAIN TRAFFIC!" he yelled to the pilots on the other side over the noise of the wind, "I COULDN'T SEE WHO THE SHOOTER WAS BUT WE'LL FIND OUT IF HE PURSUES! HAVE THE SCANNERS READY!"
He then grabbed me and moved to the back of the ship, slamming open a door which led to two small chambers.
"These are the manual controls for the rear guns! You take the left and I'll take the right side! Shoot at anything that attempts to follow us or shoot at us, but hold your fire if there's obvious civilian traffic! Got it?" he yelled at me, pushing me into one of the small dark chambers.
I sat in the uncomfortablely small chair and gripped the controls...but I couldn't see anything, there weren't any veiw ports or anything!
"HEY! MAJOR GURUND!" I yelled to him in the next chamber.
"WHAT?!"
"I UM...I CAN'T REALLY UM...I CAN'T SEE ANYTHING!"
"HIT THE SWITCH ON THE LEFT THAT SAYS 'Manual Control'!"
Sure enough, there was a large red switch on the wall next to me that said "Manual Control"; I felt stupid. Once I flipped it, the metal blast shielding slid away like eyelids and I could see as if I was strapped onto the back of the ship. The gun suddenly unlocked and I could feel it moving with my hands without resisting, with a click the triggers unlocked. The small holoscreen in front of me lit up and projected a targeting system read out too complex for me to even hope to understand; there were more moving lights and little projectories than I could handle, so I just ignored the transparent screen entirely and used my eyes.
We had stopped our rapid decent out of the skylanes and were now rocketing through non-flying zones of business sectors, there were only a couple authorized speeders in the sky here...so far nothing stood out to me, and the major hadn't fired anything yet.
"One more thing," I heard the major shout to me through the small view port we had between our two chambers, "This isn't a holomovie, don't just shoot wildly at the target! Aim and take your shots! The last thing you want is HQ shaking a hefty bill in your face for damages or worse...being responsible for a civilian casualty!"
"Gotcha!" I replied, keeping my eyes peeled out the back.
Suddenly I heard blaster shots and the shuttle shifted suddenly! The shots wizzed back behind us and suddenly a small skyspeeder shot out from above us, heading in the opposite direction! I began to take aim at the vehicle, but the major yelled out to me.
"Don't shoot! Let the pilots and the gunner worry about the ones that come from the front!"
I kept looking out the back...out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of a larger shuttle that, though it was much higher than us and at a considerable distance, was moving at the same speed as us and was keeping with us. I looked for the zoom mechanism on the controls, but they confused me and it was taking me a moment...
Again, another speeder harassed us from the front, blaster shots exploding on the deflector shields! They seemed to be avoiding the rear approach, but this time the major took a shot at the speed, hitting one of the engines! The speeder caught fire and violently exploded in an open shipyard!
At last I found the zoom controls! I focused the guns on the shuttle and the targeting computers automatically began to focus in, giving me a clear image on the holoscreen! It was a heavily modified shuttle of some kind, I couldn't tell the model anymore. It had a number of large sensors and jamming mechanisms installed on its exterior; it was some sort of rigged recon ship! I'd have bet credits that it was the ship organizing the smaller speeder attacks; that was how the speeders knew not to approach from the rear! Sure enough, the main door on the side was propped open and a man in spacer gear and a cheap helmet was focusing on us with an expensive looking pair of binoculars!
I took my aim, taking my time...the targeting systems flashed at me, telling they had a lock, but I didn't trust them...somehow, I don't know how, but somehow I just knew that they wouldn't make the shot.
I'm no sniper, and I've never used a ship turret before, but somehow I knew what to do. Taking my time, I waited...just waiting for the moment that felt right...
BAM!
I fired! I was so deep into feeling for the right shot that I didn't even notice that I had closed my eyes! "#@%&*" I thought to myself, thinking that I really had messed it up by closing my eyes!
But when I opened them, I saw the shuttle descending out of the sky, flames skipping off of its engine with small explosions!...I did it!?
"What the hell was that, Jack?!" the major yelled.
"I think I just shot the command vehicle..." I replied still amazed at the fact that I just somehow shot a moving vehicle at high speeds with my freaking eyes closed...
A moment or two passed...no more attacks had followed the destruction of the shuttle. A voice came over the comm from the cockpit; "We have communications and scanners back...whatever was jamming us is gone now."
"...Jack?..." the major said after a pause of mutual disbelief.
"...Yeah?..." I replied a moment later.
"...In all my years of service...busting crime rings, making dangerous stake-outs, undercover work, and high speed chases...I have NEVER seen anyone make a shot like that...the targeting computers can barely calculate at that distance at this speed...When the hell did you become a jedi?"
I didn't reply, though I understood the joke. How the heck did I make that shot?...The only good reason I could think of was pure and complete luck...
"You must have one heck of an eye, Jack..." the major said, shuting down the guns on his side and making his way back to his seat.
"Yeah..." I thought to myself, "But if I do, I wasn't using it..."
I shut my gun down and returned to the main hold. The major closed the open door and I buckled in; the ship was returning to the skylanes. Soon, the pilots came on the comm telling us that now we had police escorts and should be fine for the rest of the trip.
I tried to sleep, but I was still weirded out by what happened...not to mention all the other questions that hung in my head; like who attacked us?
Soon, however, I was out cold again.
The ship quickly lost speed, waking me up.
"What time is it?" I asked the major, who was still seated next to me, as I rubbed my face with both hands.
"About noon on this side of Coruscant." he replied.
"Sheesh, I slept for only an hour and a half? It felt like more than that."
"It was more than that. We've crossed a few time zones...you've been asleep for about five hours."
Looking out the small vertical viewports I could see a bright and shiney Coruscant, hurting my eyes; we certainly weren't in my sector anymore.
A voice came on the speakers; the pilot.
"We'll be opening the doors now. We won't land for another dozen minutes or so, but this is one of the most scenic spots of Coruscant and I don't think you'd want to miss it." the fuzzy voice said.
The side doors swung open and wind filled the hold; bright white light came pouring in from the high-noon city. For a moment I couldn't see a thing and my eyes ached.
Once my eyes adjusted, I could tell that the pilot wasn't kidding. I had lived on Coruscant all my life but I had never seen like this. The towers shimmered with light, everything was polished; the skycars glimmered like fish in the air. There were only a couple puffy clouds in the sky, but it was still the clearest sky I had ever seen. Was this what everyone else in the galaxy really thought of when they heard the word "Coruscant"?...if so, they were seriously misled...
"That's a funny looking building." I yelled over the wind, pointing at a large mushroom shaped building. Major Garund moved to my side to see what I was looking at.
"Oh, that's the senate building." he yelled back.
"Like the one from before the Galactic Revolution?" I asked, refering to the formation of the New Republic.
"Well no." he replied, "This one's new. The leader of the Empire destroyed the old one during that period. The new one is built on the original site with roughly the same design, though."
I kept looking around the silver pinacles for anything else...
"What about that one?" I asked, pointing at the one building near the senate that wasn't perfectly polished and even had some stone areas; I had only seen that much stone on holovision before.
"That's the jedi temple here on Coruscant."
"Temple?"
"Yeah, it's like their HQ and training grounds and stuff, I don't know a whole lot about it. Supposedly, it's built on the site of the Emperor's palace...or at least close...I don't really know for sure."
The shuttle began to slowly descend; looking ahead of us, I saw a large thick tower ahead, almost like a giant block with other wide buildings behind it...it was plain looking, but had many New Republic insignia upon it.
"Gentlemen," the voice of the pilot rang on the speakers, "Please take your seats, we will be landing shortly."
We sat back down and suddenly the ship shot into a tunnel that had openned up on the side of the building ahead. I fell forward out of my seat as the ship braked very firmly, hitting my head on the metal floor.
"That's why you buckle up." the major laughed at me as I got up, seeing double.
Soon we burst into a large hanger with many such shuttles and other military vessels moving about; some for maintainence, others for loading, and some were on their way out. It was all very noisy. Once the ship touched down, a man in a high Republic officer uniform approached the ship with half a smile.
"Major Garund, glad to have you back." the gruff older man said, helping him out of the door first. The man had pepper gray hair and a few rinkles, but his muscular build filled his uniform; he had a black, old-fassioned eyepatch over his left eye.
"It's good to be back." the major replied. The two began to turn to walk away but they were suddenly distracted by the young C-PI falling out of the shuttle head first, appearantly having tripped.
"You ok there, son?" the man ask me as I sat up, again rubbing my head.
"I need to stop coming to hang with you Republic guys..." I managed to speak slurringly, "It always gives me a headache."
"You must be Mr. Chronos." the man said, laughing at my fall.
"No, I'm Jack...Just Jack..." I replied, annoyed. "And you must the old salty man of the sea in these here parts, huh?" I made fun of him, imitating the dialect I had seen old sailors use in the holomovies.
The major shot me a look; appearantly my rude sarcasm was rude.
"Ha ha, you could say that." he replied with a hearty guffah or two.
"This is General Menoso, Jack." the major firmly told me, "He runs this whole base AND our mission..."
"Menoso, huh?" I repeated, looking back at the squinty man.
"GENERAL Menoso, Jack..." the major again corrected me like my mother.
"This is fun and all, mom, but don't we have an opperation or mission or something to be breifed on?" I was still a little swaggery from my two bumps on the head; I wasn't really angry, I just wasn't really able to see strait.
"Yes, you do." the general said, laughing at the little dialogue he had just witnessed, "Right this way gentlemen."
He then led us past some VERY tight security checkpoints; I began to take notice of his many many medals and badges. Everyone saluted him as he passed, it was really wierd.
"So tell me why the big cheese of this whole place is giving us the personal escort treatment again?" I whispered to the major.
"He's an old friend of mine and I'd appreciate it if you'd treat him with a little more respect, Jack." he whispered back, annoyed at my 'attitude'.
We came to a lift and waited for it to reach our level.
"So, Pete, how are things on your side of Coruscant?" the old General asked Garund.
"Pete?" I laughed, "That's your first name? Pete?"
"It's Peter, but you can still just call me 'sir' or 'major', got it?" he angrily replied.
"Ok! Sheesh, no need to be up tight about it." I laughed.
"Don't worry about it, Pete." the old man began, "At least people don't pete-off to sleezy alien dancing..."
...I wasn't sure, but I was pretty sure that I had just been made fun of by the geezer.
"What?" I said, still kind of unsure of what he meant, "What's wrong with sleezy alien movies, huh?"
"Huh? Oh nothing, I suppose, if that's the only action you can get...but then again, I'm just a salty old man of the sea, what would I know? Still, if you ever are feeling lonely again on a rainy night, I have some extra numbers of girls you can call up, I just have too many of them now."
...that dickweed...touche, old man...touche...
"Yeah?" I reached for a smart-buttocks comeback, "At least I don't have to use special medication for my fun."
Oh yeah, I had him there...nothing like a good reproductive insult...
"Really?...Have you considered using something?" the old man smiled, "Cause right now, I imagine that a jawa could easily show you up."
...I had no idea what a jawa was, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I had just been told...Garund was laughing to himself...
The door to the lift slid open and we stepped into the small elevator room.
"Well-...yeah?! Well-..." I was drawing a blank, "Well-...You're old!"
"Old salty man of the sea, point one." Garund laughed, "Jack Chronos, point zero."
I sulked, leaning against the wall of the lift, as we shot upward; the general had smug smile upon his face...damn, he was good.
"Well gentlemen, I'm afraid that even I can't get you past these security screenings. You'll have to meet up with me on the other side." the general informed us, leaving us at the entrance to a heafty security station. We had risen almost to the top floors in the building using the lift, but appearantly none of the lower level lifts reached the top levels, for security measures, and the highest floor that they all reached was a massive tighly-run security waypoint; that was where we were at this point.
The major was taken to a different room than I was, but all of the rooms were probably the same. First I was taken to a sort of small automated hallway; the ground moved on its own so all you did was stand there as you underwent a number of scans to pick up any weapons, biomass, and just about anything else; they could probably even tell you what you had for dinner the night before. Then I came out into a larger plain room, greatly resembling the security outfitting room back at the HQ in my sector, the one that I had been inspected in for my last job with Republic.
The room was plain white, with some cameras, a viewport, and a small platform to stand on.
"Please step onto the platform." a female droid voice spoke to me over a hidden speakerphone. I stepped onto the little pedastal and instantly the thing began scanning me.
"Sir, you are carrying an upgraded blaster pistol which has undergone a number of military grade modifications that would be illeagal to a civilian such as yourself." a man spoke over the speakerphone, from I assumed the viewport.
"It was modified by the Republic HQ in my sector for my last job with you guys." I explained.
"Checking..." the voice replied as another scan began..."Ah yes, we found it's ID. I'm afraid, however, that while you are clear to use such a weapon, you are not cleared to carry it within the upper levels of this base."
"Am I going to be shot at in the upper levels of this base?" I asked bluntly.
"Um...I suppose not, unless you do something stupid."
"Like what kind of stupid? Like shoving a bottle of Iridonian hot sause up my nose and inhaling?" I replied with a chuckle.
"No, that's just disgusting, and you'd probably die from that anyway." he said with a tone that showed his confusion towards me, "Something stupid like attacking someone or stealing something will get you shot at."
"Ah I see, then go ahead and take the blaster, I won't have any need for it..." I shrugged, "Wait...will I get it back?"
"You'll have it returned to you before you leave the base." he replied, "Now please exit via the door to your left, there will be a personel there to relieve you of your weapon."
I stepped down and moved to my left, but I saw no door. Sure enough, however, the fairly smooth white wall changed and the small indent of a door became visible and swished open. Behind it was a very formal looking Republic gaurd; I handed him my holster with my blaster. He then stepped aside a motioned for me to continue through the small hallway and through the door at the end.
The door emerged into a lavish hallway, Republic emblems abound; Major Garund and the general were already there, waiting for me.
"So how did your screening go?" the general asked me as I approached.
"Alright I guess." I replied indifferently.
"Really? Hmm..."
"What? Why?" I asked.
"Well, I asked them to give you a body cavi-" he began, "Actually, nevermind."
The major laughed and I just felt confused.
We then moved down the long hallway and boarded another lift, which smoothly and quietly ascended. At the top, it opened up to a sort of receptionist room with a desk and a door, lavishly decorated. An officer sat at the desk.
"Anything new?" the general asked the officer at the desk as he approached the door.
"Not really, sir." the male officer replied, "Just the usual. The senator's been trying to press you to take care of the vandalism problem in sector 5883...and she wants your support in her re-election."
"There are more important issues with the Coruscant crime rate than some grafitti in a rich upper level area filled with pompous politicians and business owners. Shootings, arson, drug dealings; the senator will have to shove it." he said bluntly, and I admired his care for politicians, "Oh, and if she wants my support, all I'll do is support her by carrying her to the end of the senate building and throwing her off the edge with a cry of glee."
"Very well, sir, I'll tell her that you'll get around to the grafitti problem as soon as possible and that you'll think about maybe supporting her re-election." the officer replied, smiling.
"Yes yes, that'll just have to do, although that's not how I would've worded it." the general sighed.
We then passed through the doorway to enter a large, spacious, and beautiful office that sat at the top of the base with a breath-taking view of the area around; the senate building and the jedi temple were both in plain view, each in stark contrast to the other. This was the general's office. He moved behind the large desk and fell back into the large chair with a sigh.
"Trouble with the senator?" the major asked.
"She takes bribes from law-breaking business owners, ignores major problems with the lower city, and expects me to keep her personal neighborhood of rich-la-tee-da elites in a state of perfect cleanlyness. If a man throws his trash on the ground, he is arrested for vandalism on harshest degree and held for trespassing by her personal gaurds. Technically, the area is allowed open for the public, but she insists. Also, she thinks a piece of trash is a horrible obscenety in her neighborhood when she obviously hasn't walked ANYWHERE else in Coruscant where it's hard to find the bare rusted metal underneath all of the junk and oil. I have no patience for her, and the sooner her term is over the better...and she's just a b*$&@ on top of it all."
I laughed, loving this new general. He just gave me a look, and I realized that he was really serious about her being a nuesance.
"Anyway, you weren't brought here to hear me rant on about how much I hate that woman..." he finally laughed, "Let's move on to business, shall we?"
"When you worked on that little opperation with the dealers several months ago, you sort of started something." the general explained.
"What do you mean?" Major Garund asked curiously.
"Well, Jack, do you remember the datapad you recovered, the one that belonged to Niel Bastion?"
"Yes, I do." I replied, curious about what other information it may have contained.
"Well, we had our top guys take that apart. There were literally libraries of information in there that were all encrypted in some VERY tough codes...it took our droids about a month before we broke some of them, and we use of the line droids for this stuff." the general continued, "That encrypted data held tons of information regarding contacts, spies, and what have you."
"So you cracked down and could close up the loose ends, huh?" I asked.
"No, not exactly." he replied, "Even though the encryption was tough enough, Niel was good...damn good. He never once named any contacts or exact locations, it's been very frustrating. We had some of our top detectives on some leads...they were in areas that we knew we would be unable to contact them, but they could handle themselves...or so we thought."
The major gave me an uneasy glance.
"We finally recieved word back from one of our men working on Kessel on a lead...we didn't get much, but we got enough to know that our other men were not reporting back for reasons other than laziness." the general hinted, "They were being hunted. I gave the order to withdraw and return to base...that order was given a month ago, and we've only had two agents return out of the dozen or so we sent out. I don't need a body to figure out what happened."
"So what do you want me to do?" I asked, getting tired of the details.
"When you killed Niel, you openned up a can of hell, even though all of us had no idea. We've tried all sorts of methods of infiltration, spying, and detection but these criminals have covered their tracks better than most organized forces. Whoever these guys are, they are organized and good."
"I know they're organized, I saw that myself at their base...I even told you guys in the debreifing."
"Yes well..." the general coughed and shifted awkwardly, "Maybe we didn't take your view on the situation as fully as we should have. Regardless, we know it now. We need you to go to Kessel and pick up where that agent left off. You will need to find him and his temporary base on the off-planet mining station called Nal' Kessel Tira, meaning Kessel's Jewel in Huttese, in case you were curious."
"I wasn't, I understand huttese."
"I see. Well that just qualifies you more so for this assignment. You will asked to stay here on base overnight to prepare for your flight. Naturally, your home will looked after in your absense and you will be very well compensated."
"My speeder is parked in the lot near my home...that piece of durasteel is worth more than anything I could possibly have in my appartment." I pressed.
"Yes, we'll have that secured, don't worry." he replied assuringly.
"So this agent that was opperating on Kessel, will we meet him here or upon our arrival?" the major asked.
"We assume he's dead." the general replied, starting to look through some files and pointing to the door.
We were led out by a droid who began to take us down the hallway to recieve maps, breifings, equipment, and all that stuff. As we walked, I could feel the uneasiness.
"Bah, don't worry, Garund." I laughed, "He probably just died of old age or something."
"Yeah, old age." the major laughed, lifting the mood a little, "Somehow I doubt that we'll get a warm handshake when we meet him."
"Yeah, you're right..." I grimly replied, "It'll probably be a clamy handshake, and an awkward one too if his head is a few yards away."
"Oh stop that, Jack. That's horrible." the major scolded, though he was laughing a little.
We were shown to our temporary rooms in the base, and I had to confess how nice they were. They had a desk with a holonet terminal, they were well lit, and everything was clean. My only complaints were that everything was too clean and that the bed was too soft...I had trouble sleeping in it, so I slept on the floor of the balcony, which had a nice view facing the jedi temple.
As I lay there on the floor, peering out through the railing on the side of the balcony, I couldn't help but stare at that strange building. The jedi...
I didn't know a whole lot about the jedi, to be honest. Supposedly, my family had a jedi in it's line...but that was eons ago. I remember visiting my uncles home in a nice area of Coruscant where he still had the old tunic and robes on display as a family heirloom; that was the only time I ever saw those robes or visited any family really, I could barely remember it.
The jedi temple...it's massive stone pillars were lit up in the distance, making it quite a sight; a stark contrast to the now dark and gloomy senate building, which was closer and looming to the right in my view.
Supposedly, the jedi were practitioners of some ancient religion or something. Some people who had witnessed them had said that they were like divine beings, but in what manner were they divine varied from person to person. Some people said that they were the fearsome and amazing warriors they had ever seen, but others said that they were the most level-headed and calm diplomats and peace-keepers they had ever seen. I didn't get confused over it because I didn't think much about it, they were just stories.
But now that I could see that monumental building, lit up in the distance, those fairy tales somehow seemed so much more real...it was almost like a dream; not necessarily meaning that it was pleasant, but just that it felt as if it wasn't real. I couldn't help but imagine those myths, those legends called jedi, sleeping by the dozens in that eye-catching citadel.
I confess that I thought about what it would be like to be a jedi...using one of those laser swords, being able to tell what others were thinking. But I guess that because of my lessons in the lower city, I had already grown something of a survivalist intuition that gave me a similar insight at times...but I still couldn't help but wonder what it would be like. What if I could end the drug dealing, the killing,
