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Conspiracy Theory

Prologue: A new assignment

=CT=

CIS Frigate "Beyond the Veil"

En Route to Geonosis

Hyperspace

"What is thy bidding, my master?" A kneeling figure in black and dark blue robes asked.

"You are to continue your investigation, while I deal with the Council. I want everyone connected with this mess found and dealt with."

"As you command."

"You need to act fast, Tann. The Republic will be hitting Geonosis again withing the week."

"We'll be in and out before their fleet arrives."

"You'd better be. Your new task takes utmost priority. Don't fail me in this, my apprentice."

"I haven't failed you yet, my master. I have no intention to start now, Master."

"You better not." With those words, Dooku cut off the connection and his holographic image dissipated.

The Chiss woman stood up and took a moment to straighten up her robes, a frown appearing on her face. By all rights Sev'rance should have solved the puzzle she had been tangling with, weeks ago. Instead her investigation had reached a dead end at the last stretch.

Well, at least now she had a new lead, one that she needed to chase down before the Republic forces descended on Geonosis and turned the system in a battlefield.

Tann left the communication center and headed to the armory, where the rest of her team were preparing.

Few minutes later Sev'rance entered a rather narrow but long compartment, lined up with lockers and rafters filled to the brim with various weapons and explosives. Inside four people and six droids were busy going over their preferred equipment.

The first being she actually saw was Rowwar, a giant Wookie towering over everyone else. His barrel like chest was covered but two bandoleers holding ammo clips and grenades, with even more hanging on a large belt around his waist. The Wookie looked her way and roared a greeting before returning his attention to the mostly dis-assembled bow-caster he was working on.

Next to him, a pair of Trandosian twins were working on their heavy armors. The large lizards gave her a brief nod before continuing with their ministrations.

Behind them, the only human in her crew, a mandalorian bounty hunter calling himself Forge, was working on something that undoubtedly was going to go bang sooner than latter. Just as expected of her demolitions expert.

She paid scarcely any attention to the canon fodder – the six commando droids which were maintaining their blasters and vibro-blades.

"Our mission is a go." Sev'rance declared.

"It's about time." Forge grunted.

"Don't worry. It's likely you'll be free to blow up something." The corners of her lips turned up in a ghost of a smile. She did appreciate professionally done job and Forge usually not only excelled in his line of work but more often than not turned it into an art form.

"Rwaaar!"

"Yes, we are on a time limit again. The Republic First Assault fleet is moving on Geonosis as we speak. We need to get out before they arrive. While Command has extensively planned for this battle, they did so for Ryloth too."

"We all know how that turned out." Jolak, one of the Trandosians grunted.

"Yep. The Republic stopped fucking around."

"All thanks to the idiots we are after. They made wining this war much harder." Tann nodded. It wasn't like Sev'rance had anything against the challenge, however she was aware of the strategic situation. Ultimately the Republic had much more resources and manpower, which once brought to bear would make winning the conflict very hard. At best. However, it would take them time to go on war footing, even longer to start training personnel in sufficient numbers to make a difference. Ideally the war would be won before that time.

Ryloth was a bait to bleed the Republic navy and ground forces. Unfortunately it didn't work that way. While the enemy suffered significant losses, they were more than made up by the CIS ships they destroyed. Not to mention that after the stunt their commander pulled out, capturing the capital within hours with the CIS leader currently in place there, it derailed the plan for attrition warfare all over the planet.

Hopefully, the fleet and ground forces on Geonosis would do better, though Tann had no intention of being there to witness it first hand.

"So you ready to give us the details?"

"We are going to catch and interrogate on of the locals' queens. My Master got information that one of them has been in contact with our quarry."

"Sweet. Then we blow up the place to cover our tracks?" Forge asked.

Tann answered him with an amused smile.

=CT=

Chapter 1: Investigations

Part 1

Starport

Plogl City

Geonosis

"Forge and Rowaar fall in. We are going to meet our contact." Sev'rance ordered. "You two," She nodded at the twins, "Disembark the transports and make sure that they are ready to go."

Behind her, the twins headed back to the large transport shuttle which they used to reach the surface. They would have to deal with the squad of droids and the modified APC inside.

Tann looked around the artificial cavern that housed their ride. It was rather large, housing multiple landing pads for various transports which were on the smaller side. The only entrance leading towards the mostly underground city where their contact waited was protected by thick armored doors. There was a platoon of SB droids augmented by four droidekas which were deployed, with their shields raised. There were a half dozen huge locals in what appeared to be heavy exoskeletons over there too.

Whoever was in charge of the spaceport apparently took security rather seriously. She provisionally approved, as long as it didn't interfere with her mission that is.

"So, we are cantina crawling?" Tann just knew that Forge was grinning under his distinctive helmet.

"In a matter of speaking. It must be some kind of cosmic rule. Meeting contacts in cantinas…" The Force Adept grumbled. With her luck, their destination would be on the seedier side. Why, she remembered that time on Nar Shadda… She shook her head in a futile attempt to chase that thought.

"Wrrrarg raarw?" Rowwar asked.

"Absolutely not! I'm not paying your bail if you decide to alleviate your boredom again." Tann glared at the heavily armed walking rug to her left.

The Wookie whined.

"It was absolutely your fault!"

"She got you there, pall. At least it was fun times." Forge mused.

"And you!" Sev'rance redirected her glare at the armored figure. "You were supposed to keep them out of trouble!"

"Hey, at the end of the day the team was mission green!"

"All but yourself were in prison!"

"Well, that establishment having a platoon of Destroyer droid on speed dial was a surprise. At least we kept it civil. Mostly."

"I had to explain to my Master why my people were creating a diplomatic incident on a CIS core world!" That wasn't fun at all.

"Because we're the best?" Forge tried and Rowwar roared in support.

"Why do I ever bother?" Tann groaned. She was supposed to be a Sith, damn it! This was so not how she had imagined her carrier as one.

"Identification. Purpose of visit." The only normal looking of the locals spoke in a barely understandable basic.

"Classified. Tann, Sev'rance, CIS High Command." The Sith provided and identification. "Those are Forge and Rowwar, my subordinates. Our presence should be cleared." She waited for the scans to commence.

"The ID is valid." The local announced after a few moments. "We've received word of your presence, my'lady." The official turned his head towards the guards and spoke in his clicking language. The droids obeyed the instructions and moved aside, clearing a path to the barely opened massive doors behind.

"So for once High Command didn't forget to announce our arrival ahead of time?" Forge chuckled.

"That was one time accident?" Sev'rance tried. That particular mess made the CIS look rather bad, though in their defense it happened just after the war started ahead of schedule and there was a lot of confusion.

"Rwaaar!" The Wookie added his two credits.

"I know we had to shoot our way out! I was there!" Tann grumbled.

"Heh. Good times. Where is that cantina anyway?" Forge asked.

"It should be near the Spaceport. About five minutes walking distance."

Soon they emerged from the large tunnel connecting the landing pads with the city's proper. Despite being mostly under a mountain, the place was rather well lit. From their position in a small plaza, they could see a lot of the tall spires preferred by the locals, which allowed them to fly around and within them. There were some more conventionally built buildings as well, which were contrasting with the local construction which appeared to be made of rusty red rock.

"Is that the place?" Forge asked, pointing down the largest avenue leading deeper in the city. A few blocks that way was a three story building lit up by holographic advertisements. They were announcing that inside you can find all vices known to man and then some.

There was a row of people waiting entrance as well as a bunch of bulky armored figures lounging in front of the doors.

"Rather heavy outfits for regular bouncers." The Mandalorian added after studying them for a moment. No doubt the gadgets built into his helmet helped him see more than met the eye.

Rowwar roared happily.

"I already hate this mission." Sev'rance muttered. Was it too much to ask for a calm, ordinary assignment once in a while? After the last major excitement she was part of, Tann had to fake her own death by using a half trained clone as a substitute in order to evade a pair of pissed of Jedi.

Then she was straddled with the job of chasing down that conspiracy within the CIS ranks and her life had become really interesting as of late. Unfortunately not in a way she appreciated.

There were too much close calls for even a Sith to enjoy the mayhem.

"There goes nothing. You're both loaded for ready for action, right?"

"We haven't spent the last night getting plastered, so yeah." Forge nodded.

Rowwar gave her an indignant grunt.

"Don't give me that!" Tann narrowed her eyes at the Wookie. "I know you started that drinking contest."

Rowwar did his best to look innocent. Considering that he was over two meters tall, more than a meter wide in the shoulders and wearing enough arms and armor to start and win a small war, that didn't go over to well.

"You participated as well and drank us all under the table." Forge quipped.

"So not helpful. Besides I was up and ready for the mission in the morning!"

"You cheated!" The Mandalorian grumbled. "Force kriffing tricks."

"Naturally." Sev'rance smirked. "Get your game faces up. We have a job to do."