Togg Station, Hutta
According to the Intel gathered by Imperial Intelligence, Togg Station was a Republic medical facility, one of those tucked away places where scientists and biomedical researchers bottled themselves up and attempted to discover and create what no one else could or would. It was the kind of facility where psychos with doctorates tried to make good on bizarre proposals that other medical professionals disposed of as pure trash compactor waste.
Normally the Empire didn't care about Republic whackjobs performing scientific experiments, especially ones who lived on backwater slime worlds like Hutta and worked on programs that weren't even sanctioned by the Republic. But Togg Station was different. And Imperial Intelligence could always be counted upon to investigate when something this irregular reared its ugly head.
The procedure was simple enough in theory: bypass the Station's security, plant charges in the main power room, and then get out before the whole place became just another ugly crater on Hutta's pockmarked surface.
But in Agent Twenty-two's experience, she knew that even a relatively simple mission with an equally uncomplicated procedure theory could easily go awry.
But they don't hire us to take on the easy jobs. That's for infantry.
Aurora Kadis, or Agent Twenty-two as she was known to her colleagues and superiors, stayed as close to the shadows as she could. Bypassing the Station's main security had been easy enough. The trick was staying completely out of the staff's sight, at least until it was too late for them to stop her.
Easier said than done. Togg Station was literally crawling with doctors, researchers, scientists, aides, and medical droids all rushing from one laboratory to the next with stacks of datapads and vials of who knows what clutched in their hands. Already it had taken Aurora ten standard minutes just to get down to the second level. The sheer number of staff members she had to keep avoiding greatly lengthened the time it took to get to the main power generator, and it wasn't improving her temper either.
Aurora peeked around a corner and almost breathed a sigh of relief. There was the main door to the power generator, and it was completely unguarded.
"Watcher Six, I have the generator room in my sights," Aurora murmured into the miniature, skin colored microphone attached to her throat. "No guards, only a keypad."
"Just because there are no visible guards doesn't mean that there aren't any traps inside, Twenty-two," came Watcher Six's disembodied voice through her earpiece. "Proceed with caution. And remember what Keeper said."
Aurora rolled her eyes and barely managed to hold back a dissenting grumble. Keeper was adamant that this operation had to be fast and silent. No gunplay, no charging straight through the halls, no unnecessary fighting, blah, blah, blah. This was the one part about being an Imperial Agent that Aurora absolutely despised. Sneaking around just wasn't her thing. She preferred to kick the front door down and walk straight in with guns blazing. That was more fun than creeping through the shadows in absolute silence, praying that your computer spike worked and that all of the security cameras were offline. At least her way, everybody who would try to report her would all be dead and then she could just blow up the facility in her own sweet time.
Unfortunately, neither Keeper, the Watchers, nor the Minister of Intelligence seemed to understand that.
"Yeah, yeah, I know," Aurora muttered as she jogged quietly across the hallway.
The door leading into the generator room was the inset type, ensconced deeply into the wall with a keypad beside it. That would be helpful just in case someone walked by. Of course, it was also bad because she could easily be boxed in there by anybody with a rifle.
"Accessing keypad," Watcher Six said to nobody in particular.
Sometimes Aurora wondered if the Watchers liked giving running commentaries of everything they did. Then again, those guys were so heavily programmed that they probably were beyond caring about anything except their jobs. Even so, Watchers were often very handy to have around, though their droning monotones sometimes drove even the most professional of Cipher Agents crazy.
"Access granted. Bioscans show up negative. Proceed."
A light on the keypad flashed green and the door snapped open. Aurora glanced over her shoulder at the hallway behind her, hoping that no one had heard the door opening, but there was no one around. She quickly ducked into the generator room, sidearm drawn just in case anyone was inside the room. Just because a Watcher said that the Bioscans had turned up negative didn't mean that there wasn't somebody inside who had figured out a way to trick Imperial scanners. Besides, it didn't ever hurt to be cautious.
The Bioscans were right this time. The room was completely empty except for the huge main power generator plopped dead center on the floor a few feet ahead of her. Aurora almost laughed and groaned at the same time. The generator was a big, hulking giant of a thing and it groaned and crackled like an old lady creaking her way out of bed in the morning. It was also obviously second-hand. Many of the plates were bent at the corners, the bolts were coated in orange rust, and it even had a strange stench swirling around it.
The Republic must be incredibly cheap if they settled for this piece of archaic junk.
"Please detach the six concussive charges from your belt and place them at regular intervals along the base of the generator," Water Six began.
"I took explosives classes, Watcher Six," Aurora interrupted with barely controlled aggravation. "I know what I'm doing."
"As you wish," the Watcher droned back impassively.
Muttering darkly under her breath, Aurora plucked the six concussive charges Procurement had given her off of her utility belt and began attaching and wiring them around the base of the monstrous generator. Setting up the explosives made her temper improve a little, but she was still irked.
This wouldn't be so bad if I could just shoot the place up and then blow the generator without all of this sneaking around. But, no, Keeper says this has to be a "quiet" mission. If he wants it so quiet, then why am I blowing this building up, huh? Answer that, Keeper!
She was so focused on her mental ranting that she almost didn't notice that she had unconsciously finished wiring up all of the explosives. Pushing her irked thoughts towards the back of her mind for now, Aurora flipped up the panel on the main charge, revealing the timer inside. She set the charges to blow in five standard minutes. That should give her enough time to get out of the Station and far enough away to avoid being blown up along with everybody else here. Being blown up would definitely put a damper on the rest of her day, she thought with a wry smile.
Syncing the charge timer with her vambrace-mounted chrono, Aurora flipped the timer panel down and walked back out of the generator room.
"You can lock the door, Watcher Six. I'm walking out," the Agent informed her ever-present supervisor.
"Copy that, Twenty-two."
As the generator room's main doors slid shut behind her, Aurora realized that she had two options for getting out of this building. One way involved sneaking back to the front door and possibly getting blown up if it took her too long. The other way involved just walking straight through the hallways like a normal person, getting spotted, and maybe having a chance to put her blasters to good use.
She decided on the latter.
It wasn't until she had just reached the first floor that the Station's staff noticed her. There was a brief second or two of shocked silence before the screaming started.
Instantly the majority of the doctors began scrambling away as fast as their legs could carry them, yelling at the others to run and save the research before the nasty little Imperial could get her hands on it. One of the researchers reached into his white lab coat, fumbling for the holdout blaster he had hidden there. Aurora reacted so fast that the man was flat on his back with a smoking blaster hole through his chest before he had time to draw.
"Twenty-two, what is going on?" Watcher Six demanded over the Agent's earpiece. "Is that screaming?"
Aurora opened her mouth to respond when a blue laser bolt singed the top of her head. She dropped and rolled over her shoulder, firing on the Duros who had managed to unholster his gun. He dropped like a Crunchbug into a Hutt's mouth.
"Twenty-two, what is going on?" Watcher Six's usual monotone was on the verge of completely falling apart, and that was never a good sign.
"I'm just getting out of the Station," Aurora snapped back as she continued to fire on a group of doctors who were attempting to charge her. "Just relax, ok?"
One of the doctors, a female Zabrak, managed to evade the Agent's shots. She lunged at Aurora with a vibroscalpel, yelling,
"Imperial dog! Take this!"
Aurora jumped back to avoid the buzzing medical blade. The Zabrak growled and swung the vibroscalpel at the Agent's head. Ducking the instrument, Aurora whipped her blaster up and fired pointblank into the doctor's gut. A smoking hole burned through the other woman's stomach as the red laser beam went straight through her. She gasped in shock before her eyes rolled back and she crashed in a jumble at Aurora's feet.
Stepping over the corpse with a look of indifferent arrogance, Aurora continued walking towards the exit. Aliens were such a loathsome breed, even those who looked basically Human. Zabraks definitely looked very much like Humans, but as far as Aurora and the Empire were concerned all aliens were inferior creatures who had to be controlled by those who were superior, namely the Human species. It felt good to be able to put an alien in its place or to even put it down permanently.
If anyone's the dog, it's you, Zabrak.
Five or six of the staff were sprawled on the floor and the rest had fled, probably to regroup. Aurora dropped the half-used battery pack out of the butt of her handgun and snapped in a fresh pack with practiced ease. The click sound of a new battery pack snapping into position was a sound that any soldier or Agent quickly learned to appreciate. That click meant more ammunition and a better chance of survival.
Suddenly, Aurora became aware that Watcher Six was still talking to her, and he didn't sound all that pleased.
"…were ordered to use caution, Twenty-two," he was saying.
"And I used it until it was necessary," Aurora growled as she walked towards the Station's main doors. "Look, just lay off—"
"You!"
Aurora stopped in mid-stride, turning around to see a tall, white-coated Kel Dor marching towards her. Livid was quite an understatement. He looked so enraged that the tips of his breathing apparatus were practically trembling in barely controlled anger. He looked fit to kill…or to be killed.
"You're an Imperial! You're the one who killed my researchers!" The Kel Dor shouted accusingly.
"Dr. Keil, no!" A Human doctor peeking around a nearby corner called nervously. "She's an Agent of the Empire. She'll kill you!"
"Smart guy." Aurora nodded, brushing pretend dust off of the top of her handgun to show her boredom.
"Twenty-two, get out of there now," Watcher Six ordered in a no-nonsense tone. "You will obey Keeper's orders whether you like it or not. Evacuate immediately."
"Go jump in a Sarlacc Pit, Six."
Before the Watcher could respond, Aurora turned off her earpiece and throat mic with a quick click of her molars. The last thing she wanted was the nosy Watcher telling her what to do or, even worse, giving him the chance to activate her keyword. One word was all it took to control her, and if she kept her earpiece on Keeper or any other Watcher could easily breathe that word and bam! No more free will, no chance to kill another alien before the building exploded.
Besides, this Kel Dor wasn't just any old doctor. He was Dr. Jikare Kiel, the head honcho of this medical facility. He was the one who had come up with the crazy Sith-destroying-nanovirus proposal that the Republic had refused to fund, and now he was daring to stand up to a highly trained Imperial Agent. No, Aurora was not going to let any stickler Watcher or Keeper take this opportunity away from her.
"What do you want, alien? I don't have all day," she demanded.
"You think I'm just going to let you walk in here, kill my staff, and then walk out?" Dr. Keil shouted. "If you do, then you are hopelessly naïve. How you found out about us and the nanovirus, I don't know, but I do know that I will not let you or anyone else destroy what we have created! The Republic would not sanction us, and I will not allow some Imperial puppet to destroy everything we have built and fostered here. I am no fighter, but I vow I will kill you where you stand! And then Project Devastation will continue, and with this virus we will bring your Empire to its knees by destroying the Sith Order. You will fall, and you will never get back up again!"
That seemed a little too well prepared for a spur-of-the-moment speech. He must've been planning what he was going to say just in case he ever did catch someone in here. Or he's just as crazy as his file says he is.
Aurora glanced at her chrono jadedly. Exactly two standard minutes until the main generator would explode. That would be more than enough time to take out this loudmouthed Republic doctor before the whole Station exploded over her head.
"I guess I have time to engage in some gunplay." She shrugged. "Bring your worst, alien."
A roar escaped the Kel Dor's respirator as he hurled himself at the Agent. He swung punches left and right at her. And he was fast, faster than he originally appeared to be, anyway. Aurora grunted as Dr. Keil's orange fist smashed into her gut and then smacked up hard under her chin. She stumbled backwards, hurriedly wiping at the blood trickling from the corner of her mouth.
Dr. Keil swung his fist again, but this time Aurora caught his arm and flipped him over her shoulder. He hit the floor flat on his back with a grunt. Aurora reached for her blaster to finish him off when he suddenly sliced at her ankles with his forearm. Up went her legs and she crashed shoulder first onto the hard metal floor. Something cracked, but Aurora was too far gone with adrenalin to notice it.
The doctor scrambled to his feet. Aurora tried to get up but he stomped savagely on her gut. The Imperial gasped and suddenly found herself clutching at every spare whisp of oxygen she could find, desperately trying to regain her breath as Dr. Keil pressed his foot down harder into her stomach. He clenched his fist tightly, pulling it back and ready to beat her to death.
Grabbing one last gasp of air, Aurora smacked a button on her right vambrace and swung that arm up just as Dr. Keil let his heavy fist drop towards her face. A thin vibroblade exploded out of Aurora's wrist and punched straight through the doctor's torso. There was no time for him to dodge. The Human was in too close for him to have avoided the plunging vibroblade.
With a grunt, Aurora kicked the alien doctor in the chest, sending him flying off of her knife and skidding across the floor on his back. She slowly stood back up, still trying to catch her breath. Dr. Keil lay on the ground gasping in agonized shock and clutching at his wound. Bright green blood, like the color of juba juice, was spreading like a stain across his crisp, pristine lab coat and over his fingers. It was an interesting contrast, his green blood against his orange skin, but Aurora didn't bother to contemplate it.
Wiping the green blood off of her ejected vibroblade on a spare rag hanging off of her utility belt, the girl flipped her sweaty blonde bangs out of her eyes indifferently and walked unopposed out of the Station.
Ten seconds later Togg Station exploded in a huge red orange fireball, sending chunks of durasteel and who knows what flying in all directions. It was a spectacular explosion as far as Aurora was concerned. She only wished she had brought along a holorecorder so she could have recorded herself walking out of the building just as it blew up. It would have been a nice shot, worthy to have been inserted in even the best of action movies.
Maybe next time…
For now, she was just pleased that her mission had gone on so well. Now to get off of this grotesque Hutt world and back to the proper civilization of Dromund Kaas where there weren't aliens staring at her every time she turned around.
Besides, Keeper may very well have another mission for me by the time I get back.