CHAPTER 1
Coruscant. Business district. The setting sun began to hide behind the many pointed spires of a thousand duracrete buildings. The sparkling lights of the city's night life started to appear. Recently however, the night time showing featured more darkness than before. Many of the long standing buildings had been toppled or set aflame by a supernatural seismic upheaval. The eternal force being, Abeloth, before she was defeated by the Jedi and their associates, wreaked mind-boggling havoc on Coruscant's centuries old cityscape.
The city was in a state of recovery. Many businesses and commerce offices were being rebuilt. Some entertainment oriented outfits fell to the bottom of the priority list. Casinos, gaming hotels, and theaters were left alone while living quarters, food distribution warehouses and medical outlets were undergoing reconstruction. It was deemed better to care for immediate physical needs, and let time instead heal the soul of the population.
The lack of activity in these entertainment areas left "dark spots", as they were called, on the Coruscant cityscape. In one of these "dark spots", a close observer could hear the percussive chatter of blaster fire. One might notice a bloom of flame and a line of propulsion exhaust arcing along the horizon and landing in front of one of the burnt out, abandoned buildings.
Samyan Kad, a mercenary in Mandalorian armor strode quietly along the abandoned building's bottom floor. He'd given up the bounty on Jeryald Freelan, in exchange for escaping the Galactic Alliance Security agents that descended on his position just as he was moving into apprehend. It was much better to survive than fight another day and return to Mandalore empty handed, than to be caught and be put out of business for who-knows-how-long in a GAS holding cell. He'd made a short jetpack jump to this abandoned multilevel structure.
Mandalorians weren't held in the best light since the siege on the Jedi temple a year ago, but since the apocalyptic meltdown on Coruscant last month it seem that old trespasses were forgiven for the sake of solidarity and rebuilding of the ruined capital. Samyan would do his part and hunt down missing fugitives with prices on their heads or escaped prisoners and degenerates all over the galaxy. Not for anything like patriotism or planetary duty, but for the credits. It seemed, as of late, that most of his "clientele" took him right to the megapolitan home world of the republic. The disarray and confusion provided extra cover for the galaxy's off scouring.
He entered the building. The center of the structure was a large atrium. It was fifty stories high with every floor having an outcropping of balconies and walkways lining the walls and occasionally connecting opposite sides. It had been a gaming hotel with several overnight rooms on each floor. Starting with the second floor, and every tenth floor after that, the builders traded luxury suites in the middle for an intricate open room gaming area scattered with Sabbac tables and various other stations for games of chance.
The roof, or what had been a roof, was a tremendous skylight with an intricate framework. The transparisteel had been shattered leaving only shards and openings through which all of the cities avian species came and went. It was obvious he'd have the tactical advantage from one of the upper floors. He might even be able to make a jetpack escape through the skylight, but he'd have to get closer, much closer. From here he could make a long jump, drop a dozen levels and find camouflage in Coruscant's undercity.
Keeping as quiet as possible, Samyan strode into the middle of the atrium. Normally, this would totally expose someone who was trying to stay hidden, but the open view also leant very well to the technology in his T-visor helmet. In front of his natural eyes there was a heads up display which gave him constant updates on his surroundings and internal systems. His eye movements were triangulated on the HUD and with a series of blinks he could activate every weapon and internal system hidden in his armor. With a double blink on an icon in the upper right hand corner he brought down the sensor array menu.
His external sensors began to compile a three hundred and sixty degree visual and rotate the panorama in front of his eyes. He examined his surroundings in ninety degree sections, looking for signs of any GAS agent attempting to pursue. He couldn't make out any silhouettes or threatening shapes, but the lights of the city and Coruscant's setting sun shone magic hour lighting through the windows of the building and cast shadows in the most inconvenient of places.
He held perfectly still and activated the motion detecting function. It had a limited range but even if he could detect sudden lighting shifts or resettling dust, it might give him a clue to a stalker's whereabouts. The scan was negative, but his natural senses as a warrior wouldn't let him relax.
He activated the infrared heat sensor function. He saw something.