The sound of his boots provided a steady cadence as the agent made his way through the otherwise silent corridors of the labyrinthine headquarters of Imperial Intelligence. He was keenly aware of the looks he got from other agents and intelligence personnel as he passed by. Some disliked or even hated him; regarding him with open disgust and contempt. Others were distrustful, assuming that because he wasn't human, he couldn't truly be trusted. He kept his expression carefully schooled and impassive. Such attitudes toward him simply because he was a Chiss irked him deeply, but he refused to allow anyone to think it bothered him.
Finally, reaching the archive room, he allowed himself to relax slightly. The fabric of his dress uniform irritated him in its stiff formality, but it was necessary for the moment so he pushed the irritation aside. His eyes adjusted easily to the dimmer lighting and he moved further into the room and nodded to the young woman who stood from a table to meet him.
"I'm glad you got my message and came." She offered with a warm smile.
He tilted his head, studying her. "What's this about, watcher?"
She frowned, "The mission you were assigned, to bring back or eliminate the rogue operative..." She took a deep breath. "There's more to it than you were told, and I think it's important that you know the truth. But if they find out I gave you access to classified information we could both be in serious trouble."
The Chiss nodded, "Understood. I'll be careful and no one will know I got anything from you."
She gave a curt nod in reply and held out a datapad. "This has copies of the restricted files. Don't take time to read it here. The security system is on a maintenance loop, so this room is unmonitored for the moment but that will end in a few minutes." She smiled briefly.
"Alright. Thank you." He tucked the datapad into a pocket and turned to leave.
"Agent... be careful. He truly is dangerous, if you decide to go through with the mission."
Valthyran shrugged, "I am always careful. Comes with the job." His words carried far more meaning than just the obvious.
She nodded, understanding.
He left the room, moving back through the maze of corridors again. Once he stepped out of the building, he took a deep breath of fresh air. A frown flickered over his features before once more being replaced by the usual impassive expression. Headquarters always felt stuffy to him. He walked over and got into a speeder to go back to the main part of Kaas City.
Rain began to fall again as the speeder touched down and Valthyran stepped out into the busy street that crossed through Kaas City. His irritation with the uniform grew as the rain dampened the crisply starched fabric. He could hardly wait to change into something more comfortable. Under normal circumstances he actually enjoyed the rain on Dromund Kaas, but wearing a damp formal uniform prevented that enjoyment.
He paused to consider his course of action. Finally, he nodded to himself and headed through the city to a public speeder station. He took another speeder to the space port and headed for his star ship as soon as the speeder landed. Once he was safely aboard the comfortable and more importantly, secure confines of his ship, Valthyran allowed himself to truly relax. The tightly contained tension he always felt when surrounded by so many people who made no effort to hide their dislike of him drained away.
Valthyran went to his cabin and changed out of the uniform. With a sigh of relief, he slipped into his more usual attire. On his ship at least, he didn't have to worry about keeping up appearances or pretenses. He ran his fingers through his hair and then picked up the datapad the watcher had given him. Crossing the room, he settled down at the small desk in the corner of his quarters.
As he read the extensive files, shock and disbelief began to cloud his mind. After reading the files again for the fourth time, Valthyran shook his head and chided himself. "This is Intelligence we're talking about. None of this should be a surprise."
He pulled out the other datapad he had been given, with the details for his current mission on it. He read over that datapad, occasionally glancing back to the other one to check bits and pieces. Valthyran scowled as the whole picture began to unfold and he liked it less and less the more he came to understand.
His mission was to find and either capture or kill a former Intelligence Operative named Caelrath who was accused of going rogue. However, the restricted information he had been given showed him clear evidence that he and Caelrath were actually half brothers, sharing the same father. Having left the Ascendency at a young age, he had practically grown up in the Empire. He had never really kept track of any family. Now he was expected to hunt down and potentially kill his half brother. That thought left a very sour taste in his mouth as he looked at the information again.
Valthyran sighed and leaned back in his chair. Absently he reached up to rub at his temples, feeling the beginning of a headache trying to settle in. He pushed the datapads to the center of the desk and stood up. He knew he would have to follow through with at least the first part of his mission. He had to find Caelrath. What would happen after that he couldn't begin to imagine. He knew he wasn't the first agent that Intelligence had sent after Caelrath. There were several detailed reports of what had become of others who had attempted to take Caelrath down.
Trying to put things out of his mind for awhile, he left his quarters and headed for the galley to fix himself something to eat. However, it wasn't long before his mind drifted back to the image of Caelrath provided along with the file on him. He didn't like it, not one bit. However, he was also fully aware of the fact that he'd done quite a few things that he didn't like over the years. He had long ago resigned himself to the reality that serving Intelligence would forever torment his conscience. Valthyran knew that many agents ended up losing their sense of morality all together over time. The accounts of what Caelrath had done proved that he had, if he ever had one. Now Caelrath was a rogue operative with a disturbing sadistic streak.
Still, as he considered the other files he'd been given, Caelrath was still his half brother. Knowing that, he honestly couldn't accept the idea of having to kill him. Valthyran sighed deeply. So many other agents had been sent after him though, and that meant Caelrath would likely be of a mind to shoot first, then ask questions if anyone survived. The files said he was paranoid and suspicious. Valthyran gave a wry chuckle. "With lots of people trying to kill me, I suppose I would be pretty damned paranoid and suspicious too."
So that was going to be the trick, figuring out how to find someone who didn't want to be found and then trying to convince him to talk first instead of shooting first. Shaking his head, Valthyran decided he would work that second part out later. First order of business would be finding Caelrath. He headed for the cockpit and began his pre-flight preparations. As the sleek Phantom lifted off, he punched the coordinates of Caelrath's last confirmed location into the navicomputer.
Deep crimson eyes glared up at the sky, squinting against the bright light of the twin suns. Caelrath hated Tatooine, but it did offer quite a few interesting solutions for persistent problems. Looking back down, he tested the edge of the freshly sharpened vibroknife in his hand. Satisfied with it, he returned the blade to its sheath. Beyond the edge of the shade provided by the massive rocky outcrop that he'd camped by, movement drew his attention.
A cold smile settled on his lips as he watched the womp rats swarming around the unexpected feast he had provided them. Screams rose over the chattering and snarling of the womp rats as they closed in. One eyebrow rose slightly as he was surprised that his latest victim was still conscious. He shrugged, it wouldn't matter soon. The Zabrak had made the mistake of coming after him, and had failed to kill him. Caelrath had taken great pleasure in flaying large strips of skin from the Zabrak as he extracted the information he wanted out of the would-be assassin. His smile grew as he listened to the screams turning to whimpers before finally falling silent as the hungry womp rats pulled flesh from the bones.
Finally, the Chiss rose, and collected his pack before heading for his speeder. Caelrath returned to the cantina in Mos Ila to retrieve the rest of his gear from the room he'd rented. He grabbed a bottle of Luranian brandy from the bartender when he paid his tab. Glancing around the room on his way out, he realized some faces had grown familiar. Nodding to himself, he realized that he had definitely been on Tatooine long enough, it was time for him to move on.
Reaching his ship, he dropped his pack and gear in front of the ship's droid. Scowling at the wretched thing, he pointed to the pile. "Make yourself useful, droid. Make sure all of that is cleaned and ready to go before we reach the next planet."
The droid nodded mutely and began gathering things up to comply with his orders. Caelrath grinned. He had disabled the droid's vocabulator soon after getting the ship since its constant, overly cheerful comments annoyed him. Turning his back on the droid, he continued on to the cockpit and settled into his seat.
He did a quick pre-flight check, and then started warming the engines up. He flipped on the comm long enough to get clearance from the spaceport to take off, and then turned it off again. The thrusters hummed to life as he guided the ship up and carefully maneuvered out of the docking bay. Once clear he pulled back on the throttle and sent the sleek ship rushing spaceward. When the ship finally broke through the atmosphere into the black of space, Caelrath allowed himself to relax a little. The ship was quiet, empty aside from him and the ship droid. Surrounded by the vastness of space, it was one of the few moments he felt any measure of peace.
However, perhaps even better than the Sith who spouted their code, he knew that such peace was a lie. It could never last. In the quiet, his mind would begin to wander, and that would lead to remembering. He didn't want to remember, or to think. He keyed in the coordinates for his next destination and double checked the navicomputer before engaging the hyperdrive. As the stars blurred into lines, he leaned back in his chair and opened the bottle of brandy he'd gotten and took a long drink.
Valthyran's ship settled down on the landing pad with a solid thud and the hissing of landing thrusters. He leaned back in his seat, staring at the cockpit's ceiling. A knot had formed in the pit of his stomach as the conflict still gnawed at his mind, still unresolved. He had never balked at a mission before, never so blatantly disobeyed orders before. He ran his fingers through is hair before standing and heading for his cabin.
We're half brothers. I don't know if he knows, but I know. I can't just kill him, not now. So now what do I do? The thoughts chased each other around in his mind as they had countless times since he'd read over the files he'd been given.
"Master..." The voice of the ship's droid cut through his thoughts as he reached his cabin and Valthyran frowned.
"Be quiet, 2V, please, unless its an emergency." He shooed the droid away.
"Yes, Master." The droid offered in a quieter voice before returning to his usual position.
Valthyran had gone over the files repeatedly while the ship was in hyperspace. He realized there was a very real chance that Caelrath would not give him any other choice. He knew that if the Operative chose to fight without giving Valthyran a chance to speak first, he would have to defend himself. He sighed deeply. Of course all that would depend on him finding the elusive rogue. Nothing else would matter if he couldn't find Caelrath.
Valthyran shook his head to focus himself again. He changed into his armor, though the thought of full armor in the heat of Tatooine was unpleasant. It would offer him some protection in a fight if it came to one. He checked over his weapons and gear. Satisfied that all was in order, he headed for the exit ramp and out into the spaceport.
After several hours of cautious questioning of the locals, he frowned. It was clear that Caelrath had been there, but also obvious he was gone now. The vehemence with which some of the locals cursed Caelrath was surprising, until he began to learn details of what the Operative had done while on the planet.
The sheer scope of the brutality and ruthless cruelty Caelrath unleashed during his stay on Tatooine was almost enough to make him wince. He began to wonder if such actions were a result of some aspect of Caelrath's conditioning or if it truly reflected his real nature. A part of him hoped that it was the former, knowing that circumstances could easily affect people and force them to change. He frowned. If it were the later, then it could seriously complicate things.
Nonetheless, his quarry had slipped away so there was no further point in remaining on the desert planet. He gratefully headed back to his ship, looking forward to being rid of the oppressive heat. When he got back to the ship, Valthyran checked in with his contacts, searching for any sign of where Caelrath might have gone next.
He settled down into the pilot's seat and began the pre-flight check. The engines roared and he gently guided the ship out of the docking hangar. Before he had fully cleared the planet's gravitational field, his comm started to beep. One of his contacts had picked up a urgent distress call from Alderaan. Frowning, he set the coordinates for Alderaan into the navicomputer and sent his sleek vessel into hyperspace.
Caelrath perched on a large rock surrounded by snow. The view from where he sat was lovely, but he wasn't looking at it. His crimson eyes were closed and a half smile played at his lips as he listened to the cries and whimpers of the man tied to a tree two meters behind him. Hearing a person begging for their lives amused him, especially since such pleas never moved him. He was already considering how he wanted to end the life of the usually pompous noble. He took a deep breath of the crisp air and opened his eyes. Standing, the Chiss turned and looked over at his latest captive. He chuckled to himself. The man certainly didn't look very noble now.
Fancy clothes had been torn and smeared with dirt and blood and his face already showed several bruises. He would have collapsed to the ground if he had not been secured to the tree as one leg was broken in several places. Caelrath smiled coldly as he slipped his vibroknife from its sheath. The noble's eyes widened and his whimpers grew louder as he tried to beg for mercy around the gag in his mouth.
With deliberate slowness, Caelrath slid the blade against the man's cheek and savored the fear in his eyes. He sliced through the gag and lowered the knife to the man's throat.
"I helped you and your House out considerably a few years ago, and to repay me you betrayed me to those who wanted to kill me. I am very disappointed in you."
He slowly slid the knife's edge downward and smiled coldly when his victim whimpered as the blade sliced through cloth and skin as it trailed down his chest.
Valthyran paced, his patience wearing thin as the nobleman in front of him rattled on with complaint after complaint. Finally he stopped and glared at the man.
"With all due respect, Sir. If you want me to help find your brother you need to stop wasting my time and tell me the details of what happened so I can do what I have to do."
The noble stopped, blinking and then nodded, "Of course, I'm sorry, this situation just has me very upset. Here is all that we were able to recover from my brother's security system."
He played the recording which showed a Chiss, all too recognizable as Caelrath, dragging the nobleman from his estate and forcing him into a speeder. Valthyran studied the footage and frowned. With a heavy sigh he nodded.
"Do you have any idea which direction they may have gone?"
The man shook his head. "I'm afraid not."
"Alright, I can't make any promises, but that Chiss is someone I've been looking for in any case. I will do my best to find him, and if possible, your brother as well."
"Thank you. I hope you are in time to find him alive, but if not at least we'd like his body recovered."
Valthyran nodded and headed for the door. "Understood."
A harsh scream pierced the calm, crisp mountain air and Valthyran winced. He glanced around seeing several of the native wildlife fleeing, disturbed by the sound. He picked up his pace and sought a suitable position. Soon he found what he needed and lowered himself to the snow, readying his rifle. He sighted through the scope and swallowed hard at what he saw. He'd found Caelrath, no mistaking that. Behind the other Chiss he spotted what was left of the noble he'd taken.
The man hung limply, blood pouring from several deep slashes and one hand had been severed. The snow around the tree he was bound to was stained crimson from all the blood. Valthyran watched, knowing that the sun glinting off his rifle would give his position away, to any trained observer, but he had the advantage of range, which would give him time enough he hoped.
Caelrath stiffed, his cold ruby eyes scanning the trees and mountains around him. Finally he nodded, catching the tell-tale glint of metal where there shouldn't be any. He raised his voice enough for it to carry, as he reached over and grabbed his blaster rifle.
"You're not a very good sniper."
A low chuckle came back in reply, "I'm not looking to kill you. I want to talk."
Caelrath's eyes narrowed. "Oh really? I don't think we have anything to talk about. You're just another of Keeper's hounds aren't you?"
Valthyran stood, revealing himself to the operative, still well out of the range of his blaster rifle. "We do have something to discuss if you would hold off trying to kill me long enough to hear it."
His survival instincts told him to just leave, or move closer and kill this possible threat, however, somewhere in his mind his curiosity had been stirred. He was intrigued because he realized the sniper had given his position away deliberately.
He glanced around and then nodded to a gnarled tree roughly halfway between them. "Leave your weapons behind, and I'll meet you there at that tree."
He sat his own rifle back down, along with his vibroknife. He knew as well as he figured the sniper would, that even without obvious weapons, neither were truly unarmed given their training. But it was a momentary show of trust, fragile at best. He saw the sniper nod and set his rifle down and they both moved toward the indicated tree.
Valthyran took a deep breath, warily watching the operative, knowing this temporary truce could go sour very quickly, but it was the opening he'd hoped for, so he had to make it count. He approached Caelrath, the datapad containing the restricted files he'd been given in one hand, and the other hand empty, both held away from his body. He nodded to the other Chiss and held the datapad out.
Caelrath eyed the sniper suspiciously, arching one eyebrow when he saw that the other was also a Chiss. "What is it?"
"Information I think you may find interesting." The sniper kept his voice calm.
Caelrath found himself respecting him at least a small bit, few people he'd encountered lately could show that much calm restraint around him. He reached out and took the datapad, then stepped back a couple paces before he scanned its contents. His brows furrowed as he read over the information again.
"I'm guessing since you're Chiss, you're the other one this refers too?" He tilted his head and regarded the younger man more closely.
The sniper nodded. "My name's Valthyran. You'd be correct in your initial thought that I had been sent to take you down, but it's an order I refuse to carry out. Not after seeing that."
Caelrath tossed the datapad back to the sniper, who caught it and slid it back into a pocket. He shrugged, "Even if that is true, which I'm still not entirely convinced of, what do you want?"
Valthyran blinked, the question catching him slightly off guard as it was one thing he hadn't really considered. Recomposing himself he shook his head, "Nothing really, I wanted you to know, to have a chance to at least talk to you. If I don't take you in they'll likely be throwing me out or trying to kill me next, but I'll deal with that. You know they're also not going to stop sending people after you."
Caelrath laughed coldly, "Let them keep trying, I don't care."
Valthyran nodded, "Fair enough." He held out a comlink. "This is tuned to an encrypted frequency, so you can contact me, if or whenever you want to."
Caelrath paused, eyes narrowed, and then took it, stuffing it carelessly into a pocket. "Look, I don't really believe what's in that datapad, if you do, that's your problem. If you came looking for some happy family reunion, then I'm sorry to disappoint you. Not going to happen. I don't have family, I don't want family, so just stay out of my way and we'll get along fine. Got it?"
Valthyran nodded, keeping his expression neutral. "Alright. Maybe I'll see you again sometime." He turned, and started to walk away. His back itched keenly, half expecting Caelrath to attempt to stick a knife into it before he got out of range. He made his way back to the spot he'd left his rifle, and when he turned to look for Caelrath, he wasn't surprised to see the other Chiss had already vanished. He sighed. He pulled out another comlink, realizing he had to at least provide the noble's family the coordinates so they could recover the body. Once done, he headed for his ship, looking forward to leaving Alderaan far behind.
Valthyran settled back into the pilot's seat of his ship and went over the pre-flight check while waiting for the clearance from the spaceport. His brows furrowed, still considering his course of action. His comm beeped and he acknowledged the clearance before guiding the Phantom carefully out of the docking bay before turning it spaceward. He paused when the ship cleared the atmosphere, realizing he had no idea where he should go.
He frowned, a small part of him felt bad for abandoning his duty, one he'd served without question for many years. However, this had pushed him too far, there was no way he could accept going back to Intelligence after this. So where would he go? He thought over the options, and finally entered a new set of coordinates into the navicomputer. When he engaged the hyperdrive he half smiled to himself watching the star lines blur before settling into the blue swirls of hyperspace.
For the first time in a very long time he actually felt free. He knew Intelligence would send people after him once they figured out he wasn't coming back. Somehow that thought didn't disturb him as much as he expected it to. He hoped he might find Caelrath again at some point, but could understand the other Chiss' reluctance to accept the data. It had taken him long enough to settle his own mind around the idea. He set the ship's autopilot to alert him when they neared his destination and headed to his quarters for some long over due sleep.