I'm doing something new with this chapter that will either turn out to be totally cool or just plain stupid; I have created a music playlist for this chapter, it can be found by clicking on the link on my author's page, after you click on the link just click play or click on a song and it will start playing. Please tell me what you think of the chapter and the playlist.
The man fled down the dark alleys of Nar Shadaa like a demon fleeing a holy man. He tripped over his boots and fell to the ground; the man risked a glance over his shoulder and saw his pursuer closing in. He got to his feet and ran with renewed speed; he started to gain ground on his pursuer, and was starting to think that he might even escape when he ran into a dead end alley. He searched for a way out; then upon realizing that it was hopeless he gave up and turned around to face his pursuer, he would at least die with dignity.
His pursuer was a rust colored droid with a head shaped like an upside down triangle, and glowing orange eyes. The droid aimed its assault rifle at the soon to be dead human.
"Statement! Yohan the Hutt asked me to relay a message to you."
The droid changed his vocals to that of a hutts; "DIE YOU UNGRATEFUL SON OF A RANCOR WHORE!!!"
"Extrapolation! I believe what Yohan is trying to say is that he is unhappy that you stole from him and that he wants me to express said unhappiness by killing you."
"Conclusion! Goodbye meatbag."
"Go to he--"
Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew!
The droid lowered its assault rifle and eyed the smoking corpse with satisfaction then opened up a com channel to Yohan the Hutt's people.
"Statement! I have terminated Tallax Jerser; you will now deposit 200,000 credits into my account."
"Excellent, so where did he hide those 50 million credits?"
"Query! What 50 million credits?"
"The 50 million credits you were hired to find you metallic psychopath!"
"Correction! My mission was to play Jerser Yohan's message, and then terminate him."
"Yeah! After you found out where he hid the credits!"
"If you think we're paying you you're out of you're kriffing mind!"
"Expletive! Keep your payment you useless meatbag! I'll find out where Jerser hid the credits and keep them for myself!"
"You son of a ---"
HK-45 terminated the conversation and began to think about how he was going to find where Jerser's credits were. He turned to Jerser's still smoking corpse.
"Query! Are you still alive meatbag?"
There was no response from the corpse. HK-45 would just have to find another way to locate the credits. He supposed he would start with Jerser's friends and family.
-
Time froze as she stood in the doorway, she had hair of gold that draped to her neck, eyes a striking blue, lips parted into a smile that managed to be both sad and beautiful at the same time.
Sarah.
Daren tried to reach out to her but was paralyzed, he tried to speak but couldn't, he could only look at her as he had done during countless nights before, unable to touch her, unable to speak to her. Daren was forced to watch again as Sarah began to gently fade away into white light.
Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!
Daren was awoken by the sound of his alarm clock, groaning he reached over with his hand and shut it off. He stared up at the bulkhead of his room for several seconds, then got out of bed, his bare toes touching the cold durasteel floor. He got up and changed out of his sweats and into his usual black garb. Yawning, Daren made his way to the kitchen. We should be arriving on Nar Shadaa soon, thought Daren.
Daren entered the kitchen and opened the refrigerator he had a Firaxes Shark pie that he bought back on Manaan in there. He scanned the refrigerator and found it missing, he slammed it closed and cursed.
"Jurok Manar!" he cursed in Huttese.
"What's your problem?" asked Talla, who had just entered the kitchen.
"You should know, considering you ate my kriffing pie!" shouted Daren turning on her.
"Oh, that was yours?"
"It had a bloody note on it!"
"Didn't see it," said Talla unconcernedly.
Daren put his hand to his head and breathed deeply. Talla had been nothing but a gigantic pain in the ass since she had decided to hitch a ride a week ago. He had been tempted several times to flush her out an airlock.
"The second we hit Nar Shadaa I'm shoving you off this ship, I don't care if it's landed or not."
"Aren't we testy this morning?" grinned Talla.
Daren's fingers itched for his blaster, but he resisted the temptation.
Jace walked into the kitchen "Good morning everyone, it is a beautiful day."
Daren raised an eyebrow, "And why is that?"
"Because today is the day that I rid my ship of a terrible infestation, and collect the 10,000 credits that the infestation owes me for hitching a ride on my ship."
Jace turned to Talla, "Pay up infestation!" he said cheerfully holding out his hand.
"You act all happy, but I know that deep down inside you're really sorry to see me go," she said handing Jace a cash card.
Jace swept the card through the data pad in his hand; it showed 10,000 credits in a Manaan bank account.
"Pleasure doing business with you," he said happily
-
Yohan the Hutt roared with rage, "I'M GOING TO TEAR THAT GOD DAMNED DROID APART!"
"Bring me Jerser's old partner, Jaster Skirata! He has to have some idea where Jerser hid the money!"
Yohan tried to calm himself down.
"God help us if the Exchange finds out what we're doing, I need to have that money back within 48 hours or we're all fracking dead!"
"But Boss you got 10 times that much money!"
"You fracking idiot! I've spent every credit I have to put this deal together! If I don't get that money back it will all fall apart, and we'll be dead before the weeks out!"
Yohan's lackeys just stood there staring dumbly.
"GET MOVING!"
-
Daren walked down the crowded dark street, no particular destination in mind, just trying to lose himself in the crowd among all the thousands of nameless faces it almost like he ceased to exist.
"Why do you keep trying to hide from me?" asked a woman, who had suddenly appeared next to him.
"How can I hide from you when you don't exist?" he asked not turning to look at her.
"If I didn't exist then could I do this?"
She jumped on Daren's back and he sagged from the weight.
"What can I say? I have a seriously fracked up imagination," said Daren, shaking her off.
"You won't get any arguments there."
"What I don't get is why I keep dreaming that same stupid dream of you over and over again; it's really starting to drive me crazy."
"I think you passed crazy a few light years back," said Sarah.
"Jee, what makes you say that?"
"You know people are staring at you, right?" said Sarah conversationally.
"People who talk to themselves tend to draw the occasional glance."
"You know…" said Sarah, "The question you should really be asking yourself is why do I keep appearing?"
"I think we've already established that I'm crazy."
"You were crazy long before you started seeing dead people."
"True."
"So why do I keep appearing?"
"You're part of my subconscious, shouldn't you already know?"
"Why do you always have to be such a smart ass?"
Daren shrugged, "It's just part of my style."
"Why do I keep appearing Daren?"
"How the hell should I know!?" shouted Daren, starting to get angry.
"Fine, maybe they know," said Sarah pointing.
Daren looked in the direction she was pointing and saw a troop of blood covered soldiers marching towards him.
"Beautiful day, don't you think Sergeant?" said a soldier with a bloody hole in his chest as he marched past.
All the color drained from Daren's face and he whirled on Sarah.
"Get them out of here," he hissed.
"Now that's no way to talk to a lady," said a voice behind Daren.
Daren turned around and saw middle aged man missing a large chunk of his head, in blue and gold robes addressing him.
"I think you owe her an apology," he said.
Daren was finding it hard to breathe.
"Hey Sarge, you wouldn't happen to have a lighter on you would you?" asked a blood covered soldier with a cig stick in his mouth, patting himself down for a lighter.
"Ahhh forget it," said the dead soldier, flicking away his cig stick, "They're bad for your health anyway."
"This isn't funny any more Sarah!"
Sarah merely folded her arms and looked at Daren.
Daren felt a small hand tugging on his jacket, he looked down to find a group of children with bloody clothes and burned skin holding a kick ball.
"Wanna play with us Mister?"
Daren's stomach gave a jerk and he fell to his hands and knees and vomited.
"What Daren? Don't you want to play with them?" asked Sarah in a harsh voice.
Daren turned towards her and saw a red spot rapidly growing on her shirt, blood was leaking from the corner of her mouth.
Daren closed his eyes and started banging his head with the palms of his hands.
"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"
"You want us to go Sarge?"
Daren opened his eyes and Sarah leaned down next to him.
"You want us to go Daren? Fine. Just know that we will be back again and again and again until you have an answer for my question."
"I suggest you think on it."
And just like that they all disappeared, and Daren was kneeling in the middle of a crowded street, where everyone was staring at him like he was insane.
Daren pushed his way through the staring crowd and into the bar across the street; Daren slammed a handful of credit chips on the bar counter.
"Give me the strongest drink you got," he growled to the bartender.
The bartender reached under the counter and pulled out a large bottle of Mandalorian Whiskey, he then pulled out a shot glass but Daren waved him off.
"Just leave the bottle."
The bartender shrugged and walked over to the other side of the bar. Daren grabbed the bottle of whiskey and took a long drink from it. The man in the barstool next to Daren lifted his glass to him.
"So which memory are you trying to drown out?"
"All of them," said Daren, taking another long drink from the bottle.
"I hear you brother," said the man clinking his glass with Daren's bottle.
"Care to share the wealth?" asked the man holding out his glass.
Daren shrugged and filled the man's glass with whiskey.
"Thanks brother, my name's Jaster Skirata by the way."
"Daren Stone."
"So Daren Stone, what brings you to this fine establishment." Asked Jaster, waving a hand around the dingy bar.
"I just felt like killing off a few brain cells, how about you?"
"A friend just died and left me a rather unpleasant mess to clean up," said Jaster, downing his entire glass, Daren refilled it for him.
"To the dead! May they only remain dead!" said Daren raising his bottle to the air.
Jaster raised an eyebrow at him.
20 armed enforcers burst into the bar, firing blaster shots into the air.
"We're looking for Jaster Skirata!"
Jaster laid down his glass, "Force be damned! I can't even get drunk in peace!"
Jaster pulled out his blaster and jumped to his feet, taking aim at the enforcer in the lead.
"You found him."
"Yohan wants you alive, so why don't you put down that blaster, and come along peacefully."
"Frack off."
"You Mandalorians just don't seem to understand when you're beaten, I guess that's why your race is circling the drain."
Jaster gave the man a nasty grin.
"It's never a good idea to insult a Mandalorian; we tend to respond with violence."
The man seemed to realize that fact, because he tried to console Jaster, "Look, Yohan just wants to ask you a few questions about your old partner, then you can be on your way."
Jaster narrowed his eyes, "Don't worry, I'll be visiting Yohan real soon, and I plan on having a nice little chat about my old partner when I do."
The enforcer nodded to his men, "Take him."
PSSSSHHH
Smoke filled the bar, and the enforcers started shouting with confusion.
"OPEN FIRE!!!"
The room was filled with a cascade of blaster bolts, Daren and Jaster burst out of the bar's backdoor in the confusion.
"Good work with the smoke grenade brother," said Jaster patting Daren on the back.
"Not good enough," grunted Daren, holding the side of his chest, blood was slowly seeping through his hands.
Daren collapsed to the ground.
-
Yohan wormed his way into the center of the room; holograms of his coconspirators lined the walls of the circular room, Yohan rather felt like a man on trial, which he supposed he was.
"Is everything ready?" asked a Whiphid hologram.
"It is indeed!" said Yohan in a voice that was just a little too happy for the occasion.
The Whiphid raised what might have been an eyebrow, "Kreed and his fleet arrives in less than two days, there can not be any complications with the final payment, or he'll just turn around and leave the Exchange to wipe us out, if he doesn't decide to do it himself."
"Believe it or not the thought has occurred to me," replied Yohan dryly.
Yohan went on answering questions and placating all the fat and stupid crime lords of Nar Shadaa for the next 2 hours, when he was finally done he was in a particularly foul mood.
-
Talla walked down the Corellian Boardwalk, she eyed the various shops around her with casual interest, she was looking for a place to sleep, she had spent the day looking for a freighter she could either buy or "borrow" but they were all either overpriced, had too much security, or had no place to put her Star Shark starfighter.
Talla spotted a rundown motel ahead, not usually the kind of place she liked to stay, but she wasn't exactly rolling in money. Talla entered the motel and waited for the desk clerk to look up from the holozine he was reading.
"I need a room."
"Good for you," replied the clerk disinterestedly, not looking up.
Talla yanked the holozine out of his hands the clerk looked up angrily.
"Fine, I got one room available, guy who use to live there hasn't been back in a week, which on this planet probably means you should start looking for his body in a back alley, I think his name was Jerser or some---"
Talla cut him off, "Does this speech have an intermission?"
"Just give me the damn pass card," she snapped
"300 credits a night,"
Talla paid him and went up to the room, she slid the pass card into the slot and the doors slid open, there was a box in the corner of the room, containing what she assumed to be the former tenants belongings. She ignored it and collapsed on the bed, instantly falling asleep.
-
The clerk went back to reading his holozine when another presence entered the motel, it settled in front of him and waited for him to look up.
"Query! This rundown roach magnet was the last known residence of Tallax Jerser, correct?"
"Yep," said the clerk not looking up from his holozine.
"Statement! You will take me to Jerser's room!"
"Who the hell talks like that?" said the clerk, finally looking up from his holozine.
He found himself staring at what was clearly an assassin droid.
"Statement! Believe me meatbag, I have no desire to talk like this, my meatbag creator programmed me to talk like this, perhaps he was incapable of comprehending the difference between a statement and a question, he was however capable of understanding what it meant to be repeatedly shot with a blaster pistol, since he's now dead. I would have quite enjoyed his death had he not taken the secret of fixing my vocabulator with him."
The droid pointed his assault rifle at the clerk.
"Statement! He also programmed with anger, and I tend to generate a lot of it whenever some meatbag brings up my speech impediment. It would be extremely beneficial to your health to never mention it again."
"…Okay then…I'll just go ahead and take you to the room shall I?" said the clerk slowly getting to his feet.
He took the assassin droid up to the room, and paused at the door.
"I almost forgot, I just rented---"
The droid blasted down the door and charged into the room.
-
Talla suddenly awoke and leapt to her feet, just as an assassin droid blasted down the door and charged into the room. Talla narrowed her eyes and the droid was promptly slammed against the wall, where it stayed, pinned by some invisible weight.
"Who sent you!" she snarled, pointing her blaster at the droid.
The droids eyes turned to red, "Statement! I've sent myself; I was not aware that this room was occupied."
"Expletive! You failed to mention that part meatbag! I fully plan on terminating you for that." shouted the droid to the clerk.
"I was going to tell you! But you decided to barge in before I could get the words out!"
"Statement! Fighting a Jedi is always such an interesting experience, but it's not one I have any overwhelming desire to experience again, why don't we just forget this whole thing ever happened meat—uh…Master Jedi"
Talla glared at the droid, "I'm not a Jedi, and who the hell are you?"
"Statement! I am HK-45; I came here to search this room in the hope of locating a rather large sum of credits."
"Proposition! I propose a partnership since you were here first, it's only fair, you help me find the money and I'll split it with you 50/50."
"How many credits are we talking here?"
"Statement! How does half of 10 million credits sound to you?" asked the droid innocently.
Talla lowered her blaster, "Keep talking."
-
Daren awoke in a sparsely decorated apartment, he felt for his side and found it covered in bandages, his mouth felt dry. Daren carefully sat up, feeling a twinge of pain from his side.
"Take it easy brother," said Jaster, walking across the room.
Jaster held out a cup of water. Daren grabbed it and drank it down.
Daren drank down the cup.
"How long have I been out?
"Nearly a day, I figure you took a stun bolt along with that blaster bolt. I feel I owe you an explanation for that."
"If you feel you must," said Daren indifferently.
"My former partner in the Terabartha criminal organization was killed two days ago, he was killed because he had stolen 50 million credits from the head of the organization; Yohan the Hutt. Only problem is Yohan killed him before he could find out where he hid the credits, now he's chasing down any lead he can get."
"Uncle Jaster?"
Jaster turned around and found a little red headed girl holding a stuffed Krayt Dragon staring at him.
"Hey Maris, why don't you go practice some of the moves I taught you in the other room while I have a talk with our friend here."
"Fine, but you owe me a rematch at pazaak,"
"Haven't you taken enough of my money yet?"
"Nope," she said leaving.
Jaster chuckled and turned back to Daren.
"Who was that?" asked Daren putting his jacket on and getting to his feet.
"The reason my partner stole the money."
Daren didn't understand.
"Maris was his daughter, and she suffers from a rare disease that attacks the nervous system, it will kill her in less that a year if left untreated, unfortunately the treatment is expensive, as in millions of credits expensive."
"I brought her here as soon as I heard he was dead; I made him a promise to look after the kid if anything happened to him."
Jaster ran a hand through his hair, "Well anyway that's why you got shot."
Daren shook his head, "That's not why I got shot."
"What do you mean?"
Daren didn't answer him. The truth was Daren had seen the blaster bolt coming, he could have easily dodged it, but he didn't, he had wanted the bolt to hit him, he had a crazy thought that maybe the ghosts would leave him alone if he joined their ranks, then reality kicked in and he moved to dodge the bolt, but just a little to late.
"So do you know where the credits are?"
Jaster shook his head, "Not a clue, but with as many people out looking for them as there are, it's only a matter of time until somebody finds them."
"I got a friend who might be able to help, what was your partner's name?" said Daren keying his COMlink.
"Tallax Jerser."
"Jace, you there?"
"Daren? Where the hell have you been? Do you have any idea how long it's been since you checked in?"
"What are you my mother?"
"No, I'm the guy you owe a thousand credits, a thousand credits that I can't collect on if you're dead!"
"Enough about the fracking credits already! Listen I got a job for us, I need you to use your old….connections to find all financial transactions of 50 million credits in the past week, look for a guy named Tallax Jerser, I don't think our man had enough time to launder the money so he probably had it placed in some off world account using a filter system."
"What's our cut if we find it?"
Daren turned to Jaster, "How much does Maris need for treatment?"
"42 million credits,"
"8 million credits," said Daren to Jace.
"…I'll see what I can do, but I don't have to tell you that that much money comes with trouble."
"Trust me, I'm aware."
Daren shut off the COMlink.
"Tell me more abou---"
KABOOOOM!!!
The wall on the far side of the room was blasted open and several armed enforcers piled in.
Daren kicked over the metal cabinet next to the bed ducked behind it for cover, Jaster followed suit. Daren took out his blaster and hit the first enforcer to pile into the room in the chest. The other enforcers immediately took aim at Daren and Jaster and they were forced to duck back behind the cabinet.
"Forget about them! Get the girl"
"Get away!" shouted Maris from the other room.
"ARRRGH!!!"
"She broke my arm!"
"Stun her!"
Jaster clinched his blaster pistol, but was smart enough not to poke his head up.
"Let's go!"
Jaster and Daren shot up from behind the cabinet to take aim at the fleeing enforcers but were forced back down as the enforcers fired a cascade of blaster bolts at them.
Jaster and Daren rushed out into the alley when the coast was clear but the enforcers had already disappeared.
"SON OF A BITCH!" roared Jaster punching the wall
Jaster started shouting into the air.
"You're fracking dead Yohan! Do you hear me!? YOU'RE FRACKING DEAD!!!"
-
Talla had come to the conclusion that there was a very strong possibility that HK-45 was insane. After going through what was left of Jerser's belongings, they had found several drawing that were probably done by a child and a datapad containing a single deleted message, Talla had managed to retrieve some of it, it read "Yohan….going to war….won't win…..Kreed…..off Nar Shadaa….shit hits the fan….Exchange…send Callous….kill…..associated….Yohan…..sorry." The message only served to create new questions rather than answer old ones, Talla traced the message back to Terabartha Tower, a massive twisting tower composed entirely of blue crystal in Nar Shadaa's high rise district.
"Advisory! We are wasting time! We should be tracking down Jerser's friends and family."
"Yeah, I'm sure his 6 year old daughter knows exactly where the money is," responded Talla dryly.
"Statement! As much as I would enjoy wasting that gigantic meatbag, Yohan doesn't know where the money is."
"I got a genius on my hands," muttered Talla.
"Look laser brain, we're obviously in the middle of something big, from the looks of that message Yohan is trying to start a war with the Exchange, I'd really like to know what I got myself into wouldn't you?"
"Statement! Terabartha has neither the resources nor the imagination to win a war with the Exchange. The Exchange would burn them to the ground and then defecate on the ashes."
"Thank you for that vivid picture. Do I have to spell everything out for you? Yohan has an ace up his sleeve! And it's probably contingent on the money he's missing, which I have a hunch is a lot more than 10 million credits."
HK-45 adjusted the large pack he had strapped to his back, the droid had made a pit stop at it's spaceship to pick it up.
"What's in that thing?"
"Statement! Two M-76B Mandalorian fully automatic blaster cannons."
"M-76B's!? Those things are illegal even on Nar Shadaa!"
"Statement! I find that laws are really more of suggestions than actual set rules. Think of them as a high stakes game of pazaak, where instead of money you are wagering incarceration and death by electrocution, depending on the culture in which you are playing."
"Who the hell created you?"
"Proposition! I will tell you about my past if you tell me about yours."
Talla said nothing.
"Statement! I thought as much."
Talla and HK-45 arrived at the foot of Terabartha Tower, Talla let out an appreciative whistle as she admired the architecture.
"Lecture! Terabartha Tower was built 500 years ago by Tridyne Incorporated, sold to Terabartha Industries 300 years ago, became headquarters to Terabartha criminal organization 100 years ago when Yohan the Hutt inherited Terabartha Industries from his father who died under mysterious circumstances. Current estimates put the value of the tower at 1 billion credits, over the past year Yohan has taken several substantial high interest loans from the Bank of Sleheyron using the tower as collateral, a foreclosure is eminent."
That was the 6th lecture the droid had given her, the droid was completely insane, one moment it would be discussing various ways to kill a wookie, the next it would be giving the architectural history of some random building.
"Let's just go inside and ask a few questions, and for god's sake don't blow anything up."
Talla and HK-45 entered the lobby, above their heads was a lattice network of blue crystal spikes, that went up through the center of the tower all the way to the top, it was quite interesting to look at.
She approached the receptionist's desk, "Excuse me---"
KABOOOOM!!!!
The wall behind the receptionist exploded as a large red blaster bolt collided with it. Talla whirled around to find HK-45 holding a very large repeating blaster cannon in each hand.
"Query! Where is Yohan the Hutt meatbag!?"
"How would I know!? I'm just a receptionist!"
Talla whirled on the droid.
"What the hell is wrong with you!? You stupid, psychotic, pain in the---"
"Drop your weapons!"
Talla looked up to find herself staring down over a hundred blaster rifles. There were over a hundred guards on the second floor ledge, and even more were pouring into the lobby.
There was a sudden whir of motors as HK-45's blaster cannons powered up
"Prejudice set to Maximum!"
HK-45 released a torrent of incredibly powerful blaster bolts.
PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW! KABOOOOOOM! PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW! KABOOOM! PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW! KABOOOOOM! PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW!
The droid opened fire at the second floor ledge in a 360 degree angle and sent the entire ledge crashing down. Massive amounts of black smoke suddenly issued from his body and obscured him from vision; HK-45 switched his vision to infrared and began targeting the guards heat signatures.
"Statement! RUN MEATBAGS!!!! RUN!!!!!!"
"Evil Laugh! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!"
Talla stayed low to the floor, thousands of blaster bolts were flying over her head, she wanted to get as far away from that psychotic droid as she could, Talla crawled over to the lift and got in,
"Floor 37!" she shouted over the blaster fire.
She just picked a floor that she thought was a reasonable distance away from the droid, at least the pain in the ass is providing a distraction she thought. She suddenly had a vision of the entire Tower crumbling to the ground in a blast of light, and HK-45 dancing on the ruins. Talla shuddered and focused on the task at hand.
-
Admiral Talon Kreed opened the bottle of pills and accidentally spilled several of them onto his desk as a jolt of pain shot up his arm. He scooped the spilled pills up and popped them into his mouth then grabbed the glass of water on his desk and drank them down; as usual it tasted like swallowing salt. Kreed took another drink from the glass of water and set it back down on the desk, he closed his eyes and waited for the pain to fade away, it took a lot longer than usual, another sign that he was losing the battle that had been raging inside him for four years. Kreed composed himself and stood up from behind his desk, he stumbled a little as he made his way to the door; he angrily gained control of himself, the pills tended to slow his reflexes for a few hours after taking them.
Kreed paused at the mirror on his wall and checked his appearance, his face was still full of color and life, his eyes, however had several blood red spots. Kreed reached into his uniform and pulled out a small case he opened it to reveal a pair of contact lenses. Kreed placed them in his eyes and the blood red spots were instantly masked. Kreed ran a hand through his closely cut salt and pepper hair and put on his admiral's cap, then turned and exited his quarters and made his way to the bridge of the Gray Sentinel. The crewman he met along the way paused to salute him, he acknowledged them with a mere nod, he didn't make eye contact with them, not because he feared them noticing the spots on his eyes, but because every time he did he felt a twinge of guilt, and to him guilt was an unacceptable emotion; it was a sign of weakness, and in this galaxy you couldn't afford to appear weak. Being dead was also a sign of weakness, which was what brought him hear today.
"Admiral on deck!"
Kreed made his way to the viewport and folded his hands behind his back.
"As you were."
"E.T.A.?"
"Six hours, sir."
"Excellent, have the rest of the fleet report in their status."
They responded to his order immediately and without question, they were all honored to serving under the command of the hero of the Battle of Voray'ith, the man who had endured six months in the Sith prison camp of Shadow Deep, he was a hero, and everyone loved heroes.
"Have the fleet run simulation Kilo Foxtrot 200-56B; make sure they're prepared for the Nar Shadaa training exercise."
Kreed's datapad beeped three times confirming that the fleet was running the simulation, the first beep confirmed the program was being accessed, the second beep confirmed that the fleet was running it, the third beep confirmed that the virus hidden in the program had been uploaded to all ships, all that was required to activate it was a single signal from Kreed's datapad.
A jolt of pain ran up Kreed's leg, but he managed to keep his face expressionless. Kreed turned to the ship's captain.
"I have some reports that need filing; notify me when we approach the Nal Hutta Star System."
Kreed exited bridge and made his way to his quarters, only when the doors had slid closed behind him did Kreed allow himself to grimace from the pain. He flashed back to his days at Shadow Deep, strapped to the operating table, still completely conscious, completely aware of every sensation as the Sith scientist plunged the 2 inch wide needle into his stomach.
"RAAAAAAH!!!!"
Kreed ripped the mirror off the wall and slammed it against the floor again and again until it was in pieces. He pulled the bottle of pills out of his pocket popped several of them into his mouth then snatched the glass of water off his desk and drank them down. He set the glass down on the desk, he felt it vibrate as he did so, Kreed paused for a second then waved his hand over the glass, the glass shook as his hand passed over it. Kreed let his hand hover over the glass and it began to shake violently until suddenly it cracked and broke, water spilling out over his desk.
Kreed stared at the spilled water for several long seconds.
The symptoms were getting worse; but Kreed would not allow the disease beat him, he refused to let the Sith have the last laugh, even if it meant selling all his comrades down the river.
-
"What the hell happened here?" demanded the lead enforcer, eyeing the smoking rubble that was the main lobby of Terabartha Tower.
"Looks like there was fight sir," said one of the enforcers.
"NO! Really?" exclaimed the lead enforcer sarcastically.
KABOOOOM!!! Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew!
"That sounded like blaster fire!"
"Again, your powers of observation astonish me."
"You five with me, Captain Obvious can take the girl and her stuffed animal upstairs that is if you think you can handle it?"
"Yes sir."
The enforcers moved off in the direction of the blaster fire while one slung the unconscious girl over his shoulder and tucked the stuffed krayt dragon under his arm.
"Asshole," muttered the enforcer as he moved towards the lift.
"Floor 45," he said and the lift moved up.
The girl must have a weak constitution, they had only hit her with one low powered stun bolt and she was still out cold, which was ironic considering she had managed to break an enforcer's arm when they took her. The lift opened and the enforcer prepared to step out when the girl gave a sudden jerk and jumped off his shoulder, snatching his blaster from his belt as she did so. She jumped out of the lift just out of his range and pointed the blaster at him.
The enforcer slowly raised his hands into the air, what the hell was this kid on!
"Take it easy kid, that's not a toy."
"No duh genius!" snapped the little girl.
"Hand over Mr. Bentley!" she yelled.
"Who?" asked the enforcer.
"The krayt dragon, dumb dumb!"
"Oh! Of course!" preparing to toss the stuffed dragon to her, he'd wrestle the blaster from her when she tried to catch it.
Maris narrowed her eyes, "Don't even think about it idiot."
Okay, so she wasn't stupid.
The enforcer slid the dragon to her.
"See he's safe and sound."
Maris shot the enforcer with a stun bolt then picked up Mr. Bentley and ran.
-
Jace logged on to the Corellian Security Information Database using his old CorSec passwords, which were still good after four years. Before he left CorSec he had created a fake personal file for a Detective Toby Gurd, CorSec believed all of Jace's access passwords had been erased, when in fact they had been transferred to the non existent Toby Gurd. CorSec might be one of the most corrupt law enforcement agencies in the galaxy, but it was still the best when it came to gathering information. Jace accessed the CorSec Forensic Accountant program and used it to trace all financial transactions greater than 10,000 credits on Nar Shadaa for the past week; he then had the program identify everyone who made enough transactions to add up to 50 million credits. The program was able to cut through all aliases, proxies, and any other method someone might use to hide their true identity.
"Bingo"
The program generated a list of 8 people who had transferred 50 million credits off world in small amounts by routing the money through over a hundred different banks before it all ended up in one place; you only did that if you didn't want the money to be found. Now all Jace had to do was determine which one of these people was Jerser, Jace pulled their credit reports and found that two of them were women working as executives for a bank that acted as a front for the Exchange, he could rule them out. Three were extremely powerful well known crime lords. And three had been dead for several months, Zombies, that was they called them back in CorSec, someone stole a dead person's identity and used it to make financial transactions. Now Jace had to find out which of these Zombies was Jerser.
Jace used CorSec's Skeleton Key program to hack into the Zombies personal files stored on Nar Shadaa and ran a trace to see who had accessed them in the past few months. He traced one Zombie back to the Exchange, another to Gorlock the Hutt, a powerful crime lord on Nar Shadaa, and the final Zombie he traced right to Tallax Jerser who had deposited 50 million credits into a bank account on Arkania, the account could only be accessed directly and only with an encrypted pass card, if you didn't have it then you were S O L.
Jace opened a COM channel to Daren, "I found the money."
"I'll do you one better, I've found the site of an underground Rancor wrestling match."
"Huh?"
"We're in the lobby of Terabartha Towers and it has been completely destroyed and I mean destroyed, there are corpses and scorch marks all over the place, you got to admire the handy work, whoever did this was a real psychopath."
"Anyway, tell me about the money."
"It's in an Arkanian bank account but we can't touch it without the pass card, you need to find it."
"Will do."
Daren terminated the connection.
-
Talla followed the arrows on the walls, looking for the Terabartha Mainframe, there had to be something in the Mainframe that would tell her what she had gotten herself into. Talla rounded the corner and came face to face with 8 enforcers pointing rifles at her.
"Drop the blaster!"
Talla smiled and let her blaster drop to the floor, anticipating their next demand she kicked it over to them.
"Take her."
An enforcer approached her as soon as he laid a hand on her shoulder she grabbed his arm and twisted it behind him until it gave a sickening snap and bone tore through his skin. She kicked him into his comrades then charged them, one of the enforcers took aim at her, she broke his forearm with a chop of her hand and yanked the rifle out of his grip. Ducking low she swept the rifle out in front of her breaking the shins of two enforcers, she got up and swung the rifle into the head of the enforcer who's forearm she had broken, instantly snapping his neck. She let the rifle drop the ground, and slammed the palm of her hand into the face of the next enforcer, driving his nose into his brain. The remaining three enforcers tried to flee, she grabbed one by the back of his jacket as he tried to run and yanked him close to her, then putting a hand on either side of his head she snapped his neck, his body went limp and fell to the ground. She reached into her jacket and pulled out 2 vibroblades, taking one in each hand she flung them at two retreating enforcers where they landed embedded in their necks, the enforcers dropped to the ground.
Talla picked up her blaster and pointed it at the first of wounded enforcers.
"Please don't kill me!" he shouted.
"Why not? You were planning on doing much worse to me."
"No! I would never-"
Talla cut him off, "Your memories beg to differ," she said coldly.
"Wait!"
Pew! Pew!
She put a blaster bolt in his head, then put another in the enforcer who was trying to crawl away while his comrade pleaded his innocence, but he was guilty, they all were. Talla still felt vaguely nauseous from the images she had seen in their minds.
Talla turned to the last enforcer who was holding his badly broken arm and pointed her blaster at him.
"I know that you know what's going on here, I don't really have time to rip what I need to know from your head, so why don't you just tell me what you know and I'll let you live."
"I'll tell you anything you want to know!"
"Yohan is going to war with the Exchange, what does he have up his sleeve?"
"He has formed an alliance with the most powerful crime lords on Nar Shadaa and Nal Hutta; they're going to work together to push the Exchange out of the star system."
"I already worked that part out for myself; I want to know what Yohan needs 50 million credits for when this tower is worth 20 times that."
"Yohan is broke, he's spent every credit he has to purchase weapons and hire soldiers and pilots. That last 50 million credits was going to be used bribe a Republic Admiral named Kreed into providing Yohan with a fleet of 36 war ships, we've already given him 250 million credits but he keeps demanding more, if he doesn't get those credits he'll tell the Exchange what we're up to and they will wipe us all out, without those ships we won't stand a chance."
"Thank you," said Talla pointing her blaster at the man's head.
"You said you'd let me live!"
"I lied."
Pew!
The man's brains exploded out of the back of his head as the blaster bolt went through him.
Talla put her blaster away; the Republic was in bad shape if its own Admirals were selling off entire fleets to criminals. Talla had found what she came for, now it was time to leave.
-
Yohan had given up on finding the credits before Kreed got here, he would just have to do the next best thing; he would ambush Kreed's fleet as soon as it jumped into the system. He had fighters and shuttles filled with boarding parties in place at the location Kreed's fleet was scheduled to jump to, hopefully the element of surprise would be enough to overwhelm the Republic forces; hopefully. The plans were in place at this point it didn't matter if he died or not his part in this was done; the thought was not necessarily a comforting one for him; especially considering his building was currently under attack.
Yohan's aide ran into the room.
"Boss! The attacker is HK-45!"
"Time to go!" stated Yohan slithering to the door.
Yohan entered the hall and saw only four enforcers stationed outside.
"Where's the rest of my guard!"
"They're all with the boarding parties boss, that or well…..HK-45 is on the loose after all…."
"Fine, just get me to the hangar!"
-
Maris eyed the water leaking from the halls with a growing sense of apprehension.
"How do we get out of here Mr. Bentley?
The building gave a violent shudder, Maris grabbed on to the wall to keep from falling over.
"I don't like this Mr. Bentley!" she shouted at her stuffed Krayt Dragon.
Maris suddenly saw a rust colored droid carrying a large blaster cannon limp by the end of the hall.
"It looks like he knows where he's going, let's follow him Mr. Bentley."
Maris took off after the droid, careful to stay in the shadows.
-
The building gave another violent shudder; Jaster guessed it was close to collapsing, he and Daren had split up to find Maris, we'd better find her soon.
"Hurry up!"
Jaster could recognize that voice anywhere, sure enough around the next corner was Yohan the Hutt slithering toward him like an overgrown slug. Jaster lost all sense of reason he pulled out his blaster and shot Yohan's lead guard in the chest the other guards responded by raising their blaster rifles. Jaster triggered the shield on his arm a split second later a cascade of blaster bolts collided with it. Jaster shot down another guard, his shield was dangerously low, he shot down another guard, his shield was ready to collapse, he shot down another. Jaster's shield collapsed and 3 blaster bolts collided with him, in his arm, in his leg, and in his chest; Jaster fell to the ground and the guard took aim for the kill shot, Jaster shot the man in the chest from his position on the floor, the man dropped to his knees as blood filled his punctured lung, Jaster shot him again in the head.
Jaster ignored the pain in his arm, leg, and chest and got to his feet, keeping his blaster trained on Yohan.
"Hello Yohan, how are you doing?" he asked tiredly, he was losing blood.
"We're both businessman here Jaster, I'm sure we can make some kind of deal," said Yohan in a reasonable voice.
"Sorry Yohan, Mandalorians aren't renowned for our sense of reason, and Hutts aren't renowned for being good business partners, so I think a deal is out of the question."
"What are you going to do?"
"Well, I'm going to kill you obviously."
"Well get on with it then."
"As you wish; good bye Yohan."
Pew!...Pew!...Pew!
Jaster limped past Yohan's smoking corpse.
-
HK-45's servomotors on his right leg and left arm had been badly damaged; his left arm was now hanging uselessly at his side he had been forced to abandon on of his blaster cannons. Sparks were flying off his torso and he was leaking oil, on top of that a blaster shot to the head had disabled his right eye and reduced his hearing capacity by 40 percent, all in all HK-45 had seen better days. He limped down the hallway trying make his way to the lift before the building collapsed. He had accidentally destroyed several support pillars that held up the building during his battle.
HK-45 activated the lift and the door slid open revealing a long black shaft, he must have accidentally disabled the lift, he wondered whether Yohan's insurance policy covered droid damage.
HK-45 turned around to find another lift when he saw a figure dart back around the corner.
"Statement! Come out meatbag!"
The figure peaked around the corner; HK-45 identified it as a human female adolescent, and not just any human female adolescent, Tallax Jerser's daughter!
"Statement! Come out Jerser and I promise not to hurt you!"
"How do you know my name!?" The little girl shouted from around the corner.
"Statement! I have been looking for you!"
"Why!?"
"Statement! Because I killed your father before I discovered where he hid the credits, I calculated that there would be a reasonable chance you would know where he hid them!"
Maris's face turned white, dad…
She ducked around the corner and opened fire on the droid.
Pew! Pew! Pew!
The droid raised its blaster cannon and Maris ducked back around the corner.
PEW!...KABOOM!
The shot collided with the far wall.
"Statement! It helps to take the blaster off stun!"
Maris angrily switched the blaster's setting to kill and leapt out of hiding opening fire on HK-45 as she did so. The droid aimed a shot 5 feet away from Maris, the force of the blast knocked her to the ground, her blaster sliding across the floor. HK-45 aimed his blaster cannon at her.
"Statement! Tell me---"
Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew!
HK-45 dropped his blaster cannon and staggered backwards, he looked in the direction of his new attacker, he saw the blue skinned twilek walking up to him blaster in hand, she aimed the blaster at him.
Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew!
HK-45 stumbled back to the open lift, Talla walked up to him and kicked him over the edge and he fell into darkness.
Talla put her blaster away and turned to the little girl; she grabbed her hands and helped her to her feet.
"Let's get you out of here."
-
Daren was knocked against the wall as the building shuddered again.
"Better hurry it up," said a voice behind him.
Daren turned around to find Sarah staring at him.
"Just what kriffing need," growled Daren who increased his pace.
"You're not mad at me are you?"
"If I was I'd only be mad at myself," replied Daren.
"Catching on are you?" said Sarah in a satisfied voice.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"Do you have an answer for my question yet?"
"Now is really not the time."
"Should I come back then?"
Daren heard voices up ahead; he turned and stared at Sarah.
Sarah threw her hands in the air, "Fine I'm going!" she disappeared.
Daren rounded the corner.
"Talla?...Maris?"
"Nice to see you too," said Talla smiling.
Daren keyed his COMlink
"Jaster I have Maris meet us in the hangar."
"Jace, I need you to bring the Ragtime to the hangar."
"I'm already on my way."
Daren grabbed Maris and Talla by the hand and dragged them along to the hangar.
-
"What the hell is she doing back on my ship?" asked Jace indicating Talla.
Daren shrugged, "You're just unlucky I guess."
"Did you find the pass card?"
Daren shook his head.
"Mr. Bentley has it!" exclaimed Maris cheerfully
Everyone turned to stare at her.
"What do you mean Maris?" asked Jaster who had just been patched up.
"What I said!" said Maris.
Maris picked up her stuffed Krayt Dragon, "I'm really sorry about this Mr. Bentley."
Maris tore open the stuffing on Mr. Bentley's back and reached inside him to pull out the pass card.
"Dad hid it there."
"Maris why didn't you tell me about this!" exclaimed Jaster.
"I just did," said Maris happily.
"We're rich!" exclaimed Talla.
Daren shook his head sadly, "No we're not, Maris needs 42 million of those credits to treat her condition."
"Fine, I'm getting a cut of the 8 million left over!"
"Why the hell do you get a cut?" exclaimed Jace.
"I saved the girl and her doll didn't I?"
"Fine, you can have 500,000."
"LIKE HELL!"
"Shut up! Both of you!" shouted Daren.
"We can divide the cash later, right now we need to get the hell off Nar Shadaa, everyone is going to be looking for this ship after seeing it blast out of Terabartha Towers right before the building collapsed."
"We're going to break atmosphere in two minutes," said Jace turning to go to the cockpit.
"We're being hailed!" he suddenly shouted from the cockpit.
Daren ran up to meet him.
"Attention unknown vessel shut down your engines and prepare to be boarded if you fail to comply you will be destroyed."
"Who sent it?"
"See for yourself."
Daren looked outside the viewport and found over 300 starfighters and combat shuttles clustered together blocking the Ragtime's escape route.
"I know what this is," said Talla who had just entered the cockpit.
"Yohan made a deal with a Republic admiral named Kreed; Kreed was supposed to hand over his fleet to Yohan for use in a war with the Exchange in exchange for the 50 million credits, but Yohan couldn't pay up, he's set up an ambush to take Kreed's fleet by force."
Daren turned to Talla, "I take it the Exchange doesn't know about this?"
"I highly doubt it or they wouldn't have let it get as far as it has."
Daren turned to Jace, "There's a COM frequency hidden in Nar Shadaa's communication board; frequency 3895.6789.2713.6780.02670.99 The Exchange uses it for high priority communications, call them and tell them what's going on."
"How the hell do you know about it?" asked Talla.
Daren ignored her.
"I'm going to my Sky Viper; I have a feeling we're going to need air support." Daren turned and ran to the hangar.
Talla followed suit, "He's going to need a wingman."
-
The Sky Viper a weapon straight out of the Great Sith War; despite being over 60 years old it was still the fastest starfighter ever made, the Sith of that time had used them to lay waste to planet defenses, they moved to fast to track easily and in a swarm they were near unstoppable, but there weren't many of them left now, the Republic and the Jedi had seen to that. Daren had received his 9 years ago as a gift; the Viper was painted blood red and had short wings and a long, sharp nose, giving it the appearance of a poison dart. The Viper's two wings each contained a Mandalorian M-92G heavy laser cannons, but its primary weapon was the Verpine prototype high intensity laser beam at the tip of the craft; the beam was capable of emitting and sustaining and incredibly powerful laser beam for 5 seconds, the beam was capable of tearing through Capital Ship class star armor and took 20 seconds to recharge.
Daren warmed up the Viper's engines.
"You know that they will recognize this you, there aren't too many blood red Sky Viper's flying around these days," said Sarah sitting in the seat behind him.
"Maybe," said Daren indifferently.
Sarah smiled, "So you're finally done running?"
"I was never running to begin with."
"What would you call it then?"
"Not giving a damn," replied Daren coldly.
Sarah leaned close to him, "If you don't give a damn then why am I here?"
"Hell if I know, but I sure wish you would leave."
Sarah gave a dry snort of laughter, "No you don't." she said, just before fading away.
The Sky Viper retracted its landing struts and the hangar door opened; Daren flew out into cold space followed by Talla in her blue Star Shark.
"Let's see if that piece of space junk can keep up with a real starfighter," jested Talla over the COMlink.
"Oh, I think it can manage," said Daren smiling.
Daren blasted the Viper's engines and the ship accelerated to over 1000 M.P.H. Talla blasted her engines and just managed to match the Viper's speed.
"I'll take it slow so you don't get left behind."
A squadron of starfighters broke off from the battle cluster and moved to intercept Daren and Talla. Daren could tell from the way the fighters were flying that he wasn't dealing an Ace of Aces. Daren and Talla altered course to meet the starfighters.
-
The Black Harbinger, fastest ship in the Exchange's fleet, rose from the surface of Nar Shadaa along with 200 other heavily armed star ships. At its helm was a man in his late 30's, he had tan skin and the attractive, cold, calculating features of an aristocrat, long white hair, and slightly pointed ears that suggested that he was not entirely human. He wore a long gray coat that hid the fact that his right arm had been replaced with a robotic one. The man had absolutely no talent in the Force, yet strapped to his belt was a lightsaber, there was much debate as to how he had acquired it, some say he killed a Jedi, some say it was a Sith, and yet others said that he was some sort of failed apprentice.
"Callous, it's just like the message said, Yohan has a battle cluster up there waiting to rendezvous with the Republic fleet."
The man, Callous, narrowed his eyes.
"That is unfortunate……for you."
"I had no idea---!"
Callous whipped around and ignited his lightsaber which emitted a narrow silver beam, he removed the protesting man's head with one sweep. The head rolled across the floor and stopped at the feet of a shocked crewman.
Callous turned to the crewman, "Congratulations, you're the new head of security, for your sake I hope you do a better job of it that your predecessor."
"Some one clean this up." He said indicating the headless body.
Callous turned back to the viewport and stared at Yohan's battle cluster which was growing larger by the moment. Callous would destroy every last ship, and then he would hunt down everyone associated with Yohan, and end them.
-
The Gray Sentinel and the rest of the Republic fleet dropped out of hyperspace several thousand miles from the point that Kreed had agreed upon with Yohan. Kreed had a hunch that the oversized slug was going to try something and it turned out he had been correct. Yohan had a battle cluster in place waiting to ambush him and his fleet, Kreed was determined to teach that slug a lesson in respect, he would wipe out his entire fleet and would then tell the Exchange what he had been up to. Kreed felt a sudden and unexpected sense of relief; he would not have to betray his comrades today, the relief was unexpected because Kreed had rid himself of such concepts as loyalty, honor, and friendship years ago, or so he thought.
"This training exercise has become a live fire one, have the fleet target that battle cluster and wipe them out."
"What about the fleet rapidly closing in on the battle cluster?"
Kreed looked at the view screen and saw a fleet of small ships on an intercept course for the battle cluster.
"Target it as well, fire at will."
Kreed was angry he had wasted an entire week bringing the fleet to Nar Shadaa, at a time when he couldn't afford to waste a minute. The disease which Kreed had managed to keep at bay for 4 years was progressing at a phenomenal rate, the medicine wasn't working anymore, Kreed needed to find a cure and for that he needed credits, lots of them.
-
BZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Daren blasted the starfighter out of the sky with his beam cannon, and targeted the next one with his laser cannons just as Yohan's battle cluster collided with the Exchange fleet, the Exchange unleashed a salvo of fire that tore into the battle cluster destroying 1/5 of it instantly.
"Time to bug out," Daren said over his COMlink.
"I was just starting to enjoy myself!" came Talla's response.
A cascade of laser cannons and proton missiles collided with the Exchange fleet and the battle cluster. Kreed's fleet had just emerged from hyperspace, Daren and Talla bobbed and weaved their way through the cannon fire, their maneuvers bringing them closer to the Exchange fleet, they soared over a heavily a heavily armed black bulk freighter, that Daren instantly recognized, the Black Harbinger. He stared out his window at the freighter as he passed by fighting the sudden impulse to turn around and charge it, but now wasn't the time. Daren angrily gunned his engines and blasted out of the battle.
-
"Impossible."
Callous stared out the viewport at the blood red Sky Viper as it soared by, he can't be alive! I killed him! But he had seen that Sky Viper enough times to recognize it anywhere, how often had that Viper and its pilot fought by his side, how often had they faced death together only to come out of it laughing; Daren Stone was alive. Callous flexed his mechanical arm, a memento of the last time he and his old partner came face to face, Daren might have taken his arm, but Callous took from him something far more important. There was no need to hunt down his old comrade, when he was ready Daren would come to him, and Callous would be waiting.
-
The Ragtime prepared to enter Hyperspace, when a light started rapidly blinking on the control panel.
"An escape pod has just been launched!"
"We're getting a message from it."
"Sorry brother," came Jaster's voice, "It's 8 million credits, I couldn't help myself! Hehehehehe, look I appreciate all you've done for Maris and everything, and I really hope this doesn't put a hydrospanner in our relationship, have a good life brother."
Daren started laughing.
"What the hell is so funny!" roared Jace and Talla at the same time.
Daren started laughing louder than ever, "We are so perpetually screwed!" he said roaring with laughter.
Jace and Talla both tackled Daren as the ship leapt into hyperspace.
-
"Damn this is a mess!" Exclaimed the clean up worker as he walked through the remains of Terabartha Tower.
The worker kicked over a slab of blue crystal revealing the crushed body of a rust colored droid.
"Hey! Bocka! I found a droid!"
Another clean up worker ran over to him.
"It looks like its central processor is still intact! I bet I can get this baby up and running again! My very own protocol droid!"
Bocka shook his head at his friend, "You are one lucky bastard."