Chapter 3: Zenith Black

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I was at the controls of the brown, stocky transport as we were in hyperspace. There was one seat for the pilot while everyone else got cramped into two long benches. I was the lucky one. They were crammed shoulder to shoulder. At least the trip wasn't going to be long. We left our cruiser ship on a spaceport not to far from Coruscant. It was the closest spaceport that I knew of I felt I could leave my cruiser without getting reported to the Republic. Because... Well it wouldn't be passing any legal inspections any time soon.

I had my seat swiveled backwards towards the others as a few conversations were going on. Lwyn had removed a glove from her hand and showed Vayne her wedding ring. Out wedding rings were simple. Just plain rings made from melted down scraps. Scraps taken from a Sith base we destroyed. It wasn't very romantic but we both thought it was a cool idea. Vayne had a big smile on his face, "Well I guess I'm not really surprised you two got married. Who else would marry one of you?"

"True." I said with a grin, "This isn't the most romantic of jobs in the universe and luckily I found one of the least romantic women in the universe."

Lwyn shrugged her shoulders, 'Ehh? Well I can't really disagree with you there."

Annoli leaned over and looked at Lwyn's ring, "So where did you two meet?"

"Uhm.. erm... well..." Lwyn stammered.

I grinned, "Hyarsythe."

Zade snickered, "Oh? I'm sure that's got to be a good story."

Lwyn smiled proudly, "The first time we met, me faced off in a duel and I beat him down."

"It was a draw. Outside interference." I corrected her.

"Perhaps. But I would have won." She countered.

I conceded the point, "Well, yeah. That's true."

Zade leaned forward, closer to Lwyn and asked her, "May I ask more about this trait you said you have. You can mask yourself from the Force? Truly?"

She nodded, "Yeah. I don't even know how long I've been able to do it. I was discovered on J'Rekk by Yuelt Roxxa and brought into the Sith."

"You're trained by Darth Vultous' apprentice?" Caily asked.

"Yes. Her and other Sith trained me at first." She explained, "But then I met Laan and he led Vayne and I away from the Sith."

Zade smiled at me, "Is that so?"

"Are you really that surprised by a kind gesture from me?" I asked with an amused smile.

He shook his head, "No. Not at all. Just a nice story to hear."

Well if he thought this was a nice story, I was going to leave out the part where I slayed or drowned everyone not named Lwyn or Ty'Vayne on on the base.

Lwyn continued, "Over the years, with Laan's help, I've gained more control of my abilities."

Lou turned to Vayne and asked him, "So you really used to be a Sith?"

Vayne's face fell, "It's nothing I'm proud of. I just got caught up in something I didn't understated."

Lou patted him on the knee, "Sorry. I didn't mean to embarrass you or anything."

He forced a smile, "It's fine."

I heard a blip come from behind me and I swiveled my chair back to the control panel. I announced to everyone, "Ah, we'll be coming out of Hyperspace soon."

"Can't come soon enough." Hotshot said under her breath as she sat wedged between a wall and Rollo. As she shifted in her seat she barked at Rollo, "Hey! Watch where you put your hands!"

Rollo's face turned red, "I-I'm sorry ma'am. I wasn't even aware I had my hands anywhere inappropriate."

She laughed at him, "Relax. I was just kidding. You need to man up there, 'war hero'."

He lowered his head, "So people keep telling me."

Oh boy. I hope Rollo was a different man on the battlefield because off the field he was an awkward little boy. And Rasch wanted to promote this kid? He was going to be lucky to survive this mission! I didn't want his death on my conscience. If he didn't improve I was going to have to talk to him later.

A minute later we came out of Hyperdrive just outside the territory of the spaceport. The station looked like a massive nail. The top was a large disc for smaller ships to dock as well as the resting area for the spacers to stretch their legs. Bellow the disk was a long, thin pillar that stretched down from beneath. Larger ships like my cruiser would hook up to the pillar when they docked.

Annoli looked outside the front viewport and saw the station. She asked us, "So which one is yours?"

I pointed towards a ship docked on the bottom of the pillar. A cruiser over 200 yards long. A wide but sleek looking cruiser. It had two, curved, shell-like, sides. The sides were angled into dull tips, both front and back and were made from a sleek and smooth material. Though, the smooth sides did have a couple of battle scars on them. Originally they were bright yellow but we had painted them black.

The center of the ship was a simple, rectangular body that the shell-sides hugged and protected around the sides. The middle body was painted bronze. That was also originally yellow in color. Sleek, pretty fast, comfortable, and well armed (though most of it's weapons were concealed, heh heh) were all good words of explaining it. As I pointed I told Annoli, "That's it. That's our home."

"Wow." She said in awe.

"Not bad." Lou told me, "It looks like a nice ship. But looks aren't everything. All that matters is it's joints and heart. Does it got that?"

"You'd better believe it." HotShot told him with a confident grin, "We got on of the best mechanics in the universe to keep this baby in fighting condition."

He raised a questionable eyebrow at her, "Do you know how many, 'best mechanics in the universe' I've heard of before? Most of their ships were reduced to cinders." He pointed towards our ship, "Yeah, she may have a few scratches on her, but your ships is still shiny. Almost new out of the box. Ships need to be broken in."

"The paint job is new." Lwyn told him, "The body and soul are experienced enough."

"Besides," I told Lou, "We won't be using this ship unless its a last resort. So if all goes well, it won't matter. But if we must use it, we're in fine hands."

"Whats it's name?" Vayne asked.

"Zenith Black." I told him with a smile.

"Ah. A tribute to the Zellblack I assume?" He asked.

I nodded, "Yeah."

"Speaking of names, you never did mention the name of your little operation here, Laan." Zade told me.

"You can call us the 'Swyren'." Lwyn told him.

"That's an unusual name. Where did you come up with that?" He asked again.

"Maybe I'll tell you that someday. For now, I doubt you'd understand." I explained.

I took the ship towards the underbelly of the Zenith Black. Near the rear of the ship, a panel opened and I took the ship up into the Zenith. That's when they got their first looks at the inside of the Zenith. The hanger. Even though the Zenith was a tribute to the "Zellblack Gravesite", it wasn't nearly as big nor was it as pretty on the inside. All the interior in the Zenith was either one of many shades of gray. Usually darker shades. In a few spots the interior was the same yellow color that the exterior of the ship used to be before we acquired it. The hanger had racks for starfighters to dock just like the Zellbalck had. Only far less of them. Vayne noticed one ship in particular on the racks. My starfighter, 'Sforzando'. He smiled, "Glad to see its still in one piece."

I landed the ship on the hanger floor and opened the back ramp. Everyone got out. I was last. Outside we were met by the half-humanoid, half-serpent, Sbaki. The mech-wiz. Not surprising to us, she barley noticed any of us organics that exited the transport. Sbaki's priority was getting the transport ship into it's proper place. Vayne even greeted her but Sbaki didn't even acknowledge him. I rolled my eyes and excused her actions to everyone, "Ignore Sbaki. As long as she has something to do, she won't talk much. Almost droid-like. Anyways, why wait around here in the hanger? Why don't we head to the viewing hold?"

Sbaki suddenly stopped her work with the transport and turned to me, "Oh yesss. You're needed on the bridge."

"Why?" I asked her.

"We got a transmission from the twinsss." She said before turning back to her work.

"Crap." I turned to Jaxter, "Hey, junior. You wanna show everyone to the viewing area?"

He nodded, "Sure."

"Is something wrong?" Zade asked me.

"Maybe. Maybe not. I'll keep you updated." I answered.

I motioned for Lwyn and HotShot to come with me as we began to leave the hanger. Meanwhile, Jaxter motioned for the others to follow him, "C'mon. I'll be your tour guide around the illustrious, Zennith Black." He winked at Annoli and offered her his hand, "If you'll allow me."

She scowled and backed away from him, "Ugh.. dream on, kid!"

"Knock it off!" I barked over my shoulder at Jaxter as we exited the hanger.

The three of walked down the main corridor of the ship, a hallway down the direct center of the ship. We passed the Hyperdrive room and maintenance rooms, past the sleeping quarters, and into a intersection. To the right was the viewing hold where we spent most of our time during long trips. The holo-vid was in that room along with more comfortable seating and livings. To the left there was what we called the, "cache room". At first glance it looked like a plain room with fine collections (or at least very good lookalikes) of art. But it was actually just a false room with a retractable floor that led to the real room with some of our less-than-legal cargo. We weren't smugglers or anything but to fight the Sith we needed the illegal tools of the trade. Straight ahead was the bridge.

We went straight and entered the bridge. The brain of the ship. The main controls and main viewport were in the front, the ship's main computers were along the side of the room, and in the middle there was a large map/holo-vid pedestal. Standing around the bridge were three droids. A pilot droid, maintenance droid, and navigation droid. All of them were humanoid droids with flat heads made up of mainly a visor panel for sight and a slant under the visor for a voice box. All three a jade green in color though each had a different colored left arm to distinguish them. "Pilot" had a red arm, "Main" had a yellow arm, and "Nav" had a white arm. We left the bridge to them whenever no one else was around. Just to look after things. If there was ever an emergency these three could handle the Zenith to an extent. Pilot, the lead droid, stood and greeted us, "Welcome back. The Twi'twins left you an urgent message only a few moments ago."

The Twi'twins were refugees that joined our cause a half year ago. A male and female Twi'lek pair. Their names respectively, Rento the male and Xelka the female. They weren't actually related but they both had chalk-white skin and were born only a week apart. I think Rento was the eldest. Both of them were around 22 years of age and both were Force sensitive. Though neither used lightsabers. They also acted allot like brother and sister even thought they weren't. Anyways, we left them on Mautmua with the natives to aid if they needed any help while the rest of us were away.

We walked over to the holo-pedestal and I told Main to play the video. The lights dimmed and a holo-image of the twins popped up above the pedestal. Both of them wearing their usual armor. Black and dark red, not that you could see the colors over the vid, hard-leather was completely strapped around their bodies. They even had helmets made of the leather that covered all of their heads. Clear goggles over the eyes, a tight mesh that wrapped around their head-tails, and a removable faceplate they took out when they talked. During this transmission they had the plates removed. Xelka spoke first, "Hey you guys! Things are strange here."

"Yeah." Rento said, "I think you better get over here as soon as possible."

"Tell them what happened!" Xelka scolded him.

"Fine!" He barked at her, "Okay, so some scouts saw a large Sith warship arrive up north."

"And the Turr'shek have been acting bizarre." Xelka said before turning to Rento, "How would you explain it?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "Umm... skittish?"

"No." Xelka said as she rubbed her chin and thought.

HotShot groaned under her breath, "...Just get to it already, Xelka."

Xelka suddenly pointed her finger upwards as she thought of the word, "Paranoid!"

Rento shook his head, "No. I don't think that's right either."

She slapped him on the shoulder, "Yes it is!"

"Fine! Whatever! Paranoid!" He barked back at her as he folded his arms over his chest.

HotShot lowered her head, "For the love of..."

Xelka turned back to the vid and explained, "They've left a few of their strongholds almost completely abandoned. Then they'll come back. Then leave again."

He nodded, "Some attacked a village but they didn't take anything. It was almost as if they just did it for show or something. Anyways, the War Head is trying to figure things out over here and he's getting nervous that we're not here for this."

"So yeah you better get here soon." She told us.

Rwnto removed a pistol from his belt and pumped his arm, "We'll take care of things until then. You can count on us."

The recording ended and the lights went back on. Lwyn shook her head at the situation, "I don't like this. I've got a bad feeling."

"Yeah." I said with a sigh as I leaned forward on the pedestal, "Me too."

"I hope the Twi'twins will be alright." HotShot added.

"They'll be fine." I assured her, "The feeling I get is off in the distance. There is still time."

"Are you getting a vision?" Lwyn asked me with a gentle hand on my right forearm.

"Not exactly." I looked in her eyes and told her, "No. Whatever this is I I feel that it won't be a problem for now. Just to be safe though we better leave now."

"I've already gone ahead and paid the station for our docking as per Sbaki's order." Pilot mentioned.

"Good." I told him. I turned to Main and asked, "Open a ship-com will ya?"

He opened the com and responded, "Done."

I was now sending a voice message through the entire ship, "Hey it's Laan. We've gotten reports of strange activity on Mautmua so we're going to leave right away. So get ready for take off."

Then Sbaki's voice echoed through the bridge as she spoke back through the com, "I'll need just a couple of minutesss."

"Is five minutes enough?"

"Plenty." She responded.

"Okay. Five minutes it is." I told her.

"We'll be more than able to take the Zenith to Mautmua if you wish to join your guests during take off." Pilot informed me.

"Good. Do that." I told him.

The three of us turned to leave but before Lwyn and I left the bridge she grabbed my arm and held me back. I stopped and looked her in the eyes, "Whats up?"

Lwyn waited until HotShot left the room before kissing me on the lips and asking me, "How are you feeling?"

I smiled, puzzled, "Fine. Why?"

"That feeling I got when the twins updated us. Mine was pretty strong. And if I can feel it I know you must have felt it tenfold. I just want to make sure you're not holding back on me... again."

I rolled my eyes, "Are you still on that? I already promised you that the next time I get a horrible vision you'll be the first one I tell. That feeling we got could have been anything. I wouldn't read much into it. At least not yet."

"Alright. If you say so." She said cynically.

I grinned, "I do say so and what I say goes around her, little lady."

She turned her back to me and harshly responded, "Little lady?! You're getting a butt of lightsaber handle across your head in your sleep for that one."

---\__V__/---

After Pilot took us away from the space station and into Hyperdrive, everyone seemed to go off on their own. Lou, Rollo, and Caily all headed to their sleeping quarters to unpack and rest. I gave permission for Vayne to head to the bridge and ask Pilot to show him how to pilot the Zenith. HotShot went along with Vayne to tease him a bit and trade stories. Sbaki was off doing something with the ship. That left the rest of us in the viewing hold. I told Jaxter to go get us something warm to drink. I think he was making Annoli uncomfortable so I wanted to give her a break. I think Jax had himself a little crush... Dummy. Annoli was way out of his league.

As we sat Zade and Annoli traded a few stories with Lwyn and I. They told us of a mission where they had to track down a fugitive across the galaxy. Their mission started on Courscant. Then Dantooine. There they found the fugitive's wife and child but they didn't want to do anything with the scum bag so they kicked Zade and Annoli out of their house. From a neighbor they got a tidbit that the fugitive could have gone to Sinsang to visit his mistress and reason why his family hated him. When they got to Sinsang they met his mistress and she wasn't very pleased with him either. Awhile back he stole some of her money before breaking up with her. But she did tell Zade and Annoli that he had a hideout in Subterrel. So they went there and found nothing. After that they gave up and headed back to Coruscant.

Lwyn asked them, "So after all that you never caught him? That sucks."

Annoli shook her head gloomily, "Nope. We never caught him because he was uncatchable."

Zade explained, "I was still bothered that we never found him so a month ago I thought I may as well double check the Subterrel lead because I truly felt that there was something to it. I checked the planet's database and found a report off a mining accident where an unidentifiable body was found inside a mine shaft."

Annoli leaned forward and with her best, creepy voice she told us, "It was unidentifiable because it was caught inside a shaft with toxic fumes. It killed the person and shriveled his body into a dried husk."

Zade elbowed her, "That's gross, Annoli."

"That's what happened." She argued. She turned back to us and told us, "Anyways, that husk was the fugitive. We knew it was him by some of the belongings they found with the body."

Zade sighed, "He was dead before we even began our quest to catch him."

Lwyn and I both laughed. She winced as she laughed, "That's gotta hurt."

"Not as much as it hurt the dead, dried husk." Annoli pointed out.

"So..." Zade said as he sat back into his seat, "I don't mean to press the issue, but if I'd be allowed I'd like to hear more about what you did on Hyarsythe. It's quite fascinating."

So we told them a few things about Hyarsythe. How I went from a junk shop owner on Lanoul to infiltrating the Sith. I explained about the Sithrimi. I talked a bit about meeting Lwyn and Vayne though most of that was already covered. I even told them a few things about how we tricked Lokindr and Ollose against each other and led them to believe we had sided with them. Only to turn on them and take out the base. I left out most of the more gruesome parts. Like the killing of the many, many Sith students and troopers. I ended by telling them how I hacked into the Sith's Citadel and my holo-vid conversation with the Dark Lord of the Sith. Zade sat forward with ecstatic interest, "You saw the Dark Lord?"

I shook my head, "No. I only learned their name. Darth Rajjor."

He rubbed his chin, "I see."

"Wow!" Annoli said, "I can't believe you guys did all that. That was like... genius!"

"Indeed." Zade also complimented us with high praise, "I honestly would have thought it impossible to head into a Sithrimi, surround yourself with Sith and their teachings, and make out without falling to the Dark Side."

I wrapped my hand around Lwyn's shoulder, "Well we're one of a kind."

Zade smiled as he thought out loud, "I think there may be more to it than that."

"Huh?"

Zade still had a smile on his face, "Lwyn, Vayne, Jaxter, and those Twi'twins you were telling me about. All of them Force sensitive and outcasts of some sort."

I laughed, "What are you saying?"

"I wonder if they were all drawn to you through the Force." Zade told me, "You seem to live in the gray between the light and dark. Something very few are able to do without turning their back on the Force all together. Yet all these individuals have found you, Laan, and have found a stability in the gray. I think there is something about you that allows this stability."

"Hmm..." I said as I thought about it, "Maybe... I guess."

Lwyn scoffed at me, "Wha? I tell you that all the time."

"No you don't." I argued, "You say stuff like I'm you're guys' leader and you all look to me but you've never said that maybe their was a reason behind it."

"Well... Okay that's true." She conceded. Under her breath she said, "I could have sworn I said that once before."

Jaxter entered the room with a tray of cups. He placed them on a table and sat down on a chair. Zade reached over and grabbed a cup of tarine tea. He took a sip before asking Jax, "So, Jaxter, why don't you tell me a bit about yourself."

"Umm..." He shrugged his shoulders, "I'm uhh... I don't know."

I slumped my head back into the backrest of my chair, "Oi..."

"What else can I say?" He complained, "I eat, I sleep, I train, I fight the Sith. Day done. I'm a man of action. Not words."

"You're not a man yet." Lwyn corrected him.

"Details." He argued.

I looked over to Annoli and Zade, "Just ignore Jaxter."

Annoli smiled at me, "Ignore who?"

"That's not very nice." Zade scolded her.

"Sorry." She said under her voice.

"That's fine." Jax told her with a smile, "I could never stay mad at a fellow trainee."

"Uhh.. r-right." She responded awkwardly.

Zade thankful changed the subject when he asked, "I don't know much about Mautmua. Exactly how far is it from here?"

"A little ways. We won't arrive until tomorrow." I told him.

"I hope we don't arrive too late or anything." Annoli said.

"I'm sure we'll be fine." I assured her, "If anything does happen the twins should be able to take care of things until we arrive."

Just then HotShot and Vayne came walking into the viewing room. Vayne smiled pleasingly, "Not a bad ship you have here. I'm jealous."

"You learn how those operate it?" Lwyn asked.

"Yeah. This bridge has been updated with some Corellian mods and I'm pretty familiar with those." He explained.

"Good. If we need the Zenith at any point during this I know I can leave it in your hands." I told him

He bowed to me, "The honor would be all mine."

HotShot sighed, "This is always the boring part of space travel. The traveling part. I'm going to the shooting range. Anyone up for a lesson?"

"You have a shooting range on board?" Zade asked.

"Sort of." She told him, "We made a little training area set up in a portion of the main cargo hold." She nodded her chin at Annoli, "How about you? Wanna know how to shoot a blaster if you ever get caught without your lightsaber?'

Annoli looked to Zade, "I don't know. Can I?"

"I don't see why not. Its always good to have a few back up plans." He told her.

HotShot turned to Vayne, "How about you, Frogface? Did they teach you to shoot in your little flight school?"

"They taught me enough. There's no way I'm letting you teach me anything." He told her with a restrained chuckle.

"Alright." Annoli agreed as she and HotShot went off to the cargo hold.

Vayne took Annoli's seat next to Zade. Zade took another sip of his tea, "What type of planet is Mautmua? What should I expect?"

"Good question." I told him, "It's a multi-terrain planet. Seas, forests, plains, mountains, and so on. But most of the area we'll be dealing with is mountain-plains and wastelands. The wastelands didn't always exists though. Not until the Sith's factories were built."

"What natural life existed around the Sith lands were torn down to be used as materials or just to make more lands to extended their facilities." Lwyn added, "Not to mention the pollution they cause and moisture they absorb destroys the nature around them."

Zade lowered his head, "It's such a shame. There are so few temperate planets in the galaxy. The few should be preserved."

"Though if we do rid Mautmua of the Sith and the secret gets out that the planet is multi-terrain the colonists will start coming. Or worse yet, the smugglers. You could be trading a great evil for a lesser but more wide-spread evil." Vayne pointed out.

"We thought of that." Lwyn told him, "We have a few ideas to hopefully keep Mautmua a secret but we'll come to that when we get there."

"If worse comes to worse, Sbaki and I just amplify the Sith's weak planetary shield. They already went to the effort to build it, it would be a shame to let it go to waste." I said.

Lwyn nodded, "Whatever it takes to keep the Senate away from Mautmua. They don't have to get their greasy paws on every planet."

Zade raised his cup of tea up in a toast, "I'm all for sticking it to the Senate."

I reached over and grabbed a cup of tea, "I'll toast to that."

"Oh!" Lwyn called out, "And the Curakunda. You should be warned that not all of them are excepting of us outsiders. They're big and strong and have a temper."

"The Curakunda all look like look they're smiling and jolly because of the way their lips are shaped." I explained, "But that can be deceptive because they're ruthless warriors. If they like you, they are nice and jolly. But if they don't like you, you better run away and never look back. If you see one of them smile at you more than usual, to the point of showing their teeth, you know you've pissed them off."

"Duly noted." Vayne told me, "Is there anything I should know not to do so I don't make them smile at me?"

"Yeah. Don't be a Sith." Lwyn told him, "As long as we're helping them and we stay in the War Head's favor, nobody will lay a hand on us even if they don't like us. Unless you give them reason too."

"And the War Head's a pretty reasonable guy. We shouldn't have a problem." I added.

"Do they speak Basic?" Zade asked.

"Yes. The human colonists taught them. Their voices are gruff but they speak pretty well." Lwyn answered..

"I'm quite excited to meet them." Zade said, "I enjoy meeting new species." He then frowned and rubbed his bald head, "Just so long as they don't make me shave my head again."

Vayne laughed, "I don't think they could make you shave any more than bald skin, Zade."

The trip through Hypserspace was taken pretty lightheartedly. Allot of us had interesting stories to tell one another. It was a very communicative trip. All but Caily took part in the conversations. She stayed in her room in deep mediation for most of the trip. Only leaving her room to grab a bite to eat. I noticed Annoli spent allot of time around Lwyn. Her new hero, apparently. And Jaxter seemed to follow Annoli around everywhere.

It was cliched, but this was the calm before the storm. Everyone was upbeat and having fun. It happened allot before something major when people were putting their lives on the line. This could be out last night alive so why sulk around. Have fun and hope to see another day. Because Mautmua was deadly and I knew that not everybody currently on broad this ship would be on it when we finished the mission and headed home. Assuming any of us survive that is.