Chapter 2
WAN
Lieutenant Edruddikus Wan wasn't having the best morning.
The senior Havoc Squad member had just gotten home from a night of heavy drinking at the bar, and was so utterly smashed that he'd almost crashed his landspeeder-what was it?-three times on the way home. The only thing in existence he had any tolerance for at that moment was his bed, so he wasn't what one might call happy when he received a holocall from Commander Zanis Moekno a mere hour after he had fallen asleep saying that he had to get down to HQ at two o'clock AM.
"With all due respect, Commander Moekno," Wan muttered, "What in the goddamn galaxy is so important that you have two wake me up at two in the morning?"
The commander just said a simple sentence that got Wan wide awake. "I'll give you a hint, Lieutenant: It involves Satele Shan."
Wan's drooping eyes flew open and stayed that way as he let the information sink in. One didn't sit around while events that involved the Grand Master of the Jedi Order were transpiring. "I… I see, Commander. I'll be there ASAP. Sir."
"See to it that you are," Wan's CO said. "Moekno out." His floating blue image flickered and then faded, leaving Wan to get ready. It wasn't a very fun experience. Wan wasn't exactly an acrobat in the first place, but when he was stressed and in a hurry, as well as hung over, he couldn't put his chestpiece on without it going on backwards. It took much longer than a minute, but he did eventually manage to get into his white-and-black trooper's uniform. He wiped a bead of sweat off his brow, and hurried out the door.
He reached HQ just as Sergeant Viri Molin did. She was a Mirialan, a race of green skinned aliens that looked almost exactly like humans. She was of average height, with a well-built, athletic body and long black hair tied into a bun. She had the Mirialan tattoo for "soldier" on her right cheek, and her eyes were a beautiful light blue. He fell into step next to the dashing young woman, and she offered him a pleasant little smile which he gladly returned. "So, Wan," she said as they walked through the entryway, "How goes it?"
"Meh, pretty good, for the most part," Wan shrugged. "Or it would be if only I'd gotten a bit more sleep. Sure, I still look as unnaturally sexy as always, but you wouldn't believe the fiasco that transpired getting into these pants…"
Molin laughed sweetly, a pleasant sound that nearly made Edruddikus melt. Why, oh why did she have to be so gorgeous? "Ah, Ed... always with the pants. As for me, the last few days have been quite productive. I helped V5 clean my house, I repaired, cleaned, and calibrated my rifle, and I managed to break the cantina record for number of shots downed in two minutes."
"That was you, ah?" Wan said, smirking. "Well, you wanna guess who beat that record four hours ago?"
Viri's eyes widened ever so slightly. "You did NOT!"
"Oh, didn't I? How else do you explain me arriving at the same time as you?"
"Geez, thanks, pal. I feel so appreciated."
"Hey, come on, Molin! It was just a joke, bud. Oh, here we are. Act all official." They had arrived in the main room in Havoc Squad's compound, the only place where the troops ever really went, as most of the other rooms were for the brains and power generators. Standing there were Commander Moekno, accompanied by a very annoyed-looking Gandred Athos, Viri's fellow sergeant. The super-buff man was sitting in a chair, chin on his fist, and he almost actually smiled when he saw his fellow troops come in. it seemed that he'd gotten there quite a bit earlier than them, and he wasn't happy about waiting. It was typical Gandred behavior.
Gandred stood up and gave a quick salute to Wan. He nodded in acknowledgement, and then gave his own salute to the commander, as did Viri. He nodded curtly, and got down to business.
"Well, thank you all for coming on such short notice, and at such a dreadful hour, but as you know, this involves Master Satele Shan, and the hour of the morning doesn't mean anything when dealing with her. Now, to the point." He stepped over to the holotable and punched in a ridiculously long code that even Wan didn't know into a keypad. This was Moekno's private holotable, and it contained detailed information on everything Havoc Squad had ever done, was doing, or would do in the near future. No wonder it was protected so well.
The commander stepped back, and an image of a standard Republic starship appeared. "This, team, is footage of a ship called the Star's Fury. Yes, it doesn't seem that remarkable, and in truth, it isn't. But the thing that makes it so important is that Satele Shan was on it.
"The Grand Master was stationed over Coruscant because she was on watch duty, looking for any signs of Imperial scum trying to come near the planet. For three days, nothing remarkable happened, except for one very small and very quick skirmish with an Imperial ship. Now, I want you to look at the bridge. Seems like nothing special, right? Well look at this."
Suddenly, there was a virtual explosion on the bridge, and one half of the ship went floating off into space. The other half on the ship stayed there, but the lights emitting from it all flickered and died. A small blip appeared on-screen and flew up to the top of the Fury. Eleven smaller dots came out of it, and ten of them disappeared over the side of the ship, leaving one, probably to keep the ship ready. "Now, nothing really happens for several minutes here," Moekno said. "I assume that these unwanted guests were fighting Satele and the Republic troops inside."
Inwardly, Wan sighed. Why did he go to the holotable every single time? Why couldn't he be like Tavus and just get to the damn point? No, Wan instantly reprimanded himself. Don't ever think about that traitorous bastard. He's gone, defected to the Empire. No use reminiscing. Moekno's here now. He turned his attention back to the table, and just in time. A small figure appeared over the side of the ship, and the stranger used the lack of gravity to jump on top of his ship. The other figure looked around, studying her surroundings. The hostile jumped silently up from the ship and into the empty air just as the other one looked at it, and landed silently behind it. It kicked the other one down, and from there things started to get hairy.
It was first just a lightsaber duel, or Wan assumed it was, as there were several acrobatic spins and slashes being performed by one of them, and its weapon had two blades. Eventually, the hostile figure got in a cheap shot to the gut, then kicked the other's face when she doubled over. It went to the ground, and then got back up. And from there, all manners and etiquette were dropped. It turned into nothing more than a brawl, with backhands, headbutts, and more. Eventually, the friendly figure stopped moving, and the hostile slung it over his shoulder and carried it back onto the ship.
The commander looked over the faces of his troops. "As you probably guessed, that person from the smaller ship was a Sith, and the other one was our very own Grand Master Satele Shan," Moekno explained as he slowly paced back and forth. "Fortunately, our boys did manage to attach a small tracker probe to the hull of the Sith's ship, and we found out where it's headed. It is currently en route to a location deep in enemy territory, and it is now Havoc Squad's mission to go there and bring the Grand Master back."
"And where would that be, Commander Moekno?" Molin asked. Wan already knew, but it didn't prepare him any more for the commander's answer.
"Dromund Kaas."
The room fell silent. Everyone just kind of stood there a moment, letting the information soak in. Dromund Kaas was the capitol planet of the entire Sith Empire, and was also the center of all their might. They had the best detection equipment available, as well as several fully armed Imperial dreadnoughts patrolling the space around it at all times. If one managed to get past all of that, which you had about a 2% chance of doing, you'd soon be face to face with an entire army featuring Imperial turrets, Imperial droids, Imperial walkers, Imperial commandos, Mandalorians, and Sith. There was such a small chance of you getting past all that that most people simply dismissed the very idea of invading or infiltrating Dromund Kaas as impossible. Including Wan.
"Sir, I simply have to know," Athos said, standing up, "Are we getting any help attempting this possibly suicidal mission? Or are we volunteering to be target practice for the Imperial military?"
The commander just grimaced. "I wish… both the Jedi and the Republic rely on us too much, simply because we never fail."
"But surely they couldn't overlook the fact that there's an entire army there! How is a group of four people supposed to sneak past a million soldiers without being so badly shot up that we look like a hunk of Balmorran cheese?"
"Believe me, Athos, if I knew, I'd tell you."
"But-"
"No 'buts', Sergeant. We leave for Dromund Kaas tomorrow. Get some sleep. You'll need it."
The sergeant grumbled and stomped off in a huff, almost kicking open the door because it was a little slow to do so by itself. That left Molin, Moekno, and Wan. "So, um, Commander," Molin said, clearing her throat. "Should we just leave like Athos, or was there something else you wanted to say?"
The commander answered quickly. "No, Sergeant Molin. You can go," He turned to the lieutenant. "You, however, Lieutenant Wan, need to stay. There's a bit of information I need to discuss with you." wan and Molin exchanged looks, and then she left, leaving just him and the commander.
Moekno looked at Wan intently. "Lieutenant," he said, "let's talk about you and Sergeant Molin." Wan raised an eyebrow, but did not interrupt. The commander began to pace back and forth again as he spoke. "Now, anyone can see that you're in love with her."
Wan's eyes widened a bit. "Sir, I have no idea how you would think-"
"Oh, come on, Lieutenant!" the commander said, smirking slightly. "We're both men here. No need to secrets among fellow soldiers. Now, I have no problems with this, nor will I have any complaints if you two ever enter a romantic relationship. I will, however, have a problem with it if it interferes with whatever missions we have in any way. I will be especially intolerant if something happens on this one."
"What could possibly happen that could interfere with our missions? We're professionals – the best in the Republic." Wan protested. Did the commander really have that little faith in him?
"Oh, I can think of several things that could slow the progress of our missions, if you know what I mean," Moekno said, smiling slyly. "But the thing I'm most worried about is you being so infatuated with her that you'll refuse to leave her if she receives a wound that can't be more or less taken care of on the spot."
"Are you asking me to leave behind Sergeant Molin if she receives a serious injury?"
"I'm not asking you to leave her if we ever have to," said the commander, his voice hard and his eyes cold. "If that happens, I will order you to leave her behind."
"That's preposterous!" Wan said, voice rising. "We can't just leave her simply because she'd slow us down if we took her with us. This is Sergeant Viri Molin, and while she is, admittedly, the least experienced member of our squad, what you're asking me to do is just cruel! Nobody, no matter what position, deserves to be left behind to die at Imperial hands."
"I'm not asking," Moekno repeated. "I'm ordering." And with that, he stepped around the furious lieutenant and out the door, leaving Wan alone in the command room. As he walked home that night, all he could think about was those orders.
AN: Thanks a bunch to Paragon of Awesomeness for his wonderful beta-reading of this chapter! Wooooooo! I miss you, bud!