"Interesting," Squillo muttered. "I heard what you said to my human replica..."
O'nine looked at the droidsmith. "I will bring her back and trade you the crystals," he said. "Everything after that is between us."
Squillo only nodded. He sat down to his work table and O'nine exited the shop. The droid jogged on the beach until reaching the Cobalt then boarded the ship. He took the pilot's chair and typed quickly on the controls. O'nine didn't know where Grallsin had gone after he left Deralia with Vixen. However, when OA-09 first landed on Aderalis, the dock worker knew Grallsin by name.
This combined with the reaction of the Vyssrr mercenary in the cantina led O'nine to assume that the Vyssrr were somewhat known in that area. O'nine figured it was likely that someone on Aderalis knew where the Vyssrr operated from. O'nine input the coordinates for Aderalis and the Cobalt-13 lifted into the sky before blasting off, headed back to the moon.
While the ship proceeded on the designated course, O'nine walked to the weapons locker and found it to be oddly empty. Naatzul's auto rifle and blasters were gone and O'nine had just lost the second auto rifle in the fight with Grallsin. All that remained was the blaster currently on O'nine's waist, three thermal detonators and the two specialty weapons hanging in the locker: a scattergun and a sniper rifle. O'nine scanned the weapons then closed the locker as the Cobalt lowered onto a landing pad. He didn't anticipate any fighting on this trip, he was just looking for information.
O'nine landed on Aderalis and quickly left his ship. The dead Sullustan worker still laid on the duracrete and O'nine's sensors lingered on the body. If only he had listened to the dock worker, the worker might still be alive. OA-09 clenched his fist and headed for the cantina. Ultimately it was Grallsin that killed that innocent worker, one of many actions O'nine would avenge.
There was a different crowd in the bar but they were still the same sort of people. Spacers, drunks, hunters, and junkies. He scanned the bar to see who would be the most knowledgeable about his inquiry. When his sensors caught the glance of one of the bartenders, O'nine casually walked over. After all, bartenders heard everything. He leaned a metal arm on the counter and lowered his audio output level.
"What do you know about the Vyssrr?" O'nine asked. "I'm looking for Grallsin."
"Why should I tell you?" the bartender asked. "You already killed one of them in my bar."
"I've killed three of them," O'nine corrected. "I want their leader."
"And I want one of those Twi'lek dancers to come home with me," the bartender said. "So what?"
O'nine pointed his blaster across the counter. "So you will die if you don't tell me."
A chain reaction of pirates and hunters drawing their weapons occurred, a total of six or seven blasters crisscrossing on another. The bartender laughed nervously.
"The Vyssrr have their own wing on Ghovanm Station in the Dartibek system," he said. "You didn't hear it from me."
O'nine holstered his weapon and turned away. "You don't matter."
OA-09 pushed passed random people on his way out of the cantina. Ahead of him he saw a Lambda-class shuttle resting on one of the landing platforms, its triangular wings folded up along its sides. A squad of stormtroopers surrounded the craft while a uniformed officer stood at the center of the group. O'nine diverted from his course and headed into the shadow of an alley to avoid the Imperials. He peered ahead to see a stormtrooper kneeling over the dock worker's body. Another trooper joined him directly ahead of the Cobalt-13. O'nine walked through the alley and exited, keeping his sensors on his ship. He regulated his movement so as to not draw attention to himself.
"You, droid," the Imperial officer called to him.
OA-09 ignored the Imperial and stepped onto the ramp of his ship.
"Stop!" the officer shouted, pointing at the Cobalt. "Troopers!"
Every stormtrooper in earshot turned to look at O'nine and the droid rogue dove into his ship as a flurry of red bolts struck toward him. He slapped on the ramp switch then ran to the controls as troopers scrambled, some going back to the Lambda shuttle and others joining in the effort to destroy him before he even lifted off.
"Time to burn sky," O'nine said.
Thrusters fired underneath the freighter and soon O'nine was airborne, spinning the Cobalt to avoid fire from the troopers below. O'nine typed on the controls in preparation for a jump to the Dartibek system. The hazy sky cleared to become black space, the black space soon filled with the white dots of stars, and these stars became a tunnel of luminous streaks as the Cobalt-13 entered lightspeed.
Most Lambda-class shuttles were used to transport important people such as the Emperor or the Dark Lord. There had been an officer among those troopers on Aderalis, but he hadn't seemed to be anyone of any great rank. However, what Lambda shuttles had that other transports did not was a Class 1 hyperdrive. They could travel farther and faster than most other vehicles of the same size. There had to be a special reason why they had come to Aderalis.
O'nine's processor briefly analyzed the idea of the Empire being after him specifically. They had fired on him quite readily but that could simply be because he didn't stop when the officer said. Fortunately they hadn't chased him into space so he wasn't in any immediate danger.
The Cobalt-13 rocked as it dropped out of hyperspace. O'nine looked out of the viewport to see the Dartibek system and, directly ahead, Ghovanm Station. He hailed the station and received clearing to enter their hangar. The Cobalt landed on the glossy surface of the landing area and was approached by two workers who scanned the ship on either side before giving a thumbs up. O'nine stood from the pilot chair and walked to the loading ramp.
Either the attendants didn't identify his weapons or didn't care. Given the Vyssrr presence reported to be here, it was likely the latter. He opened the weapon locker and quickly pulled the sniper rifle onto his back then secured the scattergun and detonators on his waist before exiting the ship.
He walked past a variety of other vehicles that occupied the hangar bay before coming to a corridor. O'nine looked both ways, sensors scanning for any sign of the Vyssrr mercenary group. A mercenary hideout was not the sort of thing someone would put on a map so he just chose a direction and started walking.
A colony such as this was usually a haven for exiles, refugees, and their families. They were simultaneously wells of sorrow and beacons of hope. By the look of the inhabitants, this station was no different. Sentients of all species came and went throughout the station yet they all wore the same style of worn greyish clothing. O'nine walked around a line for rations and saw the despair in a human child's eyes. He slowed and the child looked at him but OA-09 turned away and resumed walking. There were a thousand of these stations across the galaxy. O'nine could not help them, at least not at that moment. He had his own mission to complete.
Further into Ghovanm Station, O'nine found a Vyssrr logo on the wall. This was the wing the bartender had spoken of, as evidenced by the collection of Trandoshan, Devaronian, and Dathomirian mercenaries wearing the signature red armor. O'nine knelt around the corner and drew his sniper rifle then aimed to scout the area.
This part of the station was a complex of multiple levels, an opening at the center of each floor to see the floors beneath it. Patrols of Vyssrr thugs roamed on every level but one door in particular had a steady guard of two Trandoshans on either side. O'nine decided that would be his first destination then continued surveying the area to find there were no cameras or automated gun defenses in the area. This would make the complex much easier to navigate.
With the complex thoroughly scouted, O'nine put his sensor to the scope of the longrifle and targeted one of the lizards guarding the door. While an organic in this situation would need to hold their breath or lay prone for a steady shot, O'nine's mechanical body had none of these limitations. He fired and a laser beam pierced the head of his target. O'nine swiveled his torso four degrees to the right and fired again. A second beam burned through the Trandoshan on the other side of the door before the first body crumpled to the floor. One of the other mercenaries on their floor shouted to alert the rest of the gang.
O'nine watched them spread out and begin searching. He picked off another pair of Vyssrr followers on the lower level before returning the longrifle to his back and taking the scattergun in his hands to deal with the enemies on the top level. He stood from his cover just as a red-skinned Devaronian rounded the corner and blasted the horned mercenary before he could react. Scatter bolts tore through his body, leaving the humanoid burned and broken. More shooters approached on either side and O'nine lobbed a detonator to cover his escape, a blazing sphere of energy reducing his enemies to ash. He leaped over the edge of the railing then jumped from the ledge into the hole leading to the lower levels of the complex.
Mercenaries from above and below fired on him as he fell several stories. O'nine's processor whirred to calculate where he would land and how much damage he would take as a result. As he plummeted, it seemed unlikely he would make it to the other side of the chasm. He would need to reach for the railing and even that action had only a success probability of roughly fifty percent.
O'nine stretched his metal arm out as a storm of bolts were fired upon him, his hand scarcely clapping onto the target rail. A sharp grinding tore through his elbow and a burst of sparks shot from his shoulder, the damage to his frame evident by the sound of gears stripping. O'nine tossed the scattergun over the rail then pulled himself up with both hands. He closed his right fist to affirm his arm was still mostly functional before he picked up his weapon and walked to the door.
One thing was certain, the mercenaries would not able to reach the lower level in the same fashion O'nine had. They would be stuck taking either a lift or the stairs, which would buy O'nine valuable time that he needed to get through the security door.
OA-09 was not an interface droid like some astromechs were. The Operant Adviser model used other technology much in the way organics did. As such, O'nine didn't have the option of plugging himself into the door and opening it that way. His only option was to take a more direct route to reach Grallsin.
O'nine took a second thermal detonator from his belt and placed it on the door before diving away. A sphere of superheated energy burst forth from the explosive and, even from ten feet away, O'nine registered temperatures upwards of a thousand degrees.
Seconds later the field dissipated, leaving behind a wake of flame and liquid metal. Only the far corners of the blast door remained, most of it was now a pool of molten reddish-orange and O'nine carefully walked through the glowing carnage left behind.
Three mercenaries were waiting for him on the other side and O'nine snapped off a shot with his scattergun. The nearest mercenary was thrown back, blood erupting from the scorched hole in his chest, as the other two fired at O'nine. Blaster bolts burned into his frame, cutting through his outer plating to the systems within. Yet this failed to stop or even slow O'nine and he stepped forward, into the blasterfire, and fired again. The Dathomirian ahead of him died instantly, her head reduced to a reddish mist by the blast. Her body fell back as O'nine blew off the last mercenary's leg then walked over to the downed foe on the blood-slicked floor. O'nine stomped on the mercenary's neck and twisted his metal foot until every bone in his neck was broken.
O'nine stepped over the bodies of the three mercenaries to open the next door ahead of him. Reasoning and probability matrices suggested this was the most logical place to find Grallsin and Vixen.