Dramatis Personae:

The Wraiths

Garik "Face" Loran (human male from Pantolomin) (Vape)

Elassar Targon (Devaronian male from Devaron)

Dia Passik (Twi'lek female from Ryloth)

Voort "Piggy" saBinring (Gamorrean male from Gammor)

Hohass "Runt" Ekwesh (Thakwaash male from Thakwaa)

Shalla Nelprin (human female from Ingo)

Kell Tainer (human male from Sluis Van)

Baljos Arnjak (human male from Coruscant)

Bhindi Drayson (human female from Chandrila)

Sharr Latt (human male from Coruscant)

The Rogues

Wes Janson (human male from Taanab)

Myn Donos (human male from Corellia)

Derek "Hobbie" Klivian (human male from Raltiir)

Additional Dramatis Personae

Jedi Master Mara Jade Skywalker (human female home planet unknown)

Cubber Daine

Post 4

Luke looked around his private dining room and urged the young centurion female to begin. "Lusa has a very painful story to tell us. I felt it might be easier if she started with a very small group. A group of friends." As she began he glanced around the room, noticing for the first time the absence of Chewbacca's nephew, Lowbacca.

The young centurion female brushed her long hair behind her ears and folded her hands on the table. She bit her lip for a moment and glanced at the humans arrayed in front of her. No matter how hard she tried, being in this room full of humans sent a flash of disgust through her, even though her mind knew and understood the wrongness of the situation. She glanced up and made eye contact with Raynar Thul, an Alderaanian whose gaze was unwavering with patience.

Her story was very simple. Two years ago, she had taken her anger at the world, at the human Hethrir and joined an organization that showed her the horror and atrocities caused by humans. In her rage, a rage that had festered all her life, she had committed one of the gravest sins a sentient being could commit. She had allowed someone to take away her freedom of choice, freedom of decision.

"I met others who knew what it was like to have their lives disrupted, how it felt to be violated. They understood my anger--and shared it. They had dedicated themselves to making life better for the downtrodden of the galaxy. They offered me a place working for justice and fair treatment of nonhuman species. They were fervent and idealistic. And so was I. I admired what they stood for."

She recognized now that she had felt accepted, and because of that had allowed others to decide what her opinions were. She had been indoctrinated against humans, using crimes committed by few against an entire species. Was an entire species to blame because of individual groups?

"The more I understood how humans had trampled my species and the other aliens I was helping, the greater responsibilities I was given in our group. Our leader began sending me on covert missions. I saved alien lives, rescued slaves, helped to overthrow tyrants. I knew I was doing good work and for a good reason. "

"Then, about ten days ago, our leader gave me an assignment to wipe the navicomputers of a geological survey ship."

Lusa allowed her mind to remember those events. She remembered being angry that the geologists had been so careless in their survey, because through their neglect they had caused the extinction of the Buro, ethereally beautiful and sentient insects. She could feel the disgust boiling through her veins. As she hid behind a post in the docking bay she watched the humans board the ship, laughing and smiling.

Then the little girl had run up to her mother. "Mother! Can I pull the lever into hyperspace?" Her words would forever haunt Lusa. The little girl with dark hair and small hands had giggled in delight when her mother had said she could. That was when Lusa realized that she would destroy that little girl's life, much like Hethrir had destroyed hers.

She shuddered at the memory--"I had never stopped to think exactly what I was willing to do for the cause I believed in. Was I willing to kill? And if so, what must the victim's crime be to deserve death? Should I judge each one, or could I trust my leader to judge them for me?"

"I couldn't go through with it. " I stopped the geologists and told them what I had done. I planned to surrender myself to the proper authorities. I was shocked when, instead of hating me, they were grateful. After their navicomputer was repaired, the geologists offered to take me anywhere I needed to go. I went with them to Coruscant."

And the Jedi Master had come to get her. She was thankful, and touched once again when her old friends Jaina and Jacen and their friends Tenel Ka and Raynar instantly accepted her, no questions asked--even after she told them her story. When they asked the name of the group she sighed, " A silly idealistic name. One that sounds like it includes everyone. But that would be a false assumption." She shook her mane. "We called ourselves the Diversity Alliance."

Luke listened to the knights' reaction, and was alarmed to find out that Lowie had left with a friend, a member of the very same group that had just been described--alone. This was a group that reminded him of the Caamas crisis of a few years ago. When the New Republic had split in two over who should take the blame for Caamas, the few Bothans involved or the entire species. The New Republic had nearly come to blows then, and it was clear it was an issue that involved all of civilization. That Lowie had gone with his friend disturbed him, but he could not control the young Jedi's actions, and he hoped fervently that the knight would come to his own conclusions, regardless of the propaganda that would be thrown at him.

~~~~~~~~

Hawk-bat Base, Halmad System

The Halmad system was a small system in the Outer Rim with the distinct luck of being near three trade routes. A former mining base, the pirate base was part of a hollowed out rock deep in the asteroid belt of the Halmad system. Nearly twenty years earlier, it was also on the edge of Zinj controlled space--and it was where Wedge Antilles and his the little band of pirates had with General Solo's task force brought about the beginning of Zinj's downfall.

Scared off by the defeat of his protector, Captain Karigan took his crew underground as the forces of the New Republic began taking control and stabilizing the galaxy.

At least, that was the official story. In reality, the Wraiths of Starfighter Command had become the Wraiths of New Republic Intelligence, and had used the base as an Outer Rim outpost, making sure it stayed in Hawk-bat hands, but keeping a low profile until the "Captain" was ready to establish his contacts again.

The newest temporary Wraith, walked into her quarters, and smirked. She hadn't lived in such spartan conditions since before she met Karrde. Luckily, Wedge had told her a few things.

First of all, appearances can be deceiving.

Mara dropped her gear without ceremony on the bed, and opened the bedside desk drawer. Feeling underneath the top board she found a miniscule indentation that, when pressed, forced the hidden, personal holovid center to the top of the desk. Mara wasn't interested in watching holo's, but rather was interested in the Vid's dual function, that of high-tech data and control center. When the station was first used, this had been the room of the Wraith's second code-slicer, a young brash young man named Castin Donn. After his tragic death, Wedge had not been forthcoming with the details, they had found that Castin had rigged his room with many amenities, mostly so he could mess with the computers from his room.

After typing in a few commands that Wedge had provided, a panel next to the fresher slid open revealing a lovely stock of "ammunition" that he thought might come in handy.

Second: All Wraiths had their own modifications.

All ready Mara had found, with help, two hidden tools that would be useful later. Additionally, Wedge had told her about Captain Loran's astromech Vape, something that she had filed away for later use. So, logically, as Mara was now a Wraith, albeit a temporary one, it would only be right if she had a few personal touches to the room. Checking her chrono she noticed she had thirty minutes before the first full Wraith meeting. She got to work.

~~

Mara cautiously made her way into the briefing room, and scanned the group before her for a familiar face. She groaned inwardly as she realized the only individuals she knew were Wes Janson and Hobbie Klivian who were sitting with another man wearing Corellian bloodstripes and with a stern, but somewhat relaxed look on his face.

"Master Skywalker, Master Skywalker, sit here sit here! "

"Shut up Wes, I thought we had decided that you would try and act your age on this trip. "

"That was before I found out that my new favorite person was coming!"

Hobbie turned and looked up as Mara made her way toward them. She noticed the few curious glances her way, and nodded to those who looked at her as she passed by. The mournful expression on his face changed as she approached. "Master Jade-Skywalker, welcome to Hawk-bat base." He gestured to the gentleman beside him. "This is Lieutenant Myn Donos, formerly of Wraith Squadron and another member of Rogue squadron. "

Mara glanced over at the Corellian and extended her hand in greeting. "Hello, Lieutenant Donos."

"Master Jade-Skywalker, its Myn--especially since we're going to be working together."

She nodded, "I agree, please, call me Mara," she turned to Hobbie "That goes for you. " She glanced at Wes, "But not you, my husband warned me about you--I'm watching my back and don't think I have a few tricks of my own--and not all of them involve stuffed Ewok dolls and water buckets."

Myn laughed but stopped as the older man glared at him. When he thought Mara wasn't looking Wes stuck his tongue out at Mara's back. She sighed, and for the millionth time since agreeing to take Tyria Sarkin Tainer's place, conceded that this was going to be a long mission. Luckily, there wasn't enough time to feel sorry for herself--as the commanding officer, Captain Garik Loran entered the room.

"Sorry about being late, I was attending to some mice that appeared in my room this afternoon, " He glanced at the larger black hared guy standing in the back, and a horrified looking woman with dark hair. "I hope they weren't anyone's pets, I fed them to my Glass Prowlers." He shuffled some papers, and then looked up again--"I'm not that cruel, stop glaring Shalla!

"Ok, now on to real business. This is going to be an interesting mission, first of all, because we have some old Wraith's back with us. Wes Janson, our "crack shot" at hand weapons and starfighter systems, and Myn Donos who, as you all know, was one of our original snipers." He looked up at the rest of the group, "And since we cant' have General Antilles here to control Wes, he sent us Lieutenant Derek Klivian, who is our supplementary X-wing pilot as Runt and Piggy are out on their own missions."

"Elassar is our resident good luck charm, and our trained corpsman. Dia Passik is our smuggler, pirate and all things mercenary expert." Captain Loran pointed towards a dark skinned woman who had her hair pulled back with interspersed green and blue beads, "Shalla Nelprin and, " He pointed towards the tall black hared man "Kell Tainer are our hand to hand experts, with Tainer retaining his nickname as Demolitions Boy."

"Our newer members, Sharr Latt, Baljos Arnjak and Bhindhi Drayson, all bring with them a variety of experiences. Bhindi is our code-slicer, Baljos our biological expert--chosen because of his knowledge of infectious diseases, and Sharr Latt who is as I was told, very very good at psychological warfare and other forms of torturous manipulation. "

"And that leaves me, " Loran turned to Mara pointing at himself. "I am Poster boy, leader of this unit, and master of disguise--so watch out next time you think you're talking to a female Gotal, it just might be me " He grinned.

"To the rest of you, this delightful woman before us, just in case some of you didn't recognize her from Janson's yell across the base, is Jedi Master Mara Jade-Skywalker, former master trader and incredibly knowledgeable on infiltration and misdirection. She will be temporarily taking the place of Tyria Sarkin Tainer, who as I believe it just realized that her bout of the Corellian Flu, is actually a little Kell Tainer, may the Force help us all."

Kell turned scarlet as the rest of the squadron whistled and made faces at the soon father-to-be. Mara turned and nodded congratulations to the tall blonde man.

"Ok, so the mission that will take place four days from now is as follows: we have been hired to secure a cargo from a particular ship at the public docking facilities on Sullust. All the information we have right now is the ship's designator and its flight plan. At 0300 a week from now the freighter in question will leave Sullust to drop off its cargo at the bacta producing planet Thyferra by way of Yag' Dhul….Our pirate parameters is to pick up this cargo, exchange it for our payment with a third party at a point yet to be determined. As Wraiths, our mission is to find out as much as possible about this freighter, its cargo, our clients and this third party before our scheduled pick up time. Any questions?

--Lets start putting this plan together."

~~~

Phase one of the operation went smoothly. Two days before the scheduled pick up on Sullust, with Mara at point, Kell Myn and Bhindi left Hawk-bat station in the four New Republic issued X-wings.

"Unidentified X-wings, this is Sullust control, state your registry codes and reason of visitation."

Mara fliped open her comm, "Sullust air control, this is New Republic X-wing RX-1138 transmitting my registry files along with my companions information. We are here on Sullust for a one day leave. Request permission to land at the New Republic Base."

"Permission granted, follow prescribed course."

The ride down was smooth, and as Mara prepared to climb out of her X-wing Face's R2 unit Vape sent a query across her screen. "No-stay put, but monitor our comm frequencies."

He beeped again.

"Yes, I'll make sure we're careful." Are all R2 units this protective!

At the customs area, Kell, now sporting a clean-shaven face and dark hair, swung his "pack" over his shoulder. Just steps behind him was Myn Donos whose change in appearance was accentuated by thick prosthetics on his face and arms. A disguise that had him whisper to Face, "Ton would have been proud." Bindhi went with the minimalist approach, using face paint to mimic tattoos, gruesome, feature hiding tattoos which when coupled with her fierce expression made her seem more formidable. Mara, wore a dark wig which came just below her chin, some face sculpy had changed her nose profile enough that anyone doing a simple scan would not recognize her.

The current client of the Hawk-bats was a corporation called Anonymous Transports which was housed conveniently in a building opposite the main governmental plaza, a popular tourist hotspot. After canvassing the building the four of them met inside a local tapcafe for the midday meal.

"Ok, best approach in the Naara simulation." Kell asked.

Mara grinned, "Oh that one's easy--you launch in three flights and position each to come out at 90 degrees south from each other, that way when the squints launch you're easily reinforced when veering away and the next flight is able to come up from behind and surround the enemy."

Myn, nodded thoughtfully, "And with the frigate Nature's Bounty coming in out of hyperspace at about 75 degrees northeast you're easily reinforced."

Kell nodded. "Yup, sounds about right."

Bindhi frowned, "wait, but what about the Destructor? It was able to record the fight and jump mission at Dantooine, so isn't its likely that the pilots have seen that attack before?"

Mara shook her head, "Nope, the imperials are known to rotate their squadrons and command every few months, by the time the simulation takes place the rotation is oh about 30 months from the pilots that had been stationed on the Destructor at Dantooine. We also know that the command structure has recently shifted."

There was a slight beep from the commlink in Bhindi's hand, and she nodded snapping the lid shut. "All right, lets go."

Approximately thirty minutes later, the desk security personnel at the 90 South Street entrance looked up to see a young woman wandering up the alleyway, she seemed angry, with her short dark hair a bit mussed up as if she had been walking at a very brisk pace. "Ok, where's Togin. "

"Lt. Togin? He's not due to come back until the rotation begins in about 30 minutes."

"Well, give him a message. Tell him that Aslann Rylov is through with him. Next time he forgets to tell a girl about his marriage, he can expect a fist through his face." The girl was now leaning on the desk pressing on the computer's keyboard area in anger.

"Now calm down, be careful, you'll break the keyboard."

"Calm down, you're telling me--to calm down! Of all the insufferable, conceited--argh!" Aslinn--Mara, turned around keeping her arms wide and swinging them outward as she turned around. The guard never saw it coming. He quickly landed on the chair, knocked out cold.

Without waiting, Mara pulled the keyboard towards herself, and pulled the wireless jack from her front pocket inserting it quickly into the back of the keying system. Within seconds, Bhindi clicked back, she had been able to upload the camera edit, replacing the scene of a few minutes ago with footage of Lieutenant Dogor falling asleep, footage taken earlier in the day by her tourist holocamm. She also had successfully tapped into the main security system and refocused the camera tightly on the now, in a healing trance, security guard. She checked the chrono, with about five minutes to go, Bhindi and Kell quickly came into the shadowed corner near the entrance to the building. At thirty minutes on the dot, the door swung open--and Liutenant Torgin walked over to his sleeping counterpart, muttering about irresponsibility and stupidity, so engrossed was he that he didn't notice the slight delay in hearing the door close after him.

Once inside, Kell grinned, "All right--my turn."

Bhindi muttered snidely, "Demolitions boy, jut make sure you don't kill us."

"I heard that!"

"You were meant to!"

Myn's voice came over the link-"Children, please stop bickering, the guard is starting to wake up--"

Mara winced, "Its ok, he won't remember anything."

"That's a useful trick."

"Useful yes, not always to be used though."

"I hear you."

Forty-five minutes later they were out, with the data dump sent to the four active R2 units waiting for them.

As they entered pirate space, Mara commed Kell privately, "Kell, I understand why you're demolitions boy, but why is the Captain 'poster boy?'"

"What, you don't recognize him! Oh wow, is his ego going to be shot--the people who were supposed to be watching him didn't even notice. " Mara heard a snigger, "Ooh I can't wait to tell him this!"

"Kell, " Mara closed her eyes for a moment and brought Captain Loran's face to the forefront--"Oh, he's 'The Face'….." her voice trailed off--and she smiled.

~~~~~~~

Face stood on the edge of the docking platform watching Mara come toward him with Vape, his astromech unit.

"Captain Loran, thanks for loaning me Vape."

"Not a problem--" He watched as Mara made as if to turn back to the X-wing, and was surprised when she faced him with a curious frown on her face.

"I have been meaning to ask you something. You are Garik, the Face, Loran right?"

He nodded, it wasn't exactly a secret.

"You are one very lucky, lucky individual."

"Lucky, how?"

"You are aware of my background?"

"What you told us at the conference, high up in the imperial bureaucracy, former master trader, now a master Jedi."

Mara nodded, "My old life, was a little different from that, I reported directly to the Emperor. Win or Die had come out right after one of my first jobs for him. When I came back, he made me watch the film-- especially the ending. When your father shot your character, he looked at me with his yellow eyes and said, "You, my child, are the physical reality of that little boy, you have to be willing to die for me, never fail." You don't know how much better I feel knowing that it was all an act… that man was as manipulative as they come, if he had even an inkling of your survival, I'm sure I would have been sent to kill you. " She smiled with a slight evil glint in her eyes, "I'm a grown woman now, but somehow knowing that you survived him gives me some sort of satisfaction,"

Face looked at her curiously, and shuddered slightly as he realized just how dangerous Mara Jade must have been, how dangerous she was. She's on my side now, nothing to worry about.

"Don't worry Captain, I won't tell anyone you are scared of me." She turned to Vape, "Vape, Cold one!" A bottle of the Sullustian brew flew through the air and into her outstretched hand. "Non-alcoholic, I know we're still on duty--don't look so surprised--you can thank Wedge later."

~~~~~

"Why would anyone want empty medical crates?"

Phase two of the plan involved the pick up of the unknown cargo. With the information provided from the data drop, Captain Karigan, and his crew which consisted of Elassar, Dia, and Shalla with Janson, Sharr, Baljos and Hobbie flying the dilapidated Hawk-bat starfighters as cover, learned that the unknown cargo was in fact eight pallets of empty medical crates. Phase two went smoothly with some unexpected results.

As per some special instructions from General Cracken, Dia Passik, aka the Hawk-bat Lieutenant Seku made it clear, in a very loud manner, that she was unsatisfied with the treatment of her boss, she implied that it was his human criteria that prevented her from taking point on any mission.

Before she left, the Sullustian had given her a datacard with propaganda from an organization with a growing number of followers. The organization was the Diversity Alliance.

They also learned that their new contacts were a group of pirates who would be willing to pay the Hawk-bats in exchange for the crates, they would meet at a set of coordinates, that they found was just four parsecs from the Corellian Run. Which, as Face said, was the first break the Wraith's had had in this case since they started developing information over a year earlier. After all, the point of all this was to trace arms shipments traveling through the Rimma Trade Route to an unknown drop off point along the Corellian Run near the edge of Wild Space.

It was that unknown final destination that they needed to find.

~~~~~~~~

Valdet

The history of the Valdet-Danshitie system was inconsequentially normal. For thousands of years nomads roamed each planet, those on Valdet were your basic hunter-gatherers whose trapping habits paralleled the planets own seasonal cycles. Gradually one particular clan gained more prosperity then the others, through skill and practice they were able to harvest the best crops, and build the best villages.

On Danshitie, the hunter-gatherers were also warriors, whose adaptation to a planet still lacking stability forced them to be brutal and warring. Legend has it that one particular clan, in their efforts to defeat their enemies walked deep into the jungle cave of mythic Al'lorian mountain range west of what is now the captial city. In this cave, where trees and animals roamed, the Morar found themselves face to face with a glowing rock, which shone like a mystical beacon. The Morar were enchanted, and settled around it to find out its mystic properties. One night after all the adults had settled in, the youngest child, Din'sal, with fascinated innocence, approached the glowing rock. With none of the muted apprehension of the adults slumbering around her, she took her fingers and brushed the rock.

At first nothing happened, then with greater anticipation, she unwrapped her cloth bound hands, bound to stop the bleeding obtained from days of hiking in a jungle, and placed them without any hesitation on either side of what must be a magical object. She immediately dropped to the floor, breathing heavily with fever.

When her parents found her they begged the mystic object to save her, that her insolence would be punished when she awoke. As her eyes opened again, there was a gasp of thanks, and silence. Unlike the rest of the Moror clan whose blue eyes were the envy of all, she had vibrant purple eyes that spoke of knowledge beyond the clan's capacities.

As she grew, she became the head of the clan, and ruled those they vanquished with wisdom and fairness. Her descendants with the same vibrant eyes became the Morodin and ruled with a love for their way of life, until the starships came.

The two cultures the Morodin of Danshitie and the Romani of Valdet were so similar, yet so different. One cunning and passionate, the other skillful and soulful they each saw what they could have become, and began a feud that would last through economic, and galactic wars, despite their mutual threats.

Even with a dictator overthrown and mutual peace obtained, there were some--some who stayed resilient in their animosity, and plotted.

~~~~

Citizen Representative from the Al'lorian district of Danshitie Koi Esperenza came in early and checked her morning messages. A distant descendant of the ancient Moror clan, she had the deep blue eyes that were accented by flecks of green that were characteristic of the mountain athegra farmers. Her skin was a dark tan, her hands callused from her early years of working the fields while the Morordin lived in their gilded home, with servants and plenty of adoring subservient lackey's. If she could she would spit on the Monarch's everytime they entered the Representative Convocation Center--especially Elbereth--but to stay in power she had to be calm, to have her foot in the door. And so she became an adoring lackey, and buried her true feelings deep within her soul.

Her first message was from an underground research scientific report she had sponsored. It stated that the mythic glow stone from the Al'lorian district could merely be from the algae covered jungle debris. Consequently, when certain levels of the algae discharge was injected on the skin or intravenously the subjects were thrown into a deep fever, from which only three had survived. But what happened to those who had survived? She scrolled down--brain dead, but with the distinctive blue eyes of the Morodin. She smiled viciously--maybe now there was hope.

Her next message was baffling, but the farther she read the more her curiosity deepened:

Most Honorable Citizen Representative,

It has come to my attention that you were one of the few votes against D-V Bill 2216-XVAL.35. I applaud your efforts and would like to meet to discuss mutual ways of combating the effects of the bill's implementation. ….

~~~~~~

…Implementation. I am knowledgeable in the political problems this may cause, but I have many ideas and am eager to share with a willing citizen of Valdet who is dedicated to the defeat of Bill 8325-XDAN.35. For the particular provisions I am referring to, please download the file of the same name to your datapad and refer to protocol 552 to obtain the meeting information. I have gathered others who share your mutual regard for our goals.

Yours in Justice,

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A friend in arms.

Citizen Senator Sian Arran from Valdet leaned back in his cot and breathed out the air he had been holding. A green Fl'ntil of the southern hemisphere he was humanoid, with a few biological differences, including the inability to practice the traditional farming methods of the Romani. His clan's skin secretions created acidic soil creating stunted crop production. Forced to look elsewhere for jobs, the Fl'ntil chose to work as shippers, flying the transports to the nearest trade lines and into the edge of Republic space. He clicked on the file attachment and contacted his scheduler.

"Asinni, make sure that I have no meetings scheduled a cycle from today during the mid-morning meal. I have a personal appointment to go to."

Bill 8325-XDAN.35 was a bill that had never made it passed the fourth level committee, back when the planets had been non-aligned. If it had passed, it would have banned the use of biological warfare on the Danshitie in the event of an equivalent attack on Valdet. The ballot had been closed, so whoever had found out the results also had to know that there was a secret coalition of those who were for total annihilation of the Danshitie, those who were secretly hoping that the death of Bran Morodin would bring about the end of the entire ruling clan. He also knew of a similar bill that had stalled on Valdet, which was another reason that he had become one of the key members of the opposition group. This invitation was from someone whoever it was, who might provide some interesting information--if not he needed to be silenced.

~~~~~~~

The galaxy will continue spinning, even without me in it. I lost my childhood with a bomb, and lost my entire life through death, disease, and frailty. I should have learned long ago that everyone wears a mask, even the one's you love.

What the mythologies of our worlds do not say is that Din'sal died, and was reborn years later as a woman of strength and passion who loved a man with skill and a haunted soul. The mythologies do not say that it was not his failings that brought her ruin, but rather his heart, which started on a journey with a predetermined destination.

~~~~~~~

Credit: The scene with Lusa is one that is pulled directly from delusions of Grandeur, but with a bit of a twist....every word that Lusa speaks is from KJA's book, but I only took portions of her dialogue, b/c its really really long..and I wanted to do it more from Luke's point of view and Lusa's internal struggle rather then in a dialogue form. Consequently, what she thinks and what Luke thinks is from me, but based in part on the intentions and mood that KJA and RM have in their book.