CHAPTER TEN
OFF-WORLDER SECTOR, KUAT CITY, KUAT, 40 ABY
TWO WEEKS AFTER THE BOMBING OF THE ELITE HOTEL
"Does it feel weird being back in this armor or is it just me?" Tyran asked Dyir over the privacy of their insulated helmet comms.
"No, after a decade of wearing expensive suits I agree that wearing beskar'gam is...strange." Dyir agreed. "But it's worth it. If this woman we're going after really is part of a Hapan assassin team she probably knows who we are and might have attacked us if we just rolled up in our standard gear."
"Ten years ago this was our standard gear." Tyran said ruefully.
Dyir grunted and brought their landspeeder deeper into the Off-Worlder sector. The third occupant of the landspeeder the two Mandalorians were occupying was oblivious to the conversation. He was a lieutenant in the Kuati military named Whyl Kest. He was a new recruit into the ODS Threat Reduction Team as a medic and the only reason he was with Tyran and Dyir now was to confirm that Talisa Raldi was indeed pregnant.
If it turned out that she wasn't then there would be no harm no foul, at least on Dain's part anyway. He had probably been paid to ask Tyran for help to get Talisa closer to Neada. Tyran wasn't going to go after Dain for just doing what he was good at. He wouldn't be as forgiving when it came to Talisa though. If she was lying things would take a turn towards the spectacularly violent. Tyran wasn't a fan of the practice but when it came to getting information through 'strategic pain distribution', as Dyir called it, Tyran had no problem taking that path.
Talisa Raldi would be the first female Hapan that Tyran had dealt with other than Neada Tash. Every previous hit team he had battled had been nothing more than male assassins. He wasn't looking forward to torturing her if she wouldn't give him the information he needed. It didn't feel honorable, but then again honor had never really been Tyran's lifelong goal.
Come to think of it he realized he'd never really had one. He had been baptized in fire during the Yuuzhan Vong war and hadn't really operated as a bounty hunter and general mercenary for very long before taking the KDY job.
He'd never really had the time to think about what he'd wanted to do with his life. It had always been liberate this planet, rescue that Jedi, liberate another planet, capture a swindling arms dealer and deliver him to the Hutt he had cheated, defeat Hapan assassin squad after Hapan assassin squad. The closest he felt he came to having a lifelong goal was to make sure Ijaat never became a soldier like him and now even that seemingly simple goal was in serious jeopardy. His ten year old son knew about his Mandalorian heritage and that frightened Tyran on every level.
Dyir turned his head slightly and nudged Tyran with his elbow. "You still thinking about Ijaat?"
Tyran grunted, Dyir always seemed to know exactly what he was thinking. "Yeah. Years of hard work and careful planning were just undone by that kid's damn brains. He's too damn smart for his own good Dyir."
"To be fair you did make him that way." Dyir laughed.
"How so?"
"You made sure Ijaat was able to have the best education available on Kuat. He's been to nothing but the best schools, had the best tutor droids credits can buy and plus you and Aru aren't exactly idiots to begin with." Dyir laughed. "Your plan to make sure he didn't find out he was a Mandalorian is kind of responsible for him finding out that he is a Mandalorian."
"You know what, I'm just going to ignore you." Tyran said sourly and Dyir's amused laughter rolled through his helmet.
Tyran turned his attention to Whyl Kest thinking that would push the problems he was having keeping his heritage separate from his son out of his mind for the moment.
"Lieutenant did you read the briefing packet on Talisa Raldi?" He asked.
The young lieutenant looked up from the back seat. "Yes sir, Talisa Raldi is a senior operative of the Seven-Nine-One Special Actions Unit, also known as the War Dragons. Seven-Nine-One is the tier-one SpecOps unit in the Hapan Military and is exclusively made up of females."
"How does Seven-Nine-One relate to Oh-Dee-Es and the Threat Reduction Team?" Dyir asked.
"Seven-Nine-One was once under the command of Neada Tash until her treason the year prior to the Yuuzhan Vong Invasion." Kest said. He glanced from one Mandalorian to the other. "Are you two done trying to see if I'm some green rookie who's going to get you blown to bits? I've got ten years in the Kuati Commandos so I've already been through this hazing poodoo."
Dyir laughed and nodded to Tyran. "I think he's going to fit right in on the Threat Reduction Team."
"I agree, I'm already starting to like him more than I like you."
"Oh you've just gotten used to me is all." Dyir said as he brought the speeder to a stop a block away from Kaldor's. "Alright Lieutenant, when we get to her room you need to stay out of sight. Make sure you've got that jacket on before you get out, Talisa won't like seeing a Kuati military uniform and things could get out of hand."
"Once we get inside and get her subdued then you can come in and take the blood sample and I'll offer her Neada's deal." Tyran said as he climbed out of the speeder.
"If she refuses the deal?" The medic asked.
"We make her talk, whether Dain likes it or not." Tyran said darkly.
"You're the boss." Kest said as he followed them down the pedwalk.
They fell into line almost instantly, Tyran at the front clearing a path through the pedestrian traffic with his large size and intimidating abyssal-black armor. Kest was walking behind him in the traditional place of a VIP, which in a sense he really was, as well as being the least armored member of the team. Dyir was on his heels, constantly eyeballing people as they moved passed him making sure to keep them in his sights with his HUDs 360 degree wraparound view.
No one appeared to be following them and that meant one of two things: Either no one was following them or the people following them were very good at remaining hidden. Dyir was trained to notice people who were good at remaining hidden and since he didn't see any threats or any potential threats, he was sure there were no Hapans following Tyran, Kest and himself to the location of the wayward Hapan commando.
It amazed Dyir that for the ten years he had been working to protect Neada Tash that the Hapans had been busy building, apparently very well connected, networks of operatives in the social structure of Kuat itself just to keep tabs on her. It made him wonder how many times he and Tyran had escorted Neada to a State diner and had conversations with some politician or another department head who had seemed very interested in the goings-on of Neada Tash.
How many of them had simply been competitors and how many had been entrenched Hapans sniffing out a weak point in their target's defenses? He knew the question was rolling around inside Tyran's head just as often as it was his own. They were both already trying to mentally compile new friend-foe lists even though they couldn't accurately do that until they got what they wanted from Talisa Raldi.
Hundreds of names came and went as Dyir compiled and re-compiled his mental list of potential enemies again and again. A name would be listed under the category of hostile one moment and then promptly switched to friendly in the next. The whole exercise was pointless though and would only serve to drive him mad the longer he concentrated on it. Dyir couldn't help but wonder how Tyran managed to seem so level headed about the subject, as head of Neada's security he should have been fretting over it far more than he actually was.
Maybe Tyran was so calm because he knew that one way or another he was going to get the information he needed to rectify the problem in just a few minutes. Hopefully all went well and no one got hurt. Tyran's indifferent attitude towards Dain Dolvo's wrath should something happen to Talisa was something that Dyir didn't share. Dain Dolvo was not someone you wanted to cross, the lengths he would go to in order to get revenge were potentially boundless. Dyir wouldn't ever admit it out but he severely doubted that he could handle Dolvo in a physical altercation, he even doubted that Tyran would have been able to beat him outright.
No, if Tyran and Dain ever fought each other it would be a bloody and destructive battle that would only end once one of them, possibly even both of them, were lying dead on the ground. The contest between the last of the Numecks and the last of the Dolvos would be a war that would have made even the mighty Yuuzhan Vong cringe at the violence the two men would wrought upon one another.
Dyir's jaw still hurt from the force of the simple jab Tyran had hit him with in their sparring session earlier. He had to wonder how much pain he would have been in if Tyran had really put everything into the jab. Tyran had clearly used the weeks of vacation time that Neada had given him to build up his strength, and he had already been just as strong as a savage rancor.
Tyran Numeck was another man you didn't want to cross. Two Aqualish made the same conclusion and parted for Tyran and his company of two as they walked through the entryway of Kaldor's. Tyran nodded at the Gotal behind the bar who then jerked his head at the staircase next to him. Tyran gave another subtle nod and proceeded in that direction, his hand hovering ever so slightly near the holster of one of his DL44 heavy-blasters. Dyir had always preferred Merr-Sonn weaponry over BlasTech and carried a Model 434 blaster pistol. His hand was visibly clamped on the grip of his pistol.
The trio made their way up the staircase and it was at this point when Dyir moved up directly behind Tyran.
"Fourth floor, room forty-four." Tyran said.
"Or we just have to keep going until we find the room with a big Whiphid standing guard outside." Dyir said. "Why is it always Whiphids?"
"Do you have a problem with Whiphids?" Kest asked.
"As a matter of fact I do." Dyir said.
"What would you prefer Dyir?" Tyran said as they continued up past the first floor landing. "Enlighten us."
"How about a Jawa or maybe even a Dug. Something small that I can easily kick a great distance."
Tyran laughed darkly. "Personally I think Dugs are more dangerous than Whiphids, they're smarter and have impeccable memories. It is why they can hold a grudge for so long."
"Speaking from experience?" Kest said.
"Once you've lived for a certain amount of years and have done as much traveling as I have you get to know certain species and their customs, both good and bad." Tyran said. "T'Krul isn't all that bad though. He's certainly better than most of the Whiphids I've come across."
They passed the next two landings in silence, passing only a lone Quarren as they made their way to the fourth floor.
Talisa had been busy in the first few hours since arriving at her temporary safehouse deep within the Off-Worlder sector. She had removed all of the weapons from the bag T'Krul had left her with and had dawned the Void Jumper armor he had provided. For a single instant she entertained the idea of pulling her civilian clothing over the military-grade body armor but ultimately decided that it was too bulky to be able to effectively hide under the sweatshirt and pants. She had attached the two WESTAR heavy blasters to the magnetic thigh plates of the body armor. She had tucked her small hold out blaster away in her right boot and was now sitting on the corner of the bed with the E-11 blaster rifle in her lap, staring at the main door to the room.
It was all she could do now. She just had to sit and wait until the person Dain had called came to get her and whisk her off to another supposedly safe location. Talisa guessed that it would be much the same routine once Dain got her off Kuat. She doubted very much that he would stick with her for very long, he was probably already departing from a job to come and get her. Bounty hunting was a first-come-first-serve business and she understood that he couldn't babysit her for an extended amount of time, at least until he completed whatever contracts he had already struck.
She had finally realized just how little she really knew about Dain Dolvo and wondered if he would feel compelled to marry her because she was carrying his child. Marriage was something that Talisa hadn't ever contemplated for herself, like most Hapan women she viewed men as breeding stock and nothing more. She had only planned on picking a suitable mate to give her a child once she had worked her way up the ladder in the Hapan military quite some time from now, but never had she thought about having a husband.
The thought of being bound to one man for the rest of her life was an intriguing one and made her think of all the possible outcomes of that. Then there was the fact that Dain was a Mandalorian and Mandalorian society was well known for the practice of adopting all comers into it with welcoming arms. She wasn't exactly sure that being a Mandalorian was something that would suit her, despite the combat oriented lifestyle.
She couldn't take just sitting and waiting anymore and got up from the bed and walked over to the door. She looked out the viewer next to the palm scanner to see what was going on outside. T'Krul's shaggy haired back dominated most of the view but she could tell from the way he was standing that he was looking to his left. A sudden mix of fear and apprehension rolled through her and she couldn't help but think that the Hapans had found her. That was most likely not the case though, it could have just been someone else heading to their room taking note of the large Whiphid standing out in the hallway.
Even in Kuat's dingy Out-Worlder sector, Whiphids weren't an all too common sight.
Talisa took in a calming breath that did little to actually calm her. T'Krul turned his whole body to the left and gripped one of his high powered blasters and gestured to the figures that she couldn't see yet. She realized her hand was gripping the handle of one of the WESTAR blasters on her thighs. Talisa turned back to the room and looked for the best defendable location she could find and to her dismay the best cover in the room was simply the other side of the bed.
Talisa half walked and half sprinted her way to the opposite side of the bed and squatted down behind it and trained the E-11 on the door. If it opened before T'Krul called her to let her know that her ride had arrived then she was going to open fire. Her breathing deepened as she settled her trigger finger just inside the E-11s trigger guard, resting it just behind the trigger itself. Her heartbeat was audible in her ears as she gently cocked her head and positioned the doorway in the sights of the modern variant of the classic Imperial blaster rifle and waited.
Two seconds. Six seconds. Ten seconds. Her commlink began to buzz gently in the compartment on her belt. Talisa activated the wireless receiver in her ear but never removed her gaze from the door.
"Go," She said quietly.
"Dain's contacts are here," the deep gravelly voice that belonged to T'Krul said back. "My job is done. The Mandalorians will take things from here."
"Thank you for the information T'Krul, and thanks again for all the supplies and help you have provided me with."
The Whiphid gave a huff of acknowledgment and ended the call. Talisa stood up from behind the bed and attached the E-11 to the magnetic back plate of her armor. She made sure to remove the safeties on both her WESTAR blasters, just in case the Mandalorians outside her door weren't the dependable sort like Dain. The door slid open and two of the largest men Talisa had ever seen entered the room.
They weren't large in the traditional sense of height, though they did both easily break two meters, but in the muscular sense. One of them was wearing royal blue armor and the other a shade of deep and intimidating black. It was easy for her Hapan eyes to make out the defined form of rock hard muscle hidden away behind layers of armor and flightsuits. A third and significantly smaller man dressed in simple black combat fatigues and a utility jacket followed them in discreetly, almost too discreetly. Her eyes must have given away her suspicions because the blue armored Mandalorian looked subtly over his shoulder at the smaller man and back at her.
"Don't mind him ma'am, he's just a medic."
Talisa fixed the man with a dark glare. "Do I look like I need a medic."
"You might if you keep up with that attitude." the black armored Mandalorian said as he took a few steps into the room and gave, what Talisa assumed to be, an appraising glance. "So you're carrying a little baby Dolvo are you?"
Talisa turned her suspicious gaze on the black armored Mandalorian.
"I don't really see how that's any of your concern."
"It's not, but I have to say I'm not fond of the idea of their being more than one Dolvo in the galaxy at any one time."
"Why is that?"
The Mandalorian gave a shrug. "Old family feud."
Talisa stared at him for a few minutes. "Yes I am pregnant with the child of Dain Dolvo, the two of us met on a rest station of Gyndine and there were some unexpected results. My name is Talisa Raldi, I didn't catch your names."
The two Mandalorians turned their helmeted heads towards each other for a few moments and must have traded a few words.
"We'll give you are names in a few seconds but we need to get some things out of the way first." the blue armored one said motioning to the smaller man. "The doc here is going to take a blood sample and run a quick test on it to see if you really are pregnant and you're going to let him do it."
"Why? I already told you I was pregnant."
"This is the deal." the black armored Mandalorian interjected. "Either you do what we say or take your chances on the street with the Hapans. What's it going to be?"
Talisa didn't know what to say. "Dain won't be happy when I tell him that you two left me to fend for myself."
"Do I look like I'm afraid of Dain Dolvo?" the black armored Mandalorian snorted.
In all honesty Talisa had a hard time thinking of anything that could possibly have frightened a man as big as him. She didn't know how to respond to being talked back at like that by a man. She was used to her men being quite and compliant, not smug and confrontational.
"Do what we ask and you won't have to worry about the Hapans, we'll hide you away for a day or two and then when Dain gets here he can get you offworld." the blue one said in a more diplomatic tone than the one his counterpart was using.
"Give me your names and show me your faces." Talisa said. "Do that and I'll submit to your blood test."
Another moment of silence passed as the two Mandalorians conferred with their private comms and then the black armored one turned his head back towards Talisa and nodded. They both reached up in unison and undid their helmet seals before removing their helmets. Talisa's eyes widened as she took in the face of the blue armored Mandalorian and then the black armored one.
Dyir Carud and Tyran Numeck!
Her hands went to the handles of her WESTAR blasters instantly but Tyran and Dyir already had their blasters trained on her.
"I guess she already knows our names." Dyir said.
"Must have if she went for her guns." Tyran said. "You're pretty fast on the draw...but not fast enough."
Talisa met his smirk with a dark scowl which turned into a look of bewilderment as both Mandalorians lowered and reholstered their pistols.
"We aren't here to kill you, in fact we heard that you know something about a large Hapan network operating here on Kuat." Dyir said.
"We're very interested as to who may be apart of that network and you're going to gives us that information."
Talisa snorted. "What makes you think I would do that?"
"We'll get to that in a minute but the doc has some work to do first." Dyir waved the smaller man in the utility jacket through.
The man pulled out a small hypo and a small gray box with an injector port.
"Hold still ma'am." He said as he removed sections of armor from her left arm and began to take a blood sample.
"It took almost two hours for the medcenter to confirm I was pregnant." Talisa said. "Are we going to sit here and wait for that little box to tell me something I already know the answer to?"
Tyran sighed. "Well for starters we have better gadgets than the medcenter believe it or not, and we won't be here a moment longer than we need to."
MALASTARE, 40 ABY
EIGHT DAYS AFTER THE BOMBING OF THE ELITE HOTEL
"I don't care who you have to bribe, shoot or kill but you are going to get me access through that damned security flotilla orbiting Kuat!" Dain raged into the privacy of his helmet commlink.
"What is so important on Kuat that can't wait until you complete the assignment you were given?" Iman Vitrix replied coolly. "I have already paid you eight thousand credits to eliminate a senior member of the Galactic Alliance Scientific Military Research Department and I expect results."
Dain growled in disgust. There was no way he was going to reveal to Iman Vitrix that there was a woman on Kuat carrying his child, giving him that information would be worse than dangerous.
"Your scientist is on Malastare and isn't going anywhere for the next eight months. My personal problems on Kuat will be settled way before then so just get me my clearance and I will wave the second payment of my fee."
"Damn it Dain this is important."
"Don't talk to me about important!" Dain roared. "Either get me my clearance through the flotilla or I'll just wind up blasting my way through, it makes little difference to me."
Vitrix was silent for a moment. It wasn't a stunned silence or an enraged silence, but the kind that was usually brought on when a cold and calculating mind was formulating something sinister.
"I will get you your clearance on one condition." Vitrix said at last.
"And that is?"
"I have just opened up a new detention facility in the Outer Rim, it's a facility where we can get information on our enemies without the impeding procedures and bothersome interference of the Jedi. I need someone I can trust to run it and I want that person to be you."
"Where is it and for how long will I be there?"
"Well I'll need you there in a few weeks, Colonel Solo has been rounding up Corellians all week and a few of them are going to wind up being part of the inaugural group for my facility. It is in the far reaches of the Outer Rim where no one would ever think to look, I would prefer you to be the initial warden for a year or two to make sure things run smoothly. I realize how much of an inconvenience this will be and I am prepared to pay you handsomely for your time."
"Two years in the Outer Rim as the warden of a torture facility." Dain summed up. "I want fifty-thousand for the first year and a hundred for the second."
"I'm sure that can be managed. I will see to it that you get your clearance into the Kuat system."
Dain ended the call without saying another word and continued towards the spaceport and his newly acquired TIE/IN Interceptor. He had traded his old Gladiator for a top of the line new model. He'd always been fond of the look of the Imperial TIE Interceptor, slick, lethal and beautiful all at once.
With all the money Vitrix was throwing at him and the scrap value of the Gladiator he had finally been able to get one of his own. His was different than the standard issue Interceptor though, his came complete with shielding, a hyperdrive and upgraded armor plating. The additional armor had sacrificed some of the ships legendary speed, but it was still fast enough to outrun most starfighters.
As he climbed up into his new ship he couldn't help but think about the heavy weight that had recently settled upon his shoulders: he was going to be a father.
Dain had come to terms long ago with being the last of the Dolvo clan but now that didn't seem like it was going to be the case. He wondered if Talisa was going to want to get married and settle down somewhere. She hadn't struck him as the type of woman who wanted to settle down though and he himself had never really put much thought into having a wife, let alone a Hapan wife.
That seemed liked asking for trouble.
Hapan women were used to walking over their men and Dain wasn't about to be someone floormat. But still though he knew that marriage was a discussion he and Talisa were going to have to have once he got to Kuat. He caught himself smiling as he started to warm up the drives as thoughts about having a son wandered on into the forefront of his mind.
He wouldn't have minded having a daughter either, either one was fine with him. He laughed ruefully to himself as he thought about the look on Tyran's face when he had heard that there was going to be another Dolvo lurking in the shadows of the galaxy to continue on the Cold War between the Numecks and the Dolvos. He laughed harder still when he thought about the possibility of having twins.
He was glad Tyran had agreed to help him out. Dain chose to ignore the fact that Tyran was helping him because Talisa had access to information that he and Dyir needed to put a stop to the threat the Hapans posed to their employer. Dain couldn't hold it against them, he would have done the same in their position, but he still liked to think that the decision was a large turning point in their relationship. A turning point for he better.
As long as Tyran didn't discover that Dain was actively tracking his younger brother Rixa, he was sure things would remain somewhat cordial between them. After all you had to keep your friends close and your enemies even closer.