Chapter 10: Fools

Behind them, the billboard exploded in a shower of sparks.

Avaryss looked over her shoulder as the speeder bike that had been chasing them went down in a ball of flame. She could not see what happened to the pilot, and would not care even if she did. Unfortunately, there were still three more speeder bikes on their tail, and each seemed bound and determined to stop their escape. Their…

The world tilted crazily as Rink sent their speeder into a spinning dive, that took even Avaryss' breath away, and left her stomach about twenty feet above them. The street rat somehow managed to bring them out of the dive and accelerated between two buildings that no air speeder had any business going between, but somehow just managed to fit, and shot out the other side.

Again Rink banked hard and shot back up into traffic, no doubt, trying to get lost among the many other floaters, speeders and swoops that were moving quickly through the space lanes of Nar Shadda.

Avaryss glanced behind her again.

She saw no sign of pursuit.

"We lose 'em?" Rink asked.

"I don't see them back there," she informed him, "But…"

A droid floater behind them banked crazily its repulsor lifts struck by blaster fire. It banked into incoming traffic and two speeders struck it vanishing in a giant ball of orange flame, and through that flame roared their pursuers, firing their blasters all the way.

Again Mister Rink went evasive, and again Avaryss was pushed back in her seat by the acceleration.

From his place next to her Rink was laughing and grinning like a fool.

"Damn," he crowed, "these boys don't know when to quit.

He dove again, only pulling up when their speeder was only a foot or so above the pedestrians on the walkways below. People ducked, curses, squawks and shrieks filled the air as panicked civilians scattered, trying to avoid both the speeder and the blaster bolts peppering the ground behind them.

"Hold onto something, boss," Rink laughed, "We're in for a bumpy ride!"

She glared at him.

"You are enjoying this, aren't you?" she spat.

"Yeah," he admitted never taking his eyes off the path ahead, "Aren't you?"

Avaryss shook her head, but on a small level she could not deny the excitement of this, the adrenaline flowing unchecked through her veins.

She smiled slightly.

Yes, she hated to admit it, but she was enjoying this, but they were not here to have fun.

They needed to lose these fools. Now.

Avaryss gestured ahead of them, not an easy thing when they were moving so fast. A dumpster, two parked speeder bikes, and a large street sweeper droid rose up and jumped into their pursuers' path. There was a loud crash and a flash of light behind them.

Avaryss again dared a look over her shoulder.

One down, she thought grinning, two to go.

Thranton Rink shot the speeder on a sharp vertical path. The two remaining speeders shot past, but Avaryss did not think they had lost them.

Whoever these people were, they were proving to be more skilled then the scum they had faced in the sewer.

There arrival had clearly not gone unnoticed, and now that they had brought Rink's prize into the open, many were rising up to claim it.

Avaryss was determined to see that they all failed.

"We need to get back to the ship," she said matter of factly.

"I'm game if you are, boss, but I don't think these guys are going to give us much chance."

Avaryss cursed under her breath.

She was tempted to throw lightning at the remaining bikes, or perhaps use her lightsaber to send their bolts back at them, but she knew that would not be a good idea.

Right now what was going on was simple speeders chase, they happened all the time on Nar Shadda, the authorities had not even responded yet, if you could call the Hutts' bully boys authorities. If she started openly using her powers, things would escalate quickly. The trick she pulled with the stuff in the road hinted at Sith involvement but was not easily proved. If she chose to act in a more direct manner, however, news would certainly get back to other Sith on the moon, and from there even more lords would start asking questions of what she was fighting so hard to protect.

Secrecy was key here; her master had made that point abundantly clear.

She would not violate his orders.

Which, of course left her right back where she started, they still needed to either lose or destroy their pursuers; the only question was how.

A blaster bolt, flashed past her head, forcing her to look away. Again the two riders began drawing in close.

Avaryss frowned.

Was it her imagination or were they slowing down?

She looked over at Rink. He seemed focused, but at the same time she could tell he was thinking, she could almost sense the ideas bouncing around inside his head.

They slowed a bit more; the bikes began to catch up.

"What're you doing?" she demanded.

He remained focused on the path ahead.

"You know much about speeder bikes?" he asked.

"Yes," she admitted, "I rode one every day for two years back home."

"Do you know where the fuel cell is on one?"

"Of course."

Rink smiled slyly.

"Those creepy powers of yours, you think you could yank out the fuel cell or something?"

Avaryss was about to balk as the idea, but then realized what he was saying, considered it.

She smiled wickedly.

"I could do something along those lines, yes."

"Do you need line of sight?"

"It helps," she agrees.

He nodded gamely, still smiling.

"Get ready, you take the one on the right, I got the guy on the left.

Another blaster bolt flew past her head. The Force had warned her just in time, their pursuers were closing in for the kill. They might have thought their quarry was damaged, or that Rink had decided to give up. Over the whine of the speeder engines, she could almost hear the men on the bikes shouting at them, ordering them to land.

That is not going to happen, she thought.

She looked over as the two bikes made their move, one on Rink's side, one on hers.

Sneaky, she thought to herself, it seemed that Thranton Rink had a clever mind, and it was clear that his boasts about knowing his way around a speeder was more than simple bravado.

She wondered if he could handle a ship as well as he could an air speeder. It might be to her advantage to find out.

The men chasing them drew closer still.

If this worked, she decided; then she would definitely be letting Mister Rink live. Usefulness should be rewarded, and he was clearly more than a bit of swagger and a handsome face, she could use him.

The bike on her side drew closer, she could see the rider's face now, a human wearing goggles and a mask to protect his face from flying debris. The man's blaster was up, ready if she tried anything.

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and reached out with the Force, finding his machine in it was quite simple, her ability to manipulate energies with the Force drew her to the potential energy in the bike's fuel cell, and now that things had slowed down a bit, she had no problem reaching out with the Force and finding it.

Child's play, she thought.

"Hands up," she heard the rider shout.

I do not think so.

She reached out with the Force, wrapped her will around the speeder bike's fuel cell, and crushed it with the Force.

The result was instantaneous.

The fuel cell exploded, but not before it sent just one final burst of speed into the engine of the bike.

The vehicle shot forward, no longer a speeder bike but a ball of flame being ridden by a screaming man. She felt the man's panic right up until the burning speeder slammed into a concrete wall at high speed.

The man's presence winked out.

She took a moment to savor his end, his panic and final pain.

Delicious.

She was jolted out of her revelry when Rink suddenly flipped their speeder over in a full three sixty. The other rider had seen what had happened to his ally, and for that brief moment been distracted.

It was all that Rink needed.

The larger air speeder caught the smaller bike from beneath and caused it to flip over…hard. The pilot did not even have time to respond. The bike stalled in the air as the man hit the break only to have his own repulsor lifts fail, and cause the bike to go tumbling end over end out of the sky.

It vanished somewhere below them in a flash of orange light.

Rink laughed.

"Well…they won't be bothering us again."

In spite of herself, Avaryss cackled.

"Well done, Mister Rink," she said, "Very well done, indeed."

"Thanks, Boss; now…back to the ship?"

She nodded.

He brought the speeder up, an around and began accelerating towards their destination.

Avaryss pulled out her comlink.

""Holli," she called into it, "Holli, respond, we are on our way back now. Holli?"

There was no answer. All that she could hear was very loud static.

Frowning Avaryss reached out with the Force, trying to sense if there was a problem.

She sighed heavily.

There was.

"Can't raise the ship?" Rink asked, sounding concerned.

"Our communications are being jammed," she said putting the comlink away.

"I think the ship is under attack."

Rink's eyes narrowed, as he put on even more speed.

"We better get back there then," he said grimly.

"Yes," she said her expression cold as a glacier.

It seems that I have some killing to do, she thought.

She would hate to be late.

IOI

They arrived to find the hanger a battlefield.

Twenty attackers were advancing on the Fury. Holli hunkered down near the ramp defending the ship with a blaster carbine while a small belly turret from beneath the ship fired at anything that got too close to her.

Rink banked the speeder around trying to find a good place to land under cover so that they could get out of here fast.

Avaryss shook her head.

Where in the Emperor's name was Rathari's men? He had promised her master that they had safe passage for the duration of this mission, and now not a single Sith soldier was to be found?

This could have been a trap, she realized, perhaps Lord Rathari wanted this mysterious prize as well, perhaps someone had contacted him, offered him a reward for acquiring it for them.

It was possible, she supposed, both Terrog and Baras were Darths, they could definitely afford to bribe the Lord of Nar Shadda, and if she died during this attack, no one would be the wiser.

Avaryss temper flared. Part of her wanted to forget the ship, fly to where ever Rathari was hiding and start skinning him alive. Answers would pour from his mouth before the end. She did not care that the dark council had put him here. If he had betrayed her master, if he had betrayed her, he would answer! He would.

"Hold on tight," Rink told her, "I got an idea."

Avaryss braced herself tightening not only the straps holding her in place, but cocooning herself in the Force.

Rink brought the speeder around hard and low, causing it to slide on its repulsor lifts.

The speeder slammed into where the people attacking their ship had been taking cover, some were struck by the speeder, while others leapt out of the way. The vehicle continued to slide clearing away any protection the attackers might have had, but as it finally came to a stop, the survivors leapt out and tried to engage Rink and Avaryss.

For them, it was a fatal mistake.

No sooner had the vehicle stopped that Avaryss tore away her restraints and leapt high into the air, igniting her lightsaber in mid flip. She came down among the attackers, falling on them like a Tukata on a Neek.

The attackers were all alien, all armed and armored, not that it saved them. Large insectoids in breathing masks they tried to overwhelm her with numbers, some drawing blades while some in the back tried to blast her with their rifles.

The sword wielders died first.

Her lightsaber carved through them like hot knife. As they died the stink of ammonia filled the hanger, having come from the dying creature's breathing gear. She turned away a few blaster shots using the Shien form, but after having been stripped of cover, the gun wielders now found themselves easy prey to Holli, the turret, and even Mister Rink who was covering her with his holdout blaster.

The aliens did not beg, nor did they try to surrender. They fought to the last, the final one dying when Avaryss caught him in a Force grip, and cracked his exoskeleton like an egg. Once again a puff of ammonia escaped the body as she let it fall broken to the hangar floor.

Avaryss shook her head; the stench of ammonia was making her a little dizzy.

She deactivated her sword and returned it to her belt.

Rink came to her side, still clutching the droid head under his right arm while holding his blaster with the left.

Avaryss scanned the area again with the Force, feeling no more enemies, she nodded grimly.

Now…they could get out of here.

"Gand," Rink said shaking his head, "Bounty hunters, they work for Y'bann the Hutt, when they are not taking out private contracts."

"So we know someone is after our prize," she said sarcastically, "That is news."

He took no offense, he actually chuckled.

"You do know how to make friends, boss. I give you that."

"My lord," Holli said running up to her, her face as always stained with grease from her work with the engines.

"Are you well?"

"I will be when we are out of this stink," she said dryly, heading for the ramp of the ship. "I trust we are ready to go?"

"Ready and able," Holli said pleasantly.

The three went up the ramp quickly, Holli closing it behind them.

Rink handed Avaryss the droid head, she smiled and carried it back to her quarters.

"Tell, Slynn to set course for Dromund Kaas," she ordered. Her hands brushing over the chrome droid head.

"We must know what is so important about this."

She did not relax until she felt the ship begin to rise beneath them, and even then it was short lived.

She felt a disturbance in the Force even before they cleared the atmosphere.

The ship shuddered beneath them, blaster fire raking at their shields.

She shook her head.

They were not out of this yet.

IOI

They are blocking our escape vector," Slynn informed her.

"There is nothing I can do."

Avaryss hissed; air escaped from between her teeth as she glared at the imperial captain.

"How many pursuers?" she asked.

"Scanners show at least six fighters, my lord. They are uglies by the look, probably mercenary or pirate ships."

The young Sith rolled her eyes.

She did not expect their attackers to be members of the imperial navy.

"Lose them," she ordered, "Take evasive action."

"I'm doing that now, my lord," he promised, "And shifting power to the aft shields, they will hold."

The ship rocked again.

Avaryss was not so sure she trusted the captain's appraisal of the situation.

He is too reliant on the shields.

It will get us killed if he is not careful.

The uglies, as Slynn called them, were star fighters cobbled together from pieces of other fighting craft, and scrounged parts. Popular among criminals and pirate bands, they might not look impressive, but they did have some teeth.

Two fighters shot past them, Avaryss thought they were simply trying to force the Fury down, but then they opened up with tail gun fire, ion discharges struck the shields sending electrical sparks dancing over the shields draining them further. When the shields failed, if they were hit with another ion blast, the Fury would go down.

Avaryss frowned.

"I told you to lose this scum, Slynn," she growled, "This ship is one of the fastest in the Imperial navy, but you are driving it like it is a garbage scow."

Her burning eyes flared.

"You will lose them."

"I'm working on that now, my lord," he said banking hard, two more ships blew past them, and slowed but the two behind stayed above them keeping them from breaking out, and the two fighters with ion cannons were already circling around like prey birds, hungry for the kill.

Avaryss' anger continued to grow.

They would never escape this way!

They were struck again by another blast, alarms wailed on Slynn's console, he turned them off, but warning lights continued to flash.

"We have a fire back here," Holli called out, "Toovee and I are handling it."

Through the Force she could feel Slynn's desperation; he was not use to flying in such a fight, urban flying was not what he had been trained for. He may have been used to dealing with Republic pilots in deep space, but atmospheric combat seemed to have him on edge. She could feel his fear, both of losing control and crashing, and of her.

The former was unacceptable of a man in her service, the latter was expected.

He should be afraid of her.

She found Rink at her side; she had been so focused on Slynn and the pursuit that she had not even heard the street rat enter.

"Fire is out," he informed her, "Holli, is making sure that the hyper drive wasn't damaged."

"Good," she said, finally, she turned to face him.

"Tell me; can you fly a ship as well as you fly an air speeder?"

It took him a second to grasp what she had asked. Then his look of surprise turned to that cocky grin she remembered from the speeder chase.

"Better," he said, "All I would need is for you to sit back and watch me work."

She smiled.

"Very well."

She stepped over and struck Slynn across the back of the head with the hilt of her lightsaber, using the Force she yanked his body out of the pilot seat and flung him down behind them. He groaned when he hit, likely not even realizing what had happened.

Rink was in the pilot's chair even before the Imperial hit the deck.

Immediately he got to work.

The first thing he did was fire the main guns, he managed to destroy one of the uglies, but it was clear that destroying them had not been his intent. He had only needed to clear a path, get some room.

He gunned the accelerator, and the ship shot forward, with the barest of margins he just missed clipping the top of a building, anyone standing on the roof likely had to dive for cover.

"Whoa!" Rink laughed, "This lady has some legs under her."

He grinned at Avaryss.

"Let's see her strut."

His hands danced over the console.

The Fury shot skyward with the five remaining fighters in pursuit. He dove into the busiest of space lanes, juking in and out like some slave gladiator in the middle of a melee. Ships banked hard to get out the way, as Rink spun and juked through them like they were barely even there.

Avaryss' heart was pounding, how close they were coming to death, but at the same time it was clear that Rink had it well in hand.

She looked at him through the Force.

What she saw surprised her.

He was not Force sensitive that was clear, but again the Force seemed to be swirling around him like a hurricane, she had thought that it was simply because he had stolen that droid head, and that it was that that had made him a shatter point in the Force. That was clearly part of it, but it was not the only thing that made the young man special. He might not realize it, but the Force was with him, lending a suggestion at times, giving the boy help he did realize that he was getting, enhancing his already quick reflects and allowing him to fly through the minefield of ships before them.

It happened sometimes, she knew. The boy would never be Sith, but he could be classified as a savant in the Force. He was one of those one in a million fools that just happened to find favor in the will of the Force.

She smiled warmly.

She knew in that moment that she would not be killing Mister Rink, not now, maybe not ever. He was something more, a fool, yes, but one that she was curious to see what the Force had in store for him next.

Yes, she decided, he would live, some fools did deserve to.

There was a beep on the console, she glanced over and saw another of their pursuers wink out. It was destroyed trying to keep up with Rink's rather…exotic path.

Yes, this fool did deserve to live…

She turned her attention to the Imperial laying bleeding on the deck.

…And some fools did not deserve such mercy.

She stood before Slynn; he was shaking his head, trying to clear away the cobwebs. He looked back at the pilot seat, seeing Rink sitting there.

He growled.

"That scum has no right to that seat, this is my ship! I'm…ack!

Avaryss stopped him mid-sentence; she raised her hand, her fingers twisting into claws. She wrapped the Force around his throat like a garrote.

The man began to struggle, his fingers clawing at his throat.

A thought occurred to her in that moment, one she had not given credence to before.

She snarled.

"Who do you work for Slynn?"

"Feer," he coughed, "Our master."

Avaryss gave him a cruel smile.

"Anyone else, Lord Baras perhaps, Lord Terrog, do you work for one of our rivals? Maybe take a donation from them now and again?"

""I'm…I'm loyal…my…my…lord," he gasped.

She tightened her grip; she wanted him to feel this. She wanted to make it hurt.

"If you are loyal," she said grimly, "then you are also as clumsy as you are stupid."

Her rage was building, her anger boiling.

"Holli said you asked her to take the hyper drive off line back on Tatooine, We were almost caught there. And, now, here, our enemies seem to know our every move, and they have found us at every turn, how did they do that?"

Slynn did not answer; his face had gone from red and was starting to turn purple.

Avaryss did not let up, she was too angry to let up.

The ship shook underneath them, not a laser blast, but the shockwave from a close by explosion.

"Rink?" she called out, concerned.

"We're good, boss," he called back, "one of those nerf herders just struck a floating bill board, they were destroyed, still have two more behind us."

Can we clear the atmosphere; make a safe jump to hyper space?"

"Those surviving fighters could scan our trajectory; you worried about them tracking us back to Dromund Kaas?"

"Not a problem," she said, "We will make a micro jump to a random location and then make the jump to Dromund Kaas from there; it will throw off any pursuit."

"Clever" Rink said, "Did that before, did you?"

"I read it in a holo novel," she admitted.

He chuckled.

"Got to love those novels," he said dryly, "Give people such wonderful ideas."

She chuckled.

"Just fly the ship, Rink," she said.

"Gotcha, boss."

Avaryss smiled and turned her attention back to Slynn.

She gave him a contented smile.

"I don't know if you are a traitor, and personally I don't really care, but you have failed me for the last time, captain."

"Loy…al," he croaked, "Loy…al."

"So you say," she purred, her eyes glowing menacingly, "then consider this your final order for the good of the Empire."

She almost giggled as she closed her fist.

The man's neck crumbled, the vertebrae turned to dust.

He slumped down on the deck, his eyes staring up at nothing.

Avaryss smiled and stood over him, feeling both contented and liberated. The dark side was coursing through her like the highest grade of spice.

"For the Empire, Mister Slynn," she giggled.

"For the Empire."