Note: This chapter involves the introduction of two seemingly minor characters now, Captain Zax, my own character, and General Derevko, you Alias fans like me will recognize the name Derevko, I like it so I kinda made a male version of, maybe Irina or Elena Derevko. Anyways just read.
Chapter 14: The Arrivals
I'm not sure you could call it a reception, perhaps receptions. Besides that fact it was almost to the old Imperial standard. Perhaps it should be explained first. Kallisto had made contact with her smuggler allies two days ago (in an unrelated subject the engine of the Gorgon had been fixed) and they had just arrived. Daala's fleet was orbiting Kessel now, and she had set it as the rendezvous point. The message went out to the Imperials a day ago, actually a day and an hour ago exactly, everyone was counting hours, minutes, seconds…. Back to the point. In twenty different hangers an entire squadron of storm troopers were in rows at attention as shuttles landed, each carrying about ten smugglers, when the math was done it added up to two hundred. But in fact when counted, two hundred and thirteen were exiting the shuttles.
Mara Jade, Commander Kratas, Kallisto, Admiral Daala, and even, making Mara gag, Nigel stood on a row before the shuttle that landed in their particular hanger. The shuttle bore Alecto, the odor-footed Zador, and a captain or two from the smuggler place as well as honor guards. The shuttle landed, sending compressed gasses out of tubes under itself. Mara clasped her hands behind her back, glancing over at Nigel. He was sweating and looked terrible, and Mara could easily tell he wanted nothing more than to lie down and sleep off an hangover, which he had gotten from more of the bottles of spiced ale.
The ramp lowered under the shuttle like a tongue extending from a mouth, ready to regurgitate its passengers. The first thing Mara saw was Alecto's high heeled boot, followed by her tall slender form, covered in excessive amounts of black garments and a black leather jacket that hung down to her feet. Her long black hair was held up in a perfect pony tail, with the two cornrows going back above either ear as well as several random braids hanging down. All her hair was over her right shoulder.
Following her down the ramp came Zador, with his green toned skin, he was wearing nothing more than a plain cream with robe. His short hair trimmed neatly, Mara suspected he had a blaster under his robe, because from what she had seen him in this was not typical Zador style. She guessed he preferred the old general's uniform he had been wearing when she first met him.
After him two important looking smugglers came down, each wore a black uniform with a ridiculous amount of black armor on, as well as a very big and compact blaster holstered to their sides. Mara could see nametags. Captain Zax and General Derevko. Then came the honor guard, they all made a double filed line behind Alecto who approached Mara's group and bowed. Her eye's made contact with Daala's.
"Surprising." She said.
"What is?" Daala asked.
"That the Empire would be hiring a woman as Admiral." Alecto replied.
"It happens occasionally." Daala replied. Her tone basically said kiss my , fill in the stars.
"Hello Admiral Daala." Zador said, stepping up next to Alecto, her hand flew back and whacked him in the gut.
"Shut it Zador, I don't need any of your diplomacy, and stop trying to get on the admiral's good size. Suck up." Alecto said.
"My name is Alecto." Alecto told Daala. She gestured behind her.
"The green moron is Zador, and the two behind me in black are Captain Zax, and General Derevko. They are our commanding smugglers under Kallisto and myself."
Kallisto rolled her eyes, today her hair was tied up messily behind her head, giving her the look of a crazy red head who couldn't form her hair into a bun. Her fingers twitched, she had a pack of organic cigarras in her pocket and she was itching to smoke one. Mara couldn't help but wonder why they would make a healthy drug addicting.
"Pleased to meet you." Daala lied, she half disliked Kallisto, and she already fully disliked Alecto. "As I said I am Admiral Daala,"
She pointed to Kratas.
"This is Commander Kratas. Welcome to the Gorgon."
"Thank you." Alecto said, her eyes shined brightly. Regardless of whatever Daala thought of her Alecto liked the admiral, well respected. She admired any woman with a high position and despised sexist people.
"Shall we tour?" Daala asked.
"If you say so." Alecto replied. "Zador get the luggage and bring it to whatever cabin they assign us."
"But I want to tour the—"
"You can tour the ship on your way to the cabin the my luggage."
"But—"
"Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no!" Alecto cried, her usual annoying… response to a lot of things. "I tell you what to do and you listen to me!"
"Damn it you two," Kallisto growled. "Has he been this bad for you the entire time I was gone."
"Worse in fact boss." Alecto said with a sly smile. Zador's eyes glinted with a hint of nervousness.
"I have not—"
"Shut it Z!" General Derevko said. He took out his blaster and poked Zador in the back with its barrel. The green toned man froze and stiffened."
Kallisto raised an eyebrow as a few storm troopers twitched, deciding whether or not to raise their own guns.
"You do what Alecto says Zador." Kallisto ordered politely, so it sounded more like a suggestion.
Zador nodded and headed back into the shuttle.
"Come." Daala said.
XxX
A Month Later
It had taken a month! It had taken a month to get every single one of the damn smugglers set and comfortable. Daala was fuming with rage by the time it was done, ever single smuggler, including Alecto and Zador had requested some sort of special object for their room, food, weapons, helmets, novels, coffee, models of certain solar systems, ammo, boots, jars of Nubian jelly, enormous amounts of ale (beer, wine, ext.), or, the most ridiculous request, an entire collection of holodisks for an old HoloNet show that aired an got canceled in the same month! And miraculously the show managed three seasons worth of episodes. Daala had spent that month fulfilling every smuggler's request under threats that they would leave an expose her. To make matters even more irritating not a single Imperial had answered her beacon yet or came to the rendezvous point.
Daala stood the bridge, trying to cool off. Mara Jade was done in her cabin, equally as irritated as Daala since no Imperials had answered. Kallisto was in Mara's cabin as well smoking more cigarras without much care in the world. Alecto was in her own cabin doing nothing of particular interest, and Nigel could be found in the Gorgon's only bar room, drinking more and more ale. Mara sincerely hoped he might die of alcohol poisoning, but it was a… slim chance at best for two reasons. Number one; the medical personnel aboard the ship were more than capable of dealing with it. Number two; after about two bottles the bar tender cut Nigel off and sometimes didn't let him have anymore ale for a week at a time, resulting in him moping around, bugging Mara, or drinking sugary sweet drinks that got him hyper and fast talking, which is a polite way to put it, I could say he acted like a snobbish ape man with only primal instincts, but that would be quite rude.
And at that moment everything changed.
Out of the corner of her eye Daala caught a glint of something metallic back in space above Kessel, and three Imperial Class star destroyers shot out of the deep recesses of space like a gift from the deceased Emperor.
"Oh my god." Daala whispered looking at them, several crew members followed her gaze and gasped, shocked and happy. A hand touched Daala's shoulder, she looked up to see Mara with a hard look on her face.
"They came."
"Indeed." Daala replied standing up from her command chair. She turned her head to the communications officer fully expecting him to alert her of a transmission. He did, it came from the middle of the three ships called Chimaera. An almost crystal clear holoimage of an older gray captain appeared on the bridge, Daala stood professionally in front of it.
"Admiral Daala," The man acknowledged. "I am Captain Pellaeon of the Chimaera. I received your beacon, and is it true? Are you indeed gathering a fleet to take Coruscant and kill the traitor Vader?"
"I am Captain Pellaeon." Daala answered.
"Then let me hear your proposal Admiral, I have a sizable fleet waiting a sector away."
"Certainly." Daala replied. "But she is the mastermind behind it all, allow her."
Daala gestured to Mara who walked into view of the captain.
"Hello Pellaeon, my name is Mara Jade."
"Captain Pellaeon, if you please Miss Jade." Pellaeon replied politely. "What is your plan exactly?"
"Very simple, I need a fleet and I want to siege Coruscant and kill Vader along with his son and then restore the Empire back to its real loyalists." Mara began. "I need your help for this Captain, as well as more. You can restore the Empire's glory, or you can sit back and harass trade routes and destroy convoys of supply ships. Your choice."
Pellaeon narrowed his eyes. "How did you know that's what I have been doing?"
"Because I would have done the same in your position, do everything to hurt Vader's Empire, no matter how insignificant my ways may seem."
"How do you know so much Miss Jade?"
"Mara."
"How do you know so much Mara?"
Mara smiled.
"I was the Emperor's hand. His personal assassin, I did everything for him. Everything Vader couldn't do anyway. Assassinations, dealings, overseeing weapon buys, anything subtle. And when Vader and his son killed the Emperor I died as well. I was left with nothing. Now I have hope that the real Empire will be restored and I can serve it."
"How noble." Pellaeon commented. "I will join you with the rest of my fleet."
Mara stepped back and allowed Daala her position facing Pellaeon.
"How exactly did you become commander of a fleet captain?" Daala asked.
"I was one of the original guardians of the Death Star. When the Emperor was overthrown and we received word… the fleet divided. During the battle my captain was killed, I assumed his role and took control of the Chimaera. Then I commanded those still loyal jump to hyperspace with me. We did, and no one argued when I assumed command of the fleet, despite I was no Admiral."
"Interesting." Daala said. "How many ships joined you?"
"Eleven, counting these two and mine." Pellaeon said.
"Damn it." Mara hissed. "Eleven more is not enough!"
"I agree." Pellaeon said, having heard Mara. "We will need more."
"Yes." Daala agreed. "Come to my ship and we will talk."
"Yes Admiral. Pellaeon out."
The hologram flickered away, Daala turned to Mara.
"Shall we greet him?"
XxX
A Day Later
Not everything went as anticipated. Pellaeon did board the Gorgon yesterday but no talks had begun, he was formally introduced to Mara, Kallisto, (who puffed smoke in his face the entire time) Alecto, Captain Zax (whom they found passionately kissing Alecto, though they agreed to keep it amongst themselves) and General Derevko who seemed particularly fond of hanging around with Kallisto these days.
It was now, in military time 0700 hours, or in standard chrono seven o'clock in the morning. Mara was lying in her bed, awake from… the dreams, the dreams that never stopped, all about the bastard that never dies, telling her to kill the Sith son of a Sith who killed him. How she hated it, his nagging voice telling her she was not doing enough to avenge him, when she was doing everything in whatever power she had. These thoughts were enough to bring tears to her eyes, she let them fall, dropping her emotional barrier and letting everything out, thankfully Kallisto was asleep in the bed across the room.
"You know, don't you?" The voice called again, it seemed like he was whispering right into her ear.
"Know what?" Mara asked, her voice choked up, his tormenting her was making her crazy.
"That I can still keep contact with you… even though I am dead, that does not strike you as odd?"
"Of course it does! But I don't care either way, I just want Ravan dead so you'll shut up."
"Good girl Mara, as promised when he dies I will stop talking to you and give you peace."
"Somehow I don't know if I can trust you anymore." Mara said wiping her wet face. "Somehow I don't know what my reasons were for wanting to kill Ravan in the first place, but then when you started talking they became clear."
"Enough! You kill Ravan to avenge me, not because I am irritating you!"
"You're doing more than irritating me Sidious, you're tormenting me. And I can't stand it!"
"YOU—wait… someone is coming."
Mara felt relief as Sidious went quiet at the sound of a light knock on the door. She recomposed herself and stood up, walking to the door to see Alecto.
"Yes?" Mara asked.
"Plans changed, meeting is now."
"What?"
"That's what I said, I thought you were calling the shots."
"That's what I though, I know I need Daala's help but it makes me sick when she does things like this! Sometimes I would just love to kick her around a little."
"Now there's the Mara I remember meeting on Cato." Alecto said. Mara frowned.
"Excuse me?"
"There's that old sarcasm, anger, bitterness, fire. Since I've seen you… you've mellowed out. Something wrong."
Yes
"No" Mara replied. Other than the fact Sidious is tormenting me to kill Vader and Ravan I am peachy.
Alecto didn't seem convinced. "Well get ready we need to get there now."
"Fine, now are you going to wake up Kallisto or should I?"
"I guess I will, if I give her a cigarra and a cup of coffee she might not even be that angry."
"Maybe not."
"Well let's get ready."
XxX
Mara had thrown on her usual stealthy outfit, with her small blaster holstered at her shoulder and her lightsaber on her belt. Kallisto was in her red stretchy assassin suit, her smart disc clipped to her belt and her blaster pistols holstered there as well. Alecto led the way to the briefing room, it the door to it opened, there was nothing special about it other than its enormous size and table. Captains from every ship of their fleet were seated, each wearing a small microphone, to magnify their voice just so that everyone could hear it well. Mara, Kallisto, and Alecto took the three empty seats, each on a different part of the table, Mara got the lucky fortune to sit next to Daala, while Kallisto sat down next to an obese captain. On the table in front of her there was a small microphone, Mara snatched it up and clipped it to her shirt as Daala cleared her throat loudly.
"Now officially, Captain Pellaeon, what is your storey?" Daala asked, Mara was a bit surprised to hear these as her opening first words.
"Officially, Admiral Daala, my story is this; I was a crew person on the Chimaera which was guarding the death star along with the rest of the fleet while the Emperor died, once word reached us the fleet divided, unorganized fighting broke out, during which my captain was killed—"
"Wait a moment." Mara chided in. "How exactly was your captain killed."
"I don't believe that is an issue at the point Mara—"
"But I do Captain Pellaeon, how was your captain killed?" Mara asked much more forcefully.
Captain Pellaeon sighed deeply. "He died when a blast hit our bridge from a ship loyal to Vader, he was thrown onto a broken terminal and he just… died, so I took over. Organizing the battle better, but still we were outnumbered, I gave to order to retreat into hyperspace, we made several random jumps and came out into the Cauldron Nebula, where we could not sense other ships on radar and they could not sense us."
"Then how exactly did you receive my beacon?" Daala asked curiously.
"I was out harassing an Imperial trade route at the time, and I was alerted to you sending one out."
"I see."
"And…?"
"And that is it." Pellaeon said. "Now how do you propose to gather more ships?"
"More will come, I am sure of it." Daala answered robotically. "But if not we will need to begin planning."
"That could take months."
"Perhaps we should get started then."
Ugh. This chapter is ridiculously long for an informational chapter only. I hope you didn't get board reading it, I certainly did typing it. That's never a good sign, but we all need it anyway.