Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me; all of this is property of George Lucas, Lucasfilm, Lucasarts, and Disney. This story is also inspired by the film Goldeneye, which also does not belong to me. Goldeneye belongs to Eon Productions, MGM, and United Artists.
—21—
Mohc's landspeeder flew through the gates of an abandoned starport; rusted durasteel buildings checkered the area, along with support pillars, and damaged loading cranes. The landspeeder entered a hangar that was just as rusted as the rest of the starport—mostly empty except for some cargo crates dangling from broken chains, a few dismantled ARC-170 starfighters, and a colossal wedge-shaped acclamator-class assault ship that rested in its center. The ship was covered in dust and peeled paint but it still appeared to maintain all of its weapons and communications arrays, the hum of its engines echoed throughout the hangar.
The speeder drove underneath the landing struts of the assault ship and stopped. Mohc stepped out and yelled at Lahid, "Get out!" Mohc reached into the speeder and grabbed his arm and pulled him out.
Boba Fett leapt out of a landing ramp from the assault ship and approached Mohc and Lahid. Lahid continued to struggle under Mohc's tight grip. Mohc, blaster drawn, looked about for any sign of Cheato and his stolen tank.
Just outside the hangar Cheato and his stolen tank wheeled up to its entrance. Cheato, head poking out of the tank's top hatch entrance, watched as Mohc shoved Lahid up the landing ramp to the assault ship and entered it himself with Fett following close behind.
Cheato accelerated the tank into the hangar.
The assault ship's engines began to howl as the landing struts lifted up from the permacrete ground and retracted. The ship slowly lurched forward past the husks of the dismantled ARC-170 starfighters, its pointed aft section directed at the hangar's entrance.
Inside the assault ship, Lahid was shoved by Mohc and Fett into a room with blue walls. It was decorated with the images of golden flowers and several viewports revealed the hangar outside. The hangar appeared to shrink as the assault ship slowly lifted in Nar Shaddaa's atmosphere. A table next to the viewports had a white cloth over it, plates, cups, rancor steaks, blue cheese, and exotic Felucian vegetables sat on it. Rippan was seated at the table.
Mohc let go of Lahid and approached the table. Boba Fett strolled past the table and sat in a chair facing the rest of the group. Rippan wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Lahid sighed and hung his head.
"Either you've brought me the best present, Admiral, or you've made me really angry," Rippan said.
"Jabba got to them before I could," Mohc replied, picking up and nibbling at a piece of blue cheese. He grimaced and threw it back on the table.
"Cheato is alive?" Rippan asked.
Mohc pulled his flask from inside his uniform, "He escaped."
"Good for Cheato, bad for you."
Mohc swigged.
Rippan glanced at Lahid, "Take a seat."
Lahid glared at him—then took a seat. He watched the old accalamator-class assault ship drift over the land hundreds of meters below them. They were still leaving the starport's landing pad area—rusted fuselages of starships were strewn everywhere and scrap scavengers occasionally stopped their gathering to look up at the enormous ship above them.
Lahid watched as Rippan stood up from his table and approached him. Rippan stopped, folded his arms, and stared him down. Lahid could now see a blaster pistol holstered at Rippan's side.
"You know, Cheato and I were once partners," Rippan said. "We never failed a mission. Not one." Rippan cracked his fingers, "Not even the assassination ones. I don't think you'll like it where we're going. You may even come to hate me."
Lahid spat on the floor.
Rippan reached for his blaster—an alarming beep sounded repeatedly throughout the room. He stormed out of the room with Fett following him, both headed for the bridge. On his way out he whispered hoarsely to Mohc, "Stay with him."
The beeping persisted as Rippan and Fett reached the bridge. They checked a viewscreen in the pit section of the bridge and saw the tank magnified and targeted by the assault ship's crew.
As the assault ship drifted overhead, the stolen TX-130T fighter tank hovered out from underneath the shadow of an overpass.
The officer commandeering the bridge looked out of the primary viewport and saw the tank down below. The tank's main turret raised and pointed itself at the starship's bridge.
"Cheato," Rippan chuckled. "Only Cheato."
"He doesn't need to analyze us to know we don't have a shield generator," said Fett.
Rippan turned to the bridge's pit crew and called out, "Power-up all weapon batteries and fire at will!"
The weapon batteries of the assault ship, already powered up, all turned their laser batteries, ion batteries, and warhead launchers at the lone tank—each waiting to enter the range of a weapons lock. The ship tilted its fore-section downward, its nose pointed toward the direction of the tank.
Rippan, Fett, and the rest of the crew assumed crash and battle positions as the ship's artificial gravity generator attempted to balance itself out against Nar Shaddaa's pull.
The ship neared closer.
Target locks beeped affirmative from weapon consoles all along the bridge, officers commanded the ship's gunners to fire.
The tank shot first. It's blue single cannon laser sang through the atmosphere at the assault ship and slammed into something on its underbelly—the engines of the acclamator erupted into brilliant flame and deactivated. The ship, already angled slightly at the ground, now dove faster toward it.
Cheato leapt out of the tank and ran, keeping a close look at the diving, flaming assault ship above. He watched as it attempted to pull up—it mostly succeeded but its nose still crashed into the tank and the overpass, tearing both objects into giant shards of wreckage. The assault ship's underbelly managed to touch down to the ground. The ship plowed through fields; sending dirt, piles of scrap, and a few starfighter fuselages everywhere. Boba Fett, Rippan Torn, and the bridge crew tumbled and fell from their positions, sparks spewing from controls everywhere—before finally coming to a stop. A half-kilometer canyon of mud, flame, and debris littered the streak behind it.
Rippan, Fett, and the bridge crew stopped tumbling.
Lahid sat up, smoke was everywhere. He looked around. Panting, he stood up and ran. Mohc stood from where he was and tackled Lahid.
Fett stiffly rose from his position and tilted his head until it cracked. Rippan rolled back up and saw his blaster lying on the floor. He reached for it but a boot came down on it. Fett turned to see Cheato standing above Rippan, his stolen blaster rifle pointed at his head.
"Why can't you just slag off and die?" growled Rippan.
"You first," Cheato said. The Rodian looked at Fett next, "You second. Get up!"
Both Rippan and Fett stood. Cheato kept his blaster rifle pointed at Rippan's face.
"Your situation looks pretty damn hopeless," Rippan said. "You have no back up, no escape route. And I have the only bargaining chip."
"Where is he?"
Rippan smiled and retrieved a comlink from his belt. "Mohc, bring him in."
Rippan put the comlink back in his belt, "Nice guy. Looks almost human."
"You don't."
"Well you certainly don't either."
Cheato saw his reflection in Fett's visor. He heard the sound of two people approaching behind him, one of them obviously being forced. From the doorway came Mohc holding Lahid with a blaster to his head.
"Back where we started, Cheato," Rippan said. "Your friend or the mission? If you drop the blaster we let him live."
Cheato stared, "Mohc, what has this Zinel offered you? You knew didn't you? That he's a Zinel-Torn?"
"All that is behind us now," Rippan said through gritted teeth.
"He'll betray you!" Cheato's voice rose and his glare at Rippan sharpened. "Just like everyone else."
"Is this true?" Mohc asked.
"What's true is that in 48 standard hours, you and I will have more money than the Emperor himself," said Rippan. "And Cheato here will have a lightly attended funeral. With Tsen and a few whimpering Rebel operatives in attendance.
"So," Rippan continued. "What are you picking, Cheato? Two targets. With enough time for only one shot. The hostage or the mission?"
"Kill him," Cheato said. "He means nothing to me."
Everyone in the room tensed. Rippan said, "See you in hell, Cheato." Rippan nodded at Mohc and he and Fett ran for a doorway. Mohc's finger almost squeezed the trigger—but Cheato whirled and blasted him several times. Cheato spun back around and fired. His lasers hit a closed durasteel door. Cheato rushed for the control panel but a blast door slammed shut over the closed one. He toyed with it anyway. All of the viewports in the room suddenly went dark as durasteel clamped over them.