Chapter 35: Target

Reformation Year 980.01.13
Florrum

Even though she was comfortable in small, cramped spaces, hiding in a secret compartment under a bunch of explosive bottles was not what Rikkat considered a swell time. The others had been gentle shifting her around, at least, but her pale violet fur was still rumpled and making her twitchy. She woke her datapad up and checked the feed from the hidden holocams on the outside of the crate.

They were inside the Hutt's base; she could tell from the eye-aching false darkness. Good. Her escape hatch was concealed from view by the cluster of tall people in armour. All she could see in in that direction were a bunch of legs and Darwic's crossed fingers giving her the sign to wait.

This was such a bad time to get an itch on her foot! She gritted her teeth and wriggled her toes in her boot and counted seconds.

Xe knew the moment Scogar's group entered the Hutt's compound: their comm channel went from active mode to unavailable as the shields locked down. Phel patted Kate's dome as the droid booped in concern. "Don't worry, Kate, we planned for this."

As if on cue, a gentle nudge, like someone brushing xir shoulder, came through the bond xe and Scogar had set up. It was taking some time to get used to, and Phel wasn't entirely certain xe could sustain shielding on xir end, but it served a temporary purpose. With a bit of effort, Phel managed to respond to xir friend's mental touch. It was clumsy, but all xe needed for now was to be able to hear.

Kate signaled her readiness to pilot if necessary. Phel grinned inside xir helmet. "I'll let you know. Keep the comms line open."

Outside, concealed in a valley outside sensor range from Porla's base, Hondo's people were prepping the speeders. Phel dragged one of Feid and Pulkka's rebuilt kludge-mobiles out of the Veeka's hold and began the startup sequence.

One of Hondo's people - Grekk, xe thought, although it was difficult to tell in the anonymizing gear - leaned on the control shaft of their bike.

"They in?"

Phel nodded. "Let's get moving."

Darwic waited until Bastra whispered, "Cover's good here, go," before ducking under everyone's elbows. The chaos of ductwork made for real shadows to hide among, and he waited there until the guards had passed. Up the tunnel, he caught a flutter of motion as Rikkat darted away.

There had been four guards posted inside the main entrance. Darwic slunk back the way they had come and peered around the corner. Make that five guards, and the fifth, a massive Gamorrean, wasn't going to be so easy to deal with.

He pulled his datapad out and checked the signals. Six of the eight shock charges he'd dropped as they had entered were showing blue; the other two must have got stepped on. No matter: six was enough. Darwic grinned, pulled his blaster, and pressed the det button with his free hand.

There was a quiet snap of activating current, and choked cries echoed up the duracrete corridor.

Rikkat gave Darwic thirty seconds - enough time for Porla's people to react - before sliding out of her hiding space. None of the guards noticed her dodge off the footpath.

Thick durasteel pipes and cabling running down the side corridor offered easy access to the ceiling space above the hanging light fixtures, where people rarely looked. She shimmied along the thickest pipe, occasionally pausing to get her bearings.

A meter and a half below her, guards patrolled like nothing was about to go wrong. One of them snickered to their companion about Red Sun losing more than just some expensive booze. Rikkat grinned, her goggles pinching around her eyes.

She eyed the movements of the guards as they patrolled three meters below her perch. So far, there was no indication that Darwic had been noticed. All she needed was to find a route to the roof and the generator there. According to Hondo's weirdly drawn map, the lifts looked like the best option, unless she could find a convenient vent shaft. She wasn't too concerned, either way: Rikkat was an excellent climber, and it wouldn't be the first time she'd hitched a ride on a lift car.

Rikkat tucked her datapad back into the case she'd made for it. Six levels up was quite a climb, and she'd be needing both hands.

A tug on her boot made her stop. Rikkat bit back a swear as she looked over her shoulder and saw a Kowakian monkey-lizard playing with the straps on her right foot. Of course there'd be a karking monkey-lizard in a Hutt base!

"Shoo!" she hissed, shaking the thing off her leg. "Go bother someone else!" It hopped back along the pipe out of her reach as she swatted at it.

Something else yanked at one of the cargo pockets on Rikkat's coverall, and she nearly yelped aloud in surprise. Another monkey-lizard danced away as she turned, its sticky little fingers clutching one of her ion charges.

"Give that back! It goes boom!" Rikkat reached as the second monkey-lizard put the thing in its mouth, sharp little teeth clacking against the metal casing. At least the bomb was too large to fit down its scrawny throat, but while she was distracted, the first monkey-lizard pounced, skittering over her and putting one filthy paw right in her ear. "Hey! Whoa-" she scrabbled for purchase on the aged metal as she started to slide off. Now both the monkey-lizards had ion charges filched from her pockets! "Not treats! Those are not treats!"

The first monkey-lizard looked at her with its beady little eyes gleaming in the shadows and gave a hoarse, mocking snicker before they scampered off along the pipe.

"Fuck!" she whispered in desperation. She needed all of the charges to make sure the generator went down! Digging the toes of her boots against the top of the pipe and muttering curses, Rikkat scuttled after the creatures.

Rattatak

It was still dark, sunrise barely lightening the sky beyond the hive-shaped domed roofs, when her master shook her awake. The teenager blinked blearily at him a moment, trying to make sense of his rushed explanation as he tossed her day clothes - still damp from the evening's wash - into her arms.

"I don't understand. A… ship?"

He paused in the rectangle of dim, butter-coloured light spilling through the door and looked back at her. "They need our help, Asajj. Hurry!"

The clingy chill of her tunic and trousers did little to help her wake up. Asajj grimaced as she tugged the cowled wrap over her shoulders. Master Ky - not like her former slave master, Hal'Sted, but a teacher, and her friend - rarely woke her up so early without reason. Usually it meant one of the local warlords was up to something nefarious that had to be stopped.

But a ship? In the six years since the Jedi had been marooned on Rattatak, he'd often spoken wistfully of taking her back to Coruscant and the Temple, to train with her age-mates. To see the galaxy beyond the walls of this city which was more than half abandoned already.

If there was a ship landing and it didn't belong to a warlord, well, it would soon.

That woke her up enough to not trip on her way down the stairs.

One of their friends, Tychaaq, was waiting by the door, impatiently shifting his feet; he must have been the one to alert Master Ky. Her master snuffed the single dim lantern, waiting a moment for their eyes to adjust to the darkness before leading the way out into the alleys.

Even though she had a million questions buzzing around in her head, Asajj kept quiet. It wouldn't do for Warlord Biikann's sentries to hear citizens rustling about before sunup, and Master Ky wouldn't answer her anyway: he always preferred active demonstrations and letting her try to figure things out for herself.

Her breath caught as she saw where Ky was leading them: the culvert under the walls was a passage they only ever used in emergencies. The less Biikann's people knew of its existence, the better.

Six more people, mostly slaves they had freed and a laborer who acted as a spy for them within Biikann's fortress, were waiting for them in the dark tunnel. Master Ky sighed.

"Sonajj, doesn't your shift start soon? You'll be missed."

The barrel-chested man shook his scarred bald head. "If this is our one chance to get you home-"

Ky's voice was fond even as he led them down the tunnel around stone walls that had been carefully angled to make the culvert appear sealed. "Getting me off Rattatak is less important than seeing an end to Biikann's rule here. If that woman gets a ship, she'll park it over your heads and you can forget about any freedom of movement so long as she can barter fuel from one of the others."

Asajj swallowed hard. The cross streets visible from the walls were risky enough; Biikann's sentries would take potshots at anything that moved. The thought of them being able to hover above the city and terrorize people into paying for 'protection' made her feel ill.

The sun hadn't quite crested the horizon when they emerged onto the plateau. Twiggy scrub clinging stubbornly to the rocks concealed the culvert from view; between the walls and the short drop to the desert pan was a barren stretch of dusty rock. Ky gestured Asajj to his side. "Remember what I taught you?"

She let her eyes slide closed as she extended her senses, seeking the sleepy malice of the sentries. Three of them were within visual range of their exit. With a gentle push, she redirected their attention towards something within the walls. Ky's hand gripped her shoulder briefly in approval as he passed, leading the group across the open space. Asajj maintained enough attention distracting the sentries to bring up the rear, letting herself drop and roll the three meters to the ground below and coming up covered in camouflaging dust.

One of the former slaves, a wiry woman named Ommo, patted her on the back. "Good work, little hawk." Embarrassed at the praise, Asajj merely tipped her head to the side in thanks and followed Master Ky out onto the dull, cracked clay.

Sonajj was right that they needed to get Master Ky home. The human was suffering from lacking the treatments needed to keep the pests from feeding on his blood; when their supply ran low, he insisted Asajj use it, that the Force would help him. But although he did a good job hiding it, the diseases the parasites spread had sapped his strength; his hair was thinning prematurely and the whites of his eyes had a yellowish cast that didn't bode well. If the Warlords didn't kill him for ruining their iron grip on the cities, the planet itself would finish the job.

He pulled the group into the shadow of a gully that hadn't seen water since the last monsoon season, the three weeks of the year where everything turned to treacherous mud and blood-sucking pests rose in deadly clouds to spawn the next year's brood. "Asajj, I want you to keep alert for enemies, anyone. They'll see that coming down from halfway across the planet." He pointed up to a thin streak of what looked like fire in the sky, reflecting the light of the rising sun. "They're landing badly, I need to help them or they'll crash. Everyone else, keep a lookout."

The others formed a rough perimeter, pulling stolen blasters or hacked-down force-pikes from under their wraps as Asajj closed her eyes, focusing the way her master had taught her. There was the streak in the sky, growing nearer with each passing second, and distantly she could feel life onboard. She followed the threads of awareness tied to it, growing stronger and more numerous with each passing second. Most of them would be from Biikann's fortress. "They'll be here soon," she whispered, not wanting to disturb Master Ky's concentration. When she spared the energy to glance at him, he seemed serene, kneeling in the dust with his hands lax on his knees. The tension of what he was doing, however, was a tangible thing; she could almost see him straining against the descending ship, preventing it from spinning out of control. The whine of the ship's engines was growing louder, and what had been a tiny streak in the darkness was now a fireball heading right toward them.

A surge from the direction of the city brought her to her feet, moments before the howl of speeder bikes reached them across the pan. "Ky!"

The ship roared past overhead, the hot downwash of its thrusters flattening them all to the dirt. Asajj pushed her hood back in time to see the ship set down, wobbling badly, between their group and Biikann's approaching forces.

The ship's gangway lowered and four people emerged to face the approaching war-party, humming force-pikes held at the ready. Master Ky tugged Asajj to her feet and ran forward. "Come! To arms, my friends!" he called, drawing his lightsaber.

Florrum

The corridor sloped noticeably downward as soon as the surface changed from duracrete to natural stone, and Obi-Wan found himself surreptitiously studying the structure. Porla had tucked his throne room beneath the main building, taking advantage of the natural subterranean protection. Side passages left over from when these levels had been part of the original mine had been partially filled with duracrete to create decorative archways which could be sealed off by gates.

The further they went, the louder the music got. A pair of courtiers, high on some sort of spice, staggered giggling out of their path when one of the guards leading the group snarled at them. Obi-Wan had never been so glad for a helmet's air filters.

Porla the Hutt lounged on an ornate hoversled designed to look like a reclining throne. On the grated floor in front of him, six dancers of various species and genders wearing body armour bedecked with flowing scarves spun and leapt about, clashing with curved blades that appeared to be genuinely sharp. The guards locked their pikes in front of Hondo, preventing their party from entering the performance area until the dancers were finished.

As they followed the guards into the pool of light glaring down from overhead, Obi-Wan's comm pinged. The bounty hunter they'd picked up, Caliiga, sounded nervous. "Don't stand on that grating-"

Hondo was also seeking his attention; between that and keeping an eye on Porla's guards, he was already stretched thin. So he might have been a bit short when he interrupted her. "We do know how to deal with Hutts, thank you." There was definitely a hint of exasperation coming from her, but what had she been expecting anyway?

Ulic's voice whispered in his mind, I'll keep an eye on her, you take care of business.

Thanks.

"Our portly friend doesn't appear to be in the most gracious of moods," Hondo said, sounding amused.

"Good, get him mad, he'll make mistakes."

Hondo stopped with the toes of his boots just at the edge of the trapdoor; if Porla was disappointed, the Hutt didn't show it. He seemed relatively young for a Hutt, although that was still a span that could be measured in the high triple-digits.

"Riggu Sowani!" Porla snarled, deliberately dropping the honorific from the end of the title. Hondo chuckled gleefully on their private connection and Obi-Wan grinned.

[You must be very confident to present yourselves to me. What do you want?] Despite being in a foul mood, the Hutt still gestured a translator droid forward as a general courtesy. Hondo took pleasure in dismissing the droid, making Porla puff up in outrage.

"Oh, mighty Porla," Hondo began, flourishing an elaborate bow that must have taken him ages of practice in front of a mirror. Obi-Wan merely folded his arms; none of the rest of their team bothered looking like anything more than set dressing. "Red Sun wishes to extend its sincerest apologies-"

Obi-Wan tuned out the rest. Porla's chubby fingers had twitched in what was definitely a hand-sign, and a number of onlookers were beginning to move in on them. He reached out with the Force and felt baffled frustration from Phel that the shields were still up.

Where was Rikkat?

A thick glob of Hutt saliva splattered on the grating at Hondo's feet: Porla was disgusted with them, but waiting to hear if Hondo could offer what Porla really wanted, first.

"Get ready," Obi-Wan murmured into the team's pickup. Hopefully Rikkat and Darwic would hear it, too.

[You only know of my interests because of the bounty I placed on your operative, the human known as Gav Davine,] the Hutt growled. [If your offer is sincere, you will offer me Davine's head along with your gift.]

And their time was out. "Kill it," Obi-Wan said.

Nothing changed. Someone among their team muttered, "Oh, kriff."

Hondo feigned regret as much as one could through an expressionless mask. "It saddens me greatly to say it, but Davine is far too valuable an agent to simply execute, mighty Porla. You placed a bounty on him in order to get the attention of our leadership; their attention you now have, as well as their response. They are willing to work with you-"

Porla's fingers twitched again and his people moved in, herding them away from the crates and toward the trapdoor in the floor.

[Then, little flunky, I suggest you contact your superiors and tell them that the price for my cooperation is much higher than what they've offered.] Porla's smile was vicious. [Except you can't contact them, can you? I'll have my beastmaster retrieve the comm units from your corpses.]

"Any time now!" Obi-Wan gritted.

"Any change?" Feid asked for what felt like the hundredth time. On the other end, Phel made an irritated sound.

"Nope. I think something's wrong, he just checked on me but didn't say anything. They're okay for now, but the shutdown team's delayed."

The Zabrak swore under her breath and tapped the repulsor control. Their entire attack group was sneaking at a crawl through the drained canyon network, and the urge to pop up over the edge and put some speed on across the plain was making Feid's skin crawl. "C'mon, c'monnn. Ugh, this is killing me."

In the Sunflare's copilot seat beside her, Pulkka chuckled, but the humour was tense. "Is not."

"Is too."

"Hitting the canyon wall would kill you."

"You're no fun."

They had already passed into range for the attack run, and were running out of room before they were in range of Porla's sensor net. What was going on in there?

Being crispy-fried didn't improve a Gamorrean's smell. Darwic wished his usual helmet was as good at filtering air as the Red Sun gear was. He finished dragging the corpses into concealment on the side of the corridor and settled in to wait. It wasn't much longer before he heard Bastra's quiet, "Get ready."

Darwic's fingers itched to get on top of slicing the heavy electronic locks, but he was certain it would set off an alarm. "Hey Rikkat, I'm in position. What's the status?"

Swearing, Rikkat slithered down another pipe, wobbling and nearly falling on the head of one of Porla's Nikto guards three meters beneath her. At a curve ahead, one of the damn monkey-lizards waved the ion charge with a massive grin on its ugly little face, brazenly taunting her. Oh! If only she could shoot the thing without giving herself away!

She had no idea where the monkey-lizards were running to, or where she even was now. Not too much further underground, at least; but outside of the general-use tunnels, Porla's base was a labyrinth. It was only by sheer luck that the Squib had managed to keep a sight line on the monkey-lizards at all.

Rikkat scuttled along the ductwork after her stolen bombs, almost sobbing with frustration. It wasn't fair!

She followed them through a gap in the wall, into a room bathed in an unpleasant dry heat, and watched as the two monkey-lizards dropped to the floor. "Get back here!"

At least there weren't any guards in here. Rikkat slid down the pipe and pulled her blaster. She'd have to be careful not to hit the charges, but it wasn't too late-

She ducked into the partial shadow behind a humming generator and was bowled over by a twin monkey-lizard ambush. The blaster went flying from her fingers before she could shoot, and she yelped as she hit the floor. It wasn't fair!

The monkey-lizards dashed away laughing raucously and she picked herself up with a groan. Porla was gonna kill them all for sure. A cackle echoing among the confusion of machinery sent a shiver of dread through her core. The monkey lizards had barely made a sound this whole time, why-?

Rikkat patted at her pockets, growing frantic. Those little thieves! Everything was gone, including-

One of the monkey-lizards let out a delighted shriek and they barreled out of the shadows past her. The ion charge detonator was clamped firmly in one's mouth as they scampered back up the wall.

"Oh no, no, get back here!"

The monkey-lizard paused at the top of the pipe to look at her and waved the detonator overhead like a beacon. "Rundee creespa! Boska!" it cackled.

Rikkat's heart lodged in her throat. This was the generator room. The damn monkey-lizards had left the ion charges…. "Fuck!" She scrambled up the pipes, making for the tiny gap in the wall as fast as she could.

The wall had been shielded. As soon as she squeezed through, she caught Bastra's voice hissing, "Any time, now!"

Something small and beeping flew past her head through the gap; the resulting explosion knocked her off the pipe with a shriek.

All the lights went out.

A jolt from Bastra was all the warning Phel had, a bare moment before the shimmering dome of the shields went down. Xe squeezed the throttle, sending xir bike shooting towards the open entrance to the base's courtyard. "Let's do this!"

Rattatak

Quinlan had to admit that their landing might have been significantly sloppier had it not been for the sudden sense of someone else actively helping him keep the shuttle from flipping on its side. He aimed the ship in the general direction of that sense; beside him in the copilot's seat, Siri made slight course corrections, leaving him free to adjust their descent angle. Burning up in Rattatak's atmosphere was not part of the flight plan!

As it was, the speed of their descent was superheating the air around the ship, and if it hadn't been for the heavy armour plating and insulation, the cockpit would have been notably toasty. The shockwave from breaking the in-atmosphere sound barrier was probably rattling a few windows.

If they had windows here?

Focus, dammit!

There was another Force user on the planet below, helping them land, and he was almost entirely certain that it was the missing Jedi Master. If he was right, then their only real problems were going to be repairing that stabiliser and getting past the mercenaries again.

Simple, really.

There was a small cluster of people sheltering in the bowl of a long-dried streambed, and a much larger cluster of people on speeder bikes, already firing shots that dissipated into the shuttle's shields. Personal blasters weren't much good against a ship, but they would definitely do a lot of damage to the people in the ditch. Working together, Quin and Siri brought the ship in for a landing on the cracked plain between the two groups.

On his feet and moving as soon as the landing gear tasted dirt, Quin spoke for the first time in half an hour. "Masks on, kiddos, this is gonna be ugly." His padawan rolled her eyes at him before pulling the goggles over her face.

They emerged from the ship into a hail of blaster-fire, force-pikes humming and ready. Lasers didn't reflect from the plasma staffs so much as strike and fizzle out, the energy absorbed into the blades and repurposed. Aayla and Xiaan both faltered in surprise for a moment at the difference; Aayla recovered first, drawing her blaster with her off hand and snapping a pair of stun shots at the nearest mercenaries.

The familiar screech of a lightsaber cut the air; the blue-bladed weapon whipped past them, slicing the control vanes from three of the speeders before returning to its owner's hand. Quin barely spared a glance before his attention was drawn back to defending the ship.

It only took about five minutes, but the fight felt much longer. Xiaan was sobbing when it was over, tears pooling in her goggles as she yanked them free of her face. Siri was immediately at her side, soothing her and talking her through it.

The dark-haired human, dressed in ragged desert robes but still carrying himself with a quiet dignity Quin recognised, motioned to his companions to pick over the mercenaries' corpses for useful weapons and gear. He eyed Quin searchingly. "Is it her first battle?"

Quin nodded but kept his attention on the horizon and the lumpy blob that had to be the nearest city. "What are the odds they'll send more when these don't report in?"

"Ohhh, high. How much work does your ship need?"

Aayla had immediately returned to the ship when the fighting had ended. Quin shrugged. "My padawan is running the diagnostics now. I'll admit, I thought it would be a lot harder to find you, Master Narec."

The other man rewarded his guess with a double-take. The pale girl who had come up beside him, all skin and bones, narrowed silver eyes at Quin.

"You're here looking for me, specifically?"

Quin tugged his mask off and winced at the acrid bite of the planetary atmosphere in his sinuses. "You didn't leave a lot of clues behind to tell people where you'd gone, you know."

Narec stared at him. "I didn't think they would send anyone. The Force gave me a vision of my next padawan." He wrapped his arm around the skinny teenager's shoulder protectively. "The Council told me it was risky and that I shouldn't expect support."

Siri snickered, muffled by her mask. "Guess it's a good thing we didn't stop to ask permission before going."

"You didn't-" Narec looked stunned.

Quinlan shrugged cheerfully and turned to acknowledge Aayla as she emerged from the ship.

"Bad news: it's the stabiliser. Good news: it's only the stabiliser, and it can be fixed in situ. Bonus: we have what we need in the spare parts." She sounded pleased through the mask.

Narec's padawan was staring at Aayla with intense curiosity. He noticed and smiled ruefully. "This is my padawan, Asajj. And I guess you already know who I am."

Quinlan made their introductions; Siri gave a quick wave in acknowledgement as she headed into the ship for the toolkit. "I don't want to be accused of rushing you, but are you prepared to return to Coruscant with us, or do you have other plans?" he asked. The other man's relationship with the Rattataki felt distinctly like that of a leader. Narec might easily choose to remain involved in whatever conflict they were locked into here.

Narec had his mouth open when one of the Rattataki women butted into the conversation. "With all respect, Master Ky, you're ill. We don't always have access to the anti-parasitics for him, and when he does, he gives them to the girl," she explained. Her expression reflected exasperated understanding. "He and Asajj have made a huge difference in fighting the warlords, but he can't fight if he's too sick to walk."

The Jedi Master rolled his eyes fondly; it was clearly an old argument they'd had several times. "The Force-"

"Can only do so much," Quin interrupted softly. "Sometimes you just have to admit when help is needed."

Siri scoffed. "That's hilarious coming from you, Quin. Xiaan, can you give me a hand? We're going to have company of the unfriendly variety shortly."

Narec motioned with his chin to the rising clouds of dust in the distance, lit like flames by the sunrise. "We see them. You do your work, we'll hold them off. And-" He hesitated, looking at his padawan. She tilted her head and gave him such an arch look that Quin had trouble holding back a laugh.

Narec gave a reluctant nod. "We will be going with you when you leave."

Florrum

K'lor'slugs were vicious and voracious creatures; even hatchlings would take a chance on devouring a fully-grown humanoid if presented the opportunity. Porla was greatly looking forward to feeding the Red Sun's people to his pets, not least because he had no intention of cooperating with them. Of course, he would graciously accept their lavish gift - and just where had they acquired six dozen bottles of Arravakken racuî? - but they needed to be separated from it first. He was actually quite pleased that Red Sun's speaker had stood back from the trapdoor: less risk of the crates being lost to the k'lor'slugs.

He didn't really expect them to offer Davine. Knowing the human pest was nothing more than an agent was useful information. But Porla would be able to contact their leaders directly once he had their communicators in hand.

Then the lights went out entirely and the emergency generator shutdown alarm abraded Porla's sensitive hearing. His guards, including the bodyguards concealed among his court, were already herding the Red Sun flunkies toward the trapdoor. Impatiently, he slammed his fist on the button.

Nothing happened.

No screech of deliberately ill-maintained mechanisms, no terrified screams. The hatch wasn't even powered, a vintage spring-loaded mechanism he'd personally had stolen from an archaeological site on Korriban. Porla slapped the button again, to no avail.

"Keepuna!" he bellowed through the outcry of surprise and panic. [Kill them all!]

His bodyguards were already surrounding his throne, guiding it through the rear doors into Porla's private receiving room behind the throne room while they fired into the crowd of grey-armoured mercenaries. Whoever had commissioned their armour had paid top credit for the work: the blaster bolts that struck home rebounded from the glossy surfaces to leave carbon scoring on the floor and walls. The places that had been hit lost their sheen, some sort of ablative coating. But once the coating was gone, the armour wouldn't be so effective. Porla smiled grimly at the idea and let the guards escort him out.

[Captain Nibu!]

The Sullustan bowed. [My Lord?]

Porla considered his options. [Have the guards remaining in the throne room retrieve Red Sun's offering. We will not allow it to be destroyed in the fight.]

His captain of the guard nodded briskly and got on the comm, issuing orders. Porla gestured to Majordomo Bazikh. [Tell our assessor to take the tunnel to the hangars and wait for us there; we will require her expert eye.]

[Of course, my Lord!]

It took every bit of attention Obi-Wan could spare to keep the trapdoor mechanism from snapping open. Distantly, he could tell there was a fight going on around him; Hondo, canny as ever, had dragged him out of the line of fire.

It felt like the ancient springs were actively fighting him, and Obi-Wan gave up on holding it still and snapped the heavy metal coils off their connecting bar. Hondo caught him as he sagged from the sudden release of tension.

"Are you alright, my friend?"

"The k'lor'slugs will be going hungry today," he gasped, dragging one of his blasters free. "Let Porla's people take the crates out, I'll follow and put the fear of Davine into them."

Hondo cackled and passed the message on.

Dodging blaster-fire and fleeing courtiers, Obi-Wan found a hiding spot near the rear door behind a column and waited for the last crate to be dragged past. In the receiving room, Porla was instructing the guards to connect the cargo sleds behind his repulsor chair while another guard waited at an open bay door for a transport.

A manic grin spread across his face under the mask. Obi-Wan shot the bay door controls, bringing the hatch crashing down. Tossing one of their smoke bombs into the room, he turned his vox volume up and broadcast, "Davine sends his regards!" A flurry of shots forced him to duck back around the frame of the door as thick, noxious smoke filled the room. Then someone got smart and sealed the receiving room door in his face before he could fire on the crates.

"Blast." He sighed. With any luck, the Hutt would be forced to take his emergency escape route out onto the plains, leaving him vulnerable to their air support. "Feid, how's it looking out there?"

"Oh, we're just great. What took so long?" Feid brought the Sunflare around for a second pass on the shield generator. Zohli's first time as gunner was enthusiastic, but her targeting could use some work. "Timing, kiddo!"

"Sorry! Everything spinning is confusing!"

"Eyes on the targeting array, Zoh."

Bastra sighed. "I'm not sure what took so long, but the Hutt's on the move. Send the word to have someone waiting on that back exit we noted."

"Got it. What do we do if the slug appears?" She took a leisurely arc around the outside of the base, letting Zoh and Dee on the cannons handle Porla's mounted sentries as they made a run in on Phel's team. The ground crew was making a mess of Porla's courtyard, and the main entrance was wide open, Darwic's diminutive form picking off easy targets.

"Roast him. I doubt Hutt hides are proof against turbolasers."

If Bastra thought the call was a little cold-blooded for him, he didn't sound it. Feid and Pulkka exchanged a look. "You got it, boss."

The lifts had stopped working. Of course they had; Bastra's people had disrupted the power generators. Caliiga cursed roundly under her breath as she hiked down the stairs. Porla kept all his most precious things deep underground, where even the visible building's total destruction wouldn't cause too much damage.

The trophy room must have been on a backup generator; all the static fields protecting his treasures were still active, although only the emergency lights were running. Caliiga pulled the shock collar from its pouch on her belt and eased through the room, stepping over laser sensors visible in her helmet's optics, toward the small office at the back.

A human woman with shaggy dark hair was frantically throwing things into a satchel, fretting under her breath.

Caliiga leveled her blaster, set to stun. "Pamah Thakkan?"

The woman spun with a shriek, her hands flying up. "How did you get in here?!"

She rolled her eyes. "I took the stairs. Are you Pamah Thakkan?"

"No! I… no! I'm Emi Gal-Maren!"

Caliiga frowned and ran the woman's image through the database uplink Tuuz had installed in her helmet. "What were you doing on Coruscant?"

Weeping, the woman stammered, "I-I was, I was, my boss, he sent me, I was, it was a-a-a, look, I'm just an assayer, he sends me to verify whether something is real, there was an auction and he wanted me to check, it was a bottle-"

"Shut up!" She gestured with the blaster and the woman gave a tiny scream and sank to her knees. The database was returning an ID confirmation, saying the woman really was Emi Gal-Maren, a forty-something professional acquisitions expert currently on contract with Porla the Hutt. "Does the Hutt have a slicer on his staff?"

"A-a a what?"

Force, she was tempted to stun the woman anyway. "A slicer!"

"Wh- no! Not that I know of? Why would he need a slicer? Porla doesn't deal in data theft. Please don't shoot me!"

"Ugh." Caliiga shoved the blaster back into its holster. "You probably want to find a new boss, I don't think your current one is gonna survive this."

Whatever makeup brand the woman was wearing was holding up admirably against the tears streaming down her cheeks. "But what should I do?"

With an angry shrug, Caliiga turned her back on Gal-Maren. "Whatever you want, I don't care."

Ulic was fairly certain his eyebrows were floating somewhere over his head. Their mysterious Sith was after a slicer? And somehow got the wrong target. That had to be embarrassing. He was a little disappointed that he couldn't be around when she reported back to her master; it would probably be immensely entertaining.

He tucked the information away and trailed Caliiga back up the stairs, but she didn't say anything more where it could be heard.

Porla may have been relatively young, but he was not a foolish Hutt. He had suspected Red Sun's visit to be more than what it seemed; the power generators going offline had been unpleasant, but not truly a surprise.

What was a surprise was that they'd managed it without their infiltrators being caught.

When their second lieutenant - or whatever it was, they didn't appear to even have a rank system - cut off Porla's primary escape route and then declared that they were acting on behalf of Davine, it was one more needle than Porla could tolerate.

[One thousand trugut for each dead Sunner! Ten thousand each for the ones with the capes,] he snarled. Only Captain Nibu and Majordomo Bazikh remained behind as the guards scrambled to get back through the doors into the throne room. The Hutt smiled at the Sullustan. [Mobilise the air defenses to destroy their ships, Captain.]

Nibu was already listening to his communications. One of the reasons Porla appreciated the man was his straightforwardness and his refusal to cower even when delivering bad news. So when Nibu shook his head and reported, [My Lord, they somehow slipped a fleet in under our sensors and took out our fighters as soon as the shield went down,] Porla didn't roar and threaten the man.

[These Red Sun are clever. They must have sent a spy to report on our weaknesses.] Porla rubbed beneath his lower lip. The gas cloud filling the room was making his eyes tingle. [We will let them have this victory, but return to crush them. Call my speeder around to the back exit.]

[Yes, my Lord.]

Although it was beneath him, Porla checked that Red Sun's offering was secured to his repulsor chair. He was determined to make some profit from this disaster. Nibu finished issuing commands and turned to hold the repulsor chair steady for Porla to settle in at the controls.

[Do you wish us to travel with you, my Lord?]

The Hutt considered the matter. The repulsor chair had speed, but it also had a low maximum weight draw. [No, make your way out separately and we will regroup at the southern holding.] He grinned. [And if you happen to kill a few Red Sun in the meantime, I will have credits for you.] Bazikh and Nibu bowed in acceptance.

His private escape route had formerly been a ventilation shaft running at an angle up to the surface, barely tall enough for even a human to pass through without crouching. Porla had had the route widened and a security hatch installed near the far end to keep pests out, and a pressure-plate security system to deter more cognizant intruders.

He was nearly to the exit when a close explosion shook a badly-fitted light fixture loose from the ceiling. Porla ducked as rocks and grit showered down. The lamp's cable snapped taut as it arced down to strike one of the crates; the crate wobbled on the edge of its sled before tipping over, almost graceful in its plunge.

[No!] A single one of those crates could be worth hundreds of thousands! The Hutt watched in horror as the priceless alcohol struck the floor.

The crate exploded violently, blue-green flames spraying sparks and shards of glass everywhere. Porla had just enough time to realise that racuî didn't ignite like that before the pressure wave from the explosion set off the electrical security grid around him.

Porla's base was a mess.

Caliiga paused at the edge of the throne room, watching Red Sun mercs hauling captive Hutt guards out, tending to courtiers' wounds, and tossing the dead into the open pit in the floor. The happy screeching of the starved k'lor'slugs made her wince.

There were a lot more Red Sun in here than they'd arrived with.

Davine was standing off to one side like a statue, his arms folded. Probably issuing orders and coordinating with whatever forces they'd brought. His friend Alim wasn't in the room, but another Sunner stood nearby with a blaster rifle held at rest; they tensed when she approached, but Davine raised a hand.

"Hunter."

She nodded to him. "I think you downplayed yourself when you said our purposes were aligned."

There was a soft, dry laugh that crackled in his vox. "Go big or go home. Find what you were looking for?"

Caliiga released an angry scoff and turned to watch Davine's people at work subduing an outraged Sullustan. Porla's majordomo had done them the favour of getting shot and was sitting quietly clutching his side, shock-pallid under his tattoos "No. Our target misdirected us." She took a chance and said carefully, "I'm not looking forward to reporting this to my boss. He's not the forgiving sort."

Davine's head tilted, still mysterious behind that expressionless mask, but managing to present an air of sympathy. "Nor is mine. I think we had far more success than you, though."

"Maybe your boss could use another lieutenant?" She wasn't serious, but getting more information on these people would possibly mean the difference between life and death if her Lord Sidious wasn't feeling charitable.

Davine was studying her, she could feel it. "Unless I'm much mistaken, your boss wouldn't take kindly to a defection. If you're even able to do so." He sounded amused.

She grimaced under her helmet. "No, you're right about that." Davine knew, she was certain of it. What that could mean for her - and for Lord Sidious - she wasn't certain. It was a fair bet he and whoever his master was were already well aware of Sidious, if they had remained hidden for so long.

Why reveal themselves now?

Caliiga was about to say something else when Davine stepped over toward one of his people who was trying to put binders on one of Porla's slaves. His vox was still on as he said, "No, we're letting them go."

The Sunner made some argument on their private comms that she couldn't hear, waving a hand broadly, and Davine shook his head emphatically as several of their number paused around the room to watch. "I said no. We're not here for profits. Take them back to their quarters, let them gather what they want to take with them, but we're not keeping them."

Interesting. Caliiga watched the Red Sun as they started treating the slaves with more respect, and tried to make sense of the new pieces of the puzzle they presented.

They found Rikkat lying miserably on the floor outside the generator room with a pair of Kowakian monkey-lizards sitting on her back and laughing uproariously at something only they could understand. The Squib perked up when she saw Hondo without his mask. "Hey boss. Uh. Sorry it wasn't just the shield generator?" She gestured to the monkey-lizards. "It was their idea. I guess."

Hondo gave the creatures a stern glare. "Pilf! Pikk! What did I tell you about the plan?"

Pikk jabbered at him defensively, and although Hondo only really understood one word in six, he got the gist of it. "They had the shield generator connected to the mains? Why would they do that?"

The pair of monkey-lizards exchanged a sheepish glance and Hondo nodded. "They caught you messing with it, didn't they?"

The pair started up a screeching argument, clearly trying to blame the other. Rikkat sighed. "Well, nice to know they were on our side. But can you make them move? I really want to get up now."

"Ugh." Obi-Wan tossed the helmet aside with relief and accepted a crushing hug from Zohli. "That could have gone better."

Pulkka helped him strip off the layer of armour, setting it aside on the table in the lounge for maintenance. "What happened to the Hutt? Someone took out a speeder near the escape tunnel, but nobody reported killing Porla."

Obi-Wan grimaced. "You know that pressure-plate security system we weren't sure about? It was an electrical net. Something set it off while he was in the tunnel."

"It's pretty gross," Phel added as xe pulled xir own helmet off. "I dunno how they're planning to clean that up."

"At least it's not our problem," Obi-Wan said with a laugh. "Hondo gets to deal with it. And the k'lor'slugs, but Porla's beastmaster is being cooperative." The heavily scarred Aqualish had been angry, but with Porla gone he hadn't seen any reason to fight; particularly when Hondo had informed him that the alternative was simply killing the creatures because nobody else knew how to handle them. "We did have one unpleasant surprise; Ulic probably knows more."

"Oh, do I ever." The spirit made himself visible, sitting slightly above one of the anchored stools at the kitchen island. He looked gleeful. "Our acolyte friend was looking for a slicer; at a guess, it sounds like someone hacked her Master's database."

Phel's eyes widened. "What I wouldn't give to know how they did that."

"I'd love to know where it is," Obi-Wan said. He nodded in thanks as Feid handed him and Phel cups of water.

"I'm guessing somewhere on Coruscant, based on what she said," Ulic said with a shrug. "Odds are good this Caliiga is one of Sidious' tools."

"Does that mean Sidious is based on Coruscant?" Obi-Wan wondered. People could move around, of course, and he hadn't considered where the Sith Lord might be. But it made a certain amount of sense that he would be in the heart of the Republic, weaving a net of deception in order to pull it all down at once.

"It's a fair bet," Ulic answered. "It wouldn't be his only base, but he'd want to have as much political access as possible."

Feid rested her elbows on the bar and prodded into Ulic's intangible back with the spoon she'd been using to stir her tea. "Is there a reason you're not talking about taking out this Sith Lord when he's having a nap?"

Ulic twitched and gave her an annoyed glare. Obi-Wan sighed and answered, "Because of the balance of power. This Sith Lord has not only inherited everything that's been passed down through the line of Bane - artifacts, holocrons, a thousand generations of hoarded knowledge and stored power - but also any political connections that have been developed over the years. He may have only one apprentice - and we know who that is - but he'll have several acolytes, one of whom I just met. She's at least as strong as I am. By myself, I don't have a chance of getting to him; odds are good that if I did manage it, he'd utterly destroy me."

Pulkka was the first to get it. "You think he'd do worse than kill you."

"We were warned by a trusted source that Sidious not only knows about Obi-Wan - Scogar," Ulic corrected himself. "But is interested in claiming him as another acolyte. For the Sith, death is a mercy, not a punishment, and they're not big on mercy. There are a lot of techniques Sidious could use to control someone's loyalty-"

"Techniques that I'm not yet trained to resist," Obi-Wan added. Zohli leaned in closer against his side and he gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze. "We're dealing with Sidious' political power right now, and Ulic is teaching me the rest. But if I'm going to face Sidious, I can't be doing it alone. I need allies."

"So when do you start that?" Deesix asked. The droid leaned in the doorway, doing a fair mimic of Feid's posture.

Obi-Wan glanced around the lounge; Ulic's expression was grim and the others had various expressions of concern. "I don't know."

"You want me to do what?"

Her new manager smiled at her - at least, she thought the woman was smiling. It was difficult to tell, with Bothans. "Rebuild the Senate's cyber-security infrastructure. Your specialty is slicing; we hired you to find the holes in the walls and not just plug them, but fix the whole thing."

Pamah ran a hand over her head and tugged at her messy bun. The Senate Bureau of Intelligence had an intensive cyber-security division she'd never known about. Lurali had explained a lot of it over carry-out food and beer, and Pamah was still trying to grasp the extent of it. They'd set her up with a new apartment, security, and an office in their Corellian division building, right down the hall from Lurali. They'd even sent people to collect everything she'd had to abandon in her apartment on Coruscant.

It was intimidating.

"Well." She took a breath. "If you want me to find the holes, I'll need to build a testing AI, which would require a private databank-"

Jhuvani chuckled. "Write up a requisition list and leave it with my secretary by the end of the day. You'll have what you need."

She blinked. "I'll also need a couple dedicated people to coordinate with-"

"Do you have names?"

A slow grin tugged at Pamah's cheek as she thought of Em-Toh and Jayken. "Yeah, actually I do."