Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars or Worm. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not created with commercial purpose. I make no money from it.

Chapter 10

=MK=

Part 5

=MK=

7 January 2011

Near Lisa's flat

Brockton Bay

Less than a minute, just fifty odd seconds, they could feel like an eternity, Lisa found out that truth the hard way. She also figured out another truth at the same time – brick walls weren't much of an obstacle for a squad of pissed off and determined mercenaries with access to tinker-tech lasers. Spears of bright light tore their way through the back of her building, slicing through brick and mortar with ease. A loud crash followed when a mercenary rammed the cut off section of the wall and stumbled into the street amidst a shower of dust and debris. Four more men followed him through, shouting at Tattletale to freeze. Instead of complying, Lisa dashed behind the nearest cover – a small delivery van, which would prove no obstacle for the lasers, her power promptly informed her.

"Tell me something I don't know!" Lisa snapped and fired twice over the hood of the van without bothering to aim, which was a good idea, because the mercenaries weren't playing nice either. They responded with a storm of lead, which promptly shredded the van, smashing its cracked windows all over her.

"Damn it, it can't all end this way!" Lisa shouted and dared to return fire, blindly. The incoming bullet-storm intensified, forcing her to curl near the engine – the only piece of the vehicle that could provide some real cover. Bullets pinged all around, she could hear the troopers approaching, and all she could do was clutch her blaster and hope for help.

Two things happened simultaneously – a cylinder bounced over the roof of the van to land nearby, and a bullet glanced from the engine compartment and hit Lisa under the jaw, leaving a deep, yet shallow gash along the bone. She screamed in pain, then the world ended in light and thunder overloading her senses and sending her already straining power into an overload as it tried to catalogue and explain everything that was happening.

There was more sound and dazzling lights, before a tall, figure clad in black appeared towering above Lisa. All she could see was the man's tactical rig, gas mask and the big gun aimed straight between her eyes. She blinked trying to process that, then the mercenary turned into a bloody pancake after a much larger, not to mention heavily armoured figure landed on top of him, squashing him like a roadkill. The Mandalorian looked around, then turned to face her and shook his helmet at her. He removed a hand from a gun, which looked larger than Lisa and retrieved some kind of package, which he promptly pressed at the side of her jaw, making it numb.

The Mandalorians had the best drugs, that much Lisa knew very well already, though a fresh demonstration didn't hurt. Less than a minute after their arrival, the team sent to extract her was back on board their transport and speeding towards the Mandalorian's base at the docks. Lisa herself was securely strapped into a seat with a combat medic fussing over her, though that wasn't really needed any more or so her power told her. The drugs had taken care of the shock already, and the Bacta patch was going to deal with the glancing hit, if she was lucky, there might not even be a scar to speak of… on the other hand, Mandalorians tended to dig scars… Lisa's brain came to a screeching halt at that thought. What the hell, power?, she screamed in her head.

=MK=

Coil's base

Brockton Bay

Third time was the charm, Coil groaned and massaged his temples. It took him that many deaths in throw-away timelines to figure out exactly how he died when trying to leave his base, as well as what happened to his office and most of the mercenaries he sent after Tattletale. Now he knew without a shadow of a doubt that his operation, and identity had been compromised for some time, that much was obvious really! It explained how the Mandalorians knew to assassinate him in his civilian identity, though it told him nothing about the reason. Was it simply bad timing? Were they about to move against him today anyway because of Tattletale, the little bitch? While academic, that theory was quite plausible. Once he got away and somewhere safe, he really needed to deal with the little pest before she could ruin something else, but first things first – he had to get away, Goddammit it all!

Coil came closest a successful escape while he tried to fight his way out surrounded by all available mercenaries in the base. The previous attempt ended with a droid screaming from the skies and detonating nearby, despite five troopers pumping as much firepower in it as they could. The infernal robot came perilously close anyway and when it detonated, sent sharp shards of fiery metal into Coil's face and side, leaving him writhing in pain on the ground. He terminated that timeline when power-armoured Mandalorians descended upon his mercenaries, who to their credit did their best to extract him.

The last attempt he made got a tiny bit further, only for his group to be incinerated from the air by a gunship with no regard for collateral damage.

So this was how it felt facing off against people as ruthless as he was, no regard for collateral damage and enough assets to bury him alive in soldiers and material. Coil really didn't like the repeated experience. Perhaps talking his way out was still in the cards? In fact, that was one of the reasons why he kept one timeline where he bunkered down in his base, while he used the second one in more and more frantic attempts to escape.

Needless to say, things weren't going particularly good in his first timeline. He had deployed more than two thirds of his mercenaries on the direct route between the main entrance and his office, which as it turned out, was the preferred insertion method for the Mandalorians. They either didn't have enough personnel at hand to assault through multiple vectors, or believed there was no point, after all their damned drones kept a close eye at what, as far as Coil could determine, were all his emergency exits. Or at least the general area and had good enough sensors to find him in real time every time he tried to escape. The practical effect was the same so it didn't really matter, did it?

It soon became clear why the Mandalorians chose to assault through a single vector – that way their grab-bag cape, the Sith, could act as a force multiplier. The massive armoured door, which was rated to stop high level blasters and brutes, lasted mere seconds, before the Chiss woman tore it off the wall, complete with the massive metal levers reinforcing it. The concrete walls bulged inside and exploded in a shower of dust and debris, the door twisted as if a giant hand took it and squeezed, before whatever held it, shoved it inside the well prepared kill-zone waiting for any and all uninvited guests. Explosives and automated weapons expended themselves futilely against the ruined slab of metal, then rockets and grenades came from the pitch-black darkness outside – the various sensors keeping eye on the entrance had died moments before the Mandalorians arrived.

Concussion, plasma, smoke and even cryogenic explosives turned the tunnel leading into the base into hell, sweeping away a lot of the defences. A moment later a blurry form dashed in, leaving a shock-wave in its wake, which shredded everything that survived the initial onslaught. A camera that survived a few moments longer than the rest showed armoured figures flying through the tunnel, not even touching its ravaged surface and simply bypassing any surviving traps.

His mercenaries met the Sith with a rain of solid lead, armour-piercing rounds, lasers, heavy machine guns and RPGs tinkered to deal with brutes. The Sith's charge paused in mid-air in the centre of the second killing zone. Everything thrown her way simply froze a few meters away from her floating form, then she blinked out of existence and an invisible shock-wave smeared the carefully laid ambush long before the first Mandalorian trooper entered the chamber.

Just like that, most of his mercenaries died with nothing to show for. Coil cursed colourfully and typed a particular self-destruct code. Collapsing the front half of his base on top of the bastards should buy him some time after all. He braced himself for the expected shock-wave and slammed a finger on the enter button of his keyboard.

Coil glared at his computer and slammed the button again, then a third time, before swearing viciously. The only answer he got was a dismissive beep echoing through the small vents, then he heard metalik scuttering sound, which was coming closer and closer by the second.

He really should have cut his losses and ran, Coil decided and left his office in such a hurry as if the Slaughterhouse Nine were chasing him. More and more beeps and clicks came from the vents all around him, mercenaries called demanding orders, gunfire echoed from the front of the base only for it to cut abruptly, sometimes accompanied by short-lived agonized screams…

Another escape attempt while using all available mercenaries as a cover failed, this time thanks to a swarm of small robots falling from the sky, cutting through the armoured vehicles he had ready for a fast getaway as if they were made of butter, and then falling upon him and his men, butchering them without care. In fact, those things sounded just like whatever skittered through the vents, a realization that made him redouble his efforts to get away. At least now he knew how those things made their way through the various obstacles inside – they simply cut down everything in their way, though the question remained, how did they spoof the various sensors meant to warn him of something like that happening?!

Coil dismissed that thought – it was something to worry about when he was away and planning his next base.

If he got away, a small treacherous voice whispered at the back of his head.

No! It couldn't all end this way! He never lost, his power made sure of it! He turned around the corner and bounced off a wall that had no job standing in the middle of the corridor. Said wall hissed at displeasure and lashed at him with a clawed fist. The last thing Coil saw, besides a lot of stars was an ugly as sin reptilian face leering at him, then there was only pain and darkness.

Coil stumbled at what happened during his second timeline and promptly took a right turn a few intersections before running into that alien. Obviously he had been wrong, there were additional assaults coming either from his secret exits or making their own entrances. He promptly split reality again, heading in two different directions. Left turned out to be a bad, bad idea – a swarm of cutting, beeping death cut its way through the ceiling and fell upon him, butchering him within moments. So he went right, split the timeline and in one backtracked, while in the other continued to sprint towards the secondary vehicle pool.

Going back didn't pan out – he got a glimpse of large armoured figures, a flash of bluish light and that was that. Coil swore at his options being narrowed down, split time again, this time going on the left and right side of the corridor, readying his sidearm and hoping that the anti-brute bullets he had in the clip might be enough. He heard heavy footsteps approaching from behind and in one timeline turned to fight, while in the other ran for all he was worth.

It was that same ugly reptile running him down. Coil wasted no time and emptied the magazine at the beast, though most bullets splashed off a shield. Only the last two hit – one hit it in the shoulder, sparkling off the armour and barely staggering him, with the other tearing a large chunk of its cheek to reveal a row of very large, very sharp teeth. The beast roared in fury and Coil's world ended in a flurry of wickedly sharp talons before he had the chance to reload, much less put up a fight.

That made the villain run even faster, though after steadying himself for a few seconds, he split timelines again, turned around and opened fire, however this time he was careful to keep the last two bullets for a head-shot. He was barely able to overload the shield when what felt like a ton of armour and angry lizard crashed into him, crushing his chest and leaving him in a broken heap.

Third time's the charm? Coil split again, in one timeline running out in the small vehicle pool, while in the other he turned to face his pursuer for the third time. He got out three shots before a huge fist shattered his jaw, perhaps broke his neck as well, he didn't keep that timeline for long enough to figure it out.

Another split, which went even worse – he simply wasn't equipped to deal with something like that without more range and heavier weaponry! No! This couldn't be happening, he was so close! Coil screamed in his head, made another attempt to overcome the monster, then threw his weapon away, raised his hands and screamed: "I surrender!"

"No you don't!" The lizard hissed angrily at him. "I just began chasing you!" The words came in flat, correct English. "Run, fight, something!"

Coil did so in his second timeline – only to be eviscerated for his troubles. He tried it again and again, only to figure out the hard way that the alien was simply too strong, fast and well trained, not to mention that his armour made him all but invulnerable to everything the villain had at hand. With an outright escape out, he was left with the option of talking his way out of this mess, or an attempt to get away when there were no such monsters breathing down his neck.

=MK=

Part 6

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7 January 2011

Coil's base

Brockton Bay

Swarms of saboteur droids crawled, skittered and flew through the large underground facility tearing into everything that even vaguely looked like an explosive device or a computer, seeking to disable the former and tear out the data-cores of the latter before they could be wiped out. The few unfortunate mercenaries who found themselves in their way met gruesome end under pincers and cutters meant to disable modern vehicles. Coil had almost a full platoon of troopers on site when the Mandalorians struck and only six of them lived long enough to try and surrender. Those lucky few received stun-bolts to the face and their captors dragged the insensate bodies to an empty corner of the base where they could be more easily guarded.

"This was underwhelming." Aria muttered to herself while overseeing her people tear up anything and everything that might be of use from the base.

"The armoury is a bit of a find, Ma'am." The sergeant sent to secure it, reported. "We've got three crates of the laser attachment, various small arms and explosives to study as well as enough ammo to fight a short battle. If our translators are working right, some of the ordnance is marked as anti-brute and tinker-tech, so that should be of further interest."

"Mark it all for retrieval, the people back home would love to get their hands on those toys. Well done, we just earned ourselves a bonus." Aria congratulated. "Slicer One, any progress on the computer systems?"

"Low to moderate on the few systems the cutters didn't disassemble. We'll be examining the recovered data-cores back at the base." The slicer droid in charge of data retrieval responded. "I can confirm that a self-destruct sequence has been initiated, though has not executed. A second, limited one meant to bring down the front part of the base was entered as well, the cutters prevented them from executing. I've got access a moderate amount of encrypted data, currently no ETA on decryption. I'll need to examine the encryption protocols in detail first."

"I see. Carry on." Well then, Lisa had been right, requesting and deploying swarms of saboteurs had been the right call after all. The girl deserved a bonus as well – as Aria's Master continuously stressed, it always paid to reward good work, even when it was expected as a matter of course. While Aria herself had trouble seeing the logic – why the kriff people needed additional rewards for doing their bloody jobs in the first place, she could hardly argue with results… "Do we have Coil in custody?"

"I have him." A grumpy hissing voice came from her comm. Soon Aria could hear heavy footsteps approaching accompanied by meaty thuds, groans and subdued shouts of pain.

Grakxs' towering frame appeared from a side corridor dragging a thin, almost emaciated figure stuck in a body-fitting costume with a snake motif. "He didn't put any fight! I'll get couple of points at best for this sack of flesh!" The Trandoshan grumbled. "This place was supposed to have worthy prey that would make me the envy of the whole Trandosha!"

Aria had to bite the inside of her cheek not to grin. A pouting and sagging Trandoshan who was over two meters tall was a hilarious sight to behold.

"We have a dragon able to go toe to toe with a planetary siege engine equivalent and a serial suicide bomber on our to deal with list. Either of them would earn you tons of points, then there are other undesirables who simply need to die crawling all over this world." Aria said in her best soothing voice. "This is Coil I presume?"

"The perimeter drones hadn't caught anyone else matching the target's description try to get away. Just a few mercenaries they rammed." Grakxs shrugged. "We'll have to scan their remains and compare them to this one as well as biological material from the target." The Trandoshan sniffed at the man he had been dragging through the base by the foot. "He smells right anyway."

"That's good enough for me." Aria chuckled and turned her attention to the battered figure moaning on the ground. "Coil, I presume? You've been a bad, bad boy..." She took him within a telekinetic grip and pulled him up until the villain was face to face with her. "Thomas Calvert, also known as Coil?" She demanded, while pushing at his mind with the Force.

"This is a mistake!" He groaned. "I've been set up!"

Aria had to give him points for the performance. If it wasn't for the Force, she wouldn't have been able to tell if he was telling the truth or lying out of his ass.

"I don't appreciate being lied to." A bit of pressure and his right knee snapped like a twig making him scream his lungs out. "Lets try again. Are you Thomas Calvert, also known as Coil?"

"I'm Calvert, but I'm not Coil! I'm not a villain!" He begged. "I got kidnapped and set up!"

Aria rolled her eyes and this time shattered every bone from the toes to the knee on his other leg. She had to constrict his neck as well to stop the screaming.

"You won't like it if I have to ask you again." She peered at the captive.

"I'm Coil..." The crippled man babbled the moment Aria released her telekinetic grip of his throat.

"That's better. Was it so hard to tell the truth?" She smirked. "Now about those encrypted files you have on your system and the various contingencies you have in cause of capture?" He was trying to figure out how to lie to her again, the bastard. That simply wouldn't do. Aria snapped him with a bit of Sith lighting, making his body shake within her grip, every movement sending stabs of agony through his shattered bones.

=MK=

An hour later, Coil was sedated and bundled on his way to the FOB for further interrogation once he was out of shock and stabilized. The quick and dirty questioning did reveal some valuable morsels of information – he did have some rather nasty contingencies, which would have rendered the down-town part of the city uninhabitable for years. Those were primary barrels with chemical and biological weapons, some of them tinker-tech sourced. Aria had to call for specialists to get samples of those for study and properly dispose of them.

Another contingency, confirmed by the Slicers, was that Coil had the identities of most Empire 88 capes, complete with triggers to release them to the public blaming different organizations for it - from the PRT to the ABB, depending on which plan went into effect. That data did garner her attention, it would be a powerful bargaining chip, not to mention it saved the Knight's Intel section some work.

Then there were the troves of blackmail material, money, which offered some untraceable liquid capital to play with, as well as contacts, which were going to be useful, especially those who had provided Coil with tinker-tech equipment. Once they had exhausted their usefulness or proved unreliable, Aria could always hand them to the PRT as a gesture of good-will.

When all was said and done, this was a good day's work. Now she had to deal with the local authorities grumbling about all the collateral damage caused by targeting Calvert's home, office and various favourite spots, which was going to be a bother...