Mid Rim
Mohrg System
Mohrg 3
Imperial Army Head Quarters located in Mohrg Prime

A great white and black symbol hung on the wall. It was a variant of a roundel that consisted of concentric six-pointed cogs rather than circles, alternating black and white.

The Imperial Crest.

Three men stood beneath the great Crest. One, on the left, was relatively young and clean shaven. He had short black hair and was dressed in a gray-green Imperial Army uniform with a blaster pistol holstered on his hip. On the right stood a man of similar height in a white tunic. Ordinarily, each man would have been considered above average in height, yet they were more than a head shorter than the man in the middle, Agent Sluka. Malgo was dressed in his black ISB uniform with no hat or helmet, and a blaster pistol holstered on his hip. The absent helmet exposed his thick black hair and steel blue eyes. He was young, perhaps twenty years old, making him born a year or two after the beginning of the Clone Wars.

The three men were silently looking down in front of them at an evidence table which was topped with a number of items lain in a row.

On the left end of the table sat the lightsaber hilt which the Cerean had wielded in battle against Agent Sluka and the squad of Imperial Army troopers under his command. Beside the hilt sat the Cerean's robes in a neatly folded pile, blood still visibly spattered across the fabric. Beside the robes sat a pair of boots and beside the boots sat two small items, no larger than a human thumb, memory sticks. On the end of the table sat a black attaché case with a red and black warning:

Property of the Imperial Security Bureau.

Notably absent from the table was the curved Shoto hilt recovered from the Cerean. The hilt which had belonged to Agent Sluka's father.

"I've seen no logs or reports that we will have a visitor today," said the officer. "Are you sure one will arrive?"

This man is an idiot, Agent Sluka told himself. "I told you one would arrive in time, General Ipzak. That is enough." He grimaced. With word that a zeta-class shuttle just landed unannounced at the spaceport, I know that time is now.

"I can't believe an actual Jedi was behind the insurrection on planet," the older man interjected.

Agent Sluka laughed out loud. "There are no Jedi, Governor Harodin" he said. "They are all dead. The man was a charlatan. You don't need magic to do what he did with that lightsaber," Sluka added. But the grenade… "Talent with a lightsaber, enhanced by rigorous training, will allow one to deflect blaster bolts. It is the nature of the weapon." Ipzak nodded. My Dad wasn't a Jedi and this guy surely wasn't either. He wasn't even that good with his blade. Agent Sluka paused in his thoughts, then decided, No way he could have beaten Dad in a duel.

A door slid open behind them, interrupting the conversation.

In walked a human male dressed in black and gray with black laminate armor and a black open-faced helmet. The open face revealed his right eye had been replaced by a cybernetic one which glowed red. His armor and clothing bore no markings to signal his rank or division within the Galactic Empire. On one hip was holstered a blaster pistol while on the other sat a curiously shaped device. It was a large ring with a cross-bar. After a moment's confusion, Agent Sluka recognized the device for what it was: a variant of a double-bladed lightsaber. Could that ring allow the blades to spin? Agent Sluka asked himself.

The man in black looked at General Ipzak and simply said, "Leave us."

General Ipzak paused, his face contorting with offense. His mouth opened to speak and then he reconsidered. He quickly exited the room, leaving the Governor, Agent Sluka, and the newcomer whose height was between the other two.

"It is a pleasure to meet you," Governor Harodin said and reached out his hand. "We have not been introduced."

"As I intended," answered the man in black who did not take the Governor's hand. "I know who you are and will inform you when I choose to use your station to satisfy my interests." Governor Harodin looked shocked. "Agent Sluka, I have questions for you."

"Yes, Inquisitor," answered Agent Sluka.

The Inquisitor's brow raised in momentary surprise at Sluka's recognition of his title. "I sifted through your report. Information was omitted and I am not pleased."

"Yes Inquisitor," Agent Sluka answered. "This planet concealed an insurgency and I did not trust encrypted information of this matter to be sent through communications channels." The Inquisitor looked coldly at Sluka for a moment. "I believe I have assembled here all that you may seek that I have."

"Leave us," the Inquisitor commanded of the Governor.

In an almost identical manner to General Ipzak, the Governor's face contorted in frustration and anger. And, in an almost identical manner, he quickly reconsidered and left the room.

"I have questions," the Inquisitor flatly stated. "You requisitioned two Cam Droids. Their footage was omitted from your report. Why?"

"Close inspection of the footage revealed a second individual who did not participate in the firefight," Agent Sluka answered. "A robed individual determined to be a female through dimensional analysis. She escaped through the door in the alley. I chose to avoid both the risk of alerting the populace there may be a second individual and the risk of alerting the insurgent we were aware of her. The footage also revealed my grenade changing direction in mid-flight. I chose to not put that out there for general consumption within the intelligence community." Agent Sluka pointed to the two thumb-sized memory chips on the table. "The footage files are here." Sluka pointed at the attaché case and added, "Along with the journal. The files I collected on Jarrik Altoson, the Cerean lightsaber wielder, are there too."

"You found nothing of interest within the journal?" asked the Inquisitor.

"Correct," Agent Sluka answered. "I thought there might be something in there to help me track down and break whatever cells Altoson operated in but I could not translate the text. I sought to find samples to aid in the translation through the ISB database but I lacked clearance." He smirked and added, "That's when I knew I would be receiving a visitor."

The Inquisitor's eyes squinted with concentration. "I searched your records. You seem to have spent a good deal of time chasing down 'Jedi' rumors."

"Yes, Inquisitor," Agent Sluka answered. "Word of the trouble in Lothal got around. I was certain that it would cause flare-ups and copycats and saw a need to squash them as they arose," Sluka added. "Until now, they were all copycats which were easily put down."

"You used Imperial Army troopers rather than Stormtroopers," answered the Inquisitor. "And lost only one." His eyes narrowed. "It sounds easy to me."

Agent Sluka shrugged.

"I see ambition before me," the Inquisitor said. "Dangerous ambition."

"I seek only to perform my duty to the Emperor," Sluka answered. "Ambition has no part in it," he added with a long emphasis on the 'no' which made clear his jest.

The Inquisitor and Agent Sluka stared at each other in silence for a moment.

"This action and your prior record demonstrate a high level of competence," the Inquisitor said, breaking the silence. "I will make use of you in the future. Now, leave me."

"Yes, Inquisitor," Agent Sluka responded and turned to the door. It slid open and he quickly exited it. As the door closed behind him, thoughts sprang into his head. Lost one? Sluka asked himself. I didn't lose any. I'm too good for that and Sergeant Conor isn't that easy to kill. None of the Horned Serpents are.

Agent Sluka continued walking down the hallway.

Bacta Recovery Facility, here I come.