I own nothing except a few characters and the plot.

STAR WARS REBELS

The New Spectres

Diamonds

PHILADELPHIA - 2030

"Staff meeting." Schultz said to Eric and Lucy who followed him over to Ty's office.

"What's the news?" Eric asked.

"I take it my Uncle has been officially named as head of RSB. It was talked about at the weekly family dinner in New York." Lucy replied.

"There's that and then there's this." Ty told them and played a video of what looked like a drive-by shooting and kidnapping.

"Are those what I think they are?" Lucy asked.

"If you mean Gamorreans, then yes. Question is what were they doing in Philadelphia." Eric replied.

"A Colonel Mackey is going to be joining us at some point. He appears to be recently assigned to the RSB so maybe you know him." Ty said.

"Alex Mackey? He was technically my Uncle's XO when they were with the 501st's attachment to New York. They split it into two groups, my Uncle had one group and he had the other." Lucy explained as Schultz went to find out who was ringing the bell he had left at his desk. He returned a few minutes later with another man who was wearing the typical uniform of a mid to high-ranking Remnant Officer which consisted of a jacket over civilian clothes.

"Colonel Mackey I presume." Ty said.

"General Marlion, Lucy, and you must be Major Schuyler."

"It's Eric."

"I heard about you shaking down a bank and having everything but the kitchen sink taken out of another one while tossing the manager in jail."

"Same bank, same case. They refused to comply with a subpoena for documents, so I had everything hauled out of there and charged the Manager with Obstruction." Eric told Alex.

"We're still developing cases against people who moved large sums of money between that bank and banks in the Cayman Islands. The IRS took an interest in what we were doing when they found out we seized every document in the bank. It created a lot of unhappy politicians who thought they were immune from being audited and now have to explain to the public how they made millions on a Congressman's salary. Dad's expecting to see arrest warrants issued soon for the worst of them." Lucy added.

"Back to the reason I'm here." Alex told them.

"Yeah, I'm interested in why Gamorreans were in Philadelphia and who are they doing contract work for. I'd also like to know who that victim is." Ty said.

"My people are matching the victim's face with State ID databases in this state along with New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware hoping this guy is a resident of one of those states. RSB is doing the heavy work and keeping you guys in the loop. It was bad enough when your Uncle adopted the head-slap. I don't need him sending me to the Russian Front because my people went over your heads and did something." Alex explained.

"I'd check ASW manifests for any Gamorreans that recently traveled here. Of course that assumes that they were traveling commercial and not on a private ship." Eric suggested.

"Unless an ASW flight is transmitting a 7500 or another emergency code, the fleet tends just watches them until they're in the hands of Air Traffic Control for wherever they're landing. If they do transmit an emergency, Admiral Reige would have his tractor beams, Stormtroopers, and fighters all ready and waiting for them." Ty said.


"That van is a rental, paid cash under the table. We hauled the guy who owns the place it came from in for further questioning and issued a BOLO for the van. We're hoping it turns up somewhere. This is not the standard issue Remnant coffee." Alex told everyone as he helped himself to some coffee.

"It's not. Supply kept screwing up and sending me filters. What good are the filters without the coffee itself? We get the coffee here from Wawa. It tastes a lot better then what comes through Supply. I think they distribute Dollar Store Coffee." Ty said.

"I edited your BOLO. Airport police departments, parking enforcement in case the PPA impounds it for unpaid tickets or something, and toll collection agencies. If it turns up anywhere, we'll know about it." Eric added.

"Not like a bunch of Gamorreans carrying something the size of a body out of a van isn't grounds to stop and chat with them. Your sister-in-law was here I assume." Lucy said as she rummaged through he refrigerator and cabinets for something to eat.

"She'll eat anything she can find. She's actually banned from Pat's and Geno's for cleaning them out twice in one week. I was told I should introduce her to Josh Myers and let him insult her weight for an hour." Ty explained to a confused Alex as R9-D2 rolled out of Lucy's office beeping something at the four humans.

"Our van turned up on a couple of Jersey Turnpike tollbooth cameras. Getting on at Exit 4 and getting off at the Edison Interchange and I am glad I passed that BOLO onto my Mom so if it turns up in Upstate New York, she can have her troops secure it and tell us." Lucy explained as she translated R9's beeps.

"You'd think having committed two Capital Crimes that they would want to avoid traveling on toll roads so they don't get spotted by the cameras at the booths." Eric said.

"We are dealing with what amounts to dumb muscle that don't think of these kinds of details. Do we even know who our victim is yet?" Alex asked the three.

"We are searching four states worth of databases and that's even assuming our victim's from around here. My mom's checking New York's database. There are a lot of people that travel between the two cities." Lucy replied.

"I think they put our rental agent in your Interrogation Room." Alex said and led everyone to the Observation Room where they watched as Eric conducted the interrogation.

"I'd like to know more about your vans for rent, no questions asked business. Provided of course, you want to answer questions. Which given what the van in question was used for might be in your best interests. It might mean the difference between a you doing short prison term or you receiving a potassium chloride cocktail." Eric told the man sitting across from him.

"I'm assuming you and your Space Gestapo pals have heard of the Fifth Amendment."

"Accessory to multiple Capital Crimes. It's a legit charge and it comes with a very real Death Sentence and our regular Prosecutor will be more then happy to pursue it. If you talk to us, you have a chance of being able to walk out of Prison one day."

"They were really convincing in their terms. I'm not going to argue my rates with a bunch of gun-wielding, walking pigs and a guy who talks like he's in The Mob. They told me, I can lose one van or I can lose everything including my life."

"Why did they give you cash then?" Eric asked.

"My guess, either I'm not seeing that van ever again or they were hoping I would keep my mouth shut. Like I said, they could have been with The Mob for all I know." In the Observation Room, Lucy looked at Ty and Alex.

"The Mob, ever changing their game to fit the times. Exporting a hit to another planet would make any veteran cop or Federal Agent wish for a Numbers Racket or some other old-fashioned Mob scheme." She told the two as Schultz joined them and handed Ty a paper.

"One of the Probe Droids your mother sent out found our van at a small airstrip in Northern New Jersey. Her troops are securing it as we speak. I'll tell our fighter crews to get your ship ready for you to fly out there so you don't have to drive through Jersey and R9 can fill her in on what we know." Ty said and passed the paper to Alex who read it and gave it back to Ty.

"On my way." Lucy replied as she took the paper from Ty and left.


HACKETTSTOWN, NEW JERSEY - 2030

Kelly Felth looked up from the van she was processing as she saw a single X-Wing circle and then land. Lucy climbed out of the cockpit while R9 popped out of the astromech socket and made their way over to where Kelly and a group of Stormtroopers were.

"Anything of note?" Lucy asked her mom.

"Chris is loving his weapons training. Your brothers should have been trained when they joined the Reserves before that offensive against the First Order. Your dad's sending the person who screwed up on doing the paperwork for that when it was supposed to be done to the Russian Front. I think he needs to send himself to the Russian Front instead. Luckily, the Syndullas took on the task of training everyone to fly the ships. As for the van, we found what I would describe as a bloodbath in it. I have the probe droids searching for a body and told local police dispatchers to let me know if they get any calls about someone finding one somewhere." Kelly replied.

"Great, my yet to be identified kidnapping victim may now be a murder victim who's kidnappers may have already left the planet with whatever it is they snatched this guy off the street for and the agent this van was muscled out of started talking Mob when asked by Eric about it." Lucy said sarcastically.

"You know we never pick these cases nor do we pick the evidence in them. This is too messy for The Mob though. At least from what I remember of The Mob." Kelly told her daughter as a Stormtrooper came up to them.

"Ma'am, the New Jersey State Police found a body on the side of Interstate 80 that they said you might want to look at." The Trooper said.

"I guess we go take a look at it. Sergeant, secure this location so no one steals that X-Wing or makes off with our crime scene." Kelly told the trooper as she headed for her car followed by Lucy and R9.

"Yes, Ma'am."


Kelly and Lucy arrived at the scene where the State Police had reported the body.

"Remnant?" A trooper asked.

"Yeah, we're with the Remnant. I'm General Felth and this is Lieutenant Colonel Carpenter." Kelly replied causing the State Trooper to give them his full attention.

"You two related?" He asked.

"She's my mom. Where's this body?" Lucy replied.

"Over here. This guy must be important for you two to be here."

"If it's the person we're thinking of, he was snatched off the street in Philadelphia and tortured and killed by someone who has since left the planet." Kelly explained.

"Please tell me you found something with his name on it." Lucy said.

"Only thing missing was a hand. Maybe he had one of those briefcases that are cuffed to one hand for carrying extremely sensitive documents."

"That would make some sense." Kelly said as the trooper led them to where they had set up a crime scene area.

"That's my kidnapping victim." Lucy told everyone.

"Now he's our murder victim." Kelly corrected Lucy.

"I better tell Ty and Eric we have a name." Lucy said and went back to the car she had arrived in with Kelly and R9.

"Where's the Medical Examiner?"

"On her way out along with the fire department so that we can get it into the ambulance." The trooper told Kelly.

"R9, take some pictures of this area." Kelly told the astromech who set to work documenting the scene and transmitting the data back to Lucy's office.


PHILADELPHIA - 2030

Eric and Alex had received the information and pictures sent to them by Lucy and R9 and set to work finding out who was interested in their victim and why. Meanwhile, Ty made the notification to his family. Lucy returned a few hours later as Eric and Alex returned from the victim's workplace.

"Anything?" She asked them.

"The briefcase he was carrying had a lot of money in diamonds in it. Which makes the motive look more like Robbery instead of The Mob which I still haven't ruled out yet." Eric replied.

"Sounds like blood diamonds from somewhere." Alex added.

"Might explain why they brought in a crew from offworld. My mom's having Eli Vanto run Customs Inspections on all ships coming into Onyx. He may find our perps." Lucy said.

"Odds of finding them are slim though." Eric told her as Ty joined them.

"Blood diamonds. Hopefully, whoever is behind this had a noble reason like bringing them back to the planet they came from. I just wish they pursued it through a legal means. We do have Civil Courts for things like this." He said.


The next day, Lucy was at home checking emails when she saw a message from Eli Vanto saying that he had captured a ship that tried to dodge inspection coming into Onyx. His troops found a group of Gamorreans and a briefcase with a locked handcuff and blood on it that no one could explain to his satisfaction and he ordered everyone on the ship detained pending further investigation. After sending Eli further information about the case, she passed Eli's message onto Alex Mackey who went to the Chimaera along with two other RSB agents to interrogate the suspects further. Lucy looked up from her tablet to see Caleb looking at her.

"Did you eat your breakfast already?" She asked him.

"Me want more." Caleb replied.

"Where are your Dad and Uncle? Darius? Justin?" Lucy called and Darius appeared followed by R9.

"What happened now?" Darius asked as Justin appeared.

"Eli Vanto has the murder suspects Mom and I are looking for in custody on the Chimaera and our son ate all his oatmeal."

"I put one packet in the bowl. Should I have put two in?" Darius asked.

"It would save you some time. We don't have to pinch pennies unless you gave money to Hondo and didn't tell me because you knew you would be on your way to the Russian Front if you did and I found out about it." Lucy replied as a burp was heard.

"Caleb, say excuse me and don't try to say it was R9 making that burping noise again." Darius told their son.

"Excuse me." Caleb said followed by a series of beeps from R9.

"What's on the schedule for today?" Justin asked.

"I'm taking you to the firing range which works out because I can do whatever work I have to do once Admiral Vanto and Colonel Mackey get done with those suspects. Darius has to do the house chores including the laundry and making dinner as well as the food shopping and no letting Caleb fill the cart with junk food."

"I can't help it if he has appetite of Ty's sister-in-law." Darius said as he made Caleb a second bowl of oatmeal while Justin made himself a bagel.