"I'm surprised the Red Vong were smart enough to think of this," Leon stated as the group stood outside of the building where the cult made their home. "Using buildings to access the lower levels and make their way around the entire sector. They can pop up anywhere, anytime."
"Well, their leader is running one of the most efficient gangs on the planet, so I'm not too surprised," Mari replied. She tapped her foot impatiently against the ground. "Should we go over the plan again?"
"There's a plan?" Leon asked, half-joking. "I thought I would just go in there and kill them all. I'm pretty good at that plan, honestly."
Erea shook her head. Mari did the same, but still chuckled lightly. "Fine, since we apparently need to," Erea said exasperatedly. "You and Leon are better with vibroswords than I am, and from what you told us, those are the only effective means of killing these things. You two will go in, quietly -" she glared at Leon, who shrugged. "- and try to find any information on where the Vong's headquarters is. Or, if this is the headquarters, you two will try to find the drive. Comms contact every quarter hour, radio silence otherwise."
"Unless there's an emergency," Mari pointed out.
"Yes... Excuse us for a moment," Erea said. She motioned for Leon to move aside with her. "Are you sure this is a good idea? Going in alone with her?"
"Kark, Erea, we already went over this. You trust me, right?" Leon asked. He waited until Erea begrudgingly nodded. "Well, I trust her. Transitive property says you should trust her, too."
"This isn't math. People are... traitorous," Erea noted sadly. Her eyes hardened. "Lord Revan's past can teach us that well."
Leon was quiet as he considered that. "He trusted her."
"He trusted the Triumvirate as well."
Leon shook his head and walked towards Mari. "What was that about?"
"It's – nothing," Leon replied with a sigh. He reached down to grab his vibrosword and brought the cylinder up. He froze as he noticed he had grabbed the lightsaber. His thumb wavered over the activator, like the weapon was begging he ignite the brilliant blade. Unleash its power. Instead, he replaced it with his vibrosword, hand shaking nervously. As the vibrosword sprang out of its container he turned to Mari. "Let's get going."
SWSWSWSWSW
"And you're sure about this?" Van asked the blue form of Ana Gann. His back was to the hologram, and he was staring out at the planet below. "The Imperials arrived at the secondary site?"
"Unfortunately, yes," Ana replied, shaking her head. He looked back suddenly, as if she heard a threat. Ana shrugged and turned back to the half-listening Admiral. His reflection in the glass was somber, broken as it had been for almost two years, now. "The entered about ten minutes ago. Where are you on securing men for an assault on the main base?"
"Hm? Oh, we're about twelve hours out," the Admiral replied without turning. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but it caught in his throat.
"Twelve hours out? Damn. They could get to the main base by then," Ana replied. She rubbed her palm against her forehead and groaned.
"Yes, well, greasing the wheels of bureaucracy takes an impressive amount of time, Ana," Van replied. He turned to the hologram. "Do you ever wonder?"
"What, Van?" Ana asked. She looked down and crossed her arms, sighing. "Do I ever wonder about what?"
"You know what, Ana." The Admiral groaned as he walked towards his desk as quickly as he could hobble. He stared at the woman with knowing, yet disapproving eyes.
"You know that I do, Van. If Rhen were alive, I bet he would too," Ana replied, sighing. "But honestly, that's a terrible what if to ponder. What if we betrayed, instead of him, everything we believe in? What, you are the admiral of the Empire, drinking buddies with Revan on the weekend? What? I'm some cliché Sith Empress? Rhen... No, that would never have happened. It's not even a what if, because it couldn't have happened. The Triumvirate isn't perfect, and that's something we've seen even more since... what we did. But you and I – kriff, even Rhen, and he's dead – believe in the Triumvirate nonetheless. So yes, Van Taas, I have wondered, more than you, what would have become of us if we'd helped him kill the Grandmaster or my father. But every time I come to the conclusion this is the only way that this would have ever turned out."
"I know," Van placated, sadness tinging his voice. He coughed softly, filling the pregnant void between them. "I wonder if this is how your father and Horn spoke, wondering about 'what if' all while knowing they did the right thing, the only thing."
"We're not them."
"We're not not them," Van retorted. Ana could only be silent in response. Finally: "I'll try to speed things up with military action, you keep an eye on the Imperials. If you need anything, just call. Check in soon."
"Yessir," Ana replied bleakly, closing the channel.
SWSWSWSWSW
Leon gripped his sword as tightly as he and Mari entered the Red Vong's field base, two guards' corpses twitching on the ground separated from their heads. The tendrils of the Vong Spore that grew uncontrollably throughout their bodies writhed against the ground as if searching for a new body to infect, to break. Leon was disgusted on a primal level by the tentacles that squirmed and swarmed from the corpses as if sentient. "What is wrong with these things?" Leon asked, disgusted.
"The million cred question. Literally. Some gangs and companies are willing to pay that to find out," Mari responded. She shrugged. "Nowhere near the worth of getting off Coruscant, though."
"Would anything be worth staying in the Triumviracy?" Leon joked.
"Good point," Mari replied with a smile. She glanced around a corner. "Clear." Leon nodded and ran to the other side of the hall, guarded by another corner. "So... what's going on with you and frigid schutta out there?"
"Who? Erea?" Leon asked. He chuckled softly and crept to the next doorway. He looked inside. "Clear. She's not... okay, she's frigid with you. She does seem to despise you, for some reason, and she made me leave a kriffing Jedi alive."
"Yeah, you mentioned that before," Mari responded. She moved across the hallway and Leon ducked to the other side of the door she was beside. He nodded and opened the door. "Not clear!" Blaster fire erupted from the other side of the doorway, hissing and buzzing against the durasteel.
Leon scoffed. "You don't say," he said sarcastically. He drew a grenade from his belt and punched the activator. "One. Two... Fire in the hole." He tossed the grenade along the ground, turning around the corner for only the briefest moment. Blaster fire filled the air around him, but not killing him. He was able to curl back around the corner without a single blaster burn on him. Half a second later, the bio-deregulator shrieked to life. The cells of the Red Vong boiled as the vicious, artificial poison began to force a breakdown of the cellular makeup. Even the Vong Spore that had infected their makeup screamed in pain and was torn apart.
"Good job not using a thermal detonator. Nice to see you're not half as bad in a fight as you looked when I found you," Mari said as the smoke dissipated. She entered the room and began rifling about, searching for an Imperial drive.
"I was having an off day," Leon retorted. "I had just killed an entire ship of invading marines and went toe to toe with a Jedi. I was playing off injured reserved, okay?"
"Fine. Make excuses," Mari said. She snapped a kick to the head of one of the Vong, and its embrittled head clanged against the wall, exploding into dust. She roared quietly and pumped her fists in the air like she'd scored the winning goal in Huttball.
"Are you done?" Leon asked, false irritation in his voice as he watched the entertaining scene before him. Mari stopped and rolled her eyes. Leon smiled and shook his head, then became serious. "We need to check the next few rooms. The drive isn't in here, and these goons don't have any of the relevant data regarding the main base."
"Oh, business first?" Mari asked, causing Leon to laugh to himself and his cheeks to tinge red.
"Ha ha. Let's move," Leon said, brushing the moment off. He rifled through the Vongs' pockets one more time before exiting the room.
The two were quiet for a moment, neither sure of what to say. Eventually, it was Mari that spoke first. "So where were we? You were about to tell me about the Jedi she made you keep alive, right?" she inquired.
"Ah. Yeah, some kriffing crazy guy. I may have brutally murdered everyone he invaded the ship with during a fit of violent rage. He took it upon himself to try and torture me to death. At least I think that's what he would have wanted," Leon said. "Hmm. Glad that didn't happen."
"You and me both," Mari replied as she glanced around a corner. "Who would I have... coerced to get me off planet then? The Commander?"
"Yeah. Given how she feels about you, you'd have better chances with a rock," Leon bantered back, smiling as he turned his head around the next corner. He cursed to himself. "Kriff. We don't have enough time for this! The Trirals are probably already on their way to the Vong's HQ."
"Do you have a different plan than searching room by room?" Mari asked.
"Honestly, I'm looking at you for that one. Do you have any idea where a data library would be here?" Leon asked, running past a hallway. "You're the local."
"N – wait. I might have an idea," Mari said, grinning wildly. She grabbed Leon's shoulder. "Follow me."
SWSWSWSWSW
2 years after assassination of Jagged and Kaera Fel
Seventeen year old Theron Fel trembled nervously as he cut open the wiring hatch for the building's subterminal node. He glanced up at the control screen every few moments as he played with the wires. "Hope what I read about this faulty wiring is true," he mumbled to himself as he took out an electrical knife and snipped a few of the rubber-encased cords. He flicked the knife back into its handle and placed it carefully into his pocket. Theron took a few deep breaths to steady himself, trying to forget the painfully large amount of voltage that would run through his body if he did this wrong. Then he began to go to work. He switched a few of the wires, overloading security and different subroutines until he had almost cannibalized the interior of the node.
Once he was done, Theron glanced up at the node again and smiled proudly. The screen was blinking; he had bypassed the security system and directly accessed the main computer system through the building's old wiring, which had failed to be updated since at least during the Old Republic. With a few flicks through menus on the touch screen, Theron finally got to the power subroutine. "Now, this will tell me where those goons are hiding out..."
A big meeting was going down, or so Theron had heard. He'd been beating up goons on the midlevels for a few weeks now, ever since his friend's grandfather had been killed down there. Theron couldn't let that go unpunished, and what better way than to deal a major blow to the criminal empires in the midlevels. Interrogation suggested that the top enforcers – bounty hunters – on the planet for a few of the major crime rings were going to be guarding their bosses at some meet. Violence between the gangs had been low recently, but their violence against the people who could turn them in had gone way up. It was all Theron could do to save one or two of them, pay them for a meal with creds he'd taken off the dumb thugs.
Theron pulled up an old code that was present in all of the nodes, a power tracking subroutine that was meant to monitor for overuse or under-performance so that it could be fixed by workers – some three hundred years ago. His earlier wire tampering had given the node a more direct connection to the power supply, so when Theron shut off the power everywhere he could...
Suddenly he had a way to track down the one room still guaranteed auxiliary power. He smiled to himself. "Time those nerf herders met their match," he said to himself while he took his lightsaber from his belt. He thumbed the activation button and the white blade thrummed into being next to him. He checked the directions to the one room draining power still and ran off, using his not insignificant command of the Force to make himself silent, to sense every threat around any corner. A feeling of... not unease, but that he was being watched, tingled through Theron's mind. It wasn't a danger, but it was interesting. Important. Theron pushed it from his mind for the time being.
When he finally stood outside of the meeting place, he was itching – no, aching – for a fight. He held his saber in front of him then twisted his body. His left palm slammed out before him, a concussive wave of power rushing from it and blowing a large chunk of the wall away. Theron jumped after it, already deflecting blaster fire. He landed on the durasteel slab – the door had killed more than a few of the gangsters in its crash – and began to cause the incoming bolts to ricochet closer and closer to their points of origin. "What's a damn Jedi doin' here!?" one of the criminals, a Mirialan, shouted. Moments later, a red blaster bolt flew through her shoulder, bounce back from Theron's wall of white plasma.
"Not a Jedi!" Theron snapped. He raised his left hand and unleashed a bubble of power, stunning all in the room. He smirked and decided to try something new. With a concentrated effort, Theron let pure energy flow from his palm, Force lightning. He noted as it flowed that it was odd, white rather than the violent violet that it was when most Sith or even Jedi used the technique. The gangsters screamed in pain as the energy lanced from body to body, frying them inside out.
The feeling tingled in the back of Theron's mind again, and he turned to face the Chiss staring at him. She was approaching maturity, proportionally the same age as Theron most likely. Her blue-black hair was loose around her shoulders and neck, and she had a blaster pistol aimed at Theron. Not trained or comfortable with the weapon, though, so she wasn't a member of any of the gangs. She was just a scared young woman. Theron considered her for a moment, then deactivated his lightsaber and raised his hand out to her. "I'm Theron. You are?"
SWSWSWSWSW
"You are one nasty nerf herder!" Leon shouted as he narrowly dodged the slab of durasteel that slammed into the ground. The Vong infected Whipid was bigger and nastier than most of his ilk. "I mean, who even uses clubs when there are blaster rifles everywhere!?"
The Whipid roared in response and the club crashed down with Leon just barely missing getting crushed. "Are you getting any kriffing closer!?" Leon shouted at Mari as he rolled past another incoming blow. "I mean, finding the data center with that wiring trick was great and all, but can you find the data faster!?"
"Do you want to switch?" Mari shouted back as she continued to work. Leon didn't respond, instead focusing on surviving. "Didn't think so!"
Leon couldn't help but snicker to himself as he moved past another attack. Girl was funny. He slashed his sword through the air, trying to take a chunk out of the Whipid's leg as he went. Instead, his momentum was completely stopped. The vibrosword flew out of his hand, and the tree trunk of a leg kicked him across the room. He landed with a thud and groan against the wall. "Can you keep him busy still? I don't need this guy attacking me too!"
Leon groaned and forced himself to his feet. "Fine. I'll try," he said. "Ugh... Don't have a weapon, though."
Well, actually...
Leon smiled and pulled the black and silver cylinder from his hip. "Well, actually..." he thumbed the activator and smiled as the bright blue-white blade erupted into being next to him. He swung it in front of him and barely caught the bottom half of the hilt with his other hand. "Damn thing's weight is off."
The Whipid cursed in its language and ran at Leon again. No time to worry about that. Left leg.
Leon rushed forward, just past the arc of the incoming club. The blue blade slashed through the Vongformed organism's leg like a hot knife through already melted bantha butter. The Whipid screamed in pain as it tumbled to the ground. The club collapsed next to it. Leon coldly, analytically acted out his next moves. Arms next. Then leg. Only kill something this strong when it is defenseless – don't let it have any opening. Every swipe of the blade was calm. Efficient and cold. When the blade cauterized the wounds, the mutated Vong spore did not reach out. It died. When the Whipid no longer had a head on its shoulders, Leon knew he had won.
"You're surprisingly handy with that thing," Mari said. She held out a small drive. "Know where we're going next."
Leon looked down at the lightsaber in his hand. Surprisingly good was right. The weight no longer felt off, no longer felt lopsided, and the weapon did not even quiver next to him. Leon's arm wasn't shaking at all, be it from adrenaline or fear. Don't worry about it.
Leon shrugged and deactivated the saber. He grinned at the Chiss. "You'll have to teach me that trick sometime," he told her. She grinned back. "Race you back?"
"Oh, you're on," she replied, and the two both bolted towards the rendezvous with Commander Naga.
