Why does it seem that the simplest missions always end up going so wrong? Tahiri thought as she slowly stood up from the body of Fusty with her hands stretched above her head and palms facing the four men standing the doorway. She was taken completely surprise when the shots penetrated the thick transparent armor glass and cut down Fusty. Tahiri knew how thick that window was; Face and her tried to enter the apartment that way but couldn't without leaving a huge sign that would've scream out their intentions to Fusty. Must be two snipers out there watching them, one to crack the glass and the other to crack Fusty, She thought as she reached out with the Force to gauge the readiness of the men before her even though she was sure it wouldn't help her. It didn't, they were primed, alert and hoping she would give them an excuse to kill her.
It could be worst, she thought and then the 'worst' walked in. Alema Rar, with a wicked smile on her face, walked in the office from the living area of the apartment with the air of a conqueror.
"Well hello again, I am so happy to see you." Rar said with a silky voice, and then instructed Tahiri to hold out her arms parallel to the floor. The only advantage Tahiri still had was the man skin she was wearing, the same one she wore on the Hollow Nebula, and Alema's light saber that she borrowed from her during the escape from the ship.
Well one advantage now, Tahiri though as Alema snatched her light saber back from the special holder under Tahiri's right armpit. As Alema stood next to the body of Fusty and studying Tahiri, Tahiri was working through a plan to get her out of this Saco mess without anyone else being killed. Face and Shalla would be making their way up to her position to back her up. That would mean a firefight that could get them kill or the soldiers. There had to be another way.
"Nothing to say, Scar head?"
Tahiri didn't say anything, she was reviewing a plan that might work or at least surprise them enough for Face and Shalla to sneak up on them or …
"That is ok, I am sure that you and Fusty had enough chit-chat for one night. We heard the entire conversation, it was very informative and imagine our surprise," Alema switched on her light saber and held it face down towards the body, "and we heard the distintive sound of a light saber, my light saber that you stole from me, turn on. My snipers tried to shoot through the glass to stop you before you killed him just like we tried to enter the apartment before you could sacrificed another innocent." Without looking down, Alema ran the light saber through the blaster wound covering up the original wound. She had a mocking smile on her lips and a weird look in her eye. "But alas, we were too late and poor Fusty perished."
Ok, looks like we will go for plan "c", she thought as she watched Alema. Tahiri was also trying to calm down Bangor; he was wrapped around her left wrist and hidden from view by her jacket, since he was all but bouncing to attack Alema before she could hurt Tahiri. The last thing she wanted to do was to start fighting in here since she didn't want to cause any additional deaths and letting Bangor get lose would all but guarantee a fight to the death.
"We then tried to take you alive but well you know how many scar heads are actually taken prisoner," Alema said taking a long step to the left and giving her soldiers a clear line of fire to Tahiri. With a voice as hard as her eyes, she gave the ultimate command, "kill it."
Great here we go again, Tahiri though as she gather the Force around her and pushed out against the troopers, knocking them to the ground. The surprise look on Alema face stayed there even as Tahiri turned and hit her with the same force wall. Feeling a sense of danger from behind her, she dropped and rolled over to the qahsa. The snipers on the adjoining building were shredding the window with blaster fire. Holding on to the qahsa, she ran to the entry door and out into the hallway before Alema or her troopers could pick themselves up. Turning left, she headed down the hallway to the emergency stairwell in the center of the building. As she ran, she opened her jacket sleeve enough for Bangor could crawl out in case she needed him and spoke out loud for the hidden microphone on her so that Poster Boy knew what was going on.
["Omega"] she said in Yuuzhan Vong, the signal that they needed to spilt up and get back to the ship. Behind her, she heard the shouts from the squad that she knocked out. She rounded the corner as they opened fired on her and Alema was screaming at the squad. Should've hit her harder, Tahiri thought as she closed in on the emergency stairways near the lifts. Luckily, she wouldn't have to run down 300 floors to get out of the building, she would just have to reach a floor with a sky bridge. Being this late at night it will be harder for her to lose herself in a crowd this high up, she will have to work her way down to the lower levels. Just before she reached the stairwell, a squad of troopers emptied out of one of the lifts.
"Halt …" was all the leader had time to say before Tahiri plowed into him and his men.
What else could go wrong, Tahiri thought as she fought hand to hand with some of the troopers.
"He slipped past you." Jaina asked exasperated, wondering why such simple missions always end up going so wrong.
"I had a back up force stationed in the hallway near the lifts. He went through them like a Hutt at a buffet." The voice of Alema Rar and the noise of her and her men running down the stairwell coming across the comm system. "He was last seen heading down stairwell A-007, I having the local security forces seal off the building at floor 1156. He won't get by us again."
"And how did he get by you in the first place?"
"I told you already Colonel, he hit us with a Force Blast!"
"Impossible the Vong are blind to the Force," Jaina said with a sinking feeling in her gut.
"I told this warrior was the key," Jacen said in the seat next to her. The entire trip over he would just stare out the view port and just rambling on how this warrior was the key. Never explaining how or why he was the key just that he was and they had to protect the warrior from the forces that wanted to destroy him. "We must save the warrior or all will be lost."
"I seriously doubt we be able to save him Jacen. Besides he doesn't seem to be all that interested in talking to us."
"Look we are still a few minutes away, just try to contained him. However, don't do anything that jeopardizes your men or anyone else. When we get there Jacen and I will try to get him to talk to us, understand."
"Yes ma'am," Jaina thought she sounded reluctant to do that much. In a way Jaina could understand, this particular warrior has already bested Alema once, stole her light saber, and killed Fusty, whom Alema was charged with keeping alive. So far, this warrior has outsmarted and out maneuvered her twice and she had to be burning with the desire to settle the score. "Blasters, the warrior just got past the local boys, he is heading west on the sky bridge on floor 1156. We are in pursuit!"
"Roger, I going to get you more back up. No matter what Alema you have to capture him!" Jaina sat back in her seat and contacted the nearest base for more soldiers. If they couldn't contain him, they would need all the firepower available to kill him he was just too dangerous to let him go. Especially if he was a Force user, this could tip the balance to the Vong favor.
"We have to save the warrior Jaina, that warrior is the key," Jacen said in a desperate voice.
"The key to what Jacen! Explain why he is so important to you!"
"Not to me but to the Force, to the future, and we have to save the warrior from those who would interfere in the Will. That warrior is the key."
"The other Yuuzhan Vong," Jaina asked.
"The warrior is the key."
Jaina growled at her brother, which was all he kept saying without going into any details. Jaina was able to get two more squads of troopers scrambled with a flight of X-wings in the air for back up. She also learned that the local boys had scrambled several officers in the area to assist in the arrest. Even though no one else has been killed since Fusty, Jaina had a feeling that they were still outnumbered by that one warrior. She reached for the comm unit again; it was time to get out the heave artillery.
Face leaned out and shot a stun blast into the two guards outside Fusty's apartment. Both dropped like a sack of tublurs as Shalla hurried past him to get into the apartment and sack the place before anyone else showed up. While Face dragged both men into the apartment, Shalla started running a special program that Piggy and Little Brother had come up with that would search for certain key words in his system. Not only would it find these words no matter how deeply buried they were in the system they were but it would also let them know if it was moved to a back up file. Face took up a cover position in the doorway, his gun covering the entryway while he watch the scanner on his hip. Hopefully, all attention was focused on Tahiri and her mad run between buildings. Face hated leaving her in a lurch like that, she was alone with at least 30 different people chasing her but he knew she would understand. This information was more important in the large scheme of things then her safety. If they could get the names and evidence on the senators who were supplying the Peace Brigade and Yuuzhan Vong with information, money and supplies, they could shut down that pipeline for good. That alone is worth more then all their own lives. Shalla got up from the workstation and crossed the room to an ordinary looking bookcase. She study the bookcase for a moment then started throwing cases off the center shelve. Face winced at the noise she was making but sure that no one was at the listening station that Alema had mentioned earlier. Shalla had a small smile on her face as she pulled out a lock decoder, one that would bypass any combination locks. She turned to Face and gave him thumbs up, then turned back and started pulling out data chips by the handful. Face gave her the sign to hurry up which she nodded showing that she understood. After disengaging the computer program they both crept out as silent as their namesakes. Once they got back to their air car and heading toward the spaceport and their ship, which Squeaky was already running a pre-flight, did he ask her what she had found.
"That guy was so paranoid he had his security cams running all the time. I saw him use that safe after doing some work on a data chip that was marked as a hit by the program. I figured that there had to be more information on those chips so I grabbed them all."
"Good job," Face said, "start going through them after we pick up our lost sheep."
"Do you think we will be able to find her? This is a big planet after all."
"Oh, somehow I don't think finding her will be all that hard."
Tahiri ducked back behind the newsstand as the volley of laser fire came in thick from the various troopers blocking her exit from this particular building. Little Brother and Rat are never going to let me live this down, Tahiri thought grimly as she tried to find a way out without killing anyone. For the last half hour, she has been running up and down different buildings trying to lose the crowd behind her without much luck. Every time she thought she lost them and new group would pick up her scent. Almost as if someone was tracking her using the Force and then relaying the information to the security forces following her. If that was happing then she was in bigger trouble then she thought.
"Last Chance Vong, come out with your hands up!" One of the security force officers yelled at her.
Tahiri looked around her at all the innocent by-standers who were just guilty at bad timing. They like her were cowering behind any kind of cover they could find. Even if she did surrender, which she couldn't and allow the rest of the Wraiths to finish their mission, she was not 100% sure that the officers out there wouldn't keep shooting at her. She had to take a third route out of this mess.
["Bangor extended,"] she said in Yuuzhan Vong as she rolled up her sleeve. Obediently Bangor slithered out and stiffens in a rod shape weapon that fitted her hand perfectly. She could feel his excitement as she readied herself to do something incredibly stupid. Don't try this at home kiddies! ["Bangor ignite!"] As the shimmering ice-blue blade extended she got up and ran towards the view port on the other side of the room. Her plan worked somewhat well as in the fact that the guards were too shocked to get a bead on her. Throwing Bangor at the window, he sliced into it and weakling it enough for her to leap through into the open air.
"HE DID WHAT!" Jaina stared at Alema in shock, Jacen and her had just caught up to Alema and the others and now she found out the Vong got away again.
"He jumped out the window," Alema sounding as shocked as Jaina felt, "he had a light saber Jaina and he used it to slice through the window and then …"
"Ma'am he landed on a air tram heading east but we don't know which one." One of the local boys said after reporting into his command. "My watch captain is running a check on all air-trams that passed by here but it could take a while to track down the right one."
"Wait, he leaped out a window and just happened to land passing air-tram!" Jaina knew her mouth was open but this was too much.
"Jaina, he has a light saber and he used the Force and I could not feel him in the Force!" Alema said grabbing her arm, hard. "A Jedi Vong Jaina, think about it!"
"That warrior is the key," Jacen said not being very helpful, "the warrior is still alive. We must hurry or all is lost"
Jaina wished Jacen would shut up; she was still working out the implications of what was being said. Tahiri was the only known Vong that could touch the Force although Jacen and her believed Onimi could also but he left an impression in the Force. But both of them were dead and if Alema was right …
"Sergeant, have your watch captain relay the information to me as soon as he gets it." Jaina said turning and running back to her car, "under no circumstances is anyone to approach the Vong. If you spot him just observed, understand!"
"Yes, ma'am," the sergeant said following Jaina, Jacen, Alema and the other troopers. "But ma'am …"
"When we find him all troopers and security forces will seal off the area but will not interfere, this is now a Jedi problem." Jaina said in a tone that no one would wanted to argue with her.
"Jaina, the three of us may not be enough," Alema said keeping up with her.
"We won't be, Kyp, Corran, Uncle Luke and my parents are standing by to help us." Jaina said, wondering if that was enough to do the job.
"She is where!" Face looked at Squeaky as if he started growing horns, he and Shalla had just gotten back after taking the long way around to avoid all the security patrols. Face had hoped that somehow Tahiri would already be here or at least be on her way.
"She reported she was on top sky-tram heading in a Easterly direction. She said that it was the only way to avoid capture." Squeaky said following them up to the cockpit of the Sweet Sunrise. "But since she is just wearing a microphone and not a proper communication system so I was unable to ask for clarification."
"I guess that answers the big question," Shalla said in a sarcastic voice, "she is insane."
Face sat down in the pilot chair, as Squeaky explained to her why Tahiri's actions could be considered not only sane but needed. Face also tied in the comm signal from her wire into the communication direction screen; hopefully they could use it to track her down. Squeaky sat down in the co-pilot seat and began the dance with the spaceport computer to give them clearance to lift off.
"I don't care how many innocents were around; normal sane people don't jump out of 1000 story windows in to open air." Shalla said strapping in behind Face.
"It has been my experience that Jedi are never acting in a manner that would be consider normal or sane," Squeaky said calmly.
"Got her," Face said flipping the repulses on to begin lift off, "she traveling southeast now and at a high rate of speed. She must still be on the tram and moving away from the security net. Shalla, monitor the security and military net, let me know if they tracked her. Junk Pile, you keep any suspicion away from us." Face hoped that they could reach her before she had to do anything else … crazy.