Knight in Shining Armor
Chapter 5
"Jace, son! Come in, come in!" Wex Douw said as he opened the door to his home. "How long has it been?"
"About thirteen years," Jace responded.
"Thirteen years, my that's a long time to go without seeing one's family."
"We'll when you're the captain of your own freighter, as well as running a freight transport business, you don't always have the time to visit with family."
"And who is this lovely lady?"
"Oh, this is Krysta Walka. She's the chief mechanic on board my ship. Krysta, this is my father, Wexly Douw."
"Wex to my friends," the older man told her, ushering them both into the house. Once the door was closed, he turned around, this time a virtually different person. "OK, why are you really here? Don't tell me it's just to visit with your family. Because if that's the case, I'll see to it that Jan learns you aren't doing your duty."
"General Dodonna was still on Yavin IV the last I knew. I can give you his comm relay if you'd like."
"Funny Jace."
"Actually, Krysta and I are here on an assignment from Mon Mothma."
"Ah, then I take it this assignment is to get money for the rebellion."
"They don't send the Knight on a money gathering mission."
Wex's jaw dropped nearly to the floor. Naturally he'd heard about the Knight. Who hadn't? But what he'd heard were horror stories about a rebel super soldier who brutally murdered innocent civilians. Knowing that the Empire would do anything to make the rebel's seem evil, he had dismissed all he'd heard about this Knight. The Knight was a myth concocted by Imperial propagandists as far as he was concerned. But now he wasn't so sure.
"You're... you're the Knight?"
"Don't believe any of that bantha fodder the Imps say about me. They just need to make me into a monster whom their protecting the populace from."
"Thank the Force for that. So I presume this fantastic armor they repute you to use is also fake?"
"Actually, I make all of Jace's Knight armor," Krysta said, speaking for the first time.
"Really?"
"Well, she has ever since she turned sixteen," Jace explained. "She's actually a mechanical and engineering genius. And that also pertains to weapons making as well.
"Before Krysta started making my armor, I used augmented stormtrooper armor, or any other armor I could get and augment. I even managed to get a hold of armor from one of the Emperor's Royal Guard.
"Back then, Imperial troops learned to fear me. But now, now it's easier to recognize me at first sight, so they really fear me. Plus, the new Knight armors are far more powerful than the old ones ever were."
"I see. So, seeing as how you said this young lady has been making your armor since she was sixteen, how long have the two of you known each other."
"Ever since I was six," Krysta answered. "I was being sold into slavery to some Hutt by an Imperial Moff. Jace intercepted the slave ship before it could leave Roon. When he learned that the slavers had killed my family, he took me in and raised me."
"As you're daughter, Jace?"
"Well, we've never been that close. Plus I had missions to take care of, so I wasn't always around to take care of Krysta. It was the Knight who had rescued her from the slavers. He'd then dumped her on my ship. She never knew until she was fifteen that the Knight and I were one in the same. At that time, she walked in on me taking of my augmented stromtrooper Knight armor, the same I'd worn the day I rescued her. After hearing all those stories about the Knight serving the rebellion, and remembering about my kindness, both in rescuing and taking care of her, she asked for the truth. Once she had it, she joined the Alliance as well."
"So then the two of you are friends basically?"
"Yep," Krysta replied. "But there is one thing I want to know about you, if I may ask?"
"Go ahead. I have nothing to hide."
"How do you know General Dodonna? And are you a part of the Alliance?"
"Dad served as the general's executive officer aboard the Victory-class Star Destroyer Ray of Light during the Clone Wars," Jace told her.
"And the second part is yes and no. Everyone except for Jace in our family is the same. We serve the Alliance, but not out right. We're more like undercover agents, working here on Ralltiir to get the money and any information we can that the Alliance may need."
"Oh, I see."
"Dad, is there any way I can get the information I need without having to break into an Imp records office?"
"Please Jace, don't waste my time with stupid questions. This is the Douw family after all. Of course there's a way. Your sister Kitha or your brother Keil should be able to get you what you need. I doubt Tal and Sera could do it."
"Uh, I hate to sound like a complete idiot, but who are Kitha, Keil, Tal, and Sera?" Krysta asked.
"Jace's brothers and sisters," Wex told her. "The twin's Kitha and Keil are a couple of years older than Jace. His younger brother Tal is a couple years younger than him, and Sera, the baby of the family, was born when Jace was eight."
"Big family. I only had an older sister."
"Indeed, it is a large family compared with some," Wex replied. "However, in these trying times, that makes us more capable of spying on the Emperor and his minions."
"I'm sorry Jace," Kitha Douw said, "but I'm not going to be around any of the bank's computers for a while. In fact, I'm leaving for Coruscant tomorrow, so I'll be packing tonight."
Wex had invited his eldest children to the house for lunch. Both had been surprised to see their younger brother there. Yet they didn't argue when they discovered what he wanted from them. In fact, they had both started thinking about ways to help him.
"Don't worry little brother, I'll get you what you need," Keil said. "The Imps just opened a new bank a little over a month ago near the Gralia spaceport. Since I'm one of those who are supposed to monitor all banking activity planet wide at the end of each month, I seriously doubt this new bank is just that."
"And why's that?" Wex asked.
"Well, they've had several real big deposits, but no one has ever made a withdrawal. Except one time. Not only that, but all the depositors come from high security Imperial facilities."
"You said there was only one time when a withdrawal was made," Jace said. "Who made it?"
"If memory serves, it was a Moff Sastom. Why?"
"Sastom is the current commandant of the Imperial prison on Kessel. He is also the man who travels to other Imp prisons to pick up level one prisoners. These prisoners are considered extreme risk of escape as well as extremely dangerous. In other words, level one prisoners are high ranking political dissidents, Imperial military or political leaders who may either speak out against or oppose Emperor Palpatine, or high ranking members of the Alliance. Sastom never conducts his financial business face to face with any banker not located on Coruscant. And then they have to be at least an assistant manager with the Imperial Bank of Coruscant."
"So that means that this new bank is all a facade. The First National Imperial Bank of Ralltiir is really a prison?"
"That would be my guess."
"And the Imps don't care that a person like me looks over their account files for a fake bank."
"Son, because you look over their accounts and submit your findings, you unwittingly help to make it a real bank," Wex told him.
"OK, that makes sense," Keil replied. "Well, I guess Lara and I will be coming to dinner tonight. And I'll have the info you need to complete your mission."
The hour was late, too late for any decent being to still be awake. Dinner had come and gone hours before, leaving Jace with memories of his brother and sister-in-law and their two kids. Lara had been in his class during school, but she'd always had a thing for Keil. And he had felt the same about her. Jace was pleased to see they were still very much in love.
As he had promised, Keil had brought over everything that he could on the First National Imperial Bank of Ralltiir. In fact, Keil had managed to successfully slice into the FNIBR's main computer and retrieved more than Jace could have hoped for. Not only did he know that General Rasheil was still on Ralltiir, he also knew that Moff Sastom would be picking him up at the end of the week. He also had a full layout of the FNIBR prison facility, how many guards were on duty at any given time, when they changed the guards, and where the prison armory was. Now all he needed was to formulate a plan.
"Still up?" Krysta asked as she entered his room.
"I've got to strike tomorrow night Krysta," Jace said, looking up. He had never seen what she wore when she went to sleep at night. Now he had to admit that the short sleep shirt suited her. "Can't sleep?"
"No," she replied as she came closer and lightly kissed his cheek.
"What was that for?"
"Because."
"Why?"
"Seeing your brother and his family tonight made me realize something."
"And that would be?"
Krysta closed his door and pulled off her sleep shirt. "That sometimes a person needs to take matters into her own hands."
Krysta walked into the Douw residence's common room the next morning to find Wex sitting in front of the holoscreen watching something. The whistling and sudden up roar coming from the holoscreen told her exactly what he was watching. Taking a seat beside him, she joined him in watching the game.
"Whose playing?" she asked
"The Imperial Center Imperials versus the Bespin Velkers," Wex replied, not fully paying attention to her.
"The Imperials? Why do they even bother playing the Velkers. This season the Velkers are twenty-five and five while the Imperials are one and twenty-nine."
"You follow whistleball?" Wex turned to look at her, shocked by what he'd just heard. Very few women her age seemed interested in sports such as whistleball. At least he only knew of a very few who were.
"Well, when you're around Jace long enough, you develop a taste or hatred for certain things. Whistleball was exceedingly easy to get to like. So fast paced and exciting."
"Indeed it is. Whose your favorite team?"
"The Tatooine Kyrats."
"Oh, the new team. I'm impressed with how well they've done for their first year. They could possibly get into the championship."
"Yeah. Jace is hoping the Wildcats will go all the way."
"Oh no, he doesn't know yet."
"Know what?"
"The Wildcats were disbanded a few days by an Imperial decree."
"Disbanded? Why?"
"Lord Tion was killed, Ralltiir was fully subjugated, and Lord Vader claimed some important Imperial plans had been stolen and ended up here on Ralltiir, where they made their way to a diplomatic ship connected with the Alliance. We're supposed to be under a full blockade, but much of the blockade was eased. However, all our intergalactic sports teams are no more. That includes the Wildcats. Of course, the Wildcats being disbanded seems more like revenge since the Imperials were Lord Tion's favorite team and they were always beaten by our Wildcats."
"Wow, talk about poor sports."
"I'm just glad Jace joined the Alliance rather than the Wildcats."
"Jace played whistleball?" Krysta asked, amazed by what she was learning.
"Ralltiir is one of the rare planets where a being still in school may play in a planetary league. Whistleball players still in school must be within three years of graduating and they must be qualified to play. Jace had been playing in the various youth leagues since he was six. At fifteen, he was three years from graduating and the youngest player ever on Ralltiir. Always his team's center, he was fast and an accurate shot. For three years he attended school while playing for the Screamers nights and weekends. The leagues most valuable player with the most points scored in a season. Jace was known as being able to pass to a teammate and rarely be intercepted.
"So when he was eighteen, he had just graduated and the Wildcats were being put together. Their manager offered him a position on the team as their first string center and team captain. Jace would have taken them up on it too, if it weren't for what happened to another intergalactic whistleball team. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but Jace swore the Empire would pay dearly for how they treated their citizens."
"Sounds like Jace."
Chapter 5
"Jace, son! Come in, come in!" Wex Douw said as he opened the door to his home. "How long has it been?"
"About thirteen years," Jace responded.
"Thirteen years, my that's a long time to go without seeing one's family."
"We'll when you're the captain of your own freighter, as well as running a freight transport business, you don't always have the time to visit with family."
"And who is this lovely lady?"
"Oh, this is Krysta Walka. She's the chief mechanic on board my ship. Krysta, this is my father, Wexly Douw."
"Wex to my friends," the older man told her, ushering them both into the house. Once the door was closed, he turned around, this time a virtually different person. "OK, why are you really here? Don't tell me it's just to visit with your family. Because if that's the case, I'll see to it that Jan learns you aren't doing your duty."
"General Dodonna was still on Yavin IV the last I knew. I can give you his comm relay if you'd like."
"Funny Jace."
"Actually, Krysta and I are here on an assignment from Mon Mothma."
"Ah, then I take it this assignment is to get money for the rebellion."
"They don't send the Knight on a money gathering mission."
Wex's jaw dropped nearly to the floor. Naturally he'd heard about the Knight. Who hadn't? But what he'd heard were horror stories about a rebel super soldier who brutally murdered innocent civilians. Knowing that the Empire would do anything to make the rebel's seem evil, he had dismissed all he'd heard about this Knight. The Knight was a myth concocted by Imperial propagandists as far as he was concerned. But now he wasn't so sure.
"You're... you're the Knight?"
"Don't believe any of that bantha fodder the Imps say about me. They just need to make me into a monster whom their protecting the populace from."
"Thank the Force for that. So I presume this fantastic armor they repute you to use is also fake?"
"Actually, I make all of Jace's Knight armor," Krysta said, speaking for the first time.
"Really?"
"Well, she has ever since she turned sixteen," Jace explained. "She's actually a mechanical and engineering genius. And that also pertains to weapons making as well.
"Before Krysta started making my armor, I used augmented stormtrooper armor, or any other armor I could get and augment. I even managed to get a hold of armor from one of the Emperor's Royal Guard.
"Back then, Imperial troops learned to fear me. But now, now it's easier to recognize me at first sight, so they really fear me. Plus, the new Knight armors are far more powerful than the old ones ever were."
"I see. So, seeing as how you said this young lady has been making your armor since she was sixteen, how long have the two of you known each other."
"Ever since I was six," Krysta answered. "I was being sold into slavery to some Hutt by an Imperial Moff. Jace intercepted the slave ship before it could leave Roon. When he learned that the slavers had killed my family, he took me in and raised me."
"As you're daughter, Jace?"
"Well, we've never been that close. Plus I had missions to take care of, so I wasn't always around to take care of Krysta. It was the Knight who had rescued her from the slavers. He'd then dumped her on my ship. She never knew until she was fifteen that the Knight and I were one in the same. At that time, she walked in on me taking of my augmented stromtrooper Knight armor, the same I'd worn the day I rescued her. After hearing all those stories about the Knight serving the rebellion, and remembering about my kindness, both in rescuing and taking care of her, she asked for the truth. Once she had it, she joined the Alliance as well."
"So then the two of you are friends basically?"
"Yep," Krysta replied. "But there is one thing I want to know about you, if I may ask?"
"Go ahead. I have nothing to hide."
"How do you know General Dodonna? And are you a part of the Alliance?"
"Dad served as the general's executive officer aboard the Victory-class Star Destroyer Ray of Light during the Clone Wars," Jace told her.
"And the second part is yes and no. Everyone except for Jace in our family is the same. We serve the Alliance, but not out right. We're more like undercover agents, working here on Ralltiir to get the money and any information we can that the Alliance may need."
"Oh, I see."
"Dad, is there any way I can get the information I need without having to break into an Imp records office?"
"Please Jace, don't waste my time with stupid questions. This is the Douw family after all. Of course there's a way. Your sister Kitha or your brother Keil should be able to get you what you need. I doubt Tal and Sera could do it."
"Uh, I hate to sound like a complete idiot, but who are Kitha, Keil, Tal, and Sera?" Krysta asked.
"Jace's brothers and sisters," Wex told her. "The twin's Kitha and Keil are a couple of years older than Jace. His younger brother Tal is a couple years younger than him, and Sera, the baby of the family, was born when Jace was eight."
"Big family. I only had an older sister."
"Indeed, it is a large family compared with some," Wex replied. "However, in these trying times, that makes us more capable of spying on the Emperor and his minions."
"I'm sorry Jace," Kitha Douw said, "but I'm not going to be around any of the bank's computers for a while. In fact, I'm leaving for Coruscant tomorrow, so I'll be packing tonight."
Wex had invited his eldest children to the house for lunch. Both had been surprised to see their younger brother there. Yet they didn't argue when they discovered what he wanted from them. In fact, they had both started thinking about ways to help him.
"Don't worry little brother, I'll get you what you need," Keil said. "The Imps just opened a new bank a little over a month ago near the Gralia spaceport. Since I'm one of those who are supposed to monitor all banking activity planet wide at the end of each month, I seriously doubt this new bank is just that."
"And why's that?" Wex asked.
"Well, they've had several real big deposits, but no one has ever made a withdrawal. Except one time. Not only that, but all the depositors come from high security Imperial facilities."
"You said there was only one time when a withdrawal was made," Jace said. "Who made it?"
"If memory serves, it was a Moff Sastom. Why?"
"Sastom is the current commandant of the Imperial prison on Kessel. He is also the man who travels to other Imp prisons to pick up level one prisoners. These prisoners are considered extreme risk of escape as well as extremely dangerous. In other words, level one prisoners are high ranking political dissidents, Imperial military or political leaders who may either speak out against or oppose Emperor Palpatine, or high ranking members of the Alliance. Sastom never conducts his financial business face to face with any banker not located on Coruscant. And then they have to be at least an assistant manager with the Imperial Bank of Coruscant."
"So that means that this new bank is all a facade. The First National Imperial Bank of Ralltiir is really a prison?"
"That would be my guess."
"And the Imps don't care that a person like me looks over their account files for a fake bank."
"Son, because you look over their accounts and submit your findings, you unwittingly help to make it a real bank," Wex told him.
"OK, that makes sense," Keil replied. "Well, I guess Lara and I will be coming to dinner tonight. And I'll have the info you need to complete your mission."
The hour was late, too late for any decent being to still be awake. Dinner had come and gone hours before, leaving Jace with memories of his brother and sister-in-law and their two kids. Lara had been in his class during school, but she'd always had a thing for Keil. And he had felt the same about her. Jace was pleased to see they were still very much in love.
As he had promised, Keil had brought over everything that he could on the First National Imperial Bank of Ralltiir. In fact, Keil had managed to successfully slice into the FNIBR's main computer and retrieved more than Jace could have hoped for. Not only did he know that General Rasheil was still on Ralltiir, he also knew that Moff Sastom would be picking him up at the end of the week. He also had a full layout of the FNIBR prison facility, how many guards were on duty at any given time, when they changed the guards, and where the prison armory was. Now all he needed was to formulate a plan.
"Still up?" Krysta asked as she entered his room.
"I've got to strike tomorrow night Krysta," Jace said, looking up. He had never seen what she wore when she went to sleep at night. Now he had to admit that the short sleep shirt suited her. "Can't sleep?"
"No," she replied as she came closer and lightly kissed his cheek.
"What was that for?"
"Because."
"Why?"
"Seeing your brother and his family tonight made me realize something."
"And that would be?"
Krysta closed his door and pulled off her sleep shirt. "That sometimes a person needs to take matters into her own hands."
Krysta walked into the Douw residence's common room the next morning to find Wex sitting in front of the holoscreen watching something. The whistling and sudden up roar coming from the holoscreen told her exactly what he was watching. Taking a seat beside him, she joined him in watching the game.
"Whose playing?" she asked
"The Imperial Center Imperials versus the Bespin Velkers," Wex replied, not fully paying attention to her.
"The Imperials? Why do they even bother playing the Velkers. This season the Velkers are twenty-five and five while the Imperials are one and twenty-nine."
"You follow whistleball?" Wex turned to look at her, shocked by what he'd just heard. Very few women her age seemed interested in sports such as whistleball. At least he only knew of a very few who were.
"Well, when you're around Jace long enough, you develop a taste or hatred for certain things. Whistleball was exceedingly easy to get to like. So fast paced and exciting."
"Indeed it is. Whose your favorite team?"
"The Tatooine Kyrats."
"Oh, the new team. I'm impressed with how well they've done for their first year. They could possibly get into the championship."
"Yeah. Jace is hoping the Wildcats will go all the way."
"Oh no, he doesn't know yet."
"Know what?"
"The Wildcats were disbanded a few days by an Imperial decree."
"Disbanded? Why?"
"Lord Tion was killed, Ralltiir was fully subjugated, and Lord Vader claimed some important Imperial plans had been stolen and ended up here on Ralltiir, where they made their way to a diplomatic ship connected with the Alliance. We're supposed to be under a full blockade, but much of the blockade was eased. However, all our intergalactic sports teams are no more. That includes the Wildcats. Of course, the Wildcats being disbanded seems more like revenge since the Imperials were Lord Tion's favorite team and they were always beaten by our Wildcats."
"Wow, talk about poor sports."
"I'm just glad Jace joined the Alliance rather than the Wildcats."
"Jace played whistleball?" Krysta asked, amazed by what she was learning.
"Ralltiir is one of the rare planets where a being still in school may play in a planetary league. Whistleball players still in school must be within three years of graduating and they must be qualified to play. Jace had been playing in the various youth leagues since he was six. At fifteen, he was three years from graduating and the youngest player ever on Ralltiir. Always his team's center, he was fast and an accurate shot. For three years he attended school while playing for the Screamers nights and weekends. The leagues most valuable player with the most points scored in a season. Jace was known as being able to pass to a teammate and rarely be intercepted.
"So when he was eighteen, he had just graduated and the Wildcats were being put together. Their manager offered him a position on the team as their first string center and team captain. Jace would have taken them up on it too, if it weren't for what happened to another intergalactic whistleball team. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but Jace swore the Empire would pay dearly for how they treated their citizens."
"Sounds like Jace."