A LONG TIME AGO IN A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY…

STAR WARS

The Old Republic – Episode Four

BETRAYALS

Chaos grips the world of ORD MANTELL.

Violent separatists, striving to break away

from the GALACTIC REPUBLIC, have

stolen the ZR-57, a bomb powerful enough

to incinerate thousands in a single strike.

HAVOC SQUAD, the pride of the Republic's

talented Special Forces division, has been

assigned to retrieve the bomb before it is to late.

Sergeant CRESS VA'SHANN, the newest

member of this elite unit, has come into

intelligence showing an enemy arsenal at

the separatist stronghold of MANNETT

POINT – an arsenal that could only have

been supplied by the evil SITH EMPIRE…

Chapter One: Scoping Out Trophies

"We have to go in!"

Aric Jorgan, the Cathar lieutenant serving as liaison between the local Republic Forces and HAVOC Squad, was pointing insistently at the image frozen on the mission room's holoprojector. Supplied by Mira Kahl, a smuggler Cress had met the previous morning, the holo showed multiple air cannons, armored vehicles, and even a Walker. Enough hardware to transform the separatists' terror campaign into a full-scale planetary war.

Captain Harron Tavus, the CO of HAVOC Squad, stroked his mustache as he studied the image. He advanced the projector, looked at the specs of Mannett Point that Mira had also provided.

"I'm not sure that's the best course," he said.

"You want to leave all that in the hands of the separatists?"

Tavus looked annoyed. "You're missing a 'sir' in there, Lieutenant."

Jorgan realized his lapse in arguing with Tavus, particularly in front of Cress. He snapped to attention.

"Apologies, Captain Tavus," he said. "I forgot myself."

Tavus made a dismissive gesture.

"The news is shocking for all of us." He glanced at Cress. "Looks like you made the right friends, Sergeant."

He stepped closer to the specs, continuing to study them.

"I have no intention of letting the separatists use that hardware against us," he said to Jorgan. "But we need to be careful. We still haven't found the ZR-57. Say we go in with a team, blow that armory sky high. If the bomb isn't there, the seps will take it so far underground, the next time we see it will be when they use it. Also, there's your theory about the Empire."

"The seps didn't get that from smugglers," Jorgan insisted.

"I agree. Which is another reason to hold fire. We go in, the Empire will know we're onto them. I'd rather get proof, trace this op right back to them. Shove their Sith faces in this blatant treaty violation."

Tavus paced the room, then tapped his wrist communicator.

"Wraith, report."

He turned to Cress and Jorgan.

"Wraith's our best infiltrator. We'll get her past the perimeter, same way the sergeant's smuggler friend got through. If the seps look like they're about to move or use any of it, we'll blast the island right off the map."

Jorgan grunted, nodded. "Good thinking, sir."

"Now," Tavus said, "the dead agent's field box. Has it been decoded?"

"Data conversion should be done any time now."

"How about you go check on it, Lieutenant?"

"Sir!" Jorgan offered Tavus a salute, which the captain returned.

As soon as he was gone, Tavus grinned at Cress. "Bit of a hard ass, isn't he?"

Cress stared straight forward. "Lieutenant Jorgan is a dedicated officer," he said, as if by rote.

"Absolutely, he is. But admit it – He's a massive pain in the ass."

Cress couldn't resist giving a hint of a smile as he agreed.

"Yes, sir."

"Don't stand there!" the old man barked. "That spot is exclusively reserved for my Gundark friends. You are clearly not a Gundark, your ears are much too small."

Mira Kahl sighed heavily. Just what she needed: Her contact was a lunatic.

After she had retrieved the information on Skavak, the skunk who had stolen her ship, Mira had found herself with little to do except wait for her old friend Viidu to decode the data. When she learned there was a local job available, she had jumped at the chance to earn a few credits.

The job was to pick up some experimental weapons-grade chemicals from a scientist named Trymbo and deliver them to Fort Garnik. It wasn't particularly high paying, but it also wasn't particularly difficult and gave her something to do. She had seen no reason to refuse.

Now she wondered if she had made the right choice.

"Listen?" Trymbo said, cupping a hand to his ear. "Do you smell that? There's a pot of Alderaanian stew bubbling!"

Mira sighed again. "You've inhaled a lot of chemicals, haven't you?"

"Did my wife tell you that?" the man snapped. "Don't listen to her, she's been dead for 20 years!"

The mention of chemicals seemed to wake some minor awareness in whatever part of Trymbo's brain still functioned, however, and she was finally able to communicate that she was here to pick up the chemical packet.

"Watch out for the Ugnaught assassins in the woods," he told her.

There were no woods between here and Fort Garnik.

"I'll be careful," Mira promised.

The return trip was unsurprisingly free of assassins, Ugnaught or otherwise. She delivered her package to a Republic military officer and retrieved her pay.

Getting paid always improved her mood, and she was almost smiling when she returned to Viidu's warehouse.

The smile was knocked off her face when she saw Syreena, Viidu's much younger girlfriend, being accosted by a leering Zabrak.

"Leave me alone, Bracco!" Syreena told him. "If Viidu hears about this, he'll – "

Bracco scoffed. "That blob can't even protect himself. From what I hear, Rogun the Butcher's going to punch your fat meal ticket for good."

Bracco closed in on her, raising a hand to the young woman's face.

Mira cleared her throat and stepped forwrd.

"I wouldn't do that," she advised. "From what I hear, Rogun's already got his eye on her."

Syreena picked up on her cue.

"That's right, Bracco," she said. "You don't want to get on Rogun's bad side, do you?"

Bracco blanched slightly, backing away as if Syreena had turned into some kind of desert monster.

He recovered his composure quickly, however.

"If Rogun's already scoping out trophies, it just proves that Viidu's not long for this world."

Mira took Syreena by the arm and steered her upstairs, toward Viidu's office.

"Thank you, Captain," Syreena whispered. "Bracco's stupid, but he's strong. I thought I was in real trouble."

"Luckily, he bought my bluff."

"Bluff? It was closer to the truth than I'd like to think about." She shuddered slightly. "Rogun called earlier to ask about his weapons." The weapons Skavak had stolen along with Mira's ship. "I stalled him, but I did not like the way he looked at me. If those weapons don't turn up…" She shuddered again.

Mira had only been on Ord Mantell a day – a day too long for her tastes – but she had already decided that she quite liked Syreena. She was as smart as she was pretty; and while Mira didn't delude herself that she stayed with Viidu out of love, she was genuinely good for him.

"I won't let that happen," Mira promised. Syreena rewarded her with the warmest of smiles.

Viidu and his right-hand man, Corso Riggs, were poring over the separatist data as the two women entered.

"One of your goons just went after your girl," Mira announced.

Viidu looked up, a dark expression on his face.

"What happened?" he asked Syreena, who looked a bit flustered. "Who was it?"

"Bracco," she said hesitantly. "The captain saved me."

Viidu gave a grateful nod to Mira.

"Word must be getting out we're in trouble," he said. "The warehouse boys smell blood in the water."

"Want me to knuckle down on the staff?" Corso asked.

The big man sounded a touch too eager, in Mira's opinion. Viidu must have thought so, as well.

"We'll just keep an eye," he said, with a gesture to Corso to take it easy. "Bracco's an idiot with a big mouth, but he's a good worker." Then a dangerous glint came into his eyes. "If he makes another move against me, then we'll take care it."

He turned back to Mira, switching the topic. "How was Trymbo?"

"A few freighters short of a convoy," Mira said bluntly.

Viidu laughed. "I know what you mean. Every time I talk to him, he thinks I'm his great grandfather who crashed into the sun. The man knows his chemicals, though. Any issues?"

Mira shook her head. "Milk run," she said. She indicated the data. "Where are we on that?"

Viidu and Corso both beamed.

"I have good news, and I have great news," Viidu announced. "We've found Skavak. He won't even see us coming!"

"He's scheduled to hand the blasters over to the seps this morning," Corso said. "The data even gives the coordinates. A hidden separatist base in Mount Avilatan."

Mira cocked her head at this.

"Isn't that a volcano?" she asked. The two men nodded. "So the separatists built themselves a… volcano base? Like supervillains in a bad holovid?"

Viidu laughed. "Precisely!" He nodded enthusiastically. "I'll send this information over to the Republic," he added. "But first…"

"First we go in," Corso said. "You and me, Captain."

Mira frowned. "I don't need help."

"I insist," Viidu replied. "I'm not sending my oldest friend into a separatist stronghold alone."

Mira eyed Corso skeptically.

"Can you keep your cool?" she asked. "The two of us aren't fighting our way in. We'll probably have to pretend to be separatists."

Corso shrugged. "Figure I can say, 'Death to the Republic Dogs' as easy as you can," he said. "And if things go south, I have Flashy here to help us out."

He pulled his gun, showing it off to Mira. "She's a SoroSuub SSK heavy blaster, cut for a quick draw," he said proudly. "She and Torchy have gotten me out of a few scrapes. Want her to be there when we get her sister back from Skavak."

Mira nodded slowly. "Her sister, right." Corso was doing little to convince her that he was going to be an asset.

Viidu sensed this and retook control of the conversation.

"Skavak will be delivering the blasters to a man named Dareg," he told them. "You need to find Dareg first. Then you just ambush Skavak when he shows up."

"And then I kill him," Mira said. "I want the last thing he sees to be my face."

"Whisper my name in his ear as he dies," Viidu requested. "I'll have a bottle of Chandrilan brandy waiting for us to celebrate when you get back. And Mira? Come back in one piece."

Lieutenant Jorgan returned to the mission room, an excited snap in his step. He nodded to Cress, saluted Tavus.

"We have them," he announced. "Bellis had the coordinates of a separatist stronghold in Mount Avilatan. If the ZR-57 isn't at Mannett Point, then it has to be there."

Tavus snapped into action, getting on his communicator and recalling his men from the field.

"Wraith, you stay at Mannett Point," he ordered. "We need to keep an eye on that hardware. Everyone else, back here on the double. We have an op to plan!"