EPISODE I
Chapter 12: Infiltration
The next day following the Battle of Manaan, Zolph Vaelor prepared Besh Squad for infiltrating the Doomsayer, the largest known vessel in the entire Valkoran fleet. This ship was recently tracked to a shipyard in the Barsemic system. To make this infiltration possible, the entire squad all wore Valkoran trooper armor – including the members of the squad who weren't on the near-human spectrum – and would board the vessel via a stolen Sigma-class shuttle, posing as a cargo delivery crew.
As the shuttle jumped out of hyperspace, the squad pilot, a white-haired Mirialan named Xadisall Varessi was greeted to the sight of the damaged Doomsayer inactive, with several dry docks, repair ships and replacement parts surrounding it. There were also several capital ships, including Obliterator-class Star Destroyers, Judicator-class frigates and Fury-class corvettes for protection.
"Guys, you might want to come see this," the Mirialan called back into the passenger seating.
Zolph came into the shuttle's cockpit followed by a large Cathar, a Gand and a Nautolan. "We know, Xad, the Doomsayer's a ridiculously large…" Zolph was cut off in awe. "Wow, it actually feels bigger seeing it in person." Getting closer to the ship, Zolph also began to sense the presence of a familiar Force user and Forceless, but he also began to feel some slight random body pain, something that's been happening to him since the later months in rehab.
"Are you alright, Vaelor?" Patcher - the Nautolan squad medic - asked him.
"I'm fine, Patcher. This has been happening to me every now and then for a while. Don't bother with a medical scan either; all the results I've gotten say I'm healthy."
"Well, I'm doing it anyway." Patcher pulled out a small handheld device and quickly scanned Zolph's body. "No kidding. It says you're A-okay. However, I've heard of Jedi feeling pain when there's no physical cause. This is probably one of those cases."
The Cathar – nicknamed Bad Kitty, and the squad heavy weapons expert – spoke up. "Now that we're done checking on this kid's health, what's our game plan?"
Zolph outlined his plan. "First off, we're a delivery crew, and I'm going to be your captain. I didn't plan on this infiltration to be too action-packed, but I see the chances of that happening being a little higher now that I feel a familiar presence here."
"Is it that Maesterus punk?" Bad Kitty asked.
"Negative. It's someone I'm more familiar with, and she can use the Force too." Zolph said with a tone of worry. "I'm bringing my lightsaber as a trophy again in case my cover's blown."
"You sound reluctant." Xad pointed out as he continued flying towards the hangar closest to the command bridge.
"Yeah, it's just that I haven't seen her for seven months, and last time I saw her…" Zolph stopped himself. "Oh, I'm getting sidetracked, sorry. Back to the infiltration plan. We're just delivering supplies – no bomb smuggling; I'll claim that you guys are scheduled for reassignment here and make my way to the bridge to fill out the paperwork. You guys will wait at the shuttle in case we're found out. And only I'm allowed to start comlink chats." He then directed his attention to the Gand. "And Boltz, if you don't feel comfortable making another name or speaking in first-person, I wouldn't talk too much while guarding the ship."
"Boltz can agree to that," the Gand engineer answered. "Besides, Boltz doesn't usually speak unless necessary."
"The fly ain't kidding." Bad Kitty said. "He barely talks at all."
As they finished talking, a radio transmission came to the shuttle. "Incoming shuttle, please identify yourself."
Xad spoke back. "Doomsayer, this is Nymdax. We've come with the supplies you've ordered."
"Nymdax, your delivery is on-schedule. Please proceed to Hangar 3." The transmission then ended.
"Well, it's not the closest hangar to the bridge, but it's still close enough to get this done quickly," Xad said as he flew the shuttle to the hangar.
Upon landing the shuttle in Hangar 3, Zolph exited the vessel holding a rifle. He was greeted by the hangar security officer with a datapad in hand.
"Captain, do you have our supply shipment like you claim?" the officer suspiciously asked Zolph.
"Of course, and I can guarantee we are not saboteurs." Zolph yelled into the shuttle's loading ramp. "Okay, boys! Bring 'em out!"
The rest of the squad members – some of them not fully armored due to their anatomy – came out of the shuttle escorting two large supply crates.
"Quite a diverse-looking squad you got there, Captain," the officer pointed out. He then marked off the delivery on his datapad. "You're all clear. You may leave when ready."
"Actually, my squad and I are looking to be transferred here to help out with the repairs. The Cathar can provide muscle if the forklifts are out of order and is an excellent bodyguard. The Gand is a tech genius and the Nautolan can provide medical aid if there's any workplace accidents."
"Sounds impressive, but I'm not the guy to ask about reassignments. You'll have to talk that out with the Admiral. He's usually on the command bridge, but he's on break right now. I'm sure if you wait for him over there, he'll show up. It's kind of a long walk from here to there, but hey, that's why we have the tram system and turbolifts." The officer then gave him a holomap of the Doomsayer for navigation.
"Thanks, officer. I guess I'll go see this Admiral." Zolph then left the rest of the squad behind to guard the shuttle while he made his way to the bridge module.
As Zolph moved through the Doomsayer's corridors, looking for any working trams to take him to the bridge and hoping he would get there before the Admiral got back from his break, he felt the disturbance from earlier getting closer to him. He looked desperately for an alternate route before the source could get to him.
Before he could move further, he was interrupted by a familiar voice, if not slightly distorted. "Are you lost, soldier?" He then turned around and saw a familiar, yet somehow different face.
Standing behind him was Dynn Manthis, looking much different from when he last saw her on Polus. She still had the Forceless arm, but it looked like it had further embedded itself in her body, as if the roots from before had climbed up to part of her upper body. But that wasn't all; her skin had become a pale shade of gray and her sclerae had turned blood red, similar to the eye on the back of her right hand, but maintained her green irises. There was also what looked like a polarized lens over her right breast.
Noticing her left eye and her demonic arm twitching, he felt his cover was blown - as there was no way she couldn't tell it was him – but didn't give up the façade yet. "Commander Manthis!" He responded nervously. "Yes, just trying to find a tram that works, but I haven't been here before."
"Don't worry. I still haven't figured the whole ship out either." Dynn then looked down at the lightsaber on Zolph's belt. "I see you got a trophy. You must be something if you're able to take a Jedi on with just a blaster." For a second, Zolph thought he would be exposed.
"Actually, not just a blaster. I also exploited some weaknesses in his fighting style." He then noticed her left eye bleeding, and felt a non-existent pain going in his left eye too, but did what he could to ignore it. "Commander, are you alright?"
"Just some minor health issues, but nothing that's going to kill me." Her right arm was then readying itself to bite a chunk out of Zolph's abdomen. She quickly held it back while it struggled and made violent hisses. "Sorry, this arm has a habit of behaving without my own input. And you can just call me Dynn. Now, what were you doing before I ran into you?"
"I was trying to get to the bridge so I can sign up my squad to work here."
"Oh, that. If I were in charge, I'd readily accept your team, but we've got security precautions and the Admiral's got the ultimate say in it, so you've still got the stupid paperwork to fill out. There's a working tram nearby. Take the next corridor on your right and then the next on your left. Also, the bridge module has multiple floors, so there will be a little more walking and turbolifts."
"Thanks, Comman… or Dynn. I guess I'll see you again if it goes smoothly." Zolph then moved forward following the given route.
After Zolph left, Dynn's right arm violently bent backward, causing her intense pain. Zolph didn't feel as much pain since he already lost his right arm, but still felt some of it, causing him to react in front of some passing troopers. He then shouted nervously, "Just pulled a muscle! Move along!" He then moved onto the tram.
A voice then came up in Dynn's head, coming from her arm, berating her as it continued to abuse her. "You blew it again! He was right in front of you, and you just let him go?! I'm starting to wonder why Emperor Valkor paired me up with you if you're this incompetent." The arm stopped abusing her once two other troopers got interested, knowing that doing more would draw even further suspicion.
Dynn then pulled out a comlink and told the arm reluctantly, "Okay, fine! If it makes you happy…" She then activated the comlink and spoke into it. "Admiral, our favorite mole is here. But let him have his fun first."
"Understood, Miss Manthis. Gravlek out."
As the tram progressed to the bridge module, Zolph wondered why Dynn let him go. As she was once a Jedi, she clearly knew it was him. However, what bothered him more was that she still had the demonic arm even after briefly hijacking her body on Polus and after he suggested she amputate it. Even now, it's been doing worse to her. Was this also the source of the random moments of physical pain he was feeling while in rehab?
Once the tram arrived at the bridge module, Zolph had to go up one turbolift to reach the main module itself. He found himself in a spacious room with many large crates - spacious for reasons he had yet to figure out. He then took another turbolift at the other side of the room, which took him up to another similarly-designed floor. Moving through, he eventually reached the bridge's command center.
He saw the basic bridge crew and a few troopers on guard duty, but no Admiral in sight. "I take it the Admiral isn't here yet?" he asked the crew.
One of the officers responded. "No, but he should be here in a few minutes. He's just coming back from his break."
Zolph then noticed a peculiar unmanned terminal. "Uh…mind if I take a look at that terminal's databanks before he shows up?"
"Sure, just make sure you don't upload any viruses."
Zolph walked up to the terminal and activated it. He brought up the search engine and looked up 'Archfiend planets'. The search produced at least eleven results, but since Zolph didn't have time to read them all, he just put in a data disk to copy the results to and started downloading immediately.
A few seconds later, one of the results had been successfully uploaded – specifically a planet called 'Krantisi' - but before any more files could be fully uploaded to the disk, a burst of plasma was fired at the terminal from behind Zolph, slowly melting it from the top. Zolph quickly removed the disk with what little information he got before it could melt down with the terminal and put it in one of his belt's pouches.
The shot came from a human cyborg carrying a pistol with a plasma cell in it. This cyborg was almost entirely mechanical save for his head, which too was partly covered to form a hood. From what Zolph could tell of the face, he was a middle-aged man with a scar under his left eye. He looked somewhat familiar, but Zolph couldn't remember who he was.
The cyborg then addressed the crew with a normal voice – apparently meaning his voice box was transferred over to his new body along with his head and other vital organs. "Alright everyone, I'm back. Excluding the trooper at the melting terminal, you may all go on break."
"Are you sure, Admiral?" one of the officers asked him.
"Yes. Now go." The rest of the command crew left the bridge and the Admiral turned his attention to Zolph. "Now take off your helmet. The ruse is up, Vaelor."
Zolph, knowing he was exposed, took off his helmet. "How did you know?" he asked.
"Oh please. I may not be able to sense the Force like Maesterus and Miss Manthis, but that lightsaber is a dead giveaway, and we knew you would come here anyway."
"I just claimed it was a trophy."
"We may allow custom armor decorations, but we prohibit battlefield trophies. And even though it's not the same one I remember, I already know how clever you can be."
"So we have met before. Who were you again? I know that face, but I don't remember the name. Whoever you are, it's been so long since we last met."
"I don't blame you. We haven't met since the Battle of Ithor, and you most likely thought I had died in that battle."
Zolph then remembered who he was. "Admiral Marx Gravlek? You actually survived that crash?"
"Correct."
"But from what I remember, I only cut off your limbs and left you to die. What caused you to need that much reconstruction?"
"I survived the crash thanks a little to the exoskeleton's protection, but I was still banged up pretty badly from the crash to the point that most of my body was non-functional save for my head and spinal cord, so Maesterus recovered me and…."
Unnerved from what he thought he was about to hear, Zolph interrupted him. "Okay, I get it. He had you rebuilt like this. Just spare me the details of the gruesome surgery. And I'm guessing you're angry at me for causing this?"
"I have no hard feelings against you. If I recall, I told you to leave me behind. If anything, this is more or less self-inflicted." The Admiral clicked his plasma pistol. "I'm only doing this per Maesterus's orders."
"Still intent on taking me alive?"
"Still." Gravlek then fired another plasma burst, but Zolph deflected it back at him.
The Admiral leaped upward to avoid the shot and clinged to the ceiling with his clawed hands and feet. Holding on, he fired another shot at Zolph's right hand. Zolph quickly removed the glove so it wouldn't melt his hand with it.
Right after removing the glove, the Admiral lunged at Zolph and then pinned his arms to the ground with his feet. As Gravlek aimed his pistol at his mechanical arm, Zolph quickly kicked him away and got back on his feet. Of course, Gravlek landed on his feet too.
Zolph then used the Force to lift the recently melted data terminal from its post as well as a few repair droids and threw them at the Admiral, who cart-wheeled to the side to dodge all that was thrown at him. "Impressive. Most Impressive. You seem to handle well against fast opponents too, but you still haven't landed a single cut on me." He then fired four more plasma bursts.
Zolph deflected all four shots and the Admiral dodged all but one of them. The fourth burst hit him right in his eyes, causing him to scream in pain as he stumbled around blindly.
"Don't need to," Zolph said as he deactivated his lightsaber. "I guess that's my cue to get the hell out of here." He then put his helmet back on and quickly dashed out of the bridge as Gravlek continued to stumble around.
Zolph quickly made his way through the first crate room after exiting the command center, telling himself, "Well, I got some of what I came for, but the Admiral shouldn't be a threat now since he doesn't have eyes anymore."
Just as he finished talking to himself, he suddenly heard a PA announcement coming from Gravlek himself. "Oh, Pipsqueak! You've got a new playmate!"
"That magnificent son of a Hutt…" Zolph told himself in annoyance. He then noticed a lone Valkoran trooper at a terminal near a large door. The door opened, revealing a full-grown Rancor with cybernetic modifications, including prosthetic arms, a chest-plate, a pair of robotic eyes and a mechanical jaw. "That thing is not a pipsqueak!" Zolph yelled in surprise. The Rancor then picked up the soldier and pulled him towards its mouth.
"No, Pipsqueak! Please don't eat me! It is not feeding time yet!" the soldier yelled to the beast in terror.
Before the beast could take a bite out of him, the PA system activated again. "Pipsqueak, please put Private Helms down. He's had enough accidents for one day." Pipsqueak then dropped the hapless trooper on the ground in response. "There's a Jedi disguised as one of our men. I want you to get him, but you are not allowed to kill or eat him." The Rancor quickly identified Zolph in front of him and chased after him.
Below him, Private Helms was slowly getting back on his feet after the drop. "Yes! I didn't die ag-," he said before getting cut off by Pipsqueak accidentally stepping on him.
Zolph ran away from the persistent beast, leaping over several crates to the turbolift. What really surprised Zolph was that Pipsqueak was focused on pursuing him alone, ignoring the other troopers in the area and taking care not to injure them in the process.
Zolph called the turbolift, and while waiting for it to come up, did what he could to keep his distance from the Rancor, as the thing wasn't stupid enough to try to eat him and allow him to put a thermal detonator in its mouth. Even if it was ordered to kill him, it would've just snapped him like a twig before eating him.
After a few minutes of not getting killed, the turbolift came, Zolph quickly got in and had it go to the lowest floor.
As Zolph recuperated, he took off his helmet, as there was no point in keeping up the disguise anymore, and activated his comlink.
"Zolph to Besh Squad."
"Yeah, what is it, runt?" he heard from Bad Kitty.
"PROTECT THE SHUTTLE AND GET HER WARMED UP!" He yelled into the comlink.
"I'm guessing that's Code for 'Our Nuna's cooked'? We pretty much figured that out from the troops trying to kill us, in case ya couldn't hear the blaster fire going through the comlink. What about you?"
"Oh, nothing. A recently-blinded cyborg admiral just sent a super-intelligent Rancor with an ironic pet name to chase me down."
"Sounds even more fun than what we're doing right now."
"Uh, sure. While you're at it, if you see any guys with rocket launchers…kill them immediately!" Zolph then heard an explosion through the comlink. "That wasn't the shuttle, was it?!"
"Nah! Just one of Boltz' toys shooting down a missile."
Zolph sighed with relief. The turbolift then got close to its destination. "Well, I gotta get going now." He then turned off the comlink and dashed out of the turbolift as soon as the doors opened.
As Zolph fought his way past several Valkoran troopers, he was relieved to be away from Pipsqueak.
Before he could get his hopes up any further, he heard another elevator reach the bottom floor. A large door on that floor revealed Pipsqueak to have followed him down.
"Okay, whoever that thing's surgeon is, I already hate him." Zolph told himself.
He quickly ran to the turbolift to take him to the tram, but it was locked down. Zolph drew out his lightsaber to cut the door open, but Pipsqueak snatched him with his right arm before he could melt into it.
As the Rancor walked back to the large elevator with its prey in grasp, Zolph used his lightsaber to slice off three of the mechanical fingers holding him. He then jumped onto the beast's forearm and stabbed into its organic shoulder. Pipsqueak roared in pain, allowing Zolph to toss the thermal detonator on his belt into the beast's mouth. He then leapt off of his arm.
After inadvertently swallowing the grenade, it detonated inside of Pipsqueak's stomach, killing him. Zolph then resumed cutting the turbolift door open, but before he could put his saber in it, the door just opened. "Well, that's convenient," he told himself before entering and going down to the tram.
After taking the tram, Zolph fought his way past many more Valkoran troopers, including some of the dreaded Black Guard stationed there by Maesterus. As usual, they were a pain in the rear to Zolph, but he still managed triumph over them. Getting close to the hangar, he could sense Dynn coming after him, but she was far behind.
Getting to the hangar, he noticed Besh Squad still holding their ground, with tons of Valkoran corpses, broken machines and scorch marks littering the hangar. One blaster shot fired by a Valkoran trooper hit Boltz' respirator mask, causing it to leak ammonia. The Gand simply retaliated by ripping his mask from his face and throwing it at the Valks as a makeshift gas grenade. Zolph then proceeded to eliminate the remaining forces in the hangar and rushed on board the shuttle with the rest of the squad.
"Alright, Boss! Get us out of here!" Bad Kitty yelled to Xad.
"Okay. You don't need to yell." Xad then fired up the engines. The shuttle left the hangar and jumped into hyperspace as soon as they got away from the Doomsayer.
Now in hyperspace, Bad Kitty questioned Zolph. "So, did ya get what ya came for?"
"Hold on!" Zolph answered before looking to Boltz. "What about Boltz? Doesn't he need medical attention?"
Patcher quickly scanned Boltz. "Aside from a few slight blaster burns, he's fine."
"But he lost his gas mask! Doesn't he need lung treatment?"
Boltz stopped Zolph. "Boltz does not have lungs."
"Oh? Then what's the deal with the mask?"
"Some Gand like to retain racial anonymity when away from Gand."
"And it results in clever tricks like that ammonia bomb."
Bad Kitty then interrupted. "Ahem."
"Oh, sorry." Zolph said remembering the Cathar's original question. "Yes, but I got a lot less than I would've liked to get. I only downloaded one result."
"Only one from a ship that big?"
"I was going to download more, but the Admiral melted the terminal before I could do so. On the bright side, it's better than nothing. Unfortunately, doing another infiltration on that ship again would be near-impossible after what we just did. I guess we'll just have to wait and deal with these other Archfiends as they become priority targets."
Much later, Zolph returned to the Jedi Academy on Ossus after a very long time to reunite with Grein and Headmaster Luke Skywalker to discuss his findings in the archive.
"I haven't seen you in six months." Zolph greeted the headmaster. "What have you been doing while the medical staff was poisoning me with hospital food?"
"Training other rising Jedi, helping out with planetary defenses and sometimes assaults. Stuff like that," Luke answered. "Did you bring the information that General Choi told us about?"
Zolph took out the disk and put it in the console. "And why would I forget about that?" The downloaded data then showed up on the computer screen, showing the one result he managed to download.
Luke was somewhat disappointed in the shortage of intel received. "That's it? Just one?"
"I intended to get more, but I ran into some complications with an old foe from Ithor. Sad to say it, but this war isn't that much closer to ending in our favor."
Grein, looking at the result, then spoke up. "Let's just read the report on this 'Krantisi' planet."
Zolph then chastised Grein. "Come on, Grein. You seem to know plenty about these Archfiends' names and locations. Why are we going on these intel hunts in the first place?"
"There are actually quite a lot of them out there and I'm still researching, so I don't know them all. And if we're really lucky, we may not have to kill them all before this is over."
"And I'm grateful you can remember them as they come up." Zolph opened up the report on Krantisi. He then saw the name 'Belluzub.' "So, Grei? Do you know much about this 'Belluzub' guy?"
"Of all the Archfiends you could've gotten info on, getting Belluzub is like winning the lottery."
"What's so special about him?"
"He's one of the higher-ups in the Collective hierarchy. In fact, he's actually the left-hand man of the Collective's main leader, from what I've read. I just needed to know where he was."
"Well, I guess the infiltration wasn't as much of a letdown as I initially thought." He poured further into the information. Apparently, Belluzub is to be summoned not on the planet itself, but an ancient space station powered by a star in the same system, which had apparently been unexplored by all but the Valkoran.
"You and Grein should scout the system within the next few days." Luke told them. "It'll be your judgment call to determine whether to call us and the fleet in or not." He then directed his attention towards Zolph. "However, I've got something else to discuss with you."
"Shoot."
"The Sanctity's medical records and reports from Besh Squad's medic say you were feeling random moments of pain over the past six months, yet they say you're healthy."
"Oh, that. What about it?"
"That might be the result of a Force bond."
"A Force whatsitnow?"
"It happens when you form an attachment through the Force with someone, normally with people close to you. Whatever they feel, you feel too, and vice versa. But feeling their pain too? I've never heard of that before."
"I wonder if it has anything to do with your girlfriend…" Grein said to Zolph.
"Shut up," Zolph told her. "But yeah, I did recently run into Dynn on the Doomsayer, and she looked pretty unhealthy to me. What pain she experienced, I seemed to feel too. If this is one of those bonds, why haven't I experienced it before then?"
"It probably didn't develop until after you really got worried about her," Grein answered him. "Namely when you learned about that arm. Unfortunately, since that arm can think for itself… let's hope it hasn't figured out how that bond works."
