Chapter 6: Zuro Pax

Murkhana

The last few weeks had been an especially difficult time for Pax. Less than a week after he commissioned his head of security as a General in the Corporate Alliance forces, and sent him on a mission to retrieve some of his friends, everything had gone sideways.

Shiptar Tov'rak was now in Republic custody or worse after being no doubt uncovered by Itoll. After nearly having to jeopardise the Banking Clan's neutrality, San Hill had made it very clear that Pax owed him.

If that weren't bad enough, as the Duros made his morning commute to Argente Tower, Vulture droids were now falling from the sky like rain.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!" Pax screamed into his radio transceiver, twisting the steering wheel of his yellow flash speeder.

Down below, hundreds of droids were splashing into the tranquil sea around the Murkahna spaceport. Flames had erupted in in the departures lane, blocking the busy ground traffic from the spaceport.

"I don't know!" Danlos gasped. "We are looking into it."

"Looking into it?" Pax asked in an incredulous yell. He snorted in a mixture of laughter and fury. "Beings could die! There is—Kriff me!"

Hundreds of meters to the right of Pax's speeder, a C-9979 Trade Federation lander emerged through the clouds at a sideways angle. It fell down, lower and lower, causing Pax to look away from the windshield and out the passenger side door.

Please don't hit the bridge. Please don't hit the—Phew. The Duros sighed in relief as the giant lander splashed down onto the water's surface, sending a spout of water onto passing traffic. Pax looked back out his front window and screamed, twisting his steering wheel to narrowly avoid an oncoming transport craft.

The transport honked furiously, lowering down into the safer skies above West Murkhana.

Pax sighed looking across the water despondently. He still had a few kilometers to go. The droids were not dropping from the sky quite as often but… But the sky is falling. Metaphorically at least. "Danlos?!" Pax grunted angrily, jabbing the radio transceiver button with his pointer finger. "Danlos, do you copy?"

o.o.o.o.o

"Well sir," a female Gossam technician explained matter of factly. "The droids all seem to have gotten a command to shut down."

Now on the busy floor of the Corporate Alliance Command Center in Argente tower, Pax could not remember ever having a worse commute on Coruscant.

"They just shut down?" Pax scoffed incredulously. "Droids can do that?! Why would the Trade Federation shut their droids down? Why didn't you shut down C-7PO?" The Duros spun around, jabbing a protocol droid in the chest with his hand. "Why are you shut down when the Trade Federation—"

"—They didn't sir!" Danlos gasped, beckoning him over to his terminal. "It was a Separatist root command. An overriding one from the Separatist Navy."

"I don't have root access," Pax said defensively, walking up to the human's station.

"It wasn't from you sir," Danlos croaked. "Someone named Krataa. They have… It's affected the ships in orbit. We're… A REPUBLIC FLEET JUST JUMPED INTO THE SYSTEM!."

"Kriff everything!" Pax yelled, "sound the orbital bombardment sirens! Raise the shields!"

"The shields aren't responding!" the female Gossam gasped, typing away fruitlessly. "They've… That's odd."

"Pull up security of the shield generator!" Pax bellowed.

The security feed of the shield generator appeared on the large main viewer at the front of the room. What was left of the shield generator, that is. The white durasteel discs were charred black, cracked in dozens of places with short flames poking out of the broken structure. Encircling the generator was an unattended fence and jungle. Not a single Fusilier was in sight.

"GET ME THE FUSELAGE GENERAL, NOW!"

Nobody dared correct the Duros with the Koorivar Fusiliers' proper name.

"Director, we have detected—"

"Get your forces on alert. The droids are down, we need troops in the streets. An invasion is imminent."

"We are already mobilising. There—"

"—There's been sabotage at the shield generator. In addition to defensive preparations, I want to know who ordered the fuselages to leave their posts."

"Director, I assure you, unlike my predecessor, I would never—"

"FIGURE IT OUT!" Pax screamed, then terminated the line. He stood there, hyperventilating. On the various views of the city, emergency vehicles were flying about, sirens on, establishing checkpoints. Speeder trucks filled with Koorivar Fusiliers were hovering along the streets, digging in for an invasion.

"This cannot be happening," Pax muttered to himself. "We are in the centre of the Tion Cluster. krataa... Who is krataa? What is krataa? Droid!" he exclaimed, spinning to face the protocol droid. "Have you ever heard a name like krataa with two Aureks?"

"Yes, but Director Pax, I must inform you that I am prohibited to tell you anything more."

"What the hell do you mean?" Pax gasped in surprise.

"I am forbidden from translating anything from the language of the Sith," the protocol droid said regretfully, looking at the ground in shame.

"Sith?" Pax's mouth went slack in horror. Count Dooku, they say, is a Sith. Might he—

"—Sssir," a Trandoshan hissed, tapped Pax's shoulder with his clawed hand. "We need to move." Sskov had become Pax's new head of security after Shiptar was captured by the Republic.

"All right," Pax agreed, turning back to Danlos. "We're evacuating everyone. Wipe everything. Protocol zero. With the shields down, the Republic will hit this building no matter what."

"Copy that," Danlos sighed, flicking a switch on his console for the building's intercom. "Republic forces have entered orbit. We are enacting protocol zero. Nonessential personnel evacuate immediately. Everyone else, you know the drill. Now, where is Sterpen?"

o.o.o.o.o

With deep regret, and a blaster pistol in his hand for the first time in months, Pax abandoned his Flash Speeder on the roof of Argente tower. He and his team of mercenary security boarded a military transport, bound for the edge of the jungle.

The skies, now smokey from the flames of crashed Vulture droids, were more filled with traffic than Pax had ever seen. Everyone knew the Republic would hit Murkhana. With the shield down, being in the city was potentially suicidal for anyone involved in anything Separatist.

Pax's mind, however, was fixated on the Sith. That Jedi mumbo jumbo. What are the odds that someone would pick a Sith code name? What if that is someone's real name? None of the possibilities were good.

The only beings with root access were the members of the Executive Separatist Council. Watt Tambor, Nute Gunray, Poggle the Lesser, San Hill, Passel Argente, Po Nudo, Tikkes, General Grievous and Count Dooku Himself. While Pax had suspicions that any number of the members of the council, save perhaps Passel Argente, could betray him, the fact it was a Sith word made him doubt anyone except Dooku.

"We are in serious shassa," Pax muttered to Sskov.

"You're telling me," the Trandoshan hissed with a cynical smile. "It's been boring around here. In many waysss, Pax, this is an opportunity. It will be like the Wookiee attack, I tell you. The Fusiliers will fail but we—"

"—That attack was just a handful of Wookiees. We've been betrayed and, huh." Pax picked looked down to his wrist-comm, looking at who it was from.

"General Pavlok," Pax grunted, answering the call. "You better have answers."

"I do, Director," the Koorivar said apologetically. "It was Sterpen. Sterpen betrayed us."

Sterpen. With all of these worries about the Sith, Sterpen's conspicuous absence had slipped Pax's mind. "That traitor!"

"I have already informed all of my personnel. He is to be killed on sight if found."

"No, no," Pax groaned. "Arrest him on sight. We need to know if he knows anything about who might have initiated the shut down."

"Very well sir," Pavlok said gruffly. "Good luck."

"You too," Pax sighed, looking out the tiny square window beside his seat.

Bursts of flak were now sailing into the air as a massive Republic cruiser cut through the clouds. It was the same model as the ones that had attacked Geonosis, but unlike a plain grey, this one had been painted with long red stripes. A swarm of dots, likely smaller transports, zipped out around the Republic cruiser from behind it. Most were heading for Murkhana City, but several, Pax noted, were heading straight for West Murkhana.