AN: Hey, everyone. CaptainCakeless back with another chapter of The Legend Reborn. I would have posted this sooner, but my keyboard malfunctioned beyond use and I had to have a new one installed. Anyway, hope you guys like this Chapter, and I hope you all had a Happy Holidays. Now, starting with this Chapter, I will be adding bits of the mandalorian language to the story. I will include a Glossary for each chapter in the Author's Note.
Darasuum Kote: Eternal Glory
Vode An: Brothers All
Dar'Manda: A state of no longer being Mandalorian
Di'kut: Jerk; Moron
Ner Vod: My brother
Corellia: Coronet Spaceport
HK-47 ascended the turbolift, listening to the hum of the repulsor as he was lifted toward the main level of the Spaceport. The plan was simple; infiltrate Coronet Traffic Control, hack the manifest, and locate Gedyc. If Gedyc was still here, that made his job even easier. Although easy wasn't always fun, HK was kind of hoping he would have to board there ship. HK could add a personal touch to things; look his target in the eyes when he killed him. But that wasn't the task at hand.
The turbolift opened and HK strode through, he found himself centimeters away from a young twi'lek female and her daughter. HK lowered his gaze until he was staring the child directly in the eyes. Within moments the girl burst into tears, screaming. HK relished the joyous sound for a moment and continued on, making his way towards the inner workings of the Spaceport.
He examined the other patrons for anything suspicious. Nothing too strange. Traders, smugglers, bounty hunters. Republic Troops stationed at the check-in consoles and the main exit. He estimated at least a hundred troops throughout the Spaceport, he examined the spaceport schematic he had downloaded before he left the Star Forge. The Traffic Monitoring Area should be around ten meters east of his location.
He approached a security door, and inserted a probe into the interface terminal. It took several moments, but the locking mechanism relented, resulting in a low metallic hiss. HK-47 stepped into the darkened hallway and turned up the brightness on his photoreceptors, and then he cycled through the security cams with his remote hacking capabilities. No droids. Perfect. Meatbags were much easier for HK to fool into believing him to be a simple Protocol Droid.
He pulled up the schematics of the Spaceport and preceded down the hallway, he needed to find the monitoring station so that he could track starships, as well as access the docking manifest. Twelve meters down this hall, make a left followed by another twenty meters. A little too simplistic, but typical of Corellians.
HK proceeded twelve meters forward, and then twenty meters left. It led right into another durasteel door, he accessed the holocams again. He counted three meatbags on the other side. He inserted a security probe into the terminal again; it was rejected by a short, yet powerful jolt of electricity. HK quickly withdrew the probe. He unrolled a ribbon of adhesive thermal charge and pressed it against the doors' weak points. Then he pushed the detonator into the soft material and cocked his head to one side as if calculating, "Comment: All this fuss getting in and now I'm just going to walk over them. Anticlimactic, I think the word is..."
HK cleared the blast zone and pressed the detonator, sending a vibration through the floor. The smoke cleared and HK-47 drew his blaster pistol. Three shots, three targets. Followed by the sound of three bodies hitting the ground. The only sound HK loved more than a discharged blaster was the sound of his target screaming in agonizing pain.
Unfortunately, he didn't get that satisfaction this time. But still, he now had a registered three kills. Perfect. HK attached stealth generators to each of the bodies and cloaked them. Now, to find the Death Watch. The rusty red durasteel droid stared at the Monitoring Station, studying the incoming and outgoing ships, cross-referencing the ID Signatures with known ships. None of them proved useful. He began to run his hacking subroutines and began pressing keys on the interface; the monitor opened a second window containing the docking manifest from the past thirty days.
He filtered the manifest to display only ships inbound from or outbound to Mandalorian Space. The computer began to whir as it processed the mechanical assassin's request; all except two ships were removed from the manifest. HK-47 cross-referenced both ships, only one of them matched known Signatures, although they were both clearly of Mandalorian design.
The sadistic droid paused for a minute. "If I were a wanted meatbag," he thought, "I would keep my ship off register as well." They were preparing to leave within the hour. HK-47 shut down the Monitoring Station and began making his way to the Mandalorian's hangar bay. Infiltrate, eliminate, exfiltrate. A basic assassination, HK-47 had completed them hundreds of times.
Eriadu
Spar drew his Verpine Shatter Gun and pinned his back against the tree, a short volley of blaster fire flew past him. He examined the scorch marks on his breast plate, it was lucky he was fast. He had gotten careless; let the aqualish get off a few lucky shots. Odds were there would be a few bruises soon. He paused for a moment, listening for any indication of where his target was. Nothing. He hadn't moved.
Spar took a deep breath, and spun out of cover. He lowered himself down to one knee, narrowly dodging another blaster bolt, and unloaded the power cell into the aqualish. There was a short groan, and then Spar's prey fell forward. The young Mandalorian smiled behind the T-shaped visor and removed the Beskar helmet covering his head. He examined the dark red helmet before approaching his bounty, drawing his vibroknife and slowly driving it into where the aqualish's heart would be. "Rule 17: Make sure they're dead." Spar thought. One of the several useful things he had learned on Kamino.
He took hold of the corpse, gripping its cold, lifeless forearm and pulled him over his back. After this contract, he was going back to Mandalore, word had finally reached him of a Civil War that had erupted. He was eager to fight with his Mandalorian brothers for glory. Darasuum Kote. Eternal Glory.
He entered a small clearing, and camouflaged the corpse beneath some fallen tree branches, and attached a homing beacon. His employer was adamant about anonymity; even Spar was hired through an agent.
After reassuring himself that his cover was satisfying, the mercenary began making his way to the ship across the field, lowering the boarding ramp, and making his way to the cockpit. He entered a course for Mandalore into the navicomputer and let the autopilot control the ship, then began stripping the beskar armor plates before retrieving a kolto syringe and injecting himself, if for nothing other than to stop the bruising.
Kolto had properties similar to Bacta, however it was less effective, but that meant a cheaper price on the market. He closed his eyes for a second before his private holocomm began to ring. "What now?" He retrieved the small device, and let the call through. The flash of blue light took the form of a fellow Mandalorian.
"Gedyc..." Spar stated with disgust at the sight of the Death Watch insignia on his helmet.
"Spar, how goes work in the private sector?" Gedyc asked, feigning concern.
"I told you before. I'm not joining the Death Watch, no matter how many credits you through in my face."
"Now, please. Reconsider my offer. We are Mandalorian. Vode An."
"No, we are not Vode An. You, and your wretched group are dar'manda." Spar deactivated the holocomm, "Di'kut."
Corellia: Coronet Spaceport
Gedyc sighed and set his holocomm on the table, shaking his head, as if in disappointment.
He turned to his advisor, "I want Spar dead, contact our agents on Mandalore."
His advisor nodded, then turned and walked toward some other section of the ship. "Such a waste of Mandalorian blood." he muttered under his breath. He reached for the blaster pistol lying on the counter, and strapped it into the dark nerf-leather holster. He never felt safe without his gun. Gedyc approached the intercomm, "This is Gedyc, time until departure?"
The voice of his chief engineer answered him, "We're performing final safety checks now. Estimated ten minutes before we enter orbit."
Gedyc grunted in annoyance, "Skip the final safety checks, I want us airborne now!" Gedyc removed his hand from the intercom, "I have a very bad feeling about this." He recalibrated the internal targeting system within his Beskar armor once more to reassure himself. Something was following him, he could tell. He didn't want to admit it, but somehow, somewhere... there was something inside this ship. And it was hunting him.
But whatever it was, it was no match for a small army of Mandalorians ready to fight, and kill on Gedyc's command. And sooner or later, he knew he was going to give that order.
HK-47 removed the maintenance panel from its location in the durasteel hull and slipped inside the ship. His large mechanical form cramped against the much larger starship's inner workings. He cross-referenced the contents of the closest pipeline with known chemical substances.
Corellian Fuel. HK had struck the motherload. He pulled out a small charge and attached it to the pipeline, linking it with his remote detonator. He continued to do so across the pipeline as he maneuvered his way towards the engineering compartment, the only possible place the fuel lines could link to.
HK scanned the room for life signs. He detected two meatbags. HK pulled out the last of his ordinance, the last of his explosive charges, and wrapped them together with all the adhesive thermal charge that he had. He attached several detonators against the main fuel tanks and the coolant systems, before he linked everything to his remote detonator.
"Comment: And to think the Master would view this as overkill..."
He opened another maintenance hatch, and began to pace beneath the ship's corridors, traveling beneath the ship's walkways, listening to the footsteps above. He drew his blaster pistol and inserted a fresh power cell.
He pinned himself against the pipelines at the sound of approaching voices above.
"Our agents on Mandalore have been contacted, sir. They await Spar in the capital starport. They will shoot on sight."
"Excellent, I want proof once he's dead. Bring me his helmet," HK listened to the pair of voices, the first was unknown to him however the second could only be the infamous Lorka Gedyc. The pair turned their backs to the panel under which HK was concealed, he reached his mechanized arms upwards and slid the panel aside, pulling himself out into the main hold of the ship. His sensors told him there were only the two within visual sight.
"Observation: You mandalorians never seem to understand the benefits of sealed off maintenance compartments." The two mandalorians spun around, "Addition: Also, you few specifically have very, very shoddy security. I mean, really. I infiltrated your ship without even breaking a wire."
Several other mandalorians entered the main hold, each of them had their blasters trained on HK-47, both Gedyc and what HK assumed to be his second-in-command drew their blasters.
"Declaration: You may as well lower your blasters; they'll do you no good."
A pair of mandalorians, slowly stepped toward HK-47 from behind them. "Complaint: Why can't they just make it easy for once..." HK took a brisk step back, a knuckle plated vibroblade extended from each hand, and he drove each into the weak points of their armor, a grunt of pain from each of them.
He withdrew the blades, and activated his rakatan energy shield. He drew his second blaster pistol and pulled the triggers simultaneously, releasing a volley into his room full of assailants. Their beskar armor resulting in nothing more than simply knocking them back. He ejected a modified EMP device from his wrist designed primarily to shut down armor systems.
Each mandalorian gripped their helmets in a wave of confusion, trying desperately to remove their environmental seals. HK chose to take the moment to his advantage and sent a toxic dart into the exposed necks of each target as they removed their helmets. All except for Gedyc.
He approached the Death Watch leader and lifted him to eye level. He had a look of utter fear for his life on his face; he only managed a few words.
"Who the hell are you?"
"Declaration: I am HK-47, personal assassin droid of my master. My programming forbids me from divulging his identity. And you, Lorka Gedyc have the privilege of being my first assassination in many, many years. Consider yourself lucky." The droid raised his hand, and made a fist, once again the small virboblade extended itself. He brought the blade against Gedyc's neck, and slowly pushed it into his soft meatbag skin, blood trickling from his throat as he attempts to scream, nothing audible releasing his throat except the occasional gasp, until slowly the movements stopped, and his body fell limp. Lorka Gedyc, the leader of the Death Watch was finally dead.
HK withdrew the vibroknife, and dropped the body to the floor. Spar, he thought to himself, they plan to kill Spar. They just made my job so much easier. He entered the bridge and input Mandalore's coordinates into the navicomputer, and engaged the hyperdrive. He calculated the distance between Corellia and Mandalore, then shut down his systems, and issuing a remote activation in fifteen standard hours.
Spar brought the ship out of hyperspace and opened the comlink to Mandalorian Traffic Control.
"Unidentified vessel, transmit ID codes in order for landing permission." a disembodied vocie requested.
"Transmission commencing." Spar pressed several keys on the main console.
There were moment of pure silence in the ship before Traffic Control came back on the comlink, "Transmission received, welcome home ner vod."
"It feels good to be home again." He ended the link and activated the ship's thrusters at fifty percent power, drifting towards the planet. He pulled the mandalorian helemt over his head, the environmental seals closed and the familiar sense of filtered air returned to him.
He removed his safety strap and led the ship toward one of the open hangars of Keldabe City Spaceport. He decreased power towards the thrusters once again and extended his landing gear.
He brought the ship into the hangar, and gently set the ship down on the durasteel floor. He peered through the transparisteel viewport to view nothing other than an empty hangar. Funny. He was expecting a Death Watch welcome.
HK's systems reactivated, his photoreceptors coming online. What seemed to him like mere seconds was actually closer to fifteen hours. The ship's comlink was blinking; Mandalorian Traffic Control was hailing him.
"Statement: The Master would approve of this next action." He deactivated the ship's autopilot, diverted as much power as he could to the thrusters, sending the ship hurling towards the planet, on a collision course with Keldabe; the Mandalorian capital.
He retrieved a thermal detonator from his mechanical waste and tossed it against the transparisteel viewport, the thin metal shattered, a rush of atmosphere flowing through the compartment. He activated his anti-grav hardware, and slowly stepped toward the howling opening within the ship.
HK-47 gripped the shattered frame and pulled himself out of the bridge, maintaining his hold on the outer frame of the ship, the roar nearly deafening his auditory inhibitors. He observed as he descended kilometers towards the surface, preparing the built-in detonator in his systems. The explosives he placed throughout the ship ready to detonate on his command.
The ship continued to descend toward the city, the large structures growing in size. He deactivated his anti-grav systems, the massive Mandalorian ship sailing past him. HK lined himself up with the ship; he watched the ship make contact with the surface. Shortly it was accompanied by many smaller explosions throughout the ship, debris and shrapnel were propelled by the force of the explosion throughout the streets.
As HK descended towards the city, he gripped onto buildings as he passed, slowing momentum, until he made a head-on collision with one of them, crashing through the glass, performing somersaults until he slowed to a stop. He came within meters of the other end of the building, the inner workings of his left hand exposed to the elements after attempting to slow his descent against the passing buildings.
He concealed his blaster pistols and initiated stealth protocols, hoping to masquerade as a simple protocol droid.
The rusty-red droid passed through the building unnoticed, managing no more attention from passing civilians than a simple glance. Several of them held their gaze for more than a few seconds, more than likely they found the large mechanical being to be at least somewhat intimidating.
He made his way onto the busy street, filled with dozens of frightened civilians as they attempted to flee from what they no doubt thought to be simply another Death Watch terrorist attack. He assumed a guise of distress and worry, panicking for his Master, worrying for his safety. He joined the fleeing crowd, asking one of them for direction to the Spaceport.
Shortly afterward, he broke off from the group sprinting towards the large domelike structure that served as the City Spaceport. Armed guards stopped him at the entrance.
HK paused, "Please!" he begged, "You must let me in, I worry for my poor, feeble master."
The guards exchanged a glance, then nodded at him and motioned the droid through the entranceway. He once again initiated his security hacking subroutines and pulled up a holomap of the facility. All the landing platforms were either occupied or shut down, except for one. One which had an incoming vessel. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that is my target.
He drew his stun pistol and followed the holo readout of the facility, making his way towards the private hangar bay. The large doors opened as they detected HK approaching. Interesting, he had never experienced motion controlled architecture.
He stood into the hangar, pistol drawn as the doors sealed behind him. Spar turned to him, a look of puzzlement on his face.
"You, security droid?" Spar assumed, "What the fierfek is going on out there?"
"Statement: It's the reaction to my entrance."
"Entrance? What are you talking about?"
"Order: You will surrender to me. Explanation: I have not attempted to subdue you because I need you unharmed." HK said the last part as though he were disappointingly disgusted by something.
"You aren't taking me anywhere, droid. If you're so sure of yourself, then try me." Spar charged HK, tackling him to the floor. The droid retaliated with a blow to the Mandalorian's side, throwing him off of him.
Spar sprung himself upright, and reached for his Verpine Shatter Gun. He brought the pistol to bear and HK bat the gun aside, and then gripped onto the Mandalorian's gauntlet. He tried to crush the mandalorian armor; however his mechanical nerves refused to obey him. The crash landing had done more damage than he had thought; he would need to be more careful from now on.
HK grabbed Spar by the waist with his other arm, and hoisted him off the ground, pulling the Mandalorian down on his knee before throwing him into a stack of supply crates. Spar let out a grunt as he fell to the floor.
The droid reached for his stun gun and approached Spar again, kicking him back down before removing his helmet. He aimed the pistol at his head, and squeezed the trigger. The electrical pulse shot forward, incapacitating the young, yet skilled warrior.
HK stood up slowly, his mechanical motivators fighting against him. He retrieved Spar's blaster, as well as the Mandalorian himself and carried him aboard the docked vessel. HK had completed his assignment, just as he expected, with a few minor altercations. The Death Watch was in disarray, and he had captured Spar. As well as murdering dozens of meatbags.
It was a good day.
AN: Well everyone, there you have it. Chapter Nine is complete. Again I apologize profusely for the update taking me some time, but Writer's Block hindered me greatly this month. I hope you all enjoyed this. Until next time!
CaptainCakeless117