Mara Jade had never been in the interior of Darth Vader's private residence of Bast Castle before, and the experience was almost breathtaking. The place was befitting of the armored Sith enforcer that made frequent residence here when he wasn't on Coruscant: the hangar in which she landed in was partially filled with starfighters of various design and in various condition, tool boxes containing all of the parts and tools necessary to work on those craft were strewn about on tables, and two or three GONK power droids wandered aimlessly around, as did a black-domed R2 unit.
Her steps echoed against the hangar floor as she walked towards the nearest workbenches, filling the otherwise soundless bay. She silently examined the tools for a second, noting their locations and the amount of wear-and-tear exhibited on them. She mentally shrugged as she continued towards the more interior portions of the castle. All of this fascination with mechanical equipment and repairing thing was a way that Vader could still hold on to his previous life, her master had said.
She eventually reached what appeared to be a training room. It was, however, in horrible shape. Burn marks and deep scars from lightsabers made their way around the four metallic columns that were placed in the center of the room, and a large area of an outer wall had been reduced to slag within the past year. How, she couldn't guess.
Mara approached the opposite door, wary of any possible traps that could be sprung from within this room. Seeing it locked, Mara silently removed a slicing tool from the supply bag that she was carrying. It was then that she went to work.
"Master, she has arrived," the other red-haired, green-eyed Emperor's Hand in the castle said as she watched her rival begin her attempts to unlock the door that led out of the training room.
"Excellent work," Darth Vader answered, his normally black armor being turned into a dark blue due to the holographic representation of him appearing in the control room. His normally imposing figure reduced to ¼ of his actual height. "Do not engage her on your own, agent Brie," he ordered. "Make sure, however, that her prying eyes do not set sight upon their target."
"You don't have to worry about that," Shira Brie said as she moved her chair towards a computer console. "She's in the lightsaber training room as we speak…"
"Something's wrong with this," Mara whispered as the second straight ACCESS DENIED message scrolled across the slicing tool. "The machine or the situation," she amended her original complaint as she began to feel the trickle of uneasiness wash over her. Her danger sense flared momentarily, forcing her to quickly drop the tool. Her now free right hand reached for her lightsaber, quickly pulling it free from her belt.
The sound of a metal panel sliding open hit her ears. Then the echoes of metal feet stepping on metal floor filled the room. Two separate snap-hisses sounded as Mara's two opponents ignited their own lightsabers.
Training droids, Mara thought as she ignited her own lightsaber, the purple glow it emitted illuminated a small 2-meter area around her and casting a slightly purple glow upon its wielder. She closed her eyes, letting the Force amplify her already ample dexterity. Her lightsaber felt lighter now, her movements quicker and her senses were also enhanced.
She could sense the two droids now, even though the four columns hid them at the moment. She brought her lightsaber up, protecting her midsection from the fight that was about to ensue. The two droids—each of them displaying considerable signs of being repaired from several other training sessions—slowly advanced towards their programmed target. The yellow-bladed lightsabers built into their wrists hummed in anticipation as each of them readied themselves to kill the intruder. The first droid moved in quickly, sending its lightsaber towards the Emperor's Hand in a horizontal lunge that Mara easily twisted aside to avoid. The smell of cloth burning hit her nostrils as the enemy lightsaber temporarily ignited her cloak, forcing Mara to quickly press her back against the wall to smolder the flames. Using this to their advantage, the two droids pressed their attack.
Mara deflected the two quick strikes that came next before leaping over the two attackers. As soon as her feet hit the ground, however, she was forced to quickly jump backwards as the other lightsaber-wielding droid spun towards her, its weapon blazing. She sent an almost lightning quick diagonal slash towards the most scarred droid, only to have it blocked in an almost equally quick parry.
She spun to her left as the other droid lunged towards her, hearing the sound of lightsaber contacting metal once again as it hit the column that she had been backed up against. The yellow blade encountered resistance for a second before finally punching through the column, trapping the droid temporarily. She was unable to press her advantage, however, as the other droid spun its blade towards her.
"How is she faring, Agent Brie?" Darth Vader's dark voice said again in the otherwise silent control room.
"It seems as if she might survive," Shira Brie replied as she watched Mara Jade sever the weapon arm of one of the droids. It had been two long minutes since the battle began and, unfortunately, Mara Jade seemed to be gaining the upper hand.
As Mara adeptly decapitated the all but disabled droid, a sinking feeling began to form in Shira's stomach. She knew that Vader was going to ask her to fight Mara Jade. Even though she gripped the lightsaber in her hand—one that she had gotten from a display box labeled simply as "Solusar"—she knew that she would have no chance. Her lightsaber training under the tutelage of both Vader and Palpatine had barely begun, and she also knew that a lightsaber would never suit the fighting style that lurked inside of her. She would require something different; something that she had seen in an old Holocron that dated back to the New Sith Wars…
"If she does, begin deleting all of my personal files and retreat from Bast Castle," Vader replied, setting her mind at ease temporarily.
"Yes, Lord Vader," she simply stated, putting the lightsaber down and beginning to pull up a security program on the computer console in front of her.
It was now one against one, and although Mara had evened the numbers, fatigue had begun to creep into her body. She continued to bat away the lightsaber strikes that streaked towards her, constantly on the defensive. Her usual brand of lightsaber combat—one that was mixed with various forms of hand-to-hand based martial arts—was virtually useless against the metallic body of the droid she fought, putting her at a slight disadvantage. Her agility, however, was still very usable against her metallic opponent, and she used it.
She twisted to her left to evade a downward slice, and easily followed through with a slash that opened a slight wound in the "belly" of the droid. Hydraulic fluid sprayed out of the wound as if it were blood, a small amount landing on Mara Jade's clothing. Its programming firing into an approximation of rage, the training droid charged towards the Emperor's Hand, lightsaber swinging almost randomly. Mara made a quick leap back, blocking the swings as she went. Another opening presented itself, and soon the purple blade of her lightsaber sliced through the right leg of the droid. A simple downward thrust into the photoreceptor of the droid ended its usefulness.
Gasping to regain control of her breath, Mara moved her lightsaber into a guarding position. There she stayed, ears and eyes open for another attack. Satisfied that a secondary attack wouldn't come, she closed her lightsaber and went back to work on trying to open the door. It took her a minute to open the door now that the interference from Shira had stopped.
She continued to walk through the deserted castle, her lightsaber constantly in her hand, wary of any potential dangers that could lurk ahead of her. It took her ten minutes to reach Vader's private chambers; ten minutes that have allowed Shira enough time to delete every private record that the Dark Lord had ever made. Mara quickly removed a datapad, sensing that something wasn't completely right with her situation. Someone was obviously trying to stop her from completing her task—that much was obvious from the lightsaber-wielding droids—but she felt that she needed to access those files as soon possible.
Her feeling was confirmed less than a minute later when she discovered that the very files that she was downloading were also being deleted from the records. She started downloading from the most recent entry; one recorded a few days after the Imperial victory at Yavin 4.
She was halfway through the download process when she was detected. Knowing that every second wasted meant that another part of Vader's plan would be unknown to Palpatine, she hastened her work. Twenty seconds later, only 40 of the original document remained. It was later, when she was on her way back to Coruscant when she learned of the importance of that document. Palpatine would be immensely shocked by what had been found… And her own shock could barely be contained.