Chapter 6: Attempted Escape

The small transparent image of Obi-Wan bowed to his master as it appeared on Lord Sidious's small comm unit.

"Rise Lord Vader." Sidious commanded. Obi-Wan stood.

"What is thy bidding, my master?" Obi-Wan asked. "I am still searching for any leads on the Rebel Alliance."

"Forget about the Alliance for a moment. Grand Moff Tarkin has just betrayed me, he attempted assassination. Tarkin is strong willed, I would wonder how long it would take me to break him… however I do not want that wait to be long, report to the Death Star, he will not easily stand up to two Sith Lords, my apprentice."

"As you wish Master. I will order Admiral Piett to plot a course immediately."

"Good, I will await your arrival."

XxX

There was nothing but locked, metal crates, anywhere in the darn storage shed, which could pass as a small warehouse, a very small warehouse. Mara stood in the center of it with her hands on her hips, taking in her surroundings, no windows, no possible weapons, just incredibly heavy crates and a locked door that required a keycard to open. Those smugglers had searched her thoroughly indeed, they had taken from her every tool she possessed except one, but it might be a bit unreliable.

Nevertheless Mara bent down and pulled up her right pant leg, she grabbed a chunk of synthetic skin on her leg and ripped it off, tossing it behind some crates, on her leg a small electronic device was stuck with a flesh-friendly glue, the pulled it off easily and held it in her hand. This was her only chance, it was a good thing the smugglers missed this. She pressed the red button on it and a small red light began to blink, hopefully the Emperor would get the signal from this beacon, she had never used it before and now was as good a time, and as horrible of a time as any to start, she was cut off from the Force, it was her only option. Now all she could do was wait like a puppy in a kennel for her master to come release her. She tucked the beacon down her shirt and sat down, maybe to meditate.

Her eyes closed for a second until the lock on the door disengaged and Raz Vena entered Mara's prison. Mara opened her eyes and stood up in a flash.

"I suppose you're here to interrogate me?" Mara asked.

"Not exactly," Raz replied. "I just wanted to talk with you."

"Not interested sweetie, now get out." Mara snapped. She wanted as little to do with Raz as possible, she wanted to remain inconspicuous right now in her eyes, otherwise she feared Raz would leave, she had evaded capture all these years, part of that had to do with paranoia.

"Excuse me sweetie, you're the unarmed helpless prisoner, the beast, I'm the armed to the teeth bad ass captor with a whip, I suggest you settle down and answer the questions I have for you."

"Well one day the beast will get tired of constant whippings and attack the so called armed to the teeth bad ass captor, so you just go ahead and ask those questions, maybe you'll get some answers." Mara retorted, her temper rising to almost the boiling point.

"Unless you're highly unintelligent you'll notice there's something odd about this planet. I can tell just by the look of you you're a Force user, you'll notice your power has been sapped, well join the club, so has mine. I could read you right when I saw you even without the power of the Force; you were surprised to see me here, right up as Talon Karrde's second in command. Tell me why that is."

"No."

"Well it doesn't matter anyway, because you know what I think?"

"No, you said yourself our Force powers have been sapped."

"I think the Emperor sent you."

"I…"

"He did, didn't he?"

"You…"

"Stop stuttering, you've as good as answered my question. I guess you're not so up to par in simple interrogation tactics."

"Well… I don't care what other people say, you're not as stupid as I thought you were."

"Nope, in fact I'm smart enough to know that you've probably somehow alerted the Emperor that you've been caught, thus I'm not gonna be staying around here any longer."

Raz turned on her heel to exit. Mara's eyes widened slightly, she couldn't let her escape! Mara watched as Raz opened the door and exited, she couldn't let her leave the planet. Thinking fast Mara ripped off her belt and tossed it in front of the closing door's path, it successfully stopped it, centimeters away from fully closing. Mara ran up and looked through the tiny sliver of a gap between the door and the wall, luckily the door was on the right side of the storage shed, facing away from the rest of the camp, no one would notice it wasn't closed unless Raz did.

Thankfully the woman just kept on walking toward the woods. Mara smiled at her own cunning and forced the door open. She put her belt back on and dived behind the warehouse as a group of four smugglers walked by. Peeking around the corner she saw they were gone, her attention turned back to Raz who had just entered the forest. Sprinting as fast and as quietly as she could Mara propelled herself to where Raz had entered, it was a trail, leading through the dense underbrush to where Mara saw the ships. Crouching low Mara tailed her enemy.

Raz walked silently on the trail, never looking back, she entered a small clearing full of ships and walked to a peculiar looking one, the likes of which Mara had seen only as a holovid in Raz's file. This was her elusive ship, of course it would be here though, if she was.

Raz strode up to it quietly, and turned to meet the smuggler guarding all the craft. They conversed quietly, Mara couldn't make out every word but it didn't matter to her. She pulled out a tracking device that she had hidden in a secret pocket in her suit, something the smugglers also failed to find. She activated it and tossed it at the hull of Raz's ship. She smiled as it successfully latched on, neither Raz nor the smuggler noticed a thing.

Then a thought came across her mind, "now what?" What was she going to do—

Something flew at her from behind a tree; it was another one of those freak kath hound things. It lunged at Mara's crouched form, claws out. She ducked in the knick of time as it flew over her; however this had attracted Raz's and the smugglers attention. The smuggler pulled a blaster pistol and squeezed a shot off at the thing, it missed horribly. The beast turned to look at the man and pulled back its lips in an angry snarl, Raz drew her vibro sais as the creature began to charge. Shot's erupted from the smuggler's blaster pistol but all missed. Mara watched, frozen in place as Raz tossed a vibro sai casually at the creature, it stabbed right through it's head, erupting with a spurt of blood form the other side. Her eye's then snapped to Mara.

Mara stood and turned around but not before a vibro sai was thrown at her, it flew and went right through a pouch into her belt, and then dug itself into the nearest tree, pinning Mara to it. Raz bent down and pulled her weapon from the creature's head. She sheathed it and then strode up to Mara with the smuggler at his side.

Raz took her weapon with a smile on her face as the smuggler bound Mara's hands.

"Vornskr." Raz answered Mara's question. "They're native to Myrkr, hunt Force users, they're very aggressive as you can see. I've had my own run-ins with 'em. My policy with them is to kill every single one."

She turned to the smuggler.

"Take her back to her cell, make sure she doesn't escape this time, wait, she probably broke the door… give her to Karrde I guess, tell him I've left to go and see my friend, tell him I must warn her."

XxX

The Emperor scowled as he gazed at his own comm unit, it was linked to every beacon any given one of his Hand's had, and one beacon was activate. He snarled angrily, it was Mara Jade's. Mara would only have a very good reason for switching her beacon on, she was either captured or stuck, the coordinates of where her signal was coming from were displayed neatly in holographic numbers. She was on Myrkr.

Sidious's temper was rising, he half felt like he should leave her there to get out of what ever predicament she was in, but she was to valuable, she may or may not know the location of Raz Vena, Sidious was not willing to gamble that she didn't know. But how was he going to rescue her? The Emperor's eyes raised from his comm unit, to the entrance to his throne room and Obi-Wan walked in, capes swishing behind him, he wore the mask of Darth Revan and looked terrifying, Sidious scowled lightened.

"I am ready master." Obi-Wan said through the voice scrambler in the mask. "Where is Moff Tarkin?"

"Tarkin no longer bears any title my apprentice, he is simply Tarkin now. He is locked in a cell, but never mind him. I'm afraid I will have to deal with him alone. I have a mission for you." Sidious said, not believing what he was thinking.

"Yes master?"

"A secret agent of the Empire has been captured, or is stuck on the planet Myrkr. I'm transferring her coordinates to your personal computer. She is highly valuable to the Empire, and if she is in custody she is probably in a camp of smugglers. She was looking for a dangerous woman there who could potentially threaten the Empire; the agent's name is Mara Jade. I want you to bring her back to me, look for any female smuggler there as well, bring any to me alive, and kill the rest. The female smuggler could potentially threaten the Empire, I need you to bring her directly to me, do not even speak with her, do you understand?"

"Yes my master."

"Then go Lord Vader, bring back the agent of the Empire and her target."

Obi-Wan nodded, kneeled, and made his way out of the throne room. Sidious's eyes, which were already sickly yellow, flashed a bloodcurdling black. This plan was far too risky. He had hidden Mara Jade for a reason, he had kept Raz Vena that he was hunting Raz Vena away from Obi-Wan for a reason, he knew Obi-Wan would most likely recognize her on sight, but he was confident Raz was either in disguise or had fled after she saw Mara, Raz was smart, but perhaps Mara knew where she was headed. Whatever the outcome he knew one thing, Mara would pay dearly for this slip up.