Chapter 8
Sith Invasion
"Working for Davik was like driving a spike through the side of your head... Sure you get something new in there, but in the end, you've lost something as well."
-Canderous Ordo
The long, linear section of skywalk that stretched towards the military base lay abandoned. Most of the Sith ground forces were dedicated to scouring the surface of the planet for Bastilla, leaving their primary base of operations manned by nothing more than security droids and a skeleton crew of maintenance personnel. Revan stood just outside the deserted front door, checking the patrol schedules one last time on his stolen datapad.
"Beep-Be-Boop."
He looked down at the Astromech droid rattling excitedly at his feet. He'd taken it from a local droid vender just down the street under the advice of Canderous. The droid was a custom job, evidently designed for no other purpose than to crack through the forward security of the Sith military base. It had been ordered by Davik Kang, the local crime lord, who was being slowly crushed under the weight of the Sith quarantine, his slave and spice shipments drying up before his eyes. Revan had learned this from Canderous Ordo, information in exchange for a service rendered, a service that would benefit both their ends.
"Start."
The T3-M4 rolled forward towards the security door, security tunneler spinning. Revan slid the datapad into his jacket's inside pocket and waited for the droid to finish.
"Be-Be-Bop-Boop."
The droid was making small talk.
"It's fine. Concentrate your work."
"Be-Bop-Bee."
"I don't care. Hurry up."
"Be-Bip-Boop."
"You'd be a lousy conversationalist too, if you were in my position."
There was a whirr as the massive steel doors slid open, the droid pulling back and buzzing.
"Good job. Follow me in and get ready."
"Beep."
"That's the spirit."
Revan passed into the cold, utilitarian lobby of the recently commandeered Sith military base. The Twi'Lek secretary looked up from her computer screen. She was young, with a face more than a few men would die for. According to the base's personnel file, her name was Nataya Kynnie, a local girl that the Sith kept on staff after their takeover. Easier then training someone who didn't know the system. Revan raised the pistol and fired, catching her just above the eye.
"Her station should have access to the rest of the network. Take down all the security droids you can, lock all the doors I don't need, and bring the cameras offline."
The T3 droid clicked as it rolled past the girl's corpse.
"I'll signal you once I've got what I need."
Revan disappeared through one of the base's inner security doors.
The base was nearly deserted, just as he'd planned. He made his way through the twisting, brightly lit corridors. The security droids were hunched over and lifeless, deactivated by the T3-M4 during their endless patrols. He came at last to a large double door. According to Canderous, the launch codes he needed would be in the Governor's office, just beyond. His communicator echoed a series of mechanical blips. A warning from the Astromech. Revan listened, watching the doors hiss open on their own.
The room was filled with tri-legged mechanical monster, bristling with weapons and flanked on either side by stationary gun emplacements. He smiled at the camera hanging limply in the corner. There was a roar as the robot fired, tearing the floor open as Revan leapt clear, his feet landing deftly on the corridor wall for a but a moment before he launched himself back into the air, power flying from his fingertips. The droid staggered backwards on failing legs as its main capacitor exploded from the overload and lightning surged around it. Its memory module shorted as it hit the ground, discharging into the nearby blaster turrets.
Shouts were coming from down the hall, maintenance crews investigating the noise just finding out now that they were entombed, locked away by their own security protocols. Revan raised the beeping communicator, the recently dead still vomiting sparks.
"No, I'm fine. See if you can have the base ready to go into a full lockdown by the time we leave. Reactivate the droids and have them shoot on sight. It should delay any of their attempts at pursuit."
There was an elevator door at the end of the room, but no governor's office. Revan slipped in at ordered the car down. It was refreshing to fight a battle again, even one so effortless. He hadn't been in real personal combat since the Jedi stormed the Sithari and Malak finally broke his leash. That had been almost a year ago. Lights flashed over the descending elevator. It had been the longest year of his life. The indignity. The stagnation. The mercy of the council. Death would have been a mercy, not twelve months in a deprivation cell listening to that idiot girl try and pry the secrets of the Sith war machine from him. He'd toyed with her while she was in his mind, creating false fears and memories, playing on what she expected to find, and more importantly, what she didn't. He painted himself as both victim and villain, a misunderstood hero who was not so far from the light. She saw these things and sympathized. The more she saw, the more she thought was real. She pitied him and what the Mandalorians had done to a once great man. That was how he'd gained her trust, enough to let him out of his cell against the protests of the other Jedi onboard the doomed Republic ship. She was too sure of herself to listen to those older and wiser than she. Pride was her failing and he had used it like a craftsman.
He'd been free no more than a week before the Sith attacked the Endar Spire, presenting him with the perfect opportunity to escape. Their pod had crashed deep in the Undercity of Taris, and he left her unconscious in the escape pod, broken and used, just as she'd intended to use him. The elevator doors slid open into the governor's office. It was an impressive height. The smooth, concrete walls were nearly covered with computers, panels and screens. At the front of the office was a desk that faced the wall, and a massive viewscreen attached to the base's central computer.
He rummaged through the hard copies of documents and files inside the desk. It was doubtful that the launch codes would just be sitting there, but it was better to have all your bases covered before you tackled the more difficult rout.
Revan stood before the viewscreen, his fingers dancing over the main computers keypad. If the launch codes were anywhere on the system, they'd be heavily encrypted and underneath layer after layer of blanket and specialized security caches. Unless Malak had decided to change the protocol to a less secure system, which, despite Malak's incompetence, was doubtful. He flipped on the communicator.
"I'm going to need you down here at the main computer. There shouldn't be anything in your way but time is ever a factor if we want this to go off without a hitch."
Revan tapped his foot as he waited for the droid to respond.
"T3, this is the Stranger, are you still on the line?"
He shut down the computer and turned to head back to the lobby. There was a crash as pieces of charred and broken metal scattered across the tiled floor of the office, some of them still stamped with an Astromech designation.
"Looking for this?"
