Space Wizard

or

Yer a Space Wizard, Harry!

08

I checked my weapons and considered how to handle the situation. Given the way she hadn't moved much from where she had been, Exal was pinned by something… and reaching out to the Force to assess enemy placements outside told me the people with rockets across the way had traded them out for rifles and were pouring fire into the upper floors. And given the way a few people were moving up top, they had air support.

Distraction, I decided.

Looking up to the open floor above, I made a standing leap up and vaulted the railing. Reaching down with the Force, I picked up Upto and Doggo and lifted them up as well. Finding a set of windows looking out over the people outside, I made the call. "Upto, go with Doggo. Set up in the window. Take out as much of the shit below as you can, but don't get yourself killed. I need you to create a distraction while I go down and find their leader. I'll manually designate his targets and have him fire. Hold fire until he opens up."

The droid whistled in the affirmative and it and my mobile turret moved into position. Watching through its cameras, I picked out key targets that I could see from the elevated position. Two people on mounted guns on the vehicles in front were marked to go first, followed by the drivers of what amounted to speeders with laser turrets on them.

Pushing the Force into the tiger pearl around my neck and pulling my cloak tighter around myself, I disappeared from the Force. It wasn't the same as being invisible, but that was what the crystal at my side was for. A bit of Force pushed into it removed my presence visually to anyone looking. It wouldn't defeat scanners or droids looking outside the visible spectrum, but it would have to be good enough for now. Moving around the floor and off to the side, I dropped back down and kept low as I made my way to a side entrance. Finding it unguarded from the outside, I slipped out and looked around. Darting across the street, I moved across the front of another building's ground level parking lot, hiding between the speeders as I went. Finally, I crossed over behind the enemy group.

Reaching out with the Force, I didn't feel anyone who seemed like a commanding officer in this group. Just low-level grunts waiting on orders. Moving closer, I found one towards the back of the group—a human man with a big sniper rifle pointing into the lobby. Reaching out to him, I latched onto his mind and gave him the impression that he needed to leave his position and move inside the building behind him, to join his friends up top. He blinked twice, before picking up his big blaster rifle and carrying it inside, those around him none the wiser.

I followed him inside to the elevator, where he waited for it to come down. Reaching out with the Force, I found the entire building was empty, save for other hostiles. The planning and coordination needed… this wasn't a spur of the moment thing. It had to be months in the making.

That makes this easier, I mused, as I followed him into the elevator. The doors closed and he touched the button for the roof. I grabbed his head and slammed him against the wall of the elevator.

"Shh!" I hissed as his mouth opened, holding my blaster up under his chin. He nodded and I used the Force to pull his radio headset off. Wiping it off on his clothes, I held it up to my ear for just a moment, confirming it was active. Making sure it wasn't transmitting, I pressed on his mind and compelled him to answer as I asked, "Where's your boss?"

"W-wha—you mean B'lagio? He's, he's in his pleasure barge! He's waiting for us to finish up here before he moves in, so he can kill Caesa himself, then watch us blow the building!"

"And your commanding officer?"

"He's in the ship flying close air support!"

Nodding, I heard the elevator ding quietly and open behind me. Taking his rifle, I stepped out, still holding him at gunpoint. I squeezed the trigger… and hesitated, just before the action broke and it fired. It was at this point that I realized that I'd never killed someone before. Animals, yes. Very intelligent and malicious animals, absolutely. But never another sentient being.

And then I remembered pretty blue eyes staring up at me before the life and light went out of them.

I pulled the trigger, putting a green bolt through the man's head. Turning, I cloaked myself again and took a moment to slip the radio headset on under my helmet. Then, I started running for the nearest sniper.

"—Captain, B'lagio would like to know what the holdup is."

A man's voice responded a moment later, sounding frustrated. "The 'holdup,' son, is the fucking merc squad hunkered down in the garage with the fucking Jedi, or Sith, or whatever the fuck the bitch is."

"…You have aerial superiority, captain."

"Yeah, well, you tell them that!"

"B'lagio commands you to send in the troops and have them work their way up. Pincer the enemy from top and bottom."

"And I told you, my men reported seeing some kind of droid in there that looked like it had a fucking cannon mounted on its back. I'm not sending them in until we have confirmation—"

"You're being paid to take that risk, Captain. Send them in."

"The fuck you do," I whispered. I sent Doggo the command to fire and, a moment later, a stream of green laser death spilled out into the vehicles outside, making quick work of the gunners with a BRRT I could make out from up here. A moment after that, Upto started firing off missiles into clusters of enemies, staying back away from the window and using Doggo to designate targets. Smart droid.

The calls came in immediately. "Under fire from the hotel! Second flo—arg!"

"Second floor! It's a turret! Someone's got a missile launcher! We're taking a beating down here! We need air support!"

I moved Doggo back from the window and Upto followed, heading for the elevator leading up to the garage. With the ground asset mostly hunkered down at the moment, that was where they would be able to do the most good. Just in time too, as the gunship descended a bit and filled the entire bottom floor with red blaster bolts with a much louder and longer BRRT than Doggo's.

I found the first sniper hiding behind a pillar, taking aim at the building across the street. Pulling my assassination saber, I turned it on and marveled at the fact that the blade was dead silent and barely visible as almost completely clear. Bringing it down, I swiped it through the sniper's head before shutting it off and making for the next one.

It took three more before someone finally noticed. "North rooftop unit, resume suppressive fire."

There was only one left up here when the next call came, and then there were none. "North rooftop unit, check in."

Ignoring it, I turned my attention on the small ship circling the building, occasionally letting out a stream of auto blaster fire at both the garage and the lower floor. A check through Doggo's cameras showed that they were almost up to the garage.

That fucking gunship has to go.

I scoped out the surrounding rooftops with my stolen rifle. Spotting the other snipers wasn't too difficult for the most part, though some of them were obscured from me. However, this bad boy I held in my hands wasn't your average, run of the mill sniper rifle. No, it was an anti-material rifle. Meaning cover, unless it was over a foot thick or made of specific materials, was effectively fucking pointless.

I let the Force guide me and swung the rifle from left to right, pulling the trigger several times as I did. Big, red bolts streaked out and I felt as each one took a life on the other end of it. The gunship immediately turned towards my roof and I felt it in the gunner's intent through the Force when they spotted me.

Unfortunately for them, it was about that time that the elevator door to the garage opened up and Upto and Doggo came barreling out. A stream of green blaster bolts and a swarm of small missiles slammed into the ass end of the gunship. I took aim at the cockpit. The pilot reacted, trying to quickly pivot the ship to bring the nose around to line up the big gun on the bottom for a shot. I pulled the trigger the moment the time felt right in the Force—a hair before the barrel of my rifle lined up with the heads of the pilot and co-pilot. A single shot streaked out and the cockpit's windows were suddenly obscured by a sheet of red from the inside.

The gunship, already in the motion of pivoting, spun harder left and down, beginning to spin like a top as it fell towards the ground. It hit the ground with a satisfying crunch as it crashed.

Looking around at the rooftop speeder parking, I found a speeder bike and climbed on. I didn't have the key, but some applied lightning started it and I was zipping off a moment later, keeping my eyes open and my senses spread. I spotted what I was looking for not far away—a pleasure barge that had been coming up the street, abruptly turning around to flee.

"No you don't."

The bike closed the distance quickly and I dove as soon as I was over the target. Slaves screamed as I landed in the middle of them, the bike sliding as I stepped off. Guards rushed me with what looked like some sort of shock sticks. The first, I caught with the draw of my red lightsaber, cutting straight through his weapon and chest alike, sending the man falling to the ground dead. The next one recoiled as he realized what he was dealing with, but it didn't save him as I closed the distance and put my lightsaber through his heart.

Pulling the blade out through the side of his ribcage, I let him fall as I stalked towards the fat worm sitting on a throne bed, radiating fear. A third guard lifted a blaster and fired, but training with Exal paid off—I swatted the bolt, returning it to sender, blowing apart the final guard's throat.

The worm began speaking then, begging for its life. I ignored it and made my way towards the controls. Finding a droid there, I shoved it out of the way and put away my lightsaber, then turned the pleasure barge around as the worm moved off its couch and yelled in Huttese, "What are you doing?! Take me back to my palace and I'll pay you! I'll make you wealthy!"

"And how much is Caesa going to give me, when I hand your bloated ass over to him? If I take you back to your palace and your security teams, you'll try to shoot me in the back. No, I'd rather deal with the worm that didn't lead by ordering his forces to open fire on civilians."

"It was just a bunch of slaves and nobodies! You want slaves?! There! Take them!" he gestured at the slaves cowering on the other end of the barge.

"Shut up." The worm slowly moved towards me and, feeling its intent in the Force, I held out my hand and zapped the shit out of it with Force lightning, making it flop on the ground and scream for a few moments before letting up. "You stay right there or next time, I toss you overboard. See if you can fly."

A puddle of foul smelling liquid spread under the shit brown living turd as it began to shiver and moan in fear and pain. I ignored it as I brought the barge into the garage of Caesa's Palace. I brought it in for a landing and extended the ramp down. A moment later, a group of very angry looking individuals in a lot of armor and carrying enough weapons to make me jealous stormed up the ramp, sweeping the deck. Several of them pointed weapons at me and began bellowing orders, before a voice from behind stopped them.

"Stand down! That's my apprentice," Exal called, making her way up the ramp. Her hood was up, hiding her face in shadow, but my cybernetic eye saw like it was daylight. A piece of shrapnel had struck her face and lodged there, cutting into her left eye and leaving her blinded in that eye. She had left the piece of debris in and looked to be doing her best to ignore it.

I shut off the barge and left the controls. We met in front of the worm—myself standing across from Exal, who was flanked on one side by a Twi'lek in camo netting carrying a sniper rifle and on the other by an older man with a beard and graying hair with a tricked out blaster rifle.

"So you're the apprentice she wouldn't shut up about? Name's Pliskin," the man offered his hand and I shook it.

"Harry. Come on, let's get this piece of shit rolled off of this tub and onto a hand cart so we can wheel his fat ass in front of the other worm and ask for a payout."

"Oh, I like him boss," the Twi'lek purred.

Pliskin turned and began giving orders to his people. I stepped closer and nodded off to the side. Exal followed and, once we were out of earshot, I asked, "Are you okay?"

"It's not life-threatening," she murmured in answer. "But it is very uncomfortable."

"Maybe next time, don't try to catch things with your face."

She made a little choked laugh, before wincing. "Ow. Don't make me laugh. Smiling hurts right now. Anything that moves the face, really."

"We'll get you to a doc and have that looked at as soon as we're done here," I assured her, and the Sith nodded.

Despite the pain, her lips pulled into a smirk and I felt her mirth in the Force. "Well, at least now we'll match, apprentice."

Reaching out, I stopped just before touching her face. "Let's not try to match the rest of the way. Trust me, it's better to keep your real arms."

Pliskin coughed from nearby and we turned to look at him. "The men found a handcart and are bringing it up." Nodding down the ramp, he asked, "Those yours?" When I nodded, he grinned. "Saw what they did downstairs and to that bird. That looks damn handy to have."

"Yes, good work, apprentice. Let us hope that what we have is enough for the mission to come," Exal murmured.

"Well, if you two will excuse me, I need to go take care of something. I'll be back in a minute."

Exal raised an eyebrow at that, but nodded. I made my way down to where the speeder bike was resting on its side, behind a group of mercs watching over the huddled up slaves. Hopping on, I made my way across the street. Finding what I was looking for, I grinned and swooped down, picking up the rifle that was almost as long as the bike itself before making my way back to the garage. I parked the bike beside the Dying Light and called over Upto and Doggo. I opened the Dying Light and let them inside, then went ahead and moved the bike and rifle in—spoils of war I was claiming for myself. I rejoined the others just as the elevator opened and a couple of mercs wheeled out a hand cart.

The group of us—myself, Exal, Pliskin, and the Twi'lek sniper, escorted by a group of four mercs with two more pushing B'lagio the Hutt on a hand cart—entered the office of Caesa the Hutt. Caesa was a more golden-brown than shit brown, but still ugly as any Hutt. His own private security forces stood around the office, blasters at the ready, but considering we had B'lagio basically gift wrapped for him, he looked happy to see us.

"Well, well. How the 'mighty' have fallen," Caesa chortled in Huttese, before gesturing to one of his men. "Collar him and take him below. I want to draw his suffering out for years."

One of the guards approached and B'lagio shook off the two mercs holding him restrained. "No! Noo!"

Exal and I had the same idea at the same time, both of us hitting the worm with a bolt of Force lightning. He thrashed and writhed, screaming until he ran out of breath. We didn't stop until his thrashing stopped and he began to smoke—close to death, but not dead yet. The Hutt sitting on his throne bed laughed, clapping at the show.

The smoking Hutt was collared and two of Caesa's guards wheeled his cart back into the elevator. Turning his attention to us, Caesa said, "I hear I have you to thank for repelling his forces. I have a wide selection of slaves to choose from—please, take one or two each! One of my people will see to paying each of you individually." Turning to me, he said, "You! You are the one who brought that stain to me! Any five—no! Any ten slaves you like, and… two million credits!" Then, he waved towards the door. "Go, be on your way. I have a new slave to torture! Bahahaha!"

We said our thanks and left, with a functionary of some kind joining us and taking us down to collect our rewards, after gathering the rest of Pliskin's merc company. We left them to arranging their own stuff as Exal eagerly looked over the list of slaves that had been handed to her. That is, for a moment, until she noticed my mood.

"Is there a problem, apprentice? Is the reward not satisfactory?"

I shook my head. "Not really in the mood. Think I'll see if I can just trade the slaves for money."

The woman hummed, then nodded, putting the tablet down and waving over the functionary taking care of us. "Please thank Caesa for his generosity, but we are not capable of taking on any slaves at this time. We would like to trade the slaves for their value in credits."

"Of course. I'll see to it."

When the secretary or whatever the alien was returned, I asked, "What's going to happen to the bodies?"

"Hm? Oh, the next of kin for our guests will be contacted and their bodies interred until they can be picked up. Staff and slaves will be incinerated. Why do you ask?"

It didn't seem right, but I knew nothing about the girl, not where she came from or if she even had family left alive—let alone where or how to find them. Letting them take care of it was the only real option unless I wanted to collect the body and bury her myself. But that brought with it the problems of where and how to do so.

In the end… while I felt guilty about it and she deserved better, I would probably just burn the body anyway. So it didn't matter much whether it was me doing it with the Force, or Caesa's people doing it with an industrial furnace. Either way, it didn't sit right. I kind of felt like I should have done more, or could still do more.

After collecting our credits, we took a taxi from the hotel/casino and made our way to a medical facility, where Exal had the shrapnel removed and a replacement eye installed. While we were there, I asked about options for my prosthesis. As it turned out, there were actually synthetic skin options available, fully capable of feeling things as a normal hand would. I went ahead and got my arm upgraded, but made sure that the new synthskin wouldn't interfere in future maintenance and upgrades of the hand. In the end, the skin looked mostly normal, save for some lines in it where it could separate to allow access to the metal underneath.

Following that, we returned to Caesa's Palace, where our room—which had been destroyed—was exchanged for one on a lower floor. We got cleaned up together in the shower and went to bed.

As I lay there trying to sleep, Exal quietly shifted over onto her side and regarded me in the dark. Turning onto my side to face her, I brought my hand up and traced her new scars. Focusing on the Force, and remembering the feeling of sunlight on my body that had sped my own healing, I tried to do the same thing. Soft blue light seeped out from my hand to her face. Exal's eyes widened slightly, before she leaned into the touch with a sigh.

"Tell me what happened."

Humming quietly, I said, "Imagine you're on some cesspit of a planet. Everyone around you is a piece of shit, to one degree or another. But just when you think there's no redeeming the place, that it's a hive of scum and villainy that needs to be burned to the ground, purely by accident you stumble across the one light in the place. One truly good person, so pure that it hurts to look at against the backdrop of all the filth. And instead of wanting to destroy or corrupt them, you want nothing more than to see them protected. To pluck them out from the shit heap and run away, hide them away from everyone and jealously guard them from the rest of the universe. Then, in your own carelessness, you let them wander away just a bit… and some worm decides he wants to start a turf war by killing a bunch of civilians and slaves to make a statement. And then they're gone."

Exal was completely silent as she stared at me, a contemplative look on her face as her eyes bored into my own. Finally, she nodded. Pushing at my shoulder, she rolled me over onto my back and straddled my lap, holding my hand still tending to her face against her. She didn't say anything, but she didn't have to. I felt her sentiments in the Force loud and clear as, once more, our bodies moved in sync and our thoughts and feelings became one.

She opened up and showed me that she understood exactly what I meant. And that it was exactly what she was quickly growing most afraid of.

It was a little overwhelming to be shown that for Exal Kressh, who spent her life in the Empire, who was born to a family of Sith and hereditary Sith Lords, who trained at Korriban and became a Sith apprenticed to a Darth herself… I was the light she had seen in the Force. The one good person she knew. And she had snapped me up and intended to either run away or destroy her master, because she didn't want to lose that.

"So we're hiring these guys?"

"Yes. They acquitted themselves well," Exal nodded as we sat in a conference room that had been converted into a meeting room, given that all of the rooms on the top two or so floors had been destroyed.

A few moments later, the door opened and Pliskin and his sniper joined us at the table. The man settled into a chair with a creak and the Twi'lek offered her hand over the table. "Sorry I didn't introduce myself yesterday with all the stuff going on. Thena."

"Harry," I nodded.

The green woman grinned and settled in beside her boss. "Saw you take out those other snipers. That was really something. How'd you do that?"

"The Force," I shrugged.

She frowned at the answer. "I'm not really religious. You're telling me that some divine universal will guided your hand to… kill people?"

"Not divine," I shook my head. "Not profane, either. The Force just is. Jedi and Sith aren't religious orders. We don't pray to the Force, we harness it or let it harness us—which is one of the key ideological differences between Sith and Jedi." Pausing, I corrected myself. "Well, most of us aren't. Some of us do worship it, I suppose."

"They do," Exal agreed. "Zealots and madmen, usually."

"Regardless," Pliskin cut in, "we're not here for that. When is this contact supposed to show up?"

"Soon—"

Exal was interrupted by a knock at the door. With a gesture from the woman, the door opened, revealing a woman with blue skin, red eyes, and smokey blue hair… and a very small presence in the Force. Our eyes met and her lips quirked up in a grin as she walked in. "We meet again."

Exal raised an eyebrow. "You know this woman, apprentice?"

"Met her just before that shit show kicked off downstairs," I shrugged. "Never did get her name."

"Ikari," the woman answered, closing the door behind her.

"What do you do exactly, Ms. Ikari?" Pliskin asked, studying her as she moved over and sat down at the table. Not at the end of the table, but directly beside me.

"A little of this, a little of that. Private investigation, slicing, breaking and entering, recovery of lost or stolen items or persons, penetration and security testing. Does that sound like something you'd be interested in?"

The four of us shared a look, before Exal and Pliskin both nodded. "It does," my master agreed. "Tell me, have you ever worked with ancient Sith security?"

The woman raised one fine blue eyebrow. "How ancient are we talking?"

"Nearly three thousand years," Exal supplied.

Ikari hummed quietly as she considered it. "I've cracked older and other things from that timeframe. Not Sith specifically, but the tech base is similar. It shouldn't be a problem."

Leaning forward a bit, Pliskin asked, "And how do you perform under pressure?"

"Ask him," Ikari jerked a thumb at me.

The others looked at me and I shook my head. "She took cover when the fighting started. I lost track of her after."

"Exactly. If I have to stick around for a firefight, I've done something wrong."

"Sounds like an escort mission," Thena sighed. "Go in blasters hot, kill everything that moves, escort our slicer to open any doors we can't and don't want to demo."

Ikari raised an eyebrow. "You're operating under the assumption that there's going to be a fight?"

"There's definitely going to be a fight. It's unavoidable," I shook my head.

"What would I be walking into?"

I grinned. "Short version? Lab facility full of zombies—"

"Gonna need full bio-hazard gear," she immediately replied with a frown. "A vac-suit may work…"

Cutting an amused look over to Exal, who rolled her eyes, I chuckled. "That was my first thought. We sent a drone in and scouted it ahead of time and scanned it. Scans came up negative for biological contagions. Probably going to want armor though."

Pliskin turned a questioning look on me. "We already have it, but why do you believe that?"

"Zombies." When he only raised an eyebrow, I elaborated. "Assume they spread through bites, fluids, and maybe scratches. It's what I'd do, if I wanted to cause the most chaos and demoralize the enemy. Make them spread by bite, but the effects aren't immediate. Someone gets bitten, pulls back to the rear line. Twenty minutes later, they turn and bite two more people. Suddenly, the infection has spread to the rear line. If you don't catch it quickly enough, if you don't figure out how it spreads, then it just eats through your people."

"Maybe," he allowed.

"Sith," I reminded. "No maybe to it. Assume the worst possible outcome and prepare for worse than that, and you might be prepared for what you're actually going to face."

"I've got a set I can bring," Ikari nodded. "What sort of numbers are we talking?"

I brought up the recording from the drone and had the table's holographic projector display it. The woman winced as she watched room after room of zombies. "How are we getting in? That pipe was too small and it looked like the entrance was buried."

"We can source heavy excavation equipment and a crew to run it on Korriban."

"So, I guess that leaves only three questions: what's my cut, when do we leave, and who am I riding with?"

Exal sent her an amused look. "Presumptuous, to believe you have the job."

"Well, if I don't have the job, then we've been wasting each other's time. And I hate wasting time. But tell me, just how many other experienced slicers do you have knocking down the door, willing to wade into an ancient Sith tomb full of zombies?"

"She has a point," Pliskin muttered. "It's a high risk, high reward operation. Most sane people are going to back out when you mention zombies. Most desperate people are going to back out when they see how many we're going to be dealing with."

Exal sighed. "Fine, fine. I suppose I'll cancel my other appointments, for all of the other highly skilled and experienced slicers crazy enough to wade into a tomb full of zombies."

"Sounds like a plan," Ikari smirked.

"Were I another Sith, you'd be on the ground squealing in pain," Exal muttered.

"Were you another Sith, I'd have left already," the Chiss woman denied. "If you're not human or a Sith, the Empire is not a fun place to be. But I've got a good feeling about this."

Sighing, Exal pushed a datapad down the table to Ikari. "That's your cut. You take it on the understanding that everything in the vault belongs to myself and my apprentice."

"That suits me just fine. I'll take the credits."

"Credits really are best," Thena muttered. "I can buy that new rifle…"

"As for lodgings and transport, you'll be traveling with myself and my apprentice."

Ikari's lips twitched as she fought a grin. "Oh? Alright. When do we leave?"

"As soon as we have everything we think we'll need." Turning to Pliskin, Exal asked, "How are you on supplies?"

He considered for a moment. "We'll stock up on extra power cores and a supply of spare blasters." Turning to look at me, he asked, "Just what are you planning to do with that Ravager?"

"Hm?"

Exal turned and narrowed her eyes at me. "Apprentice… where did you go this morning?"

"Oh, just… out. Took a little stroll out and around the building. Checked out the downed gunship. Did you know, its main gun was mostly intact? The barrels warped a bit, so they'll need to be replaced, but everything else…"

Exal sighed. "And what, exactly, are you going to do with a weapon better suited to being mounted on a ship?"

"Nothing, yet. Did you know, Caesa was so happy with his gift that he agreed to let me salvage the entire gunship, with just a little… persuasion? I'm having it repaired and refitted with more guns."

"Of course you are. It won't be of any use on this mission."

I grinned. "On this mission, no. On the one after? Maybe."

"Never underestimate the value of close air support," Pliskin nodded. "It can't be understated."

"Right. So. I'll go gather my equipment. I may need some specialty gear for this. Do you mind if I invoice it to you, as it's for the job?"

Turning to Ikari, Exal nodded. "That's fine. Apprentice, go with her. Make sure she has everything she needs."

With that, our meeting broke up.