Chapter 3: The Favor
"It is a small favor for someone with your apparent skill." Alecto said in her weird accented voice. "Let me put it straight, no sugar coating. I need you to whack a guy on Coruscant."
"On CORUSCANT, that is the Imperial capitol!"
"It's also the place where the guy lives." Alecto replied simply. "And you'll be well paid. I'll give you five hundred thousand credits."
"I've been paid much more than that for harder assassinations." Mara snapped. "I want more if I have to do this."
"Fine, nine hundred thousand, no more."
"Alright."
"And I'll get you a meeting with Kallisto."
"Fine, I'll do it. Now who is this guy?"
Alecto didn't answer. She instead pulled out a small holo projector from a pocket on her long leather jacket. She flipped it on and a hologram of a slightly fat looking man appeared.
"That's the guy. He's a wealthy merchant who lives in an entire building. Not a penthouse on the top. The entire building. He cheated Kallisto out of a million credits a while back for a shipment of a couple thousand death sticks."
"Why haven't you just sent out people to kill him before?"
"Ha, ha, ha! Smugglers are no assassins. We may be able to smuggle illegal cargo into places but we can't sneak ourselves in to assassinate someone. Judging by your miraculous appearance here I'd say you have some type of assassin training, or espionage."
"You got me there. I've taken out more big guys than you no. Although every time I did it I didn't actually have to sneak down on the planet. I don't want the Imperials to find me."
"Tough. You kill the guy or you don't, otherwise you do not meet Kallisto." Alecto said, making a gesture.
"Fine." Mara snapped. "I'll kill him."
"Good."
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"Don't you want me to bring some token back? Something so you know I killed him?" Mara asked.
"Hmpf. I'll know he's dead because it'll be all over the HoloNet. Assassinations aren't the norm on Coruscant."
"If only you knew." Mara thought. She had assassinated so many people on Coruscant. Anyone the Emperor didn't like or considered at threat, the old Emperor that is. Assassinations used to occur on Coruscant about on a monthly basis.
"Still… it would be nice to have something to present to Kallisto." Alecto looked up at Mara, and smiled. She pulled out her right hand, which she had had hidden the whole time, crossed around her and twisting behind her back. Mara noticed a mechanical finger where her middle one would be, covered in a single finger glove, or whatever you want to call it. Kallisto pointed to her index finger, one of the four that were still made of flesh, bone, and blood. "He wears a huge ring on this finger. Bring it back to me."
"Alright. When should I set out?" Mara asked, still a bit frustrated, but then again all she had to do was kill a guy and she could meet Kallisto. Killing had been partly what the Emperor had used her for. It was as easy as slicing bantha meat.
"Immediately." Alecto replied quickly.
"But you know," Mara began, thinking of something else.
"What now?" Alecto asked with just a hint of annoyance in her accented voice.
"I fly a Z-95 headhunter. Might that look a little suspicious in the skies of Coruscant?"
"It would." Alecto agreed. Stroking her chin. "But I don't really have any ships to spare. And the ones I do might look even more suspicious."
Mara waited for a moment as Alecto stood up and paced. She smiled and turned back to Mara.
"I have something for you. A ship I wanted to get rid of for a long time. By all means leave it there. Let it blow up."
"What is it?" Mara asked, dreading the answer. She didn't exactly fancy driving an old ship that a smuggler wanted to rid herself of.
"It's a…"
XxX
"This is a piece of crap!" Mara yelled at the guide who had brought her to the ship Alecto was giving up. It was a blastboat. Easily flown by one and it even had ejecting capabilities but it was in bad shape, and disguised. Its hull was rusted in several places, still keeping an atmosphere however. One of its disguised twin laser cannon barrels was snapped off. The right engine had the tail of a proton torpedo melted to it, and above all of the ships hull dents, scratches, scorches, and laser bolt holes, the front viewport was completely covered with a burn mark. All except for one clear spot in the middle. No bigger than Mara's head.
"Not my fault." The man next to her said, throwing his hands up. "You're the one who wanted a different ship."
"Shut up! Just shut up!" Mara snapped " AND Leave!"
"Nah, I like annoying people. I think I'll stay here."
For a second Mara could not tell if he was actually serious. If he was his head would have been blow off in a matter of seconds. It seemed he wasn't. He turned on his heel and began walking back to one of the buildings in the smuggler base, muttering to himself. Mara muttered a few curse words herself as well as she stepped into the small blastboat and examined the interior. Every thing covered in any type of fabric had at least one rip in it. The pilots chair had about twenty and by now the stuffing was piling up on the floor. The buttons and switches were either covered in grease or the paint on them had completely chipped off. A few even had tiny hairline cracks. The yoke of the ship looked as though it had been broken, and welded back together at least three times, making it crooked. Mara signed and started it up, surprisingly the engines coughed twice, dimmed and fired up perfectly.
The repulsor lifts were another story. Mara had to transfer half the power to them to get them functional. Finally the ship was off the ground. Now to Coruscant.
XxX
Coruscant was the same as Mara remembered it. Though what really could have changed in half a year and a month? It glittered like a bullet as she exited hyperspace. Today relatively low traffic flowed in and out of it. Amazing. Mara joined one of the lines going in towards the Imperial city district, the man's building, not apartment, building, was there. She entered the atmosphere quickly and swooped down above the buildings of Coruscant, looking for a particular one. The sun was now setting, casting orange light on the buildings. Mara found the building, right where Alecto said it would be. It was shaped like any regular apartment building, Serreno design, though it was much taller. There was but a single landing platform jutting from it. It was relatively large and looked as though it could fit five ships easily. Mara however could not land there, she could clearly see seven guards patrolling it, all dressed in dark almost maroon uniforms.
She could eject and land on the roof. That seemed like a good choice. She had a jetpack with her that Alecto had given her. Setting the ship at its slowest speed and keeping it on its present course she stood up and strapped on the jet pack and set a thermal detonator down on the floor to go off in two minutes. She leaped back into her seat and pulled back the ignition as far as it would go. The junky little blastboat shot forward. Strapping herself in and putting on a pilot helmet Mara pressed the eject button on her ships console. The roof above her clicked and tore off, seconds later her seat disengaged and in the blink of an eye she was flying in the air. Quickly she disengaged her crash webbing and rolled off the chair as it continued gliding down slowly on repulsor lifts. Mara free fell for just a moment, rapidly approaching the roof of the building. At practically the last moment she clicked her jetpack on. She jumped about a foot upwards from its boost and slowly glided down onto the top of the building.
At the exact moment the ball of her foot touched the roof she heard an echoing explosion, followed by she sounds of ripping metal. She looked up too see her ship blow into itself and expand in a fiery cloud of burning gasses and equipment. Easy enough. People would be distracted, giving her time to slip in, kill the guy make off with one of his ships and go back to Cato Neimoidia.
Okay, I have said this before, this time I mean it. I will not be able to update frequently so don't be worried if I don't update in like a week. I will not abandoned this story or take a short way out like I did my first version of Unknown Son. Promise, oh and the reason I cannot update frequently is highly predictable. Homework from school, and sad to say it but I am addicted to Lego Star Wars 2, and I will probably be getting a season of one of my old favorite TV shows Dark Angel so I'll be watching that, a lot, I know when I got three seasons of Xena: Warrior Princess I was addicted to watching those. I'd literally watch three episodes, stop take a break, and come back and watch a few more so I have that distracting me as well. Mostly I am saying I have stuff to do but fan fiction still will be on the top of the list, below academics of course but still it's up there. Okay I'll shut up now, my notes are like chapters in themselves. (PS, anyone know how to access that door in Lego Star Wars 2 with a picture of Jabba above it? It's driving me insane not knowing how to get it open.)