Onimi/Sioux - Eriana...I wanted to show what she could be when pushed. To show who she is as the pirate leader that everyone believes her to be, both in front of the troops and behind them. Sometimes, nothing can stand in the way of that level of determination. I think we see that with both Mara and Eriana in this middle part of the story.

Hope y'all enjoy this one. Long weekend, yay :)

Chapter 12 – Explosive Entry [[[[#]]]]]]]]=(=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

By the time Jacen and Zara arrived at the seemingly abandoned warehouse near the lake outside Unlos Tagge they had already gone through four outer layers of Black Sun underlings, each of which were truthfully claiming to be helping a friend or just earning a few extra credits by driving a truck or moving some crates around. None of them knew what had been in the crates, only that they had been delivered to a warehouse full of quiet guys carrying blasters.

"I sense ten bodies," Jacen said as they examined the warehouse from a distance in the shadow of a building, hidden from the bright light reflected from the full moon above. He wore a black cloak over his smuggler's outfit, but Zara wore only her usual black leather outfit made up of calf-high boots, bicep high gloves and what Jacen might only call two-piece leather swimwear with some strong desire for greater integrity on the top end. He seriously wondered if the strapless mini-top would survive even ten seconds into a lightsaber battle, or if it was glued in place. But he figured that was not his problem. He also wondered if she owned any other clothing at all, or if her entire wardrobe consisted of several copies of the same scant outfit.

"There may be droids," Zara warned, not willing to entirely trust Jacen's senses just yet.

"Four," Jacen said. "A threepio and three load lifters."

"You can't possibly know that," Zara growled.

"You're the one who said I'm full of surprises," Jacen reminded her. "I have an affinity with electricity. I can sense the power cells of active droids. I spent my entire life around a threepio and can recognize the power signature from a mile away. The load lifters are pretty distinctive, too, if you follow the power draw patterns. My concern is any droids that are currently deactivated. They could have a dozen assassin droids in standby mode that I can't sense."

"Are you afraid of what is lurking unknown in there?" Zara asked devilishly.

"Only for your safety," Jacen shot back. "I still need you to unlock the ship."

"How touching," Zara said. She pulled her lightsaber from her belt and made to slip into the moonlight, but Jacen grabbed her by the right bicep.

"What are you doing?"

She pointed to the warehouse. "Going after the enemy. What are you doing?"

"I was thinking of walking around the outside and disabling any means of transportation they have waiting so they can't get very far if they make a run for it and get past us. It is a little difficult to surround and attack a four-sided half-square kilometre warehouse with two people, even if one of their egos is twice the size of the warehouse."

Zara clipped her lightsaber back on her belt with a huff and followed Jacen back around the building they were hiding behind so they could get closer to their target warehouse under a better cover of darkness.

"How old are you?" Jacen asked to pass the time on their walk.

"Twenty-one standard years," Zara replied. "Why do you ask?"

"You seem to be making the same mistakes I did when I was about your age."

"My training was to dominate Jedi," Zara said. "I assure you I can handle myself in a fight."

"I don't doubt that," Jacen said. "But you might want to learn some strategy at some point."

"I learned how to kill. Nothing else was important."

"What do you do for fun?"

"I train."

"No favourite holo vids or games?"

Jacen felt her glare on the back of his head and stopped interrogating her. As they approached the warehouse Jacen knelt down beside their cover building and let his eyes accustom to the darkness in the shadow of the moonlight.

"There, two speeder bikes and a transport," Jacen pointed at the vehicles beside the only door on the facing side of the building. "If we bend the front navigation assembly on the bikes and remove the motivator of the transport they won't get far. If you take care of that, I'll take a run around the building and see if there are any more vehicles and disable them."

"What does a motivator look like?" Zara asked.

Jacen just shook his head. He never thought that spending all those hours at the Jedi Academy tinkering with ships with Jaina would be as useful as it was, even if he had only half paid attention.

"Just remove the steering assembly. I want to minimize lightsaber evidence. Be sure to do it real quiet-like."

By the time Jacen returned from his run around the warehouse, Zara was sitting on a speeder bike, impatiently tapping her finger nails on the cowling.

"I disabled six cameras," Jacen said. "Pulled the lens out of them so they aren't focused. They'll probably think it is a transmission error if they look at the displays. There are eight roll-up doors on the far side and a single person door and several person doors along each side. The east side has offices. The bodies seem to be clustered in this corner of the warehouse, and the rest seems pretty full of crates and stuff."

"So we can bust through this door and snag everyone easily?"

"Pretty much."

"Why did I have to wreck the speeders? We could've used them to get back to our ship!"

"Well if you knew what a motivator was, that wouldn't be a problem," Jacen said. "I can reinstall one of those in a minute."

"Don't you put this on me, Jedi! I was following your orders."

"Was whining part of your training too?" Jacen shot back. "Look, when we get in there, I want no casualties. Dead bodies don't talk. Try to minimize any damage. Anything the Black Sun finds that could link a cell falling apart to the Jedi or Bogans could send them scrambling. Memories are a lot easier to adjust than lightsaber burns."

"And if they start shooting at us?"

"Deflect to non-vital body parts."

Zara scowled under her breath as she drew her lightsaber, and Jacen grabbed her arm again.

"If you kill the one guy who is Black Sun and we're stuck with a room full of lackeys, our trail goes cold. And then I have no reason to be on this mission, and no reason to stick around. You'll be forced to try taking me prisoner, and either by my hand or Krayt's, you will die when you fail. So if you can't keep your blade in check in there, I'll take you down right now."

Zara looked back at him with a vicious glare in her eye.

"I'd like to see you try."

Jacen's hand shot up and grabbed her throat before she could even sense his movement. A current of electricity from his thumb to middle finger temporarily shut down any messages travelling down her spine, and her body went limp, held up entirely by his telekinesis.

"Is that 'try' enough for you?" Jacen asked. "Do you want to play by my rules, or do you want a nice long nap? It doesn't matter to me. Decide quickly, because your heart is going to stop beating pretty soon."

"I...will...help..." Zara choked out. Jacen dropped her and she fell to the ground coughing, sucking in as much oxygen as she could. Jacen crouched down in front of her and looked her in the eye.

"This is the last time you question my orders. Understood?"

"I understand," Zara growled, glaring at him with contempt.

"You go through that window," Jacen pointed to the one above them. "Try to get as far into the warehouse without being detected and find a place to catch them if they run. Two minutes later, I'll go through the door here and incapacitate them. When they're contained, we'll tie them up, find out who the Black Sun guy is, and ask him a few questions. Minimize damage as best as you can to property and personnel. Got it?"

"I do not disagree with your plan," Zara said dangerously. She leapt up and grabbed the window sill, silently disappearing from view as she slipped through the window.

Jacen shook his head and looked to his chronometer. Grandfather, I know you warned me about making deals with the Sith, he thought. But you never told me how much of a pain in the ass they are.

What? Did you expect a friendly Sith? Anakin Skywalker's voice spoke inside Jacen's head. He could swear he heard chuckling in his grandfather's voice, but just shook his head and turned his attention to his chronometer.

Two minutes ticked away slowly and Jacen finally calmed his racing heart with a Jedi meditation technique. He approached the door, dropped his weight on the handle, and pushed it open. He stumbled into the brightly lit room and held his hand up to the light to block it from his eyes. He heard a few chairs grind against the hard floor and some footsteps approach.

"What're you doin' here?" a gruff voice asked him. "Get out!"

"I juss need a 'fresher," Jacen slurred, trying to sound as drunk as possible. He leaned heavily on a box, practically falling into it, and two of the men grabbed him by the arms to prevent him from causing any damage. "Maybe s'more brandy if ye got it."

"I don't smell alcohol on you," one of them said.

"That's a really good point," Jacen said, suddenly sober again. A knife-hand strike to the throat sent the first man to his knees and a hammer fist to the second's jaw resulted in a spinning pirouette into unconsciousness. The other men drew blasters and Jacen jumped above them with a Force-enhanced leap. He landed on the table in the middle of the group, slipped on the pile of credits in the middle of the table and fell on his back. The table broke in half with his weight slamming into it and he ended up on his back with eight blasters pointed at him and several drinks soaking his clothes.

"Don't move, Jedi," a man with a black goatee said. "Toss us your lightsaber."

"Jedi?" Jacen asked. "What are you talking about?"

"I can see your lightsaber on your belt. Toss it over here. Move slowly."

Jacen looked down at his brother's lightsaber hanging on his right hip. His own lightsaber was still hidden under his jacket on his left hip.

"Oh, that," Jacen said. "That's my shaver. Gives the best cut ever."

The snap-hiss of Zara's lightsaber brought everyone's attention away from Jacen and he used the distraction to perform a back roll combined with a reverse kip-up kick that caught a Rodian under the jaw, knocking it out cold. Jacen continued his flip and drew his lightsabers, igniting both in time to catch a pair of blaster bolts and deflect them both into the knees of the man across from him. He slashed the blaster of the woman beside him in half and bashed her in the jaw with his right lightsaber pommel while still deflecting blaster bolts from the men in front and behind him at the same time with his two blades. He kicked the one in front of him in the gut and followed with an axe kick to the back of the head driving him into unconsciousness with the heel of his foot, simultaneously deflecting blaster bolts aimed at the back of his head with the reverse-gripped lightsaber in his left hand. He turned to face the seventh man and hit him with a stream of emerald green lightning, knocking him out cold. Jacen looked over at Zara and saw three men floating in the air upside down beside her.

"You call that an entrance, Jedi?" Zara asked with a smug look of satisfaction on her face.

"I slipped," Jacen grumbled. "Tie them up. We have work to do."

[[[[#]]]]]]]]=(=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Using the skills from their former professions, Boba Fett and Han Solo spent days in hyperspace reconfiguring the weapons they had acquired to perform in the unique way that would be appropriate to their mission. Over the days, Han's memories slowly returned, but gaps still existed. As memories resurfaced he asked Fett about them, to see if what he was remembering was in fact his own memory or something else entirely.

"Robbing a Black Sun vault on Wukkar and finding out the creds weren't good?" Han asked.

"Real," Fett responded, gently unscrewing the cap on another of the explosives. "It was a diversion for assassinating Qazadi."

"Qazadi was a Black Sun Vigo," Han said thoughtfully. "Huh. I thought that memory was a holo vid I watched."

"Close to it," Fett said. "Seeing you run across the front lawn of the estate swinging an electrowhip around was one of the damn funniest things I've ever seen."

"You were there?"

"Yeah, I was Eanjer Kunarazti," Fett said with a grin.

"Who?"

"The guy who hired you."

Han looked up at the ceiling for a moment as if the answer he was looking for was hidden in the grey metal.

"Nope, don't remember that."

"This was the first time I told you about it."

"I seem to think it was Lando's idea," Han said and slapped the casing back into place on the mine he was holding. "Hope you didn't pay that scientist much for whatever he did to my head."

"I won't have much need for money after this mission," Fett said. "In two days, we'll both be dead."

"Not the first time I heard those words."

"It probably will be the last," Fett replied.

"Why are you so sure we're going to die?" Han asked as he picked up the last of the modules they had to reconfigure. "Chewie and me got out of a lot of Imperial garrisons."

"Han, let's face it," Fett said. "Twelve year old girls have been able to sneak in and out of Imperial installations. Stormtroopers were practically blind in that armour. Those that weren't just didn't care. We're going to be sneaking into the Bogan home shipyard."

"Who am I to argue?" Han muttered. A chime rang from the cockpit throughout the ship and both men hopped up and jogged to the source of it. Boba Fett dropped into the pilot seat and Han took the communication chair beside him, still clutching the mine.

"We're coming out of hyperspace," Fett said and reached for the appropriate lever. "Hang on."

With a gentle lurch, the Slave IV dropped from hyperspace into an empty area of space with a planet shining in the distance.

"Could you get any farther away?" Han asked as he squinted at the speck of a planet. "I think there's a good view of this place from Coruscant."

"The planet is Kesh," Fett said, ignoring his partner's blatant sarcasm. "For thousands of years a lost tribe of Sith Lords lived there, isolated from the galaxy until Darth Krayt gave them new meaning. He enslaved them with his ideals and used them to build a new empire. For almost twenty years they've been building ships and amassing an army."

"And that's where the shipyard we're attacking is?"

"Exactly," Fett said. He played with the dials before him and activated the HUD. A holo of the planet appeared, half encapsulated by a giant shipyard. "Looks like another ship is just about complete with four more on the way."

Han stared at the screen in awe for a minute examining the shipyard diagram. Despite a somewhat fuzzy resolution, he could see worker ships moving around the nearly completed mothership putting the final details on it.

"So what's the plan?"

Boba turned to face Han with a look of surprise.

"I thought I'd leave this one up to the expert," he said pleasantly. "I will give one suggestion: we have a Mandalorian cloaking device."

"Does it work in hyperspace?"

"There is about a two second delay between reversion and activation," Fett said. "The gravitational effects of hyperspace distorts the cloaking field."

"Drop in at the north pole," Han said. "Old smuggler's trick."

"Everyone's been doing that for years," Fett rolled his eyes.

"Because it's an old smuggler's trick," Han said defensively. "And it works."

"That it does," Fett said and pointed at a console beside him. "Use that to calculate the point of the greatest magnetic field density. I'll plot the jump."

"Will it be able to from this distance?"

Fett turned away from his calculations and glared at Han.

"The only component legal in this ship is the deck plating you're standing on," Fett said. "What do you think?"

"I think you need to explain how transparisteel is illegal," Han muttered. After a minute of working the sensors he rattled off a series of coordinates.

"Hold on," Fett said as he input them into the navicomputer and reached for the hyperspace lever. Han barely sat down by the time the ship smoothly jumped to hyperspace and quickly dropped back out. "Activating cloak."

The visage before them shimmered slightly and Han waited in anticipation for an attack to blow them out of the sky, which did not come. The shimmering effect continued to hold, and Fett smiled.

"We're invisible," he reported.

"Scan the planet," Han suggested. "Let's see what's down there."

Fett hammered at the controls for a minute and a wire frame of the planet appeared on the HUD. Across the planet were red dots, all clustered closely together. "Looks like about half a billion beings."

"Big cities," Han remarked. "They must have some pretty big apartments to get a population density like that."

"Sensors don't show any tall buildings in the vicinity," Fett said. "Everything is under three stories. I've only seen people packed this tightly for two reasons: Refugee camps, and slave labour camps."

"You think Krayt's using slave labour of his own Bogan people to build his ships?"

"I think it's more likely he brainwashed them," Fett said. "This is supposed to be a planet of Force users. They won't be easily controlled, so that he could do this to that large a population..."

"We're in for a hell of a fight," Han ordered. "Okay, call up the specs on the shipyard. Let's see what they've got."

[[[[#]]]]]]]]=(=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Targo the Hutt was one of the very few Hutts to regain some semblance of power after the Yuuzhan Vong war wiped out almost the entire species. Having hidden on Tattooine in Jabba's former palace at the north end of the Dune Sea, Targo bade his time and re-emerged as one of the criminal underworld's premier suppliers of illicit weaponry, ship upgrades, and information on patrol routes. Bounty hunters, smugglers and criminals alike flocked to Targo's heavily reinforced palace for safety from the authorities and each other. With a strict no-weapons and no-fighting policy, only Targo's dozens of modified YVH droids remained armed to keep the guests in line.

What Mara learned from supplementary data from Shada, Karrde had been in a data exchange agreement with Targo to supply Krayt fleet movements in exchange for leads on upgraded weaponry for the Black Vornskrs. Ami had been supplying information to Targo on Karrde's behalf and had disappeared while on vacation from her position on Coruscant making the trip to Tattoine to personally make the information drop. Aside from knowing that Ami had arrived on Tattoine, Shada knew nothing more about Ami's condition, and Targo had gone mysteriously silent to her hails.

Mara parked her borrowed speeder in front of the main heavy durasteel door and slowly climbed out. She knew she was under observation, so she took extra time to get to her feet in a show that she was not intimidated by the two YVH droids positioned outside the giant door. She walked up to the first one.

"I'm here to see Targo."

"The Illustrious Targo the Hutt does not recognize an appointment with you," the YVH said with a mechanical voice.

"You don't even know who I am."

"You are unscheduled," the YVH said. "Leave the premises immediately."

"Tell him to schedule me in," Mara said. "That's my first offer that I can guarantee you he'll wish he took."

The droid did not react to her implied threat, but merely stared at her as it processed information being transmitted remotely.

"Remove yourself from the premises or we will remove you."

"Funny," Mara said. "I was going to say the same thing to you."

In a flash of violet, both YVH droid heads fell to the ground, soon after followed by their sparking bodies. Mara looked up at the video camera observing her and narrowed her eyes. A flicker of the Force crushed the camera.

Knowing that her time was limited, Mara deactivated her lightsaber and clipped it to her belt. She gathered the Force and jumped high above the door, somersaulting through the air to land in a crouch on the rocky ground the tunnelled entrance to the palace had been bored from. She ran across the length of the tunnel and expertly evaded the blaster bolts that boiled the sand around her, fired from the tower high above. She ran toward one of the ventilation shafts that stuck up from the tunnel below. Knowing the shaft was protected with explosives, she slid into it and drew the Force around herself in a protective cocoon as she triggered the proximity sensors. The Force shield protected her from the explosives as she fell into the main hanger bay for the palace, and a section of the roof came down around her taking out several YVH droidsthat were waiting below. She hopped over the debris and continued deeper into the complex at a sprint as the workers and guests of Targo's scattered at the sight of her. Mara barely noticed that more YVH droids were firing at her, but she applied the Force and ran out of their range at an inhuman speed.

Using the Force to shove people and droids out of her way, Mara wound through the twisting corridors and stairwells of Targo's palace, using the blueprints she memorized a lifetime ago to find her way to the main audience chamber. She burst through the last stairwell, beheaded two more YVH droids with her lightsaber, and rolled to her feet in front of Targo with a hold-out blaster pointed at his slimy head. The room, with a band providing entertainment and various smugglers, criminals and bounty hunters telling tall tales and jokes, fell silent at Mara's unexpected appearance.

"You have something I want," Mara said. "You would be wise to give it to me."

Targo laughed, a deep booming Hutt laugh that echoed through the chambers and was soon carried on by his clients. When Targo fell silent, everyone else did, including the YVH droids that finally caught up to Mara and stood at attention twenty deep along the stairwell leading back toward the main entrance.

Targo asked something in Huttese, but Mara shifted her aim and shot his tail. His loud squeal was stopped when she fired another bolt close enough to his head that he could feel the heat of it pass by.

"Speak basic, you worthless slug," Mara ordered. "Or my next shot will be something much more precious to you."

Mara sensed the entire room tense at her threat, but knew few of them would pose much of any threat to her with Targo's no-weapon policy. He finally narrowed his eyes and assessed her not as the disruption she had started out as, but as a genuine threat.

"Who makes this demand of the Great Targo the Hutt?" Targo finally said.

"Mara Jade Skywalker," Mara said. "Shada D'ukal sent me to find out why you took one of Karrde's people as a prisoner. She's leaving with me whether you like it or not."

"Karrde's messenger was trying to kill one of the other patrons," Targo said. "The rules are clear – violence is not permitted. I make exceptions for nobody. Her sentence will be carried out tomorrow."

Mara holstered her blaster and pulled out the thermal detonator from her utility belt, flicked the activation switch, and threw it at Targo with Force enhanced aim. It went directly into Targo's mouth, and she used the Force to shove it down his throat as he coughed against her unyielding power. A stunned silence went through the entire chamber, and even the droids looked unsure of how to proceed. She took two steps toward him and pointed her lightsaber to his neck.

"Here's my final offer, you revolting slug," Mara sneered. "She comes with me, or I release the safety on that detonator and find her myself. Pick fast. My patience is wearing thin."

"Nobody threatens Targo the Hutt and gets away with it," Targo growled.

"Then I must be nobody," Mara replied, and released her hold on the detonator.