Chapter 11
I would like to thank my reviewers, those who added my story to their alerts and favorites, and to all anonymous readers.
Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars or Prototype.
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Jon Fevrau didn't simply keep a penthouse on Coruscant; InterGalactic Ore now owned an entire building. It wasn't as grand as 500 Republica, but Kaldani Spires was the most desired address outside the Senate District. The majestic building towered over Monument Plaza, and from its uppermost suites one could see the peaks of the Manarai Mountains, Coruscant's only naked rock still left alone. It was a neighborhood for neither politicians nor celebrities. The district belonged to old-money citizens, financiers, industrialists, bankers and corporate chiefs.
The residence took up the whole of the Kaldani's summit. Zeus had 'suggested' he acquire the building; it would serve as their foothold on the planet and as a base of operations for the future. He had yet to experience the building himself since acquiring it, and he could not deny the excitement he felt of seeing its interior for the first time. The building had been overpriced and taken a large chunk out of InterGalactic Ore's resources, but worth it in the mind of his mentor.
A pair of Sentinel droids rode with Jon in the turbolift, recognizable for their human shape and their sterile white armor, only to surrender him to another pair stationed in the penthouse's light filled atrium. From there he was escorted to the study, which was darkened by tall, brocade curtains and filled with masterpieces of art. The statues and paintings were of beings and places he had never seen before, nevertheless they captured his interest. The hooded figure himself rose from an armchair to greet him as he was shown into the room.
"My Lord," Jon said, bowing his head.
"Welcome, I hope you've become accustomed to your new abilities by now?"
"I have." Indeed, the increase in speed and reflexes was truly amazing. But what he liked the most was the enhanced strength, now capable of lifting weights previously unthinkable. Then of course there was the ability to transform his arms into deadly claws and blades, not to mention the added bonus of immortality.
The two moved to a sunken area of the room and sat across from each other. Zeus filled two glasses with wine and passed one to his guest, Jon knew Zeus was only waiting for him to begin his report, but if he had learned only one thing from all their meetings, it would be that the being in front of him possessed inhuman patience. It was not something one could learn, it was the patience of someone who had seen and experienced all there was. He briefly wondered if he too would be the same eventually.
"As per your request I have compiled a list of possible candidates." Jon said, and passed a datapad across the table.
Zeus nodded as he scanned the list.
"The Wookie?"
"He's called Hanharr, a bounty hunter. Has a reputation of being a ruthless hunter and a brutal sociopath, has been in the employ of Vogga the Hutt for some time now."
"Next is J'ane Khan, a human assassin." Jon sipped carefully on the wine. "Famous for his deadly poison blade and rumored to be on Tatooine as of now."
Zeus continued to read the entries for a couple of minutes before stopping and pointing at a specific name.
"This one."
Jon observed the name before standing up. "A good choice my Lord, I'll contact you when it's done."
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Shae Vizla leveled her blaster and sighted up.
"Don't run." She said. "You'll only get tired."
Her voice rasped through an amplifier, it allowed her to be heard without ever needing to shout. Her target, a human drug dealer called Janos Doah, had obliged her by running through every maze-like circle in the depths of the Fallen Throne, the capital city of Fallen, and did now find himself in a closed alley.
"Dead or alive," Shae reminded him. The thermal imager of her blaster optics showed a large amount of radiating heat under a pile of discarded packing cases.
"Dead's easier, so come on now. I don't have all day."
"Why are you doing this to me?" Janos said with a shaking voice. "What have I ever done to you?"
"To me? Nothing. But the Hutts don't like the competition."
Shae never felt particularly good or bad about her line of work, it was filled with excitement and she got a lot of adventure, not to mention the pay. But today she felt noticeably better than she had in a long time, for reasons she could not explain it felt as if the future held something very positive and all she had to do is grasp the opportunity.
The alley was twenty meters wide and stretched twenty-five meters ahead of her, with her back against the only exit, there were just a couple of boxes in front with a terrified human in it. With the push of a button she began a scan for weapons, the helmets HUD showed that Janos had a blaster that wouldn't trouble her. She walked carefully towards the shivering crates.
"Last chance, come out now." Shae said, alternating her view between the alley and the chrono in her HUD.
"You are the worst kind of scum there is." The insult had much weight coming from a drug dealer. "I only sell a product, why don't you go after real criminals?"
"Because Vogga want to make an example out of you. Are you coming or not?"
The cases rustled, Janos did not emerge.
Shae shrugged. "Fine, have it your way."
She raised her blaster and concentrated on the thermal-imaging target, holding her breath as she had done so many times before and squeezed. Janos hit the ground with a thud, and she couldn't help feel a bit annoyed. It would be much more troublesome to transport him back to Vogga now.
Getting back to her ship had been surprisingly easy considering she carried a dead body on her shoulder, but in these parts no one cared, and if they did they didn't have the courage to do anything about it anyway. She had all but sat down in the cockpit before a blinking blue light entered her vision to the right; someone was calling her via the holocommunicator.
Accepting the call, a blue silhouette of an average looking human male appeared.
"Greetings Bounty Hunter, I have need of your services."
"I'm listening."
"I need a Sith research facility destroyed."
"For that I'd have to get inside the facility, it would be heavily guarded not to mention deadly."
The silhouette shook briefly. "Perhaps your reputation has been exaggerated."
"You wouldn't have contacted me if that was the case. Anything else?"
"No survivors."
Shae nodded. "Triple my usual fee and you've got a deal."
"Your price is acceptable. I'll send you the necessary data."
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She had never felt comfortable staying in one place for too long; on Taris it was easy to escape the dread of boredom. Simply walk in one direction long enough and you'd find something interesting to see. The group's movements had been limited by the Jedi towards the insides of the enclave. Within the restricted space of the enclave Mission felt trapped. She didn't feel ungrateful, the safety was a nice change, but she simply couldn't stay cooped-up in this place for much longer.
To Mission, the Jedi had always been odd. But it wasn't something she was about to utter in this place, it had been several weeks since she had seen Bastila or Voren. The man had left to start his training for becoming a Jedi Knight. And until he returned she had to occupy herself somehow, and sneaking up unaware Jedi with a stealth field generator was more fun than she first thought. It had been particularly fun to follow this Jedi called Belaya; almost all she did had something to do with a female Cathar Jedi called Juhani.
She had discovered, by practice, that Jedi could only discover someone with a stealth-generator if they actively scanned the area. Inside the comfort of the Enclave that rarely happened, which was why she was currently sneaking through the various corridors, searching for someone interesting to follow. She didn't feel overly concerned with getting caught; she already had a perfectly reasonable excuse ready just in case.
Mission slipped through the corridors towards the open area by the entrance, noticing Belaya standing in the corner as usual as she continued through the opening on the other side. Through her exploration she had been to almost every part of the compound except for one place, the council chambers.
The small console by the door wouldn't let her in, and hacking it was harder than she first thought. A low hum escaped the door, and she pressed herself firmly against the wall.
"… not ready. You know what happened last time, without strict observation he could be the downfall of us all."
The voice belonged to an elderly Jedi, Mission recognized him as Master Vrook.
"Your concern is accurate and I share it." Master Vandar folded his arms behind his back. "But he is the key. Besides, we need to keep an eye on the anomaly."
"Is she up to the task? Perhaps a more experienced…"
"Her will is strong. I have faith in her."
Who are they concerned about? And who or what is the anomaly?
Mission decided not to pursue them as the conversation began to disappear; instead she retraced her steps back to the ship. Perhaps it's nothing to worry about, the Jedi worry about almost everything anyway.
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The ship creaked, her metal groaning, as Shae pushed her through the atmosphere of Lamaredd. The cockpit's viewport once black as empty space, now glowed with orange flames as the friction turned the air into fire. The heat, speed and ionized particles caused the sensors to temporarily blackout. It gave her a thrill, not knowing what kind of sky she'd meet as she escaped the dark.
With the sensors back online, she ran a quick sweep of the surroundings. They picked up a large energy reading to the north-east, not surprising as it was the largest mass of land on the planet. It was known simply as the north continent and it made up about fifteen percent of the planet. The rest of the surface was covered in endless ocean which had plentiful of flora and fauna, including the fearsome aquatic predator called Gulletbeast.
The ship broke through the thick blanket of clouds, and the blue and white of Lamaredd's southern hemisphere filled Shae's vision. She pulled back on the ion engines, rubbed the back of her neck, and plugged in the coordinates into the navicomputer. The screen to the left blinked and displayed the location and the course. It was an island no one had heard of, in a place no one ever goes to. Shae went through her routine, checking the charge on her blasters, securing every strap on her armor, and getting into the right frame of mind.
Shae could see the island ahead where she would meet her contact; she angled lower and flew in a circle, followed by a scanner sweep. Not surprisingly a ship was already on the island, she'd been to one of the small unknown islands before, and like then her contact was early. She descended even lower to get a better look. Teran Kroan's freighter, not unlike the shape of a shrimp, sat in plain view. The landing pad was down and the man himself lingered beside the ramp.
With the hum of reverse thrusters, the ship touched down thirty meters from Teran's ship. Standing in front of the cargo bay doors, she loosened her blasters in their holsters and put on her Mandalorian helmet. The door descended and the cold wind blew in. She imagined it to be cold, but behind the protection of her armor she couldn't feel it. Her contact, a full-bearded, slightly overweight man of about forty greeted her as Shae approached.
"Were you followed?" Teran said as a greeting.
"Paranoid much?"
"You can never be too careful. Why do you think I'm still alive?" He stopped speaking as the wind blew up, and then continued as it passed.
"You have my credits?"
Shae pointed to the small case hanging from her belt. "Now I've shown you mine, it's time you showed me yours."
Dealing with Teran always left a sour taste in her mouth, but the man had many resources and many contacts in the underworld. The bearded man was this part of the galaxy's leading procurer of both information and equipment banned by both the Republic and the Sith, and had made a large fortune doing so. In fact, not anyone could simply start business with the man, it was by invitation only.
"I hope you have what I need." Shae said.
Teran brought out a case from the ship's cargo hold and showed its content.
"The TB-47, as you ordered."
Shae nodded, the case contained six of these powerful time bombs per her request.
"Now for the other thing you wanted, I have some bad news."
"Don't disappoint me, Teran."
Teran scowled. "I'm not in the habit of disappointing my customers, but I've never heard the name Carrivar before. I even went outside my normal channels, but even then I can't tell you anything. It seems the planet doesn't exist."
Shae nodded, figured there was something off about this request.
"As the result was less than satisfactory, I'll only charge you for the weapons."
With the transaction complete there was no point in staying. Shae had all the necessary tools for completing her assignment; she had performed many services without much information to go by. But through the ten years she'd been active, she never really got used to the feeling of fumbling in the dark.
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Bonus
He pressed firmly on the trigger, letting his blasters rip through the countless enemies standing before him. Three enemies was closing in fast, seeing no other way out, he chose the only option left. He went into a sprint and somersaulted over them, and pressed lightly on the trigger three times before landing with a thud.
Observing the carnage in front of him, he smiled.
"Almighty Canderous," Alex's jaw hung open and he bowed in front of the mighty warrior. "You just defeated the 2000 angry warriors of the Vulkar gang. All that stands between you and total awesomeness is one lone warrior."
Canderous nodded. "Right."
"This is the defining shot of your career."
The Mandalorian raised his rifle.
Pehw!
Alex snarled. "And you fucked it up!"
Canderous jerked up.
He was alone.
In his room.
Damn, I dream some weird shit.
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Au
This chapter introduced a new character to the story, Shae Vizla. She is the Mandalorian mercenary/bounty hunter from the trailer Star Wars: The Old Republic – Deceived. You'll be seeing a bit of her throughout the story.