The Plague Ship 2

Chapter 3 revelations and free time

Authors notes I don't own Star Wars George Lucas does and a warning if anyone reading this hasn't read The Plague Ship I suggest you read that now otherwise you wont know what's going on at all in this fic. And warning only the first 4 chapters of this fic are betaed as my beta had some personal things to sort out apolgies for any mistakes in spelling in grammer you see later on in this fic.

Imperial Palace

Shadow leaves the palace quickly and as he walks down the last of the steps he sees Serpent standing at the bottom, awaiting him. Upon seeing Shadow Serpent crosses his arms. "Well Shadow, what was the verdict?"

"Innocent of all charges." Serpent's face distorts in distaste, but Shadow isn't finished. "And I'm to be given command of a Shade squad as soon as possible. Now I've been given some leave for a few days and I intend to make the best of it. Goodbye Serpent."

Shadow then walks away from the palace, and Serpent, and heads towards a local cantina to get himself a much needed drink. As he enters the cantina everyone in the place turns to face him but he ignores them and walks over to the counter.

As he sits down the bartender looks questioningly at him. "What do you want?"

Shadow thinks for a moment before he takes out some credits and gives them to the bartender. "Give me the strongest drink you have and hurry."

The bartender nods, moving off to fill Shadow's order. While he waits, Shadow thinks back to Quick's initiation a few months ago. A wave of sadness comes over him. Quick died on his first mission wit the squad. The bartender comes back with the drink and Shadow takes it, raising it in a toast gesture. "Here's to you, Quick." He then downs the drink in one gulp and holds it up for a refill.

As the bartender goes to refill his order, Shadow's attention is drawn to the back of the cantina as raised voice grow louder and louder. Turning in his seat, Shadow sees the source of the noise, two Trandoshans arguing with a human woman. The woman has long brunette hair, is of average height, thin, and has a minigun strapped across her back. As the Trandoshans started yelling again and draw out their blasters Shadow starts to stand up but the woman punches one Trandoshans back into a wall and stabs the other with a combat knife. The Trandoshans she punched gets back up and runs off scared, leaving his partner dead on the floor.

As everyone stares at her in shock, she merely walks over to the counter, and places an order. "Give Corellian Ale, strong, no ice." She then notices Shadow who gives her a nod of approval.

"Very impressive, the way you took care of those Trando mercenaries. I have never seen you here before, what's you're name?"

The woman smiles at him before flipping the bartender some credits. "That's for the drink, and the mess." She then takes her drinks and walks out the cantina. Seeing her go Shadow shrugs and downs his second drink, paying for it, then he to leaves the cantina. The night is still young, and he still has things to do.

After leaving the cantina, Shadow decides to have a look around the local markets and see what they had on offer. As he passes by the food stands he comes across a stand with knives of alls kinds on offer. Shadow decides to buy some throwing knives as he was all out of them at this point.

Imperial Fleet Headquarters

Grand Admiral Thrawn looks up from a report his is writing when his com beeps. Welcoming the distraction from the mundane duties of being an officer, Thrawn turns the com on and a hologram of the director of the Shade Organization appears in front of him. Composing himself, Thrawn nods in greeting to one of the most powerful men in the galaxy. "What do you what director?"

The director's reply is direct. "Grand Admiral, I could tell at the meeting that you and Tarkin were not happy that Alpha Squad followed my orders, instead of the orders you gave them. Tell me, why are you so angry the squad followed orders and did what they were bred for?"

Thrawn responds with, "That's exactly my point director. The Shade members follow your orders above any and all orders given to them by the Empire. And if that wasn't enough your organization only answers to the Emperor himself. If the Emperor wasn't here, who would your group answer to, Vader?"

The director is silent for a minute before he answers. "In that case the organization wouldn't answer to anyone at all. We would be accountable only to ourselves. This is just for your ears, Grand Admiral, but the organization has been in existence since the founding of the Republic all those years ago. I am not talking about the Ruusan Reformation, but the original founding of the Republic. Tell me, why should my Organization, which has seen the rise and fall of the Republic, the True Sith, Exar Kun, the Mandalorians, Revan, Malak, and the return of True Sith, take orders from the new temporary rulers sitting on the galactic throne? We have outlasted them all, and will continue to outlast everyone until the day the galaxy dies. Now, good day Grand Admiral."

The hologram disappears, leaving Thrawn shock at what he had just heard.

Imperial Center lower city levels

Shadow walks through the lower city levels until he comes across what he is looking for, a tattoo parlor. He enters the shop and the owner casts a weary look over him. "Another bounty hunter. Okay, what kind of tattoo do you want?"

Shadow hands the man a datapad with images of the tattoos he wants. The man studies them for a moment before saying, "Alright let's do this. Which arm do you want it on, right or left?"

"I want them on the left." Shadow then sits down on the chair and the man start to apply the ink. After a half hour the man is finished and Shadow gazes at the tattoos. He sees a gunship, a crosshair, an R2 droid, a cross on fire, a knife, and finally the tattoo of a snake.

Shadow smiled, paid the man for the tattoos, and left the shop happy his tribute to his team mates is enough to help him honor their memories.

Unknown Space

A Imperial cruiser jumps out of Hyperspace and arrives at the coordinates they had received the distress signal from the scavenger ship, no less then an hour ago. But all they find is debris and no ship. Believing that the ship was destroyed in some sort of engine failure, the cruiser re-entered Hyperspace and resumed it's original course.

As soon as the ship is gone another ship appears from behind the big chunks of debris. It is the scavenger ship and on it's bridge two men stand, overlooking the site in front of them. Then they smiled.

Authors notes well that's chapter 3 completed let me know what you think of it read and review no flames though ok.