The Faux Harla dropped out of hyperspace into the Coruscant system and was soon hailed by the planet's security forces. Jaina activated the comm.
"Benign Harbinger," the masculine voice said on the other line, "is this Captain Janine Olos?"
Jaina hit the reply button. "This is the captain."
"Captain Olos, you are cleared for landing within the Western Districts," the voice said after a moment; no doubt he had just commenced a voice verification scan. A single click from the other end signaled the end of the curt and brief conversation.
"Benign Harbinger?" Jag asked with a disbelieving expression as Jaina piloted the Harla toward Coruscant. "Janine Olos? How the hell did he not suspect a thing?"
"Wynn's probably got that guy under his sleeve," Jaina said. "It seems the ol' Solo luck is finally turning out to be a blessing, after all." Nothing more was said as the ship began its descent through Coruscant's atmosphere.
"I got a bad feeling about this, you know," Jag said as Jaina flew the vessel through the skies.
Jaina smirked, not looking away from the viewport as she spoke. "Too easy so far, eh?"
"Let's just say I'm not ready to believe that the 'ol' Solo charm' is finally turning out to be a blessing after all," Jag said.
Jaina sighed as the Harla's radar began bleeping, signaling the coordinates, which were programmed into the ship's computers when Jaina and Jag received their mission, of the landing pad rooftop of a nondescript building that they were supposed to land on. Promptly, Jaina began theship's landing down upon the roof of the building. "Somehow, Jag... I think you might be right."
Minutes later, after the engines were shut down, the Fels had disembarked from the Harla, and the ship was locked up, the two of them approached the turbolift that would take them inside.
"So this is where we're supposed to meet Ghent?" Jag asked.
"Yep," Jaina reminded him as the turbolift doors opened up to admit them.
"You also know which room we're supposed to meet him?" Jag asked as the doors closed upon them once they were inside, initiating the ride that would take them down to the level that Jaina just pushed the button for.
"You weren't paying attention when we got the mission package, huh?" Jaina asked.
"That's because I knew I could count on you to actually soak up the info with that beautiful mind of yours," he said with a sidelong smirk.
Jaina mimicked his smirk mockingly. "Don't push your luck, Fel," she said in a tone that wasn't so placating. "You can't always rely on your wife to take care of you, even if she is an esteemed and wise and powerful Jedi Master."
"You can also add humble to that list of descriptions," Jag followed up sarcastically.
Jaina scoffed playfully. "Oh, like you're any better in terms of humility, Mr. Ace-Human-Pilot-in-the-Chiss-Ascendancy and former Head of State of the Empire."
"Hey, you gotta gimme credit for that," he said half-seriously.
"You're right," Jaina replied. "Your head would explode from the egotism to your brain if you weren't so humble."
"Exactly," Jag said before the turbolift began to slow down. "Though you have demonstrated quite a bit of humility as Trickster goddess of the Yuuzhan Vong, so I'll give you that."
The doors parted out into a dull apartment hallway, and Jaina and Jag began walking down the hall and toward the door that would lead into Zakarisz Ghent's residence. Upon stepping before the door that Jaina led her husband to, she knocked on it.
"Comp Geek, it's Olos and Lef," Jaina called, using the codenames provided to her and Jag by Talon Karrde. "Open up."
A few seconds later, Zakarisz Ghent opened the door with a rather pleasant smile. "Olos and Lef," he said with a tone just as pleasant. "Please, come on in." He led them inside.
Upon closing the door, everything went wrong for the Fels.
The first thing they saw was the body of Ghent off in one of the corners of his apartment, a lightsaber hole in his chest signifying an impalement.
Jaina's danger sense flared and in just under a second, her lightsaber was in her hand, activated, and blocking the crimson blade of the Sith who was posing as Ghent.
Jag quickly whipped out his blaster and aimed it for the Sith. In an instant, the fake Ghent foiled Jag's attempt at even one shot as he used the Force to throw Jag back against the wall behind him, sending him collapsing to the floor in a heap but not losing his grip on his gun.
But the Sith didn't have anymore time to focus on the downed Jag. He quickly turned back to Jaina, who then pushed off against him and began trading blows on their blades, signifying the beginning of a lightsaber duel. In the opening seconds of the fight, the Sith managed to maneuver himself out of the recovering Jag's aim so that Jaina's back would be to her husband.
Not wanting to break his wife's focus on the duel, Jag pushed himself up to his feet and began moving around her so that he could get a better shot at the Sith. But the latter seemed to know of Jag's presence at the peripheral of his awareness (he had the Force, Jag remembered, so he could do that), so he continued to maneuver his form out of Jag's aim so that his sole worry was on dueling Jaina.
"Jaina, get outta the way!" Jag called. "I can't get a lock on him!"
"And I doubt you'll be able to get a lock on any of my friends either, Jag!" the Sith called in between strikes and blocks against Jaina.
Jag's face furrowed in confusion before he noticed several human male Sith, at least five, appear from around the corners of the apartment, igniting their lightsabers along the way.
Not hesitating for a second, Jag aimed at one of them and fired. But as could be predicted, the shot was redirected back in Jag's direction by the Sith's blade accompanied by his Force-enhanced reflexes. Of course, Jag was no fool, so by then, he already rolled out of the way to his side where he ended up in a crouch. He aimed his gun for another of the Sith and fired; again, the same result, with Jag ending up crouching in another area of the apartment.
He knew damn well that his blaster shots would be useless against the Sith, who parried away his bolts as if they were swatting flies. Really, he was just buying time for himself by distracting them, waiting for his wife to finish off the Ghent imposter and move on with the rest of the Sith.
Jaina, meanwhile, managed to do just that as she feigned a swipe that her opponent instantly fell for, which cost him his weapon arm. His dismembered limb flew off through the apartment, his lightsaber automatically shutting off in the process, as he fell to the floor screaming in pain. The Sword of the Jedi didn't spare him a second glance as she turned to the five other Sith in the apartment, intercepting their travel for her relatively powerless husband. They all stopped and regarded her with obvious fear.
"Let me guess," she said with a predatory smile. "The guy you got to play Ghent; he was your best duelist, wasn't he?"
None of them answered; they simply stood their ground, but Jaina noticed some slight shaking on their part, especially as the Ghent imposter's screams continued to go on.
"That's what I thought," Jaina continued. "Now, I'm only gonna say this once; surrender or die."
As if magically, the resolve of the Sith dissipated all the fear they had, and they uniformly charged against Jaina.
Just a little over a minute later, all five of the Sith were dead, lightsaber scorch marks having marred and dismembered their corpses, and the Sword of the Jedi still stood, leisurely deactivating her weapon and hooking it back onto her belt.
"Now why can't I rely on you to do everything, especially when you're an esteemed and wise and powerful and humble Jedi Master?" Jag retorted.
Jaina regarded her husband, who now stood up completely, with only a quick smirk before turning back and walking back to the Ghent imposter that she let allowed to live in agony. She bent down, grabbed him by the collar of his tunic, and pulled him up so they were face-to-face.
"Shut up, or you won't get any treatment for that cut," she said, and the Sith managed to quiet down to quick breaths, still reeling from the pain. "Now tell me; how did you know about this operation?"