HOTH
The wind howled angrily, a driving force that created a white curtain of heavy snow that stole everything from sight. The temperature was freezing and barely tolerable, even in armour that regulated body heat. As bad as it was, it was only going to get worse as day turned to night on the planet. Only the hardiest of creatures dared to call the barren wastes of ice and snow home at the edge of the known galaxy.
Shadelis Darkstar would have cursed her luck for having ventured to Hoth. The sixth planet of the Hoth system was far from a planet, as far as she was concerned. It was more one giant frozen hell. Still here she was, hunkered down with her gree armour doing its damnedest to keep away a relentless cold that went right down through into her bones. Despite the regulated temperature, she could feel her nose running and had to sniffle again.
The cold was not just affecting her. It tended to make life even more difficult on any technology, from armour to equipment. Communications with her ship were static filled, but had yet to be cut off. That, she knew, could change if the snow storm continued. Shadelis doubted it would stop at all, though she wished otherwise.
Shadelis pressed herself back out of the wind and against the torn and warped cold metal hull at her back. She had taken refuge in one of the broken, forgotten remnants of a long destroyed star cruiser. Republic or Imperial, it didn't matter really, nor could she tell without venturing deeper into the unstable remains. Under the circumstances it was any port in a storm, and she could have cared less who once owned the broken vessel. Perched with a view out over the area, such as it was, it really was any port in a storm.
"Yeah, great choice for a day out." Kaliyo Djannis voice broke over the comm link, breaking the silence. "Remind me to have a talk with you later about how to book a vacation."
"Look at it this way," Shadelis responded. "You could be naked out there and your pale ass would blend right in."
"Right about now, I'd make a sight." Kaliyo shot back. "It's so damn cold my chest plate has cracks where my nipples are jabbing through!"
Shadelis laughed at that and shook her head. The rattataki was an ally, if not one of the few who she regarded as almost a friend. It surprised her to think of Kaliyo that way. Their history had been rife with manipulations and betrayals of trust, but Shadelis also knew when push came to shove the woman had always had her back. It was for that reason Shadelis had reached out to contact her after she had need to travel to Hoth. Sometimes it was simply a case of the devil you knew. In this case, the devil you knew intimately, Shadelis thought, and had to stop herself from going there.
"Ok, so what are we doing here anyways? What are we after?"
"Information."
Shadelis knew well enough to leave the other woman in the dark, especially this time. Kaliyo had sold secrets before, and there was no way Shadelis was going to chance that happening again. Not this time, anyways. This time it was personal, it was a matter of family. Besides, she knew, it really was the truth as blunt and to the point as it was in way of an answer.
The chiss was now on her own, the Imperial Intelligence operative cut loose with its fall and having disappeared. It was how she wanted it to remain. Once, she had been a shadow, someone who blended in and did her best to be unseen as she carried out her work for the Empire. She was the silent knife, the killer behind the shot nobody heard that took out the target. Now however, she no longer existed at all. Shadelis was a ghost. Everyone thought she was dead and gone, and she was not about to do anything to change that belief. It was a blessing, and a curse, but necessary. Having obtained the Empire's list of black operations, she was now in possession of every last dirty little secret they had. Now I'm a ghost with a target on her back, she thought.
Checking the display information that flashed on the heads up display inside the gree helmet, Shadelis noted the day was growing later. It was not good news, as with the dying of what little sun the planet got, the temperature would soon be dangerously, fatally low. A press of a button brought the thermal setting of her scope to her helmet display wirelessly. She could see Kaliyo making her way forward below and in front of her.
Hoth had been where the Republic and Sith had collided in conflict during the Great War. Both sides had lost numerous ships, the wreckage littering the surface of the planet, and no more concentrated than in the dubbed Starship Graveyard. It was here that Shadelis had come searching for information she knew she needed badly. Somewhere in the wreckage, aboard the Imperial cruiser Warstorm was what she was after. Assuming the computer banks remained intact and with the ship, she reminded herself.
After the Treaty of Coruscant both sides had attempted recovery of technology from their downed ships. Conflicts had been ongoing ever since. That, of course, did not take into account the assorted scavengers, pirates, and scum of the galaxy that used Hoth as a safe haven. The Outer Rim planet was well off the beaten path, and given its frozen climate few wanted to come here at all. Since the return of war between the sides, even more fighting had taken its toll on the remains, and Shadelis knew well enough to not get her hopes up. At the very least the ship computers could have been damaged beyond salvage.
"Kaliyo, freeze." Shadelis hissed as she spotted a glimpse of a thermal signature ahead of the woman.
"I already am." Kaliyo shot back jokingly, even as she complied.
Shadelis grit her teeth before making herself take a breath and relax. The signature was a larger one, humanoid shape, but far too big to be a person. Wampa, she knew. Wampas were just one of dangers of the ice planet wildlife.
Slow and smooth, smooth is fast, make the shot count, Shadelis ran the words over and over in her mind as she slowed her breathing and took hold of her sniper rifle. The chiss fingered the trigger, but was still until she simply curled and pulled it back. The sniper rifle didn't kick, and Shadelis swore under her breath. Damnable Hoth weather, she thought as she pounded a fist on the weapon, noting the flaking and falling sheen of ice that came off the rifle.
Quickly she hit the weapon again before getting her sights locked back on the target. The wampa was closing in on the snow blind and waiting Kaliyo. She would only have time for one shot at its current speed of approach. It was hit or miss, and if she missed then Kaliyo was going to make a nice light snack. Once more she went over her manta.
Slow and smooth, smooth is fast, make the shot count.
Shadelis let out a slow breath and squeezed the trigger gently. This time the sniper rifle gave its familiar and usual kick, the red blast streaking off to disappear into the whiteness. Shadelis watched as the thermal outline lit briefly about the head area of her target, then crumpled and remained unmoving in a blob.
"All clear. One dead wampa."
"Remind me never to piss you off." Kaliyo quipped as Shadelis watched her bound forward and then her thermal image disappeared off the scope moments later as she was out of direct sight.
"I think this might be the ship. Give me a few minutes. I'll try and locate a terminal and patch in."
Shadelis said nothing as she made a quick scan checking again for thermal signatures. Satisfied there were no other lurking creatures, or worse out there, the chiss settled back once more against the hull of the broken ship. A little research had given them a general area of the graveyard to search, but it still had taken them this long just to locate the wreckage, or at least a chunk of it. All Shadelis could do now was wait, and that gave her time to dwell on why they were here and what she had learned from the black codex.
Shadelis had at first just started to scan and flip through the files. Routine stuff, nothing unexpected had leapt out at her. It was then she had come across a file, one buried amongst the rest, a hidden ghost file within another. The file had been classed the Darkstar Legacy. That on its own had grabbed her attention. That alone had made her open and read it. Line by line she scoured through the file until finally she had gone through the whole thing. In the end it had left her needing to know more.
The file had been an overview, with little real information included, a passing report of a project headed by a doctor Ordann, and reporting to a Dark Lord Mekhis. Something told Shadelis Darkstar her last name heading some secret file on a Sith project, one buried and hidden in the black codex, was far more than coincidental.
Shadelis sat back, eyes closing a moment as she remained patient in place until finally the comm link crackled and the familiar voice of the Rattataki came to her.
"We've got the goods, boss. Computer core was there and intact, just needed to get some juice and was able to pull all its files."
"Good." Shadelis responded, allowing herself a small smile. "Let's get off this snowball!"