Last time: The Trio and Ceros discovered there is actually a mole.
Now: The 19th arrive to the next Sith planet.
Chapter 18- Abbiados
"You okay?" Kyr asked Cien, who was sitting next to him in the co-pilot's seat. Outside the canopy a murky, blood colored nebula roiled in the solar winds. They were making their way through a safe passage that was marked with buoys, and too small for anything larger than a corvette to get through. The Shadow Runner was accompanied by Shades in the Copperheads U-wing, and one of the CR-90 Corvettes with its escort of two fighters was bringing up the rear of their little flotilla. Shades was carrying Lieutenant Troy and his men, while Nova, Kelce and Wynnie were in the lounge relaxing aboard the Shadow Runner. It was just like old times. The rest of their detachment from the 19th, the Valor and its escorts, was staying at the entrance to the passage, as deeply in the nebula as they could safely go, to guard the only known passage through the nebula to the planet of Abbiados. Scamp was lounging in the seat behind them, but he was snoring lightly.
"Yeah." Cien replied, subdued. "It's just strange visiting these sites again. Even back in my time, I thought I would never come here again once I finished my research into the mindspace. And when we escaped from the blackhole, they were archeological curiosities I stumbled across again on the holonet, but never thought I would see again."
"What was this place like?" Kyr asked her.
"Foreboding." Cien said, settling on the word after a moment. "All the Sith temples were built in places steeped in the darkside, but this one was a large temple." She answered. "It had one of the largest libraries, and the acolytes here preferred to keep to themselves in study. The Sith Lord that was in charge of it was probably the coldest person I've ever met." She said, remembering that visit.
Kyr looked out the window at the passage they were weaving through. The blood red murk outside made it feel like they were flying through the veins of some great beast. "Well, they're long gone, I presume."
"Yes." Cien said. "But…" Cien said, grimacing slightly, "If I hear a voice I will need to leave like last time." She said, swallowing. "And if something happens to me, please get Sasha as soon as possible." She said quietly.
"Do you want to wait for her to come with us now?" Kyr asked her worriedly.
"No." Cien said, "I think I'll be alright." She said. Kyr noted that she was lacking the air of confidence she always held about herself, though.
"Are you sure?" Kyr asked.
"Yes." She stated. "I know what to expect now, and I'll be more careful than I was last time. We'll be alright." She said, looking over at him. "And I'm also curious to meet the archeology team." She admitted.
"So who are these guys anyway?" Kyr asked, accepting the change of subject.
"Doctor Jahq'sun." She said, "and he's leading a team of archeologists excavating this site, he's also in charge of the expedition that excavated the other three sites that were attacked."
"Why are they investigating old Sith ruins?" Kyr asked curiously. "Seems like a bad idea."
"Curiosity more than anything, I think." She said. "If you look at the archeology boards, there are different expeditions all over the place, for all kinds of different cultures. Ancient Jedi temples, ancient Rakattan. This just happens to be an expedition looking into the Sith."
"Sounds kind of boring." Kyr said.
Cien smirked. "I am certain you would think it was." She said, though she knew Kyr had his own fascination with history, so she wasn't entirely sure if he was just kidding.
"Digging around with those little paint brushes, trying to recover pottery and old computer pads that aren't compatible with our current software." Kyr continued as Cien smirked more. "And a good day is when you find a garbage pit. 'Oh look! I found a Sith candy wrapper!'" Kyr mimicked, and that made Cien snort in laughter.
"Well don't forget the treasure." She suggested. "Sith temples are apparently filled with it."
"Oh, sure, and walls that shoot darts at you, invisible bridges, rolling boulders that want to crush you."
"I don't think they have that." Cien said, glancing at him.
"Spiders." Kyr continued.
"Oh, they definitely have those." Cien said mischievously. And Kyr shuddered.
Scamp, who had woken at one point during their conversation, snickered at the spiders comment. "Has he ever told you about that mission to Nar Shadda we did during the fight against the Empire?" He asked.
"No." Cien said her curiosity piqued.
"Oh, don't tell her that." Kyr said, face palming.
Scamp smiled and he leaned forward. "So we were undercover on Nar Shadda hoping to get some intel into an Imperial base that we were planning to attack," he told her. "And we had to meet our contact out in the middle of this junk yard. So after we get the intel myself, Sulam, Dravis, and Kyr headed back to our ship. On the way back, I noticed something had hitched a ride on Kyrs cape. So I told him he had a new pet spider. I have never heard a grown man scream like a girl before." He laughed. "Especially a Mando!"
Cien snorted, trying not to laugh too hard.
"Yeah, yeah." Kyr said, rolling his eyes. "Thank goodness Tac didn't find out, otherwise he'd have insisted on keeping Reggie 3.0."
"Yeah," Scamp laughed. "For the next week everyone would tease him about it. That is until that big attack against the Empire that hurt us all pretty badly after. Then we all dropped it and never spoke of it again. But you bet your ass I never forget it though."
"Hpmh." Kyr groused, "don't suppose I should bring up when you tried to ask the Admiral out the first time. You were even worse than our new Lieutenant around Wynnie." He said mischievously. That definitely piqued Cien's interest.
"You promised to never bring that up," Scamp retorted as he turned red. "That day still haunts me. Probably just as much as what 66 did."
Kyr continued, "so we had this kid in our group, he was always playing pranks. Young guy, he was annoying. Vienny was his name. Remember him?" Kyr asked, glancing over at Scamp.
"Yeah, I do," Scamp grumbled. "Kid was a pest."
"So a couple of us noticed him looking at the Captain a certain way at the time. And Vienny thought he might give Scamp here some advice," Kyr said. "You ever see the clones do a Haka dance?" Kyr asked Cien.
"No?" Cien said, smiling and looking between them bemused.
"And you never will," Scamp commented blushing.
"Yeah, but I got to." Kyr said. "So did Captain Sulam, and the other Coppers." Kyr looked over his shoulder. "Where did you get that skirt by the way?" He asked
Scamp looked away, sheepishly. "An old Clone buddy of mine. Are you done?"
"So we walked into the briefing that day and we were all wondering where Scamp was." Kyr continued. "Didn't show up for the briefing, we were wondering if he was sick or something. We all dispersed, and then we heard Captain Sulam scream -"
Kyr cut off as the navigation buoy's sounded off, and the planet came into view. "Oh, wow." He said, looking at the surface. The planet was a deep, blood red. Not the usual rust red, but a deep, bloody red color. Covered in volcanic flows from pole to pole. The flows gave the planet a pulsating quality, like it was a beating heart here in the middle of this ocean of blood that surrounded it.
Scamp sighed. "Saved by the bell," he said under his breath before staring out the viewport at the planet.
"So anyway the Captain screamed, and we all rushed to see what had happened." Kyr continued. Scamp groaned and hid his face in his hands.
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