Hello there. I'm back with a new chapter and a new arc tot he story you all love! I am so happy to finally be presenting this act. It's one of my favorites in the story, as I love writing Veruna's parts. She's such a 90's scene gal, and I'm a diehard 90's kid. I hope you all enjoy the latest chapter of Imperials, so without further ado my loyal readers, let's go!
Drakken looked at the address on his encrypted datapad, then glanced up at the overwhelmingly posh apartment building before him. The directions Veruna had given him had led Tharcourt to this high-end building on Coruscant, just a short flight from Imperial Center. He had assumed they would be meeting in some high-security ISB office building, or at least in some seedy, dimly-lit cantina. Something to set the scene for a risky, dangerous mission in the world of espionage and covert warfare. Instead, he was standing at some building that looked for all the galaxy like the most vicious fight the occupants had ever seen was at the last tenant's meeting. Another glance at the datapad. L51 A51-213. He now guessed that these were the floor and room he was to meet at.
He took a turbolift up, and self-consciously straightened his black cargo vest and grey cap. Drakken had found it odd that the well-dressed doorman had stared at him with a strange expression that both said fear, and that he was expected. Tharcourt stepped off of the lift and after glancing at the numbers on nearby doors, made his way down the long hallway. He passed by a steward or porter in a clean and tidy uniform, and just as before, this man acted oddly, giving him a wide berth as he passed, and glancing back at him. Commander Tharcourt felt like he had suddenly grown another head or something. Perhaps these employees knew there was some ISB operation being conducted in their midst, and had been ordered to not interfere, he pondered. Maybe they themselves were agents, planted to guard the secrecy of the mission. He reached the door labeled 'Suite 51-213', and rang the buzzer. After a few moments, a voice inside answered.
"Who is it?" Veruna's familiar voice called.
"Ansarotti's Restaurant." Drakken answered, giving the code phrase she had sent him.
"Did you bring the deep-fried mooshminky?" The charge phrase.
"The frier is broken again." The correct answer. The door opened to reveal Agent Veruna. He didn't feel as under-dressed as he saw that she wasn't in uniform either, but wearing tight, black leather pants and a low-cut white tank top. She gave him a smile.
"It's so wizard to see you again." She greeted, and looked him over. He thought he heard her breath hitch. "You look…so amazing in that, Tharcourt." She said, and took Drakken by the arm, leading him into the apartment. He was almost taken aback at how large and luxurious the space was. The kitchen/living space looked to be about as big as his team's commons-room on their destroyer, and was furnished with expensive-looking seating and fixtures. "Well, Drakken…" She said, and spread her arms dramatically. "Welcome to my little pad, I guess! Make yourself at home."
"This…this is yours?" He asked incredulously, looking around at the artwork on the walls and the large holonet screen in the living space. "I thought it was like…I don't know, rented by the ISB for this mission or something." She giggled.
"Nah. It's mine, man." She waved. "I mean, ISB pays the bills, but yeah…it's my um…" She rolled her hand, trying to come up with a proper phrase. "…den of solitude, you might say. You like wine?"
"Huh?"
"Wine. Would you like a glass?"
"Oh…I guess." He answered.
"Have a seat. I'll bring it to ya. Hope you don't mind I ordered out. You like exotic stuff, right?" She continued as he sat on the synth-leather sofa. He felt the seat and back automatically conform to the contour of his body. It was a strange sensation. He glanced at the shelf full of colorful tooka dolls across the room.
"Yeah, sure…" He returned warily. "I thought this was about a mission…"
"Yeah, yeah, we'll get to that in a hot minute." Veruna sighed, pouring two glasses of sweet red wine. "We gotta talk about what we're doing and how we're gonna do it. But first…" She picked up the glasses and closed her eyes a moment, and blew out a nervous breath. "…I figured, you know…we could have a good meal and chill a little, right?" She walked over to where he sat and handed him a glass. "And…you kinda deserve it after your last couple missions." She added with a smile.
"Yeah…I suppose you're right." Drakken agreed, taking the glass. "A breath of fresh air before the plunge, kind of thing."
"Sure." She beamed, sitting beside him. Veruna raised her glass toward him. "To the moment." He raised his glass.
"To successful ventures." They both took a sip.
"Nice, isn't it?" She commented. "I mean…I have much better vintage, but this is a bangin' wine for casual drinking, I think."
"Uh…yeah." He shrugged. "I probably couldn't tell the good stuff from the bad, to be honest."
"Stars…you're so petite bourgeoisie…it's so charming!"
"You…" He began, about to question her bizarre comment, but stopped himself. "Nevermind. I'm still kind of amazed that this is your place." He stated, and felt the upholstery of their chair. "It's very…over-the-top."
"Eh." She shrugged. "Like I said, ISB picks up the tab for my digs…my clothes…work-related expenses. All I have to do is like, buy food and whatever little, tiny luxies I want."
"On a Major's pay though?" He asked. Veruna gave a sheepish glance downward and swirled her wine.
"Yeah…I kinda…sorta get really good pay because of my job." She said in a low voice. "Probably double yours." She looked up, aghast. "I didn't mean…don't think I'm a rich bitch or something, Drakken. I'm not trying to show you up or anything…"
"No, it's alright." He said reassuringly, surprised at how touchy she really was about her means. He'd never seen her have a moment of nervousness or uncertainty, and up until now was fairly sure that those things didn't exist in her repertoire. She smiled.
Veruna felt like a wreck. She had infiltrated criminal cells, and successfully posed as a hundred different people, and this meeting was making her crazy. She'd just wanted everything to be perfect, down to the temperature of the wine and the lighting levels of the room. Yet she felt like she was screwing everything up. She took a moment to go over everything she had logged into her mind for this moment. All of the hours of surveillance on the man who now sat beside her, the psych profiles and the after-action reports…
"So anyway…" She began. "…how's work? I heard your last mission was crazy intense."
"It was…" He sighed. "I don't really want to talk about it. It was rough." He drained the glass of wine in one swig. She gave him a sympathetic look.
"I heard that too. Glad you made it out okay." He smiled a little. Progress. "Tatooine was an experience, wasn't it?" She offered. "You enjoy going undercover?"
"A little…yeah." He admitted. "I can see the allure in it." He scoffed. "Somebody like you must have a lot of fun doing it."
"Oh, it's amazing, Tharcourt!" Zala gushed. "Spy work is like…I guess like being an actress, an assassin and a cop at the same time. You don't have people giving you orders all the time…at least in the field…and you can be whoever you want to be, and ohmygosh you're going to totally love it." He smiled as Veruna suddenly looked so happy and excited. She was like a teenager who just got a new speeder. Drakken understood what it was like to love one's job, and respected someone who took theirs so personally.
"Hm. We'll have to see on that one, Major." He said amiably. "I'm a soldier at the end of the day. Still don't know where I stand on the whole skullduggery issue." Her smile faded a little.
"Well…I think we'll have loads of fun." She returned with a narrow-eyed and playful smile that reminded him a little of Freya. "And call me Zala, Drakken." She took his glass and stood, walking to the kitchenette. "It's not like we haven't known each other for months now, for kriff's sake." She shot him another grin.
"Oh, I think you've gotten to know me worlds better than I've gotten to know you, Zala." He joked. "Found another little bug in my office last week. It's a regular infestation." He grinned evilly.
"Touché, sweetie." Zala remarked, giving a cocky sashay of her hips.
"Learn anything useful?" He asked.
"Just your hopes, fears, banking information and reading preferences." Veruna replied. It was a cleverly crafted statement on her part. The first two were a joke. The third was already known by ISB, and he probably knew it. The last part was a truth. She saw him raise an eyebrow, and she laughed a little to herself. He was very intelligent indeed. He had obviously just picked up what she had laid down.
"And what do I like to read, Agent?" He inquired coolly.
"Let faith oust fact…let fancy oust memory; I look deep down and do believe." Veruna repeated from memory.
"I take it you read the novel?" He asked. "To make sure I wasn't delving into subversive and treasonous literature of course." Drakken added cynically.
"Nah. Like I got time to read a long story like that?" She returned. "I had to read it in school, and it was totally a sleeping pill. I found that quote though, and thought it was nice."
"Hm. That was Starbuck. The chief mate." Drakken explained. "Practical, cautious…real common-sense kind of guy. Probably the most moral man on that ship, aside from the narrator."
"Kinda sounds like you." Veruna said.
"Maybe, I dunno." Drakken answered. "Old Starbuck was loyal to a fault and a damn good officer, I think. Too bad he ended up under that captain."
"Oh?" Zala mused, pouring herself another glass. "And what happened to him in the end?"
"He was against the captain being so obsessed with killing that Purrgil. I think he knew it was gonna get them all in a mess eventually. Him being so dutiful and deferent as he was…I don't think he had it in him to stand up to old Ahab. If he had, him and the rest of the crew wouldn't have gotten killed in the end." Veruna halted her glass on the way to her lips. She wasn't big into literature at all, but that had given her pause. She thought about her side mission to monitor Tharcourt for Vader…the very person who was sending him on all of these dangerous missions. Missions he graciously carried out. It was an almost chilling comparison. She took a sip of the wine, and tried to block those thoughts from her mind.
"Wow…" She said, and breathed a sigh. "So, Starbuck…how are you and Thorne doing?"
"Oh for the love of…" Drakken grumbled. "If you must know, we decided that there was nothing between us. Now hopefully everyone in the Empire can stop acting like we're married."
"Oh…I didn't know that." Veruna said softly. It was news to her, and welcome news at that. It was too bad that Drakken and that pretty ensign weren't together, but it also meant that she had a legitimate chance with him. Finally, things were looking up for her. The door buzzed, drawing her from her inner celebration.
"Who is it?" She called in a sing-song voice, approaching the door and drawing a blaster pistol that had been cleverly concealed in the counter-top.
"Delivery." The caller announced over the door's intercom. Tharcourt watched in a strange fascination as Veruna flattened herself against the wall by the door, taking care not to stand in front of it. She held the small blaster with both hands in a well-trained stance.
"I hope you brought all of it." She called, her voice mocking frustration.
"Uh…two orders of colo clawfish…honey-glazed roasted nuna legs…smoked kaadu ribs…"
"Yeah, okay." She called, and tucked the blaster into the back of her pants. She opened the door, and quickly paid with a swipe of a card of some type. Seconds later, she was placing four large bags on her counter. Tharcourt joined her as Veruna slid the blaster back into its hiding place and began removing the insulated boxes contained in the bags.
"So…I take it you have a problem with unwanted visitors?" He asked.
"Yeah…it's only happened a couple of times. Can't let my guard down though, ya know?" She answered. "A rebel prisoner I caught escaped from ISB lockup once. He somehow tracked me here. I guess I had a moment of stupid. He busted in on me and almost killed me." She looked at Drakken, and he could see a bit of tiredness in her red-brown eyes. "Three terrorists did the same thing, man…tracked me down. I knew they were coming though. Soon as they blew my door off its hinges, I had a heavy repeater singing an aria."
"Wow. That's…horrible." Drakken muttered.
"Believe it or not, some creepazoid tried to merk me in the parking garage. Like, turns out he was a rebel sympathizer. Probably just saw the uniform and figured he'd earn his stripes killing an ISB agent." She gave a weak smile. "Good thing I'm so handy with a hideout blaster. One less lowlife to worry about."
"The joys of having a dangerous job, huh?" He asked sympathetically.
"Yeah. Sometimes wish I had…you know, somebody else here." She winced as soon as she let that slip out. It was too much too soon.
"No doubt…" He said, and she felt a little relief that he hadn't caught the true meaning behind her statement. "But hey…you're not a bad-looking woman. I'm sure you could find someone worthwhile. I mean, worse comes to worse, you could always rent out a room to a mercenary in exchange for backup."
"Tharcourt, you're a troll!" Veruna laughed, and swatted at him. She felt giddy. Not only had he just finally complimented her looks (in a way), but he had joked with her. She already felt them growing closer in the short time he had been here, and was more than happy that she'd been right; he just needed a chance to get to know her. She opened all of the boxes, and began placing portions of the exotic food on her best expensive plates.
"This is…huh…" Drakken muttered, looking at the expensive-looking and strange things Veruna was serving. "…definitely not the stuff from the mess hall." Veruna laughed.
"Oh Drakken, you are absolutely adorable." She said sweetly. "When you're with me, you get the best, man." She handed him a plate, and he took it with a friendly but uneasy smile.
"Um…thanks." He returned. Drakken motioned toward a small dining table, and she nodded. He sat down and waited for her to sit with her own food. "The mission?" He pressed.
"Alright, so you familiar with the lower levels of Coruscant?" She asked. Chewing on a bite of some kind of aquatic life, he hummed to the negative. "No prob. It's like Tatooine, only a lot darker, and a ton more populated. That's where we have to go." She took a bite of meat from a rib and washed it down with some wine. "Captain Janus Neyaster Latoure…ever heard of him?"
"No. Should I have?" Tharcourt answered.
"Was Navy Intelligence. He went rogue four months ago, and the loser took with him more than what classified intel was in his head."
"Go on." Tharcourt urged, paying close attention to the briefing as he ate.
"Latoure had planned his move. It looks like he spent months making weapons, tech and credits disappear before he did."
"Mm. He used his position to move things around creatively." Drakken stated.
"Pre…cicely." Veruna said with a flourish of her right hand. "He absconded with files on Imperial personnel, ship and weapon designs, ship transponder numbers and Imperial codes. Oh, and we think he has enough blasters and equipment to arm a damn company."
"Damn…that's not scary at all." Tharcourt mused. "You know what kind of disaster it'd be if that stuff got into rebel hands?"
"That's why he has to be apprehended or eliminated." Zala said. "Instead of going to the other side, you know, Latoure set up his own intelligence agency for hire, like mercenary spies. They're been operating out of Coruscant's lower levels."
"Like the Bothans."
"Yeah, but he hasn't gotten that big yet." She answered, and popped a shellfish in her mouth. Between chews, Zala continued. "And we have to stop him before he does. He makes a deal with the rebels…everything he knows…"
"We're kriffed…in a portable latrine…with no waste paper." Drakken sighed. Veruna almost spit out her wine.
"Never heard that one before." She chuckled. "You combat officers totally have your own language."
"Most of it not repeatable in polite company." Drakken said with a laugh. "So, to sum it up…we have to go down into the bowels of a crime-ridden city, find this ex-intelligence guy and put him under before he puts all of us out of business." Veruna bobbled her head from side to side with a smile.
"Yep!" She chirped.
"Out-kriffin'-standing." He grumbled. "What's our team look like?" She stopped in the middle of a sip of her drink, making a loud slurp, and her eyes widened a little.
"Team? What team, Drakken?" She asked. "It's you and me on this."
"We're supposed to take down a merc outfit of unknown size, run by a NavInt mastermind by ourselves?!" He exclaimed. "You don't want to…I dunno, take like the entire Five-Oh-First Legion in with us?"
"Nah. They'd make too much noise." Veruna argued. "They'd destroy half of the city, and Latoure would still get away. We have to do this quietly. A two-man cell to go in, infiltrate and get him. Once the head is hacked off the serpent, I can call in an ISB strike team to clean out the rest. They have mondo muscle, but I don't think they're capable of anything without Latoure the tray-toor at the stick."
"Ugh…the sad part is, that makes total sense." Drakken gloomed. "Alright. Assets. What gear and equipment we have?"
"Anything we want. Remote cameras, droids, choice of weapons…" She ticked off. "…got safe houses down there and vehicles."
"Good…" Drakken pondered. "You know where he is?"
"Just a general location." Veruna replied. "But we can hopefully make some contacts and get close enough to find out on our own." He nodded.
"That's your specialty. I'll try and make sure we don't get murdercated. So what's the act?" He asked, pouring a little more wine into his glass.
"Act?"
"You know, what are we running around pretending to be?" He clarified. "Bounty hunters? Assassins?" He started sipping the sweet beverage. She grinned nervously and took a breath.
"I figured we could go as like, a boyfriend and girlfriend team of Anti-Imperial guerillas looking to buy a bunch of weapons and intel for our group." She said quickly, and Tharcourt choked, coughing on the wine a moment. "You good?"
"Wait…wait…we have to act like we're together?!"
"You got a better idea to make us look like there's no way in Hell we could be Imperial?" She shot back.
"And me…a rebel?"
"I've played one before." She shrugged. "What's the big deal?"
"Ugh…by the void and be damned to atoms…why me?" He complained. Veruna giggled.
"Oh, don't be so dramatic, sweetie." Veruna cooed. "I do this sort of thing every day. It's nothing."
"Moons of Garos…" Drakken uttered. "Alright. If you think we can do it, then by Hell I'll help you do it." He sighed. "Guess after what you did for me and Thorne…I owe you an impossible mission."
"Glad you finally came around." Zala said with a conceited smile. "Not that there was ever any escaping it for you." Tharcourt had just taken a bite of rib meat, and he narrowed his eyes at her.
"No, you managed to sink your talons far too deep in for that." He commented dryly.
"Rawr." Veruna made a parody of an animal growl while clawing her hand at him dramatically.
"When do we leave?"
"Whenever you're finished eating, of course." She answered. "There's an unregistered speeder waiting for us on Level 3500. We'll take that down to old 1313 and start tracking our prey…" She said the last part playfully.
"Wait…" Drakken interrupted. He thought back on everything he actually knew about the city-planet from when he attended academy there. Trillions of beings lived on the layered ecumenopolis, but up until now, he had never actually bothered to find out how big it really was. "Level 3500?" He asked.
"What?"
"How many levels does Coruscant have again?" He inquired.
"Well, we're on level…Five-thousand-something-something?" She answered. "Nobody really bothers to start counting until they hit about forty-five-hundred even. You don't get out much, do you?"
"Each level is basically a floor…like in a building." He deduced. Veruna gave him an exasperated shake of the head like she was speaking to a toddler who had finally figured something out. He blew out a breath. "Whew…that's a helluva lot of area to cover."
"Eh." She shrugged with a smile, completely acclimated to the enormity of the planet she'd lived on most of her life, and more than familiar with its seedy underbelly.
"Curious question…what's at the lowest levels?" Tharcourt asked. Veruna's eyes widened, and she cracked an eerie grin.
"You haven't heard the stories, hon?" She said in a low voice. "The bottom levels…Hell, nobody goes down there. Like, there's all kinds of monsters lurking around in that darkness. Rotting husks of near-human…things, giant slugs that melt duracrete into goo with their acid, gnarly-looking ghouls that eat all the dead bodies people throw down there. They say…even ghosts. It's insanity, Drakken. Pure…karking…insanity." He stared at her morbidly twisted smile for a moment.
"Alright. I'm out." He stated, holding his hands up in defeat.
"Like Hell!" She shot back. "I already briefed you on top-level, classified information. You're not backing out on me now." She pursed her lips in thought. "I think you'd actually be shot if you did, I'm not sure."
"Ah Damn it." He growled. "Fine, Veruna. But if I get et by a mutant, Freya's going to kill you, you know that, right?" Zala let out a laugh.
"I don't doubt that for a sec." She said. "But oh-my-gosh, will you chill? I'm not gonna let anything happen to you. If you got killed, I would totally…literally just die." She took her plate to the dishwasher, and tossed it in the basket. "Now I'm gonna go finish getting dressed before we bounce." He raised an eyebrow as he put his own plate in the cleaner.
"But you're already dressed…" He stated.
"As if! I haven't even done my lips yet! No way I'm rolling outta here looking like a scrub." She countered. "Gimme a hot minute. You like music?"
"I…I guess…"
"Music on! Play my chill beats." She ordered the room. "Out in a few!" She called, walking down a short hallway in the apartment as the music started.
Uh-huh, life's like this
Uh-huh, uh-huh That's the way it is
'Cause life's like this
Uh-huh, uh-huh That's the way it is
Chill out, whatcha yellin' for?
Lay back, it's all been done before
And if you could only
Let it be, you would see…
Drakken plopped down in one of the two soft, magenta armchairs in the room and groaned. This was already shaping up to be one bizarre mission, and they hadn't even started yet. He tried to focus on the matter at hand; the assignment protocols. Infiltrate the criminal underworld and eliminate a guy who could wreak a lot of havoc on the Empire should he side with the rebels. He found himself distracted by the irritatingly adolescent love song playing in the flat, and stared at a large, pink tooka doll on a stand across from him, staring at him with sickeningly cute eyes.
Why'd you have to go and make things so complicated?
I see the way you're…actin' like you're somebody else, gets me frustrated
Life's like this, you
And you fall, and you crawl, and you break and you take what you get and you turn it into
Honesty and promise me, I'm never gonna find you fake it, no, no, no…
"I'm in girly Hell…" He whined.
By the time Veruna emerged from her refresher, Drakken was standing by the entryway, admiring the Major's small collection of weapons. A heavy repeating blaster was leaned up by the door, and an A280 was barely visible, wedged behind a curio cabinet. His trained eyes had also spotted an E-11 on her refrigerator, its grip protruding from between two colorful containers of breakfast cereals. He turned as she entered the room, and raised an eyebrow.
She was still wearing the indescribably tight-fitting black leather pants and white tank top as before, but had added a wide, dark green and black scarf and a pair of brown, thin-soled sandals. About her waist, she wore a gunbelt with a holstered blaster slung low on her right thigh. The buckle of the belt, a silver rectangle, bore a heart made up of small pink crystals. Her eye-makeup was darker, and her lips were a glossy rose pink. He also noted with some bewilderment that Veruna had taken the time to paint her fingernails and toenails in the same hue as her lips. She smiled and gave a slow spin, obviously to showcase her clothing.
"Well, what do you think, Drakken?" She asked in a provocative tone. "I look totally cute or what?"
"Those pants look like they'd be hard to fight in." He commented bluntly. She sashayed her hips from side to side.
"Au contraire." She stated. "I can be very nimble."
"Good to know." He nodded. "Who knows what kind of fight we'll end up in." Her lips turned down in a scowl. Veruna had researched Drakken, and thought she had guessed at his tastes in women. If Thorne was anything to go off of, he should be attracted to girls who showed off their legs. Maybe she should have worn that super-short little skirt…
"Oh, you like my shoes?" She asked, and wiggled her toes. Freya always wore those ridiculously cute sandals. Maybe he had a foot thing. "They're what the Twi-lek slave girls wear. What do you think about that?" She added in a sultry voice.
"Um…I…think it's information." He answered. "Speaking of which, you have any intel on what level this Latoure fellow might be on?" Zala felt like pouting. This was going to be harder than she thought. Drakken was more strait-laced than she'd hoped. No wonder he and Thorne hadn't hit it off. How could that little cutie even put up with a fuddy-duddy like him? She composed herself. It was only a matter of time. Zala was certain she could find his button. She cracked terrorists for breakfast. Finding a way to get Drakken Tharcourt to fall for her would be a breeze.
"I have a hunch he's hanging around on levels 1313 and 807." She said. "My guess is that he has his HQ on the lower level. Latoure has safe houses and caches in between them too."
"Alright." Tharcourt nodded. "You take the lead on this." He drew his twin Westar 35's, and gave them a final check before placing them back in their holsters. Now that they were finally starting the operation, Drakken felt a small tinge of the adrenaline and excitement that he always enjoyed before a battle. "Let's go find us a bad guy."
Note: I reread the chapter for editing before posting, and couldn't help but laugh at some of Veruna's attempts to woo Drakken. As Freya learned, he's a difficult man to get close to. And they have a dangerous mission ahead of them. How will it play out? Will they apprehend the traitor Latoure? Will Zala manage to get Drakken's attention? And how will Freya and the crew manage without Tharcourt for a week? Tune in next time for the latest installment! Until then my friends, leave me some likes and reviews, and remember: Challenge authority, question everything, and stay awesome! Cheerio!