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Rothana Heavy Engineering Industrial Sector, Nexus City, Colony world Next-1, 2nd Galactic Empire
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The night bred fear.
The night was his ally.
This was as true on Palpatine Prime, as it was on Earth, as it was here on Next-1. There were a few planets back in the seventy million worlds of the 1st Galactic Empire, such as Umbara or Atoa, that fully embraced the night, but Next-1 was far, far away from the Home Galaxy. Next-1 embraced industry and mining, and only used the night to differentiate work shifts.
He didn't fear the night. He embraced it. Only one creature in all of the universe scared him. Mynocks. They were silica-based parasites that fed on energy sources and had a reputation for stranding spacers out in the Void. Being left powerless in a slowly freezing derelict drifting into the cosmos fueled his nightmares.
But he had found a way to make his enemies share his dread.
Next-1 was one of a dozen colony worlds founded by Empress Phasma expressly to promote industry and growth. All species were welcome. The first colonizers to move in were the factories and manufacturing plants trying to avoid the taxation of Mars and the high prices and laws of Palpatine Prime. Beings looking for easy credits followed afterwards, but quickly found they were in competition for jobs with waves of new droids produced after the war. Nowadays, droids outnumbered beings by four to one on Next-1.
From his vantage point he could see the result. For kilometer after kilometer in every direction manufacturing plants stretched out as far as the eye could see. They produced everything the Empire needed from landspeeders to nanowave stoves and vibromops. And they worked twenty-five hours a day. The encompassing din from the factories covered his movement as he traversed from one rooftop to another towards his ultimate target.
Nexus City, the capital of Next-1, was deep in the heart of its winter. A half meter of dirty, polluted snow covered the rooftops and roadways, while long icicles drooped from nearly every awning and eave. The crisp chill in the night air had little effect on him as he wound his way through the shadows. His outfit covered nearly his entire body, except for a small section of the face that exposed his mouth. Interwoven with the outfit's body armor was the latest heated body glove prototype from Quelton Fabrication. To him, the night here was like a pleasant spring day on Nal Kuat.
Advanced Cladtech boots gripped the surface of the roof, preventing him from slipping on unseen ice, even at a full run. Jammers in his suit fried out every cam pointed in his direction long enough for him to pass undetected. Finally he arrived at an overhanging ledge covered in General Grievous gargoyles atop the Cularin SpaceNav corporate building. The perch overlooked a long row of warehouses near the planet's main space port.
Each of the warehouses were near identical to the ones around it. All but one. Quadnoculars in his cowl focused on the details. A solitary trail had been stamped in the snow surrounding the warehouse by a lone guard. Magnifying his view as the patrolling sentry came into sight, he noted the guard was a shivering Iktotchi wearing a red and black parka.
The colors of the coat were of no surprise to the observer. They were heavily favored by the thugs who worked for the spice gang, the Crimson Dawn. That type of scum had been locked in a twenty year spice war with the Gran Kajidic and were found on every planet and moon within the New Empire. He had been hunting this particular branch of the gang a third of the way along the Bloodstripe Run, from Keto Prime to Next-1.
He activated the comlink built into his helmet. Unlike most comm gear, which was designed for solo planetary use, this one was the latest military design. In the blink of an eye he was connected through the HoloNet with his guardian back on Nal Kuat. "Alferon, I'm in position."
"I see that, sir. I've taken the liberty to search the database for ownership papers of the warehouses below you. Turns out they are owned by a shell company named Tansarii LTD." Alferon reported from the safety of their base on their home world. No doubt Alferon was enjoying a cup of nice Alderaanian mint tea while the observer trudged across frozen rooftops.
"An old front for Black Sun holdings before the Gran Kajidic wiped them out during the war." He replied. "I doubt Brakatak the Bull would resurrect one of his old rival's businesses."
"The Underlord of the Black Sun, Hondo Ohnaka, did vanish under mysterious circumstances twenty years ago. Do you suppose he is making moves to usher in a reappearance?" Alferon theorized.
"I haven't heard any chatter about such a move. Nor have we seen much in the way of new operations by the remnants of the Weequay gangs that used to be the base of Ohnaka's support."
"Wasn't there a Tansarii freighter, the Elder Ruthic, boarded and inspected by the Slash a few months ago for suspected spice smuggling? Near Forca Movel if I recall correctly."
"Forca Movel? There's nothing out there except a section of the maelstrom that shields New Thyfeeria from the Bloodstripe Run. Since there's no viable path from the Kuat Sector through the maelstrom all those planets have been left pretty much lifeless."
The Almuhit Maelstrom shields quite a few planets from the rimward half of the Bloodstripe, including Nal Kuat and your ship yards. I wasn't aware of any colonies or mining efforts in that region near Forca Movel."
"Neither was I. Terraformers gave it a glance ten years ago and passed it over. Too many asteroid fields in the area to make it worth the effort. A colony world would need a planetary shield and no one has the start up for something like that. Plus, the place is a maze."
"It sounds like the perfect location for the criminally-minded, sir."
"So it would seem. I will have to check it out, since it's relatively close to the Kuat System. Anything else interesting about that ship the Navy boarded?"
"Just that it was registered to one Nyssa Raatko. She's a Pantoran and the legal owner of the Shadow Collective Cantina on Plympto Blight."
"I know of it. It's a hangout for Crimson Dawn spacers along the mid Bloodstripe. That would explain our friend below. His attire seems more suited for one of their thugs than a security guard."
"Speaking of which; thermal scans of the building show that our patrolling friend below you has at least fifteen friends of his own inside the warehouse. Should we perhaps wait for a more opportune time for a quiet investigation?"
"No time like the present, Alferon." With that he pitched himself over the ledge. As he fell towards the ground below he fired a silent grappling hook from his gauntlet towards an awning across the roadway. It impacted and buried itself deep in the permacrete, allowing him to swing noiselessly onto the roof of the warehouse.
He waited for the guard to perform another circuit around the warehouse. He had noted the Iktotchi paused to warm himself next to a heat stick set up in front of the door. Silently he perched above the unsuspecting sentry. Then he leaned forward and let gravity do the rest.
He was a master of Teräs Käsi, Jar'kai, Stava and Echani. And as such, the intruder was an elite expert on just where to strike an opponent to maximize the blow while limiting lasting damage. He knew the exact location of the temple of over a hundred species. As such his one and only blow landed squarely on the soft spot on the back of the Iktotchi's head between his cranial horns. The guard crumpled silently into the snow. He'd wake up in an hour with a killer headache but no worse the wear.
The building's entrance was secured with interior locks that could only be accessed from inside the building. A quick scan showed at least two more figures on the other side of the door. He looked about and identified a weak spot in the wall around the corner from the entrance. He quickly pounded on the door and then turned and vanished back into the night.
A bar slid away from the vision slit in the door. A figure looked out into the falling snow. Their eyes grew wide as they scanned downwards and fell upon the unconscious Iktotchi laying on the ground.
A second later the door flew open and two Nautolans burst out of the building. Each of them held an AR-1 blaster rifle at the ready. They swung their weapons back and forth in a futile effort to locate whatever had neutralized their sentry.
One of the Nautolans bent down and sat the Iktotchi up so that he could drag him back into the warmth of the warehouse. He ordered his partner. "Check the perimeter."
Unseen, around the corner from the two guards, the intruder attached a small detonator on the weak spot of the wall and stepped away. Three seconds later it exploded, sending a blast of debris into the warehouse and knocking out most of the lamps within the storage facility.
The two guards outside dropped the Iktotchi at the sound of the blast. They spun around and rushed back into the building. Turning left they saw the new hole blown in the warehouse wall. Sparks rained down from a cut electrical cable in the ceiling. Before they could spot him the intruder stepped through the main door behind them. He was carrying a small, holdout stingbeam and squeezed the trigger twice. Both of the Nautolans, stricken in the small of their backs, crumpled to the floor.
The intruder, dressed all in black, vanished into the shadows of the warehouse.
Another Crimson Dawn thug entered the room, a Gamorrean carrying a vibroaxe. The pig-guard jumped in surprise to see the unconscious bodies of the two Nautolans, whose backs still smoked from the stun bolts.
A fist covered in black durasteel emerged from the darkness and impacted the Gamorrean, shattering one of his tusks as the gauntlet sunk deep into the swine's green face. As the punch moved downwards the intruder grabbed the handle of the vibroaxe. The Gamorrean was too stunned to hold onto his own weapon, which was spun around and swung at him. Instead of the blade finding its neck, the pig-guard was hit with the flat side of the vibroaxe alongside his head, knocking him out cold. The obese guard fell alongside the two Nautolans at the intruder's feet.
Before the Gamorrean was fully settled the intruder was on the move again. He could hear more of the occupants of the warehouse stirring as they realized they were under assault and began moving on his position.
He swung his stingbeam into the doorway of the next room. Empty. He moved on in a flash. If he lingered they would swarm him. He needed to keep moving to keep the Crimson Dawn gangsters off balance.
The next room wasn't empty. A Trandoshan was frantically loading an F-411. His back was to the intruder and the scaly lizard-man hadn't heard his entrance.
He lowered himself to a crouch behind the busy Trandoshan and aimed his gauntlet at the thug. With a flick of his wrist a grappling cable shot forth and wrapped itself around the Trandoshan's neck. Before he could get his hands up to his throat to free himself, the intruder activated the retraction feature. The Trandoshan was pulled off balance and stumbled backwards several meters into the intruder's arms. He was ready for the Trandoshan with a handheld sonic stunner. An orange flash went off as the device scrambled the Trandoshan's nervous system, leaving him stunned and out of the fight for the next few hours.
Ahead of the intruder was a door. He could hear at least three individuals beyond it. They were also readying weapons and getting ready to go investigate the explosion he had set off only a moment before. The door was locked. With meant little to the intruder. He wasn't sure there was a door in the Empire he couldn't get through with his particular set of skills. Luckily, this one needed nothing more than a blast from his stingbeam in its control circuits to snap the door open.
The door exposed a Rodian who blasted a shot right into the intruder. Unfortunately, for the Rodian, the bolt bounced harmlessly off the intruder's armor. Now it was his turn and he returned a perfectly placed stingbeam shot directly in the center of the Rodian's chest.
He swung his stun weapon onto the other sentient occupant in the room, a Lorrdian female who dropped her weapon, an Earthling slug-pistol, and threw up her hands. "No, no, no, no, please, please, no, no, no."
Behind the Lorrdian was the third occupant who turned out to be a Pistoeka Sabotage droid. It ignored the Lorrdian's command to stand down and kept slowly advancing on the intruder, even after he turned his weapon on it. As it came closer he raised his boot and stomped down upon its center eye, deactivating the creepy droid in its tracks.
Several pops from the droid indicated its batteries were fried. The dying sounds of the droid pitched the room into silence except for the heavy breathing of the visibly distraught Lorrdian. She stared at the intruder in a mix of fear and shock.
"Are you going to kill me?" She asked.
"I'm not here for you, Eila Neggma." He had been digging deep into the workings of the Crimson Dawn for years. He could recognize most of their top lieutenants by a glance, even some of their small-time gangsters like Eila. "I'm after your boss; Carmine Cowl. I'm here to stop his spice smuggling operation."
"He-he." Neggma chuckled softly. "You're too late. Cowl just left. The gang has a big score tonight and the boss is leading it."
"You're going to tell me where I can find him." The intruder demanded.
"Why should I do something like that?"
"So that I allow you to leave with something resembling a full set of teeth."
"What in the six and a half hells are you?" Eila asked. She was gaining some of her confidence back after he didn't outright blast her after barging into the room.
"I'm the Mynockian." He declared.
"The Mynock-Man?" Eila was confused.
"No, the Mynockian." He repeated himself more clearly.
"You're really dressed up as a Mynock. What the kriff?"
"Are you going to tell me where Cowl went to?" The Mynockian asked as he stretched out his impressively muscled arms. "Or am I going to have to get the answers I seek out of you by alternative methods?"
"Alright, alright. You certainly are a strange one. Wait until the boys hear about you."
"Tell me."
"Who are you under that mask?" Eila inquired, ignoring the Mynockian's question.
The Mynockian slammed his fist down on a nearby table, cracking it in half. Eila's eyes went wide in awe. "Where is Cowl?"
"Oh, Cowl, yes, that joker. You understand I can't just tell you. If the Dawn finds out I betrayed them they'll kill me."
"What makes you think I won't kill you?"
Eila's eyes darted to the unconscious Rodian guard on the floor. He had begun to moan, indicating that the Mynockian hadn't killed him, but simply stunned him upon bursting into the room. "I have branches, but no fruit, trunk or leaves. What am I?"
The Mynockian had heard rumors of Neggma's odd penchant for riddles. So he wasn't surprised when forced into a corner she fell back on the one habit she could find some solace in. He thought on her puzzle for a minute before offering his answer. "A bank."
It wasn't the most helpful riddle. There were at least a dozen banks in Nexus City and maybe fifty more spread across Next-1.
"Very good, Mynockian fellow." Eila smiled as she recognized a worthy opponent.
"Which bank, Neggma? If you don't tell me I'll mail the Banking Clan your address. I bet you'd rather deal with me than the Muuns."
"Perhaps." Eila grimaced at the thought. "I doubt the Muuns will be dressed up as space-vermin though."
"Which bank." The Mynockian repeated his demand.
"What can run but never walks, has a mouth but never talks, has a head but never weeps, has a bed but never sleeps?" Eila asked.
"You have issues, Neggma." Empaths could write volumes on her psychosis, the Mynockian believed, but in the end it really wasn't his problem. Instead he focused on the riddle itself. "A river. A bank on a river. It must be here on Next-1. You wouldn't be sitting around waiting with half your crew if Cowl was off world."
"What is so fragile that saying its name breaks it?"
That one was easy for the Mynockian to figure out as it was a common riddle for younglings. So the Silent River. Screed City had several large islands in the middle of the river, but only one had a bank. The First Galactic on Marjune Island. Screed City was only seventy kilometers from Nexus City along the ironically monikered Silent River, named that due to its roaring rapids that tended to drown out all other noise in the city.
The Mynockian strode purposefully across the room until he was in the gangster's face. With a light tap of his knuckle atop the bridge of her nose he dropped the Lorrdian in her place. Lorrdian's temples were even softer than Iktotchis'. Her eyes rolled back in her head as she slumped backwards.
The Mynockian was out of the room before the riddling Lorrdian hit the ground. His sting beam held at the ready as he swung it back and forth scanning for danger. He entered a large storage area with dozens of stacks of crates formed into rows that made small, confined alleyways through the large storage bay.
He paused for a second and looked at the crates stacked up around him. They had a strange, yet somehow familiar, look to them. More of the type of boxes the Stormtrooper Corps would use, not a spice gang. He opened one of them atop a nearby pile.
The crate was full of E-11s, military grade blaster rifles. Why was a spice gang carrying so many military weapons? The Mynockian cracked open the next crate to reveal a hundred tibanna clips. He looked closer at the magazines and noted they were stoop-stoop bolts, designed to expand and cause maximum damage to fleshy targets. All the boxes in the room looked to have the same contents. Much too many for a smuggling operation. This stockpile looked like a set up for a small legion.
Several of the crates sported packing labels. The Mynockians leaned in towards one for closer inspection. The name Elder Ruthic was scrawled across one of the shipping receipts. Wasn't that the name of the freighter, Alferon told him about? The one suspected of smuggling spice out near Forca Movel. If the Navy had been using spice detectors, instead of tibanna sensors, when they scanned that freighter then it wouldn't be hard for Crimson Dawn to slip these weapons under the Navy's nose.
But why Forca Movel? There wasn't anything in that system worth mentioning. It was near enough to the Kuat System, but the Almuhit Maelstrom prevented easy access for smuggling and there were literally thousands of better located potential spice smuggling bases all up and down the Bloodstripe Run.
Before he could think too deeply of the mysterious and definitely criminal ways of the Crimson Dawn there was movement at the far end of the bay. Two more guards entered from the room the Mynockian had just vacated. Surely, they had noticed the unconscious Lorrdian he had left in his wake.
He pulled a boomerang he had cut specially into the rough shape of a mynock from his utility belt and tossed it towards the ceiling. The sharpened blade of the mynock-arang destroyed the overhead lamps pitching the bay into darkness.
"Look! There." The Twi'lek guard yelled to his human companion. They unleashed a short burst of blaster bolts as the Mynockian dove for cover. The bolts flashed over his head as he disappeared behind several crates.
"Split up. We'll flush him out." The human gangster told his companion.
They each took an alley between the stacked crates and started advancing across the storage area. They both had small, blaster-mounted lamps that illuminated the space in front of them as they moved forward.
The human saw him first. Not that it did him any good. "Give it up. There's nowhere to . . ."
The Mynockian was on him in a flash. He grabbed the muzzle of the thug's blaster rifle and drove the stock back into the man's sternum. The Mynockian followed that hit with a stunning punch to the man's throat with his armored gauntlet. The human dropped to his knees which allowed the intruder to rap him firmly on both sides of his head and put him out for the count.
The Twi'lek turned in time to see his partner go down under the Mynockian's fists. But the Mynockian had already vanished back into the darkness. The Twi'lek crossed the bay to where the prone, unconscious human lay. He pointed his blaster downwards to better illuminate his stricken comrade.
The Mynockian didn't give him the chance to help his wounded friend. He grabbed the Twilek from behind by grabbing onto both of his green lekku and giving a powerful squeeze. The assaulted appendages were nothing but nerve clusters for Twi'leks. The tail head was immediately incapacitated as painful nerve impulses overwhelmed his central nervous system.
"Hey!" A third guard, a Togruta had entered the storage bay while the Mynockian was dealing with the first two.
The Mynockian didn't give the Togruta time to swing his blaster on him. He sprung from the collapsing Twi'lek and hurled towards the, not-fast-enough, reacting Togruta. As he did so, he pulled a collapsible durasteel staff from his belt. The spring loaded device snapped into its full length in microseconds. On each tip of the staff was an electro-shock pod which the Mynockian drove into the Togruta's belly.
Waves of blue electrical energy cascaded off the seizing Togruta who, as soon as the Mynockian deactivated the weapon, fell onto his face. Hopefully, he would spend the next hour sleeping off the stun damage the Mynockian had just inflicted upon him.
He didn't have time to stick around this warehouse and deal with underlings and thugs. Carmine Cowl was out there about to knock over a Next-1 bank a city away and put other being's lives in danger with his criminal activities. The citizens of the Empire needed a hero.
The Mynockian stepped into a hallway and turned right towards what he believed was the direction of the nearest exit. It was the wrong move. A blast door behind him snapped open revealing a Falleen guard who opened fire on the intruder. The Mynockian took a bolt to the upper part of his back. His armor absorbed the bolt's energy.
He ducked and spun on his attacker. As he did so he released the triggers of two MK 1 Saberdarts housed in his left gauntlet. The darts pierced the Falleen's thick reptilian skin and released their fluid reservoirs of coma toxins. The Falleen's eyes glazed over as the blaster fell from his limp hand.
The Mynockian didn't have time to see what happened to the Falleen as two bolts zipped past his head. He spun around again, this time he held his right hand out before him. Inside his right gauntlet Alferon had installed a CryoBan-thrower. The subzero weapon froze the Pyke who had tried to blast him in the back. The Pyke's scream was cut off as he was encompassed in fast-forming ice that sent his system into shock and senselessness.
The Mynockian stepped over the frozen Pyke and went through the door. The exit proved not to be the direct way out of the warehouse but to be another large storage bay. This one, however, was filled with tables covered in piles of clothing. The clothes all looked to be made of the same color material and appeared to be uniforms of some sort. The Mynockian picked up one of uniform tops and identified it as that of the washed out grey of the True Victory Legion. Behind the tops were the red and black armbands the True Victory stalwarts sported when they were out starting trouble.
Why, by the Old Core, was Crimson Dawn stockpiling True Victory Legion uniforms and assault blasters? What was Marrin Farvakine's organization of ex-Stormtrooper goons doing in business with the Crimson Dawn? Was Crimson Dawn getting ready for a job against the True Victory Legion? As far as the Mynockian knew True Victory had little in the way of funds that they didn't spend greasing the palms of their favorite Senators. The large amount of uniforms arranged on the tables just raised more questions.
He didn't have time to dive too deeply into the mysterious pile of clothes as four Crimson Dawn gangsters burst into the room. Each of them was a Snivvian and they must have been laying in ambush for him as they all emerged from four different directions at exactly the same moment. Their blaster pistols were held at the ready and just out of his reach.
"Freeze. Don't move." Their evident leader demanded as he moved to face the Mynockian head on. The thug noticed his stingbeam. "Drop the stunner."
"Wait." The Mynockian held up the uniform in his hand. He was going to have to trick them into making a mistake. "What I'm holding is very valuable."
He started kneeling down as he held the uniform as if he were setting down a precious treasure. He motioned towards the floor. "Here."
The Mynockian set the uniform down on the ground. He could sense how tense the Snivvians were. They were on edge, either because he had just laid out most of their crew, or they were put off by his strange outfit.
"Now turn and face me." The lead Snivvian ordered.
The Mynockian, through his own secret means and those of his intermediary Alferon, had access to weapons and gadgets that Crimson Dawn could only dream about. One of those weapons was a rare import from New Mandalore.
The vambrace attached to his gauntlet was loaded with whistling birds, small guided munitions made from a clandestine source of beskar the Mandalorians kept hidden on their endangered island nation. With a flex of his wrist he activated the vambrace. The whistling birds glowed blue as they were activated.
"Stand up!"
Four small pops rang out as four projectiles shot forth. Each veered off from the vambrace and steered towards a Snivvian. The beskar darts screeched their whistles as they left corkscrew smoke trails in their wake.
One by one the Snivvians were struck in the centers of their foreheads. With each impact another body fell to the floor until the Mynockian was the only conscious being in the room.
The Mynockian got to his feet again. "I've got to move."
He quickly located the exit, carefully peaked outside and then vanished into the night.
His grappling hook yanked him back onto the nearest precipice where he swung from one rooftop to the next until he reached the location of his hidden landspeeder. He dropped three stories and landed smoothly in the driver's seat.
The Mynock-Mobile had two highly-modified 620C podracing engines mounted inside the chassis. The sleek, black landspeeder roared to life. With a press of his foot the vehicle lurched down the roadway. The Mynockian was pressed back into his seat as the recent snow was instantly blown off of the Mynock-Mobile. Within thirty seconds he had exited the warehouse district. A minute later and he was passing beyond the town limits of Nexus City.
The Mynock-Mobile cruised across the purple and white, snow-covered landscape of Next-1 like a black missile. Steam and smoke columns rose from the thousands of mining operations spread across the industrial world. The Empire was a ravenous monster and it took a lot to keep it fed these days.
"Alferon, are you there?" The Mynockian activated the Mynock-Mobile's long range hyperwave comscan.
"Of course, Master Gage. I have been waiting for your call with baited breath ever since you entered that den of scoundrels." His butler and accomplice answered from across the stars.
"It's the Mynockian while on patrol, Alferon."
"Of course, sir." The tone of Alferon's voice indicated how absurd his guardian found Gage's chosen epithet.
Gage Kuat had been raised by Alferon for the past twelve years. Ever since the senseless murder of his mother outside an opera house on Mars. His mother had been the first Prime Chancellor of the 2nd Galactic Empire and one of the signers, along with Empress Phasma and Grand Admiral Yutu, of the Mercury Accords that had ended the Empire-Earth War. His father and namesake was killed in the same traitorous terrorist bombing that had taken the life of Emperor Aveo Yos.
Together his parents had been the adoptive heirs of Kuantus Kuat, Imperial Moff of Kuat and Nal Kuat, the CEO and chief shareholder of Kuat Drive Yards and a hundred other corporations, the Kuat of Kuat, and the richest being in the galaxy as far as anyone could tell. Legend had it he had more credits than Palpatine. Which in the end hadn't meant much, as he had died foolishly trying to intercede in a meager pirate raid by the now defunct Black Sun during the Empire-Earth War.
Their combined deaths left Gage, at only eight, an orphan. The inheritance they endowed him with had left him the wealthiest orphan, if not being, in the Milky Way Galaxy. Now, with twenty-one Life Days behind him, Gage Kuat was the CEO of Kuat Drive Yards and the Kuat of Kuat, the spiritual leader of the Kuati, the largest ethnic group of humans in the Empire. It wasn't publicly well known, but he had more private credits than the Empress. Though Empress Phasma dwarfed him in land ownership and maintained the purchasing power of the Imperial Treasury Ministry. The tragedies of his childhood had left him with a sense of purpose and an insatiable thirst for justice.
"Alferon, I need everything you can dig up on the First Galactic Bank in Screed City." Gage asked his ally. Alferon had an equally exciting history. The butler had once served as a Paladin in the Royal Guard and served under General Ti during the Mars Campaign against the legendary General Boston. The war with the Earth was ancient history to Gage. The Mynockian was only concerned with the never-ending spice wars between the Gran Kajidic and the Crimson Dawn and stopping the violence that spilled out from that conflict and harmed the innocent beings of the Empire.
"I suppose you desire more than what I can find on their HoloNet webpage, sir."
"Carmine Cowl is on his way to rob the place. I'm going to need whatever schematics and HoloCam feeds you can send me."
"Of course, sir. I have the Mynockputer scouring the database as we speak and I'm currently accessing every video feed on Marjune Island. Shall I override Screed City traffic control and clear a direct route to that location for you?"
"Yes, thank you, Alferon. Though I doubt there is much traffic this time of night."
"One can never be too careful, sir." Alferon paused as if he were studying some new information. "I have a live feed now, sir. A security cam droid inside a jewelry store across from the First Galactic shows four individuals outside the institution. I'm running that facial recognition program, we recently purloined from the Confederacy, on them now."
"Anything?" The Mynockian was not the most patient individual in the Empire.
"It's certainly Carmine Cowl. Even I recognize that smirking visage from a Holofeed. At least two known members the Crimson Dawn are accompanying him, Han Lawton and Cerene Cyle. The fourth member, a hulking brute by the looks of him, has obscured his face." Alferon reported.
"I'll know soon enough. I should be there in five minutes." Gage could see the rapidly approaching edge of Screed City on the horizon.
"That won't be in time to prevent them from breaching the bank, sir."
"Then I will have to take them down inside. Notify the Screed City Guard that there's about to be a break in at the First Galactic. Hopefully, I will have this all wrapped up by the time they arrive."
"Please don't grow too presumptuous. Cockiness is ill advised when one has dealings with the Crimson Dawn."
"I'll be careful. I need you to do something while I'm dealing with Cowl and his friends."
"I serve at your leisure, sir."
"I need you to research a ship, the Elder Ruthic."
"The freighter that was stopped near Forca Movel?"
"The same. I found some items at the warehouse linking Cowl's branch of the Crimson Dawn to that ship. I'd like to know what is happening out there."
"Presumably nothing, sir. Forca Movel is near empty void. It's only import is its proximity to the Almuhit Maelstrom . . ."
"Which shields the Kuat Sector from the rest of the Empire."
"It'd be much easier to smuggle things past Kafrene Outpost and then into New Thyfeeria. I don't know of anyone that has located a sustainable route through the Almuhit."
"Neither have I. They'd have a backdoor into the Nal Kuat system if they found one."
"A ghastly notion, sir."
"Look into for me, Alferon. I'm almost at the bank." The Mynock-Mobile had entered Screed City and was heading towards the bridge over the Silent River that linked the city to Marjune Island.
"Will do, sir. And, sir."
"Yes, Alferon?"
"Do be careful, sir."
The Mynockian reached forward and cut off the com signal with Alferon. He didn't need the butler looking over his shoulder and jostling his elbow while he dealt with Crimson Dawn scum.
The island of Marjune was a financial and commercial district for Screed City. It was too small to include any residential areas and the workers who manned its businesses commuted in from the greater city area every morning. As such Marjune was largely left empty this time of night except for a few roving patrols of cleaning and security droids.
Gage parked the Mynock-Mobile behind an empty hovervan in an alley. It was the same van Carmine Cowl and his crew had been exiting in Alferon's holocam footage. The Crimson Dawn thugs must already be inside the bank, he figured.
At just that moment a low rumble emerged from the building. It shook his landspeeder for several seconds. Cowl's gang must have blown their way into the vault.
The Mynockian stepped out of the Mynock-Mobile. A quick study of the bank's schematics showed a skylight on the roof. He fired his grappling hook towards the copula on the roof. As soon as it set he used it to scramble up the side of the bank. Once he was up there he rushed to the skylight and spied inside the darkened building. Figures were moving about down below. They looked to be emptying the vault.
The skylight was locked with a vardium steel lock. The Mynockian didn't have time to pick or cut his way past the fastener. He looked at the skylight and realized there was a much faster way inside.
The Mynockian placed his hand atop the glass of the skylight. He activated the ultrasonic vibration feature in the gauntlets, sending a silent pitch through the glassine panes. Within seconds the skylight shattered, sending a cascade of shards into the bank. The Mynockian dropped into the First Galactic along with the crystalline shower. His cape billowed out from his form in the shape of a nightmarish Mynock.
Carmine Cowl was the only thief that happened to be looking in the direction of the skylight when the Mynockian entered. Gage thought the Crimson Dawn lieutenant would immediately flee but Carmine stood his ground for a moment. Cowl grinned a creepy smile and formed his hand into the shape of a blaster and pointed it straight at the Mynockian. "You're already dead meat."
Carmine Cowl had already turned and fled back towards his compatriots when the Mynockian impacted with the floor. Landing at a crouch, the Mynockian sprang into action as the bank's alarms came to life. An Imperial naval klaxon boomed throughout the building as red emergency lamps cast the bank in a rosy hue.
Carmine Cowl didn't make it back to the other Crimson Dawn robbers in time. Massive blast doors slammed down from the ceiling turning the inside of the bank into a giant maze. From elsewhere in the building the startled shouts of the rest of Cowl's gang indicated they too had each been separated from one other. Carmine Cowl turned to face the Mynockian, but Gage had already vanished back into the darkness.
Gage's suit had built in nightviewers and a small echolocation device. From a hidden perch on the third floor he detected the location of all four of the thieves. Each of them were hampered down with large sacks of credits as they searched frantically for a way out of the bank. Their former entranceway had been blocked by a particularly large blast door in the bank's atrium.
All he needed was to keep them from leaving the bank until the Screed City Guard arrived. To do that he was going to have to take them each down in turn.
One of the thugs was still in the large vault at the rear of the bank. It made sense to deal with that one first. With his new knowledge of the layout of the bank due to Alferon's schematics, it only took a minute to bypass two blast doors and arrive at the hallways leading to the vault.
The Crimson Dawn scum at the vault was the large figure Alferon had been unable to identify via the pirated security holocams. He stood half a meter taller than the Mynockian and was covered in a tattered green cloak that concealed his face and body. From his size the Mynockian figured the thug must be a Yarkora, Quermian or Togorian.
The alien, whatever he was, didn't notice the Mynockian watching him from the hallway entrance. He seemed focused on removing credits and valuables from the vault and piling them outside the vault for the other thieves to remove. The Mynockian couldn't see a way to attack the towering hulk head on, but, thanks to Alferon, he knew a way to circumnavigate that issue.
Gage saw an air duct above him and when the hulk's back was turned he swung himself up into it. He fast crawled down the tunnel until he was at a vent that allowed him to look down into the vault. He just needed to wait for the perfect moment to strike.
He didn't have to wait long. The Crimson Dawn thug entered the vault only seconds after the Mynockian was ready. Gage aimed his grappling cable at the figure below him and fired. The device shot through the vent and wrapped itself around the thief's neck.
The figure in the vault violently raised itself up to its full height. As it reached for the grappling cable it threw off its cloak to reveal that it wasn't a sentient after all. Instead, what the Mynockian thought to be a large alien, turned out to be a binary Type II Loadlifter droid. Type IIs were notorious for being demolition droids prone to violence.
The droid reached up and grabbed the grappling cable still attached to the Mynockian's arm and gave a powerful tug. The result of which pulled Gage straight through the ceiling of the vault where he crashed into the floor at the droid's feet.
Gage quickly rolled over and attempted to aim his vambrace at the loadlifter. The droid was quicker than he thought and grabbed his arm and pushed it away just as the Mynockian fired several poorly aimed whispering birds at it.
The droid raised its other arm and struck down squarely in the center of Gage's chest. His thick armor was the only thing that prevented his rib cage from shattering at the blow.
The droid lifted Gage to his feet and then hurled him across the room. The Mynockian slammed into a wall of security boxes. He was quick to recover and twisted around to face the approaching droid.
He raised his vambrace and switched the settings from CryoBan to incendiary. The flame thrower weapon in his gauntlet unleashed a steady stream of fire into the droid's face. It had little effect as the loadlifter charged through the stream of flames and slapped the Mynockian's gauntlet away again.
It grabbed the Mynockian by his helmet and smashed his head into the wall of the vault, dragging him side to side by the face along the wall. Then it turned and threw the Mynockian past the vault doors and into the hallway outside. The Mynockian rolled as he landed and came up on one knee facing the droid inside the vault.
"Let's see your face, interloper." The droid advanced on the Mynockian. Its gripper arms spread wide and snapping open and shut as they came closer.
He only had a second to act. He saw the vault controls on the side of the armored vault doors. He raised his left gauntlet and fired a saberdart.
A heavy blast door slammed down on the loadlifter from above.
The Mynockian got to his feet to recover. He started to brush himself off when he heard the noise. The blast door in front of him started to creak as the loadlifter began to slowly rise up. The heavy barrier was across the droid's shoulders as it pushed the blast door back into the ceiling.
The Mynockian fired another saberdart at the controls. This time two blast doors smashed the droid from opposing sides of the vault's entrance. With a small crunch and pop the droid was flattened from three directions at once.
"Ahh!" A feminine growl came from behind the Mynockian. "You destroyed B-NE, you scum."
The Mynockian turned and ducked just in time as a kyuzo petar blade zipped through the space his head had previously occupied. As he did so he came face to face with Cerene Cyle, an infamous Farghul burglar, who had long been associated with the Crimson Dawn. Her throwing weapon had hit the control panel after missing the Mynockian, causing the emergency lamps to strobe every other second in the red-lit hallway.
Cerene Cyle smiled a menacing grin as Gage squared off towards her. They faced each other across nearly forty meters of open hallway. His stingbeam didn't have the range to hit her from his current position, but she had already proven she had the arm to sink more of her blades into him if she so desired.
And she did. She threw another kyuzo petar which smashed into the gauntlet holding his variable throwers, taking out his CryoBan and flame thrower. He charged.
As he ran the next blade bounced off his chest plate. He deflected another with his right forearm guard.
She switched tactics and threw two blades at once at his face, which he narrowly blocked by crossing his arms and letting them deflect off of his forearm guards.
He pulled out one of his Mynock-rangs and hurled it at the Farghul. She jumped to the side to dodge it as she hurled a steady barrage of more kyuzo petars at the Mynockian. At a range of only three meters she sunk one into the chink between his shoulder and chest plates.
"Argh." The Mynockian grunted as the pain from the embedded blade sank in.
Cerene laughed and pulled two more blades from her hip belt. She charged. Her first thrust was a mistake as he side-stepped her arm. The Mynockian grabbed the outstretched appendage and twisted it, locking it into an arm lock that caused her to drop the kyuzo petar into his empty hand. In a blink he turned the weapon on the Farghul and held the tip to her throat.
She growled and cursed him in anger, just before he slammed the center hilt of the weapon into her temple.
He slapped Mynock-shaped stun cuffs on her sleeping form before moving on from the hallway. Carmine Cowl was now down half his crew but the Screed City Guard still hadn't arrived. The Mynockian needed to hurry.
On the other side of the bank was a matching hallway to the one where the Mynockian faced down Cerene Cyle. That one was currently occupied by Han Lawton.
Lawton was a Caphex sharpshooter, who had once served as a scout sniper during the war. It was rumored he had never missed a shot and racked up an impressive kill count during the Shanghai Uprising. Gage had learned most of Lawton's kills had been earned serving in a blasting line gunning down prisoners after the Camp 1138 uprising prevented the transfer of prisoners back to Mars. Lawton's reputation was just about as phony as he was.
The lamps in Lawton's hallway didn't just strobe but flickered on and off for several seconds due to the damage Cyle's blades had done to the environmental controls of the bank.
The Caphex was nervous. The gangsters had lost comms with each other as soon as the Mynockian had smashed through the skylight, as Gage had activated a powerful jammer on his utility belt as he entered the bank.
Lawton had drawn two blaster pistols and held them at the ready. He wore a unique backpack that housed a droid arm. The third arm held another pistol and was controlled by Lawton's mental commands.
Han Lawton was focused on the wrong end of the hallway when a flicker of the lamps revealed the Mynockian at the far end of the hallway behind him. The corridor was pitched back into blackness when the lights cut out again. When they came on again the Mynockian was nearly upon him.
The sharpshooter must have sensed Gage's presence and spun around to face him. His weapons were held at the ready, but when the lamps flickered on again they revealed an empty hallway.
The hairs on the back of Lawton's neck started to stand up. Perhaps he was slightly force-sensitive for he surely felt someone standing directly behind him.
He was right.
"No!" He tried to turn his blasters around but it was too late. The Mynockian's armored fist clobbered him squarely in the center of his face, shattering his nose and sending him into blackness.
It was near the back of the bank where the Mynockian caught up to Carmine Cowl. The Umbaran gangster had found an emergency fire ladder that led to the roof and was starting to climb it to safety.
The Mynockian stepped into the open a few meters away from the ladder. "Carmine."
Carmine Cowl stepped down from the ladder and sighed. Then with a shrug looked at the Mynockian and smiled. "You killed the others."
"They got what they deserved."
Cowl snarled softly. He thought he was being slick when he pulled out a hold-out blaster and started to turn on the Mynockian. He wasn't. Gage already had his stingbeam out and pointed at Carmine's face.
Carmine sighed and dropped his blaster. He shrugged innocently, "You kill me and Crimson Dawn will never stop hunting you."
The Mynockian just kept his stun weapon aimed at the thief. He had no intention of killing anyone but Carmine Cowl didn't need to know that.
The crook studied Gage for a moment. "I've heard of you. Some kind of crime-fighting vigilante. You been taking on the gangs from Palpatine Prime to Vaedor III the past few months. Nobody has gotten a really good look at you." The Umbaran paused. His eyes went up and down Gage's costume. "I can see why. Who are you underneath that get up?"
"It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me." Gage told the criminal.
"Alright, hero." Cowl's smile almost faltered at the word. "What do we call you then?"
"I'm the Mynockian."
"THIS IS THE SCREED CITY GUARD. WE HAVE THE PLACE SURROUNDED. COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!" an amplified voice called from outside the First Galactic.
Cowl laughed. "I guess you'll just have to wait on killing me after all."
"Guess so." The Mynockian activated the stingbeam and shoved it into Cowl's pearly white teeth.
A few minutes later, the Mynockian stood atop another building across from the First Galactic Bank. Below him a dozen squad landspeeders of the Screed City Guard lit up the roadway with their emergency lights. Several police troopers escorted a stun-cuffed trio of Cerene Cyle, Han Lawton and Carmine Cowl out of the financial institution and into the pack of an armored hovervan.
The Crimson Dawn on Next-1 wouldn't be active for some time as their leadership was hauled off to Nal Kessel. Gage had already received word from Alferon that he had informed the Nexus City Guard of Eila Neggma's location as well, but the Lorrdian had escaped before they arrived.
Tonight had been a good night for justice. Gage believed. But the fight wasn't over. As long as the merciless preyed on the weak he would be out there in the night defending them.
And then there was the matter of the shipments at the warehouse. The Nexus City Guard reported the warehouse there had been quickly emptied before their arrival. It bore deeper investigation, Gage vowed. Whatever, was happening here seemed much bigger than Crimson Dawn and the Spice Trade.
The night was darkest before the dawn, and dawn was a long ways off.
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Up Next- A Light Knight Rises
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Want to know more about the myriad worlds of Tarkin's Fist? Then head over to Tarkin's Fist: Ships of the Line for a map of the Milky Way and the territory claimed by the 2nd Galactic Empire.