"Mako," Wrehn began, "We have to find out all we can about all of these people on our list. I want to know their itineraries, habits, where they live, places they like to go, all of it. I'll give you a week to make files on each of them."
Mako had been sitting quietly in the crew lounge, reading the latest issue of her favorite josei manga.
"Right," the cybernetically enhanced woman absently replied.
"As you complete a file on a mark, hand a copy of it to Gault. Don't wait to complete all of the files, just get them to him as soon as you complete one."
"OK. Got it," Mako acknowledged, becoming annoyed that her reading was being interrupted. Turning to her crewmate, the cybernetically enhanced human female said, "Gault, check your messages. I sent you one."
"You're getting faster and faster at this," Torian observed, but not entirely complimentary, his tone sounded worried, "Did you get yourself an upgrade?"
"Give me time for goofing off, will ya?" Gault complained, half jokingly.
"No. I didn't get an upgrade, you clown," Mako snipped back at Torian.
Wrehn just stared at Mako, as though observing a rare and almost scary phenomena.
"What?" Mako asked, defensively.
"Are you reading my mind?" Wrehn asked.
"Are you connected to the holo-net?" Mako asked, facetiously.
"No."
"Then I'm not reading your mind," Mako answered.
"How did you do that so fast?" Wrehn asked, still mystified.
"Magic," Mako answered, wiggling her fingers in a mystical show, "WooOOOOoooo…"
"You can use The Force?" Torian asked, perplexed.
"I just got another completed file," Gault announced, unnerved, "OK., now you're starting to scare me."
"Oh, come on guys!" Mako breathed out, her annoyance increasing a bit, "I've been working on that list since Mandalore gave it to us this morning! Do you think I was just sitting on my butt staring off into space, day dreaming?"
"Oh," Wrehn said, demystified.
Torian merely nodded his acceptance of Mako's explanation.
"Well, that explains it. It's still pretty fast, though," Gault said, adding, "I just got file number three."
That gave Mako an idea for a little mischief. She knew that, aside from Wrehn and herself, the others hadn't seen the list, and decided to play a prank on Gault.
"Are you all done yapping?" Skadge demanded, "What I wanna know is when are we gonna go blasting?"
"We'll go blasting when I'm ready. That's when," Wrehn told the Houk brute.
"When we have completed this mission," Torian said to Skadge, pointedly, and to the others, in general, "The entire might of the Galactic Republic will come for all of us," he smiled serenely. It will make for a most glorious end to our careers. We will take many of them down with us. Most glorious!" His beatific smile diminished somewhat as he went on, "But I know some of us are not Mandalorians. So, I will give you my council."
Gault had thought about this, too. He'd wondered if the others understood what this would mean for their crew. However, he kept silent, wanting to hear what Torian had to say.
"When we have taken down our final mark, we'll have to fight to evade and escape our pursuers," turning to Wrehn he added, "I suggest withdrawing to Mandalorian space," returning his gaze to the others, he said, "If we make it, we'll have to split up. Some of you may want to change your identities and live new lives."
Torian smiled broadly, took in a deep breath and exhaled, as he addressed Wrehn.
"Wrehn, to her friends, Yehw'reh'nomai to everyone else, and Grand Champion of The Great Hunt to all of Mandalore. It has been my greatest honor to have fought by your side. You have brought great glory and added to the legend of the Great Hunt, to the title of the championship, to yourself, to your crew, and to the Mandalorian Empire.
"I have been greatly honored, Champion. Because of you, if I survive, I shall be able to reestablish Clan Cadera, and reestablish our place of honor for our clan among the other great clans of Mandalore," Torian said. Then looking Mako, briefly, in the eye, he added, "My children and grandchildren will hold their heads high, the cowardly betrayal of Jicoln Cadera shall no longer be a blight to the Cadera Clan. I thank you."
Mako's posture straightened and her eyes misted, but her smile was the most beautiful that Torian had ever seen, making his heart swell and beat a bit faster. Wrehn, not used to such words from her crew, squirmed in her seat.
"Uh… Those words mean a lot to me, Torian. I'm glad I was able to measure up for a traditionalist like you. Thank you. But I was thinking, maybe wait until after we finish this job before you say all of those nice things about me."
Gault and Skadge laughed on hearing that. Mako was transfixed by Torian's intimation of marriage and raising a family with her.
"I wanted to get those words out, in case we don't make it back," Torian said, smiling, "We'll go out in a magnificent blaze of glory!"
"Yeah," Gault said, using air quotes, "Glory."
Turning to Gault, Wrehn asked, "What are you gonna do if we make it to Mandalorian space and break up the crew?"
"I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking about the future after this last job. Let me tell you!" Gault replied, adding, "When, and let me emphasize, when we make it back, for me, it'll be facial reconstruction surgery, a genetic change of my finger prints, a new name and identity. Then, after vacationing and living the high life for a while, I'll go legit. Maybe start my own savings and loan bank."
The looks Gault got from Wrehn, Mako, and Torian had skepticism written all over them.
"Hey!" Gault said in his defense, "If I can't swindle people out of their hard earned credits on the shady side of things without calling attention to myself, I could still swindle them on the up and up. It won't be as profitable, but at least I won't have the law and bounty hunters breathing down my neck. Am I right?"
"What about you, Mako?" Wrehn asked.
Mako shifted her eyes towards Torian.
"That depends on Torian," she said, putting him on the spot.
"If you'll have me, and accept that I am a Mandalorian, and accept everything that goes with being Mandalorian, then I will make you my wife," Torian said, his cheeks and forehead flushing to bright red, "One day, I'll convince you to become a Mandalorian, too."
"And there you have it," Mako chirped happily at Wrehn, stepping right up to Torian, "an honest to goodness marriage proposal!" turning her face to look up at Torian, she said, with feeling, "Yes, please make me your wife."
Wrehn smiled at the couple as Mako stood on her toes and Torian leaned down to meet her. The two sealed the deal with a kiss.
A quiet descended on the crew, until Skadge spoke up a few moments later.
"No one wants to know what I want to do?" he asked plaintively.
"Let me guess," Gault said, flippantly, "You want to go into Hutt space and become an enforcer for some Hutt crime boss. Then you're gonna blast, blast, blast his enemies away."
"Wrong!" Skadge declared, chidingly.
"I want to become a professional pit fighter on Mandalore! That was a lot of fun!"
"You'll be the most hated pit fighter throughout the Mandalorian Empire…," Torian muttered under his breath.
"I'm gonna teach them to fight smart," Skadge said, "I'm gonna teach them to know to quit when they're beat and not to die for nothing."
"Skadge," Torian breathed out, incredulous and shaking his head in disbelief.
The Mandalorian traditionalist was scandalized by Skadge's total lack of understanding of Mandalorian society. However, before he could say more, Mako spoke up.
"Skadge, that is the most awesome thing I've ever heard you say," she said, to Torian's deep consternation. With feeling, she added, "I really hope you do well with your goal."
Skadge had never heard anyone praise him so absolutely. He was stunned into silence, and began to think deeply about what he'd just said. Torian, too, was stunned into silence, realizing what married life with Mako was going to be like.
"She will change my ways," he confessed to himself, "or we shall be unhappy together."
"Sent you a few more files, Gault," Mako announced. They were all the same three files she'd sent earlier, but with different file names.
"You really need to space those files out, Mako," Gault groused, "If there's one thing I hate, that's a big pile of files that I have to go through all at once."
Then he checked his datapad. The look on his face was priceless to Mako.
"A few more?! You just dumped thirty files on me, Mako!" Gault lamented, "That ain't fair!"
Mako merely shrugged her shoulders at her team mate's complaint, laughing inwardly.
"I can't help it that I can work efficiently and get it all done in a flash. I'm just that good," she said smugly.
Wrehn looked at Mako quizzically, but said nothing when Mako winked at her.
"She's yanking Gault's chain," Wrehn realized, wearing a tiny smirk.
Mako looked forward to when the Devaronian discovered that only the first three were legitimate files, and that he'd been had.
The following morning, the noise and bustle of a busy Mandalorian dreadnaught hanger bay dominated the scene. A squadron of sixteen Mandalorian Viper fighter starships lifted from the hanger deck in unison. Their earsplitting screaming engines only getting louder as they wound up in preparation for high performance maneuvers once they'd left the hanger deck.
Unlike Imperial warships, with their ultra clean, highly polished black and dark grey interiors, Mandalorian warships tended to have brown-white interior bulkhead finishes with highly polished bronze and sometimes copper trim, and medium grey polished decks.
The result was a brighter interior that made it easier to see inside the massive space. Whatever one might have thought of Mandalorian warriors, they were no less sticklers for cleanliness, spic, span, and polish than any other highly competent military organization, and the sparkling interior of this gargantuan hanger bay was proof of that.
Torian, distracted from his task, watched as the fighter craft, deployed for a security patrol in defense of the Mandalorian dreadnaught and its escort ships. As soon as the fighter starships began to gently glide out of the hanger bay and into the vacuum of space, the noise began to dissipate.
The hanger bay became quieter as each fighter starship slipped past the magnetic force field atmosphere retention airlock. It seemed as though a deafening silence had engulfed the gigantic space of the bay when the last fighter exited the hanger into space.
However, as Torian looked about the enormous space, each activity that he saw within the hanger seemed to insist, to him, that they too had a voice, a sound that was theirs to make and to be heard.
Suddenly, he became aware of the sounds of power tools in use to repair various spacecraft and equipment; the vulgar shouting of an angry sergeant at an under achieving subordinate; the lewd laughter of technicians in another part of the giant space, slacking off from their duties as they shared holographs of an especially loose Mandalorian woman.
In leu of the banshee screams of the squadron of fighters, he heard the multitude of sounds of hundreds of men, women, aliens, and droids as they all performed their duties in the shared giant space. It was a very, very busy hanger bay.
Wrehn and her crew were conducting their preflight inspection of her starship. Not wanting an earful from his employer, Yehw'reh'nomai, Torian returned to his own task inspecting the outer hull for holes and other damage caused by impacts of micrometeorites and other space debris.
Gault and Skadge were busy with their own tasks. They were inspecting the external engine mounts, ensuring their massive mechanisms would not fail under stress, and that they operated smoothly and responded quickly to control commands.
Meanwhile, Wrehn and Mako inspected the hyperdrive reactor control system, a computer whose sole function was to monitor and regulate the hyperdrive reactor's functions.
Work had been done to tweak it with a few software upgrades at a small shipyard on Concordia in Mandalorian space. The software updates were obtained from the manufacturer of Wrehn's new hyperdrive reactor, Kuat Drive Yards, which also manufactured her starship.
"The software update is really good work," Mako said, "You're gonna see a nice improvement in fuel economy."
"Yeah, but it lowers the performance of the ship," Wrehn complained, "I'm gonna make a tweak to improve performance."
"You sure about that, Boss?" Mako asked, advising, "It might shorten the life of the hyperdrive reactor."
"Just a small tweak," Wrehn countered, "It won't hurt anything."
"Oh, really?" Mako asked, dubious, "Just like your performance tweak didn't ruin your last reactor? Well, just don't expect any sympathy from me when your hyperdrive reactor is shot all over again."
Wrehn didn't like being reminded about the unpleasantness of her reactor core woes from nearly a year and a half ago.
Skadge spotted her first as she made her beeline to their starship. He lowered the maintenance lift until he was back down to hanger deck level. Exiting the maintenance lift, he began to approach the woman and her droid.
"What do you want?" he asked, challenging the woman as she neared the lowered ramp of the starship.
"Watch your tone with me, worm!" the woman replied, incensed.
Gault who was inside the cargo bay inspecting hydraulic pressure lines, and Torian, outside inspecting the outer hull, both heard the angry woman's voice over the noise of the busy hanger bay and immediately made their way to the back of the starship.
"So, what do you want, anyway, lady?" Skadge asked again, "If you're here to sell something, we ain't interested."
Gault interjected before the woman could respond. She was a Sith Pureblood, wearing black robes with red skin darker than Gault's.
"Hello! How can we be of service?" Gault said loudly enough to catch Skadge's attention, and to alert the others of unexpected visitors, or trouble.
Skadge turned to face up the ramp.
"I'll take it from here, Skadge," Gault said, smiling with a nod and a wink at the Houk brute.
"I am Lord Vindis, Darth Tormen's apprentice," the Sith lord declared, "I am here, on orders from my master to observe the planning of the operation."
"Skadge," Gault said, turning to face the Houk, "Go get the boss. Tell her she's got important visitors."
"Yeah, yeah. Fine, whatever," the burly brute said, turning to go up the ramp.
"My employer will be out in a moment," Gault said to the obvious Sith lord. Then, a bit frustrated, he thought to himself, "I know Skadge is a bit slow, but he should have at least known that she's Sith!"
Smiling for the Sith lord, he gave the droid, a medium grade humanoid model, a quick look and noted that it was carrying luggage.
"That droid is a bit much just for protocol duties," he observed, then looking at her luggage, "Damn! I hope she's not planning to stay for long…," aloud, he said, "I know a couple of very high end hotels nearby the shipyard on Concordia. That's the moon we'll be traveling to. It orbits planet Mandalore," he offered, helpfully, "Let me know if you'd like a recommendation for one of them."
Gault hoped that she would take him up on his offer, and that it would motivate the Sith lord to seek accommodations off ship when they returned to Concordia.
Torian stayed back, watching the interaction. When she announced herself, he realized that Gault had saved Skadge from some possible pain, and saved his team mates from an unnecessary fight.
"Sith," the Mandalorian thought darkly to himself, "So, damned pushy."
Torian laughed, soundlessly, when he thought about how pushy Wrehn could be. Just as he thought of the Chiss bounty hunter, she emerged from the huge cargo space and proceeded to the bottom of the wide ramp.
"I'm Yehw'reh'nomai," she said, announcing herself, "I spoke to your master yesterday. I want to clear up any misunderstandings. You are aware that you will observe the planning and preparations for the operation only? You are not going with us on the mission."
"I am well aware of this, Bounty Hunter," the Sith lord said, haughtily.
"I said, my name is Yehw'reh'nomai," the Chiss woman said, with an edge in her tone.
The Sith lord did not miss Wrehn's insolent tone, and the heat of her own growing anger showed on her face.
"I am Lord Vindis," she said, through gritted teeth.
"We're almost done, with prelaunch checks," Wrehn said, turning to go up the ramp, "Follow me. I'll take you to your quarters, Vindis."
"That's Lord Vindis to you, wretched trash!"
Wrehn stopped in her tracks. Torian, at the back of the starship to the Sith lord's right and slightly in front of her, unbracketed his blaster rifle and powered it up. Gault, directly to the Sith lord's left at the bottom of the ramp, rolled his eyes at the turn of events while also unbracketing and powering up his rifle and taking a few steps back to get out of Torian's field of fire.
Wrehn wore an angry scowl on her face. She had yet to turn about to face the annoying Sith lord. When she had mastered her temper, she wiped the scowl from her face and turned about to address the Sith lord.
"Maybe if I were an Imperial citizen, and maybe if we were in Sith Empire space, yeah," Wrehn began, "But we aren't in Sith Empire space; we're in Mandalorian space, and I'm not an Imperial citizen. I'm Mandalorian. I ain't got any lords."
Lord Vindis grasped her lightsaber hilt, but did not remove it from her belt. Gault and Torian from two different angles, on either side of her, quickly aimed in on the Sith lord.
She was clearly enraged, but after a time she regained control of her emotions, and let go her weapon. Gault and Torian quickly stopped aiming at her as though in reply.
"You are quite correct, Yehw'reh'nomai," the Sith lord said, her voice trembling with fury, "This is Mandalorian space and you are Mandalorian. My title has no meaning to you. However, I caution you not to disrespect me again."
"Respect is a two way street," Wrehn said, with a cool demeanor.
"Very good," the Sith lord said, not shouting, but quite furious.
Though her fury and humiliation burned her to the core, she kept her wits about her.
"I'm glad that we have an understanding," the Sith lord said, venomously through gritted teeth and a furious scowl.
"Then let me take you to your quarters, Vindis," Wrehn said, easily, as though nothing were wrong.
The Chiss woman turned to go up the ramp. Lord Vindis, quietly fumed as she followed Wrehn up the ramp and into the ship. The Sith lord's droid trailed behind her with all of her luggage.
Lord Vindis was to be quartered in Mako's room. Mako had to move all of her stuff into crates and those were put in Wrehn's Captain's quarters. Mako would sleep in Wrehn's quarters, on a cot, during the time the Sith was a guest aboard the starship.
Wrehn, her crew, and the Sith lord listened to Gault give his report which he composed using the files which Mako had sent to him. Gault's report gave the names of three individuals.
One of the named individuals was a member of the Secret Information Service, and he was also a member of the Jedi order. Jedi Knight Adelino Marr was the same Jedi that Wrehn's team had encountered on Nar Shaddaa when the former champions of the Great Hunt had been murdered in a hotel suite.
The Jedi attacked very shortly after Wrehn and her crew had slaughtered his special operations team in a retaliatory strike for the slaughter of the former Great Hunt champions who were celebrating in a hotel suite.
The second named individual was also a member of the Jedi Order, and although he'd worked with the SIS, he was not a member of that organization. Master Jun Seros was the mastermind who orchestrated the assault on the former Great Hunt Champions, and the failed attempt to kill Wrehn and her crew.
The third individual on their list was a retired general who once commanded the Galactic Republic Special Forces. She sent squads of elite commandos who organized rebellions on three worlds the Sith Empire had invaded and nearly conquered. The rebellions were so effective, that the Empire was forced to withdraw their units and abandon their plans for those three worlds.
General Thelonia Redrish provided the training and organization for the special SIS unit that slaughtered the former Grand Champions of The Great Hunt in the hotel suite on Nar Shaddaa. Mandalore included her on the list, even if she wasn't involved in the operation against the former champions in any way.
She only provided their training in the same way that she provided training for hundreds of S.W.A.T. teams and other special operations units throughout the Galactic Republic. She didn't participate in the planning nor in mission selection.
She was on the target list because Mandalore believed that the great general was equivalent in greatness to the former Great Hunt Champions. Her death would be on par with the deaths of the former champions of the Great Hunt. The Republic destroyed Mandalorian greatness, so Mandalore would destroy Galactic Republic greatness.
From Mandalore's point of view, Wrehn and her crew had only completed a part of the vindication of the reputation of the former champions of The Great Hunt when they destroyed the SIS unit. Taking out General Redrish would mean taking out the master who imbued her greatness into the SIS special operations team. It was Mandalorian optics; the wider galaxy wouldn't understand why she was targeted.
Gault's report consisted of the habits of their targets, their work and their home addresses, and the physical layouts and security set up at each of their work and residential locations.
In addition to the three people named in his initial report, Gault also gave a report on the itinerary of the supreme chancellor and his habits, which exposed vulnerabilities and weaknesses in his security. Those were very few.
"So, there are four targets in total?" Vindis asked at the end of Gault's report.
"That's correct," he replied in a professional manor, thinking to himself, "Stupid question," then adding aloud, "Four names, four targets."
Mako rolled her eyes at the Devaronian mischief maker.
"We will soon have our vengeance!" Torian declared vehemently.
This piqued Vindis' interest.
"Vengeance? What for?"
"These filthy mynocks are behind the cowardly slaughter of our best," Torian answered with a snarl in his tone.
Vindis looked as though nothing were explained.
"The Republic killed a few people held in very high regard in Mandalorian society," Gault explained, "The Mandalorians always take stuff personally, so they're always on about vengeance for this, vengeance for that. It's a Mandalorian thing,"
"Oh, I see," Vindis finally understood.
Torian glared at the Devaronian with such ire.
"Tell me I told a lie," Gault challenged Torian, "Tell me I got it all wrong."
"It's the way you said it, Gault. You make it sound as though it were a small matter."
"I understand, perfectly, the need for vengeance," Vindis said, sincerely.
Torian dipped his head towards the Sith lord, acknowledging her empathy.
Wrehn had been thinking, not paying any mind to the bit of small talk that was had. Slowly she nodded her head, as she thought about the locations of each mark on a three dimensional holographic globe map of Coruscant.
"They're spread out pretty far," Wrehn said, thinking aloud, "That's a really huge area. We can't hit them all ourselves. Also, it would give us the advantage to hit them at their homes. Security is much weaker at their apartment buildings."
"Are you thinking of subcontracting?" Gault asked.
"Yeah," Wrehn replied, "I wanna get 'em all in one shot, but we can't do it ourselves."
Wrehn closed her eyes to think. After a moment, she opened her eyes again.
"Gault launch the ship," she ordered, "Set course to Nar Shaddaa."
"You got it, Boss," Gault said, while thinking a bit disgustedly, "Just great! We'll be stuck with this Sith longer than I hoped."
"So, then. We aren't going to Concordia?" Vindis asked, Wrehn.
"Change of plans. We're going to Nar Shaddaa," Gault answered for his employer, adding in a helpful tone, "By the way, I know of a lot of very nice hotels on Nar Shaddaa, with reasonable rates. Let me know if you're interested. I'll be happy to recommend a few of them to you." To himself, he thought, "Anything to get you off the ship."
Turning to face the dark red-skinned Sith lord, Wrehn said, "I've got to hire a few mercenaries to take out the SIS agents. Also, I need to hire mercenaries for the main objective. There's a clan of Mandalorians there I can subcontract for this job."
Vindis nodded her head to show that she understood.
"You're not going to hire any of Mandalore's warriors?" Mako asked, before reminding her boss, "He did make that offer."
"Nah," Wrehn replied, "He'll want to renegotiate his offering price. I don't want to deal with that."
Wrehn looked around to see if anyone had anything else to ask. No one said anything, so she laid out her preliminary plan to her team and to her client's representative.
"OK. team," she said, "We'll take out one of the Jedi ourselves. The hired guns will go after the other Jedi, and the retired commando general. I'll demand heads, as proof of a job completed. After we take out the SIS, we'll lay low for a bit. After we've regrouped, we'll go after the chancellor."
"Are we going to use those fancy powered armored suits we used on Ilum?" Skadge asked, hopeful, "Those were a lot of fun!"
"I'll think about it, Skadge, but I don't think we will," she answered, to his disappointment, "They're really expensive to operate, and we won't be in any extreme environments."
Wrehn looked around at her team and at her guest seated around the comm terminal. When she was sure none of them had anymore questions, she ended the meeting.
"This brief is over, everyone," she told her team, "Go inspect your gear. Make sure it'll be ready for heavy combat," to her guest, she said, once I get the mercenaries hired, briefed, and trained, we'll part ways, Vindis. You'll be able to report to your master that the operation is under way."
Vindis merely nodded her acknowledgment, an idea having begun to take form in her mind. She saw an opportunity for making lots of credits.
With that, Wrehn's crew made their way to the lower deck and their quarters, except for Mako who went to Wrehn's quarters.
Wrehn turned to the Sith lord.
"Vindis, I might have to ask your master for more funds. The mercenaries might end up being expensive."
"Do you really need to hire them?" Vindis asked.
"Yeah. The supreme chancellor is gonna have very strong security," Wrehn replied, "You heard Gault's report. We can't hit him on the road. They keep changing routes to and from work and home. We're limited to hitting him at home.
Hitting him at work is out of the question. Security there will be way too tough, and I don't think we'll be able to fight our way all the way to the top of the building where his office is, and there are no landing pads for a dropship to land on the roof. Heck, the roof is a spiry steeple."
Vindis thought a moment, and nodded her agreement.
"How much will you need?" Vindis asked.
"Between twenty to thirty million for ground troops," Wrehn replied, "We gotta hire a few stealth ships, too. They are not cheap. So, maybe sixty five million for those. I'll have to hire a Mandalorian destroyer, too. That'll probably run me another forty five million."
Vindis surprised Wrehn when she suddenly produced her holo-transceiver and dialed up her master.
"What is it, Lord Vindis?" the mechanical monster of a man rasped.
"My lord, Darth Tormen, the problem is larger than your bounty hunter first realized. She will need to hire additional assets to complete the mission," Vindis reported, "She will need an additional two hundred thirty million to hire the additional assets."
"I see," Tormen, replied, stunned at what was asked of him, "The funds I paid up front isn't enough to cover the costs?"
Vindis blanched on hearing something that she didn't know, but that her master obviously expected her to have knowledge of. That is, how much the bounty hunter had been paid in advance. Having been caught flatfooted by her shortcomings, Vindis fabricated an excuse on the spot.
"M-my l-lord, the bounty hunter has indicated that she has spent the maximum from what she has been paid for the operation, and refuses to cut into her profits," Vindis lied not as smoothly as she believed.
Wrehn became annoyed with the way Vindis characterized the situation, but kept silent, not wanting to interrupt their discussion for additional funds.
The Chiss woman felt burned by Vindis' wording, making it seem that her greed was off the charts, but she fumed quietly, because it was true.
Yet, Wrehn had become greatly troubled with the amount Vindis had asked of her master. It was nearly twice what she'd asked for.
"Her greed is exceptional!" Darth Tormen rasped, loudly with his ruined voice. After a moment of simmering fury, he finally added, "Then again, she did say that she was greedy…" After a moment more, to think Tormen said, "I will pay this additional two hundred thirty million. However, if she requires additional resources, she will have to come up with those herself!"
"Yes, Master. I shall make it very clear to her," Vindis said.
Before her master could cut the connection, she went on.
"Master, I request permission to accompany this hunter to observe the mission as it is carried out," again greatly surprising Wrehn.
"Granted," Tormen said, cutting the connection before his apprentice could ask for more.
"I didn't agree to that!" Wrehn objected.
"If you're hiring mercenaries, I'm for hire," Vindis said, smugly, "You can pay me the balance of what you don't pay your hired mercenaries, ninety or one hundred million credits. That's why I asked for the extra credits."
Wrehn shook her head angrily, having been outmaneuvered.
"Fine," Wrehn acquiesced, "You'll lead the mercenaries I'm hiring to deal with the security forces. However, you might not get as much as you're hoping for," she warned. "My estimates are reasonable, but they might ask for more."
Vindis nodded her agreement, got up from her seat and proceeded to make her way to the lower deck and her temporary quarters with another idea forming in her mind.
Wrehn sat quietly, fuming at how she'd been had. Her datapad vibrated in its niche on her utility belt. She retrieved her datapad and read its message.
"From: Cignos Statti Bank of Nar Shaddaa. To: Yehw'reh'nomai. Esteemed banking customer, 230,000,000 credits, Imperial currency, have been deposited to your account. Converted to Hutt currency it translates to 224,582,796 credits. Your beginning balance was 1,854,915,509,217 credits, Hutt currency. Your new balance is now 1,855,140,092,013 credits, Hutt currency. Have a bountiful day, highly esteemed banking customer!"
"Blast!" she cursed aloud before rising from her seat to make her way to her quarters.