"One minute until we drop out of hyperspace," Gault announced from the pilot's seat two weeks later.
Wrehn was seated in the commander's seat, Mako sat at the navigator's seat, and Lord Vindis stood, leaning against the bulkhead, at the back of the control bridge. They all looked out through the main canopy as the mottled light blue and dark blue field gave way to a black field with white streaks, which then shrank into pin points of starlight against a velvet black background.
Nar Shaddaa was a small dull metallic grey sphere orbiting at the far side of its parent planet. Nal Hutta was a swampy, marshy world of mottled greens and browns, with patches of blue scattered throughout. Few ever called it Nal Hutta anymore, though. It was better known simply as Hutta.
Just as the navigation computer picked up the traffic navigation beacons, they were immediately hailed by the space traffic control center.
"Starship, registration number TR76-448YU-070998, what is your destination?" the artificially harried droid demanded, synthetically impatient.
"TR76-448YU-070998, heading is Nar Shaddaa, " Gault replied, using his professional pilot's tone.
"TR76-448YU-070998, follow navigation beacon EU-4367," the droid impatiently instructed, "Maintain speed of 120,700 KPH. Your arrival time will be in ten hours. Contact traffic control in nine hours for landing instructions."
"TR76-448YU-070998, understood. Out," Gault replied, before calling to Mako in the navigator's seat, "Mako, please capture the signal for beacon EU-4367.
He then cut back the throttle and applied the breaking thrusters until he slowed to 120,700 kilometers per hour.
"That's it, everyone. Show's over," Gault said, as he set the automatic pilot to obey the navigation beacon's commands. Then he joked, adding with a smirk, "Come back for part two in nine hours."
Vindis rolled her eyes, as she uncrossed her arms and made her way out of the bridge and to her quarters on the lower deck of the starship.
"As if someone would actually come back in nine hours to watch the second half!" she said, derisively under her breath
Yet, Gault overheard her.
Nine hours later, Lord Vindis was bored out of her mind. She'd been watching documentaries, holo-dramas, and skimming through the written works of both Sith and Jedi philosophers until her brain had had enough. She'd even deigned to read the works of non-Sith Imperials for their insights on philosophical matters. In the end, however, she had to get out of her quarters and wander about the huge interior of Wrehn's starship, Heaven's Cricket.
Eventually, Vindis found herself leaning against the bulkhead at the back of the control bridge, watching as Gault called for landing instructions and getting them. She watched as Gault entered a few settings in the navigation computer, and then watched him rise from the pilot's seat.
On his way out, Gault stopped briefly in front of Vindis and looked her straight in the eye.
"Part three is in forty five minutes," he told her, straight faced, "Final approach, taxiing, and final touch down."
Without irony, he turned towards the hatch and, after taking a few steps, exited the bridge. Vindis was left humiliated, reminding herself that just over nine hours before, she scoffed at the idea that anyone would return to the bridge just to watch someone piloting the starship. Needless to say, Vindis did not return for part three.
The Sith lord returned to her guest quarters, sat at her desk and began composing her update report for her master, Darth Tormen. In the report, she would simply inform him that they had arrived to Nar Shaddaa. On the Smuggler's moon the Chiss bounty hunter, Darth Tormen's contractor would subcontract other Mandalorian mercenaries to carry out specific roles. She encrypted the message, then sought to send it over an encrypted Imperial Navy channel from Wrehn's starship.
Wrehn bit her tongue, opting not to berate the representative and observer of her client for her utter lack of good sense. Instead, the Chiss bounty hunter opted to try tact.
"Part of the operation requires that we mask the Sith Empire's part in this," Wrehn said, politely, "So, if you want to send any transmissions, I recommend you travel to an Imperial consulate building here on Nar Shaddaa and transmit it from there."
The Sith Pureblood nodded her acknowledgment.
"Then I shall travel to a consulate building as you have suggested," Vindis replied.
"Talk to Mako for directions to the nearest Imperial consulate," Wrehn advised.
"Right," Vindis replied, succinctly.
The Sith lord took her leave from the Command and Communications section on the upper deck, behind Wrehn's Captain's quarters.
Vindis made her way down the metal grate stairs and across the lower cargo deck to the crew quarters section before entering Mako's old room, now her guest quarters.
An hour later, Vindis received an intercom communications from Wrehn.
"I'm getting the crew together to go over the next steps of our preparation. You're invited to listen in, Vindis. We'll be meeting in the Command and Communications section," Wrehn told her.
"Very well, Yehw'reh'nomai," Darth Tormen's apprentice acknowledged, "I'll be there."
She made her way back to the upper deck and to the Command and Communications section forward of the upper cargo deck. Upon arrival, she found the crew seated around the intragalactic holo-transceiver. The Sith lord took a seat one seat over from where Mako sat and waited for what would come next.
"Mako, place the call," Wrehn, seated on the opposite side of Mako, ordered.
Vindis immediately turned to watch Mako carryout her task, but the petite cybernetically enhanced woman just sat there, seemingly staring off into space.
"She's day dreaming!" The Sith lord thought, greatly disapproving.
However, before she could say something critical about the sloth's lackadaisical attitude, the intragalactic transceiver activated. A short while later, the glitch-ridden holographic image of a very tough looking man in his mid to late fifties appeared. Vindis had to take a much closer look at Mako.
"Perhaps she's manipulating the controls with a tiny handheld device," the dark red-skinned Sith Pureblood reasoned to herself.
She saw nothing in Mako's hands as the grizzled man began speaking.
"Those who …tact me on thi freq…cy … know wha … want, or have de… wish," the old warrior growled in Mandalorian accented Basic.
Vindis' brow furrowed, at the poor connection.
"I thought you said this contact was on this moon," she said, irritably, looking towards Wrehn.
"He's using a directed, tunneled channel to a hyperspace/hyperwave relay on Hutta which takes the signal to some other part of the galaxy before being redirected back to Nar Shaddaa. This way his calls can't be traced," Mako explained before adding with a smirk, "Or so he thinks."
The glitchy, staticky connection suddenly stabilized as the petite cybernetically enhanced woman completed tracing the call to their contact's compound, thereby establishing a direct connection.
"There you go, Boss," Mako announced, "Now you can talk and actually understand what you're saying to each other."
Vindis had become mystified, wondering how it was that the petite woman was manipulating the controls, before she finally noticed the glint of metallic features beneath her hair embedded in various places on her scalp.
"This woman is a cyborg!" Vindis declared to herself in astonishment, and then realizing, "She has direct control of the holo-transceiver!"
Meanwhile, the tough old man heard what Mako had said, and instantly realized that his opening line had been garbled and that the cool factor of his opening line had been wasted. That made him extra grumpy. He also realized that the callers had established a direct link to his holo-transceiver. His location had been found, and this angered him more.
"Eet ees best forr you to end trransmeession now. Eef you do not, I shall hunt you, and shall keell you," he said, in a very foul mood.
Vindis bristled on hearing his threats and opened her mouth to speak, but Wrehn beat her to it, saying something in Mando'a. Vindis also noticed Torian's expression go from anger at the rude man's introduction to smug satisfaction at whatever it was that Yehw'reh'nomai had said. The grumpy tough old guy was visibly brought short and looked as though he would explode.
"If you think you have what it takes to turn me into a taxidermy trophy, then come bring it, Chiss abomination!" the grumpy old Mandalorian warrior growled out in Mando'a.
Torian, sitting beside Wrehn, shook his head in disbelief.
"Even if your clan has been cooped up on this forsaken cesspool of a moon, and you haven't seen the sky in a dozen years, you should at least know to whom you are speaking, old timer," he told the old warrior, also in Mando'a.
"If you have a name worth knowing, then I'd know it. Tell me your name, whelp," the tough old Mandalorian snapped back at Torian.
"It's not my name that you need to know. It's hers, old man," Torian Cadera said, adding in a cool and measured tone, "Yehw'reh'nomai."
The old man's eye's changed on hearing that.
"You're not much to look at, Great Hunt Champion," he growled at Wrehn, with a smirk, adding, "That is, if you aren't some half-sized gizka pup, stealing someone else's hard earned valor."
This time, it was Torian who was greatly angered.
Vindis was growing tired of what she thought of as their back and forth grunting in their foreign language, and although she couldn't understand a single word they growled at each other, she could tell that negotiations were going nowhere.
"It is obvious that this nerf herder is a waste of our time!" Vindis angrily declared, having had enough. Her strong Imperial accent was hard to miss, as she continued, "We need someone strong and who can fight, not a washed up old man! Call someone else!" she demanded of Wrehn.
The old man, Torian, and Wrehn all fell silent and turned their angry eyes towards the Sith lord.
Torian spoke again, this time in Basic.
"If you want a chance at great glory, or a glorious death, then you had better listen to what the Grand Champion of the Great Hunt has to say," Torian said, emphasizing Wrehn's title. The animus in his tone earlier, vanished as he added, "Otherwise, as our client said, this chance shall be offered to another clan."
From that statement, Vindis realized that the old Mandalorian was quite likely a local clan chieftain, or someone near the top of the pecking order of the local Mandalorian clan.
The grizzled old warrior shifted his eyes towards Wrehn's holographic image. Wrehn rated the respect and honors that a clan chieftain would rate, especially, since the Grand Champion of the Great Hunt traditionally had the ear of Mandalore.
"Werry well, Grreat Hunt Champion, I weell leesten," the old man said, emphasizing Wrehn's title in his heavily accented Basic.
The way he'd said her title, made it clear that he still questioned the veracity of the Chiss woman's claim.
"His use of Galactic Basic, with that abominable Mandalorian accent of his, will drive me to distraction just trying to understand what in the blasted galaxy he's actually saying!" Vindis thought to herself, disgusted.
"How can this young woman be a champion of the Great Hunt?!" the tough old man asked himself, "She doesn't look old enough to warrant such experience," he thought, noting the ragged scar on her right cheek.
Wrehn had been struggling to maintain a cool disposition. She had more she wanted to say to the old coot. However, she allowed Torian to talk the Mandalorian talk with the old warrior, so she had been biting her tongue and kept silent until now.
"I have been hired to assassinate an important figure. The job is not easy, though," she told him, "It will require a reinforced company of serious mercenaries to accomplish. I want to hire warriors from your clan."
The old warrior's eyebrows arched, showing that his interest was piqued.
"Someone on Hutta?" the old warrior asked.
"Someone on Coruscant," she replied.
"A banker?"
"A politician."
"A local leader?"
"Galactic."
The old man's eyes widened as he realized what was being asked of him.
"Reinforced company, you say," he said, shaking his head in disapproval, "You will need whole battalion!"
Then he went on to explain his point, counting them off on his fingers.
"You must secure escape route before you approach target," he started, "Your target will have strong security there, and many reinforcements very near to there. You must pin down reinforcements at same time you strike target so they cannot respond.
"Security will see you coming and will attack you before you get close to target. After you attack, you must escape. But how? It will not be easy. They will chase you to your starships. When you launch, their navy will chase you. How far will their navy chase? I will tell you this now. They will chase until your starship destroyed. You also need navy... You don't have navy! You need big forces for big operation. You don't have."
Vindis was taken aback by the points the old man put forth.
"Darth Tormen will not approve more funds," she thought, greatly worried.
Wrehn's reaction was not what the Sith lord expected, however. The Chiss woman laughed at the old man.
"You know how to negotiate!" the Great Hunt Champion declared to the old man, "But I'm not some rube that just fell off the yubo fruit tree!" Wrehn laughed again, adding, "I have everything I need, except for the grunts on the ground. That's where your clan comes in, if you want the job. I only need a reinforced company."
"Tell me your plan," the old warrior demanded.
"I hired a squadron of stealth special operations troop dropships," Wrehn began, giving the most basic details of the plan, "We'll land on his front lawn as his speeder goes down the driveway. We'll use lift repulsor disruptors to ground his speeder. We'll take out his local security, then destroy his vehicle, pry it open take his head, then egress from the spot before reinforcements arrive."
Wrehn fell silent and waited for the old warrior's reply.
"What recklessness," the old man said, shaking his head as though in great disapproval. Then cracking a wry grin, he added, "I will take job."
"Fifteen million, Imperial," Wrehn said.
"Thirty Five million," the Mandalorian countered, "Hutt."
Wrehn shook her head in disagreement.
"I'm on a budget. I have to pay for those dropships, too, plus any damages the ships take.
"I won't pay you more than twenty million, Hutt," Wrehn countered, but compromising by offering to pay in the preferred currency.
"Very well, twenty million, Hutt," adding with a smile, "The battle will be glorious! I will not stay here! I will go fight! Ha! Ha!"
Both Wrehn and Torian nodded their approval of what the old warrior said. For Torian, it was a matter of understanding that the old warrior craved one last big battle before retiring. For Wrehn, it meant that only the very best warriors would be selected to join him.
"Where can we meet?" Wrehn asked, "I want to go over the details of the operation with you and your platoon leaders. I want to conduct training and at least one dress rehearsal before we go to execution of the operation.
"Clan Sharratt's stronghold in Lower Industrial sector in three hundred fifteenth mega floor, in Naggarrii The Hutt district building, in Raah'hetaahn Precinct, in southwestern hemisphere of moon," the grizzled warrior told her.
"Mako, did you get all that?" Wrehn asked, having already forgotten what the grizzled old warrior said.
"I got it," the cybernetically enhanced petite woman replied.
"We're on the moon already," Wrehn told her newly hired subcontractor, then asked, "When do you want to meet? What is your name?"
"Ymmiir Sharratt," he replied, "I am clan chief, since Welmond Sharratt died.
"Since Welmond Sharratt died? How long ago was that? Are you officially in charge?" Wrehn asked, starting to worry that the question of the new leadership might still not have been fully settled.
"As I said," he replied, the bitterness returning to his tone, "My father died and that made me clan chief."
"How'd he die?" Wrehn asked, suspecting he died at his son's hands in a duel for supremacy.
"Republic Army raided stronghold. He died in raid."
"The Republic raids you on Nar Shaddaa?" Wrehn asked, incredulous.
"Republic raid us many times," Ymmiir Sharratt replied, as though it wasn't a big deal. His tone and demeanor darkened, however, as he continued, "Last month Republic raid again. I almost died in ambush. Killed many of my clan," he said, frowning. But then a vicious grin stretched across his face as he added, "Now, you here. You bring job. We will have sweet vengeance!"
"But your clan is on Nar Shaddaa," Wrehn protested, "You're in Hutt territory. Why would the Republic attack you?"
"We conduct many raids on their bases here on Nar Shaddaa," Ymmiir Sharratt said, matter-of-factly, "We destroyed much of their equipment and took many prisoners for ransom."
"Well, no wonder they retaliated," Wrehn said, rolling her eyes at him, "What did you expect?"
"If they retaliate is not problem," Ymmiir said in response to her critique, "We expect them. We were ready. The problem is they murdered many of our non-combatants, our wives, our retired, sick and crippled, our elderly. They slaughtered our small uninitiated children in raid."
Anywhere else in the civilized galaxy, small uninitiated children would have been thought of as small inexperienced vulnerable younglings less than eleven years of age. However, to Wrehn and Torian, as Mandalorians, it meant that the ten through thirteen year olds had been set in fixed defensive positions as the last line of defense, protecting their younger siblings and their enfeebled and infirm grandparents in their homes, while their mothers and fathers fought on the front lines, doing their best to keep Republic raiders from going into their residential neighborhoods.
"When we raid them," Ymmiir was saying, "we killed a few, but it was fair and honorable combat between trained and well armed warriors. As I said, we took prisoners to humiliate them and for ransom. They paid ransom, we returned prisoners, unharmed. We gave fair and just treatment to prisoners, but Republic did not return honor. They murdered our captured wounded."
"The Republic have no honor," Torian said, great disgust was evident in his tone, "slaughtering the defenseless."
Wrehn nodded her concurrence. Vindis didn't care about any of that, however.
To the Sith, it was foolish to harbor a need to protect the weak and the wounded. The Sith believed that if one was too weak to defend himself or herself, then that weakling must be culled. On the other hand, if a Sith lord was too weak to protect their own children, then he or she deserved to lose them, and deserved to die. Also, even when a Sith lord fought to defend and protect his followers, his followers were not themselves weak and easy prey.
Vindis opted to keep her piece in this instance, however disgusted she felt about their weakness. She did not wish to antagonize the Mandalorians on this matter. For the moment they were her allies, and she did not wish to bring harm to the mission by alienating them. Yet, she had to ask.
"Is this clan strong enough to rely on?"
Fortunately for her, the Mandalorians mistook her question, thinking she meant whether they had the numbers and enough seasoned warriors for the mission.
"We can field full regiment, but potential client only wants reinforced company," Ymmiir Sharratt replied, shrugging his shoulders.
Yehw'reh'nomai and Torian both nodded their satisfaction and then turned their eyes towards Vindis. She said nothing more, deciding it was pointless to say more.
What Yehw'reh'nomai said next, however, was something that Vindis could absolutely get behind and caused her to change her mind about Clan Sharratt.
"Providence is with your people, Ymmiir," Wrehn said, explaining, "Taking out their leader, will satisfy your need for vengeance. You will be able to goad your enemy and tell them that their dishonor is what led to your act of vengeance!"
"It is with us, as you say, Great Hunt Champion," Ymmiir said, "When mission is over, speak of us to Mandalore the Vindicated. Tell him of Republic's dirty attack on us, and of our glorious vengeance on them."
"I swear it," Wrehn said, with feeling, "I will tell him your story."
Wrehn understood that, just as she and her crew would be forced into retirement and into hiding because of the manhunt that would be launched against them, that Clan Sharratt would definitely be a lightning rod for the Republic's fury. Mandalore would have to decide to let the Galactic Republic take out Clan Sharratt, or commit to full out war on Nar Shaddaa to stand up with Clan Sharratt.
"May Stars favor you, Yehw'reh'nomai," Ymmiir said, cutting the connection.
Vindis recalled what Torian said about the Mandalorian's desire for vengeance and spoke her mind.
"The Force is with us," Vindis said, explaining how this was so, "We did not seek each other out with vengeance in mind, but it turns out that everyone involved with this operation has a vendetta against the supreme chancellor. The Force has brought us together to exact our revenge."
"Why does the Sith Empire want revenge?" Wrehn asked, curious.
"It is to retaliate," Vindis said, "The Jedi, with the help of the SIS and the Republic's naval forces, conducted a raid in an attempt to murder the emperor."
"Did they get him?" Wrehn asked, in shocked surprise.
Vindis answered after some hesitation.
"We don't know," the Sith lord said, "We won't know until The Hand or The Voice tell us."
"The Hand? The Voice?" Wrehn asked, "What's that?"
"They are the direct servants of The Emperor," Vindis said, "They, and The Wrath are the only ones who have direct contact with the Emperor, and none of them have said anything."
"That's huge news," Gault said, adding cryptically, "This explains a lot of things."
Wrehn wanted to end the idle chatter and get to businesses. So that's exactly what she did.
"Torian get together with Gault and write up raid plans for our three secondary targets," Wrehn ordered, reminding him, "Remember, two of the targets are Jedi, assign Vindis to one of them. We'll take out the other Jedi. We'll get all three of our bounty heads at their residences."
"Right," Torian acknowledged.
"Let's get right on it, Torian," Gault suggested.
The two rose from their seats around the transmitter and departed for the crew mess on the lower deck.
"Mako, you and I will work on the big operation at the chancellor's mansion," Wrehn said, "Dig up everything you can about the residence and the area around it. We'll work in my quarters."
Vindis decided to listen in on Torian's and Gault's planning session. Since one of the raid operations they were going to plan involved her, she wanted to be sure they were not sending her in to die.
"What capabilities do you have in battle, combat experience, weapons?" Gault asked the Sith lord, when she entered the crew mess.
"I'm armed with a lightsaber," Vindis said.
"Melee combat," Torian said to that and then fell silent to listen for more details.
"I use The Force," Vindis said, next and then waited to see what the hired thugs would say to that.
Torian and Gault exchanged glances and turned to Vindis.
"How does that work?" Gault asked, "How do you use it? What does it do?"
"Have you never had any dealings with a Sith lord or a Jedi before?" Vindis asked, mildly surprised.
"We captured one, once," Torian answered, to Gault's horror.
"You captured a Jedi?" Vindis asked, disbelievingly.
"A Sith lord," Torian corrected.
Gault lowered his face into the palm of his hand and shook his head slowly. Vindis was visibly angered by what Torian told her.
"Whoever this Sith was, he must have been pathetically weak!" she spat out, adding, "What a disgrace!"
"She put up a really good fight," Torian said, "but we've got tricks."
"If in your opinion, she put up a really good fight," Vindis said, scathingly, "and you're sitting here telling me about it, then she was pathetically weak!"
Scandalized and shaking her head, she calmed enough to try to ascertain what, if anything, they'd seen that could serve as an example of what a Force user could do.
"Did you at least get to see her pathetic demonstration of power?" she asked the two bounty hunters.
"She was pretty good with her lightsaber," Gault answered, "Did a great job deflecting our blaster bolts."
"And that is all that you remember about your fight with her?" she asked, greatly humiliated, "She has really given us a bad name!"
"We did a job for Darth Nox, once," Gault offered, hoping it would assuage her growing anger at what she perceived as humiliating.
"Oh," Vindis said, appearing to have been mollified, "Then you've seen a demonstration of his power."
"Not really," Torian said, to Gault's chagrin, "We were leading Mandalorian warriors against Imperial rebel soldiers, so we didn't get to see the Sith fight."
"Rebel Imperial soldiers?" the red-skinned Sith lord asked, "during the civil war? Where?"
"On Ilum," Gault said, "It was brutal, there."
"Oh!" Vindis said, amazement and excitement showing on her features, "You supported the dark lord on Ilum against Malgus the Betrayer!"
"That's right," Gault said, with a bit of smugness, "It was a pretty good dust up. Once we put those Imperial rebels down, Darth Nox made us back off and he had it out with Malgus."
"So," Vindis asked breathlessly, "You got to see two powerful Sith lords in battle."
"Nah," Torian said, causing Gault to shake his head in derision, "The Mandalorian fighters we hired to provide security and to fight the Imperial rebels turned on us for a bit of sport. It was a good time. We had a blast."
"So, you never got to see two of among the most powerful Sith in the Empire actually fight during that battle?" Vindis asked, shaking her head in disbelief.
Gault and Torian both shook their heads, indicating that they hadn't.
Rising to her feet, she gestured with her hands for the two to follow her out of the crew mess.
"Follow me into the cargo bay," Vindis commanded the two, and called out to her droid, "Rem! To the cargo bay! Load training protocol one esk (1E), difficulty level 3!"
Gault held Torian back, and waited for Vindis to be out of earshot.
"You really need to learn to read the mood in the room and learn to cushion your words, Torian. Her pride was hurting, because we took a Sith lord down like it was nothing. A little white lie to soothe her wounded pride could go a long ways to keep her from taking her aggressions out on us."
"I'm not a good liar, Gault," Torian said, "I think if I tried, it'd probably end up making her even more upset."
"That's a fair point," Gault said, shrugging, before stepping off ahead of Torian to follow Vindis into the expansive cargo bay.
As Gault and Torian exited the crew mess, Vindis' droid stepped out of her guest quarters, and rushed into the cargo bay. Torian froze in his tracks and grabbed at Gault's arm. Gault turned to look at Torian who gave a hand and arm signal for the Devaronian to read. Gault then saw what Torian wanted to warn him about.
The droid was armed with an Imperial Army heavy blaster rifle. It wasn't just some overbuilt protocol droid as they'd initially believed.
Gault signaled to Torian to proceed to the cargo bay. When Lord Vindis saw the two men at the hatch leading into the crew section, she gave the command to her droid as she ignited her bright red lightsaber.
"Begin training protocol."
Immediately, the droid attacked its master. Gault's eyes bugged open as well aimed blaster bolts flew straight at the Sith Lord. There was no other way for Gault or Torian to see it any other way. The droid was trying its best to kill the Sith Pureblood.
The droid did not pause, or lag. It ran from side to side to change its firing angle and even changed aim points, shooting accurate shots at her head, chest, and limbs. Every running step the droid took made a huge, metallic crashing sound that reverberated throughout the vast space.
Vindis was a blur, blocking every single blaster bolt that went her way. The bolts not only deflected, but they flew right back at the droid. They watched in amazement as the droid was struck by every bolt it fired at its master. Both droid and Sith lord had been running, jumping, ducking, rolling or sliding across the deck.
The two realized right away, that the power setting for the blaster rifle was at its lowest setting, since the droid was not getting blasted to pieces each time it was hit. However, Torian and Gault knew that while not lethal, getting hit by even one of those low powered bolts could still leave very painful burns, and that getting hit by too many of those could still lead to death.
The droid abandoned its blaster rifle, tossing it aside when its power pack exhausted itself. The droid immediately drew and activated a lightsaber from a hidden compartment in its chassis. The droid then leapt in the attack.
The cargo bay rang out with the crashing thunder of metal impacting on metal as the droid landed heavily on the deck and continued running and jumping in its attacks against its master. Gault and Torian watched with awed respect, the speed and power of Vindis' lightsaber clashes. Despite the droid's obviously mechanically powered brute strength, she was driving it back and, and kept up with the droid's insane computer coordinated mechanical speed.
Gault and Torian were both shocked to see behavior they'd never seen in droids before.
Vindis' droid sprayed a fine mist of hydraulic fluid at its master, which flashed into fire when their crossed lightsaber beams flashed the cloud of oil into a huge ball of fire, engulfing both the Sith lord and the droid.
"The droid fights dirty!" Torian remarked quite amazed.
The two flabbergasted spectators watched in awe as the Sith lord proceeded to do something that they had never seen in their lives, and only heard about in silly stories and rumors.
Vindis took the fight to an even higher level, reacting so fast that the flames had no time to singe any part of the Sith lord. She leapt backwards ten meters! She was out of the ball of flames, stretching her off hand towards the droid and causing the murderous mechanical monster to lift into the air and fly after her!
Vindis let the killer machine crash onto its feet, causing it to stumble off balance towards the Sith lord. In a gap in the droid's defense, Vindis placed her offhand onto her mechanical servant's chest and sent it flying all the way across to the other side of the expansive cargo bay. Then she leapt all the way across the bay after the droid!
As she flew high over the deck, her free hand pointed at the droid, again, palm out. This time, the droid, in the act of quickly scrambling to its mechanical feet was violently flattened to the deck with a loud metallic bang as its chassis smashed onto the deck of the massive cargo bay.
Somehow, invisibly, Vindis had pinned down the exceptionally violent droid. Its limbs squirmed as it tried to get up, but it was unable to lift itself off the deck.
Vindis landed over the droid's chassis, with each of her armored booted feet on either side of the droid. She then drove her deactivated lightsaber into the droid's back, simulating a kill.
"End Training Protocol," she commanded, as she stepped back from the droid.
The droid deactivated its weapon as it regained its feet, returning the deactivated saber hilt to the hidden compartment in its chassis.
"Training protocol ended," the droid reported, "Is there anything else I can do for you, Master?"
"Return to my temporary quarters, perform self maintenance and repairs, and resume your previous tasks," Vindis ordered, not even winded.
"As you say, Master," the droid replied, making its way to its blaster rifle, on the deck, before returning to the guest quarters.
Vindis began to make her way back to Gault and Torian when she heard excited shouts coming from above. She looked up and saw both Wrehn and Mako looking down from the guard rail from the upper cargo deck.
"What in damnation just happened?!" Wrehn shouted, with great consternation, "It sounded like a blasted war in here!"
"I was just doing a little bit of training," Vindis said, as though explaining that she was doing simple stretches.
Wrehn looked the interior of her ship over, but she couldn't find any obvious signs of damage.
"Gault?! Torian?!" she called out.
"Vindis was showing us what she could do, so that we could figure out how to set up her team," Gault explained, adding, "I think we were pretty lucky that time when we were rounding up that Sith on Dromund Kaas. She fought nothing like what me and Torian just watched here."
"She was very fast, and returned every blaster bolt to the shooter," Torian said, adding, "Those rumors about the powers a Sith or Jedi have aren't exaggerated, after all. Like Gault says, we were really lucky last time."
"Let's try not wrecking my ship, people," Wrehn said, worriedly.
Wrehn and Mako turned from the railing and made their way back to the Chiss woman's quarters to get back to work planning the big raid. Meanwhile, Vindis walked towards Torian and Gault.
"That was some kind of special," Gault said, "You weren't just venting when you said that other Sith was weak."
"Yeah," Torian said, smiling in admiration, "She didn't fight the way you did. If she had, maybe things would have turned out a little different."
"Only a little different?" Vindis asked, becoming offended.
"Don't mind him," Gault said, giving a small chuckle, "He understates everything. When we captured that other Sith lord, we laughed about it. The legends about Sith and Jedi being these all powerful beings was overblown, we thought."
"Then we watched your fight," Torian added, "Now we know better."
"We'll have to come up with special methods for capturing Force users, if we ever get another contract like that," Torian said to Gault.
"Yeah," Gault agreed, "Maybe develop some kind of trap to incapacitate them right from the start. If possible, avoid a fight altogether," he added, speaking as though Vindis wasn't standing right in front of them.
"I'm actually stronger than what you saw. I didn't show you all of my Force techniques. I can do more. I was holding back," she told them, "because I didn't want to wreck my droid."
"Good to know," Torian replied, nodding.
Gault thought things over briefly before addressing Vindis.
"So…, a team of Mandalorians would probably get in your way during the mission, huh?" he asked, then clarifying, "Going after one of those Jedi, I mean."
"I could still make use of them," Vindis replied.
"Is your droid going to fight, too?" Torian asked, adding "It sure would make a nice addition for the operation."
"No. I'll leave it behind," Vindis replied, explaining, "Normally, I go out on missions alone. My droid watches my back while I'm in the attack. However, I'll have a team of Mandalorians, so I will not need my droid."
"Alright, let's work out the details for your raid on that Jedi," Gault said, turning about to return to the crew mess.
Torian and Vindis followed behind.
Wrehn had gone over the broad overview of her plan with her crew and with Vindis. Gault and Torian had made some changes and additions to her plan with Wrehn's approval. Vindis expressed some reservations.
"The one weakness of your plans is that you will face a Jedi alone. You will need another Sith to accompany you," she said, noting, "Despite your overabundance of firepower, and after what Gault and Torian have seen of my power, you must consider that your experience combating Force users is colored by a false representation of the power we wield."
"It's like Vindis says, Wrehn," Gault interjected, to Vindis' irritation.
She didn't like being interrupted.
"It's like Torian and I said earlier," he told Wrehn, "We enjoyed the dumb luck of a novice, going up against that Sith on Dromund Kaas. We'll never get lucky like that again."
"Gault," Wrehn began, perplexed, "are you suggesting I hire another Sith for this job?"
"It's Vindis' idea," Torian interjected, "We're facing two Jedi, and she says we'll need two Sith, and I agree."
"Me, too," Gault said, backing Torian up.
"You'll pay the other Sith from your cut," Wrehn told Vindis, adding with finality, "I'm not spending another credit than I already have."
Vindis didn't like it, but she nodded agreement to Wrehn's condition. She really had no other choice. If she wanted to get paid, at all, she had to be sure that her client survived to make the payment. Also, she didn't want to return to Darth Tormen to report failure.
"Now, about the big fight at the chancellor's residence. We've got a good idea what we're gonna use you Sith for," Gault said, "We're gonna put you where the two of you can do the most damage."
"Once we immobilize the chancellor's speeder," Torian explained, "we'll send your team to wipe the security detail at his speeder," Torian said, "The other teams will keep reinforcements from reaching you. Your team will have a heavy duty demolition droid assigned to pry the doors open. If the droid is destroyed, you Sith will use your lightsabers to cut through to the chancellor."
"Yeah, but it's a very tough cut to make with a lightsaber," Gault said, jumping in, "The armor is made up of alternating layers of high heat resistant cortosis and asbestos-fortified hardened molytex armored panels, very heat resistant. So, it would be best if the droid can make it to the speeder undamaged. Let it pull the door right off."
Vindis nodded her understanding of the difficulty she would have cutting through the armor, and realizing that her job would be two fold.
"So, I and my team will have to escort the droid safely to the target as well as to take out the security detail that will entrench themselves around the incapacitated speeder…" she said, thinking about the difficulty she would face.
"Then you'll need to assign two additional droids to my team. Two heavy war droids to provide security and ray shielding for the heavy duty demolition droid," Vindis said, explaining, "The moment the chancellor's security detail set their eyes on that droid, they're going to know what its mission is and are going to concentrate all of their firepower on it."
"We'll work on that," Wrehn said, nodding approval of Vindis' recommendation.
Vindis had heard enough. She returned to her guest quarters on the lower deck to prepare another update report for her master and to place a call to a Sith lord she knew on Dromund Kaas.
The Sith lord was quite plainly surprised by who was calling his holo-transceiver frequency. The shocked surprise on his face was quickly replaced by a humor filled grin.
"Of all of the unexpected things I would never have expected, I never would have expected a call from you, Lord Vindis," the Sith lord said, doing a poor job of hiding his mocking smirk, "How ever did you get my frequency?"
Vindis, however, did not even crack a smile. She hated his smoothly glib manner. She felt that every comment he made was filled with glib sarcasm.
However, she didn't know any other Sith lord strong enough for this job whom she could call on to join her. Unfortunately for her, he was her first choice for this job. Yet, she expected to be derisively turned down. Her second choice was a woman who was eager to prove herself, competent, but lacking experience.
Yet, on the off chance that he did take the job, she vowed to herself to remain ever vigilant as long as he was anywhere near her. She was not going to let her guard down with this Sith lord, her bitter rival at the Sith Academy.
During her time at the academy, Vindis never doubted that if she ever let her guard down, he would have killed her. Despite the fact that she could never detect his hatred of her, she believed without any doubt that the instant she turned her back to him, she would be dead.
Ultimately, Darth Tormen had chosen her over her hated rival. However, instead of her new master demanding she kill her rival, Tormen cast him aside, forgotten.
"I used my position and authority to access Imperial Intelligence to look up and give me your frequency," she told him.
"Then you've grown influential, and have developed strong political connections," he replied, sounding impressed.
As a masterless Sith lord, he was doomed to obscurity with no real place in the governing hierarchy of Sith lords. However, a chance to prove his worth came his way, unexpectedly. Darth Thanaton, the apprentice of Darth Arctis, had charged him and another Sith lord to investigate the murder of another Sith lord, another Darth who'd served Thanaton.
The murder was most brazen, carried out in the Darth's own offices within the Citadel! Calaverous had no title. He had no rank nor standing among the Sith, but if he could solve this crime, perhaps he might win approval from Thanaton and perhaps be given a more prominent role within Thanaton's domain.
A young, brash, and mouthy upstart, barely graduated from the Sith Academy on Korriban had blatantly lied when asked about the murder of the darth, claiming that it was he who'd done it. The investigation went nowhere.
Calaverous was strong in The Force, but he allowed the politically powerful to believe him weak. He had no apparent future in Sith politics. Someone strong in The Force with no political standing, as he was, was bound to be murdered by those fearful of treachery at his hands. He certainly had the motivation to murder his way into power.
Despite his failure to solve the murder of Darth Skotia, Thanaton retained him in his capacity as a low level functionary within the Imperial government. It was a lucky break for Calaverous. For shortly thereafter, his lord Thanaton, a staunch traditionalist, had been elevated without blame or blemish by the Dark Council.
The previous Dark Councilor, Darth Arctis, had died under less than mysterious circumstances. There was enough to claim assassination, but not enough to claim assassination. Darth Arctis had died – suddenly… His apprentice, Darth Thanaton, who was suspected of Arctis' death despite an overwhelming lack of evidence, had ascended to the Dark Council.
Six months later, the brash young upstart Sith lord returned to Calaverous' notice. The obnoxious, mouthy Sith lord was the apprentice of Darth Zash, who broke her chains of apprenticeship to Thanaton, having freed herself.
Yet, Zash continued in his service for her own aims. Darth Zash had recently elevated this young brash Sith, granting him the title, lord of the Sith. Now she was dead, and her young apprentice was the subject of a murder investigation.
Calaverous, and those appointed to assist him, carefully recorded the murder scene, gathering every bit of evidence of her murder. He carefully interviewed the suspect, who'd already confessed to killing his master.
The autopsy report showed that she had died as though from natural causes. Yet, it greatly unnerved Calaverous that when he'd seen her alive, she seemed to be in her mid to late thirties. The corps that he saw during his investigation was that of an old crone. It turned out that her true age was one hundred and ten years. It was her true form.
The injuries she'd sustained from her battle with her apprentice were minor, only a few scratches and abrasions.
"Aside from old age, there appears to be no other obvious cause of death," Calaverous had come to conclude, "Perhaps the battle she waged took everything she had, and it wasn't enough for her to end her apprentice."
In contrast, the young man's injuries were much worse, requiring medical attention.
"How is it that she died, but not he?" Calaverous thought of the hospitalized murder suspect, concluding, "She was too strong for him, but perhaps he'd gotten in a lucky strike and came out on top, somehow."
Indeed, the young lord of the Sith claimed self defense, describing his dead master's preparations for a bizarre ritual that would involve his own demise. The evidence Calaverous and his team had gathered at the scene corroborated the suspect's claims of preparations for a strange ritual from which he'd barely escaped with his life.
However, Calaverous realized that the young, brash Sith lord was not telling him the whole truth. There was something the suspect was withholding from his investigation.
The Dark Council, judging the young lord of Sith, carefully reviewed the evidence and considered the young man's testimony. The circumstances were strange, but the evidence seemed to support the defendant's claim of self defense.
The Dark Council, voted to acquit the young Sith lord, placing him under the service of Thanaton, since Zash, his former follower, was lost to him. The young Sith, Kallig, would serve as Zash's replacement.
It was not understood why Thanaton despised his servant, Kallig, the apprentice of the deceased Zash, but about a year after the upstart's trial, Thanaton declared a Kaggath. He entered into a blood feud against his own servant, vowing to kill the brash young man.
Calaverous speculated that Thanaton's intense dislike of Kallig stemmed from the fact that the untraditional brash upstart received the title, Lord of The Sith, undeserved, from his former apprentice, Zash. Calaverous also guessed that the embarrassment Thanaton had suffered before his peers on the Dark Council, at the hands of Kallig, more than a few times, might have had something to do with his ire towards his hated servant.
Calaverous served in obscurity from the beginning, but later, when he'd proved his administrative abilities to his master, was given the charge to oversee a department within the Sphere of Ancient Knowledge. As administrator, he oversaw the Archival Section, a department responsible for archiving ancient records, historical events and ancient artifacts. He was also charged with auditing the various departments within Thanaton's domain to ensure their efficiency.
His investigative prowess proved invaluable in rooting out corruption and graft within Thanaton's domain, revealing to his lord that he was quite formidable but inscrutably subtle. In cleaning out the corrupt Sith lords, Calaverous had also removed some of his rivals and obstacles to his rise in the hierarchy of Sith power.
"You destroyed your Sith rivals and enemies who stood in your way," Thanaton had said to Calaverous.
Calaverous became fearful that he would be punished for this, but he was pleasantly surprised by what Thanaton said next.
"You rid yourself of your rivals. Yet you did so, not by clumsy murder and assassinations, but by the subtle use of the law, and in a manner that did not seem malevolent, as it should be."
Thus, at the height of the dark lord's Kaggath with Kallig, Darth Thanaton elevated Calaverous to Lord of The Sith in recognition of his qualities.
In the end, however, it was Kallig who had unexpectedly defeated Thanaton less than a year later, thus ending their nearly two year long Kaggath. It was also not expected that Kallig would last on the Dark Council, but that was before anyone knew of Kallig's change.
At the start of the Kaggath, two years ago, Kallig was brash, reckless, disliked, and a general pain in the buttocks. Two years later, at the end of the Kaggath, he was austere, ruthless, hated, and utterly feared.
Kallig was elevated to Darth and given the name Nox by the Dark Council the day he defeated Thanaton in their presence, thus taking his former master's place on the Dark Council.
Calaverous, along with dozens of other Sith lords, moffs, and others in the powerbase waited for their new master, Darth Nox, Dark Lord of The Sith to appear before them. There the dark lord would announce his rule over them all.
A monstrous Dashade, the servant of Darth Nox, had been waiting for his master to approach. While the monster waited, it continually wiped drool from its mouth, as it longingly looked upon the Sith lords in attendance.
"Is it safe for us, with that Dashade's belly rumbling?" one Sith lord whispered her inquiry to another Sith lord.
"It is the servant of Darth Nox," the other Sith lord whispered his reply to the first, "The sooner he gets here to keep that monster on a short leash, the better it will be for all of us."
Calaverous laughed inwardly at the comedy that was their fear of the Dashade, but then he noticed that the Dashade had been eyeing him quite intently, smacking his lips.
"I should tell the monster that I'm infested with disease riddled parasites," he told himself, "Perhaps, then he will find me most unappetizing."
The joke made him want to laugh out loud, but he fought hard to suppress the urge…
"This is not the time for Jokes, Calaverous," he admonished himself.
Suddenly, the Dashade fairly roared for the attention of the Sith lords, moffs, and many other military and civilian officials in attendance.
"Silence! The dark lord enters!"
Calaverous watched as the young, brash, and mouthy Sith lord, walked briskly to a raised dais, upon which a throne was perched. The new dark lord stood before the throne and turned about to look at his audience.
Calaverous, looking carefully at the new dark lord, realized right away that the Sith lord who stood before them all was different. He had a look of darkness about him, a look of such expectation that he would be obeyed. Also, through The Force, Calaverous felt an aura of malignancy emanating from the newly elevated dark lord.
"He has changed," Calaverous told himself, "It's as though he is a whole different... being."
Unbeknownst to all in attendance, excepting his very close inner circle of followers, Kallig, now Nox, had subsumed the Force Ghosts of four ancient Sith lords to gain their power for himself. The knowledge, memories, and personalities of the Force ghosts had melded into his own. The young brash, mouthy Kallig no longer existed. He truly was another man.
"Behold!" the Dashade declared in a very loud voice, as can only come from the throat of a monster, "Your new master! Your new lord! Conqueror of Balmorra and Corellia! Crusher of rebellions on Taris! Destroyer of Thanaton and all others who stood against him! Darth Nox, Dark Lord of The Sith! Kneel before him and bow your heads!"
Calaverous knelt and bowed his head as commanded. As his knee touched the metallic floor of the audience chamber, it finally struck him. He risked tilting his head up a bit, so that he could behold his new lord, and watched as Nox took his seat on the throne.
"Then it truly was he who had murdered Darth Skotia, in his own offices!" he'd told himself, "He slaughtered a portion of Thanaton's powerbase, caused others to defect to his faction, and later defeated Thanaton himself in the Dark Council chamber! How could I not have seen that he'd told me the truth those years ago?!"
Years had passed since then, and here he was, serving in obscurity again. The powerful Darth Nox, didn't even know Calaverous existed. So, Calaverous, Lord of The Sith, started all over again, seeking opportunities to catch his new dark lord's attention, hoping for a new chance for recognition and power.
In the meantime, this chance at a large sum of credits was something he could not ignore. He would take Vindis up on her offer for a job.
"Perhaps I can show my qualities to the dark lord with an act of heroism," Calaverous thought, speculating.