Abandoned Republic Outpost.
Unnamed Planetoid.
Outer Rim
Maze watched through the two way mirror—Zey sat opposite Rampart; they were talking quietly and had been for hours now. Both men looked impassive, giving nothing away, as they spoke but then Rampart looked pleased with himself.
"Caf?" Asked Coric.
"Yeah." He took the mug, "Vau ready yet?" He asked.
"Just putting the finishing touches. He actually looks more like Dooku than I care to think about."
"What's that about Dooku?" Vau demanded in his Imperial Officer voice.
They turned to face him.
Walon swept his finger along the fake moustache he wore. It changed the whole look of his face.
"The beard was too much." He added.
"Now you look like Yularen." Coric commented, putting his life on the line with his mouth.
"Are you trying to insult me?" Walon replied, deadpan and staring at him.
Coric squared up to him.
"Just saying."
Walon smiled, "Then you'll have to try harder."
Coric wasn't sure whether that was good or bad and looked at Maze who shrugged.
"How is he doing?" Vau changed the subject.
"He's still at it. He spent at least an hour just looking at him and Rampart ignoring him. Then he just started talking."
As if by telepathy, Zey turned and nodded before leaving the room.
"So?" Asked Vau.
"It went better."
"As in?"
"I targeted the area of his psyche that fostered his arrogance and played on that and he was more receptive to the test explanation. We know the clone troopers are being phased out and he is no fan of them but he did let slip that the Commandos and some of the Officer class are still being used for sensitive missions. And two words kept coming into his mind Tantiss and Hemlock despite him trying not to think about them."
"In what context?"
"Tantiss is a place and Hemlock a person. Special projects but I couldn't get a location. I don't think he knows."
"Hmm. I'll see what I can get."
Vau made his entrance—theatrical. He looked imposing, suitably authoritarian.
Rampart looked up at him, almost smiling; "Ah, at last. Someone has seen sense."
The others watched.
Vau stood and stared at him.
"Have you forgotten all the protocols?" Enquired Vau.
"Rampart blinked then rose and stood to attention.
"At ease. Sit!"
Vau pulled up the chair and sat opposite.
He stared at Rampart for several minutes.
Rampart started to fidget.
"I understand you've been told you've passed."
"Yes sir." He straightened slightly but nothing like a soldier.
Maze wondered how he ever came to be a Vice Admiral.
"I'm not going to apologise for the subterfuge. The Emperor had to be sure of you under the circumstances."
"Of course. I fully understand."
"And the Emperor had to have a scapegoat for his plausible deniability regarding the destruction of Kamino for the time being. In the interests of Galactic security, you understand."
"For the time being. For Galactic security." Echoed Rampart.
Vau sat and stared at him. The man seemed normal and spoke normally, not like the man he spoke to after Etain had delved into his mind. This man sat serenely in front of him. Too serene.
"The debrief is over, Vice Admiral."
"Thank you….You didn't give your name?"
"Sir, will do for now."
"Of course, yes sir."
"I have some news for you."
"Yes sir."
"You'll be joining the Clone Commandos on The Special Project."
"Clones?" Rampart sneered, "Surely we can use some troopers who are more …..Imperial."
"Not for this. It is a sensitive project, most dear to the Emperor's cause."
"One of the Emperor's Special projects."
"His most important project." Vau pushed.
A place, Vau had the name of the place.
"That project?" Rampart preened himself at the thought of being involved in that
"Yes, on Tantiss." Continued Vau. If he was wrong, it was too late.
He saw the look of satisfaction on Rampart's face; he was on the right track.
"Tantiss. Finally."
Maze, Coric and Zey watched; Vau was getting there.
"How much do you know of what goes on, on Tantiss?"
"I'm not sure, even Governor Tarkin is not fully conversant with that project."
Vau kept the surprise from his face.
"Vau!" Maze's voice came through his ear piece, "We have company. A craft heading this way."
Vau turned to look through the two way mirror; he didn't need to say anything.
"They're travelling fast, they'll be here in minutes."
He turned to Rampart, "Excuse me. I have a message."
.
Kyrimorut.
Kom'rk sat at the screen checking the long range sensors he had hacked into; it was a little trick he had come up with when he was looking for Grievous. Most of the ships were freighters, shuttles, the odd starship but they tended to go from planet to planet where they were needed. That hadn't changed much.
He listened to Ryssa playing with Casey; they were checking on the plants. Casey had looked after the small tree she had left, as he promised and it had flourished, although he wondered if Scout had something to do with that. She walked past it most days and he noticed she touched a different leaf every time; he was unsure what to make of her.
"It's so tall now, I think we need to re-pot it. What do you think?"
"Re-pot it?" The young boy asked.
"Yes. Get it something bigger to live in. Just like when you grow you need bigger clothes. It needs a bigger pot for its roots and more food."
Kom'rk smiled at the way she explained things. He hadn't expected that, it was easy for the boy to understand, although he was clever, picked up things quickly. Clone DNA. He continued to listen to her voice in the background. He didn't know her well but she was well suited to his brother.
Then he stopped listening.
All his concentration focused on the screen in front of him.
"Well that's interesting!" He murmured and tapped a few keys to isolate the information that had popped out at him from the screen.
"What is? Roots? I didn't know you were a horticulturalist?" Asked Ryssa.
"No. They are but not in this case."
She and Casey wandered over and looked at the screen. It meant nothing to her until Kom'rk entered some more information, then the outline of a ship filled the screen.
"That—is new. It's Imperial but it's new. Not in any of the databases we have and Jaing's been working hard on keeping it up to date."
He tapped again and the ship was smaller but moving against the background of stars.
Is it important?" Asked Casey.
It had dropped out of hyperspace from nowhere.
"It may be. Jaing needs to see this. Do you know where he is?"
"He's busy." Ryssa relied evasively.
"I didn't ask what he was doing, just where he was."
"Is it really that urgent?" She asked.
"Yes." He rose to leave.
"Why?" She grabbed Casey's hand and followed Kom'rk.
Ordo asked me to find Vau, just in case we needed him, and I did. And guess ship is heading straight to the planetoid he's on. So Fek knows what Osik he's got himself into."
He pushed open the door.
"He's with L'leth doing her rehab." confirmed Ryssa.
Kom'rk huffed, "That's what he calls it now is it?" He strode quickly to the gym, Ryssa and Casey skipping to keep up with him.
.
"So when we've reorganised the rooms, you can finally move in with me. We'll have room for all the medical equipment and Casey can be in the room next door. How does that sound?" Jaing asked, as they were completing her daily rehab.
"Perfect!" Answered L'leth, her lekku confirmed she was pleased with him; she continued to lean against the frame.
"Now, take a few more steps for me."
She sighed.
"I'm tired."
"A few more steps, Cyar'ika. Just for me. Without the frame. Then we'll call it a day."
L'leth took a deep breath and steadied herself before taking a hesitant step forward, and planting her foot firmly on the ground, in front of her. She held her hands out to the side to balance. Learning how to walk again was hard. She took a further step, a little more confident in her strength now, despite breathing hard and starting to perspire.
Jang watched her, ready to leap forward if she fell but she didn't and several steps later she fell into his arms. He carried her over to the chair and sat, with her perched on his knee. Her arms wrapped around his neck, her Lekku following.
He smiled, reading the lekku, "You're feeling frisky now?"
"You're getting better at reading me."
"Oh, I've been able to read you since I first met you."
"Hmm!" She nuzzled into his neck, "I don't believe you."
"Perhaps not, but then I made it a priority to learn and I'm a quick learner."
He leaned his head back, as she kissed along his jaw and he carefully stroked down her left Lek, feeling her shiver in his lap at his touch. They rarely had this time alone.
"Is the door locked?" She whispered, pulling at his earlobe with her teeth. She had not been on Ryloth when the age came to file them and she was not going to start now. She had found other things to do that required more rounded teeth.
"I made sure of that. We needed some time together and Ryssa is looking after Casey. Getting some practice in."
"I wondered where she was."
He felt her breath hitch, as his hand stroked her Lek again, trying to find the pressure that worked for her.
The loud banging on the door startled her, and she grabbed Jaing's biceps.
"Jaing?" Kom'rk's voice was on the other side.
Jaing held onto her but didn't move, "Vod! This is not a good time. Whatever it is, it better be good."
"It is. You need to see it. It's a new ship. Nothing in the Empire's database. It's fast. Heading for Vau."
"Osik!" Jaing swore.
"Go!" L'leth said, "I'll be okay with Ryssa and Casey."
She knew, despite how strong Vau was, there were some things in the Empire you could not resist, if they wanted information from him they would get it.
And he knew exactly where Kyrimorut and Rav were.
Jaing carefully moved her to the seat and unlocked the door.
Ryssa and Casey rushed past him to L'leth.
"So it's a new Imperial ship?" Jaing asked, as they headed to the Ops Room.
'Nothing we've seen or heard of before. No chatter about it — anywhere."
"That can't be right. There must have been something somewhere."
"Nothing that we've picked up."
"And it's heading straight towards where Vau is?"
"Yes."
"You pinged his location?" Jaing arched an eyebrow at that. If Vau wanted them to know exactly where he had gone he would have said.
"Of course."
"Does he know about the ship?"
"Hope so because we can't get hold of him."
"Osik!"
.
Abandoned Republic Outpost.
Unnamed Planetoid.
Outer Rim
They studied the long range scanner.
"Minutes?" Asked Zey.
"Yes. It just dropped out of hyperspace. Obviously wanting to surprise us."
"I think we'll be surprising them." Said Coric, armouring up.
"Just the one?"
"So far. Probably only one to four occupants, looking at the size."
"Can you identify the type?" Vau asked Maze.
"No, not from this far out and there's nothing like it coming up on the Nulls database but the only people engineering new ships with that speed at the moment is the Empire."
"We assume it's the Empire and they want Rampart."
"Best guess."
"I'll take your guesstimate over other peoples facts, Captain. So not a large contingent. Not likely to be bombing us."
Maze blinked for a few seconds unused to the compliment from Vau.
"No but we need to get out of here, probably some kind of ion cannon or rockets. Not civilian.
"What do we do with him? Take him with us?"
They turned to see Rampart watching them closely; his demeanour slightly changed.
Maze turned back to the scanner, "It's coming into land, not taking any evasive manoeuvres. I think it picked up when we were scanning it."
Zey watched Rampart; "He knows now!"
"Are we taking him with us?" Asked Coric.
"I'd rather not." Replied Maze, "Let's see who this is first. Can you do the memory wipe thing on him?" Maze asked, "He would give us up in a heartbeat."
Zey looked uncomfortable for a few seconds before he replied, "Yes. Not sure how long for though."
"Will it stand up to Imperial scrutiny?" Asked Vau.
"Yes, probably."
Vau gave him that look that said 'probably' wasn't good enough, although from what he had heard about Imperial tactics, leaving him with the Empire was a far worse fate than killing him.
"It's the best I can say. I don't know what they would use on him—Inquisitor's."
"They might just kill him." Coric interrupted, now fully armoured and checking his his blaster while pointing it at Rampart.
"More likely to kill us—Zey?" Maze asked.
The ex Jedi nodded, he was ready. He had done worse in the grand scheme of things and Rampart destroyed a whole planet, even though it was at the behest of the Emperor. He knew exactly what he was doing there was no ignorance involved. When he had been in Rampart's mind he had sensed no remorse over anything he had done, only that he had been caught out and imprisoned.
He'd had no qualms about obeying those orders, interrogating Neryssa, destroying Kamino, there was something on Sorenno too. He headed into Rampart and put his hand on his shoulder, Rampart looked up to him, then lost focus.
Being in his mind made Zey feel dirty, even though it lasted less than a minute; he felt the need to meditate but later.
Vau scanned, "There's only one occupant but it's difficult keeping track of him, he's good."
"He's very good." Maze commented.
"Clone?"
"Probably."
"ARC or Commando?"
"Highly likely, or trained by one."
"I think the odds are on our side. A Jedi, two ARCs and a bloody Cuy'val Dar training sergeant." Coric observed.
"I'm so happy you think so. Shall we see if we can get him alive?"
"You always have to up the kriffing ante, don't you Sarge?" Coric replied, no longer fazed by Vau, his adrenaline increasing in anticipation of impending action.
Vau hinted at a smile.
If they had him alive, they may be able to get more Intel from him and dispose of Rampart.
.
They split up and positioned, covering every entrance, in some way, and assumed Rampart was the main target. Coric took great delight in pushing him into a tiny, windowless and practically airless room, gagged and locking him in. He had decided he had a big mouth.
Their antagonist was fast and had no fear. He hit them straight on, blasting the main door and he moved fast, methodically, through the building, clearing each room at a time.
Vau blasted at the figure who returned fire; it bounced off his Bes'kar. The armour clad figure, lunged at him, vibroblade in hand taking Vau with him. It glanced off his armour, as Vau moved quickly away from the neck hit the assailant had aimed for, taking him by surprise for a few seconds.
Zey appeared and force pushed the assailant to the wall. He stood immediately, running down the corridor towards Coric.
"Not sure what the armour is but it doesn't look heavy. He's no Commando or ARC, too slight!" Commented Coric, on his coms, he fired but the assassin leapt out of their way.
Coric ran after him, heading towards their makeshift kitchen; Maze was already there in the corridor.
Maze signalled. They had him cornered.
Coric moved out firing rapidly; he hit the assassin but it didn't stop him; instead the assassin returned fire.
Coric fell back, hit by several blaster bolts and dropped to his knees, wincing at the burn in his chest and struggling to get his breath but he'd had worse.
He told himself.
Maze dropped to his knees, seeing Coric was unable to fire, he commenced firing at the assailant, getting in several hits; he grimaced as he was hit on his arm.
The assassin was quick and ruthless.
Maze sensed Zey appear beside him, he stood over Coric, batting away the blaster bolts with his lightsaber, towards his opponent.
He cursed, as the clone sped away; he was out of practice.
He turned to Maze and Coric;
Maze nodded at Coric who struggled to stand and he was down to using one blaster.
Zey dropped to his knees, pulled away the blasted part of armour and held his hand close to the injury.
"I can't do much, he really needs a Bacta tank. I'll do what I can, so he can move better.
Maze nodded then sped off after the clone.
He soon found him or rather the clone found Maze.
"What do you need Rampart for?" The voice rasped through the helmet.
"None of your business." Replied Maze, this was definitely a clone.
"You're on the wrong side you know, brother! You can't win, you know."
"Sometimes it's not about winning but about doing something so someone else can win."
The clone snorted, "That's never going to happen."
.
Vau came up behind the assassin, he still knew a trick or two about moving stealthily in his armour. Maze was doing a good job keeping the enemy occupied, despite being injured, his left arm hung limply at his side.
Vau unsheathed his Bes'kad, it was all he had left, his blaster had overheated, and he swung it up aiming for the neck.
He sliced down.
It severed part of his opponent's shoulder, blood spurted and yet he still turned towards him. At that point Zey appeared holding onto Coric and they both fired.
Vau watched as the clone finally dropped.
"I said I wanted this one alive."
"We can't always have what we kriffing want, Sarge!" Coric gasped.
"And we need to get you into a Bacta tank. Where's Rampart?"
Coric nodded towards the heavy door.
"There's another ship on its way."
Maze was injured, as was Zey, who sported a nasty blaster burn across his head.
That must hurt thought Vau but he was still holding up the younger man, the red welt from an attempted garrotting visible. Vau couldn't remember that happening to Zey.
He dragged the dead assassin onto his back, "His body could tell us something and we need every bit of Intel if this is what the Empire are doing."
"Is everything clean?"
Maze grunted! "Did it as we went along."
"Your ship?"
Maze held out a data chip, "We always wipe the navcom when we arrive." Zey answered for him, "We have as much to lose as you."
"Get to my ship! It's faster. I'll cover."
Zey held a hand out to Coric, pulled him up and the three limped along to the ship.
Walon dropped the dead clone and pulled out some detonite from his pack. He weighed it up in his hand.
"Should be sufficient." Then inserted a detonator and pushed it to the main door.
He pulled the clone back onto his back and headed out, the sound of Rampart banging on the other door ringing in his ears.
"I can only carry one and it needs to be the most useful." He said to no one.
On the ship, he dumped the body on the floor, Maze was in the co pilot seat
"Let's go!" They rose from the planet and the outpost exploded in a flash of detonite.
Vau looked down with satisfaction, as soon as they exited atmosphere they went to hyperspace.
"Rampart?" Asked Zey, "I wiped his memory."
Walon stared into hyperspace.
.
Kyrimorut
Kom'rk and Jaing hunched over the screen, joined by Ordo.
"Why didn't we know about this?"
"Not sure. We have bots scraping every bit of the Empire's communications and infiltrating any systems they can get in. The algorithm should pick up any anomalies. These are both running 24/7. We've not been thrown out of any systems for weeks, not since we upgraded after the Ties."
Jaing was not used to defending his systems, especially to his brother.
"Anything from any of the shipyards?"
"Nothing—unless—"
"They're building it in parts and assembling elsewhere." Kom'rk pointed out, "They kept us secret for more than ten years.
"Have we managed to get hold of Vau yet?"
"No!"
Ordo pinched the bridge of his nose; they were still waiting for Omega to confirm their plan. This was the last thing they needed. Everyone had to be on high alert but he didn't want to frighten any of the females especially Ryssa, she was half way through her pregnancy. He called his father.
.
Kal paced, com in hand.
If Vau was caught he knew this location, they would have to bug out earlier than he ever expected and they hadn't yet identified another secure planet, not to remain on.
"We're bringing something back." Vau's voice came over the com. "It needs a thorough examination."
"What the Kriff did you think you were doing?"
"What you are. Looking for my boys."
Kal opened his mouth then closed it again; he had said they were welcome here, all clones. He walked around in a circle. Ordo and A'den watched him carefully, expecting the blow up.