Act 2 Prologue. Bait and Switch
Here, have this.
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36 BBY or 964 ARR (3 years before Yinchor)
Spheres of various different shapes floated slowly about the training room. They didn't move all that quickly, simply floating along. They weren't the true focus of my day. I was practicing something Master Tal'or taught me extensively. Telekinetic control.
Any Jedi could float spheres of various weights and open locks all they want, but fine tuned TK could be even more deadly. Disassembly of a blaster in someone's hand, holding in the atmosphere from hull breach, disallowing the molecules to individually escape an airlock, and in the case of dark siders, crush specific organs or close off blood vessels in an organism's body. Hence why my concentration was focused on the model I was building, not the floating spheres. They were more for practice for mind partitioning than anything. Wouldn't be long before I could do the floaty extra lightsaber thing like Revan or Kreia.
It was a model of the Ebon Hawk. I only had about 5% done within the interior of the frame. It was tedious. Building the ship in pieces and locking them together would have been easier. However, holding the entire frame together was part of the exercise as well. I had wanted to make a Halo from Combat Evolved, but alas, no one would get it.
I, myself, was floating too, because why stop there? I sensed a presence approaching. From what I could gather, it was Plo-Koon. He had someone else with him. It was Windu.
Oh, what now? I thought to myself. I couldn't remember if I had done anything wrong in the last week or two,
I opened the door as they got close.
"Masters," I said, standing up from my floating meditation. The spheres stopped and parted for them to walk past.
"Knight Luminara. Apologies for ending your mediation and the work on your… project." Windu said, unsure whether or not to deride the idea.
"No, it's fine. I was running low on crates and storage containers to place in the interior anyway." I sent the spheres around the edges to the exit of the room where they slowly dropped to the floor, well out of the way.
Plo-Koon walked over to inspect the ship model. He seemed to look at it for a moment gauging its size. It wasn't very big, only around half a meter in length.
"Yes, we are not here for a social call. The council has a mission for you." Plo-koon was straight to the point.
"How can I help?" I asked.
Windu elaborated. "Have you heard of the Bloodtyde?"
I nodded, "They were a small Nikito based gang usually keeping to merc work and protection rackets in the Outer Rim."
"They have increased the size of their operation in recent years since they started hiring non-nikito species. We believe they are in position of some items valuable to the Jedi." Plo-koon said. "They were hired to protect an archaeological dig on a planet. We believe it was once home to an old Jedi Enclave. It was abandoned after Exar Kun's forces overran it during the Old Sith Wars."
"Hmm, this seems out of character for them. They almost never break contracts. So are they planning to sell the artifacts or hold an auction? Usually how it goes." I said.
"From the sound of it they are going to sell it to a collector in the Outer Rim." Windu said. That would make things harder. Such sales were harder to track. Auctions tended to allow for word to spread about the location and who was going to the event unless it was over holo. That was frowned upon due to lag however.
"Okay, then where was the location of the site?" I asked.
"We only know it was in the Auril Sector. Ancient Records show it was very important to the Jedi. In what way has been lost to history." Windu answered. That is where Bal'demnic was located. There was a certain Sith Lord interested in that place for its vast array of Cortosis mines. This could give me a chance to expose that little operation. Bal'Demnic would make a poor trading point, but a well hidden one. It might not even be near there.
"I will leave immediately." I bowed and began to leave. I was stopped by Plo-koon's voice.
"Luminara," I turned and he gestured at my Model Ship. "Your project."
"Right," I said. I waved my hand and the ship broke apart into sections and landed neatly in the box I kept it in. I then called the box to my hands.
"I'll drop this off by quarters, then leave immediately." I said. Plo nodded and I bowed once more and left to go on the mission to the Auril Sector.
…
"Are you still mad?" Komari found herself asking Luminara while they sat in the small ship. The T-6's fins rotated to a vertical position as it flew out of the Coruscant's atmosphere. Komari tapped her fingers impatiently on her knee while she waited.
Luminara said nothing, simply piloting the ship. Komari sighed seeing that Lumi had a false expression of serene calm on her face. Though Vosa could sense her girlfriend's annoyance and irrational anger toward her, Komari made no attempt to say anything, simply letting the question hang in the air.
They sat in silence before Luminara put the ship on autopilot. Komari found herself irritated at the silence. Two days of this nonsense. She wasn't going to apologize. It had to be done.
So Komari decided to play her own quiet game and began to meditate. If she knew the Mirialan well enough, which she was starting to. Eventually Lumi would get sick of her own game and-
"You shouldn't have done that." Komari opened one eye and raised an eyebrow. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Lumi frowning with her arms crossed. Komari couldn't help but smirk.
"Well, it had to be done." Komari said, not giving ground. Lumi was used to having things go her way. Komari felt it was good to throw a spanner in the Mirialan's day to day every once in a while.
"You could have given me a heads up. I could have-"
"Could have sat there obstinately while the complex's water reservoir drowned the apartment. You should be thankful for me having the foresight to get our stuff out of there. Or is it about my choice in new living arrangements?" It was Komari's turn to go on the offensive.
Lumi looked a bit flustered. "No, of course not." Komari rolled her eyes at the incoming "but"
"But doesn't it seem a bit much? I mean the lower 5000s seems a bit too conspicuous, doesn't it." Lumi asked.
"A little bit of style never hurts. More space, and storage. Not to mention the city gives more of a damn about maintaining the public works on the upper levels. You will grow to like it, I know it."
Lumi sighed, conceding for now. "I was getting tired of the water dipping out of the ceiling. If I had known the level above had such poor maintenance. I would not have rented it out. It was still cozy."
"Indeed, now let's discuss the mission. Where do you think they would make the trade?" she asked.
Lumi placed a hand on her tattooed chin and thought for a moment. Pulling up a star map on the sector she looked it over. "Well Murkhana would be too obvious. Chashima is out. Keead most certainly not worthwhile. Forscan is a maybe. Repea is too risky. Weytta is too close to Murkhana." Lumi closed her eyes. Komari could sense her reaching out to the force for guidance. "Only one system that comes to mind. A backwater by the name of Bal'Demnic."
"You are certain?" Komari asked.
"Well it checks all the boxes. Out of the way, a primitive populace, and most likely easily bribed officials as you find on many backwaters. There is also one spaceport on the planet. So the trade will be made in the wild." Lumi said while combing over a good place for a trade on the planet's surface.
"You learned all this from Master Tal'or." Komari asked. Lumi nodded.
"'Criminals aren't as complicated as you think' He would always say. 'Crafty to be sure. but ultimately they operate fairly simply.' Now could you go over scans of recent seismic activity. It says the planet is known for unstable tectonic activity. They wouldn't risk making the trade on unstable ground unless they are fools." That was that. It took a day or two to get there. Hopefully they could make it before the swap.
Scan for any ship or shuttle signatures on the ground." Luminara said as they entered the system. Komari took a brief moment to admire Lumi's work ethic. Though it could be a bit grating at times getting her fellow knight to wind down every now and again. The last two days were proof of that. Lumi was doing that thing where she would start thinking to herself and getting a far off look as if running something past her eyes. Old Memories or something. Komari would sometimes try to break her out of it, but that would only annoy Luminara.
However, she did as asked. Not wanting to mess with her partner's mood during a mission. Komari scanned the surface. It narrowed things down quite a bit. No doubt once Lumi finished her own scans. They would have a possible location for the trade.
"A lot of this all depends on timing." Komari said, "If we even have the right planet."
"It does, They could have beat feet out of the Auril Sector for all we know. The Bloodtyde no doubt would want to get rid of the cargo as fast as possible." Lumi said before adding, "That and this feels like the place."
Komari nodded as she piloted the ship into the space port. Choosing a landing pad enveloped the T-6 enough to not have it stick out. After landing, she was going to let Luminara take the lead here. Unless the trade was going to take place in some fancy mansion or some place of grand wealth or a sort of government office, she was out of her depth. Besides, it was fun watching Lumi work.
…
Much to my relief and a little bit of surprise. The Bloodtyde did show. It was then this sale that I knew was probably linked to Plagueis. I knew he would send agents to collect the artifacts at least.
We followed the Bloodtyde shuttle to the meeting point. It was an open cliff edge covered in green moss. There were two Nikito being led by a Rodian of all things. Strange for a formerly all Nikito gang. A third Nikito was hauling a large crate behind them out of the shuttle. The Rodian gestured around saying something about getting ready.
"I assume you want to see who they meet before jumping the sale." Komari asked.
I nodded. We were hiding further up the cliff. The Shuttle we had was completely shut down to avoid detection. Both of us sat on a cliff not far from the exchange, using macronoculars. The exchange did happen. As a figure in brown smugglers get-up, hopped out of the shuttle. They were a kubaz. No doubt a third party intended to make the trade discreetly.
I sighed, "Damn, Third party. Buyer is smart enough not to show. Well we better get the artifacts at least."
Komari nodded, and lept out Lightsabers ignited. "Drop your weapons and surrender. I am taking custody of the artifacts on authority of the Jedi Order. You will lay down your arms or I will have to take you in by force."
I casually walked down the hill just out of sight, while Komari had their attention. Once I was in a flanking position I strolled out into the clearing. The box containing the artifacts was lifted and floated toward me.
"I'll be taking that." one of the big nikto guards tried to snatch it as it passed him. He grabbed and ended up desperately being dragged along with it. His feet dug into the rocky ground.
"No touchy." I said. I pushed him off with a wave and he flew into the nearby shuttle. knocked out cold.
Letting the box float, I opened the box. I felt half the blasters being aimed at me. I rolled my eyes.
"None of that." I snapped my fingers reaching out with the force. Everyone's blasters immediately had their safeties click on and rip off, rendering it difficult to put them back into fire mode. This caused some blasters to outright fall apart in their hands. I could sense their shock while I finished opening the box.
Inside was nothing worthwhile, just rocks. I felt a sense of dread when I heard a familiar voice enter the clearing. I looked up to see a Mandalorian in deathwatch colors wave at me with an amused aura. Practically skipping into the clearing.
"I was expecting a Jedi to show up, but I am surprised and thrilled it was you. I know Mirialan's love symmetry. Seems only fair when I finish my work." She held up her new cybernetic arm. A vibroblade slid out. A memory of pain flashed behind my eyes. It was the same blade. I should've taken the whole arm back then, and her entire buckethead.
To say I was dancing close to the edge of the dark side was an understatement. My eyes narrowed and I reached out with the force to- grab at- at- nothing? I looked at the nikito gangers and other Bloodtyde members. I felt them just fine.
I looked back at the Deathwatch who was examining a tiny lizard clinging to her shoulder pad.
"Here I thought I was getting scammed. Well you turned out to be just what I needed, didn't you?" she cooed at the little lizard.
My eyes widened as I realized what it was. A karking ysalamiri. A baby yes, but still a damn force muting lizard. Luckily it wasn't full grown yet so the effect of the natural force dampening field they gave off wouldn't be as great. I dare say the field would most likely be contained to the Bounty Hunter herself.
Well I considered how best to handle this. I looked up at Komari.
"I will handle Huntress. Take care of the Others." I didn't wait for a response. I reached out and tore off a section of a nearby shuttle. The small piece of debris hurled itself at Huntress. Specifically at the damn lizard. I felt my control on the debris slip away as it entered the field around two meters from Huntress.
The Bounty Hunter dodged with ease but realized quickly what I was doing. True to form, she pulled out her blasters in less than a blink and began firing. I deflected them with my lightsaber. I reflected all the bolts back at the damn lizard. Huntress quickly dodged her own shots. Her reflexes for a non-force sensitive were impressive.
This forced Huntress to change tactics and threw a charge of some sorts at me. I stopped it mid air. I was more than happy to throw it back when it exploded in a cloud of smoke, which filled up the immediate area. For safety's sake I put up a bubble that kept it from getting near me. I still sensed life nearby so I partitioned my mind to check on the battle behind me. The Bloodtyde members were folding under Komari's whirlwind of sabers. The ones that weren't bunkered down due to lack of firearms. Or they were just smart.
I reached out sensing where the Bounty Hunter ran off to. There was no way she retreated so quickly. I did my best look beyond the smoke and chaos only for a damn jet pack rocket to fly out at me. It got closer than the smoke bomb did. I stopped the rocket mid-air and again it exploded. This time some of the meat of the explosion flew at me. I was confused as I knocked back a step. Was it some sort of a mid-air shaped charge? It had a sensor that trigger upon the halted motion and exploded forwards after the dead stop. Leave to the Mandolorians to come up with ways to annoy Jedi mid battle. Just glad there weren't ten of them.
I ignited my other saber as the attack I knew was coming nearly hit me. The Force died away, and with a sense of dread filling my stomach I rolled on instinct knowing she managed to close the gap with that little stunt. Some sort of screeching howl knocked me back, my sabers fell from my grasp. I fell back on my hand to hand training best I could. Losing access to the Force was skin to losing sight or hearing. My natural instincts were right and I was able to avoid that wretched blade, I fell back on my subspecies' natural agility and flexibility. It was best I could do to not be sliced up by that damn vibroblade. Huntress' reputation was very well earned. She managed to kick me back with a feint.
I hopped up. Only to see the Mando lifting up a balster to point at my face.
"I only need one of you and you are far too much trouble." Huntress fired. There was no way I could dodge this time. I tried to dodge in futility. There was something we both missed. That something was a shuttle. Not a piece, but the whole damn shuttle. Flung toward us and it hit Huntress as she fired. I felt the force return to my senses as the lizard was crushed first. Huntress shot still connected in my shoulder, her aim knocked off at the last second.
I grunted in pain as I was flung back. By the shot.
"Kark!" I growled as I immediately sat back up and called my lightsabers to me.
"Are you alright?" Komari's voice was calm and professional, though with an undertone of fear for my safety.
"I can stand." I said. I looked into her eyes seeing that she was indeed worried. She relaxed when I smiled. I slowly got up to my knees and surveyed the damage to my shoulder. It would heal.
"So did you get her?" As soon as I said the words we heard the sound of a starship taking off filled our ears.
A Mandalorian style fighter lifted into the air and burned into the atmosphere.
"How in the nine Corellian Hells did she survive that?" Komari asked.
I looked at the wreckage of the shuttle Komari threw at the Mando. I saw a crack in the mountainside.
"She got lucky." I stood. "And she is smart enough to not test that luck any further it seems."
"What's that?" Komari pointed at something on the ground. I saw a gleam. Komari picked it up.
"They look like some sort of cuff. Very advanced." She turned and when I saw them, I took a step back involuntarily. I had hoped to never see another pair of those wretched things again.
Komari saw my reaction. She seemed confused. I had to take a breath to calm my nerves and my emotions. The memories of the pain flooding back had to be squashed.
"You have seen this type of cuffs before." She asked.
"I felt their sting at Troiken. They are designed for Force Users. They use a Kyber crystal to sense when a force user reaches out…" I had to tear my gaze away to finish and recover my composer. "They are hard to get off."
"How did you manage it?" Komari asked as she moved to stand by my side. She placed a hand on my shoulder.
"I had to use tutaminus. Even that was hard. I didn't know how much I relied on the force until they slapped a pair of those cuffs on. Of course I could have just broken my thumb and been out of them earlier." I said.
"Good thing you did not. These cuffs have a compressed foam lock. They would auto-adjusted to the difference in space and tightened down harder. Breaking a thumb wouldn't have done much." Komari said, looking at the cuffs.
That made me feel a little better about shocking myself over and over all those years ago. I gave a light nod. "We better call the authorities to deal with the bloodtyde."
It was while loading the criminals on the remaining shuttle that we found the ore. Corotosis, apparently capturing Jedi, wasn't the only thing this little meetup was about. Komari went to inform the council. When I was alone, I pulled out my burner communicator and made a call. It was a calculated move, but I couldn't risk the Sith being outed too early. Who knows where they would hide. Damask Holdings owned the majority of the mines on this world.
I was connected to a secretary, "Is Hego Damask busy?"
The secretary, a female Muun secretary said. She almost scowled, "Yes, may I ask what this was about?"
"Tell him a friend of Master Dooku wants him to know that it might be best to divest of the Bal'demnic venture before the Jedi look into the matter. They have been notified of the planet's unique mineral makeup. Please send it along." I said, crushing the Burner with the Force. Hanging up before Komari returned from her own call. It wasn't much, and I wasn't certain the Secretary would do so. Hopefully dropping Dooku's name was enough to get Damask's attention.
"The local authorities will be sending out a team to take custody. I'll drive us back. We'll throw on a bacta patch when we get to the capital." Komari said. "I don't think the speeder we took has a good medkit."
I nodded, and we left Bal'demnic behind.
…
I sat in the T-6's small medbay for about an hour while Komari flew the ship out of orbit. I told her to watch out in case our Mandalorian friend decided to stay and jump us in space. It was doubtful. She was most likely in rougher shape then I was.
My shoulder wound wasn't as bad as it could have been. Still I didn't want Komari to fuss and I applied the bacta patch myself after cleaning out the wound with antiseptic. .
She entered not a moment later.
"Oh I see you already dressed the wound." Komari walked over. She sounded disappointed. I rolled my eyes and let her examine it. Her hands were rough from hard combat training yet they still softly swept over the bandaged area.
"Not as bad as it looks." I said, trying to comfort her worries a bit.
"The physical ones." She said, and those icy blues stared up at me. I found I couldn't hold her gaze for long.
"It's nothing."
"If you say so," Komari made no mention of it further and spoke no further. I hated when she did this.
"Troiken." I finally muttered. "When I was captured, Huntress was the one to give me the scar. To be fair I was being a bit mouthy."
Komari nodded as if that hadn't changed much. I ignored that.
"She used that vibroblade to cut open my face. I should have grabbed the whole arm." I growled. She was mildly confused for a moment at the last comment.
"She was the one to do that to you, If I had known, I would have-" I stopped her mid threat.
"What? Killed her in cold blood? Given into the darkness? Komari…" I grabbed her hands on my own. "Please don't ever say that. Promise me no matter what, you will never cross that line even on my account."
Komari smiled, but didn't make that promise. I don't think I could have done the same either as I held her gaze. I could see she knew that was well. She turned away, and pulled out the force cuffs, changing the subject.
"We will have to see what we can find out about these when we get back." I looked at the damn cuffs. Komari continued. "Even if they are custom, they have to get those parts from somewhere."
"If they are planning to capture Jedi, I think they might have covered that angle. Doesn't hurt to check just in case." I added.
"Precisely." We heard the comm beep in the cockpit.
"I'll get that." Komari said. She left the cuff on the tray before she left.
I looked at the cuffs. I glared at it and pulled them over. They flew through the air and landed in my hand. I really looked them over. They were a newer design. Not as blocky as the older model. Whoever made these were improving their design. I did find a maker's mark of sorts. It looked like a Butterfly. If they had confidence enough to put that on there then it most likely was not a symbol that could be traced. I shook my head.
Who are you and what is your game? I wondered to myself.
A/N: Sorry for taking so long to update. I am trying to get back into the swing of things and plot out things a bit more thoroughly for this act. I was up a lot when the cows were calving and now it is planting season so I spend most the day working. I will attempt to keep this story my focus, but the damn writing bug bit me, and I am working on a new story. This story always takes priority over new and old projects so don't get too worried. I should revisit my old (Ancient ) stuff at some point too.