Chapter 106

"Quick get on!"

The moment Anakin sat astride the brezak's saddle the creature rumbled to life from its afternoon snooze and didn't look too happy about it.

"I really think I should be handling the beast," Scintel said wearily, as he unwound and grabbed the reins. "Have you ever ridden one of these?"

Anakin had already slapped a Beast Control through the Force on the brezak and could probably make it dance the ballet if he wanted to.

"Not this species, but I'm a quick study. Now please, majesty, we don't have time. Atre will sit behind you and handle the blasters."

Scintel was still clearly dubious about it, but gave up her objections when Anakin easily with just a tug of the reins and slight dig of his heels, caused the brezak to sinuously compact itself so we could easily climb up into the saddle.

I jumped up after her awkwardly, as my hands were occupied with two blasters, whilst Scintel had her's tucked into her belt.

"Ha!" Anakin slapped the reins, lightly kicking both his heels into the brezak's back.

Its mighty membrane wings unfurled, with one huge jump and a single flap, we surged into the air over the city's pleasure district.

"Any suggestions for where to go, majesty?!" he asked over the roaring wind.

Scintel took a moment to answer, distracted by what she was feeling under her arms as they were looped around Anakin's waist. "Honestly, no! The only other option is fleeing the city, which I refuse to do! I'll not let these scum drive me out of my own home!"

"Well we better think of something quick!" I shouted. "We've got company out of the west!"

Three speeders, shaped like tapered delta wings, were rapidly approaching. I could sense two zygerrians in each, their ugly and grim emotions betraying their murderous intentions.

"Hang on!" Anakin twisted the reins, turning the brezak east and it sped up significantly, its wings flapping furiously, the long body undulating under us.

There was no way we were outrunning or outlasting these pursuers. The brezak would fall out of the sky with exhaustion if we kept this pace for too long.

That meant we had to fight our way out of this.

Our only saving grace was the fact that these speeders weren't armed themselves, only their passengers were.

Even as I thought that, the passengers in question leaned out of the side windows and brought blasters to bear on us.

"Dive!" I shouted, looking back over my shoulder.

Anakin's precog didn't really need my help, but we were still technically undercover here.

The brezak plunged down just in time to avoid the orange bolts that missed by meters over our heads.

"Keep steady, I need to flip around!"

Anakin pulled us out of the dive just skimming over the city rooftops.

The stability allowed me to lift my right leg up, bring it around Scintel's back, until I was sitting side-saddle.

The dive had given us some much needed velocity, but now the speeders also did the same.

I leveled both blasters up into the sky above us, picked a target and let loose with a burst of rapid semi-auto fire.

My bolts peppered the sky around the target, intentionally missing a few here and there, whilst I finally adjusted two shots to land on the nose of the speeder, digging a neat hole at a critical point in the chassis and the other to fry the head of the zygerrian shooter in the passenger seat.

The speeder immediately began listing to one side, smoke trailing out of it, before it lost too much altitude and crumpled itself against the hard stone of a tall passing building, spitting fire and wreckage into the air.

Anakin pulled the brezak left and guided the creature into a climb, its wings flapping furiously against the air.

The two remaining speeders roared passed below us, the gunners shooting at us and missing wildly thanks to the relative velocity difference and angles.

If we had only one advantage being on this creature, it was in maneuverability.

"Ha! Go, go, go!" Anakin shouted.

There was no need for shouting really, at this point the brezak was an extension of Anakin.

We leveled out at three hundred meters and the enemy speeders were steering hard right to make another attack run on us.

My kingdom for a DC15X sniper at this moment.

The effective range of these blaster pistols meant I could only engage the enemy at 100 meters at best, beyond that the plasma lost too much energy and cohesion. I'd be scorching the paint at 200 meters.

Both speeders were coming at us full tilt now, their anger, bloodlust and revenge for their fallen comrades surging like fire through their psyches.

I threw my legs over, changing my side-saddle position to face towards our three o'clock.

My arms came up and I aimed towards the incoming enemy.

"Any time now, Atre!" Anakin shouted.

"Too far!" I snapped.

The gunners leaned out, but this time only presented their gun arms and bits of their heads out of the passenger windows.

They fired first - Anakin had to pull Scintel with him to the side to avoid two blaster bolts that would've slammed into their shoulders.

My fingers started rapidly pulling the triggers as I returned fire.

Three shots missed, but the fourth and fifth slammed into the front windshield, going straight though. The shot's lethality was reduced completely, but they shattered the low-quality transparisteel of the civilian vehicle and became very lethal shrapnel that peppered the eyes and faces of both zygerrians inside.

Shot six, seven and eight missed, nine buried into the nose of the second speeder, burning a nice hole there. Ten and eleven were aimed right at the face of the driver. The shots had traveled merely sixty meters, so went right through the windshield and flash fried the driver's head before it exploded.

"Hold on!"

I safed my blasters and awkwardly grabbed hold of Scintel just in time.

Anakin threw the brezak into the equivalent of an Immelman - the creature pulled abruptly into a vertical climb. Then further over into a back-to-the-earth position.

I had to hurriedly wrap my legs around the saddle's rear pommel to avoid my body getting pulled off the saddle by gravity.

The two speeders careened past underneath us in a flash of speed, the single able gunner of the right speeder futilely trying to land a shot.

Both wobbled at high speed through the air, losing altitude.

I sensed the gunner of the left speeder frantically trying to regain control from his now headless driver. He managed somewhat, but the speed controls were at the driver's left arm and out of reach.

The speeder whose occupants were either bleeding out or utterly blind frantically maneuvered and soon lost all sense of their orientation.

It nosed over and plowed into a very surprised and crowded street.

I felt nine sentients die instantly, including our attackers before dozens more were injured as the speeder spent its remaining momentum, tumbling and crashing a further thirty meters.

Anakin flipped the brezak over and finally gravity was where it belonged.

The remaining speeder shot off into the distance, totally concerned now only for his own survival and not killing us.

'We can't stay in the sky, Skyguy! We're too 's more where that came from! We need to somehow convince them that their mission is accomplished.' I thought quickly, seeing the probability lines converging and in quite a few of them the brezak was wounded badly enough that I saw it plunging out of the sky with us on it.

"Majesty! Is there any large body of water in or near the city?!" he asked.

"Lake Trama! To the north-east from here," she pointed.

Anakin nodded and turned the grezak into that direction, getting as much speed as he could from the creature.

"How far?!"

Scintel frantically looked around trying to get her bearings, before shrugging, "Maybe thirteen kilometers?!"

'Skyguy, we'll get there, but there's another problem. Our little mid air battle has attracted official attention.'

'Sithspit!'

We'd reach the lake in four minutes, forty nine seconds.

It would only be ninety seconds of flight before we'd be intercepted by city patrol officers also on their own brezaks. What we were going to tell them, I had no idea. There was no way to know at this point who were the 'bad guys' in this situation. Scintel was surely not going to be recognized at a distance.

Sure enough, two brezaks came towards us from the west, whilst another three were flying in from the north, clearly trying to limit our course and eventually box us in.

"Majesty! We have a problem!" Anakin pointed at the incoming patrols.

Scintel practically radiated frustrated anger, exasperation and a creeping dread.

"Atre, switch your weapons to stun, don't shoot the brezak!"

My own frustration with the coming situation and the limitations I was forced under was really starting to wear on me, but I obeyed nevertheless, using my thumbs to flick the fire selector switches on the blasters.

Anakin shifted the brezak's course slightly further right, now going in a more east-north-east direction.

The main result was that the patrol officers didn't manage to box us in and all of them converged on our six o' clock, giving me the best possible angle to shoot.

"HALT! In the name of the Queen!"

I would forehead slap myself if my hands weren't filled with blaster pistols.

The only outlet for my sheer exasperation was to bring my blasters to bear and fire.

Two blue stun rings shot outward and caught the zygerrian who had called in the name of his queen. He immediately collapsed in his seat and slumped forward. His brezak, cleverly trained beast that it was, also knew what to do and dove for the ground to land.

The four remaining patrol officers saw it happen, gaped for a moment, then scattered their mounts and finally drew their own weapons.

I had to wonder just what was in the order that sent them out in the first place. They had to have been scrambled in a hurry to just see what was going on, since it was very chaotic for law enforcement at the moment.

Anakin dove and twisted our mount left then right, to avoid the stun shots that were sent our way.

At least these guys were trained with proportionality of response, thank goodness.

I sent four shots to my bottom left and nailed another patrol officer with a deflection shot that he flew right into.

"Atre! Enemy at 340!" Anakin shouted, as he twisted our brezak into a jinking pattern of flight.

It seemed that the Trak were not giving us up so easily.

Rising up from the city streets, were two speeders and what was definitely a more militarized armored speeder, which even had dorsal and ventral articulated Repeater turrets.

How they got that, I couldn't spare any thought for.

I sent off three more stun shots, hitting another patrol officer. The rapid turns Anakin was doing now meant one of them also hit the other brezak on the membrane wing. The poor creature moaned into the sky before diving for the ground.

A few moments later the Trak arrived with guns blazing.

The fire from the armored speeder's Repeater practically blasted one of the patrol brezak in half, whilst the rider was flung off to plunge to his death.

The other speeder tried to ram into our brezak.

"Hang on!"

Anakin pulled a stunt that had probably never been done with one of these creatures in the history of their domestication.

Our brezak flapped once, then twice, but ever so slightly contracted the surface area of its membrane wings in just the right way…

The brezak jinked upward and rolled.

The ramming speeder passed just a few meters 'above' my head, but I was upside down at the moment…

It took all my strength not to lose both my blasters due to the sudden centrifugal forces trying to rip them away, as I aimed, switched to lethal shots and pulled the triggers rapidly.

I managed to pump four shots into the speeder, drawing a line along its body.

Its repulsors failed and it became no more airworthy than a brick. Gravity reclaimed it swiftly and it only moved forward on its tremendous forward momentum.

Our brezak came out of its roll and Scintel had reached the point where she was frightened out of her wits. Her world only became her arms clutching for dear life around Anakin and the feeling of her face squished against his back.

The one good thing to come from this, it finally clued in the two surviving patrol officers as to what was going on here to a degree.

They slewed their mounts through the air and began firing at the enemy with blasters.

It didn't help much.

Their accuracy was naturally poor in the circumstances, missing the armored speeder and its hostile buddy entirely.

Anakin dove our brezak to the ground abruptly, just in time to avoid a scything burst of Repeater fire that streamed over our heads.

The two patrol officers managed to coordinate enough at this point to actually keep the remaining enemy speeder distracted.

Until they directed one of their brezak to actually physically pounce on the craft.

What happened further there I had no concentration for as I was too busy shooting at the armored speeder trying to cut us down with rapid plasmatic death.

We were now flying at rooftop level, belly to the earth and Anakin was snaking the brezak through the buildings at breakneck speed. Actually using them as cover!

"Just a little further boy, you're doing great!" he shouted, patting the neck of our mount.

The Repeaters whined, peppering plasma bolts in our direction as the speeder dove to somewhat match our altitude, but kept slightly higher. The shots slammed into passing rooftops, blasting holes and sending fragments flying through the air.

Actually shooting back at this point was now challenging even with the Force on my side. Anakin was twisting and throwing the poor brezak around so rapidly that he was in danger of injuring the beast.

My precog kicked in and I snapped my blasters upward, first firing three shots behind us at the enemy, which naturally missed just to make it seem plausible, before two shots managed to clip the nose of the speeder.

The armor was well up to the task of resisting though, but it was enough for the driver to flinch somewhat and change his own evasive course.

This meant the person sitting at the gunnery station completely fumbled the next bursts from the Repeater, missing us by miles.

'Snips! Lake's ahead! Sure about this?'

'I could destroy this thing right now, but the Trak are desperate to kill Scintel. They're just going to send more at us and we can't fight like this forever.'

I adjusted the settings on one of my blasters, then reached into it with technometry, overriding the internal safety governors.

With my left weapon, I kept up at least the appearance of our defense, firing a shot at the enemy every few seconds. Some missed, some spent themselves on the speeder, causing only brief sparks and slight pitting as the armor ablated my shots.

'Get ready, Skyguy. This is going to suck.'

Our brezak burst past the last of the buildings at the waterfront and soared over the water at nearly 180 kph.

With no more cover and a wide open watery expanse, we were easy pickings.

My left blaster rapidly fired the last dregs of its power cell, then I raised my right blaster and fired one overpowered shot, draining all of its remaining charge. The barrel was nearly slagged in the process. The shot was like a small sun had shot forward, such was the brightness.

Thankfully I didn't need my eyes for this.

My shot nailed the speeder, burning straight through the armor at the gunner's side and killing him instantly.

His last dying act was to pull the trigger on the Repeater again.

Anakin tried one last time to jink, it saved our lives but the stream of bolts cut themselves right through our brezak's right membrane wing.

Our smooth, super fast flight became an instant plunge.

'JUMP!'

I dropped both blasters and grabbed Scintel just in time.

Anakin flung us all as one joined body off the dying brezak.

We barely had eight meters of distance to fall, but at our speed the water was as strong as duracrete.

I felt the Force practically explode with power as Anakin released a Force Push ahead of us.

It turned our lethal impact into something that only felt like I had been bodily slapped by a giant just hard enough to give all of us bruises.

The world around us became a blue, bubbling cacophony, especially as the brezak slammed into the lake some thirty meters away.

We kept sinking for two precious seconds as we both tried to regain our wits, Scintel was no better in that department.

I pushed away from her, my instincts already applying the Force internally to limit the usage of oxygen in my lungs.

Anakin also applied a Force Sleep to Scintel, before clamping his mouth over hers and pushing some precious air in her direction.

Our arms and legs treaded water to keep us submerged.

'How long do we need to hold out, Snips?'

'Forty seconds, minimum, fifty to be certain. Will you manage?'

'Of course I will. There's no other choice.'

Obi-Wan coughed as his lungs rebelled against the acrid tang of smoke in the air.

He looked up from the floor where he was still covering Minister Koltal - who was also alive and coughing beneath him - and found the elevator doors opening and closing with a groan of malfunctioning machinery.

A careful roll to the side got him off the minister and he carefully got to his feet, listening attentively for the response the elevator car gave to the action. Thankfully there didn't seem to be any damage beyond the malfunctioning doors.

He picked up his fallen blaster and double checked that it also was in working order.

That done, he stretched out with the Force into the corridor and further beyond. There was only one person alive out there and they were in a great deal of pain.

Koltal twitched and gasped as he came back to his senses, reflexively grabbing at his own fallen weapon, before rolling over and aiming it at the elevator door.

"Ỳewa! Vestret, you injured?"

"No, beyond the lingering effects of the overpressure on my ears and lungs," Obi-Wan said, working his jaw and the Force to alleviate the constant ringing in his ears.

The minister wearily got to his feet and with his blaster leading the way, tried to get a better view through the malfunctioning door. He gritted his teeth and clutched at his prominent ears, rubbing the side of his head. "I'm also in the same ship, otherwise I'd be able to easily hear if our ambushers are still alive. No choice then, help me with this door."

Obi-Wan took one side of the twitching bent door, that was still trying to futilely close.

"Push on three," Koltal instructed. "One, two, three!"

The door thankfully yielded to their efforts.

They emerged into a corridor of the palace that had been thoroughly devastated by the grenade explosion. Ceiling panels were either gone or hanging in tatters, paintings shredded or riddled with shrapnel, nearby tapestries blown off their mountings and lying in pitiful piles.

The area where the grenade had actually exploded had scorched walls and there were small cinders of burning materials; which included the torn remnants of clothing. Obi-Wan winced inwardly as he also began spotting scorched body parts - fingers, an arm, a foot still in a boot.

"Idiots, did they seriously think using a thermal grenade of that yield indoors was a good idea," Koltal sneered with contempt. "A simple shrapnel device would've done the trick without the potential for this much extraneous destruction."

"Shouldn't there be fire systems and alarms going off all over the palace from this?" Obi-Wan asked, looking up and down the ruined corridor.

"The traitors have access to my office and security, Vestret. They can make anything happen at this point with regards to the palace." Koltal spotted the lone survivor down the corridor, beyond ground zero of the grenade explosion.

He rushed forward with a growling snarl, aiming his blaster as he advanced.

Obi-Wan hurried to follow and soon they were standing over the survivor. Their zygerrian attacker had clear overpressure injuries, blood leaking from his ears, shrapnel wounds and burns. He was unable to stand and weakly clawing himself forward in an effort to get to some sort of safety or help.

Koltal had no compassion whatsoever as he roughly turned over the zygerrian to see his face, only for shock to come over him as he saw the mask covering it. He grabbed the dying assailant by the neck, shoving the barrel of his blaster against the side of his head.

"Trak! Tell me who else is involved and I will end your suffering quickly!"

"Aghhh." The Trak coughed awfully, blood spitting out of his mouth and staining the mask he wore. "You… you're… ahhh… wasting your time… minister. Leave me… hurt me to make me suffer… I'll say…" he wheezed hard, struggling to pull in air to speak. "... nothing."

Koltal gritted his teeth, his anger soaring to renewed heights. "Let's test that resolve." He jabbed a finger into a shrapnel wound.

"Arggh!"

Obi-Wan wanted nothing more than to stop Koltal, but he knew his cover was hanging on by a thin thread. Kicking the grenade back could be written off once as a lucky instinctual action on his part, but if he started acting as a typical Jedi now… So instead he kept an overwatch on either side of the corridor.

They were now in a dead zone with regard to the palace's surveillance and scanners, all of which would've been destroyed in the corridor. It would mean that they had a brief time before the enemy could understand that something had gone wrong. That time would last until the assassins were asked to check in via comlink.

"Still won't talk?" Koltal asked ruthlessly.

The assassin was struggling to breathe from the pain, but managed to shake his head, "Hurt me… kill… me, minister. At… this point… it makes… no difference."

Koltal took a deep breath.

The sudden whine of the blaster shot made Obi-Wan flinch reflexively and he kept his gaze outward as he felt the death through the Force.

"This level of commitment and devotion… it shouldn't surprise me," Koltal stood and looked into the distance with a grim countenance. "History speaks of it, but until now I just thought it embellishment to make the Trak more threatening to the reader. Now I see what our ancestors were warning us about."

"Are we still heading to Minister Gadrad?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Might as well, at this point. We'd only be finding his corpse though. This attack was meant to kill us, but it was also to buy time if it failed."

"How certain are you?"

"I'm done underestimating my enemy, Vestret. Let's go."

He led the way down the corridor, hugging the wall to the right and keeping his blaster raised and ready to fire.

Obi-Wan followed, mostly watching their backs as they advanced together.

There were now very few people left on this floor of the palace, their emotions were ringing with alarm as he felt them rushing towards elevators and leaving. Thankfully, there was no one whom he could classify as having murdering intent, so they were clear for the moment.

They turned into another corridor and stopped at a door halfway down. Koltal nodded at it and gestured for Obi-Wan to stand on the other side.

He slapped the controls and they charged inside with blasters raised.

Sure enough, Gadrad was very dead.

The old zygerrian minister was tied to his chair with rope, his head slumped over with another long dagger buried in his chest.

"Is that a signature killing method of these Trak?" Obi-Wan asked as Koltal hurried to the terminal on the desk.

"As far as I can remember, yes, it's been a while since I studied that history, so I might get things wrong," Koltal said as he began tapping on the computer. "Do watch the door while I work, Vestret."

Obi-Wan nodded and perched himself to one side of the door, keeping an eye on the corridor beyond, extending his Force perceptions to envelop five floors above and below. He wished he could do more and find if there were any more Trak in the palace as a whole, but then he ran right into the problem of too much information, especially if he also had to keep himself anchored and speak to Koltal at the same time.

"Ỳeke, they got into his systems as well," Koltal scowled as his fingers tapped furiously.

"What was his area of responsibility?"

"Planetary defense."

"And the Trak had complete access? That's not a pleasant thought," Obi-Wan said wryly.

"I can't tell precisely what they've done, access and activity logs are erased for the last two days. The only thing I've managed is to remotely scramble palace surveillance and the internal turrets into uselessness. If the Trak wants it back, they're going to have to take the encryption passphrase from my cold, dead body."

"That at least evens the odds somewhat." Obi-Wan felt a dense cluster of six zygerrians enter his perceptions, riding down in an elevator. All of them were angry, determined and concealing fear underneath, the Force felt sharp with their grim intent of killing.

"If they are in the palace systems as deeply as it seems, then it's clear you just waved a banner to them declaring your survival."

"Can't be helped at this point. We have to move. Here." Koltal chucked two more blaster power cells and Obi-Wan could only catch one. The remaining cell thumped against the wall and rolled across the floor.

"I only have one free hand," Obi-Wan rolled his eyes as he pocketed the cell, making no move to pick up the other one.

"Just keeping you on your toes, Verstet. If you were stupid enough to bend down to pick it up, I'd have shot you to rid me of that kind of stupidity."

"Yes, now that it's been established I'm not stupid, we're going to have company and I'd prefer we're not in this office when that happens." It also didn't escape Obi-Wan's notice that it was also a thinly veiled attempt at detecting whether he was a Jedi.

Koltal agreed with the sentiment and moments later they were once again in the corridor, heading towards the nearest functional elevator, which happened to be the one that the Trak kill squad was using.

Obi-Wan wanted to object, but it wasn't exactly like he could explain that he sensed they were walking straight into the enemy.

"First thing we have to do is regain external communication, I can rally my security forces to retake the palace."

"I was wondering about that," Obi-Wan muttered anxiously.

"Yes, I'm retaking the palace all by myself with a stranger who only wants to save his own skin," Koltal snorted in derision. "Sorry for not telling you everything I know," he said sarcastically. "To lift the comms blackout now and keep the Trak from simply switching it back on, we need to head to the sublevels to manually disable the generators creating the interference."

They stopped at the elevator doors.

"Someone's coming down," Obi-Wan pointed at the notification display above the door.

"Move! Into cover!"

There wasn't much of it, the best they could do were the heavy pot plants lining the corridor here.

It was a tight squeeze to fit his body properly behind it and the pot would maybe take two or three shots at best before it shattered. The only proper defense in this situation was an overwhelming offense. Not the most Jedi way of thinking about things, but he had taken some of Ahsoka's strategic and tactical doctrines to heart during their self-imposed exile in Mortis.

The elevator doors chimed and slid open.

Only the barrel of a blaster and the slightest edge of a Trak mask and eyes poked out of it and surveyed the corridor in Obi-Wan's direction.

He reached out with the Force, falling upon all six zygerrian minds.

Obi-Wan was properly hidden behind the large pot plant, but they had to also contend with the superior zygerrian sense of hearing and smell here. His Mind Trick was enough to just convince the enemy that they were not smelling a fresh human scent nearby.

Two Trak emerged, their blasters covering both sides of the corridor.

The tension and anticipation flowed from them.

Four more followed.

Obi-Wan released his breath, pushing his perceptions and battle precognition… popped his arm out from cover and only enough of his face to make it plausible, before pulling the trigger.

The snapping whine of the blaster filled the corridor explosively, before his shot hit center mass.

The now dead zygerrian barely had time to fall to the floor before he fired again, felling another with a headshot…

Koltal added his fire, walking his shots with laudable accuracy from right to left.

Four Trak were dead in moments and the remaining two returned fire, managing to recover from the ambush.

Obi-Wan had to roll out of his cover as a fusillade of plasma bolts rained down from his opponent's blaster rifle. The pot plant practically exploded with shards and black earth shooting outward.

It ended up being his salvation even as he held up a minor skintight Force Shield around his body to stop the ceramic fragments from stabbing or cutting into him.

The visual obscuration was just enough that it bought the moment needed for Obi-Wan to aim and fire again.

The zygerrian's head practically disappeared as his bolt smashed through the nose of his mask.

Obi-Wan internally winced as he contemplated the zygerrian blaster weapon in his hand. It was brutally inefficient in both tibanna gas usage and energy, using far more than was typically used in other weapons he had seen across the galaxy. The trade-off here was more stopping power at the expense of total ammunition.

A final shot echoed through the corridor as Koltal sent a plasma bolt to bring down their final opponent.

"Come Verstet, we need to move!"

Obi-Wan hurried forward, jumping over the bodies and they both piled into the elevator.

Koltal thumbed the lowest button on the control panel and the doors closed.

"No injuries?" he asked as they descended beyond the ground floor of the palace, eyeing Obi-Wan's dusty and soiled clothes.

"No," he answered shortly, even as he wrestled internally with the fact that he had just ambushed and brutally gunned down six lives. This was not his first brush with undercover work and having to do unpleasant things to maintain that cover, but it was the first time he'd had to be… so cold and calculating about it, as a mercenary was supposed to be.

"Good."

He could only thank the Force that he sensed hardly anyone in the sublevels, it seemed most everything down here was automated or being worked by droids. There were only two zygerrians on the floor the elevator eventually stopped on. Their worried, non-threatening emotions were enough to clue him in to the fact that they were most likely just supervisors or maintenance for the droids.

They went through the motions of cautiously advancing with raised blasters through the sublevel.

Koltal eventually stopped outside a door that required a keycode and a scan that played over his entire body before opening.

Beyond was a massive, humming cylindrical device that was mounted on its side and bolted to the floor. The minister approached one side of the machine, which opened a hidden panel, before another round of keycodes was entered and another scan.

Finally, he reached inside the opened recess and pulled down hard on a mechanical lever.

The machine whined and soon the hum of power faded.

Koltal wasted no time, tapping on his comlink vambrace and nodded, "We have exterior signal again." He tapped a sequence into the small pad. "This is Primary. All units activate Case Zhaf. I repeat, all units activate Zhaf."

The minister breathed a sigh of genuine relief.

"That's it?"

"My forces will do the rest. We just have to make sure we don't die until then."

"I think it's time I bring in some assets of my own," Obi-Wan pulled out his comlink. "R2, you can stop lying low. Anything you and Chewie can do will be much appreciated."

The astromech chirped a gleeful affirmative at being unleashed.

"If your droid is in the palace network, make sure he doesn't do anything permanent."

"Oh, I'm sure R2 will be very careful."

Miraj awoke with a strained gasp and panic.

The last thing she remembered was the pained sounds of the dying brezak, the lurch of falling through the air, being swallowed by water then… nothing…

She felt no residual dampness in her clothes or fur and frantically checked for any injuries or any lingering pain.

Nothing.

She eyed her environment next and besides being on a rather threadbare cot that was barely passable to sleep on, she was in almost complete darkness. The only scant light coming from small windows set high on a nearby wall.

"Mistress, you're awake, good." Atre's voice emerged from the darkness and from the acoustics, Miraj judged the room wasn't large at all. "I'm going to switch on the light," she warned.

She reflexively squinted her eyes to shield them and the world exploded in brightness, causing her to nevertheless wince and flinch as the light stabbed into her eyes.

When her eyes finally adjusted she took in the finer details.

It was a basement if she had to judge, a multitude of packing containers for the odds and ends that a household tended to accumulate but didn't want underfoot or thrown away. The air had a general dustiness combined with humidity that told her they were still in the lake district.

Atre was also unharmed and her clothes showed the signs of just having been in a long swim, then naturally dried on her body.

Miraj shivered as the memory of the water submersion flashed in her mind's eye anew.

"Where is Alad? Where are we?"

"He is upstairs, resting. He took the brunt of the impact for us, resulting in a broken arm, three cracked ribs and a collar bone." The very capable slave stepped closer and sat down on the edge of the bed. "As for where we are? We broke into the first house we could find that had no occupants, but wasn't abandoned. I think the owners are currently visiting relatives in another city from what we've been able to determine."

Miraj nodded in understanding, putting aside the details of how they managed to get by the house's own security system, which was linked directly to the city guard.

"What's been happening at the palace?"

Atre winced and bowed her head, "Mistress, I'm afraid it's now general knowledge that something major has happened with regards to you. The palace and city guard initially had to lay siege to the palace when the remaining Trak inside physically locked it down. The latest news is that they've managed to breach the palace and a running battle was held inside it. The outcome of that is still not being shared publicly, but we still have contact with Verstet. He was drafted by Minister Koltal to help rout the Trak from the palace…"

Miraj felt her heart sink into her stomach as she saw the reluctant expression and body language of Atre. "Well?"

"They succeeded but the final Trak they cornered detonated a fairly large explosive device. It killed three dozen palace and city guards, Minister Koltal was injured but is now managing affairs from his bed in the palace sickbay. The palace now also has a fairly large gaping hole torn out of its western facing, mistress."

Miraj sighed miserably and stared up into the ceiling of the dingy basement. What kind of sovereign was she? To have let this happen on her watch? Even in the worst times of the ancient civil wars, the palace had never been touched by each faction. It was considered sacrosanct, untouchable, even sacred. The ancient Trak had not even dared so much as scratch a brick of the place.

Clearly, their descendants had long since left those convictions behind.

It was unthinkable and now all her people, the entire city, would see the palace ruined for the long months it would take for repairs to happen.

"I'm afraid I have more bad news you should be aware of, mistress," Atre said softly, folding her hands on her lap. "Both ministers Ralenn and Gadrad were assassinated in their offices."

"No."

The word tore itself out of her mouth with a weakened whimper, as she felt her heart suddenly torn and an awful void take its place there. Ralenn? Dead? It couldn't be! Not her! Anyone but her! The only remaining link to a happier carefree time of childhood and a much simpler time.

The only true friend she had left, who had stayed with her through all the intrigue of her teenage years and even through the political storm that had surrounded her ascension to throne, after her father had died.

Gone also was the reassuring calm presence of Gadrad, a firm rock of wisdom in every decision that came before her. The zygerrian who had also advised her grandfather. It was unthinkable to imagine the palace without the old felinoid at her side.

It was exactly for that reason that both had been targeted.

She was powerless to stop the tears that began flowing and it was only the experience of a lifetime of politics that beat back the urge to break down into uncontrollable sobbing.

It was so tempting to just lie down and curl up into a ball of misery.

Instead, she cast off those tempting shackles that just wanted to lock her up in their embrace forever. She sat up and threw her legs over the side of the bed and tested their strength against the cool duracrete floor.

She wiped her face as yet more tears flowed, sniffing to clear a stuffy nose. Unfortunately, the ambient dust of the basement took their toll and a reflexive sneeze overcame her.

"By the stars," she gasped. "I need to get back to the palace."

"Mistress, Minister Koltal wishes for the palace to be fully secured before you do so."

"I need to address my people over holo! They have to see me alive and well."

Atre reached into a pocket and held up Alad's comlink, tapping a few buttons on it before holding it out. "Minister Koltal's personal comlink has been keyed to it."

Miraj snatched the device from her slave, feeling a sudden shift to anger, "Koltal! Come in!"

There was a brief silence before the voice of her security minister wearily came from the link, "Majesty, it's a relief to hear from you."

"No doubt. Now when are you sending a detail to come and fetch me?! I need to be on the holo as soon as possible," she snapped.

"Your highness, the palace is not secure yet-"

"With your paranoia, I'd be stuck in my current location for months, whilst you ran every scan known to our science over the palace and do it twice, just to be sure," she argued.

"I am your security minister, majesty. I'd be remiss in my duty if I didn't do that and it won't take months. Many facts have come to light that I can only relate to you personally in as secure an environment as I can create. The Trak infiltration was catastrophic, majesty. I'm only now beginning to understand the scope of it. The other problem we have is also of a more practical nature and even if you were at the palace at this moment, you wouldn't be able to broadcast to the people. The last Trak infiltrator blew himself up within the palace communication center. That was no mere coincidence, majesty."

"They planned for failure as well," Miraj said grimly, feeling her stomach clench.

"Precisely, your highness. The only place you could now make a system-wide broadcast would be at the RZHN offices in the capital or in the neighboring city. However, the Trak would also know that and I wouldn't be surprised to find them waiting with a lone assassin or bomber at either location. I've already worked with Minister Krelna in releasing a statement of reassurance to the population over the civilian channels."

"That won't help for long, minister."

"It at least buys us time for me to do my job, which I've clearly made a mess of, as our current situation demonstrates. You can have my resignation or my head after we sort this out."

Miraj almost wanted to laugh incredulously at the ridiculous offer, but managed to contain it. "Koltal, you're the last of the inner circle. I would be stupid to accept either. No, you will stay where you are and help me get our people out of this."

"Very well, but the offer remains."

"How long do you need?"

"Twenty hours, majesty."

"You have twelve. Secure my palace, Koltal," she said in a forbidding tone.

He sighed wearily, "I'll get it done, majesty."

She disconnected the link and handed it back to Atre. It felt good to put on her royal hat again, if only to forget her misery for a moment and ignore the hole in her heart.

"Is there anything to eat in this house?"

"A meal is already waiting for you, mistress. I suggest we remain in the basement. Any lights on the upper floors could attract the neighbor's attention."

Miraj twisted her face in a grimace at the thought of eating down here among dust and boxes. "Very well, you may bring it down."

Atre bowed and practically flowed in her walk towards the basement stairs.

Miraj tore her eyes away from Atre's retreating visage and stared into her own hands. The thought of remaining cooped up here for a further twelve hours was almost more than she could bear.

Her hands suddenly clenched into fists and she screamed in fury.

It was almost an out-of-body experience as her fists pointlessly slammed down into the bed over and over.

She imagined every Trak in existence shattering under them.

They would all be found.

They would all be paraded, humiliated and marched off in chains.

Then they would all die.

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