Fox was busy with Lotan trying to fire
the little astromech back up. They had
managed to wipe its memory, but would not be completely sure until it was
reactivated. Lotan seemed unusually
interested in telling Fox how to fix up his droid himself. This continuously made for tense moments
between them, but Fox liked having the Thakwaash tutor him.
Fox was just tweaking a few of the
droid’s systems when he felt a violent shudder in the Force. He reached out and failed to touch Thunder’s
mind. She was there, but in body
only. The Whyren’s Reserve didn’t seem
to be the culprit because she lacked the rather vivid mental hallucinations and
dreams in her mind. Thunder was quiet
and as cold as ice in the Force. He
continued to work on the droid and pretended to be completely absorbed in the
task.
Lotan kept glancing around towards the Slugfest. Fox could feel the duplicity in Lotan as the
Thakwaash switched from one mind set to another…from a teacher-mind to a more
anxious and battle-ready mind. Moments
later, Fox heard the sudden whining of the Blade-32’s engines, shields, and
weapons powering up.
Digger had remained in the snubfighter’s
pit while planetside. Thunder’s
precaution seemed to be panning out.
The wristlink that Thunder wore on her wrist was more than just a simple
communication device between her and Digger.
Digger could also monitor Thunder’s vitals. Whatever just happened had blown out the wristlink altogether and
Thunder failed to establish contact with Digger to reassure him that she was
alright. The little droid had fired up
the snubfighter’s systems. He now had
it hovering on its repulsorlifts and heading in the direction of the Slugfest.
An astonished Lotan roared over his
personal comm to Pachet. Fox used those
few moments to kick the large biped’s legs out from under him with the help of
a little, but effective, Force-shove.
Lotan crumpled to the ground as Fox brought the hydrospanner down onto
the Thakwaash’s skull. The Force was
flowing through Fox with a vitality all its own. He could feel it enhance his senses and his strength as he
sprinted towards the Slugfest.
Pachet, now manning the dorsal gun
turret, had left the ramp extended for Lotan’s easy access. Shots sizzled through the air and dissipated
over the Blade’s strong shields. The
Blade carefully returned fire in hopes of shutting down the Slugfest’s
shields. Fox froze several yards away,
realizing that Pachet had left the aft shields powered down. Obviously, Lotan was expected to run behind
the Transport, through the opening in the shields, and get to the ramp. Obviously, Lotan would not be making
it. A juke and a jink later and Fox was
on the Slugfest. Shortly
thereafter, the Transport lost power and the gun turret fell silent.
Thunder finally woke up, surprised at the
difficulty she was having considering her use of the Force to clean up her
senses. She was still in the Slugfest’s
living compartment. On the floor across
from her, sat Pachet and Lotan with feet and hands bound by stun cuffs. Her memory flooded back to her. Stupid.
I need to start thinking more often.
Reno would have a field day with this had he known.
Fox suddenly appeared in her line of
vision with a fresh, cold flask of Whyren’s Reserve. He smiled, “Here, drink this.
You’ve been out for several minutes.”
Thunder gulped down the beverage, then
steadied herself into a slouched standing position. “Well, Pachet, I guess you were truthful. You weren’t after the ‘hairy kid’ after
all. So, what’s your prob with me?”
Pachet sighed, obviously embarrassed to
have had his carefully planned out attack overturned by a three foot hairy kid
with a tail. “No problem at all,
Tundre. Just making a living. Make no mistake, I’m not a bounty
hunter. I’m a mercenary, through and
through. I got myself a nice-paying hit
list and you are near the top. I was
given some info about your snubfighter which I spotted at The Library Den. I don’t just charge in and disintegrate a
target in any public arena…unlike the bounty hunters that were after Fox. I just became sidetracked once we teamed
up. I wanted to get the scoop on the
little hairy kid. He seemed pretty
valuable. I don’t usually resort to
claiming bounties but times have been rough lately. I prefer to stick to merc missions.”
Thunder engaged her lightsaber, which Fox
had returned to her, and held it beneath Pachet’s throat. “You know what? I don’t see much difference between your definition of merc and
bounty hunter, but that’s beside the point.
So, first, where’s that hit list and, second, who gave it to you?”
Pachet leaned himself over, “The list is
kept stored on a datacard in my left wrist gauntlet. As for the who, I’m not entirely sure. This job had a third party negotiator, which is something I’ve
never done before, but like I said, times are hard.”
Thunder pulled out the datacard and slid
it into a datapad that Fox presented to her.
She read it over. The list
wasn’t too long, but hit home nonetheless.
Reno was at the top of that list, followed by JeniViolet, Thunder, Star,
and Skate. They were listed as
disintegrations with holocam proof of death.
Below this primary list was a secondary objective list that contained
the name of Jace Sidrona to be captured alive for transfer to a third party
transport and taken to the originator of this request. Subsequent information contained various
holocam shots of the various Siths and their snubbies. Surprisingly, a picture of Thunder’s new Blade-32
was available. Strange, considering it
had never really toured until Thunder’s current leave of absence. Thunder wasn’t really shocked at the Siths
debut on a hit list, but was dumbfounded as to the reasons for Jace being a
live capture. She turned her attention
back to Pachet.
Pachet shrugged his shoulders, “Hey, a job
is a job. No hard feelings. I was doing pretty good and would have made
out if not for ‘hairy’. I inserted some
high voltage wiring into the cylinder…the same kind that you find in
stun-nets. I like to read up on various
warriors, fighters, and weapons of all sorts.
I came across some information about stun-nets. As thorough as the Emperor’s lackies were at
removing information about the Jedi and Sith, they left some information
behind. Under information about
stun-nets, it said that they were effective at causing a lightsaber to blow
out. The energy blade would act as a
conduit and channel the power of the stun-net and the power of the lightsaber
itself back into whoever was holding the saber’s pommel. Effective, wasn’t it?”
Thunder rolled her eyes and disengaged
her lightsaber, “Yes, it seems so.
However, it didn’t kill me and I find it hard to believe that Fox was
fast enough to interrupt a trained assassin’s hit.”
“You got me on that. This is sort of embarrassing. I was so preoccupied trying to hide my
thoughts and emotions from your Force senses that I forgot to put on my wrist
gauntlets’ gloves. They would have
protected me from any surges attracted to my gauntlets. Needless to say, while you took the brunt of
the surge, I got shocked across the cabin.
Took me a few minutes to regain myself.
By then, I was under fire from your, uh, droid driven Blade. I didn’t have time to finish you off. I had to get the shields powered up and take
out the Blade. Meantime, Fox managed to
render Lotan unhelpful and use your blastsword to finish me.”
For the first time, Thunder noticed the
small burned hole in Pachet’s shoulder.
He also had some carbon soot on the side of his head from a near miss
that had probably knocked him out. Thunder
chuckled. The little ball of hair was
turning out to be a better investment than she had figured.
Thunder squatted in front of Pachet and
held his gaze, her lightsaber held loosely, yet threatening, between them. “Now, I think I’m going to offer you a deal
that you can’t refuse for several important reasons. The first reason, of course, being that you live. The second reason, you still make credits. The third reason, you get to remain a
valuable contact to other regions of the galaxy for us. The fourth reason, well, as Reno likes to
say, I don’t have another reason…I just like the number four. Now, you are going to agree to these reasons
before the rest of the deal or meet your fate.
Remember, I know when you are hiding the truth from me in that thick
skull of yours…I won’t make the same mistake twice. Besides, how does that saying go? We are Men Of Action, lies do not become us…well, I’m not
a man and technically a lowly Force-ignorant sentient is no equal to a trained
Sith, but I think we can overlook the discrepancies of an adage. Your answer?”
Thunder reached out with the Force,
penetrating all the mental barriers that Pachet could ever have hoped to
erect. He shifted himself and briefly
lowered his gaze. Lotan seemed
unusually tense, but kept to his typical quiet self.
Pachet lifted his head, “Well, I can’t
think of any rational arguments against your deal, especially considering that
we still get paid. I suppose any
payment is worth keeping our heads. We
can at least take on some more jobs.
That hit list wasn’t given to just me and it was payment after proof or
capture. I wasn’t aware that the
individuals on the list were real Sith Lords.
I thought you guys were just a bunch of posers sporting the look for
fun…kind of like an Emperor/Vader fan club thing. That ‘hey, Vader lives, I’ve got holopics of him’ kind of
thing. No offense.”
Thunder rolled her eyes, “None
taken. I guess then we are in
agreement?”
“Yeah, you got a deal.”
“…and your big hairy lug?”
Pachet chuckled, “Whatever I do, he
does. He’s in, too. By the way, what kind of connection am I
supposed to be for you?”
Fox was removing the stun cuffs at
Thunder’s command. She smirked, “Well,
you are a trained assassin and merc…or were at one time before resorting to
bounty hunter behavior. You keep taking
jobs and looking good. You need any
help, you contact me for it. We need
you to build a quiet reputation, but one as efficient and fear-inspiring as
Boba Fett. That will keep you on the
top of the ‘who do we hire to vape off so-and-so?’ lists. Maybe at some point, we’ll find out who
exactly put out this current hit list.”
…And why they want Jace alive, know about our latest snubbie changes,
and not be after all the Siths, Thunder silently wondered. “Plus, we’ll be aware of any new lists that
happen to be circulating. And ya never
know, we may need your services as well.
Some hit jobs might be more efficient with a hired gun than one of
ourselves, especially if the target knows us.
More importantly, we could use all the information that you can find
concerning Whyren’s Reserve shipments—no questions asked. Sound reasonable to you?”
“Heh, get paid for peeping around the
galaxy and taking inventory of beverage shipments while doing some side jobs
sounds good to me. I’ll take it. Beside, I wasn’t too pumped to try to take
on a bunch of Force Masters once I realized that you were the real deal.” Pachet stood up suddenly, remembering past
information. “I do remember noticing information
about a large shipment of Whyren’s Reserve.
I was paying some attention to the shipments after the third
party negotiator told me that you guys could often be found looting them. I didn’t really believe him…I guess I was
just depressed at the thought of resorting to what seemed to be a bunch of
Emperor/Vader posing alcoholics. I
guess I really missed the target this time.”
“No shit. Anyways, once we get our ships back into shape again, I’ll
have you transfer that information about the Whyren shipment over to Digger,”
Thunder headed out of the Slugfest with Fox in tow. She stopped at the top of the ramp and
turned back, “Let’s not take all day. I
expect to be out of here shortly. And
if you don’t mind, I’m gonna go ahead with Fox here and wait in orbit for you
to get the Slug off rock…understood?”
“Understood. Soon as I get the systems back on and check for fatal problems,
we’ll be up there,” Pachet shouted back as he helped Lotan up.
Twelve
Lord Pilot Tundre ya Silens sat in her
Blade-32 and meditated over a flask of Whyren’s Reserve. The small planet hung beneath the belly of
her snubfighter. What to do now…what
to do…what to do….
Static crackled over Thunder’s comm as
Pachet tried to hail the little snubfighter for the millionth time.
“Tundre, do you copy? I’ve got life-signs, but no one is home.”
Thunder snapped awake. Jedi-spit! Must’ve passed out from all
the thinking. Stang, I spilt my
Whyren’s Reserve. Thunder mopped up
the precious fluid with a small vac that would purify the spilled liquid and
store it for consumption later. She
suddenly began to flashback to a vision that she must have received during her
unconscious state. It was of her
Master, Baron Reno. He was standing on
the Bridge of the SSD. In his palm
rested the key to Thunder’s storage of Whyren’s Reserve and personal open
bar. It was part of her “last wishes”
that if she did not survive a mission, then the rest of the squadron should
divide and enjoy her beverages. I’M
NOT DEAD YOU FOOLS!
“Pachet, this is Tundre. I’m having Digger send you coordinates to a,
uh, safe harbor for us. Fox, I am
patching the coordinates to your navicomp.
I will escort you both to the site.
Pachet, I expect you to be sending the coordinates and information about
those shipments to Digger.” Thunder
decided she would explain about the SSD being the safe harbor later. The less Pachet knew beforehand, the better.
“Understood. Let’s get outta here,” Pachet sputtered out as he fired up his
engines.
“Roger that, Fox out.”
Moments later, the little band of ships
hyped out.
After a relatively short couple of hops,
the snubfighters and the transport dropped out of hyperspace.
Nothing.
Nothing filled her HUD. Nothing
was reported in the vicinity by Digger.
“Uh, Tundre, where was this safe harbor
supposed to be?”
“Stand by, Pachet. Tundre, out.”
Stupid Siths, where in all the galaxy
had they stuck the Super Star Destroyer? Thunder was about to give up when Digger
began bleating away over the link. A
small group of snubfighters lit up on her HUD. Ahhh, the Siths.
Moments later, Thunder had her little
motley crew’s weapons powered down while three of the Siths formed around
them. Thunder flipped her comlink to a
private channel.
“Lead, this is Two. I was planning on settling down on the SSD.”
“Two, this is Lead. Roger that.
As soon as we find it, we’ll all settle down for a good ole Whyren’s
Reserve Brawl. But first, what’s with
the other ships and their cargo?”
Thunder smiled. Reno’s emphasis on the word cargo was his way of letting her know
that he could sense Fox.
“Yeah, well, the Naboo Starfighter and
its occupant are for you. The Transport and its occupants are mine. Got that?”
“Understood, Two. Eleven and the others are searching for the
SSD while we hang out here. Star,
Palin, and I couldn’t keep up with the others in this past Whyren’s Brawl…that you
missed, by the way!”
Panic rose in Thunder’s voice while the
Dark Side flooded through her body.
“Stand down, Two. We didn’t touch your allotment of Whyren’s
Reserve. I’m glad to see that it is
more important to you than fighting.
You see, now you have learned that old adage. ‘Thirst leads to craving, craving leads to Whyren’s Reserve,
Whyren’s Reserve leads to fighting.’
Cut the Whyren’s Reserve out of the chain and you break the fine
fighting machine that is known as Sith Squadron.”
Thunder, for the first time in her
training, understood. It made sense
now. She was always trying to separate
one from the other. But they were
inseparable. They were all connected by
the strong fibers of the Dark Side and their new order of Sith.
Thunder proudly clicked on her comlink,
“Well, I’ve got another strand to add to our ranks. Even better, yet, I have a nice list of coordinates that a
freighter carrying Whyren’s Reserve will be on…starting in about sixteen
standard hours. It won’t reach its
destination for about twenty hours after that.
Plus, I found out that Rogue Squadron was forced into mandatory
retirement, Lead.”
“Roger that, Two. Already know about the Rogues. That is what we’ve been celebrating when we
all hopped into our snubbies and I left the SSD cruising. Uh, I mean, when obviously some gravitating
anomaly must’ve displaced the SSD from its last known coordinates.”
“Roger that, Lead, I’ve got no where else
to go.”
JeniViolet finally returned with her band
of the Siths and the SSD. It
didn’t take long at all for all of them to rendezvous on the Bar Deck. Thunder handed Fox Starfighter over to Baron
Reno. Reno was surprised by the amount
of animosity and need for revenge that he felt within Fox. So much so, that he wondered if Fox could
remain with the Siths, even after succumbing to the binding forces of Whyren’s
Reserve. Time would have to tell.
Pachet and Lotan remained on the SSD to
enjoy the Brawl. Lotan spent most of
the overnight hours repairing damage done to the Slugfest courtesy of
Digger. Pachet, however, seemed to have
vanished. He was obviously busy
practicing tractor locks on Thunder’s snubframe and sealing the new deal he
made with the Siths. Once the dawn of
sobriety and a standard morning came up, the Slugfest would depart back
into the realm of smugglers and mercs.
Fox trained in his newly acquired N-1
Naboo Starfighter after fixing up the R5 unit.
Reno had assigned the beginning of Fox’s training to Star, Sith Nine. Under her tutelage, Fox would construct his
first lightsaber. He was showing
promising signs of being very strong in the Force. He would manage to make a double-bladed lightsaber with silver
and green blades for his first weapon.
Reno would often watch Fox’s training over the holocams on the SSD. He was impressed, but still disturbed by
Fox’s preoccupation with Imperial sponsored researchers. It seemed to be bordering on obsession that
had grown with the passing of every day.
Reno already knew the dangers of a Sith
being distracted by obsessions. He had
not been sure how Thunder would turn out.
She weakened herself by her continuing commitment to her Adumari
heritage. That, however, seemed to be
changing as well. She was returning,
back to the Sith that she should be…whether or not she met her full potential
would still have to be seen. Reno would
test that dedication and resolve in an upcoming mission that would only consist
of Thunder and himself. The Whyren’s
Reserve supply was running low after partying and needed to be replenished. Reno would take Thunder with him to check on
that freighter supposedly full to the brim with Whyren’s Reserve.
Reno glanced out of the viewport in his
cabin quarters. Thunder and Fox had
crossed paths with Darth Xanthis…and escaped.
Reno didn’t doubt Thunder’s abilities to slip the more powerful Dark
Lord, but something still didn’t add up.
Pachet and Lotan were clean, Reno insured himself of that with a Force
enhanced mental probe. Maybe it was
just coincidence. Either way, he was
probably going to have to forbid future leaves from the SSD by single Siths.
Reno glanced back down at the holocam
image. Star was instructing Fox on the
process of using the Force to manipulate a being’s health…for the better and
for the worse. Reno had chosen Star to
act as Fox’s beginning mentor over Thunder.
Reno needed to be sure that Thunder was back to being fully dedicated to
the Siths. After time, Reno would allow
Thunder to train Fox in the basics of lightsaber dueling and using Force
Telekinesis. Once all of the Siths had
contributed to Fox’s basic training, Reno would take over for more advanced
training. Well, only if Fox made it to
that level.
Reno stretched out with the Force. He really only used the holocams to satisfy
his voyeuristic needs. The truth always
came through the Dark Side of the Force.
In a few more hours, he would be heading back out…until then, he might
as well try to score with some of the still conscious Sith chicks who remained
on the Bar Deck.