Avan Beruss leaned casually against the stone wall, waiting for the two aliens walking down the street to approach him. One of them was a Bothan, the other a Rodian.
"You think they found anything," the woman next to him asked. Avan glanced over at the beautiful blond next to him, his girlfriend Feylis Ardele.
"No, I don't. If they don't they would've reported it in."
"Unless they found trouble and just took care of it themselves," she pointed out.
"I doubt it. I don't remember seeing any explosions and with those two involved that is pretty much a given." Narska Plo'kre and Rarkaas Nel had both served for two years in Pages Commandos as demolition experts, and had both decided to transfer to the Rogues at the same time. Blowing things up for them was not a duty, but a hobby.
And speaking of Hobbie....
Where was he? Avan had sent Hobbie a message about half an hour ago that said to meet him here. He should've been here by now. The bar that he and Wes were looking after wasn't that far away. Guess that could wait, Narska and Rarkaas had arrived.
"Alright, what'd you guys find out?"
"Not much," Narska hissed. "I watched the spaceport for this spotter that Lieutenant Janson said was supposed to be here. I couldn't find any trace of him. I did, however, see a man snooping around. He was watching us pretty intently. We didn't approach him, but I think he knows that we were watching him back."
"I don't suppose you thought to ditch him before you got here?"
"I didn't lead him here, if that's what you're thinking, Beruss," Narska shot back. "I'm not ignorant. We took the scenic route and lost him in an alley."
"You get a good look at him?"
Narska closed his eyes for a second. "He was very distinctive. Tall, had a bunch of prosthetics on his body. Face, etc...He looked like one of those half human half droid freaks."
At least they could pick him out of a crowd, if they needed to. "Imperial, you think?"
Narska shrugged. "If he was they're treating him pretty badly. I'd say a bacta bath would help him but a blaster bolt in the gut would fix the problem quicker."
Avan sighed. They really didn't need Narska Plo'kre's personal opinions on everything. Problem was the Bothan gave them anyway, whether you wanted to hear them or not. Okay, they needed to wait for Hobbie now. They.....the comlink beeped.
"Eight," he said.
"Avan?" he heard someone say. It was Wes Janson. "Sorry, I thought this was Hobbies number. Is he there by any chance? I know he went out to meet with you guys."
"No, he's not here yet. What's up?"
"Nothing, just tell him that I'll be a while. Something came up." Wes sounded sheepish, almost embarrassed. Avan had known Wes for several months now, he knew what that meant.
"Something came up, huh?" he asked.
"Yeah, something important." Avan almost laughed aloud.
"What's she look like?"
"Oh she's got a great body, brown hair, purple sidelocks...uh, I, um... by that I mean....ah stang. Okay, look, just give me half an hour. I'll meet up with you guys then."
"Wes, you shouldn't be doing this. We are on a mission, you know."
"Oh come on, Avan, Wedge'll never find out."
Avan sighed. He was going to regret this. "Fine. But if you are even one minute late Wedge is going to find out. Got it?"
"Of course!" Wes happily said back. "Okay, I'll be at the building at the corner of Knell and Jarshen. It's an old warehouse or something, I don't know. Just be sure to tell Hobbie when he gets there. Later." The comlink clicked and the transmission ended.
"Is he ever going to grow up?" Avan asked, directing the question at no one in particular.
"I don't kno-"
"Down!" Narska yelled , seconds before a group of four people on speeder bikes sharply rounded the corner down the street, blasters blazing. They all wore black jumpsuits with flight helmets covering their faces and little metal cylinders attached to their waists. Great, still no ID's on the assassins. Avan grabbed Feylis's arm and pulled her down behind a land speeder for cover. He checked around to make sure that no one had been hit by the scattered blaster fire then unholstered his weapon and carefully looked up. He fired off several snap shots, but they weren't really aimed at anything. He tried to get up again but blaster fire from the assassins kept him pinned down.
"Stang" he yelled, using an Alderaanian curse. "They've got us pinned down! He poked his head up again, cautiously surveying the situation. The assassins had stopped their bikes now and were advancing the rest of the way on foot. Avan fired several shots right into the middle of the pack, forcing them to scatter, which probably wasn't the best of plans, seeing as how now they're all over the place instead of standing in one spot.
Avan glanced over at Narska and Rarkaas. Rarkaas was leaning over a speeder firing at one of the assassins, the same as he and Feylis were doing. Narska, though, was crawling under one of the speeders, his blaster still holstered. What the hell!?
He didn't have time to think about it now. The four assassins were in three groups now, two coming in on the left side, one in the middle, and one on the right. They had to do something, and they had to do it now. Avan heard a clicking sound and quickly looked to his right. One of the assassins stood there, his blaster pointed at the Rogues. Avan attempted to move but he knew he wasn't going to make it. Then there was a bright flash and the would-be assassin dropped to the ground, a scorching blaster mark in his back. Avan looked past the dead body and saw the man that Narska had described only minutes ago, metal prosthetics and all. Then the man turned and walked away, like a wraith slinking back into the shadows. Avan wasn't even going to try and figure that one out.
"Avan, Feylis!" he heard Narska yell. "Run! Follow me!" Narska made a made dash between the two land speeders, closely followed by Rarkaas, Avan and Feylis. Avan looked back as he ran. The assassins had just circled around the speeders and were just now arriving where the Rogues had been hidin-
BOOM!
An explosion underneath one of the speeders blew it about five yards in the air, sending it crashing atop the speeder next to it. Smoke and dirt filled the air and provided adequate cover for the Rogues escape. Or at least their temporary retreat. Avan knew better than to assume that the threat was over.
They ran for several blocks, their eyes watching everyone and everything. After about five minutes they stopped and found a nice alley to hide in for a moment.
"Did you really have to do that?" Avan yelled at Narska.
The Bothan seemed almost surprised. "Do what? Save our lives!" he said back. "I thought it was better than the alternative."
"We're trying to be inconspicuous here. Blowing up speeders isn't the way to do that."
"And neither is being identified at the morgue! I don't believe this," Narska said back. "I saved our lives back there, or did you fail to notice that while you were hiding like a coward?"
"Just what are you insinuating, Plo'kre?"
"I'm not insinuating anything, Beruss, I'm saying it outright! You sat behind the speeder and hid while I solved the problem. I should be the one in charge, not you."
"Oh you're not bringing this up again. Look-"
"I hope I'm not interrupting anything," a new voice came. Avan turned around sharply, fully expecting to see a blaster trained on him. Instead he came face to face with the man who had saved his life. Up close the man wasn't any better looking. The prosthetics made him look even scarier up close than they did far away. Avan was going to reach his hand out and thank him, but Narska was quicker. But the Bothan wasn't thanking him. Within a second of the man introducing himself Narska had his blaster pointed at the mans face.
"Identify yourself and tell me why you're following us!" he ordered. "You have three seconds to answer before you start to learn how to breath through your forehead."
"Wait, Narska," Avan said. "He's not with them."
"And how do you know that?" the Bothan said skeptically.
"He saved my life back there."
"So did I, but you aren't getting all chummy with me."
"Just give him a chance." Avan looked at the newcomer. "So who are you?"
The man cleared his throat. "My name is Ton Phanan. Dr. Ton Phanan, esquire," he said, bowing almost sarcastically.
"Nice to meet you Dr. Phanan. I'm Avan, this is Feylis, Narska and Rarkaas. We're..."
"Rebels?" Phanan finished for him. "Members of Rogue Squadron here on some secret hush-hush mission? Yeah, I kind of figured that out. People were angry at you, people were shooting at you, people were trying to kill you...you're either Rogue Squadron or Jar Jar Binks. Who were your friends there?"
"We don't know. We..."
"...shouldn't be talking about this with you," Narska finished. "We're grateful for your help, Dr. Phanan, but this information is classified. The information I want from you, however, isn't. First off, why were you following us at the spaceport?"
"Simple question, simple answer," Phanan responded. "I arrived on planet a little while ago, probably half and hour after you guys. And the same time as those guys. I was headed to the hospital to see some old colleagues when I spotted a friend that worked with Starport Security. I went to go talk to him but before I got there he went into an alley with this woman and was killed."
"Did you call security?" Avan asked.
"I was going to, then I spotted you guys snooping around and decided to check you out first. I had you pegged as Rebels in a second, by the way, your cover just sucks. You need to practice your undercover work. It'd be really embarrassing for the mighty Rogue Squadron to be killed because of shotty acting. Anyway, I figured my friend was either waiting for you or spying for you, either way he was working for you. I followed you from the Starport to tell you that he was dead when I spotted the lightfight. I shot one of the assassins, then followed you here. End of story."
Great, so their spotter had been killed. Which meant they sill didn't know what they looked like. Wait...
"Dr. Phanan?"
"Ton, please," the doctor said.
"Ton. I don't suppose you know how many assassins there are. Or what they look like?"
Ton thought for a minute. "There are six, well, five now. At least that's how many I saw. After she stashed my friends body I saw the woman meet up with five more people. I didn't get good looks at the others, but I did see the woman. Short, about 5'6, brown hair a little shorter than shoulder length, purple sidelocks, great body.."
"What'd you say?" Avan quickly said.
"Oh, she had a great body. Too bad she's a murderer..."
"No, no before that."
Phanan seemed confused. "What? The purple sidelocks? Yeah, the strands of hair on either side of her temples were dyed purple. Why?"
Avan's mind raced. Wes had said that the girl he was with had purple sidelocks. Coincidence? Avan sighed. Not a chance. Which meant that Wes was in big trouble. They had to get to Wes right now And Hobbie, they still had to pick him up. And if their numbers were correct they still had five people out there trying to kill them. And at least one of them was with Wes right now.
"So what is this place, Jen?" Wes Janson asked asked her as he looked around the warehouse. It was empty for the most part. Some scattered boxes here and there, but that was it. The upper catwalk that surrounded the building was also bare. An odd choice of places to kill the man she loved, but it was quiet and secluded. No one would bother them.
"It's just an old warehouse my friend here owns. She doesn't use it anymore, but she keeps leasing it just in case."
Wes smiled. "Well I'm glad she does," he said, taking a step close to her. "So.....you wanna....umm, you know......."
"Jen!" a voice thundered. Wes and Jen turned around and looked at the newcomer. She wore a simple blue tunic with two blastswords on her right waist. A lightsaber also clung to her left waist.
ThunderingSilence. Captain ThunderingSilence, she corrected herself. "What are you doing here?"
"I was just.....um....well..."
"That's what I thought. Come here!" Jen followed her commanders orders and walked over to Thunder. Jen could tell that Thunder was unbelievably angry, and rightfully so. Jen had disobeyed a couple of direct orders. "What is he doing still alive?" Thunder whispered.
"I couldn't do it, Lieutenant. I just couldn't do it," Jen protested.
"You weak willed fool," Thunder muttered. "Killing Janson was the one assignment I gave you and you couldn't pull it off."
"I'm sorry, I..."
"I didn't give you leave to speak. Now get down to that hospital about a mile down the street."
A hospital? Why? "Whats at the hospital?"
"Seven called me a minute ago. He said they tried to ambush the Rogues outside the hospital but failed."
Jen took a deep breath. "Any deaths?"
"Yeah. Sharpedges was shot in the back by some pedestrian and LifeFlame was killed when one of the Rogues blew up a speeder. Seven and Palin were a little banged up but alive."
Jen sighed heavily. Sharpedges and LifeFlame were both in her flight. And with EternalFlame being killed yesterday...her entire flight was dead, except for her. "Are they planning to regroup and attack?"
"Yes, that's why they need you there."
"But what about Janson?" she asked.
"Don't worry, I'll take care of Wes Janson. You just get down to the hospital and help out the rest of our squadron." Jen sighed and looked back at Janson.
"I'll be back in a few minutes, Wes," she told him. "In the meantime....my friend here will take care of you." Then she turned and left without so much as another word.
ThunderingSilence waited for the Jen to be fully out of view before she looked over at Wes Janson. Those boyish good looks, the compact muscled body. A holo of perfection if she'd ever seen on. Finally.....
"We're finally alone," she said as seductively as she could.
"What do you mean finally?" he asked. "I've known you for about ten seconds. So where'd Jen run off to anyway? When will she be back?"
"Don't you worry about Jen, my dear Janson. She's fine." Thunder continued to get closer to Janson after every word she spoke.
"So...uh..." Wes stammered as he too realized just how close Thunder was getting to him. "So this, uh, is your warehouse. Yeah, uh, so whaddya keep in it?"
"Just....stuff," she said, taking a few steps towards him. Janson nervously backed up, tripping over a cardboard box in the process. Thunder ran over to help him up, but Janson quickly scrambled to his feet and jumped aside. "Whats the matter? I was trying to help you up?"
"Yeah, I know what you were trying to help me with. Why don't you just stay over there," he said pointing to the other side of the warehouse. "...way over there."
"But Janson, sweety, you're not over there."
"Yeah, thats kinda the point. Look, I'm just waiting for Jen to get back."
"Well that won't be for a while, honey," Thunder said. "We've got plenty of time until then, and I've got lots of time killing ideas."
"Yeah, I'll bet you do," Janson muttered. "You know, I think I'll just go wait outside." Wes motioned to the open door that Jen had left through.
Oh no you don't, she thought. As Wes turned to leave Thunder waved her hand and used the Force to slam the door shut. Wes stopped dead in his tracks and turned to look at Thunder.
She smiled innocently. "Wind?"
"We're inside."
"Really strong air conditioner?" But from the look on his face he wasn't buying it. And with good reason. Her excuses sucked.
"Fine, whatever, just....stay. Stay."
Thunder sighed. Why was Janson resisting her? With her body he should be jumping into her arms? It didn't make any sense. But whatever the reason she had to hurry up. Jen would soon realize that Thunder had been lying. And if Jen was angry when she thought Thunder was going to kill Janson, she was going to be furious when she found out Thunder was trying to get with Janson.
JeniViolet kicked up some dirt as she walked down the dusty street that led to the hospital. She hated to leave Janson, she just hated to. She knew that when she returned Wes Janson would not be alive. And Thunder was going to be the one to do the deed.
"Two," she heard her comlink say. "Two, do you read."
Jen fished her comlink out of her pocket and was about to say that Thunder was preoccupied when the captain herself responded. "Quiet down, Seven," she whispered. "What is it?"
"I just wanted to report that Eight and I are back at the ships and awaiting yours and JeniViolet's return. Where is Eleven, anyway?"
There was a slight hesitation from Thunder. "She's here with me," she finally lied. "We'll be there in no less than an hour."
"Alright, good luck."
Then the transmission ended and Jen jammed the comlink back in her pocket angrily. What the hell was going on? Thunder had lied! She had lied to Jen about the rest of the squad needing help in planning an attack, and she lied to Seven about Jen being there with her. And that meant she was probably lying about other things too, like.....
Jen frowned and her eyes narrowed to crescents as the truth dawned on her.
If she lied about everything else, then she was probably lying about her feelings towards Wes Janson! She had lied to Jen about the squad needing help so Jen wouldn't be in the way of her and Janson. And Janson...he was probably enjoying the hell out of himself. Or, more appropriately, enjoying her.
That.........that......that......Jen searched for the right word but couldn't find one that properly described Thunder in Basic. Jen spun around and sprinted back towards the warehouse. She had to get there before it was too late!
"Oh come over here, you sexy little stud you," Thunder said playfully as she chased Janson around the warehouse. Thunder was getting real disappointed now. Why would Janson refuse her? Why would any sane man refuse her? This just wouldn't do!
"Look," Janson stammered as he tried to put some distance between himself and Thunder. "Just stay back...you crazy psychopath. I.....I....I have a blaster and..'
"...and I bet you know how to use it," she finished for him. "Well I have a blaster too." And a vibroblade, a lightsaber, and two blastswords! But there was no point in mentioning those.
"Okay, I don't know what your problem is lady.."
"Please, call me Thunder."
"I don't wanna call you anything!" he yelled, his voice pathetic and slightly strained. "I just want you to leave me alone! Look, I'll give you my X-wing! It's in good shape, never been crashed, only about 50 thousand lightyears on it. And it's yours! But only if you leave now and promise never to ever even think about talking to me again! Deal?"
"Oh, you're so cute when you're trying to weasel your way out of something. Alas, I must decline your offer. I already have an X-wing, and it's in better shape than yours, my dear. Oh, why are you being so stubborn? Just give in. I promise I won't bite....hard."
"That's it!" Janson yelled. "I'm outta here!" Janson turned as quickly as he could and ran for the door. He would've made it except for one thing. Thunder was adept in the Force. Thunder motioned slightly with her hand and one of the piles of boxes near the door tipped over and blocked the only exit on this floor. Janson stopped dead in his tracks and looked at the boxes in amazement. That was his first mistake. It took Thunder less than two seconds to make up the distance between herself and Janson. By the time he turned around they were staring face to face with each other. Janson backed up furiously, but he soon ran out of room and backed into the wall. She saw Janson search for an escape, but he came up empty. There was no escape from Thunder. With Janson frozen in fear Thunder leaned in closer to give him a kiss.....
A loud pounding sound filled the room and Thunder looked over at the door. Someone was outside banging like crazy on the door. JeniViolet, she figured. She didn't have much time. Well, Jen couldn't get in here. Those boxes blocking the door were too heavy to move, and Jen wasn't strong enough in the Force to do it. Thunder once again leaned in to kiss Janson, but was once again stopped as she heard a familiar snap-hiss.
After several swings and a shower of sparks there was a huge gaping hole in the wall where a door once stood. What stood there now was a very angry, Janson-obsessed Sith. And she was looking straight at Thunder, who had Janson pinned to a wall.
"You!" she erupted. "You two-timing, lying, cheap, mhadre--mucking knitch! How dare you try to move in on my man!"
"Your man?" Janson echoed. "I've known you for less than an hour! And frankly I don't think I wanna know any of..."
"Shut up!" both Jen and Thunder yelled in unison. Janson sat down and shut up.
"You lied to me, you lied to everyone. You said you hated Janson."
"Yes, and because of that the Lord Baron put me in charge of the mission, and put me in charge of Janson. And since everyone thought I hated him if I wanted to be alone with him they'd assume it'd be to kill him, not to be with him. It was the perfect cover, until you broke it!"
"I don't know what your problem is, Thunder, but I love Wes Janson! You're just using him!"
"So what?" Thunder said back.
"Hey, hey hey, ladies," Janson interrupted, his voice turning sly and almost cocky. "You know, if you both want me..."
"Shut up!" they both again yelled in unison. Janson once again shrunk back to the shadows.
"You know, I should've expected this of you by now," Jen said. "You always do this to me. You always go after the guys I like. Remember Bespin?"
"Oh come on, you can't blame me for that! That guy was so not interested in you. He wanted me from the moment he saw me."
"Varn?" Jen asked.
"Same thing. He was getting close to you so he could get even closer to me."
"Naboo?"
"I said that you could have his friend!" Thunder protested. "What more do you want?"
"His friend was a Gungan!"
"And you're still holding that against him? Just get over it."
Jen started pacing back and forth, her hand resting on her now deactivated lightsaber that once again clung to her belt. "You know, that's it! This isn't going to happen anymore." She unclipped her lightsaber and held it deactivated in her hand. "Me and you right now! And this time the Lord Baron isn't here to stop us. No more excuses or anything. Me, you, winner gets Janson.
"Look ladies, I just wanna go home....."
"Shut up!" Janson sat down on one of the overturned boxes, his head lowered in defeat.
"Fine. Let's do it," Thunder said. But instead of un-clipping her lightsaber she reached for the pair of blastswords on her right waist.
Jen sighed and rolled her eyes. "Oh not those stupid swords again. C'mon, you're a Sith! Use your lightsaber, that's why you have it!"
Janson shot to his quickly. "Sith!" he yelled. "Just what the hell-"
Both women turned their heads quickly and stared daggers through Janson. He shut up and sat down without so much as another word.
"Fine, lightsabers it is then." Thunder unclipped her lightsaber and activated the emerald blade. Several feet away from her JeniViolet once again activated her violet blade. For several moments they just circled each other, blades up and ready.
Jen was the first to strike, attempting to stab Thunder right through her chest. Thunder sensed the attack, though, and parried the blow easily. Thunder took a few steps back and waited for Jen's next attack. Jen swung her saber wildly at Thunder, launching herself into a flurry of swings and thrusts, each one of which Thunder blocked easily.
Now it's my turn, Thunder thought with a smile creeping on her face. Thunder gripped her lightsaber tightly and swung upwards. Using her momentum from her last swing she made a diagonal cut downwards. Jen blocked the slash, however, and made an attack or two of her own.
For what seemed like forever they took turns trying to best each other, while Wes Janson just sat on his little box, too afraid to do or say anything. Jen charged at Thunder and swung without mercy, narrowly missing her. Her saber did connect with one of the durasteel pillars that held up the building, though. There was a shower of sparks as the blade made a clean cut through the pillar.
"Had enough?" Jen asked, sweat starting to form on her brow. "You give up?"
"I'd sooner go sober for an hour," Thunder shot back, taking several swings.
"I'll take that bet," Jen responded. "But make it more severe. Winner gets Janson, loser goes sober for an entire day."
Thunder thought for a moment about the implications of the deal. Going sober for a day would be a new one for her, but she honestly didn't think that Jen could beat her. "Deal."
Neither mentioned that the loser might not even be alive. ThunderingSilence smiled as she took up a defensive position. With the exception of the Lord Baron himself, no one could best her in a sword fight, whether lightsabers or blastswords. She had, in fact, taught many of the Siths the art of sword fighting, JeniViolet being one of them. The student v.s. the teacher. This should proved to be challenging.....no, not challenging.....fun.
"Come on! We've got to get to that warehouse before it's too late!" Hobbie Klivian heard Avan yell as they ran down the street. Unless it's already too late.....
The Rogues weren't that far away from the warehouse that Janson had said he would be at. It was just down to the Rogues now, that Ton Phanan guy had left. He said he had done his good deed for the year and left for the hospital. Which was fine with Hobbie. This was a military situation, not a civilian problem.
Hobbie had met up with the Rogues while they w ere on the way to save Janson. As usual he was completely oblivious to everything that had happened. He knew nothing of Janson, or the attack on the Rogues, or Ton Phanan, or that purple haired vixen trying to kill Wes. With Hobbie back in the group he was in charge, which was probably better for the group. Narska didn't seem to listen to Avan whenever he was in charge, but he didn't have any problems taking orders from Hobbie. At least none that he voiced.
The warehouse that Janson was staying at was fairly easy to spot, considering it was the only warehouse in the entire district.
"All right, Rarkaas and Narska, you hit the back entrance up top, Feylis, Avan and I will take the top one up front. Have your guns ready to go. Okay, lets do it!"
The two teams split up and headed for their respective areas, guns up and ready to go.
Their blades were locked together, neither giving anything to the other. JeniViolet pushed with all of her might and tried to over power ThunderingSilence. If she could just push Thunder's saber away a quick thrust to the chest would end it all. But for some reason she couldn't overpower the older woman. For the life of her she couldn't do it!
They stood grid locked. The sweat that had started forming on her brow was now more like a waterfall dripping off of her face. Jen pushed and pushed, hoping that maybe Thunders lightsaber would just disintegrate and her own would plow through and cut Thunder in two. That was why Jen was so surprised when that almost did happen. Thunders emerald lightsaber flickered and then failed.
The only problem was that as Thunders blade vanished, so did Jen's.
"What the hell!?" they both yelled. They both tried flicking the activation switches but to no avail. The lightsabers were dead.
"What'd you do to my lightsaber!?" Jen yelled at Thunder.
"What do you mean 'What did I do"? What did you do to my saber?" Thunder yelled back.
"I didn't touch that piece of crap!"
"Wait a second," Thunder muttered as she unscrewed the bottom of her lightsaber handled. After it was off she banged it gently on her palm and out popped out two small tubes. Thunder stared at them in disbelief, then glanced up at Jen in anger.
"What?" she asked, unscrewing the bottom of her own saber and dropping it's contents into her hand.
"Duracell?" Thunder said, the anger evident in her voice. "I told you to use Energizer! You've seen the holomercials! It keeps going and going and going and going. I told you last week when you went to the store to pick up Energizer! Why the hell would you buy Duracell?"
"I don't like Energizer," Jen muttered. "With that stupid little Ewok banging on that stupid little drum. Besides, the store was out of Energizer. It was either Duracell or those store brand Alkaline. I thought you'd rather have the Duracells."
They were now face to face, yelling so loudly that it almost hurt Jen's ears.
"Well much good it did me!" Thunder said back.
"Well next time you can go and get the batteries yourself, Captain! Isn't that one of your duties."
"No, my duty is to order my subordinates, which you are I might add, to do things for me."
"Ha!" Jen erupted. "Like I'd do anything you'd tell me to do!"
"If you would've done what I'd said then this lightsaber thing wouldn't have happened!"
"You know, if you woulda done it yourself then they wouldn't have shorted out and I coulda stuck my lightsaber through your chest!"
Thunder laughed. "Yeah, I'll tell you where you can stick your lightsaber!"
"Why you little..."
"Freeze!" a voice suddenly yelled. Both Thunder's and Jen's head looked up towards where the voice came from. It was the rest of Rogue Squadron. Klivian, Beruss, Ardele, Nel and Plo'kre, they were all there.
"Ah stang," Jen whispered. "We're surrounded."
"A brilliant observation, Jen. I can see how you achieved the rank of Lieutenant so fast."
"Oh shut up," she said, turning away from the Rogues to glare at Thunder. "I am so sick of your smart mouth."
"Then why don't you do something about it?" Thunder challenged back.
"Well maybe I will!"
"Uhhh, ladies..." Hobbie started.
"Shut up!" they both yelled, glancing briefly at Hobbie before they turned their attention back to each other.
"Look, just because you made Captain before me doesn't mean a thing! I'm every bit as smart as you, I can handle a saber as good as you, and frankly dear, I'm a much better pilot."
"What!?" Thunder yelled. "You fly like a drunken wombat!"
"That's because most of them the time I am drunk!" Jen said. "So are you!"
"So what!? Even when I'm drunk I fly better than you sober!"
"You are so full of mynock spit!"
Jen and Thunder were so engaged in their argument that neither noticed the Rogues starting to withdraw, Janson included.
"Uhhh," she faintly heard Hobbie stammer. "We're just gonna go now."
"Fine, fine, whatever," Jen muttered as she waved him away. One by one the Rogues started to move out, JeniViolet and ThunderingSilence still to preoccupied with each other to even notice.
"We've got to get to our X-wings and get out of here right now!" Wes yelled as they ran down the street. "Those women back there...they're.....they're Siths....or,er Jedi or something. Dark Jedi, I think. I don't know, they had lightsabers, I know I saw them!"
Hobbie and the rest of the group stared at Wes, disbelief in their faces.
"No really!" Wes said back. "I saw them! Jen had a purple one and the psycho one had a green saber. Well come to think of it they were both kinda psycho, but the other one was really crazy."
"None of us saw lightsabers, Wes," Avan pointed out.
"No, no they both shorted out right before you got there. They had bad batteries or something. I don't know."
Avan took a step closer to Wes and smelled his breath. "That's what I thought."
"Huh? What, no, no it wasn't a hallucination! I mean, yes I had some drinks but I swear, they had lightsabers and they were fighting and making boxes fly with their hands and...and..."
Everyone stopped and stared at Wes, their eyebrows raised slightly.
"....it did happen," he said pitifully. Wes sighed and shook his head. "Let's just go home.
"Alright, we don't have lightsabers anymore but why don't you take out those little sword thingys you're always bragging about."
Thunder frowned. "The blastsword isn't a thingy. It's a weapon that people with honor use to settle disputes. I wouldn't expect you to understand, seeing as how honor is a concept well beyond you.'
"What was that?" Jen said. "Honor beyond me? Okay, you are so going down. Toss me one of those blastswords and lets see how much honor I can carve out of you!"
"Uh, Jen...." Thunder softly said.
"No, there's no weaseling your way out of this one. We're going to finish this one way or another."
"That's fine, but...."
"I said hand me a blastsword now! Unless, of course, you think I can beat you with one."
Thunders face hardened. "I was the Ground Champion for two years. I faced hundreds of challenges and no one could beat me. The only reason I'm still no the Ground Champion is because I left. Now like I was trying to say...."
"Then toss me a sword and lets be done with it."
"Fine," Thunder said, un-hooking the pair of blastswords attached to her waist. "But have you realized that our company is gone?"
"What?"
"The Rogues. They're gone."
Jen looked around at the empty warehouse. Uh-oh, she thought. "When did that happen?"
Thunder circled the building, checking behind every box to make sure that all the Rogues were gone. "Probably during one of your rants."
"My rants? My rants? I don't remember you noticing them leaving, oh wise and mighty Captain Crapsword Champion. You're in charge, this is your fault!"
"My fault!?" Thunder bellowed. "If you had taken care of Janson in the first place we wouldn't be in this situation!"
"Oh don't even talk about me taking care of Janson. You were alone with the man for at least ten minutes. And from what I saw you weren't exactly trying to kill him."
Thunder let out a long sigh. "You know," she finally said. "It doesn't really matter whose fault it is. The fact is that we failed in our mission. The Lord Baron will hold us both responsible."
"Sorry, he won't hold me responsible. You are in charge, not me. That means you take the blame, not me."
"Yeah, what if I tell him about your antics with Janson in the alley?" Thunder asked. "You think Reno will just forget and forgive that?"
"My antics with Janson? What do you think he'll say when I tell him about you and your antics. I doubt he'll let you off the hook with only a stern talking to."
"You're right. Okay, this is what we do. None of the other Siths here know what happened. We just have to make up a story and back each other up. We tried to get the Rogues, we were ambushed, we fought back and escaped, blah, blah, blah, we made it back to base...easy as that. No one will know."
"Do you know how good the Lord Baron is at using the Force to sense the truth?" Jen asked.
"Probably better than we are at using the Force to influence minds. Maybe we should just come clean and tell the truth," Thunders suggested.
They stared at each other and then erupted into laughter. "Yeah, that was funny. All right, lets get back to the ships and get out of here. We'll meet at the rendezvous point and wait for the Lord Baron. I'm sure his mission was more successful than ours."