Chapter Six: Deadly Pursuits

After leaving the crates in the empty cubicle, Zarvon had walked outside to the main compound. He paused to survey the front yard and straighten his cloak before walking around to the west side of the building.

Ten meters from the loading dock lay the ladder which led to the roof. Zarvon nimbly climbed up the rungs and sprang onto the roof.

The two guards manning a pintle mounted, heavy repeating blaster looked at him as he walked towards them. Boredom was evident in the expressions of the two humans. They didn't even bother to acknowledge him before returning their gazes out beyond the security fence.

As Zarvon walked casually towards them, he made a subtle gesture towards the closest human. That man turned to his buddy and spoke:

"Aw! I gotta run downstairs real quick! That cup of Chafa I had is goin' right through me!"

"Get outta here then," his friend responded. "I don't want to smell it up here."

"I'll watch your post until you get back," offered Zarvon helpfully.

"Thanks, pal!" said the first man as he ran to the steps and climbed quickly away.

"Exciting day, huh?" asked Zarvon amiably of the remaining man.

"Dead is more like it", responded the man as he turned to gaze at the Tectarnian with half closedeyes. It was obvious that this man was looking forward to the forthcoming shift change so that he could go and sleep. "Nothing ever happens here."

"It could be worse", Zarvon offered. "We could be repelling a full assault!"

Both beings laughed heartily at that statement. After a few short moments, the man spoke again. "I'd almost shoot myself just to get a little excitement", he said.

"I hope we won't have to get that drastic", replied Zarvon.

To himself he really hoped it stayed quiet. Skully always said that a perfect mission is one that the enemy never finds out about until too late. If they do find out, then one just has to adapt. His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of alert sirens within the compound.

"Adapt it is", he spoke ruefully.

It had taken 5150 just under an hour to get to where he was stationed as a lookout. After following the Jedi discreetly, he had ducked into a side alley, located a fire escape on an older residential dwelling and then climbed up to the rooftops. Once there, he had jumped across from building to building for approximately two blocks. After he had located the abandoned tenement structure which Skully had briefed him upon the night before at "The Launch Pad", he had used a vibrosaw to cut an access into the roof to allow him to slip down into one of the third floor apartments. Following a brief, non-violent encounter with a small colony of rodents, he had established a position next to one of the glass windows overlooking the compound.

The youth worked silently and methodically. He unslung his blaster rifle from his armored shoulder and inserted a fresh energy cell. Next, he checked the power cells on his armor's wrist blasters. Everything was in the green. He glanced out of the dirty pane of glass.

The dim illumination filtering through the glass cast an eerie pall upon his black, yellow striped armor. Everything looked normal in the compound. A guard stood by the gatehouse. Two others walked along the eastern perimeter of the fence. From here, he had a slightly higher vantage point than that of the two repeating blaster crews on the roof of the processing plant.

A familiar face walked around the east side of the building. Rip Skully was walking his rounds as watch captain. 5150 watched Skully walk up to the two guards walking the perimeter and begin talking to them.

"Probably boring them with that story about the time he was the only one on perimeter watch and he got attacked by that pair of Rodian mercenaries", he thought to himself. "Typical."

The young man's attention was drawn to the front doors of the building. Zarvon walked out of the doors and paused briefly to look around the compound and straighten his cloak. "That's the signal! He's in!" said the youth to the empty room about him.

He watched the Jedi as he walked around the west side of the building. He lost sight of him for about five minutes before he noticed him reappear on the roof with one of the repeating blaster crews.

After surveying the compound, the youth concluded with a disappointed tone, "They only left me the gate guard".

Reaching into a case attached to the left side of his utility belt, 5150 removed a pair of macrobinoculars. He attached the optical enhancement device to a special fitting mounted on his blaster rifle. Next, he pulled a computer plug on a retractable link from the side of his helmet and inserted it into an adapter on the macros. The scomp link placed the head of the gate guard squarely in the crosshairs of the armor's heads-up display. A minute later, the alarms within the compound began to sound.

"Nothing personal, guy", uttered 5150 as he slowly depressed his rifle's firing stud.

"So there I was. Walking perimeter with an old Entech XP-3 blaster carbine when I was ambushed by a platoon of elite gamorrean mercenaries", Skully boasted proudly.

General murmurs of disbelief issued from the two guards he was regaling with stories of his exploits.

"You're a bleedin' liar!" stated one guard to be specific.

Skully's retort was drowned out by the hoots of the klaaxon alarms of the processing plant. He whirled around and drew his heavy blaster pistol. "What the...?", he blurted as he swung around to face the main doors.

Or where the main doors had existed before they were annihilated by blaster and concussion missile fire from within. A solitary figure clutching a portable computer and carrying a blaster sprinted through the debris a moment later. From the other side of the building, the repeating blaster position began opening fire upon the buildings just outside of the perimeter.

The figure ran headlong towards the guard at the main gate. Or rather where the guard had stood

before his head had intercepted a powerful blaster bolt from above and behind him.

"Damn! It's G'nash Endlighter! Get him!", Skully shouted enthusiastically has he fired a salvo of shots towards the running figure. An "ill-aimed" salvo which destroyed the locking mechanism of the gate and caused the gate to slide open.

As he began to move to give chase to the fleeing figure, his cloak became tangled in his feet and he fell to the ground. With him tumbled the two humans who had raised their blaster rifles to also fire at the man approaching the exit of the compound. The three fell into a pile amid curses and oaths.

More blaster bolts poured into the compound from a three story building outside the perimeter. They silenced the west side's repeating blaster crew before they could bring the cumbersome weapon to bear upon Endlighter.

When the sounds of blaster fire began erupting from within the building, Zarvon utilized the Force to make a suggestion to the guard on the eastside repeating blaster.

"There's snipers in that building!", he said as he pointed beyond the eastern perimeter. "Blast 'em!"

The dim-witted man fell easy prey to the Jedi suggestion technique and began opening fire upon an empty building. His only thought was of leveling the building.

With the man distracted by single-minded obsession Zarvon ran for the north edge of the roof. At the edge, he looked over and could see no one paying any attention to him. The Tectarnian stepped off of the roof and slowed his descent through controlled levitation. As he reached the ground, he could just make out G'nash Endlighter disappearing down an alleyway outside of the compound. Rip Skully had just cleared the fence and was taking up the pursuit.

"They've got things well in hand", Zarvon appraised.

Luosk, Sweto and Flasch ran through the debris of the front door. Luosk swore an oath of revenge in Trandoshan. His Quarren partner calmly turned to the Ubese bounty hunter at his side.

"Go kill Endlighter", was all Sweto said.

Flasch took three steps forward and ignited his rocket pack. With a gout of flame and a screaming roar, the Ubese hurtled across the courtyard and over the fence. There he followed Skully who was already on Endlighter's trail.

"Then again maybe not", mumbled Zarvon to himself as he too ran for the gate to obstensibly assist in the pursuit.

Rip Skully picked himself off of the ground and began running for the perimeter fence. As he did so, he turned to shout orders to the two guards who were getting to their knees.

"Fan out and watch the perimeter! It could all be just a diversion!"

Once he had sprinted to within 15 meters of the fence, Skully leaped hard and simultaneously activated a switch hidden in his armor's gauntlet. With a brief, muffled whine, the thrusters in his custom designed jump boots assisted his leap and propelled him over the fence. Landing safely on his feet, Skully continued his pursuit of Endlighter.

Once in the alleyway, Skully could see G'nash running about a block ahead of him. For show, Skully fired two wild shots with his blaster pistol which blasted away chunks from the steelcrete walls of the buildings to either side of the fleeing man. Dodging a shower of pebble-sized wall fragments, Endlighter ducked onto the next street.

Beside him, Skully noticed a shadow out of the corner of his eye. Glancing over he saw the Ubese hitman, Flasch, catching up to him.

"Let's go skin him alive!", the new arrival said in his filtered, metallic-sounding voice.

The pair ran silently onto the street and just caught sight of their quarry turning into yet another alley.

"He's heading for the starport!", the Ubese shouted in triumph. "We've got him now! That alley doesn't go all the way through! He'll have to double back and I know where he'll have to come out!"

Taking the lead, Flasch ran past the alley Endlighter had entered and turned onto the next alley instead. Skully remained right behind him. Approximately 300 meters and two turns later, the armored pair stopped at a pedestrian intersection among lower-class housing units. Flasch peeked around the corner and then moved quickly out of sight.

"He's coming now!", he whispered to the Roxian. "He's being cautious, but we'll have him soon!", he finished smugly as he thumbed off the safety on his blaster rifle and moved behind a crate to ambush the unsuspecting Endlighter. The Ubese bounty hunter never saw the blaster bolt that tore through the right side of his helmet at point blank range and vaporized his head. When G'nash Endlighter entered the intersection, Skully was holding his still smoking blaster pistol and standing over the armored body.

"Get back to the ship, quick!", Skully told him. "I'll try to devise a story and get back to the compound. Have 5150 meet me tonight at the usual spot to fill me in on the data."

Endlighter nodded assent and moved off down the alley. "Good luck!" he called.

Stepping away from the body, Skully fired a succession of shots. A few ripped into the motionless Ubese while others struck the wall near the intersection.

"Skully!", a familiar voice called from above.

Whirling around, Rip saw Zarvon descending like a feather from an adjacent rooftop. When he reached the permacrete ground, he ran over to the Roxian.

"5150 is already halfway back to the ship by now. I sent him on after I got out of the compound. I used the rooftops to catch up to you", the Tectarnian explained. "I thought you might need help. Did you have to blast the guy, though?", he asked as he gestured to Flasch's body.

"Had to be done. No time for regrets now", Skully finished succinctly. "But I will need your help. I have to pull off an ambush ruse."

"What do you want me to do?", Zarvon asked.

"Keep up the pretense of searching for Endlighter for a while and then head back to the compound. But first, hit me with your lightsaber", was Skully's reply.

"As you wish. Now, hold very still", the Tectarnian replied somberly as he ignited the orange energy blade of his Jedi weapon.

A few minutes later, Luosk and his lieutenants found Skully and Flasch where they both lay at the intersection. Flasch was obviously dead after being caught by surprise in a hail of gunfire. Skully's only wound was a long, dark slash across the chestplate of his armor.

"I think they're both dead", Sweto Chak observed.

Coughing, Rip Skully groaned and attempted to sit up. Flodo and Chona-kar moved to assist him. Together, the Rodian and the Barabel managed to help the armored Roxian to unsteady feet.

"It was a trap! They had an ambush waitin' for us!", Skully explained to those present. "Two guys with blasters and one with a laser sword of some kind! If I hadn't of rolled at the last second, I'd be cut in half!"

"Pick up his body", Luosk indicated Flasch to Chona-kar. "Let's go back and see how much this Roxian's incompetence has cost us!"

Chapter Seven: The Million Shot

A light drizzle fell upon Stovokal City. It washed away the grit of industrial pollutants from exposed surfaces and slowly soaked the clothing of any pedestrians who were walking in it. Few beings braved the streets of Beispiel's primary starport at night and then only the most hardy or foolish beings traveled alone.

A cloaked figure walked briskly along a deserted street, his purposeful stride carrying him towards a seedy hotel near the spaceport. At an intersection the being stopped and looked around at his surroundings. Satisfied that he wasn't being followed he crossed the street and entered the dilapidated building which a painted sign over the door proclaimed to be the "Long Haul Inn".

Stepping into the dim light of the lobby, 5150 pulled back the hood of his cloak and slicked his damp hair back with his gloved left hand. Grinning, he looked over at the grubby-looking, obese innkeeper sitting behind a wooden desk and offhandedly said "I LOVE what you've done with this dung heap since I left! Is that a rotting corpse I smell in here or did you take off your boots?".

The innkeeper mumbled a retort and went back to reading his dated copy of the "Daily Newstack".

With a lopsided smirk and a confident gait, 5150 ascended the creaking wooden stairs to the second floor guest rooms. He paused at a primitive looking wooden door which had a round knob for allowing entrance. He rapped on the door with the knuckles of his left hand.

"Who is it?" inquired a soft voice from the other side of the door.

"A weary traveler", replied 5150.

"From where have you come?" asked the voice on the other side.

"Out and about where only the CRAZY walk about", replied 5150 in a sing-song cant.

Shortly after, 5150 heard a click as the latch was turned on the other side of the door. Next, the knob turned and the door slowly opened inward. A blaster muzzle poked around the door as G'nash Endlighter appraised the new arrival from behind the door.

"As I recall, the last part of that was supposed to be just ‘Out and about’. Why did you modify it?", G'nash asked.

5150 shrugged his shoulders. "I just wanted to personalize it a bit, I guess."

"Good way to get blasted, you know", Endlighter stated.

"I would have got you too, you know", 5150 said as he pushed his heavy blaster out from under his cloak where it was pointed at G'nash. 5150 continued to smile as he holstered his blaster and stepped inside.

A short while later, the two Rebels sat at a amall table in the darkened room. The only light in the small chamber was that which came through the rain-streaked windows from the street lights outside. Endlighter sat and looked at 5150. He found his thoughts wandering back to a meeting with General Crix Madine a few months earlier.

Commander G'nash Endlighter tugged at the neck of his duty uniform as he strode briskly through the forward passageway of the Mon Calamari flagship Home One. He was unaccustomed to the feel of the seldom-worn material upon his neck and he would be relieved to put it away into storage once again when his business with the fleet was finished. He had recently completed a harrowing assignment to a Ubiqtorate base in the Velor system where he had narrowly avoided being vaporized along with a TIE Interceptor he had "procured". His debriefing concerning that mission was completed and he now had only one meeting remaining before he could depart in the Predator for his next assignment.

He stopped before a door labeled "Guest Officer Quarters". He adjusted his uniform, brushed some lint off of his left sleeve and then stood at attention. Taking a deep breath and holding it for a second, he reached out with his right index finger and pressed the door chime. A moment later the door slid aside and he stepped through smartly.

The outer room of the quarters served as a small but functional office. A small desk with a computer work station dominated the room across from the entrance. On the wall behind the desk was a display screen which currently showed a cross-section diagram of an Imperial Star Destroyer. A door to the right of the desk sealed the office from the bedroom and refresher. Two chairs were placed in front of the desk. The chair behind the desk was currently occupied by a human male.

The man had a well-groomed beard and mustache and piercing blue eyes. His intense gaze was offset by his relaxed posture. He keyed a command into the computer and the diagram on the screen vanished to be replaced by a holographic painting of a Calamari seascape.

"Please have a seat, Commander", he said to G'nash.

"Thank you, General Madine", replied G'nash.

Not hesitating to get right to the point, General Crix Madine, head of Alliance Special Forces started in. "I knew that you would have some questions regarding the recent personnel assignment to your team. I felt that it would be best to call you in and address them now as opposed to later", he said.

"I wouldn't really say questions, General, so much as concerns. Our team seems to be functioning well enough as it is without giving us new recruits to babysit. Especially one who has proven thus far to be extremely...volatile, under certain conditions", Endlighter replied to his superior. "Why us, sir?".

"Why indeed, Commander? Let's just say that my units can't use him and despite his quirks, he could prove useful to your team what with your recent drop in numbers", Madine answered.

"It's true sir that McGruff and Raws have both been reassigned to other support elements and S'nori has taken a leave of absence to attend to matters on his homeworld, but those of us who are left are veterans who have proven ourselves time and time again. We don't need a loose cannon among us", Endlighter responded firmly yet respectfully.

"Commander, I am not overlooking the fact that you and your companions are "23ers". Even though I outrank you and could order you to take 5150 without having this little chat with you, I respect your experience enough to at least address your concerns regarding the assignment. But frankly, it was the assessment of myself and several other senior command staff that your team is a collection of loose cannons and as such, what better place to store a loose cannon than among a whole stockpile of them," Madine finished.

"I understand, sir", Endlighter began through clinched teeth, "but the rest of the team has not been evaluated to be borderline psychotics. Would you go into battle with someone like him?"

"From what I understand, Commander, he excels in combat. I'm hoping that your team may be able to give him the danger he craves while instilling in him some other traits such as teamwork and patience. The Special Forces Team he was assigned to was found to be too regimented for him. He likes autonomy. He dislikes the chain of command."

"Great, sir!" G'nash began contemptuously. "What are we supposed to do when he won't follow orders in the middle of a lightfight?".

"If he becomes a liability you put a blaster bolt into his skull, Commander", the Corellian answered coolly. "No questions. No inquiry." Madine rose to his feet. "Just get him out of my command. That's an order, Commander."

G'nash came to attention and snapped a salute. "Yes, sir", he replied evenly.

His record of making the impossible possible had prevented G'nash from being reprimanded on that day. Field operatives who complete over twenty missions, "23ers", are few and far between. Most new operatives die within their first five missions. G'nash could get away with a little insubordination, or righteous indignation, occasionally. But why should he let 5150 get away with his devil-may-care attitude?

"I'll let Skully handle him", G'nash decided to himself as he focused upon the business at hand.

"What did Skully say about my plan?" he asked the youth.

"He said that you're frippin' fragged out of your mind!" 5150 began. "He said that it had to be the stupidest idea you've come up with since the ‘we have a prisoner transfer’ ruse you used on that Star Destroyer. He said that even Han Solo would look at you and say that you're nuts! He said..."

"I get the hologram!" G'nash interrupted curtly. "Did he think it would work?"

"Well...yeah. He said that it's a ‘million shot’. Whatever that means", 5150 answered.

G'nash smiled ruefully and sighed before saying, "A Million Shot is a mission with only a one-in-a-million chance for success. It’s in your datafile on Special Ops slang."

"I'm not much on reading," 5150 replied. "But, I do know my way around a sabbac table and one-in-a-million is not what I would call good odds. When do we start?" he asked with a grin.

"Patience", G'nash breathed. "What happened to Skully after the incident?"

"Oh! He said that it took some fast talking, but they bought his story. He can tell that they don't know whether to trust him or not. He said that Zarvon dimmed their awareness while they were debriefing him and they didn’t get hostile."

"Good!" Endlighter responded with a nod. Reaching into a pocket of his utility trousers G’nash pulled out a datapad and sat it on the table. "Now here’s what we’re going to do..."

Dawn arrived on Beispiel and a scene of deja vu occurred at the front gate to the food processing plant. Zarvon arrived at the gate with a hand truck laden with three large crates. A curious guard had his curiosity diverted. Zarvon entered the compound with his two companions. So far, the plan was working.

to be continued...