"Sir, looks like we're going to have to land in one of the docks."

"Fine." Ulrich said, "Like I said, when I get off, no one is to get on, near, or off the Blade." They had five minutes to their destanation.

"This is Sigmi 84 Zero Alpha Niner 18 wishing for a landing dock. This is Sigmi 84 Zero Alpha Nier 18, over." The pilot said to control.

On the platform were 2 timebombs and a squad of Trandosian Mercinaries.

Jaxon and Malra finally had a plan. Jaxon would leave the station for the night and sleep on his ship after a short hyperspace jump. Malra would meanwhile slice into the station's mainframe and assure that Talves received a specific room with a specific entry code. Sometime the next day, Jaxon would return and pay a quick visit to Talves' room, do his business, and leave. Malra would disable the security holos, giving him a five-minute window to finish. The job would be quick, but it would be done.

Jaxon exited Malra's room and headed for the nearby shifter. He entered and specified his destination as Landing Bay 573A. The automated response came back, "Shifter unavailable."

Something was wrong. His ship might be in trouble. "Give me the shifter one deck up from Landing Bay 573A." His vibroknife could cut through the deck. If not, there had to be stairs to get from one floor to another for maintanance.

Exiting the shifter, he pulled his vibroknife and attempted to cut through the deck, but it wouldn't work. "Crap," he said. Putting the knife away, he commed Malra in her room. "I need you to find a map of the station."

Seconds later, a reply came back. "Got one in front of me."

"I need to know if there is a way to Landing Bay 573A that does not require the shifter in that bay. It doesn't seem to be working."

"I'm seeing...there's another shifter in the bay next to it. If you get there, you can go through a small door connecting the two bays. I'll unlock it for you. Let me know if you have any trouble."

"Thanks," Jaxon replied. He reentered the shifter, this time specifying Bay 573B. No problems. When he exited, he drew his blaster, hoping not to run into any trouble, but ready if he did. He headed for the now unlocked door, opening it and entering, blaster at his side but pointing into the bay.

"Sir, I'm not getting an answer."

"Then land anyway." Ulrich told the pilot. If he didn't get an answer he would do it his way. "Get ready for a rough landing. Oh, and ye might want to get to your battle stations incase they have another idea.

"Sir, we have an unidentified craft on our starboard side."

"Let them go. We have bigger fish to fry." With that the pilot got ready to land and everyone else went to their battle stations.

Cas, the hanger manager was sitting in a chair outside the fighter craft patiently waiting for the owner to return.

The pilot seemed to have landed without paying the required credits for the berth.

Not an uncommon occurance but one that Cas was used to correcting.

A maintenance hatch that connected this hanger bay with the next one over opened and Cas perked up.

Perhaps the owner was returning.

Jaxon glanced around the bay. There didn't seem to be a problem. A scruffy, apperantly half-drunk low-life was sitting near his craft, but the man didn't seem to be a threat. Jaxon headed towards him, to figure out what he wanted, holstering his blaster but keeping his hand close to it.

As Jaxon approached, the man stood up, perhaps a little too quickly for one who had been drinking as much as he had. The man closed his eyes for a second to clear his head. Jaxon almost laughed out loud. This guy was a joke. A jester of some sort. He hoped the guy didn't have any intention of fighting. Jaxon hated killing when the kill was not honorable. He had this thing with honor. To him, keeping one's honor was extremely important. He would not shoot someone in the back, and he wouldn't kill innocents (unless they became a hinderance).

Jaxon approached the man and stated, "You appear to have been waiting for me." He continued walking towards the hangar operator as he waited for a response.

Hidden behind a stack of crates, Celdors' squad of Trandosian mercenaries silently waited for the approaching corvette to land in bay 414C. Outside the hanger, the ship was far enough away to appear only as an approaching point of light, but soon basic details would be visible.

And it's weapons would be in range.

Stealth was the key to the operation. If that ship detected them, then they wouldn't have a chance. A proton torpedo could take the 12 of them out in microseconds, blowing them to sub-atomic particles.

Down the line, the lizard-humanoids were all performing there prebattle rituals. His son and newest member of the group was reciting an ancient Trandosian battle ode:

When my sun finally sets

]

I will rejoice and embrace the occasion

But as long as I am of this earth,

I will fight with every breath to push against the gods eternal might

So that I may be entitled to another.

Ancient, written long before his elders could even comprehend the concept of stars, or planets, or anything beyond their tiny rock Trandosia. Long ago, that ode had been screamed by thousands of warriors charging into battle with primitive weapons such as Swords and Spears.



He shut his eyes for a moment, gripping the detonator for the 2 bombs in his hand, and took several deep breaths as an attempt to calm his body down for the coming challenge, because that's all life was. One challenge after the next.

To his right Barskuwl anxiously fingered his blaster, ready for the task ahead.

All down the line the Trandosians opened their eyes and got attentive as the 100 meter long form of the Merc's Blade appeared outside the hanger.

Cas saw Jaxon enter and jumped to his feet, a bit too quickly. In his semi-sober state, the sudden movement made his head feel like a bantha was walking on it. He shut his eyes against the pain, not noticing the drawn blaster. By the time he reopened them, the blaster was holstered and Jaxon was walking towards him.

"You appear to have been waiting for me," Jaxon stated. Not a question, but a statement. Cas replied, "Well, yes. You seem to have landed without paying the hangar fee. Normally, the fee would be 100 credits, but due to a, uh, complication, I have been forced to tack on an extra 50." The complication to which Cas referred was the mini Ugnaught that appeared behind him, ready to collect his cut.

Jaxon saw right through the con game. He knew the fee was only 75 credits to dock - he was a bounty hunter that did his homework. He wasn't about to pay double for an hour's docking. But he didn't want this to turn into a fight just yet. "What kind of services do I get for 150 credits? It seems a bit high to me for a simple docking fee. And what complications are you referring to?"

"Well, see, its like this. You landed in this hangar, which has a special, uh, extra fee attached to it. Yeah. Its, uh, more dangerous for the hanger operators because of, uh, well, it's on the, uh, other side of the city. Yeah. Dangerous parts. They got to pay us more for the dangers, see. And the complication is, uh, um, the value of the ship, see? The E-wing is a good ship, see, and I don't think you want it broken up for scrap."

At this, the Ugnaught chimed in, "Yeah, don't want it taken apart."

Cas glared at it, then turned back to Jaxon. "And if you want your ship to ever leave this hanger, you'll pay the fee, see? Otherwise I have to, uh, confiscate it for the station."

Jaxon looked at the hanger operator in disbelief. The man was actually threatening him! Well, not him exactly, but his ship. Which was just as bad. Or nearly. He scratched his head, scrunched his face a bit, and replied, "How 'bout this - how 'bout I pay the 75 creds I know the space is worth and let it go at that?"

The piggy immediately replied, "But you must pay the tax! You must! The Law demands it!"

Cas again glared at the Ugnaught. He turned back to Jaxon and said, "The little fellow's right, you know. You land in this bay, you have to pay the tax. No negotiation."

"None?"

"None," replied the hanger manager.

At that moment, Jaxon's fist came up from his side and smashed into Cas's nose. The big man reeled, holding his nose while involuntary tears came to his eyes. Jaxon turned his attention to the Ugnaught, who backed up and acted like it was reaching for a weapon. It didn't move fast enough, though, and Jaxon's foot came up in a roundhouse kick that caught the piggy in the side of the head. It went flying and landed a few feet away, stunned.

Jaxon turned back to deal with Cas - and found a hold-out blaster pointed at his face. The manager was trying to stem the flow of blood from his nose with one hand, but the face behind that hand was clouded in anger. This was not good.

"Now listen up, you piece of crap," said Cas. "I didn't want to have to do this. I'm upping the fee to 200 credits because of damages. For that, you get to leave with your ship and your life. And add on an extra hundred for the Ugnaught."

Jaxon knew he didn't have a choice now. "Alright, alright, I'll pay the fee," he said. Three hundred credits! "I don't have that much on me - it's up in the ship, though. You'll have to let me get it - my droid has the ship in lockdown, and he's kind of stubborn. I have the override codes, and no, I'm not giving them to you, so don't even ask."

Cas nodded, and Jaxon turned to walk to the ship. Climbing up the ladder, he punched in the override codes to unlock the cockpit. He lifted the seat up and, as he did, withdrew the blaster from under his coat, out of Cas's line of sight. He said quietly to his droid, "When I jump, put the shields up quickly." The truth was, he didn't have 300 credits with him. After today, he wouldn't be richer, but Cas would be a lot poorer. The moment the man drew a blaster on him, he was dead. Poor, foolish soul.

Jaxon extricated himself from the cockpit, keeping his body between Cas and the blaster. In one swift move, Jaxon twisted and jumped off the wing of his ship. Cas was fast, but not fast enough. His blaster shot tore through the air behind Jaxon. Jaxon fired as he jumped, getting off two shots that sent Cas ducking behind his chair. Jaxon rolled as he hit, another blaster bolt scorching the floor where he had been a moment before. He came out of his roll in a diagonal run, headed for a trash pile he'd seen earlier. He never reached it. Another blaster shot screamed out from the pile, nearly placing a neat little hole in the bounty hunter's head. As it was, Jaxon could feel the heat as it passed.

He changed direction and got a quick snap shot off at Cas just as the man was rising from his cover for another shot. The bolt struck him in the shoulder, and he went down, screaming in pain. Jaxon heard blaster fire screaming behind him and knew he had to do something about it. As Jaxon ran past the stunned Ugnaught, he reached down and grabbed it, swinging it behind him as a shield. The blaster fire stopped.

Jaxon turned and knelt behind the piggy, placing his arm around its neck and his blaster on its temple. The Ugnaught was fully alert by now and started sqirming. Jaxon whispered, "Cut it out, or I'll put an end to your miserable existance right now." The piggy stopped moving. Jaxon noticed Cas reaching for his blaster. Setting his own blaster to stun, Jaxon fired twice into Cas's body, rendering him unconscious for the time being.

He whispered to the piggy again. "Tell your friends to come out where I can see them, or you're gonna die right here, right now."

"Go into that hanger at twelve o'clock" Ulrich told his pilot, "Everyone, battlestations. I feel a battle about to start." He made sure everyone heard his order than readied himself into his chair.

"Landing bay in one minute," The pilot said. Everyone was tense. The air was burning. Everyone knew they were going to be attacked but knew they had to land. "Landing in 10 seconds." The pilot warned. Then they landed. At the same time the ship was hit.

"Shit!" Ulrich yelled, "Who just hit us!?!"

3...2...1...

As the landing skids of the Corvette touched down on the hanger floor, Celdor squeezed the detonator hard, producing a satisfying boom and a thrill as hormones began bleeding into his blood stream, a thrill that fell off slightly when he noticed only one of the bombs went off.

A pity

Oh well, no time to worry.

All the squad’s eyes were on him for what seemed like an eternity, though actually only half a second.

Through his makeshift periscope, he could see the ramp lowering and 4 men coming down to inspect the damage, and if these guys were as good as he had heard, there would be another 4 ready behind them in case anything funny happened.



Best to use the element of surprise.

"Go!" he hissed in his native Trandosian.

Working in perfect sequence, his 12 lizard-men jumped up at the same time, 4 firing rockets into the ships port lasers, another 4 putting pinpoint blaster bolts into the 4 men coming down. Behind the crates, another 4 waited in reserve.

The enemy acted with the skill, persistence, and precision only the best have, he had to give them that. Of the 4 coming down, 2 were hit in mid chest, killed instantly, one in the arm, and one was completely missed. His sons target. He glanced in his son’s direction. He was going through the nervous but exhilarated rush every soldier gets in combat, he just hadn't learned to suppress it yet.

But at least the port lasers were out, that meant only the pinned foottroops could be used against them. Of

The unhit mercenary ran in a mad dash behind the engine housings. Smart, if he had fallen back into the ship it would have caused clutter and confusion. These men really knew their stuff.

The 4 troops to his left were still keeping up random coverfire to pin them down. So far, not one of the mercenaries had came out of the ship.



It seemed as if Ulrichs luck had finally run out