Ducts. By the sith how he hated vent shafts.

Two hours he'd been waiting here, the first in position. For two hours Beff waited paitently while the rest of his team moved into their positions.

Stuffy, cramped... There were so many destestful words he could issue to the situation, not that it would do any good but, Beff found that nothing passed the time like having something to complain about.

For the thrid time the Bounty Hunter checked his gear, making sure his stealth skin-suit was working, checking his weapons and, of course, adjusting for the tight suit. Then, almost casually, he checked the time.

Thirty second and counting.

With a casual ease that denied the cramped space, the black clad Bounty Hunter slipped out the pre-loosened grate behind which he had been lurking and dropped the two meters to the floor. He landed soundlessly in the quiet hallway and pressed his back to the wall before clicking his comm unit on with the press of his tongue.

"This is Lead. One, report?"

A reply came back through the unit tucked in Beff's ear, unheard by any others.

"You have the green light," replied the hunter into his mic, then, simply and easily... the lights went out.

No huss, no fuss. No noise and no light save for that small trickle of illumination that filltered through standstorm and clouds into the corporate building.

The darkness was no issue for those of the team, mind you. For those who could not naturally see in low light, optical receptors were worn, granting them the gift of night-sight and heat vison.

His teams were comprised of two mercenaries each, with five teams in total... not counting Beff as lead. With eleven of his top picks in position, it was time to go.

"Two, watch the exterior. Use the remotes if you have to."

Tucking the light repeater under his arm, Beff set off down the corridor towards the lift junction, where he knew, three armed gaurds would be waiting, curious why the elevator was not coming. Little did they know that yet another of his teams was responsible for this.

Sure enough, as Beff rounded the corner, there they all stood... confusion and acticipation dripping off of them like rookies... a natural result of the pheremone being injected into the building via the oxygen circulators... again, the work of one of his teams.

They hardly responded as Beff brought the barrel of his weapon around the corner and let loose with a series of supressed thuds from his silenced weapon. Wasting no time, he quickly slunk around the corner and dispatched the sole remaining gaurd with a quick blow to the soft of the temple.

"Three. Lead in postion, send the lift down."

"...in the name of Vader what now!?…”

An irritated Vinda let out loud as the whole room suddenly became plunged into darkness.

The darkness was so engulfing that the only sign that the CEO was still in the room was the small red ember at the end of his Cigarra dancing randomly about as he spoke.

Achinta instantly concerned and alert, approached the room's computer console, and tried in vein to activate it.

"...the computers are down, it looks like complete powerloss....

The HRD switched his vision spectrum to compensate for the darkness, as Vinda continued moaning...

"...great...this is just what I need right now..."

"...odd..."

"..whats odd?.." Replied Vinda instantly, starting to become worried...

"...I can't raise anyone on the internal comms, it appears to be functional but no-one is answering..."

Something triggered Achinta's enviromental alert, and automatically his diagnostic systems began scanning the air for harmful, or unusual chemical traces..

"...something is wrong..." Achinta stated matter of factly...

"...he's a sharp one.. " Muttered Vinda carcastically under his breath...(Achinta continued uninterrupted)...

"...I am picking up traces of an unidentified pathogen within the air supply...

(The droid turned to face the CEO as he talked)

"...do you have your respirator with you?..."

Vinda rolled his eyes in the dark as he replied quickly...

"...yes I carry it on me all the time..."

"...good..." Responded Achinta, the remark's carcasm lost on the bodyguard...

"..no , of course I don't have my bloody respirator!, I didn't think I would need it to tour the bloody prisons with!.."

Yelled Vinda, deciding that he didn't particularly like the thought of being gassed to death . The outburst received a scornful look from the HRD, which of course , was unseen by Vinda in the darkness.

"...you should have these items with you, they are for your own security and protection..."

Sighing in exhasperation Vinda shook his head slightly..

"...could we talk about this later?... and focus on the gassing thing?..."

"..cover your mouth and nose,try not to take deep breaths.."

"...I'll try..."

Came Vinda's muffled reply as he both scowled in Achinta's direction and covered his mouth with a hankerchief.

Sliding his right sleeve back to reveal his wristband, Achinta activated the wrist unit , and as it beeped expectantly indicating its readiness , the HRD spoke into it.

"...Oni, start-up , beacon lock, circle pattern delta...initiate"

In a flurry of black leather Achinta turned back to face his employer…

“…we’re leaving…”

“…What about Secretary Katta?…”

Achinta’s logical response was swift and to the point…

“…my assignment and first priority, is to protect you…I cannot protect everyone…”




Meanwhile



Brentaal Downport - shuttle bay 4



The shining, reflective hull of The Narcissus seemed to lighen up the dull surroundings of the downport , which by now, apart from the odd distant sounds of sky-traffic, was quiet, apart from two security Espo’s playing cards around a small drum of some long forgotten inflammable ship fuel.

“…what!?…not again!?…”

Bellowed one of the guards, the taller of the pair , as he threw down his cards in disgust…

“..I swear by the Sith you are cheatin!..”

“…I resent that remark!… you're just really crap...besides…

The two men’s argument was cut short as the lights of The Narcissus seemed to
switch on by themselves, and as the two men looked at each questioningly, the back hatch of the shuttle started to lower itself.
Slowly, and cautiously the two men walked over to the shuttle, and as they drew closer the slight hum of an engine of some kind started to fill the bay…

“..what in the name of?…”

The tall Espo turned to face the cheater…

“..I thought no-one was supposed to be here?…what the hell's goin’ on?…”

As the other simply shrugged cluelessly in response, the taller of the two inched closer to the shuttles hatch to gain a better look…

Suddenly in an ear-deafening roar an ebony black Svelte-class shuttle rocketed out of The Narcissus’s own small internal landing bay, just barely missing the hapless Espo by merely inches, causing the petrified man to dive upon the floor in cover,closely followed by his compatriot…

As the two men glanced up in time to catch sight of the shuttle fly away into the distance , the shorter of the two moaned loudly as he stuck his finger in his ear in a vein effort to relieve his temporary deafness.
The other staggered to his feet , and threw his colleague an icy glare as if in a pre-emptive answer to a question he could sense coming…

“….don’t look at me!…. I didn’t touch a bloody thing!…

It was a startling thing, not to mention panic inducing, to have the turbolift suddenly jolt to a stop. Turbolifts these days didn't jolt to a stop, they glided. And one could reasonably expect a planetary governor, of a rather wealthy core world who's main income was trade, to have an up-to-date turbolift system installed in his office.

Turbolifts also had that nasty habit of bringing you to a floor, usually the floor you had requested. Apparently, this one was a rebel – the black sheep of the bunch.

Kas had come to this conclusion moments ago, when he had completed his hot-wire job on the doors controls. As the two dura-steel plates slid open, he got a beautiful eyeful of permacrete, gobs of it.

"Great," he muttered. "Makes me wish I had brought a jackhammer in this briefcase."

Reaching his hand out, Kas punched the emergency help button on the control pad. Nothing happened, so he punched it again. And again.

"The little man inside must be on a coffee break," he muttered. "Gotta take a break sometime, might as well be now..."

But, behind the lighthearted thoughts, a deep sense of foreboding was building in the Secretary's mind. Turbolifts were fairly predictable things. They either worked, running smoothly up and down, or they didn't work, and crashed to the floor below. Because they hadn't crashed yet Kas was forced to assume that the Turbolift had been shut down. Turbolift operators usually informed the passengers that something was amiss (or, as they would put it, nothing was wrong.)

"Nothing wrong, yeah, sure," muttered Kas as he sat down with his back to the wall. There was plenty wrong. For one thing, the lights had just died. As his eyes adjusted to the light, shifting from a mostly black to almost all black color, he contemplated the dimness of the situation. Maybe they would crash after all, was the power outage on a schedule? Must be a union power outage.

He added the events up in his mind. One, Turbolift died, halfway through a floor. Two, the power had just gone out. Three... was there a three?

Not yet, but Kas' mind was telling him, in a rather loud manner, something would happen soon.

"Pah," he muttered, "Just a little trouble downstairs."



There was a sweet aroma in the air now though, something he hadn't noticed before. Frowning slightly he sniffed.

Run! Hide! Run! Hide!

The thoughts flickered faintly across Kas' mind, almost causing him to attempt to do so. His internal alarm system, ever watchful as always, went off in his head. Soemthing was definetly very wrong here. He gave another sniff, and was shocked at the thoughts that instantly shot through his mind.

Stay, don't move, it's alright. Everything is fine...

Standing, Kas looked around. It must be some sort of drug, introduced through the airways. His eyes, almost fully black having adjusted to the lack of light, looked up at the ceiling of the turbolift. There, a small grate. Two of them. He tried jumping, but the roof was too high up for him to reach.

He unwittingly took a breath, and instantly regretted it. It was an air born drug, and it was getting stronger.


Resist it! screamed a voice in his mind. It wasn't his voice, or, it wasn't his current voice.

Grasp the power! Resist it! the voice screamed again, before Kas shoved it back into the hole it had come from.

"No..." he whispered. He wouldn't open himself up, not now, not for this, not ever.

A flash of memory came to his eyes, and he saw it. The home of his people, buried beneath the ground of Vandelhiem. Seven years ago he had...


A banging brought him to reality again, the suddenness of it causing him to take a sharp intake of breath. The drug was confusing his mind, muddling it. He couldn't tell where the noise was coming from...

Aron kicked the mainframe.

"Obsolete piece of junk."

The machine whirred, and a mechanical voice responded.

"Now processing your data."

"About time," Aron muttered, as Kaneda looked on in amusement.

Finally, the monitor displayed the information they thought they were looking for. Aron read aloud.



Entry Date into System: 20.3, R. 24994
Last Update: 15.8, 1 A.B.Y.

Joined CSA as a legitimate, chartered corporation run by a board of directors. Was estimated to be the CSA's largest source of income within three our four years of founding. Primary locales of operation: Maryo and Saffalore. The Corporation held ownership of the planet Bonadan, but never used it apart from storage warehouses. In R. 24998 (3 B.B.Y), allegations of diplomatic fraud and spice smuggling led to the CSA's discontinuation of AC's charter followed by the permanent blacklisting of its sole stockholder, Alexander Hutchel.[/b]

Aron frowned. "Okay, that's very enlightening and all. A list of the board of directors would be nice."

He searched for something that might give him some help. He looked under 'related articles.' 'Vinda Corporation' was at the top of the list.

"What the devil?" Aron looked up and down the page. So what if VC was associated with AC? That didn't explain Seth Vinda's personal connection? Finally, he found an option to view the simple, concise company profile, which graciously listed the board of directors.



"Well, we've found Mr. Vinda's connection to Amcron. Wow. That's an awful lot of accidental deaths, missing's, and imprisonments for one board of directors, don't you think?"

"Well, we've found Mr. Vinda's connection to Amcron. Wow. That's an awful lot of accidental deaths, missing's, and imprisonments for one board of directors, don't you think?"


Kaneda's eyes scanned the database in front of him...

"...my thoughts exactly... "

A deep frown seemed to embed itself across the Section operative's brow as he contemplated the significance of what they had discovered.

...ominous...

Kaneda found this small revelation to be deeply unsettling, the significance of the discovery could not be more obvious.
The Operative turned to face Aron, it was quite clear from the diplomat's face he was thinking the same thoughts...

..either Vinda is next on this list... or...

He froze that particular train of thought....

was Vinda really that ruthless?....

"...does it say where these men are being held?.. if we could talk to them..."

Kaneda didn't finish his sentence, there wasn't any need to, the two men seemed to be thinking along the same lines...

Aron's eyes met Kaneda's, and they said the name of their next destination at the same time.

"Mytus."

Both men walked out of the building, towards their transport, which they immediately programmed for the trip to Mytus.

"Do you think we'll find anything useful when we get there?" Aron asked the Section Operative.

"Do you think we'll find anything useful when we get there?"

Kaneda was so deep in thought right at that moment, that Aron's words barely registered, but when they did, the memory of the last time he visited Mytus IV flashed though his head...

The memory sparked off the traces of a small smile...

Natalya....

Turning to face the Ambassador, Kaneda ventured a rather ominous sounding reply as he shunted the shuttle into hyperspace...

"...I'm sure we will Ambassador..."

As the stars turned into long streaks of light, this very thought lingered inside his head...

...I'm sure we will...



Two Hours later...


Kaneda winced slightly as the quick hyperspacial burst engulfed the shuttle, and disappeared in the blink of an eye...
Replaced instead by the dark lumbering rock that was Mytus IV, its pitted surface just barely visible from orbit.

Pushing forward onto the shuttles control stick, Kaneda steered the shuttle to the Asteroid's surface, moments later, touched down with a gentle bump...

Turning to face Aron, his face was serious...

"lets see what we can find..."



...moments later...


Slowly the two men negotiated their way down the metal landing gantry, a kind of long tube that connected the shuttle's exit with the entrance of the visitor's area, necessary, since Mytus's atmosphere was basically non-existent....

After being escorted to the arrival gate, a rather rasping sounding droid gestured to the elborate computer panel beside him...

"...identification authentication required, please submit your ID-Card, fingerprint, retina , and DNA for analysis..."

Raising an eyebrow , Kaneda glanced over to the Ambassador, who appeared to be doing the same, then shrugged his shoulders, and proceeded to comply with the request...

Things had changed a lot since Mytus IV had come under Vinda-Corp control, security was certainly tighter, the presence of guards all around were felt strongly.

Kaneda contemplated this for a moment as he watched Aron undergo the rigorous security checks...

The Section agent couldn't help but think of the last time he had 'visited' this place...

The all clear sounded and Kaneda was brought from his thoughts, and as the large, thick, metal door slowly raised, the two Vinda-Corp employees walked through into the complex...

Coming to rest between floors, the turbo-lift slid silently to a stop. Inside, its lone occupant, retrieves a slender object from somewhere about his person. Elongated, and much resembling a glow-rod, quick fingers set a dial in position then flick the devices toggle forward.

With a suppressed snap-hiss, a long blade of glowing white energy leaps from the object and drives its point into the floor of the turbo-lift. Clutched tightly in his hand, Beff maneuvers the blade around in a narrow circle. Deactivating the blade, he gives a quick kick to the smoking ring. With a clattering noise, the piece falls away revealing a gaping whole into the turboshaft.

"Two. I'm going in. The target still in position?"

Smiling at the returned information he then snaps a carribeaner to the handle of the turbolift then drops neatly through the hole disappearing into the darkness.

A moment later, he is free of the turboshaft, the pried open door yawning open ominously behind him. As expected, the hall is deserted, free of any innocent bystanders. Up and moving, he darts off down the hall with swiftness under his feet, but not so fast as to be careless. He can feel the world around him as he goes.

Suddenly he drops low into a tumbling roll, moving on instinct. And not a moment too soon, for an instant later the sputtering whine of a blaster bolt burns through the air above him. Its source, one of the guards, one who had been swift enough to get his hands on a re-breather.

Yanking his hand towards the man, easily 20 paces ahead and covered by a corner, Beff looses a handful of small chrome orbs towards the other. Each explodes an instant later, filling the hall with a thick haze of green fog. A noisy thud follows, and Beff departs down a side hall.

Ahead, some fifty-three meters directly, though the maze of the building made it considerably more, Beff knew he would find his next objective... and the mark.

Above.


It was most definitely coming from above. Obviously, someone was opening a door to gain access to the top of the turbolift.

Kas' muddled mind blanked out for a few moments, the drug that had been infused into the airways slowing his reflexes down. A black shape dropped to the floor before him, lights glowing from its head.

"Located one of them," it said, before roughly grabbing his arm and lifting him up. Another set of hands grabbed Kas, and pulled him through the turbolift roof. A third pair grabbed him from there, and dragged him onto the floor of one of the multitude of levels in the building.

"Out cold, allergic to the drug?" said the owner of the third set of hands. His voice was muffled, as if behind a gas mask.

"Probably. Give him a mask, we don't want him dead."

Cold rubber pushed its way onto Kas' face, and oxygen flooded its way into his brain.

Must to be captured, must ... not.

The drug, whatever it was, was weakening his resolve. Succumbing to ... it would result in something horrible.

Must .... not ....

Without warning, sleep overtook Kas.

"Out cold, sir."

"Keep the mask on him."