Revanche-class Star Defender Revanche,
Confederation Expeditionary Force,
in orbit via Saleucami

“Admiral’s on the deck!”

A shrill whistle of pipes accompanied the man’s entrance onto the bridge of the Confederation battleship. Times had changed so much within slightly over a year. His hair was still a dark, golden blonde, and his eyes still sapphire blue. But a year ago, the lines that shaped his face were not so apparent. Stress and premature aging from battle were slowly catching up on the Kashan officer. He sagely nodded as the ship’s first officer handed him a datapad. Briefly scanning the datapad, the younger Lucerne raised an eyebrow.

“Are they serious about these numbers?” questioned the officer, “It would take an abnormally large convoy to transfer these goods to and fro. Tell them we can maybe do it in sections. At least until the new sub-routes are fully done.”

“Aye sir. How long should that delay be?”

The Rear-Admiral snorted. “About a week or so before the Eagle Eye probes and Deathsabers have completely mapped out the routes.”

“Yes sir.”

The Confederate officer paced over to the holo-projector, illuminating this side of the galaxy. Confederation shipping had moved across these stars for over a year, while the nation was just beginning to stretch its horizons to the Meridian Sector after the entry of Budpock into the Confederation. Shipping between the Confederation Proper and its colonies through the Hydian Way had been considered risky from the start because of Imperial patrols based likely on Anzat and the Imperial base within the Roche Asteriod Belt. Because of this, several lesser-known routes known to traders and smugglers had been acquired through various means; the most popular taking Confederation shipping through the Meridian Sector, into deep space, to the Wheel, and then straight to the Confederation Proper. Recently, with the Imperial acquisition of Centares, Imperial patrols had been stepped up, making Confederate shipping through that reason more dangerous if the Imperials had decided to declare war. While most maps of the galaxy showed that the galaxy was a flat, two dimension object, every being that traveled in space for even an intra-system travel knew better: Space was three dimensional: depth, height, and length. All of these dimensions stretched for light-years at a time until infinity. Accordingly, hyperroutes were three dimensional, and thus, it was nearly impossible for any number of planets to cut off complete superluminial travel. A fact used by many smugglers and criminals across the millennia. There were, however, points that were more favourable to faster than light travel because the area surrounding it was better explored, and thus safer for travel. One of these Saleucami. Saleucami was occasionally used as an oasis by the Confederate mercantile fleet between their two distant outposts while the secret hyperroutes started nearly a half-year ago were completed. Once these routes would be completed, Saleucami would have likely been avoided by the Confederation except for its value as a trading partner; a relationship that was making its untimely blossom as the new route was nearly completed.

“Sir?”

Lucerne pivoted on his foot to face Lieutenant Dolos. “What is it Lieutenant?”

“The galleon group led by the Providence is beginning its descent for trading.”

Corise stared at the other man in puzzlement. “You left your station to tell me this?”

“Pardon me sir, but Commander Fyre asked me to inform when they were making their run. He said something like: Make sure he knows or I’ll make sure he’s on the next transport down.”

Covering his face with his right hand, the fleet commander exasperatedly shook his head. Why did the council insist on assigning him to my ship? Maybe to pester me, but more likely to add a different, different personality in the command hierarchy besides being remotely professional. I need to duel him…again. He stopped shaking his head.

“Where is Commander Fyre now?”

“He told me you would ask that. He’s on the Providence, sir.”

Corise frowned. “What for?”

“To sample the local establishments for recommendations for shore leave.”

“And by establishments, you mean bars and pubs?”

The man shrugged. “He just told me establishments.”

The younger Lucerne snorted. “Drinking establishments. I am somehow not surprised. Ask communications to buzz our taste-tester and inform him that he has an hour at most for that.”

“He’s with the Saleucami Minister of Culture though. He met him on the last run.”

“So,” questioned Lucerne, “he’s managed to combine drinking and diplomacy on a backwater world. Great. Now we’re going to have drunk diplomacy. He has an hour and a half. Tell him I need him to do some quartermaster work.”

“Really? I thought-”

“Barthos did not get it done. There’s a reason, in fact, why he did not get done,” smiled the Kashan officer.

The other man shook his head in mixture of pity and amusement. Dolos snapped to a more formal disposition, saluted, and marched down to the crew pit, leaving Corise alone to his thoughts. He looked up to the viewport, staring at the world suspended among the stars. Sad to think that the life teeming on a planet can be erased at a heartbeat. He shook his head at the thought before returning to read the datapad; this time in-depth.

Saleucami

Commander Fyre muttered a few choice words after the comlink transmission from the Revanche came down. He clipped his comlink back to his belt, let out a sigh, and moved to exit the shuttle along with some other Confederate personnel. The Kashan Captain shrugged and walked down the ramp of his shuttle. Desert wind tossed up sand and dust around the man, somewhat irritating the officer. Fyre ignored it and continued through the dust several dozen meters away to the starport building. Like many outer rim planets, Saleucami while not terribly well developed, increasingly supported modern amenities. While the starport was old, dating from since before the Clone Wars, it had been recently been renovated because of the return of prosperity from the trade lane established and utilized by the Confederation. The first of the heavy durasteel doors slid open allowing the Kashan officer to enter. It slid shut behind him, and another door now in front of him opened up; it was a foyer designed to keep the dust out of the building as much as possible. Fyre walked through the door casually, looking around for his contact.

“Commander Fyre! Long time no see. How you’ve been?”

Commander Fyre turned to face the Culture Minister, Nevera’an sen. The lithe twi’lek woman sauntered up to the expectant man. Glancing at each other’s eyes, both flashed a brief, toothy smile. They locked gazes before the twi’lek looked down at the duracrete floor of the spaceport.

“Well,” stated Fyre, “any new drinking establishments that we should try?”

She lightly laughed.

“Yes, many oh Lord of Kashan,” teased female, “but in all seriousness, there are quite a new cantinas springing up because of the business brought by the route you established. Most of them are seedier cantinas that cater to offworld spacers. But there is one restaurant that opened that is fairly good: Little Wroonia.”

Commander Fyre walked alongside the woman. “Wroonian food I take it?”

“You’re a bright one.”

“That’s good,” replied the Kashan man, “because if I was a dim one, you would have never gotten to see me.”

Nevera stared at the man with slowly upturned lips and amused eyes. “At the very least, I can’t fault your sense of humour. It’s certainly better than Lucerne’s. If he has any.”

Fyre nodded. “You’ve met him?”

“Once,” nodded the female, “just after the establishment of the route. The Pegasus stopped overhead and he met the cabinet. He seemed so serious and stiff; like he had never cracked a smile once in his life.”

The pair walked through several security checkpoints. Droids, sensors, and guards quietly inspected the two through each one. Several of them took notice of the commander’s presence with an unusual alacrity, straightening up as they approached.

“Well,” stated the Kashan man, “he doesn’t really open up until you get to be around him a while. He has a sense of humour, but it’s not nearly as good as the Lord of Kashan’s.”

Nevera shook her head earnestly. “Will he be coming down?”

“Nah, I can’t see him doing that. You’re talking about the guy who only leaves his cabin for meetings, duty, and exercising. He’s never in the lounge or anything. Keeps to himself. I don’t even get to him that much because of all our duties.”

“That’s too bad.”

Fyre raised an eyebrow. Nevera slightly shook her head.

“I just thought it would be nice for him to see the work of the influence done by you and your people. But I guess shore leave isn’t his thing.”

Fyre nodded. “All too true. Might have to bring the planet up to him sometime. And speaking about Lucerne and shore leave, he cut mine down a bit, so I’m afraid I have only time for dinner for now. We’ll be here for a couple of days. Perhaps we can spend more time later on.”

“You’d better believe it.”

“What?”

“Nothing,” stated the Saleucami native, drooping her lekku around her shoulders.

They exited the starport into the dusty streets of Saleucami. A relatively pristine landspeeder pulled up with the markings of the Ministry of Culture stamped onto it. Commander Fyre opened the door, allowing the twi’lek to get in. Shortly after she was seated, the commander sat besides her. And the pair were off to Little Wroonia.



Revanche, Confederation Flagship, in orbit via Saleucami

The bridge foyer swished open and Rear-Admiral Lucerne passed through a pair of Confederate marines stationed on either side of the doors. Each one of the soldiers flashed a stiff salute. The younger Lucerne simply acknowledged their presence with nod. The Supreme Commanding Officer of the Contegorian Confederation strode forward across the recessed bridge to the communication’s console. Lieutenant Narax, the officer manning the said console, snapped a salute at his approaching superior. Lucerne responded in kind.

“Any news of Commander Fyre?” questioned the Kashan man.

Narax shook his head. “Sorry sir. We haven’t heard from him since he left the shuttle. One of the ensigns accompanying the provisioning crews said he saw Fyre enter into a landspeeder with a Twi’leck female. The vehicle had the markings of Saleucami’s Ministry of Culture emblazoned on it.”

The Rear-Admiral frowned. “Fyre is overdue. He was suppose to be onboard a shuttle heading back to the Revanche over a half-hour ago. Something is up. Did you ever take a break or have someone temporary relieve you?”

“No sir.”

Corise’s jaw set. “Not good. We have a missing officer then.”

“Sir?” questioned the other man, “doesn’t Commander Fyre pull pranks frequently. Could this be one of them?”

The younger Lucerne snorted. “It could be, but it’s not a very funny one. He’s a little to high up on the ladder to be doing such things. Have you tried calling his comlink to remind him?”

“Yes sir. No answer.”

“Well,” stated the Revanche’s commander, “we don’t have much choice then. Alert the Saleucami government that we have a missing persons report to file. If CSIS has anyone on-planet, I want them to get on it immediately.”

“Ah, sir, how?”

The Kashan man let out a mental sigh. Of course, being a naval communication’s officer, he won’t have the proper information to contact any of them. This will be something that we might have to remedy for the future. Lucerne’s blue eyes pierced into his subordinates.

“Good point. I will have our CSIS liaison officer, Controller Endivian, come over to deal with that situation . She may or may not need your help or station. In the meantime, alert anyone going on shore leave to notify us if they see him.”

“Yes sir. I’m getting a transmission from Saleucami regarding that missing person report. It’s full holo.”

The Kashan officer nodded.

“Very good,” stated the officer, “patch it through your console.”

“Aye sir.”

The sign outside of the Cantina’s blinked on and off intermittently, as the result of bad wiring and the pests eating away at the wires, cutting them completely in some cases. The neon lights casting an eerie glow on the street below casting shadows everywhere, hiding faces and expressions on those passing, most of them preferring it that way anyway.

No one even noticed another group of men and women walking along the street just another collection of no bodies carry a couple of nondescript bags and wearing pretty common clothes. No one cared and no one expected to be cared about in return. You didn’t come here to be in comfort, you came here to not be found and everyone knew that, really no one cared either most just wanted to get along with their lives, and most did.

This small collection was no different. They walked together talking a bit about nothing important really or nothing that anyone would really take notice of. All the while they looked around them taking in everything that they could see, every little detail about their environment, discreetly, but still taking in everything.

They saw everything from the Graffiti covering the walls around them to the gruff individuals that stood and sat along the street begging for credits, money, anything that would help them get through another day of their lives here.

They continued on weaving their way through the crowed until finally they came to a cantina that seemed to be not overly packed but still not empty either. Hiding in plain site is sometimes the best place to hide, something a teacher had said once and something the group had not forgot. One by one they disengaged themselves from the throng of folk outside and made their way into the Cantina all of them finding their way through the crowds, to a small booth in the back. Silent all of them, they removed their hoods and ordered a drink as a shining waitress droid rolled by asking for orders.

As they drank they began to talk about the days to come, about what they had come here to but they were careful about what they said, you still could never be sure who was listening.

“For the moment we’ll stay here see if we can dig up any information, and wait for any information that may come to us. But-.“ He paused as a couple of wroonians walked by their table, “But remember to be careful we don’t know a lot about what happened to the Commander and we know nothing about those that presumably took him.

He continued “We have all the items we need in these bags so we need to find a room were we can store them, but once again we have to be careful around here so at all times someone is to stay with the equipment.”

He sat up a bit giving Awdin a good look at all the faces of the men and women around him. They looked calm and cool, like this was normal business which it probably was.

“Hopefully sometime tomorrow or the day after those people will get back to us with whatever help they can give us. Until then however we’re on our own.” By people of course those at the table knew he meant the Confederation Intelligence service, and most shared his hope as it would save them much trouble in finding the Commander.”

“I think you guys know the rest. Come on lets get a room and some rest for tomorrow.” With that Awdin took a large swig of his beer and left the glass jug on the table, and headed towards the desk. They had been looking to find a Cantina that not only had the drinking facilities but some rooms for rent also. The rest of the group stayed at the table, a few minutes later Awdin returned and set two keys on the table and began his assent of the stairs to the room he had rented. A few minutes everyone else walked up stairs following the Captain, except one who ordered a new drink and sat drinking at a new table a while before going to desk for a few moments. After talking with the Rodian there for a few moments he walked up the stairs following the rest of his mates to the rooms.

Undisclosed Location, Saleucami

“Welcome to our facility, Commander Fyre,” stated Nevera, pacing around the shackled man.

The Confederate officer looked around. It was a dark, basalt cavern, likely part of Saleucami’s famous magma caverns. In fact, Fyre would have been certain that they were there, except for the fact that the caverns were supposedly destroyed in the Clone Wars during Saleucami campaign. Which left the officer with another quandary: how did he get there? How and the hell did I get here, and like this? Let’s see, the last place I was was the landspeeder, I think. What the frell? Nevera continued to pace around the Kashan man with a predatory amusement. She smiled. Fyre frowned.

“What did I ever do to you, baby?” questioned Fyre in gallows humour, “Or are you Nevera’s evil clone? I knew it…”

The Twi’leck shook her head in amusement. “Always the comedian I see. Think for once, my dear commander. Saleucami is backwater world. Sure, we do have different smatterings of culture, like the Wroonians and the humans and the Twi’lecks, and so forth. But do you seriously think that the Ministry of Culture has enough work to merit its existence?”

“Well,” stuttered the Kashan man, “if it’s wasting taypayer’s money, I guess they must.”

She sighed. “I am not sure whether you’re just being defiant, or plain stupid. If I didn’t know you, I’d say you’re being defiant. For I can’t see a successful regional power being manned by idiots. But then again, I do know you and your crudeness.”

“Hey now, my stick figures weren’t that bad.”

The so-called Minister of Culture glared. “At least I won’t have to deal with this Commander Fyre for long?”

Fyre barked a laugh. “This Commander Fyre? Could there really be another one?”

She gazed steely eyed at the man. “Fyre, do you see those clear cylinders around you? Guess what, they’re not Bacta tanks.”

“Cloning cylinders?”

“Very good,” remarked the woman, “You get a check minus for basic understanding.”

“Try me again,” stated Commander Fyre, “I bet I could do better.”

The twi’leck shook her head. “I’m not that stupid, my dear. But all will be revealed in good time. Sadly, appearances must be maintained, so as the Minister of Culture, I have some meetings to attend to. Goodbye.”

The twi’leck casually strolled out the blast doors, leaving the man alone in the darkness. Fyre let out an exasperated sigh. He tried to wrangle his way out of the cuffs, but they tightened instead. He groaned. Should have known. These kind of magnacuffs. He glanced at the glowing cylinders. And they’re planning to clone me. I guess an army of morons would be terrifying…



Revanche, Confederation Flagship

“Rear-Admiral?”

The younger Lucerne spun about on his boot heel, to the amusement of his bridge crew. Several of them exchanged amused glances. Corise sighed. A little jumpy. A little too jumpy. He mentally shook away the thought as he turned to the Lieutenant.

“Yes Lieutenant?”

The other officer leaned in closer and quietly talked.

“We have a special commando team and several CSIS teams deployed, searching the area for any signs of his whereabouts. We think the twi’leck woman he was last seen with may be their Minister of Culture. The ensign correctly identified her in a holo line up as being the one.”

“And have we had a chance to interrogate her about his whereabouts?”

The man shook his head. “Negative. The Saleucami Intelligence Service is.”

Corise snorted. “That’s reliable. It wouldn’t take a whole lot to cover any kidnapping up. I’m guessing we won’t be having a chance to talk with her.”

“Actually yes, but under the supervision of the SIS. No truth serums or any drugs will be allowed when talking to her.”

The Rear-Admiral nodded. “Then it’s for show. Which means in order to prove anything, we’ll have to find Commander Fyre. But at least we have our lead. We have people shadowing her?”

The man nodded. “Two sets, in fact. One of them is decoy team apparently-”

Corise held up his hand to the man. “Don’t tell me any more than I need to know. Basic rule of thumb.”

The Lieutenant nodded and departed back to his station. Coris pivoted again, this time to face the communication’s officer. The subordinate officer swiveled about in his chair to face his commander. Corise stared at the man.

“See if you can arrange a meeting for me with their head of state.”



Chum’s Cantina, Saleucami

The Rodian sat down on a bar stool and whistled over the gruff looking bartender. Pulling out a credit chip, the Rodian quickly slapped it on the counter. Glancing around, the man behind the counter swiped it up and pocketed it neatly into his pant’s pocket. The bartender let a smile.

“Want can I do for you?”

The Rodian leaned in closer. “Have you see anyone new or suspicious recently?”

The bartender snorted. “Sure, a whole group of them just took up lodgings right over here. They took two rooms.”

The Rodian let out an exasperated sigh. “That’s not saying much. Is that all you got?”

The bartender frowned. “They’re the only new people here, and well, I don’t know, they seemed suspicious to me for some reason. Look, I’ll give you a spare key to one of their rooms so you can check them out for yourself. You can just say that we made a mistake giving you the wrong key if they’re there. Okay?”

The Rodian nodded and stretched out his hand for the key. A grubby hand soon deposited a master key for the facility into the alien’s palm, which promptly curled up after receiving it. The barkeeper leaned close to the alien.

“Does this have anything to do with Nevera, if that’s her real name?”

“Mind your own business,” grumbled the Rodian.

The alien walked away from the bar and up the stairs to the room. He pulled out a blaster, inserted the key into the door, and opened it for something of a surprise.

Awdin sat on the bed cleaning the sniper rifle he had brought with him, thinking about where they could probably best find some info on what had happened to the Commander. He should probably start with just some normal patrons and maybe the bartender, ask a few simple questions and see what answers he got.

“God damn it why do we have to wait so long to start gathering some intel on what ever happened to the commander, why don’t we just start looking around already.” Maxwell sat in the corner playing cards with two other members of the squad and from his mood Awdin could tell that he wasn’t doing to good at the moment. “I mean Commander Fyre could be dying at this very moment, and we’re sitting on our asses in a motel room.”

Awdin looked closely and saw that the one of the other two had folded already and the other was smiling just slightly, “Well Max you can take heart in the fact you’re no longer going to be sitting on your ass playing cards, I win.”

“Damn it, stupid fraking cards.” Awdin watched as the last of his chips disappeared along with his cards.

“Max the reason we’re waiting is because we have to wait for another, “Friend”, to contact us, and he’ll help us out a bit giving us everything he already knows, which will in fact make our jobs easier.” Awdin looked him in the eye, “Unless you would like to make it twice as hard and gather that info ourselves.”

Grumbling a bit He put in a few more credits, “Deal me back in than I guess.” Awdin watched as the cards were dealed again and the game began.

“Hey Awdin check this out.” The last member of the team sat in the corner watching a small screen that showed a camera feed of the two rooms they had rented not more than 4 hours ago. However Awdin had never really intended to use those rooms at all, but placing them as decoys if someone decided to pay them a visit.

Awdin looked around the room they were in, which had been rented a night before by a Confederation Intelligence Operative. It had all been apart of the plan to take this room instead of the two he had rented, while the operative used another room.

“What do you got Jarel.” Awdin walked over to the screen looking at the feed from the three cameras that Jarel had set when they had came. One in the Cantina main lounge, and two more outside their rooms, allowing them to see if anyone in fact came looking for them. Awdin looked at the feed that Jarel had indicated to seeing a Rodain walking down the hallway towards their room at them end of the hall.

“You recognize him captain, maybe he’s the operative we’re waiting for.”

“Nope that isn’t him, and besides I’d doubt that he would be carrying a blaster and not know that we we’re in here, instead of those two room. Nope, we got ourselves a catch boys.” Awdin smiled as he said it.

He could see the excitement and anxiousness of his men’s eyes that came with finally getting a lead of some kind hopefully. Either that or some poor thief who was for some reason heading towards their rooms.

There was a little rustling ad such as they got up and grabbed their rifles off the table where they had been set out earlier. All of them were unmarked and unregistered E-11 blasters that they would use for the moment and none of them were traceable to the Confederation. HE picked up his after his men had gotten theirs.

“Ok Maxwell you and Jarel stay here, guard the room and intercept anyone who comes up after him, and if possible try to take them alive, they could be useful in finding Fyre if this turns out to be the same people. Mark and Jasper you’re with me, and same with this guy, try and take him alive if you can.”

With that they all silently moved into the corridor, their rooms were had the advantage of being a little ways away making it less possible to find a connection between the two. Quickly the Kashan Captain and the two other commandoes headed down the hall and around the corner towards their room. They finally reached it but stayed back around the corner waiting till he opened the room, hopefully being able to trap him in their, and it was only when they heard some strange Rodian cruse that they rushed down the hallway, still their boots making almost no sound as the hit the floor.

Awdin got their first taking up a position outside the door. Finally he turned his head in only to almost fall back as a laser bolt zipped past his face. “Damn it he flipped the table.” He turned his head in a little so his voice projected into the room, “There is no way you can get out, put down your blaster and put your hands…” He was interrupted as another shot flew through the door, along with a string of Rodian that he couldn’t make heads or tails of.

“Damn it. Mark you still got that stun grenade you had earlier.”

“Ya got it right here captain.” He rummaged in his vest for a moment before pulling out a silver stun grenade. He handed it to his captain.

“Ok on three.” He primed the grenade and tossed it in, the grenade lying over the desk to land behind the Rodian. “One… Two…” There was a small bang as the grenade went off and a little gasp from inside the room. “Three.”

The minute he said the word they ran in to the room guns barring, the captain was the first to see the Rodian, who unfortunately, was dead. The captain was confused for a moment until he saw the shrapnel that had peppered his head. The rodian must have been extremely close to the grenade head somehow presented first, unfortunately for him he didn’t realize it until too late. “Frak. Search him maybe we can still find something useful on him, anything.”

“Sir I got something it is a datapad and an ID card.” He showed the two items to Awdin as he pulled them from the dead Rodian. Awdin reached over, jasper handing him the two items, looking down at the Rodian as he examined the ID. He sighed sorry that he had accidentally killed him instead of stunning him as intended.

“Ok, bring him we can’t leave his body here.” He picked up the table sliding it over the small black mark the grenade had made, “Guys grab him and haul him back to our room I’ll be right back.” He picked up the Rodian’s gun which was still workable and walked out of the room listening to Jasper and Mark haul the Rodian down the hallway their steps heavy with the added wait.

Cloning Complex, Saleucami

The motley group huddled around a rectangular table in the complex’s control room. A single fluorescent light dangled over the table to dimly light the room. Most of the identifying features of the involved individuals were obscured by the lack of light and shadows, but one figure was easily identified: Nevera. The twi’leck woman irritably leaned forward and checked her chrono. She hissed.

“He’s late, and he hasn’t reported in yet.”

“If there was a fight, he’s probably injured or lost his comlink which could explain all of this,” stated another voice.

Nevera shook her head. “If he got in a fight, there’s a good chance that our deception will have been discovered. Years of work unveiled in a matter of minutes.”

“Shleesh wouldn’t have that stupid,” commented another voice, “surely he would have taken some precautions, such as destroying the datapad. Without it, there is nothing to tie him to us.”

Nevera glared. “It’s one thing if he somehow gets involved in a usual bar brawl. It’s quite another if he stumbled upon one of those Confed teams supposedly searching the planet.”

“Nothing we can do,” stated a voice, “not without the chance of revealing ourselves or the base. We will just have to bide our time.”

The twi’leck woman slouched back into her chair, defeated. “I hope you’re right Ogg. I hope you’re right.”

She looked around a the various security monitors that dotted the walls of the control room. Most of them showed empty passage ways throughout the Magma Caverns. Some displayed fiery lava flowing around the underground base; an extra precaution along with tectonic sensors to ensure that the magma which formed the caverns of the base wouldn’t be able to destroy it. But Nevera was focused on a set a monitors which showed the captive Commander Fyre. The Kashan man occasionally fidgeted with the cuffs; trying to figure out a way to take them off. Nevera shook her head with amusement. Her focused attention to the captive prevented her from seeing something slightly more important. A slight visual disturbance around one of the maintenance hatches caused by the Confederation team quietly entering based on the schematics of the base provided by Shleesh, the dead Rodian, through the datapad. The security alarms had been turned off in that area because of the various vermin that had previously kept tripping the alarms. It would prove to the plotters’ undoing.

“Come on boys move it, Nevera wants the maintenance access way cleaned out no, and think you all know what happens when that women’s orders aren’t obeyed quickly.” A few of the troop behind him looked each other with worried face and everyone seemed to speed up a bit, marching faster along the tunnel that led to the access way.

For the last few weeks a nasty infestation of various vermin had plagued the tunnel, setting off the alarm every time one of them moved around or too close to the hatch. Eventually this had gotten so bad that it had just been shut off. Now with the rumors of Kashan operatives, and squads’ prowling the planet, Nevera had prioritized the securing of the facility. One of the problems was the fact that the alarm was turned off on this particular tunnel. So now 4he and 6 other men were venturing through the maze of tunnels to the tunnel to clear out the vermin which seemed immune to anything less than blaster fire or a flame thrower.

Ithark looked ahead as he turned the corner leading into the access way where the vermin were living and the Access hatch to the outside resided. For a scond just a second as he entered he could have sworn that he saw a large shape climbing down from the latter that led to the hatch, but after blinking it was gone, so with a grunt he dismissed it.

“Ok boys lets get going, like said we need this done quickly and we need to make sure that we are sure they’re all dead got it.” He watched the troop nod and hefted their various weapons of extermination, “Ok spread out, and remember to get the nests too.”

He was about to turn around and start himself when he watched two of his men drop vibro knives sticking out of their chest their flame throwers dropping to the rock floor their eyes already blank and unseeing. The ones behind them dropped almost instantly after. “What the..” He was interrupted as something hard hit him in the back of the head knocking him to the floor dazed but still conscious. By the time he was able to look up every one of his men where down, and in their place he watched as four armor clad figures resolved in his vision standing over his men pulling out the knives.

Finally one of them noticed he was awake and hauled him up into a sitting position on the nearest wall. After another walked over the other two could be seen gathering up the weapons his men had carried. He grunted as he pulled himself up a little more as one took his helmet off, he was about to find out why they had keep him alive.


Awdin looked around the cave as his men dragged away the bodies to a sub tunnel that was partially filled with lava where they were dumped as to make sure there was no evidence. After a few minutes of hauling only one was left. The foreman had been the only one to survive the initial attack, and the only who would survive. Awdin looked at the man who now lay recovering from mental shock on the far wall. Awidn had made sure that one had lived so that they could get at least a little info about the base however little, and by luck it turned out to be a foreman of the group and a higher ranking individual others in the base. It was interesting that they only had to ask him once and he had begun spilling information almost willingly it seemed, and for that he was going to live and probably avoid a lot of jail time.

“Captain everything’s ready the bodies are gone no evidence of that and Ithak is ready to go when we are, at least so he says, but he still looks shaky.” Awdin looked as Mark, and Jarel walked back out of the Sub-Tunnel and wiped their hands a bit before walking over to Awdin and Jasper.

“Ok let’s get going then. Jasper go help Ithark over their and take him with you and Mark to find and liberate Commander Fyre. Jarel and I are going to go find this Nevera, and either capture her preferably, or kill her if necessary.” The two men around him nodded, and were soon joined by two more of his men and Ithark who was indeed still looking shaky and scared.

“Ok let’s get to it before someone realizes Ithark’s group is gone.” The men nodded, and in that moment he could see his men were uncomfortable working with the man who was indeed their enemy. It was gone however as everyone filed out of the room, the Captain and Jarel breaking off down a larger tunnel that Ithark had indicated would take them to the Command center and security rooms.

Awdin and Jarel continued along this route for a long time staying on the main tunnel as Ithark had said diving into rooms here and there for reconnaissance purposes, but eventually came to a slight problem.

“Damn it, we have a problem.” Jarel called from around a corner while Awdin had inspected a room he had thought he had heard someone moving around in. Awind abandoned this and hurried around the corner fearing assault or an ambush. Instead a large fork in the tunnel resided. “Frak.”

“Calm down, unfortunately we’re going to have to pick one and hope its right, because I’m not risking dividing us.” He looked at the two tunnels looking for anything that might help him, scrutinizing it for anything at all that would tell him something, or give him something to go on. “Damnit their exactly the same from where we are, we are just going to have to deside. Come on.” He finally nodded to the left tunnel and started dimly lit tunnel with Jarel right behind him, covering the rear.

It was a few minutes of walking before the finally came to the end of the tunnel which had a large durasteel door imbedded in the rock. Awdin nodded a small pleased smile on his face that he may have picked the right one, “Jarell hand me the charges, let’s see if we can blow this door open.” It was just as Awdin was about to place the charges that he heard a large boom from somewhere else in the facility, followed by a small quaking of the ground. Awdin looked up as dust dislodged from the ceiling falling to the ground around him.

Awdin then heard something that made him pause. He had heard a panicked voice from the other side of the door, just barely and impossible to interpret but he had heard it. “Jarel back up.” He backed up also raising his E-11, “Set to stun lets try to catch them if possible.” Awdin and Jarel backed up taking up positions along the corridor.

Awdin watched as the door moved slightly most likely being unlocked, and steadied himself as the door swung open revealing a short squat man that ran through. He stopped up short as he saw the two Commandoes that met him, Awdin in that moment saw his face transform from shock, to intrigue, to fear in a few seconds, at least before Awdin shot him knocking him backwards, the stun blast only knocking him unconscious.

Awdin made a hand motion and Jarel ran forward still crouched grabbing opening a small pocket on his jacket, after a moment he tossed a stun grenade into the room. Awdin turned his head waiting for the tell tail bang. After a moment he heard it and turned his head around, seeing the room filled with smoke and dust, “Move, into the room.” Jarel nodded and ran into the room, the captain right behind him.

Awdin looked around seeing a few bodies that lay stunned or dead on the floor, mostly the former though. Looking around he saw various monitors and security projectors that showed various rooms of the Facility, and looking at these he realized that the facility was incredibly large and sprawled most of the mountain it was occupying.

“Captain I found a Twi’lek that matches Ithark’s description of Nevera, should I grab her.” Awdin looked at Jarel and the Twi’lek he was standing over, who was infact green with a scar on her left arm as Ithark had described.

“Yup grab her.” He watched a Jarel shouldered her and signaled he was ready, “K lets go we got to get moving, by now they probably know we are here, or will shortly.

With that said, he and Jarel began jogging back down the corridor from which they had came weaving their way back towards the maintenance hatch. Almost there, another explosion rocked the facility making Awdin wonder what his other two members were doing down their.

Awdin raced into the room that held the maintenance hatch hearing voices yelling behind him and the thumping of feet along the corridor, “Jarel get up out of the hatch get to the rally point I’ll wait for the others.” He nodded and rushed to the ladder awkwardly climbing it with Nevera still slung over his shoulder.

It was a minute or so before Awdin saw the rest of his team coming thundering down the corridor, Commander Fyre Slung over Marks shoulder, followed by a still panicked looking Ithark, with Jasper bringing up the rear, his E-11 blazing, and even from hear Awdin could tell it wasn’t on stun.

“Come on move get up the ladder.” He yelled as they rushed past nodding, “Jarel already heading for the Rally point I’ll join you in a second just gonna stall them first.” Jasper who had been turning around to support their commander looked like he was going to voice a complaint but decided better and hurried up the ladder after the other.
After all his men had gone Awdin finally got a glimpse of the oncoming men that were rushing down the tunnel, the captain already had his hand in a pouch reaching for a thermal detonator he had brought on the mission. He smiled slightly as he primed it and set the delay timer setting it in the tunnel junction where he sat now.

Now he truly rushed, up the ladder and out just as the thermal detonator exploded, rocking the ground extensively hopefully bringing down the roof their slowing their pursuers.

Picking himself up he began the run towards the rally point, no pursuers making anywhere near him thanks to the sniping of Max who sat a mile away on a hill overlooking the facility. He smiled as he saw the transport that soared over him as he reached the rally point. He had done it he had won....

Aftermath…

“It’s really a pity,” stated Saleucami’s President.

Corise nodded. The pair of leaders continued to walk around the oasis garden set within the President’s compound. The Rear-Admiral’s eyes wondered around the many rare and unique plants that sprouted in this sanctuary from the odd, desert world. Lucerne was even able to spot a flower that grew by the Lucerne mansion; originally from Alderaan. A testament to the President’s gardener, or so at least the Kashan officer thought.

“Hopefully,” replied the younger Lucerne, “both of us, and our people, will be a little wiser from this event. Apparently not everyone is who they seem to be. Our best intelligence agents on the planet had no suspicion that Nevera was operating the syndicate.”

The president nodded in agreement. “None of our domestic agencies thought that as well. She had some influence among the elite too, which didn’t help. A wolf in sheep’s clothing, that is what she was. But now that the Syndicate is gone, things will be much more peaceful for all of us. No more worry about threats and bombing. Now other threats approach our borders.”

Corise raised in his eyebrow. “Other threats?”

“Surely you realize that the Empire has been expanding into the region. It’s hard to miss the news of their bloody conquests. If they were come to here, it would be no contest. We’re beginning to field a developed clone army, thanks to the recovery of the cloning complex by your forces. But we have next to nothing for a navy, and no way to equip any heavy units for our ground forces on our own. Given Saleucami’s presence on this trade route of yours, would it be plausible for us to send an application for admission into the Confederation?”

“Certainly,” replied Lucerne, “And I have yet to see a nation rejected. I think it will easily pass. You’ll have strong support from both the military and the merchants within the Confederation to because of the route. There should not be a problem.”

“Excellent.”

“And President?”

“Yes?”

“Welcome to the Confederation.”

They both smiled and shook hands.