Hyperspace, en route to Eriadu

Aboard the Arch Angel

"...what do we know about this... Wes Yono...?"

Seti Ashar watched the starlines rush by the small transparisteel viewport, eyes darting back and forth as the stars whizzed by at astronomical speeds.

It was, when one gave it some thought, an amazing feat, hyperspace. The ability to travel faster than light, indeed, faster than time itself. In the old days, before hyperspace, it would have taken a colony ship hundreds of years to reach Eriadu.

...not much, I'm afraid... he's a newcomer to the game, not much known about his past..."

Seti sighed and rose, walking to the table and pouring a cup of Commonian wine. Tasting it thoughtfully, and shuddering, he moved back towards the window and sighed.

Dreadful... absolutely dreadful...

"...so we're walking into a mystery as well as a possible trap, then...?"

The other man nodded slowly.

"...yes, you could be walking into a trap..."

Seti tilted his head and looked at him.

"...beautiful... shouldn't this have more of an effect on your overall mood...?

The other gave a chuckle and shrugged.

"...maybe I'm not the best option for Security Head around... but honestly, sir, this... Yono character would have nothing to gain from trying to kill you... it would only mean his death and that of whatever he's trying to start up on Eriadu..."

Seti regarded the man cooly, taking another sip from his wine glass and remembering why he had stopped drinking from it.

"...I suspect that won't me feel any better if I've been reduced to my molecular makeup by this guy..."

The ship's intercom cut off any response, informing them that they were coming up on their reentry point over Eriadu.

Eriadu... Surface...

Industrial Plaza... Former LFX Industrial Headquarters...

A hundred of more senators milled about the small room, all dressed up in their finest cerominal clothing for the special event. Among them were a dozen or more others, most of them high-ranking government or military officials from various factions across the galaxy.

Also there was Seti Ashar, CEO of LFX Industrial and perhaps one of the most well known people present. Politics were something that, though they had always fascinated the man, Seti hated with a passion. To many rules, for one thing, and a single wrong move could cost one everything.

Not entirely unlike business, he mused, but they didn't even get paid well for it!

The gathering, for lack of a better word in Seti's mind, had been announced some months prior on an open holonet channel, with an announcement that invitations would be sent out via private mail in the next week. Seti had been quite surprised to find one addressed to him - he had never met or had any contact with the host - Wes Yono - he had never heard of the man. And, he suspected from talking to several of those present, nor did his guests.

The question on everyone's mind as the announcement was made that the (the?) speech would begin in ten minutes time, and would everyone please make their way to the Harrison Room?, was What is this all about?

The crowd grew silent as they entered the previously-closed doors and arrived in the largest room in the building, complete with a stage and stadium-style seating curving at one end.

Seti immediatly recognized it as the Christi Hall, what had once been part of LFX Industrial's monolithic headquarters here. He had heard that it was levelled in the war, and hadn't had oppertunity to see it since. Either someone had put much money and effort into restoring it, or someone was trying to mess with his mind. He knew which he'd prefer was true, but he had long ago learned to trust his instincts, and they told him that there was something more than met the eye.

There were no seats on the floor, and the stadium-seating in the back obviously wasn't an option, so he stood with the other hundred delegates and at least half again as many wives... or mistresses.
Straightening his jacket idely, Seti waited for the presentation to begin...

The lights fell to muted tones, placing the entire room in darkness. Then, on the stage, a single spotlight clicked on, illuminating a spot no bigger than two meters in diameter, and a podium.
A man, tall and well-built, from what could be seen from the wrong side of the podium, stood there and motioned for silence in the room before clearing his throat and beginning. His voice was rich and deep, one experianced in public speaking and that would be difficult to forget.

"...gentlebeings... I welcome you tonight to Eriadu... many of you no doubt wonder why I have requested your presence here tonight, and I promise that all will be explained in due time..."

Seti, watching the man speak, noticed immediatly that something was up. A strange note in his voice, perhaps, but this was neither something of a practiced speech nor an impromptu one... it was something different. A danger, perhaps?

Eyes darting around the room even as the man spoke, Seti noticed nothing amiss. But then, the lights were out and the top of the walls were very dark. A wraith could be lurking up there, maybe, waiting to strike.

The businessman tore his eyes from the ceiling and looked back to the stage. He was just being paranoid... it was the wine. It had to be.

<font color=gray>"Godshammer, go."

The dark figure raised the comlink to his lips and spoke two words in response before dropping the unit and placing it back on his belt.

"Dragon acknowledges,"

Rising from his kneeling position, the figure gathered his cloak around him and looked both ways before stepping out into the street. It was raining this night, and the darkness wsa illuminated only by the headlamps a few passing motorists. Dragon dashed across the street and into a small side door that was opened for him - he did not know who, had never met them and never would; that was standard operating procedure.

This part of the building was dark and quiet; it had been abandoned after its former owners had decided it was levelled and left the planet. In the meantime, the new owners had seen no use for it and left it be. That was their mistake.

Adjusting the package on his back, the figure hurried up a small spiral staircase, uttering a silent curse each time one creaked. But no one heard, and he arrived on top of the stairs a few moment later. Through another door, this one locked (the lock was dealt with by a simple decoder), and he was in a dimly lit hallway. On either side were open doors, leading, he knew, into the pirvate skyboxes of this facility. And more importantly...

<font color=white>"...gentlebeings..."<font color=gray>

Dragon walked into the announcer's booth with slow, measured footfalls that aroused no suspicion from the room's three occupents. No suspicion, that is, until he slid the vibroblade into the first woman's neck and felt her die under his blade. The other two turned then, and he dealt one a swift fist in the face that sent her nose into her brain and killed her, and threw his second knife into the other's heart before jumping on top of her and stabbing her in the neck with the same blade.

<font color=white>"...I welcome you tonight to Eriadu..."<font color=gray>

The three bodies layed out around him, the figure silently pulled the knives from their resting places and slid them into their sheaths, then took the package from his back and slid the rifle from its case. Not a laser weapon, this rifle was silenced and deadly at a longer range. Not that this was a long range, but the Sniper Rifle would be far more suited to this task than a normal laser weapon.

<font color=white>"...many of you no doubt wonder why I have requested your presence here tonight..."<font color=gray>

Propping the gun on his arm and taking careful aim, he smiled and pulled it back to insert the single bullet needed to do the job. Removing the projectile carefully from its freezer unit, he placed it inside the gun and took aim once more.

<font color=white>"...I promise that all will be explained in due time..."<font color=gray>

"Like hell it will,"

He muttered to the three bodies. Today, they would see blood...

"...I promise that all will be explained in due time..."

The man staggered once, clutching at the podium, sturggling to stay standing. Two aides at once ran from the corners, but by the time they reached the man he was already dead on the floor. A trickle of crimson blood ran down the front of his black suit from a bullet wound in his heart.

As soon as Seti had seen the man jerk back, as he had a hundred times seeing men shot, his head whipped around, scanning the ceiling impossibly for the telltale flash of light that would already have passed, looking for any evidence that someone or something had been there.

Panic was growing in the crowd around him, and he moved swiftly away from the centre, towards the exit, as he knew the others would soon be doing. Half way towards his goal, however, a burly man stopped him, a sinister smile on his face.

"...Mr. Ashar..." he said, placing a massive hand on the LFX CEO's shoulder, "...it's a real pleasure to, ah... meet you..."

Seti shrugged the man's hand away and turned to leave, reaching towards his belt as he did so. A hand around his wrist stopped him, yanking Seti around and pulling him towards the big man.

"...the boss wants to see you, Ashar... been real eager to see you..."

Seti had no choice but to follow his 'guide' towards the darkened back of the room. But his comlink, the one he had had implanted in place of one of his crowns, picked up every word and relayed them not only to the LFX ship in orbit, but to the ground team nearby as well.

He was led through a set of double doors that he knew to be the main entrace, or what had been in the old days, and into the darkened reception centre/administrative office of the facility.

Those lights that were on seemed to lead to one hallway in particular, and indeed it was that one that the man now led Seti down. He knew that, if his memory served him correctly and nothing had changed in the building's layout, this hallway led to the office of the owner and that of his secretary, both of which were one level lower than the announcer's booth.

He was proven correct when they entered a large lift, and immediatly began their ascent. He stood between two large men now, both of which looked so close they may have been brothers. A second man had met them at the lift and said something into his comlink before they entered.

He hummed for a moment, then caught the eye of each man in turn and stopped with a sheepish smile. The men turned away slightly, and he ran his tounge over the hidden transmitter, carefully making sure it was still working properly. If it was, the moment he gave the code word, a Strike Team would track the signal and rescue him on the spot. He was hesitant to do so, since such an action would mean bringing a military presence into the city and perhaps causing unjust civilian deaths.

The lift stopped with a slight jolt, unusual among lifts in this part of the city... at least, it had been, and the three got out. This part of the building was bright with light, and a Twi'lek secretary in a slight outfit motioned them inside the inner office.

Seti was placed on a small chair, and the two men retreated to flank the doorway. The chair in front of the CEO, a tall-backed spinning model from an old holodrama, turned slowly to face him. As it did so, Seti burst out laughing, and did not stop until the man asked harshly,

"...what is it...?

Seti, still chuckling, looked at him and said,

"...what, no cat...?

The man uttered a string of profanities aimed at the Corporate Executive and glared at him.

"...Lance..."

One of the two men stepped forward and hit Seti across the face, a tooth-splitting punch that would send a burst of static across the comlink and turn the device off.

"...now... Mr. Ashar... do you know who I am...?

Seti, his mouth numbed from the blow and brain frenzied over the device therein, simply shook his head.

"...I am Bror Hatta..."

Seti recognized the name, but from where he did not know. He gave the man a blank look, inviting further explanation.

"...Brob Hatta... I was responsible for the Eriadu Subway Bombing..."

Something in Seti's brain clicked, and he got it. Bror Hatta, otherwise known as Hatchet, was a terrorist mastermind responsible for, among other things, the destruction of one of Eriadu's subway terminals during the Great War. He was also suspected to have encouraged the raiding of Eriadu and the suicide bombing of two Coprorate warships.

"...I know you... what do you want, Hatta...?

The criminal smiled for the first time and rose, picking up a book from the desk as he did so.

"...what I want, Mr. Ashar, is to finish what I started..."

He slammed the book down and his smile grew wider.

"...the destruction of LFX Industrial..."

He nodded to the two men, who advanced and cracked their huge knuckles menacingly.

"...any last words...?"

Seti nodded, and raised one arm to rub his sore mouth.

"...yeah... why'd you kill Yono...?"

The criminal laughed and turned to the office's window, where below the medics were hauling away the body of Wes Yono.

"...we had to get you up here somehow, Mr. Ashar... it seemed as good a way as any... now then, anything else...?"

Seti, still rubbing his mouth, nodded slowly.

"...Arch Angel..."

The first man slammed his fist into Seti's mouth again, and he fell from the chair and yelled again,

"...Arch Angel..."

A kick to the stomach.

"...Arch Angel...!"

"...Arch Angel...!"

"...Arch Angel...!"

Eriadu, surface

City limits...

"...anything else...?"

"...Arch Angel..."

Static.

"...Arch Angel...!"

Static.

"...Arch Angel...!"

Static again, louder than before. Already forces were mobolizing. Half a dozen gunships were already in the air, flying across the city towards the last known location of Seti Ashar. It worried the on-scene commander that the CEO hadn't called for backup ealier - it might be to late now by the time they got there, but he had had orders not to intervene until he heard the code word.

He swore to himself and hoped, for all their sakes, that they made it in time to save the CEO's life...

Arch Angel Group...

The half dozen open-aired Republic Attack Gunships, a design dating back to the Clone Wars, zipped over the towering skyscrapers with practised ease, sometimes brushing less than two meters from the tops of buildings.

"...sir, we're coming up on the target... ETA less than a minute..."

The pilot of the lead ship reported over the com, flicking the night vision scope over to ground tracer mode and slowing the vehcile down. The other pilots would be doing likewise.

"...right... everybody, get ready... I want you in and out within ten minutes, and I want Ashar out alive... understand...?

A chorus of 'Yessirs' came back to him, and he nodded.

"...five and six, you two are our eyes in the sky... the rest of you, close support... execute...!

All six of the vehicles doze in firing, rockets exploding in and around the complex. Strikes were avoided around the main stadium, though a pair of rockets did detonate on the rear roof where the offices were.

Then, in a precision move, two of the six gunships dropped in a swift assault landing and disgourged ten troops each. The other two assigned to close support hovered above the complex and dropped ropes, with the soldiers promptly slid down, before the Gunships took up patrol positions, lasers aimed at anything suspicious, pilots ready for a rogue rocket propelled grenade or other heavy weapons.

"...this is Alpha sqaud... we've penetrated the main building... no sign of the package yet... continuing as ordered"

The two Gunships far overhead had taken up their positions as well, high above the scene with laser bubbles aimed downwards, searching perhaps for a suspicious speeder leaving the scene or a heavy artillery turret that may be out the arc of their companions.

"...six, this is five... do you see that bundle of trash there on the roof...?

The pilot of the Number Six Gunship looked down across the roof and spotted it, a tall pile of refuse from the complex below. Not unusual, if there was extra from that week... but pickup for this week had been only a few hours prior...

"...I see it... patch into the planetary computer network and confirm that pickup for this location has already been done...

"...already done, six... it was cleaned about an hour ago..."

"...maybe they forgot about it...

Five's reply sounded optimistic.

"...maybe..."

Before either could go on, a voice cut into the conversation.

"...five, six, you have clearence to eliminate probably threats... light up that location..."

The Number Five Gunship swooped in over the location and brought a laser bubble to bear, even as the trash bundle erupted and a stream of red laser fire sprayed into the air at the vehicle's underside.

Five was forced to dodge out of the way of the fire, and the shot missed its target. But Six, sitting a short distance away, nailed the turret dead-on with a rocket, taking it, and a peice of the roof, down instantly.

"...nice shooting, six... and thanks...

Inside the building...

"...god damn...! what was that...?

The soldier struggled to rise, looking at the collapsed section of ceiling and swearing again.

"...looks like the sky soldiers decided to rain on our parade..."

One of the others said, spitting dust from his mouth and brushing off his assault rifle.

"...let's move..."

The team, twenty soldiers in all, crossed the hallway, which was nowlittered with bricks and mortar from the blast, and raced up a set of stairs into the section that Seti had passed through some minutes earlier.

They ended up in the criminal's office, fanning out and looking in vain for both the terrorist and the CEO. Neither were immediatly found, though one of the soldiers accidentally stepped on a severed arm that he figured belonged to a bodyguard caught in one of the first explosions.

"...command, the centre is secure... no sign of our package... we're going to fan out..."

The soldiers moved through the building, out of the main office and back into the hallway. Each of the doors along this route were closed, and the control panels darkened... save for one...

"...knock softly... if I were them, I'd have laid him in front of the door so that if we go in hard, we loose him..."

Two troops took laser cutters and cut the top half of the door down, pulling it toward themselves with magnetic holds and then diving into the room. One of the bodyguards was there, shot through the neck with a blaster. And Seti Ashar was there, the blaster trained on the troops, a smile on his face.

"...ah, the cavalry's here... just in time, too..."

Eriadu

Industrial Pacific Hotel...

"...do they know yet what killed him...?"

Colonel Ross, an old member of the GDI who had somehow ended up along with this mission (much to Seti's displeasure... he did not much care for the Colonel), asked, standing beside the CEO and looking out across the bustling city.

The attack and attempted kidnapping had happened last night, and as a result Seti had spent part of that night in a Bacta tank. But now, with the scars of the beating fading quickly, he had returned to the surface.

"...I'm not leaving until I find out why I was called here... and getting them back for that beating..."

He had said.

"...they know what killed him, Mr. Ross... he was shot, I suspect with a projectile weapon... am I right, Mr. Kaaz...?"

The specialist, a slight man wearing a bowlers hat and horn-rimmed glasses, nodded.

"...that is true, sir... however, we have deduced from examination of the body that there was a nerve agent within the bullet... as well as we could not produce the bullet itself..."

Seti frowned at that comment and set his caf - it was still early - down on the table.

"...meaning what, exactly...?"

The specialist offered a shrug.

"...we're not entirely sure... I suspect it was an ice bullet, it would account for the disapearence anyway... it would have meted by the time we got him to the mourge..."

Seti nodded slowly, rubbing his eyes tiredly. He hadn't gotten any sleep in the Bacta tank.

"...and a nerve agent could have been held in the centre..."

He said, picking up the caf and taking a swallow.

Not bad... I'll have to ask the hotel where they buy their caf...

"...yes..."

The CEO turned back to the window, holding the caf in both hands and smiling grimly.

"...and this... Bror Hatta... what do we know about him...?"

Colonel Ross, who had been silent during the last exchange, spoke up.

"...terrorist mastermind, planned the Eriadu Subway Bombing and the attack on the Legacy during the war..."

Seti nodded, eyes not leaving the citysckape. In the distance was the Christi Hall, where the attack had taken place. Police were cutting the area off, now, still searching for evidence of the terrorists.

"...he has the resources to carry out such major operations..."

It was more of a statement than a question, directed to no one in particular.

"...it seems so..."

Ross replied.

"...let's see if we can't track down this... Bror Hatta... and repay a debt..."

Eriadu

Industrial Plaza... Former LFX Industrial Headquarters...

The building had indeed been destroyed in the Great War. A victim of an attack, when a wing of bombers appeared in the skies and launched a deadly salvo of missiles into the sides of the unarmed building.

Because this came near the end of the war, and headquarters had been abandoned. But the collapse of the massive symbol of the leadership's power was a devestating blow to moral for all those who lived in the city...

The speeder pulled into the monolithic Industrial Plaza. The entire plaza, spanning four city blocks, wsa roped off, police speeders and droids grounded at the entrances. Seti Ashar's speeder was allowed entry only because he owned this property, and because he had been there last night when the attack took place, he was entitled to enter.

The wreckage of the headquarters itself had since been cleared and replaced with the low Christi Hall, a reconstruction, Seti now knew, of the original. That building now showed a half a dozen craters in its roof, as did the area around the building. Scars from last night's rescue, Seti mused, looking at the damage.

It did bring back some memories of the days of the war, and the CEO sighed. Far to much had been lost in that conflict... far to much...

He walked into the main building, the YVH droid that he had nicknamed Kazzer at his side. It was dark, the only light that pouring in from the outside. The power had been shut down at some point in the night, he knew.

This hallway was clear of debris, for the most part. Being on the bottom floor of the building it had seen only a little bit of the damage inflicted on other sections. The fires that had burned briefly on the very top floors had not reached down this far, so this area was relitively unscathed.

Seti stepped over a single block that had fallen from the cieling - no doubt shaken loose by the rocking explosions - and entered a set of double doors to the left. The main audience hall was empty, but, strangely, brightly lit. He glanced upwards and saw that two pieces of the roof had been blown in, shattering on the floor and letting the sunlight from the outside stream in unchecked.

The stage where Wes Yono had died was empty, now, devoid of any life. The CEO climbed the steps slowly and glanced around. There was nothing here, even the podium had been carried off after the shooting.

Kneeling where he knew the man had died, he reached forward and found the floor wet. Not sticky, as a blood stain would have been, but wet.

"...and ice bullet..."

He said to no one. Kazzer, knowing his boss' moods, did not reply. Seti swore softly and rose, looking around the room.

"...did they ever find out exactly where the assassin shot from...?"

He asked the droid. Kazzer did not reply for a moment - no doubt he was contacting his superiors and asking for the information. After a few seconds, he spoke.

"...the announcer's room on the top floor... they found three dead technicians there, two stabbed, and the other with a broken nose that puncured her brain..."

Seti winced. That meant four people dead... and if Bror Hatta had been honest with him, they had all died to get ahold of Seti Ashar. It was not a pleasent thought...

"...let's head up there..."

He said quietly, turning his back on the spot where Wes Yono had died and moving quietly towards the back of the hall, towards the same doorway he had passed through the previous night with the big criminal man, Lance.

The route was the same, though today it was dark, illuminated only be a glowlamp held by the droid, and choked in some places with rubble and debris from the attack.

The steps upward were in pieces, entire sections blown away in some places, and only with some limber movements, and assistance from Kazzer, was the CEO able to make it to the very top floor.

The bodies of the techs had been removed, a fact that Seti was immediatly thankful for. He had seen bodies before, on plenty of occasions, but it was not something he liked, or looked forward to.

The room had been cleared of all the nonessentials, save for the computers and equipment that was bolted into the floor. Those were left, and Seti smiled. Most rooms such as these had hidden security cameras inside them. In the days of the LFX Industrial Christi Hall, there had been.

He smiled as the computer network came to life, fed, he mused, by the emergency generator that had once been in the basement.
The system allowed him to view the videos, which showed the dark figure calmly killing the three women, the loading and firing the weapom. Then he had calmly returned the gun to its bag and left the room.

But the unit the bullet had been pulled out of had not been placed back in the bag. Which meant that someone had recovered it... and if they could find it, it might well lead to the assasin... if they were luckly.

Eriadu

Industrial Pacific Hotel…

Seti Ashar walked briskly through the lobby of the Industrial Pacific Hotel, heels clicking loudly against the stone floor. At this time of night, the lobby was abuzz with conversation. The clientele, always rich and always wishing to flaunt that fact, would gather here at night and, as it usually turned out, brag. The Lobby, which had less than a year ago received a pub licence and doubled its nightly clients, was one of the most popular places on the planet for the rich to flaunt their status.

A pair of passing men, dressed in the usual suits and carrying briefcases, attracted little notice from any in the crowd.

"...what does it mean, precisely...?"

Seti Ashar asked, stepping into the lift and watching the doors slide shut.

"...it means that we were correct in our assumption... it was a projectile weapon, and one suited to fire crystal or perhaps ice-based bullets..."

The Corporate CEO rolled his eyes at Colonel Ross' brilliant deduction, but held back any comment.

"...and that we are dealing with an enemy of very great power and wealth... crystal, and even ice based weapons, are not something one often sees... the prices on such devices are astronomical..."

The Colonel was saying. Seti nodded, dragging his hand through his hair and stifling a yawn as he did so. He was used to late nights, it was part of the job, but that wasn’t to say he liked them.

"...so we have an assassin, most likely paid, who was able to enter a building, slaughter three techs in the announcer's booth, and shoot dead a man all without being noticed..."

Colonel Ross bobbed his head.

"...all within the space of less than ten minutes...?"

"...that certainly seems to be the situation, sir..."

The man replied.

"...and our only lead is a storage unit for a bullet that we may or may not be able to track down, and that may or may not lead us to the assassin..."

Ross turned, the datapad he had been holding entered a pocket, and he sighed.

"...and even assuming it does, we have no evidence that the assassin will lead us to Bror Hatta..."

"...quite a mission, Mr. Ross... it should be an interesting challenge..."

The lift stopped, and the two men walked briskly down the wide hallway to the second lift at the end. This one, leading up only one floor to the penthouse suite that was the pride of the Industrial Pacific Hotel, was activated by a key card and a code, which Seti entered silently before entering the second lift.

"...but I'm sure you are up to it, Colonel..."

He smiled at the other man as the doors slid shut and the lift rose...

Eriadu

Government Complex...

"...you are unaware of why Mr. Yono invited you to Eriadu, Mr. Ashar..."

The man sounded almost confused by the CEO's last statement. Following the examination of the Christi Hall the previous day, Seti Ashar had been invited to the Government Complex, a walled-off compound within the City Centre. It was an invation he had not passed up - Eriadu had once been a part of LFX Industrial, and perhaps with a little negotiation a deal could be worked out again...

Seti shook his head.

"...no... it was never stated... and after the attack, no one contacted me outside the authorities... and your office... I presume though that you will tell me why I was invited here to Eriadu so unexpectadly..."

The Prime Minister nodded slowly, his Twi'lek leku swinging almost at random behind him. Seti could not read the signals they were said to use - he knew of no one outside the Twi'lek race that could, but he knew that something was being said. And judging by the unothadox method, it was something that Seti was not supposed to know.

He made a mental note to find out later.

"...you were invited, Mr. Ashar, because I wished for you to be... you know that Eriadu was once part of the Empire, and then was brought into the Galactic Defence Initiative by then-Admiral Hiram Drayson..."

Seti nodded.

"...and following the merging of the GDI and LFX Industrial, this world became your capital... and then the Great War came... and Eriadu fell... some of the people had wondered why we were so quick to reject your offer of reinstatement in the Union of Free Worlds following that conflict..."

The Corporate Executive smiled.

"...you have reconsidered the offer..."

"...we have... it was decided by the Eriadu Parliment to invite you here and reconsider the Union's offer..."