Vandelheim Spaceport

Civic-Center


...odd...

Achinta tilted his head thoughtfully as he switched his comms unit off, Vinda had just informed him of the situation at the hotel...

Apparently the video-logs had been wiped, and the manager and several staff had been killed, they had all been very much alive when Achinta had left. Within that short space of time someone or something had entered the building and had left the aftermath that Vinda had just found.
After alerting the appropriate authorities and not really discovering anything of help, The Vinda-Corp CEO had decided to go back to his personal shuttle.

Achinta's investigating in the spaceport hadn't really shown up anything useful either, so many people passed through it was impossible for locals to recall anyone in particular.
Apart from one thing, the space-port's Guest-tracking center had been broken into and all the staff killed...

...and now the incident at the hotel...

This was clearly no coincidence...

Whatever was going on, it was clear that, something was going on...

As he strode through a market-place he scanned through the data-burst that Sahrah had sent to Vinda, and stopped abruptly...As he recognised the ship's markings instantly...

...this one had a distinct identification...

...observer Jedi?...

(inwardly he smiled)

...Vonta...

Quickening his pace,Achinta made his way back to The Narcissus

The public transport speeder squealed to a halt, it’s turbines overheating, and repulsorlift damaged from colliding with one to many rocks. A mountain of dust billowed up behind the speeder, and was swept forward by the slight breeze that whistled down the valley. Tem stepped out, appearing like some sort of god from the now dissipating dust. He would have preferred that there had been someone to see his exit, but alas, this was not possible.

Pulling a scanner out of his back pocket, the assassin scanned the area, attempting to pinpoint the location of his target. The scanner monitor read several ship sized blips north, and multiple humanoids in the vicinity. Skqw! This will make it harder. Essential weapons at hand, and a small suitcase on his back, the killer began the short hike to the top of the nearest hill. A long, clean shot was what he needed now.



“His neck is broken, he has multiple lacerations on his right arm, and his left little finger is broken. Whoever did it was in a hurry, and knew something of what he was doing.” The coroner finished his report to the local police. Dead people were popping up all over the place now. A hotel lobby full of bodies, rooms looted, and a taxi driver found dead in the middle of the road.
“Do we have the taxi transponder frequency?”
“Just coming in now sir. Yes, I have it. Quite a ways north sir.”
“Let’s move, Get that flying machine gun of yours up there ASAP, I want the people that are doing this yesterday.”

The droid was tracking ahead of Admiral Katta. The droid strood with an eriee silence that defied his size and mechanical nature. The Droid had found Kass Katta in the attempt to find Vonta Horn. Not much came of it she told them that she was fine. He and Zed ceased compant at that instant. Vonta ordered a cease fire and the assailents halted as well.

Zed nine realizing that this was not a neccessary battle was being his diplomatic self. He was making converstion with the local beings and helping them collect the uncouncious into a central area until they could awaken. C4 disdained this action the droid was designed for fighting not pleasantries. Not that he was incapable of doing so he just preferred doing negotiating at blaster or blade point.

The other two droids were still in the caverns the anomallous synthadroid Strike and the Dog like droid K7-9 they still sought Horn. C4 scanned the area and found a second anomally, another very powerful force prescense was being detected by his empirial force detection system.

He turns towards the anomalous readings immediatly. He armed his systems to battle readiness in a moment. The Vong - droid hybrid had come here seeking a anomalous force sect that was making terrorist attacks all over the galaxy. Vonta horn indicated some thing of that but not much in the way of specifics.

Out of the general direction was Kass Katta he halted immediatly identifiing him as a VC high officer. He called back to his ship the Shadow hunter. There was a lot to update. The sensors found a mess of VC id signals. Vega's, Sarah's, and ....Vinda!! The droid was taken a back the own and CEO of VC did not make the droid aware that he was coming here. He was a perfect target for the Force terrorists.

He was about to turn and tell Katta about it when the readings on his force detecter went hay wire again. He armed him self again blades and weapons extending and coming online. And again the signal came from Kass's direction. He turned just intime to see him lose his balance and topple down the edge of the trail. The droid in close pursuit.

when the body came to a halt it was still. The droid made a report that the admiral was there and called his ship to him he had medical facilitys on board. they should stabilize him but he could only wager on his chances unless he got him to a better med Facility.

"C4 to all VC faculty in range Admiral Katta is injured and in critical condition. Roccommend action immediatly." The ship arrived and the 8 foot droid loaded the uncouncious body onto a hover stretcher brought by his med droid. "Repeating..."

Vandelheim Spaceport

Landing bay area - The Narcissus – Mr Vinda’s Private Quarters



"…how long is this going to take?…"

Vinda exclaimed impatiently…

"…I have things to do!…"

The two Space-port Customs and Excise security officers shifted slightly, uncomfortable under the CEO’s scrutiny, and as one continued with his scanning, the other addressed Vinda’s concerns.

"…please Mr Vinda, this will only take a moment, its standard procedure, the sooner we do it, the sooner you can leave, you were witness to a major crime scene , do not forget…"

Vinda stopped abruptly in mid-pace, raising a concerned eyebrow…

"..are you saying I am a suspect!?.."

The officer , realising his mistake, corrected himself , quickly…

"..ah, of course not sir, its just we have to follow proper procedures…"

Sighing in annoyance, Vinda crossed his arms unimpressed, his attention was drawn however as Achinta stepped into the open doorway , the Android studied the scene a bit then looked towards Vinda questioningly, Vinda rolled his eyes in response then spoke again…

"..so what are you looking for anyway?.."

"..anything illegal sir, once you are cleared you can be on your way…"

Vinda snorted, a little taken aback…then walked up to Achinta, speaking quietly so the guards could not hear, his face showing a slight trace of worry…

"…we don’t have anything onboard…right..."

(As Achinta smiled a little and shook his head, Vinda relaxed a little)...

"...any news?..."

Achinta took Vinda to one side so the two could speak discreetly...

"...the ship Sahrah found earlier , I have identified as Vonta Horn's ship, I suggest we check it out, she may know something we don't..."

Vinda raised an eyebrow as he listened to the android talk...

"..agreed, as soon as these two clowns finish we'll make a move...anything else?..."

Almost exactly on cue , a familar electronic voice crackled through the static over the comms..

"C4 to all VC faculty in range Admiral Katta is injured and in critical condition. Roccommend action immediatly...Repeating..."

Vinda's face seemed to stiffen grimly, and as he turned to face Achinta again, he spoke to the entire ship's personnel over the comm-link set into the wall, his voice heavy with concern...

"...Lets get this ship moving people! Achinta will join you in the cockpit, follow his co-ordinates....attention all medical personnel we have an incoming emergency, please be ready on standby..."

(As Achinta left to join the pilot , Vinda turned abruptly to face the two security officers ...)

"...get off my ship!...or you'll be coming with us!..."

With that, he left the room, leaving the two men to frantically gather up their things, as the roar of the shuttles engines became evident...



C4's Signal co-ordinates...



The Narcissus Set down with a sharp jolt, and as the landing gantry was extended , Achinta , closely followed by VC security personnel ,and a medical team , made their way to meet C4 , and the seriously injured Admiral Kas Katta.

As the security team fanned out to secure the parameter , Achinta approached C4...

...this has turned out to be a fully-fledged family outing...

"...Its good to see you still in one piece... and your timing was impeccable C4...what happened?..."

"..I have already written my report , all details are contained within it..."

Came the droid's rather blunt reply...

Achinta's gaze cut to the medical team as they carefully lifted Kas onto a strecher and rushed inside the shuttle, whilst treating his injuries...

"...very well...I take it you have something still to do?..."

Achinta gauged the droid in front of him, the thing was an enigma, he obviously had his reasons for being here, and Vinda's right hand was about ninety percent sure it had something to do with Vonta...

"...we have picked up ships belonging to the Observer Jedi, I assume they have something to do with your presence here too?... (Achinta didn't give C4 a chance to answer...)
...is she in need of back-up?..."

"...no everything is under control..."

Came the droids response...

"..very well, then I shall not take any more of your time up, once again, thanks for finding the Admiral.."

Achinta gestured a nod of the head in thanks, and started to walk back to the ship, as he walked , he turned to shout back over his shoulder...

"...I'll see you back on Bonadan!..."

...I'll look forward to reading your report...



En Route to Bonadan - Hyperspace

Medical Bay - The Narcissus

Vinda watched through the plex of the medical bay in silent contemplation, Cigarra in one hand and a data-pad with C4's report in the other...

...something different...

His eyes fell upon the still unconscious Admiral , encased and floating within a large bacta tank, and surrounded with tubes attached to various beeping machines. His thoughts were disturbed by one of the medical officers...

"...this is the medical report you wanted , sir..."

Vinda turned to face the man and nodded, and after placing his cigarra into his mouth , he took the data-pad the man had thrust in his direction. The Vinda-Corp CEO spoke without moving his eyes from the report in front of him...

"...how is he?..."

"..he is in a stable, yet still critical condition. he should pull through , as long as he doesn't experience any more complications..."

Vinda nodded as his eyes perused the medical report...

...good..

As he handed the report back to the officer , his eyes narrowed a little as the smoke from his cigarra danced across his face....

"...there is no doubt then, it is him..."

The medic nodded his head cautiously, a little taken aback at the question...

"..yes , we can say with absolute certainty its the same Kas Katta that works for Vinda-Corp..."

Vinda simply grunted in response, he could feel something was different about the man before him, but he couldn't place it...

...a force presence... a potentially powerful one at that...

It hadn't been there before...

...had he missed it?

...impossible...people don't just "become " force sensitive...

...The force never lies...

As Vinda fell silent , the medic took it as his cue to leave, and was about to do so when he remembered something...

"..oh, as you requested, we took a midichlorian count, and compared them to medical reports when Mr katta first joined us..."

Only vaguely paying attention, Vinda turned his head half-heartedly in the medic's direction...

"..and?.."

"...the strangest thing... we got a count of almost ten times that of previous reports... there must be something wrong with the equipment, that can't possibly be correct...I'll run a more thorough scan once we get back to Bonadan...."

As the medic spoke, and walked away...Vinda turned to stare back at Kas through the Plex... a little dumbfounded...he had never heard of something like this before...

...ten times!.... thats higher than me!....

Taking a long slow drag on his cigarra , his mind raced with the implications...

...I look forward with great interest to hear your take on this Mr Katta...


....great interest...

Thick, goey, stiff. Light filtered through blue. No sound was coming to his ears; he couldn’t open his mouth.

Were his hands still their? He couldn’t feel them, couldn’t move them. Legs, they were there. Or, were they?

Memories began to trickle in, confusing what he was seeing with his eyes. Wavy, warped. Was that Seth? Or… was it another memory. Death, killing, hundreds of years of war. Learning, teaching, years of showing the way. Wife, child…

It was Seth. He could see a cigarra now. Seth? Who is this Seth…

Did he know Seth? Did Seth know Him? Who was he?

Pu’ti
Kas Katta

Alm’Pu’ti
Admiral

Secret
Secret

No, he couldn’t tell, couldn’t say. What would they think? What would they say? Threatened, they would feel threatened of course.

Couldn’t say, couldn’t tell.


Shock, something driving him up. His head broke free first, and the breathing device was violently thrust across the room. Air, clean air. Gunk clouded his eyes, he couldn’t see.
Several strong hands lifted him out of the bacta tank, and laid him on a bed.

Someone above him, looking down.

“ca…n…….te…..l”

Tem ground his teeth with frustration as his target was carted off. Had he fired he would have been a dead man, hunted by those droids within seconds of his shot. Stang!

The sound of a police hovercraft came to his ears, two behind him. Turning slowly, the assassin found himself staring down the wrong end of a military grade rapid fire heavy blaster, held by a very angry looking Police chief.

Stang. Not his day.

Zed stood amoung the unconscious force sensitives. Vonta had yet to come out to explain herself as so far as to what was going on here. Obviously there were force users here but it was obvious to the Law class droid that these were not the Krath terrorists that he was searching for. The krath were skilled killers trained in the use of light sabers. These people did not even know how to defend againest a blaster bolt.

He walks over to one of the unconscious. They had been arranged so that all of their belongings would be near by them. The weapon that he saw was a primative thing. In addition to his main weapon he had a nife. Nothing that would threaten either him or his partner.

A bark came from behind him. K7-9 came bounding over to him. Zed turned kneeling to meet him.

"Glad to see you too boy!" He said as the dog like droid knuzzled Zed's metallic head. Making a slight clang as it did so.

C4 had taken off with Admiral Katta. Seeing to it that the Admiral got off the planet as soon as possible. But the fact taht a high ranking officer was here in the first place bothered the droid. They found Vonta Horn tracing a new force group that just happens to end up at the same place as on of VC's higher ups. I was too coincidental.

Vonta Horn is a member of the Observer Order, to the droids knowledge the code of this new force group was mainly to bring balance to the force through knowledge of all of it's elements and traditions. A search that brought her ultimately here to a meeting with the Admiral.

The only logical conclusion would be that the Admiral was some sort of force sensitive him self and a member of this newly discovered force group.

Standing he looks towards the direction that C4 was heading. So what is the Admirals bussiness here.

That would have to wait. The droids Ship had been collecting data from the local security net. There had been several grutesque murders within hours of his and C4's arrival and...The law droid was shocked. VC higher ups would seem to be flocking here.

"Mr. Vinda? Here?!!" The droid was distraught he was the security head for the VC and he was not made aware of the company heads move. And now there was a perspective assasin on the move. He knows Vega is in charge of the Company head's security. actually Zed read many of his reports and had a great respect for his methods. But the droid needed to see to security as well.

The droid was interrupted by a bark from K7, Zed was so caught up in his thoughts about being left out of the loop that he ignored him for a moment. K7 barked again and again was ignored. The four legged metal dog walking in an uneasy circle looking back and forth knowing that he had some thing important to say but could not get his masters attention.

finnally the droid opened it's mouth and issued a garbled voice obviouslly being transmited from near by due to it's quality. Short range devices were not the most reliable things.

"C4 to all Personel, I repeat this is C4 to all VC personel, Admiral Katta is now in serious condition please suggest action. Repeating..." That got Zed's attention.

"Sorry boy. I got lost in thought." The droid dog gave him a reprising bark of indignaty. "All right you made your point now lets get to Mr. Vinda and see what the frill is going on."

From there the pair transite to Mr. Vindas coordinates. Sending a report of the meeting with Mr. Katta and his suspicions along with a reprimand that he was not made aware of his movment off planet.

He was getting ready when the droid say another signal on the police frequencys. Most sentients did not know the meaning of security force codes but the droid found most of them simular enough to readily understand. This one was for a high risk suspect and a call for all personel that could respond to do so with all due speed.

"This could be our assasin boy. Shall we see if he has any ties to our Krath?" The droid barked a happy sounding tone. His equivilent of an excited yes.

-The target for the assassin could be for local reasons but it looked to calculated and precise for any one but a well traveled assasin. Purhaps a new bounty hunter.- He thought.

If the droid could shiver he would have. Just the thought of another Bobafett or IG-88 was enough to make any law man uneasy. The body count that the two drove was uncountable. He set course enroute.