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| - Trembling in fear was hardly the words I would use to describe what I was doing at the moment; no, I was most definitely shaking so badly I could barely stand up straight next to the Mandalorian who had captured me—and I thought he was bad. Unfortunately, I was horribly mistaken. Looking at the woman in front of me, I realized she must be no older than I was, yet her aura of power was far-reaching and seeped through my skin and chilled me to my very marrow. It was disconcerting as I looked at the hooded figure, which was nearly dwarfed by the very cloak she wore. “Thank you, Piroc,” The woman said, her voice sharp and commanding. “That will be all.” I was shocked to see her giving commands to a Mandalorian, of all people, but I kept my tongue still and refused to say anything in her presence. I could hardly believe that I was back to where I had started; all of this time I had been running from my father and the Empire, but now I was all of a sudden the closest I had ever been to the very thing I was running from. The Mandalorian said something I didn’t catch, and excused himself from the room, and from the woman’s piercing stare, no doubt. “So, Miss Tieres, it appears that we have a lot to talk about,” the woman said with a faint note of superiority in her voice. “Please do take a seat; I don’t think that you’ll want to stand up through the entire conversation.” “I’ll stand, thanks,” I replied coldly, unwilling to take orders from this woman; however I still trembled in fear, unsure of what her response was going to be. It was horrible being caught by the Empire, but to face this woman who had power radiating from her very core scared me shitless. “Very well,” She hissed in a tone that suggested mild surprise at my defiance, but she didn’t comment on it past that. “So Miss Tieres, it appears to me that you’ve been on the run from the Empire for a good deal of time now…” She said deliberately as she adjusted the hood that covered her face. “Can you explain to me why that is?” I inclined my head and fiddled with the handcuffs the Mandalorian had put me in. Weighing my words carefully, I said, “Perhaps it is because the Empire was hunting me down, like it is hunting down trillions of other beings across the galaxy. The Empire has made many enemies and I’m just another one to throw into the mix, according to your codes.” “So you admit that you have done wrong?” She asked, obviously believing she had caught me in a sort of snag. “I admit to nothing, I’m just telling you cold fact,” I responded readily and stared straight into the black abyss of her hood. “And you can’t argue that either because you know it to be true.” “If you want to deal with cold, hard fact, Miss Tieres, then I’ll tell you what I know about you,” She said calmly, cutting through every word I had said. “First, I know that you are on the run from the Empire because you witnessed something you weren’t supposed to, those years ago, something that was highly classified and detrimental to the survival of the Empire. Secondly, I know that you’ve been against the Empire for various reasons that are mostly personal, but with the growing Rebel forces I must crack down on you for that as well.” As soon as the words “Rebel forces” came out of the Inquisitor’s mouth every muscle in my body went taut with anticipation. I looked away from her, trying to disguise the flicker of hope that had been restored within me. If the Rebel forces were growing there was a good chance that they would destroy the Empire and therefore save the galaxy…I sincerely hoped for that day, but at the moment I was stuck in a conference chamber with a woman from hell. “I also know that your father was the one who sent the Mandalorian to capture you directly, and bring you to me…” She continued in a voice that held traces of a deadly silkiness that made my spine tingle unpleasantly. “How does that make you feel, Miss Tieres? How does knowing that your father turned you in for the bettering of the Empire make you feel about him?” Clearly she was enjoying the effect her power had on me, but I maintained my composure. Looking directly into her hood, I said, “Well, obviously my father is not the man I thought he was. In the many months I’ve been away from home I’ve seen exactly what your beloved Empire has done to its people, and I can tell you from experience that it is no government to be proud of.” I inclined my head and clenched my fists hard enough so that the nails broke skin; I was beyond nervous, but I couldn’t let this…woman see my fear, otherwise she would sense it and pounce. “Do you have any idea what you’re facing child?” She spat foully. “Do you have any idea what the Empire could do to you—or as a more immediate threat, what I could do to you?” “I’m not afraid,” I told her with a quiet determination that was partially eclipsed by my fear, which was now making me tremble. “You can’t do anything to me unless my father allows it, and I’m sure that he won’t allow you to torture me with your sadistic methods.” But even as I said the words, I knew that my father would have no say in the matter despite his position. “How wrong you are, little one,” the Inquisitor hissed through a malicious smile that was plastered on her face. “I can do things to you that would leave you in pain for the rest of your short life.” “I’d like to see you try,” I spat back and leaned forward so that my chest was over the table. “What are you hiding under that hood? The face of a girl my own age—” And suddenly I stopped as she slid the hood back, revealing eyes that glowed with lust for power, but even more they were a sickly yellow color. I knew what those eyes meant, I had heard rumors of the elite of the Empire being Sith, but I had never actually expected it to be true. Looking into those eyes I knew that whatever fight the Rebels were raging would be a long and difficult one, and with no doubt, unless they had a Jedi on their side, they would lose. “Does this shock you, Miss Tieres? Does it shock you that one of my kind has been put in charge of handling your case?” The Inquisitor leaned forward as a mirthful laugh escaped her thin lips. “You have no idea what sort of hole you’ve dug for yourself, Miss Tieres, but luckily enough you have me to show you exactly what you have done wrong.” Backing away from the table slowly, I realized that I was in deeper than I had expected. This woman wasn’t just some girl from the Empire making her rounds, she was a Sith, and by the end of the day I might be dead. After finally trudging up to the acclaimed university with Naelah’s sister in my arms, I realized that I didn’t even have a way into the school, and with Anita unconscious—and not likely waking up anytime soon—I knew it would look suspicious if I walked up the staircase with a girl in my arms. Fuming silently at my idiocy, I merely turned the corner and walked down the nearest alleyway and dumped Anita’s still form on the ground, carefully of course, and proceeded to slump down beside her myself. As I leaned my head back against the duracrete wall behind me, I realized that it had been at least twenty-four hours since I had last seen Naelah. Something wasn’t right, I knew that much, but I still wasn’t sure what it was. Something was telling me that the Empire had caught her and she was somehow in their clutches, but I had no idea where. Suddenly, Anita groaned and mumbled something unintelligible beside me and my face snapped in her direction. In the same moment, her eyes flew open and she looked at me for a moment, things slowly processing in her mind. And then she screamed. Cursing angrily, I covered her mouth with one hand, but that didn’t stop her from struggling against me. “Anita, my name’s Sterlo and I know your sister,” Pausing, I waited for her to calm down. Finally, when she glared at me, I removed my hand. “I know your sister, Naelah,” I repeated, watching her carefully for a sign of recognition. “I think she’s in trouble.” “Why would she be in trouble? She’s at…oh…” And then things began clicking her mind. “Oh no, not Naelah…they can’t have…what do you think happened?” “I don’t know what happened, I just think she’s in trouble,” Taking a deep breath to steady me, I said, “I think the Empire’s got her, and that’s who she was running from. I think something’s wrong, but I don’t know what…but I think it’s pretty bad.” Anita nodded slowly and glanced down at the ground. “I’m sure you don’t know the circumstances for her running away, do you?” “You recover from being drunk pretty fast,” I noted casually, suddenly realizing that Anita was making a lot of sense, but she shouldn’t have been seeing as she had just lost consciousness on account of drinking too much. “Oh, that,” She smirked and met my eyes for a second. “It was just a little defensive trick I learned when trying to get yourself out of a bar.” “Pretend to act drunk? Wouldn’t that get you raped or something?” “Not if you puke all over them,” Grinning she added, “But I could tell you weren’t going to rape me, and I was pretty tired from partying anyways so I just let you carry me home…” When I fixed her with a look of suspicion, she amended, “Ok, ok, so I was a little drunk, but the shock of my sister being here, and the shock of waking up with a man over me woke me up a little bit.” “That’s what I thought…makes more sense,” Shrugging, I said, “But I don’t know the story about your sister leaving Bilbringi, and I was under the impression you didn’t either.” “I know what I found out.” She chewed her bottom lip thoughtfully and then said, “Did Naelah ever tell you our father is Moff Tieres of Bilbringi?” Seeing my reaction she nodded. “I thought not, she probably kept a low profile while she was here. Anyways, our father works very closely with the Empire, and from what I could tell, something big was going on that our father was helping to construct…do you remember the battle station that the Rebels destroyed? Well, Father was involved in that and the problem was, was that he was so closely connected to the Empire, and the Grand Moff Tarkin for that matter, that he lost his sense of family. “From what I understood, Naelah heard a communication between Tarkin about a battle station…something classified, something that wasn’t supposed to be heard by anybody but those involved. Because it was such a highly classified subject, and Naelah knew it, judging by the way she ran away as soon as Father found out she listened in, accidentally of course. The Empire told Father to track her down—” “Please, tell me they didn’t say to kill her as well,” I interrupted, dreading the answer that Anita would give me. If the Empire wanted Naelah dead, she would end up dead and there was no question about that. “As far as I know the Empire didn’t give specifics on that part of it, I know that Father wouldn’t want it that way because it would devastate Mother, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Father ‘slipped-up’ and let the Empire do away with Naelah.” Grimacing, she remained silent for a moment as she considered what she just told me. It was obvious she had never really thought of the Empire killing Naelah before, and now was the first time it was beginning to dawn on her that maybe she would never see her sister again. “That’s awful,” I supplied gently, hoping she’d continue with her story. Taking a deep, shuddering sigh, Anita nodded and carried on, “Anyways, Naelah ran and the family hasn’t seen hide or tail of her since she disappeared about a year and a half ago. Father was furious, and scared for his own life. The Empire was depending on him not to let the secret out, and he did, but now Naelah’s not even in his clutches so he can’t control her; for all they know, she could have blabbered about the plan to others…not that it matters much anymore, the Death Star’s destroyed anyways.” “She didn’t tell me any of that…” I said, feeling slightly put-off, but I could understand Naelah’s decision not to tell me any of that information. She probably didn’t trust anybody in the world, and she certainly wouldn’t trust a stranger…or a Sorrusian for that matter. “And with good reason,” She replied indignantly. “For all she knew, you could have been working for the Empire or something. But I know she’s not dead, I would feel it if she was…I would just know.” “I know she’s not dead,” I agreed, feeling that Naelah was strong enough to carry on, on her own wherever she was. After all, she had been living in the dumps of Coruscant as a sixteen year old girl for awhile. “She’s too strong to be dead.” “But you want to find her,” Anita said as if she had been reading my mind. “Even though she’s strong, you think she’s in serious trouble and she needs your help.” I couldn’t lie to this girl…it felt as though she would see through any lie I tried to pass by her. Reluctantly, I nodded. It was so unlike a Sorrusian to really care about anybody else but themselves, but apparently that was all about to change. “You’ll find her,” Anita encouraged gently. “I know you will.” The armor of the stormtroopers to either side of me clacked and clattered as they escorted me back down to the hangar. The Inquisitor, who was clearly a Dark Sider, had seriously taken me by surprise. I had a lot of experience with Dark Siders, but she was something else. I was sure I could feel her drawing on the power of the Force to will me out the door. She was powerful, and I had a feeling I’d be seeing more of her in the future. But my job was done. That was what truly mattered. I wondered, though, as to the location of Moff Tieres. He owed me money for this job. I turned to the trooper marching purposely on my right side. “Excuse me,” I spoke. The helmet had an audio system that made the wearer sound much more robotic than they really did. It wasn’t dissimilar to the system in a stormtrooper helmet. “Is Moff Tieres aboard this Star Destroyer?” “I’m not authorized to give you that information, citizen.” The stormtrooper’s response was trite and simplistic, even for a stormtrooper. I realized then, if I really wanted to ensure I got paid for this job, I had to do something…. rash. “Sorry. Just curious.” The stormtroopers continued purposely. I fell out of step so I was slightly behind them, then I quickly grabbed the stormtrooper who couldn’t hold a conversation, pretty much yanked him off his feet, and silently broke his neck. The other trooper turned to see what had happened and got a dart, launched from my wrist gauntlet, into his throat. They both dropped within a second of each other with more clattering of armor. Luckily for me, this seemed to be a lightly-trafficked hallway. I grabbed the two troopers by their neck collars and dragged them into a side room. I casually dumped the bodies on the deck, sealed the door, and headed back towards the turbolift banks. I got back to the turbolift lobby, and was slightly disappointed to see I’d be sharing a lift. Naval officers, stormtroopers, marines, and technicians all milled about within the area. I got aboard the next turbolift heading up, and wound up standing alongside an officer wearing the bars of a Commander in the Navy, his two stormtrooper escorts, and a couple warrant officers. And, of course my luck was almost notoriously atrocious today, so I got a talker. “Mandalorian,” his clipped Imperial accent spoke, “where are you going? Not often one sees a warrior of your culture.” I turned and glared at him from the other side of the T-shaped visor. “Private contractor for Moff Tieres. I’m collecting for an assignment I completed.” “Ah. Moff Tieres is a guest aboard our Star Destroyer. He’s probably still hanging around the bridge, making trouble for the Captain. He appears to be most annoyed by the esteemed governor. But he puts up with it since Tieres runs an important world. Without the shipyards, the Empire wouldn’t be able to keep the Fleet as powerful as it is.” “I see.” I wasn’t much for talking with people who couldn’t keep their mouth shut for more than ten seconds. “I’m on my way up to the bridge now. I’m sure my escort and I can take you there. You may not have the proper security clearances.” To be honest, I hadn’t thought about security clearances. Normally I just blasted my way into somewhere if I had to, but on an Imperial-class Star Destroyer, pride of the Imperial Navy, with a Dark Sider on board, it probably wasn’t a brilliant idea. “I would appreciate that, Commander.” “It’s not any problem, really. I’m something of a fan of Mandalorians. The armor is quite distinctive and interesting, I dare say. Much more so than the armor of our shock troopers.” I couldn’t agree more. As far as I was concerned, a stormtrooper’s white armor just made them a much better target. It was definitely handy if I was blasting them, but the Commander didn’t need to know I’ve had run-ins with Imperials that weren’t nearly as friendly. I don’t need to boast that only one walked away from the encounter, either. The Venator-class Star Destroyer Karatos was still a classified situation within the Empire, to my understanding. The Emperor didn’t want his Fleet personnel to know a whole Star Destroyer was taken by one commando team. The entire crew was unaccounted for. Venting them into space leaves an infinite number of directions for the bodies to go, as it were. By then, we had reached the bridge. Like most ships in the Imperial Navy, the bridge was large, with a command walkway running between two crew pits. Massive, triangular viewports made up the forward section. I could recognize Moff Tieres, standing off to one side, almost like he was trying not to get underfoot. I thanked the Commander, then walked over to the governor of Bilbringi. “Moff Tieres,” my voice rumbled from within my helmet. He turned, suddenly aware of a gray-armored Mandalorian supercommando staring down at him. He was a short man, and with my height of 6’2”, I towered over him. The armor helped with the intimidation factor. “Uh, greetings, Phiht Piroc,” he managed to gasp out. He was surprised I was here, that was clear. “Thank you for returning my daughter. Is she with you?” “No, you idiot, she’s not. She’d be standing by me if she was. Your Inquisitor friend has her.” His eyes widened. “I was afraid of this. I had suspected for some time that Naelah was…special. I tried to avoid letting the Empire get notice of her, but when she saw that…thing she shouldn’t have seen, I knew that it was over.” He bowed his head, and I was almost certain I could hear him starting to sob. “I tried to keep my family away from the Empire, because I was certain my daughters could draw on the Force. If the Emperor’s adepts found them, they would have become one of them. I didn’t want that for my daughters.” “It seems like you failed,” I pointed out. “It was by coincidence, really. Naelah overheard a transmission between myself and Grand Moff Tarkin. Tarkin wanted her found, to protect the secrets of his project, but she eluded capture for a year and half. I just wanted her home with my wife again. I didn’t want this to happen, but the Dark Force dropped into the system a few days ago. This small little fleet is commanded by the Inquisitor, Lunais. I knew then that they intercepted my transmission to you, and she must have foreseen that you’d find Naelah. I don’t think Naelah will be cooperative with Lunais, and that will most likely see her killed.” “And what are they going to be doing with her? I know Dark Siders, Moff. I know they’ll try to convert her.” “I believe Lunais plans to take her down to the surface. She’ll be tortured there.” “And what of your wife? Will this Lunais character use her to twist Naelah to her will?” Moff Tieres looked like he was about to dump a load of cargo into his uniform trousers. “I hadn’t thought of that,” he said, confirming my own thought. “I need to send a message to her, but I can’t risk being exposed.” He seemed to think momentarily. “I will pay you to see her on a transport to safety.” I nodded. “I can do that. And Naelah?” “She’ll have to be rescued. I don’t know how though.” “Put it on my tab, Moff Tieres. You already owe me for bringing her from Coruscant. I’ll get your wife to safety, and then I will take care of Naelah.” The governor still looked worried, but not nearly as significantly. I was surprised his panic attacks weren’t attracting the notice of the bridge crew. That was helpful. Hopefully no one was overhearing what he was saying. He’d get in a lot of trouble if Lunais caught wind of an escape plan for a girl who will most likely be the Dark Side’s newest convert. “You have no idea how much I appreciate this, Piroc. Money will not be thanks enough, I think.” “It’s acceptable, Moff. Don’t worry, I’ll get your daughter. What of you, though? No doubt Lunais will suspect your involvement.” The older man gave a defeated nod. “That’s a sacrifice I have to make. I owe my family that much.” He handed me a datapad from his tunic pocket. “This datapad has my estate’s security codes, ground layouts, and garrison numbers. You’ll find the information helpful to you in your assignment, I’d imagine.” Sliding the little datapad into a belt compartment, I nodded. It would be very helpful. “Moff, I’ll probably use your estate to lure Lunais into a confrontation. If I can subdue her, then I can make this rescue much easier.” His eyes widened again, much bigger this time. His jaw dropped open. I could just imagine what he’d say about the prospect of his estate being destroyed in combat between a Dark Jedi and a Mandalorian. “She’s a Dark Jedi! You can’t possibly be a match for her.” I thought back to an incident on Shola some years ago. My late companion, Roykin Dermitchal, had said much the same thing when I busted him out of a Dark Jedi’s prison, inside a massive fortress on the hellish world. He hadn’t survived the escape, but neither did the Dark Sider. “I think she’ll think the same thing. I’ve fought her kind before.” “But-“ “But nothing. I can handle this assignment.” I turned to leave. “Just make sure I can get clear of the hangar. I don’t want a squadron of TIE fighters chasing me to the surface.” I swept from the bridge, to head back to the Hell’s Call, and hopefully not towards the end of my career.
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