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| - The Mandalorian will pay, I screamed in my head. I had learned long ago to harness pain and bend it to my will, to feed on it and strengthen myself. Thus was the power of the Force’s Dark Side. I hadn’t yet learned how to deal with humiliation and failure, however. The armored warrior that had bested me on the landing platform would pay the ultimate price for his act of defiance. He will regret this day with every ounce of willpower he had, once I had found him, and the girl he protected. The girl. Her power was truly astounding. It was as if one was gazing into the glowing ion engines of a Star Destroyer, the way the power of the Force radiated within her. My thoughts briefly flashed back to the moment her awesome, yet primal, use of the Force had launched me across her cell. If such power could be controlled, harnessed and disciplined with the teachings of the greatest Imperial adepts, she would truly be a force to be reckoned with. How I longed for such power, such immeasurable strength within the Force. I had learned in my years as a member of the Inquisitorious to put petty emotions like jealousy out of mind, but I couldn’t help but long for Naelah’s strength in the Force. If I was that strong, Vader would have long ago bowed aside, and I would have been standing at the Emperor’s side, rather than the cyborg lackey. I would have become the ultimate power in the universe, but the Dark Lord was still stronger than I, though I couldn’t be surer that his day was soon to come, just like the Mandalorian. I just needed the girl. If Naelah stood by my side, a surrogate apprentice of my own, I would rule the Galaxy, and there would be nothing Vader or his shriveled old master could do to prevent my rise. Her Force strength coupled with my own sharp mind and experience would allow my inevitable rise to power. Through my rise, justice would be served with an iron fist, and those who had wronged me over the years would feel my terrible fury. I pulled myself further up the rocks along the city’s coastline. The landing platform rose high above me, shielding me from the now midday sun. I had been down here for hours now, worse off than a wounded animal. I was sure my leg was broken, and my comlink had landed some distance from me. Without the ability to walk, I was forced to drag myself over the rocks of the shore, further cutting and bruising my battered body. I could feel the stab wound the hunter had given me seeping through my torn bodysuit, dripping more blood across the rocks. The Mandalorian had spared me no mercy, and even my command of the Force couldn’t stand against his abilities in combat. Few opponents had ever bested me, and none of them had been a nobody that could not summon the power of the Force. Some mercenary thug had bested me. I would teach him a lesson when I next encountered him. My bloodied fingers traced across a hard plastoid shell, a small cylinder by the feel of it. I pulled my arm back to me, and saw my comlink clutched in my fingers. I brought it up to my lips and thumbed it on. “Lunais to Dark Force,” I said into the small device. I could hear the strain and weariness, and even the pain, within my own voice. I certainly hoped Gronnan couldn’t hear my weakness. The esteemed captain of my flagship did not tolerate weakness, and he greatly respected strength on the field of battle. I did not need to look the part of a fool in the eyes of any subordinate. Gronnan’s clipped Imperial Basic accent came back over the comlink. “Madam Inquisitor, where are you? We have been trying to reach you for hours.” “The girl was sprung out by a Mandalorian. They escaped the planet in a Lambda shuttle. Did you apprehend them before they left the system?” I heard Gronnan sigh. “No, Madam. The shuttle managed to shake TIE pursuit and they broke the gravity well before they were in tractor beam range. We traced their lightspeed jump, but we cannot project a final destination. There is little doubt they dropped out of hyperspace and aligned themselves along a different vector.” There it was: a dead end. The girl had eluded me. But they will find that no one can escape an Inquisitor on the hunt. “Captain, send my shuttle to retrieve me. I’m on the coastline below the Governor’s landing platform. Have medbay allot me a bacta tank. I expect to be healed quickly.” “As you wish, Madam.” Gronnan’s voice cut off for a second, presumably to relay the order down to the medbay. “A medical team will also be aboard the shuttle to assist you in whatever manner you require.” “Good. Captain, you are to place Moff Tieres under martial arrest until I am ready to deal with him.” I heard Gronnan clear his throat. “Madam, with all due respect, I don’t believe it is within my authority to arrest one of the Emperor’s governors.” “Gronnan!” I all but roared into the comlink. “The Moff is a traitor to the Empire! He is to be taken into custody! Unless you wish to die a slow and painful death, I suggest you do as ordered!” “Yes, Madam Inquisitor. I have dispatched a team of stormtroopers from your personal detachment to detain the Governor.” My personal stormtrooper unit was assigned to my command by one of my mentors, Cronal. They were the elite of the elite, wearing stealth-enhanced black armor capable of reflecting light to make themselves invisible on command. They could handle a treasonous Moff with ease. The low hum of a sublight drive rumbled overhead. Looking up, I saw my personal shuttle swing into an awkward landing on the rocks. The ramp descended, and a squad of four black-armored stormtroopers descended the ramp with an officer in a black uniform. I felt two of the elite soldiers help me to my feet, just before I lost consciousness and awareness faded into oblivion. Several days of bacta had revitalized me. Robed in my trademark red, I swept down the corridor of the Dark Force’s detention level, two of my stormtroopers close at my heels. I stopped outside of cell 2-1C, and with an almost-lazy gesture, the door whisked to the side and out of my way. Moff Enric Tieres was the cell’s sole occupant. I stepped through the door, casually gesturing the door shut with a flick of my wrist behind the duo of stormtroopers. The soldiers stepped to the side, flanking the doorway. “Ah, the former Moff of the Bilbringi sector. The last time you were in my presence, we were together under completely different circumstances. It’s a shame how one so professional and loyal could suddenly become a traitor to the Emperor.” I gestured, and the man was lifted to his feet. With a casual motion of my hand, the Moff was thrown backwards against the cell bulkhead. The man roared in pain, but it was quickly cut off as an invisible vise began to cut off the supply of oxygen to his lungs. “Your daughter escaped, no doubt with your help. Where did the Mandalorian take her?” “Don’t…. know….” the Moff managed to gasp through his constricted throat. I sighed. “I expect you to answer my questions honestly, Enric, or I will rip what I want from your brain and leave you a vegetable in this cell for a bleak eternity.” I motioned, and the traitor dropped to his knees on the cold deck plating of the cell. “Tell me where the hunter has taken your daughter.” “Madam Inquisitor, I don’t know where she was taken.” “I find that hard to believe. How did she escape your residence, where she was guarded by a garrison of Imperial soldiers under lock and key? It was impossible for the hunter and his friend to get in and out without inside help. And they escaped in your shuttle, using your access codes. You were involved. Do not lie to me.” “My datapad was stolen from my office some time ago. It had a complete set of floor schematics for the residence, as well as all my passcodes. The hunter must have acquired it.” “I swear to you that what is left of your life will be many lifetime’s worth of pain if you do not cooperate." I reached out in the Force to touch the Governor's mind, so as to make him more susceptible to suggestion. "Naelah is in terrible pain, even as we speak.” The lie seemed to do the trick. His eyes widened in terror. “You found Naelah? That can’t be!” I lifted his chin, to better look into his eyes. “My dear Governor, your daughter is very much in pain. The Mandalorian has hurt her terribly.” My gaze bored into his hurt eyes, watering with tears for his daughter. “I can sense her anguish in the Force. If you don’t tell me where she is, I cannot save her from her pain, and the hunter you made the mistake of hiring will no doubt kill her. Is that what you want for your daughter?” His tears were free-flowing now, running like small waterfalls down his cheeks and to the deck plates of the Spartan cell. “You can’t let him hurt Naelah!” he wailed. “Please.” He reached out, desperately pulling at my flowing robes. Pitiful, naïve fool. The two stormtroopers lifted their rifles cautiously, in case he tried something poorly-thought out. The pathetic man was, at this point, too caught up in his grief to do anything rash, however. I knelt down beside him, acting the part of a sympathetic fellow Imperial. “The Mandalorian will take her to the Rebels, Governor.” I looked at him, a sad look on my face. “They will use her to get to you. You can stop this all now. Just tell me where I can find her.” I put a hand on his shoulder, feigning sympathy with all my being. I reached out with the Force, gently soothing his sorrow. It was not often I worked like this. “I honestly don’t know. I know how to find him though, if he took my shuttle.” Of course he did. It couldn’t be hard to track an Imperial shuttle in the lawless reaches of the Outer Rim they were bound to run to. If he knew the shuttle’s transponder codes, we could track it across the traffic grid of whatever world they were headed to. The only problem was the sheer amount of worlds they could run to. Then a thought crossed my mind, a sudden flash of insight I hadn’t thought of before. “Governor, where would he stop first to resupply? He destroyed his ship on Bilbringi, and he no doubt needs to rearm and regroup.” The man thought for a moment. He was still blinking back tears for his daughter, but I could tell his mind was racing. He had fallen for my charade. “I can’t think of any place where he would run. Except, possibly, for one. “Nar Shaddaa.” I swept onto the bridge of the Dark Force like a triumphant conqueror. The Mandalorian and his allies had several days head start, but I knew where they were headed. My prey would finally be mine. And the Mandalorian would pay for his embarrassment of me. I would see to that. Captain Gronnan turned from the navigation officer he was speaking to. “Madam Inquisitor, the bridge is yours. Do you have our coordinates?” “Make with all possible speed to the Y’Toub System. Their likely destination is the Smuggler’s Moon.” I stopped partway down the command deck, between the two crew pits. “Alert Master of Death and Fallen Hope that we depart in six hours for Nar Shaddaa. Summon the Immobilizer-class cruiser Rapier to join us in-system to prevent their escape.” The captain nodded. “As ordered, Madam.” He turned to the comm officer. “Relay the departure orders to the rest of the battle group. Inform the Rapier to join us in the Y’toub system a half hour after our in-system arrival.” “Yes, sir.” Gronnan turned back to me. “Madam Inquisitor, how can you guarantee the hunter’s surrender? He’s proven unpredictable before, and he’ll no doubt be able to engineer an escape.” I glared at him. “The Mandalorian can be forced to comply with our forces just as easily as any other mercenary. And, even if he does manage to elude us again, we have a bargaining chip.” It took Gronnan a second to catch on. “Governor Tieres?” “Naelah won’t let her father come to harm. Families are often like that.” A smile slowly crept from the corners of my mouth. “When we have the girl and her protectors cornered, they will have no choice but to surrender to us.” “Madam Inquisitor,” the comm officer shouted from the crew pit. “Message from the Star Dreadnought Executor for you. Lord Vader demands your response.” I sighed. “Excuse me, Captain.” I swept from the bridge proper to the holocomm transceiver at the rear of the tower. If there was one person in the Galaxy I truly hated, it was Darth Vader. Even my hatred for the Mandalorian, despite his embarrassment of me, was nothing like how I hated Vader. One day, I would gain the power to destroy him and take the title of Sith Lord from him. I reached the transceiver, and with a gesture, the holocomm came to life. The ominous figure of the Sith Lord flared to life, rendered life-size before me. He towered over me, a nightmarish figure of black armor. His signature mechanical breathing echoed through the bridge, where the entire crew had fallen silent. A pin could have dropped, and it would have echoed across the command deck. I looked up into the obsidian ovoid eyes of the Dark Lord, refusing to be fearful before Vader. His baritone, mechanical voice rumbled to life. “Inquisitor Lunais, what is the situation with Tieres’ daughter? I have received reports of the destruction of Imperial property on Bilbringi. I want a report. Now.” I glared back at the Dark Lord of the Sith. “My lord, do not fret. I have the situation well in hand. Naelah Tieres will be in Imperial hands soon enough.” The black-clad figure shifted as Vader moved his hands down to his waist, spreading his cape wide. If it were anyone else, his massive frame would have been intimidating. I, however, wouldn’t play his game. “I would hope so, for your sake, Inquisitor. The Emperor has taken a personal interest in Tieres, and my Master does not tolerate failure, even from a trusted pawn such as you.” “I am no pawn,” I shot back. “Tieres will be mine. You can be sure of that.” “Ours,” he corrected. “Do not delude yourself with ambitions towards power. It will prove costly to you.” I would have to choose my words more carefully in the future. “Lord Vader, you worry for nothing. I have a plan that cannot fail. Tieres will soon fall to the Dark Side. In no more than a fortnight the girl will have embraced her destiny.” And stand at my side to destroy you, I silently added. “I look forward to a report of your success,” Vader’s voice rumbled. “I trust I don’t have to remind you of the price of failure.” “Of course not. It’s a waste of your breath, my lord. I don’t intend to fail.” The Dark Lord lifted a hand and gestured at me with his finger. “Remember your place, Lunais. If you fail, the consequences will be costly. The Emperor will not tolerate your failure again.” I bowed. “As you wish, my lord.” I’d play his game for now. Either way, I would have the last laugh. “I have your approval to proceed then?” Vader paused. “Yes, but do not forget the price of failure. The Emperor is already displeased with your allowing her to escape once. You may be one of his favorite agents, but you are replaceable. And there are many who would gladly take your place.” “I will not fail, Lord Vader.” “We shall see.” And with that, he cut the transmission. I stood there for a moment. The pieces were falling into place. I did not lie to Vader. I had a plan worthy of the Emperor himself; Naelah would fall to the Dark Side. It was inevitable. She would serve me, and we would overthrow Vader and Palpatine, and the Empire would be mine. I swept back onto the bridge, my red cloak billowing behind me. Gronnan came up to me from the port crew pit and saluted. “Captain Gronnan, have Team 3 deploy to Imperial Center for an assassination mission. I will provide the targets upon their arrival at the capitol personally. Then prepare my fleet for lightspeed. We have an appointment in the Y’toub system.” The ever-so-loyal officer nodded. “As you wish, Madam.” He began to move about the bridge, issuing orders to the crew. I turned and left the bridge for my private quarters. There was much to meditate on, and I had a loyal agent, one Gronnan was not aware of, to contact, for he had a part to play in this grand masterpiece too. My time was at hand.
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