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| - Wayne III sat down in his chair, having just returned from Tristchana, with orders to follow and assist Tarakus Deadmerit. He smiled for a moment, before putting a serious expression on his face, because he knew that the Separatists didn't back down without a fight. It was just how they were. "Dealtana, could you come here a second?" He called a trusted hand. "Yes, Mr. Deadmerit?" "Round up the Terrible 10, we're going in." "What's the mission, sir?" "Protect Tarakus Deadmerit from the Warbird Separatist Imperial Remnant at all costs." Dealtana snapped to his best attention stance, and said, "Right away, sir!" And left the room. It's been a long time since I deployed the Terrible 10. I sure hope this works out ok. Wayne III thought. Wayne Jr. walked in, looking at his son, with a bit of amusement. "Well, someone's deploying the Terrible 10. First time in 20 years I think." He said, looking at his son. "All to protect Tarakus from being executed in the Curavian streets. Did you want to join us?" Wayne Jr. chuckled and said, "No. I don't want to spend my last two years in office, galabanting across the galaxy, protecting some crazed lizard on a crusade to find his wife, with a bunch of Separatists on my tail, all bent on vengence over Phane Warbird." "Aww, come on, Dad. You used to crave adventure everyday. This is no different." Wayne III said. "Sorry son. Not this time. I think I'll stay where I know it's safe." Wayne Jr. said, chuckling as he walked out the door. - - - - - -Rooqu Station Tarakus stepped out of the Sandman, looking around for any Separatists. Not seeing anything suspicious pop out of the corner of his eye, Tarakus waved the all clear signal, and the rest of the crew scrambled out of the ship. "While I'm having the ship refueled, you know the drill, look for clues all over this place. She's bound to have left something behind for us to find." Tarakus said, letting everyone know of the routine. They split into pairs, Tarakus and Mirandall in one pair, and Tu'verana and Piastall in the other, and they split from the Sandman. Tarakus and Mirandall headed for a bar, said to have hosted a fight between Luke Skywalker and Lumiya. Unexpectedly, two Hapan guards appeared from either side of the enterance to the bar. "Identification, please." One of the guards said, holding his hand out for an id card. Mirandall started to say something when Tarakus held up his hand to hush the young Ekatra. He fumbled in his pockets, and pulled out a hardly used Galactic Alliance ID, one that was sent to him when the New Republic collapsed and reformed into the Galactic Alliance. He also pulled out his Black Commander Corps credentials. "Will that work?" Tarakus said to the guard. "Hey, it's him. I've heard of him before, said to be a legend from the New Republic, for anniahlating that Imperial fleet 25 years ago." The other guard said to the first one. "That's really him?! Wow, the Tarakus Deadmerit. Wow. Too bad we aren't asking for autographs. Yeah, you're clear to enter." Tarakus and Mirandall exchanged looks, as Tarakus put his credentials back in his pocket. After some distance from the guards, Mirandall said, "What was that all about?" "Those two must've heard about what I did 25 years ago when I destroyed an entire Imperial Remnant warlord's fleet, using just two DKON-36 missiles. I was hero worshipped for several years, just for that little skirmish alone. What I don't get is why they're guarding this place." Mirandall merely shrugged his shoulders, before walking further into the cantina. The ground here was still mostly dirt, as no one had put a floor in. He looked at the floor closely, before noticing strange footprints in that dirt. "Hey, Tarakus. Come check this out." He called to Tarakus, who was looking at a bench on the other side of the room. "What did you find, Mirandall?" Tarakus said. "Have you ever seen boots with locations on the treads?" Mirandall said, pointing to a set of footprints, that had Hesperidium. "Good work, Mirandall. Take a picture of that. . .uh, never mind. That 'boot' is still here." Tarakus said, spotting a boot under a table nearby. Tarakus grabbed the boot, and flipped it so the bottom of it faced him. Sure enough, much to Tarakus's surprise, his wife's ingenuity had kicked in again, by having the name Hesperidium imprinted into the boot. "Wow. Does she plan them, or does she plan them." Mirandall said, looking at the boot. "This is a much better clue. Come on, Mirandall, let's meet back with the others." - - - - - -Rooqu Station, Tu'verana and Piastall's location Tu'verana looked at the floor very closely, but didn't see a scrap of metal or even an insect in the place. "Piastall, I haven't seen a thing, and we've been combing through it for the last few hours." "Have confidence, and faith, Tu'verana. I'm sure your mother left some very important clues somewhere around here. Besides, she's extremely intelligent, I'm sure she came up with some clever way of letting us know where to go next." "Where do you get all this confidence, Piastall?" "Even I couldn't tell you that, Tu'verana. I don't know to this day." "Well, maybe while we're at it, we should look for clues as to where you get your confidence." Tu'verana retorted, slightly annoyed by the hybrid's overly confident nature. "Well, maybe we don't have to go much farther. Take a look at this." Piastall said, holding up what looked to be a piece of metal, with Anakin Solo on it. "That's risky. I don't know if that would apply to Dad's search." "It most certainly does apply. We'll just have to make sure that we're undetected, eh?" "Piastall, this is Tarakus. We've found our next location." Piastall held up his comlink and spoke into it. "Uh, I believe we found our next location. Why don't we meet back up at the Sandman and discuss what we found." "Good idea, Piastall. See you at the Sandman in five. Deadmerit out." - - - - - -Tepagastra Sandman The four of them met at the Sandman, holding their important finds. Piastall spoke first. "Well, Tu'verana and I found this small metal piece, with the words 'Anakin Solo' on it." Tarakus snatched the piece out of Piastall's hands, saying, "Give me that!" After looking at it for a few moments, Tarakus handed it back to Piastall. "We found an unusual boot, with Hesperidium imprinted into the tread." Tarakus said, holding up the boot. Scratching their heads, they stood by the access ramp for a few moments. "Why don't we check them both out, starting with the Anakin Solo?" Tu'verana suggested. "Easier said than done, my daughter. Do you realize that's the GAG flagship?" Tarakus replied. "We'll go in, using our cloaking devices." "I like your thinking. When we're done there, we'll head to Hesperidium, see what we can find there." "This piece of metal came off the actual ship itself. Judging by where this metal is usually found, I'd say we're to look in the hangar bay of the ship." Mirandall said, helping narrow down where to look. "Thank you Mirandall. That was actually very helpful." Piastall said, putting the chunk into a jar, and walking onto the ship.
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