The Rebel Faction

Somewhere on the Outer-Rim




“…ask your father!…” The bald headed man snapped…

Natalya frowned in response to the cryptic answer, and felt her body tense with anticipation as she watched one of the other two men reach down to pick up her Blaster…

…not yet…

She felt her senses heighten…

“…when you spoke just now, what did you mean by , kill me as well?..”
(She asked the stranger warily…)

The bald man smile’s grew larger…

“…we followed you to the old woman’s place on the shore…” He started to explain...

Natalya felt her heart race, and felt the now familiar sense of dread…

In her heart, she already knew, she wasn’t wholly sure how, but deep down, she knew.

Natalya screamed inside...

Gaia!

The other man finished picking up her Blaster and turned to face his alien colleague, and tucked it into his belt..

…not yet… (the voice in her head continued)…

Whilst the bald man, the apparent leader of the three, carried on talking…

“…stupid old fool wouldn’t tell us anything…”

Natalya’s heart sank, even lower, and she felt her eyes start to water, but fought back against it…there would be another time to mourn.

Now was not the time.

“…so I killed her” The bald man spat at her callously, and the traces of a subtle but sadistic smile crept across his face, confirming her worst fears...

Seething, Natalya narrowed her eyes , and felt her entire being become engulfed in a deep anger, it grew like a fire…and spread just as fast…

The feeling of hate burned so strong it left her breathless …

Her mind raced , and she felt herself caught up in a deep swirling [font=Verdana]maelstrom[/font] of emotions

grief…

loss…

injustice…

hatred…


Natalya suddenly became acutely aware of the hilt of her lightsaber against her waist, and it seemed to beckon her…

The hate bubbled over…

…and she answered….

Now!

Just as the two men were about to grab her, Natalya felt the blade in her hand , she did not and would not hereafter have any recollection of how it got there, just that it was there , and she used it.

She used it with all the hate she could muster.

Natalya screamed in rage , spun and swang , and all that filled her ears was the distinct almost melodic hum of her blade as her attacks came in a dazzling blur…

In a flash of violet the Saber connected, the elegance of its light belied its true nature as it sliced through, and cauterised flesh and bone alike…

The man who had only seconds earlier picked up her Blaster was now doubled over in agony as both his arms lay on the floor , a result of him trying to hold her, whilst the other lay beside him, dead.

Natalya paused to catch her breath for a moment, and threw her gaze upon the Bald man, who, after the initial shock of seeing his comrades fall before him, sprung into action, blasting round after round from his set of Blasters …

Something in Natalya took over, guiding the swings of her blade, and she let it.

Deflecting the shots off into either the sky or into the metal walls around her, Natalya matched the man’s shots with swing after swing, parry after parry…until one of the Blaster Bolts connected…

Crying out in pain, Natalya dropped her Lightsaber and clutched her left shoulder with her right hand in reaction to the burning sensation that was now shooting through her arm, and in her shock stumbled to her knees.

Glancing up through tears of pain, Natalya was just in time to see the Bald stranger’s butt of his Blaster as it flew full force towards her in the face…



And Natalya’s world fell into darkness.

Bonadan



Leantre Vio walked among the massive markets of Bonadan amazed at the organization Vinda Corporation put into their capital world’s economical strength.


And yet there was a slightly disturbing aura about the whole experience as he went farther and farther into Bonadan.


For the planet was, for the most part, in the business of making and managing the trillions of credits that poured through the Commonwealth economy.


With the formation of the Commonwealth and with the opening of the credit reserve coffers, the fledgling government was in an excellent position to broadcast its economic power across multiple import and export concerns.


But how much of that weight goes to the heads of those wielding the power? And how much political pull does those wielders actually possess?


Business motivation can take many different forms to simple improvement of one's station in life to outright avarice.


It was a double edged sword to encourage healthy competition within the Commonwealth sphere for self interests typically govern business concerns and rightly so. No company was ever a success ignoring its own interests.


Altruism does not pay the rent, Leantre thought sardonically to himself.


So what am I looking at when I see most families on Bonadan living for the success or failure of their businesses?


The actual planetary management: education, district laws and regulations, transportation issues, public utility concerns and the like would understandably take second stage to the corporation that was standing on their shoulders.


Does Mr. Vinda get daily reports on waste facility failure in such and such district?


No, his concern is Vinda Corporation and it’s interests on the planets within the Commonwealth.


And then it hit Leantre. The simplicity of the gain Seth Vinda obtains with the Commonwealth.


It frees up his various departments from having to maintain and monitor (and actually deal) with civy planetary issues.


The reality of the Commonwealth's political entity suddenly hit the old former Regent of Capricia. Vinda could have taken a political seat in the Commonwealth but his interests were his corporation, ship building contracts and various other company concerns.


And by promoting his Admiral, Kas Katta, to Secretary of State or Minister of State, a political position within the Commonwealth would help insure that Mr. Vinda’s interests were acknowledged.


The old man smiled.

Very shrewd indeed.

Andrew Micheal Rashanagok was the child of a broken home… of sorts. Son of Andrea and Micheal Rashanagok, he spent much of the early part of his life as a wayward child, always on the move. After the murder of his parents, he disappeared, and would emerge a decade and a half later at the then Sith Temple of Yavin. What happened afterwards is a matter of history. What happened before is cloaked in darkness.

The story was a familiar one; a single parent, forced to move with the work and the unfortunate child in the middle. Only this story has a twist, as the single parent was only a single parent part-time. On occasion Andrew and Micheal Rashanagok would return to their home on Naboo, where Andrea was studying in the ancient art of the Jedi. It was a life that Andrea did not want for her son; the duty and responsibility to devote one’s life to the selfless and never-ending protection of goodness.

Given the choice now, she may have reconsidered that decision.

Regardless, she believed that at the time her child should be born with a clean slate. She knew all force sensitive children were brought to instruction eventually, whether with the support of the parents or without it only determined how open the tutelage was and how early it began. She had hoped that when he turned eleven, she would begin his instructions and stabilize his life, and allow him the decision of what he wanted to become.

Ahnk was ten years old when his parents were murdered. He watched them die two days before his eleventh birthday. At the start of that day, he was in surgery, as doctors fought to save his ability to speak. But as the day closed, he had purchased with what little money he had taken off the corpse of his father, his first weapon, and a shuttle of Naboo.

And then, he vanished.

The fate of the Sith Lord who murdered Andrea Rashanagok is unknown. He was found, several years later, in OlDuro. He had been killed in a very graphic fashion. In fact, his demise was so graphic that it would take years for the stories circulation’s effect on tourism to diminish, and some maintain that it never has. Lord Varlamont had been the victim of some unnecessary surgery; someone had opened several incisions and, with effort to keep it intact, had removed his coronary network and heart from the musculature and skeletal structure of his body. Although decomposition made it impossible to determine, legend says that preliminary findings of blood patterns indicate the surgery began when he was still alive.

The fate of the Bounty Hunter who murdered Micheal Rashanagok was solved in short order. Micheal had some gambling debts, and had defaulted on them. It was an honest mistake, as the amount was small and it was forgotten when he left the planet. But the perceived insult was not. The inconsequential, in fact, almost laughable amount of the debt made it impossible to secure a bounty hunter other then one that was very down on his luck and widely despised. He was more down on his luck then many realized, as he had apparently run afoul of a very unforgiving bounty hunter known as Boba Fett. Fett had opted out of disintegration, making the corpse easily identifiable. He elected, instead, to end the hunters life with a slow, agonizing encounter with his flamethrower.

The fate of how the situation came to be would be the stuff of lore, if anyone has known the details to tell it. One could blame the Gungan race for the murders. It was that race that had always fascinated the child, and he often wandered the swamps looking for them, as even the adults were never condescending and often playful. That day, Andrew was at the swamp and was late for dinner. Andrea always worried about him playing in the swamp, as it housed not only the Gungan temples, but also the submerged Jedi Temple in Oota Gunga. The parents split off to look for him, heading in different directions from the house to different ends of the swamp.

The fate of the subsequent encounters was quite cruel. Had Andrew been home in time for dinner, it would have occurred very differently. Micheal would have survived, as the bounty hunter was no match for Boba Fett or a Jedi Knight, and would have been killed before he made his bounty. Andrea would have survived, as Varlamont had no interest in her and was merely on the planet for reconnaissance, and their encounter had simply been to protect his cover. Both parents would have survived. And perhaps more importantly, Andrew would have survived.

Ah.

Which brings us to the most important twist of fate.

The fate of the child.

The fate of Andrew Rashanagok was to die that day. His naivety and innocence lie with the blood splatter that had flown from his trachea. When he learned the fate of his mother, the cruel assault on his every moral fiber was simply too much. He went into surgery Andrew Micheal Rashanagok, struggling for life. But he would leave that room simply Ahnk, a stone-cold killer with nothing on his mind but vengeance. Years later, his bloodlust satiated and his desires for vengeance seemingly fulfilled, he assumed his old last name, in order to appear more human to his subjects.

But the fate of Ahnk Rashanagok was to die, as well. To die at the hands of the only man he trusted. And now, as he sat, several generations of clones later, he looked back and noticed something, now, for the first time. Andrew had died, and had resurfaced as Ahnk. But then Ahnk had died, and had merely resurfaced as a clone; a copy, a cheap duplicate, each version different and more defective then the last. Several generations later, he was nothing like what he once was.

No.

He was nothing like it at all

Elrood


"It is a very strange dialect of ancient Caprican," the linguist explained as he showed Tyscio Korban the computerized images taken of the room. "As you can see here and here, these indicate thought changes and there,.. what we are seeing are three separate points of view."

Tyscio's eyes narrowed. "But... why write them down instead of recording? The technology.."

"There is a recording of somesort, Sir. Pardon me, but the image of you talking. The audio fades in and out but the language too is of an ancient dialect."

"Well," the linguist continued, "what we have been able to determine is that this whole room is some sort of "news room"."

"News?"

"Well, there is nothing here in any detail about the civilization of that time. It seems to be an outline of the general political or governmental structure of the time."

"Caprician? Here on Elrood?"

"From what we can tell, the name of the planet was 'Elroodia', in the old tongue."

"What else have you got?"

Another expert came up handing the linguist talking to Tysico a datapad and the man turned, "Frell, these tenses are a pain! What we seem to have is a description of something called the 'Not War'."

"Not War?"

"Or... the War That Was Not A War. Or...The War Unseen."

"A private war?"

"It's hard to tell for there are various locations mentioned. Not sure what those locations translate into in today's galaxy. See, here and there... references to something something.. transcendance... evolutionary mark... war of the somethings called Angelis... and there is a symbol there of the other combatants but I cannot place it. I've never seen it before."

Tyscio was looking at the holographic projection of himself mouthing an ancient language reporting Clannus knew what. His eyes went down to the section of scans that the linguist had taken and his eyes narrowed at the symbol.


"Let me know if you find anything else out.." he murmured as he suddenly took his leave of the excavation.

The symbol rolled around in his mind and he felt sick.


The symbol was Simulacrum.


Hespante?


He tried to recall in vain the memories of the old Commonwealth Union of Worlds and the events of the time. All he remembered was the Nephys manifestation and infestation that brought General Bane to his knees and signaled the end of harmony within the Union.

But what if there was somthing more?

Something he could not remember?


A conflict involving Simulacrums?


He knew he should have remembered something like that. He knew that it was something Hespante would know of.


His hand went up to the side of his head over the implant; his mental connection with the Royal Retainer.



Hespante!



*silence*

He woke up, as was common practice these days, roused by a ship entering hyperspace. He looked around, not entirely sure where he was, when he recognized the dark, metal walls. Imperial vessels always painted their metal walls… the Coalition did, as well. Made it feel less like a big hunk of metal and more like a temporary home. The Imperial’s liked everything dark… more efficient, and dull. Easier to clean. The Coalition liked some offensive off-white shade that made Ahnk dial down the contrast in his vision. Much too sharp for his liking.

No, this ship was black. Which meant he had just left Corellia.

It wasn’t easy, searching the entire galaxy for your psychotic wife and a child you’ve never seen. Fortunately, since he used to own the galaxy, he had a few strings he could pull.

Ali Sabin had been the representative Hapan military contractor to the Allied Sith Empire. During the height of the Allied Sith Empire, the Hapan cluster and nearby Allied Tion and Tion Hegemony had been patrolled by a specialized wing of the Yavin defense fleet. That fleet was made primarily of Hapan Battledragons, the modified Nova Cruisers that Ahnk had developed in association with the Vinda Corporation, and the old Imperator Star Destroyer. The Hapan components had to be purchased from the government, even if it was all but a puppet regime that did his every bidding.

Thus, Chiisai Kyoufu had selected her token female Admiral, Ali Sabin, to conduct negotiation. She knew the ships but she wasn’t much of a commander or a terribly effective economist, and it was rumored at the time that she was picked because Ahnk was giving her the shaft.

Of course, Ahnk knew that was not the case. Oh, she was attractive, and even decades later her face was still what was considered sexy. But Ahnk hadn’t shafted her for the same reason he never had sex with Montague; he wasn’t interested. Ahnk was, at the time, oblivious to sexual stimuli and merely interested in his lust for power. For him, both had been merely associates… and he wasn’t sure Sabin would have opted to sleep with him, had he shown any interest.

The time had come and gone, of course. After the Allied Sith Empires short war with the Rogue Empire and New Republic, Sabin had, as had many of his officers, taken a position inside the New Order. Sabin’s position was largely inconsequential… a token offering to keep her busy and those around her to be satisfied to have their chain of command largely intact if substantially less important and influential. Sabin’s offical designation was as the second assistant to the deputy assistant of Hapan-Imperial security on the planet Corellia. Corellia did not see many Hapan flights and thus her job was mostly to sit around all day and wait.

Waiting for adventure to find her. And eventually, adventure gave her a name.

Ahnk had called Sabin to ask her for information. Weary, she asked him to take a flight in to see her. A man with so many enemies did not poke his head into such a high-profile world as Corellia and expect to leave it intact. So she told him to take the transport into Talus, a more low-key locale in the general area, and wait. When she was able to slip away, she would grab a transport herself and see what she could tell him.

And so Ahnk was flying to Talus. And when he got to Talus, he would wait.

Or so he thought.





“God damnit.”

Ahnk threw his tray of food down on the table before throwing himself roughly into the seat. He didn’t wait for permission to sit down at the man’s table, though he had a sinking feeling he didn’t need to.

“Hey hey stranger! Never thought I’d see you again.”

Ahnk let out a frustrated sigh.

“Oh, believe me Bill, the feeling was mutual.”

Bill shook his head, grinning.

“Hey man, why so hostile?”

Ahnk sighed again, putting his head into his hands and shaking it back and forth.

“Look, Bill… you seem like a nice guy, but I’m not looking for a friend right now.”

Bill looked surprised.

“I thought last time we talked, you said you were looking for a friend?”

Ahnk continued to shake his head, frustrated and confused.

“That’s not what I mean! Listen, Bill, I’m going places, dangerous places and meeting with dangerous people. Dangerous things are going to happen. You don’t want to come with me.”

“Hey, I’m a guardsman. I can handle myself. Can you?”

Ahnk looked up at him, looking him directly in the eyes. After a second, he sighed, turning away.

“I don’t know. But I don’t need a fifth wheel.”

Bill raised his hands.

“Hey man, I’ll support you but I’m not going to be a drag.”

Ahnk nodded. He took a forkful of his food, which wasn’t any good, of course.

“Tell me more about Chang.”

Ahnk raised an eyebrow.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah man, lay it on me.”

Ahnk nodded, considering where to begin.

“Chang was a Yuuzhan Vong.”

“Whoa, a Vong? You’re looking for a Vong? Maybe I don’t want to know…”

“It gets better. He never bought into the Vong way of life… the hokey religion and ritualistic sacrifices. He was part of a similar faction of Yuuzhan Vong, who came to this galaxy ahead even of the Praetoriate. They tried to gather a foothold against my Allied Sith Empire, but only ever managed to win one engagement before I just outnumbered them and exterminated them. Chang was a hostage.”

Bill’s eyes lit up with the sudden realization, and Ahnk simply nodded his head.

“Wow… I’ve heard a lot about you. Mostly about you brutally murdering and raping innocent people.”

“Well, most of that is true, except the raping. And the orgies in the Sith Temples… I don’t know who created that myth. Anyway, we’re not talking about me, I was talking about Chang. May I continue?”

Bill nodded, lending his undivided attention.

“It took time, but Chang did eventually confide in me that he didn’t believe in his gods. I felt him as a kindred soul, in that respect, as I had rejected mine as well. But he was still useful to me, so I experimented on him.”

Bill took a turn to raise an eyebrow.

“Experiment? Isn’t this your friend?”

“He wasn’t at the time. As the Yuuzhan Vong were potential enemies, I needed to discover as much as possible about them, and that meant dissection. First, I cut off his arm, and then his leg, and then removed his one eye, as he had lost his other eye and replaced it with an interesting weapon. I admit, it did surprise me the first time I removed his eye patch. Ultimately, I turned to his organs, studying his circulation, and finally threw him in the Grotto. I hung him up again, and then cloned him. Made him watch as I murdered and dissected his clones. Made him watch as I tortured his clones. Made him answer questions, and severed his limbs when he gave me an unsatisfactory answer. Finally, I moved into simple psychological reconditioning, and when he began to respond, I freed him, and rather then kill me and escape, he stayed to complete training.”

“Training? You mean, like Sith training? I thought the Vong lived outside the force.”

Ahnk shook his head.

“No, they do. But clones made of Chang were not outside the force… they could be manipulated and sensed as any man could. I didn’t want to do too much experimenting on Chang’s brain, so I instead simply used a biological graft onto the back of it that I targeted to send force commands to and that bundle of nerves sent them as auditory messages to his brain. But he remained and still remains to this day immune to the effects of the force.”

“All right. Well… what were the results of the experiments? The training you provided Chang?”

“The experiments proved to be unnecessary, as the Allied Empire was in decline when the Yuuzhan Vong Warmaster arrived. Several biological weapons were created to effect both the Yuuzhan Vong cellular structure and yorrik coral. The training, however… I had been a Sith Master for years at that point, and had trained several Lords and executed a few Jedi. But it was a unique experience, philosophically educating a man who was like a child, with no knowledge of our laws and what we take for granted. I could have fed him lies, but I instead let him make his own conclusions. When he was receptive, he was an excellent student. When he was belligerent, he was even better.”

“All right. Sorry for all the questions, but we have yet to get the part where you started chasing him.”

“You’re right. Well, I never knew about Montague. The only times I saw her, deformed as she was, was in my dreams, in that tube, on Ossus. I remembered her to that point as a lowly geneticist, granted, a gifted geneticist, but she was of course more interested in me then I was in her. But Chang… Chang was the one I left in command, when I went to the Jenova to meet Xylon Hexrya for the first time. Whether he abdicated to her or was killed by her, I don’t know. I just need to have answers. I need to find Chang.”

Bill sat back, simply nodding.

“So you don’t know if Chang is a friend or a foe? Or if he’s even alive?”

Ahnk shook his head.

“So why look for him?”

Ahnk sighed, taking another bite of his food.

“I need an ally. And even if Chang isn’t an ally, if he knows I’m alive, he’ll be looking for me. And if an enemy is looking for you…”

“…find him first.”

“Find him first. Exactly.”





“Bill, I have to go alone.”

Bill nodded.

“I know how you feel, moral…”

“No, it has nothing to do with morality. Do you honestly think that a Fallen Jedi meeting an ex-compatriot working for the New Order would get past any major government, up to and including the Empire?”

“No, but…”

“And don’t you think they are MORE likely to interject if I am also traveling with one who I can safely assume is a deserter with me?”

“Hey! I am not a deserter. I’m just on vacation. A secret vacation. I got lost in the mail.”

“Do you want to explain that to me later, or now to stormtroopers?”

Bill shook his head.

“All right. You win. But at least take a blaster. Or one of your sabers. Some kind of weapon.”

Then Ahnk shook his head, opening his cloak.

“I don’t need a weapon. My hands are my weapons.”

And he unclipped the saber from his belt, throwing it to Bill.

“Hey… why give it to me?”

Ahnk grinned.

“Just in case they send Sith.”

And then he turned and continued walking. Behind him, Bill simply sighed and shook his head, sitting down to get comfortable.

The building was only a short distance, but Ahnk found himself to be on the never-ending walk. So much uncertainty clogged his head, both about this visit and the possibilities after this visit. Something Bill had said was stuck in his mind… what if Chang was dead? He knew it was possible but he had always assumed that all the time Chang had spent in his ruse as a Genetic Engineer had endeared him to Montague. Freeman. Of course, Gordon Freeman had once been a real person, a geneticist who didn’t understand how free market worked under a totalitarian government. Chang used a masquer to assume his identity and monitor the progress of Ahnk’s experiments, both those involving him, and the various people from whom he had collected genetic material.

Montague was the first one to patch the hole in the Massassi RNA strands, and thus, became Chief geneticist by default. He knew she was force sensitive from the moment he met her, but he believed her skills to be negligible when coupled with her lack of confidence and timid nature. He doubted she would ever become a warrior. In retrospect, he had no idea.

Ahnk spent many days in that laboratory, with Montague, testing and donating samples, until she completed his first clone. After that, the visits became far less frequent… Ahnk simply had Chang continue to monitor her progress. Which had led to his current dilemma… Chang had actually spent more time with Montague then with him, taking into account the time he spent in moratorium after Kahn had killed him. Montague had actually run the Sith side of the Allied Sith Empire while Chang ran the government and Exel ran the military. It was a bizarre arrangement and one that Ahnk imagined might have led to a bond between the three. He knew even now, Exel worked for the New Order. Meaning he had definitely betrayed him. But what about Chang?

What about Chang?

He sighed, laying down hope against hope that Sabin knew about Chang…





“It’s been a long time, Master.”

Ahnk half smiled, half frowned, shaking his head in disapproval.

“Get up. Come on; get up. I’m not your master anymore, go ahead and stand up.”

She did so immediately, looking down in disappointment.

“I’m sorry, Master. It has been…”

Ahnk’s hand roughly raised her chin, drawing her eyes even with his. He stepped back.

“Enough. Cut it out with the master crap. Call me Ahnk. Call me Andrew. Call me Huck Jim Bob if you like but if you call me master one more time I think I’m going to be sick.”

She nodded.

“I’m sorry Ma… Andrew.”

Ahnk nodded then, gently, stepping past her.

“Better.”

He sat at her desk, and she turned to begin the walk around it. She nudged her head to the side to avoid the bottle of liquor that she found inexplicably floating to the desk, no doubt summoned by her guest.

“Cadinth Sesoma. I’m so glad that even if my loyalty and principles didn’t pass themselves to my officers, my exquisite taste in alcohol was inherited.”

She nodded. As she caught sight of the two glasses floating through the air, she waved her hand dismissively and one of them turned back to the cabinet from whence it came.

“Actually, it was Montague who started me on that stuff…”

Ahnk’s face ran cold as his wife’s name was mentioned.

“Anyway, how is your wife?”

Ahnk shook his head.

”Hell if I know.”

Sabin looked uncertain.

“You’re not together anymore?”

Ahnk sighed in annoyance, shaking his head.

“We never were. After I died, she injected herself with my DNA, knocking herself up, and married me posthumously. I haven’t even seen her since Kahn threw me off that cliff.”

“Oh… I think I’d like that drink now.”

Ahnk waved his hand, and as he drunk his own glass of Sesoma, he retrieved another empty one, filling both and setting the bottle back on the table.

“Anyway, I didn’t come here to talk about Montague.”

She nodded.

“Chang… Master…”

“Ali…”

“I’m sorry… Andrew… I haven’t seen Chang since he delivered me that Nova Cruiser prototype, all those years ago. I didn’t have much contact with him and the Regent, as most of my dealings went through Exel.”

Ahnk nodded, disappointed.

“You think…?”

He quickly shook his head.

“I don’t know what I think. All I know is I got on that ship, and left in two pieces.”

She sighed, and took a big sip of her drink.

“Here’s what happened. I wasn’t there, but I know people who were. They say that once you got over onto the Jenova, Exel told everyone that you were going to kill Xylon and take the Jenova over.”

“And they believed it?”

“They didn’t know what to believe, Ma… Andrew. But when the Massassi moved, they moved. It was assumed that no one was more loyal to you then they. Besides, once they moved, it was either attack the Republic, or have the Republic lay the beat down on them as they sat, trying to clear things up when in reality they didn’t know what was going on.”

Ahnk took a few moments to contemplate. It made sense, and he could see how people could rush to act under that kind of stress. He slowly nodded his head.

“I never knew that they betrayed you, Master. Andrew.”

He waved his hand, dismissively.

“If I thought you’d betrayed me, do you think we’d be having this conversation?”

She grinned.

“You’d want to be sure.”

Ahnk raised an eyebrow.

“Look, thanks for the help. I’d better go before the Sith catch my scent.”

“Wait. Don’t leave yet.”

Ahnk had already stood as he spoke, and had turned to leave when she replied. He looked down at her, pouring another two glasses of Sesoma.

“I don’t know anything, but I do know people. People owe me favors. I can call them in.”

Ahnk shook his head.

“I don’t want you to stick your head in the block for me.”

This time, it was Sabin who shook her head.

“Master, I would lay down my life, for you.”

“I know. But don’t. And don’t call me Master.”

She finished another sip of her drink.

“Go to Coruscant. Register as Chris Daniels. Then wait.”

Ahnk solemnly nodded.

“And, Master… Ahnk… Andrew… don’t trust anyone.”

He waved his hands, taking his Sesoma in a hands-free shot.

“Not even you?”

She merely grinned as he turned and began walking back to Bill.





The cold night air on Talus met his liquor-stained esophagus and slid down his trachea, passing through his bronchial passages with a burning vigor. Ahnk wasn’t sure whether to attribute the painful reaction to the temperature of the air or the particles of ethanol that surely saturated it. Gradually, as he became acclimatized to the sensation and it faded, he decided on the former. Not that it really mattered. It was a minor annoyance, and like all minor annoyances, merely grated for several moments before fading, buried by myriad minutia of minor annoyances, which over time would be similarly forgotten.

All things considered, life was pretty much just a series of minor annoyances and accompanying disappointments. Like earlier tonight.

Ahnk had been hoping that, one way or the other, he would have an answer about Chang. But he didn’t. He just had questions. More questions, in fact, then when he started.

Who was he waiting for? What would they know? How did they know it? And how did he know that he could believe them?

In the end, he wasn’t sure he would ever get any answers… he wasn’t sure that…

And then, he stopped. He looked up, at Bill, standing, and waiting.

“Bill. Run.”

Bill looked around, and didn’t see anything.

“Why? What’s up?”

Ahnk began walking again, closing the distance between them.

“Nevermind. We’re completely surrounded, and if their auras are anything to go by, there are about 8 Sith closing a circle around us.”

Bill pulled Ahnk’s double-bladed lightsaber from his belt, holding it out to Ahnk.
“No, keep it. I’m going to knock two of them down. I want you to run by them, and if they give chase, you’ll only have to fight one or two as you beat out a retreat.”

Bill immediately shook his head.

“Ahnk, you against six Sith. How many of them do you think you can take out before one of them caps you?”

Ahnk looked at him, incredulously.

“Uh… all of them?”

“No, man. You’re good, but not that good.”

“You have an alternative?”

“Yes. To hell with me running, I’ll take one or two of them on, and you can handle however many you need to take out. We’ll both be here if the other needs help. We take them, together.”

Ahnk knew he didn’t have long to consider it, so he made a hasty decision. In the end, it was fortunate that he didn’t really care if Bill died.

“All right. Keep the lightsaber… and don’t forget, it’s got two blades.”

“What about you?”

But before he could answer, the eight sabers of the Sith lit up the night with sinister red glow and ominous crackling hum.

Ahnk arrogantly grinned, dropping his cloak before centering on one Sith and charging him with force speed. The Sith stood his ground, ready to cut Ahnk in two, when the former Sith raised a hand and shoved him roughly to his back. The unexpected force attack left the Sith momentarily stunned and he hesitated, uncertain whether to regain his footing first, or grab his saber. He grabbed his saber, and was turning it up to meet Ahnk when the Fallen Jedi leapt to him with outstretched knee. The two met in a shower of blood and both bodies tumbled from the impact, but when they stopped rolling it was Ahnk who stood, taking the lightsaber from the unconscious warrior and turning to his comrades of the darkside.

Two of them came at him at once, and Ahnk stood his ground, barely, as the two attacked in a diagonal rhythm, one pulling back for momentum as Ahnk blocked the blade of the other, and then repeating with the opposite warrior. Ahnk knew that eventually one of them would break the pattern, so he didn’t wait, taking three steps back instead of the customary one. With a bit of space to consider, the two Sith looked at each other, sidestepped, and jabbed at Ahnk so that he could not possibly block both. So he didn’t. He blocked one, sidestepped, and swung his saber with all due force he could muster. The two Sith fell to the ground, their heads following suit a few seconds later. Ahnk bent down to the two sabers, examining the one cleaved in half by his partner’s deflected slice, before taking the working one in his bad hand and standing.

While Ahnk rerouted blood to the new wound adorning his shoulder, attempting to get as much healing done as possible before the attacks began again, he did a quick… head… count. Two down, three to go. The three were in a semi-circle, although they fanned out so that as they got within lunging distance, they formed a very loose and informal circle. Ahnk focused his mind on the three warriors, igniting the second saber and raising both at a lateral angle from his sternum. Everyone continued to circle, apprehensive, and Ahnk saw the Sith looking at one another and knew it was time.

Two of them charged at once. Ahnk deflected both sabers and had to scramble to block the third. Then they began coming one at a time, sending a pair of slashes at Ahnk and then feigning a third, as another warrior would attack from behind. Their pattern of attack was frighteningly predictable, so Ahnk decided to force their hand again. He finished blocking the first of his pair of attackers, and used the force to roughly shove all three back. He resumed his earlier position of lateral block, and once again, the Sith consulted each other with only silent glances.

They all charged together this time, launching thrusts directly at Ahnk’s head. When the three sabers met in the middle they consulted each other without a word, angling their heads down to level eyes with the ducking warrior below. They merely continued to stare at him, even as he rose. When he drew level with their sabers, he used his sabers to push them up, which toppled their bodies over with momentum, torsos falling off of pelvises, pelvises off of thighs, thighs off of knees, and knees and shins off of ankles. The world continued to spin around Ahnk for a few minutes, but when it slowly began to settle into a solid, stoic state, he smiled, turning to the unconscious warrior and disengaging his lightsabers.

He dropped one of them as he walked towards the fallen Sith, switching the other to his good hand. The grounded warrior was beginning to stir, and Ahnk couldn’t have that. He casually raised his combat boot, dropping it on the warrior’s tibia with sufficient force to provide the satisfactory snapping of the bone. Not going anywhere with his shattered shinbone, the warrior attempted to pull himself backwards with his hands, but Ahnk was faster, of course, leisurely walking until he dropped one knee across the chest of the Sith, tapping his forehead with the emitter end of the lightsaber.

“What do you want from me?”

Ahnk grinned.

“Information. I am going to ask you questions, and you are going to give me answers.”

“And if I refuse?”

“Then I am going to severe your body parts, stopping after each one to give you a chance to reconsider. Let me ask you a hypothetical question, first… how well do you think you could fight with one hand?”

Ahnk’s eyebrow rose as the Sith gave an audible shudder.

“If you’re frightened by my answers, then stop asking scary questions.”

The Sith merely nodded, saying nothing. Ahnk tapped his head again, drawing his attention.

“Who sent you?”

The Sith said nothing. Once again, Ahnk tapped his head.

“I’ll ask you once more, and then I’m taking your left hand. Who sent you?”

“…Darksword! I was sent by Darksword!”

Ahnk smiled at him.

“Thank you. Goodnight.”

And then he raised his fist, driving the lightsaber down through the warrior’s eye and brain. Underneath his knee, the dying warrior gave one final spasm of resistance, and then all six of the warriors who had tested Ahnk had died. Ahnk pulled the lightsaber from the bloody remnants of the warrior’s head, shaking off the loose brain matter and rubbing it across one forearm to wipe away the blood. He stood, ready to rush to Bill’s aid, when the guardsmen disengaged his lightsaber and turned to Ahnk. Ahnk discarded the saber in his hand, and accepted the thrown one from Bill.

“Man. I never thought I would ever in my life fight Sith.”

Ahnk shook his head dismissively.

“I hate to disappoint you, Bill, but you haven’t yet.”

Bill was disappointed as he looked at him, as well as mildly confused.

“They were robots.”

Bill shook his head in disbelief.

“Robots? Freaking robots?”

Ahnk slowly nodded his head.

“They emanate a force signature, and speak without words, but not using the force. And when I threatened to kill that Sith, he shuddered with fear… which is completely unlike the stoic and arrogant Sith warriors I have encountered, but moreover, I felt no fear from him, or any emotion whatsoever. It was like he had no thoughts or feelings at all. When he actually told me who he was sent by, I knew he was a fraud.”

Ahnk walked over to one of the headless bodies. Bill, meanwhile, inspected the one Ahnk had stabbed in the eye.

“They look real.”

“Yes, yes they do. You can make realistic HRDs and you can make HRDs seem like Jedis, but someone did both. That’s a lot of resources devoted to the hope that I would back down… I don’t know who would send fake Sith after me. Only the New Galactic Coalition and the New Order could afford it and know where I am. The New Order would just send real Sith… and what is the logic of the NGC coming after me?”

Bill shook his head, without an answer.

“No Bill. Something is wrong here, something is very wrong. And I’m going to find out.”

Even though he said it; deep down, Ahnk didn’t believe it.