The Rebel Faction

Sluis Van

Warhouse District... the previous evening...

"Sir, I've got the last reports from today's runs here."

The aide entered the room so siletntly that the crime boss nearly shot him through the chest before registering who it was and cursing loudly.

"Thank you." He said when had had calmed down enough to read, taking the datapad and looking over the numbers. In the days following the route from Eriadu the organization had taken to flying twice the number of runs they had previously. It was dangerous - the more ships flying the greater the chances of discovery, but it was neccessary to make up for what had been lost in the LFX attack.

"We seem to have a missing ship here..." He commented. It was not unusual for a ship to fail to report in, sometimes the pilots ran, sometimes they died and their ships never got off the ground, sometimes the ships were grounded, or stolen, or blown to pieces. But it nonetheless irritated the crime boss, who tended to take out his anger on the nearest unimportant individual.

"Yes, sir. It should be coming in anytime now... they ran into some trouble around Clak'dor and got delayed."

"Were they discovered...?"

The aide hesitated.

"Not s'far as we can tell, sir. They didn't use any of the codewords, and they matched what we were expecting. They were cleared by the fringe stop."

The boss nodded, satisfied.

"Good, good... never can be to careful, though." He smiled. "Have the pilot report to me as soon as they land. And tell the crews to unload that ship in a hurry, I want it on the Kessel run tomorrow."

The aide nodded, and was gone. The crime boss turned back to the datapads and looked over the numbers again. It was, he decided, a good day. Save for the delay of the last ship... the Eternity, all had gone very well. Perhaps he would send the crews a bonus for their work today...

He stopped and looked back to the datapad. He didn't remember scheduling the Eternal today. And while it was possible that someone else had swapped the ship with another at the last moment because of a mechanical problem, or whatever, it was unlikely. The boss kept tabs on all the ships, and he didn't know of any being scheduled that were already in the shop...

The aide reappeared.

"Sir, that last transport is setting down outside." The boss swore and jumped up, the datapad clattering to the ground as it fell from his lap.

"STOP IT!" He yelled. "Stop that transport!" The aide looked confused, and the boss realized instantly that he had lost. He had taken to long, should have realized his error ealier.

Just as he ran into the hallway, the PA system crackled to life with a message warning of attack. The boss swore and turned to the aide.

"Ready my ship. Alert everyone to get out of here. We've lost this base."

He was interupted by an enourmous roar - the tank droids had rolled over the first wall and collapsed part of the roof.

"GO!" He yelled, shoving the aide away and running in the opposite direction. If he could get out in time...

A ragtag band of soldiers were running towards the conflict as he ran past, and he immediatly turned and yelled for them to get back.

"It's no use... they're sure to have artillery and air cover. The best you can do is to get out with me now!"

They did, and the group ran past the collapsed warhouse and into the hanger bay. A single freighter sat there, but that would have been to obvious. Surely the enemy had starfighters ready to intercept any escape vehicles...

"We take the subway!" He ordered, leading them into the lift that would carry them to the underground train. As the small vehicle shot away down the magnetic track, the explosion behind them told them that the warhouse's ammo cache had been detonated.

The boss swore loudly and sighed.

"I'll get you back for this, Seti Ashar, if its the last thing I do..."

Clak'dor VII

Downtown District

A pair of running footsteps sounded against the concrete ground, echoeing from the walls that seemed to close in on both sides. The runner glanced over his shoulder and cursed - his pursuers, three men in all black jumpsuits, were closing, and fast. Tearing his eyes from the men, he put on a burst of speed and turned a corner, running now down an even darker alleyway. There were small steps and doors on all sides, but all were heavy ones with no outside handle.

There was only one to go: forward. He kept on running, looking occasionally over his shoulder and spotting the pursuers. One of them, he knew, carried a vibroblade, and the other two were probably armed as well.

He didn't know why they were chasing him, other than that he had seen something that maybe he wasn't supposed to, but he suspected that it had something to do with the datadisk in his pocket.

He had found the device on the counter of the bank and, not finding any markings on it, pocketed it for later examination. Examination that had never taken place, because as soon as he had left the bank the men had begun chasing him.

They were slowing down now, spreading out in a straight line and glaring down the alley. The runner stopped - if the other men had, then there was something ahead. Probably a trap, he thought strickenly.

Cursing again, he ducked into a small alclove under a set of stairs and dragged a bag of trash loosely in front. In this dark, maybe, just maybe, the men would pass by him and he could escape... maybe.

He held his breath as they passed. One of them looked for a long moment at the dark spot, until the man was sure he had been seen and was gathering his courage to leap out and attack, when he moved on. The man under the stairs breathed a sigh of relief and pulled himself tighter under the stairs, unwilling even to breath.

"Hey, boss." He heard the voice, but they were talking in low tones and he couldn't make out any words. "He's back there, under the trash heap."

The other man - obviously the leader of the small group - nodded.

"Okay. You double back and get ready to shake him out. We'll pounce on him."

The second man said nothing, but made his way slowly back towards the hidden man, looking closely under all the stairs and calling, "Come out, come out, wherever you are."

The hider knew immediatly that he was given away, and as the man peeked his head into his alclove, he smashed his fist into that man's mouth, and then brought his other hand around to grip his head and keep him from screaming and alerting the others.

He pulled the man in, and helt the blunt end of a knife stab into his stomach. Reaching down, he grapsed the weapon firmly in one hand and swung it into the man's neck, breaking the windpipe and leaving the man struggling to speak.

The other two were by this time aware of their partner's plight, and came charging. The man, now armed with the virboknife, slashed out once at the two attackers, and they stopped, ducking into combat postures and waving him forward. The man activated the blade and passed the knife to his other hand and nodded, then brougt it back and threw it with all the force he could muster.

The blade burried itself in the chest of the leader, sinking to its handle almost immediatly. He stopped short, shaking, and fell to the ground, the blade in his heart. The second attacker had stopped upon seeing the blade sticking from his friend's chest, and the man took that opperunity to bolt back the way he had come.

The attacker swore and ran after him, but by the time he reached the street the other man was gone. Swearing in half a dozen different languages, he walked back to the bodies and stared at them.

"How did that son of a @#%$ kill two agents? It's unreal."

Shaking his head, he activated his comm. and put the call in to control that the package had been lost. The voice that came back was irritated and harsh.

"The mission is compromised, Nine. And when the mission is compromised..."

The agent gulped.

"The evidence is destroyed." He finished. "I know the rules."

"You failed us."

"Yes, sir."

"You know what must be done."

"Yes, sir."

"Good-bye, Nine."

The comlink went dead.

"Good-bye, sir."

Agent Nine pulled the container from around his neck and extracted the single pill inside. He examined it carefully, considering his options. If he took it now, he would be dead and this would all go away. If he didn't, he would live, but surely be hunted down by the Boss and killed anyway... unless he got away, which was unlikely.
Or, he could give it all up and surrender himself to the mercy of whoever followed the Boss to Clak'dor VII.

Dropping the contained beside the two bodies, he turned and left the scene for the planetary authorities to deal with. It was, he had decided, better to live.

Sullust

Golden Hall Hotel...

"Tell me more about this 'invitation'." Seti said, once more looking at himself in the mirror and cringing slightly. He was not a fan of the colour white, and it was that colour that Colonel Ross had chosen for this night's evening wear.

"It's from a legitimate source. The Sullust Governor is hosting a private dinner tonight, and invites you to attend. He says he would not dream of doing so if you were no on the planet already, but seeing as you are..." The man trailed off.

"Word travels fast about where Seti Ashar is, it seems, Colonel." Seti said, pulling at the cufs of his tuxedo and sighing. It was, he decided, useless.

"It certainly seems that way, sir. But it should be no surprise that the governor knows the whereabouts of one of the most important men in the sector." Seti laughed and walked away from the mirror, standing in front of one of the windows and shrugging.

"I wonder, though, who else knows I'm here?" He asked. Ross shook his head sadly.
"Our security is top-notch, sir. If anything happens, we'll have you out in one piece before you can say 'truth or dare', sir."

"I hope so, Colonel. I shudder to think about a galaxy without Seti Ashar in it." The Colonel laughed and glanced at the holoscreen showing the space out front of the hotel.

"I think your ride is here," He said. "Perhaps you should get going, sir?" Seti nodded and picked up his last item, a small hold-out blaster.

"Good night, Mr. Ross." He said pleasantly, leaving the room and letting the door slide shut before the other man could respond.

By the time he reached the lobby, the limo driver, a short Twi'lek in a dark green uniform and matching hat, had come inside and was waiting patiently for Seti's arrival.

"Mr. Ashar, I presume" He asked as the CEO appeared from the turbolift. The lobby was empty, and he simply nodded. "You're headed to the Governor's Mansion, correct?"

"Yes, that's right." Seti replied, following the Twi'lek out of the building and ducking into the car. "I'll get you there all right, sir." The driver said, shutting the passenger door and moving around the car to the driver's seat.

The limo lifted off smoothly and entered the main traffic stream, moving sometimes with painful slowness through the mass of other speeders and utility trucks. The skies here, Seti noted, were nearly empty of airspeeders. Odd, for any world, but perhaps not so unusual here.

Sullust, homeworld of the Sullustans, the tiny, somewhat cute, creatures that made such excellent pilots and navigators, was once a lush garden world. But in generations past, a harsh nuclear wear between opposing nations on the surface had torn her landscape to pieces, and set off hundreds of active volcanoes. The result was a devastated, nearly inhospitable, landscape.

"I hear there's something up at the Governor’s place tonight," The driver said, snapping Seti from his thoughts. "Some kind of important gathering."

Seti remained expressionless and refused to move, but said, "I'm not sure about that... I was told it was a private dinner for the governor and some select guests."

The driver shrugged. "I dunno, but a lot of the drivers, from this company and a couple others that I got friends in, have been pulled in to ferry people to this place. I got another pickup once I drop you off, close by to the Mansion... didn't want you arriving together, I think. In fact, the Boss told me not to talk to you at all about the others."

Seti was curious now, and leaned forward against the rest separating the passenger and driver's compartments.
"So why did you?" He asked pleasantly.
"Just makin' conversation, you know?" The driver replied, smiling slightly and looking at Seti in the mirror.
"Where you from?" Seti gave the man a lopsided grin and said,
"Commenor. I own a business there."
"Must be a pretty big one if you're here, visiting the Governor and all." He said, not bothering to hide his interest.
"I suppose... got our own defence fleet and everything." The driver's interest was definitely peaked now, and he said,
"LFX Industrial, then." It was not a question, and Seti only nodded.
"Then you would be Seti Ashar." Another nod. "Pleasure to meet you, sir."

The remainder of the drive, only a few minutes more, passed in silence, and when the limo settled onto the ground outside the Mansion, Seti breathed a silent sigh of relief.

Thanking the Twi'lek and slipping him a ten-cred coin for his trouble, he opened the door himself and followed a porter who had appeared from nowhere into the building.

The interior was darkened, all save the room that Seti was lead to. This room was full of people, more people that the CEO had expected, or indeed, wanted to deal with. That and what the driver of the limo had said had him wondering, and he didn't like to be wondering when he was at a gathering like this. The last time it had happened, the host had been assassinated.

Governor Trell's Mansion

"Thank you for your hospitality, Governor." Seti said, relaxing into the chair and closing his eyes. "The meal was excellent. Perhaps the best I've had this year."

The other man laughed lightly and moved to the bar, opening a cuboard and extracting a pair of glasses.

"Thank you, Mr. Ashar, thank you. My chef comes from Corellia... cost me a bundle to hire away from the spaceline she was working for, but worth every penny. As I've found out."

"Indeed, Governor. You'll have to tell me how much you pay her... perhaps I can steal her away from you." The Governor shook his head.

"I'm afraid, Mr. Ashar, that if you want to make an offer to Miss Lee, you'll have to do so without the knowledge of how much I am giving her."

The businessman shrugged.

"Fair enough, I suppose." The Governor nodded.
"Can I offer you a drink?" He asked, reaching into another cuboard and extracting an ice tub and several bottles of various liquids.

Seti nodded.

"Something Alderaani, if you have it." The Governor responded with a flourish and a smile and reached into the cuboard once more.

"Why of course, Mr. Ashar. We have something for everyone, I think." The man brought the two drinks, setting one down on the table in front of the LFX man and smiling again.

"What do you think, Mr. Ashar?" He asked, referring to the luxerious mansion that he called a house. Seti looked around the room, large by any standards, and smiled. To call the mansion impressive would be an understatement. This was...

"Amazing, Mr. Trell. Absolutely amazing." The mansion was certainly that. Situated not far from the city, but on the top of the cliff that the city had found itself on, the massive windows that covered nearly the entire front of the building overlooked a deep gully complete with lava seas and small islands of charred rock.

"Not exactly the most charming of views." The Governor noted, following Seti's gaze to the windows and into the night, where the red lava glowed eerily in the darkness.

"But a beuatiful one, nonetheless, Governor." Seti replied, taking his eyes slowly off the site and sipping from his glass. As he did, his eyes widening and he smiled broadly.

"An Alderaani Mah'ha Ale? There is not much of this left, I am told, Mr. Trell. You must tell me where you got it... I should very much like to purchase some."

The Governor laughed and smiled, almost secretively.

"If I told you, Mr. Ashar, I would have to kill you. In fact, this is the last of it I have, and I doubt that my supplier has any more. I brought this case from Alderaan shortly before the Death Star blew that world up. You're drinking part of history, Seti."

The businessman smiled wryly and nodded, but there was something unsettling about how the man spoke of Alderaan. Almost without passion, as if the destruction of an entire planet was no big deal... even a planet he had been on only days - or weeks - before it was obliterated.

"Alderaan was a beuatiful world, wasn't it, Governor?" He asked, sipping again from the glass and letting the smooth liquid hover in his mouth before swallowing.

"Very," Trell replied, taking a sip from his own glass. "A pity about what happened, though."
"Indeed." Seti replied.

What is it about this man that so unnerves me? He wondered to himself. The man spoke of Alderaan as if it was not a tragedy at all, merely a casualty of war.

And then something clicked in the back of the CEO's mind. Recon Trall had been an Imperial officer, hadn't he? He had been an officer in the Imperial Navy during the reign of Palpatine, and he had seen the destruction of Alderaan as a tremendous victory for his Empire!

Seti shuddered slightly and forced a smile. Imperial habits die hard. He thought, avoiding eye contact with the other man and only half paying attention to the talk going on between them.

Slowly the time passed, and the late night passed into early morning. The governor excused himself for a moment, and Seti turned his gaze to the bottles and cases that lined the walls of this room. Some, he noted, were centuries old. It occured to him to find out where the Governor procured such items, when a strangely familiar shape entered the room.

"Executor?" He hissed at the figure of Ton Karlos. "What the frell are you doing here?"

The Shadow Hand Agent motioned for Seti to be quiet and whispered, "We have to get out of here. Now." Seti hissed in frustration.
"Why?" The Executor raised his eyes to look around and said, "Because Trell is the man. Our man."
The CEO was indigniat now, his own eyes travelling across the empty room.
"What do you mean our man? I didn't even know you were on his mission, Karlos!" The Executor put a finger over his lips and uttered a low curse.
"Trell is the man you've been looking for. Colonel Ross had a suspicious and sent me to watch your back-"
"He could have told me. You scared the hell out of me!"
"-and while I was in the Governor's office, I found files I wasn't supposed to."

He was distracted by the sound of footfalls and cursed again.

"Play it cool. I'll be back." And he was gone. Seti looked to the Governor, his face still wearing the expression he had when Ton Karlos had walked in.

"Something wrong, Mr. Ashar?" Trell asked curiously, looking around the room carefully.

Seti cleared his throat.

"No... nothing wrong. Just a bit tired, is all." Trell glanced at the clock behind the bar and registered surprise.
"And no wonder! Look at the time." Seti did, looking at the clock for the second time and sighing.

"I'll call my hotel. They'll send a ride." Trell shook his head.
"No, no. We'll have none of that! I'll have you put up here for the night. It's the least I can do, after I've kept you this long!"
"No... it's quite all right Mr. Trell. Colonel Ross would be more than happy to send a ride along." But Trell was not listening. He had walked to the doorway and was now yelling fot the housekeeper to ready one of the bedrooms.
"Nonesense, Mr. Ashar! We would be glad to have you for the night-"

He ws cut off by the chiming of the door, and Trell, knowing that the housekeeper would be busy readying the room, cursed under his breath and walked out.
"Who could that be, at this hour?"

Seti heard the opening of the door and the exchange of voices.

"No... I'm afraid Mr. Ashar is not here... he left with a Colonel Ross an hour or so ago..."

There was a pause, and when the Governor spoke again his voice was harassed.

"I will not be called a liar, sir... Ashar is not here, I saw him leave an hour or more ago with my own eyes... No, for the last time, he is not here!"

There was the sound of the door slamming shut, a shout cut off, and the Governor walked back into the sitting room, apologizing profusely.

"Excuse the interuption, please... now, where were we? Ah, right, a room..."

Seti stared coldy at the Governor and said,

"I'm not here, am I?" The blood seemed to drain from Trell's face.

"You heard... What you must understand, Mr. Ashar, is that those men..."

"I understand enough, Trell." Seti said cooly. "I understand everything, actually. Very well, now."

"Mr. Ashar, please, let me-"

The man was cut off by a deafening roar and the crash of metal. A smoke cloud billowed from the doorway and the Governor bolted from the room.

Seti, ignoring the man and turning the doorway, shouted,

"What the frell is the meaning of this?" Three men, Ton Karlos with them, stood in the doorway to the sitting area.

"Which way?" One of them asked, and followed Seti's finger to the exit the Governor had taken.

"Trell is Bahkum Nostra, the criminal mastermind behind the Sluis Van base we raided!"

Ton replied, coming to stand beside Seti and nodding towards the other man.

"This man just came to see Ross earlier tonight and spilled everything. Bahkum was behind the murder of Wes Yono as well."

"But I thought... Bror Hatta...?"

"A pawn," Ton replied. "He's dead now. Turns out that whole porno house attack was just a cover for his murder. Same guy as who killed Yono."

"Frell, Ton. Why didn't we pick this up earlier?"

The Executor was saved from a response by a flurry of laserbolts and a scream. The informat fell, his chest smoking, and both Seti and Ton ducked as another volley cut across where they had been standing.

Trell stood in the doorway, the dead body of the other agent sprawled behind him. He held that man's blaster rifle in both hands and advanced into the room carefully.

"So now you know, Ashar." He said. "You know everything about me. Except why." He smirked and hefted the rifle, spraying shots at where Ton was hunkered and forcing him to dodge.

The Executor ran along the wall, and the Governor/Criminal sprayed fire after him, shattering the cases and bottles of alcohal as he went.

"Waste of a good supply." Seti mumbled, dodging a blast as Nostra switched direction and sprayed fire at him. "Tell me why, Nostra." He yelled, ducking behind the bar and searching for a weapon in vain.

The criminal smiled.

"You'd like to know, wouldn't you?" Seti shook his head. This man was insane! "Yes... you'd like to know..."

There was silence for an instant, save for the careful steps of the criminal. And then the whine of a single blaster, a muffled yell, and the thud of a falling body. The blaster rifle landed in front of Seti, and he picked it up carefully. Peering around the bar, blaster in hand, he spotted the body of Nostra, a neat hole burned in his throat, and the man holding the still smoking blaster.

"Thank you... I think." Seti said, getting up and holding the blaster rifle carefully. "Who are you?"

The figure smiled carefully.

"I am the one they call Dragon. I once worked for Bahkum Nostra, but he was a fool. When he began to put undue effort into pursuing your death, I decided he was no longer worthy. I waited until now to kill him so that I would have an excuse."

Seti nodded slowly.

"You could kill me now, you know." He said. The other man nodded.

"I could. But that would only serve Nostra's goals. You have done nothing to me, and I kill only when I need to, and when I am paid to. Neither of those applies to you, so I have no reason to see you die. But nor shall I prevent others from killing you."

The CEO smiled wryly.

"Interesting ethos, Mr... Dragon. If you ever are in need of a more... respectable... job..."

"I'll keep you in mind, Mr. Ashar." And then the figure was gone, disapearing into the house.

"Interesting evening..." Seti commented, stepping over the body of the former-criminal, former-governor, new-corpse, and frowning. "I think I'll need to speak to Colonel Ross about these 'invitations'..."