Corellia

[Moon Knight]

Marc was a little embarrassed. He wasn't sure why he had assumed that Eris knew what ShadowFett did for a living. "The organization is too well equipped for a frontal assault, and there's too much risk of civilian casualties that way. ShadowFett is a captain in Core Worlds Security and has jurisdiction on Corellia. It's possible Goruba's people will be fully cooperative and let me poke around, but somehow I doubt that will be enough."

 

He opened one of his belt pouches and pulled out a small droid the size of his palm, flipping her on. "Flirt, this is Darth Eris."

 

The small droid's eyes lit up and it activated a tiny repulsor lift to float near Marc's shoulder. "Hello, mistress Eris!" The feminine voice was enthusiastic. "If I may say so, you're beautiful! I always thought that Fett--"

 

Marc cut her off with an annoyed flick. "Eris, Flirt is a positronic processor. She makes up for her personality by being able to slice any system given enough time," he explained. The speeder was now getting close to Goruba's complex. "You'll take Flirt and enter first, find someplace out of the way for her to plug in and get to work. I'll enter after a few minutes and start inquiring through official channels -- I'll make up something about an inspection or something. If you want to start poking around once Flirt is at work, you're welcome to. Between the three of us, we should be able to find something Goruba doesn't like. Best case scenario, we find enough that we can just tell CoreSec and they do the dirty work for us."

 

That was a bit of a lie. That wasn't Marc's best case scenario at all, even if it was the safest one that still accomplished most of his goals.

 

Moon Knight parked the speeder outside the large entertainment complex. "We'll say on comms the whole time. I'll keep you on the feed even during my formal investigation. Keep on guard -- you never know what Goruba's people will do to protect his interests."

[Emily]

Eris grinned at the little droid. That'll make things much easier, indeed, she mused. The thought crossed her mind that it might be a good investment to get a droid of similar capabilities herself. As for the plan, it seemed straightforward, but allowed them to play to their strengths. Even if things went sour and they were discovered, they shouldn't have too much trouble.

 

As they pulled up to the complex, Eris pocketed Flirt and hopped out of the speeder. "Sounds good. I'll keep you updated on my progress as well."

 

As she approached the complex, she took mental stock. Her lightsabers she slipped into the special anti-scanner sleeves that were sewn into her boot linings. Her outfit was her standard placarded skirt and top, which would do well enough in this environment for her to fit the role of a patron. The material was rich enough to make people think she had some money--enough to gamble with anyway--but not too nice that she would stand out. She shook her hair loose so that it cascaded around her shoulders and strode forward to the entrance.

 

Once there, she greeted the bouncer, who let her in without comment. She passed through security with no problems; she had long ago purchased a stock of fool-proof IDs that would withstand much more scrutiny than they were receiving here. Flirt posed a moment of concern, but an application of the Force made the guards watching the scanners believe the little droid was nothing more than a personal datapad. "Enjoy your time, miss," the human security guard said, handing back her ID. She smiled at him, and was pleased to notice that his eyes followed her all the way through the next doorway.

 

The main entryway was the bright and lavish display of colors and rich materials that one would expect from a Hutt, especially one rich enough to put out such high bounties. As she took in the room, her eyes kept a sharp lookout for a datajack while she kept a rather vacant expression of enjoyment on her face. "Not much here," she muttered so that only Fett would hear. "Give me a few minutes."

 

The next fifteen minutes Eris spent flitting from one entertainment activity to the next. She ordered a drink at the bar and flirted with the bartender. She placed several bets and lost two out of three times. She sat at a table and enjoyed the music. But she didn't seen any opportunities to plug in Flirt. All the access panels were well hidden. Finishing her drink, she rose. "I just need the ladies room," she said to an admirer who had been trying to flirt very awkwardly with her for the past few minutes.

 

Once in the refresher, she withdrew a remote link device that she had bought fairly recently on the extranet. As she had guessed, there was a computer system in the refresher that was little more than a vending machine, but it would be connected with the rest of the system. Inserting the device, she turned and entered a refresher stall and pulled out Flirt. "Time for you to get to work, Flirt," she said. "Remote link access code YHI6783HIDKSA."

[Moon Knight]

Once he had confirmation that Flirt was going to work, Marc left the speeder and walked purposefully into the complex. Whatever else you could say about Mandalorian armor, it certainly drew some attention in a place like this where it was uncommon. It could also be the fact that he was carrying a small arsenal. He was of course stopped at the door as a result -- the building had business reasons to keep their clientele feeling safe.

 

Marc flashed ShadowFett's police ID. "CoreSec business. Take me to your security room," he said.

 

The guard hesitated for a moment, but accepted the proof of identification. "Sure, Captain Fett." He pulled his commlink, "Let me call ahead."

 

Marc put a hand on his arm before he could do so. "Just take me there," he said. Chances were, they knew he was there anyway -- that was the disadvantage of the official approach. There was little doubt they would accordingly take action to conceal anything illegal. But the less prepared they were for him, the more likely something would slip through.

 

As they entered the security room he took a good look around. A group of 4 casually-dressed aliens were watching probably 30 monitors with feeds to various parts of the complex. Marc noticed that a few of the monitors were blank. He didn't notice Eris on any of them, which was good. The aliens looked up to see him enter, but didn't say anything. They knew better than to risk starting a conversation that could otherwise have been avoided and might lead to them revealing something.

 

Moon Knight spoke to 2277 within his helmet. "You familiar with systems like this?" he asked. The words wouldn't be audible outside his helmet, but Eris would hear them.

 

The droid immediately answered. "Yes, Master. It is fairly standard."

 

Outwardly Marc pretended he was studying one of the screens. "They probably disabled some of these when they realized I was coming. How do I turn them back on?" After 2277 had indicated the solution, he leaned over the control panel and reached out to flick a switch.

 

The nearest alien quickly caught his hand. "Don't touch anything."

 

"Why not?" Marc asked. "I'm looking for someone and they could be anywhere."

 

"Those areas are off-limits to the public."

 

Time to see if they would call his bluff. "Who said the person I'm looking for isn't an employee?"

 

"I'm sorry, Captain," the security man who had shown Marc in said, approaching from the doorway. "You're going to need a warrant to get back there."

 

And they did. Marc swore under his breath. The official way wasn't getting very far. He made mental notes based on the screens he could see, lining everything up with the public schematics he'd downloaded and what the bounty hunters had told him. He wasn't going to give up yet, but hopefully Eris and Flirt turned up something soon in case he stalled. Getting a warrant would take too long -- he had to find another way.

[Emily]

Flirt was a fast worker. "I'm in, Mistress Eris!" she cheerfully announced about a standard minute later. "Full access to their entire security grid. To gain access to the files we're looking for, though, will require direct access from Goruba's personal computer."

 

"Good work, Flirt," Emily replied. "Transfer control." She turned on her datapad and pulled up an interface program as Flirt busily transferred system control to the device. This was the most difficult part of the process to do without someone noticing, so she was counting on Fett to keep the guards distracted. A few seconds later and it was done. Flirt logged out of the remote link device now that it was no longer needed to have a direct interface, and Emily slipped the droid back into her pocket. With the datapad running, she could now turn off and on various security measures with the touch of her finger, allowing her to pick her own path to Goruba's office. Once there, Flirt could download copies of the data they needed on Goruba--enough to expose his operation to CoreSec and to give Marc the closure he needed about his parent's deaths.

 

The Force whispered to her as she began heading towards Goruba's office, turning off cameras one by one and opening security doors as she went. It spoke of tension and an underlying strain surrounding their task here. This might yet end in violence. If it did, Eris was ready.

[Moon Knight]

"You're delaying a process that is intended to help you, believe it or not," Marc answered. "I can get a warrant, but I think if the fugitive is here and not working for you, she may be incredibly dangerous to your organization."

 

The guard gave a smile that ended up being half sneer. "I think we can handle it."

 

"Uh, sir?" one of the three aliens watching the cameras said. "We've just lost control of the cameras. It's like someone hacked in and rerouted all control to an exterior system."

 

Marc shrugged. "If you can handle it, I suggest you do so. Considering how quickly she overwhelmed your security measures, though, I somehow doubt you're as in control as you think," he said, a bit smugly. "She's ruthless. She can turn the turrets and all other defenses on you at will, and I believe she'll do it. I've been following her for a while. I can track her."

 

The security guard sighed. "Alright, fine. Come along, but you stay with us."

 

Moon Knight nodded and quickly drew his assault rifle, heading through the doorway. "If I know Frost, she's looking for a payday. Do you have a vault?"

 

"This way," the security guard said, running off down the corridor, Marc just behind him. He took a few turns, including one through a doorway that wasn't on the public map Marc had downloaded. The floor sloped downwards and he quickly realized they were below ground level. They soon arrived at a thick, well-sealed door with redundant electronic and physical locks. "Door's still shut, there's no way she got in."

 

Marc nodded. "You're sure there's no other way into the vault?"

 

The guard scoffed. "No way. These locks aren't for nothing."

 

"What's above and below it? Could a lightsaber get through it?"

 

"...Maybe." The guard turned to the others that had come with them. "Split up. I want every surface connected to the vault guarded!"

[Emily]

Eris grinned as she made her way quickly through the hallways, using her control program to shut off cameras one at a time and open locked doors. She could hear Fett misdirecting the security forces, giving her the time she needed to get the info they wanted, and keeping their eyes away from any alerts that the system was being compromised. Consequently, she arrived in Goruba the Hutt's office in only a few minutes. She triggered the system into thinking she had access, and the door slid open.

 

The place was more of a luxury lounge than an office, Emily thought as she looked around. But there was a massive Hutt-sized desk off to the right with a computer on it. Emily quickly stepped over and plugged Flirt into the datajack. Once Flirt was in the system, Emily began to browse through Goruba's files. They needed something that incriminated the Hutt...

 

Suddenly, she saw something. "Goruba, you naughty boy," she said softly. "Records of assassination orders? Flirt, copy all of these files."

 

"Anything for you, Mistress!" Flirt chirped cheerfully.

 

Time was ticking, and as Flirt copied the files, Emily kept looking for something a bit closer to home--records of what had happened to Marc Spector and his family. She ran a search on the Spector name and had Flirt copy all the results. There was no time to look through them now, but hopefully there would be something. "Alright, Flirt, we've been here too long already. Erase the signs that we've been here and let's go. We have what we need."

[Moon Knight]

Marc was encouraged by what Eris and Flirt were saying. It seemed that Eris had proven herself not only willing to help him, but quite adept at doing so. He'd really had no guarantee that either was the case, and had initially planned on going in solo. Either way, assassination records, as long as he could prove that they were real, would be a huge black mark on Goruba's record. CoreSec would have sufficient evidence to move in and shut down most of the operation, and Goruba himself would end up locked in a legal battle for a while at least. With any luck, he'd be out of the game for a long time. As for the bounty on Marc's head, if it was a Guild bounty they would drop it to save face.

 

It looked like they were in pretty good shape. It was time to pull out.

 

"Nice work," he said over comms. "We'll meet back outside as soon as I figure out what to tell these guys."

 

The security guard he was with was suddenly pointing a blaster at Marc. "Except you won't be going anywhere. You're a dead man."

 

Marc looked at the guard quizzically, double checking to confirm that he hadn't accidentally put his last words on speaker. "What are you talking about?"

 

The guard smiled smugly. "We got wise when you split us up and started monitoring your communications. We're onto you and your little data heist. You're not even really ShadowFett, are you?"

 

Marc had his hands up. "Marc Spector, actually."

 

The man seemed perplexed. "I haven't the slightest idea who that is."

 

Suddenly Marc hit his repulsor pack and went flying backwards away from the guard, bowling over one of the other that had stayed with them. He twisted in flight around a corner and the guards soon pursued. "Eris, they're onto us and they have your location. Get out if you can." Having dropped his assault rifle, he pulled a vibroblade and a sonic pistol and waited for a moment for the guards to charge the corner. With three-on-one odds, they soon did, making the turn wide enough to give them a clear shot at him with their blaster pistols.

 

He was ready. A concussion grenade fired from his right gauntlet struck and detonated, and all three fell unconscious or dead. Since he'd told them his name, though, he couldn't take chances, and he shot each of them once to make sure they'd never get up. Fett has a lot of tech at his disposal, I can see why he's so hard to stop, Marc thought. This armor's as much of a weapon as the Death Scythe. He would need to make good use of it, too, if he was going to get out of here alive.

[Emily]

Eris got a bad feeling through the Force a split second before Fett was attacked. "Kriff!" she cursed under her breath. At least she felt fairly sure that Goruba's men didn't think she was a Force-user. They'd expect her to be able to handle herself, but her skills might still give her an edge. For example, the fact that several goons were about to break into the office.

 

Time to disappear, she thought with a grin.

 

There was a bang and the door burst open. "Hands up!" one of the security guards, a tall scarred human holding an illegal model of a blaster shouted. But they checked themselves when they saw the room was empty. "Come out wherever you are! Come out with your hands up! We don't wanna hurt you, lady!"

 

It was too simple, really. So few guards were trained to look up. She almost hadn't needed to use the Force to bend light rays around her and make her functionally invisible. As it was, when she dropped on the first man they never saw her coming. Using a touch of Force-enhanced speed, she flipped the human around and he hit the ground hard, out cold. A Force-shove threw the second against the wall with a metallic clunk, and by then, she had already dodged the third guard's hastily aimed shot and knocked him out with a roundhouse kick.

 

Emily wasted no time. She melted back into the shadows and darted through the door, heading not for the exit, but for Fett's last known location. She could avoid being seen if she wished, and had spent many long hours amusing herself and practicing her assassin skills on the Shadow's Gambit. Getting herself out would be easy. Getting Fett out, however, might be more of a challenge.

[Moon Knight]

Word of a firefight spread quickly and alarms started going off. Civilians were evacuated from the premise and the security force was scrambled. Comms went out to Goruba's mercenary assets in the area. A Hutt knew how to protect his investments -- Marc didn't have long to get out before he was buried in a no-win situation against insurmountable odds, Moon Knight or not. He grabbed his assault rifle, preparing himself.

 

On one hand, he rather liked having the excuse to cut his way through some of the people that were responsible for the murder of his parents and his long exile. On the other hand, if he died while doing it, it would sort of defeat the purpose.

 

So he moved quickly. Calling up the map of the facility, he took off down the hall. The security forces would take time to coalesce on his position, and he could confuse their efforts by becoming a moving target. He rounded a corner and saw three men running towards him. He immediately opened fire with his rifle and one of them fell. The other two managed to get off startled shots, but they didn't take the time to aim -- a fatal mistake in a fatal confrontation. Marc fired again and closed the remaining distance, kicking the third one's legs out from under him before firing down at him as well.

 

If they were smart -- and he had to assume they were -- they would set up barricades and fortify positions between him and the exit. He checked his map and improvised a bit. He took an abrupt turn and opened a door to a stairwell. He'd been hoping that there would be space up the center of the room for him to use his repulsor pack to ascend the levels rapidly, but it was too narrow. He turned on his penetrating radar and started climbing the old fashioned way. It was kind of odd, physically exerting ShadowFett's body. The man was fit at a level that Marc had worked hard to reach but had never achieved in his lifetime. He hadn't thought climbing flights of stairs in full armor would have been as easy as it was, and was starting to appreciate the difference between rich kid and pilot turned pirate and vigilante and professional soldier.

 

Naturally, stairwells were places that his opposition would use as well to get their forces into position as quickly as possible. Marc heard a door open and saw with his penetrating radar the wireframes of several men entering a level above him. He took a step back and launched nothing less than a thermal detonator at what would be the floor beneath them. It exploded on impact, a brilliant white sphere of destruction disintegrating the floor, the doorway, the surrounding stairs, and most of the security squad. Its support removed, some of the other stairs immediately collapsed in the wake of the detonation.

 

Marc fired his repulsor pack and flew through the gap, now two levels above ground floor, trading his assault rifle for a vibroblade -- or, what ShadowFett passed off for a vibroblade, a Mandalorian weapon that was weighted a bit differently. There were still two surviving opponents, their eyes dazzled by the explosion, and he sliced through them on his way past.

[Emily]

Emily moved quickly through the facility, following Fett's signature in the Force. Interestingly, it was clear to her that it was entirely not Fett, but Marc, who was completely in control right now. But there wasn't time to dwell on it. Keeping a low profile, she slipped past guards, unnoticed in the chaos despite the fact that they were looking for her. She came across Marc's first victims not much later, and was able to follow the trail he left easily.

 

The Force whispered a warning and without hesitation she leapt straight up in the air, using the Force as a springboard as several blaster bolts lanced out beneath her. She landed and spun on her heels, realizing she had just walked into the perfect kill zone. Even her talents weren't enough to make her completely invisible. She gave a mental shrug. So much for the easy way, she thought nonchalantly. With a tug of the Force, her lightsabers came to her hands, and with a double *snap hiss*, two blades bathed the room in red and silver. She saw several of the guards blanch at the sight, and allowed an evil grin to cross her face. "You boys messed with the wrong woman tonight," she said.

 

A finger spasmed on a finger and Eris leapt into action. Her lightsabers were extensions of her body, instruments of her will, and she had no qualms or morals to hold her back. If these men were going to stand in her way, they were going to pay the price. It didn't take long before they all lay dead on the floor, smoke curling up from cauterized wounds.

 

Eris pressed on.

 

***

 

Meanwhile, the front of the facility was under it's own attack. A monstrous dog-like beast the likes of which no one on this planet had ever seen was tearing up the outer defenses. It seemed to sense when the heavy blast door was going to close and seal off the facility, and it managed to slide inside right before it shut. The hall was bathed in blood of many species as the monster continued tearing its way deeper into the facility with a bloodthirsty growl.

[Moon Knight]

Moon Knight was almost out. The guards would be much more sparse up here, as they would be focused on blocking conventional paths to the exits. As far as they knew, he couldn't do much damage above ground floor, so they could wait him out. He had originally intended to just find a window to make his exit and use his repulsor pack to regulate his fall, bypassing most of their defenses, but there were two problems with that plan -- they were setting up a perimeter around the building, and all of this was way too overt.

 

Marc didn't care too much about ShadowFett's reputation within the police force. Frankly, he would have preferred that Fett focus on being Moon Knight without all the red tape that came with being a cop. After all, hadn't Yuusuke left FLEA behind when he took up the mantle? But he did at least understand that he was taking over Fett's body and if he could do some damage control, it would be worth it. That meant no calling on Fett's ship for an extraction, and if possible, limit the number of individuals who identified him visually and lived. So far, the only one that had checked his ID was dead, and the armor while distinctively Mandalorian did not uniquely identify him beyond a doubt.

 

But for a real cover up and a clean escape they would need to not have to worry about cameras.

 

His thoughts were interrupted as another guard team tracked him down. A boost from his repulsor pack took him clear over their initial volley of blaster fire and he landed among them, using a combination of blade work and his wrist laser to take them down in about four seconds. One of them managed to get a hit on his back, but the armor handled it fine. It would take more than that to stop him.

 

"Eris, it's time to make a clean getaway," he said. Meanwhile he picked another stairwell and started ascending again, heading for the roof. "You still have full security access, right? See how many cameras you can shut off so they lose track of us. Not sure how much Flirt got you, but if you can get into their security database and erase some data, they won't be able to prove we were ever here. I'm going to make my way to the roof. My repulsor pack can get me over their perimeter, but that solution doesn't work for you unless you don't mind calling in your ship and risking having it IDed."

[Emily]

Pretty soon the guards would wise up to her location. Fett's comm came in and she abandoned all pretense of stealth, knowing that they were most likely still monitoring their comms. "Copy that. Get out however you can and I'll meet you on the other side."

 

As she moved, she pulled out Flirt. "You heard the man," she told the little droid brain. "Let's go with a system-wide blackout, and then erase all data from the past, oh, say, hour. Focus on Fett. It doesn't matter if I'm IDed or not." Fett was the one with the reputation to protect. Eris was a Sith lady; frankly, to the authorities, this might as well be her MO, and there was nothing they could do about it. The wiser ones might even be relieved that she hadn't done more damage. The Sith were infamous for wanton slaughter and mass destruction.

 

Flirt got to work enthusiastically. She had gotten into the system enough that it didn't take her too long, and she was able to bypass the new lockdowns without much difficulty. While the droid worked, Emily kept moving. She had an excellent way to get out, and zeroed in on the sense of gleeful slaughter through the Force. Two minutes later, she arrived in a former pleasure den just as Roe'gall finished tearing a security guard in half with his jaws. The tuk'ata yipped joyfully when he saw her and energetically disembowled the final guard in the room.

 

Eris couldn't help but smile at his enthusiasm, despite the gore. "Alright, time to go, Roe'gall." She swung herself up onto his back. Through the Force, they were practically of one mind. They had worked on this type of combat for many hours, but this was the first time they had had a chance to employ it in an actual fight. With a bound, they leapt forward and raced through the hallways.

 

Flirt chirped. "All done, mistress! They won't have any computer data on Master Fett or yourself and will have to rely on eyewitness accounts. Unfortunately I can't delete those." She sounded disappointed.

 

"No problem. Good work, Flirt. Stay in the system until Fett's clear, do a final delete and then log out of the system."

 

Roe'gall paused in his headlong rush to bite a guard in two while Eris cleaved through two more with her lightsaber. Her other blade wove a defensive screen around the two of them. With another snarl, Roe'gall crashed through a large window and out onto the grounds. Emily guided him with her mind to the weakest spot in the perimeter. From there, it was wholesale slaughter, Sith lade and Sith monster working in tandem to carve a chunk out of the lines. A few minutes later they were clear and running full speed away from the compound and into the city.

 

As her adrenaline ebbed a little with the knowledge that they only now had to loose any pursuers, Emily realized she hadn't come through unscathed. Her thigh throbbed with a nasty blaster burn, and another blaster bolt had sheared through the cloth of her left sleeve, leaving the skin blistered but not too bad. Roe'gall was favoring his back right paw a bit from it getting caught on the sharp edge of someone's armor, but otherwise his thick hide had protected him from anything else.

 

They zigzagged a bit and Emily commed Fett. "You make it out? Marc?"

[Moon Knight]

Now for the hard part, Marc thought as he reached the doors that would put him out on the roof. Goruba's men had gotten wise to his plan, either by picking up on his conversation or based off his movements they had been able to observe before Flirt locked out the cameras. He got a read on the situation with his penetrating radar. He'd given the security forces enough of a chase that they hadn't been able to mobilize a large force on the roof, but it was still a contingent that could easily overwhelm him if he committed to a sustained firefight. He still had two concussion grenades though and he intended to use them. Hopefully it would be enough.

 

Moon Knight kicked open the door and opened fire, trying to center the two explosives on the groupings of men arrayed against him. They immediately returned fire even while the grenades were in flight. Marc took three hits immediately -- two center of mass, and one grazed his hip in a gap that his armor didn't cover. Pain flared but he ducked and rolled as the grenades detonated and the incoming fire was greatly reduced. He turned towards the closest edge of the building and triggered his repulsor pack. There was no issue of maximum flight ceiling -- a repulsorlift could function as far as six planetary diameters from the surface of a world with Coruscant's gravity. He immediately gained some elevation, making the shots by the battered security force even more difficult.

 

He didn't expect the airspeeder, though. Swinging around the building was a closed-top speeder crewed by three with two mounted swiveling turrets. If they were allowed to get a bead on Marc, he knew he was toast, Mandalorian battle armor or not. But he refused to admit he was outmatched. "2277, make sure this hits!" he urged Fett's droid through his helmet link, then fired the backpack-mounted guided miniature concussion missile Fett used in situations such as these. Indeed, the missile seemed off course as well and the speeder pilot swerved to avoid it, but Fett's droid copilot, monitoring the situation as always, took control of the warhead and managed to get it to strike the side of the speeder with a last-second correction. Marc doubted it would destroy the armored airspeeder entirely, but at the very least he knocked it off course.

 

Blasting through the open air where it had been, Marc rocketed away from Goruba's installation at top speed for about six seconds, then descended rapidly until he joined low-altitude speeder traffic. It must have turned some heads, but it would obfuscate any attempt to track him. A moment later, he landed in an alley somewhere. "Yes, I'm out," Marc responded to Eris, then allowed himself to collapse against the wall to catch his breath. That was way too close, he thought. One wrong move and I was dead for sure. He winced and examined his injury. It wasn't horrible, but it would limit his mobility a bit until he got a few hours of bacta treatment. He started opening belt pouches, trying to remember where Fett kept his disinfecting spray and bandages. Soon he found them and dressed the wound. "I'm a bit over a klick away with an injury. Don't suppose you can bring the speeder and pick me up?"

[Emily]

It took a minute, but Marc answered the comm. "On my way," Emily answered.

 

She briefly considered just swinging by on Roe'gall, but the tuk'ata was full of the adrenaline brought on by violence, and she didn't want to risk him injuring Fett, even accidentally. So she urged Roe'gall to pick up speed and they raced through the side streets and back alleys, guided by the Force to the Shadow's Shine. Once there, she dismounted and gave Roe'gall an affectionate rub. "You did great today," she told him. "But I gotta go right now."

 

She left him at the ship and grabbed a hired speeder. It didn't take her long to find Fett. He was in an alley off a main road, outside a warehouse of some sort. She slowed down as she saw him and lowered the speeder to the ground. Once Fett was in, she sped off again. "That was a good fight," she said with a smile.

[Moon Knight]

Marc scowled beneath ShadowFett's helmet. "I went in there spoiling for a fight, but once one started I nearly got killed. It was reckless trying to fight through a Hutt organization." What's worse, he was fighting with a borrowed body. Getting himself killed in a search for vengeance was one thing, but getting Fett killed was irresponsible. Not to mention the danger he'd put Eris in.

 

"You didn't deserve to get dragged into that, I apologize. Nevertheless, you did very well. Let's send a copy of the data we found as an anonymous tip to CoreSec. When it gets out, at the very least my name should be cleared." Hopefully Goruba's organization would take a large hit, but it always seemed difficult to hurt these sorts of people. You could fine them, you could pin some of them with jail time, but they always found ways to work around it. Unfortunately, Marc didn't have the time or resources to make sure the job got done all the way. At least he could rest knowing he'd done what he could.

 

"In the meantime, we should probably get off Corellia," he added. "If Goruba has any idea who hit him, you can bet he'll have people after us."

[Emily]

She tossed her head at his apology. "No need to apologize to me. I rarely get mixed up in situations like that anymore. It's a nice change."

 

When he mentioned leaving Corellia, however, Emily raised an eyebrow. "Not so fast, Spector. We're not leaving until we deal with what really brought us here. Fett's awfully sick and tired of you and your other Moon Knights asserting your will and dominating his body. Can't say I'd like it very much myself."

 

They pulled up to the Shadow's Shine. She didn't know where Fett had parked his ship, but she could always drop him off. Before Marc could climb out of the speeder, though, she put a hand on his chestplate and drove a wedge of the Force through his mind. It was easier this time to figure out what she was doing, and to separate Spector from Fett, but the other Moon Knight seemed determined to hold on. She had to resort to being a little rougher, and tore the final connection apart completely. A quick mental scan told her that Marc may still be one of the dominant personalities, but he shouldn't be able to take over Fett again.

 

The deed done, she opened her bicolored eyes and then hopped out of the speeder. Reaching into her pocket, she tossed Flirt over to the Mandalorian. "You wanna take the speeder or should I drop you off somewhere?"

[Moon Knight]

ShadowFett took a deep breath in and let it out when Eris finished her work. All in all, Marc had done well in Goruba's facility. There had been many great Moon Knights over the millennia, and although he was the first Mandalorian, they were verde an -- warriors all. Not just any of them could have made it out of that complex, though. There were good reasons to not take on a Hutt's organization, especially one as affluent and powerful as Goruba.

 

As he caught Flirt, Mand'alor enjoyed a moment of relative silence as Marc joined the company of Isolder and Hakusho as personalities he could once again suppress. Just to make sure she didn't do any damage to his kovid, Fett reviewed what he could remember of Marc's life. He found that the memories were thankfully still intact. Eris had needed to be forceful to deal with Marc, but she clearly had fine control over her abilities.

 

Unfortunately, they weren't even nearly done. The silence was fleeting as the thousands of other voices started to filter through, made quieter by the expanse of time but still persistent. If they continued like this, it would take years to silence them all.

 

"I'll take the speeder," Fett answered, his voice again his own. "We'll talk in orbit."

 

Once she disembarked, Moon Knight flew the short distance between Eris' ship and his, paid for the speeder and asked it to return itself, then headed back aboard the Justice. Soon he was headed for deep space....

[Karys Narat iv-Adas]

Aboard Emily's ship a beeping was going off. This was caused by Karys placing in the correct com frequency and encrypting it, contacting Emily as per instruction upon completion of his task.

 

The message consisted of (and could only be opened and read by her):

 

''Greetings my mistress, I have completed the task you have set me and I also thought you should know...some fool has put a 1 million credit bounty on all Force-Users, only to be claimed if they are dead. So be careful out there. I'll discuss it further once we meet but until then I await further instructions.''

[Emily]

Emily shook herself. She was tired. It had been a long day, and she hadn't slept in a while. But life wasn't about to slow down.

 

When she made her way to the cockpit of the Shadow's Shine, the message light was blinking on the comm. During the preflight checks, she listened to Karys' message. I really should probably dedicate some more time to him instead of constantly pushing him off to the side, she thought fleetingly. She didn't respond to the message right away, however. She needed to talk with Fett first and figure out what he was thinking about for the next step in this process. She wondered how long he was planning that this partnership continue; after all, she had been in his head and she knew how many Moon Knights there had been who were crowding his thoughts. If she had some time during this next trip, she might want to do some more research. There hypothetically could be a way to silence more than one at a time.

 

When everything was green, she lifted off and headed into space. Once she spoke with Fett, she'd contact Karys.

[Moon Knight]

((Yay, we're back. ))

 

Moon Knight reflected on the journey that had brought them here briefly. It had been a bit of a whirlwind. He was normally very collected, relentless, as he restlessly pushed towards his goals, but with the clash of personalities in his mind vying for control, it felt almost frantic. He moment of silence he had enjoyed when Marc was put back in his place was only a small relief. It was as though the torrent of water had subsided but the persistent dripping of its remnant threatened his sanity.

 

And there were just too many Moon Knights to continue silencing them one at a time.

 

He contacted Eris. "You've done good work so far," he commended her. "But we need a change of strategy. You're the one with the mystical knowledge -- is there any way we could silence all the remaining voices with one final cut? What would it take to isolate just what we want to keep?"

[Emily]

Fett was clearly thinking along the same lines she was. She hit the comm. "Unfortunately, this is about the limit of my knowledge. We could try something bigger, something more invasive. But if something goes wrong..." she hesitated. "Well, let's just say that the Force can do terrible things to a mind." She knew what they would risk--history was littered with examples here and there of people who had pushed things too far. But it was ultimately Fett's decision.

 

"Assuming you were alright," she added after a moment, "there is still the chance that I could cause you to lose contact with them completely. It's a lot easier to sever your connection completely. We can try something more drastic and risk it, or we can keep going like this. Or you could find a professional." That might be difficult given the state of the galaxy. Not only was there the bounty on every Force user which would drive some into hiding, but there was also the fact that there were just fewer Force-users in general with any significant training. And what Fett would need was an experienced Jedi healer whose focus was in that area.

 

"What do you think?"

 

Whatever he decided, she wished him well. He had proven himself a worthy ally; that was something she had not expected going into this.

[Moon Knight]

Moon Knight shook his head, though the motion was lost over comms. "As far as I know, there aren't any Jedi healers left," he said. "But I don't think you're giving the power of Moon Knight much credit. These memories, these personalities, they're not just written into my brain like normal ones. You do whatever you need to in order to restore balance in there, and I'll return to the Temple to sort out what's left."

 

The Temple had great powers of healing, both when it came to physical and psychological damage. Isolder had returned there to fight out his mental struggles against the corruption of the dark side more than once. Why it hadn't healed this mental unbalance he didn't yet understand, but the fact that he had seen Eris in a vision before she stumbled upon the Temple on her own volition meant something. Perhaps the circumstances leading to the intersection of their paths were driven by the Force, and were the Temple's way of healing him. Or so Isolder and about 100 other Moon Knights thought.

 

Seemed a roundabout way to do it, in Fett's opinion. He supposed he should keep an open mind towards it, but for now he pushed himself to remain focused on his goal. These moments lingering here were like waiting for cancer to take hold instead of seeking treatment. "What's our next step?"

[Emily]

Emily acquiesced. "I'll do what I can. I think it's best to go somewhere you feel comfortable--you personally, not Moon Knight. Where do you call home, or where do you have strong personal connections? Being in such a place will bring some of your personality to the forefront more, and it will make it easier for me to identify what is you and what is the others, especially because you often share personality traits."

 

She paused, other responsibilities lurking in the back of her mind. "I'll also need to stop off and take care of a few things before we try this. I'd like to do a little research so that I can give you the best chance." That would also give her some time to take care of her apprentice, someone she still wasn't interested in letting Fett meet, despite Karys' recent philosophical discoveries.

[Moon Knight]

Moon Knight considered, fighting through the voices to try and focus on ShadowFett, trying to remember which events had happened to the Mandalorian and not some other figure. The trick was, a lot of the places to which he had once belonged were gone.

 

In the Black Sun days, home had been the Dubrillion base. Very shortly after his rather controversial departure from that organization, he himself had destroyed that same installation. For a while he had been alone, with only his ship to call home. That had been the Dawn of Vengeance or its successor; one had been destroyed by Ar-Pharazon and the other he had sacrificed in the Death Star battle at the end of the war. Nowadays the Justice still felt new, and he tried to stay away from CoreSec HQ because to him although it represented his current employment, it also represented all the paperwork and rules and regulations that in his opinion only served to constrain his ability to effectively combat lawbreakers. He'd considered many times the Temple of the Moon a sort of home, but that was not unique to Fett compared to his predecessors.

 

For a time, painfully brief though it was, home was wherever Mirdala was. It seemed like he had worn the armor and fought his whole life, but only in those fleeting days had he realized what it meant to be a Mandalorian.

 

There was one place left, however. A place so well-hidden and self-sufficient that he supposed it would hang suspended in space long after anyone who knew of it perished. Taking Eris there was an affront to the very qualities that made it secure, unfortunately, and its security systems would reject her unless he registered her as a member of the now-defunct organization that owned it. Perhaps it would be worth it, however, if it was indeed the only place in the galaxy that he felt connected to in a way that deeper than professional. A place where he had moved in, where he had been willing to remove his mask.

 

"Understood," he answered over the comm. "Take care of your business first. I know a place we can go, but I cannot tell you where it is. Contact me when you're ready to leave and we'll rendezvous."

 

He didn't entirely like the idea of waiting around with his mind in the state it was now. He would need to find something to do while she was attending to... whatever it was she was going to do. He could barely sleep as he was now, and fatigue would accrue rapidly as the hours dragged on. Hopefully it would be worth it.

[Emily]

Emily nodded. "Alright, I'll see you soon, then."

 

She terminated the connection. For a moment, she debated where to go. The obvious choice lurked in her mind, but she was hesitant. After a moment's reflection however, she shook herself. You needn't fear the past, Emily. She turned to the computer and pulled up the travel itinerary for the Shadow's Gambit. Matching the dates, she found that it was in the outer reaches of the Coruscant system. She punched in the data into the navicomputer. While it was calculating, she sent a message to Karys, informing him of where to meet her. Then she jumped into hyperspace.

[Moon Knight]

Less than a day after leaving Mechis, the team arrived over Corellia, and Fett directed them to the safehouse he had established near Coronet City several years ago after making his dramatic exit from the employ of the Black Sun.

 

The place wasn't large, as Kandor had never expected to need it for more than just himself, but it had what they needed -- he had bought it under a false name with seemingly-proper IDs, it had a decent information center with the right equipment to do research and decryption, it had a sufficient medical suite that would allow him to patch up between ops, including a bacta tank, and it had a workshop. He'd frequently used the place to work on his besbe'trayce, as a place to lie low for a while, or to store extra harvested ysalamiri. He was fresh out of those, however, having donated the two he'd kept here to CoreSec when they were stretched thin on resources trying to hunt dar'jetiise.

 

The team landed outside and brought Mirdala in on a stretcher, Fett quickly interfacing with the location's extensive security systems so that it didn't alert him or CorSec every time one of them stepped inside.

 

Their chosen doctor, Nekkir, arrived shortly afterward. Kandor didn't know much about the physician except that he was trusted -- and he'd been the one to whom Mirdala had sent his brain scans from the Enigma.

[Mirdala Ad'Goran]

The doctor didn’t waste any time with pleasantries and got down to work on treating Mirdala’s injuries while Aliise did a more through scan of TeVerd. Rahg had left on a supply run while Rhys began stowing the gear and scrambling the ship’s transponder codes as additional cover for their movements.

------------

Several days later…

 

She opened her eyes staring at an unfamiliar ceiling and noted the tube down her throat as she fought the urge to panic as her brain registered the mask that was also over her nose and mouth. She reached out empathically when she felt the same ghost and echoes around her. Her brain was too clouded to readily identify the signatures beyond anything other than “safe”.

 

She thought she saw a familiar face hover over hers briefly before she felt a warm hand squeezing her own. Kandor? That can’t be right. Her thoughts and memories were jumbled. What is he doing here? Where we?

 

Her eyes darted left and right only to recognize the fact she surrounded by medical equipment. She languidly squeezed it back, and saw him say something though his voice was muffled from a million miles away before she couldn’t feel his hand anymore.

 

Suddenly, he was gone and she closed her eyes again.

[Moon Knight]

Over several days Kandor helped out wherever needed, keeping an eye on Mirdala whenever he could around helping the others start to sift through the data they'd pulled from Abraxos, making supply runs, and slowly starting to get some of his questions answered.

 

Gradually he started to piece together some background information on the team. Firstly, he confirmed that Aliise, Rahg, and Rhys were all Jango clones that had been created during the Clone Wars, making them much older than they looked -- not doubt because they had a small amount of Ageless DNA mixed into the Fett genome. They were a part of a group called Omicrons which, he learned, TeVerd had trained as one of the cuy'val dar that Jango had recruited to teach the special forces and ARC troopers in the Grand Army of the Republic. There were other Omicrons left, but Kandor didn't quite get a feel for just how many were still around.

 

A few other questions garnered some information about TeVerd's more recent whereabouts. Kandor learned that he'd survived the attack that had destroyed his buy'ce at that same Abraxos installation to which they'd returned. He also learned that TeVerd had been Rale Sindak, working with Mirdala on Triple Zero to attempt to uncover some of BakToid's secrets, both regarding what they had done to Mirdala in her infancy and what they might be doing now with the data, especially if they were going to create more clones with empathic abilities.

 

Fett brought up Fieyr, but he wasn't able to get any more information than Mirdala had already given him -- he was an Ageless with Seeker training who had been corrupted by someone or something and had attacked Mirdala a decade prior and now had nearly killed her in their rematch on Abraxos. The other Mando'ad in the orange and red beskar'gam, whom TeVerd had been fighting, was more of a mystery, and no one had any theories as to who he was. Most likely just some ver'verd, but one that was both willing to fight Seekers and others of his kind and seemed to be exceptionally good at it. It took a special kind of soldier to hold his own even briefly against TeVerd and gettse to even try if they had any idea what he was. Reviewing the footage in his buy'ce of the fight, Fett noted the Kyr'tsad emblem that was displayed on the man's right shoulder, but even after what he'd done on Manda'yaim, there were too many Death Watch around for that to really help.

 

When he could, Kandor did his research nearby to Mirdala, especially when Nekkir was tending to some other matter. During one such session, she briefly woke up and he took her hand. "K'oyacyi, Mird'ika," he said quietly before she slipped back unconscious, then got up and notified Nekkir about the incident.

[Mirdala Ad'Goran]

Mirdala felt a pinching in the crook of her arm, and opened her eyes to see Nek sitting beside her, setting a small cartridge in his case.

 

He saw her stir and carefully reached over to adjust the respirator hoses. "Are we awake, or still trying to swim with somebody?"

 

She lazily blinked once. Her hand moved as well, fingers clumsily forming “T-E-Y” in the signal language native to both her and him.

 

Nek stroked her forehead tenderly. "Rhys found him, Dika. He's here, too." He shook his head. "You got your hunt partner out alive, okay?"

 

She visibly relaxed, finding the strength for a slight nod. "M-E?" she signed.

 

"If what you were radiating says anything, I don't think the red dreams are ready for you yet, Little One. So, unfortunately, you will live to be a pain in Rahg's butt again."

 

He held up his kit. "Gave you some anti-shock so the wrestling or whatever you tried to do earlier shouldn't happen again and my other wonderful work won't be undone."

 

He saw the question in her eyes. "You're wearing the respirator because you have some crud in your lungs that needs flushed out so the Bacta solution can heal the burning. You also ended up with a good concussion, but the anti-shock and other drugs have helped that clear off. Puncture wounds, blunt trauma and fractures, burns, chemical exposure. You're doing just like the Sarge and dithering between quality or quantity when it comes to collecting injuries. Luckily for you, there's a humble village shaman around to sort it out for you."

 

“Vor’e.” She signed before closing her eyes to actually get some rest.

---------------

Mirdala's next awareness was of a forceful emotional “nudge”. Then she became aware of the rawness of her throat. Why does everything have to hurt? She groaned mentally and rolled on her side, before deciding better of it and laying back where she’d been.

 

She took a slow and shallow breath and it took her brain a few moments to register that she no longer had the respirator down her throat. She felt the nudge again and opened her eyes. “What?” she croaked.

 

"Can't spend all day sleeping. You're taking up valuable space," she heard TeVerd growl.

 

“Glad you’re awake, buir.” She paused. "I wasn’t sleeping it was a healing trance…I learned it from the Jetiise kid.” she didn’t expect him to buy it, but she smiled anyway. The rawness of her throat made her revert to using the hand signs. “Where are we?"

 

He pretended not to hear her form of address. "Healing trance, my shebse. You were taking a kip while someone else did all the work," Tey snorted. He started to laugh but had to stop.

 

“Corellia. Kandor keeps a safe house here, apparently."

 

He felt her spike and saw her eyes narrow as she answered him. “I didn’t get to make that call. Fieyr kind of made it for me.” She finally managed to sit up, wincing as she did, and swung her legs over the side of the medical cot. “He’s stronger than he was last time he tried to mind-dive me.” She remarked, considering whether or not it was worth the effort to even think about attempting to stand.

 

Tey reached out and caught her under one arm. "Going somewhere?" His eyes narrowed. "And of course he is. Did you really expect him to have not been using his abilities all this time, unlike you?"

 

She leaned on him and paused as a wave of pain washed through her. "Maybe. You're the one harassing me about being lazy." She took a deep and painful breath. "Either way, I wasn't prepared enough to properly back you up and I'm sorry for that."

 

"You're out of practice, by a good chalk. He isn't, and he's really brutish with his energy, always has been," Tey said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder to give her focal point. He looked down at her. "Don't tell me you're actually going to start doing what I tell you now?"

 

“If you teach me how to beat him.” Her tone was gravely serious. “I don’t want to fail you or my brothers again.” She carefully stepped towards a chair that had been situated just a little ways from the cot, determined to show him how strong she was and grateful that the leads had been swapped out to wireless models. She let him support her weight as well as leaned on him empathically for the pain. He helped ease her into the chair just as Nek walked in followed closely by Kandor.

 

"Nobody's teaching anybody anything," Nek growled, genuinely irritated. "Except maybe me drugging you both back into comas to teach you how to sit still when I tell you to!"

 

“I was tired of lying down. I wasn’t planning on going far…” She looked past Nek to Kandor, her jaw clenching in guilt. She hadn’t liked having to omit certain truths from him, but it had been necessary. She hoped that he understood and could forgive her. The last thing she wanted right then was tension between them. He’d offered up one of his safe houses to them as a safe-haven and she’d pretty much shown him he wasn’t trusted enough to hear the secret of Tey’s survival from her directly.

 

Nek crossed him arms and snorted. "As if." He glared at TeVerd. "I told you not to leave your room, and especially not to reach out for her. I wanted her asleep at least one more day before that agile little brain could start plotting."

 

He strode over to the woman and scooped her back onto the cot before she could protest. "Especially not plotting ways to insert herself into fights that even Seekers can come out second best in."

 

She stared back at him unflinchingly. "How long have I been out?"

 

Nek shrugged. "About a week."

 

Mirdala nodded. “Any newer developments?” She was thinking about the boredom levels and how much longer she might be confined to relative immobility.

 

"Besides that they're heavily invested in the Mechis Sector and don't like people nosing around?" Tey asked her. “Not really. But that alone means they've pinpointed themselves to anyone that gets away, which they seem to not be trying real hard to disguise."

 

"You should be up and about in the next couple days, at least enough to hobble around," He added, looking to Nek for confirmation.

 

“Sounds fair.” She settled back as Nek sought out an extra bedroll to tuck behind her. “What happened to you after we got separated?” She eyed Tey, noting his own chemical burns.

 

“Running gun battle with Fieyr’s cohort and two of his men," Tey shrugged. “Shots were fired, grenades thrown, and I ended up with a breached bodyglove while I tried to stop the leaks. Nothing too bad."

 

“Now that the two of you have confirmed the other is alive and well, out,” Nek shoved TeVerd towards the door. "And you," he glanced back at Kandor. "Don't stay too long yourself. No matter what she tells you, she still needs rest."

[Moon Knight]

Kandor raised a hand chest-high. "I'll only be a few minutes, doc -- ori'haat," he told Nek as the Bothan-looking physician left the room with TeVerd.

 

He let out a long sigh as he found a chair next to Mirdala, visibly trying to pick his words. He hadn't failed to notice the guilt on the dala's face when she had seen him enter the room, and he knew she felt bad about the way he had found out various important things over the last few days.

 

"Don't worry about it, Mird'ika," he said. "We've got to play our hands pretty close to our chests, and I didn't strictly need to know. That's just good operating procedure when it comes to matters like this. For what it's worth, I'm glad for your sake he's okay." There was so much loss, so many burdens on her as of late, he was relieved that at least one of them had been removed.

 

That wasn't the only thing, though. "Promise me something, though," he said, reaching up to stroke an errant lock of her hair back into place. There were a lot more of them -- a week in bed did that. "Next time, don't go off alone, not when you can avoid it. These men are dangerous, and not just Fieyr. Empathic team or not, we weren't close enough to get to you or catch Fieyr before he left. Meh gar kyrayc, shuk bah ni. We have to see this thing through alive and in one piece." He glanced down at her battered body. "Well, more or less."