| |
Rogue Infiltrator - FA Ender mBind
Through the
darkened hallways of the Command Staff Quarters aboard the SSSD Sovereign a
cloaked figure moved stealthily, hugging the walls and flashing from door well
to door well until it came to an intersection with a wider corridor. Carefully
the figure peeked around the corner at the two Royal Guards standing watch on
both sides of the elevator doors at one end of that corridor. The light inside
button besides the elevator doors blinked on. The Guards looked impervious to
anything, standing straight at attention at all times – their masks making
their expressions invisible.
Oddly
enough the cloaked figure seemed relieved with what it had seen and backed away
from the corner, straightened its robes, took a deep breath and started
marching; straight around the corner and heading straight for the elevator
doors. Just as it had made half the way there, chimes sounded and the doors
started opening and the cloaked figure could walk straight into the elevator
without even a glance being exchanged between it and the Guards.
Only when
the doors closed behind the cloaked figure again did the Guards turn their
heads, look at each other, shrug and go back to the battleships game they were
playing against each other on the HUDs of their
helmets.
The
elevator went straight to the levels where the Command Offices were located,
with no other options on its control panel. Here the Guards seemed more alert,
but their unit had learned, the hard way, not to question anyone coming out of
those doors. Besides, a dark hooded figure going from the Command Staff
Quarters to the Logistics Office in the middle of the night wasn’t all that
unusual.
The lights
inside the Logistics Office were dimmed, with just a few yellow glowing bulbs
floating above the endless rows of towering cabinets with archives. This is
where everything in the Emperor’s Hammer ended up eventually: from every staff
report ever written to the shopping lists of the kitchens on the Carrack
Cruiser Assassin on patrol on the edge of the Pyrath
System. Here every plan and scheme of the Emperor’s Hammer lay waiting for that
one day it actually was needed again...
The cloaked
figure checked that the door was locked behind it, and charged straight through
the archives at quickened pace, thick layers of dust being swept up by the
robes disturbing the stale air. Only at the end of the archives, about 10
meters from the far wall did it hold in its step and stop. It actually
swaggered a bit and found support by resting against a cabinet.
“Ysalamiri…” There had been warnings about this; the Science
Officer dismissed the Force on base of it not being “scientific” – but was
practical enough to take precautions might it actually exist… and the Science
Office was on the other side of that wall, isolated from the rest of the ship
by massive walls and 100s of meters of archive.
A rushing
sound and red light announced that even a foot of steel will not stop everyone
from going trough anyway. Without the Force to guide the sabre though, it was
wielded carefully and more as if it was a construction tool. It did the trick
though and within a few seconds there was a hole in the wall large enough to
crawl through, its still glowing edges being cooled by the air rushing in from
the archive into the under pressurized laboratory on the other side.
Not wanting
to wait till the metal was completely cooled down; the figure took of its thick
woollen cloak and draped that over the edges of the hole in the wall. A sleek
feminine shape crawled through, a just as feminine but very uncharacteristic
shriek following shortly after.
The
null-hole in the force seemed to have deepened, was it just an annoyance before
– now it was horrifying and endless… as if there was no Force anywhere, ever.
“…tried to
chew through the walls, ey? I tried that once, kept
getting my teeth stuck on the wiring. It makes excellent floss though! You
wouldn’t have found any would you? I love how the metal makes my fillings
tingle! It’s good, but not as good as…” A voice drifted through the blackness.
The Force still was gone for ever but the insane ranting did offer a guide back
to reality, if it was that.
The Dark
Jedi opened her eyes and immediately wasn’t so sure anymore: A hideous creature
in a TIE Corps uniform covered by what looked like a open straight jacket was
standing hunched between a mass of weird glass tubing and vials ranting about
the most incomprehensible things. The room they were in had a cloud of smoke
hanging from the ceiling that got thinner as it reached down till about a meter
off the ground and through that smoke there were strangely coloured lights
flashing and weird animal noises. If it didn’t look highly technical as well,
she would’ve thought that she had ended up in a jungle.
“…why-salami
creatures! I ate all of them but from one of them evil Bender created this
No-Force Custard instead, which tastes even better. Don’t believe the stories
that he also created me though! I just hang around this place because the drinks
are free and they feed me bits once in a while. Never let me have green custard
though – that they always hide in the walls! But I have found it now!”
She
followed his pointing fingers towards the hole she had cut out of the archives behind
her, which confirmed that she was in the right place and that she was utterly
covered in some green goo, more of which was dripping
from the top of the hole she had cut. In disgust she found out that it covered
her entirely and was actually dripping from her eyebrows and nose.
“…Custard
tastes excellently with those fruits they got down on Hiran,
apples I think they were called, or was it slamarki’s?
Are you going to eat all that by the way?”
The ranting came back to her, and the creature seemed to expect an answer. “Uhm… no?”
A big smile
swept across the creature’s face and it dived at her legs. In panic she
screamed and pulled her legs up, without the Force it wasn’t easy to keep one’s
cool, but the creature had gotten hold of them already and had started to lick
the green goo off her black cover-alls. With a
well-aimed kick she was able to get it off though and the creature slammed
head-first into a table full of glasswork – triggering some kind of smoky purple
explosion. As quickly as she could without tripping in the goo
she got up and assumed a defensive position as well as she could without the
Force to help her..
However,
the creature was undeterred and got up again out of the rubble as well. “You
said I could have some!” it yelped in a pained voice, its hair smoking. Before
she knew it, it was hugging her leg, licking off the green matter as if it was
candy and making them both fall over in the puddle again.
Now in a
complete disgusted panic, she hit and kicked the creature with all her might
till she had mostly freed herself from its grip and the puddle of
goo, where she proceeded to take off her coveralls with
goo, creature and all - kicking off the last leg with force
and sending the creature sliding across the floor. Freed, she crawled up and
broke into a run away from this madness.
The
creature stayed behind with its goo, happily sucking
on a trouser leg.
The
null-hole in the force seemed to have become less deep since she had gotten out
of the puddle where she met the creature. The despair was waning to a depression,
but still not gone. At least now she was able to make more sense of her
predicament. The goo was a concentrated form of
whatever gave Ysalamiri their Force-nullifying powers
– and she had been covered with it. The shock had actually made her black out –
and she had no idea for how long… alarms could have gone off already – should
have actually. She couldn’t think straight.
The
mirroring surface of a table told her she was in fact still covered in the
substance and she set upon scraping it off her face and arms with her hands.
She picked up a scalpel like instrument and cordately started cutting off her
long black hair, which created a green hairy puddle on the ground. As it fell
her brain seemed to clear up quite a bit, though, because of all the
goo in the walls, her force powers did not return.
After she
had ensured herself to be free of the substance entirely she finally had the
chance to look around. She apparently was in the biological section, as all the
biohazard signs and strange creatures in cages told her. Obviously the creature
that had attacked her had escaped from here or something… she reached for her
sabre for comfort and realized she had left it behind attached to the belt of
her coveralls.
Briefly she
contemplated getting it back, but the memory of the creature’s maniacal grin
made her decide differently. She was on a mission – and for that she was to
find the IT section of the labs. She fastened her grip on the scalpel she had
found and started making her way there.
The IT
section of the Science Office was easy enough to recognize by the
datacards, full ashtrays, mouldy
pizza boxes and used coffee mugs that covered every horizontal surface. Various
humming noises were emitted from about everywhere and a string instrument
standing in a corner vibrated along.
As
stealthily as she could without the Force to guide her, the Dark Jedi shoved
some papers from a fairly clean chair and carefully sat down behind an
interface, making sure to touch as little as possible and started pounding away
commands. This was why she was chosen for this mission by her Grand Master –
she could do this type of thing with her eyes closed, Force or no Force.
It didn’t
take long for a wicked smile to appear on her face. She had found a data entry
about something seemingly insignificant, the coordinates of a transfer of
“EHBL” to the ISDII Relentless. But from there on the file linked all the way
back to the original project material. She grabbed a datacard,
stuck it in a reader and transferred what she had found to it. Then she quietly
got up again, pulled the card out and stuck it under her t-shirt before she
carefully made her way towards the exit. From the inside, the doors opened
without a key and let her back out on the hallway again.
The Royal
Guards at the elevator doors reacted immediately; a barely dressed human female
coming from the Science Office in the middle of the night WAS unusual.
“Alright!
Who gave Snij a lightsabre
to play around with?” Fleet Admiral Ender mBind charged into the part of the
Science Offices that was decorated to resemble something between a kitchen and
a coffee shop and was met with semi-concious stares
from his staff.
Admiral Den
Darkhill checked his belt and mumbled something
resembling “I got mine here” between sips of coffee.
Rear
Admiral Timmay pulled up his shoulders and just
grinned. “Ey, don’t look at me – I don’t even have
one for me to play around with.”
Den put his
cup down. “Why are you asking? And uhmmm... do I
really want to know?”
“Well,”
Ender yelled and stopped, surprised himself at the sudden inappropriateness of
that tone, so continuing at a lower tone of voice, “Snij
spent the whole night redesigning our entire stock of TIE Wing panels into
funny paper cut-outs and made a hole in the wall towards the
LO’s archives. He ate a ton of our ‘isolation’ and is lying
bloated in the exotic plants section.”
“Well,
don’t look at us,” Timmay started when he was
interrupted by the first notes of the Imperial Anthem. “That’s you Ender.”
“Oh
sithspit, I knew this was going to come,” Ender growled as
he switched on his comlink.
Sector Admiral
Astatine’s figure appeared on the table and nodded towards Ender. “I have two
prisoners I’d like to see you about immediately.” The figure disappeared as
quickly as it came.
“Oh well,”
Den grinned, “At least you’ll find out where Snij got
that sabre from.”
They hadn’t
really tortured her, yet – because she was sure they would if those fools from
the Science Office didn’t back up her story. She was quite sure that handsome
Colonel had already been brought in; she had sensed him down the hallway.
Her force
powers had been slowly returning during her imprisonment, which had been very
comforting. She hated how helpless she felt as she did when she was captured by
those Royal Guards, or when the hideous creature had attacked her.
Some
figures appeared at the door of her cell, and looked through the small view
hole before shutting it. She immediately sensed that one of the two persons was
the arch enemy of her Grand Master, a powerful Dark Jedi who was the second in
command in the Emperor’s Hammer. He had interrogated her personally before and
had scared the hell out of her. The other she sensed easily by his null-hole in
the Force, the Science Officer. He probably had a uniform filled with the same
goo as inside the walls of his lab or something like that.
She hoped he’d never find out what kind of weapon a spray of that stuff would
make.
There was
laughing down the hall and other muted discussion. Her senses told her that the
young Colonel at least was relieved, a good sign. They were also approaching
her cell again.
“Quick,”
Colonel Hawk said, as he opened the door of her cell, “Before he changes his
mind.” He then stared at her as she got up. “What happened to your hair?”
“They did
horrible things to me,” she responded in her saddest tone as she curled into
his embrace before she jumped out of it again and suddenly was the one pulling
him forwards again. “Get me out of here.”
Followed
shortly by Ender, she and Colonel Hawk made their way out of the detention
levels of the Sovereign. Astatine watched them go with increasing suspicion.
Something felt completely wrong about that girl, even if everything surely had
looked fine.
“Just too
typical, Hawkie,” Ender laughed, “Having to bail you
out over a girl again. Wanna go get a bite
somewhere?”
“No, I need
to get back to the Phoenix and get my stuff, drop her off at
Pyrath and such.” Hawk nodded at the girl who was making a
definite effort to look as innocent and affectionate as possible.
“
Yo! Ender!” Someone yelled from
down the hall, “Stop her!”
Ender and
Hawk looked around to see Den and Timmay running at
them – at which point everything went very quick:
In a swift
turn the Dark Jedi elbowed Hawkie in his midriff,
using his arm for lift as she kicked Ender in the face and spun over
Hawkies back, pushing him at Ender. They were still
collapsing as she practically exploded into a run towards the Hangar…
“We have to
stop her!” Den yelled as he flashed by, “She made a copy of practically the entire
EHBL project!”
“And took
of with my… uhm… ‘exotic’
photo collection,” Timmay complained while he ran
behind Den. “I love that datacard…”
Ender got
up and staggered after them, rubbing his chin vigorously.
“This datacard perhaps?”
Hawkie
offered from off the floor, holding up a card.
The other
three stopped in their tracks, as Hawkie also got up,
and, holding his gut, made his way towards them.
“That’s
it!” Timmay cried, “But how do we know there aren’t
any more copies?”
“She never
had a chance to,” Den said as he took the datacard
from Hawkie and checked its contents. “This is it,”
he confirmed.
“How did
you get that?” Ender inquired.
“She had
hidden it in the front of her t-shirt,” Hawkie
grinned widely, “and most of what I ever learned in special ops is actually
pick-pocketing.”
By this
time they had reached the Hangar doors, just in time to see Hawkie’s
Corellian Transport, the “Ray of Light” lift off and
make for open space.
Hawkie
made a desperate dash after it but soon gave up.
“Guess you
aren’t the only pick-pocket around here,” Den laughed, “I bet she took your
keys.”
Hawkie
looked quite distraught as he checked his pockets to find nothing.
“Come on,”
Ender suggested, “We better report this to someone, perhaps that ship can still
be stopped. And after that I’ll buy you all lunch…”
The insides
of the freighter were as could be expected from one that had served as the
house of a single male adult for over a year; she tried not to touch anything
from fear it might bite back.
Safe in
hyperspace she checked for the datacard and when she
couldn’t find it just one thing flashed through her mind: Mission Failed. That
damned pretty boy must have lifted it from her as she took his keys….or perhaps
during interrogation?
In any case
she couldn’t go back to her Grand Master without even a shred of data.
and she had nothing. Although…
Suddenly
the coordinates of the EHBL transfer to the Star Destroyer Relentless sprung to
mind. It was a long shot, but at least another chance. She came out of
hyperspace and realigned for another jump. If she wanted to do this, she would
have to be quick – the transfer had already started.
The Science
Office and Colonel Hawk had installed themselves in a booth in one of the many
cantinas on the Sovereign.
“So how did you actually find out what she
was?” Ender asked as he put down his pint of hot kawa
a mele – a sweet caffeinated drink popular with
freighter crews.
“It was the
hair we found in the laboratory,” Den replied from behind a big plate of fried
meat, eggs and bread, “I made a gen sample and cloned
it to see in the computer what the person would most
likely look like. When we found out it was almost certainly the girl
Hawkie picked up last night and that she had an abnormally
high midichlorian count…”
“…we put
two and two together and linked it with the sabre Snij
found and the hole in the wall.” Timmay finished the
sentence for him.
“It was at
that point that Timmay noticed that his favourite
datacard was missing,” Den grinned. “And I found out which
files had been copied to it.”
“Do we
still actually have the cloned samples?” Ender asked with a devilish grin, “we
could do with a maid around the office.”
In his
stylishly decorated but dark office, Sector Admiral Astatine browsed bored
through the EHBL project files on the datacard copy
he had made. His mood brightened considerably when he got to
Timmay’s files.
|
