Outpost Odin

--- Part 1 ---

by

FM/COL TK-7764/Chaos 3-2/Wing XIX/SSD Avenger pin 7764

TYR/KAP TK-7764/Prophecy/Qel-Droma/Arcona pin 223

 

            A small wisp of smoke filtered into the ship’s ventilation system.  At his desk, Kane Reese patiently sat flicking on and off a lighter.  The small flame rose once more only to be snuffed again.  Kane studied the flame as it danced.  There is a power there.  Kane knew though that he was greater then that power.  Pushing out with the Force, Kane began to bend and contort the flame.  He focused on the tip of the fire, letting the heat build.  The fire began to burn white.  Then there was a knock at the door and Kane let the fire die.  Primitive man had taken centuries to master fire.  Kane could do even more with just his mind.  So as he could conquer fire on a whim, Kane was sure the Avenger, flagship of the Dark Brotherhood, could conquer star systems at its fancy.

           

“Come in,” said Kane to the doorway.  There was a grating sound of metal as the door opened and a slight shift in pressure as air rushed out of the office.  In the doorway, once again not wearing a uniform as per regulation stood the Krath, TK-7764.  “Have a seat colonel.”  The robed man moved with purpose and pride and slowly sank into a seat.  Even though the seats he had out for guests were smaller then his desk chair, in order to make himself appear larger and more threatening, Kane was still surprised how large of a presence TK seemed to have in this office.  Of course, TK was not easily intimidated.  He was also not some lieutenant straight out of Daedalus.  He was used to holding conversations with people of power in the EH.  He was used to being in positions of power in the EH, thought Kane.

 

“I’m glad Mouse Droid was able to find you so quickly.  I never did get a chance to properly thank you for what you did on that moon base.  The assault was made much easier thanks to your efforts.  Major Celeste was quite happy with your work.  You saved a lot of lives by shutting down those defenses.”

           

“Thank you sir,” replied TK.  “I still would have liked to have been here for the space battle.  My skills could have been useful there to prevent the loss of my wingmen.”

           

“Casualties were minor.  Chaos squadron performed commendably well without you.  The most casualties in fact were just a direct result of that cruiser’s self-destruction.  Several deck officers and members of the starfighter maintenance crew were killed.  Other then that and Rage squadron, this ship handled itself fairly well.”  TK-7764 began to shake his head slowly.

           

“We will still need to do better then that if we wish to face the coming challenge.  I’m sure Pherissel’s next move will be quite dramatic.  Her flagship could prove to be quite a problem.”

           

“Yes,” replied Kane.  “However, we have the advantage in starfighter technology.  That alone could easily sway the battle in our favor.”

           

“True, but I’m sure she will have a plan to try to eliminate that advantage as well.  Have you found out anything else about the Dark Jedi I killed during the assault?”

           

“Nothing to drastic or revealing I’m afraid.  Pherissel did seem to use that meditation chamber herself as the red skinned women had said.  From what we have begun to decrypt from the base’s computer core, there does not appear to be that much useful information on the Khargan’s operations in this sector.  Hopefully the slicers will have finished compiling everything within the week.”

           

“So in other words it was all a worthless waste of time.”  Kane chuckled.

           

“Perhaps, but that is why this time I am giving you a mission that will have definite results.  You will not be able to say this is for nothing.”

           

“It will be a glorious victory which will end the war and result in a big parade in my honor, I’m sure,” said TK cunningly.

           

“Well I don’t know about all that.  But I do know that if you are successful, it will severely weaken the Khargan’s military strength.  You see there are a group of pirates that are beginning to hold formal talks with the Khargans.  We believe an alliance or formal agreement may soon be made between the two groups.  These pirates despise the people of the Lantare system.  An alliance between the pirates and the Khargans seems quite natural.  It’s an enemy of my enemy sort of thing.  They are also for the most part operating between Emperor’s Hammer space and us.  They could effectively cut us off.  We of course can not allow this to occur.”

           

“Of course we can’t,” replied TK.  “So is this a preemptive strike you have in mind?  Attacking them may only enrage them and cause them to throw in completely with the Khargans.”

           

“Unlikely.  You see, these Lupo Marauders have a rather gun-ho philosophical stance.  They would never want to ally themselves with weaklings.  We must show that we are more powerful allies then the Khargans.”

 

“They are an amory, feeding off the biggest fish,” said TK.

 

“Exactly.  And I need a demonstration to convince them not to mess with our affairs.  So that is where you come in.  We have intercepted several communiqués between the two groups.  An envoy of the Lupo Marauders is going to meet with a Khargan representative onboard Outpost Odin.  It’s a small trading station that we have suspected of having ties to smuggling for some time now.  It’s only about one and a half light years away from here and is in the middle of deep space.  It’s not much more then a large collection of containers jury-rigged together with a type one platform.  It should be that difficult to find your target.”

 

“Find him?  Don’t you want me to just blow the place sky high?”

 

“No, then the Lupo Marauders will not know that they were specifically targeted in the attack.  Plus doing that might anger the Hutt who owns that station.  I will send my own envoy to meet with another Lupo Marauder representative onboard the Star Galleon Kalian.  You will rendezvous with the shuttle after completing the successfully completing the mission and give the word to my shuttle to proceed to the Kalian.  By the time the Khargans find the body, my shuttle should just about me arriving at its target.”

 

“Sounds like an excellent plan.  It will need a lot of timing to work out properly,” said TK.

 

“Yes, and to avoid suspicion, you should arrive a day or two before hand to the outpost.  How soon can that private ship of yours that you have stored here be ready for takeoff?”

 

“Within the hour sir.”

 

“Good, I’ll have some technicians begin prepping it and you should start packing.  Make sure to wear something more appropriate,” Kane said looking at TK’s Dark Jedi robes.  “This datapad will have all the coordinates and details you will need,” said Kane as he slid the small device across his desk.  “Dismissed.”  TK grabbed it in a swift motion and got up about to leave when he remembered something else he had wanted to bring up.  He was sure Kane would be mad if he did because it would kind of be telling him how to do his job.

 

“Ummm, sir one last thing before I go,” said TK as he was almost at the door.

 

“What is it colonel?”

 

“Sir, the cloaked ship from the last battle.  From what we know about sensor blocking, it’s a two-way system.  If we can’t pick a ship up on radar then that ships sensors are also blind.”

 

“Yes, that is why it had to uncloak right before the attack.  Your point TK.”

 

“Well this system just has the one known planet and moon.  And as you said the bases on the moon had nothing really of value on it.  And we don’t know of any bases in system.  But that cruiser obviously needed to dock somewhere to get that cloak applied to it somehow.”

 

“Get to the point.”

 

“Well it couldn’t have hypered here and positioned itself where it was if it had come from another system.  So that ship had to have been made invisible here in this system.  And that would obviously imply some sort of large shipyard that could do that must be here as well.  This system isn’t so empty sir, it has to have at least one large Khargan base.”

 

“That’s your big revelation TK.  Please, we had been aware of that fact for a while now.  Now hurry up and get to your fighter.”

 

“Of course sir.”  TK turned and left quickly.  Kane began to flick that lighter on and off again.  Waiting a few minutes to make sure TK was a good distance away and that he was no longer focusing on this room with the Force, but preoccupied with other things, Kane flipped on his desk’s comlink.  “Mouse, we need to schedule a lot of recon flights in this system.  There is a base hidden somewhere around here and I intend to find it.”

 

“Yes sir,” replied Mouse through a bit of static.

 

 

… to be continued