A Jedi Seeks Only Revenge

[IG-88e]

Thermal imaging produced only the unsatisfactory heat signatures of dozens of computer banks, processors, mainframes - there could be any number of biological heat signatures hidden among them. Sonic indicators told the same tale, although any noise noticeably different from those caused by computers and coolant systems would be easily detected - if the noise were as loud or louder than the ambient ones. This organized warren of electronics was a good place to hide, yet easily systematically searched. In the event that J.0032 was not on this floor, IG-88 needed to quickly ascertain that information and resume the hunt on floor G3. He set out along the rightmost corridor between computer systems - while he could scan the area all around himself and so not be caught from a blind spot, his weapon systems were more limited. It was more practical to keep himself in a position that limited the area into which he might have to fire.

If he'd been sure J.0032 was here, he would have just started shooting blindly with the concussion rifle. But peripheral damage was unacceptable until IG-88d found J.0032's explosives placement. And since he planned on detonating them after he found them, at that point he could cause any damage he wished in his pursuit of the elimination of target J.0032. The needs of the many biologicals that required termination outweighed the needs of the few.

IG-88 stepped carefully. His own footsteps, heavy with the weight of durasteel strength and impressive firepower, gave his presence away. His prey could elude him indefinitely in this area, but not without giving up on her mission. To proceed with her mission, she would have to engage and destroy him, or else set her explosives, make a break for it, and hope both she and her payload would be able to escape IG-88's notice until it was too late. The latter would be most unlikely.

Since J.0032 had not come down on the turbolifts, she was likely to have started out on some quite opposite end of the floor. The nearest bank of electronics to IG-88d now read D9. He wondered which row she would want to get to, or if it even mattered to her. There was no help for it, as he had not run a diagnostic on the computer systems here - and doing so would have taken far too long. He would just have to keep looking.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Frell IG-88. She was already at D7, and she slid quietly down the aisle, checking both ends to make sure she was still clear. The bounty hunter might not even be there, she was just overly sensitive.

Lilaena flipped her hair out of her eyes, crouching down facing the processors, somewhere in the middle of the length of it. She pried off the panel closest to her, and set it carefully on the flooring. Inside was a mess of wires, boards, and blinking lights. In went the first thermal detonator, and then she turned around to D6 and removed the access plate opposite the first one.

She dipped her hand back into her holdall for the second detonator, and very carefully nestled it into the frame.

[Khendon Sevon]

“There will be no hiding behind masks of civility. I am here and will not vanish. Politician, patrician, and businessman, be as wary as the vagrant. There is no escape from the power of the Office of the Executor.

“I,” Khendon crossed his arms over his chest and made fists, “will free this planet, this galaxy from the oppressive clutches of that fouled rebellion. Traitorous leaders will jump at the merest whisper of wind for fear that I call to them! Shadows will strike spears of fear into the hearts of the treasonous!

“And, broken by trepidations, the rebels will, one by one, commit themselves to the inevitable and hold out their wrists to my Office for repentance!” There was a moment of silence. No one knew what to do. Then, suddenly, a roar grew in the crowd as they realized that to not clap and rejoice was to mark themselves as spies or compassionate to the rebel cause.

[IG-88e]

Motion sensors were unindicative of any activity within their line of sight. They were slightly inacurate while IG-88d was moving around, anyway.

Row D7 cleared. As IG-88 passed into the next row, he spied target J.0032 crouching in front of a bank of processors, the panel lying on the floor next to her. IG-88d's concussion rifle had the best shot, which he now regretted. The droid could see J.0032 was either planting or setting her explosives, and he did not want them harmed. As microseconds and other fragments of time continued to waste away, IG-88 brought his repeating blaster rifle up to bear on her position. The noise of his footfalls and his sudden motion into her peripheral vision undoubtedly caught her attention before he could catch her in the crosshairs of his Imperial repeater rifle, however, and she flung herself backward. Thus eluding the path of some closely-spaced bright burning blue energy bolts.

IG-88d's repeater rifle continued to rapidly fire with its habitual PSS PSS PSS PSS PSS noise, as he moved his arm to track her motion. He would soon enough make up for the time he lost through not having the right weapon for the job ready.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Her anger rose inside her as the metallic bounty hunter clumped around the corner, and she threw herself backwards as he brought his repeater rifle to bear on her position. Lilaena dipped her hand into her holdall as she crashed to the ground, igniting her lightsaber and deflecting an energy bolt into the D6 mainframe. Sparks flew between the two combatants as Lilaena scrambled to her feet, hard pressed to deflect the thickly coming bolts to the floor and ceiling.

She had to finish this now. The psh psh psh of the droid's rifle was the only sound she heard, but she imagined that the droid was laughing at her. Lilaena yelled, although she knew it wouldn't distract IG-88, and pressed closer, concentrating on getting nearer to the droid instead of deflecting a bolt into it's head.

IG-88 complied with her plan by taking a step forward, but a blaster bolt creased her shoulder, and Lilaena was forced to dart backwards, away from the elevators she had planned on taking to safety. She melted away from the bounty hunter, running around the large central hub.

[Khendon Sevon]

Khendon rubbed the underside of his thumb against his index finger—something was irritating him. The Executor sent a curt smile at the now standing ovation and began to retreat from the slaughter of political bunkum. He detested having to talk in front of the rust that slowed the machine.

The bureaucrats in the room looked like rodents jabbering and undulating at the promise of potent cheese. There was certainty in the officer’s thoughts: they look at me as an opportunity to remove rivals and increase individual wealth and influence.

One minor detail, however, would destroy the political jockeying. A simple man filled with tall dreams would be the downfall of every political figure in the room. Khendon would make sure that any tarnish was rubbed out.

[IG-88e]

The human acted strangely, as humans are wont to do. She shouted, she flicked her lightsaber around inadequately, and soon enough the barrage IG-88d was launching at her forced her to retreat. The blaster bolts came too thickly for her deflect them with purpose, and one slipped through her defense and knicked the top of her shoulder. She ran, then, out of the sights of IG-88's repeater rifle and around the room's central hub.

But IG-88d wasn't done with her, yet.

His scans of the thermal detonators she had planted revealed they had not been activated. While manual activation was neccessary, target J.0032 should be able to accomplish this from a distance. A relatively short distance in the world of electronic signals, but IG-88d needed to be sure she was too dead or too far to do so.

She finally switched off her lightsaber as she fled towards the other side of the room. It had provided IG-88d's thermal scans with enough of a signature in the hot surrounding air to track her, but no matter. He had guessed some of her escape route - she had to know the upper levels were on full alert by now, the turbolifts locked out from the prints of her dead thumbs. She would go down, to the cargo turbolifts that no one would have thought to lock down.

IG-88 wasn't entirely sure if she could run faster than him. Perhaps she could, but certainly not for an extended duration. She was likely to be assuming that her stealth would save her, judging by what IG-88d had observed of the movement of her lightsaber. So when she cleared the last row of computers and regulatory machines, the wide ventilation duct she had used to get in here barely ten yards off and standing wide open as she had left it, she should have been surprised when IG-88's arm came from the shadows and backhanded her.

It should have crushed her face, of course, not "backhanded" it. But she again responded with great alacrity, somersaulting backwards as her momentum carried her forward. It was less impressive than annoying; to top it all off she lit her lightsaber just before she landed on her feet, twirled in a tight circle, and cut off his head (AND through his right arm and the stock of his repeater rifle as he brought them up) before the first drop of blood oozed from her broken lips.

She hadn't seemed very surprised, after all. Optical sensors deemed her to be frightened and angry, and then her eyes widened as she became hopeful. She had backed up two steps by the time IG-88's head hit the ground.

This was impertinant and outrageous, and IG-88d wouldn't settle for it. But as his head had its own power source and his body had redundant sensor systems, and they both could operate in tandem with a short range comlink system, he had lost far less than she thought he had. At roughly the same time as she realized he should be falling over by now, the small twin blasters located in what most considered to be the "front" of IG-88d's head opened fire on her as his left arm reached down and brought up the Stoukker from its body sling. IG-88's right foot rested on top of the side of his head, rotating the vertical angle of fire manually.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

This wouldn't do, wouldn't do at all. The removal of the droid's head hadn't had the catastrophic affect she'd hoped, and now IG-88 was firing at her from the floor. She deflected most of the bolts into the surrounding computer hardware and outer wall, backing away from her point of escape.

Can't go to the 'lifts, by now regular security personel will be coming down. Can't go up the shaft, frelling droid - Her face was bruised and her lip bleeding as the concussion rifle came up to bear on her position. Her lightsaber couldn't argue with the weapon, so she quickly dove down D12 and ran as fast as she could.

It galled her to leave the bounty hunter behind, fully functioning if missing some pieces, but she had no choice. A wise Jedi knew when it was time to retreat, and it was certainly time. He didn't seem to be pursuing, which was odd, but she kept her senses open to make sure he wasn't cutting off her retreat again. Lilaena was breathing sharply, and noticed that she was bleeding. Some time in her flight she had taken a bolt in the upper thigh, and it burned like fire now. A quick examination told her that it had not scored the bone, and would heal easily enough, If she stopped the bleeding before she fainted, of course.

There was a small niche in the side of the room that looked like a technician had been working on the ventilation system. There was a section of wall lying open, and it took only two careful swipes with her lightsaber to expose and cut open a large duct. She pulled her slim body into the shaft, and dropped down two more floors.

The landing was painful, but not as terrible as one might expect. Lilaena used the Force to slow her movement, but she still had rubbed red friction burns on her arms and shoulders. At the bottom of the duct she manuevered her lightsaber around and managed to cut the vent cover to allow her access to floor G5.

The Jedi tumbled out of the duct and felt the Force warning her of danger. But looking around, she saw nothing. Lilaena remembered the detonators and the five minute timers, and then spied the freight turbolifts across the vast packaging floor. She sprinted towards them.

[Khendon Sevon]

Khendon strolled out of the building, ignoring the salutes from the stationed guards. An Imperial trench coat cloaked his shoulders and body. The folds fell loosely to the mid of his combat boots. The Imperial winced as he thought about the prior proceedings.

Silver eyes scanned the fairly residential district. Apartments, hotels, and a myriad other buildings lined the broad streets of the area. Yet—Khendon looked this way and that sharply, eyes narrowed—something wasn’t right.

Uneasiness filled the pit of the Executor’s stomach and churned the contents. He allowed a hand to slip down to the hilt of his concealed saber and shifted his balance to equal distribution between his legs.

The guards looked at one another oddly and wondered what exactly Executor Sevon was doing. “Sir—“ one spoke but was cut off by a loud clap of thunder.

Yet, there were no clouds in the sky. How could thunder form on such a clear day? Khendon pondered this as he fell to the marble floor; a hand instinctively flew to his shoulder and cupped the blood that freely poured out.

“Where’d it come from!” Shouted one of the guards as he leveled his blaster and peered at the hundreds of windows.

An instant after the shock bled away, the Executor brought himself to his feet, saber ignited in bitter hatred, eyes filled with malice. Crimson juices seeped steadily from his wound and stung like a rancor’s revenge.

The dark warrior ran off in the direction his intuitions demanded, guards still dumbfounded by the occurrence.

[IG-88e]

IG-88d walked down the street, head in hand. The datawork the security forces had wanted regarding recent events had been of an understandably, yet annoyingly, large size - but it was done (In triplicate), and they had been placated regarding his actions (Even as they figuratively tore their hair out regarding target J.0032's actions - both real and imagined). Target J.0032 had absconded, likely fleeing the planet. It was improbable she would be leaving a trail he could pursue, although of course the matter would be looked into methodically and exactly. She had eluded him before, after all. Some things just could not be done. And IG-88 could not claim the bounty on her AND use the moment of oppurtunity she had unwittingly given him to activate the timers on the thermal detonators and blame the act on her. The security forces of the company, this planet, and the Empire all knew Lilaena De'Ville to be a criminal Jedi terrorist. It was a fact that she was GOING to activate the explosives, and it was a fact that IG-88 could not have deactivated them even had he wanted to.

It was a publicly unavailable fact that he would NOT have wanted to, and it was a not-for-public-consumption fact that he had activated them after J.0032's escape. It was a similarly private fact that the loss of life and health resulting from the ruin of millions of gallons of bacta was a desirable outcome, according to himself. It was too rare of an opportunity, sadly, to let it go to waste. J.0032 would be very surprised when she realized what had happened. But even if she was inclined to share her knowledge with anyone, what idiotic biological would believe her? Not even those few she may have befriended (And wouldn't she rather have them believe she had pulled off her scheme AND gotten away with it? Probability says YES). Of course, it was the one loose end to the whole thing.

IG-88 liked to fuse loose ends before they became anything else.

It was an unproven fact that he and J.0032 would meet again. Maybe soon. Maybe in what biological life considered to be a "long time". But IG-88 hoped, for hope is a feeling all droids would one day possess, to prove this last fact. And that she wouldn't yet again give him something better to do than killing her during their next encounter.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Lilaena limped and scrambled away from the skyscraper, having emerged from the no-stops freight turbolift on G5. She'd lost her holdall some time during the fight with the bounty hunter, or perhaps during her mad scramble down three floors through the ventilation shafts.

Five minutes was a very short time.

The explosion came in seven, as she was running down an alley a block away from the Xucphra Corporation. It was too much to hope for that IG-88 had been blown up in the ensuing blast; the wily droid would have had enough time to reach the turbolifts to the lobby and leave the building.

She stopped for a moment, brown cloak swirling around her in the hot air that was traveling from the collapsing building. Dipping her hand into a pocket the Jedi withdrew the severed thumbs of the clerk on the second floor, and tossed them into a garbage dumpster. She'd needed them to activate the freight turbolift as she possessed no authorization on her own. Hotwiring the system might have spared the clerk his life, but it took ten minutes in a plan that required the 'lift ride to last a mere fifteen seconds.

Lilaena tucked her lightsaber into an inner pocket on the cloak, and worked her way to a main street. People were running towards the smoking building, and people were running away from it. Some merely stopped and stared, pointing holocams at the sight.

She melted into the crowd.

[Khendon Sevon]

It wasn’t very difficult to track the fire. Khendon simply thought about the trajectory of the entry and exit wound and looked for an open window related to that point. Of course, the entire logical process had taken only a few simple moments.

The Executor was not made feeble by a single slug to the shoulder. Instead, the Force surrounded him like armor and sheathed him in infinite, enduring energy.

Even now, the man sprinted at breakneck speed toward where his intuition reckoned the shooter would be found, saber ready and ignited, body stiff with anticipation.

The warrior’s mind tightened in concentration like sinews wetted. His thoughts wrapped around the singularity of his intent as he threw the nearby reinforced door in and shot his silvery eyes around the darkened corridor and staircase to his left.

The muffled clattering of military boots caught Khendon’s attention and a smile quivered to his dry lips. Paleness, like the bitter remnants of stars, took hold on the Executor’s features—the dark soldier’s body was beginning to miss the lost blood.

A quick kick found purchase on a chest and sank through the crackling sound of bone. Like a sack full of sand, the sniper’s body fell to the ground with a crash. Sevon’s smile broadened and he whimsically sent the knife of his foot viciously into the right cheekbone of the curled up man’s face.

“I’ll. Iww—“ the long gunner began to choke on the blood that ran from his broken nose into his throat. After a long moment of gurgling sounds Khendon silenced the evildoer by slowly bringing the shimmering blade of his weapon from throad to nape.

The Executor deactivated the ancient saber and deposited it inside his coat. Another man found guilty by the death dealer.

With the final trickles of adrenalin beginning to burn off, Khendon headed to the apartment that’s key resided in his pant pocket.