Interlude: Failure
As the face of the large human man disappeared, I smiled to myself.
They don’t trust me, but the information was too good to pass up. I thought.
This was exactly the kind of thing Gaetana had wanted. Now, to set the trap. As I walked out of my quarters, one of my men came running up to me.
“Sir, there is a Lancer-class pursuit craft coming towards the surface.” “There is no way Rowahn has recovered, and made his way here this fast.”
Or these two gray Jedi. I thought as I continued to speak. “Arm all weapons, and be ready to fire should this craft attack.”
“Yes sir.” The human cried before running off to warn the rest of the crew. Quickly returning to my cabin, I threw on my brown overcoat, and grabbed my blaster, then quickly readjusted it into assault rifle configuration. Suddenly I could feel the ship shaking and hear the explosions coming from outside.
Proton torpedoes! I thought as I ran towards the cockpit. The crew were already in their different gunning positions, and all I had to do was take off. Just then another volley of torpedoes shook the ship, and the engines went offline. “Fire now, before they destroy the ship.” I yelled at the men.
Each and every modification had a purpose. Some were just for fun, but most had been designed for this meeting. As I fired volley after volley of torpedoes at the freighter, I began to laugh. I had finally caught up to the man who had murdered my sister that day. As the ship began firing back, I switched the power from the torpedoes to the deflector shields, and began a strafing run. The gun mounted on the front of the ship was not super powerful, but I would rather kill Caedon personally rather than let my ship do it. This day had been planned out for years. The location was not ideal, but that did not matter anymore.
Soon, I left off firing on them, and sought out a landing zone. As soon as I found one, I left the ship to my astromech R4-T3, and hurried to the door. I had everything prepped and ready to go before I dropped out of hyperspace. As soon as the door was open wide enough I exited the ship, and began running for cover. Forty-three quickly got the
Scholar’s Revenge up again, and I waited for my prey. I knew they would be coming, but I didn’t know how long it would take them. I had modified each piece of my armor so it would make little sound while I moved, but still provided the protection it was designed for.
As I slowly and silently moved towards their own ship, I was constantly sweeping the area. My blaster ready, my head on a swivel. Seeing movement up ahead, I raised my blaster, and aimed. Seeing nothing more, I waited a few more seconds, then slowly began moving once again. Crouching low, I proceeded in forward in squat, still continuing to observe the area.
After another few moments of movement, I could see their ship through the dense trees. There was no movement around that I could see, so I moved behind cover and waited. Waited and watched. I had chosen my armor for today well. Not only was it warm in the cold atmosphere, but it was also camouflaged almost perfectly for the terrain.
Soon I began to hear crunching in the snow. It was only a single person however, and I could tell that the person was much lighter than Caedon. As the man walked past, I could see that he was a fairly small, though extremely dangerous looking human, though there was something different about him. Unsheathing my knife, I looked around the rocks I was hiding behind to make sure no one else was coming, then silently, snuck up behind the man, and slit his throat. I did not know how many men Caedon had with him, but one less was one less.
Moving back slowly towards my own landing site, I again continued to sweep the area. As soon as I arrived, I saw Caedon and three others with him standing in the clearing where I had landed the ship. They knew I was coming, and as soon as I came into earshot, they yelled for me to come out. I was not stupid, nor did I fancy one of them getting a shot off at me before I had a chance to take down Caedon. Waiting a few moment to make sure there were no others hiding in the woods, I slowly worked my way out, staying just inside the tree-line so I could keep some cover. Peeking around a tree, I could see that while they were tense, and waiting for battle, they did not have their weapons raised, and were just waiting for me. Sizing them up, they were all fairly well armed. Caedon had his A280-CFE blaster in assault rifle configuration, as well as two thermal detonators and a thermal imploder. One was a large zabrak with a vibro-sword strapped to his back, and a CA-87 shock blaster. The remaining two were both humans. One carried an E-11 blaster rifle as well as a Vilmarh’s Revenge blaster pistol at his side. And the other carried two LL-30 blaster pistols.
I need to take out the zabrak first. I thought.
He is too big and has too good of weapons for close range. Stepping out into the opening with my raised, and ready to fire, I stared at Caedon. The hatred was visible in my eyes, and he knew it was either him or me. He was about to speak when I quickly turned, and fired both barrels at the zabrak. The shots flew true, right into his face, and he fell instantly. The shock of it gave me enough time to pull out a thermal detonator, and throw it into the center of the group. However, by the time it went off, they had already scattered and taken cover. Running through the woods in Caedon’s direction, dodging blaster fire, and hiding behind trees and rocks, I made it to the first human. As he fired, his first shot hit me in the shoulder, but I had a good piece of clone armor there, and all it did was slow me down. It was too late though, I was already on him. The man wasn’t smart enough to wear a helmet, and the butt of my rifle quickly found his head. As he fell, I continued running. I could see Caedon running off into the forest, and I could not let him escape. As blaster fire suddenly erupted around me, I dived towards cover. I was too slow, and a bolt struck me in the leg. I barely felt it with all the adrenaline coursing through me, but it slowed me down. Tossing some gas grenades behind me, I let them smoke up, then continued my pursuit. As I had hoped, the gas provided a smoke screen, as well as a barrier, for the remaining crewman did not have a mask either, and therefore could not follow me.
I heard the beeping, but paid no attention, until I ran past it, and the proximity mine went off. My armor absorbed some of the blast, but even with the armor I would have died there had I not been running. Still, the blast threw me to the ground, and knocked the breath out of me. As soon as I was recovered enough to move again, I rose and gave chase. I could see him in front of me, and I was gaining. Then he stopped, looked back, smiled, and then threw the imploder straight towards me. As it flew, I once again dove for cover, spinning as I did so, and letting loose multiple bolts at the bomb. I did not hit it, and the implosion pulled me inward. A tree stopping me from disintegrating, but the force from hitting the tree was too much. As I slumped to the ground, I looked up and saw Caedon walking towards me. Reaching into my pocket, I signaled for Forty-three. He knew what he had to do. The signal was for him to bomb the location. Even if I died, Caedon needed to as well.
“Who are you” I asked the man after removing his helmet. It wasn’t that I cared who it was died. But I did want to know who had tried to kill me, and been good enough to take out multiple of my men while chasing me. This man was good, I’d give him that. I’d also give him a clean death, he deserved it. He had come closer to killing me than any other man had in a long time.
“You killed my sister! You killed Jamima!” the man nearly screamed, as the tears came rolled down his face.
“It’s possible. I’ve killed a lot of people.”
Then he did something unexpected. He simply raised his hand and showed me a transmitter.
“Are you still trying to win? You have an over-developed sense of vengeance. It’s going to get you into trouble someday.” I asked as a smile came onto his face. “You’ve been chasing me all these years only to fail now? I think that’s about the worst thing I’ve ever heard.” Then I heard the whine of the engines, and realized what the transmitter meant.
“I haven’t failed!” He said with one last breath of desperation, and a hint of a smile on his face.
The man was brave. Foolish, but brave. “Yes you have.” I said, then I raised my blaster, and shot him through the heart. He was dead, and he had failed. Then I promptly turned and ran. I had barely a few seconds before the bombing started, but I ran hard. Realizing that if I didn’t find adequate cover soon, the man would succeed.
All I could see where rock outcroppings, and trees. Nothing hide under. So I kept running, the bombing had started, and I was still running. Suddenly I tripped, and rolled into a cave. I had no idea what was in the cave, but I figured it was better than outside, so I sat there as the ground above me shook, and the walls tried to collapse. After a few moments, the air strike was over, and the ground stopped shaking. My ears were ringing, and my heart was beating so loud it felt like my chest was going to explode, but I was alive. Slowly, shakily, I made my way out of the cave, and back towards my ship.
When I arrived, I sat down and rested. Slowly the two humans came out with their blasters pointed at me.
“Boss? Is that you?” They asked uncertainly.
“Of course it is!” I shouted. "Now get to work repairing the engines before I kill you both and leave this freezing rock! And keep an eye out for that guy’s ship!”
As they went back about their work, I took the tracker I had taken from Jord’s ship, and went off into the forest. I had seen a valley a little ways off as I had landed. As I headed towards it, I saw a dark building off in the distance. It was the first time I had noticed it, and I had no idea what it was, but it looked evil, and was full of darkness. I continued walking, and soon found the valley. Tossing the tracker into the valley, I walked off. Hopefully that would throw Rowahn off the trail, but I had another tracker set to the same frequency, in case it didn’t.
As soon as I got back to the ship, I saw that the two men that were left had found out what was wrong with the engines, and were almost done fixing it. As I went to my cabin, and sat down, I thought about the man. He had looked familiar, but not like he had ever met him before.
His sister. I realized.
He looked like his sister. I had forgotten about that day at Bar’leth. It was soon after that that I went under the radar for a while. It wasn’t until I got this job with the Empire that I came out again. I thought with a snicker.
He’s been following me for over two years. Jamima. That was her name. I never even wondered about it. I guess that’s what happens when your life sucks for the first few years of life. Oh well. Doesn’t matter now. He’s dead. She’s dead. I’m still alive, and I still have a contract to fulfill. Once his comlink rang, and the men told him that the ship was ready for takeoff, he went to the cockpit, and flew away.
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I think this is the last interlude for a while. I don't know how you all will take it, but I had a lot of fun writing it. Switching between the two POVs was hard, but I think I got it to work the way I wanted to. It is quite a bit longer than I had anticipated, but I'm extremely happy with the result. But hopefully it gave you a better look into the minds of both these characters.
And I'm sorry. I just couldn't resist quoting The Princess Bride (second time I've done it now, one was in the actual story though), the scene was too fitting no to.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this interlude.
