"If it hasn't gotten me killed yet, it's worth repeating."
Being surrounded by five highly capable murderers with drawn weapons was not the weirdest or most dangerous thing I had ever encountered. Not the former because my friends back home were certifiably insane. Not the latter because none of the weapons were pointed at me.
That left the role of peacemaker up to me.
Huh, my life really had gotten weird in the past year.
"Oh, good, we all know each other," I quipped. Briefly, the cluster of red plasma swords flickered in my direction, but not for long. "That simplifies things."
"Nestor." Natia's voice was pitched lower than usual, clearly warning me. Unfortunately for her, it had the opposite effect. "Why did you bring a Jedi here? Is this your grand plan for glory? Killing off a bunch of apprentices?"
"Natia, I don't think…" one of the other apprentices began to speak, a rather impressively bulky man who was rather tragically partial to the armored bodysuit that so many Sith called armor. A fashion sense that Natia shared, to the active detriment of my attention span.
"That's why she was able to convince us, genius," another of the apprentices groaned out, already deactivating his weapon and collapsing back into one of the generously upholstered chairs I had used to furnish the lounge. As his head came to rest upon its service, I recognized as one of the people from that bar meetup where Hibal had gotten himself thrown out the door: Levin.
Wasn't he the one who was very sensitive to stray thoughts?
At least the third apprentice seemed… normal. Well, she was a woman who looked like she came up to my chin. Given how short women were the primary cause of making my life interesting, that was a big plus in my book. If she would just put away the lightsaber, that would be an even bigger plus, but I was willing to take what I could get.
"Never mind, introductions are clearly necessary," I said lightly, trying not to dwell too much on the four people looking for an excuse to murder each other. "Natia, meet Lia, Jedi Knight. She saved my life and thinks I owe her. Lia, meet Natia, Sith Apprentice. She is my most capable and trusted ally among the Sith. With her are the strongest and most reliable of her allies."
"The flattery is appreciated," Natia said, nodding slowly but not shifting her lightsaber. Behind her, two of the other three apprentices made gestures suggesting I should keep the compliments rolling. "Your idiocy is not. Why is she here?"
"I will answer that if everyone puts away their weapons," I declared, shooting a meaningful glance at the Little Jedi. She met it, said nothing, but lowered her humming blade to point at the floor and the rather nice rug that I would rather not see covered in scorch marks. Worryingly, Natia did not say anything. "And I promise to keep the flattery coming?"
The Little Jedi chose that moment to jam an elbow into my side.
Right. Not the time for levity.
"Acceptable." Natia, for her part, clearly had different priorities from the Little Jedi. At her word, the remaining weapons in the room were extinguished. Well, except for one. The blue lightsaber required me to shoot a slightly more pointed look at its wielder. Even though I was wearing a mask, I got the point across.
"She's here to help in the hunt for Darth Angral," I revealed. Judging by the collective hissed intake of breath, and the hushed mutter of 'silver-tongued bastard', that came to the surprise of the newest additions to my power base. "Will that be a problem?"
"How?" the buff apprentice asked, his tone incredulous. Yeah, I should have expected that.
"Consider it a means of protecting my investment," the Little Jedi said matter-of-factly. "It's a lot easier from the same room than from across the galaxy."
"The same reason Natia's here, then," the tallest woman in the room commented. That earned her a glare from her ally, but she did not seem to care. "Makes sense."
"Good to know that logic has not yet taken the easy way out," I said. "Shall we begin?"
"I had Loa pull a copy of Darth Angral's file from the intelligence database," she said, sending a glance to the tallest woman in the room. Neat, looks like I had a name to go along with that face. Now if only the image weren't spoiled by sulfurous eyes and stringy brown hair… eh, nobody was perfect. "Of course, that was before I knew a Jedi would be joining us."
"She's part of this little adventure," I stated before turning to the Sith who had apparently brought a fair bit of information to this session. "Which makes her need to know the same as ours. Loa, the floor is yours."
"Darth Angral, Sphere of Imperial Intelligence," the other Sith woman, Loa, spoke. "Father of Sith Lord Tarnis, recently deceased on a mission to Coruscant. Network of favors classified above my clearance but assumed to be extensive due to his access to Harrower-class dreadnought Oppressor. Three known former apprentices: Lords Nefarid, Praven, and Sadic. Last known locations are Alderaan, Tatooine, and Nar Shaddaa, respectively. Current apprentices are unknown in number."
My first thought was that that report was awfully brief for an extract from an intelligence database. My second thought was that one of those planets sounded awfully familiar…
"Lord Sadic is here?" I asked as soon as the coin dropped a fraction of a heartbeat later. "On Nar Shaddaa?"
"Correct."
"Anything specific?"
"Everything else was classified above my clearance."
"Of course," I muttered. "Any ideas for where we can look?"
Silence reigned for several seconds. Glances were exchanged between some of the apprentices, though I could only guess at the meanings. Did they not want to reveal any sensitive information in front of the Little Jedi? Did they not want to embarrass themselves with a bad idea?
"I might have one." The Little Jedi eventually broke the silence. "Though it relies on conjecture."
"The alternative is scouring an entire planet," Levin mentioned, his head still planted solidly on the table. "Lay it out."
"The mission to Coruscant that killed Lord Tarnis involved a stolen piece of technology known as the Planet Prison," she said. "Originally developed by the Republic, it charges a planet's atmosphere to turn it into a continuous ion shield, preventing any ships from landing or leaving."
Right, that rang a bell. Then again, maybe it was just the Republic spending countless credits on worthless prestige projects instead of rebuilding their economy was something I had already encountered before. Truth be told, I was not certain which outcome I found more depressing.
"Go on," the buff apprentice prompted.
"It was developed by Doctor Nasan Godera. While I was on Taris, there was an attack by imperials in the same compound that held the doctor," she revealed. "If these events are related, then that would mean Darth Angral is going after the various weapons Doctor Godera developed for the Republic."
Well, it certainly made sense.
And it was starting to tickle something in the back of my head, something half-remembered…
"Do you have a list?" I asked, preferring to focus on the present instead of pursuing that odd sense of déjà vu.
"I was not part of the full briefing," she answered. "Once we link up with the Republic effort to hunt down Darth Angral, their team will present a more complete picture, courtesy of Doctor Godera and whomever else the High Council chooses to send."
"Once?" Natia asked. "You assume we will join you?"
"You already have," the Little Jedi flatly stated. "The formalities have merely been delayed."
"Don't flatter yourself," warned the buff Sith. "We're here because of Natia. Natia is here because of Nestor, the same as you."
"Some of us are regretting our choice to do the right thing," muttered Levin.
Yeah, this wasn't productive. Reaching out with the Force, I grabbed hold of the dozen or so chairs that surrounded the table at various distances and lifted them a few centimeters into the air. A second later, I let them all fall. The racket was enough to drown out the incipient argument, at least momentarily.
"Let's try to pretend we're adults," I told my loose web of allies. No doubt I would spend a lot more time in my future trying to get them to not actively murder each other. "Would someone be so kind as to pull up a map of Nar Shaddaa? I'd like to brainstorm some ideas about where Lord Sadic is hiding."
The female Sith – Loa, I reminded myself – complied, activating the holo-projector mounted in the middle of the round table. A few seconds of focused fiddling with the machinery later, a pale blue facsimile of the excessively urbanized moon hovered just below eye level.
"… now, if I were a lunatic recreating a stolen superweapon, where would I be?" I asked nobody in particular.
"Somewhere with access to landing pads, lots of resources, and minimal oversight?" the buff Sith suggested.
"That's all of Nar Shaddaa," Natia pointed out. "Loa, can you put a filter of the areas where Hutt control is the weakest and imperial control the strongest?"
The tall Sith gave the short Sith a flat look.
"This is a projector hooked up to the Holonet, not a database terminal," she pointed out, still poking around on the projector. She was still looking for something, that much was certain. "Unless your dearest collaborator knows something I don't?"
She punctuated that question with a glance in my direction before continuing her work on the projector. I was going to need to have that thing swept for bugs when this was over, I already knew. Better to just dump it.
"Next plan, then," I said, my tone sanguine. "Who might know where Lord Sadic is?"
"Assuming they would tell us?" the Little Jedi asked.
"We have four frustrated Sith on our side," I reminded her. "I imagine having uncooperative witnesses is an incentive for them."
"Talking about someone while right in front of them is considered rude in some parts of the Empire," Natia said, glaring first at her companion and then at me. Unfortunately for her, I was used to attracting the ire of short women, so it really did not do much. "No matter how good your point."
"To answer your question, however, I think I have an idea." Loa finally stopped her work on the projector and the image of Nar Shaddaa was updated to show… a single red dot not far from our current location. Oh, it had a text box, how convenient…
Wait, that was the local Imperial Intelligence outpost.
The one in the Duros Sector.
"Yes, I suspect Imperial Intelligence would know more than they're letting on," the Little Jedi commented. "Though I cannot approve the torture part of the plan."
"Oh no, the Jedi disapproves, what a catastrophe," the buff Sith said, voice thick with sarcasm. "How shall I ever recover?"
"I think the issue is more that Intelligence would be able to resist any interrogation attempts," I said. "And also that they're all technically closer to Darth Angral and Lord Sadic than to us. They'd be obligated to report our presence, which means Lord Sadic would know..."
And that was when I got an idea.
"Oh no," Natia whispered. "I can't understand your thoughts, but I can feel the mischief. You just got another terrible idea, didn't you?"
"All his ideas are terrible," the Little Jedi commented. "But you have first-hand experience?"
"The last time he had an idea, he used himself as bait to extort his superiors."
"Why mess with perfection?" I asked, broad grin plastered on my face beneath my mask. "There's no way Sadic could ignore four apprentices and the Empire's most troublesome Sith Lord making polite inquiries at the local Intelligence outpost."
"And a Jedi," Levin added, and my grin only grew.
"If we have a Jedi with us, they will never let us past the front door," Loa pointed out.
"Lia will take one of your places," I said. "But that will mean I need to leave one of you behind in order to maintain the illusion of our numbers... Levin, can you manage communications from here?"
"You mean I can stay here?" he asked, suddenly quite a bit more animated, to which I gave a small nod. "Consider it done."
Ah, how I loved it when a plan started to come together. All we needed now was a way to disguise what was obviously a Jedi as literally anything else, and we would be golden.
No doubt Natia had an extra set of robes. Those should fit. Mostly.
In terms of height.
...
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