“As you can see, there are two refineries that meet our criteria on the surface, those that are still operated solely by the Mining Guild and without Imperial super-cedence.” Alexsandr Kallus stated with a hand splayed wide toward two pulsing red circles within a sector wide holo image of their own neighboring Calamari. “The Roarken Fields host sizable pockets of Clouzon gasses within the Pimmen Belt. As the Mon Cal and Quarren are the primary utilitarian they are also the primary brokers.” He continued as he pinched his chin with his free hand, the bearded growth folding in and around his neck.
“The Mining Guild will want more than reasonable recompense for ceasing operations, and Dac will counter offer I am sure. We don’t have the funds to even begin negotiating on that level.” The voice of Governor Izadi rang through the darkened chamber, his deep baritone transcending its own echo. “We may have more luck if we extend the field to incorporate Kessel, that Sector is utter chaos at this point.” He continued.
“If we focus too far from our own sector we may miss the point entirely. We’d have more luck concentrating on a known Imperial sector.” Areti Sigurn added as her form came to life with her strides toward Kallus, “if you understand my meaning.”
Kallus chuckled to himself as she said what he was thinking, “they might not.” He added, coming dangerously close to laughing outright.
“And what are the rest of us missing?” Zebs’ gravelly voice croaked through the chamber, the yellows of his eyes seeming to hover in the darkness as most turned to him.
“Only that perhaps we should be focused on Imperial installations or at the very least, Imperial brokered Mining Guild facilities. Between Areti and I, we can work out feasible operations within the Atruud Chain.” Kallus responded to the inhaled gasps of most in attendance.
“Tund?” Hera finally spoke up, the suddenly alive chattering hushed instantly as she rose from her seat in the darkness and approached the holoimage, the pulsing red switching from the two original points many parsecs distant to a solitary point much closer to their own. Her narrowed blue eyes catching the false light of the emitter as she folded her hands across her chest. “I’ll remind you how tenuous our position remains Sandr, if we stir the pot too much we could put Lothal right back into Imperial crosshairs.”
“I do not make my suggestions lightly Hera and would not jeopardize the sustained peace of this system under any circumstances, only that it could be accomplished with our working knowledge of pertinent Imperial protocol, something Ms. Fardi risked everything for.” Kallus laid out his objective with as much transparency as possible, knowing it would garner the structural basis for his argument that few, if any, could argue.
“You don’t mince words Sandr, I’ll grant you that. I just hope her sacrifice doesn’t contain any hidden costs.” Hera swallowed hard, adjusting her eyes slightly to sweep the darkness beyond the holo emitters blue glow. ‘Where is Ani.’ She thought to herself, hoping the comments didn’t provoke the Mirialan despite her past assurances to the contrary. “Ani?” She asked, certain that she didn’t see her present.
“She’s not here Hera.” Sabine informed them all, her voice almost timid as the sounds of unsettled shuffling coursed through the room, each attendee swiveling their gazes back to Hera as they concluded their own searches for the Mirialan.
“Do you know where she is Sabine?” Hera asked, her facial features drawing downward as several other gazes throughout the chamber fell to the floor.
“If she isn’t in the yards, she’s up on the reaches.”
✦
The smells fresh in her nose, Kowani extended her right arm back as far as she could and with tremendous effort, snapped it forward, launching the fist sized rock as far out into the crashing waves as possible. The Force proffered its own visual cue as the projectile splashed home well beyond her acute hearing, golden water offering her the confidence to determine distance as it arced upward briefly before cascading back down into the endless sea. Highlighted wave upon golden wave assuring her the body of water was just as alive as she was, each folding in upon the one before it as they all found the impediment of land in a crescendo of auditory bliss to her ears. The sound eagerly buffeting the discomforts of emotion, the impairment of sight and her frustrations of speech. All of them consumed and sent forth from thought as the next wave crashed into the barrier of her cliff sixteen meters below her feet.
Kowani sat herself on the worn boulder that had catered to countless hours of seated musings spanning generations beyond mortal comprehension as she let her aching arm relax in the heat of the evening sun, ‘forty-two.’ She thought, counting the last rock thrown from her perch in this particular session.
“I know I missed the briefing…” Kowani said, hearing soft heal to toe footfalls upon the dry windblown grasses behind her, “I didn’t expect you to make it all the way out here though.”
“It would have been good to hear your input but don’t worry about the briefing, I want to know what we can do to help you right now.” Hera’s calming voice sounded over the breaching surf meters below. “If it’s about Ahsoka…”
Kowani turned her gaze from the endless sea toward the Twi’lek, a faint scent of Misak herb and Meilooran seed oil prevailing through the Eastern breeze, “yes and no.” Kowani stated dryly, not wanting to impinge on anything else Hera may have had ready.
“Slide over Ani.” Hera said, planting her own backside upon the weathered stone. “You need to understand something about this crew, about us. When it comes to matters of the self, you will find no greater ally than any one of us through whatever battles your fighting.” Kowani could hear her shift slightly, noting the subtle turn of the Twi’leks body and sharper inflection of her oration. She knew this would happen, although she had expected Sabine to be the one seated next to her, not Hera.
“I do Hera, I do know.” Kowani began, hearing the soft mews of a cat some meters distant and the blissful chirps of a mated pair of Krel as they sat precariously atop dry weather-beaten branches overlooking the rocky cliffside to her right. “This is the closest thing to family I think any of us have felt in a very long time.” Her vocater croaked laboriously as it worked through the included emotion to evoke some form of sentiment. “I am just unsure what direction is the next one if you take my meaning. I know the Purrgil are important to you and this crew, hell, the whole planet from what I’ve heard, and I want that to be important to me as well, but I can’t draw any relation between them and my purpose.”
“You sound a lot like Ezra shortly after we lost Kanan, in fact, it took him awhile to figure out his own purpose.” Hera admitted to Kowani, fighting through her attached emotions to deliver it unhindered by included sentiment, Kowani, however, picked up the faintest traces of sorrow and a certain bridging anger that led to nowhere in particular. ‘Anger that leads nowhere.’ Kowani thought to herself as she let the statement sink in. “Hypothetically, you leave Lothal Ani. Where do you go first?” The question surprised Kowani.
“Conum Arnia.” Kowani stated, despite the suddenness of topic shift, she had prepared that answer well in advance.
“Solo?” Hera was only pointing out the obvious.
“If I need to, yes.” Kowani returned, admitting to the basis of her stubbornness without the crutch of emotion. “I know you’re going to need everyone else here Hera, so I understand where this is going.”
Kowani could hear Hera chuckle softly under her breath, “then take CZ….if he agrees of course.”
Kowani let her surprise show as her mouth dropped open, the bewilderment cresting her own conscious thought as it swallowed up the prepared stubborn retorts and illegitimate defensiveness that drove her overall temper as of late with one massive swell.
“I asked the Yards crew to upgrade your armament last week. Their installing Sienar Mk. Five turbo laser batteries on the ‘Morai’s’ foils as well as a host of offensive weaponry anywhere they can fit it.” Hera continued, “we do not know what form of presence the Empire will have in the system so the better prepared you are the quicker you can find your answers.”
“You found a way into the factories didn’t you?” Kowani asked, knowing full well the denizens of Lothal couldn’t have coughed up enough credits for turbo laser batteries.
“Me? No. Sandr and Areti, yes.” Hera confided, “because of that, the ‘Morai’ is also host to twin IG45’s.”
“Twins?” Kowani doubted the statement, “that would rip the ship apart!”
“You have your particular areas of expertise, I have mine.” Hera laughed her response as she clapped a hand on Kowani’s shoulder. She let the humorous tone diminish in a natural fashion, the winds carrying her light hearted chuckle with them out to sea. Hera could feel the welling emotion within the Mirialan, seeing through the toughened exterior and directly into the vibrant conflict that seemed to be tearing the woman apart inside. Knowing now was the time for silence she only pulled Kowani’s head to her own shoulder, offering the struggling Mirialan the harborage of safety in its simplest form.
Hera could feel the wracking sobs as Kowani tried holding back her emotions to no avail, feeling the woman’s full weight press against her frame as she let the sum of her tensions fall away, the defensive walls crumble at their footings. Kowani reached a trembling hand for the small switch below the vocater attached to her throat and deactivated the device so the duration of her unfettered emotion could run its course, unwilling to allow the alien sounds to erect the defensive walls once again. For a long moment they sat there, Kowani in Hera’s complete charge and Hera herself offering the support only she could to the struggling woman, amid the ceaseless breezes that carried the scents of healthy crops of grain and the crashing waves finding the border of their own watery world far below.
“Jacen!” Kowani cried out, forgetting she had turned off the device after a while. She pulled her head from Hera’s shoulder and turned toward the Twi’lek, switching on the vocater through the action. “You’ve been out here and this whole time I haven’t asked about Jacen.” She felt terrible forgetting her own sentiments while also cursing herself for her own selfishness.
Hera placed a hand over Kowani’s, resting gently atop her own knee, “he’s fine.” She said with a chuckle, “Bren has been invaluable as of late and insisted on watching over him for a while.” Although the comment was indeed genuine, Kowani couldn’t overlook the subtle twitch in Hera’s frame and slightest of wavers through her voice.
“She has her own plans as well, doesn’t she?” Kowani asked the question she felt Hera had feared to answer.
“She does. Ahsoka must have made an impression I would wager because she wants to return to Halrun Kal in much the same capacity she has offered her services to Lothal.” Hera admitted, Kowani unsurprised.
“Funny thing, hope.” Kowani said stretching her legs before her, “once planted it spreads like wildfire.”
“It does at that…” Hera began, her view out over the cresting waves as she felt Kowani’s hand tense suddenly. Hera froze in place, slowly turning her head toward the Mirialan who had canted her own a few degrees, her ear turned to the sourcing of the breeze behind them. “What is it?” She whispered in response.
Kowani only lifted a finger to her lips as she shifted the angle of her head a few more degrees. The suddenness of the changes took her by surprise, and she credited her awareness with even picking them up. The mews had stopped from the neighboring Loth cats, something had shifted their dynamic from warm curiosity to turbulent restlessness as those same mews became muted growls.
The Krel had ceased their cooing and had parted slightly as Kowani tuned in the rustle of their wings. She could hear their claws bite deeper into the dry wood beneath them as the branch creaked softly in the breeze. The scents of ripened grain still present upon them as they mingled with subtle hints of carbon and heavy oils, an odorous Capthca paste doing its best to work those scents from the air. “We are not alone…” Kowani whispered with a warble, “did anyone accompany you?”
“No.” Hera whispered in return, sliding from her seated position to rest on her knees as she swiveled her body behind the rock. She squinted her eyes to shield them from the setting sun as she scanned the broad expanse between the cliff’s edge and the erected park walls at the city’s side.
“They aren’t from Lothal in any case.” Kowani replied, tuning down her own volume as she continued sweeping her ears over the expanse of dried grasses, watching as each blade danced within the flows of the Force. “Look for any erratic movement within the grasses themselves Hera, there’s no cover here so they will be prone.”
“They?” Hera whispered the question, sidling closer to Kowani’s position.
“At least three.”
“And how do you know they’re not from Lothal Ani?” Hera asked.
“The paste.” Kowani replied, “Capthca is one of the best screening agents I know of, anyone from Lothal wouldn’t need it.” A sharp click resounded through her ears provoking her to adopt the same position of cover as Hera behind the rock.
“What?” Hera whispered again, squatting closer to Kowani.
“Not so close Hera, I can hear your heart slamming in your chest….someone just primed a blaster.” Kowani answered, slowing her breathing somewhat as she allowed her own channels free access to the flows of the Force around her.
The blast was sudden and sounded like an Ion thrust overburn as it ricocheted through Kowani’s ears. She sank her head below the rock’s surface dragging Hera with her as the discharge sailed harmlessly overhead, the reactives within the superheated energy burning clean with a crisp, high velocity twang, that snapped at the cool moist air around them. “DC-15LE….tuned and with muzzle extension.” Kowani said, “What color was the discharge?”
“Red.” Hera replied, her face centimeters from the ground.
“Cyclonic acceleration and an unregulated gate. Assassins.”
“Target? And on who’s authority?” Hera raised her voice slightly as her mind spun rapidly. “How the hell would I know that? My hearing may have been amplified but I have yet to read minds.” Kowani almost laughed her response, knowing the point at which silence was important had now passed. “To the Empire, you’d be a fairly high value target.”
“I won’t argue that, but you’ve heard both Sandr and Areti, the Empire will not return to Lothal if they already haven’t.”
“How many more times will this rebellion underestimate what the Empire will or will not do…”
“Ani….assassins?” Hera rerailed the conversation before Kowani took the opportunity to sidetrack herself through diatribe.
“Right. We’ll kill two and keep the third alive for questioning.” Kowani agreed, moving a hand slowly to her saber hilt.
Another loud click caused Kowani to press her face to the ground again, Hera’s head tail brushing against her forehead. The bolt slammed into the face of the rock with thunderous report, raining debris around them both as the stone itself began to pop from a deep-rooted crack. Hera rolled to her knees as she withdrew her Blurg, priming it to fire before she came to a full stop. “If we don’t move they’ll begin flanking this stone, and as I am sure your aware, our only option at that point would be over the cliff.” Kowani blurted as she ground her teeth. She could sense the anger she had thought repressed coming alive within her, two more clicks offering the solemn notion that they were out of time. The decision to give in completely to the anger brought with it the promise of a hasty conclusion to the predicament on top of the answers she personally sought as to motive but understood what Ahsoka had been going through for so long as the consequences of such action would assuredly work their way further into her thoughts, as daunting as they already were. Her thought quickly shifted to Hera by her side and how Jacen was already minus one parent through the galactic conflict, damned if she would let the Empire take them both. She closed her eyes and slowed her breathing to a crawl as she unclipped her saber hilt from her side and quickly jumped to the rocks surface, igniting the blade as she did so.
The bolts fired from their muzzled housings immediately, Kowani dancing with a pirouette as they sailed over her head. A third fired a few seconds later from a position far removed to her right, the sound arcing through her mind as she continually painted a mental image of the scene. She raised her saber with a satisfying warbling hum as she flicked her wrist enough to send the bolt screaming off to her left toward the approximate position of the other two intruders. No time was wasted through astonished antics or surprise as the two to Kowani’s left simply rolled to adjacent positions and engaged their rapid-fire mechanisms, transforming the ‘LE’s’ into ‘LXE’s.’ Kowani knew she would need to remain low to the ground to compensate for the erratic barrel behaviors the new property would exhibit, even with a skilled finger on the trigger. She crouched low to the ground, taking in a breath only when her abdominal muscles relaxed and exhaled only when they contracted through the tight rolls she employed to navigate the distance between herself and her attackers.
Kowani was able to identify more characteristics the closer she came, notably the lack of increasing heartrate or labored breathing as their prey closed the gap. ‘Well trained, disciplined.’ She thought to herself as she heard the third intruder slide from the grasses to her right and toward the rock and Hera. Kowani pressed her body to the ground to give her a moment of perspective, a modicum of precious seconds to judge whether Hera would need her to return. She could hear the Twi’lek moving to the opposing side of the stone and knew she was at least aware of what was going on, ‘thirteen seconds.’ Kowani told herself, creating a mental portrait of her coming actions in an effort to negate as much indecision as possible. She lifted her face from the dried grasses and between blaster bursts enough to make more headway, the sounds offering the perfect buoy with which to mark her progress. Kowani timed each step to the side between bursts, deflecting only a few of the bolts in her own efforts to skew their timing in return.
Kowani took the fraction of a second to note the fielded darkness amid the golden tailings of the Force touched grasses ahead of her, spacious areas the Force seemed to actively avoid. She knew they could only be Force sensitive agents, which would bring any Imperial association into question, although not outrightly dismissing it. They were cloaking themselves within the Force, most assuredly unaware that its representation was precisely what Kowani saw beyond anything else. She knew there were other installations within the vast reaches of the Empire other than Keno, Symphar or Danth but couldn’t shake the notion that this presence was recognizable, almost stoically so. ‘No...it can’t be…’ She thought to herself, but decided there was only one way to find out, “O two six?” Kowani shouted, still dancing methodically forward between blaster bolts as the firing on the left became more erratic. Kowani could feel an offensive presence within the confines of the Force trying to slow her movements as it encroached slightly on her voluntary muscle control. “It is you isn’t it.” She dropped to the ground, extinguished her saber, and rolled to her back, all while working her damndest to control the irrational laughter that threatened to take her psyche right out of the encounter. “You still couldn’t hit the broad side of a Star Destroyer while standing on it.” She shouted with continued mocking laughter.
“Ani!” Hera shouted from her position at the stone. Kowani tilted her chin low to her chest as she raised her head slightly to see the Togruta’s hands in the air followed closely by a figure dressed in tatters of cinched cloth the same color as the dried grasses surrounding them. It’s hooded head making it almost impossible to identify gender or even race, but the canted gait suggested male human. Kowani ceased the laughter long enough to raise herself from the ground, raising the saber to her chest without igniting the blade and turned back toward the position of the other two intruders, slipping her left hand into the pack at her side. “Come on out two six, let’s get this rendezvous over with.”
“Keno Tactical three zero six, lower your weapon and let us see those hands.” The voice was definitely male and not zero two six, but she couldn’t tell which of the two had spoken.
‘Ten seconds.’ Kowani told herself as she gauged the approximate distance between herself and Hera in relation to that of herself and the two interlopers before her. “You have nine seconds to live, how do you choose to die.” The words provided the trigger she needed to openly admit the anger free reign over her actions. It drove her channeling deep into the flows of the Force, ensnaring its raw energies both light and dark. She could see faint outlines of the perpetrators in front of her as the Force negated their own abilities to conceal themselves within it, providing all the data Kowani would ever need to end them on the spot.
“Lower that weapon now KT three zero six!” This time it was O two six, Kowani would never forget that voice.
“I warned you on Keno.” Kowani blurted as she gripped the hilt of Windu’s saber within the confines of the pouch at her side.
“That was then….” O two six began.
“And this is now!” Kowani cried out as she pulled with all the built-up energies within at the hostile beside Hera, his body leaping from the ground in a gravity defying acceleration that snapped his head back sharply toward her. Kowani ignited her primary with a resolute snap of electric modulation in the same moment her left hand fired from the pack, both saber tips conjoining behind her as the body impaled itself on their collective waiting blades. Whether dead from the bone snapping acceleration or the double wide impalement Kowani didn’t care as she lept up from her crouched position ripping the blades through the remainder of the torso until they were free of obstruction, twirling them both in satisfying arcs as the head was severed clean from the neck. Her next target was the first to respond with a sharp click of his blaster rifle. Kowani covered the two-meter distance severing the barrel of the weapon from its power core as he pulled the trigger. Although contained within the firearm the resulting blast was enough to shock Kowani’s chest and take the man’s left arm off.
Kowani’s anger surging into a crescendo of fury, she recovered from the sonic impact to drop to her ankles, whirl on her heels as she dug the mechanical implant deep into the ground and became a cyclone of ravaging dismemberment as both blades severed flesh and cleaved bone without effort. She stopped her twirling action with an abruptly placed foot and stood erect as she whirled the pink blade one final time to sever the man’s head only because his screams of torment were driving Kowani to the brink of madness. As the bodies parts settled to the ground like processed meat, she brought the purple blade within millimeters of O two sixes carotid artery. She let the blaster drop to the ground without mercy as the scent of cooked meat met everyone’s nostrils. “What are you doing here?” Kowani barked through the haze her fury had ignited.
“Following orders.” She said after a long moment.
Kowani only stared into the golden outline of the woman she had threatened so long ago, and without a word let the saber bite into the arch between shoulder and neck with careful and meticulous precision. The fusion of organic systems to one another popping and sizzling as they cooked together, overtaken only by the shuddering scream of agony the woman employed, the blade only leaving garish wound because she could stand no longer and dropped to her knees.
“Hera, could you please check the deceased’s left forearms for a brand.” Kowani asked in a calm voice, her head unmoving as she focused the entirety of her remaining anger on the wounded woman before her.
“We’re all from Keno Y’mmat.” O two six spat through the pain as she tore at the cloth on her left arm revealing the figure head, half flesh, half skull. “That stunt years ago did more harm than good.”
“Whose orders?” Kowani refused to be baited.
“Kill me now or I will just hunt you down again.” O two six bleated through her agony, spitting a sizable amount of saliva from her mouth as it began dripping from corners of her lips. Kowani flash ignited the pink saber, biting into the same location on the other side of the woman’s neck, with the same deadly precision as she had previous, leaving both her and Hera to the screams of wailing agony that only echoed over the short stretch of grassy plain.
“Kowani…” Hera pleaded as she moved a few steps closer to the Mirialan.
O two six seethed air between her clenched teeth as Kowani returned the sabers to their origins, “Sylde….” she said with significant effort, lifting both hands to cover the raw and bubbling flesh about her shoulders.
“He moves in defiance of the Emperor, I am surprised he had the courage.” Kowani said lowering herself on her haunches to bring herself at eye level with the woman, “but the question is why is it not?”
“If you were the Monnok’ what would be your second move?” O two six panted as the words became harder to articulate. “In my….pocket….emitter….what...what did you….do...to me.”
“Severed your carotid, your brain is being drained of blood as we speak. You have another ten seconds of life remaining, so I will answer your question.” Kowani spoke, feeling a connection she hadn’t at any point earlier to the electronic warble of her modified voice, “If I were the Monnok’...I would flip the table and improvise KT-026 because that is what Fardi taught me.” She said calmly placing a warm hand on the woman’s cooling face and pushing slightly until the body fell backward. Kowani’s hand was in the woman’s pocket before her head hit the ground, feeling for, and retrieving exactly what was promised.
Kowani turned to Hera, fully expecting an exasperated reprimand but finding only the Twi’leks feverish panting. “Relax Hera, they would have done the same to us.”
“That is the most illogical evasion I’ve ever heard you utter Ani. Killing is one thing, this was butchery.” Hera said quickly but with conviction.
Kowani raised a hand as she offered the emitter she had taken from the dead woman’s pocket, “because I needed to send a message to the party that witnessed the encounter.”
Hera looked at the device with narrowing eyes, noting the activated record feature that Kowani had paused.
“To whom?”
“Captain Evan Sylde, Commanding officer of Sidious’ Silent Fleet, one of Keno’s first graduates, and the man responsible for N’dali’s murder.” Kowani said releasing the totality of her assistive anger in one final exhale. She pressed the device into Hera’s open hand and breathed in deeply, letting the cooling salty air wash away the filth of her fury.