Foreshadowing Part One--Old Friends


The rain fell down like needles, irritating any exposed skin it touched. Sion walked through the range of metal mountains, his boots splashing in puddles almost every other step. Not many speeders went down these streets. But then a black, covered one shined its lights on Sion's tall, thin body. Sion was wearing a black cloak over a black tunic and black trousers.

The speeder slowed down as it got closer to Sion. The driver rolled down the window.

"Get in," he said.

Sion did as he was told, getting into the back of the speeder. As soon as he closed the door, the vehicle started to move again. The other seats in the speeder were filled: a well built man next to him, a woman with dark, brown hair in the front passenger seat, and of course the driver.

"Check him for weapons and scan him for bugs," said the driver.

The muscular man did the check thoroughly, he came up with nothing.

"Playing it clean, aye," said the driver. "Good, no un needed complications."

"Where are we going," asked Sion.

"To meet up with an old friend," said the driver in a far off way. "By the way, welcome to my old stomping grounds, Verinia."

"I have been here once before."

Sion didn't need to ask what was going on, he knew perfectly well what was going on. Though he didn't know everyone's name in the speeder, he had met them before. He did know the drivers name though, Tenerb. The last meeting was not as mutual as this one was suppose to be.

They had somehow contacted him through the Holonet in a some what coded way. But not a code of symbols and numbers, for the Vast Empire could crack that type of code. It was in the form of key phrases that he would only be able to pick up from his past experiences. The message consisted of this:

Dear Than Sion

This is your friends from the old mill on Kazaar, how are you doing. We are doing fine. If you can go on leave soon, we would like to meet up with you at your old home. We would like to discuss your new friends, we have met them ourselves and they are good people. Us and them do have some what of a problem and would like your help with it. Come as soon as you can, if you can.

It would seem like a friendly message, except the people from the old mill were far from his friends. They were truly members of the New Republic.  The coded form of speech went on. Since "friends" truly was sarcasm for enemy, the new friends stood for the RS. "Good people" was just a throw off for prying eyes. The problem was not mutual between the RS and NR parties but actually was the NR having a problem with them. Finally, they needed him for something, something alone since he had to go to Kazaar, a NR planet. If they wanted the rest of the VE in on it, they would have sent it to the high council. They probably wanted him specifically since he was from the VE, though he didn't know how they figured that out.  These were the same ones that had captured him. This gave Sion the idea that this had to do specifically with this faction of the NR.

Than Sion got it that his superiors were not suppose to know about this. But on the other hand, his loyalty was to them and not these rebel scums&


**Earlier Briefing Room**


"We are grateful that you brought this to our attention instead of just going out on a limb, Sion," said Shazam in a serious voice.

It had been only hours after he had brought the information to Willtconq. The occupants of the meeting only consisted of five people: Will, Shazam, Demonic, himself, and a man that he had never met before. The uniform suggested that he was Army though.

"I am right to assume that you haven't told anybody but Will yet, correct?" asked Shazam.

"That is correct sir," replied Sion.

"Good, that will make things less complicated. For all of you that don't know what is going on, I will explain. Chief Petty Officer Sion has recently been contacted by New Republic agents in the form of a well worded letter. You have all received a copy in your files. Before we get too far, I want to make it very clear that everything that is said in the room is of the utmost secret. You will tell nobody about this that I haven't told you to. Am I clear?"

Everyone in the room replied yes.

"Good," he continued, "then I will go on. Our theory that certain, more remotes, parts of the New Republic have also been having problems with the RS also seems to have been confirmed correct. I will cut right to the point, for some reason, a faction on Kazaar wants Sion's help them with a RS problem. Or maybe it would be better to claim that they say that they want Sion's help for some reason."

Some of the people in the room nodded their heads.

Shazam went on, "now what is important to understand is that these are the same insurgents that took Sion hostage on his last visit to the planet. After what damage he and, the now Army trainee, Jak they could just be looking for revenge. The thing is we don't know for sure either way. That is why the rest of you are here. Sion will lead them to believe that he had actually came alone, but we will be with him, at a distance incase something goes wrong. Captain Loner, we are going to have you and your squad keep an "eye" on Sion as he goes through this situation. He will be fitted with a passive transmitter under his skin, meaning that it will only respond when we send out a certain frequency. He can also convert it to a standard transmitter by pressing on it. He is also fitted with a pen that has an audio sensor it. He will activate this one if necessary with a key word. If anything goes wrong, your team will fix the problem, am I clear?"

"Yes sir," replied Captain Loner.

"I have a question," said Demonic, who had been quiet the whole time, "why do you need me?"

"I was just getting to that," replied Shazam. "You two have been in the squadron together for about the same amount of time. You should know how he thinks in critical situations by this time. We believe that you would be the best man for the job of directly tracking him by site. We want you to keep an actual eye on him when at all possible. I think you will like this mission though, since you will be using something very familiar to you, a speeder bike."

Demonic's eyes lit up when he heard this.

Shazam went on, "Loner's squad will also be equipped with speeder bikes. You will all be dressed in civilian clothing. You will be shipped to Kazaar by a cargo ship that will be made to look civilian. Though it has been modified just incase something does go terribly wrong. These modifications include a small hanger bay that is just big enough for two fighters. In the end your mission is to find out the intentions of these New Republic agents and if they benefit us in anyway. If so, Sion will assist. If not, you will abort mission and Loner's men will try to pull Sion out of there. You will be shipping out of here in 24 hours. Remember, no one can ever know this mission has ever taken place. After this mission is done it never happened, am I clear?"

Everyone nodded their heads.

"Then good luck men, and Godspeed to you all!" said Shazam.


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FM/CPO Than Sion/Kaph 6/Wing 1/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE(=A=)(=*SA*=)[MC:1]
Than Sion, destroyer of all things cute and fluffy!!!

**Star Destroyer Hanger**


Than Sion watched them load the fighters into the secret hanger on the cargo craft.  One of them being his personal TIE Interceptor.  They were about ready to ship out, the fighters were the last things to be loaded into the ship.  The cargo ship's hanger doors closed, now just looking like another part of the hull.  Sion headed over to the landing ramp and walked up it into the ship.  He was the last one on, so he hit the button to close the ramp behind him.

"Strap up men," the pilot of the ship said, "we are about to lift off."

"Here goes nothing," said Captain Loner.

The technicians cleared out of the way as the ship lifted off of the hanger deck and headed through the containment field.  When the ship was far enough away from the Capital Ship, the cargo ship made the jump into hyper space.


**Kazaar Air Space**

The cargo ship came out of hyperspace near the green and blue world of Kazaar.  They were immediately contacted by space control.

"Space control hailing Big Bertha, identify your business and cargo."

Of all the names they could have given this thing they called it "Big Bertha", thought Sion.

"We are making a speeder delivery to a private buyer, we are carrying nine in total," said the ship's captain.

"Please tell me where you are setting down and how many personal are aboard," said the space controls man. 

"We are setting down on location in the state of Kalos.  There is the copilot and me plus ten workers," replied the captain.

"Ok, enjoy your stay on Kazaar."

Than Sion knew exactly why space control wasn't being too tight on security with the cargo craft.  He had noticed the squadron of X-Wings doing a casual fly by of the cargo ship.  From the outside, the ship looked like it had no weapons on it.  Sion smirked at this thinking of the military grade laser cannons and missile tubes hidden behind paneling.

They brought the ship down into the atmosphere, making their way toward the state of Kalos.  They landed in a clearing in a patch of forest near the location of Sion's old house.

Welcome home again, thought Sion.


**Sion's Old House**


He stood by his old home, actually it was on the same stoop his parents had died on.  He looked in the direction of where Demonic was hiding.  This could get very interesting if they found out that he wasn't alone.  He just hoped that didn't happen.

He watched a speeder pull up the drive way.  It forced a certain flash back from his head as it stopped next to him.
"Are you one of the friends from the old mill?" asked Sion half sarcastically.

"I would be one of them," the lone man said.  "He got out and went over him with a portable scanner.  "Good, no bugs or guns.  You might be wondering why I came alone.  Well technically I am not alone, there is a lot of men hiding around here making sure you don't pull a fast one."

He got back in the driver's seat and motioned Sion to sit shot gun from him.  He reached in to his pocket casually and activated the sound transmitter by hand.  He couldn't wait until he could have the location transmitter removed from his arm, it was kind of irritating.

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The speeder stopped at a private lot.  The man lead Sion into what looked like a large machine shed but was actually a hanger.  A small, but fast looking passenger ship was the only space craft in it.

They went into the ship, the pilot was already there and so was another man.

"Sorry to cause you the trouble, but this world is not where our business is.  We had to meet up with you on another planet to throw off any one who could possibly be with you," said the man who had brought him there.

"I understand," said Sion.

"Good."

"May I ask where we are going?"

"Considering that you don't have any bugs on you I will answer that.  We are going to Verinia..."


**Aboard the Big Bertha**


"So it was a decoy location," said Loner.

"I am afraid so," replied Demonic.

"Damn, that complicates thing," said Loner.  He rubbed his chin in thought.  "We can't just use the same story as before.  Verinia is an Imperial Remnant planet.  Get a secure holonet line to Abrae, we need to speak with Shazam."

They crowded around the holographic projector.  A small form of Shazam appeared.

"Sir, there is a problem," said loner, " the New Republic operatives are taking Sion to Verinia."

"I see what you mean," replied Shazam.  "An Imperial world like Verinia would have a higher security for trade goods than a NR world.  I guess we will need to bring them in on our situation."


**Aboard the Blood Saber**


Thaan Sion sat at his desk inside his private quarters aboard the Imperial Class Star Destroyer Blood Saber.

A holo image of Grand Moff Deric came up.  "Admiral Thaan Sion, I am about to patch you in with a peculiar contact."

"Who?" asked Sion in his scruffy voice.

"A wing leader from the Vast Empire.  He has an interesting situation, I told him that you would deal with it."

"This should be interesting sir.  Though I wonder why you are talking to him." 

"Well it started out as me talking to Grand Moff Kadann, to him having me talk to the wing commander.  He will tell you the situation."

"Yes sir."

The image changed from one Imperial officer to another.

"I am Lieutenant Commander Shazam of the Vast Imperial Navy.  I have a situation, I was running a mission on Kazaar which had one of my personal contacting NR operatives.  They changed locations and are now taking him to your planet."

"Is it a hostage situation?" asked Sion. "Because if it is we could arrange a rescue mission."

"That won't be necessary, the problem is that we need to keep tabs on him and in order to do that we need access to your planet."

"I could arrange that, you just have to give me the name of the ship so I can wave it through security."

"Thank you sir, I will send you that data now."

The image winked out and was replaced by Grand Moff Deric once more.

"No one else can know the truth of this," said the Grand Moff.

"I kind of got that already considering that working with the NR doesn't look too good to our citizens," replied Thaan Sion.

"Good to know you understand.  I was briefed deeper on the situation, it seems that our mission may be linked to theirs."

"I also noticed the possibility."

"By the way, the Imperial who being taken here is that rumored Than Sion who we believe to have visited the planet less than a year ago."


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FM/CPO Than Sion/Kaph 6/Wing 1/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE(=A=)(=*SA*=)[MC:1]
I must have the power of the force, Trix lost three games due to early eight balls in pool.  

**Verinian Spaceport**


"This is where I leave you," said the mysterious man.  "I will be going back to Kazaar now after I refuel, with the rest of my entourage.  Walk down this street at this time to meet up with the next contact."

He handed Sion a piece of paper.  Than Sion then left the landing platform.  When he was out of eyeshot, he casually turned off the auditory transmitter and then went off to be checked by customs.  They obviously came up with nothing.  Sion then went through the doors out onto the streets.  Sion noticed a man in a cloak standing outside within the crowd.

"So, you were able to find me," Sion said without looking at the man.

"Let's just say we had to pull a few strings," said Demonic.

Sion left Kal without another word.  He couldn't stay to chat, it would arise suspicion.

The rendezvous was late at night, so Sion rented a room in a hotel.  He then went for a walk.  It was interesting, seeing storm troopers patrolling the streets.  Some would find it to be a form of tyranny, but he never noticed the troops harassing any of the civilians.  They were just doing their jobs.  Members of a greater thing just like Sion.

He noticed an unsuspicious person on a speeder bike.  If he didn't recognize the clothing and the speeder bike, he wouldn't have noticed him himself.  Sion turned into a historical museum.  He paid the entrance fee and started looking around.  The history of human Verinia had started out with seven small mining groups about 4000 years ago.  They had discovered the planet had great mining potential.  Than looked at the rough holos of the seven leaders of each group until he ran into one name under a holo.

It said Al Sion.  The holo showed him wearing a very familiar ring. 

So, thought Sion, this is the very important person.  He had almost passed up the museum until he was right on top of it.  It was a good thing that he chose to come inside.  The ring was something his family had been passing down for ages.  His father had said that it had belonged to a important person.  It also explained how he was related to Thaan Sion.  Then he noticed a certain symbol that went with the holo.  It was a modified hour glass shape.  On Verinia, every family had a symbol that each person bore on their shoulder on a large patch.

The history went on from the coming of the Galactic Republic and on through the Old Republic era.  Right before the forming of the Empire, a rebellion had been born on the planet.  They started a war with the corrupt government of Verinia.  That government had used the Verinian Guard to keep everyone in line.  Eventually the government had fallen with the help of the Empire. 

Sion smiled when he came to a holo of a younger Than Sion.  Thaan Sion had been a big part of the Rebellion from the start of the conflict that had become known as the "Guard War."  He had viewed them as the liberators of Verinia.  The majority of the rest of the Rebellion had a problem with the Empire and continued their war with their new, self proclaimed enemy.  Thaan Sion joined the Empire and quickly climbed the ranks.  When the Empire had fallen apart, Verinia became its own faction.  Thaan had become the leader of the Navy.

Sion left the museum with a new understanding of his family's history.


**With New Republic Agents **


They pulled up in front of a night club.  It was still pouring out as they came to the door.  A TT-8L droid stuck its head out of the door.  After the droid gave the group a short interrogation, they were let in.

"What was the point of that," asked Sion.

"Just to keep certain unwanted people out," replied Tenerb.

Sion got that that list included Imperials by the tone of voice that the Rebel had used.  A holonet feed was playing on one of the displays that was about Admiral Thrawn stealing planets from the innocent New Republic and so on and so forth.  Sion gave
Tenerb a cold look and he gave him just as cold of a smile back. 

"I wouldn't make a big deal of it here," said Tenerb, "no one is actually suppose to know what you really are.  By the way, succumbing to that urge to crack my neck wouldn't be a good idea here either."

Than Sion was shocked at this, which was exactly what he had been thinking at that moment.  It was probably just common sense though, he just hoped this person wasn't some kind of force sensitive wizard.  They ordered some drinks as they waited for the "old friend" to come along.  Someone gave the group a mean look.

"I recognized you three right away," the man said referring to the three NR agents at the table.  "You are the ones from the rebellion.  Enough to get me some what angry since that would make you now NR."

"I don't know what you are talking about," said Tenerb casually.

The man just ignored the comment and went on, "But what really made my blood boil is when I recognized your buddy.  He was one of the damn Imperials on Rameis Seven!!!"

Everybody in ear shot stopped talking and was looking at the confrontation.  He didn't know how the man knew that much about him, but he did know that the man was RS.  Five other men got up and stood around Sion's group.

"There must be some mistake," said Tenerb, "he isn't an Imperial.  We all know that Imperials are not welcome here."

"I don't believe you," said the RS man said.

It was evident that a fight was brewing.  Sion broke his bottle on the table and the NR woman pulled a knife.  The RS men took out their own melee weapons.  The large New Republic man took the first swing, knocking out a RS agent cold.  It happened so quickly as a man from the bar, wearing armor on his torso with a green tactical vest and a un detailed helmet that covered his face, knocked a RS man who had an electro spike in the back of the head with a blaster rifle.

"Nice hit phantom," said the bar tender.

Two down, four to go.

Sion cut up a mans chest pretty bad with the bottle as Tenerb kicked the crap out of another man until he wouldn't get off of the floor.  Sion's opponent let out a howl of pain just before Sion finished him off with an upper cut to the chin.  The NR Woman was engaging with another person with a knife in an impressive duel. 

The other RS man pulled out a blaster and brought it around to shoot Sion...when a bolt hit him right in the head, dropping him dead instantly.  Sion picked up the RS man's blaster and looked to the mysterious man in green.  But it wasn't his gun that was smoking but that of one in a black cloak by the entrance.  Having three blasters pointed at the last RS man, he decided that it was wise to drop the knife and put up his hands.

"Now RS scum," said Tenerb, "you will brings us to your head quarters on this planet."

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FM/CPO Than Sion/Kaph 6/Wing 1/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE(=A=)(=*SA*=)[MC:1]
I must have the power of the force, Trix lost three games due to early eight balls in pool.  

The NR woman and man, Tenerb, Than Sion, Demonic, the hostage, and the mysterious figure left the night club.  When they were safely out of ear shot, Tenerb grabbed Sion by the tunic's collar. 

"I thought you would understand that you were supposed to come alone!" he said angrily.

"I wouldn't hold it against him," said the man in armor.  "You would have done the same.  Oh yeah, there is the fact that you have two blasters pointed at your head too."

Indeed both Demonic and the mystery man had guns aimed at the New Republic agent's head.  He put down Sion and looked at the armored man. 

"I guess it isn't really that big of a deal anymore," said Tenerb.  "If he wouldn't have been there, Than Sion could have been killed.  No more talking out in the open, let's get to the safe house.  Everybody not in the speeder, follow our lead."

Everyone from the original party and the hostage got into the speeder, Demonic got back on his bike and the mystery man got onto a swoop.  They pulled out of the parking lot and back onto the open road.


**Safe House**


Another TT-8L popped its head out of the door of the safe house.  It didn't even have to say anything; it just opened the door when it saw Tenerb.  They walked in, hostage in tow.  Very few people were actually in the house, it seemed to just be a temporary station for the situation since the house's condition seemed to be that of one long abandoned.  A Rodian took the hostage away to the basement.  The rest went into a back room and locked the door behind them.  The room only contained a table with a holo projector and recording device on it and chairs. 

"Don't get any ideas my friend," said Tenerb to the man wearing the helmet.  "We will be out off here after this is all over."

"I figured that," said the mystery man.

"You can also take that damn helmet off," said Tenerb.

The man took off his helmet for the first time since Sion had run into him.  He didn't recognize the man at first until he took off the synth flesh mask he was also wearing.  He was shocked, it was the same face he had seen in the museum but older.  It was Thaan Sion!!!  So the coldness between Sion and the NR agents was because they felt that the other had betrayed them so long ago, thought Sion.

"So," said Thaan, "surprised to see me?"

He wasn't talking to Than Sion but to Demonic.

"You were the guy from the holo," said Kal.

"So, there are more of you even still," said Tenerb disgusted.  "Not only can't you keep secrets to yourselves from your own respected governments, but now you are communicating with each other too!!!"

"Actually, they didn't know that we were in on this," said Thaan.  "Heck, we didn't know they were on it either until they contacted up for help.  It seems that only a few people in our two remnants actually know about this meeting anyways."

"Hey, I have a question," said Than in a somewhat annoyed voice, "exactly why are we all here?"

"Good question," said Tenerb.

Forgetting completely about the lack of keeping things to ones self, he motioned everyone to take a seat.

"As you all probably know by now," began Tenerb, "this peculiar meeting all revolves around the RS.  They have been infiltrating the ranks of all three of our governments.  Wisely you Imperials kept the situation to a select group of people, as did we.  The upper ranks of the New Republic have no idea what we are doing.  Most of my own men don't know either.  The thing is that we got a lead on there being a RS head quarters for Verinian space on this planet.  That would affect the Verinian Remnant and our faction of the New Republic."

"So what does that have to do with the Vast Empire?" asked Kal, "On a more specific level, why Than?"

"Well," replied Tenerb, "your government it the one that has had the most experience with the RS.  We chose to contact Than Sion, who I will for now on refer to as 2 and Thaan as 1, because we had ran into him from before."

"Ok," said Demonic.

"Moving on," said Tenerb, "here is the plan.  We need to shut down their base of operation on the planet.  We need to also do this quietly for no one can know that Imperial and New Republic operatives have worked together.  The RS could badly hurt our government but they refuse to believe it, which is the only reason we needed to bring it to this.  We need 1 to stage a "police action" against the base.  We have the power to have stormed the building ourselves, but we would have been noticed and probably  a lot of us would die in a very real police action.  Like I said, this is the only reason we had to bring Imps in on this.  We need 2 to give us information on RS tactics so we can do this smoothly."

"Well," said 2, "they pretty much pretend to be something else until the last minute before they attack.  They use clones for combat personnel for the most part and..."

He went on about what he knew about the RS.  When he was finished, Tenerb nodded his head.

"So, you are pretty much going to have to be wary of objects near the house for they could be something else," said Tenerb.  He then looked at 1, "we are going to need you to use that information to stage an attack.  You stay here with the hostage."  He handed 2 a key card.  "All of you Imperials stay here until we clear out.  You can take him to your leader an hour after we are done evacuation this place.  Don't try to follow us, we have people watching this place that will make sure you don't live if you leave early."

The big NR man pressed a brick in the wall, this set off an alarm.  The NR people packed up the equipment on the table and left the room.  The other Sion already had the Synth flesh mask back on.  Two saw the organized chaos in the hall before Tenerb closed the door. 

"So, I guess we are all Imperials here," said Demonic.

"Yep," said 1.

Demonic reached into his tunic and pulled out a comlink, "you got that guys.  Don't show up around here until about an hour later.

The armored man had his helmet back on and was giggling the door knob.

"He must have timer lock on it," 1 said.  "He told us not to leave before an hour later because he knew I would have one of these."

He pulled out a small explosive devise used to blow locks off doors.

"I am not going to blow this thing for another 15 minutes," said 1.

"Is that really going to be enough time?" said Demonic in a unsure voice.

"Believe me when I say it will be."   

 
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FM/CPO Than Sion/Kaph 6/Wing 1/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE(=A=)(=*SA*=)[MC:1]
I must have the power of the force, Trix lost three games due to early eight balls in pool.