A cloaked figure steals secretively down a hallway, staying close to the walls and glancing quickly up at the room numbers shown in the flickering lights. At the end of the hall it pauses for a moment, standing in front of a door which is partially open, and there is something dark staining the carpet in front of the door, there is a flash as the figure pulls something out from underneath its cloak and slowly pushes open the door.

The room revealed as the door opens is small and dark, but there is evidence of some sort of struggle in the room beyond, the flickering lighting reveals dark splotches of red smeared on some of the furniture, and on the jagged edges of the broken window across the room from the cloaked figure. The figures head cocks to the left as it hears a sound from the room connecting to this one off to the left, along with another sound, the grunts of pain that accompany someone attempting to bind their own wound.

The figure moves slowly toward the door, it's highly tuned senses revealing that its pray is cowering on the other side of the door, most likely severely injured, and clutching a weapon of some sort close to themselves. A flash of lightning from the storm raging outside briefly reveals the lower half of the face obscured by the hood of the cloak, a smile framing the sharp teeth of the mouth as a hand holding a short sword reaches forward and pushes the door back on its hinges, revealing the wounded Zabrak male in the room beyond, clutching a holdout blaster in an unsteady hand.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," issues the voice of the wearer of the cloak, "it will just make things more difficult." The man slumped against the wall just grits his teeth and snarls back, "Give your regards to my cousin, I'm sure he's the one holding your leash." the holdout blaster flashes, sending a bolt into the chest of the cloaked figure, who just laughs and reaches out, knocking the holdout blaster out of the shocked zabrak's hand, it lands on the floor near the window, beeping pitifully that its power cell is empty.

"What?..." the eyes of the zabrak are wide as the gloved hand of the figure reaches out and grabs the figure by the front of his jacket, hauling him to his feet and holding him up in the air, close to the face obscured by the hood of the cloak. "You think that I would not expect you to have a holdout blaster?" A swift blow against the side of the zabrak's head knocking him out. Raising his arm, the wrist com of the figure glows, the fingers of the other hand typing in a channel code, and a low voice growling, "SEV 9 this is TCO, subject apprehended, special pickup, home in on com, twelfth story window." the voice on the other end crackles an affirmative.

Turning the figure walks back to the front room, walking over to the window he knocks out the remaining glass around the edge of the window, clearing the route out, and tossing the unconscious body of his target into the waiting arms of the driver of the speeder parked outside the window. "Heavy load tonight," comments the driver. "Yes," responds the figure, "the weight of his treason weighs heavily on his shoulders."

The first rays of the planet's sun are just beginning to show as the speeder pulls up to the side of the craft parked on the landing strip, her engines idling as the passenger jumps off and walks over to the access panel for the boarding ramp, removing one of his gloves and holding his hand up to the security interface a blue line briefly outlines his hand before the ramp lowers and he boards, "I'll open the loading ramp," he calls back to the driver of the speeder, which is idling near the rear of the vessel.

The cockpit lights flash on as the figure enters, he drapes his cloak over the back of the pilot's seat, and his hands go to the controls, lowering the cargo loading ramp and completing preflight checks while his subordinate loads the speeder and the prisoner. He turns as the young man enters the cockpit as well, "Is our passenger comfortable?" the man laughs, "If by comfortable you mean stuck in a cell with a heavy sedative being administered to keep him unconscious," he smiles, "then yes." the pilot nods, and stretching his neck he deactivates the implanted voice modifier with a control on his belt, and lifts the ship, the younger man slipping into the co-pilot's seat beside him. "Raising landing struts," he hits another control and follows up, "ship sealed and space-ready."

The ship has safely entered hyperspace when the pilot stands and prepares to head aft, "You have the helm, call me if anything crazy comes up," he grabs his cloak and activates the voice modifier as he moves toward the ladder that goes to the rest of the ship, "I'm going to be speaking with our passenger." the man nods and transfers full control to his board, "at current speed we should rendezvous with  our escort in 3 hours."

The pilot, again cloaked and his voice modified, enters the corridor which leads to the high security holding cells at the back of the ship, "Effex Seven Em Dee," he addresses the FX-7 droid, which has been upgraded to MD level to be a fully functional doctor to rival some of the E2-B droids employed in imperial hospitals, "bring our patient out slowly, I want him still groggy while I talk to him." the droid's specially installed vocoder gives it a somewhat superior voice as it responds, "I do not recommend it Master, but as ordered."

Why did you do it... the man muses, What could cause a pilot in the Vast Empire Navy to completely break the oath you took, his expression hardens, his teeth baring as the man begins to come out of his sedated state and becomes aware of his surroundings, Especially someone like you, do you know how hard my climb through the ranks has been because of your activities? Just being related to you put a black mark on my record.

As he opens his eyes the zabrak growls seeing the man across from him he tries to lunge, but realizes that he has been bound hand and foot in his cell, "Do you really think I'd be so stupid?" laughs the man, "I've heard enough about you to be wary."

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Word Count: 1111

Settling onto the edge of the warden's desk I create a new file on my datapad. Once everything is in order I allow my gaze to move from the screen of the small computer in my hand, and come to rest on  the scum that is infecting the holding cells of my ship. "Let's cut to the chase," shifting my weight I lean in closer, allowing some of the bloodlust which is coursing through my veins to show in my eyes. "you have information, names, locations, contacts. I want them."

"Where do you want me to start?" The zabrak asks, the look in my eyes making it very clear to him that the more he tells me, the longer he will stay alive. "Start at the beginning, when you defected from the Vast Empire to the New Republic, who was your contact? What information did you give to them? Start with those questions, and we'll work from there."

The man across from me thinks a moment, and then begins to explain what happened. "It all started just before the events that took place at Roku Tan." His eyes become slightly glazed as he disappears into his memories, recalling events that had taken place at the very beginning of my career with the Vast Empire. "I had been taken off the flight line by that wookie, StOrMz, and charged with insubordination. He had me demoted to Crewman, and transferred from Kaph Squadron to serve in the logistics section on board a corvette in the 7th Fleet. It was there that I first met Jaden, he was attached to a reserve unit in the system we were patrolling. He had be transferred from the Corvette to his own office, and he began grooming me for a special mission." Carefully making note of this connection to the convicted traitor Jaden, I prod him to reveal more information. "What mission was Jaden grooming you for?" Is it possible that this traitor could be one of the missing links? I wonder, hoping that he might be able to give me information that will solve this event once and for all.

"Jaden asked me to find and sound out some possible contacts with the New Republic, and see whether they would be willing to support him in exchange for information." Support, my interrogation was beginning to turn up significant information, Jaden, was looking for support, was he already planning a coup at that time? "Support for what, and what information was he going to have you give to them in exchange for it?" I stand after asking this question, feeling the need to move, and begin to pace the compartment. "Jaden was not happy with his reserve posting, and wanted to have a combat command, but there were no opportunities for advancement in the sector that Jaden was operating in, and so he hoped that if we provided the New Republic with information on where to make their assaults, they would increase the level of activity in his sector, and give him an opportunity to make some moves up the chain of command."

"So who did he send you to speak with?" I ask, fishing for another name. The information about Jaden is valuable, but he is already in custody, I need to find the other players. "I was sent to speak with Lt. Commander Trilk Brion, a Naval Intelligence double-agent, who had been passing information to the New Republic for months, he introduced me to his contact, a smuggler named Inla Girn. She served as a courier between Jaden and the New Republic for several months following our introduction, and continued to serve in some capacity until just before the Battle of Lehon."

"Lehon?" The name piques my interest again, as I fought at Lehon, and lost many a good friend that day. "What part did you play in the New Republic ambush of our forces at Lehon?" the smile which appears on the face of the man I am interrogating makes me furious, but I hold my temper in check... barely. "I was there," the zabrak begins, "Jaden and Brion were able to give me access to a TIE Phantom, and I was assigned to follow the fleet in, a specially coded transponder attached to the hull of the fighter, which allowed the New Republic to follow the fleet's movements very closely." I continue to pace, my eyes filled with such hatred that had they been lasers, they would have melted through the deck plating. "So you were actually present at the battle?" I continue, my voice carefully controlled.

"Yes," the zabrak continues to talk, weaving a tapestry which links together the events at Lehon, and many others, including the poisoning of the Officer Corps of the Navy. It is just minutes before we are to meet up with our escort when I finally leave the holding area, returning to the bridge with a large file of notes and several names of targets for me to pursue, while FX-7MD puts our prisoner back under sedatives.

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Word Count: 841 words