Actually part 2
(OOC: Hope you like it. Sorry some of the language isn't as .."Graceful".. as I would have liked and i was too impatient to finish it properly.
Hopefully over the rest of the series you'll find out about the other, less direct methods Raziel previously used. I'll try and show you some of the equipment he used too, most importantly I'll try and explain his past and describe all of the characters from his past)
The foul smoke from a deathstick wafted up Raziel's nostrils. He lowered the data pad he had been reading the news from and turned to regard the man who smiled meekly back at him. The round faced man started to turn away, but Raziel's hand was suddenly clamped around his wrist. Slowly, Raziel leant across the man and pulled the deathstick from his hand and dropped it to the floor, crushing it under one boot heel.
The man turned to Raziel with a look of utter surprise across his face. He started to open his mouth, but then Raziel starred at him. His thin, pale face was completely expressionless but all that the man could see was his eyes. Those strange green eyes that shimmered in the light. He gulped once then sank back into his seat the moment Raziel looked away he stood up and walked away. Raziel had to hide a smile. He still had the touch.
This was Cepany's orbital docking station. Currently Raziel was sat, with his back pressed against a plasti-glass window, in the public waiting terminal hoping that his commercial flight wouldn't be too late. The hall was impressively large and just as noisy and the vast array of species sat around, mostly sleeping, just added to the effect. On every side of the large domed room were food stalls and shops that would cater for all but the rarest of species.
Raziel looked up at the holo-screen above him, no matter which angle you looked at it from the times would jump out at you. Admittedly it was slightly disconcerting, but it was an effective method when maybe a thousand ships would be docking here every few hours. He slowly looked up and down until he found the ship that "Raziel" was taking. It was very late. Looking at it he would get there before that ship even arrived. He smiled, he would find her soon.
Unbeknown to most people Raziel had a great deal of alter-egos that he had set up over his long career. A lot of them he had chosen to abandon when he had become Private First Class Raziel, he had told few his real name. Not even the ancients knew that, they did however know about a great deal of his alter egos, after all other clans under their supervision had trained him to use them in the first place.
He didn't really know why he had starting setting up his "other selves" recently. At first he thought it was because he needed to get back into practise, but he had realised that it was something deeper, a realisation that he was in danger and would soon need to disappear. Above all else he had decided it was time to complete unfinished business.
He had always been naturally cautious, whether it had been dodging his father's drunken rages or avoiding a pickpocket. He had only really started to have his obsession with personal security, which verged on paranoia after he had met Jamel his mentor, and ultimately, friend.
"You'd be surprised how quickly those with less talent than yourself will come after you. A lot of them seem to think it is unfair that you are working for some of the leading powers in the system whilst they are still shooting good men in the back for their spare credits. Be warned though, although most of them will never find you some will dedicate themselves utterly to finding you and killing you. What they lack in talent they make up for with determination and good planning. You must remember, everyone is mortal and one lucky shot can finish you, one good ambush can end it all."
Raziel was sat opposite his mentor with his back to the door, which he hated. Jamel was the clan's current, ageing assassin who had been tasked with training Raziel and making sure that he would profit the clan. Raziel had only just left the service of the wretch Ma'Hond and was still rather taken aback by his new surroundings. The idea of not even seeing you're boss face to face was entirely new. The scale at which these people worked amazed him. There were a few things he had learned to trust: Firstly J'dens rules of life. They just seemed to be the only way one could get on in this world. Next he trusted Jamel, in a place full of people ready to exploit him this man genuinely seemed to sympathise with Raziel. Not that Raziel let him see an inch of what he could do, unless it benefited him to. He wandered if Jamel knew everything that he got up to and found it amusing to see his influence develop. He wouldn't put it past the wily assassin to have already infiltrated Raziels own network of spies and contacts. The other thing that Raziel trusted was himself, if all else failed he could fall back on his instincts and he could pull through. He noticed Jamel watching him.
"They would come after me? Now?" Raziel asked.
"Well of course, they've let me know enough times that they want me dead and I'm sure news will spread that I'm actually training someone. God knows one day it might sink in with me. Anyway you've got the whole calling card thing going, rumours of the so called "Dark Blade" are already spreading. Did you know that? Ah of course you did, you're going about things as I told you. If you get as good as I think you can be, and judging by the job you did on Machlenon, you are, you'll have a great number of eager wanna-be's more than willing to spill you blood."
"What would they achieve?" Raziel asked. Sometimes Jamel would go on like this for hours at a time, when all he wanted to do was learn more about the old assassins way of life and be shown more strategies and techniques to get the job done. In a way though Jamel was telling him about his way of life, Raziel thought. He smiled for a moment, Machlenon had been an over paranoid business man who had made too many enemies. The man had surrounded himself with hundreds of defensive business men and soldiers. Raziel had been the worst lawyer the man had ever, ever hired.
"You haven't been working for the Hutt long, in a way you still aren't, directly anyway. Soon enough you'll know how they do business. If they come to trust your abilities and someone takes you out, don't think for a second that they wouldn't hire him on the spot." Raziel looked at Jamel for a second. He was used to people being untrustworthy, but that to him seemed truly despicable. Jamel was looking at him intensely now as if he was searching Raziel.
The man sighed slightly and leant back in his chair. A look of pity crossed his face briefly.
The next week Raziel had been sleeping soundly when the first of them came. He had recently moved from Arduan into one of the larger, more temperate cities. He had a small apartment in one of the less desirable areas of the city.
Firstly there was a knock on the door. Raziel rose slowly, but as soon as he realised what it was he was instantly alert. Something was wrong. The way the man was knocking on the door immediately had Raziel suspicious. His window backed onto a long dark alley, he held a small mirror he kept on him to the edge. His over-sensitive eyes could just about pick someone out in the far window. Then he heard a single footstep above him, it was a shuffling noise as if someone had almost tripped.
He shouted something to the man of the door as he assessed the situation. The angle from the far window would not give a great shot of the door, but the angle would put whoever was there at risk. As he was thinking he was gathering his few personal things. He picked up a window shield and slid it onto the edge of the window. Jamel had been showing him how to disable one. If someone broke through the window the pocket sized device would sound an alarm and activate a temporary shield. Immediate access would be denied and anyone crossing the barrier at the time would be cut in two.
Raziel then pulled down the shutters to block the view and as an after thought activated the windows own heating to stop anyone getting a thermal image.
"Hi there," Raziel said as he slid the door half open. He yawned and leant his head back, keeping his eyes barely open to get a good look at the man. He tried his best to look tired and leant back on the obscured wall.
"Sorry to wake you at this hour, but I'm afraid we've registered an error with the heating in your room. Could be dangerous." The short man flashed some I.D. on front of Raziel's eyes. His acting was average, but the way he stood gave it away and didn't they realise Raziel would have known the workings of these apartments perfectly. He knew every procedure and every technician.
"Does it have to be done now?" Raziel asked, half-yawning again.
"I'm sorry sir but it wont take a moment, it should be that one there," the man said as he leant his head round the door and looking at a heating unit. Raziel noticed him look at the window.
Raziel couldn't quite work out what the plan was yet, maybe this guy would install a bomb or something if the sniper couldn't get a shot.
"I tell you what I'll quickly check my terminal to see if it's still there." The technician put his bag down on the floor and took out a datapad.
The window it is then, thought Raziel. He stayed where he was for the time being, just inside the door. His right hand slid slowly down to his thigh where a small knife waited. He could just about make out a small, constant scratching noise. He doubted the "technician" could hear it.
He shook his head and sighed. He tried to consider who this could be and how they had found him, but he simply couldn't. Not now anyway, he was still running on adrenaline and hoping his instincts would pull him through.
The technician turned his upper body slightly, the movement was negligible, but it made all the different to Raziel. He mentally prepared himself for action, making sure that every muscle in his body was ready. There was a sucking noise behind Raziel as the slab of plasti-glass fell out. The technician turned towards Raziel brandishing a fletchette pistol, at the same time the window shield activated back in the room almost defeaning Raziel with its alarm.
Raziels left arm shot forward and the Quickfire-3 shot out of it's sleeve mount into his palm, his finger pulling the trigger almost instantly. At the same time as his shots hit the "technician" in the stomach, chest and head he swivelled his torso around and let the knife fly behind him without looking.
The knife thudded harmlessly into his assailants upper torso. Only the top of his chest, head and rifle had got through the hole before the portable shield had activated. Raziel picked up his bag of belongings and made his way down the corridor away from his room. He through away the half-depleted Quickfire-3 hold out blaster and pulled a Penetrator hold out from somewhere in his clothing. If he met any more of these people they would likely be armoured.
His journey to the speeder had been relatively uneventful. The sniper had probably fled and there had probably been only three.
He had never really believed that someone would come after him. His opinion of his self-worth had never been high, even if he did understand his own abilities. He hid in the shadows for a reason: he didn't want to be seen. An anonymous reputation was one thing, but the thought of being exposed to people who wanted him dead terrified him.
Raziel had always had the ability to choose how deeply he slept. Since that night he had never had a good nights sleep.
The hairs at the back of Raziel's neck started to stand on end. He suddenly felt very jittery and he couldn't concentrate on the news. Not that he had been paying much attention.
He had spent years of his life perfecting what he did next. He looked around without seeming to move an inch, after a few seconds he realised that there were two men sitting on opposite sides of him watching him far too intently. Raziel had amazing special awareness, he could close his eyes right now and put a knife in each of them still. He then proceeded to observe both of them, without actually watching them. Now that took practise. Rhylena had been the only person he'd ever met able to observe their surroundings in the same manner so well.
The feel of a Quickfire 4 hold out against his thigh re-assured him. He wasn't well armed, but he had never been able to travel with a gun before. It was amazing what Fury could arrange.
The two men were hostile, he could just feel it. Really he had just learned to read people over the years. Raziel had had to have so many different talents to reach his previous position. He had worried that he would be incredibly rusty after the years of army work, but to his immense pleasure he was as sharp as one of his knives.
He breathed a sigh of relief after one of the men did a few things. Firstly he pulled a newspaper out from underneath him. Few even made them any more. He then proceeded to fold it up in a particular way and got up and left. Raziel refrained from smiling and followed the man. It was more difficult now that a super freighter had arrived and people were heading for the docking bay, but Raziel had one of those presences about him. Something in peoples subconscious just realised that personal safety involved moving out of this mans way. People would generally move out of the way of large, frightening people's way. They also did the same with
Dangersous people, they just didn't realise they were doing it then.
The newspaper holder pushed open a swing door on Raziel's left. They were in a long, wide, round corridor at the moment. It was the way people who felt like walking would go between the ticket booths and the waiting room. Raz caught the door as it began to swing shut. He found himself in a tiny waiting room. Two seats lined one wall and that was about all there was room for. When the door thudded shut behind Raziel the newspaper holder opened the opposite door.
No matter where Tucker felt like being, he took his office. Raziel had met him in city centres, cargo ships and even devastated planets. Every time Tucker would be sat behind his desk in a large open room. You never saw the security guarding him, you just felt it's presence. The man holding the door open proceeded to sit down and read the paper. The whole thing was very surreal, but that was always the case with Tucker.
"Good to see you!" Tucker said enthusiastically. He smiled and motioned to a chair opposite Raziel, who took up his offer.
"How many years has it been? And you've never once changed this chair to make it more comfortable," Raziel said as he squirmed in the hard chair.
"You remember in school they used to make you sit in the worst chairs and they said it was because they were teaching you important stuff and they wanted you complete attention?"
"Hmmm," was Raziel's only response.
"So you're really going to go back?" Tucker asked, he got up from his chair and sat on the table opposite Raziel.
"I guess so,"
"Well do you want me to give you the obvious warning about the serious health risk's associated with putting Raziel on Nar Shaddaa?"
"Do you know anything in particular?" Raziel smiled. Free information was always good.
"Well lets see. The Ancients know that you're coming and they've personally contacted the best bounty hunters around as well as launching their personal police force. Erm, you remember that assassin you met on one of your missions? Well his name's Saj'ette and he thinks this is his chance to bring you down." Raziel groaned at that. Every time so far this mysterious assassin had bested him.
"What do you know about him?" Raziel asked.
"Well it goes something like the Ancients won't employ him so he believes that sending your head to them will be a serious boast to his CV."
"The usual then," Raziel smiled.
"Why are you going back Raz? I tell you what I can send me best men in to get her out for you! That way you could stay far, far away from Saj'ette and still keep to your word."
"It's not going to work like that, the ancients added her to their grudge list. They'd go for her just as much as they would for me! And besides I have other things that need sorting."
"Yes but the ancients haven't got that Twi'lek bitch Ania whispering in their ears about her now have they?" Something suddenly struck Raziel. He had never once mention Ania to Tucker. Through all the years that bitch had been the go between for the ancients. Then again Tucker knew almost everything so it was only to be expected.
"And what would this service cost me?" Raziel asked wearily.
"Just a few jobs. Well actually only one that requires your particular talents. I've told you many times that my network has a big gaping hole in talent with your name written across it." Tucker smiled. Raziel didn't, he stared blankly at him.
"I'm sorry I don't work like that any more. This is something I need to do myself anyway. If I come back maybe I could do you a favour and help some of your men out." He said as he stood up. Something beeped quietly in Tucker's ears as the second man from the waiting room walked up silently behind Tucker. Raziel had heard rumours that Tucker knew where every one of his agents were. Jamel had once told him that he had some kind of electronic tracking system fitted to all of them.
"I thought that would be the case. Anyway I'll have some people keep an eye on you and watch your back for the bounty hunters, I'm not promising much mind." Tucked sighed and held his hand out for Raziel to shake.
After he left the room Raziel felt like going back inside just to see if the desk was still there or whether it had magically transform back into a baggage hold. Looking up at the sigh he saw the ship that he was pretending to take was early and the ship he was actually travelling on was now late.
'Win some, lose some.' Raziel thought.
Raziel was awoken from his light sleep when the transport dropped out of hyperspace. The whole transport shook and Raziel immediately knew something was wrong. Checking the time he saw they were scheduled to stop at Nar Shadaa in only another five minutes.
"Apologies, but there will be a delay. Some wreckage is blocking our path." Came a stern voice over the tanoi.
Looking out of his window Raziel saw they weren't kidding. A massive transport the size of their own had a serious chunk, perhaps a quarter of the ship, blown out of it. Debris floated gracefully through space and harmlessly deflected off of his own transports deflectors.
It was the transport Raziel had booked another seat on. This was going to be interesting.
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SL/SGMTRaziel/4SQD/1COMP/1BAT/1RGT/Tadath/VEA/ {EW1} {WoS} {VP} {IG} {CDS}
Squad Leader - Squad4 Wraiths
"Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music." Kristian Wilson, Nintendo, Inc, 1989.
