Look out for what's yours

[Laira Darkhold]

She had been gone for a few weeks now, and it had taken me that long to pull myself back together. I could still hear the voice and feel all the rage and despair, but I had pulled myself back together. I was whole, and I had control now. It was time to pull my family back together, or what was left of it. If I couldn't do that I could at least figure out what happened to them and avenge them if need be.

The benefit of owning a nondescript Corellian Blockade Runner was that there were millions of them, and all the sensor blocking equipment could keep the modifications that might draw attention from being noticed. And, Nar Shaddaa was easy enough to get onto as there wasn't really a customs station or fleet keeping track of everyone going in and out of the system. There was just too much traffic to be able to do that, and so the corvette slipped into the atmosphere angling towards one of the space ports near the Golden Nautolan but not the one dedicated to the Casino itself. Taking a landing berth as low to the ground as possible I instructed the droids to lock the ship down and keep it secure. It had all the supplies and fuel I might need to make a fairly quick get away.

The shielded war droids closed the hatch after Netra and I descended the ramp and entered into the private hangar. A good tracker or slicer might be able to figure out that the berth was paid for by a mid-level employee of ArmaTech who shouldn't own a ship this large or be making random trips to Nar Shaddaa. The trail was there, but why would anyone follow it until something had started. "Come Netra, we have to get going." The black, cat like war droid growled and followed me towards the service elevator.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The service elevator took us to the bottom level, down towards the undercity. The little mapping droids I had in my backpack were going to be vital to finding our way through the water mains into the basement levels of the casino. Easy enough to get in, but at that point it would be a matter of finding my way through the thing, and going undetected probably wasn't going to be an option for very long once we were in. Even still, I wanted to get into the building unnoticed before things popped off, if they were going to. The massive catlike droid padded quietly behind me as we descended towards the water pipes. They were barely big enough for Netra, but he would fit, crouched down. He would be slow and cumbersome rather than swift and lithe like he normally was, but this would work out long enough to get us in.

The droids, urchins, former and possibly current slaves took little notice of a Mandalorian and a war droid. Not because we didn't stand out, but because we gave off a vibe that said, take too much notice of me, and I'll take notice of you. It was not a sentiment people enjoyed unless they were heavily armed and heavily outnumbered people like me, and these people were poor and not paid to guard this section of pipe.

I dropped the six small mapping droids into the pipe and sat down next to it, waiting for them to collect enough data that I could make my way into the casino's basement from here. It would take time for them to get all the information I needed, but with access to the HoloNet I had a way to kill time for now. Netra laid down behind me, letting me prop myself up on him as we waited.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Almost an hour later the map the little probe droids had built for me had enough data to get me into the sub-basement of the casino, no doubt they would have some level of security there, but hopefully it was just stuff like sensors and cameras. Things I could beat with my armor and the Force easily enough. "Alright, into the pipe Netra." I told the armored droid. He growled and hissed a little bit, but he got into the pipe nonetheless. I followed him, and luckily, for this part we would be travelling with the current so it wouldn't be too hard as far as moving went, more about keeping us going slow enough to make the turns we had to without smashing into the metal pipe.

The droid began clawing its way through the pipe, the water rushing around us. Mostly he was just using his repulsorlifts and electromagnetic pads to guide us through the pipes as they turned and angled around, keeping us on course. Close to an hour of air in my suit, and we didn't expect to take longer than thirty minutes, plus I had a rebreather to elongate the time I could be down in the water mains. Netra lead me along the pipe until we were underneath the casino. "Alright, tear me a hole and get into a turbolift shaft. Update every five minutes." I blinked a few commands through my HUD and the shimmering energy flickered around me as I disappeared from sight, a small distorted outline barely visible. The big droid with beskar vibroclaws tore through the pipe in no time flat into the sub-basement. I hauled myself out of the pipe, more easily detected than normal following the big war droid only a moment. The stealth droid was hard to detect on sensors and scanners, but he was hard to miss on security holocam, which was the point of having him go one way, and me go another. Perhaps I could slip through unnoticed.

Let's just hope when I do have to confront someone, perhaps Chiasa's helper, Declann, they weren't part of the reason I was here in the first place. But if he was, I would tear into his mind soon enough. There were ways of getting information the beast inside could employ.

[member="Chiasa Kritivaas"]

 

[Chiasa Kritivaas]

As much as everything else had changed, Declan was still in place as head of security for the Casinos. For how long he didn't know, with Chiasas disappearance nothing was certain any more. Everything was being re-branded, people were being moved or let go. Luckily she'd paid him well enough that even if he was let go he could look after himself and his old Lady. It wouldn't be the same though. It wasn't the same now. And he stewed over it a bit, but his authority ended off Casino grounds. There was only so much he could do.

It was not him who first noticed the intrusion however, though he was currently present at the Golden Nautolan. It was only of the lower ranking security officers, who noticed a breach in one of the water mains. This was not entirely unusual. The Golden Nautolan had been bought, not built, and not everything was up to code or the standards of the one time President. When said security officer switched over to the feeds in that area to see what the trouble was and what would be needed to fix it however, he almost fell off his chair, cursing as he did.

Declan was quickly summoned, all those present happy to have someone to pass this off to. Giant robot tigers were not a thing they really wanted to deal with. Declan for his part, took a look at the recorded feed and shook his head. His thoughts were twofold.

First; It took him long enough.

Second; Why can none of her suitors ever just send a damned holo?

The last one had broken in guns blazing, injured several of his officers and the Lady herself. He liked Vereen significantly more than he'd liked Garrett, but this behaviour was downright bizarre.

"Get my flak vest. I'll go deal with him. Keep the cameras on. If he shoots me send the droids in and let them riddle him till even his fancy armour can't take it. Fething Mandalorians."

With that and a shake of his heavy browed head, Declan kitted up and headed down and down along the passages that ought to take him to [member="Draco Vereen"], kept apprised of the movements of the man and cat by the commlink in his ear.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

In back hallways, staying away from heavily populated areas of the hotel to avoid instantaneous detection I continued up to the higher levels. I hadn't made it very far when I checked in with Netra, who was hiding, probably fairly poorly in one of the turbolift shafts. He was out of sight from the majority of people, even if security might have eyes on him. "Still here." I whispered over the encrypted comm channel between me and the droid. Supposedly he was keeping up with me, staying on the same level as me so he could offer support if I needed.

I rounded a corner and took notice of a single man, kitted up and scanning the area. I locked my eyes on the man, I could sense him with ease. He was here looking for me. So I had been noticed. Either he was unaware of me or my capabilities, he was overconfident in his own, or he wasn't looking for a fight. Reading his surface thoughts brought concern, worry, and unease, but not direct ill will, so he could probably be trusted to an extent, but I wanted to make it clear whatever he had lost, I had lost more, and I was willing to take everything from those that stood in my way.

The distorted outline of my form filled the center of the hallway and then shimmered as I uncloaked about fifteen meters from the man. Behind my helmet my grey eyes were a raging storm, dark and brooding, studying him. I reached out with the Force and filled his thoughts with dread, letting him feel the most minuscule amount of the rage and despair that was my life without my Starbird to save me, the darkness that had replaced her, and the void her now extinguished fires had left. "Well, would you like to start talking?" I asked, standing still for a moment waiting for him to react. "Or should I make you?"

[member="Chiasa Kritivaas"]

 

[Chiasa Kritivaas]

Declan was affected by the dread Draco filled him with, absolutely, but he had also been in the casino when it was under attack by Sith Lords before, and as much as the average man could resist such things, he did. Declan wasn't unafraid, but he was loyal and steadfast, and it would take more than this taste to send him running or cowering. Besides, he'd learned a trick or two from watching the Lady at work and beyond that, he had confidence in his staff. This man might manage to kill him, but he would die in return, surely if he'd paid attention at all in his time with Chiasa he would know that. The Golden Nautolan wasn't as tight as the Dragon Palace, but the Lady had been paranoid and afraid, with good reason. It's defences and forces were formidable.

Crossing his arms, heavy brows drawing even closer together, he scowled at the other man.

"I'm not the one breaking into a building I have full clearance to."

An obvious prompt for an explanation for [member="Draco Vereen"]s current course of action.

At least that other one, Garrett, had lost his entry privileges when he'd decided to mount his little attack, and even he could have just as easily sent a third party message. Vereen hadn't had his rights and accesses revoked. Malvern might think to have it done eventually, but he hadn't yet and Declan didn't intend to bring the lapse to his attention.

The Lady had chosen not just to dally with this one, but to marry him. He had to assume there was a reason for it.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I looked him up and done, the cold expressionless visor unmoving. I could feel him through the Force and while he may be courageous, he probably didn't realize what was going on, or he didn't care. "Still having access doesn't mean I wouldn't be killed on sight." I said coldly. I was searching the outer most of his mind for any indication he was involved in Chiasa's death, and if necessary, if I didn't believe him, I could peer deeper, leaving him little more than a drooling heap if I wanted. But for now, I wanted answers. He had been her trusted security chief and had safe guarded my family for as long as they had been mine.

"I came to find out how my family died and who is responsible." I started, the beast in my mind surging up from the depths. <Take the knowledge from him> it spoke to me harshly, savagely <He knows something>. "I needed some time after the connection severed to come to my senses, but I am here now, and I intend to kill someone for it." I was cold, distant. As though this wasn't even happening, as though nothing was out of place and this was just another job. But that was a product of a decade of war and training, of an immeasurable amount of self-control. Inside, I was dying, every word was a knife to my heart, and every pause was necessary to keep from breaking down here and now.

[member="Chiasa Kritivaas"]

 

[Chiasa Kritivaas]

This was where most people would tell him he was paranoid. Declan had served under the Queen of paranoia for years however, and had learned the absolute truth behind the saying 'Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get you'.

"There's no kill order. I don't know if Malverns even remembered you have access. I assume he knows about your existence, that bastard has his fingers in everything."

And he'd never come to Declan for information about Chiasas disappearance. Just taken over the businesses neat as you please.

Declan did not precisely understand what a Force Bond was or entailed. Because it was his job to guard against attacks from some of the strongest Force Users in the galaxy, he knew more about the Force than the average Joe, but unless it was offensive, he hadn't spent much time on it. As such he assumed [member="Draco Vereen"] was talking largely about conventional grief. Still, he seemed to reach a decision, particularly after that last statement.

"Good. You should have come sooner. Trails probably cold by now."

Uncrossing his arms he turned. Heading back up, assuming the other man would follow. He had more tools and more info available to him in his control room.

"It's not even a sure thing they're dead. Henn never came back."

This would seem disjointed, unconnected. If his back hadn't been to Draco, he'd have been able to see the far away look in the head of security's eyes as he ran through facts and possible scenarios in his head.

"She didn't just go no-comm. She was out on a prototype ship, getting the rundown from her pet inventor. Of course he was safe and sound on planet, talking over the holo. Just as well. Prototype ship means all the bells and whistles. The best monitoring equipment they could get their hands on. Sensors inside and out. Video. Audio. Radio. Emission monitors. And all of them transferring back to Skolnick in his lab. It was meant to make sure the damned thing didn't implode, or disappear, which I guess a few of the first versions did. What it wound up doing was catching her attacker, his ship and his companion. Just about any data you could want. Towards the end things start to fail. I assume the battle damaged the ship, or they caught on and started trying to jam the signal."

"She had Skolnick relay a message before that happened."

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I started to follow the older man, still peering into his mind, trying to get a better picture of what had happened and what his intentions were. "When no one reached out to me, I assumed it had been an assassination. Especially with how smoothly things continued. No bumps, no anger or rage at the loss of the President. Just business as usual. All roads lead to a quiet takeover done in the backroom." And I had needed some time to pull back together. Initially I had just been grieving, but after Wayland I had snapped and began suffering from split personalities. It hadn't taken too long to get a handle on that and figure out how to keep control over the situation, but it had still taken time.

And this man was saying they may not be gone. That was good, and made me hopefully. I had always assumed Chiasa had passed, and I just didn't want to find out bad news about Maliha. I wouldn't have survived more loss at the time. Even still, the glimpse of hope brought with it a deep pit of despair. What if I had dallied and spent too much time struggling with my grief that I had missed my window to rescue them. My intentions in coming here had only been to find out who was responsible and slaughtering them like a dog, but now, my plans had begun to change.

"What would Henn have done if he found them? Where were they? Who, and any idea where I can find those that are responsible." I said, catching up to him, the counter on my HUD ticking away slowly as I followed the man up the corridors.

[member="Chiasa Kritivaas"]

 

[Chiasa Kritivaas]

"I won't say the same didn't occur to me. If you know anything about the history of the Ravens you know it's one of betrayal. Particularly among the upper echelons. The L- your wife was blind like that. She saw danger everywhere and she was right, but she assumed because she was loyal others were as well. Some of us were. Malvern? I don't know."

"Her message was to send someone. As fast as possible, and no matter what they saw to scan the area for life. Whatever else she was, she was canny. If anyone could have found a way out.."

He rubbed his chin as the stood in a lift that brought them up, most of the way out of the bowels of the Casino, to the security level.

"Henn was closest. He had one of those little stealth ships. He made a run for it. He's not checked in again since then. If he'd found nothing, even if he decided to quit with her gone, he'd have sent a message back. That means either he's chasing after something, and Henn's a street hood, he wouldn't just go for revenge, not head on, not alone, or he's hiding. If he's hiding then he's found something or someone and he doesn't want us to know. And if that's the case then I can only assume it's because there was treachery."

It was clear he'd thought about this a lot. But then, that was his job.

"If I brought attention to it, and there was treachery, maybe I finish what that red-skinned bastard started and get them killed. Better to trust that Henn, or the Lady if she's with him know what they're doing. Though she may not be. I imagine she'd contact you if she was. Unless she's hurt. Or she thinks it would put you in danger."

He sighed at that.

"For a little thing she takes a lot of hits for people she ought to let fight their own battles."

"I don't know where Henn is. But I can get you the specs for the ship, where Henn left from and where her ship was. You can figure fuel consumption to work out where he might have gone. If you switch your ships frequencies to the higher ones the stealth ship usually runs on you might be able to get a lock on him that way, unless the slippery bastards changed them. Either way, the ship's pretty damned recognizable and we don't have that many out and about."

"As for who was responsible. Looked like Sith to me. Makes sense considering her history with them. Maybe when no one took their bounty they decided to do it themselves. I'll get you the holo feeds we got from the ship. Images of the two intruders, their ship. Miss Kritivaas was in a lightsaber duel with one of them, one we've seen before but haven't IDed who'd attacked her in the past when we lost the feed."

Quite frankly it was a relief to Declan to have someone to hand this off to. He didn't have the resources outside of the Casino and had to worry too much about possible treachery from within. He also didn't have quite as much faith in Henn as he may have implied. The Togruta would try his best of course, but at the end of the day he was a speeder-jacker.

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Alright, he was at least somewhat on my side. That or his self preservation instincts were kicking in strong now. "Alright, I don't have time to waste then. Send it to my comm's and I'll grab a smart guy from my company to help get me close. From there maybe I can pinpoint either of them through the Force. I share a slight bond with Maliha, maybe I can use that once we get close to pinpoint her location. I would need to be in orbit above her to start tracking her though." I said hastily, handing him the encryption for my personal comms and moving towards the nearest Turbolift shaft.

Pushing it open wasn't hard. It didn't have electromagnetic locks, mainly because those were overkill for normal doors. Had this been a secure floor they might have had them. "Netra, lets go, stop screwing around." A pair of red photoreceptors opened in the darkness of the shaft, and the war droid crawled out of the darkness, its black sensor blocking armor glinting a little in the light as it emerged. I turned to the man, "Have the data sent before I get back to my ship, we are on a tight schedule." My voice was meant to translate some of the rush of worry and glimmers of hope I was feeling.

The trail could be cold by now, but there were hundreds of ways to dig up a cold trail, and more ways still to flush out a junkie like Henn from hiding. I took off at a run through the Casino with Netra trailing right behind me. Once we hit open air He could fly me the rest of the way faster than the speed of sound and we could be back on the way out in a matter of minutes instead of the hour plus it took to get in. But I had expected leaving would be quicker than entering, I just hadn't expect to hear good news.

[member="Chiasa Kritivaas"]

 

[Chiasa Kritivaas]

"Done."

Declan agreed, taking the encryption and watching as the other man moved off. He didn't even blink when the great cat-like droid came into view. He'd seen it on the screens after all. Really they were near enough his offices that [member="Draco Vereen"] turning and running off now rather than getting the data here wasn't actually saving any time, but perhaps the man was really that keen to save his wife. Perhaps he really did love her. Declan hoped that was the case. He didn't have the resources to hunt for her once he left the Casinos, and he had his own small family to worry about. Not to mention Chiasa would have been livid if he abandoned his post.

Turning and continuing on to his personal offices, with the single terminal encrypted and firewalled as well as the best Raven slicers could manage to be stand alone and impenetrable, ostensibly to ensure the Head of Security always had access to a secure terminal, but really to make sure he had one place even other Ravens couldn't snoop, he muttered once under his breath.

"God speed."

A few keystrokes were all that was necessary to send the information on it's way.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

By the time I got back to my ship Declan had already come through. Reviewing the footage would be difficult to stomach, but I could handle it if it brought any form of good news. The first thing I did was figure out where she had gone to test the prototype and go ahead and get moving. I could watch the security holo's and monitoring footage en-route from Nar Shaddaa to Syvris. The inhospitable world probably wouldn't be where Henn would have stopped, but you had to start somewhere. From here it was having computers calculate the possible distance he could have traveled from the system without stopping. I didn't know the Togruta that well, but I knew he would start looking for some seedy den of the underworld where he could disappear.

After we hit hyperspace I sat in front of a monitor and watched, rewatched, and reviewed the footage of the duel between Chiasa and the Sith that she had fought. She had done alright, but she shouldn't have went alone. She should have told me. No, I shouldn't have left. There were some things I needed to look into now before I worried about what he had done with Chiasa. The droid that kept Maliha had escaped, at least for the most part, and given the information I had I could probably paint a pretty good scene of what Henn would have done.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

"Yeah Benji, that is all the info I have. The Schematics and technical data of the stealth ship he was in, the known consumption of fuel and a time frame. I need to know underworld spots, crime syndicate hideouts, and low-tech worlds like Tatooine. Exclude major planets with lots of law enforcement or past Sith Influence from the list." I was a little excited and annoyed that it was taking so long, but I knew the old duros would pull through for me. He just needed time, and time was not something I had a lot of right now. Every minute I sat waiting for details, data collection, and information processing was time lost.

"Alright Draco, I have a small list of planets, but let me see if I can cut it down any by checking some local news in the time frame we have set. See if one of those ships turned up anywhere." The duros said quietly as his red eyes shifted to the screen he was surveying.

"Send me the list you have. Mark anything that has seen the class as definite, keep the full list. I will have a team take a closer look into them."

"Alright Draco, not a problem. I'll send you the whole list." A few seconds later a list of planets in local space appeared on the screen in front of me. I keyed in a few commands and sent an order to the five groups of Darksteel Dragons that were on standby. They would start tackling the planets five at a time, digging up whatever they could, being as thorough as they could without causing too much trouble and hopefully employ there stealth training to keep under the radar.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

With teams moving on several planets on the short list of possibilities out here, and my small team with me, there wasn't much I could do but start investigating a world myself. I had help, and nearly unlimited resources compared to the average man to work with and I was an experienced tracker. We had the trail, it was just up to us to find the next place he would have stopped. With any luck he would have gone to ground fairly quickly, maybe only one or two vehicle swaps, and perhaps he would have been foolish enough to steal transportation rather than purchasing it legally under a false Identity. That would be easier to search for a stolen ship than a bought ship, even with a couple of things that could be ruled out.

While in transit I had Kira begin slicing through a list of Chiasa's personal accounts seeing if she could follow any recent transfers within the time frame, but I wasn't sure she had let me in on a full list of her bank accounts, Force knows I didn't tell her where all my money was kept. It just hadn't come up. I had her working off known or likely alias's and any accounts actually held by Chiasa Kritivaas or Chiasa Vereen, since she had used that alias before as well.

The first glimmer of good news was an Exceeder was up for towing on Toydaria. Someone hadn't paid for this months berth fee at the docking station and the Harbor Master was looking at taking the ship if someone didn't. It wasn't registered and no one knew whose it was, so that was added bonus for it being Henn's ship. That was good news as that was the most likely place the trail picked up again.

I spoke over the heavily encrypted communication channel that we used, speaking like an officer giving orders to soldiers rather than a businessman giving orders to employees. The Darksteel Dragons were experts in many types of combat, stealth, black ops, and intelligence gathering. Having over one hundred out looking for a single man only increased the likelihood that we would find it quickly, even if we tipped our hand to Henn a little bit. "All Dragons stick to your tasks. Those on Toydaria, send me the full briefing and get looking for recent ship purchases, stolen ships, or inexplicably missing ships from Toydaria. Single Crew Starfighters and massive ships are out. Look for things in the Personal range, four hundred meters and below."

I heard a quick, response from the officers and then silence before the line went dead. Back to work. The ship accelerated rapidly into hyperspace making for Toydaria. We were closing, and it wouldn't be long until my dogs treed the Togruta.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

By the time I had arrived the twenty Dragons on the planet had already worked up a decent list of things. While I was in orbit I had expanded my presence in the Force to its limits trying to find Maliha, to connect with her through the Force, but either she wasn't here, there were too many beings here to sift through, or I wasn't good enough to detect her. Given my experience with the Force and the full orbit I had done around the planet. He obviously had enough sense to swap ships and try and cover his trail before going to ground, which, if anyone else was after him was a good thing, but there hadn't been much indication anyone else was after him. As far as my men and I could tell the rest of the galaxy had been content that she was missing and no longer in power, and no one seemed to care or notice that her child, that very few beings knew about, was nowhere to be found.

I cared. And as much as the beast inside told me that he was running from me, that Henn was stealing my daughter, I knew better. He had been around long before me, and had kept to himself just fine, had never done anything to hurt Chiasa or Maliha, so he was probably just being cautious. I would be cautious once I had them both back. The Sith had taken Chiasa alive, relatively unharmed, no missing limbs or fatal injuries. She was alive imprisoned somewhere. Perhaps she had been placed in an Ysalamiri Lined Cage. She wouldn't have been the first Force User to be imprisoned like that.

By the time I landed, in the same space port as the Exceeder, my men had taken over the area, and the few extra Dragons that followed me off the ship from our last objective gave only a cursory scan of the area for security. "Sir, the ship has been here since the day after Miss Kritivaas went missing, and its owner paid cash for one month rental. According to the Dock Hand that took the money, its the Togruta we are after, but we are a bit behind. With a month worth of ship sales we have a lot of data for the analysts to go through before we can pick back up on his mostly likely path. If we'd have been here quicker, we'd have a much higher chance of finding him." The captain was quietly and subtlely making his feelings of the utter hopelessness of finding our quarry known, without being abrupt about it.

"Our quarry has gone to ground somewhere. We will find him. Once we get close I will be able to guide us in with the Force the rest of the way. My gut tells me we are on the right track. We are still going in the right direction. I know you will find him and tree him shortly, its just a matter of time to flush him out of what ever hole he has retreated to."

"Yes sir. I'll have the data transferred to your ship in the next few moments. Its not a lot, but It's got some info that we think might be worth looking into." He said calmly, saluting, his thoughts regaining some of his confidence.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Data analysis was a boring arduous job. Normally it was best left to droids, but they were only so many known variables we could plug into a droid before we had to start relying on gut feelings and what we thought might be the case. Even still I had them running down the leads we had, going and speaking with every previous owner of single pilot ships first. I thought that maybe, just maybe he would be smart enough to go it alone from here on out and grab something small like a freighter. Granted that would make finding him that much harder. Its difficult to track something if there are millions of them in the galaxy.

As much as I helped with this process, I was far more recognizable than my soldiers. I didn't want to draw attention to the hunt if I could help it, even if some people probably already knew it was going on. An officer approached and saluted before reading off a datapad. "Sir, we think we found something. One Light Freighter, purchased by a togruta seventeen days ago. Looks like he sat around here for a few days to see if anyone was following."

"Good. Let's see if we can get a transponder number and get looking for the ship. Any idea where it was headed?" I asked standing from the data terminal on the ship we were using.

"Yes sir, last seen was the same day it was bought, but he told the previous owner he was heading for Da Soocha."

"I am almost positive that we can cross Da Soocha off the list, but lets get the specs for that ship and get working on his first stop."

"That's the thing sir. If he didn't fuel it up on the way out, he'd have to stop at a fueling station in the local area. Seller owns a couple of fueling stations set up like that. He sells a ship that needs fuel, it has to stop at one of his nearby stations. He gets to overcharge or the ships get stranded." The soldier looked a little proud of himself for having already followed the trail on his own some. It was good information, and sneaky, just maybe we were getting closer.

"Split up and take the long range shuttles to each of those fuel stations, let's see if we can run him down. Chances are after buying a rental and a ship, plus supplies, he didn't have much left for overpriced fuel."

Within the hour the Dragons were splitting into groups of ten rather than twenty to hunt down the fuel station Henn had inevitably stopped at. There was a chance he had been smart enough to buy some on the planet, but he had probably been anxious, hopefully detoxing, and it had slipped his mind. Force knows if the droids on board didn't keep up with it, I wouldn't notice on occasion.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

By the time my ship, with the eight commandos with me arrived at our station some of the other teams were already checking in with negative results. Twenty six stations to check though, so it wasn't unexpected. The small fuel crew that were there weren't expecting to see nine armored warriors disembark a ship, and they certainly hadn't been expecting us to pull guns and lock them into a maintenance closet. "Search for the class and model of ship he purchased, see if any came through here in the past seventeen days."

"Yes sir, looks like there are four possibilities, looking for security footage to see if we can confirm identity and see what direction he left in." A soldier said as they sorted through the logs on the station. It took a moment but I sat, looking over his shoulder watching.

"There he is. We got him. Looks like he headed on an odd path, link it up to the ship and have it sent to the mainframe on Mandalore, get me a list of planets he could have moved to."

"Already know of one sir. He could be headed for Da Soocha."

"Alright, he is either incredibly stupid or trying to make people over think things. I can't see a reason he would have told people where he was going if not to confuse anyone following him. Did he have enough fuel to make it there?" I asked the soldier who was sorting through data.

"Uh..." the soldier paused as he looked through data and did a few quick calculations. "Barely. He might not have access to a whole lot more money unless she has funds for him hidden away sir."

"Good. Wipe the hard drives and call the boys. Have everyone converge on Da Soocha and start routing him out." He had better have my child safe and sound, or the galaxy could not imagine the tortures I would put him through over the next fifty years.

[member="Chiasa Kritivaas"]

 

[Chiasa Kritivaas]

"Shhh now, shhh baby, be a good girl for Uncle Henn."

The beleaguered Togruta implored as he paced the small spartan room that was his current dwelling, bouncing the wailing infant on his shoulder, rubbing her back, doing his best to console her.The Togruta looked, quite frankly, like death warmed over. This was pretty accurate too, considering how little sleep he'd gotten in the last couple weeks. The usually sunny-tempered Meliha had been inconsolable since he'd found her. When she wasn't crying she sat there, sniffling, and nothing he did seemed to make a difference.

Da Soocha was a hellhole of a planet. Not the kind of place he favoured. Mostly oceans, a few islands. Still recovering from the beating it had received roughly 700 years earlier. Which was why it was perfect. He'd let it slip, certain that if anyone followed and the seller talked, he wouldn't be believed. False trails were basically common place after all.Still, it made life hard. He couldn't disappear like he could in an ecumenopolis. It was harder for him to make credits here. In a little island village if someone started stealing ships and speeders it tended to get noticed.

Henn was reduced to odd-jobbing and actual hunting and gathering. He's fished and climbed trees to keep himself fed, as well as to get enough to trade for food the FAU-V1 could process for Meliha.

But she was Chiasas. And when Chiasa came back, because in his heart of hearts Henn refused to believe she wouldn't, she would see that he, her most dedicated, had found and cared for her child. For as long as it took.

So he lived in a damned hut. Got sunburnt. Did jobs that were such a step-down from playing Admiral of a fleet that he could scarcely deal with it some days. Dried out when he realized he had no spare credits and his drugs of choice weren't even available on this backwater. It was tight, and it was miserable, but with the credits he'd got from selling off the ship at a major island, he'd bought passage to this smaller one, and bought the small room he currently walked across, like he'd been doing for hours.

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

While the trail might have been cold and almost dead, the Dragons had torn apart enough things to get us as far as Da Soocha without much issue. We had hit snags, we had taken a few days to run down leads, but when you had over a hundred people doing the job of a small group of bounty hunters, a lot of money to spend on bribes, repairs, and making things disappear, information wasn't as hard to come by as some people thought it should be. Even still, it had been a lot of man hours to get this far, I thought quietly as the ship reverted to real space above Da Soocha. Part of me had wanted to bring a small fleet from ArmaTech in case he tried running, but, on this back water world, having a corvette and a few long range shuttles fitted with hyperdrives should be enough.

Another Part of me wanted to strangle the Togruta, just as much as I wanted to thank him for keeping her safe while I recovered and found out what had happened. "Have the shuttles stay in orbit for now, lets get most of the boys on the ground and then have them monitor the system as best as they can. He may not like people knocking on his door and may try to run if he's here." With the short, easy to follow orders given I reached out through the Force, seeking Meliha's presence. It was there, somewhere on the planet, I could feel it, deep in my gut. She was here, but she wasn't happy. I sent soothing thoughts, love, and warmth, hoping that if even for a moment it brought her comfort.

The ship landed on the one of the main islands and I gave the troops their running orders. "Alright, small groups, find that ship. Figure out where he has stashed it and if he has spoken to anyone. If you see him, follow him and send an All Hands on Deck message over the encrypted channel. I will be the first person to speak with him. Go, find it now." There was the chance that he had stashed the ship off, somewhere private that no one else knew about as a get away, but he struck me as lazy, so I was betting that he had stored at one of the few space ports on the planet, and the boys were dragging out BARC Speeders and getting ready to go looking for the ship. "Pull out the Observers and cover as much ground as possible, teams of four, one team on the ship, one with me."

A soldier saluted and started moving to unload the small, soccerball sized probe droids out of the cargo bay where they were crated. I didn't have a full complement of them, but there were enough to cover a great deal of ground looking for that ship. If we had found anything to go by come morning I would call for more. If I had to I would swarm this planet with soldiers to find her, reason having been cast aside now that I could feel her out there, feel her crying. "Netra." I said into the comm piece softly. My eyes were burning and had red rings around them from lack of sleep. I was distressed now. A thousand questions running through my mind as the soldiers moved out to begin searching.

The big beskar tiger droid sprung from the ship, gleeful to stretch his legs again. "Come, lets get airborne and get moving. I can feel her, maybe I can hone in on her that way." The four Dragons that were with me mounted their BARC speeders and followed the big droid. I swung up into the saddle and slipped my feet into the stirrups just behind the metal beasts shoulders, nudging him southward and urging him forward. He started at a trot, cat like and bestial. Quickly he built into a gallop, sprinting across the ground, his tail out behind him for balance. As he picked up speed the SLAM engines extended and burst to life, leaving a trail of ion exhaust behind him as he took to the skies. Within seconds a vapor cone started to form and the droid punched through the sound barrier. I was forced to hunker down along the droid's body to escape from the air pressure that it caused, I was hooked to him so I might not fall to my death, but it certainly wouldn't feel good to get tossed round on his back.