Heroes' Caul: Chapter 4

Fabius Kane, Donovan, and Arahk, still traveling with Petra, the popular Yarkora pop-singer, and having over time become friends, use her tour as a cover for their smuggling runs. The crew has a cargo of drexinogen and is headed for Corellia, coinciding the move with one of Petra’s performances there. They have over 15 metric tons of the narcotic: the largest shipment of the illegal substance ever smuggled into Corellia.

With the Y-Wing, Green 1, parked on the top of The Banshee’s Kiss, the four land safely. Their contacts want to meet Donovan and Fabius personally, so those two leave Arahk and Petra at the ship–imploring them to stay out of trouble, which unfortunately, the singer is renowned for finding. They are to meet a Narolir, one of the race of business people who place a great importance on protocol. It takes a few hours to arrange the meet, but when the two arrive, they are impressed. The Narolir have a gorgeous all-glass office; even the floors and walls are glass. As the meeting continues, progressing according to lengthy protocol, they can see out the windows a crowd milling about the spaceport where their ship is. Kane and Donovan are worried about the crowd and worried about their ship and its cargo, but they cannot interrupt the business deal for fear of ruining it–and they have fifty thousand reasons not to.

Yet from there, they can see four swoops flock around the ship, adding to the problems below. The vehicles land near their ship, where a few others, including Arahk, are. Donovan looks down, not realizing it, but using the Force to see everything clearly. It only adds to his dire feelings. The four men on the swoops are yelling at the Noghri to get down. There seems to be an old Ithorian and a thin droid in the way also. They are all having some kind of heated discussion. While the old man and droid do not move, Arahk falls to the ground in compliance. Suddenly one of the swoops flies out of control and banks off of the wall of the spaceport—right next to the ship.

Even as that happens, Arahk leaps up and runs for the ship; the swoop's pilot, a cat-like alien, leaps to safety. The old Ithorian looks up at the crashing swoop and then it mysteriously deflects away from the main hull, but still hits the engines hard. After that, the old man and his droid walk away. Arahk is yelling inside to get out of the ship. Petra pokes her head out of the ship.

Then the ship explodes.

The Narolir looks at Kane and Donovan and says that he has only to push the button and then the deal is done. His head suddenly cocks as an explosion rocks the spaceport. He asks them if that was their ship, with his drexinogen. Kane tells him that he is interrupting the deal. Giving them only an odd look, the businessman pulls out a blaster and shoots himself. Kane and Donovan look at each other. They have only to push the button. The man’s guards look at them. Fabius reaches for the button and the Narolir guards pull their weapons.

Kane fastdraws and fires, injuring one of the guards. That guard fires back, but misses twice as Kane ducks. However, the other guard hits Donovan with a pair of blasts even as he evades the Sluissi’s fire. Kane shoots again and blasts a hole in the first guard. The other then retreats, slamming the door shut behind him. Donovan runs to the dead Narolir and completes the transaction with his fingerprint and then types (using the Narolir’s fingers): “I interrupted the deal, thus my life and investment are forfeit.”

The door to the outside is locked, but Kane and Donovan manage to disable the lock. They walk down the hallway, only to see the other guard losing his head to a lightsaber. Without asking questions, they turn the other way and run. Nonetheless, the Jedi appears right in front of them. It is Veroshk.

They have a quick discussion. The Falleen wants them to come with him. They refuse, saying they have done nothing wrong and want nothing to do with him. He tries to tell them that their ship has been destroyed and that their friends betrayed them, but Donovan and Fabius do not want to believe him. They leave, parting their ways, but not without resistance from more Narolir.

Kane and Donovan, finally outside, run into the old Ithorian, whose name is Papa Beedo, and his droid, IL-1D20, as they leave the building. Sadly, they confirm what Veroshk had told them earlier: that their ship is destroyed and their friends dead—after they had turned in Kane and Donovan to the authorities for the reward. Just then, a medical droid and a Bith run by, wondering what they will do without a pilot. Fabius stops them and offers his skills. They six look at each other and all run towards a waiting ship.

Just as they get to the ship, a Corellian YZ-900, called the White Wing, they are stopped by a female storm commando (differentiated from a regular stormtrooper by black armor, not the usual white) without a helmet, who yells: “Fabius Kane, freeze!” Kane and Donovan note her Imperial armor and turn and fire just as she does. D20 continues on toward the ship with the Bith and his medical droid. The Ithorian tells Kane to wait, touching his shoulder, infusing him with the Force (not that Kane knows it). Kane takes two shots and hits once, but cannot take the her down; Donovan's shots fire wide. The Storm Commando returns fire, stunning Fabius. However, she is taken out from behind by a human dragging what appears to be a human woman, who also has a small droid floating over his shoulder. He says he needs a ride. Papa Beedo and Donovan shrug and grab Fabius, all of them moving onto the ship.

Once aboard, they wake up Kane and he pilots the ship swiftly out of the Corellian sector.

Once safely off of Corellia, they all introduce themselves. The Bith, D’urrou, is a ‘property reclamations agent,’ a thief by any other name, and his droid is MD-1102. The human is Burt Mojo Xax, a famous outlaw; DK-T1067 is his little floating droid; the human woman is Zerrisk Math’ha, a safecracker. The Ithorian is Papa Beedo and IL-1D20 is his droid of a discontinued line. The Ithorian tries to talk to Donovan and Fabius about the Force and the galaxy being sick, but they do not really want to hear it. They have already had their fill of Jedis for the day. They all talk for a while and then go to sleep.

When they wake, Xax tells them all about a plan to knock off a casino. It is owned by the Hutts, and in Nar Shadda, but if they succeed, the take would be three billion dollars. They all look over the plans. He wants to hit it entering an old repulsor-rail shaft. He needs a thief, a safecracker, a getaway pilot and more. Somehow, the crew he has stumbled upon is exactly the group he needs. They all talk about it. Everyone seems into it except the Ithorian. Kane is skeptical about getting away from the Hutts, though. Ultimately, (and with gentle prodding by Donovan) they all decide to go for it.

Four days later, on Nar Shadda, they land in a discreet location. There they meet Xax’s connection, Redge, who will make sure that the ship is prepped and ready for departure. They take a land transport through the tunnel. There they start using laser cutters to work through the floor. D20 suggests accessing the security system to see what is happening above, but Kane doesn’t like it. However, Donovan says to go for it. They get D’urrou to try it. He can’t get in, but he does know to stop before he triggers any alarms. After that, they give up. Once they’re through, Xax uses a small periscope to see above. Instead of just two human guards, there is a third humanoid, in a mysterious-looking red and black armor. The crew is confused.

Donovan and D20 decide to help D’urrou hack into the system. They quickly realize that blasters will set off alarms and poison gas will be discharged if the alarms go off. They ultimately decide that they cannot break in without getting control of the computers and that will take about 10 hours. They decide to wait it out.

About hour nine, they take a check with the periscope and notice that the armored man is gone. After the tenth hour, they turn off all alarms in that sector and replace the video feed with their own. In another five minutes, the next money cart comes down, accompanied by the man in the armor. They ready themselves. Kane tells Xax to go for the armored man and all the others will take out the two normal guards, then focus everything on the armored man.

Kane and Xax go first. Unfortunately, the latter isn’t as quiet as they would have liked: they are detected. Xax fires several shots at the armored guard, damaging him, as Fabius fires at one of the regular guards and injures him also. D20 and Papa Beedo climb up behind them. The human guards open fire, but miss both Kane and Xax. The armored man screams, then rears back, fist clenched and swings, throwing a seemingly glowing fist right at Xax and knocks his head clean off. Beedo's eyes go wide and he mutters about something called “the Sith.” Behind them, Zerrisk climbs up. She, Donovan, and D20 fire at the guards, but all miss. Returning fire, one of the two guards magages to hit Kane. Fortunately, Papa Beedo is able to use the Force to hold up the evil armored warrior and trap him; Kane takes advantages of this, unloading on him, unconsciously calling on the Force to do so.

Donovan and D20 fire again; this time, the Sluissi takes out the injured human guard. Papa Beedo holds his grip on the Dark Jedi and Kane fires again, hurting him badly. Zerrisk fires on the last guard and hits, hurting him; he fires back, but his shot only grazes her. The dark armored warrior tries to do something, to move, anything, but to no avail: in his fury, his eyeholes start to smoke. Donovan then finishes the remaining human guard.

Beedo's droid fires a blaster at the armored guard and nails him. Unable to hold him any longer, Papa Beedo drops him, yet when he does, the armor clatters to the ground, with only skeletal remains inside. Did he disappear or die? They do not know. But wasting no time, they get Zerrisk to go right for the safe.

Oddly, for someone of her reputation, she doesn’t seem to know what she is doing. Suspicious, Papa Beedo senses something amiss from her. Using the Force, he senses that she feels a seething hatred for them. Beedo puts his gun to her head. As he explains later, it is no longer Mat’tha, but the Dark Jedi, possessing her; what Beedo again calls a Sith. He blows her head off. Desperate, Donovan and Kane try to crack the safe. They are not able to quite make it through all the safeguards, however. They get close, but ultimately have to leave before more security arrives. Besides, they can all feel the presence of an even greater evil. They take Mat’tha and Xax’s bodies and leave.

They failed to steal anything, but they do possess the bodies of their two accomplices: worth close to 150,000 credits in bounty. Xax’s friend, Redge, is a little nervous. He hadn’t known what they were attempting. They then force him to come with them since he can identify them. D’urrou and MD set the ship's coordinates for Kegan, where they can sell the two dead fugitives bodies and from there run to the outlying Corporate Sector, heading tentatively for Bonadan, where D20, Beedo, Donovan, and Kane can lay low for awhile.