Outlaw's Rebellion: Chapter 10

The refitting of the Syndicate luxury cruiser for the crew’s next mission takes several months. Over that time, one of the first things Fabius Kane does is go back outside the Maw and find the diner where they were ambushed. There, he shakes down the owner of that place to learn more about Grekk, the man who turned them in to the Imperials; apparently, he was a Neimoidian. Fabius hires an investigator to make sure they find the right ‘Grekk’, and then plans on putting a 15,000 bounty on his head: dead. Fabius wants to make those that would turn him in think twice about it.

Over the next three months, Fabius spends much of his time with Veroshk, training in the ways of the Force. During that time they get to know each other, learning quite a bit about each other. Veroshk tries to use the mistakes of his own past to counsel Fabius against giving into his anger, but the young scoundrel just does not seem to get what the Fallen is telling him.

During the same time, Papa Beedo, or Cobalt Blue, as he begins to call himself (as part of his new entertainer identity), begins recording an the first single for his album and subsequent "tour." It comes out very well and actually becomes a top 100 hit (#34). Donovan, still feeling the affects of his prolonged coma (a mystery to the Syndicate doctors) is often in the medical chambers, as he claims never to be feeling quite right; more often than not, he can be found in a bacta tank. Spid Dövan is sent out on a special mission and will not join the rest of the crew on their first mission. Naria Lester, the ex-prostitute, has her son returned to her and leaves for the Syndicate refugee camp on the planet Haven.

Before they leave, a Slicer named Fenten Zurr (a human) runs up to Cobalt. He pulls aside Cobalt/Beedo to tell him something private. The Ithorian comes back looking nervous, but says nothing. Shortly thereafter, the crew departs. 63 hours later, Cobalt Blue, Fabius, and Donovan are approaching the planet Nubia, in the newly-christened, Blue Streak. There they are going to record the majority of Cobalt Blue’s alblum. Once down, they meet up with the famous producer, Mosep Nar-Ten (a Nimbanese). He greets them as they arrive and quickly ushers him into his office. There he explains their mission. They are supposed to meet up with an ex-Rebellion leader and smuggle her to safety after a party on the planet; they cannot leave right away, they must appear to be mingling for a while. The most difficult part is that they cannot contact her until the pickup. Especially since, somehow, Imperial Intelligence seems to have learned about this mission. Mosep believes that they will be sending assassins for her.

Mosep explains that that the contact will be looking for Cobalt Blue and say to him: “These parties are so dull, perhaps one of your songs could liven it up.” Cobalt must then respond: “I’m afraid my music would make things a little too interesting.” They must then convince this contact to leave immediately, so as to avoid any assassins.

They have two days until they have to go this party. Cobalt spends the days walking the streets, trying to help people and convincing miscreants the errors of their ways. Donovan and Kane spend most of their time drinking and gambling. Donovan only breaks even, but Kane manages to come out several thousand credits ahead.

When the time comes, the three go to the party. It is a very who’s who of Nubia. Donovan is given a tracking device. Once they find the ex-Rebellion leader, this will take them to a certain freighter, which they must fly to an orbital station, where their mark will be picked up by another group. She should know the people picking her up, but none of them know their identities. Cobalt looks at the others; he thinks it almost sounds too easy–yet too complex. Fabius and Donovan shrug, they only see the paycheck.

They arrive in a stretch aircar, just like everyone else. The paparazzi is out checking out everyone, taking pictures and furiously scribbling notes excitedly. For some reason, the three adventurers (dressed as an entertainer and two bodyguards) all get weird looks. After taking a look around, Donovan figures it out. Everyone else arrived with dates. They don’t have any. Cobalt is upset Mosep didn’t warn them about this. Fabius and Donovan try to look tough to emphasize that they are security. Nonetheless, few are impressed by Cobalt. Fabius tries to get them inside as quickly as possible. Even there, though, people don’t want much to do with them. Unfortunately, there is little they can do regarding that or their mission. They don’t know who they are looking for or even her race–only that it is a she.

Eventually, they are approached by someone wearing an Ubese environmental suit. In a gravely voice, she suddenly says the catch phrase. Cobalt returns it. She then says, “Cobalt Blue?” The Ithorian nods. She wants to mingle, but Fabius informs her that there have been changes to the plan. They need to leave immediately. But before Cobalt and Fabius can decide which exit to take, a woman who appears to be the ex-Rebellion leader Mon Mothma appears and says the code phrase. Slowly, Cobalt utters the phrase. Fabius makes sure he is nestled safely between the two women—so they cannot kill each other—and readies his lightsaber.

Cobalt ushers them all to a dark corner, in which the Ubese takes off her helmet and they see a woman who also appears to be Mon Mothma. With a knowing look to his comrades, Cobalt asks the second woman to tell him if she is an imposter, using the Force. She says no. He repeats this question to the first woman and she also says no. He asks them each if they are armed and they both say yes. The Ithorian is baffled. For some rason he cannot tell which is lying.

Cobalt tries to convince them to both come back to their ship, but after Kane makes it clear that the imposter will die, the second Mon Mothma pulls out a blaster pistol and warns them that her back-up is coming. Donovan confirms this, warning the others that he sees her back-up moving toward them.

Fabius and the Imposter trade a quick glance before going for each other. With a sudden snap-hiss, Fabius swings his lightsaber at the Imposter, but she dodges backward, returning fire over his shoulder at Cobalt Blue, hitting him. Someone through the crowd unleashes a blast and hits the Mon Mothma in the Ubese suit (the real Mon Mothma); fortunately, it is only a glancing blow. Donovan cannot locate who did it, but he sees someone in a cloak sideb-y-side with a tall human approaching; the Sluissi blasts the cloaked one. The cloaked man then throws off his cloak to reveal a Blood Carber; the creature lunges forward with a vibroblade, slicing Donovan. Meanwhile, without anyone realizing it, Cobalt Blue uses the Force to stun the Imposter, making her unable to do as much as move. The real Mon Mothma (in the Ubbesse suit) moves forward with her blaster and lands a coup de grace on the stunned imposter, killing her easily: upon which she reverts to her original form: revealing that she was a Clawdite shapeshifter.

Fabius swings left and deflects the oncoming human’s blaster fire, then spins right on the Blood Carver and slashes him with his lightsaber, making the humanoid howl—just as Donovan fires wide at the same villain. The Blood Carver lunges forward, slashing twice at Fabius, cutting the Force-using smuggler just as the sniper (whom they can now discern is firing through a window) blasts Fabius squarely in the chest. Mon Mothma circles back behind Kane and is still able to fire and hit the Blood Carver with a blaster bolt. In the midst of the carnage, Cobalt Blue starts to sing, impossibly inspiring those around him with more than just his singing ability, but with the Force.

As the rest of the large room starts to break into chaos, Fabius basks in Cobalt Blue’s song, continuing his assault on the Blood Carver, slicing him badly. Donovan, inspired also, hits the Blood Carver with a pair of blaster bolts. The Blood Carver slices Fabius again, ignoring the Sluissi still. As if acting in tandem, the mysterious sniper opens fire on Donovan instead, hurting him badly. In response, Cobalt decides to cast an illusion that the Blood Carver got Mon Mothma so the Sniper will pack up and leave, just as Mon Mothma and the human villain exchange weapon fire, but each miss. After that, the human seems to speak into a comm. and say, “the Morph is done, let’s proceed to the secondary plan.” With that, the Blood Carver backs up and says to give them Mon Mothma or the whole building will blow up.

Fabius disengages his lightsaber and subtly readies his heavy blaster pistol, getting ready to go back to what he knows best, as the Ithorian negotiates with the human. As far as the smuggler can tell, this human is telling the truth about a bomb. Seeing no alternative, Blue Cobalt taps deep into the Force and convinces the human to deactivate the bomb. As soon as this happens, Kane grabs Mon Mothma and runs for the door, with Donovan right behind him. Blue Cobalt is left alone, forced to try and heal himself as the Blood Carver leaps after the others.

As they run out the door, Fabius–with Mon Mothma trailing him–tells Donovan to activate the tracking device so they can find the ship. He then lets the Sluissi take the lead as he falls behind to lay cover fire, only to see the Blood Carver coming right at him. Fortunately, the humanoid misses with a wild swipe. Fabius spins, running backward and rips off two blasts, the second of which nearly disintegrates the Blood Carver's head. Cobalt then catches up and they all run off, making a clean getaway.

They make it to the Barloz Medium freighter, per their instructions, and head for the space station where they will meet their other contacts. Donovan and Kane set and fly the simple course, while Cobalt Blue heals them all. Mon Mothma is impressed that Kane and Cobalt are so strong in the Force. Kane brushes it off; he relies more on his blaster, he says. They talk about the fall of Endor and the Rebellion. She asks about Destine. They do not exactly endorse him, but they do reference that Wedge Antilles, formerly of Rogue Squadron, works for him, whom she seems to know. This actually does impress her. Kane makes it clear that he’s just in it for the money. Donovan just shakes his head.

They talk about the Force, Destine, even Winter, and seem almost friendly. Yet, Kane’s smuggler sensibilities do less than impress Mon Mothma, especially when he and Cobalt revealingly argue about their past and what was wrong or right. Mothma eventually steals away, half-terrified by criminals whom she thought were heroes. Cobalt follows her, trying to explain that it’s not as bad as it sounds. About then, they dock and are greeted by a human, a wookie, and two droids. As Donovan comes up, they introduce themselves as Han Solo, Chewbacca, R2-D2, and C-3PO. Donovan and Cobalt Blue introduce themselves. Fabius stalls, trying to let Mon Mothma cool down. After securing everything in the cockpit, Fabius joins them.

The three Syndicate agents are confused as to how Solo and the others escaped the destruction of Endor. Solo explains that they were warned the Death Star was turning and they were able to escape with a few Ewoks. Soon thereafter, Princess Leia married Prince Isolder of the Hapes Cluster. Han reveals that Leia has been training with some fallen Jedi there.

“Veroshk,” Fabius whispers.

“How did you know?” Solo asks. Cobalt and Kane argue briefly, kind of clueing the others into their relationship with Veroshk. Solo says that Veroshk and Leia are negotiating an alliance between the Hapes Cluster and the Syndicate, to form a new alliance. They chat for awhile, even talking about the true identity of Destine, Jabba’s treasure and Boba Fett (which they both agree the bounty hunter no doubt has found), and Solo’s recognizing Fabius (which the smuggler brushes off) before Mothma and the others take their leave. Mon Mothma looks very shaken from all she’s heard.

The three Syndicate agents talk briefly about the Force and what they need to do next, when they hear gunfire down the hangar. Cobalt Blue runs off. Kane shakes his head as Donovan says they should go too. They both follow the Ithorian. Near Solo’s ship, they see Imperial Stormtroopers firing at their new associates; they are about to rush and help when Solo orders C-3PO to hold the stormtroopers off. Suddenly weapons start popping out of the protocol droid and in a matter of seconds, he takes them all out. Jaws dropped, the trio watches as they realize the other group does not need their help.

Cobalt, Donovan, and Fabius return to Nubia, ditch the ship, and head back to the studio to see Mosep Nar-Ten. When they get there, the producer profusely apologizes to the crew for not sending female escorts with them. Though Kane is still annoyed, Cobalt accepts the apology as retribution. Kane asks if the money is in their accounts. Mosep says it is. Cobalt goes off with Mosep to discuss music. Kane heads for the ship, planning on doing some work on it: sick of having to explain himself to other people.

Donovan stands there and watches them all go their separate ways. The Sluissi, too, is every bit the scoundrel as Fabius, yet like Cobalt Blue, he wants to help others, to be a hero. His head droops.