Sithing in the Rain

[Percy Fleck]

Location: Astral Treasures, Corellia
​

The rain just kept coming down. Percy did his best to ignore it, leaning against the wall of the alleyway with his eyes fixed on the prize. The water was slowly seeping into his dark overcoat, ruining the fabric with each passing minute, but there was nothing for it.

He could have deflected the rain away from himself easy enough, but right now his efforts were focused elsewhere. The two guards across the street were lazy, but no fools. They'd have seen him already if not for the misdirections he'd thrown their way. The priority was remaining out of sight until his counterpart arrived.

The neon sign above the guards' heads flashed incessantly, a gaudy display that was blurred in the evening rain. Astral Treasures was a shabby looking place, advertised to be a repository of powerful artifacts, but looking more like a run down gift shop. The guards either side of the door were overkill as far as Percy could see, there to project importance rather than protect anything inside.

The auction within was nearly over. When it finished, the customers would leave, clearing the way for them to make their entry. However poor Astral Treasures' offering, the store had proven connections with the dissidents in the Old Empire. The unhinged fools in the Outer Rim had been using its owner, Marcell Valance, as an informant for some time, if the reports Percy had seen could be believed. He couldn't imagine Valance knew anything of import, out here in Corellia's dusty back alleys, but the Republica couldn't let traitors like him go unchecked.

They had to find out what he knew, then put a stop to his activities.

Percy sighed impatiently, glancing back up the alley. The powers that be were sending a second Sith to help him. If they didn't turn up soon, he was billing them for a new coat.

@Nefieslab

 

[Eddard Thul Drast]

Ah Corellia.

Eddard hadn't spent an awful lot of time in this place but he knew enough to know that the place was basically a lighter version of Coruscant and Kuat. It had the industry that Kuat had but it had the seedier aspects of city living that Coruscant had once you went below a certain level. But that was the environment that a lot of his prey liked to frequent so that was no issue for Eddard, no issue whatsoever.

Bit odd when you considered how much of a blue blood he actually was.

Dressed in an overcoat over his Sith cloaked armour, Eddard had his lower face mask in hand but he wasn't wearing it yet. Instead he was smoking a cigara. Coming up on the agreed meeting point, he stopped and leaned on the wall opposite to his ally, this Percy, and offered the other man a cigara.

He was slightly late after all.

Looking over at the guards, Eddard hummed a little bit, fingering the half-mask in one hand as he looked them over. There were a few ways they could do this as far as he was concerned.

"Hows the local law response time?" he asked his ally casually as he looked up and down the street, "No one on the street seems like the hero type... we can go loud and quick if needs be."

He looked back at his ally.

"Thoughts?"

@Alhon

 

[Percy Fleck]

Eddard Thul-Drast wasn't exactly what Percy had expected. But then, he wasn't quite sure what he had expected. The Drast name was so much more than a name; Percy had near worshipped the royals as a child, right through to the present day. Eddard could have descended from the heavens and Percy would still have been sceptical. Besides, the guy wasn't even first-tier.

He was pretty handsome though, and had that casual attitude that just rolled over the Imperial nobility. Percy waved away the cigara on instinct, but almost regretted it at once in case Eddard thought it a slight.

"We'd have time" Percy replied. His counterpart was focused on the job immediately; they were cut from the same cloth. "Local law's too slow to get here fast enough. But I stay away from loud if I can avoid it. I should be able to get us in quietly".

The store's front door chimed and several customers began to spill into the street, making their way home. The auction was over.

"I can slow these two jokers down" he said, nodding towards the two guards across the way. "Then handle the one on the left. If you can take the guy on the right? Things hopefully get easier once we're inside".

@Nefieslab

 

[Eddard Thul Drast]

Always nice to know that they had options in case the quiet option fell through. Often the quiet option would, indeed, fall through and then they would be forced to go loud. Having experienced that a few times now, he would he rather spend time getting it sorted our before kriff hit the fan.

He was with Percy though - a silent entry would be preferred.

"Quiet is always preferred - but if it fails I like to know the loud option will still work." He admitted simply, enjoying another pull from his cigara, "I can take the man on the right without incident."

Taking one last pull on his cigara, he tossed it aside in the rain before nodding to Percy.

"Masks on. Codenames only." He pointed to himself and then Percy, "Radius. Ulna. As you're the distraction we go on your mark."

He pulled on his mask, a white mask of a face permanently stretched into a mocking smile. Eddard nodded once to Percy before readying himself with the Force.

@Alhon

 

[Percy Fleck]

Eddard was onboard. Percy watched him whip a white mask on in a single move. He'd done this before.

The young Sith had too of course, more times than he could count. Codenames were new though; Percy had other ways of concealing his identity, if he ever wanted to. Most of the time he liked his enemies to know who had ruined them completely.

Anonymity never hurt though. He redirected his energies as he stepped out of the alley, bending the Force into a shimmer that would make his features unrecognisable at a glance. A glance was all they'd get.

The guards' heads snapped round at his approach.

"Drop!" he shouted, the command ringing with a metallic edge. The two mercenaries stumbled suddenly, their muscles leaping to obey the Force even as they tried to catch themselves. They were off balance for a moment, giving the two Imperials the time they needed to close the gap.

Percy tried not to laugh at their weakness, even as he moved to take the left hand guy down.

@Nefieslab

 

[Eddard Thul Drast]

There was a moment, before entering the fray, that Eddard enjoyed.

It was the split second before the order came down and suddenly you were go, suddenly everything was fire and battle and victory or death. During that frozen moment, Eddard felt a sense of peace that he didn't feel in his day to day life and he enjoyed that - he loved that. He allowed himself to just simply exist in the serenity of that moment for as long as he possibly could, until the moment past, time seemed to reassert itself, and he was back in the thick of it.

Right now he was hardly rushing into a battle but he was about to mess everyone up. Seeing that the illusion was in place, Eddard grabbed the head of the man on the right with the Force and slammed it back, hard, against the wall behind him. The man was out cold but not dead.

Eddard lowered the man's unconscious form to the ground before hiding him around a corner.

"Move them out of sight - that way no illusion needs to be maintained."

Which meant that they would be unimpeded by having to keep it up. Eddard moved to the right hand side of the door. He waited until Percy was in a position opposite to him.

"I'll open the door - use the Force to create a flash of light to blind anyone who's in there, then we enter." he declared, firm and serious, "You first. I'll stack up behind you. On your mark."

One Percy's go, Eddard would stab the lock on the door with his lightsaber before yanking the door open with the Force, giving Percy chance to lean in and fire off an attack.

@Alhon

 

[Percy Fleck]

The guard was scurrying to get off one knee when Percy reached him. A booted kick round the face sent the man sprawling onto the floor proper, the slightest moan sounding as concussion took hold.

"Sleep" the young Sith whispered, bending down to the guard's ear. Barely conscious, the mercenary was in no state to resist and his mind folded under the weight of the nudge, his dark eyes closing. Percy followed Eddard's suggestion, swiftly dragging the body out of sight. It might have been a fraction quicker to cut the men to pieces, but lightsabers left a trademark in their wake. Perhaps it would do for the Old Empire to wonder who had shut down its little operation, rather than learning from its mistake.

They met either side of the door, Eddard already barking more commands. There was the Drast. Another time, another place, Percy might have bristled at the way his comrade took the lead. But there, somehow it didn't bother him. The agent was a serious man, one of the few who might just know what we was doing.

"Alright then" he nodded, "now!".

They leaned round the door in unison and Percy sent a bolt of Force energy lancing into the store, a white hot flare that exploded in a flash, blinding anyone inside.

Here we come Marcell. With any luck, the merchant was only just realising his day of judgment had arrived. Left hand on his holstered blaster, right channelling the Force, Percy hurried forwards into the dimly lit building, beckoning Eddard to follow.

The ground floor was awash with shelves and display cabinets, arranged in haphazard rows. They met no resistance just inside the door, but Percy was sure there were shouts and running feet further in and above. They may have only moments.

"I'll take the upstairs" he said, spying a small spiral staircase. "Check for a back entrance. We can't let him slip away; we need him alive and kicking".

@Nefieslab

 

[Eddard Thul Drast]

They were up on the door and they were ready - Percy seemed to look at him a bit differently but Eddard didn't really care too much. People often looked at him differently during missions. Instead he just nodded, waiting for Percy's mark. It would ruin their attack if they attacked at odds to each other.

And that was the difference between a Sith and an Imperial Sith. A regular Sith, like those traitors, would do whatever they wanted because they wanted to. They respected only strength so they were constantly looking for ways to prove their strength. An Imperial Sith, however, knew when to work together, knew and understood that the Greater Good was the best option in a lot of cases and that deserved to be reflected.

Mark.

Following closely behind Percy, Eddard had one of his lightsabers ingitied and ready, held at the ready as if to protect both himself and Percy. He paused upon realising that the ground floor was empty. He put his lightsaber away and instead drew the Imperial sidearm he carried with him.

"Any expected accomplices?"

He wanted to know if he was checking for anyone else being with this guy after all - he didn't want to risk being caught unawares. Nodding in agreement however, Eddard set about looking for a back entrance, which he found in short order. Stepping outside into a back alleyway, he readied himself in case the target managed to flee either out the door or a window from above.

@Alhon

 

[Percy Fleck]

It was a good question; sadly the information Percy has received gave no hint about Valance's allies, if any.

"Not sure" the young Sith whispered as he crept between the shelves "but he can't run a place this size on his own. Must have an understudy or two maybe".

The prospect did not worry him. Valance himself was only an informant; a thorn in the Republica's side, but not a powerful man. His lackeys would surely be even less noteworthy. Percy would make them all rue their traitorous ways before the day was out. He forked left, past the last of the cabinets, making for the spiral stair.

That was when the cabinet moved.

If not for the contents crashing against the insides, Percy might have realised too late. As it was, he dived aside just in time as the tall piece of furniture crashed to the floor, a dark figure already scurrying away behind it. The fool had tried to crush him!

"Get him!" Percy shouted, abandoning all pretence. They were discovered, and the figure was running in Eddard's direction. Either a guard, or a shop worker by the look of him, he lacked Valance's jet black hair. His comrade would deal with him easily enough.

Percy got to his feet and hurried up the spiral stair, drawing his saber hilt with one hand and marshalling the Force with the other. He reached the top to be greeted by a hail of haphazard blaster bolts, throwing himself to the floor and crawling behind a large wooden globe. He had to get back on top.

"Thieves! Thieves!" came a gravelled voice a nearby room. "Stay back, you'll get nothing from me but a bolt between the eyes!"

@Nefieslab

 

[Eddard Thul Drast]

Well it seemed that the answer was quick enough in coming regardless.

Eddard didn't listen to Percy - he was already moving to intercept the man who had jumped out at them after trying to kill Percy. He might not know Percy very well yet but he had to say that he definitely objected to some little store clerk trying to murder him. If scum like this could get away with things like that then it would give them ideas. Ideas about what they could get away with when it came to respecting the Sith and the Imperials.

This was the kind of behaviour that could lead to things like local rebellions and traitors and he was already certain that he had seen quite enough of it already.

Chasing after the man, he sprinted out the exit of the store and headed straight on after him. The man panicked and headed down the alleyway, firing a couple of blaster bolts at him blindly from a holdout blaster. They were so panicked in fact that none of them were anywhere close to hitting him so Eddard merely ignored them. The man swore and turned around - just in time to hit go straight over a speeder bike on the main road.

The rider of the bike swore and scowled down at the man.

"Watch it buddy!"

Eddard grabbed the store worker by the hair sharply.

"Don't worry - I'll make sure he learns a lesson."

Dragging the man back off of the main road by his hair, the man kicking and screaming the whole way, Eddard tossed him against a wall and drew his own blaster pistol. He pressed the barrel of his blaster pistol flush against the centre of the man's forehead. The man whimpered and tried to move.

"Move or say anything I didn't ask for?" He tilted his head to the side slightly, "And I will decorate the wall behind you with your brains. Say yes if you understand me."

There was a painful second of silence.

"Yes..."

Eddard nodded once.

"Good - then we're going to wait here, nice and patient-like, for your boss to finish having a chat with my ally. When that's done, I'm going to knock you out. You're going to lose all memory of what happened here today." he pressed harder with his pistol, "If you don't then I will find you and I will make sure that a quick death is not on the list of things that will happen to you. Am I understood?"

Another moment of near silence... broken only by the man slowly urinating in fear.

"Yes."

Well then - that was sorted. Now just to wait for Percy to finish up with the owner.

@Alhon

 

[Percy Fleck]

Valance kept on firing indiscriminately, blaster bolts ricocheting off the rafters. Crouched low behind the ornate globe, Percy had a few moments to take in his surroundings, realising the upper floor was in fact a mezzanine level overlooking the auction hall.

Their target was holed up in an office, set back in the corner behind walls that didn't quite mesh with their surroundings. Flimsy partition walls perhaps.

The young Acolyte put his saber away. It would be no use. He tried to peer back down the stairs, wondering if Eddard was going to emerge any minute., but he couldn't see any movement; it was possible the assailant downstairs was still occupying the man's attention.

Another blaster shot sang past him, this one shattering a glass shelf and sending half a dozen objects tumbling to the floor. Valance seemed to pause, as if damage to his treasures was too high a price to continue. It was the chance Percy needed.

Mustering the Force, he tried to bend the shadows to his left, willing them to take on a new form. A half-human figure slowly took shape, little more than a flicker of light but perceptible nonetheless. In the corner of one's eye, it almost looked like a man.

"Go." Percy willed, thrusting a hand out and sending his creation forward. The shadowy mass lumbered across the room, already losing cohesion as it ran towards the office door. The young Sith let it go, wheeling and hurrying out from behind the globe, round to the right. Blaster bolts lanced out from the doorway, but they were aimed at the spectral figure drawing Valance's eye and not at its creator. Percy reached the right hand wall of the office, throwing himself forward with body and mind.

The dividing wall was a modern construct, hiding Valance from his customers prying eyes but possessing no real substance. Fuelled by a burning desire to end his traitorous foe, Percy crashed straight through the flimsy wall, rolling through and onto the office floor before Valance could react. The merchant turned around in horror, only for the young Sith to knock his weapon aside and crack him round the temple with an elbow. He was on the man in seconds, pushing him onto his desk and holding his head to the wood.

"Evening Marcell. A poor way to greet the authorities, wouldn't you say?".

The man made to speak, frothing in fear and frustration. "Who - are - you?!".

"Doesn't matter" Percy replied, pressing down harder "what matters is you've been talking to people you shouldn't be Marcell, traitors. Now you're one of them". He could see it all so clearly, his grip on the merchant's head making is easier than ever to penetrate his thoughts. His guilt was assured.

"No - please - you have it all wrong, I, I, they don't know anything, I didn't-"

"Only one thing a decent Imperial citizen can do here" Percy continued, lowering himself to Valance's ear. "One thing he must do". He reached for the man's abandoned pistol, forcing it into the Valance's shaking hand and pointing it at its owner's head.

"What the frack - No, Iisten, you've got the wrong guy, I swear-"

"Do it".

Valance pulled the trigger, sending any other thoughts he might have had spraying across the room. Silence descended on the store, a silence Percy welcomed. Order had been restored.

He stood there for a long moment, regarding what was left of the small man before him. A small, stupid man. A traitor to the Imperial throne. Marcell Valance had taken his own life, rather than face the shame of it.

Anyone who said different would join him.

- End -​