Empire and Rebellion

by Snake Staff

36: A Precious Thing

The Rusty Hydrospanner was often called a motel, but that was a misconception. It was more accurately described as a combination of cantina, spice den, and thinly-disguised front for all manner of smuggling and racketeering that happened to have some space for a criminal to collapse after a hard day. Or overdose. It had been tacitly ignored by first Republic and then Empire for its owners’ keen sense of just how far they could push things, and because it drew the local scum into one place.

When the front doors opened to admit the latest two customers, raucous music blasted out. Inside dozens of beings, mostly human but far from totally, were freely drinking, gambling, smoking a wide variety of narcotic spices, and nakedly leering at the pretty Twi’lek singer currently occupying the weathered hunk of scrap metal that passed for a stage. Grainy holoprojectors displayed quasi-legal fights and races from across the sector when they could be bothered to work. Three hard-looking bouncers draped in body armor and openly carrying blaster rifles kept anyone from getting too uproarious.

“It reeks in here,” Twilight thought.

Through the magic of makeup, sythskin, and a touch of actual magic, she had reborn once again. Now sporting noticeably greying hair, an eyepatch, prominent and ugly scarring along her face, and an armored greatcoat over an outdated military-style tunic, there wasn’t one person in a million who would believe she was the same woman that had marched smartly out of an Imperil shuttle a day before. Still less the woman fighting the Inquisitor on Coruscant. For all that she was supposed to be a hardened smuggler, she couldn’t help crinkling her nose at the combined stench of waste, drugs, and drunks.

Suppressing her disgust as best she could, the alicorn strode confidently towards the bar with hands folded behind her back. As she stepped over a Duros laying sprawled out on the floor, a drunken man stumbled away from the bar, then tottered into her. Twilight shoved him aside, where he toppled over backwards into a puddle of something dark green and unidentifiable. She winced a little.

“So-” Twilight caught herself just before she extended a hand to help him. “So don’t come near me again if you know what’s good for you!” she corrected rather unconvincingly.

Rubbing her shoulder a little bit, she proceeded to the bar while Janus covered the exit. Finding a seat and struggling not to wince at the grime, she waited until the bartender turned her way.

“What can I get ya, beautiful?” he asked, to a small round of chuckles from a few patrons.

“Room for two. One night only.” Twilight kept it simple.

“Only a stopover, huh?” the man laughed heartily. “Then you gotta try our Corulag Comet Concoction while you’re here! Normally its five credits, but for a guest like you, four!”

“Room for two,” she repeated.

The man’s smile fell away. “A hundred credits. One twenty-five if you want our secure hallway.”

“That’s where intel says Kresh is hiding.”

“Secure it is.” Twilight answered, placing the indicated chips on the bar, where they disappeared faster than she would have believed possible.

The bartender slipped a key card into her hand. “Sleep tight.”

---

The “secure hallway” turned out to be a lengthy and poorly-lit metal square with a long series of around two dozen sliding doors equipped with key readers. Coincidentally, it looked exactly like the unsecured hallways with the exception of a single bored-looking man in body armor seated on a rickety stool at the end of it.

“We got gyped,” Janus muttered as the two strode up to the door matching the card’s number.

“It’s the Empire’s money anyway,” Twilight countered as she swiped the key. The door rolled open with only a moderate squeal of protest.

“Point,” he admitted.

Once the thing had opened fully, the two beheld a pair of hard-looking military style bunks, two metal chests at the foot of each bed, and a single lumen strip. All crammed into a space not much larger than your average walk-in closet.

“Thank you very much for choosing the Rusty Hydrospanner,” the guard at the inn said dully. “I hope you have a pleasant evening.”

“Thanks,” Twilight answered cheerfully. “I hope you do too. And get some sleep, you look like you need it!”

The hard-looking smuggler woman turned, blaster pistol hanging at her hip, smiled brightly and waved briefly to the bored guard before the door began to close again behind her.

Her partner just stared.

---

High in orbit, Luna was busy dishing out orders through her new and improved primary holoprojector.

“I want probe droids above and inside every spaceport on this rock with the capacity to handle a decent-sized freighter,” she told Celebraine’s second, a woman by the name of Gial. “Get me an ongoing list of incoming ships as they’re declared. I want names, captains, purported cargo, and any history of Imperial entanglements they may have. I also want all available information on every ship currently docked in our ports, including projected takeoff times.”

“That is… rather a lot of data, ma’am.”

“I’m not finished. Bring up all files on the known associates of Maul’s deceased smuggler friend and their hiding holes. Come to think of it, give me areas known to be criminal or less than reputable. Spare probe droids should begin a sweep – long range aerial scans only, I don’t want them anywhere near the ground. Compliment this with your spy satellites as orbits allow. All machine-sourced data to be linked directly to my ship in real time. Mobilize your men and keep at least two combat squads on full alert and ready to move out the moment I give the order. Make sure you have a capable gunship on standby to deliver them anywhere on the planet as swiftly as possible.”

“That is an ambitious data collection for one… woman, Lady Inquisitor. Are you-”

“Are you telling me the Imperial Security Bureau is unable to fully service my needs?” Luna cut her off. “Lord Vader’s needs?”

“Of course not,” Gial stiffened noticeably. “I simply inquired if you needed any assistance with data sorting. Our agency has many analysis droids and capable agents who could be made available to help you sift through an entire planet’s worth of continuously-updating information.”

“Your concern is touching,” Luna answered drily. “But I shall take on the task myself. The Force is with me, and we shall prevail. Maul will not escape.”

“…Of course, my lady. Will there be anything else?”

“Just one. Don’t fail me.”

“Yes, my lady.”

---

A couple of hours and a small amount of uncomfortable sleep later, it was the middle of Corulag’s night and it was time for Twilight and her partner to put their plan into action. The squeal of the door as it opened was impossible to conceal. The guard looked up from where he’d been reading some less than savory literature to see the same greying smuggler woman step out into the moonlit corridor, hand in her pocket. His brain didn’t even have time to process the faint flash of purple that he glimpsed in there before the stool he sat on took on an immediate, all-encompassing presence in his mind. All other thoughts, feelings, and aspirations melted away before a single, simple desire.

He wanted that stool. He needed it.

He needed it so badly, in fact, that he completely failed to notice the silenced stun blast travelling down the hallway until it washed over the back of his head.

“Sorry,” Twilight muttered under her breath, as the guard slumped over. She turned back towards her room and beckoned. “That’s guard down and camera set on loop. We’re good to go.”

Janus took a step out the door, then took a quick jog down the hall. “First you break into an Imperial prison by yourself,” he said when he returned, “then you escape an Inquisitor with your head attached, now you’re taking guards down without a sound or a blast fired in anger. How do you do that?”

“Trade secret,” Twilight whispered, even as they crept along.

His eyes went to the unconscious guard, then back to the alicorn. “Well I sure wish you’d share.”

“We’re here,” Twilight changed the subject quickly, “Intelligence pinned Kresh to room 37.”

“Which means they almost certainly know we came here,” Janus added, pulling a small device out of his pocket.

The motel’s doors, lacking a central computer or connection to exterior network like the Imperial outpost on Serenno, were beyond Twilight’s ability to crack remotely. Fortunately, as Janus had suggested, the guard was bound to be carrying a key. One swipe of the stolen goods and this door too immediately began to wheel open. Human and alicorn winced at the noise of it, but a more apathetic and inebriated clientele could scarce be found beyond Hutt Space. No one peeked out to investigate.

Both Twilight and Janus peered delicately into the room from opposite sides of door, bodies in cover and pistols in hand. They needn't have worried. The old man inside was curled up roughly on the bunk, blankets strewn randomly about the floor. There was a grey pile of ashes and torn packaging, and the little room reeked of spice. Twilight grimaced.

But the alicorn’s gaze was quickly drawn to Kresh’s hands. In his left, he clutched an older-looking blaster pistol, ugly and obviously repaired many times. But in his right…

“Is that a…” Janus stared at the fist-sized hexahedron, shining gold-silver frame and bright blue crystalline sides standing out like a torch in the night.

“Holocron,” Twilight breathed.

Comments

[the other sans]

They needed have worried. The old man inside was curled up

1. Needn't.

Now we have to wonder, whose Holocron was it? Hmm... there's so many Sith Lords that it could belong to but sadly my lore knowledge is not up to snuff. Think Twilight might have a chance of possibly activating it? Possibly, not sure if magic can be counted though.

[badninja]

Now that is an interesting find. I do wonder just who this Kresh really is?

[Black Hoof]

Janus took a step out the door, then q quick jog down the hall. “First you break into an Imperial prison by yourself,” he said when he returned, “then you escape an Inquisitor with your head attached, now you’re taking guards down without a sound or a blast fired in anger. How do you do that?”

Let’s just say the Force is strong with this one.

[ABitterPill]

Twilight reached the Holocron first. Now the question is, how close on her heels is Luna?

Thank you once again for another update!

[aline1]

Hmm I wonder is it a jedi or Sith Holocron... Be interesting if it turned out one created by the pre-reformation jedi lords like lets say lord hoth.

[grammar404]

So Twi changed her appearance and Janus seems to care little. Was this purelu cosmetic or did she changed face entirely with magic because I thought none knew she was a pony?

[Black Hoof]

8650635
I think Luna will barge in swiftly if (when?) she realizes Twilight is in there.

[Alondro]

Just have Emo Nightmare slash the leader.

I mean, clearly even the Force can't help stop the power of Emo! The power of Emo even prevents you from seeing an obvious attack coming that half the audience knows is coming just because predictable tropes.

[Blue-Bolt]

Hmm this is heating up and i love it but to be honest i must be serious and ask what is happening with the emperor and the princess?

[WalkingMan2010]

Seeing as blue isn't really associated with the Sith that begs the question of what Maul and Vader want with a Jedi holocron.

[Snake Staff]

8650635
In orbit high above the planet. Not that close.

8650697
She mostly used mundane makeup and synthskin, nothing obviously magical.

8650766
Most likely a lot of poking and prodding.

8651116
Better question: who would enforce any law on an Inquisitor acting on Vader's direct orders?

[Fatail]

8648277
Long in my favorites, friend.

[Black Hoof]

8651116

This seems very not legal.

Sidious: "I will make it legal."

[Blue-Bolt]

8651169
An interesting Choice of words

[Dustchu]

Ohohohoo, this'll be interesting, a holocron?
niiice

[zimmerwald1915]

8651169

In orbit high above the planet. Not that close.

In other words, close enough so that she can pop in at the most plot-appropriate, dramatic, or catastrophic moment.

She might as well be around the corner, awaiting her cue.