Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Star Wars movies, TV series, books, comics or games. I don't own Gundam Seed or Gundam Seed Destiny. They all belong to their respective creators and/or copyright owners. I make no money from this story. It's not for sale or rent.

Chapter 6: The Hutt World Order

=IK=

Part 4

=IK=

Cantina

Nem'ro's Palace

Jiguuna region

Nal Hutta

For me, the next couple of days ended up being quite boring. As a Sith out for thrills and fun, with a bit of profit on the side, being particularly helpful to Javis would raise some eyebrows. Our young and impressionable intelligence agent on the other hand proved that she actually learned something in the II academy. A few drinks, a some flirting around, a few innocent questions and some not so obvious snooping around later, she got hired by our mark to resolve an issue with missing mineral shipments. It took her, Malavai and Vette the better part of the past two days to resolve the problem – they had to hunt down and break a few cells of some kind of local resistance network fighting against the Hutts and generally making a nuisance of themselves.

Javis got the credit, his standing with Nem'ro rose a bit and as a bonus he got a job for me.

"It would be a real pity if something happened to our competitors largest refinery." Karrels told me over a cup of ale.

"It would be simply tragic." I agreed. "If something like that happens I might even find myself stumbling over a bag of credits, I take it?"

We could barely hear ourselves over the beat of the music, which in turn made it less likely that our conversation could be successfully overheard, despite the cantina being quite full this afternoon.

"Stranger things had happened around here." Javis smirked and drained his cup. He shouted at the bartender and waved him to come and pour us some more.

"I've been getting bored lately. I think I'll go out to stretch my legs and see what trouble I can find." I finished my ale and went to collect Vette.

That little sabotage job turned out to be underwhelming. The place was protected by a bunch of old droids – ill maintained, if tough enough to be a threat for the low powered weaponry most of the local thugs could afford. The machines were good enough to fend off the local wild-life and groups of random gangsters but that was it.

A bit of sneaking around, and some aimed fire from proper military grade blasters, couple of Ion grenades – I didn't even need to use my lightsabre beyond deflecting a few shots – that was all it took to break into the refinery. One inside, there were only a few defenders, most were more of those obsolete droids and a couple of humanoids covered from head to toe with armour and all kinds of fabric they could wrap around themselves. My irritation at wasting time and fear of failure were more than enough to fuel the Dark Side and through it gave me strength and speed that made clearing the interior practically effortless. The hardest part was figuring out the best way to sabotage the bloody refinery and we eventually did the obvious – shoot up, grenaded or sliced through anything that looked particularly important. As a result, the place gleefully went up in flames as we made our way out.

At least the fireworks were pretty and we did our part in ensuring this dump of a planet got even more polluted and nasty place.

All things considered, things went really well, Javis creatively misplaced a small fortune in credits and stims that Vette collected. Everyone was happy – we got him even more in our debt and proved our 'friendship' and our buddy got back to being in high standing with a happy Nem'ro. Naturally, I should have expected that something would go terribly wrong, but instead I was in quite the good spirits when I went to our quarters to report to Keeper and check if there was any new information or instruction for us.

"We've got a complication, my Lord." Keeper stated grimly once he was sure the connection was secure.

"I don't like the sound of that." And just like that my good mood evaporated.

"Yesterday, Javis' sons ran afoul of a Sith. He left one dead and the other crippled. Once Javis hears of it any good will you've earned for the Empire will evaporate." The spymaster explained.

Fiery fury coiled around my heart. If I ever got my hands of the imbecile who kriffed up my mission...

"He needs to go then." I concluded. It was increasingly hard to keep my fury under a semblance of control and my tone even. "This is a setback we can ill afford." And by that I meant I couldn't really afford it. Baras' patience was going to run out sooner rather than latter and then I would be kriffed so much it didn't bear thinking about.

"It's also an opportunity. We're going to blame the Republic and Nem'ro's primary competitor for his demise." At least Keeper already had a plan and hadn't wasted any time in implementing it.

He had an interesting idea about handling the newest disaster too. "How are we going to pull that off?"

"I've dispatched a fast transport to bring you a sliced Republic data-core. You'll need to figure out a reason to infiltrate that other Hutt's palace and 'find' the evidence in there after our friend is safely dead of course. The transport will bring you some stealth equipment and computer spikes to spoof Nem'ro's palace security and allow you to go in and out undetected. They're captured Republic gear in case the Hutts are more competent that we give them credit for."

"When should I expect the package?"

"Early tomorrow. We're doing our best to suppress the news about Javis' children. You should have a window of opportunity in the next twenty-four to seventy two hours."

"I certainly hope so." Otherwise I was kriffed.

=IK=

It was weird – later that evening we went to celebrate Javis' renewed ascension. If I had a better control of my powers and taught how to, manipulating something inside of him to ensure he would expire later tonight, ether by a heart attack or a stroke might have been for the best. Instead, it was weird to dine and drink with a man I was going to murder tomorrow for something that wasn't his fault.

"Eat, drink and be merry..." I muttered while sipping from a cup of excellent Corellian Brandy. 'For tomorrow we die.' I added silently.

"What was dath, buddhy?" Javis' slurred. He had been hitting the strong stuff for the past half an hour or so.

"You're getting laid tonight." I nodded at a few of the working girls moving around to both pretty up the place and kriff us out of credits. They knew who was the man of the evening and that he was back in their owner or boss, depending if they were slaves or the next best thing around here, and more that a few of them wanted to get close to him, for protection if nothing else.

After all, when was said and done, Javis was one of the few more or less decent people in this pit of scum and villainy. And I was going to murder him – wasn't that jolly. I drained my brandy and waved for one of the scantily clad waitresses that were just a step up from the whores in this place to bring me the bottle. Suddenly, getting drunk sounded like a magnificent idea…

They Jedi claim that fear leads to the Dark Side. You know what? They were right. What the Jedi never mentioned was that the Dark Side made it quite easy to live up with yourself no matter what you did out of said fear. Besides, there were perks to being a Sith. My eyes went over the exotic dancers who had already shed most of the very revealing 'clothes' they started with, before going to the whores mingling around.

Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow another piece of your conscience dies...

=IK=

Part 5

=IK=

Nem'ro's Palace

Jiguuna region

Nal Hutta

Assassination one-oh-one - don't get caught. Step one, ensure you have an alibi. In tonight's class, this particular stage had multiple steps. First, I made a great show of being rather fond of one of Nem'ro's whores I picked up last night and fucked bow-legged, which incidentally was a nice stress relief. Tonight, once I got my eyes on the girl, a slim, barely legal human woman who was the most easy on the eyes among last night's lot, I grinned, unceremoniously grabbed her and headed for my quarters to the sounds of whistles and cat-calls.

The next step was to ensure that the palace's internal security wouldn't notice me leaving, entering my target's quarters and making my way back. This part of the operation I left to our resident spy and Malavai. Their job was to ensure that the cameras in this part of the palace would be on a loop for a few minutes when I went out hunting. Step three – I brought the girl to my bed and ensured that anyone listening from outside would be convinced I was too busy to even contemplate murdering my drinking buddy in cold blood for no apparent reason at that. A looped recording from last night's exploits would see to that – after ensuring that my alibi passed out.

With that done and the sound of passionate fucking echoing through the room, I went to get the goodies Watcher sent us - his agent already had her portion of the gifts – top of the line spices that would make slicing into the palace security reasonably easy. Her biggest issue would be not getting caught in the act and Malavai was with her to provide distraction – either playing a jealous lover or someone who decided to get frisky and couldn't wait to get to their room. It didn't really matter, as long as it worked.

My portion of the goodies was deceptively simple – a stealth generator, complete with sound dampening system, silenced blaster favoured by Republic Intelligence agents and a vibro-knife, again manufactured by the Republic – just in case our host was more competent that we gave him credit for and actually had vaguely competent forensics tech on retainer… or as a slave.

I strapped the stealth system to my waist and back, holstered the weapons and focused on becoming as tiny a flame in the Force as possible – while I did have only rudimentary knowledge on how to conceal myself with my powers, every little bit might help. Then I had to wait, either for my people to give me a signal, to sense they have succeeded and proceed or find out they got caught and we would need to fight our way out – if we could.

Naturally, the first thing I checked using the Force was to locate Javis' familiar signature and be sure he headed to his own quarters with a girl in tow, otherwise starting this little exercise in damage control would have ended in embarrassment from the get go.

A few minutes later, Malavai dragged himself in with a giggling and clingy operative draped all over him. The moment he saw me, Quinn gave me a thumb's up. I switched on the stealth suite and boosted my speed through the Force. Before the door could close behind the Lieutenant, I dashed silently into the corridor.

"Now, that one is a lucky bastard. I can't wait to get off shift and get some..." A pair of laughing Zabrak guards slowly made their way down the corridor, heading in the opposite direction from Javis' suite.

"Was that one of the new girls? I haven't seen her before."

"Nah, she's a mercenary or something, fun loving one at that. If you play your cards right, you might go ride her only for a dinner and few drinks."

"Why, when I can use one of the girls without paying? The perks of the job."

"Cause from what we just saw, this one is going to be a hell-cat in the sack, duh."

I smirked, this wasn't quite the reputation our resident agent was trying for, on the other hand, even in this day and age, honey-traps still worked like a charm.

I left the guards behind and ghosted deeper into the palace's wing. Two Gamoreans and a bored looking human leaned on the wall at the intersection leading towards Javis' quarters. I paused for a moment before slowly making my way past them, doing my best not to alert them by displacing air or worse, accidentally touching one – there wasn't much space to pass through with the large frames of the pig-like aliens partially blocking the way. Fortunately, the combination of top of the line stealth gear and novice-tier Force shenanigans were enough to pass unnoticed.

The next obstacle was the door leading inside Javis' quarters. I didn't possess the skills to dampen the sound of opening it with the Force… and it was likely locked too – not much of an obstacle if it wasn't for the trio behind me. I turned to face them and sighed. This was going to get messy. A deep breath to centre myself, my gloved fingers slipping over the hilt of the vibro blade, the sweet tang of the Dark Side racing through me as I summoned it to further enhance my speed and strength… I rose a hand and clutched my fingers to better direct the energy boiling within me.

The human coughed once and clutched his throat. That was more than enough for the pair of Gamoreans to stir and direct their attention at their choking buddy. That was when I stuck faster than a viper. I kicked the back of the knee of the Gamorean to my right with enough force to ruin the joint and sent him tumbling to one knee. It happened a moment after I released my hold of the human who continued to cough and gasp for breath in order to ensure my target wouldn't be able to scream in pain. I managed to constrict the Gamorean's throat for a mere moments before my concentration slipped, but that was enough. He fell on one knee merely squeaking in pain instead of roaring and I slammed my blade in the side of his neck, twisted and pulled slicing through his trachea and ensuring a quiet death.

The second Gamorean was turning to see what the hell just happened and nicely offered his own throat so I could bury my bloody knife in it and tear through it with ease. That left only the coughing human who looked my way only to see flying and vanishing blood and his dying buddies. Before he could recover enough to scream, I left my enhancements fade and focused on choking him. He grabbed his throat again and my knife flashed for a third time. I took a few moments to make sure that my victims were dead for good and no alarm was about to sound before running to Javis' door. It took me what felt like eternity to slice through, while making sure I didn't trip any alarm or trap. Any moment now I felt like someone was about to find out the bodies and ruin my night.

No alarm screamed, though the door did open with loud hiss that I was certain would alert anyone inside. Even as the entrance cleared, I reached for my fear and anger and my blood raced with the Dark Side riding it. I ran inside heading for where I sensed Javis' aura and the animalistic pleasure rocking the force.

"What the kriff?! I'm busy, damn it!" My drinking buddy rose from the bed with anger colouring his signature.

He looked right at the open door of his bedroom, yet never saw the knife I slammed through his left eye straight into his brain. I drew it in one smooth motion, showering the woman below Javis' with his life blood, reversed the grip and stabbed her too. I left the weapon in my last victim and made myself scarce. On my way past the three guards, I used the Force to wash away the blood that splashed over me while killing them and throw it into the red pools gathering under the corpses.

It felt as if no time passed as I ran back into my quarters and sealed the door behind me before leaning on it. The recording sounds of passion still echoed inside, now joined by a loud show by Malavai and the Agent whose real name I still didn't know. They sat next to each other on the couch and had less than amused expressions due to the performance they had to do for anyone listening.

Only now, once I let go of the Force, the gravity of my actions slammed at me at full power. This wasn't the first time I killed, naturally, far from it. It wasn't even the first time I had to kill someone close to me, even a friend – Korriban saw to that a decade ago. What was different this time was that didn't feel even a pang of regret, merely the exhilaration of the kills and satisfaction of a job well done… and I was glad for it.