Quesht Complete
Posted on Thu Jun 10th, 2021 @ 10:35am by Thane & Bomoor Thort & Amare
5,765 words; about a 29 minute read
Chapter:
Chapter VI: The Last Bastion
Location: Capo's Base, Quesh
Timeline: Following "Queshtions and Answers"
OLD
Thane did not deign to answer either Capo or Bomoor. Instead, he carried on ahead, his friend only just behind him, as they finally drew up to the doors of that presumably led to their foe's office. Like the chamber they had been previously sealed in, the portal was wrought from thick metal and industrial locks, stylised like the sort of panic room the pair of former Jedi had witnessed other nefarious outlaws use in the past, in their former lives as galactic guardians.
Inside, Capo undoubtedly awaited them, knowing full well they had not elected to leave his facility. The presence of Amare was more prescient now; her life essence, whilst fluctuating and spiking, was still emanating from within, along with the dark and foreboding presence of something more within the Force - that familiar haze that both Thane and Bomoor recognised from years of attunement that told them some act of importance may be about to occur.
Typically, it was the loss of life that the Force was pre-empting, especially of a Force user.
Thane placed his palm against the metal of the door, with Bomoor doing the same just a couple of feet away, and its surface began to twist and ripple unnaturally...
NEW
The metal screeched under the sheer cosmic strain being forced upon it. The thick material, designed so expertly to resist explosions and blasterfire, seemed like thin aluminium foil against the brunt of the combined Force power of Thane and Bomoor; it warped, twisted and crumpled before them, and was soon torn unceremoniously backwards from the portal that led into the Nautolan kingpin's private demense.
Sparks showered down from the borders of the former doorway, as the ripped doorway flew through the air out into the larger chamber of the stronghold, which was now littered with the corpses of Capo's men. Through the trained and directed application of their power, no part of the doorway - not even a stray component or shard of metal - zoomed near to either of the former Jedi, as they glared in, lightsabers clasped firmly in their hands.
With the way open, they instantly spotted Amare mostly on her feet in the most desperate grapple of her life. She was toe-to-toe with her Nautolan brother, one hand gripping Capo's right wrist as she struggled to keep his blaster at bay whilst gripping the other wrist with her hand engulfed in her signature Force draining flames, attempting to weaken her brother and stop him from swinging her ignited shoto at her. Amare's drain was enough to make the left wrist go limp and make him drop the shoto, but her powers had grown considerably less potent due to her injury.
Capo, surprised by the sheer ferocious resistance his once runt of a sister was putting up in spite of a severe blaster wound to her shoulder, opted to fight dirty now that he had no more time to spare. He headbutted Amare which rendered her stunned, then grabbed her by the cuff of her tunic, pulled her in close and viciously drove his right knee deep in her gut which knocked the wind out of her, then cold-cocked her on the top of her head with the grip of his blaster knocking her to the floor once again.
With his sister once more incapacitated, Capo slowly stepped backwards towards his desk and made no hesitation to swiftly bring his blaster to bear. He quickly opened fire at Thane and Bomoor as they entered the room with a malicious sneer, angry that his treacherous attempt on their lives had failed so spectacularly. His shots were steady as if fired by the hand of a veteran hitman, evenly dividing his attacks between both former Jedi, each shot accurately leveled at their heads in rapid succession.
In a departure from his usual form in such a firefight, Thane dropped into a Makashi pose to deftly deflect the pinpoint-accurate blaster bolts whizzing through the air towards him. He turned side-on, his violet-bladed weapon held aloft in a single-handed grip towards his attacker, and bat the bolts away as sharply as they were fired. Each one was deflected along a harmless trajectory away from any of the combatants in the room; whilst every shot would have been deathly-accurate, had they not been intercepted, each one struck either a ceiling or a wall, with none in the room harmed by the response.
Bomoor, who was more at home with the defensive stance, was able to slowly step forwards, edging towards where Amare lay incapacitated on the floor while easily deflecting away the blaster fire coming his way with his shien stance that cast a wide barrier of defence before himself, Thane and, hopefully soon, Amare herself.
Thane, who had not once moved his feet in his efforts to defend himself from Capo's onslaught, returned the Nautolan's man's sneer, at regarding the weakened sight of his enfeebled apprentice nearby. With a simple clench of a gloved fist, the would-be Dark Lord shunted Capo's heavy desk forwards with a brief, sharp groan, causing it to head towards impacting their attacker hard in the lower back and legs.
So focused was Capo on blasting his way back into regaining control of his life and his world that he hardly noticed what was coming at him from behind. If it was a fair fight, he would have taken the first two through the door down in seconds, then leapt behind the desk for cover where he could arm the blaster turrets in the ceiling and the one behind his guests above the staircase. This, unfortunately for him, was not a fair fight.
He turned just a second too late before the desk made impact. As he toppled forward face-first to the floor, his mind flashed to when he battled random thugs and organized criminal minions on Rishi and the streets of Nar Shaddaa. He was used to gaining the upper hand with weapons and fists and plenty of pluck, grit, and determination, but those brawls were always against mundanes like him and his crew. This...these Jedi were leagues beyond his ken, and he was but a worm in their way. He went down hard and fast and his pistol snapped from his grip and slid along the floor towards the feet of the indomitable ex-Jedi. Though in pain, he was not disabled, and quickly scrambled to reach for an ankle holster to snatch his backup holdout blaster.
So synchronised was the response from the Force bonded pair that they both shot a hand out to tug away the holdout blaster together and, as a result, pulled Capo down with the resulting momentum.
"Just too obvious," Bomoor huffed, as he used the resulting pause in hostility to zip forwards to Amare's side.
Amare began to stir where she lay, coughing and wheezing as she struggled to reclaim her breath. All the while, with her one good arm, she reached out towards her shoto to will it to her. The weapon, once pilfered from the dead feathered hands of a Rift Jedi Apprentice, seemed to resist her Force-empowered summons as it vibrated, shook, and seemed to drag lazily along the floor, stopping and starting as it drew closer and finally rolled to a stop near the Sith's fingertips. Amare's powers were considerably diminished, her head trapped in a pulsing rondo of punishing pain, and her vision seemed distorted at the periphery and more sensitive to light overall. For several seconds, she had forgotten where she was, or what was going on, and yet she still knew she had to stop the Nautolan man that threatened her friends. She attempted to pick herself up from the floor, but then cried out and fell to one knee, overwhelmed with dizziness and ringing in her auditory canals.
Bomoor's hand reached over the open wound on Amare's arm and willed her body's natural recovery process to begin, while dulling her discomfort, "Rest a moment, Amare," he urged, "We'll deal with your brother."
Thane began to walk forward, his black boots stopping close to Amare's eyes, lightsaber still humming. The Caanan prince looked down at the enfeebled Nautolan for the briefest of moments, and whilst his thoughts and feelings on the matter were unknowable to Zaracoda Wolph in that time, there was a hint of coldness in his eyes.
He resumed walking forwards, to where Capo was still somewhat prone on the other side of the shunted desk. He was an echo of Amare's own form, coughing from the sudden force and physical torment exerted upon him. Again, he was seeking to retrieve a weapon to use on his attackers. Despite the futility of the endeavour, which was even obvious through the Force to his foes, the pirate seemed to determined to fight and to live.
Thane gestured to Bomoor, to permit himself to go ahead and reach the brother of his apprentice. He looked at the man's outstretched hand, so close to reaching his weapon, and without even a glimmer of emotion on his face, brought his boot down heavily and with supernatural speed and force onto the hand, crushing the bones with audible cracking, which was only then drowned out by Capo's own pained response.
"Nnnngghhh!!" Capo groaned aloud as tarsal bone and sinew were pulverized and permanently mangled under the Sith's heel. It wasn't the first time Capo felt a hand of his stepped on, but the human's boot came down with what felt like had the weight of three Gamoreans stacked one on top the other.
As the elder Wolph cradled his hand, Thane twisted slightly on the spot, and sunk the blade of his lightsaber into the back of Capo's right knee quickly and precisely, deactivating it just a second later, evoking another cry of pain from the tentacled man. With the Force then empowering his strength, Thane gripped Capo by the back of his jacket and hauled him upwards, only to then throw him onto the floor in front of Amare.
The nascent Dark Lord said nothing, taking a few silent steps back.
Amare, by this time, was displaying remarkable resiliency as she was on one knee as Capo collapsed in front of her. Rubbing her head, she was still dazed by the hard metal bop to her noggin, but the sight of her brother in howling and screaming manically in extreme pain caused her enough maternal concern to ignore her own weakness and give in to another kind of weakness: the kindness of Zaracoda.
She reached her hand out to him, but stopped short as Capo defiantly struggled and groaned and sobbed and fought to worm his way back up to his knees. Capo raised up his gaze through rapid panting breaths, and stared at the source of all his misery.
"Capo, let me help you," Coda said. For one last desperate push at love and redemption, the Sith Apprentice was pushed aside in an attempt to save her brother, the very focus and end goal of all that the she pushed herself to endure. "Please," she said in a sorrowful voice, leaning in close, reaching out to touch him, tears in her eyes, pleading, inwardly begging for him to drop his malicious loathing of her. She turned and looked up at Thane and Bomoor. "Please, no more. He's my responsibility now."
She looked back at Capo and tried her best to muster a warm smile for him, but her emotions and physical pain were getting the best of her, and it was tough to speak through it all. "I don't blame you for what you've done to me. I understand your hatred. I accept it, but what you've done here...something has to be done. Please hear me out. We can go back to Glee Anselm together, you and me. The Council of Elders will be merciful if you confess your crimes. I will stand by you no matter what. I will give what little I have to help your defense. Please, I'm begging you. Capo...I forgive you...I forgive you, brother. I love you. Please...come with me."
Thane's passive expression faltered an iota, as a dark eyebrow slid marginally up his face, the denouement of Amare's original purpose in aligning with the inhabitants of the Raptor crew a bold contrast to the recent expectations. However, he did nothing, instead electing to watch how the events would unfold, seemingly unwilling to take Amare's decision in this instance away from her, sizing her up at the same time.
Capo stared heavily at his only sister, and for just the faintest glimmer of a moment, he accepted Coda's genuine offer of compassion. She was always a troublemaker over the years, but he knew she was never evil. Not truly, even when she was forced by Captain Vorgunn to shoot their father five years earlier. He looked down at her offered hand and started to reach for it. He could see relief and joy on Coda's delicate face, and for a moment, he could almost feel the same...
...almost.
His quaking hand stopped just short of Coda's, and his face erupted into pure madness as he spat all he had in his throat at Coda's face.
"To the hells with you!" he shouted point blank in a howling rage. "You're nothing to me! Nothing! Do you hear me, scum?! NOTHING!!! I should've shot you in the head when I had the chance! Oh how I wish that Transdoshan made a meal of you the night we were captured. You deserved nothing less!"
As Coda had turned away, struck in the face with the spittle and residue that was Capo's final exclamation point to her face, that familiar inner voice spoke to her again...
For all your life, for every moment of vulnerability and weakness you displayed when faced with adversity, I was always the one to take the blows for you. I was always the one to do what had to be done. I protected you from your blood brothers in the spawning pool. I was there shielding you when the wraith of Shadrak tried to control our body. I was the one that pulled the trigger on our adopted father. It was my hands that slew the thief on Sheva, pushed you through the desert and plunged that sharp stone into Zenibalas' back, gave you the strength to endure foes both kind and terrible, and led you to the lost miracle of Archonus' Chrysalis. No more. Your time has ended Zaracoda. Capo's betrayal is complete and your purpose is at an end. I am your past, your present, and your future. Here, now, and always. I am your truth. I am the future of the Sith...
...I am...Amare.
In the handful of seconds that passed, with Thane and Bomoor looking on, the apprentice of the Dark Lord of the Sith spoke, all kindness and weakness evaporated in her tone. There was now only strength, contempt, and cold calculated hatred.
"I see now that I was never meant to be anyone's sister," Amare said as she casually wiped the saliva from her face with the sleeve of her one good arm. "Or mother for that matter." She turned slowly to him, "For a very short time, I, too, was a mother. I can still remember her. I named her Shara. My little girl, scion of a real bastard of a man. He was a Nautolan, but Jett Versetto might as well have been a Hutt or Vorgunn himself. I mercifully ended her life in the spawning pool to spare her the pain of his cruel upbringing. I denied my husband the sanctity of fatherhood with Shara's blood, and I would do it again if I had to."
Amare rose up steadily to her feet and looked down at Capo, eyes narrowing without care or compassion for his plight. "Jett was just like you, a bastard, but far worse. I wear the scars on my back, the phantom pain reminders of his 'love'. I enjoyed watching him and his house burn." She glanced at Thane and Bomoor to accent her words, then turned down to Capo again as she added, "Most of the galaxy thinks we Nautolans are good decent folk of the sea with big smiles, kinder and more hospitable than the majority of others, but they rarely see the truth beneath the surface. Yes, I shot your father, didn't blink, knew what had to be done. I obeyed. Did my duty as a daughter should to protect her family. Father begged me to do it, to save mother, as if he were the sacrificial hero. That was the justification I kept in my head for five long years. I did it for mother, and I did it for you. Everything I've done...for you!"
She stretched her hand out to Capo again, but this time not as gesture of acceptance, but as the harbinger of the judgment of the Force. The power gradually manifested from her wrist to her open palm and to the tips of her lithe digits until the embers of the dark side of flared brightly in blaze of crimson light. Capo gasped in terror at the sight of spell-fire in his sister's hand, his eyes wide with the look of someone that was about to be struck down by a large oncoming speeder.
Amare balled that shining torch of a hand into a fist, pulled it back close to her face, closed her eyes deep in concentration and began to chant in what sounded like tongues, but was in fact the fractured pieces of the ancient Sith language that Darth Archon's spirit had passed onto her. Her eyes then snapped open, and the swirls in them became illuminated like bright billowing nebulae seen in the void of space. In the Force Sight of Thane and Bomoor, they could see Amare was standing within a circle of ethereal energy only those with sufficient sensitive in the Force could perceive. Serus' apprentice wasn't merely preparing her usual life-draining power, she was enhancing it with pure Sith conviction and eldritch knowledge.
Amare, Lady of the Sith, then pushed that hand open, palm in front of Capo's face, and immediately streams of Force energy began pouring out of her brother's eyes and mouth, flowing into the dark flames. As life energy fed into her body, Amare's natural regenerative healing with magnified greatly, and began to enable the full use of her shot arm again.
"Capalfin Wolph, you worthless fool," Amare said harshly to him. "It was not kindness I was offering. I was giving you back your life! I shall instead keep what you are so willing to give up!"
The flow of energy ceased, the flames died down, and Amare used both hands to lift Capo high into the air with her newfound telekinetic might, the pain of the memory of Shara's death fueling her power. It was always the true source of her meteoric growth in the dark side. Every meditation; every focused use of her powers; every motion of her lightsabers were all rooted in the memory of that blackest of days. There was no greater pain to her than the loss of that child. Nothing in all the galaxy could surpass it, but it was not in vain. For what she lost was gained in her gradual embrace of the Force. No...not just an embrace; she was falling in love with it, and she wanted more.
For Shara. For vengeance. For the Order of the Sith. The time had come for a sacrifice.
"Rrraaagghh!" she screamed as she bolted Capo across the room like a bat out of hell, crushing his spine against the far wall. Capo fell face-first to the floor in a motionless heap, but Amare could sense in spite of the violent impact, her brother still drew breath, still clinging to life. Relentless and vengeful to the bitter end. Amare found it to be rather inspirational, if not pitiful.
When she gathered her composure and calmed her breathing, Amare turned to Thane...to Serus, and posed a question only a dark apprentice could appropriately ask, "Master, what is the penalty for the attempted murder of a Sith Lord?"
Thane's eyes had barely deviated from his apprentice as she wrestled both literally and figuratively with this relic of her former family before her; he had been taking a keen interest in the internal conflict being waged within her troubled heart and mind, even though he had remained silent and resolute in not interfering, having given little away about his views on her struggles and actions.
A few seconds after Amare's invite, he took a few slow steps forward and looked down upon the lingering remnant of Capo Wolph. A measure of disgust was visible around the lines of his mouth. "There can be only one sentence, apprentice," he replied coolly, turning to lock his tinted eyes with her own, a menacing edge entering his tone. "Yours, Amare... Lady of the Sith."
Perhaps not used to Bomoor’s presence during her darker moments, Amare also turned her glance to the Ithorian, who had now arisen and stood beside Thane, stoically watching her as she made her final decision.
Prompted by her glance Bomoor added, “Your journey with us has brought us to this point. You have learned from Thane what the Sith can offer you and of the wider Force teachings I can provide, which has made you far more than the young Zaracoda, who came to us a slave that day on Nar Shaddaa. Even aside from your Force teachings, this man has done nothing but reject you as his family and threatens us all with his continued existence. As Thane says, I will trust in the judgement of Lady Amare.”
The Sith Apprentice knew it was more than just trust; they were judging her. Always judging. From Vaa to Lorrd to Korriban and to this very bitter moment, the trial had never truly ended. She was anointed Sith on Mustafar, but she realized now that it never truly was complete. One last act was necessary.
She gazed silently at Bomoor, astonished how much he was accepting of the return of the Sith Order, and how he was slipping further and further towards the dark side. Her disappointment with the Ithorian was growing more and more by the day, and she greatly resented him for his continued push towards falling with her and Thane. She turned away from him as Zaracoda's words from Yavin IV passed through her mind...
'I missed you, my friend...you're the best of us. Don't lose yourself like we have.'
She turned from Bomoor in expressionless disgust to her adoptive brother lying face-down on the floor and calmly approached his side. Her first instinct was to kneel down and try to roll him over manually, but then she reminded herself that she was Sith, and the Force was her's to command. She held both of her hands over Capo, palms-down, closed her eyes, and slowly raised her arms in tandem. Telekinetic energy gently left the male green Nautolan's battered body and was slowly rotated, and then gently laid down again on his back. To Amare's shock, Capo was still conscious and was clearly trying to say something, even struggling to lift his right hand up to her.
Amare knelt down by her brother's side and took hold of his hand in what appeared to be a gesture of love, but was anything but as she used the opportunity to "slow-drip" siphon more of Capo's essence. She had never seen Capo so heavily injured, or so incredibly weak or helpless before.
"Shhh...it's alright, Capalfin," she softly assured him as their mother would. She laid his hand to the floor and stroked the side of his face. She could sense Capo was sinking back to feeling like a scared child trapped in the hands of his oppressors, wanting nothing more to go home. This was the Capo she came to save, or rather, whom Coda came to save. "I forgive you..." she said as she leaned in and kissed him gently on the forehead. When she pulled away, she could see that anger returning to the flow of swirls in Capo's large dark eyes. She could see him swallow both in fear and wanting to snap another wad of spit in her face. She felt in his mind the desire to take hold of the sharpest knife he could find and stab her a thousand times.
I thought so... Amare remarked grimly in her mind. She extended an arm out to where she sensed the Force-imbued presence of her shoto. It jerked, slid, and was throttled through the air into Amare's deft one-handed catch. She then regarded the weapon in her hand, her power of psychometry sensed the memory of the dying breaths of Rift Padawan Equivis.
'I'm so sorry...' Coda could be heard saying through her grief from the Force imprint on the weapon, ...I never wanted it to be this way...'
She placed the business end of the shoto above Capo's exposed throat and let go, holding it in place in the air with her power like a veritable Sword of Damocles waiting to drop. She then flatly added, "...and I release you." A small twitch of her thumb was all it took to trigger the activation switch which plunged the chartreuse energy blade through, instantly obliterating Capo's windpipe and severing his spinal column. His entire body jerked at the sudden critical loss of vital tissue, his face locked in a morbid expression of absolute terror.
"When you see mater and pater on the other side," Amare said as her final words to Capalfin Wolph, "tell them I'm sorry. They deserved better." With a slight thrust of her open palm, the Force pushed the shoto to slash a perfectly vertical line from the throat up through the top of the Nautolan's skull, bisecting his brain right up the middle, executing him almost instantly.
Amare slowly rose up, her eyes aglow in scarlet light, staring at the sight of her brutal act of fratricide. She summoned the shoto back to her hand and disabled it, waiting for the tormented feelings of grief, guilt, and regret to well up inside along with the tears, but to her deepest shock, there was...nothing. Any normal signs of weakness she anticipated did not come, and yet she could not take her eyes off her murdered brother.
"There can be no other answer for those who would seek to destroy the Lords of the Sith..." Amare found herself saying to the two witnesses of what was perhaps her most damning act of all thus far, as if the words had been prepared in her mind many lunar cycles ago, "...no answer other than death."
Amare felt a large hand upon her shoulder and the voice of Bomoor saying, “I’m sorry Amare. That must have been difficult but sometimes even those we care for refuse to be saved. Would you like to take his remains somewhere to rest?”
Amare shook her head slowly. "No," she answered as she looked up and glanced at Capo's violently displaced desk which still had a functioning terminal fixed on its surface. "This place will be his tomb. The others can come and collect proof of his and the pirates' deaths in case there are bounties." Amare moved away from Bomoor's touch, stepped over Capo's corpse--one of the head tendrils crushed disrespectfully underfoot as she went--and proceeded to access the terminal which was still logged in and open to her browsing. "The carrion and vermin will tend to the remains."
Amare was the last of the Red Raptor's crew to return. She keenly felt their eyes on her as she emerged from the pirates' base with a long musical instrument case in one hand, and a black military-style go-bag in the other hand slung over her good shoulder. She was most acutely aware of Thane's imperious stare that glared down upon her from the ship's cockpit with the judgment of a king backed by the power of the stars themselves.
She had grown and changed significantly in just the last few hours, fully embracing her inner truth as a Lady of the Sith, but Thane, while not completely there, was still leagues ahead of her. Amare thought that her steps into darkness were akin to but a mere tadpole swimming alone in a vast unlit ocean of death, but Thane...the man approached the darkness with colossal strides, each of his steps traversing entire mountains, his past experiences as a gifted Jedi only serving to grant him an almost insurmountable advantage in his journey to becoming a formidable Sith. Amare was proud of his meteoric rise, but she was also deeply concerned. She began to wonder how she could possibly overcome such unbridled power to fulfill Darth Bane's Rule of Two. It seemed impossible at this point.
No words were exchanged between her or Thane or Bomoor as she stepped aboard, the boarding ramp sealing shut behind her. She put down her pilfered goods and stoically resumed her place in the pilot's seat. She began the startup sequence as if nothing had happened, ignoring the pain in her shoulder as she pressed buttons and flipped switches. The Raptor's old workhorse engines heaved to life and the ship gained a gentle lift as Lady Amare guided it airborne with a heading for the stars.
Rex and Mentis were already in the cockpit, preparing the ship for take off when Amare strode in and took her seat. Both the men, along with their energetic Jawa friend, had experienced their fair share of murder and mayhem within the facility but they had not experienced Capo's final end at Amare's hand.
Mentis spoke softly to Rex so the Nautolan could not hear, as he idly flicked a few switches on the closest panel, "Perhaps Amare will be a bit more focussed now she has dealt with her baggage. I don't pretend to know much about family matters, but they are always a weakness to exploit. She's better off without it always tugging at her."
"Hmm? Oh, yeah. Sure," came the inattentive response from a distracted Rex, who was sat back in one of the chairs, booted feet up on a nearby console, as he counted through a selection of credit chits he had purloined from the pirate base.
Instead of maintaining course away from the surface of Quesh, Amare gently brought the ship about to bring Capo's base into view one last time. She withdrew a small handheld device with a commlink antenna attached to it. On its little touchscreen, there was a small red button with black Aurabesh letters that read as "EXECUTE". She pressed it with her thumb and multiple small explosions began rippling across the entire structure of the pirate base. She noted that a hangar on the side of the building was open and empty, confirmation that some of Capo's men had indeed betrayed him when the chips were down.
A wave from the explosion then rocked the Raptor, causing the swarthy smuggler to jolt and drop a number of the chips on the floor.
"Oh, kark!" Rex growled, already dropping down to gather up the scattered currency. "Can't they even explode with some dignity? Try'na make a livin' here." Rex picked up one chip with a higher-value denotion printed in Aurebesh against its side. He held it up with some satisfaction. "Guess there are some perks to riding on this garbage scow with you, eh, Mantis?"
The Rattataki summoned a dropped chip to his hand before handing it back to the Human in an exaggerated fashion, "Tunnel-visioned as ever, I see," he smirked at the smuggler, "I, for one, would like to go and get the stench of Quesh washed off me so I'll leave you with mistress blue to ponder your great successes together."
With an acknowledging shrug from Rex, Mentis took his leave.
Amare brought the ship further away just as the central power core had finally breached and went critical in a massive ball of green and red flames, eliminating Capo's entire secret synthspice operation. With the ship's starside course resumed, she engaged the autopilot. "That takes care of the cremation," she said to no one in particular, her tone withdrawn, detached, vocalising the same words that crossed her thoughts back on Yavin 4 when she detonated the drive core of the Silver Sigil under Thane's orders.
"Take over, Rex," she said as she rose from her chair. "I found intel on the base computers that the Hutts are on their way with their best enforcers. I'm sure you wouldn't want to be in this sector when they arrive." She turned, pocketed the detonator, picked up her things, and left to seek treatment from Useless--an outcome that was becoming all too common for her each time she returned to the Raptor.
As she was leaving, Rex did not obviously respond to what she said as he finished collecting up the last of the chits. It was only after Amare was out of the room that he rose and stepped over to the pilot's chair. Gripping its backrest, he glanced back towards the empty doorway she had left by.
Had a Force user been present and attentive, they may have recognised the briefest of thoughts passing over the Human's mind, of greed and malice, as images of grateful Hutts being handed the perpetrators of the destruction wrought below, of the calamities that had ensued on Nar Shaddaa in the many months prior to his adoption by the ragtag crew of the Red Raptor.
It was, though, just that: brief.
Seemingly satisfied at not being the sort of man to truly consider betraying those he had aligned himself to, those that he might even call a sort of family - of not being like some of the others he was spending time with - a slightly-richer Rex set himself down in the pilot's chair and set a course out of the Quesh system.
AMARE
▼ Dark Side Shift
▬ Piloting increase (Poor -> Average)
▬ Force Ability increase (Average -> Good)
▬ Force Lightning increase (Poor -> Average)
▬ Telekinesis (Push/Pull) increase (Average -> Good)
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