New Horizons

Chapter IV | Episode VI | 3/9/2018

Having fully analyzed the data left to him, by Draven, Rath wasted no time in reacting. He tossed Twil his Tech Flesh Camouflage kit, and rushed to the nearest computer terminal on the bridge of the Immobilizer 418, while yelling, “Twil, read me!”

“Whoa, are you sure?” Twil asked, surprised, “You’ve always had a strict ‘no mind reading’ policy for you.”

“Read me, now!” Rath yelled, not waiting a second longer before accessing the terminal.

Hesitantly, Twil accessed the mind of the Chiss, and was immediately bombarded with more information than he could handle. This being the first time Twil had accessed a mind like Rath’s, Twil was overwhelmed at first. But he was soon able to grasp the message. Rath had a plan.

“Done!” He called back to the Chiss before turning his attention back to the others, “Okay guys, here’s the plan. We need to strip Thrawn of all clothing and equipment, then use Rath’s tech to make him look human. After that’s done, Zanroy, use your binders on him, hand and foot. Rath said that we can’t take any chances with him. After that, Zanroy and Baruda, I need you to take him back to the ship, and have Vex pump him with sedatives.

“Idozzi, you and I will stay here to help Rath with the rest of the plan. Baruda, once you’re on board the ship, have R5 get the Sovereign prepped for take off. Meanwhile, you man the turrets and blast anything that isn’t us.”

Baruda let a wide smile play across his lips, “Oh, I can do that, Captain.”

“Fantastic.” Twil said, “Let’s get going then, we don’t have much time.”

While Twil was issuing his orders, Rath was putting his slicing skills to the test, straining his abilities past their limits. Having learned of the imminent threat to Echo Base, Rath’s first task was to slice into Imperial systems and alter the hyperspace jump of the attacking Star Destroyers, code named as the Death Squadron. In doing this, it would cause the Star Destroyers to jump within the Rebel’s sensor range, giving them an advanced warning in the only way Rath could. He just hoped it would be enough.

Moving on to his next tasks, Rath broke into all the data logs of the Immobilizer 418, including Thrawn’s personal files. Within those files, Rath was able to come across heavily encrypted coded logs pertaining to “cargo” being transferred from the Immobilizer 418 onto a non-Imperial vessel. Pushing himself even further, Rath was able to break the encryption, revealing a name associated with the cargo. A name he had been searching for for eight years: Arun’oxahnk’ylos.

“Nox…” Rath thought to himself in disbelief, before moving on to the many other tasks he needed to complete while in the system.

As Twil returned to the bridge with Idozzi, he looked to Rath. The sight was unlike anything he had seen. Rath was shaking badly, and his eyes were darting back and forth rapidly, while lines upon lines of text flashed across the terminal’s screen. To Twil, it looked like the biological equivalent of a computer massively overheating. It was even more intense than when they were on the Renegade’s Blood.

Although he was concerned for his friend, another issue had arisen. On a different terminal, Twil noticed an incoming transmission. Who or what was trying to call the Immobilizer, however, Twil couldn’t say. As the Sovereign’s comm jammer was still interfering with all comm broadcasts.

“Uh, Rath? You might want to take a look at this.” Twil called out to the Chiss. But his cry fell on deaf ears, as Rath was too ingrained in his slicing work to comprehend anything else around him.

As Zanroy and Baruda approached the hangar, a most distressing sight awaited them. On the far end of the hangar, a tear had appeared in the ship, caused by Baruda’s reckless firing of the TIE Interceptor earlier. The damage was severe enough that the Immobilizer was now being torn open, and anything nearby was now being sucked out of the ship by the vacuum of space.

Using the Force, Zanroy messaged Twil of the new situation. The two then slowly made their way to the Sovereign, with an unconscious and disguised Thrawn in tow.

Once on board the Sovereign, Baruda went on to finish the tasks given him. Thrawn was placed under Vex’s supervision, getting another dose of sedatives. R5 was prepping the ship for take off. And baruda headed down to the ship’s lower turret.

Meanwhile, Zanroy went straight to his room to confront his mother, Ari Diggersby. Upon entering, he could see Ari look up at him with great difficulty. She was clearly exhausted, both physically and mentally. This would not deter him, though, as he asked, “Is it true?”

“Is what true?” Ari asked, weakly.

“Is it true what he did? All of it?”

Hearing the conversation through his Force connection with Zanroy, Twil decided to intervene in the conversation. Using his powers, he pushed a vision of Zanroy’s past into Ari’s mind.

The vision consisted of Dac Diggersby, Zanroy’s father, paying a group of thugs a large sum of credits to kidnap a young Zanroy. The vision also showed Ari trying to stop him.

Once the vision faded from their minds, Ari looked up to her son, and slowly nodded.

Overcome with every known negative emotion, Zanroy did nothing to stop Twil from projecting Zanroy’s emotions directly into Ari’s mind.

Feeling this new wave of emotion, the already broken Ari managed to get to her feet and hurl herself and Zanroy. Screaming incoherently she feebly swatted at Zanroy with what little strength she had left, before collapsing on the ground, sobbing.

Looking down at the broken woman, Zanroy left her in his room, closing the door behind him. He then reached out with the Force.

“Rath? Rath!” Twil called out to the Chiss once again.

Finally breaking away from his trance, Rath turned to face the Zeltron. “Huh? Oh, right. Sorry. Yeah, I’ve got what we need.”

“Great!” Twil replied, “But there’s a couple of problems.”

“Such as…?” Rath asked, wearily.

“Well,” Twil began, “For starters, Baruda’s joyriding has caused a hole to form in the ship, in the hangar.”

“Kriffing idiot.” Rath cursed, “I warned him not to screw around with the Interceptors like that. What else?”

“That.” Twil said, pointing to the Immobilizer’s comm station.

Rath only needed to glance at the garbled static to know what it was. “It’s an Imperial transmission. Someone is trying to hail the Immobilizer.”

“What?” Twil asked, “Are there any Imperial ships on the scanners?”

Rath took a quick glance around the bridge’s terminals, “No.”

Knowing what he had to do, Twil reached out with the Force. Ahead in the distance, he could sense the tiniest inkling of another ship. Nothing more than a speck in space at the moment. But it was heading towards the Immobilizer.

After hearing what Twil had seen, Rath wasted no time in enacting the next step of his plan. Rushing from one station to the next, Rath made various inputs and flipped various switches. Suddenly, the normal pale white lights that lit up the ship were changed. The entirety of the Immobilizer’s interior was now bathed in a sickly bright red, as new alarms began to sound throughout the ship.

Rath then made a ship-wide announcement over the Immobilizer’s internal PA system. Making use of his own natural Cheunh accent, Rath did his best to impersonate Grand Admiral Thrawn.

“Attention all hands. This is Grand Admiral Thrawn. I regret to inform you that Rebel infiltrators have compromised the security and stability of the Immobilizer 418. Self destruct is imminent. Therefore the abandon ship order is in effect immediately. I repeat, this is Grand Admiral Thrawn. All hands, abandon ship.”

After hearing the announcement, Barbuda watched the entrance to the hangar closely from his perch in the ship’s lower turret. Sure enough, wave after wave of panicking Storm Troopers and Imperial crew members began flooding into the hangar.

He watched for a moment, amused as the Imperials began fighting each other to gain access to the few TIE Interceptors left in the hangar. After watching this scene for a few seconds, Baruda unloaded the Sovereign’s turret on the mass of Imperials. The turret destroyed two Interceptors and more Imperials than Baruda was capable of counting.

The Klatooinian roared with laughter as he continued his barrage, as even more Storm Troopers began to flood into the hangar.

“That tear in the ship complicates my plan, Twil. We’ll need to activate the self destruct, now.” Rath said, with urgency in his voice.

“Deal.” Twil replied, “What do we need to do?”

“The self destruct must be initiated by three individuals, all at once. We will all need to pull down on separate levers at the same time.” Rath explained. He then pointed to the three locations, each one some distance away from the others. “I’ll take this one here, but you and Idozzi will need to take the two far levers. Once we pull them down, self destruct sequences will initiate. We will have five minutes to get back to the ship and get out of here before this whole thing blows.”

“So, pull, then run.” Twil replied.

“Yeah.” Rath nodded.

“From here, you’ll get to the Sovereign before us.” Twil said, “When you get there, contact Blue Squadron and tell them what’s happening.”

Rath just nodded in response.

As the three took their positions, Rath yelled out, “Now!”

The three pulled down on the levers. The levers were surprisingly difficult to operate, clearly having been built to not be pulled down easily. But eventually, they gave way, and a new set of alarms were added to the cacophony of noise already blaring away in the ship.

With their task done, Rath began to run as fast as he physically could. The red soaked hallways were deserted as he made his way to the Sovereign. It was only when he reached the hangar that he met any resistance at all, simply due to the massive amount of bodies and debris cluttering the ground. All of which, however, was slowly being pulled towards the rift in the Immobilizer’s outer wall.

Rath shook his head, but continued his forced sprint to the Sovereign. Rushing up the boarding ramp, Rath ran to the comm jammer and deactivated it.

R5 beeped in response. Grateful that the jammer was off as it was giving him the droid equivalent of a headache.

“Sorry, buddy.” Rath replied, before rushing to the cockpit to send out the call to Blue Squadron.

“Sovereign, this is Blue Leader. Report.” The X-Wing pilot answered the call.

“Blue Leader, this is Rath. Our mission here has been accomplished. We have acquired the ‘cargo’ and the ship will be gone in a matter of minutes. However, I’ve grave news for Echo Base…”

Twil and Idozzi rushed for the Sovereign as well, but as they were a considerable distance further away, they were unable to reach the Sovereign at the same time as Rath.

As they neared the hangar entry, they were cut off by a wave of Storm Troopers, who were also rushing to the hangar. Apparently oblivious to the existence of the Zeltron and Twi’lek.

“What do we do?” Idozzi asked.

“I don’t know.” Twil replied, watching the Storm Troopers pass them by, “With the self destruct and abandon ship going on, they probably don’t even care about us. I guess we just blend in with them, and make our way around them.”

Idozzi gave Twil an all too familiar look, but just shrugged in agreement.

The two gingerly followed close behind the herd of Troopers. Once they got to the hangar, however, the Immobilizer lurched harshly. The tear in the wall gaped wide, forming a deadly maw, sucking anything and anyone in the hangar into the cold dark vacuum of space.

Idozzi and Twil were pulled towards the hole, but were luckily saved by a ten foot high wall within the hangar. While Idozzi was pinned to the wall by some accompanying debris, Twil was not so fortunate, as he bounced off the wall, into another one, further into the hangar.

“We’ve gotta do something!” Rath yelled, watching the two get tossed around like rag dolls.

“Get the Sovereign closer to them.” Zanroy replied, “I’ll pull them in.”

Rath nodded and got to work at the controls of the ship, while Zanroy headed to the still open boarding ramp.

The Sovereign, ever so gently, flew towards to the two pinned against the wall, blasting away any surviving Storm Troopers with the sheer force of the ship’s thrusters.

Zanroy held tightly onto the ship with one hand, while reaching out with the Force with the other. With a powerful jerk of his arm, he pulled the two towards him, causing them to unceremoniously tumble into the ship. With the boarding ramp closing up behind them.

Wasting no time, Twil jumped to his feet, “Thanks for the save, Zanroy.”

Zanroy just nodded, as Twil ran to the cockpit.

“Rath, did you contact Blue Squadron?” Twil asked, while starting to work on the ship’s navicomputer, plugging in the coordinates for their next jump.

“I did. They had no idea where the Rebels might rendezvous after being attacked, though. They said that they would contact us when they could. If any of them even survive, that is.”

“Dang.” Twil replied, dejected. “So, I guess we go to your base?”

“Yeah.”

“Wait, what’s that?” Twil asked, pointing to the ship’s comm system.

“We’re getting the same call the Immobilizer was getting.” Rath responded, “It didn’t exactly seem important at the moment.”

“We should answer it!” Twil replied.

“Twil, it’s an Imperial call, and I know what ship is calling us. It’s the one that’s been heading this way.”

“Try answering it like you’re Thrawn.” Twil said, “We might be able to get some more information.”

Rath let out a long sigh before saying, “This is a bad idea.”

He then removed his helmet, and opened the call. An Imperial Navy Officer’s face soon appeared in the holocall. “This is Commander Canady of Star Destroyer Solicitude, wait, who is this?!”

“This is Grand Admiral Thrawn.” Rath replied, “Why are you hailing me?”

“What?” Commander Canady asked in clear disbelief, “Who are you? Trying to pose as that other filthy Chiss. What’s going on here?”

Twil then pushed Rath out of the holocomm’s view and said, “This is the Immobilizer 418. We are in a state of emergency! Rebels have infiltrated the ship. The Immobilizer is in danger, We need to speak with your captain!”

Again Commander Canady looked confused and angry, “What? A Zeltron?! What’s going on here? And what would you have to say to Captain Diggersby?”

Before any more words could be spoken by either party, the Sovereign finished its computations and made the jump to Brentaal IV.

“I was going to tell you sooner, Twil, but I guess it’s moot now.” Rath said, “I found information on Zanroy’s father. He is indeed the captain of the Star Destroyer Solicitude. And he was heading our way that entire time.”

“Well, with any luck, they’ll get close to the Immobilizer before it blows, and then we’d be taking out two birds with one stone.” Twil replied.

“Yeah. Maybe.” Rath said, getting to his feet. “it’ll be a few hours before we reach Brentaal IV. I’m going to check on our newest guest.”

Twil watched as Rath left the cockpit. It then donned on him that there was another “guest” that needed checking. He headed to the room where Doc Barris was being kept. She was still bound and heavily sedated. Taking advantage of this, Twil searched her for any dangerous equipment. He took her officer’s pistol, and also found a new Imperial datapad.

As Rath reclaimed his Tech Flesh Camouflage kit from the unconscious Thrawn, he could hear Twil calling out to him. Heading into the hall, he asked, “What is it?”

“I found this on Barris.” Twil explained handing the datapad to Rath.

Rath had the briefest of flashbacks concerning the past times he’d tried to hack into this woman’s datapads, but quickly pushed the thought out of his mind, before working on this latest model.

Thankfully, he had no complications this time. He was easily able to disable the transponder and access Barris’s files. For a Moff, her work was extremely mundane. This was no surprise to Rath, considering who it was. However, as he delved deeper into the files, he found something that caught his eye.

“Krifing hell.” Rath said aloud.

“What is it?” Twil asked.

“Damn it!” Rath yelled out, tossing the datapad to the ground.

“Rath, talk to me.” Twil said.

“When we were on the Immobilizer, I found Thrawn’s private files. Within those files, I found information on specific cargo that was recently transferred from the Immobilizer onto a non-Imperial vessel. Upon further decryption, I was able to crack the code words. Among that ‘cargo’ was Nox.”

“Nox? Why does that name sound familiar?” Twil asked.

“My brother.” Rath said bluntly.

“Oh.” Twil replied in a whisper.

“And this datapad here.” Rath continued, gesturing to the datapad on the floor, “Also contains that code word regarding Nox. It also mentions Teemo, and the neurotoxin. Along with that, it tells me where Nox was taken.”

“Where?!”

“Tattooine.” Rath said, letting the word hang in the air.

He could see Twil wasn’t connecting the dots, so he continued. “Think about it Twil. Barris, Thrawn, Nox, Tattooine, Teemo. Nox was sent to Teemo so they could inject him with Teemo’s vile poison, turning him into a mindless slave.”

“Oh dang.” Twil replied, understanding now. “What do we do? We can’t head to Tattooine as is.”

“No, we can’t change course in the middle of a hyperspace jump.” Rath replied, “Besides, I still need to interrogate Thrawn. He may be the only one that has the answers I’ve so desperately been seeking these past eight years.”

“Agreed, but, if we do this, I think you need to tell the crew. I think they deserve to know what we’re up against.” Twil replied.

Rath considered it for some time before finally agreeing.

Gathering the team together, Rath began, “I know many of you don’t trust me, and very few of you know my goals. While I couldn’t care less about the former, you should know the latter.”

Rath let out a sigh before continuing, “Eight years ago, my family was betrayed. Slaughtered in cold blood. I was exiled from my home. To this day, I don’t know what happened. And I have been working towards finding an answer to that ever since. This is why I have been working with Twil. He’s the only one that has been able to provide me with any help in finding what I seek. That is why I just risked our lives storming the Immobilizer 418. I believe Thrawn has the answers that I so desperately need. And one answer has already materialized, thanks to Doc Barris’s datapad. I have learned that at least one of my brothers is still alive. I believe he is being held captive by Teemo. Once we get to Brentaal IV, I intend to get everything I can from Thrawn, but after that, I’m heading straight to Tattooine to end Teemo once and for all.”

“So, what do you say guys, are you with us?” Twil asked, energetically.

The rest of the crew replied in unanimous agreement, they all had reason to see Teemo dead, once and for all.

The rest of the flight was uneventful. Eventually, the Sovereign had arrived on Brentaal IV. Rath input the codes needed, and the snow covered ground below them lurched open, revealing a massive, hidden, underground hangar. As the Sovereign landed, the hangar doors closed back up.

Once safely inside his secret base, Rath first tended to his old friend, Kor Zoroc. the Shistavanen was still sound asleep, so Rath carefully carried him into the base, leaving him to rest in Rath’s private quarters.

He then returned to the ship and signaled to Twil that he was ready. The two then unceremoniously dragged Thrawn into the base, dropping him onto a cold steel chair.

Rath then took Thrawn’s already bound hands and feet and rebound them onto the chair itself. And for further security, Rath pulled out his goo gun and applied a heavy layer of adhesive goo to his hands and feet.

Doing so, however, caused Thrawn to thrash out of his sedated state, shaking his head and letting out a slight growl of pain.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Did I wake you up?” Rath asked, looking Thrawn straight in the eye.

Thrawn just glared at Rath in response.

Rath then injected Thrawn with a heavy dose of truth serum, and began questioning him. “Mitth’raw’nuruodo, AKA Grand Admiral Thrawn. Tell me Thrawn, if I may be so familiar as to use your core name, do you know who I am?”

“You are someone who doesn’t deserve what you have.” Thrawn replied, seething.

Standing behind Thrawn, Twil began to strain his mind.

Rath watched as Thrawn flinched ever so slightly. “Let’s try that again. Do you know who I am?”

“I know you’re scum, who doesn’t deserve anything.” Thrawn replied, with malice in his every word.

Again, Twil attacked his mind.

“You hail from house Mitth.” Rath continued, “One of the most prestigious ruling families in the Chiss Ascendancy. Tell then, why are you now a Grand Admiral within the First Galactic Empire?”

“Are we on Csilla? What does the Ascendancy matter? I see you’re no longer a part of it anymore either.”

“Answer my question.” Rath replied, his tone getting slightly more dark.

Again, Twil strained Thrawn’s mind.

Rath could see that Twil’s Force powers and the truth serum were beginning to take its toll, as Thrawn struggled in place.

“I wanted more.” Thrawn replied.

“More? What more could you possibly want? Within house Mitth you could have had practically anything.”

“So narrow minded.” Thrawn replied with a sick smile, “This galaxy has so much more to offer than our small corner of space.”

“I see. And this desire to want more. Did Ar’alaniahnk’ylos want more as well?”

Thrawn let out a low laugh, “Yes, I suppose she did. I know she was important to you.”

“How do you know that? According to your answers so far you don’t even know who I am.”

“Then why ask about her?” Thrawn replied with another wicked grin.

“What do you know of House Ahnk’ylos?” Rath asked, all pretense of calm now gone from his voice.

“I know that they were fools not deserving of their station.”

Again, Twil attacked Thrawn’s mind.

“What happened to House Ahnk’ylos?” Rath asked forcefully.

“They got what they deserved.” Thrawn replied, clearly trying to resist the attacks on his mind.

Twil attacked Thrawn once more.

Rath jumped from his chair and upended the table that separated the two Chiss, now yelling, “Tell me what happened to my family, now!”

“I expect they made excellent test subjects for that slug Teemo.” Thrawn managed to say through clenched teeth.

Twil then invaded Thrawn’s mind, seeing cloudy visions of Chiss being brought before Teemo, and being hit with a fist holding some sort of small tool.

“Who? I want names!” Rath yelled out.

“I suspect that if you hurry to Tattooine, your precious older brother might be able to tell you more, before Teemo begins his work on him next.” Thrawn finished, smiling smugly, although clearly in great pain.

Rath was visibly shaking now. His eyes closed, he began to laugh. A low, slow, hollow laugh. Looking back to Thrawn he began, “You know, I had promised the Rebels that I would hand you over to them after I was finished with you.”

“Rath?” Twil asked, suddenly very concerned with this line of thought.

“But I never said I would give them to you while you were still alive.” Rath then pulled out his goo gun once more.

“Rath, don’t.” Twil tried to interrupt.

“You took everything from me, you kriffing bastard. So now, I’m going to take everything from you.” He then loaded his gun with his newly developed explosive ammo cartridge.

“Rath you don’t want to do this.” Twil said, trying to reach his friend.

“You wanted ‘more?’ You will get nothing!” He then shoved the gun’s barrel into Thrawn’s mouth and started to pull the trigger.

His trigger finger stopped, however, just before enough pressure had been applied. Rath knew instantly what had happened. Twil was controlling his mind. Not letting him go through with the act.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Rath yelled out to the Zeltron.

“You don’t want to do this Rath!” Twil yelled back. “This isn’t you! This was never your goal. You have never been driven by vengeance. If you do this, you’ll start down a path that you can never recover from. This will change you forever! He isn’t worth it. He may have more information. He’s more valuable alive than dead. At the very least, he should be brought to justice. That’s what you’ve wanted from the start, right?”

Twil then released his grip on Rath’s mind.

Rath stared at Twil for what seemed like an eternity, before his concentration was broken by Thrawn’s sickening laughter. Throwing his gun to the floor, Rath said, “This is more than you deserve.” He then leveled a punch at Thrawn that completely dislocated his jaw, and with such force than he fell to the ground, bringing the chair he was bound to with him. Rath then produced another sedative, and injected it into his prisoner.

Twil breathed a sigh of relief, and said, “You did the right thing.”

“I’ve warned you once before, Twil. Never screw around with my head. If you ever do that again. That’s it.” Rath said, furious.

“I’m not sorry for what I did. But understood.” Twil replied.

We need to get to Tattooine.” Rath replied.

While Rath and Twil were inside Rath’s base, interrogating Thrawn, Zanroy saw his chance to do something that he had been wanting to do for some time.

“Hey, R5, come here for a second.” He called out to the little astromech.

R5 let out a quizzical beep in response as he rolled over to Zanroy, in the hallway of the Sovereign.

“How would you like me to take that weird box out of you, once and for all?” Zanroy asked, referring to the holocron Rath had discovered years earlier.

R5 extended two of his small arms and covered his chassis, beeping harshly in response.

“Oh come on, it won’t hurt you. You’ll be a lot better off without that thing in you, trust me.” Zanroy said in honeyed tones.

Again, R5 beep in a negative response, this time turning away from Zanroy, in an attempt to get away from him.

“I tried to do this the easy way.” Zanroy said with a slight sigh. He then reached out with his hand, and lifted R5 up into the air using the Force.

R5 practically screamed in protest as he hovered helplessly in the air.

“Calm down! I just want the box inside you.” Zanroy scolded him. Again, using the Force, Zanroy opened R5’s chassis, revealing the holocron that had been in R5 all this time.

Just then, Baruda came walking into the hallway. “Uh, hey. What’s going on in here?” He asked tentatively.

“Baruda, perfect timing!” Zanroy said, “See that box inside R5? Do you think we could remove it without damaging him?”

Baruda looked at the box within the droid and gave a puzzled expression, “I dunno, probably?”

Again, R5 screamed in protest.

“Hey, I got an idea.” Baruda spoke up, “R5, what if we replaced that box with something better?”

R5 beeped hesitantly in response.

Baruda continued, “What if we put a gun in there,in its place?”

R5 beeped again.

“How about ol’ momma bear?” Baruda asked, hefting his light repeating blaster.

R5 beeped excitedly, almost unable to contain its excitement.

“So then it’s a deal?” Baruda asked.

R5 beeped a positive response.

“You wanna do the honors?” Baruda asked Zanroy.

“No, you go ahead.” Zanroy replied, watching carefully.

Just as Baruda reached into R5, however, he was interrupted by Idozzi.

“What the hell is going on in here?!” She asked, looking at the scene before her. “Zanroy, Baruda, what are you doing to R5?”

“We’re just getting this box out of him.” Baruda replied.

Before Idozzi could protest any further, however, Baruda shoved his hand into the droid, and pulled at the holocron that was hardwired into R5. The droid screamed in protest as massive amounts of energy shot through R5 directly into Baruda. The jolt of power caused the Klatooinian immense pain, but he was able to rip the holocron free.

Upon doing so, R5 fell to the floor, lying motionless.

“This is some place you got here, Rath my boy!” Zoroc called out from behind.

Rath turned to see his old friend, “Ah, finally awake, you old space dog?” He asked with a smile that he couldn’t help but form.

“It seems you’ve been doing pretty well for yourself since we parted ways.” Zoroc replied, looking around Rath’s base.

“In a sense, yeah, I’ve done alright.” Rath replied.

“I always knew you had talent.” Zoroc said with a wide smile.

Rath let out a small laugh, then said, “Gotta admit though, never thought I’d see you again. What were you doing on the Immobilizer?”

Zoroc let out a short, gruff laugh, “There’s quite a bit we need to catch up on.”

“Indeed there is.” Rath responded, the smile quickly fading from his lips. “Oh, but there’s something else I need to show you.”

“Oh?” Zoroc asked, intrigued.

Rath quickly led Zoroc to his new underground hangar. “I think this belongs to you.” Rath said, revealing the Orbalisk parked within.

“Rath. No.” Zoroc replied, in shock, “Is that really the Orbalisk?!”

“It certainly is, Captain.” Rath replied with a laugh.

“Rath, my boy. How did you do it?!” Zoroc yelled with excitement.

“I’m afraid its previous owner came down with a bad case of death. Acid to the face, very tragic. I figured I’d take it off her hands.”

Zoroc let out a hearty laugh, he then pulled Rath into the biggest, warmest, furriest hug Rath had ever experienced. “May I?” He asked, gesturing towards the massive ship.

“As long as you don’t fly off with it, right away. There’s still a lot we need to discuss.” Rath replied.

“Of course!” Zoroc said excitedly.

As the Shistavanen boarded the ship, Rath could hear him literally howling with joy. Rath laughed in response. It was good to hear that old dog’s howl again. His good humor was cut short however, as he noticed that his link with R5 had suddenly been severed.

The holocron had fallen to the ground. From there it began to twist and morph itself into a new shape. Suddenly the box was now a pyramid-like structure with a glowing red core.

Zanroy watched it closely as it changed. It then began to move ever closer to him. It was calling out his name. Zanroy knew that he was meant to open it. It was his destiny. Reaching out with the Force, Zanroy listened to the voice calling to him from within, and began to open the holocron.

“No!” Twil yelled out, rushing into the Sovereign with Rath close behind.

But it was far too late. The deed had been done. Standing before Zanroy was the gatekeeper of the holocron. A hooded woman with black arrow-like tattoos over both eyes greeted Zanroy.

“Ah, Zanroy, you have finally fulfilled your destiny.” The gatekeeper said in greeting.

“Wait, how do you know my name?” Zanroy asked, a bit taken aback.

The gatekeeper laughed, an eerie, unsettling laugh, “Oh Zanroy. I have known you for some time. I have been watching you for years through that droid. I know your desires. I know your true goals. And only I can help you accomplish them. I can help you seek out the vengeance you so rightly deserve!”

“Don’t listen to her Zanroy!” Twil yelled out, “She is Sith! What she offers will destroy your soul! You always claim that you aren’t evil, that you just use the Force as another tool to help you accomplish your goals. Well, I’ve got news for you. If you follow her, then there won’t be any debate about where your loyalties lie. And I can guarantee you this, if you follow her, you will no longer have a place on my ship.”

“Pay no mind to this prattling fool!” The gatekeeper hissed, “Think about how little you’ve accomplished while on that Zeltron’s leash. He wants to contain your power. I can teach you how to harness it to it’s fullest extent! This is your destiny!”

Zanroy’s eyes darted back and forth between Twil and the gatekeeper. Zanroy then decided to act. Reaching out with the Force, Zanroy began to pull at the holocron with all his might.

“What are you doing?!” The gatekeeper cried out.

Zanroy paid it no attention as he continued to pull at the small pyramid-like box. When it’s core was exposed, he called out, “Twil! Now!”

Not hesitating, Zanroy pulled out his lightsaber, and ripped into the core of the holocron with a viscious swipe. The gatekeeper screamed out in agony. The lightsaber’s color flashed to pure black for just an instant, before a surge of power coursed through the energy blade, dissipating into nothingness as it reached the hilt.

And then, silence. The holocron laid there, dormant, thoroughly destroyed.

“You did it.” Twil said, hugging Zanroy tightly.

“I’m so sorry. I thought I could control it.” Zanroy replied. Repeating the same words over and over.

“It’s okay. You resisted the temptation. Elaiza tasked us with destroying the holocron, and you did it.” Twil said, “I’m so proud of you.”

“Proud? You’re proud?” Rath cut in. The Chiss was kneeling on the floor, examining the remains of R5. “R5 is dead. Literally every circuit is fried to a crisp. I doubt even I could repair him in this state. So, yes, I hope you’re proud. I hope your ‘accomplishment’ here was worth the death of loyal crew member.”

Without another word, Rath wheeled the remains of his dear friend off the ship and into his base.

Upon Rath’s return, Twil approached him. “We need to get moving.”

“I know. Problem is, I still can’t get in contact with any of the Rebels. We can’t risk leaving Thrawn and Barris here. And we certainly can’t take them with us.”

“Plus, there’s Zanroy’s mom.” Twil added.

“Under normal circumstances, I’m positive the Rebels would harbor her. She’s a former senator of Coruscant. That would be valuable to them.” Rath replied. “Hmm. What about Aklee?”

“What about her?” Twil asked.

“She’s technically a Rebel, she might be able to get in contact with someone.”

“That’s true. Let’s call her.”

Twil made the holocall to the Good Trader’s offices in Coruscant. As always, Aklee answered.

“Aklee, we need to get in contact with the Rebels. We have a couple very important Imperial prisoners, that the Rebels would definitely want to have. But we can’t get in touch with any of them.”

“It’s also worth noting that Echo Base was recently attacked.” Rath added, “I sent them as much advanced warning as I could, but we don’t know how they handled it.”

Aklee covered her mouth in shock at the news and replied, “I haven’t had any contact with the Rebels for the past three days.”

“Three days?” Twil asked in surprise.

“Do you know of any safe houses, or rendezvous contingencies that the Rebels have in place in case Echo Base was attacked?” Rath asked.

Aklee thought for a long moment, “No, I’m sorry. But, wait… there is one place I can think of. It’s just a small outpost.”

“That’s better than nothing. Where is it?” Rath asked.

“Just a small out of the way planet called Krait.” Aklee replied.

Rath did some quick astronavigation in his head, before saying, “We can’t get there, and get to Tattooine in a decent time. Nox’s life may already be forfeit as we speak.”

“Right…” Twil agreed. “And your base isn’t equipped with a brig or anything?”

“Of course not.” Rath replied, “Wait. Brig? Hmm. Well, my base doesn’t have a brig. And the Sovereign doesn’t have a brig. But I do know of one ship that does have a brig. A brig that I happen to be intimately familiar with.”

“I think I see where you’re going with this.” Twil said with a smile, “We hire Zoroc to transport the prisoners and Ari to the Rebel base on Krait.”

“I’m sure he’d be more than willing to help out.” Rath said.

“Tell him I’ll pay him 10,000 credits for the job.” Twil added.

“Then he’ll definitely be happy to help out.” Rath replied with a smile.

With all the logistics and complications taken care of, the Sovereign took to space once more. Twil input the exact coordinates given in Barris’s datapad. Upon arriving, an all too familiar scene was before them. “There it is, Tattooine.” Twil announced, gazing at the desert planet before them.

“These are the drop off coordinates, but there’s clearly nothing here. No space station, no gravity hook, nothing.” Rath added.

“So, what, are we just going to search the whole planet?” Zanroy asked.

“In a way, that’s exactly what we’re going to do.” Twil said, excitedly, “Zanroy, meditate with me. Focus on finding Rath’s brother.”

Nodding in understanding, Zanroy joined Twil in his sudden meditation. It did not take long at all for them to pinpoint a location. In unison, the two Force users said, “Teemo’s Palace.”

The team had agreed on the direct approach. Time was of the essence, after all. As the Sovereign approached the town of Mos Shutta, Twil received a hail from Spaceport Control. unable to pass up the opportunity, Twil answered the call.

An old familiar face then sprung from the holoprojector, “YT-2400, Sovereign. This is Overseer Brynn. Please state your-”

The instant Overseer Brynn saw Twil’s face, she cut her sentence short, and said, “You! What do you think you’re doing here?!”

“Oh, don’t be that way!” Twil replied, “I came back to collect on your promise for a date!”

“I promised no such thing!” Overseer Brynn replied, her face clearly getting flushed.

“Oh, come on Brynn, you can’t say what we had wasn’t special. Can’t you look the other way just this once?”

The Overseer was clearly flustered, but replied, “Sovereign, you are cleared to land in Spaceport Besh. In return, I never want to see your face again.”

“Deal.” Twil replied with a wink, before cutting the call. “That was nice of her, giving us access to Spaceport Besh.”

“Too bad we won’t be using Spaceport Besh.” Rath replied, buckling into his seat in the cockpit.

“Yeah, too bad.” Twil agreed with a smile.

Twil then hit the thrusters hard, and steered the Sovereign directly towards Teemo’s private landing pad. As the ship approached, three turbolasers appeared from out of the landing pad’s pillars. Twil deftly dodged all of them, performing multiple barrel rolls in the process.

Meanwhile, Baruda took aim with the ship’s turrets and blasted each turbolaser to pieces.

“Nice shootin’ Baruda!” Twil called over comms.

As the ship made to land, Zanroy leaped off the boarding ramp, landing in front of two very surprised Gamorrean guards. With a flick of his hand, he sent to the two pig-men flying off the steep cliff surrounding Teemo’s Palace.

“Show off.” Baruda called out, as the others joined Zanroy, leaving the ship.

Zanroy just laughed, “You haven’t seen anything yet.”

Upon reaching the blast door entrance, Zanroy once again reached out with the Force, causing the huge doors to fly inward. Crushing two more guards behind it, as it slammed against the far wall.

Once inside the palace, the group was met with even more Gamorrean guards. Guard after guard piled into the room. Once Zanroy was satisfied that there were no more coming, he tossed a thermal detonator into the middle of the group of guards.

The Gamorrean’s squealed in terror, but were soon silenced as the detonator went off. Blasting every single guard to bloody pieces.

“Well. That was disgusting.” Twil said, flicking off bits of viscera from his cortosis-weave jacket.

“Teemo’s throne room is down that way.” Idozzi said, pointing to yet another door down a set of stairs. “The prison cells are down there.” She said, pointing to a different door.

“You guys handle Teemo, I’m going to check the cells.” Rath said, activating his stealth suit.

“Good luck buddy.” Twil said.

“You too.” Rath replied, heading down the dark corridor.

Rath checked each and every cell in Teemo’s prison. Not a single one contained Nox. However, the last cell in the place was strangely left open. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” Rath muttered to himself, as he began to make his way back to the others.

Making use of one of Twil’s remote detonators, the group blasted open the entryway to Teemo’s throne room. It was fairly dark inside, but that didn’t deter Zanroy from running headlong into the room, with Baruda following close behind.

As Zanroy entered, the lights flashed on. He then heard a low, guttural laugh that unmistakably belonged to Teemo the Hutt. He turned to face the Hutt, only to find something much different than what he was expecting.

Teemo had been heavily altered with cybernetic enhancements. More machine now, than Hutt. In one hand he held the largest blaster rifle Zanroy had ever seen. In the other hand, a vibro ax roughly the size of Baruda.

In the middle of the room was a large pit, with a Rancor pacing around at the bottom, just waiting for a fresh meal.

And surrounding the Rancor pit were several Wookie warriors, each equipped with a powerful bowcaster. All of whom had their sights set on Zanroy and Baruda.

Neither of them had much time to react, as the Wookies opened fire on the two. Zanroy was able to deflect the first shot with his lightsaber, grievously wounding one of the Wookies. Another shot, aimed at Baruda, simply missed. However, the other three shots made their mark. Unable to cope with the sudden barrage, Zanroy passed out, now on the brink of life and death.

Not allowing this to continue, Baruda began his assault. powering up momma bear, the Klatooinian unloaded a volley of blaster bolts directly at Teemo. Much to Baruda’s shock, however, the attack didn’t do nearly as much damage as he had anticipated.

Seeing the chaos that had ensued thus far, Twil rushed to Zanroy’s side, injecting him with a stimpack. In almost an instant, Zanroy regained consciousness. “Hold tight buddy.” Twil warned, not wanting Zanroy to force anything. He then produced two thermal detonators, using the Force, he rolled them behind Teemo, who was still slightly reeling from Baruda’s attack. In an instant, they exploded, fire and debris flew every which way.

During this chaos, Idozzi slid into the throne room and leveled a shot right at Teemo. The shot hit Teemo’s blaster rifle, causing it to explode in his hand, further damaging, but still not killing the cyborg Hutt.

Unable to handle the chaos, Teemo yelled out in Huttese, translating to “Wait!”

Not willing to listen to the Hutt that had caused so much trouble for the group, Zanroy leaped back to his feet, and sent his lightsaber flying. The spinning blade sliced off Teemo’s arm, causing him to drop the giant vibro ax, before the lightsaber returned to Zanroys waiting grip.

Teemo screamed in agony, but managed to say, “I said, wait!” He then hit a button on the wall behind him.

“I said wait!” Rath could hear the slimy slug cry out from the throne room. He was almost there. He had just reached the top of the stairs, leading down into the room, when suddenly he heard gears grinding and chains moving.

And then before his eyes, lowering down into the throne room, dangling above the Rancor pit, was Nox. Unconscious and wrapped in chains. Rath felt instantly sick, knowing that there was nothing he could do at that moment.

His dread, however was quickly replaced with shock.

Zanroy didn’t even hesitate. Without even thinking, he leaped into the air. With one hand he swiped at Nox’s chains with his lightsaber, with the other, he grabbed the free falling, unconscious Chiss, and with a blast of Force energy, sent him flying safely to the other side of the throne room.

In doing so, however, Zanroy was unable to control his own trajectory, and crashed into the Rancor Pit.

Seeing Zanroy’s plight, Twil immediately turned his attention to the Rancor. Using his powers, he convinced the creature that they were its friends, but Wookies tasted delicious.

The Rancor suddenly stopped heading towards Zanroy, and instead reached up out of the pit. Grabbing the nearest Wookie he could find, the Rancor bit the Wookie’s head clean off, and carelessly tossed the body in Zanroy’s direction.

Zanroy dodged out of the way, just in time. Unfortunately, he dodged the wrong way, and landed face first in a pile of Rancor dung.

Having seen enough. Teemo picked up the giant vibro ax with his one good hand, and hurled it towards the group. The ax hit Baruda squarely in the shoulder, knocking him back into a wall, knocking him out.

Seeing this, Idozzi leveled off another shot at the Hutt, this time, her shot landed right into the giant slug’s head. Temmo screamed out in pain, but he was still clearly alive, much to everyone’s shock.

Finally, Rath made it into the room with the rest. Examining the situation at hand, Rath’s eyes narrowed in on a large chandelier made of twisted, sharp metals, hanging directly above Teemo. Equipping an acid cartridge, Rath took aim at the chandelier’s chain.

The shot landed. The chain quickly eroded away, and the chandelier fell, impaling the Hutt, killing him once and for all.

The remaining Wookies looked on in disbelief.

“If you value your lives, you’ll leave here, and never return!” Twil called out to them.

Not needing to be told twice, the Wookies quickly made for the exit, leaving the group alone in the throne room.

Twil then rushed to Baruda. Pulling the ax out of him, he then injected several stim packs into the Kaltooinian. Seconds later Baruda let out a yell, waking up in a panic.

“Did we kill him?” He asked, looking all around.

Rath wasted no time in rushing to his long lost brother. Kneeling down at his side, he propped the unconscious Chiss in his lap and began to examine him. Noticing the multiple barrels of neurotoxin nearby, Rath began to panic.

“Twil! I need your med scanner! Now!”

Twil rushed to Rath’s side, producing the necessary equipment.

Rath knew exactly what to look for, thanks to his experience with Teemo’s vile poisons in the past.

Many tense seconds passed as the scanner did its job.

“No toxins found.” Rath said with the biggest sigh of relief possible.

Laying Nox back on the ground, Rath then procured some stimulants from the medpack, and injected them into his brother.

Nox immediately sat straight up, gasping for air. He looked around the throne room in a half panic, half daze. Until finally his eyes settled on Rath. He gazed in sheer disbelief, before finally saying, “Rath?”

Overwhelmed with joy and relief, tears began to stream down Rath’s face. Unable to utter a single word, Rath simply collapsed into his brother’s arms, hugging him tightly.

The day had been won. Later that evening, Twil had suggested before leaving, they take one last trip through the city of Mos Shutta. The city where a very unlikely band of misfits formed into a very unlikely team. As they walked through the city, memories were recalled. Practically each building had some significance to one person or another. Eventually, they wound up in the city cantina, where it had all truly began.

Twil ordered a round of drinks for the entire group, and said, “I propose a toast. To the crew of the Sovereign!”

The others replied in a wave of “Cheers!”

After finishing their drinks, the group left the cantina. Standing some distance away from the now abandoned palace, Twil handed each crew member a detonator switch. In unison, the crew pressed their switches, and watched as the horrible palace and every ounce of Teemo’s special neurotoxin within got blown sky high.

After that day, the crew of the Sovereign, as it had been known for so long, was no more. Each member of the crew had their own personal matters to deal with at that point, and it was decided they would disband.

Having full reign of the palace, after Teemo’s death. Idozzi finally found the information she had been searching for: the location of her missing parents.

Similarly, Baruda also took advantage of the now empty palace. He plundered all the wealth that Teemo had acquired, and presented it to his master, Kaltho the Hutt. In gratitude for the massive payload, Baruda was made a high ranking officer in Kaltho’s court.

Now reunited with the brother he had thought he lost eight years prior, Rath finally learned at least a little of what had really happened to his family and his home. Thrawn had not only betrayed House Ahnk’ylos, but had over thrown the entire government of the Chiss Ascendancy.

Thrawn had made deals with both the Empire and Teemo the Hutt, to gain power and control. The Empire was extremely interested in studying the unknown Chiss, while Teemo saw them as fodder for his twisted experiments.

While Rath was overjoyed to be reunited with his older brother, the true fate of the rest of Rath’s family, and his people in general, was still largely unknown. Rath’s quest was hardly finished.

The fates of Twil and Zanroy however, are shrouded in mystery. The only thing that can be said for certain is that their fates are inextricably intertwined.

Twil signed over all ownership of the Good Trader to Aklee and Gretta. He gave little explanation for where he was going, only saying “I’ll be back some day.”

It’s said Zanroy could be seen with him in the Sovereign as they left the Good Trader one last time.