Timeframe: A few months before ANH Story: Jade is sent on a mission by the Emperor to test the security of outpost in the Outer Rim with the current rebelious uprising. Jade's mission is to gather a team of mercenaries and attack the outposts, proving the security, or lack thereof, against a rebel attack. What Jade finds is a small amount of sympathy for some of the rebels she meets... Hand of Fate by Mike Sorensen (hunter@hom.net) PROLOGUE The silence of the night was shattered by the distinctive whine of the Imperial TIE fighter. Flying low, the craft searched the ground and airspace for any sign of intrusion. Sixty-five seconds after it had passed, another TIE roared overhead. So they are on a set schedule, Mara Jade thought. She was ducked down under a bush about half a kilometer away from the Imperial base that housed the fighters. After being in this position for several hours, Jade established that the TIEs passed every sixty-five seconds without fault, except for a five minute period every hour when the shift rotated. At the next of these intervals, Jade came to her feet and dashed toward the base. She knew that there were sensors in place around the perimeter, but he surveilence from the last several nights had revealed the positions of the sensors, as well as the routine of the foot and speeder-bike guards. Jade made it to the perimeter fence without incident. She moved her hand so that it was just a few centimeters from touching the fence, and she could feel the tingle that told her the electric perimeter was still up. Reaching into the pack on her back, Jade brought out a fairly simple-looking device that consisted of a large box with four heavy cables leading from it, two from each end. The cables ended with large alligator-type clips. Jade flipped the single switch on the box to the center of three positions. With this done, she attached the cables to four widely separated points on the fence. The box had provided a neutral charge so that the clips didn't short out the fence. When the cables were in place, Jade flipped the switch to the third position, which turned the box into a large bypass circuit. The position of the cables made a "hole" in the electric field. Jade took out a basic pair of wire snips and cut a hole in the fence large enough for her to fit through. Jade crawled through the fence, and dashed across the open yard and ducked into a shadow of the nearest building. Just as she ducked out of sight a guard came around the corner and walked his route inside the fence. Fortunately, the guard was looking out, and the place that Jade had cut the fence was shadowed and the hole wasn't that large. The guard moved on without a hint that he had noticed anything amiss. Jade reached in to her bag again and pulled out two pair of climbing claws. She strapped these to her soft-soled boots and around her hands. She turned and began scaling the outside of the building she was standing against. Pulling herself over the ledge at the top, Jade took a moment to examine the roof. She saw no sensors here, which was odd. All Imperial installations were supposed to have pressure, motion, and heat sensors imbedded in the roof, but if you knew what to look for, you could tell that they were in place. Jade saw none of those tell-tale signs. In the center of the roof was a large clamshell door. Perfect, she thought, I found the roof to the hanger. Jade checked the time. She had been moving for twenty minutes. Finding a large environmental unit, Jade ducked behind it and waited. In about forty minutes, the roof would open to let the current flight of TIEs return and to launch the next wave. Commander Cior Qeninh sat at his desk reading reports from Imperial Center. Apparently there was another small dissident group that had popped up on some of the Outer Rim planets. Qeninh had heard the rumors, but getting the report had confirmed what he had not wanted to admit could be a possibility. Being the garrison commander on outlying Duadat seemed to be asking for trouble. Qeninh had never run from a fight in his life, but he much preferred that they not happen at all. This attitude was what earned him the "glorious" position he had now. An Imperial who didn't want a fight didn't belong in the mainstream of the military. Qeninh actually didn't have a problem with any of this. He ran a tight ship here. Not wanting to fight and not being ready to fight were two totally different concepts. Qeninh had stepped up security when these rumors had started, and it looked like he was going to have to do so again. His TIE pilots were flying nearly constantly now. If he had to raise their active level again, he may need to contact command about transferring another squad to him, so that his pilots could get some much-needed rest. Qeninh placed calls to all of his senior operations staff. It was late in the evening, but he knew they would all still be working. He told them to meet in his office in thirty minutes to discuss the state of readiness of the troops. Right on time, the clamshell door started to ratchet open. Jade waited until the third of the six fighters on duty had made their landings, the dashed to the edge of the doors. Crouched in the shadow of the door, Jade watched as the TIEs landed and then were hoisted into place in the hanger racks. The ground crew was highly competent, she noted, taking less than half a minute for each of the ships. When the last TIE had landed, the ground crew started moving fighters into position to take off for their patrol. After the last TIE had left the hanger, the doors started closing. Jade used magnetic gloves and kneepads to secure herself to the inside of the clamshell, and so was hanging at the highest point in the room when they finished closing, still hidden in shadow. The ground crew refueled the fighters that had just come in, and then left the hanger area, turning off the overhead lighting when they did. Jade lowered herself to the floor using a magnetic climbing hook and glanced around the hanger. No guards, but that was to be expected inside the hanger. The guards would be looking to keep people out. Jade walked to the command booth and pulled up a map of the complex. Getting this map hadn't required any special access codes, and that was a major flaw in the security. Jade memorized the map, then headed for the door. This she pulled open slowly, peeking around the corner. Again, she found no guards, and this time was very surprised, because their should have been, at the very least a pair of stormtroopers, if not a whole squad. Just another security hole that Jade could exploit. Walking down the hall, Jade found a bank of elevators. Entering the first that opened, she examined the control panel, then punched the button for the top floor. This was where the garrison commander kept his office. If security was even minimal here, he would have warning that an unexpected visitor was coming up in the private lift. But Jade knew how to handle that, too. Commander Qeninh was sitting around the table with his senior officers when the alarm went off. "Unexpected activity in elevator three," the mechanical voice reported. "Possible intruder." All of the soldiers in the room moved to the opposite side of the table away from the elevators. Drawing side-holstered blasters, the command staff of the Imperial Duadat Garrison waited for the elevator doors to open and reveal their enemy. The elevator arrived and the doors slid open slowly to reveal...nothing. There was no one in the elevator. No trace that there had been. Just then a small object came out of the elevator doors from somewhere, and exploded in a blinding flash, and almost at the same instant each of the senior staffers felt a pain in there chest that made them think the end was upon them. From her place atop the elevator car, Jade tossed the flash-grenade down and out through the ceiling tile she had removed. As soon as she saw the flash, she jumped down through the opening and opened fire with her modified blaster. Since she was unaffected by the blinding light, she hit every target in the room before they even knew she was there. Running to the far end of the table, Jade grabbed Cior Qeninh and placed her blaster against his temple. When it was obvious the others in the room were recovering, she made her presence known to them. "Drop 'em. All weapons on the table NOW or Qeninh gets it," she said with authority. All eyes turned to her, and one or two thought about making a move, she saw. But in the end, all realized they didn't have a chance of hitting her with out the commander getting killed. They all placed their weapons on the table and backed away from their commander and his captor. Once everyone had moved away, Jade released Qeninh and shoved him at the others. Qeninh looked around at his subordinates, and at the bright orange spots of paint that the assassin had hit them in the center of their chests with. "Who are you?" Qeninh demanded. "I'm the person the Emperor sent to find out just how poorly the Outer Rim garrisons handle their security. But if you want a way to address me, I am called the Emperor's Hand. CHAPTER ONE In the two weeks following the Duadat raid, Jade had traveled back to Coruscant and prepared her report on the seven Outer Rim garrisons she had ran the test on and was now waiting for her audience with the Emperor to present the information to him. He wasn't going to be happy. In the seven systems she had run, Duadat ranked in the top three. The bottom of the list was the garrison located on Tatooine. To Jade, calling it a garrison was being extremely generous. While it was true that the biggest threat on Tatooine was Jawas stealing droids, it was the responsibility of all garrison commanders to be ready to enforce marshal law and defend the planet or system from an outside attack. Jade wasn't sure that the Tatooine commander would have been able to enforce last call in the spaceport cantinas. And it was her job to report all this to the Emperor. So here she sat in his antechamber, waiting for his summons. Which came sooner than she cared. Jade walked into the Emperor's private audience chamber and stood on the seal of the Empire that was set into the floor. This was the center of the great room, and was looked down on from the Emperor's throne where he sat in judgement over those that came before him, be them friend or foe. "Deliver your report, Emperor's Hand," he said in his gravely voice. Mara Jade swallowed visibly, then began to present her report. "Your Highness, the current status of all but one of our Outer Rim garrisons would be rated as deplorable. The garrison at Ord Mantell is the only one of the seven garrisons I tested that would survive any serious attempt at infiltration. Most of the bases could handle an all-out assault, but only the one would be able to handle a covert insertion." The Emperor studied her for a moment. "Very well, Emperor's Hand. Would you attribute this flaw to the commanders of my garrisons?" Jade thought hard before she answered. "Your Highness, I don't believe the commanders are solely responsible, no. However, some of the blame must fall on them, since they are the base commanders." The Emperor nodded slowly. "Your report has been filed with the central command?" "Of course, your Majesty. That was the first thing I did when it was completed," she said, and told him the file number. He nodded again and keyed his comlink on the arm of his throne. "Commander, the file number EH-96320-Z and use access code Beta- Delta-Three. There is a list of seven Outer Rim garrisons on that list. I want the commander and the second in command of each of the last three on that list eliminated immediately." Jade swallowed hard. She knew this was a possibility, but it was her job. "Emperor's Hand, you have done well. I am going to give you a new assignment. You are going to become a Rebel. CHAPTER TWO The city of Shinapov wasn't really much of a city. Based around a typical spaceport, Shinapov had never really grown outside of what little commerce sprung up immediately around the port itself. The problem was simply that the planet it was on, Tisadali, was to far outside the normal shipping lanes. The only traffic that passed through were those ships that dealt directly in the trade of micro- transmitters, an essential component for all comlinks in the galaxy, but hardly a rare commodity. So, Shinapov was a city that had a spaceport, a few restaurants, a couple of hotels, and a wealth of cantinas. Jade sat in a dark corner of a cantina rumored to be patronized by mercenaries of all descriptions. Having already been on the planet for over two weeks, Jade had already hired fifteen beings to act as a rebel assault force. Following the Emperor's plan, she needed about five more to be ready. The Emperor's plan was simple: Jade was to put a team together and attack the same garrisons that she had hit over a month ago. This time, the Emperor had given her a true hunting license. No holds barred was the rule this time. She was discouraged from killing anyone, but if need be, the Emperor would mark the loss as a valuable lesson learned. If the garrisons failed again, Jade knew, they would probably be purged top to bottom and repopulated with soldiers who could do the job. Sitting back and drinking her lomin-ale, Jade didn't flinch when the large Shistavanen walked up and plopped down at her table. After a few seconds, she turned and looked at him. "Can I do something for you?" she asked with contempt in her voice. "Heard you lookin' for mercs," he said in somewhat broken Basic. "Could be, shaggy. What's it to you?" "Could be I's lookin' to help ya." "What could you do for me if I did hire you?" Jade asked, seemingly bored. The Shistavanen glared at Jade, then popped the claws of his right hand and raked them across the table top, leaving deep gouges. "I's the best tracker you find, and I's pretty good in close fight, too," he answered with a feral grin. Jade nodded to herself. Unlike most Imperials, she didn't despise alien races, but from habit she was reluctant to trust them. She decided that this creature could be very useful, though. "Alright, you're in. What's your name, fur-face?" "I'm called Daen'am." "Ok, Daen'am, meet me at hanger sixteen in two hours, and I'll introduce you to the rest of the crew." With that, Jade went back to her drink and Daen'am got up and left. Over the next two hour, Jade collected the last of the soldiers she needed for this little game, and then walked over to the spaceport proper and into hanger sixteen, where the fifteen mercenaries she had already recruited were waiting for her. "Listen up, people. We have the last of the troops we need, and they should be here any time. Just so no one gets jumpy, one of them is a Shistavanen, and one is a Wookie. I don't think there's going to be any problems, as long as everyone keeps a cool head." "Alright, then, Jade. What kinda game are we playin' here?" asked a rough-looking human with a scar running from his left temple down and disappearing beneath a shaggy beard. "Well," Jade started, "I don't know about the rest of you, but I've had it with the Empire. They destroyed my home, they destroyed my first ship, and they've tried to have me arrested for smuggling. I've had it, and I'm going to get something back from them for everything they've taken." Jade felt that her delivery was believable, and judging by the looks most of the mercenaries gave her, they felt the same way. But some didn't seem swayed. "That's great, Jade, but what does that have to do with us?" the bearded man asked. "Well, Ranzek, what it has to do with you is that I'm going to pay you to help me." Jade said, her voice full of disdain. Ranzek gave Jade a look that could melt duracrete, but didn't say anything else. Just then, the hanger's personnel door opened, and five more beings walked in, two of whom were a good foot taller than the others. "Jade, we's here, jus' like you want. What now?" said Daen'am as he came in. "Daen'am, this is the rest of my team. Ranzek." Jade went through the introductions with her crew, which was comprised of Daen'am, Merworninn the Wookie, sixteen human males and two human females. Jade had picked the operatives so that when she made her strikes at the garrisons, it would look more like the ragtag rebel units that had been plaguing the Empire. After the introductions were done, Jade began to lay out her plans. "Ok, from where we're at, in the Alvel system, we can easily strike at half a dozen Imperial garrisons. If you guys are half as good as you claim, then we should be able to do some damage. I'm not expecting us to crush the Empire single handedly, I just want to hurt them any way I can. Your fees will be paid half up front, and then the balance will be divided into equal segments for however many missions we decide to run. That gives you encouragement to participate in each attack." "And if something happens that we can't complete all the missions?" Ranzek asked. "Ranzek, if you get captured or killed, then you won't have to worry about your pay, will you? Just so none of you get the idea of bumping off one another, if any one dies or gets captured, their share of the money goes back to me. It won't be divided out to the rest of you, so there's no reason to try and set someone else up for a fall. What it comes down to is that you'll be rewarded for success, and you won't be if you fail. Pure and simple. Any other questions?" "Where're we gettin' supplies from?" asked one of the women. "Well, um, what was your name again?" Jade asked. Even if this was a team assembled for a false purpose, Jade wanted to know the people she had. "I'm Lena. Lena Ranele." "Ok, Lena, our supplies are coming from me. Like I said, the Empire destroyed my home, but not everything I own, so I have supplies. Nothing we'll be using can be traced back to me, or to you. Good enough?" "Fine with me," Lena said. "Ok, then. If no one has anything else, then lets get down to planning our first strike. It'll be at a little place called Duadat." The planning of the first mission didn't go as smoothly as Jade would have liked, but it did progress. After nearly a week of all the mercenaries throwing out ideas, then arguing like little kids over which was right, Jade had a nearly workable plan. Some of the soldiers had surprised her, either with their violence or lack thereof. Ranzek, for example, wanted to do air bombardment and just flatten everything for a few kilometers, while Merworninn favored dropping stun-bombs and simply raiding the garrisons while everyone was unconscious. What they decided on was a somewhere between the two. The objective, as Jade stated it, was to embarrass the Empire more than anything. To that end, the order was given that no Imperials were to be killed if it could be avoided. In the course of the raid, if they managed to breach an armory, then they would take what they could carry and not be overly greedy. While this did not please everyone, it was accepted as the plan they would use. The next order of business was transportation. None of the mercenaries were used to working in such a large group, so none had transports that would hold them all. Jade had already made arrangements that she hadn't told even the Emperor about, so it was fully inside her cover if anyone decided to investigate. Jade led her little band across the spaceport to hanger thirty-seven and led them inside. "What is that?" Lena asked. Every one of the mercenaries looked at the ship that was sitting in the hanger. The ship had a rounded nose with a flat wedge-shaped bridge on top, and an elongated body stretch back. In the middle was another, larger wedge shape, and then on back to the three large rounded engines at the base of a large triangle. Over all, the grey- blue ship was just over a hundred meters in length. "That, my friends, is our transportation. The Valiant Effort." Jade said with pride that wasn't false. The Effort was Jade's personal ship that she had spent years customizing and upgrading to it's current state, and which was almost never used since she typically took normal Imperial craft on her missions for the Emperor. "But," Ranzek sputtered, "it's an Old Republic cruiser! That ship has to be over sixty years old!" "Sixty-five, actually," Jade said. "But don't worry, all of her systems are modern, and there are some modifications that weren't in the original design plans. Come on, I'll show you around inside." Jade took the mercenaries inside and started a tour of the ship. Typically requiring a crew of eight, Jade pointed out the changes in the engineering and navigation departments that allowed Jade to pilot the ship by herself. "The weaponry I have installed is all forward firing, but each port can be manned separately. I just can't do all that and fly the ship, so I have them in a set position and fire-controlled from the bridge." "That's fine, Jade," Ranzek said. "Some of us have gunnery experience, not that we should have to do any ship-to-ship stuff. What about shields? Armor?" Jade continued the tour, pointing out the modern military-grade shield generators and the heavy ablative armor covering the standard hull. "If we take a heavy hit, the armor just kind of flakes off, and we continue to fight. It's a new technology I stole from the Empire." "This all looks good to me, Jade," Lena spoke up again. "At least this way, if anyone sees us, it can't be traced back to us, just you. Since it's your time we're working on, that seems pretty fair to me." Jade nodded, looking at Lena. She couldn't help but think that she knew the woman from somewhere, but her memory failed her, so she shook it off. "Yes, and that's what I intended," Jade said finally. "I know you are all in this just for the money, and I wouldn't expect you to want to risk your lives. You will be risking your lives, but not for beliefs or pride. Just money. That's why the highest risks are going to be mine."