WotH Chpt 53

==War on the Horizon - Chapter 53==
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===Captive and Torched ===
Unknown date and location
"Your existence is pain." The voice of his captor whispered into his ear as he raged against his bonds reaching for a connection that slipped away again and again. The Force had abandoned him long ago, and all that was left where light and life had once been was a burnt-out husk.
 
Then, as if a switch had been switched, the pain stopped for a brief moment, and the fog of red that had long ago descended over his eyes lifted enough for him to see his tormentor and the room that he was in.
 
Duracrete walls and barren floors surrounded him. The only thing preventing him from leaving his tenuous connection to the force and his inability to move a single muscle with the electric current still spreading through his muscles.
 
"Would you like for this to end?" The cloaked figure asked quietly.
 
The man tried to speak, but his voice broke as he opened his mouth.
 
"Of course," the cloaked figure spread his arms out grandly. "Where are my manners?"
 
A droid brought a small plastoid water bottle and straw over, allowing the tortured to whet his throat.
 
"I'll do anything," he croaked. "If it is within my feeble power, then I will see to it that what you desire is done."
 
"Good, good," a hand was raised, the Force breaking loose the shackles as the tortured was picked up by a droid. "See to his injuries, and inform me of when he is capable of doing what I desire."
 
The cloaked figure walked out as the droid carried him to a nearby medical bed. Then, the droid wheeled him into a room where a Bacta tank and other medical equipment were waiting to be used.
 
"Be still," a medical droid's baritone instructed. "You require fluids and other procedures to restore your muscles to proper functionality."
 
The droid injected the man with a sedative and began the grisly work of restoring the tortured to some form of health.
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===Arranging safe passage while on a Inhospitable world===
Date: September 2nd, 3015/ 02.09.1954 CRCSenate Building, Coruscant, Corusca Sector, Galactic Republic
"Well, it seems that a decision will not be coming from the Senate today," Clay sighed as we left the pedestal. "Thankfully, I managed to arrange for us to get lodging close to the Hapan Embassy."
 
"And that's important, because?" I raised an eyebrow, the name hitting a few notes of memory, but not enough to ring any big bells.
 
"Because they're one of the few interstellar nations that are not a part of the Republic. And we've yet to work out any agreements with them," Cassius turned a bit red. "And they are home to some of the most beautiful women in the galaxy. You'll not find many like them."
 
"He's not wrong, Colonel," Lieutenant Sturn agreed. "If I hadn't settled down with Sara I'd have been willing to travel to find someone from that region. They make for damned fine Mandalorians."
 
"I'll look into opening some recruitment there," I stroked my beard, humming as we moved through the wide yet crowded corridors that surrounded the big open space of the Senate 'Floor'.
 
"Wait here," our second Marksman bodyguard went through the outer door to check our speeder, the team on the other side being the rest of the squad.
 
The large speeder was checked over by a trio of Marksmen, each one checking a subsystem while a bomb tech checked for any potential explosives.
 
"We're clear," Sturn opened the door and waited for us to move through. "We've got some ASF on standby to provide escort."
 
"How did we get permission for that?" Siri asked. "Coruscant traffic control must have fought you on every level for that."
 
"We didn't ask," Sturn replied. "Our charges are more important than their traffic rules."
 
We climbed into the armored speeder and entered the traffic of Coruscant, a quartet of our variant of the Aethersprite fighter falling into formation around us as we sped off toward the rooms that Cassius had managed to get for us.
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===I got that bad feeling again===
"This is a nice place," I looked around at tasteful and solid-looking furniture, everything seemed humble until I took a closer look and saw that master craftsmen had touched each and every single piece. "Well made, but humble."
 
"This place isn't as well renowned and in the view of citizens like the 500 Republica," Cassius sat in a comfortable-looking chair. "And their privacy is better by far."
 
"Isn't there supposed to be more traffic outside?" Sienn asked as she peered out of the transparisteel window.
 
"Yes, there is," Clay poured himself a decanter of some sort of liquor and took a sip, savoring it before leaning on his cane and standing up, his coat vanishing to reveal a pair of holstered blasters. "Lieutenant, we are likely to receive some unwelcome guests shortly. You may wish to contact the Katana and see if we can acquire reinforcements. Assassins are sometimes subtle here on Coruscant, but we are foreigners, and many will gladly cover up our deaths."
 
"Siri," I said calmly as I slid my duster back and brought up my sidearm, the positively ancient weapon of polymer and metal sitting comfortably in my hand as if it were an old friend. "Remember the Leviathan?"
 
"Yes," she used the Force to bring her lightsaber to her hand. "What about it?"
 
"I'm pretty sure that we've got a similar problem on our hands." I checked the chamber on my 9mm and reholstered it before accepting a laser carbine that Sturn handed me. "Please tell me we've got something ballistic," I passed him the laser carbine back. "I'm partial to things that go boom."
 
We ensured that all of us were armed appropriately, and then we waited. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as the first five minutes passed, then fifteen, and just as some of us started to relax, a red glow lit the other side of a door.
 
The red lightsaber burned slowly through the reinforced door, the acrid smoke and smell of molten metal stinging our noses.
 
"This is Bravo-One, we're beginning to rappel down now, ETA two mikes," the calm voice of Mathis announced as the blade began to circle back around to complete the cut.
 
"I fuckin' knew the other shoe was about to drop," I sighed as I checked the chamber on the rifle I'd swapped the laser carbine for. "Remember people, if it's a Jedi then you make absolutely certain ballistics go first. Molten metal moving at the speed of sound is just as lethal as the solid projectile."
 
Then, the blade shut off, or withdrew, I wasn't exactly sure which as the cutout was shoved through the hole by an invisible force and ejected out the window, striking a speeder on the way down as the entrance began to be filled with smoke.
 
And as if mirroring an event far into the future of this universe, A red blade was the only thing shining from the other side as it moved through.
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Chapter 53