Galactic Domination Chapter 1: The Midnight Runner

GALACTIC DOMINATION

{ Chapter 1: The Midnight Runner }

162 ABY, approximately six months prior to the Darksider invasion on Grand Master Bathors New Je’daii order.

Location: deep space, 735 kilometres from Furies Gate, the very edge of the Tython System

IC: Crew of the Midnight Runner independent privateering frigate. Captained by Cass Gemini and her Nautolan first mate Anmetei M'lo.

~~\*\*~~

“Cap’n, are you sure we should’ve taken this job? I know it seems like a milk run but these so-called Je’daii are no pushovers if they’ve managed to resist the kriffing Darkshield and the Seven Kingdoms and now the might of the Darksiders. I even heard back on Cinnagar that some of them used to be Sith! Deserters and traitors from the old days even before their kriffing war! I don’t like this Cap’n, not at all.. I mean If we get caught.. you know what those imperial bastards did, you remember Hallion just as....” “We won't!” Said Cass abruptly through her rebreather, cutting off her first mate mid-protest and sending him a stern look that asserted her authority as Captain. A look that the middle aged Nautolan male immediately identified as his directive to stop talking.

The two outer rim pirates and their crew had travelled together on the Midnight Runner for six years since they escaped the Imperial concentration camp on Hallion. The ruthless and fiendishly clever Cass Gemini and her white skinned first mate Anmetei M'lo were now both feared and famed across the entire system as was their ship. The very unique cloaking and evasion systems of the custom frigate, coupled with the expertise of its pilot Redman Reed could get Cass and her crew past almost any defences known to the Galaxy either planet or starship and without detection. A skill highly prized by anyone with the necessary funds to acquire Cass and her crew's services.

Even so, dealing with the major factions was something they tried to avoid at all costs due to the crew's past as escaped Imperial prisoners of war. But ironically, it was that very ability to hide in plain sight that had now put them directly in the sights of the newly formed Darkside regime and their plans of putting a stubborn and rebellious Je’daii Order to the sword in the name of total Galactic conquest.

“In any rate… you speak as though I had a choice in the matter Anmetei.” Cass added more casually, looking out into the star speckled darkness of the transparisteel viewport. The ship was cloaked and set to low power as it sat near Fury Station scanning for transmissions. The raven haired woman's somewhat distorted and slightly electronic voice was the only auditable sound in the darkened cockpit other than the constant white noise of the frigates idoling sublight engines and the occasional clicking of flicked switches and the pushing buttons by the bridge crew.

“The reach of this new regime has spread wide indeed, wider even than Dreadwars god forsaken domain before it. With this kind of offer mister M’lo, we either decline and then spend our remaining days looking over our shoulders for the inevitable sith blade aimed at our backs, or we do this one job and collect our creds then disappear before the real fighting starts.”

Anmetei kept his eye contact on his captain and furrowed his brow, yet otherwise didn’t respond. His stoic silence in itself speaking volumes as to his disapproval and also perhaps his disbelief in his captain's statement.

“What? You don’t think they will pay us what they promised for the information we find?” Asked Cass from her captain's chair, cocking her head to the side inquiringly. Her two cybernetic purple eyes locking onto her large first mate's heavily tattooed face, her hands lowering from her chairs armrests and fingers interlocking before resting them on her lap.

“Forgive me Capn’” Anmetei replied, “but we’ve been camped here for well over a fortnight without anything of note to report. Truth be known, I’m more concerned about what they will pay us if we soon don’t find anything they deem worthwhile.” Anmetei said bleakley, pulling up the sleeves of his blown leather longcoat and folding his muscular arms in front of him.

“Excuse me Cap’n, sorry to interrupt you but we are intercepting another transmission from Fury Station.” Exclaimed the human male communications officer Cal Clayborn from one of the several manned command posts on the Midnight Runners bridge. He was skinny, pale skinned and hazel eyed, his mousey blond hair mostly covered by a grey cap and on top of it a pair of large round goggles. He sounded excited, his words slightly rushed in its delivery of the message which caught everyone’s attention around him increase luding his other crewman.

“Hopefully not just another meaningless request from bored Fury Station crew discussing today's starwordle answers, or more plans for their off-cycle visit to the pleasure districts on Kalimahr.” Snickered Anmetei moving from his standing position next to his Captain and confidently walking over to the communications station where the human male was sitting. The firstmates long unbuttoned jacket flowed freely as he walked, revealing a set of T6 blaster pistols holstered on each side of his waist.

“Why not? I kinda’ like those guys…” said the brown haired pilot over his shoulder from his pilot's seat several meters away. He was attractive, blue eyed and held a somehow stylish level of stubble on his face. “Seems to me like them fellas know how to have a good time, hell.. I might even join ‘em if we ever get off’a this bloody spy mission.'” Anmetei cast a look over to Redman “Well if you do mister Reed, next time you’ll have to find your own way out of whatever mess you end up in. I won’t be coming to save you again like on Lok.” He added smugly. “Hey, how was I to know that girl was actually a double agent. An imperial spy working inside the cartel looking for other imperial spies? Who could ever guess that sort of baggage?” He paused and then smiled, remembering the attractive yellow skinned Twi’lek he had met in that Lok Cantina. “I actually thought we had something special..” he said innocently and shrugged his shoulders.

“You’d only known her for an hour, and she’d already asked you to help her steal a spice shipment worth more than this ship!” Anmetei shot back at him, impressing the ridiculousness of the situation Redman had found himself in. “What can I say? I’ve got a trustworthy face..” retorted Redman with a coy smile and waving his hand in the air. Anmetei snorted and turned his attention back to Cal.

“No sir, this one’s sent from Tython itself, from one of the temples it seems ‘n has a high priority encryption. It’s sent by someone code named ‘Doc’” Replied the blond haired male as he stared at the terminal monitor in front of him.

“Very good Mister Clayborn, how long will it take to remove the encryption?” Asked Captain Cass in her more regular even tone, her full attention now focused entirely on the crewman as he turned to review the data on his workstation monitor. “It’s older, I’d say it’s possibly turn of the century resistance.. not been used in a hundred years. It is definitely a high-profile code though Captain, I’ve not seen this it since my early days in Feros’s Galactic intelligence..so I’m a bit rusty..” he said squinting at the display screen before he pulled down the pair of electronic goggles from his cap on his forehead and over his eyes, it’s large lenses immediately lit up and displayed various levels of data and coding to its wearer. “I think I shouldn’t be no more than a few hours Cap’n.” Said Cal, screwing up his mouth into a pucker and beginning to type away vigorously on his keypad in front of him.

“Excellent, Please patch the transmission to me directly once you’re done.” said Captain Cass to her communications officer as she stood from her seat and faced Anmetei again. The large, hulking Nautolan standing at just over 200 centimetres tall physically dwarfed his captain who was, even in her thick soled boots that she wore with her black bodysuit, still only an underwhelming 149cms. “Mister M’lo, keep the ship systems on low power, sensor jammers and the cloaking activated. I don’t want to risk someone noticing us until we know if that information is any good or not. I'll be in my quarters.” Cass ordered before finally turning on her heel and leaving the bridge under the control of First mate Anmetei who had already begun relaying her orders to the rest of the bridge crew.

~x~ Several hours later in the captain's quarters of the Midnight Runner. ~x~

“Cap’n, I’ve finished decoding the message we intercepted from Fury Station.” Said the voice breaking through static on Captain Gemini’s wrist mounted communications link. “Thank you mister Clayborn. You may proceed with the upload to my personal terminal. Please tell first mate M'lo I'm not to be disturbed.” Cass said back into her wrist-com and then lowered her hand from her rebreather that covered her mouth once the confirmation was echoed back from communications officer Clayborn. As she did, the soft purple hue coming from the bio air filters of the machine keeping her alive and permanently positioned along her jawline, reflected back off the metal detailings and encrusted jewels from her rings she wore on both hands.

The Captain stared at the light a moment and then lifted her hand, gently touching the rebreather unit attached to her face as her mind suddenly wandered into her past. \*\*listen to me C724.. I don’t know if you can hear me, but know without this you WILL die, here.. this should keep you from choking to death while I attach it. OK now hold still, I have to insert this tube and this is not gonna tickle.. J282… J282 do something useful and hold her down will ya!?… you saved our lives C724, I need ya to pull through so I can say I returned the favour…\*\*

Cass remembers the words of Darious echo through the mind numbing pain as she lay there, in darkness and close to death on the Medbay floor of the prison facility. Cass had been the one who had engineered their escape from that hell hole, it had also been where she had met Anmetei M'lo, Redman Reed and Cal Clayborn although they only learnt each other's real names after they were safely off that sithspit of a rock. In a place like that, learning other prisoners' real names only complicated things.. it either made you soft, or a target. It was simply easier just to use the same numbers the Imperial guards had allocated them all during processing. Somehow it made those around you less sentient, less attached, and therefore easier to lose or to hurt.

The concentration camp on the outer rim planet of Hallion she learned was established back during the early days of the Eternal Sith Empires Civil war. But unlike many other civilian work camps that had been erected as a way to leverage the influx of millions of political and wartime refugees by offering them a bowl of brown gruel and the most basic of shelter in return for a days labour in service to The Empires ongoing war effort, Hallion mining factory was designed solely as deathcamp for deserters, enemy POW’s and any who in the imperial intelligence identified as being of questionable loyalty to the Emperor's throne.

The prison itself was a reinstated old obsidian mining facility positioned on the edges of a giant magma lake. The Empire controlled and heavily guarded factory housed around 350 souls at a time, although she swore the actual number of inmates was easily double that figure. The workers/prisoners were beaten, abused, starved and often forced to fight and kill each other simply for the guards entertainment as they mined the superheated lava for any remaining obsidian deposits that could be extracted, refined and then sold to help fund the ongoing war. Cass felt a shiver run down her spine as she remembered the brutality of the place. Being in there, it had changed her and left many lasting wounds on her mind as well as on her body. Reaching up she touched her neck, the small piece of exposed skin between her rebreather and her bodysuit was rough and scarred.. this was a constant reminder of what her and her crew's freedom had cost her.

As her mind delved into the haze of her past she remembered how during the orchestrated prisoner riot, Cass had set depth minding charges intending to level the place. The ultimate plan was to commandeer an ore carrier that had arrived, and with as many inmates as she could get on board flee the system and then disappear into Wildspace. Unfortunately for Cass, one of the explosive charges went off prematurely blinding her and melting the bottom half of her face and neck leaving blackened bone, melted cartilage and charred muscles. Darious, or prisoner P495 as he was then known to her, was a captured rebel surgeon and was one of the few trusted inner circle of conspirators during her planning of the mass breakout. He and Anmetei luckily had found her after the accident and quickly took her to the medical room, patched her as best they could before taking her unconscious body into the waiting escape ship. Many died in that chaotic skirmish with the guards and security droids, but thanks to the Imperial secret service defector Cal Clayborn and the charismatic Federation fighter pilot Redman Reed they and close to one hundred and ten other prisoners managed to escape. Cal, with visible satisfaction, remotely detonated the charges set around the death camp as they broke from orbit. The explosion was visible even from that distance she was later told and even now she regretted being unable to see it herself.

Later, the escapists split the profit they made from sale of the captured ore ship and then went their own ways after finally reaching the fringes of wildspace. 23 ex-prisoners that day with nowhere else to go swore an oath to remain alongside Cass instead of going off alone. They decided via a vote to pool their remaining shares of the credits. With that profit they then paid for Cass’s cybernetics and with the remainder their own frigate, both purchases from the neutral and unofficial Techno union ring city/space station Satuaun. It was that day she became their leader and Captain, and they, her family.

A sharp electronic beep cut through the stillness of the captain's quarters indicating the successful arrival of the transmission and pulled Cass immediately from her thoughts and back to the present.

“Ok, let’s see what we have here Mr Clayborn.. what exactly could be worth a high security encryption.” Said Cass out loud in an effort to clear the thoughts of war from her mind. She moved from the edge of her bed where she had been sitting to the solid looking work desk in the corner of her quarters made from a deep brown Wroshyr wood.

Logging into the ship's secure network on her private terminal and entering her own personal security code Cass Gemini quickly opens the now decrypted file and begins to read.

……………

Greetings Grand Master Bathor, I hope this message finds you well. I'm sending you this urgent communication in response to a recent report made by Je’daii Ranger Apprentice Kas’sparr. He was sent by Temple Master Terrogate to settle a dispute between two landowners on Ska Gora several days ago. The Rangers initial mission was successful but during it however he seems to have found something hidden deep in the Eastern forest's interior. The extract from his report reads the following…

“Cookie and I have somehow stumbled on some sort of ruins of an unknown origin and date in the Kraau valley. Signs of a recent land disturbance have opened a new canyon in the eastern forest. It’s deep, so I sent Cookie to scout it out. The ground opening looks to have revealed an entrance of sorts. Initial inspection indicated the area as still too unstable for me personally to investigate further so I’ll send you the scan images Cookie was able take. Please tell Khara I’ll be home soon and tell mother I’m safe. We both know how she worries about me when you send me away. I’ll make camp here for the night and wait for your orders father.”

Master Terrogate has since ordered Apprentice Kas’sparr to immediately place a temporary quarantine around the area for the locals under the guise of unstable ground caused by ruptured subterranean gas pockets in nearby inner forest swamplands. Great Scott I must express how very excited I am by this find. GrandMaster, there's no telling what sort of ancient archeological significance or scientific secrets we could uncover!

Master Terrogate says he is forming an exploration party as we speak, I ask your permission to accompany him and so I can catalogue and help explore whatever it is that we find at this exciting new discovery.

I'll have my assistant Marty send you any further updates as they arise.

Faithfully yours, Emmett Lathrop, Anil Kesh.

…………….

Cass read and then re-read the message, committing the somewhat still obscure details to her memory before she finally turned off the terminal.

What possibly could they have found out there that had this Emmett, whoever he was, so excited? And why was the discovery of something they didn’t even know about worth the effort of such a high security encryption? The whole thing seemed to raise more questions than she was comfortable reporting. But that was the problem, after two weeks of secretly screening communications bouncing around the Je’daii’s main information network there was not even one scrap of any military information. This randomly discovered ruin was the only piece of information her crew had found even close to being of interest. Certainly the only thing with an encryption code that took the highly experienced Cal Claymore more than a few minutes to slice into, and to top it off it was directed to the Grand Master herself. At any rate Anmetei was right, she thought to herself. They had been there too long already without anything to show. The crew was certainly getting frustrated and their employer would surely be getting inpatient with their lack of progress. She needed to report in.. “Tomorrow” She said out loud to the emptiness of her quarters, making a verbal commitment to herself. Whether this was the only thing to report or not she would call it in and hopefully the Midnight Runner be done with this job for good.

“Cap’n…” came Cal’s voice once again over her wrist mounted comlink. “What is it Cal? Isn’t M’lo with you? I remember asking to not be disturbed.” Cass answered back to him impatiently, dropping the pleasantries she usually liked to observe under normal conditions. What in the nine hells was so urgent she needed to be interrupted after asking to be left alone? “Umm yes Cap’n, but I’ve got an incoming holocall for you from someone called Lord Falkor.” A cold shiver ran down her spine and she froze, almost forgetting to reply.

“Cap’n? Do you copy?” “Uuuhh yes, yes I copy mister Clayborn. I’ll receive the call in my quarters. Thank you.” She replied, turning off her wrist com and stealing herself for the conversation to come. How did the Sith know to call her now? They had only just received their first worthwhile communication in the entire time they’d been camped out here. I mean, of course she knew about their cruelty, and she had also heard rumours of telepathic abilities among the Sith order but surely it was all just some sort of strange coincidence, or stories that had run wild after too much drunken retelling from intoxicated crewmen over the years. Or maybe, just maybe the Darksiders somehow had their ship bugged? No. No, she refused to believe that she and her crew were being spied on. Afterall it was she and her crew that were hired to DO the spying, and they were the very best at it. If the sith were keeping tabs on them, then she would most certainly know about it she thought to herself.

Pushing her seat back to create more space between her and the desk Cass then removes a small, chrome, disk shaped handheld holo communication device from her right upper drawer. Along its edge were a flashing row of small lights highlighting the incoming call. Holding the holo communicator in front of her at chest height she switches it on. Instantly, inside a small cylindrical beam of light that shone up from the disk no more than twenty centimetres high was the semi translucent shape of a man. His figure was looming, dark as though he was partially made of shadows and he dressed in a maroon coloured robe. His oversized hood was drawn and pulled down to cover his eyes and nose leaving only his cracked lips and his lower weathered face visible to Cass.

“Captain Gemini, I should tell you I’m not accustomed to having to wait so long for a report.” Said the Darth coldly. His voice was authoritative and borderline threatening.

“My apologies, Lord Falkor.” Said Cass doing her best to project nothing but confidence. “I was just reviewing a high priority interception from the Je’daii.”

The Darths' facial expression did not change. Nor did his tone. “And? What information has the famous Captain of the Midnight Runner found to help our cause? What are our enemies hiding? What is their weakness that we may exploit in order to crush that miserable whore Bathors army into dust!” The Darth was starting to breathe heavily, his yellowed teeth bared and small lines of blood had started to ooze from some freshly cracked lips as he spoke. Cass swore she felt the room around her grow noticeably colder and somewhat darker too.

“Actually sir, there was only one transmission with any kind of seemingly high importance to the Je’daii. It seems they have stumbled onto some ruins. Or, the entrance to some at least.” Cass couldn’t help but feel nervous as she relayed the seemingly useless information back to the Sith Lord. Her throat was dry, and her left hand gripped her knee tight to stop from shaking.

For a moment the Darth didn’t reply. He simply stood motionless, lost in thought. His tongue tracing his lips and tasting his own fresh blood. “Did the communication say what planet this was on Captain?” He finally responded, his voice now eerily calm.

“Yes sir, they said it was on the planet of Ska Gora. In the Eastern Forrest’s. Some place called Kraau Valley?” She replied, wondering why on earth this uncovered site was so kriffing important? But also at the same time feeling more optimistic now as the only piece of information she had seemed be of use to the one responsible in paying her and her crew for the job.

“Excellent work Captain.” Replied the Darth after a long pause, lifting his head slightly revealing only the small sliver of a cloth that looked to be attached to his head and running across his upper face like a blindfold. “You will rendezvous with one of my agents on Shikaakwa and from there you will investigate the discovery.”

“Wait on just a kriffing second.” Blurted out Cass in protest. “This job was only to GET the information.. and I’ve done what you’ve asked and now I expect… uurrggggg…hhuuuuhhh!!..” Before Cass could even finish the sentence she felt an invisible hand squeeze itself around her windpipe, crushing the airway and stopping her from breathing. The purple lights of her rebreather changed to a colour of much brighter intensity and them started flashing as a warning of a recognised system failure.

“You and your crew will do whatever I TELL YOU TO DO! YOU do not make demands of ME, GIRL! To me, you are nothing! Just a minuscule spec of bantha shit on the undersole of my boot, do you understand?”

Cass couldn’t respond other than gasp for what desperate little air she could manage to suck in. Her left hand lifted instantly up to her throat, trying desperately to release the grip of whatever was choking her but there wasn’t anything there! She dropped the holocom and it landed upright on the desk in front of her. The darths' now fiendish smiling projected image still visible, as her right hand now joined its left at her neck.

“You, and your crew will rendezvous with my agent on Shikaakwa, from there you will investigate this Je'daii’s discovery and bring me anything inside that you find. Do you understand?”

Cass hunched over, her left hand clutching at the desk to keep herself from falling off her chair and to the ground. She couldn’t breathe let alone say anything, she felt her head feeling light, like she was about to black out any second. Cass nodded and instantly the tight vice-like grip on her windpipe disappeared, allowing her to finally breathe once more although the harshness of the encounter only resulted in her coughing and gasping even more as her body desperately tried to overload itself with oxygen.

“Good, my agent will make contact soon.” replied the Darth, his voice cold and menacing, then suddenly and surprisingly changing to a more casual, light tone. “And don’t look so glum, it’s a celebration after all. Today, you and the Midnight Runner join the employ of the most powerful flagship in the Galaxy. The Shadowbringer! Do not disappoint me…. Commander Gemini.”

With that the holo communication dies. Leaving Cass once more alone in her quarters, hunched over and struggling for breath.

( End of chapter 1)