The Broken One and The Assassin Part 2

The crowds of Port Habamku swirled around Elanja in currents and eddies, filling her ears with a plethora of sounds and filling her nostrils with the exotic smells of the bazaar. Currently she was purchasing some protein bars from an Ithorian merchant. And running into a bit of trouble

"No, I want the ones in the red packaging!" she told the merchant, "The green ones your selling just cost more and last shorter."

The Ithorian bristled at this, "I assure you that my goods are the finest you can hope to find-!"

Elanja raised her hand and cut him off in mid sentence, "Either give me the goods or I go over to the Quarren across the street and buy his stuff."

The Ithorian grumbled under his breath, but as he was unwilling to lose a customer, gave her three red protein bar packages. Elanja thanked him curtly and gave him her credits. She left the merchants store and continued through the large open aired bazaar.

She was looking at a rack of sun visors when she felt a slight tug on her belt. She knew what that meant in a split second. Whipping around the saw a deep blue Twi' Lek in tan and orange clothing sprinting away, her wallet in hand. She ran after him, unwilling to let this street urchin get away with her hard earned credits.

It was hard to keep the Twi' Lek in sight in the crowded bazaar. The pickpocket was knocking people all around him to get away from the steadily closing human female behind him.

Suddenly he dropped out of sight. Elanja scanned the crowd desperately for him. Too many people were around her, hiding the thief from her view. She saw a flash of blue lekku going into a nearby alley.

She hugged the wall by the alley entrance. Slowly she inched her way towards the opening. She heard the Twi' Lek congratulating himself quietly.

"Heh, that was easier than most cases," he chuckled to himself, "Griff you old rascal, you could open a school for street urchins everywhere! and maybe charge a few credits each and-" The Twi' Lek was cut off abruptly as Elanja tackled him. He fell to the ground and was pinned by Elanja's legs on his back.

"OW! Hey whats the big idea?!!" He shouted, infuriatingly indignant.

"Shut up!" she snarled back at him.

Looking up, she saw that when she had tackled the thief, her wallet had been knocked out of his grasp and was now lying in the sand about five feet away. Suddenly a small red haired human boy darted out from an a perpendicular alley, scooped her wallet up from the ground and bolted.

Growling fiercely she off the Twi' Lek's back and ran to the alleyway the child had run into. She came to an exit back into the bazaar. Elanja looked up and down the street. The sea of people walking through the street hid anyone looking for such a small person. Elanja banged her head against the wall of the alley in frustration.

She went back to the area where she left the pickpocket. He was in the middle of picking up the protein bar packages she had dropped when she had tackled him. Already in a murderous mood, she charged at him, snarling with pure rage. Seeing Elanja charge like a zakkeg, the Twi' Lek panicked and ran out of the alley, dropping two of the boxes in his haste to get away from the nearly feral human female behind him. Elanja didn't bother to pursue him and instead focused on getting her anger under control. Picking up the boxes, she headed back out into the street and started the long walk back to the landing pad where the Zephyr was docked.

Bad day.

* * *

Vihn had finally gotten a mechanic, a Rodian named Juapo who had been doing routine maintenance on the landing struts on the Zephyr. Vihn had struck up a conversation with him. He had found out that the Rodian was actively looking for work on a starship. Credits had changed hands and now his ship had a mechanic to take care of the hyperdrive.

He had also found some fare paying passengers to fill the empty rooms on board the Zephyr. They were a mixed bunch of families looking to get a ride to Persophona colony on the outer rim world of Qaonai Prime. That planet was a bit out of their way, but the fare was worth it. Collectively it could get them an entirely new hyperdrive or maybe an upgrade to the engines and weapons systems.

He realized that Elanja was taking an uncharacteristically long time to get back to the ship. usually she could not stand being around so many people for so long. He was considering going to look for her when he felt a tug on his jackets sleeve. He looked down to see two young human children, a boy and a girl, standing next to him.

"Sir?" the boy asked timidly, "We would like to buy passage on your ship please."

From the way they looked, the children were homeless and had no parents to speak of. Now Vihn always did have a soft spot for children. Especially ones with no home to go back to. He himself had started out that way. And if they could pay the fare he saw no real reason to refuse them passage.

He offered them both a comforting smile, "Well if you have twenty-five credits on you I don't see why you couldn't come along."

The boy reached into his small pocket and pulled out several credit chips. He handed them over to Vihn.

"Is this enough sir?" He asked hesitantly.

The amount of credits dropped into Vihn's hand caused his eyes to widen. This was enough to buy passage for ten full grown people. He gave back most of the chips to the boy.

"You just bought yourselves a cabin on board the Grey Zephyr you two Kath pups, go get one before all the good ones are taken." he told the two.

They both grinned with sheer delight and ran up the boarding ramp. Vihn ruffled the girl's hair as she ran by.

"No fightin' over the top bunk ye hear!?" he called after them.

Smiling, he turned back around toward the streets to continue looking for Elanja.

* * *

Zale scrutinized his new ship with a trained eye. It was a medium sized corvette with a three large engines in a triangular configuration on the back. The shape of the ship itself was an oval, with the cockpit sticking slightly out from the side. The ships blaster cannons were located on the middle of the outer hull and copied on the bottom. It was large enough to accommodate around fifteen regular sized sentients with room for three swoop bikes in a rear garage. It was the perfect ship for an assassin like him, swift, strong and deadly. It was a scout ship for the Black Advent, a Sith battle carrier. But, using his newfound authority, he had commandeered the ship for his own use The numerous cargo droids milling around the Black Advent's docking bay were loading his swoop bikes and a supply of blasters of all kinds into the cargo bay in the front of the ship.

"Well, well, well! If it isn't the little Kath hound, thinking he can play with the top dog's!" said a deep guttural voice behind him.

Zale turned around and came face to face with Haisan, another potential for the Assassins. He had been Zale's close competitor for initiation. Haisan - like Zale- was not an accomplished Force User. They both could only barely use the simplest Force powers like heal and persuasion. But Haisan made up for it with sheer ferocity. Zale preferred to use his skill take down Force Users. As his master had said "A Sith is not a Zakkeg, teeth and claws but no brains.". Haisan's physique could pass as a Zakkeg in human form any day.

Zale had an expression on barely concealed disgust, 'Haisan, If you have a death wish, why don't you just you go start making advances on Lord Revan . In any case I have no time to listen to your petty jealousy." Zale gave him a dismissing wave of his hand.

Haisan growled and reached for his lightsaber. A large arm stopped his. They turned their heads to see Morkando standing slightly behind Haisan.

"Unless you have an irresistible urge to lose your internal organs, I "advise" you will address your superior in a more respectful manner Haisan!" The grizzled Iridonian growled lowly.

"Superior!? HA!" He snorted derisively, jerking his arm out of Morkando's hold, "He outranks me in title only! He is weak! Unworthy of the honor of initiation!" he spat out at him.

Zale felt his temper rising rapidly. "You do not wish to test me Haisan." he said, his voice carrying a deadly undertone. His hands gripped the hilts of his twin crescent knives.

Haisan snorted again. With one fluid motion, he grabbed his lightsaber, ignited it and slashed at Zale. But he had his crescent knives out even faster and blocked the swing.

Shaking his head, Morkando backed away, wanting to see who would win this fight. He already had a pretty good idea.

Zale retaliated with an intersecting slash of his knives, followed by a powerful swing from his shoulder. Haisan blocked those attacks with ease and swung his lightsaber at Zale's head. Zale blocked with both of his knives. Then he used the hook shape of the blades themselves to pull Haisan's lightsaber down and deliver a swift kick to the side of his face. Haisan snarled with more anger than pain. Zale stepped back a few feet and lowered his knives to his sides in a relaxed position. Grinning, Haisan took the bait. He thrusted the point of his lightsaber right at the center of Zale's chest. With Force aided speed, Zale used one crescent knife to deflect the incoming blade and slide down its length. Once he was close enough, he swung the other knife into Haisan's sword arm. Howling in pain, Haisan dropped his lightsaber and fell to his knees. Zale picked up Haisan's dropped saber and deactivated it. Haisan managed to pull Zale's knife from his arm and looked murderously at Zale. He sneered contemptuously down at his fallen enemy. Haisan spat in his face. Casualy wiping it off his cheek, he used Haisan's lightsaber like a cudgel, striking him viciously across his face. He fell to the floor unconscious and bleeding from his newly broken nose.

Zale picked up his knives and wiped them on Haisan's prone form.

"You're not going to kill him?" Morknado asked, curious.

"No." He replied.

"Why not? He is your enemy! He tried to kill you!"

Zale turned to look Morkando in the eye.

"Killing him would be a waste of resources and my time. And besides, I have a much more suiting punishment in store for him."

Morkando looked at him questioningly.

"And that would be?" He asked.

Zale smirked back at him.

"I'll show him how a true assassin is to fight; with grace and skill, not just with sheer ferocity and overwhelming force.

"Assign Haisan here to my crew."

Morkando stared at him, blank faced, for a few seconds, then burst out in a barking laughter. Zale joined him, and for five consecutive minutes.

They both finally settled down. Morkando wiped tears of mirth from his eyes.

"Ahh Zale, you might end up a proper assassin yet!" still chuckling, Morkando waved over a pair of Sith guards.

"You two, get this man to the infirmary, he has to be in fighting condition by the end of the day."

The two guards saluted and grabbed Haisan's arms and legs, hauling him out of the hanger bay.

Zale turned back to his ship. He would have room for about two or three more squads, perhaps a few recon droids?...

* * *

Elanja was sweaty, dusty and very angry when she had finally gotten back to the landing pad area of the spaceport. She had lost her wallet, some of her supplies and she had long run out of patience. She had wanted to spend a little more time looking for the boy who had stolen her wallet and the Twi' Lek that had made off with her package, but she knew that trying to look for a certain person was nearly impossible in a spaceport like this. She managed to push through a crowd of Duros exiting a passenger liner and walk to the pad the Grey Zephyr was resting on.

Vihn's eyebrows shot up at the condition she was in. Sand was scattered in her hair, she had dirt over her coat and vest and she was missing one protein bar package.

"Either you got into a fight with a rancor or... actually, I can't think of anythin' else you coulda been doin'."

Elanja blew a few loose strands of hair out of her eyes and set the boxes down on the ground.

"One word: pickpocket," she said as she doffed her coat. "I lost my wallet and one of the protein bar boxes."

Vihn winced, he knew what that was like. Elanja proceeded to brush the dirt off her clothes.

"So... did we get some passengers?" she asked, changing the subject.

Vihn perked up instantly. "Yes we did! It's a bunch of settlers looking to head to Persephona colony."

"The Persephona colony?" she thought for a minuet. "We'll have to get some fuel, we're half empty."

"Well we can't get it here, stupid price shutta's, we'll have to refuel somwhere else.." Vihn scratched his chin, thinking.

"Well I could go ask the dock admin' if he knows of a place we can refuel." she offered.

Vihn nodded. "Okay. An while you're donin' that I'll make sure our guests are setting in."

The walk to the dock administrators office was not a tiring one. But the walk up the staircases that lead up the tower it was in, was. She arrived, sweating slightly but panting, one of the virtues of her rigorous training.

The room in front of her was surprisingly cooler than the other buildings. A draft of cool air made the sweat on her face turn cold. The circluar room was filled with plants of all kinds. They were hanging from the ceiling, on small tables and in tall pots on the floor. It was typical that there was an Ithorian sitting behind the desk at the center of the room.

The Ithorian looked up from the datapad on his desk. "Can I help you?"

Elanja walked up to his desk. "Well, my ship is running low on fuel, so do you know of any fuel stations in any system closer than 200 parsec's?"

"One moment please," The Ithorian checked his datapad. "I believe that there is a refueling station on Ferrein in the Banoso system."

Elanja thanked him and exited the office, going down the stairs two at a time. At the bottom of the stairs she ran right into another human, sending them both to the ground.

She picked herself up while apologizing. "Sorry, didn't see you there." she offered her hand to the fallen man. He took it and she pulled him upright. He simply accepted her apology and continued on his way.

Elanja watched him disappear into the crowds. She shook her head, most people would be a bit more angry at being hit. That man seemed more interested in avoiding her than anything else. She shrugged, dismissing the curious encounter as simply running into a man with something else on his mind.

I know what thats like She thought to herself.

She jogged back to the Zephyr just as Vihn was finishing up the pre-flight checkup. She informed him of the location of the re-fueling station. He waved her inside as he started closing the loading ramp.

The ship was much louder than she had ever heard it. The passengers milled about the hallways, moving there things into the cabins for the long journey to the Persephona colony. Two laughing children, a boy and girl, ran past her, she stared after them. She smiled their innocence and joy, things that she herself had sacrificed for others like them to have innocence and joy. The boy turned his head and saw her watching them. Something about him was familiar, but she could not quite grasp it.

She tapped the shoulder of the nearest passenger, a red female Twi' Lek. "Excuse me, those two children, who are they with?"

The Twi' Lek took a quick look at their retreating backs.

She shrugged at her. "I do not know, they came by themselves. Sorry."

Elanja's curiosity was piqued, but she didn't have time to deal with it at the moment. She thanked the Twi' Lek and continued up to the cockpit.

They had begun liftoff. The spaceport shrank away as they ascended through the atmosphere.

* * * *

Unknown to Elanja, a pair of eyes watched the Zephyr soar away.

He had been watching her ever since she had touched down. It was actually a stroke of luck. He had been disembarking from another transport when he had seen her. He had watched, chuckling, as she had chased that pickpocket through the street. He had taken note of the ship she was flying with and he had overheard her talking to the docking administrator. He had no doubt in his mind that this was the target that the Watchers had been alerted about. This was the General.

He had watched the ship she had boarded fly away until it was lost to his sight. He then left the lading pad area of the spaceport and walked into the residential district.

His home was in one of the many flats buildings in Port Habamku's residential district. Like most of the other rooms, his was very sparse in furniture. Very inconspicuous place, perfect for his job. He immediately went over to his bed. Bending over he retrieved a small flat comm pad.

The message he sent was short: Target: General sighted. Heading for Ferrein in Bonoso system.

Simple words. But not simple consequences as he knew from his time as a Sith Watcher.

* * * *

Zale inhaled sharply as his newly christened ship, the Mekkatros, roared out of the Black Advent's hangar bay. It was a breath a hunter takes as his prey begins its final flight away from him.

He knew where to go and what to do when he got there. There was no for her escape now.