Chapter 1: A Suitable Candidate

  Letting out a groan of annoyance, Lana Beniko pressed the palms of her hands against her eyes. The light from her console screens was starting to give her a headache, and she still hadn't accomplished what she had planned to. She pushed her chair back and stood, stretching the muscles that had spent far too long bent and compressed during the hours she had been pouring over data. The dark green robes draped over her lithe form shifted as she paced across the room that was serving as her makeshift office. As a member of Sith Intelligence, she had an exceptional setup on Dromund Koss, the Sith Empire's capital planet. Multiple screens, immediate access to the archives, and most importantly, a chair that didn't feel like sitting on an upended trash bin.

  Unfortunately, Lana was not at her normal office. The work she was doing here on the ocean world Manaan was strictly off the record, even being kept a secret from her own boss, Darth Arkous. Ever since the Republic and Sith had simultaneously sieged Tython and Korriban, the homeworlds of the Jedi and Sith respectively, she had sensed a tremor in the Force. Something didn't add up. Lana would have already been on edge if all that had happened were the two attacks, but immediately following them, both forces reversed course and raced back to their own territory, retaking their homeworlds and effectively rendering the entire series of events moot, minus of course the casualties on both sides. Adding to this strangeness was the fact that both locations had a fairly innocuous item looted, yet both of these items didn't appear to make it back to high command. Once Lana had noticed this, she went back through the documents linked to the invasion, and could no longer find any reference to the item that had been taken.

  The standard operating procedure would be that she take her findings to her commander. However, given the fact that her commander was the same man who oversaw the operation, and that she was certain he had specifically noted the now absent item as a mission objective, she opted to pursue her leads solo, in case of corruption in the ranks.

  And so far, that was proving to be the right choice, aside from the less than ideal working environment. Leveraging some of her underworld contacts, Lana had managed to get in touch with a Republic intelligence officer who had the same hunch she did and had been doing his own investigation. After several encrypted transmissions and one face to face meeting, they had both decided they were on to something big, that would have dramatic impacts to both the Republic and the Empire. Unsure of who was part of the larger plot, they agreed to each find somebody they could trust implicitly to help them with the legwork.

  Which was where Lana was currently stumped. Most of the people she worked with were either a part of Sith Intelligence or one of the other Sith lords, who were usually loyal to whatever would best serve their own interest, or they were her underworld contacts, who she would trust about as far as she could spit. Thus she had spent the better part of an afternoon trawling the holonet and whatever archive files she could access from her current location, attempting to find a viable option. So far she had no such options, and she was quickly running out of time before her Republic contact was supposed to arrive with his recruit, assuming he had managed to find one.

  Lana scoffed. He probably had laughably less of an issue than she did. While she didn't see eye to eye with the Jedi, it wasn't hard to acknowledge that you were much more likely to be able to find an altruistic individual in their ranks, or at least somebody who wasn’t obsessed with pursuing their own agenda. Running her hands through her blonde hair, she let it fall back down to where it hung just below her chin as her terminal let out a weak ping, notifying her that it had pulled several more candidates to inspect. Letting out a sigh, Lana dropped back into her wildly uncomfortable chair and brought up the latest batch. What was the quote about insanity? she thought to herself as she immediately discarded the first option.

  The second was more promising, but that just meant she actually had to read more than a couple lines before vetoing it. Finding somebody who was both competent and not intrinsically linked to the Empire was proving to be much more difficult than she had anticipated. She pulled up the third file, expecting to once again be disappointed.

  This file was for a Mandalorian, which was already a good start. Mandalorians, while often working with the Empire, were usually exceptionally particular in that they were working with, not for. Their allegiance was most often to their clan, which meant they didn't care about Sith politics. This Mandalorian in particular, while completing quite a few contracts for the Empire, also worked with the Republic on occasion, showing that they didn't hold any loyalties one way or the other.

  Continuing to scan through the contents of the file, Lana saw a note that the individual had also been crowned Grand Champion of the Hunt several years back. She was surprised that it had been buried as deep as it was in the data; such a distinction was extremely rare, considering only one was awarded as such each galactic year. To be crowned Grand Champion, one must complete a series of bounty hunts, which continually increased in complexity, as well as being assigned to a competing hunter. Once all the hunts had been completed, all the surviving hunters then faced off in a death match, with the victor being named Grand Champion. Obviously, one needed great skill and grit to survive such a contest, so that was another check in the pro column for the Mandalorian.

  Surprisingly, there was very little on the Mandalorian outside of her accomplishments. Besides being identified as female, the records didn't indicate any other personal qualities or characteristics outside of the long list of accomplishments and military engagements. There wasn't even a race attributed to the woman, though there was a name: Vera Lacroix. Several notes were present indicating that she kept her helmet on for the majority of her meetings, as well as during missions. A few other comments indicated that she did have a crew of at least three, though they were also only vaguely described.

  Reaching the end of the file, Lana found nothing of concern, and quickly put together a coded transmission to invite the hunter to meet with her at the cantina on Vaiken Spacedock, the primary hub of the Imperial Fleet. It was busy enough that they shouldn't draw too much attention, and she frequented the location constantly, which would provide her believable cover if she was seen by somebody she knew. With a deft tap on the keyboard, the transmission was sent, and Lana began gathering up the few belongings she needed to take with her. Crossing her fingers that this Vera Lacroix would be her answer, she strode out of the room, leaving no trace of her presence behind.

—

The crowd at the cantina was rowdy and cacophonous, as usual. Nobody had started a fight yet, but it was only a matter of time, given that so many of the patrons were military, either coming from or going to some bloody battlefield, now that the Cold War between the Republic and Sith Empire had finally exploded into open conflict. Both sides pointed at each other regarding who started the fresh warfare, but truth be told there were a dozen different reasons that could be seen as the catalyst. Lana sat at a table near the outskirts, the padded bench seat she occupied tucked into the curve of the wall. A mostly untouched drink sat on the table in front of her; she rarely drank, but it was necessary in situations such as these to do the expected, so she'd ordered a drink as soon as she'd arrived. A brief taste brought her no joy, but it proved effective as immediately the bartender moved to help somebody else, no further questions about why she was here.

  Scanning the crowd, she couldn't help but assess it for threats. Even though she knew that this was the heart of the Imperial fleet, with what she had learned there was no way she was letting her guard down. Her eyes lingered on a cluster of officers, chatting animatedly near the bar. How would she even be able to tell if someone was part of the conspiracy that she barely knew anything about? Letting out a grunt of frustration, she reached forward and grabbed her glass, taking an imperceptibly small sip of the liquor inside. Returning her drink to the table, movement at the stairs leading down to the cantina caught her eye. Casually adjusting her posture to give her a better angle, Lana was able to get a bead on what had pulled her attention.

  Casually descending the stairs was someone clad in definitely Mandalorian style armor: angular chestplate, a sleek jetpack mounted on their back, and a helmet with the classic T-shaped visor that a large number of Mandalorians sported. The armor was a regal blue with white accents, including two thick white stripes on the right side of the chest. An impressive looking sniper rifle was slung over the Mandalorian's back as they slowed, before pivoting and heading straight toward Lana's table. Tilting their head to the side, they appeared to say something to their companion, a younger woman with cybernetic implants and hair cut at a sharp angle, who nodded and peeled off, leaving the hunter to approach Lana solo.

  "This seat taken?" The voice, though somewhat distorted by the helmet, was undoubtedly female. Although all signs were pointing toward this being who she had contacted, Lana didn't like to leave anything up to chance.

  "Depends on who's asking."

  The woman in armor crossed her arms and tilted her head to the side. "I know what answer you're looking for, but I'm also wondering if I could just tell you that I couldn't resist approaching such a beautiful woman." Lana let out a surprised bark of laughter as the woman took a seat on one of the stools opposite her. "Vera Lacroix, as requested."

  "Quite a first impression Miss Lacroix," Lana said cheekily, leaning forward and resting her elbows on the table.

  "Just Vera. Or hunter. Or sexy, whichever you prefer." Lana could hear the smile behind the words, even though the real thing was hidden behind Vera's helmet. She shook her head, unsure whether she should be annoyed at the lack of professionalism coming from her new contact. Though to be fair, this was anything but a formal encounter, given how under the radar everything involved had to be. And it wasn't often she had anybody flirting with her, especially so brazenly at the first meeting. Usually people were a bit more cautious around a Sith such as herself.

  "You do realize I'm a Sith, right?" She had to ask, just to make sure that Vera was as forward as she seemed.

  "The yellow eyes and lightsaber are a bit of a giveaway, darling," Vera responded lazily, making a vague hand gesture toward Lana's left side, where her lightsaber was hidden away inside her robes. Before she could make a comment about Vera's observational skills, the bounty hunter spoke again. "You don't stay alive as long as I do without being aware of your surroundings. And that includes who you're surrounding yourself with."

  Raising her eyebrows briefly, Lana kept her comment to herself. The Mandalorian had a point, and so far everything she'd seen from the other woman, minus, perhaps, her flirtatious attitude, was exactly who she needed for the tasks ahead. "I've called you here to ask for your help on a … let's say, investigation. And before you retort with some line about how that's beneath you, I have reason to suspect this investigation is going to turn violent in a hurry." Lana waited for a response from Vera, and when none was forthcoming, continued on. "This is strictly off the record. You are not working for the Sith Empire, you are not working for Sith Intelligence, you are working for me. You are to trust nobody with this information except those I allow, and you cannot recruit any others to assist."

  "Mako comes with me." Lana assumed Vera was referring to the woman she had entered with, and as she followed Vera's slight head tilt she saw the woman in question, leaning against the bar. "She's been with me from the beginning. I'll give the rest of my crew shore leave, but Mako comes with me or it's no deal."

  Lana took a moment to think the ultimatum over, even though she really didn't need to. To be honest, she probably would have let Vera bring her whole crew along, given that it was highly unlikely anyone on that team would be in deep with the Empire, but it was preferable to have less people involved so agreeing to including Mako was an easy ask. "Agreed. Mako can accompany you." Lana lifted her glass to take a drink, surreptitiously leaving behind a small data chip, which Vera pocketed with equal subtlety. "Meet me at those coordinates in two rotations."

  Vera gave the slightest of nods, then stood to leave. As she turned, Lana realized that they hadn't even discussed payment terms. As if reading her mind, Vera turned around, walking backward for a few steps as she said. "We can talk payment later. I know you're good for it." Lana had a feeling Vera winked before she turned again, heading back to the stairs she entered from, Mako silently falling into step beside her.

  As Lana watched them leave, she couldn't help but feel equal amounts of hope and excitement. Hopeful that Vera would be able to help her get to the bottom of this concerning series of events, and excitement at the prospect of getting to work with the woman. It had been a long time since she'd worked with someone who wasn't either intimidated by her or attempting to use her to further their own interests. She had a feeling that Vera was going to be something unique.