Beyond - Legends Children of Mandalore: Red Fang (LotF, OCs, Jacen Solo) *2015 Best Series Award Nominee*

Children of Mandalore: RED FANG

[Dramatis personae]

Ami Laylis: Mandalorian bounty hunter (female human)
Aru Numeck: Wife of Tyran Numeck; former Mandalorian Supercommando (female human)
Baydo Titus: Mandalorian mercenary (male human)
Dain Dolvo: Mandalorian mercenary (male human)
Dyir Carud: Mandalorian mercenary (male human)
Elai Kareb: Mandalorian mercenary (male human)
Gazra Ryl: Intelligence operative (male Rauften)
Ijaat Numeck: Son of Tyran and Aru Numeck (male human)
Iman Vitrix: Colonel; Galactic Alliance Special Forces operative (male Zabrak)
Jacen Solo/Darth Caedus: Head of the Galactic Alliance Guard; Jedi Knight/Sith Lord (male human)
Jaiden Numeck: Adopted son of Tyran Numeck (male human)
Jaya Numeck: Mandalorian mercenary; wife of Rixa Numeck (female human)
Kial Volar: Mandalorian mercenary (male human)
Lin Diieve: Mandalorian bounty hunter; wife of Ryia Devieyc (female human)
Luric Braren: Red Fang (male human)
Neada Tash: Director of Orbital Ring Security KDY; ex-Hapan Commando (female human)
Niya Dinn: Mandalorian bounty hunter (female human)
Odas Zistra: Politician, Chairman of the Galactic Alliance Clandestine Operations Advisory Council (male Gran)
Rev Devieyc: Mandalorian mercenary (male human)
Rixa Numeck: Mandalorian mercenary (male human)
Runi Numeck: Patriarch of the Numeck Clan (male human)
Ryia Devieyc: Mandalorian mercenary (male human)
Savah Tervho: Mandalorian mercenary (female human)
Truan Stav: Head of the Kuati Security Council (male human)
Tyran Numeck: Former Mandalorian Supercommando (male human)
Vyndra Tash: daughter of Neada Tash (female human)


CHAPTER ONE

SKYVIEW WALKWAT, CORUSCANT, 40 ABY
THREE DAYS AFTER THE ATTACK ON TORYAZ STATION

Rixa Numeck didn't find the spectacle of massive canyons and speeder lanes weaving below and above him the least bit impressive as he stood on the walkway waiting. The Skyview was in the upper reaches of Coruscant's speeder lanes and bridged the gap between two of the most luxurious hotels on the planet. Rixa was just a soldier and places like those didn't fit his taste but he often found himself spending a lot of time in those types of places. He was always being hired by the affluent and elite citizens of the galaxy to do dirty work that ensured they were able to keep their positions of power and wealth.

Though most of his employers had deep pockets, Rixa and his family were barely getting by with scraping out an existence on his family's farm on Mandalore. No matter how much he made from his clients payments there was always something that would come up and suck out any excess profits. Rixa couldn't actually remember how long it had been since he had actually seen his wife in person, Jaya was working the bounty hunter circuit as well trying to maximize their profits by taking jobs of her own.

At this point it had to be close to seven or eight standard months since he had set out on his next tour of jobs around the usual spots in the Outer Rim. It wasn't unusual for him to wind up on Coruscant, but he hadn't ever been to this particular level of the city planet. Whoever he was going to be meeting with here was of a whole new kind of affluence than he had ever encountered before.

Good, maybe I can charge him more if the job is difficult enough. He thought as he stared down at the checkerboard pattern of speeder lanes below him. It'll probably turn out to be another intimidation job for a politician.

Those kind of jobs seemed to be his bread and butter these days. Rixa silently longed for a war like the one with the Yuuzhan Vong so he could do some honest soldiering again. Rixa slowly reached his hand up to his shoulder and ran his hand over the section of armor plating as memories of being wounded and tortured by a Yuuzhan Vong high commander on some backwater moon came back to him.

Maybe not exactly like the Yuuzhan Vong.

His helmet sensor detected someone approaching from behind him so he opened a small video feed in his HUD. A Zabrak in a crisp military uniform was indeed walking towards him. Rixa armed the dart launcher in his wrist gauntlet for good measure before turning around to face the approaching person.

"Rixa Numeck?" the pale skinned Zabrak asked as he stood within arms length of the Mandalorian.

Rixa decided that the Zabrak was either very confident or very stupid to be standing so close to an armed mercenary he knew very little about.

"Depends on who's asking." His helmet filter made his voice all the more intimidating. "Who's asking?"

"Colonel Iman Vitrix, Galactic Alliance Special Deployment Group. I've got a proposition for you, can we discuss it inside over lunch?" The Zabrak gestured to the massive spacescraper to the left of the Walkway.

Skyview Terrace was one of the premiere hotels in the galaxy, as well as on Coruscant and it catered to only the absurdly rich.

"Is the Alliance going to foot the bill?"

The Zabrak chuckled. "Of course, even if we don't come to an agreement over the mission."

Rixa began walking off towards the Terrace and made sure to set his helmet to alert him if anyone appeared to be following him. Vitrix fell in step beside him.

"You were highly recommended by some colleagues of mine, as was your brother. We couldn't find him, or else we would have set up a meeting with both of you to double our chances of success." Vitrix said casually.

"He wouldn't have done it anyway, he gave up the mercenary life after the war with the Yuuzhan Vong ended." Rixa said sourly "I haven't seen him for at least ten years."

"Hmm, what a shame." the Zabrak said as the doors to the Terrace parted for them. They were met by a well dressed Bith who directed them to a small table in the far corner of the room that had a breath taking view of Coruscant's skyline.

Vitrix ordered a nerf steak and some expensive Hapen Reserve. Rixa wondered how someone in the Galactic Alliance military could afford to eat in a place like this. He decided that the Zabrak's personal wealth wasn't his concern.

"What kind of job does the Galactic Alliance military need me to do for them?" Rixa asked as he removed his helmet and set it on the table next to him.

"You don't want to wait until after we eat to discuss business?" Vitrix asked as the Bith returned with the bottle of Hapan wine and poured a glass for the Zabrak. The Bith turned the bottle of wine to Rixa and indicated his glass. Rixa declined the drink, alcohol and business didn't tend to mix very well. He would celebrate after the job was done and his bank account had a little bit of padding in it.

"I didn't come all this way for an overpriced nerf steak." Rixa said. "So what do you want?"

Vitrix stared at the Mandalorian mercenary for a few long seconds. He nodded a few times and reached into his shirt. Rixa visibly tightened his grip on the knife in his hand, it was natural reflex when someone he didn't know began reaching for things he couldn't see. Vitrix laughed and slowly pulled his hand out of his jacket and revealed a datachip.

"Forgive me, I forgot about the Mandalorian knack for suspicion."

"It's kept me alive this long." Rixa said as he eyed the chip while Vitrix slid it across the table. "What's on the chip?"

"Information." Vitrix replied coolly. "Actually all of the information we have on the target we would like you to eliminate."

Rixa took the chip and slid it into a throwaway datapad. He did have a chip reader in his armor system but he wasn't about to insert a chip from an unknown military officer into his personal armor system. It took a few moments for the chip to read in his datapad before the screen began to display the information stored on the small device.

"You're joking right?" Rixa said. "This is all you have: Target Identity, Red-Fang. Last known location, the Outer-Rim. You expect to me to find someone with only this to go on?"

Vitrix raised his hands. "Forgive me, I thought Mandalorians could track anyone anywhere across the galaxy with the barest of information. Are you turning down the job?"

Rixa considered the datapad for a few moments. He couldn't afford to let a contract with the Galactic Alliance slip through his fingers. The information he had been given however wasn't going to help him or any other Mandalorian in tracking down the person known as Red-Fang.

"Give me forty-eight hours, let me see what I can dig up on this Red-Fang." Rixa said after a moment of thinking over his options. "If I can come up with more information to make the job more feasible I'll do it."

"Forty-eight hours is acceptable." Vitrix said instantly.

"Who is Red-Fang, or more importantly why do you want him taken care of?"

"He's a terrorist, plain and simple. We can't find him and our resources are being redistributed due to the recent troubles with Corellia."

"So you're just outsourcing your wetwork then."

"Precisely. How much do you require to do that?"

"That'll depend on what I can find out." Rixa said. "After I finish digging around we can discuss payment."

Vitrix nodded his head. "Fine. You have forty-eight hours, I look forward to getting your call."

Taking the comment as a sign that the meeting was over Rixa stood up from the table and replaced his helmet and turned towards the door without saying another word. Vitrix waited until the Mandalorian was outside the building before reaching into his pocket and pulling out an earpiece to a comlink and placing it in his right ear. The device beeped twice before someone on the other end answered his call.

"I made contact with a mercenary who comes highly recommended." He said as the Bith waiter returned with his nerf steak.

"Good, what did he say?" the disembodied voice in his ear asked.

"He asked if he could have forty-eight hours to dig around and find some more information before he accepted the job. I told him that was doable."

"Are you insane?!" the voice cried out. "What if he finds out more about Red-Fang than he needs to know?"

"I took care of all the Operation: Red-Fang data personally. He wont find anything I don't want him seeing." Vitrix said as he cut into his steak. The knife passed through the meat as if it was warm butter. "All that we need now is for this mercenary to locate Red-Fang himself and eliminate him. After that Senator you can go back to worrying about your constituents instead of worrying about being assassinated."

"But what if he does find out something he isn't supposed to?"

"Then we will have him dealt with and hire some one who is less resourceful to do the job instead." Vitrix was growing tired of having to deal with politicians and couldn't wait to have this partnership wrapped up. "I have this under control, you just keep the funding for the other operations flowing and leave Red-Fang to me."

The call ended at the opposite end and Vitrix sipped at his expensive Hapan wine and ate his perfectly prepared steak without a shred of concern about the man known as Red-Fang simply because Rixa Numeck was everything his contacts had said he would be. One standard week. That was what he felt it would take for the Mandalorian to track down his target and put an end to a nightmare that had seemed like it was going to last forever.


SENATE BUILDING, CORUSCANT, OFFICE OF ODAS ZISTRA, 40 ABY
THREE DAYS AFTER THE ATTACK ON TORYAZ STATION


Odas Zistra slammed his datapad back down on his desk and growled in frustration. Iman Vitrix was an impossible man to work with, he seemed to operate on faith rather than hard facts. The aging Gran hadn't managed to stay in politics for as long as he had by dealing in faith and luck. He had made deals, followed up on proven facts and even intimidated his way to his current position of power as the head of the Clandestine Operations Advisory Council. There wasn't a special operation in all of the Galactic Alliance that got the green light without his say so. Red-Fang had been one such operation, Vitrix's own brain child. It was one of a few 'off-the-books' missions that had been brought before the COAC.

Red-Fang had been an intriguing operation from the start on Zistra's part. The mission was deemed so secret by the military that only two other members of the ten-member council had been briefed on the operation. Which wasn't such an odd occurrence, often certain operations were brought to COAC members who were thought to be more supportive of the planned outcome of a certain operation. But still though the amount of secrecy that had swirled around Red-Fang had seemed rather excessive to Zistra at the time.

The mission had been given the go ahead after a five hour briefing by Vitrix and select other military officials and Zistra had thought that would have been the end of his involvement as was usually the case. Then Vitrix began making regular visits to his office and personally handing over updates on the operation's success. Vitrix then began to slowly plant subtle hints that they could use Red-Fang to further their own needs, which was double-speak for lining their pockets with extra credits. Zistra hadn't jumped on the idea as quickly as his two other fellow COAC members involved with the Red-Fang operation, but once Vitrix showed him how many credits were being pulled in off the books by his two fellow Senators it was an easy decision to climb on board the now legal/illegal black-operation.

Everything ran smoothly for a few years and Zistra had collected a small personal fortune that was gathering interest in a bank on Muunilist registered under an alias. He'd had everything he'd need for the rest of his life and he could have walked away without any fears. Then Red-Fang went wrong. Vitrix had lost contact with the operative who had been using the codename matching the operation designation during the war with the Yuuzhan Vong. The mission was abandoned and Zistra, his two fellow COAC members and Colonel Vitrix went their separate ways.

Now barely a month ago, almost ten years after the mission had been scrapped, both of the other Senators who had signed off on Red-Fang had died a few days apart. Each death had been explained away by either an accident or natural causes.

But Zistra knew better. It didn't take a lot of brains to figure out what was happening. For one reason or another Red-Fang was back and he was going after everyone who had been involved with the operation in one form or another. Simple, unsuspecting aids who had done nothing more than run files from Vitrix to Zistra were popping up dead across the galaxy now and again. Each death was explained away without suspicion.

It was all too coincidental for his liking.

He had moved into his office, forgoing the lavish comforts of his expensive residence in the upper levels of Coruscant for the marginally comfortable but extremely secure confines of the Senate Building. He still had business to conduct as the head of the Clandestine Operations Advisory Council. The problems with Corellia had thrown an influx of operation proposals his way and he couldn't let a demon from his past interfere with the affairs of the Galactic Alliance.

As much as he disliked the idea he had to have faith that Vitrix and his mercenary would get the job done.

The door to his office buzzed and Zistra checked the security cam feed on the built-in monitor of his desk. His assistant, a blue skinned female Twi'lek, was standing in the hallway with a stack of datapads in her hands. Zistra hit one of the buttons under his desk and disengaged the lock on his office door. A moment later his assistant walked into his room, her hips swaying with the ease and grace of a former dancer.

"This morning's batch of proposals Senator." She said giving him a very toothy grin as she set the stack down on his desk.

He gave her a dismissive wave as he grabbed the first datapad from the top of the stack. "Thank you Zuda, would you mind bringing me a cup of caf. I think today is going to be one of those long days."

The Twi'lek bowed her head slightly and disappeared out of the door again. Zistra skimmed through the first few lines of text on the datapad. The proposal was for an extremely off-the-books prison used to hold and interrogate suspected terrorists for more information. The proposal even laid out a specific planet in the far reaches of the Outer-Rim where the prison could be built.

"Kaytares VII." Zistra said to himself as he pulled up information on the planet. It was a barren snow covered world on the extreme edge of the Outer-Rim with virtually no indigenous species. "Promising, very promising."

Zistra finished skimming through the datapad and noted the name of the person presenting the proposal to the COAC later in the afternoon and then moved on to the next datapad in the stack. As he had thought he was now positive that the day was going to be long and uninteresting. That was how he preferred it.


CORUSCANT SPACEPORT, 40 ABY
FOUR DAYS AFTER THE ATTACK ON TORYAZ STATION


Rixa was sitting in the cockpit of the battered X-Wing that his wife had flown during the Yuuzhan Vong war. The black and blue paint scheme was chipped and the Mythosaur on the nose of the craft was faded and burned by countless atmospheric re-entries over the last decade. He was proud of his piloting skills but he still didn't feel right sitting in the starfighter as he flipped the datachip between his thumb and index finger over and over while he contemplated yesterday's morning events.

The Galactic Alliance military was outsourcing it's wetwork because they were overstretched in dealing with Corellia but they had virtually no intelligence on the man, or woman, they wanted dead. Galactic Alliance Intelligence was very good at it's job and if they wanted to find out about someone then there was virtually no way to escape them. So the fact that he had been provided with only an alias and an unhelpful last known location, literally listed as: the Outer Rim, set off every alarm in Rixa's head.

He had forty-eight hours to come up with added information on his own before the Alliance took their potentially lucrative contract to the next bidder. So far he had used up twenty-one hours of his forty-eight hour time frame in his research of the potential target. He had exhausted every intelligence source he had at his disposal, countless smugglers, spice-runners and even other mercenaries had all come up with zero on the person known as Red-Fang. This was a first for him, never before had he ever come across someone he couldn't find any information on. He didn't even have a confirmed planet where he could start an old-fashion foot track for the target. It angered him and made him want to accept the contract, even with the limited information he had, just so he could prove to himself he could find someone who couldn't be found.

But that was reckless. You never took a job unless you knew everything about your target. Their habits, acquaintances, place of business, establishments the target frequented, whether or not they had military training and what kind of military training that was. All of that information went into the making of an assassination to make it successful and he had none of it.

He leaned his head back against the seat in the cramped cockpit and sighed in frustration. There was still one contact he could use to possibly find some information on Red-Fang, but he was resistant to the idea of calling the contact even though it might mean the difference between the people on his farm eating well for the next few months or not eating much at all. He scratched at his chin while he thought about what move to make. Ultimately the responsibility of providing for the inhabitants of the Numeck Homestead outweighed his own personal pride. He set the portable holo-communicator on top of the X-Wing's readout panel and linked his personal commlink with the device.

He tapped in a comm code and waited for the line to pick up. He didn't have to wait long. A few seconds later he was staring at the face of his wife. Her long dark hair was fixed in two tight braids that ran down the back of her head and she was sporting a rather nasty black-eye, but she smiled at him. Despite the bruise Rixa found himself beaming back at her, it had been a very long time since he had seen her face.

"Rix'ika!" she exclaimed. "Ni briikase bah susulur teh gar!" I'm happy to hear from you.

"Cyar'ika," He tapped his face just under his eye. "Tion'meg ti te net'ra sur'haai?" Sweetheart, what's with the black eye?

"Oh, just business with a local lowlife." Jaya Numeck's tone was dismissive. "Wer'cuy." Forget it.

Injuries happened in their line of work, especially black-eyes, but it bothered Rixa at a primal level that someone had hurt his wife. "Where's local?"

"Nar Shadda."

"Did you get even?"

"More than even," Jaya smiled broadly. "He had some debts to pay off with the Black Sun, sold them a batch of bad blaster rifles."

"I don't imagine that went over so well."

"No not really, I got five-thousand credits for apprehending him though."

"That'll tide us over for a few weeks." Rixa sighed heavily.

"You didn't call just to talk did you?" Jaya asked.

Rixa looked at the flickering blue image as he worked himself up for what he was about to do. "You still talk with your sister?"

"Yes." Jaya's tone was curious. "Not often but we keep in touch."

"I need her comm code."

"Why?"

"I need to get in touch with my brother."

"Are you in trouble?" Her voice went from being tinged with curiosity to being overcome with concern.

"No, not yet at least." Rixa laughed. "I just need some intel on a target. I can't find anything about him, or even if it is a him."

"What do you mean by nothing?"

"Nothing. Zip, zero, zilch. It's as if the target never existed."

"Who offered the job?"

"The Galactic Alliance."

"And they gave you nothing on the target?"

"Just an alias and the fact he or she was last seen in the Outer-Rim."

Jaya laughed incredulously "And you accepted the contract?"

"No, not yet. I asked for forty-eight hours to dig around a little, I've got twenty-seven hours left and haven't gotten any closer to figuring out who this Red-Fang is."

"You think Tyran will help you?"

"I can only ask and see what he says. The worst he can do is tell me he can't help."

"Alright, I'll transmit Aru's comm code to your datapad. I'm heading back to Mandalore tomorrow so don't take too long with your government contract."

"Well that depends on if I even accept it." Rixa said tiredly. "I'll be home as soon as I can."

"K'oyacyi." Come back safely. Jaya smiled at him once more and her image disappeared from the holo-projector.

Rixa removed the projector from on top of the readout panel and pocketed the device. He sighed again and rubbed his eyes which had become suddenly heavy. His datapad began beeping and he opened it to find the message from Jaya with her older sister's comm code. He activated the commlink again and entered the code into the device and found himself waiting for another voice he hadn't heard in nearly a decade to answer his call.


KDY OFFICE OF DOMESTIC SECURITY HEADQUARTERS, KUAT CITY, KUAT, 40 ABY
FOUR DAYS AFTER THE ATTACK ON TORYAZ STATION


Neada Tash had taken some time to get used to the amount of power her position as Director of Domestic Security for Kuat Drive Yards gave her. For the longest time she had been used to the simple existence of a being a soldier in the Hapan Military, having to work for everything she wanted. Now all she had to do was snap her fingers and her every need would be fulfilled. She didn't like how she was doted upon by the people who were deemed to be her lessers, she didn't view herself as above anyone else or below anyone else, she didn't like having things simply handed to her. If she hadn't earned it then she didn't want it. She had been the same way during her days as a Hapan Commando working her way up the ranks, and it might have contributed to her downfall and ultimate exile from Hapes.

Her hard work ethic and meteoric rise within the Hapan special forces had deemed her as a potential threat to a high ranking officer within the unit, and true to the Hapan norm a plot to have her removed was put in place. The regimental leader was found murdered in her bunk and evidence had been found linking Neada to the scene. All of it planted. Neada had used her training to escape the squad sent to arrest her and had managed to make it off world. Black listed by the Hapans, she had no where to go within the Consortium and quickly found herself working as a bounty hunter.

That was where she had met Truan Stav, a then hot-shot politician in the local Kuati Government. He took note of her abilities and did some digging and discovered the false murder charge levied against her by the Hapan Military. He knew it was false and offered Neada a job as the head of a new agency he was forming. She had asked for some time to think it over and he agreed to give her a few days to mull it over. Then the Yuuzhan Vong arrived in the Galaxy and ruined everything.

She had just managed to ride out the war, and also fall in love with a fellow bounty-hunter and mercenary along the way. But out of the two of them, only she survived the war and later found out she was pregnant. So with the conquering of Kuat by the Yuuzhan Vong, Neada had been left without a job, had become widowed and a single mother.

But once again fate intervened.

On one of the evacuation ships Neada encountered Truan Stav once again. He took her under his wing and became a fatherly figure to her. Once the Yuuzhan Vong war was over and the galaxy put itself back together Neada began working directly for Stav. With her help the savvy politician and former military man began to put together what would becoming the first incarnation of the Office of Domestic Security. Neada gave birth to a healthy baby girl named Vyndra and not soon after the first of a series of assassination attempts on Neada's life took place.

It was avoided and the would-be assassins all killed in the attempt. It was after the third attempt on her life occurred that Stav had decided that she would need some high-quality bodyguards to fight off the constant attempts by her former Hapan commanders to have her killed. The first few people Stav brought on as her bodyguards were good at their jobs when it came to keeping her safe but they weren't very professional in their off hours. Neada didn't want her and her daughter to be protected by unintelligent brutes. She wanted soldiers, men and women who were just as efficient at their jobs as she was as well as being able to hold a conversation with her.

The final three operatives Stav had settled upon had fit that description perfectly. Two of them were a husband/wife team and they even had a child a few months older than Vyndra, the third man was a friend of theirs who they had highly recommended. For nearly a decade Neada Tash had been under the safe umbrella of protection provided by Dyir Carud and Tyran Numeck while her daughter Vyndra and Tyran's son Ijaat were under the watchful eyes of Tyran's wife Aru Numeck.

Tyran and Dyir were both quick minded and had a finely tuned sense of self-preservation that had served Neada well over the last ten years. They operated with a level of expertise she admired and skill she was actually kind of envious of. Stav had insisted on having more than just a two man security detail, but after witnessing both men eliminate a six-man Hapan assassination team he had changed his tune.

All three of them were being paid handsomely for their services. They were making twenty-nine hundred credits a week when they had first started but with every assassination they thwarted they were paid an extra ten-hundred credits. So after warding of twelve or so attempts in the last decade they were close to netting two-hundred thousand credits a year. A nice hefty sum for people who weren't even in their forties yet.

Dyir was the youngest of the three at thirty years of age, Aru came in second at thirty-one years of age and Tyran rounded out the group at thirty-two. Neada often found herself wondering what kept them from retiring, especially Tyran and Aru since they had a ten-year old boy to look after. They certainly had enough money to fall back on with each of them pulling in two-hundred thousand credits a year. There was no doubt that Ijaat was going to be well cared for for the rest of his life.

She understood Dyir a little better though. He didn't have a family outside of the three Numecks, no wife or child of his own, not even a girlfriend that she was aware of. It seemed that all he really had was his work, it was something she shared with him outside of Vyndra. What she didn't understand about Dyir was why he didn't have a girlfriend or a wife yet. He was tall with close shaved blonde hair and vividly green eyes. His face was ringed with laugh lines despite his dangerous and unpredictable profession. He was a man who took a lot of pride in his physical appearance and always kept himself in the very best shape and he was always in a good mood.

Dyir Carud would have been a real prize on Hapes, a lot of people would have killed to have the opportunity to breed with him. Tyran however would have been the bigger prize. He was every bit as handsome as Dyir and took an even greater pride in his physical appearance, he spent as much time in the gym as he did protecting her. His dark hair and icy-blue eyes combined with a stare that was ten-percent analytical and eighty-percent intimidation that gave pause to the most dangerous of criminals. It was how he moved that really caught Neada's attention, the way he carried himself simply oozed authority. He had clearly taken to the power his position gave him a lot more easily than Neada had taken to hers.

He and Dyir both wore sharp black business suits that seemed to make them look even more threatening. Everyone knew who they were but no one knew their names, both men only answered to Neada but everyone else answered to them. It was an unspoken rule in the Office of Domestic Security headquarters: Those two men who escorted Director Tash were to be obeyed at all times, especially so in an emergency situation. She suspected that both Dyir and Tyran privately enjoyed their myth-like presence amongst the analysts and operatives who worked for her.

The Office of Domestic Security was simply an organization that worked to prevent anything from harming the KDY shipyards orbiting the planet. While the Galactic Alliance fleet prevented any external threats from getting to the Orbital Rings, Neada and her network of spies, analysts and highly trained Threat Reduction Units worked at a tireless pace to prevent any homegrown attacks.

Again Tyran, Dyir and Aru became indispensable assets in this regard. The former Mandalorian Supercommandos offered advice on how to plan certain raids and every now and then took part in training exercises with the TRU teams. Those were the men and women who seemed to have the respect of the three Mandalorians, Team-Sigma was at the top of that respect list though.

Team-Sigma was often the go to team that Tyran used when he felt more than just a two-man team was needed. It was comprised of six operators, two from the Kuati Commando Group and four more from the Galactic Marines. They were led by a lieutenant named Kovi Lasar, he had spent seven years as a member of the Coruscant Security Force and then had joined the Kuati Commando Group after relocating back to his homeworld after the Yuuzhan Vong war. Neada had a great trust for all of the TRU teams that she commanded, but she favored Sigma mostly because Tyran trusted them more than the other teams.

She continued down the hallway with Tyran moving in front of her, clearing the way with his intimidating size and gaze while Dyir followed closely behind her. He wasn't so close that he was stepping on her heels, but close enough that he could grab her and throw her out of harms way if he had to. Neada kept reading the reports piling in from Kuat's intelligence service regarding the incident on Toryaz Station. She felt a big wave of relief that she hadn't been assigned to provide security for that situation. Guarding shipyards from terrorists was one thing, but protecting a meeting between two heads of state who have no shortage of enemies was another beast entirely.

At first she had thought it had been one of the Moff Council trying to off Gilad Pellaeon, but none of the Moff's had the backbone, or the brains for that matter, to pull one over on the legendary Imperial Admiral. Then Thrackan Sal-Solo had emerged as the new Corellian Head of State after the previous head of state had been killed in the attack. She knew enough about Sal-Solo to know that he was brazen enough and resourceful enough to pull off that kind of operation. He was just as power hungry as any other politician she had ever met. Except Truan Stav. He had never had anything but the interests of Kuat in mind.

The three of them turned the corner and made it into her office. She took her seat behind her large desk, made from highly polished worshyr tree bark imported from Kashyyyk. Dyir sunk down into one of the large bantha leather chairs that littered the room while Tyran leaned against the wall at the back of the room.

"You do know you can relax right?" Dyir asked him. "We've made this room as secure as the one Cal Omas uses."

"There's relaxing and then there's getting complacent." Tyran said. "You know as well as I do that if someone wants to get in here bad enough then they'll find a way to do it."

"Well that's reassuring." Neada grinned up at her two bodyguards. "But I guess that's why we pay you to keep me reassured."

Dyir and Tyran laughed.

"We do our best ma'am."

"Tyran you know I don't like being called ma'am." Neada shook her head as she leaned back in her chair. "Call me Neada."

"I thought you wanted us to be professional?"

"There's being professional and then there is being an uptight and uninteresting slab of meat." Neada gestured at Dyir. "He's told me about a few of your more harrowing adventures together and I've seen you in action so I know you aren't even remotely uninteresting."

Tyran turned his head towards Dyir. "What did you tell her about?"

Dyir grinned broadly at his friend. "That time you fell into a Rancor pit."

"The time I fell into the Rancor pit!?" Tyran exclaimed. "You've taken one too many hits to the head if that's how you remember it."

"Clarify it for me then." Neada said leaning over her desk and meshing her hands together and resting her chin on them. "What really happened?"

"Fine." Tyran sat down opposite Dyir who suddenly looked liked he wasn't looking forward to the story Tyran was going tell. The buzzer on Neada's desk came to life and she held a finger up to Tyran. Dyir sighed slightly as he got a moment of respite from what she was sure was a humiliating story.

"Director Tash." She said.

"Ma'am, Spitfire is on her way up." the guard at the main entrance said.

"Thank you." Neada replied and turned to Tyran. "Your story is going to have to wait sadly." Spitfire was the codename the guards used for Vyndra while they were transporting her.

"No worries, if she's coming up here then there is a good chance my boy is as well." Tyran said as he leaned back in his chair. "You know I don't want Ijaat knowing about my past as a Mandalorian, it's something I've tried to put behind me."

"We've tried, you mean." Dyir said. "You aren't the only one who was fed up with that lifestyle."

Neada nodded her head. Tyran, Aru and Dyir had cut all ties to their roots on Mandalore to take the job as her bodyguards. Tyran had taken the opportunity to make sure his son could grow up without having to know what it was like to live the hard and brutal life of a mercenary. No Ijaat Numeck was going to grow up having the best education and never having known what it was like to have not eaten anything for a few weeks or to have to witness the atrocities of warfare. Neada imagined that the father would be worlds different than the son once Ijaat was grown.

Moments later the office doors split open and a small redheaded girl came rocketing into the room towards her mother. A slender but fierce looking woman with dark-brown hair that was pulled back into a tight tail entered behind her. The glare that Aru Numeck gave to her husband was cold enough to freeze a star. Dyir turned is head towards Tyran and gave him a what-did-you-do look and Tyran gave him a subtle shrug.

"Mother!" Vyndra Tash exclaimed as she raced into her mother's waiting arms. "I did well in my exam's today." She handed her mother a datapad with a scored report on it.

"Very good, maybe Aru will take you and Ijaat out later to get a few frozecones if you ask her." Neada said as she looked over the perfect score her daughter had been given.

"Can you take me?"

Neada looked away from her daughter for a brief second. As much as it pained her to admit it, Vyndra wasn't safe around her. The last thing Neada wanted was for her daughter to be collateral damage in an attempt on her life. That was why she spent the majority of her time with the Numecks. No, Vyndra spent every moment she wasn't in school with Aru and Ijaat. Still though a trip to get a few frozecones wouldn't take that long, there was a dispensary a few blocks up.

"Since you did so well, I guess I can take a few minutes to get my brilliant girl and her friend a frozecone."

Vyndra beamed up at her mother and the praise she had been given. Neada smiled back and understood why Tyran didn't want his child to grow up being a mercenary. She wouldn't have wanted Vyndra to join the Hapan Military.

The absence of his son did not go unnoticed by Tyran.

"Where's Ijaat?"

"Outside." Aru said. Her voice was as frosty as her gaze. "Chatting with Kovi Lasar, who by the way has taken far more interest in your son's studies than you have."

Neada stood up slowly as she watched Tyran's arms drop in what she had come to recognize as a combative stance. "Dyir, would you mind escorting me, Vyndra and Ijaat to the dispensary up the street."

Dyir looked up to Aru, he had learned that when she was around and he was given orders to do something with Ijaat that he had to get permission from her first. Aru nodded and Dyir nodded to Neada in return.

"Yeah we can go get the little runt's some frozecones." He smiled at his redheaded director. "Hey do I get one for being a good bodyguard."

"Maybe if you were a good bodyguard I'd get you one." Neada said smartly as she herded her daughter out the door. "You're adequate."

"Adequate my-" Dyir started but he caught Vyndra looking up at him. "-foot." he managed to mumble.

Neada shook her head and walked out the door. The moment they slid shut behind Dyir, Aru reeled on her husband.

"You're a real piece of work!" Her voice was so low it was practically a hiss. "You promised Ijaat you'd be there today."

"Be where?" Tyran said. He had no idea what Aru was talking about at first then it sunk in. Ijaat had been super excited that morning because he had made it to the finals of a big math competition. Tyran had promised him that he was going to be there. Just like he had done a thousand times before.

Aru sunk down into the chair that Dyir had vacated. "You did it again. You promised him something and failed to keep your word."

Tyran looked down at his feet and shook his head. "I'll make it up to him, I always do."

"This time is different," Aru said without looking at Tyran. "You made that promise to his face, not over a commlink from some secure facility while you were waiting for Neada to finish up some top-secret meeting. You looked your son in the eye and promised him you would be there and once again you never showed up." she looked up at Tyran with a pained expression. "You're just not a great father."

Tyran's head lifted a little and if her gaze before could have frozen a star, the heat from his gaze could have melted one. "What did you just say to me?"

"You heard me." Aru wasn't going to back down.

"I'm a good father."

"When was the last time you spent any time with him?" Aru snapped. "You spend as much time with him as Neada does with Vyndra, I'm amazed you even know his name."

"If it wasn't for me Ijaat wouldn't have any of the things he has now." Tyran growled back. "If I hadn't moved us away from Mandalore, Ijaat wouldn't be a well fed, well groomed, hyper-intelligent boy like he is now."

"At least he would have had an attentive father."

"I'd be gone all the time doing bounties and mercenary work to put food on the table, at least here he does get to see me."

"He only see's you at the breakfast table in the morning for fifteen minutes."

"Fifteen minutes is better than nothing!" Tyran yelled.

They both stared at each other for minutes that seemed like an eternity. Aru's eyes had become venomous with rage and Tyran could feel his heart hammering in his throat. Aru stood up slowly.

"Tyran if you don't shape up and start spending more time with your family then I'm...I'm" She was fighting to keep her voice level and the strain was evident. "I'm going back to Mandalore and I'm bringing Ijaat with me."

Tyran blinked a few times. He had to replay what she had just said to him a few times before the meaning had fully sunk in.

"If you want to leave, then you go ahead and leave. Ijaat stays here and that's not negotiable."

"He deserves better." Aru said as she began to lose the battle with her voice. "So either you start doing better or I take him to Mandalore and find someone who can do better." She reached down onto her belt and detached her datapad and tossed it to him. "I got a call that was meant for you today. I think you should call back."

Tyran caught her datapad as she stood up and turned to leave. He watched her leave the room and sunk down onto a bantha hide sofa against the far wall of the room as he looked at the comm code for the person who had called Aru. He didn't recognize it, but that wasn't so odd a lot of people in his profession used throwaway comm codes all the time.

Deciding that he needed to get his mind off of the argument he called the unknown code and waited for the call to pick up. It was almost instant.

"Tyran?"

Tyran shut his eyes and felt his blood run cold. The last thing he wanted to hear at the moment was the sound of his younger brother's voice.

"Let me make this very simple for you Rixa." Tyran said tiredly. "I've had a long day so if this is a call asking me to help dig you out of some situation you've gotten yourself into, I'm telling you right now that you can shove it."

There was a pause, not a long one though. "That's the kind of greeting I expected actually, but no I don't need you to come down from your mighty thrown and save my lowly backside for the thousandth time your majesty, but I do need your help with some intel."

Tyran grunted as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "You're a smart cookie I'm sure if you use your considerable contacts in the underworld you can find what you're looking for without me."

"That's the thing, my sources don't have anything on the target."

"You took a job without knowing anything about the target?"

"Not yet, if you turn me down then I'll have to turn the contract down because I can't come up with anything. No name, no location, not even species or gender."

"What do you have?"

"Just an alias. Red-Fang."

"What do you want from me?"

"Anything you can find out at all, get me somewhere to start a foot track from and I can do the rest."

Tyran sighed "Fine. I'll dig around, but this is it, nothing else after this."

"Thank you. One more thing, I need the intel in less than twenty hours."

"No promises." Tyran said. "I'll be in touch."

He ended the call and shut off the datapad.

Tyran spent the next five minutes sitting in silence before Dyir returned with Neada. Dyir tossed something to Tyran.

"Here got you a fizzade." Dyir said. Tyran caught it without looking and undid the cap and took a sip.

"Where are Ijaat and Vyndra?"

"Dropped them off at your place, Aru called me and said she was already there."

The complex where Tyran and Aru lived was a few minutes walk from the ODS headquarters building. Tyran nodded but kept his eyes on the expensive carpet.

"I've seen that look before, what are you thinking about?"

"I just had a conversation with Rixa." Tyran said with his gaze fixed on a spot on the ground as he tried to avoid what he was really thinking about.

"Really?" Dyir said.

Tyran nodded. "He's researching a potential contract on a target, but all he has is an alias to go on. You ever heard of someone by the name of Red-Fang?"

"Can't say that I have." Dyir took on a thoughtful expression as he pondered the name.

"Who's Rixa?" Neada asked as she drank her own fizzade from behind her desk.

"My brother." Tyran said sourly. "What about you Neada, ever heard of Red-Fang?"

She shook her head. "No I haven't."

"Could you look into it for me? His contacts came up empty and he asked me to dig around." Tyran asked.

"Are you finally calling in a favor?" She asked him.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Ok then I'll get our analysts to search through the files and gather anything and everything referring to Red-Fang."

"I need it in twenty hours or less."

Neada stared at him. "That's gonna cost you two favors."

 

A Zabrak, nerf steak and a genius plot, I am in.

* glad that I was able to read that before going on a mini-holiday

 

Was it the nerf steak or the plot that got you?

 

Getting there, long chapter Really like the clandestine operations and the build to Red Fang's revenge

 

Yeah this chapter is about 20 pages long which is 5 over my normal posting length I thought about shortening it up a little but I think the extra five was worth it.

 

CHAPTER TWO:


KUAT CITY, KUAT, HOME OF TYRAN AND ARU NUMECK, 40 ABY
FOUR DAYS AFTER THE ATTACK ON TORYAZ STATION


Aru sighed as she pulled the two merlie steaks out of the gasser and placed them on two plate that had large heaps of mashed topatos that were covered in an imported Hapan gravy. For a woman who was wanted by the Hapans, Neada Tash sure could get her hands on a lot of Hapan goods. Aru walked over to the conservator and grabbed the container of blue-milk and poured some into a glass and added a decent squirt of chocolate syrup, that was also imported from Hapes. She gave it a quick stir for a few seconds and then brought the glass of milk and one of the plates of food to the large imported worshyr wood table that dominated the central room of the large apartment.

At one end of the table was the redheaded daughter of Neada Tash. Little Vyndra was being harassed by the one threat that Aru couldn't protect her from: the floating orb that was her home tutor. The TD-5 Tutor Droid floated overhead as Vyndra looked down at a sheet of flimsi with hand drawn math equations for her to solve. Aru smiled slightly as she walked behind Vyndra and the droid and placed the food and the milk in front of the girl.

"Tee-Dee it's the weekend and Mrs. Kioda didn't set any homework for the class to do. So why do I have to do these math problems?"

"Why to keep your mind sharp." The droid said as if it was an obvious answer. "The less you do these problems, the easier it becomes to forget how to solve them."

"I spent all day doing exams like this and I don't want to do anymore."

"Breaks are not part of your planned study regime I'm afraid." Tee-Dee carried on. "Only once you have finished the sheet in front of you can you rest for one standard hour before moving on to the next set."

Vyndra looked to Aru and gave her an expression that was just on the verge of hopeless despair and it made the older woman laugh. Aru grabbed the circular droid out from the air with her hand and hit it's manual standby switch. The droids protests were silenced with an electronic snap. Vyndra smiled up at her bodyguard and grabbed the fork that she was then handed and began digging into the mountain of mashed topatos. Her eyes shut as she embraced the velvety texture of the Hapan gravy and began thinking of the world she should have been growing up on.

"Have you ever been to Hapes?" Vyndra asked around a mouth full of mashed topato.

Aru shook her head. "I've been to a lot of worlds in my time, but never to Hapes." She walked back to the kitchen and grabbed the second plate of food. "Eat all of that or I will turn Tee-Dee back on."

Vyndra resumed eating at a steady pace while her bodyguard walked down the hall to one of the small bedrooms that littered the apartment. She knocked several times before walking into the dark room. On the bed there was a crude tent made out of bedsheets and blankets, a soft dim light was emitting from the center of it. Aru waited for a moment feeling sad for her son as she flipped on the switch to the illumination panels in the ceiling. There was no sign in the tent that Ijaat knew she was there, but that was the point her son was trying to make. He wanted to be left alone.

"Ijaat, I brought you your dinner." She said trying to sound friendly hoping it would draw her son out from the shelter he had retreated into hours ago after coming home. "It's your favorite: merlie steak with mashed topatos."

"I don't want it." Ijaat said glumly from the confines of his homemade structure. "Please go away."

Aru felt her heart shatter at the pain in her son's voice. She wanted to climb into the tent and just talk with him but she couldn't see an opening into the makeshift shelter and decided against it. She feared that if she ruined the tent that it would make her son all the more angry.

"It'll be in the nanowave if you decide to change your mind." She said sadly as she hit the illumination panel switch again plunging her son back into the darkness he desired.

He gave no sign of acknowledgment as she left the room and returned to the dining room. Vyndra gave her a sad look as Aru walked by her with the full plate of food still in her hands. All Aru could do was shrug at the small girl as she headed into the kitchen and placed the food in the nanowave as promised. She couldn't be angry at her son for not wanting to eat anything, all the blame could be placed on Tyran's shoulders for that. Her husband could actually be blamed for a lot.

With each passing day her plan of taking her son back to Mandalore seemed like it was becoming her best option, it was actually the only way she could show Tyran just how detached he had become from his family. If that failed to change him then she would have no problem following through on her promise to find someone who would not only meet Ijaat's needs but hers as well. Aru didn't want to have to fulfill that promise but if Tyran kept going the way he was going then she would without looking back and he would only be able to blame himself.

Aru walked over to the caf dispenser and poured herself a large cup without adding anything to it and sat down next to Vyndra. The little girl had devoured most of the steak and topatos on her plate and was now pushing a lone piece of gristle around with her fork. The backs of her feet were making soft thumping noise as they smacked against the legs of the chair she was sitting in.

"Is Ijaat going to be alright?" She asked quietly as she played with the gristle on her plate.

Aru sighed heavily as she thought about her answer. "Yes Ijaat is going to be fine." Aru found the little girl's worry for Ijaat heartwarming. "Finish your milk and then it's time for you to take a sanisteam and then go to bed."

Vyndra looked at Aru. "Do I have to go to bed right away?"

Aru let out a tired laugh. "It is the weekend so I don't suppose and extra hour or two wont hurt anything."

Vyndra smiled and got from her chair and gave Aru and hug before heading for the sanisteam. Aru used the next twenty minutes to just sit and relax as she sipped at her unsweetened caf. The sadness she felt for her son only grew as she realized that Vyndra was his only real friend. She strongly suspected that as they both grew older that their friendship would blossom into something else. That was the only thing that Aru found herself agreeing with Neada Tash on. A bitterness tinged with some jealousy had developed inside Aru when it came to her husband's employer.

She was a Hapan and it was no secret how Hapan women viewed men as nothing more than breeding stock and status markers. Aru understood the threat that the woman was under and that she needed a good security detail, but she was keeping both Tyran and Dyir in the office for much longer than she really needed to. Maybe it was just paranoia on her part mixed with the increasing anger she felt towards Tyran and his continued absence in Ijaat's childhood. Deep down inside she knew that Tyran wouldn't ever have an affair, but she couldn't stop thinking that maybe some part of her secretly wanted him to so she could have all the more reason to leave Kuat and head back to Mandalore with her son.

Vyndra reappeared wearing her night clothes, her hair was still damp and clinging to her neck and face. She had a small brush in her hands and gave it to Aru. The two of them sat down on the couch and Aru began the process of brushing the small girl's hair. Aru felt a sudden pang of sorrow for Vyndra. She was just as detached from her mother as Ijaat was from Tyran. Aru hadn't known she was going to inherit Neada's motherly duties when she had agreed to protect Vyndra. If she had to follow through on her threat it would also mean abandoning the girl and virtually robbing her of the closest thing she had to a mother.

But when it came down to it Vyndra wasn't her daughter and she had to do what was right for Ijaat and if that meant leaving Kuat then that was what she was going to do. She finished brushing Vyndra's hair and the small girl curled up next to to her on the couch.

"Can we watch a holovid?" She asked Aru.

Aru shrugged. "I guess so, want to watch anything in particular?"

Aru grabbed the controller and activated the vidscreen and brought up a menu of stored holovids on the home recorder box. She handed the controller to Vyndra to let her pick something on the list. It didn't surprise her when the girl picked a documentary, it suited her curious nature, the content the documentary covered did however. The documentary was: Contested – Gyndine and the Yuuzhan Vong Invasion. Sadly she had some not so fond memories of that planet. Aru remembered flying over the surface in her Gladiator starfighter, before she had been issued a top of the line XJ3 by the Alliance later on in the war.

It had been converted and bombed beyond recognition during the repeated attempts by the Galactic Alliance to retake the world, and the final battle between the Mandalorian Supercommandos, commanded by Boba Fett and the Yuuzhan Vong warriors of Domain Rurjak. Unfortunately it was something that was now being covered in Vyndra and Ijaat's school lessons.

"Can we watch this?"

"Do you really want to?" Aru asked.

"Yes, it will give me an edge when we go back to class."

"How come you didn't want to do your math work for class but you want to watch this?"

"Well I already know my math," Vyndra said with a shrug. "I don't know much about this other than what we've covered."

Aru relented. "Okay we can watch it, but don't come running into my room tonight if you have a nightmare."

"I won't have any nightmares, it's only a holovid. How scary can it be?"

Aru thought back on the images and aftermath of battlefields she had been on after fighting the Yuuzhan Vong. She hadn't faced the warrior-caste in close-quarters-combat, but rather fought them from the cockpit of her starfighter. She'd heard the stories of their brutality though and had seen the savagery they could inflict secondhand via after action reports and HUD recordings.

"Scarier than you might think."

**************

Tyran couldn't put it off any further and he knew it, if he stayed at the office any longer then it would only make things worse for him when he finally did go home. Neada had left hours ago with Dyir which had left him to deal with the problems presented to him in peace. He didn't pay his younger brother any mind at all and didn't really care if Neada and her analysts found the information he needed on Red-Fang. The problems Rixa and the others in the Numeck Homestead were having were not his concern at the moment. Tyran's only concern was his wife leaving and threatening to take Ijaat with her to Mandalore.

If that happened then everything he had done in the last decade meant nothing. He had worked himself to the bone to create a life that neither he or Aru had ever dreamed possible as teenagers, and now he couldn't figure out why it was all coming undone around him. It wasn't his fault that protecting Neada was a full time job and required him to spend the majority of his time with her. It had to be because Neada was a Hapan, and a particularly beautiful one at that, that Aru had become suspicious of his employer. The long hours and many distant trips they took together didn't help to assuage her concerns.

That couldn't be helped though, Aru just had to trust him to be faithful, and he had been. As far as things went with Ijaat, Aru had him cornered. He knew he could have made better efforts to partake in his son's education. It wasn't like Neada would have told him he couldn't take an hour or two off so he could go watch his son win an award. But Aru had gone too far when she had called him a bad father, unattentive would have been the more accurate word. Aru had thrown down the gauntlet and he had to come up with appropriate response. What exactly his response was going to be he had yet to figure out.

The one thing he knew for certain was that Ijaat was never going to set foot on Mandalore.

He took a deep breath and exited Neada's office and proceeded to exit the building only stopping when he had to wait for the night guard to unlock the doors to the building to allow him to leave. He stopped at a street vendor and bought a bottle of fizzade and a chocolate candy bar that he knew Ijaat was fond of. This wasn't the first time he'd had to apologize to his son for missing something important and he'd learned that sugary products tended to help.

The walk back to his home was far too quick and he found himself standing outside his apartment door hesitating to hit the palm switch. He shut his eyes and took in a steadying breath and braced himself for the big night of arguing he had ahead of him. He pressed his hand against the switch and the door parted with a soft woosh. Tyran stepped into the room and turned his head towards the vidscreen and the sound coming from the speakers. He was taken aback by the stock footage of Yuuzhan Vong hordes swarming over the rolling hills of a battlefield he recognized all too well. Two heads looked up at him from over the back of the couch, both of them were glaring at him and he scowled in return.

"Don't give me that look Vyndra." He said tiredly. "At least wait until your a teenager before giving me looks like that."

Vyndra's glare didn't falter as he walked further into the room. Aru wrapped her arm around the small girl in a clear show of a united front.

"Glad you could take time from your schedule to come home." Aru said coldly.

"I almost didn't." Tyran shot back with his voice just as frosty. "Where is Ijaat?"

"Where do you think? He wont come out and he wont eat anything."

Tyran walked over to the kitchen and opened the nanowave, Ijaat's plate was sitting in it untouched, Tyran closed the nanowave and hit the reheat button on the interface. The machine hummed into life and Tyran realized just how many times he had done this before. He had his son's favorite candy bar and fizzade tucked away in his back pocket, he knew just how long to reheat his son's dinner because it was all heavily practiced routine.

Aru walked around the corner not looking any happier. She crossed her arms and leaned against the counter. Tyran made an obvious effort to not make eye contact with her.

"How many times are you going to put him through this?" She asked as she tried to counter her husband's attempts at evasiveness. "How many times am I going to have to watch Ijaat fall to pieces, pull himself together and get shattered all over again?"

Tyran didn't respond as the nanowave buzzed and he pulled the plate of food out and turned away from her as he exited the kitchen. Aru followed him and grabbed onto his bicep. Tyran stopped and looked down at her hand and back up at her. "I don't have anything to say to you and you've said more than enough so let go of my arm."

Aru glared at him but released his arm and Tyran walked down the hallway to his son's room. He didn't bother knocking and just entered the dark room. He activated the illumination panel switch and moved up to the makeshift tent. Unlike Aru, Tyran knew how to enter the surprisingly sturdy, yet simple structure. It was nothing more than a bed sheet tied to the top of the four bedposts of his son's bed with blankets draped over the sides in an apparently disorganized fashion. He walked over to the left side of the bed and simply lifted the sheet to reveal the dark interior. He placed the plate of food on the bed.

"Eat." He said patiently. "You know your mother doesn't like to cook so you should take advantage of it when she does."

A small hand appeared from the darkness and pulled inside. "How come you didn't show up this time?" A soft voice echoed out.

Tyran sat down on the floor next to the bed and inhaled deeply. "After the attack on Toryaz Station, security was beefed up for every Government official, not just Neada. I know that competition was important to you but-"

"-But you have a job to do." Ijaat finished for his father. "I've heard it before dad."

Tyran nodded his head. "I guess this isn't the first time we've had this conversation." Tyran just happened to glance up at that moment and his eyes fell on the collection of trophies and ribbons his son had collected. His guilt rose as he realized that he hadn't been there to see Ijaat win any of them. "I'm sorry."

There was a few minutes where the gentle scraping of Ijaat's fork on his plate was the only sound that filled the room. "Mom has been talking about going to someplace called Mandalore." Ijaat said around a full mouth. "I looked it up and I can't understand why she would want to go there."

"She told you that?" Tyran said trying to keep his voice even. He was furious that his wife would go and reveal things he had spent so long trying to hide from Ijaat. He couldn't help but feel that everything was going to come unraveled in the next few moments.

"No, I was listening to a conversation she was having with another bodyguard at school." Ijaat said. "Why does she want to go to Mandalore?"

A direct question that had a direct answer Tyran didn't want to give and he scratched at the side of his head as he carefully thought about how to phrase his answer. Oddly enough he decided to go with the truth, just a different kind of truth.

"She has some friends there. Your mother doesn't think I'm doing a very good job as a father and she told me she's going to leave and take you there with her to find someone who can do better."

There was silence from the tent for a few seconds and the fork scraped against the plate again.

"That's not such a bad idea." Ijaat said slowly. "You really haven't been home much and when you are you don't really talk to us."

Tyran stared into the dark entryway of the tent not believing what he was hearing.

"You want a new father?" He asked.

Ijaat's hesitation to answer actually answered for him.

"Sometimes I do." He whispered.

Tyran felt his fingers clench into fists and something painful rose up from his chest and into his throat. He bit down on the inside of his cheek and placed the fizzade and candy bar gently on the bed.

"I hope you realize that everything I do is done so you don't have to become what I became." Tyran stood up and turned for the door. "I'm sorry you and your mother can't appreciate that."

He walked out of the bedroom and headed straight for the door to the apartment. Aru crossed the living room in a second grabbing his arm before he could hit the palm switch.

"Where are you going now?!"

Tyran turned and faced her. "I don't know and wouldn't tell you even if I did."

Aru was taken aback by the pain she saw in Tyran's eyes. The last time she had seen him look like that was when he had learned his father had died fighting off the Yuuzhan Vong on Mandalore.

"What's going on?" She asked.

"Congratulations," Tyran said his voice sounded truly defeated. "You got what you wanted. Our son thinks I am just as bad at being a father as you do. If the two of you want to go to Mandalore, I wont stop you."

He hit the palm switch and disappeared out the door before Aru could say anything. Aru stood in front of the polished worshyr wood table that dominated the center of the apartment and found herself not knowing what to do. A part of her wanted to go and chase after Tyran and just talk with him and the other part felt content to let him sit and fester. He had done this to himself after all. She decided against following Tyran because he would come back in an hour or two, he always did, and she headed down the hallway to check on her real priority.


CORUSCANT, GALACTIC CITY, SPACEPORT, 40 ABY, EIGHT HOURS TO RED-FANG DEADLINE
FIVE DAYS AFTER THE ATTACK ON TORYAZ STATION


Rixa yawned as he stretched in the cramped confines of his wife's old XJ3 series X-Wing. He decided he wasn't going to spend credits on a room at one of the many hotels that littered the skylanes near the spaceport. He still felt that at twenty-nine years of age that his body was still young enough to deal with the aches and pains that would come from sleeping in an enclosed space such as he was. Rixa also decided that he wasn't going to submit to gender bias next time and give his wife the much more roomy and comfortable Aggressor starfighter that they also owned. He checked his datapad for any calls he may have gotten while he was sleeping and found nothing.

He checked the chrono on his wrist and sighed. He only had eight hours before he had to call Vitrix back and give him a decision about taking the Red-Fang job. If Tyran didn't call him back with the intel he needed, Rixa was contemplating taking the job anyway and just waiting for Tyran to deliver the intelligence whenever he got it. The only drawback to that plan was he didn't even know if Tyran had taken his request seriously and followed through on it or had simply said he would dig around just to end the conversation quicker. Either way time was running out and a decision needed to be made and he needed to make it soon.

He activated the holo-communicator and tapped in Jaya's comm code and waited for her to answer. Maybe he could give her some good advice on how to deal with the situation. Though he suspected she would just tell him to come home and be done with it. It took longer than usual for her to answer his call but then he realized what time it was on Mandalore, she would have been sleeping. Jaya appeared on the holodisplay before him, her hair was no longer tightly braided to her head but actually just tied back. She certainly appeared to have been roused from her sleep.

"Did I wake you?" He asked.

"No, the twins did." Jaya yawned.

Rixa laughed. The twin children of Ryia Devieyc and his wife Lin were the household alarm clocks and usually kept a pretty standard cycle when it came to crying. "Well at least they are consistent."

Jaya smiled tiredly. "How goes your hunt for the mysterious Red-Fang?"

"Still haven't started it yet." Rixa admitted. "I'm waiting on Tyran to get me that information, but I've only got eight hours left before I have to call the contact and give him my decision."

"What are you going to do if Tyran doesn't call you before the deadline is up?"

"Well..." Rixa sighed. "I might just accept the mission and give it my best shot until Tyran does call me with the information."

"If he calls you with the information," Jaya said. "He may have just said to hell with it and left you in a bind."

"He very well might have but I have to do something. The Homestead doesn't take care of itself unfortunately."

"I think you should just tell your contact you can't do it and come home, we've got enough credits to last through the summer."

"What about the winter Jaya?" Rixa said. "This contract could lead to a lot more contracts with the Galactic Alliance, lucrative contracts that we can't pass up just because we can't locate the target right away."

"I can't argue with that." Jaya conceded. "If you need help please make sure to call Me, Ryia or one of the others."

"Don't I always call for help at some point?" Rixa grinned at the holographic image of his wife.

"Yeah but just make sure you don't get into the kind of trouble that only your brother can get you out...because you might not be able to get out of it."

"I know that if I really needed him that Tyran would do the right thing."

"The right thing for him or the right thing for the family?" Jaya said. "Think about the next time you call him for help."

"Yeah I promise to keep that in mind." Rixa said. "I'll be home soon, with or without a contract."

"I'll be counting the seconds." Jaya smiled and her image faded from the screen.

Rixa exhaled and powered down the holo-communicator and leaned his head against the head rest of his seat. He realized now how hard it had been for Tyran to try and provide for the residents of Homestead for as long as he had. Rixa suddenly understood why Tyran had left in the manner that he had and instantly felt bad for all the cruel things he had secretly called his older brother over the years. Rixa just hadn't understood the pressures his brother had been under. Still though Tyran had managed to do a better job at providing for the family then Rixa was doing. It proved how much reputation meant in their line of work.

How was Rixa supposed to compete with a man who was known for bringing down an entire Yuuzhan Vong warrior-caste damutek down onto not only himself, but the yammosk coordinator that lived in the warrens directly below the damutek, and lived to tell about it. Tyran had a reputation and a long list of accomplishments that made him seem invincible. Rixa on the other hand had quite the opposite reputation, despite his skill level he was known for getting himself into tight spots he couldn't get out of and often being able to not deliver on a contract.

That was the old Rixa though, one still recovering from the mental damage caused by the Yuuzhan Vong Breaking. There weren't many people who could say they had survived one of those. He was older now and much wiser, at least he thought he was, and he was slowly eroding away his less than stellar reputation. It just didn't seem like enough though. The frustration of it kept him up some nights.

His commlink began to chirp and he instantly snatched it into his hand and answered the call.

"Yeah?"

"Rixa?"

His eyes narrowed. He knew that voice and could tell that something wasn't right. "Aru? Whats wrong?" He sat up straighter in his seat.

"Are you still on Coruscant?" Aru asked.

"Yes but I don't know what that has to do with anything." Rixa said.

"I need you to come to Kuat, I've got a problem."

Well this was a first. "What kind of problem?"

"Me and Tyran had an argument yesterday and it went on into the night. Tyran left the apartment and he didn't come back."

"He's probably working." Rixa said.

"No he isn't." Aru said. "His boss hasn't seen him at all, which is highly unusual, and the Tal'galaar is still in it's berth, and before you say anything I already know he isn't on the ship. I checked. He hasn't been to any of the cantinas or tapcafs, he hasn't gone to the orbital rings, or offworld at all. I'm getting worried."

"So go look for him." Rixa said as he felt his hopes of getting his intel on time plummet. "I can't help you."

"I can't. I don't have anyone to watch the kids while I go play bounty-hunter. If I have to pay you we can talk price."

The offer was tempting. Did she say kids? That was plural, had she and Tyran had another child? Rixa sighed. "I'm not going to take your money, and Creation knows I could use it. I'll be in-system in three hours."

"I'll make sure you get through the picket-ships without a hassle."

"That would be much appreciated."

"Oh don't wear your armor, I don't need Ijaat seeing a fully armored Mando sitting in our living room, at least not yet."

"Yeah, yeah I'll keep Tyran's dirty little secret a secret." Rixa said a bit agitatedly as he began warming up the drives. His wife's R2 unit had already programmed the navicomputer for the hyperspace jump to Kuat. "See you in a few hours."

The call ended on the opposite end and Rixa scratched at his beard. Tyran was missing, probably on a bender somewhere in the bowels of Kuat City. It didn't bode well for Red-Fang at all.

"Rusty patch me through to Colonel Vitrix." The rust colored droid bleeped and twittled and soon Rixa's holo-communicator was up and running again with a new holoimage.

"May I ask how you got this number? It is my private line." Vitrix asked coolly.

"I'm resourceful." But not resourceful enough. He didn't add. "I'll take the job Colonel."

"Splendid. Now should we talk price?"

"We can do that in person, same meeting place as last time. I have some pressing business to attend to elsewhere I'm afraid so is two days from now okay with you?"

"Is this business unavoidable?"

"Sorry to say that it is."

"Then I see little point in arguing the matter. Two days from now, Skyview Terrace, fourteen-thirty hours galactic standard."

"Agreed." Rixa said.

"See you then."

The holoimage faded away and Rixa brought his X-Wing up out of the berth and pointed it on the course his droid had programmed. "You know what Rusty, you take control of the ship for a while, I've got some thinking to do."

The droid tweetled a confirmation and a few seconds later Rixa and his craft were soaring up into Coruscant's upper atmosphere.


KAYTA SYSTEM, KAYTARES VII, GALACTIC ALLIANCE SECURE FACILITY [UNDER CONSTRUCTION], 40 ABY
FIVE DAYS AFTER THE ATTACK ON TORYAZ STATION


Iman Vitrix stared at the small communicator in his hand. How that low rent mercenary Rixa Numeck had managed to get his grubby hands on the comm code to his personal line was beyond the Zabrak. Fear that he may have underestimated Rixa Numeck warmed his blood and fought off the cold that seeped into every hallway of the makeshift camp he was visiting while an army of construction droids built his newest acquisition. The Kaytares Black-Site was the gem he had been looking for since Red-Fang had fallen apart. It was here he could place all his enemies and political rivals, after having some thoroughly prepared and completely false evidence that condemned them as traitors to the Galactic Alliance planted here and there. He could then use them as his lab rats for some of his more aggressive plans.

This complex was completely off the grid, a total of nine government officials knew it existed, six of them had been suddenly killed after disagreeing with him on the new purpose of the facility. Now the facility was his own to do with as he pleased. Sadly it once again paired him with Odas Zistra, for all the Gran's faults his one saving grace was that he could keep a secret, with his help Vitrix had neatly erased this prison from the grid. Mostly, some of the remaining military members of what was now called the K-Group still wanted to have suspected Corellian sympathizers brought here for interrogation away from the prying eyes of oversight committees and the Jedi who hampered them getting results, causing more threats to arise before they could be quelled.

Vitrix was a patriot and had no qualms about this, as long as he got to have his way and run his schemes without any interference then he would let his fellow military brethren conduct their alternative interrogation techniques unhindered by the laws passed by Omas and the Senate.

Still he couldn't shake his worry about Rixa Numeck. If the bounty-hunter could get his personal line, he wondered what else he might have gotten access to. He made a judgment call and activated his throwaway commlink. The person on the other end took two seconds to pick up.

"What?" a gruff voice echoed.

Vitrix smiled. "I am Colonel Iman Vitrix of the Galactic Alliance Special Deployment Group. I hear you specialize in killing Numecks?"

 

"Tee-Dee it's the weekend and Mrs. Kioda didn't set any homework for the class to do. So why do I have to do these math problems?"

"Why to keep your mind sharp." The droid said as if it was an obvious answer. "The less you do these problems, the easier it becomes to forget how to solve them."

"I spent all day doing exams like this and I don't want to do anymore."

These problems sound familiar from a time long, long ago...

Anyway, exciting update!

 

CHAPTER THREE


KUAT SYSTEM, GALACTIC ALLIANCE FLOTILLA, 40 ABY, FIVE DAYS AFTER THE ATTACK ON TORYAZ STATIONARY


Rixa clenched his jaw as his X-Wing came out of hyperspace a few hundred meters from the hull of an Imperial-II-class Star Destroyer. It had been several hours since he had talked with Aru and he hoped she had managed to get him a pass through the security flotilla. He couldn't help but notice all the turbolaser batteries bristling along the triangular hull of the ship.

"Unidentified X-Wing this space is a secure military zone, state your name and purpose for entering the system." A voice thick with a Coruscanti accent said over the commlink.

Still a bit paranoid after the incident on Toryaz I take it, eh boys? He thought. "Rixa Numeck, I am here to meet with my sister-in-law, Aru Numeck. She should have secured authorization for me to pass through the flotilla."

"One moment." The voice said.

Rixa tightened his grip on the flight controls of his X-Wing as he waited for the controller to clear him. Security had sure been increased after the incident on Toryaz Station a few days earlier. He just hoped that he didn't wind up jinking and juking around a flight of GA starfighters as he was chased out of the system. Rixa couldn't stop but think that maybe this was some kind of elaborate trap laid out by Tyran to get the message across that he didn't want anything to do with Rixa or the family on Mandalore. He squashed the thought, Tyran did his intimidating in person not through the massive impressiveness of a fleet of Star Destroyers.

In all honesty Rixa was more afraid of Tyran than he was of an entire Galactic Alliance battelgroup.

"Rixa Numeck, you are cleared for landing." The voice said. "Proceed on your current course. Any deviation will be treated as hostile and dealt with accordingly."

"Roger that." Rixa said as he increased his throttle slightly. Some relief flooded through him as his ship passed over the hull of the Star Destroyer.

He took his X-wing down the designated flightpath and dropped into Kuat's atmosphere. His wife's R2 droid did the communicating with the tower controller as he neared the spaceport without any further incident with the military. Rixa considered contacting Aru to let her know he was in the system but figured she probably already knew. No calls had been stored on his commlink while he had been traveling through hyperspace, so he was sure that nothing had changed concerning the situation his older brother was in. Aru would have called him if there had been some kind of development.

Rixa set the X-Wing down in the designated berth and grabbed an equipment bag from the storage space behind the seat. Aru didn't want him showing up in full Mando gear, that was fine with him he'd do as she wished. He was fully aware of the careful story that Tyran and Aru had concocted to shield their son from the fact he was a Mandalorian. A hangar assistant appeared with a rolling ladder and attached it to the side of the X-Wing as Rixa opened the cockpit. He climbed down the ladder and was met by an older man in an expensive navy-blue tunic holding a datapad.

"How long will you be staying?"

"No more than two days." Rixa said.

"Your docking fee is two-hundred and fifty credits. You will be charged another hundred for every day afterward."

Rixa didn't bother arguing with man and gave him the required credits and walked over to the public 'freshers and climbed out of his armor and flightsuit. His father had given both him and Tyran a piece of advice that both of them had heeded in their careers.

"Make sure you're always wearing pants under your flightsuit, you don't ever want to have to make a quick escape in your underwear." Ruima Numeck had told his sons.

There must have been an entertaining story behind that little gem of advice but Rixa had never bothered to ask. He suddenly wondered if Tyran ever had and decided to ask him about it. Rixa tucked his black flightsuit and armor pieces away into the equipment bag and returned to his X-Wing and shoved the bag behind the seat before climbing back down and activating the security system on the ship. If anyone touched it before he disarmed the system they would receive a near lethal electric shock to their nervous system. His wife's rusty colored R2 unit rolled up beside him and tweedled.

"No I don't have any clue where Tyran is Domehead." Rixa said patting the droid affectionately on it's aforementioned dome shaped cranium as it rolled along beside him. "Hopefully Aru can give me something to go on, the last thing I need is to be working two jobs that have me looking for someone who doesn't want to be found." There was no question that if Tyran was actively avoiding being located no one was going to be able to find him.

The droid tweedled and they both made their way out of the hangar berth and out into the busy streets of Kuat City. There were speederlanes and skylanes just like on Coruscant, just not on the same scale. He flagged down a taxi and secured his R2 unit in the luggage compartment and gave the driver the location he needed to get to. Through some research he had done years ago, in one of those I-wonder-what-they're-up-to moments, Rixa knew where his brother and sister-in-law lived and that they worked for a government organization called the Office of Domestic Security. A little further digging had revealed that they worked directly for a woman named Neada Tash.

He knew where she lived as well and found himself amazed that his sources could get intelligence on highly classified government files but nothing on a simple terrorist named Red-Fang. Maybe Red-Fang wasn't the simple terrorist that Rixa had been lead to believe. The taxi dropped him and his droid off at their destination, a block from the main building of the ODS. He wanted to scope it out before actually approaching, just in case. To his veteran eyes it appeared to be exactly what it was: a high functioning government building. A few blocks up from it was the apartment his brother and sister-in-law shared.

"Rusty, go to Aru's apartment and do a scan for any living lifeforms inside, send me a message on my commlink when you finish the scan. After that I want you to find a good spot and hideout there until I come and get you. Foreign droids aren't usually welcomed in intelligence service buildings like this one."

The droid tweedled again and motored off to the apartment of Tyran and Aru Numeck. Rixa let out a quick breath of air and walked over to the ODS building. The main lobby was made of solid and highly polished black marble with silver inlays of the Kuat Family crest every ten meters on the impressive ceiling. He approached the desk where a burly looking human was seated eying him over apprehensively. Rixa suspected he would have done no different than the guard if a two-meter tall, two-hundred and thirty pound man, decked out in black clothing and tattoos was approaching him.

"Can I help you?" The guard asked.

"I have a meeting with Aru Numeck." Rixa said as officially as he could.

"Name?"

"Rixa Numeck."

The guard stared at him for sometime before picking up a commlink that was connected to a receiver on his desk.

"Ma'am I have a Rixa Numeck here to see Aru Numeck...Yes...Yes Ma'am." He put the commlink down and looked up at Rixa. "Take the turbolift to the third floor, last door on your right."

"Not going to search me for weapons?"

"No point, you're a Numeck." The guard said. "You're a walking weapon. Director Tash has a slew of your type on her payroll who'll see to it you're dead long before you even reach for a weapon."

Tyran, it seemed, had made quite the impression on the folks who worked here.

Rixa stared at the guard for a few seconds and headed to the indicated turbolift and hit the button for the third floor. Rixa in fact had no weapons on his person, it was true he didn't need them being well versed in Corellian Ground Fighting and the ever classical Mandalorian Street Brawling. He could go toe-to-toe with most enemy combatants, except his big brother. The turbolift came to a halt and He walked out into the hallway. For an intelligence gathering service there seemed to be an awful lot of inactivity, the hallway was as barren as the radioactive zones on Raxus Prime. He entertained the idea once again that he was being set up but continued down the hallway nonetheless.

He stopped at the last door on his right. There was no palm scanner, door chime or external cameras or anything to signal the occupants on the other side that he was out in the hallway waiting. He was on the verge of just reaching out and knocking on the durasteel when the door suddenly swooshed open and he was face to face with a man he hadn't seen in a very long time.

"Dyir!" Rixa said completely caught off guard by the presence of his old friend. "Rumor had it that you were dead."

"Yeah well who do you think started that rumor?" Dyir said as he walked out into the hallway. Two guards materialized from out of thin air behind Rixa. "Relax, we just need to pat you down." Dyir said as Rixa tensed his body for what he thought was a double-cross. "Hold your arms out and spread your legs."

Rixa did as he was told. "So you got your eye fixed?" He said flatly.

Dyir nodded. "Robotic implant, I see you got your scars covered up with some artwork." His voice was just as frosty.

"Just the arms, still got the ones on my chest and back."

The guards stepped back and nodded at Dyir. "Why are you here Rixa?"

"Aru asked to meet with me."

"I don't believe that." Dyir said. "She knows how much of bad mood seeing you will put Tyran in."

"She wants me to find Tyran." Rixa said. "Apparently he is missing."

"He'll turn up, always does." Dyir said. "Him and Aru aren't getting along very well and he goes and blows off steam every once and again."

Rixa looked at him suspiciously. "You know where he is, don't you?"

"Go home Rixa," Dyir said threateningly. "Tyran doesn't want to see you anymore than he wants to see Aru right now. Let things cool off between them and let them work it out in their own time."

"Does Aru know you know where Tyran is?"

"Like I said, Tyran doesn't want to see her right now." Dyir deflected the question. "Get on your ship and go back to that worthless mudhole you call a home on Mandalore."

"Dyir! Let him in." A voice said from the room behind Dyir.

"Director I don't think that's-"

"I said let him in." The voice was soft but there was no mistaking the authority in it's tone. "Now."

Dyir exhaled in frustration and slowly stepped aside. Rixa shouldered past him, glaring daggers as he did so, and walked into the room. A woman with deep red-hair was sitting behind a very expensive desk with her fingers meshed under her chin. She was staring at Rixa intensely.

"Well, well the family resemblance is quite astonishing." Neada Tash said as she took in Rixa Numeck. "Aside from the tattoos and scars, I would have believed you to be twins."

"Yeah we get that a lot." Rixa said dismissively. "Where is Aru?"

"Currently she is watching over my daughter and her son at a birthday party for one of my fellow directors, but as you can see I'm too busy to attend it myself."

Now that Rixa was standing in the center of the room he could see that the woman's hair had been pulled back into a quickly, and messily tied tail and her clothes were somewhat ruffled. He glanced over his shoulder at Dyir and noticed his appearance was just as disheveled.

When Tyran's away the grown ups will play. He thought to himself. "Yeah, you look rather busy." Rixa said.

"I'm-"

"Neada Tash, Director of the Office of Domestic Security for the last decade, mother of one ten year old girl named Vyndra and you live in the hotel across the street on the four-hundredth floor." Rixa said. "I know who you are."

"Impressive."

"How do you know all of that?" Dyir said marching forward. "That's all classified."

"The name of her child and her occupation aren't, but everything else can be found out one way or another." Rixa said with a smug smile. "I do thorough background checks on all my targets."

Neada's eyes narrowed and Dyir had a hold-out blaster aimed at Rixa's head in an instant.

"Relax," Rixa said. "I'm not here to kill anyone, a couple years ago some Hapans called me and wanted me to off a rogue commando but in my research I discovered who she was and who was protecting her and turned the job down. Conflicting interests and all."

"You could find out my personal information but yet you couldn't come up with anything on this Red-Fang person? Interesting." Neada said motioning for Dyir to lower his weapon. "But considering how hard it was for my people to get their hands on that information, I'm not surprised."

Rixa felt his eyes go wide. "You have my intel?"

"Yes, but I can't give it to you until Tyran is present. The three of us will need to discuss something beforehand."

Rixa took in a sharp, frustrated breath. "How long until Aru get's back?"

Neada checked her wrist chrono. "An hour, Dyir will escort you to their apartment for the time being."

"I don't think that's a good idea Neada." Dyir began. "Tyran won't like it."

"I don't care what he does and doesn't like." Neada said. "Tyran is my employee and thus should be in this office right now doing his job, if he feels he can jeopardize my safety by leaving a hole in my security staff then I'm not going to have any qualms about letting his estranged brother into his house. So do as I say or go find another place of employment."

Dyir looked livid but nodded his head. "Yes ma'am." He managed to squeeze between his very compressed lips.

"And come right back after, me and you have a discussion to finish." Neada added quickly.

Dyir opened the door and waited for Rixa to walk out. The turbolift ride was as silent as it was tense as the two Mandalorians stood shoulder to shoulder. Rixa began laughing. "Must have been some discussion you were having, you've got some pretty nasty bite marks on your neck there Dyir." Rixa said amused.

Dyir clamped his hand on his neck instantly. "You tell no one about this."

"You think that my brother doesn't already know?" Rixa said with a raised eyebrow. "I'd be very shocked if he didn't."

Dyir looked suddenly unsure of the strength of his secret.

"So do you want to get me out your hair all the quicker and just tell me where my brother is or am I going to have to search this city top to bottom?"

"I'm not telling you where he is." Dyir said flatly. "Tyran doesn't want to be bothered by anyone right now, least of all by you."

"Fine." Rixa said. He was starting to get a suspicion that he knew where Tyran was, or at least the type of place at any rate. Until he talked with Aru and narrowed down his suspicions a little more he would play Dyir's game. "I'll look for him myself."

Dyir walked him out of the building and down the street to Tyran and Aru's apartment. Dyir entered a quick series of digits into the keypad next to the door and hit the palm scanner. The door swooshed open and Dyir turned towards Rixa.

"You cause any trouble, any at all that could damage what me, Tyran and Aru built here and I promise you I will personally ruin your career."

"I'm perfectly capable of ruining my own career." Rixa said. "If you don't mind I'm going to make myself at home while I wait."

With a final glare from Dyir the door slid shut again and Rixa was left in the open confines of a very spacious and lavish apartment.


DERAL'S CANTINA, NAL HUTTA, 40 ABY
FIVE DAYS AFTER THE ATTACK ON TORYAZ STATION


"Iman Vitrix." Dain Dolvo said coolly as he read over the classified intelligence profiled cascading down his heads-up-display. "Seems to have a knack for dirty jobs."

He was sitting at the back of the cantina in a private booth with his feet up on the duraplast table while he read up on a potential employer. The Colonel had requested a service that all Dolvos had participated in over the centuries: Numeck Hunting. The only problem with that was the Numecks had participated in Dolvo hunting for just as long, and were just as good at it.

For generations Numecks and Dolvos had been at each others throats and the reason for the long running feud was lost to the invisible waves of time. Dain's father Giel had killed Tyran and Rixa's grand parents, earning the ire of their father Ruima Numeck. Ruima had made quite a reputation for himself during the three year hunt he spent tracking down Dain's father ultimately killing him in a one-on-one confrontation where it had all started: outside the Oyu'baat. It had been easy for Dain to hate Tyran and Rixa after that but truth be told, unlike the previous generations of Dolvos and Numecks, there was very little bad blood between Dain and the Numeck brothers. Probably because they had fought together against the Yuuzhan Vong.

After losing a man on a rescue mission Tyran had put aside their family feud and asked him to fill the spot in his roster and he had accepted. Tyran was very similar to Dain in a lot of ways, they were both cursed with the impressions their fathers had made in the Mandalorian Community. Tyran had gotten lucky with having to live up to a man who had a stellar reputation, Dain's father on the other hand had put a very negative impression on the people of Mandalore with trying to get his own cell of the old Death Watch group up off the ground.

It had been an unpopular move in the time of the Imperial Occupation and it remained to be unpopular even in the current Mandalorian environment. As horrible as the Yuuzhan Vong war had been Dain had taken advantage of it and had proved himself to be more than just the son of a failed Death Watch commander. He had worked well with Tyran liberating Katna Major and defending Caluula. He wouldn't go as far as to say he was friends with Tyran and Rixa, but he felt safe saying he trusted and respected them and hoped they felt the same. Now during hard times when jobs that paid big credits were few and far between Dain found himself with a tough decision to make.

The mission wasn't exactly an assassination, not yet at least, Vitrix just wanted him watched to make sure the younger Numeck didn't discover some dirty secrets that would put certain Alliance officials in an awkward position if exposed to the public. Dain had no problems with how a politician made his off-the-books money, he'd be paranoid if he was dealing with a politician who wasn't skimming creds off some government agency or another. Vitrix found this particular quality of his rather reassuring and was willing to pay handsomely for it. Dain supposed he was fortunate that he wasn't being asked to keep tabs on Tyran Numeck.

Despite the similarities the Numeck brother's shared they were worlds different when it came to their skills in counter-surveillance. Tyran would know within minutes that he was being watched by someone and would take potentially lethal actions to ensure he wouldn't be watched any further. Rixa Numeck was as lethal as any other Mandalorian Supercommando, but he was much more lax in his own personal security. It was the outcome of not having the same violently spectacular reputation that his older brother enjoyed, it meant having less enemies. It was advantageous for Dain.

He sent an encrypted message to the comm code he'd been told to contact after making his decision and removed his helmet to order another drink.

"Rixa, here's to hoping you'll keep your nose out of other peoples business." He said as his drink was placed in front of him. "That way I don't have to kill you. That way I wont have to face your brother.


KUAT CITY, KUAT, 40 ABY, FIVE DAYS AFTER THE ATTACK ON TORYAZ STATION


The interior of the heavily, but discreetly, armored landspeeder was quiet as Aru navigated through the busy sky and speederlanes. Tyran's unusual absence was a heavy weight on the shoulders of not only her but also her son, and by extension Vyndra as well. Vyndra and Ijaat were seated in the back of the car, the little Hapan girl was trying to cheer her friend up with silly jokes that she seemed to be making up on the spot. Ijaat felt responsible for his father's absence since it had been after they had talked that Tyran had left the apartment early in the evening.

When Aru had called Dyir to see if Tyran had shown up for work the next morning and he had told her Tyran wasn't there Aru knew that the time to make the choice between Kuat and Mandalore was approaching. She let Tyran get away with far more than he should have by clinging to the false hope that he might change. Aru knew Tyran better than anyone and she of all people should have known that Tyran never changed for anyone. The only reason she hadn't pulled up stakes and returned to her homeworld that very morning was Ijaat begging her, pleading that they just wait another day or two.

"I don't want Dad to think that I hate him." Ijaat had pleaded with very real tears in her eyes. "I want to apologize before leaving."

Aru couldn't say no to him even though she felt that Ijaat had nothing to really apologize for. She had told Ijaat to go to his room and had made the call to her brother-in-law, once again giving Tyran the ability to let down his family again by hoping he might come back and decide to put in a real effort into not only their relationship, but the non-existent one he shared with Ijaat. Asking Rixa to keep the fact he was a Mandalorian a secret was another way Aru was trying to avoid angering Tyran further, just in case he really did come back with with good intentions.

She was hoping against hope though, and she knew it. Sooner or later she was going to wind up back on Mandalore.

"Do you think he's home yet?" Ijaat asked suddenly through the reinforced permaglass that separated the driver's compartment from the passenger compartment. The sound of her son's voice cut through the dark fog Aru had been in and pulled her back into reality.

"What Ijaat?" She asked looking up into the mirror to see her son sitting closer to the permaglass.

"Dad? Do you think he might have come home?" His voice was hopeful and fearful at once.

Aru sighed heavily and shrugged. "I don't know Ijaat, I hope so, but I really don't know what's going through your father's mind right now."

Ijaat looked down and melted back into the passenger compartment next to Vyndra who smiled at him slightly, looked out the window and pointed at a bright red landspeeder and promptly, and playfully, punched Ijaat on the shoulder. It promptly launched the two children into a common traveling game where they would gently punch each other depending on whether or not they saw a certain colored landspeeder. Soon enough Ijaat was laughing somewhat as he called out a foul, which Aru had not known existed in that particular game.

"That speeder wasn't red it was pink." Ijaat was saying.

"So," Vyndra said smugly. "Pink is a lighter shade of red."

"It doesn't count." Ijaat continued.

"Does so."

"Mom!?"

Aru smiled, at least her son's mind had been pulled from worrying about Tyran for the moment. Vyndra was a clever girl to use Ijaat's knack of sticking explicitly to the rules against him in order to make him think about something else. "Sorry Ijaat, pink is a shade of red and therefore does count."

"Aww come on." Ijaat threw up his hands in protest.

"Sorry but Vyndra didn't break any rules this time."

Vyndra stuck her tongue out at Ijaat who adopted a sour look. "Cheater."

"Am not!"

"Are to!"

"Am not!"

"Are to!"

And so it continued for the next twenty minutes as Vyndra blatantly threw out all disregard for the rules of the speeder-punching game to keep Ijaat from thinking about his father. As she settled the armored speeder into the usual parking space Aru wondered why she had yet to hear from Rixa. Traveling to Kuat from Coruscant wasn't a particularly long trip and she had secured his entry into the system through the temporary military cordon. She decided to give him another hour before calling to see what was keeping him.

The two children continued to argue over who was a cheater and who wasn't as Aru herded them back towards the apartment. Aru marveled at how much Vyndra must have cared for Ijaat that she would rather have him angry with her than sad and depressed over his father. Yes there was probably something between them that would blossom and flourish as they matured and Aru entertained the idea of having half-Mandalorian, half-Hapan grand children. Both cultures had no small amount of fighting spirit, Aru had seen her fair share of Hapan Commandos in action during the War and they were almost as dangerous as a Supercommando.

Almost.

Aru would never accept that Neada operated on the same level as she or her sister or any of the other female Supercommandos who had fought, and died, during the War. It could have been because of her jealousy that her husband spent more time with Neada than with her, or the fact that Neada was even more of an absent parent to her daughter than Tyran was to Ijaat. Or it could have been simply because of both those reasons why Aru disliked Neada Tash and refused to believe they shared any common ground whatsoever. She liked the prospect of Ijaat and Vyndra ending up together, but wasn't fond of the idea of having to become family members with a woman she absolutely hated.

Aru pushed her simmering thoughts aside as she opened the apartment for the two squabbling kids but saw the man in the living room too late to react. Ijaat took one look at the man rising up off the couch and took off like a rocket in the man's direction.

"Dad!" He yelled as he impacted the man like a stun round wrapping his tiny arms around the man's large waist. "You came back."

Aru felt as awkward as her brother-in-law looked.

"Ijaat," Aru said softly. "That's not your father."

Ijaat had seemed to work that out for himself though. The man's muscles weren't the same and now that the tunnel vision had faded Ijaat could see the swirling tattoos covering the man's large arms. The man's hair, though the same shade of black as his father's but was shaved close to his head. There was a week or two of dark stubbly buildup on the man's chin. His eyes were a deeper shade of blue than Ijaat's father's eyes. But their faces were almost identical.

Ijaat backed slowly away and then ran behind his mother who laughed.

"Aren't you going to shoot him?" Vyndra whispered up at Aru as she hid behind her bodyguard.

"It's okay Vyndra, he's a friend of mine from the military." Aru said before looking at her son. "I asked him to come here and look for your dad."

The two children eased slightly but didn't move out from behind her. Aru walked into the living room an embraced her brother-in-law for a long while.

"How did you get in here?" She asked as she pulled away from him with a smile.

"Dyir let me in." Rixa said. "You didn't mention he was here with you guys."

Aru shrugged. "That's how he wanted it."

"I met his boss as well, she's a real piece of work." Rixa said sourly. "She could use a good smack in the back of the head."

Vyndra scowled and kicked Rixa in the shin. Rixa looked down with a raised eyebrow at the small girl.

"Don't say mean things about my mom!"

"Sorry but I call them like I see them." Rixa said with a laugh. "Whats with the girl?"

"Tyran and Dyir protect Neada. I protect Neada's daughter Vyndra."

Vyndra glared up at Rixa making him think that the little girl could handle herself pretty well. "Tidy arrangement."

"It works." Aru said with a sigh. She patted both kids on their heads. "Go get cleaned up before dinner. Me and Rixa need to talk about some grown-up things."

Ijaat looked up at Rixa. "You're going to find my dad right?"

Rixa looked at Aru, who gave him a sad look in return, then looked back down at Ijaat. "I'm going to try."

Ijaat sighed and walked away to his room while Vyndra went to hers. When they disappeared into their rooms Aru laughed quietly and hugged Rixa again. "It's good to see you. How's my little sister Jaya?"

"She's doing good, Jaiden's got himself a girlfriend now, they're getting pretty serious. Oh, Lin and Ryia had a set of twins a month ago."

Aru gasped happily. "Really!"

"Girl and a boy named Kelsi and Velsu."

"Oh that's wonderful, I should call her and see how she's doing."

Rixa nodded and inhaled slowly. "I'd love to sit and catch up but I am here for a reason."

Aru beckoned towards the door. "Lets talk outside away from prying eyes."

Rixa looked over his shoulder in time to see two child size heads disappear back into their respective rooms. He laughed and followed Aru outside to talk.

"So tell me what's going on."

Aru went into the events that led up to Tyran's disappearance, how he had missed Ijaat's school event, how she had threatened to leave him and called him a bad father and how the conversation between Tyran and Ijaat had been the final straw. Rixa listened intently without interrupting her as she spoke but it became very clear he wasn't pleased at all with how his brother had been treated as his face descended into a deeper scowl the longer she went on. When she finished he looked like he was going to give her a decent thrashing.

"It appears to me that you crossed a very big red line." He said after a few moments. "You have a lot of nerve calling him a bad father. Look what he built for his family, you have financial stability that I couldn't even dream of having, your son is getting one of the best educations in the galaxy."

"He is a good provider but when it comes to raising Ijaat I may as well have done it on my own." Aru said.

"Do you think it's easy for Tyran to separate himself from the two of you for so long?" Rixa asked. "Do you think he likes being away?"

"No of course not but-"

"But nothing, I'm going to take a guess that all you do is argue with him when he does come back right?"

"We argue a lot yes."

"Did it ever occur to you that he might just want to hold you for awhile because he misses you? Instead he comes back and you're in his face instantly and Ijaat locks himself away in his room because he's upset. Instead of enjoying him while he's home all you do is scream and avoid him. Not to mention the fact his own son thought it would be a good idea to have a new father, a notion I'm sure he picked up from you I assume?"

Aru stared at Rixa not knowing what to say.

"I'm going to find my brother, I have an idea of where to look but I'm going to tell you this." Rixa said pointing a finger at her. "Don't you even think about taking Ijaat from here and bringing him to Mandalore. If you do, I'll bring him back. Tyran didn't build this for you or himself." He indicated the massive apartment building next to them. "He built it for that boy."

"What if he doesn't want to come back?"

"He's coming back." Rixa assured her. "I'll make sure of it."

"Thank you." Aru said.

"Don't thank me." Rixa said as he started walking down the pedwalk. "Just answer a question for me."

"What?"

"Do you love him still?"

"Of course."

"Tell him that when I walk him through that door." Rixa gave her that signature sinister Numeck grin as he turned and headed away.

 

"Thank you." Aru said.

"Don't thank me." Rixa said as he started walking down the pedwalk. "Just answer a question for me."

"What?"

"Do you love him still?"

"Of course."

"Tell him that when I walk him through that door." Rixa gave her that signature sinister Numeck grin as he turned and headed away.

Good ending of that dialogue.

Besides, I like it that one of your characters has an R2 unit.

 

.

Yeah that dialogue went through a few variations before I settled on that one as a final version. The R2 unit was actually added during the proof reading. X-Wings and astromechs go hand in hand. I've got plans for the little guy.

 

CHAPTER FOUR:

OFF-WORLDER SECTOR, KUAT CITY, KUAT, 40 ABY
SIX DAYS AFTER THE ATTACK ON TORYAZ STATION


Kuat City, much like everything else in the galaxy, had a dark side and Rixa had no trouble figuring out why his older brother was hiding in such a place. The Off-Worlder Sector gave him the same uneasy feeling as some of the deeper levels of Coruscant. It was where Kuat Drive Yards housed the main workforce for their orbital shipyards. Rixa assumed that the KDY executives felt it worth the expense to ferry their workers to the orbital rings rather than house them on site due to the heavily decreased chances of sabotage or industrial espionage.

The Off-Worlder Sector was also home to some of the seediest bars and cantinas that Rixa had ever seen, and he'd been in more than a few in his career. At each one he stopped in he was instantly approached by a bouncer which was usually from a species that was naturally intimidating. Most of them appeared to be Whiphids and Togorians. They growled at him and demanded to know why he had come back after being thrown out. It usually took him a few seconds to calm everyone down and help them come to the conclusion that he wasn't who they thought he was.

After talking with each bouncer at several of the cantinas Rixa had learned his brother had indeed visited each one at some point during the day and had caused some sort of violent commotion for apparently no reason. It was exactly what Rixa had thought he would find his big brother doing, just like when they had been growing up on Mandalore. It was amazing how much people forgot over the years or maybe Aru had just decided to forget the months after the War had ended. Tyran had spent days traveling through the bars in Keldabe causing fist fights and brawls because he still had anger towards the Vong he needed to release.

This was almost the same thing except he couldn't take his anger out on his wife and son. The drunken patrons of the Off-Worlder Sector would bear the brunt of his anger. Rixa felt a genuine moment of sorrow for the people as he downed his second drink on the house at the cantina he was currently investigating. The bouncer had busted his nose and had insisted on buying Rixa a round once the identity situation had been clarified. It wasn't the first time Rixa had been punched in the face because someone had thought he was Tyran.

He thanked the bouncer for the drink and returned to his rented speeder and crossed the sixth cantina off a list of nine total cantinas in the Off-Worlder Sector. He consulted his datapad to find out which remaining cantina on the list was closest to him and settled on one named Jijji's. Hardly to his surprise Jijji's was owned by a Hutt named Jijji and his cantina was the seediest of them all so far. Cigarra smoke hung thick in the air and it smelled of nothing but rotted out fruits that were being put into sickeningly colored drinks.

He covered his mouth with the back of his hand as a disheveled Bith waiter crossed his path with a tray of stinking meats. "Sorry Aru I found Tyran but he was already dead from dysentery." He said in a mocking voice.

As with any Hutt owned establishment there were female Twi'leks everywhere. Dancing on counter-tops, serving disgusting drinks to patrons who were too enamored with their servers good looks to notice what they were drinking, and leading certain customers away from the main room through a door at the back of the bar. It didn't take much of a guess to figure out what for. He watched as one Twi'lek waitress leaned over as if in conversation with an Aqualish sitting at a table and relieved him of the credit chips that had been in his coat pocket. The Aqualish had never seen anything.

Rixa was sure several of the female waitresses had already made some snatch and grab runs on him as well, they casually bumped into him and gave a toothy smile as they said sorry and disappeared to whatever task they were pretending to be doing. Lucky for him he had nothing of value on his person. So far Rixa hadn't been stopped by a bouncer yet so either he had found a bar Tyran had yet to visit or he had arrived before Tyran had instigated his fight. He approached the bar and got the attention of a pink skinned Zeltron who had purple hair that fell just below her ears and was wearing a typically tight outfit designed to show off her curvacious form.

"What can I get you?" She said smiling as she leaned over the counter-top.

"You can help me me locate someone."

"You a bounty-hunter?" the Zeltron asked.

"Why? You have a bounty on your head?" Rixa countered.

"Do I look like the type of girl who has a bounty on her head?" She countered back.

"You Zeltrons know how to party, things get out of control and next thing you know there's a price on your head." Rixa said with a shrug. "But no I'm not here on a bounty or anything, I'm looking for my brother."

"What's he look like?" The Zeltron said after a few moments of carefully studying Rixa.

"Like me, with less facial hair and no tattoos." Rixa said. "Probably has a bit of an attitude."

He saw the spark of recognition in her eyes as she leaned in closer towards him. "Yeah Mr. Moody-Money-Bags. He's over there." She pointed to the far end of the bar by a booth.

There was a large man sitting in one of the booths by himself with his back to the door. Rixa couldn't tell for sure through the smoke that was hanging around in the room but the man could have been Tyran. Rixa gave the Zeltron a smile and got up from the bar and headed over to booth where the large man was seated to investigate. As he drew closer Rixa let a smile creep across his face, the man glanced over his shoulder quickly but it was enough for Rixa to make out the facial features he and his brother shared. He moved to the booth and sat across from Tyran.

Tyran Numeck gave his younger brother a look that would have scared away a battalion of Void Jumpers but Rixa sat down and adopted a calm expression and made sure to keep his hands on the table in front of him at all times.

"What are you doing here?" Tyran said blowing out a cloud of cigarra smoke into his brother's face.

"I thought that would have been obvious." Rixa said as he waved the cloud of smoke away. "I'm here because your wife asked me to look for you."

Tyran barked more than he laughed at his younger brother's words. "Why would Aru ask you to come looking for me? She's an ungrateful and jealous woman who doesn't give a damn about me."

Rixa noted the heavy scent of alcohol on the air and the seven empty glasses turned upside down on the table next to his brother.

"Come on you don't really think that do you?" Rixa said.

"She turned my son against me!" Tyran growled. "What kind of person does that?"

"Ijaat isn't against you." Rixa said. "In fact he thinks you hate him, he's been very upset over you just up and disappearing like you did."

Tyran shrugged and took another drag of the cigarra in his large hand. "Good."

"Good?" Rixa was taken aback by the easiness his older brother seemed to have cut ties with everyone in his family. "You're wondering what kind of person can turn their son against their father, maybe you can tell me what kind of father is okay with letting their son sit and fester with idea of being hated by him?"

Despite all of the alcohol Tyran had consumed in the last day his eyes were crystal clear when they locked on Rixa's.

"I don't care what it makes me. I spent the last ten years of my life building a paradise for that kid just for him to tell me he thinks that leaving and finding a new father with his mother wouldn't be a bad idea." His voice was low but the anger and pain were as clear as day. "I don't care how upset Ijaat gets because it wont ever compare to how I've felt the last twenty-four hours."

"I agree with you that was wrong of Aru and Ijaat to say." Rixa said slowly after a few tense and awkward seconds. "I had a conversation with Aru before I went out looking for you, you guys have no idea how bad things have been on Mandalore since you left. The Yuuzhan Vong did more damage to the planet than we had thought. Most of the farms were salted to the point of being unusable, only a small portion of our farm was rendered barren by the attack but it was still significant enough to do a lot of damage to our profits. Bounty hunting hasn't been any better either." Rixa sighed. "What you've managed to create for your wife and son here is nothing short of a miracle and I want you to know I told Aru I wont let her bring Ijaat to Mandalore and if she did I'd bring him back here to you."

Tyran eyed his younger brother over. "Why are you doing this? Why are you helping Aru and siding with me at the same time? I thought we abandoned you and the rest, isn't that what you said we were doing ten years ago after calling us cowards?"

"Ten years is a long time Tyr'ika." Rixa said. "I became the one responsible for managing the family's income after you left. It isn't an easy job and after ten years I understand why you left. You didn't abandon us ten years ago and I'm not going to let you abandon Aru and Ijaat now so get your stuff together and let me take you home."

"I'm not going anywhere." Tyran said as he ordered another drink. "Not yet at least."

Rixa sighed and looked around the room. "Alright then which one is it?"

Tyran flicked his head in the direction behind Rixa. He looked over his shoulder and saw two Whiphids standing shoulder to shoulder next to a door.

"Right, more Whiphids." Rixa said. "Why can't you ever pick someone smaller and less dangerous than you for once?"

"Where's the challenge in that." Tyran said standing up and walking out from behind the bar. Rixa nodded his head and followed his older brother as he proceeded to instigate his seventh fight of the night.


SENATE BUILDING, CORUSCANT, OFFICE OF ODAS ZISTRA, 40 ABY
SIX DAYS AFTER THE ATTACK ON TORYAZ STATION


"This is unacceptable." Zistra yelled at the top of his lungs.

Vitrix was sitting calmly on the other side of the the Senator's desk as the Gran slid a datapad to him.

"What is unacceptable?" Vitrix said as he scrolled through the datapad and seeing nothing troublesome.

"Are you blind?! Eight more people associated with Red-Fang have been killed in the last three days. I thought you had someone hunting Red-Fang or was that just another one of your lies?!"

"I wasn't aware that I had ever lied to you." Vitrix tossed the datapad back to the Gran senator.

"You told me that Red-Fang would make us rich, you told me Red-Fang had been lost during the War, you told me you had all of this under control! It doesn't appear that way."

"Did the operation not make you rich?" Vitrix asked casually. "And Red-Fang was lost during the War as were several of my other operatives and I had no reason to believe him to still be alive. Despite current events I do have control over the hunt for Red-Fang. My mercenary has only just accepted the contract, you can hardly expect immediate results even from a Mandalorian."

"A Mandalorian?" Zistra asked. "You could have told me that from the start." Zistra felt relieved. It wouldn't take a Mandalorian very long to track down the problematic Red-Fang. "How long has he been on the job?"

Vitrix cleared his throat. "Long enough. He is working as we speak to track down our rogue operative."

"How much does he know?"

"He knows Red-Fang is a terrorist and that is all he needs to know." Vitrix said. "But if he should discover anything, however unlikely that may be, I have taken steps to ensure he is eliminated before he becomes a problem."

"Once again you speak as if you have covered every angle of the situation but I can't help but wonder what you might be keeping from me."

"Remember you are the politician here not me." Vitrix said as he stood up to leave. "I should be the one suspicious of you."

"Please you're more of a politician than I am. Who knows how many back alley deals you have made to secure the total secrecy of your new precious interrogation facility. What ever happened to the young lieutenant who first put forth the idea of the Kaytares Installation in the first place?"

"He got too nosy I'm afraid." Vitrix said threateningly as he walked to the door. "He had to be removed from the equation."

Zistra paled at the threat. "If you lay one finger on me there will be question's raised. Every operation I've cleared will be looked into thoroughly by the Internal Investigative Branch. I don't think you'd want that to happen any more than I do."

Vitrix let out a cold laugh. "Odas my dear friend. What ever made you think I would lay a finger on you personally. I have plenty of people on my payroll who can make your disappearance seem like natural causes preventing the need for any kind of investigation into your operational history. But I'm sure you wont have to be removed from the equation, right?"

The Gran nodded nervously as he sat up straight in his high backed chair.

"Good." Vitrix hit the palm-scanner next to the door and disappeared an instant later.

Zistra let out a prolonged breath of air he hadn't realized he'd been holding. He hit the intercom on his desk.

"Zuda bring me something to drink." He said breathlessly. "Something potent, very potent."

**************

Dolvo lowered the shatter rifle he had trained on the back of the Gran senator's head as Vitrix exited the building without giving him the signal to fire.

"That was an easy ten-thousand credits." He said as he attached the rifle to the magnetic plate on the back of his armor.

He returned to the service elevator he had used to reach the floor of the office building that was level with good senator's office. It took him down to the eighty-eighth level of the hotel from which he climbed into a regular turbolift. His distinctive copper on grey colored armor, combined with his size and the large rifle on his back made the other occupants of the lift push away from him on each side. He had the center of the turbolift all to himself as the six others made a visible effort to avoid looking or even touching him. Most of them were humans but there was a Nautolan and a Togruta who were both more interested in their feet than they were in him.

His helmet chimed as he received an encrypted comm message.

"Dolvo." He said after accepting the call. His voice was perfectly insulated inside his helmet. None of the six others in the lift would ever have known he was having a conversation.

"As discussed, your fee will be deposited into the designated account within the hour." Vitrix said. "I'm quite sorry to have wasted your time like this."

"Ten-thousand credits isn't a waste of my time Colonel." Dolvo said. "Not that I really care but why didn't you give me the order to shoot him?"

"I just finally realized how afraid of me that old Gran is," Vitrix said. "He may yet still be useful to me and some of my plans so until the time he becomes useless I think I'll keep him alive."

"Yeah well when you make that decision you know how to reach me."

"Yes I do and before I let you go, do you have anything to report on the other job I have you contracted for?"

"I have an associate tailing him." Dolvo said. "I know where he is and what he is doing and so far it's nothing that concerns you, just family drama."

"Yes that must be the urgent business he told me he had to leave Coruscant to tend to." Vitrix said in a disinterested tone. "Very good, you'll keep me apprised of any crucial developments?"

"It's what you're paying me good money to do right?"

Vitrix laughed. "Yes I guess it is."

"Dolvo out." Dain rolled his eyes. He hated working for military types like Colonel Iman Vitrix.

They were men who hadn't stepped out onto an actual battlefield or looked down the scope of a rifle in decades and would rather pay to have their dirty work done rather than have the honor to do it themselves. But still those kind of men paid his bills and he was forced to deal with them on a more regular basis than he would have liked. The turbolift stopped on the ground floor of the hotel and the six occupants of the lift filed hurriedly filed out in front of him. Dain enjoyed the fear his physical presence instilled in lesser beings.

If there was any real difference between the Numeck and Dolvo Clans it was that. The Numecks had no desire to believe themselves to be above other people, Dain and his family however believed quite the opposite. He often wondered if maybe that had been the origin of the Talparguur, the ancient Blood-Hate, between the families. Even though Dain shared his father's views he didn't speak them openly, it was a very touchy subject on Mandalore and most people tended to avoid talking about it altogether.

As he walked to the spaceport he sent and encrypted text message to the contact he had trailing Rixa Numeck.

[ANYTHING TO REPORT?] The message was simple and he expected the reply to be just as equally simple. It was about five minutes later when he got the reply.

[I HAVE LOST HIM FOR THE MOMENT.]

Dain felt his heart skip a beat. Had Tyran realized his younger brother was being tailed and warned him?

[WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU LOST HIM?]

[I LOST CONTACT WITH HIM AFTER HE LANDED AT THE SPACEPORT. I'M WAITING OUTSIDE THE NUMECK APARTMENT OUT OF SIGHT AND WILL HAVE EYES ON HIM WHEN HE RETURNS. EVERYTHING IS UNDER CONTROL.]

"Now you sound like that Zabrak." Dain said in the seclusion of his helmet. [IT HAD BETTER BE UNDER CONTROL OR YOU WONT LIKE WHAT I DO TO YOU.]

Dain walked to the berth where his ship was located, an old Gladiator retrofitted with a navicomputer and a hyperdrive, unlike the standard model, and climbed into the pilot's chair. He activated the navicomputer and put in a course for Gyndine. There was a KDY shipyard there and it was close enough to Kuat that he could make a relatively short hyperspace jump should he need to follow Rixa at a moments notice. Kuat itself was locked down tight after the terrorist attack on one of it's orbiting space stations and he hoped that Gyndine and it's KDY shipyard weren't under similar lock down.

Dain took the Gladiator up into Coruscant's orbit. As the inky blackness of space filled the viewport he found himself happy he had sprung for the upgrades to his ship. Slaving his navicomputer to a hyperspace capable craft had been tedious at best. When the navicomputer confirmed the jump destination he found himself smiling as he pushed forward the hyperdrive control and the stars stretched out in front of him.


KUAT CITY, KUAT, 40 ABY
SIX DAYS AFTER THE ATTACK ON TORYAZ STATION


Tyran gave the Nautolan across from him a scowl, causing the tentacle headed being to get up from the bench and head to the rear of the jail cell. Most of the thirteen occupants had been brought in during the fight Tyran had caused, Rixa included. He was standing at the front of the cell yelling at a guard who had given him a cheap shot with a stun baton while they had been herding the prisoners into the cell. Tyran's head was throbbing something awful, partly from the lump forming on the side of his forehead and mostly from the amount of booze he had consumed in the previous twenty-four hours.

He was well into his hang over. Rixa finished yelling at the guard and sat down next to him. He looked down at his older brother who had his head in his hands and was emitting a low groan as the pain set in. Rixa laughed sadistically.

"Booze wearing off?" He said through his laughter. "I thought you would have learned your lesson years ago, but no you're just as stubborn as dad was."

Tyran gave him a universal had gesture of displeasure.

"Aww don't be like that big brother." Rixa said as he patted Tyran on his back. "It'll only last the rest of the day."

Tyran sat up and fixed his bloodshot eyes on his younger brother. "You know I'm up for an eighth fight today. I'm already in jail so they wont have to transport me anywhere after they come in and break it up."

Rixa clapped his hands together hard and Tyran winced and grabbed his forehead. Rixa laughed again.

"Yeah you look like you're in fighting shape."

"Go stick your head in a refresher or something." Tyran growled.

"Hey! You two want to shut up!" A burly human on the other side of the cell yelled at them.

"And if we don't?" Tyran said lifting his head enough to lock gazes with the human.

The burly man stood up and walked over to the two of them. Both Numeck brothers stood up at once and the burly human noticed just how big and burly the brothers were as well. He suddenly didn't look so confident but a guard appeared at the cell door.

"Tyran and Rixa Numeck?" He called.

Rixa stepped forward.

"Yeah?"

"You've been bailed out. You're free to go."

Tyran exchanged a curious glance with his brother. "We didn't even call anyone yet."

"You're bail was posted, I just have to tell you you're free to leave." The guard said. "It isn't my job to tell you who paid for your release."

The burly human looked at Tyran and Rixa. "You two got lucky."

Rixa feinted a lung at the burly man, who flinched and almost fell over backwards.

"Yeah you really had us shaking in our boots." Rixa said as he followed Tyran out of the cell.

The guard brought them to the front entrance of the jail and slid an identichip through a reader which opened the door that separated the main entrance from the housing area. Tyran and Rixa crossed the threshold and looked around the room and didn't immediately see anyone they recognized until a man in a dark uniform stood up near the exit.

"Dyir," Tyran sighed. "Should have figured Neada would be watching the Kay-Sec datafeeds."

"Your boss may be a real piece of work, but I have to admit she does come in handy." Rixa said as he watched Dyir walk over to them.

The look on his face wasn't one of happiness or relief to see them, but one of agitation. "I've got better things to do tonight than sit and wait in a detention center to bail you two out." Dyir said.

"I don't really care Dyir." Tyran said. "You weren't supposed to tell anyone where I was."

"Well I didn't tell anyone." Dyir said defensively.

"He's right. He kept his mouth shut no matter how many times I asked him where you were." Rixa said smugly. "I tracked you down based off your history of alcoholic binging and fighting when overly stressed."

Tyran raised his eyebrows briefly as he looked over his shoulder at his brother before looking back at Dyir. Rixa knew it was as close to a comment of praise that he was going to get from his older brother and held off boasting about his tracking skills any further.

"So what now Dyir?"

"I take you to the office to have a chat with Neada." Dyir said non too pleased. "She's even more aggravated by you than I am."

"Does Aru know where I am?"

"No, but she wont stop calling me."

Dyir took them outside and showed them to a pricey looking landspeeder than didn't look like it fit in with the other worn out speeders in the parking lot. The ride back to the ODS building was quiet and Tyran took the opportunity to rest his head against the cool transparisteel window on the passenger's side door. It felt good against his throbbing head. But the comfort was short lived as the speeder arrived outside the ODS building and maneuvered into the secure hangar. Tyran stumbled out of the speeder more than he climbed out of it, much to the delight of his younger brother who couldn't hide the grin on his face.

"What are you gawking at?" Dyir said as he climbed out the speeder and helped Tyran steady himself a little bit.

Rixa waved dismissively. "Just old memories is all."

Dyir shook his head. "You just going to stand there grinning like an idiot or are you going to help me get him inside?"

Tyran shoved Dyir away.

"I don't need any help. I can walk on my own."

Dyir raised his hands in a show of submission and took a few steps back from Tyran and waved him forward.

"After you then."

Tyran shook his head a few times and rose up on his feet determined to enter the building under his own power and not that of his brother or his friend. Dyir made sure that Rixa fell into step behind his brother before bringing up the rear behind the Numeck brothers. Dyir's eyes never left the back of Rixa's head as they made their way from the empty bottom level of the building to the level that was home to the office of Neada Tash. The smell of brewing stimcaf hit Rixa like a loadlifter as they crossed the threshold into her lavish office.

"You two look like bantha fodder warmed over." The disgraced Hapan said as she looked up from the piece of flimsi she had been reading. It was once piece from a particularly large stack.

Tyran gave her little in the way of reply and walked in something that resembled a straight line to the caf pot in the corner of the room.

"Is this that strong Hapan blend?" He asked.

"I figured you might need something in the way of rejuvenation." Neada said as she turned back to the piece of flimsi. "Looks like I figured right."

Rixa took a seat on one of the sofas that littered the office without any invitation and got a dirty look from Dyir. Neada motioned for Tyran to sit down once he had downed a cup of the strong Hapan coffee.

"What's with the flimsi?" Dyir asked as he moved to stand beside her desk.

"It is a report, a very classified and potentially life threatening report that my intelligence officers have spent the last twenty-eight hours gathering."

"What's the report on?" Tyran said as he started on his second cup of coffee and took a seat next to, but further down on the sofa, his brother.

Rixa's eyes locked on to the flimsi stack. It had to be two inches thick.

"Red-Fang." He said flatly.

"Your brother is pretty quick." Neada said without looking up. "But I don't think being quick-minded is going to be enough to catch the man you are after if any of this is to be believed."

"Well lucky for you that I'm the one who has to hunt him down." Rixa said. "So if you would please hand me my intelligence report and I'll be on my merry way."

Neada set the piece of flimsi down on top of the large stack and secured the binders that held it all together. "Before I give this to you, I have to make something absolutely clear. This information can never be traced back to this building or this office or even this planet. No one can ever know that I sanctioned the gathering of this information or that your brother asked to me to do it as a favor for him."

"Is it that classified?" Rixa asked dubiously.

"Yes." Neada said deadpan. "If this information finds it's way into the hands of the wrong people, like the Galactic Alliance Intelligence Department for instance, they will try to trace it back to it's origin, and since my office is not officially sanctioned by the Kuat Military and operates mostly under the jurisdiction of Kuat Drive Yards, my main priority is the protection of KDY and it's assets. If anyone from the Alliance ever tries to trace this information back to it's origin I have made it so that they will trace everything back to Tyran."

All three men fixed their gazes on her.

"What?" Tyran and Rixa said at once.

Neada inhaled deeply. "Tyran, as good an employee as he is, is a KDY asset. An expendable asset. I have arranged the gathering of this information so that it appears that Tyran was behind it. His clearance codes, authorization numbers...everything was used at one point or another in the gathering process."

"What happens if the information is traced back to him?" Rixa asked as Tyran sat back in the couch as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

Neada shrugged. "For certain I cannot say, but I can tell you that it wont be good for him or his wife or son. If it's the government who traces the information back to him then he'll get a lengthy jail sentence; probably life for breaching highly classified military files, all of his assets will be seized. If the people who actually ran Red-Fang trace the information back to him, then it's a different story. They'll just kill him, Aru and Ijaat."

Tyran let out a loud sigh of disbelief as he rubbed at his temples.

"I can't believe this." He said more to himself than he did anyone in the room. "After all I've done for you, you can just go and do something like this without batting an eyelid?"

"I don't want to do this." Neada said genuinely upset. "I'm giving your brother the option of either taking this information and placing great risk upon you and your family, or leaving it here where it will be disposed of."

Dyir scratched at his chin. "Don't you ever do anything that doesn't get your brother neck deep in osik?"

Rixa looked incredulous. "You think I thought your boss was going to set my brother up like this? You think I'm enjoying the situation as it stands right now?!"

"Wait...wait." Tyran said raising his hands. "You said the people who actually ran Red-Fang, what does that mean?"

"Red-Fang is two things at once." Neada said. "It's a codename for an operative as well as a very off-the-books intelligence operation."

"Vitrix told me Red-Fang was a terrorist." Rixa said.

"Iman Vitrix?" Neada asked flipping through a few pages of flimsi in the Red-Fang Report.

"Yeah."

"Lieutenant Iman Vitrix, New Republic Intelligence, ran Red-Fang before and during the Yuuzhan Vong war. He used a highly trained special forces operative to infiltrate and destabilize the governments of systems that didn't fit in with the political views of the New Republic. Once that was done the New Republic would move it's people into the designated system and restore order and place the right people in the right places of power. Vitrix made quite a fortune off the Red-Fang op it seems. Several billion credits of emergency relief funds were skimmed off from each separate target his operative destabilized."

"In order for that kind of money to disappear without anyone looking to deep into it, your contractor must have some politicians in his pocket." Dyir said.

"Or he had a gun to their head." Tyran added. "I didn't think the New Republic played like that."

"I wouldn't be surprised if the Chief of State or the overall Senate had no idea this was going on." Neada tapped the report with her finger. "This Vitrix guy is slick. But whatever he's up to now it doesn't involve this Red-Fang character, the op went south during the War. The operative went missing. If this Vitrix called you for help, his operative might be back and settling a few scores."

The room fell silent after that and Neada rocked back and forth in her chair for a few moments before motioning to Dyir.

"Come on, these two have to have a conversation and I don't think we need to be here for it." She said rising from behind her desk and heading for the door.

A few minutes ticked by in silence after both she and Dyir had left the room. The Red-Fang report was still sitting on the desk within Rixa's reach but he couldn't bring himself to actually reach out and grab it. His eye's on the other hand couldn't move from the large stack of flimsi.

"Don't take it." Tyran said quietly. "Don't take that report."

"Tyran I have to take that report, I need the credits." Rixa said just as quietly.

"I can't let you take that intelligence. The danger to my family is too great to be ignored." Tyran looked at his younger brother. "I'd rather give you the credits you need."

Rixa snorted. "I'm not taking money from you."

"Why not? Taking my money is the only way to ensure a good outcome for both us." Tyran said not understanding why his brother was resistant to taking money from him. "Your family gets fed and your expenses will be paid for and my family's safety is guaranteed."

"I already accepted the job from Vitrix." Rixa said looking his brother in the eye. "I can't back out of it now and you know it. Mandalorians don't break a deal once they make it."

"You accepted a job knowing that you had no way of tracking down the target?"

"One job for the Galactic Alliance opens up the doors to more military contracts, which means more money for the Homestead than you can provide."

"You aren't working for the Galactic Alliance. You're working for a spook who has only his own interests in mind, who just so happens to be a Colonel in the Galactic Alliance's Intelligence Division." Tyran said. "They are two very different things. He'll probably shoot you dead before he pays you a single credit."

"Either way I have to take that report with me." Rixa said. "You just need to trust me."

"That's just it, I can't trust you. I've seen you in action and rescued you more times than I can count on both hands. You are careless and reckless and I know that somehow you're going to mess this up and it'll be me and my family that pays the price."

"I'm not the same man I was ten years ago Tyran. I'm not burdened by the pain and memories of the Breaking like I was back then. I may not be up to your set of standards like Dyir, but I'm certainly better than I was. I know the concept is hard for you to understand but you're going to need to have some faith in me for once."

Tyran didn't like it. He had a good sense when it came to sniffing out situations that weren't going to end well. It went against his every instinct to sit still while Rixa grabbed the Red-Fang report from off the desk. A sensation began building in his stomach, it was foreboding as if not stopping Rixa from taking the report had just sealed some horrible fate for him and his family.

"I'm not going to mess this up" Rixa said looking at Tyran as he gripped the flimsi report in both his hands. "I can't afford to."

"Just so we're clear little brother. If you mess this up and I end up in prison and my wife and son wind up on the streets with absolutely nothing. There wont be a place you will be able to hide from me. No matter how deep or dark a hole they throw me I will crawl my way out of it and hunt you down like the Supercommando I used to be. When I find you there wont be any conversations, no please for forgiveness. I'm just going to simply kill you."

Rixa stared at his brother. Tyran never made idle threats or hollow promises. If he said he was going to kill then he would do exactly that.

"I wouldn't expect anything less from you." To Tyran's bewilderment a smile crossed his younger brother's face. "So if you're done threatening me I still have to take you home to your wife, son and that peach of a little girl staying with you."

"Fine but that report and the deal attached to it does not get mentioned in front of Aru or Ijaat."

"I think that would be best for both our sakes."

Tyran tried not to think about how his wife would react if she found out about the arrangement that came along with the Red-Fan report. There would be a very real possibility that he would have to defend his employer from his wife and Aru Numeck was a lot more dangerous than a half-dozen Hapan Commandos.

"Yeah it would."

 

I like best that you show the silent family dramas as well as the political intrigues. You write children very well!

 

Yeah I guess I'm a big kid at heart so writing kids is actually easy. The political stuff is the stumper.

 

Rixa couldn't actually remember how long it had been since he had actually seen his wife in person, Jaya was working the bounty hunter circuit as well trying to maximize their profits by taking jobs of her own.

Aw That is so sad. I hope that they’re able to dig himself out of the financial hole they’re in and see each other son.


Rixa silently longed for a war like the one with the Yuuzhan Vong so he could do some honest soldiering again.

Umm….yeah…that’s really something he DOESN’T want.


"Is the Alliance going to foot the bill?"

That is a very important question to ask *laughs*

I do also find it sad that Rixa hasn’t seen his brother in 10 years, but that may be for the best. I know, I have to keep reading to find out!


"You don't want to wait until after we eat to discuss business?"

No. You can eat and talk so that you’re not wasting time.
Sometimes politicians really want to drag things out. Rixa is a true merc (and Mando) by getting straight to the point.


Rixa took the chip and slid it into a throwaway datapad. He did have a chip reader in his armor system but he wasn't about to insert a chip from an unknown military officer into his personal armor system.

That is intelligent.


"Give me forty-eight hours, let me see what I can dig up on this Red-Fang." Rixa said after a moment of thinking over his options. "If I can come up with more information to make the job more feasible I'll do it."

"Forty-eight hours is acceptable." Vitrix said instantly.

Wow. That branch of the Alliance must be desperate for him to acquiesce so quickly.


"Are you insane?!" the voice cried out. "What if he finds out more about Red-Fang than he needs to know?"

I have a bad feeling about this.


Red-Fang had been an intriguing operation

It did sound more like an operation than a person.
It doesn’t surprise me though that Zistra was unable to tamp it down completely. That’s what happens with shady ops like that.


Galactic Alliance Intelligence was very good at it's job and if they wanted to find out about someone then there was virtually no way to escape them. So the fact that he had been provided with only an alias and an unhelpful last known location, literally listed as: the Outer Rim, set off every alarm in Rixa's head.

The first part made me nod.
The second made me chuckle a bit. As well it should.


Ultimately the responsibility of providing for the inhabitants of the Numeck Homestead outweighed his own personal pride.

Sometimes, pride is overrated. And yet…the things we do to privde for our families.


EEEEEEE Mando’a!!!!
It also makes me happy to know that he’s able to keep in touch with Jaya so easily.
Psh, Black Sun deserved what she gave them.


haven't gotten any closer to figuring out who this Red-Fang is."

I wonder if he realizes that he let her know who/what the target name is.
I also wonder if it’ll be a benefit or a hindrance in the end.


it might have contributed to her downfall and ultimate exile from Hapes.

Well Neada is an interesting character.
Truan Stav is certainly good for her. I’m just surprised there are Hapan assassins against her if the charges were falsified. I just don’t understand politics/military cover-ups I guess.



All three of them were being paid handsomely for their services. They were making twenty-nine hundred credits a week when they had first started but with every assassination they thwarted they were paid an extra ten-hundred credits.

Daaaaaaaamn


Tyran, Aru and Dyir had cut all ties to their roots on Mandalore to take the job as her bodyguards.

It’s great that she’s with others who understand her and her background. I’ll bet it’s incredibly helpful. And, as Mandos, they definitely know how to protect.


"Adequate my-" Dyir started but he caught Vyndra looking up at him. "-foot." he managed to mumble.

*snerk* He’s better at catching himself than my father.

I did notice that with the word exams you wrote exam’s. There shouldn’t be an apostrophe.


You looked your son in the eye and promised him you would be there and once again you never showed up." she looked up at Tyran with a pained expression. "You're just not a great father."

Harsh but true. Sometimes it needs to be said. Oh, I like Aru.
Her promise to Tyran is what a Mandalorian would do. If the parents can’t care for their child, that’s okay; there are plenty of others who would be happy to adopt him into their lives.




That was a great first chapter.

 

Rixa couldn't actually remember how long it had been since he had actually seen his wife in person, Jaya was working the bounty hunter circuit as well trying to maximize their profits by taking jobs of her own.

Aw That is so sad. I hope that they’re able to dig himself out of the financial hole they’re in and see each other son.


Rixa silently longed for a war like the one with the Yuuzhan Vong so he could do some honest soldiering again.

Umm….yeah…that’s really something he DOESN’T want.


"Is the Alliance going to foot the bill?"

That is a very important question to ask *laughs*

I do also find it sad that Rixa hasn’t seen his brother in 10 years, but that may be for the best. I know, I have to keep reading to find out!


"You don't want to wait until after we eat to discuss business?"

No. You can eat and talk so that you’re not wasting time.
Sometimes politicians really want to drag things out. Rixa is a true merc (and Mando) by getting straight to the point.


Rixa took the chip and slid it into a throwaway datapad. He did have a chip reader in his armor system but he wasn't about to insert a chip from an unknown military officer into his personal armor system.

That is intelligent.


"Give me forty-eight hours, let me see what I can dig up on this Red-Fang." Rixa said after a moment of thinking over his options. "If I can come up with more information to make the job more feasible I'll do it."

"Forty-eight hours is acceptable." Vitrix said instantly.

Wow. That branch of the Alliance must be desperate for him to acquiesce so quickly.


"Are you insane?!" the voice cried out. "What if he finds out more about Red-Fang than he needs to know?"

I have a bad feeling about this.


Red-Fang had been an intriguing operation

It did sound more like an operation than a person.
It doesn’t surprise me though that Zistra was unable to tamp it down completely. That’s what happens with shady ops like that.


Galactic Alliance Intelligence was very good at it's job and if they wanted to find out about someone then there was virtually no way to escape them. So the fact that he had been provided with only an alias and an unhelpful last known location, literally listed as: the Outer Rim, set off every alarm in Rixa's head.

The first part made me nod.
The second made me chuckle a bit. As well it should.


Ultimately the responsibility of providing for the inhabitants of the Numeck Homestead outweighed his own personal pride.

Sometimes, pride is overrated. And yet…the things we do to privde for our families.


EEEEEEE Mando’a!!!!
It also makes me happy to know that he’s able to keep in touch with Jaya so easily.
Psh, Black Sun deserved what she gave them.


haven't gotten any closer to figuring out who this Red-Fang is."

I wonder if he realizes that he let her know who/what the target name is.
I also wonder if it’ll be a benefit or a hindrance in the end.


it might have contributed to her downfall and ultimate exile from Hapes.

Well Neada is an interesting character.
Truan Stav is certainly good for her. I’m just surprised there are Hapan assassins against her if the charges were falsified. I just don’t understand politics/military cover-ups I guess.



All three of them were being paid handsomely for their services. They were making twenty-nine hundred credits a week when they had first started but with every assassination they thwarted they were paid an extra ten-hundred credits.

Daaaaaaaamn


Tyran, Aru and Dyir had cut all ties to their roots on Mandalore to take the job as her bodyguards.

It’s great that she’s with others who understand her and her background. I’ll bet it’s incredibly helpful. And, as Mandos, they definitely know how to protect.


"Adequate my-" Dyir started but he caught Vyndra looking up at him. "-foot." he managed to mumble.

*snerk* He’s better at catching himself than my father.

I did notice that with the word exams you wrote exam’s. There shouldn’t be an apostrophe.


You looked your son in the eye and promised him you would be there and once again you never showed up." she looked up at Tyran with a pained expression. "You're just not a great father."

Harsh but true. Sometimes it needs to be said. Oh, I like Aru.
Her promise to Tyran is what a Mandalorian would do. If the parents can’t care for their child, that’s okay; there are plenty of others who would be happy to adopt him into their lives.




That was a great first chapter.

 

Thanks. I'm glad you liked it. Yeah I'm aware of a few spelling mistakes I failed to catch and correct before posting and I'll get around to fixing them eventually lol.

Should I add you to the update list?

 

Wait until I get through the other chapters

 

OK the next chapter might be up today or tomorrow. Let me know when you get caught up

 

CHAPTER FIVE:


KDY SHIPYARD, GYNDINE, 40 ABY
SIX DAYS AFTER THE ATTACK ON TORYAZ STATION


Dain ordered himself another drink. Rixa Numeck appeared to be in no real rush to leave Kuat and Gyndine was the perfect place to keep an eye on him from. The contact he had trailing the younger Numeck brother was due to report in soon with an update, but until then Dain had ten-thousand credits more than he had the previous day and he was intent on spending as much of them on the finest ale that the rest station in the KDY orbital shipyard had in stock.

A human waitress appeared with a glass of fine Corellian Brandy that was five hundred credits per bottle. Dain had decided that with everything going on between the Galactic Alliance and Corellia these days that Corellian booze would become hard to find. The two forces were a path that would inevitably lead them to war.

Corellian's never backed down from a fight, never gave in to people who tried to beat them into submission. The Galactic Alliance couldn't allow itself to be seen as weak as the galaxy's governing body and thus would have to use a show of military force to try and bring Corellia to heel. It wouldn't work though, at least not without thousands of people dying in the process.

Dain laughed in amusement as he downed the Corellian Brandy. It was amazing at how quickly things could go sour, just ten years prior the entire galaxy had been united by the threat posed by the Yuuzhan Vong and now here they were getting ready to tear each other apart. It was the same old song and dance and it kept men like him well paid and in business. He continued to think about the way the galaxy worked for five more minutes before his datapad began to chirp. He pulled it from his pocket and swallowed the rest of his drink before activating it.

There was a line of text on the screen [STILL HAVEN'T RE-ESTABLISHED CONTACT WITH THE TARGET.]

Dain shook his head. [WHY NOT?]

[I AM STILL WAITING OUTSIDE HIS BROTHER'S HOUSE. WHEN HE SHOWS UP I WILL INFORM YOU.]

Dain practically jumped out of his seat and began to type furiously. [ARE YOU MAD? IF YOU THINK TYRAN NUMECK OR ARU NUMECK WONT NOTICE SOMEONE STANDING OUTSIDE THEIR HOUSE WATCHING IT YOU'RE A BIGGER FOOL THAN I THOUGHT YOU WERE.]

[I AM NO FOOL AND THEY WON'T SEE ME UNLESS I WANT THEM TO. IF NOTHING CHANGES IN THE NEXT HOUR OR SO I'LL SEND YOU A MESSAGE AND RELOCATE TO THE SPACEPORT AND KEEP AN EYE ON HIS SHIP.]

"If he hasn't already left!" Dain growled at his datapad's screen. [IF HIS SHIP ISN'T THERE YOU MIGHT AS WELL JUST GO AND SIGN YOUR DEATH WARRANT. YOU UNDERSTAND ME?]

[IT WILL STILL BE THERE. JUST TRUST ME.]

Dain growled again and turned off his datapad and tucked it away into his belt and ordered another glass of the expensive Brandy and told the waitress to just bring him the bottle when she came back. Trust was overrated. Trust got you killed. He poured himself a large glass of Corellian Brandy and drank it in one gulp.

"Wow, that's impressive." A female voice said from behind him.

Dain put the glass down and looked over his shoulder. A pale skinned human woman in her late twenties was leaning over the booth he was sitting in.

He shrugged as he poured himself another glass. "Not really."

The woman laughed. "You're a Mandalorian right?" She asked as she circled around the booth and took a seat in front of him.

Dain studied her for a moment taking in ever facet of her appearance. She walked with a sense of entitlement which suggested wealth or nobility, she was startlingly attractive with flame red hair and emerald green eyes. Her clothing however was very nondescript, The kind that you wore when you were trying to go unnoticed. Her eyes held a fierceness that suggested intelligence on a high scale and her overall posture was ramrod straight. The kind you got from being in the military.

Hapan. His mind said in the back of his head.

"Yeah I'm a Mandalorian." Dain said sensing a potential job offer coming his way. Even though he was working for someone who was practically throwing money at him for seemingly useless tasks, having more income coming in didn't hurt anything. "You're a Hapan Commando right?"

He noticed the immediate spark of alertness and shock on her face. It disappeared quicker than it had arrived though and the woman recovered quickly. "I am a Hapan yes but what makes you think I'm a commando?"

Dain laughed. "I think you know you're probably the most attractive female in this room, you walk like you're used to getting everything and anything you want and you have the posture of a lifelong soldier, but yet here you are wearing clothing that even one of the miscreants out in the lower levels of Coruscant wouldn't even wear."

The woman looked down at her appearance as if thinking about what he was saying and Dain decided to continue. "It makes me believe you're a special forces operator, what you're doing and who you're after I don't know, but I can tell you this: changing your clothing alone wont help you to blend in. You're target is going to see you coming from a thousand parsecs away unless you change every facet of your being."

"How should I do that?" The woman asked with a half-smile.

"Change your hair color, rub some dirt on your face, walk less like a woman with stature and more like a bum. Do whatever it takes to blend in with your target's surroundings and they won't ever see you coming."

"Maybe I could just hire you to kill my target for me."

"You could do that." Dain agreed. "My specialty is assassinations, but when it comes to writing up your after-action report and you have to have all the fine details of the kill, what would you write up? Plus I don't take jobs from soldiers who are to lazy or inept to pull them off. Go get yourself killed first then I'll take the job from your superior."

To Dain's bewilderment the woman's half smile turned into a full smile as she sat back and stared at him.

"You're not very soft spoken are you?"

Dain shook his head. "I don't know any Mandalorian that is."

"I'm Talisa." She said and extended her hand across the table.

Dain stared at it and noted that she hadn't offered her last name. He reached across the table and shook her hand and was surprised by the strength of her grip. "Dain."

"Well Dain, you're a Mandalorian. A mercenary extraordinaire. You are always looking for jobs to pay the bills and I'm looking to hire someone to do a few things for me. I'd like to hire you and your services."

"Like I said before I'm not going to hunt down and kill your target just so you can go and claim credit for it later. Unlike a lot of other Mandos I take pride in my body count."

"I'm sure you do." Talisa said. "But I don't need you to kill anyone."

"Then what do you want with me?"

Talisa shrugged. "The trip from Hapes to Gyndine was a long one and I've still got some traveling to do before I reach my destination."

"Which is?"

"Kuat."

"There's a lot of interesting people on Kuat." Dain said wondering why the planet was starting to figure into his daily routine at an increasing rate.

"Yes, but I'm only after one in particular."

"I'm failing to see how this pertains to me?"

Talisa smiled larger still and slid a swipecard across the table to him. He picked it up and turned it over in his hand a few times before shrugging.

"What's this for?"

"It's what I want to pay you for."

Dain shook his head. "Look I don't really have time for games so why don't you just get to the point."

"That's the key to my room." Talisa said as she got up from the booth. "I'll be on the station for the night, you're a smart man so I know you can figure out what I want."

She walked over to the turbolifts and disappeared a few moments later. Dain continued to flip the card over in his hand and poured himself another drink. He laughed as he thought about the fact that he had just been propositioned by a Hapan. The offer was tempting, he'd been paid a lot of money over the years to do a lot of different things but never what she was asking of him.

He didn't have a wife or girlfriend or anything like that waiting for him. He didn't even really have a home to go back to, he spent most of his time in places like the rest station, or the less than comfortable palaces of different Hutts or crime lords who needed his particular set of skills. There wasn't anyway that Talisa was going to be able to match the payments he received from those crime lords, and she definitely wasn't going to be able to match the careless spending of Iman Vitrix.

He finished his drink and headed for the turbolifts. He may not get a lot of money out of this arrangement, but either way you put it credits were credits. There was that fact and the additional fact that the proposition the Hapan woman had given him was a lot better that what he planned to do for the rest of the day. Yes Dain did think of himself as a smart man and felt like a smart man as he hit the call button on the turbolift and looked at the swipecard and the room number printed on it.


KUAT CITY, KUAT, 40 ABY
SIX DAYS AFTER THE ATTACK ON TORYAZ STATION


Tyran and Rixa walked in silence down the pedwalk a few blocks to Tyran's apartment. Tyran was still bothered by the decision his brother had made in taking the Red-Fang report. That was very volatile intelligence that had the potential to get not only Tyran into a deep well of problems, but his wife and son as well. Every cell in Tyran's body begged him to reach out and knock Rixa unconscious and take and destroy the Red-Fang report. But he couldn't do it. Tyran decided that he really did have to learn to trust others outside of the small inner circle he had created for himself. A small circle that his younger brother was not included in.

Rixa let out a half sigh and looked at his older brother. "Not that it's any of my business, but if all Aru wants you to do is spend more time with your son why don't the two of you just trade jobs for a while."

"What?" Tyran said.

"You take over Aru's job and let Aru take over your job." Rixa said. "It might also help calm the waters between the two of you. Let her know that you just don't stand around staring at a beautiful Hapan woman all day."

"I could do that but Aru and Neada aren't exactly friends."

"All the more reason to let her be your boss's bodyguard for a while." Rixa said. "You aren't supposed to become friendly with your charge Tyran. That's bodyguarding one-oh-one."

"Well after doing it for ten years it just kind of happens."

"Yeah, you know about her and Dyir right?"

Tyran nodded. "Yeah I've know for a while now. I've been meaning to talk to Dyir about it but just haven't gotten around to doing so yet."

"Too busy drinking?"

Tyran glared at Rixa and stared back out ahead of him as his apartment drew closer. Fear began to build at the base of his spine and worked it's way up to his neck as the building became ever larger with each footstep.

"Tell me how mad Aru is."

"Like on a one–ten scale?"

Tyran nodded slowly. "One being a disturbed nerf and ten being an enraged Krayt dragon."

"I think she was at Krayt dragon level before I showed up, but I think I calmed her down to about an upset Jabiim hunting wasp."

Tyran grunted. "What's that about a five or six?"

"Somewhere in there." Rixa said. "Just don't worry about it, just go in there and accept whatever punishment she decides you deserve and move on from there, more importantly make peace with your son."

"You always were the sentimental one." Tyran said.

"Yeah I know, that's why Buir left you the Tal'galaar and his crushgaunts. You're the aggressive one." Rixa said. His voice was thick with remembrance. "Where is the Tal'galaar anyway?"

"In a dedicated berth at the spaceport." Tyran said. "She get's proper maintenance and regular overhauls which I oversee. She's in good shape."

Rixa nodded his head as they came to a stop at Tyran's door. High pitched tweedling came out of the shadows as Jaya's R2 unit wheeled itself out of the darkness over to them.

"Rusty?" Tyran said as he looked over at his brother.

"Aw hell I forgot all about the little guy." Rixa said scratching at the back of his head. "I told him to come here when I landed yesterday afternoon and wait for me, but after talking with Dyir and Aru he just got pushed aside."

The droid tweedled in an angry tone and Rixa held up his hands in defense.

"Hey I'm sorry I left you out here..."

More angry tweedling.

"I'm sorry it rained while you were waiting..."

Even more angry tweedling. Tyran had started smiling as he stood back and watched Rixa argue with the small droid and started to openly laugh when the small droid extended it's shocking arm and zapped Rixa in the leg with it.

"Wow I've never seen a droid that angry with someone before." Tyran said after he had finished laughing.

Rixa was massaging his thigh and giving Tyran a rather unpleasant look.

"This is going to be nothing compared to how angry Jaya is going to be when this droid spins the story so it looks like I'm the forgetful di'kut."

Tyran didn't have time to respond. The door slid open in front of them and both men looked at Aru with surprised faces. Her eyes settled on Tyran for a few seconds before she flung herself on him and wrapped him in a vice-like hug.

"Where the hell have you been!" She said trying to sound angry but the relief in her voice washed out any anger she may have had.

Tyran was caught off guard by her hug and didn't know what to say at first.

"I've been around." He said slowly.

She actually laughed as she released him and gave Rixa a hug as well.

"Where did you find him? What happened?"

"In a bar, we got arrested and your boss bailed us out."

"You got arrested?!"

"I started a bar fight."

"Fights, at least seven of them from what I counted."

Aru turned back to Tyran. "You started seven bar fights?"

"I had some issues I needed to work through," he said sheepishly. "It just so happened I worked them out on the faces of a few Whiphids."

"I'm sorry." Aru said giving him another hug. "But if you ever just take off an disappear like that again, I'm going to kill you."

Tyran laughed tiredly. "I believe you."

Aru stepped back inside the apartment and motioned for them to come in. Tyran had dropped into combat zones under heavy enemy fire, he had faced the most monstrous enemy combatants you could ever imagine and he could never recall being as nervous as he was when he walked into his own home. It was empty though. No one was seated at the giant worshyr wood table, the living room was empty and the large vidscreen was off. He looked around the spacious interior of the apartment while Rixa and his still angry R2 unit entered the apartment.

"Where is Ijaat?" He asked.

"I finally managed to get him to fall asleep a few hours ago." Aru said.

Tyran nodded and pointed in the direction of their bedroom. "It's been a long day so I'm just going to go to bed."

Aru didn't try to stop him as he walked off and looked back to Rixa.

"Thank you."

Rixa shrugged. "It worked out for both of us. You got your husband and I got my intel. Regardless though we're family and your sister would have skinned me alive if she found out you asked me for help and I said no."

Aru smiled tiredly and nodded her head. "I would have called her if you said no." She looked around the empty living room. "When are you leaving."

"Probably tomorrow." Rixa said.

"Well you can stay here for the rest of the night if you want. We'll give you a ride to the spaceport tomorrow morning."

Rixa smiled. "Yeah that'd be fine."

"Good, I'll go get you some blankets and pillows. Make yourself comfortable on the couch."

Rixa did as instructed while Aru walked off to another part of the apartment. Rusty rolled up next to the couch and tweedled twice.

"I forgive you for shocking me, but if you ever do it again I'm going to sell you for scrap." Rixa said honestly as he patted the droid on the top of it's dome shaped cranium.

Aru came back in a presented him with a soft blanket and a pillow and told him to have a good night before she disappeared around the same corner Tyran had. Of all the things Rixa had thought himself as over the years a marriage councilor had never been one of them. He stretched himself out on the couch and felt rather satisfied with the results of his efforts.

**************

Aru walked into the master bedroom and found Tyran sitting on his side of the bed pulling off his shirt. She stopped when she noticed all the bruises that had formed along his back and ribcage. He didn't seem to be in any physical pain or hindered in anyway by the bruises, but then again Tyran had always had an extremely high pain tolerance. He tossed the shirt on the floor and fell over onto the bed and let out a tired and disgruntled sigh. Aru changed into her own night clothes before climbing into bed next to her husband and wrapped her arm around his bruised and battered muscular frame.

"It was good to see Rixa again." She said quietly.

Tyran just grunted.

"You know I had every intention of leaving you after you disappeared. I was beyond being angry or furious." She continued. "Ijaat is the only reason I didn't, he begged and pleaded with me to stay here and wait for you to come back and for some reason I couldn't say no to him. For one reason or another I called your brother and asked him to go looking for you. When he got here he had no problem speaking his mind after I told him everything that had happened. He took your side and told me that he didn't think you were totally in the wrong and that I never really looked at things from your point of view."

Tyran remained silent and Aru didn't know if he was actually listening or not but she knew he was awake.

"I never stopped and asked myself how spending so much time away from your family might be effecting you. I just assumed you enjoyed being in the company of Neada Tash for all these years and that we had become an afterthought. Instead of trying to get to the heart of the problem and work it out all I've been doing is making it worse. I didn't have to start in on you every time you walked through the door at the end of the day, but I did."

Tyran rolled over and looked at her. "Is this some type of apology?"

Aru blinked and swallowed. "I'm not going to apologize for anything I've said or done in the last few days. I am sorry that they hurt you but I'm not sorry for saying them, whether you like it or not they are the truth."

"You still think I'm a bad father?"

"Yes." Aru said after a few moments. "But I know you can change that, you're ten times the man your own father was so I know you have the ability to be a good father, you just have to make the time to become one."

Tyran shut his eyes and groaned. "Believe me when I say that I would love to spend every moment of the day with Ijaat, but you've been numbed to the dangers of the world by spending all of your time in classrooms and chillcream parlors. I don't just stand around in Neada's office all day staring at her while she does paperwork. She is every bit the soldier we are and thus likes to have an active hand in everything her department does. Hapans are dangerous at the best of times, but when you get one who has a grudge and has no problem sending death-squad after death-squad, they become something more than dangerous."

"I understand the danger she is in, it's why she pays us so much to keep her and her daughter safe, but I fail to see why you need to be with her ninety-nine percent of the week."

Tyran shook his head and couldn't believe he was about to suggest what he was about to suggest. "Look you want me to spend more time with Ijaat right? You want to see things from my point of view right?"

Aru nodded.

"Then how about we trade jobs for a while?" Tyran said actually taking his brother's advice which went counter to his every instinct. "You protect Neada and I protect Vyndra, and by extension spend some quality time with Ijaat."

Aru laughed at him. "Are you serious?"

"Yes, if it helps ease your concerns about my parenting abilities then yes I am very serious."

Aru nodded. "Fine, I'll finish out this month and we can switch jobs before the field trip to the KDY museum. If you can make it through that then we'll see about getting you into the regular school routine."

"I can't just show up?"

"No you have to get cleared by the city school board first, but I'm sure Neada can get Truan to grease the wheels a little if she needs to."

"I'll set things up with Neada tomorrow." Tyran said as he wrapped his wife up in his tree-trunk-like arms and pulled her close to him. He gave her a kiss and shut his eyes. "Just promise me you wont kill her."

Aru kissed him back and smiled. "I'll try to be a good girl."


KDY ORBITAL SHIPYARD, GYNDINE, 40 ABY
SIX DAYS AFTER THE ATTACK ON TORYAZ STATION


Dain was truly relaxed as any man could ever hope to be. He was laying in a warm bed with a beautiful woman who had paid him rather well for his company that night, which was quite the switch in his experience. The Hapan woman named Talisa was nestled against his muscular chest under the warmth provided by the blankets covering their bare bodies. She was breathing heavily as one did when in a deep sleep. Her flame red hair was matted to her neck with sweat from the events that had taken place over the last five hours.

The expensive bottle of Corellian Brandy was on a night stand next to the bed, drained of every drop of alcohol it had contained. Talisa had surprised him with her ability to hold her alcohol, she would have made a decent Mandalorian. Dain, still in a stupor induced by too much Brandy and an amazing night with a woman he would most likely never see again, allowed himself to think about the kind of woman he would have settled down with on Mandalore if he hadn't been burdened by the name of Dolvo.

He imagined his ideal woman would have been very similar to the woman he was holding in his arms at that very moment. She had revealed to him facts about her personal life that she probably wouldn't have it hadn't been for the drinks she had. It turned out that her name was Talisa Raldi and she was indeed a Hapan Special Forces operative in charge of an assassination squad bound for Kuat. She wouldn't reveal her target to him just that it was someone who had crossed the newly appointed Director of Special Operations some years ago.

He hadn't pressed her about her target, he'd had other things on his mind at the time, but now that he wasn't preoccupied he found himself wondering who she was being sent to assassinate. The thought was pushed from his mind as a soft buzzing sound emitted up from the floor. Dain sighed irritably as he tried to gently move himself out from under the soft weight of the Hapan assassin sleeping on top of him and reached down to grab his combat fatigues. His datapad was humming away in one of his many pockets. He grabbed the device and activated it to read a line of text.

[I HAVE REAQUIRED RIXA NUMECK.]

Dain stared at the screen in a mix of relief and disgruntlement. As much as he had wanted to hear that particular news he hadn't really wanted to be disturbed at this particular moment.

[GOOD. ALERT ME AS SOON AS HE LEAVES HIS POSITION AND TO WHATEVER HIS NEW DESTINATION MIGHT BE.] He typed in before shutting the device off instead of just putting it on standby.

"Was that your wife?" Talisa's groggy voice echoed up from behind him.

"Don't have one." Dain said dropping the datapad to the floor again as he laid back down on the bed.

"Girlfriend?" Talisa asked as she curled up next to him once more.

Dain shook his head. "Don't have one of those either."

Talisa grinned. "Give me you're commlink."

Dain gave her a curious look for a few moments before something in her eyes made him comply with her request. He reached back down for his fatigues and produced his commlink. She took it in her hands and pressed a series of buttons before handing it back to him.

"There, now you can contact me whenever you want to...get together."

She reached up and pulled his face to hers and kissed him before pulling away and started getting dressed.

"Time to go?"

"I've got an hour or so before my team leaves for Kuat." She said as she pulled on her pants. "Where are you headed after this?"

"I'm just doing some observation work for the government, wherever my target goes I go, or at least somewhere nearby."

"Where is you're target now?"

"Kuat."

"Small galaxy." Talisa laughed.

"Very small." Dain agreed. "I have an associate tailing my target actually, I'm no more than a hyperspace jump away from the actual location just in case I need to perform the lethal obligations of my contract."

"Does the government pay well for that kind of work?"

"I'm pretty sure the man I'm working for is part of the government, but I don't think I'm actually working for the government." Dain said. "If you get what I mean, but this guy pays ridiculously well."

Talisa gestured to the empty bottle of Corellian Brandy. "He must if you bought an entire bottle of that stuff."

Dain nodded as she stood up and pulled on her shirt. Dain suddenly didn't want her to go anywhere and looked at the commlink in his hand and pressed a button. Talisa reached into her pocket and pulled out her own commlink.

"Go." She said.

"You wanna get together?"

She smiled as Dain's voice echoed out from the commlink and hit her ears from behind. She turned around and beamed at him.

"The last few hours wasn't enough?"

"One for the road?"

"If I miss my flight I'm going to be in some serious trouble." Her tone was playful and her voice didn't carry and kind of fear of reprisals from her commanding officers.

"I'm sure you can handle it."

She laughed as he reached over the side of the bed and pulled her back down onto it. They engage in a kiss that became more passionate by the second and it wasn't too soon before she had forgotten about her scheduled flight altogether.

 

will do! Hopefully it'll be fast enough, but I'm balancing the lengthy chapters with a post-grade certification and curriculum mapping.
Never tell a teacher she gets summers off

For a woman who was wanted by the Hapans, Neada Tash sure could get her hands on a lot of Hapan goods.

Hey, when you have connections, some of them stay even when you’re on the run


"Tee-Dee it's the weekend and Mrs. Kioda didn't set any homework for the class to do. So why do I have to do these math problems?"

BECAUSE MATH IS AWESOME AND IT HELPS YOU THINK THROUGH PROBLEMS AND IT’S AWESOME AND THE LOOOVEEE
(Hi, my name is Pants, and I’m a math teacher)

It’s very cute how you call the potatoes topatos. I don’t know if that’s purposely for Vyndra’s pronunciation or if you’re making them less Earthly, but I like it.


Her husband could actually be blamed for a lot.

It sure seems that way.


I don't suppose and extra hour or two wont hurt anything."

‘an’ not and; ‘won’t’ not won’t. For whenever you go back and edit.
I do this. Ask Azure


it was no secret how Hapan women viewed men as nothing more than breeding stock and status markers.

Yup, which I hate. I actually like that it’s in “canon” fic, but that doesn’t mean I like their behaviours. I don’t like when it’s done for either gender in real life either.


But when it came down to it Vyndra wasn't her daughter and she had to do what was right for Ijaat

It would be horrid for Vyndra, but when our own beings are being destroyed, we can’t help others until we heal ourselves. Ijaat is a part of Aru like her soul


It didn't surprise her when the girl picked a documentary, it suited her curious nature

I’m in the process of received my supervisor’s certification and all that’s going through my head is the type of learner she is and what theory she fits most in. If I spurt out random crap that sounds odd, that’s why.
In a SW sense, that’s a pretty Mando of her – they learn a lot from the past.


"I don't know much about this other than what we've covered."

She can’t grow if she doesn’t learn something outside of what she already knows!

Poor girl though doesn’t realize just how terrifying the Vong war was.


It wasn't his fault that protecting Neada was a full time job and required him to spend the majority of his time with her. It had to be because Neada was a Hapan, and a particularly beautiful one at that, that Aru had become suspicious of his employer.

OK 1. He shouldn’t have to protect her 24/7
2. Family first.
3. Oh my goodness, what an arrogant jerk. I still think he’s good for Neada but he’s not a good husband or father at this point in his life.
4. Okay, his choice word of “unattentive” (inattentive) works as well.


*wince* I’m sorry. There were quite a few ‘wonts’ that should be won’t.


"How many times am I going to have to watch Ijaat fall to pieces, pull himself together and get shattered all over again?"

For real, man!


"She has some friends there. Your mother doesn't think I'm doing a very good job as a father and she told me she's going to leave and take you there with her to find someone who can do better."

NOW I’m mad at him. NOT a good husband at all!
Gah I still feel bad for him though.


"Well..." Rixa sighed. "I might just accept the mission and give it my best shot until Tyran does call me with the information."

That may not be the best idea…

"I know that if I really needed him that Tyran would do the right thing."

"The right thing for him or the right thing for the family?"

Jaya understand Tyran well.

Tyran missing is a major issue. Yipes!


"I'll take the job Colonel."

I knew he would. I was just hoping he’d learn something. Now he’ll get into trouble and not know why.


Fear that he may have underestimated Rixa Numeck warmed his blood

Rixa? No. The number and intensity of his connections? Yes.



I’m not a fan of Vitrix.

 

The "won't" thing is something I'm aware of. I use OpenOffice writer instead of Word and the auto correct does some pretty stupid things.

I like how you react to certain characters. It makes me feel that I'm doing my job as a writer. Hopefully Tyran can be redeemed in your point of view.

Yes. Don't like Vitrix. You aren't supposed to.

 

OpenOffice is annoying. Rawr.
*laughs* Got it about Vitrix! Yay I'm reacting to him correctly!!

Tyran has issues. He has more than he believes. He's not a BAD person. Just…unaware of a lot.

 

"Unidentified X-Wing this space is a secure military zone, state your name and purpose for entering the system." A voice thick with a Coruscanti accent said over the commlink.

Yeesh, definitely still paranoid. But they have reason to be.


Rixa considered contacting Aru to let her know he was in the system but figured she probably already knew.

He has a solid understanding of how the system is run.

"Make sure you're always wearing pants under your flightsuit, you don't ever want to have to make a quick escape in your underwear." Ruima Numeck had told his sons.

Well, that is excellent advice *laughs*


"Rusty, go to Aru's apartment and do a scan for any living lifeforms inside, send me a message on my commlink when you finish the scan.

Droids are spectacular


"No point, you're a Numeck." The guard said. "You're a walking weapon.

*cackles* I love it. His Tyran & Aru sure have made names for themselves.


"Why are you here Rixa?"

"Aru asked to meet with me."

"I don't believe that." Dyir said. "She knows how much of bad mood seeing you will put Tyran in."

Yeesh. Well then why else would he be there? *rolls eyes*

Dyir certainly sounds like he knows where Tyran is. At least the man’s not damaged.


Now that Rixa was standing in the center of the room he could see that the woman's hair had been pulled back into a quickly, and messily tied tail and her clothes were somewhat ruffled. He glanced over his shoulder at Dyir and noticed his appearance was just as disheveled.

*laughs* Well she certainly isn’t with Tyran at least


"How do you know all of that?" Dyir said marching forward. "That's all classified."

Shut up. You’re a jerk *sticks tongue out at him*
Also, helllooooo. You said you understood the Numeck family. They just know things, okay?


Rixa felt his eyes go wide. "You have my intel?"

"Yes, but I can't give it to you until Tyran is present. The three of us will need to discuss something beforehand."

Yay! Then not-so-yay


Dyir looked suddenly unsure of the strength of his secret.

It’s not dangerous & I’m sure Tyran doesn’t mind as long as Dyir’s productivity doesn’t decrease.


"Iman Vitrix." Dain Dolvo said coolly as he read over the classified intelligence profiled cascading down his heads-up-display. "Seems to have a knack for dirty jobs."

I was already getting that feeling.


It had been easy for Dain to hate Tyran and Rixa after that but truth be told, unlike the previous generations of Dolvos and Numecks, there was very little bad blood between Dain and the Numeck brothers. Probably because they had fought together against the Yuuzhan Vong.

Also maybe because they may be mature enough to understand why the hate was there in the past.
Maybe.
I’m glad Dain doesn’t have animosity towards the brothers. I can see him double-crossing Vitrix (after getting paid)


"Rixa, here's to hoping you'll keep your nose out of other peoples business." He said as his drink was placed in front of him. "That way I don't have to kill you. That way I wont have to face your brother.

All look, he’s already starting to.

"Dad? Do you think he might have come home?" His voice was hopeful and fearful at once.

I just want to hug the child close. Poor Ijaat.


"So," Vyndra said smugly. "Pink is a lighter shade of red."

"It doesn't count." Ijaat continued.

With landspeeders, I agree.


Aru marveled at how much Vyndra must have cared for Ijaat that she would rather have him angry with her than sad and depressed over his father. Yes there was probably something between them that would blossom and flourish as they matured and Aru entertained the idea of having half-Mandalorian, half-Hapan grand children.

Vyndra is a good friend.
Also, having Mando/Hapan children is a disaster that tickles me silly.


It could have been because of her jealousy that her husband spent more time with Neada than with her

OK so the jealousy is there, but about time. She doesn’t think they’re being disloyal to the marriage.


"Dad!" He yelled as he impacted the man like a stun round wrapping his tiny arms around the man's large waist. "You came back."

Well crap they really must look like twins if the kid can’t see the difference.
He’s also so excited that the differences didn’t process immediately.


"Sorry but I call them like I see them." Rixa said with a laugh. "Whats with the girl?"

*grins evilly* Children need to learn. I really like Rixa more now.


it became very clear he wasn't pleased at all with how his brother had been treated

Dude. She wasn’t pleased at all with how SHE AND HER SON were treated. Family honor, man. I understand you, but understand her.



"Did it ever occur to you that he might just want to hold you for awhile because he misses you?

MAYBE HE SHOULD ACT THAT WAY AND SHOW THAT HE DOES SUPPORT THEM BEYOND THE MONEY.



The end though, was good. Yes, that needs to be said much more often.

 

Your change of scenery does NOT confuse me as much as the one in Game of Thrones.

 

Lol. I'm nothing if not consistent...more or less.