Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3873304" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 535: The Twi'lekHutt Space was, indeed, a mess.    The first thing the Vong had done was to completely annihilate Nar Shaada and then invade, and begin to terraform, Nal Hutta. The slugs had scattered from their homeworld immediately, most heading to Outer Rim worlds out of the way of the invasion. Some, though, had dug in and were attempting to fight back or, at the very least, survive.    But fighting for the Hutts was not an easy task. In the form of slaves, they had armies, but they were only armies in the sense that there were so very many. The Rodians, Aqualish, Nikto, and other species within Hutt space were never truly trained soldiers as much as trained to at least pull the trigger of a blaster. Against a fighting force such as the Yuuzhan Vong, it just did no good at all.    And there would be no help from the New Republic. Not only was Hutt Space now behind the front lines, which had extended to the Core Worlds in just under a standard year since the Vong had begun their invasion, but the Hutts had never been a member of the New Republic. The New Republic barely had enough of a Navy to protect its own stretched borders, let alone the sections of the galaxy that were supposed to be independent of them. So the Vong controlled the skies, as it were, with the slugs and what was left of their henchmen that remained in the sector down on just a handful of planets below.    Kartne was one such world, located galactic north of Nal Hutta. In fact, it was on the edge of Hutt Space, very close to the Wookie homeworld of Kashyyyk. While it was generally a habitable planet, mostly consisting of large stretches of mountains, valleys, and a few forests of very unique looking trees, there was no life native to the world. It had, for years, simply been left alone with only a small settlement consisting mostly of traders and smugglers. Now, however, a Hutt called Torno had moved into the old settlement with a few members of his family and a fairly large number of underlings. All in all, it meant that Kartne’s single settlement, which didn’t even have a name because no one had felt the place needed one, was a surprisingly well defended collection of geometric, modern buildings crafted into a mountainside not far from a very large canyon.    Beyond a small scouting party of sixteen warriors, the Yuuzhan Vong had not yet attacked, and Torno’s meager fleet, more a handful of ships really, was in orbit as a sort of first alert system, waiting for the Vong to arrive. And they would. It was foolish to think otherwise, especially now that the Vong within Hutt Space seemed to have made it their mission to wipe the slugs off the face of the galaxy.    This, of course, didn’t bother everyone.    Walking through the streets of Kartne was a somewhat short, young looking, blue-skinned Twi’lek woman who was one of the few within the city that didn’t care if all the Hutts were killed. She was not a slave like most Twi’lek females were, and also made sure to wear very normal clothes that covered most all of her, even a pair of black gloves, to make that point well known to everyone around her. The blaster at her hip, which was a good sized, new model carbine and not just some stupid little pistol, and the vibroblade sheathed on her left arm also helped to emphasize this point.    She had arrived on Kartne with Torno and his men just a week prior, the so-called fleet having, at the time, been at Rodia preparing to move to Tatooine, where many of the ruling Hutt families were beginning to use as a new base of operations. But with Rodia’s sudden attack by the Vong, Torno made a rash decision. Where the other Hutts made the relatively short hyperspace jump to Tatooine, Torno decided to go the opposite direction, back towards Nal Hutta and, supposedly, hiding ‘right under their noses’.    This was just further proof to her that Torno was an idiot, as Yuuzhan Vong didn’t really have noses, just skeleton-like slits instead. There was, in fact, nothing to be under. But despite this, she stayed with Torno’s ‘fleet’ and headed to Kartne.    And, currently, she was being followed.    This wasn’t a very rare occurrence, sadly. The Hutts created a culture in which it was dangerous to be female, and being Twi’lek didn’t help. The henchman and other idiots that followed the Hutts from planet to planet, like the two wrinkle-faced Weequay and the three leather-skinned Nikto following her now, seemed to assume that Twi’lek women, especially, were not only weak creatures but only existed to please them.    So, rather casually as if it was where she was going the entire time, she turned and stepped into a smaller side street that might have originally been designed to be used for drainage. The water, gods she hoped it was water, under her feet as she stepped into the narrow alley hinted that it was still used for that.    Light splashes behind her indicated that she was being followed. She was stupid enough to turn around and check. Instead, she simply got a good way down the alley, to the point where she could see the wall of another building at the opposite end, then turned around and drew the carbine from its holster.    Despite the weight of the weapon, the frail-looking Twi’lek raised the blaster carbine easily in her right hand and aimed it at the approaching group that was beginning to slow down upon seeing the situation. How they had missed the weapon at her hip was beyond her, but it was probably assumed it was just for show and she couldn’t use it.    Just to make sure they understood the situation they had walked into, she spoke in a soft voice in Huttese, “This is the point where you boys do the smart thing and go the other way.”    Two of the Nikto glanced at one another, but they all continued to come towards her. After they all took a few more steps in the small alley, she could see vibrodaggers drawn and even a blaster or two. One of the Weequay said something in a harsh, grating voice but it was in his native language and she didn’t understand it.    But she knew two languages they would understand, without a doubt. One of them, she’d already tried. With Huttese failing to get the point across, the Twi’lek woman used the other: she pulled the trigger of her carbine.    The red blaster bolt lit up the darkened alley before slamming into the lead Nikto and sending him into the two others behind him. But the shot did not have the intended effect of deterrence. Instead, the other four let out loud cries of anger and came after her.    Blaster pistols fired and scrapings of metal against metal, too. There were cries, more blaster shots, and splashes and thuds that echoed within the tight alley, but they only lasted a little more than a minute. When there was silence again, the Twi’lek was the only one standing, and she was holstering the carbine while wiping off the now-inactive vibroblade before returning it to its sheath.    A few moments later, and she let out a very loud, annoyed sigh. [Loki, we have a problem.]    He was on the side of the settlement, beneath cover with the rest of the transport vehicles that didn’t have any weapons...well, that Torno knew about. [How many this time?]    Marix glanced over her shoulder, but found herself staring at a blue lekku and then shook her head in annoyance. [Five.]    [Can’t hide that many.] he spoke her thoughts, as usual.    Despite him being kilometers away, Marix nodded and fell into her casual walk again. It wasn’t comfortable, but her center of balance was odd in this body and it just seemed to work for how she was currently built even though she had never walked like this except as a Twi’lek. [Get yourself ready to leave as discreetly as possible. I’m going to get moving here. No more time to do this carefully.]    There was a short pause as Marix made her way down the not-at-all crowded street towards where Torno had set up a main residence of sorts, then Loki’s ‘voice’ returned. [Keep your ears up, Marix. You know the Vong are going to finally attack the second we have to leave.]    He was right.    That was how it would work. Just like back on Rodia, when she’d gotten close to getting the information she was looking for, the Vong would attack. But then, she’d decided to play it safe and not get caught up in a two-way fight, instead falling in with Torno’s fleet and retreating with him to Kartne. Now, though, Marix had to get the job done.    The Peace Brigade was picking up its actions ever since the Vong Warmaster had called for all Jedi to be turned over to him. And even though the Hutts were on the run from the Vong and the Peace Brigade were technically allied with the Yuuzhan Vong, there was still an old connection between the two organizations. There were undoubtedly many spies amongst Torno’s people, too. One way or another, something would be able to trace to the Peace Brigade.    The call for the Jedi meant that Yavin IV was going to be attacked. Of that, Marix had no doubt. Someone would try to profit from that or save their world or something else utterly selfish. If she could get inside the Peace Brigade, figure out who was really in charge and getting things moving one direction or another, Marix might be able to take it down from the inside. Originally, she had planned to go straight to Yavin to find Tobias, but when she’d learned of the situation in the galaxy, something told Marix that dealing with the Peace Brigade was the way to solve the problem.    Besides, the last thing the kid needed was his mother appearing to save the day yet again. She would do what she could from a distance, but Marix knew that a time would come when he’d have to learn to take care of himself. And so she’d stay out of view and deal with the Peace Brigade...tactically, it was rather foolish, but something about it just felt like it was something she needed to do.    Turning a corner, Marix casually slipped around a pair of humans, both of whom gave her a good look over as she went by, and started towards the large building up ahead. It was guarded, of course, but everyone in the settlement was there because they were part of Torno’s group so she would be able to walk right in. Once she was inside, however, was when it was going to get interesting. Marix was going to have to keep herself well hidden and be very careful so she didn’t have to explain why none of the guards recognized her, or why she was snooping around areas she was definitely not meant to be.</blockquote>

Verification