although, it have this feeling it was shorter than others.

That I agree with.

Amen, I was feeling a little bored yesterday. Couldn't really think up something, so I just wrote my pre-conceived context matter. Besides the chapter was meant to do nothing more than report the destruction of Dolomiri.

Jarros looked out all alone. A slow, melancholic music surrounded him as he watched the serene beauty of Coruscant, several kilometres from its surface. Here, on one of Coruscant’s highest skyscrapers, Jarros leaned against the metal balustrade as his father hosted the party inside. He was alone, in the sprawling terrace, alone. He looked at his hands and saw his failure in them. His mind went back to about an hour ago, when he found his father conversing with some socialites, before the party had started.

As soon as he approached his father, his father bade the socialites to enjoy the party and requested some private time. But Kyvsa only looked out at Coruscant, his face enthroning severe austerity. Jarros settled near his father and tried making eye contact with his father, but to no avail.

“I am sorry.” He said.

His father said nothing, but hinted an expression of disgust.

“Father…”

“Sorry for what?” his father finally thundered. “I am the one who is sorry. You never deserved this responsibility.”

“There was no other way…”

“Do you know even half of how dangerous it is to get anywhere near Republic Authorities? Do you?” his father bombarded.

“I destroyed the Dolomiri Corporation, father.”

“At the risk of ruining ours! If it weren’t for me to bail your butt out of there, you would have risked a detailed Republic Investigation. Don’t you understand, Jarros? You have not sabotaged Dolomiri, they were destroyed as collateral. You have just magnified a rivalry in what could result as a full blown bloody war!”

Jarros sheepishly looked away, a feeling of guilt taking a form in him.
“The Exchange, the underworld, all of this is not a joke, Jarros. It is dark business and it is best that it remains in the dark. Why didn’t you let me and Al handle it? Do you understand how dangerous it is, involving the Exchange in this?”

Kyvsa then sighed as he ran out of breath. His face had grown red due to his anger.

Jarros couldn’t remember more of the admonishing his father had dealt out. His mind was reeling then, running to his thoughts, his dreams, all of which seemed so foolish now. He wanted to wipe it all way, he wanted to run. He leaned over the balustrade and saw the building stretching down for thousands of meters. He could just jump and finish it all.

Selven came and placed her hand over him, and looked at his face, illuminated by the warm yellow glow emanating form a light aqueduct along the balustrade. His eyes were almost teary-eyed and his face contorted from a torrent of hate, anger, frustration and a series of other dark emotions. He felt a soothing calm as Selven’s hand ran over him. He took it in his palm and kissed it lightly, without saying anything.

She had a face of concern over here and she was dressed in plainclothes. She wanted to comfort, yet seemed to think better.

“Leave me, Selven. I want to be alone for a while.”

“Do you want me to get something for you?” she asked.

“No, thank you.” He cordially replied and sighed as she walked away.
He stood silently, a loner in a seemingly successful party. Most people inhabiting the terrace had left for some sort of an entertainment function indoors. The Coruscant nightlife, which was normally busier than an intoxicated gizka, now seemed awfully languid. A cheering now and then, an applause and then there was more music and more of the hum generated out of the constant jabbering of dozens of mouths. Jarros didn’t want to enter this crowd, despite being a regular party animal. His mind was distraught with regret. He thought of the horror that he had witnessed, as the life of the Dolomiri CEO and several other high-ranking Dolomiri authorities came crashing down with the corporation. Workers fled to other avenues, the CEO went missing and all hell had broken loose.

Jarros imagined the same situation happening to the Czerka Corporation. He thought of the horror, as his riches were stripped away from him. His life, tainted with his own mistake. He shuddered at the thought. “I should never have done anything.” He whispered his mind elsewhere.

Suddenly a deep, authoritative voice replied, “Maybe you should have. Do you believe in destiny, Jarros?”

Jarros almost jumped and turned around, hugging the wall with his hands. In the air before him, suddenly materialized a liquid-like, transparent being. Soon colour restored to the being, and the floating cloaking vapours fizzled away from the skin. It was none other than Ancete, wearing a black suit of armour and a large black cape, which seemed to magnify his appearance in the dark. His crystal eyes reflected the bright lights of Coruscant and his face had a warm smile on it. He set his hand on Jarros’ shoulder and casually turned him around, as he stepped towards the balustrade.

“Do you believe in destiny?” he repeated, configuring his cloaking device from a touchpad on his wrist.

“Destiny?” Jarros echoed, his mind very distracted.

“Yes, destiny. I believe in destiny. It was your destiny, Jarros to have done what you did. And you did a good job.”

“Look, I don’t know what you’re doing here, or what business you have with me, but you should be leaving.”

“Relax. Davik sent me here as an ambassador of goodwill.” Ancete said, with a hint of irony.

“Goodwill for what? I’ve lost my career. Czerka is steering away from the Underworld and we have no reason to affiliate.”

“But we do. It is in our destiny, is it not? Jarros, you are naпve. Accept that.”
Jarros sighed, his face decorated by a contemptuous scorn.
“You must be a rebel, Jarros. Or else the world you are trying to enter will ravage you. Today you live surrounded by a comfortable enclave. Tomorrow you might be writhing in pain, betrayed, tormented and left to die in the far reaches of the galaxy.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Jarros asked, growing impatient.

“I owe you one, don’t I? I see potential in you, and a misfortune. A very terrible one.”

Just then, a sudden commotion arose in the party hall. The doors swung open and out poured the crowd, aimlessly running. Jarros rushed into the incoming tide, grabbing people and asking them what happened, but there were no answers. Ancete had gone missing. Jarros waded his way into the party hall, a massive room with intricate architecture. On the podium, which stood higher than the standard floor was Selven, waving out at Jarros. Jarros nodded at her and made his way to her.

He climbed up to the podium and looked back at the swarming mass of the crowd as it dispersed and then at Selven. He was perspiring; his heart was beating at a rapid rate. His face was glowing red. His eyes followed Selven’s pointing finger. There, he saw his father’s body sprawled on the floor. His back was scorched by laser fire, his gallant suit fried in a fire recently put out. The burn went all the way to his skin, and deeper. Jarros looked back at Selven, his face asking answers. But she was already pointing out to a narrow ventilation corridor opening. From what he could hear audibly in that chaotic moment, Selven explained, “It was a sniper! He penetrated security and shot your father!”

The world around him seemed to spiral into a dizzying collapse. The sounds and sights seemed to melt into one ephemeral scene, blurred and obscure. His mind raced, in an almost intoxicated stupor. He heard Selven’s words penetrate his ears, the ghastly sight of his father, the moments he had seen his father, the words they had exchanged an hour ago, the commotion of the crowd, Ancete’s prediction. Suddenly it all became apparent. “Ancete!” he cried in choked anger, as he spotted Ancete escape through the ventilation corridor.

Another good Chapter as always Sabre.

yes. incredible as usual.
great work, Sabre! nice to see Jarros got the firing every teen gets at least once in his lifetime :D :thumbsup:

Awesome chapter!

I liked this one alot, very good Sabre!

As his footsteps pounded the steel floor of the ventilation corridor, the Kel Dor Sniper realised that his heartbeat was almost accurately synchronized with his gait. He was running breathless, even though he wore a breath mask, an accessory necessary for every Kel Dor outside his planet. He slowed to a halt and dropped himself against a wall, panting for breath and looking in the direction he was running from. He had spotted the heinous beast called Ancete when he had started running. If Ancete’s ruby-coloured stare was any indication, the sniper’s life had just been halved.

Seeing nobody, he trudged wearily. Finding an idle lever, he pulled it down out of curiosity. A sound of grinding machinery followed, which startled the sniper. Soon a series of hisses followed and steam poured out. A large section of the wall, more like a strip, dislodged and slid up in a slight arc. The sniper walked in and the door slid back in, releasing another trigger of mechanical sounds. For a second he felt enclosed in a dark room, and then suddenly a great sliding sound came out of another door as it opened. The sniper realised that he was in an airlock all along.

The door slid open in an arc, like the first door. The sniper marched out and let out a sigh of relief as the heavy door slid to a close. He was standing on a large, empty platform several kilometres above Coruscant’s surface. The wind buffeted him and his cloths waved frantically, but the floor had been engineered to keep its occupants stuck on, even if they tried to jump. The sniper dragged himself to the edge of the platform and looked down, into a grey world of skyscrapers, and some gleaming lights. To his left was some sort of a residential section, evident from the high-rises and brilliant lightings. Far to his right were great plains of metal, electricity and magnetic forces, great devices that generated power and magnetic energy for Coruscant, among many other technicalities the Kel Dor could not understand.

“Hello.” A bass voice erupted from behind the sniper. The Kel Dor almost jumped and dropped himself. He looked back in a flash, against the lights of the building; he could see the dark silhouette of Ancete and his perilous horns. Suddenly a force seemed to throw him away from Ancete – it was weak, but unexpected, and seemed to come out of nowhere. The Kel Dor fell screaming, his limbs flailing into the world of Coruscant. Ancete grinned and dived in, like an expert diver. He torpedoed downwards, headfirst and caught up with Kel Dor, noting the use of his jet boosters on his shoe’s soles.

Suddenly a draft of steam pushed the sniper away from his path and he crashed into Ancete, how clutched his throat like a hawk. Turning around, Ancete turned on his jet boosters and gracefully arched his path to horizontal. Speeders zoomed past him, but he flew relentlessly, dodging in and out of traffic. His terrified companion squealed as every speeder passed. Ancete only clutched him harder, muting him.

With the glib, slicing hum of a stock engine, an Exchange-licensed speeder slid below Ancete. Ancete descended into the speeder, which was piloted by an Exchange greenhorn. He tossed the Kel Dor into the seat to the far right of the open-seated speeder and placed himself in the middle. With a quick hand movement, he signalled the greenhorn to shift course. Ancete then turned to the terrified Kel Dor.

“Who paid you?” he asked threateningly.

The Kel Dor refused to answer, sputtering a few incoherent syllables. Suddenly Ancete slapped the Kel Dor with lightning speed, but the Kel Dor seemed to be waiting for this. He ducked and quickly shot the pilot’s arm with his pistol. The alarmed pilot, who was manually driving the speeder caught his hand, throwing the speeder’s wheel off-balance. The speeder made a sudden bank, throwing the pilot almost out. Ancete slipped, but caught onto the speeder, which had banked almost vertical now. Suddenly came the piercing cry of the pilot as he was rammed into by another speeder.

The Kel Dor jumped on to Ancete and hit the eject button which he had spotted earlier. The speeder was almost turning over, when the pilot’s seat shot out of it. The Kel Dor was pushed by the seat as it accelerated. Ancete, who had been hanging off the speeder precariously had caught it as it had launched off, throwing the speeder off-course and out of control. He dug into the seat, which crashed into a skyscraper, which was most likely a site under construction. Flipping out his blaster pistol he carefully watched the scraper, till as he had expected Ancete jumped into the building and began racing towards the sniper.

The sniper turned around and found a ramp going to the floor below. The rolled in and found himself in a quaint speeder dock. Jumping into a red speeder, he hurriedly bypassed its security and activated its controls. He then turned and shot the speeder out of the speeder dock, just as Ancete entered.
Ancete had another idea up his sleeve. He jumped into a silver speeder, near the end of the dock. He casually started up its engines and brought up his comlink. He signalled surrounding Exhange agents to lock onto the Kel Dor’s signal and bring down his ship. There were four agents in radius, who calmly changed course and unnoticeably surrounded the Kel Dor’s ship. Ancete monitored their progress through a holographic map on his wrist.

The agents calmly floated around the sniper, and then began to close in slowly. Suddenly the Kel Dor guessed their plot and dove deeper into Coruscant. The agents reacted quickly and trailed him, forcing his path away from the Coruscant traffic. Once out of the limelight, they opened fire on him with high-speed lasers. The Kel Dor attempted quick dodges, but eventually his fuel tank was hit, and then his engines. The explosion rocked his cockpit, throwing him out in an ejection seat. He landed on a Coruscant rooftop.

“Alright boys. Paychecks will be verified.” Ancete announced.

The agents spread out and dispersed into the crowd, becoming anonymous. Ancete landed on the empty rooftop of the building where the sniper was fallen. He had suffered an injury, seemingly. His clothes were in ruins, and carbon scoring was fairly visible. He lay breathing laboriously by the rooftop’s rim. He did not try to struggle as Ancete came up and squatted in front of him.

“Quite a slippery character, aren’t you?” Ancete asked, and received no reply.

“Now, we’ll do this easy. You’re the sort of guy whom the Exchange will benefit from. You’re real good at hit-and-run… heh. I take it you are freelance?”

“Ingel-Katari Mercenary Pool.” The sniper replied hoarsely.

“Ah! The Ingel-Katari! The greatest Bounty Hunter guild in the galaxy. I didn’t know they picked up scum like you these days. A shame. I was one of their finest, before Davik’s offer. I’ve served both Ingel and Katari with honour – two great women, those. Who assigned you?”

“Anonymous.”

Ancete shook his head and got up. Sighing, he placed his foot on the rim and looked down, into the urban abyss of Coruscant. He fired a grappling hook from his wrist, which caught onto one of the appendages sticking out of the building. He then held the Kel Dor firmly and wrapped his neck with the hook’s wire and carefully placed the Kel Dor’s body so that the alien’s head stuck out of the rim.

“In my years of experience, friend, I’ve learned one thing.” Ancete spoke, “A man never lies when he knows his death is near. Once I press this button, the grappling hook with go back to my wrist, and slice your throat twice.”
The Kel Dor let his head hang helplessly.

“One last time – who hired you?”

The Kel Dor sighed and answered, “Red Polly.”

“Are you sure?” Ancete asked.

“By my life.”

Ancete nodded. He hit the button on his wrist. In the very next second, the Kel Dor’s head was severed in a bloody execution. Ancete then lifted the body and tossed it over into Coruscant, following the head.

Ancete had a slight smile on his face. The Kel Dor had known that he was near his death, and so he told the truth. Ancete smiled at the irony of it all.

Another good Chapter Sabre. Looking foward to more as always.

Neato chaptero Sabero. Action-packed chapter.

Revan’s ship rolled and dived spectacularly, jumping into the heat of the action, and back out suddenly. One moment is seemed to skate across the surface of a Republic Cruiser, like water off a table. His specially modified Jedi Starfighter had one extra Ion Drive, and an arsenal of Republic-sanctioned weaponry. Many of those who chose to counter the vessel of Revan ended up being a loss. Revan would lock on to them; lead them on a wild goose chase across the battlefield until they lost interest in him. He would then turn around and silently shoot them down one by one, individually.

His starfighter used modern Artificial Intelligence and was optimized to handle many menial tasks without querying the user. Building up on these macros, the system’s AI had reached spectacular levels, where the ship’s autopilot was like hiring a highly-trained droid pilot. Revan charged his long-range cannon and after seeing the coast clear, hit the fire button. A powerful laser shot travelled kilometres in space, through the middle of the battle, risking the possibility of a rogue fighter, and finally connected to Revan’s target, instantly pulverising it.

As he banked and took cover in the shadow of a Republic Cruiser, Revan watched the beauty of space – blank and clean. The Republic Captain in the conflict, which was a quarter parsec off the budding economic world called Muunilinst, was a capable man. He was quick to make judgements and did not hesitate to consult, as he now did, seeing that Revan was not preoccupied.

“Revan, I’ve received one more distress signal from Corvinia Prime. Their fifth-level defences have been breached and the base is in a state of emergency. The Mandalorians are overrunning the planet!”

“What reinforcements are they requesting?” was Revan’s cold-voiced reply.

“Heavy, we and the 47th are the only two major battle fleets that are capable of driving the Mandies off of Corvinia. I say we move in, the defensive forces at Muunilinst can repel this attack.”

“No, captain. We have them in our grasp. Take as many prisoners as possible and eliminate the rest. This is one battle to be won.”

“But at what cost! We cannot abandon a planet as useful as Corvinia!”

“Just do as I say, I have another idea for Corvinia.”

The Captain seemed hesitant to follow Revan’s orders, but then he nodded and signed off. Revan then contacted the long-distance comm. Systems of the Republic Ship, the Shen Aft Mant. From there he sent a message to the 47th Fleet, an important battle fleet, consisting of battle-worthy troopers.

“Captain Fallmir, I bear a message. My scouts report that Corvinia Prime has been silently overrun by the Mandalorians, and that they are using underhanded methods like distress signals to draw in loose Republic ships. Do not respond to the distress signal at Corvinia Prime, I repeat – do not respond. Retreat to Muunilinst, if you not already preoccupied and make it fast. I have to assemble a plan to counterattack Corvinia Prime.”

The only reply he received was an obedient “Yes Sir” from Captain Fallmir.


Ancete rinsed his throat from a wall-mounted water dispenser.

“Yeah, and you won’t guess whose name he took.” He spoke into his in-built comlink.

“Who?” asked the Informer.

“Red Polly. My suspicions were right. That imbecile was double-crossing us all along.”

Ancete walked along the sleek hallway of a massive office building. It was illuminated by a high-density glass wall to the right, which let the shimmering Taris sunlight enter. He was headed towards Red Polly’s office, and had permission from Davik, who was busy in an Exchange meeting.

Ancete cut his connection as soon as he reached the glossy auburn doors with an electronic nameplate that read “Tylatte Bordes”, a fictional name. The door opened to reveal a lavish office, complete with priceless furnishing and decorations. Red Polly’s personal room had floor-to-ceiling windows spanning the walls, a glass roof that revealed an aquarium and lush, violet carpeting on the floors. Polly looked up and posed a friendly, respectful smile that was obviously faked.

“Ancete! What brings you here?”

Ancete marched straight towards Polly and jumped onto his table, crushing it under his claw-shaped feet. He grasped Polly by the collar and held him aloft. His other hand was clenched and in position for a remarkable punch.
“What the hell?” Polly whimpered.

Ancete’s blow connected to Polly’s nose, who went flying and knocked against his glass window. His nose bleeding, he looked up disgustedly at Ancete.
“You killed Czerka.” Ancete spoke as he pounced beside Red Polly.

“Bantha fodder!” he cried and rolled away, and to his feet. He took a quick step towards his alarm switch, mounted on his table. Before he could move a limb, the alarm switch exploded in a shower of flares as Ancete blasted it with a mini-rocket.

“I didn’t do it!” Polly cried, backing away.

“Really? Let’s see, then.” Ancete spoke menacingly as he inserted a holodisc into the holo-reader in Ancete’s table. The recording showed the brutal end of the Kel Dor spy. Red Polly watched the recording in horror.

“Lies. All lies!” he spoke. His face had gone pale.

“I have been tracing your outgoing connections and some of them are reporting Anonymous and Unknown locations. Presumably… assassins?” Ancete spoke.

Red Polly shook his face.

“What does it matter to you if Czerka dies?” he spoke, almost pleading.
“It proves that you’ve been carrying out processes not sanctioned by the Exchange, or Davik. And secondly, Czerka was in an alliance with the Taris Exchange. We don’t like losing our allies, you know. And thirdly, if the media or the Republic traces the murder to you, you will screw me, Davik and all of the bloody Exchange.” Ancete answered, with slow steps towards Red.

Suddenly a grappling hook attached itself to a wall beside Red Polly. In a flick of a wrist, Ancete wrapped Polly’s neck thrice with the hook’s line. He then sat on the table and smiled devilishly at Polly.

“Tell me, who were you working for?”

Red only stared intently at Ancete.

“Dolomiri.”

“And where is Dolomiri?”

“I don’t know.”

Ancete pressed a switch on his wrist, and the hook came back into his arm. It was bloody. Red Polly’s severed head rolled on the floor.

A man who knows his death is near never lies.

Awesome chapter Sabre! Action filled, and it was nice to see Revan in it.

Great comeback Chapter Sabre. Haven't seen you post anything for this Fic in a while and I thought it had died. Anyway, like Jason said, plenty of action and it was great to see Revan in it. Looking foward to more.