Daughter of Mortis

The Hunt

"Governor Pryce is currently preoccupied on Coruscant, as it were," Kallus explained while the hover took them deeper into the capital city. "However, she expressed her great delight at Lord Vader assigning you here. She has granted you access to all high level security codes in addition to the standard ones. You have use of all our resources while you hunt Fulcrum."

"Thank you, Agent. I trust I will be given the perfect opportunities to put these resources to good use," Ania replied.

Agent Kallus nodded his head. "You will be staying in the Governor's apartment building. There are over 30 floors of rooms. Your's are on the upper level. One of the protocol droids will take you there."

They ceased talking as the hover slowed and began its descent onto a lading pad, jutting out of the Governor's building. The transport landed, but didn't stop its engines. Apparently Kallus was going out again.

"When will you begin your hunt?" Kallus called out as the transport prepared to lift off again.

"Today." Ania's sharp blue eyes glimmered with anticipation. She hadn't had a proper target in a long time, and if Vader had assigned her to this 'Fulcrum', then he must be hard to find.

She turned away from the hover as it took off. A silver protocol droid waited for her to approach before speaking. "Greetings. I am LD-15, your most humble servant. I have been assigned to you during your stay on Lothal. How may I be of assistance?" The droid obviously had a programmed memory bank.

I'll have to fix that before I tell this droid anything. Despite Vader trusting Kallus and Governor Price, I don't share the same confidence. She smiled politely at the droid before replying. "I am Ania Tano. Will you please show me where I may rest and unpack my things?" Not that she had anything to unpack.

"Of course, Miss Tano. Please follow me." LD-15 began to move in its jerky motions towards the outer lift of the Governors building. She entered a number into the keypad and the lift drifted upwards. They emerged on the 25th level. LD-15 opened a door marked 231 and stepped inside.

Ania surveyed the rooms, quickly casting her senses out to detect any system bugs. She found only three. Two were in the sitting area and one was in the bedroom portion. Ania quickly disarmed them and threw them down the garbage chute. LD-15 watched carefully as Ania worked.

"May I help you with anything else?" The droid asked.

"Actually, I need to access something from your memory banks."

"My memory banks? I'm afraid I don't compute."

"Don't worry. You will very soon." Ania quickly deactivated the droid and pulled out her tool kit. She detached the protective covering that shielded the droids inner workings and swapped out a few switches and wires. Lastly, she wiped the droid's memory banks clean. She activated LD-15 and stepped back.

The droid turned around in a circle, taking in its surroundings and looking as confused as a droid could. "Gracious me. I must've powered off." She turned to Ania. "I'm terribly sorry, Miss Tano. Perhaps I need to go to maintenance."

Ania waved a hand dismissively. "Not at all. There was a bug in your system. I rebooted you and fixed it. You're perfectly fine now."

The droid's eyes flickered momentarily, as she ran her diagnostics. "Ah, and so I am! Thank you, Miss Tano. Do you need help with anything?"

"I need a land speeder. I'm going to go visit the last place Fulcrum's comm's were intercepted."

"There are many on the landing pad. You may take your pick. The Governor has given you free reign here, within the legal boundaries."

Ania laughed. "Legal? Clearly the Governor has no idea what being a mercenary entails." She turned to leave.

"Will you need my assistance?"

"No, thanks, LD. You just stay here and power down for a while."

"All right." The droid deactivated almost immediately.

Ania checked that her weapons and munitions were still on her belt, then left for the landing pad. LD was right. She hadn't noticed when they initially landed, but there were three rows of land speeders and hovers. She took her pick, a 74-Z speeder bike, and flew down the stabilized ramp towards the ground.

She entered a set of coordinates into her navisystem and pressed the thruster bars forward, quickly accelerating until she was flying through the grasslands. She could see her target a good ways ahead. It was an old abandoned comm tower that likely hadn't been used since the newer comm towers had been built.

Ania sped forward in a cloud of dust, unaware of the monoculars watching her approach. Ania pulled to a stop at the base of the tower and parked the bike. She jerked her head around, feeling a sudden presence near her. A glimmer of a shadow met her eyes. Ania pulled a blaster from her holster and crept forward. She used the Force to open the sealed lift and quickly channeled power back into it. The doors opened silently in the control room.

The room was left in disarray. Control panels were busted open, electrical wires hanging out of them. To the side, there was a portable cot, proof that someone was still living there. The door to the refresher and the kitchen were shut. Ania tried to open them, but found them both locked. She backed away and cast her senses about the room. A familiar presence hit her like a maglev. It was a presence she had felt once, in a vision, but it was faint. Once the initial shock of it wore off, Ania could tell that the boy hadn't been there in a long time.

She shook off her paranoid feeling and began to check the system's catalog for recent transmissions. She plugged her datapad into the central computer module and began to reboot the system. Ania had it up and running within 30 minutes. She quickly ran through all surveillance footage and then through old and recent comms. There were spots where it was obvious some data had been erased.

"Hm," Ania cast about the room again. There were many presences this time. There was a Twi'lek, the human boy, a grown man, and a couple. The couple's presence was nearly nonexistent. They had obviously been gone for some time. Lastly, there was a Togruta presence besides her own. The Togruta's face was blurred from her mind, though, almost like it had been erased like the memory banks. There was no evidence of Fulcrum ever being there. Apparently, he was as good as Vader suspected. Finding him would be a lot harder than she had thought.