Back in the Game (COMPLETE)

9.10.2

To their credit, the Republic did their best to censor Barriss's escape. The Republic-affiliated channels were forbidden from reporting, but the private news platforms were a little late to get the memo. The Republic took down their articles, but not before other news stations based in Separatist territory caught wind of it. The integrity of the story weakened as time passed, but it wasn't long before rumors were spreading. Offee had escaped, again.

Not that Dooku had paid much attention. He had ranks to fill and Offee was not on his list. She would have been, but all of the young women on his list had been crossed off. He couldn't risk another liability like the last two. Especially Force-sensitive liabilities. 

One of his teams had finally wrangled Cad Bane, and he was being held in an interrogation chamber for the time being. Dooku had called a meeting with the rest of his recruits in about half an hour, which Bane had half an hour to either comply with or refuse his offer. Dooku was hoping for the former, but his hopes were not very high. 

Dooku stepped inside the chamber and sat across from the bounty hunter. Bane did not look impressed in the slightest, and he was panicking just a little bit from what Dooku could sense. Good, it would make him desperate. 

"Let me guess," Bane muttered, hiding his eyes beneath the exceptionally large brim of his hat. "We're here ta' do business."

"Certainly," the Dark Lord affirmed, folding his hands on the table, "but not in the same fashion as before. You have two options before you: accept my generous offer and reap the benefits of compliance, or to die."

Bane spat on the table, and turned his face away. "I know what the alternative is, Count. I heard 'bout the others you dumped on Coruscant."

He did not change the expression on his face but instead reached to his belt. "You are not like the others. You know too much information, much of which would be valuable to the Republic. If you refuse," he set his lightsaber on the table, the opening facing Bane, "you will only be leaving this room in a body bag."

The malicious lightsaber hilt pointed at Bane made him falter. Never before had he stared down the throat of the weapon, but it was not unlike the threat of a blaster barrel in his face. "So what is this 'generous offer'?"

"I will provide transportation and resources for one journey, the location of which has already been determined," Dooku began. "There will be no return trip. You will be released at this location, and you have one mission:" He leaned over the table, with a eery gleam in his eye. "Wreck as much havoc on that planet as you are capable."

"You're launching a terrorist attack?" Bane questioned, twisting away from the cuffs that held him to the table. "I'm a hunter, but I'm no terrorist. That's not a mission, that's a commission. You better be paying some good money if you think I'm going ta accept."

Dooku raised an eyebrow, and stood up to pace around him. "I am under the impression that the mission ought to pay for itself. After all, imagine how many ships will be waiting to be commandeered, how many banks will be waiting to be looted, how many valuables will be waiting to be stolen. You say you are a hunter?" Dooku stopped behind him, and leaned over his shoulder, much to Bane's discomfort. "Imagine what prey might be waiting for you there."

Bane didn't breath until Dooku moved away from his face. When he did, Bane held up a finger in his direction, although the cuffs around his hands didn't allow for much motion. "I've been on the other end o' your deals before, Count. I can't think o' one where I haven't been screwed over. There's always some term o' condition I 'fail' to fulfill."

It's not my fault you're an incompetent failure, Dooku would have retorted, but he spoke with patience in the way his master used to. "Your reward will depend only on your performance. I want no part of your loot, only your compliance. You will only be caught if you let yourself be caught, and you will only earn a reward if you secure it yourself. You have sixty seconds to make your decision."

Dooku sat back down and let his words work their way through Bane's mind. It really was in his best interest to cooperate, but no doubt he was having difficulty seeing it that way. That was quite all right, though. He didn't need Bane, he just wanted to give him a chance to get ahead in life.

Every alarm bell in Bane's head was going off. Neither of the options sounded favorable at the moment and he was getting desperate for a third. He knew that if he didn't say yes, though, that lightsaber would turn on and he'd be dead in a second. His survival instincts won out.

"If you hang me out to dry again," he threatened, "I'm comin' to kill you."

"If I did not want you to benefit from this," Dooku retorted, "I wouldn't let you live."

"I'll carry out your cowardly commission," Bane decided, somewhat defeatedly, "but then I'm done."

"Wonderful," Dooku agreed, taking back his lightsaber and undoing his cuffs. Behind Bane, a door opened, and two battle droids walked through. "These droids will escort you to the mess hall. I have an announcement to make to you and your fellow volunteers."

Bane didn't like the sound of that but Dooku gave him no chance to respond. Once outside the interrogation chamber, though, the droids gave him his weapons back, so it kept him happy enough to comply.

The droids did indeed escort him to a mess hall, but an empty one with nowhere to sit and only a podium in the front. He decided the best course of action now was to hide out in the corner and wait for whatever was coming. The sooner he got this over the with, the sooner he was free again.

Other people started filing in, and they looked about as informed as Bane was. They too looked for things to occupy themselves with, but then familiar faces started to trickle in too. Those who were allies, or at least not enemies, made small talk to fill the silence, others just stood around, paranoid. Eventually, fifty people, all of them bounty hunters, assassins, or of the like, filled the room. Then it was a hundred. Fifteen minutes later, all of them were packed into the mess hall like sardines and Dooku still hadn't shown up yet.

Someone in a mask, Bane couldn't remember who, approached him and asked, "You know what we're doing here?"

"Other than catering ta' the Count's every whim?" Bane complained, crossing his arms. "No."

"I'm surprised you're in on this," the masked man admitted. "I thought you would have bowed out for sure."

Bane pulled a blaster from his hip and scrubbed at a scuff mark on the barrel. "Well, a lightsaber pointed at my chest made a pretty convincing argument otherwise."

Finally, Dooku revealed himself and he stood on the podium, waiting for silence. How over three-hundred freelancers managed to become quiet at all was beyond Bane, but then again, the Count had a reputation for killing people who didn't listen to him.

"All of you are being deployed to Corellia," he began, not bothering to soften up the announcement. "I will supply any weapons, small vehicles, and other accessories you may desire, as well as one cruiser to transport you there. Once you are on the surface, I will withdraw my generosity, but it will be given in the good faith that once you are on Corellia, you will reap the treasures of the commonwealth. Take anything you wish for yourselves, and destroy anyone who tries to stop you."

"That seems like an awful cheap move for a Sith!" someone from the middle of the crowd yelled out, and many people around him chorused in agreement. 

"Indeed," Dooku growled lowly, but he put on a pleasant face once more. "I know the reasons you became what you are now. You became lowlifes out of need, or for some of you, out of pleasure. And to that, I say: 'Who am I to deny you that need, or that pleasure?' You have as much of a right to those things as any person on Corellia, and yet it others who hoard such treasures, such necessities."

Almost none of them could tell, but his words were now laced with the Force. Dooku knew how far a little bit of a push could go. He had seen his master do it multiple times with those he wanted to bend to his will. All that was needed was for the victim to believe that their will was what his was. A wide vocabulary and a bit of meddling with the mind accomplished that beautifully.

"This day is about leveling the field of play," Dooku declared, going on now that they were engaged. "Take what you rightfully deserve, and to those who would withhold that from you, show them no mercy. I require nothing of you but that you carry out your own justice to the world of Corellia. You need not ever return, nor do I require a tax on your reward. Simply collect what you will and do with it as you please. Do I have your word?"

Unfortunately for Corellia, they did.