CrossFire in the Unknown Regions, 1300 hours
Null sat in the pilot's seat staring dully out of the viewport at the grey planet he had left only hours before. The ship was silent, just as it had been two years ago when he first arrived here. None of them had deserved to die.
We were just kids, he realized. He fell quiet again, then after a few minutes let his mind drift back to the memories of that day. They were like a jumble in his mind, but one stood out. It was a question he had asked himself since the day of the incident.
Who would do this? And why?
Null had pondered different answers, tested them, like a scientist testing a hypothesis, but none of them ever seemed to work. He slumped back more, his gaze slowly falling to the floor. Suddenly his proximity detector beeped loudly and angrily. Null looked up to see a red dot moving across the tracking system screen. It was moving quickly towards him. He sat up quickly and asked the computer for the ship's specifications.
*Unidentified*
Null sighed and prepped his weapons, starting up the engines quickly and swinging around the face the ship. As it approached, Null stayed ready for an attack, watching it grow larger in the viewport. Suddenly, he froze. That was the ship he remembered firing on him from outside--the Blaze. That was the ship that belonged to the being who had murdered his brother's. Null took in a sharp breath and instantly tensed for a fight again. The ship paused, though, only a few miles from his own. The comm beeped.
Answer it, or not? Null wondered. He struggled with the decision as the comm continued to beep, then he decided to answer it and clicked it on.
"What do you want?" he barked.
"So it is you, SC-02," came the malicious, venom filled voice of--
Null stopped. He failed to reply for a long moment, the only sound the humming of the ship's engines. His eyes suddenly darkened.
"You," he hissed.
Bacsa's voice replied with an almost light tone, "You sound pleased to see me."
"I'll kill you!" Null roared, reached for the targeting system for the ship's weapons system.
"Let's not cut to the pleasantries too quickly now, wouldn't you like to talk a bit first?"
Null just growled lowly, setting a lock on Bacsa's ship. No wonder the hunter had been looking for him on Coruscant. Null was the last one. The only one alive, and no doubt the hunter had intention to finish his mission.
Yeah well, I haven't survived this long for nothing, and I'm going to make him pay for what he did, Null thought darkly.
Bacsa suddenly pulled his ship back a bit after seeing the lock Null had on him. "Well then, I see we'll just get down to business." The comm then clicked off.
Null didn't pay attention to it. His eyes were fixed on Bacsa's ship and he had no intention of letting the hunter get away. He reached over, about to fire a couple of missiles when then comm beeped again. He slammed his hand down over the reject button and then fired the missiles, watching them arc towards Bacsa's ship with a dark smile. Bacsa's ship then dodged, swiftly speeding off to the left.
Kriffing hunter, Null thought and prepared another round of missiles, jerking his own ship into a new position, keeping on the bounty hunter's tail. Bacsa's ship was smaller and more maneuverable, however, in the wide open space, he was simply like a moving target. Null's eyes narrowed as he watched the other ship jink left and right in front of him while he powered up the laser cannons.
I've hit plenty of moving targets.
He carefully lined up his targeting system with Bacsa's ship, tracking the hunter from left to right. His lips turned up into a morbid grin as the lock held and he slammed his thumb down on the firing button. Red lasers streaked across space, but just as they were about to hit Bacsa's ship, the hunter's ship disappeared into hyperspace.
"Stang you kriffing chakkar!" he swore, standing up and slamming his fist down onto the console, glaring with bared teeth at the spot where Bacsa's ship had been just seconds ago. The hunter had been in his sights. Null stepped back and kicked the console hard. Then suddenly, something rammed the ship from behind, throwing hims forward. Null lost all balance, slipping and cracking his head against the console. White spots burst before his eyes and he slid down onto the floor, falling unconscious.
////
The Vengeance, 1300 hours
Sarge had tried to focus on his orders and what the Commander was saying, but his headache was making his mind reel.
"You'll need to make sure to watch out for the civilians. They are not a part of this and the Jedi's already told me that civilian casualties won't be tolerated," the Commander said, standing with his hands clasped behind his back as he paced in front of Mirage squadron. Sarge was supposed to be standing up, but the Commander had granted him permission to sit down.
"Any questions?" the Commander asked after moment. A couple of hands were raised. Sarge looked down, putting one hand to his forehead. Every person's voice sounded like a distorted yelling in his head and it hurt. He pushed back the pain, though. They hadn't been conditioned mentally on Kamino for nothing. Looking up, he focused hard on the questions and their answers. Seconds stretched into minutes, only they felt like hours to Sarge.
Finally the Commander said, "Alright, everyone is dismissed."
Those final words were sweet release and the Sergeant got onto his feet slowly, slipping his helmet on and hitting the noise canceler, turning to the door. Someone grabbed his shoulder, though, and Sarge turned, clicking the audio back on and turning the volume down considerably.
"Sergeant," someone called form behind him. It was the Commander.
"Yessir?" he asked in a more tired voice than intended.
"I wanted to give you the profile for the medic who is supposed be transferring to your team. I'm sorry it's such short notice, but you can't be sent on a mission like this without a medical expert."
He handed Sarge a thin file and patted him lightly on the back. The commander then added, "Speaking of which, get yourself down to the medbay and get checked out."
"Copy that," Sarge said and took the file, saluting informally and walking out the door after his men.
As per order, Sarge headed down to the medbay. He kept the file in hand, intending to read it while the medic checked out his head. He hoped they had something for this headache, though, because it was getting worse by the minute.
Reaching the medbay, he found one of the medics there, explained his condition and was then directed to sit down and wait until one of the junior medics finished up and could check on him. Sarge found a seat outside and sat down, closing his eyes for a moment. Then he opened them and the file as well. It was small, but then again, the war had just begun and most personnel files were small.
Battlefield medic, trained on Kaimino, 6', brown eyes, black hair...even though he didn't need too, Sarge read through everything, just to pass the time. By the time he finished the first page he could imagine the man just like any other battlefield medic. Grouchy when you didn't listen too them, overly focused on work, and no fun at all. He probably wouldn't have any problem fitting in.
"Sergeant Sarge?"
A junior medic stood across the room with a datapad in his hand. Sarge glanced up as if to question if the kid meant him, despite the fact his name had been called. The medic nodded and Sarge closed the file, standing up slowly. He slowly walked over.
"Follow me," the kid said. Sarge nodded and followed him down the pristine halls to a smaller room that was brightly lit. It was just an examination room, no advanced equipment, no medical bed, just a couple of chairs and basic med supplies.
"Go ahead and sit down," the kid said. His voice seemed to have a perpetual deadpan tone to it. Sarge took a seat, setting the file aside for now. He glanced around, looking over the different medicines kept in the room while the kid prepared a scanner. Sarge's eyes fell on one of the medicines, unlabeled except for a biohazard sign.
Wonder what it is, Sarge thought just as the medic turned with the scanner in hand.
"Can you close your eyes and hold still for me," the medic asked. Sarge nodded and turned back around, closing his eyes. He heard the beeping of the scanner as it circled his head. Finally he was told he could open his eyes again.
"What's the verdict?" Sarge asked, hoping it wasn't a concussion, cause that would mean sitting there even longer and the bright white of everything in the room was already starting to make his eyes hurt, which wasn't helping his headache. The junior medic simply stared at the scanner for a moment. After a minute or two, he looked up at Sage.
"Looks like it's just a major headache. I'll give you something for the pain and you should be fine. Just lay down and rest for about an hour and try not to get into loud conversations."
Sarge nodded as the kid set the scanner down and headed over to the medicine cabinet. Sarge's eyes fell on that bio-hazard sign again.
"Hey, what's in the bio-hazard section?" Sarge asked as the kid pulled open one of the transperisteel doors on the cabinet. The medic glanced up at the section Sarge had asked about.
"It's Hyprefideniox," he said. Sarge cocked one eyebrow.
How do they learn to pronounce those names? He wondered, but put the question aside for now.
"Why's it marked hazardous if it's medicine?"
The junior medic grabbed the other medicine for Sarge and closed the cabinet again. "Because it's not medicine," he said.
"If it's not medicine then why's it over there?" Sarge figured the kid was probably annoyed with his questions at this point, but that didn't matter.
"Same reason we keep sedatives and painkillers over there," answered the young medic.
Sarge realized he was getting nowhere with these questions so he changed his vector of approach.
"What's it used for?"
As the young medic grabbed an injector and walked over to the counter, he answered, "It's a termination serum."
Sarge's mind instantly flashed back to all the times on Kamino he had heard of clones being 'terminated' for defects. Personally the word struck a small chord of fear in his heart, even as a soldier bred and trained to kill.
"Why is it needed aboard a Republic ship?" he asked quietly. The junior medic finished putting the painkiller into the injector and turned to Sarge.
"In case of Triage. It's painless and laced with sedative, that way if the patience is still in a conscious but declining state, they won't feel anything. Merciful, I guess."
Sarge swallowed hard. Merciful wasn't quite the word he would have used.
"Hold still," the kid now told him and rolled back the collar of Sarge's body suit, injecting the painkiller into the side of his neck. Sarge tensed a bit, never having been fond of medicine, but he relaxed afterward.
"Alright, give it fifteen minutes and it should start helping with the pain. Come back if it get's worse or come back."
The medic set down the injector as Sarge stood, already feeling a little less dizzy than before.
"Thanks," he said. The junior medic just nodded, then Sarge grabbed his file, his eyes flicking back to the termination 'medicine', then he turned to the door and headed out.
////
The Blaze, Unknown Regions, 1500 hours
Bacsa felt no defeat. In fact he felt triumph because he had attained exactly what he needed, a complete scan of the CrossFire. He smiled as his own ship ran through all of the specs on the other ship. Bacsa himself, however, was putting on his battle armor. He wouldn't need the specs yet, only when it was time to bring SC-02 down.
Perfect place he picked, Bacsa thought as he gazed out of the viewport, pulling on his gloves. The vastness of space out here seemed endless. Plus, the fact it was once again the two of them in the outer regions seemed almost reminiscent of their first encounter. However, this time, Bacsa was determined that only one of them was walking away from this second encounter.
And it will be me, he thought proudly as he checked the vanes to his small arm-mounted flamethrower. As if perfectly timed, the scanner beeped that it was finished running the specifications and Bacsa stalked over there, glancing over them. He noted several weak spots on the ship that would bring it down easily and not harm 02 too much in the process.
No, he mustn't be harmed yet. It would be unfitting for him to die in the cold carcass of that ship. No, I will strangle the life from him with my own hands, Bacsa though with a morbid grin spreading across his blue lips and into his fiery red eyes. He checked the position of 02's ship and saw it was right in place. The bounty hunter sat down in the pilot's seat and reached for the hyperdrive initiation lever. Everything was in place, and now it was time to finish his mission.