FORSAKEN - Target: Zero

CHAPTER TEN

Elynn stared at the Imperial Palace in the dawning horizon. To her, the great ziggurat with its five tall spires would always be the Jedi Temple, no matter how many banners they hung outside it. The warm feeling of the sun and the cool breeze against her skin did little to assuage the heaviness in her heart. Kogo-Leeto stood close by, admiring the gleaming mega-structures rising into the sky. He was enjoying the open air, rather than the cold ozone-smelling draft from a giant air duct with a malfunctioning filtering system he usually got. The kids daydreaming was cut short with the arrival of a garbage truck, pulling up into the alley.

"You're late," Kogo-Leeto addressed the Drabatan, climbing down the cabin.

"Traffic," he said. "The uniform is inside. Bosses monitor the route for efficiency purposes, so just follow the route on the navscreen and you'll fine. Got the money?"

"Here you go." Kogo-Leeto handed him some credits.

The Drabatan counted them. "Hey, what gives? This is only half."

"You'll get the rest when I give you the truck back. I don't want to end up finishing your route, while you and your buddy are getting drunk in some bar."

"What, you don't trust us?" said the Snivvian, coming around the passenger's side.

"I trust you'll be waiting for the rest of your money. Thank you, gentlemen. See you shortly."

Kogo-Leeto and Elynn climbed up into the truck's cabin and donned the uniforms. They flew to the next stop on the schedule, the Imperial Military Department of Advanced Weapons Research building. The guards at the back gate scanned the license of the truck.

"You're late," A stormtrooper checked the kids' chain code.

"Yeah, problems with the truck." Kogo-Leeto took back his ID card. "I keep telling the guys at the motor pool to check it. Instead, they change my route for a surface one in case we fall off the sky, and we land on some Senator's fancy speeder. Can you believe the krayt spit we have to put up with?"

The stormtrooper had no intention to entertain the conversation. "You're all clear. Go on." He waved him in.

Kogo-Leeto thanked him with a gesture and flew around the corner. He backed the garbage truck under the trash compactor's chute.

"Alright, you're up." Kogo-Leeto applied the handbrake.

Elynn began to play music in her advanced agent interface, and got busy with her datapad. She found an open signal in the building's wireless network to gain entry. Once inside, Elynn found her way into the department's intranet. From there, she located an administrator, and used a cracking program to gain higher access. Searching the network's map, she found what she was looking for, the droid charging stations. It showed five KX-series security droids connected to it. She knew the Empire uploaded the day's tasks on their droids while they charged. She sliced one of the charging droids and programmed it with instructions.

On a side window of a holodisplay, Elynn kept track of the KX as it made its way unchallenged to the fifty-seventh floor. She used a password she bought from No One to gain access to the sub-director's terminal. Her datapad searched the files for the access codes necessary to get inside the vault.

The officer at the entrance of the vault looked up. "What is it?" Two stormtroopers guarded the reinforced door. Cameras and cannons stared down from the walls and ceiling.

"File retrieval," the KX said.

"Enter your clearance and file access codes."

The droid extended the concealed data spike in its arm and interfaced with the computer terminal to input its clearance code. Elynn still hadn't found the file access code. The data spike continued to cycle around the terminal, waiting.