Worth: A Star Wars Story (ON TEMP HIATUS)

14. The Turncoat

It was the first time I had ever seen Jarras Venn, and it certainly wouldn't be the last. As we were on the transport there, I looked over his datafile. He was Onderonian, in his early thirties, and had one hell of a distinguished career in the Onderonian military. Why he was deciding to turn tail on them now was just about anyone's guess, but the SIS reports on him linked his decision to the untimely death of CIS Senator Bonteri, Onderon's representative in the CIS senate. He claimed that he knew that it was an inside job, which sounded like complete hogwash to me, but politics were rarely ever pretty. My occasional details working the senate buildings got me a tiny glimpse into the wheeling and dealing that kept the democracy of the Republic afloat, and I imagined that it wasn't much different or cleaner for the CIS than it was for the Republic.

"I don't like this," Red finally muttered as he rolled his helmet in his hands, looking over at me as we all prepped to meet with the SIS at the meeting location. They managed to get him to Hosnian, and it was our job to get him safely back to Coruscant. None of us were feeling particularly excited about the mission. Seppies were about the farthest thing down on our list of things we wanted to help, and this guy was absolutely no exception. "You can't trust a traitor. What does the SIS even want with this guy in the first place?"

"He's probably the most valuable resource the SIS can get their hands on," Tor countered, finally looking up from the datafiles to look at Red and then at me, "and he's got one impressive record, Captain. I can see why they want him. He's got battle droids under his command, and apparently their programming to follow him is solid."

"Sounds like a trap waiting to happen," I muttered as I looked back down at the datapad and stared at Venn's face. He was a typical Onderonian: the dark skin, the light eyes, dark hair, but he had the face of a commander. You could tell just by how he carried himself in the photos that he was career military. Men like him had a look about them that was hard to miss, and he looked like he had seen things. I got used to that look post-Geonosis, but not from many non-Clones. The droid thing ahd me worried. For all we knew, this was a secret invasion force heading straight for our heart, but the logical side of me said that the SIS was already on that aspect of it.

When we touched down on Hosnian, a young female officer in her crisp SIS uniform greeted us. It reminded me of the ones we used in the navy, a drab olive green but with a brown belt and boots. Her brown hair was pulled tautly back from her face, and she regarded us with a set of sharp eyes that felt like they cut through every inch of my armor. It was unnerving. That razor sharp focus was quickly replaced by a quick smile, "Gentlemen, welcome. I am Agent Mereen. I am here on behalf of Special Agent Dorne. He will be your contact throughout this whole exchange. Follow me, please." She spoke with an accent, one that she was trying hard to hide. It sounded like it was Outer Rim, that slight twang to it when she couldn't quite enunciate it away betraying her only slightly. Had to admit, it was impressive. Most people wouldn't have caught it.

She spun on her heel before we even got the chance to ask any questions and soon led us into a large building just off of the landing site. The halls made it clear that it used to be a visitor welcome center that had been commandeered as large holoboards flashed welcoming billboards advertising different tourist attractions on the planet and welcoming new arrivals to Hosnian. There were SIS spooks crawling all over the place, some in civilian plainclothes and others in uniform. Some of them paused to watch us pass while a majority of them acted like we didn't even exist. The operation seemed solid, however. I couldn't help but be a little impressed. The SIS wasn't technically military, but they were running their op there on Hosnian like the best trained Clones. Most civilian ops I had seen on Coruscant had too many leaders or too many helpers, but this seemed so streamlined.

It was when we rounded the corner that I saw the rumored Commando unit for the first time.

I hadn't ever seen commandos like them before. Their armor was jet black, making their blue illuminated visors stand out, but one of them looked different. He was almost as tall as they were, but he wasn't a Clone. He lacked the typical Concord Dawn accent we all inherited from Jango. He had a helmet on, wearing the Commandos' Katarn-class armor, and the Clones all seemed to listen to him. When we approached, they went silent, their visors following us without a word as we approached behind Agent Mereen.