A Reluctant Sith

Chap 20

Ahrie sat in the pilot's seat. Her eyes closed. Arms crossed. Wearing a black TIE pilot's flight suit. Surplus Imperial uniforms were showing up in markets across the galaxy and had become acceptable to wear. She listened to the whine of the hyperdrive.

"Dropping out of hyperspace," Gan said as the planetary wasteland known as Ruk's Heap popped into view.

"Scanning the planet," said Tyr.

"Scanning the system," said Sil.

"There is one ship on the surface," said Tyr. "At the cache location. Two humanoids."

"What?" Ahrie said. "How would anyone know it was there?"

"There is no other activity in the system," Sil said. "There are five new wrecks around the planet since the last time we were here. No signs of any activity."

Five was not a surprise to Ahrie. This planet had been used for hiding. Neutral grounds for trades. Faction meets. Other illegal activity. People were getting themselves killed here all the time.

Ahrie looked up to see the planet closing in. Gan guided the ship around wrecks and rocks in orbit.

"Tyr, where is the ship parked?"

"On the ledge above the entrance."

"Where are the two humanoids?"

"They appear to be inside the cave."

"They're going to blow themselves up. Bury my bespar under tons of rock. Selfish idiots. Gan, bring us in from opposite the entrance. I want to land on that ledge right behind their ship."

"Aye," Gan replied. The ship banked right and proceeded down into the thinning atmosphere.

"I was hoping to avoid encounters," Ahrie said as she stood. "I'm going to get geared up. Keep me updated. When we land, you two meet me in the cargo bay."

"Aye," the twins said in unison.

The ship descended into a valley between two mountain ranges. The system's two dying stars were rising above the horizon in front of the ship. The planet was dying along with them. Spacefaring life had left hundreds of years ago. Animal life was extinct. Plant life was all but gone. The atmosphere was thinning.

Everywhere anyone could see was dirt. In the sky. Blowing in the wind.

The ship reached the end of the valley, rose over the ridge line the valley dead-ended into and landed ten meters behind the ship.

It was an ex-Imperial, small industrial ship. Patched together in odd colors.

An open plain of dirt spread out from the cliff's edge. What had once been a vast ocean. The water, long ago, blown off into space with most of its atmosphere. The dirt swirling around made the system's dying binary stars even more dim.

"Not detecting lifeforms inside the ship," Gan said. "The two are still in the tunnel."

"If I thought they would not get themselves killed and my bespar buried, I would let them do all the work. How worse off is the atmosphere now?"

"It has thinned more. You would likely be able to survive in it for three standard days."

Ahrie stood in the cargo bay staring at the ramp, wearing her full bounty hunter armor. It had been given to her by Vader. It was his idea to form an identity that would allow her to move about the criminal world.

Looking like it might be a variant of a shocktrooper uniform, it was made entirely of bespar. Covered in a matte black coating that would allow her to avoid most scanners. The joints and highlights were white. An inverse stormtrooper look. No mistaking it.

She had a blaster on each hip, a shocktrooper rifle slung across her chest. And a pair of lightsabers made of bespar and covered in the same matte black. She had used white kyber crystals from a pair of lightsabers taken off the corpse of their previous owner. Her first Jedi kill. She got three days in the shocktank for letting his padawan get away.

She turned to the twins who were standing behind her, each holding identical rifles to the one she had.

"Reminder, we don't just kill anyone anymore, understand?"

"Aye," the two said in unison. "We have not forgotten."

"Unless to protect my life or yours."

"Under" ... "Stood."

The ramp rotated down and Ahrie proceeded out into the atmosphere. Rifle up. Atmospheric conditions appeared on her visor. An augmented reality overlay appeared showing lines indicating the internal layout of the ship.

Ahrie walked along the ship towards the cliff edge. Sil walked around the other side. Tyr stayed at the back, looking in through the cockpit windows.

There were two arms protruding from the back, out past the cliff's edge. She peered over the edge to see a platform suspended on cables running over pulleys at the end of the arms and into the ship. They came fully prepared. Who told them this was here?

"The ship is clear," Tyr said.

"I'm going down. Stay here."

Ahrie grabbed one of the cables, stepped out over the cliff's edge and used the Force to control her descent.

She landed on the platform and stepped into the tunnel. Twenty meters from the cliff face was a metal wall. Two men in environment isolation suits stood looking at the wall. They had handheld sensors. Moved them around, looking for the way in.

"You don't want to do that," Ahrie said as she pointed her rifle at the empty space between them.

The two spun around and stared at her. The one on the left looked down at the blaster on his right hip.

"No, you don't ... ," Ahrie was cutoff as both reach for their blasters and Ahrie grabbed both blasters with the Force and flung them past her and out of the tunnel. Over the platform and down onto the dried ocean floor a kilometer below.

"Now, I can do that with the both of you as well if you don't cooperate."

The two looked at each other through their protective face shields and took off running for the lift platform.

Ahrie stopped both of them before they reached her. Lifted them off the floor of the tunnel, and applied pressure to their sternums. When they had passed out, she set them on the ground.

Ahrie walked past the unconscious pirates and used the Force to activate hidden actuators behind the wall. A section in the center popped back a little and slid to the side.

The room was full of used Imperial crates. Trash she had collected and filled. Bespar, Mandalorian armor, weapons, rations, water, clothes, gemstones.

She walked back to the tunnel entrance. Scanned the controls and sent the lift up.

"Time to work," Ahrie said when it reached the top. "Bring those two up first so we can get one into a stasis bed and the other in the cell, and then bring up the rest."