Star Wars Jedi Knight IV: Sith Empire

Chapter 12: Sabotage

"Kid, luck's got nothing to do with it. Here's your first lesson in sabacc and in life, my young friend. Nothing is what it seems."

―Lando Calrissian

Ben Skywalker landed his Lambada on the starpad Lando had specified. He lowered the boarding ramp and stepped off onto the permacrete. Lando was waiting for him.

"Hey Ben! Glad you could make it." He greeted. "How's your old man doin' these days?"

"Hey Uncle Lando," Ben responded. "Honestly I have no idea. He hasn't contacted us for over a year."

"Hmm, that's odd." Lando mused.

"Tell me about it," Ben said. "But you had some...Sith problems?"

Lando sighed. "Yeah. Well I think so anyway. Why don't we talk about this inside?"

***

Lando led Ben into his penthouse, and into the living room. 

"So a couple days ago, Booster commed me in the middle of the night," Lando said, motioning for Ben to sit as he sat himself. "He claims the Venture was boarded and ransacked by Sith marauders from the Lost Tribe. He said he thinks they'll be back, so he ordered a large number of cortosis-armored YVH droids."

"You don't sound like you bought his claim." Ben stated, matter-of-factly. 

"You're right," Lando said. "He seemed antsy. Nervous."

"Did you sell the droids to him?" Ben asked. 

"Absolutely," Lando replied. "But since his story didn't give me good vibes, I had a backdoor added to the droids' programming. Turns out the haulers that were carrying the droids were attacked as soon as they dropped out of hyperspace near the Venture. I had some of my boys examine the sensor logs from the droids, and Booster was right: they were Sith pirates."

"So now the Lost Tribe has a Jedi-killing droid army." Ben said, rolling his eyes.

"Not necessarily," Lando said. "I can activate the droids at any time and have them turn on their new owners. But I'm waiting to see exactly where those laserbrains take my droids. With any luck, they take them back to their home planet."

Ben's eyes lit up as he suddenly got the genius behind Lando's logic. A protocol droid brought a tray with two cups of caf and set them down on the table.

"So, since they're Sith, what happened to the Venture?" Ben asked, as he picked up one of the piping hot cups.

"If they're smart, they left something to come back to," Lando said, picking up the other cup. "Come back after Booster restocks and take it all again, like harvesting a crop. But after having to deal with those Gungans while Abeloth was running around, this bunch doesn't strike me as the brightest out there. They're greedy to the point of being stupid, and from what I heard, cruel even to their own. So as much as I'd like to say I think they left her intact--" Lando let his voice trail off, and took a sip, shrugging uneasily.

"So you want me to check and see if the Venture is still in one piece?" Ben asked.

Lando nodded. "And investigate. If they are Sith, I think everyone will agree they need to be stopped quickly. If it's true, contact Wynn at the GA and tell him his friends with the red sabers are back, and they mean business."

Lando's mention of the Lost Tribe and Abeloth stirred up memories Ben wished would stay buried. Abeloth was still out there somewhere, and she was nightmare material as it was. If this truly did have to do with the Lost Tribe as Lando suspected, they now had two active Sith factions in the galaxy to worry about...just when Ben was hoping the Lost Tribe and the havoc they wrought had finally fizzled out.