Clone Wars: Underground - Chapter 15
Gresh paced the turbolift the same way he did his office. His hands were knit tightly behind his back and his brow furrowed in concentration. Even with a thin frame, there wasn’t much space in the lift and he began walking in tight circles.
“Another research facility. But where?” his muttering was quiet despite knowing he was completely alone.
The turbo lift stopped and he exited without looking up.
“I have how many? Thirty at least.” His words were mostly in his head, but some slipped past his lips as he stalked towards a computer terminal. His features were lit by the dim blue glow of bacta. It was the only light in the pitch-black laboratory.
The hum of a dozen machines nearly drowned out his mumbling.
“Thirty isn’t enough. forty, no fifty or more.” He observed the machine in front of him and adjusted a few dials.
“I’ll find the others. The other scientists. Their labs. Then their research will be mine, too. After that. After all that, I will be the only one. The Emperor will come only to me.” His right eye twitched in the cold light. If he was the only person who could do the work, he would be necessary. If he was necessary, he was safe. Protected.
“I’ll stay here tonight.” Gresh walked to a terminal and sat down. His eye twitched again in the dim light. He knew that he shouldn’t be working in such darkness, but he liked the atmosphere. He felt safer in the dark. He could hide. If the other facilities did make a clone first, he would have a backup. Gresh knew he had to be cunning. He needed an army. If he had an army, then he could find the other scientists that were hidden like he was or protect himself if they came for him. He keyed in commands on the terminal in front of him. He took all the necessary precautions to cover his tracks. There were records of other suspicious projects, lots of money being poured into vague businesses. Gresh couldn’t break into them on his own. He would have to hire someone.
Brix watched from the rooftop of the hotel adjacent to the spaceport. It was his shift. Burnout left for Gregor’s home ten minutes ago. With so many people, they rotated watch duty every three hours. Fives was insistent that Kisha pull full weight in the operation as well. She would be replacing him in three hours.
He kept his eye on the platform designated for Imperial use only. The shuttle had just touched down. They were coming more frequently now, but still no sign of Wolffe. His thoughts were interrupted as a clone commander disembarked. Brix never replaced his missing hand, and so he used his good one to hold up the scope.
“I’ve got eyes on Commander Wolffe heading into town point oh five degrees west. He’s headed towards the market.” He confirmed.
“Copy that. Everyone in position. Let’s keep this tight.” Rex’s command was followed by a handful of confirmations.
Brix continued surveillance. “They’re splitting up in the market.”
“Making things easy.” Fives called. He watched the commander now in newly designed Imperial armor, scan the market as he passed by. Fives was in a carefully constructed hiding place near the entrance to a storage room. It was mostly empty during market hours, but in the evenings, vendors would store their wares and equipment there. “Nice and easy.” Fives repeated to himself as he launched himself at the commander, pulling him quickly into the dark room. Rex stunned him and he went down quietly.
“We got incoming.” Brix’s voice was back on the comm. He watched a transport land with full squadrons of troopers.
“Two more squads coming for the ship! They must have tagged us on Coruscant.” Kisha shouted into the comm. Rex listened. He had positioned her at the entrance to the landing bay where the Ladalum was docked.
“New plan. Kisha, get aboard. Have Brenni take off. See if you can divert their attention.”
“Copy. We’ll do a short jump and come back in on the planet’s backside.”
“We’ll be on our way, send coordinates.”
“Careful you guys. We’ll be back for you.” Kisha added, realizing it was the first time they’d split up. She let off a few rounds at the Imperials before dashing up the ramp. Brenni and Ty heard the whole conversation and were prepping for takeoff.
From his position on the rooftop, Brix watched the Ladalum shoot out of its docking bay like a hawkbat out of a ventilation shaft.
Wolffe’s cruiser was far enough away, but Brenni almost jumped out of her seat at the sight of the destroyer. Fighters were already deployed and coming for them.
“Ty, Kish, clear the skies.” Brenni commanded as she angled her ship away from oncoming fighters. Both ran for the gunner wells as newly commissioned tie fighters flew directly in the path of the Ladalum. They swarmed past and came around for the starboard side of the ship. Brenni dodged and realized a moment too late that it put her directly in the path of the destroyer’s tractor beam. Just like that, they were caught.
“This day just keeps getting better and better.” Brenni cursed.
Gresh looked at the dark, angular face of his Arconan hire. He had spent hours slinking around the lower sewer-levels of the city looking for a slicer that would be willing to look into Imperial files. Gresh had to offer more than he wanted, but he finally found a slimo willing to do it.
“You sure you can slice it?” Gresh asked.
Lem Dooea nodded, blinking his glittering eyes. his fingers flittered across the keys so quickly Gresh could barely follow. The on-screen report was telling. There were cloning labs not only on Centrax II, but Weyland as well. Gresh’s fears had been realized, but he was already preparing for it. Soon he would have his own army. In just a few months, he would have units infiltrate the other labs. He would secure himself. The Emperor would have to come to him. He would have no one else to turn to.
Imperial Intelligence officer, Sannie Balm, knew when someone bypassed the inner security walls on the Imperial network. She had no idea what was stored on those servers, but she monitored the network traffic faithfully. Someone was accessing sensitive files masked as security personnel. It was a guise made to look like a Republic agent, but that had changed with the Empire and whoever was slicing into the system wasn’t using an Imperial mask to slide past security.
“Armatures.” Sannie rolled her eyes and called her supervisor. It didn’t take long to pinpoint the intrusion.
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