LOTF: Dark Matter/Chapter 2

2 Days Later

Cade was well acquainted with Nar Shadda, with its casinos and bars and gangs fighting for control of the next block. As he flew in closer to the surface, many memories of his time before Antimatter Squadron returned to him, the times he'd spent fighting for Brotherhood turf and winning. The Brotherhood had since moved out of Nar Shadda as their orbital station had been created, but as Cade walked down the streets alongside Dylan, he felt just as much power as he had in the years past.

They entered a dark club, illuminated by the flashes of blue and purple that sometimes skimmed the room which was populated by the many random denizens of Nar Shadda, mostly aliens. They walked up to the bartender, a red Twi'lek female. "My associate and I here will take a Vanice special." Dylan said. The bartender smiled and nodded knowingly, and stepped out of the way of Dylan, who walked past her into a back room, and Cade, who followed. "Now, regardless of what your first instinct says, don't shoot this guy," Dylan muttered. Cade nodded, and Dylan smiled ever so slightly. They walked into the back room, illuminated by a bright blue light overhead. In the room were two figures. Facing them was a woman, red-haired, with two scars running across her face, forming a cross just under her right eye. To Cade, she seemed familiar, but he couldn't place it- at least not until the second figure turned around. As their eyes met, the strands of time seemed to unfold, giving way...

''There was a fire in his brown eyes as he finally turned to face the group. His brown hair was combed neatly to the right, the same color as the long moustache that stretched across his worn face. Behind him was the woman, her face untouched. They stood in the gray-lined bridge of what Arron presumed was a Venator, somewhere in space. "Well, well, well..." he started. "You've got quite the record, Arron. Sabotage, espionage, murder of course, and vandalism."''

''"What can I say?" He responded. "I'm good at what I do."''

''"That's why you're here." Now Arron was interested.''

"What do you want with me?"

"My name is Taran Ragnan. I find people with unique abilities to do the missions the Republic, publicly, cannot."

''The door slid open behind Aron, giving way to a group of individuals. Four other people in orange prison clothing, the same as him.''

"Welcome to Antimatter Squadron."

"Easy, easy!" Dylan's hushed voice snapped Cade back to the present.

The world came back into focus, and Cade found himself gripping his pistol. Cyana, the woman, also had her hand ready on the blaster at her side.

"Believe me, I wanna shoot this guy too, but he's all we got." Cade found it within himself to let go of the gun, and watch the negotiations as Dylan redirected his attention to Ragnan. "Taran! Long time, no see. You an admiral yet, buddy? CYANA! My, my, what happened here?"

"You know what happened. What do you want?" Cyana's reply was quick and cold.

"Getting here was no small task, Dylan." Taran added on.

"As you know," Dylan started, "The Nebula Corporation has been making some moves as of late that are, to say the least, troubling. Our last solution to that went rogue, no thanks to you."

"Oh? And your new solution?" Taran wasn't having it.

Dylan smiled. "We're gonna do it again."

Cyana nervously eyed Cade. "You're kidding, right?"

"Don't worry," Dylan assured her. "This time I'll be watching to make sure no one messes up."

The room reached a moment of silence as Dylan's words sank in, and Cade began trying to put together the pieces of the puzzle the conversation had presented him with. Was Dylan behind Antimatter Squadron? Suddenly, Dylan put his hands together and began making his way out.

"Well, I think that concludes our business. I'll get you the resources you'll need. Later, Taran." Dylan walked out, beckoning for Cade to follow.

As he walked out, Taran spoke. "See you around, Cade."

Cade?

As Cade, full of surprise, turned to face Taran once more, the door closed in front of him. "Come!" Dylan yelled, enthusiastic as ever. ...

Brotherhood HQ

As the screen turned black, Asura caught herself watching her own reflection, observing herself on the threshold of triumph. At 20 years old, the Zabrak saw the confidence and the life within her deep brown eyes, and her mind was permeated by one thought: "I've got a good feeling about this."

The screen flashed back on. Now was the moment of truth. The insignia of the Brotherhood rested in the bottom left corner, as if to remind Asura it was always watching. Most outsiders found the insignia, an red imprint of a right hand, simple yet intimidating, but Asura had no reason to fear it. She was one of them.

Suddenly, words in Aurebesh suddenly appeared on the screen in large black letters.

Despite the red light on the access panel assuring her of her safety, Asura triple-checked the look on her room. Perhaps the situation had made her paranoid, but she wanted to be absolutely certain that no one would walk in on what was about to happen. As one of the Brotherhood's top hackers, she was perceived as both a great asset and a great liability, and for good reason. Sitting in front of her was the entire Brotherhood network, right at her fingertips. Naturally, Asura found the most classified file she could and opened it.



















She pressed .

As promised, she was met with a live feed of what she presumed to be his room on the station. His room was dark, and the only visible thing was a solid red dot. After a moment, the feed automatically began to turn green as night vision activated, and the audio finally began to kick in. Cade was facing towards the light, just a little bit to the left as he spoke.

"-care if you believe me, you have to help. Ragnan and Dylan, they're connected somehow, and they're planning something. I'm locked up on the space station, no clue where. You need to get me out. Cade out."

Now fully curious, Asura tracked the outgoing message to its destination- Nar Shadda. The boss--Dylan, as she now knew-- had just been there. Looking further into the matter, Asura found a report on the meeting. Dylan sure took a lot of notes. The report read:

There was a knock on Asura's door.

She looked up, her heart stopping as her paranoia again began to set in. She took a moment to slow down, and calm herself. Now was not the time for irrational behavior.

"Coming!" She yelled. She quickly turned off the computer, and opened the door.

She opened the door to find nothing, until she looked down into the innocent blue face of an Ortolan. "Asura, no?"

"That's me," she replied, her voice cracking ever so slightly from fear.

"Gatt told me to get you. Hangar 6's airlock is having some problems."

"Alright," she said. Now that she could handle. Asura gathered her necessary equipment and stepped out. As the door closed behind her, she put her finger on the light and it turned red, indicating she had locked it.

Asura couldn't help but let out a sigh of both relief and exasperation. Just another day on the job. However, one question nagged at her--what was Operation Supernova?

...

Cloaked, but just inside scanner range, Hans and Ranulph waited. The Brotherhood HQ space station was just ahead of them, and Ranulph was monitoring their communications. They had figured that Dylan's departure would be unannounced to maintain his secrecy and were waiting for him to leave. "You know, I'd really rather just blow this thing up and be done with it," Hans remarked.

Inwardly, Ranulph agreed, but that would have to come another time. First, he needed schematics of the station. Then, a manifest...

"Ranulph, you see that?" He snapped out of reality, looking at the nearest hangar of the station, Hangar 6. There was a sleek black vessel, dagger-shaped, exiting from it. Ranulph quickly checked all the channels, and sure enough, there was no mention of a launch. "It's him," Ranulph replied. He quickly began tracking the course of the ship, and Hans manned the controls. "Let's finish this."