Muunraker/Chapter 6

Muunraker

Chapter 6 Disturbing Communiqué

Not long after the Durasteel Rancor landed at MI5 HQ on Courscant, agents Moonreaper, Funkistann and Taproot met M in his office.

"I would have preferred a little less...destruction," was the first thing M said to them. "You not only destroyed that building, but also neighboring buildings. And some bystanders were caught in that mess."

"I'm sorry, sir," Shasta responded. "Blame me for that. These guys," she motioned toward her Gungan and Nosaurian counterparts, "had nothing to do with the final explosions. I'm the one that set it off without getting the bystanders clear. But, we did destroy the weapons, which was our main objective."

Gruu rotated his shoulder a bit, feeling the pain that still ailed him. The bacta that was applied to the wound was rapidly healing it.

"Any word from Bont and Kapanen?" Pandolfo asked.

M shook his head. "Nothing yet. They should have checked in by now."

Shasta could only imagine what Jace Bont had gotten himself into this time...

As if on cue, a message came in on the communicator. "Hopefully that's them now," M said, answering the call. There was neither video nor audio attached. All that came through was text. The short message scrolled across the holo-projection in Galactic Basic Standard.

The message read: ''Weapons being shipped to Kalee. Meet me there. Bont.''

"Kalee?" Gruu questioned. "Isn't dare a war goin' on out on Kalee?"

"The Huk War," M answered. He keyed commands into the communicator, trying to reach agents Bont and Kapanen. "Sky Skimmer, this is HQ. Do you copy?"

Nothing.

"Sky Skimmer, this is HQ. Do you copy?" M repeated.

No response.

"Bont. Kapanen. This is HQ. Come in."

Still nothing.

"Try their personal communicators," Pandolfo suggested.

"Sky Skimmer, come in," M tried one last time. He shook his head when there was no response. Just as he was about to switch over to try their personal comms, a response came through.

"Ah, finally. A response from headquarters." Just after the voice came through, Jordo Drax appeared in the holo-projection. "I was beginning to wonder if you would ever contact us."

"Drax?!" Shasta exclaimed.

"Indeed," Drax responded in his monotone, emotionless voice. "By now I'm sure you know about Kalee. But I now have your ship, and two of your operatives." The holo then panned over to show both Bont and Europa tied up. Two men stuck them with energy prods, causing the agents to yelp in pain. Panning back to Drax, he said, "And I will continue to torture them until you stay out of my business. If you continue to pester me, I shall continue the torture. Is that clear?"

"Crystal clear," M responded, gritting his teeth.

"Good," Drax said. Then the line went dead.

"We've gotta get them outta there," Pandolfo stated.

"He-sa will keep torturin' dem, or worse."

M said, "The ship we don't have to worry about. As soon as it's compromised, the MI5 databanks aboard shut down and become corrupted. But our agents are a different matter. We have to extract them as quickly and as stealthily as possible."

"It'll take us-en a little while to get to Kalee. Do we-sa have any agents closer? Near da edge of Wild Space?"

"Not currently, no," M responded. "I believe the closest agent is Ainslé Vos on Ithor. I can send her out to Kalee."

"No," Shasta interrupted. "I know of someone right there on Dantooine that can help us."

"I beg your pardon," M said. "Someone who's not MI5? Can they be trusted?"

"Of course," Shasta responded, reaching for the communicator. "I would trust her with my life. She's one of the only people outside of MI5 that I can trust."

Chapters: Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | Epilogue