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Nowhere To Turn

"I never did hear the whole story about Vek'din," La Forge said.

Vortagh looked at his chronometer. "We have a while before Fel wants us at the briefing, so I guess I can explain it to you."

Fel looked at his own chronometer. "Depends how long of a story it is. But go for it."

"Some years ago, on Effetfal, as I'm sure you know, there was this nasty civil war..."

La Forge nodded. The civil war was fairly well-known at the time. La Forge remembered it, but only in passing.

"But that is not where the story begins," Vortagh said. "I knew him when we were both boys. He is some years older than me, probably four or five. But we first met when his parents went on a trip to Coruscant. They thought it was best to leave their son with my parents, since my parents were good members of the community and had some children of their own.

"Vek'din wasn't this way in the beginning - he seemed as normal as any of us... well, except maybe La Forge." Vortagh winked at the Captain. "But I think that was because he had no idea of the Force. Whatever power or powers he had then were either non-existent, or very well hidden.

"After his parents came back, they had seen what a good time he had with my family and after that he would come over more often for all sorts of reasons. It was like he was a part of the family sometimes. Anytime his parents went away, he would be over. But that wore off as he got older and went away for his final years of school.

"He would still visit every now and then, perhaps during holidays or other time off school. And he was getting taller every time I saw him; he's taller even than me, and I would guess he is about two metres tall.

"I think it was when he was away that he first became aware of his talents with the Force. I am perhaps speculating a bit, but I think while he was at school he developed a love of leading people on; playing tricks on them. But with the Force, the harmless tricks were becoming more and more far-reaching.

"That's where his talent in the Force lies. In the mind. Domination of the minds of others. He was soon using the power to get out of assignments, to get high grades, and the like. The power to dominate the mind is a very dangerous power, because it is often used to further his own ends. To the best of my knowledge, his powers in other areas are not well-developed, if at all. There's no record of him being skilled in lightsaber combat, telekenisis, absorbing energy, or anything like that. But his ability to control thought patterns is developed all too well.

"And so he was soon lost in his own world, using his talent for personal gain. Then he was using it on politicians, leaders, and others of station. He viewed it both as a game and a way to assert his own power. He pitted sides against one another, and before long, the politicians were at each other's throats. His power to dominate the mind was being matched by his goal of bloodlust.

"He could not dominate everyone's mind. Some people, trained in the Force or just naturally unreceptive, were unswayed by his mental grip. Most people were susceptible on some level, and the voices of reason were quickly drowned out.

"From there you know how the civil war started, and the military actions, and the atrocities, and so on. I won't go into all of that, because we don't have time for a whole lesson in it. But I will tell you of Bet'Amman.

"Bet'Amman is a region outside of one of the planet's cities. It's not a large city, but it has a spaceport, so a lot of shipping takes place there. It was used as a training location for troops of all types. Now a major feature of the area is a very large hill - it rises up about 600 metres fairly steeply, and is equally steep on the other side. Training would take place on the side nearest to the city.

"Vek'din lured troops over the hill and into the nearby forest by convincing them it was a good idea. And then he would hunt them and kill them with his curved, crescent-shaped blade. Just for the love of the hunt. Nobody is exactly sure how many people he killed there, but so far, more than two thousand bodies have been found. Human, Trandoshan, and others.

"In the end, the Force was needed to bring it all to a close. A Force user, able to resist the mind domination, brought Ysalimiri from the forests of Myrkr, to block out the influence of the Force. Once the leaders were out from under his influence, it took only a few months for the fighting to die down all over.

"But Vek'din escaped. When he could no longer reach his puppets through the Force, he knew someone was on to him, and it would not be long before they came for him. So he fled.

Fel interrupted, finishing the story. "And from there we know he wandered his way to Coruscant. He was noticed by one of the Emperor's Jedi Hunters, but since he was not a Jedi, the Emperor thought he might be of some use. But it did not take the Emperor long to learn that Vek'din was too unstable to use, and so he had him imprisoned, where he sat until Jansen set him free."

Vortagh nodded. "Exactly."

La Forge didn't understand. "Why would Jansen set free a madman?"

Jansen answered. "A holocron is a much more dangerous thing than you may realize. They say they drive people mad. So who better to use than someone already mad? Provided he gets to do his share of killing and gets his reward, he's happy. The holocron would not be able to twist him any more than he already is.

"His 'reward' was to be set free on an uninhabited world, to do whatever he wished. Hunt, kill, control, whatever. But evidently that's not enough for him. I did not know he was responsible for the Effetfal civil war -- I knew only of his wish to hunt."

"You may not have had any choice in the matter," Vortagh said. "There's a chance it was in his record, but he used his talents to convice you otherwise... or convice somebody to change the record!"

"What do we do with him missing?" La Forge said.

"We wait," Jansen said. "He'll show himself soon enough, i am sure."

Lieutenant Branet walked by his TIE Interceptor. It had received a hasty paint job to cover up the fact that it was an Epsilon Squadron fighter. He did not appreciate that, but it was necessary for the operation at hand. Even so, pilots became rather attached to their fighters, and nobody liked to see his fighter changed in such a manner by someone else. But what had to be done had to be done, he told himself. He left the hangar and headed for the makeshift briefing room.

Wedge had found a fairly large room with lots of seats, and it was the makeshift briefing room. Due to the nature of the room, Admiral Fel had brought a small projector from the Nemesis in order to illustrate the situation. He was chatting with Wedge and Vortagh at the front of the room.

After a few moments, when all pilots had filed in, Fel turned on the projector and began to talk.

"Good morning, pilots. Sorry to drag you out here so early, but the early pilot vapes the womp rat, right?"

People in the room laughed, but not because it was funny. One always laughs at the Admiral's jokes... in the same way you always laugh at the Emperor's jokes. It's because he's the Emperor. If he thinks the joke is funny, you had best play along.

"Right. Keep humorous analogies until after pilots wake up." Fel seemed to catch on. Maybe it was the glare he got from Commodore Vortagh after the joke. "So, here's how it's going to work. Epsilon, you probably noticed that we repainted your fighters in the early hours of this morning. You'll see why in a bit."

He brought up on the projector a map of the system, with the stations represented. "We've currently got these platforms rigged up so they appear fully functional. We painted over the rocket damage and have got the shields in working condition again. But the weapons are going to be offline - we don't have the time to fix them up. However, to any enemy forces, they will appear to be as normal.

"We've got Epsilon ready to impersonate a local squadron called "Foxtrot". When the Chimaera and any enemy ships arrive, Epsilon will launch as Foxtrot under the pretext of patrolling the area. Their real objective is to ensure that two shuttles, Hop 1 and Hop 2 make it aboard the Chimaera. These two craft will be carrying Army troops, led by General Jansen. He's holding that briefing a few rooms over.

"Once the Army is aboard the Chimaera, there won't be long until they realize what's happened. Stormtroopers spilling out of the shuttles and taking the hangar bay by force will do that. Shortly thereafter, the ISD Nemesis and VSD Warhammer will be arriving in system, trapping enemy forces between the platforms and the fleet." Two Star Destroyers appeared and converged on the centre of the system.

"At that point, we expect there will be enemy fighters. However, Zeta and Psi squadrons will be launched to clear fighters and take care of things out there. Gimel Squadron will work on any enemy capital ships, and Iota will disable the Chimaera."

La Forge interjected. "Go easy on the Chimaera. I do *not* want to wait out its rebuilding again!"

The room laughed, genuinely, but La Forge didn't mean to be funny.

Fel continued once the laughter died down. "We expect that we've still got the element of surprise here, so enemy forces are likely to be a little slow to respond. We don't know what forces the Chimaera met up with before they came here, nor do we know what enemy forces they are hoping to meet up with here. So we'll need to keep our eyes open. Any questions? No? Good.

"The Warhammer and Nemesis will move off in one standard hour. Make sure you're in the right place by then. And get some caf. Flying while asleep is almost as bad of an idea as telling Lord Vader his cape makes him look fat."

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