Above the Jedi Temple, Airspeeder traffic pattern east-north/south-east of the Temple. (1 Hour, forty-five minutes later)
For all appearances, the whip-thin, cobalt-colored alien presently reclining in the back of the bubble-canopied aircar was the picture of bored indolence. It was only the ovoid red eyes, hidden by the broad brim of the downward angled hat that gave the lie to the picture.
While the body of the Duros lounged with a boneless ease, those eyes ceaselessly devoured the images being fed to the pad in his lap by a number of spy-droids hovering surreptitiously about a particular structure in the world-city's under levels.
"Move into westbound traffic, then turn into the northbound pattern, and keep going for a few clicks before you swing back around, 3E. It looks like the Jedi were clever enough to call ahead and warn the security forces about Khorda's fanatics.
I don't want to be picked up by some security cam's pattern recognition software while we wait for the fools to blast their way into the relay station" the bounty-hunter ordered in his gravelly drawl. A long thin blue finger reaching up to idly trace the outline of one of the black breathing tube mounts covering his cheeks.
"Pay a pretty Peggat, to know everything that one does" Cad Bane murmured so softly even his "sentry" droid driver's keen audioreceptors wouldn't catch what he'd said.
"I still don't see why we're relying on outside assistance. I told you, Bane, with the schematics and technical information I downloaded, I can find a weak spot in the security shield, then disrupt it long enough for us to pass through" Todo complained in his high synthesized voice.
"Shut up, Todo" Bane reflexively replied. Not taking his eyes from the ten screen-in-screen views of the goings on in the under-levels. "You deal with Jedi, it's best to collect every advantage. Never know when one of their tricks will spike a perfectly good plan."
He wanted to curse when one ring of the assassin-droid's optical receptors rotated to study him, as the droid continued to drive. Knowing the artificial killer had detected the stress he'd thought to conceal beneath his coolly cynical tone.
The bounty hunter had acquired his well-deserved reputation for planning and carrying off "impossible" jobs by knowing all the angles, so it bothered him more than he cared to admit. Dealing with an employer seemingly capable of lengthy, many-layered extrapolations of events to come. All far more "impossible" than even his most ambitious jobs.
The upper rightmost screen showed a great many droids the size of large melons entering the relay station through an environmental control duct the first in line had used a small onboard plasma cutter to cut through.
One by one, the machines scuttled inside and out of his view, while the mixed team of guardian-droids and security personnel continued to exchange fire with the terrorists advancing in force on the structure.
Start to finish, it had taken less than thirty seconds for more than two dozen of the automatons to effect their surreptitious entrance while security was otherwise occupied.
"Aren't you concerned we're going to get caught up in whatever's going on down there, sir?" The neurotic techno-service droid inquired plaintively. Watching over the bounty-hunter's shoulder as he did so.
Noting a pair of the guardian droids incapacitated by a well-aimed ion grenade thrown by one of the dozen heavily armed terrorists, Bane ignored the small droid in favor of ordering his driver "Get us to the drop-off position.
Khorda's men will break through the defenders in another minute, and no one but the Jedi will get there in time to matter. Sabotaging all those lifts, without it showing up on anyone's security board? That was a nice piece of work, and the Annoo-dat are just stupid enough to believe today's simply their lucky day."
Left unsaid was his dissatisfaction at not being informed about the spider-droids, even to the point of knowing for certain who they served. Studying the closest, most detailed view he'd received of them as the aircar began it's circuitous return to their deployment site, his crimson eyes narrowed as he froze the uppermost middle image for a few moments.
"Todo, what do you make of this droid?" He questioned, pulling the remainder of his gear into place, and beginning a brief yet methodical examination of blasters and equipment while the droid studied the frozen image.
"Mmm, those exoskeletons are a composite of several valuable metals, there's advanced articulation throughout the leg mechanisms, and high quality rapid-release magnetic locking devices on the tip of each leg to allow them to climb like that. Either an expensive custom lot-order, or the product of a government's military industrial complex.
I very much doubt a small band of political dissidents could afford such droids. Why do you ask, sir?" The small droid opined with evident curiosity.
"Nothing you need to worry about. Just be ready to follow me, and keep that field-disruptor handy" Bane growled. The tiniest hint of irritation breaking through his famously cool demeanor. On the screens, the last two members of the security force were being driven back into the confines of the relay station's machinery-filled interior.
Where they were presumably backed onto the narrow service walkway he knew was suspended over a huge drop leading to the station's foundation a few hundred meters below. At almost the same moment, three Jedi appeared in his lowest rightmost screen. He watched the trio begin advancing in an inverted triangle formation.
Their purple, blue, and green blades held up defensively before them. Seeing the Imbecile-in-Chief, Ashaar Khorda, snarl in silent fury as he glanced over his shoulder to spot the trio of Jedi quickly advancing on him and his men.
Clutching some kind of statue or religious icon to his chest, the Duros observed the terrorist leader gesture for two of his men to accompany him inside, then ordered the other ten men to stand off the encroaching Jedi.
Tapping his wrist-comm, Bane's voice once more contained the perfect evenness of a consummate professional, as he questioned "Are you in position yet, Parasitti?" He was only listening with half his attention to the affirmative reply in a deeply resonant masculine voice, because at that moment, the last of Khorda's men were sent sprawling.
All but one of the men were still alive, but it had only taken the Jedi seconds to neutralize the well-armed fanatics. Now, he could see a tall, slender, silver-haired human woman with a purple lightsaber, and an even taller, long-necked, white-skinned Quermian with a blue blade gain the relay-station's doorway.
Their burning blades leading as they glided forward, the pair took one step, then another, before disappearing from his view as they passed into the structure's interior. The third Jedi, a broad-shouldered human male with long curly black hair and a green blade stopped well short of the entryway.
He seemed to be speaking to someone on a comm unit, but if the bounty hunter's suspicions were correct, nothing the man might say was going to matter.
The minimal audio pickup's signal to his datapad was just sensitive enough to convey the staccato sound of several explosions. In rapid succession, each of his video feeds flashed white, then dropped into blackness, as a "Signal Lost" message flickered in each box where a picture had been.
He frowned at the final images transmitted to the datapad. Bane's red eyes narrowing speculatively, as the signal from his employer's spy-droids cut out. Immediately after the shimmering, inexplicable appearance of the two Jedi he'd just seen enter the relay-station, now over twenty meters from the portal.
The bounty hunter saw a plume of orange flame erupt from the station's open doorway, then the multi-story station began to list to one side, as a whirlwind of smoke and debris engulfed the area occupied by Jedi and downed terrorists alike. The shockwave of the explosion funneled through the door to overtake them.
Sending bodies flying like ragdolls, as Khorda's statue was torn from the stick-thin arms of the Quermian. The blackness of his screen, and it's final blinking white "Signal Lost" message making their ultimate fate a mystery.
"Jedi and their tricks" Bane echoed in an unsurprised tone. He gave a slight shrug of his narrow shoulders, then dismissed the disposition of the three do-gooders as inconsequential.
Triggering the worm already installed on the now useless datapad, he carefully wiped it clean, then passed it forward to HELIOS-3E.
"Make yourself useful, and crush that into splinters no bigger than one of your chips" he ordered the droid. Once the bubble canopy began to retract, he turned to the small droid beside him.
"No mistakes today, Todo, or it's the scrap-market for you."
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