#He really needs to work out like a timeshare program for her between him and the kingdom

[theowlgoesmoo]

Follow up to

This was one of those pieces that I eventually realized I'd never finish to satisfaction, so here it is as it... well, is.

Captain Hopper managed to snatch the little princess up and began flying back to base with his prize, only to realize he had a stowaway. Better let go, boy. This bike ain't built for three.

Flik agrees. Now if only he can persuade the captain to give up his seat...

[greyias]

FIC: Smoke and Mirrors - Chapter 17

Title: Smoke and Mirrors Fandom: SWTOR Pairing: Theron Shan/f!Jedi Knight Rating: T Genre: Pre-Relationship, Slow Burn Synopsis: Something’s rotten on Carrick Station, and Theron won’t rest until he finds out what. But picking at the frayed threads of suspicion quickly unravels a conspiracy much larger than even the Republic’s top spy can handle on his own. (A mostly canon-compliant retelling of the Forged Alliances storyline, as seen through the eyes of Theron Shan.) Author’s Notes and Spoilers: See Chapter 1.

Chapter Index: 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | Crossposted to AO3

As soon as he was inside the door of his apartment, Theron had the chip out of his pocket and inserted it into his datapad. The first file on it wasn’t any official SIS document at all but apparently a note, written especially for him:

So here I am, minding my own business, when this intel request comes across my desk from none other than your old buddy, Rian Darok. I pulled it, but then I asked myself, what does a SpecOps officer need with this information? From what I can tell, cracking down on cargo smuggling isn’t the highest of priorities for him and his team. I pulled a copy for you too, since you’re so interested in “oddities” right now. I don’t know what you think is going on, but you know this guy has clout right? And not just in SpecOps. Watch yourself. — JB

Theron tried not to roll his eyes as he paged to the next file on the chip. Jonas was a good man to have along on a mission, but sometimes he could get hung up on something. Apparently in this case it was the havoc that Rian Darok could cause for an unsuspecting SIS Agent. Which wouldn’t be a problem, because Theron was suspecting everything right now. Which was probably good for his survival chances in the short term, but would probably give him hypertension if he ever lived long enough to see old age.

He scanned over the pulled file, but as Jonas said it was… just odd.

"Known Smugglers: Inner Rim" was just what it said. A giant list of cargo smugglers that operated in the Inner Rim. And by giant, he meant several thousands names. It would take far too long for him to cross-reference every name by hand. He was going to need to get creative on this.

He sat down at the terminal in his apartment, and began to start typing. The programming required to cross-reference the names against what he knew about the Korriban and Tython ops was complex, and he had to be very careful to hide his trail in case it dinged anything classified. The SIS didn’t keep it’s data on the HoloNet, but it definitely had its own hooks into the system. If he needed to do a deeper search on any of the names of the list, he could do that manually, but he needed to narrow this down to something manageable, otherwise he could be chasing a dead lead for months.

The chronometer had already ticked well past midnight, and he was nearing the end of his coding efforts when his implants alerted him to a new message in his inbox. He finished his train of thought, then pulled away from the data terminal, feeling his muscles protest at the motion after being hunched into one position for so long. Scooping up his forgotten datapad, he opened up his inbox to see who had written.

To: Theron Shan From: Greyias Highwind Subject: Late Reply

I must apologize for the delayed reply. Our latest mission hit a slight snag, and I only now have had time to catch up on my correspondence. Barnaba is a very lovely travel spot, as long as you don’t mind the occasional internal spat between royal houses. Kira wants to buy a timeshare here. She says that it would be a fun vacation spot. I tried to remind her we don’t collect a salary (as you accurately pointed out), but Doc nixed the idea before I could, saying this visit gave him too much work already and doesn’t want any more gray hairs. He can be a bit vain at times but is probably right in this case.

It sounds like you have been keeping yourself busy as well, even if it was perhaps less exciting work. Did you ever find what you were looking for in all of that data? I don’t know if it helps, but in a letter about the ongoing reconstruction efforts at the temple, the Grand Master mentioned a missing Rakata artifact. I unfortunately didn’t have much time to spend in the archives during our initial reconstruction efforts, but I didn’t see any artifacts tucked under anyone’s arm while they were leaving. Perhaps it was extracted during the original raid? I must confess, if the Council was hiding a piece of Rakata technology, then they did not want it falling into the wrong hands. In my own experience it is rarely used for benevolent purposes.

If the artifact was included in the SIS’s reports, I wonder if it is mentioned there the exact nature of the device. I could enquire further with Master Satele regarding it, but I am afraid I am not very good at concealing the truth from her in matters such as these. It is probably best if I don’t attempt it unless you think it’s necessary.

I think I hear my self-appointed keeper returning. I must wrap this up before he confiscates this datapad as well. I will continue to wait to see if you discover anything considered “noteworthy”.

I have a feeling you will know exactly where to find me.

As he finished the letter, Theron couldn’t help the frown. A missing piece of Rakata tech definitely could have been among the missing items. He’d have to check into the official report, but it would take a few extra steps to keep his name from showing up on the logs since they’d closed out the investigation. Surely the Empire wouldn’t have conducted an entire raid in the heart of the Republic for just one artifact. Surely their resources would have been better directed elsewhere. The more he tried to fit the pieces of all of this together, the less this made sense. There was something else going on here, he just wasn’t connecting the right dots.

He glanced back at the data terminal, his back screaming in protest at the thought of returning to the hunched over position so soon. He began to perform a series of exercises to try and stretch out the kinks, carefully balancing the datapad so he could re-read the contents of the letter again as if it might magically answer any of the questions it raised. As he focused on the details to see if he missed anything regarding the artifact, the reason for the delay in reply started to prickle at him. The letter had definitely been written with far more reserve than the previous ones.

As he finally worked free the knot in his lower back, he pulled up the HoloNet and ran a search on news articles for the Tapani sector. He didn’t need to look far to find the buzz about a daring rescue of an entire orphanage from the nefarious plot of a rogue minor house trying to curry favor with the losing house in the Barnabas succession. They apparently took the building as a hideout concealing a hidden stash of weapons and had planted dentonite around the perimeter. All orphans had safely been pulled from the exploding building and while the article didn’t say there was going to be a statue erected in a certain Jedi’s honor, Theron half expected it to. He was already scrubbing a hand across his face by the time he got to the end. Beyond being possibly the most disgustingly cliched do-gooder he’d ever met, the woman was a giant flashing neon sign that attracted attention wherever she went. What the hell had he been thinking bringing her in on this? There was no way they were going to remain under the radar if she stopped what she was doing every five seconds to rescue kath pups and nexu kittens.

He opened up a new message, and stared at it for a few moments before he began writing out his reply:

To: Greyias Highwind From: Theron Shan Subject: Interesting

I’m sure the life of a Jedi Knight is very busy, especially one that seems to wind up on the top of the HoloNet News feed as often as you do. It’s understandable that you can’t always reply to every piece of mail you get right away. Although I do admit I was thinking I’d hear back sooner than a week. 

But your reply, even delayed, is appreciated. I hadn’t gotten far sifting through the data, but I’m going to double-check the report when I get in tomorrow to see if I can find the piece of tech you mentioned in the log. If the Council had it locked up, I doubt they were willing to share with the SIS the exact nature of the device. But hey, maybe we’ll get lucky and everyone will have been in a sharing mood. Hope springs eternal right?

Speaking of the Council, I think you’re right in that we should probably not share anything with the Grand Master right now. All I have right now are threads and suspicions, but nothing concrete. We need to figure out what’s going on before anyone’s going to take us seriously. I’m getting there, but it’s slow going. I’ve gotten some leads on Darok, but they’re just… odd. He’s started requesting intel, like on the weaponization of the Iso-5 on Tython. That makes sense. My other lead is just confusing, and I’ve got no idea what it means. I was actually working on it when your message came. If anything comes from it, I’ll let you know.

Theron stared at the blinking cursor, trying decide if he should end it there, but something was still nagging at him. Rescued orphans aside, there was nothing in the report that indicated why it took her an entire week to check her inbox, seeing as that incident had occurred almost five days ago. It was none of his damn business and he didn’t care. He really didn’t. Not beyond keeping an eye on a potentially valuable asset for his operation. Still, it felt as if he didn’t quite have control over his fingers typing out the last portion of his reply.

Now, it’s not my business or anything, but in my line of work I’m used to reading between the lines. I couldn’t help but notice you mentioning everything but exactly what delayed your reply. If I do find something, are you going to be up to joining my investigation? Or do I need to write your medic for permission first? Hopefully you managed to hide that datapad from him successfully enough so you don’t have to smuggle another one just to check your mail.

I’ve got to finish running down this other lead before I call it a night. If I find anything new, I’ll be in touch. Try not to blow yourself up rescuing another orphanage in the meantime.

[zombierunfiction]

Call Of Duty: WWII, Mission 1: Hands

*Special Missions Due to My Loyal Followers*

A clap of thunder shook the coms shack hard as pouring rain hit the window of the dimly lit room.  Charlotte was sitting on the cot wearing what amounted to pajamas watching the rain.  It had been raining for two full days since the Battle of Abel making runs near impossible.  The Major agreed that it would be safer to just suspend all runs until the rain let up.  Sam was currently going through the archieves to clean up the coms shack due to Janine's less than gentle prodding.  He had been working for over 2 hours going through file after file leaving Charlotte to clean up their area and read over some of the magazines they managed to find while on runs.

She stood up and padded out to his desk where he had his oversized headphones on as he listened to missions taking down notes and other things for Janine.  Charlotte walked over gently wrapping her arms around his neck.  She looked down seeing him looking more serious than what she had seen him as before.

She gently lifted one of his headphones away.  “Sammy?  What's wrong?”  She asked softly making Sam hit the space bar and sigh heavily.

“Brunswick...”  Sam said softly.

Charlotte felt her stomach tighten before she  tightened her head on him.  “How much of it?”

“Just our end.  I never got their tapes of your work with them.  But that is still...”  Sam said closing his eyes.  “horrifying...”

Charlotte sighs softly gently kissing his head.   “Do you want me to listen to it with you and fill in what you need?”

Sam looks up at her slowly.  “Are you sure you want to?”

Charlotte nods grabbing one of the seats pulling it over.  She picked up one of the headphones and plugged it into the jack that would allow them to both listen. “Start it over.”

Sam nodded and started over the audio as they heard Janine's voice.

*~*~After Paul Revere and Before Supply Mission*~*~

“Runner Five, report to the gate. Runner Five, report immediately!”  Janine states loudly as Charlotte looked up from her axe which she was sharpening.

“Yeah, you'd better move.  Janine's got that face on.  You know the one.” Sam said.

“On it.”  Charlotte said running towards the gate.

“There's a backpack full of supplies by the gate there.  Good.  I want you to take it over to Brunswick. We haven't heard anything from them since the fire, and... I just want to make sure they're all right.  For operational purposes.” Janine said sounding more concerned than need be as Charlotte put on the pack.

“Oh yeah?”  Sam asked with a grin.

“Thank you, Mr. Yao.  Raise the gates!”  Janine said as the gates start to raise.

“Raising the gates.”  Sam said almost boredly.

“They might need your help over there, so be prepared to stay for a few days.  When you arrive, report to Ben Jones and no one else!  He'll know what to do.” Janine explained.

“Covering fire?”  Sam questioned as Janine sighed dramaticly.

“Yes... covering fire!”  The snipers on the towers fired off a few rounds taking out a few zombies.

“Off you go, Five.  Have a good time.”  Sam said as Charlotte took off down the road heading towards Brunswick.

After an hour or so of running Charlotte spoke up.  “How's everything on the zom front?”

“Looking good.  I don't see the zoms that hit Brunswick.  They must be still out there.”  Sam said before he sighed.  “You know, I envy you guys.  Heading out into the wild seeing the townships, watching the landscape change.  I'd quite like a weekend break in Brunswick.”  He chuckled softly. “Maybe you could set up a timeshare scheme while you're over there! Yeah, an exchange program between Brunswick and Abel!”

“Not sure that would be such a good idea Sam.”  Charlotte said as she ran.  

“I agree.” Janine said as Charlotte could hear Sam's eye roll out on the road.

“Oh come on, Janine.  You need a holiday more than anyone.”  Sam said with a grin.

“We stay behind these walls for a reason.” Janine stressed.

“Yeah, but wouldn't it be nice to get out once in a while?  You could go and pay your Mr. Jones a visit.”  Sam said happily.

“For operational reasons.” Charlotte added with a grin.

“There are more important things than fraternizing.”  Janine squawked quickly.

“Oh, is that what we're calling it?” Sam laughed softly.

“Shouldn't you be concentrating on your job?”  Janine questioned.

“Oh.  Oh, yeah.  Uh, Runner Five? There's a bunch of zoms straight ahead of you, about 200 meters away. If you go east towards the tree line, you should avoid them.”  Sam said quickly as Charlotte changed her directions.

“Concentration, Mr.  Yao.  That's what keeps us alive.”  Janine said with a smirk.

Charlotte shook her head as she continued to run heading for Brunswick.  She began to notice a little bit of a change in herself since she came to Abel.  She would look foreward to going onto runs simply to talk to Sam.  Running with the others was ok but when it was just Sam she felt at ease.  She started hoping that she would be on runs with just Sam so he could focus on her.

She kept her distance mostly due to the fact that she was still unsure if her fiance was still alive, dead or undead.  

She did have to admit that it was difficult to ignore the feeling she got when she was around him.

After a minute there was some static before Sam's voice came back.  “-and then he says that vegemite is totally different, and that marmite is an inferior spread in every way!  Well now, that's fighting talk where I come from.  So I said-”

“Mr. Yao?”  Janine said.

“Oh yeah.  Oh, uh, hang on.”  Sam said adjusting himself in his chair.  “Uh, Runner Five?  Um, hello?”  He started to sound quiet and distant.

“Yeah I'm here.  You're sounding really far away.”  Charlotte said quickly.

“You're getting to the edge of visual range, so just to give you a rundown of what I can see. Uh, yeah.  There are some zombies.  Yep, definitely some zoms.  Look, it's hard to tell at this distance, okay?”  Sam stated sounding worried.

“Focus on the job.”  Janine said quickly.

“Yeah, right.  Um, now there are pockets of movement all the way along the treeline at 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock, 12 o'cl- well, basically, on the hour, every hour from 10 until 3.  There are gaps, though.  Um, now if you head for about uh, half 12 you should be able to sneak between two clusters.  So uh, sneaky sneaky now.”  Sam said as Charlotte shook her head trying to sneak around the zombies.

“And be careful.  Those supplies you're carrying could be a lifeline for Brunswick.  If you lose that backpack, don't bother coming back.”  Janine said seriously.

Charlotte slipped behind a tree looking up feeling her anger starting to come up.  “Really?”  She whispered.  “Again with that?”

“And uh, yeah, so cheery goodbye from me, too!  You'll be out of broadcast range soon.  When you see Brunswick, head for the east building.  That's where the locals should be holed up.  Good luck.”  Sam said as the transmission faded out.  Charlotte continued to slip through the trees keeping quiet and away from the zoms as much as she could.  After another hour the static was even louder.  “Don't know if you can hear me, but it looks like you made it through that line of zoms.  Good work. You should be able to see Brunswick below you now.”

“Runner Five,one more thing.  The most vital thing of all.  Getting to Brunswick is only half the job. If I know Mr. Jones, he'll want to assess your suitability for certain tasks.  And if you're useful, he may well give you an item to bring back with you.  If he does, you must treat it with extreme respect.  Do you understand me?  Extreme respect.”  Janine stressed.

“You made that extremely clear.” Charlotte hissed as she ran.

“Come on Janine lighten up a little bit.  Five knows how important this is.”  Sam said confidently.

Janine signed heavily.  “I know some people find your levity amusing, Mr. Yao, but I find that morale is best maintained by keeping people alive.  Which means treating serious matters seriously.”

The audio began to crackle and get even softer.  “And we are all extremely grateful for that.  Every day we have with you is a blessing.”  Sam said almost sarcasticly.

“When was the last time you were on latrine duty, Mr. Yao?  I'm just drawing up next week's rota, and I don't think your name is on it nearly enough.”  Janine said threateningly.

“Uh, can I get you a cup of tea?” Sam backtracks quickly.  “Runner Eight picked up some very nice chamomile and mint when she was out yesturday.  Or uh, maybe some instant coffee?  We're out of milk, I'm afraid.  Though I could send Runner Six out to try and find some soya.  Or perhaps a shoulder massage?”

“Inappropriate, Mr. Yao.”  Janine said obviously proud of herself.

“Yeah, cool.  But um, let me know if there's anything I can do while you're drawing up the rota.  Any administrative assistance I can provide?”  Sam questioned.

“Thank you, but I'm sure I'll be fine.”  Janine stated.

“You know, I could do that um, cleaning of the white board that I was supposed to do last week.  I mean, I was very busy last week, but-”  Sam was suddenly cut off but strong static before the headset went silent.

“Looks like I'm out of range.” Charlotte said as she continued to run.

After a few minutes another voice appears in her headset.  This one was a deep authoritative voice. “Hey, over here!”  Charlotte looks over seeing a tall man standing a good distance away waving at her from a tower.  “This way!  Watch that building.  There's a pair of zombies inside.”  He said as Charlotte ran past the building avoiding it quickly.  “Keep coming.  I've got you covered from up here.”  He said taking out a rifle where he shot at several of the zoms that followed after her. After a few more shots Charlotte was just a few feet from the building he was at.  “All clear.  Come on around the back, we'll open up the door for you.”  He said as Charlotte nodded running towards the back of the building.

Once in the back she was met up by a bunch of people that she recognized from her run to warn about the zombies.  She took her headset off and looked around seeing the man from the tower walk over to her.  “Thanks for helpping me out.  I'm Charlotte DeLoius”  She said holding out her hand.

The man smiled taking her hand shaking it.  “I'm Jones.  Good to meet you.  We have a lot to discuss.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

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