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havocdream · 2 months

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Unheard and Unseen - Two

Summary: Hunter takes a look at the senator's residence, and tries to ask her for certain requirements regarding her security. Vintra, who knows the law well, puts up some resistance to one of them.

Word count: 5.2k

Warnings: Conversations against war and justifying it | Descriptions of security measures

Notes at the end of chapter

Chaper One -> You won't find a better squadron

Masterlist

Naive ideals

Vintra opened the door to the only other room in the apartment and invited the clone Wrecker inside.

“This is the guest room,” which consisted of two wide beds overlooking the city, a sofa bed at the back, and in the middle of both a small living room with two sofas; at the back, a large well-equipped bathroom, with a bathtub next to the windows, which were covered with black curtains. Wrecker glanced around the place, which looked comfortable, but too clean and tidy.

“Hmm... any emergency exits?” he wanted to know. Vintra nodded and looked for the front door.

Wrecker wasn't familiar with Republic senators, but Vintra Selana's apartment had given him an idea of the kind of life had those who represented so many of the planets he and his siblings had visited. He wasn't sure if his logic was correct, he would ask Tech later, but he got the impression that, with someone living in such a huge and luxurious place, they might be dealing with someone of incredible importance.

He knew Hunter wasn't going to like it.

The problem began with the tower, a twenty-floor rectangular structure, with all four sides surrounded by Coruscant glass, strong but not impenetrable. The elevators were located at the back of the building, and each floor started from there to the front. Doors and apartments invaded the hallway all the way to the front, which ended with the corridor splitting into two paths before the vanguard window with a huge view of the city. Each path led to the emergency stairs.

On his tour of the building, Hunter had noticed that the apartments, in that case, only had access to one side of the windows. But he began to wonder, since the senator had mentioned owning an entire floor, if it was possible that she was exposed from both lateral sides.

It was worse, Wrecker thought, because the senator had three sides of her apartment surrounded by tall windows divided by white frames, which gave her an spectacular view of the city, but exposed hundreds of vulnerable points for her safety.

The only safe side was the elevators, the rear and where the front door to the apartment was, as it maintained the same layout as the other floors by being bordered by a hallway next to the rear windows, leading to the emergency stairs at the end of each side. Wrecker looked down the hallway.

The senator pointed to both exits, a couple feet from one and at the other end the other. The wall of her home spanned the entire floor as did the windows, her door was located halfway down the left path, between the elevator and the emergency stairs.

“This is...serious,” Wrecker said to himself, since having only one hallway and three such closed escape routes was not what he considered ideal for someone whose life was in danger.

He was about to head back inside, when a light came on at the entry point of the nearest emergency stairway. Wrecker drew his blaster and positioned himself in front of the senator's door, who, after seeing the clone's reaction, backed up a couple of steps with an icy stare and countenance, her heart rate accelerating as if she had just started running.

“It's me,” they both heard Hunter's unique voice, which sounded like it was coming from downstairs. Wrecker holstered his gun and gave his brother a mocking laugh.

“You want to see this,” the big guy commented and pointed inside the place with his head. Vintra let out a sigh of relief and stepped inside, thankful that she didn't have to deal with another attack for the time being.

Hunter walked in ahead of his brother, and stopped in his tracks. He wasn't sure why, for he had to have expected it, but the magnitude of that apartment eerily overwhelmed him, not only because of the third side of glass he hadn't counted on, but also because of the interior of the Ederon Senator's residence.

There were only two walls, one on either side of the floor to separate, Hunter assumed, the senator's bedroom and perhaps another private room. But other than that, he could see everything from the entrance. There were no walls separating any area in the apartment.

The only wall behind him was upholstered with a kind of off-white marble, which on its left side had an impeccable kitchen: a touchscreen double rack oven next to an electric stove and sink, and a pantry above it. The column next to it appeared to be the refrigerator, and in front was a white rock breakfast bar with four tall gray stools.

Behind it was a pentagonal brown dining room with a white chair on each side, above which hung a seven-bulb chandelier radiating a dim yellow light. It was filled with papers.

Next to it, a lilac divan chair with a backrest greeted the panorama offered by the large windows. Immediately next to it was the main living room, with a long sepia-colored couch with its back to the city and facing a small round black glass table in the center, though far from its edge. In contrast, a cream-colored sofa in the shape of an “S”, albeit with not very pronounced curves, looked back at it. Senator Selana was there, with both legs tucked up on top of the seat and concentrating on her datapad with the evening news.

To the right of both sofas, two moss-colored single armchairs completed the room set. Above these, seven lamps fell from the ceiling with bulbs wrapped in capsules that looked like the silhouette of a common flower.

Immediately after, another set of sofas followed, but these looked more formal, long and rectangular, and were positioned opposite the previous ones. Both, light gray in color, faced the side walls, and in the center of both a stretched mahogany table lent itself to place several things at the same time. It could be the space where the senator sat to talk about her work, since behind it was a large desk of thick, dark wood, on which rested a computer and an impressive pile of papers. Behind it and against the wall, there was a bookcase that rose halfway up the wall and was full of files and folders.

Finally, at the back and in the corner of the main space, a shining black pianoforte with double keyboard decorated it, placed parallel to the window so that, when playing, the city could be contemplated when looking to the right. It was illuminated by another ostentatious chandelier, three large black cylinders enclosing cylindrical bulbs of opaque light.

In the middle of the back wall was the door to the senator's possible bedroom. Hunter still calculated quite a bit of missing space, so he assumed that her private quarters could easily rival the luxury that the main room exuded.

“You've got to be kidding me,” was all that escaped the lips of the sergeant, who had to tilt his head so he could see the ceiling of the residence in which they would stay indefinitely as bodyguards. The clone with the tattooed skull shook his head, even more incredulous with each passing second.

“Over there is the room we'll be staying in, it has three beds,” Wrecker pointed to the wall to his left, next to the kitchen and dining room. It was also a large space.

“Well, I'm thinking of splitting us into two shifts for the night. I'll wait for Tech to finish to arrange that,” Wrecker nodded at his brother's words and left the dorm in search of the trunks with their things. Hunter continued his examination of the place, with emphasis on the huge problem that all the windows surrounding the apartment implied. He pressed his communicator to the right side of his helmet. “Crosshair, get over here,” he ordered the sniper, who confirmed he was on his way. “Where are your guards?” he asked the senator after removing his helmet. She didn't turn to look at him.

“Some in the parking lot, searching my vehicle. Others went to get something to eat, I don't feel like cooking something tonight,” she told him, her voice tired. Hunter narrowed his eyes and drew his eyebrows together.

“So... you live in a place with access for anyone to get a good view of you,” the clone began in an annoyed tone, as he rounded the snake-like couch and planted himself in front of the ederian, who until then looked up from the screen to the flaming gaze of the sergeant, “and on top of that you have the luxury of dispatching your guards? Are you really in danger or are you very careless?”

It was easy for Vintra to convey with her face what her mind was thinking, so the neutral expression the news report gave her was quickly replaced with indignation by the sergeant's tone. She set the datapad down on the couch and stood up, because she hated it when someone reprimanded her for something standing while she was sitting, feeling that the height difference gave her a disadvantage.

“That you will have to tell me, sergeant. I’m a senator, I deal with issues concerning the rights of the citizens of the Republic, as well as their economic or social welfare,” Vintra's face hardened, and her purple eyes seemed to grow colder every second they didn’t leave the clone's brown ones. “I bought this apartment long before I became a target, and you are here, so my personal guard can very well go do their other duties that don't involve having me exposed,” Hunter noticed, without taking his eyes off the senator's challenging gaze, that she had her hands balled into fists, though he detected no anger from her, no more than the irritation he had met her with at least. “It's your mission to keep me safe, you're the one who knows about it, so get on with your work and let me know whatever it is you need from me.”

Vintra opened her hands and turned her back to Hunter, her brown hair almost slapping his face. The Ederon Senator walked to the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water from the refrigerator. Hunter held his position, his gaze fixed on the senator the entire time. He didn't like having to deal with politicians, but relented in agreeing with her. The best thing was for him to get to work, catch the deluded criminal who was after her and leave, hopefully never to see her again.

He was about to speak, when through the doorway Crosshair finally appeared, chewing on a wooden chopstick. His expression couldn't have better reflected what probably the entire Clone Force 99 thought of the place.

“It's going to be a nightmare...” he heard his brother whisper as he examined the place. Hunter walked over to him.

“Tech mapped out the abandoned buildings on the site and those that are occupied, but with empty rooms,” the sergeant pulled out a holopad and projected a map of the area around the senator's residence. “I need a report on all possible direct points of attack, weapons that can get through that glass, and the respective security measures you recommend,” Crosshair took the holopad and nodded at his orders. He hurried to the center of the apartment to begin his mission.

Wrecker entered at that moment with everyone's personal containers and placed them in the guest room, Hunter followed.

“You and I will be the senator's escort, we'll take care of any nearby threats and mobilize her, so we'll take turns guarding at night,” Wrecker snorted, as he didn't like guarding at all, because he got bored. “Listen, the faster we get our work done, the sooner we'll get back to blowing things up,” Hunter encouraged him with a half-smile. Wrecker rolled his eyes and let out another snort, but one that showed conviction.

“I can't believe they assigned us as... bodyguards,” the big guy complained in his growling voice, with a tone on the last word that suggested disgust. “Us! Bodyguards!” he certainly had the most bruised ego, but Hunter didn't blame him. That mission felt like an insult to all their prowess done for the Republic, they should’ve been sent to deal directly with a separatist leader, not to cover the senator's sensitive skin from the sun with an umbrella.

“You rest tonight, I have several reports to make...” suggested Hunter to his brother and closed the door to the place. Crosshair had moved to the near end of the room. The holomap was full of lines between buildings made by the sniper, suggesting direct points of attack. Hunter stifled a curse.

“I'm sure that, so far, no good snipers have been hired, because if they’ve had the senator would be dead by now. She's been a sitting duck a long time,” Crosshair said with the toothpick between his teeth and without taking his eyes off a datapad on which he was typing the details of distances and doing the calculations to determine the effectiveness of a shot. A new line illuminated the hologram.

“Hmm... I'll have Tech install sensors at each point,” he scratched his chin as he thought about the best options for keeping the area under control. “We need the Coruscant guard clones stationed on specific rooftops and corners as well, I'll gather data on each one tonight,” Crosshair made a sound akin to a chuckle.

“With how much the ‘regs’ enjoy taking orders from a defective,” his lips drew into a smirk. The sergeant mimicked her and suddenly felt impatience to go and give orders to the Coruscant guard.

“When you're done with your report go get some rest, you'll rotate shifts with Tech in the control room in the evenings,” he told him before turning back to Senator Selana, who was now at her desk and typing a report of some information she had just received from her team to her mail.

Vintra knew she had neither time nor knowledge of what her protection required. She knew that her windows were a problem, she knew that being without her guard was also a problem... but she could do nothing with the style of her apartment, and her guard now only consisted in only fifteen individuals who had to stay together so that they wouldn’t be eliminated one by one. She was doing the best she could with what she had, which was very little.

That was why, upon seeing the silhouette of the approaching sergeant, she clenched her jaw and pretended to concentrate even more on her report, hoping that he’ll leave her alone. However, Hunter stood in front of the desk, arms crossed, and eyes fixed on Vintra's face.

“I need a couple of things from you, so that your safety can be restored and we can all get back to our respective places as soon as possible, if that's okay with you,” the clone proposed in a passive tone. Vintra stopped typing and raised her intense purple eyes in his direction. The senator understood the truce they could make between them: collaborate as best they could to get the clones out of her life as soon as possible, and she could work on her case without fearing for her life.

It seemed only fair to her.

“Very well,” she agreed, her expression neutral and composed. This was a political situation, and she had to attend to it like a senator. She could do that, so she closed her document and turned off her monitor. She invited the clone to the couch opposite, where they could chat as much as they wanted about these 'needs' he had. Vintra offered him tea, but Hunter declined.

“Senator, to make this easier, I'd like your team to send me your daily schedule, so I can execute a reconnaissance plan of the areas you mobilize and clear them of any threats prior to your passage,” the sergeant explained from the couch overlooking the wall of the guest room. Vintra settled herself on the opposite piece of furniture and crossed her legs, as she used to do in meetings with any authority figure in the Republic.

“No problem, I’ll inform them in that case to abide by your request,” she agreed, although it was not the first time her agenda had been requested to discuss security matters.

“I also want your guard, the shock troopers, and your team to cooperate at all times with us. I understand that they will respond to you in whatever terms you wish, but when it comes to security, I'm going to need them to listen and obey me,” Vintra blinked twice, unsure of giving in to that. “I don't want in the face of an attack, should there be one, your guard to have a different plan than ours or than the Coruscant guard's... I need everyone to follow the plans we lay out and everyone to know what to do in the same scenario...” Hunter paused as he felt the doubt emitting from the senator's brain. A faint current, but with the unmistakable rhythm of doubt that the clone recognized so well from his enhanced ability.

Vintra had trouble trusting clones, that was no secret to anyone in the Senate. She could tolerate certain scenarios if her guard was around, but granting him access over all her protectors could be a delicate matter. If she allowed it, no order from the sergeant could be disregarded by her guards.

“It's for your safety, Senator, what's the problem?” wanted to know Hunter, irritated by the woman's distrust. They were wasting their time and tarnishing their reputation with her, and she had the nerve to distrust them? Hunter thought the politicians were giving themselves too much importance, which they clearly didn't have, as the soldiers and generals were the ones on the battlefield.

“My problem, sergeant, is that I don't know you. I can't just hand you command of my entire guard to do with it as you please,” Vintra replied, her tone dry and her gaze again painted in icy purple.

“What pleases me is to use them as key agents in the operation,” Hunter leaned forward, seeking to punctuate the importance of his requisition. His eyes were beginning to burn with irritation again. “With their help, we can finish faster, but it does me no good if you are free to tell them anything to mess up a plan, or have them refuse to cooperate because they resort to saying they only take orders from you,” the clone complained, his voice low, but authoritative. Vintra wrinkled her face into a grimace of complete disgust.

“In that case, I will order them to cooperate with you and not cause inconveniences,” Vintra clasped both her hands together on her knee, determined not to give in to his proposal. Hunter read her posture and shifted his own to match the senator's assurance, his elbow resting on his thigh and his hand turned into a solid fist. He knew that in this discussion he couldn’t lose, for he was the soldier, the one who knew of attacks and lives at risk.

“Senator Selana, you and I are having trouble right now with one of the most basic points regarding the overall plan we have started regarding your safety. At the time of an attack, I don't want that your stubbornness or naivety of the situation lead you to contradict an order of mine,” Hunter's tone was exactly the one he used with a soldier. Vintra wasn't used to that kind of intimidation, but negotiation was her area, and it wasn't the first time she'd dealt with a fool.

“Sergeant, you are in charge of my life as of today, why would I go and contradict you in the middle of an attack?” Vintra stood up immediately, her fists again appearing at her sides. “I can tolerate staying quiet and following your instructions, but I cannot grant you absolute power of all the weapons around me, or the distance from which you drive away my men who have sworn to give their lives to protect me,” Hunter drew his eyebrows together, noticeably annoyed at the suggestion the senator was making about him and his brothers.

“Then let me explain to you that these men, no matter how much they are under my command, are not going to raise their weapons against you ever,” the clone spat out, also standing up as he felt his blood boil at how intolerable he was beginning to find the senator to be. “Honestly, I find it despicable of you to even doubt that your guards could harm you when, supposedly, three hundred have given their lives to protect you,”

Vintra unclenched her fists, and Hunter watched as the senator seemed to take a step back. She hadn't seen it from that edge, because she didn't really understand what the codes were between soldiers. The law stated that, if she ceded control to the clone sergeant, her men would be bound by any orders. If there was a code among soldiers to disobey that order, Vintra was unaware of it.

“I don't think my men are not to be trusted, sergeant,” she replied after a few seconds. Hunter sensed offense in her tone and look. “I respect them and care about them. It's you I don't trust,” the senator explained, raising her index finger to point directly at his chest. “I don't want my men, because of me, to be forced to carry out an order they don't want, all because I granted you the power of my entire unit,” Hunter wrinkled his nose, thoroughly annoyed.

“You make too much of yourself, senator, as I, or any of my brothers, have little interest in ending your life. Frankly, it matters little to me whether you keep it or lose it, as long as you don’t do so in our custody, you mean nothing more than a foolish mission with which they’ve decided to punish us,” Hunter raised his voice, and waited for a creative response from the senator, whose face seemed to redden further at his words.

But Vintra said nothing. Instead, she turned her head to the side and closed her eyes. Hunter listened as the senator inhaled thunderously in search of inner peace. The sergeant couldn't help but give her a little reason, so he stepped back a little and threw his head back. The count to ten he did in his mind helped him lower his rage.

“I find it ridiculous that you want to give up a command leak just because you're not able to trust me,” Hunter complained, less upset. Vintra rolled her eyes.

“It's not against you, sergeant, don't you dare think I care that much about you too and it's about something personal,” the senator rebutted. She brought both hands to her hips. “I see you don't interact much with Republic politics, as my disapproval of the clone army accreditation is well known and I have more than once sought its abolition in the Senate,” her words caused Hunter to turn to look at her in surprise. He didn't know.

“Are you insane?” the clone blurted out with so much indignation etched in his voice and face that he almost thought it was a sarcastic remark. Vintra let out a wry laugh.

“I don't expect you to understand my reasons, sergeant, you're a clone...clearly you're going to disagree,” Vintra walked back to the couch as she massaged her temples, not looking forward to having that argument she'd had so many times in the Senate at the beginning of the war. She sat down on the couch again.

“What reasons would you have?” scoffed the clone, who also took a seat again, though still with an uneasy posture. “You're talking about the millions of soldiers keeping the galaxy safe, do you disapprove the creation of the forces that keep you alive, rich and healthy?” Vintra didn't allow herself to get upset again, it had already taken her a while to calm down.

“Yes, sergeant, I disapprove the creation of a violent response to a violent offensive that has caused the deaths of millions of civilians, destruction of homes and ecosystems, and on top of that, Republic funds focused on it and leaving education, security and welfare projects unfunded to thousands of systems,” the senator said that as if it were the most obvious thing in the universe, as if the war was stupid and every participant in it was just as much of a moron. Something that touched Hunter's nerves, of course. “Not to mention the huge number of soldiers who conveniently showed up from a planet that didn't exist in the records, and by the next morning were carrying weapons in the name of the Republic,”

“Do you realize—”

“I've already told you that discussing it with you is pointless, soldier,” she interrupted as she stood up and smoothed the skirt of the blue dress she wore. That gesture, Hunter assumed, ended the talk. “You will not have access to my men, but I will order them not to oppose your instructions and all plans will be carried out as you command, as long as it is solely for my safety,” she made clear, her face serene and her chin high. Hunter opened his mouth again to speak, but was again interrupted by the senator. “You can speak to my guard as soon as they return, and in the contact directory you will find the code for my team, with whom you can resolve any other requirements you may have, they will inform me later,” she explained on her way to the door of her room, without turning to look at him. “If you'll excuse me, it's been a heavy day and I feel like resting,” Hunter followed her with his gaze from the couch until she entered her room. As the door closed, he let out the air he was holding filled with anger and frustration.

“I can't believe this,” he whispered to himself and rubbed his face with his hands in an attempt to get rid of all the frustration the senator was causing him. He didn't understand Tech's point in admiring her. To Hunter, the senator was exactly what he thought politicians were and the reason he disliked them so much.

They had no idea what they were talking about, and because of their foolish arguments and little knowledge, soldiers paid the price at the front by never receiving ammunition, supplies or ransom. Because of the useless policies that stalled processes and left those who actually dealt with the hostility of war—soldiers and civilians—to their fate.

“You know what, it doesn't surprise me much anymore that someone out there wants to kill her,” Hunter heard his sniper brother's voice. The sergeant turned to watch him from a distance, arms crossed, in front of the kitchen windows. His comment got a chuckle out of him. “With comments like that, maybe he pissed off the wrong person,” Crosshair suggested and went back to his business.

Hunter lamented that, because of people like her, civilians were dying at the hands of separatists. For her ideas of abolition of the army and withdrawal of troops. For her naive ideals of reality on the front lines.

Inside her room, Vintra prepared for sleep. However, like every night for the past month, she found it impossible. She drew herself a bath and took with her a stack of papers that lay on the desk in her bedroom, which she used more than the one in the main room. Among those papers were letters from citizens with donations to his Druad research, requests from ederians to solve some market and agricultural crises, and many reports from Ederon's network of secret informants.

Vintra took off her clothes and stepped into the tub of hot water. The bathroom windows overlooking the night city were covered by curtains, for safety and privacy. The senator took the papers and began to examine them one by one.

The planet of Ederon was one of the most powerful in the Republic, for it was proudly home to the largest information network in the galaxy, which answered to Senator Selana. Vintra owned many secret routes that only the chancellor would have access to if requested, and many secret operations were discovered by the ederians and immediately communicated to the senator.

That night was no exception. The paper she held in her hands, written in code like all those coming from the secret network, told her of the discovery of a supposed outpost on Druad unrecognized, as there were no traces of droid troops or clones. Attached was an image of a spiral symbol, but in the shape of a diamond, with a cross in the middle. The note suggested that it might have been an outside group, perhaps smugglers.

Vintra folded it and set it aside. She would burn it later and respond with a letter instructing to follow up on the anomaly.

After finishing her bath, and reading the papers, she dressed in her night gown and went on with her nightly routine. Skin care, perfume on her wrists and neck, and an air purifier of Ederon wildflowers. All should guarantee her comfort to sink into her wide bed with silk blankets and pillows, to find a deep sleep.

Except it didn't, and Vintra's sleep never came, despite feeling tired.

She'd been having trouble sleeping for a month now, as her mind was racing with the Druad affair and the anxiety of the Court's response, which had already taken four weeks to update the status of her proposal. Something not necessarily unusual, but it was beginning to make her desperate.

She was worried that the Court would reject her proposal for the same reasons that several senators presented at the meetings. Because if the Court rejected it, she wouldn´t have much to continue her fight. She needed the backing of the institution of justice to persuade certain senators to give her their vote.

That night, however, it wasn’t only the situation with her case that made her uneasy. The Clone Force 99 sergeant kept going over and over in her head. His words had been shocking, but they weren't the worst thing Vintra had ever been told, or would ever be told. She didn't like that the clones oversaw so much of her security, but she didn't have much choice either. Good thing they were there on orders, otherwise she'd probably still be without security. And besides, the clone's words were backed up when he told her that at least in their custody, no one could kill her.

If Vintra died on their watch, it implied a failed mission. As far as she remembered, that clone unit maintained a one hundred percent success rate on their missions. Surely, they wouldn't want to tarnish it for someone they didn't even like. While they now knew she was someone capable of promoting the disbanding of the military, she doubted they would proceed to plan to kill her. It wouldn’t speak well of them or the clones, it’d also prove her point.

Perhaps it was in their best interest to keep her safe, and she was willing to give in to that. But she was not going to dismiss her suspicions or rely on that theory.