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Operation Arrakis
Post Mortem
by Mike and Sylvana
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Leaving the room, he looked back a brief moment.  Rouddim was still on the 
floor, where he'd fallen, a small bit of blood still trickling from his 
throat to stain his collar.  Fes's eyes narrowed as he shut the door, 
hoping to find someone who could tell him a few things.

If nothing else, maybe he could find out where Sylvana was, and make sure 
she was alright.  He'd watched his younger brother, and knew he would be 
alright - he wasn't in quite as unstable a mental state as his twin was. He 
sighed, searching for the nearest presence, and finding one was in the 
hangar; thus he palmed the door open.

Mike was ransacking the hangar, searching for any additional edge in the 
upcoming confrontation. He knew exactly what should have been in the hangar 
- it was his ship, after all - and he was disappointed to discover that no 
one had bothered to disobey orders by bringing aboard any extra goodies.

<i>Like a suit of cortosis ore armour,</i> he sighed. <i>What sort of unit 
are we running here?</i>

The maindoor hissed open, and Mike looked up. The man called Fes stood in 
the doorway, an unreadable expression on his dour features. "Looking for 
someone?" Mike asked.

Fes nodded, "I am."  He saw a towel lying on a side counter and began to 
clean off his hand from the blood adorned thereon.  "You wouldn't be able 
to tell me where Sylvana is, would you?"

"Sylvana? The medic? She's been taken away."

"I'm aware of that, do you know <i>where?</i>"

"No," Mike said. "Sci arranged for her and Josh to get taken back to 
Coruscant or somewhere for specialist care. If you want to know exactly 
where, you'll have to ask him." Mike paused for a second. "Where'd the 
blood come from?" he asked carefully.

Fes frowned darkly, something passing over his features, "Rouddim," he 
responded in a monotone.

Mike was tempted to go for the lightsabre hanging uncomfortably at his hip, 
for something about Fes suggested that he hadn't been helping Rouddim with 
a nose bleed.

But there was something else about Fes that suggested Mike's hand wouldn't 
make it as far as the lightsabre's hilt, and that he would regret trying. 
"What happened?"

"He tried to strangle me," Fes said, though even Mike could tell that 
wasn't the whole of it.  Fes lifted his head so Mike could clearly see the 
bruises forming upon his throat.

Mike's gaze dropped from the bruises to the blood-stained towel and then 
back up to meet Fes's eyes.  "So what did you do, rip his heart out?" Mike 
asked.

"No, I disassociated his trachea," Fes answered blandly as he looked up.

"Oh," Mike said, neutrally. "Does he need medical assistance?"

"He needs nothing more than a hole in the ground to lie in," Fes told him, 
dropping the cloth back on the counter.  "So.  Since I obviously have 
nothing more to do here...."

"You might want to explain why you killed someone on my ship," Mike said, 
feeling deeply un-nerved by the matter-of-fact admission of the killing of 
another. "And I don't think you'll be done here if Sci gets wind of this."

"He attacked and raped an NRI agent I happen to be very close to.... When 
he attacked me, I fought back.  He wanted to kill me, I simply returned the 
favour with success." Fes winced slightly, looking at his hand as though he 
did, at least to a small extent, regret what he'd done.

"It was self defense."

"You're sure of this?" Mike asked. His expression hardened and the 
lightsabre seemed to move to his hand of its own volition, so quick was his 
draw. "You're positive?"

The other man's hand turned to a fist before he dropped it to his side. He 
looked Mike in the eye openly.  "Absolutely - the code I adhere to forbids 
lying about something such as this."

"Well, you don't act like a priest," Mike said, holding Fes' gaze. "I have 
to assume that you're for real, in which case then good riddance."

"Which leads us back to the begining of this conversation," Fes quirked a 
sligh half-smirk.  "Is there somewhere I can be useful?  I'd rather not 
just sit around and wait for the Major to have time to tell me where he's 
sent Dr. Lorrdain.  Do you know of something to pass the time with, 
perhaps?"

"The last I heard, my wingman, Becki, had been taken captive," Mike said, 
measuring Fes up with his gaze. He hadn't paid much attention to the 
taciturn NRI agent before now, and was rapidly making his mind up about the 
older man. "You might want to try going looking for her. I don't think 
Lieutenant Cochran wants to disrupt the assault teams at the moment. People 
are twitchy this mission."

Fes nodded, "My specialty.  This would be Lieutenant Bush?" he asked. "Do 
you know her last position?"

"Not until the wedding night," Mike said, automatically. "Sorry. I mean, 
she was somewhere in the Fertile Crescent. She got stunned. Sci doesn't 
want us rushing into the city when we already have agents there."

"'Somewhere in the Fertile Crescent'?  Well THAT narrows things down," Fes 
chuckled, shaking his head as he looked at the floor as his brows drew down 
in thought.

"We could probably trace her comlink more precisely, but I haven't bothered 
personally. Much as I hate to say this, Becki is not my responsibility on 
this mission. Cheriss and Kristy will go after her, I expect. I have to be 
ready when Hope Flight lands. Then I can join the ground assault team."

"I see."

"You want to go find her? I'm sure Cheriss won't mind you tagging along."

"I think I'll go do just that, and if Cheriss is already on her way to find 
her, then I'll be able to figure out where to start looking."  Fes lifted 
the blaster he'd been holding, one given to him by Terra Group for watching 
Rouddim.

"Do you need to charge that? Even if you only shot Rouddim once, you can't 
be too careful."

"If I could be assured of a full charge, that would be appreciated."  He 
suspected he'd been given a lightly loaded blaster.  "I have my own weapons 
as well, but if this is as big as everyone's been implying, I mightn't mind 
having a little extra firepower."  He sighed, his eyes drifting momentarily 
to the lightsabre, then back to Mike with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, I can give you the choice of several weapons setups. You can have 
the Scout, Sniper, Soldier or Scoundrel setup."

"What's the difference?" Fes raised an eyebrow curiously.

"With the Scout setup," Mike began, his voice shifting tones to that of a 
proud quartermaster, "you will receive a blaster carbine, a fully charged 
pistol and a pair of running shoes. A Sniper gets a sniper rifle and his 
own camouflage hat. The Soldier gets a blaster rifle, a couple of grenades, 
and a stout pair of boots."

"And the Scoundrel?" Fes smirked amusedly.

"An antique blaster pistol and a winning smile," Mike grinned. His 
exprssion sobered quickly. "We don't have much here, and what we <i>do</i> 
have is mostly allocated, but I can give you a blaster rifle, if you want 
the extra weight."

Fes chuckled, shaking his head as Mike finished his run down. "Are you sure 
your team has enough for your infiltration?" he asked, his face showing he 
was back to business.

"No. That's why I'm down here. There's two Dark Jedi we're likely to run 
into, and God alone knows what else. We've got the usual kit, but I'd feel 
happier having some heavier weaponry."

"Like what?"

"A concussion rifle would be nice," Mike sighed. "A few shots and the 
building collapses on top of the bad guys."

"I wish I could help you there, but my specialties lie more in stealth than 
anything - the only weaponry I have is the blaster and other small 
handweapons I arrived with... and <i>Raven's Omen</i>, which is still in 
Jerusalem."

"Yeah, well, no harm in dreaming. I've always got this," he said, gesturing 
with the lightsabre. "Probably just mark me out as an even bigger target, 
though."

"If you're fighting against Dark Jedi, then yes it does.  I trust you know 
how to use it?"

"I know how. You have experience of Dark Jedi?"

"Only a little - just try to keep your mind clear of all but your goal," 
Fes nodded as he put the borrowed blaster down.  "I'll just take my own 
weapons with me, you take this.  You should always bring a gun to a knife 
fight," he half smirked.

"Hopefully I'll only be tackling the apprentice. If I have to go up against 
the bossman, I'm in trouble. Hell, we're all in trouble. It pains me to say 
it, but Cochran's the only one with a chance against him. Of course, it may 
be just as bad if our guy wins."

"Well, if someone like Durron can come back, I'm sure your guy can too," 
Fes nodded.  "Good luck to you all."

Mike grinned. He'd have to remember the Kyp/Josh analogy.  "You too," he 
said.

Fes nodded, heading back out the door he'd entered.