Children of Mandalore: Red Fang

A/N: This story is not the direct sequel to Prelude to Terror, but actually the third installment of the Children of Mandalore Series. CoM: Dark Terror has a lot of working parts that I need to fine tune, and the plot needs some work as well, maybe even a co-author (Anyone who's good at writing big space battles drop me a line). This story however is a rewrite of my first fic Children of Mandalore: Honorable Discharge. I lost the original after my computer crashed, and at the time I was a new author and didn't think to back it up. I figured it would be safe on the boards...All of us fic writers know how that turned out :P. So I took the opportunity to rework the plot and make it a little more detailed and less rushed than the original. This story will be an attempt at a Tom Clancy style of storytelling, sorry if I fall short on that though, I'm a better writer than was but I'm far from the best lol. Enough of me blabbering on, I hereby present:

Children of Mandalore: RED FANG

[Dramatis personae]

Ami Laylis: Mandalorian bounty hunter (female human)
Aru Numeck: Wife of Tyran Numeck; former Mandalorian Supercommando (female human)
Baydo Titus: Mandalorian mercenary (male human)
Dain Dolvo: Mandalorian mercenary (male human)
Dyir Carud: Mandalorian mercenary (male human)
Elai Kareb: Mandalorian mercenary (male human)
Gazra Ryl: Intelligence operative (male Rauften)
Ijaat Numeck: Son of Tyran and Aru Numeck (male human)
Iman Vitrix: Colonel; Galactic Alliance Special Forces operative (male Zabrak)
Jacen Solo/Darth Caedus: Head of the Galactic Alliance Guard; Jedi Knight/Sith Lord (male human)
Jaiden Numeck: Adopted son of Tyran Numeck (male human)
Jaya Numeck: Mandalorian mercenary; wife of Rixa Numeck (female human)
Kial Volar: Mandalorian mercenary (male human)
Lin Diieve: Mandalorian bounty hunter; wife of Ryia Devieyc (female human)
Luric Braren: Red Fang (male human)
Neada Tash: Director of Orbital Ring Security KDY; ex-Hapan Commando (female human)
Niya Dinn: Mandalorian bounty hunter (female human)
Odas Zistra: Politician, Chairman of the Galactic Alliance Clandestine Operations Advisory Council (male Gran)
Rev Devieyc: Mandalorian mercenary (male human)
Rixa Numeck: Mandalorian mercenary (male human)
Runi Numeck: Patriarch of the Numeck Clan (male human)
Ryia Devieyc: Mandalorian mercenary (male human)
Savah Tervho: Mandalorian mercenary (female human)
Truan Stav: Head of the Kuati Security Council (male human)
Tyran Numeck: Former Mandalorian Supercommando (male human)
Vyndra Tash: daughter of Neada Tash (female human)

CHAPTER ONE

Skyview Walkway, Coruscant, 40 ABY
Three days after the attack on Toryaz Station

Rixa Numeck didn't find the spectacle of massive canyons and speeder lanes weaving below and above him the least bit impressive as he stood on the walkway waiting. The Skyview was in the upper reaches of Coruscant's speeder lanes and bridged the gap between two of the most luxurious hotels on the planet. Rixa was just a soldier and places like those didn't fit his taste but he often found himself spending a lot of time in those types of places. He was always being hired by the affluent and elite citizens of the galaxy to do dirty work that ensured they were able to keep their positions of power and wealth.

Though most of his employers had deep pockets, Rixa and his family were barely getting by with scraping out an existence on his family's farm on Mandalore. No matter how much he made from his clients payments there was always something that would come up and suck out any excess profits. Rixa couldn't actually remember how long it had been since he had actually seen his wife in person, Jaya was working the bounty hunter circuit as well trying to maximize their profits by taking jobs of her own.

At this point it had to be close to seven or eight standard months since he had set out on his next tour of jobs around the usual spots in the Outer Rim. It wasn't unusual for him to wind up on Coruscant, but he hadn't ever been to this particular level of the city planet. Whoever he was going to be meeting with here was of a whole new kind of affluence than he had ever encountered before.

Good, maybe I can charge him more if the job is difficult enough. He thought as he stared down at the checkerboard pattern of speeder lanes below him. It'll probably turn out to be another intimidation job for a politician.

Those kind of jobs seemed to be his bread and butter these days. Rixa silently longed for a war like the one with the Yuuzhan Vong so he could do some honest soldiering again. Rixa slowly reached his hand up to his shoulder and ran his hand over the section of armor plating as memories of being wounded and tortured by a Yuuzhan Vong high commander on some backwater moon came back to him.

Maybe not exactly like the Yuuzhan Vong.

His helmet sensor detected someone approaching from behind him so he opened a small video feed in his HUD. A Zabrak in a crisp military uniform was indeed walking towards him. Rixa armed the dart launcher in his wrist gauntlet for good measure before turning around to face the approaching person.

"Rixa Numeck?" the pale skinned Zabrak asked as he stood within arms length of the Mandalorian.

Rixa decided that the Zabrak was either very confident or very stupid to be standing so close to an armed mercenary he knew very little about.

"Depends on who's asking." His helmet filter made his voice all the more intimidating. "Who's asking?"

"Colonel Iman Vitrix, Galactic Alliance Special Deployment Group. I've got a proposition for you, can we discuss it inside over lunch?" The Zabrak gestured to the massive spacescraper to the left of the Walkway.

Skyview Terrace was one of the premiere hotels in the galaxy, as well as on Coruscant and it catered to only the absurdly rich.

"Is the Alliance going to foot the bill?"

The Zabrak chuckled. "Of course, even if we don't come to an agreement over the mission."

Rixa began walking off towards the Terrace and made sure to set his helmet to alert him if anyone appeared to be following him. Vitrix fell in step beside him.

"You were highly recommended by some colleagues of mine, as was your brother. We couldn't find him, or else we would have set up a meeting with both of you to double our chances of success." Vitrix said casually.

"He wouldn't have done it anyway, he gave up the mercenary life after the war with the Yuuzhan Vong ended." Rixa said sourly "I haven't seen him for at least ten years."

"Hmm, what a shame." the Zabrak said as the doors to the Terrace parted for them. They were met by a well dressed Bith who directed them to a small table in the far corner of the room that had a breath taking view of Coruscant's skyline.

Vitrix ordered a nerf steak and some expensive Hapen Reserve. Rixa wondered how someone in the Galactic Alliance military could afford to eat in a place like this. HhHe decided that the Zabrak's personal wealth wasn't his concern.

"What kind of job does the Galactic Alliance military need me to do for them?" Rixa asked as he removed his helmet and set it on the table next to him.

"You don't want to wait until after we eat to discuss business?" Vitrix asked as the Bith returned with the bottle of Hapan wine and poured a glass for the Zabrak. The Bith turned the bottle of wine to Rixa and indicated his glass. Rixa declined the drink, alcohol and business didn't tend to mix very well. He would celebrate after the job was done and his bank account had a little bit of padding in it.

"I didn't come all this way for an overpriced nerf steak." Rixa said. "So what do you want?"

Vitrix stared at the Mandalorian mercenary for a few long seconds. He nodded a few times and reached into his shirt. Rixa visibly tightened his grip on the knife in his hand, it was natural reflex when someone he didn't know began reaching for things he couldn't see. Vitrix laughed and slowly pulled his hand out of his jacket and revealed a datachip.

"Forgive me, I forgot about the Mandalorian knack for suspicion."

"It's kept me alive this long." Rixa said as he eyed the chip while Vitrix slid it across the table. "What's on the chip?"

"Information." Vitrix replied coolly. "Actually all of the information we have on the target we would like you to eliminate."

Rixa took the chip and slid it into a throwaway datapad. He did have a chip reader in his armor system but he wasn't about to insert a chip from an unknown military officer into his personal armor system. It took a few moments for the chip to read in his datapad before the screen began to display the information stored on the small device.

"You're joking right?" Rixa said. "This is all you have: Target Identity, Red-Fang. Last known location, the Outer-Rim. You expect to me to find someone with only this to go on?"

Vitrix raised his hands. "Forgive me, I thought Mandalorians could track anyone anywhere across the galaxy with the barest of information. Are you turning down the job?"

Rixa considered the datapad for a few moments. He couldn't afford to let a contract with the Galactic Alliance slip through his fingers. The information he had been given however wasn't going to help him or any other Mandalorian in tracking down the person known as Red-Fang.

"Give me forty-eight hours, let me see what I can dig up on this Red-Fang." Rixa said after a moment of thinking over his options. "If I can come up with more information to make the job more feasible I'll do it."

"Forty-eight hours is acceptable." Vitrix said instantly.

"Who is Red-Fang, or more importantly why do you want him taken care of?"

"He's a terrorist, plain and simple. We can't find him and our resources are being redistributed due to the recent troubles with Corellia."

"So you're just outsourcing your wetwork then."

"Precisely. How much do you require to do that?"

"That'll depend on what I can find out." Rixa said. "After I finish digging around we can discuss payment."

Vitrix nodded his head. "Fine. You have forty-eight hours, I look forward to getting your call."

Taking the comment as a sign that the meeting was over Rixa stood up from the table and replaced his helmet and turned towards the door without saying another word. Vitrix waited until the Mandalorian was outside the building before reaching into his pocket and pulling out an earpiece to a comlink and placing it in his right ear. The device beeped twice before someone on the other end answered his call.

"I made contact with a mercenary who comes highly recommended." He said as the Bith waiter returned with his nerf steak.

"Good, what did he say?" the disembodied voice in his ear asked.

"He asked if he could have forty-eight hours to dig around and find some more information before he accepted the job. I told him that was doable."

"Are you insane?!" the voice cried out. "What if he finds out more about Red-Fang than he needs to know?"

"I took care of all the Operation: Red-Fang data personally. He wont find anything I don't want him seeing." Vitrix said as he cut into his steak. The knife passed through the meat as if it was warm butter. "All that we need now is for this mercenary to locate Red-Fang himself and eliminate him. After that Senator you can go back to worrying about your constituents instead of worrying about being assassinated."

"But what if he does find out something he isn't supposed to?"

"Then we will have him dealt with and hire some one who is less resourceful to do the job instead." Vitrix was growing tired of having to deal with politicians and couldn't wait to have this partnership wrapped up. "I have this under control, you just keep the funding for the other operations flowing and leave Red-Fang to me."

The call ended at the opposite end and Vitrix sipped at his expensive Hapan wine and ate his perfectly prepared steak without a shred of concern about the man known as Red-Fang simply because Rixa Numeck was everything his contacts had said he would be. One standard week. That was what he felt it would take for the Mandalorian to track down his target and put an end to a nightmare that had seemed like it was going to last forever.

SENATE BUILDING, CORUSCANT, OFFICE OF ODAS ZISTRA, 40 ABY
THREE DAYS AFTER THE ATTACK ON TORYAZ STATION

Odas Zistra slammed his datapad back down on his desk and growled in frustration. Iman Vitrix was an impossible man to work with, he seemed to operate on faith rather than hard facts. The aging Gran hadn't managed to stay in politics for as long as he had by dealing in faith and luck. He had made deals, followed up on proven facts and even intimidated his way to his current position of power as the head of the Clandestine Operations Advisory Council. There wasn't a special operation in all of the Galactic Alliance that got the green light without his say so. Red-Fang had been one such operation, Vitrix's own brain child. It was one of a few 'off-the-books' missions that had been brought before the COAC.

Red-Fang had been an intriguing operation from the start on Zistra's part. The mission was deemed so secret by the military that only two other members of the ten-member council had been briefed on the operation. Which wasn't such an odd occurrence, often certain operations were brought to COAC members who were thought to be more supportive of the planned outcome of a certain operation. But still though the amount of secrecy that had swirled around Red-Fang had seemed rather excessive to Zistra at the time.

The mission had been given the go ahead after a five hour briefing by Vitrix and select other military officials and Zistra had thought that would have been the end of his involvement as was usually the case. Then Vitrix began making regular visits to his office and personally handing over updates on the operation's success. Vitrix then began to slowly plant subtle hints that they could use Red-Fang to further their own needs, which was double-speak for lining their pockets with extra credits. Zistra hadn't jumped on the idea as quickly as his two other fellow COAC members involved with the Red-Fang operation, but once Vitrix showed him how many credits were being pulled in off the books by his two fellow Senators it was an easy decision to climb on board the now legal/illegal black-operation.

Everything ran smoothly for a few years and Zistra had collected a small personal fortune that was gathering interest in a bank on Muunilist registered under an alias. He'd had everything he'd need for the rest of his life and he could have walked away without any fears. Then Red-Fang went wrong. Vitrix had lost contact with the operative who had been using the codename matching the operation designation during the war with the Yuuzhan Vong. The mission was abandoned and Zistra, his two fellow COAC members and Colonel Vitrix went their separate ways.

Now barely a month ago, almost ten years after the mission had been scrapped, both of the other Senators who had signed off on Red-Fang had died a few days apart. Each death had been explained away by either an accident or natural causes.

But Zistra knew better. It didn't take a lot of brains to figure out what was happening. For one reason or another Red-Fang was back and he was going after everyone who had been involved with the operation in one form or another. Simple, unsuspecting aids who had done nothing more than run files from Vitrix to Zistra were popping up dead across the galaxy now and again. Each death was explained away without suspicion.

It was all too coincidental for his liking.

He had moved into his office, forgoing the lavish comforts of his expensive residence in the upper levels of Coruscant for the marginally comfortable but extremely secure confines of the Senate Building. He still had business to conduct as the head of the Clandestine Operations Advisory Council. The problems with Corellia had thrown an influx of operation proposals his way and he couldn't let a demon from his past interfere with the affairs of the Galactic Alliance.

As much as he disliked the idea he had to have faith that Vitrix and his mercenary would get the job done.

The door to his office buzzed and Zistra checked the security cam feed on the built-in monitor of his desk. His assistant, a blue skinned female Twi'lek, was standing in the hallway with a stack of datapads in her hands. Zistra hit one of the buttons under his desk and disengaged the lock on his office door. A moment later his assistant walked into his room, her hips swaying with the ease and grace of a former dancer.

"This morning's batch of proposals Senator." She said giving him a very toothy grin as she set the stack down on his desk.

He gave her a dismissive wave as he grabbed the first datapad from the top of the stack. "Thank you Zuda, would you mind bringing me a cup of caf. I think today is going to be one of those long days."

The Twi'lek bowed her head slightly and disappeared out of the door again. Zistra skimmed through the first few lines of text on the datapad. The proposal was for an extremely off-the-books prison used to hold and interrogate suspected terrorists for more information. The proposal even laid out a specific planet in the far reaches of the Outer-Rim where the prison could be built.

"Kaytares VII." Zistra said to himself as he pulled up information on the planet. It was a barren snow covered world on the extreme edge of the Outer-Rim with virtually no indigenous species. "Promising, very promising."

Zistra finished skimming through the datapad and noted the name of the person presenting the proposal to the COAC later in the afternoon and then moved on to the next datapad in the stack. As he had thought he was now positive that the day was going to be long and uninteresting. That was how he preferred it.

CORUSCANT SPACEPORT, 40 ABY
FOUR DAYS AFTER THE ATTACK ON TORYAZ STATION

Rixa was sitting in the cockpit of the battered X-Wing that his wife had flown during the Yuuzhan Vong war. The black and blue paint scheme was chipped and the Mythosaur on the nose of the craft was faded and burned by countless atmospheric re-entries over the last decade. He was proud of his piloting skills but he still didn't feel right sitting in the starfighter as he flipped the datachip between his thumb and index finger over and over while he contemplated yesterday's morning events.

The Galactic Alliance military was outsourcing it's wetwork because they were overstretched in dealing with Corellia but they had virtually no intelligence on the man, or woman, they wanted dead. Galactic Alliance Intelligence was very good at it's job and if they wanted to find out about someone then there was virtually no way to escape them. So the fact that he had been provided with only an alias and an unhelpful last known location, literally listed as: the Outer Rim, set off every alarm in Rixa's head.

He had forty-eight hours to come up with added information on his own before the Alliance took their potentially lucrative contract to the next bidder. So far he had used up twenty-one hours of his forty-eight hour time frame in his research of the potential target. He had exhausted every intelligence source he had at his disposal, countless smugglers, spice-runners and even other mercenaries had all come up with zero on the person known as Red-Fang. This was a first for him, never before had he ever come across someone he couldn't find any information on. He didn't even have a confirmed planet where he could start an old-fashion foot track for the target. It angered him and made him want to accept the contract, even with the limited information he had, just so he could prove to himself he could find someone who couldn't be found.

But that was reckless. You never took a job unless you knew everything about your target. Their habits, acquaintances, place of business, establishments the target frequented, whether or not they had military training and what kind of military training that was. All of that information went into the making of an assassination to make it successful and he had none of it.

He leaned his head back against the seat in the cramped cockpit and sighed in frustration. There was still one contact he could use to possibly find some information on Red-Fang, but he was resistant to the idea of calling the contact even though it might mean the difference between the people on his farm eating well for the next few months or not eating much at all. He scratched at his chin while he thought about what move to make. Ultimately the responsibility of providing for the inhabitants of the Numeck Homestead outweighed his own personal pride. He set the portable holo-communicator on top of the X-Wing's readout panel and linked his personal commlink with the device.

He tapped in a comm code and waited for the line to pick up. He didn't have to wait long. A few seconds later he was staring at the face of his wife. Her long dark hair was fixed in two tight braids that ran down the back of her head and she was sporting a rather nasty black-eye, but she smiled at him. Despite the bruise Rixa found himself beaming back at her, it had been a very long time since he had seen her face.

"Rix'ika!" she exclaimed. "Ni briikase bah susulur teh gar!" I'm happy to hear from you.

"Cyar'ika," He tapped his face just under his eye. "Tion'meg ti te net'ra sur'haai?" Sweetheart, what's with the black eye?

"Oh, just business with a local lowlife." Jaya Numeck's tone was dismissive. "Wer'cuy." Forget it.

Injuries happened in their line of work, especially black-eyes, but it bothered Rixa at a primal level that someone had hurt his wife. "Where's local?"

"Nar Shadda."

"Did you get even?"

"More than even," Jaya smiled broadly. "He had some debts to pay off with the Black Sun, sold them a batch of bad blaster rifles."

"I don't imagine that went over so well."

"No not really, I got five-thousand credits for apprehending him though."

"That'll tide us over for a few weeks." Rixa sighed heavily.

"You didn't call just to talk did you?" Jaya asked.

Rixa looked at the flickering blue image as he worked himself up for what he was about to do. "You still talk with your sister?"

"Yes." Jaya's tone was curious. "Not often but we keep in touch."

"I need her comm code."

"Why?"

"I need to get in touch with my brother."

"Are you in trouble?" Her voice went from being tinged with curiosity to being overcome with concern.

"No, not yet at least." Rixa laughed. "I just need some intel on a target. I can't find anything about him, or even if it is a him."

"What do you mean by nothing?"

"Nothing. Zip, zero, zilch. It's as if the target never existed."

"Who offered the job?"

"The Galactic Alliance."

"And they gave you nothing on the target?"

"Just an alias and the fact he or she was last seen in the Outer-Rim."

Jaya laughed incredulously "And you accepted the contract?"

"No, not yet. I asked for forty-eight hours to dig around a little, I've got twenty-seven hours left and haven't gotten any closer to figuring out who this Red-Fang is."

"You think Tyran will help you?"

"I can only ask and see what he says. The worst he can do is tell me he can't help."

"Alright, I'll transmit Aru's comm code to your datapad. I'm heading back to Mandalore tomorrow so don't take too long with your government contract."

"Well that depends on if I even accept it." Rixa said tiredly. "I'll be home as soon as I can."

"K'oyacyi." Come back safely. Jaya smiled at him once more and her image disappeared from the holo-projector.

Rixa removed the projector from on top of the readout panel and pocketed the device. He sighed again and rubbed his eyes which had become suddenly heavy. His datapad began beeping and he opened it to find the message from Jaya with her older sister's comm code. He activated the commlink again and entered the code into the device and found himself waiting for another voice he hadn't heard in nearly a decade to answer his call.

KDY OFFICE OF DOMESTIC SECURITY HEADQUARTERS, KUAT CITY, KUAT, 40 ABY, FOUR DAYS AFTER THE ATTACK ON TORYAZ STATION

Neada Tash had taken some time to get used to the amount of power her position as Director of Domestic Security for Kuat Drive Yards gave her. For the longest time she had been used to the simple existence of a being a soldier in the Hapan Military, having to work for everything she wanted. Now all she had to do was snap her fingers and her every need would be fulfilled. She didn't like how she was doted upon by the people who were deemed to be her lessers, she didn't view herself as above anyone else or below anyone else, she didn't like having things simply handed to her. If she hadn't earned it then she didn't want it. She had been the same way during her days as a Hapan Commando working her way up the ranks, and it might have contributed to her downfall and ultimate exile from Hapes.

Her hard work ethic and meteoric rise within the Hapan special forces had deemed her as a potential threat to a high ranking officer within the unit, and true to the Hapan norm a plot to have her removed was put in place. The regimental leader was found murdered in her bunk and evidence had been found linking Neada to the scene. All of it planted. Neada had used her training to escape the squad sent to arrest her and had managed to make it off world. Black listed by the Hapans, she had no where to go within the Consortium and quickly found herself working as a bounty hunter.

That was where she had met Truan Stav, a then hot-shot politician in the local Kuati Government. He took note of her abilities and did some digging and discovered the false murder charge levied against her by the Hapan Military. He knew it was false and offered Neada a job as the head of a new agency he was forming. She had asked for some time to think it over and he agreed to give her a few days to mull it over. Then the Yuuzhan Vong arrived in the Galaxy and ruined everything.

She had just managed to ride out the war, and also fall in love with a fellow bounty-hunter and mercenary along the way. But out of the two of them, only she survived the war and later found out she was pregnant. So with the conquering of Kuat by the Yuuzhan Vong, Neada had been left without a job, had become widowed and a single mother.

But once again fate intervened.

On one of the evacuation ships Neada encountered Truan Stav once again. He took her under his wing and became a fatherly figure to her. Once the Yuuzhan Vong war was over and the galaxy put itself back together Neada began working directly for Stav. With her help the savvy politician and former military man began to put together what would becoming the first incarnation of the Office of Domestic Security. Neada gave birth to a healthy baby girl named Vyndra and not soon after the first of a series of assassination attempts on Neada's life took place.

It was avoided and the would-be assassins all killed in the attempt. It was after the third attempt on her life occurred that Stav had decided that she would need some high-quality bodyguards to fight off the constant attempts by her former Hapan commanders to have her killed. The first few people Stav brought on as her bodyguards were good at their jobs when it came to keeping her safe but they weren't very professional in their off hours. Neada didn't want her and her daughter to be protected by unintelligent brutes. She wanted soldiers, men and women who were just as efficient at their jobs as she was as well as being able to hold a conversation with her.

The final three operatives Stav had settled upon had fit that description perfectly. Two of them were a husband/wife team and they even had a child a few months older than Vyndra, the third man was a friend of theirs who they had highly recommended. For nearly a decade Neada Tash had been under the safe umbrella of protection provided by Dyir Carud and Tyran Numeck while her daughter Vyndra and Tyran's son Ijaat were under the watchful eyes of Tyran's wife Aru Numeck.

Tyran and Dyir were both quick minded and had a finely tuned sense of self-preservation that had served Neada well over the last ten years. They operated with a level of expertise she admired and skill she was actually kind of envious of. Stav had insisted on having more than just a two man security detail, but after witnessing both men eliminate a six-man Hapan assassination team he had changed his tune.

All three of them were being paid handsomely for their services. They were making twenty-nine hundred credits a week when they had first started but with every assassination they thwarted they were paid an extra ten-hundred credits. So after warding of twelve or so attempts in the last decade they were close to netting two-hundred thousand credits a year. A nice hefty sum for people who weren't even in their forties yet.

Dyir was the youngest of the three at thirty years of age, Aru came in second at thirty-one years of age and Tyran rounded out the group at thirty-two. Neada often found herself wondering what kept them from retiring, especially Tyran and Aru since they had a ten-year old boy to look after. They certainly had enough money to fall back on with each of them pulling in two-hundred thousand credits a year. There was no doubt that Ijaat was going to be well cared for for the rest of his life.

She understood Dyir a little better though. He didn't have a family outside of the three Numecks, no wife or child of his own, not even a girlfriend that she was aware of. It seemed that all he really had was his work, it was something she shared with him outside of Vyndra. What she didn't understand about Dyir was why he didn't have a girlfriend or a wife yet. He was tall with close shaved blonde hair and vividly green eyes. His face was ringed with laugh lines despite his dangerous and unpredictable profession. He was a man who took a lot of pride in his physical appearance and always kept himself in the very best shape and he was always in a good mood.

Dyir Carud would have been a real prize on Hapes, a lot of people would have killed to have the opportunity to breed with him. Tyran however would have been the bigger prize. He was every bit as handsome as Dyir and took an even greater pride in his physical appearance, he spent as much time in the gym as he did protecting her. His dark hair and icy-blue eyes combined with a stare that was ten-percent analytical and eighty-percent intimidation that gave pause to the most dangerous of criminals. It was how he moved that really caught Neada's attention, the way he carried himself simply oozed authority. He had clearly taken to the power his position gave him a lot more easily than Neada had taken to hers.

He and Dyir both wore sharp black business suits that seemed to make them look even more threatening. Everyone knew who they were but no one knew their names, both men only answered to Neada but everyone else answered to them. It was an unspoken rule in the Office of Domestic Security headquarters: Those two men who escorted Director Tash were to be obeyed at all times, especially so in an emergency situation. She suspected that both Dyir and Tyran privately enjoyed their myth-like presence amongst the analysts and operatives who worked for her.

The Office of Domestic Security was simply an organization that worked to prevent anything from harming the KDY shipyards orbiting the planet. While the Galactic Alliance fleet prevented any external threats from getting to the Orbital Rings, Neada and her network of spies, analysts and highly trained Threat Reduction Units worked at a tireless pace to prevent any homegrown attacks.

Again Tyran, Dyir and Aru became indispensable assets in this regard. The former Mandalorian Supercommandos offered advice on how to plan certain raids and every now and then took part in training exercises with the TRU teams. Those were the men and women who seemed to have the respect of the three Mandalorians, Team-Sigma was at the top of that respect list though.

Team-Sigma was often the go to team that Tyran used when he felt more than just a two-man team was needed. It was comprised of six operators, two from the Kuati Commando Group and four more from the Galactic Marines. They were led by a lieutenant named Kovi Lasar, he had spent seven years as a member of the Coruscant Security Force and then had joined the Kuati Commando Group after relocating back to his homeworld after the Yuuzhan Vong war. Neada had a great trust for all of the TRU teams that she commanded, but she favored Sigma mostly because Tyran trusted them more than the other teams.

She continued down the hallway with Tyran moving in front of her, clearing the way with his intimidating size and gaze while Dyir followed closely behind her. He wasn't so close that he was stepping on her heels, but close enough that he could grab her and throw her out of harms way if he had to. Neada kept reading the reports piling in from Kuat's intelligence service regarding the incident on Toryaz Station. She felt a big wave of relief that she hadn't been assigned to provide security for that situation. Guarding shipyards from terrorists was one thing, but protecting a meeting between two heads of state who have no shortage of enemies was another beast entirely.

At first she had thought it had been one of the Moff Council trying to off Gilad Pellaeon, but none of the Moff's had the backbone, or the brains for that matter, to pull one over on the legendary Imperial Admiral. Then Thrackan Sal-Solo had emerged as the new Corellian Head of State after the previous head of state had been killed in the attack. She knew enough about Sal-Solo to know that he was brazen enough and resourceful enough to pull off that kind of operation. He was just as power hungry as any other politician she had ever met. Except Truan Stav. He had never had anything but the interests of Kuat in mind.

The three of them turned the corner and made it into her office. She took her seat behind her large desk, made from highly polished worshyr tree bark imported from Kashyyyk. Dyir sunk down into one of the large bantha leather chairs that littered the room while Tyran leaned against the wall at the back of the room.

"You do know you can relax right?" Dyir asked him. "We've made this room as secure as the one Cal Omas uses."

"There's relaxing and then there's getting complacent." Tyran said. "You know as well as I do that if someone wants to get in here bad enough then they'll find a way to do it."

"Well that's reassuring." Neada grinned up at her two bodyguards. "But I guess that's why we pay you to keep me reassured."

Dyir and Tyran laughed.

"We do our best ma'am."

"Tyran you know I don't like being called ma'am." Neada shook her head as she leaned back in her chair. "Call me Neada."

"I thought you wanted us to be professional?"

"There's being professional and then there is being an uptight and uninteresting slab of meat." Neada gestured at Dyir. "He's told me about a few of your more harrowing adventures together and I've seen you in action so I know you aren't even remotely uninteresting."

Tyran turned his head towards Dyir. "What did you tell her about?"

Dyir grinned broadly at his friend. "That time you fell into a Rancor pit."

"The time I fell into the Rancor pit!?" Tyran exclaimed. "You've taken one too many hits to the head if that's how you remember it."

"Clarify it for me then." Neada said leaning over her desk and meshing her hands together and resting her chin on them. "What really happened?"

"Fine." Tyran sat down opposite Dyir who suddenly looked liked he wasn't looking forward to the story Tyran was going tell. The buzzer on Neada's desk came to life and she held a finger up to Tyran. Dyir sighed slightly as he got a moment of respite from what she was sure was a humiliating story.

"Director Tash." She said.

"Ma'am, Spitfire is on her way up." the guard at the main entrance said.

"Thank you." Neada replied and turned to Tyran. "Your story is going to have to wait sadly." Spitfire was the codename the guards used for Vyndra while they were transporting her.

"No worries, if she's coming up here then there is a good chance my boy is as well." Tyran said as he leaned back in his chair. "You know I don't want Ijaat knowing about my past as a Mandalorian, it's something I've tried to put behind me."

"We've tried, you mean." Dyir said. "You aren't the only one who was fed up with that lifestyle."

Neada nodded her head. Tyran, Aru and Dyir had cut all ties to their roots on Mandalore to take the job as her bodyguards. Tyran had taken the opportunity to make sure his son could grow up without having to know what it was like to live the hard and brutal life of a mercenary. No Ijaat Numeck was going to grow up having the best education and never having known what it was like to have not eaten anything for a few weeks or to have to witness the atrocities of warfare. Neada imagined that the father would be worlds different than the son once Ijaat was grown.

Moments later the office doors split open and a small redheaded girl came rocketing into the room towards her mother. A slender but fierce looking woman with dark-brown hair that was pulled back into a tight tail entered behind her. The glare that Aru Numeck gave to her husband was cold enough to freeze a star. Dyir turned is head towards Tyran and gave him a what-did-you-do look and Tyran gave him a subtle shrug.

"Mother!" Vyndra Tash exclaimed as she raced into her mother's waiting arms. "I did well in my exam's today." She handed her mother a datapad with a scored report on it.

"Very good, maybe Aru will take you and Ijaat out later to get a few frozecones if you ask her." Neada said as she looked over the perfect score her daughter had been given.

"Can you take me?"

Neada looked away from her daughter for a brief second. As much as it pained her to admit it, Vyndra wasn't safe around her. The last thing Neada wanted was for her daughter to be collateral damage in an attempt on her life. That was why she spent the majority of her time with the Numecks. No, Vyndra spent every moment she wasn't in school with Aru and Ijaat. Still though a trip to get a few frozecones wouldn't take that long, there was a dispensary a few blocks up.

"Since you did so well, I guess I can take a few minutes to get my brilliant girl and her friend a frozecone."

Vyndra beamed up at her mother and the praise she had been given. Neada smiled back and understood why Tyran didn't want his child to grow up being a mercenary. She wouldn't have wanted Vyndra to join the Hapan Military.

The absence of his son did not go unnoticed by Tyran.

"Where's Ijaat?"

"Outside." Aru said. Her voice was as frosty as her gaze. "Chatting with Kovi Lasar, who by the way has taken far more interest in your son's studies than you have."

Neada stood up slowly as she watched Tyran's arms drop in what she had come to recognize as a combative stance. "Dyir, would you mind escorting me, Vyndra and Ijaat to the dispensary up the street."

Dyir looked up to Aru, he had learned that when she was around and he was given orders to do something with Ijaat that he had to get permission from her first. Aru nodded and Dyir nodded to Neada in return.

"Yeah we can go get the little runt's some frozecones." He smiled at his redheaded director. "Hey do I get one for being a good bodyguard."

"Maybe if you were a good bodyguard I'd get you one." Neada said smartly as she herded her daughter out the door. "You're adequate."

"Adequate my-" Dyir started but he caught Vyndra looking up at him. "-foot." he managed to mumble.

Neada shook her head and walked out the door. The moment they slid shut behind Dyir, Aru reeled on her husband.

"You're a real piece of work!" Her voice was so low it was practically a hiss. "You promised Ijaat you'd be there today."

"Be where?" Tyran said. He had no idea what Aru was talking about at first then it sunk in. Ijaat had been super excited that morning because he had made it to the finals of a big math competition. Tyran had promised him that he was going to be there. Just like he had done a thousand times before.

Aru sunk down into the chair that Dyir had vacated. "You did it again. You promised him something and failed to keep your word."

Tyran looked down at his feet and shook his head. "I'll make it up to him, I always do."

"This time is different," Aru said without looking at Tyran. "You made that promise to his face, not over a commlink from some secure facility while you were waiting for Neada to finish up some top-secret meeting. You looked your son in the eye and promised him you would be there and once again you never showed up." she looked up at Tyran with a pained expression. "You're just not a great father."

Tyran's head lifted a little and if her gaze before could have frozen a star, the heat from his gaze could have melted one. "What did you just say to me?"

"You heard me." Aru wasn't going to back down.

"I'm a good father."

"When was the last time you spent any time with him?" Aru snapped. "You spend as much time with him as Neada does with Vyndra, I'm amazed you even know his name."

"If it wasn't for me Ijaat wouldn't have any of the things he has now." Tyran growled back. "If I hadn't moved us away from Mandalore, Ijaat wouldn't be a well fed, well groomed, hyper-intelligent boy like he is now."

"At least he would have had an attentive father."

"I'd be gone all the time doing bounties and mercenary work to put food on the table, at least here he does get to see me."

"He only see's you at the breakfast table in the morning for fifteen minutes."

"Fifteen minutes is better than nothing!" Tyran yelled.

They both stared at each other for minutes that seemed like an eternity. Aru's eyes had become venomous with rage and Tyran could feel his heart hammering in his throat. Aru stood up slowly.

"Tyran if you don't shape up and start spending more time with your family then I'm...I'm" She was fighting to keep her voice level and the strain was evident. "I'm going back to Mandalore and I'm bringing Ijaat with me."

Tyran blinked a few times. He had to replay what she had just said to him a few times before the meaning had fully sunk in.

"If you want to leave, then you go ahead and leave. Ijaat stays here and that's not negotiable."

"He deserves better." Aru said as she began to lose the battle with her voice. "So either you start doing better or I take him to Mandalore and find someone who can do better." She reached down onto her belt and detached her datapad and tossed it to him. "I got a call that was meant for you today. I think you should call back."

Tyran caught her datapad as she stood up and turned to leave. He watched her leave the room and sunk down onto a bantha hide sofa against the far wall of the room as he looked at the comm code for the person who had called Aru. He didn't recognize it, but that wasn't so odd a lot of people in his profession used throwaway comm codes all the time.

Deciding that he needed to get his mind off of the argument he called the unknown code and waited for the call to pick up. It was almost instant.

"Tyran?"

Tyran shut his eyes and felt his blood run cold. The last thing he wanted to hear at the moment was the sound of his younger brother's voice.

"Let me make this very simple for you Rixa." Tyran said tiredly. "I've had a long day so if this is a call asking me to help dig you out of some situation you've gotten yourself into, I'm telling you right now that you can shove it."

There was a pause, not a long one though. "That's the kind of greeting I expected actually, but no I don't need you to come down from your mighty thrown and save my lowly backside for the thousandth time your majesty, but I do need your help with some intel."

Tyran grunted as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "You're a smart cookie I'm sure if you use your considerable contacts in the underworld you can find what you're looking for without me."

"That's the thing, my sources don't have anything on the target."

"You took a job without knowing anything about the target?"

"Not yet, if you turn me down then I'll have to turn the contract down because I can't come up with anything. No name, no location, not even species or gender."

"What do you have?"

"Just an alias. Red-Fang."

"What do you want from me?"

"Anything you can find out at all, get me somewhere to start a foot track from and I can do the rest."

Tyran sighed "Fine. I'll dig around, but this is it, nothing else after this."

"Thank you. One more thing, I need the intel in less than twenty hours."

"No promises." Tyran said. "I'll be in touch."

He ended the call and shut off the datapad.

Tyran spent the next five minutes sitting in silence before Dyir returned with Neada. Dyir tossed something to Tyran.

"Here got you a fizzade." Dyir said. Tyran caught it without looking and undid the cap and took a sip.

"Where are Ijaat and Vyndra?"

"Dropped them off at your place, Aru called me and said she was already there."

The complex where Tyran and Aru lived was a few minutes walk from the ODS headquarters building. Tyran nodded but kept his eyes on the expensive carpet.

"I've seen that look before, what are you thinking about?"

"I just had a conversation with Rixa." Tyran said with his gaze fixed on a spot on the ground as he tried to avoid what he was really thinking about.

"Really?" Dyir said.

Tyran nodded. "He's researching a potential contract on a target, but all he has is an alias to go on. You ever heard of someone by the name of Red-Fang?"

"Can't say that I have." Dyir took on a thoughtful expression as he pondered the name.

"Who's Rixa?" Neada asked as she drank her own fizzade from behind her desk.

"My brother." Tyran said sourly. "What about you Neada, ever heard of Red-Fang?"

She shook her head. "No I haven't."

"Could you look into it for me? His contacts came up empty and he asked me to dig around." Tyran asked.

"Are you finally calling in a favor?" She asked him.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Ok then I'll get our analysts to search through the files and gather anything and everything referring to Red-Fang."

"I need it in twenty hours or less."

Neada stared at him. "That's gonna cost you two favors."