Children of Mandalore: Red Fang

CHAPTER FOUR:

OFF-WORLDER SECTOR, KUAT CITY, KUAT, 40 ABY
SIX DAYS AFTER THE ATTACK ON TORYAZ STATION

Kuat City, much like everything else in the galaxy, had a dark side and Rixa had no trouble figuring out why his older brother was hiding in such a place. The Off-Worlder Sector gave him the same uneasy feeling as some of the deeper levels of Coruscant. It was where Kuat Drive Yards housed the main workforce for their orbital shipyards. Rixa assumed that the KDY executives felt it worth the expense to ferry their workers to the orbital rings rather than house them on site due to the heavily decreased chances of sabotage or industrial espionage.

The Off-Worlder Sector was also home to some of the seediest bars and cantinas that Rixa had ever seen, and he'd been in more than a few in his career. At each one he stopped in he was instantly approached by a bouncer which was usually from a species that was naturally intimidating. Most of them appeared to be Whiphids and Togorians. They growled at him and demanded to know why he had come back after being thrown out. It usually took him a few seconds to calm everyone down and help them come to the conclusion that he wasn't who they thought he was.

After talking with each bouncer at several of the cantinas Rixa had learned his brother had indeed visited each one at some point during the day and had caused some sort of violent commotion for apparently no reason. It was exactly what Rixa had thought he would find his big brother doing, just like when they had been growing up on Mandalore. It was amazing how much people forgot over the years or maybe Aru had just decided to forget the months after the War had ended. Tyran had spent days traveling through the bars in Keldabe causing fist fights and brawls because he still had anger towards the Vong he needed to release.

This was almost the same thing except he couldn't take his anger out on his wife and son. The drunken patrons of the Off-Worlder Sector would bear the brunt of his anger. Rixa felt a genuine moment of sorrow for the people as he downed his second drink on the house at the cantina he was currently investigating. The bouncer had busted his nose and had insisted on buying Rixa a round once the identity situation had been clarified. It wasn't the first time Rixa had been punched in the face because someone had thought he was Tyran.

He thanked the bouncer for the drink and returned to his rented speeder and crossed the sixth cantina off a list of nine total cantinas in the Off-Worlder Sector. He consulted his datapad to find out which remaining cantina on the list was closest to him and settled on one named Jijji's. Hardly to his surprise Jijji's was owned by a Hutt named Jijji and his cantina was the seediest of them all so far. Cigarra smoke hung thick in the air and it smelled of nothing but rotted out fruits that were being put into sickeningly colored drinks.

He covered his mouth with the back of his hand as a disheveled Bith waiter crossed his path with a tray of stinking meats. "Sorry Aru I found Tyran but he was already dead from dysentery." He said in a mocking voice.

As with any Hutt owned establishment there were female Twi'leks everywhere. Dancing on counter-tops, serving disgusting drinks to patrons who were too enamored with their servers good looks to notice what they were drinking, and leading certain customers away from the main room through a door at the back of the bar. It didn't take much of a guess to figure out what for. He watched as one Twi'lek waitress leaned over as if in conversation with an Aqualish sitting at a table and relieved him of the credit chips that had been in his coat pocket. The Aqualish had never seen anything.

Rixa was sure several of the female waitresses had already made some snatch and grab runs on him as well, they casually bumped into him and gave a toothy smile as they said sorry and disappeared to whatever task they were pretending to be doing. Lucky for him he had nothing of value on his person. So far Rixa hadn't been stopped by a bouncer yet so either he had found a bar Tyran had yet to visit or he had arrived before Tyran had instigated his fight. He approached the bar and got the attention of a pink skinned Zeltron who had purple hair that fell just below her ears and was wearing a typically tight outfit designed to show off her curvacious form.

"What can I get you?" She said smiling as she leaned over the counter-top.

"You can help me me locate someone."

"You a bounty-hunter?" the Zeltron asked.

"Why? You have a bounty on your head?" Rixa countered.

"Do I look like the type of girl who has a bounty on her head?" She countered back.

"You Zeltrons know how to party, things get out of control and next thing you know there's a price on your head." Rixa said with a shrug. "But no I'm not here on a bounty or anything, I'm looking for my brother."

"What's he look like?" The Zeltron said after a few moments of carefully studying Rixa.

"Like me, with less facial hair and no tattoos." Rixa said. "Probably has a bit of an attitude."

He saw the spark of recognition in her eyes as she leaned in closer towards him. "Yeah Mr. Moody-Money-Bags. He's over there." She pointed to the far end of the bar by a booth.

There was a large man sitting in one of the booths by himself with his back to the door. Rixa couldn't tell for sure through the smoke that was hanging around in the room but the man could have been Tyran. Rixa gave the Zeltron a smile and got up from the bar and headed over to booth where the large man was seated to investigate. As he drew closer Rixa let a smile creep across his face, the man glanced over his shoulder quickly but it was enough for Rixa to make out the facial features he and his brother shared. He moved to the booth and sat across from Tyran.

Tyran Numeck gave his younger brother a look that would have scared away a battalion of Void Jumpers but Rixa sat down and adopted a calm expression and made sure to keep his hands on the table in front of him at all times.

"What are you doing here?" Tyran said blowing out a cloud of cigarra smoke into his brother's face.

"I thought that would have been obvious." Rixa said as he waved the cloud of smoke away. "I'm here because your wife asked me to look for you."

Tyran barked more than he laughed at his younger brother's words. "Why would Aru ask you to come looking for me? She's an ungrateful and jealous woman who doesn't give a damn about me."

Rixa noted the heavy scent of alcohol on the air and the seven empty glasses turned upside down on the table next to his brother.

"Come on you don't really think that do you?" Rixa said.

"She turned my son against me!" Tyran growled. "What kind of person does that?"

"Ijaat isn't against you." Rixa said. "In fact he thinks you hate him, he's been very upset over you just up and disappearing like you did."

Tyran shrugged and took another drag of the cigarra in his large hand. "Good."

"Good?" Rixa was taken aback by the easiness his older brother seemed to have cut ties with everyone in his family. "You're wondering what kind of person can turn their son against their father, maybe you can tell me what kind of father is okay with letting their son sit and fester with idea of being hated by him?"

Despite all of the alcohol Tyran had consumed in the last day his eyes were crystal clear when they locked on Rixa's.

"I don't care what it makes me. I spent the last ten years of my life building a paradise for that kid just for him to tell me he thinks that leaving and finding a new father with his mother wouldn't be a bad idea." His voice was low but the anger and pain were as clear as day. "I don't care how upset Ijaat gets because it wont ever compare to how I've felt the last twenty-four hours."

"I agree with you that was wrong of Aru and Ijaat to say." Rixa said slowly after a few tense and awkward seconds. "I had a conversation with Aru before I went out looking for you, you guys have no idea how bad things have been on Mandalore since you left. The Yuuzhan Vong did more damage to the planet than we had thought. Most of the farms were salted to the point of being unusable, only a small portion of our farm was rendered barren by the attack but it was still significant enough to do a lot of damage to our profits. Bounty hunting hasn't been any better either." Rixa sighed. "What you've managed to create for your wife and son here is nothing short of a miracle and I want you to know I told Aru I wont let her bring Ijaat to Mandalore and if she did I'd bring him back here to you."

Tyran eyed his younger brother over. "Why are you doing this? Why are you helping Aru and siding with me at the same time? I thought we abandoned you and the rest, isn't that what you said we were doing ten years ago after calling us cowards?"

"Ten years is a long time Tyr'ika." Rixa said. "I became the one responsible for managing the family's income after you left. It isn't an easy job and after ten years I understand why you left. You didn't abandon us ten years ago and I'm not going to let you abandon Aru and Ijaat now so get your stuff together and let me take you home."

"I'm not going anywhere." Tyran said as he ordered another drink. "Not yet at least."

Rixa sighed and looked around the room. "Alright then which one is it?"

Tyran flicked his head in the direction behind Rixa. He looked over his shoulder and saw two Whiphids standing shoulder to shoulder next to a door.

"Right, more Whiphids." Rixa said. "Why can't you ever pick someone smaller and less dangerous than you for once?"

"Where's the challenge in that." Tyran said standing up and walking out from behind the bar. Rixa nodded his head and followed his older brother as he proceeded to instigate his seventh fight of the night.

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

"This is unacceptable." Zistra yelled at the top of his lungs.

Vitrix was sitting calmly on the other side of the the Senator's desk as the Gran slid a datapad to him.

"What is unacceptable?" Vitrix said as he scrolled through the datapad and seeing nothing troublesome.

"Are you blind?! Eight more people associated with Red-Fang have been killed in the last three days. I thought you had someone hunting Red-Fang or was that just another one of your lies?!"

"I wasn't aware that I had ever lied to you." Vitrix tossed the datapad back to the Gran senator.

"You told me that Red-Fang would make us rich, you told me Red-Fang had been lost during the War, you told me you had all of this under control! It doesn't appear that way."

"Did the operation not make you rich?" Vitrix asked casually. "And Red-Fang was lost during the War as were several of my other operatives and I had no reason to believe him to still be alive. Despite current events I do have control over the hunt for Red-Fang. My mercenary has only just accepted the contract, you can hardly expect immediate results even from a Mandalorian."

"A Mandalorian?" Zistra asked. "You could have told me that from the start." Zistra felt relieved. It wouldn't take a Mandalorian very long to track down the problematic Red-Fang. "How long has he been on the job?"

Vitrix cleared his throat. "Long enough. He is working as we speak to track down our rogue operative."

"How much does he know?"

"He knows Red-Fang is a terrorist and that is all he needs to know." Vitrix said. "But if he should discover anything, however unlikely that may be, I have taken steps to ensure he is eliminated before he becomes a problem."

"Once again you speak as if you have covered every angle of the situation but I can't help but wonder what you might be keeping from me."

"Remember you are the politician here not me." Vitrix said as he stood up to leave. "I should be the one suspicious of you."

"Please you're more of a politician than I am. Who knows how many back alley deals you have made to secure the total secrecy of your new precious interrogation facility. What ever happened to the young lieutenant who first put forth the idea of the Kaytares Installation in the first place?"

"He got too nosy I'm afraid." Vitrix said threateningly as he walked to the door. "He had to be removed from the equation."

Zistra paled at the threat. "If you lay one finger on me there will be question's raised. Every operation I've cleared will be looked into thoroughly by the Internal Investigative Branch. I don't think you'd want that to happen any more than I do."

Vitrix let out a cold laugh. "Odas my dear friend. What ever made you think I would lay a finger on you personally. I have plenty of people on my payroll who can make your disappearance seem like natural causes preventing the need for any kind of investigation into your operational history. But I'm sure you wont have to be removed from the equation, right?"

The Gran nodded nervously as he sat up straight in his high backed chair.

"Good." Vitrix hit the palm-scanner next to the door and disappeared an instant later.

Zistra let out a prolonged breath of air he hadn't realized he'd been holding. He hit the intercom on his desk.

"Zuda bring me something to drink." He said breathlessly. "Something potent, very potent."

Dolvo lowered the shatter rifle he had trained on the back of the Gran senator's head as Vitrix exited the building without giving him the signal to fire.

"That was an easy ten-thousand credits." He said as he attached the rifle to the magnetic plate on the back of his armor.

He returned to the service elevator he had used to reach the floor of the office building that was level with good senator's office. It took him down to the eighty-eighth level of the hotel from which he climbed into a regular turbolift. His distinctive copper on grey colored armor, combined with his size and the large rifle on his back made the other occupants of the lift push away from him on each side. He had the center of the turbolift all to himself as the six others made a visible effort to avoid looking or even touching him. Most of them were humans but there was a Nautolan and a Togruta who were both more interested in their feet than they were in him.

His helmet chimed as he received an encrypted comm message.

"Dolvo." He said after accepting the call. His voice was perfectly insulated inside his helmet. None of the six others in the lift would ever have known he was having a conversation.

"As discussed, your fee will be deposited into the designated account within the hour." Vitrix said. "I'm quite sorry to have wasted your time like this."

"Ten-thousand credits isn't a waste of my time Colonel." Dolvo said. "Not that I really care but why didn't you give me the order to shoot him?"

"I just finally realized how afraid of me that old Gran is," Vitrix said. "He may yet still be useful to me and some of my plans so until the time he becomes useless I think I'll keep him alive."

"Yeah well when you make that decision you know how to reach me."

"Yes I do and before I let you go, do you have anything to report on the other job I have you contracted for?"

"I have an associate tailing him." Dolvo said. "I know where he is and what he is doing and so far it's nothing that concerns you, just family drama."

"Yes that must be the urgent business he told me he had to leave Coruscant to tend to." Vitrix said in a disinterested tone. "Very good, you'll keep me apprised of any crucial developments?"

"It's what you're paying me good money to do right?"

Vitrix laughed. "Yes I guess it is."

"Dolvo out." Dain rolled his eyes. He hated working for military types like Colonel Iman Vitrix.

They were men who hadn't stepped out onto an actual battlefield or looked down the scope of a rifle in decades and would rather pay to have their dirty work done rather than have the honor to do it themselves. But still those kind of men paid his bills and he was forced to deal with them on a more regular basis than he would have liked. The turbolift stopped on the ground floor of the hotel and the six occupants of the lift filed hurriedly filed out in front of him. Dain enjoyed the fear his physical presence instilled in lesser beings.

If there was any real difference between the Numeck and Dolvo Clans it was that. The Numecks had no desire to believe themselves to be above other people, Dain and his family however believed quite the opposite. He often wondered if maybe that had been the origin of the Talparguur, the ancient Blood-Hate, between the families. Even though Dain shared his father's views he didn't speak them openly, it was a very touchy subject on Mandalore and most people tended to avoid talking about it altogether.

As he walked to the spaceport he sent and encrypted text message to the contact he had trailing Rixa Numeck.

[ANYTHING TO REPORT?] The message was simple and he expected the reply to be just as equally simple. It was about five minutes later when he got the reply.

[I HAVE LOST HIM FOR THE MOMENT.]

Dain felt his heart skip a beat. Had Tyran realized his younger brother was being tailed and warned him?

[WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU LOST HIM?]

[I LOST CONTACT WITH HIM AFTER HE LANDED AT THE SPACEPORT. I'M WAITING OUTSIDE THE NUMECK APARTMENT OUT OF SIGHT AND WILL HAVE EYES ON HIM WHEN HE RETURNS. EVERYTHING IS UNDER CONTROL.]

"Now you sound like that Zabrak." Dain said in the seclusion of his helmet. [IT HAD BETTER BE UNDER CONTROL OR YOU WONT LIKE WHAT I DO TO YOU.]

Dain walked to the berth where his ship was located, an old Gladiator retrofitted with a navicomputer and a hyperdrive, unlike the standard model, and climbed into the pilot's chair. He activated the navicomputer and put in a course for Gyndine. There was a KDY shipyard there and it was close enough to Kuat that he could make a relatively short hyperspace jump should he need to follow Rixa at a moments notice. Kuat itself was locked down tight after the terrorist attack on one of it's orbiting space stations and he hoped that Gyndine and it's KDY shipyard weren't under similar lock down.

Dain took the Gladiator up into Coruscant's orbit. As the inky blackness of space filled the viewport he found himself happy he had sprung for the upgrades to his ship. Slaving his navicomputer to a hyperspace capable craft had been tedious at best. When the navicomputer confirmed the jump destination he found himself smiling as he pushed forward the hyperdrive control and the stars stretched out in front of him.

KUAT CITY, KUAT, 40 ABY
SIX DAYS AFTER THE ATTACK ON TORYAZ STATION

Tyran gave the Nautolan across from him a scowl, causing the tentacle headed being to get up from the bench and head to the rear of the jail cell. Most of the thirteen occupants had been brought in during the fight Tyran had caused, Rixa included. He was standing at the front of the cell yelling at a guard who had given him a cheap shot with a stun baton while they had been herding the prisoners into the cell. Tyran's head was throbbing something awful, partly from the lump forming on the side of his forehead and mostly from the amount of booze he had consumed in the previous twenty-four hours.

He was well into his hang over. Rixa finished yelling at the guard and sat down next to him. He looked down at his older brother who had his head in his hands and was emitting a low groan as the pain set in. Rixa laughed sadistically.

"Booze wearing off?" He said through his laughter. "I thought you would have learned your lesson years ago, but no you're just as stubborn as dad was."

Tyran gave him a universal had gesture of displeasure.

"Aww don't be like that big brother." Rixa said as he patted Tyran on his back. "It'll only last the rest of the day."

Tyran sat up and fixed his bloodshot eyes on his younger brother. "You know I'm up for an eight fight today. I'm already in jail so they wont have to transport me anywhere after they come in and break it up."

Rixa clapped his hands together hard and Tyran winced and grabbed his forehead. Rixa laughed again.

"Yeah you look like you're in fighting shape."

"Go stick your head in a toilet or something." Tyran growled.

"Hey! You two want to shut up!" A burly human on the other side of the cell yelled at them.

"And if we don't?" Tyran said lifting his head enough to lock gazes with the human.

The burly man stood up and walked over to the two of them. Both Numeck brothers stood up at once and the burly human noticed just how big and burly the brothers were as well. He suddenly didn't look so confident but a guard appeared at the cell door.

"Tyran and Rixa Numeck?" He called.

Rixa stepped forward.

"Yeah?"

"You've been bailed out. You're free to go."

Tyran exchanged a curious glance with his brother. "We didn't even call anyone yet."

"You're bail was posted, I just have to tell you you're free to leave." The guard said. "It isn't my job to tell you who paid for your release."

The burly human looked at Tyran and Rixa. "You two got lucky."

Rixa feinted a lung at the burly man, who flinched and almost fell over backwards.

"Yeah you really had us shaking in our boots." Rixa said as he followed Tyran out of the cell.

The guard brought them to the front entrance of the jail and slid an identichip through a reader which opened the door that separated the main entrance from the housing area. Tyran and Rixa crossed the threshold and looked around the room and didn't immediately see anyone they recognized until a man in a dark uniform stood up near the exit.

"Dyir," Tyran sighed. "Should have figured Neada would be watching the Kay-Sec datafeeds."

"Your boss may be a real piece of work, but I have to admit she does come in handy." Rixa said as he watched Dyir walk over to them.

The look on his face wasn't one of happiness or relief to see them, but one of agitation. "I've got better things to do tonight than sit and wait in a detention center to bail you two out." Dyir said.

"I don't really care Dyir." Tyran said. "You weren't supposed to tell anyone where I was."

"Well I didn't tell anyone." Dyir said defensively.

"He's right. He kept his mouth shut no matter how many times I asked him where you were." Rixa said smugly. "I tracked you down based off your history of alcoholic binging and fighting when overly stressed."

Tyran raised his eyebrows briefly as he looked over his shoulder at his brother before looking back at Dyir. Rixa knew it was as close to a comment of praise that he was going to get from his older brother and held off boasting about his tracking skills any further.

"So what now Dyir?"

"I take you to the office to have a chat with Neada." Dyir said non too pleased. "She's even more aggravated by you than I am."

"Does Aru know where I am?"

"No, but she wont stop calling me."

Dyir took them outside and showed them to a pricey looking landspeeder than didn't look like it fit in with the other worn out speeders in the parking lot. The ride back to the ODS building was quiet and Tyran took the opportunity to rest his head against the cool transparisteel window on the passenger's side door. It felt good against his throbbing head. But the comfort was short lived as the speeder arrived outside the ODS building and maneuvered into the secure hangar. Tyran stumbled out of the speeder more than he climbed out of it, much to the delight of his younger brother who couldn't hide the grin on his face.

"What are you gawking at?" Dyir said as he climbed out the speeder and helped Tyran steady himself a little bit.

Rixa waved dismissively. "Just old memories is all."

Dyir shook his head. "You just going to stand there grinning like an idiot or are you going to help me get him inside?"

Tyran shoved Dyir away.

"I don't need any help. I can walk on my own."

Dyir raised his hands in a show of submission and took a few steps back from Tyran and waved him forward.

"After you then."

Tyran shook his head a few times and rose up on his feet determined to enter the building under his own power and not that of his brother or his friend. Dyir made sure that Rixa fell into step behind his brother before bring up the rear behind the Numeck brothers. Dyir's eyes never left the back of Rixa's head as they made their way from the empty bottom level of the building to the level that was home to the office of Neada Tash. The smell of brewing stimcaf hit Rixa like a loadlifter as they crossed the threshold into her lavish office.

"You two look like bantha fodder warmed over." The disgraced Hapan said as she looked up from the piece of flimsi she had been reading. It was once piece from a particularly large stack.

Tyran gave her little in the way of reply and walked in something that resembled a straight line to the caf pot in the corner of the room.

"Is this that strong Hapan blend?" He asked.

"I figured you might need something in the way of rejuvenation." Neada said as she turned back to the piece of flimsi. "Looks like I figured right."

Rixa took a seat on one of the sofas that littered the office without any invitation and got a dirty look from Dyir. Neada motioned for Tyran to sit down once he had downed a cup of the strong Hapan coffee.

"What's with the flimsi?" Dyir asked as he moved to stand beside her desk.

"It is a report, a very classified and potentially life threatening report that my intelligence officers have spent the last twenty-eight hours gathering."

"What's the report on?" Tyran said as he started on his second cup of coffee and took a seat next to, but further down on the sofa, his brother.

Rixa's eyes locked on to the flimsi stack. It had to be two inches thick.

"Red-Fang." He said flatly.

"Your brother is pretty quick." Neada said without looking up. "But I don't think being quick-minded is going to be enough to catch the man you are after if any of this is to be believed."

"Well lucky for you that I'm the one who has to hunt him down." Rixa said. "So if you would please hand me my intelligence report and I'll be on my merry way."

Neada set the piece of flimsi down on top of the large stack and secured the binders that held it all together. "Before I give this to you, I have to make something absolutely clear. This information can never be traced back to this building or this office or even this planet. No one can ever know that I sanctioned the gathering of this information or that your brother asked to me to do it as a favor for him."

"Is it that classified?" Rixa asked dubiously.

"Yes." Neada said deadpan. "If this information finds it's way into the hands of the wrong people, like the Galactic Alliance Intelligence Department for instance, they will try to trace it back to it's origin, and since my office is not officially sanctioned by the Kuat Military and operates mostly under the jurisdiction of Kuat Drive Yards, my main priority is the protection of KDY and it's assets. If anyone from the Alliance ever tries to trace this information back to it's origin I have made it so that they will trace everything back to Tyran."

All three men fixed their gazes on her.

"What?" Tyran and Rixa said at once.

Neada inhaled deeply. "Tyran, as good an employee as he is, is a KDY asset. An expendable asset. I have arranged the gathering of this information so that it appears that Tyran was behind it. His clearance codes, authorization numbers...everything was used at one point or another in the gathering process."

"What happens if the information is traced back to him?" Rixa asked as Tyran sat back in the couch as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

Neada shrugged. "For certain I cannot say, but I can tell you that it wont be good for him or his wife or son. If it's the government who traces the information back to him then he'll get a lengthy jail sentence; probably life for breaching highly classified military files, all of his assets will be seized. If the people who actually ran Red-Fang trace the information back to him, then it's a different story. They'll just kill him, Aru and Ijaat."

Tyran let out a loud sigh of disbelief as he rubbed at his temples.

"I can't believe this." He said more to himself than he did anyone in the room. "After all I've done for you, you can just go and do something like this without batting an eyelid?"

"I don't want to do this." Neada said genuinely upset. "I'm giving your brother the option of either taking this information and placing great risk upon you and your family, or leaving it here where it will be disposed of."

Dyir scratched at his chin. "Don't you ever do anything that doesn't get your brother neck deep in osik?"

Rixa looked incredulous. "You think I thought your boss was going to set my brother up like this? You think I'm enjoying the situation as it stands right now?!"

"Wait...wait." Tyran said raising his hands. "You said the people who actually ran Red-Fang, what does that mean?"

"Red-Fang is two things at once." Neada said. "It's a codename for an operative as well as a very off-the-books intelligence operation."

"Vitrix told me Red-Fang was a terrorist." Rixa said.

"Iman Vitrix?" Neada asked flipping through a few pages of flimsi in the Red-Fang Report.

"Yeah."

"Lieutenant Iman Vitrix, New Republic Intelligence, ran Red-Fang before and during the Yuuzhan Vong war. He used a highly trained special forces operative to infiltrate and destabilize the governments of systems that didn't fit in with the political views of the New Republic. Once that was done the New Republic would move it's people into the designated system and restore order and place the right people in the right places of power. Vitrix made quite a fortune off the Red-Fang op it seems. Several billion credits of emergency relief funds were skimmed off from each separate target his operative destabilized."

"In order for that kind of money to disappear without anyone looking to deep into it, your contractor must have some politicians in his pocket." Dyir said.

"Or he had a gun to their head." Tyran added. "I didn't think the New Republic played like that."

"I wouldn't be surprised if the Chief of State or the overall Senate had no idea this was going on." Neada tapped the report with her finger. "This Vitrix guy is slick. But whatever he's up to now it doesn't involve this Red-Fang character, the op went south during the War. The operative went missing. If this Vitrix called you for help, his operative might be back and settling a few scores."

The room fell silent after that and Neada rocked back and forth in her chair for a few moments before motioning to Dyir.

"Come on, these two have to have a conversation and I don't think we need to be here for it." She said rising from behind her desk and heading for the door.

A few minutes ticked by in silence after both she and Dyir had left the room. The Red-Fang report was still sitting on the desk within Rixa's reach but he couldn't bring himself to actually reach out and grab it. His eye's on the other hand couldn't move from the large stack of flimsi.

"Don't take it." Tyran said quietly. "Don't take that report."

"Tyran I have to take that report, I need the credits." Rixa said just as quietly.

"I can't let you take that intelligence. The danger to my family is too great to be ignored." Tyran looked at his younger brother. "I'd rather give you the credits you need."

Rixa snorted. "I'm not taking money from you."

"Why not? Taking my money is the only way to ensure a good outcome for both us." Tyran said not understanding why his brother was resistant to taking money from him. "Your family gets fed and your expenses will be paid for and my family's safety is guaranteed."

"I already accepted the job from Vitrix." Rixa said looking his brother in the eye. "I can't back out of it now and you know it. Mandalorians don't break a deal once they make it."

"You accepted a job knowing that you had no way of tracking down the target?"

"One job for the Galactic Alliance opens up the doors to more military contracts, which means more money for the Homestead than you can provide."

"You aren't working for the Galactic Alliance. You're working for a spook who has only his own interests in mind, who just so happens to be a Colonel in the Galactic Alliance's Intelligence Division." Tyran said. "They are two very different things. He'll probably shoot you dead before he pays you a single credit."

"Either way I have to take that report with me." Rixa said. "You just need to trust me."

"That's just it, I can't trust you. I've seen you in action and rescued more times than I can count on both hands. You are careless and reckless and I know that somehow you're going to mess this up and it'll be me and my family that pays the price."

"I'm not the same man I was ten years ago Tyran. I'm not burdened by the pain and memories of the Breaking like I was back then. I may not be up to your set of standards like Dyir, but I'm certainly better than I was. I know the concept is hard for you to understand but you're going to need to have some faith in me for once."

Tyran didn't like it. He had a good sense when it came to sniffing out situations that weren't going to end well. It went against his every instinct to sit still while Rixa grabbed the Red-Fang report from off the desk. A sensation began building in his stomach, it was foreboding as if not stopping Rixa from taking the report had just sealed some horrible fate for him and his family.

"I'm not going to mess this up" Rixa said looking at Tyran as he gripped the flimsi report in both his hands. "I can't afford to."

"Just so we're clear little brother. If you mess this up and I end up in prison and my wife and son wind up on the streets with absolutely nothing. There wont be a place you will be able to hide from me. No matter how deep or dark a hole they throw me I will crawl my way out of it and hunt you down like the Supercommando I used to be. When I find you there wont be any conversations, no please for forgiveness. I'm just going to simply kill you."

Rixa stared at his brother. Tyran never made idle threats or hollow promises. If he said he was going to kill then he would do exactly that.

"I wouldn't expect anything less from you." To Tyran's bewilderment a smile crossed his younger brother's face. "So if you're done threatening me I still have to take you home to your wife, son and that peach of a little girl staying with you."

"Fine but that report and the deal attached to it does not get mentioned in front of Aru or Ijaat."

"I think that would be best for both our sakes."

Tyran tried not to think about how his wife would react if she found out about the arrangement that came along with the Red-Fan report. There would be a very real possibility that he would have to defend his employer from his wife and Aru Numeck was a lot more dangerous than a half-dozen Hapan Commandos.

"Yeah it would."