Fire Just Waiting for the Fuel, Part II

[Darth Osano]

FORT AMARANTH

This time when Eugene entered Maleagant’s office, Maleagant was standing. There was a visor, completely opaque, covering his eyes. In both hands he held what appeared to be a training lightsaber. Despite being blind, Maleagant was tracking the position of a training remote- the spiteful little orb hovering in erratic circles around him. At one point, it fired, and Maleagant twisted the blade with the unrefined movement of an amateur, managing to catch the bolt.

“I don’t suppose you’ll actually tell me what you came in here for.” Maleagant said, addressing Eugene as he followed the rotating droid. “Or are you just going to watch me?”

“I didn’t want to interrupt.”

The droid fired again, catching Maleagant in the crook of his arm. He snarled, the stun bolt causing slight pain but not paralysis. “Well, you did, so get on with it.”

“PowerOn’s CEO survived the assassination attempt. Critical condition, thirty-three of their employees and security killed in the blast.”

“Hmph.” Was all Maleagant had to say, reflecting another bolt. “Good enough.”

It would have been nice if PowerOn’s CEO died, but that would be a big enough blow against them to teach PowerOn and Galentro a lesson. Several months had passed since Dynamic Automata’s dismantling. The war still raged, the Helix Syndicate sniping at both Galentro and PowerOn equally. The Syndicate was still gathering strength before it could focus on on one of the surviving powers and take care of them. In the meantime, there was only the occasional raid, act of sabotage, occasional assassination…

PowerOn’s CEO had been a welcome opportunity. While killing her outright had been the desired outcome, Maleagant was content with the message it would send. The Helix Syndicate had the upper hand in this little war of theirs. They would eventually capitulate, or else. Maleagant noticed, after deflecting two bolts in rapid succession, that Eugene was still standing there.

“Is there something else…?”

“Galentro Heavy Works is calling for a cease fire. They’re willing to negotiate,”

Maleagant smiled, a crooked and disquieting grin. He switched the training saber off and the remote automatically ended its routine. “Splendid.” Maleagant removed the helmet, red ringed eyes settling on his first lieutenant. “Let’s not keep them waiting.”

 

[Darth Osano]

FORT AMARANTH, NINE HOURS LATER

The shuttle barely held together as it crashed into the hangar bay of Fort Amaranth. It was on fire, smoke billowing out from the side. The engines finally flickered and died. The landing gears had been blown off, so the shuttle laid crooked on the hangar floor. Instead of gently lowering down, the boarding ramp slammed down. The inside was in no better condition- several dead Enforcers were still sprawled out on the floor. Already, the hangar crews were rushing forward with fire extinguishers and stretchers.

In hindsight, Maleagant reflected as he stumbled from the burning wreck, I should have seen this coming.

He had seen some amount of funny business coming. That was why there were guards. The negotiator being an HRD packed with explosives, though, that he couldn’t have predicted. Especially since they had sent it into the room with their own guards. It had taken out all of Galentro’s immediate security and most of Maleagant’s. Once they figured out he was still alive, it only got worse. There was a whole firefight, then a starfighter chase… Really, it had been very intense.

Maybe he would write about it one day. Would have made a good book, or an action sequence in a book, at least.

“No, I’m fine.” Maleagant hissed when a pair of medics stopped in front of him. They quickly moved on. The Shi’ido was wounded in the side, burned slightly, bruised and roughed. His nice suit was in tatters- something Vulgrim had kept complaining about. Now Maleagant could fully sympathize.

Maleagant lowered himself wearily onto a storage crate and watched his men pull their comrades from the burning wreck. Most of the casualties had been left behind. A few more had perished along the way. Maleagant was only dimly aware of how many of his own men had been lost, but he was sure it was most of them. He watched as Eugene was pulled out, the poor bastard barely conscious. He’d live. Probably. Death Watch had been through worse.

It wasn’t lost to Maleagant that he had failed here. If he were an employee, he probably would have been fired without very much thought. Sickening, really. He should run a tighter ship than this. If the Helix Syndicate’s leadership was prone to reckless flights of fancy, destructive fancy that led to dead Enforcers and dead Specialists, then it was only a short fall to rock bottom. To destruction.

Unwilling to watch more, Maleagant grunted and rose to his feet. He’d be in his quarters if anyone needed him. He could no longer stomach to watch this salvage operation unfold in front of him. One thing was certain in his mind: that Galentro would pay in full for this. There would be no quarter.

 

[Darth Osano]

VELCAR FREE COMMERCE ZONE

You would think anyone on the board of directors for a company engaged in a full-scale shadow war against a ruthless syndicate would be a little more careful with what they were doing. But no, he wasn’t. It was like he didn’t realize he had signed off on Maleagant’s death warrant and should have feared someone would fill out his own in response. Perhaps he had not yet heard that Maleagant had survived.

That was what these people were counting on, Maleagant decided. They figured if they took him out, the Syndicate would fall apart. It was probably true. Eugene, Rahgot, Deglarch- skilled people, adequate lieutenants. But they would be abysmal in this line of work. That, and Maleagant had no intentions of dying at any point. Not before the monster that drank from his cousin’s skull was dead, again, and Thule’s true ruling family returned to it.

It was a long way off. So was Maleagant’s death, he reckoned.

In any event, the death of that director sent some ripples up the chain of command. Having your neck snapped by a Besalisk in full view of your wife? Dreadful bit of business, that. Didn’t help that the house burned down a few minutes after that, wife and family still inside. Maleagant was not inherently pleased with what he had to do to get his point across. Perhaps if Galentro were so reluctant to experience these kinds of atrocities, they shouldn’t have started this whole thing.

Maleagant was merciful to a fault according to some. He kindly suggested to Galentro that those directors who left the board and the company altogether might be spared similar fates. Was it at all surprising that more than a few took that offer. One would have thought they’d do it sooner, but now the war they initiated was coming right to their doorsteps. Literally. And if they didn’t back down now, it wouldn’t just be some other guy’s neck or some other guy’s family. It’d be theirs.

The CEO, who wielded much more power than he should have, was understandably livid. Maleagant should have been dead. It should have been the Syndicate’s lieutenants who were resigning. Not his. Rumors of the CEO’s increasing fury, irritability, and irrationality were slowing climbing down the chair to where the Syndicate could hear them. Welcome information. Angry people were more prone to make mistakes. This was why Maleagant remained so perfectly composed at all times.

Mostly.

Sometimes.

 

[Darth Osano]

BILLABA CRYSTAL MINE

All these crystals mines were in such frigid conditions. It was like a staple for their existence. Maleagant kept his hands firmly in the pockets of his thick jacket as he left the warmth of the shuttle, meeting Deglarch at the end of the ramp. The Morgukai looked positively neutral, which Maleagant took as a sign that things had proceeded well despite the best efforts of their shared enemies.

Behind Deglarch were three men. Two Specialists and a gentleman in a prison uniform with a black bag over his head. The prisoner was kept on his knees, his hands bound in front of him. He was breathing heavily… Not something Maleagant recommended in this weather, but he supposed that would be the least of his worries soon enough.

“Deglarch.” Maleagant said, sniffling. The wind was blowing and not at all making this a comfortable conversation. “You know why I’m here.”

“The riot has been contained, sir.” Deglarch said. “We responded quickly. They attempted to dismantle our automated defenses, but fortunately security was too tight. Our casualties were light, theirs were...”

“Heavy.” Maleagant finished. “Good. And were you able to find out why this riot started?”

Deglarch looked away from Maleagant to the two Specialists, nodding at them. The Specialists forced the man to his feet and dragged him before Maleagant, kicking him back to his knees and then yanking the bag off. The prisoner was a Pantoran. Not a common sight. But even with a naturally blue face, the swelling and bruising was evident. Poor thing. Must have taken a while to get him talking.

“Tell him what you told me.” Deglarch ordered.

Not much more than that was needed. “Galentro. The man who snuck in, armed us, coordinated u- us. I heard him on the commlink, he mentioned the company.”

Maleagant stared at the man, raising a pitiless eyebrow. “You were part of the riot?”

The prisoner licked his lips, looking unsure. The riot had been a short lived but expensive one. While the prisoners had failed to escape, they had been successful in disrupting production and costing Maleagant money. There was more equipment than Maleagant cared to think about that was now out of order.

Deglarch got tired of waiting. “Answer him.”

“Ye- yeah, I did.”

Maleagant sighed and looked back to Deglarch. “Kill the prisoners who participated. All of them.” The Sithling took a moment to sneer at the prisoner again. “Say it was a mining accident.”

“Yes sir.” Deglarch replied.

The prisoner’s protests and requests for mercy were quickly muffled with the bag jammed back over his head. He was dragged off to an abysmal fate. It was as if these people thought there would be no consequences. Disgusting.

 

[Darth Osano]

FORT AMARANTH

Deglarch entered Maleagant’s office, only to find his employer concentrating on a durasteel cube roughly the size of his fist. The Morgukai almost instinctively tensed, then recalled that his years of hunting Force Sensitives out of pure spite were long behind him. Still, old habits were hard to shake. He couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable as the cube began to levitate. Was Maleagant teaching himself? That would explain why he was… Awful.

The cube twitched and shook sporadically as it levitated, the sign of unsteady hands. Or mind, in this case. “Sir?”

With a harsh clank, the cube slammed back down to the table. Concentration broken, apparently. Maleagant turned to face the Nikto, red eyes sizing him up. “Yes, Deglarch?”

“The attack on their factory has concluded.”

Galentro Heavy Works had opted for a rather sneaky approach when it came to undermining the Syndicate’s operation on Mygeeto. No pun intended. Maleagant decided that subtlety was too good for those cretins after their attempt on his life. That was why he ordered some unaffiliated criminal gang, the ones who were so degenerate that they had no uniforms, and ordered them to shoot up a populous Galentro Heavy Works factory. As Maleagant came to learn.

In proportion to the escalating hostilities, Galentro had beefed up security at some of its facilities… But this security had been focused on sabotage. Not direct attacks. Security cameras were all well and good, but they did little when a gangbanger with a submachine gun entered the assembly line area and opened fire indiscriminately. Maleagant was still not enjoying this. The bullets were better wasted on actual combatants or someone who actually needed killing.

These were just random people. But sparing them didn’t send as poignant a message.

“How many did we kill?”

“About twenty-two workers. Nine security guards. Many more wounded.”

Good numbers. But Maleagant didn’t smile. “And the kind gang members we hired for it?”

“None of them were captured. All evacuated successfully before law enforcement arrived.”

“Perfect.” Maleagant said. “Kill them all and reclaim the money we gave them.”

Deglarch did not seem too surprised by Maleagant’s order. This gang was not exactly a reliable entity and Maleagant found their leader to be completely obnoxious. He hated the idea of paying them a single credit. A doublecross would negatively impact the Syndicate’s reputation, however, so Maleagant would simply find an intermediary to arm that gang’s rival and let them do it.

Oh, the simple joys of politics.

 

[Darth Osano]

VELCAR FREE COMMERCE ZONE

In response to the assassination of his colleague, Baron Cumbry Leavens had fortified himself in his own home. Cumbry was one of the most passionate advocates for continued hostilities against the Syndicate, citing them as riff-raff unbefitting of any place in the Pentastar Sectors. It was the duty of the Alignment, of civilization, to remove them from the galaxy as quickly as possible. Cumbry wanted a more proactive approach, but the CEO was by now so far out of his mind he largely ignored the Baron’s advice.

Now with that attack on the factory concluded, Cumbry felt particularly vulnerable. He was unwilling to resign but unwilling to continue risking his neck like this. He traveled to his family’s fortified estate up in the mountainous regions of Dolis 4. He hired squads upon squads of mercenaries to safeguard him, to keep him and his family safe. Airspeeders patrolled the sky, auto turrets were primed at all times. Cumbry attended the meetings only via hologram. It was too risky to leave, especially after what happened to PowerOn’s CEO. Poor woman was still in the hospital.

Cumbry, as a result, was generally agreed to be the most well protected member of Galentro Heavy Works’ executive board. So much so that most of them were considering moving out there with him. Maleagant caught wind of this. If all of the executive board members moved out there, then the only way to reach them in the future would be a large-scale raid. The Helix Syndicate could not afford to invoke such ire in the government of Dolis 4 like that, not to mention the logistical nightmare it would be.

The best thing to do would be to make the executive realize that there were no safe places.

The best way to make them realize that would be to kill Baron Cumbry. But how?

With a Seyugi Dervish, of course.

Maleagant had honestly no idea how the Seyugi managed to do their jobs, but he was fortunate to have them on his side. Mostly. He was one of their more reliable customers at this point. It perplexed him how a single member of the Dervishes could slip past the total sum of Cumbry’s security measures. This time, Maleagant saw no need to involve the deaths of immediate family or an act of arson. That would have cost too much and wasn’t integral to the crux of the fear he wanted to instill in Cumbry’s surviving colleagues.

The Seyugi Dervish slipped in. Contact was lost for several hours. Then it was just as abruptly reestablished, and only because the Dervish was requesting the other half of his money. There was some delay, of course, because Maleagant had to confirm through his spies within Galentro Heavy Works that Cumbry was actually relieved of his mortal coil.

And sure enough, he was.

 

[Darth Osano]

FORT AURBIS

Maleagant had hoped that the death of Baron Cumbry would keep Galentro off-balance. It did not. He had hoped that the death of the vocal militarist would temper the raging fire of Galentro’s indignance. It did not. Several other board members had dropped out after Cumbry’s death, sure, but apparently it had not been enough. Now Maleagant was stepping off the shuttle to another recently quelled “situation.” This time at Fort Aurbis.

Transmissions had been intercepted, so it had given Rahgot time to prepare. Galentro threw everything they had into the attack- Maleagant could tell that much just by surveying the wreckage strewn about the canyon. Tanks, walkers, the whole shebang. Fort Aurbis’ defenses had frankly been robust enough and the garrison large enough for them to hold out until reinforcements arrived. Despite that, though, it had still been a close victory. Many of the buildings were damaged or destroyed, the minefields compromised, fences ruptured. It wasn’t pretty.

There was Deglarch waiting at the foot of the ramp for him again. This time, however, Rahgot was also present.

“I hope there’s some good news.”

“There was glory, yes.” Rahgot said. The Mandallian was wearing an appropriately sized suit of armor and carrying a light repeating blaster in one hand. He was bleeding from the forehead and his armor was covered in scorch marks.

Someone was good at doing their job.

“Many men died here today. Glorious deaths for all of them, yes. Even our most hated foes.” Rahgot intoned, bowing his head in respect. “I shall miss my comrades. Yes.”

Deglarch decided to chime in, if only because Rahgot was hung up on unimportant details. “It looks as though most of Galentro’s private forces were expended on this battle. Casualties were heavy on our side, but we have more troops elsewhere.”

“They thought they were attacking our headquarters?”

“Seems like it. Galentro wouldn’t have committed otherwise.” Deglarch replied.

Maleagant found that interesting. Perhaps it would be a good rumor to circulate. Yes, make everyone think the Helix Syndicate made their headquarters here. It would act as a sort of beacon to attract those who would do them harm. Meanwhile Fort Amaranth would remain perfectly safe.

“Rahgot.” Maleagant said. “You will supervise repairs. I will send another battalion to reinforce you here until the fort is operational again.”

Rahgot bobbed his head affirmatively. “As you wish, yes. But now I must see a medic. There is much glory in proper medical assessments following heated conflict.”

 

[Darth Osano]

FORT AMARANTH

Eugene stared blankly at the holoscreen as the news feed played. “I can’t believe you did that.”

Maleagant gave a nonchalant shrug. “I can’t believe it worked.”

For every hit the Helix Syndicate sustained, it would have to hit back three times as hard. Otherwise, people would get the wrong idea. Think they were a bunch of weaklings. Following Galentro’s attack on the Helix Syndicate property of Fort Aurbis, Maleagant had organized what he found to be a fitting reprisal. That is, having battle droids hijack three different heavy freighters carrying Galentro’s product and relocating them.

Relocating them into Galentro’s factories.

At maximum speed.

To say that damage was catastrophic would have been an understatement. Hundreds were left dead in the wake of each attack. Minus the freighter crews, of course. They were just knocked out and left elsewhere. They didn’t have a stake in any of this. Once the course had been plotted, the battle droids self-destructed and gravity did the rest of the work. Destruction was catastrophic. The public was outraged, Galentro’s employees were outraged. People were resigning en masse and the remaining shareholders had the acting CEO stripped of his power. The stock was plummeting… Almost as fast as the ships had, come to think of it.

Oh, too soon?

It was almost as if they were having a strenuous disagreement over what to do next. That is, to carry on the war or see if they could end it before the Helix Syndicate ended them. Maleagant smirked to himself, self-satisfied like no other being could be in the galaxy. Not because he had killed so many people, but because he could sense that his final victory was drawing near. He would expect a call from Galentro very, very shortly.

 

[Darth Osano]

UNDISCLOSED LOCATION

When he told Galentro that part of the peace deal had to include the former CEO being delivered to him for execution, he had expected them to balk at the suggestion. To renegotiate the deal in order to retain some semblance of their own dignity. But they did not. Maleagant had planned to only include that article only so it could be removed so they would be more likely to accept the peace deal.

But they just… Took it.

And now a pair of Galentro mercenaries threw the hog-tied CEO out of the back of a moving speeder truck as they whizzed by the designated meeting area on the outskirts of town. They didn’t even stop to see what Maleagant would do to the man. Had they rigged him with explosives? Maleagant ordered the bound, whimpering CEO to be scanned, but it turned up nothing. They had actually done it. Just sold out their old colleague, just like that. The freighters being crashed into the factories must have been overkill after all.

Well, if it was overkill that was needed to get the job done, then overkill it would be. Maleagant felt no regret for ending a war that others had started. It was just business. Maleagant crouched down to remove the gag from the CEO’s mouth. “Oh, Force, oh- please. It was just- it was just business.”

“I’m aware.” Said Maleagant, withdrawing a certain sidearm from within his jacket. “So is this.”

The CEO blubbered for a little bit more, crying for help to an empty and uncaring city. Then Maleagant shot him. Twice, just to be sure, and the corpse subsequently disintegrated into a fine ashy mist. The wind would be blowing soon enough, either that or snow. It would be like the CEO had never even been here.

Maleagant sighed and returned his sidearm to its resting place. “That settles that.”

 

[Darth Osano]

VELCAR FREE COMMERCE ZONE

Now why would Maleagant go through all this trouble if, by the end of it, he didn’t have a trio of new locations set up for the Helix Syndicate? Galentro Heavy Works, forced to the table, were more than willing to sell of the mining rights they had to several locations on Isiring, Churruma, and Ord Thoden. These would be converted into another string of Helix Syndicate Debtor Mines, where those incapable of paying off their debts traditionally would slave away in service of the Syndicate.

Galentro, now on the verge of collapse, hardly had any need for those mines going forward. It appeared that Maleagant had forced Galentro to the precipice. Rather than force them over himself, however, he would let them handle it themselves.

Their fate would mirror that of Dynamic Automata- a collapse into obscurity following the catastrophic string of events they had subjected themselves to by going toe-to-toe with the Helix Syndicate. Perhaps the company would be re-established in the future with a new owner, or perhaps someone would intervene to correct the downward spiral. Maleagant did not care either way. He never had a particular desire to fight these people. They had brought it to him. Now they were worse off than they would have been if they had simply allowed him to conduct his business.

Meanwhile, the Waylon Syndicate still clung to life somewhere else. After this display, toppling both Dynamic Automata and Galentro Heavy Works, they weren’t eager to pick fights either. Unfortunately for them, this little distraction wouldn’t save them. Maleagant would finish everything that was started. No matter how long it took and no matter how hard Waylon sought to hide themselves.

 

[Darth Osano]

FORT AMARANTH

A bolt caught Maleagant in the arm, causing him to wince. He was getting used to the pain, so perhaps he should have upped the voltage. The training remote continued to dart back and forth in a sort of mocking dance. Not that Maleagant could actually see it with the blast visor down. He righted himself and tried again, tracking the training remote very carefully…

It spit out three shots in quick succession, but this time Maleagant caught all three of them. The power in each shot was not high enough for them to actually be reflected, otherwise one would have smacked Eugene in the chest when he walked in. What a pity that would have been, surviving that ambush only to be killed in a training accident. Pitiful, really. Although Maleagant doubted he would lose sleep one way or another.

“I have a contact lined up for PowerOn.” Eugene announced. “We should be able to finish this once and for all.”

“No need.” Maleagant said, intercepting another bolt.

Eugene looked confused. Not that Maleagant could see, or that it would have changed his response. “But what about-”

Maleagant sighed. He did detest splitting focus. “PowerOn’s CEO and I came to a mutual agreement after she regained consciousness. I-”

A bolt smacked him in the shoulder and he grunted. But he didn’t remove the helmet or stop what he was doing. “-Found it to be amicable. PowerOn will not trouble us.”

Near-death experiences have a way of changing people’s outlook on life. For example, it gave PowerOn’s CEO the capability to see that petty squabbles with upstarts, especially doomed ones that she had been unwittingly dragged into, weren’t worth… Anything. PowerOn had been conspicuously absent these past few months while war waged between Galentro and the Syndicate. They had only made promises to Galentro, and Galentro eventually became too focused on their losing battles to question PowerOn’s absence or force them to assist.

“I’m surprised you didn’t notice.” Maleagant replied, intercepting two bolts in rapid succession.

And then, for the second time this week, the credits rolled

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCvuYjl4C-k​