Red Invitation

A SWTOR:FF by Caernos

1 ATC

 

Gavril stepped off of the mag train and immediately felt the cool bite of the air. Coruscant had some of the best climate control systems in the galaxy, but that did not make it perfect. In the winter times it was always good to bring something warm. Mindful of the scarf he wore wrapped around his neck, the young man buttoned his coat and started walking. He headed towards speeder parking at a leisurely pace; he did have some time after all. He tucked his hands into his pockets to keep them warm. It was always a good thing to keep feeling in your fingers.

 

Coming to the stairs, Gavril eyed them dubiously. He started down, but kept his hands in his pockets, descending to the lowest level. When he came to the bottom he glanced around. He was at the station’s pick-up and drop off lane. Speeders could easily pull up, hover for a moment while they either picked-up or dropped someone off, and then pull away. Gavril glanced at his chrono and saw that he was early. His ride wasn’t here yet. With a shrug more for himself than anyone else he pulled his hands out long enough to put his gloves on, then thrust them back into his pockets.

 

With nothing to do but wait, Gavril decided to listen to Corellian Opera. The music files were stored on his cybernetic implant so all it took was a touch to his ear and a thought to start them up. It was a classic piece, The Fall of an Empire; a melody that Gavril found both haunting and tragic while exploring the rise of Corellia in the galaxy.

 

A black, closed top speeder pulled up to the drop off lane. Spying it, Gavril began walking towards it. As an after thought he pulled out the invitation to double check it. It was just a simple red card with golden edges. His name, Gavril Joski was inscribed on one side, and on the other were the words “You are invited to meet with Senator Dengo, 2215 galactic standard.” The address of the Mag train station was in the fine print underneath the invite.

 

Gavril slipped the invitation back into his pocket and watched as the passenger door opened and a rather burly man stepped out; clearly some kind of bodyguard. He went to the back door and opened it for a tall man with white hair, a politician’s smile, and a chandrilan tuxedo. The older man thanked the burly man, and turning, helped a woman out of the speeder. She was much younger, having shining dark hair and wearing a shimmering dark green dress. The couple paused and made polite conversation with the burly man and the driver who stayed in his seat in the speeder.

 

Gavril didn’t check his chrono a second time; right place, a little early. That didn’t really matter though. He started towards the couple. In his ears the music continued playing, growing louder with each step, rapidly swelling towards its tragic climax. When he was a little more than two meters from the group, he pulled his hands out of his pockets. He waved at the driver of the speeder with his left hand. His right raised the compact slugthrower and pointed it towards the body guard.

 

He squeezed the trigger of the pistol and its muzzle flashed for a nanosecond. The bodyguard clutched at his knee as he spun and fell to the ground. Gavril heard the report of the weapon echo off the duracrete, loud enough to drown out the music. He had left the pistol un-silenced so that the noise would keep anyone from interfering.

 

The senator and his date gawked at the bodyguard. The driver of the speeder began to fumble with his safety belt. Gavril kept moving forward, aiming the pistol and squeezing the trigger a second time.

 

The senator’s head snapped backward even as the muzzle’s flash was fading. His arm, still entwined with the woman’s, pulled on her as his body fell backwards in a loose heap. Her screams began to mingle with the conflicting echoes of the pistol’s report as she finally caught on to what was happening.

 

The speeder driver was opening his door, a blaster in one hand. Gavril launched himself over the hood and slammed his shoulder into the door. The driver yelled in pain as it closed on his leg, while Gavril bounced away and rolled to his feet. Before the driver could recover, Gavril grabbed a hold of the door and yanked it back open, then thrust his slughthrower forward and fired again.

 

The driver jerked back and fell awkwardly against the speeder, a hand coming up to grasp at his shoulder. Gavril kicked the blaster away and grabbing the man by the collar pulled him away and set him down on the ground. He pulled off his scarf and gave it to the injured driver. “Put pressure on the wound, that will slow the bleeding,” he said. Then Gavril climbed into the speeder, closed the door, and floored the repulsor units. He quickly left the mag train station and the pick-up and drop off lane far behind. The opera reached its final and quiet end.

 

Merging into the main thoroughfare Gavril tossed his slugthrower on the passenger seat. He didn’t need it anymore. He raised a hand and pressed it to his ear, starting the comlink built into his cybernetic implant. He waited a second to be sure the transmission would be clear. “Met with Senator Dengo a few minutes early. Assured an agreeable solution to all interested parties despite the protest of his personal security.”

 

Then Gavril turned the commlink off. Five minutes passed. The implant chirped. Gavril pressed his finger to it and listened to the recording of a synthesized and metallic voice. “Well done, Cipher six. A ticket awaits under your name at the Coruscant Interstellar Spaceport. You will receive further instruction en route to your destination.”

 

The message ended and Gavril switched the commlink off. He flipped his blinker on, checked his blindspots, then turned the speeder towards the spaceport. He reached out and switched on the speeder's radio, flipping through the various stations till he finally found what he was looking for. Opera; a mon calamari opera. Gavril let himself relax as he listened to the first bars of the piece. Feeling somewhat chilly without his scarf, he reached to the dashboard again and turned the heat up in the speeder.

 

Fin

 

 

 

This was awesome. Please keep posting your stories. I need things to read!

Well,

 

Thank you for the compliment. I'll keep posting them. But it may take some time. I've currently got a lot on my plate but there are some pieces that I am in the midst of revising and I'll do my best to get out here. We'll see though.

 

Thanks for the support.

I'm a little surprised to see I never commented on this when you posted it. Great short, no detail wasted.

Pretty well done. I love seeing IA fanfics.