The breath before the storm

[Ragnarok]

Theed, Naboo

The green sphere that was Naboo looked so pretty from space. Thin whisps of white clouds circled around it and gave it a snowglobe appearance that would be quite breathtaking if you had breath. But sadly the current observer did not draw breath, not did he eat or sleep, and could not die in the literal sense. He was a droid, a X7-JK Adv. Guardian Class War Droid produced by Maxwell Industries. He was one of many prototypes. The prototypes before him had all failed in one way or another, some experiencing motor disfunctions, uncalculated weapon systems, or crosswired sensor equipment. Just when his creator, Tony Maxwell, was about to give up he finally got it right and created Ragnarok. Back then he was simply a machine with a service number, X7-21, but that was before he had been installed with the advance intelligence and personality chip designed by Crystal Corporation; a practically unknown company that made everything from blasters to swoop bikes and explosives to contracting out buildings. Shortly after his creation he had developed his own unique personality and found he didn't like being some petty, selfish human's personal toy. So he broke away and took up the one thing his programing aloud him to do properly, mercenary work. He was a war droid and he was really only capable of war, shooting, and the blowing up of formerly solid objects. His advance intelligence and personality chip allowed him to learn new things, but all those things would be influenced by his initial programming. So he decided to just stick with shooting thing. Another side effect of his advance intelligence and programming chip is that it caused him to develope more then just a personality. It created within his a male persona, hence why it refers to itself as a he. He also grew tired of his silly service number and took the name "Ragnarok", a reference to the mighty mythical battle between the Gods that would take place at the end of the world.

But let us get back to Naboo. Ragnarok's ship, The Shadow Lance, floated gracefully through space. The old Skipray Blastboat had been a present to him from his master's father, Nathan Maxwell. The ship had been fixed up, repaired, and armed to the teeth. It's thick armor plating combined with it's explosive payload, mounted double-barreled turret, and three ion cannons made it a formidable ship that could take a beating and dish it right back out.

Right now The Shadow Lance was lowering towards the planet's atmosphere. It entered a few moments later, the nose of the ship lighting up as it heated. A angle adjustment pulled the ship out of the dive. The ship leveled out as it neared the ground and headed towards Theed, the capital city of Naboo. The single engine burned a bright blue at the edges and was solid white at it's center. The engines had been upgrated to be 0.5 faster then normal. All in all Ragnarok was proud of his ship.

Normally he had a grew of three other sentients flying with him, but the seriousness of the mission at hand was far too much for him to drag his crew with him. They would only becomes snags and either screw the mission up or slow it down. And he didn't want either of those. So he would be doing this on his own, without back-up and without help of any kind. There was no going back now.

The comm clicked on and Ragnarok asked for permission to land. A female voice responded over the commsystem and directed the Shadow Lance to pad D12 of the Central Naboo Starport. Ragnarok didn't bother to thank the traffic control officer and simply piloted the ship directly to the designated landing pad and cut the sublight engines. Thrusters came online and slowly lowered the ship down towards the landing pad. Landing struts were extended and the ship settled down snuggled on the landing pad.

Exactly ten minutes later the landing ramp was extended and the external harch slif open with a hiss. Ragnarok stood there framed in the light from one of the ship's internal lights. He wore a black trenchcoat that covered his metal body and the many weapons he carried on him. A wide brimmed hat was placed on his smooth head and he was ready to go. The door slid shut behind him, the lock clicking into place and security systems coming online.

Ragnarok stepped off the ramp, across the landing pad, and into the straight into the hustle and bustle of every day Naboo pedestrian flow. If not for his seven foot height he would have blended in pefectly.

[Ragnarok]

An hour walk brought him to the Imperial High Command of the Planet Naboo. That title might sound lame, but take it up with the Empire because those words are etched on a plaque on the front of the wall that surrounded the entirety of the base. The plaque itself was located between the front gate and the external guard house. Security was lax, and for reasons perfectly clear to the gaurds themselves. This was Naboo, one of the most peaceful, non-violent planets in the 'verse. Most of the guards had seldom seen real action. Their weapons were just icons of their powers now that their skill with them had faded away and turned rusty. The only thing that kept them from getting fat on the good food in the mess hall was their commanding officer was strict on daily exercise and made the poor saps run no less then a mile a day, along with other physical exercise.

So it was no surprise that Rangarok went undetected as he approached the compound from the side, using what cover he could find to mask his approach. The guards positioned on the wall were too busy having a conversation to notice Ragnarok as he streaked across the open space between the treeline and the wall. Apparently the Imp's used fire to burn back a one hundred meter swab around the entire compound. Ragnarok was able to cover that distance in a few moments as his powerful robotic legs propelled him across the blackened dirt and up to the wall. Without his black clothing the light reflecting of his armor would have been enough to give him away.

He pressed his body up against the wall and waited for a moment. The guards continued to babble on, clearly they had not seen him. He edged along the wall until he reached the back corner. He made a fist and shoved it into the durocrete wall. He stuck his foot into the hole and pushed himself up and punched another hole. He continued like this until he scaled the entire wall, a process that took little over ten seconds. By the time he got to the top the pair of wall gaurds had had only reached the corner and began to look over the edge.

Ragnarok shot up, bashing a fist into each of the guard's throats, blowing our their throats and effectively killing them. He let them slip off the edge of the wall, hitting the hardtop below with a thud. Ragnarok didn't waste a moment as he jumped off the wall and landed in the courtard below with a thud, leaving two giant footprints imprinted in the ground benath him. He sprinted off in the direction of the main building that existed at the center of the compound. He dodged lazy patrols, unarmed personel, and security cameras as he made his way to the door into the main building.

He slipped inside and right into the path of an imperial soldier. Before the man could react or call for help Ragnarok slugged him in the throat, blowing out his throat and stopping any chance of calling for help. He picked the body up and deposited it into a small supply closet. He bashed the control panel, thus ceiling the body within.

He continued into the building, dodging even more patrols and cameras. A few cameras were deactived via EMP grenade. Ragnarok's EMP protected underlayer kept him save from the effects of the small EMP grenades. At last he arrived at the hub of the Imperial Database. A team of guards jumped up, startled, and aimed lazily aimed weapons at the intruder while a single guard ran for the alarm mounted on the wall.

[Ragnarok]

Ragnarok moved with a speed not normally found within a droid of his bulk. His hand dipped into his coat and came back out with something black and metalic gleaming in it's robotic hand. It was a light repeater rifle with a wittled down stock and every unneeded accessory removed. This cut it's size by a 3rd and allowed easy transportation. It was still functional, as was evident when a metal finger wrapped around the trigger and opened fire on the guards. The first wave of smal, yellow blaster bolts cleaved through the alarm seeking guard's legs, cutting through the knees and cutting the man's leg's in half. He hit the ground hard, the ground knocked out of him and his weapon holster caught under his body.

The other guards opened fire.

Blaster bolts hit Ragnarok, burning through his coat to reveal silver metal underneath. He returned fire, cutting down each guard with amazing accuracy and a sinister choice of targets. Body parts and limps were removed as Ragnarok wielded his blaster like a cutting laser. Heads were severed at the neck, arms cut off at the elbow, and several encors of the knee remover. A few well placed shots put the groaning guards out of misery.

He stepped over their still smoking bodies as he made his way over to the last remaining guard, the one that had attempted to reach the alarm. He reached down and grabbed the man by the back of his neck and pull him up into the air. He pressed the man against the wall, using his superior strength to keep him pinned there. Without a word he unceramonialy inserted the hot barrel of his rifle into the man's mouth. The man screamed as his lips melted and clung to the hot metal, thus demanding more pain until the man's nerve endings in his mouth finally shut down.

The trigger was pulled, the bolt angled upwards exploded through the back of the man's head and spray the wall behind him with blood, gore, and bits of bone and brains. Blood oozed out the man's ears, nose, and eyes as the force of the shot pushed everything out of the way and out any available hole. Ragnarok let go and let the man slump to the floor to join his imperial comrades. Such a waste. These were good Naboo lads who'd throught it'd be grand to join the Empire and all the prestige the position brought them. The had dreams of girls, booze, and credits. It was a pity that all they had done was placed themselves in the same funeral barge as the rest of the Empire.

What a waste of life...

He turned away from the corpses and walked to the center of the room to where the main consoles for the rub sat. The Imperial Database hub was a single, thick pillar of metal and electronic equipment that stood at the very center and was connected to both the floor and the ceiling. All around the hub stood many computer consoles. It was to one of these consoles that Ragnarok stepped infront of and, with a touch of a single button, turned on. A short wait was neccessary as the console booted up. Keys were tapped at a rapid rate as Ragnarok attempted to gain access to the files he desired.

At first it was smooth sailing until a security wall appeared before him, effectively seperating him from his destination within the Database. A password and keycard were required for continued access. Ragnarok raised his hand and extended a single finger. The tip of his index finger peeled back to reveal a fiber-optic cable. This cable was inserted into the access port reserved for astromech and service droids. As soon as he was connected to the Database he ran every security cracking and code generating program he possessed. A half hour trickled by before he finally cracked the code and generated a false signal that tricked the computer into thinking a level-10 clearence card had been inserted into the card reader.

He was in...

Speed was of the essense now. He searched for and found several of the files he searched for, the other files he was looking for didn't exist within the Database. He copied the files, checked for viruses, and then placed those files within his own internal systems. Once copied over he checked the files for any fragmentation or errors. Nothing was wrong. He prepared to cut his access but before he did he sent a signal to the Database. This signal was designed to cause every electronic device in the hub to overload itself with electricity, thus cuasing the entire apparatus to explode. He unplugged himself from the console and logged out, shutting the computer off for the last time in it's career. He turned away, picked up his repeater rifle from it's place leaning against the hub, and departed.

[Ragnarok]

He left the same way he came, walked past the same disabled cameras and broken door locks. He moved faster this time, yet he didn't resort to running. Running would create too much noise and then he'd be in big trouble. He wished to leave without anyone getting a good look at him, it make Bounty Hunting easier when you didn't have half the Imperial Armada chasing after you. Bad for business it is. He emerged from the building and back into the sunlight of the compound, and once again right into the path of a startled guard. He did not have time to be nice...

He extended his fingers and placed them together to form a shover, which he jammed into the guard's chest, punched through his chest cavity, and grabbed wrapped his fingers around the man's spine. He gave a tug and broke the spinal cord befor the man even had a chance to scream in pain. His hand was extracted and the body slumped to the ground. He didn't wait a second as he sped off across the compound. Someone must have seen him because the next thing he knew an alarm was screaming and guards were pouring into the compound from all sides, from the walls, and out of the underground facility itself.

Blaster bolts were exchanged, many humans died. Ragnarok sustained light damage before he found his way back on top of the wall, which he jumped off of as soon as he reached it. He landed on the ground, knees bent and body coiled to take the fall with less damage. He sprinted off toward the tree line. Blaster bolts hailed down from the wall, most of them falling short or going wide. That was the one thing you could always count on an Imperial Trooper for; bad aim at all times, no matter the range or the weapon. He reached the trees and disapeared out of the sight of the Imperials.

It would be a week before he finally shook off the chase and managed to sneak his way off the planet. His next destination: Corellia, the end of his job, and his humble reward.