Chapter 2

Weiss Schnee grimaced every time the lights flashed by the window.

The glaring beams set forth by the passing airspeeders as they hummed, whirred and buzzed past the 53rd-story window were almost too much to bear. Almost. She sat at the imported wooden table and took a sip of the expensive wine set on the table before her. It was a decent vintage, but any and everything grown on her homeworld would put it to shame.

The lift did not chime - indeed, it seemed to grunt and cough - as the doors slid open. A muscular man with a shaved head and garbed in finery stepped out, looking utterly out of place in such a city as this.

Two austere gentlemen in simpler attired flanked him on the way in and took up positions on either side of the lift, their eyes fixed on the table and their hands never straying far from their gun belts. She smiled as the man found a seat at the table, his burly form filling the simple chair that had been set out for the two diners.

"Lady Schnee," the man said in a polite voice, the tone beneath barely disguised.

"Moff Harriser. You are kind to have accepted this meeting on such short notice. You know how complex these things can be, and in our line of business surely it is better to take care of matters before they get out of hand."

Harriser nodded, blockish jaw bobbing on muscular neck. "Quite right, of course. I am always happy to accommodate another of His Majesty's agents."

Weiss smiled as the lift bucked again and a pair of nervous-looking aliens stepped out - a Rodian and a Bith. They brought a tray of food forward and laid it on the table, removing the lid and revealing a pleasing display of assorted fruits and meats. Weiss smiled and helped herself to a large, violet fruit and used a knife laid on the table to split the shell open. She pried apart the two halves and scooped a generous helping of the gourd's vermillion innards.

Harriser chose to merely take a hearty sip of his own wine and nibble on the edge of a cut of meat while he waited for the discussion to reach its true worth. Finally, after several moments of wordless stalemate, Weiss indulged the shavepate officer.

"Nar Shaddaa is much as I remember it from my last visit. I trust that the Hutts have been cooperative with our agenda?"

Harrier all-but scoffed. "The Hutts are a bunch of spineless cheats. A bit of pressure and the blasted worms were all-too willing to accept our terms. After all, even a slug knows when it's beaten." Weiss listened to the Moff prattle on about the Hutts for a while longer. Xenophobia was common among His Majesty's Empire, and though Weiss was no more hostile towards aliens than any other, there were still those like Harriser who took every opportunity to affirm their superiority in all manner of things. It didn't matter if the superiority in question was in capacity of mind, body or possession of a backbone.

"Your dedication and persistence in securing this deal is admirable," she said as genuinely as she could manage. "You must understand better than most how important this deal was, and you performed beyond expectations. His Majesty would undoubtedly be very pleased with your service."

Halliser let a cocky smile grace his otherwise plain features, but a touch of wariness was also plain in his eyes. Imperial Agents were to be trusted as far as they could be thrown, and though he was a man of great physical acumen, Halliser had no desire to take chances. Agent Schnee's reputation preceded her. Youth or no, she was undoubtedly one of His Majesty's premier agents, and had an impressive array of commendations to her name.

Many of those commendations were earned through performing actions that others were unable or unwilling to do. Assassination chief among them.

"Well then," Halliser said, picking up his wine glass, "a toast to those in His Majesty's service." Weiss smiled and returned the toast, the clink of glass on glass echoing strangely in the space. Weiss drank deeply of the wine, enjoying the dry, hearty flavor. Across the table, Halliser smiled a red smile.

The silence stretched on for a long time before, "I'm sure that you understand by now the real reason I'm here."

Halliser visibly paled, but his mouth remained a hard-set line, and his slate-grey eyes were placid. "Yes," he said. "And I'm sure you lack understanding of why I did it."

Weiss shook her head. "I do not need to know the why. What you've done is treason, in spite of whatever successes you've achieved earlier. Rallying the Mandalorians against the Empire - against their own leader who owes his position to us? How long did you think that it would remain your little, dark secret?"

Halliser was silent and the two guards at the lift quaked visibly as their hands drew ever closer and closer to their weapons.

Weiss sighed. "If it's any consolation, you covered your tracks remarkably well, and you're prepared. The poison in the wine was a nice touch, but you may have wanted to choose something a bit stronger than Sabrek venom. Cryptberries are my choice, but alas, it's too late for 'should have' and 'might have.' The guards aren't going to be any help, though."

The two men visibly paled at their mention and Halliser's eyes narrowed. "You're every bit as skillful as your file states, Lady Schnee."

She smiled sadly. "There is no file on me, Halliser. I'm better than that. Better than you. And despite whatever else you've done, your efforts in recruiting the Hutts will be invaluable to the next stage of His Majesty's plan. Take that for whatever it's worth to you, and die with some measure of peace."

Halliser smiled for the first time, the gesture just as sad as Weiss'. "For all that you're worth to His Majesty and the Empire, Lady Schnee, I fear I have no intention of dying today."

A final smiled was exchanged. "That's no longer your decision to make."

A press of a button kicked off the spiral. Two Imperial shock troopers slammed through the window, swinging down from above and sending a wave of glass cascading down on the diners. Weiss kicked back from the table, sending her chair spinning through the air toward Halliser. The former Agent knocked aside the projectile as he stood as well, and the nearest soldier met an unfortunate fate as Halliser gripped his helmet in both hands and twisted sharply. The shock trooper's neck twisted like a vine and a shove sent him flying out the recently "opened" window.

Halliser used the distraction to break toward the lift, jumping inside and slamming the panel. The lift closed and dropped as the two gunmen finally bared their weapons. The first one never managed to fire, as a burst of semi-automatic energy from the remaining shock trooper seared a hole in his chest and pushed him against the wall. The second squeezed off one shot from his blaster before Weiss was upon him. She twisted her arm around his, gripping the man's soldier and twisting until the joint dislocated. The man cried out in agony and Weiss wrestled the blaster from the bounty hunter's hands, pressing the muzzle against his temple and stifling his pain with a single pull of the trigger.

As the man slumped, the shock trooper approached and fired several shots from his carbine into the lift's control panel. The lift ground to a halt and Weiss smiled as the trooper handed her a vibrios word, wrapped in simple black cloth. She tucked the cloth into the waistline of her clothes and felt the familiar weight and heft of the weapon before nodding to the trooper. "Let's go."

The lift was ruined, so Weiss and the soldiers stepped over the cowering forms of the two waiters and used the stairs. The well was vacant and their footsteps echoed dully up the durocrete walls as the pair thundered down. After passing a few landings, an alarm blared through the stairwell. Red emergency lights lit the way and Weiss pressed the commlink sewn into the cuff of her outfit. "Report," she ordered sharply.

"Copy ma'am - target was last seen taking the lift down. He exited on the fifteenth floor and is heading toward the landing pad on the far side of the building."

"Copy," chimed in another. "I've got a view of the landing pad - he has a shuttle waiting. Permission to neutralize flight risk?"

"Granted," Weiss said. "Move to intercept but do not engage. Stop him, but keep him alive." A series of chirps bellied the trooper's affirmation, and Weiss stopped as they reached a heavy metal door marked with a fluorescent yellow "15." Weiss tried the console and swore at the automatically engaged lock. "Stand back," she ordered the trooper beside her. The man did as he was told and watched unreadably through the visor of his helmet as Weiss jammed the blade of her vibrosword into the control panel. A series of sparks erupted from the console before Weiss jimmied the blade a bit and the door slid open.

The two rushed through corridors, dodging around pairs and groups of people hastily evacuating the building as the alarm continued to ring through the halls. A Rodian swore in his own tongue at the sight of the two Imperials charging down the hall, but before he could raise his weapon to fire he was swept to the floor by the tide of people.

A blaster shot cleared a swath through the denizens as they leapt aside, and found the Rodian vulnerable. The shot seared through and the alien died as two more shock troopers emerged from a side corridor. Inclining their helmeted heads to the agent before them, Weiss pointed with her blade the direction that Halliser was supposedly running.

The group mobilized again, clearing a path through throngs of civilians that gradually petered out as they evacuated the building. A glowing sign marked a door to the landing pad up ahead, and Weiss nearly spoke when a pair of blaster shots lanced out of the red-tinted gloom. Weiss ducked under the first shot, which seared a hole in the durasteel floor and sent a cloud of smoke and sparks washing over the soldier immediately behind her. The other found its mark and one of the newly-arrived shock troopers fell to a heap on the floor, armor crackling around the place where the blaster shot had struck.

The aggressor leapt from the shadows, cruel armored hands slamming repeatedly into another of the soldiers. The man put up a valiant fight, but met his end as the third shock trooper at Weiss's side fired off a shot. The armored foe swung the grappled form of the soldier around and the Imperial let out a sigh as his comrade's shot slammed into his back.

The new foe dumped the body and lashed out at the soldier who had fired, a foot knocking the wind out of him and throwing the Imperial against the wall. His head knocked hard on the wall as he fell and lay still, eyes rolling back inside his helmet and his breath slowing to an almost-comatose state.

Weiss stood for a moment, calmly regarding this new foe. Heavy armor - exotic alloys overplayed with hardened ceramics and dyed a cruel red - covered him head-to-toe. A helmet hid his features, but merciless eyes gazed out from a slit visor. A Mandalorian. She should have figured.

The bred warrior darted forward again, a blade flashing in his hands as he engaged Weiss. The pair danced in the hallway amidst auxiliary lighting and the reek of ozone. The Mandalorian's blade was short and quick, and his form was excellent. But Weiss had been fighting with a sword since she was old enough to walk, and even now her father's words echoed in her mind.

"Keep your back straight. Poor form is poor performance. Never trust your opponent to fight fair. Be ready for everything. Fight your opponent, not his blade."

The next time the cruel knife came flashing at her head, Weiss was ready. Her body compressed like a spring and she glided under the blow, bringing her sword around and dragging the sharply-vibrating blade across the front of the Mandalorian's chestplate. The ceramics cracked and shattered and the metal beneath screamed in protest. She admired her handiwork as the two combatants backed off for a moment. Barely a rent in the metal. Mandalorian Iron, then. The fighter switched his blade from hand to hand a few times.

"You fight well," he said, voice ringing through the helmet's projector. "We of Mandalore respect that. But because you are strong, you must die."

Smiling and quoting the very man she hunted, Weiss said "I fear I have no intention of dying today." She flew forward, every second of their brief exchange of words having been spent identifying the warrior's weaknesses. The Mandalorian leapt back and parried Weiss' blow before crying out in pain at the burning sensation in his shoulder. Weiss's holdout blaster was still smoking as she drew back and lunged again, her blade homing in on the gaps between the warrior's armored plates.

The sword tip found its mark and sunk halfway to the hilt, the armored fighter coughing and his hands beating at the Imperial agent ineffectually until the life finally left his body.

Weiss drew her blade from the Mandalorian's corpse and stood, regulating her breathing for as long as she dared. A sound drew her focus but she relaxed her guard slightly upon realizing that the noise was caused by one of the Imperial troopers - the one who had struck the wall - stirring from his unconsciousness. He picked up his weapon and nodded to Weiss in silent verification of his state before the two of the, moved past the hallway of fresh corpses and to the door at the far end of the corridor.

As before, Weiss opened the door with the tip of her weapon and stepped outside just in time to be buffeted by a maelstrom of propwash from a shuttle preparing to lift off. The craft was bobbing slightly as it hovered over the deck and shots rang out as half a dozen shock troopers pumped carbine fire into the craft's hull.

Wasting no time, Weiss darted forward even as he companion joined the remaining soldiers in peppering the shuttle's sides. Putting all her energy forth, she leapt atop a pile of stacked crates and launched herself through the air. Her vibrosword crackled with energy as she swung the weapon out, digging the point into the hull of the craft and hanging on as it lurched.

Collecting herself again, she threw herself high into the air, wrenching her weapon free and landing like a dancer stop the ship's dorsal hull. Before Halliser could finish lifting off, she charged across the roof of the shuttle and swung around to straddle the cockpit. With a sneer, she drove her blade through the glass canopy. The tip of her sword caught the shuttle's pilot high in the chest and the craft leaned drunkenly as the man keeled over in the flight seat. Weiss leapt clear and landed gracefully on the platform again as the shuttle crashed down with a roar.

Motioning to the Imperials, Weiss advanced on the craft slowly, sword held before her. The sound of metal screaming drew her eye, and all weapons honed in on Sevrin Halliser as he stood, silhouetted by the dim light and the wreck of his escape craft.

"Moff Halliser," Weiss called. "You stand accused of the high crimes of treason and espionage against His Majesty, and the murder of agents of his great Empire. Surrender, and you will be granted a proper execution as befits one of your rank and status."

A silence stretched out as Halliser surveyed the scene before him. Several of his ribs had broken in the crash, and he was weary. He was in no position to fight, and he knew that the shock troopers who watched him now would not offer him any chance at escape. And even if he somehow managed to escape the troopers, Weiss Schnee would never let him escape. He was dead. He knew it.

"You're truly every bit as skillful as they say, Lady Schnee."

His hand darted to his belt and Weiss sighed as the muzzles of the troopers' carbines lit and barked in quick succession. Crimson blaster bolts lanced through Halliser's chest and he fell - dead before he hit the ground.

Shaking her head sadly, Weiss switched on her comm. "Bring a shuttle around - we're done here. Three empty seats."

The journey back to Dromund Kaas was uneventful and well-underway when Weiss finally deemed fit to send a message back to her handlers on the capital world. The remaining soldiers sat quietly in their jump seats as the ship passed through space. If they bore any moroseness for the deaths of their comrades in the Vertical City, they did not show it. Weiss waited patiently while the message went through, and a moment later the holographic image of a tall Pureblood in blood-red robes appeared. The image bore no color, but Weiss had glanced upon those robes with her own eyes. They were the robes of a member of the Dark Council.

"Agent Schnee," the Pureblood said, his voice oddly distorted by the Dark Side and the transmission alike. "I trust that the situation with Moff Halliser has been… dealt with?"

"Of course, Lord Vyrus. The traitor lies dead. His plans and schemes will wither on the stem, and the continued safety of His Majesty's empire can be assured for a while longer, at least. The Mandalorians will no longer be an issue."

The Sith nodded, the folds of his robe billowing. "Well done, Agent Schnee. You have done well, yet again. There is another matter that demands your attention, however."

Weiss raised an eyebrow. "Of course, Lord Vyrus. I am an instrument-"

"Of His Majesty's will, yes I know Agent, now listen. This task is not like any other you have undertaken before now. It is far more dangerous to you, and far more devastating to the Empire should you fail. The soldiers you took to Nar Shaddaa - how many remain in fit fighting condition?"

At this, each of the soldiers stirred. Their faces were not familiar to Weiss. She did not know these men, but they had served her well and each was trained to undergo missions that normal soldiers could not. "Seven remain, my Lord. All in peak condition."

"Good. They will accompany you on this next mission as well. Know well that it is very likely none of them will survive. The chance is that neither shall you. But as you say, you are an extension of His Majesty's will manifested - and so you shall go, on his orders."

Weiss' face was neutral, but her thoughts betrayed her as she spoke. "His Majesty asked for me… personally?"

Vyrus nodded again. "He watches you, Agent Schnee, though you do not recognize it. He sees your prowess, and knows that this is as much a trial for you as it is a matter of priority."

Weiss swallowed. So this was a test. A chance for His Majesty to put his greatest agent to work. She took a small breath and licked her lips before posing her final question.

"What is this mission I am undertaking?"

Vyrus smiled within the shadow of his hood - a grotesque sight that put Weiss' nerves on edge more than every blade or blaster, fang or claw she had ever stared down. "There is… a woman. A member of my fold."

A Sith? What does this mean… He doesn't mean for me to…

"Recently she has… broken faith with His Majesty and my order. We fear she means to go to the Republic - to the Jedi - and divulge secrets which could harm the empire. You are going to stop that.

"You are going to find her, and kill her."

AN - Oooh, cliffhanger! Yep, Weiss is an Imperial Agent. Are you really surprised? This is the first of many times that she'll showcase her skills, but don't worry - next time it won't be so easy for her. I have big plans for our favorite Ice Queen, and you'll all get to watch them unfold. Lucky you. Lucky me. Lucky us.

Discrepancies and Notes

Imperial Shock Troopers - Oh yeah, I've got plans for these guys. I know OC's are a turn-off for a lot of people, and I make every assurance that they won't drag focus from the MC's. I'm viewing them almost as Weiss' personal squadron, and that will come into play later on. Imagine them as being a bit better than regular Imperial Soldier but not nearly on the level of an Agent.

Weiss Reporting to a Dark Council Member - I wasn't 100% sure about this, but in my head Weiss is a cut above even the usual Imperial Agents (who ultimately report to higher-ups within the Imperial Military itself) and it made more sense to me that she'd be acting as more-or-less a personal agent of the Sith Emperor. Almost like an early form of the Emperor's Hands.

Next time, we introduce our third protagonist (I'll let you guess who). Expect a quieter chapter with some world building and a bit of foreshadowing for future plotlines. Until then, please drop by with a review and thanks for reading!