Vega Mine, formerly Dlarit Mine Five Beta
Sector Orenth Four, Aeotheran Jungle, Orian System
Day 21, 30 ABY

Contrary to what Sylus had made out to the Vong, it had been relatively easy to acquire Vega Mine. Like most things in life, all it had taken were being in possession of a few choice details about Fae Taros, the president of Dlarit Mining, and thereby calling in a ‘favour’.

In this case, said ‘favour’ had meant obtaining full rights to Mine Five Beta. The mine had been abandoned years ago. Not long after opening, the mining crew had punched through into an underground labyrinth that spread outwards in a vast web of caverns. Deeming the structure unsafe for further expansion, Dlarit Mining had cut its losses and moved elsewhere.

Even today, the lower levels still remained untouched—not even Sylus wanted to risk a cave in—but the surface levels provided more than enough space for him to establish a base for Vega Incorporated. It was his private redoubt, and the perfect fortress from which to oversee his system wide crime network. He had agents throughout Orian, and a few beyond in nearby systems like Ord Mantell and in the Corporate Sector. He even had contacts on the underworld station Refuge—there were some secrets not even the ‘all powerful’ Sith knew.

Refurbishment of Vega Mine had accelerated after Colonel Sarn—Ona Amnan—had entered the picture. Between her and her commander on Tarthos, Bur’lorr, and the other Peace Brigade operatives Commodore Yash had provided, Sylus had been able to fortify the installation and spread his hand further in Seng Karash and on Amphor—even if he himself was still forced to remain nameless; but then, not being culpable was not a bad thing either.

The only complication was the bug infestation that seemed to have sprung up recently in the Undercity. They had similar problems in the lower levels of the mine, but after the first few giant ants had been dragged into his office—one beetle being four meters tall!—he had ordered the lower levels sealed off. Nobody knew what the bugs were, and he didn’t care. Anyone who had lived on Aeotheran as long as he had knew the planet was rife with unworldly creations; if you wanted to sleep, it was best not to think too much about them.

Out of sight, out of mind, that was what he had always said.

And Vega Mine was most definitely out of sight.

‘We’ve finished installing the turbolaser batteries outside the main entrance,’ Ghon said, entering the office. The Gungan still hadn’t stopped using ‘we’ all the time, but Sylus had given up arguing. It must have been a Gung thing.

‘Excellent!’ Sylus said, getting up from his chair.

The office was light years away from the plush executive suite he had once kept in the top floor of City Hall in the centre of the government district of Seng Karash. But that was three years ago, back when he was still mayor. The room was little more than a cave with a comm desk and a few other computer banks, their huge industrial power cables trailing across the floor in what would have been a health hazard back in the city.

Instead of an entire room devoted to his wardrobe, most of his clothes were boxed up in stacks of brown containers throughout the office. Most of his other belongings were still in storage in one of the other chambers in the mine. However his biggest irritation was the smell of gas that still permeated every single surface, every rock, every corridor; a remnant from the explosive charges that had blasted the mine tunnels open ten years ago. The constant echo of drilling from the works going on aboveground didn’t help either. And he could swear he could hear a strange clacking, but he might just have been imagining it.

Regardless, for now it served his purposes.

This was just a temporary measure anyway. Once the Dlarit Corporation and its dark masters had been dealt with by the Vong, then the system aboveground would all be his.

‘How is our friend Viqi fitting in?’ Sylus asked. He wasn’t stupid. It was obvious the Klatooinian was a spy. For a start, her tattoos marked her as a member of the same occult brotherhood that Orian’s local darksiders belonged to, whatever it was. The new face full of markings the Vong had given her didn’t help matters either.

The half blind Gungan rolled his one remaining eye stalk. ‘Viqi . . . or do you mean Fiula?’

Sylus shrugged at the two names—the Klatooinian’s original one, and her so-called ‘true name’ after her conversion to the Vong’s religion. ‘Do you trust her?’

‘Which one?’ Ghon snorted. ‘Do you trust someone who goes and decides they’ve been reborn as a Vong? It’s bad enough when you get those ‘reborn’ Cosmic Balance nuts.’

It was a rhetorical question, but then so had been Sylus’s original one. There was something wrong about Viqi Yzalli—Fiula Muyel—whatever. Sylus may not have been Force-sensitive, but he knew enough to tell that it made little sense that a Sith trainee had defected over to the race whose very existence was anathema to them.

And even less sense for a race who had waged holy war against the Jedi to suddenly start recruiting them into their ranks. Even if Viqi had converted: why now? The Vong were desperate, but hadn’t they been desperate at the tail end of the war? Why not do this before they were forced off Coruscant and their empire destroyed?

Sylus shook his head.

It did no good to dwell on it. The Vong’s motives were too alien to even begin to comprehend. Besides, the Vong were of little consequence. As long as he could profit from the coming devastation that was all that mattered. He just needed to get himself an edge before then. He had enough experience knowing what happened after the dust settled.

This time he had no intention of being double crossed.