Star Wars - Credit Denied - Unpublished by George R. Strayton Read Free Book Online Page B

noticed the scene playing on the massive screens.
    “But thanks to the attack on his life—courtesy of me,” Svale’s recorded image was saying, “I was able to prove him wrong.”
    Minister Aaregil raced to the podium. “Stop the execution. We cannot send these people to their deaths until we have investigated this new evidence.”
    Svale was too far from the microphone to be picked up, but Rendra could see by his angry expression and exaggerated gestures that he was not taking Aaregil’s announcement well.
    Aaregil said nothing in response, but after a few moments under Svale’s barrage, he motioned for security to take the First Minister into custody.
    A half-dozen security guards cut off her view of him, and she turned her attention to the soldier who had been about to end her life.
    “Thank you,” she said, but he ignored the comment.
    Aaregil walked up to her. “Even if this datatape can be verified, you’re still in a lot of trouble.” She wanted to tell him that she didn’t care, but before she could utter a word, he headed off.
    She looked over to see Vakir hyperventilating—but alive—and she rested her head against the pillar. Step one accomplished. We might go to jail for fifty years, but at least we’re not going to die today.
    As the adrenaline faded from her body, she started to wonder whether that was a good or a bad thing.

    Two long months later, Rendra, Nopul, Vakir, Oro, and even Scrud (Oro had named the espionage droid in his native tongue, though none of them could decipher from his explanations what exactly the word translated to in Basic), stood before the Zoda in its open-air docking bay on Sriluur.
    “I don’t like it,” Nopul said. “The colors don’t match.”
    “It was either this or stay in the detention center for the rest of our lives,” Rendra said, for what she guessed was the hundredth time.
    “Yeah, I know. But why do we have to have the symbol of the Houk-Weequay Alliance painted across the side of our ship? It’s not going to help us carry out these missions.”
    “Aaregil said something about establishing a reputation, having a presence… the usual political stuff.”
    Nopul grunted as he smoothed back the twin lines of hair running across his scalp. Over the years, Rendra had learned that the gesture meant he’d accepted what he’d been told, but still wasn’t happy about it. “So what’s our first mission? Escort duty for a fruit transport?”
    Rendra eyed the datapad in her hands. “Not exactly.”

    “I just gave you a perfect shot!” Rendra screamed into her headset as she rolled the Zoda to evade a line of incoming laser fire. “What happened?”
    “Missed,” was Oro’s simple response. If he’d been in the cockpit with her, she’d have smacked him on the back of the head. Luckily for him he was an entire deck away in the belly turret.
    “They’re coming around again. Two fighters at… one-twenty mark forty-four,” Nopul said, his eyes glued to the sensor console in front of him. He turned toward her. “How long does this agreement with the Houk-Weequay Alliance last, anyway?”
    Before she could answer, the Zoda shuddered as the pirate ships battered her with a barrage of laser bolts. Rendra responded to the attack by pulling up into a new vector, ninety degrees divergent from the last. “You don’t want to know.”
    “That long, huh?”
    “Oro, Vakir!” Rendra shouted over the headset. “It’d help me out a lot if you’d hit something !”
    “Pirate starfighters, pyramid formation,” Nopul announced. “Ninety-two mark seven and coming in fast.”
    “All shields to starboard flank. Oro and Vakir, fire at will!” She took the Zoda into a dangerous maneuver, heading straight for the enemy fighters. “And boys, I really mean it this time.”

Roleplaying Game Information

Rendra Maex

    Type: Mercenary
    DEXTERITY 4D
    Blaster 6D+2, blaster: heavy blaster pistol 8D, dodge 5D+2
    KNOWLEDGE 3D
    Business 4D, languages 4D,