Floating outside sensor radius of the busy planet of Earth, untraceable save for passersby, floated a lone ship and a pile of wreckage. Inside the marred and misshapen remains of the vessel a lone droid walked heavily along the floor grates. "What does it see J1-NX? It is dead, yes?" The voice of the Trandoshan seemed to ooze through the COM. "All dead, Luusk. It was obvious the Jedi were able to sense our attack, they were unwise not to flee when they had the chance." J1-NX picked up the lifeless body of an Arconian female. "Most of the cargo is slag, but we can salvage a few components if need be." His optics focused on the female's belt as he pulled hard on it ripping free the light saber that hung from it. "A new trophy for me, and now your revenge is had."

The lights from the ship poured into the gaping hole in the cruisers hull. "All of them, be sure they are dead." J1-NX ran his optics over the bridge room once more. "Positive, there is nothing left but slag and space." A chirp came across his sensors and he turned towards the air lock. "Stay put." He moved cautiously towards the airlock door and stared through the window.

It was dark and to the eyes of a humanoid it would have seemed empty, but the unerring optics of a droid bent on the destruction of all force wielders, it was not. A small child was huddled, frightened and shivering, in the corner of the last air pocket the ship contained. "Other ones, you find?" the voice hissed in his COM. The boy cried heavily as he was the droid approach the door. "He'll run out of air in a day or two." J1-NX said as he pulled the lever to manually open the doors letting the air escape. "Mercy killing. I'm getting soft." He turned back to the hole that the blaster cannons on his Firespray-31 class attack ship had made in the hull. His boots ignited and he began his flight to cargo dock.

The door slid open to the bridge and Luusk sat with his feet propped on his seat pointing a blaster at his head. Unimpressed J1-NX began running a sequence of code in his head. "What is the meaning of this, Luusk?" The snide grin of his reptilian face was normally enough to shaken even the most stalwart, but not today. "This ship I will take, and the salvage from the wreck I will have as well." J1-NX looked unmoved into his eyes. "Luusk is smuggler after all, is he not? J1 not know Luusk do this for all time? Luusk bring all sorts out to raid ships and Luusk kill all." Luusk looked to the light saber on J1-NX's belt. "Luusk take that too." J1's optics narrowed on the slimy lizard as he reached toward the weapon. "That was not the deal. I was to deliver you this ship and you were to give me 7,000,000 credits for my trouble. I want my credits." Luusk chuckled as he pulled the light saber from J1's side. "J1-NX is not smart droid. Luusk have 7,000,000 credits after he pawn you ship, add to all credits in savings." As he spoke the code sequence halted in J1-NX's head as he reached forward and grabbed Luusk's hand, saber and all. Luusk pulled the trigger on his weapon, startled by the droid's reaction, but all that came was a quiet click. As he did the grip tightened around his hand. "As you gloated I disabled your weapon. Now, you will give me my money or I will blow you into space and we will both see how far a Trandoshan can go without air." Luusk screamed as his hand began to weaken and crush under the droid's powerful grip.

"Luusk give money, you let Luusk go?" J1-NX released his grip. "I promise, these hand will not touch you again." Luusk turned around to the controls and opened a transfer from his account to the credit balance on the ship. "That will do." J1-NX said as he flipped the switch on the light saber in Luusk's hand stabbing deep into his chest. Luusk looked back in disbelief at his murderer. "I guess I lied. Maybe you shouldn't have come out to the middle of nowhere with someone that is hired to kill people. Especially if that person knows that you have a lot of money and its near impossible to get it without their access code." With a chirp the computer began transferring everything from Luusk's account into the ship's account. "There, now that wasn't so hard was it." J1-NX lifted Luusk from his seat and threw him into a prisoner cell locking the door. "Now, I get to collect on your bounty. You know you're wanted in five systems? I hope you like carbonite." A blip came on the radar. "Hmm...another ship approaching the planet. I should say hello."

A yellow light flashed repeatedly upon the consol, signaling that he, Virtza <"Vapor" in Bothanese>, approached his destination, Earth, named after the mythical planet where supposedly Humans originated. Corellia, Coruscant, Tatooine..., to name a few, humans spread worse than Endorian locus....not that he had a problem with them. With the exception of every human being that served the Galactic Empire, several humans had been "friends" of one identity of his or another. In one life he had been a member of Blue Squadron, the group of Bothan pilots who flew BTL-S3 Y-Wing starfighters in support of the Bothan Spynet's efforts to aid the Rebel Alliance. During his tenure with the squadron, he became fast friends with both Luke Skywalker and Dash Rendar. The squadron's finest hour came when it managed to procure the plans for the second Death Star; unfortunately, six fighters, totaling twelve Bothans, had died during the operation, or so that was the official story. His cover at the time as one of the pilots had been included in the number of those who were killed. Another "side" of his was a member of the Rebel Vanguard Division. He served as an aid to Admiral Ackbar, and shortly after the Battle of Yavin, he accompanied the Admiral on a scouting mission to Boz Pity to look for a new base for the Alliance. Their ship was attacked and boarded by the infamous bounty hunter, Bobba Fett, who took the Bothan prisoner among many others. Eventually they were sold to the Hutt Cartel Tatooine as slaves, only later to be freed by Han Solo and the Renegade Squadron-again the official story. In actuality, the Bothan Spynet had leaked information about the mission as virtually nothing goes on around the core planets and outer rim that is outside of Bothan intelligence. Virtza was to be purposely captured by a bounty hunter, like Fett, for one of two reasons: A.) to be turned over to the Galactic Empire, so that he could operate from within, disrupting communication and uncovering dark secrets, or B.) to be turned over to the Hutt cartel, where he could uncover information on illegal trades such as
slavery. Ackbar was never supposed to be captured. Of course, if that certain piece of information ever got out, the Spynet would have much to answer for. Virtza accomplished his objectives resulting not only in the rescue of all who were captured, possibly even Ackbar from the Empire's clutches, but a slight crippling of a few Hutts' favorite "industries"...at least for a while.

The Gordovi <"ghost's breath"> dropped out of light speed several kilometers from the east side of the planet's atmosphere.
An incredible feat of Bothan engineering, the spyship resembled a scaled down version of a Bothan frigate...and something else...dark, almost sinister. The designs for one of Lord Vader's Sith Infiltrators was also used. The two technologies almost seemed to writhe withing their intwine. Its master flipped a few switches, releasing a sea of orbs that then attached themselves to all satellites in view. It was more than about keeping "tabs." He enjoyed listening in to the unsuspecting. People surprisingly reveal a lot when they assume no one is paying attention. He adjsted his earpiece, and as he did, the sleeve on his right arm slid down, displaying an intricate series of long scars. Even though he was alone in the cockpit of his ship, he quickly pulled the sleeve back into place. Bothan's are not a violent people. In fact, they are well respected for the importance they place on family and clan loyalty. What is not advertised in ther culture is the plight of the orphan. Logic would suppose that there would not be any orphans with such large families and even larger clans, but in a society of political backstabbing and uncomparable character assassination, it is surprising that the few that have been orphaned have yet to come to light. Virtza, as he had been called during the Galactic Civil War (a single name without a clan name to show disgrace), was alone...expendable, not because of family exile. Though they had been shunned from Bothawui, less than a year later agents from the Empire took them prisoneer and tortured them to death. Fortunately for Bothawui, this family and clan had no hand or influence in the intelligence community. Rask Sul'tur (Virtza), the only survivor, was unofficially adopted by the Bothan military. Forcibly accelerated through the Bothan Martial Academy and intelligence/code slicer training, Rask often learned at the tip of the sword....that's because they used it on him, not to beat him into submission. They did not need a mindless dog who only followed orders to the letter and would die at a moment's notice. They wanted one who would not die...because he could not. The beatings and near death trials were to instill the sense of ultimate survival in him to ensure any mission's success.

He had "died" many times over for the purpose of preserving himself and furthering the Bothan's efforts in the War. After its end and the Thrawn assault on the New Republic, Rask "died" one last time at his own accord. A few weeks later the Gordovi disappeared. Borsk Fey'lya, Chief of State of the New Republic, still denies the ship ever existed or the Bothan known as Virtza. One theory is...that he actually allowed "Virtza" to take the ship as sort of a payment for service.

<"Well..I guess I'm finished here and..."> *beep beep beep* <"Ahh...what have we got here...">


*<> indicates speaking in another language other than galactic common