#sith base

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——–

The disassembly room is the other direction from the Selkath. We took a left to get there, we would have kept going straight to get to the north second of the base. So we backtrack back to where the path diverged and take a left, away from the base entrance.

A door. I don’t like the feel of it. I don’t let Carth or Canderous open it. “There’s a lot of power behind here,” I say, placing my hand on it, “Three Dark Jedi.”

“Don’t tell me you’re nervous,” Canderous says, “Not after you fought Malak.”

“I didn’t exactly win, in case you forgot,” I say, “And I’m not worried about me, I’m worried about you two. They’ll only have to worry about me going head to head, and I can’t fight three at once, which makes it all the easier for them to go after you. I’m not sure your armor can hold up against a lightsaber.”

“Is there any way around?” Carth asks. (Canderous scoffs and rolls his eyes, annoyed I guess at us wanting to avoid a fight. I don’t care if he’s annoyed as long as he doesn’t touch the door.)

I pull out my data pad, look at the base schematic. “… There’s a long way, but there’s a complicated series of pressurized doors in between. Plus there’s no guarantee there won’t be even more Dark Jedi if we went around.”

“I can’t believe you two,” Canderous says, “Especially you, Carth. We both faced greater challenges during the Mandalorian War. And, hells, Rena, you were one of the challenges. And now you both want to turn back to avoid facing a mere three Jedi? You faced more than that on the Leviathan.”

“When - while you were off with everyone else sitting safe and sound on the Hawk? Or when Rena was risking her life fighting Malak alone?” Carth snaps back.

“If it weren’t for me in the ship we would still be there,” Canderous growls, getting in Carth’s face, “We never would have made it out of the hangar if I hadn’t gone ahead and taken care of the guards.”

“Don’t make me laugh - we took out half the Sith on the entire ship; the others could have handled a few troopers in the hangar,” Carth scoffs, “Oh, but you’re right, we never would have gotten out without you.” He rolls his eyes. “No, you ran and took the easy job. Maybe if you hadn’t run from the harder fight, Bastila would still be here and we wouldn’t be in this situation!”

Canderous grabs hold of the fabric around Carth’s neck, teeth gritted. “Do not presume to call me coward when you have not fought my battles!”

“That’s enough!” I hiss at both of them, “We don’t have time for this, and even if we did you two are throwing any attempts at discretion out the window! It’s a wonder the entire base doesn’t know we’re here, let alone the three Dark Jedi on the other side of this door!” Carth avoids my eyes, almost embarrassed, but Canderous huffs and looks away like he’s ignoring me. If you guys want to argue so bad, do it when we’re out of the base, but for now, can we at least pretend to be a united front?”

Carth tugs at his shirt, straightening it. “You’re right, Rena. I’m sorry. We should focus on the problem at hand.”

Canderous says nothing. I don’t expect an apology, frankly. His pride is standing in the way of that. Plus, the only way Carth’s remarks could have struck so deep is if the wound was already open. He’s not innocent here by any stretch - he started the fight in the first place - but it’s definitely not the standard animosity between him and Carth. There’s more than that at play here.

Just like I need them to focus, so do I. How can three Sith be taken out quickly and with minimal injury for us? I could overload a power conduit, but I can’t see any access points here. Yes, we could technically go back to a computer, but every minute we’re here we risk detection and going back to the computer would take precious time. Going around is not the best plan - figuring out those pressurized doors would also take precious time. I wonder… Back on the Leviathan, I was able to figure out Jolee’s stunning trick, and it helped us win that fight fairly quickly. If I can stun even one of these Dark Jedi that will make the fight much easier. They’ll see me the moment I open the door, so I have to do it fast. Focus. One hand hovering over the door panel. “Get behind me,” I say, and they do (Canderous reluctantly.) I reach my other hand out and breathe. Focus. The minute I open the door I need them to be stunned. One… two… Tap the door panel, release the feeling. Two of them are stunned in the middle of turning their heads. The third is not. That’s okay, one is better than three. I jump to the one while Carth and Canderous focus themselves on the stunned two.

The unfrozen one is a master, the others his apprentices. He fights like Master Zhar does, the same movements, the same strength. But then for a moment he gets distracted. Usually, I’d take that moment of folly and gain an edge, but I see the same distraction out of the corner of my eye. Canderous, rather than solely using his blaster rifle, has wretched the lightsaber from one of the apprentices and is using it to attack the apprentice. Unsurprisingly, his form is sloppy and untrained. Lightsabers require different techniques than swords and vibroblades. not only is the weight different, but self-inflicted injuries from lightsabers can be fatal Despite his poor form, the apprentice falls quickly - technique or no, it’s a laser sword, if you can’t defend yourself it does a lot of damage - and Canderous rushes the master with a yell. The sheer force of his rage pushes me aside and catches the master off-guard. If I had come at him with rage, he would have encouraged me to give in to my anger. If I did that for even a second he would have a victory. But a non-Jedi… he isn’t prepared for that. Certainly not one with such brute strength as Canderous has right now. He pushes harder than the master expects, and cuts his head off with a shout.

I’m stunned myself. Why would he have done that? I had this sorted. He could have, would have, gotten himself killed if the master wasn’t so stunned that he couldn’t provide any defense. Canderous deactivates the lightsaber and stands over the corpse. The rage is pouring out of him like a gusher. He’s going to get us all killed if this keeps up! When I finally gather myself, I come up to him and shove him - for a moment he looks like he wants to strike back twice as hard, but he doesn’t. “What the hell was that?”

“You thought you couldn’t handle it, so I did!” he half shouts at me, “What’s your problem?”

“Look, I’m already questioning my capabilities, I don’t need you undermining them, too,” I say, “I said I couldn’t handle three Dark Jedi at once, so don’t put words in my mouth. I had this under control!”

“What does it matter? He’s dead! What does it matter if it was by my hand?”

“It clearly matters to you, otherwise you wouldn’t have cut his head off!” I shout back, “Taking that lightsaber was a stupid move. If you had any understanding of the Jedi you’d know it isn’t just a laser sword - you could have killed yourself! You could have killed me! And good luck freeing Bastila then!”

“I know exactly what it is, and that’s exactly why I took it!” He steps closer, challenging me. To my own surprise, I hold my ground. “I took the bond between him and his vaunted weapon and I used it against him, took the power to kill another. If this were the Mandalorian Wars you would have done the same thing. For all I know - for all you know! - maybe you did! But now? I look at you now…” His voice gets low. He surveys me. Not finishing his thought. Then he sighs. “Forget it.” He tries to step away.

I cut him off. “Say it!”

He meets my eyes, firing darts at me. “You’re not the same person who defeated my people,” he growls, “I could have counted on Revan to fight at my side, but you? Trying to avoid fights? Make them easier? You would have run from this fight if you could have. Revan never would have. Five years ago you bested my people in combat, but now I see fear behind your eyes. You’ve not Revan. Revan would have killed me where I stood. But you couldn’t even stop your own apprentice.”

“That’s enough!” Carth forces himself between us, “Canderous, whatever is going on with you, get ahold of yourself and stop using both of us as your personal punching bags. This is not the time. If you can’t follow Rena then go back to the entrance and wait. Otherwise your fight is with the Sith, not her.” Carth, I do not need you fighting my battles for me! “And you.” He turns to me. “We spent a whole week on Alderaan, a whole week of Master Zhar working with you to keep Revan under control. A whole week to convince you that you’re more than just Darth Revan. Do not let all that time go to waste.”

“What are you talking about? I’m fine!” I say loudly.

“I watched your fingers spark, don’t tell me you’re fine,” he pushes back.

They… they did? I didn’t even feel it. But Carth wouldn’t lie to me, especially not about something like that. If he hadn’t stepped in, I could have killed Canderous. No matter what he did, that doesn’t justify me electrocuting him to death.

Canderous huffs. He was looking for a fight and he’s angry he didn’t get one, but for now I think he’s going to let it go. Whatever is on his mind will come out soon enough, but we have to finish here first. However it happened, these three Dark Jedi are dead, and I doubt Canderous is going to make a habit out of using a lightsaber. It’s not an easy weapon to use. 

@averruncusho @ceruleanrainblues @chubbsmomma @darthvendar-blog @80strashbag thank you for reading, you get a tag. @skelelexiunderlord thank you for support, you get a tag.

a/n - thanks Darth Vendar for unintentionally telling me to update my tag list!

——–

The two assault droids are still emitting a faint hiss as we pass through the large chamber. But more than the slight burn of the machinery, I smell something vaguely… fishy. God, that’s probably super racist. I will just… keep that thought to myself. 

Not “fishy” like “suspicious”, I mean I smell fish. Wow, look at me not keeping my thoughts to myself.

I open the far door and hear something slapping against the floor. A bare foot. I can’t say for certain whether that bare foot is a foot or a flipper, but it’s definitely a bare foot, and it was running away from us. Well, there’s only one direction to go, so that must be where they went. Through another door, followed by more barefoot running away. Now it’s less certain where they went, but that’s not important since we’re where we wanted to be anyway. This is definitely a barracks and a training area. It looks a lot like the door layout of the Endar Spire. A place where soldiers would be. But it also resembles some of the training spaces on Korriban. For Jedi training. “They’re training the Selkath to be Jedi,” I say, “Dark Jedi, this could give them a massive political leg up.”

“Only if it works,” Carth says, “I imagine you have something to say on the subject.”

I chuckle shortly - yeah, no shit - and head for the dormitory in front of me. Four Selkath turn their heads towards the opening door, and their hands go to blasters when they realize we’re not Sith. 

“Intruders!” one exclaims, “Should we sound the alarm, Shasa?”

Shasa - that was the name Shaelas said, wasn’t it? His daughter. She also seems to be the de facto leader in the room. “No,” she says, “wait. We cannot always be running to the Masters for help. We should handle this on our own.” They relax, hands falling away from their blasters. 

“Perhaps this is a test the Sith have prepared for us?” one asks in a timid voice.

Shasa gives a small nod, and turns back to us. “What are you doing here? Only masters and apprentices are allowed in here.”

“My name is Rena,” I say, “Shaelas has me looking into the disappearance of young Selkath. I guess he meant you guys.”

 “I told you your father would get suspicious, Shasa!” one of them says, “He always hated the Sith!”

“My father doesn't understand,” Shasa says to both of us, “He is blinded by his own prejudice!” She turns fully to us. “The Sith are teaching us mastery of the Force. Our alliance with the Sith will bring strength to Manaan and the Selkath people!”

I scoff. “If I had a nickel for every time I heard that,” I say, “I’m sure that’s what they told you, but they were lying to you. They’re manipulating you for their own gain.”

“Republic propaganda,” Shasa scoffs, “The Sith are the victims of lies and half truths! They are not monsters - no more so than the Republic. The Sith have promised to guide us in the use of the Force, as a sign of their good faith.” And they make you use blasters instead of swords or lightsabers? “And once the Republic is defeated, the Sith have promised to withdraw from Manaan and respect our independence.”

Okay. Okay. Uh… no. “You do realize you’re basically forfeiting that independence by working with them, right?” Guys, seriously. You seem smarter than this. “You guys being here gives the Sith political leverage to bring Manaan into their empire. The opposite of independence - they’ll just take Manaan for their own.”

“Spare us your lies!” she exclaims, “The Sith have treated us with nothing but respect and honor! You speak as if we are prisoners here, but we can leave whenever we wish! Our friend Galas chose to leave, and he was returned safely to his home in Ahto City.”

But the others seem a bit less certain. “Shasa,” one says, “what if they speak the truth? Remember what happened at Taris…”  

“Taris is nothing but a Republic lie!” she says.

“I was there!” Canderous says, “It’s not a lie, the planet is decimated. Your ‘honorable’ Sith and their fleet bombed the planet into rubble.”

“Then you are nothing but a Republic puppet, echoing their lies!” Canderous growls and starts to step forward, but Carth stops him. “If the Sith are such monsters,” Shasa continues, “then prove it to us. Surely there must be some evidence of the ‘horrors’ they commit!”

“The Sith are evil, Shasa,” Carth says, “They will use you to conquer Manaan for the kolto.”

“So you say,” she says skeptically, “But why should we believe you? We need physical proof, not the words of some Republic sympathizers.”

“Give us some time, then,” I say, “We will find proof that the Sith are evil.”

Shasa seems unwilling to budge at just my word, but the others seem a bit more open-minded. “Shasa,” one says, “I think we should give them a chance to prove themselves.” The other two murmur in agreement.

Shasa hums slightly. “We will not report your presence to our Sith Masters yet,” she says, “If you bring us proof of Sith lies and torture we will return to our families and report this to the Ahto City authorities. Until then we shall stay here and continue our training in the ways of the Force.”

I nod. I doubt the same story that convinced Dustil will convince them, for any number of reasons. “Surely things are different here on Manaan than they were on Korriban,” I can hear them say, “Our Sith Masters are kind and would never outright slaughter one of us.” Which, of course they would. I have to wonder if Galas really did return home or was just killed and dumped in the ocean. Any suitable proof will be found in the hands of their Master. And somehow I know that that wasn’t the guy Canderous killed. That would be too easy. 

But I also suspect that their Master will be close by. Regular close contact with these kids would be essential for the plan I’m 99% certain they have. Being absent or uncommunicative for long stretches would lead to distrust and suspicion, and they’d be far less useful and effective at the task of taking over. There are two remaining rooms here. The one on the right has nothing but medical supplies and an old bloodied coin. Selkath blood, I suspect. I wrap the coin tightly in a plain bandage. While I suspect it would mean something to Shasa, it wouldn’t mean much alone. There would almost certainly be an accusation that I killed its owner, not the Sith. And what about the body? No, the coin alone does little for me. And so, to check the room on the left. This is a training room, with a droid that I quickly zap, and a door at the back which leads to a short hallway. There’s a sign on the door at the end of the hallway: “do not disturb.” Yeah, like that was ever going to work on me. Of course I open the door.

A Selkath is collapsed on the floor. Not quite dead but almost. And the Sith master standing over him, flanked by two Selkath apprentices. The dying one looks at me. “Please, tell Shasa… the Sith…” One of the apprentices shoots the dying Selkath, killing him.

“Does ‘do not disturb’ mean nothing to you people?” the master shouts, turning around. His anger shifts to confusion upon seeing us. “How did you get in here?” he asks, “Who are— Wait.” His eyes narrow. ‘I recognize you!” Yes, yes, Revan, we know. “Lord Malak was most displeased when he learned you had escaped Taris alive.” Taris? A bit behind on the news, there, aren’t you, bud? “He has promised a great reward to whoever destroys you.”

“You guys don’t get a lot of updates here, do you?” Canderous says. Evidently thinking the same thing I was. “I would have thought Malak would have sent word to his entire army once he told you your identity.” I shrug. The master says nothing.

“Master,” one of the Selkath apprentices says, “give us the honor of aiding you in destroying this enemy of the Sith.”

“As you wish, my eager apprentices,” the Master says. but he has to know they have no chances, not with those blasters. I think the master intends to have us do his dirty work for him and get rid of the witnesses to his murder. “We shall remove these thorns from Malak’s side once and for all!”

Before they can even ready their blasters, Canderous blasts them with his, one shot each. I feel bad for them, really, they were practically dead the minute they decided they wanted in on this fight. That just leaves the master and his double-bladed lightsaber. Carth tries to split the master’s focus but it is razor sharp on me. Without even looking at him, he pushes Carth away with the Force. I try to break Carth’s fall with my own Force - no idea how well I do but I try. but after that Carth stays back. The master wants me to himself.

“So,” the master says, “this is how the great Revan fights.”

“Oh you were just pretending not to know me, then?” I grunt, pushing hard, “Did you do that so the apprentices would want to jump in or were you just playing mind games for fun?”

He swings at my head and I duck. “I must admit, your entry was well-timed. I was going to have to kill them myself before they let slip the truth about Galas. But your timely arrival took that burden out of my hands.” Galas? Wasn’t that the Selkath Shasa mentioned that went back to his family? Which obviously didn’t happen. But she doesn’t need to see the body. I can give her that.

The master brings his lightsaber down over my head and I block it. “You know,” he says. “I expected a Sith lord to be more of a challenge than this.” Shut up. “Although in hindsight I’m not surprised - Malak was able to stop you so easily after all. But I have to wonder…” He pushes hard, and while I’m able to keep his lightsaber from touching me, my knees bend under the pressure. He brings his face close, the glow of his lightsaber illuminating every pore.” …why did he let you live?”

Great question. And if Bastila hadn’t been there I wonder what would have happened. But he doesn’t want discussion. He doesn’t want the truth. He wants to get under my skin. To either weaken my resolve or get me to strike in anger, securing a kind of win in either case. And I won’t give it to him. With as much power as I can muster, I push up against his lightsaber, buying myself enough time to roll out of the way. I make eye contact with Carth. I don’t know, I just… needed to know he was still there. ‘No snappy comeback, Revan?” the master quips, “Have you nothing to say? Could it be that you doubt yourself?”

No. No I don’t. Carth smiles at me. I’m the same person I was last week. The master swings his lightsaber. I think fast. Jump as high as I can manage. And aim my landing for right on top of the master. He can’t prepare. I fall right on top of him and run my lightsaber though the back of his throat.

I take a moment to catch my breath. Carth beams at me. He doesn't say anything, but that’s okay. His eyes say enough.

Canderous scans the room, looking for evidence to show the Selkath. “Think there’d be anything on his computer?”

“Nothing useful - you never keep your secrets in plain view,” I say, “More likely he’ll have a datapad - start checking desk drawers.” I quickly frisk the corpse, which feels as weird as it sounds, to no avail. No datapad on his person.

I hear a small blaster shot as Canderous shoots the lock off a drawer. Yeah, what’s a little property damage when you’ve committed murder? “Good call,” he says, “it’s not even locked.”

“The Selkath trust him,” Carth says, “he probably didn’t see the need for two locks.”

“My thoughts exactly,” I say, taking the datapad from Canderous. I’m not about to read the whole thing, I don’t have the patience. There’s a lot of discussion about politics, the workings of Selkath government. My eyes catch the word “infiltrate”, which becomes “infiltrate the government,” and I don’t read anymore. Exactly as I figured.

I take the datapad and the coin back to Shasa and the others. They gather around me as I carefully unwrap the coin. “It doesn’t mean anything to me, but I figured it would mean something to one of you. Or at least, I should return it.”

One tenderly reaches for it, takes the wrapping. “Shasa,” xe says slowly, “…this is the pin I gave Galas when we were children. There is blood on it.”

But Shasa remains unconvinced. “You could have found this anywhere!” she says loudly, “For all we know, you killed Galas!”

“Shasa,” the first says, xer voice trembling, “I believe them. How else would they have found this pin?”

“Well, I need more proof!”

I don’t want to tell them that Galas’ body is still here. In the master’s office. “If you need more proof,” I say, holding out the datapad, “I took this from your master’s office. It details plans to infiltrate and control the Selkath government.”

Shasa swipes it from my hand, silently reading the lines I skimmed over, her face dropping with every line until she reads the phrase I stopped at - “infiltrate the government.” “I…” she says softly, betrayal dripping from her open mouth, “I cannot believe it. And yet, the evidence is right before me. The Sith wanted to use us to betray Manaan!” She shakes her head and gives the datapad back to me. “I must apologize for doubting you. The Sith are truly as evil as you have claimed.”

The other three nod, utter an agreement. Galas’ friend speaks up again - “We must report this to the Ahto City authorities!” xe says.

“Yes,” Shasa agrees, “we must report this at once. We thank you, human, for showing us the truth. You have saved us from a terrible mistake.” She gestures to the others. “Quickly, my friends - we can stay here no longer. We must flee this foul embassy and warn our people against the plot to corrupt the Manaan youth.” The other apprentices leave before her. “Rena,” she says to me, “you have shown us the way. The least I can do is guide your way. Please, come with us.”

“I’ll find my own way out,” I assure her, “Don’t worry.”

“I am not worried that you will find your way to the entrance,” she clarifies, “The laws of Manaan forbid unauthorized use of weapons, and even though this enclave is sovereign, I fear you will be taken into custody when you leave. Please, come with us. If we vouch for you, we may be able to impact the authorities, the courts.”

I smile. “Thank you, Shasa,” I say, “You are very wise and very kind. I will gladly follow your lead.”

The walk back to the elevator is silent, as Shasa leads us back the way we came. Though she is able to effectively block me from reading her, I can tell she has a lot of missed wheeling about the carnage we wrought on our way here. She may have trained with some of these Sith personally, met them, knew their names. Even knowing their plans, that doesn’t take away their personhood. She tries not to think about it.

As the elevator rises back towards the surface, I can feel the large number of Selkath gathered there, waiting to apprehend us. When it opens, a tall gray Selkath steps forward. “You there, human!” he shouts, “You are placed under the arrest of the Ahto City Civil Authority!”

Shasa steps in front of us. “Please, Captain!” she says, confident, “Allow me to explain! I will vouch for them!”

“Your companions have already explained, child,” he says, “And your testimony will be considered in court. In the meantime I must take them into custody.” He looks back at me. “You have the right to know the charges,” he says, and proceeds to explain, “Though the Sith Embassy here is considered sovereign territory of the Sith Empire,” - as Shasa said - “we have been monitoring an alarming number of weapons discharges and detonations from within the base. Inquiries to the staff of the Embassy yielded no response. It would seem that our contact had been cut. Our cameras recorded you and your accomplices entering the base shortly before contact was lost and fighting apparently began. It is the conclusion of the Ahto City Civil Authority that you are responsible for the disturbance here, and you are hereby placed under arrest. You will come with us to await your trial.”

“I will come with you,” I say, “but let my friends return to our ship. They were only following my instructions and should not be punished for my crimes.”

“Rena, don’t—!” Carth starts to say, but I hold my arm out to stop him. Turn to look at him. I’ll be okay. And if I’m not, they need to find the Star Map without me. To finish the mission.

@averruncusho @ceruleanrainblues @chubbsmomma thank you for reading, you get a tag. @skelelexiunderlord thank you for support, you get a tag.

——–

For me, looking the part is not too difficult. I just pull off the robe tunic. I also stow my purple lightsaber in my pack, and hide my blue one under my pant leg. Mercenaries don’t use lightsabers. I didn’t realize how much I missed my swords. I put them on my belt. And easy as that I look like a mercenary. And you’d think it would be that simple for Carth, but it’s not. He has to leave his orange jacket behind. it’s too easily recognized as Republic colors. But it takes a good ten minutes to pick out some armor that makes him look enough like a mercenary to pass the first security checkpoint. Once he’s done that, though, we meet back up with Canderous and head to the Sith base.

As expected it looks just the same as any other Sith base. It’s very sterile. But it looks like they take this place seriously, if the four war droids are any indication. I’m not particularly worried, though. We have legitimate passes, mercenary passes.

The man at the checkpoint stops us. “Only people who have business with the Sith are allowed inside the embassy,” he says.

I let Canderous do the talking. He has experience here and as an actual mercenary he’ll hold up under scrutiny. “We have business,” he says, holding out the passes, “We were hired as mercs earlier today.” The officer takes the passes and looks at them closer. “Unless you’d rather we go work for the Republic.”

The security officer scoffs, but I can tell, he doesn’t want to get in any hot water for turning us away. “Hmph,” he sighs, “Yes, well, I suppose you really do have business here. Head on in.”

Canderous just gives a small nod and we move past the security desk towards the elevator. That’s the hard part done with, then. The elevator ride is still very anxious, though, and even though I’m certain I can handle whatever’s down there, I’m still annoyingly nervous.

The elevator stops. I take a deep breath. It opens. I let Canderous take the lead again. He looks the part more than I do. He presents our passes to the desk attendant, just like he did upstairs. And so far it looks like we’re in the clear. The desk attendant looks familiar somehow, though, and I can’t tell if it’s a remnant from Revan’s memory, my mind and anxiety playing tricks on me, or if I really have seen him before. Just act natural, Rena, just act natural.

But as I pass, he stops us. “Hold on a moment,” he says, looking at me, scrutinizing my face, “Weren’t you on Korriban a couple weeks ago?”

Shit. I remember. When I hacked the Sith Academy to get Dustil’s info, a Sith trooper got suspicious. I managed to lie my way out of it, but I probably only got away with it because he didn’t want any trouble for himself. And, probably, because he was about to get transferred and didn’t want to take the risk of ruining it. So he did get transferred, apparently, and got transferred here. Play it cool, Rena, act natural. “I’ve never been to Korriban in my life.” And try to keep moving.

He grabs my arm. Carth twitches, but keeps his cover. “No,” the Sith says, narrowing his eyes, “I remember.” He glances at Carth “You and your companion - you were both there!” Oh shit. Shit, shit, shit. “So… you were just a simple tech, transferred from the fleet, fixing something for a ‘Sith master”, were you?” He scoffs. “And now you’re trying to pass yourself off as a mercenary? What sort of fool do you take me for?” I pull my arm out, but escape won’t be so easy.

The elevator opens, and out comes the man from the upstairs checkpoint, followed by the four war droids. “Lieutenant,” he asks the trooper, “what’s the meaning of this? I checked their passes myself. They were hired on this morning.”

“Perhaps their passes were legitimate, Commander Grann,” the trooper says, “but they are not. I encountered them at my last posting. Whoever this woman is, she’s no mercenary. I suspect they’re Republic spies!”

The commander balks. “Sound the alarm! Droids, destroy them!”

Well, shit. It’s okay, I can do this. In a split second, I take a breath. Channel my nerves and anxiety, focus, just like Master Zhar said. Call the lightning to my fingertips. Disable the droids. Overload. I can draw my swords faster than my lightsaber, so I pull them and face the trooper. He pulls his own sword and brings it to meet mine. There’s a fire in his eyes, like he’s been waiting for a fight. Eager. And despite my display of the Force, he thinks this is a fight he can win. And frankly… he has a chance. There’s a lot of strength behind his sword, and more technique than I’m used to seeing from rank and file Sith soldiers.

What’s wrong with me? This man is not my match. I have faced worse threats than this, stronger fighters than this. Come on, Rena. Get off your ass. You can do this. Easy. He brings his sword down over my head but I catch it, scissoring it between my own swords. He tries to push down. I push back. He grits his teeth. Time for an unexpected move. Barely even thinking, I collide his head with my own. Which hurts like hell for me at least, and causes him to stumble. Uneven footing. I sweep his legs out from under him. And now I’ve got him on the ground. I deal the final blow.

But I find myself wishing I hadn’t. Not because I think he’ll be useful or anything. It’s just… like a shadow creeping up in my head. Making me question who I am. Like there has been for the past week. Focus, Rena, focus. You’re no good like this.

While I was focused on my trooper, Carth and Canderous must have taken care of Commander Grann from upstairs. Now Canderous is blasting the war droids for good measure. I decide to stick to the computer. The first thing I do is turn off the alarm. We do not need to deal with troops coming to defend the lobby, and hopefully this means we won’t have to deal with the police when we leave. Next, I don’t want to spend a whole lot of time in here if I don’t have to, so I want to know where I’m going. Best way to know is to check the security camera. Disassembly room - that’s where I’d put a droid I was trying to get information out of. Check the camera… that looks like a recon droid to me, and they are doing their damnedest to get the data core out. Odds are the main thing stopping them is a deceptively simple lock. Recon droids don’t have personality subroutines like utility or protocol droids do. Not generally, anyway. In fact, as far as droids go, there’s not a lot to them. A variety of sensors, a preset route, some basic cartography software, and that’s it. Sure, you can add more bells and whistles, but that just means more stuff that can go wrong. Once you’ve programmed your recon droid, it’ll carry out that programming until it finishes, gets recalled, runs out of power, or is otherwise impaired, like this one. When it’s done, you extract the data core, download the data, wipe it, and start again. Generally speaking, the data core is protected by whatever weatherproofing is appropriate for the situation. In this case, I’d imagine it’s completely watertight. But since this is also a droid for spying, the Republic wouldn’t let it go without some extra security surrounding the data core. Hence, a deceptively simple lock. There’s no computer to access the droid, so there’s nothing to hack. Sure, you could laser your way in, but then you risk destroying the data core.

Not to say there’s not a way to break in, of course. You can break into pretty much anything, depending on how much time and effort you put into it. They’ve had it for twelve hours and haven’t made any progress yet. All of this is moot, however, since I’ve got the key code to access the core, to open the deceptively simple lock. The information on the core still has to be decrypted, but that’s not my concern. I just need to grab the core and go.

“Are you seeing anything about those missing Selkath?” Carth asks.

To be honest I had nearly forgotten about them. Just focused too hard, I guess. “No, but then I was looking for the droid, give me a second.” Okay, Selkath. If I were the Sith, and I was trying to sway Selkath youth to my side, taking them into my base, where would I put them? I’d want to make them feel special, show them that all the hype, all the bad press about my organization just isn’t true. I wouldn’t trust the rank-and-file troopers that staff my base to maintain that facade, though. So access to them would be limited, if not eliminated altogether. So. A part of the base, with only one or two access points, with a dormitory section. Pull up a base schematic… Bam. “The north section of the base. That’s where I’d keep them.”

Carth and Canderous both look at the schematic over my shoulder. “Looks like a strategic spot,” Canderous says.

“I tend to agree,” Carth says - and the fact that he can say that without puking, I swear - “it looks pretty secure. But it also… looks a little too easy. Doesn’t it?” Canderous nods, sort of hums in agreement. Carth points out a relatively large room with no label. “That seems like a good place for an assault droid.”

Hmm. “Let me just check the power levels.” That’s a pretty high level for a room with nothing in it, as far as the computer is concerned. “Good hunch,” I say, “Just give me two seconds…” Alpha, alpha, double bar, beta, sigma, little red star… “Assault droids deactivated, force field down.” That probably won’t be the only obstacle, but it’s a huge one out of the way. “Droid first, then the Selkath. Agreed?” They nod. Cool.    

I follow the schematic down the hallway to the north. If I’m reading this map right, I take the only left, and follow it, then go left again to get to the recon droid. Before I open the door, I place my hand on it. Trying to see what’s on the other side. Echoes in the Force. “Three troopers and two droids,” I say softly, “One of the troopers has grenades, he’s in the corner.” I pull my blue lightsaber from its hiding place. I don’t think I need my purple one just yet. “I’ll take out the droids, then Canderous, you focus on the grenadier. Carth, you okay covering us?”

“You got it.”

Okay. Deep breaths, deep breaths. You can do this. Three… two… one… open the door.