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Kathleen nodded. "I understand your hesitation too, sir. But I was told to make the point, that short of the Pellaeon, you can nab any other ship you want, save our own. Chances are, and you know it.... as a fellow commander, that the Pellaeon will most likely be destroyed if anything. We have contacts in Kuat, and securing more ships for us is not a problem. We're not intent on privateering a fleet of brand new Nemesises. We'll do what we came, and be done."

She looked at Freya, frowning a bit in disapproval. "On a side note, let me remind you, most of your forces will be warping in at point-blank ranges, and with much larger ships. The Loyalist 'fleet' will be several hundred fighters, bombers, and corvettes. You, on the otherhand, will have the liberty of bringing much larger ships. Take anything you want, and even the Pellaeon if you wish it, though our ties it may suffer. All we want is that ship not in the Siths' hands."

The two made their way to the upper level, eventually nearing the spaceport. Link could not shake the feeling that he was being followed nonetheless. No matter how much he hid himself in the force or concealed his presence, a veritable Dark shadow seemed to be trailing him.
Finally, as he and Reido aproached the port, Link stopped.

Reido turned around and motioned. "C'mon jedi. We're almost there."
"Go ahead and get the ship ready." Link stated as a hand came to rest upon the grip of his longer bokken. "There are some troubles that need to be addressed."
Reido armed his blaster. "I happen to be a pretty handy Troubleshooter, jedi. Whatever it is, I can help you."

"There is little that you can do against the dark side."
Reido's eyes widdened. "Sith?"
Link nodded. "Go and get the ship ready. This one will handle them and keep them at bay."
"Right." reido said as he sprinted for the docking bay. "Dont die on me Jedi! I didnt go through all this trouble to save a corpse!"

Link nodded again as the rodian departed, then turned to face down the elevated walkway he stood upon as the dark shadow neared.

The Dark aura he had detected materialized into two forms: One a tall, thin Muun clad in robes with some sort of headpiece holding a miniature HUD before his right eye, the other a stocky, muscular bald human wielding a currently deactivated double bladed lightsaber. Both sported complex red and black tattoos upon their skin, evidence that they were Sith of the New Order.

"Ah. There you are." The Muun declared cooly. "It was getting quite tiresome following you across town." The Muun turned to his ally with a smile. "Look Darth Har'die, our little Jedi. Right where my scanner detected him."
The Human chuckled darkly and twirlled the long handle of his double bladed saber. "That it did, Darth Lorell. Emperor Krayt will be pleased that your device worked so well. And he'll be even more pleased when we bring a Jedi Wormling before him on top of it."

Link's cold blue eyes flickered briefly to the device the Muun sported.
"So that was how you managed to follow this one. Not with superior skills, but with some type of sensor."
"Correct Jedi." Lorell stated with an insidous smile. "This device is the latest generation Jedi Reader, and is something of my own personal devising. Much easier to use than the Readers utilized by Palpantine, It is also compact enough to fit over the eye like so. Utilizing a complex matrix of bioscanners and Thaissen crystals, it can detect Force Users even if they're trying to hide themselves, such as what you were attemptiung to do."
The Muun began to ring his hands together as he continued. "With enough of these devices, the Sith will be able to root out every last Imperial Knight and Jedi in the Galaxy. Then, only the Sith will remain. A truly glorious ideal."
Har'die pointed the emitter of his weapon at Link. "You've got the honor of being the very first Jedi captured using Lorell's Force Scanner. Lucky dog."

Link swept his right leg back and gripped his long blade. "Much is explained. Then this one's goal is clear. A good thing he stopped to deal with you now. Such a thing can not be left in Sith hands. For the good of the Galaxy, you will be stopped here."
The Muun folded his hands inside his robes and gave a dry laugh. "Such bold heroic words. So typical of the Jedi. It will be a pleasure to drag you before Darth Krayt."
The Muun gave a slight bob of his head and his human counterpart ignighted the dual blades of his deadly weapon.

"You better draw your lightsaber, jedi." Har'die cackled. "You cant possibly beat me with a pair of sticks."
Link held his pose and edged a bit closer, his eyes borring into the sickly yellow orbs of his opponent.
"Careful, Har'die." Lorell cautioned. "He might know what he's doing."
Har'die spat and twirled his ignighted weapon, trailing a crimson arc in his wake. "This welp wont even be worth taking alive. I'm going to embaress myself taking down a child and his toy swords."
Then, he hurled himself at the jedi with a roar and a slash of his saber.

Freya simply shrugged at that. "So long as it's totally not in Sith hands, I could totally care less," she commented to Kathleen. "You can, like, totally paint it pink and purple in a plaid pattern for all I care."

Iria absently munched at the energy bar that Aurora kindly proffered her, listening to the twi'lek pair with interest.

And then, an old memory from another life flooded back.

A century and a quarter earlier ...

"Must you leave, Mordranna?" Sami pensively asked her.

"I must," Mordranna said sadly. "I cannot stay amongst you, for there is blood on my hands," She then shook her head. "The Starsingers have taken you in, and their wookie has extended his life debt to you,"

"Mordranna ... will I ever see you again?" the young boy tearfully queried.

"I don't know," Mordranna sadly answered. With that, she gently pecked the boy's forehead with a soft kiss, before she turned to leave the Starsinger residence ...

With that, Iria walked to the twi'lek pair, though keeping a respectful distance. "Lady Aurora, Sir Haldir, may I offer a comment?" she sheepishly asked them.

Archaras nodded, then said "I don't think we'll commit anything heavy...we frankly don't have the forces too. But I can see where this might be...useful...I'll review the battle plans...I'll see what we can er... Gank in the required time frame, and the amount of forces we should commit."

He turned to Freya, saying "As it stands now...The Sith are growing rabid in their attempts to find us. I doubt if we can remain hidden from them much longer...Although they have not found us yet..."

He awaited their response, and thought in to himself...

As Ral stood there staring at the blasters, he held his hands out in front of him like he was hoping his hands would stop the blaster bolts. Then the lights in the room were replaced by the red glow of blaster bolts while they flew at Ral through a suddenly dark room. The bolts were stopped short of their target as they careened into Ral's light shield. The room became completely dark for a couple seconds as the hutt smugglers struggled with their surprise.

This momentary pause was all Ral needed as he dove under the table and pulled out a stun grenade. He rolled the grenade through the leg of the crowd and waited for his chance. When the grenade rolled past the back row, it released a burst of stun energy rendering everyone but the original players unconscious. He ran out from the table towards the door dropping a flashbang behind him.

The three left shot at Ral, barely missing the quick spacer before they we're blinded by the grenade. Ral managed to get to the door and open it while they were cursing at him. Rhydo recovered from the flash just in time to fire a bolt that whizzed right past Ral's head. Ral took that as a sign to move quickly.

He bolted down the back alley toward the waiting speeder. When he reached the orange speeder, he slid across the hood as some more scarlet bolts started flying. Another bolt missed him by a few centimeters as he dove into the open speeder window feet first. This one from the pistol of Standro.

Ral turned to Koth and said, "Time to go."

Angel listened to what she could as the others mentioned stealing or destroying a ship. " I could have the Heaven's Fury come in to provide support if there's gonna be a high threat to anything else you're all gonna be sending out there. Plus my fighter pilots can do pretty nice ambush strikes. "

(( Cale: Lorell and Har'die? rolleyes ))