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Lerina Deeharc. Nar Shaddaa Slums. 2237 hours GST. 14 ABY.

Today is her eighteenth Birthday. Today is also the thirteenth anniversary of her parent's death. Lerina Deeharc may have only been a girl of five years when they were killed by the damned Empire, but she had survived alone in the hell hold of the galaxy known as Nar Shaddaa. It may not have been the most glorious or honorable existence, but on this retched world not even the hutts in charge cared of such things.

Lerina sighed and whispered to herself, "thirteen years, huh?" Alone she sat in the darkness of the temporary shelter provided by the abandoned apartment she had holed herself in. She strained her ears to listen to the activity going on outside the damaged door that separated her from the miserable reality outside. Her mind, however, could not stray from the more disturbed reality of the gruesome scene that happened all those years ago.

She could remember running back home for the neighbor's rundown apartment. The door was busted fully open by the time she had arrived. Lerina had walked in only to find herself stepping in a small puddle of blood. Before her had stood an agent of death who stared down at her for a long moment. Her big eyes stared in kind. As the man walked past her, she spotted her father lying motionless on the floor. Her young mind had refused to accept the obvious and ignored the smell of blood and blaster fire. Slowly, the young girl walked over to the body. With a small, scared smile she said, "Daddy? Who was that man? What is the red stuff on the floor?" When he didn't answer her questions she stood there in defiance. "Daddy? Why are you ignoring me? Why are you sleeping?" She took her father's hand and tried to pull him off the ground, but he was too heavy for her small body. Tears had taken hold in her eyes. "Daddy?" Little Lerina sobbed. "Daddy, stop ignoring me! Wake up!" Upset, she had gone to the back rooms in search of her mother only to find her too lying in a pool of blood. "Mommy! Mommy, wake up! There is something wrong with daddy!" She cried to the now decaying body that was her mother. The tears had stopped after her mother did not answer her many pleas and cries. She had known somewhere in her mind that they were dead, but she didn't want to believe it. Now, if she was to survive, there was no choice but to understand.

From that point in her life to the present day, she had not shed a single tear. There was no point in crying. It would not stop the painful memories or bring her parents back. All Lerina figured she could do was learn the way of the streets. This little girl had been left alone on an unforgiving planet. No one but the Hutt Cartel would assist her, for a price of course, but even she knew to keep clear of them.

Although Nar Shaddaa was not the best place for a young girl to be on her own, it did help her in some ways. Lerina knew if she needed something she would have to work for it. She also knew a variety of martial skills in which she used to defend herself and make money through street matches. She was one of the current top fighter in these poorly organized matches. This gave her a way of which to scrape together some form of income. As a plus, the thugs left her alone for the most part.

But now the cartel was hunting her. They wanted a share in her profits by getting her to 'work' for them. Lerina's mind was made up – the Hutt's wants concerning her were never going to happen.

There was a sudden increase of activity in the area surrounding the abandoned apartment. The Cartel's men had begun to close in on her location as if they were hunting hounds. As she sat in the cold darkness, Lerina looked for solutions. Bringing a knife to a blaster fight was not the best idea, but a blaster she did not have. Only two options that would put an end to this problem came up. One, she could just give up and go work for the worms, but that wasn't going to happen. The second option was to get herself off of Nar Shaddaa and to somewhere out of the Cartel's reach. That option seemed much more appealing than the first, but it looked like it was a tall order. Still, the Lerina favored the idea. It was not like she would miss this dreadful world. Lerina hated the place, and would probably be happy to watch it go up in flame from orbit.

It was decided then. Her goal was to make it to the spaceport without being seen by the Hutt's lap hounds and stow away on a cargo ship. It was easier said than done, but at least she had a plan. There was no time to lose. Lerina climbed out of the window and made her way into the many shadows. It would be only a thirty minuet walk to get to her destination.

That time seemed to fly fast as she wandered through back alleys and into the space port. Eventually she found herself sneaking into one of the docking bays. Luck seemed to be on her side today for she didn't have to search very hard to find a cargo ship not headed to another part of this poor excuse of a planet.

The ship she decided to stow away on looked much more massive in size in comparison to the other ships she had seen. Off in a dark part of the room, the girl hid, studied the crew, and took note of what they were loading onto the ship. The cargo looked to be a variety of metal beams and boxes. These men were nowhere close to done with loading the ship. Lerina chose one of the crates close to her in the back of the bay. When she opened the lid, she found a variety of dried rations. She took her time to clear the box and properly dispose of the box's cargo where they would not be noticed. In part Lerina was thankful the box was full of food for she took some of it with her and hoped it would be enough to sustain the trip. Her eyes drifted about the area as she began to climb into the now mostly empty create. No one had spotted her. With a smile she closed herself in. All that was left to do now was to wait.

An'kin Cassus. Bleeding Skullz Compound Gree. 04:00 hours GST. 14 ABY

It had been five years since the space battle over Gree. It had been a slow recovery. Slower than An'kin liked, but things were starting to shape up. An'kin lay on his cot meditating on the plans ahead. After the Battle of Kuat he had lost many men. All the ships he had taken with him were destroyed, and now this battle had taken 4 more. He was worried about how he would rebound from this. How would he attain more ships? The Zann Consortium was really quiet and that was where he had siphoned most of his fleet from.

"There's only one thing to do" He thought to himself. With that he got up and started to scribble a few drawings on a piece of wrinkled plexi-fiber. Then he shot up and quickly exited the room. Walking down the hall to the central meeting room he passed Wealthow, one of his father's clones he had trained.

Wealthow saw the haste in which An'kin seemed to carry himself as he walked down the hall. Quizzically, he walked back to catch up with An'kin.

"Is there a problem sir?" He asked nervously.

"Not today Wealthow, I have some big things to discuss with the militia." An'kin politely gestured. "Go to communications and send out a notification to everyone in the base to meet in the briefing room at 04:30 hours."

"Yes sir!" Wealthow saluted. He quickly made his way to the communications to act out An'kin's orders.

The message relayed through the entire compound. Other clones and Mandalorian troopers stared as An'kin continued his pace down the hall. They shot quizzical looks but shrugged it off and continued with their conversations until the meeting. An'kin entered the gargantuan cathedral that was the grand masterpiece of the compound. Here the Bleeding Skullz held all their important war meetings and conventions. An'kin stepped behind the pulpit on the stage of the massive arena. He started to go through his notes and examined the drawings he had done, making a few corrections here and there.

"Concentrated on something important their handsome?" Kli'nah whispered startling him out of his focused gaze. He turned around to meet her stare. No matter the situation or circumstance she could always distract his heart away from his other desires with those beautiful jewel-like eyes of hers.

"You shouldn't sneak up on me like that Cyar'ika." He said startled, yet lovingly. He wrapped his arm around her waist and guided her around to see what he had been working on.

"What is this… you… you're not serious about this are you?" She asked. She stood there looking over the plans he had formulated. "An'ika, I… I don't know what to say. This… this is brilliant! Why didn't we think of this sooner?"

"Isn't it Kli'nah? Our cause will be efficiently stocked and we will be able to do it all on our own. This will be the greatest thing to happen to our little outpost here." He said modestly, for he had acquired a fair amount of men and constructed grand architectural feats that comfortably accommodated his soldiers and ships. "It has to be the best idea I've had in a long time. We need to quit relying on others for our strength, but make it ourselves!"

"This is great An'ika, I have some news for you too." Kli'nah muttered. She stepped back from him and looked him in the eye. She held out and grasped his hand and smiled. Her face lit up like a hyperdrive.

"What is it, love?" An'kin smiled, anxious to hear what she had to say.

The slam of the wide arena doors broke the tension between them just as she was about to speak. A horde of Mandalorian soldiers flooded the room and started to take their seats in the vast auditorium. An'kin looked down at his data-screen on his wrist.

"Shoot honey, hold that thought!" An'kin said as he turned around to face his army. Kli'nah slunked back behind An'kin, patient as a narglatch, but her smile faded into a disappointed frown.

"Today is a turning point in our organization men!" An'kin started to give his speech. "As you know, our casualties have been substantial in the battle overhead and the battle at Kuat. We have no reliable source to gain more ships and supplies save for one!" An'kin glanced over to Kli'nah who was standing beside him now and shot a clever smirk at her. She faked an affirming smile.

"As of this meeting I am letting you all know that I am putting forth an order that will add to our strength and numbers without relying on others and relying on stolen equipment. Men, we are going to build our own ship making factories. I know with the numbers we have now that we have enough man-power to organize an effort of this magnitude. I will also be appointing high ranking members of our order to oversee the constructions and also to hire outside resources such as mineral reservoirs. We will also establish base supply lines to our other worlds we control."

As An'kin continued his speech Kli'nah found herself hanging on to every word. She watched as An'kin gave his powerful and encouraging speech. Then a thought flashed in front of her mind. That thought. She couldn't hold it in. She was too excited to just keep it bottled up.

"Hurry up and finish the speech An'kin, please hurry…" She thought to herself anxiously. She started to break out in a sweat and found herself losing her composure. She didn't want to interrupt his speech but the news she had for him was overpowering.

An'kin paused to take a breath, than…

"I'm pregnant!" Kli'nah exploded. She then stood there with a blank look on her face. She felt like all the blood was draining from her body. She was so shocked at herself that she would act so rashly like that.

An'kin had his mouth open to continue in his speech but stopped. With mouth still a gape, he slowly turned around with a shocked and puzzled look masking his once arrogant and proud complexion. The crowd was silent for a few moments not knowing what to do.

An'kin blinked his eyes a few times still staring at her.

"You're… you're preg...pregnant?" He stuttered, not believing the words that were coming out of his mouth.

Kli'nah regained her composure and with tears streaming down her cheeks answered, "Yes An'ika." She smiled wide, half sobbing. An'kin just stood there with a stunned look on his face. The crowd erupted in joyous cheer and applause.