Firstly, I don't own KoToR

Secondly, the General's name is in my other series, so...

Thirdly, thanks for reading.

Guilty Bonds

Chapter 1, Conception

The young general stared down at her project. She was not an invalid when it came to such things, but right now she was truly stuck. At the moment, it was just a contingency plan. No need to ask for help yet, no need to rush this. She hid the blue prints away as her soldiers came over to report.

"General, they seem to be preparing for another push. Several groups have joined the one we've been targeting for the past week. Their numbers have more than doubled."

She stared down at the lightsaber in her lap, "Okay. Add another five men to the watch tonight- do not let them get near us. No fires tonight, and everyone needs to rest as much as they can."

"Aye aye, ma'am." With a salute, the young men left.

Their initial flight in, they had destroyed every landing pad they could find. Over time, there was only one pad left. This was meant to be a trap for the Sith. They would come here to get off world, and the bombs would pour. Plans were altered- because the bombs would scare them all off, and the Sith would find another way off planet- and she and her troops were dropped off. Sith communications were constantly being scrambled, so they had no way of communicating with one another to warn of the Republic soldiers lying in wait.

As far as the Sith knew, the Republic had just missed a spot.

Lauren bit down on her lip as she continued to think of what was going to happen if they couldn't hold out. Thousands upon thousands of Sith would go out in the galaxy, killing and plundering and doing whatever else Sith did. That was unacceptable. That could not happen.

Which brought her back to her project.

She looked at the technicians. The older ones could not help her- no, they would figure it out. The younger ones would say something to the older ones. With that in mind, she called over the Zabraak.

"Yes, General?"

"Can you help me with a problem? It's just some wires that I can't plan out straight, or something." She said vaguely. When he nodded, she pulled out part of her plans. She never kept it all in one place, paranoid that someone would find it and start a mutiny. That was all she needed.

"That's not so bad. This one here," he motioned to the problem, "can be rerouted through this one, then patched back to itself."

"Wow, I didn't even think of that. Thanks, ah...?"

"Bao-Dur, ma'am."

"Bao-Dur, I appreciate the help." She went back to studying her papers, planning planning planning.

"General, what is this?"

"This? Just a pet project." She cleared her throat, a clear dismissal, and waited for him to leave.

He took the hint and went back to discussing hyperdrive mods with his other techies. In spite of herself, she smiled. He was a good kid. He hadn't done anything to have to live with this.

That night, they were attacked and they barely survived. Her men were on edge, running on stims and other contraband she couldn't bring herself to take. They needed every edge right now, and she couldn't afford to follow regs.

She meditated for two hours before giving up and sleeping. Every time she almost cleared her mind, her situation would pop back in to mess things back up. It wasn't worth the wasted time.

"Don't wake her up right now, just wait." She heard a soft voice say. She was almost sure it was the tech from earlier.

"This is important. We can't take much more of this."

"She knows. But if she can't sleep, she can't lead. Let her rest for a while." The Zabraak said, gently but absolutely nonetheless.

She slept better after that. It was nice to know that there was at least one person who realized the strain of command. One person who realized she wasn't invincible or impervious to what was going on. Before she fell under, she made a note to herself to thank him.

…

Bao-Dur was smiling and laughing at her jokes. Everyone was. The attacks had stopped, temporarily, so they had time to finally relax. They were all so tired, any references to Gizka and Selkath hookers seemed hilarious.

They hadn't forgotten the Sith, nor had the Sith forgotten them. But now, on both sides, there was a need for rest. Not even the Sith could handle the constant warfare.

"Hey, Bao-Dur, you're kind of a genius. Think you can help me out again?" She asked casually. No one was paying attention to the two of them, someone else was telling another fish story. This one was actually on Manaan.

"I can try, General."

She handed him the papers she had prepared in case he had agreed. It was just enough to keep him in the dark while still managing to see her problem.

He studied it for a few moments, his face puzzled. He pulled out a pen and paper from his pockets- the total cliché of it making the general smile- and began doing calculations. He finished his numbers, scribbled something out, and tried again.

"General, do you have to use that little of-"

"Yes, I thought it would be more challenging." she stopped him from saying exactly what. It would tune everyone else in. Saying things like 'explosive material' around war-dog technicians was like saying 'cheap porn' around men in the cantina.

"If you only plan to use that much, you'll need less materials surrounding it."

"I figured, but I wasn't sure exactly what dimensions would be best."

"This looks like it's part of a system. Assuming there's more of them," he looked at her to confirm. She only gave a stiff nod, but he understood, "the smaller the better. If you want, I can build you one and-"

"It's fine. I was just wondering if you had any suggestions."

"A master plate could be put inside of all of them. That wouldn't take up much space. And once you do that, you can design them all better. As long as you keep them small enough, you could easily... do whatever they're meant to do quickly."

The general nodded, taking her papers back. Bao-Dur had questions, she could see and sense that, but he didn't ask. He was waiting for her to explain, or at least tell him that was all she needed.

"Thanks again."

"Of course, General."

Lauren began chewing on her lip as she redrew everything. She started with the master plate. Bao-Dur was right. It would be easier if she could just have them on the same frequency instead of wired together. More area could be covered that way. Then something shifted in her vision. She didn't need an explosion like that. She needed something..more, if things had become desperate enough to use this project.

It was coming more and more into focus what she needed. She couldn't risk anyone getting away. Not one Sith could survive. She began her alterations immediately.

Over the next few weeks, she grew closer to Bao-Dur. She learned that he had a little robot with him that he had built as a kid, that he didn't like military food, and that he was okay at playing Pazaak. She also learned, she was not. He beat her every time.

The Jedi couldn't afford to be sloppy when it came to him. She had plans to use him. It would do him no harm, but she still felt guilty about it. It was Sith-like, the way she was manipulating him. It didn't matter how she felt about it, she had to do it.

"So, General, how's that project coming?"

"Well, I completely scrapped the old plan. It's become something bigger. A few bugs I'm having trouble sorting out, but it's coming along." she answered as honestly as she could.

"Anything I can help with?"

"Maybe, but I want to try and do it on my own. It's like cheating if I ask a tech."

"Fair enough."

She looked down. It would be so much easier if she could just be honest with him. She wanted to- truly, she felt he could handle it- but she didn't have the right to force the weight of this planet on him. She was the only one she was willing to inflict that upon.

"Say, General, you look like you want to tell me something."

Before she could stop herself- the the Force they were by themselves- she spilled her plan out. Major details she had been hiding from him were coming out, and his face didn't change at all. He still had the compassionate look on his face.

When she finished, she looked at him with worry in her eyes. There were several ways this could go down. She didn't particularly like any of them.

"Jedi always feel they must bear things alone. I'm here if you need my help, General."

"Bao-Dur, if you help me with this, you're going to hate yourself." She knew this to be true, she was already full of self-loathing because of the 'plan'. But it was just a backup...

"It's just a plan B. Hopefully, you won't need it. But it's my job to assist you in any way I can General."

The young woman let out a relieved sigh and produced her new designs. Her hand was shaking when she handed them over. She was fighting the urge to cry. She didn't have to do this alone! Someone else could help... someone else could talk to her about it, and she didn't have to lie to him about anything. That meant more than actually helping with the SMG at the moment.