The station had already been lost. Not that is had ever been won. But the administrator's security forces were no match for the fleet that had just fell into orbit around the station. It was by chance that a Republic ship had been there at all. Problems with the hyperdrive had forced them to make this emergency stop. The trade station in orbit of Vespa was the closest spot and it had taken over a month at conventional speeds to reach it.
Vespa was a gas giant with thirteen moons all rich with minerals; much less the gas mining that went on the gas giant itself. The asteroid belt surrounding Vespa was thought to have possibly been a fourteenth moon, but whatever the case may be it usually made a good hiding spot for pirates in the system as well.

With the extra month of travelling most of the Republic forces had been granted shore leave aboard the station and down on the only habitable moon Vespa had; Trillian. It was because of this that the Cruiser had relied on the stations defenses, because they had dropped themselves to minimal manning. When the two Sith Empire battleships had dropped out of hyperdrive they had immediately begun their assault. There first target was the Republic Cruiser. It is at unfortunate times like this when the oldest of logics makes itself immediately clear; Even with the most advanced technology, without warriors to make it function… it's useless.

In minutes the cruiser was ablaze and crashing into the powerful gravity well of Vepsa. What made it worse was that the station's defenses never activated. Shields never rose and cannons never fired. The Sith battleships launched boarding craft full of Mandalorian mercenaries led by a handful of Sith. The proud Ithorian, Aliress Va'keer, who was the senior of three Jedis assigned to the cruiser, took a squad to investigate command to find out what was going on, while her two companions Krunmat and Thomas Zhaan were left to organize the station security and what Republic forces that were still on the station and evacuate everyone else.

Krunmat hadn't waited to be told which duty to take and immediately started rounding up security guards and troopers. That left Thomas to start the evacuation, no easy task. It would have been simpler to fight off an enemy than having to fight off the panic of 1500 people. As people stampeded back toward their ship; the slow, the weak, and the small were getting trampled. Thomas tried yelling and screaming at the people streaming by him. But nothing had helped, they wouldn't be stopped. Finally he had drawn his double bladed lightsaber to stop some miners from stomping right over two young children a Rodian girl and a Twilek boy. That had got their attention, and the idea had hit him like lightning.

Using acrobatics power by force jumps and pushes, Thomas performed a mini acrobatic show with glowing green blades twirling about. It only took a few moments but the crowd actually slowed to see what it was. Once Thomas had most of the crowd's attention he stopped. All their faces looked up at him scared, but now curious. Thomas waved his hand in front of him.

"You do not want to run. You want to save each other. Move safely to your ships. Leave no one behind." Thomas said with confidence in his voice not showing the inner drain trying to mind trick a room full of people truly was. The group stood there for a moment, and then slowly turned and started making their way toward the loading dock. He watched as the miners he had stopped only moments before pick up the children they had almost run over and carry them on.

As they started moving again Thomas leaned against a pillar regaining his strength. His comm link chirp and he reached into his pocket pulling out his earpiece. He activated the unit and placed it in his ear. "Go ahead."

"Thomas where are you?" asked Aliress in a very worried tone.

"I'm down on the promenade." He responded.

"Where is Krun? I can't reach him on the comm.."

"I don't know. Last time I saw him he was rounding up the station security to repel borders." Thomas explained as he stood back up wiping his brow.

"He may be to busy then." She reasoned out. "I need you to head down to the engineering plant. Apparently there was an explosion right before the Sith dropped into orbit, and we can't reach anyone down there."

"An explosion? I didn't feel a thing. The inertia dampening system on this station must be incredible." Thomas exclaimed.

"Zhaan, Focus!"

"Sorry Aliress. Okay, Engineering, I'm on it!"

"Contact me as soon as you get down there. Be careful." She added and then disconnected the link.

Thomas moved quickly, at first taking the elevator, but it was only able to get him down a couple of decks. He started down the auxiliary stairs. When he finally got down to engineering it was immediately clear why there had been no response from engineering up to control.

Thomas activated the comm to Aliress. "Aliress, there's been a breach in the bulkhead down here. It looks like all their engineering personnel were blown out into the vacuum of space before the emergency force fields were erected. I…"

But he never finished the sentence, as suddenly a wave of nausea and pain swept across him. Thomas had to grab the side of the bulkhead to stop from tumbling over. When he regained himself he immediately went back to the comm.

"Aliress… did you…"

She replied with a hardened sorrow in her voice. "Yes… Krunmat is no longer with us." And then after a pause, "I sense the dark side."

Grunmat had been the most empathically sensitive of the three. And Aliress had known the Rodian Jedi for quite some time now. Thomas opened up his feelings and he found he could feel it to. It felt like Envy and Hatred wrapped in a hunger that that was painful. It was the dark side.

"What do we do?" Thomas asked.

"Can you get power to the stations defenses?"

"Possibly." Thomas shrugged, "there is plenty of damage down here, but it looks as if the main power is still intact. I could try to reroute some power if I can find a working console."

"Do it!" She didn't yell, but the tension was showing in her voice. And then the link was severed on her end.

Thomas didn't think, he just acted. Had he stopped to think he probably wouldn't have done it. He jumped over to nearby scaffolding. The main fusion generator was still online and the only functioning console he could see was on the scaffolding next to the missing bulkhead floating over an ocean of Space.

The viewscreen flashed on and off like power was filtering into it but not steadily. Thomas smacked the monitor hard on its side and the flashing stopped and the monitor became stable. Thomas quickly rerouted power to weapons and shields. From his vantage point Thomas could see the starbase's energy shields ignite to life, seconds after that the stations Lascannons started firing at the two Sith ships. The first few hits took the ships by surprise, the Sith hadn't even bothered to raise their shields. This had to have been a planned assault. Even the destruction down here in the engine room must have been premeditated.

"I have to get to Aliress." The thought came with the wrenching thought that they had stumbled upon a trapped that was never intended for them. Thomas turned about to jump back to the other side and then he saw her.

She was walking slowly up the far side of the room, her hand dragging little bits of force lightning from her fingertips to the top of the metallic safety rail. She wore barely any clothing, instead her fleshed covered in dark tribal like tattoos. Her skin was ashen grey and her body was as taught as a dancer's. She seemed to have a gleam of mischief shining from them, but underneath Thomas sensed cruelty, and possibly insanity.

The station started to rock as incoming fire from the two battleships started to rain down against the station's shields. Thomas grabbed on to the railing as the scaffolding he was on shook dangerously. The woman on the far side easily kept her footing with grabbing anything to secure herself as the world of the engine room shook around them both.

She looked past him, out to the Sith vessels that were now being fired upon by the station's defenses. "Why is the Republic here young Jedi? The Republic isn't supposed to be here." She never looked back at him as she asked the questions. "Your Rodian friend was too quick to jump on the blade of my master, taking his own life rather than shame himself in a useless battle. Master Xernathus wasn't pleased with his death at all. Not that it mattered. With your Republic belly exposed we extinguished your ship in no time. Your forces are no match for the Mandolorians we have with us. They all fall like Jawas." And that's when she looked back at him.

Thomas felt his anger rise, but he kept in check. The Twilek across the void smiled with an almost lustful look. She was used to stirring emotions, normally those of desire and lust, but anger was just as useful. Jedi lost something of the edge when having to control their anger.

"Oh, were you and he close? Lovers perhaps? Childhood friends? No matter, you'll be joining him soon enough." Her smiled continued but she felt a change in her prey now. Had she said something wrong?

Lovers? It almost made Thomas laugh, both he and Grun were quite heterosexual, both getting into trouble for slipping into the female Padawan dorm rooms as Padawans themselves. While Jedis were taught to rise above their emotions, it was hard for them to rise above their hormones. Thomas smiled back at the Sith woman, with a look in his eyes that blurted out she had messed up.

Immediately Darth Levictus raised her hand and blasted Thomas with force lightning. But he was already gone. Thomas had jumped the moment before launching himself across the void of the engineering compartment. But he had miscalculated his jump. Without bulkhead and decks there was no artificial gravity to fight against, so his Force jump shot him off like a bullet. He could hear the lightning destroy the panel he had just worked on. Outside the weapons were still firing and the shields were still up so that Sith bitch would have a hell of a time shutting them down now.

Levictus cursed loudly. She saw the Jedi move across the black, it looked like he was flying. He had jumped for a small section of bulkhead that attached to another compartment. But because of his speed he didn't land on that small piece of deck, but instead shot straight through the open hatch. This was quickly followed by the sound of a crash.

Thomas landed hard meeting both the deck and bulkhead at the same time ramming into a stack of empty energy cells. But as much as that hurt, being electrocuted to death before drifting into the cold vacuum of space seemed less appealing. Pain or not, Thomas was back on his feet in seconds and on the move. The crazy Sith woman was more powerful than him. Is only chance was to get her into the open where he could wield his lightsaber. His style bordered on the acrobatic, and for that he needed room.

The storage room connected back out to the main passageway. Thomas Zhaan was already sprinting back toward the maintenance ladder when another bolt of lightning came at him from behind. It missed him, hitting a steam pipe instead. He could hear the Sith behind him cursing. Thomas bypassed the emergency ladder; he'd be to easy a target moving up the ladder. Instead he kept moving forward into the unknown.

Thomas moved quickly up a flight of stairs to the next level, Levictus close on his heels. The damage was less apparent on this level; mostly made of some offices and a briefing room. It wasn't until he moved back into the upper decks of the engineering plant that he saw this giant piece of Bulkhead missing. But his path abruptly ended as the path he was on was simply gone, sheered off by the explosion like many other pieces of the station here. Thomas looked around quickly, he only had seconds before his pursuer was on him. Then he heard the familiar hiss of a lightsaber igniting to life.

Thomas Zhaan, Jedi Knight turned and saw her emerge from the steam her lightsaber illuminated red to her side, Darth Levictus, Sith Lord… the Seductress. Thomas pulled his lightsaber free from its clips, igniting both green blades. He didn't swirl the blades around in a show, nor did he challenge her. He took his defensive stance and waited. There was going to be a lot of collateral damage.