Carth held the datapad aloft in front of him, peering down at the readings as he and Mission walked ahead of the group, navigating hthe metal halls of the Black Vulkar base. All four of them had been through an intense hell. Hall after hall of Black Vulkar troops and their attack droids. Somehow, some way they had found a way to fight their way through and come out alive so far. They had to be getting close. They needed this swoop accelerator if theirs and Gadon's plans were going to progress.

"It should be right down this hall here," Carth mused aloud, punching a few keys on the datapad, trying to zoom in on the map. Mission followed closely by his side.

"There's a pretty good concentration of Black Vulkars through this door...right here."

Mission pointed to a door directly to their right. Carth arched an eyebrow and cross his arms in front of his orange-vested chest.

"It's worth a look, right?" Carth asked.

"If you think we can handle another fire fight..." Mission trailed off. "What about Nic? He's looking worse and worse!"

As if on cue, a Wookiee growl rang out from behind them and the human and Twi'lek turned. Zaalbar was dragging Nic down the hall by his arm. Nic's body looked limp, his feet hardly shuffling aklong the floor, his non-supported arm hanging limp at his side, uselessly dragging his vibroblade along the metal floor.

"Nic!"

Carth sprinted back to his friend. Zaalbar gently placed Nic down into a sitting position with his back against the wall. As Carth rushed to his friend's side, what he saw nearly made him draw back in horror. Blood was flowing in river out of the corner's of Nic's mouth. Each time he coughed, he spluttered more out. His skin, which had once been a rich olive-brown, was now a sickly white. Nic's blue eyes even looked more pale, maybe even glazed over.

Zaalbar uttered a few sad growls and Mission translated.

"Zaalbar said he collapsed further down the tunnel..."
Carth placed both hands on Nic's shoulders, trying to brace him.

"Nic. Nic! Give me something! Stay with us!"

Nic's head lolled to the left, his eyes staring off at nothing in particular. He was choking out some rasping words. Carth had to bring his face close to his friend's and listen hard in order to catch them.

"Cah...Cahrth. You have to...go...now..."

Carth's mouth hung open. Was his friend and most trusted ally on this planet actually suggesting what he thought he was suggesting?

"Are you kidding me?" He asked incredulously. "I can't leave you behind, Nic! Not when we're this close to the swoop accelerator! To Bastila! We''ll find a cure on someone here, I know it!"

Nic shook his head weakly, shutting his eyes. He plopped a limp hand onto Carth's shoulder.

"Go...go on...without me..."

"Absolutely not!" Carth practically screamed, giving his friend a bracing shake. "Ever since we landed it's been you and me, Nic! We survived the crash, survived everything Taris has thrown our way so far! We can't let it end now. You can't give up, soldier! That's an order!"

Nic shut his eyes tightly and shook his head again. "No...no...you're not listening..."

"No, you're not listening, soldier!" Carth nearly shouted over his ailing companion. "You might be willing to let the rakghoul diseasetake you, but I'm not! None of us are! If anyone's gonna get Bastila off Taris and back to the Republic, to cheers and lots of beers, it's going to be me AND you!"

Carth's behavior was growing more frantic. A stinging was growing in his gut, threatening to spread throughout his chest. He wasn'tgoing to let his fellow soldier, his friend, die like this. It wasn't fair, damn it! Not after everything they had been through, everythingthey'd sacrificed to get here. Nic had proven himself to be someone Carth could come to trust. Nic had never failed him. Nic was always there by his side, no matter what.

And now Nic was dying. Carth knew it. He refused to accept it.

"Get up!" He bellowed down over his friend. "Now!"

Suddenly, Nic's eyes snapped open and stared straight into Carth's. Anger shone in them, almost in a feral light. Nic growled and grabbed Carth's shoulders.

"NO!" Nic screamed, violently throwing Carth off of him with newfound strength. Carth stumbled back and stared at his friend. Where did such ferocious strength come from? Was...was he turning?!

But just as quickly as Nic began to growl, he immediately bent over where he sat, hurling and wretching as more blood spattered on the floor. When his head came back up to rest against the wall, Nic was breathing raggedly, wiping trails of blood away from his was back to whatever normal he had devolved to.

"No...time," Nic hissed out of his mouth. "Need to...get out..."

Nic pulled his blaster out and cocked it. "I'll...cover...you."

Mission and Zaalbar stood stock=still, looking to Carth. The Republic soldier stood at a loss for words and actions. He honestly had no idea what to do from here. Nic's words were logical, if Carth could just take himself out of his loyalty to his fellow soldier. That was something he wasn't sure he could do, but what Nic was saying made sense. He knew he would just drag them down at this point and the mission was far from over. But could Carth do this on his own from here on out? Granted, he'd have Mission and Zaalbar with him, but for how long? He would now be the only person on all of Taris with knowledge of their mission and how to carry it out. He would be alone, in a very big way.

Carth was used to feeling alone. That didn't mean he wanted to feel that way again. But what choice did he have? The accelerator was so close. There was no turning back. Carth inhaled deeply and closed his eyes for a moment, trying to clear his head and sharpen his focus to the task at hand. It's what Nic was wanting him to do. If nothing else, Carth would honor his friend's wish, for it could very well be his last.

"I'm coming back for you, Nic," Carth resolved. "You'll see."

Nic said nothing. He simply stared ahead at Carth for a moment and then managed the most resolute nod he could muster.

"Go." He croaked.

Carth pulled out his blaster and another he had picked off a dead Black Vulkar and headed back toward the door. Mission and Zaalbar followed closely behind until they were all three converged on the threshold.

"Alright," Carth began. "We need some sort of battle plan going in. There's bound to be plenty of troops guarding the accelerator."

"Four," Nic choked out from eight feet away. "There'sh...fourh..."

Mission looked puzzled and turned back to Carth. "Four? How does he know how many there are?"

Carth held up a hand, silencing the question out of respect for his friend. "Four it is," he went on. "I was expecting more. They must be specialized troops, then. We're going in not knowing what to expect. Be on your guard and on your toes. Prepare yourselves for anything."

When the door opened, the three sprang into action, leaping through the doorway and coming up into formation, Carth with both of his blasters drawn and pointed...at the backs of four soldiers. They were all together and standing over something. It appeared they hadn't even noticed the door opening.

"Quick!" Carth hissed quietly through his teeth. "Dive!"

The Republic soldier and his two companions dove behind two large metal boxes sitting side-by-side for cover. Carth could hear the voices of the soldiers on the other side of the room, but they were speaking in some alien language he couldn't make out. Carth cursed inside his head. If only Nic was healthy.

"Carth!" Mission whispered from hers and Zaalbar's hiding place. "I can understand them! I think they're talking about a rakghoul cure!"

Alright, Carth thought to himself. Clearly they're speaking Twi'lek. "A cure?" he hurriedly asked in the same whispering voice. "What are they saying?"

"Hang on," Mission stressed. The blue Twi'lek girl turned her ear toward where the voices were coming from and squinted her eyes, listening hard for the next few moments.

Finally, Mission spoke up. "I think they're hovering around the first shipment of the rakghoul disease cure sent in from Brejik. He must have gotten his grubby paws on a copy of the antidote and mass-produced it somehow."

"Like he got his hands on the advanced swoop accelerator," Carth agreed. "It all reeks. But if what they're saying is true, then we have Nic's ticket back to health and the accelerator all in one room!"

An angry alien voice pierced through the air, yelling. Carth silently cursed again. In his excitement, his risen voice must have alerted their enemies. Acting on instinct, the Republic officer hopped up from behind his cover, his two blasters leveled at the group of four. Mission and Zaalbar did the same.

The group had their own weapons drawn. Their leader appeared to be a green-skinned Twi'lek man dressed in combat armor. There was, indeed, a large metal crate behind the group, somewhat concealed by their bodies.

Despite an entire room full of primed weapons, the Twi'lek leader didn't give the order to fire. Instead, his voice dropped to a much friendlier volume and tone.

"The chuba-face says he wants to talk," Mission tensely translated. "Says we don't look like we work for the Beks and that maybe an arrangement can be made."

Carth didn't lower his blasters a single inch. He had been in enough stand-offs in his career to know how tenuous the situation truly was at the moment. The slightest movement out of place could send anyone in this room to their death. Whatever Carth was going to do next, it was absolutely essential that it be done carefully and discreetly. If he and his group could possibly get their hands on a single dose of the cure as well as the accelerator with as little bloodshed as possible, that could be a good course of action. It was better to exhaust all possibilities before getting in a firefight.

"What kind of arrange-"

Carth was cut off by the sound of crossbow blasts as a few bolts sailed into the heads of two of the guards, accompanied by a Wookiee growl. The next thing he knew, Carth was barrelled out of the way as Zaalbar charged straight for the leader. A smaller female Twi'lek ran between them but the Wookiee swatted her aside with one great paw. She flew head-first into the metal wall like a rag doll, crumpling upon impact and not getting up again.

In a matter of seconds, three guard were dead on the floor with their leader's head being gripped between the massive paws of a very angry Zaalbar. Carth holstered his weapons breathlessly and shook his head, turning to Mission.

"Remind me to always let the Wookiee win," he said. "In anything."

That got a giggle out of the Twi'ek girl, her first in what felt like days. But the two of them didn't have any more time to spare, not wihth the Twi'lek leader grunting and struggling in vain to free himself from the Wookiee's grip. Carth and Mission stood over him.

The Republic soldier pointed to the metal crate. "Does that have the rakghoul disease cure in it?"

The green-skinned Twi'lek muttered something and Carth looked to Mission.

"Chuba-face says he doesn't know," she said.

"Oh really?" Carth said mockingly. "Zaalbar, if you would?"

The Wookiee gladly grunted in the affirmative, squeezing his paws together. The Twi'lek man gave a high-pitched wail and vigorously nodded.

"Don't need a translation for that," Carth smiled over at Mission before turning back to their captive. "Now another question. Where is that advanced swoop accelerator you stole from the Beks?"

At first, the Twi'lek man was silent until Zaalbar upped the pressure again. The wailing came back and he started spluttering a bunch of alien words that were slurring together. Mission pieced them together easily enough.

"Chuba-face keeps on saying over and over that he'll never give up the accelerator," she said. "He says whatever we could do to him doesn't compare to what Brejik would do to him if he found out he squealed."

Zaalbar kept up the pressure and the Twi'lek's squirms grew more and more despertae. Still, he would not talk. Carth didn't like where this was going. He wasn't an advocate of torture, no matter how much of a low-life was taking the abuse. Still, he was a soldier and war was war. Without that accelerator and without Bastila, the war was as good as lost. Carth no longer had any time for this.
"Oh really?" Carth asked. "Is that so?"

He pointed his blaster at the Twi'lek's foot.

"Let's test that theory."

Without another word, Carth put a bolt right into the Twi'lek's foot, issuing a blood-chilling howl of pain from their captive. Just for good measure, Carth then stomped down hard, digging the hard heel of his boot into the fresh wound. Tears streamed from the Twi'lek's face and he began screaming words faster and faster.

"He says alright! He'll tell us!" Mission alarmingly shouted. "Enough, Carth!"

Carth let up and Zaalbar released the Twi'lek man, who fell to his knees and shakily pointed to a medium-sized security box on a counter behind them.

Carth smiled as he drew his blaster again. "See? That wasn't so hard, was it?" He planted one bolt between the man's eyes and his body crumpled instantly to the floor.

Mission screamed. "What the hell, Carth?! He told us what we wanted to know and you kill him?!"

"Now he can't report us to Brejik and we'll actually have a fighting chance of getting Bastila back. If Brejik finds out we stole the accelerator, he might try moving Bastila underground and then we'll lose her for good."

Mission gestured incredulously. "He's still going to know! There are cameras everywhere!"

"Good point."

Carth looked up to the one in the corner of their room and shot it off its metal stand.

"Fixed it," Carth uttered simply as he walked over to the security box. Mission wasn't done yet.

"This is poodoo, Carth, and you know it!" She cried. "We don't have to kill them all! How are we any different from the Vulkars now?"

Carth sighed and hung his head, two dark strands of his hair falling over his forehead. He knew the young Twi'lek had a point. He didn't enjoy cutting anyone down. He avoided it if at all possible, but that wasn't possible anymore.

"I'm not saying you're wrong, Mission, but we're at war here," Carth carefully began, now looking at her in the face. "What about all those Vulkars you were more than happy to gun down in the hallways? They were shooting at us, so no one gave a second thought. That's what happens in war. We don't have time to stop and wonder about everything anymore."

Carth then looked down at the security box's keypad. "And I certainly don't have time for this."

He shot the keypad. It exploded into a shower of sparks, fizzled twice and then was silent. Carth turned to the Wookiee.

"Zaalbar, if you would again?"

Zaalbar growled his acknowledgement and pried the box open with his bare paws. Carth looked down at the small piece of machinery that would have been completely unremarkable if not for the immense value it now held to all of them. Carth silently took the accelerator and then crossed to the crate, taking one syringe containing the cure and headed out of the room. Mission stood in complete silence, her mouth still hanging open as she looked to her friend, who merely shrugged his massive shoulders and followed Carth out.

What kind of people had she and Big Z just involved themselves with?

She shook her head and followed out of the room herself. She saw Carth crouching down, shaking Nic and getting no response. Zaalbar was looking on, uttering a low, sad growl.

"Nic! Nic! Wake up, damn it!" Carth was yelling, but Nic's body still hung limp despite his efforts. His eyes were closed as if he was sleeping, his white face too serene for Carth. By all appearances, it looked like his friend was now dead from the disease. A vicegrip was slowly tightening across Carth's heart, threatening to make it explode.

"No..." Carth whispered, his eyes frantically scanning over every feature of Nic's face in order to spot some sort of life.

"It can't end like this."
Creepily, almost like he had heard Carth, Nic's eyes fluttered open and began looking around frantically. Carth almost stumbled back but instead grabbed his friend's shoulders excitedly.

"Nic! We found the cure!"

Nic's blue eyes fixed on Carth in a stare that Carth couldn't discern. It looked like Nic was looking through him, analyzing him, trying to figure out who he was.

"It's me...Carth," the Republic soldier said slowly, fearing the worst again.

Suddenly Nic's eyes reduced to slits, his face contorting in anger.

"Raarrgh!" Nic planted a foot on Carth's chest and kicked him away, sending him sliding back on his rear. Carth immediately jumped up and Nic did as well, grabbing his vibroblade and swinging at Carth's head. Carth ducked and rushed a few more feet away from his friend currently hacking at the air with his blade, as if he was trying to cut down an invisible jungle, screaming all the way.

"Raauuggh! Arrggh! Auuauuggh!"

"What the kriff?!" Carth screamed, ducking another swing from Nic and consistently trying to circle around the man.

Mission called out. "It's the fever, Carth! I heard some Beks talking about it once! Nic's not really here! It's one of the last stages of the disease! He's delirious!"

She was right about that, Carth could see. The look in Nic's eyes was almost animal as he hacked at the air. What was his trusted friend turning into? Was he already transforming? Was he beyond help?

There was only one way to find out.

In one leaping kick that years of Republic service had taught him, Carth kicked the vibroblade out of Nic's hand and charged forward, slamming the side of his arm into Nic's throat and pushing him hard into the wall. He was now pinning Nic, with his friend struggling madly against the Republic soldier's grasp to no avail, for now. Carth knew he has precious few seconds against his friend's new animal-like strength.

"When are you going to learn just how much of a stubborn stick-in-the-mud I can really be, Nic?" Carth gritted through his teeth.

With his free hand, Carth pulled out the syringe and jutted it into Nic's jugular, pushing the cure in. Nic's body went rigid and he was immediately calm and still. Carth tentatively stepped away, clutching the now empty syringe in his hand. He watched Nic for a few seconds, his friend's body seemingly now frozen against the wall. Then Nic threw himself to the ground, convulsing violently and making some kind of sound that was like a mixture of choking and hiccuping. He was coughing out more blood onto the metal floor and shivering like he was naked on Hoth.

Carth was at his friend's side in another instant. "Nic! It's the cure! Don't resist it!"

He restrained his friend in his arms and turned his head straight forward. Nic couldn't vomit the cure out. If he did, it would all be for naught, Carth knew. Nic's body was rattling in Carth's arms now, shaking again and again with those terrible guttural noises still coming from his throat.

No vomiting came. Nic's body went rigid one last time and then slumped against Carth, unmoving, silent.