Evra had been catching a few moments rest in an ice tunnel when a loud rumble stirred him from the bench he had been resting on.

"Get up, Family Man," said a familiar voice over his comlink.

He pulled it out. "Tul-Pa? That you?"

"Of course. Who else would bother waking your sorry ass up? The Sith-they're here. Get up."

Cursing, Evra swore. Once, just once, he mused, he would like a mission to go according to plan.

Grabbing his carbine as another blast from overhead rocked the tunnel, he ventured through an ice passage in the base, trampling through the dirty snow as he ventured to the operating room where Bastila was being "fixed".

The tunnel he was going through was cramped, barely letting two people pass through it. More and more impacts shook the tunnel until Evra was forced to dodge a cave-in of the tunnel ahead.

"Huh. Not getting out that way," he muttered, dusting himself off. He pulled out a com-link. "Tul-Pa! Things went south here. I need another route to surgery."

"Let's see. I'm in the security section, so..." she trailed off. "Got it. There should be a small maintenance tunnel where I first acquired you. Do you see it?"

Evra turned around behind him, spotting the tunnel, close to the bench he had been sleeping on. To say it looked "cramped" would have been far too generous a description.

Evra groaned. He wished he had a cigarra. Maybe a drink. He quickly made his way into the tunnel, shimmying his way through it, pulling out his pistol and pointing it ahead through the narrow tunnel in case the Sith had managed to breach the base itself.

And explosion from overhead knocked Evra back ward, he was instantly covered in snow and it went down his throat. He coughed violently, struggling as he righted himself. The blast had blown a hole in the tunnel above and he could see only the howling blizzard and hear only the whine of blasters firing over head.

Cursing his luck, Evra used a number of vulgarities that will not be repeated on this page as he scrambled up the opening, pulling out his thermal visor and scanning the area through a world of deep blacks and hot whites outlining other people firing at one another.

He began to make his way through the knee deep snow, trudging along at a dangerously slow pace, when a hail of blaster bolts howled his way. One managed to clip him in the shoulder and he barely avoided the rest.

Face down in the deep snow from where he tripped, blind and numbing, he pulled out his carbine and fired blindly at where the Force told him the shots had come from. He could here nothing over the howling of the wind. His fingers clenched on his rifle with a white knuckle grip, his teeth chattering as he sensed his shots slam into the chest of the three Sith snow troopers who had tried to kill him. They fell backward and did not move again.

Dropping his rifle, Evra freed himself from the snow. His teeth chattered as he slung his rifle back over his shoulder. The Force suddenly whispered to pull his light saber out of his jacket, but he couldn't see the reason-

He ducked almost too late as light saber came screaming for him.

He rolled, frantically trying to remove his light saber from his jacket before his enemy could relieve him of his head.

He dodged a light saber thrust for his spine and haphazardly managed to kick his opponent away, finally removing his weapon. The red blade went active and he blocked the thunder strike from his opponents blade that brought him to his needs. He felt his wrist go numb.

A punch from his opponent smashed the goggles on his face. He was lucky his nose wasn't broken. At least, he didn't think it was.

He finally managed to get a look at his opponent. He was bald and bare chested. His right arm was wrapped in leather bindings of some sort and he was wearing the lower half of a set of robes. He had a frightful grin on his face.

Evra decided it was now or never. He charged, making a desperate swipe at his foe. The grinning man blocked the strike and force pushed him backward as though he was nothing.

Evra tumbled into the snow, his light saber falling free from his grip.

And he still couldn't hear a frakking thing besides the howling wind.

He panicked, searching through the snow drift for his light saber when he felt his opponent approach him.

Evra had one trick left. If he screwed it up he was dead.

His opponent approached, light saber raising for a killing blow.

"I'm sure there is an interesting story behind your light saber, but I'm in a rush, so..." the man trailed off in a dead, metallic voice.

Evra used all his might in that instant to Force pull his enemy down into the snow with him, lighting a flair he had removed from his belt as he did so.

The man snarled, falling forward-and his right eye directly landed on the lit flair.

The man screamed, thrashing about, his light saber tossed aside as Evra jammed the flair into his eye further. Evra then pulled out his combat knife, rolled him over and brutally stabbed the man until he stopped moving.

Evra spotted the man's light saber, a dark hilt with a spike at the bottom and picked it up, stuffing it into his jacket. He also finally spotted his own and did the same with it.

He stared at the body.

"I'd say something witty-but I'm not witty," Evra grunted. "Force, I need a drink..." He trudged off, using his powers to find his way to his destination.

It was a while before he finally managed to reach the entrance to Delta Base. The gate was blown apart, and not by explosives. Someone had used a Force pulse.

Evra brought out his light saber, keeping it ready as he advanced with a pistol. He ducked behind a crate as he spotted Darth Malak with a squad of Sith troopers.

"Scour this entire complex until you find Bastila," Malak ordered. "Lord Revan wants her alive."

Evra pulled out his com-link. "Tul-Pa, you still there?" he whispered.

"I managed to make it to Surgery. The head surgeon was killed by falling ice, so C'bal had to eat his brain and take over. I also kinda had to kill all of Bastila's bodyguards when they saw this," Tul-Pa answered.

Evra blanched at this.

"Darth Malak just entered the base," he replied, eyeing Malak from behind cover. "I'll try and buy you some time. Where's the Executioner?"

"Somebody ask for me?" the Executioner drawled over the com-link.

"Ex! Where are you?" Evra hissed.

"Right here," he answered bursting through the wall on a captured Sith Walker, a decidedly skeletal biped vehicle that had the Executioner protected by a shimmering blue force field as he sat in a barebones cockpit. The legs of the machine ended in claws and attached to each leg was a blaster turret.

"Haw haw. I have a walker. And you don't," the Executioner cackled. With that, he fired a massive volley from the pivoting weapons on the vehicle and Darth Malak yelled for a retreat: Even he couldn't stop thousands of shots heading for him at once, and at practically point blank ranges. The Executioner advanced, deflecting any Force pulses Malak tried to send his way.

Evra took the opportunity and began making his way to the tunnel while the Mandalorian held Malak off.

Evra breathed a sigh of relief as he finally managed to reach surgery. Much of the equipment lay damaged, and not only was most of the medical staff dead, Evra could see that one had his head torn open. There was nothing inside the skull.

Evra grew sick as he remembered.

C'bal was busily cutting away at the back of Bastila's head with a surgical laser, sweating as he finally removed a piece of her skull.

Evra spotted Tul-Pa leaning against a computer console-along with the entire detail that had been Bastila's bodyguard lying dead a few feet away, their light sabers sliced in half.

Evra stared. "Why'd you slice the light sabers apart?"

"Trust, me, it was the smart move. Sniper light saber hilts...aren't normal. They...do things if you don't destroy them also," Tul-Pa explained cryptically.

"Will you guys shut up?" C'bal hissed, working feverishly as he picked up a small silvery device with a pair of tongs and placed it gently into the recesses of Bastila's head.

The device sprouted small, wire thin legs and shifted deeper into her brain to take root.

"Done," C'bal breathed in relief. "Now we just have to sow her back up and get us the hell out of here-"

A massive rumble made the unconscious Bastila fly off the specially prepared operating table she was laying on.

"Quick! Get her up! GET HER UP!" Evra yelled, all three lifted her at the same time but a another large rumble caused them to drop her. The piece of skull C'ball removed went skittering to the floor in the chaos.

Carra crashed through the ceiling, using a Sith Stalker as a shock absorber for her feet. The impact killed the Stalker instantly.

"Hey, guys, how's Bas-OH NO!" Carra yelled.

"You got snow on her brain!" C'bal sputtered, panicking, plucking a small chunk of ice from the exposed part of Bastila's brain. "Quick we have to get her back on the table!"

The four gathered Bastila up...only for another massive quaking from the weapons firing overhead to cause them to drop her. Again.

C'bal railed angrily against the war being fought above their heads. "Will you stop that?!" he raged, shaking his fist at the ceiling.

"Chill, C'bal, let's just try again," Carra placated.

C'bal sighed and the four lifted Bastila up. After waiting a moment for a rumble, they breathed a sigh of relief as they gently placed her on the operating table. Carra used the Force to reducing the swelling and removing any foreign particulates that the comatose Jedi had been exposed to. Carra also found the piece of skull next to her boot and used the Force to scour it clean also before handing it back to C'bal, who immediately set to work reintegrating it back into Bastila's head with his tools.

When he was finished he sighed in relief.

"That should do it. Now we just need to get her out of an active warzone," he quipped bitterly.

"I saw a speeder when I arrived here. We should-wait a minute, did you feel that?" Tul-Pa asked.

All four turned to a position behind them.

One of the light saber hilts was floating in mid-air. One Tul-Pa had failed to damage.

To the surprise of all but Tul-Pa, a voice emanated from it.

"STATUS: HOST ORGANISM TERMINATED. MISSION: SAFEGUARD BASTILA SHAN AT ALL COSTS. ACQUIRING TEMPORARY HOST."

The light saber flung itself at C'bal, hurling him back on impact as tiny mechanical tentacles sprung from hidden recesses in the hilts casing, coiling around C'bal's left hand as the rest of the team frantically tried to remove the device.

"UNSATISFACTORY HOST: INCOMPATIBLE NERVOUS SYSTEM. GENETIC IRREGULARITIES. SEEKING NEW HOST..."

The light saber detached itself from C'bal's hand and flung itself into Evra's.

Evra felt a drill-like pain in the back of his skull as he collapsed, everywhere going numb as his team focused on removing it from his hands now.

He heard the voice in his skull.

"NEGATIVE. UNSATISFACTORY MIDICHLORAL COUNT. BELOW STANDARD FORCE USER RATE. SEEKING NEW HOST..."

It detached itself from him flying towards Tul-Pa. She struggled with it mightily, backing away from the rest of the group.

"NEGATIVE. HOST HAS NO NERVOUS SYSTEM. PRODUCT OF GOLEM TECHNIQUES. SEEKING NEW HOST..."

It tried to escape Tul-Pa's grasp, but she held on defiantly, liquefying part of her torso and slamming it into the recesses, sealing it inside her before it could escape. The struggling device bulged underneath the surface of her abdomen, trying to escape her body. She tried breaking it down from the inside to no avail.

Finally, realizing she would not be able to hold it much longer she looked desperately towards Carra.

"Blondie! Light saber! Now!"

Carra swooped in, activating a verdant blade into Tul-Pa's stomach. She felt the machine melt neatly into two pieces as Tul-Pa winced.

Carra shut the blade off while it still impaled her team mate. Tul-Pa hissed a bit in pain as it shut off, small black flecks of her dropping to the snow-covered floor, hissing as they slowly turned into a clay-like material.

"Thanks for being so slow about it!" Tul-Pa snapped.

Carra rolled her eyes. "Oh my, how terribly thoughtless of me," she replied in a dull monotone. "Had to get the blade out somehow."

Tul-Pa snorted and reliquified her torso, retrieving the two halves of the living light saber. She tossed them at Evra. "Souvenir," she said, the light saber wound in her stomach disappearing.

"Huh, so you CAN be hurt," Evra remarked, getting up and dusting himself off.

"Never said I couldn't be, Family Man," she replied sourly, sulfur eyes raking him over. "Get me around enough thermal detonators and I'll go down just like anybody else. Don't go telling Bucket Head that, though, wouldn't want him to get any ideas."

"Noted," Evra replied. "You okay though?"

Tul-Pa raised an eyebrow. "Fine," she replied, seemingly unsure as to why he asked.

"Thanks for taking one for the team like that," he continued. "That's twice you've bailed us out."

Tul-Pa went silent, considering his praise. "Whatever, Family Man," she replied sarcastically.

"Are you two done?!" C'bal pressed, snapping at them in his typically oily tone. "We have to leave!"

"There's a snow speeder in the Hanger. We just have to reach it and call for an extraction," Tul-Pa supplied. "Should be easy."

Evra's com-link buzzed. It was Carth.

"All republic forces pull back! Canopy Removal is in effect, I repeat, CANOPY REMOVAL IS IN EFFECT!" he yelled over the com-link as Evra paled slightly.

"What's Canopy Removal?" C'bal asked.

"Their gonna scour the surface with chemical weapons," Evra said. "We have ten minutes to get out of here."

The four rushed through the cramped tunnels with C'bal covering their six with a pistol.

"How do you know they're gonna use chemical weapons?" Tul-Pa asked.

"They did it on Dxun! I was there! Killed everyone in my whole platoon!" Evra answered. "Turned 'em to goo! Revan wouldn't use them afterwards!"

They reached the hangar bay and spotted the Executioner in his stolen Walker gunning down the last of of another Sith Commando squad.

"Hey guys! You REALLY gotta try this thing! I haven't had this much fun since Ares 3!" the Executioner guffawed. "Malak said he'd be back, so I called his mother a whore. What did you guys do?"

"Ex! Get out of that thing! The Republic's gonna hit this entire area with chemical weapons!" Evra barked.

"Ah. Prudent of them," the Executioner deactivated the Force field around his cockpit.

"We got an extraction?"

"I signalled for it two minutes ago. The shuttle they sent will be a kilometer north of the entrance to the base. We should-"

A blast from overhead startled the team.

A swarm of Sith Stalkers poured through the opening in the ceiling, blocking their way out of the base. More poured in from the hole in the wall that Malak's team had punched through.

The team formed a protective circle around the unconscious Bastila. Carra was the first to activate her blade, it's brilliant green in contrast to the blood red from the rest of her team.

The Stalkers seemed slightly taken aback by all this before they charged.

The next few minutes of the team's life were a cacophony of insanity, marked by bloodshed and cursing and yelling. Evra was the stubborn defender, barely blocking strikes from the cybernetic assassins, The Executioner was a force of chaos, spinning his double-saber wildly, laughing madly. C'bal used the knowledge he had acquired from a previous stalker whose brain he had eaten to cut a bloody swath through their ranks, using their own tactics against them. Tul-Pa was content to keep enemies at a distance with her light saber lance, occasionally surprising one by morphing her arm into a long black spike and impaling them through the skull.

Carra though...Carra was all power. Carra struck with a grace and a rage that years of cribbing off of Revan's memories had imparted, elegantly cutting down the Stalkers that attacked, until with a shout of exertion she unleashed a devastating Force pulse in front of her at the remaining stalkers.

The pulse destroyed the whole area. Star fighters still in their landing area were thrown all the way to the other side of the room. Machinery shattered from the pulse, and any remaining tunnels filled with debris like clogged arteries to a heart.

The Stalkers received the worst of it, however. Any Stalker that was in front of the pulse immediately dissolved to ash from the power slamming into them.

The rest of the Stalkers, having finally sensed that the day would not be theirs, tried to flee, only to be electrocuted by the combined Force lightning from the rest of the team.

"How much time did we lose?" Carra asked.

"Six minutes. We leave in the next thirty seconds or we don't leave at all," Evra barked.

Tul-Pa spotted the snowspeeder. It was a large and boxy, with some damage on one side and part of it's roof exposed, but it would do.

Not wasting a second, the team lifted Bastila and unceremoniously hauled her into the back seat, careful not to cause any more injury than they already had. C'bal crammed into the back while Carra and the Executioner got into the front. But they couldn't all fit in the vehicle. One would have to stay behind and find another way off.

For Evra, a choice between him or his team was no choice at all.

"Tul-Pa, you get in the back. I'm gonna find another way off this hell hole," Evra grunted.

"Just so you know, Family Man, there are no such thing as heroics," Tul-Pa snorted derisively.

"Not about heroics. It's about leadership," Evra replied. "Go. Now."

The pair stared at one another for a moment, knowing full well that Evra might have just assured his own demise.

Then, in a move that genuinely surprised him, Tul-Pa quickly kissed him on the cheek while the others backs were turned, still trying to hotwire the speeder so it would start.

"For luck," she explained, cramming herself into the back just as the speeder started up.

Evra watched the speeder fly off across the raging battlefield.

Taking a moment to remind himself that he was married, Evra quickly tried to think about how he was going to survive.

Then he spotted the walker the Executioner had been using. Chemical weapons were a vicious thing but he had yet to encounter a chemical weapon that would get past even the simplest force-field.

Running to it, he climbed into the cockpit, switching it on and began sweating as he heard the whine of the bombers overhead.

He tried to fiddle with the controls as he tried to get the thing to move, but it had been years since he had piloted a vehicle like this: he was lucky simply finding the switch that turned the force field on.

A blast from overhead caused the ceiling to cave in right on top of him. The last thing he saw was a wall of white roaring down on him and his stolen transport.

He awoke sometime later, the snow and rubble caking on top of the force field. It was very cold.

Evra dared not shut off his miraculously still functioning shield. There was no telling how much rubble was on top of him. He tried to extend his perceptions and to his relief found it was only a foot of snow, the real heavy stuff had by stroke of dumb luck simply managed a glancing blow. He also had a broken right arm, snapped just below the elbow.

He realized he needed to leave or he would die in this heavily armed coffin.

He shut off the force field, the snow dropped on him and for an instant everything went cold and he couldn't breathe. He punched his way upward with his left arm and dragged himself out of the walker.

The hangar around him was wrecked beyond repair, and the hole in the ceiling gave view to a dark grey sky.

Evra snorted. "Lucky me," he spat angrily. "I'm never coming to this frakking planet again if I can help it." He hoisted his carbine out of the cockpit and proceeded to look for a way out. He wasn't worried any longer about the chemical dispersal. The republic preferred to have them be effective in open air for up to twenty minutes before degrading, so they could move troops back in quickly. If they had still been active he would have been dead within seconds.

Evra slung his carbine over his shoulder, pulling out his pistol as he spotted the hole Malak's team had used to breach through the base. he exited out of it.

The blizzard had stopped, but that was hardly something to be thankful for.

The dead littered the battlefield. Republic and Sith alike lay at one another's feet, twisted in unnatural positions from the fighting or from the weapon the Republic had deployed. On the republic bodies he could see evidence of extreme necrosis. Whatever it was, it must have been horrific.

An erie silence covered everything. He couldn't hear the wind howling, didn't even feel a breeze.

Evra hadn't seen stuff like this since Dxun, and it was still just as terrible.

He averted his eyes, repulsing the urge to vomit.

"We're all going to pay for what we've done," he said out loud.

Just then, the whine of a shuttle engine pierced the silence, reminding him that someone else was alive.

It was the stealth shuttle. It set down a few yards away from him. Tul-Pa was on the other side of the shuttle hatch when it popped open.

"Need a lift?" she asked with her trademark smirk. The rest of his team was waiting inside also. "Hey boss!" C'bal exclaimed happily, waving at him.

Evra rolled his eyes, still fighting his disgust at what had happened here as he climbed aboard.

"It seems my little gesture wasn't misplaced," Tul-Pa said.

"Guess not," Evra replied, still remembering the kiss, how unexpectedly warm it had been.

He was still married, though.

"Let's get the frak outta here," he grunted, taking a seat next to Carra, who immediately began working on his arm with her powers.

Tul-Pa saw fit to sit a little closer to him as the shuttle sped off...