Jay could barely believe it when Governor Vonn pitched over the side of the podium, crumpling into a heap at the bottom of the stage. She jumped, startled out of her shock, as guests began screaming and moving to stand from their seats.

They didn't make it far; moments later the doors were blown inward, falling to the ground with loud crashes, smoke wafting into the room from the breach charges.

"Down!" Vhetin shouted, putting a hand on Jay's shoulder and shoving her to the ground as blasterfire slashed through the air above their heads. Jay covered her head, risking a glance up at the breached doors. Emerging from the smoke were masked intruders wearing black armor and holding standard-issue Imperial blasters. The fired into the crowd, taking out stormtrooper guards that dared to charge them.

"Come on," Vhetin said, kneeling and pulling a pistol from a holster on his belt. "We have to get to Vonn."

"What the hell happened?" she asked as they made their way in a crouched run for the podium, pushing their way through the panicking crowd. "Uruc wasn't supposed to attack from the inside!"

"She outsmarted us," Vhetin growled, shoving aside a screaming Rodian waiter. "Let us waste our time hardening defenses against an exterior assault while we should have focused our attention elsewhere."

They finally reached the podium, which had been knocked over by the panicking guests. Vonn's crumpled, limp form lay next to it, unmoving. Vhetin checked his pulse quickly, then shook his helmeted head.

"He's dead," he said.

"How?" Jay asked, wincing as three staccato blaster shots rang through the room, quickly followed by terrified wails.

Vhetin dabbed some of the Governor's spilled drink onto his gloved fingertips, then tapped them against a readout on his gauntlet. He stared at it for a moment, then nodded.

"Floroxide," he said as the chemical analysis came back. "Imperial-produced neurotoxin that's extremely lethal to humans when mixed with alcohol. Makes sense; Imperial Commandos have been using it for assassinations for years."

"She poisoned him? Why didn't we expect that?"

He shook his head in disgust and said, "Again, she had our attention focused on an all-out attack. She's never displayed this kind of subtlety before. She must have been saving this plan, biding her time for years."

Suddenly, two deafening blaster shots rang through the room, and everything went silent. Jay heard a woman's voice call, "Ladies and gentlemen, this party is officially over. Stay on the ground, stay quiet, and my associates and I will try to make this evening as quick and painless as possible."

"Uh-oh," Jay whispered, risking a quick peek over a tabletop. "Uruc."

Vhetin stared in the same direction, his helmet's flag-like rangefinder sliding down to eye-level with a quiet mechanical buzz. He surveyed the woman, who was guarded by a Twi'lek and a massive black-furred Wookiee, and nodded. "Yeah, that's her. Facial recognition confirms it."

"So what are you waiting for?" she said, gesturing at his helmet and the comm equipment she knew was housed inside. "Call law enforcement. Get them to block off this area and-"

He shook his head. "No good. This is a hostage situation, and if she gets a single glimpse of the local security force, she's going to kill everyone here."

"She doesn't intend to let anyone go anyway!" she whispered.

"But if we play our cards right," he said, putting his pistol away, "we might be able to capture her and her thugs with minimal casualties."

"What are you proposing we do?"

"Right now?" he shook his head. "We'll have to split up. You stay here, keep quiet, and do whatever they tell you. If you disobey, that just gives them more reason to shoot you."

"What about you?" she asked, staring at Uruc over the table. "You kind of stand out in a crowd. Mandalorians aren't exactly your typical Imperial citizen."

When he didn't answer, she looked over and said, "Vhetin?"

But he had disappeared. All she saw was his empty helmet, resting on the floor next to her and his armored flak vest and jetpack a few feet beyond that.

Jay turned back to Uruc, a smile tugging at her lips. So, Vhetin had decided to go plainclothes, blend in with the crowd, and strike when Uruc least expected it. Her smile grew wider as she thought, It may look like Uruc is in control, but when the time comes, she won't know what hit her.

She wished her partner good luck as she gathered up his fallen armor and tucked it underneath the podium for him to retrieve later.

But there was still a pretty major problem; in a room full of Imperial officers clothed in sharp-looking uniforms and elegant-looking dresses, a woman with pistol and an armorleather jacket also stood out. She'd have to find a way to blend in better.

So, as Uruc and her thugs began to comb through the crowd, ordering their captives to hand over any comm devices or weapons - as well as any valuables while they were at it - Jay snuck through the crowd and into a side hall. She froze and pressed up against a wall as she saw another of Uruc's thugs guarding the hall outside the main banquet room. As soon as the being had his back turned, she snuck across the hall and through the door into a fresher. She silently closed the door behind her and let out a long breath.

The fresher room was almost eerily silent compared to the pandemonium of the main restaurant room. All Jay could hear was the quiet hum of the electron lights above the washbasins.

Okay, she thought, shaking her head to clear it. Stay focused. Think of something. You've got to find some way to drawless attention to yourself. Some way to blend in, just like Vhetin did.

But ballroom dresses couldn't exactly be found in any old utility closet and without her jacket, she had no other clothes than her simple rough-material combat pants and a cloth tank top.

There may be other options, however...

She saw a side door leading to an employee's fresher, reserved for staff of the restaurant. She pushed through it quietly, her eyes roving all of the small room beyond. She let out a relieved breath as she saw a rack of waitress uniforms near one wall, stored so the fresher doubled as a changing room while the banquet was taking place.

Simple garments that were easy to overlook compared to some of the getups the Imperial guests were wearing, the uniforms consisted of a light blue blouse and skirt and moderately uncomfortable-looking shoes of the same color. They weren't exactly what someone would want to be wearing while taken hostage, seeing as how they offered nothing close to the protection her blaster-resistant jacket presented, but they were relatively inconspicuous and that served her purposes quite well.

Thank you, she thought as she rummaged through them, looking for a size that fit her. Thank you, thank you. This isjust what I was looking for.

As she pulled a uniform off the rack and slid off the plastisheet covering, she activated her ear-mounted comlink and whispered, "Floren. Floren, you there?"

"Thank the Emperor," came the young lieutenant's voice. He was stationed in the barricaded security outpost two floors up, monitoring the security cam feeds for anything suspicious, so he could warn the hunters before Uruc had a chance to pull anything. He had failed his job miserably. "You're alive."

"For the moment," Jay said, glancing over her shoulder, wary of anyone following her. The guard must not have heard her enter the fresher, so she was clear for now.

"Uruc's guards have taken the guests hostage!" Floren said, fear evident in his voice. "And the Governor is dead!"

Tell me something I don't know. She rolled her eyes, pulling off her jacket and tossing it in one corner. After a few moments, her belt, pistol, and holster followed it. She didn't want Uruc's Warriors to find a weapon on her. If they did, the consequences would be... severe.

"What's going on in there?" she asked him.

There was a pause over the comm, then he said, "Uruc's Warriors are rounding up the guests into the center of the room. There are several guests who are wounded..."

He gulped and added, "Several are dead."

That wasn't good. Any hope of melting back into the crowd as easily as she had left was now gone. She'd have to find a way around that.

"What about Vhetin or Brianna?" she asked, pulling her tank top over her head and replacing it with the light blue uniform blouse. "Can you see either of them?"

"No," came the quick response. "There are over a hundred guests. It's very difficult to pick out one from the other.

Finally, some good news. With so many guests, very few of them would stand out from the other. Jay hoped she would not be among those who were easily recognizable.

"W-what should I do?" Floren asked nervously. She could hear the sound of keys clacking in the background of his transmission.

"Keep an eye on the situation and keep me informed on what's going on," Jay said, tossing aside her pants and stepping into the uniform skirt. "If Uruc or her thugs do something, I want to know about it."

"What if they come up to the third floor?" he asked. "What if they try and get into the security station?"

"The doors of that place are over a meter thick of reinforced durasteel," she reassured him. "We reinforced them this afternoon, remember? It would take hours for even a lightsaber to cut through there."

"They may have that much time."

She sighed as she tied her hair up into a bun similar to the kind she'd seen waitresses use. "Then we'll worry about that eventuality when we come to it. In the meantime, keep an eye out up there and keep me posted. Moqena out."

She examined herself in the mirror, making sure her disguise was complete. She was quickly satisfied; she now looked exactly like one of the restaurant's many waitresses, and would surely draw little attention to herself.

That still didn't make her plan any less frightening. She couldn't exactly sneak back into the restaurant room; by now, Uruc's Warriors would have secured the doors. There was only one alternative.

Her heart was pounding as she stepped back into the normal fresher, then slammed the door open and stormed out into the hall beyond, cursing. As soon as she emerged into the hall, the black-armored guard spun and leveled his blaster at her.

"Who are you?" he snapped. "What're you doing?"

"My name is Leeli," she shot back with a glare. "And I'll tell you what the hell I'm doing; I'm going to go in that restaurant and give that bastard Poll a piece of my mind. I don't care if I have to karking shoot him in front of the entire karking restaurant! He thinks he can cheat on me with that damn Twi'lek? I don't think-"

He stepped forward and racked back the charging rod on the blaster, aiming the weapon at her forehead and growling, "No. You're coming with me."

The fear that showed on Jay's face was real, but she was lying through her teeth as she raised her hands and said, "Look, mister, I don't want any trouble. I just want-"

The guard interrupted her again and gestured with the rifle. "Move it, down the hall. And don't try anything funny."

She nodded quickly, hands still in the air, and walked down the hall, throwing sporadic fearful glances over her shoulder. "A-are you with security?" she stammered after a few long moments, trying to sell her cover story. "I wasn't really going to shoot Poll."

"Shut up," the guard growled. "Just walk."

After a few tense moments, she was led down the hall that surrounded the central restaurant room, lush red carpeting underfoot and extravagant paintings on the walls. The guard pressed the barrel of his rifle uncomfortably into the small of her back, but she continued to play the part of the innocent waitress.

"I-I don't want any t-trouble," she stammered as she forced her hands to tremble. "I just want-"

The guard shoved her around a corner, to a waiting group of black-armored thugs who were hauling a large durasteel crate through the front doors. Jay paused, staring at it for a moment.

That's not good, she thought. That has to be the hydro-conversion bomb. I have to warn Vhetin or Brianna.

Then the guard shoved her in the back again, towards the troopers.

"What've you got there?" one of them said as he looked up. Jay saw eerily sparkling violet eyes through the slits in the man's black facemask, and she shuddered.

"Some dumb waitress who wasn't on duty when we took the central room," Jay's guard growled. "I'm taking her back to the main group."

The violet-eyed thug stepped forward and squeezed Jay's face in his hand. He turned her head side to side, studying her with narrowed eyes. "I don't know," he said. "I think you should keep her. She's a pretty one."

Jay felt real fear now; becoming a plaything for Uruc's terrorists wasn't part of her plan. Luckily, her guard shook his masked head and said, "Uruc's orders. No taking prisoners for ourselves, remember?"

The violet-eyed thug sighed and released Jay's face, stepping back up to the crate. "Yeah," he grumbled as Jay sighed quietly in relief. "That's stupid. There's only like a fifty-fifty chance any of us are goin' to live through all this, so why can't we go out having some fun?"

"Uruc's orders," the guard repeated, prodding Jay in the back again and leading her away from the rest of the terrorists.

As she was led away, she heard the violet-eyed guard bark, "Move it you worthless schuttas! The boss wants this crate down in the basement as soon as possible!"

Gotcha, she thought as she was led away. I've got a location now. I just need to pass it on to someone who can get inthere and disable the bomb. If only I knew where Vhetin or Brianna are hiding out...

Her guard guided her through a pair of double-doors at the head of the hall, back into the main restaurant room. She stumbled slightly as he shoved her ahead of him, but regained her balance with difficulty. She had no idea how the restaurant waitresses walked around in these damn shoes, but it was selling her cover as the insignificant waitress, so she didn't mind too much.

The situation inside the center was much as Floren had told her; the hundreds of guests had been herded into a crowd near the center of the room. Some sat at tables, talking quietly among each other or crying to themselves, while others sat on the floor. Uruc's guards were prowling the perimeter of the group, occasionally kicking at their prisoners or brandishing their weapons.

Uruc was standing near the front doors to the room, consulting a holographic readout that sprang from her single mechanical arm. She was still joined by the huge Wookie and the purple-skinned Twi'lek, and was speaking with them in hushed tones. They turned as they heard approaching footsteps.

The Wookiee barked slightly and Uruc raised an eyebrow as she surveyed Jay and the guard. She folded her arms across her chest and tapped her foot.

"What's the meaning of this?" she asked the guard.

"Caught this waitress in the fresher, ma'am," the guard replied. "She wasn't with the main group when we stormed the central room."

Uruc turned to Jay and frowned. "What were you doing in there? Planning to call law enforcement?"

"N-no," she whimpered. "I... I had just learned that my boyfriend was cheating-"

"Enough," Uruc said, raising her mechanical hand for silence. "Just shut up and get with the rest of the group."

The guard led her toward the rest of the hostages, then planted a boot in her back and kicked her into the crowd. She cried out in surprise as she crashed into a table and fell to the floor in a clatter of dishes and silverware.

She was instantly helped up by the rest of the hostages, who repeatedly asked if she was all right. She nodded and shook hair out of her face as she said, "I'm fine. I'm fine."

She cast one last glance over her shoulder, at the rest of the guards, and made sure no one was watching her as she slipped into the crowd.

I need to find Vhetin or Brianna, she thought. And warn them about the bomb.

She activated her comm and whispered, "Floren. Floren, where are you?"

"I'm here," came the response. "What's wrong?"

"Are you karking blind up there?" she demanded. "Why didn't you warn me that Uruc's thugs are bringing the bomb into the building?"

"They are?" Floren sounded genuinely surprised. "I had no idea!"

"Why not?"

"They're covering the security cams as they travel through the restaurant," he replied. "They have blocked almost all of them, save for Cin Vhetin's hidden cams."

"And where are those?"

There was a pause, then Floren replied, "There are four of them: one hidden in the kitchens, one in the maintenance room on the second floor, one outside the security station, and one hidden in the ventilation shaft above the central room where the hostages are being held."

Jay looked up at the large durasteel ventilation shaft, then said, "Do Vhetin or Brianna have their comms activated?"

"I'm getting no reading from either," Floren replied. "I do not know why."

"Can you see either of them?" she asked.

"I can tell you the location of Miss Bellan, if that would help-"

"It would," Jay replied. She had to warn someone about the bomb, and soon. She looked up at the ventilation shaft and waved, careful not to make the motion noticeable to any guards who would be watching.

"Do you see me?" she asked, continuing to wave.

There was a long pause, then Floren said, "Yes. I can pick you out from the crowd. Why are you dressed as one of the waitresses?"

"Long story," she said. "Just lead me to Brianna."

"As you wish," he replied.

As Floren guided her through the crowd, Jay didn't have the slightest idea how any of them were going to make it out of this alive. She hoped Vhetin was having better luck doing whatever it was he had planned.

Vhetin currently didn't have a plan as he snuck down one of the dark hallways on the second floor, which was almost entirely reserved for the kitchens. The power had been shut down to this floor when Uruc and her Warriors had entered the building, and it looked like the cooks and the few undercover security forces were the first to be taken hostage. Bodies were strewn across the floor or sprawled across countertops. It wasn't a pretty scene.

Vhetin had been forced to leave his armor behind in the restaurant for the sake of subtlety, and he was missing his HUD systems with every second. He unintentionally kept glancing towards the top left corner of his vision, where he would usually find his motion tracker.

He felt naked and blind without his beskar'gam, but he had done plainclothes ops before; he was out of his comfort zone, not helpless. Thankfully, he had brought a pistol and one of his lightsabers with him, so he wasn't completely defenseless. He still looked like a wayward hostage, though, and that wasn't good at all. He needed a disguise, something that would let him travel uninterrupted throughout the building. Maybe...

Something clanked behind him, sounding suspiciously like a footfall, and he spun, leveling his pistol. He saw a dark form standing behind him and his mind went blank; he just attacked. He jumped forward, throwing a shoulder into the being's chest and driving it back against a supply closet.

However, his shoulder didn't catch armor or unprotected flesh, instead slamming violently against hard metallic plating.

With a cry of surprise, a black-and-silver masculine protocol droid staggered back and crashed against a cabinet, arms flailing.

"Oh my!" the droid said as it sprawled on its back and struggled to right itself. "What in the name of the Empire are you doing?"

Vhetin glanced up and down the hall, making sure no one had heard the commotion, then hauled the heavy droid to its feet.

"Sorry," he said. "I thought you were... someone else."

"Undoubtedly you believed I was one of the intruders," the droid said, its vocoder inflection making it sound surprisingly sullen. "I cannot say as I am surprised. You are, after all, only organic and therefore prone to such mistakes."

Vhetin glared at the droid and said, "Stow the backtalk. Why are you still wandering around up here?"

"The intruders allowed me to go free after some... roughhousing," the droid explained, stepping into the flickering light of a glowlamp and showing him several dents and scratches on its black-painted attendant casing. This droid was one of the restaurant staff. "It will take weeks to get all these imperfections from my person. I won't be able to walk straight for-"

"Enough," Vhetin interrupted. "Did you manage to hear anything from Uruc's thugs while you were there? Did they say anything?"

"They said many things, organic," the droid replied, fixing him with a blank stare from its round photoreceptors. "I hardly think-"

"Anything about the hostages?"

"No."

"Anything about a bomb? A hydro-conversion bomb?"

"No."

Vhetin sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Okay... What's your name? Your designation?"

"TX-22. The cooks refer to me as 'Tex,'" the droid said. "A deplorable name, even by organic standards, but-"

Vhetin ignored the droid's ramblings and turned away, activating the hands-free comm bead he had taken with him. He had kept it switched off for the last few minutes, as he needed his concentration and he couldn't risk any nearby guards overhearing the transmission. Here, on the deserted second floor, there wasn't much chance of that.

"Brianna," he said into the comm. "Jay. Do either of you read me?"

"Jay here," came the almost instantaneous response. "Where the hell have you been?"

"I've been busy," he replied. "I managed to sneak out of the main restaurant room. I'm up on the second floor."

"Thank the Emperor," she sighed in relief, apparently forgetting her hatred of the Empire for a moment. "I have really important news."

"What?"

"It's a long story, but I managed to get into a disguise and had one of the guards escort me back into the restaurant room. While he was taking me back, I saw the other thugs bringing a big durasteel crate into the building. Three guesses what's inside."

"The hydro-conversion bomb," Vhetin muttered. "Great. Did you hear where they were taking it?"

"The guy who was in charge just said to bring it to the basement. Sorry Stripes."

"That's all right; we still have time," he said. "Maybe."

"Do you think you can find it in time and... I don't know, defuse it?"

Vhetin glanced at the protocol droid, a thoughtful frown crossing his face. "Yeah... I think I might be able to."

"Okay," Jay said with a sigh. "Good luck. Jay out."

Vhetin switched off the comm, then turned to the protocol droid, who was staring at him expectantly.

"Tex," he said slowly, "can you track the comm channels of Uruc's soldiers and see where they're taking a piece of cargo? A crate?"

"The intruders?" the droid's photoreceptors flashed, making it look as if it was blinking. "I can... but what would-"

"These 'intruders' are going to set off a bomb that'll kill everyone in this city if I don't stop them," Vhetin said tersely. "So I need to find this bomb to defuse it."

"Oh," the droid said. It paused, then said, "Oh. Why, yes. I believe I can track this bomb with ease."

"Good," Vhetin said. He turned away, activating a different secure channel.

"Floren," he said, "come in."

"Here," came the officer's reply.

"Track any security cams that show a group of soldiers hauling a big durasteel crate. When they stop and start unpacking the crate, I need you to tell me where they are."

"I can do that," Floren said.

"Excuse me," Tex said, sounding moderately indignant. "But I was under the impression that you just tasked me with that job."

"I need a backup plan," Vhetin explained quickly as he once again shut down the comm unit. "Something that'll allow me to increase my chances of finding it."

"Oh."

He gestured to the hall ahead of them and said, "So go ahead; lead on."

Tex's glowing photoreceptors dimmed for a moment as it pulled power to a different function, then it jerked like a human when slapped and gestured down a side hall and said, "The intruders with this bomb are two levels down, in sub-basement one. I will lead you to their location."

Vhetin took a deep breath, flexed his fingers over the grip of his blaster, then followed the droid into the dark hall.