Druckenwell - the BlasTech Industries Manufacturing Facility

Mara, alias Arica, skillfully maneuvered her hover-fork lift and loaded one more crate of blasters aboard the bulk freighter. She had kept her eyes open her whole shift and never noticed or spotted anyone moving single blasters, powercells, blaster packs or components suspiciously to another location. In addition, the ISB agent had not contacted her with any information either. When the lunch time hour rolled around, she ate alone - until Yance suddenly showed up. Smiling brightly, she said, "Hi Yance. I haven't seen you all day. Where have you been?"

Yance was blushing and looked just a little uncomfortable. "I've been around. How are you feeling after last night?"

"Surprisingly well;" chuckled Mara. "It's a wonder what water, caff and a pair of electrolyte tablets can do for you. How about you?"

He nodded and Mara put a convincing frown on her face. "Is everything alright?"

The big fellow nodded and asked rather hesitantly, "How much do you remember from last night?"

Mara giggled and said, "I remember the bar and drinking - a lot. I remember that you were being a giant worry wart, constantly asking if I was sure I wanted to drink more and never really going further than arm's length from me. You're a good friend, Yance."

That seemed to help him feel just a little bit better. "Do you remember heading home?"

Mara put another frown on and said, "Not really."

Suddenly, she put her hands over her mouth a forced a blush into her cheeks. "Oh no! Did I go home with someone?"

Yance lifted his hands reassuringly. "No, no! You got safely back to your apartment, that I can promise. It's just that... well... I walked you back to make sure that you were okay and..." and he seemed to be struggling with how to word his next statement.

Mara buried her face in her hands and groaned. "I came on to you, didn't I?"

Yance nodded and said, "Yeah. You invited me to stay the night, actually."

"I am SO sorry! I didn't want to put you in that position;" insisted Mara earnestly. "And thank you so much for looking out for me, Yance."

"Of course, Arica;" said the big fellow, patting her small hand reassuringly.

Mara smiled gratefully and looked down at her food in mock-shyness. "You know, as far as I'm concerned, it could have been a lot worse."

Yance chuckled and said, "Yeah it could have. Another, more slimy guy could have walked you home."

"Exactly;" said Mara with a smile.

Despite the fact that Mara thought they had cleared the air, Yance still seemed uncomfortable. "Did I do something else?" she asked just a little nervously.

"No, that was it. It's just..." again, he struggled.

Mara smiled and said, "You know, Yance, even if I was drunk, it wasn't just the alcohol talking. I mean, I was pretty wasted but you've been so nice that... well..."

Yance was blushing and looking away. Finally, she said, "Would you like to go to dinner some time? Just the two of us, I mean."

The big fellow hesitated and then grinned. "You know what? I'd like that a lot. I can't tonight, though. It's my youngest brother's birthday party and I have to help my mom with the celebration plans. She won't get off shift until just before the party."

Mara's eyes widened. "Your mother works here too?"

"Yeah; me, my mom, my two older sisters and one of my younger brother all work here on different parts of the line. There really isn't much else to do in the area as far as jobs go. My dad died during an industrial accident. The life insurance checks help out a little but there were seven of us and that's a lot of mouths to feed. Plus my youngest brother has some medical problems and healthcare isn't cheap either, even with the benefits from the factory so as many of us have to work as possible. Even so, we get by and are putting a little bit away with each check to make sure that my youngest brother and sister can maybe even go to university."

Mara listened in fascination. It wasn't often she had to work in the lower to lower-mid levels of Imperial society. Normally her undercover work was to military installations, government offices or administrative centers of any given world. This was, by far, the lowest position she had ever pretended to be in.

On one side, it was refreshing and enlightening. On another, it caused her to realize just how fortunate she had been to be raised in the palace, no need to worry about small things like money or healthcare. Even when it came to worrying about her brother, it wasn't a huge issue. Galen had the force and rarely got more than the odd scratch during any of his various missions.

Clearing her throat, Mara smiled and said, "Well I hope you have a good time at your brother's birthday party. Let me know when works best for dinner and we can go to that diner - you know, the Corellian place."

Yance smiled and patted her small hand again. "That would be great."

Mara forced a blush again and stood. "Thanks again, Yance. Now, I really should get back to work. Those freighters won't load themselves."

Yance chuckled behind her. As she headed back to her loader, her fake earpiece, a small device that looked like a one of the plugs meant to protect one's hearing, chimed and Lieutenant Jenk said, "Emperor's Hand, we think we might have something. Every once in a while, there is a blaster, power pack, blaster component or energy cell that doesn't meet Imperial standard. What we picked up is that, over the passed few years, the numbers of unacceptable products have gradually risen. If I were to hazard a guess, they take perfectly good weapons, components or what have you and smuggle them out before packing them, loading them and shipping them from another location. Send confirmation as soon as you can."

Mara reached up as if brushing aside her hair and sent the code. That done, she went back to work. After receiving this news, she was really quite happy that Yance wasn't able to do dinner that night. She would have had to come up with a viable excuse as to why she suddenly had to cancel and that would have been a major pain.

Orbit over Imbaar - Sienar Fleet Systems Research Station

"This is insane;" muttered Luke as he and his commandos slipped through the maintenance shafts and corridors.

Kyle Katarn chuckled. "This is the best way to go about it, trust me. We avoid suspicion and as long as we're careful, any sensors or scanners or droids will assume we're just maintenance crew working on some system or another."

"How much further to the cloaking field control center?" asked Col, just a little anxiety becoming evident in his voice.

Luke turned to Artoo. "Where are we at, buddy?"

With a couple of beeps, the droid projected a holographic diagram of the station. A tiny orange dot signified their position while a section of the map blinked green, indication their objective. "Alright, not too far;" said Luke. "Hopefully we'll be able to find a lift."

The droid whistled again and this time, a red vertical line blinked, indicating a maintenance lift. "Hey, look at that!" said Col with a chuckle. "You're little friend was thinking ahead."

"He has a mind of his own;" chuckled Luke.

They moved on through the facility, going into the main hallways and corridors only when they absolutely had to and placing the requisite homing beacons everywhere as they did. The closer they got to the control center, the more anxious they all became.

Darth Starkiller was very impressed with the Phantom TIE Fighters. Admiral Sarn had been absolutely correct in suggesting that a mediocre squadron flying them would be superior to a far more elite squadron flying advanced fighters. There ability to use their stealth field generators, shut them down, fire, and reactivate them was marvelous. "You have done exceedingly well, gentlemen;" said the Dark Lord. "I will send a full report to your superiors and to my father. I am certain he will be most pleased."

Suddenly, he frowned. He could sense something - a disturbance in the force. There was someone close by who was very strong in the force, possibly even two someones. What's more, one of them was familiar, though he couldn't place where from. Admiral Sarn and Grand Admiral Batch exchanged glances. The latter was about to make sure everything was okay but the former managed to ask first, "My Lord, is there a problem?"

Starkiller snapped back to the present and said, "There is a disturbance in the force. I think we have intruders on this station."

Immediately, Admiral Sarn pulled his comlink and began ordering a security sweep. Grand Admiral Batch resisted the urge to roll his eyes, instead electing to say, "With all do respect your mysterious and no-doubt considerable talents, my Lord, who would be insane enough to sneak aboard an Imperial Station?"

Starkiller gave him an amused if mildly reproachful look. "I believe it was about two years back now, Admiral. General Rahm Kota infiltrated a station not too unlike this one and managed to make a mess of it before I managed to stop him. Even after I did, the station had to be scrapped due to the amount of damage to it. While I doubt it's the general this time, I sense one being or perhaps more than one being who are strong in the force. We may have some of Kota's forcelings running a mission for him."

Grand Admiral Batch still looked skeptical but Admiral Sarn said, "My lord, I'm having Navy Commandos and Stormtroopers run a sweet of the whole station, reporting in as each section is cleared. If we have enemies aboard, they won't be able to hide."

Starkiller nodded slowly before saying, "Take me to the main manufacturing section of the station and the main control area of that section."

"Of course, my lord."

During his attack on the facility of Nar Shadda, Kota had sent troops to the main plant's control center to try and sabotage it before the general himself went to the main command tower of the whole facility. It wouldn't hurt to check and see if history was going to repeat itself.

The Rebels were ascending towards the command level of the station when Artoo suddenly beeped frantically. The slicer they had brought with them said rather excitedly, "He says that security is on to us and that Navy Commandos and Stormtroopers are searching the station one section at a time."

Luke cursed and said, "Well, we made it further than I thought we would. Once we get our destination level, we got to the main hallway. It will be much less suspicious than being caught in a maintenance corridor."

Kyle and Col both nodded. As soon as they reached the main level, the went into the main corridor, thankful that there were no security holo cams or Imperials around to catch them. "As soon as we get inside, the shooting is most likely going to start;" muttered Kyle. "Get yourselves ready."

They all braced themselves as they came up to the stealth field generator control room door. With weapons drawn, they entered and froze at the sight before them. Inside were a dozen engineers, four troopers, a pair of black uniformed officers and one of the olive-drab uniformed officers. Thinking on his feet, Kyle said, "Alright, I need everyone to go to the back wall and have their ID cards and code cylinders ready. Admiral Sarn seems to think there is a breach and we need to check everyone's credentials."

There is no way that is going to work, thought Luke as he casually lowered and holstered his blaster.

To his unending shock, the engineers left their station and they all lined up, ID card and personal code cylinders out and ready. Kyle pulled a datapad and began working his way down the line while Artoo inconspicuously went to a terminal jack and plugged in. The slicer went right up to the command system and began to work. "Excuse me!" said one of the blacked uniformed officers, "but that is heavily restricted!"

"He's making sure there hasn't been any tampering with the system;" growled Kyle. "We have a report that rebels have infiltrated the station. As crazy as it sounds, Admiral Sarn doesn't want to take even the smallest chance since both Grand Admiral Batch and Darth Starkiller are on station for inspection."

The officer hesitated and then nodded, though he still looked quite anxious. The officer in the olive-drab uniform wasn't so easily impressed. "And who are you, Officer?"

Kyle scowled at him. "Major Klief of the ISB, Commander and I suggest you keep your questions to yourself. We all have a job to do and your needless and foolish suspicion of a fellow officer in the Imperial military is wasting time. Now show me your credentials and we'll let you get back to your work."

The commander nodded. "Apologies, Major. I assure you that you will find everything in order."

"I have no doubt;" said Kyle, "but we have our orders."

When he had finished the line of personnel, pretending to check their information but, in reality, just downloading all of it, he turned to his team. The slicer and astro droid were back in line. "All set, Tech Sergeant?" he asked.

The slicer nodded. "Yes sir. The system's clean. I can assure you that no one will find anything wrong with that system."

"Good;" said Kyle.

Turning back to the Imperials, he said, "Return to your posts, Gentlemen. We're through here."

The Imperials hurried back to their equipment as Luke, Kyle and the others quickly, though not suspiciously so, left the control room. As soon as the door closed behind them, the slicer murmured, "I wasn't lying. They won't find a thing wrong with that system. However, I back fed the power through the couplings to the reactor. If they try to power it up again, it will cause the system to fail. While I did that, Artoo-Deeto reprogrammed the system to automatically hard-shutdown when the system fails. When they try to start it back up, whole system will have to go through a diagnostic and a test sequence which will include testing the cloaking field. That will just start the whole cycle over again."

Kyle chuckled. "And for all they know, it's just a bug that needs worked out. Great job, you two. I like your droid, Skywalker. He's a devious little guy."

Artoo's responding whistles and beeps were clearly smug to anyone who knew just a little binary. "Alright;" said Luke, "what do you think we should do next, Kyle?"

"Hey, you're the one in charge here, Kiddo. I'm just the expert here on all thing Imperial."

"Exactly," said Luke, "and that means, you have a better idea than me on how to blow this station - especially in such a way that will, at the very least, drop that super star destroyer's shields."

Kyle chewed the inside of his cheek for just a moment before shrugging. "Alright, I have an idea. We should get to the main reactor monitoring chamber. We should be able to-"

"All of you, stop!" came a sudden command from behind them.

They turned around and found themselves face to face with an Imperial High Inquisitor and four Shadow Guards. "Aww blast!" muttered Kyle before calmly asking, "How might I help you, Inquisitor Tremayne?"

Lord Starkiller stood in the primary manufacturing control center, watching as the officers and engineers and techs worked diligently at their stations to maintain control. He was impressed with what he saw but something was making him uneasy. He had sent Tremayne and his Shadow Guards to scour the station, using their knowledge of the force to try to track down the rebels and more specifically, the force sensitive individual or individuals that were with them. "As you can see, my Lord," said Admiral Sarn, no doubt fishing for praise or affirmation of some kind, "Our systems have been upgraded so that the added step of building and applying the cloaking device barely adds any time to the manufacturing process. It takes us only one fifth more time to produce a TIE Phantom than it does a standard TIE fighter."

The Dark Lord smiled and decided that the Admiral had earned a little approval. "You are doing very well, Admiral and your technical team should be commended for their work. The Emperor will be most pleased with my report."

"Thank you, my Lord;" said the Admiral.

He sounded perfectly professional but Starkiller could sense the man's relief and pride.

Turning to Grand Admiral Batch, Starkiller was about to inquire as to the current status of some of his other weapons projects when his comlink chimed. As he reached for it, he felt the disturbance in the force intensify. Something had just happened and it need his immediate attention. "Admiral Batch, I want you to ready your security detail for battle. There are intruders on the station and we cannot allow them to hinder or stop the work being done here."

Before the Grand Admiral could respond, Starkiller answered his comlink. "This is Lord Starkiller."

"My Lord, it's Tremayne. We've found the rebels but they are putting up stiff resistance."

Starkiller immediately headed to towards the door. "What is your location? I will be there shortly."

"My Lord;" came Admiral Sarn's startled call.

The Dark Lord turned and gaped for just a moment. Outside of the Imperial blockade, a lone rebel cruiser, an aged MC75 Star Cruiser at that, floated in space. Darth Starkiller could sense him on board. The old man was there - Master Rahm Kota. Immediately, the rebels aboard the station were forgotten. Starkiller cut off the connection with Tremayne and commed his pilot. "Juno, get the Rogue Shadow ready. I have an old score to settle."

"But my lord-" protested Grand Admiral Batch.

"You are a Grand Admiral of his Excellency's military, yes?" snapped Lord Starkiller. "I should seriously hope that a handful of rebels will not be able to escape you for long aboard your own station. There is a Jedi aboard that ship and I intend to end him."

With a quick stride, the Dark Lord was gone. Grand Admiral Batch quickly stepped to the comms unit. "I want an alert to all security personnel. Send teams to every research station, every command or control center and to every hanger. Lock them down. If anyone up to and including myself tries to enter, they must be verified."

When he received his confirmation, he turned to Admiral Sarn. "I will be returning to my ship and will coordinate with you there. Since Lord Starkiller is focused on his Jedi pray, I will also take command of the defensive fleet in case any more rebel ships appear."

"Yes sir;" said Admiral Sarn.

Aboard the MC75 Star Cruiser Arbalist

Rahm Kota gazed out at the double-fleets and Star Dreadnought before. He could already sense Darth Starkiller's hate, even across the expanse of space. Turning to X2, he smiled and said, "You'll have to take command from here, Son. This operation is important and I must draw Darth Starkiller away from it or else the whole thing will go up in fire and force lightning."

X2 hesitated but then nodded. "I'll see this done, General."

"Good man. Now comm the hanger and tell them to have a spare ship ready. I'm heading down to the planet below."

X2 obeyed wordlessly as the old man left him the bridge. After he had made sure that Kota would have a ship, he prepared to comm the boarding units when the comms officer called, "Sir, we have a call from Sergeant Saren"

X2 hurried over and answered, "This is Commander X2. Report, Sergeant."

"Commander, I'm afraid to tell you this but the General's plan has already been thrown for a bit of a loop but I think it will help us save lives."

X2 frowned. "Explain what you mean, Sergeant."

"Well this base isn't just a supply base. They have a HVs-2 Hypervelocity cannon down here. After the commando team sabotages the station itself, hopefully completely destroying it, and gets off, we can use it to shred what's left of the star dreadnought. If you'll take my advice, Commander, leave your boarding troops where they are and keep your fighters ready to defend the Arbalist or get our commandos off station and off planet."

X2 considered her words and said, "I'll agree with you but keep me informed, Sergeant. Also, the General is heading planetside. He expects Starkiller to come directly after him and it leading him away from our operation."

"Is he insane?" asked Rianna. "No disrespect to the General but... but..."

"I know;" said X2. "All he can hope to do is slow Darth Starkiller down. Do not, I say again, DO NOT interfere, Sergeant. We need to trust General Kota."

It was clear that she was unhappy about it but the Twi'lek sergeant said, "Understood, Commander. We'll stay put and I'm going to have this big gun ready to start shredding those Imperial starships."

"Good girl;" said X2. "Be carefully, Rianna."

"You too, Commander. Sergeant Saren out."

X2 turned and faced the Imperial fleet and station, his uneasiness growing into a hard knot in his stomach.

Orbit over Imbaar - Sienar Fleet Systems Research Station

Luke faced off against the High Inquisitor. He had already eliminated three of the four Shadow Guards and the fourth one had been gunned down by Kyle Katarn. "Col, take them to the objective. I'll hold off this dark sider;" commanded Luke.

Col didn't want to leave the young rebel behind but he also knew that the mission had to come first. "Let's go."

They pulled back, leaving Luke along with High Inquisitor Tremayne. The Imperial sneered at him. "Boy, you're out f your league. Stand aside and surrender or suffer the very painful consequences."

"I can't do that;" Luke said, not bothering to waste his breath on any more unnecessary talk.

The young Jedi allowed himself to sink into the force as his opponent moved in to attack. Again, the force revealed to him his enemy's flaws and Luke struck before Tremayne had the chance. But the High Inquisitor was far more experienced than the young Jedi and was able to defend against his assault before counter attacking.

"You're skilled, Boy. You would make a valuable addition to Emperor Vader's Dark Jedi Corp. I'll wager I could even get Lord Starkiller to take special interest in you."

"Not going to happen;" said Luke before renewing his attack.

Tremayne drove him down towards the direction that the other rebels had gone. Realizing this, Luke managed to back down the other direction, ducking into through a set of doors and into what appeared to be a internal rail system for the station. Thinking fast, Luke leaped backwards, flipping as he did onto a large container or something or another heading to another part of the facility. Just before the rail car left, Tremayne jumped on and joined him. "If you are hoping to lead me away from your rebel friends, you're deluding yourself. My job is to track Jedi and your rebel friends will simply be stopped by Grand Admiral Batch's personal guard. I will deal with you and they will deal with your friends."

Luke felt the stirrings of unease in his stomach but pushed it away. He had a job to do. As Tremayne advanced, Luke blasted him with a telekinetic blast before rushing forward, taking advantage of throwing his opponent off balance. The Inquisitor managed to hold him off until her fully regained his balance and sent torrents of force lightning at the young man. Luke managed to block the attack with his lightsaber before they reengaged with their blades and rail whirred through station.

Col and his commandos ran into the main reactor chamber control room, blasting everyone who was in there, not even giving them a chance to make a defense. "Alright, get to it. We need to find a way to set this thing to blow. Remember, we still need time to get off this station."

"You got it;" said the slicer.

He and the droid jumped to work and on the system while coal and the others jammed the doors and readied for any defense. The slicer whistled. "This is going to take awhile;" he said.

"We might not have awhile but do what you can;" said Col, readying his blaster.

Time seemed to crawl by as they waited for something, anything, to happen. To Col's surprise, their slicer said, "We almost have something worked out. Just a coulpe more minutes."

As if his words had been a warning that the Imperials suddenly decided to heed, the door began to clang and grind. "Get ready, boys;" said Col.

After the grinding and clanging stopped, the hiss of a plasma cutter was heard and they could see the door beginning to glow. "They'll have shaped charges too;" murmured Kyle.

Suddenly, he straightened and said, "And that gives me an idea."

From his satchel, he pulled a pair of proximity charges. "What the hell?" asked Col.

"I have a bad habit of gathering up and carrying weapons and equipment I come across. Let me see."

He ran to the door, even as the sparks flew, and set the charges, activating their motion sensors before backing up quickly and jumping behind a console. The slicer ducked down too and said, "Done. Now we just need to get out of here."

The charges suddenly blew the door outward towards the Imperials. Before the smoke even cleared, the rebel commandos began to pour fire through the smoking hole. To their shock, Skywalker's little Astro droid rolled to the door and sprayed his fire suppressant into the corridor, effectively giving the rebels a smoke screen. "Let's go!" said Col.

They rushed through the breach and blasted anything that moved in the smoke before rushing towards the nearest maintenance shaft. "Time to try and disappear again;" murmured Col.

Turning to the slicer, he said, "So what did you two do?"

The slicer chuckled. "I drained the coolant reservoirs. That in and of itself won't do much except cause all none critical systems to shut down. All that will be left is life support and internal lights and it will take awhile for it to get there. I also rerouted a lot of power to the defenses. I we were to stop on the way back at one of the turbolaser batteries, we could probably rig them to open fire on the star dreadnought. What that's going to do it cause the main reactor to continue to heat. Now, if I can find a way to force the main reactor to keep working without its coolant, it will eventually go critical. Even if this station doesn't explode outright, it won't be worth scrap when everything is finished."

"What's to stop them from reversing it?" asked Col.

The slicer shrugged. "Nothing, I guess, but I hid my tracks pretty well. They'd have to find the problems and fix them and that's easier said than done. Hey Katarn, I don't suppose you'd know the Imperial procedure for a situation like this."

"Not a clue;" said Kyle. "Come on. Let's keep going.

Druckenwell - the BlasTech Industries Manufacturing Facility

Mara slipped back into Lieutenant Jenk's officer. "Report, Lieutenant;" she said, heading over to a vacant station.

"We've managed to figure something out. At first, we ignored those components that looked like they were heading towards the scrap bins but it didn't take long for us to discover that they all headed that way. In fact, when we took a look, it seemed as though all of the parts taken away made their way to the scrap bins. So, we followed the scrap bins and that is where we discovered something interesting."

Mara went stood and went to watch over the technician's shoulder. "And that is?"

"The waste is all taken to a scrapper contracted to melt it back into raw materials and redistribute it around the facility again. They require that no less than eighty percent of the material hauled off is returned and it's always more than that but never even close to a hundred."

Mara frowned. "Shouldn't that always be a red flag?"

"Not necessarily. Sometimes the material has to be completely disposed of or can't be reused for its originally intended purpose. If less the eighty percent is returned, a report explaining the situation has to be filled out explaining why. If it isn't enough to satisfy the plant overseer, an investigation is launched. It's never happened, not since the upgrades were made to this facility."

Mara nodded slowly. "So our next stop will be the scrapper."

"Yes, my lady."

Mara nodded. "Alright, continue your observations. I'm going to get my commando team down here and we're going to take a look at what this guy is up to."

"As you will, Lady Jade."

The shuttle touched down and eight specialized Imperial commandos in black, special stormtrooper armor strode down the ramp, led by the Dark Jedi Knight Sa Cuis. "Ready to serve, Lady Jade;" said the stocky Dark Jedi.

"Good; let's go."

They headed towards the contractor's place of business and, without even bothering to knock, spiked the door. It hissed open silently and the commandos filed in with absolutely flawless precision. "I want your weapons on stun, do you understand?" hissed Mara.

The commandos murmured assent and she heard eight clicks as the weapons switched over. The front of the place, a reception area with an office on either side and a hall that lead towards the back, was unsurprisingly empty. After each office was cleared, they filed down the hall, clearing every room from side to side. As they advanced, they heard voice beyond a set of double doors. When they reached them, Mara lifted her hands and leaned against the wall, listening. Using the force to heighten her senses, she listened to what was said.

The first voice said, "We have an irregularly large haul tonight. There a reason for that, Kid?"

"No;" came a second and very familiar voice. "that is, nothing especially. We just heard that several of our freighter pilots would be here so we tried to get enough to fill all of them."

"Well the big wigs should be glad to see all this. Chewie and I will take the weapons to our ships and get going. You take care of yourself and your family, Yance."

Shock filled Mara's system for just a moment before she dialed her senses back to normal and growled, "Right, let's move!"

She opened the doors and the Commandos rushed in. Before she even had the chance to demand a surrender, a tall, familiar looking man in a black leather vest and blue pants with a Corellian bloodstripe, opened fire, bringing two of the commandos down. "Get out of here kid!" he said, and Mara realized that his voice sounded familiar too.

The shop was empty. There were no crates of weapons and the tall man was making a retreating fight of it. Mara went after him, yelling, "Cuis, find out who's still here and apprehend them. I'm after that smuggler!"

She raced after the man, following him through a door and into a back alley. Two blasts spat duracrete near here face and shrapnel stung her cheek but she kept after him. The smuggler, whoever he was, was fast and smart, throwing trash containers and compactors to try and slow her down but Mara was agile, able to avoid the majority of it. He rounded a corner and moments later, she followed, just into to see the smuggler jump into a speeder truck driven by a Wookiee with crates in the back of it. Even as she charged, it roared off. At first, she thought to try and put a burst of force powered speed and roar after it. Instead, she grabbed her comlink and contacted the local space sport authority. "This is Emperor's Hand Mara Jade, recognition code Hapspir, Barrini, Corbolan, Triaxis. I want the whole spaceport shut completely down."

There was the briefest of pauses before the Imperial officer at the port said, "Of course, my Lady. If you'll excuse me a moment."

Mara waited, tapping her foot anxiously before electing to head back towards the scrap shop. Just before she entered, the officer on her comms came back. "It's being locked down right now, Lady Jade. Should we be searching for anything in particular?"

"Go through every ship that is not an official government vessel and search its holds. Scan it too. We're looking for crates of Blastech weapons from the plant."

"Will do, my lady. Anything?"

Mara was about to say no when she remembered something. "Yes; look specifically for YT-1300 freighters."

"Of course my lady. Port Authority out."

Mara strode back in and found her commandos guarding a dozen individuals, including her coworker and friend, Yance. She marched right up to him and said, "Hello, Yance. We have a lot to talk about, it would seem."

Yance's expression wasn't angry or scared. In fact, it was calm and resigned. Mara looked a Sa Cuis. "I want him put in one of the offices. I'll interrogate him myself. The rest of them, I want locked in the local prison. Contact the garrison commander and have him send squads and vehicles to pick them up."

"Of course, my Lady;" replied the Dark Jedi Knight.

As her underling began issuing orders, Mara studied Yance, beginning to realize that he was like her - something completely other than what he seemed.