A small warning to my fellow Star Wars fans; the following contains spoilers for the new Republic Commandos Book, Order 66. The next few may as well. Spoilers should be pretty small, but still...

Semreh walked calmly, trying to remain inconspicuous among the throngs of people. Checkpoints manned by clones had been set up throughout Coruscant, no doubt meant to catch Jedi trying to escape. Luckily, Scout and he now looked nothing like Jedi. After escaping the tunnel, they'd found themselves in one of the many abandoned alleyways of Coruscant. Quickly, they'd found a closed clothing store and broke in. Semreh at first felt a moral quandary about robbing an innocent storeowner. Then, Scout pointed out that they weren't really stealing. Technically, under one of the many new laws enacted by Palpatine, they were just procuring supplies for the greater good. So, Semreh hacked the security system and Scout and he raided the racks of the store, gathering wardrobes that screamed "not Jedi". Semreh had reluctantly donned an elaborate multi-colored jacket, with neon strips of orange and green. Semreh had scowled when Scout tossed it to him.

"I am not wearing this!" He'd said gruffly. Scout just laughed, teasing him.

"Come on, it was your idea to ditch our robes. This way, you'll be able to hide in plain sight." They continued to search through the pile, until Semreh found what he'd been looking for.

"Fine", he'd said, "but if I have to wear this, you have to wear this." He held up a flamboyantly long rainbow colored dress and red high heeled shoes. It was Scout's turn to glower angrily.

"Who in their right minds thought that that would sell?" Semreh laughed.

"It's supposedly all the rage in the Mid-Rim." Scout snorted and grabbed a grey jacket with purple fringe from the pile.

"With who, the color blind," She said as she went into a nearby dressing room. They continued to search the store, looking for supplies. The found a hiker's backpack and filled that with as many credits as they could from the register. Semreh also put their old robes and a different change of clothes in there, determined to get out of the abomination as soon as possible. Among the crowds, they certainly stood out, but no one would ever suspect they were Jedi. They waked for nearly an hour. As they began to near the spaceports, the clone troopers became more numerous and many were setting up checkpoints and locking down the spaceport. A large crowd had gathered outside one of the spaceports, civilians trying to escape Coruscant on the transports. A single officer stood above the clones, standing on an elevated platform. He was using a voice amplifier to project his voice over the cries of the crowd.

"Attention all civilians, the spaceport is under GAR control now. You are all ordered to return to your homes and remain inside. The Jedi have staged a rebellion and the city is under lockdown." A cry of shock rose from the crowd. They fell silent, shocked by the announcement. Scout and Semreh exchanged looks of shock and horror. That explained the attack at the officer continued.

"The Jedi Mace Windu attempted to assassinate the Chancellor in his own office. Other Jedi are attempting to sabotage the city and ambush civilians. Therefore, you are all ordered to return to your homes as quickly as possible, for your own protection." The crowd dispersed in less than 30 seconds.

"Well," Scout said in an amused voice. "It looks like we just got to the front of the line." She strode towards the officer, who had stepped down from the platform and was now issuing orders to several clones.

"No, Scout wait!" Semreh whispered loudly, but it was too late. She walked towards the officer, waving to get his attention. Semreh watched as she pointed at him, speaking urgently. The officer nodded and said something back to her that Semreh couldn't hear. Finally, Scout returned, a bright grin on her face.

"Well, the good news is, he's going to let us into the docking bay." Semreh stared for a moment, his mouth hanging open.

"How'd you manage to scam that!?" She smiled guiltily.

"That's the bad news. He kinda thinks we have a ticket for one of the freighters about to take off, so we've got to pick one and stowaway on it." She turned and sprinted towards the entrance. Semreh shouldered their pack, following.

"How'd you manage to convince him?" He asked running alongside her, "Did you use a mind trick on him?" Scout shook her head.

"Semreh, I can barely lift a pebble with the Force." She laughed, "No, I just told the officer that our parents were in there and on a freighter, and that we'd been separated in the chaos."

"And he just went and believed that?"

"No, but when I said we were Colonel Bracken's children, he certainly believed it."

"How'd you know Colonel Bracken was his superior?" Scout grinned.

"Semreh, half of these new officers don't know who their superiors are. I just picked a name that sounded professional. I'm sure somewhere along the chain of command, there's a colonel Bracken" Scout stopped in front of one of the entrances to a landing pad. Inside was a small shuttle, common for small time merchants and smugglers. The ramp was lowered, leaving the ship easily accessible. They walked stealthily towards the ramp, carefully looking inside. The ship looked empty except for boxes of supplies. Semreh went over to one of the cargo holds that lay along the wall. They were small cubbies that were designed to maximize the amount of supplies and goods they could carry. For some reason, most of them were empty.

"So, you think we should hide out in these?" Scout asked indicating the small cubbies. Semreh shook his head.

"No, if they're empty, the pilots probably planning to fill them. We should empty one of these and hide in them." He pointed at the crates stacked in the main area. Semreh walked over and, with Scouts help, lifted the heavy durasteel top. It fell to the floor with a loud clang.

"Someone probably heard that," he said swing on leg over the side. "Come on, jump ins-"he was cut off as Scout grabbed his arm and pulled him back from the box.

'What are you doing!" he whispered. He saw her pointing at the box. Inside, it was filled with thermal detonators, concussion and plasma grenades. Semreh realized he'd nearly hid in what basically amounted to a nuclear bomb.

"I think maybe the cargo holds were a better idea.' He said shakily. Scout snorted.

"Jeez, ya think." She stopped and listened for a second. "Someone's coming!" Semreh heard it too. Quickly, he hauled the top of the crate back into place while Scout dove into one of the small cargo holds. Semreh followed, diving in just as whoever was coming began waking up the stairs. He shut the metal door as tight as he could, but there was already little room left in the compartment. After a little rearrangement, the latch finally closed just as a figure came into view. Semreh watched the room from a small slit that probably functioned as an air hole for some poor creature. The figure was humanoid and slender. It walked slowly, the other was also human, but broader and more muscular. Between them they carried an enormous rectangular object. The grunted with effort as they walked into the middle of the ships hold. As they came into the light, Semreh groaned silently. The broader man wore clone trooper armor and had a blaster carbine hanging off his back.

"Great," he thought, "We pick a ship, and it's a clone commanded flying bomb. What else could go wrong?" The woman was young, and wore a flight suit common among most freighter pilots. She carried the crate over to the others, and then bent over, pressing her ear to it. She then spoke to the clone behind her, but what she said was lost on Semreh as an entire squad of four Clone Commandos entered the ship. He felt Scout's breath intake sharply. They wore heavy Katarn-class armor and had a variety of heavy and lethal weapons hanging from their belts. One of them, Semreh assumed it was the leader, took off his helmet and began speaking with the woman.

"We're really not entirely comfortable with this whole idea Ny. Couldn't we open the crate now?" Ny laughed as she turned and settled into the pilot's seat. Semreh heard and felt the engines roar to life as she began take-off.

"Cov, while I understand your worry, I gotta say, we can't take any chances. For all we know, we could be under surveillance right now." Semreh felt himself slide slightly as the ship rose upward, taking Scout and him with it. "And we certaintly don't want to be seen with contraband on our ship."

As they rose, something unexpected happened. The ship was jostled by turbulence. For the rest of the passengers, nice and secure in armor and seat belts, it was no problem. However, Scout and Semreh were jostled about until finally, Semreh's head banged on the top of the cargo hold. The sound reverberated in throughout the ship, surprisingly loud.

"What the hell." Ny said. "I thought I emptied those cargo holds. She placed the ship on auto pilot and walked towards them, flanked by Cov and another clone commando. The clones leveled their blasters as Ny ripped the latch open and the padawans tumbled out. Immediately, the clones turned to level an impressive array blasters and explosives at them. Semreh slowly raised his hand in a feeble wave.

"Hi guys..."