The hall was filled with the footfalls of the three beings. One, the Dark warrior; two, the Warrior's right hand; and three, the faithful hound.

Raven stayed close to her master, keeping her full attention in tuned to the Force. Any moment, she suspected a trooper to turn on them. Surprising enough… they had not run into one storm trooper as they walked away from Vader's hyperbaric chamber. Seemed to be a good thing... but what it really?

'This isn't a good sign.' Vader's thoughts fed to her. 'I sense several presences near the station controls and the fighter bays. More than usual…'

'As if they are waiting for us…' Raven commented. She felt Vader's aura touch hers sharply. He agreed, and he wanted them to both be ready.

Before they had left the hyperbaric chamber, Raven had Mech's weapon system fully loaded and ready. The hound was also on full alert, willing to do anything to assist his master or Darth Vader if they were attacked.

'Should I follow you to the fighter bay? Or should I go to the other ship bay and prepare the cargo ship?'

'Go to the cargo ship… once we reach the next floor.'

Raven swallowed a hard lump in her throat. Flying that cargo ship alone… with most likely thousands upon thousands of TIEs swarming it… with the chance of having little to no weapon system installed on the shuttle… Raven shivered. Sounded like absolute suicide.

'Do not worry… I will make sure to launch before you and meet you at your docking bay. '

There was a feeling of doubt in Raven's mind. 'You… against all of them?'

There was almost a smirking resemblance in the change in his aura. It was as if she knew if he did not have a helmet over his face, she would be able to see a huge grin on his face. She could sense his confidence returning to this situation. 'I will protect you.'

Her heart leapt, but she fought back those human emotions. 'Okay.'

They reached a lift. It opened with a mere gesture of Vader's hand. They entered, barely able to fit in. Mech sat down on his haunches, resting his head against Raven's thigh. Raven placed her hand on his head. This gesture seemed pointless, but she felt the need to put reassurance in her robotic friend. The hound knew, with his statistical calculations, that their chances of escape with the factors of the entire ship already alerted of their mark as traitors, was barely over 20%. The only reassurance Raven had from such a fact was she had not seen her master in combat in a starship. She only hoped he was a good pilot… a very good pilot.

Once the lift reached their destined floor, it stopped… and stayed still. Raven bit her lip, waiting for the door to open. Several moments passed, and it still did not open. She turned to her master and he looked down at her.

'They are waiting for us. They have the system locked tight.'

Raven felt her chest swell with adrenaline. So they were going to have to go out with a fight…

'Can you open it?'

'Yes, but be on the ready once those door fly open. I can sense several presences already moving around the lift.'

Raven took in a deep breath. "Mech, have your lasers ready once those doors open."

Immediately, Mech fixed his eyes on the door, a low humming sound building up. He wouldn't be able to use his big lasers until they were out in the open.

Here we go. Raven gripped the shaft of the Dark Woman's ancient lightsaber.

Vader waved his hand with an incredible might, and the door flew open. Before she knew it, red lasers were flying in all around her. They zoomed by her face, her legs, and limbs, hitting the insides of the lift with a loud blast. Her ears began ringing loudly. There was only a two second pause before she came lunging out of the lift and the Force guided her the rest of the way. As if performing a choreographed dance, she leaped onto the first trooper and sliced his head clean off his shoulders. Then she skipped through more of the flaring lasers, and swung into the side of another trooper's torso. She could sense her master right behind her, as he first blocked sprays of blasters, and then made his own attack. With both Vader and Raven out and clear of the lift, Mech opened up his giant laser cannon on his back and unloaded on the storm troopers that had gathered around the left of the hallway. It had only been twenty seconds, before they had sliced, fried and slain every trooper that had awaited them at the lift. Raven pulled the purple blade out of her last victim, and swiftly turned her head to the left down the hall. Her master had felt it too; the Force warned them both of more presences approaching quickly.

"Which way?" Raven shouted. She turned and saw her master gesturing to the right. "C'mon, Mech." Raven gasped, as she and her hound quickly followed the Dark Lord down the metallic halls. As they ran, Vader's mind quickly hovered over hers. 'Do you remember how to get back to the docking bay?'

'Yes.'

'Good. At this next split in the hallway, go to the left. I will go to the right and find a fighter.'

They came to the divide and they both left each other in opposite directions. Mech and Raven hurried down the left hallway. She vaguely remembered where she was going. The only help was the ship's layout was almost identical to the Executor. Thank god for manufactured designs. They had almost reached the bay that Raven was sure they had docked the cargo ship when several lasers came whizzing over their heads. Mech let out a loud growl, haulted and opened up his large canon again. He blasted the hot blue beam, vaporizing whatever enemy was right behind them. Raven whipped her head around, just to see the light fade and the dusty outline of men disappear. "Mech, c'mon, we can't stall too long!"

Her hound obeyed, returning his weapon into his body and darted after his master. He came up next to her as they ran, "Get on, it will be faster if I carry you." Raven leaped up and grabbed the handle on Mech's back, just as his speed kicked in and he bolted for the ship bay archway.

There was suddenly a heavy weight upon her. Raven's eyes fluttered heavily as she felt like her body was being crushed. She gripped Mech tightly, trying to hold on.

There was this presence. A very heavy presence… The very strength of it was pinning her entire body down… or so she thought. It was like a giant thumb had come down out of nowhere and was squashing her… like an insignificant insect.

Raven hunched over, tighting her focus with the Force. She fought hard to close off her mind, shutting it off from all outside forces. There was a voice in her head. It was bitter, deep and seemed to suck the very life out of her…

Who are you to entangle with our affairs?

The very sound… no… feeling of this powerful voice almost knocked Raven out of consciousness. Her vision halfway faded to absolute darkness and then light rushed back to her eyes. Her body buckled and bounced limply on Mech's back as the droid rushed through the extra sprays of lasers in the ship bay. She was now only half aware of what was happening. She struggled desperately to shake this powerful presence that seemed to drain her energy away…

"Is that the ship?"

Mech's voice pulled her back to focus in such a rush, that Raven almost jumped clean off his back. She looked straight in front of them and saw they were approaching the cargo ship, which was nestled tightly in the corner of the bay.

"That's it." Raven said. She was regaining her strength, and her focus in the Force had returned. But her heart was now galloping quickly in her chest from that mental scare.

Mech came to a harsh halt next to the small ship. Raven jumped off quickly and began to ascend up the small ramp into the vessel.

"Mech, I might need your help again getting this ship up and running." Raven shouted over her shoulder as she sat herself down into the pilot seat. Her droid crawled through the narrow tunnel of the ship, and placed himself next to his master.

With several quick flicks of the wrist, pushing of two buttons and a desperate kick to the controls, the ship roared to life. Immediately, Mech plugged himself in and switched the defense shield on. The static force field popped around the ship, and the enemy fire now struck it continuously.

"The shield won't last long on this small of a ship…" Raven said. Her thoughts then jumped through this bay and reached out for Lord Vader.

'Have you gotten a TIE?'

There was a pause, and then his thoughts rested within hers.

'Yes. Launch now.'

Raven gripped the controls on the ship tightly and thrusted the metal ship into the air. It hovered slowly for a second until it was aligned with the ship bays energy field, and then shot out with enormous speed. It was surprising… Raven didn't expect such power in such a small vessel.

The cargo ship flew out into what looked like a swarm of insects…. A giant cloud of hungry vermin. Raven gasped in horror. The Phoenix had released very TIE fighter out after them.

"Look there!" Mech barked.

Raven glanced quickly to their right, only to see one single TIE flying next to them. It immediately released a stream of green lasers into the swarm of other fighters. In response, the enemy TIEs screeched in a loud roar and scattered in every which direction. Two or three were hit dead on and exploded, knocking into several others in the process. Raven's eyes went wide… she had seen nothing yet… but a feeling of full faithfulness overcame her for her master.

The single TIE next to her zoomed around and began circling into a patch of the swarming TIE and continued to spray its cold strike upon them. The other TIEs, which were not being fired upon, flew around and began firing up the rogue TIE as well as shooting upon Raven.

"Shit!" Raven pushed down on the throttle of the ship, avoiding a heavy hit of lasers. The top of the shield got skimmed and its power dropped to 45%. Immediately, Vader's TIE now turned sharply around and began firing among all the other TIEs swarming around Raven's vessel. As much as Raven tried to avoid all lasers and crashing into other vessels, her protector captivated her. Vader flew like… like a God. He danced brilliantly through the vacuum of space, weaving in and out of each obstacle. Every fire he made was a direct hit on his target. Bloody amazing…

'I told you I would protect you.'

Her body shivered. 'Thank you.'

Before she knew it, half of the TIEs were already down. The rest of them were flying helplessly around, merely trying to avoid the wrath of the Dark Lord. They scrambled about, but Vader's pursue brought them to an end.

A noise filled the small cockpit. Raven glanced her eyes down and saw a message hailing on the comlink. She received it:

"Attention Imperial Cargo Ship. Turn back around and report to your previous docking bay."

Raven blinked in disbelief at the comlink. She then shouted: "Fuck you!" With that she turned off the connection and laughed. Mech only watched her, unsure of her sense of humor. She knew that she and Vader were in so much trouble, and probably in a lot of danger. But this sense of rebelling was overwhelming… and it felt good.

'Where are we going?' Raven asked her Master.

There was another pause from her master. He then replied. 'I'm sending you coordinates. We are going somewhere far… somewhere that the Empire will next suspect.'

'Where is that?'

Such a place didn't seem to exist. Raven felt that the Empire knew every corner of the galaxy and could find them anywhere. What place could they possibly go that He wouldn't think to look? She then felt the desperate need to tell him about the powerful presence that had almost crushed her. That fear of whatever it was seemed stir in her head. But he knew already… he must already know. And that was why, she sensed, he had picked this particular location.

Vader's presence seemed to linger over Raven, almost in a painful sense.

'It's a place I haven't been to in a very long time…'