Solasta settled into her seat once the taxi leveled off and joined the stream of traffic below them. They traveled high above the surface of Coruscant for nearly a standard hour, weaving between the gleaming metal towers that stretched high above the surface before their taxi banked left and descended towards a massive square building. As large it appeared to Solasta, it was dwarfed in comparison to the surrounding towers that rose hundreds of levels above it. Settling on the wide platform that jutted out from the side of the structure, their taxi landed with more grace and subtlety than they had left the main hub outside the Senate Tower.

Aric climbed out and began flexing his hands, extending his claws slightly in an attempt to get the blood circulating in his tired and knotted fingers. Arching his back to work the tension from the muscles there, he grinned wide and said, "That was some ride, hey El-Tee?"

"It didn't compare to a drop from high atmo' but it was alright," answered Solasta as she hopped onto the durasteel platform, her boots barely making a sound as she landed. Her gruff tone told Aric the thrill seeking part of his companion had remained onboard the taxi and it was back to business. Looking up, she noticed the day fading as the sky washed into softer tones and the passing traffic danced between light and shadow in the outlines cast by neighbouring buildings.

"Enjoy your shopping stay," chirped the droid pilot as the taxi cycled up its repulsors and glided away.

Together they walked towards the entrance of the Old Galactic Market, the location of their briefing and the gateway to the Migrant Merchants' Guild territory, and the only indication they were in the right place was a neon sign welcoming guests and a meager concierge counter where hospitality droids were busy interacting with shoppers. Solasta walked ahead to one of the flights of stairs next to the counter, descended to the level below, and examined the long wide corridor that extended to her left and right. Aric stopped beside her and pointed to the electronic kiosk against the wall that displayed the layout of the area, "We head left for the security offices."

Continuing on, Solasta checked out the storefronts lining either side of the open air market that had a narrow boulevard running it's center with simulated trees, simulated grass, and simulated outdoor smells to try and make the space more pleasant. Underwhelming was the only word that came to mind for her first impressions of the planet's oldest market where a sparse number of people walked along the concourse, and within a matter of minutes they reached the Republic Security Forces office and had their ident-tags verified before being allowed inside where a tall, broad shouldered human greeted them.

"Lieutenant Dinn! Corporal Garrum, sir! Ready to brief you on the Migrant Merchant's Guild at your command, sir!" barked the man as he saluted stiffly at them.

Solasta's hard expression didn't change as she dryly replied, "Calm down, Corporal, before you sprain something."

Relaxing his stance and tucking his hands behind his back, Garrum continued, "I'll just get started on that briefing, sir. The Merchant Migrant's Guild is a criminal organization comprised of survivors whose homes were destroyed by the Empire's assault on Coruscant. They began squatting in this district and refused to leave when security tried to remove them, and there's been an uneasy truce ever since."

"That seems immaterial, Corporal. What's our Op?" snapped Solasta. Aric raised an eyebrow at the curtness in her tone and surprised at the speed in which she had become agitated.

"Uh. Yes, sir. Your primary target is a cyborg inventor named Krel, sir. He has designed and constructed a full platoon of advanced war droids that we believe are intended for Tavus and other SpecForces traitors, sir. Additionally, reports indicate that Krel's strength and speed are at least triple the human norm with genius level intelligence to boot. Taking him down will be a real challenge, sir."

Impatiently motioning with her hands for Garrum to continue, Solasta said, "We'll keep our eyes open, Corporal,"

"What's so special about these droids?" asked Aric.

"Heavy armor, multiple integrated weapons systems, advanced combat and targeting logic, sir. These are the deadliest droids that credits can buy. Krel has all his war droids stored at the Migrant Merchants' Guild base. General Garza wants all of them, and Krel, found and destro- "

"Understood," interrupted Solasta, "do we have a fix on Krel's location, Corporal?"

"Negative, sir. We know he's inside their base, but that's about all. This concludes the briefing, and also, General Garza had boot coffins dropped for you earlier, sir." said Garrum, directing them towards two Republic gear crates stacked against the wall.

Within minutes Solasta and Aric were fully geared in their black cortosis body suits, Coruscant Security plasteel armor, and a small arsenal of explosives packed into the kits strapped to their backs as they walked out of the offices, turned left, and back into the market concourse. The evening shopping crowd had picked up, but those browsing the shops were mostly tourists since anyone from Coruscant would have ordered directly from the HoloNet or sent a droid to run the errands for them. They had only made it a few meters before a familiar voice spoke to them through their headsets.

"Come in Lieutenant Dinn."

Activating her comm-relay Solasta spoke into the mic in her helmet. "General, we are geared and headed to the objective now."

"Excellent, Lieutenant. I'll be observing and evaluating your performance from your armor cam."

Looking at the grey Coruscant Security emblem on Aric's shoulder pad beside her Solasta asked, "Sir, why are we are wearing local security officer gear instead of Havoc Squad's?"

"Lieutenant, we brought in two security guards that are known to be on the Merchants' payroll so that you and Sergeant Jorgan could replace them and move about freely in the sector. If Tavus' associates see Havoc approaching we will have lost the element of surprise."

Well, that explains why this gears reeks of sweat and my daer [tits] are jammed into a male's chest-piece, she thought before saying, "Understood, General."

"Good. I'll leave you to your work then. Good luck and good hunting, Lieutenant."

As their relays clicked, disconnecting them from General Garza, they turned a corner and came face-to-face with large banks of riot barricades manned by soldiers, and beyond this line of defense, the squatters who lived in the sector had built themselves their own makeshift barriers from the junk and trash they could find.

Passing through the check-point, a simple nod was all they gave the guards before proceeding across the narrow walkway that separated the market from the vast Guild controlled sector on the other side. Overhead, the night had settled in and the walkway lamps threw large discs of pale yellow light onto their path at evenly spaced intervals. Peering over the handrail into the cavernous drop below Solasta could make out the lights from windows and landing pads for as far as she could see; several hundred levels she guessed. Three pairs of large round red-eyes studied them from behind the closest barricade as they walked past and continued on their patrol beat, and the grey-skinned Duros hiding there only watched with blaster pistols drawn but lowered to avoid showing any unintended aggression.

When they reached the other side, they passed through the large shipping dock covered with freight containers and lifter droids busily working. Turning and ascending a ramp to another dock platform, they passed what Solasta was certain was the largest freight droid she had ever seen; certainly larger than she could have ever imagined and thought, if the droids ever rise up, that will be Coruscant's world boss. A click in her headset and Aric's voice interrupted her musing, "Why were you so impatient with that Corporal?"

"He was wasting our time with all that needless jabber. Just like how this patrol could be sped up with a couple speeder bikes."

"That's the point of a mission brief, El-Tee," and with a subtle nod of his helmet, motioning the general area, "and we need to walk the patrol beat to blend in and look like we belong here."

"All he had to tell us was destroy everything and be careful of Krel because he's three times faster and stronger than humans. We're nearly twice that of humans, and there's two of us, so it shouldn't be that difficult to bring him down."

Aric sighed before activating his relay. "Okay. I agree, Garrum could have summarized things better, but rushing through the intel is rash and could cost us one day."

"You only live once, Jorgan," joked Solasta with a trill of laughter, and Aric's tone was solemn as he replied, "We also only die once, Lieutenant Dinn."

Continuing on through the evening in amiable silence they followed the route projected in their helmet's heads-up display, strolling through the district without any issues, and only a few not-so-subtle glances from seedy looking residents. Arriving at an unassuming and ordinary looking building they both stopped and looked at each other for a moment before turning their attention to the unmarked door, but before either of them could reach for the keypad it slid open and a dirty, ragged, leathery green-skinned Nikto male took a step forward and stiffened momentarily. Startled, not expecting anyone to be on the other side of the door he slowly blinked once before relaxing his stance, and the expression on his face into one of pleasant recognition.

"You guys are over two cycles late. What happened? Did your bosses make you do real work today?" rasped the male before breaking into laughter.

Aric was quick to respond and off-offhandedly said, "Something like that," and laughed as human-like as he could to keep the mood light and convincing.

"You can pickup your share of the credits from the last job, the boss is still in his lab," said the Nikto as he passed between them and walked to a speeder that was parked a short distance away.

Inside, the unassuming looking building gave way to a large warehouse that had been constructed by knocking out the walls of the adjoining buildings and expanding sideways. Rows of heavy durasteel droid shipping containers were lined across the floor and nobody, except for a couple battledroids patrolling the aisles, could be seen. Solasta stopped at the a data terminal that was against the wall and typed a few inquiries into the keypad as Aric approached the first container in the row nearest to them.

"Looks like Tavus' whole shipment is sitting here and waiting for delivery," said Solasta over her relay.

Aric keyed the door release on the shipping container and the heavy clicking of the mag-locks releasing the clasps was followed by the pneumatic hissing from the doors folding open to reveal the droids packed inside. Solasta met him and the two examined the four heavily armored droids with an assortment of weapons on a circular carousel rack, secured to a center pole inside the crate.

"What do you think, El-Tee?"

"If we put a thermal detonator on the back of the head of one of these, it will take the other three with it and the contained shrapnel will shred everything inside- reinforced armor or not."

"Yeah, that might work." Aric agreed somewhat absently as he as spun the rack to the left so he could examine the droid chassis from a different angle. "Look here, El-Tee. The armor may be a little thinner on the back where the charging port is- bet the power core is housed right behind it and we'd get a better bang for the bomb if we detonate there."

"Yeah... " said Solasta as she took a step back to look down the row, "that would definitely give us a bigger boom. In fact, we could do every other container and still have a few thermie's left over."

"A full platoon is a lot of firepower to lose. Tavus is really going to feel this one." The joy in Aric's voice expressed the grin hidden under his helmet.

Working their way down either side of the aisle planting explosives, they had successfully avoided the battledroid's patrolling the warehouse until Aric reach the end of his row, turned the corner, and found himself next to a droid that had been standing stationary the whole time. Aric froze, not daring to slide his rifle from his shoulder and appear threatening. The droid turned, scanned him, and after a few deep clicks and menacing wurls the droid turned back to keep watch. That's a relief, it thinks we're the regular guys and they have clearance to be in here, thought Aric before activating his relay and lowering his voice to say, "Careful. There's more droids standing guard."

Solasta finished her row and saw Aric waiting for her next to an open door where a long hallway laid beyond. "What took you so long, El-Tee? I've been standing here so long that guard droid was about to move me along for loitering," joked Aric as he nodded slightly towards his new friend.

"There were a few fabrication stations and droids that didn't want to get left out, so they each got a thermie as well. What'd you find, Sargent?"

"Hallway. Want to go find Krel and collect our credits for the last job?"

Weapons drawn and charged, they advanced cautiously past large transparisteel windows on their right that offered a view into store rooms where a variety of electronics and droid parts were all organized on shelves, and a massive vault door on their left. Stepping with a cathar lightness of foot, communicating their movements using hand signals, they reached the end of the hallway where an open door granted passage to a large lab. At the far end of the room a tall, broad shouldered, human male stood at a workbench with his back to them. Signaling to enter and take up positions on either side of human's flank, Aric entered and took the left with Solasta following and taking the right. They had only walked a few steps towards the back of Krel when the man spoke aloud.

"You really think you can sneak up on me? I heard your clumsy military maneuvers as soon as you set foot inside my stronghold!"

Abandoning her attempts to be stealthy, Solasta stepped forward and stood defiantly. "In the name of the Republic, I order you to surrender."

Turning to face her, she found herself at the edge of arm's length to Krel. The massive cyborg was bald, lacking even eyebrows; unusual even for a human, and looking like he had just stepped out of a gym with every muscle in his chest, arms, and shoulders swollen and tight. Not looking at all like an inventor or academic type, or even a cyborg since most noticeable was the lack of cybernetic implants anywhere on his body, leaving Solasta wondering, is he a cyborg inventor or a cyborg who is an inventor?

Amused at the arrogance of the guard standing before him, Krel's laughed. "Surrender? To you? Don't be ridiculous, I could crush you skulls with one hand. You're far too late, my plans are already in motion. Soon, the people of this world will be brought to their knees by my greatest creations; my masterpieces."

"What are you talking about?" asked Aric as he took a position to the right, and just behind, Solasta.

"I have taken ordinary people off the street and implanted several of them with advanced cybernetic enhancements that will give them abilities that rival my own. These implants are internal and completely undetectable my medical scanners. The subjects themselves don't know who was augmented and who wasn't, and neither will anyone else until it's much too late."

"You're going to pay for hurting those people," growled Solasta.

"Neither of you will be around to do anything about it! Once you're dead I'll release my creations back to their normal lives where they will lie dormant until my programming is activated."

Leaning back to brace herself, Solasta squeezed the trigger on her plasma cannon but Corporal Garrum's intel regarding Krel's speed and strength hadn't been exaggerated.

Aric watched as Krel twisted to one side to dodge the coming plasma spray while simultaneously reaching past the cannon to grab Solasta by the throat. Solasta fired her weapon and a blue stream of plasma bolts missed Krel, ripping into the workbench and wall behind the cyborg. Solasta's reflexes tried to compensate her aim but Krel's lunge put her off balance, and instead of grabbing her throat he struck her helmet broadside with his fist, effortlessly tossing her a couple meters across the room where she hit the wall and fell in a crumpled heap to the ground.

Aric took the shot.

Rolling into a sitting position with her back against the wall, stunned, Solasta closed her eyes and waited for the ringing in her ears to fade. When she finally opened them, she realized that Aric had pulled her helmet off and was kneeling beside her, asking, "Are you okay, El-Tee? Can you hear me?" Rubbing her temple, she groaned and stood with Aric's help.

"I'm alive but I won't be surprised if my fur turns black and blue after that," she said as she rubbed her neck. Taking her helmet from Aric, she looked at a the large crack on the left side of it before slipping it over her head. "Guess I lose the kriffing deposit on this one."

A quick glance around Krel's lab was all it took to realize that the only door was they one they came in and anyone being held hostage for experiments had to be elsewhere. Walking back to the hallway, they stopped in front of the vault door since it was the only place they had not seen the inside of and was the ideal place to keep hostages locked up. Aric reached for the keypad on the wall but stopped when Solasta's personal holocom began chirping. Unclipping the circular disk from her belt and holding it in her palm, Solasta clicked the receive button and the image of General Garza appeared.

"Come in Lieutenant. I want you to destroy the cyborgs that Krel created, immediately. They need to be dealt with now, before they can disappear into the normal population. Situations like this are never easy, these people did not choose to be what they are now, but many more lives could be at stake if they're allowed leave. You have to eliminate them."

Solasta canted her head slightly to the right, curious, and asked, "How do we even know if Krel was telling the truth, sir?"

"Whether or not he was bluffing, these cyborgs are a risk we cannot allow. I'm giving you a kill order Lieutenant and will take full responsibility for the consequences. Now get it done."

Straightening her posture at Garza's orders, she said, "The threat will be neutralized, sir."

"Good, I knew I could count on you to what is right. Garza out."

Aric chuffed loudly to express his disagreement once the holocom was disconnected. "This is a waste of time. We should be going after the traitors, not gunning down innocent civilians just because some madman said they're dangerous."

Solasta's voice dropped low, her words cold and emotionless, as she said, "Innocent people die all over the galaxy everyday, Loved ones, strangers, whether they deserve it or not. If there is any reason to suspect these people pose a risk to the population of Coruscant or the Republic, we need to act now."

Shocked, trying to process this darker side of Solasta that went beyond her usual ill temper or brooding self, Aric knew this wasn't an argument he would win; this was the polar opposite of the person he shared a taxi with. Turning his attention back to the vault, he pressed the door release key but nothing happened. Looking at Solasta, he shrugged.

Balling her fist, she pounded on the door, yelling, "Hello? Anyone inside?"

"Stay back! The door is locked and sealed! We could hear your conversation with whoever you were talking to and we're not coming out until you swear you aren't going to hurt us," answered a woman's voice.

"Just open the door and we can talk about this."

A deep, mature sounding male protested, "We're not cyborgs! I'd know if I was some half-machine freak! This is insane!"

"Are you implying the rest of us might be? Krel spent more time operating on you, so maybe you're the cyborg!" argued someone with a nasal sounding voice.

Ear's pricked forward, Solasta and Aric's listened to the bickering that broke out on the other side of the door when a half-dozen voices started accusing each other of being Krel's cyborg sleeper agents. After a handful of heated exchanges, the female's voice cut them all off, "Stop it! None of us are cyborgs! That's all there is to it!"

"There's really no way to be sure, ma'am," said Solasta before proposing a second time, "Just open the door and we can figure this out together."

The female's voice became thick with emotion, "This is insane! Even if only a few of us are cyborgs, would you really murder all of us to be sure one doesn't escape?"

Aric had remained silent, trying to resolve what they had been instructed to do with his morals. Many military operations he participated in had collateral damage, he understood that sometimes it was unavoidable to achieve an objective, but this was different and incomparable. Executing civilians on the suspicions of a lunatic's ranting went beyond what he was willing to do. He had to speak up.

"El-Tee, we can't- this isn't right, Solasta."

Solasta turned to face Aric. Although they couldn't see each other beneath their helmets, she could sense the conflict in his voice and it gave her reason to pause and reevaluate their orders. "You're right. I can't do this." Pulling off her helmet, she addressed those behind the vault door, "Open up and come out. We're not going to hurt you."

After a few seconds the woman spoke, her voice a little apprehensive and shaky, "Then... you're not going to shoot us? You'll let us go?"

Pulling his helmet off, Aric said, "Let us confirm and copy your identification codes, and we'll let you go. The SIS will likely bring you in for questioning and medicals to confirm you don't have any implants."

"If that's what it takes to get us all out of here alive, then it's worth it."

The vault unlocked with a heavy click and the door slid open to reveal the small group of hostages, hesitantly walking towards them and the waiting datapad that Aric held for them to copy their data onto. A petite, mousey looking, woman approached; the group's spokeperson, and said, "My name is Kayln. Thank-you for sparing us."

Once everyone's information was saved, Solasta and Aric marched everyone single-file past the battledroids guarding the warehouse, gambling all their lives that they were only programmed to keep people out and not stop anyone from leaving. Once outside the hostages all scattered, some running to their freedom without glancing a look back, and the familiar sound of a holocom chiming was immediately heard.

"Lieutenant Dinn, my orders were perfectly clear: eliminate Krel's cyborgs." Garza's usual measured and practiced disposition replaced by a stern toned version of the General with arms crossed and indignant expression.

"With all due respect General, I could not act on those orders," said Solasta.

"My orders are not polite suggestions, Lieutenant. You don't choose to follow the parts that you agree with. You follow them. When on mission, you listen to my orders, then your brain. In that order. There's no room for sentiment in our line of work. There should be similarly little room for it in you, or we're doomed to fail."

"If we're heartless, what separates us from the Imperials?"

"Lieutenant, we are heartless so that the people of the Republic don't have to be. So that the Republic does not become the Empire. Always remember that. A shuttle should be arriving any moment to extract you and Sergeant Jorgan. Return to my office immediately so we can discuss your next assignment. Garza out."

The sound of a troop shuttle landing in the square across from the warehouse was queued perfectly to General Garza's image blinking and disappearing. "How much trouble do you thing we're in when we get back, El-Tee?" asked Aric.

"More than I was in when we left," said Solasta as they approached the shuttle and climbed in. "We can enjoy this at least," and handed Aric the remote detonator for the explosive they had laced Krel's warehouse with.