Thorilide Mine, Tartarus, Erebos System

3 BBY, a few months before the Mission to Malachor…

Without a doubt, mining had to be one of the most unappetizing jobs in the galaxy. Long hours in cold, dark, and narrow tunnels miles below the surface of a planet made Malana Hunter wonder why anyone would want to do this job.

She was glad, however, that she was only a supervisor. One of Kelland Mining's mining engineers, she didn't have to do a quarter of the hard work that the miners under her supervision did, but she still had to spend time in these forsaken tunnels. And it paid the bills, especially this mine.

Tartarus was one of those rare planets where the rare mineral thorilide could be found. It was used for military ships or something like that. Hunter didn't care why the Empire wanted it or what they did with it, they wanted it and Tartarus could provide it.

The problem was, it was damn difficult stuff to get. They had to extract it from the rock in crystalline form, then melt the crystals in the xenoboric acid held in vats in the refinery on Charon Station, the base of operations for Kelland's operations on Tartarus.

A blast of heat hit her in the face as the large, railed plasma torch fired, melting the rock in front of and above them. As it turned off and the molten rock began to cool and harden overhead, the miners pressed on with mechanical jack-hammers, chipping away at the next stones in front of them. They still had some of the old-fashioned picks, but those were only used when the hammers ran out of power. No one in their right mind would want to use those anymore.

There was a shout from up ahead. One of the miners had found something and it was her job as a mining engineer to identify it. Perhaps it was another thorilide crystal to transport back to the surface. That would be nice, they hadn't found any yet on this level, even though it had only been opened a few days ago.

"What is it?"

The miner, a burly Nikto male, pointed to a large crack that had opened. "This crack just formed boss. I think there's an opening behind it."

Sure enough, Hunter could feel a slight breeze coming out of the crack. "Let's see what this is," she gestured for him to open it further. The Nikto raised his hammer and drilled away, widening the opening until a whole section of rock gave way, creating a narrow opening.

Everyone stopped working at the sound of rock crashing down on the other side and they all stared into the empty, black void. "What do you think this is boss?" The Nikto asked again.

"Only one way to find out," Hunter said, returning to the railed plasma torch. Finding what she wanted, she clipped a cord onto the cart the plasma torch sat on and secured the other end to her mining harness. "We go in," she said as she repelled down into the void.

The opening dropped down slightly to a ledge and Hunter flicked on the large, portable lamp that a miner handed down to her. It was basically a small floodlight, much better than the small headlamp on her helmet.

The ceiling of the cavern before her glowed green, most likely from the species of glowworm that she had seen on a couple other levels of this mine and in several others. The glow from the ceiling combined with the floodlight she held illuminated something…

"Holy shit," said one of the miners who had climbed down next to her. "It's huge!"

There was no way for Hunter to judge just how large the cavern before them really was. There was no frame of reference for her. What lay before them was so awesome, so… alien, it could have been several times the size of Charon Station. It appeared… organic, but also like it could be carved from the rock encasing them all. Time had eroded it, its surfaces smoothed by millenia.

Hunter toggled her comlink to call the lift operator. The mine blocked all long-range and surface communications, but it would work for everyone on the same level. There were call-boxes at each turbolift that were wired, so they could reach the surface.

"Send a signal to Captain Barnes. We've found something… something alien."

Tantive IV, several weeks later…

Sometimes Bail Organa felt like he was drowning in work. Life as a senior member of the Imperial Senate was difficult enough, but add in his… extracurricular activities and Bail was surprised that he got any sleep at all. Leia was old enough now that she took on some of his responsibilities, both official and unofficial, but that only added to his stress. The thought that she might someday end up imprisoned and tortured by the Emperor for treason was worse than the thought of himself suffering the same fate.

His personal holocom that sat on his desk chimed. Someone wanted to talk to him, and based on the caller ID, it was something that needed to be discussed off the record. This wasn't his work terminal that he knew would upload every call and transmission to the Imperial Archives, he wasn't stupid. Turning it on, he greeted his agent. "Senator Organa."

"Greetings, Senator," came the respectful reply of Chardri Tage, one of Bail's oldest and most trusted agents. "We're about halfway through our humanitarian mission when we picked up a weeks-old signal from Kelland Mining at Charon Station. Tamsin and I recommend sending someone to check it out, it's a key fulcrum to mining operations in that sector."

"Understood," Bail responded, recognizing what Tage really wanted him to do. He thought the mysterious Rebel Intelligence operative known to most only as 'Fulcrum' should be sent to investigate whatever was happening on Charon Station. But why? "What was the signal?"

"Transmitting now, Senator," Tage said, and Bail saw that an audio file had been sent. "Tamsin and I will advise when we reach our destination."

"Thank you, Tage. Out."

The call cut out and Bail was left alone in his office again. Turning on one of his private datapads, Bail uploaded Tage's transmission and noticed that it had been sent weeks ago, only being received now by Tage. Intrigued, he hit 'Play'.

He was not prepared for what he heard…

"This is Charon Station, base of operations for the Kelland Mining Company in Erebos system, requesting immediate aid. … [Blaster fire and screaming] Crew and mining teams down to seventeen surviving members. [Static] … discovered something on the surface of Tartarus, attacked, dropship CS-02 crashed Charon Station. [Explosions, more blaster fire, and more screaming] Many systems damaged, environment stable but they were released… [Static] Second dropship CS-01 docked and isolated, more of them… [Static] hopefully… [Static] contained. They... [Static] inside the miners… [Static] … their chests. Estimate… [Static] We're making… last stand… All channels… [Screeching, sound of rushing winds] [Disconnect]"

It cut off after that screeching. Bail just sat and stared in shock at the transcript that printed out on the datapad.

Tage was right. This needed to be investigated. And Bail knew the right person for the job:

Fulcrum.

The scanners on the bridge of the Tantive IV began to chirp. Out here in the void of deep space, away from both major systems and hyperspace routes, the Tantive IV was as isolated as you could get. There was only one reason that the scanners would go off: they had detected an incoming realspace reversion. Sure enough, a few seconds later, there was a burst of light out in the void of space as a starship reverted from hyperspace to realspace. Scans detected that it was a RZ-1 Interceptor, more commonly referred to as an 'A-Wing' because of its distinctive appearance.

Captain Raymus Antilles stood on the bridge as the A-Wing neared. The A-Wing hailed the larger CR90 corvette as it approached and Captain Antilles answered the call. "Incoming A-Wing, this is the Tantive IV. Please identify."

"Hello Tantive IV, this is Fulcrum. Transmitting clearance code."

A few seconds later, one of the pilots signaled Captain Antilles that the codes were confirmed. Captain Antilles hailed the A-Wing again. "Confirmed, Fulcrum. Proceed to the starboard airlock. Welcome aboard."

Captain Antilles had only met Fulcrum a couple of times. He had stormed in on her first meeting with Senator Organa on this ship about 15 years ago. He was one of only a few people who knew what Fulcrum looked like. He didn't know her name, only that she was supposedly a former Jedi who had escaped the Emperor's purge. If Fulcrum was called in, you knew the situation was urgent.

The airlock hissed as the pressures on both sides equalized. The door rose with a hydraulic hiss and the Rebel Spymaster stepped towards him, twin lightsabers dangling from her belt.

Captain Antilles saluted Fulcrum, which she returned and he offered a hand. "Welcome aboard, Fulcrum."

"Thank you, Captain," Fulcrum replied. "Bail said it was urgent?"

"Yes, ma'am," Captain Antilles responded as he stepped aside to allow Fulcrum past. "He's in his office. I trust you remember the way?"

"Yes, Captain. Thank you." With that, Fulcrum began to make her way to speak to Senator Organa.

Captain Antilles nodded and returned to the bridge. Whatever business Fulcrum had with the Senator was theirs and theirs alone. He just flew the ship.

Fulcrum stood outside the personal quarters of Bail Organa on the Tantive IV. Knocking twice, she waited to hear Bail's muffled voice say "Come in," before she entered.

Bail was sitting behind his desk, the same one that she had sat in when she had surprised him 15 years ago. He looked tired, as if he hadn't had a good night's sleep in years. However, that was to be expected from an Imperial Senator who also happened to be one of the founders of the Rebellion.

"Hello Bail, you're not looking well."

Another person would have snapped at her for that comment, but Bail merely gave her a tired smile. "Nice to see you too, Fulcrum," he gestured at the open seat across from him. "Please, take a seat."

She did and Bail put down his datapad. "How have you been doing, Ahsoka?"

Fulcrum, in reality Ahsoka Tano, former Padawan of the Jedi Order, former Commander of the 501st Legion, and current Rebel Intelligence Officer, shrugged. "As good as I could be. I've been tracking down what the Inquisitorius wanted with those force-sensitive infants."

"Yes," Bail nodded, "thanks to your information, we've been securing and hiding force-sensitive children across the galaxy. But that's not why I called you here."

Ahsoka nodded, her montrals swaying slightly with the movement. "I didn't think it was. You said it was urgent. What's up?"

Bail gestured to a datapad and she picked it up. At Bail's urging, she played the audio file that was already pulled up. She frowned and hit the play button again when the tape had finished. Bail winced at the explosions and the strange screeching at the end.

"What am I listening to?" Ahsoka asked.

Bail sighed. "You remember Chardri Tage and Tamsin? They received this signal during a covert supply drop to a Rebel cell in the Outer Rim. It's a few weeks old and comes from the Erebos System. The Kelland Mining Corporation has a mining operation on one of the planets there: Tartarus. Orbiting Tartarus is a space station in geosynchronous orbit called Charon Space Station. It's the origin of the signal."

"Okay," Ahsoka said with a confused frown on her face. "Why do you need me then?"

"Officially, Charon Station is a base of operations for Kelland Mining. However, it's also the location of a Rebellion medical station," Bail explained. "Kelland Mining is owned by a Senator who's sympathetic to our cause, so he allowed us to put a covert medical station there. The person in charge of Charon Station is a Rebel, and there are several other Rebel personnel, mainly medical personnel. We also get a cut of thorilide mined from Tartarus for use in our starships.

"If something happened to Charon Station, we need to know."

"Of course," Ahsoka agreed. "But what about the distress call? How are we only hearing this now if it was sent out weeks ago?"

"Erebos is isolated, located on the edge of Wild Space. The signal came from a local transmitter, much weaker than what you'd expect for a space station. Tage only picked it up because he went off the main hyperspace routes to avoid Imperial patrols."

Something was still off though, and Ahsoka voiced her concerns. "They said they discovered something in the mines and that a dropship caused 'them' and 'they' to escape onto the station. What do you think they mean?"

"I have no idea, Ahsoka." Bail answered truthfully. That was something Ahsoka liked about Bail, despite being a politician, he often told the truth. "But we have to assume something went terribly wrong and that there are still hostiles on the station. You're our best warrior, so I thought you'd be the best for the job."

Ahsoka thought it over for a moment, then nodded as she stood up. "I'll investigate and tell you if there are any survivors left."

As Ahsoka detached her A-Wing from the Tantive IV, a million thoughts ran through her head. It was clear that she was venturing into unknown territory. Programing her navicomputer for the multiple jumps needed to reach the Erebos System distracted her somewhat, but the sounds and message in the distress signal disturbed Ahsoka.

As the stars elongated into starlines and were replaced by the swirling vortex of hyperspace, Ahsoka went over the transcript of the message. It had been badly garbled by static, but certain words and phrases chilled her blood.

'… discovered something on the surface of Tartarus, attacked…' Obviously, the mining teams had found something on the planet that had attacked them and somehow made its way up to Charon Station. Probably on one or both of the dropships that were mentioned. The voice from the signal said that CS-02 released 'them' onto Charon Station when it crashed into the space station itself.

Who were 'them'? And what did 'inside the miners' have to do with it?

What she did know was that there were seventeen survivors as of a few weeks ago. Hopefully, there would still be that many when she got there.

A couple days later, Ahsoka's A-Wing dropped out of hyperspace in the Erebos System. She could still detect a signal emanating from one of the planets closer to the star that she assumed was named Erebos. The transmitter was probably playing on a loop.

Locking onto it, Ahsoka fired the thrusters on her A-Wing and flew towards Tartarus. As she got closer, what she saw took her breath away.

Charon Station lay before her, or at least, what was left of Charon Station lay before her. Charon Station was somewhat tubular with docking bays along each side. The station was large, but from the info Bail had given her before she left, it was mostly automated. Towards one end was a rise in the superstructure with a circular room with windows all around it. That must've been the control center. The windows were shattered, fragments of glass floating in space around it. Surrounding the station was a field of debris, probably the shuttle that crashed into the station. The station itself appeared to be dying a slow death, large gashes in the hull. Whole sections appeared to have been vented to space.

Below the command center was the worst damage, most likely where the shuttle had impacted. Whole chunks of the station had been torn away.

She reached out with the Force, trying to sense for any signs of life or activity. She could sense some signs of life on the station. Maybe seven or eight life forms? But were they survivors from Charon Station's crew or the hostiles that had attacked them?

Ahsoka didn't know at the moment, but she knew she'd find out soon. Ahsoka decided to send off a quick message to Senator Organa. It said: 'Life forms detected. Unsure whether friendly or hostile. Stand by for confirmation. Fulcrum.'

Regardless if there had been survivors, Ahsoka needed to retrieve the evidence that the Rebellion had been operating on Charon Station. She still needed to get onboard the station and the command center in particular. That meant she'd need to do go EVA.

The cockpit of an A-Wing was cramped, but it was large enough for Ahsoka to wriggle into a spacesuit packed into the A-Wing's small cargo compartment. She took off her lightsabers as she put on the suit, clipping them onto the spacesuit's belt. With a few hours of air available in her suit, she programmed her A-Wing to hold position away from Charon Station. If she needed a quick evac, she could call it back and it would arrive in a matter of minutes.

Ahsoka pressurized her spacesuit and bled off the air inside the cockpit of her A-Wing, equalizing the pressure with the vacuum of space outside. She popped the hatch and slid the canopy open, leaving her starfighter for the void of space.

Kicking off, Ahsoka began to spacewalk to the remains of Charon Station. She laughed internally. The last time she had done this was to sneak onto the Tantive IV and surprise Senator Organa 15 years ago. Using the small thrusters on the back of her spacesuit, she maneuvered her way towards one of the larger gashes in the hull. Reaching the wound, she deftly slid inside to find a scene of utter devastation.

Power was off in the section, so the lights weren't functioning. The artificial gravity was, for some reason, though. Ahsoka toggled the flashlights on her helmet and turned around in a circle, taking stock of her surroundings. Carbon scoring peppered the walls. A firefight had obviously occurred here. But the floor appeared to have been melted in some places, with a hole having been bored down into a small hull breach.

She moved on, turning a corner at a junction and coming across something strange that covered the walls. At first, it was thin and sporadic, but as she continued it became thicker and more widespread until it completely coated the corridor. Small craters had been blasted in the coating by blasters, so the firefight had continued down into here. The coating itself was curious: a homogeneous substance that had random bits of technology and debris embedded in it and… what was…?

Ahsoka gasped in shock as a human skull gazed back at her from inside the substance. She jumped back and ignited her lightsabers, the blades igniting and shimmering silently in the vacuum. The white blades cast ethereal shadows everywhere, not just in front of her like her suit lights had done.

Slowly, she continued to advance, moving towards the command center using the schematics for the station given to her by Bail. They were projected onto the inside of her spacesuit helmet in a small heads-up display. More craters in the walls were joined by explosion damage. The substance on the walls had been melted by the heat, then solidified again. What had happened here?

She found that her way had been blocked by a collapse. A large jumble of debris had… no, it wasn't a collapse. It was a barricade. Random bits and pieces of debris had been welded and fused together and to the walls and ceiling.

She couldn't sense anyone on the other side of the barrier. And if it was anything like what she had seen, the pressure there would be vacuum as well. Ahsoka plunged her blades deep into the barrier, slowly but steadily carving a hole in the welded detritus. Completing a circle large enough for her to crawl through, Ahsoka withdrew her blades and pulled on it with the Force. The cut-out slid towards her and fell to the floor.

Ahsoka waited a moment to see if anything would come through, but there was nothing. No movement.

She was at a disadvantage here. Togruta didn't hear things in the same way as humans did. Their montrals detected sound waves through echolocation. It was what made them excellent hunters on their homeworld of Shili. They could detect the locations of other things and people ultrasonically. But here…

Here she was in a vacuum. There was no medium for sound to travel through. No sound; no echolocation. She was effectively half-blind.

Crawling through the hole she had made, Ahsoka turned to the large room on her left. It appeared to be a kind of barracks: many bunks pushed up against the walls, clothes hanging from improvised clotheslines or stacked on top of footlockers, half-eaten food, and posters of various people, places, and things mounted on the walls.

On the other side of the hallway was what appeared to be a recreation area of some kind. A small bar, exercise equipment, and surprisingly, some old-fashioned pool tables with actual physical balls and wooden cues.

It was ghostly. A few weeks ago, this whole area would have been teeming with life. Miners milling around and relaxing after a long shift down in the mines on Tartarus. Now, it was abandoned.

There was no one here. No one alive at any rate. This whole area had been vented to space and was vacuum. Ahsoka quickly moved on.

Looking at the maps on her suit's HUD, Ahsoka realized that she was nearing the station's ruined command center. A few more turns and she'd be there.

Maybe there she'd find some answers.

Hello everyone and welcome to the first part of most likely the last series that I'll write. Since I'm writing two stories at once ("The Forsaken Knights", check it out on my profile if you haven't read it!) I'll probably be alternating chapters.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Not much action, but exposition is needed. If you did enjoy it, please consider leaving a like or a comment and spread the word to anyone who you think would also like this as well!