Hello again! If you've made it this far it means I've done something right so let's keep it going. Either that or this is a trainwreck and you're having trouble looking away. It saddens me to say that this story may very well soon be over; even though this is not the final chapter. However, as I write this, I have a document open that holds the next arc of Star Wars adventures. Or the start of them at the very least. I am excited to share them with you and hope you are ready to read them. This has been a very long project and I thank you for being patient.
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-W.P.

On the inside of the compound walls, Jinn and Uadda could see over a dozen meandering figures. Some talking, others carrying crates from place to place and at least five manning the anti-air cannons that brought down the ship hours ago. They had to duck down behind a crate as two individuals, one Trandoshan and the other human, passed by them.
"Boss is going to be pissed when he finds out." Said the human. He was shorter than an average human but muscular and well-groomed.

"The boss is the one that gave the order." Answered the Trandoshan. His thick reptilian hide made him look like an overgrown iguana.

"What about Tebet? Won't he be pissed about his slave being blown to bits? And how are we sure that was her?"

"You leave that fight to the boss. He made the call, he deals with Tebet. That's how it works here." The Trandoshan replied. There was a hint of bitter disappointment in his gravelly voice. "Her tracker was on the ship and was lit up with her vitals. If anyone else was with her, they died too. Boss doesn't want any loose ends so; a retrieval party is being sent out soon to collect the package."

Jinn waited until they were out of earshot before speaking.
"Sounds like she wasn't needed anymore." He whispered to Uadda, who had been peeking between the stack of crates at their surroundings. She was looking for patterns and entry points into the main building.

"It doesn't look like getting in unnoticed will be easy either." She remarked. Jinn peeked over the crate to get a better view. More figures were appearing on the platform now. Many of them were human and arrived through a blast door across the platform from where the pair were hidden. Jinn sat down with his back to the crates and sighed.

"Any ideas?" He asked. Uadda sat beside him.

"One, but I don't know how well it will work." She admitted. She pulled a small cylinder communicator from her belt. It trilled to life and she spoke into it.

"AE-23? This is Uadda, do you read me?" A few seconds passed before the droid responded.

"I need you to track my position and see if you can find any known records for this compound. Find us a way in." She instructed. AE replied with a short beep and clicked off the communicator.

The pair turned and looked over the crates again hoping to find a way in while their astro-mech did its best.

"Hey, who are you?" Said a very loud and startled voice. Jinn and Uadda looked around the crate to their left and found a human dressed in black trousers and a grey jacket with red trim. The same uniform as everyone else on the platform. He was holding a datapad and quickly reaching for his blaster pistol holstered on his hip. Uadda was faster. With a quick tug through the force, the man toppled forward and slammed his head into the top of the nearest steel crate. He crumpled to the ground silent.

"That was close," Jinn commented with relief, turning his attention back to the platform. "But I still don't see a way inside."

Just then, the main blast door, which had just opened to let a handful of workers through, slammed shut, catching a worker's leg between the heavy steel plates. He screamed a blood-curdling cry that got the attention of everyone on the platform. Quickly, all of the workers turned and raced to help. A moment later, another door near Jinn and Uadda slid open. The two looked at each other confused before AE's voice buzzed over the communicator, telling them to go. They didn't hesitate and bolted as fast as they could through the open door. It closed quickly behind them. Inside was a short corridor that split off into four different directions with a turbolift at the end of one. Jinn and Uadda stooped to catch their breath. Then a small voice trilled from the hallway beside them.

"AE!" Jinn exclaimed. The little yellow droid clicked and beeped in excited reply and rocked from side to side, trilling its joy.

"How did you get in here?" Uadda asked. Astonishment plain on her blue features. The droid answered in the same beeps and clicks that made up the majority of the binary language, then activated a trio of lift jets as if to illustrate its point.

"You are way too clever for your own good, you know that?" Jinn patted the droid. AE burbled in what may have been embarrassment.

The two Jedi took in the bright grey walls of their surroundings. It was cold inside. Of course, it had been cold on the rest of the planet but in here, they couldn't ignore it as easily. Their breath came out in puffs of steam that hung in the air before dissipating. The walls were ice cold to the touch and made of metal almost like the hull of a ship but with too many separations in the material to survive in the vacuum of space.

"Which way do we go?" Jinn asked. The droid plugged itself into a scomp-link on the wall beside them just below a screen. The viewscreen changed to display a 3D map of the compound. Uadda and Jinn had the same thought, but neither of them said it out loud. The compound was enormous. Over fifty floors deep and hundreds of kilometers wide, the deceptively small exterior of the structure was nothing compared to what it housed.

Uadda saw it first. She pointed to a grid on the map that seemed to be isolated on all sides, save for one entry path and a small garbage shoot on the other side.

"Zoom in there. What is that?" The question was directed at the droid. AE buzzed its reply.

"Holding cells," repeated Jinn. "That has to be where Master Tophta is. Can you get us there, AE?" The little droid beeped with pride and opened the turbolift doors down the hall. Uadda and Jinn hurried inside, closing the doors via the command panel inside. AE beeped over the communicator, then the elevator began its descent.

The display above the door read the floor numbers as they flashed by rapidly. They were less than halfway there before the elevator came to a grinding halt. The force of the stop threw the two Jedi to the floor painfully. The impact reignited the 1000 little injuries across Jinn's body, as well as a few big ones. He rolled and sat up with his back against the cold metal wall. Uadda pushed herself up onto her knees and groaned before turning on her communicator with a trilling sound.

"What happened AE? Where are we?"

There was no response. She tried again.

"AE? AE-23 where are you? We're stuck between, floors 18 and-"

"I know exactly where you are, little Jedi. You are right where I want you to be." The voice was clear over the intercom inside the turbolift. It was foreign to both of the young warriors who exchanged worried looks. It was soft and lilting as it continued.

"No doubt you are here for the Jedi Master. But I'm afraid our guest quarters are all full, so I'll have to find you somewhere else to stay." The pause was filled with a deafening silence. Jinn reached for Uadda and clasped her hand.

"Oh, I have the perfect place to put you." The voice chuckled. "Right at the bottom of this shaft."

There was no time to react. The power died in the lift and it dropped. Free falling in darkness to the unseen abyss below.