"Dana!"

Dana nearly leapt out of her chair upon hearing Maarani shouting all the way from the landing bay. Before she could even set aside her reading pad, the Twi'lek burst into the room and began shaking her shoulders violently.

"We have to go now! There's HK droids out to kill me!"

"Teegs please!" Once the shaking ceased, Dana carefully stood up and took hold of her shoulders. "Pack your things, calmly. Atris and I will protect you until we get back to Coruscant. Alright?"

Maarani nodded hastily, and was about to rush out of the room again when the pressing issue came to mind. "Uh, might want to wear something not 'Jedi-ish'. And hide your lightsaber. And not talk about Jedi things on board. I'll explain at the hatch."

She was gone before any questions could be asked. Under other circumstances, she would have made a remark about crypticism not actually being a necessary part of becoming a Jedi. The life of her charge was nothing to be joked about.

Her brown eyes quickly scanned back over the room, accompanied by a flowing gesture. At command, all of her items and attire floated from their resting places to the bed, where she placed down a large satchel. Moving the items inside was done directly by hand instead, most notably of which included her lightsaber as Maarani had instructed.

Following the other half was more difficult, as while they had established a cover story, they had not felt a need to prepare for it so far ahead of their planned departure. And while she didn't stick that close to the more traditional Jedi attire, she didn't really make the look of a mining survey contractor either.

"What's taking so long?"

She quickly settled for pulling a jacket on while drawing the now filled satchel to her shoulder. To her annoyance, Maarani vanished from the doorway just as abruptly as she had appeared there, mumbling more things that Dana couldn't make sense of as she followed on.

At the landing bay she finally slowed down enough for an actual explanation.

"I went to the cantina and met a guy who I'm fairly sure works for Czerka, is Luxa's son and is going to help us find out who's behind these HK droid attacks. He doesn't know that I have anything to do with the Jedi."

Dana had little time to process everything that had just streamed out of the Twi'lek's mouth in a desperate ramble. The significance of his parentage was lost on her completely, but she was able to make enough sense of the rest. "Teegs, I know you mean well, but we are the last people who should be going after HK droids. And if he won't talk to Jedi, then there's no point in asking him to pass information along."

"Dana, I'm not getting anywhere with training. I know for a fact Atris can't stand me, and I can't stand her idea of what will help me recover my abilities. At least I won't be standing around getting frustrated while people are brutally murdered by droids looking for me."

A sigh followed from the Jedi as she took hold of her shoulder again. She knew all too well what the intent was behind Maarani's words. But hard truths were still truths. "Recklessness ends up doing more harm in the long run. If you were my padawan, rather than untrained charge, I would agree on pursuing this lead. But we can't outright fight the droids, which means they'll kill more people while chasing us whenever we stop to ask questions."

She took another long breath while watching Maarani's reaction. Very brief anger and frustration soon gave way to reluctant understanding and acceptance, followed by a look of determination.

"I'm not going to sit around and wait this out, or listen to 'wise people' yap about focus techniques that just don't work for me. I really will wait on the whole Jedi schtick if it means we stop those droids sooner." She tightened her lip in an attempt to maintain her sense of duty that was now settling in. "It took them two weeks to track me here. I reckon we can do it."

It was a hard claim given her recent past. The desire to serve the best interests of the Republic had always been incredibly strong, stronger than any of her own personal desires. However much her attitude said otherwise, that had always been the case for her in the end.

The decision was far more nebulous for Dana. Knowingly taking Maarani into great danger was exactly what she had been warned by the Council to avoid doing at any cost. Frustrating her with restrictions and denial was also something she was told not to do.

"I'll discuss it with Master Pala when we're safely away. Any other surprises I should know about?"

"They sell rycrit smoothies now?"

With a heavily wrinkled nose brought on by repulsion, Dana continued on to the Distant Star, where Cecile was waiting for them both. "We missing anything CC, or what?"

"Mistress Maarani's pink boyfriend is complaining about his accommodation. I had hoped she could shut him up in some way."

Maarani made a big point of rolling her eyes as she hurried up the ramp, grabbing Cecile again along the way. "He's not my boyfriend. I'll deal with him when we're not being shot at. Now I need you ready to fix the engines in case I burn them out on a bad maneuver."

"Understood."

While the droid hurried off to the engine compartment, Maarani and Dana quickly made their way to the cockpit. The hangar doors had been left open the entire time, having allowed a thin layer of snow and ice to form over the screen.

"What I wouldn't give for thermal coils right now… Readings on the air patterns outside?"

Dana scanned her eyes over the sensor readout while settling into the co-pilot's seat. "Uh, doesn't look too bad. No extreme low pressure zones or blizzard fronts. Should be fine for a fast orbit."

"Unless the droids get in the way. I'm fairly sure they didn't just come here on a civilian cruiser. Hold on." Maarani clenched her teeth as the ship powered up and began moving forward. At least in the tight confines of Coruscant, she had been able to see what lay ahead of them. It would take several seconds for the icy layers to blow off.

Barely after exiting the landing bay, several alerts began to sound and flash. Maarani didn't even need to move her eyes to realize what they were on about. "I thought we could get away with a cold start. We need to head down south until the engines are ready for full ascent."

"Whatever you say Teegs. I'll try and make sure we don't slam into the face of a mountain."

"That would be nice." She began gradually increasing speed once they were clear of the base. While it was starting to lift away the lighter layers of ice ahead, the falling snow around them was replacing it at a greater rate as they moved forward. Unwanted encouragement for her growing anxiety about not knowing where the droids were at that moment.

"Hey, this is the intercom isn't it? Mind letting me out now Maarani?"

"Izan, right now I'm flying blind and need to remain alert in case of an attack. I promise I'll catch you up on everything as soon as-."

The ice layer turned bright red for a few seconds, accompanied by proximity alerts. After a few seconds, a rumbling explosion echoed back up to them from the surface.

"Shit! I told you they would find us!"

Maarani began forcing the engines up a lot faster, starting the ascent against everything she had learned from training. A burned out engine while drifting out into space was far better than being scattered across half the planet.

Another artillery blast rushed in front of them. The raw heat from the projectile melted a line through the ice right down the screen.

"The scanners must have iced up, they're not picking up these shots until they're right in front of us."

"Well you said no blizzards, not a lack of ice storms."

"They're the same thing Teegs." On a hunch, Dana lightly slapped the side of the scanner. It flickered for a moment, but otherwise remained unchanged. "Might want to add this to the list of fixes at some point, along with the thermals and weaponry."

"Really starting to think that droid was ripping us off." The ice storm intensified briefly as they passed through the upper layers of the polar cloud.

A third blast came within a metre of the hull. The subsequent steam and air currents it created caused a great deal of turbulence for the ship, which would only make avoiding the next shot that much harder.

The engine status indicator switched to green at last. Burnout was no longer a real threat to them.

"Hold tight, this is going to be bad without flight suits." Maarani's hand began to move to the afterburner controls. Just moments before setting her hand down on them, she remembered their waiting passenger. "Izan, lie down against the left wall. Going to have some serious inertia for the next minute." Her hand returned to the afterburner while she waited for his acknowledgement.

"I have a bad feeling-"

"Don't say it! I know what I'm doing!" She nodded to Dana before leaning back into her seat fully. "Mostly…"

The ship jolted back the moment the afterburners kicked in, hurtling them up out of the lower atmosphere towards open space. Every bit of ice was stripped away by the sheer speed, giving them a full view of the looming Hammerhead cruiser above.

Maarani was quite silent as she pulled back on the afterburners. The next artillery blast was already far below their current position, leaving her plenty of time to stare at the monstrosity ahead.

Dana's jaw grew slack as she took in the full sight of the vessel. It was lined with a lot of weaponry, including the massive bombard cannon that had been firing at them. "Where in all the galaxy did they get a Republic cruiser, and the resources to repair and upgrade it like that?"

"We can find out later. I'll have to skin dance our way to the engines, jump to hyperspace from the sensor dead zone in the exhaust wake so they don't know where to follow."

"Skin dance… Maarani you said that was called suicide skimming for a good reason!"

"Izan shut up! We're dead if I don't do this!" She shut off the intercom and looked to Dana directly. "Now would be a really good time to use the Force if it can help in any way. Not trying to be funny." Her eyes were wide when she looked back to the cruiser. It was slowly turning towards them in order to bring the array of forward blasters to bear. Shots from the side mounted cannons were already starting to hail down in their direction.

After another look at the cruiser, Dana slowly nodded, her hand moving across to grip the Twi'lek's shoulder. "You have to reach out to the Force, I can't do it for you. I also can't fly us across the hull of a cruiser without tearing the floor out from under us."

Maarani's gaze didn't flinch from their swift approach. Her only real acknowledgement was a flicker of a smile in the right of her lip. "Thirty seconds to the dead zone on my mark. I'll be working out that turn. Charge the hyperdrive."

With a single nod, Dana returned her attention to the sensors, constantly observing all of the information being relayed to her while the hyperdrive systems began to build up. "Deflector shields are almost gone. No turning back."

"Blue Squadron never retreats from a fight. Mark!"

The cruiser's turning gave them a very brief window during which neither array of cannons could fire at them as they approached at great speed. Mild pause from the growing tension that she had to ignore at that moment. Every single movement had to be precise.

A sharp twist to the left brought them sailing through a small gap in the blaster array on the port side. Another twist back to the right levelled them out parallel to the cruiser's hull. Her hands were very steady as she brought them down just above the surface. Proximity alarms were blaring all around her.

By then the speed had dropped substantially to allow for the constant adjustments that would follow. The thumping of blaster shots scorching the hull as they flew by the side mounted cannons gradually faded out of her mind while her focus deepened. She was only passively using her eyesight to make corrections now. On another level of consciousness, she was planning out the sharp left turn that was just seconds ahead of them.

Whether it was a brief moment of contact with the Force, or a full recall of her training she couldn't tell. With just three seconds to the point of execution, it became clear to her entirely.

The main engines were shut off abruptly. For the first second, the ship flew out away from the ship on its own momentum, creating enough space for the turning thrusters to twist the ship around to face towards the engines of the cruiser. With half a second left, she brought both the engines and the afterburners on again.

"Hyperdrive now!"

They were in the heat of the exhaust zone for less than a second before hurtling into the hyperspace window, still turning enough to throw off any tracking predictions up to that moment.

For several seconds, neither of them moved a muscle, only able to stare ahead at the column of blue rushing around them. Against odds, and physics, it had worked.

"So that's skin dancing? Not bad for an 'average' pilot."

"Average by ace pilot standards." Maarani took a long, deep breath at last. Her lekku still felt lopsided from the inertia, but the feeling would soon pass. They had all the time in the galaxy to relax now. "Better go see how Izan is doing. Probably bruised and upset. Cecile too, actually, I forgot to warn her."

Dana grinned as she stood up, once again lightly touching the Twi'lek's shoulder. "Glad to see she's not just another 'machine' to you anymore. Just promise me our new friend isn't going to be trouble right now."

"I don't know if he's got a thing for Twi'leks, or he actually knows the bodyguard story is a lie. But he's the nicest Czerka agent I've met to date, and he's willing to help with the droids. That's enough for me right now."


"Frustrated conclusion: Our field reports about Tegama'Arani's skill as a pilot were woefully imprecise. She clearly has more skill than her record would indicate."

"Suggestion: She is also accompanied by a Jedi. They may have found a way to overcome the statistical probabilities of escaping our attack."

Besh Leader moved over to the central command console, bringing up a holographic recreation of the Distant Star's last trajectory before they entered the blind zone. It appeared as if they were losing control, but the last second actions had proven otherwise. "Assertion: We will need to factor in Force driven feats that defy logic for all future calculations. We will also need to factor in inside interference from-"

"Alert: Incoming message from our contractor."

With a gesture of his hand, Besh switched the projection from the ship recreation to that of their hooded employer. "Summary: We failed to capture Tegama'Arani due to two factors. An unexpected display of skill on her part, and two of our own HK droids that were reprogrammed by the Following. Cresh Leader was also disabled in the betrayal, and is currently undergoing repair."

The hooded figure lifted a hand up to stroke his chin in thought, making barely a sound as he stared directly at the heavily armoured droid. "No matter. You will be compensated for all costs, as usual. When a new opportunity arises, I trust you will all be ready to attempt capture again."

"Affirmation: The Hunter-Killer Mark 50 droid series is programmed to pursue a goal until it has been achieved. We will capture the Twi'lek alive, no matter how long it takes." Beta turned his head to one of the nearby droids, exchanging binary for a bit before returning to the contractor. "Statement: Aurek Leader has reported that tracking down the Sith known as Kiarna is proving to be a 'fruitless chore in bumbling around'. He is requesting any insight that may be provided into her current movements."

"I have been told as much, she does not stay in one place for very long when evacuating her kindred Miraluka. I believe the man arriving at your ship now will prove himself invaluable with locating where she will be going next." He gestured to the hallway behind Besh, where a slim man with wide green eyes was approaching from.

His deep maroon coat that reached down around the top of his boots gave him quite the intimidating appearance. That in addition to the constant stare he bore drew full attention from the other HK droids in the room.

"Confusion: How will an underweight Human male be of use in taking down one of the Sith's best killers? Any competent assassin would bring a presentation of weaponry to such a meeting."

A sly smile crossed the stranger's face as he approached Besh Leader, then stepped past to the control table. "It seems the deadliest collection of droids in the galaxy are sadly limited in their perception. Or perhaps I'm just that good at concealing the truth." After gazing over the controls, he turned to the commanding droid briefly. "May I demonstrate?"

The droid glared at him with steady amber optics for a while before finally nodding.

With a returning nod, the stranger lifted a hand up to his right eyeball, and with a soft tug, pulled it free of his head. "Azera Vass and I have a great many things in common, you see. Not least of which would be a small tumour deep within our brains that has some very nasty effects." He placed the removed eyeball on the table to retrieve the other, also removing it with very little effort. The false eyelids began sinking in a little now that there was nothing to hold them up.

"It really is fascinating how important ocular spheres of jelly and blood to the majority of races in the galaxy. To think just how versatile they can become in the right hands." With a wave of his right hand, the two eyeballs came to life. Four mechanical legs sprouted out from around the nerve base, allowing them to move across the table with a very faint patter of pointed feet. The right eyeball iris and lens split open to allow an array of tiny tools out into the open. From the left emerged a tiny laser, which sat on a smaller sphere inside the eye for free rotation around the place.

Besh was caught by surprise at the realization that they were two tiny probe droids with extensive modifications. "Fascination: These are the work of truly skilled craftsmen. A very costly affair no doubt, and yet we have never heard of their type, or the owner."

A soft chuckle followed as another hand wave caused the eyeballs to revert to their disguised forms. "Then I've done my job right. Spy work is more my profession. Unlike Azera, I do not find much in the way of joy from seeing pain in others. I never did care for the ways of the Sith anyway."

"Query: Then why choose to join forces with a group of assassins? We were given clear instructions to eliminate Sith targets, not spy on them."

The stranger lifted his finger for pause, still in the process of replacing the eyeballs in his otherwise useless sockets. "Slight change of plan, my friend. I want Azera alive, ideally with her body mostly intact. Having spoken with our mutual contracter, I believe that together we can prevent her corruption from getting out of hand. I don't mind if she suffers a bit of brain damage in the process, a quiet wife is a pleasant one after all."

"Zimorr, remember that your contract, and the one I have with the droids are still exclusive. Taking her alive will be at their discretion. Do not be so quick to count on that."

Zimorr nodded at that with his usual smile, his perception of the contractor's projection somewhat faint, but at least recognizable. "Of course. But, as I so happened to notice, Auresh Leader does require some sort of help in dealing with her. Such help would have to come at a price." He returned his false gaze to Besh, still bearing the smile.

After another exchange in binary, the droid turned his attention to the Miraluka in turn. "Statement: Capturing a target is not what we were designed and programmed for, as evidenced by Cresh Leader's treatment of Tegama'Arani. We may disable her permanently in such attempts. There may also be casualties, including those Miraluka she is rescuing. Analysis suggests you may not be happy with such risks."

"Oh, I don't think I'll mind if she is missing a leg. And the brothers and sisters who followed her instead of me all those years ago are of little concern now. Drive her into a corner, and I will be there to spring the trap. Agreed?"

A long pause followed, ending with a slow nod from Besh. "Statement: These are satisfactory terms. We have had plenty of killing in the past three weeks already, and expect much more to follow in our pursuit of both targets. And it is pleasing to see that even a Force wielder sees the value in utilizing droids over magical ridiculousness."

The contractor nodded as well, finding the outcome surprisingly amiable. "As far as tracking down Tegama goes, I would suggest focusing on her nanny droid. The Jedi will not be turned, and the Czerka agent is more likely to outright kill her should the truth be revealed. Be very wary of the Mandalorian when she enters the playing field."

"Statement: A good suggestion, as always. We will explore that angle of attack in our next set of calculations. Good day to you."