Easely had just finished finding the right frequency and was downloading what he could from the terminal. "It looks like audio files, but they're in some strange language."

Kowalski turned his head from the corridor leading deeper into the ship. "You think a protocol droid could translate it?"

"I think so," Easely said, returning his datapad to his belt. "If they can't, I don't know who could."

Kowalski nodded and turned back to his post. Nothing had come out so far and his mind used the respite to process everything that had happened here.

The twenty man reconnaissance squad he was a part of had been reduced to four: himself, Easely, Massey, and Crespi. Pulaski and Teraan were nowhere to be found since the rockslide and were in all likelihood dead. He was working with self-admitted rebels and even a couple of kriffing Jedi inside an ancient crashed starship being chased by an alien species no one had encountered before! Had anyone told Kowalski that he would be in this situation a few weeks ago he would have told them to get off deathsticks.

His sister would have loved this place, minus the aliens of course. Lysa had always been fascinated with archeology, but the Rebel terrorist attack that killed his parents and seriously injured her had shot down her dreams. She ended up as a shuttle pilot and mechanic while he went to the Imperial Academy to avenge the death of his parents. A few years later she managed to create her own business, a deep space salvage company. Financial problems still plagued her, but Brennan sending most of his salary to support her had kept the business from going under. She enjoyed it, the salvage company allowed her to partially continue her dream of becoming an archeologist, especially when she was called on to salvage anything ancient.

Like this place. That thought brought Kowalski back to the here and now. Crespi and Tano had been gone for a while, and that unsettled him.

"Massey, cover this entrance. Hooper, you take his place. I'm going after the Captain."

Massey and Hooper gave an affirmative and Kowalski walked the same path that Crespi, Tano, and Dr. Larte had taken. He found the opening in the material in the wall and stepped through. A bloodcurdling scream stopped him in his tracks. It was followed by a yowling and the sound of Tano's lightsaber cutting through something.

"Run!" came Tano's shout after a moment of still silence. Kowalski ran forward, bursting into the chamber to find Dr. Larte running full speed towards him followed by Tano, who seemed to be dragging Crespi behind her.

Behind them was an alien, it rose from the crouch it had landed in. Kowalski snapped his blaster up and fired a couple quick shots as the other three ran past him. Dr. Larte called for him to flee as the blaster bolts ricocheted off the alien's carapace.

It looked different from what they had seen previously. Instead of the smooth or ridged oblong heads, this one had a jagged crest of some kind attached to its head.

Kowalski backed up, firing as he did. The alien charged, and Kowalski dove to the side. His dodge was a little late, as the alien swatted him aside with a backhanded strike. Kowalski was thrown by the blow into a wall, his blaster flying away from him as he struck. Pain lanced through his chest and he gritted his teeth. 'Probably a broken rib,' he thought.

Kowalski looked back towards the alien, expecting to see it charging after him. But there was nothing there. Just a long segmented tail that disappeared through the entrance.

He heard more blaster fire and dragged himself onto all fours. Only now did Kowalski take stock of his surroundings. What he saw nearly made him puke.

His fellow stormtroopers, his friends, had been strung up on the walls in cocoons of some sort and all had giant cavities in their chests where something had burst out. Choi had been bisected by Tano's lightsaber, but at his feet lay the bisected corpse of what had to be a baby alien.

The revelation struck Kowalski like a sledge. His friends had been turned into incubators for the aliens. He reached for his blaster, but something caught his eye. One of the stormtroopers that had been strung up was the squad's sniper, and her sniper rifle was still strapped onto her back.

Pulling out his combat knife, Kowalski cut through the secretions holding poor Smyth onto the wall. He managed to create enough space to unclip the sling holding the A295 sniper rifle she had preferred on her back. The whole room rumbled and shook and he fell backwards, pulling the sniper out into his hands as he did.

Holstering his E-11, Kowalski limped out to find a battle raging. He took aim.


In the larger outer chamber, Ahsoka could see the alien's true size. It was larger than the other aliens they had faced so far, at least 10 feet in height, and its head had some weird crest that she hadn't seen before on any of the others.

Massey acted first, throwing a concussive grenade over their heads. It hit the alien in the head and detonated on contact, staggering the alien.

Every blaster they had opened fire at it, chipping away at the beast's skin which was almost like armor. It roared and charged right at Ahsoka, who backflipped out of the way.

Everyone who could move scattered out of the way, seeking cover where they could find it. Despite his busted leg, Easely still managed to get to the shelter of a small outcropping of cover.

The alien stopped momentarily and roared into the air. Massey popped out of cover and fired a burst, striking and deflecting off the alien's crest. It's tail lashed out in retaliation, lancing towards Massey who moved at the last second. The barbed tail gouged through Massey's plastoid armor, carving a furrow that nearly broke through to hit the skin.

Two normal aliens dropped down from above, likely responding to the large one's roar. One charged for Crespi, who for some reason had not fired once in the entire encounter. Ahsoka grabbed him with the Force and pulled him out of harm's way to herself.

A burst of blasterfire from behind cut down the alien with a shriek. As it fell, Ahsoka saw who the shooter was and nodded with pleasant surprise. "I got one!" Kaeden yelled with happiness and shock in her voice.

"There's hope for you yet, Doctor," yelled Massey in response. He whipped out a vibroknife and threw it with surprising accuracy into the neck of the second smaller alien. It shrieked in pain and anger, clawing at the vibroknife that was now corroding in the river of acid blood that ran from the wound.

The room shook and Ahsoka looked over to see Barriss, eyes welded shut in deep concentration, with her arms outstretched towards the ceiling. Cracks formed in the secretions that covered everything and whole chunks were torn free, falling towards the aliens. One crashed down on the smaller alien, crushing it. Others hit the big one, staggering it again. It reared up, standing to its full height, about to roar again.

Suddenly, a scarlet blaster bolt exploded from the alien's throat, decapitating it. As the beast fell to the ground, everyone looked behind it to see Kowalski limping towards them, dropping a long barreled sniper rifle to the ground.

"So… what did I miss?"


Crespi ran and fired. Droids exploded and sizzled around him. General Kila… Mylar's squad had gotten pinned down and were under constant assault from droid forces. Crespi could hear the sounds of battle and her cries over the comlink, but then everything cut off. He couldn't raise Mylar or any of the clones with her, getting nothing but static.

Terror and apprehension rose in his gut, but he forced it down. They were okay. They had to be.

The last of the droids fell away, and Crespi broke into a zone littered with dead clones. Mylar was nowhere to be found. He heard her calling for help and ran after her. The Separatists would not take her.

Crespi followed turn after dark turn following her pained cries, surprisingly finding no droids at all. His apprehension rose even more, threatening to spill over.

He couldn't stop now. He had to find her.

Crespi finally came out in a dark chamber, finding Mylar cocooned against a strange wall. He ran to her side, telling her everything would be okay.

Her back arched and contorted as she screamed. Crespi watched in horror as his General's chest bulged and split open, blood spurting over his armor and soaking her fur. A long black snake-like creature hissed as it wriggled out. It stared at him for a moment, then launched itself at his face.


"He appears to be coming out of it," Dr. Larte said as Crespi's eyes came back into focus on the world around him.

"What… happened?" Crespi said, his head falling onto his left hand as he scanned the rubble that lay before them.

"We got ambushed by a large alien. Are you feeling okay?" Dr. Larte asked.

Crespi grunted, his mind flashing back to what he had seen. Seeing Mylar… in the grips of those things… "I'm fine."

"Are you sure, sir?" Easely asked. "You were pretty out of it during that fight."

Mylar's lifeless eyes stared at him, taunting him. Crespi shook his head and his vision cleared. "I'm fine. Let's keep moving."

Crespi pulled his helmet on and looked up straight into Tano's eyes. She looked at him with concern and doubt that he was okay. Damn it, Mylar used to do the same whenever he or anyone under her command took a blaster shot and kept moving. The wave of remorse and regret hit him again, but he forced it away.

The mission was incomplete, they had yet to escape from the ship so far and the only viable path continued deeper. There'd be time for emotions later, once they were out of here.

Getting distracted now would be a death penalty. He barked out the order. "Let's move people!"

They continued deeper and deeper into the ship, approaching what Ahsoka guessed had to be close to halfway through the ship, maybe a bit further than that judging on the distance they had covered so far. The air became more and more humid, feeling more oppressive than it ever had. The walls and floor were slippery from the moisture in the air. A stench bombarded their senses, the stench of dead and decaying material.

The walls began to narrow until the group had to walk single file. Barriss, Kaeden, and Easely had to shuffle sideways through the passage

"I don't like this," Kowalski said, following the dried trail of blood that was on the ground.

"Perfect place for an ambush," Crespi said. "Stay alert. Tano, yell the moment you feel anything move towards us." Crespi angled his weapon light towards the ceiling, watching for any tunnels from which an alien could drop down on them.

The tunnel began a steady downward slope that then leveled out. It opened slightly into a circular hub, another passage branching off at a right angle to the left that led deeper and further back into the ship was sealed over completely by the alien secretions. The survivors kept going straight, the tunnel sloping upwards.

"I see an opening!" Kowalski said in a hushed whisper.

Ahsoka reached out, but could sense nothing in the chamber before them. Nothing moved. Nothing stirred or hated. All those signals came from behind them. But what was strange was that those signals were not following. They were just sitting there, motionless.

The uneasy thought that they had been herded to this chamber could not be dislodged from Ahsoka's head.

Kowalski eased through the opening, flanking one way while Crespi went the other. Ahsoka walked through the opening, lightsabers ready, but unignited. She ducked under something hanging from the ceiling, a long cylindrical translucent tube.

On the other wall, figures were plastered to the wall by the same web-like material that had held Crespi's stormtroopers. They were of a species she didn't recognize, with sloping foreheads, hard skin, and they were missing a nose which made each of them have a skeletal appearance. They had decomposed in the humid air of the chamber, and it appeared that some skin and flesh had been stripped from them by scavengers looking for food.

Ahsoka moved past the low-hanging cylinder and gasped as she turned to something out of the corner of her eye. Kowalski and Crespi both snapped their blasters up, ready to fire. They visibly faltered though when they laid eyes on what lay before them.

Above and before them was an alien larger than even the one they had just fought. Multi-legged with a massive crest on its head, this was no ordinary alien.

Ahsoka spotted the ovoid objects dotting the ground amongst a layer of mist. Her eyes went up to the translucent sack hanging from the ceiling. She turned back to regard the beast.

This was an alien queen.


Kowalski rested his finger on the trigger as he aimed at the giant alien queen. It remained motionless, the only sound being a slow, rhythmic hiss. He whispered into his helmet comlink. "Sir, I think it's asleep."

"Copy that," came Crespi's response. "No sudden movements, we don't want to wake it up."

Kowalski threaded his way onto a small rise over the ground, as he looked out over the chamber, his weapon light illuminated several pits filled with ovoid objects under a thin layer of mist. The rise he stood on branched out in multiple directions, separating the ovoid things into pits. The walls of each pit were lined with organic beings in various stages of decomposition plastered to the edges of the pits. He noticed that wherever there were figures strung up against the walls, the ovoid objects had opened at the top.

"I think we're in the middle of a breeding ground," Commander Tano said over the comlink frequency. "That big one has to be a queen and has been laying those eggs you see everywhere. Stay alert."

Kowalski continued along his raised walkway, Commander Tano on the other side of the pit he was currently skirting. There were other aliens in this large chamber, which Kowalksi had to guess was once a cargo hold or something like that. These aliens were similar to the one whose head he had blown off with Smyth's sniper rifle. The crests on these ones' heads were smaller and spikier compared to the Queen's crest.

They were, thankfully, also dormant like the Alien Queen. They were all folded up in alcoves along the walls, surrounding the Queen.

"Commander," he whispered over to Tano. "More of the one that attacked us. If that big mama is the Queen, then these must be her royal guard. Her Praetorians, if you will." Commander Tano looked over at him and nodded. Her eyes looked strained, as if she was devoting a great deal of concentration into the Force. "Is everything alright, Commander?"

"I'm fine," she said. "Trying to prevent them from detecting us through the Force."

Kowalski nodded and moved onwards. In the corner of his eye, he saw Crespi and Massey both come around the other side of the Queen. Sweeping his eyes across the room, he spotted a fissure in one wall. Toggling his comlink, Kowalski reported in. "Sir, I think I've found an exit from this chamber."

"Good work, trooper," Crespi responded. "Check it out, we'll cover you."

Kowalski advanced with swift, steady feet, not disturbing anything that lay above, below, or around them. Reaching the exit, he eased through the opening, snapping his E-11 from position to position with the fluid precision of a trained stormtrooper.

Nothing launched itself from the shadows to mutilate him, but he did spot a stairway circling up. Pressing on, keeping his back to the wall to avoid being flanked, he crept up the first couple stairs. Removing his helmet, Kowalski could feel a faint breeze.

He smiled. They had their way out.


Kowalski's presence in the Force was beaming with excitement. Ahsoka cracked down further, smothering his presence like she was currently doing for all the others. It was similar to what she had done for the past decade and a half, concealing her presence in the Force to avoid detection by agents of the dark side.

Whether or not the technique worked against these aliens was another story. But they remained dormant for now, so Ahsoka had to assume that it was working.

Kowalski's voice cut in over the comlink frequency they were all tuned into. "Sir, I've located a stairwell with a breeze coming through it. I believe it's a way out of here."

Kaeden, Barriss, Easely, and Hoop finally joined back up with the main group, having taken extra time moving an injured man sideways through a narrow passage and then across the minefield of alien eggs carefully and quietly.

Kaeden and Barriss both showed signs of exhaustion. Sweat was pouring down their faces and they moved slowly and sluggishly. "I… we need a rest," Kaeden said while panting, drawing in deep breaths. "I don't think we can make it up that stairwell in this shape."

Suddenly, Ahsoka's montrals picked up another faint sensation. She felt the faint echoes of the movement of a void in the Force. It came from above them and was heading towards them.

"They probably mean to seal off our escape route," Crespi said. "Kowalski is a good soldier, but he can't hold that position alone and it would take too much time to get these guys up those stairs. They'll be on top of us by then."

Anger built up inside Ahsoka. Her voice was low to avoid waking the aliens around them, but anyone listening could hear the snarl in her words. "No way in kriffing Sith hell am I leaving them behind!"

"I don't intend to," Crespi said, his voice remaining emotionless and unchanged. "We split up. You and I go to reinforce Kowalski and hold that bridgehead while these guys recuperate quickly. We hold the exit long enough for them to rendezvous with us and get out of this forsaken ship. The combined firepower of Massey, Easely, Hooper, Dr. Larte, and your other Jedi's skill with the Force should be enough to protect them."

Ahsoka closed her eyes, her mind reverting back to the strategic and tactical thinking she had honed during the Clone Wars. She didn't like leaving Kaeden behind, even temporarily. The thought of entrusting Barriss with protecting Kaeden also left a sour taste in Ahsoka's mouth.

But… what Crespi had proposed made sense. They needed to hold both positions, and she knew that pushing Kaeden, Barriss, and Easely too hard would only result in them collapsing at what could be a critical moment.

As if reading her mind, Kaeden put a comforting hand on Ahsoka's shoulder and smiled. "We'll be okay. Go."

"I don't like this, Kaeden."

"I know you don't," Kaeden's eyes sparkled with affection and understanding. "But if you don't go now we might never make it out of here."

Ahsoka gripped Kaeden's hand and squeezed, giving her a small nod. Kaeden smiled again and nodded back. Ahsoka turned to Crespi and keyed her comlink. "Kowalski, we're on our way."


Kaeden unscrewed the cap on a flask of water, eagerly drinking a gulp to replenish all the fluids she had lost to sweat from helping Easely through the tunnels. She sighed as the cool liquid ran down her throat, then took another before she went to inspect the dressing on Easely's wounds. She readjusted the splint on his leg, getting an expression of gratitude from Easely.

Kaeden sat back down, leaning her head back against the wall and closing her eyes. She regulated her breathing, taking deep breaths to avoid hyperventilation. Bringing her breathing back under control, she took another drink of water.

Kaeden toggled her comlink. "Ahsoka, everything okay up there?"

"No sign of them yet," Ahsoka replied. "I can sense them moving around, but no visuals. Don't take too long."

"We'll be up there in a few minutes," Kaeden said.

There was the double click of the mic that indicated Ahsoka had received and acknowledged her message, so Kaeden turned hers off. She turned her head to look through the passageway to look out over the Alien Queen's chamber, then looked over to the other Jedi, Salvia.

Salvia sat cross legged, eyes closed and her hands in her lap. Kaeden guessed she was meditating. Salvia's eyes snapped open, filled with worry. "Something's wrong?"

Kaeden rose and crept to the edge of the opening into the Queen's chamber. She noticed something was up. "Where's Massey?"

Salvia answered as Hoop primed his plasma torch. "I can feel him inside the chamber."

Various scenarios flew through Kaeden's mind. Did the aliens snatch him unaware and take him into the breeding pits?

There was a creaking sound from inside the chamber, followed by a few blaster shots. The others with Kaeden crowded around the entrance, Hoop barely inside the chamber and Easely lying prone on the ground.

Through the steam came multiple of the Praetorians. The Queen herself stirred, and roared upon spotting Kaeden and the others.

Hoop opened up with his plasma torch, hitting and igniting the closest Praetorian. Every blaster they had opened up at it, a hail of blaster bolts slammed into the Praetorian. The combined hail of fire and the blazing flames dropped it to the ground, a position from which it didn't get back up.

"Fall back!" Hoop yelled.

"We can't!" Easely responded. "We won't be able to outrun them up those stairs. We'll need to make a stand down here."

Kaeden reached up to her headset comlink. "Ahsoka! We need support now! They're awake!"

There was silence for a moment. Then Kaeden heard Kowalski's voice. "Go Commander! I can hold them off while you cover their retreat."

Ahsoka spoke, urgency and desperation in her voice. "Hold on Kaeden, Crespi and I are on the way."

A Praetorian reached the opening, forcing Kaeden and the others to leave the confines for the protection of space to dodge. Had they been stuck in that narrow space, the Praetorian would have ripped them to shreds. Easely got lucky, having wedged himself under the stairwell, the Praetorian could not get him easily, and with other targets, especially a Force user, it left him alone.

Salvia ripped the cocooned bodies from their mountings and hurled them at the aliens with the Force, doing whatever she could to distract them from the others. Hoop set fire to another Praetorian, but barely survived its counter strike. A flaming claw slashed through his shirt, lighting it on fire. Hoop immediately shrugged the plasma torch off his back to prevent it from detonating, then dropped to the ground to smother the blaze. His screams reverberated through the chamber, oddly echoing and mixing with the shrieks of the aliens.

Blasterfire from behind to the underside of one of the Praetorian's crests dropped one. The crest sheared off. The Praetorian shrieked and cried in alarm, and then something peculiar happened.

The Praetorian next to it pounced, tearing it's brethren to shreds as if it was an enemy. Kaeden stared in shocked wonder at the sight.

"Doctor, look out!" Salvia cried, snapping Kaeden's attention back to the present. Before her was one of the pits filled with the sealed ovoid things that Ahsoka believed were eggs. The ovoid objects opened at the top with a squeal, like some form of demon flower.

Kaeden saw something move in them and fired. Hot plasma burned through one, then another, but there were too many. A little crab-shaped creature scuttled out and jumped at her, striking Kaeden in the chest with surprising force, knocking her to the ground. She somehow managed to throw it off, but her blaster bolt missed it on the ground.

The crab-thing launched itself at her again, this time aiming for her face. Kaeden brought a hand up to cover her face and it slammed against her forearm. The creature's tail swung around, wrapping itself around her neck in the blink of an eye and it started pulling.

Kaeden's arms slipped and the creature drug itself over them, slamming into her face. It smashed her nose, making her eyes well up with tears. It's leg appendages wrapped around her head and Kaeden desperately grabbed at them blindly with her hands, but they had locked around her skull.

The tail around her neck tightened like a steel cable, causing Kaeden to gasp. The second her jaws parted, something shot between her teeth, forcing its way down her throat and painfully wedging her jaws apart.

Tears burned in her eyes as the last thing she heard before the darkness claimed her was Ahsoka screaming her name.


So... I think I should address the elephant in the room. If you're here primarily for the Kaeden/Ahsoka pairing and stop reading because of what I just wrote, I totally understand and will not blame you for leaving. I just want you to know that I struggled back and forth with the choice to make Kaeden the victim of a facehugger for a long time, but in the end decided this was the best course I could take for what I have planned later on. I will say though that Kaeden is not dead yet. Anything can happen.

That being said, feel free to leave to leave your thoughts in the comments. Praise, criticism, hate... anything goes.

Next chapter: Ahsoka's reaction to Kaeden's facehugging and we check in on Henry, Rynn, and Teraan.