Chapter 2: Taris Upper City
Mona woke up looking at an unfamiliar ceiling she had no idea where she was. She couldn't recall anything since seeing the Endar Spire explode from the escape pod.
"You're up," Carth said as Mona sat up on the bed.
"Where are we?" Mona asked.
"We crashed down on Taris," Carth said, "You smacked you're head pretty hard on the way down. You've been out for a good day now. We landed pretty abruptly but I wasn't too badly hurt and I managed to drag you over to these abandoned apartments before the Sith arrived. We should be able to hide out here, at least for a little while."
"So how are we going to escape?" Mona asked.
"Well the Sith have the entire planet under quarantine so right now nobody is leaving except them," Carth said, "We'll have to wait it out as best we can."
"Why is the planet under quarantine?" Mona asked.
"Why?" Carth asked as if Mona should know, "Malak wants Bastila."
Malak was the lord of the Sith. But Mona knew nothing about Bastila. How could one Jedi be so important?
"What's so important about Bastila?" Mona asked.
"Bastila has a very special force ability called a battle meditation," Carth said, "It's an extremely rare ability; it allows here to inspire her allies and have them work in amazing precision to defeat an enemy. That's why she is so important. She is the key to our war effort. Her mediation can allow our forces to overcome incredible odds. Although to push the limits would be suicidal…"
"So why would we want to find her," Mona said, "That would just put us in even more danger."
"That is true," Carth agreed, "However we both want the Republic to win and finding and protecting Bastila is incredibly important. Since the planet is still under quarantine we know the Sith haven't found her. However once they do they'll lift it, they don't care about a few stranded soldiers. But we need to protect Bastila; while it may not help us get off this planet it will help us in the long run."
"Fine," Mona agreed with a sigh, "Let's go out and see what we can find."
Outside a Sith officer and two battle droids were arguing with a pair of Duros. While Mona knew the language of Duros she couldn't pick up what they were staying because they were talking to fast and using a lot of curses which she had not picked up on.
"Kill them!" the Sith ordered his battle droid.
Carth whipped out his modified Arkanian Heavy Blaster and shot one the droids but the other droid killed one of the Duros.
"What's this?" The Sith officer asked spinning around, "Human's in this building. You must be Republic fugitives!"
The officer tried to draw his own blaster but Mona pulled the strange vibroblade she had picked up on the Endar Spire and drove it into his mid section. The other Duros pulled out his own vibroblade and hacked the head of the confused battle droid.
"Thank you human," the Duros said, "I will get rid of the bodies for you. I can tell you are from the Republic. But I have no love for the Sith. Go before they come to investigate."
With a nod Mona and Carth ran out of the apartment building into the hustle and bustle of the Upper City of Taris. Taris was a planet wide city similar to Coruscant only situated on the Mid-Rim, it had been very prosperous earlier when there had been many hyperspace routes which required a stop off at Taris. However the discovery of new routes had greatly reduced traffic to Taris so it was slowly falling into collapse although the upper city was still as nice as Coruscant. People were walking everywhere, for the large majority they were humans with very few aliens. Mixed in were the odd protocol droid many of which were speaking to, who Mona presumed to be, offworlders trapped on Taris because of the Sith quarantine. Also there were Sith troopers patrolling the broad walkways dressed in their familiar gold uniforms. Mona noticed Carth was no longer wearing his Republic Fleet Uniform. Anyone with half a brain would no how bad an idea that would be. Her own clothing was not standard issue by any means and made Mona look more like a bounty hunter or mercenary then anything else.
"We should check out the Cantina's," Carth muttered as they entered a crowd, "We might be able to get some help there."
"But isn't there a chance that some of the off-duty Sith are in there?" Mona asked.
Carth nodded, "Yeah but I get the feeling that nobody really wants them here but there isn't much that they can do."
Mona had her doubts but decided not to voice her opinion. Besides as long as they were careful about who they were talking to there wasn't much that could go wrong. A Sith trooper stood guard outside nearest Cantina, with a slight smile and a nod Mona entered the Cantina with Carth not too far behind her. A man just inside the Cantina wearing golden Mandalorian was watching a view screen. Mona glanced over his shoulder, the screen was showing a ring in which two men stood on opposite sides, they both drew their blasters but the one dropped his. The other man shot him and he collapsed.
"Deadeye loses again," the man in the Mandalorian armor said aloud, "What a surprise."
"Is he dead?" Mona asked him.
The man spun around obviously surprised, "What?" he stammered and then he started to chuckle, "No he's not dead. Death matches have been banned on Taris for a while, it'd be better for him if he was dead. No, I'm not sure entirely how it works but there's an inertial dampening field in the ring and blasters and vibroblades on stun and wound they don't kill. That's why I don't duel anymore."
"Hey wait a minute," Carth said, "I know who you are. You're Bendark Starkiller. You're that infamous duelist who's never lost a duel."
"I prefer to call myself famous." Bendark said, "But yes you are right I am Bendark."
"Nice to meet you," Mona said as she wandered off.
"Yeah, nice to meet you," Carth said following her.
"That guy gives me the creeps," Mona muttered as they got out of range.
"Bendark's killed over 200 people in death matches. He's the reason they were banned. He's completely bloodthirsty."
"That's why he gives me the creeps," Mona said.
They wandered up to the bar and sat down, "You two aren't more Sith are you?" the bartender groaned.
They both shook their heads, "No we're just some traveler's stuck here because of the quarantine," Carth lied.
"We were off to do get some Kolto from Manaan and then do some trading on Alderaan but looks like that's been cancelled," Mona added.
"I here that sort of story a lot," the bartender said, "I had no idea how many offworlders were stuck here. Anyway you guys want to start a tab; since you can't leave we're letting offworlders start up a tab here."
"Sure," Carth said, "What's the house special here?"
"Tarisian Ale," the bartender said, "It's pretty potent stuff."
"We'll give it a try," Carth said.
The bartender stuck two mugs of foaming beverage in front of them and shuffled off to another part of the bar. Carth picked up his mug and took a swig.
"Whoa," he said reeling back on his chair, "That stuff is pretty potent."
Mona picked up her own mug and took a drink. The stuff seemed to burn her throat the entire way down and it had a kick in it that made her blink a lot and her eyes water.
"That is potent," Mona agreed.
The two of them spun on their stools and scanned the Cantina to look for anyone who might be able to help them out. Mona noticed a small group of patrons who the other people were avoiding.
"Off-duty Sith?" Mona whispered to Carth while keeping her eyes on the group.
Carth followed her eyes to the group himself, "Yeah," he agreed.
"I'll see what I can do," Mona said standing up.
Before Carth could stop her and make a scene giving them away Mona stepped deftly in between to large surly men towards the secluded group.
"Oh look, another smuggler here to complain to us." One of the Sith complained.
"Hey I'm no smuggler," Mona said, "I deal in legitimate merchandise."
"Yeah whatever," the Sith retorted, "Look we ain't givin' you the codes to get off this damn backwater planet so get lost."
With that he fell facedown on the table.
"Sorry about him," one of the other Sith said, "He's had a bit too much to drink."
"Well I can't really blame him," Mona said, "There isn't much to do on this planet."
"It is a pretty dull place," the Sith officer agreed, "But it could be worse I guess. I mean the pay is good and there's very little in the way of combat."
"Yeah," Mona added, "And while it may be boring at least it's not Tatooine. I'd hate to be stuck on that dust ball."
"Can't argue with that," the Sith officer smiled, "Anyway we're gonna be having a party tonight as soon as our patrol is done over in the apartments just north of here. Stop by if you want to."
"Thanks," Mona said standing up, "I'll see you later then."
The Sith officer and his companions then dragged their passed out comrade from the Cantina. As soon as they were gone Carth came over, "What the hell were you doing?"
"I've got some training in espionage," Mona said, "Just a small bit of infiltration."
"That was too risky," Carth said, "You could have been…"
"Oh shut up," Mona said, "They didn't even suspect a thing. Besides I've got a plan to get our hands on some Sith uniforms."
"Really?" Carth asked, "How?"
"Later tonight," Mona said, "I'll tell you later."