Peace of Mind Kamparas Saga Part 3

by M. Andrew Sorensen

Third in a continuing series. Janella and Neme must hire a group a mercenaries to free her family from the captivity of the Peace Brigade. NJO Era, about the time of Star by Star for those keeping track.

The bridge of the Lucid Dream was quiet in the middle of the shift cycle. Darick Nershin had his feet up on the console, watching a re-broadcast of the Coruscant shockball championships. The signal was breaking up a bit, but it was tolerable. The Dream wasn't state of the art, so the receiver was a simple two-dimensional flat image, but it was better than a lot of ships had. An old Gallofree medium transport, the Lucid Dream had seen its heyday back when the Rebellion used her to abandon Hoth Base. Now, almost three decades later, she was flying as a private merchant hauling freight from one side of the galaxy to another. With the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, the manifests had been light, but that was ok with Nershin.

A third-generation spacer, Nershin was lowest on the rung of the eight crewers and the man selected to pilot the ship through hyperspace on the late shift. Nershin snorted at the thought. "Piloting" was an overstatement since the navicomp was handling all of the work. None of his predecessors had gotten rich in this line of work, though, so here he was.

A red button started flashing on the comm board. Since the game had just reached a critical point, it took Nershin a few moments to notice it. He sighed and turned the volume down on his monitor, then pressed the flashing button.

"…yone listening? Calling any ship in the area, this is the freighter Random Access calling any vessel. Is anyone listening? We've been disabled and our life support is failing. Please, if you can hear this, we need help. Is anyone out there?"

Darick hit the internal comm and signaled the ship's captain.

"Cap, we've got a distress signal coming though. Sounds like someone's in real trouble."

"Well, Nershin, drop us out of hyperspace. We'll see what we can do, or at least pass a message for them. I'll be there in a few minutes."

Nershin killed the comm and checked the location of the distress signal. He plotted an intercept that would get them within a few klicks of the Access so they could see what was going on.

"Reversion to realspace in thirty-nine seconds," the navicomp's voice said.

The captain came through the door just as the ship was dropping from lightspeed. He was still wearing his robe over his evening clothes.

"Oh my god…"

Just as the ship came out of hyperspace they saw a massive warship surround by four other heavily armed craft. Before they could react, one of the smaller ships opened fire and hit their main engines. The captain of the Dream hadn't even had time to raise the shields.

"Unknown freighter, this is the Peace Brigade Frigate Midnight Runner. You will make no attempt to flee or fight or you will be destroyed. Do I make myself clear?"

"Copy, Runner, this is Captain Tevis Parthen of the transport Lucid Dream. What are your intentions?"

"Well, I guess that depends on your cargo, Captain."

"Our cargo is mostly just foodstuffs and some minor construction materiel, support frames and such. It can't be much use to you."

"On the contrary. Your cargo will help keep our guests alive. You, of course, will be the newest visitors at the Cardanos Prisoner Interment Center. We'll keep ya nice and healthy until the Vong show up and decide what to do with you."

PEACE OF MIND

(Part 3 of The Kamparas Trilogy)

Four weeks after getting the news about Coruscant, Janella Renshir, Neme Llows, and Kylan Karris were in the communications center of the Jedi installation in the Maw. They were waiting for the officer on duty to finish decrypting a message for Janella.

After hearing the news, Janella and Neme had decided to wait and see if they could get more detail before rushing back out. Jan had contacted Lacton Ames, the Imperial Intelligence agent she had met on Kamparas to try and find more information on what was happening in the core. His response was what they were waiting on now.

"Ms. Renshir," the officer said, "I need your authorization code to print the message."

Jan walked over and keyed the code that Luke Skywalker had given her when she set out on this supply run for him. After a moment, the comm officer handed over a single-sheet printed message.

Nodding her thanks, Jan, followed by Neme and Kylan, went to the secure conference room just down the corridor from the comm center. Once inside, with the door sealed, Jan read the message she'd been given.

Janella –

Sources confirm Coruscant is firmly in Vong hands. Republic government is in exile, location unknown. Numerous refugees were captured by the Peace Brigade. Brigade appears to be running an internment camp on Cardanos, just outside of Hutt space. Contact Davin Kahne on Acacia. He knows some people who can help. I've sent a message letting him know to expect your call.

-Ames

Jan looked up from the message to find Kylan shaking his head.

"Back to Acacia. The fun never ends around you two," he said.

"Hey," Neme replied, "if I remember correctly, we were there to save your backside last time, my friend."

Jan let them go for a few more moments, then coughed discreetly. When that didn't work, she cleared her throat loudly, with no subtly whatsoever.

"I'm sorry, did I interrupt something?" she said, a sweet smile on her face.

Neme and Kylan both laughed, taking seats around the table.

"Alright, guys. You know the deal. I asked Ames to check into the refugees from Coruscant, to find my father and brother. This is the answer. The Brigade snatched a bunch of ships and took the passengers to Cardanos. It looks like they've set up a camp to hold prisoners until the Vong decide they want them."

"This guy, Kahne, is he supposed to be…?" Neme started to ask.

"I asked Ames to find a mercenary or someone that can give us more firepower. I wanted it because the only choice I can see is going in to get the prisoners out."

Neme and Kylan sat in silence for a few moments.

"We're going to need ships to get them out," Neme said. "I'll have Rosha get the Tramp, Scrapper, and Lighttrain moving."

"No, hold that. We need to get ourselves to Acacia first. Kahne might be able to give better advice. Kylan, are you still staying here like you were planning?"

Kylan shook his head.

"No, I want to help. I don't know what the Brigade has set up on Cardanos, but I can't imagine another Jedi on hand will hurt."

Janella walked over to the star chart that was being projected along the wall opposite the door. While tracing her finger along from Acacia to Cardanos, she had a flash of insight and without thought found herself pointing to the planet Ter Sephino.

"Neme, I take it back," she said without turning around, "Send Rosha and the freighters here."

Davin Kahne signed off the comm after reading the message from Ames. He knew Ames was a good character, even if he was an Imp, so he walked down the hall to talk to his boss.

After knocking on the door, Kahne walked into the office of Zane Thader. Thader, like Kahne, had served his time in the military, both Imperial and Republic, but they'd both left that business a few years earlier. Some people referred to what they did as mercenary. Thader himself called it "freelancing".

"Hey, boss," Kahne said, "We got a message from Lacton Ames. Said he's sending someone to get in touch with me about a job. What'dya think?"

A tall man, Thader somehow seemed to loom over everyone even while sitting down.

"Well, Ames has tossed a couple of good things our way. Did he say what this was about?"

"Nope, but he seemed to imply it involved hurting the Peace Brigade."

"Ahh, my new favorite pastime. Where are you doing the meet?"

"Acacia."

"Ahh, home sweet home."

"Yeah, right. There's a reason I left in the first place. Anyway, what ship do you want me to take?"

Thader thought about it for a moment.

"Considering you almost lost the starboard engine last time you took the StarFlair out, do you really want to ask Alissa to use it again?"

"Uhh…no. So does that mean I should take the Odds?"

"Yeah, but just so you know, if you tear up my baby, you'd probably be better off strolling into Coruscant than coming back here."

"Oh, yeah, big words from the big man. The meeting's set for four days from now, so I guess I better get moving. I'm gonna take Rae with me. I don't know that I'll need him, but having a slicer on hand is never a bad idea."

"Yeah, that's a good idea. The kid's been driving me a little crazy lately."

"Gee, that's encouraging." Kahne laughed, tossed an off-hand salute and went back through the base to prep the Even Odds for departure.

Life on Cardanos wasn't great, but it wasn't as bad as Tevis Parthen had expected when the Lucid Dream had been captured a month ago. The Brigade had forced the prisoners to construct small lean-to huts, and with the material they'd taken with his ship, the shelter was pretty close to adequate. The weather here was nice, with most days being sunny When it did rain, it was a warm rain, so no one suffered from any maladies related to the weather.

The Brigade had also hired some decent medical help. Their concern was that when their Yuuzhan Vong masters came calling, they didn't want sick or crippled prisoners for their sacrifices. Over all, Tevis would rather be at his ranch on Agamar, but things could have been much worse.

He strolled over to the hut he shared with Darick Nershin, the late-shift navigator of his ship. When the Brigade had rounded everyone up, they made lists of the crew and paired them off for the camp. Since Nershin had been on the bridge with Tevis, they were housed together.

Sitting outside of the hut with Nershin were and a father and son from Coruscant they had befriended. Mykl Renshir and his son, Han, were bunked just a few huts away, so they often spent time together. Darick was telling Han another one of his stories about the grand adventures of space travel. Tevis recognized some of the places Darick talked about, but for the most part, he was just telling stories to amuse the boy.

Tevis sat next to Mykl, just to the side of the other two.

"How are things going today, Mykl," he asked in a friendly manner.

"Same as always, though the sun is shining, so I can't complain."

While the conversation sounded simple, they, and a few other prisoners, had worked out some simple code-phrases. They worried that the Brigade was eavesdropping or had inserted some of their own troops into the prison population. These simple phrases allowed them to pass information along. In this case, it was just a message that there was no one else around, so they could speak freely.

"How's Greshin doing?" Mykl asked. Greshin was another member of Tevis's crew who had come down with a strange illness.

"The medtechs say he's getting stronger, so I think it should be ok. Any word on the fence team?"

"Well, they say that…" Mykl stopped when he saw two people strolling across the yard toward them. Tevis elbowed Darick to get his attention, then all four of the prisoners stood.

Cior Qeninh was the Brigade's commander in charge of the prison. He demanded that all prisoners stand when addressing him or his immediate subordinate, Lena Ranele, who was now standing at his right shoulder.

"Good afternoon, gentleman. Was there a meeting of some kind scheduled that I wasn't aware of?" Qeninh asked. He stood with his palms gripped in the small of his back.

"Not at all, commander," Mykl answered. "It happens to be an off-shift time for all of us, so we were simply waiting for our next duty period."

"A very good answer, Mr. Renshir. I'll accept it for today. I just thought I would bring you word that Mr. Greshin is no longer among the living.

"What?" Tevis yelled. "I was just at the sickbay and they told me he was getting better!"

"Mr. Parthen, I suggest you calm yourself."

"Calm myself? I'll show you calm, you arrogant…"

Tevis didn't finish his statement. As soon as he made a move toward Qeninh, Ranele slapped him across the stomach with the club she typically carried. As Tevis doubled over from the strike, Ranele smacked him across the back of the neck, dropping him to the ground.

Having seen this kind of display before, Mykl, Darick, and Han all stood their ground, not making any move to interfere.

"Mr. Renshir, please pass the word about poor Mr. Greshin. Also pass the word that those who were working with him on the perimeter construction should be cautious of falling ill themselves. Good day, gentlemen."

Mykl waited until Qeninh and Ranele were out of sight, then counted to thirty just to be certain they were gone before he bent down to help Tevis.

"I'm fine," Parthen croaked. "Well, nothing's broken, anyway."

"Mr. Parthen, why did you react like that?" Han asked. "You know the commander doesn't take attacks well."

"Well, kid, I knew he was going to hit one of us. That's the only reason he came down himself. I figured I'd take the shot since it was one of my crew."

"I think we should back off on the fence project for awhile, Tev. Obviously, Cior knows something's going on," Mykl said.

"He must not know what, though," Darick spoke up for the first time since Qeninh showed up.

"What d'ya mean, Nershin," Tevis asked.

"Well, if he knew what was going on, do you think he would have left it at just threats?"

The silence answered the question plainly. Tevis looked up at Mykl.

"I think you're right. I think we need to lay low for bit, maybe come up with a new plan."

Or just wait 'til the Vong show up, Renshir thought. There was no way he'd voice that thought out loud, though.

When the Endeavor reverted from hyperspace, the crew was surprised to find Acacia's orbit empty. They last time they'd been here there was enough Peace Brigade activity that they had expected this place to be swarming with their ships.

"Kylan, you want to handle the contact?" Jan said. "I don't know why it's so quiet here, but it makes me nervous."

Kylan nodded and keyed the comm.

"Shepherd, this is Traveler. Please advise landing coordinates."

Neme flushed slightly at the name Traveler. She was still irritated by Kylan's joke of setting up the ship's transponder code to read Gullible Traveler.

"Traveler, this is Shepherd. Landing site is being fed to you. Glad to see you could make it."

"Wouldn't have wanted to miss the party, Shepherd," Kylan completed the code-phrase.

"See you in a little while, Traveler," and the comm cut off.

"Friendly sort of fellow, isn't he?" Ky commented

"I seem to remember you were pretty abrupt on the first call, too, Ky," Neme reminded him.

"Sure, but that was before I knew you." He paused. "Now I'm not sure I would even answer the call."

Neme punched him in the arm while Janella guided the ship to the coordinates provided. The Endeavor drifted through the clear sky of Acacia, moving toward a mostly-empty field set just outside of one of the walled cities. The area they were coming in towards revealed itself to be a private compound including a landing pad big enough for two freighters the size of the Endeavor.

"Man, this guy must have some pull around here," Kylan said.

"What d'ya mean?" Jan asked while circling the landing site.

"Well, all the cities here are walled, right? I asked around when I was here last time. They do that because they're all concerned about the environmental impact of humans and such. Only someone who has a lot of credits would have a residence or business outside of the city limits. And this place, with its own landing pad, I can't even imagine what they have going for them."

They sat in silence for the rest of the time it took to get the ship settled on the pad. Jan hit the release switch for the ramp and then set the security system with a five-minute delay. She pulled on a nerf-hide vest over her shirt and clipped her lightsabre to a custom hook on the inside under her left arm.

Kylan was wearing the utility pants and shirt he had worn on Kamparas with his sabre in the right pocket. He also decided to sling a holster and blaster on his right side.

"I thought Jedi didn't use blasters?" Jan said.

"I do, and I'm pretty good at it, too. More importantly, people think that Jedi don't carry them, so this guy won't think I'm a Jedi."

Just then Neme came out of her cabin.

"Nem, why are you always the last to join our parties?" Ky said.

"It's because I care about my appearance, Mr. Karris. No offense, Jan. That was meant to be a shot at boy hero over here."

"No problem. I really don't care what people think."

Neme was wearing a one-piece blue combat suit. She had her hair pulled up at the back of her head and a holster with her small blaster slung low on her right leg.

"At least she decided not to bring the hand cannon she had on Kamparas," Kylan said.

"Nah," Neme shrugged, "this is a friendly meeting."

They walked down the ramp and stopped at the bottom with Kylan in the front. It had been decided that he would be the leader of this band since most people tended to believe men should be the ones in charge. The ramp into the ship hissed closed as the security system kicked in and locked the ship down.

"Hope you did lock the keycard inside, Jan. You're the driver, it's your job."

Jan flashed the security card with a smug look, but quickly composed herself as a dark-haired man walked up from around the rear of the ship. He held his hands out to either side, showing that he was unarmed, even though none of the Endeavor's crew were brandishing weapons.

Kylan stepped forward to greet the man.

"Davin Kahne, I presume?" he asked.

Kahne nodded.

"Are you Jan Renshir? I was told that's who I'd be meeting."

"Actually," Janella said, "I'm Renshir. This is Kylan Karris, and Neme Llows."

Kahne shook hands with each in turn.

"Come on in. I have an associate keeping an eye on the area, so we don't have to worry about eavesdroppers or interruptions."

As they walked toward the large residence, Kylan asked about the fact that the facility was built outside of the city limits.

"Well," Kahne said, "my parents were land developers in the area. They originally had the idea to keep the cities walled in and it led to a boom in tourism for a time. They padded their accounts with the people wanting to go out and sightsee in the area. After a while, they wanted a place to be an exclusive resort and retreat for guests, so they built this place. After they died, I inherited it, though I don't live here now. With the war going on, tourism has obviously fallen off, so I use this as a meeting place for now." His voice drifted wistfully. "I suppose I might open the place back up eventually. We'll have to see how the war goes."

Kahne led the trio into a hall with numerous doors on either side. He motioned to two doors on the right.

"I figure that you might want to rest for a bit before we get down to business. These two rooms have a connecting door, and then the one across the hall here keeps you all close. If you want to sweep the room for listening devices, feel free, though I assure you I don't have any need to do that. I'll let you settle in, and I'll be back to get you for a…'working dinner,' let's call it."

He nodded to them and walked back down the hall the way they had come.

Neme and Kylan took the rooms with the connecting door, but after they dropped their gear, they all met in Janella's room.

"Well, Jan, is it everything you expected?" Kylan asked.

"More," Jan answered. She shared a look with Neme that Kylan missed.

"Jan, is this really the time for that," Neme asked.

"What, I didn't do anything! I didn't even say anything," but there wasn't much conviction in her voice and the flush in her cheeks gave her away.

"Ok, what did I miss here that I should have caught?" Kylan asked.

Jan shook her head, but Neme answered anyway.

"Jan is attracted to Kahne," she told him.

"How can that be? You've known him for what, ten minutes?"

"Men," Neme said. "Ky, you don't have to know somebody for years to know if you like them. Look at us."

"Yeah, but…"

"Drop it, guys, ok? We've got work to do. Go get unpacked and get ready for dinner. We'll see what this guy knows and go from there." Though she said it with authority, Neme still smiled at her knowingly. "Oh, just get out of here."

After the incident with Qeninh, everyone in the camp went about their business with no talk of anything more than the weather and their daily work.

Mykl and Han Renshir worked as part of the maintenance crew, repairing leaking huts and making sure all the public 'freshers were in working order. This gave Mykl the chance to spread word to the members of their little insurrectionist group to lay low until further notice.

On the third day after Greshin was killed (and there was no doubt about the cause of his death), a new ship was seen landing at the field about half a kilometer from the prison camp. Mykl knew that Tevis Parthen was part of the "detainee committee" that assigned housing for each new arrival, so he didn't worry about who was coming in. If they were useful, Tevis would find them a hut near his own.

Han was on the roof of a hut three down from the Renshirs' when Tevis came up with three new arrivals. Mykl, on the ground handing up tools, made sure that Han had everything he needed before walking over to greet them.

"Tevis, how're things going today."

"Not bad at all, Mykl. Repairs going smoothly?" Tevis asked.

"Yeah, this hut will be ready in about an hour." Mykl was watching Parthen's eyes, and he read something there that was encouraging.

"Good, Mykl, because these gentleman need somewhere to stay, and I figured this one would be perfect."

Mykl shook hands with the man who seemed to be in charge of the other two.

"I'm Mykl Renshir. I would say welcome to Cardanos, but I really wouldn't want anyone to have to be here. Guess you just got unlucky, huh?"

"Oh, I don't know," the other man said. "I've been in worse place. As a matter of fact, I was a guest of our current hosts not to long ago."

"Unlucky twice, then, is it? What did you say your name was?"

"Ames. Lacton Ames."

"Well Mr. Ames, let me show you into your new home." Mykl led the way over to the hut his son was still working on. As they got to the entrance, Han called down from roof.

"Dad, can you flip on the mixer? I need a little more 'crete to finish this patch."

Good boy, Mykl thought. The roof of this hut didn't need any more duracrete sealer, but Han knew his dad and the others needed to talk without anyone overhearing, and had found a way to cover them. Mykl started the 'crete mixer which immediately started making its chugging, grinding sound.

Tevis, Ames, and Mykl entered the hut. The two men who had come in with Ames stopped outside, sitting on the ground and chatting, but looking for all the world like guards to Mykl.

"So how did you let yourself get captured by the Brigade twice, Ames?" Tevis asked once they were inside. "I mean, I think these guys are better organized than the Republic gives them credit for, but they're still not exactly an Imperial task force, ya know?"

Ames chuckled. "Trust me, I do know what you mean. And you said it right, I've let myself be captured twice now. I'm Major Lacton Ames, Imperial Intelligence, and my job is to check out the refugee situation. I've kind of changed my mission on the fly, so I'm trying to run down any Brigade camps like this one."

"You've been held at other prison camps? That means you've found at least one way to escape." Tevis said.

"Well, not really," Ames admitted. "The last one wasn't really a prison so much as a holding pen, and I had some help getting out. Help from someone you know, I would think." He directed the last comment at Mykl.

"Someone I know?"

"Yeah. You said your name is Renshir, right?"

"Right…"

"Well, the help I had came from Janella."

"Jan? You've seen Jan? Where?"

"It was on Kamparas, and it was, oh, probably a month and a half ago. I've come here looking for you on her behalf, as a matter of fact."

"I don't know what you mean," Mykl said, confused. Tevis has remained silent during the exchange.

"When Jan found out about Coruscant, she sent me a message. I passed along what I knew about the Brigade snatching evacuees and bringing them here. At that point, I decided to find a way here myself to help her out."

"I still don't…How does Jan know how to get in touch with an Imperial agent? And help her? Help her do what?"

Ames laughed again. "I think your daughter moves in crowds that would surprise you greatly, Mr. Renshir, and if I read her messages correctly, I expect her to be here in the near future to get you out."

Mykl dropped down on the bunk, trying to get his mind around the things Ames had said.

"Why isn't this place swarming with Peace Brigade?" Jan asked. "We left in a bit of a hurry last time we were here, but even then they seemed to have a pretty good foothold."

Kahne smiled as he walked down the hall, Jan beside him with Neme and Kylan just behind. He had come to get them for dinner about an hour after he had left them.

"Yeah, they tried to get the run of the place, but that lasted about two days. The group I represent had some issues with them moving in here, so we came and cleaned them out. Actually, they didn't have that many troops here. They pulled pretty much everyone out to set up a cordon around Kamparas. I assume they've probably regrouped at Cardanos by now."

"Yeah," Kylan said, "we know what they had at Kamparas. That was no fun."

Kahne looked at him quizzically but didn't ask what he was referring to. He led the group into a large room with a dining table at the center, set with five place settings. Along one wall sat a bank of monitors with a young man at a console running scans of the area. The man was blonde, with a cyborg implant running from just above his left eye back and down over his ear, with a microphone pickup resting on his chin.

"This is Kin-Wah Rae," Kahne introduced. "He's our slicer and electronics warfare expert. What's the word, Rae?"

"Looks good, Davin. No active or passive scans I can find, and no air- or landspeeders in the area. One thing, though…" he turned and looked at the group from the Endeavor.

"What's that?" Kahne asked. His hand had drifted toward the small of his back. Kylan tensed at the motion, but didn't touch his own weapon.

"I'm reading an open commlink back to their ship, and it scans like a relay to a droid. No other lifeforms aboard the ship."

"Care to explain, Ms. Renshir?" Kahne turned to Janella.

"Sure. I have a droid keeping track of us. If anything happens, he'll blast out of here and pass the information to some friends we have. Those friends wouldn't be very happy if we disappeared." Janella crossed her arms across her chest and stared right at Kahne, not backing down an inch.

Kahne visibly relaxed.

"Not a problem. We were mostly concerned that someone might have bugged you. Please, everyone, have a seat. What is it that you wanted help with? Ames had hinted about something to do with the Peace Brigade, but he didn't say what the deal was."

Neme and Kylan sat on either side of Janella. They were going to let her take the lead, but they wanted to make sure they could still provide help if needed. Kahne sat across the table from them, and Rae left his console and took the last open seat, next to Kahne.

Two servers came in carrying a large tray of food. They served each of the diners a plate with some sort of filet and a large helping of vegetables. After the servers left, Janella told Kahne why they were there.

"When Coruscant fell, I had family that evacuated. Through Ames, I found out that the ship they were on was snatched by the Brigade and taken to Cardanos. This is personal for me, but at the same time I want to get everyone out of that camp. On top of that, I don't want to give the Vong time to deal with them."

Kahne reached behind him and grabbed a datapad from the counter behind him. He pulled up the records of Cardanos.

"From what I can find, it looks like the Brigade has made Cardanos their new home," he said between bites of his dinner. "That means there are at least half a dozen corvettes, plus other craft, and a lot of operators. Looks like some of those are mercenaries hiring out to the highest bidder, so that might work in our favor. Rae, when we get done here, pass this information on to Thader and get started working it from that end."

"Mr. Kahne," Neme said, "I'm a business woman, so forgive me for being blunt, but who is it that you represent?"

"Ms…Llows, was it? Ms. Llows, I'm the executive officer of the Selonian Rangers. We're a group that, while you might call us mercenaries, we prefer liberators. We're working against those who've decided to help the Yuuzhan Vong."

"So there's more than just you and the kid here?" Kylan asked.

Kahne laughed again.

"Yeah, there are a few more of us, but it's not really the numbers that count. We'll stay here a day or two, just to make sure you guys are clean, nobody following you, that sort of thing, then I'll take you to our base."

"Where exactly is that?" Neme asked.

"Ter Sephino," Janella said at the same time Kahne did. He looked at her, but she simply smiled.

When Kahne was satisfied that no one had trailed the Endeavor to Acacia, he had Rae pack up their gear and told Neme to prep her freighter to fly.

For the security of both crews, the decision was made to have an "ambassador" from the each group ride in the other's ship. Janella decided to go along with Kahne while Neme and Kylan took Rae with them. Janella had made sure Kylan had the security codes for Shadow in case something happened. She was happy that the Rangers hadn't picked up on the fighter nestled in the Endeavor ventral bay.

Neme caught up with Jan as the latter was packing the last of her things in her room.

"Jan, you sure going with him is such a good idea? I mean, we really don't know this guy."

Janella slung her bag over her shoulder and turned to her friend.

"Don't worry, Nem. I don't get any bad feelings from Davin."

"Can you really trust your feelings? I mean, you've known Kahne for three days, most of which was spent discussing military topics, plus he's five years older than you, and…"

Jan glared at Neme.

"Nem, I was talking about feelings through the Force. As for the other thing, I know what I'm doing, and you'll just have to trust me."

Neme nodded. "I do trust you Jan. If you say it's good, then that's enough for me," she said, then smiled deviously. "You know, if you fall for him, I'm never going to let you forget that I predicted it."

"Predicted what?" Kahne said, coming around the door.

Janella blushed and Neme laughed out loud.

"Nothing, just girl-talk, Mr. Kahne," Neme said.

"Uh-huh," Kahne said, uncertainty in his voice as he looked between them. "I was just coming to let you know we're ready to go. If you'll follow me, Jan."

Janella followed Davin out of the room. She could still here Neme laughing in her head the whole time.

When Kahne led Jan to a landing pad on the opposite side of the residence from the Endeavor, she stopped short when she saw the ship.

The basic designed she recognized as a Corellian YT-1300. She had seen plenty of them in her time, and everyone knew what the famous Millennium Falcon looked like, but this one was completely different. This ship sported double laser cannons mounted above and below the mandibles at the front of the ship. The typical round, clamshell-style cockpit was gone, replaced with the cockpit of a Lambda-class shuttle. The whole ship looked bulkier, yet sleeker somehow, and it was anodized a uniform flat black. But the major difference was so dramatic that it took Janella a few seconds to realize what was wrong with what she was seeing.

"It's backward!" she said finally.

"Yeah," Kahne said, stopping until Jan started moving again. "My boss, the guy who owns this ship, is left handed, so he figured he would be more comfortable like this. He stripped the whole thing down to the frame and had it inverted so he'd be flying from the left instead of the right."

"That had to have taken…I can't even…wow," was all she could say.

"Come on inside, I give you a quick tour before we take off."

Kahne led her up the ramp beneath the cockpit. Rather than the standard boarding ramp, the ship utilized the setup from the Lambda, with the entrance being directly under the cockpit. As soon as she stepped aboard, Janella knew the changes to the outside were just the beginning.

The entire deck was covered with a short-pile carpet rather than the bare decks most ships had. As Kylan led her to the right, toward the stern, he pointed out a few modest guest cabins that had been set up. He had her stow her gear in one, then moved on with the tour. At the very back, he pointed to a door that, if Jan knew her ship layouts, should have led to the cargo hold.

"That's Thader's private apartment. I won't take you in there, but he's got it set up with a separate office and living quarter, including a private 'fresher."

"What about the cargo hold?" Jan asked.

"Well, he decided early on that he didn't want to be a freight hauler or a smuggler, so he got rid of a lot of that space. The Odds still has about half the cargo space, but it's mostly used for carrying our gear for operations."

Kahne finished the tour and guided Janella into the cockpit. The layout here was closer to that of a fighter than a freighter. The pilot sat in a seat center-forward in the compartment, surrounded by consoles and monitors, and with a stick-and-throttle set up for fast maneuvering. To either side of the pilot console there stood two astromech droids. Both were white in colour, one with purple trim, the other with dark green.

"Well, that's it. Welcome aboard the Even Odds. Grab one of the jump seats over there, and we'll get on our way."

Jan turned around and dropped into one of the seats fixed against the rear bulkhead. Kahne settled into the pilot's chair and strapped in.

"Even Odds to Endeavor, we're ready to fly. Follow me out and I'll transmit the flight plan once we break orbit."

"Copy, Odds," Jan heard Neme's voice from the comm. "You have the lead, and we'll be right behind you."

Kahne keyed the comm off, then lifted the freighter through the atmosphere. Jan could see the sensor board and watched the blip representing the Endeavor come up on the rear scope. Within a few minutes both ships were clear of the gravity well of Acacia and were making their runs to light speed. After the ship launched into hyperspace, Kahne turned to Jan.

"Well, we're on the way. It'll take about a few days to get there. If you don't mind, would you tell me how you knew we'd be going to Ter Sephino? I know Ames didn't tell you, because he only knows the contact at Acacia."

Jan gave him a small, mischievous grin.

"I have my ways of knowing things," she said.

With a wave of her hand, Jan pulled the holdout blaster from the holster at the small of Kahne's back and drifted it into her waiting palm.

"Ahh," Kahne said. "I see. So, why would a Jedi need help from a group of mercenaries?" Strangely, Jan didn't sense any fear or concern coming from Kahne even though she had just disarmed him and was now covering him with his own weapon.

With a laugh, she tossed the blaster back to him. He stood and caught it in one smooth motion and had it back in its holster faster than Jan would have thought possible.

"Like I said, this is a personal mission for me. I can't assault a prison complex by myself, or even with Neme and Kylan, so I asked Ames for any ideas. He pointed me to you, and here we are. Besides," she added, smiling again, "even the famous Luke Skywalker needed help to take down the Empire's Death Star."

She caught a flash of amusement wash over Kahne.

"Well, I can tell you that Thader, the boss, will make the final decision, but he listens to me, and I plan on recommending that we take this mission."

"Mr. Kahne, I think this will be the start of a great relationship."

Janella sat on her bunk, reading over some material Kahne had given her about Cardanos. She wanted to learn as much as she could about the planet where her father was being held.

The thought of her father being held by the Peace Brigade brought tears to Jan's eyes. She had heard plenty of stories about what the Vong did their captives, and she knew that's what the Brigade had planned for their prisoners.

A knock on the door startled Jan. She wiped her eyes quickly and cleared her throat.

"Come in," she said.

Kahne came in with another data pad.

"Jan, my boss just sent this. They're new long-range images of Cardanos showing the layout and location of the prison. I thought you might want to add them too…" He stopped when he saw that she'd been crying. "What wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing, just thinking about my dad. I don't want him getting turned into a Vong sacrifice."

Kahne sat down on the bunk next to her and put his arm around her.

"Don't sweat it, kiddo. I've already talked to Thader, and we're going to get your dad out. We're going to get them all out, ok?"

Jan laid her head on his chest, sobbing gently. Kahne held her until the tears subsided.

After a few minutes, Jan looked up and into his eyes, the tears having left tracks down her cheeks. She felt foolish for having acted the way she had with a stranger, but there was a feeling of comfort and security she felt when she was with him

"Davin, thank you for your help, and for being here, now, with me."

"It's what I do, Jan. That's why you called…"

And Janella kissed him.

Ames was "invited" to the office of Cior Qeninh a few days after his arrival. Qeninh had observed Ames with Parthen and Renshir, and was wary of them becoming so friendly so fast. When Ames arrived, he found Lena Ranele, Qeninh's personal security guard, standing in the corner of the room.

"Mr…Ames, was it?" Qeninh asked as he came through the door.

"That's right, Commander," Ames responded.

"Mr. Ames, I just wanted to speak with you about the company you've been keeping downstairs. I think you may want to be careful choosing your friends a little more carefully."

"Why, Commander Qeninh, how kind of you to be concerned about the cannon fodder you keep here."

"Watch your tone with me, sir, or I promise you will not see the end of this war. You may not see the end of the week."

"Cior, you were a blow-hard long before you lost control of Duadat, and nothing has changed now that you're working with these bottom-feeders."

Qeninh flinched at the name of the planet he had formerly commanded as an Imperial garrison commander.

"You have me at a disadvantage, Mr. Ames. I take it you served under me on Duadat? Most of my subordinates do not recall that time fondly. Likely this is due to the fact that I maintained discipline."

"That or they just didn't like you. I was there when you were commanding. I saw the way that place was run, and if you think this little clubhouse you've set up here is going to end up any differently, I think you're going to be greatly surprised."

Ames saw the anger rising in the base commander's face as he spoke.

"Wait outside the door, Ames. Lena will be along in a moment to make sure you get back to your quarters…safely."

As soon as Ames was gone, Cior turned to Ranele.

"Make sure Mr. Ames remembers our conversation, my dear. I don't trust him, and I want make sure he knows who is in charge here."

Ranele nodded and walked out into the outer office where Ames was waiting.

As soon as the Even Odds reverted from hyperspace, an alarm started flashing on Kahne's command console.

"What's that?" Jan asked, stretching out through the Force to try and find any hint of what might be wrong. She had stayed near Davin for the three days of travel, not wanting to be alone. Kahne, for his part, accepted her companionship openly.

"Unknown ships in the area. We keep tabs on ships coming and going, for obvious reasons. Right now it looks like there are two…no, three unidentified freighters hanging around the outer edges of the system."

Jan relaxed. She knew what those ships were.

"Do you have IDs on them yet?" she asked.

"Coming through now. It looks like they're…"

"…the Llowly Scrapper, the Lighttrain, and the Kamparas Tramp," Jan finished for him. "They're ok. That's our refugee convoy."

"Should I ask how they knew to be here, in this system?"

"I sent them here," she said. "Sorry about that, I didn't know it was a secret hideout."

Kahne smiled at her.

"Don't worry about it. I'll take care of it." He keyed the comm system. "Odds to base. Clear the alarm. The freighters belong to our new customers."

"Copy, Odds. Please transmit authorization code."

"Authorization Ranger-Seven-Five-Echo, confirm."

The comm was silent for a moment.

"Confirmed. Welcome home, Major Kahne. System Alert has been canceled. Will the additional ships need berthing arrangements?

"Yeah, get them set up at guest area thirty-two. I'm taking the Odds and the freighter Llows' Endeavor to the primary pad."

"Copy that, Odds. I'll let the boss know you're home."

Kahne looked at Jan when the comm went dead.

"You want to contact your friends out there? Tell them to set their comm to receive coordinates from the ground. I think they'll enjoy themselves. We treat our guests pretty well here," he added with a grin.

Jan blushed, but she relayed the message to Rosha Kre'lya. Kre'lya was the Bothan captain of the Llowly Scrapper and the person Neme had selected as the caretaker of her ships since the evacuation of Kamparas. While she was passing that information, Kahne had signaled the Endeavor and both ships were descending through the atmosphere of yet another planet Janella knew only from a star chart.

The pair of ships landed in a large pit cut deep into the bedrock of the planet. The sides were coloured so as to appear similar to the surrounding hills to any low-flying airspeeders or ships. Off to one side, Janella noted the presence of an Imperial TIE Interceptor with bold red stripes on the solar panels. There were also assorted speeders, load lifters, and ground cars parked in the area. As Kahne rotated the Odds into its landing position, Jan saw a long, sleek yacht. It was like nothing she had seen before, with long, curving wings that seemed wrapped around the body of the ship.

Kahne caught her staring and nodded.

"Yeah, she's something to look at alright. That's the StarFlair, and she's the pride and joy of her owner. And I tell ya, Alissa dropped a lot of credits to have her made, too."

"Alissa?"

"Yeah, Alissa Aimi, she's our demolitions expert. I got into a scrape with the 'Flair a while ago and when I brought her back damaged, Alissa threatened to show me just how 'expert' she is."

Janella laughed as she went to gather her belongings from her cabin. Kahne was waiting at the top of ramp when she returned.

"All set?" he asked.

"Ready when you are," Jan said and followed him out, holding his hand.

Neme, Kylan, and Rae were waiting on the duracrete pad when they made it down the ramp. As soon as Jan saw the smile on Neme's face, she blushed again and let go of Kahne's hand. He looked back to make sure everything was ok, then nodded toward the other group.

"Everything go smoothly out there, Jan?" Neme asked with a smirk.

"Perfectly fine, Neme. Thanks so much for asking. Please, lead the way, Mr. Kahne."

Davin, still not sure what was going on between the two women, led them all into a small carved-out nook in the side of the landing pit. Parked in the middle of the nook was a crew-carrier, like the kind seen in large spaceports.

"Everyone grab on, it'll take us just a minute to get into the base."

Neme, Jan, and Kylan climbed on to the benches on the back of the carrier. Rae stood on the platform on the back and Kahne took the drivers stand at the front. The carrier lurched forward, then started down a long well-lit tunnel.

"So," Neme whispered, "spill the beans. What happened?"

"Nothing happened, Neme," Jan said, but the smile she had on her face gave her away.

"Yeah, right. I believe that as much as I believe the Vong are just looking for a good resort planet."

"Well, nothing much happened, okay? Can we leave it at that for now, please?"

"Fine," Neme agreed. Jan nodded her head once, but Neme wasn't going to let her have the last shot. "Just make sure you invite me to the wedding."

Jan kicked her friend in the shin.

The carrier stopped in a small anteroom at the end of the tunnel. Kahne led the group to a door with a keypad. Davin entered a sequence on the pad and the door slid into a recess in the ceiling. Rae walked through the doorway and into a room just to the left off the long corridor ahead. Kahne led Jan, Neme, and Kylan on through the corridor.

"Don't mind Rae. That's his room, and he doesn't like to be gone from his toys very long."

Kahne led them to a large, central room just off the corridor. There were three other doors leading out of the room and a large table in the center. Star charts, planetary maps, and other diagrams were posted to the walls, and at the far end of the table stood a full-size tactical display. The display currently showed the known galaxy, with a red swath cut through the heart.

"That's the invasion corridor so far," said a voice from behind them as they stood looking at the display.

The man who came into the room was big. Nearly two meters tall, he wore a dark blue shirt and black trousers. Though he carried no weapons, he seemed like the type of person you wouldn't want angry at you.

"Commander Zane Thader, let me introduce Janella Renshir, Neme Llows, and Kylan Karris," Kahne indicated each one as he said their names.

Thader nodded to each, then gestured toward the table.

"Please, have a seat. Dav has sent me the information on Cardanos, and the reason you want to hit it. I know you don't want to waste time, so let's see if we can put something of a plan together."

Everyone took a seat while Kahne brought up a map of Cardanos on the viewer.

"What we've found is that the prison is here, on the southern continent. There doesn't seem to be a lot of security at the site itself, but the prison is situated about three hundred kilometers from any type of settlement, in the middle of a savannah."

"The point Davin is making," Thader interrupted, "is that if someone did manage to escape, there's a whole lot of nothing for them to go through to find help. Food would be scarce, water more so, and that's not counting the search teams that would be looking for them. Add to that the fact that there are no real spaceports anywhere else on the world and you start to see the trouble with escaping."

"What about the transports the Brigade uses?" Jan asked. "They have to have some way of getting supplies on-world, right?"

"The prison spaceport is about half a klick north of the prison itself," Thader said. "There's an area where the grass is kept short and it's covered by two different guard towers."

"The Brigade aren't exactly a crack military unit," Kahne said, "but they bought good help."

"Ok, so if they're that well protected, how do we get in without getting the prisoners – or ourselves – killed in the process?" Neme asked.

Just then another man entered the room. Short, about the same height as Janella, the man had dark skin and a shaved head. The trousers he wore sported a red stripe down the outer seam. He walked in and dropped into one of the empty seats, propping his feet up on the table.

"This is Gurian Seta," Thader said in introduction. "He used to be part of an elite Imperial fighter wing, but he decided he liked the pay better as a freelancer. He has some suggestions on this plan, so now's as good a time as any. If you would, Guri…"

Seta looked at the diagram of the Cardanos prison, then turned to address the others seated around the table.

"The way I see it," he said in a slow, drawling voice, "I can go in with my fighter and strafe the landing field. Even if there're no ships on the ground, this'll draw attention in that direction while you ground-pounders go through the back door."

Jan nodded as Seta spoke. The plan made sense to her.

"What about prisoners coming in, though?" Kylan asked. "If there's a new group coming in, wouldn't we be risking them?"

"I've been thinking about that," Thader said. "I think we'll have to take a few steps to prevent that. My thought is, we insert Rae a day or two ahead of the rest of the team. He can set up sweeps, see if there's a schedule to the transports, or at least tap their comms to see if we can intercept messages about incoming ships. What do you think, XO?"

Kahne nodded, thinking.

"I don't see too many problems with that. We'll find a ship that lands at one of the smaller ports on Cardanos, then let the kid use his speeder bike to get into position."

"We'll insert the ground team with the Odds, while we keep the 'Flair with the freighters, making sure they hit the ground safely."

Another door opened and a woman with red hair came into the room.

At first Neme and Jan didn't notice her. After a quick glance, both of them came to their feet, Jan with her sabre in hand throwing green light around the room, and Neme had her blaster trained right at the newcomer's chest.

Like a chain reaction, Thader had a holdout blaster in hand and Seta had a pair of wicked-looking fighting knives. Kylan had his lightsabre in hand, though he hadn't ignited it. Kahne was the only one without a weapon, and he was standing in the middle of the room trying to calm everyone down.

"What's going on here, Kahne? You brought them in here, and they're about to attack one of my crew?" the anger in Thader's voice came through loud and clear.

"Jan?" Kahne asked pleadingly.

"She's a pirate, Davin. She attacked one of Neme's ships a while back."

"And you killed two of that crew. I remember you," the woman said.

"Jan saved us when your captain ordered my crew killed."

Everyone stood glaring at one another until Kahne put his hand on Jan's arm. She looked at him, then extinguished her sabre. She didn't put the blade away though.

"I'll give you one chance to explain this, and if I don't like the answer, we walk and we'll find another way to hit Cardanos."

This seemed to settle everyone a bit. Neme and Thader both lowered their blasters, and Seta's knives appeared to vanish, though Jan had no doubt they could be back at hand in an instant.

"I was a member of the Hydian Raiders," the woman explained, more to Thader than anyone else. "That's where I got the money to have the StarFlair built, in fact."

"You're Alissa?" Jan asked, remembering Kahne talking about the owner of the StarFlair.

"That's right, Alissa Aimi. I worked with the Raiders, and, yeah, I was part of the crew that boarded your ship. I didn't know Loun, the Raider captain, was going to try and kill anyone. In case you've forgotten, I didn't fire a single shot."

Jan nodded. She remembered that day clearly because it was the first time she had ever used a lightsabre. She had killed two of the pirates and wounded the leader, but the Force had stopped her hand before she struck this woman.

"I didn't want to be any part of that. As soon as we made it back to base, I let the leader of the Raiders know what had happened. Then I took a blastboat and left. I can't tell you I wasn't a pirate; I was, and I was there, but I never had any intention of hurting you or your crew."

Jan and Kylan shared a look. Kylan nodded at her, so Jan knew her feeling through the Force was right, that Alissa wasn't a threat.

"It's alright, Nem."

Neme looked at Jan, then at Kylan. She hesitated a moment, then nodded and holstered her blaster.

"Sorry about that, Mr. Thader. I hope you understand me and my team's reaction."

"I don't much appreciate the drawn weapons, but I understand. I'll let it slide this time, just tell me the next time you have a problem with one of my team."

"Deal," Neme said, then took her seat.

Jan, Kylan, and Thader all sat back down, while Seta excused himself. Alissa took his seat, and Kahne continued the planning.

"Alissa, we were just going over the plan. We're going to insert with the 'Flair, then we'll…"

"As long as you aren't driving, Kahne," Alissa commented.

"No, that'll be your job. That, and coming up with something to blow a hole in the perimeter fence. Think you can handle that?"

Alissa smiled sweetly at Kahne.

"Anything you put in front of me, I can blow up, sonny."

A chirp sounded from the head of the table, and the others looked over to see Thader answering his commlink.

"Go ahead, Rae."

He listened for a few moments, but all that the rest of the crowd heard was a tinny noise.

"Got it. Thanks. Keep me posted, would ya?"

Thader thumbed off the comm and stowed it back on his belt.

"It seems our mutual friend Ames has managed to get himself incarcerated on Cardanos. We just received a dated message saying he would be on the ground to help us, and that he would contact us once he found a safe way to get a message out."

The door that Kahne had led Jan, Neme and Ky through from the corridor opened and nearly everyone jumped at the roar that came through. Only Thader seemed not to notice.

"No way, Shorty, I'm not going to reset the gravity in your room again. I don't care if it's two-tenths off of Kashyyyk standard. I can't keep tinkering with it every other day."

A Wookiee came into the room, bellowing back over his shoulder to an older man who was following him.

"Shorty, Danyl, we have company. Could you keep the volume down a bit?" Thader asked.

The Wookiee growled a response at the same time the other man tried to speak. Thader cut them both off with a sharp look.

"Settle it later, guys. These are clients, so sit down, shut up, and help us plan. Either that or you can go play in the hanger or something, ok?"

Both of them took seats, the Wookiee still grumbling under his breath. He was chestnut in colour, with streaks of black and grey cutting through his thick coat, with one large lock of grey just above his right eye. His lower jaw protruded slightly over his upper, showing the points of his lower canines.

The human who had come in with the Wookiee had almost the same coloured hair, with silver at each temple. His face had some wrinkles, showing his age more than his hair did.

"I'm getting tired of doing the introductions, so this is the last time. Anyone who forgets a name is on their own. Neme, Jan, Kylan, this is Danyl Tanis. He's served with me for longer than either of us cares to admit. He's our ground-fighter expert. The shaggy one is Shortatha, but we just call him Shorty."

The Wookiee grumbled again.

"We call him Shorty whether he likes it or not," Zane finished. "I know we haven't been at this very long, but I need a break. C'mon, let's go upstairs and find some chow."

Thader led the entire crew out of the same door Alissa had come in. The door led to a cavern with a set of stairs going down a short way, then curving slightly to the right to another, much longer stairway going up.

"What's the deal here?" Jan asked Davin. They were again walking side by side, though not quite arm in arm.

"It's a bottleneck. If someone managed to find the entrance we have upstairs and manages to get into the stairway, they'd set off all kinds of alarms. There are firing ports on either side here, and…well, let's just say, nobody gets farther than that landing unless we want them to."

Jan looked back at the little area It was obvious that the space would be perfect for an ambush. She shivered and moved a little faster up the steps.

The Endeavor crew and a number of the Rangers were scattered around a small restaurant, two or three to a table. Davin and Janella were sitting alone, talking in one corner, while Neme, Kylan and Thader sat at another table. Alissa and Tanis were working the prep station, getting a light lunch together for all of them.

Shorty had stayed downstairs to help Seta check the status of all of the Ranger's ships. No one really expected the planning for this operation to take very long.

"So what made you decide to go up against the Brigade, Zane?" Neme asked the Ranger leader.

"Well," he said, "after I left the Republic military a few years back, I decided hiring out to people who needed help sounded like a good deal. I mostly worked for people with a grudge against the Empire, but we'd work for pretty much anyone who'd pay the bills. When the Vong showed up, we were trying to find a way to hit them, then the Peace Brigade started running there games."

Thader sighed and sipped his drink.

"We knew we didn't really have much chance against the Vong, so we left them to the Republic – which doesn't seem to be working out that great, but that's another story. We decided to focus our attention on the Brigade, and we stopped charging for people like you who need our help."

"If you're not charging, how do you keep everything running?" Neme asked.

"Well, believe it or not, we get some credits out of this place," he answered, gesturing to the restaurant around them. "Other than that, we grab what we need when we hit Brigade outposts. It's also useful that Kahne has a decent bank account that his parents left him."

"So that's why you hired him," Kylan said.

"Absolutely not," Thader said, somewhat annoyed. "Davin was working as a team leader in the New Republic's Pathfinders. He was getting bored after the Peace Accord with the Empire, so I snatched him up and made him our XO. I didn't even find out about the inheritance until four, five months after he started working with us."

"Well, he seems like a nice enough guy. Jan seems to like him, and she's a pretty good judge of character," Neme said. All she received in response was something of a grunt.

Alissa and Tanis brought trays of food around. The dish was a pasta made from a local crop, and it had a light texture to match the slightly orange colour. Alissa came around a put a plate down for everyone, then she and Tanis sat at a table between the door and everyone else.

"So why did you decide to become a mercenary?" Jan asked Davin between bites. "I mean, it doesn't seem like the most rewarding job in the world."

"You might be surprised. I served in the Republic military, but there wasn't much to do at the time. I was given a team of Pathfinders to lead, but the only thing we did was provide security for the Bakuran Diplomatic team. Don't get me wrong, it was an important job, but not much excitement for a twenty-two year old captain. Zane came and offered me a job, so I took it."

"But being a soldier for hire seems so…I don't know, it just seems like you're skirting the edge of right and wrong."

"Well, Thader's a pretty upright guy. He only takes jobs that don't target civilians, and he won't let us run any type of pirate actions. Basically, when we started, we were working for people being harassed by the Empire or its offshoots. I guess we tend to look at it as doing the jobs that are too small or too politically touchy for the government to handle."

Jan took another bite of her lunch, thinking about what he had said. She felt no deception or evil intent from any of the Rangers, so she decided this mission might work after all. As for the feelings she was sensing from Davin, they matched what she felt, and she still hadn't decided what to do about that.

Everyone had gone back to the briefing room after lunch to finish working out the plans for the raid. The Rangers wandered in and out throughout the day, adding suggestions and basically just trying to be useful while attending to other duties.

Rae came in, looking somewhat frantic, and handed a flimsy to Thader.

Thader handed the flimsy to Kahne, then addressed everyone else at the table.

"I know we're trying to get all of this planned, but there's going to be a slight delay."

Kahne left to start getting the rest of the Rangers gathered up.

"That message was from a contact we have on Tatooine. Seems the locals are having some trouble with one of the local crime syndicates. Some group of thugs who've been trying to take over Hutt territory since they made their deal with the Vong. The locals got together a few months ago and hired us, and now they need a hand again."

"What kind of delay are we looking at," Janella asked. Thader understood the reason for her concern.

"I would say a few days at the most. I know you're in a hurry, but this is something we're obligated to do." Thader left no room for argument.

Jan wasn't going to fight about it. She felt, through the Force, that these people on Tatooine needed help, and that this was the only way they were going to get it.

"That's fine," she said, "as long as you don't mind some company."

Zane sat back in his chair, surprise clear on his face.

"You all want to come with us?" he asked.

"I do," Jan answered, then looked at Neme and Kylan. "Guys?"

"If it's ok, Jan, I'm going to use the time to go check on Rosha and the crews, make sure no one is getting antsy," Neme said.

"I need to get in touch with Luke," Kylan said. "I don't think you'll need the help, Jan." The look he gave her said that he was getting the same feelings through the Force she was, that this was a mission for her alone to go along on.

"Well, I guess if you have room for one more…" Jan said, turning back to Thader.

Kahne had just come back in the room and heard her make that offer. He stopped in his tracks to see what the response would be.

"We'd be glad to have you along, Jan. Grab your gear and head with Davin to the Odds. We'll be out of here within the hour."

Neme and Jan were walking around the landing bay, watching Rae load a customized speeder bike into the Even Odds. Neme was going to move the Endeavor over to the spaceport where the rest of the Llows' ships were berthed after the Rangers left.

"You sure about this, Jan? I mean, Tatooine's not exactly the garden spot of the galaxy. There're some rough customers out there."

"I'll be ok, Nem. Thanks for worrying about me, though. What about you and Ky? What ever will you find to do while we're gone?" Jan asked with a smile. She decided Neme needed some shots fired back her way after all the ribbing she had taken about Kahne.

"Oh, I'm sure we'll think of something," Neme answered with a smile of her own. "What about you and the flyboy?"

"I don't know, Neme. I think there's something there. I might find out on this trip, but it's going to be a working trip for him, so he might not want to explore it."

"Well, I know you're smart enough to do the right thing, kiddo. Stay safe out there, ok?"

Jan gave Neme a hug.

"I'll be back in a few days, then it'll be time to go get dad."

"Bet on it."

Ames was lying on one of the cots in his hut while Tevis was putting cold compresses on his bruised ribs. The beating he had taken from Ranele was vicious, but he didn't once complain. Their daily work was still getting done, and he was still getting updates on the prison break.

"There's going to be a bit a delay, but it's routine. I was told to pass word that the job is still going to happen."

"I really would like to know how you get your information, man," Mykl Renshir said from the other cot where he was sitting.

"Not really much to know," Ames said, then winced as Tevis pressed on one of his bruised ribs. "They drop a line here or there, I send one back, that's about it."

"Well," Renshir said, "I'm willing to bet you and your two pals aren't going to just be sitting around with things start to come apart around here, right?"

"Yeah, I'm not a sideline-kind of guy, as you can tell by my rainbow of bruising here," he tried to laugh, but groaned at the pain in his chest.

"Make sure you have enough toys for everyone to play, alright?"

"We're all going to have to grab weapons. Smuggling comm gear is one thing. Weapons are a' whole 'nother deal."

"As long as you don't forget about us little people," Tevis said.

The Even Odds glided through hyperspace en route to Tatooine. Janella had taken the same quarters she had used on the trip from Acacia to Ter Sephino, and she thought it was almost starting to feel comfortable to her. Davin hadn't had much time to spend with her, personally, because of the rush to get information on what they were going to face when they hit the ground.

Thader handled most of the piloting himself, using the autopilot to catch a few hours of sleep here and there. Jan was surprised on the second day, though, when he asked if she wanted to take the stick.

Owning a ship of her own, she knew how big of a deal it was to trust someone else to fly it. She had felt the uneasy sensation of letting a stranger fly her ship when they had left Acacia, even though Kylan hadn't needed to use the Shadow.

Sliding into the pilot's chair, Jan glanced around to familiarize herself with the control layout.

"This looks pretty much like my fighter cockpit," she said, mostly to herself.

"Your fighter?" Thader asked.

Realizing she was about to reveal something she did want Thader to know yet, she backpedaled a bit.

"Yeah, I have a little junk pile I fly around, pretending to be a fighter pilot."

"Uh huh," Thader said. He didn't sound the least bit convinced, but he let it drop. "You have throttle here, weapons are on the stick, and targeting would pop up on the heads-up display. System status is on the left, sensors on the right, and all the deadly toys you could want are within arms reach."

"Traveling through hyperspace would be a lot more comfortable here than in a normal fighter, I'm sure of that."

"Yeah, it does help to stretch your legs every now and then. If we weren't in hyperspace, you'd see that she handles like a big fighter, too. The forward weapons – laser cannons and protorp launchers – are all in fixed position, so she fights just like a fighter. You point the nose and hit the triggers. There's also a rear cannon and a concussion missile tube that fires into the rear arc."

"That's something that must be useful," Jan commented

"Yeah, it's saved my skin more times than I care to think about."

Thader punched up a practice cycle that disconnected controls from the ship itself, and basically turned the pilot's area into a simulator. Target ships were projected onto the view screen, overlaid on top of space beyond.

"Take a shot, see how ya do."

Targets came up fast. Jan let her senses flow out through the Force and, even though they were simulations, she could tell what the blips were going to do. She hit the trigger over and over, scoring hit after hit.

Before she knew it, the sequence ended.

"Well, that wasn't too bad for a first run…" Thader started to say, then the computer put up the score.

Jan had scored half again as high as Thader's highest listed mark.

"Yeah, not to bad at all," she laughed as she let Thader take control of his ship again.

Tatooine was hot, bright and dusty. Added to those high points, there were armed thugs, smugglers, and any number of assorted corrupt officials to cause problems for the residents.

Thader landed at a bay in the port city of Mos Eisley. He left most of the Rangers with the ship, but he took Kahne and Janella with him to meet his contact at a local cantina.

"This place is famous," Davin told Jan. "This is the cantina that Luke Skywalker first met Han Solo. Believe it or not, there's actually a tourist season that people pay good credits just to sit at that booth and have a holo taken."

"Hmm…This doesn't seem like the kind of place that Master Skywalker would hang out."

"Han Solo, either," Thader threw in. "Then again, I knew him when he was a Republic general, so what do I know?"

Kahne looked back and forth between them.

"How is it that I'm the only one that's not met someone famous?" he asked no one.

"You know me. What more do you need?" Thader quipped. "Come on, let's go see who's starting trouble this week."

Thader led them into the bar. The air was thick with the smoke of various recreational drugs, and the floor was sticky with spilled ale and other things better left unseen. They walked to a rear corner booth and slid in, each ordering a drink and relaxing until Thader's contact showed up.

"So why is it that you guys call yourselves the Selonian Rangers," Janella asked after their drinks arrived. "I mean, you work out of a planet that's about as far from the Core as you can get, present location possibly being the exception," she added with a smile.

"I'm Selonian," Thader answered simply.

"That's odd, because you don't seem to be tall enough, or furry enough, to be a Selonian."

Thader gave her a sarcastic smile. "Funny. No, I'm definitely human, but my Dad was the Corellian attaché to Selonia. I was born and raised there, so that's still what I think of as home. I did some time in Imp service, then jumped ship and went to work for the Rebels. I was asked to put a team together as a special operations unit, and the Pathfinders were born. After I did that for a bit, then I decided to freelance. That's my life in as short a time as I can make it." Thader took a long drink, then looked back to Jan. "Now I just try and help people that can't hit back hard enough on their own. Like this gentleman here…"

As Thader spoke, an older, weathered man came up and sat down opposite Thader.

"Jerrid Sunrunner, you know my XO, Kahne. This is Janella Renshir. I suppose you'd call her an observer on this run."

The old man nodded to Jan and took her hand.

"Sunrunner?" she asked. "Any relation to Kirian Sunrunner?"

Jerrid nodded again. "Yeah," he said in a gravelly voice, "that's my brother's boy. Last I heard he was running with some freight outfit out toward the Corporate Sector."

"Yes, sir, he works for a friend of mine. Last I saw him, a few days ago, he was doing well. I'd be glad to pass along a message if you'd like."

"I'd appreciate that."

Thader brought the conversation back to the immediate topic.

"Who's causing the problems for you, Sunrunner? Is it Dar Larken's group again?"

"No. I wish it were, Zane. I could handle Dar and his ilk. No, this is someone new the Hutts sent to make sure we don't forget who's supposed to be in charge here."

Thader blew out an exasperated breath.

"You would think after what happened to Jabba, they would have learned. Ok, where's this group based at, and who's the ring leader?"

"They're set up in an old hotel right here in Mos Eisley. An old human named Daner Ronan."

Thader bolted upright in his seat.

"Ronan? Ronan is the one harassing you?" He said, fury in his voice.

"Yeah. He has a gang that acts like Imps, but they're just thugs. They're demanding 'taxes' be paid to keep us safe from 'bandits' in the area."

"That sounds like Ronan, all right," Thader fairly growled.

"You know this guy, boss?" Kahne asked.

"You could say that. He's the guy who is basically responsible for me defecting to the Rebellion. He's the guy that wanted a shipload of Selonians executed simply for not being human."

"Things haven't changed much," Sunrunner said. "It would be an exaggeration to say he treats non-humans as second-class citizens."

"Come on. Let's get back to the Odds were we can talk about this a little more privately."

"Not to mention where you can have your finger on a trigger," Jan joked.

Thader didn't seem to think it was a joke at all.

Neme and Kylan were in their quarter aboard the Llowly Endeavor. They had moved the ship over to the landing bay where the other Llows' ships were berthed. Rosha had been keeping everyone in line, though it didn't hurt that the Rangers had arranged for accommodations in one of the plushest hotels on Ter Sephino.

"Why are we here, Nem?" Kylan asked. Neme was reclined in his arms, watching an old holodrama about the war against the Empire. "I mean, I know we're looking to help Jan, so why did she run off to Tatooine and leave us sitting here, while her dad is still imprisoned?"

"You tell me, Ky. You're a Jedi, didn't you get any insight into what was going on?"

"Not really. I mean, it feels like I'm on the right path, but it still doesn't mean…I don't know…"

Neme looked up at Kylan. "You're looking to get back in the fight, right? After all the talk of staying at the Maw site, and now you're anxious to go guns blazing again? The only thing I can say is to let things happen as they will. I've learned that from being around Jan the last few years."

"That sounds like something Master Skywalker would say," Ky told her.

"Speaking of Luke, have you gotten an answer from…"

The comm on Neme's desk signaled an incoming message. She got up off the sofa and checked her system.

"Ask and you receive," she said. "Here's your response, Ky. You need to key in your access code for it."

Kylan walked over and entered his personal code, then perused the message.

"Well, that was succinct," he said. "My orders are to 'proceed as you feel best, and the Jedi will welcome you home when you're ready.' I suppose that makes it a little easier to wait here."

"That, and the company you're keeping won't hurt, either, right?" Neme said with a grin.

Kylan lay back down on the couch, turning off the holodrama.

Janella was studying the hotel where Ronan was operating from. The Rangers were in a room across the broad boulevard that ran down the center of Mos Eisley, in another hotel that overlooked the target. There were guards stationed at both the front and rear entrances, but they tended to stay in the shaded alcoves of the doorways. They had learned – mostly by bribing staff members of the hotel – that Ronan and his group were using the penthouse that took up the entire top floor of the building. There were eleven others, plus Ronan himself. She had seen the static holos that Sunrunner had brought in of what these – barbarians was the only word Jan thought was appropriate – had done to the residents of the area that had opted not to pay the 'tax'. She wanted this mission to succeed with a deep-seeded passion.

"I think the best plan is to come in from the top," Kahne said from beside her. "There're a couple of skylights that would serve pretty well."

Thader, Tanis, Shorty, and Aimi were all gathered around a table that had diagrams of the target building. Seta and Rae were still at the landing site with the Odds. Seta was on stand-by, in case the Rangers needed air support, while Rae was monitoring for any comm traffic in or out of the hotel.

"I'm more apt to look at hitting from the bottom up," Tanis said. "We don't know if they have sensors on the roof, or even holocams of some kind."

"If we go in from the bottom, one of those guards could have an alarm button that we'd never even know about," Thader said.

Shortatha roared, pointing to the windows of the penthouse.

"Sure, we could go in that way," Tanis answered. "The only problem with that is we wouldn't know where in the suite everyone was."

"Drop me, Aimi, and Kahne on the roof," Janella said suddenly. So suddenly, in fact, that all other conversation stopped for a moment. Jan hadn't played much of a part in this job, and really was just acting as an observer before now.

"Ok," Thader finally said after a moment, "why you three, and what do we do then?"

"You send us three for a few reasons. First, I can keep everyone off of the roof long enough to check for any sensors or cams. Second, Kahne is your best source to scout the suite through the skylights and let you know where everyone is at. Aimi goes because she can set charges that will take all the skylights at once. Confusion from the blasts will help our cause greatly."

"Our cause, huh?" Kahne said quietly beside her.

"What about the rest of us?" Thader asked. He was looking at the blueprints, considering what she was saying. "When do we get to play, and from what direction?"

"I'm going to assume Gurian can do more than pilot," she said, "so here's the plan…"

Kin-Wah Rae came sliding around the corner on his customized speeder bike, swerving erratically and causing pedestrians to clear a path. When he was directly in front of the target building, he cut hard to the right and leaned hard to the left. This caused the repulsors in the bottom of the bike to bounce Rae hard off of the façade of the hotel.

Rae dropped from the bike and lay still. His bike, the kill switch having disengaged the engine after the fall, drifted lazily back into the speeder path. An oncoming cargo hauler didn't have time to stop and clipped the front of the bike, bending the control arms at nearly ninety degrees to the rest of the body.

The guard at the front of the target building came running over to Rae to see if he was ok. As the guard rolled him over, Rae fired the concealed blaster he had been covering with his body.

Thader and Seta charged up to the front entrance, Rae joining them right as they reached the door. Thader checked his chrono and saw that it would be about thirty more seconds before everyone else was in position.

Tanis and Shorty were just setting the grapples in their launchers as Janella, Kahne, and Alissa were going over the rail of the evac ladder onto the roof. Janella used her talents in the Force to keep the other two from touching the roof of the building until Kahne had declared there were no sensors or cams there.

Kahne checked through both skylights on the roof as Aimi set breaching charges and primed the remote detonators.

"Team Two to all teams. Three targets in room one, four in room two, and target Alpha is alone in room three. One in front, one in back, that leaves two unaccounted for. Your call, team lead."

Thader considered for a moment. The other two members of Ronan's team may have been in the 'fresher, or they might have been out of the building entirely.

"All teams, proceed as planned. Keep an eye out for two additional targets. We go on your signal, Two."

The 'signal', it turned out, was the charges blowing the skylights down into the suite. At the same time, Tanis and Shorty fired their grapples and slid on the lines, across the street, and through two windows into the main room of the suite.

Thader and Seta used the turbolifts from the lobby to sweep into the suite from the second room. They had used a passcode from one of the hotel staff to make the lift an express and avoid the audible warning when they reached the penthouse.

Rae charged through the hotel to the back entrance and dropped the rear guard with a shot straight through the back. His was the first target taken down in the strike. While it didn't seem very sporting to shoot a man in the back, the things that guard had done to farmers and laborers in the area left Rae with no remorse over the shot.

Jan, Kahne, and Aimi dropped through the rear skylight directly into the bedroom where Daner Ronan was sitting alone counting the credits he had stolen. Kahne dropped him with a stun shot at point-blank range while Aimi peered through the door. She signaled by hand to move out into the other room.

She led out, followed by Kahne. Just as Jan reached the door, a sensation sent her somersaulting back into the bedroom just as a blaster shot splintered the door above her. She had her lightsabre in hand and ignited before she completed her roll. It was only another heartbeat between that and the cut that ended the life of the thug shooting from the fresher station.

"One uncounted target eliminated," she called over the comm. She could here the rapid fire of blaster shots ringing throughout the suite, with the throatier growl of a Wookiee bowcaster. Jan left the bedroom and saw what looked like a nightmare. Little guttering flames were burning in craters in the walls, ceiling, and floor of the sweet, and two sofas had been reduced to rubble piles. Three men were dead in the first room, as were two of the four in the second room. The other two had dropped their weapons and had their hands above their heads.

"Team one, clear," Thader yelled.

"Team two, clear" Kahne called in response.

"Three, all clear," that was Tanis, as he was kicking weapons from the hand of the last target dropped.

"Any friendlies wounded?" Zane asked.

"One grazed Aimi, and Shorty got some fur scorched. Minor cuts from landing on some glass, but we're all in the green, boss," Kahne finished his report.

The three live targets were escorted out of the building. Thader stopped at the manager's office.

"There's a stack of credits up there to cover your losses. You might want to send a sanitation unit to clean up, though."

The two foot soldiers were turned over to the local constabulary, though Thader told Janella they would probably be cut loose in the next few days. Ronan was taken to the Odds and locked in the cargo bay.

Daner Ronan woke up to see the first of Tatooine's suns cresting the horizon. It took him a moment to realize the soft warmth he felt beneath him was the powdery sand of the Dune Sea.

"Hello again, Daner."

Ronan whipped his head around to see the man standing over him.

"Thader?" he asked

"That's right. I'm flattered that you remember me."

"You scum, what do you think you're doing? This is my planet. I run things here, and you've got nowhere left to run."

"Tough talk, Ronan. You didn't get enough kicks torturing and killing innocent people with the Empire, so you had to come here, right?"

Ronan stood up and spit in the sand at Thader's feet.

"You were weak when you were a stormtrooper, Thader, and you don't have the guts to do anything to me now."

Thader chuckled.

"You're right, Daner. I'm not going to kill you. As a matter of fact, I'm going to help you."

Ronan just stared at him, not saying anything.

"Mos Eisley is about two hundred kilometers…ummm…that way," Thader said, pointing to his left. "There's water about a thirty kilometers that way," and he pointed to his right. "The suns will be all the way up in about another hour, so you might want to hurry."

Thader started to climb the ramp into the Odds when Ronan called out to him again.

"You can't do this to me! You're not cold-blooded enough to do this."

"I'm not a killer, Ronan. That's your job. I'm just letting you explore the planet you run."

The ramp sealed shut and the Odds lifted into the air, rotating and launching for space.

Thader walked into the common lounge area where the Rangers, except for Seta, who was piloting, were waiting for their leader.

"Let me get us plotted for home, then we debrief. You've got ten minutes to stow your gear." With that, he walked forward and into the cockpit of the freighter.

Janella motioned for Kahne to follow her, then led him back to the cabin she was using. She rounded on him as soon as the door was shut, but it wasn't what he expected.

"You're ok with leaving a man to die out in the desert?" she asked him, the anger clearly evident in her tone and stance.

"Hey, that wasn't my call, Jan!" he said, realizing just how upset she was. "Thader made the decision, and he pays the bills, ya know?"

"So that makes it fine, that means that Ronan didn't deserve justice?"

"Ronan got justice, Janella," Kahne said, firm conviction in his voice. "You saw the holos, you know what he did to those people. If by justice you mean the local authorities, then you don't know how the universe works."

She started to respond, but Kahne continued without pause.

"Say we had turned him over to the constabulary, then what? I'll tell you what, 'cause I've seen it. He has the local law enforcement in his pocket already. He would have been in a cell for about two hours, and then he would have been right back to doing the same things again. Besides any of that, what objection do you have? You killed the goon in the 'fresher, and I know you've killed before in this war, so why are you uneasy about Ronan?"

"Every time I've taken a life, it was in combat. Even back at the hotel, that guy was posing a direct and immediate threat," Jan nearly roared at Kahne. "What you did to Ronan was murder, plain and simple. He was unarmed, in custody, and posed no threat to anyone. That's what my objection is. Jedi have never sanctioned cold-blooded killing, and I don't know if that's something I want any part of."

Kahne nodded, looking into her eyes and seeing the same fierce determination that he himself felt.

"That's fine, Ms. Renshir," he said icily. "When we get back to Ter Sephino, you need to make a decision, because I can assure you, when we hit Cardanos, there are going to be things happening that you might not approve of. If you'd rather not be a part of that, then you need to decide quickly."

Kahne walked out of the cabin and left Janella alone. Her anger subsided, and all she was left with was confusion and sadness.

When the Odds landed, Jan moved her gear back over to the Endeavor, which had been brought back to the Rangers base when the Odds had come back into the system.

She had talked to Neme and Kylan, told them what she had seen and been part of, and explained her concerns.

"Sometimes things happen that you can't control, Jan," Kylan said, thinking about the conversation he had had with Neme. "You're right, Jedi do not condone these sorts of things, but you have to keep two things in mind. First, you didn't do anything. You didn't decide to leave the guy out there, and you didn't get a vote in the decision. You let your feelings be known to Kahne, so be it, but you still didn't have a hand in this. Second – and this is going to be one that you don't want to hear, but I'm going to say it anyway – you are not a Jedi. I know you're trying to live up to those standards, but you're not bound by them."
"That doesn't mean I should stand around and let things happen, Ky. Forget about the Jedi for a second, this is something that no human should stand aside and allow to go on."

"I think most people do feel that way, Jan," Neme said. "I'd be willing to bet Davin, and even Zane, feel the same, but there are times when you have to do things that aren't right at the moment, but that will work out for the best in the long run."

Neme's comm chirped at that point.

"Captain Llows, this is Rae. We're about to get back and finish the planning for the Cardanos mission, if your team would like to join us in the conference room."

"Hold on a moment, Kin-Wah." She muted the pick-up and looked at Janella. "Your call, kiddo. We could try to do this alone, but I don't think we'd make it."

Janella looked at her friend for a moment, then nodded. Neme passed the word that they'd be there shortly.

Ames, Parthen, and Renshir were together in the Renshir quarters again. The sound of a driving rain outside assured them of privacy. Rain wasn't that common here, but when it did come, it came on hard.

"We have to get quarters over by the south fence," Ames said. He was still sporting some bruises on his face along with a split lip from his "conversation" with Lena Ranele. He was also moving gingerly, hinting at more bruising on other parts of his body.

"What's wrong with where we're at?" Mykl asked.

"Not a thing, except that our rescue team is going to be coming in opposite from the spaceport. We need to be over there so we can help cover the escape when they hit."

Tevis nodded. "That makes sense. When is the break supposed to happen, Ames?"

"No idea, actually," he answered.

"Come on, you have some way of talking to the outside, you know where they plan to hit, but not when?" Mykl had been getting more and more anxious since Ames had told him Janella was leading the rescue efforts. Ames didn't know if it was from fear for his daughter or excitement to see her again.

Probably a bit of both, he decided.

"It's not that I'm out of touch about it, Mykl, it's that they don't have a solid time-frame yet. I would guess within a week or so, but it could be sooner than that. I just know we're not going to be much help if we get cut down before we can even get to the fence breach."

"I can get us assigned to quarters over there, but I need a reason why these aren't good enough anymore."

"Han can handle that for you," Mykl said. "He found a nest of some sort of insects that seem to enjoy eating the duracrete mix we have on these huts. He's managed to keep them away from us so far, but if there was to be an outbreak…"

"Got it," Tevis said. "How long before holes start showing up?"

"A day, usually. Two at the most."

"Ok, tell him to cut 'em loose, but only in this area. We don't want the southern huts torn up, do we? Ames, get on…whatever you get on and let these guys know to wait at least four days."

Thader called Kahne into his office at the Ter Sephino base. The Rangers were in the final stages of preparation for the assault on Cardanos and everyone was busy getting their gear together.

"Davin, sit down, please."

Kahne sat in the chair in front of Thader's desk.

"How're things going out there?" Zane asked.

"Good, sir. We've got Seta's Interceptor loaded in the 'Flair, and we have the Odds fueled and ready to fly. Rae left the day before yesterday, and should be in position by our launch-time tomorrow. It shouldn't be a problem that he doesn't have the speeder bike. We picked a site that should be close enough for him to hoof it out when it's time. Neme, Kylan and Jan will be running on the Llows Endeavor, and Neme says her other freighters are crewed and prepped."

The plan they had come up with was to have the Llows' ships hold at the outer edge of the Cardanos system. They would jump in once it was safe to have unarmed transports in the area. The Rangers would secure the south side of the prison and bring the transports in to get the prisoners off-world.

"Sounds good, Dav. Let me ask, though, what's the deal with you and Renshir? I may be an old-timer, but I'm not blind, and it wasn't that long ago that I was your age."

Kahne looked at the floor for a moment, then looked into Thader's eyes.

"I think I've fallen for her, and that's a fact. I think she feels the same way, but I don't think that matters right now."

"This is my team, Kahne, and I'll decide what matters. If you two are busy making googly-eyes at each other, it can get someone killed. You know that, you're one of the best officers the Pathfinders turned out. You know that personal involvement in a combat zone is one of the most deadly situations a soldier can face. So tell me, why do you think it doesn't matter?"

"Well, first of all," Kahne said, conviction in his voice, "Jan will be on the Endeavor, while I'll be down in the weeds. Secondly, her priority is to get her family out of the pen, and there's nothing that's going to stop her from getting that done. And if that wasn't reason enough, how about this: You've known me for years. Do you think I'm so green that I would let personal feelings interfere with getting my job done?" This last was said with a fierce determination that had just a hit of anger. Kahne didn't tell his boss about the conversation he and Jan had after Tatooine. He figured things would work themselves out or not, but didn't think he should confuse the issue at this point.

"Actually, I don't think it will affect your work," Thader said with a smile, "I just wanted to make sure you still knew it. Come on, let's go make sure the animals are getting ready to attack."

Thader led the way down the corridor to the hanger tunnels. The carrier wasn't there, so he and Kahne jogged down the length until they were in the flight-prep area. Everyone was getting their personal gear in order, so Thader and Kahne went over to their own personal lockers to gear up. Thader was checking out his crew while getting himself ready.

Seta was already in his flight suit, with a light tan top over the blank pants. His flight vest contained light armor, and his helmet, rather than being the standard black TIE pilot gear, was red and silver. He also carried a wicked-looking slug thrower as he climbed aboard the StarFlair.

Danyl Tanis was wearing a multi-coloured camouflage combat suit. He carried assorted grenades, stun-sticks, and power packs for his custom blaster rifle, and seemed to have assorted deadly goodies loaded in the various pockets and compartments of the suit.

Shortatha was equipped with a bowcaster and bandolier with charges. The satchel he carried was marked with the Ranger's traditional red striping in a pattern as individual as its owner. He also wore a necklace that had the skulls of some small, unidentified animal strung around it. Shorty had always called it his good-luck ward.

Alissa looked like she was just going for a stroll at the moment. She would be piloting her yacht to the landing site, so she had her equipment stowed on board already. Her equipment included satchel charges, a heavy blaster and several custom-designed charges to cut a large hole in the perimeter fence of the prison.

Next to Thader, Kahne was latching the final strap on the armor plate he wore over his torso. He had guards in place running from the top of his feet to his knees, and bracers on his forearms, appropriate for the Rangers' hand-to-hand expert. Extra power packs were carried in ammunition pouches on either side of his weapons belt.

Thader himself, always one to lead from the front, carried his BlasTech DL86 heavy blaster. He was covered with a dark blue personal armor vest, over which he wore a bantha-hide jacket that had been given to him on his retirement from the Pathfinders. Thader carried his extra power packs on a bandolier wrapped around his right arm, and assorted gadgets adorned his belt, including low-light scanners, macrobinoculars, and long-range comm device.

"Alright, folks, gather 'round," Thader called in a booming voice.

Everyone came over to the locker area, including Neme, Jan, and Kylan.

"Ok, guys, we know the mission. We're going to get in there, get these folks out, and get them back here. You've all been given a different hyperspace route for the return trip, to keep anyone from tracking us back. I think we've planned this operation about as well as can be expected, but I want to make sure we're all clear before we head out. Is anyone unsure about something?"

"One thing I thought of, boss," Seta said. "What's the game plan if the scarheads show up?"

"If they're there when we show up, we might have to abort. I know that's not what you want to hear, Ms. Renshir, but if there are a lot of Vong, we would get slaughtered. If they show up in the middle of our op, we'll clear as many of the prisoners as we can, then bug out on the assigned vectors. Mostly, we're going to avoid a fight with anyone if we can help it, but especially the Vong. Of course, that doesn't mean you can't shoot back," he added with a grin.

"Davin had made a comment about trying to hire some of the Brigade's mercenary muscle away from them," Kylan said. "Is there any word on that?"

"There is, but I don't want to spread the word. Basically, we'll see how that pans out when we get there. Is that it?" Thader asked. "Alright, let's mount up and go to work."

The Llowly Endeavor drifted through hyperspace, quiet during the sleep-cycle. Kylan had the bridge at the moment while Neme was sleeping. Janella should have been asleep, but she couldn't. She was still too agitated from the incident a week ago.

Finally tossing the covers from herself, she sat on the floor and closed her eyes, trying one of the meditation techniques Skywalker had recommended to her.

Her thoughts wouldn't seem to quiet down, she decided to give up and head to the…

…door, making sure it was secured against outside intrusion. Turning back, she saw that she was in a large, empty room with mats on the floor. There was another Jedi standing across the way, without his outer robe, just the traditional garb of the Jedi.

Striding across the room, Janella felt her body slide into a comfortable stance, bringing lightsabre to hand. Bowing to the other Jedi, she ignited her sabre and flowed into a defensive stance.

The two Jedi sparred for what seemed like hours, but was in reality about twenty minutes. After several feints, the strange Jedi knocked the blade from her hand and used the Force to knock her to the mats. Before she knew what was happening, there was a blade stopped centimeters from her throat.

The blade extinguished and the other Jedi offered a hand to her, helping her to her feet.

"Never let your guard down, Knight Istyn. There are enemies that will not stop until you are dead, and you must always be vigilant."

"But Master Qui-Gon, you wouldn't have struck me. I was defenseless, so, though I had lost the fight, I knew I was safe."

"Never assume you are safe, Cas. You can be struck down at any time, and you must be willing to strike, also."

"Jedi do not attack, Master. That is strictly against the code."

Qui-Gon Jinn sighed. "At some point, young Jedi, you may be called upon to do things that my not be strictly by the code, but that doesn't mean it's not the right thing to do. Knowing that something is right, even if it is not directly along the lines of the Jedi Code, is really to only way to have any peace of mind at those times."

Janella sat up with a start, tears running down her face. She realized this was the first vision she'd had of Cas Istyn that didn't relate to his last days on Kamparas. She also realized that she may not have liked what the Selonian Rangers had done at Tatooine, but that didn't mean it was evil. It might not have been right, but that wasn't the same as evil.

She decided that if they both survived this operation, she would apologize to Kahne and make things right.

The freighter Even Odds burst from hyperspace in the Cardanos system a day and a half later. The midnight-black colour of the ship kept it from being detected visually, while the dampers on the engines would keep all but a direct-focus scan from picking them up.

Kahne sat at the comm unit in the cockpit of the ship, scanning for the frequency that was arranged for Rae to use.

"Herder to Nerf, do you read me?"

While Kahne was waiting for a response, the StarFlair reverted from hyperspace and drifted up along side the Odds. The sensors showed the Llows mini-fleet revert about five thousand kilometers behind them toward the edge of the system.

"Herder, this is Nerf. Tag one is clean, tag two is open and ready. Nerf, out."

The comm cut off. The brief transmission was intended to keep Rae safe. Kahne hit the switch and opened the line to the 'Flair.

"Nerf reports tag one is clear. Get Seta ready and start the run. We'll lead you in, 'Flair."

"Copy, Odds. Light Strike is on the way."

Light Strike was the code-name they had agreed on for the Interceptor that would make the diversionary run.

Thader gave the Interceptor a five-minute head start, then led the StarFlair in toward the landing area for the ground assault. He keyed the comm system on his right-hand board.

"Endeavor, this is Odds. We're ten minutes out from hitting the ground. When we're in position to take the wall down, we'll let you know. Stand by to start your run."

A double-click came over the comm, an affirmative from Neme. Thader smiled to himself. That was standard military comm protocol, and the fact that Neme, a dedicated civilian, was using it amused Zane.

When the Odds came into visual range of the planet, they saw a few stray shots reaching out toward a spot in a space that Thader assumed was the Interceptor. A few minutes later, he saw the attacking corvette get hit from behind from another one of the ships in orbit. The comm crackled with an incoming call.

"Pathfinder One, this is Pathfinder Seven. Welcome to Cardanos, sir. We have most of these ships tied up with our crews. Sorry we couldn't get to that last one."

"No problem, Seven. We appreciate the help. Pathfinders Clear the Way." Thader signed off with the old motto of his unit.

"You didn't tell me you got the teams together for this, sir," Kahne said in disbelief.

"It's a lot of the retired guys. The Republic is running the active teams ragged right now, but you know the deal; once a Pathfinder…"

"…always a Pathfinder," Kahne finished. "That's a nice touch, Commander."

The Odds burned into the atmosphere in time to see the landing area north of prison getting hammered by the quad lasers of the TIE Interceptor. Thader curved around to the south, then turned back to the north, flying at ground-level to avoid detection. He landed about five hundred meters to the south of the prison and waited for the StarFlair to put down next to them. Grabbing his blaster, Thader led the way down the ramp.

The Rangers formed up on the ground, then Thader gave the hand signal to move out. Shorty led the way, staying low to the ground, making sure there were no sensors in the grounds. They could hear the noise of Seta's attacks and could see the smoke rising to the north.

They stopped with about fifty meters to go. Thader scanned the towers to make sure there were no guards looking their way. He was relieved to see all of the sentries firing into the air at the Interceptor that was zipping back and forth over the prison.

"Thader to Rae. Where're you at, son?"

"I'm here boss. I see you. I'm about thirty meters to your right. See that tree stand over there?"

"Got it. Things still look good?"

"Yes, sir. No new alarms. I've signaled the man inside, and he's getting everything ready on that side."

"Copy. Signal the Endeavor and have them start their run. Advise the wall will be down in about ten minutes."

"Gotcha, boss. Signal's going out now. I'll start moving back…wait a minute. New contacts coming in. It looks like the Brigade had some fighters stashed somewhere, and they're coming this way."

Ames got the signal that the breakout was about to happen. The guards were busy taking useless shots at the fighter that was causing a massive amount of damage to the prison's spaceport. Ames passed word to Renshir and Parthen to get the prisoners moving toward the south wall, but to keep them back a few dozen feet, and on the inside of the huts there. He didn't know the exact plan of attack, but he assumed it would include explosives of some sort.

Mykl and Tevis were bringing in the last group of prisoners when a new sound filled the air. They looked up in time to see four Z-95 Headhunters go by, blasting away at the TIE fighter.

"That can't be good for our team," Han said, standing at his father's side.

No kidding, Mykl thought, hoping his daughter was safe, wherever she was.

Thader looked up as the Headhunters screamed by, then his comm signaled again.

"Boss, our long-range comms are out. We can't reach the freighters. I show four fighters chasing Seta, and two look like they're scouting for our landing site."

"Copy, Rae. Hold your position and stand by," Thader cut his comm and circled his hand, bringing in the rest of the Rangers around him. "Our landing site could be made, and our comms are out long-distance. I say the best thing to do is to pop the gate and get these people moving, save as many as we can with the Odds and 'Flair. Alissa, go set your charges. Danyl, Shorty, hit those towers and make sure there's nothing moving in 'em. Kahne, you and me are going right up the middle as soon as the charges go off."

The Rangers moved out, Tanis and Shortatha lining up for their shots and watching as Alissa set the satchel charges in three places along the outer wall for the prison. She ran back to Thader's position, waving her hands for everyone to get down. It was just a matter of seconds before the charges blew, causing a blast wave to cascade over the Rangers' heads.

Shorty opened fire, destroying the entire top of the structure. Tanis's target was too close to the blast zone and toppled on its own. Just for safety, Tanis sprayed the guard turret with his rifle, then tossed a grenade into the remains.

By this time, Thader, Kahne, and Aimi were through the gap, yelling at the prisoners to move out and taking down the guards who came running at them. A man with a blaster charged at Kahne and was dropped to the ground, a crater smoldering in his chest.

Thader grabbed his commlink when it signaled again.

"What is it, Rae? Kinda busy here."

"There's another fighter signal, plus a couple of larger blips inbound."

"Great. Get back and get the Odds ready to fly. I'll be there in a few minutes."

He stowed his commlink away and grabbed Kahne by the shoulder. Thader had to shout to be heard over the fire and sound of the crowd.

"Find Ames, get these people moving. I'm going to get the Odds in the air and try and give some cover, because it looks like the Brigade has some heavier firepower coming in."

Ames was busy getting the stragglers moved toward the new hole in fence. He and the Renshirs had taken weapons from guards that had been overpowered or simply given up in the face of a riot and were using them to keep even more of the Brigade troops at bay.

A shot stung Ames's left shoulder and spun him around to face the shooter. It shouldn't have surprised him to see Lena Ranele standing in front of Cior Qeninh. She fired again, but Ames managed to get out of the way this time.

"Mykl, cover these people. I've got some business to take care of."

Renshir nodded, still firing at a group of guards huddled behind one of the prisoner huts.

Ames took off running after Qeninh and Ranele. They had vanished around the side of the main building, and seemed to be heading toward the northeast. Ames fired off a shot, which made Ranele spin around and fire. Qeninh kept running.

Ames dropped to the ground and opened fire on Ranele.

"You might as well drop in, Lena. You're not a better shot than me."

"What would you know? You're just some worthless freight-hauler who doesn't know how to keep his head down." She punctuated her remarks with three fast shots just over his head.

Ames laughed, making sure she could hear him.

"You don't remember me, Ranele? I was one of your instructors at the Intelligence Academy. Actually, I guess it shouldn't surprise me that you don't remember. I seem to recall you washed out for not being observant enough."

Another hail of fire greeted Ames when he looked over the rise he was behind.

Qeninh had made it to a small bunker outside of the prison, and Ames assumed he was going to escape somehow. He was more worried about Ranele. Her flair for violence was had always been considered extreme, even in the Empire, and he didn't want her to get away.

Ranele was in a small depression, just like he was, and he couldn't think of a way to root her out. He was saved from making that decision by a fighter that swooped down and fired a torpedo at the bunker Qeninh had disappeared into. The resulting explosion made Ranele spin around in that direction. To her credit, she started to turn back, realizing her mistake, but the blaster shot that hit her between the shoulders dropped her to the ground, unmoving.

Ames ran back to the prison complex without looking back.

Neme hadn't gotten the signal to start their landing run, but they picked up the Headhunters before those on the ground would have had a chance, so she told her freighters to start moving. Jan was just sealing the canopy of Shadow when her comm chirped.

"Jan, its Neme. Seta's about to have some really unfriendly company. Time to show Mr. Thader that we have some surprises of our own."

"Pop the hatch, Nem, and let's show them our hole card."

As soon as the bay doors opened, Jan shot out of the hold and rocketed toward Cardanos. The corvettes in orbit were quiet as she blazed into the atmosphere. She assumed whatever Thader had done was still in place, but she didn't waste time thinking about it right now. The Shadow screamed in toward the signal she was showing as Seta's Interceptor. As soon as she had a clear shot at one of the Headhunters, she opened fire with her lasers and destroyed the first of the Z-95s. Seta dropped another, and that left just two, with two more hunting for the grounded ships.

"New fighter, this is Interceptor, identify yourself or prepare to be targeted."

"Seta, Renshir here. Thought you could use some help."

"Got ya, Renshir. You should let people know before you jump into their sandbox."

Jan scrapped another of the Headhunters.

"If you'd rather, I'll take my toys and go home."

Just then, Seta vaped the last of the fighters they were battling.

"Come on, kid, let's get those guys trying to pound our mudbugs down there."

Jan's Shadow followed Seta's Interceptor through an S turn that brought them around toward the remaining fighters. As Jan was lining up her shot, the Z-95 in front of her exploded in a shower of sparks. The second Headhunter flew through the debris and, having shredding its wings, rolled over and plowed a furrow in the field below.

"Seta, this is Thader. Is that a friendly on your wing?"

"Affirm, boss, that's Renshir."

"Well, you both need to get to the ground. I'm showing four large targets inbound."

"Hold fast, Thader," Jan commed. "That's Neme. We saw the fighters coming in, so we figured things were about to start going bad."

"Damn good thinking. Glad you're on our side. Seta, me and you are going to orbit here and make sure no other surprises pop up. Renshir, see if you can find the source of that jamming and clear it, then meet up with the freighters and get the passengers loaded."

"Copy, Ranger Lead," Seta replied.

"On my way," Jan said.

Banking to her right, Janella began a sweeping search and quickly found the jamming coming from a small bunker to the north-east of the base. She also intercepted a burst transmission on a frequency band that was not being jammed.

"…this is Cardanos base. Any Brigade ship, this is Cardanos. We need help, right now."

Jan keyed into the channel.

"Whoever this is, there's no help coming for you. I'll be generous and give you thirty seconds to get out of that pile of rock before I turn it into a gravel pit."

Able, her astromech droid, started running a countdown clock on one of Jan's secondary monitors. She orbited the bunker, but saw no one emerge. She shook her head at the pure stupidity of some people. When her timer hit zero, she fired off the single proton torpedo she had slung under the belly of her green and black fighter. The bunker erupted into a cloud of dirt and fire. Jan wheeled the ship back toward the landing area just as Neme's freighters were just setting down. Jan set her fighter right on the ground right next to the Endeavor.

Scrambling down over the edge of her ship, Jan found Neme at the bottom of the Endeavor's ramp, Kylan right behind her.

"The prisoners are on their way, but they're starting to take fire," Neme told her. "Thader's guys can't hold all the Brigade troops back. They realized the spaceport was just a feint, and they've decided to make sure as few of the prisoners get away as they can."

"Let's go, then," Jan said and took off running.

Neme and Kylan were both armed, and Jan drew her lightsabre from her flight suit belt as she went. They met the first of the prisoners about a hundred meters out from the ships, and Neme pointed them in the right direction. Jan was scanning the crowd, but didn't recognize anyone.

Cresting a small rise, Jan found Alissa running along the outside of the mass of prisoners.

"What's the situation?" Jan asked her.

"Brigade are trying to outflank us. I don't have a heavy blaster, so I'm running guard. The boys could really use some help back there."

"We're on the way," Jan said, and started running again.

The trio ran through the crowd, reaching the hole in the prison fence. There, they found Jan's father and brother, with Ames running up at the same time. There was another man that Jan didn't know, but that didn't matter at this point.

"DAD!" she yelled.

Mykl snapped around, blaster rifle in hand. They just stood there staring for a moment, then Mykl tapped the man Jan didn't know and pointed toward the fence. After signaling Ames and Han, Mykl started to fall back himself.

"Jan, what are you doing here?" He called over the sound of the blaster fire.

"What's it look like, Dad? I'm trying to get you out of here. Follow the crowd, give them cover, we'll take the rear, ok?"

The note of command in his daughter's voice surprised Mykl. He nodded and started to head in the direction of the ships.

"Dad!" Jan called again. "Go to the Llows' Endeavor. The Bothan will tell you which ship it is."

With that, Mykl watched his little girl turn and sweep two blaster shots out of the air with her lightsabre.

Why does she have a lightsabre? was his last thought before realizing he had to live through this in order to ask her any questions.

Janella and Kylan made sure the last of the prisoners were through the fence, then they started to fall back themselves. Neme was between them, firing at the Brigade troops who were still fighting. Janella swiped her emerald blade right in front of Neme's face and picked off a blast. She saw a flash of blue and realized Kylan had done the same thing for her.

The trio retreated, moving slow enough to make sure the prisoners had enough time to get loaded into the freighters. Tanis and Shortatha were hanging back, providing cover for the retreat also.

"Let's go, kids," Tanis said. "The transport's leaving, and I don't think you want to get left behind on this rock."

When they were two hundred meter from the prison, the enemy fire died down, then stopped completely. Janella crested the hill and saw four freighters and her Shadow sitting in an empty field. The refugees were loaded and it was time to fly.

"Neme, get the Endeavor in the air. I'll get the Shadow moving and give you cover."

Neme nodded and sprinted up the ramp of her ship As soon as the ramp started to close Jan hit the side of the Shadow.

"Able, fire it up. It's time to get out of here."

She dropped into the cockpit and by the time she was strapped in, Able had the engines and the weapons systems fully primed. The Shadow was in the air before any of the freighters started moving, and Jan was circling, making sure there would be no further interference from the Brigade.

"Endeavor to Shadow. Jan, I just got word from Thader that path is clear for our run out of here. I say you load in so we can split as soon as that last transports is away."

"Copy that, Nem. What about cover in case someone decided to get frisky?"

As if in answer to her question, the Brigade corvette broke the tractor beam that was holding it in place and lunged toward the Llows' ships. Thader's ship, the Even Odds, came rocketing up from the planet. He opened fire with all eight of his laser cannons fire linked, which hammered the corvette. Her sensors showed four torpedoes launch from the Odds and within seconds the corvette was an expanding ball of gas and fire.

"I guess that answers that. Open the bay, Nem. Let's get back to Ter Sephino.

Davin was standing outside the Shadow's bay when Janella came through the door. She looked at him, and held up a hand to stop him from saying anything. Walking over to a wall comm, she keyed the bridge.

"Neme, are we clear?"

"Fifteen seconds to the jump, Jan, but no traffic looking our way."
"Dad and Han, they're…"

"Safe and right up here, Jan. Han wanted to watch the jump, so I gave him your seat. Hope you don't mind."

Janella could hear the smile in her friend's voice. Her brother, Han, had been infatuated with Neme since he'd first met her four years earlier. He was old enough now to know that she wasn't interested in him as anything other than her friend's little brother, but she was still attractive, and he was still a teenage boy.

"I'm going to get cleaned up and…take care of a few things, then I'll be right there, ok?"

"We're not going anywhere, Jan," she heard her father's voice through the comm.

She flipped the comm off, then motioned for Kahne to follow her. She didn't say a word to him, but led him to her quarters on the ship. Once inside with the door secured, she grabbed him and kissed him.

After what seemed a lifetime, she pulled away and looked into his eyes.

"I'm sorry about the way I behaved before, Davin. I was still shaken by the take-down of the hotel and shocked by what happened with Ronan. I know that things have to happen sometimes that I don't like, but that's not the end of the world."

"So what about us, Jan? I mean, I like you, a lot, and I think it could be more than that, but I can't change who I am. If you're not comfortable…"

"I don't know what the future is going to hold, Davin. I don't know where this fight is going to take me, but I can tell you now, if anything stands between us, it's not going to be my questioning how you do your job, I can promise you that. Now, get out of here. I need a shower, then I want to get up to the bridge and see my family."

"You sure you don't want company? I mean, with all the recent violence…" he said with a grin.

"Get out of here."

She locked the door behind him, and for the first time in a long while, she felt the peace of mind that the Jedi Master in her vision had talked about.

"So let me get this straight," Mykl Renshir was saying. The Rangers were all gathered around tables in their restaurant again, this time joined by Mykl and Han Renshir, Lacton Ames, and Tevis Parthen. "You're a Jedi…"

"Sort of," his daughter's friend Neme interjected.

"You have your own starfighter…"

"That one's definite," Kylan said.

"And you're working to rescue captive refugees. Did I get it all?"

"Dad, I know you're probably curious…"

"You forgot working for Luke Skywalker and setting up secret bases around the galaxy, Dad," Janella's little brother, Han, had been spending time with Kylan on their trip from Cardanos to Ter Sephino.

"Look, guys, I didn't choose to do these things, but I can't turn away from them, either. It's what I do now."

"Glad you feel that way, Ms. Renshir," Zane Thader said, walking up to their table. "Glad to hear that, because I want to offer you a spot on my team."

Silence answered him for several long moments.

"A job with the Rangers?" Jan asked.

"Yeah. You're good in a fight, you have connections that might help us. I'm talking about your whole team, mind you. You, Neme, and Kylan."

"What about me?" Han asked. "I'm pretty good with a system terminal, ya know?"

Thader considered for a moment. "I don't know, kid. I have a slicer already. I guess I might be able to toss some work your way, but that would mean relocating here."

"Like there's anywhere else to go. I'm from Coruscant, remember?"

Jan had been looking to Neme and Kylan. She checked each of them through the Force and turned back to Thader.

"Is it possible we can have a few minutes to discuss this?"

Thader nodded and took Ames and Parthen over to the bar.

"What do you think, Neme?"

Neme sighed. "I don't know, Jan. I don't know how the refugee situation is going, but I lost close to half my fleet when we left Kamparas, so I'm not sure I would be much help with that. I would like to get home again, though."

"I tried to check in with Master Skywalker when we got back here, but he's off on some secret errand. The last mission order he gave me was to proceed as I saw fit, so whatever you two decide, I'm with you."

"Well, my thought is this: We have our own ships that will always be there. If we take the job, we can do some good with these guys, and if we need to do something on our own, we won't be tied down."

Neme nodded.

"What about us?" Jan's father asked.

"I don't know, dad. I guess you'd be safe here, but then again, if the Rangers get tracked, then a storm would come down right here."

"I don't think there is such a thing as a safe place anymore. I mean, Coruscant's gone, and this place could become a target at any time. I can only speak for myself, but I'd have to say Cardanos is off my vacation list. I don't know, Jan."

Janella sat back and thought for a moment, but as had been the case in the past, it was Neme that came up with a plan.

"Why don't we see if Mr. Thader would agree to offer us a little signing bonus."

The confusion on her friends' faces made her smile even more.

"Let me see if I understand you correctly. After we've risked our necks to knock out a prison, you want us to take back an entire planet? You must think more highly of us than we do."

"Come on, Zane," Jan said. "When we left there was one Vong cruiser in orbit, but there were no more refugees on the ground. I'm not sure they would have hung around."

"What other planets have the Vong ignored?" Kahne said. "I mean, it's not like they're just passing through. I think they've made that much clear."

Jan huffed out an exasperated breath.

"Fine. If you want proof, I'll take the Shadow and run a recon of Kamparas. If it's too hot, we'll skip it and we'll still come to work for you. But if it's even a remote possibility…"

"You want to take a lightly armed snubfighter into enemy territory and possibly a shipyard for all we know, just to see who's in the neighborhood?" Kahne sounded incredulous.

Jan thought for a moment.

"Yeah, that's pretty much the plan."

The gathered Rangers debated loudly for a few minutes. Thader didn't say anything, but rather watched Janella's face like a sabacc player trying to see if an opponent was bluffing.

"Ok," he said softly. "Ok," he said more loudly, cutting off all other discussion. "We'll try the recon run. Kahne, you'll take the Odds and follow Renshir. Wait at the outer edge of the system and let her do the run, but you're there to back her up. I'll decide on anything further after I see that recon data."

The Rangers looked to each other for moment, then started plotting the routes needed for the recon. They might not have agreed that it was a good idea, but when the boss said jump, they just plotted the course.

Davin stood up and walked with Jan out of the room and into his office. As executive officer, Kahne rated quarters with a separate office that connected directly to the conference room.

"Jan, what's the point of going back to Kamparas? We have plenty of room here for everyone."

"I know, Dav, but Kamparas is home. You know how that is. I'm from Coruscant, and if I thought we could do it, I'd push to retake that."

"But this is leaving us, both of us, open to losing each other. I just don't know if the risk is worth it to me."

Jan sighed. She understood the argument, but Kamparas was important to her, for reasons Kahne knew, and several he didn't.

"I won't let Kamparas fall again," she mumbled, almost to herself.

"What was that?"

"Nothing," she said.

"Ok. We'll do it your way, Jan. Come on, I've got some repairs to make on the Odds before we go, and you can hand me some tools," Kahne said with a smile.

Janella and Davin had been working for about an hour, trying to correct some minor electrical problems the Even Odds had developed after the Cardanos raid. They were also rigging a towing hook-up for the Shadow. They had decided to tow the Shadow so Janella didn't have to spend several days in the cockpit of the fighter. The fact that this allowed several days for Jan and Davin to be alone aboard the Odds wasn't mentioned, but Janella swore she'd get even with Neme after the sly grin the latter had shot at the former.

Neme walked up the ramp into the ship, bringing some lunch to the pair. She strolled into the ring corridor and started to the left, toward the front of the ship. She could hear the normal clanks and bangs that she had come to associate with Janella working on a ship.

"Hey, guys, I've got some food for you here," Neme called up into the port mandible of the ship. The space was already tight, and with two people making repairs, Neme wasn't about to try and squeeze in there.

She heard a muffled sound from inside the crawlspace.

"I don't know if that was Jan or Davin, but either way, I still can't translate gibberish."

Neme saw a pair of feet emerge, though she wasn't sure who they belonged to. It wasn't until she saw Jan's work pants that she knew her friend was coming out first. Once Janella was clear, Davin slid out and grabbed a towel from his belt, wiping the grime from his hands.

"Alissa sent these sandwiches down for you two, since you didn't care to come for lunch."

"Tell her we said thanks," Kahne said. "She's always trying to look out for us like this," he said to Jan.

"I'll leave you two to your lunch and…whatever," Neme said with a grin directed at Janella.

Jan sputtered around a mouthful of sandwich, but wasn't able to say anything as Neme left.

"You ok?" Davin asked.

Janella took a drink from the glass beside her.

"Fine, something just went down wrong," she said when she had her mouth cleared.

"So where did you learn ship repair, anyway?" Kahne asked. "Doesn't seem like the kinda thing you'd be into."

Janella took another bite of her sandwich, thinking about the answer as she ate.

"Well, ever since I got the Shadow, I've had to learn how to work on ships because no one else would do it for me. When I started rebuilding that ship, I just found that I had a knack for it. I wouldn't say I'd want to do it for a living, but it is something I enjoy."

Kahne nodded. "Well, any way you look at, it's something you're good at. C'mon, let's finish up here so we can get your Shadow rigged and get out of here for a while"

Janella smiled as she finished her lunch.

The Even Odds slid smoothly from hyperspace, just below the plane of the Kamparas system. Janella, using a personal magcon field, exited the top hatch of the Odds and climbed aboard the Shadow. Janella took her fighter and made a sprint toward the red-hued world she had learned to call home. She didn't radio anything back to the Odds since that might have given them away, but she had three different visual scanners running as well as the normal flight recorders. She approached the planet from behind its small moon, and she drifted slowly over the moon's horizon so she wouldn't alert anyone watching for an incoming ship.

Janella received no readings of ships in orbit, Vong or otherwise. Going slowly so she didn't stumble onto anything untoward, she completed a polar orbit, then started moving from north to south. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, she slid down into the atmosphere and began to feel the buffeting of the denser air.

Taking the Shadow down and flying by to the north of Ryhn City, Jan saw a large complex with armed soldiers. She scanned this from a few miles away, making sure she kept her fighter out of visual range. With the enhanced sensors, she saw humans and various other aliens walking along as if this were a military complex, and just outside of this base she found two of the sea-shell-like buildings of the Yuuzhan Vong. Using the life-scanners of her ship, she found each occupied by three beings. Having logged all of this, she pulled away from the city and worked in a spiraling orbit out over the country side.

Jan spent the next two hours covering every inch of Kamparas, but wasn't able to locate any other Vong encampments, or even another Brigade base. She assumed the Brigade had fliers of some kind that they could move around the world, but she hadn't seen a trace of them.

Mating back up with the Odds, Janella made her way back into the freighter to discuss what she had found.

Gathered again around the Rangers' conference table, the plan began to form. The images Jan had captured were playing on two monitors in front of the tactical display. The Rangers were going over approach and angles and possible landing sites. Jan noticed that her father was talking mostly with Alissa Aimi, and the two would occasionally laugh at something the others didn't hear.

"What's going on there?" Jan whispered to Neme, sitting at her left side.

Neme smiled at her friend. "While you were gone, your dad hit it off with Alissa. They've spent a lot of time together up in the restaurant, and I think they're getting pretty close."

Jan nodded to herself. "Well, I'd rather it wasn't with a pirate…"

"Like you have room to talk," Neme cut in.

"…but as long as he's happy, I'm fine," Jan said with a glare to her friend.

"Yeah, it's good to see that you're not the only one to find romance in a war. Besides," she added with an evil smile, "you might learn to like your new step-mom."

No one looked up when Neme yelped from another kicked shin.

"I think what we need to do," Tanis was saying, "is to get a team on the ground with heavy weapons and hit the Vong sites first. We have the Odds orbit the site to cover against any reinforcements that come in from somewhere we might have missed."

Thader looked at his friend. "Sure, and if reinforcements never show up, then I miss all the fun."

"I have an idea that you might want to think about," Mykl Renshir said.

"Go ahead, Mykl," Thader said. "We're not too proud to steal someone else's good idea."

"You may want to try grabbing one of the Brigade higher-ups. I would, just to see if they, or the Vong, have to check in on any sort of schedule. It wouldn't do much good to get rid of the base only to have a Vong force show up looking for their lost cubs."

Thader nodded, then threw a wadded up flimsi-sheet at Tanis.

"You're supposed to be my ground-pounder expert. Why didn't you think of that?"

"Gettin' old, I guess," Tanis answered as he snatched the flimsi out of the air before it could hit him.

"All right, so who wants to be on the snatch-team?" Thader asked his crew.

No one immediately volunteered. Kylan stood up and looked around.

"I'll go. I can stay undetected a little better, and might be able to get any information we need from a…less than willing…captive."

"If Ky's going, then I'm in," Neme said. "Can't let the boy get out of sight. Gets into too much trouble, ya know?"

"I think Jan and I should round out the early team," Kahne said. "I'll know what to look for as far as targets go, and Jan will give a second pair of hands to pilot the Even Odds."

"What makes you think I'm going to let you run off in my ship again?" Thader said.

"Because you're wise beyond your years, sir," everyone laughed at Kahne's comment. "The Odds is the only ship we have designed for this job. She's stealthy and has all of the comm gear to keep in touch back here."

"Well, if you take the Odds, how am I supposed to get to Kamparas?"

"Walk?" Tanis suggested. "Or ride with Aimi."

"I think I'd rather walk," Thader said with a mock-shudder.

"Hey! I'm sitting right here," Aimi said. "Can't you at least wait until I'm out of the room to talk about me?"

"Sorry, my fault," Thader said.

"I think you should take my ship," Neme said. "You can carry Ames, Parthen, a few of my crew, and anyone else you think can safely handle a blaster. We could use the extra hands if there are prisoners to keep under control. Besides, Endeavor's the only ship equipped to bring the Shadow in."

"Ok, ok, you've all defeated me with logic. With all the valid points, how could I not sign off on the plan?"

Everyone went back to planning the main operation after that. It was decided that the advance team would take up position in Ryhn City, using the empty warehouse next to the Llows office as a hanger for the Odds. The warehouse was big enough to store the StarFlair and Endeavor when the rest of the Rangers and other volunteers arrived, too.

After the planning session, Neme and Thader took the Endeavor up so Neme could show him the finer points of handling the ship. Jan took the opportunity to bring the Shadow up into the belly landing bay and get it locked down for the trip. The rest of the Rangers were busy getting their gear sorted and ready for another mission while Kylan and Ames went to the refugees rescued from Cardanos and asked for volunteers. Including Ames and the two operatives that had been with him on Cardanos, they collected eighteen able-bodied men and women to help fill out the security team.

The Odds lifted off from Ter Sephino two weeks after it had returned from Cardanos, and the liberation of Kamparas was under way.

Neme and Davin watched wordlessly as Janella and Kylan faced off against one another. Jan held her green lightsabre in a high-guard position, with her hands just below her right shoulder, left arm across her chest. Kylan was in a more open stance, with the tip of his blue blade pointed down and left, the pommel near his belt buckle. The two circled, each waiting for the other to make the first move.

"Are you guys sure you want to do this?" Neme asked. She and Kahne were sitting on cargo containers that had been shoved to the sides of the Even Odds' cargo hold. The Odds was hurtling through hyperspace en route to Kamparas.

Jan struck fast, as slash aimed at cleaving Karris from left shoulder to right hip. Kylan's blade crossed hers about head height in a parry that left her midsection open to his backhanded sweep. Jan leapt back, the cut missing her stomach by half a meter. The two regained their balance and resumed their guard positions.

"If we don't practice, we lose our edge," Ky said, finally answering Neme.

"And it gives you two something to watch," Jan added. "C'mon, Nem, I don't get to do this often. The other Jedi would hold back, worried that I can't handle it. Ky here has seen me in action, and he throws everything he has at me."

As if to prove her point, Kylan made his next move. Feinting an overhand chop, he dropped on one leg and, pivoting, clipped Jan's ankle, sweeping her legs out from under her. Using her height advantage, Janella caught Kylan by surprise with a side kick to the sternum as he completed his turn, sending him sailing across the deck. His sabre, still tightly gripped in his hand, scored a meter-long gash in the deck plating.

"Hey! Thader will take that out of my paycheck," Kahne said, seeing the damage.

Between slash and thrust, parry and riposte, Jan and Ky were discussing the Jedi's place in the ongoing war against the Yuuzhan Vong.

"The Jedi are defenders," Kylan said, "not foot soldiers, but circumstances are dictating our actions."

"Jedi were generals in the past," Jan said, swinging a shot at his left that was easily deflected, "and they had disciplines with no use other than combat. That still doesn't justify an all-out, full blown offensive, even against the Vong. That would lead the galaxy as a whole down a dark path."

"Fine," Kylan parried another shot at his right side, locking her blade with his. "What about this mission we're on right now? How is this not an offensive move?"

"Simple. It's like you said before, I'm not a Jedi. I'm in this for the personal gain of getting my home back. You're coming with us to help gather intelligence. Anything after that, you'll have to decide how much of a hand you want to have in that." Jan punctuated her statement with a sweep she knew Kylan would stop. She twisted her wrists and sent his blade flying. Luckily, his sabre had a kill-switch that disabled the blade as soon as it left his hand, sparing the deck any more damage when it clattered to the floor.

Jan shut down her blade.

"Don't worry, Kylan. I know Master Skywalker has been going through all of this recently with Kyp Durron. I know the problems it caused, and I won't ask you to do anything contrary to Skywalker's philosophy. You'll just have to make the decision as to how far is too far for you, personally."

Alissa was back in the kitchen, working on making entrees for the lunch crowd.

In the middle of a war, and getting ready for another fight, here I am slinging food around, she thought wryly to herself.

Mykl Renshir came in, tying an apron around his middle.

"Need some help in here?" he asked.

"You know your way around a kitchen?" Aimi asked, somewhat surprised.

"Sure. I have four kids, ya know. If I hadn't helped in the kitchen, my wife would've killed me."

"Alright," Alissa said, "Come over here and man the stove. We don't use anything but good old-fashioned heat-cooking here. Makes for a more 'at home' flavor to the food."

Mykl dropped some tubers into a stock pot that was boiling with a sweet-smelling stew. He dropped some other vegetables in as well, adding to the aromas in the kitchen.

"So how long have you been married?" Alissa asked. "I don't remember you mentioning that before."

Mykl laughed at the concern in her voice.

"I'm not married now, don't worry. I was widowed about six years ago."

"I'm sorry, Mykl. I shouldn't have asked. I was just thinking…"

Mykl laid a hand on her shoulder.

"You were thinking about us, right? Don't worry, Alissa. I've started to really enjoy our time together, but that time has been short. I don't expect we know all that much about each other yet. I hope we'll get the chance to learn more," he said, blushing slightly.

"I'm willing to try if you are, and if you're anything like your daughter, I think I don't have to worry. You raised a good kid there."

"Yeah, I was surprised she came to you guys to get me out of Cardanos. I was surprised she knew I was there at all. I take it you got to know her during the planning sessions?" he asked. The answer gave him yet another shock about his daughter.

"That, and when she tried to kill me a few years back."

It was Alissa's turn to laugh at the look on Mykl's face. She told the story of what happened aboard the Llowly Scrapper and how Jan had stopped short of hurting Aimi.

"I guess it was something Jedi can do, knowing who presents a threat, but I'd have to think she was brought up right to have the kind of mindset that would make her step in front a blaster for her friends in the first place."

Mykl nodded. "I'm glad you told me that. Not that you almost got killed. Or that she did, come to think of it. It's just good to know something more about both of you."

At that point, Ames, Parthen, and Han Renshir came into the kitchen.

"Mykl, we've been looking for you," Ames said.

"What's up, Lacton? Anything wrong?"

"No, nothing like that. Thader is putting together a group of troops from the Cardanos refugees. The group needs a leader, and we want to make you an offer."

Kylan and Neme were sitting in Neme's office at the Llows' Shipping building. They had been on-world for a few days, and had converted the building into a makeshift home. Kylan had been spending a few hours a day questioning a member of the Peace Brigade they had captured in a local café in Ryhn City. Kylan came in exhausted after each of these sessions.

"I don't know, Nem. I don't really feel like I'm doing anything wrong, but is that the same thing as it being right, or even ok?"

Neme sighed. "I can't tell you that, Ky. It's like the deal Jan went through after the Tatooine mission. Sometimes things aren't going to be clear cut. You're not hurting the guy, are you?"

"Of course not," he replied indignantly. "Davin asks him questions, I try and tell if he's lying, doesn't know, or whatever. I just feel like I'm invading his mind somehow."

"Well, you're not actually trying to read his thoughts, right? Just catching emotions, right?"

"Yeah, that's about it."

"Then I think what you're feeling is simply a little bit of guilt, not some twinge in the Force. But I can tell you, I don't think you're doing anything wrong, if that helps you at all."

"It does help. With all that I've done since I started training as a Jedi, I've never done something like this. I guess it's just not the way I was raised."

"I understand, sweetheart, but times are different everywhere, aren't they? We'll get through this. Together, of course," she added.

Kahne knocked and stuck his head in the door. Janella walked in around him.

"The others on dropping in, so I'm going to go show them in." Davin said.

Janella flopped into an empty chair and propped her feet up on the low table in front of the sofa.

"So what're we doin', guys?"

"We were thinking about watching a holovid, actually," Neme answered with a grin. "Not like there's anything exciting going on."

The Llows' Endeavor settled into the hanger behind the StarFlair as Thader powered the engines down. He led the Rangers out of the hanger after getting the "all clear" signal from Kahne inside the Llows building.

Davin pointed to the lobby for the Cardanos Irregulars, as they had taken to calling themselves, and the Selonian Rangers took a turbolift to the second floor offices. It had been decided that the Rangers would act as the officers of the combined group while the Irregulars would be the troops. As such, each of the Rangers was given one of the Llows offices as a private room.

Thader and Kahne continued on to the third floor and into the office of Neme Llows. There, Thader found Jan, Neme, and Kylan sitting around, watching the holonet updates on the progress of the war. Each of them had a drink and they looked as if they were watching a holodrama on vacation.

"Glad to see you're all working so hard," he said, turning to Kahne.

"Hey, what do you want, boss? We got here half a week ago, got our job done, and then we had to wait for you old folks to get here."

"Funny. You say you've gotten the job done, so where's our fount of Brigade information?"

"He's locked up in one of the first-floor storage rooms. We made him comfortable, and we put a lock on the outside of the door. By the way, neither the Vong nor the Brigade are in contact with their bosses. From the way this guy talked, it looks like they're all just a caretaker team until the war is over, then the Vong will be back to pick up the pieces."

"Good. That makes things easier. I'll get everyone together shortly, but what about any support we didn't know about?"

Kahne looked at Kylan, who had been helping with the questioning.

"It looks like they have some combat airspeeders or cloud cars somewhere to the south, but he didn't know where. There's a pretty good chance you'll get to go mynock hunting."

Thader smiled at the military slang. "Mynock hunting" was a term used by fighter pilots when they were engaging small, lightly armed and armored craft like airspeeders.

"Ok, then. Neme, is there a conference room around this place?"

"Second floor. We've already set up monitors and such for a war room."

"Good, good. XO, give the team an hour to get settled in, then we get to work."

Thader left to go find a room of his own while Kahne settled back in next to Janella.

"Is he always that cheerful?" Neme asked.

"Nah, sometimes he's downright grumpy," Davin said, and they all laughed.

Janella, though she laughed with the others, was fighting turmoil within herself. Kylan didn't seem to be feeling the same thing, so she didn't think it was a feeling through the Force. She wondered if Cas Istyn's memories of combat above Kamparas were coming to her now. She wasn't sure why that wouldn't have happened when they rescued the refugees a few months earlier, but the feeling wouldn't go away.

The recon of the area the Peace Brigade had commandeered didn't reveal any secret hangers or landing pads that would have housed combat aircraft, but that probably meant they were just hiding somewhere else. Kin-Wah Rae took his newly-repaired speeder bike out and ran a circle about half a kilometer outside of the Brigade base, but there was no reaction from inside the encampment.

Thader gathered everyone around the big table in the conference room for one last think-session. All seven of the Selonian Rangers were there, along with Kylan, Janella, and Neme. Ames, Parthen, and Mykl Renshir were there also, representing the Irregulars. Much to Jan's chagrin, her father had decided his place was along side the friends he had made during his weeks on Cardanos. That group had appointed him as their de-facto leader, figuring that Ames would be going back to his old job after this adventure was over.

"Ok, I'm gonna let Kahne go over everything here, so we can make sure everyone's on the same screen. Go ahead, XO."

Kahne stood up and walked over to the overhead tactical view pinned to the wall.

"Zane and Seta will be circling to give us protection against any unwanted guests, so that gets them out of the way of us real fighters." There were a few chuckles around the table as Kahne continued.

"Ames, you'll take Alissa and the Cardanos Irregulars around here, from the west. The same rule applies as Cardanos; Aimi sets the charges, knocks down the fence, you go in. Alissa, the signal to hit the wall will be a green flare. That'll come from Tanis.

"Danyl is leading our team, meaning him, me, and Shorty, coming in from the east. We want to scrag the Vong before we move on the Brigade for two reasons: first, it means the Vong won't be able to reinforce the Brigade, leaving us to deal with all of them at once, and second, it means we can hit from the east at the same time you guys hit from the west. Surprise, shock, and confusion will keep the Brigade off balance.

"Janella, you'll be coming with us to hit the Vong. Hopefully you can give us an edge in that fight. Kylan, you and Neme with be going with the Cardanos group, as will Rae. Kin, you'll be running the perimeter with your speederbike, keeping everyone up to speed, but I want you primarily with the Cardanos team."

"Is Ky ok with that, Nem?" Jan whispered to her friend.

"Yeah," Neme answered. "He decided that acting as a guard falls into his job description."

"I'm glad he found something he's comfortable with, because I don't think we could pull this off without him."

"All right, last note. The Cardanos Irregulars will be using the call-sign Bravo. The Rangers will use Alpha. This will help keep us straight. Any questions?"

There were a few questions on procedures to handle things like Brigade members that surrendered, but the details had been worked out in exquisite detail, right down to what members of the Cardanos team were shooters, and which were "arresting officers," as it were.

"That's it, then. Let's get moving and may the Force be with us all." Thader stood and walked through the door with nothing further to say.

Neme and Kylan flanked Ames and Renshir, approaching the west wall of the Brigade base. Alissa was in the pocket the others had formed, carrying her satchel of explosives. The night was dark since there was no moon in the sky tonight, and every pair of eyes keeping watch was helpful. They had found a seam in the duracrete perimeter that Aimi declared perfect for setting charges. They could hear the whine of Rae's speeder bike rising and fading as he made repeated passes to the north of the Irregulars' formation.

Alissa had placed the last of the remote-fired detonators and judged that everything was ready. The group retreated back to the cluster of armed men and women that were waiting the signal to begin the attack.

Tanis and Janella had point, leading the soldiers into the southern-most of the Vong shell-buildings. They walked in and started to wind their way into the structure. The interior was sectioned in smaller chambers with openings leading from one to the next. Tanis would go into a room with Jan coming right behind him, lightsabre in had but not ignited. They made it to a small chamber after half a dozen larger empty rooms.

"Empty. They must be in the other one," Tanis said softly.

"They are," Jan said. "I can sense all six of them in there, and they don't seem all that alert." After she said this, something felt wrong. It wasn't a Force impression, but something just didn't seem right about the situation her, she just couldn't put her finger on it at the moment. They went back out to find most of the other Rangers in the first room. Kahne was outside keeping watch, so Tanis had Shorty set three small charges in each room, working their way back out to the fresh air.

Tanis briefed Kahne on the situation. Kahne nodded and gathered the team around him.

"I'm going to signal Bravo to start their attack. If all the Vong are in the other hut here, we can take it, and them, pretty fast and get a move on into the base."

Shorty pulled out a custom bolt for his bowcaster and fired it straight over the base on their left. The night lit up with a green flash. The flash was followed by a loud concussive blast as Aimi set off her charges.

"Let's get to work in here. We can't let those guys have all the fun, can we?"

The green light erupted overhead, and Aimi didn't hesitate to hit the trigger-button she carried. The west wall collapsed into a rubble pile, and Renshir waved the Irregulars forward. Neme and Kylan again ran beside Mykl and Alissa and the four were first over the gravel that used to be a wall.

There were no Brigade foot troops in sight, and no lights on in any of the buildings. This wasn't surprising, considering the time of night, but they would have thought there'd at least be lights in one building, a control center or something.

"I don't like this," Kylan said. "Something doesn't feel right here."

"Team one, take left, two, you guys have the right. See what's going on here," Mykl Renshir had taken to giving orders like he'd been doing it all his life.

"NO!" Kylan yelled. He had a hand pressed to his head like he was suffering a headache. "Everyone out, right now! Get as far away as you can." He grabbed Neme by the arm and sprinted away, back over the wall, with Alissa, Mykl, and all of the Cardanos Irregulars right behind him. They managed to get down behind the same rise they had been hiding behind just minutes before.

The explosion that washed over them a few moments later came as a shock to everyone except Kylan.

Jan was again following Tanis, and they had only made it into the second room when they found all six of the Vong hanging out. They all looked roughly human, these individuals no taller than Tanis. Their faces bore some markings, but lacked the disfigurement that had become a common-place sight across the galaxy.

It took them a few seconds to realize what was wrong. The "Vong" were gathered around a holoset, watching a rerun of last year's Corellian swoop races.

At the same time the "Vong" reached for blasters they had hidden, Jan had her sabre lit and had one of them cut down. Tanis had two shot and down by the time Shorty came in, bowcaster blazing. One of the Brigade actors got a single shot off, right into the ceiling, before they were all down and out. The permacrete falling from the blast-point in the ceiling showed that the buildings didn't belong to the Vong, either.

Just as they were about to leave, one of the Brigade groaned and rolled over. Jan turned just in time to see him grasp a small remote and press the button.

"Go ahead," he gasped, "kill me. As soon as I let go of this, the whole place is gone." He laughed as he lay his head back, holding the dead-man's switch.

"Get out of here!" Janella called, out loud to the Rangers with her, and through the Force to Kylan. To the mental scream, she added an image of the base erupting in fire.

The Rangers and Janella had made it about fifty meters back to the east when the whole base erupted. The fire roared, and Janella actually caught a glimpse of the Even Odds, circling over the base. Her comm headset burst into static as Thader tried to find out what had happened. At the same time, Janella heard the whine of four T-47 airspeeders racing up toward the Odds. She looked up to see one of the speeders taken out by Seta in his Interceptor.

Thader keyed over to the channel he shared with Seta.

"Seta, take these guys down. I just picked up one hell of a big transmitter powering up to the north. I think someone is about to yell for help."

"Gotcha, boss. Consider these mynocks clipped."

Thader threw his ship hard to port, banking and throttling up. There, on a hillside, was a large rectennae being unfolded. There were power-up traces, but so far, no sign of any broadcast signal.

Dropping his aiming reticule over the dish, he let his aim drift down toward the base of the post and fired off four proton torpedoes in rapid succession. Before he could count to five, the hill erupted and was quickly engulfed in fire.

"Rae, this is Thader. Break out your gear and scan the area. Make sure there're no other transmitters anywhere else. If you find anything, let me know." He switched channels and called out again. "Kahne, Thader. What's the status on the ground?"

"Alpha team is good, boss. We're trying to move around to the south and join up with Bravo to see what their situation is."

Another voice came on the line.

"Mykl Renshir, here," he said. "Bravo is intact. Karris got us moving, so we were clear of the blast. Aimi hit her head when we went over the berm, so she's a little dazed, but no other casualties."

"Copy, Bravo. Move out south and east to hook up with Alpha." A flash outside the viewport caught Thader's attention. He glanced at his scanner and showed no red. "Seta's gotten rid of the -47s, so you should all be clear. Rendezvous back at the Llows building."

He got confirmations all around, then continued to circle, covering the retreat of the Rangers and the Irregulars.

Two days later, after conducting a thorough search of the planet, the team gathered just outside the Llows hanger. The Irregulars were lounging, still a little upset that they hadn't seen any action, but Jan could feel the relief washing off of them, also. Thader came out of the main building with Davin and Mykl walking with him, going over something on a datapad. He stopped in front of the gathered troops.

"Thank you all for staying here for the last few days. I know it hasn't been much fun, but I think we've managed to clear the planet of any remaining Brigade presence. You're elected leader, Mykl Renshir, and I have gone over the information and we've decided Kamparas is as safe as any place in the galaxy at this point. The Vong have been here and left again, so they obviously don't find it to be suitable, or they don't want to spend the resources to make it what they want.

"Janella Renshir is going to stay here, forming the Kamparas Irregulars. We've agreed that the new Irregulars will be a second unit of my Rangers, but will operate separately. Any of you that want to remain are welcome to, and anyone that wants to head back to Ter Sephino, we're going to head out tomorrow.

"Davin Kahne will also be staying here, to act as an interface between the Rangers and the Irregulars. Mykl Renshir will be taking his place as my executive officer. We think these arrangements will help us hit the Brigade, the Vong, and anyone else who thinks the way they do.

"Since this isn't an actual military unit, I don't have any medals to give out, but I want you all to know I'd be proud to stand on the line with any of you. I don't know how this war is going to end, and I don't know if anyone will write about this in a history text, but I'm keeping a log of everything that we've done, and hopefully someone, someday, will care.

"Ok, that's enough speeches. Get in this hanger, you heathens! We've got ale, we've got food, and we're going to celebrate the liberation of Kamparas like they'd wished they celebrated on Coruscant when Palpatine fell!"

The crowd erupted in cheers and followed Thader into the hanger.

Neme, Jan, Kylan, and Davin were sitting off to one side, watching everyone celebrate. Jan was focused mostly on her father and Alissa, but everyone seemed to be having fun.

"Well, Jan, see all the trouble you got us into," Neme said. "You're lucky I was here to save you."

Jan laughed. "I seem to recall someone that looks an awful lot like you saying something about getting a 'signing bonus'. If it wasn't for that, we would have been out of this fight weeks ago."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

"She does have a point, babe," Kylan said. "This was your idea."

"You sure you want to take sides against me, sword-boy?"

Kylan shook his head and took a drink of his lomin-ale, wisely keeping his mouth shut.

"What about you, Dav?" Neme asked. "Aren't you going to miss being on Ter Sephino with your crew?"

"Nah," he answered, "I've got enough to do here," he smiled as he took Janella's hand. "As a matter of fact, I'm going to steal her from you for a little while."

"Sure, the party gets started and you guys skip out, see if I care," Neme gave a fake pout.

"Don't worry, Nem, I'll keep you company," Ky said, then gave her a kiss.

"As long as you don't think that makes up for agreeing with Jan over me," Jan heard Neme say as she and Kahne walked away.

"Jan, I want you to know, I've never felt like this for anyone. You know you're the reason I decided to stay here, right?"

Janella nodded, not trusting herself to speak. She felt a great sense of security here, with Davin, on this world that had seen so much bloodshed. She knew, through the Force, that Kamparas wouldn't become a battleground again in her lifetime. She may have battles ahead in her life, but they wouldn't be here. Cas Istyn's spirit was finally at peace.

"I want to be with you forever, Janella, and I want it to be official."

She looked at him, looking into his eyes and seeing the love she felt reflected there.

"I want you to marry me," he said softly.

Janella felt the tears stream down her face as she nodded.

"Yes," she whispered.

Kahne pulled her into a tight embrace, squeezing her, holding her. She hugged him back, never wanting this moment to end.

"You want get out of here and elope somewhere?" he asked jokingly.

"I can't," she said softly. "Neme made me promise to invite her."

END