Disclaimer: I don't own the Star Wars theme that pleasure belongs to George Lucas; I only own Justin Tera and some of the other original characters and places Justin visits in his mission.

Chapter 2:

As the first rays of sunlight peeked over the horizon, casting their orange glow on the crumbling tower of an ancient outpost, Justin Tera sat on a small ledge in the surviving base of the old outpost that he had climbed up to the night before. Justin felt the sun's warmth as he slowly awoke from the light Jedi trance that he had been in; he used this trance often when he was staking out a location as it allowed him to remain alert to his surroundings while still getting enough rest to compensate for the fact that he was not sleeping completely.

As the veteran Jedi Knight roused from the trance he pulled out his micro-binoculars and scanned the pirate fortress across the flat surface of the Bronze Desert again. He search revealed that nothing had changed that he could visibly see from where he was, still Justin settled in for to watch the activity around the fortress for the day, to be sure he was familiar with the sounds and sights of the area before he tried to sneak in later tonight.

While he watched the fortress Justin tried to reach find the Force presences of the two Jedi apprentices that he was looking for, he knew that they would be kept in an even more secure area than the Senators' children that had been captured as well; especially the older of the two, Nalden, who had an amazing control of the Force and was one of the most promising students in art of lightsaber combat to enter the Academy in many years.

However, if either apprentice were in the fortress Justin couldn't detect them, which was most likely due to the fact that they were so far away from where Justin was and that Justin had never been that successful at detecting the passive Force presences of others unless they were actively using the Force at that time which the pirates would have obviously not allowed if they had any sense.

With the progression of the day the Belance's sun slowly crawled across the sky, its harsh rays spreading heat that gave the sands of the surrounding desert a shimmering, copper effect that must have given the Bronze Desert its name.

Eventually Justin climbed down from the ledge he'd been sitting on to retrieve a jug of water and some food. He slug the water over his shoulder and stuffed a few ration bars in his belt after opening another and placing it in his mouth, thus suitably ready to face the rest of a day watching under a desert sun Justin climbed back up to ledge where he'd been before and got settled for the rest of the day.

In between scanning the pirate fortress and keeping his body fueled Justin also fiddled with the only possession he had that made as a Jedi that had not been mediocre, his lightsaber.

The lightsaber was the same one he had built as a Padawan so many years ago and because it had worked on his first try many of his teachers had believed him to be destined to be a great Jedi at the time. They had turned out to be wrong so far, but his lightsaber was still one of the most beautiful ever to be built by a Padawan; some of the most revered Jedi Masters still could not construct a lightsaber that equaled Justin's in craftsmanship and uniqueness of design.

In fact if Justin hadn't been so adamant about helping in the Clone Wars and going off on adventures, he could be back in the Jedi Temple, teaching apprentices and Masters alike how to construct their lightsabers using some of the fantastic design ideas that he had used in his own lightsaber.

Justin glanced down at his lightsaber as he unclipped it from his worn belt; the cylinder hilt of the lightsaber was slightly distorted with a grip to allow it to fit comfortably in his hand, while the grip itself was layer with a rubber synthetic to keep his grip firm in combat. Along the end of the hilt to the lens cap at the end of the lightsaber the rest of the lightsaber was polished silver with gold inlaid along the edges and around the edge of the grip. The activator was set an inch above where his thumb would normally rest and would only deactivate if he pushed the rounded black button three times in rapid succession. Set at a diagonal angle from the activator rested a red dial that would alter the positioning of the crystals inside his lightsaber, allowing Justin to adjust the properties of his blade with a flick of his thumb.

After you looked past the beautifully crafted hilt you could see that the inner workings of the lightsaber were just as innovative and radical as the non-traditional exterior designs that Justin had used. Inside his lightsaber Justin had taken the traditional design for the dual-phase lightsaber and adjusted it to an entirely new level, to the point where it was more of a tri-phase lightsaber. Justin had set three focusing crystals in a triangle in the center of his lightsaber and by moving the red altering dial Justin could change his lightsaber from three different types of blades. The first blade setting was the standard one meter blade that most Jedi employed, this was the setting that Justin normally had his lightsaber set to and after some modifications his lightsaber would automatically go back to this setting when he deactivated it; when he activated his lightsaber at this setting it would give his lightsaber a silver color. The second setting for his blade increased the length to one and a half meters changing the blade to a deep blue color, giving Justin an excellent blade with which he could block blaster fire and cover others who were with him in combat. Finally the third blade was a orange-red color that was the normal meter in length only it power output was twice that of a normal lightsaber and would release a discharge of energy as a result of any contact making the blade excellent for fighting in hand-to-hand combat, especially against other lightsaber opponents; the only drawback was that the blade drained the lightsaber's batteries much faster than the other two settings, which meant that Justin had to save the use of this blade setting to tip the scales in a fight in his favor at the last moment.

Justin looked at his lightsaber and smiled as he remembered the first time he'd activated it when he had finally finished constructing it, long after his fellow apprentices had tried one or two of their own lightsaber designs and failed. Since that first time that he had seen his lightsaber's silver blade humming before his face he'd seen dozens of planets as he'd mediated disputes and investigated crimes across the galaxy, bringing the light of truth and justice to every dark corner of the Republic.

Now he was ready to bring the same light to the pirates and kidnapped children in the fortress he was watching now.

Justin's eyes caught some motion near the gate in the fortress' wall and hurriedly clipped his lightsaber to his belt while bring his micro-binoculars to his eyes.

The heavy black ore gates in the fortress swung open to permit the entrance of a group of swoop bikes that were approaching from the direction of Newn-Cape to the south. As the swoops approached Justin saw the anti-personal turrets rotate slowly to follow them until they had passed through the gates, then the turrets covered the flat desert sands around the gate as the pitted and scarred doors had closed again.

Justin leaned back against the cracked wall behind him and scratched one side of his face as he thought to himself, That must have been a raiding party. Justin pulled his comlink from his belt and dialed the frequency that would let him communicate directly with R2-C1, "R2-C1 what is your status?"

Blocky text scrolled across the comlink's screen as the astromech droid answered, "Status optimal Jedi Tera, several young humanoids have come trying to look at the ship, but a warning was all that was required to drive them away."

Justin frowned, "Has there been any attack on Newn-Cape within the time I left to now?"

R2-C1's answer was quick, "Negative."

Justin's eyebrows drew down as he concentrated, "R2-C1 have you been using the Secret's sensors to monitor any traffic in Newn-Cape?"

The astromech droid responded quickly, "Not currently Jedi Tera, however, I have them set to record their data for future review, please stand by while I check past records…" After several moments of silence a faint ping emitted from the comlink before more text appeared, "Jedi Tera after searching the ship's records I have found that a group of nine contacts similar in profile to one passenger speeder bikes approached the edge of Newn-Cape and were met by a private speeder that came from Mayor Gerance's estate. The speeder bikes and the Mayor's speeder remained in close proximity for approximately 27.14 minutes before the speeder bikes departed heading north until they left sensor range and Mayor Gerance's speeder returned to the Mayor's estate. Is that sufficient Jedi Tera?"

Justin's frown didn't lift as he replied, "Yes, thank you R2-C1, please send the sensor maps and data that covers that time period to my personal datapad."

More text scrolled over the screen, "Understood Jedi Tera, may the Force be with you in your search."

Justin deactivated his comlink and set his datapad to receive the information from R2-C1 as he pondered what everything meant.

Why would someone from Mayor Gerance's house meet with members of the pirates that are raiding them? Could it be some type of bribe to keep them from returning? Justin frowned as the data was received by his datapad and he was able to see how the speeder and the swoop bikes had positioned themselves during the meeting. Now that's interesting, Justin zoomed his datapad's screen in on the speeder and the swoop bikes as they came into contact with each other.

Justin had been present before when two opposing groups meet to try and discuss their problems or simply negotiate treaties and the way the swoops and speeders acted was not in that manner. The speeder entered into the middle of the swoop formation and the other swoop bikes spread out to watch them as the rider of the speeder spoke to the leader of swoops. The whole meeting reminded Justin of when he'd seen undercover operatives meet with their contacts to pass on information or receive new orders. It would make sense that someone in Newn-Cape's leadership would be on the pirates' payroll, after all people were naturally drawn to power and the promise of money if they supported that power. However, it also meant that this pirate group was not your average type of pirate group, whoever was leading them was planning on staying for the long term and was planning to keep the populace here from alerting the Republic to their presence.

Justin closed down his datapad and checked the fortress again as he started to formulate a plan in his mind.

NIGHTFALL, BRONZE DESERT, BELANCE

Justin looked up at the star filled sky above his head as he folded the loose brown robe and placed it in a compartment in his speeder, as he closed the compartment and backed away from where he had hidden the speeder in a hole under part of the collapsed outpost tower; then he looked over at the to the outpost that he would be trying to enter into tonight.

Justin had traded in his Jedi robes for a light brown jumpsuit that was issued by the Jedi Council for Jedi on insertion missions; the jumpsuit had a delicate weave in it that helped to absorb and dissipate blaster fire that hit it, while it wouldn't slow his movements at all. With his new outfit the only thing he wore that identified his as a Jedi was his lightsaber that was hanging from his left side. Aside from his lightsaber Justin had decided to bring a modified blaster pistol with a laser sight that was only visible when he wore the night vision visor that went with the jumpsuit and was modified silenced at the expense of some range and stopping power.

After checking that all his equipment was ready and that his speeder was hidden safely until he returned Justin drew lightly on the Force to speed his movements and keep his movements light as he started the slow process of making his way to the gate in the fortresses wall.

The crisp desert night air nipped at Justin's face and hands while a slow breeze rolled along the surface of the desert sands, kicking up just enough dust to hide the veteran Jedi's movements. Justin chuckled silently as the walls grew closer, Well this is nice Justin, you're about to sneak inside a pirate compound looking for a group of kids, all while a pack ruthless killers and thieves wander the halls. Justin cracked a faint smile, At least the elements seem to be helping me in some way.

As Justin drew closer to the bunkers that lined the pathway leading up to the gate Justin lowered his body to the ground and slowly started crawling toward the closet bunker.

When Justin had been watching the gate earlier he had noticed that the anti-personnel cannons in the bunkers were being manned by more guards, most likely to keep a computer failure from leaving the fortress defenseless, but the guards had never exited the bunkers to return to the fortress ever during the day. This meant that either the guards lived in the bunkers or that the bunkers were connected to the fortress by some underground tunnel and since he could see no external doorway for the guards to exit by he decided to trust his judgment in the latter opinion. For that reason Justin had decided to enter the fortress through one of those bunkers, which were likely to have lighter security due to the traffic coming through them every day.

This still left the problem of being able to enter the reinforced bunkers without alerting the rest of the fortress that he had done so. Justin had decided that the only way to accomplish this was to use a stun grenade to knock out the guards and the use his lightsaber to make an entrance for himself, which he could also use to escape from the fortress when he had found the children, and secure the guards before entering the fortress itself.

Finally Justin reached the bunker's reinforced left wall, and then he noticed something he hadn't noticed before; the firing slit for the bunker had a retractable shield that had been lowered; keeping him from tossing the stun grenade into the bunker.

Justin sighed and pressed his back against the wall as he thought of ways to get around this, he discarded trying to cut into the bunker and take them by surprise, it was far to likely to draw more attention than he wanted.

As he saw it he had two remaining opinions, he could go back and try to find another way into the fortress or he could try and get the guards to open the shield so he could toss his stun grenade into the bunker without giving himself away.

Justin's lips curved in a slight smile as he remembered Master Yoda's favorite saying, "Do or do not, there is no try." In that case I will find away to get this shield open and I will not abandon those children. Without another though Justin reached out a touched the minds of the two guards inside the bunker, luckily it appeared that both were human which would make influencing their minds easier, one guard was asleep and the other was watching the sensor system for the bunker.

Justin sighed as he reached into the awake guards mind and planted the idea that he saw an unknown speeder approaching on the sensor, he felt the suggestion take hold and the guard, who was bored and looking for some excitement readily believed it.

Justin pulled the stun grenade and primed it while the guard readied his antipersonnel blaster turret and flip the switch to open the shield. With a slight groan the metal visor retracted and the guard traversed the blaster to the left where he thought he had seen the speeder, he was struggling to make it out through the flying sand when he heard a piece of metal hit the floor behind him.

The guard turned, maybe thinking that his partner had waken, when the stun grenade detonated, sending a shockwave that filled the entire bunker and knocking both guards unconscious and all without waking the sleeping guard.

Justin waited a few minutes to be sure that no one had heard the sound and was coming to investigate; when no one came he pulled his lightsaber free, switched the setting to the narrow dark blue beam, and made four quick cuts to give him a door into the bunker while the thin lightsaber blade made the cuts less noticeable. Using a slight nudge from the Force Justin pulled the concrete slab he'd cut outward so that it fell into the swirling sand that surrounded the bunker.

Justin deactivated his lightsaber, opened himself up the Force to detect any attack that could be coming, and jumped through the hole into the bunker. When he landed he quickly scanned the room before he made a few preparations before moving further into the fortress.

First he tied and gagged the two guards and placed them both in a large weapons locker, which he locked and scrambled the lock combination. Then he closed the bunker's shield to keep anyone from noticing anything out of the ordinary, then he turned to face the hole he'd cut, slowly sand from the desert was sliding in as the blowing wind swirled around the bunker. Taking a deep breath Justin focused on the concrete block and slowly lifted it off the sand and started to turn it to place it back in the hole.

Sweat appeared on Justin's forehead as he began to struggle to keep the heavy block upright, but by more stubborn will than anything he kept it upright and finally the block slid back into place, with the thin cuts barely noticeable in the bunker's dim lighting. Justin sagged slightly as he let the block rest and he used a quick Jedi relaxation technique, and then thought about anything else he needed to do before he moved into the fortress.

Finally Justin turned to the antipersonnel blaster, which was mounted on a simple tripod, to face down the tunnel that led to the rest of the fortress; after being sure that it was secure Justin locked the blaster's safety on and powered it down before heading into the fortress.

Slowly Justin moved forward into the tunnel, his eyes darting to see if there was any security system to protect it, but after a while it appeared that there was none and shortly after Justin emerged in what looked like the basement of the fortress.

Justin crouched in the shadows near the tunnel entrance and looked over the area while he felt for any sign of the missing children and Jedi apprentices through the Force. Justin wasn't really surprised when he didn't feel anything from the children, but he was expecting something from at least one of the apprentices.

What could be keeping me from feeling them through the Force? Justin tapped his chin, then a thought occurred to him, If I was the leader of a group of pirates who had abducted two Jedi apprentices I would make sure that I fitted them with a neural restraint to keep them under control and keep them from touching the Force. This worried Justin even more if this was true because only people who knew a lot about how the Jedi would know how to successfully restrain one and keep them immobilized against their will.

Justin shook his head as he made his way across the room to another door, The more I look into this thing the more it seems this is more than just a regular kidnap and ransom situation. Either someone wants these specific kids or they wanted the Jedi Council's attention. Justin smiled slightly as he reached the door, Well if it's the attention of the Jedi they wanted, they got it.

Author's Note: Well there's Chapter 2, I hope everyone likes it. I am trying to write something slightly different with this story with the Jedi character not being an all powerful person, but just someone who knows what they're doing and has a lot of experience. The next chapter should be a good one, with the introduction of some new characters, so stay tuned and of course if you can please review I would appreciate any feedback you could give me. Thanks!