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

Chapter 3:

Vale Keldan took a deep breath through the air filters of his helmet and rolled his shoulders under his breastplate of Infiltrator armor he wore. A skilled bounty hunter and a veteran of over ten years of military service with the Republic Senate's Security Force, Vale had been wandering the galaxy working for the highest bidder since he left the RSSF over a decade ago.

Encased from head to toe in matte gray armor and wielding two Corellian DH-22 Long Barreled blaster pistols in holsters on his hips and a Bounty Hunter Guild EE-3 blaster carbine hanging on a strap from his back, Vale made an imposing figure made even the more hostile by the fact that his face was hidden by a cruel helmet that resembled that of a bird-of-prey with a blood red visor that let him see through infrared vision, night vision, and limited x-ray vision. Add to all that the handful of gadgets that were installed into his wrist guards and a pack on his back full of other tools he used in his trade and Vale was ready to face anything that the galaxy threw his way.

Ever since he had been hired to work for the Pirate Leader Jern Tolba Vale had been the object of suspicion by many of the other pirates as he was not well known by many of them and his past was shrouded in mystery. Still those with suspicions were sure to keep their doubts quiet as none of them could match Vale's fighting skills, especially with his deadly pair of DH-22s.

Today Vale had been tasked to guard the low-security dungeon of the pirate fortress located in the basement of the ancient structure, where troublesome people from the nearby Newn-Cape and others who had annoyed the pirates were kept. It was also a job that was given to those who had yet to completely earn the trust of Jern Tolba; since the prisoners were in effect disposable the entire dungeon could be gassed if someone managed to stage a jailbreak.

Today had been like any other day with hours of mindless boredom that was only interrupted by the arrival of the prisoners' morning meal, but still something was telling the veteran bounty hunter that something was happening that would be anything but boring.

Vale glance down the short corridor that served as the only entrance to the dungeon at the pair of guards who were leaning against the wall watching the rest of the basement while they chatted casually. The security for this dungeon was pitiful with no security doors aside from the ones that kept the prisoners in their cells, but those doors were keyed to a single computer terminal that only needed a key card to unlock it; that key card was in a storage locker along the wall and that only had a lock because it housed the belongings of the guards who worked in the dungeon itself. To a ten year veteran of the Republic's Senate Security Force such poor security in a dungeon made Vale cringe.

Outside the front office where Vale was standing he heard the conversation of the other guards stop and one of them stepped away from his post while the other called into the office, "Hey Vale, there's something moving out here."

Vale sighed and walked out into the basement, his hands resting lightly on the grips of his blaster pistols, when he heard the guard that had moved to investigate the sound a shout then fall silent.

Vale's pistols were in his hands and aimed without any conscious though as he scanned the basement, beside him the other guard had his blaster carbine out and was quickly fanning it back and forth quickly, ruining any chance of a decent shot he might have had if a target had presented itself.

Vale rolled his eyes behind his helmet, Rookies. He reached out with his tongue and flipped the switch that controlled the setting that his visor was on and set it to infrared vision to try and find the intruder. Immediately he found the fallen form of the other guard lying on the floor about fifteen meters from him, he was still alive based on the heat signature he was giving off, so that meant the intruder most likely wasn't a wild beast but some form of intelligence trying to infiltrate the pirate fortress undetected.

Vale scanned his gaze over the rest of the basement looking for the heat signature of the intruder, but after two complete looks he didn't see anything. Frustrated Vale glanced at the remaining guard, "You move inside the front office and set up a barricade, I'm going to find the basement lighting system and turn on the lights."

The guard nodded and hurried inside the office, eager to no longer be the target of the intruder.

With the guard out of the way Vale made his way along the wall to where the circuit breaker that controlled the lights for the basement; Jern Tolba was notoriously thrifty and he kept the main lights in the basement off to save energy that could be used elsewhere.

Vale reach the breaker and slid one blaster into its holster as he pried the panel open to activate the lights when he heard the other guard's blaster fire and then a thud as something hit the floor.

The veteran bounty hunter crouched as he pulled his other pistol out again and slowly made his way back to dungeon's entrance, always keeping his pistols trained on the doorway as he moved forward.

Shadows moved inside the forward office and Vale heard something that sounded like a body being dragged across the floor. Quietly the veteran bounty hunter pressed himself close to the wall beside the doorway and took a few short breaths to ready himself and then turned, pivoting on his right foot, to bring his pistol to bare on the intruder inside the office.

Justin was surprised to find how large the pirate fortress's basement was, with the darkened crate-filled room seemingly going on forever. Finally Justin had found a lighted doorway on a far wall with a pair of guards standing on either side watching the darkened basement.

Justin stealthily made his way to a stack of crates that brought him close enough that he could give the guards and the doorway a good look.

Both guards had the rough, unkempt appearance of pirates with their equally abused blaster carbines resting in their hands with the comfort of those who used them often. Justin reached out with his Force senses to look for any other guards or hidden traps and he found one more presence inside the doorway, but what was even more interesting was that he felt numerous life presences beyond that front room. A prison complex, thought Justin as he started thinking of how to infiltrate the complex without setting off any alarms the pirates had set up inside the prison.

Quickly Justin made a plan after taking a quick look over his surroundings and pushed an empty barrel to his left that made a grating sound on the floor as it moved. As soon as he had moved the barrel Justin hurried to his right to take cover behind another stack of crates.

The sound grabbed the guards' attention and they started moving at once, with one starting into the crates where Justin was hiding and the other yelling into the front room, bringing the third guard, a brute clad in full-body armor, out into the basement.

Justin growled silently as he moved to intercept the investigating guard, the Jedi Knight slipping his silenced blaster from its holster and setting it to stun as he drew closer. In one smooth motion Justin grabbed the guard from behind and fired a single blue stun bolt into his back, but even with the speed that Justin moved the guard still yelped in surprise before he went unconscious.

Without even thinking Justin let him fall to the ground and fell down behind the unconscious figure, hoping that he could gain the element of surprise on his foes if they came for their fallen comrade.

Several minutes pasted and it appeared that, unfortunately the remaining guards were more concerned with flushing Justin out than helping their comrade as the armored figure crept off into the darkness of the basement with the movements of a trained fighter and the other moved back inside the prison's front office.

No honor among thieves, thought Justin disdainfully as he weighed following the armored figure or moving for the front office. After a few moments of waiting to see if the armored figure was trying to flush him out, which it didn't seem that he was after all, Justin moved forward to the doorway quickly and silently and jumped inside the front office.

The guard yelled in surprise and fired early, missing Justin by a wide margin. Justin return shot was much more accurate, his blue stun bolt hitting the guard full in the chest and dumping him onto the floor. Justin returned his blaster to its holster and quickly pulled the unconscious guard off to the side and secured him with a pair of stun cuffs that had fallen to the floor when he had flipped a table to try and barricade the doorway.

With that done he walked over to a simple computer terminal that seemed to control that locks for the prison complex, once Justin had found the security key card in the adjacent locker that the guards hadn't locked, and started scanning through to see if he could find any of the missing children when he felt a sudden tingling sensation at the base of his spine.

Without thinking Justin grabbed his lightsaber and spun, activating the silver blade with a snap-hiss as he blocked the blaster bolt that would have hit him square in the back.

The armored figure that had fired the bolt paused when he saw the humming lightsaber blade in his target's hand and suddenly the figure holstered his weapons and stepped into the office with his hands held out in front of him.

Justin eyed the armored guard cautiously, noticing that his gauntlets appeared to be heavily modified and probably held a number of hidden tricks, while he kept his lightsaber ready in front of him.

The armored figure must have noticed Justin's wariness, "You can relax Master Jedi, I'm not here to fight you, and in fact I think we might be here for the same reason."

Justin raised one eyebrow questioningly, "Really? I very much doubt that I have come here to work for the pirates who inhabit this fortress as you are."

The figure shook his head as he raised his hands and began pressed a series of clips on his helmet, a hiss of pressurized air proceeded the helmet as the figure pulled his helmet off his head revealing an aged face with scars and lines showing many years of hard living with close cropped dark blonde hair that was just beginning to lighten with bits of gray, "My name is Vale Keldan, I'm a bounty hunter in the service of Senator Ronet Corr of the planet Iseno, I was tasked in finding Senator Corr's youngest son, Teno Corr, who was abducted by Jern Tolba's pirate group. For the past month I have been in pursuit of this group in an attempt to infiltrate them and find more information about their motives."

Justin lowered his lightsaber, but did not deactivate it as he replied, "I am glad to meet you Vale Keldan, I am Jedi Knight Justin Tera. I have been assigned by the Jedi Council to rescue the abducted children and Jedi apprentices and keep them safe until I can return them to Courscant. Do you know where the children and the Jedi apprentices are?"

Vale placed his helmet back on his head and secured the slips before he nodded, "I know where the children are, but I'm not sure about the Jedi; though I think I know where Tolba is holding them, however," the bounty hunter pulled his pistols free again, "now that you are here I believe that the time for subtlety has past and we can finally free these children."

Justin nodded and turned back to the computer terminal starting where he had left off when Vale spoke again, "What we seek isn't here Jedi; this is a low priority prison only those that cause problems for Jern Tolba and his flunky in Newn-Cape are kept here."

Justin stopped, "Wait who is Tolba's 'flunky'?"

Vale tilted his head slightly, "The Mayor of course, Gerance used to be a rival of Tolba's for power so Tolba made him a puppet in Newn-Cape to take him out of the picture, why?"

Justin pointed to the doorway and turned back to the terminal, working with a quickened pace now, "Then Tolba may know of my presence, we need to hurry before he moves our charges out of the fortress."

Vale moved as Justin directed, but he still shook his head, "Then what are you doing?"

Justin replied over his shoulder, "I saw some weapons crates outside this door and you said only troublesome individuals were kept here, would that include the Mayor who Tolba disposed of?"

The armored man nodded, "Yes, but-" Vale stopped as what Justin had planned downed on him, "You're going to use them to help us?"

Justin nodded, "In a manner of speaking, do you have a ship here big enough to carry all of the children?"

Vale nodded, his confusion clear in his voice, "Yes, but what difference does that make?"

Without breaking his typing Justin replied, "I have a speeder outside the fortress that the prisoners here can use to get back to Newn-Cape and with the pirates' weapons here they can stage a little coup to reclaim their town from Gerance, which will…"

"Further distract Tolba," finished Vale. The bounty hunter nodded in the Jedi's direction as he succeeded in opening the lock, "Very clever Master Jedi."

With their locks released the prisoner slowly made their way out into the main corridor when Justin spoke up, "Where is the Mayor of Newn-Cape?"

An elderly man, gaunt from hard living, stepped forward and made a slight bow, "I am Master Jedi, Mayor Tersely at your service."

Justin nodded, "Very good Mayor Tersely outside here you'll find several crates of weapons that you can use and if you head straight out toward the nearest bunker you'll find an exit outside the fortress, all you'll need to do is move a piece of the bunker, beyond that are the ruins of an old outpost and my speeder is there for you to take you back to Newn-Cape so you can reclaim your town."

Tersely nodded, "Thank you Master Jedi we appreciate the help." Without another word Tersely led the rest of his fellow prisoners out of the complex leaving Justin and Vale to move deeper into the fortress.

Vale took the lead as Justin followed behind with his silenced blaster pistol again in his hand as the pair moved to the only means of traveling out of the basement, an old cargo lift guarded by another pair of guards.

Both men crouched behind a few crates once they had reached the lift as Vale spoke up, "We need to drop both of those guards quickly, if they set off the alarm the lift will lock down until Tolba or one of his lieutenants gives the override code."

Justin nodded and quickly adjusted his blaster's sights for distance shooting, "I'm ready when you are."

Together the two veterans targeted the guards, who remained unaware that they were in any danger, then they fired with the blue and red blots from their weapons sending clashing highlights across the lift.

When both guards fell to the ground the hidden marksmen rose from their cover and rushed forward as Justin shot Vale an exasperated look, "Why didn't you use your stun setting bounty hunter? There was no need to kill them."

Vale shook his head, "There are no guarantees with stun settings, they could fail to completely take the target down and when we are in such risky situations as these we can not afford to take that chance."

Justin clenched his jaw as they reached the lift and he pulled the unconscious form of his target to the side and secured his arms and legs with leather cord the guard had been using to hold his hair, "Regular blaster fire is just as unreliable, if your shot missing or the target doesn't take the hit the way you think, then they still could have triggered the alarm."

Vale sneered from the cargo lift as he waited for Justin to join him, "So you're telling me that when we start facing larger groups of guards, and we will when we reach the prison with the children, you will be hitting them with stun shots while they're shooting to kill?"

Justin considered for a moment then nodded, "If it were possible to do so without risking the lives of those I am charged to protect I would."

The armor-clad bounty hunter through his hands up in frustration, "That would mean that every foe you face would eventually come back to fight you again, while in the meantime you would continue to run out of blaster shots. After that blaster goes empty what will you do?"

Justin flashed Vale a cool smile, "If it came to the point where these pirates were still pursuing us with that many men I would not be using my blaster any longer, but I will not carelessly kill if it can be avoided."

Even through his helmet Vale annoyed snort could be heard, "You Jedi and your ideals, one day not killing a target is going to come back to haunt you and it will be someone like me that will come to try and clean up the mess you leave behind."

Justin paused as he and Vale approached the lift's controls, "In my experience bounty hunter it is commonly people like you who cause problems that require the Jedi's presence to clean up, you cause problems by indiscriminately killing any who oppose you."

Vale snorted in exasperation, a sound that Justin couldn't help but chuckle at as it came through his helmet's filter, "Move aside Jedi, let me get to the controls so we can get moving."

Justin complied and turned to watch the rest of the basement, looking for any signs of new arrivals, fortunately the basement was silent while Vale accessed the lift's controls.

After a few minutes the lift arrived and the two men stepped aboard, the lift was an open air model that had been designed to carry cargo and was still being used as such from the few crates that sat on the old metal grating. With a slight groan the lift began to ascend with a low hum of its machinery lifting them upward.

Vale checked his two pistols and moved a few of the crates to one side to build up a barricade that he could crouch behind. The veteran bounty hunter slid his blaster pistols into their holsters and looked up at Justin, "This may be the time for you to show off your Jedi weapon, the level where the children are being kept always has a small army of guards and I doubt that little blaster has the power to knock them all out."

Justin fought the urge to respond with a snide comment, This bounty hunter is more aggravating that any other man I've met for many years, but he did switch his blaster to his left hand and unclipped his lightsaber.

The lift's steady hum began to slow and Vale rose to his feet, "Stay down behind these crates Jedi, I'll move into the front room before you reveal yourself then we'll have the element of surprise when you attack."

Justin nodded, unable to argue with the bounty hunter's logic, and crouched behind the crates as it stopped on the fortresses prison level. Vale stepped off the lift, moving a fast trot and yelled out in a deep bass, "There's an intruder in the basement level! He killed Geoff and Edema, we need to get out of here before that damned Jedi kills us all!"

Low murmurs picked up as Vale fell silent before another voice spoke, bringing the room to silence, "Vale Keldan do you have any proof of this, if there really was a Jedi there I doubt he would have left you alive; no matter how good you are with your pistols you no match for a Jedi."

Justin was about to stand up when he heard the sharp report of a blaster firing followed with Vale's voice as something that sounded like a body fell to the floor, "But it looks like I'm good enough to blast you, you hutt-slime."

Justin rolled his eyes and stood as he activate his lightsaber, his silver blade's snap-hiss filling the room as the other guards stood stared at Vale as he stood over what Justin figured was a ranking officer in the prison complex.

Vale spun and called out in surprise, "It's the Jedi, run for your lives!" Vale suited his action for words and dove through a nearby doorway as the other guards, eight in all pulled their various weapons out, all aiming for Justin.

Justin didn't hesitate and quickly fired two stun bolts into the nearest guard as he rushed a second, the first man dropped with a groan and Justin swung his lightsaber up toward the second guard's blaster rifle.

The silver blade cut the rifle in half, filling the guard's eyes with terror as the humming blade flew past his face. Justin fired a stun bolt into his face and spun away from him to block a pair of blaster bolts from a guard who had managed to aim at the attacking Jedi Knight.

Both ruby darts hit the floor as Justin deflected them before firing his blaster again; the blue bolt dropped the guard to the floor just as it had the first two. The remaining five guards finally overcame their shock and concentrated their fire on the Jedi, hoping to overwhelm him with their firepower.

Justin threw his blaster at one guard as he began to duck and weave through the crimson bolts that filled the air, the blaster pistol hit the man in the nose with a sickening crunch. The man's eyes widened in pain and he grabbed his nose with one hand as he tried to keep his blaster aimed at Justin.

His lightsaber slicing through the air Justin blocked or dodged every blaster bolt fired at him as he approached the guards. In a moments pause between volleys Justin struck out at one man in four quick motions, burning him on his thigh, chest, and both arms before destroying the man's blaster carbine.

As that man fell to the deck with a groan Justin turned to finish the remaining four guards when Vale's armored figure appeared around the doorway he'd dived through. The bounty hunter brought his blaster pistols up and in four quick shots downed the remaining guards with quick shots to the back of their heads.

The armored man spun his pistols on his fingers before he slipped them into their holsters, "Let's go Jedi, we don't have much time before Tolba sends men to figure out what is happening."

Justin sighed wearily and deactivated his lightsaber as he followed the bounty hunter, as he stepped over the lifeless body of the guard whose nose he'd broke with his blaster Justin shook his head and retrieved his blaster.

When Justin stepped through the doorway that Vale had jumped into he was saddened to see another four guards lifeless with blaster wounds to their chest or head. The Jedi Knight was about to speak when he noticed what the room was and suddenly the bounty hunter's reason for securing the room was clear.

The room they were in was the prison control center, monitors lined the walls with images of long prison hallways and grids showing the layout of the prison itself.

Even though he wore a mask Justin could hear a smirk in Vale's voice, "Now you get what I was doing," the bigger man pointed to a monitor showing the prison's northern sector, "this is where the children are. There's another lift nearby that we can use to get to the hangar where my ship is, once we've got them it should be fairly simple to get there without any trouble."

Justin nodded, then stopped, "Wait, where are the Jedi apprentices?"

Vale said chuckled, "Oh them, they're one more level up I think Tolba has a special holding cell for the two of them."

Justin glared at the armored bounty hunter, "Fine then, you free the children and meet me at your ship, I'll go for the apprentices."

Vale shrugged his shoulders, "Suit yourself Jedi, but if things get nasty I'm leaving, rescuing a pair of Jedi brats wasn't part of my job description."

Justin slid his blaster into its holster had nodded, "We'll be there, just have your ship ready to launch." Without another word from the bounty hunter Justin returned to the lift and ordered the lift to ascend another level.

As the lift began to move Justin reached out with his Force senses to locate the two apprentices, he reached out to the extreme of his ability and faintly caught them, they gave off the sensation of being disoriented, Most likely has them drugged to keep them under control, if he didn't have some restraints on Apprentice Nalden he would do some serious damage if he could.

Justin tightened his grim on his lightsaber as the lift began to slow, Now its time to show Tolba that if he wants the Jedi Order's attention he's gotten more than he bargained for.

Author's Note: That's the end of Chapter 3, I hope everyone like Vale Keldan's character, with him and Justin it should be interesting to see how they continue to clash with their ideas of how the universe works. I'm sorry it took so long to finish this chapter, but I've really been focusing on my other story Darth Revan Returns so I've been only working on this one when I need a break from that story. So until next time thanks for the reviews.