Chapter 5 – Rescue

They exited the lift and the first thing that hit them was the putrid smell of the Undercity. Suddenly a snivelling man came up and demanded 5 credits to be allowed into the Undercity. Mission doubted they could stop her on her own never mind having Carth, a trained republic soldier by her side, but Carth reached into his jacket and gave the man afive credit bit with a look of pity.

Suddenly a young woman came running towards them and began shouting at the beggar man "Get away from them!" . The snivelling man bolted and the young woman approached them. "Sorry about that, we're not all like that, most of us are good people, its just people like him that give all of us a bad name."

"It was nothing" Carth said in a reassuring voice.

"Please come with me to the settlement before the Rakghoul come" she continued, "Oh yes, my name is Kila by the way"

Mission and Carth followed her towards the ramshackle group of huts behind a fortified gate that was the settlement.

When they got inside the gate Kila brought them to the middle of the settlement and introduced to an oldish man that looked to be the leader of the place.

Kila introduced them "This is Gendar, the leader of our settlement." Turning to Gendar she continued " And these are, actually who are you?"

Carth started "I'm Carth Onasi and this is Mission Vao, we're looking for the republic escape pod that crashed here and a large wookie named Zaalbar."

Gendar looked at them "That's an odd combination but I'll help in anyway I can. If you're looking for the pod what's left of it is just to the east of the settlement and if your Wookie was taken to the Undercity he's most likely somewhere in the sewers. That's all I can do. Sorry"

"That's a great help, Thank you" Carth replied diplomatic as always.

"Yeah, Thanks Mister" Mission chimed in.

They turned to leave to continue the search when Gendar called them back.

"Young man and lady" he said turning to Mission "if you really are going to go into the sewers would you ever see if you could recover some journals for me if you see them. They may be on the corpses of some of my men down there. They were reported to have found them but never returned."

"Of course. If we see them we'll get them for you." Carth answered.

"Thank you" Gendar replied.

"What are the journals for?" Mission interjected like a nosy teenager. Carth threw her a scowl but Gendar took no notice and started his explanation. " You see there is, or there should be a land where we in the Undercity can go and live in comfort and not be hungry. We call it the Promised Land. It's been a belief of ours for many generations but only recently had we found proof of its existence. All the information we need to get there is on the journals."

Mission let out a surprised "ooooh". She had never heard of this before. "Of course we'll find them for you sir"


As they left the settlement a smaller black haired man approached them. He approached Carth. "Mister did Gendar, the old fool, give you his story about the Promised Land? I'm Igear and if you bring the journals to me instead, I'll pay you 200 credits for each one. If Gendar does get the journals and to the promised land my business will be ruined. You see I sell supplies and what not to the people here and Gendar is running my business into the ground with his ideas of sharing resources and supplies as it is! He said the last 2 sentences as if they were a poison on his tongue.

Mission looked at him with utter disbelief. "You'd rather let the people here die and starve so you can make a few credits off their hardship. GET away from us! You horrible little man."

Igear walked off in anger at the last comment. Carth placed his hand on Mission's shoulder. "I agree Mission, we have to help these people and people like him, that's what people have died to prevent."


They continued out of the settlement and came to the Escape Pod, or what was left of it anyway. Carth and Mission examined the shell and then Carth peered under the main seat of the pod, which surprisingly hadn't been liberated and noticed something shiny sticking out from under it. Carth reached out and grabbed it. It was Bastila's lightsabre. He turned to Mission "Looks like they didn't take everything" he said with a little smile on his face and looked to lightsabre in his hand. "Is that a lightsabre" Mission asked with interest, she had never seen a real one before. "It is and not only that it's Bastila's. Now we only have to find her and we're out of here." Carth continued with renewed optimism about the search.

They left the crash site and entered the sewers.


Carth took a breath through his nose and jilted his head back. "That's bad Mission. How do you stick it?"

"D'ya think I spend all my time here?" Mission asked in an indignant tone, she didn't like to be thought of as a sewer dweller.

"Sorry, I didn't mean…" Carth began to explain but Mission cut him off "Its nothing, don't worry about it."

They came to a pink glowing forcefield blocking a passage down further into the sewers. Carth stopped but Mission told him to continue promising him she'd get it down when they got Zaalbar back – no buts!

After five minutes of searching they had found the 3 journals on 2 Undercity ex-residents in down a back duct/sewer alley and two recently blasted Gamorreans Mission asked Carth "You've been to a lot of places Carth, What do you think of Taris here?"

"To be honest Mission, Taris is a pretty low-level planet, I mean I know you have the prosperity and the Uppercity but underneath all that theirs still poverty and fighting underneath it all. Not to mention that the place is rife with prejudice and oppression, non-humans aren't even allowed on the Uppercity with a permit!"

"I know but that's just the Sith took over. Taris was a pretty good place before that" Mission defended.

Carth seemed unconvinced "Tell me Mission how does a 16 year old teenager get left on Taris on her own, I mean this isn't the safest place for a young teenager like yourself is it?"

"Hey" Mission exclaimed offended "I can take care of my self, I take care of Big Z just as much as he takes care of me!"

"But how did you get left her alone, what happened to your family here?"

"I came here with my brother when I was young, our parents were killed, I don't know the details but it was always Griff taking care of me, we stowed away on a cargo ship here. I think Griff was running from some debt, but he always seemed to be" Mission sighed nostalgically "still he always took care of me and even thought me the tricks of the trade, you know picking locks and hacking computers, handy skills and then he met Lena." Mission seemed angry at just the thought of Lena "Well Lena decided to sink her claws into Griff and sent him on a couple of bad business routes. He got higher in debt and then one night Lena decided for him to leave Taris with her and leave me. She never liked me much! Saw me as a threat she did. I know Griff wouldn't have left me but she was a rock hard bitch who you didn't say no to and she had Griff wrapped around her little finger."

"I see. Well…" started Carth rubbing the back of his head "I'm sorry for assuming so little of you and eh, eh"

"Look don't worry about it" Mission said understandingly " you didn't know, it's not your fault."

Carth had a newfound respect for Mission now. And they continued until they found a chamber with 2 large Gamorreans standing at the door. They stayed at the corner and Carth pulled a light plasma grenade from his pocket, armed it and threw it towards the door. A moment later a small explosion is a confined was heard followed by the sound of metal crashing on metal. Mission and Carth threw their blasters and cautiously approached the now open door. They swiftly turned facing into the room and shot the three remaining Gamorreans surrounding a rather large Wookie on his knees with his arms bound behind him.

"Zaalbar" Mission screamed and ran towards the crouched figure. She knelt beside him and a second the shackles that bound his hands were lying on the ground. Then Mission wrapped her arms around the Wookie. "Did they hurt you Big Z?" she asked caringly like a mother to a child she had just pulled from a group of larger children. The wookie known as Zaalbar moaned in a nugatory tone. Mission got up "That's good!" She looked at Carth who was still standing at the door "Oh yeah this is Carth, he helped me rescue you and is responsible for this rescue!"

Zaalbar got up and approached Carth. Carth took an apprehensive step back. The wookie began moaning/talking to Carth and at the end Mission had a look of shock on your face.

"Really Zaalbar? Do you really think you should?" Mission said in a slightly apprehensive tone. She looked at Carth

"Carth Zaalbar just swore a lifedebt to you!"

Carth looked bewildered "A lifedebt? Really you don't have to! Seriously I was glad to help, you don't own me anything."

Zaalbar moaned.

Mission translated "Big Z says you would disrespect his honour and tribe by not accepting it."

"Looks like I'm owed a lifedebt then" said Carth accepting Zaalbar lifedebt.

"Well c'mon," began Mission bring them all back to the situation at hand "don't you have a base to be getting to."


Okay sorry for the big delay in getting back to the story but its back in swing again asI have chapters 5 and 6 written and 7 just started! As always Please enjoy! Read and Review Please!