The Rebel fleet was still moving through space. It has been a few days since the Sith Lord utterly dominated them. Since then, they were constantly on the move.
Jaden along with the rest of key Rebels were on the bridge looking at the hologram. They were surveying the situation.
"The destruction of our command shit," Sato began, "has severely limited our ability to fight the Empire in this sector."
"So maybe we don't fight." Ezra chimed in. This caused everyone to look at him for a moment. "Uh, Commander Sato, sir. When things got tough for me on Lothal, I'd go find some place to hide."
"You are never shy with your opinions, Ezra Bridger." Sato replied. "But establishing a base is a good idea."
Hera went in to provide her input. "Problem is, none of the potential bases we know of have the tactical advantage we need to protect what's left of our fleet."
"Or aid the nearby systems suffering from Imperial oppression." Kanan added.
"We can't help others if we can't help ourselves, Kanan. If only we had more allies" Hera commented.
At that moment, an idea popped into Ahsoka's head. "I know someone who might be able to help us. A great military commander with a vast knowledge of the Outer Rim. He could assist us in finding a base, and his experienced leadership would make him a powerful ally."
"How do we recruit this leader?" Sato asked.
"That's the problem. I lost track of him a long time ago, and all my transmissions have gone unanswered." She says.
"We can find him. Let us try." Ezra spoke.
Ahsoka thought for a second and then spoke. "Well, there is one option I've not yet attempted. Head to the Ghost and I'll show you."
She then turned to Jaden. "Jaden, come with me."
As the Spectres headed to the Ghost, Jaden followed Ahsoka to her quarters. Once there, she slides open a panel on the wall to reveal something. It was a droid head. But not one that Jaden recognized.
"What is that?" he asked.
Ahsoka looked at him. "A relic from the Clone Wars. Come." She proceeds to walk out, and Jaden follows her onto the Ghost.
As they walk in, Kanan's eyes widen once he got a good look. "Is that the head of an old tactical droid?" he asked.
Ahsoka nodded. "These droids were great at finding things, calculating. Found my master and I a few times when we didn't want to be found." She gave the head to Sabine.
Ezra was looking at the droid head, completely bewildered about what they are supposed to do with it.
"How in all the galaxy is that droid going to find your friend?" he asked. Chopper beeped, aggreging with him.
"Well, I heard he was last seen in the Seelos system. You can start there." Ahsoka responses as she starts to exit the cockpit. This did not go unnoticed to Ezra.
"You're not coming with us?" he asked.
"I have something else to attend to." she responded in kind.
Kanan had an idea about what she might be doing.
"The Sith Lord." he said, semi-grimly.
"There are questions," Ahsoka told him. "questions that need answering. Come on Jaden."
"Wait, wait, wait! Jaden's coming with you. Why?" Ezra asked frantically.
"Because," Jaden responded with a sly smile, "She invited me. Don't worry I'll be fine".
"I wish we could go with you." Ezra tells both.
Ahsoka turns around at the doorway "You have your own mission, Ezra. And Kanan, if you find my friend, you must trust him."
"If he's all the things you say, we can't afford not to." Kanan says.
"Trust him." says Ahsoka, see proceeds to leave.
"I'll see you guys later." Jaden tells the Spectres. He gives them a minor two finger salute, nods at Sabine, who nods at him back and then follows Ahsoka off the Ghost.
Jaden then watches as the Ghost detached from the corvette and jumped into hyperspace. Ahsoka then came up to him.
"Ready?" she asked.
"Let's go." he responded.
They proceed their way to the external docking rings and proceeded to climb up into the fighter connected to the ship. Ahsoka had a transport, an old but retrofitted T-6 shuttle attached to the corvette. Ahsoka was in the front pilot seat while Jaden was in the back seat.
"You mind telling me where we are going?" Jaden asked her as she detached the ship and flew away from the fleet.
"I got information from another rebel cell." Ahsoka starts to tell him as she sends the ship into hyperspace. "There is an Imperial defector on Nar Shaddaa. His name is Jast Karr."
"Nar Shaddaa?" Jaden asked.
"The Smuggler's Moon." she tells him. "It is filled with pirates, bounty hunters, arms dealers, anybody remotely dabbles in the galaxy has been at Nar Shaddaa at some point in their lives."
The shuttle then jumped into hyperspace. Ahsoka continued to brief Jaden. "According to my contact, Karr managed to flee here from Prefsbelt IV, it won't be long before the Imperials track him down."
Jaden was looking at Ahsoka with a questioned look. "Any idea where he could be onworld?" he asked.
"I have one." She replied. After a few minutes, she pulled the ship out of hyperspace.
Jaden was suddenly caught in awe with what he was seeing. It was rusty orange moon, orbiting over a green planet with a star in the background. He also noticed that ships were coming in and out of the moon.
"Whoa." he exclaims.
Ahsoka, still piloting the shuttle, reached out her hand and pointed at the green planet. "That's Nal Hutta, the Hutt homeworld. It's a festering slime hole. Take my word for it."
Jaden nodded and looked at Nar Shaddaa again. He noticed that the part of the planet that was not in the sun had lines and patches of concentrated light on it. His dad once told him that there were planets in the galaxy that have cities that span across the planet.
"We are coming in." Ahsoka told him.
Jaden went back to his seat as the shuttle broke through Nar Shadda's atmosphere. They descended to the surface of the planet, approaching one of the large patches of cities.
Jaden proceeded to take a good long look. 'This is vastly different Ryloth, or even Lothal.' he thought to himself. Through the rusty atmosphere, he saw the city, with ships and speeders coming in and out of it, as if it was a constant flow.
Ahsoka brought the shuttle onto a landing pad. She then proceeded to turn to Jaden. "You might want to hide those." she gestured to his lightsabers. "Jedi aren't welcome here, even back then."
"Alright." Jaden proceeds to unzip his fight suit jacket slightly and clipped both of his sabers to the inside of his jacket, and then zipped it up again.
Ahsoka nodded at him and hid her sabers as well. "Remember, the Hutts control this entire system, we don't want to cause trouble. We have to rely on our blasters and brains here."
They then lowered the ramp and exited the shuttle. Upon stepping outside, Jaden took a whiff of the air. It was lightly polluted and decayed. They then proceed to walk toward into city. Along the way, they pass people of many different races, Rodians, Zabraks, Weequays and Biths. Almost every single one of them was packing a blaster.
Ahsoka and Jaden keep their head down, as they neared their destination, a cantina. They saw a trio Gamorrean with axes walking past them. Jaden has heard rumors about the Hutts when he was growing up in the village, they were one of many criminal organizations in the galaxy that took Twileks from their homes and turned them into slaves. He hated them for that.
They arrived at their destination. Jaden looked up at the cantina sign. It read "The Burning Deck" in Huttese. He then turned to Ahsoka. "How do we find him? We don't even know what he looks like." he asked her.
Ahsoka looked at him and responded. "We will take different sides of the place. Focus through the Force to find him, you'd be surprised what people will reveal when they have been… drinking."
She went to one area of the cantina, while Jaden went to another area. He sees her nonchalant lean against a wall and closes her eyes. She went unnoticed by everyone except Jaden.
'Ok, I can do that.' he thinks to himself.
He proceeded to lean against a wall away from the patrons too. He then closed his eyes and breathed steadily. He had never really done something like this before. The closest thing he has done like this was years ago, when he was a kid, by accident.
Then closed his eyes and started to focus/listen around for anything that will lead them to the contact. Hearing through the Force, he went around.
"It's only a matter of time until those damn Imperials start putting the squeeze on out operations."
"Unless they want a war with the Hutts, they won't."
'No' Jaden thought to himself and went back to listening.
"I remember being here during the Clone Wars, the place is still a polluted stick-pit."
'That's not it' Jaden listened more carefully.
"You cheated! you Imperial dog, you cheated!"
"I didn't cheat Gizz! I won!"
This perked Jaden's interest and went to the back of the cantina where the shouting originated. He sees that Ahsoka picked up on the same thing and was silently shadowing him in case anything goes wrong.
At the back, he saw a blanket curtain over the door frame. He then heard a loud slam, somebody hitting their fist against a table. Cautiously, Jaden pushed through the blanket and saw a human male, no doubt Jast Karr being threatened by a giant Moggonite with a squad of Weequays in tow. They were sitting at a table with Sabacc cards on it.
As Jaden entered, unaware to him, a blue Kowakian monkey lizard was silently watching him on top of the piping the ceiling. The Moggonite looked up and saw Jay, and all the Weequays had their blaster locked on him. He needed a plan and needed to think quickly. Then he got it.
"There you are buddy! I've been looking all over town to you." Jaden says to Jast. The defector looked at him confused at first but decided to play along.
"Who are you?" the Moggonite, Gizz asked threattingly.
Thinking quickly, Jaden came up with an alias. "Frey. Rollin Frey. I am so sorry about him, I keep telling him, don't drink and play. Now, I'll just taking him off your hand for you." he says reaching for Jast's hand.
Gizz was getting angrier. "No no no, this slimo owes me 65,000 credits. Nobody cheats Big Gizz! Nobody!"
Then, the monkey-lizard dropped down from the piping and landed on Jaden's head. It got a good grip on his face and started punching. The young Jedi struggled to get it off as he noticed the Weequays moved towards him. Acting fast, he gripped the monkey-lizard by the back and threw it at the one of the Weequays at his left, he then kicked the one at the right in the stomach. He pulled out his blaster and shot the one directily behind Big Gizz.
"Come on!" he calls to the defector. Jast, wasting no time, made a b-line to the exit. Jaden was then tackled by another Weequay, who was holding him to the ground, choking him.
"Bad move kid." Gizz says with a smirk on his face as he moved towards him.
BAM!
Jaden winced and saw that the Weequay had a burning hole in his head and fell. He looked to see that it was Ahsoka, holding a blaster.
"Thanks", he told her.
He then turned to Big Gizz, who was drawing his blaster at him. Jaden force-pushed the Moggonite back, causing him to hit the Sabacc table and the back was in the process.
After exchanging looks with Ahsoka, they exit the back room into the cantina, where they found Jast at the bar. The two sat with him, Jaden at the right, and Ahsoka at the left.
Jast was staring at his drink. "Thanks." he tells them without looking up.
"You're our contact?" Jaden asked him. Jast just simply nodded in response.
"Why is the Empire hunting you?" Ahsoka questioned.
"Because they are starving my homeworld, Ibaar." he tells the young Jedi. "I was taken off-world and forced to work at Prefsbelt IV as a technician. I have heard about your Rebellion, and I have the data on systems that you can use to move around the Empire's territories. And I will give it to you, in exchange, please help my home."
Jaden asked him. looked at Ahsoka. She was clearly thinking the same thing as him.
"Ok. We will." He told him.
"Let's move." Ahsoka advised. They needed to get back to their ship.