I know it's been a long time, my faithful readers, and I'm sorry about that. Sometimes, life dictates things other than what we would wish for ourselves. I've been in college and the workload has been intense, plus work and military duty to pack in more work than hours in the day. However, I am still trying to get some writing from time to time. Just as a treat, I'll let you know that, when I finally finish my current unfinished stories, I will be returning to my Moira Denic, Nedeser Thul and Zurth Barsad. There may also be another flashpoint mission as well. Anyhow, thank you for sticking with me patiently. I hope you enjoy this next chapter and I hope I get more time to write soon.

It had taken some doing to find a hatch that would work with the Shadow's docking clamp and even then, it wasn't a perfect match. Even so, they were able to board the station. First to enter were Galen and Ezra with lightsaber ignited. Ahsoka and Maris followed and then, after them, came Kota and Kanan. The place they had chosen seemed to be a regular access hatch and hallway. However, they were met with no immediate resistance. "Good start;" murmured Ezra. "I wish we had a droid of some kind that could access a security panel or something."

"We'll make do with the tools we have;" said Ahsoka. "First we have to find a terminal of some kind. Stang! None of this even looks like any technology that I have ever seen before."

Kanan and Rahm both looked very troubled. "But the pull of the dark side is incredibly strong. We need to advance carefully. Let's go."

Slowly, with both lightsabers and, in the case of Ezra and Kanan, blasters drawn, they moved along the corridor. There wasn't a sound other than their boots hitting the deck plating and their breathing. After what seemed like an uneasy eternity but was actually only a few short minutes, they came to a set of doors. "How do we activate it?" whispered Ezra.

To answer, Rahm reached out with force. There was a soft click and, with a soft hiss, the doors slid open. With that, they met their first resistance. Inside seemed to be a security center of some kind - with crude looking monitors and holo-projectors. Manning the center were a half a dozen spindly droids and two strange looking aliens. They were tall and had egg-shaped heads with protrusion sticking out each side. The protrusions contained their eyes. Before the aliens had a chance to do anything, Ezra and Kanan covered them with blasters. "Don't move!" snapped the younger Jedi, hoping they spoke basic.

Whether they understood exactly what he said or not, the aliens seemed to get the gist. Slowly, they stood and edged away from the consoles. The droids, however, did not. They rushed forward on clacking legs and hatches in their undersides opened, extending energy weapons of some kind. Immediately, the fight was on. Ezra and Kanan blasted the first two droids before holstering their weapons and using their lightsabers. Galen was already among them, successfully cutting down two before rushing the aliens. They had grabbed primitively looking bladed weapons that Galen thought would easily be cut in two. He was wrong. They resisted his lightsaber as if their was a very thin but powerful energy field protecting them. For just a moment, he was thrown off balance but quickly regained it. The fight was short after that. The droids, though strange and menacing looking, were no more effective than battle droids against the Jedi and the two aliens, though skilled and even strong in the force, were not as skilled as Galen Marek. They quickly fell. "Well that wasn't too bad;" said Ezra with a satisfied smile.

"Except that they hit an alarm of some kind;" said Ahsoka.

There was a whine in the corridors outside proving her point. "Alright, let's hurry. Ezra, try to get into the system and download the station map to your datapad;" ordered Kanan.

That quickly proved to be a problem. "There isn't anything like an uplink here, Kanan; not one that I recognize at any rate. Wait a sec - are those holocrons?" asked Ezra, pointing to several pyramid shaped, milky white objects.

Maris went over to one and picked it up. "I think they are. Let me see here;" and she closed her eyes, focusing on the thing. Suddenly, a schematic of the station slickered to like. A moment later, it became a cross-section map and six glowing figures appeared in a section on one spur. What's more, a faded gray object was shown attached to the outside of it not far away. "Oh great;" muttered Galen, "so they could pick up the Shadow even fully cloaked. We need to hurry. Grab those other holocrons. We can study them away from here."

Kanan and Kota each grabbed another and they hurried out. "This one seems to control the systems but they have to be on a console to control them. What about yours, Kanan?" asked Rahm.

"Same, I think. If we find another console, we can take a look to be sure. What exactly are we looking for anyway?"

"A command deck of some kind, I assume;" said Ahsoka. "There's another door coming up on the left. We'll try it first."

It was a mistake. Inside was a massive droid charging bay with dozens of them sitting at their points, their lights blinking steadily. "Okay;" said Ezra, "let's back out of here nice and slow. No need to wake them up."

Slowly, they did as he suggested and hurried down the corridor. "That was close;" said Galen. "We really need to be careful."

Moments later, they came to yet another door. Rather than rushing in, they used the force to sense inside. "There are several life forms in there;" muttered Kanan.

"A dozen, I would say;" agreed Rahm. "They're on high alert too. I think they know we're in the area."

"Well no need to keep them waiting;" said Galen as he took one side of the doors.

"I completely agree;" said Ezra, taking the other.

Kanan activated the door and they all rushed in. The aliens, whatever they were, had been waiting for them. Primitive energy weapons and bladed weapons were ready and one of them held a strange weapon. It was like a lightsaber but the handle was longer and the dark side emanated from it. Besides the aliens, there were another dozen droids as well. Ezra cut through the first two opponents and vaulted over another before slashing down a couple of war droids and going straight for the warrior with the energy sword. While the others worked on eliminating the defending droids and aliens, Ezra crossed blades with his enemy. The alien was larger and physically stronger than him but Ezra was faster and more agile. The alien remained mostly stationary while Ezra didn't stay still. This clearly kept him alive because this alien was a very skilled swordsman and was able to keep up well with the young Jedi. Even so, Ezra had been using his weapon in life-or-death combat for several years now while his opponent had not seen true combat in some time. This gave Ezra an advantage as he outmaneuvered his opponent. The fight was decided when he leaped over the aliens head, only to role back around and come up with an ascending slash. His green blade cut from hip to shoulder before he brought it back around and beheaded the alien. Looking around, Ezra was relieved to see that the fight was over for the moment. "Kanan, come take a look- I mean, how do you feel about this?"

Kanan came over and took the weapon that Ezra handed him as the others began looking around the center. He hissed and quickly set it down. "Yeah, don't touch that. It's an evil weapon. Tell me what it looks like, Ezra."

"It's like a lightsaber, but the handle is longer and the blade is a creepy purple color. It seems unstable, like one of those lightsabers we found on Malachor but I think this weapon is even older than those."

Kanan nodded and gingerly picked it back up. "Okay. Wrap it in something and put it in your tool bag. Don't touch it after that. We can study it later."

"Kanan, you'd better come over here and take a look at this;" called Maris.

Over at what appeared to be the main console, four holocrons sat in slots. "They use these things as their main command system, their code storage units - everything."

"I think these are Rakata;" said Rahm, stroking his beard. "They were said to be the inventors of holocron technology. If my memory serves me right, the last of their kind were supposed to have gone extinct during the end of the Great Galactic War."

"I wish we had the Jedi library to reference;" muttered Ahsoka. "We could use the resources."

Kanan and Rahm both nodded wistfully. Suddenly Maris, who had been inspecting the holocrons suddenly gasped. "Look at this!" she said.

In the middle of the room, a massive cross section holomap of the station appeared. Tiny glowing figures could be seen running around. Some were glowing red. Some were purplish and some were glowing white. The white ones, once again, were the six Jedi. The red figures were battling the purple ones. It was clear that the purple lights were Rakata defenders and the red were Imperial, and the Imperials were gaining ground. What's more, the Jedi saw several clusters of purple lights moving in their direction. "Security teams;" murmured Galen. "We should keep moving."

"Wait!" hissed Maris. "I think one of the Stalkers is using a control center."

Immediately, Galen, Kanan and Kota were there. "Move aside, Maris;" said the latter. "Let us take a look."

The Jedi apprenticed moved aside and the senior Jedi took positions.

Stalker Prime strode into the command center. Stormtroopers and technicians were everywhere, securing the room and inspecting the strange equipment. Two of his brothers were standing at a console. "Prime;" one called without taking his hands off the console. "Come take a look at this."

Prime hurried over and frowned at what he saw. "Holocrons;" he said. "What do they do?"

"These are the controls;" answered one of them. "Come and see. We've found that the Jedi have boarded."

Prime put his hands on two of the glowing white pyramids. Immediately, he could sense it and commanded a map to project in the center of the room. "We can contact them as well;" said the other.

"Really?" said Prime and smiled. "Let's see."

Immediately, Galen and the others sensed it. An image appeared beside the map - a life sized figure in dark armor wearing a hooded cloak over it. "Greetings, Progenitor;" it said in Galen's voice. "Welcome to the Empire's new battle station."

Galen didn't respond, focusing instead on the movements of the forces inside the station. Rahm instead answered, "You barely have a foothold, boy. I'm watching right now as squad after squad of Imperial Marines, Naval Commandos and Stormtroopers being mowed down by the defenders. It will take Pryce's entire fleet to take this place."

"We've located the main command deck;" murmured Ahsoka. "And it looked like there is a large concentration of Rakata there."

"You are looking to take the command deck, I assume;" said Prime conversationally. "You have six Jedi, at least three of which are half-baked excuses of the old religion and two of which are blind old fools. Seriously, Progenitor, are what chance do you have?"

"Well the funny thing about betting odds, dark sider - they can always be bucked and I so love bucking the odds;" said Galen before cutting and blocking the communication. "Two of us need to go back and hold the ship;" he said. "They can track it and take it if we don't and we may need to escape later."

"Wait a second, we can't split up!" said Ahsoka. "We're already heavily outnumbered and we haven't even faced the station's commander yet!"

"We don't have a choice;" said Ezra. "I'll go back to the ship and watch it. Who's coming with?"

Maris moved to join him. "I'll go with. We'll hold the Rogue Shadow and contact any Alliance forces that arrive. Maybe we can even direct them to a hanger or some docking hatches."

"Sure;" said Ahsoka, still uneasy about the decision. "Here, take this. It should still have a map of the station that you can use to direct any rebel ships to the hangers and hatches."

She tossed Ezra a holocron and the two young Jedi hurried off. "Alright, what resistance is between us and the command center?" asked Rahm.

"Not a lot; most of the defense is focused on the Imperials right now;" said Galen. "But we need to go."

"We should backtrack a little to avoid Rakata security teams if possible;" said Rahm.

They hurried back into the corridor and back the way they came. Guided by a map from one of the holocrons, they hurried through the corridors.

Prime slashed down another Rakata force warrior and checked the status of the assault team he was with. It had lost about a quarter of its strength but reinforcements weren't far behind. The field commander ran up and saluted, "Sir, all forces are advancing but resistance is still stiff."

Prime was about to order them to advance but then checked himself. Pryce had been discussing tactics with him during their travels. "We'll hold here. How are the boarding operations going, Commander?"

"We have heavy weapons troopers coming in as well as Purge Trooper droids groups of Death Commandos and Inquisition Purge Commandos. They are already making their way to hot spots in the combat."

"Excellent;" said Prime. "When reinforcements arrive here, we'll advance straight through to the command deck. Whoever the commander of this station is must be eliminated."

"Understood, Sir."

As the commander hurried off, Prime used his comlink to contact his brethren. "Sith stalkers, report."

One by one, they reported in. "I want two of you to stay at a command center to monitor the station. The rest, report to my position. I'll send you my position."

Once he had finished, he sat down and waited.

It was a race to the main command center. The Sith Stalkers slaughtered their way through the Rakata and with every engagement, the fight became more intense. The Jedi of the Alliance were able to advance by stealth, avoiding the majority of the security team.

It took over an hour but finally, Galen, Rahm, Kanan and Ahsoka approached the double blast doors to the main command deck. "Can you sense it?" asked Kanan.

"Yes;" said the others together. The dark side was as strong there as the strongest nexus that any of them had been to.

"We need to be ready for anything;" said Galen. "This Crooked One is going to be a dangerous enemy."

Using the force, they opened the door and entered, their lightsabers ignited and ready. The scene before them was both familiar and strange. Dozens of Rakatan technicians were at consoles using the white holocrons to attend to their duties. Eight stood near the center armed with the long handled energy swords and on a command chair sat an armored Rakata in ornate armor. In mangled basic, he called. "Welcome, outsiders, to my Star Forge. I have you to thank in part for freeing me from my prison."

"Who are you?" demanded Rahm Kota.

"I am Ta'skaha but those fools who imprisoned called me only the Crooked One. Power will always terrify those who cannot connect to it as completely. At the height of our power, the others imprisoned me here after I had been at the forefront of the conquest of the Infinite Empire. Without me, I deem that they quickly lost their momentum and their conquests ended."

Just then, at the other end of the command deck, the blast doors blew inward and in stormed Imperial troops and the dark side stalkers. The Crooked One uttered a strange noise in his throat and announced, "Excellent! I take it that you are enemies, then? Yes, I can feel it. No matter. You will both be my slaves or you will die."

Suddenly, an eerily familiar voice sounded across the deck. "Jedi, you are fools to come here without your fleet and even more so to divide your forces. This station will be claimed for the Empire."

"Over my dead body;" muttered Galen. "Come on. Let the Imperials fight the Crooked One. There! That Console - we need it."

Two Rakatan technicians were at the console and, when the Jedi approached, they drew weapons. With a flick of his wrist, Kanan disarmed them and said, "You should run."

Rather than flee, they attacked empty handed and died instantly. Using the control holocrons, Galen brought up a map of the station. "How do we destroy this thing? Where's the main power core?"

"Galen;" said Kota, "look through the viewports at what is below us. I think that is the power generator."

Galen frowned and looked out and over. Down in a massive chamber were tens of thousands of pods. Upon closer inspection, Galen realized that there were people inside them - beings of numerous different species. "By the stars!" he gasped, finally realizing what it was. "Are those beings alive?"

"No, not really." said Rahm. "They're dead for all intents and purposes but those stasis fields are keeping them right at the gates of death and siphoning the force energy out of them. This monster is using the living force in all of those beings to power this station - an unlimited reactor of force power."

Shocked silence followed, interrupted only by the vicious sounds of combat around them. "What the hell are we supposed to do now?" asked Galen, trying to keep the anger he felt under control.

"We need to get down there;" said Kanan, pointing blindly down at the massive stasis chamber. "We can find a way to stop it there. I'm running a systems check and diagnostic on the station now. I want to get a better idea of how it really works. Watch my back."

The others nodded and looked towards the fight. The dark stalkers were engaging the Rakatan force warriors blade to blade and it appeared that their leader was engaging the Crooked One himself and it was a glorious contest to behold. "The Crooked One is nearly as strong in the force as the Emperor;" muttered Galen, "and the techniques he's using - I've never seen anything like them."

As they watched, the Crooked One and the dark stalker fought viciously across the command bridge. Both were highly skilled but the Crooked One was a master and the dark sider was constantly on the defensive. Watching the fight, Galen and Ahsoka quickly began to lose confident in their own skills, apart or as a group, to beat the Rakatan warlord. "Kanan, how's it coming?" asked Ahsoka anxiously.

"It's coming - should only need a few more seconds."

"Oh no;" muttered Ahsoka and Galen snapped, "Time's up. We need to go."

A dozen Rakatan force warriors and twice that many war droids came in through the blast doors and began cutting down the Imperials. Some of them charged directly at the Jedi and Rahm, Galen and Ahsoka were forced to cross energy blades with them. Kanan quickly finished his work and joined the fray. The fight was short and vicious and Galen and Ahsoka took several cuts. They were superficial but hurt even more than a lightsaber slash would. Using the force to suppress the pain, Galen pointed to the door and said, "We need to go. Now! Lead the way, Kanan."

None of them witnessed the turn in the contest as they fled trough the doors.

Stalker Prime was highly impressed with his opponent. This warrior had nearly destroyed him in the beginning of the fight but Prime had found his footing and they were now trading blows. The Imperials and Rakata were still battling but Prime could tell that his side was winning, though at heavy cost. Several more of his brothers had fallen but the rest, in a rage powerful enough even to be felt in the maelstrom of dark side energy around them, were laying waste to all on the command deck. "You have proven to be more of a challenge than I anticipated;" said the Rakata commander, sounding truly delighted. "It has been millennia since my last fight. I've missed it more than I realize."

Prime didn't respond, instead redoubling his efforts to break through his enemy's defenses. They were quite evenly matched so he sent a torrent of force lightning at his enemy. The Rakata made a garbled exclamation and barely managed to block the attack with the force. Prime intensified the attack, combining force lightning with telekinetic blasts lightsaber attacks. The Rakata was suddenly set firmly on the defensive, rapidly back-stepping to keep ahead of him. With a blast of pure dark side energy, he sent Prime pinwheeling back, gaining some space. The dark stalker managed to twist in the air and land on his feet. Taking a quick moment to look around, he realized that his forces were hard pressed. Focusing on the Rakata commander, he hit his comlink. "Status report."

One of his fellow stalkers replied, "We have hit serous blocks, Prime. I think these aliens are digging in and setting up defenses. We can't make them budge."

Prime cursed before saying, "Fall back to strong positions and dig in. Wait for increased reinforcements from Admiral Pryce. No point in throwing forces at durasteel walls when we can form a solid plan."

"Understood, Prime;" came the reply.

The dark stalker cut his comms and pointed his weapon at the Rakata commander. "We're aren't done yet. I'll destroy you when the time is right."

"You aren't going anywhere;" roared the commander and leaped.

"Fall back to a strong position;" called the Prime before sending a blast of force energy at the airborne opponent. It caught him off guard and sent him smashing into a durasteel support column. With force enhanced speed, he retreated from the command deck.

It didn't take long to get to a turbo lift and head down into the facility. It seemed as though the Rakata resistance had left off pursuing them in the face of the Imperial assault. Ahsoka looked at Kanan and asked, "Okay, what do we know, Kanan?"

"The way those siphons are used to power this station, we have a few options - destroy all ten thousand of those pods, cut the uplink or cause it to overload. The last would cause the whole station to explode but we don't have a bomb that could do it."

They all glanced at him. "I brought a couple of charges;" said Ahsoka.

"No, that wouldn't do it. This thing is fueled by the force. A normal bomb would only cut the link to the station. It would cause it to power down. All systems would shut down but it wouldn't destroy it;" explained Kanan.

When they reached the bottom and exited the lift, they found themselves in a control room just off the stasis chamber. After eliminating the resistance inside, they examined the equipment using one of the control holocrons. "These somehow regulate power and distribution;" said Ahsoka. "It looks like there are about twelve of these chambers."

"Great;" said Galen. "Maybe we can use them to overload the system."

"I don't know if that's going to work with a power system that uses the force as its energy source;" said Kanan. "I'm really getting a handle on this. Let me search the system a little bit - see if I can find something."

"Okay, but make it quick, Kanan;" said Rahm. "I'm not sure how long the Crooked One is going to just let us be."

"That's assuming that he beats that dark sider from the Empire;" murmured Galen. "Though I suppose that if he doesn't, then we'll just have Imperials after us; not sure which would be worse at this point."

Suddenly, Ahsoka's comlink chimed, causing them all to jump. "It's Ezra;" she said, "What is it, Ezra?"

"Over three dozen Alliance ships just jumped out of hyperdrive;" said the young Jedi excitedly. "The Ghost, the Rogue Explorer, two full squadrons of starfighters and a bunch of drop ships are here. Maris is directing them to docking bays and hangers now."

The four Jedi looked at each other, considering the heat that the Alliance's arrival might bring down on them. Ahsoka sighed and said, "Copy that, Ezra. Did they bring the equipment to set up any kind of foot hold?"

There was a long pause before Ezra replied, "Yes they did; this is going to be a full fledged attack. Apparently the fighters are going to be waiting until we find a weakness we can exploit and assist as need."

"Great. Use the maps to set up an efficient and manageable foot hold. We're deep in the facility right now and we'll meet up as soon as possible;" reported Ahsoka. "In the mean time, hold your positions. The Empire is on the other side of the station and I'm willing to bet they're digging in as well."

"Copy that. What are you doing down there?"

"Searching for a way to destroy this facility. We can't let it fall into the hands of the Empire and we can't let the Crooked One keep it either. This station needs to be destroyed."

Silence followed before Ezra replied, "Copy that. We'll get things set up here. When can we expect you back?"

She looked around at the others. Kanan was still glued to his system while Galen and Rahm just shrugged. "Not sure yet, Ezra. We'll keep you posted."