The city was a confusing jumble of buildings and tangled, narrow streets. To the east, a twisted cluster of crystalline structures spiraled up high into the sky. To the west, there were the high towers of a fortress, massive Imperial banners hanging proudly from its ramparts. Both of these structures loomed over the town, seeming to pin it into place.

It was late. Several moons were visible, many were just little pale dots, one was a big yellow crescent. The purple nebula looked like a gruesome laceration. Local legends said that some eldritch being had torn the fabric of space open, it certainly looked like it. This nebula drowned out the light from most of the stars. The only ones that stood out were the two other suns in the Alia stellar cluster. The ominous lights of an orbiting Star Destroyer were visible.

Tauira turned onto a main thoroughfare. The weight of the weapons that sat on her hips comforted her. The plain grey cloak that she was wearing kept them hidden. The hood was up, more to keep the brisk air at bay than to help conceal her identity.

The streets were packed. The crowd was a menagerie of weird aliens and strange people from all over the galaxy. A male Twi'lek looked around suspiciously, his beady eyes scanning the throngs of strange beings. A group of Aqualish were hanging out near the entrance to a shop, light reflecting off of their eyes. A Trandoshan was arguing with a Quarren, complaining about prices or maybe payments, it was difficult to tell. A team of Stormtroopers marched past, putting on a display of authority, letting everyone know who was in charge.

The tourists were here to see the twisting crystal spires. The salesmen were here to sell sinful drinks, yummy food, and cheap junk to the tourists. The criminals were here to prey on the tourists. The empire was here to collect taxes.

The horde moved in packs of laughing friends or as frowning individuals. Jokes were told, greetings were shouted, and threats were made in a hundred different languages. Kiosks and beggars lined the sidewalks. Janitorial droids picked up trash, a lot of negative things could be said about the city, but at least they kept the place clean.

The sensation of the Force was heavy, thick, oppressive. The life forces of thousands of beings were jumbled together so that focusing on a single person took concentration and skill. She passed a night club, it looked and sounded like a wild place. The emotions of the building's occupants hit her awareness like waves of depravity, making vows against wanton behavior feel more immediate and burdensome. Intense feelings of fear and anticipation were being emitted from the northeast side of the town; something was going to happen over there. As long as it stays over there, she thought to herself.

This was where her training really paid off. If she had tried to walk through a city prior to her lessons on control and filtering she would have gone crazy. She knew this because she had been the victim of her powers many times before.

Back then she would have tried to suppress her ability. Now, she embraced it, intentionally stretching her awareness out. Joy, sadness, anger, fear, lust, and greed were emitted in hard pulses and steady streams. The feelings mixed and mingled, creating a lightshow or perhaps a song that existed on a spectrum that the majority of beings were incapable of perceiving.

Her thoughts turned to her mission. The Sith holocron would be expensive, more than the cost of several decent sized starships, but securing it would be more than worth the price. This was her first solo run, she was anxious, what if she messed up?

Tauira willed the thought away. She had been trained to control her emotions and work toward eliminating her flaws. But then she realized that she had failed to do this, the very fact that she was still unsure of herself was a failure in itself.

I should have gotten over this a long time ago. The thought was like a sickness in her mind. It threatened to turn into an endless cycle of bottomless regret. She would get trapped for hours, maybe days, stuck in a feedback loop of misery.

As she continued to move deeper into the city's entertainment district the electric discharges of the area's passions became brighter and more frequent, stabbing deep into her consciousness. Tuning the madness out took effort, seeing past it to keep an eye on what was brewing in the northeast became more difficult, so did using her powers to watch her back.

Tauira turned onto a side street, the canteen where she was supposed to meet her contact was close. She stepped off to the side and pulled out her datapad, pretending to read it. With her eyes she scanned the area, checking for lookouts, guards, anything that could be a threat. She did the same using the Force.

Nothing out of the ordinary, if this was a trap it was a well-hidden one. She put the tablet back into its pocket and started to step forward. That was when she heard the first explosion.