Disclaimer: Usual stuff. LucasArts/BioWare own all characters and planets and vehicles.

The lightsabers clashed furiously against each other, yellow and red.Shouts from distant battles were heard, along with accompanying blaster shots and the constant humming of lightsabers, and the searing, clashing sounds. Blaster scorches littered the walls.
 The red blade slipped, and the yellow lightsaber plunged through the chest of the unlucky Dark Jedi. Standing above the fallen body, stood a fair-faced woman, serene and immersed in the Light Side, preparing her for her hardest battle yet, as two more Jedi approached with her, looking toward the front of the bridge.

He woke up with a start, grabbing for the lightsaber he was sure was attached to his belt, when he realized, he no longer had it on him. His tunic was also gone. His black pants with the belt were still on him, but no lightsaber. He dully noticed a bandage strapped over his stomach.
He rose slowly from the bed he was lying on, and almost attacked the brown-haired man, dressed in a orange jacket of some kind and brown pants, sitting in front of him. The man backed off, but did not seem to be worried. The Zabrak reined in his anger and sat down slowly to show the other man that he had no hostile intentions. For the moment.
"You must've been having a hell of a nightmare, the way you were thrashing about. I hope you are better? You took quite a beating in the crash. I carried you here, to avoid the Sith patrols" the man said, his voice underlined with some concern.
Someone was concerned for him? That was new. He scanned the room, replying absently: "Well, I owe you my life."
The man shook his head, saying something about not abandoning people, but the Zabrak did not listen. He only replied when he heard the man ask for his name.
"My name is D… Maul. Just Maul."
He managed to bite his tongue, before he said 'Darth', since he apparently fought against the Sith for the time being. This simulation is very well done. I hope my Master will be pleased to know that I am loyal to those I serve, if he does not already know. This test is a waste of my time, but he does not think so, since I am here. But why fight for the Republic?
 "Maul? That's a name I have not yet heard" said the man, not noticing the almost slip that would've doomed Darth Maul, "I noticed you have a lot of tattoos, did you do them all over your body?"
Maul answered hime casually, as if it was of no importance: "Yes. And only the black areas are tattoos. My hue is originally red."
"Oh. I see. Well, we cannot sit here if we want to get off the planet, now can we? I scouted around a little, and for your information, we are currently on Taris, which is under Sith occupation right now. We have to find more allies, if we are to find and rescue Bastila. I'm Carth, by the way. Carth Onasi, captain of the Endar Spire" Carth said and held his hand out and shook Maul's. Maul shook it, but then stared baffled at Carth.
"Hold on, did you say… Taris? But isn't that planet uninhabitable?" Maul asked, a sudden strange feeling lurking its way through his mind, as he assimilated the information. No, it cannot be. I must be thinking of something else.
Carth looked at him in surprise, saying incredulously: "No, Taris is quite hospitable, except that it is no good place to live for the poor."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I must've been thinking about some other planet", Darth Maul said, but the gnawing feeling did not leave him; it increased, trying to tell him something, before he tried to put his mind away from it by asking: "Tell me, who is this Bastila, anyway? Someone mentioned her before, but I never understood who she was."
Carth stared openly at him now, something which unnerved Maul.
"Do you not know who Bastila is? She is the Jedi who killed Darth Revan, famous for her Battle Meditation!" he almost shouted at Maul, who now stared back as if he was crazy.
"No, no… it cannot be…" he mumbled, and almost fell. He managed to lean against the wall, and in his mind he tried to deny what the man just said.
No! It cannot be! Darth Revan died 4000 years ago, along with his apprentice, Darth Malak! Bastila, the one who killed Darth Revan, is also dead since 4000 years. He must be joking with me! It must be a cruel joke by my Master! But as he gathered his thoughts, and tried to calm down, he realized a few things that had been off from the beginning.
The armour worn by the Sith troopers, I recognize it. My Master showed me pictures from one of the elder Sith Empires, and they were there. The silver armour was most used during Revan's and Makak's reign and a few years after. And the communicator Trask gave me, it was an older model. The same with the vibroblade he used, and the blaster pistol And the Republic ship, that shape has not been in use for a thousand years, there is none existing any longer.
 "I'm sorry, I'm just a bit dizzy, that's all" he excused himself to Carth, who was hovering a few meters away. He slowly rose on his feet, unsure what to do, now that he knew what time he was in. It has to be a simulation! What else could it be? There is no way for a being to be transported four millennia's back in time! It's impossible! My Master would surely have told me if it did exist. It must be a simulation, he thought with a rising anxiety. Time would tell, he surmised, and mentally told himself to play along in the simulation, for he was too stubborn to believe what the man told him.
"Very well", he began and looked at his new companion, "I guess we are stuck with each other for now. Let's go search for Bastila, and get ourselves off this rock!" Carth nodded, and put his blaster in its holster, and Maul grabbed the two vibroblades he found in one of the containers. He longed for the lightsaber, but decided against it since it would reveal his Sith training, or mark him as a Jedi, which would lead the Sith to attack them, and that was what they wanted to avoid.
As he tested their balance with a twirl, he and Carth walked out the door, and was immediately swept up in a Sith patrol search, that was just terrorizing a pair of Duros.
One of the Duros complained to the gray-clad Sith officer, who shot the alien blank in the chest, then began boasting about Sith supremacy. One of the droids with him acknowledged the presence of the two men, and pointed it out for the officer, who shouted: "They're Republic fugitives! Droids, attack!"
Carth drew his blaster and began firing at one of the droids, quickly disabling it. Maul had pounced on the Sith officer, who had drawn a vibroblade when he saw the Zabrak lunge against him.
Maul fiercely beat on the others blade, seeing the man weaken with every hit. He grinned maliciously, then easily batted the officer's sword out of the way, and lopped his head off, blood spitting out from the severed neck.
Then he turned around, and saw the second droid fall to the ground with a fizzling noise, sparks flying from the damaged central core. Carth walked up to him, blaster at the ready, as the Duros began to speak.
"Thank you for helping", it began with its high-pitched voice, "Poor Ixgil. He shouldn't have stood up to these Sith. It wasn't the first time they were harassing us."
"What about the bodies?" Maul asked, pointing to both the dead Ixgil and the Sith officer. The other Duros stared unblinking at him, reassuring him that the bodies would not be found. Then the blue-skinned alien started dragging away the two bodies, leaving the droid remains for the moment.
"We're going to need some money if we want to find Bastila" Maul said to Carth, who nodded but also asked how they would do that. Maul grinned.
"Leave that to me." With that, he walked to the way out of the complex, with his mind set on finding a cantina.

"Excuse me, ma'am, but where's the cantina around here?" Maul asked a passing lady, dressed in silken clothes. She frowned, looking arrogantly over his clothes. Then with a snobby expression, she described the way. As a way to thank her, Maul pretended to stumble, and pushed her over the edge of the walkway. Her screams grew distant very fast, drowned out by the chattering people and vehicles in the air.
"Oops", he muttered with a mock-excusing tone, and then sprinted away on the described way to the cantina, Carth behind him.
He saw the entrance to the cantina a yard or two away, and was about to rush there when he overheard an conversation.
"Davik says you missed your last payment. And he does not like it when someone is behind in payment" a young, scruffy-looking mercenary said threateningly to an old man. An Aqualish beside him growled something in his own language, which Maul couldn't understand. But he understood that the man was in danger, and that the mercenaries probably had some money on them. So while they were arguing, he went straight up to the human mercenary, knocked him on the shoulder and said coldly: "I don't think you're listening to the man. He can't pay. So why don't you two burn out of here, before I gut you, okay?" Stupid as he was, the mercenary didn't take the hint, instead he snarled: "Davik doesn't like it when people interfere in his business. Take him down!" Then he drew his blaster, and the Aqualish beside him drew a vibroblade, while Maul drew his own vibroblades. Carth who just arrived drew his own blaster, and aimed it at the human mercenary while Maul engaged the Aqualish in close combat. The alien was not as well-trained as Maul, so the fight was over quickly. With a clean slice Maul lopped the head off, while the human mercenary fell to the ground, small holes in his body armour. He then searched the bodies, and found at least 600 credits on them.The old man began to babble his thanks, and how poor he was and how he needed to pay back to Davik.
"Who is Davik?" Maul interrupted the old man, who looked at him and answered: "Why, he is the Exchange leader here on Taris! Very powerful man! Oh, I'm so dead if I don't pay him back!"
Maul scratched his chin thoughtfully, checking the credit chips, pondering what to do. Then he gave without a word 100 credits to the old man, who ran off, blessing him. Carth commented how thoughtful that was of him, but also that he hoped they wouldn't need those credits later. Maul shoved the remaining 500 credits to Carth, saying: "Keep these safe. I think that's enough to survive for a while here."
Then he entered the cantina, while Carth, still chocked over the amount of credits, put them in his pockets and then followed in after Maul.

Maul took a look around the entrance "hall" and the three people in it, standing around a table, where two of the persons were playing some card game which he did not recognize. He asked Carth what it was, who answered with the word "pazaak". Frowning, Maul studied the players and marked every card, remembering the numbers in his head. The third person, a woman, leaned on the younger man eagerly and whispered encouraging words in his ears. The older man sighed wearily and put down his cards, giving up. Triumphantly the younger man scooped up the credits lying on the table, while the woman were mumbling words Maul could not make out, but that was unmistakeably seducing the man. The older man only shook his head, and sat down in a corner.
Maul went past them, into the circular middle of the cantina, and asked a passing waiter where the duelling ring was. She pointed it out to him, while eyeing his clothes with a look of dismay and arrogance.
Ignoring her sniggering, Maul pushed his way through the circular middle into the duelling lobby. At the far end lay a fat, ugly Hutt, which Maul surmised was the arranger of the matches. A couple argued with each other, as they had to watch the latest match at the viewscreens. Intrigued, Maul and Carth strode over to one, and saw the start of a match between Gerlon Twofingers, a middle-aged man with only two fingers on one hand, and Dead-Eye Duncan, who seemed too old to fight. As soon as the match had begun, Duncan dropped his blaster pistol while drawing it, and was rewarded by a shot to the chest by Gerlon, who was proclaimed victor of the match. The old man was dragged out and revived with a med-pac, while the winner went over to the Hutt, and was rewarded with a credit chip.
"So what are you thinking, huh, Maul?" Carth asked the Zabrak, but Maul only shushed him, and went over to the Hutt.
"I do not have time for misguided tourists and their whining" the slimy Hut boomed out when Maul approached him. "Unless you are here to participate in the duelling ring?"
Maul nodded, and the Hutt laughed loudly, and in his raspy, thick voice, he said: "So, you wish to fight? Well then, we have to give you a name! How about Mysterious Stranger?"
"Mysterious Stranger is good. How much will I earn of the incomes from the fight?" Maul asked, knowing the Hutt would try to cheat him if possible. The Hutt looked at him with his large, yellow eyes and said: "10 percent is what you will receive." Fuming with anger at the low percentage, Maul threatened: "You better make that 25 percent unless you wish to adorn these walls with your innards!"
"I do not respond kindly to threats, Zabrak. But I will let it pass. This time. 15 percent, that's my final offer." The Hutt stared into Mauls eyes, trying to psyche him. Maul ignored it, and accepted the offer, knowing it to be a better deal than most duellists got. He was then quickly ushered to the duelling ring by the Hutt, where Duncan was already standing, up on his feet, ready for another duel. The ring was circular, rather small and coloured in a variety of gray colours, and the public was protected by some kind of security glass from any stray shots, or grenade shrapnel. Fingering his vibroblades, he dully listened to the announcer. Then the match began.
He ran as fast as he could toward Duncan, and viciously attacked the poor man, who succumbed to the beating very fast. Not much of a match, Maul surmised. He then left the ring, and positioned himself in front of the Hutt, who quickly gave him the money. He counted up to 150 credits as a whole on the chips, and gave the money to Carth, who quickly put them away. Hesitantly, Carth whispered: "Are you sure this is a good way to earn money?"
"Yes," he whispered back, with a confident smile. "Relax, I'm fast, I can win these duels without any problem." Lacking no confidence, he asked the Hutt to immediately put up the next match, which the Hutt readily agreed to. More fights, more credits, for both of them, the Hutt voiced aloud.
The next one to fight was Gerlon. He wielded a blaster, like he did in his last match against Duncan, but Maul took him down easily.
After receiving 250 credits from Ajuur, as the Hutt was named, Maul and Carth decided that they would go and search for Bastila, or clues as to where she could be.

They decided to backtrack to their "loaned" apartment, but got lost and entered an entirely differend section. Walking round the circular corridor, Maul picked up an agitated voice.
"Look, you better tell me where you hid those uniforms, or I'll gut you myself!" A pleading voice answered: "I do not know where they are. I have no use of Sith uniforms!"
As Maul and Carth approached the apartment from where the voices came, a Sith trooper in his shiny suit of armour said: "Back off, civilian! There is nothing here!"
Giving in to his curiousness, Maul snarled at the guard, and shoved him out of the way. The soldier protested at first, but after one look from Maul's yellow Sith eyes, he backed off, mumbling excuses. Turning to the officer inside, he asked in a commanding tone: "What's going on here?" The officer, clad in blood-red armour, looked him over, and answered: "My Lord, this man has stolen several Sith uniforms, and refuses to give them back. I was about to torture him, May I proceed?" Maul threw a glance at the terrified Aqualish, who stared at him with his big, round eyes, silently pleading him.
"No. You may not. Release this person. It is obvious that he knows nothing." Maul looked deep into the black-chrome visor, hoping that the man behind would back off. But the man did the opposite. He drew his blaster and said harshly: "You are no Sith! Kill him!" The last was directed at the soldier outside the apartment, who drew his vibrosword, only to fall to the ground with a large hole gaping on his chest. Maul drew his vibroblades, and stabbed his opponent in his gut. Gurgling, the man doubled over, gripping his stomach with both hands, and then landed on the floor with a thud.
The Aqualish thanked him over and over, and then told him a piece of information that was very much worth the trouble.
"The Hidden Beks are the ones I took the Sith uniforms for. They have their base of operations down in the Lower City. That's where you want to head, I believe." Thanking him once again, the Aqualish took off and ran away as fast as he could.
Relieving the dead officer of his red armour, Maul forced Carth to put it on, even when Carth whined about it being ugly and would squeeze his groin too hard.
"Oh, stop the whining already. You fit perfectly. Besides, my horns makes it impossible to put the helmet on. And I won't trim them down just for this. Behave like a soldier." Carth grumbly accepted the truth, and pulled on the Sith officer's armour with some hesitation. He then apologized for his un-military like behavior and straightened his posture and walked out the room. Before leaving, Maul made sure it looked like an accident had happened in the room. He deployed a mine in the centre of the room, pulled in the body of the other soldier, then took the discarded blaster, walked out and threw it on the mine. He jumped away from the entrance and heard the satisfying 'boom', accompanied by a slight tremor in the ground.
"Now, let's head down to the Lower City, and see if we can find any clues there" he said calmly to Carth, who held his hands around his head, ears ringing from the explosion.

They walked out of the apartment complex, and strolled down the lively streets of Taris, pushing the few people that didn't move when they went past. Arriving by the elevator, Carth walked up to the Sith soldier that was leaving at the wall beside the elevator door. When he saw Carth, all dressed up in the blood-red armour of the officer, he straightened his posture, and opened the door without question. Then he saw Maul, who had his head bowed down in submission, and he asked with contempt: "What is this thing doing here, sir?"
His voice partly muffled by the helmet, Carth harshly spoke: "He is following me because he knows the terrain best down there. And he wishes to take revenge on some swoop member down there, and we've promised to help him if he helps us."
The soldier excused himself and returned to eye the few people that dared to go along the small corridor leading to the Sith base on Taris.
Entering the elevator, Carth pressed a few buttons, and then quickly pulled off the Sith armour, and put it in his backpack, with the comment: "Never know if it will be needed again, you know."
With that, the elevator began to descend down toward the lower parts of Taris, where the slum and swoop gangs reside and thrive.

A/N: Well, second chapter is up, and we're going down to the Lower City next! I wish to speed ahead of these areas, and thus describe a few areas less than others, unless they are of the utmost importance. I just want to get off Taris. ;)