"One can concentrate so closely on the words of a sentence that one thereby misses the meaning. As can happen in any area of life. You must never lose focus on the larger landscape."

-Force Commander Thrawn (27 BBY)

Star Wars: The Most Dangerous Game

Chapter Five – Dark of the Starwell

"I never wanted it to end this way. You must believe me when I say that I don't believe in prolonging such things. What happened in orbit and what's happening right now, it could have been avoided. For the second time, a Jedi has underestimated the Mandalorians in this conflict, and it won't happen again.

"It can't happen. Do you understand why?"

Dark clouds blotted out the moon, creating a deeper shade of night throughout the ruins of Taris. By that time, Shae had been navigating the wreckage by touch and instinct for hours, using the light on her data-gauntlet only if she felt her life would be in danger otherwise. It was all a moot point, she supposed. If she stayed still, her pursuers would find her. If she used her light, her pursuers would find her. If she didn't use her light, she might accidentally impale herself in the dark or worse... and her pursuers would still find her.

There wasn't much else that could be done. She kept moving, knowing full well that although her high wire act had allowed her to put some distance between the Jedi and his group, that gap could be easily closed if she was careless.

"This war will claim our collective dignity. It's inevitable. I only ask that you make this easier on yourself. To draw this out any longer will only make the process worse for you. Shae Vizla, you need to let go. Your time has come and gone."

She switched on her light and found that the beam she was walking passed over a breach in a tramway tunnel. It wouldn't have been a fatal fall, but she was still grateful she had taken a chance on the light. The edges around the breach reminded her of the teeth of a sarlaac, melted into fine points that might have ripped her to shreds if she'd lost her balance. She briefly entertained the thought of dropping down into the tunnel; it would have made traversing the ruined city that much easier, but she didn't want to risk finding a collapsed tunnel or a derailed tram blocking the way.

Walking the surface was a pain, but at least there was some certainty there.

Shae walked the length of the beam and stepped down safely on the other side of the breach, her feet loosing sand and rock from the edges that created painfully loud echoes. She heard the sounds travel away through the tunnels and bounce off the walls of the surrounding structures. Then everything faded—

And she felt something burn into her left shoulder. She was thrown off her feet and tumbled down an artificial escarpment of metal paneling and pulverized ferrocrete, cutting herself a dozen ways on the way down. When her mind finally caught up to what had happened, she found herself lying on the side of some kind of transport, gutted by its impact with the ground three centuries ago. Reaching up, she brushed away the embers of her scorched clothing and noticed the trailing wound across her shoulder.

Someone had just taken a shot at her, and that someone hadn't quite missed.

Shae stayed on her back, listening intently to her surroundings, trying to get a bead on her pursuers. She could hear distant cheering and clapping before it was quickly shushed. They had her in their sights and were probably waiting for her to pop her head back up above the escarpment.

She gritted her teeth. With the adrenaline wearing off, she was feeling the harsh burn of her new wound. It had been a grazing shot and was already fully cauterized, but the pain was just as intense as if it had gone through and through.

Thinking over her situation: she couldn't stand or run. She would have to crawl until she found better cover. The going would be painfully slow, but there wasn't much else that could be done. It was certainly better than death.

"Surrender, Shae."

Shae assumed the voice that had been forcing its way through her comlink was the Jedi. She could pick out that self-righteous, bordering on arrogant, tone in a crowded cantina. She turned off the device again, but not a minute had passed before the thing was turned on again.

"These men are hunting you for their own reasons. Surrender to me, and I will pay off the bounty that's been placed on your head. You will live, and we will exact justice upon you without the need for bloodshed."

"For sounding like a Jedi," Shae whispered, pushing a section of transparisteel out of her way, "you sure don't sound like a Jedi."

"You needn't worry about that, Shae. I assure you, this has been a long time coming."

"From what I hear, Jedi don't dabble in the bounty game. Do the Sith have you pressed for credits these days?"

"This isn't about money. This is about—"

"Justice?"

A pause. "Yes, Shae."

"You lot have a funny way of exacting justice. You lie to me, blindside me in orbit, and chase me across a slagged world for reasons you have yet to specify... and I'm supposed to believe this is all in the interest of justice?"

Another pause. "As I said, I never wanted it to end this way."

"Yeah, well..." Shae took a moment to get her anger in check. "You better hope that you or your buddies kill me, because if you don't... you won't like what happens next." She placed the comm in front of her and used a chunk of rock to smash the device to pieces. The battery sparked, throwing bits of circuitry in all directions. "Boring conversation, anyway."

She spent the next hour crawling towards the nearest building through the path of least resistance. Speeders and ships of all types littered the grounds, sometimes whole, sometimes halved and scattered across the ditch they had made when they crashed. There was a good chance she was back out of range of her pursuers' weapons, but she didn't want to play the odds in this case. She wanted to draw this out for as long as she could manage.

The light of the moon cut through the cloud cover as Shae reached a wide building that slanted out of the rubble at an uncomfortable angle. Knowing her pursuers would have an even better chance of honing in on her now that there was some semblance of light outside, she hurried into the building to give herself some good cover.

The entrance was propped open and marked with a scavenger's brand, telling her that most of the valuables had been hauled out. Sometimes it was meant to help out any other scavengers on the planet so that they didn't waste their time, but it was usually put up to throw other people off, to make them think everything was gone even though the operation hadn't been finished. Right now, it just meant she wouldn't have any trouble getting indoors.

Shae waited to switch on her light until she was deep inside the building, and she soon discovered she had entered a place that was decidedly not another office building or humdrum apartment complex. The hallway she walked was covered with the shattered remains of marble statues, the intact faces of some still out in the open and covered with graffiti. Most of the work hadn't been done by the bombardment; it seemed like someone had taken some kind of hammer to each of the statues. For what reason, she couldn't even guess. Scavengers got bored sometimes, but defacing statues that were undoubtedly worth more in one piece had to take a special kind of boredom.

Even though the hallway was a mess, there was a sense of elegance about the architecture. Though layered with dust, cerulean paneling inlaid with swirling bronze designs covered the walls, topped by a barrel vaulted ceiling that receded out beyond the reach of her light. Murals could still be seen through the dust, stretched across the ceiling in a continuous depiction of something resembling Corellian myths with godlike figures reaching for yellow stars in a midnight sky.

In place of some of the stars, someone—likely a scavenger—had scratched in the symbol for credits into the painting.

How profound... she thought disparagingly.

The hallway ended at a balcony that was connected to a very wide spiral staircase. Peering over the railing, she saw nothing but a very long fall into darkness. Shining a light down the staircase didn't help all that much; the bottom seemed to extend far below "ground level," and ended at a point she couldn't quite make out. But she could hear noises softly echoing up to her from the abyss. Noises like growls.

She unconsciously began to breathe a little quieter and move with much more care. Every clumsy footfall she made on the slanted floor seemed to bounce off the walls with noticeable intensity. If there was something living down there, she was very sure she didn't want to disturb it...

Something passed in front of her light. Glistening skin, pale white, rippling with muscles. She put a hand over the gauntlet and listened for movement. Whatever was down at the bottom of the staircase hadn't decided to investigate the light, so she pressed on deeper into the building, keeping an eye out for anything she could use against her pursuers...

Anything...

Shae looked over her shoulder, back to the staircase. Though she knew she would probably regret what she was about to do, she grabbed a piece of rubble and stepped forward, anyway. She held the chunk of ferrocrete over the dark of the staircase and, bracing herself for a possible sprint, dropped it. The chunk dropped out of sight and she held her breath—and waited.

Crash!

A terrifying roar erupted from the darkness, then others joined it, and the air was so filled with the noise she had to cover her ears until it died away. Again, nothing was climbing up the staircase, but the primal grunts, scratching, and shrieks all but forced Shae to keep one hand wrapped tightly around the grip of her pistol.

Whatever those things were, they didn't seem to have the proper faculties to deduce that something had dropped that rubble from above. They had followed the sound and attacked.

This. This would work in her favor.

Shae moved away from the staircase to look for a place she could work without worrying about noise. Her pursuers would be coming soon, and she wanted to make sure she'd be in a position to give them a Vizla welcome.

A bronze sign marked the end of the next hallway, and it read: The Starwell Hotel of Taris.

Enjoy Your Stay!