Author's Note: Happy Star Wars Day. To celebrate, I have decided to update this story first thing today. Enjoy the chapter. Any and all comments are welcome.

Ever since Carolina reopened her leg wound, Jena wanted to be alone. Unfortunately, she didn't have the luxury. As she sat on a cliff overlooking the far, distant field, she was approached by Strike who sat right next to her.

"Hey, sunshine." He greeted. "Anything you want to talk about?"

Jena sighed lowering her head. "I really messed up."

"Yeah. I remember." Strike said. "Look. It ain't your fault. Those Stormtroopers were closing in on us. You made a split second decision. Fight or flight."

"And I should've chosen fight." Jena said. "Instead, I… I gave into my fear."

"It's okay to be afraid, you know." Strike assured.

"Not for a Jedi." Jena replied. "Growing up, we were taught that fear is the path that leads to the dark side. Fear leads to anger which leads to hate which leads to suffering. And if I give into my fear, wouldn't I end up on the path to the dark side?"

"You're assuming that fearlessness is mandatory for a Jedi, but that sounds unrealistic to me." Strike said earning Jena's eyes fixed up at the old clone. "It's perfectly normal to at least be a little worried. Soldiers like myself are sent out into the battlefield, and we have no idea of knowing if it was going to be our last day. We didn't know if we were gonna die or fail the mission, but we just kept going. I guarantee some of the greatest clones have felt that way, and I'm willing to bet there were some great Jedi who did too."

"Well, how do I handle it?" Jena asked. "We've been running from the Empire for many years. And now, they found us here on this planet, and we have no way to escape. Seeing that Inquisitor made me feel just as helpless as I did the day of Order 66. How am I supposed to deal with it?"

"Well, I guess that's all up to you." Strike answered. "Right now, all that's holding you back is your fear. So if you want to make a difference, you might want to punch that fear away."

Jena couldn't help but crack a small smile. "Why do all your advice involve violent metaphors?"

"Hey. I'm a soldier. It's my nature." Strike answered getting a laugh from himself and Jena. Their moment of laughter was suddenly broken by the distant yells of Carolina's anger.

"WHY WON'T HE TALK?!"

"Oh, that can't be good." Strike said.

Jena and Strike returned to the group at the campsite. They arrived just in time to see a box thrown out of the metal building structure and fly over their heads and the others'.

Church appeared next to Sarge. "Well, she definitely takes after her mother."

"Was her mother some kind of silverback gorilla on steroids?" Sarge asked.

"Yeah. Be happy her mother's not around to hear you say that."

"What's going on?" Strike asked.

"Well, the Stormtrooper woke up and Carolina's trying to make him give up information." Church explained. "But as it turns out, he's tougher than he looks. Won't give anything up, no matter how much Carolina loses her temper."

"He's resisting a temper like that?" Strike asked. "Wow. He really is tough."

"Hey, Church," Jena said, "I just want to say I'm sorry for what happened at the crash site. Something went out of control in me, and I apologize."

Church sighed. "It's okay."

"What are you apologizing to him for, Jena?" Tucker asked. "You made the right call. Besides, he never apologized for leaving us."

"Tucker, this isn't the time." Church growled. "I got good news and bad news. The good news is, the Reds did manage to bring back a completely intact drive with the ship's records and manifest."

"Yeah, you know, suck it, Blue." Simmons said.

"And what's the bad news?" Strike asked.

"The bad news is that thanks to the Reds, those documents are currently locked."

"Oh, wait… Yeah." Simmons said regretfully.

"Apparently, they accessed the ship's records the last time they were on board, but since they didn't have the proper clearance, the files are now in security lockdown."

"You guys accessed the ship's computer without clearance?" Jena asked.

"In hindsight, we had no idea any of this would happen." Simmons said.

"Aren't you part of the matrix now, Church?" Tucker asked. "Why don't you just hack it?"

"Oh, why don't I just hack it?" Church asked building up frustration. "Oh, while I'm at it why don't I just 'download the mainframe' or 'cross-reference the database'? Don't talk to me about technical shit! This is hard, okay?"

"But you can get to it, right?" Strike asked.

"Yeah! It's just a lot of time and a lot of hard work! It's just making me a little…"

"Frustrated." Donut said.

"I was going to say 'completely filled with rage' but yeah, frustrated."

"Talking about me?" asked Carolina as she joined the group.

"Actually, no."

"I don't get it. He's not giving up anything." Carolina said.

"Maybe I should try." Jena said. "I mean, we all know that Jedi can be pretty pursuasive. Plus, it might help make up for my mistake."

"Mistake?" Tucker asked.

"Tucker, can it!" Church shouted. "Okay, Jena. Give it a shot."

Jena faced the building where the prisoner was held and took a breath. She entered and immediately faced the Stormtrooper who was held at the corner wearing a pair of handcuffs.

"Ooh. What's the matter? Did the big bad Freelancer get all tuckered out?" he asked mockingly.

Jena held out her hand and slowly waved it in front of the Stormtrooper. "Let's start simple. First, you will tell me your name."

The Stormtrooper stared blankly before his head waved side to side slowly. "I will tell you my name. It is Nunya."

"Nunya?" Jena asked. "Nunya what?"

"'Nunya' business! HAHAHA!" the Stormtrooper laughed catching Jena by surprise. "Did you think that just because I'm a Stormtrooper, I automatically have a weak mind? Sorry, sweetheart. I'm a bit smarter than that."

Jena was a little steamed. She never would have thought that she'd be insulted by a Stormtrooper.

"Hey, Jena." The Jedi Padawan turned around and saw Dr. Grey enter the room. "Mind if I take a swing at him?"

"Oh, really?" the Stormtrooper asked. "What are you going to do that might do better than the Freelancer and the Jedi?"

"Do you know where we are?" Dr. Grey asked.

"Huh?"

"This is a remote research facility designed to study the surrounding wildlife. I volunteered at one just like at at grad school. It's got a laboratory, an incinerator, and oodles of state of the art surgical equipment." Dr. Grey turned her head slowly from the lab to the Stormtrooper. "Would you like to see them?"

Outside the base, the rest of the team waited patiently until three loud noises got their attention. One was the noises of various electrical equipment. Another was the loud, tortured screams of the Stormtrooper prisoner. And the last was Dr. Grey singing opera.

"Sarge, I'm scared." Simmons said nervously.

"Simmons, we're all scared… Um, except for me."

After a minute, the noises stopped, and Dr. Grey and Jena walked out of the base. The Jedi stared at the doctor with the widest, most terrifying eyes imaginable.

"His name is Zachary Miller, he's ex-UNSC, and he was kind enough to hand over the coordinates to a nearby radio jammer." Dr. Grey said.

"You're kidding." Carolina said.

"No, silly. I'm Dr. Grey! HA! Dad joke!"

"What happened in there?" Strike asked.

"Remember what you said that even the greatest Jedi had reason to feel fear?" Jena asked. "Well, after seeing what this woman was capable of doing, I think you might be right."

"So, think he's in a position to answer a few more questions?" Carolina asked.

"Oh, absolutely." Dr. Grey said. "Let me just go put him back together."

"Caboose." Tucker said.

"Yes?"

"Don't ever stick your dick in crazy."

"I have no idea what that means."

"I know."

Jena and Strike followed Washington, Carolina, and Dr. Grey back in the base where the Stormtrooper, Zachary, was waiting petrified by the incinerator.

"You'll find his belongings in that crate over there and that his tone is much more positive." Dr. Grey said. "Isn't that right, Zachary?"

"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, GET THIS PSYCHOPATH AWAY FROM ME!"

"He's all yours." Dr. Grey said as she left the room.

"Okay, pal." Strike said to the prisoner. "We need to know about the radio jammers."

II already told your friend about the nearest one, okay?"

"We want to know about all of them." Carolina said.

"I don't know all of them! I swear! Look, if you take out the jammer at the coast, you'll at least be able to make contact with the capitol. That helps, right? Now, will you let me go?"

"There seems to be a misunderstanding." Washington answered. "Your options are either A, staying here forever, or B, the incinerator directly behind you."

Zachary looked back feeling the heat from the incinerator. He turned back to his captors chuckling nervously. "Good point. What else do you want?"

"Let's start with the giant, glowing tower at Crash Site Alpha." Jena said. "What's it doing?"

"What, the tractor beams? That's why your ship crashed here in the first place. They're some of the only alien relics we've managed to activate. Ships come by, we pull them down, and then we kill everyone aboard. After that, the mercs sell the supplies to the armies. Would have worked on you too, but something went wrong. It was like the ship tried to jump to slip-space, change course, and power down all at the same time. It didn't make any sense. Instead of pulling you down, the ship got ripped apart."

Both Jena and Washington had stunned expressions on their faces that Carolina noticed.

"What is it?" Carolina asked.

"Well…" Jena said nervously, "I may have been practicing my lightsaber skills on the ship, and I may have sliced through a breaker box. I didn't think it was important until the alarm blared right after that."

"You?" Washington asked. "I tripped over a power cable? Wait, if we messed up, could it be that the others…"

Strike let out a powerful laugh. "Oh, that's hilarious! Everyone was doing stupid things at once, and it turns out, that they saved our lives!"

"Okay. Back to the interrogation." Carolina said turning her attention back at Zachary. "How many of you are there on Chorus?"

"Enough to get the job done."

"Give me numbers or I give you back to the doctor."

"Whoa! Let's not get hasty! There's a few dozen of us, alright?"

"A few dozen?" Washington asked.

"Quality over quantity. You Freelancers should know something about that. It seemed like the best way for us to do our business here without catching the UNSC's attention."

"Which reminds me," Jena said, "Felix said that the Emperor is personally invested in this planet. I want to know why."

"I don't know. I can only guess that there's an alien relic here that he wants. But like I said, it's just a guess. I'm just a soldier. I'm not privileged with that kind of info."

Carolina, Wash, Jena, and Strike looked at each other sharing concerns. Zachary noticed it and continued talking.

"I can tell you this though. If Emperor Palpatine has invested a lot of time and money into this project, then interfering is just going to sign your death warrants. If you think he's just gonna sit back and let you throw it all away, then you've got another thing co…"

Zachary was interrupted by a red lightsaber which flew right past the heroes and pierced him straight in the chest. They turned outside and caught sight of the Thirteenth Sister. She raised her hand and summoned her lightsaber back into her grip. The sight of her brought fear back into Jena's heart.

"Damn it!" Carolina groaned loudly. She and the others immediately went to cover once the blaster fire sounded.

"Tucker, Sarge, more Stormtroopers incoming!" Washington called.

"What? Men, battle stations!" Sarge ordered.

"Get to the lab as soon as possible!" Strike yelled. "We'll hold them off!"

"More hostiles inbound!" Church warned as the rest of the Reds and Blues joined them.

While everyone went into cover, the Thirteenth Sister jumped from her position and landed in front of the Stormtrooper hunting party. They closed in on the base while she turned on her lightsaber.

"What the hell's going on?!" Tucker asked loudly.

"We're being surrounded!" Church answered.

"How do they keep finding us?!" Carolina asked.

"I don't know! Is there an informant? A tracking device?"

Suddenly, Washington's mind raced back to a memory of a decision he now regretted. He looked back at Caboose as the realization hit him.

"Oh, no. EVERYONE, GET READY!"

"Got it!" Sarge replied. 'TODAY IS A GOOD DAY TO…"

"..sit down for a minute and just have a rest, 'cause I think I'm gonna throw up."

Everyone felt nauseous as they found themselves flashed in a whole new, but familiar location.

"We're back at the gas station?" Simmons asked.

"Good. I think I need a bathroom." Donut said.

"I would not recommend it." Grif said.

"How did we get here?" Tucker asked.

"It looks like Washington used a teleporter cube to get us out of there. Though, it looks like we only have one left." Strike said before noticing Jena's fearful face. "Kid, you okay?"

Jena was silent for a second before finally taking a breath. "Right. Sorry. I'll feel better when we find out how the Inquisitor found us."

"It's Freckles." Washington said. "Freckles is the tracking device."

After hearing that, everyone turned their attention over to Caboose.

"Damn it!" the Thirteenth Sister grunted after finding an empty lab. "That's the third time they've escaped us! That's three times too many!"

"Sounds like it's someone's time of the month." Felix said as he appeared with Locus beside him.

The Thirteenth Sister groaned seeing them. "So you finally got a break from your armies, I see."

"Yeah. We told our respective generals that we spotted suspicious merc activity away from the battlefield and they can go start the fight without us." Felix said before letting out a quick laugh. "They're just as big idiots as the Reds and Blues."

"Speaking of whom, I see you're still hunting them." Locus said.

The Inquisitor scowled. "Yes."

"How hard is it to kill thirteen idiots?" Felix asked.

"You want to try it?! Look, they've been evading our capture so far with teleportation grenades, and I'm guessing they only have one left. However, they probably already figured out how we're tracking them and are about to disable the signal. The next time we go after them, we have to be certain we will catch them, because if they teleport again, we'll never be able to find them anywhere on the planet. And to make matters worse, they know where to find the radio jammer to Armonia."

"This is troubling." Locus said.

"So what's the plan?" Felix asked.

"I don't know." The Thirteenth Sister said. "Honestly, Felix, I don't know why you insisted on getting them involved. They're all a bunch of cowards who didn't want anything to do with this planet in the first place."

Felix's head perked up. "Huh. You don't say."

"What are you thinking?" Locus asked.

"It's just like cranky-pants here said," Felix said, "The Reds and Blues are cowards who didn't want to get involved. So how's about we offer them a way out?"