Chapter 7

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Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars or Prototype.

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Voren felt relief as he stepped through the entrance to the South Apartments in the Upper City. Due to the strict laws of aliens not being allowed in the Upper City, this apartment complex became a hideout for many illegal aliens. This complex was perfect if you didn't want to get find out, the majority of the Upper City citizens considered this place too poorly to live in. Due to its rundown nature, the Tarisian Authorities were unlikely to bother investigating.

At first everything had seemed hopeless, crash landing after a brutal defeat when orbiting Taris and then to realize only three people survived. Now however, they had come half way to their goal. He had worked hard with the plan to rescue Bastila, gathering Intel and forming the right alliances. Then 'that' man showed up and a second later, all that was almost for nothing. Right now though, it didn't matter. Rescuing Bastila had given him enough hope and conviction to get away from this planet and the Sith.

"I'd like to thank you for your help in rescuing Bastila, despite what happened." Voren turned around and was about to glare at the culprit. "Where is he by the way?"

Canderous grunted. "He's probably off doing something stupid again."

"Never mind that, now we must leave planet." Bastila looked at Voren. "Let's go."

"We haven't actually got a way off the planet yet."

"What! What have you been doing all this time?"

Voren crossed his arms. "We were saving you, remember."

"I see. I guess without Jedi training completing both objectives would be difficult." Bastila lifted her chin. "But now that I'm in charge we can get things moving."

Carth shook his head. "We can't get hold up on who's in charge. Besides, a leader doesn't berate her troops just because things aren't going as planned."

"That's hardly the way of addressing your commander, Carth. I am a member of the Jedi order and this is my mission."

"Then what do you suggest we do Bastila?" Voren asked before things went out of hand.

"First we find a means of transportation, and then find a way through the blockade."

Canderous cleared his throat. "About that, the codes we need to escape are in the Sith headquarters. We already have a shuttle ready, only need the codes."

Bastila nodded. "Hmm, at least someone knows what they're doing."

Ignoring the jab, Voren asked. "How are we going to get inside the most secure place on the planet?"

"At first we were going to use an advanced security device," Canderous sighed. "But as he ran off, we need to acquire a droid. T3-M4 to be exact."

Looking at their questioning faces he continued. "It's a utility droid built as a master slicer."

Bastila raised a brow. "And you just happened to have one of those on hand, Mandalorian."

"I don't, but Davik Kang does. I've done a few jobs for him, if you tell the manager at the store that I sent you. She'll give it to you."

Voren nodded. "Then let's do it."

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Dusk was about to fall over Taris soon, he imagined the team had regrouped at the abandoned apartment in the Upper city by now. Alex had gone of course half way there, he trusted that Canderous could properly motivate their newfound friends into getting the codes successfully. He probably should have stayed and made sure the infiltration of the Sith headquarters went on without any problems, but the power of the Sith was still an unknown factor, and he wasn't in the mood to measure himself against it yet. Most of the talk he heard during his time in the cantina where about the invasion and something called Rakghoul, hideous monsters with an appetite for flesh.

Naturally, he wanted to see these so-called monsters for himself. This was why he was riding the elevator down to the Under city. The Sith troopers guarding the elevator, like the republic soldiers, warned him not to go down there. But they made no actions to actually stop him, a wise move. The elevator doors opened with a low hiss and the first thing he saw was a mechanical wilderness and a small camp up ahead.

"What a shit hole." Alex wrinkled his nose. "And I thought the Lower City smelled bad."

"You there! Up-worlder! You have to pay a toll for using this elevator!"

Alex felt shock. Did just a dirty, scrawny-looking kid try to shake him down for credits?

Seconds later another equally malnourished kid joined his friend.

"Yeah, if you use our elevator you have to give us something!"

Oh I'm going to give you something alright. Alex was about to give them the beating of a lifetime, but before he could the kids were chased away by a brown-haired woman. Alex thought she was an improvement from those kids, but not by much.

"My name is Shaleena… you're from the up-world, aren't you?" She looked up and exhaled. "I've never seen it. Is it beautiful?"

"Well I can tell you right now it's better than this dump." Seeing her shocked expression he added. "No offence."

"C…Could you tell me about it?"

"I don't have time for this. But my blue little stalker hiding behind those crates might."

A low yelp could be heard and the rustle of someone standing up. A second later the head of Mission Vao peeked over the edge; with her cover blown she joined the pair.

Putting her hands on her hip, she asked. "How did you know?"

"It's impossible to sneak up on me."

He gave them both a long hard stare before walking towards the camp, Mission hurried after him.

"So why are you down here? Not many people would willingly go to the Under city."

Alex shrugged. "I wanted to see one of these Rakghouls for myself. Why are you here?"

"Well I knew Voren wouldn't pick me for the next step, so I thought I would come down here and find the serum for the Rakghoul plague."

"There's a cure?"

"Yeah, problem is only Sith troopers have them when patrolling down here."

Alex nodded. "I imagine one of these vials can fetch a hefty price to the right buyer."

"No! We're not going to sell it. There's a guy in the Upper City who can make more."

"So you want to play hero and save everyone from the big bad monsters."

Mission frowned. "What's wrong with that?"

Alex thought about it. Selling the cure would give him a lot of credits, but he didn't actually need any. On the other hand, he didn't need a bunch of cured lowlife's either.

"I suppose being a hero have its advantages, if you're in to that sort of thing. So I'll help you find the serum."

Mission smiled. "Really! That's great, let's search this area first. Follow me."

Seeing Mission run ahead full with joy and willingness to help people reminded him of Dana, before she became a manipulative, narcissistic journalist. But he supposed being disrespectful, foul-mouthed, and not afraid of a fight would serve you better in life than being an altruist. Alex wasn't in the mood for memories from ancient times, so he forced them from his mind and followed his young guide in silence.

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He stood behind one of the many metal pipes found in the Under city. The slurp of mud could be heard as the Outcast children sped past, playing with what little energy they still had. Stagnant air filled the area along with putrefaction. Like every abandoned and forgotten camp in the galaxy, the place reeked of despair. A moan of pain from the prison cell on the right caught his attention; the latest victims of the Rakghouls would have a tough evening. He watched them and put what he saw to memory, one-act of carelessness and that fate could be his.

An exercise of will caused his goggles to filter out the darkness in the background, and the details around him became more defined. The Exchange had a problem, and he was the solution. The Exchange wanted the addicts on Taris freed of their reliance on their competitor's spice so they could only get hooked up on their own spice. In truth he found it surprising that The Exchange had taken this long to sort it out. Whoever had orchestrated this was cunning indeed.

With the press of a button the view of the camp in his right window disappeared, replaced with a vidscreen that showed the same news footage that every vidscreen and holovid in the galaxy must have shown at some point. A story of the war effort against the Sith. A human female, he knew she was a senator from Alderaan but could not recall her name, was giving an interview. She looked stern, upright as she spoke. With the ever-increasing Sith forces, the senator think that the Republic needed more funding in order to combat the Sith threat efficiently. He did not care how the war between the Republic and the Empire went, so long as he could exploit the tension between them and make some credits.

He was moving up in the galaxy. If he could deal with this problem, the Exchange would compensate him well. And who knew? Maybe this job would open up the opportunities of a lifetime. He alternated his attention between the news and the Outcast's camp until he saw what he was waiting for. He powered off the inbuilt vidscreen and readied his two Mandalorian heavy blasters. Lingering among the pipes, he watched as his target moved through the camp nonchalant. He noted the lack of any visible firearms. He suspected the target was skilled in hand-to-hand combat and fast enough to close the distance.

He reached into his pack and took out several spherical devices. He ordinarily preferred to use more conventional means, but this job needed to be done by any cost.

Ready, he waited.

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Au

Short, I know. Next chapter will be longer, that I promise.