A/N: I said I was gonna be better than this lolsob. Anyway after a myriad of computer issues (read: my gaming laptop went into harddrive failure and then trying to build a new system went completely FUBAR and I haven't had the energy to pick it back up) and other issues with work, I've finally gotten my writing drive back. Good news for you guys, possibly not good news for my favorite trash daughter and the orange boyfriend we all deserve. Anyway. Foundry time!

20: RTFM

About a day later, the fleet left hyperspace in a remote system in the Unknown Regions. On the edge of a tiny system they found it, an asteroid nearly the size of a dwarf planet drifting through a wide asteroid belt. The fleet navigated it rather easily, and Revan directed them to a small docking tube on the right side of the station. She, Carth, Khemmaa, and the droids made their way to a shuttle on the Valiant's hangar deck.

"We'll clear the area and report back," she said. Carth stood by the shuttle ramp, concern etched across his face. As the fleet's commanding officer, he couldn't head onto the Foundry with her just yet, and the conflict was obvious from the set of his shoulders and the furrows in his brow. "If it's safe, I'll tell you to start attaching the prefab so we can get to work."

"Just … be careful," he replied with a frown.

"When am I not?"

"… do you want a list?"

Revan chuckled. "Ouch. That's fair." She motioned the others onto the shuttle and stepped onto the ramp herself. "I'll be careful, Carth. We'll be in constant comm contact, alright? But I'm expecting this place to be empty. The Star Forge was, mostly, so I'm assuming the Foundry will be."

He nodded and stepped forward, resting his hand on her waist. "Just leave if you think anything is wrong. Don't … you know, be yourself."

She chuckled, bouncing onto her toes and kissing him gently. "No promises, but I'll do my best."

Carth nodded and reluctantly released her, and Revan headed onto the shuttle. She slipped past Khemmaa, currently attempting to strap herself into a jumpseat a bit too small for an adult Wookiee, and settled down at the controls.

"All set back there?" she asked as she raised the shuttle's ramp. Khemmaa growled something that sounded part agreement, part frustration — Revan decided to take it as a yes. She pulled the shuttle out of the hangar, slipping out from the Valiant's hangar deck and into space. Behind them, the fleet began to take up a blockade position around the Foundry itself. She added another tally to the times she'd approved of Admiral Onasi's actions. "There's a small hangar next to the main entry. Until they get the prefab docking station up, that'll be the best way to get in. If it's still got some droids active this could be rough — have your bowcaster ready, just in case."

"It's ready."

She guided the shuttle into the waiting hangar, setting it down with a solid thunk. The hangar itself, clearly Rakata in design, was completely empty — hardly any dust stirred from the shuttle's drop.

"That's disquieting."

Revan had expected some defenses to still be online, even if it was simply to keep out those pesky slave races. She undid her strapping and climbed to her feet, lowering the shuttle's ramp. "Nothing so far. You're sure you're ready."

Khemmaa nodded. "I am."

Revan nodded, motioned to HK and T3, and headed off the shuttle.

The Force had been palpable inside the shuttle, but once outside, in the hangar, it bore down on her heavily. She reached out and steadied herself on the shuttle, drawing a sharp breath as the sensation settled itself behind her eyes, a thick, hard feeling somewhere between pressure and pain. It was the dark side, all right, not unlike the Star Forge had been when she'd first set foot on it — only now she was less impressionable. Revan shoved it away, though it still ached behind her eyes, and straightened herself up.

"That feeling," Khemmaa asked. "What is it?"

"That would be the Force, K," Revan said. "The angry side of it, anyway. How are you doing?"

Khemmaa shook her head, batting a cascade of fur away from her face, and shrugged. "It's unsettling, but I'll be fine."

"Just let me know if you want to turn back." Revan checked the clips on her lightsabers. "It's not going to get any better."

She nodded. "I'll be fine."

Revan nodded and motioned them after her, heading towards the exit from the hangar. The doors opened into a hallway, thick with mold and dust. Khemmaa sneezed. Revan carefully lashed a breather onto her face, and motioned for the Wookiee to do the same.

"Alright, Carth," she called over the comm. "We've made it off the hangar. Lots of dust in here — Khemmaa and I threw breathers on. Never know if the Rakata had a biological agent or something for us pesky slaves."

:: You think they'd … :: Carth's voice, even over the comm, was thick with concern. She shook her head.

"No, no, I don't know. Either way, there's a ton of dust in here and I don't want to breathe it in." She waved Khemmaa forward and they started into the massive halls, a gray and brassy-colored stone lined with obelisk-shaped pillars, occasionally broken by a towering, spear-holding Rakatan statues.

"This place is … enormous," Khemmaa said, turning in a circle.

"The Rakata liked to build them big." They turned down another corridor. "Keep your eyes open for a terminal. HK, T3, any lifesigns?"

T3 chirped.

"Assessment: Negative."

Revan nodded back. "Let me know if that changes."

The air was thick with the Force, dust, and mold, almost thickening the further they went. Even Revan was starting to find it uncomfortable, rubbing her temples as she kept an eye out for a terminal. Or a map.

As they ventured deeper into the Foundry, they began to pass ancient droid carcasses. T3 slid closer to Revan's legs, bumping into her and whistling nervously.

"Hm, here's one," Revan said finally, spotting a terminal near a heavy, closed blast door. "How are you?"

"Fine," Khemmaa growled. "It's just heavy."

"Be glad you're not sensitive to it already," Revan replied as she plugged in. "I'll see if I can download a map."

T3 chirped, and she shook her head. "No, I don't want you plugging in until I'm sure the systems are clean." She flipped open her communicator. "Carth, we found a terminal. So far, no defenses. A lot of deactivated droids, but that's it."

:: What do the droids say? ::

"No lifesigns." T3 chirped. "T3 says he's picking up some, but they look like they're on the surface."

:: Get me some coordinates and I'll send a couple fighters around. Where are you at? ::

"I think …" Her hands paused on the terminal. "We should be getting close to the command center. I'll update you when we're there."

:: Thanks. Be careful. ::

"I always am, flyboy." The door ahead of them zipped open, and she pulled her hands off the console. "No map, and no way to access the Foundry's inner systems. We'll have to head for the command center."

"How much further?"

"Not sure." She adjusted her robe and started through the door. "You still in?"

"I'll be fine."

#

It took a good hour for them to find their way through the Foundry, past hulking shells of droids not dissimilar to the ones that had haunted Lehon's Temple of the Ancients. The last door they found was enormous and highly decorated — and right before what Revan knew was a coalescing of negative Force energy, swirling just beyond the door. She glanced back at Khemmaa, her companion eying the door and holding her bowcaster with a little more pressure than strictly necessary.

"You can stay out here, if you want."

Khemmaa shook her head. "I said I'd come in with you. So I will."

Revan laughed. "Have I mentioned how much I love Wookiees recently? Don't be afraid to bow out if it gets too bad. I won't have your father tracking me down." She echoed Revan's laugh with a recognizable growl.

The door opened into a wide room, a large, circular platform resting in the center of a massive cavern at the center of the asteroid. The top was open to the field above them, the Valiant just visible over it, and disappeared farther than they could see. Smaller asteroids, still the size of a small shuttle, drifted through the hole above, down towards the pit beneath them. A forcefield glittered above, allowing the rocks through while keeping them safe from the threat of vacuum exposure.

The entire sight was awe-inspiring, even though Revan had seen similar structure on the Star Forge. The Rakata certainly knew how to build.

Her goal rested on the far edge of the platform, an enormous bank of computers decorated in an obvious Rakatan style. It looked so similar to ones in the Temple of the Ancients that she almost had a brief pang of homesickness for the time the Emperor had torn her from. Drawing her lips into a thin line, she started down the ramp towards the platform with Khemmaa, HK, and T3 on her heels.

"Carth," she said into the comm. "We're at the central control station. I'll report in once we're sure it's safe."

:: Copy. Be careful. ::

As they approached the computer, she could almost feel the facility stutter to life around her. Lights tentatively flickered down the computer, then became a constant stream. A panel flared to life on the vast computer bank — as she drew within reach of it, the computer spoke.

The dialect was recognizable as ancient Rakatan — the same one the Star Forge had used, but not the same as the computer in the Temple of the Ancients. This one she only barely understood, but she was fairly certain it threatened her. She cleared her throat.

"Hello. Is there a way to adjust your language output?"

The computer whirred for a few minutes, finally settling on the ancient dialect of Selkath that the Rakata droid on Dantooine had once used. "I can speak any of the languages spoken by the slaves of the Builders."

Revan sighed. Here they went again.

"Charming. How long has it been since you saw a Builder?"

"It has been one hundred thirty-six revolutions of this station."

She looked back at T3, who quickly ran the calculation and chirped. Twenty-seven thousand years. Accurate enough. "Great. We're here to take control of the Foundry. I'm familiar with the mechanisms of the Star Forge itself, so I don't think it'll be too challenging."

The computer paused, obviously parsing this new information. "How could a non-Builder gain access to the heart of the Infinite Empire?"

"Long story. Not important." She waved her hand. "Either way, I hate to bear bad news, but the Builders aren't coming back. Not today, probably not ever. I've seen them, and it's not good. They're confined to their homeworld, non-spacefaring, and had no interest in becoming spacefaring again three hundred years ago. I haven't been back since, but I also haven't seen any, so I assume that has not changed."

The computer paused again. "What became of the Star Forge?"

"It blew up. I had nothing to do with it."

Another pause. "Very well," it said, somehow sounding resigned. "I will allow access to the Foundry."

"Great. T3, go ahead and chat. Just be prepared to back out if you need to." T3 chirped and rolled forward. "Get me a map, then go through the system. We'll check out the lines."

T3 carefully plugged himself into the computer, and after a moment, chirped and opened a datapad port on his top. Revan plugged hers in, downloaded the map he gave her, and waved Khemmaa back down the walkway. "That went better than expected," she said with a sigh.

"What did?"

"The computer. The one on the Star Forge was an ass. 'Slave race' this and 'you're not my real mom' that. Almost intolerable."

Khemmaa laughed. "What now?"

"We're going to check out Lines One and Two. I want to start trying to get something done today — the faster we work this factory out, the faster we start getting droids to the Republic."

She nodded. "What are you expecting?'

"Some debris on the lines, mostly. Unfinished Rakata droids. We'll have to see when we get there." Revan opened her commlink. "Hey, Carth. We made it to central control. The station should be reactivating."

:: We noticed. Is it safe to begin attaching the prefabs? ::

"Get the stylus-necks looking at the scans and go ahead. Khemmaa and I are taking a look at the production lines."

:: Will do. Be careful. ::

"Always am." She clipped the commlink back to her belt. "Alright, K, let's see what we can find."

#

Had Revan not seen the Star Forge, she would be unprepared for the magnitude of the Foundry. Considering she had, the Foundry was only marginally impressive.

Once outside the main control chamber and the main entrances, assembly lines ran kilometers into the asteroid's depths, as chunks of asteroid drifted ever downward. They were small lines — not really assembly, more like sudden construction, not unlike the ones Malak had weaponized to slow her down. Revan ran her hand along one of the tall, pillar-like structures with a slight shudder.

"How are you?" she asked. The energy was still strong down here, though not as bad as the central control room. Khemmaa shrugged.

"I think I'm adapting."

"You probably are." They wandered through the production lines, clearing the minimal rubble they found. "This is so odd."

"How?"

"It's like the Rakata just powered everything off and left." Revan raised her comm. "T3?" The droid chirped back. "Have you isolated any defenses?"

:: / Defenses = yes. / Active = no. / T3 = turn on? / ::

"No! Not yet. We'll see if we can modify the IFFs before that — I'll look when we get back." Revan glanced back at HK. "Any lifesigns?"

"Assessment: None yet, Master."

"Good." She shook her head. "It just feels … odd. But the Star Forge didn't have many active defenders when Malak and I found it. Only a few, mostly droids nearly rusted out." It'd been the same in the Temple of the Ancients — of the droids present when she, Jolee, and Juhani had fought their way through, they'd been reactivated by her Sith forces several years earlier. Their technology was robust, but not that robust. "I suspect the energy is just making me uneasy, that's all."

Her comm chirped again, this time from Carth.

:: How does it look? ::

"Quiet so far. T3 found some inactive defenses, so I'll look at modifying their IFFs tonight. The sooner we get them up, the happier I'll be." She raised some fallen debris from a doorway and cast it aside with her hand. "As for this place, well, it's like the Rakata shut down and just left. The slave races must have never found it. Most of the lines look clear so far — we can probably start a few test batches tomorrow. I'd say a week at the most before we're in full operation."

:: Good. They're taking a look at the hanger now. Oh, Yondo wants an update. ::

Revan sighed. "Of course he does. He there?"

:: I am. :: The Jedi Master's calm voice interjected. She chuckled.

"You are in for a hell of a ride, Yondo. This place is as expected. I'd say let most of your Jedi stay on board until we're about ready to try it. You should pop over at some point to see what you're dealing with, but I give you about twenty minutes before your nose starts bleeding."

:: Charming. ::

"Pull your stick out your ass," she mumbled. Khemmaa chuckled. "Anyway, Yondo, I think we should be able to clear this energy. We may have to go level by level, but the worst bit seems to be in the central control room. We'll start there — it might dissipate and reorganize on its own."

:: I will begin making proper preparations. ::

Revan rolled her eyes. "Great. We'll make sure the factory's clear, and get back to you, Carth."

:: Keep me updated. Be careful. ::

- 11 -