DeGriz.

Admiral James DeGriz.

It has a nice ring to it, and I should know.

I hear it all the time.

However, all it is is a title and a name.

Which mean absolutely nothing to Wampas.

I threw my self aside as the massive white beast swung a hairy paw at me.

It missed, but carved a large chunk out of the wall.

The beast let out a primal roar, and charged forwards, moving surprisingly fast for something as large as it was.

Behind a small Rebel barricade, Will, Reed, and Ed crouched, their E-11s spitting fire at the Wampa.

The barricade went flying one way, Ed another, and Will and Reed a third and fourth.

The Wampa spun, crushing Will into the floor as Ed hit the wall where he'd been thrown.

Reed maintained his fire, until a single sniper shot hit the monster in the neck.

With a strangled howl, it dropped back to the stone floor, dead.

"Got 'em." Cal's satisfied smirk was unmistakable in his voice.

Reed's voice, however, was colder than the stone beneath their feet. "Couldn't you have, I don't know, shot it BEFORE it killed them?"

"No, I didn't have a clear shot." Cal sounded irritated, but Spider grabbed his shoulder.

"Next time, clear or not, shoot. We can't keep losing men." He said, and I nodded.

"Agreed. Spider, scout, Cal, rearguard. Reed, Niko, with me." The five of us moved out, continuing down the featureless hall until we reached a T.

Spider at the wall on the T, scanning the wall. It was covered with dust, and I blew shortly on it, causing a mild dust storm.

There were markings on the wall that I recognized as an ancient form of Galactic Basic.

I ran my gloved fingers lightly across them, wondering what their significance was.

"Admiral, Sir. Something you may want to see." I walked over to where Reed was, and peered closely. It was close to the right fork, and part of the dust was missing.

I quickly swiped the rest of the dust away from it, and saw a few words that had been carved fairly recently.

"Looks like a translation. 'Master's Chambers'." Cal said, leaning over our shoulders.

"Sir, I think there's another one over here. 'Training Room'." Spider was looking down the other, and I said, "Spider, Cal, check out the training room. You two, we're checking the Master's Chambers."

"Are you sure splitting up is the best idea?" Niko asked, "I mean, we don't even know where we are, or what this was."

"No, but we need to know, and so does Boss. Take too long, and we may not be able to warn them in time."

Niko quieted down, and I led them into the corridor leading to the Master's Chamber.

The door was lit by torches on either side, though all they revealed was the featureless metal door.

"Reed, figure out how to open the door." The Stormtrooper ran forwards, running his fingers across the smooth metal.

"No sign of how to open it, Admiral." Reed said, turning around.

"Figures. Never the easy way, is it?"

"There was the time on ….."

"Rhetorical question, Reed. I don't want an answer. Hey, Niko, you got any ideas?"

There was only silence.

"Niko? Niko, Report!" The last was into the comm.

Only silence at first, then Cal asked, "Is Niko missing?"

"So it appears." I groaned angrily, and said, "We're going back to find Boss and the others."

"We're headed your way now."

Reed and I reached the fork, and looked around for the commandos.

"Admiral, we're going to need some help!"

"Spider? What's going on?"

"The doors have been blocked by laser fields, and it appears that there are numerous battle droids that have it in their thick metal skulls that they can kill us."

"We're on our way." I turned down the training room fork, followed by Reed, then froze.

Niko was standing in front of the blocked entrance, his back to us.

"Niko!" I stepped forwards, and grabbed his shoulder.

The Stormtrooper collapsed, his helmet rolling away to reveal that his throat had been ripped open.

"Niko's dead, guys. We found his body, throat ripped open by a knife."

"Get out of here, Admiral. We can handle ourselves." Cal said, though from the abundance of blaster fire, and the frequent cursing, I doubted that.

"Go!"

I nodded shortly, and Reed and I turned back the way we came.

Boss

I led the way down the tunnel, glancing around at the odd inscriptions on the walls.

I couldn't understand any of them, but from what I'd heard from DeGriz, Tread could, or at least should be able to.

"Boss!" I turned back to Kevin.

"Yes, trooper?"

"Tread's gone."

"What do you mean, gone?"

"As in, he's not with us."

"Fixer, Kevin, go see if you can find Tread, Scorch, Hyde, with me."

Fixer and Kevin disappeared back around the bend, and we moved on.

Without warning, the tunnel expanded into a massive room.

There were a number of small metal doors lining the walls, and I walked over to the nearest one.

When it opened, I stared.

There was a droid frozen in there.

I didn't recognize the type, but it seemed vaguely menacing, though why, while encased in ice, was something I couldn't figure out.

Hyde had opened another, to reveal an open hole.

The small icy patch that extended out from under the door explained the emptiness.

"They've already melted whoever they were storing in here." Scorch muttered as he walked by.

He grabbed a door, and started working it open. Unlike the others, this one was locked, and he was having to work at it.

Hyde was studying the empty one for any clue as to it's occupant, and I moved on to a fourth.

It swung open, revealing a young man, frozen solid in the block.

His features were obscured by the ice surrounding him, leaving his black hair as the only defining characteristic.

I pulled my pistol and fired a few times, the blaster shot melting the ice around where they hit.

Soon, I got close enough to him to start chipping away with my knife.

He fell forwards, and I grabbed him to stop him from crashing to the floor.

He suddenly jerked, and I lowered him to the ground.

"Guys..." I started, but was interrupted.

"Boss! Come here..." Scorch sounded very distracted, and when I reached his side, I realized why.

"What is it?" Hyde asked raising his eyebrow at the blood-splattered Katarn-Class Commando armor.

"Sev..."

Fixer

I returned to the intersection where we had entered the tunnels, and looked around.

So far, there had been no sign of Tread.

Kevin was kneeling down by one of the walls, and said, "Fix, I found something."

I turned, and snapped, "It's Fixer, TKR-729. Remember."

"Alright, alright, touchy much?"

"TKR-729, restrict your chatter to important messages."

"Sir, yes, sir." Kevin's voice lacked somewhat the respect it should have had, with more of a feeling of sarcasm.

I ignored it, deciding that the irreverent Stormtrooper was the least of my problems.

"What is it, soldier?"

"Tread's necklace."

"Necklace?" I asked, wondering why he would bring along such an unimportant object.

"His good luck charm. He believed that as long as he had it, nothing would happen to him."

"He was with us for a while after we left. He must have lost it during the explosion."

The necklace was only a string made out of some kind of hide, with a small carving of a skull hanging from it.

Kevin pocketed it, and I turned back along the passage.

"Let's go, 729. If we can't find TKR-912, we must report failure."

"Hold it right there, Imperial scum!"

I turned and saw a trio of republic soldiers flanking an officer.

"Lay down the weapons, and no one gets hurt." My attempt at negotiations failed, and I found eight other troopers facing me.

All heavily armed.

"Imperial, drop your arms. Now."

Alive: Boss, Scorch, Hyde; Cal, Spider; Fixer, Kevin; DeGriz, Reed

Dead: Vin, Tread, Ed, Will

Unknown: Niko