It was an insane plan. There were no less than a hundred Imperials and Sith on the bridge, not to mention the various auto turrets and laser cannons. Even so, the four Republic operatives rushed forward with a fury that the defenders were not expecting. The Jedi swept dozens aside with a wave of their hands, ripping up the barricades and flattening the weapons emplacements. For a moment, it looked as though the Jedi would just swat all of the defenders aside. However, the Sith put a stop to that. Powerful Sith sorcerers were able to shield the Imperials from the force attacks and Sith warriors engaged with their crimson blades.

From there, Moira and Dren were forced to take cover and return fire. Wisely, the Imperial soldiers didn't fire on the Jedi since they were locked in combat with the Sith. They elected to focus their fire tactically on the other two infiltrators - for all the good it did them. If they tried to stay under cover, a mortar or grenade smashed their cover and usually them along with it. If they tried to keep Moira and Dren pinned with continues fire, either precise blasts from Moira's blaster pistols or a screen of laser fire from Dren's cannon cut them down. Large scale assaults with Jedi and Republic troops, not to mentioned armored and air support, they had been prepared for. A quartet of highly skilled, well armed and mismatched operatives were confounding their defensive layout, slipping by and precisely eliminating the defenders.

Des cut down first one and then the other of his assailants before blazing towards the Sith sorcerers. Three drew lightsabers and shot powerful torrents of force lightning at him but it was easy to simply absorb and return the attacks. Those that weren't consumed were cut down. Alias was engaging four Sith Warriors at once, utilizing a defensive form to weave a defensive web around himself, never striking until an opening could present itself without leaving him opening to attack.

Dren emptied his entire internal magazine of mortar shells, shredding another set of barricades and defensive turrets. As soon as he was empty, he dropped and Moira stood, whipping a specialized grenade that Risha had put together. It clanged onto the center of the bridge and the explosion was huge. "Easy, Moira;" said Dren as he slotted more mortar shells into his weapon. "We do need this bridge to stay in tact at least until we get across."

"You worry too much;" said Moira as she switched out the power cell on one of her blaster pistols before standing and emptying both it and its partner while she leaped from cover, slowly advancing along the bridge.

Dren grunted as he covered her and took advantage of the cover she provided. Slowly, they advanced across the bridge. Des was in a massive force battle with the Sith. His lightsaber was affixed to his belt as he and the Sith sent wave of telekinetic energy, force lightning and debris back and forth to one another. Alias wanted to get involved but he was still dueling two of the Sith warriors. Suddenly, a glowing sphere of energy circled Des and he floated slightly off the ground. Around him, anything not bolted to the bridge was ripped up and began to Des and the sphere he was in. Force attacks only caused the sphere to grow brighter and the force maelstrom around him to become even more turbulent. Alias cut down his last opponent and rushed for Dren and Moira. "Back;" he roared. "Get back! Go!"

They obeyed, turning back a fleeing the way they had come. Nearly a hundred meters away, they turned and watched as the glowing sphere became almost to bright to look at. Force lightning flashed in the maelstrom from one piece of debris to another. Suddenly, the sphere exploded outward and a wave of energy cleared everything within fifty meters in all directions of the center. "Woah..." said Moira and began to rush forward.

Dren and Alias were right behind her. There, at the center of where the maelstrom had established, knelt Des, gasping for breath. He was uninjured but winded. Slowly, he stood to his feet and pulled a ration bar and canteen of water from his belt. "Are you alright, Vod?" asked Alias.

Des nodded and swallowed his mouthful of water before replying, "Yes, I'm fine. I just need to catch my breath."

"What the hell was that?" asked Dren, still in awe of what they had just witnessed.

"An ancient technique that can be roughly translated as the maelstrom technique. It shields the practitioner and any attempt to use the force against them only strengthens their defense and adds to the swirling power of the maelstrom. I can see why the Jedi do not readily practice it. The power one could yield is intoxicating but if one were to lose control before he can trigger the blast, it would continue until someone powerful enough in the force could set it off. They would be consumed by the energy inside and they themselves would be a part of the maelstrom."

They were all silent before Alias asked, "And where did you learn this technique?"

"The Noetikans taught me the last time I visited Tython. Master Arca Jeth said that it would be useful when dealing with overwhelming odds."

Moira snorted. "But those odds were hardly overwhelming. By the way, Imperial reinforcements coming in."

The Jedi ignited their weapons again as six drop ships approached. Easily, Des gripped one and slammed it into the other. Alias managed to do the same and they easily eliminated the reinforcements. "Have you two always been this scary?" asked Moira.

"War changes beings, even Jedi;" murmured Alias as they advanced. "Sometimes, a Jedi is required to use more and more of his power if victory is to be assured. I can't help but feel that time is pressing. We need to do whatever it takes to save this prisoner."

"Whatever it takes?" asked Des cautiously.

Alias gave him a chuckled and said, "Well, okay, not whatever it takes but I think that pushing ourselves to our limits is definitely a must. Don't you agree?"

Des nodded grimly. "Yes, I do. Come no. We're almost to the fortress itself."

There were still some defenses set up but, for the most part, they had been recalled, leaving only a token defense to annoy the infiltrators. Dren didn't like it. "That display of power scared them, Des. They'll pull back and completely lock that fortress down. It'll be a hell of a fight from here on - unless you can wave your hand and make them all disappear."

Des and Alias both gave him a very serious look, so serious the Dren quailed slightly. But then they chuckled and Des said, "There are techniques in the force that can very nearly do that but we don't know them and their secrets are forbidden to all except the Masters on the Jedi High Council - at least, the ones that I've heard of are. Though there were a few techniques that were at least at a time, known to the Sith. Naga Sadow caused a star to go supernova for example."

"Des;" groaned Moira, "shut up! The idea that the Empire can do that is not going to help morale."

"Right;" he said, blushing madly. "Forget I mentioned that."

They continued forward and breached the inner walls of the fortress. It was a fight every step of the way. Imperials and Sith were firing from buildings, dropping from ships and running out of the citadel. The Jedi were forced to stretch to the very limits of their abilities. Waves of telekinetic energy, forks of force lightning, barriers of energy and lightsabers emanated from the small group, sweeping aside Imperials and cutting down Sith. War droids crumbled in sparks and scrap metal and even buildings trembled and some of the flimsier one's collapsed. Even when some of the walker units were brought on line, they toppled over like flimsy wood structures in hurricane force winds.

Dren and Moira learned quickly that there was no danger that would get passed their two highly skilled Jedi. At one point, while the others took a couple milliseconds to reload and catch their breaths, Des had them bubble in pure force energy. Missiles, laser blasts, force lightning and grenades bounced off or were absorbed in. "Are you ready?" asked Des calmly, not even a hint of strain in his voice.

Moira and Dren nodded and unloaded in two different directions. It took them over an hour to make it to the citadel's main door. Moira sliced her way and they entered, the Jedi backing in and deflecting enemy attacks as he went. Inside wasn't much better. Dozens of Imperials charged at them and the fighting was as fierce as ever. "This isn't going to thin until we have literally reduced the population of this fortress;" growled Dren.

As if to obstinately prove the soldier wrong, the defenders suddenly stopped coming. "Well it's nice to have a rest bit but I'll bet that they're setting up a solid defense. Whoever's in charge here finally pulled their head outta their ass and realized that they'll just get all of their troops and Sith killed and their droids destroyed. It's a good thing too. My blaster cannon's out of ordinance. I'm just down to my blaster carbine and side arm."

Moira blew a loose strand of chocolate colored hair out of her face and loaded the last power packs into her blasters. "Yeah, these are my last ones too. Give me a second real quick."

She retied her hair and then began to look around. Finding the best two blaster pistols among the dead, she holstered them under each arms and loaded herself down with power packs that went to them. No one else minded. They were all regaining their energy, eating ration bars and drinking water or energy fluids. Suddenly, Alias pointed. "Hey, look at that!"

They looked over and saw what appeared to be a security console of some kind. Moira ran over and began tapping at the control key pad. With a sigh of relief, she said, "Good, I was able to block this off before they could isolate it and..." she paused for just a moment. Finally, she grinned at her three companions. "... now I can control most of this fortress's systems. Let me see, power distribution, alarm systems, internal and external defenses, energy and ray shield barriers, door controls, pretty much everything. I'll just jam the door controls open, the energy barriers off, the defenses offline and the alarm systems-"

"Wait a second;" said Dren, "is there any way, perhaps, that you can have the alarms go off at different locations on timers?"

Moira frowned. "That's a bit of work but let me see."

She sat there with a frown on her lovely face and the others couldn't help but steal looks at her. She was quite beautiful. They were startled out of their staring when she suddenly went. "Hah! I did it! Every twenty-two and a half minutes, another alarm in an important, high security area is going to go off! The anti-air batteries, the main power generator, the fighter hangers - everywhere!"

Dren grinned. "Considering the chaos, they'll probably be going everywhere and even, if we're lucky, stay put for awhile. Any chance you can get into their communications too?"

Moira shook her head. "Nope. I'd need a comms console for that. We'll keep our eyes open but for now, we should keep moving."

Dren stood at attention and gave a salute. "Yes Ma'am, Captain Ma'am!"

Des and Alias chuckled and Moira gave him a severe look. "None of that now, Soldier."

With their weapons ready, they headed deeper into the fortress. "According to this handy dandy facility map I downloaded," said Moira as she looked at a datapad, "the quickest way to the command center, where I'm guessing we're assuming the Gree tech is, is through a medical facility- wait. Check that; a research facility. Lovely, nothing like creepy Imperial research facilities to make a mission that much more interesting."

All four of them pulled faces. "I hate Imperial research facilities;" growled Dren, looking angry and disgusted.

Suddenly, he stopped and lifted a hand. There was an intersection ahead of them. Across the intersection and just a little down the corridor was a set of blast doors with markings above them. "Well that's the research facility;" muttered Dren, pointing at it.

Moira nodded, looking uneasy. She pulled her blaster pistols and said, "A hundred thousand credits, a new ship and a real good bottle of Corellian brandy says that they'll be on both sides up ahead."

"No;" said Dren. "On one, maybe but not on both. They'd risk hitting each other in the crossfire. I don't suppose you can use that datapad to see if there are holo cams, can you?"

"Oh I know that there are holo-cams at every intersection but I would need to link up with another console."

They both turned to Alias and Des. "Jedi?"

Des sighed and disappeared. The other three waited. There were the twin snap-hisses of a double bladed lightsaber and the whirring hum of it being swung, the crackle of it striking something or another and the dull thuds of them hitting the floor. "All clear;" came a tired voice.

They followed his voice and found an entire squad of beheaded Imperial soldiers and a pair of mounted blaster cannons on a tripod. Des looked exhausted. "Moira, the next time you get to a console, I think we need to make this fortress as hostile to the Imperials as it is to us. Is there any way you can set the auto turrets and traps to attack them and cut the power to everything else, such as the lights?"

Moira nodded. "Good idea, Jedi. Come on. Let's get through the creepy Imperial mad scientist lab."

Alias took the lead as they went in, his brilliant blue lightsaber ready. Inside were several scientists, two Sith, two squads of soldiers and a quartet of assault war droids. It must have been an important place too. There were massive vats and cylinders everywhere with creatures inside. As soon as the Republic operatives entered, one of the scientists, obviously the one in charge, began tapping frantically at his control console. The vats suddenly emptied and opened. Out crawled a dozen and a half jungle crawlers, also called lurkers on the prison world of Belsavis. They were slimy and looked deformed. With angry shrieks, they charged the Republic operatives.

The Jedi didn't even bother to move as their companions gunned down all eighteen of them. That done, the Jedi leaped between their companions and the Imperials, batting back blaster bolts at the Imperials. From behind the cover of their friends, Moira and Dren returned fire. The soldiers didn't last long and the Sith only did a little longer. When the scientists themselves began to open fire, they were also killed until only the doctor remained. He lifted his hands and remained silent. Moira looked grim, her hands shaking. One of her blasters was empty and the other was very low. "Give me one reason I shouldn't end you right now?"

The doctor didn't speak. Neither, to her surprise, did the two Jedi. They just waited at the exit of the research facility. Dren held his rifle at a low ready and waited. With a snort, Moira put one of her blaster pistols up and lowered her other to set it to stun. That's when the doctor made his move, reaching for what they assumed was a concealed weapon. He didn't make it. Dren lifted his blaster and burned a whole right through him from point blank range. Moira sighed and said, "Well these two are pretty much empty. Let's keep going."

Dren pointed to a console. "Can you use that one?"

Moira nodded and silently walked over, hooking up her datapad and tapping away at it. Suddenly, all of the lights went out. Immediately, low emergency lights flicked on. They were dim, barely enough to light there way. After another few minutes, she sighed, "Alright, just set up the defenses and traps to go off on anyone that alerts them. That includes us. The lights are so low that I doubt the Imperials will be able to see very much. I also basically locked all commands to my datapad. Without it, they won't be able to undo what I did. Give me a second at that comms unit. I'll be able to set my comlink to eavesdrop on their comms too."

The others chuckled and Des said, "We are in the presence of a genius, gentlemen."

They chuckled and prepared to move on when Moira staggered. That caused them to realize that they had been fighting for almost twelve hours straight. Dren sighed tiredly. "I hate this. We can't keep going to this degree. We need to find a place to rest."

Alias grimaced. "That's a really bad idea. We could be found and if only one or even two of us were alert, it could prove disastrous."

Des nodded, "That's true but if we keep going, it could be worse, Alias. If we just continue on, our two friends who can't call on the force are going to make a lethal mistake. We need to rest."

They looked over at Moira and Des said, "Any ideas, oh Mistress of the Facility Map and High Queen of Power Distribution?"

Moira smiled tiredly and said, "That's Supreme Empress of all enemy fortresses to you, buster. Let me see here; Ah-hah! There's a hanger nearby. We can hide out in one of the dropships or maybe something like that."

Alias sighed and said, "Alright, same as before. Des and I will meditate and each take a few hours in a healing trance. You two can get a few hours of sleep."

As fast as they could, they made there way to the hanger. Of course, they had to avoid the newly activated traps and a couple squads of Imperial soldiers, some miscellaneous war droids and four Sith warriors but they eventually made it. Before they bedded down in a dropship way back in the corner that was down for repairs, Moira cleared her throat and said in a perfect Imperial accent, "Command, the Rep operatives headed towards the armory. We think they may be heading for the main power generator to try and permanently drop power to the facility."

There were several confirmations. "Hopefully that will keep us safer for longer;" she said blearily.

Des smiled and said, "We'll keep alert. Get some sleep, Supreme Empress of all enemy fortresses."

"Keep sweet talking like that and you'll be my next consort;" she muttered. Seconds later, she was snoring softly.

Des and Alias were sitting back to back, the former in a healing trance and the latter, deep in a meditative state.