It was a long flight to the Maelstrom. Most of the crew members, marines, fighter pilots and officers aboard the Telos were very subdued and grim. It helped that the four heroes were almost jovial, laughing, joking and generally being in high spirits despite the seriousness of the situation. An hour before they dropped out of hyperspace, the call to man battle stations was sounded. Pilots ran to their ships, gunners to their batteries and technicians to their stations. The Republic marines were ready to repel boarders. Nedeser Thul, Alias Ordo, Moira Denic and Dren Antilles boarded an assault shuttle and prepared to board an enemy fortress.

Alias took the pilot seat and Des acted as copilot. "Why are you two flying?" complained Moira good naturedly. "I'm probably the best pilot here."

"We have the force;" said Alias dryly. "You may be better as a whole but we can see the safest flight path literally with out eyes closed and, trust me, this time, that will be important."

Moira shrugged and buckled in across from Dren. The big soldier was in his full armor with his favorite weapon, a blaster cannon and this time, he was determined not to lose it. The ship was powered up and ready to take off. As soon as the hanger gave the signal that they had dropped out of hyperspace, the fighters launched. When the first wave was out, Alias took them out. The enemy fleet was daunting. Imperial Dreadnoughts and frigates were in an impressive defensive formation. Moira gulped and said, "Are you sure you don't want me to take the stick?"

"I got it, Hon;" said Alias. "This isn't my first time in the pilots seat."

He was completely relaxed as he angled towards the space station behind the Imperial picket lines. "Arm the cannons, just in case;" he murmured to Des. The Jedi Consular obeyed and held his eyes shut, feeling the currents and eddies of the force. His mind melded with that of Alias in a trance that allowed the two friends to see and feel as the other did. Enemy fighters seemed to be more worried about the Republic fighters and capital ship than one single, solitary shuttle. It was smooth flying right up into they were in range of the turbo lasers of the dreadnoughts and frigates. The Jedi tensed and Alias banked and spun as a torrent of plasma and flack lit up the space around him. The shuttle's shields were middling at best as was its speed but with a Jedi at the stick, it didn't matter. Alias could see every clear path and every spread of enemy fire. As they bypassed the picket line and placed themselves directly between the station and the protecting ships, thinking that it would save him from a barrage of fire from both sides. It turned out that he was only half right. The ships ceased fire but the station opened up, turbolaser batteries blazing. The Imperials on the station were heedless of the personnel aboard the defending ships.

Alias remained as relaxed as possible under the circumstances. "There;" said Des, pointing out a hanger - one that was absolutely surrounded by weapons emplacements.

Alias nodded and angled towards it at top speed. "I hope that hanger is big;" muttered Dren, his voice remarkably casual.

Moira had her eyes squeezed shut and was gripping her crash harness as tightly as she could. "Just tell me when the ride's over;" she begged quietly.

Dren laughed and said, "Moira, what's your problem? You've done crazier things than this before."

"Yeah but usually I was in the pilot's seat behind the stick;" she said, trying to keep the whimper out of her voice. Dren's amusement did nothing to help her fraying nerves. Suddenly, the ship bucked and an alarm went off. Still not willing to look, she demanded, "What was that?"

"Oh nothing;" said Dren, his voice trembling just slightly.

The ship bucked again and more alarms sounded. "Dren;" she whimpered.

"We're coming in for a landing. Get ready to yank yourself free and abandon ship as soon as I say so!" Dren's voice was tight and commanding.

After what felt like forever, the shuttle gave a mighty lurch and they could hear the loud shriek of metal on metal. With a painful thud, it came to an abrupt halt and Dren was yelling. "OUT! OUT! OUT!"

Moira moved to obey, hitting her harness release and struggling out the boarding hatch. Des and Alias were right behind her as she stumbled out and the four comrades ran for cover, ducking behind a large stack of crates just as the shuttle exploded. Moira glared at Alias. "'I got it' you said! That there does not qualify as 'gotting it', Alias!"

"We're alive, aren't we?" asked the Jedi Knight as he stood and unclipped his weapon.

The hanger was empty, which didn't make sense. "They'll be on there way and this is a big station. There will be no stopping in here; no chance to hide. We go through to the prisoner and then we come back out. There are no other options here."

They all nodded and readied their weapons. "First move: find a console or computer and let Moira work her magic on it."

"No;" said Des and he pointed to the blast door leaving the hanger. "First move is to get through them."

They moved towards the door and Dren said, "Alright, Moira have a thermal detonator ready and slap the door release. I'll pour in mortar shells and lasers. Jedi, just make sure they don't hit us."

"Better idea;" said Des and used the force to hit the door release before he and Alias rushed forward. The door was only just wide enough for them to get through one at a time when they entered and were among the defending Imperial soldiers. The red and gray armored soldiers were not at all prepared for the two lightsaber wielding whirlwinds that cut them down with ease. Before the blast door had finished opening, the entire defensive squad was down and the Jedi were looking around. "If we can get to hanger control, we might be able to a console in there."

"Do we have the time?" asked Alias anxiously as he looked down the corridors to right and left.

"We do if it can give us the schematics to this facility or at least a general layout;" insisted Moira. Dren nodded in agreement and followed as she hurried towards another door.

The Jedi followed, frowning and looking uneasy. "You sense it too?" muttered Alias.

"Oh yeah, I sense it. This place is absolutely saturated with dark side energy. We'll have to be careful. What ever it is that the emperor has here isn't going to be like anything we've ever seen before;" said Des grimly.