The hanger control room had been everything they needed. There was a console inside which Moira used to slice into the entire station. Oh there had been safe guards and internal defenses but, much like in life, Moira found ways to slip in and get where she wanted to go with a smirk on her face and a twinkle in her hazel eyes. The personnel had already called for reinforcements by the time they had gotten into the control room and had refused to just sit quietly, insisting instead to attempt to fight, thereby bringing about their own deaths. Moira had shrugged and gotten to work and, just as she had finished it up, another squad of Imperials and a pair of Sith Warriors had charged in. Des and Alias were almost surprised to find that the Sith warriors who attacked were far more skilled than those who had been stationed on Taral V. They battled throughout the control room until Dren and Moira cleared a path through the Imperial Troopers. "Go on ahead and clear a checkpoint;" said Des. "We'll meet up with you."

The fight was quite vicious but it still became clear that the Sith were over matched. The Jedi had much more experienced in fighting Sith than the warriors were in combating Jedi. The armored and black robed warriors attacked viciously, encouraged by the Jedi's focus on solid defense. Unfortunately, that proved to be their undoing. Nedeser deactivated one of his blades and spun away, flourishing his weapon in a classic Makashi Form II maneuver. When his opponent pursued, the Jedi anticipated the overzealous attack, redirected a blow, slipped passed and neatly decapitated his opponent. Alias was engaging similarly, out maneuvering with the elegance of the same form, slashing the lightsaber hilt in two before piercing his opponent through the heart. Quickly, they dashed off after their friends, finding them at the entrance to another corridor. Inside a large command and control room was a small army of Imperials, Sith, war droids and what appeared to be tamed beasts waiting for them. "Well," muttered Des, "I recommend we don't go that way."

"Is there another way that we can go?" murmured Dren

Moira pulled up a station schematic and checked. "Nope; looks like any path from the hanger goes through that room."

"Great;" muttered Nedeser grimly. "Alright, I'm going in cloaked. Follow me in ten seconds. Alias, engaged those Sith and I'll join you after I take out those huge war droids. You two, just blow stuff up."

The three looked at him slightly amazed. Nedeser Thul was usually more subtle. Something about this mission had him anxious and altogether not himself. Alias, who knew him best, shrugged and said, "You got it. I'll start the count when you vanish."

Des nodded and vanished. Immediately, Moira whispered, "Is he alright?"

Alias chuckled. "He probably heard you - and yes, I'm sure he's fine. I just think that he knows who this Jedi master is and is anxious to see him rescued."

"Do you have any suspicions, Alias?" asked Dren as he loaded a powercell into his blaster cannon and a mortar into the under-slung launcher.

"No but Des is a amateur historian in his limited spare time. I'll be very surprised if he's proved wrong. Ten! Let's go!"

They charged out. Moira picked off an Imperial soldier with every shot as she dove behind a piece of equipment for cover and Dren shredded consoles and pieces of equipment with his mortar shells, completely emptying his weapon's internal magazine. Alias leaped and engaged all four of the Sith, cutting one down quickly and snatching up his lightsaber, using both blades to keep himself alive and his opponents on their toes. The war droids had Dren and Moira pinned down behind chunks of smoldering equipment that were slowly but surely be melted or blasted away. Suddenly, Nedeser Thul was there, slashing the war machines to scrap and blasting them with the force. As soon as they were clear, the soldier and the smuggler captain were up and firing again, slowly driving back the Imperials with a hail of blaster fire and grenades. The Jedi were fighting side by side and back to back. The Sith couldn't figure out which one they were attacking and one by one, they fell to the Jedi. It wasn't long before the Republic operatives were giving chase. Suddenly, Moira said, "Wait!"

They ran to the viewport and watched in horror. Another Imperial fleet had dropped out of hyperspace, pinning Master Oteg's force between themselves and the Station's Defenses. "Find a comms unit. NOW!" snapped Dren.

They all looked around but what drew them to the comms unit was a loud chime. Moira hurried over and answered the call. To their chagrin, a life sized holo of Grand Moff Kilran appeared. He gave a cold smile and said, "Oteg has spread his forces too thin. It will cost him his life - and yours. Darth Malgus will be pleased."

"I'm sick of seeing his face;" growled Moira, which caused the Grand Moff to laugh.

"Indeed? I'm starting to enjoy seeing yours. Perhaps I'll have my men take you alive for me to-" the communication was cut by Dren before he got Oteg on the line.

"Admiral, you need to withdraw before your are completely trapped. We'll find a way out. Go!"

The shaky, ghostly image of the Admiral looked grim. "We'll try to draw them away. May the force be with you all."

Unfortunately, there was no drawing away. Oteg's fleet limped away and jumped while Dren, Des, Moira and Alias watched anxiously. Once the last Republic ship was out of sight, they were able to breathe again. "Right;" snapped Dren. "Let's get moving. We have a prisoner to save. Let's go."

Wordlessly, they agreed. Moira pulled out her hand held holo projector and activated it. A holo image of the station appeared. Indicating two areas on the image with tiny red dots, she said, "We are here and I'm guessing that this is the prison area here. Take a good look at what's between here and there."

They did and it wasn't good. There were massive, open areas that had little to no cover unless they happened to be filled with boxes. There were numerous catwalks no more that a couple of meters wide and they all just knew that they would be fighting on every centimeter of them. "Alright, we had towards this lift cluster here right beyond this room. From there, we head up to the apex of the station. These open areas are going to be absolutely thick with Imperials and Sith so get ready."

The next two hours were the most grueling that any of them had dealt with before. Even Dren, who had waded through mud, blood, corpses and filth that always came with war, was feeling the burn of fatigue in his large muscles. It all became much worse when they went into what appeared to be a maintenance bay of some kind. A uniformed male cyborg, probably human, stood there with a pair of Imperial special forces marines. "Woah!" muttered Moira, "And I thought I saw ugly before. That man takes the cake."

Her three companions snorted with amusement. Des cast out in all directions but didn't sense any other beings. "This guy must be nuts;" muttered Alias, who probably didn't sense anything else either.

"No, he's not;" said Dren, sounding truly nervous. "Take a look at that guy. He's got implants out the airlock. His eyes, his ears, his arms, his legs and I would guess the majority of his organs, have been replaced. There are mods in his head that probably improve his brain capacity too. This guy here is going to be trouble. Those two marines - well, I can handle them. The rest of you, throw everything you've got at him."

They were within twenty meters of him when a red beam suddenly landed on Moira's chest. Frowning, she faltered and looked down at it. "Is that creep looking through my outf-"

"Lookout!" snapped Alias as, in one swift motion, he wrapped a long, wiry arm around her and yanked her out of the way just before a concentrated beam of laser energy sliced through where she had just been. Dren unloaded on the trio of Imperials, who all scrambled for cover. One of the marines didn't make it, four blaster cannon bolts slamming into him. The Jedi each leaped to partner up with their force blind friends, reflecting blaster bolts and concentrated laser beams back towards their owners. The second Imperial special forces marine went down when one of Dren's mortars all but dropped on his head. But the cyborg Imperial officer was proving to be a problem. Getting close, even for the Jedi, was proving difficult. He used a blaster pistol and seemed to be able to pull the trigger faster than was humanly possible and fired in the precise places that the Jedi found most difficult to defend, especially Des since double bladed lightsabers, while exceptional at defense and offense against lightsaber armed opponents, was less effective against blasters, especially rapid blasters. Dren and Moira fire blast after blast at the man but he utilized cover exceptionally. On top of that, on his arm, or maybe it was part of his arm, was an absorbing shield of some kind.

Ducking behind cover, Des and Alias breathed hard. "Blast! That guy is beginning to irritate me. Any ideas?"

Des looked grim. "Yes; force lightning has always effected electronics heavily, especially cybernetics. I'm guessing a good shock will at least slow him down."

Alias studied his friend. Nedeser had been delving deeper and deeper into abilities that were considered taboo by the main stream in the Jedi Order. "Brother, I know this is important to you and I do comprehend the importance of this Jedi Master if only because of how seriously you are taking it;" murmured the Mandoa Jedi Knight. "But if you begin to slip-"

"Alias, I am being careful, I promise;" assured the Consular. "I am not doing this because I want to or because it is easier. I'm doing this because we must succeed. If using abilities that the Jedi council are leery of is the only way to do so, then we must. Believe me when I say that I don't do this lightly."

"We'll talk more about this afterward;" murmured Alias. "Just do what you have to do."

They both leaped up and Alias used a blast of telekinetic energy to shake the Imperial cyborg off his feet. It wasn't terribly successful since the Imperials boots, or maybe even just his feet, kept him planted firmly on the durasteel floor. It was enough, however, for Des to send torrents of blue force lightning at the man before he could bring his blaster to bare. As expected, the cyborg groaned in pain and seemed to freeze up. Des could tell that his cybernetics had been insulated somehow to help prevent excessive damage by electrical attacks. But whoever had built him had not counted on the kind of damage force lightning could do. Intensifying his attack only just a little, he drove the Imperial to his knees before cutting off the power. Dren stood and unloaded a massive barrage of rapid laser fire. By the he had stopped, the Imperial cyborg officer was barely recognizable. They all staggered over and looked at the mess of organic material and sparking machinery.

"We need to stop;" said Moira, leaning against Alias in exhaustion.

Dren hesitated before saying, "We can take a break for a meal but that's about it."

"I can barely move and I know you aren't much better, soldier boy;" objected Moira.

"I can dull out some stims that will neutralize the pain sensors in sore muscles while re-energizing them. It will increase the amount of oxygen the blood carries with each breath and pump of the heart."

Both Alias and Des looked unhappy at the idea. "They are also highly addictive and have a number of not so uncommon side effects. Let's try this: we'll eat and then Alias and I can try to use the force to dissipate your fatigue, soreness and such."

Alias looked at him. "Can we do that?"

Des shrugged. "Dunno; we can ward of pain and fatigue for ourselves and heal injuries so I can't imagine that we wouldn't be able to do it to others. Let's eat and then we can give it a try."

They dined on field rations - nutrient bars and fluids from pouches that were supposed to help retain water and add nutrients that the bars might have not contained. They weren't very filling and tasted like absolutely nothing but they took the edge off their hunger and gave them the nutrients and protein they needed. Just after the light meals, they felt much better but even so, Des said, "Lie down on your backs, you two. Alias, let's see if we can help them out."

Moira and Dren laid down and the Jedi each knelt behind their heads. Reaching out with the force, they used their minds as an information conduit to locate the areas of fatigue, soreness and pain and slowly alleviate them. Neither of them knew how long they were kneeling there but what they did know was that they were tired themselves when they were done. Dren and Moira took breaths of relief. "Wow..." said the smuggler, "I feel like I just ate a good meal and got a good night's sleep."

"We'll need to take a couple minutes to do the same to ourselves;" said Alias.

Back to back, the two Jedi fell into a meditative state. While they did, Moira stood next to Dren and watched them. "I'm worried about Des;" she murmured. "He's doing lot of dark and insanely powerful stuff. I've only ever seen Sith use those lightning attacks. Well, Sith and these two Jedi here. And remember that maelstrom thing he did on Taral V?"

"Yeah;" he murmured. "If he's right about who this is, it'll all be worth it. If not, he's going to be very disappointed."

"I dunno;" said Moira, "he might very well be relieved. It would mean that things aren't as serious as he was worried about. My point is that, if he keeps going like this..."

"I think that any tool used or, in the case of the Jedi, any power used for good isn't going to have any negative effect. But what do I know? I'm no Jedi. Let's get packed up and make sure our weapons are good to go. As soon as those two are done meditating, we'll need to move on."

"Yeah;" murmured Moira and she gathered the packages of food and such, her worries for her dear Jedi friend not the least bit allayed.