CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT

ZIOST

Teffa Darkstar lead the way through the cramped narrow tunnel, the night vision in his helmet barely enough to let him see in the darkness that enveloped them. He had scanned the directions off the map Abraxas had given them, but had not anticipated how tight the tunnel was going to be. If it got any smaller, Teffa knew they were going to have problems fitting with their armour on. Teffa was already surprised that his sister's pet even managed to wedge into the tunnel to begin with. Behind the bounty hunter was Doc, then Shadelis, followed by Tormen, with Bloodshade and her creature Khem Val right behind him. Necrolis brought up the rear of the group.

"How much further?" Doc asked which by Teffa's count was around the twentieth time since they had started the trek.

Teffa rolled his eyes and said nothing, choosing to ignore the man. He could hear his gasping quick breaths and had already decided the man likely was claustrophobic. There was no helping him or getting around such. Tight dark tunnels were just that. The mean steak in the bounty hunter wanted to bring up just how tight it was getting, that there was enough dirt and rock above their heads that if it caved in they would all be buried and likely suffocate if they survived the initial cave in. Mako wouldn't like that, Teffa thought and that kept him from saying anything even if the man was getting on his last nerve.

"Teffa, not to be a pain in the ass, but are we close?" Necrolis asked over the comm link and Teffa again shook his head at the question.

"Almost there." He grunted back in answer.

It took ten more minutes and the tunnel lowering to force them to crawl on all fours before Teffa pushed on the wall that appeared in front of him and brought with it the blinding light of day. After a quick look about, Teffa slipped out to put his back to the wall, watching for trouble as the others filtered out of the tunnel.

"Where are we?" Bloodshade asked looking about, frowning.

"We're in the old sector, the ruins I think." Shadelis said, pointing towards a few crumbling walls that had once been a building. "We're definitely on the outskirts of the city."

"Scurrying about like rats, this is undignified." Khem Val complained stretching his large frame behind Bloodshade. "Sith do not skulk and cower so. The…"

"Yeah yeah, the Great Tulak Horde, blah,blah,blah!" Doc interrupted the deshade sarcastically.

Bloodshade threw an arm out to her side immediately at the man's words, stopping Khem from charging about her. Teffa and Necrolis both moved at the same time, putting themselves between their sister and her creature and the man. Doc paled as he watched the angered deshade, stepping back a few paces to try and put more distance between them. Khem Val growled and flexed the massive hands, red eyes burning in fury.

"I will break your bones and feast on your flesh for that." Khem snarled.

"Later for such, Khem." Bloodshade turned to stare up at the deshade. "Now is not the time or place."

Khem Val stared at the woman before growling and nodding, calming as Bloodshade turned and nodded to her brothers that it was alright. The deshade would obey her, she knew. Despite that, she was going to be hard pressed to rein him in if the man insisted of being an ass and enraging him. In all honesty, Bloodshade disliked the man and would have gladly let Khem play huttball with him as the ball. Now was simply not the time to turn the big creature loose, not when their focus was on the mission at hand.

"You're just such a people person, aren't you?" Tormen quipped as he moved past Doc, heading away from the man and over to the chiss, putting some distance between himself and the medic. When Shadelis gave him a look, he smiled and winked at her.

"Think I'll stay over here where I'm a lot safer."

"What makes you think that?" Shadelis asked the smuggler, looking at him intently.

"I don't." Tormen answered back, "But least if I'm goin down, over here I'm looking at an attractive woman!"

Shadelis shook her head and despite herself smiled and blushed at the smuggler's words. Tormen winked at her again and the chiss rolled her eyes in response. The man was utterly incorrigible. She found she rather liked him.

"Flirt." Shadelis muttered before laughing as did Tormen.

They were on the far edge of the city that had been built up around the citadel. It was a place few had use for anymore, most of the buildings left to crumble and be forgotten. Most of the buildings had been housing for staff, some barracks for acolytes and troopers when there had been a large need for more accommodations. When the volume of students began to decline, it was easier to simply build new facilities closer to the training grounds than maintain the old ones. Necrolis knew even when they had been students the old section was avoided.

"Teffa, you have a heading?" Necrolis asked.

" Right smack into the ruins. This way." Teffa remarked before striking off, the others falling in behind him.

Sevrina Thane stood atop one of the inner walls that broke up the city into sections. The Inquisitor Overseer had wandered to the edge of town simply to ensure that they had looked everywhere. Her brother, Varel, along with Janas had most of the city covered, but no one had bothered with the ruins. To her it made perfect sense, a place to get lost and hide that no one ever really thought about anymore. Perched atop the wall, she had wrapped herself in the force to disappear from view even as she let her dark eyes gaze about her. She could feel the wind blowing cold and hard against her, wrapping her lower robes about her legs and dancing in the waist length black hair.

"I know you are out there." Sevrina muttered, continuing her vigil over the area.

For a moment she thought she saw motion and her attention focused on a stand of ruins that were barely visible amidst piles of rubble. Black eyes narrowed as she fought the glare of the sun and distance. Once again she spotted just the hint of movement, one moment there the next gone. It could be anything, she knew. An animal, a trick of the light even at the distance she was viewing from. Sevrina could not be sure but her gut instinct was someone was there. Fingers went to the controls on the back of her right bracer, turning on her comm link.

"Varel, come in." Sevrina said.

"Where are you sis? I can barely hear you over the background noise." Varel's voice came back to her.

"I need you at the old ruins. I think I found your intruders." Sevrina reported, frowning as it appeared whoever was out there was now out of sight. "Better hurry."

"I'm on my way, and sending Kasche and Sorn." Varel stated. "Do not engage them on your own, Sevrina."

"Oh how touching, brotherly concern." Sevrina replied flippantly.

"Sevrina." Varel growled her name back at her.

"Oh alright, alright."Sevrina said rolling her eyes as she did so. "Just make it quick."

Teffa Darkstar felt his foot slip, a sliding cascade of rubble rolling down the slope he was trying to scramble over. Muttering a curse under his breath, the bounty hunter reached the top and sat down, looking back down at the rest as they scrambled up to join him. Checking on the directions, he noted they should be almost on top of where Abraxas had said to go. Looking about him, Teffa had to wonder if this was the groundskeeper's idea of a joke. Crumbling ruins and mounds of already fallen debris were all about them. As far as he could see there was nothing there.

"How much further?" Shadelis asked as she reached the top, looking about her before crouching down next to her brother.

"I don't know. We're right about where Ab said to go, but I don't see a damn thing."

"This is such a waste of time." Doc complained as he reached the top, garnering a glare from both Teffa and Shadelis for the comment.

Doc went to defend himself, but never got the chance as the ground he stood on shifted, sending him over backwards to tumble back down the other side of the hill in a shower of loose rock and dust. Teffa swore and made a grab for the man but it was too late. All he and Shadelis could do was watch the man slide down the hill, rolling all the way to the bottom and then suddenly disappearing from sight over a piece of wall that was sticking up.

"For fuck's sake." Teffa swore as he scrambled his way as quickly as he could down after the man.

'I'm fine." Doc's voice came over the comm. "You'd better get down here though, I think I found what you're all looking for."

Teffa reached the edge of the broken wall, peering over and down to see the medic sitting on his ass and dusting himself off with both hands. It was a short drop down, but once Teffa had made such, he could see what Doc had found. Underneath the collapsed wall, propping it up at its angle, a large metal doorway lay concealed. Teffa studied it a moment, noting the top of the control panel was just visible. Offering a hand to the medic, Teffa helped the man back to his feet even as the others came down to join them.

"What do you think?" Teffa asked as Necrolis joined him.

"I think that looks like an interesting place to go check out."

Shadelis had moved forward even before Necrolis had answered their brother, carefully moving beneath the overhang of the wall to study the control panel. She had expected the need to dig it out and pry open the facing to be able to try and hotwire the door open. Instead, and to her surprise, she found the door still had power and was functional. She frowned and hesitated on opening it.

"This thing is functional."

"Ok anyone else creeped out here?" Tormen remarked glancing about them.

"We didn't come all this way to turn back." Necrolis said. "Shaddy, you are with me. Teffa and Doc as well. Bloodshade you and Tormen guard the entry."

Shadelis hit the controls then backed up, unslinging her rifle and setting herself, laser scope sight shooting into the black darkness beyond the now open doorway. Necrolis drew one lightsaber and moved forward, followed by Teffa and Doc. The four of them slipped inside and moved to either side of the doorway. The corridor they entered was durasteel, slanting slightly downwards wide enough they could walk four abreast.

"Ok what is this place?" Teffa asked, shocked by how big the corridor was despite the average sized doorway. The bounty hunter dropped four probes that lit up the area about each of them allowing them to see.

"We go single file, and we take our time." Necrolis said before heading down the middle of the corridor.

With Necrolis in the lead Shadelis followed with Doc behind her and Teffa following at the back of the group. Every so often corridors as big as the one they were in, a few smaller, ran off fading into darkness outside the range of their lights. Necrolis kept them moving forward, the corridor dropping and slanting them downwards, deeper underground.

"We keep going down we're apt to hit the planet core at this rate." Teffa complained.

Necrolis grinned at that even as the corridor branched left and right. Stopping, he looked at each of those with him in turn before rubbing a chin in thought. Casting a glance down, Necrolis noted the floor still held a layer of dust in both directions and both had been undisturbed in some time. With no help there, Necrolis looked at Teffa.

"What do you think?"

"I don't know." Teffa answered back, not liking the feel of the place they were in. It was like walking in a tomb, he thought. "I could maybe try sending a probe down both?"

Shadelis crouched down while her brothers talked and Doc just paced silently nearby. The chiss rested her rifle across her lap, red eyes peering down each corridor. Frowning, she suddenly got the feeling of having been there before. Shadelis cocked her head in thought to one side, trying to latch on to the feeling, a memory almost. Or was it some sort of dream? Sighing she could not seem to pinpoint the feeling, only that she believed they should go right. Something was telling her that was the direction they wanted to go.

"Shaddy?" Necrolis put his hand on her shoulder, suddenly aware of her intent gaze at the corridors.

"I don't know, just a… feeling. I can't quite place it." Shadelis said softly. "I get the feeling like I've been here before, that I want to go down the right side."

"I wasn't going to say anything, but…" Teffa said arms crossing over his chest as he spoke. "Kind of had that same feeling, like it's just something familiar."

Necrolis looked at both his siblings and then back to the corridors. He had no such feeling at all, but then there were times he knew he went on pure instinct in the moment too. Such things he did not just dismiss. His only concern was stumbling about an unknown underground facility in the dark, and having no idea at all what they might face. Patting Shadelis on the shoulder, the sith looked to his brother.

"Send probes down both, let's have a look before we go walking into something down here."

Kalyn Nidor heard the communications as forces were re-deployed. Janas and Varel were marshalling a small army, pretty well every able trooper they had left on Ziost and sending them to the old ruins of the citadel. There was only one reason such would be the case, she knew. They had located the intruders and were moving to deal with them. Heading through the streets, she made her way to the nearest speeder terminal and grabbed one, heading for the gathering point. I need to know, she thought.

Rian Cen Nur watched the chiss as she stopped occasionally as they made their way through the city. Where was Kayln wandering to, Rian pondered as she kept pace. Seeing the other woman head straight for a speeder bike location, Rian guessed something had just changed. Reaching up she turned her own comm link back on. She had been so focused on Kayln she had turned it off to not be a distraction. Immediately she heard the chatter between units about the Citadel, all of them converging into the old crumbling section on the far end of the city.

"How very interesting." Rian murmured as she followed the chiss, getting onto a speeder bike and heading to the old section. "Now to see just what you are up to Kayln."

BALMORRA

Jaesa Willsaam looked about as she made her way to Sobrik. The travel had been long and tiresome, but also uneventful. It was a perk of being a sith, she knew. Imperial troopers tended to give the sith a wide berth, and really with the fighting ever about all over the planet, nobody paid much attention to a lone sith either. She had been able to even walk into one of the small outposts. That had proved the best course of action, allowing her vital information, as well as access to an Imperial shuttle to get closer to the spaceport.

Jaesa had originally thought to seek out Darth Lachris. Necrolis had helped the woman take control of Balmorra, driving off the Republic and quashing the rebel forces that had for so long plagued the Imperial occupation of the world. It had not lasted of course. Both factions returned to the battlefield in time, and the world was still in upheaval. She had also learned Lachris had fallen at the hands of a jedi. That news had left her with little in the way of options. She had to simply find and commandeer a ship herself, she thought.

Sobrik was the large Imperial held city with the secure and busy spaceport. It was the perfect place to find a ship to get off planet. All she had to do was get there through the endless plains that were filled with raging battles. Under normal circumstances, Jaesa knew she would have revelled in being on the planet with plenty of enemies to fight and kill. For now however, her focus was on getting back to the group. Pierce is going to be having manka cats, she thought and grinned.

"Halt! Identify yourself!"

Jaesa turned golden eyes to her left, glancing at the Imperial trooper that emerged around a half broken wall of stone. He was young, she noted, and afraid. So much for having competent and hardened sentries, she thought. The trooper did not even have his helmet on, waving his blaster rifle at her as he spoke and approached in slow, careful steps towards her. Rolling her eyes, Jaesa raised her hand and reached out with the force. The trooper gave a cry of surprise as he was lifted off his feet, hands grasping at the unseen pressure that had hold of him about the neck.

"Pathetic." Jaesa hissed, choking the trooper. "And you're supposed to be the first line of defence for the city?"

"Drop him." A stern hard voice stated. "Now, sith!"

Jaesa turned a hooded head towards the new voice, taking in the figure that leaned against one of the metal barricades. He wore cracked and marked armour, clearly having seen plenty of action. His hair was silver black, cut in the typical military brush cut that most soldiers favoured. Taking in the man, the fact he posed no threat, Jaesa felt certain he was the one in charge of the sentries and someone used to seeing sith as well.

"You need to put your puppies on shorter leashes." Jaesa smiled as she spoke to the man, letting the young trooper go.

Khoen Vreai nodded to the sith, knowing she could have easily killed the young trooper. He'd seen sith do so just out of spite, or for the sheer fun of it. He knew better than to assume this particular sith was weak, she merely felt it was not worth her effort to kill them. Be thankful for small miracles, Khoen reminded himself. Nodding his thanks for not killing his men to the woman, he remained where he was unmoving, keeping his hands well away from his weapons.

"At least these puppies can be taught, and he did stop you from going in, even at the cost of his life." Khoen answered back to the sith.

Jaesa nodded at the man's words. That was true, she knew. She knew there had been enough rebel attacks on Sobrik in the past. The traitorous scum would slip in past their sentries, plant explosives, and cause no end of disruption to the city and the Empire's operations.

"Glad to see standards are getting back to where they should be and were when Quinn ran this place."

"Quinn?" Khoen eyed the sith up at her comment. "You mean, Malavai Quinn?"

"You know him?" Jaesa asked back, answering the man's question with another.

"I do. Good man, fine strategist, but a pain in the ass for regulations." Khoen answered, relaxing a bit more. "I take it you know him?"

Jaesa relaxed a bit, sensing she had just found herself an ally. Leave it to Quinn to have made enough of an impression that they still remembered the man well after he had left to follow along with Necrolis. While she would not have said they were friends, she knew the man well enough and had come to respect him and his dedication to the Empire. With Quinn, you always knew where you stood.

"Quite well. I am trying to get back to join him. We were separated during a mission."

It was not a total lie, Jaesa knew, but the man did not need full disclosure. The fewer questions he asked the better. The last thing she needed was someone looking into who she was and discovering she was wanted by Darth Marr and those at his command.

"Come with me, we'll see if we can't assist you. I owe that man, and if I can pay a debt off all the better for helping you."

ZIOST

Sevrina Thane crouched at the top of a pile of rubble, hidden behind what likely had been a wall at some point. Dark eyes peered down ahead of her, taking in those that had infiltrated the citadel. They were quite the contradiction, one of them in flight gear and helmet in red and black, armed with a pair of blasters, the other clearly a sith in robes, a large unknown creature hovering close by her. The creature peaked Sevrina's curiosity the most. She would have guessed the woman to be an inquisitor from her dress, but she had never seen one with a pet like that.

"Sevrina where are you?" The inquisitor's comm link came to life with her brother's voice.

Sevrina kept watch even as she replied. She already knew what he was going to say. Varel never changed and his over-protective nature annoyed her. Sometimes she wondered if they were truly related at all. Her brother didn't have a shred of force ability in him after all.

"I've got them. Lock in on my signal and get here quickly." Sevrina reported.

"Why am I not surprised you did not stay put?" Varel growled at her.

Sevrina shook her head. He's never going to change, she thought. Well not unless I go and force choke him, that might get it through his head I'm not helpless. Shoving aside the dark thoughts, Sevrina watched and waited, knowing their forces were marshalled and coming. The only question now would be could they get here in time. The others were down there somewhere, and whatever their purpose it was clear the old ruins was where they had wanted to come.

Kayln Nidor could see the shuttles flying over the city, heading towards the oldest section. She knew there was no doubt they had located the intruders. It was a simple matter of altering her course to meet up with those gathering to go after whoever had infiltrated the citadel. As she throttled back the speeder, she took in the amount of manpower that was being brought to bear. She doubted there were more than a dozen troopers left in the city as a whole. Heavily armoured battle droids had been lined up, ready to be marched on their target.

"Looks like this has drawn the finest of us."

Kayln turned her red eyes to the speaker, taking in the red skinned zabrak coming up to her. Kasche L'Hnnar grinned and bowed his horned head to the other Overseer in greeting. Kayln returned the smile and nod back, noting the grey-blue armour the man wore, ready for a fight.

"It would appear so." The chiss answered back. "I shall look forward to seeing you all in action."

"Not going to be covering us with that deadly aim of yours?" Kasche asked of her, a puzzled look on his face.

"I may, if necessary and you leave them standing long enough for me to shoot!"

Kasche laughed even as he tossed an arm about the chiss woman, guiding and walking with her back towards the command center that had been hastily set up. Kayln kept the smile on her face and walked with the man, even as she glanced off towards the ruins, her mind once again turning to who might well be out there.

Rian Cen Nur had seen the massing force, following after the chiss. She had pulled up outside of the rally point, stealthily walking in unseen to observe. She still had a nagging bad feeling where the woman was concerned. Something still was not sitting right with her. The togruta watched as one of the warrior Overseers, Kasche welcomed Kayln to the gathering. Rian realized she was clenching her jaw and forced herself to relax. Seeing none about, the inquisitor let go of the force that shrouded her and then walked towards the group. It did not take long for anyone to notice her.

"There you are!" Sorn Kassal commented, the other sith warrior Overseer coming over to her from a group of troopers he had been giving orders to. "I thought you might miss all the fun."

"You have a strange sense of fun." Rian commented giving the man a stern look.

Sorn laughed and shrugged at the woman's comment. It was true he knew. The pure blooded sith glanced about then back to the woman, leaning in to talk in a low voice. Rian arched an eyebrow curiously and leaned in back at the man.

"Ok I'll admit it, I was looking forward to watching you kill a few intruders."

"Well you should be used to watching, as that is all you'll ever get to do." Rian answered back with a smirk as she straightened back up and regarded the man with a steady, unwavering gaze.

"Ah you wound me so." Sorn grinned and winked at Rian before looking about and then back to her. "So think they'll put up much of a fight?"

Rian Cen Nur glanced about at the gathered force they were marshalling to take on the intruders. Knowing they had most of the Overseers left on the planet leading the operation and going to be directly involved, she would have said they had whoever they were well outmatched. It should have been over relatively quickly. That was not accounting for their seemingly miraculous escape earlier, and not taking into account the strange actions and possible traitorous acts of Kayln Nidor. Tread carefully, she reminded herself, knowing she needed more than mere allegations in order to ensure there was no backlash on herself.

"We shall see Sorn, we shall see."