Last time: Kyr and Cien learned that Troy is Sulam's son.

Now: The Marshalls move on the clue the trio found.

Chapter 8- The Communications Center

The next morning Viran, Oppie and Sasha headed over to the militia office first thing to inform Colonel Ceros about what they had found. After getting through security, they made it into the main building and over to Ceros's office without much trouble as Marshal J'onz was nowhere in sight. But when they got to the door of the office, they could hear Marshal J'onz on the other side already talking to Ceros.

Oppie glanced at the other two, not particularly wanting to deal with J'onz this morning. Viran and Sasha shared a similar expression. But they needed to tell Ceros what they found. With an annoyed sigh, Viran raised his hand to the door and placed a firm knock upon it.

The voices inside quieted down and they heard Ceros call from inside, "enter."

Viran opened the door and the three of them entered into Ceros office. "Sorry for the interruption. We can come back," he said.

"No, that is fine." Colonel Ceros said, "we were just discussing your findings yesterday, in fact."

"Ah, well then. That makes this easy," Sasha said. "We found something else from yesterday's search."

"Like what exactly?" J'onz asked, suspicious.

"A potential cartel location at the edge of town," Sasha said, keeping her gaze on Ceros.

"How, may I ask, did you discover this?" J'onz asked as his hands went to his hips.

"The basic computer set up we found yesterday," Viran answered. "I was able to get it back online and with a little help, we were able to trace where the camera footage was being sent to."

"But you said it had been removed?" J'onz asked, visibly confused. "How were you able to get all of that from mere cables?"

"We told you the truth. It was removed, but by us," Viran replied, simply.

"What? You stole evidence and lied to us?" J'onz asked exasperated. "I should have you removed from your marshal status for this!"

"We didn't lie, and we didn't steal evidence from anyone." Oppie said, looking at the man coldly. "As marshals, we took it as evidence, that's not stealing. Luckily no one had bothered to investigate the site over the last five months." Oppie said pointedly. "Else they might have found it before us." He said

"Plus, no offense, but the last time we were here we trusted someone who ended up turning on us and nearly killing our brother," Sasha added. She glanced at Ceros. "I know that you have cleared most of the cartel followers from the militia, but are you a hundred percent sure you can trust everyone out there?" She looked between the two men. "Either of you? Because we did not want to risk this getting into the cartel's hands."

J'onz stood there for a second, trying to not seeth in anger. He took a step forward towards Sasha, nearly looming over her. Their eyes met in a glare. "And how do we know we can trust you? You withheld evidence from us. Are you sure you aren't the ones working with the cartel?" He asked, coldly.

Viran rolled his hands into fists and trembled, about ready to strike J'onz.

"Surely you can't be serious?" Colonel Ceros said, stepping forward, "accusing them of working for the cartel? Do you know what happened?" He asked J'onz incredulously.

"I read the file," J'onz said, glancing at Ceros before looking back at Sasha, who hadn't broken her glare. Oppie had stepped to her side and was staring J'onz down alongside her.

Ceros stepped to their sides, holding his hands up in a placating manner. "This will do us no good. We need to work together to defeat the cartel, and not let their influence cause strife among us. Our enemies are out there, not in this room." He said, talking sternly to the four Republic marshals.

Sasha released a breath and looked away. "You're right, Colonel. We do need to work together, and this is not the way to do it. I'm sorry," she said in a calmer tone. Viran relaxed at that. She looked to J'onz. "I apologize for my reaction. That was uncalled for."

J'onz huffed and turned away from her. He took a seat nearby before responding. "Apology accepted." He said, emotionlessly.

Sasha didn't like the way he said it, but she accepted that it was probably better than nothing from him.

Oppie rolled his eyes at J'onz before looking over to the Colonel in a calmer manner. "From the evidence we gathered at the site we were able to determine a location where the camera feed was being transmitted. We want to go check that site out, and we want to get your permission and whatever legal clearance we need."

J'onz said nothing, but he snorted lightly to himself. Sasha and Viran both ignored him.

"We don't need a whole team to go, but we think the cartel might still be using this location," Sasha explained. "While going through all the intel on the cartel, we made a map of known locations they have either been spotted or used. This place was not in the files."

The Colonel considered for a moment. "This information you gathered is reliable?" He asked.

"Yes," Viran confirmed. "We made sure of it by having the best hacker we know get the intel. Our family's astromech."

"You called a droid?" J'onz asked, incredulous.

"Yeah we did. Got a problem with droids?" Viran asked, smirking just slightly. J'onz didn't have a response to that which caught Viran off guard slightly.

"Anyway," Sasha said, bringing the conversation back around, "so what do you think?"

"This is very intriguing." The Colonel said, "let me get a warrant. Do you need any sort of team to back you up?" He asked, looking between the three Jedi.

Viran actually smiled at that. "We think we can handle it," he said rather confidently.

"But," Sasha added, "it may not hurt to have a little back up just in case. So probably just a small team to help us." She didn't really like the idea of the three of them going at this alone, especially after a bar blew up around her the last time she went somewhere without backup.

Ceros nodded. "I will send some of my best people with you." He said, looking between them again. "This sounds like an excellent break, well done." He complimented.

"Thank you, sir," Sasha said, smiling at that.

"Colonel, I would like to go with them," J'onz spoke up. "I'd like to observe this place myself."

Colonel Ceros glanced between him and the Jedi before speaking. "I feel that is not my call, perhaps that is up to your fellow marshals." He added plainly.

Sasha froze in place and looked to Viran and Oppie. She really wanted to say no, but they were trying to work together. "I'm alright with it," she said, half heartedly.

"I'm fine with it if you are," Viran agreed in a similar manner.

Oppie just nodded.

"Very well then." The Colonel said, nodding. "I expect to have the warrant in hand by the time you reach the location, so if you wish to start heading there I will forward it to you. Lieutenant Bearsos will meet you at the motorpool. Good hunting." He finished.

The trio gave a nod before heading out the door of the office and off towards the motor pool. J'onz lagged behind them, stopping briefly at his desk for something before following after them. When Sasha glanced back, it looked like he grabbed a datapad, probably for taking notes.

As they walked out to the motor pool they saw three trucks being readied, and a team of men and women outside getting ready to go. A woman that had the same straw colored hair as Cien walked over to them, "I'm Bearsos, are you the new New Republic marshals?" She asked, looking between the Jedi.

"Yes." Oppie answered with a nod.

"Are the trucks ready? We don't want to waste time if the cartel is supposedly at this site," J'onz butted in.

Sasha gave the man a strange sideways glance before looking back at the woman before them.

"Yes, just about. My team is loading up." She said, "you four will be with me." She informed them.

"I'll ride in the other truck. Thank you," J'onz said as he turned and made his way over to the vehicle.

Viran and Sasha exchanged a thankful glance at that.

"Suits me." Bearsos said with a suppressed roll of her eyes. "Follow me." She commanded them, heading for one of the trucks. Similar to the ones that the New Republic had from the embassy, but armored up somewhat to make them more like assault vehicles.

They piled into the truck in the same sitting arrangement as before, with two soldiers in jumpseats in the far back. Bearsos started the truck and drove them through town following Viran's directions. After about fifteen or so minutes, they arrived at a run down looking building on the east end of the town. The place looked abandoned, but if the cartel was using this place then that meant this building was probably far from it. The trucks came to a stop outside in a defensive formation before unloading their passengers.

"We got the warrant a few minutes ago, so we are ready. Do you want us to breach?" Bearsos asked them as she shifted her rifle into place and the rest of the team formed a perimeter.

Oppie glanced at the other three. "I'll take point, you guys behind me?" He asked Sasha and Viran as he reached for his sabers.

"We're right behind you," Sasha said with a firm nod as she grabbed her saber. Viran nodded as he did the same.

J'onz, who was looking on passively from the trucks, raised an eyebrow in vague interest.

"Okay, follow me." Oppie said, taking off at a sprint for the door. Sasha and Viran followed after him, close on his heels. Forming up against the door, Oppie looked back at Sasha. "Can you blow the door in?" He asked her.

"Leave it to me," Sasha said, smirking. She moved before the door and closed her eyes, focusing on the door in the Force. Sasha then raised her hand and pushed the door in. It flew off its hinges and into the depths of the building beyond with a loud thunk. "After you," she said to Oppie as she opened her eyes and kindly gestured to the now open door.

Oppie nodded and rushed in, his sabers ignited. The building was a smallish, two story house. They rushed into a living space that was empty of all but two camp chairs, a small holodisplay, and absolutely filled with foul smelling takeout containers that looked like they had been stacking up for several months. "Clear." Oppie called behind him to the team outside, who were already moving in behind them. Oppie moved swiftly to the stairs. He glanced around. "You guys sense them down there?" He asked, pointing towards the ground, not seeing a set of stairs leading down, only up.

"Yeah, I sense them," Viran said. "But how the hell do we get down there?"

Sasha knelt down to the ground and placed her hand on the cool surface. She stretched out with the Force. After a moment, she opened her eyes and moved over to a nearby wall.

"This is a false wall," She told them. "We need to go this way."

"I've got this," Viran said. He ignited his saber allowing for a bright blue blade to illuminate the room. Taking a step forward as Sasha stepped aside, Viran stabbed his lightsaber into the wall and carved out a large enough hole for them to go through. As soon as the hole was cut, Viran stepped back to allow Oppie to enter first.

Oppie rushed forward, and down into the stairs that were now exposed into a wide open basement area. Sitting in front of a small bank of monitors and computer equipment were two young men that looked at them in absolute shock.

"Step away!" Oppie ordered, "stand against the wall. Now."

They both reached for blasters and aimed them at the Jedi, but their trembling was so apparent that the blasters were shaking. Viran looked past them and spotted the progress bar going across the screen.

"Op, they're deleting the drive," Viran observed in a slight panic as they were now on a time crunch.

"Drop the blasters or we drop you. On the floor! Now." Oppie yelled. His voice ringing through the room.

"Screw this," the taller of the two young men said as he tossed his blaster aside and got onto the floor as ordered. "I didn't sign up for this."

"Shut up," the other grumbled as he did the same.

Sasha realized in that moment that these two were probably no older than eighteen years old. So Cordova had kids involved. That made things a bit more complicated.

"Stay put and don't move," Sasha ordered as she came over to them. She glanced over her shoulder at Viran. "Get Tac on the line now!"

"I'm already on it," Viran said as he rushed forward. Deactivating his lightsaber, he clipped it back on his belt and pulled out the transmitter. He plugged it into the system and called up Tac simultaneously as he tried to stop the overwrite.

QT answered with a warbling beep.

"I'm connecting you to a computer that is currently trying to delete everything," Viran said anxiously. "Can you stop it? We can't lose the data on this."

QT beeped an acknowledgement. Over the line they heard Tac butt in, and they started arguing.

"Guys! Shut it! We don't have time for that." Viran shouted, irritated. "We need to stop the mass overwrite now! Hurry! Bicker after!"

There was an annoyed chortle from Tac, and QT told him to shut it while she worked. After a few seconds, the progress bar on the computer stopped, and then the entire screen went blank. QT sent a series of whistles to Viran.

Viran sighed in relief. "Thanks guys. Alright give me a second to boot it back up then we need to hack this system. It's just like last time. We are trying to find anything and everything on the cartel that you can from this computer," he said as he sank down into one of the seats.

"Let's get these two out of here," Sasha said as she released a breath of relief. "Can you handle things here?"

"Yeah, I've got this," Viran said with a nod. Behind them Bearsos and another officer were coming down the stairs.

"Lieutenant, can you take these two into custody?" Oppie asked her.

"On it." She said, taking a pair of binders off her belt.

The two boys sighed in defeat as they were handcuffed. Sasha walked over and stood behind Viran as the computer came back online. The two watched as Tac and QT went through the system. After a few moments, the only thing that came up was a singular location.

"A night club?" Sasha questioned, staring at the monitor.

"It looks like this is where the footage from the cameras was being sent to. This place is only a connection point. A rerouting system. A 'make sure our call is not being tapped into' call center," Viran explained as he looked at what the two droids were bringing up on the monitor from lightyears away. "And it appears that the nightclub is the only place they send that information to."

"The Lonestar Nightclub," Sasha mumbled to herself. "It looks like it's up north from here."

Oppie grimaced. "Why a nightclub?" Oppie said. "I guess it makes a good front." He said, shaking his head.

"I mean I used to run a bar. So I get it," Sasha said with a smirk. "It's the last place to look."

"Alright, I'm gonna download all of this information and then we are good here," Viran said, typing away at the computer.

Kait looked up from the pile of paperwork she had been going through. She had spent the morning going through the archives, again, looking at reports and information already months out of date, again. J'onz had told her to comb through them, looking for any connection they might have missed. She emerged from the documents storage room, Caranas was underdeveloped enough that many of their old documents were actually filed on stored flimsi. This time she was looking for the reports from the original incident, years ago when Maldesto had first formed the cartel. When she had emerged, J'onz was gone, and she had no idea where.

Until now. Sasha, Viran and Oppie came in, with Lieutenant Bearsos and three of her fellow officers leading two suspects in custody. J'onz was trailing close behind them, gruff as ever. She kept her eyes on them as they handed off the prisoners.

Colonel Ceros stepped out of his office to survey the scene, and he spoke. "Your mission was successful?" He asked the trio.

"Yes sir," Sasha said. "We found these two guarding a computer which Viran was able to get more intel off of."

"Meaning, we have another potential location of where the cartel may be," Viran answered, smirking.

"Excellent." Ceros said with a grin. "Let's go discuss in my office." He said, leading them in while Bearsos took the suspects off for processing.

"Deputy Messan with us," J'onz ordered, noticing her at her desk as the trio followed Ceros into his office. She got up and followed them in.

"What did you find?" Ceros asked the three Jedi as they came in and Kait closed the door behind her.

"The computer didn't have much in regards to information or intel. Just a location," Viran said. "The Lonestar Nightclub on the northern side of the city. It appears that the cartel is working out of it in some capacity."

"I know this place." He said, "I'm not surprised it is a cartel front, but we've never had any indication it was. Are you sure?" He asked.

"Yeah, I've got it all downloaded here," Viran said as he produced a small data card from his pocket. He handed it over to Ceros.

He took the card and considered it for a moment. "It is one thing to get a warrant for what seems to be an abandoned building, it is a completely different thing to raid an active and popular club." He said, looking back up at them wryly. "What do we expect to find there?"

"We're not sure." Oppie said, "it might be another communications pass through, it might be a major command center. All we know is we have this lead for where this information was sent to get it directly to Selina, and this seems like a good thread to pull to unravel the whole thing."

"But I've got a plan. Or at least the makings of one," Sasha started. "Since this place is still a popular location for civilians to go to, it wouldn't be best to charge in there guns blazing. So I was thinking if we can send in a small team. Like two or four people at the most to scout it out. Meaning they go in and see what kind of set up the cartel has there. And if there is something worth going after, then we can have a team on standby to come in through the back door and seize the place."

The Colonel nodded. "Who would you want for this? You three?" He asked. He smirked very slightly, looking at the three Jedi before him and thinking of them stepping foot in a night club and not standing out immediately.

"Well yeah," Sasha said a little sheepishly. "I feel like the three of us can handle going in there without too much trouble."

"I don't think it'll work," J'onz spoke up. Sasha shot a small glare at him. "No offense, Jedi. But even if the three of you walked in there in disguises, you don't really strike me as undercover types." Sasha and Viran snorted at that. Kait smirked a little, not wanting to agree with J'onz, but picturing the three walking into a nightclub did seem out of character.

"We were undercover for fifteen years without getting caught by the Empire," Viran said. "I think we can handle a little night club scene."

J'onz just rolled his eyes. "Even so, I still think it might be best to send two people who won't raise suspicion."

"Oh and who were you thinking?" Sasha asked, curiously.

"Why, you two," J'onz said, gesturing to Sasha and Kait.

Kait furrowed her brow. "Us?" She asked.

"Yes, you two," J'onz said, simply. "No one would suspect two lovely ladies to waltz in and cause problems. They might get suspicious of you two though." He looked to Viran and Oppie on that last part. A slight shudder went through Sasha as he called her lovely.

"I can't disagree." Oppie said, a slight shudder went through him saying those words.

Sasha did a double take at that as she didn't expect Oppie to agree to that. But as she thought about it more, she hated to admit J'onz was probably right about that.

"I can watch out for Sasha." Kait said, looking between them, "I'm fine with this plan." She said, glancing at Sasha.

"Yeah, same," Sasha agreed.

"Okay, while I trust you two to handle themselves in there without us, I have a bad feeling that the cartel might try and pull something," Viran said, uneasy. "I think Op and I should go with them in some capacity as backup."

"Oh, we'll be right outside." Oppie stated.

"And I think you should have a squad of men with you," J'onz continued. "Just in case you need to storm the place, you'll have full backup. And I can man a smaller team in the back just in case they try to flee that way. It's best to keep all of our exits covered."

Oppie glanced at him. This was the first time he had been cooperative with them, really. And he could help feeling suspicious of that. But he kept his misgivings to himself. Even Viran and Sasha were taken back by that, but also said nothing. At least for a moment.

"So I guess the next question is when do we strike?" Viran asked.

"Probably at night when the club is actually open and at its busiest," Sasha answered. "It might look suspicious to go any earlier."

"If the cartel doesn't know we raided this little hub, then they'll know soon. We might need to move quickly before they have a chance to move their operations out of it." Oppie suggested.

"Then I suggest we mobilize tonight," J'onz suggested. "Catch them off guard that way."

Sasha looked at Kait. "I don't suppose you've got any ideas for anything that would work as a disguise?" She asked.

Kait smirked slightly, "I didn't pack a lot of clubbing clothes when I came here, but I might have some things you can borrow."

Sasha blinked at that. "Oh uh, okay. Thanks."

"We've got several hours until nightfall. I suggest we start getting ready now to move at sundown. I think we need to be in position before it gets too late," J'onz suggested as he folded his arms across his chest.

Colonel Ceros had listened to all of it, and smirked a little at the plan. "I can't wait to hear what you find when you return tomorrow morning." He commented.

"Then I suggest you all get some rest," J'onz said, looking at the Jedi. "It's going to be a long night. And Deputy Messan, are you finished with those reports I asked for?" He asked her.

"Nearly, yes." She replied, "I was just finishing my notes when I was called into this meeting."

"Alright then you are to finish that before you can prepare for tonight. Is that understood?" He asked.

"Yes sir." She said.

"Then let's get to work," Viran said as he rubbed his hands together eagerly.

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