To say the situation in the alleyway was tense would be a severe understatement. Both the militiamen and the Brotherhood soldiers had their weapons raised at each other in a Mexican standoff. All the while Paladin Lukas and Captain Breel stared each other down.

Lukas had successfully extracted the two knights from the communications building, after carefully navigating around the local police force they had reunited with the two Knights who had stayed behind.

Lukas trusted Jules to lead the scribes out of the city and back to base. It had been just as they were about to set off that Berger had joined them with one of the conspirators in tow.

The group, six in all plus one prisoner, had begun heading back to base when they were forced to start using the back alleys to traverse the city. The police presence along the major streets had seemingly doubled as Lukas deduced that whoever was in charge had put the city in a sort of lockdown.

They weren't lost, Lukas knew for sure that they had been moving in the right direction; it was just that their route had taken them off the beaten path. That had unfortunately put them in their current situation.

Lukas broke from the staring match he had been having with Breel and glanced at each of the people behind him. They were all dressed in similar garb to the militia they had encountered a few days ago. What sold him on their identity was when he saw the limp form of Salant Hesp.

"You're Militia?"

Breel studied the paladin for a moment, silently weighing his options. Right now his best option was to buy time. "Yes, we are." Spying the exposed armour of one of the soldiers, he recognized the insignia. "You're those Brotherhood people aren't you."

"Yeah."

"You seem a little banged up there."

Lukas glanced back at the singed and dust-coated armour of his soldiers. "Just a little. You don't look like you're sitting pretty either."

The collective mood only seemed to get tenser, all the while fingers on triggers got tighter.

"We're ok." Breel steadied himself for the gunfight to come. "Just had to deal with a few… troublemakers. How about you?"

"Oh you know, escaped the fire down at the comm-building."

"The Comm-building?" A hint of doubt entered Breels mind.

"Yeah haven't you heard, it exploded." From beside Lukas, Berger spoke out.

The building doubt in Breels head was all that was needed to make him take a step back. 'The comlinks are down and there's two smoke pillars in the sky not close enough to be the same fire.'

Remembering Salant's thoughts about the brotherhood, she'd mentioned how organised they were. Breel had even seen for himself their discipline. 'And those bastards back at the HQ were certainly no trained fighters.'

Breel allowed his trigger finger to loosen a little as doubt at his current course of action set in. He wasn't going to let himself and his comrades die pointlessly. Lukas did the same, watching as the fire left Breels eyes.

"I think…" Breel lowered his weapon fully, much to the concerned looks of his fellow officers. "We may have a bit of a misunderstanding."

"I think so too." Lukas let his laser rifle move away from the Captain, before turning his head and nodding to the rest of his team who quickly followed suit.

Breel motioned for the militiamen to do the same albeit more reluctantly. As the tension diffused between the two groups Breel used the opportunity to deal with his confusion. "You said the com-building exploded."

Lukas shared a glance with Berger before deciding to answer. "We had people inside accessing the holonet. My team and I were acting as guards. We saw two suspicious individuals leave via the side entrance and the next thing we know the tower is coming down on top of us."

"When was this?"

"About fifteen minutes ago." Lukas watched as Breel processed the information. Looking to those behind him he decided to do his part in diffusing the situation. "Knight Paula, do you have any stimpaks on you?" She nodded and Lukas motioned towards the injured militiamen.

The knight stepped forward to the alarm of the officers who readied their weapons. "Calm down," Breel spoke to them firmly. "These weren't the people that attacked us."

"You're sure, captain?"

"Yes." His calm demeanour won them over and they again lowered their blasters allowing Knight Paula to approach.

While she tended to Hesp, Breel turned to address Lukas. "Captain Contho Breel."

"Paladin Lukas."

"You said you saw the perpetrators."

"Better than that." Lukas smiled and gestured to the scruffy man they had been hauling with them. "There were two. We killed one and captured this one."

"Has he said anything?" Lukas shook his head at the question. The human in question glared at both of them. "Do you mind if I question him?"

"He's all yours." Lukas stepped aside and nodded to the knight who had been holding him. The human dropped to the floor and scrambled to stand only to stop as Breel approached him.

"Who are you?" he asked calmly the rage he felt barely kept at bay by a veneer of professionalism. His glare remained as the human kept silent much to the displeasure of the captain.

"WHO are you?" Kneeling to the man's eye level, Breel spoke with more force in his voice. If it had been any other time Breel might have maintained his civility, but not today.

"ANSWER ME!" He shouted, gaining the whole group's attention. Grabbing the man's jaw and pushing his blaster into the human's face.

"Woah woah…" Fear leapt onto his face staring down the barrel of the blaster. He looked to Lukas pleadingly.

The paladin shook his head. "I'd answer him if I were you."

"N-N-Nervin… Nervin Fras." He answered quickly desperate not to get shot.

"Well Nervin, you can answer some questions for me." Nervin nodded quickly. Breel lowered his blaster and removed his hand letting his head drop. "Who do you work for and did you blow up the com building?"

"Y-Yes we did," Nervin answered skittishly. Breel kept staring at him with an expectant look. "I'm part of 'Tsallo's Strays'."

That drew a few shouts and jeers from the few militiamen listening in. Breel's glare at the man only seemed to get more intense.

"That mean something to you?"

Breel looked back to Lukas for a moment. "Local pirate ring that we haven't been able to nail down."

His attention turning back to Nervin, Breel continued the interrogation. "What about the attack on the Militia HQ?"

"Nothing, I only know that there were two teams." Another strong glare from the captain kept him talking. "All I know is that our target was the com-building and that the other team had way more guys and were more heavily armed than us."

Breel turned away with a stern face, processing all the information. "Tsallo's band of pirates have never attacked us in the city before, he's gotta know that this will bring some serious heat down on him." The voice of one of the officers caught his attention, but before Breel could respond he was cut off.

"That's because it wasn't his idea." Everyone's attention snapped to Nervin who shrunk down under everyone's gaze.

"What do you mean?" Breel stepped towards him. "Did someone hire you?"

"Yes."

"Who?" Nirven visibly hesitated for a second. Breel's brow twitched before he raised his voice. "Don't make me do something you'll regret."

"Alright alright…" Nirven trailed off before a look of resignation overcame him. "Tsallo said it was someone named Post or something."

"You mean Pomst."

"Yeah, that's it."

The silence that drowned the alleyway was deafening.

—

Knight Captain Jules' return to the Warehouse had not been fun. Knight Commander Harper had met her at the gate, after a few brief words exchanged she had dumped the scribes off and had rushed over to the small medical facility they had set up.

She watched as the scribes worked on the injured knight. She had been there unmoving for at least five minutes before a runner had come to fetch her. Star paladin Cross wanted a debriefing and as the ranking member of those who had returned that responsibility fell to her.

She entered Cross' office to see both the Star Paladin as well as Paladin Hardin. She stood to attention before the two and soon began to recant the moments leading up to the current situation.

"After the local police force started to get wary of our presence near the area I made the call to return to base. Knight Dempson and Knight Charlie volunteered to remain and wait for Paladin Lukas and Knight Captain Bergers to return."

"You said Paladin Lukas gave you an order to return." Cross inquired.

"Yes ma'am." Cross nodded and motioned for her to continue. "During our return, I noticed an increasing police presence and after passing through the city's main gate we noticed that they had put the city on lockdown."

Jules remained silent, her eyes downcast as she finished her report. Cross remained still with a contemplative face until she broke out of it and looked to Jules. "Thank you, Knight Captain Jules… You're dismissed."

Jules nodded and exited the office. Stepping into the hallway she moved to one of the nearby windows from which she could see the city and the two pillars of smoke emerging from it. She stayed watching for a while letting her thoughts consume her.

This was only her second mission with this new squad and already she felt as though she had let them down. Logically she knew she had only done as Lukas had ordered but that barely helped dent the doubt she was now feeling.

Footsteps behind her made her turn, coming towards her was Paladin Hardin with a neutral look on his face. "Paladin Hardin I uhh.. I-"

Hardin cut her off, placing his hand on her shoulder. "Are you ok?"

"Sir?"

"Are you ok, Jules?" Hardin asked again, his face gaining a concerned look.

It took Jules a moment but she soon responded in a downtrodden tone. "Yes sir."

"Here." Jules looked up and saw him offering her a small cloth. Taking it she began wiping her face of all the dust and dirt it had collected during the mission.

"Thank you, sir."

Hardin smiled slightly and moved to stand next to her and look out the window. "You did good, captain." Jules looked at him with no small amount of confusion on her face.

"It might not feel like it…" Hardin paused before looking her in the eye. "But you followed orders and made the best moves you could have in a bad situation."

"You extracted yourself and your charges from danger while leaving appropriate assets for Lukas. You also saved one of the knights, Word is she'll lose her leg but you brought her home alive." Despite his praise, he could see it wasn't having a major effect on the knight captain's mood.

"About Lukas." Jules flinched slightly. "Don't worry about him. He's a tough old Brahmin. He'll pull through."

The two fell into silence, content to keep observing the city through the window. Jules, although still not overjoyed about leaving Lukas behind, had to concede that if anyone in their squad could survive then it would be Lukas.

"Besides…" Hardin turned to leave but not before patting her on the shoulder. "I've convinced Cross that if he's not back by tomorrow morning we'll be heading in to find him. So get yourself checked out by the scribes and get some rest for tomorrow."

—

Lukas watched Captain Breel and a few of the other militia officers engage in a heated discussion. The confession of the pirate had caused no small shortage of despair for them.

From what he remembered Pomst was the local leader of the whole planet, so Lukas figured the response was to be expected. If someone had told him that someone high in the brotherhood had betrayed them he would be experiencing the same emotions; denial, suspicion and no small amount of anger.

Judging by how long they had been talking he reckoned that while the words of the pirate were by no means trustworthy, there was already enough animosity to add credence to the accusation.

Lukas looked to Berger and the knights who had stayed behind, most were cleaning dust-coated gear. While the threat of a firefight had vanished they still stood close together, prepared for things to kick off again.

The only reason they hadn't pulled out after Breel had absolved them was that they had overheard an emergency announcement coming from the main road, about the city going into lockdown.

Being unfamiliar with the city Lukas didn't know what a lockdown would entail or a way around it. So for now he had elected to stay put and see if he couldn't get some information out of Breel or his men.

He watched as one of the officers moved towards the group, she said something and they all glanced towards the body of who Lukas had been told was the militia Commander Salant Hesp.

The group seemed to talk even faster, a few officers sparing glances towards the brotherhood soldiers. Eventually, the talking stopped and with one final look, Breel nodded before making his way towards Lukas.

The paladin stood straight as he approached and before either of them spoke, both men stared at each other. This wasn't like earlier, the rage and cynicism in his eyes were now replaced by a calculating and shrewd look. The captain wanted to take his measure so Lukas stared back, meeting the challenge.

Eventually, Breel stood down and let out a sigh of resignation. "Paladin, we have come to the conclusion that your brotherhood is probably not responsible for the attack."

"What a relief," Berger said sarcastically from behind Lukas. He simply turned to Berger, giving him a look meant to shut him up.

"You and your men are free to go. We will also be taking the pirate into our custody for further questioning." Breel glanced back towards his fellows. "However, I'd ask of you a favour."

Lukas nodded prompting him to continue.

"In light of recent information, despite the doubt about its validity." He shot a glare at Nervin. "Circumstances mean we need to take caution. Our scouting of your compound tells us that you have a medical facility set up."

"That would be correct."

"There are those in our group who require proper care and facilities. At the moment they may be at risk, being treated at a local hospital." The fact that among that number was Commander Hesp went unsaid. "The nearest hospital outside of the city is a considerable distance away unless you would be willing to take them with you"

Lukas glanced at where the wounded had been resting before Breel continued. "Make no mistake, once this whole misunderstanding has been cleared up we will come and take our people back. But it is our my- our belief that the safest place for them is outside of the city"

Lukas remained silent for a moment, contemplating his course of action. Taking in outsiders was always a risk especially those affiliated with an outside faction and they weren't exactly flush with resources. However, forming a positive relationship with a new militant faction was definitely worth considering.

Lukas' gaze again fell on the injured. Being among the old guard of the Brotherhood he was always sceptical of Elder Lyons' more humanitarian stance. He had come around though, slowly but surely he started enjoying seeing the relief on people's faces at the Brotherhood's presence.

Lukas turned to his team, the knights looked to him with trust and Berger nodded. They would go along with whatever he decided. "I can only promise to take the injured, no one else."

Breel smiled and nodded to him. "Thank you, Paladin Lukas." The Captain motioned for them to approach and Lukas motioned for the knights to help.

"We will need someone to help navigate past the lockdown."

Breel thought for a moment before calling out. "Sergeant Meandel." A male Twi'lek militiaman approached. "This is Paladin Lukas, I need you to lead him outside the city, past the lockdown-"

Breel began to give him directions. Once all of the injured were gathered they began preparing to move, before they left Lukas caught Breel staring at them as they left, worry in his eyes. It was after a moment of staring did Lukas nodded to him and soon after he received one back.

With that, they set off through the back alleys of the city as the sun slowly set behind the mountains.

—

*Pop

Meez let the cork fly from the bottle before bringing the bottle to his snout to take a sniff. "Ahhh a '924 Raxian reserve, you can almost smell the Doloxian wood they use to cask it… smells like nature."

"Where oh where did you get that?" Meez turned one of his three eye stalks to look at Pomst.

He let a smirk grow on his face at having something the governor didn't. "Freighter captain ran up a few gambling debts, came to me to get it sorted and I took this as payment." Placing two cups on his desk he poured a small serving out for the two of them. "Been chipping away at it for years."

Pomst took his glass and after smelling the fine wine he took a long savouring sip of the purple liquid. "Mmmm, very nice."

"Agreed." Taking a sip from his own cup.

"But I have to ask, what are you celebrating?" Pomst placed his glass down and levelled a Sharp stare at the commissioner. "As I'm sure you're aware Miss Hesp is still missing, along with a few militia officers. I like my loose ends tied nice and neatly."

"Why, we're celebrating my promotion of course." Meez smiled looking at the small medal on his table, ready to be pinned on. "And I already apologised about losing her but if you hadn't noticed I had a few fires to put out; both externally and internally."

"Besides, even if she survived that explosion, the boys I had watching said she left that building seriously injured. I've got eyes on all the hospitals and any other likely spots they might surface. We'll know when she shows up."

Pomst kept his sceptical gaze on Meez while finishing off the last of his drink. Before he could voice his displeasure at the alien they were both interrupted as an officer entered the room.

"Sorry to interrupt sir, but we've spotted them."

The slimy grin on Meez's face was enough to make Pomst roll his eyes. "See what did I tell ya."

"Very well commissioner." Pomst stood and straightened his overcoat. "Arrest them and be done with it. Tomorrow I shall hold an address formalising your appointment as commander of the militia and then we can start dealing with our other problem."

Meez raised his hand to the governor. "To a prosperous deal."

Pomst took his hand in a firm shake before turning towards the door meaning that Meez was unable to see him wipe his hand on his coat as he left.

—

Captain Breel led his group, now without the wounded, through the city with one destination in mind. It was dark now but that suited them just fine as they crossed the street of the more affluent part of Wasulta.

Reaching the door he had been looking for Breel pressed the bell a few times while the others watched his back. The day's events making him less patient Breel soon started knocking hard on the door.

The sliding door opened just a crack to reveal the metal face of a protocol droid. Breel spoke before the droid could get a word in.

"Tell Mr Reek that it's Captain Breel. We need to speak."

The neutral-faced droid stared back at him for a moment. "One moment."

The door shut and Breel waited anxious minutes before the door opened again and they all quickly funnelled in.

The droid had been waiting for them and gestured to follow. "This way, Master Reek will see you in here."

Following the droid, Breel entered a well-kept living room with a fireplace heating the room. Sitting in a chair opposite the fire was a well-dressed elderly Ithorian, alongside its hunched throat was a nondescript translator collar.

"Governor Reek," Breel said out of habit.

The alien made the equivalent of a laugh before his collar lit up. "I haven't held that position in a while, please call me Domo, Captain Breel."

The rest of the Militiamen filed into the room, all of them giving nods and salutes of respect. "I have to say, when I heard about the fires today I thought you and your men would be busy."

"Well, our situation is a bit uhh… all over the place at the moment." If Domo knew Breel was downplaying it, he didn't let it show. "I've come to ask a favour."

Domo gestured for him to continue.

"Can you put us up for tonight... only tonight, we won't impose any longer."

"Of course. B9 show these men and women to the guest room and have the kitchen droid whip up something quick." The protocol droid nodded and began herding the tired officers. "As for you Breel sit… sit, I insist. Something tells me there's a story to all this and I want to hear it."

Breel reluctantly nodded and sat in the offered chair. Clearing his throat he began to tell the event of the past day.

AN: thanks for reading so far hope you are enjoying :)

Definitely will be some Eyebots and Assualtrons in the future. and that does make me think who would win a B1 battle droid or a Protectron. Maybe I'll include something like that in the future who knows. As for Liber-Tea Prime... Maybe possibly if I get that far it may or may not happen.

About the LW soon... soon his fate will be revealed.