Some days after returning from Corellia, Jaden was headed to the archives to get some extra reading done in the Ancient Jedi Texts. She passed the Meditation rooms, set aside for students, Jedi and masters alike to have a quiet place to reach out and connect with the Force. Masters often used the rooms to help teach their students the value of meditation and finding inner peace in the midst of anxiety or a stressful environment. But now, the sound and sense of this particular room she was passing was anything but peaceful or quiet. From what she could tell, Jaden was sure Kyle was in there, trying to teach this valuable lesson to Rosh. Trying, but not necessarily succeeding.

"Focus, control your emotions, Rosh," Kyle was saying.

Though she couldn't see his face, Jaden could sense Rosh's growing frustration. Feeling uncomfortable about standing near the door and listening in on such a private training moment, Jaden moved to go.

"Uggh! I've been sitting here for weeks and all you've taught me is how to sit still for hours on end! I'm getting nowhere!" Rosh roared. Suddenly, the door slid open and Rosh came barreling out, not looking where he was going he bumped into Jaden. She knew he knew it was her, but to spare himself further embarrassment, he kept on going without acknowledging her except to mutter a brief "Sorry," and continue hurriedly down the hall. But he wasn't fast enough to hide the extra flush burning in his cheeks. She stared at his retreating back in utter disbelief. She'd known he was getting increasingly frustrated over Kyle's teaching and most likely his "lack" of fostering Rosh's "talents" but this had built up farther than Jaden had thought it would.

Rosh had given them both the cold shoulder after they returned from Corellia. Jaden wasn't sure how it had been with Kyle, but Rosh barely spoke to her and had lately been extra confident in his behavior around the Academy. And it was getting more than a little annoying.

When she turned and saw Kyle standing in the doorway, her own cheeks colored. "Kyle, I'm-" she tried to explain, "I'm sorry, I wasn't purposely eavesdropping, I was just headed to the-"

"Don't sweat it kid." Kyle held his hand up. "You're both under my tutelage so at least it wasn't like you were standing outside of Luke's door. But in the future, try not to linger outside of conversations that are meant for other's ears only, okay?"

"I will." Jaden nodded.

Kyle tried to laugh it off, "Well, that could've been worse."

"Worse? From what I did hear it sounded pretty bad. What are you going to do?"

Kyle put a hand on her shoulder, "I appreciate the concern for your fellow student but that's something for me to worry about, not you. It's up to Rosh to find his own path and choose what he's going to learn, I can only take him so far."

Jaden bowed her head in agreement, "You're right, Kyle. Well, I guess I'd better get back to my studies. I was headed to the archives, unless you need me for something?"

"As a matter of fact, yes," Kyle said. "Luke has an announcement for the whole Academy and wants us in the Audience Chamber in two hours, so go and study, but keep an eye on the time okay?"

"Sure thing!" She answered and they parted ways.

Jaden rushed into the Audience Chamber, practically sliding to a stop beside Rosh. She'd decided to rest in her room instead of studying and had dozed off, nearly missing the time.

"Whoa, what's the rush?" Rosh said, looking at her sidelong, a cocky grin plastered on his face that was meant to be charming but only served to sour Jaden's mood. If she hadn't felt somewhat rested, she might have smacked Rosh across the face. Maybe I should confront him about his attitude? She wondered. But not now.

Aloud she said, "Just wanted to be punctual." She put on a smile and turned to scan the crowd. Every student and master seemed to be gathered in the Audience Chamber, some milling about and talking to each other in low tones; most likely gossiping or exchanging theories about what Master Skywalker was going to announce. They all grew quiet as Luke entered the room at the top of the dais above them.

"I have called you all here to relay some disturbing news," he began. "Someone sliced into my personal records and accessed some highly sensitive data about places where I felt a strong connection to the Force. Places like Cloud City, Hoth, and Byss."

Rosh chuckled, "What could they get from that, besides a tour?" He said sardonically.

"Something nasty!" Jaden nearly jumped at Kyle's sharp tone. She didn't even notice when he'd walked up to stand beside them. Rosh however, was as cool as a dead star and didn't give Kyle even a sidelong glance.

Luke ignored the interruption and continued: "I believe that the scepter Jaden saw was somehow used to drain the residual Force power from the Massassi Temple."

Everyone glanced at each other, especially at Jaden, muttering quick comments to their neighbors.

Jas Harin spoke up. "Drain the Force? How can anyone do that?"

"I'm not sure," Luke answered. "But I've learned from the Jedi Holocron that devices were created in the past that could absorb and store Force energy."

"Those people Jaden saw may have discovered some way to harvest Force power with that scepter," Kyle mused.

"Which could be dangerous indeed," Luke agreed.

"So what are we gonna do Master?" Jaden asked.

"We'll have to investigate any locations from my records," he announced. "That includes all of you students. Corran, you're going to Wayland. Kyle, I need you to look at the Valley of the Jedi…" Luke continued to give out assignments, but Rosh could hardly pay attention; he was ecstatic.

"Finally, some real action!" He said to Jaden.

"But why would they be stealing Force power?"

"I don't know. You worry too much, Jaden. I bet that these cult guys can't take on a Jedi!"

Jaden scrunched her lips doubtfully, "Well, we're not Jedi yet. We're just students."

Kyle, who'd stepped away momentarily to speak with Luke about his assignment, rejoined them, the grandmaster in tow.

"You may be 'just' students, but you're both well on your way," Kyle said encouragingly. "So don't rush it."

"Jaden," Luke said. "I'm sending you to Hoth, where I had a vision of Obi-Wan Kenobi. I imagine there is a pretty strong aura there. Rosh, I'm sending you to the remains of the planet Byss. It's very remote, so I doubt the cult has been there. Don't stay too long; the Imperial Remnant may still be operating in the area."

Rosh shrugged. "No problem," he said smoothly.

"That's everyone then. May the Force be with all of you." Luke tilted his head to each of them in turn, then exited, hands clasped behind him. Kyle did the same, wishing them luck and 'May the Force be with you.'

Jaden turned to leave as well, but Rosh placed a hand on her shoulder and she tensed slightly, wondering if he wanted to talk. Maybe he's noticed there's tension too. She felt her shoulder warm to his touch and turned her head slightly in his direction, hopeful.

"Good luck," he said. She could hear that usual pep in his voice, telling her that his smile was probably back on his face. "Call me if you need any help."

Nope, guess not. Jaden lightly shrugged him off, trying to tap down her disappointment. She walked out of the room without a word, knowing that if she spoke, she wouldn't say anything worthwhile. Her shoulder felt cold now where his hand had been. I'm not in the right frame of mind for calmly talking to him about his lousy behavior anyway. I'll talk to him after I get back from Hoth. That'll give me some time away to clear my head before clearing the air with him. She didn't even wonder until much later why Rosh didn't try to stop her when she hadn't replied.

"Enter!" The red Twi'lek's master called from inside her chamber.

The door slid open slowly and she stepped inside. Her master had her back to the Twi'lek, which was not new, however her left arm was now bare of the bandage it wore not too long ago. A violet circle with a spike sticking out of the top, bottom and sides in the same color were tattooed there. In the center was an eerie red vertical slit that, combined with the spiked circle, gave off the appearance of an evil eye that bored into your soul. The Twi'lek was impressed, if not a tad bit unnerved.

"Did you take care of Commander Reev like I asked?" The master questioned her apprentice, who shook herself off and stood straighter.

"Yes my Master, he's floating out with the asteroids as we speak."

"Good, good." There was a moment's pause. "I have another assignment for you, something important that only I can trust you with."

"Anything, my Master."

"I need you to go to the last place mentioned in Skywalker's records. I, meanwhile, have business at the Emperor's former throne world."

The Twi'lek bowed her head. "As you wish, my Master."

Jaden flew to Hoth that afternoon after checking out an X-wing from the hangar and grabbing herself some warm winter clothing, which Master Skywalker himself helped her pick out.

"Trust me," he'd said. "You don't want to freeze like I nearly did." He seemed to almost shiver with the memory. "If Han hadn't found me and used my lightsaber to cut open his dead tauntaun, I wouldn't have lasted five more minutes."

Jaden's eyes had widened at that and she grabbed some more thermal undershirts, probably more than was necessary. "You're gonna have to tell me the rest of that story later, Master."

Luke had just smiled and wished her well.

On the flight in, Jaden had turned the cabin's cooling unit all the way up, she had bundled up so much and was sweating through her layers. When she finally landed and exited the cockpit the cold was an immediate relief. Almost. For about half a minute. It was snowing and the sky was overcast. It was hard to see more than about ten feet in front of her, but thankfully it wasn't a full on blizzard. Not yet anyway. She walked out onto the snow, holding her datapad, hoping its circuits wouldn't freeze. She hoped she wouldn't freeze. The place was as cold as Tatooine was hot. She'd landed a couple of clicks from where Luke said Echo Base would be and approximately where he'd had his vision of Obi-Wan.

She stopped and raised a hand, trying to sense any Force energy that might be nearby. There was nothing but the swirling snow. She shook her head doubtfully.

"Hmmm. Nothing." She looked at her hand as if something was wrong with it. "Is Master Skywalker wrong about this place?" She turned towards her ship, considering leaving, which would be a welcome excuse to get out of the cold, but something in her periphery caught her eye and she looked back quickly, having noticed a faintly glowing light in the distance. "What's that?" She squinted, it was a pale, cold light that was faintly blue but mostly white and it was slowly blinking in the swirling snow that drifted all around. "Guess I'd better check it out."

She happened to glance over to her left and nearly jumped out of her skin at the sight of three big, hulking creatures coming towards her. Walking on two legs, with short arms sticking out in front, covered in white fur, curving horns going from the back of the head behind the ears to just under their chins. Jaden instantly calmed down. They're just tauntauns. She'd seen images of them in the archives, but never thought she'd see one up close. They seemed to be wild, but friendly, as one of them broke off from the pack and came right up to her. She reached out a gentle hand, careful not to frighten it, and remembered something Kyle had told her not too long ago.

"The Force is another way to communicate and reach out to other creatures that don't speak the same way we do. It can also help defuse a potentially dangerous situation. You just have to have the patience and understanding to do it."

As Jaden's hand touched the soft, white fur of the tauntaun's nose, she felt the connection, a kind of weaving bond through the Force, a trust building itself between her and this creature. She slowly moved around the creature as she patted its neck and then back. She wasn't sure how she knew, but she felt that this particular tauntaun was female.

"You sure are sweet aren't you girl," Jaden said. The tauntaun responded with a low 'Waahhh.'

Jaden glanced around, finding the slow blinking light in the distance. She guessed that if there was one, there were probably others as well, and they seemed to be her best clue as to what was going on.

"I guess I should follow those lights, huh?" She told the tauntaun, who replied the same as earlier.

"I can probably cover more distance with one of you, maybe you could give me a ride?" The tauntaun actually made another noise and turned so that its back was better accessible and even bent a little lower. Jaden stood there stunned for a moment before actually trying to climb onto its back. According to Luke, the Rebels had used saddles and bridles, but she'd have to make do with riding bareback. And besides, with their Force connection, she doubted she'd have trouble staying on. Checking her pockets and belt to be sure she had all the supplies she could possibly need, she got the tauntaun to turn in the direction of the beacon in the distance.

"Alright, girl, let's go." And off she went, at a steady pace. They passed the first light, seeing it truly was a sort of beacon that'd been deliberately set out, and recently too from the looks of it. They passed another and another, until…

"Who goes there?" It was the technically augmented voice of a stormtrooper.

Imperials… here? Maybe Master Luke was right after all.

In the billowing snow, she could just make out a shape, almost completely camouflaged in all white, elemental garb to match and protect against the harsh environment. Snowtroopers. Jaden's blaster came out in a flash and quickly took down the trooper, then another appeared. She shot again, the falling white snow obscuring her view, but also providing the perfect cover as she engaged the enemy. Half a second later, the last trooper's body thudded heavily to the ground.

She and her mount kept going, following the beacons until they neared the entrance to a cave, large enough for them to fit provided that Jaden dismounted. She led the way in, glad to be out of the cold for a bit but wary of stillness. Something was there, but it wasn't a human or other intelligent life form…

"Rraaaagggghhhhh!" Jaden looked up ahead and saw it, a large, monstrous creature, at least two times the size of Chewbacca and covered in white fur, with two horns that curved around its skull similar to the tauntauns. She reached out her hands in front of her, trying to calm it with the Force, but with her own heart beating fast, it was proving very hard to concentrate.

"I don't wanna hurt you!" She said to it, but the creature wouldn't listen, intent on eating both her and the tauntaun, it kept coming, swiping at Jaden with its large, clawed hand. Jaden ducked under its arm and swiftly turned around. It was headed towards her tauntaun.

"No!" She screamed and shot at its back with her blaster. She injured it, clearly, but not enough to kill it. If anything, it made it madder. It turned around and rushed toward Jaden. Her saber came out, then she sliced its arm off, followed by a cut at the back of its legs. The creature went down, moaning and groaning with agony. She felt sorry for it, and quickly ended its suffering, sad to have caused such pain to a living creature but happy that she'd saved her tauntaun. She went over to her and patted her neck to calm her.

"Let's go girl." They moved on. They found an exit to the cave not far away, along with a small encampment of snowtroopers and a couple of saddled tauntauns nearby.

Blaster fire filled the air as Jaden goaded her mount forward. One snowtrooper fell beneath her lightsaber as she rode by, then, switching it to her other hand she took a swing at a second one on her other side. She missed. Putting pressure on the tauntaun's side with her knees, she turned her around and galloped straight at the snowtrooper, trampling him and cutting down another in her path. The last snowtrooper came out of nowhere on his own tauntaun, slamming into Jaden and knocking her off her own animal.

She landed face down on the ground, her face getting caked in fresh snow, making her feel even more frozen. She pushed on her gloved hands and found herself looking down the barrel of the mounted snowtrooper's blaster.

"Any last words, Jedi?"

"Yeah. Go to hell!" Her hand came up and the snowtrooper flew off the back of his tauntaun by the massive Force push. He landed in the snow several yards away, got up shakily, as quick as he was able to and started blasting in Jaden's general direction. Her lightsaber came back out, deflecting each bolt with precision. She didn't stop until she heard the trooper cry out and saw his dim form in the flurrying snow fall to the ground.

She freed the other tauntauns, her own seemingly telling her kin that they were free and they ran off through the cave to freedom.

After observing her surroundings, Jaden saw there were only two options, to go either to the right or to the left. She tried the right way, which at this point, as far as she could tell, they were in some small canyon. All she found was a dead end with some kind of man made wall. She wondered if this was a part of the base, but it looked like it'd been blocked off.

"Doesn't look like they got in this way. There must be another way in," she said, either to herself or her tauntaun, she wasn't sure, but at least it didn't feel as weird.

Retracing her steps, she and the tauntaun took the left route. They passed odd shapes half buried in the snow, large chunks of some kind of machinery. Jaden reckoned it was debris from some battle long past, much of the metal was rusted.

Up ahead she saw that the snowtroopers had mounted a heavy repeating blaster on top of a large piece of some debris half buried in the ground. Around it were several snowtroopers. Her lightsaber came out in a flash as she rode her tauntaun around the makeshift platform, her saber held out defensively as she took down each trooper in turn.

All was silent. Then… Thhaaoommpp! Jaden turned, straining to see in the swirling snow that was both falling and being kicked up in the gale-force winds. There it was again. A strange, ominous metallic thumping, getting closer and closer. She couldn't see her arms but she could feel goosebumps spreading all over her. There, a dark speck coming towards her, right where she needed to go, in the distance where the beacons led. She instinctively dismounted and led her tauntaun around the back of the platform to keep it safe, then mounted the platform.

She got behind the heavy repeating blaster and looked for controls. She accidently fired it. A return blast came from the direction of the big, loud thumping thing and she ducked. Thankfully, it wasn't close enough to have a good aim. Jaden got back up and aimed in the direction of it again, waiting for it to get closer, her heart pounding, blood going cold when she got a better look at it. It was a two legged AT-ST Walker, she'd heard about them of course, seen images too and had always hoped that she would never have to come close to one.

Life's never fair.

She aimed at its hideous, scary face and fired with all her might, not caring if she emptied the entire magazine. Fortunitally, the walker went down with one last loud Thhaaoommpp before she'd used even half the mag. All was silent again when she suddenly heard shouts, then streaming around the sides of the fallen walker were more snowtroopers. She glanced at the remaining ammunition and went for it, shooting down as many of them as she could. Nearly two dozen fell, not even reaching half the distance to the platform on which Jaden stood.

Once all was quiet again, she sat atop the platform for several agonizing minutes, listening. Fear and adrenaline coursed so fast through her veins that she started muttering scenarios to herself that Kyle had given her and Rosh during training to try and calm herself down before slowly sliding down to the ground. She put her hand on her faithfully waiting tauntaun's flank.

"Let's keep moving, those troopers couldn't have come far and by the looks of their numbers, were guarding something pretty important." They walked side by side, past the downed walker, which was still a frightening sight, and the bodies of the snowtroopers. She continued muttering scenarios to herself, even mimicking Kyle's voice. "Okay Jaden, Scenario: You're on a cold planet with no warm clothes and only a blaster. You have minutes to survive. Whaddya do?"

Her tauntaun made a disapproving noise that made her laugh before she put a hand over her mouth, hoping she didn't make too much noise. She leaned down to whisper to her mount.

"Sorry, I guess I'm not good with imitating voices. That was probably disrespectful." The tauntaun made another noise that was more of a snort and they continued their journey in silence.

As they got closer to where the walker had come from, Jaden saw a high wall, with cross shaped gaps in them to look out of or fire a blaster through. There was a door, but it seemed to be locked and she felt quite sure that there were more snowtroopers inside. She glanced to her right, noticing a snow bank going up and a couple of crates sitting as if abandoned there, on the short slope, right up to the top of the wall.

"See that, that's my way in," Jaden said to her tauntaun, realizing that even if she got the actual door open, taking the tauntaun through the maze of corridors that were sure to be in there seemed like a nightmare. No, it'd be better to say her goodbyes here.

"I have to go girl, but I've taken care of those troopers and that wampa, so the way is clear for you to go back to your friends or family or pack or whatever it is that tauntaun's do socially." She looked up into the snow lizard's soft, furry face. She felt it responded with not so much as words, as through the Force. She turned around and, with a sad cry, started off back towards the direction they'd come.

Jaden turned back to the embankment and slowly worked her way up, hating every step into the deep, cold snow. She used the random crates as hand and footholds, praying the wind was masking her struggling effort to climb towards the top of the wall. Once she made it, she peeked over and to her relief saw only two snowtroopers milling about.

They probably sent most of their forces guarding this gate to come fight me.

She slowly crouched on top of the wall and looked for a way down, hoping beyond hope that they wouldn't look up. No such luck. They opened fire and she had to leap down and finish them off before the main door inside opened and a few more snowtroopers came to provide backup.

A few deft swings of her weapon later, Jaden reattached her saber hilt to her hip and went inside. It wasn't much warmer, but it was better than the blistering wind. The heater must not work anymore. She approached the only other door in the room, lights on the front glowing red.

"Locked," Jaden groaned to herself. She turned and examined the room. It wasn't much to speak of but a few boxes of supplies and a lift in the corner. She tried the lift and it took her up.

She reached a control room that was nearly empty except for two Imperial officers dressed to the nines in cold weather gear. They didn't want to talk and tried shooting her, which by now was almost exhausting and annoying for the young Jedi.

Jaden stepped over their limp forms to one of the control panels on an interior wall and pulled a lever that was labeled for the main interior door on the first level. This has to be it. She started back towards the lift and stopped, approaching another control panel near a large window and looked out. Towering above was a large, round object with what looked to be a large gun mounted on it. An ion cannon. She remembered hearing tales of how the Rebels tried to distract the Empire by firing that same cannon so that some of them could escape the planet during the assault on Hoth all those years ago.

I was just a kid trying to keep my head down and avoid any attention from the Empire. It'd been a hard time for both her and her uncle. But they'd survived, others hadn't been so lucky.

She made her way back down and found with satisfaction that the door's lights now glowed green.

Open access. Jaden smiled and stepped through. An icy hallway lit by dim lights illuminating cables strung along the wall, and more crates stacked here and there. Tiptoeing her way down the hall, she stopped just outside a door on her right and tried to sense if there were snowtroopers behind it. She nearly jumped back when she heard voices right on the other side. She reasoned they were stationed there to guard it.

"You know I used to race on the Swoop Circuit," the first one said.

"You did huh? Were you good?" Asked the second.

"One of the best! Top three every race!"

"So how come you're not a Scout Trooper?" There was a pause after the second voice asked this question, then:

"Once I put the helmet on I couldn't see. I sideswiped another cadet and caused a pileup that destroyed twelve speeder bikes. I was kicked out of the Trooper Corp," the first voice said shamefully.

"Oh, tough." Was all the second one could say and an awkward silence filled the space between them. Jaden felt tense just from secondhand embarrassment and couldn't bear the conversation anymore. She didn't really want to hurt them when it came down to it.

Acting on a developing idea, she moved to an alcove to the left of the door and used the Force to pull down one of the crates stacked at the other end of the hallway. There was a loud crash. Frenzied voices came on the other side of the door saying "What was that?!" and "Go check it out!" followed by the doors opening and the two snowtroopers closest to the door running in and looking up the passage with their backs to Jaden. She crept behind them and into the room, quickly locating the door controls, she let her hand hover over the button as she surveyed the room. It was large and mainly empty, with another door at the other end and a ramp leading down into a shallow trench that housed control panels and supplies… and snowtroopers that were looking right at her. She didn't have much time. Looking back through the door, the troopers had returned from checking out the fallen crates, stopping short when they saw her at the door. She waved, grinning nervously and said, "Good luck with your Swoop career!"

She slammed the door shut, severing the controls with her lightsaber and turning just in time to deal with the other troopers that were hurrying up the ramp towards her.

Behind the door, the snowtrooper who'd failed his Swoop Career removed his helmet and sighed, shaking his head. He started towards the other end of the hallway despite the reprimands and pleas from his companion. He crawled over the fallen crate and exited through the door. He'd never really wanted to be a stormtrooper anyway.

A little while later Jaden was out in the cold again, tiny icy flakes pelting her face.

"Great, guess that wasn't the real base," Jaden grumbled, starting to get pretty tired of this important mission Luke had sent her on. She'd walked through several different hallways and then taken a lift up into a large room with a lone door that led back outside. In the distance, she spotted the familiar glow of more beacons.

She sighed. "I guess I should keep following the beacons."

But as she journeyed outward, the lights became more spread out and less like a guide. She realized with despair that she'd probably have to search the entire area which was NOT ideal especially in the growing cold and darkness. It seemed that daytime was slowly turning into evening and with it, more freezing temperatures. She kept going, keeping the beacons in sight but staying close to the many pieces of debris that were scattered everywhere, hoping to stay out of sight of any Imperials. She came upon a large bay door set into the side of the rocky hillside that was covered in snow. The pieces of information fell together. This debris field must be the remains of a battle and… She glanced up at the large doors, knowing that they lead inside the main hangar of the Rebellion's former hideout.

"There! Echo Base!" She whispered in awe. She hurried up to the main doors, sensing snowtroopers nearby but they hadn't seen her. It didn't seem like there'd be any luck opening it and besides, opening a door this size would certainly cause a stir and attract all kinds of unwanted attention. She got closer to it.

This entrance is blocked too. How did they get in?

She snuck away and almost collided with a snowtrooper. She froze. His back was facing towards her and he didn't seem to have heard her. Her eyes grew wide as he began marching forward, disappearing into the winter landscape as he went. She let out a breath of relief, then decided to trail him.

He might lead me to the entrance.

She made a wide circle past the main Echo Base entrance and, following the beacons around, spotted what looked to be a fallen AT-AT, almost completely buried in the snow, its head and most of its back still poking out on top. Jaden stopped and crouched behind the broken piece of another AT-AT, a foot sticking out of the snow from the looks of it. She watched the trooper she'd been tailing join a group of four, maybe five snowtroopers standing on top of the AT-AT, nearly blending into the falling snow around them. Hovering close by was a black, insect-like droid that spouted bits of some Imperial code. On the top of the AT-AT's back was another mounted heavy repeating blaster.

Why would they be guarding this pile of junk? Jaden wondered. But she figured it was her best lead, so she acted. She first took out the droid with her blaster and then, moving from cover to cover, made her may over to the "pile of junk" and leapt on top of it, jumping over the head of the snowtrooper at the heavy gun and taking him down before he could swing it around to fire upon her. As the others came to their comrades aid she took another shot, shielding herself behind some metal debris. Each shot rewarded her with the sound of a thud, and once again she was alone in the snow next to the fallen walker.

Around the back, she found it. A segment in the wall of the AT-AT had been cut into and was protected by a Shield Generator. Inside, through the blue haze of the shield, she could barely make out two more troopers guarding the inside. Easy, if I can get in. She tried standing back and shooting the side panels of the Shield Generator. They blew up, fizzling out easily enough, and she quickly dropped down with her lightsaber. The small space filled with its purple light, mixing with the small, warm radiance of a nearby glow-lamp.

The troopers fumbled with their blasters and took sloppy aim at the lightsaber wielding interloper. Only one barely got off a shot before Jaden rushed forward, slicing the barrel off his blaster before impaling him on her violet blade. The other fell just as quickly with a slash across his chest just as he fired a blaster shot that Jaden barely dodged.

She walked over to the glow-lamp and sat on the crate beside it, soaking up as much warmth as she could, sighing contently as she warmed and flexed her cold, stiff fingers inside her gloves. She noticed some nearby rations and ate a quick, not so tasty meal to keep her strength up and downed every drop of water in one of their canteens, saving the second for later. She'd save her own rations that she'd brought in case of an emergency down the line.

She stood up, feeling the new aches in her muscles as she stretched and looked around the room. Spotting a hole in the floor with a ladder leading down it, she approached and peeked down. Nobody. She descended the ladder and found a bigger, empty room with, on the other end of it, a large crack in the floor. She quietly approached it, it was dark and she wasn't sure exactly how far down it went.

"What should I do?" She asked the air around her. No answer. "There's nowhere else to go, at least not that I could find." Still no answer. She wished desperately that Kyle was with her. Or even Rosh, at least then she wouldn't be alone to decide what to do. She took in deep and steady breaths, focusing on the Force around her, and asked the question again, What should I do? The answer came as more an inclination than words or a feeling, but yet it felt right. Without any hesitation, Jaden jumped down into the crack, into darkness.