Bellassa:

The blue swirl of hyperspace was a comfort to Kara, reminding her of a time when life had been far simpler. Kara found herself nestled on a chair in the hold, trying not to think about KT.

'So where exactly are we headed?' asked Wes, his feet stretched out on the control panel.

'Bellassa' responded Via, her voice echoing from out of the cockpit and into the hold.

Wes looked at her in alarm. 'Bellassa? That place is creeping with Imperials. They have a sectoral headquarters there and several garrisons.'

'And the Inquisitorial Training Facility' added Via, grinning.

'No way. I'm putting in new coordinates' argued Wes, reaching forward to recalculate their destination. Via leaned back on her chair and kicked his hand as he reached for the hyperdrive controls.

'Nobody asked you to come to Bellassa' called Kara, entering the cockpit.

'In fact, nobody asked you to come' stated Via, smirking at her own quick remark. Kara rolled her eyes.

'Before Via so rudely interrupted, I was going to tell you that we're only asking you to drop us off' explained Kara. 'I'm quite skilled at scrambling signals and should be able to disguise our entry onto the planet. As soon as we're off, you and IG can leave the planet.'

'Hold on a sec' interrupted Via. 'We're going to need the Vigilance on standby if we're going to get out of there.'

'You're going to the Empire?' quizzed Wes, surprised. 'I thought we were just trying to get away from them. Don't tell me you're handing yourselves in, because I didn't just go through all that effort only for you two to have us all captured.'

Kara shook her head. 'You can drop us off and leave if you want to. We would prefer if you stuck around and prepared to make a fast getaway, but we understand if you can't.'

'Well, that's simple' responded Wes blatantly. 'I can't. Sorry about that but I'm going to get away the second you two are safely on the ground.' Via rolled her eyes, as if she hadn't expected anything else.

At that moment a loud beep echoed through the cockpit's speakers. Kara looked back towards the hold and saw IG was standing still. The large assassin droid shrugged his shoulders, not knowing how to process the source of the sound. Kara ran to the entry hatch, not daring to believe it. She pulled the airlock open, and sitting in the middle of the cockpit, crackling as electricity sparked out of her circuits, was KT.

One of her legs was completely missing but the droid was still alive. Her eye swivelled up to meet Kara's and she grinned, pulling her from the hatch and shutting it behind her when she felt a tug on her body. Attached to her back was a cable, the other end of the cord attached to the inside of the airlock.

'You are a clever droid' laughed Kara, cradling KT against her body as she unclipped the piton cord from KT's body. 'Gave me a heck of a scare though.'

'Impossible' breathed Via, watching as Kara gently lowered KT to the ground. Kara couldn't help grinning.

'He attached a piton to the inside of the airlock' explained Kara. 'The moment he was pulled off the wing, he was retracted straight back inside.'

'You saved us!' called Wes encouragingly. KT looked up proudly, her gaze flickering between the different members of the crew.

Via nodded her thanks to the droid as they looked at each other. 'I'll fix up her leg. There were some rusty scraps I removed from the engine and I left the welder back there. I may be able to pull something together temporarily.' Kara carefully handed KT to Via, who carried her towards the engine access port. IG returned to his seat in the hold, peering towards the engine panel where Via begun to work. Kara walked up the steps into the cockpit, sitting next to Wes.

'When I met you in Venos, you told me you came here during the Clone Wars' said Wes. 'You were lying weren't you.' Kara didn't want to admit it, afraid of what Wes might think but knew he had seen straight through it.

'I came to Salaarg only eight cycles ago' responded Kara. 'I was shot down by the Kobane when Via found me.' Wes nodded, grimacing.

'Where do you come from?'

'I was born on Bellassa and lived there during my childhood, until I joined the Republic Guard. That was just before the Empire came to power.'

'The Empire recruited you?' asked Wes. Kara reluctantly nodded. 'Are you going to let them find you on Bellassa?'

'They will kill me. My crew, the Phantom Order, are either on Bellassa about to be executed, or they're already lying in their graves. I cannot return to the Empire.' Wes nodded, trying to sympathize with Kara's predicament. 'What about you? Where do you come from?'

'I was born in the slums of Kuat. My parents were killed at the beginning of the Clone Wars and I escaped. Since then, I've travelled the galaxy, looking for work, until recently when I escaped the Empire and tried to hide on Salaarg.'

'How much of the galaxy have you seen?' asked Kara, always intrigued to hear other people's experiences.

'Not much out of the Core Worlds. I spent some time in the mid rim. I pulled the Kessel Run in fourteen parsecs during my time there. Couldn't have seen anything more than ten, eleven planets.'

'A lot of people only see one' commented Kara, thinking of the hungry, worn faces of the people on Salaarg.

'True' responded Wes. 'You might want to get onto scrambling our signature. We'll be approaching Bellassa soon.'

Kara nodded, spinning around to the back of the cockpit as to fiddle with the instruments, to obscure their energy signature. She was quickly done with her work. She knew Imperial scanners well, and also how to circumvent them. At that moment, a squeaking sound came from behind Kara. She spun around to see KT proudly waltzing up the steps, with a red leg, that stood out from the black of the rest of her body.

'You're like me now' smiled Kara, gesturing to her leg.

'I meant to ask, is your leg artificial?' inquired Wes. 'I seem to remember it was gone on our first encounter.'

Kara nodded. 'Bronto made it for me.'

'You certainly seem to have done a lot on Salaarg in a week' commented Wes.

'She sure has, more than everything you've experienced' smirked Via, entering the cockpit as she removed her welding goggles. KT looked at Via, nodding appreciatively.

'You're welcome KT' laughed Via, standing next to Kara. IG entered behind them, seating himself on Kara's seat to help co-pilot, while KT clambered onto Kara's shoulder.

'How much farther until we reach the system of Bellassa' asked IG in his expressionless, even voice.

'I'd say we're about here' responded Wes, pulling back on the hyperdrive lever. He reached up, flicking switches to prepare them with IG helping them to make their systems check.

'Signature scrambled?' asked Via. Kara nodded confidently. She quickly retrieved her helmet from the hold and loaded a power pack into her blaster. Wes pulled back on the lever with force. The swirl of blue rapidly slowed down. Streaks of white flashed past, slowing to a halt around them as they jumped into the space above Bellassa. The planet was marbled in swirling green, blue and grey. White clouds swirled above the planet but the thing that attracted Kara's attention as they drew closer were the four massive Star Destroyer situated around the planet. The scanners showed swarms of TIE, patrolling around the planet's surface. Energy barriers had been set up right across the planet's surface, a grid of force fields. The Empire occupied Bellassa and they weren't hiding the fact. It was the first time Kara had seen her home world since she was young and seeing the Empire's tight hand on it made her hatred for her former organisation burn even stronger.

Wes made a movement to push forward on the throttle but Kara raised a hand to stop him. Something wasn't right. She could sense it. Only a second later, a large shadow passed over the front of the ship, casting the wings into darkness. Light filtered out of the cockpit, and they were left standing with the dim glow of the lights overhead. 'Kill the power' whispered Kara. Wes did as he was told. No one dared to move. The light flickered out and they stood in darkness. A moment later, a long triangular ship, black in colour passed overhead and Kara immediately recognised it.

'What is that?' asked Wes. 'It's too small to be a Star Destroyer' he added.

'And I've never seen a black one' added Via. KT looked at Kara, waiting for her to say something.

'It's the Shadow Blade' explained Kara. 'It belongs to the Phantom Order.' Via nodded understanding, Wes was a little slower to catch on. 'They'll have access to the planet through the field grids. We can follow them in.'

'We can't. They'll pick up our thermal reading' protested Wes.

Via shook her head. 'It's our best chance, we could be waiting for a while before we get another chance like this, and we don't have a while.'

'But they'll see us!' complained Wes.

'Get behind them now. Bellassa has a gaseous stratosphere, meaning we can ride their vacuum in. We'll kill the engine so the thermal readout won't detect us. As long as no one's watching carefully, we should be able to slip in right underneath them' Kara argued. Rolling his eyes, Wes reluctantly pulsed the engines, sliding them directly into the darkness cast by the Shadow Blade.

Kara smirked as they closed in on the grid of shields projected from the planet's surface. For all their resources and advanced technology, the Empire could not prevent them from slipping into one of their most heavily guarded facilities undetected.

'Take this' said Via, removing an earpiece from her pocket. She handed it to Kara who tucked it under her helmet. 'We'll need a connection once we're inside the fortress. Last time I broke in through a narrow ventilation shaft, it went in rings up and up the building. It'll take hours for us to both get up. We need a new route in.'

'With any luck, they won't have removed my clearance codes from the system' suggested Kara. 'Although I doubt it. The Empire would never be so sloppy, especially now they know I'm still alive.'

'Then how do we get in?' asked Via.

'I may be able to help with that' interrupted Wes. 'Once we reach this place, I think I could land us a landing pad on one of the bottom levels.'

'How exactly?' asked Kara, not sure if she believed Wes.

'You could make a fake clearance code and I'll make an excuse. We should be able to fly in unnoticed if I can reiterate the shields correctly.'

'Sounds like a plan' commented Via, just as the Shadow Blade's vacuum pulled them through the shield grid undetected. They had reached Bellassa.