The much abused bar on the SSD was littered with drunken Siths. Unconscious drunken Siths. BaronReno entered the bar and looked around, disgust evident in his expression.

"Ahem." He announced.

Not a Sith on the floor, table, chairs, or bar stirred.

"Ya see, this is why I built you guys a meditation room! For meditating and passing out and stuff! And yet day after day I come in here, and you guys are just lounging around like this is the only room on the fricken' SSD."

The Siths remained still. He looked at the unattended bottles over at the corner table, where LordPilotThunder and Skatepulsar had their heads down, JeniViolet on the floor by them. He marched over to the table and began drinking from their bottles.

"And that's another thing! You guys are always drinking without me, while I'm off doing "lead" things! Well, I'd like to see you stop me now," he finished off the second bottle and slammed it down on the table. Thunder stirred, and in all of two seconds she realized what had happened.

As she sprung from her position and called her lightsaber to her hand, her long black hair whirled around and hit Reno in the face.

"OW! Why you little..." His own lightsaber was activated, and he and Thunder glared at each other. The other Siths began to move.

"Hey, what's going on?" "Did you see that?" "Who started it?" "AHHH MY HEAD HURTS! GET OFF OF ME!" That last was from Jen, who Thunder was standing on.

"Shut up Eleven, I need the extra height." Two shot her leader a wicked glare.

"You're going to need a lot more than that for the next mission I'm sending you on. Everyone get up, or I'm taking away all the Whyren's."

The Siths groaned and began peeling themselves off the floor, chairs, whatever they became plastered to upon point of passing out. It took some time for them to all collect together. Finally, everyone was standing around Reno, looking at him with resentment.

"Well, we're here! Talk to us!" Jen shouted.

"Someone's missing, in case you hadn't noticed," Reno replied.

They looked around... One, Two, Three... where was Jace? A groan came from behind the bar, and nine Siths collectively turned their heads toward it.

"That nerfherder is really ticken' me off," Skate announced. She marched over to the bar, perched up on a stool, and looked behind. The other Siths watched, interested. "Hey, Sidrona, get up!" No response. She grabbed an abandoned glass of water, and tipped it...

Water splashed everywhere. "I'm up, I'm up! Sheesh, can't a guy get any sleep around here?" Jace appeared from behind the bar, and Skate grabbed him and pulled him to his feet.

"We're waiting for you. Like usual." Skate glowered.

"Alright everyone. Put these tables together, and sit down. Meeting time," Reno announced.

"And what's this meeting about? Why Jace is a moron?" Thunder suggested.

"No. I've gotten some reports of a Force-sensitive on Coruscant," Reno replied.

The other Siths promptly shut up. Adding to the squadron could only mean one thing: More Whyren's to mooch.

****

"All right, here's how it's going to go down," Reno told the Siths, who were still drunk off of their collective asses. "I got reports from contacts of mine that there is someone Force-strong hiding out in the bowels of Coruscant. I'm going to send you guys to hunt her down and bring her back"

"Who is she?" Thunder asked.

"I'm not exactly sure of her name," he told them. "My source only showed me what she looks like and that she apparently is already aware of her powers."

"And would you mind telling us all who this source is?" Jen asked.

"Oh come on," he responded. "Since when I have I ever told you anything?"

"Point taken."

"So when do we leave?" Jace burst in.

"Not so fast, kid. Not all of us are going."

"Well..." Thunder asked. "Then who is going to go?"

****

Reno grabbed four straws from the bar and Skate's lightdagger via telekinesis. He proceeded to cut the straws in half at uneven lengths, then held them out in the middle of the table. "Shortest ones get to go." He looked at Thunder. "Two, why don't you start."

The Adumari tentatively reached for a straw and pulled up... short.

"Stang," she muttered.

Jace eagerly grabbed a straw. Also short.

"Excellent," he grinned.

"What's so excellent about that?" Jen asked. "Coruscant smells funny, I really wouldn't want to go." She took a straw and swore. "Kriff."

"It's excellent because I can torment you further," Jace replied.

****

"All right. So far the first three have won the draw...or lost, depending on personal preference. We only have room for one more person on the trip...and a lot more than one Sith to choose from. Whose left...Star, Skate, Rick, Narska, Seven and Palin. So...who draws next?"

"I'll draw," Seven said, stepping forward. Seven drew a long straw and sighed in relief. "Whew, didn't want to go in the first place. Much rather sit around here and do...uh...what is it I do around here?"

Palin shook her head. "You don't do anything, numbnuts." Palin strode forward and picked a straw. "Please let it be short, I don't want to be stuck here with him the whole time." Her straw was long. Palin let out a long string of swears words in almost more languages than existed in the galaxy.

"Skate, Rick, Star, whose next?" Reno asked.

"I'll go," Skate volunteered. She strode forward and drew a straw...the last short straw.

"All right," Reno said. "Looks like our crew for the mission has been established. Thunder, Jen, Skate, and Jace. You four come here, the rest of you go and get drunk."

The Siths who weren't going all returned to the bar, while the chosen Siths all walked up to Reno.

"Okay," Reno said, while smiling. "Here's the plan."

****

He paused, and paused some more. Sidrona waited patiently, arms crossed. He could feel the dark side flowing from his master, through the four of them. His master was playing a game with them. Well, he thought, two can play at this game.

Two, on the other hand, was letting her impatient Adumari heritage show. Skate looked at Jen confused, and Jen shot her a thought back: Just watch. Thunder, arms crossed, began tapping her foot impatiently. Reno only stood there with his eyes closed. Through the Force, he foresaw Thunder's reaction, which was to grab Jace's throat and yell "Start the frickin' briefing or Toto gets it!"

Reno opened his eyes. "Sit down, Colonel. That goes for the rest of you. Just a little patience test, which you failed miserably by the way. Thunder, let go of Jace he's starting to turn blue."

The five Siths sat back down at the table, and Skate and Jen sympathetically patted Jace on the shoulders. Thunder glared at the other women. "Butt kissers," she hissed.

"Toto choker," Jen shot back.

"Alright, now that you've all had your fun, here's where the real fun begins," Reno said. "You will take the shuttle, your lightsabers, your Whyrens, whatever else you need to keep yourselves from killing each other, except Tyros. I will have the coordinates fed into the nav computer, your final destination is somewhere in the Imperial Palace sector. This," he paused, and took out a small holo-projector, "Is your acquisition."

He activated the holo, and a miniature young woman appeared. She looked to be in her late teens­early twenties, had shoulder-length light brown hair, a pale complexion, and wore a form-fitting dark aqua body suit. She had a strong athletic build, and scale indicated that she was tall.

"Oooh," Jace said quietly.

Reno looked at his apprentice. He knew Jace Sidrona was too wrapped up in his training, too desiring of one-ness with the Force, and a little too enamored of Sith Nine in an odd "we don't like each other, we just like to look at each other" thing to seriously pursue anything with the young woman from Coruscant. But there was no denying the fact that the girl in the holo was beautiful.

"How do we find her?" Skate asked.

"I don't know," Reno said.

"You're such a big help," Jen commented.

"No shit Olie," Reno replied.

****

An hour later the four Siths going on the mission; JeniViolet, Lord Pilot Thunder, Skatepulsar, and Jace Sidrona, departed from the shuttle bay and headed for Coruscant and Lord Baron Reno retreated to his office to fly more missions in X-wing Alliance.

But...not all of the Siths could go on the mission.

"This sucks," Palin muttered as they walked down the corridors of the SSD. Behind her was Star, Rick, and Narska. Off to her right was Seven.

"What does?" Seven asked. "That you couldn't go on the mission?"

"No. That I have to be stuck here with you again!" she shot back. "I swear, they always do this!"

"Do what?" Rick asked.

"They always go out on missions and leave us behind to do....whatever the hell it is we do!?" Palin stopped walking and turned around to face everyone. "What do we do here? Honestly? Anything productive? Anyone?"

"Well, I, uh..."

"Exactly, Seven. Your entire time is spent getting drunk and making failed attempts to hit on me! What about you, Star, what do you do productive around here?"

Star stared at the ground and grinned sheepishly. "Well...I dream about Jace a lot. And..."

Palin cut her off. "I don't' want to know what else. Rick, have you done ANYTHING since getting here? Anything at all?"

"Well...I talked to Thunder about how the command structure works here. And, uh....No, I don't really do anything around here either."

"Narska?" Palin asked. "Anything?"

"Uhhh....I make bombs."

Palin narrowed here eyes. "Why do you make bombs?"

"Uhhh...I can't tell you."

Palin shrugged. "Fair enough. My point is that we don't DO anything! It's like we're supporting characters in a story mainly about Reno, Jen, Thunder, and Skate. They do everything around here! You ever notice that? Who leads missions? When Reno gets lost, who takes command? Any of us...? Noooo. It's always them!"

"Yeah!" Seven piped up. "It's like we're only here for plucky comic relief! A laugh here or there!"

"Or to advance the plot," Star put in. "Hell, Nuprin has more adventures than I do!"

"Well ya know what?" Palin asked. "I've had just about enough of this. Screw them. I'm going to Coruscant. This is the last time they leave me out of a mission just because they don't want things to get too complicated."

"Yeah, I'm coming too!" Seven yelled.

"Me too!" Star said.

"Same here!" Rick put in.

"Narska, you coming?" Seven asked.

The Bothan looked around nervously. "Actually, uhhh, I'd rather stay here and make some more bombs. Is that cool?"

"Yeah sure, your choice," Seven said.

"Let's go, guys!" Palin yelled. "To the docking bay!"