“Oh, I am so going to kill you, Gimmer. You are dead, do ya hear me? Dead…once I find you…”

Those were the first words Reno heard upon entering the hangar bay. Everyone, it seemed, were in their fighters, running down their pre-flight checklists, making sure their ships were in working order. Everyone…except for two people.

Skate had her lightsaber out and activated, and was creeping around the docking bay in a hunter’s crouch, looking for someone. Without a doubt, poor Gimmer. Sky was leaning against her fighter, arms crossed on her chest, a look of anger and disdain on her face. Something wasn’t right. Reno approached Skate, who was peering around the landing gear of her X-wing, looking for a hiding mechanic.

He gently tapped her on the shoulder. She jumped and turned quickly, lightsaber up and ready.

“Problem?” he asked.

She deactivated her lightsaber. “Just a small one, sir. Gimmer...that little bastard...dismantled the engine in my X-wing. And on Sky’s Interceptor. We can‘t go anywhere right now.”

“I was just trying to adjust them!” a terrified voice yelled out, echoing throughout the docking bay.

“Yeah, I’ll adjust you!” Skate yelled out. “Adjust you right out an airlock! Now stop hiding like a little sissy Jedi and come out here so I can beat the hell out of you!”

Normally, he would enjoy watching this scene, but he didn’t have time for it now. They were far too busy. “Skate, deactivate your lightsaber. Right now.”

She did as he instructed.

“Now take Sky and go to the backup docking bay. There are tons of fighters there you can choose from. They won’t be your fighters, but they are operational.” Reno paused for a second as he realized that he hadn’t checked out the backup fighters in a while. “Aren’t they, Gimmer?”

“Yes, they are!”

“Good,” Reno said. “Now, get there on the double. Rendezvous with us once you’re ready.”

Skate cast one more glance around the docking bay, looking for Gimmer, then sighed, grumbled and nodded. “Yes, sir.” She motioned for Sky to follow her, and together they left the docking bay.

Once that was squared away, he approached the rest of the squadron, which sadly only consisted of Thunder, Jace, Ryvo, Fox and Jen. He hoped Skate and Sky hurried. They were going to need as many people out there as they could get. In fact...

Reno grabbed his comlink. “Vanicus?”

“Sir?”

“We’re going to need more fighter pilots out here. Order the reserve squadrons to deploy once they’re ready.”

“At once, sir.”

He turned and approached his group of pilots, who were standing in a half circle, ready to go.

“All right,” he started, “this is how it’s going. We have a large convoy of thirty ships out there, filled with spare parts, weapons, and most importantly, Whyren’s. They are being escorted only by four Corellian Corvettes. You can bet your ass they’ve been modified, though. The SSD is going to punch out the Corvettes for us, but watch yourselves, anyway. I don‘t want anyone hit by stray fire because they got lazy. For those of us with ion cannons...that’s me, Thunder and Ryvo...our job is to go in and disable the freighters. The rest of you...Jace, Fox, Jen, provide cover fire for us. Leave the big, heavily armed ships for the SSD to deal with. Also, Vanicus is going to launch some of our reserve fighter squadrons to help us deal with this quicker. Questions?”

“Any fighter escorts in the convoy?” Ryvo asked.

“None that we’ve detected.”

“We have reserve squadrons?” Jen asked.

“Of course,” Reno said. “We’re on a Super Star Destroyer, Eleven. You think we’re the only squadron here?”

“Truth be told, I’ve never thought about it before...”

“Any more questions? No? Good, then get to your fighters.”

The crew disbanded and ran for the fighters. Reno jumped into his TIE Defender and powered up the systems. He didn’t have time to go over a full pre-flight checklist or run all the diagnostics on the various systems. He would just have to hope everything was working okay. He put on his helmet and made sure all his life support systems were connected. And last, but certainly not least, he connected a tube to his helmet that ran behind his chair. From inside the helmet, the tube protruded slightly. Reno wrapped his mouth around the tube and got a quick sip of the Whyren’s Reserve that he kept behind his chair. Mmm…sweet, sweet Whyren’s…

He clicked the comm. “All right, this is Lead, check in and give me your status.”

“Sith Two,” Thunder reported, “two engines, green to go.”

“Sith Three,” Ryvo said, “everything in the green.”

“Sith Four,” Jace put in, “engines and weapons are hot.”

“Sith Six,” Fox called out, “my ship is yellow, but my engines are green and good to go.”

“Sith Eleven,” Jen shot in. “Let’s blow something up already.”

“All right, Siths, let’s go in fast and hard. I wanna get this over with quick. After launch, break into pairs. One and Four, Two and Eleven, Three and Six. Let’s get this over with now. Launch!”

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Vanicus watched as the pieces of the battle begin to fall into place. Six starfighters from Sith Squadron deployed from the SSD, while two of the Corvettes broke formation and headed for them. The other two remained in a defensive formation around the freighters. This was going to be fun...

Vanicus was about to order his weapons coordinator to lock all sights on the nearest Corvette, when everything changed. Out of nowhere, behind the convoy, a ship jumped out of hyperspace. It was a large ship, larger than anything else in the system, save for the SSD. At least 1,000 meters long, and brimming with weaponry. That wasn’t the most remarkable thing about it, though. What caught Vanicus’ eye immediately was that it was basically a smaller version of the Terror of Space, Zarin and Xanthis‘ old ship.

Immediately the new ship, which sensors identified as the Scimitar, released fighters. And unlike the SSD, they didn’t release six fighters. They released six squadrons of fighters. And not just that, but five troop transports. They planned on boarding the SSD. It had been a trap all along. But, Captain Vanicus told himself, not a very good one. The Scimitar was 1,000 meters long. The SSD was over 8,000 meters long. Even with the other ships, they didn’t stand any chance at all of even hoping to survive. As far as traps went, this one was very stupid. But at least he would have the chance to play with a warship bigger than a Corellian Corvette.

Maybe this was going to be more fun than he had originally thought.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Skate ran a super quick pre-flight checklist on the fighter, not trusting that little runt Gimmer to have kept it up and running safely. Luckily, everything checked out well, and she was ready to go and join this battle. She had found a nice X-wing in another hangar bay that suited her well, while Sky settled for an old A-wing, the only thing she considered fast enough to replace her partially dismantled TIE Interceptor

“This is Sith Ten, reporting in. Four lit and in the green.”

“Sith Five, checking in,” Sky said. “I’m good to go.”

“Let’s haul ass then and catch up with the rest before they kill everyone. It‘d be a shame if we didn‘t get to paint anything on the side of our snubbies tonight.”

“Sure would be.”

“Launch!”

The X-wing and A-wing, both located at the far end of the hangar, started their quick dash to the docking bay entrance.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Xavier sat in the co-pilot’s chair of the lead troop transport, keying away busily at a datapad. This datapad...this is what was going to win them this battle. The fighters and ships and troops would help, of course, but without this datapad they would not have a chance. In it held the key to victory. The Siths had absolutely no idea what was about to hit them.

He continued punching in numbers until the final code sequence was finished. He let out a feral grin. Oh, the Siths were going to regret screwing him over. But only for a short time, because they would all die very soon. And now...now came the fun part. He only wished he could be on the bridge of the SSD right now to see all of their faces. Oh well...he would be there soon enough.

He punched “enter” on the keyboard.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

In one horrifying moment, Vanicus realized that the trap they had fallen into might not have been as stupid as he had originally thought. One moment he was staring at the upcoming battlefield, waiting for the show to start, the next every light on the bridge was out and he was being barraged by yells from his officers.

“Sir! We’ve lost all power in shields across the ship! Forward, aft...we have nothing!”

“Weapons are entirely down, Captain!”

“Captain, engines are non-responsive.”

“Emergency power is failing to come online.”

“We have a general power failure on all levels”

“Docking bay doors are refusing to open.”

“We have lost all comm traffic, Captain. We can’t get a message to anyone outside, or receive.”

This is impossible, Vanicus thought to himself. This can’t happen. Almost every system on the SSD had been shut down simultaneously. They had no engines, shields or weapons. They didn’t even have any lights! What the hell was going on?

No, no, he couldn’t panic. Whatever had happened, it was done. He had to move on and figure out what to do next. His men were counting on him.

“Everyone, calm down,” he said, trying himself to do the same. “We’ve either been hit with sabotage, or we’ve been hacked by someone who had our access codes. What’s done is done. This is not the time to panic. We have work to be done. I need teams down in weapons, shields and the engine rooms. If we’re going to survive this, we’re going to need those back online. We can work on communications from here.”

After a round of “yessirs” they all saluted and ran off to their duties. Vanicus turned back to the viewport, expecting nothing else to go immediately wrong. He was mistaken. A chorus of yells and confusion came from the opposite side of the bridge, where all of the officers he had given duties to were standing in front of the door to the bridge. He hastily made his way over there.

“What’s the problem?” he asked.

“The door isn’t responding, sir,” Lieutenant Jeffries said.

“Of course it isn’t. We have a general power failure. Nothing works. You’ll have to use manual override.”

“We tried, sir. We can’t get it to budge. It‘s like everything is completely locked up.”

Vanicus thought this over for a moment. “What are you telling me, Lieutenant?”

“Sir...we’re trapped here. And as long as we are, we can‘t get anything back online.”

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Suddenly, without warning, the lights around the edge of the docking bay entrance went out and the durasteel doors fell into a closed position. In fact, every light in the docking bay was out. From the magnetic field lights to the house lights to the landing lights. The entire hangar bay suddenly lacked power. And more importantly than all of that, Sky and Skate were still moving rapidly towards the bay door, which was now closed.

“Who turned out the lights?” she heard Sky ask over the comm.

“I’m not so much worried about the lights as I am about crashing into the doors!”

She quickly cut all power to her X-wing‘s thrusters, and behind her Sky did the same with her own fighter. What the hell had happened? Skate keyed her comm unit.

“Bridge, this is Sith Ten, over.”

No answer.

“Bridge, this is Sith Ten...report. Over.”

Still no answer. She swore, and switched to the squadron frequency.

“Sith Lead, this is Sith Ten. Are you there?”

The voice that came back was scratchy and filled with static, but at least it was something. “I copy, Sith Ten. We need you to get your asses out here, we just got a hell of a lot more company than expected.”

“Negative on that, Lead. We can’t go anywhere. Power is completely out in the docking bay, and the blast doors are locked shut. I can’t even raise the bridge.”

There was a long silence, and when she heard Reno’s voice again, he wasn’t talking to her. “Bridge, this is Sith Lead, do you copy? Captain Vanicus, can you read me? Can anyone on the bridge hear me?” Reno tried several more times, but to no avail.

“Orders, sir?” she asked.

“Since you can’t get out here, I’m assuming the reserve squadrons are stuck, too.”

“That would be my guess, sir,” she said.

“Great...” he sarcastically muttered.

“Maybe we can blast the doors down?”

“No,” Reno answered quickly. “What would we use to plug up the hole? It’d provide an all-too-easy means of entrance onto the SSD. No, try and make your way to the bridge. Find out what the hell happened there. And take a comlink with you so we can stay in touch.”

“Roger that, Lead.”

“Sith Lead out.”

Skate popped the canopy on her fighter, unbuckled her safety harness and stood. Sky did likewise. Skate cursed as she dug through the storage compartment behind the seat.

“No kriffing glowrod! No kriffing glowrod!”

“Me, either,” Sky said.

“Good,” Skate said, a hint of a smile in her tone. “Just another reason to stomp a mud hole in Gimmer’s ass.”

Although it was pitch black and they could hardly see a thing, they walked over to a small compartment next to the door. Inside was a myriad of survival gear, including night vision goggles. If the entire SSD was like this, they were going to need them. Sky reluctantly took her pair.

“Man, I don’t like these things. Bad memories...”

Skate moved to the door and pushed the open button. Nothing happened. The door was locked shut.

“Yeah, power is probably down all over the ship,” she noted.

“Great. Don’t tell me we’re stuck here.”

Skate unclipped her lightsaber from her belt and ignited it, the dark blue blade lighting up a good section of the docking bay. She smirked. “When you’re a Sith, you’re never stuck anywhere.”

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Seven was just getting a new round of curses and insults tossed at him by Palin when all the lights in sickbay went out. And not only did the lights go out. Everything was gone. There was no power anywhere. That was certainly not a good thing to happen in the middle of delivering a child.

“What happened?” he muttered, mainly to himself.

“I don’t know,” Star said, annoyed, “But I don’t have time to find out. I’m a little busy right now. So either help out with this, or go find out what the hell happened to my power...”

“Oh, yeah, right. I’ll, um, just go find out what happened to the lights.” He turned around and walked towards the exit, expecting the automatic door to open when he got near, forgetting that power was completely out. He crashed face first into the door, hitting it so hard he fell backwards and landed on his butt. To save a little bit of his dignity, he dusted himself off, jumped up and smiled at Star and Palin, who were both looking at him like he was the galaxy’s biggest idiot. “I’m okay.”

“We didn’t ask,” Palin muttered through clenched teeth.

Knowing only one way to get past this obstacle, he ignited his emerald green lightsaber blade and got to work on cutting a hole in the door.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

What in Sadow’s name was happening on that ship?

Reno glanced at his display monitor and checked the ETA for the oncoming ships. They still had about two minutes until the starfighters and troop transports were in targeting range. Sadly, though, the seventy-two oncoming starfighters and five troop transports seemed to be the least of his problems. Behind him, his pride and joy, the SSD, hung lifeless and dead in space, all of its power gone. Or maybe not gone, just shut down and locked away. Either way, it was completely defenseless. This presented a huge problem. Reno had been counting on the SSD to take care of the four Corellian Corvettes while he and his five other pilots disabled the freighters. Now, not only did they have to deal with the Corvettes, but they had to deal with seventy-two starfighters and a ship only slightly smaller than an Imperial-class Star Destroyer.

Xanthis.

Had to be. Only he would make a smaller version of the Terror of Space. Bastard. How the hell did he shut down the SSD? Reno stretched out with the Force and felt a presence besides that of his squadron. There was someone Force-strong in the lead troop transport. But...it wasn’t Xanthis. It wasn’t as powerful of a presence. Who the hell was it, then? Did Xanthis find and train an apprentice in one year? Reno stretched out farther until his sphere of presence reached the Scimitar. There. Xanthis was definitely on the Scimitar. If that was true, though, who was on the transport?

“All right, Siths. We’re outnumbered pretty bad here, but don’t let it get to you. One target at a time. Take out as many fighters as you can on the first pass. Circle around quickly and hit the transports. Do as much damage as you can, because we’ll only get one shot at them. After that, break off and engage the fighters until they’re finished. Leave the freighters alone, and ignore the capital ships. We can’t hurt them right now. Good hunting.”

Reno pushed every other thought from his mind and focused on the upcoming dogfight. As much as he wanted to worry, he couldn’t afford to do so. His attention needed to be on surviving this dogfight, not on the SSD.

Reno locked his targeting sights on the nearest fighter and when the HUD went green, he fired.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Xavier sat calmly in the co-pilot’s seat as the shuttle weaved back in forth, eluding fire from Reno’s squadron. As long as his shuttle survived this pass, they would be in the clear; Reno’s squadron would be overwhelmed with enemy fighters and wouldn’t be able to concentrate their efforts on several transports flying in a straight line for the SSD.

And just as quickly as the attack had started, it stopped. The transport stopped being assaulted with laser fire, and Xavier knew that Reno had missed his only chance at stopping the boarding parties. He checked his sensors and was pleased to see that all five troop transports were still on target. The attack was going just as planned. His entire team was alive, the SSD was dead in space, and the majority of the Siths were in their fighters battling against overwhelming odds.

Things could hardly be going more perfectly.

Xavier watched intently as his transport approached the SSD’s starboard docking bays. Obviously, with the huge ship powered down, the docking bay blast doors would be closed. That wouldn’t pose a problem, though. Not with their little datapad. As they neared the doors, Xavier punched in the proper access code, and the docking bay door lit up and opened. He smiled. This datapad, combined with all of the access codes he had for the ship, could turn on or turn off anything on the SSD as he so desired. He could lock or unlock any door he wanted to. Activate or deactivate any system he wanted to. The SSD was his for the taking. All he had left to do now was take it.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Xanthis sat in his meditation chamber, focused entirely upon finding his mission today. Upon letting the Force guide him. He knew he had a valuable role to play in the events today, but he didn’t know quite what it was yet. He could put himself on the bridge of the Scimitar, but that didn’t feel right. And being with Xavier’s boarding party wasn’t right, either.

He opened himself up to the Force entirely. He could feel everything going on outside. He could feel six Sith pilots outside in starfighters, battling for their lives. He could feel his apprentice Xavier, and his anticipation. He was probably boarding the SSD right then. He could pick apart some of the Sith still on the SSD, which disturbed him a bit. The more Sith on the ship, the less of a chance Xavier had of succeeding. He could feel two of them in the docking bay region, not too far from the one that Xavier was docking at. They had probably been stuck there when the SSD’s power had shut down. He could feel their anger and confusion at what was happening. He could feel another Sith, stumbling and bumbling his way through darkened corridors. Two more he could feel in a room together. From one of them he felt...pain. And yet, at the same time, joy. Strange. He focused on that person and felt...

Another presence. Inside of her. A child.

Xanthis focused on her, putting all of his effort into sensing her. Or more appropriately, the unborn baby inside of her. He could feel its power, its strength. Not only was that baby strong in the Force, he was incredibly so. More so than Xavier, more so than Xanthis, and probably more so than Reno.

What Xanthis could do with an apprentice as strong as that!

And in that second, Xanthis realized exactly what his goal was today. That baby belonged to him. He knew that Reno would want to train the child, but he couldn‘t allow that to happen. Reno had already taken his master away from him. The least that Xanthis could do was repay the favor by taking away his future apprentice.

Xanthis smiled as he stood up, now having direction and purpose in this battle. He knew that the Force would properly guide him, that it would tell him where he was supposed to go, and why. It always did. And now, he had to go to the SSD. There was a small baby there who would be born very soon. It belonged to him. The Force had told him to go there. The Force had told him to take that baby. And if it was the will of the Force, then who was he to argue?

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Vanicus watched as his crewmen valiantly and diligently worked on restoring power to the ship. For all the good that valiance and diligence did while being locked on the bridge with absolutely no power. Suffice to say, it wasn’t much. Some of the crew members were disconnecting systems and trying to hook them up to independent power sources. That might work for things like sensors and communications, but that wouldn’t work for shields, engines or weapons. For those, they would have to access the main systems. And they couldn’t do that until they had power restored. But they couldn’t get power restored unless and until they could get off of the bridge. However, they couldn’t get off of the bridge until they got power restored.

Vanicus sighed. They were trapped. Helpless. Vanicus hated being helpless, especially when his ship and crew were in mortal jeopardy. Once again, he was feeling useless.

If only they had a lightsaber to use. He still remembered how quickly Seven and Palin had cut through the bridge door last year with their lightsabers. He also remembered how terrified he’d been. He had been sure that Palin was going to kill him.

Suddenly, his comlink beeped, bringing him out of his revelry. A panicked voiced blared out a series of codes, which Vanicus noted. He nodded to himself in approval. The comlink went silent once again.

His comlink…

Ha! How could he have been so stupid?

There were still several Sith on board the SSD. He had only seen six starfighters leave for the battle, which meant there were at least five Sith still on board. Star, Palin and Seven were probably in sickbay. There were still two more on board somewhere. Who, he didn’t know. Where, he didn’t know. But he would know in a moment. All that he had to do was to make contact with one of them. Surely they would come and make a door for him.

Vanicus reached down to his waist and pulled out his comlink.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

How good it felt to step foot on the SSD again. It had been far too long. An entire year, in fact. Xavier was surprised at how sentimental he was getting about this mission. What was really amazing about it was that he had only spent about a month aboard this ship before he left. Well, not so much left as get left behind. Abandoned. But that was the past. He had more pressing matters to attend to.

He turned and faced his men. Five teams, ten men per team. They stood in the docking bay, standing ready at attention. They were all donning black commando gear, complete with night vision goggles on their helmets. They were the best of the best. An elite commando unit trained by himself and Xanthis. There wasn’t anything that they couldn’t handle. And that assertion was about to be tested. They were about to face the greatest test that they could ever face. There were still several Sith on board the SSD. While Teams Alpha and Bravo, led by him, were securing the bridge, Teams Gamma, Delta and Epsilon would be hunting down the rest of the Sith, and eliminating any other opposition that they faced.

But first...

“Communications,” he called out.

One of the troops from Alpha Team, Lieutenant Matyushenko, stepped forward and saluted. “Sir!”

“Our static burst communication system is up?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Good. Initiate the jamming.”

“Yes, sir!”

Matyushenko dropped to his knees and flung his backpack in front of him. He hit some buttons on it, then flung the pack over his back again. “Jamming is up and running, sir!”

“Let’s begin.”

The fifty men all saluted at the same time, barking out “Yes, sir!” in unison. The troops flipped the goggles down over their eyes and powered them up. Xavier did the same, though because of the Force he really didn’t need goggles. Heck, his Master Xanthis didn’t even need eyes he was so attuned to the Force. However, with the goggles, he wouldn’t have to focus on using the Force to see. It would be less of a burden right now.

In pairs of two, in tight military fashion, the troops ran out of the docking bay, their weapons up and ready. Led by Xavier, they made their way through the darkened corridors, like wraiths in the night, ready to strike hard and fast against unsuspecting foes.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

“This is Captain Vanicus on the bridge, is anyone there? Can anyone read me? Repeat. This is Captain Vanicus to any Sith Squadron members or personnel still on the SSD, can you hear me?”

No answer.

What could the problem be? He knew that at least a couple of the Sith were still on the SSD, and he knew that they each had a comlink on them. Why couldn’t he get through to anyone? Just what was going on here?

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Despite the fact that Xanthis had placed Xavier in charge of leading Alpha and Bravo Teams on their mission to capture the bridge, General Andrei Zhukov knew that he was really in control. He was the tactician who had put together the assault plan on the SSD. He was the one who had picked the teams. He was the one who had really trained and prepared them for this mission. Xavier had just taken credit for it all. In reality, Xavier was just a figurehead on this mission, and perhaps, in the organization.

Quickly and silently, his team moved through the darkened corridors.

Besides, the men and women under his command only followed his orders, anyway. Oh, if Xavier gave them an order, they would follow it. But only after an approving glance from Zhukov. He was, after all, their general. They had chosen to follow Zhukov. They were paid to follow Xanthis and AOL. It also didn’t help that Xavier, while a very dangerous opponent, was only about sixteen years old and hadn’t seen much combat, while Zhukov and his men had been through countless years of battle together. When it came down to the end, there was a big difference between the two. When it came down to it, his people would choose his orders over AOL’s. For the proper money, they would fight for AOL. But simply because he asked it of his troops, they would die for him.

Zhukov was a native of a Rim world called Taris, a planet that was only remembered because four thousand years ago it had almost been blasted into non-existence by the Sith during The Great Sith War. Taris had, of course, been rebuilt by the survivors, who mainly consisted of the Outcasts that had been exiled from its cities. It was ironic that the crimes that had gotten them exiled from the cities had ended up saving them. Today, though, Taris lived and breathed as if nothing had ever happened.

And today, Zhukov worked for the same people who had once destroyed his world.

Sure it was four thousand years ago, and it wasn’t the same people, but a Sith is still a Sith. It didn’t matter if the Sith of that time had no relation with Xanthis. They held true to the same religion of darkness and worshipped the same twisted ideology.

Zhukov really didn’t care for their ideology, though, or their religion. He had seen the Force firsthand and knew it existed, but he really didn’t care. He couldn’t touch it or access it, so it meant nothing to him. He didn’t dwell on it. He had gotten along fine in life without the Force. He didn’t need its help.

As Zhukov rounded the corner with Xavier right on his heels, they ran into two technicians. Through the night vision goggles he wore, Zhukov could see their surprised faces as they bumped into twenty commandos. He could see that at first they probably thought they were SSD troops, sent out to patrol the ship during this emergency. They were quite wrong. And as the surprise on their faces slowly turned into horror, he knew they realized their mistake. Zhukov wasted no time in killing them both. They continued down the dark halls and headed towards the bridge.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Skate and Sky made their way down the corridor quickly thanks to the night vision goggles they had found, though Skate still felt a sense of uncertainty about them coming from Sky. Understandable, considering what had happened the last time the younger girl had put on a pair...

It became clear rather quickly that it wasn’t just the hangar bays that had suffered a power outage, but the entire ship. No place on the ship that they traveled seemed to have so much as a gram of power. They had decided to head for the bridge…Captain Vanicus probably had a plan in motion.

Skate noted that there wasn’t one soul in any of the corridors that they passed through. She became increasingly annoyed as they pressed on. Not knowing what was happening, either inside the ship or outside, was killing her. It was impossible that the entire ship could’ve suddenly suffered one huge power outage right at the most inconvenient time, so she had pretty much ruled out “coincidence.” It had to be some kind of sabotage. But who? And what did they do? Only one thought came to Skate’s mind…someone had sliced into the main computer and cut main power, auxiliary power, shut all systems down, and locked out access. But that didn’t seem very likely. Skate knew very well the protection and defenses on the SSD’s main computers, and she didn’t think that they could be sliced so easily.

They were rounding a corner when Skate suddenly felt a sense of danger. She just caught the glimpse of an armed squad pointing weapons at them when she grabbed Sky and pushed her back around the corner. A hail of blaster fire erupted from down the hall, narrowly missing Skate and Sky.

“Who the hell are those guys?” Sky asked, unclipping her lightsaber.

“I don’t know,” Skate replied, taking her own lightsaber off of her belt. “But they just made a huge mistake.”

“Yeah,” Sky replied. “They’re standing in our way.”

“On three,” Skate said, preparing to turn the corner and attack their assailants.

Sky nodded, likewise getting ready.

“One...two...three!”

They ignited their lightsabers and turned the corner, but nobody was there. The corridor was empty.

“Where’d they go?” Sky asked, still staying on guard.

“Probably retreated,” Skate observed. “Maybe they didn’t expect to run into anybody yet. And this hallway isn’t exactly a prime spot to make a stand. C’mon, let’s keep going to the bridge. And stay on guard.”

Sky nodded and they continued on down the dark hallway.

What the hell was going on?

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Vanicus paced back in forth in front of the viewport, silently watching the battle commence outside the ship. The Sith that were out there were severely outnumbered by Xanthis’ forces, and not just from the fighters but the capital ships, as well. They needed help. They needed support. They needed the SSD.

But the mighty warship was powerless. It was lifeless in space, all of the beings inside like bugs crawling within a carcass. Vanicus turned and watched as his bridge crew continued to try their hardest to repair the ship and get it up and running. They certainly had a big task ahead of them. Nothing on the ship worked, save for life support. They needed their weapons and shields online, not to mention communications. But before any of that could happen they still had to get past the damned blast door, which, Vanicus was happy to note, seemed about to happen.

Vanicus turned away from the battle and headed back towards the blast doors. They were still shut tightly, but several of the bridge crew were hard at work in front of it. The panel next to the door was torn open, with several colored wires protruding. The wires were now connected to the portable power unit that sat next to the door. It shouldn’t be long.

“Lieutenant Weston, status update,” Vanicus demanded as he reached the door.

“Sir!” Weston said, turning and saluting sharply. He relaxed when Vanicus gave him a nod. “It shouldn’t be much longer, sir.”

Vanicus nodded but said nothing.

By now he was really itching to get into things. Reno and Sith Squadron were out there. They were outnumbered and outgunned, and they needed his help. If they could just get off of the bridge and get the power back up! With its awesome array of firepower the SSD could end the battle in a manner of minutes. All they had to do was get the damned, bloody, underworld-dwelling power back up.

Suddenly, the door started to open.

Vanicus turned to congratulate the lieutenant on his quick work in opening the door, but one look at the young man’s confused face told Vanicus all that he needed to know. Lieutenant Weston hadn’t opened the door. Had power returned?

It was as if time stood still.

He glanced over at the door as it continued to open. Beyond the door, standing in the darkened hallway, was a large group of armed troops. They numbered at least twenty, by his quick count. He immediately knew from their attire that they didn’t belong on the SSD. They wore plain black outfits and carried deadly looking assault rifles. The glow of their night vision goggles made them look like some eerie wraith or phantom out of a children’s story. He wanted to yell to Weston to shut the door, but realized before he did so that it would have been pointless. Weston hadn’t opened the door, and therefore did not possess the power to shut it.

Vanicus’ eyes widened as the soldier in front of the group raised his rifle and fired off multiple shots. Weston was the first to be hit, taking a shot directly in his face. He fell backwards, quite dead long before his body hit the deck. The technicians at the door didn’t last much longer, and all had the same fate as Lieutenant Weston.

The soldier then turned his rifle at Vanicus. As clichéd as he had always thought it sounded when others uttered it, Vanicus saw his life flash before his eyes. He really hated the possibility that his life was going to end on a cliché. But before the man could fire, a new figure stepped into the picture. He put his hand on the soldier’s rifle and lowered it towards the deck.

Vanicus was very good with faces. If he met someone, he remembered them. It was a gift that was useful to a captain. This face he recognized, though it took him a second to place it. It had been about ten months since he’d seen it. In that time, the youthful look in the man’s face had been replaced by something far more older, far more hateful. His hair was now completely gone. He had grown a goatee, also, and wore it well. It added to the rather menacing look that the young man had adopted.

Vanicus couldn’t believe it. He couldn’t believe that he was here. And working with Xanthis?

The lead soldier motioned with his hand, and the troops began to swarm the bridge. They marshaled all of the bridge crew and herded them down into the crew pits. So that they could be watched more easily, no doubt. They did not, however, try to herd Vanicus down there. In fact, none of the soldiers went near Vanicus. They left him alone and merely worked on moving the rest of the bridge crew into the pits. Within minutes, the only ones outside of the pits were Vanicus and the invaders.

Vanicus turned his attention back to the bald man.

“Hello, Vanicus,” the man said, his voice dripping his anger and sarcasm. “So good to see you again.”

“I hope you’re not expecting me to thank you for not having him shoot me,” Vanicus grumbled.

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” the man said. “Although I do admit that I didn’t do it out of mercy. I have my own agenda. My own reasons.”

“And what would they be?”

“Well, if I allowed him to shoot you,” the man started, while taking a step towards Vanicus, “then I wouldn’t be able to do this.”

With that, he reached his hand out and squeezed it shut into a fist. Vanicus suddenly felt his throat tighten until it reached the point where he couldn’t breathe at all. He quickly dropped to his knees and gasped for air. Once his vision started to blur and his eyes began to roll into the back of his head, the man released his clenched fist and Vanicus felt a rush of air in his lungs. He fell forward to his hands and knees and began coughing and wheezing.

“That was fun,” the man remarked. “But, my dear Captain, don’t worry. The fun isn’t over yet. In fact, it hasn’t even started.”

The man reached out again, but before he could do any further damage to Vanicus, he was interrupted by the lead soldier.

“Lord Xavier, the bridge has been secured.”

Vanicus wondered when the bald man had adopted the name “Xavier.”

The soldier cast a glance at Vanicus. “I would remind you that we have work to do, sir. We don’t have the luxury to waste time toying with people for fun.”

“I am in charge here, Zhukov,” Xavier spat. “I will spend my time how I desire.”

“Of course, Lord,” Zhukov responded diplomatically. “But Lord Xanthis would be most displeased to find out how critical time on this mission was wasted for...personal reasons.”

Xavier, forgetting Vanicus for the time being, took a menacing step towards Zhukov.

“Are you threatening me?” he said, his voice low and menacing.

It scared Vanicus enough that he would have taken a couple of steps backwards had he been in Zhukov’s boots. Zhukov, however, was perhaps made of sterner stuff than Vanicus was. The soldier didn’t flinch, nor did he seem fazed by Xavier.

“Of course not, Lord Xavier,” Zhukov calmly said back. “Merely reminding you of Lord Xanthis’ attitude towards failure.”

Xavier locked his jaw and stared at Zhukov. It did not take a psychologist to tell that there were issues between the two men. Mostly it seemed to come from Zhukov, who didn’t seem to like to take orders from one so much younger than he. Nor did Zhukov seem to be afraid of Xavier in the least, which had to get under Xavier’s skin to no end. After all, what kind of Sith tolerated disrespect from those under him? What kind of Sith wasn’t feared by those under his command?

Xavier turned away from Zhukov without saying a word to him. He glared at Vanicus. “You I will deal with later,” he grunted. He glanced towards the blast doors. “Zhukov, close those doors.”

“At once, Lord Xavier.”

The older man’s smile carried a bit of sarcasm in it, probably because Xavier wasn’t looking at him. Then again, seeing how Zhukov had just stood up to Xavier, maybe that wasn’t it.

Xavier took out his comlink and activated it.

“Xavier to Xanthis,” he said.

“Yes,” came the reply.

“The bridge is secure,” he reported. “The SSD is ours.”

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Colonel Anton Levy, leader of Sigma Team, liked his job.

What was there not to like? He was a commando. He got to hunt. He got to kill. What could be better?

Levy led his ten man team down the darkened corridors of the SSD, their weapons drawn and ready to fire at a moment’s notice. Yeah, he had the best job of all the teams. He didn’t have to be stuck with Xavier and secure the bridge like Alpha and Bravo. How boring would that be? He didn’t have to secure the medical or docking bay, like Delta and Gamma. He and Sigma Team had the best job. They were hunting. He had been told that there were still several Sith on board the SSD. It was the job of he and his men to hunt them down and kill them. All of them.

He hadn’t always been the leader of Sigma Team, though. That change hadn’t come into effect until five months ago when the previous team leader, Adam Craiger, had been killed. Craiger had been on their first mission to capture several members of Sith Squadron. Craiger and his second, the late Laura Cain, had been posing as cast members in the faux Sith Squadron holoshow. When General Zhukov had ordered them to break their cover and attack the Sith, they had not survived. Neither had Jason, Zhukov’s young second-in-command, and someone the general had been rather fond of. They were the only three casualties. No Sith had been killed. It was their first mission for Xanthis and Xavier, designed as a test to see how well they would do against Sith. The result was a mixed bag. It had been deemed that only three dead was not terribly bad. Not against opponents like the Sith. But to Anton Levy, it was three dead friends.

And it was time to get his revenge.

Revenge, though, was not why he was here.

Let’s not kid ourselves here, he thought to himself, I’m here for the money.

Xanthis was paying them good money to be here, otherwise Anton would be kicking it on Risa with some naked women or something. Vengeance was good and all, but naked women were naked women. He’d much rather be spending time with them than shooting people, even if they were people who had killed some friends of his. Levy had his priorities straight.

Levy rounded the next corner, but wasn’t ready for what was ahead of him.

Ten men were in front of him in the hallway, some standing, some kneeling. All had blaster rifles pointed at them. Their uniforms were very close to those of Zhukov’s men, in that they both were lightly padded black combat suits. The uniforms of the ten men in front of him, however, had several striking differences. For one, they wore what looked like black snow trooper helmets, but with red eyes. Likewise, their boots were red, and the suits had curved red markings on the legs that looked somewhat like jagged teeth.

Levy’s summation of his opponents’ appearance spanned probably all of one second.

Then the shooting started.

“Fall back!” Levy yelled, trying to roll behind the corner before he took a bolt to the head or something. He was lucky and made it back without a scratch. Two of his team members were not so lucky. Where the hell had those guys come from? His team obviously couldn‘t continue forward. They weren’t going to be able to break the blockade set out in front of them. How the hell had Levy not seen that coming? He should have expected resistance. “Fall back!”

They ran back the way they came, Levy still in the lead.

This is not good, he thought to himself, not good at all. Two men dead and he had nothing to show for it. Not a single lightsaber to present to Xavier or Xanthis. All he had accomplished was to get caught in a sneak attack and lose two men.

Running around another corner, he froze.

There, standing in front of him, were ten men dressed in red and black fatigues. It was them. Again. How had they gotten in front of Levy? That wasn’t possible! How?

A hail of blaster fire downed three more of his troops.

Now down to five, he ran back towards the direction of the original ambush. Half of his squad....gone! Who were these people? He had never read any intelligence reports on people in these outfits. How had they gotten there so quickly?

No, stop panicking, you idiot. Those were different people. They had two sets of these troops. Sadly, that wasn’t really better news. It meant that they were trapped. Caught in a “hot box” like a runner in a game of smashball. And Levy doubted he could depend upon the fundamentally unsoundness that the pros usually displayed in such situations.

He grabbed his comlink.

“Sigma Leader to Alpha Leader, we need reinforcements!” he said, not even trying to hide the panic in his voice.

“Alpha Lead here,” Zhukov responded. “What’s your situation?”

“We are pinned between two sets of ten troops! It was an ambush! I’ve lost five men already. They’re closing in...I can feel it.”

“Hold tight, Sigma,” Zhukov told him. “Bravo Team is on its way. Hold your current position. They‘ll be there shortly. Alpha Lead out.”

Hold my current position!?

Zhukov apparently didn’t understand the situation. He had no position to hold. He could feel the noose tightening around his and his men‘s necks. He could hear the footsteps of his enemies growing closer and closer.

His remaining men formed a circle, so that they could cover all of their bases. It wasn’t going to matter, though. Five against twenty, when the five were trapped in a hallway with no cover and pinned between two sides? The odds on that certainly weren’t good. They were going to die.

He could hear them approaching, though their footsteps were soft.

Who are these guys?

Levy checked the charge on his blaster, even though he knew it was full. After all, he had yet to fire a shot. What a way to go. Maybe he would get lucky. Maybe Bravo Team would show up and save not only the day, but their lives. Right now, it was all he could hope for.

All else being equal, he would rather be on Risa.

* * * * * * * * * *

“I can get there in two minutes, sir,” Colonel Tyree, leader of Bravo Team told Zhukov, while heading towards the blast doors.

Zhukov put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

“Sir?”

Zhukov hated to do this. He hated to give this order. He liked Colonel Levy. He was a good man, even if he sometimes lacked focus. He was a good soldier. He would also be missed. But it had to be done. There would be nothing gained from sending out Bravo to help Sigma. Only time would be lost, and there was the chance that Bravo would fall into the same trap that Sigma had. He couldn’t take that chance.

“They will be dead long before you get there, Colonel,” Zhukov said. “And their assailants will have moved on to new ground. Do not, repeat, do not waste time trying to save Sigma. They are gone. You must now take up their task, though. Find those responsible for their deaths and make them pay.”

Tyree nodded. “It will be done, sir. For Sigma.”

Zhukov nodded. “For Sigma.”

* * * * * * * * * * * *