Seven awoke slowly, still hunched in a little ball from when Palin Force-threw him out of her quarters. He didn’t know what time it was, but figured it couldn’t have been that long since the incident. Usually when Palin knocked him out the effect lasted around half an hour. Frankly, the fact that it happened often enough for him to be able to keep tabs on the time he spent unconscious and average it out was disturbing.

Seven shook his head as he stood up, shaking away the last lingering effects of being knocked out cold. He was used to it by now though, and by the time he was on his feet he was in perfect running order.

He decided not to break his usual routine. Typically, after being knocked out by Palin he headed for one of the many, many bars located on the SSD. Since it was closest, he decided to go to the biggest one. It was usually where the rest of the squad got drunk during off hours. Maybe he could find someone to talk to, to share his suspicion of Jace and Narska. If Palin couldn’t be convinced, maybe someone else could.

Surprisingly, the bar was mostly empty. Totally empty, actually, save for Sky. She sat alone at a table, nursing what definitely wasn’t her first drink. Her body language told Seven that she had already had several drinks, and by this time was probably pretty loaded. Hey, maybe she’d be drunk enough to....

No, he chastised himself. Now isn’t the time to be thinking of sex. There are more important things to be thinking of!

Even as he said the words in his head, he had trouble registering them. More important than sex? As if! But for whatever reason, he just couldn’t keep focused on it. His suspicion of Jace and Narska was too strong in his mind, forcing away every other thought. As hard as he was trying, he couldn’t even picture Sky naked! All he was getting was Jace and Narska.....

No, wait, that doesn’t sound right, he told himself. Oh, shut up. Just go talk to her.

“No,” Sky said, as Seven took a seat at her table.

“No what?” he asked.

“I’m not sleeping with you. It’s not possible for me to be that drunk, or sober.”

Seven held up his hands in defeat and looked around the bar, his eyes wide with surprise. “I didn’t even say anything!”

“No, but I could see you undressing me with your eyes there. The answer is no. Go away.”

“For your information,” Seven indignantly said, “I was thinking about Jace and Narska.”

Sky raised a curious eyebrow. “Well, I’m glad you three found each other. I’m sure you’ll be very happy, even if your kids will be horny, emotionless, furballs.”

“That’s not what I meant!” Seven yelled, planting his palms forcibly on the table. “Look, have you noticed anything suspicious about them? Anything odd or unusual?”

Sky straightened up, eyed Seven, then leaned in close across the table, as if what she was going to tell him was a big secret. He likewise leaned in.

“Ya know, I have noticed something odd about Jace,” she said, the whiskey on her breath evident.

“What?” Seven asked.

Suddenly Sky smacked him in the forehead, none too gently either, and yelled aloud, “He’s an emotionless freak whose loyalty to Reno is somewhat disturbing in it’s blindness! Now get out of here, you’re ruining my buzz! Every second I look at you I can feel myself going sober.”

Seven stood up and started out of the bar. So much for getting others to help him... he’d just have to do it all by himself.

As he left, Seven heard a beep behind him. Sky’s personal comm going off. “Lady Sky, your presence is requested in Hanger Bay 4”, the vaguely-familiar voice said.

“You call me “Lady” again and I’ll stick my boot so far up your ass you’ll be able to taste the ass of the last guy whose ass I kicked for calling me ‘Lady,’” he heard her reply, her state of drunkenness apparent to even the most oblivious person.

Seven sighed and walked off. Looked like saving the SSD and Sith Squadron fell solely into his lap. As he walked down the corridors of the SSD, he was hard pressed to find a way they could possibly be more screwed.

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

Sky staggered past some random crewmen on her way to Hanger Bay 4, throwing off insults and smacking a couple of them just for the hell of it. The crewmen took the abuse, of course, because if they didn’t....well, Sky would just find more ways to abuse them. Worse ways. She was too drunk to think of any at the moment, but she was sure something would pop up.

Why the hell was she needed in the hanger bay? Don’t they know this is her drunk time? She shouldn’t have to think or walk during that time. It was bad enough Seven was bugging her, though she was starting to doubt whether he was really after sex or not. All that talk about Jace and Narska... for the first time since arriving on the SSD she wondered which way his saber really swung.

Could be something wrong with her TIE Interceptor, she supposed. Maybe the technicians needed her access codes to get into her fighter’s subsystems. She had requested some upgrades to it....
Sky suddenly realized that not only was she alone in the hallway, but for some reason it was strangely dark. And not “I’m too drunk to see properly and everything is dim” dark, this was dark-dark. She looked up and noticed that the lights above were dimming... it wasn‘t just her amazing state of drunkenness. Fading, fading, fading--and soon she was surrounded by darkness. So dark she couldn’t see a damn friggin’ thing. What the hell?

She picked up her comm. “Bridge, what the hell is going on?”

But she got nothing but static. Someone was jamming her. Probably jamming the whole ship. Ship-wide blackout in communications could mean only one thing. Sky wished she was sober enough to think of what that one thing might be! Regardless, she took out her lightsaber and ignited it’s turquoise blade. The hallway lit up in a bask of turquoise light, and off in the corner Sky spotted a pair of night-vision goggles hanging on the wall. Convenient, she thought to herself. She grabbed the goggles off the wall and turned her saber off. She didn’t know why the goggles where hanging on the wall, but at the moment she really didn’t care. With the goggles she could at least see in the dark and navigate the passage ways until she reached the hanger bay.

She clipped the saber back on her belt and tugged the goggles down over her face. Ah, much better. The hallway was now light green, and it was much easier to see. Why had the lights been shut off? And who was jamming them? Belatedly, she decided that maybe a trip to the bridge first would be more productive. Maybe she could find out just what the hell was going on, and why they had dared interrupt her while she was getting dr-

Then, in one bright flash, she couldn’t see.

Her goggles were so bright that she had to quickly force her eyes shut. It was obvious what had happened, some jackass had turned the lights on. With her night-vision goggles on, it had pretty much the same effect as staring at the sun until your retinas burned away. Sky ripped the goggles off and threw them down the hall, cursing herself for picking them up.

Then she felt someone near by. A presence, and not an entirely friendly one at that. She grabbed her saber and turned it on again. She supposed the turquoise blade lit up, she still couldn’t see a damned thing. But she heard the familiar snap-hiss and felt it’s heat on her face. Sky tried her best to open her eyes, but just couldn’t. She was effectively blind. She knew it would be only temporary, but it would be long enough for whoever was about to attack her to have a distinct advantage in the coming fight.

She could tell the attacker was Force-strong, which meant it had to be one of her Squadmates attacking her. Great... how comforting. Can’t even stumble down the corridors of your own home drunk off your ass without one of your “friends” trying to kill you. What a friggin’ lovely group I decided to join. Hell, if she wanted people trying to kill her she could’ve stayed as a waitress in a bar on Coruscant. She didn’t need this crap here...

Sky let out several wild swings, none of which connected with anything. Her attacker was keeping his distance for the time being, gauging how well she can see probably. Well, the person had to know the effects weren’t going to last much longer. She would regain enough of her eyesight to fight in a few seconds, which meant the attack would be coming any time now.

CLANK! SNAP-HISS!

At the sound of noise behind her, Sky whirled around and swung her saber about chest high, hoping to catch her attacker. She only hit air though, and in one painful instant regretted turning her back. She heard the whine of a blaster from behind her and a sudden pain reverberating throughout her body. Then, nothing.

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

Jace used the Force to retrieve his lightsaber from across the hall and holstered his blaster. He didn’t like using a blaster--he much preferred his lightsaber--but sometimes situations dictated different tactics.

Sky’s deception had been simple enough. A fake call for her to the hanger bay to get her down the path, planted night-vision goggles, rigged lights... and once she was blinded, a simple tossed lightsaber that he turned on using TK to offer a distraction. One shot on stun, and she was down and out.

Still ahead of schedule, Jace grimaced. Now he was getting to the hard part of the list. Skate, Ryvo, Seven and Palin. He didn’t expect any of them to go as easy as the previous three. However, enough of them were out now that Narska could start planting the bombs. He picked up his comm and keyed in his code to disable the jamming. Next he punched in Narska’s personal code.

“Three down, four to go,” he reported. “Start planting the bombs while I take care of the rest.”

“Copy that,” Narska replied. Jace pocketed his comm, and stalked off, not wasting a second. He didn’t have a second to waste. As every tick of the chrono passed, the chances of his plan failing increased. Failure was not an option.

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

Jace knocked on the door to Ryvo’s quarters, slightly perturbed. He had not been able to locate Skate as quickly as he had wanted to, so he decided to bypass her for now and move on. His failure to find the Toprawa woman had put him a little past where he wanted to be schedule wise. He had to move quick. Luckily, Ryvo’s quarters were a deck below the hallway where he had taken out Sky, so he hadn’t had to travel far.

The door opened, and Jace saw Ryvo sitting in a chair across the room, his eyes glued to the wall monitor. “Hey, yo,” he said, not giving Jace a look. As Jace walked in, he saw that Ryvo was watching a sporting exhibition of some kind. Two scantily clad men rolling around grabbing each other. It really looked like something Jen or Thunder would enjoy more than Ryvo.

“Shoot fighting?” Jace asked with a little false interest, trying his best to distract Ryvo, to keep him off guard. Feigned interest might do it.

“Nah, I got too much pride to watch that “ultimate fighting” crap. This is the real ultimate fighting here... this is PWG!”

“PWG?” Jace asked, his hand inching closer and closer to the hidden blaster behind his back. Again, he would’ve preferred to fight him with sabers, or even hand-to-hand, but extreme circumstances dictate extreme tactics.

“Pro Wrestling Galaxywide, brotha. You’ve never heard of PWG? kWo?”

“Ah, no” Jace said, suddenly losing even his false interest. Shoot fighting was one thing, but pro wrestling? How hick do you get? Cripes... Jace was from Tatooine and wouldn‘t even stoop that low.

“You do realize it’s fake, right?”

Ryvo turned and shot him a harsh stare, losing the cheer he had shown when Jace entered. “Don’t even start with that, man, don‘t even go there. So what‘s up? You‘re not exactly one for social calls.”

“Actually, I just dropped by to show you something.”

“What?” Ryvo said, his eyes once again fixed on the two men grappling in the ring.

Jace whipped the blaster out and pointed it at Ryvo, expecting it to be over in less than a second. But with a speed that astounded Jace, Ryvo knocked the blaster sideways with a backhand and sprang to his feet. Nor did he stay in one spot to ask questions. Half a second after jumping to his feet, Ryvo leaped over his recliner and tackled Jace to the ground, grasping desperately for the blaster that Jace clung to. With all his might, Ryvo grabbed the hand Jace held the blaster with and slammed it into the ground, over and over again. After several bangs Jace’s hand gave way and the blaster dropped to the ground, ready for anyone to grab it.

Ryvo caught Jace with a quick elbow to the nose and sent the man from Tatooine reeling back for a second. That gave Ryvo a split second to act, and he didn’t waste it. Just as Jace started to fall back, Ryvo lunged forward. When Ryvo neared the weapon, though, Jace flung his hand out with a powerful TK burst that sent the blaster flying across the room.

Ryvo scrambled to his feet, while Jace flipped to his feet with a kick up, ignoring the pain in his nose. The men stared at each other while they circled around the room.

“No selling the blow?” Ryvo asked, a hint of amusement in his voice. Jace wondered what there was to be amused about.

“Try giving me something worth selling,” Jace replied, though that was something of a lie. While not devastating, the elbow had been painful enough.

As a response, Ryvo stepped forward and grabbed Jace, one hand on his shoulder and the other behind his neck. Although he tried his hardest to stop him, Jace just couldn’t overpower Ryvo in a straight fight. Ryvo pushed Jace straight back into the wall, then followed it up by throwing him partially across the room. Jace landed hard on his shoulder, but rolled into the fall and was on his feet in a matters of seconds. Just in time, he noted, to see Ryvo flying at him again.

Knowing he couldn’t overpower him, Jace ducked under Ryvo’s lunge and gave him a sharp punch in the ribs, followed by a shot to the gut that forced the man to double over. Jace lifted his knee sharply and felt it connect hard with Ryvo’s face. As the man reeled backwards Jace went on the offensive, lashing out rights and lefts. Ryvo staggered backwards like a drunken Ewok as he took blow after blow to the face. Jace realized though, too late, that he had fallen right into Ryvo’s trap.

Out of nowhere Ryvo fell to the ground and wrapped his feet around Jace’s ankles, catching him in a drop toe hold. Jace fell face first into the small wooden caf table in the middle of the room, reducing it to splinters and fragments. The sheer impact of the wood against his face slowed Jace down a bit, and he struggled to get to his feet. He didn’t make it there before Ryvo, though.

With Jace on all fours, struggling to get to this feet, Ryvo kicked him sharply in the gut, knocking him back to the ground and onto his back.

“Yeah... thought I was just another Ham’N’Egger, huh?” he asked, as he laid a boot down on Jace’s head. “I bet that was you one floor up making all that noise, huh? I was ’bout to bang on the ceiling to make you shut up. Just as well you came down here to let me do it!”

As Ryvo reared back for another kick, though, Jace swung his leg out and struck him at the knee, sweeping Ryvo off his feet. When Ryvo landed, it took Jace only a second to attack. He grabbed Ryvo by the head and locked his elbow under his chin. His other arm he draped over Ryvo’s forehead, squeezing his temples with his fingers. Jace knew if he applied the hold properly, it would cut off the oxygen flow to Ryvo’s brain. Ryvo struggled like a madman at first, but within a few seconds his struggles started to die down. Even after they completely died down, Jace held on. He wouldn’t put it past Ryvo to fake it, and he couldn’t take the chance he was. Carefully, and slowly, Jace reached over and raised one of Ryvo’s arms, then dropped it. It fell limply to the ground. He did it two more times, and then once Jace was satisfied the man was out cold, let him go.

There was an extreme amount of pain in his body right now, but he couldn’t afford to dwell on it. He quickly put some binders on Ryvo’s hands, then retrieved his blaster. Making sure it was on stun, he fired a shot into Ryvo. Better to be safe than sorry, he muttered in his mind.

Four down, three left.

Skate was next, assuming he could find her. Then Seven, then Palin. Jace ran a mental check over his body. Broken ribs, no doubt. Broken nose, though there was no blood. Probably a concussion from the table he landed on, not to mention a huge knot on his head. He didn’t even want to look in the mirror to see what his face looked like after the boots Ryvo delivered to his head. Nothing Bacta couldn’t cure, though.

Jace took a second he didn’t have and focused. His job now was to get rid of the rest of the Siths so Narska could plant his bombs. He had to do that. Focus. Focus. He grabbed his comm.

“Narska, report,” he said.

“About halfway through,” the Bothan said from the other line. “A few more along some critical systems and we should be good to go.”

Jace nodded. “Then stop wasting time talking to me and get to it,” Jace said, cutting off the transmission. He started down the corridor.

Next target: Skate.

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

“Star, do you read? Skate? Fox? Ryvo? Anyone? C’mon, this isn’t funny anymore. Stop playing around!” Seven turned his comm off and shoved it in his pocket.

Seven was starting to panic. This wasn’t good, this definitely wasn’t good. All this Siths could be missing, gone, vanished. He could be the last one left! Everything was resting on his shoulders now... the fate of the SSD and Sith Squadron...it was all up to him....

Well screw that!

At a dead sprint, Seven broke for Palin’s room.

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

Skate swung her lightsaber at her attacker, countering his first blow. She followed it up with several quick jabs, then she twirled and attempted to decapitate him with a high swipe. He got his saber up and blocked, though.

Backing up, Skate took a second to devise a strategy. Go in low, distract him, make him think I’m going high, attack in the middle.

Skate took a couple steps forward and put her plan into motion. She swiped at his feet, which he easily avoided by jumping. However, that put him exactly where she wanted him. While her right hand lashed out with a high swing about at his head, her left hand unclipped the lightdagger on her chest and activated it. As the attacker blocked her high shot while still in mid air, she jabbed straight with her dagger, catching him in the chest. She swung her left arm sideways, bisecting her attacker.

Skate stood in triumph over her attacker, a TR-75 ’droid, designed for gladiatorial combat. They had acquired a bunch of them during a raid several years back, though she hadn’t been with the squad at that time. They were good at combat, but no match for a real life organism, and certainly no match for a Sith...

Clap. Clap. Clap.

The sudden and unexpected noise caught her attention, and she turned to find Jace Sidrona standing in the doorway to the training room, clapping his hands together in a way that could only be described as sarcastic. His was as stoic as ever, not betraying any emotions he might be feeling. Skate reached out, but couldn’t feel anything from him. She had never met someone who was as good at keeping their feelings locked up as Jace Sidrona. Hell, the TR-75 she just bisected probably showed more feelings than he did.

“Not bad,” Jace said, strolling into the room. Despite the lack of emotion on his face, Skate immediately knew something was wrong. His walk and demeanor... something was different. Although he usually walked crisply like he had a stick jammed up his ass, today he kind of swaggered, and was definitely favoring one of his legs. As he got closer, she could also make out what a mess his face was. Bruises, an eye that had seen better days, and his nose looked broken. As well, she could tell from the way he moved that Jace’s ribs were sore--bruised at the least, possibly even broken. Someone had done a number on him all right.

“Thunder isn’t around, who beat the crap out of you?” Skate asked casually, for some reason feeling a little uneasy. Jace generally made people nervous with his quiet demeanor, but this was different. She wasn’t feeling uneasy, she was feeling threatened. Danger. Jace was up to something, and it wasn’t good. She tightened the grip on her lightsaber, glad that it was in her hand and ready to go on a second’s notice.

Jace took the question in stride, though, and continued his slow walk to her. “Oh, Ryvo and I had a little scuffle. That’s not important, though. I’ve been trying to raise you on the comm. Couldn’t get through, though.”

Skate wasn’t being fooled for a second here. She could tell he was telling the truth about fighting with Ryvo, but she didn’t think he was telling the whole truth.

“I turned my comm off,” she told him. “Didn’t want any distractions while I trained.”

“Training, eh?” he said, slowly moving closer and closer to Skate. She could see his hand creeping down towards his waist, where his lightsaber hilt dangled. “Care to have a little duel?”

Skate’s finger hovered over the button that activated her lightsaber, preparing for Jace’s attack.

“Maybe later,” she told him. “I’m done training for now.”

Jace finally stopped, then shrugged. “What a shame,” he said. When he started to do his fake turn, Skate didn’t fall for it. He turned to leave, then quickly spun back around, switched his lightsaber on and swung at her head. By that time, though, Skate had her own blade up in a defensive stance and parried the blow easily.

Jace’s attacks were quick, disciplined and strategic, a far cry from the training droid she’d just dismantled. Not only that, but Jace was attacking ferociously. He wasn’t in this for a training duel, that was for sure. He was trying to kill her! So not going to let that happen, she thought to herself.
She quickly wondered whether or not Ryvo was still alive, or if Jace had killed him. No, she would’ve felt it if someone Force-strong had died. He wasn’t dead, and she didn’t think anyone else was either. But then, it was obvious Skate wasn’t the first Sith Jace had visited, and she hadn’t felt any trouble then.

Skate swung wildly at Jace, trying to drive him back and stop his offensive. It worked, too, as Jace rolled out of the way to regroup. Within seconds, though, he obviously had a plan worked out and was back on the attack. Skate, too, had a plan worked out. It had worked on the ’droid, it could work on Jace. She just needed to distract him, though, to keep his attention on her lightsaber and not her lightdagger. She didn’t necessarily want to kill Jace, but he was leaving her with little enough options from which to choose. Reno probably would want to interrogate him, too. Well, he was going to have to live without that. She didn’t see any way that she could subdue Jace without killing him. He was too much a threat to leave at your back alive, even if he was binded. It was either kill him, or die. With those as her only options, she didn’t find the choice hard at all.

So Skate went on the offensive, coming out with a devastatingly quick series of thrusts and swipes. She fought one handed as she usually did, which would give her easy and quick access to the lightdagger clipped to her chest. Once she had Jace reeling and off guard enough, she decided to put her plan into motion.

She swung low at his feet, which she knew would prompt him to jump to avoid having his feet hacked off. But as she swung high to draw his saber away and open up his chest, Jace did something unexpected. He jumped over her low saber swing all right, but at the same time he did a backflip. Halfway through his rotation his feet connected with the wall behind him, and he lunged forward and over Skate’s head. It was a move she had never seen him use before, and wasn’t ready to defend against. She swung high as he sailed over her head, but she missed him by nothing short of kilometer. She looked over her shoulder just in time to see Jace roll headfirst into a somersault and jump to his feet.

Angry at the failure of her plan, she reached down with her left hand and grabbed the vibroblade in her boot. To get a little momentum, and a little for show she admitted to herself, she twirled into a 360 on the spot and flung the dagger at Jace’s head. She expected him to deflect it with his saber, but again she underestimated him. With a speed she didn’t know he had, he twisted to the left and snagged the blade by it’s hilt as it whizzed past his head. Then he went with it’s momentum, did a 360 with about half the grace that Skate had, and flung it right back at her.

As impressive as the move had been, it was clearly obvious from the throw that Jace wasn’t exactly an expert knife-thrower. The blade didn’t have a fraction of the speed that Skate had thrown it with, and wobbled slightly in the air. Skate didn’t bother catching it as Jace had, or deflecting it with her saber. With ease, she sidestepped the dagger and let it fly harmlessly into the wall behind her.

Neither wasted a second. Soon they were back in the middle of the room, swinging and hacking away, searching desperately for a weakness to exploit. Then Jace flung one of his arms toward Skate, and she felt the tingling of danger. She turned around and swung, bisecting the upper half of the training droid that Jace had hurled at her. Just as quick, she turned back around and blocked the cheap shot that Jace tried to take when her back was turned.

Again his hand flung out, and again part of the robot flew off the ground and soared over towards Skate. She bisected it cleanly again, and tried her best to focus on taking Jace out. She couldn’t keep this up forever, and he knew it. Chunk after chunk of the dismantled ’droid flew at her, so many that it was beginning to get overwhelming. She did her best to fend them off, but eventually pieces started to break through and make contact with her head.

Skate wobbled around, swinging her saber wildly, cutting anything that got within her range. Her defenses were dropping though, her concentration slipping. None of the blows she was taking were necessarily painful, but there were a lot, and it added up. She couldn’t help but concentrate on the pain, dropping her Force-defenses and leaving open to a more serious attack by Jace.

The attack wasn’t what she expected, though. Instead of swinging with his lightsaber, he waved his hand and threw Skate against the wall behind her with enough force to make her lose her grip on her lightsaber. It deactivated and rolled out of her hand. It came to a stop, right by Jace’s feet. Skate tried to reach the lightdagger on her chest, but her arms were failing her. Skate tried to concentrate, tried to focus. As a last ditch effort to save her life, she tried a Force-choke on Sidrona. It seemed to work for about a second, judging from the narrowing of his eyes and twitching in his throat muscles. But just as quickly as she hit him with it, he dispelled it. She didn’t think it would work. Countering a Force-choke was one of the first things Reno taught his apprentices. Frankly, she was surprised she held it as long as she had.

Jace switched his lightsaber off and clipped it back to his belt. He then reached behind his back and pulled out a blaster, which he promptly pointed at her. Skate grimaced and used the last of her energy to bite out one last remark.

“If you’re going to kill me, at least cut me down with your lightsaber.”

The only reply she heard was the whine of a blaster, and the only thing she saw were the blue waves of energy that sent her into oblivion.

Continued...