Gloopra picked up the blaster again as he got to his feet and felt the engines kick into life. He listened to the announcement. At first, he assumed the man was an amateur, getting in way over his head by trying to capture Jedi without really appreciating what that meant. Then he heard that the man was sending droids. If it was more of the ones from outside, then this would be quick. He then finished the communications "Alright, you can try to kill us, but I can't promise you'll survive either." He said, before pulling out his comm-link "Ricky, we've been trapped, lock onto my location and begin pursuit." He ordered. "If you don't hear from us in a few minutes, shoot this craft down." Of course, R7 didn't have access to the Silencer's weapons systems to fire, but this blaze or flames or whatever the hell his name was didn't know that. He readied the blaster, before hearing an all-too-familiar sound and having a minor flashback to his pirating days fighting against the Zann Consortium.

"Droideka's, and just when I don't have any grenades on me" he grunted, before throwing down the blaster and following Fufuro. "Fufuro, do you have any grenades? their weakness is that they only reflect energy, not physical matter. If you can roll a grenade into it's shields to where it explodes inside, it'll wreck it." He quickly panted. He then looked at the others. "What, the Zann Consortium used to use them all the time." He didn't bother to wait for a response as he walked over to one of the walls and felt along it. Nothing behind the wall, he took out his lightsaber. "In any case, we'll have a better time if we go around them." He then stuck the green blade into the wall, before beginning to cut a hole for them to move through.

Anari believed he had little connection to the Sith, and both his attitude and response confirmed it. If she didn’t have a reason to lie about herself, then neither would he. Next, Blank released his aura. She felt darkness, certainly, but what might have alarmed Lahana or Gloopra only caused her to blink. It wasn’t frightening, not to her. There were darker, more potent ways for the dark side to show itself; what Blank believed to represent the dark side through himself was trivialized and almost childlike. The man could wield powers normally tied to the dark side, but he was no agent of it.

“Yes, I suspected he was doing the same,” she replied. Gloopra’s theory could be put to rest. That left only the man himself and his own history, both with the force and with the true power behind Gamorria.

Letting Blank conclude his string of thoughts, she continued. “I admit that I have felt the pull of the dark side before. It comes with my duty. But I’m not here to talk about who I am. I want to know who you are, Blank. I won’t depend on the opinions of others to determine that. Had I done so, I would have wrongly judged you as Sith.”

She moved along the casino table and stopped at its midsection. “And unlike my colleagues, my first action isn’t to point my weapon towards you. All I want are some answers, such as what you stand to gain from protecting slave trade and drug production operations. Who or what runs Gamorria, and why are you insisting on working with them?”

"Just four." Fufuro patted the utility belt around her waist. "Not enough for all of them. We'll have to think of another method just in case."

"I think I have an idea." Lahana walked over to a metal table and flipped it over. She planted her foot on it and snapped off it's legs, leaving them with sharp points. "They shouldn't be able to block these with their shields, right?"

"Good thinking Lahana." Kale said, looking back to Gloopra. "They're getting close, if we're going to move it should be now." Lahana handed the metal bars to Kale and walked over to the wall Gloopra was cutting. She jammed her own saber into it and helped him quickly cut open a hole. She used the forced to push the slab of steel out and hold it in the air.

"Stay behind me, I'll try to block their shots with this. Everyone else take them out." Lahana said, advancing. Fufuro walked up to Gloopra and handed him two grenades to use, While Kale lifted the four metal spikes into the air.



Blank stopped thinking to himself and focused on Anari as she moved closer. When she asked her question he simply looked around the casino floor. "We do a bit of business with people, but to say we have anything substantial to gain from them is a stretch. Why do you think I didn't intervene at the drug factory? Also, we knew a big sale was happening here today, if we cared that much more people would have been sent for security. People on this planet are free to do as they please, that's all. If you want to meet the boss you'll have to give them a reason to want to see you, it doesn't happen often. As for why I'm working with them..." Blanked idly tugged at the cuffs of his gloves. "They're the most competent force on this planet? They do what they want, they do it well. I guess I... Admire that?" Blank stopped messing with his gloves and looked to Anari.

"What about you? So many questions and I don't even know your name. Why are you working with the Republic?"

Anari subdued the urge to interrupt Blank; the explanations he’d given her begged more questions, more than the guy would likely be able to stand all at once. The true mastermind behind Gamorria was a single person, or at least what she was led to believe. Blank said boss, not bosses; one person was making this all possible in a comfortable seat of power hidden from the rest of the riffraff. It was too flattering to suggest this person was anywhere close to the long-dead Emperor. The methods they used to control the populace might be considered similar. There wasn’t enough to speculate on just yet. A little more information, if she could manage to get it, might serve the New Republic better in the investigations to come.

After his explanation for working with the unnamed boss, Anari gave a brief smile before it vanished in its entirety and her expression returned to its natural calm. Next came the usual turn many went towards when she confronted them: Who was she, and why was she doing what she did?

“I’m working with the New Republic because they are dedicated to peace through diplomacy, through reason, and in this galaxy each world should have a voice and a government that does what it can for its people. No exception should be made,” she said. “I recognize that the mission of the New Republic has begun to change. But that is a problem I need to discuss among the few within the military that I trust. I don’t fail to see the irony of this occupation. You didn’t ask for this, but some of your people do want change, and the New Republic should represent a positive one.”

Pitching the idea that the New Republic would be good for Blank felt as fruitless as it sounded. What would he care about a better, brighter world when he stood here unbothered by the hopelessness of others? The upbringing on Gamorria must have left him numb, that is if he was even born here. Another question. She couldn’t stop.

“My name is Anari. I’m a member of the Jedi Order.” She lightly shrugged her shoulders. “Not a very interesting story to tell, really. I want to do good for the people of the galaxy before I inevitably die. That includes facing the corruption of planets like this and trying to do something about it, and not always letting my raw strength solve every problem I face.”

Anari looked around the room, her eyes hovering across the scorch marks of blasters and overturned furnishings. “There were little girls held back there with their family.” The attention she diverted to the damage caused by persuasion returned to Blank. “I didn’t say anything and I didn’t show it, but the sight pained me deeply and angered me even more. Instead of unleashing it on the ones responsible, I lowered the shield that kept them in. The moment it fell, they collectively felt relief, more than they must have felt in days, maybe weeks. They believed that maybe they had a chance at a better life than servitude and sexual abuse. I took more satisfaction delivering them from this place than I ever would raiding drug houses because changing a life means more to me than taking it.”

Swallowing hard, she became aware that her eyes begun stinging and briefly looked away towards the door she went through to free them. “You call being complicit in these things competence. Something to admire. "They do it well," you said.” Anari lightly shook her head. Although she didn’t meet Blank’s eyes again, the power of her voice didn’t waver. “Those guards, they weren’t beyond redemption. Maybe they were never given a choice. I don’t know the truth. Still, I persuaded them to change their ways and to live better. And now I’d ask that you consider doing the same, Blank.”

She found it in her to meet his gaze once again. “You aren’t what I was told you were. You aren’t evil. But could I—could anyone—call you good? Just for a moment I want you to think about who you are. Then, think about who you could be.”

"Anari, huh? That's a nice name..." Blank said with a distant voice, as if he were filling the air as he contemplated her words. He stood silent for a moment, idly cracking the fingers of his right hand with his right thumb. "Good, evil, I'm not sure those words mean much to me anymore. Though I'm not the type that believes they don't exist, I just can't manage to bring myself to care." Blank looked back towards the entrance of the club.

"I'm sure the people you freed were overcome with joy. I know, I've seen it before. I also know that for every one person that gets to experience joy, ten more are suffering. I say that, but it's not to express anything other than how pointless it is. You save people because your consciousness tells you it's the right thing to do, you avoid killing because every life is precious, and doing so when it's not needed weighs heavily on you. Behaving this way is normal I suppose, it may even make you feel like a good person..." Blank put his hands in his pockets and looked back to Anari.

"I've killed people, I've saved people, and not once have I ever felt guilt or pride. I understand these feelings, but to me they don't mean anything. Trust me, I've thought about who I am. Good or evil I don't know, it depends on how someone may see me. I don't go out of my way to help anyone nor to hurt anyone. I just do what I need in order to survive, just like everyone in Un-Refrain."

“You live for nothing else but to survive,” Anari summarized. “Instead of lifting your hand to help others who cannot help themselves you decide not to, not because you can’t, but because you see no use in it. What good is surviving then if you are going to die in the end regardless, Blank? Have you given your values as much thought as you claim to, or is it easier for you to not think about anything at all?”

She grew tense in stance and tone, doing nothing at all to conceal how shaken up she was becoming. To live day-after-day and do nothing with your life felt depressing and senseless. It was either a lie he was telling her to justify the rot in Gamorria he stood by and did nothing about, or he was selfish to the core and thought only of himself.

“Better to cling to those at the top and feed from their cruelty like a parasite. Behaving that way is normal I suppose,” she said mockingly of his words. “A chance to tell someone of your ambition and survival is the only response you can give? We are all trying to survive, Blank, but some of us choose to make something better of this galaxy before we leave it. You may think you aren’t part of this problem, but you aren’t part of the solution.”

Anari fearlessly stepped forward until she was within reach to grab—just as Blank was. Her stare didn’t waver from his face. Her body was motionless. They were both armed, but it wouldn’t be her that struck first. That was a choice he would have to make.

“I don’t care about anyone else’s reason for joining your organization. I’m not talking to anyone else. I am talking to you,” she said. “You choose not to feel anything for others because you want to survive. In some ways I understand that. What I don’t understand is how you can’t see that the people you aid are the people who cause those ten others to suffer. Have you really become so numb to the suffering that you can’t see your hand in it?”

Gloopra and Lahana finished with the wall and he held his hand up, helping her to hold it with the invisible arms of the Force. The wall opened into another room, this appeared to be a sort of sleeping cabin, several rows of bunk-beds lined the room. Gloopra carefully climbed through, avoiding the molten durasteel around the edges of the hole he had cut. He then held the slab of metal as the others came through. "Fighting those Droideka's will be pointless." He said. "I suggest we keep cutting holes and try to get through the safest way. My only experience is with the old ones from about 100 years ago, these could have upgrades we know nothing about." He replied as Fufuro handed him the grenades "But I won't say no to heavy ordinance." He smiled to him. Re-igniting his lightsaber, he ran it through the door controls. "That should hold those Droideka's for a few minutes..." He groaned "Fufuro, you're more knowledgeable about these kinds of ships, What's the quickest way to get to the bridge?" He asked.

Surta Matahari Huchson

---

As soon as the lady turned her head down, Surta acted, moving with the frightening speed and efficiency of an experienced and feared outlaw.

The weapons dealer was first, struck in the back of the head with a force infused palm strike, knocking him out cold. His bodyguard was given no chance to react as her other hand whipped out the retractable blade, slicing through his throat as effortlessly as a blaster cannon through a gungan.

It seemed all like one smooth movement, as she brought up the sword tip towards Flambe.

"Turn around."

As soon as the woman denied the dealer any chance of meeting the boss, Surta knew there was nothing else she could do other than bring these two in. One or the other, and they might not get much out of them, but both of them being interrogated separately, and leaned on properly, they were liable to talk more. Perhaps she could try simply pulling what information she can, but that tended to leave the prisoners in a less than desirable state.

Blank's shoulders relaxed as Anari stepped closer to him. In spite of how close she was there was no tension in his body. "I didn't choose to be like this. I envy you, I really do. Your inevitable death drives you to do something with your life, it gives you purpose. But imagine for a moment if death didn't mean anything to you, imagine if every time you saved or killed someone you felt just as moved as you did when you took a shower that morning. People act based on their passion, something I have yet to find. So I simply do what I'm good at."

Blank took a step backwards. "Perhaps if this planet weren't so dirty I'd be doing something praiseworthy, but living an honest life here is living a short life. My hand in things isn't as impactful as you believe, if the boss tells me to do something it's because our stability relies on it, any other gang or drug pusher doesn't matter. Maybe if you and the Republic keep going things will change." He shrugged and looked back to the entrance. "So, I have somewhere to be, are you going to let me go?" He looked back to her. "Or do you believe letting me go will result in something horrible happening?"



"What makes you think I know this ship?" Fufuro asked. "I mean, I do, but still." She grumbled and looked around after stepping through the newly made hole. "This is an old transport ship, the design is pretty generic really. We need to head straight, then make a few turns to the bridge." As she finished speaking the door to the room they just escaped was shot down. Kale flung one of the table legs into one of the droidekas, disabling it's motors and blocking the others path.

"Let's move!" Kale moved ahead with Fufuro and Lahana following. As they continued the sound of the remaining droids rolling after them could be heard becoming louder and louder.

"They're going to catch up to us if we stay in this hallway. I can stay behind to-" Lahana cut herself off. She wasn't thinking, there had to be a better idea. As she was running she noticed the pipes above her, and a plan struck her. "I need this." She said, taking the metal slab. She slammed the slab into the flooring, lodging it into place to block off the hall. The droids stopped and uncurled to begin blasting the hindrance. Lahana threw her lightsaber into the pipes on both sides of the corridor, releasing carbonate gas. As she caught her returned saber the gas had already begun to harden around the droids, locking them into place. "Fufuro, Gloopra, you two go on ahead and deal with that man, we'll make sure nothing else comes."

Fufuro nodded and continued running. They eventually came to the locked door to the bridge. "Stand back." Fufuro said as she pressed a button on one of her grenades before tossing it by the door. After a few seconds it exploded, tearing the door apart. Drawing her blaster she rushed in. "He's escaping!" She said, seeing a man in cobbled together armor pulling himself through a hole in the bridge.



Flambe slowly put her hands up and turned around, and then looked down with a confused expression. "A child? Well, That's not so odd a sight on this planet I suppose." She looked at the dead bodyguard, then to the weapon's dealer. "I hate to be trite and pull rank here, but you do know who you're trying to steal from, don't you?"

Surta Mahahari Huchson

---

Surta licked her lips as Flambe spoke. From the way she spoke, it seemed like she was under someone who was quite a big fish. Meaning she would be worth quite a lot if Surta brought her in. Perhaps she should try to lean on them a little as well, and squeeze as much money as she could out of them.

"Enlighten me." It was all Surta said as she walked closer towards the woman, her weapon up and ready at all time.

Flambe dropped her hands and shook her head like a disappointed parent. "Only the most influential and powerful syndicate on the planet. Why don't you go home honey? This isn't something you should be getting involved in."

With the same speed she had exhibited earlier, Surta thrust her palm straight towards the back of Flambe's neck as she finished speaking, knocking her out cold. An easy enough feat; the next part was more difficult for Surta, having to restrain her and the weapon's dealer, then loading them into one of the weapons' vehicle. Hopefully they will wake up when they were far from this place.

After she took control of the vehicle with some creative tinkering, it was easy enough to simply drive out, moving towards the base at a steady pace.

“What you’re good at is making excuses while you help choke out any life you can, and nothing more.” Anari was not flattered by his envy nor impressed with his justification for being with this “Un-Refrain”. He made no attempt to mask how desperate he was to leave. His eyes turned to the main entrance far too many times to be taking her, or this conversation, seriously. She reached out to him yet his hands stayed at his sides. She couldn’t help someone who thought better of her perspective, who thought their lives were perfectly situated.

“Don’t be envious. Be better,” she said firmly. She backed away towards the passage holding the liberated slaves. “Goodbye Blank. Continue to think only of yourself. It’s what you're best at.”

She turned her back on him and walked towards the rear exit, her eyes peering upward at radiant glass chandeliers suspended from the ceiling. Beautiful, luminous things; a shame they decorated a place filled for ugly practices. It was one of the few areas untouched by the guards convinced of the error of their ways. Before slipping out she stopped beside her exit and reached out with her left hand, placing invisible pressure against the surface that held them.

Small fissures grew along the ceiling between the decorations, growing larger with each passing second. The ceiling slowly began groaning, until the weight of each chandelier became too much to bear. They each fell to the gambling floor, one after the other, filling the silence of the room with sounds of shattering glass.

Anari turned and left, destroying the rear door console with the Force on her way out. She made her way back to the base on foot, deliberately taking the longest possible path to ponder the choices she made today.

Gloopra looked behind as he heard the door explode "Karabast!" He grunted, before watching Kale take out one of the Droideka's, despite his worries that such a weakness might have been patched "I take back everything I said, thank you, Master." He nodded. They then headed out into the hallway and began to run towards where Fufuro said the bridge was. Lahana and Kale performed a daring maneuver that froze several of the Droideka's. "Alright, we'll make him call off the droids." He grunted as the pair set off at another run. He only had his green lightsaber ignited. As they reached the door, Gloopra prepared to cut through the door, but Fufuro had the quicker approach. "I do have th-" he began, waggling the lightsaber, before Fufuro pressed the button on the grenade "Never mind." The door was blown clean off, before they saw Blaze jump through a hole in the floor, Gloopra's hand instinctively shot out and Blaze found himself caught within the invisible tendrils of the force. "Remember when I said you'd regret this?" He asked, pulling the man towards him, until Gloopra's green fingers closed around his throat, the tip of the green lightsaber was held to the man's face, inches in front of his nose. "Deactivate the droids, or I will kill you and then figure out how to do it myself." He hissed.

"Ho-hold on!" The man in Gloopra's grasp begged. "I was just doing what he said, please man." He said. The speakers of the ship came to life once again, Flare could be heard trying and failing to hold in laughter.

"Wow, now that was some entertainment. Blank wasn't lying, you guys are pretty good." Flare said.

"Hey, I can go home now, right?" The man in Gloopra's grasp said.

"Huh? Yeah yeah sure, I've recalled the droids, I'm done here. You guys are something else let me tell ya. What did you think, that I'd really be here alone in a junker ship? It was obvious someone would come to see where my ship landed, so I set up an ambush. You people may be able to just walk into a drug den and have your way, but you all need to get something drilled into your thick skulls. This planet isn't yours. I've seen what the Republic's been doing, spreading around weighing people down with their authority. Not everyone wants to live like that, some of us enjoy our freedom. Don't push your luck." The speakers shut off, and the ship powered down.

"...What?" Fufuro looked around, unsure of what to do. "Was this just a game to him? I could have stayed at base if this was all that was going to happen." She moped. Soon Kale and Lahana caught up to them.

"So that isn't him? Hey, what did that Flare guy look like?" Lahana questioned the man in armor.

"I don't know, h-he spoke to me through a droid, said I had to let him use my scrapyard or he'd blast a hole in me." The man stammered. Lahana narrowed her eyes at him before turning to Kale.

"Do you think he's telling the truth? If he belongs to the same group as that force user it makes sense he'd be able to pull this off." She asked.

"I don't have any reason to doubt it. But we should take him in for questioning until we can confirm his story. We may need to rethink our approach when it comes to dealing with them. For now we should get back to the base."

Gloopra listened to the man stammer for words, before a voice began to talk over the speakers. Gloopra listened and quickly grabbed the comm-link, patching through to R7 "Record" was the only word he said. He then held up the comm-link, only managing to grab the last 2 sentences. It wasn't much, but with any luck, could make for a positive ID. When he stopped transmitting, Gloopra immediately rushed to the console of the powered up ship and closed all of the airlock, before cutting power to the comms, then looked to Futuro "Secure the ship. Disable any droid you see, if he's transmitting to them, we might be able to trace his comms back to him. For now, he shouldn't be able to send any more commands to the ship." He then got on his own Comm-Link. "R7, send a message to home base, have them we need a slicer and a scanner crew here on the double. I want every part of this ship checked."

Gloopra turned back to the others just as they had finished discussing the plan of action. Alright, I've got the ship locked down and a slicer crew should be on the way. I want him detained for questioning-" he pointed to the fall-guy "It's entirely possible that that was pre-recorded or just a droid acting like him and that is actually him. I am gonna have the men go over this junker with a fine-toothed comb." He then heard Kale talk about a new approach. "Agreed. I am going to make a few calls. This place is turning out to almost be a second Nar-Shaadda."

Twenty four hours after the events that took place in the scrapyard the Republic's only base on the planet was lively. The weapons brought by Surta were still being examined, and the woman she had brought in still refused to speak. The slaves freed by Anari were being taken care of in a makeshift camp set up behind the base, where they were given clean clothing and food, as well as a safe place to sleep for once. The investigation team sent to the scrapyard weren't able to find much. They were able to bring back one of the bipedal droids, and the only thing they were able to get from it was that it was a model they'd never seen before. Having been given a name for the organization they were dealing with from Anari Gallowin contacted Match. Apparently since that day the name had been spreading among different communities. Rumors spread but no solid information had been found as of yet.

The strongest lead at the moment was Flambe, someone had to get her to talk. Meanwhile the others were free to do as they pleased, no doubt some being tired after the previous day.

That smell... Sodden earth, feces of strange animals, stagnent water... He was back on Dagobah, where Master Luke had taken him to confront the Cave of Evil. "Master... What did you see?" the younger Gloopra asked.

"Well... I saw what I took with me." Luke replied, stroking his beard.

"That's not helpful." Gloopra replied.

"Yeah, well, Master Yoda didn't seem very helpful when he showed this to me. Now look at me, blindly stumbling my way through reorginizing the entire Jedi Order" He then sat down next to the entrance. "At least I didn't make you carry me like a backpack whilst you ran or... Climbed those weird hairy vines." He sighed. "Go on..." He waved for Gloopra to enter. The Rodian took a deep swallow and took out his lightsaber before slowly entered. "You won't need it." Luke called. Gloopra looked down at the lightsaber, but kept it in his hand, unignited. "Same mistakes..." Luke laughed. Gloopra could have sworn that he heard a laugh that wasn't Luke's alongside his.

Pressing through the underbrush, Gloopra looked around, it just looked like... Darkness and overgrown foliage. He heard whispers in his mind... Words he could barely make out. Then he heard a light song on the breeze, an old drinking song he had shared with his pirate compatriots. He ignited the Lightsaber in his hand, the green blade lit the glade. In the back of his mind, the song was quickly replaced with something else... He could hear... Something... Different Music? Something harsh... Yet definitely melodic, as he looked down, he could see his clothes had changed, were looking... Ornate... A fancy garnment that he had once seen on a Duros ship they had raided, something that their culture deemed fancy enough for ballroom attire. He then looked out and saw a woman walking through the glade in a strange dress. Gareishly overdesigned, orange, her hair woven up into looking like a pair of horns, held in place with a head-dress, the horns curled round to the side and had an immense scroll hanging from them. Definitely Naboonian, only they wore such immense fashion statements. But the womans face was... Grey... He didn't recognize this woman or her race. She approached and a pair of blades appeared from her sleeves, immense and metalic, he prepared for an attack, when, suddenly, she threw the blades away, to the side of her, the music grew louder as she marched towards him. He went to strike, when she batted the Lightsaber away as though it were nothing, it flew from his hand and before he knew it, she had grabbed his hands, pushing one to her hip and holding the other in her hand as the music intensified, she motioned for him to lead in a dance, to which he did.

This woman was... Strange... Not attractive by Rodian standards, but... Alluring... "Are you the Dark Side?" he asked her. She giggled in response. As the music continued, she eventually let go and twirled away, a second later, he looked down and noticed that he was completely naked, his body covered in black lines, tattoos. "What in the-" He looked across at her, the music still blaring in his mind, she was now flanked by a pair of shadows, all he could make out was their pointed ears. "What are you!?!?!" He demanded. "WHAT ARE YOU!?!?!?!" He grabbed his head and collapsed to his knee's, the music was overpowering, the sounds of the jungle had been long since drowned in this sea of beautiful noise, he then looked up to see a third shadow, one approaching him, it seemed smaller. It extended a hand for him to grab,... Then, as the music reached its climax, the shadow offering its hand ignited into a blinding light... And then it stopped and the shadows vanished. He looked around, nothing could be seen. "Wait... Wait, I have questions." He demanded.

After several minutes of searching and retrieving his lightsaber, he made his way out. He saw something blue disappear next to Luke. "Master..." He started. Luke held up a hand.

"Look, I can't give you answers, the cave shows you what has been, what will be and what might be. Asking me to unravel that head of yours is pointless, only you can." Gloopra looked down.

"You... You saw Vader, didn't you?" Gloopra asked, at this time, he had no idea that Vader was Luke's father, just that he had defeated the Sith Lord and that Vader had recanted at the end. "You saw yourself saving him or destroying him?" Luke looked impressed.

"Not a bad guess, but that's not for me to tell." He said. "Now come on, show me how you balance." He said, pointing to a rock "Stand on one hand and levitate it." He smirked.

Gloopra quickly came too, looking around the room on the base. "Damn..." He grunted.