Shadows of the Republic: The Underground

[Serena]

Memories... A river of time, flowing from the future to the present and then into the past...

Padawan Serena Laran leaned back at her desk, rubbing her temples with her fingertips. A datapad slipped off the pile in front of her, crashing to the floor, starting a chain reaction that scattered 'pads containing youngling profiles all over the ground.

She gritted her teeth in contained frustration, before relaxing her shoulders, closing her eyes and exhaling slowly. Peace. Her commlink buzzed, and she floated it to her hand with the Force.

"Yes?"

"Padawan, meet me in Senator Do'lek's rooms at the Senate as soon as possible," The gravely voice of Thalios Dremmel, her master, came through the small hand held communication device. As usual he did not bother with pleasantries or small talk. The Twi'leki junior senator from Ryloth was not who the Jedi diplomat was supposed to be working with, so Serena raised her eyebrows.

But she merely said, "Of course. I will be there as soon as possible." The transmission ended and she sighed, looking down at the mess in front of her. With a sharp movement the 'pads were shoved into an uneven pile on the polished wood floor, and the padawan was drawing on her cloak and leaving the room.

[Sol Iman]

Two tall figures in Jedi robes stood waiting in one of the hundreds of opulent parlors in the massive Senatorial office complex. One was at rest, his eyes closed in meditation, a perfect portrait of serenity. The other stood facing the wall-to-wall plexisteel window, squinting through the setting sun at the rows and rows of ships rising silently into the distant sky.

"What are your thoughts, my young Padawan?" asked the meditating man. His hood was down, revealing a bronzed, angular face and long, black hair tied neatly into a queue. He wore unassuming gray robes and the anachronistic shoulder armor that identified him as a Jedi warrior. Over his right eye was a complex tribal design, a mark of his Kiffar heritage.

His companion was rangy young man, long-limbed and athletic. His arms were crossed as he stoicly watched the air traffic, not out of defiance, but because he knew his nervous hands would give him away if he didn't keep them still.

"I'm just wondering why we're here, Master Tau," he replied.

"Mmm. And why do I sense this is only half the story?"

The young man cleared his throat and glanced sideways at his master. His eyes were still closed. "I'm wondering why we're here," he said, "and not out there."

Master Soren Tau opened his eyes and joined his Padawan's gaze out the window. "Are you so eager to go to war, Sol?"

"I'm eager to do my duty, master," Sol Iman said. "To defend the Republic. I don't feel right watching others go fight my battles for me."

"We rarely have the luxury of choosing our battles," Master Tau replied. "More often, it is the battle that chooses you."

"But I know we could make a difference on the front," Sol persisted. "Master, is... is it me? Does the Council doubt my abilities?"

Master Tau stopped him with a cautioning glance. "Do you doubt them?"

Sol hesitated. "I'm still learning, Master," he said. "But I trust your guidance. And it doesn't seem right that you should be left here while Master Kenobi, and Master Windu, and all the other great warriors of the Order are fighting."

"War does not make one great," Master Tau replied. "Of all the paths a Jedi can walk, the path of the warrior leads him closest to the Dark Side. To fear. To anger. To death. Do not rush too quickly onto that path, Sol, or you may find it easy to lose your footing."

Abashed, Sol bowed his head. "Yes, Master."

Before Master Tau could respond, the door to the Senator's chamber slid open.

[Serena]

Walking as quickly as she could without running, Serena ducked into one of the many turbolifts in the Senate complex, pressing the button for the appropriate floor. After the doors swished closed, she smoothed her long red hair down, wishing she'd had time to tie it back.

Although he had not given her a time to appear at the Senator's rooms, Serena knew he expected her to arrive promptly, and adverse traffic conditions had made the trip longer than usual. She calmed her racing heart while the 'lift traveled upwards, inhaling and exhaling and letting her anxiety dissipate. The doors finally opened, and she stepped out onto the opulent dark blue carpet of the Senate grounds. The white simstone walls were hung with tapestries, new and old, depicting first contacts, wars, and other political scenes. She walked briskly by them all, turning a corner just in time to see two Jedi disappearing into Senator Do'lek's offices.

As the door closed she picked up the pace, running until she was a few yards away and then walking up. Master Dremmel opened the door, giving her a raised eyebrow. "Padawan," he said, stepping aside to allow her entrance.

A pink skinned male Twi'lek and a pair of females, green and blue, respectively, were sitting on the far side of the office in what was meant to be an informal area. Senator Do'lek and his aides. Even junior senators had aides, though their office suites were much smaller than the full senator's.

Two Jedi stood close by. One was a dark skinned padawan with closely cropped hair. His long padawan braid indicated his training was close to completion. The other had a bronze complexion, and a complicated looking design stained into the skin over his right eye. A... Kiffar? He appeared to be a Jedi warrior, and was most likely the padawan's master.

"Please, join us," intoned Dremmel, leading the trio of other Jedi to the sitting area. Once the Knights were seated (the padawans stood slightly behind their masters, due to a lack of chairs) the Jedi diplomat gestured to Do'lek. "Senator Do'lek has discovered an unsettling breach of security within the Senate."

[Sol Iman]

Sol met the female Padawan's eyes as she came in, her hair mussed and her cheeks slightly flushed. She struck him as somehow familiar, but he couldn't put a name to her face. But then much of his training with Master Tau had been off-world. He set those thoughts aside as Master Dremmel introduced the senator.

Senator Do'lek was young for his position, but he'd clearly wasted no time indulging in the comforts the rank of Senator could afford. He was richly dressed in colorful silks, and his hands were a constellation of jeweled rings; even his lekku were adorned with gold and ivory bracelets carved with symbols for power and virility.

But for all his ostentation, he was nervous. Sol could sense his tension humming in the air, and he was certain his fellow Jedi could, too.

"Your Graces," the Senator said, tilting his lekku respectfully, "I thank you for your prompt attention. I regret I was not able to tell you more over comm. channels, but I had to be certain our communication would be secure."

There was a buzz like a cloud of hornets as a small, airborne sentry droid hovered by and set about scanning the walls. Do'lek fitfully followed its progress.

"You see, I and a few of my colleagues, for... security and accountability purposes... have been keeping a record of all the defense contracts the Senate has approved since the beginning of the war. Unfortunately, it is a grim reality that during such grave and, er, expensive times as these, there are some individuals in this very Senate who would take advantage of the situation for their own personal gain. Hence the need for independent record-keeping."

[Serena]

Knight Dremmel nodded, though Serena could sense a little bit of duplicity in the junior Senator's words. He was nervous as well, the tips of his lekku twitching as the security droid circled the group and then returned to a place near the outer door.

"And these records..." prompted her master, "For record-keeping purposes they are still highly sensitive materials."

"Y-yes," mumbled Do'lek, his sharp teeth glinting as he smiled nervously. "My aide," he indicated one of the females beside him, "uncovered a databug implanted in my computer. Here, in the Senate!" He recovered enough to become indignant at the thought of such an intrusion.

Serena frowned lightly, looking sideways at the other padawan. Surely it wasn't... she seemed to remember him, but couldn't quite place from where. Perhaps just from about the Temple. She chided herself for losing focus, and returned her attention to the senator.

"The bug was transmitting information to an offsite location," Do'lek continued. "I was going to destroy it, but Jedi Dremmel convinced me not to." He looked at her master.

"Yes, I did. Because it would be more useful to trace the transmission and then follow it to the source." He turned slightly in his chair, addressing the other Knight. "I started the electronic trace as soon as Senator Do'lek contacted me, and I have a location. The transmission was bounced off several different servers, but the actual endpoint appears to be deep in the Under-City."

[Sol Iman]

"But why there?"

The words spilled out of Sol's mouth almost before he realized it. Suddenly, all eyes were on him, and he knew he'd spoken out of turn.

But Master Tau gave him an encouraging nod. The Padawan's mind raced as he put his thoughts in order and pressed on.

"These records do no one any good in the Undercity," he said. "No one down there is equipped to act on them, except maybe in the form of blackmail. And we're not talking about a case of blackmail, are we?" He leveled his eyes at the Senator, who glowered at him beadily.

"No," Do'lek replied. "Our fear is that these sensitive data materials may fall into Separatist hands."

"They'd have a ready-made distribution map for all Republic personnel and <link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Candrewk%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cms ohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> matériel," Master Tau surmised.

"To say nothing of the economic havoc the Banking Clan could wreak with this!" Do'lek sputtered.

Sol felt his nostrils flare. Of course the Senator would be more concerned about his bottom line than all the lives his incompentence had endangered.

[Serena]

Dremmel's gravely voice cut into Do'lek's near-hysteria. "We do not want word of our discovery leaking out, which is why we've contained the information thus far, and told only a necessary few."

Serena drank in all the information, but did not feel like she needed to speak. Master Dremmel often told her only to speak when she was sure of what to say. Hasty comments could not be taken back.

"I believe that if the Separatists are behind this intrusion, then the Under-City collection point may be an enemy stronghold here on Coruscant. Chancellor Palpatine agrees with me. We will travel there and collect what information we can, as well as destroy the data copies." He leaned forward slightly in his chair. "Do not fear, Do'lek. We will do our best to secure this leak. But you must make sure that this does not happen again."

"Of course, of course," the Twi'leki nodded, lekku bouncing. "I had all sensitive information removed from my system immediatey upon discovery of the bug. I have had my aides discretely run searches for more databugs on my collegues computers, and we have not found any more."

Serena looked down at her clean robes, imagining what they would look like after traisping down into the Under City. Yuk.

[Sol Iman]

"We shouldn't go to the Undercity in our robes," Master Tau advised. "We'd be far too conspicuous."

They had left the Senator's chambers far behind and were speeding through the Coruscant skylanes in an official temple transport, a lightly armored Sorosuub with limousine seating so each Master-Padawan team faced the other. It was a few hours' flight from the Republic Center to the coordinates where Dremmel had traced the databug, and then it would be another several hours' climb down to the bowels of the city. It was hard to imagine that they could be on the same planet as the Jedi Temple and yet be so far away.

"My thoughts exactly," Dremmel replied. "In fact, I've already arranged for a Republic operative to meet us at the landing site with some civilian clothes."

Tau nodded in approval. "Good thinking. You know, Thalios, I don't think we've given our Padawans a chance to really meet each other."

Sol caught a prompting look from his master. Tau had never been shy about putting him on the spot. Smiling awkwardly, he leaned over the aisle to offer Serena a hand.

"Padawn Sol Iman," he said. "Warrior-in-training."

[Serena]

"Padawan Serena Laran." She smiled, still trying to place him in her memory. "Diplomat/healer..." Serena reached out and shook Sol's hand. Their masters got into a conversation with each other, and she sat back a little in her seat.

"I'm sorry, but you seem very familiar to me..." She smiled quizzically. "I can't seem to remember why, though. Perhaps... youngling class..?" As she said it she knew it was true. "With Master Yaddle!"

[Sol Iman]

It took Sol a moment to sift through his memories - it seemed like such an awful long time ago, and he seemed to recall several red-headed girls in that class, but -

"Yes - Serena! I can remember..."

He paused for the briefest of moments, since the first thing he remembered was putting a pinch beetle in her hair.

"TK trials together. I was really bad at them."

[Serena]

She laughed quietly, her green eyes sparkling. "Yes, yes... I seem to recall a bug in my hair as well. Your TK wasn't that bad."

Serena fell silent after a moment, her thoughts returning to the mission. Dashing through the underground of Coruscant wasn't exactly what she'd been trained for. But she had been trained to be ready for almost anything. "Do you find it unusual that they are sending two full Knights and their padawans on this mission, as opposed to... clone troopers?"

[Sol Iman]

Sol had wondered the same thing - more to the point, wondered why they'd paired up a combat team with a primarily diplomatic team, but before he could respond, Master Tau broke in.

"Clone troopers would draw too much attention," he said. "The spies haven't transmitted their data because they know we'll see it when they do. If they know we're on to them, they could transmit their intelligence in one data burst. We need to stop that from happening."

"But four Jedi seems like overkill, Master," Sol said.

Tau and Dremmel exchanged glances.

"Master?" Sol said. "What sort of resistance are we expecting?"

[Serena]

An hour or so later, the four Jedi were climbing down into the Under City. Serena was wearing a dark blue jumpsuit, the others were similarly equipped in civilian clothing. Master Dremmel was wearing a wrap shirt and vest like many Corellians did, his lightsaber clipped inside the vest. He looked like he was enjoying this.

Serena worked on following the others. The Force aided her reflexes as she ducked through some low pipes. She was a calm leaf on a river... she was a ripple on a smooth pond in a meadow. She was the slow moving sap in a tree. She wasn't worried at the possibility of encountering serious droid resistance at the ...

She jerked, nearly hitting her head on something foul. Sol grabbed her arm and guided her around an obstacle, and she accepted the help graciously. Droidekas. And along with droids they were almost certain there were sentient beings at the site as well. The thing about droids is that once you entrenched yourself you could always build more troops, if you had the right equipment. They weren't sure how many were on Coruscant, but the word "Many" came to mind.

Serena was a feather on the wind. She was calmness herself.

[Sol Iman]

Whereas Sol was a coiled spring, a prowling manka cat. It was a different kind of calm, the peace that comes from force under control, harnessed and directed toward a single purpose. He had been under fire before with his master - against mercenaries, slavers, privateers. He knew he was ready for droids.

They had passed without incident through the lower levels. By the time they reached the Undercity, their disguises were immaterial - they would stand out just by being there. The Coruscant Undercity was a labyrinth of foundational supports, mechanical works, sewage, and refuse. Only the most desperate, the most reviled, would seek refuge in a place like this, where the waste of the whole ecumenopolis seeped down and pooled into toxic lakes and filthy debris heaps. There were unspeakable things living down here, if you believed the word on the street - junkworms, cthons, dianogas, flesh-eating slimes, twisted and horrible forms of life.

Sunlight never penetrated at these depths. The only light the Jedi had was from flickering service lights and an occasional smear of bioluminescence clinging to the filthy walls. They made their way down maintenance ramps and catwalks encrusted in sludge hanging like algae. It seemed unthinkable that even a group of droids could survive in such a place.

At last they came to the level where Dremmel had tracked the signal, only six stories up from the surface. The Knight pointed out their destination - the base of a forbidding black tower on the other side of a broad alleyway. Their only access was a long, steel bridge across a black, oily lake oozing far below.

"Keep your senses open, everyone," Tau whispered, and in the darkness it was almost deafening.

[Serena]

It was tempting to want to summon a light, but Serena knew better. Even a momentary flash might overwhelm their extended senses in the darkness, or start some sort of monstrous chain reaction in the environment. Draw predators. That sort of thing.

As the quartet of Jedi began to move across the long bridge, she looked down twenty metres into the oil stained wastewater. Something was moving underneath the surface. She focused away from the lake, re-centering her attention to the tower. A dim blue light blinked from a broken window, as though it was weak, or perhaps reflected from some inner chamber. Master Dremmel pointed noiselessly at it, and the light disappeared.

Master Tau nodded, quickening his pace. His Padawan, Sol, matched his speed, and Serena hurried so as not to get left behind in the middle of the lake.

A loud splash echoed across the chamber, and the oily lake began to glow as an enormous dianoga stirred up bioluminescent algae in the water. Serena was distracted, and slipped on an oil slick and fell close to the edge of the bridge. The padawan steadied herself on one knee and her fingertips, regaining her balance and trying to reach out to the creature's mind with the Force, to calm it and send it away before it gave them away.

[Sol Iman]

Sol's senses were so far extended that he could feel his fellow Jedi's heartbeats, the subtle variances in their composures - Master Tau, advancing with the patience and power of a glacier, Master Dremmel, shrewdly and dispassionately monitoring their environment, Serena, out of her element but resting in the strength of the Force which reached even these toxic depths. As for him, he was sharply aware of everything - smell, sounds, the feel of the durasteel mesh beneath his feet, the weight of the lightsaber just inside his jacket, something stirring in the waters below the bridge.

When Serena stumbled, he turned back to help her. But then he sensed something else, something that brought an iron taste to the back of his tongue and made his hair stand on end, as if the local oxygen had been replaced with vacuum -

Tau sensed it, too, and spun around to say, "Sol, wait-"

But Sol had already dove at his fellow padawan, tackling her to the metal grating as a massive, blinding bolt of plasma roared out of the darkness and carved a molten rift through the bridge between masters and padawans.

Sol and Serena's side of the bridge shuddered and pivoted sideways away from their masters, and then, with a deafening groan, its distant supports gave way, and the whole structure swung downward toward the oily lake.

[Serena]

Sol slammed into her, sending both of them tumbling backwards along the steel grating and scraping her face as he crushed her to the bridge. She heard a roar and a flash of reddish light, and then the bridge groaned and started to swing and dip downwards. Sol rolled off of her, and Serena struggled to her hands and knees, looking up to see Master Dremmel ignite his lightsaber as another plasma bolt sizzled down towards them from the tower.

She squinted against the light show as the bolt was caught on his blade and deflected away. Thalios grunted with the effort, but suddenly she had other things on her mind as the weight of the padawans sent their side of the ruined bridge plunging the twenty meters to the lake.

Serena gathered her feet underneath her, and leapt upwards, using the Force to enhance the jump, and tried to regain the bridge where their masters were. Tau seemed to have run into the tower, and Dremmel was edging in that direction as the walkway rumbled. She hadn't had any time to truly gauge the distance as the section of bridge she was on was still swinging downwards, and only managed to hook her fingers into the grating at the edge of the walkway.

Grunting in pain as her hands and shoulders took the brunt of her acrobatic maneuver, Serena kicked her legs and tried to get an arm up on the bridge. Her master shouted something, and she gritted her teeth, swinging her right arm over the walkway and getting her forearm on top of it.

"Drop Serena!"

She looked up as Dremmel's voice cut through the confusion, and without question released her hold on the bridge and plummeted towards the darkly glowing lake. A plasma bolt ripped through the steel grating where she'd been dangling moments earlier, disintegrating it and spraying globs of molten metal in several directions.

[Sol Iman]

Sol hooked one arm over a rail support as the severed bridge hung from its twisted moorings far above him. He looked down and braced his feet against the next support pylon - if he could just find his footing, he could climb back up, find a way to join Masters Tau and Dremmel by another route.

He heard blaster fire. Battle droids appeared in the tower windows and were gunning for him, and for Serena in the water. Small-arms fire from the tower, artillery from a neighboring building - perhaps a spider droid perched on a ledge to sweep the alley - the Separatists were more entrenched than they'd thought.

There was no way Sol could defend himself clinging to the bridge. He leapt backwards, kicking off with his feet to put some distance between himself and the durasteel railing, and twisted into a graceful dive into the lake as blaster bolts sent up clouds of steam around him.

He didn't dare open his eyes in the tainted water. But he opened up his senses and quickly located Serena.

And she wasn't the only other life form in the water.

[Serena]

She landed feet first in the oily water, spreading her arms and legs once underwater to stop her descent and propel her body back towards the surface. Serena extended her senses, the noise of the firefight above muffled by the wastewater, trying to locate a safer area to swim to.

She could hold her breath for a few minutes with the aid of the Force, but the more energy she expended swimming the less time she would have. Energy spikes around her indicated plasma bolts hitting the water. Serena swam away from the bridge, knowing that she did not want the twisted metal structure collapsing on top of her, and felt something brush her leg.

She had been too focused on what was going on outside of the lake. The Padawan kicked hard for the top, her foot making contact with something else just as she broke the surface of the lake. Drawing in a deep, ragged breath, she was not surprised to find that she had swum about thirty meters from the bridge. Her master was nowhere to be seen, presumably he was inside the tower finishing the mission with Master Tau.

There were still droids peering from broken windows, looking for targets in the lake. As she tread water, the algae around her began to glow in the turbulence. She turned around, looking for Sol. He was nowhere in sight.

Serena grabbed her lightsaber from its D-ring as the Force gave a split second warning, but a fleshy tentacle snaked around her waist, squeezing her arm to her body and yanking her underwater.

[Sol Iman]

Sol's head broke the water a moment later and sucked in a deep breath, though he nearly choked on the acrid air. He looked straight to the spot where he'd sensed Serena, but all he saw was a cloud of bubbles rising to the surface.

The Padawan clawed for his lightsaber under his jacket, but he knew it would never ignite underwater. Thinking madly, he looked back at the ruined bridge.

His hand shot out of the water toward the bridge, and a jagged length of handrail began to twist away from its weakened support pylons. With a monumental effort, he torqued the rail to its breaking point, and the length of metal came hurtling toward him.

He grabbed it before it sank into the murky water. It was about a meter and a half long, and the blast that had severed the bridge had left it with a wickedly tapered point on one end.

Gripping the makeshift spear, Sol dove back under the water toward the spot where Serena had gone down.

[Serena]

Serena did not struggle as the dianoga's suckered tentacle drew her under the water. She knew that would only cause it to clench tighter and send her into unconsciousness earlier. Her fingertips were touching her lightsaber, which was specially outfitted for use underwater, like Jedi Knight Kit Fisto. But she couldn't reach the activation plate and even if she used the Force to ignite the saber she did not know what...

No, her mind was unfocused. Serena pictured the leaf on the river, and reached out to the mind of the dianoga. Or, whatever it had that might be called a mind. She tried to show it that she was something untasty, but the creatures regularly ate garbage and it didn't seem to be convinced. Worried for her master, Serena was having trouble concentrating on her task, and she spent too much time trying to reach out to the beast's brain.

By the time she realized that she was running out of time, it was almost too late. Time to struggle. The Padawan pushed as hard as she could with the Force, and kicked out, her boot hitting something hard. The mouth. Its toothy maw snagged her boot, and she exhaled a string of panicked bubbles and opened her eyes as the starving garbage squid began to try to stuff her into its mouth.

Serena grasped the end of the pommel of her lightsaber, using the Force to flick the activation plate as her eyes began to burn with the contaminations in the wastewater. The green saber thrummed to life, and she stabbed at the creature with it, the leaf on the river forgotten.

[Sol Iman]

Sol knifed through the water as fast as he could manage with a shank of metal under one arm. He sensed the dianoga as a murky gray presence dead ahead, Serena as a white spark of life, bright with fear, unmistakable against the decay filling the water all around them.

Sol called on the Force to lend him more speed, and he thrust his spear out in front of him. The tip tore the beast's fleshy carapace, but the dianoga jerked away and escaped with only a glancing wound. Sol turned the spear in his hands to brace himself on the dianoga's body like a punting pole, but as he did, he felt a tentacle grasp his ankle, and another tentacle wrapped around his spear.

Sol tugged on the metal shank, trying to free it so he could bring its point to bear on the dianoga's gaping, toothy mouth.

[Serena]

The water was glowing around her, the bioluminescent algae frothed into action as Serena struggled with the large dianoga. A spin of her saber sliced off the tentacle that had wrapped itself around her, and she kicked wildly, her boot still stuck on something.

With effort her foot came free, and she blinked painfully against the polluted water, her body straining for air. Serena dolphin kicked for the surface, gasping loudly for air in a suddenly quiet cavern, her lightsaber and the algae the only visible light. However she could see nothing except glowing blurs, her eyes burning as she sucked in air and got a handle on her emotions.

A Jedi knows only peace...

Why was there no sound? Additional splashes caught her attention, and she suddenly realized she was nearly face to face with the dianoga's single stalked eyeball. Serena grimaced, using her lightsaber to cut it off before disengaging the blade and trying to attach it back to her jumpsuit. "Sol!" She tread water, trying to see what was around her.

[Sol Iman]

Sol wrestled futilely to free his spear from the dianoga's grasp, but then it gave a shudder of pain and released its grip. Sol searched his consciousness and found that Serena had escaped, so he kicked up for the surface once more.

But even blinded, the dianoga wasn't giving up. It seized him by the ankles once more and began sinking, dragging him down toward the depths of the lake. Two more tentacles coiled around his ribcage; he raised his arms to keep them free, but he could feel the great coils of muscle squeezing the air out of his burning lungs.

He beat down the panic rising in his throat, which was telling him to thrash madly - he knew that would only exhaust him - and he hung limp in the beast's embrace. Thinking it had killed its prey, the dianoga drew him back down toward its upturned maw.

At the last moment, Sol spread his feet, bracing them on either side of its gaping jaws, and thrust the spear downward as hard as he could, past a dozen rows of teeth and through the soft flesh within, plunging deep into the dianoga's vital organs. Gore sprayed into the water all around him.

But even in death, the beast held on, and its weight was dragging Sol down, down, down... his lungs were in agony, felt like they were about to burst...

He blew out the stale air in his lungs, sending up a flurry of bubbles and collapsing his chest. The tentacles didn't tighten, and with effort he was able to squirm free of their grip.

But try as he might, he didn't have the strength to propel himself back to the surface. His feet felt like lead weights, and hypoxia made his head feel like it was stuffed with cotton. Even if he could have kicked his way to the surface, he wasn't sure which direction the surface was anymore.

[Serena]

Serena took a calming breath, closed her eyes, and reached out with the Force. There were still two large beings underneath her, one much smaller than the other. She could feel her fellow Padawan's distress, and without another thought dragged the largest breath she could into her lungs, turning and diving back into the oily water. As she did so, the Force rippled with the death of the dianoga, but Sol's situation did not change.

Swimming smoothly, with only the Force to guide her, Serena quickly reached the drifting creature. Feeling along its fleshy and putrid skin, she made her way to Sol's body, caught underneath the dead cephalopod. The redheaded Padawan grabbed the back of his shirt, kicking strongly and dragging his dead weight behind her.

After a moment Sol began to move, but she maneuvered him to his back and she put an arm around him in a rescue swimming hold, stroking for the surface. A few burning seconds later, both of their heads broke the surface of the lake, and she was relieved to hear him coughing and gagging... but alive.

Serena kept her hold on him, holding him afloat in the dimly glowing water and the eerie silence of the underground lake. Her eyes felt like they were on fire. She couldn't see where to swim.

[Sol Iman]

Sol's breath came in painful, ragged gasps, but he was regaining his feeling in his extremities and could at least tread well enough to keep his head above water. He had the urge to wipe the grime off his face, but he knew his hands weren't any cleaner.

"Well," he said between breaths, "that's my first garbage squid." And then he laughed - a combination of adrenal rush and oxygen deprivation. Bits of entrail bobbed up to the surface. The lake's scavengers would eat well.

[Serena]

Serena did not join in Sol's laughter. She turned herself around, listening and reaching out with the Force. There seemed to be an edge to the lake ten or so meters away, and she tapped the other Padawan on the shoulder. "Can you see how far we are from the tower? We should get back to our masters."

He bobbed around next to her, and she felt that she was having trouble keeping a handle on her fear. What if there was another dianoga underneath her, or something worse? Blinded as she was, Serena had no choice but to give into fear... or to depend on the Force.

She chose the Force. The Padawan felt her surroundings melt away - the chokingly warm odor of the lake, the prickling chill of the dank air on her face, and the dark glow of the fluorescent algae - and the leaf on the river focused in her mind. She heard her voice, sounding strangely distant as she continued to talk to Sol.

"I cannot see..."

[Sol Iman]

Serena's voice brought Sol back to the moment, and he could hear Master Tau's voice in his head chiding him - Focus, boy. Focus.

He turned back toward the tower, surprised how far away they'd drifted in the struggle with the dianoga. The droids had stopped firing, but a half-dozen searchlights swept the surface of the lake, their beams bright in the acid fog.

"We'll need to find another way in," he said. "They're watching the lake..."

Something about her tone of voice gave him pause. He turned back around and tried to catch her eyes, though in the low light he couldn't be sure where she was looking.

"We need to get out of the water first. Come on."

He put a hand on her back to gently guide her toward the nearest shore.

[Serena]

She nodded in agreement, and let him turn her towards the closest shoreline. Serena swam strongly, and the two Padawans were soon dragging their bedraggled bodies up onto slimy concrete and out of the lake.

She reached up, squeezing liquid out of her hair and tying it back into a ponytail, her padawan braid dangling down past her shoulder. Blinking furiously, Serena tried to clean her hands by wiping them on each other to get the majority of the grime off. Her eyes were still burning, but they were producing tears and washing some of the contamination out.

It was hard to resist rubbing them. She blinked more, her involuntary tears streaking the oily dirt down her cheeks. The world was blurry, and she could just make out Sol's figure next to her. "Its so quiet..."

[Sol Iman]

Sol shook as much of the water off of him as he could, and then he drew out his lightsaber to let it air. No water poured from the casing, so he knew it hadn't leaked. "Look away," he said, and he ignited the ice-blue blade and plunged it into the concrete until it glowed orange-hot. The heat would help them warm up and dry out.

Then he reached for his comm and pinged Master Tau's frequency. He frowned. "Master Tau's not answering. Could mean anything - maybe they're still fighting, maybe they're under radio silence. We'll need to find them on our own."

He rubbed his hands over the glowing concrete, then looked at Serena. "You okay?"

[Serena]

She looked up from warming her hands over the heated concrete, and nodded. "I'm okay." Serena looked down blearily at her right foot, the one the dianoga had nearly managed to get in its mouth. Her boot was torn and there could have been a smear of blood... but she didn't feel any pain.

She blinked rapidly as she looked around, her eyes getting clearer but still hurting. "We cannot go into the tower - at least not the way Master Dremmel and Master Tau did. The droids are watching that entrance." Obviously. She felt a little silly to point out something so obvious to Sol, who was clearly more experienced in this sort of situation than she was.

Of course, there had been that hostage negotiation on Kuat that Master Dremmel and she had been a part of. She'd had to crawl through the station's maintenance tubes to get into the room and -

She wasn't concentrating again. Serena frowned, her eyes still weeping. She turned back to Sol with her inflamed eyes, "Do you have a plan?" She smiled, adding, "One that doesn't involve pinch bugs, I hope. Or swimming."

[Sol Iman]

For the first time, Sol caught a glimpse of Serena's eyes in the low light - they were filmy and bloodshot, and her eyelids were swollen. His face sobered immediately.

"Well... I'm working on one. Those blasts came from a neighboring building..." He pointed to a crouching warehouse next to the tower. "Probably a spider-droid on the roof. They shouldn't have many tower sentries on that side. If we can secure that warehouse, we might be able to take them unawares... Uh, listen..."

He chewed his lower lip, obviously distracted.

"I'm not sure what we're up against, but I'm a little concerned about taking you into a firefight with your eyes like that... You know, impaired vision, and, Force forbid, if infection sets in, you could lose them. Maybe if you go back topside, find a clinic with some bacta..."

[Serena]

She shook her head even before his voice trailed off. "No, I am not leaving. The Separatist foothold here is stronger than we thought, and you'll need my help."

Serena blinked, "Anyway, Master Dremmel has the field kit with him, with bacta capsules. It will be faster to meet up with him than it would be for me to make my way to the surface. So stop worrying about my eyes and lets make a plan to get into that warehouse."

[Sol Iman]

Sol opened his mouth to argue, but he saw from the look in Serena's reddened eyes that he might as well argue with a gundark. "Diplomat" didn't mean "pushover."

"Okay..." He craned his neck to take in as much of the periphery of the lake as he could. "First we have to get there and evaluate the situation. There's plenty of cover on this side of the shore, so we shouldn't have any trouble keeping to the shadows. I'll take point. Just keep your head low and your senses open. Let's go."

[Serena]

She nodded, getting to her feet. Her jumpsuit was still sodden, but there was nothing to do about it. Serena took her lightsaber off its d-ring and held it in her hand, inactive but ready.

Sol looked over his shoulder at her, and she nodded again, curbing her impatience. The leaf on the river. He started out, moving quietly and swiftly, half crouched as he kept to the shadows as much as possible. She followed in his footsteps as much as she could, extending her senses out as widely as she could while still keeping them optimally sharp.

As they hunkered down behind some mouldering crates for a moment to survey the space between them and the warehouse, she felt a tingle in the back of her mind. Sol was looking at the approach and probably gauging how they should cross the open area, but she found herself looking to the side. Behind the warehouse.

Serena frowned. There was nothing behind the warehouse except more warehouses. No life forms... wait.

She poked Sol in the shoulder. "In the other buildings. People. Lots of them."

[Sol Iman]

Nodding, Sol reached out with his feelings, and he could sense them all around, little sparks of sentience populating the concrete and durasteel jungle surrounding them. He couldn't tell their species or their intentions.

"Vagrants," he concluded. "I don't sense any threat from them."

Of course, that would be the case if they were Neimoidians with a legion of battle droids who simply hadn't noticed the Jedi Padawans skulking through their midst. And though he could sense danger, he couldn't sense droids, no matter how many there were.

He stared across the barren, trash-filled square, what in ancient times might have been a park, between them and the base of the warehouse. "I don't like charging out over open territory," he whispered. "That's what got us into trouble in the first place. They could have bioscanners watching the perimeter--"

A shuffling noise somewhere behind them grabbed his attention, and he whirled about with a hand on his lightsaber. A pair of womprats, nearly two meters long, trundled out from an alley, their snouts swaying back and forth over the ground in search of food.

[Serena]

Serena sensed the oversized rodents, turning her head slightly towards them as they came closer. Blinking, she could feel the tears dripping down her face as her body tried to cleanse the contaminants out of her eyes.

"Bioscanners..." she whispered. "But they're not shooting at the womprats." She shifted her weight slightly as she crouched, putting a hand down for extra support. She was not worrying, but it was concerning how quiet the area was. What had happened to their masters?

[Sol Iman]

Sol was thinking the same thing - agitated that Master Tau hadn't checked in yet. As long as it'd taken him and Serena to circumnavigate the lake, he'd have thought two full Knights could've destroyed the entire garrison by now.

But he forced himself back into the moment. "Those womprats," he whispered back, "they mass about the same as us, body temperature should be within a few degrees... If we can get them to go in ahead of us, that might just be enough to fool the scanners into seeing four 'rats."

[Serena]

"Okay." Serena looked up at the looming tower. "I can get them to go in that direction." The urge to wipe her eyes was strong. Closing them, she thought of the leaf on the river, and reached out to the rodents.

Their minds were small... simple. The omnivorous scavengers were not native to Coruscant, but just about everything ended up on the Core planet sooner or later. Serena was sure there were stranger things to be found in the Under City than a pair of womp rats. All she had to do was convince the creatures that the tower contained an easy meal.

Serena felt a little guilty using the creatures, but they were basically pests. And if it worked, then they would not be in any danger. She lightly touched the part of their brains that registered scents, and the 'rats paused in their trek, waddled closer to the padawans, and then turned towards the tower.

She opened her eyes, looking at the blurry figure beside her. "It is done." The padawan got into a three point stance, ready to move when Sol did.

[Sol Iman]

Sol watched the rodents shuffle toward the warehouse, and he flipped his neutral-colored hood over his head. "Stay low to the ground," he said, "and try to move as they do."

He cast a glance at his fellow Padawan, and he couldn't help thinking she was handling herself much better than he would in a diplomatic situation. On an impulse, he reached over and gently squeezed her shoulder. "May the Force be with us," he said.

Crouching low, they advanced over the barren mall, mimicking the womprats' meandering path. Sol kept his saber in hand, ready at a moment's notice to defend them from a hail of blaster fire, but he sensed no impending danger. At last they were under the shelter of the roof - too close to the building's edge to be targeted by any sentries above. They hurried to the wall and flattened themselves against it.

"Entrance," Sol whispered, and he looked up and down the warehouse wall for a window or unlocked door they could exploit. But while he did so, one of the womprats dug away a pile of garbage at the foot of the building, revealing a large drainage duct with the grate rusted away. The two scavengers snuffled inside.

[Serena]

She had a hand on his shoulder, assisting her as their surroundings got even darker in the shadow of the building. The Force helped, but she found it a little comforting to have a bit of human contact here in the darkness. He hadn't shrugged her off yet, so she kept her touch light.

He saw the drainage duct at the same time she did, and she nodded as he motioned towards it. "Okay," she said, avoiding sibilants that might carry in the still air. Sol moved sideways against the wall until he reached the duct, and she followed closely behind.

As he crouched down, she squeezed his shoulder a bit. "Watch out for them," meaning the womp rats, "We don't want to come up on them quickly." Sol nodded, ducking inside, and Serena followed, her hands squishing into who knows what as she crawled in after him.

[Sol Iman]

As if the wastewater lake wasn't bad enough, now they were mucking through a warehouse drainpipe - though what it might once have drained, Sol couldn't begin to guess. This warehouse probably hadn't been used in a commercial capacity for many centuries; life and its residue had merely filled in the gaps. The buildings at these levels were more landscape than infrastructure.

They pressed on for ten meters - twenty - around a bend, and then into a reservoir with a rusted grating overhead. Sol squeezed his legs around in front of him and dropped them into the mud below so he could look up through the grating.

They were in a corner of the warehouse - the floor probably had strategically placed channels to direct waste flow into the grate and into the drainage system. But more importantly, this corner of the warehouse was isolated from the rest - Sol could sense the mass of several piles of crates forming walls above him. If he could shift the grate, they could shimmy up undetected.

He caught Serena's eyes and pointed upward. Then he reached up and braced his hands against the grate to see if it would lift free of the floor --

clack clack clack CLUNK CLUNK!

A B1 battle droid on patrol had just marched over top of them and stopped with both feet on the grate. The droid paused there to inspect its weapon.

"RX231, is your blaster getting gunked up, too?"

"My blaster? Just look at my servos! Any chance of an oil bath when we get back?"

"Quit complaining, you two. You should thank the maker you're not in Alpha Base dealing with Jedi right now."

Sol slowly pulled his hands away from the grate and reached for his lightsaber.

[Serena]

She lifted weepy eyes towards the light, but the Force showed her more clearly what was going on. Sol reached for his lightsaber, but she could see that cutting their way in and through these droids was going to be noisy. He'd disable the first one that was just above them, and the second would have time to use the comm or begin to use the comm before he could get to it.

Alpha Base. Serena filed away that nugget, and reached out with the Force, above her in the hallway. As Sol poised himself for igniting his saber and beginning their 'infiltration,' she found something. A mouse droid. She shoved it with the Force, picking it up and pinging it off a wall, out of line of sight from the two B1's.

"What was that?"

"What was what?"

"Better check it out." The droid on the grate clunked forward and the second one reluctantly followed until they were both around the corner.

[Sol Iman]

Sol waited for a moment and listened, with more than just his ears. The droids were well out of sight, and he sensed no danger immediately overhead.

He nodded gratefully toward Serena and lifted the grate out of its housing. It slid with surprising ease, considering all the detritus coating every surface - it was wet enough that it was actually acting as a lubricant.

Once he'd worked it free, his telekinesis took over, and the grate hovered over the floor off to the side and settled with a barely audible scrape. Then Sol grabbed the upper rim of the drain hole and pulled himself up - slowly, so as not to splash. The Padawan scraped the excess mud off his boots before sliding up to a seat on the floor. Then he reached an arm down to swing Serena up without dipping her into the muddy reservoir.

They were in, but they couldn't conceal their presence for long. Sol had left a large black smear of mud over the rim of the drain, and he couldn't walk anywhere without leaving footprints; Serena was better off. Sol couldn't help thinking he could use a good brawl to knock some of the muck off, but they needed to find out what they were dealing with first.

[Serena]

After a few moments of tip-toeing through the first floor, they had not run into any more droids... or anything else, for that matter. Serena leaned close to Sol, whispering, "I do not sense our masters."

Leaf on the river. Fear leads to anger. Fear leads to the dark side. Was Master Dremmel dead? They were just padawans. But the lives of hundreds of thousands of Republic clones and commanders and Jedi were in danger. She found herself breathing through an open mouth, her tongue dry. "What... what are we looking for?"

[Sol Iman]

Sol could feel Serena's tension growing behind him. In fact, the air itself seemed to vibrate with danger. He couldn't tell how many battle droids were here - as long as they didn't encounter groups of more than five or so at a time, it probably didn't matter. The real peril was allowing them to signal the main garrison in the tower.

"We're looking for a way to the roof," he whispered back. "We need to neutralize those spider droids..."

He pursed his lips and paused as he heard metallic footsteps on the other side of several rows of crates.

"Serena," he said, almost inaudibly, "we're going to be fighting soon. I can sense it. Are you ready?"

[Serena]

Am I ready? She nodded, once, her hand tightening on the pommel of her lightsaber. The metallic steps nearby reassured her that they would not be facing the rolling droidekas with their shields. At least, not at first.

Sol tensed, and she could feel him preparing himself for the coming battle. And then he burst forward running quietly along the crates as the footsteps drew nearer. Serena followed after him just as silently, and then they were face to face with a squad of battle droids.

She sucked in her breath and ignited her saber, deflecting blaster bolts as the droids opened fire on them without bothering to ask questions.

[Sol Iman]

The confines were tight between the rows of crates. As Serena intercepted the first volley of blaster bolts, Sol darted past her and thrust out his open palm. A Force blast sent the four battle droids tumbling in a heap of metal limbs.

Sol closed the distance quickly with his long strides, thumbed his saber to life, and executed a lightning-fast pirouette of his blade that cut through vital servos and left scorchmarks on the crates to either side.

Now he was out in the open, a stretch of corroded concrete the size of a smashball court, and he saw a rickety durasteel staircase leading up to the roof access. But he'd also just been spotted by a dozen more assorted B1s and - uh-oh. Super Battle Droids.

"HALT."

The heavily armored B2s fanned out and leveled their autofiring wrist blasters at him. There was more plasma in the air than he could deflect on his own, and he had to leap back into the cover of the crates.

[Serena]

Serena pressed her lips together firmly and followed behind Sol as he cleared the rows of crates. Then he was going backwards, shoving both of them back into cover as the B2s opened fire. She ducked down, covering her head with her arms as the crating material splintered and sprayed the padawans.

"This isn't going to work for long!" Serena shouted at Sol over the racket of blaster fire.

He nodded, face serious and hand on his lightsaber. She caught his intent, and forced herself not to think, just react. Their masters, and the Republic, were depending on the instincts and skills of two padawans. Serena nodded as well, and there was an instant of ear popping silence as the Super Battle Droids ceased firing and walked in concert to close the distance between them and their human prey.

Serena leapt up, thrusting her hands out and sending the crates between her and the B2s tumbling towards the droids at high speed. The Supers withstood the blast, merely tottering on their heavy feet, but the B1s went flying, metal bodies tumbling to the ground in confusion. It only took a moment for the B2s to open fire once more, but she and Sol were ready, lightsabers flashing in unison as they deflected the bolts and determinedly walked towards them.

[Sol Iman]

Employing what little Soressu he'd mastered, Sol managed to throw a few blaster bolts back at their aggressors, but that only left rapidly cooling hotspots on the B2s' armored carapaces. It was more or less a stand-off of firepower and defense until one of the Supers leaned forward to bring to bring its shoulder-mounted grenade launcher to bear.

"Cover!" Sol shouted, and the two Padawans dove in opposite directions as the B2 fired a glowing blue orb. It lodged in the wall where they'd been standing and detonated in a shower of shrapnel and masonry.

The Super pivoted to track Sol's escape and fired another grenade. The blast brought down a monstrous stack of metal crates, spilling tons of rusted scrap across the warehouse floor. The droid lost track of its target but loaded another grenade as it scanned the wreckage.

And then, of its own accord, the grenade's firing pin jostled loose, and the charge began to glow blue in the chamber.

"UH-OH."

The launcher exploded, taking most of the B2's body with it and knocking the remaining three Supers off-balance. The two Padawans charged out from their cover with their lightsabers burning in righteous vengeance.

[Serena]

Leaping out from cover Serena darted forward, covering the ground between her and the B2's before they recovered their equilibrium. Lightsaber blade flashing, she sliced through one of the droids' weapon arms, spinning and decapitating it before the two arms clattered to the ground.

Sparks erupted from the B2's 'neck' as she ducked down and chopped the second droid's legs out from under it. Sol turned from the Super he had taken out and stabbed his lightsaber into the fallen B2's chestplate, destroying its power cell. Serena exhaled loudly, sucking in another breath as she slowly got back to her feet, the leaf on the stream forgotten as the heat of the battle faded.

Master Dremmel... where are you? She followed after Sol as he took the staircase three steps at a time, racing up towards the roof. Serena wanted to call out to him, tell him to take it slowly. They didn't know exactly what was on the roof, but OG-9 spider droids were trouble enough.

Sol burst onto the roof, and Serena had no choice but to follow, her hand clammy on her lightsaber hilt. Fear left a tinny taste in her mouth, and her heart thudded loudly in her ears as she left the relative security of the stairwell.

[Sol Iman]

Sol's saber cleaved through the darkness of the underground like chain lightning, and behind him fell the wreckage of battle droids - heads, arms, the barrel of a dwarf spider's blaster cannon, a raised communication aerial - until the rooftop was littered with sparking and molten metal. He was halfway across the roof before it occurred to him to wonder why his enemies weren't firing a single shot.

He ducked behind the cover of a corrugated chimney stack and pressed his back against the warm, shuddering metal. Serena was still hanging back by the stairwell exit wearing a look of shock, and she opened her mouth to say something, but he planted his finger on his lips urgently to cut her off. Then he waved over to a nearby wall, then signaled over his head - Outflank them, and get ready to cover me.

Sol took a fortifying breath, felt the Force surge through him, and leapt high over the chimney stack to fall on the enemy from above -

And found himself staring straight into the laser cannon of a hulking OG-9 spider walker with Master Tau sitting nonchalantly on its head.

Sol tried to redirect himself in midair and tumbled to the concrete rooftop, dousing his saber so he didn't cut off any of his own limbs, and he came to rest at the feet of a deactivated B2 Super Battle Droid.

Master Tau dropped from his perch and stooped to give his Padawan a hand. "Are you finished?" he asked.

Master Dremmel strolled out from behind one of the walker's massive feet a moment later.

[Serena]

She tried to alert Sol to the presence of their masters, but he was concentrating deeply and was practically oblivious to anything but the horrible Separatist droids. Serena edged out from the stairwell, keeping her back to the worn duracrete as Sol leapt up from behind a chimney.

As he fell to the rooftop in surprise, Master Dremmel walked out from underneath one of the large spider droids, beckoning her over to them. As Tau dropped down, a smile on his face, she hurried over, lightsaber held firmly in her hand still.

"I told you - we have resourceful padawans," her master said, and Master Tau nodded, clapping Sol on the shoulder. Dremmel continued, "We destroyed their long range communications equipment, but we must hurry." He gathered up his slightly singed robes and walked off quickly, back towards the stairwell.

"It's a good thing we destroyed the control hub. I wager it made things easier for you." Master Tau winked at Serena as he walked alongside her.

Sol exchanged a look with her, and interjected, "Um... Master, we were fighting through droids on the way up."

"Active droids?"

"Active enough to launch concussion grenades."

"Oh. Well. Frack."

Dremmel paused at the doorway looking down at the rickety stairs, and looked back at his friend. "That complicates things a great deal. Another control hub means another stronghold somewhere. And active droids..."

"We have no time to waste," said Master Tau, and the foursome was soon running down the stairs back into the dilapidated building. "The data storage must be on one of the lower floors, we didn't explore those completely."

"Master!" Serena shouted, her lightsaber in her hand and active before she was totally aware of why. Blaster fire strafed the landing as a squad of B1s stormed towards the stairs.

[Sol Iman]

"Sol!" Master Tau barked. "Form a rearguard!"

The Kiffar knight and his Padawan turned to face the onslaught from above, weaving an impenetrable shield between Tau's green saber and Sol's blue. A handful of droids rained blaster fire from the landing two stories above them while their compatriots advanced down the stairs after the Jedi, metal feet tramping in unison. Sol angled a blaster bolt back at one of the B1s on the landing; it shuddered, then overbalanced, toppling over the rail and plummeting down the center shaft of the stairwell into the darkness of the basement levels below.

Tau grunted in approval and shot a quick glance toward Master Dremmel. "Well, at least we can withstand this as long as they don't have--"

P-CHUNK CHUNK Hsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss...

Two metal canisters tumbled from the landing above, bounced over the stairs, and came to rest a few levels down, vomiting thick clouds of a noxious, yellow vapor that billowed back up toward the Jedi.

"Swamp gas! (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Swamp_gas)" Sol exclaimed, beating back a surge of horror. He'd heard the nightmare tales of Separatist gas weapons - corrosive fumes that melted flesh and left mechanical components unharmed. They had wiped out whole regiments of clone soldiers in the field.

"We'll have to drop through it to the basement levels," Tau said. "Keep your eyes and mouth closed, your feelings open. Sol and Serena, you first. Go!"

Sol hated the idea of abandoning their masters once again, but this time he knew they'd be right behind their Padawans. Master Dremmel sent a blast of Force-guided air down through the expanding gas cloud to create a tunnel of safety, and Sol took Serena's hand, stepped onto the metal railing, and plummeted down into the damp blackness of the Coruscant sub-basements.

[Serena]

Serena's heart jumped about in her chest at the proclamation of swamp gas, but before she could think too hard about it Sol grabbed her hand and they were falling through the air. She squeezed her sore eyes shut, holding her breath and exhaling slowly through her nose to keep any stray gas from entering.

Through the Force she could feel their masters following them, and then she had to concentrate on Sol. The padawans cleared the gases, and continued falling, drawing on the Force to slow themselves before they hit the ground. Serena landed a little harder than Sol, collapsing into a crouch. He yanked on her arm, pulling her out of the way as Dremmel and Tau arrived in the subbasement.

Master Dremmel turned around slowly, his blue lightsaber illuminating the gloom around him. Serena got to her feet, coughing, mostly because of mental suggestion, not because she actually needed to. Sol had pushed her into a puddle of something, but it didn't appear to be corrosive, and her clothes were already ruined from the dip in the wastewater lake.

"This way," Dremmel said, and Tau nodded. They headed into the darkness, senses aware of every little change in their surroundings. It was preternaturally quiet, the sounds of the droids in the stairwell far above fading as the quartet of Jedi made their way deeper into the sub-basement.

[Sol Iman]

The darkness pressed in all around them from just beyond the halo of pale, blue light cast by Dremmel's light saber. There were many different sorts of darkness - the empty darkness of space, the patient darkness of the subterranean caves of Korriban, the watchful darkness of the wilderness on Kalee at night. This was different. It was the lonely darkness of a forgotten place, thick, smoky, viscous, crushed and condensed under the weight of the stratoscrapers above. Sol felt as if he were light years away from the Temple and the balance and calm it exuded.

"Master," he whispered, "what is our plan? Do we return to the surface to make our report, or do we search for remaining Separatists?"

"Honestly?" Master Tau replied. "I think both are secondary to finding a way out of here that is not full of toxic gas."

"But now that they know they've been infiltrated," Sol insisted, "what if they transmit the stolen data?"

"Patience, Padawan," Dremmel cautioned him. "We've already destroyed their communication equipment. If there is another Separatist base down here, it has a different purpose than the one we just demolished."

Sol shot an uncertain look toward Serena. "But... if there's no datastream to track... how are we going to find the base?"

"I sense the answer to that is closer than you think," Tau said. "Thalios, if you wouldn't mind?"

Master Dremmel extinguished his lightsaber, and the darkness poured in like a flood. Completely blind, Sol stumbled to a stop, then felt Serena bump into him and reached to steady her. He was about to ask the two masters what they were looking for when his eyes began to adjust, and he saw a thin, pale glow on the corridor wall stretching in front and behind in a straight, unbroken line. Here and there, the glow clustered into disc-shaped nodes with an infinitesimally brighter glow.

Sol squinted at the meager light - it was not enough to illuminate anything but itself, but it marked a clear path down the corridor before them, then twisted and ran across the ceiling, up over a bend, and out of sight. "What...?"

"Electrovore bacteria," Tau said. "They're drawn to any active power source. Now, who do you suppose would be using the power grid all the way down here?"

[Serena]

They were plunged into complete darkness as Master Dremmel flicked off his lightsaber, and Serena slowed her steps so she wouldn't bump into anyone. Her eyes watered as they tried to focus, and she still nudged Sol despite her best efforts. As he and his master talked she was able to see the glow of the electrovore bacteria.

Dremmel touched her arm, and she gasped a bit in surprise. He chuckled lightly. "Steady yourself, padawan. Trust the Force."

"Yes, I am sorry Master." Serena took a deep, calming breath, and blew it out slowly.

The quartet moved quickly along the deep passages, following the glowing trail. By Serena's reckoning they were leaving the original building behind and moving further into the - Oh!

"Sol - the warehouses. There were people in some of them. I think we're headed towards them."