Chapter Eight

"My first command." Thought Carek as he went to talk with his friends. "I know that Captain Arkin doesn't think much of my friends and I, but its time he learned what we are capable of doing." Carek Argonaut was one of half-a-dozen castaways of a rebel cell that had been based out of base station Heracles. While the team was on a mission to Alderaan, base station Heracles had had to evacuate. The cell was thought to have been killed when Alderaan was destroyed, thus the base commander left the cell no clues as to where they had relocated.

The cell-after a long roundabout way-had managed to reestablish contact with the rebellion by contacting a ship of the Alliance fleet. The commander of the Corellian corvette Apocalypse, Captain Arkin was of the old school when it came to how his ship was run. Arkin considered Carek and his friends little more than brigands; they were undisciplined, disorganized, and completely unacceptable.

Once Captain Arkin was certain that the cell members were not Imperial spies, he had to find something for these "ragmuffins" to do. Captain Arkin had received information that the Empire had taken over a botanical research facility in the Lahara system. Figuring the cell to be expendable, Captain Arkin called Carek to the bridge.

"You wanted a chance to lead, now you've got it. Assemble a strike team and report to the hanger bay. The Empire has taken over a botanical research station and I need to know why."

When the strike team met in the hanger bay, it included: Leland Archimedes, Halasa, and StJohn Hawk as the team's pilots, Kyle, Lazarus Maxenties, and Roberts as the team's weapons specialists. Rathbone Loegin as the team's engineer. Carek even allowed twelve year old Andre Trelldouwigan to come along in a specially designed R2 shell that Andre could hide inside. Carek wasn't exactly sure what function Andre would perform but it seemed to be all too ingenious an idea to let it go to waste. When Captain Arkin questioned the wisdom of allowing a child to be on a strike team.

"One never know's when a skifter in the hole can come in handy." He answered, for Carek was determined to show Captain Arkin that everyone in the cell and the three shanghaied smugglers were a force to be reckoned with.

Captain Arkin's briefing was short. "The Apocalypse has just rendezvoused with a stock light freighter, the Spectre. The Spectre has been modified and does not have any known affiliations with the Alliance this should enhance your chances of success. The Spectre is carrying holocrystals, foodstuffs and other trade items to provide you with a plausible cover. The Apocalypse will wait here in the sun's shadow until you return." Turning to Carek, Arkin continued. "Here is a comlink and a set of coordinates. The comlink has our command frequency and has been modified so that you will be able to contact us even while we are in the sun's shadow. The coordinates are to our rally point in case you have to bug out in a hurry. Good luck. You have fifteen minutes before you depart."

The team boarded the Spectre.

"Well at least Arkin was right about the 'modified' part." Said Rathbone after a five minute check of the ship's systems. "This ship has got better guns, better speed, better maneuverability, and has armor and shields to boot."

"Armor and shields?" Said Leland. "I hate to say it," He continued quietly. "but this ship is even better than the Bantha."

There was kind of an awkward silence for a moment before it was shattered by the PA.

"One minute to launch."

"Well lets show them how they do it at Heracles." Said Carek, turning to the ship's communication panel. "Acknowledged Apocalypse. Spectre standing by."

One minute later, the Spectre pulled away and entered the system's asteroid belt from a direction that would protect the Apocalypse's position. When the Spectre broke though the belt, Carek began hailing the station.

"Free trader Spectre to Lahara station. Request landing instructions. Over."

There was no answer. Carek began scanning frequencies.

"Spectre to Lahara station, come in please."

Still no answer.

"I don't like this," Said Leland. "it smells like a trap."

"I'll check what the sensors can tell us." Said StJohn.

The sensors were as empty as the comlink.

"The sensors show no signs of life!" Said StJohn.

"That can't be," Responded Leland. "there's got to be somebody home."

"It may not make much sense but the sensors are showing no signs of life." Said Carek from over StJohn's shoulder. "We might as well make the most of it, cause we'll never get another chance this good."

The station had a simple central command section with three arms that enclosed the landing pads. As the Spectre approached, the hanger doors on pad one opened.

"At least the automatic docking program is still working." Said Leland as he landed in between two full squadrons of TIE fighters. Rathbone who had come to the bridge started suddenly.

"Those fighters are TIE/ins, they're the Empire's latest design. I had heard that the Empire was starting to deploy them..." Rathbone's voice trailed off while he was thinking, finally he continued. "The Force only knows what the Empire is doing here, but if they've put TIE/ins here they consider this to be a very important piece of property."

Once the Spectre was down, the whole team fanned out to try and find what was happening. Passing through decontamination the team found itself in center of the station. There were three doors leading to the three hangers, three doors leading to the officer's quarters, the enlisted quarters, and to the arms/training room.

A search of the hangers found a total of sixty TIE/ins and an Imperial interplanetary shuttle. The living quarters were all empty, but yielded a personal diary of one of the Laharan scientists. The locals were working on gene altering and bioengineering. When the Empire arrived and took over the project, the focus was redirected into bioweapons. The arms/training room contained a dozen suits of stormtrooper armor, and three dozen blaster carbines. There was however no sign of life or even a struggle.

"I'm going to put on one of the suits." Said StJohn as he began suiting up. "If we run into any Imperials, I'll pretend to have captured you."

While the team was searching the lower level of the station there was a major power fluctuation. The emergency lighting came on for a few seconds, then the main power came back on. The team split up when they took the turbolift up to the upperdeck. Leland, Halasa, StJohn, and Roberts took one lift and found themselves in main engineering. Carek took the rest of the team in the other lift and found that it opened on the main bridge.

The bridge and engineering were as deserted as the rest of the station.

"This is starting to get spooky." Said Andre, who had climbed out of his R2 costume.

Rathbone tapped into the main computer and found that every thing was in order.

"This shows that the Empire took over twelve days ago, the last entry was three days ago and it sheds no clue as to where the station's crew had disappeared to."

Rathbone tried to get specific information on the bioweapons, but the computer stated that, "That information was only available in the laboratory."

Rathbone was able to call up a schematic of the station. Once the team had this information they split up to check out the rest of the base. While the team searched for clues there were three more power fluctuations.

"I've run a diagnostic of the main power," Said Rathbone. "according to the computer, there's nothing wrong with the core. In fact the computer isn't even logging these power swings."

Leland in main engineering went to open the door the power core, and jerked his hand back from the access panel.

"Youch!" Cried Leland. "That door must be 500 degrees. Lets get your lightsaber over here Carek."

"I doubt if that is a good idea, if its 500 degrees in there, that door is probably the only thing containing the heat, so lets just leave it for now." Carek then went to check the main sensor array.

"That ought to do it." Said Kyle, as he over road the security lock out to the sensor bay. "I'm going over to security to see if there are any monitors. If I can tap into the stations's monitors, maybe I can find out where everyone's gone."

Carek entered the sensor bay and found the body of a crewman. Carek spoke quickly into his comlink.

"Roberts, StJohn report to sensors on the double."

While waiting for his friends, Carek examined the body. The human was about forty, was wearing engineer's coveralls, and there was an empty canister of liquid nitrogen lying next to the body. When Roberts and StJohn arrived, Carek said. "Take him to sick bay and see if you can see what killed him."

As the body was being taken to sickbay, Carek turned back to examine the sensors and the main communications station. Carek found that the station was sending an automatic distress signal. Carek went to shut the signal off, but misreading the label in the local language, he boosted the signal from one narrow band signal to a broad band all channels signal.

"Oh brother," Thought Carek. "now I've really done it." Grabbing his comlink "Rathbone. On the double to sensors. I need some help here."

Rathbone arrived and shut the signal off.

"You know I never try to act like a Jedi," He said. "Why is it you think you can act like an engineer?"

"I'll try and remember that." Said Carek sheepishly. "Uh, while your here, do you think you can take a look at the sensors and see if they tell you anything."

Rathbone grinned and said. "Sure Carek, no problem."

Rathbone's fingers flew across the controls.

"Sensors show no signs of life beyond the nine of us. I also took a look at the communications logs as well, and they don't show anything out of the ordinary either. I want to try and isolate that narrow band frequency, as the rebellion could use that information."

"Do what ever you can, I'm going to sick bay to see if they've found out anything."

When Carek reached sickbay, Roberts and StJohn were just finishing up their examination.

"Looks like he died of an old fashioned heart attack," Said Roberts. "there's nothing else out of the ordinary. Nothing."

Before Carek could respond, Kyle reported in from security.

"You can tell that the Empire hasn't been here long," He said. "there are no monitors on the station at all. We still have no clue where everybody went."

"Well that leaves the lab." Said Carek. "I want everybody together when we go into the lab, if they were trying to make bioweapons here, maybe they got more than they bargained for and I want to be as prepared as possible."

"I think I know of a way to even things up a bit." Said Kyle. "I saw something in security that might be of help," Kyle turned to Halasa and continued. "but I'm going to need your help." Halasa growled his consent and they both departed. Five minutes later they returned. Kyle had discovered a tripod mounted medium repeat crowd control stun blaster-normally a crew served weapon for humans-that Halasa could carry like a sidearm.

The team sent up in front of the door to the lab. StJohn in his stormtrooper armor stepped up to the panel and unlocked the door. The result was an anticlimax. The lab was vacant too. The team searched both physically and with the Force, aside from two lab animals in cages there was nothing to be found. Rathbone tapped into the lab's computer and down loaded his findings to his R2 unit. There was a log entry by one of the Laharan scientists that alluded to an experiment that showed so much intelligence that he thought it might be sentient, but there were no other clues. The station's crew was gone and that was all there was to it.

Once the files from the lab were down loaded the team mission was complete. Carek said. "I know this isn't part of our mission, but opportunity as giving us a chance we can't pass up. Rathbone I want you to set the station to self-destruct. We can eliminate sixty TIE/ins as well as what ever they tried to do here. Everybody lets prepare for departure."

"I think that we can make the more of this opportunity than you realize," Said StJohn. "you're over looking the fact that we can take one of the TIE/ins and fly it out to the Apocalypse."

Halasa growled something. "You can take that shuttle too." Leland translated.

"We can take their blasters too." Kyle added.

Overwhelmed by this logic Carek said. "You have as long as it takes Rathbone to program the self-destruct to grab whatever you think is important."

As StJohn, Kyle, Leland, and Halasa took a turbolift down to begin gathering equipment, there was another power fluctuation. The lift lost power and began a free fall down to the lower level, fortunately it was only a one level drop and no one was injured. Rathbone had his R2 begin programming the self-destruct sequence as he went to check the station's brig. When the doors to the brig opened, Rathbone found his way blocked by a pair of security droids. Rathbone impatiently pulled his blaster and took a shot at one of the droids.

Unknown to Rathbone the station was equipped with a rapid response program that was backed up by four additional security droids. One of the conditions that activated the response program was if the droids in the brig were fired on. While the droids in the brig were returning fire at Rathbone-who had decided that he was in over his head and had turned to run-the four security droids were bearing down on the four team members that were in the process of extricating themselves from the damaged turbolift.

When blaster fire was heard from the brig, Carek, Roberts, Lazarus, and Andre all ran to see what was going on. Rathbone almost bowled everyone over as he ran from the droids.

"What in the blazes is going on." Demanded Carek.

"Security droids in the brig." Said Rathbone.

"Lazarus. Roberts. Follow me." Snapped Carek.

Lazarus and Roberts opened fire as soon as the door to the brig opened. One droid was destroyed immediately, the other was only damaged and managed to return fire and stun Roberts. Carek leaped over Roberts and cut to second droid in half.

The rebels in the lift were in a fierce firefight with the four security droids.

"Security droids have us pinned in the turbolift." Said Kyle as he tried to hold a droid at bay with the lightsaber that had once belonged to the Dark Jedi Maldamon.

"We're on the way." Responded Carek as the rebels on the upper deck raced to help their comrades. Rathbone decided that he had done enough damage and that he would be better utilized by staying behind to free the prisoner.

By the time Lazarus, Roberts Carek, and Andre arrived at the top of the turboshaft, there were only two droids left. The droids were programmed to fire stun blasts until they were able to close to melee range then subdue their target physically. This program did not include what would happen if one of the targets happened to be a Wookiee. Halasa showed the droids that while they might be perfectly capable of subduing a human, they were sadly lacking in tensile strength to go toe-to-toe with an enraged wookiee. Halasa had disabled two of the droids, when Carek dropped down the shaft and cut the last two droids apart.

With the station's security subdued, the rebels began prepping for departure. Rathbone continued to program the computer. Kyle and Roberts began loading blasters onto a repulsor lift and loading them on the Spectre. Leland and Carek prepped the Spectre, StJohn prepped a TIE/in, Halasa prepped the shuttle, while Andre, Lazarus, and the freed rebel from the brig searched the Spectre to make sure that whatever had wiped out the crew of the station had not hidden aboard the Spectre.

The Spectre and the TIE launched at the same time. Halasa was standing by to pick up Rathbone after the self-destruct was activated. Carek was the first to see the two Imperial customs frigates as they exited the asteroid field. Leland accelerated away in hopes of drawing the frigates away from the station and Halasa's shuttle which had just launched. StJohn signaled the lead frigate.

"I am the sole survivor of the station in pursuit of the rebel freighter."

This ploy seemed to work for the next signal was from the lead frigate. "We are responding to a class one distress call. State the nature of the problem."

Before StJohn could respond, the station self-destructed. The frigates then decided to take the initiative by splitting up, the lead followed the shuttle, the second followed the Spectre. The second frigate signaled.

"Stock light freighter shut down your engines and prepare to be boarded."

Carek hoped that the smaller ships would be able to evade the frigates in the asteroid field, but the frigates were apparently used to chasing smugglers through asteroids and easily closed on both the Spectre and the shuttle. With no choices remaining, Carek contacted Kyle and Roberts in the gunner's seats.

"Fire at will." He then signaled the Apocalypse. "Mayday. Mayday. Spectre pursued by two customs frigates. Friendlies in TIE/in and Imperial shuttle. Mayday. Mayday. Mayday."

The fight was on.

The Spectre lived up to her name as Leland ghosted between asteroids and the frigate's fire.

"How do you want to play this." Leland shouted to the gunners.

"Let them get close," Said Roberts. "we've got a big surprise for them."

Leland slowed enough to allow the frigate to get into short range, then Kyle and Roberts sprung their surprise. The frigate never knew what hit them, one second all was as it should be: the freighter was trying to run, but had no chance of escaping the massed fire of an Imperial customs frigate, the next second, the freighter began spewing laser fire like they had a strobe setting. The frigate was so severely damaged by the sudden burst of fire from the Spectre, that they were forced to break off their pursuit and signal the lead frigate that they were out of the fight. Halasa and Rathbone however were in trouble, the shuttle had been heavily damaged and despite the frantic maneuvering of Halasa through the asteroids, they could not shake the frigate.

Rathbone signaled the Spectre. "Guys, we need some help here."

"On the way." Carek responded tersely from the astrogation station where Carek was plotting the course to the rally point. "Halasa needs our help Leland."

"The only problem with turning directly towards the shuttle is we'll have to go right through the damaged frigate to get there."

"How long if we attack off the parabolic plane?"

"About twenty seconds, which is about fifteen more than they have."

"All right then, that decides it," Said Carek. "we go right through them. Kyle, Roberts, Look alive, it's about to get real bumpy. StJohn, I think that TIE's a little too tender for you to risk getting too close to a frigate. I want you to head straight for the Apocalpyse."

"Roger your last! Good luck, StJohn out."

The frigate made things easy for the Spectre by deciding that they had had enough. There was a token exchange of lasers as the ships passed, but the frigate made no real attempt to impede the Spectre. The lead frigate detected the Spectre's intercept course and broke off pursuit of the shuttle to turn and fight.

Halasa yowled something that sounded triumphant. "Yeah they got them off us," Rathbone responded. "I just hope they haven't gotten themselves in too deep. Lets get out of here, I won't feel safe until we're aboard the Apocalypse."

When the lead frigate turned away from the shuttle, Leland yowled something that sounded triumphant too, as he pulled the Spectre around in a tight loop and headed for a dense section in the asteroid field. The lead frigate however, was the Surveyor. She was the flag-

ship of this sector's customs fleet. It was heavily modified with massive shields, increased speed and maneuverability, and it had the best crew in the sector. It closed on the Spectre with the same confidence that the first frigate did, knowing that a stock light freighter could not be a threat to the flagship of the sector.

When the Surveyor closed into medium range, Kyle and Roberts unleashed the same storm of Force guided laser fire that had broken the first frigate. The surveyor was a much better ship and was able to absorb the withering fire. Leland used the Force to frustrate the gunners of the Surveyor. Only one shot managed to find the Spectre and Andre was able to get the shields up in time to prevent any damage from getting through.

Kyle and Roberts freely used the Force to continue the steady pounding of the Surveyor, by the time the ships had cleared the asteroid belt, the Surveyor was as severely damaged as the first frigate. The Surveyor was unable to keep up with the undamaged Spectre due to engine damage, allowing Leland to accelerate away and break contact.

Carek completed the instinctive astrogation plot and-as soon as he heard that Halasa, Rathbone and StJohn had been picked up by the Apocalypse-jumped to hyperspace. The Spectre rendezvoused with the Apocalypse at the rally point. Captain Arkin met them in the hanger bay of the Apocalypse. Carek came to his best parade ground salute and barked.

"Sir! Team Bantha Reporting: Mission accomplished! Sir!"

Captain Arkin was a little stunned when he read the team's debriefing. The team had a full copy of the original research of the station, why the Empire had taken over and what the Empire had done with the original research. They had rescued a rebel POW, and had taken advantage of the absence of the station's crew to destroy the station and all of its accumulated data. They had crippled two Imperial customs frigates and they had captured a TIE/in fighter and an interplanetary shuttle. And all this had been accomplished with a nine man team that had not even taken any casualties. The only piece of the puzzle that was missing, was what had happened to the station's crew. There was no answer, and there would be no answer.

"I have clearly underestimated these people." Thought Arkin as he closed the report. "My only question is what am I going to do with them now?"

To that Captain Arkin had no answer.

Later that night Andre asked to speak to Carek privately. “I’m not sure how to say this but, the time in the cloud has really effected me. I learned that I could see the Force and I want to know if you will teach me to be a Jedi?”

"I do not know if it is right for me to try to teach someone how to use the Force when my own training is so incomplete," Said Carek. "but I can sense that you are serious Andre, and I will watch you during our next few missions. If you can learn to live by the Jedi code, I will teach you."

Andre beamed. "Thank you Carek, I will not let you down."

After Andre departed, Carek lay in his bunk, thinking. "I hope I know what I'm getting into, I have to find a way to keep him from the Dark Side. If I can do that, he may actually earn that which I desire most, the title of Jedi Knight." With that last thought Carek went to sleep.

Chapter Nine

The early morning chatter of the briefing room ceased when the severe woman with the rank tabs of a commander entered the room. The lights dimmed on cue when she reached the podium.

"Your mission will be a supply run to Tatooine." Said Commander Challis.

"Tatooine again," Muttered Carek. "I had hoped I would never have to see that dust ball again."

Commander Challis's head snapped toward the sound. "Is there a problem Lieutenant?"

"Uh, no sir. No problem at all." Carek said aloud, to himself he thought. "And to think what we went through to find this woman." Carek used a Jedi meditation technique to absorb the commander's briefing subconsciously while allowing the greater portion of his mind to wander over the events of the last few weeks.

After investigating the Imperial presence at the Lahara station, the team from Heracles continued to operate with the Alliance corvette the Apocalypse. The team, less Carek had been sent to find an exotic dancer that was a Force sensitive and in extreme danger from the Empire. The team posed as the retinue of a pair of ambassadors while they were aboard a passenger liner. The ambassadors turned out to be working for the Empire and the team narrowly escaped with the dancer by stealing the liner's shuttle.

Carek missed out on this mission because he had been promoted to Lieutenant and had to attend the Alliance officer's course. Captain Arkin insisted on following the book when it came to his men's training. So while the team was out looking for the dancer, Carek was busy learning Alliance regulations. When the team departed they had been given a set of coordinates to a rally point once they had found the dancer. When the Apocalypse went to meet the team, they found that the coordinates were to an inhospitable world named Planeris, that it also was the main headquarters of the Rebel Alliance.

The team and the Apocalypse found that this was where the rest of base station Heracles had fled to. After reporting back in and being debriefed, the team was reassigned to Commander Challis. The base was in a jubilant mode as the battle station that had been responsible for the destruction of Alderaan had been destroyed, and the victory at Yavin had encouraged many more planets to join the Rebellion. The Empire was reeling from the loss of the Death Star, but it now considered the Rebellion to be a threat and was bearing down hard, which had forced the Alliance fleet into hiding.

"Are there any questions?" This last from Commander Challis who was just finishing up her briefing, brought Carek back to realtime. "Good. You depart in one hour. Dismissed." As the team started to disperse. "Lieutenant Argonaut, I would like to speak to you a moment." Carek cringed for he knew that whatever Challis was going to say, it would not be pleasant. "During your separation from us you have grown in the Force Carek," She said. "but you seem to have forgotten everything you ever learned about military discipline. If I catch you not paying attention to one of my briefings again, I will personally see that your next assignment is cleaning the Tauntaun pens. Is that clear Lieutenant?"

"Yes Sir!" Barked Carek. "Perfectly clear Sir! No excuse Sir!" "Good," Challis then came as close to a smile as she could get and said. "I would hate someone with your potential not being utilized properly. Dismissed."

The team met aboard the Spectre which they were still using since the loss of both the Wandering Bantha and the Carthesian Hawk had left them without a ship, Challis having made the necessary arrangements for the Spectre to be assigned to the team.

"We thought you were bantha bait." Said Leland the team pilot as Carek arrived. "I know she's on our side, but she gives me the creeps."

"Challis is hard to get to know," Agreed Carek. "she has so much rage, I only hope we don't lose her to the Dark Side."

"That 'Dark Side' thing is really a problem for you Jedi-types isn't it?" Said Lazarus Maxenties one of the team's weapons specialists.

"The Dark Side is seductive, and once on that path it is hard not to fall astray. A large part of Challis's personality is because she is constantly fighting the Dark Side."

"If you guys are finished with your wiffordil out there, we're ready to go." Said Rathbone Loegin the team's engineer leaning out of the Spectre's airlock. "Andre and Kyle are already aboard, I just got word that Challis is sending Roberts, Halasa, and StJohn to the officer's course, so it'll just be the six of us."

"Great, there'll be some extra room for a change." Said Leland.

The Spectre lifted and jumped to Tatooine without mishap. The arrival and landing were equally without incident. The team unloaded their cargo at Mos Eisley and Kyle went shopping for droids to replace the ones lost on the Bantha, finding an EMD-1 Med droid to replace Ohonebeenine lost on the Bantha, a EMD-1 was a poor replacement for a O1B but it was a start. Kyle also picked up a modified protocol droid named SM3PO ("Please sir you may call me Sam.").

While Kyle was shopping, Carek went to look for Dag Caltare just to see if he had any interesting information. The team was waiting to meet with Dag in a seedy tavern that was one of Dag's favorite haunts, when four hardcases walked up to the table and after casting a contemptuous look at the team the thug's leader spoke.

"You named Kyle."

"Who wants to know?" Replied Kyle.

Without further debate the thugs went for their weapons. Kyle seemed to be the only target they were interested in, and that was their last mistake. Leland dove for cover as Lazarus, Andre, and Kyle returned fire, while Carek deflected the thug's shots. All four were down before they could hit anybody.

From the bar there came the sound of one person applauding. The team turned and saw a stylishly dressed man of indeterminate age. "Bravo. Well done. You will do just fine."

Leland was on his feet and across the room before anyone else could move.

"Just who the hell are you? And what in the hell is going on here?"

In an infuriatingly calm voice. the man said. "My name is Barr, and I was just testing to see if Kyle would make a worthy contestant."

"What kind of contestant?" Said Kyle. "I don't know you and I have no idea what you are talking about."

"But I know you Kyle," Said Barr. "and that is the only thing that is important.

"Have you ever heard of the Game of Death Kyle?"

"No."

"That's not surprising. The game is relatively new here in Mos Eisley and I don't think its had a chance to migrate off planet yet-never the less-the Game of Death is a sort of chess, you might say the ultimate game of chess. Each of the 'Kings' chooses his pawns to do battle with the opposing players and..."

"What do you mean 'play-ers' there should only be one other king." Interrupted Rathbone.

"Ah, that's what makes the Game of Death so interesting my inquisitive friend, there can be any number of kings in the Game of Death. In fact if there aren't at least four kings then the game loses most of its appeal."

"You still haven't told me what all this has to do with me." Said Kyle, who was starting to get visibly angry.

"I was getting to that part when I was so rudely interrupted by your friend here." Barr said as he fixed Rathbone with a evil stare. "Once the pawns have been chosen, the kings inform the pawns who the other kings pawns are and then sits back to see if his pawns can defeat all the other pawns. Whichever king's pawns eliminates all the other pawns is the winner. If you should win Kyle, I will pay you five thousand credits."

"I'm not interested." Said Kyle. "Lets go."

The team headed for the door.

"You don't have a choice." Said Barr with a wicked grin. "I have already informed the other kings who my pawns are and the game has already started. If you walk out that door you will be fair game to the other pawns and you won't even know who is trying to kill you."

This last brought the team up short. Leland was the first to reach Barr. "What do you mean 'trying to kill you.'"

"It’s not called the Game of Death for melodramatic reasons my hot tempered young friend, the pawns fight to the death, the survivor is the winner."

"I'm nobodies pawn and you are nobodies king." Raged Leland. "You are dead buddy, absolutely dead." Leland made a move to unholster his blaster.

"I would take a look around the tavern before I tried that my friend." Leland did look around and found that there were at least thirty armed men training their weapons on the team.

"This is my establishment and these are my men," Said Barr. "Now, if you would like to see who is going to be trying to kill you, belly up to the bar. The drinks are on me."

With no room to maneuver or to negotiate, the team recognized a fait accompli when they saw one. Leland however was still fuming. "This is not over, not by a long shot buddy. Not over at all."

"Be that as it may these are your opponents." Said Barr as he activated a small holocrystal. "The first pawn is named Darekk. He is a human bounty hunter, he wears special body armor and is considered to be very formidable. The second pawn is named Filberrg. He is a Gammorian, long on brawn, short on brains. The third pawn is named Wutega. He's a Wookiee, enough said. The fourth pawn is named Irwin Scratch. He is human and a wizard with droids. The fifth pawn is named Kali Whisper. She is a human exotic dancer, you would do well not underestimate her.

"That's the lot of them. If you win bring their bodies back here to collect your five thousand. Good luck. Now if you excuse me I have some business to attend to." Barr rose to leave.

Leland spoke again. "I will be back and you will answer to me."

"I'll try and keep that in mind." And Barr began to laugh. Leland lunged for Barr with murder in his eyes, but Carek managed to intervene.

"I know exactly how you feel Leland, but let it go for now, just let it go." Leland relaxed and the team departed.

"I refuse to take part in any blood sport." Said Carek as team Bantha left the bar. "Even if I weren't a Jedi, I would not kill just to amuse somebody else, its just wrong."

"I've seen and caused my share of grief," Returned Kyle. "but even though I get paid to hunt people, I have never taken a contract that required I hunt someone down and kill them just for fun. As you said its just wrong."

"The only way to beat Barr is to just not be his 'pawns' and leave immediately." Said Lazarus. Leland jumped on the thought. "Yeah, Lazarus come with me, we'll go and get the Spectre ready for take off."

As Leland and Lazarus left, Carek Said. "We'll be there in a few minutes. I still want to check in with Dag to see if he's heard anything and if he knows about this Barr character."

The team found Dag in the famous Mos Eisley Cantina.

"Carek! Over here." Dag shouted to be heard above the din of the crowded cantina.

Carek spoke without preamble. "What do you know of a thug named Barr, and have you ever heard of the 'Game of Death.'"

The Twi'lek's tentacles coiled into knots and Dag choked on his drink.

"Ba...Barr? He's about as dangerous as you can get. He doesn't have Jabba the Hutt's off planet resources, but he's a serious threat here in Tatooine. Don't tell me he's got you involved with the Game of Death?"

"It wasn't our idea," Said Carek. "and we aren't going to play. We're leaving as soon as we finish talking to you."

"That's a good idea."

"Before we go, what do you know about these people?" Asked Kyle as he showed Dag the holos of the 'pawns'.

"I've never heard of Scratch, Filberrg, or Wutega. Darekk is supposed to be bad news, but that's all I know. The woman Kali Whisper works at a club five blocks from here, but I don't see how she can be involved in the Game of Death."

"This guy Barr said not to underestimate her." Said Kyle.

"That's all I know for certain Kyle, but it’s not uncommon to have non-combat types mixed in with the combat types just to keep you guessing. However I do know this: if your going to skip out on Barr, you are making a fearsome enemy and I would advise against coming back to Mos Eisley anytime in the next millennium."

"Thank you as always Dag, I'll see you next time lets go guys."

The team bade Dag farewell and departed for the hanger. When Dag was sure that the team was gone, he added quietly. "If there is a next time."

While the team was taking leave of Dag, Leland and Lazarus were arriving at the hanger where the Spectre was parked. "Barr is not going to get away with this." Said Leland.

"Yeah, I know Leland, 'He can't do this.'" Replied Lazarus. "You've got to get...Look out!"

Both the rebels dove for cover as the whip-crack of laser fire smote the stillness of the hanger.

"There he is over by those crates." Said Lazarus as he returned fire on the dimly seen form of their attacker.

"Cover me." Said Leland and ran for the Spectre. The attacker cut Leland's rush short with a burst of accurate laser fire. Leland pinned down reached for his comlink. "I've got to get some help, this guy is bad news." Fumbling his comlink open, he screamed. "Carek! Carek! We need help here!"

Carek and company were two blocks away when Leland's frantic call for help came over the comlink, before Leland finished speaking, Carek was already sprinting. "Lets go guys, Leland needs our help."

While Andre, Kyle, Rathbone and Carek were running to help, the hanger was alive with blaster fire. The attacker had moved to where Lazarus could see him clearly. "Darekk!" Hissed Lazarus, recognizing the bounty hunter from Barr's holocrystal and as he snapped off another shot. "I know I'm hitting him, but it looks like that armor he's wearing seems to have some form of force field that not only absorbs energy, it redirects it to that laser he's firing. I've got to find a way to take that laser rifle out of the picture."

"Give me an X-wing and point me at a dozen TIEs any day." Thought Leland as he worked his way towards the hanger door. "If I can get to a vehicle, any vehicle. I might be of more use." Searching around the immediate area, Leland spotted a group of teenagers crouching for cover by their swoops half a block away. "A swoop! That's just what I'm looking for."

At that moment, Lazarus found a way to neutralize Darekk's laser rifle.

"Take a deep breath." Thought Lazarus as he braced for what was going to be a difficult shot. "Let half of it out..."

Larazus had spotted a cable that ran from Darekk's armor to his laser rifle, and had guessed that it was the power conduit. Reasoning that the laser would be useless if the cable were cut, Lazarus decided to try and cut it with a well aimed blaster bolt, thus Lazarus had slipped into an old marksmanship technique.

"and squeeze!"

Darekk was targeting the pawn by the doorway when a blaster bolt severed the power lead from his armor to his laser. "What the..." Thought Darekk as the power lead arced and shorted out. "Oh yes, I'm going to enjoy killing this one."

As Darekk reached for his heavy blaster pistol, Leland used the distraction to make his break for the door.

Running at full speed Leland reached the swoops just as Darekk began firing furiously on Lazarus' position. "Hey buddy how much for your swoop?"

"You want to buy my swoop? Now?" Stammered the throughly confused teen.

"Yes now. Look, I'm a little busy right now, I'll give you two thousand credits right now for the swoop."

"You'll give me two thousand creds, for this swoop, no questions, right now?"

"Yes for Deity's sake, have we got a deal?"

"Done."

Leland shoved the credits in the gaping teens hands and roared off for the hanger.

"That was one disturbed individual." Said the now recovered teen. "Come on let’s get out of here before he can change his mind."

When Carek and company turned the last corner to the hanger they were nearly run down by a group of celebrating swoop riders.

"That's all we need," Thought Kyle as they reached the hanger with weapons at the ready. "is to be killed in a traffic accident." When they looked into the hanger, they saw: Leland dive a swoop at Darekk, Darekk dodge to one side, Leland careen off of some crates and crash into the landing gear of the Spectre. Leland went flying across the hanger and slammed onto the loading ramp of the Spectre.

Kyle shocked at Leland's crash none-the-less opened fire on Darekk. Andre and Rathbone ran for the Spectre, while Carek closed on Darekk. Darekk turned to fire on the newcomers, but before he could fire Carek used his newly learned power of telekinesis to snatch Darekk's blaster from his hand. Disarmed, Darekk ran for the Spectre. Leland stunned by his spectacular crash saw Darekk running straight for him, staggered to his feet and tried to block Darekk's bid for the Spectre.

"Not on my ship you don't!" Slurred Leland as he tried to shake the stars dancing before his eyes.

Darekk extended knifeblades from the forearms of his armor and took a stab at Leland. Leland dodges the attack and grabbed Darekk from behind. Before Darekk could break free, Carek arrived.

"We don't want to harm you idiot!" Said Carek as Darekk turned to fight the greater threat of a lightsaber at his back. "We want to stop this madness!"

Darekk stabbed at Carek, who neatly parried and his counter strike cut the blades from Darekk's armor. Now completely unarmed Darekk blasted clear of the Jedi with his jetpack, landing on the catwalk ten meters overhead.

Rathbone had reached the turret of the Spectre just as Darekk landed on the catwalk.

"Now I've got you!" Said Rathbone as he fired. "Then again maybe I don't." As the shot missed Darekk and blasted away a ten meter section of the catwalk. Darekk staggered back from the turret's shockwave and was hit from behind by the bolt of a bowcaster. Darekk was knocked form the catwalk and hit the ground with a heavy thud. Andre ran over to the stunned bounty hunter and began pushing buttons on his armor in an attempt to turn Darekk's force field off. Kyle seeing that hand weapons were of little use against Darekk's field, he ran aboard the Spectre and grabbed the medium repeat blaster that had been captured from the Lahara station. Kyle could not fire the weapon without the tripod as Halasa the wookiee could, but with Carek providing telekinetic help he could just barely manage the awkward weapon.

Before Andre could switch the field off, Darekk managed to sit up and take a swing at Andre. Andre's little pet lizard leaped from Andre's shoulder and wrapped itself around Darrek's head. Carek raced over and slashed at Darekk, but found that his saber could not penetrate the field. Before Darekk could take any action he was hit square in the chest by a medium repeat blaster bolt and finally knocked out.

"One down, four to go." Said Kyle as he swung the repeat blaster around to fire on the wookiee that could only be Wutega.

When Wutega appeared and fired on Darekk, Leland and Lazarus ran out the door to try and out flank the wookiee by coming up the outside stairs. Wutega heard them coming and stunned Lazarus as soon as he entered the door. Lazarus was knocked backwards and fell down the stairs to the first landing. Leland managed to dodge the falling Lazarus and return fire. Lazarus crawled back up the stairs and hit Wutega while he was firing on Leland. Wutega lost his balance and fell off of the catwalk. As he lay stunned, Kyle knocked him out with the repeat blaster ending the fight. As he powered the repeat blaster down, Kyle said. "Two down three to go."

"We've got to get out of here." Said Leland "If we hang around, we'll just end up having to fight the rest of them." The team was loading the two captured pawns onto the Spectre while Rathbone patched up Austin with a medpac, and were arguing about Carek's decision to try and talk to Kali Whisper.

"I don't like this anymore than you do," Replied Carek. "but, I still want to try to talk to this Kali woman, maybe I can stop this insanity."

"Your not dealing with people who are used to talking Carek." Added Kyle. "They have been set to do a task that I believe they enjoy and they're not about to stop the game to talk about how immoral it is."

Rathbone appeared in the hatch. "Looks like he'll be okay, he was very lucky. Kyle, I took a look at your droids and that 3PO had got some interesting modifications."

"What sort of modifications?"

"Hard to say exactly. Carek, while you out looking for this Kali woman, I'm going to stay here and find out exactly whats been done to that droid."

"I'm staying right here and keeping this ship ready to lift," Said Leland.

"I'm going to help Rathbone." Said Lazarus.

"Good, I don't want all of out on the street anyway. Said Carek after hearing the concern in his friend's voices. "Kyle, I want you to come with me."

"I want to go too." Said Andre.

"No this..." Started Carek.

"Is exactly what you leave me out of all the time. How am I ever going the learn anything about the Force if you leave me behind every time you go into a situation where you might use it? Stumped by this logic Carek replied. "I guess your right. All right then Kyle and Andre will go with me to talk to Whisper."

The three rebels arrived at Club Cosmos fifteen minutes later. The front door had a large bouncer and a weapons detection sensor grid guarding the front door.

"I think I can shut the grid off," Said Carek. "Give me a minute." The bouncer was looking the rebels over when the grid powered down. "Whats going on with this thing." Said the obviously non-technologically inclined bouncer. When the bouncer turned to inspect the grid, Kyle used the moment to try to enter.

"Wait I have to search you manually the grid just went down."

The bouncer may not have known much about the grid but he did know a lot about hiding weapons and quickly turned up Andre's and Kyle's blasters and Carek's lightsaber.

"What's this?" Asked the bouncer.

"Small cutting torch. I don't mind checking it. Tell me my good man, has Kali Whisper started yet?"

"You better hurry her numbers just about over."

"Kali Whisper is why we came." Said Kyle as they rushed to find seats. "Thank you very much."

The bouncer never even noticed Kyle's holdout blaster nor did he notice when as the three patrons walked away the "Small cutting torch" floated out from behind the counter to rejoin its owner.

The woman known as Kali Whisper was just taking her bow and heading backstage when the rebels entered.

"I guess we go back stage." Said Carek.

"I guess." Replied Kyle as they headed for the stage door.

"No Patrons allowed!" Said the thick necked bouncer.

"It's okay, Kali Whisper wants to see us."