Coda sat in a trance as his saber-hilts started floating, the glow they gave off becoming brighter. Soon a circular swirl started forming around the two that slowly expanded, eventually they intersected resulting in an infinity symbol forming with Coda as it's center point. After a while, Coda started to sweat as his face showed signs of pain.

Pulses of his power started to come off him, alerting Trilla that was in another room. This continued without change for hours. Small blackish-red globes detached from him and floated down the stream towards his orange saber as it absorbed them giving off a small flash of dark red every time. Every time this happened Coda's face loosened up a bit and the flow became faster and smoother.

Soon the streams became so fast that an almost unnoticeable hum could be heard from the flow around him. The streams disconnected from Coda as they started shrinking, eventually fully receding into the hilts again.

Coda opened his eyes as they glowed with a stable silver-orange glow. A smug smile showed up on his face. "Finally, that poison is out of my head. The dark side really is just a poisoned well." He put the hilts down and clenched his hands as noticeable cracks in the space around them appeared.

Good. Now I just need some rest. Standing up he undressed and threw himself into bed before promptly passing out from exhaustion.

----------------------------------------

Trilla had been unable to focus enough to meditate because Coda had been blasting pulses of the force through the entire ship so she had given up halfway and just lied down to have some rest. Shortly after it had stopped she was woken up by someone knocking on the door.

Standing up she threw her robe back on before answering the door. When the door slid open she saw Beatrix waiting for her. "Yes, Beatrix? How can I help you?"

Giving a slight bow she responded. "I'm sorry to disturb you Lady Trilla, but it seems our captive has woken up. I took what I consider appropriate precautions to keep her pacified but I'd appreciate your opinion on the matter as I do not possess the ability to use the force."

Tilting her head slightly Trilla thought to herself. Captive? The blue-skinned woman? Nodding to Beatrix she responded. "I understand. Lead the way."

Following Beatrix the soon came to an empty room except for eight RG units. Four of them were standing in a box formation around the captive, they were using their black matter to keep her upright and her appendages locked in place. The other four stood in a cross formation aiming their plasma rifles at her, they had locked themselves in place by producing spikes to keep them attached to the floor and their guns stuck.

Trilla saw that the woman was awake at this point but she was quite clearly afraid and confused, a little angry as well but that was understandable. Coda had a penchant to do things or order things that were at best whimsical and at worst downright confusing.

Sev'rance saw the two new additions to her prison enter and observed them closely. She'd ascertained that escape wasn't a very viable course of action right now so she simply waited and paid attention.

Locking eyes with Sev', Trilla asked Beatrix. "So who is she?"

Beatrix responded promptly. "Her name is Sev'rance Tann and as you can see she is Chiss. She has been trained by Count Dooku in the dark side and according to Lord Coda is an excellent strategist. I have many theories as to why he had her captured but I cannot say for sure until he wakes up."

Sev's eyes widened hearing what the droid explained. Who are these people? How do they know so much about me?! Finally, she decided to ask a question that had been bugging her. "What manner of beast is aboard this vessel?"

Both Trilla and Beatrix tilted their heads at the same time as a thought ran through their heads. Beast? Trilla decided to respond. "There are no animals aboard this vessel, only RG units and three living beings including you."

Sev's brows furrowed as she spoke up again. "Do not lie to me, I could sense it. It woke me up, there is something extremely powerful aboard this ship."

As Beatrix simply shook her head Trilla simply chuckled a bit as she answered with a wry smile. "The 'Beast' you are referring to is Coda, the owner of this vessel and the one who ordered your capture."

Sev' opened her mouth to say something but ended up closing it again. Impossible, that cannot be a person. Deciding to let this train of thought go for the time being she asked. "Why am I here?"

Trilla just shrugged. "I have no idea, You'll have to ask Coda about that when he wakes up. Are you hungry?"

Thrown off by the question she replied. "I am."

Turning to Beatrix, Trilla spoke. "Drop the restraints and let's go eat, I could eat as well."

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Her face was completely neutral as she responded. "Are you sure that's wise Lady Trilla?"

"You can do the calculations, right? What are the odds of her doing much anything even if she isn't restrained?" Trilla asked with a smug look.

Beatrix went silent for a few moments before speaking up again. "Zero. I still won't take any chances, the eight RG's will escort her everywhere just in case."

"Sure. That's reasonable." Trilla nodded. "Now come with me if you would Miss Tann."

----------------------------------------

Prometheus, One jump from Endor.

RG1 and RG2 Stood on the bridge, they had just been attacked the second time since coming out here. Of course, the attack was thwarted almost instantly, the first fleet had been some noble house they had no records of from a planet they had never heard of. The second had been a fairly large fleet of pirates that was just a mish-mash of ships at various states of disrepair.

They'd employed the same tactics for both fleets, turn off the GWG and lure them in, then turn it on and focus fire on propulsion systems. They'd taken almost no damage as the shield they had were years ahead of most ships in the galaxy. All in all, this had just been a cheap way of obtaining ship schematics and parts.

-("Organics are truly illogical beings it would seem.")- RG2 spoke digitally to RG1.

-("They have poorly programmed impulse control yes. Not all of them suffer from this intelligence deficiency though. What about the prisoners?")- RG1 inquired.

-("We have 673 confirmed prisoners, 132 of them seem to be slaves. 13 children that are being taken care of with the help of Lady Scmi and a couple of female modeled RG's, 48 are women though almost one-third of them seem to be catatonic due to physical and mental trauma. Rest are males with varying degrees of injuries, most of the former slaves are suffering from malnutrition.")- He explained.

RG1 cupped his chin as he started calculating all kinds of scenarios before he spoke again. -("I did not anticipate pirates flying around with so many slaves.")-

RG2 shook his head. -("Over half of them came from the self-proclaimed nobles fleet.")-

-("Lord Coda will not like this. How should we proceed?")- RG1 Asked.

-("If our Lord does not like this then we do not like this. Identify high ranking members of both fleets and then pick two from each. Torture and extract any information we can from them. We have received a message from Lady Beatrix that they are on their way now, I'd like to have something to report to them once they get here.")- RG2 Ordered.

-("Keep them alive?")- RG1 asked back.

-("No need, collaborate what they say between the two you pick and then kill them.)-

Talking out loud for the first time in this exchange RG1 responded. "Understood" As his eyes flashed red.

----------------------------------------

Pong Krell was visiting a sleazy bar in the lower levels of Coruscant under orders from the temple to investigate the disappearances of known gangsters. Walking in he saw the usual scene of scantily clad women and substance abuse that he'd expected. Since he woke up this morning he'd had an unsettling feeling that something was about to go very wrong.

Walking up towards the bar he struck up a conversation with a very human-like droid, he wouldn't know it was a droid if he didn't have the force. After a short talk with it, he learned that some new players had set up shop two levels down in an abandoned part of a former factory.

As soon as he walked out the droid sent a digital message. -("Target is inbound, get ready.")-

It didn't take long for Pong to find the location, he'd started feeling increasingly unsettled as he drew closer. The place looked unassuming, the door was left open and no lights were on. This didn't look right at all, but being a Jedi he was certain that he'd come out ok on the other side.

Getting closer, he peeked into the dark building from the doorway. Seeing nothing of note except some run-down machinery and crates with faded writing on them he entered. He couldn't hear anything either, using the force to amplify his sight and hearing turned up nothing as well. Then why does this feel so foreboding...

When he was a few steps in he started picking up sounds of something moving, it was extremely hard to detect and he couldn't place what it was exactly until he noticed that the light from outside was rapidly going out.

Turning around in a hurry he saw something that looked like black liquid fill up the doorway and then all was dark. Making the decision instantly he turned on his two double sabers to give himself light, as the glow of his sabers lit up the area he was shocked. Somehow nine figures had eluded his senses and were standing in a circle around him. A trap?!

"Who are you!? Separatists?" He asked as he scanned around for options.

As soon as he finished speaking he noticed a light coming from the entrance as it opened up a slight rift when the tenth droid walked in. When it was closing behind him he noticed that it was the bartender that lead him here. As it joined the encirclement it spoke up. "Who we are is not important. Pong Krell, our lord has revoked your right to exist and you will as a consequence be executed immediately."

Hearing what it said he was about to take a stance when his danger sense started blaring. Before he could even react dozens of black spikes shot out from the floor and perforated his entire body. His life coming to an end in an unknown factory.

The unit masquerading as the bartender walked up to the body and stowed both of the double sabers inside his body before turning to one of the RG's. -("Clean this up, then proceed to stand by until our siblings identify any other targets to replace or terminate. Also, take as much blood as you can for storage.")-

Getting a ping of agreement from them all he turned and walked back towards his place of employment. In the background, the other nine RG's flooded Pong Krell's body with black matter and started breaking it down into base components. Soon the factory looked like nothing had taken place there as they all returned into the darkness around them.

As RG200 got back to the bar he started doing what he'd been doing for the few days he'd been here. Observing and listening. With a wry smile on his face, he thought to himself. I wonder if all bartenders lead such interesting lives... Something to look into if I have the time.