Hell, Shadow thought as another wave of blaster bolts, more accurate this time, flew over his head. He ran away from fifty clone troopers who were firing at him. He fired a round and three troopers dropped. He was running low on ammo.

6 Ѕ hours earlier…

Shadow had ignored Doc’s comment as he made his way to the store room. It would take an hour to get to Gualla’s palace by foot, and the meeting would start at four in the morning. Being there a half an hour earlier would be just for precaution. When he got the store room, he checked his ammo stock and found that he was running low on the 14.5mm x 114 rounds required for his sniper rifle.

So, he left the ship. He didn’t bother to tell anyone since he shouldn’t have been gone that long. And why would any of the crew bother looking for him until when it was time to leave?

5 Ѕ hours earlier…

So he had left for a weapons dealer that he knew in the business sector. After arriving there, and purchasing enough rounds to satisfy him, he decided to do some recon around the part of the sector that Gualla’s ‘palace’ was in. It was really more of a factory and fortress than anything else.

3 Ѕ hours earlier…

Shadow looked at the Jedi through the scope of his sniper rifle. It seemed luck was on his side, seeing as the Jedi didn’t seem aware of him. Shadow knew that Jedi normally had a warning sense to help prevent them from dieing, so he kept on alert incase the Jedi tried something.

The rifle kicked against his shoulder as he fire and the Jedi’s head was blown off. That was responded to with three beams of light appearing near the now fallen Jedi and a sudden appearance of clone troopers out of the shadows.

Didn’t see all of them, Shadow thought as the troops fired in his direction. The civilians on the streets looked equally surprised to see them. He got up from his position and began to run. Even though Shadow was just as fit as any of them, they didn’t give up.

2 Ѕ hours earlier

Shadow had almost expended all of his sniper ammo and was now using his Assault Rifle. Those clones really did not give up until they were dead or the job was done. The CIS was going to have a difficult time with the clones’ determination.

1 hour earlier…

Shadow was slowly picking off the troops, but they were also beginning to pick him off in a sense because they were getting more accurate. He was just surprised that they had been at it for about two hours. Anyone else would have tired out by now. He had lost sight of the other three Jedi about ten minutes ago. What he didn’t want to happen came true as he turned the corner to find three Jedi blocking his way down the street.

Shadow fired a shot from his sniper and one of the Jedi moved to block it, but it was too fast and it created a large hole in his chest. As the Jedi dropped, the other two ran foreword to get close enough to render his rifle useless. The only problem? Shadow was as deadly with a sniper rifle at close range as he was at long range.

The next shot caught one of the Jedi in the stomach. The other Jedi got close enough to take a swing at him, but was unable to when Shadow caught him in the stomach with the butt of his rifle. Shadow then put a round through the Jedi’s head and continued running.

Now…

Shadow primed his last plasma grenade and threw it at the troops. The blast took out eight of them, but still left about thirty-nine troops left to deal with. He turned down an ally only to find dead-end. Shadow turned around and watched as the troops filed into the ally. His chronometer read 2:30. Only now would the crew probably begin to look for him.

“Not my lucky day.” Shadow said to himself as they prepared to execute him. And he had just used the last round for his sniper rifle on the Jedi. So he got out his Double bladed Vibrosword. "I never thought I'd get cornered by clones. Doesn't matter though, I'll get out of this." Then Shadow charged at them.

"2:30? I'll tell the others about the tracking devices in the morning." Jack thought after listening to the mission briefing. There was no sign of any of the crewmembers in the common room, so he decided to go back to his room to get some rest. Before he went to sleep, he prepared his equipment for the next day and configured the tracking devices.

01:15

The beeping of Jack's chronometer woke him up. It was 01:15, time to grab his gear and see if anyone was awake already. After 5 minutes, Jack walked out of his room, equipment ready, and headed for the common room. The ship was silent as he walked through the hallway and you could have heard the sound of boots walking if his weren't sound dampened...When he entered the common room, it was empty.
Well, no time to waste, better wake Shadow and tell him I have plenty of tracking devices we could use for this meeting and during the rest of the mission. Jack walked out of the common room and went to Shadow's room. "Not here. He should be around here somewhere though."

After having searched the entire ship, from the bridge to the engineering room, Jack came to the conclusion that Shadow wasn't on the ship. "Damnit, where could he be?" he muttered as he went back to the common room. "Better wait for someone else to wake up. If he isn't back by then, I'll go and find that idiot." Jack sat down and checked his equipment while waiting. He had seperated the tracking devices and put them into two groups. One group was calibrated to send a signal used to tag foes. The other ones could be used to tag friendlies. After finishing his work, he leant back and held his hands behind his head while facing the hallways. "Any time now...."

Raze yawned, then stretched, then got up off her bed and padded her way towards the bridge. It was just after 0200. The ‘boys’ should be gearing up to go, she thought.

Heading into the common room she expected to see K’Nala, Trando, Seth, Jack and Shadow getting ready to leave. But the only person there was Jack.

“Did they all leave without you, Jack?” she asked, raising an inquisitive eyebrow. “Or are you just over eager to go and kill something?”

"Very funny Raze, very funny..." Jack answered sarcasticly while standing up. He started grabbing his weapons from the table and continued.
"I was just preparing things before we go to the meeting, but that's not why I was sitting here waiting." He paused and walked up to Raze.

"It's Shadow, he isn't on the ship and I've waited long enough to know something is wrong. We should wake the others and start searching...."

Raze frowned slightly. "Did you try contacting him on his com link?" she asked. "Maybe he just went out for a walk or something." She knew that sounded lame, but it was still a possiblity. A remote one, granted, but still possible.

"As for waking the others, I'll take care of that." She went over to the com panel on the wall and punched a few buttons, then plugged her ears with her fingers.

In a few seconds, an obnoxiously loud claxon sounded, followed by an automated voice message that repeatedly said, "Attention, all personnel! Please assemble in the common room!"

Raze let the alarm ring for a few moments, then turned it off. She grinned at Jack. "Think everyone's awake now?"

"Definetly." Jack grinned after he stopped covering his ears "Next time I'll wear my helmet."

Jack walked around Raze and stood next to the com panel. "I forgot to mention that there's constant static on Shadow's com and he doesn't respond..it's out of range as far as I can tell."

A few doors were opening in the hallway and he could hear someone cursing. "Ah, here comes the rest of the crew, I'm sure K'Nala found that alarm very entertaining." Jack said sarcasticly. "She'll probably want to hug you to death for that." He couldn't help but wonder how Raze would react to that idea...

"Indeed," Raze said coolly. "But she doesn't strike me as a 'hugging' sort. More like a 'zapping' sort, if you know what I mean." She peered down the corridor, to see if K'Nala was anywhere in sight. "That said," she continued cautiously, "I think I'll head for the cockpit. Less chance of her 'zapping' me with and Force Lightning with all the equipment around."

She turned back to Jack as she reached the cockpit threshold. "I'll do a scan of the area," she said to him. "See if I can pick up anything 'unusual' that Shadow might have felt curious enough to go and investigate. Can you send the co-ordinates for this Gualla's place to my station? If it's not too far away, I'll start there and work my way back."

Vanir woke up, hearing the message.

"Not the most pleasant way to get woken up," He mumbled to himself, putting his Mandalorian Armour on, getting his longsword and Blaster pistols, and assembled to the Common Room.

"So, what's the deal Raze?" He asked her, yawning and scratching his head, "I'm sure you pleased yourself waking us up like that." Vanir said, laughing.

"Oh, I did," Raze replied to her captain. She donned a slight grin. "Immensely. Much quicker and easier than whispering gentle encouragements into your ear, don't you think?" Her grin faded. "We've got a missing man," she said in all seriousness to Vanir. "Shadow. He was supposed to be here getting ready to lead the team to Gualla's palace, and Jack says he can't reach him on his comlink. I was just going to start scanning the area to see if I could locate him, or anything that might have caught his interest. You have any ideas on where he might be?"

"So you lost one of your crew." K'Nala announced quietly walking up behind the Vanir and Raze with a sinister smile. "What an embarrising thing for a captain to lose."

"Fortunetly for you. I know have sensed where he is, Unfortunetly he's in terrorble danger."

"Well, you are right Raze. Hmm, that is unfor..."

"So you lost one of your crew." K'Nala announced quietly walking up behind the Vanir and Raze with a sinister smile. "What an embarrising thing for a captain to lose."

"Oh, don't worry, Sith , i've lost my marks many times because of my care-free spirit. Now if you wouldn't mind, spill it out."

Trando heard Raze, K'Nala and Vanir talking.

"Anybody noticed that our indestructable crew is missing a certain crew member?" He asked.

"Yes and I'm about to lead us to him." K'nala informed turning to the ships captain. "Now if you want to assemble a team we will go."

"I'm ready whenever you are." Trando stated.

Raze crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, I'm not going. I'm staying right here," she said definitively, as she glared at K'Nala. "I don't do 'search and rescue'."

"Ha!" Trando bellowed, before muttering another comment to Raze, "Wimp."

"Count me in." Jack stated. He turned around, grabbed the tracking devices and put them in his backpack. After that, he turned to K'Nala.

"There's no time to waste, if Shadow caught the Republic's attention, it is no longer safe to stay on Nar Shaddaa any longer. We should go find Shadow and get that meeting over with at once."

"Wimp?" Raze glared at the Trandoshan. "Wimp! Just because I don't go around trying to kill everything that moves doesn't mean I'm a wimp!"

Her skin now a bluish hazy tinge, Raze punched the nearest com panel. "Mr. Logan!" she shouted into it. "Get your butt up here in the cockpit, now! You know enough about this ship to at least get her off the ground if need be. I'm putting you in charge of the ship until we get back."

Raze grabbed her leather jacket out of the cockpit, and adjusted her holster belt. "Wimp, indeed!" she growled. And she headed for the ramp.

"Great," Trando muttured, "Now I can stay on the ship, while everyone else does the work. I've done too much work in the past."

Raze paused mid-step, then slowly turned to face the good Doctor. "Excuse me?" she said in a chill tone of voice. She shook her head. "Oh no. No, no, no, no, no. The only person staying aboard this ship is Mr. Logan. And he doesn't need any medical attention. Doctor," she said with finality. "If I'm going, you're going. And I'm going. So, get your gear and get a move on." Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "Now."

"Hey hey hey, i don't want my First Mate and my Doctor killing each other, if i wanted i would kill you right now five times before you even hit the ground," Vanir said, changing from angry look to a grin.

"Now, everybody shut up and follow K'Nala." Vanir said, angry. He didn't like the idea of his crew turning on each other.

The fact that Shadow was using a close-combat weapon and they were in an ally didn’t aid the clones, but they didn’t really have to aim to shoot at Shadow. That was why Shadow’s rechargeable energy shield didn’t really hold out long against the combined fire and Shadow began to take some hits. Most of them were light wounds, but a few lucky shots were getting through and really hurting Shadow.

That was reinforced when a bolt caught him in the leg and pain helped fill his already pained filled senses. Damn, he thought and cut the head off of the clone that did that. The number of clones in that ally should have been decreasing, but they didn’t seem to stop coming. If fact, they seemed to be pushing him back.

Shadow currently had five major blaster wounds. They were on the hip, the chest, ribcage, right leg, and the left shoulder. He couldn’t keep this up. He needed to get out of the ally.

Shadow stopped in mid-swing and charged the line again. The clones prepared to open up on him, but were surprised when Shadow jumped, despite his leg. A bolt caught him in the left leg, but it didn’t stop him from bowling down anyone in his way once he got to the ground again.

He was a literal bloody site from the havoc he wrought with his sword from inside the enemy line and his wounds. His shield was now recharged due to the momentary lull and was taking the hits from behind him, but it was holding.

He made his way through the line, and when he broke free of it, he began to run. Not towards the crew, since he would get them all killed that way, but away from it. Shadow didn’t know or care as to where he was going as long as it was away from the crew.

It turned out that the troops were defiantly getting reinforcements, judging from the number of clones behind him now. To tell the truth, Shadow was more likely to die of blood loss right now rather than being shot by the clones. He could feel himself growing weaker.

A roar came out of nowhere and a Rancor came into view at the end of the street. You did not just release your Rancor Gualla, Shadow thought to himself as the Rancor headed for him. Gulla most likely did not like the Republic poking around in his bussiness and decided to take advantage of the diversion created by Shadow to create more havoc for the Republic.

Rancor in front, Clones behind, and blood loss in the middle. Not his lucky day. You've been in worse situations, Shadow, but you normally had a plan to put you back on top, Shadow thought to himself. Definatly not his lucky day.

K'Nala walked out of the Ship and headed to a nearby airspeeder, She got in it followed by those who were going with her and Raze piloted. She led the group across the city scape towards where she felt Shadow's presance. Before they even saw Shadow they heard blaster fire and a roar from the large rancor. Turning the corner around a skyscraper the view of Republic clones filled the street at one end and the rancor on the other with Shadow right inbetween the two of them. Flying over the clones K'Nala looked down then turned to the others in the speeder.

"You deal with the rancor and your injured crewman... The clones are mine." and with that she jumped out of the moving speeder and into the middle of the army.

"Aye Aye "Captain" K'Nala," Vanir told her before turning to his crew. "Now, Raze, you and Doc take care of Shadow, Seth, Jack, you two fight the Rancor, don't worry, i'll blast him with my blasters and grenade him."

He then waited for their answers.

There was a clear ring of white visible around Raze's eyes as she stared at the approaching rancor. She had never seen a full grown rancor before. As a matter of fact, she'd never seen a juvenille rancor before either, but seeing as this one was well over 20 metres tall, she figured that it was probably an adult.

"By the Black Stars...." she murmured. "I don't think blaster bolts would even be a minor irritation to that thing, Captain." She looked around for a place to land the speeder, and found one as close to Shadow as she could get, without taking her eyes of the rancor.

"C'mon, Doc," she said hopping out. "You heard what the Captain said. Let's get Shadow and get out of here."

"So? Atleast i can distract him. Wait, maybe...yes. Seth, Jack, you follow me." Vanir said, a grin on his face, suddenly appearing. He was confident of his plan, but it was a bit suicidal.

K'Nala's lightsabre ignited at both ends as she stood up strait after jumping down to the ground. The clones around her turned to look directly at her and started to aim their weapons, She simply held her sapre out and spun around cutting through any trooper that was infortunet enough to get in the way of the Blades. She stopped spinning with a two meter gap between her and clones in every direction. She held her hand out and used the force to knock down all the troops in one direction and then held her hand out in the other direction and fired bolts of lightning at several troops.

"C'mon, Doc," she said hopping out. "You heard what the Captain said. Let's get Shadow and get out of here."

"I suppose it's better than sitting around here anyway," Trando replied, "And why of all people was I stuck with you. K'Nala and Vanir are the bosses, not you."

"At least we get to do the fun job huh? Lead on..." Jack answered to Vanir as he jumped out of the airspeeder. "I hope for your sake that this little plan of yours isn't as suicidal as I expect it to be." Jack grabbed a small explosive device out of his backpack, lethal enough to kill the rancor if detonated from within the rancor. "I'll have plan B ready just in case..."

Shadow saw the speeder and thought to himself, Who would be coming here? His question was answered when he saw K'Nala jump off the speeder and the rest of the crew land. He could see the crew heading in his direction and he could feel himself getting weaker, but he still had one thing to give. The Rancor was still heading for him at a fast pace, but Shadow still had time. Plus it seemed that the others would be distracting it.

He took off his cloak to find that his regular cloths wear soaked with what he guessed was his blood, considering the now freely flowing wounds that were also being soaked up by the cloak. He took apart his current weapons, the Assault Rifle and the Sniper Rifle, and put them together with other pieces strapped on him. When he finished, the new weapon was bulky and looked like the two weapons were melded together. He unstrapped a large, heavy round from his back and loaded the new weapon with it. He aimed the weapon at its head and waited for it to get closer. The world was getting blurry.

Vanir nodded to Jack. He took out his Vibro Longsword, he knew he would need his blade. Instead of using both of his hands for better maneuvering, he took out a blaster with his left hand. A deadly combination, both for the mark and the wielder...

He started running at the Rancor, who seemed to pursue Shadow. He would only hope is plan would go good. Aiming his blaster pistol at the Rancor's eye, he sniped at it, the Rancor screaming, scratching it. He then looked down upon Vanir, Seth and Jack.

"Oh goody." Vanir mumbled before being pushed to a wall by the Rancor's claw, his armour protecting him, surviving the crash, the armour also absorbing the damage. He got to his knees, grinning.

"Now this is going to be fun."

Trando reached for his tools of equipment and prepared to stun the Rancor. The Rancor had unsuspected a stun and Trando completly stunned the Rancor.

"It's all yours guys and gals!" He shouted to the crew.

Vanir nodded to Trando. He climbed one a wall very difficultly and made a leap of faith to the Rancor's neck. It was rowdy at first but then Vanir stabbed the Rancor with his Vibro Longsword, but still with the difficulties for the Rancor was always shaking. Next, he took out his blaster pistols and shot him right in the eyes.

The Rancor screamed with pain again yet not fully dead. Vanir grinned and took out Thermal Detonator. He took out his Vibro Longsword and sheated it. He then turned around, still grinning, and backflipped another leap of faith, throwing the thermal detonator, luckily ending in his mouth. Now for the fireworks, as Vanir landed on his knees, hurt.

"He shoots he scores!" Vanir shouted, getting up.

"I love a good show." Trando added as the Rancor was stumbling.

As the others distracted the Rancor, Raze hurried toward Shadow. She was no doctor, and to her untrained eye, he looked in pretty bad shape. "Doc!" she called out over her shoulder. "You're needed over here!"

Shadow was holding a large amalgamated weapon in his hands and it wavered in the air as he tried to aim it at the rancor while staying upright and conscious at the same time.

"Shadow!" she called out, so as he wouldn't aim the beastly weapon at her by mistake. Even so, she had to weave and dodge to avoid being in his line of fire.

She ran up to his side, and put her arm around his blood drenched torso to try and help support him.

"Can you make it to the speeder?" she asked. Then, seemingly having shook off the stun from the Doctor, the rancor roared a roar that drowned out all other sounds. Then there was a muffled explosion. Raze looked up. And up more. The rancor was falling like a felled tree and she and Shadow were directly in its path. "Like... now?"

"Come on hurry!" Trando shouted.

If Raze would just get up with Shadow, then they might survive. After that, Trando knew where he was needed next.

"Oh great!" Vanir said, taking out his blaster pistols. He simply shot a the Rancor, no aim, since he was so big, it had to hit him. It seemed to do nothing and then he was desperate.

"Raze, hurry!" He shouted to her, taking out another Thermal Detonator and throwing it to the Rancor one more time.

Shadow heard a voice as the world was getting much more blurry. He looked to see a person running to him. Who was it? His thoughts weren't exactly straight at the moment. The person put their arm around him to support him and said something else he couldn't understand. He looked again to the big, brown form that was a rancor and heard a muffled explosion. It suddenly seemed to get larger and his hearing was filled with more noise, voices probably. He didn't understand what was happening, but his instinct screamed at him to run away. The problem was that his breathing was getting harder and his legs were finally loosing their strength.

He began to move with the other person's help, but it didn't look fast enough to get out of the way of whatever was getting larger. After a moment, the world finally started spinning and then black as he fell foreward, followed the sudden crash as the rancor landed less than a foot behind him and the person.

"...well about time" Jack murmered, not having done anything but watch the show so far.

"Get Shadow out of here, I'll go see if K'Nala left us some clones to deal with." He yelled to the others, and turned on his stealth generator just in case. "I wonder who will go to the meeting now, Shadow won't be back in shape any time soon."

Raze nearly gagged from the smell that was emnating from the dead Rancor at her feet. "Good grief, that thing reeks!" she said, and she shivered slightly.

She tried to lift Shadow to his feet, but being unconscious he was like dead weight in her arms. And being over 2 metres tall, he was pretty hard for her to move on her own. "Erm... can I get some help here, please?" she said, looking at Vanir, then Trando.

"K'Nala!" Jack yelled as he ran around a corner. He stopped dead in his track when he saw what was on the other side of the corner. The street was filled with dead clones, there were arms and legs everywhere, with clones piled up at just about any imaginable place. There was blood all around him, the street looked like the remains of a fricken' warzone.
"Damn"he thought when he saw K'Nala up ahead, standing ontop of the remains of recently decapitated clones.
"Note to self: NEVER get on K'Nala's bad side."

He started walking towards her and avoided tripping over a couple of limbs on his way. "Nice...really nice K'Nala. The rancor is dealt with and we're getting Shadow out of here. He won't be able to go to the meeting any time soon."

Vanir nodded and rolled to her as quickly as he could. He grabbed Shadow's arm with Raze and both helped each other, putting Shadow on Vanir's shoulders, quickly running and avoiding the Rancor that fell.

"Phew, now that was close," Vanir said, cleaning his forehead of swet and laying down Shadow on the ground.

"Yeah," Trando answered back, "I've never fought a Rancor before."

"The rancor was released by the Hutt, He is not in the mood for a meeting with us." K'Nala stated walking pass jack. He continued to walk up to the fallen rancor, shadow and the captain.

"The time for patiance and waiting has past, Gualla will not deal or give us the information willingly. We must go to the slug and force what we need from him... NOW!"

"Hmm, with pleasure. Doc, Seth and Raze, take Shadow to the ship and stay there. I don't know why i am saying this, since you probably won't hear me. Anyways, you go to the ship and me, K'Nala and Jack take care of "Slimy Slug Boss Wanna-bee". Agreed?"

"Agreed. Just make sure the ship is ready to go when we get back." Jack responded while turning to Raze. "I suggest you get going before Gualla decides to release another pet." he grinned with that idea.

"At last the captain takes command of the situation." K'Nala Stated looking at the captain. "Perhaps we will finally get somewhere and complete this simple task."

"Hey, don't worry K'Nala, i am a fine Captain," He said, smiling to her, "Of course, this would have been simpler if the slug wouldn't had want to wait 8 hours and then release a pet Rancor."

"Finally, I get to do something I'm good at," Trando told them, "Curing the sick."

Just be aware that he could die, if I do the wrong thing, Trando thought as he left with the others.

"Oh and, Raze," Vanir said to her. He went to her and whispered, "Keep an eye on Trando, you know of his past."