"I'm not a Rebel, I just hate the blasted Empire."

"Dude, you steal ships, hack into networks, and left a sacred discipleship... I hate to break it to you, but that is the literal definition of a rebel."

"Adara, my dear, you're young. One day you'll understand the consequences that come with ill-fashioned titles."

Vixen, Ahsoka, Glaize and his crew were piled into a light infiltration vessel. All except for Sanjin and HK-777. Glaize was standing next to Evaan and Ahsoka as he addressed the rest, who were seated. "In moments we will be coming in contact with one of the most powerful weapons the Empire has ever built. It's a bold move but we are a bold people. Both Vixen leader and the Ex-Jedi have agreed to the terms of this assault as it aligns with both of our goals."

"Evaan? You agreed to this?" Adara asked with incredulous eyes.

"You shouldn't question your commander, Vixen Two," Fahili warned as she tied her Lekku behind her head with a mag clip.

"I'm just saying, it sounds a lot like suicide for something we never signed up for in the first place to me," Adara said.

"As I was saying," Fahili continued, "You shouldn't question your commander," her eyes cut to Evaan, "but I wouldn't be honest of I pretended that l didn't have the same concerns as Adara in this case. We are working with very little Intel from a man we know very little about. For all we know, he could be handing us to the Empire himself."

"This wasn't an easy decision," Ahsoka broke in. "I've learned to trust my instincts more as I continue to strengthen my bond with the Force. I may not agree with all of his intentions but I can assure you that Glaize means us no harm."

"I'm not so sure the Force works that way..." Assata grumbled as she refitted the resistance chamber back into her half disassembled heavy repeater blaster.

"Listen, you've got no reason to trust me, and frankly I haven't really got the time to convince you either. What I can say is this..." TH-1 floated up and cast the hologram of the Eclipse before them, "This thing is a threat to both of us and it's nearing completion. I'm not so sure we'll have the time or the capability to swing back around for another go at it. We knew the Empire was building something big. This may very well be it. So as they say- it's now or never."

"But there is only a handful of us. Shouldn't we regroup and call for back up? Maybe some of the other cells can help?" Adara sounded almost like she was pleading now, fear evident in her voice.

"If we do that, the Empire will learn that there is a united alliance of rebels actively working against them as opposed to separate cells. That will create problems we just aren't equipped for. Now isn't the time to expose that." Evaan said.

"Blast it all." Assata said as she locked her weapon in place. "I say we take it now."

The nearby Iktotchi smiled "I am in agreement with this one."

Fahili sighed. "So long as the plan is sound, I suppose I'll refrain from offering any further resistance."

"Plan! Now we're talking my style," Glaize said as he stepped forward and gave two hard pats to his droid. It cut on the hologram of the ships' patch-worked blueprints, and let out a few annoyed beeps as it floated back. "We've got five objectives. Get on the ship, take the valuables, take the shield down, get off the ship, blow it up. Easy as Blue Milk Pie." He spun and pointed two fingers towards Assata and Geniin. You two are on contraband. Find the armory grab as much as you can. Clear it out. I've got automatic grav lift pallets that should make it as easier than space monks stealing force sensitive kids from their parents."

Ahsoka glared at him.

"Sorry, couldn't resist." He turned again, this time facing Adara. "You my darling mastermind, I need in the control room. Shut down the shields and pull all the data you can get. Sage and Fahili will play your defense, so you should have nothing to worry about.

"And Finally, Ahsoka and I... we'll be handling another task..." he said eyeing the former Jedi.

"And how do we take this thing down once the shields are down?" Fahili asked.

"Good question! I'm glad you asked." Glaize said, with that same disturbingly charming smile. "We'll leave that to HK-777 and Rayn. Trust me, they're good at that sort of thing. All you need to know is that as soon as the shields are down you haul yourselves back to the docking bay for escape like your life depends on it... because really... it does."

Their stealth ship emerged from hyperspace and there it was... The Eclipse. It looked like a behemoth of blackness there in the dead of space, only partially lit. It was clear which parts were still being fashioned, and it looked as if all around it, raw material grew ever closer in a slow spiral. What Ahsoka found odd about the spectacle wasn't the ship itself, but instead the reason they were able to see it.

There was a bright slowly swirling vortex here, colored in severe pinks and sharp whites, like a cloud of what should have been a storm, but was somehow... not. No torrential activity seemed to be taking place at all. In fact, there was an eerie calm. Furthermore, there was no kind of construction ships or droid around the vessel, but it was clearly not complete, or fully operational.

"I don't even know what to make of that," Assata said as she peered out of the view port.

"It's beautiful," Adara commented, eyes wide in astonishment.

"Did you know about this?" Ahsoka asked, turning to Glaize.

He took looked genuinely surprised. "No, no I didn't... unfortunately as much data that's been returned on the ship and it's outside defenses, there was nothing aside from the naked eye that could have picked up... this..."

"I'm starting to wonder how good an idea this is," Geniin said in his usual easy voice.

"Don't you start with that. We've come too far to turn back now," Glaize said sharply.

Ahsoka noticed him gripping the seat his hand had been resting on rather tightly. Ahsoka placed her hand on it and gave him a reassuring smile. "Okay, let's go."

They entered the docking bay hot. The stealth gave them an easy advantage and between Assata's covering fire and Geniin's shoulder canon, they made quick work of the unsuspecting docking guard. With a rough idea of their destinations based on early schematics for the ship, each team split and sprinted off.

Despite their heavy weaponry, and toting the grav lifts Assata and Geniin proved the fastest. "We've made it to the armory, Glaize." Geniin's voice came through their communications line as Glaize rode with each foot atop the fast flying TH-1 and TH-2, respectively. Ahsoka ran on foot, having no trouble keeping up. Over the comms, a relentless hail of blaster fire raided the air before dying down a few moments later. "And it seems our new ally's made short work of the scant opposition."

"Good," Glaize replied "And your team, my darling mastermind?"

Several corridors away, Adara's legs burned to keep up with Fahili and Sage. "Yeah, thanks to these two intergalactic star sprinters, we're almost there." Off the comm she said, "you two do realize I'm not a trained runner, or even moderately physically active, right? Can you slow down?"

"We have no time and you're doing fine. Just keep that pace," Fahili said as she looked over her shoulder at the trailing Adara.

Sage didn't speak nor did he seem the least bit winded. Adara would have groaned if she wasn't breathing so deeply. "Easy for you two to say. Oh, and I'm just curious, but seeing as this guy has no blasters, are me you supposed to take down this entire room, Fahili?"

As if to answer her question, Sage suddenly spun, a vibroblade, flying from nowhere at all to find itself embedded in the control panel of a nearby door. With an electrical stutter it slid open and Sage darted in.

Even in her adolescent years, Adara had seen a lot. But this was her first time seeing a man run sideways on a wall as if the rules of gravity had given him pardon. As he made his way around its curved bends, vibroblades flew from him as if fired from a knife throwing blaster rifle. Two of the unsuspecting Imperial officers dropped. He kicked off the wall so fast, he looked like he could have been fired from a blaster rifle himself and his blade cut through yet another.

Now he had the room's full attention. As the remaining Imperial officers and Stormtroopers trained their fire on him, Sage rolled to dodge the deadly bolts. He swiped his blades from the center of the foreheads of the men he'd embedded them in initially. Then in a spinning leap, six vibroblades flew from his person, each finding their targets, and dropping the remaining opposition. The entire ordeal took mere seconds.

Fahili walked in, all blasters still holstered, and placed a hand on her hip. She threw Adara a smirk. "No. I figured we let him do all the work."

Adara's voice came through the communicator. "We're in. It shouldn't take me long to hack this thing."

"Excellent," Glaize said. Ahead of him, Ahsoka was standing with an unignited lightsaber in hand, in front of three dark robed Inquisitors. "We... may be a moment or two longer."

Glaize floated next to Ahsoka on the TH droids, and motioned towards the large door behind the Inquistors. "That's the engine room. That's where The Engineer will be."

The Inquistors, bathed in the Dark Side of The Force, began stalking forward. Ahsoka didn't move. "What is it about this Holocron that would make you risk you and your crew this way?"

"Do you remember when spoke about seeking balance? I've been searching for a long, long time, Ahsoka." Glaize sounded tired, distant even.

"This Holocron may not be the end of the journey, or the doorway you think you're looking for."

"Yeah? I say we cross that bridge when we get to it." He nodded towards the three inquisitors that were now sprinting towards them, double bladed lightsabers ignited and spinning on circular hilts. "Right now, I think we play the role of honored guests."

Ahsoka ignited her lightsaber, holding it in her strange, reverse grip in front of her as she too, ran forward. Glaize followed above. Blaster in each hand. One of the Inquistors made a sound akin to a gundark's bark as he flung his blade towards Glaize. The ex-guardian leaned back so far he would've fallen over if not for his TH droids' seemingly magnetic attachment to his feet. Effectively, he dodged the attack, the blade cutting like lasered propellers through the air just above him.

He came back up with a smirk on his face. "Bad call." He vaulted off of the TH droids with a back flip that landed him on the ground with a crouch, while the TH droids themselves continued forward, each of them dashing towards one of each of the still-armed Inquisitors. Before they had a chance to react, they suddenly found their sabers wrenched from their grip by a powerful magnetic force from the droids themselves. The sabers unignited themselves and flew to the belly of the droids with a definitive "clank."

The Sith attempted to use the Force to reclaim their weapons, but before they had much chance Glaize had begun blasting on them, forcing the three of them to focus on dipping and dodging for their lives rather than re-arming themselves. "Oh and in case you were wondering..." Glaize holstered one blasters and reached that now free hand out towards the first lightsaber that was spinning through the air back towards his back. He caught it in his grip with the Force, and tugged it neatly to his waiting hand. "I didn't forget about the return trip."

Ahsoka shot him an impressed smile and then returned her attention to their attackers. "It's over. Do the smart thing."

They did not do the smart thing. Instead with Dark Side Force energy fueled by their rage, they began lobbing the heavy crates they had used for cover at them. Ahsoka ignited her second lightsaber, and she and Glaize met the projectiles, blades of their sabers flashing with brilliant speed. While Glaize wasn't a professional with the weapon its circular spinning feature made for exceptional defense. When Ahsoka made contact with the first enemy, there was no contest whatsoever. Inside the space of a second, the Inquisitor crumpled to the ground, a motionless heap.

The second had managed to grip one of the TH droids that had his weapon in the Force, and crushed it to scrap metal. While still attached to the droid, he then ignited the blade and hurled it towards Ahsoka. She was forced to parry the spinning red blades, giving her enemy all the pause he needed to regain the weapon on its return trip. With a deafening roar he lunged at her, meeting her in furious battle.

Meanwhile, Glaize had nearly made it to the last one when he was forced to slide beneath a crate that had been thrown at eye level. He dodged but it hit the second TH droid behind him which sent the thing hurtling back down the hall, damaging its flight actuators to uselessness. The Inquistor, anxious to reclaim his weapon tried pulling its saber back, but before he could, caught a blaster bolt right between the eyes. He clattered to the ground, dead. "Both eyes open hot stuff," Glaize said with a grimace.

Ahsoka's Inquisitor was in a fitful rage, swinging his blade so fast, and with such heavy blows that it was a wonder that the small Togruta woman could fend them off so effectively. He was fighting in a highly uncouth version of the heavy hitting Djem so saber style, but even still, Ahsoka's mind seemed to be elsewhere.

Even as she defended herself, she found herself eyeing the metal doors that concealed this mysterious "Engineer." The energy that seeped from that room was unlike anything she'd ever felt- as if the clarity she'd been spending so long trying to attain was lingering just outside the grasp of her consciousness. She wondered suddenly, if this is what Glaize must have felt through the Force, the entirety of his pilgrimage. If his training and meditation as a Guardian had been guiding him to this destination, even from across the far reaches of the galaxy.

Ahsoka's subconscious caught an opening in the inquisitor's sloppy form and cut him down with a quick maneuver that slashed him through the middle and left him impaled from the rear. She retracted the blade (and her other) and the Sith fell to the ground unmoving. She didn't even turn to confirm his defeat. All of her attention was on that door.

Glaize stepped up beside her. "You're pretty good at this whole sword fighting thing aren't you?" he said, looking down at the body. He then took a look at the saber he'd pilfered earlier and tossed it to the side. "I mean don't read me wrong. It's fancy... but not my style."

"This is what you've been following isn't it?"

Glaize grinned. "Aaaah, now you sense it. Now you understand why I'm so sure."

"I do, but I still don't trust it."

"We can analyze it later. We just killed three inquisitors. That means something more... serious will be coming this way. Let's get the holocron and go." He touched his comm device. "Rayn, HK-777. Bombardment is a go."

"Roger that," Rayn confirmed on the distant end.

Still speaking into the comm, Glaize said, "The rest of you, get out now."

"You're starting the bombardment, while we're still on the ship?" Ahsoka said with an incredulous glare.

"Hey it lights the fire under our tails. Now let's get this thing, yeah?" He held his hand out towards the heavy metal doors. That thing's locked, and they trashed both of my TH droids. Probably going to need the both of his to open it."

Ahsoka let out a suppressed sigh and held her hand out toward the door as well.

Outside, three Acclimator-Class Imperial Starships modified for heavy weaponry, emerged from hyperspace. Without preamble, high powered energy canon fire began firing on the half built ship, even as multiple TIE fighters moved to engage. However, the feeble defense would prove ineffective, as HK-777 was patched into the systems of the vessels. Though he was physically in the center one with Rayn, he remotely controlled all three with the precision and tactical skill of an entire fleet. It was only a matter of time before the Eclipse would fall.