"Someone is on the way." Ahsoka cut the transmission and ran out of the room so quickly that she nearly forgot her lightsabers. As if startled by her leave, the weapons lifted and rushed after her. When they caught up to her she grabbed them out of the air and clipped each one to the opposite sides of her waist without breaking stride. When she came to the deck, she didn't slow, but still addressed the ship's captain, Commander Sato. "Vixen Squadron is in trouble. I'm going. Don't follow me."

And before he could answer, she was down at the ship's docking port where her Interceptor sat attached to the larger CR90 Corvette. The Actis-class Interceptor was a small, fast, maneuverable ship that many Jedi used in battle during the Clone Wars. It was light, but with its great performance at close range, it lacked the design or capacity for a hyperdrive. As such, it required the additional support of a hyperspace ring for long distance travel.

Ahsoka's was already fitted around it. As she slipped down through the vertical air lock that dropped her right into the seat of the one-man vessel, she ran through the possibilities of what could have gone wrong. The Vixen team had done everything right up this point, and while they expected resistance, an Inquisitor was hardly the kind of opposition she would have imagined that they would to run into. These beings were Ex-Jedi, reprobate to the light side of the force, employed by the Dark Lords of the Sith to do their bidding. As formidable as the Vixen team was, she knew that their chances of surviving an attack by one of them was slim.

Ahsoka was also an Ex-Jedi, but she hardly discarded the light side in favor of the dark. Ahsoka was also the rebellion's foremost liaison and source of intelligence. No one but Bail Organa and a few of the highest level members of the forming alliance even knew who she was. She adapted the moniker 'Fulcrum' to keep her identity hidden, as to not compromise any missions. She was the link between the individual rebel cells, and she managed their individual missions.

She couldn't send rebel ships after the team because most of those close enough were republic vessels whose signatures hadn't been scrubbed, and would give the Empire far too much insight on who in the Galactic Senate was a part of the forming Rebel Alliance. Furthermore, doing so would only be funneling lives through that Inquisitor's lightsaber. She knew it had to be her. She had no choice but to reveal herself to Vixen, because if she didn't, an entire rebel cell was going to die.

******

Adara inched away from the crackle of the red bladed lightsaber. "Jedi..." she said under her breath. Her usual comic mirth had been supplanted by pure fear.

"Yes, at one time I was ignorant enough to live by their cretinous scruples. But no longer..." the figure said as he stalked forward, his voice distorted through the breathing filter of his mask, giving it an errant quality.

Adara noticed the Stormtroopers remained by the door, only watching. She knew she wouldn't survive a moment fighting him. "Then... what are you?"

"What makes you think I should indulge your questions? Your life along with the permission to speak was forfeit the moment you and your band of rebels landed here." his voice was cold and hollow, and sounded like no living thing could sound.

"He's an Inquisitor. Lackey of the Empire." It was that strange voice that had intruded on the Vixen's encrypted line, chiming in once again. "But he's a very formidable lackey, so I wouldn't press my luck."

"Adara get out of there, we are coming for you!" Fahili said over the channel.

"I wouldn't recommend that," The voice said again.

"Who the hell are you? Get off our line!" Assata said.

"The names Glaize. I figured I'd stay to monitor the situation."

Evaan also came in on the channel, ignoring him. "Adara, I informed Fulcrum of the situation. He's sending back up. We took out the stormtroopers that were guarding our ships. We are coming your way right now."

Adara didn't say anything, she only kept inching away from the Inquisitor, moving close to her grav lift, as he moved closer to her. "Tell me what data you and your rebels stole from Kuat, and what additional data you are trying to steal from this facility." His yellow tinted eyes never left hers.

"Heh. Data. This guy's dense." Glaize said.

"What makes you think we took anything?" she asked as she discreetly felt her fingers along the edge of the grav lift.

"I have no patience for this charade. You will tell me what I want to know." His voice grew somehow even more errant.

Adara's fingers found what she was looking for. "Um... No?" She was swift. The two thermal detonators flew from her hands at the same time that she leaped backwards. She didn't have to watch them sailing through the air to know that they would hit their target. Her aim was true.

Only they that did not hit their target. The Inquisitor held his free hand up and there the two metal spheres hovered in the air, just a few feet from him. Neither exploded. The Stormtroopers that had been previously on watch were now on either side of him, weapons raised. The Inquisitor, titled his head. "You rebels are more incompetent than I could have imagined. You through these detonators before you activated them."

Adara grinned with narrowed eyes as she held up a remote detonator in her hand. "I know." She thumbed it. Even as he tried to will them away, the blast erupted in a deafening explosion as Adara rolled back to her feet. "I know how you Jedi roll. Thought I was gonna let you force push two active thermal detonators back at my face?"

"Oh, you're definitely my type." Glaize said over the communicator.

"I'm everybody's type!" Adara said as she sprinted in the opposite direction. She didn't have time to retrieve one of the blasters from the grav lift or to check and see if the Inquisitor and his Stormtroopers were dead. All she had time to do, was run. "Vixen Leader where are you?"

******

The air smelled of heated lasers as the blaster bolts flew all around Evaan's head. The entire mission had been hell since she, Fahili and Assata had left the ship. It seemed that every Stormtrooper on the station was shooting at them. But they made progress. Together, the women were able to cut down most of their opposition, in no small way thanks to Assata's heavy weaponry. Evaan, born into high class Alderaanian society, was far more tuned to flying than foot soldier operations. But that didn't mean she was no good on the ground. Her scoped DH-17 blaster pistol had never failed her.

Back when she was still living on Alderaan, her repeated controversial questions in the young diplomatic pilot course, caught the attention of Queen Breha. The Queen, who had been secretly heading the formation of the Rebel Alliance, along with her husband, Bail Organa, eventually offered her the opportunity to work as a leader of her own Rebel cell. Evaan agreed under one condition- her best friend Assata would be part of her team.

Bail introduced them to Fahili, a Nautolan ex-bounty hunter who'd recently broken away from Saw Gerrara's partisan group when it was still in its early stages. She was seeking a means to fight back against the Empire without using tactics that would endanger civilian lives. He put them in contact with Fulcrum and they were given their first mission. It called for them to attack an Imperial transport that was hauling innocent civilians who were meant to be made into slaves. That is where they picked up Adara who they found was already in the process of fashioning her own escape. When she helped their mission succeed by jamming the imperial transmissions and overloading their engines, Evaan knew they found their fourth member.

Now she was going to save that member. The new room was a TIE Fighter inspection bay. The ships here were nearly complete save for the final checks. She spied the TIE interceptors that they'd recently received intel on. They were a new class of fighter, faster, more maneuverable, and packing more firepower than any other light ship of its size. "Adara, we are almost to you. Where is the Inquistor?" Evaan said over the comms as she ducked behind a stack of supply crates for cover. Fahili stacked next to her. Assata arched her weapon around, spraying powerful shots into the enemy's position.

"I don't know I threw some bombs at him and ran the other way!" Adara replied. "Maybe he's dead?"

"He's not dead." Glaize said. "Look alive, ladies."

The cacophony of blaster fire faded as a lone figure stalked through the opening of a smoke filled corridor. His obsidian garbs were torn and tattered, parts of it singed, and others frayed. Half of his face mask had been shattered, revealing one hard, angry eye, pupils tainted by a maleficent amber, burning with feverish hate. Evaan raised her blaster, trying to keep her hand steady as her finger caressed the trigger.

"Iiiii wouldn't do that if I were you," Glaize warned. "Ever see a Jedi in action? Their defense is an even better offense. You don't want to die that way. I would imagine it would feel quite like shooting yourself."

Fahili stepped forward, slipping a thin, contracted vibrospear from her back. "I'll handle this." She activated the Nautolan weapon and it extended from both sides to reach a length of 1.5 meters, one end extending three claws at the end to flank it's forward, sharpened point. The weapon surged with crackling energy. "Cover the Stormtroopers for me."

As if it were a cue, the blaster bolts started up again. Assata responded, somehow taking long strafing strides, even as she fired her heavy duty weapon, her muscles straining against the recoil, as she maintained deft accuracy. Evaan focused on those that looked to fire on Fahili, so that she could focus on the Inquisitor.

Even as she approached, Fahili could sense the power that burned within her opponent. There was a heat that accompanied a raging hate, and she could feel the strength of it in her bones. Fahili was not a force user, but she could imagine that his immersion in the Dark Side was deep. His single revealed eye bored into her even as he activated the crimson blade of his lightsaber. She contemplated her foe, thinking of the stories her heard of the great feats of the Jedi and compared it with what she felt now. She'd never had the honor of doing battle with one before, and she would be lying if she were to say that she wasn't excited to see what one was capable of firsthand.

He made the first move. As if launched from a canon, he flew from several yards away, blade raised above his head, and came down on her with a strength and speed unprecedented. She managed to guard, but she knew instantly that should would need to end this bout quickly if she wished to survive it. His tenacity seemed supernatural. To make matters worse, vibrospears, even of the enhanced Nautolan design were not generally equipped to do battle against lightsabers. Still, if she played her cards right, she could parry all of his blows in a way that would allow the spear's energy field to hold up against the greater power of the lightsaber without it getting sheared straight in half.

This feat proved to be far more difficult in practice than theory. While the Inquisitor's attacks weren't terribly refined, each one was relentless. She could feel the animus in his every swing. Even with glancing strikes, she was driven back. She was known for her speed, yet even still she found hardly any moment to make an offensive strike.

Then came one of his less refined blows, and one of her more well timed parries. He was open. She jabbed and struck him at the hip, but he'd shifted his leg in time to make what would have been a battle defining blow into nothing more than a trivial flesh wound. Still, she was now on the offense. When she pulled back, she moved into a spin, that forced him to step back, and then ducked when the spear came around in a wide horizontal arc. The spin brought her back into close range, where with her off hand she underhanded one of her many hidden vibroblades and impaled him in the abdomen.

Instead of crying out he grunted, and Fahili could see the hate in his eye before he back slapped her so hard she thought she would pass out. Her headtails flailed around her head as she spun and dropped to a knee. "Fahili!" Evaan cried out as she fired her blaster at the Inquisitor, but he easily deflected the shots with his saber.

"Hey!" Assata shouted as she hefted her weapon. "Deflect this!" When she pulled the trigger, the bolts came in a blinding torrent. But to their surprise, he held his saber in front of him, and the other end of it extended. Then, to make matters worse, it began to spin. Impossibly, he deflected every round from Assata's heavy canon. The bolts went wild. The Vixens darted in all directions, scrambling for cover in attempt to avoid being hit.

Hoping to catch him while distracted, Fahili sprinted back at him. Catching her in his peripheral the Inquisitor quickly extended his hand towards a supply crate not far away and through the force, flung towards Fahili. The impact sent her spinning. And then he was on her. It was all she could do to block the first strike, but the second cut clean through her vibrospear sheering the weapon uselessly in two. He kicked her in the abdomen, sending her to the ground.

"You rebels don't learn do you?" he said as he brandished his spinning lightsaber. The whir of the blades was terrifying. He dashed forward, bringing his deadly weapon down toward Fahili. She shut her eyes, awaiting death.

To her surprise, she felt no heat, no pain. Tentatively she wondered if the craftmanship behind a lightsaber's ability to cut and cauterize so quickly left the victim numb without realizing what had happened. But then she heard the loud crackling sizzle that only existed when two equally powerful energy fields clashed with one another. She opened her eyes to see a bright, white blade holding the Inquisitor's weapon at bay. Holding that blade was a silhouette of a tall thin woman, with orange skin, and horns on her head that connected to three long head-tails, two of which spilled over slim shoulders like a royal head dress.

Ahsoka Tano stared at the inquisitor through narrowed eyes. "I think it's the Empire that can stand to learn a thing or two."