Trazu was mentally grumbling the whole time he was putting on the cold weather gear. He had taken the gear off the shortest man of the four, but it was still a bit big on him. Just have to make do. He thought to himself as he finished putting the gear on, then placed his lightsaber in one of the outter pockets: it would have been to risky to take his normal sword along. I wonder what time it is. He thought glancing down the ramp then back up to the rest of the 'chosen' group that was going. "We need to get to the base and back before night fall, as I am not sure this wreck will be suffient shelter." He said as he watched Asri put the last piece of her gear on: it barely fit her. "Last thing we need is for the Admiral to freeze to death on this frozen hell hole of a planet."

When they finally stepped out Trazu could almost feel the cold just wanting to freeze his scaly hide. Fortuately the Tom-Toms had remained close by but they were nervious: their instincts telling them that they were not their original riders. "Easy now..." Trazu said to them, tapping into the Force to reassure and calm them before mounting up. While the other's mounted their Tom-Toms Trazu took a quick note of the sun's location in the sky and the lay out of the land around them. In a chaotic environment like this things can change quickly and he wanted every advantage he could get to make it back to the wreck. Hopefully we'll have ship to use as transport on the way back. He thought.

Trazu took an additional moment to find the tracks and directed his Tom-Tom to follow them. Fortunately the Tom-Toms seemed to know exactly where they are going and went into auto pilot mode. Only thing Trazu had to do was keep an eye out for Wompas and the steadily sinking sun...

Lavality wasn't sure how long she was out, only that when she awakened she knew she wasn't in space anymore. "Ow...." she said and felt her head, man did she have a headache, but that was moat considering how COLD she was. "Brrrrr..." she said and pulled her jacket closer to her and made every attempt to keep herself warm

"Whats wrong Admiral?" A guard said

Lavality shivered. "Why is it so COLD?"

"Cold? It's actually a bit nice in here...." the guard said but Lavality shook her head. "It is COLD!" she complained

Somewhere.. out there...

Maskis raised his Tom-Tom which stopped. He gestured for the rest to stop as well and took his binocs and survayed the area. "Yep... this is the place.." he said and watched as a smugglers vessel blasted out and into space. "There's a lot of guards though, looks like this is a prime area for smugglers." he said and handed the Binocs to Trazu. "Any idea's you two?"

Trazu accepted the binoculars and studied the scene. "Far too risky to fight our way in." He decided. "Especially considering we have no idea how many are inside."

"So we sneak our way in?" Asri asked as she studied the area herself. "I don't see how...Tom-Tom's are rather visible..."

"Not sneak...deception..." Trazu said as he handed the binoculars back to Maskis. "I know it's a dangerous thing to do...but I am assuming those guys know four of their number went out to investigate the crash."

"Thus are likely expecting to get a report from them." Asri mused. "I did notice they were stupid enough not to bring any form of communication with them. Jedi mind trick time eh?"

"Likely." Trazu said. "I won't use it unless I have to...as we don't know how strong willed these guys are."

"Let's just hope they don't notice the height increase and decrease in two of their comrades eh?" Asri said.

"In your case it won't be as noticeable...as most of your height difference is in your legs." Trazu quipped, to which Asri socked him in the arm: thankfully the winter gear absorbed most of the blow. "The problem is making sure they don't notice that four humans suddenly became one human and three T'Doshok."

He knew they couldn't risk just standing out here much longer, as the longer they delayed in moving forward the more likely the guards will notice them and get suspicious. So without further discussion Trazu urged his Tom-Tom forward, the rest following. The guards did look toward them as they approached, one of them raising a weapon, but another signeled for him to stand down. It was this guard that approached them, forcing them to stop.

"What's the verdict guys? Anything we can use?" He asked them.

Oh thank you scorekeeper. Trazu thought as he mentally smiled at their fortune: his assumption had been correct. "A lot of the ship is salvagable." Trazu replied, using the Force to remove the slight Trandoshan accent he had developed since the first time he had returned home years ago. "Unfortunately all the passengers didn't make it and will no doubt attract wompas to the ship to feast upon. So we'll need to move quickly to beat those beasts to it."

The guard looked at his time piece. "It will be too cold to go out in about three hours." He said. "Best use a ship to get there and back more quickly. Need any help?"

Trazu thought that over a moment, mentally counting the rest of the passengers in the ship. "About eight more bodies should surffice." He said. Short term exposer probably wouldn't hurt them...but why take that chance? He thought. "Weather gear will be needed to work inside." He added. "There's enough holes in the hull to make it not a very good shelter at all."

The guard nodded, understanding. "Come inside and warm up a bit while I get the approval of the boss."

Now this could pose a problem. Once inside they'll be expected to dismount and at least remove their head gear, meaning their cover will surely be blown. Sure there are likely Trandoshan's working here, but did they have any that were white scaled or just shy of five feet tall? Doubtful....

Maskis nodded and looked toward the double doors that lead into the base. This'll be interesting... he said

There Tom-Toms continued toward the base and then into the heart of it, they rode around until they got the assembly area. Maskis noted that two the ships he had just sighted where of Serendivus design. Damn... I'm beginning to wonder if these guys ARE pirates... he said after spotting the ship, he was getting rather worried now

When they stopped he was about to dismount, at least until someone said his name.

"I knew you would be here... Maskis...." he heard a trandoshan's voice boom over all the others and he turned. He waited for a second before the trandoshan walked out from the blackness

"How...." Maskis said before shaking his head.

"That shuttle was actually from Naboo, if we had KNOWN there where Seren's on board we would've sent a much larger recovery team." The trandoshan said and looked at the other three. "I really hope you didn't kill the four I had sent out." he shook his head. "That would be understandable if you did." he said and turned to the others in the bay, who hadn't even touched there weapons

Maskis got down. "But why the hell are you guys here?!" he said and grabbed the trandoshan by the collar, it was obvious the two knew each other now. "This.. was owned by pirates a few weeks ago but we came and 'liberated' them after the Seren's told us what was going on in kashyyyk.. we set this up so we could smuggle supplies in and out in the event TNO took interest." The trandoshan said before Maskis released him. "Bastard...." he said and walked over to his Tom-Tom. "Still.. how'd you know it was US?"

"Lets see... height difference mean a thing? Plus those guys weren't suppose to report back for another thirty minutes, you arriving early kind of set off some warning bells." he smiled at his friend. "Lighten up." the trandoshan said and patted his friend on the back. "I'll have a ship ready for you in a few minutes, right now, you should go in." he said not even knowing about Asri

Back at the crashed shuttle

Lavality continue to shiver even after she was under two layers of clothings, the guards just couldn't understand why she was so cold. Lavality sat there on the deck and covered herself up, "cold... cold... cold... cold...." she said to herself as she tried any means to warm up

Well this was certainly a big change for the better. Trazu thought as he dismounted and removed his head gear. Still, he kept his guard up, for while he detected no deception via the Force, there was always the risk of rebels being among this group.

Of course there always had to be some kind of snag, which revealed itself when Asri removed her head and hand gear, revealing her white scales. Maskis' friend noticed it immediately and drew his blaster. Acting on instinct, Trazu drew out his lightsaber and ignited it. "Don't even think about it." He hissed at him warningly, pointing the red plasma blade at the Trandoshan as he put himself between him and Asri.

"Indeed..." Asri conceeded, giving the man a steely look. "Lavality would have your ass if you hurt me."

The trandoshan wined slightly. "You... how..." he blinked a few times before looking at Maskis. "Er... any friend of Lavality... is... a friend of mine." he said relunctantly. He knew for a fact that if he harmed a Seren, it would bring hell down on his faction, and that Seren's paid him very good money to smuggle things in and out of troublesome spots

"Let it be known that she is allowed on base." He said and turned around. "Sorry Maskis... but.... old trandition and cultures die hard." he said and left

Maskis shook his head and looked the guard. "The mess mall is this way, the ship will be ready in about ten minutes." he said and guided the group to the mess hall.

Along the way Maskis could see the stares and hostile glances that where made, naturally, at Asri

When they got the mess hall the 'hall' suddenly fell silent. "Disturbing..." was all Maskis said before everyone went back to eating

Trazu turned off his lightsaber and put it back in his pocket. It bothered him how even non-Trandoshans were glaring at Asri and he could only imagine what she was feeling. Knowing it was but a minor comfort, he reached out and held her hand. Asri looked down at him and gave him a weak smile in response.

Why do people always judge by appearance first? He thought as they sat down in the mess hall. Appearances hardly ever match the person within.

They got some minor snacks to munch on while they waited. Asri of course didn’t eat and instead seemed to be trying hard to ignore the stares in her direction. More then once Trazu had to show her some form of comfort to stay an outburst from her: he may not be able to read her mind via the Force, but her body language was very telling.

After what had to have been the longest ten minutes of their lives, they were told the ship was ready. Asri seemed to want to bolt to the ship, but stayed by Trazu’s side. He didn’t blame her and he didn’t relax himself until they were on the ship and on the way back to the crash site.

Lavality was just restnig there when a shock wave permiated the ground and caused the ship to shake apart. One of the guards looked out the jagged edge to find a droid fast approuching the crash site, "what the hell is THAT thing?!" he said as the droid suddenly opened fire on the crash site

Bolt of red energy pierced the downed shuttle and struck one of the guards in the chest, blowing a hole the size of a fist and throwing his dead body across the cabin. Lavality ducked and covered her head before another guard grabbed her by the collar and tossed her out of the shuttle, she landed in the snow and rolled down the side for several feet before coming to a stop, she was exthremely cold right now and watched as the droid stopped in front of the shuttle and scanned it, not finding anything in side it began to walk away

That was, of course, until Lavality slipped and her foot went through a frozen ice bed. She could feel the cold surge run up her spine as she pulled her leg out and began to run, the droid was moving fast across the snow using threads that where under it's legs

She was finding it very difficult to get oriented though, and this worried her. I'm in full cold weather gear and yet I'm still freezing my ass off! she said before slipping and hitting the snow. She turned to find the droid still following her

A laser shot pierced the sky and connected with the droids right leg, she looked to find a snow speeder flying over head, the marking's on the side showed that it came from the pirate base. The speeder came about and fired again, this time hitting the droids head, but causing very little damage

She noticed that the droid did apperently have trouble here, it wasn't moving as fast as it had been, and to make matters even better, it apperently couldn't see her before it moving in all sorts of directions. Finally after two minutes the droid stopped and fell to peices, literally, on the snow, blood began to stain the snow but soon froze due to the cold

Lavality heard someone and reconized it as the guard who had thrown her out of the shuttle. She smiled as she ran over to her and knelt down, his blaster at the ready, "I guess that thing can't stand the cold he said and Lavality just smiled

Some distance away

Four speeder appeared on the horizon

"Trouble?" Maskis asked before one of the speeders sent him a coded text message. He kicked in the shuttles extra booster and, within three minutes, arrived at the shuttle's crash site. "Well.. frag...." he said and scanned the region

He looked around before sighting a signal flare in the distance then moved over toward it. "Found her!" he said to the others on board and landed the shuttle, the back ramp opened up and the gaurd, who was now carrying Lavality, climbed on board and walked over to a bed and placed her on it. "Someone want to explain why she can't stand the cold? Even in full cold weather gear she said it felt like she was naked or something, she passed out a few seconds ago so hopefully she'll wake up." he said and walked away

As if he had willed it, Lavality did indeed wake up. She was glad to be on a shuttle that wasn't as cold as that place she had just been on. "That... was... close..." she said and covered herself up

Maskis stayed in the cockpit. Her actions, her weakness to the cold, something tells me that she isn't all she appears to be. he said to himself as he closed the ramp and guided the shuttle into orbit, where he planned on staying for at least a few hours until the group was ready to leave for another location

Of course, he failed to realize that something was lurking nearby, an object that wasn't there for good intentions

Trazu gladly ripped off the cold weather gear. "So glad to be off that planet..." He muttered, watching Asri as she did the same.

"Funny...I didn't feel so cold." She remarked with small smile. "I hear smaller bodies lose body heat faster...so maybe that's why you were so cold?"

He stared at her a moment, then pounced on her. "Then I guess I need to be against a bigger body to stay warm." He said as he clinged to her.

"No I think you are just searching for an excuse to snuggle." Asri replied with a giggle.

"Always."

"Can we can the lovey dovey stuff for now?" One of the guards said. "We should figure out where we should go next."

Trazu relucantly let Asri go and joined the rest of the group as they started to discuss their options for destinations. It wasn't long before Trazu got that bad 'feeling'. "Guys..." He said quietly, yet the dread in his voice was enough to get everyone's attention. "We are being watched...and not with good intentions."

"That ship that caused us to drop out of hyperspace before?" Asri asked.

"No...something different..." Trazu said. "Something...both living and not."

Asri gave him a look and he put his hand on her's and shook his head, telling her it wasn't her he was referring to. "A ship then?" She asked, to which Trazu shugged.

"I don't know." He confessed. "I haven't sensed anything like it before. Either way...we need to get out of here before that thing decides to take us out."

Maskis was sitting in the cockpit just minding his own bussiness when one of the guards that was still alive came in. "I think it's best we get going, Lord Trazu thinks there's somewhere here."

"Possibly, I would go if I could but...." Maskis gestured to the hyper-drive controls. The guard blinked when he saw text scrolling and something that said

-Interdictor Field Detected, unable to plot course-

The guard shook his head. "Well.... so what do we do?" he said before the cockpit got bathed in a red light. Maskis jumped to the controls and checked the sensors, "Ten enemy fighters on an intercept course!" he yelled through the internal comm. system

He shunted power into the engines and brought them to life and then sped off, he couldn't see any place to hide so instead he activated the shuttles turrets which came about and opened fire on the fighters. "We need to buy some time until we get far enough away from that interdictor!" Maskis said and continued to menuver the shuttle. "Although if those fighters manage to get a shot on us, it'll be over before we even know it."

"Huh? Why's that?" The guard asked

Maskis shook his head. "Because these shuttles weren't made for combat you idiot, they are pure speed and menuverability." he said and checked his scanners once more. "Although if THOSE get near us we ARE screwed." he gestued to two very fast approuching corvette's.