quot;Razz! Check in already damn it!"

"Razz! Check in already damn it!"

Activating the commlink, Aela decided that if she was going to have some fun, she might as well go all in. "I'm sorry…but your friend is rather preoccupied at the moment. And his other friend…what was his name? Resk? Yes that's it. Well you can go and collect his head and body from the woods provided that the local wildlife hasn't already made off with them."

Looking down at the courtyard, she saw one of the hunter's head snap up to her position, not that he could see her of course, before running over and handing the commlink off to a mostly bald woman who had a bright plume of red hair atop her head. "Identify yourself Jedi."

"Now that wasn't very nice." Aela smirked as she watched several of the hunters taking aim at her position. "Demanding my name without introducing yourself first. Now inappropriate."

The woman stared down at the commlink for a moment before answering. "I am Aurra Sing."

When the woman didn't offer anything further, Aela sighed into the comm. "And is that supposed to mean something to me? Or is your name supposed to strike me with fear? From where I'm sitting…you look like nothing more than a punk with a really bad sense of hair styling."

"You're either incredibly stupid or you're just incredibly stupid. Far dumber than any Jedi that I've encountered…which means you are more than likely part of the group that Master Kenobi brought with him." Pausing, Aela watched as the pale skinned woman drew her blaster and pointed it at the caged Maris. "So I'll make this simple. You are no Jedi so we have no quarrel with you. Tell us where the Jedi are and how they are planning on attacking this base and I won't put a blaster bolt between little Zabrek's eyes."

Pressing a few buttons on the control panel, Aela activated the comm again. "I have a counter offer for you Aurra. You let the little one go out that front gate right now and vow that neither you nor any of your comrades will follow her…and I'll let you all go. Decide to keep her prisoner…and I will kill every one of you down there."

Down below all of the hunters froze up for a minute. Then like a rolling tidal wave they all started to laugh. "I like you, whoever you are." Aurra laughed into the comm. "It's almost too bad that we'll have to kill you."

"Oh, don't worry. You won't be killing me. Oh…there is probably one more thing I should've mentioned." Pressing the last command on the panel, Aela quickly apparated over to the opposite corner of the base. "Your friends managed to repair that cannon before I killed them."

The hunters in the yard below started to scramble, but it was far too late as the cannon turned and fired into the courtyard, destroying the ship. The cannon then turned and started firing randomly at hunters that'd been scattered along the top of the base's walls. It actually managed to completely clear off two of the walls before the hunters focused all of their fire upon it and destroyed the emplacement.

"Well then," Aela grinned as she tossed the commlink off to the side and rolled her shoulders. "Guess it's finally time for me to cut loose then."

Sitting in her cage, Maris pulled desperately at the collar around her neck that was keeping her from accessing the Force. It wasn't necessarily so much that it was keeping her from accessing it. It was just anytime she tried to do something she received an awful shock from the collar. Not that she needed to be doing anything to receive said shock though.

"Hey! Knock that off!" One of the bounty hunters yelled as the collar activated again, making her scream in pain.

"Don't damage her permanently." One of the other hunters called out casually as the shocks subsided. "The Empire won't pay in full if she'd permanently damaged."

Craning her neck, Maris tried to get a glimpse at her captors, but received only another shock as a result. "What did I say about looking around Jedi scum!" The bounty hunter who'd been guarding her shouted as she felt the barrel of a blaster pressed against the top of her head. "I swear to the gods if you so much as lift you head I'll-"

A single blaster bolt echoed throughout the encampment, and the guard who'd been watching over her and tormenting her stiffened before falling over onto the ground. A small blaster burn still smoking on the side of his head. "I hope that that puts an end to such foolishness." A calm voice called out. "We need this one alive and intact. At least for now."

Maris cringed as she heard the silky smooth voice. Her and her Master, her first Master, had been separated from the rest of the Order during the Clone Wars so she did not have a history, so to speak, with some of the major figures in the war. But that didn't mean she didn't know who they were. And the voice that was floating through the camp was definitely recognizable.

Hearing the bounty hunter crouch down next to her cage, Maris risked a glance from under her long untamed hair almost begging for her to be wrong. But she wasn't. And kneeling right outside of her cage with a sickening smile on her face was none other than the infamous bounty hunter Aurra Sing.

"Do you know who I am little Jedi?" Sing asked her.

Nodding her head, it was all Maris could do to keep eye contact with the woman. "Yes. You're Aurra Sing, the bounty hunter."

"That's right," Sing chuckled, standing upright. "And what's your name?"

"Maris Brood."

"Maris Brood." Sing repeated as if testing out her name. "Funny. I don't recognize you or your name. You must've not spent much time with the rest of your Order during the war. You must be quite the pathetic Jedi for your order to have held you back from fighting."

That stung far more than Maris would've like to admit. Her Master had kept them both aboard the Gray Pilgrim and deep in the Outer Rim throughout the duration of the Clone Wars. She'd begged her Master on more than one occasion to allow them both to enter the war, but her Master had always refused her, preferring instead to help the Outer Rim colonies. After sensing the death of so many of their fellow Jedi, her Master had left her to go out in search for answers. The next time she heard from him, he told her to run and hide.

"Why aren't we just loading her up onto the ship now Sing?" One of the bounty hunters asked, kicking her cage. "We came for a Jedi and we got one. Why not cash out now while we're ahead?"

"You really are an idiot, aren't you?" Sing laughed. "Now, let me explain this all to you nice and slowly. This girl is nothing. A mere padawan. And not even a well-known padawan at that. What do you think we could get for her if we turned her into the Empire? A few hundred thousand creds at best. We've banded together seven outfits for this job. A few hundred-thousand would barely cover the initial costs of this job. But her Master…her Master is none other than Jedi Council Member Master Shaak Ti, who currently has a bounty of five million creds.

"And if that isn't incentive enough for you, did you fail to notice who it was that came to rescue the two of them? The Negotiator himself, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. And his bounty is over ten million creds. So, we can either cash this little girl in now and get a small reward. Or we can use her as bait and draw in two Jedi council Members, the bounty on whom is enough to ensure that none of us will have to work for years."

"But how do you know that these Masters will come?" The same bounty hunter asked again. "How do you know they won't simply cut their losses and run?"

"You really don't know anything about Jedi, do you idiot?" Sing asked rhetorically, and despite her situation…Maris actually agreed with Sing. The man was an idiot. "The Jedi will go to almost suicidal lengths to save their comrades. All that we need to do is simply wait. And they will come to us."

"And what if they bring that…creature with them?" One of the hunters asked fearfully, which made Maris smirk.

"That was nothing more than a Jedi mind trick you fool." Sing snarled walking away. "Nothing more. Now all of you get in position. I want regular radio checks every ten minutes."

Curling into a ball within her small cage, Maris closed her eyes and tried to meditate. But it was useless. No matter what she did she just couldn't concentrate enough to even enter the slightest of meditations. "Razz check in. Razz! Get your lizard ass out from beneath that gun and check in already!"

Turning her head slightly, she watched as one of the hunters slapped at his commlink before trying it again. "Razz! Check in already damn it!"