"So what's the plan?" Jensen asked.

"We're infiltrating the Sith base," Maya replied.

They were sitting in the main room of the Dauntless while Kato flew them back to the Republic outpost. "That'll be hard," Jensen murmured.

"You aren't going," Maya said.

He looked up sharply. "Why not?"

"This is too dangerous and risky, and the fewer people we have the better. Seth, Nova, and I will be performing the infiltration. We're doing it as soon as possible. We're going to eliminate that base," Maya replied, speaking calmly, almost coldly.

Jensen stared at her for a moment, and either he decided she was right or he had absolutely no hope of changing her mind. He sighed and sat back. "Fine. You'll need gear."

"Yes, we will. Top of the list will be stealth field generators. Do you have any?" Maya asked.

Jensen sat back, considering it. "I know we have at least one, we might have a few more. I know we brought one in, and we might have recovered one or two from the Sith. I'll see what I can dig up," he replied.

"Thank you. I'll need to make a report to Fielding and get this sorted out. Seth, Nova, I want you geared up and prepared. We're doing an infiltration and destroying the base. With luck, we won't even have to fight the terentatek," Maya said, looking intently at them.

"You didn't bring any stealth units?" Jensen asked.

Seth sighed and shook his head. "I put it on the req form, but they never got back to me."

"Supplies were tight at the Enclave," Maya said. Jensen just nodded and settled back into his seat, thinking.

Seth did the same, considering all the things that would go along with an infiltration mission. He didn't like them, because they could go more wrong than most, but he'd done enough of them that he knew what he was doing, and he had the idea that Nova could infiltrate a place pretty well, too. And given how Maya was reacting to all this, he figured she had to have experience. Well...soon, they'd find out what kind of resources they had.

And figure out if the Force was Light Side or Dark Side on this day.

* * *

They landed, left the ship, spent half an hour in the base, and then went right back out to the ship, this time with Yex. Seri rejoined them, just in case of emergency. Once again, they sat in the main hold, this time with a holographic display being projected up from the main table, showing a three dimensional representation of the Sith base.

"So how did you freaking find this?" Nova asked incredulously.

"Fielding was sitting on it. Apparently his predecessor found the blueprints for the mining installation the Sith has taken over and was preparing a mission similar to this, but died before he could actually initiate or even plan it. When Fielding took over, he was still trying to determine if they even had the resources to do it," Maya replied.

"Not an enviable position," Seth murmured.

"But we do have the resources to pull this off, I believe. We're going to need to do four things. The first will be to plug into their network and get an updated map of the base and where they put everything, given that I imagine they've been hard at work expanding, and we have no idea what was repurposed where or how. Once we have ascertained that, we're going to split up. One of us will head for the central command and upload their entire archive. The other will find a way to make a distraction. We'll figure out how best to do that once we're inside. The last of us will make our way to the power core and set it to overload. Once we have achieved our goals, we get out of there and we'll be done with Hoth," Maya explained.

"Sounds like a plan," Seth said.

"I believe here will be our easiest point of infiltration," Maya said, pointing to a location on the map. "It's a back access tunnel. I'll be able to use the Force to determine if there are any threats back there, but it's likely they just laid a simple trap or sensor, and I can deal with that. We'll get in, find a general access terminal, plug into their network, and figure out where to go and what to do from there. Now, we'll need these," she said, and laid down three earpiece comms unit. "I had Yex shield them to the best of his ability, but even so, use them as sparingly as possible. I also have this." She laid down an uplink device. "It's been boosted so that it will transmit the data as fast as possible to our ship. Unfortunately, we won't know how much time we'll need until we're actually there, at the site, but it shouldn't be more than a minute or two."

"That's a long time," Seth murmured.

"I know. That's what I'm hoping the distraction will deal with. Now, we're going to be there before too long, so study this map, then gear up and we'll get this over with."

Seth focused on the map.

* * *

Time passed.

After studying up and feeling like they had a decent grasp of the mining installation, the trio moved back to the armory. None of them spoke as they geared up. Maya didn't grab much, given that she was relying heavily on her Force abilities and lightsaber, but she did grab a silenced stealth pistol and a few grenades, as well as an energy blade, for backup. It was a smart move. He made sure to gather up supplies as well, swapping his blaster rifle out for a cut-down silenced SMG and a silenced stealth pistol, some explosive charges and grenades, a combat knife, field medical kit, and finally the stealth unit.

They tested them out and made sure they were fully charged.

By the time they were ready, Yex was almost at the landing site. They were going to have to land about a mile away from the entrance they were going to use. The good and bad news was that the storm was back, so it, combined with running on stealth settings, and Maya's use of the Force to help mask their signature, would hopefully be enough to get them where they needed to be without getting picked up by the Sith's sensors.

Whatever the case, they landed, and before long all three of them were cycling through the airlock. They headed outside, into the snowstorm.

"Stay with me!" Maya called over the winds. "I can find my way! Do not lose sight of me!"

"Understood!" Seth called.

He and Nova kept close and followed after her as she struck off into the shrieking winds and blowing snow. Seth focused his mind, trying to put himself in the proper headspace that was required of a truly miserable situation like this. He told himself that at least he wasn't imprisoned and getting tortured or experimented upon. That helped, at least. But man was it cold! It had to be like forty below out there.

They'd all pulled on extra cold weather gear, covering up every last inch of themselves, sporting face-masks and goggles now, and Seth had the heating elements in his suit turned up all the way now, but still, that wind had a bitter edge to it. He kept his eyes on Maya, occasionally checking to see that Nova was still there, because it was way too easy for someone to just disappear in a whiteout condition like this.

All around them, the snowstorm billowed and raged madly, almost like it had a grudge. Seconds went by. Minutes crawled past with a painful lethargy. The walk went on forever, and then it kept going. His muscles ached, and then his whole body hurt, and then it eventually started to go numb. And then, suddenly, a huge dark shape appeared dead ahead of them, and he felt hope surge in his chest. The mining installation! It had to be!

Please, please let it be. He thought miserably.

Maya stopped as they drew within a certain distance of it, she raised one hand, held that position, then began to walk forward again, motioning for them to follow. They did so, and soon he saw a door set into a hole carved in the side of the mountain that rose up before them. Maya approached it and hit a button on the panel next to the door, which slowly slid open. Seth felt agony waiting for that damned thing to finish opening, but finally it did, and they hurried inside. Nova shut the door behind them, and they were encased in almost perfect darkness.

"Okay," Maya said, shivering slightly, "we're alone and we made it inside without being detected as far as I can tell."

"Th-thank th-the...ugh, I'm so-so cold," Nova hissed.

"Take a minute to warm up," Maya replied.

Seth just nodded, shifting around from foot to foot, squeezing his fingers into fists repeatedly. His body was worryingly numb. A minute passed in the darkness, which gradually grew less dark as his eyes adjusted to it, and he realized there was a distant light far down the tunnel they were standing in. Another minute passed, which became five. His body came back online and it hurt. Eventually, Maya made them start walking again, and they did, keeping quiet. It was a pain for Seth, but he kept his mouth shut.

By the time they had drawn close enough to the light source to determine what it was, (a simple dim work-light either left on by accident or maybe left for whoever was supposed to check this entrance periodically), the numbness was gone and the pain of it wearing off was almost gone, leaving him more or less functional. Once they got their bearings, they continued on, making quick work of a small network of tunnels carved directly out of the rock, reinforced occasionally by some steel beams, lit by a dim work-light every now and then. Thankfully, they ran into no one. Whatever the Sith were doing, they were too busy to patrol back here.

At last, they found a back entrance into the actual facility itself. Maya stood before it, concentrating, then moved forward and opened the door. They followed her through it into an antechamber.

"Nova, get into their system, we'll watch the doors," Maya said.

Nova nodded tightly and hurried over to a general access terminal. Seth took one door, Maya took the other. He went down on one knee, silenced SMG to his shoulder, as behind the door frame as he could be to present as small a target as possible. Time passed slowly, the only sound being the hum of power around them and Nova working quietly. After a few moments, she whispered for them to come over.

"Okay, here's what I've got," she said. An updated map of the base now appeared on the screen. "Power core terminal we want is there. Based on the fact that this says Specimen Storage, I'm guessing that's where the terentatek, and probably other nasty creatures they must've captured and experimented on, are. It looks like if we overload this power node here, it'll override the safety mechanisms and all the doors will unlock and open simultaneously. Finally, command center is here."

"Hmm...okay," Maya said, considering it. "Nova, get to the command center and wait for the distraction. Seth, you'll be handling the power core. Here." She passed him a small device. He studied it, then placed it inside of a hardened pocket on his suit of armor. "Yex whipped that up. Slot it at the appropriate console and it'll get the job done. But, and pay attention here, once you slot that, we have fifteen minutes. No ifs, no ands, no buts. Fifteen minutes after you slot that, the base goes boom. We'll want to be safely out of here and on our way back to the ship by then. So, this is what happens. I trip the distraction. Once it looks clear, Nova, you place the uplink and then determine how long it should take. From there, we'll hold off on the power core overload for as long as possible. Ideally, you'll slot it as soon as you have confirmation from Nova that the transfer has gone through, but if it's looking particularly dicey, you'll have to do it sooner.

"Now, with regards to these items you'll be slotting. Seth, you just have to make sure it stays in for about thirty seconds. After that, doesn't matter if the console gets blown up, that power core is locked in. However, Nova, you need to stay there and make sure the uplink completes. You can't leave until it's done. If it's looking truly untenable, then just cut and run. We could really use the intel, but what's most important is that we kill the terentatek and destroy the base. Now, are there any questions?" she asked, looking around at them.

Seth could think of none, and apparently neither could Nova.

"Okay. Upload a copy of this to your datapad, and memorize the routes as much as you can. Only use the radio if you absolutely must. Now let's go."

* * *

"When are we gonna hit the bastards again?"

"I don't know, soon. Captain's getting antsy but you know how it is. Damned Command's got us running experiments on those stupid animals."

"Why don't we just call down a damned orbital strike or carpet bomb or something? We know where they are!"

"Cause this is just some backwater, pissant little planet no one cares about. You know how it is..."

Seth held his breath, staying frozen, mimicking a statue as much as he possible could. The two guards who'd stopped to complain in the corridor with him finally started moving on again. He listened to their voices and footsteps recede, then he exhaled slowly. That was a close one. And this stealth field generator was really worth its salt. As soon as he was sure they were gone, he resumed his journey. It had been harrowing so far.

The first five minutes had gone smoothly, as he hadn't run into anyone as he made his way through empty corridors and derelict chambers. It seemed that most of the mining installation had yet to be utilized by the Sith, but eventually he ran into occupied territory, and that was when he began running into patrols. So far, he'd managed to go undetected, not having to kill anyone or knock them out. It wasn't that he particularly valued Sith life, it was more that the second you had to knock someone out or kill them, a clock that you couldn't see began to count down. Because that person was going to be missed by someone.

Maybe in an hour, maybe in two minutes, but then that someone would start looking, and they might raise the alarm. Seth felt tremendously alone now. He had no idea if Nova or Maya were okay, how close they were to completing their objectives, if they'd run into any problems. He at least figured that they hadn't been noticed yet, or he'd have heard about it by now. Seth made it to the end of the passageway he was in and hooked a right. He was in the power distribution center now. Slipping through another door, he found himself in a large room filled with lots of noisy machinery. A perfect place to hide.

He was where he needed to be, the main reactor core area, so now he just needed to find the console that Maya had pointed out. It was in the far back right corner of the room. The place he was in was a large, broad, tall room of metal plating, heavy machinery, and shadows. Tired-eyed technicians moved among the equipment, monitoring it. Seth began making his way among the shadows, slinking stealthily along the wall, moving past the equipment. He was about halfway there when alarms cut loose and began to cycle wildly.

Seth froze instinctively, his heart hammering in his chest, as all the technicians looked around. A loudspeaker clicked on. "All specimens have broken out of containment! Security personnel to Specimen Storage Wing immediately!"

Seth couldn't help but grin, especially when he saw the technicians all scatter to get out of the room, leaving him alone. He sighed softly with relief and finished making his way to the console in question. As soon as he reached it, there he sat, tucked away in the deepest shadows between two hulking pieces of equipment.

He keyed his radio. "I'm in place."

"I've reached the Command Center. It's clear," Nova replied. A pause. "Beginning uplink."

"Maya?" Seth asked. Nothing. "Maya?"

A crackled. "I need backup. I'm in trouble-" Maya said, then cried out, and her link went dead. Seth stood up. "Maya?!"

Nothing. "Crap, what do we do?" Nova asked.

"How long until the uplink completes?" Seth replied.

"Um...ninety seconds."

"Okay. Stay there for as long as you can. Once it completes, get out the way we came in."

"Seth-"

"Nova, please do it?"

Another pause. "I'll wait for you near the exit."

"Fine," he said. "I'm setting it to go now."

"Okay. Good luck."

"You too."

Seth came out of hiding and inserted the item Maya had given him into the proper slot. The second the countdown appeared, he synced it to a chronometer he had on him, embedded in his right armor gauntlet, at the wrist, like a watch. 15:00 flashed, then became 14:59. Seth then turned and began sprinting towards Maya's last known location.

* * *

The base was in chaos.

For the most part, this worked with him, as it meant the soldiers and base personnel were too busy to notice him rushing by in his stealth field generator, which didn't work nearly as well when you were hurrying. Five minutes went by before he managed to track down Maya's last known location. The section he entered was lit only by crimson emergency lights. Seth stepped through a doorway and then hesitated.

There were deep gouges in the walls, carved out of metal plating, and there were a lot of bodies, and blood was everywhere. Well, at least he knew he was probably going in the right direction. As he began making his way down the passageway, checking the bodies to see if the worst had come to pass and Maya was dead, he heard various sounds echoing through the base. Howls, screaming, shrieks, most of them inhuman. Something roared up ahead. Seth entered the antechamber at the end of the hallway. There were three ways to go.

He looked around frantically. Another minute had slipped by, leaving him with nine total to get Maya and get out of here. So where was she?! He heard someone grunt, then the telltale swing of a lightsaber. The sounds came from his left. He began sprinting that way. He was halfway there when he heard a familiar voice cry out in pain.

"Maya!" he called. No response. He pushed himself harder and came into a storage bay. And was given his very first look at a terentatek. It had to be. This thing looked like pure evil. It was taller than he was by about half a foot, and yet somehow appeared wider than it was tall. It had ugly, rough, dark green-brown skin, and huge arms that ended in massive, wickedly curved claws. Its head was low and angled forward. Dark black spikes jutted out of the top of its strangely shaped skull, and it had two huge tusks on either side of twin rows of razor sharp teeth. The thing was standing over Maya, who was unconscious and bleeding on the floor.

Seth raised the rifle and activate an overcharged shot, aiming for the huge brute. The terentatek, which, he realized, had already sustained some damage, he could see several cauterized wounds across its thick hide, roared and began coming for him. It stomped across the floor, making disturbingly rapid progress. He fired the overcharged shot right into its face. The beast hardly even slowed down. He threw himself to the side, in between a stack of crates and the wall, as the terentatek rushed him. It stomped past him and roared as it missed him.

He kept moving, to the edge of the crate stack, then around the other side. As he came out from behind it, he caught sight of a blue glow. Maya's lightsaber! It was on the floor beside her, still ignited. Seth made a fast decision and, despite his personal feelings, which