Episode I: Part 3

TK5612 slipped the two new power couplings together. In the station's command center, power flickered through the overhead lights and undamaged consoles. The technician nodded in satisfaction before he proceeded to check the secondary power relays into the room.

"That's how we found them, strung up like meat in a locker." Lieutenant Dron-Ilis waved a hand to the room.

"By the Force, what a mess." Was Lieutenant Kells' only comment.

Lieutenant TK6745, or Seevo, sighed heavily. "Other than the remains, was anything else left behind?"

"We checked the bodies as we brought them down, but they're clean. Room seems to be clean also."

Kells watched while the troopers respectfully carried the last of the deceased from the room. "There has to be something. A bit of skin, strand of hair, scales. All beings in the galaxy shed something."

Seevo hooked his thumbs into his utility belt and looked around the control room. "I sent Nino back to the shuttle to look around for a medical scanner in the shuttle's medkits. If anything would pick up trace DNA, that would. I'll get FiveSpot to break out his toolkit again when he's done checking the power relays. Maybe he can hook the medical scanner into the room's security system."

"Good thinking," Kells replied. "That will save time."

The young Sith next to them frowned. "I still can't help but think we're overlooking something here." She commented. "Something subtle."

"If there is something here in this station to find, we'll find it." Kells said firmly. "For the honor of the deceased, we have to."

Several decks below, Clang paused at yet another door at the end of yet another empty corridor. The door slid obediently open to reveal a corridor, depressingly similar and empty as the previous one.

"If I could find a droid locator, this would be so much easier."

Carefully he stepped through the doorway and looked around. Not that he expected much, so far the last three corridors he entered were clean, empty and devoid of any signs that a droid had passed that way. His eyes settled on a sign that read 'Mess Hall'. Clang paused, a small smile crept over his face. Why not? He thought. Cooks use droids too. Besides, Echo might be hungry. Really, he just might.

The station's mess hall was, for the most part, a large gray box with long tables to eat at. The food was served from one end in a buffet-style arrangement, when there was cooks on duty. Clang walked into the room and gave a casual glance at the main eating area. Not that he expected to find anything, since there were few places to actually hide among the utilitarian long tables and benches.

Abruptly, a metal crash echoed from the back of the kitchen. Clang spun on his heel and jerked up his E-11 carbine. At first nothing seemed out of place. Then, a bit of shadow moved in the darkness. Clang's eyes narrowed while he stepped carefully forward. The sensors in his helmet read negative for any sort of contact, but his instincts screamed the sensors were wrong.

"You in the kitchen, come out slowly with your hands where I can see them. Make no sudden moves." He tried to make that sound as official as possible, even if he was ordering someone out of a kitchen.

A minute passed without a sound or movement, then the gold-metallic body of a humanoid protocol droid popped into view.

"Oh my! Don't shoot! Don't shoot! I surrender, I surrender!" It wailed in a pleading voice.

"Come out of there."

"Yes Sir, of course Sir!" The droid lowered his arms to mid chest and quickly shuffled forward.

Clang started to ask 'What in the Twin Suns are you doing back there?' but never got the chance as a door in the back of the kitchen burst open. Through the opening raced a dingy, khaki-colored battle droid. Before Clang could move, the droid stepped in and to the right of the doorway, lifted it's carbine and fired a short burst. Three bolts of energy slammed into the protocol droid, that jerked with the impact and collapsed to the ground. Short circuited by the influx of blaster energy, various small compartments and panels popped open on the protocol droid to reveal retractable hold out blasters and other unpleasant weapons of an assassin droid. Beyond the fresh wreckage, the battle droid turned it's narrow faceplate towards Clang and did the last thing the clone ever expected.

It dropped it's blaster carbine to the deck and raised its arms.

"I surrender." It announced quickly, then added. "I come in peace? Roger, Roger?"