Earthlings

21

21 BBY, Coruscant

"3 to go, Windu." The Palliduvan bounty hunter named Aurra Sing looked down at Commander Ponds' lifeless body, before kicking Eli. "He'll be next. Come find us. We'll be waiting."

The transmission shut off, and light made its way back into the darkened hospital room. Kendall closed her eyes momentarily, as if it would erase what she had seen on the holotable. But it didn't disappear, not after she saw it twice.

Eli was alive, thank God. Master Windu had presumed him dead when Kendall brought it up. But he wouldn't be alive for long if the bounty hunters went unanswered. Sing meant business, too, from the way she executed Ponds without a moment of hesitation.

Windu finally broke the silence that followed the transmission. "I'll go."

"I thought you had bigger concerns-?" Anakin asked.

"That was before we knew hostages were involved, and Eli would be next," Windu replied gravely.

"You are too injured to travel, and your presence would only aggravate the boy," Plo interjected, crossing his arms. "Chance and I shall go and take Padawan Tano with us."

Windu gave the 3 a solemn nod, and they left the hospital room. Kendall sighed softly once they were a good distance away. She had a bad feeling about this mission.

"We have neither the location of the hostages or enough time to find them," Ahsoka mumbled. "This is going to be hard."

"We must find leads to their location," Plo said. "Perhaps we can ask the locals."

"The locals up here won't do any good," Kendall replied matter of factly. "It's mainly Senators, Jedi, and Republic officers up here."

"Indeed." They approached the hangars. "Which is why I had a different setting in mind."

"And that is-?"

"Just hop aboard, and follow close by." Plo climbed into the red speeder, with Ahsoka in the passenger seat. "Choose your vehicle."

Glaring at the Jedi master who apparently had the same sense of humor as Mundi, Kendall went to grab a blue speeder exactly like Plo and Ahsoka's before they headed out of the city and towards the entrance to the lower levels.

"Master Plo, I don't understand," Ahsoka piped up from the distance. "Shouldn't we be heading for the last place we knew Boba Fett was spotted?"

"Why head to the one place we know he is not?" Was his wry response. The speeders descended into the Underworld, and Kendall had a brief flashback of a mission she had with Chan a year before the war to recover a stolen box of kyber crystals. That was the first time she had set foot into the depths of the Underworld, and the feeling of being consumed by darkness still unsettled her to this day.

She landed next to Plo and Ahsoka's speeder as a woman over the intercom repeatedly told people to move along. Readjusting her hood, she disembarked and followed them to the checkpoint.

"Your pass, please," The operator droid droned inside its box. The 3 Jedi passed by after Plo used the Force to admit them inside. Bits of paper swirled about the dark alley, and graffiti marked the walls where the posters were hung up.

"The data on Jango Fett suggested he frequented this area," Plo said.

"Then we must be cautious," Kendall mused, looking around the area.

"Yes, very cautious." They walked up a small set of stairs to a platform with 4 barges before boarding the one in the middle. As it lifted off, Kendall drew out a sigh.