Theed Royal Palace

[Mara Jade Skywalker]

Mara ignites her lightsaber as the guards open fire. She lets the Force guide her hands, deflecting the guards' bolts back at them or to the floor. Without splitting her concentration, she answers Tookie. "It's the Dark Side. Picked it up about twenty seconds before you said something. Surely it can't be good."

Mara throws her lightsaber to her left hand and uses her right hand to snatch her hold-out blaster from its holster on her left wrist, and opens fire on the guards. She gets one square in his chest and he slumps to the floor.

[Inquisitor Camulus]

Sacrifice and Zairon continue to blast their way through the enemy troops. Zairon glances over his shoulder and grins seeing Camulus and the rest of the platoons making their way towards them. He sidesteps one of the guards and slams the butt end of his blaster into the back of his head. The guard drops to the ground unconscious. "Hey Sacrifice, looks like the back up has arrived finally!" He dodges another blaster bolt. Sacrifice looks behind him and nods his head. "About time." He mutters under his breath.

**********************************************

Camulus runs forward, brandishing his lightsaber and deflects blaster bolts. He catches sight of Sacrifice and Zairon and directs his troops to assist them. Camulus then leaps into the air and lands in the middle of about six guards and swings his lightsaber around, cutting them all down. He then pauses as he senses three disturbances in the Force. "Hmm, feels like Jedi. Heh, this should be interesting." He mutters quietly. He continues to deflect blaster bolts.

[Luke Skywalker]

Luke had sensed the darkness when it entered orbit. But now it was planet-side, here at the Palace. He reached out with the Force and determined that it was not an immediate threat.

While Luke was probing the darkness, he allowed the Force to direct his motions. His lightsaber ignited with it's green blade, the shoto with it's blue shorter blade. He blocked two blaster bolts with the saber, and another with the shoto. The bolts were directed back to the guards that had fired them. Two were head shots, one was to the chest. All three fell to the ground.

"Who ever this dark presence is, I think they are here to help. I'm not picking up animosity from them towards us." said Luke.

[Tookie Binks]

"Okieday, justa cheekin." Tookie says as he takes off a guard's arm with a circular parry and then spins around to send a fluid like roundhouse kick to the guard's chest. The kick is strong enough that it sends the guard flying into another guard, who misfires his blaster and ends up taking out another guard by shooting him in the side.

[Mara Jade Skywalker]

Never met a Dark Sider whose only agenda was to 'help', Mara thinks to herself as she continues to fire at the guards and deflect their blasts. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

Momentarily ducking behind a column, Mara grabs a large flow-form chair with the Force and sends it sailing at the guards. It knocks two of them off their feet, and using the moment of distraction, Mara quickly approaches the fallen guards, and slices off their weapon hands in one swift stroke.

[Inquisitor Camulus]

Sacrifice and Zairon fall in beside Camulus as they make their way through the palace with the troopers until finally they're outside the entrance to the Throne Room. Sacrifice looks at Camulus and points to the door. "They've got the Queen held captive in there. Not sure how many guards are in there."

**********************************************

Camulus directs his troops to keep an eye on the exits leading towards the Throne Room entrance as well as keeping a look out for the Jedi. He glances at Sacrifice and nods his head. He closes his eyes and reaches out with the Force and senses at least two people in the Throne Room. "Hmm, must not want her guarded that much. This'll be easy." He looks at them both. "Sacrifice, Zairon. Get over by the troops. I'm gonna blast this door open."

He says and deactivates the lightsaber and clips it onto his belt. He then reaches into his pack, he pulls out several explosive devices and places one in the center of the door and one on each side of it. Backing up a good distance from it, he pushes the trigger on the detonator and the explosives detonate, destroying the door. "Hmm, easy as pie." He smirks. Walking casually into the Throne Room, he notices at once the guard and the Queen. The guard, surprised by this intrusion, opens fire with his blaster pistol. Camulus easily deflects the blaster bolts and when he's within ten feet, taps into the Force, focusing on the blaster. He casts Combustion on it and the blaster blows up, exploding in the guard's face. The guard cries out in pain and anger and covers his face with his hands. Camulus then puts the guard in a Stasis and waits for the Jedi to show up.

[Luke Skywalker]

With all of the guards either unconcious or dead, Luke shuts down his lightsaber and shoto. He then makes his way back to the Throne Room, followed by Mara and Tookie. He finds the blast doors blown off their tracks. He enters the Throne Room, and sees Sir Zairon and Sacrifice. Luke also sees a Sith who seems to be in control. He notices that he looks like Nick, but without the light within. There is darkness instead.

"Greetings, I am Jedi Master Luke Skywalker," as Luke introduces himself. He senses the darkness, but no hostile intent.

[Tookie Binks]

Coming in close behind Luke, Tookie still has his lightsabers on and ready to go as he takes a look at the scene inside the Throne Room; a Sith, an old man in fine dress, a soldier of some kind wearing red armor he's never seen before and a man in guard armor frozen in stasis and looking like he was writhing in pain on the floor with obvious burn marks all around him. He also sees stormtroopers, a sight that causes some anger to become present in him. He wants to strike them down right now but holds off due to the fact that they did help.

"Whatsa dem doin ere?" Tookie asks as he points at Camulus and his troops with one of his lightsaber.

[Mara Jade Skywalker]

Following closely on Luke's heels, Mara enters the throne room. Her lightsaber is off, and still held in her left hand. She begins to put away her hold-out blaster, but stops when she sees the source of the Dark Side energy. Then a brief flicker of surprise and unease passes through her when she sees the Imperial Stormtroopers.

Her eyes dart to Luke and Tookie, then back to Nick look-alike. Mara remains on the alert, waiting for any tricks.

[Inquisitor Camulus]

Sacrifice sees the Jedi run in and glances at Camulus. "Easy Inquisitor. No need for violence especially with you being a Sith." Zairon raises an eyebrow. "Heh, this should be interesting." Camulus looks at both of them, glaring slightly and both quiet down.

**********************************************

"Master Jedi Luke Skywalker huh? I've heard about you." He says quietly and then looks at Mara. "And the former Emperor's Hand, Mara Jade turn Jedi." He glances at Tookie and raises an eyebrow. "A gungan, a Jedi? That's a first." He then holds up a hand. "Don't worry, I'm not here to cause trouble. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Vestis Inquisitus Camulus Ambrosinus, Chief Inquisitor of the RGE. I believe you all called for assistance against the Black Sun syndicate?"

He then looks at Luke. "You seem to recognize me. Do I remind you of someone you know? I bet I can guess who he is." He smirks silently.

[Luke Skywalker]

Luke listens to Camulus as he speaks, lightsaber and shoto still in hand. When finished Luke replies, "Yes, you remind me of one of our Jedi Masters. Is the Palace secure? If so, we need to move against the headquarters of the Black Sun. Tookie here can lead us to the spot."

[Tookie Binks]

Tookie looks at Camulus with a little quirk to his gaze, he obviously didn't like theInquisitor's comment about him being a Jedi. "Oh yousa of ittybitty believen."

Looking around, Tookie sees the stormtroopers doing their job and policing the guards. They are more than likely doing the same down the hall to the guards the he, Luke and Mara took out earlier. Nodding his head, Tookie addresses Luke.

"Itin lookin like de palace isa securied. I Suries can be taken us dare but can wesa trust dems?" Tookie says looking at Luke and pointing at Camulus again with his lightsaber. "My havin a bombad feelin abouts dis."

[Mara Jade Skywalker]

Mara chooses to ignore the bit of history Camulus brought up, and address Tookie and Luke. "I'm not sensing any direct hostility from Camulus towards us, but I'm not saying we shouldn't watch him closely." She nods her head towards the door. "After you, Tookie. The Black Sun is overdue for an explanation."

[Inquisitor Camulus]

Sacrifice and Zairon fall in with the rest of the troops and get into position to move out.

**********************************************

Camulus smiled sadistically and nodded his head. "Yeah, I thought as much. I take it you are referring to that fool known as Nick Owabi. To think I used to be part of him. I am and always will be the better half." He glances at Tookie and shrugs his shoulders. "You three wouldn't have made it this far without our assistance. If you don't like it Gungan, we can leave immediately. Good luck trying to infiltrate the Black Sun HQ on your own. I scanned it on my way down and its heavily defended." He indicates the troopers. "Hence why I brought these."

He then chuckles quietly when Mara completely ignores what he said to her and he shakes his head. "You can deny it as long as you want Mara Jade. But it is your past. And as they say, past history tends to repeat itself."

He looks at Luke. "And yes, the Palace is secure. We're ready to head out whenever you three are." He stands there with his arms crossed. "The longer we stand here talking, the harder it will be to get there."

[Luke Skywalker]

Luke address all 5 of them, "I suggest we put aside our differences and focus on the task at hand. We need to put Black Sun out of operation." Luke realizes that it will be a temporary alliance, and a shaky one at that. "Tookie, lead on." Luke follows Tookie out of the Throne Room, Palace, and on until they reach the Marketplace.