"I guess they call them the Shadowlands for a reason," Venar said, stepping off the wooden elevator platform. The two Wookiee guards snorted at them as they stepped off before ascending up into the canopy, leaving the two Jedi behind.

Down in the Shadowlands, perpetual darkness loomed. Even during the daytime, the thick tangle of branches and vines and leaves drowned the light before it reached the forest floor. The only light that did reach was only about as luminous as a moon might be. The heavy fog only added to the eerie atmosphere.

"This is a big planet," Venar said, "how are we supposed to find this Wookiee? How do we know we're even in the right area of the Shadowlands?"

"Trust the Force," Bastila said. "Let it guide you."

"See the problem is I sense a lot of things in the Force right now," he said. "A lot of hungry things."

"I sense them too," she said. "We must be vigilant."

"So..." Venar began as they started walking through the forest. "Are we gonna talk about..."

"No."

"But we should-"

"It was a mistake!"

"Are we really gonna do this?"

"Do what?" She asked.

"Go through this whole song and dance where we tiptoe around the problem instead of acknowledging it?"

"What's there to acknowledge?"

"Bastila," he sighed. "Please. We both know. We can both sense it."

"I- I can't," she said firmly. "I can't defy the Jedi Code. I made an oath."

"We talked about this already!"

"And I've changed my mind!"

"Just like that?!"

"Yes! Just like that!"

"You know what I'm sick of-"

A high-pitched scream pierced the air as several wryyyschokk spiders leapt down from some branches overhead and surrounded them.

They ignited their lightsabers instantly, the hiss and crack of the blades a reply to the hissing of the spiders. Their yellow and blue blades illuminated their foes in an eerie glow.

Venar counted four spiders, each roughly the size of a bantha. Two of them were spinning a thick ball of sticky webs with their front legs.

Thwip! Bastila and Venar backflipped out of the way moments before the ground they were standing on was plastered with the sticky webbing. Venar swung his lightsaber with a quick precise arc towards the nearest spider, removing two of it's legs.

He sensed the other spider leaping at him a moment too late, however, and was pinned to the ground beneath the massive creature. It's mandibles snapped inches from his face.

Bastila pushed the two spiders closing in on her back with the Force and sent her lightsaber whirling towards the spider pinning down Venar. The twin yellow blades spun through the air cutting through the wryyyschokk, ending it's life.

Venar pushed the carcass off of him with the Force and sprung back up to his feet, wiping some of the insect's green gooey blood from his arm. Bastila was now surrounded by the remaining three wryyyschokks. She held her lightsaber out in front of her in a defensive stance.

Just before Venar could act, a green whirling light came arcing through the air cutting through the nearest wryyyschokk. The green light retreated back into the hand of a shadowy figure that was leaping down into the battle from above. He landed with a powerful Force shockwave that knocked the other spiders back.

The hooded figure leapt up, onto the back of the next spider, driving the green lightsaber into it's back, ending it's life with a painful shriek. Before the last spider could turn, he lifted it into the air with Force and flung his lightsaber into the wryyyschokk's underbelly. Green blood rained down onto the ground, followed by the now lifeless body of the spider.

Venar and Bastila stood in amazement at the hooded figure still standing on the back of the fallen wryyyschokk. The newcomer extinguished his lightsaber and clipped it to his belt before slowly pulling back his hood.

"What?" He said almost accusory, he was an older man with dark skin and wrinkles and a couple patches of gray hair on either side of his head. "Stop fawning at me like I'm some ancient relic in a museum. You got names?"

"Ah... Venar Moonrunner."

"Bastila Shan. And who might you be?"

"I'm Jolee Bindo," he said matter-of-factly.

"You're a Jedi," Venar said more as an observation than a question.

"Am I? What because I use the Force and carry a lightsaber?"

"Well... yeah..."

"Bah! I haven't been a Jedi for a long time," Jolee said with a sigh. "I live here." He jumped down off the spider and walked towards the others.

"You... live here?" Bastila asked.

"Ay! Don't you judge me!" Jolee shot back. "I'm too old for that nonsense."

"I didn't mean anyth-"

"Bah!" The old man threw up his arms in defeat. "Just follow me. My hut is close. It's not safe down here ya know."

Jolee didn't even wait to see if they were following him, he just began trudging off through the forest, his boots sloshing in the mud. Venar and Bastila stood there exchanging looks of disbelief.

"You coming?!" He called back.

"Yep!" Venar called back, immediately running to catch up. "We're coming!"

--------------------------------------------------------------

Thunder boomed over a young Juhani's head. Only it wasn't thunder at all, it the impact tremor of an explosion somewhere in one of the upper levels of Taris. The Mandalorians had come to Taris, and even now were besieging the planet. Her parents had ushered her and her sister out of bed late in the night as the fighting drew closer. Republic forces and local militias had begun engaging the armored warriors in the streets. So far, the fighting had yet to reach the Lower City.

Her father was taking them to the Czerka warehouse where he worked. He said they would be safe there, that Czerka had a bomb shelter there in case of this very scenario. They were only a few blocks away now, and her father ushered them along the dimly lit streets of the Lower City. There weren't many others about, everyone was likely huddled in their tiny apartments, hoping to ride out the violence that was taking place above.

The warehouse itself was a manufacturing facility that currently was producing fine and expensive clothing, shimmersilk robes and tunics lined with gold, the exact kind of garb that was common to see among the nobles of the Upper City. What good those fine garments did them now, Juhani thought as another explosion sounded above. Little bits of permacrete fell from above in little chunks and dust landing around their feet as they hurried.

Her father, Tordun, worked as a maintenance worker for the many machines that spun the various threads and silks that made the various garments. The machines frequently broke down, and it was up to him and the other two dozen maintenance staff to fix them. Besides the maintenance crew, there were at least another hundred workers at the warehouse, mostly alien species, that worked day in and day out to churn out product at a steady rate, often without breaks and proper safety equipment. Of course, all of this was so the workers could take home a minimal paycheck at the end of the day which would quickly disappear to cover the expenses of merely existing as an individual, nevermind the expenses of a family.

The warehouse was extremely plain from the outside, mainly just a wall of permacrete and durasteel with a set of double doors at the entrance with a big neon Czerka sign overhead. Unsurprisingly, a mob of other workers and their families were gathered outside the entrance seeking entry into the bomb shelter. Most of them were of the "undesirable alien species" that were only permitted in the Lower City. Juhani was struggling to see through the crowd but she could just manage to make out a group of a dozen guards in Czerka uniform, armed with light blaster rifles blocking the entrance.

In front of the guards, stood a man who was dressed in the clothing of a Czerka Overseer, a corporate representative in charge of overseeing Czerka's interests in the sector. He stood with his arms firmly crossed in front of him with a scowl on his face staring down the angry mob. Juhani looked up at her father to see his face twisted into a look of confusion.

"What's going on?" Tordun asked an Iridonian woman who was waiting nearby with her family.

"They're not letting us in," the Iridonian replied.

"I can see that but why?" He pressed her.

"Apparently, they only have room for the merchandise and the corporate officers and their families," she said with contempt.

"That's mad!" Tordun said angrily.

"Czerka cares more about their profits and their human workers than they do for us," said an Ithorian man Tordun knew as Myyrthraal.

"So it seems," Tordun said with a sigh of defeat as he turned back to his family. "Ok," he said ushering them back the way they came, "There's got to be somewhere else safe to go we can ride this out."

Even though her father said those words with conviction, she could tell he was worried. They had fled their home-world hoping to escape the coming Mandalorian horde, only to wind up with them at their doorstep anyways. Juhani felt powerless, scared, she wished she could just magically whisk her family away somewhere far away, somewhere safe and peaceful where her parents didn't have to constantly sacrifice their own needs and comforts for the sake of her and her sister.

They had only made it about halfway back to their small apartment when the street above them collapsed in front of them. Huge chunks of debris rained down onto their level, impacting hard on the surface in front of them. Tordun put himself in front of his family, shielding them from the cloud of dust that washed over them. As the dust settled, Juhani was horrified to see an armored warrior, covered head-to-toe descend through the opening that had just been made above them. The jets of the warrior's jetpack warped the air around the flames from the heat being dispelled from the device. The Mandalorian landed on the pavement, their armored boots clanking against the hard surface. They turned their head to side, regarding the family that stood cowering in fear and shock.

"Well, well," came a female voice through the mouthpiece of the Mandalorian helmet, "It looks like Cassus missed some on Cathar. Looks like I'll be finishing his mission." She pulled a large vibrosword from where it was sheathed on her back, brandishing it threatening towards the scared family.

"No!" Tordun shouted defiantly. "No! You leave them alone! If its a fight you want you got one!"

"I somehow doubt it will be a fight," the Mandalorian replied, venom dripping in her words.

To Juhani's great surprise and horror, she watched as her father pulled a small blaster pistol from its place of concealment under his tunic, and charged the armored warrior.

"Go! Get out of here! Now!" Her father shouted back at them as he rushed forward, firing the blaster several times at his foe. She had just enough time to watch one of the blaster bolts strike the Mandalorian in her chestplate and bounce off harmlessly before her mother grabbed hold of her hand and her sister's and dragging them away from the scene. She called out crying and screaming for her father as her mother dragged them into the doorway of a nearby apartment building.

Juhani blinked away the memories, and suddenly she was back in the moment, dressed in her Jedi robes, surveying the Czerka outpost on Kashyyyk. Her and Canderous were perched in one of the higher branches overlooking the settlement.

"What do you see?" Carth's voice came over the communicator.

"Czerka seems to have organized their operations around the main building built into the wroshyyr tree," Juhani said. "The courtyard is the marketplace. That's where they show off the slaves for sale and buyers can make bids."

"The presence of slavery alone won't be enough to make the Republic intervene," Carth said with a sigh. "The truth is the Republic has no jurisdiction out here and Czerka supplies a lot of their weaponry. The Republic won't risk that relationship to free slaves on some backwater planet."

"Then we need to find something that the Republic can't ignore," Juhani said.

"It sounds like anything that incriminating would be kept in the main offices," Carth said.

"It's going to be a challenge getting in there without causing attention," Canderous said. "They have that place patrolled pretty tightly."

"I say if the Republic won't free the Wookiees then we do," Juhani said.

"I'm sure between me and the HK droid and your lightsaber we can tear this place to the ground in no time," Canderous said, cocking his rifle to emphasize his point.

"No... if it was that simple the Wookiees would have done that already themselves," Juhani observed. "There's more to this operation than meets the eye."

She had scanned the area with her macro-binoculars but hadn't found anything of note. It didn't make sense, she thought. The Wookiees were an exceptionally strong species, and they were excellent climbers and they knew the trees better than anyone. They had every advantage over Czerka and yet they were being captured and enslaved.

She knew part of it was likely due to the deal the current chieftain, Chuundar, had with Czerka. But that couldn't be all there was to it. Certainly other Wookiees wouldn't have gone along with Chuundar's rule if they believed they actually had a chance to kick Czerka off the planet. There was more to this outpost.

She decided it was worth a second look. That was when she noticed the pylons that were arranged on the outer walls of the outpost. They weren't very large, maybe about the height of an average man. Fastened to the tops of the pylons were some sort of transmitter dishes. The dishes were all pointed away from the outpost, with some pointed up towards the branches above.

"Carth," Juhani asked into her comm, "Have you seen the pylons arranged around the edge of the outpost walls?"

"I see them," his voice came back, "They look like Sonic Emitters. I've seen them deployed in warzones on planets where the fauna can be extra hostile."

"All if this to keep out the kinraths and wryyyschokks?"

"You think there's more to it?"

"Maybe... How do they work?"

"I'm not sure exactly," Carth said, "I know they can be tuned to different sonic frequencies. Usually they operate on a frequency that only certain animals can hear to keep them away from the camp. To us, we hear nothing but to them the sound is high-pitched and deafening."

"Do you think Czerka could have modified them to affect the Wookiees?" Juhani asked.

"It's possible. If the Wookiees can detect a wider range of sonic frequencies than us then it's possible," Carth said. "It would've been a simple matter of finding out what specific frequency would cripple them without affecting anyone in the outpost."

"We need to find out. If that's the case that could be the key to helping the Wookiees take back their territory," Juhani said.

"What would happen if we just take them out?" Canderous asked, his trigger finger itching.

"Let us see what happens if we take out just one," Juhani said. She reached out her hand, extending her consciousness in the Force to focus on the sonic emitter on the far side of the complex directly across from them. She closed her eyes, imagined her hand closing around the dish that sat atop the pylon, and wrenched it free.

The dish clattered to the ground, shredded wires trailing down from behind as it fell. Immediately, klaxons began to sound and uniformed Czerka guards began pouring out from the central building and running over to the broken pylon. They were armed with blaster rifles and were instinctively aiming them towards the branches above, scanning for any sign of intruders.

A team of Czerka technicians hurried out with a new dish and a ladder and began climbing the wall to install the dish as fast as possible. Juhani noticed that all the other dishes now had a glowing red light on the top of the pylons.

"It seems our task will be harder than we thought," Juhani said.

Canderous grunted and nodded in agreement.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Jolee's hut was small and rustic. It was carved out of a large knot in the base of one of the massive tree trunks. There was a camp fire outside with a cooking pot set up over the fire. Inside, the small living quarters were lit by makeshift candles that they guessed the old man had fastened himself.

"How long have you been down here?" Venar asked.

"Eh. Who knows," Jolee responded. "A decade? Two decades? What does it matter? I ain't got no place to be.

"The real question is, what are you two doing down here?"

"We're on a mission from the Jedi Council," Bastila explained, "we're looking for an ancient star map that we believe Revan and Malak found before they disappeared into the Unknown Regions."

"We also are looking for a madclaw Wookiee," Venar said. "Chuundar gave us permission to search down here if we brought him to him."

"Hmm..." Jolee said scratching his chin, "Chuundar will betray you. He doesn't like outsiders coming and poking their noses around his business. Even if they're Jedi."

"What about you? He doesn't bother you," Venar observed.

"Who says he doesn't?" Jolee countered. "But, no, Chuundar doesn't concern himself with me much. I was here long before he became Chieftain. Had a good relationship with the previous Chieftain, Freyyr. I believe Chuundar killed him."

"Do you have any idea where the star map is," Venar asked. "In our visions we saw it was inside an ancient crashed starship."

"Yeah, I know the wreck you're talking of," Jolee said. "I've tried to open it many times and haven't been able to. Stupid hunk of junk, that is."

"It's vital that we find it," Bastila urged. "The whole galaxy is at stake until we can-"

"Is it really?" Jolee interrupted. "Or is it just your part of the galaxy that's in trouble. After all the galaxy is a very big place. The Republic being in danger and the galaxy being in danger are two different things."

"I just meant that-"

"Bah! What do I know, though, right? I'm just an old hermit living in a swamp."

"Why aren't you a Jedi anymore," Venar asked.

"That's a long story, kid," Jolee said raising an eyebrow. "One I don't really feel like telling right now."

"Are you a Sith?"

Jolee burst out laughing, the bellowing sounds coming from deep within him. He wiped a tear from his eye and suddenly was completely composed.

"No," he said calmly. "I'm not a Sith. Or am I?" He threw up his hands as if they were the claws of some ferocious creature.

Venar and Bastila's lightsabers sprang into their hands almost in the blink of an eye.

This caused another bout of laughter from the old hermit and Venar noted with amusement Bastila's scowl at realizing the old man was messing with them.

"Oh! You should've seen your faces!" Jolee was thoroughly amused by the prank he played. "I can't believe you thought I was a Sith!"

"This is not the time or the place for jokes," Bastila said with annoyance.

"It was pretty funny..." Venar said suppressing a chuckle.

"I like this guy!" Jolee said pointing at Venar. "Look, I can help you find your crashed starship..."

"I'm sensing a but..."

"Ooh wow you sensed that with your Force powers did you?" Jolee smiled with a teasing glint in his eyes.