The Undercity, a quite different place from the levels above, was accessible through one of another network of extensive elevators. The first elevator down they found they had to abandon due to a Sith patrol guarding the way. Mission had led them to another elevator shaft that was unguarded.

Encased in a steel tube, the elevator brought them further into the dark depths of the planet-wide city. While everything in the Upper City looked pristine and was made for the rich, the Undercity was the exact opposite. The Lower City, though riddled with problems, when the gangs weren't warring was a manageable place to live.

The elevator finally arrived at the bottom and the doors opened with a hiss. Beyond them lay a dark world unlike anything Venar or Carth had ever seen. Bound in almost complete perpetual darkness, save for the lights from the higher levels and some orange looking lights off in the distance. The ground was made of mostly dirt and cracked concrete. Very few plants grew down here, probably due to the lack of light and the abundance of pollution.

"What... is this place?" Carth asked.

"It's where the poor come to die," Mission responded.

"You mean people live down here," Venar asked.

"The only people down here are those who have been banished from the up-world, criminals, and their descendants," Mission, "the people are the least of our problems here."

Carth and Venar primed their blaster pistols and looked about their surroundings. Venar noticed they were in a fenced in area made of a make-shift wall of scrap metal and old boards. The orange lights off in the distance, now that his eyes having adjusted to the darkness, he saw were actually campfires and torches of some sort.

"We're safe here," Mission said, "this is one of the outcast settlements. Just... follow me and don't touch anything... or stare at anyone."

"Whatever you say, boss," Venar said with a hint of sarcasm. Mission just rolled her eyes and began walking ahead.

"Sure you two aren't related or anything?" Carth asked before taking off to follow their new twi'lek friend.

"Very funny," Venar said shaking his head, then trailed up behind them.

Mission led them through a village of sorts consisting of ramshackle huts and lean-tos made of just about any piece of scrap these people could find. The people themselves were dirty and dingy, their clothes torn and tattered, coughing and watching the newcomers from the shadows of their make-shift homes. Most of them had pale almost gray skin from never being exposed to sunlight. Just the sight of these people and being down here for only a few minutes, was sapping Venar's usual cocky and sure-fire attitude. Carth just seemed even more pessimistic than he usually was. Mission, he observed, seemed to be used to the atmosphere.

They passed a fire pit around which a bunch of children sat, listening to a haggard old man rambling on about something called 'the promised land', whatever that was. Some of the children looked to be no more than five to ten standard years. This was no place for a child, let alone anyone to live. Venar felt it rising in his bones, he always cursed himself when it did. After all, these people weren't his problem, so why did he feel the need and the urge to help these people. He looked up to the lights from the city above. If only he could give the stuck up wretches that cast these poor souls down here a taste of their medicine.

A bloodcurdling cry for help suddenly shook him from his thoughts. A woman's voice cried out at the top of her lungs begging for help. They ran to the edge of the village, to the gate that lead into the untamed world beyond. There, a woman who looked to be in her late thirties, clung to the wire mesh of the gate as she looked out at something beyond the village borders. The gatekeeper rushed over to her side.

"Please! Someone help him!" she cried out hysterically, "my husband! Please someone save him!"

"I'm sorry but I can't open the gate," the gatekeeper said, "they're following too close behind. I can't risk letting them in!"

As they reached the gate they saw a man off in the distance running towards them as fast as he could. Behind him, were a pack of terrifying beasts. They looked almost human, but their skin was white and they ran on all fours, baring sharp claws and a wide mouth of razor sharp teeth. Their eyes glowed red in the darkness.

"What the hell are those things?" Venar asked.

"Rakghouls," Mission said, "they... infect anyone they bite... turn them into more monsters..."

"We have to help him!" Carth said turning to the gatekeeper.

"I'm sorry I can't let those things in here," the gatekeeper replied, "they'll infect the whole village."

"Then let us out," Venar spoke up," close the gate behind us. There's still time!"

"I can't!"

"Just do it!" Venar shouted and pointed his blaster at the man.

"Alright! Alright! Damn you blasted up-worlder!" the gatekeeper pulled a lever and the gate opened up just enough for Venar, Carth, and Mission to slip underneath. The gate closed with a thud behind them, the woman sobbing and thanking them over and over.

The three of them took aim with their blaster pistols and began firing several shots into the pack of rakghouls. Two monsters went down, the rest charged after their prey undeterred.

"Check your aim!" Carth called, "don't fire unless you have a clean shot!"

"Hey, don't worry gramps," Mission said, "I could bulls-eye a womp rat through a hutt's backside." She fired several shots into the pack, and another two rakghouls hit the dirt.

"That leaves three left!" Venar said. The man was almost to them now, with three rakghouls close behind. Two of them were visible, the other one was directly behind the man. "Cover me!" Venar said as he ran forward to meet the man.

Carth and Mission took aim at one of the rakghouls on either side, and fired, both of them hitting their mark. Venar charged forward right in front of the man, unsheathing his vibrosword from his back. He swung aiming for the man's head. "Duck!" The man dropped to the ground and the sword sliced through the creature's flesh just as it was pouncing through the air. The blade cut through, separating the beast's head from it's body, leaving a trail of blood raining onto the ground.

The man still lay on the ground, shaking in fear and shock. Venar reached down and slowly pulled the man to his feet, throwing some of the man's weight onto his shoulder. They ushered him back to the gate where he was greeted by some of the village's healers and elders.

"Thank you, up-worlder! You've saved him!" several villagers cried out from the crowd.

"Could he be the chosen one?" another whispered. As the wife was reunited with her husband, the gatekeeper walked over to Venar and the others.

"I... I don't know what to say," he said, "I'm ashamed. I was a coward."

"You need to look out for each other down here," Venar said, "I'm sorry I can't do more."

"Would... would you have really shot me?"

"You were scared. Fear can be paralyzing. I simply forced you to make a decision. Now if you'll excuse us." With that, Venar walked away and ventured back outside the village walls with Carth and Mission.

"Where did you learn to wield a sword like that?" Mission asked.

"Lets just say it pays to be adaptable when you're living as a smuggler on the run," Venar said, "now lets go find your friend."

Sewers are rarely a place anyone seeks to visit. The smell alone would drive even the toughest of individuals away. The sewers of Taris are no exception. Yet, despite the smell and the savage rakghouls that infest them, the sewers are exactly where Gorshh and his crew have decided to set up their base. Not that the smell or the filth was a problem. Gamorreans were used to such things after all. It was the rakghouls that bothered him. They were just... wrong somehow.

From here, they can organize their entire slave trade operation. Well, it would've been better if the Sith hadn't blockaded the planet. At the very least, they had enough cages to last awhile before being ready to ship the slaves off-world. Hopefully, the blockade wouldn't last much longer so they could start to make a profit from this endeavor.

Taris was the perfect place for such an operation after all. The snobbish human nobles of the Upper City kept all the alien species confined to the lower levels where law was merely just a suggestion, and ambush locations were many. Their latest ambush had gone less than desirable. Though he would've expected as much from a wookie. Feral thing, took a chunk out of one of his men's arms when he got too close to the cage.

The profit would be worth it, though. After all, wookies are always in high demand and its a rare thing to find one off of their homeworld. Yet, to their surprise, they just found this wookie and a small twi'lek girl wandering around the Undercity. The ambush wasn't a complete success, the twi'lek girl got away, but a wookie slave always sells nicely.

Gorshh was on his way to check on their new wookie prisoner, and see what other possible slaves they may have acquired. He walked down one of the corridors of the sewers that they had barricaded secured. He came to a large hydraulic door with a keypad. He punched in a series of numbers with his large pudgy green fingers.

The door slid open and his eyes went wide in surprise and he squealed as he saw the wookie prisoner out of his cage. The wookie had one of the other gamorreans by the throat. He lifted him in the air and threw him against the permacrete wall with a thud. Other gamorreans lay all about the floor, some with blaster holes in their bodies. That's when he noticed the blue twi'lek girl and two human males rushing towards him.

Gorshh struggled to draw the battle axe from his back and by the time he had gotten it free, it tumbled out of his hands and three blaster bolts struck him directly in the chest. He fell backwards against the hard cold floor and the last thing he saw was that blue twi'lek girl running towards him, blasters drawn, with an angry scowl on her face.

Venar took a quick look about the room, scanning it with his eyes and his blaster.

"Looks like that's the last of them," he said, stepping over the body of one of those hideous green pig-looking creatures.

"Filthy slavers," Mission said with a sneer.

"Graaaaawwwwwwarrrrrrr!" the now free wookie roared at Venar.

"Uh... what did he say?" Venar asked.

"Oh he's just saying thank you," Mission said.

"Oh well uh... you're welcome buddy," Venar said patting the wookie on the arm but then nearly shouting in surprise as the big furry creature dragged him into a tight and suffocating hug.

"Grrrrrraaaaaawwwrraaaah!" Zaalbar bellowed.

"Wait what?," Venar said, suddenly giving up on struggling against the wookie's embrace, "Hey I understood him! I understood what he said! How is that possible?"

"I don't know but this a big deal," Mission said, "Zaalbar are you sure about this? He's swearing a lifedebt to you."

"Yeah I got that much," Venar responded, "...what's a lifedebt?"

"He's swearing an oath of loyalty to you for saving his life. He will stick by you're side until one of you dies. Its the highest honor you can get from a wookie," Mission explained, "Which, I guess, means you're stuck with me too. Wherever Big Z goes, I go."

"Lovely," Venar said, "now uh hey fuzzy, I'd appreciate it if you let me go now."

With a gentle growl, Zaalbar released his new friend from his grasp and with a giant hand tousled Venar's hair.

"Yes, yes, nice to meet you too," Venar said, trying to smooth back his hair, "now, if I'm not mistaken, don't we have a stolen swoop bike to find?"

"The coordinates of the locator beacon show its not far from here," Carth interjected, "seems its just a little further into the sewers."

"No time to waste then," Venar said. Zaalbar gave a triumphant roar, and with that, they set off deeper into the sewers.