The corridors of Karash’s business did not seem to be the same as they once were; they had become silent and empty. The few people who walked around the corridors seemed scared to do anything wrong and Henrick was talking non stop to try and distract Karash.

“Who are all these people?” Karash was now referring to the so called security personnel that Karash had noticed outside.

Henrick just seemed to ignore what was said but Karash was now fixated on them because they did not wear any uniforms, had no standard weapons and showed no respect to their superiors. Karash was growing increasingly uneasy as they marched further and further away from the exit and at the same time the number of so called security personnel increased.

“Ah! Here is my office,” exclaimed Henrick.

“Good day sir is there anything I can do for you?” asked a droid that was sat outside Henrick’s office.

“No but make sure nobody comes in!” Henrick now seemed to become very weary of those around him and almost pushed Karash into the office.

Henrick frantically ran around the room and closed the blinds, made sure the security cameras were off and jammed the door so it could not be opened from the outside. Henrick was breathing heavily, he looked like he was about to explode, Karash was now becoming extremely worried and eventually drew up the courage to ask Henrick what was going on.

“Henrick… Henrick! What the hell is happening?” shouted Karash.

“It’s… They’ve been…” Henrick could not get his words in the right order.

“Calm down and tell me what’s happened.”

“OK,” Henrick continued. “Shortly after you left they came and took control of the business, I couldn’t do anything to stop them.”

“Who are they?” asked Karash.

“I don’t know exactly but they are some sort of a crime syndicate. At first they just threatened us and demanded money but after a while a large force of them arrived and took control.  Our security forces were no match for there troops,” explained Henrick.

Karash could not believe what he was hearing, that his business that his great grandfather had opened had been taken over by a load of uncivilised scum. Karash would not stand for that and began to think of ways to get rid of these ‘gangsters’.

“What happened to everyone,” asked Karash.

“The workers are being used as slaves and all the profits the business is making go towards funding their own means. Not only that but all of the management staff are being held prisoners in the under ground sections, they are only brought up when they are needed.” Henrick seemed relieved to be telling Karash all of this.

“Why have you just sat here and taken this?”

“They are holding are families and threatening all of our lives. When a few of the men revolted they executed their families and then killed them, that is what happened to Cronol his dead body was frozen in carbonite as a example to the rest of us.”

It all began to make sense to Karash; why there were so many ‘security personnel’ present, why Henrick had called him here and why the place seemed so different, so wrong.

“Who is in charge,” Karash continued to ask questions.

“The Neimoidian, Rune, was left to make sure everything ran smoothly. But he rarely comes out in the open, the only reason he came today was to make sure you weren’t suspicious.”

“Well then we had best get him in here,” said Karash.

“I will try and because you’re here it should work,” Henrick stated.

‘Bang, Bang’.

There were people at the door ordering that they be let inside, Karash had to think fast. He instructed Henrick to let them in; they had torn the head off the droid that was waiting outside the office.

“What have you told him,” The man shouted.

“I don’t know…” Henrick did not get a chance to finish.

“Tell us or we’re shoot ya!” they took aim and…

… Karash had managed to shoot them before they had had chance to react but Henrick did not look too pleased. They had not time to discuss it as the Neimoidian was already on his way and they had to hide the bodies and the decapitated droid.

“When he gets here you hold him and I’ll take care of his guards,” explained Karash.

“I do not have a weapon,” said Henrick.

Karash went over to the chair that he had once occupied, as had his father before him, he pushed what seemed to be a random selection of buttons but never the less a blaster pistol appeared from the arm of the chair. Henrick took it and placed it in his trousers looking slightly shocked at the placement of the weapon.

It was then that the doors of the office slide open and the Neimoidian walked in.

“Guards get them!” the Neimoidian shouted as he ran off down the corridor and into a side office.

Karash nudged Henrick they looked up and prepared for any men that were threatening them but what they saw was not a life form of any sort, it was a small group of B1 battle droid’s; the last time Karash had seen then was in a book about the clone wars and he also knew they were not very effective.

“Freeze!” one of them exclaimed. Karash and Henrick both stood up and slowly made their way towards the droids. “I said freeze, now put your weapons down!” the droid seemed to have raised its tone.

They did not waste any time, both Karash and Henrick fired a few shots and then dived behind some cover; about three droids were hit and by Karash’s counting that meant there were five left. They sat behind the piece pf scrap metal for a while exchanging shots with the droids, who had also taken positions behind some cover.

“Right we can’t stay here” said Karash.

“No but what else can we do?” asked Henrick.

Karash had forgotten just how fat Henrick was and all the physical exertion they had been under looked as though it had taken deep effect on him. “You cause a distraction and I’ll take them out.”

The look of horror on Henrick’s face was almost comical but he agreed and jumped out from cover, grumbling as he did so, and then Karash began to take the remaining five droids out. After they had been dealt with the droids they were reminded of Rune as he came over the communications network.

“This is Rune, I am trapped in the under ground prisons, need immediate assistants, kill any resistance on site.” He said though it was obvious he was panicking by the way he was wheezing.

“They’ll be here soon and he’s looked all the doors,” said Henrick

“We’ll have to send a message out to the workers to tell them to fight back, it’s our only hope.” Henrick agreed and moved over to the communication device.

“This is Henrick Norgath, I and Karash Norgath have Rune pinned down. All workers fight back to hold the guards off and soon we’ll be free.” Henrick said.

All they could do was hope that the workers would be able to overcome they’re fear and fight back. The next problem they had to deal with was how to get in the security office Rune had locked himself in.

Karash scanned the room for any piece of equipment that could be used to help them, it seemed hopeless, and it was then that Karash noticed the grenades that were left by the droids. He explained to Henrick that they would have to plant the grenades and then run for cover; Henrick was worried about the damage to the building but they had no other alternative.

Karash planted the grenades and then ran back to behind the cover and waited for the explosion, nothing happened so he stepped forward. ‘BANG’ the whole building seemed to shake and piece of metal hit Karash in the arm but apart from that no harm was done.

“Come on,” Karash said to Henrick. They walked forward and saw Rune trying to crawl away from the debris. Karash couldn’t help but laugh “Haha!”

“You put a message out telling all your men tool ay down their weapons and surrender themselves to our workers!” barked Henrick.

The Neimoidian did nothing but squirm, until Henrick hit him with such a force that it broke his arm.

Rune whelped and said “Alright but please let us go back to our master in peace.”

Karash wanted to kill every last one of the scum that had done this to his business and his workforce but he knew that killing these people would just promote a worse response from their masters. Also he just wanted to go back to the safety of the Storm trooper corps.

Rune was then made to open the cells and release all his prisoners, all of which hit Rune on their way to elevator. They followed everyone else up to the higher levels to find the regular workers holding their captors captive; but Karash was preoccupied with the thought of getting back home and getting away from this place he hated o much.

The bad memories of this planet were just getting worse.