The Droidmaker
Nuko peered silently over his master's shoulder, glimpsing the navigation computer's coordinates. His jaw tightened considerably as he realized they were heading towards Gartana, exactly where the council specifically forbidden them to investigate.
"Master." Nuko mumbled cautiously, lowering his spiked head. "Perhaps we should heed the council, I'm sure they forbade us to go to Gartana for a reason."
"You gotta learn someday the council are wrong just as often as they are right, This man has the potential to destroy the Jedi. Do you want that?" Vixur growled without looking up from the console.
"Well—No, But..."
"Then start reading up on the planet while I prep the jump."
Nuko suppressed a sigh as he shuffled through the tight corridors of the freighter, barely remembering to duck beneath the small service ladder that jutted into the passage. The main hold was as depressing as always, everything Vixur Kavata owned fell under his philosophy of function over vanity. The padawan seated himself at a small makeshift desk and pulled a chipped datapad from beneath a pair of disruption gloves. It flickered to life with hesitance, displaying the report on Gartana that Master Kavata had insisted on loading onto it before they had departed.
Gartana, as it turned out, was predominantly a water planet, with several islands scattering it's surface. The only feature differentiating itself from Kamino seemed to be the alarming toxicity of the water. Nuko hoped that the facility was going to be on one of the better sized islands, where they could avoid the water altogether.
There of course was no data on the droid making factory itself, it had only come to Republic attention recently, but there was an entry on the maker, albeit a brief one.
The entry consisted of a fuzzy picture of what Nuko assumed used to be an Epicanthix male, although it was difficult to tell beneath the sinister cybernetics that protruded from his face and body, if Nuko had to guess he would estimated seventy percent of the man was machine. Judging from the image none of the cybernetics were for injuries, they all seemed to provide an enhancement in one way or another. The most imposing were his legs, bulky durasteel encased both legs, framed with pneumatic springs, most likely for power.
The record stated that the man had been a Republic soldier for three years before abruptly dropping out of service to tend to his ailing father's droid shop. An unspecified time later the shop went bankrupt, and he vanished from Republic records almost immediately afterwards.
Nuko shivered at the thought of meeting the imposing image face to face.
The factory was an impressive sight from the air, a series of smokestacks spat smog into the atmosphere, all at one end of a sleek building that took up the entire island it was stationed on. There were no windows visible from the starship, only a single occupied landing pad on the near side of the factory. Water crashed onto the sides of the building, not quite reaching the roof, as it receded the durasteel was left a sickly grey colour from prolonged contact with the water.
The transport nestled on the landing pad was clearly a Sith make, Nuko had seen plenty of holograms in the archives. He shifted uncomfortably, it was getting more and more obvious why the council had wanted them to stay away.
"Sith freighter down there." Vixur noted, with a shred of satisfaction in his tone. "Follow my lead and try not to die."
Great advice as always, Nuko thought before replying with a sarcastic, "Yes, Master."
Vixur brought the ship down atop the facility, gingerly at first until he was certain the roof would hold the full weight of the ship. He lowered the entrance ramp and unclasped his lightsaber on his way out.
The pair raced along the roof, towards the landing pad, carefully ensuring they did not lose footing on the slick metal. They dropped onto the platform, warily repelling the spray of water with a wave of the hand. With a nudge from the Force Vixur pried open the entrance, a foot thick, magnetized door. It resisted at first, before snapping open with a deafening crack. So much for a stealthy approach.
The hallway beyond was surprisingly empty, simply a long bleak passage with a musky odour to it. Also surprising was the absence of an alarm of any sort, a quick survey of the area revealed a remote camera pointing directly at them. The lack of a welcoming party somehow made Nuko even more uneasy, and with a thought he scrambled the camera's power.
They swiftly cut down the hallway, the Force directing them. As they neared the end, the door sprang open revealing two slender bipedal droids, they moved with an unnerving resemblance to humans. Their bodies were a dull crimson, two meters tall, and powerfully built. Moving with a confidence that belongs only to droids they approached the jedi. Their fingers were thin and dexterous, created for accurate and swift movements. Unmistakably clamped between their fingers were lightsabers.
Vixur's eyes narrowed at the sight of jedi weapons in the clutches of droids, yellow fire springing from his own. Nuko followed the suit, pivoting his own blue saber into a low guard Niman stance. Mirroring the jedi, the droids spun their weapons into life, enveloping themselves in red plasma as they advanced, swinging with inhuman speed.
Nuko caught the initial strike of his aggressor, elbows near buckling from the sheer power behind the attack, and turned it aside allowing his own jab. It narrowly missed his opponent as it veered to the side with a rising slash that would have quite literally unarmed Nuko if not for Vixur managing to deflect the blow while still staying toe to toe with his own droid. Gritting his teeth Nuko narrowly avoided a horizontal chop, and parried a swift thrust that immediately followed.
The room stank of ozone as the two parties fought, lightsaber burns marked the walls where redirected blows struck. The droids refused to give ground, no matter how hard their adversaries tried to press an advancement, immediately smashing back any attempt. Vixur was faring much better than his padawan, already landing a minor blow the shoulder and successfully controlling his battle. Nuko was forced onto the defensive as strike after relentless strike rained upon him, microseconds apart.
Nuko pushed the droid back several paces with a Force push, surprised at how little the droid had budged. The next instant it was upon him, blade seeking flesh and bone, electronic reflexes easily keeping pace with the younger jedi. After his attempt to use the Force the droid's aggression doubled determined not to allow any time for Nuko to use an other powers. He managed to clip a leg, but not without taking a powerful kick to the torso. He tumbled across the floor, several meters back, winded. If he had not used the Force to cushion the blow he would have been grievously injured. Climbing to his feet he found the droid back upon him, never missing a strike at an opening.
Vixur finally brought his blade through his droid's arm, severing it and sending the lightsaber to his waiting hand. With perfect form he used both to cleave through the droid's chest piece with several powerful moves. Whirling in place he gestured at Nuko's assailant drawing it back and to the ground at his feet, with a triumphant cry Vixur twirled both sabers through each major joint. He paused, clutching his chest in sudden agony.
Vixur had a replacement heart installed early into his knighthood, his own had been ravaged by disease. Whenever he got his heart pumping too much the artificial one couldn't keep up, especially when he got overexcited. It would pass in a moment.
"Are you alright?" Nuko panted, wiping sweat from his brow.
"You know I'll be fine." Vixur straightened, massaging the area over his heart. "You on the other hand have to keep a tighter defence. I won't always be there to cover you."
Nuko nodded apologetically, "I know, Master."
Vixur examined the droids sparking at his feet. "Turns out the intel was spot on, droids with lightsabers. They know how to use 'em too."
"It's almost impractical." Nuko said.
"How so?"
"Imagine the resources the factory is burning through to make all the lightsabers. Crystals aren't exactly a common find are they?"
"Something tells me these aren't like the crystals Jedi use Nuko, I've heard that sometimes the Sith artificially created crystals for their sabers. The practice is apparently fairly common, that's probably what they use in these." Vixur pocketed one of the droid's lightsabers. "We'll want to take a closer look at these later. Shall we?"
Vixur lead the way through the doors, which lead into a larger room, filled with conveyer belts and various parts of droids being fused together. Across the room were four figures, two droids, the cyborg from the image, and a slim boy in Sith garbs. They had abruptly stopped talking and turned to face the intruders. The cyborg extended his arms in mock invitation, his booming voice blared through speakers all over the room.
"Welcome to my factory gentlemen, impressive is it not?" His voice was as cold as the durasteel he was standing upon. "We haven't been formally introduced, I am Minorous. The director of this factory. Who do we have here."
His question was met with a hard silence from the Jedi who were discreetly eyeing potential ways to cross the gorge that separated them. Getting no reply Minorous shrugged.
"I suppose your aren't here to chat. You're here for my head aren't you? That isn't going to go over well for you." His cybernetics seemed to swell.
The Sith boy seemed somewhat bored with the fiasco, placing a single hand on his lightsaber and muttering in Minorous' ear.
"Caton as it turns out has an appointment elsewhere. So let's not waste anymore time."
Simultaneously Vixur and Nuko leapt onto the nearest conveyer belt, using it as a stepping stone to the director. Casually the Sith Caton raised his hand, tossing heavy scrap as if it were no heavier than a leaf. They slashed through the oncoming projectiles, strafing to the side to maintain their position on the belt. Caton leapt at the surprised Jedi who raised their blades in defence only to be brushed aside with a blast from the Force. He propelled himself down the corridor they themselves had just come from, heading straight for his ship.
"Don't let him get away!" Vixur barked, gesturing for Nuko to hurry up and follow. "I'll handle him."
Nuko sprang to his feet and set off in hot pursuit, while Vixur leapt at Minorous and the droids, blade whirling.