Chapter 2: Meeting the Jedi
I stood at the southern end of the dormitory level for what couldn't have been more than a day. I remember the character woke up the day after the lockdown began. I was basically trapped at that end of the facility because there was no way to get past the fire extinguishers without getting frozen in carbonite. Every now and then I would peek outside into the hallway to see if the Jedi had arrived. This time I peered around and saw three mining droids. They were probably the ones that killed Coorta. As soon as they saw me, their photoreceptors turned red.
Oh, boy, another battle.
This time they were ranged, so I would need to rely on my mining lasers. I ducked behind the wall and began blindly firing shots at them, not even knowing if I was hitting them. As I peered around again one of the droids fired a shot right at me. Luckily I was able to duck down just in time to avoid the shot. Before the droid had another chance to shoot, I fired a shot straight at its central control cluster. The droid immediately exploded and collapsed in a heap of sparks. That left just two, who began firing at me again. This time I rolled to my left and fired another shot at a second droid, destroying it instantly. I immediately aimed the laser at the third droid, but before I had a chance to fire, it too suddenly exploded. Once the sparks faded away, I saw a woman standing in the open door way. She had raven black hair and bright blue eyes, and was wearing the same miner's uniform I was. I quickly guessed that she was the Jedi.
So it's a female exile, interesting…
"Oh, thank goodness, someone else survived," I practically shouted the words.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"Uh…Greg," I quickly said. Hopefully my first name won't sound weird in the Star Wars universe, since names here sound nothing like they do on Earth.
"Alright, Greg," she said suspiciously, "how do I know you're not one of those miners who wanted to collect the bounty on me?"
Is she light side or dark side?
"You're the Jedi?"
"It sounded like everyone somehow knew who I was."
"Well, I, uh…" I knew there was no way I could prove I wasn't. "Do you know Atton?"
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Because I met with him when I arrived here. If you trust him, you can trust me, too."
"Yeah, I know who he is," she conceded. "I don't exactly trust him, but I'm going to need his help in order to escape here. I suppose I could let you tag along until I can figure out where your loyalties lie."
"Sounds good, lead on," I said before retrieving my survival pack. "Now, uh, do you have an escape plan?"
"I'm trying to find a way into the hanger bay, but the only way there through the facility is sealed off by a containment field, and I can't shut it down. So I was looking for the administration officer to see if I could get the override code. What can you tell me about this level?"
"The dormitories are down this hallway and around a corner, and the turbolift back to the administration level is on the other side of the tunnel, but the fire extinguishers have gone rogue just like the droids have. Unless you've got a miner laser with a better range you run the risk of getting frozen by carbonite jets."
The Jedi reached into her own survival pack and retrieved what must have been an advanced mining laser. She headed towards the hallway and motioned for me to follow her. She quickly destroyed both fire extinguishers and continued forward. I followed right beside her, stopping in front of a computer console.
"Ok, the dormitories are just beyond that door, but because of the lockdown I can't open it, and I don't know how to access the computer, either."
She walked over to the computer.
"Hmm, this computer's been sabotaged, but fortunately, I think I can repair in just a minute, let's see now…" She reached into her survival pack and took out what must have been a repair part and began tinkering with the computer. After a few minutes the console beeped to life.
"Alright, we should have full access to console now, so let's see if we can…uh oh, that doesn't look good. Here, take a look at this."
I looked more closely at the security feed to see toxic fumes venting inside the dormitories.
"Is there any way you can shut it off?"
She grabbed a computer spike from her pack and hooked it up to the computer. Within a few minutes the fumes disappeared. It was pretty clear that all the miners were dead.
"Change of plans," she said. "I saw a ship dock here not too long ago, and a fuel pipe extended from the facility into the ships engine. If we can't find the code, we can bypass the containment field through the fuel pipe. So let's head to the turbolift."
"Alright, but there's more droids on that side of the level, plus two more of those fire extinguishers."
She nodded and grabbed her mining laser and signaled towards the hallway. After taking out the fire extinguishers and fighting our way through several droids in the mess hall, we reached the turbolift, where we found three dead miners, Coorta among them. While I kept an eye on the doorway to make sure any droids didn't sneak up on us, she went to access the computer to open to the turbolift.
"Hmm, apparently we need an access code to open the turbolift. Do you know the code?"
I shook my head and started searching the miners' survival packs to see if I could find the code somewhere. When I finished searching the last one I stood up and asked, "Are there any recordings in the computer's security camera?"
She checked the computer and said, "One, about five minutes after the lockdown began."
"Bring it up. Let's see if there are any clues in it."
The projector flashed to life and showed Coorta and two other miners trying to escape. When the mining droids arrived and shot them, I quickly said, "I think those were the droids we took out once you arrived."
From the recording we gathered that the miners trapped in the dormitories were sending a distress signal through the holo-transmitter inside the dormitory, and that the turbolift code had been reversed. I turned to the Jedi and asked, "I think we should investigate the dormitories."
The Jedi took control of the computer and ended the lockdown on the dormitories to open the door. We then agreed to split up and search the dorms separately. She took the west dorm, while I took the east dorm. After quickly dispatching the droid in the corridor, I ended the dormitory and searched the area for anything useful. I found a pair of holo-logs plus a blaster pistol hidden inside of the footlockers. Once I had searched the entire area I headed back to the west dorm to find the Jedi viewing holo-recordings from the administrator.
"Find anything?" I quickly asked.
"Apparently the distress signal was the turbo lift code, but I only got the first three numbers, and the code has five. How about you? What did you find?"
"Some more holo-logs," I said, holding them up. "One of them is from the dock officer, the other from the mining foreman."
I handed her both logs and she inserted both of them into projector. The foreman's log didn't have any useful information in it, but the dock officer's log revealed that the distress signal was on automatic playback, meaning that the transmission was still playing. The Jedi quickly deciphered the code and we made our way back towards the turbo lift. As we both entered the turbolift I turned to her and said, "By the way, I don't think I ever asked you what your name was."
"Meetra. Meetra Surik," she said with a smile.
"Well then Meetra, you ready to escape?"
She nodded and the door opened to reveal Kreia standing in front of us.
"Ah, so you are here," she said to me before turning towards Meetra. "I felt a disturbance in the Force. Our enemy is here, and we must leave at once."
"What enemy?" Meetra asked.
"The one that fired on the Ebon Hawk as we attempted to rescue you…and he will not let us go without blood being shed. We need to make our way to the docking area on this level. I fear the airlock has already opened, and if do, we must be on our guard. If we cannot reach the Ebon Hawk, then we must find a way to escape on the ship that has docked here."
The three of us quickly ran to communications console, where Atton was still waiting.
"What in space is going on? Who's this? Another Jedi? What, did you guys suddenly start breeding when I wasn't looking? And how did you survive the lockdown?" he asked, turning his attention towards me.
"There's no time to explain, Atton. Grab a weapon and follow me," Meetra said before I could answer him.
"Uh, alright. I'm guessing that Republic ship that just docked isn't carrying friends of yours."
"I hope your talent for understatement is offset by your skill with a blaster. Otherwise I fear our time together will be short indeed."
"Yeah, and I'm also good at running and drinking, Your Majesty," Atton retorted. "And even if you two aren't big friends of the Republic, that warship is the only way off this station."
"Uh, I think we should go, now," I cut in. With Atton now in our little group, we ran towards the airlock.
"Good thing we have a clear run to the shi-"
"Threat: Master, perhaps I did not enunciate clearly the last time we spoke. I suggested that you should shut down, stay put, and wait for rescue."
The mechanical voice came without warning for the rest of them, but of course I knew it was coming. The HK-50 unit was standing not too far away from us, clutching a blaster a rifle while four mines floated in front of it.
"No, you were clear enough. I just don't listen to assassin droids," Meetra replied indignantly.
"Clarification: Assassin droid is such a crude term, Master, reserved only for durasteel drones uploaded with only the most archaic kill programs. The function I perform has been referred to as 'wanton slaughter.' I prefer to see it as a means of facilitating communications, resulting in the termination of hostilities."
"Whatever you say, but 'murder' still means 'murder' to me."
"Correction: I am not here to argue semantics, Master, so I will simply inform you that you are wrong, as were those recently-corrected miners," the droid snarled. "And although it appears that one of them somehow escaped me, it is of little matter now. I doubt he can offer you much help."
"I'm tired of listening to you. Prepare to be scrapped!"
"Resignation: Very well, Master. If inflicting pain is the only way to resolve this matter, then you leave me with no other choice."
The mines began floating straight towards us.
"Shoot for the mines first," I whispered to Atton. He nodded and took out the one of the far left, while I took the one next to it. Kreia picked up on this and took out the other two with the Force, while Meetra charged forwards and ran the droid through with a vibroblade. The droid suddenly froze before it suddenly began to vibrate.
"Get away from there! It's going to self-destruct!" I shouted.
Meetra barely managed to get out of the blast range as the droid's chassis violently exploded and what was left of the droid collapsed to the floor. After the sparks faded I stepped forward to examine the wreckage, with Meetra not too far behind me. "Some droid," I muttered to myself.
"We can still salvage some of the parts," she added, bending down and placing some of the parts in her survival pack.
I picked up the blaster rifle and motioned towards the airlock. "Come on, I don't think we can get out of here soon enough."
Meetra nodded and the four of us quickly made our way towards the airlock, and onto the Harbinger.