Kriff! Two chapters in one day! I'm on a roll, baby... Anyway...enjoy this one two!
Chapter Six
Around the mine shaft were littered twists of metal and overturned carts. The once working machinery was now broken and left to corrode in the dark. The rails of the cart lines at least were still intact.
Palla looked around the shaft, she could almost see the prosperity of the once grand mine. She gazed up to look for the ceiling but it was too dark for her to see anything. She noticed, however, there seemed to be a lack of light installments. Odd.
The air soon became more damp and musky as they traveled further into the ground. The clones behind her were silent; Palla wondered what they may be saying behind those helmets of theirs.
Palla racked her brain when they came to a fork in the trail. The tracks ran one way to another tunnel, while another hole, less carved than the others, led to the left.
Left or right? Palla tapped her lip in concentration. She pulled up her comlink and pulled up her map. It was the left tunnel.
She led the way down the left tunnel, her soft boots making very little sound in the tunnel. She noticed that the clumps of rock began to get larger and more frequent as they traveled further. Her nose was suddenly assaulted by an acrid smell of natural fuel.
"Starting to smell…" she muttered.
"Oh, I thought that was me," Jackson said lightly. Palla chuckled and looked back at him with a raised eyebrow.
"I thought you had filters in those buckets of yours?" she asked. Jackson shrugged. Palla turned her attention back to the path in front of her. It was beginning to get narrower, she wondered why.
When a draft of air hit her square in the face, she realized why. She held up her hand and signaled the others to stop. She picked up a rock from the ground and tossed it in front of her. She force controlled it so that it would roll down further.
An echoing sound of the rock bouncing against debris confirmed Palla's suspicions. The shaft dropped off directly in front of them.
"Sounds like a big drop, Ma'am," Jory commented as he walked up behind her. Palla dusted her hands off.
"Indeed. We'll have to find a way around," she said.
"I think there's a suspension bridge over the middle," Jory said as he peered into the gloom. His helmet sensors could pick up far more than what Palla could see.
"I think I'm beginning to trust those nifty things of yours," Palla pointed to Jory's helmet.
"Wait till you have to wear them all day, General," Jory's tone was sarcastic as he replied. Palla shrugged meaningfully and turned her attention back to the pit.
She held out her hand and drew up the Force. She began to feel every little thing in front of her. The feeling of dirt clinging to the walls…cloth and even the armor of her clones, she could sense the rocks, how ancient they were, almost whispering for her to delve more into them. All these feelings she felt as she focused her attention on the suspension bridge in front of her. It was narrow; they'd have to go one by one. She drifted to the wires holding the bridge in place; they should be able to hold up. Yes, they should make it.
"We'll have to go one by one," Palla said finally. "And slowly. That bridge should hold up if we're gentle."
Before Jory could set up who went first, Palla was already scampering across the bridge. Jory watched her go with a slight sense of disapproval…which then melted into understanding. Of course the lightest weighing person would go first. Less stress on the lines.
"Alright, Jackson, you move your skinny shebs across that bridge! Double time!" Jory pointed to Jackson, who scrambled past him. Jory could feel the grin on Jackson's face as the Medic pasted him.
"After 'ladies first' is the medic," Jackson cooed. Jory slapped him upside the head.
"Move it, hotshot."
Brace watched Jackson go and met up with the General on the other side. He marched up next to Jory.
"You go next sir, I'm the one with the grenades," he said. Jory nodded.
"Fine, don't take your time with that thing. I don't trust it much," Jory grunted. Jory glanced to make sure that Jackson was across, and then he started out on the bridge.
Brace watched his sergeant go; he adjusted the pack of grenades he was carrying. He warranted he could make it across fine enough.
Jory made it to the other side and signaled for Brace to proceed across the bridge.
Brace walked forward and set his foot on the bridge. He could feel the metal grating bend slightly under his weight. He moved his hands up, as if to grab for a rail. Only his hands hit nothing but air. He realized there was no rail, nothing to hold on too. He steeled himself and began to walk slowly across the bridge. He heard it squeak and shake as he walked slowly, foot over foot.
He tried not to look down, but the narrow foot way demanded he pay attention to where he was setting his feet. He began to get comfortable with himself as he reached the middle of the bridge. Almost there Brace, keep it up! he thought.
From her position at the foot of the bridge, Palla watched the clone trooper make his way slowly across the bridge. He was almost to the middle. Palla could feel the tension on the bridge lines. She used the force to strengthen them so the soldier could make it to the other side.
Before she could grip it, a line on the far side of the bridge snapped. The bridge buckled and the trooper began to stumble. Palla watched, almost in slow motion as the white clad figure stumbled and pitched over the side of the swaying bridge.
"NO!"
Jory had to catch Jackson as the medic tried to rush forward to the bridge.
Palla was still with shock for a second. Then she flung herself into action.
With the bridge steady and held only by adrenaline fed Force, Palla managed to keep the bridge up. She covered ground fast and flung herself onto her stomach at the middle of the bridge.
Desperately she sensed the trooper falling through the air. She reached out and began to pull up. He was heavy and she was already keeping the bridge from following him on the fast and cruel drop to the ground. She began to feel him slow to the point where he was floating gently in the air. She tightened her Force grip on him and the soldier began to rise slowly.
Brace felt the bridge tip and he struggled to catch his balance. Tried as he might, it was no use as he felt himself tumble of the side of the bridge. His only though was why the builders had not put any railings on the damn bridge.
Then…he was tumbling over and over. His vision spun around him and he was strangely calm. So, I go like this…it's not as fast as I thought, he thought with some amusement. It's not so bad.
To his surprise he began to stop spinning and he noticed his speed was slow until he felt himself simply floating in the air.
This is worse than falling, he thought. Then he began to travel upwards…back to the bridge.
"Take my hand! Hurry!"
Brace looked above him at the outstretched brown hand of the Jedi general. Her voice sounded tense and strained.
Brace grasped her hand and was surprised by the amount of pull behind the little woman's grasp. He was slammed up on the edge of the bridge and the strange floaty feeling dispersed. He felt the bridge begin to buck and he was sure both of them would be pitched off again—this time to meet a more untimely end.
The bridge was settled again and Brace could feel the hairs on the back of his neck begin to rise.
"Hurry…back to the other side," the General gasped behind him. "I can't hold the bridge anymore."
Without thinking Brace grabbed the general by her arm and half lugged half carried her over the buckling bridge and to the safety of the other side.
The two made it to the other side just as Palla's grasp on the bridge collapsed. The bridge creaked and groaned on its way down to the ground below.
Brace and Palla both tumbled to the ground at the feet of Jory and Jackson. Brace felt himself smothered in a hard embrace of armored arms.
"Kriff! Don't you ever do that again!"
Brace felt the hold on him tighten. "Jackson, it's not like I wanted to fall." Despite himself he felt a great deal of comfort from the arms around him.
Brace peeled himself from Jackson's death grip and pulled his helmet off. He sat up and looked over at Palla who was catching her breath on her hands and knees. Jory was gripping her shoulder and bending over her.
"I'm fine, really!" He heard her say.
Suddenly his words from earlier decided to come back and smack him in the face: "I watch out for my brothers because no one else will".
The Jedi was on her feet now still being gripped by Jory. Old mother-Bantha, Brace thought. Jackson helped Brace to his feet.
"General Tadè?"
Palla heard her name called. She cringed at the use of "General", but turned none the less. The trooper, she remembered his name clearly, Brace was standing behind her. He was slouching to one side as he rested his weight one foot. His helmet was grasped loosely in one hand, dangling at his side.
"Brace?"
She watched the trooper's dark eyes widen slightly and then move down to the ground. She touched his mind and was surprised by the feeling of guilt emanating from him.
The trooper locked eyes with her and Palla was taken aback by the vigor in those eyes.
"General, I owe you one," he said lowly. To Palla the comment sounded like a promise…no…a pledge.
He gave a dip of his head and slipped his helmet back on. He took a blaster rifle from Jackson and swung it over his shoulder. Palla followed him with her eyes as the trooper moved off alone. She had the feeling he had just overcome something, she could sense it. She wondered what it was.
"Well that set us back a while," she said finally. Palla pulled a braid out of her face and re-tucked it into the leather strap around the rest of her braids at the base of her neck. Jory nodded; his helmet glinted in the gloom.
"I agree, though supposing we were trying to go unnoticed with the amount of noise we just made…I'm afraid surprise is not an option," Jory said flatly.
Palla smiled wryly. "Master Naratah used to tell me when I was little, 'Palla, if you lose your surprise, try for violent entry instead'," she said.
Jory chuckled, "Well, I can do that…"
"Amana ech ha'ii. Great father, worship is shown to thee, show unto me in return ways to please thy might, that thy daughter may show worth, to please your eyes." Tuva bent low, her arms were crossed over her chest. The damp cold clung to her exposed skin, making it erupt in goosebumps. The water of the spring was warm against her bare legs, a comfort at least.
"Ilimikahn…totturi…ma'ahlr…ma'ahlr-irchna," Tuva chanted over and over as she spooned the spring water over face. Once done, she stepped out of the water, her ritual complete.
Still sparsely clothed, Tuva sat on the floor cross-legged. She closed her eyes and reached out.
A vision bloomed in her eyes.
The Jedi and her troop were still traveling. They were awfully close to the entrance of the Catacombs. Tuva frowned. She had already stopped the two groups. She hadn't killed them yet. She'd have to do that later, as soon as she caught the others. She'd have to act fast. The Well hungered.
Tuva stood and put on her black clothes. She strapped her belt back across her waist and clipped her knives onto it. She slipped her stark white hair back into her hood, lastly putting her knight vision goggles back over her eyes.
She walked into the cavern where the dondwellers were sitting about. They were bunched in the corners or hidden in crevasses in the walls. What little light generated from the walls, reflected in their large pale eyes. The white flesh of their bodies caught the light and Tuva could see their scrawny fingers clawing at meat from bats and bugs that they had caught. Some even were trying to lick the tasteless armor of the intruders.
Stupid creatures, Tuva thought. They served their purpose, though.
"Shanki," Tuva called. A creature swung off the wall and landed soundlessly at her feet. The other creatures, sensing the disturbance, began to whisper and hiss in that swelling pattern of speech they had. The sound made Tuva's skin crawl.
"Shanki, take your people. The infidels are coming through the old mine entrance. I want them here alive and quick! The Well hungers…I don't want to keep it waiting."