"How did Barriss's minions know they needed to freeze the worm?" asked Sidious.
"Did your purge get every Jedi?" asked Sionver.
"Probably not," said Sidious.
"That electromagnetic pulse deleted all the data we had on Geonosian mind worms, we do have data caches that had been updated to the point before we started the mind worm project, would you like us start again?" asked Sionver.
"Yes, restart your research," said Sidious.
"We also have another problem, the people who broke into the laboratory killed all our mind worms," said Sionver.
"I'll get you some more mind worms," said Sidious.
"Thanks. I'll get the lab ready," said Sionver before she left.
This was an atrocious business to be in, but where else could she sabotage this project?
The test subjects had been taken to a nearby hospital and their limbs had been reattached.
By the Force this whole thing is messed up. All she could do was look for opportunities to subvert the project in some way.
She almost ran into a blue Duros in leather clothes wearing a wide brim hat. "Ooh, excuse me," she said as she stepped aside and walked on.
"Consider yourself excused," said Cad, as he leered at her before continuing into Sidious's office, pointing behind him with his thumb asking "that a scientist or a stripper?"
"Sophisticated as ever I see," said Sidious, "There's two jobs now, apparently we're out of mind worms, that's another reason added to why I want the first job done, which is find and bring to me the people that attacked the laboratory she works for," as he activated a holovid, showing the two people he had fought, the two ships that had apparently interfered in favour of the two individuals. Cad caught a look at Barriss's face and made the connection, but kept watching. One curiosity was that the lightsabres were white bladed, that was odd. Usually there was a colour, red, yellow, green, blue, one Jedi even had a pink sabre. Thing that gives sabres their colours is presumably a dopant in the crystal. So did these crystals have no dopant? Best explanation for that was that the crystals were synthetic and they couldn't be arsed to play around with dpoants.
"Where did these people get an Eta-2?"
Sidious and Vader looked at each other. Sidious eventually said "I'm going to say 'stole it' and leave it at that."
"Right," said Cad, not about to push them on what it was. He looked at the other craft. "That other craft looks familiar somehow. ... "
"Do you think you can make a start on this then?"
"I believe I can," said Cad, "you want the worms or the mysterious enemies first?"
"Whichever you think you can get done fastest, do that first, if that's the worms, then get that out the way," said Sidious.
"Very well," said Cad, "the mind worms, same fee again, what are you offering for the other one?"
"Two million per LIVE prisoner, I want a word with them."
"Okey dokey. Anything else?"
"That's it," said Sidious, but then Sidious asked "you heard me say live, as in alive, right?"
"Yeah, yeah," said Cad as he left.
People specifying 'alive' annoyed him. Especially Sidious, what kind of Sith lord wants people to be taken alive?
Although, torturing a corpse was no fun, so ... ... Alright, fair point.
Still ...
Barriss Offee. Cad knew of her from a long standing bounty on her. Barriss had pissed off every loan shark and every Hutt in whose territory the loan sharks operated in when buying all those DSDU rounds and everything else she was going to use in her attempt to blow up Kamino.
There was a certain amount of awe to be held in such a plot. Just a pity her plot was de-railed by, of all people, her Jedi master Luminara Unduli.
Cad thought pity, on account that making a star go boom would have been epic, but Sidious was probably pretty glad considering it was his army that was being made there.
He did think about the two individuals that had apparently knocked out Barriss and made off with her. One was human shaped, so hard to know where to start there, but the other, the EVA suit was designed around something shaped like a teenaged Togruta.
Now, what Togrutas had Barriss been associated with?
There were several in the Jedi Order, the most prominent was Ahsoka Tano, who was the right size and shape for this one, but Barriss had fitted her up for all those murder, terrorism and other crimes, so why the kark would Ahsoka help Barriss?
Or perhaps Ahsoka had captured Barriss to hurt her?
Or Ahsoka had taken that famous Jedi philosophy of forgiveness a bit far and actually forgiven Barriss?
This was going to take a while to find the answers for, so best get those worms first, done it before, dead easy, he'd taken more complicated pisses than this.
"Oww," commented Barriss as the boot slid off her broken foot. The injury was severely aggravated by the fight.
"Oh dear," commented the medical droid, "how long were you walking on that?"
"Half a minute. Probably. Think it was about ten minutes running on it, half a minute fighting on it," said Barriss, "those mind worms are evil, just karking evil. And those clones aren't much better either."
"Any other injuries?" asked the droid.
"Errph, bruises, burns, might be an idea to check my brain for clots and distended vessels ... Errr ... ... " Barriss then said something too quick for three of the people standing around her, on account of them not being Togruta.
"I did not understand that last one," said the droid.
"Emergency contraception," said the Shili Homeguard members.
"Barriss, we sliced the VPN between the prison and the chancellor's office, so ... " said Ahsoka
"Of course," said Barriss with a blush. She then asked "can I have some emergency contraception please?"
The medical droid put enough clues together to ask "were you raped?"
"Yes," admitted Barriss.
"There is no shame in that," said the droid.
"Still sucks," said Barriss.
"The only person at fault is the person who raped you," continued the droid.
"Thank you, I know," said Barriss, irritation creeping in.
"You are not a slut, or a hoe, whatever they call you,-" started the droid.
"You can shut up any time now, thank you," said Barriss, she then asked "when was your sex crime victim add on last updated?"
This exchange was somewhat funny to everyone in the room. It shouldn't be, considering, well, rape, but ...
"I am still equipped with the original add on, I could update my files if you wish."
"Forget it, we're not going to use it," said Barriss, "stick to the physical stuff, I'll work through the mental stuff."
"Are you sure?" asked the droid.
"I'm a trained force healer, I mean ... how hard can it be?"
Finally Barriss was in a bacta tank healing away. Getting that armour off had been an experience to forget (if possible), blisters had popped, some of the wounds had been opened when it went on, so removing the armour had opened the wounds yet again, it was like watching that surveillance footage, only right up close and personal, and having Barriss naked in a room full of people seemed awkward for all these people given Barriss had probably had enough of people seeing her naked for a lifetime, but where the kark else were they going to go?
But finally she was in the tank and healing nicely.
Ahsoka's mother asked Ahsoka and Asajj "Ahsoka, Asajj, have you three ever had to help someone through recovery from prolonged trauma before?"
Ahsoka and Asajj looked at each other, shrugged and said "No."
"Everyone on Shili has been in the home guard for a year and a half now, but that hasn't made us weird or hard cases or anything, so I suspect what's true for us is true for you three too, loathe as you three are to admit it, and especially in the circles I suspect but not going to ask about that you associate in, what those clones did to her will be hard to come out of, she will have moments when things will get too much."
"Nightmares?" asked Ahsoka.
"That's one aspect. There's other things, any smell or touch or ... there will be things that will unexpectedly take Barriss right back to that cell, she could get violent, or could collapse into a jabbering heap, now, having gone through all the trouble of rescuing her, I would hope you'll want to protect your investment, right?"
"We're not shrinks," commented Asajj, "and we can't bring one on board."
"We'll have to do," said Ahsoka, she then said "we're going to transfer to the skiff and return to Shili then, make sure our alibis are straight and believed, you going to be okay with her alone for a couple of days?"
"Sure. Got to get Talzin home anyway, meet you back here then," said Asajj.
"Okay."
Everyone else was already in their EVA suits. Ahsoka got hers on and made her way across.
It was after Talzin alighted when the medical droid brought Barriss out of the Bacta tank.
Barriss looked in a mirror and noted all the burns seemed to have healed, but had left permanent scars where the skin had blistered, where the degrading words had been carved into her skin, including on her neck.
Was she ever glad she didn't get out much anyway. Still though, those scars evidently weren't going away. There was a weird triumph though. The fact she had been spot on when she called the clone army a trap. For the good that did mind.
Barriss dried off and got into her underwear, and then into some of her winter clothes, and made her way to the bridge.
"Any problems?" asked Barriss as she leaned against the pilot's seat.
"None," said Asajj. Asajj then asked "what about Sidious? Urgent priority or shelve it?"
After a derisory hiss, Barriss said "Karking shelve it. Not karking going after him without an army behind me."
"Talzin made a zombie army, I'm sure she can do it again," suggested Asajj.
Barriss considered it briefly but then said "Nah."
"Okay. ... Ahsoka's mum talked to us about post traumatic stress disorder, she seemed to be talking from experience-"
"Yeah, Zygerrians enslaved her," said Barriss.
"Eh? I thought that was Kiros."
"This one was more subtle, recruitment agency scam, I was in a force dream with Ahsoka when Ahsoka became aware of it," said Barriss, "I just hope I don't end up doing something epic stupid such as stepping outside without an EVA suit."
"We'll help you. You're not alone Barriss."
"Okay. I just hope I'm actually out this time."
Asajj looked back at Barriss and eventually asked "What?"
"My brain knows I'm out, but at the same time, I know I wanted desperately to be out of there ... ... It's just one of the symptoms, you get tortured like that for that long, and especially that stunt where they had that clone pretend to help me ... ... I know what sort of symptoms I'm going to experience, but pain is pain, and mental illness is mental illness. ... " Barriss eventually went back.
Asajj was somewhat bemused by Barriss's attitude to her torture. It made sense on the level that if you had the expertise to do something yourself, you do it yourself to save on labour, why spend money that could be spent on something you need for survival on effort you can supply yourself?
There had always been a certain air of arrogance about Barriss though. And this was continuing. Good sign ... possibly ...
Who knows though? Barriss said 'expect crazy.'
"No signs of imperial interest in our village," said the home guard captain.
"Thank kark for that," said Ahsoka, "we did end up turning it into an immediate action there."
"It took way too long as things stood," said Ahsoka's dad.
"We have a massive problem with them karking mind worms though," said Ahsoka, "what's to stop Sidious getting more?"
"Where do those things come from anyway?" asked Ahsoka's dad.
"Geonosis," said Ahsoka.
"Ugh, heard about that one. So nasty, the Republic had to do it twice."
"Well, now we're doing it," said Ahsoka, "those worms are a strategic threat to any resistance movement that starts up, Sidious can't be allowed to get his hands on them again."
"What are you thinking of doing to make those worms go away?" asked Asoka's dad.
Ahsoka mused "I hope NOT crawling around the catacombs manually finding and slicing the worms."
"Nuke 'em?" asked Ahsoka's dad.
"Not sure where we'd get the fissionable material from," said Ahsoka. "I'll talk with Barriss and Asajj when they get back from Dathomir."
Barriss grinned almost maniacally. "Kark yeah I'm in."
"Good," commented Ahsoka, "can we afford a karkload of transuranic elements for this?"
"Probably not," said Barriss, "I have a different idea anyway."
"You always do," commented Ahsoka, "what you thinking?"
"Neutron bomb," said Barriss.
Ahsoka and Asajj both looked at Barriss not quite understanding. Ahsoka eventually asked "wouldn't that need the transuranic elements we specifically ruled out getting?"
"Nope," said Barriss, "I want to use an array of tractor beams to compress matter into neutronium. I then want to carry the neutronium down to Geonosis by remote, and release the neutronium so that it chucks out several tons of neutrons in all directions."
"Several tons of neutrons?" asked Ahsoka, "how much space is that going to take up?"
"Erm, very little. Your basic neutron star weighs several hundred suns, and typically fits within the length of a large destroyer," replies Barriss.
Ahsoka and Asajj both nod thinking 'duh.' Karking elementary school level astrophysics. Ahsoka then asked "what's the plan then?"
"There's a load of rocks floating around Geonosis, a lot of them will be transition metals at or greater atomic numbers than iron, so we squish those into yet heavier elements, that should be endothermic," said Barriss.
"Okay, we squish those and drop them onto our targets then," said Ahsoka.
"That's going to eat a lot of power," said Asajj, "and it sounds like the tractor beam emitters won't be coming back off the job. Unless you like having two heads."
"They'll be vaporised," said Barriss, "neutrons have a half life of ten minutes."
"And this explosion will project the remaining neutrons through the surrounding rocks, a large portion of those neutrons will be captured and make the rocks radioactive," commented Asajj. "You never think small, do you Barriss?"
"That's my problem though," said Barriss. "My plan to blow up the Kamino system, I irradiate my master instead, my plan to kill Palpatine with an ECG fused bomb, blows up the grand convocation, doesn't even touch Sidious, further entrenches his popularity."
"It won't always work," said Ahsoka, "no reason to give up."
"Yeah, I mean, I've had karking thousands of jobs go wrong," said Asajj, she then noted "Although most of those were in opposition to your side at the time, so ... ... "
"I know," said Barriss, "right, I'm going to start working out what we need, no sense buying anything until we have an idea what we need. Those worms come from one location, but there's also a chance these things are stored or being bred elsewhere on Geonosis."
"We would need to explore Geonosis to find all the sites then," said Ahsoka, "that could take a while."
"Unless we get the Shili Home Guard to help us," said Asajj.
"They come from families that might not appreciate being in a foreign expedition where they can't reasonably expect to be concealed," said Ahsoka, "I could ask, but I'd like to see what we can come up with first."
Barriss thought and eventually said "could go further than neutronium, we could make a black hole and drop that into Geonosis."
"Okay, that would probably eat the planet, but how long would that take to work?" asked Ahsoka.
"Too long," said Barriss, "for one thing, we'd need to make the thing in one go, because below a certain mass, the black hole would evaporate, then there's the inefficiency of it's ingestion of the planet, it would only eat matter in or close enough to it's path to be drawn in, we'd be looking at weeks before we see a significant effect."
"More than enough time for the Geonosians to pack up their worms and kark off somewhere else," commented Asajj.
"Yeah, thinking about it, how many of these sites can Palpatine know of?" asked Barriss.
"There's the one we know of ... ... " mused Ahsoka. She then worked out "The Geonosians wouldn't exactly be in love with Sidious after he essentially knifed the Separatist leaders in the back now would they?"
"No," said Barriss, a maniacal grin on her face, "They won't."
"One bomb then," said Asajj.
Cad landed on Geonosia near those catacombs again.
He may have taken more complicated pisses, but this job was still a bit scary. Even if his species didn't have noses, he still didn't like the idea of being around these things.
Still, credits are credits. He set the passive scanners on his ship to alert him if a threat materialises and set off down the catacombs.
"Okay, guess this'll have to do then," said Ahsoka as she paid the merchant and returned to the skiff with her purchase.
"Ahsoka," greeted a familiar sounding voice.
Ahsoka turned and greeted her acquaintance and occasional co-worker "Latts. How you doing?"
"Alright. You buying more shavit for your friend?"
"Yeah. She loves shavit," commented Ahsoka.
"Who is she again?" asked Latts.
"I told you, I can't tell you, you know that," said Ahsoka.
"Won't you even tell me what all those tractor beam emitters are for?" asked Latts.
"Ah. That I can tell you," said Ahsoka.
With Latts in rapt attention Ahsoka said "you see, you use a tractor beam to pull to push something, and that's what we intend to use them for. See you around."
"Force, you're insufferable," commented Latts with an eyeroll, she then headed off saying "see you around then."
As Ahsoka entered the Skiff, she found Asajj in the middle of assessing the force field emitters she had bought.
"Just had Latts asking me about our secret friend again," said Ahsoka.
"Yeah, and Dengar was all over me," said Asajj. "Think he's in love with me."
"Aww," commented Ahsoka, she then asked "feel anything for him, or ... ?"
"Not really, I mean, he's not unappealing, but ... What about you? Any men, or even, women, draw your clit to attention?"
"No women, but I do have this thing for Lux Bonteri. Not exactly practical for me to pursue him mind, and I can't think where I'd fit a boyfriend in my life."
"Oh, well, one way is you lay him down face up, arms and legs around him, and sort of feel for his prick with your crotch until it gets seated, and-"
"Yeah, thanks," said Ahsoka, "we can barely see each other, we're sure as kark not going to get around to karking are we?" as Ahsoka picked up a sensor and started checking over her purchase.
"Well, you could always have the empty sex without the complicated soap opera relationship shavite," suggested Asajj, "whenever wanking don't do it, there's this brothel on this world that does boys of all sorts of species, do everything asked of them, but usually I just get a straight up kark."
Ahsoka was starting to seriously think of doing this. Eventually she said "Hmm, probably just stick to wanking for the time being, aside from that, something about Tatooine just makes me want to, just, not get naked here, let alone in front of someone, you know?"
Asajj nodded and said "Okay. Well, all of mine check out for function, just need to see if these things are up to the magnetic fluctuations that making neutronium causes."
"Yeah. Really on the edge of our financial capabilities here," commented Ahsoka as she continued her checks, "this'll have to work first time."
"Why do you think Ahsoka and Asajj are so tight lipped about their friend?" asked Latts.
"Some kind of sense of honour perhaps?" asked Dengar, "it could also be someone they know are wanted but is somehow useful to them."
"And if it's the latter?" asked Latts.
"Better see where they go then," said Dengar.
"Already set up," said Latts as she pulled a datapad that had a plan view of their immediate surroundings with a line connecting from the centre (their location) to a red dot (Ahsoka's Skiff).
Dengar had been pulling out his own datapad which was running the same app linked to the tracking device he had planted. "Good thinking," said Dengar. "Of course it'll probably ruin any chances I have getting something going with Asajj."
Latts looked at Dengar critically asking "you're really in love with her, aren't you?"
"Well ... yeah, I am ... Still, profit before pleasure, eh?"
Barriss went through her unarmed combat moves. Very very very little else to do up here most of the time.
It was easy to lose herself in this.
What she wasn't expecting was to suddenly have a load of hands grab her and force her to the floor face down, arms and legs spread. She looked up as far as she could, the clone troopers from that prison.
"The activity," Barriss heard one in front of her say, he was holding up a slip of paper, "rape her with a lightsabre hilt."
She felt a pair of fingers spread her labia and the hard edges of a lightsabre shroud prodded her vestibule.
The hands were replaced with some kind of fabric as she managed to break free of their grasp, but this fabric was going to trip her up unless she could shed it fast, so she roller on her back and pulled her legs up, pitching back and then she got clear, needing to get a view of them before she could engage them.
She tried to find them.
They weren't there.
They never were.
Blinking several times revealed this crust along her eyelids.
Stupid karking nightmares.
But she needed sleep to function. Lack of sleep makes for lack of intellect, lack of situational awareness, and general lack of being much smarter than a B1 Battledroid.
Kark did she not need this shavit.
Barriss grabbed her blanket and carried it back to her mattress, spreading it out.
"Warhorse from swift justice, comm. Check."
Barriss went to the nearest comm. Point and replied "Swift Justice, Warhorse, say your status, over."
"Got the parts, all functional, ready to bring them over, once transfer is complete, should we get on our way?"
"Yeah, opening the door now, standby to get moving," said Barriss.
It would probably be Asajj that could being the parts. Ahsoka had this new ship that she was in love with. Barriss understood this. She loved this ship, she had built it up, and it had been good for her.
Asajj entered through the force field with the tractor beam emitters, power cells, and the shield generator that would protect the system during atmospheric entry.
They got to work.
"The middle of nowhere," commented Latts.
"Salvage possibly?" asked Dengar.
"To explain the tractor beam emitters?" asked Latts, she then said "you'd still need the engines to match the force of the beam emitters."
"Could be something big and fragile, that needs support at multiple points to prevent failure strain occurring," commented Dengar.
"They just love to be a mystery, don't they?" asked Latts.
"Yeah," said Dengar, "Oh, hang on, they're moving."
They followed the signa.
"Back to Tatoo," commented Dengar, "Ohann?"
They watched as the signal stopped right close to Ohann.
Eventually they dropped out of hyperspace into orbit around Ohann, trying to acquire the skiff.
It was right close to the atmosphere if not in it.
The signal died.
Eventually Dengar commented "Shavit. ... "
Latts then asked "Reckon they're dead?"
Dengar commented "if they are, that wreckage is going down and staying down. We won't know they're dead if they are and we won't know they're not dead until they next make an appearance."
"This is going to use up so much fuel, so be slow and efficient," said Barriss as they started gathering the material they would compress.
"Got that," said Ahsoka.
They would build up as many small rocks as possible before trying to make their neutronium charge. That way they wouldn't be running the tractor beams for any longer than necessary.
The process of gathering the rocks took several hours.
Barriss mentally reviewed the construction of the bomb, since the build-up of neutronium would create a substantial gravity well, but she was confident it would withstand the avalanche of rocks against the frame.
Having built up their huge mass of rocks, Barriss said "Asajj, if you would deploy the bomb?"
"Certainly," said Asajj as she opened the door and telekinetically pushed the bomb out the door through the force field.
Everyone was in EVA suits. The tractor beam emitters seemed solid, but if they did fail, there was a good chance they would see that force field fail.
Barriss used the tractor beams on her ship to position the bomb against the rock pile and activated the bomb's tractor beams.
At first they had to use the skiff's tractor beam to feed rocks in.
But then the mass built up and as predicted, the extreme gravity flux started sucking in the rocks as predicted.
Another worry Barriss had was that the rocks would feed in too fast for the pressure to be maintained on the neutronium and that it would detonate, but that didn't happen either.
And then it was done.
"Swift Justice from Warhorse, form up and allow remote navigation."
Ahsoka brought the skiff belly to belly with Warhorse and announced "Swift Justice remote navigation enabled."
"Have that," said Barriss, she checked the remote link and said "Swift Justice, Warhorse, remote nav link five by five, de orbiting now." Barriss then set up the tractor beams of both ships on the bomb and dialled both ships engines up to combat power.
First thing was to get the right track
She wanted the peak of the orbital track on the same latitude as the catacomb.
The next thing was to get the energy down to the point where it would impact along the track, and then get the line to end on the catacombs.
This proved more of a palaver than Barriss would have liked, but ultimately the trajectory was right.
"Swift Justice from Warhorse, trajectory set, you have control."
"Got that," said Ahsoka as she gained some separation.
Barriss then sent "engaging bomb shield and transferring power to internal source," as she activated the shield and slowly dialled down the power she was sending. The batteries were fully on the whole time, the power form the ship simply kept their energy from being drawn.
Eventually "Bomb power fully internal, we are done," Barriss sent the disconnect command to the physical link and climbed over the bomb so that she could restore a stable orbital trajectory.
They had dropped below the ring, so they would potentially have been more visible than earlier for a while now, but there didn't seem to be any space traffic at all.
No one seemed particularly interested in Geonosis.
Cad emerged from the catacombs with his case of worms.
There always seemed to be plenty of worms down there if more were needed.
He arrived at his ship and got in.
After closing the door, he secured the case.
Again, he may not have a nose, but those things still scared him.
It was rare for something to scare Cad.
He didn't have a problem doing evil things, it's just the underlying concern he had that these evil things could end up enslaving him.
Still, turning down jobs is bad for business. So here he was.
He got into the pilot's seat and went through the start up sequence.
With no problems identified, he took off, looking for any threats.
The sensors suddenly drew his attention to a meteorite entering the atmosphere.
He'd be well away from it before it impacted ... ... The catacombs ... ...
Cad decided combat power would be a very sensible idea about now, the coincidence of this meteor going there and him being there to pick up mind worms was just too suspect.
The sensors estimated the object to be about one and a half metres wide.
Other points of interest was that it's estimated mass was several hundred tons, the ballistic trajectory matched to it's drag coefficient gave that impression, but the shape, derived from it's slow rotation ...
It impacted the catacombs.
The blast was immense.
Cad was hypersonic, so there was no chance that the blast overpressure would reach him, but what was that? Antimatter?
No, that mass in antimatter would have obliterated the Geonosis system.
Cad was torn between getting his worms to Corouscant and investigating the blast site.
He decided to investigate the blast site.
There was an upper limit to the blast overpressure dictated by Geonosis's atmosphere. His ship would be fine.
He got below the exhaust cloud, which was reaching up into space.
"Well, there's no kill like overkill," commented Cad. His sensors were also reading a lot of radiation.
Too much.
So much his shield were having problems fending it all off.
"Okay, that's my curiosity sated," said Cad as he pulled up to clear the atmosphere.
"And that's Neutronium is it?" asked Asajj.
"Yep."
The dome of material slowly expanding into space from the hypocentre was HUGE.
Karking HUGE.
"There's no way any worms survived that," said Asajj.
"Oop, hold up, got a bogey," said Barriss as she pointed her ship towards where her sensor says it is.
Asajj returned to the tactical station and locked weapons on it saying "judy, what do you reckon? They got some worms?"
"Kark all else you'd come here for," said Barriss, "can't be sure though. ... Can't take the chance. We intercept, but make with the trackers too, in case we fail to splash this guy."
Barriss got them moving sending "swift justice from warhorse, we're attacking a contact leaving the planet, remain hidden until it's dead, remember, you can't be seen helping us as you are linked to Shili."
There was no reply.
"Swift Justice from Warhorse, please acknowledge," sent Barriss.
"Yeah, I got that," groused Ahsoka.
Cad saw something on his tactical sensor.
He grinned maniacally as he saw the exact ship Sidious had sent him after heading his way.
And it had weapons lock on him.
"I love it when the prey think they're the hunter, it's so much more funny that way," as he locked his weapons on the ship and engaged.
"Whoa, this guy wants us bad," said Barriss, "missile inbound," she dropped decoys and danced the ship while Asajj sent warning shots at the ship. She locked on the tracking device gun on the ship which was now dancing madly. She fired off a tracker.
"Shavit," snarled Asajj.
They kept dancing.
Second tracker miss.
Third missed.
"Getting close to bingo here," commented Barriss.
"Yeah, thanks," said Asajj as she kept firing.
This was a bit difficult.
Well, more than a bit Cad had to admit, he got precisely one shot off, but that had missed, and he couldn't get his guns or missiles on that ship long enough to do anything. He was going to have to dip into the debris ring and draw that ship in if he wanted a chance at getting them.
He headed for the debris and the ship gave chase.
Then it pulled clear. Climbing up out of the equatorial plane of Geonosis.
Cad watched what they were doing, wondering what they were setting up to do. He couldn't think of a good reason for them to deliberately do something that would lose ground on him.
They evidentially knew about the mind worms, Barriss had obviously had one of those things up her nose, and now those catacombs were reduced to radioactive lava, so it was probably them what blew it up too. They wanted him.
They jumped to hyperdrive.
...
Eh?
...
Why break contact?
...
Trick?
Weapons?
Decoy?
Panic?
Fuel?
...
Irrelevant.
Cad set course for Corouscant and karked off.