The airlock blocked off the entire hallway, a heavy durasteel door without windows or markings. Rian could see two cameras placed to cover the door and the keypad on the wall beside it, but neither of them pivoted to watch as they approached. It appeared Xirra's jammer was still working but Rian blasted them anyways, just in case.
Vette, with Kevrisa covering her, went to have a look at the keypad. "I can get it open," she announced after a few minutes' work. "But I'm worried they might be able to close it behind us and trap us in the airlock."
"Let's look for the manual releases," Rian said, gesturing for Xirra to follow her as she moved closer.
Kevrisa prodded at the door gingerly with the tip of one lightsaber but the durasteel barely showed a mark. "We will have to do it the hard way," she said with a sigh.
"What about the walls?" Xirra asked in a small voice. She tapped a finger on the metal, which was a slightly different colour than the door. "We might be able to come at it from the side."
The Sith gave her an approving nod and turned her lightsaber on the wall instead. The blade sheared through easily, carving a circular hole. She flicked the cut piece aside to clank against the floor. The edges of the hole glowed orange and Xirra took another step back from the overheated metal.
Rian grinned and clapped Xirra on the shoulder. "Good thinking. That saved us some time." Xirra ducked her head to hide her pleased smile and Rian squeezed her shoulder firmly in approval.
Once the metal had cooled they used the small camera to find the manual release and Kevrisa carved another hole, this one more precisely placed. The manual release was almost impossible to reach from this angle, but Xirra's arms were thin enough to squeeze past the internal wall supports and get the door open. Viggota jammed a shim into the track to make sure it stayed that way no matter what the Mandalorians tried.
The airlock was small, only about ten feet long, and ended in another sturdy door. The interior walls were made of the same treated durasteel as the doors so the trick with the manual release wouldn't work here. Rian leaned through the doorway and blasted the pair of cameras that were watching the room to keep the Mandalorians blind.
"Masks," she said, turning back to her crew. "I doubt the air system will work with the door open but let's not take any chances." She tugged her respirator off her belt and settled it over her nose and mouth. The first couple of breaths tasted faintly of chemicals but she quickly got used to it. Viggota and Jorgan's helmets had built in filtration systems but they each had a mask on their belt as well, just in case.
Kevrisa made Vette wait as she strode into the room but when no gas hissed out of the vents and no turrets popped up she gestured for the Twi'lek to follow. Vette hunched over the interior door panel, fingers flying over the keys. Rian wished she had been able to get another data spike but even on Nar Shaddaa they weren't easy to find, nor were they cheap. The payment the Republic was offering for this job had barely covered the first one.
Viggota and Jorgan followed them into the airlock but Rian held the others back in case things went sour. Maybe she was being paranoid, but she didn't want all of them trapped in the small space. Just then, the panel blinked green, and the heavy door hissed open. Kevrisa launched herself through the air as soon as the gap was wide enough, and Viggota and Jorgan charged in after her.
"Go!" Rian shouted, but Corso was already moving. Lomning held back just long enough to make sure Rian and Xirra were with him before following. Vette fell in beside Rian, both of them protected by the Jedi's shield.
The lab opened up ahead and to their right. It looked like it took up most of the interior of the building, so the Hutt must have knocked out walls as well as adding the airlock. Long workbenches dominated the centre of the space but Rian could see rows of computer banks and other machinery lining the walls. The workbenches were covered with beakers and odd glass cases that were attached to the ceiling with long tubes and Rian grimaced. They'd have to be careful to not hit anything dangerous.
The Mandalorians were ready for them but Rian didn't think they had expected a Sith. Kevrisa's leap startled them and she landed so close to one of the mercs that he didn't even have time to get off a shot before her lightsabers burned through his armour and nearly cut him in two. The other mercs were quick to shake off their shock, their heavy guns hammering Viggota and Jorgan's shields as the soldiers crowded into the doorway to shield the others. Besides the one Kevrisa had killed there were two Mandalorians directly ahead of them and three to the right, all wearing full-face helmets and heavy armour painted with blue and grey geometric shapes. Corso joined Jorgan on that side, the three using their shields to form a box in front of the airlock.
"Drop your weapons and surrender!" Viggota shouted, his helmet speaker amplifying his voice. When his only response was a hail of blaster bolts Rian saw him shrug and lift his assault cannon to return fire.
Blaster fire from underneath the long workbenches drew Rian's attention to the scientists, and she dropped to a knee for a better angle and started picking them off one by one. It was possible they had been coerced by the Hutt or the Mandalorians, but they were shooting at her people and she wasn't going to just stand by and let them. They could have surrendered when Viggota had offered. A stack of heavy crates beside the door that provided her with excellent cover from the Mandalorians while she concentrated on the scientists. She could see at least a dozen from her vantage point, though they were falling quickly under her blasters.
Behind her, Rian could hear alarms screaming on someone's shield generator. The Mandalorians all had heavy blaster rifles and the shields would only hold up so long under that sort of assault. Rian heard one of the Mandalorians laugh and shout something to his fellows about how Rian and her crew were on the ropes.
She peered out from behind her stack of crates to find the speaker and hit him square in the faceplate with a double shot from both blasters. It wasn't enough to hurt him but the impact rocked him back on his heels and shut him up. She taunted him in Mando'a to keep his attention on her to hopefully give Xirra enough time to fix the generator. He swung his rifle towards her but before he could get a shot off he went flying across the room to crash into the far wall. He stood slowly, looking a little woozy. "Thanks, Lomning!" she shouted, turning her attention back to the scientists.
"There's two of them!" she heard one of the mercs shout in Mando'a and one of Kevrisa's opponents, a woman with an elaborate crest painted on her chestplate, replied with a barked command. Rian couldn't make it out clearly, but she thought it was something about an injector. The first speaker, a tall man in battle-scarred blue armour, grabbed something from a pouch at his thigh and ducked behind one of the tables, obviously trying to get closer to the group in the doorway.
"Watch out!" Rian snapped into her mic. "One of them's on the move. He's got something in his hand - the leader said something about an injector."
"Probably a dose of the drug," Lomning said, voice sounding a little strained. His lightsaber glowed brightly in his right hand and his left was flung outwards to help him hold his Force shield up under the assault from the other two Mandos.
"Keep him away from Lomning and Kevrisa," Viggota said, grunting at the recoil as he took another shot with his assault cannon. The Mandalorian leader had a shield up too and so far he and Kevrisa hadn't put much of a dent in it. Rian couldn't hear the alarms blaring any more so Xirra must have managed to get the shield working again but she wasn't sure how long it would hold.
Kevrisa pushed forward to try to get to the Mandalorian leader, who was staying behind her underling to keep enough distance between them to use her rifle. The Sith was dodging bolts, flicking them away with her lightsabers when they came too close. She struck out with one of her lightsabers but it skimmed harmlessly off the guard's armour as the merc threw himself backwards and fired off another quick pair of shots. Rian saw one of them hit Kevrisa high on the chest or shoulder but the Sith never faltered in her attack. Vette fired off a shot at the merc's legs, trying to distract him so Kevrisa could get closer.
Rian saw the last of the scientists throw away his blaster, probably realizing that all he was just going to get himself killed like the others, and she turned her attention back to the Mandalorians. She couldn't get a clear shot at the one with the injector but she kept at it, shooting under the long tables and trying to hit the weaker spots in his armour around his knees and hips. Kevrisa and Viggota stayed focused on the leader and her guard while Corso and Lomning had managed to kill or disable the one that Lomning had hurt, leaving just one more merc at the far end of the room. Jorgan left them to it and shifted his focus to the man with the injector. The Cathar couldn't get a clear shot from where he was standing and he took a few steps past Rian's position to try to get a better angle.
The Mandalorian with the injector saw Jorgan's approach and abandoned any pretense at stealth to rush at the Cathar. His one-handed grip on his rifle sent most of his shots wide and the others spattered harmlessly against Jorgan's shield. He ducked around Jorgan's shield and jabbed the injector at the Cathar, clearly aiming for the gap at his elbow, but Jorgan jerked back and it skimmed harmlessly off his armour.
Jorgan responded by slamming his helmet into his opponent's faceplate, forcing the mercenary back a pace, which gave the Cathar just enough space to lift his cannon and unload a volley at point-blank range into the man's chest. The heavy bolts ripped through his chestplate and the injector fell from his fingers as the man dropped. It skittered off across the floor and disappearing under one of the tables.
Kevrisa and Viggota had managed to down the other Mandalorian, leaving only the leader to Rian's left and Corso and Lomning's target to her right. They seemed to have the man pinned down so Rian shifted her attention to the leader instead. She could see a few warning lights blinking on the Mandalorian's shield generator but it was still holding. Rian abandoned her position behind the crates and rolled under the nearest table instead. The angle gave her a clear shot at the generator and it only took two shots before she punched through it and the leader's shield failed. Kevrisa leapt forward, her lightsabers shearing through the woman's hastily upraised rifle, but the resulting explosion from the tibanna gas canister forced the Sith to duck away. It was just enough to let the Mandalorian snatch a vibroknife from her side that was practically long enough to qualify as a sword, and she met Kevrisa's next attack squarely.
Rian was surprised that Kevrisa's lightsabers didn't slice right through the Mandalorian's blade and the woman laughed as she blocked the Sith's first strike. Kevrisa and the Mandalorian spun around each other, weapons clashing. The merc was good, parrying each of the Sith's attacks, and she moved faster in her heavy armour than Rian had thought possible. Rian could barely find an opening for a shot and the others, with their bigger, unwieldy rifles didn't stand a chance. She and Vette peppered the Mandalorian with shots when they could be sure they would miss Kevrisa but their blasters didn't do much against her heavy armour.
"Clear on this side," Corso said through the open channel as Rian climbed out from under the table to try to get a better angle on the Mandalorian leader. "I can only see one scientist, but he's unarmed."
"Same here," Viggota said as Corso and Jorgan came up beside him. "Kevrisa, see if you can disengage. We can't shoot without putting you in danger."
One of Kevrisa's lightsabers burned the tip off one of the Mandalorian's shoulder plates but that barely slowed the woman down. She scored a deep wound across Kevrisa's thigh with her vibroblade, and the Sith staggered backwards. Vette shouted and Lomning started forwards, hand outstretched, though Rian didn't think the Jedi would be able to get close enough to help Kevrisa without putting himself in danger from the merc.
Xirra's sudden scream jerked Rian's attention away from the fight. Lomning was a few feet behind her, the last scientist gripping his outstretched hand. The Mandalorian's discarded injector was jammed deep into the meat of Lomning's palm, the vial holding the drug empty.
"Lomning!" Rian shouted, blasting the scientist in the back of the head with both pistols. She didn't even bother to watch him fall as she scrambled to the Jedi's side. He was staring at the injector in horror when she skidded to a stop beside him and clipped her blasters to her hips. She yanked the injector from his hand and threw it away behind her. "What can I do?"
"Nothing," Lomning said crisply, stirring suddenly into action. His eyes went distant and then his lightsaber came up and around in a smooth arc. Xirra screamed again when it sliced through his arm just above the elbow. His forearm fell to the ground, the charred fabric of his robes smoking faintly. Rian could smell scorched meat even through her mask and she swallowed hard at the sight of the neatly cauterized stump. "I should be all right. The drug had not progressed any further through my bloodstream."
He swayed suddenly and Rian jammed her shoulder under his, wrapping her arm around his waist to help support his weight. "You're going into shock, Jedi," she told him, bracing him as best she could. Across the room, Kevrisa had finally gained the upper hand. The Mandalorian leader's left arm hung limply at her side, a deep cut burned into her shoulder under the damaged pauldron, but she was still parrying Kevrisa's strikes. The Sith was trying to press her advantage but her injured leg was hampering her movement.
"I am aware," Lomning said, eyes fluttering shut as his lightsaber powered down. Rian dug into a pouch at her hip for a stimpack, flicking the cap off with her thumb and pressing it to the side of Lomning's neck just below the edge of his respirator. The device hissed quietly as it pumped its stimulant into the Jedi's system. "Thank you; that should help."
"Kevrisa, disengage now," Jorgan's voice broke into the comm channel, tight with anger. Rian looked over to see that he had braced his Watchman along the top of one of the tables and was sighting down the barrel at the Mandalorian leader. Rian didn't think the woman had noticed that she was in a sniper's sights.
Kevrisa pushed forward to throw the merc off balance then leapt backwards, stumbling slightly as her injured leg took her weight. The retort of Jorgan's Watchman was very loud in the enclosed space of the lab. The shot caught the Mandalorian square in the head and she jerked back and fell gracelessly to the floor.
There was a moment of breathless silence and then everyone seemed to start shouting at once. Corso and Viggota moved to Lomning's other side, taking the bulk of the Jedi's weight. Jorgan racked his Watchman on his back and stalked angrily around the room with his pistol out, making sure none of the scientists or Mandalorians were still a threat.
Vette hurried over to Kevrisa, checking the Sith over carefully and fussing over the cut on Kevrisa's leg until the woman waved her away impatiently. "I am fine. We have work to do."
With Corso and Viggota's help, Rian was able to lower Lomning down to sit on the floor with his back against the wall. The Jedi carefully cradled the stump of his left arm against his chest and hissed out a long breath through his mask. "This has entirely thrown off my balance," he said, handing his lightsaber to Rian.
She knelt beside him to clip the metal tube to his belt. "You're awfully calm about this," she told him. "Do you need another stim?"
He shook his head slowly. "I do not believe so. I had a choice - my arm or my sanity. It was an easy one to make."
"If you're sure," she said, understanding the choice but she still thought he was eerily calm. "Do you need anything else?"
He shook his head again. "The wound is cauterized. I will be fine until we can return to a proper medical facility."
"Well, then we'd better finish up so we can get you to one." She looked up at her crew. "He's stable for now. Let's get to work."
Rian set Vette and Corso to work on the computers, with Xirra hovering over their shoulders and offering advice. One whole side of the room looked like it was devoted to storage and Jorgan forced each door open with his pry bar rather than waiting for someone to slice the locks. The small rooms were mercifully bare, with only a few containers on their shelves. The Cathar was practically vibrating with rage but other than the doors he didn't have any outlets for it. Rian noticed that he made an obvious effort to stay as far away as possible from Kevrisa, even when the Sith came to kneel painfully at Lomning's side. She was wearing armoured pants similar to Rian's but the Mandalorian's vibroblade had torn through the plasteel panels and blood had soaked into the fabric and started to pool on the ground around her knee in moments.
"Are you alright, Master Lomning?" she asked, concern plain in her voice. Rian thought that Kevrisa was probably the only one in the room that truly understood what Lomning was going through. She set a hand gently on his shoulder and Lomning stirred enough to blink up at her in surprise.
"You do not have to do that," he said quietly, and Rian wondered what exactly was going on. "You are hurt. Conserve your energy."
"I have enough for both of us," the Sith replied.
Rian realized that while Kevrisa didn't seem to be able to heal the way that Lomning could, she must be able to share her energy with him somehow to lend him strength to focus on his own injury. She was loathe to interrupt until Kevrisa swayed suddenly, her eyes drifting shut. Rian had to jump to catch her before she ended up on the floor beside Lomning. Kevrisa's eyes snapped open in surprise and Rian jerked her hands back, unsure how Sith felt about being touched. "I've got kolto packs," she said, digging into one of the pouches at her waist. Kevrisa sat down awkwardly beside Lomning and stretched her leg out, nodding for Rian to continue.
This was one of the most surreal things Rian had ever found herself doing, crouched on the floor of a lab that still smelled of blaster fire and scorched meat and treating the wound of a Sith. She had to use her own knife to widen the hole in Kevrisa's pants to clean and dress the wound properly, but the Sith didn't make a sound through the whole process. Rian looked up at one point to see Jorgan and Viggota having what looked like an angry conversation at the other end of the room but they must have switched to a private channel because she couldn't hear a word.
"I'm in!" Vette announced suddenly and Corso leaned over to peer at her screen. He pointed at something and Vette nodded. "Yeah, that's what I think too." She hunched over the keyboard again, tapping away, and Corso turned back to his own screen.
When Rian turned back to Kevrisa, the Sith was giving Vette a fond look and Rian ducked her head to hide her own smile as she finished bandaging the wound. She'd managed to get the bleeding stopped and pinched the edges together with surgical glue. She slathered it with kolto gel and wrapped a bandage around it, but Kevrisa really needed to see a proper medic. "That's as good as I can get it," she said, leaning back to clean her hands off. "Try not to reopen it if you can."
"No promises," the Sith said, bracing herself against the wall as she stood and tested her weight on her injured leg. Rian noticed a blaster burn high on her chest as well, but it looked like her armour had stopped the shot and it didn't seem to be bothering her. "My thanks."
Rian nodded briskly and packed her first aid kit back into her belt. Lomning was staring blankly across the room, blinking slowly, and she laid a hand gently on his shoulder. "Are you all right, Jedi? I need to go help the others."
"I am fine," he told her, though his eyes never quite managed to focus on her face. Still, they needed to get out of here as quickly as possible and it would happen faster if she was helping.
"Let's get those chemicals taken care of," she said as she stood. "Then we need to get moving."
Rian glanced into each of the storage rooms in turn, but the last one was the most interesting. One whole wall was taken up with an unfamiliar machine that was helpfully labelled "Disposal Unit" in Huttese and Galactic Basic. A hatch surrounded with warning symbols opened onto a durasteel chute that led to a small tank. A big red button was set next to the clamps that would lock the hatch closed.
"Looks like an industrial incinerator," Viggota said from the doorway. "I've seen them used to get rid of depleted ordinance."
"Good," Rian said, turning away from the machine. "Let's get the chemicals in here and get rid of them. I want to get out of here." She wanted to talk to him and Jorgan to find out what was going on, but this was not the place.
With the two soldiers helping it only took a few minutes to load each container of chemicals into the incinerator unit and Rian took great glee in hitting the red button. The whine of the high-powered laser made her wish she had ear protection to go along with her respirator but it got the job done in moments.
"We're clear here," Viggota said when Rian stuck her head out of the room to see if there were any more chemicals that needed to be dealt with. He and Jorgan had even cleaned off the workbenches, down to the last vial.
"Good," she replied. "Corso, Vette, how are you doing?"
"Almost done," Corso said distractedly. He looked awkward, perched on one of the stools in his heavy armour, but he hadn't complained.
"Let's rig those charges," Viggota said to Jorgan, who followed his former CO without a word. Rian was getting worried about him, but she wasn't going to do anything about it here. She trailed after the soldiers, helping with the grisly task of dragging the bodies out of the way of the machinery so Viggota could place the explosives.
Kevrisa moved to help but Rian waved her off quickly. "No way. I don't want you reopening that wound. You just rest until we're done." The Sith gave her an amused look but obediently went to lean against the wall near where Vette was still furiously typing away at her terminal.
Vette and Corso finished wiping the computer systems at about the same time that Viggota and Jorgan were done setting the explosives, and Rian moved to crouch beside Lomning, ducking her head to meet his eyes. "Lomning? Are you ready to move?"
"I believe so," he said, reaching up with his remaining hand. She grabbed it and hauled him to his feet and Corso hurried over to put his shoulder under Lomning's to help steady him.
Rian made a face behind her respirator but she had to ask. "What about your arm?"
"Leave it," the Jedi said quietly. "It cannot be reattached, not after being severed by a lightsaber. And if the drug is still viable, it might kill me to even attempt it."
"You're the expert," she replied with a shrug, though she felt uncomfortable just leaving it there.
"It should be destroyed," Kevrisa said quietly from nearby. "We have removed all other traces of the drug, after all."
Rian heard a clatter as Jorgan turned so fast he banged into one of the workbenches and knocked over an empty jar. "She is right," Lomning said before the Cathar could say anything. "Did I hear that there is an incinerator?"
There was a long, uncomfortable pause before Rian gritted her teeth and bent down to pick up Lomning's severed forearm. She wouldn't make any of her crew do this. The blue fingers were curled in slightly towards the palm, a drop of blood turning sticky where the injector had struck. It was surprisingly light in her hands and she tried not to think too hard as she carried it across the lab and opened the hatch to the incinerator.
The whine of the laser drowned out any sound that her crew might have made, and she forced her hands steady before she rejoined them. "Let's go," she said, glad to hear that her voice didn't waver. "I want to get Lomning to a medic as soon as possible."
"Good," Viggota said, straightening from where he had been leaning against the wall by the airlock door. "We're set to blow everything as soon as we're clear. Lomning, stay with Rian. We'll make sure the path is clear."
"I am fine," he protested as he started to drift towards the door. Kevrisa followed close behind him, looking worried.
"I still think you're in shock, Jedi. I'm not going to trust your judgement for a while." Rian bumped her shoulder gently against Lomning's good arm. "I just want to make sure you're okay."
He offered her a nod but didn't protest any further. She didn't see any lines of pain around his eyes, but they were hazy and distant. She assumed he was doing some Jedi trick to mask his pain for now. Remembering what he had done on Taris to keep himself awake, she assumed it was taking a lot of his energy. She vowed to keep an especially close eye on him.