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Chapter 14

Dallon had never fought Janus in one on one melee combat like this, so he decided to start off slow. One of the many things that he had learned under the tutelage of Master Cordora was to never rush into a situation blind. Granted, Dallon still found himself breaking this rule at times. He was still a padawan after all. But he was working on it.

He didn't know what Janus' fighting style was or anything about that strange orange gauntlet blade that he wielded. For the time being, Dallon stayed with the defensive Soresu form while he watched for patterns and weaknesses in Janus' movements. The Jedi occasionally made offensive strikes against Janus to probe his defenses. After a few minutes, several things become quite obvious. First, Dallon was wrong in his earlier assessment of the resiliency of Janus' weapon. Whatever it was, it was able to consistently hold up to strikes from Dallon's lightsaber. That was definitely surprising to him. There weren't that many materials that could resist a lightsaber's plasma blade and Dallon was familiar with most of them. But he had never seen anything like this before. I have to figure out what that is. Second, Janus may be skilled in infiltration, assassination and sabotage, but he was not a trained warrior. His moves were erratic and undisciplined. He was overly aggressive and did not have a proper defense set up. Not that offensive moves were bad in a dueling situation of course, but they should be well coordinated with ones defensive capabilities. That was not the case here.

Now that he had a better idea of what was going on, Dallon decided to switch over to Djem So. Djem So was a lightsaber form based off of Soresu. However, unlike the defensive Soresu, where one had to wait for an opportunity to counterattack, Djem So allowed its practitioners to create their own counterattack opportunities. This form variant was designed around facing another bladed opponent.

As Dallon began to press his advantage, his opponents moves became increasingly chaotic. Dallon sensed that Janus was starting to panic. After dodging the next strike, Dallon moved to disarm Janus. Using an opening, Dallon made a shallow slash against Janus' right shoulder, sparks flying as the saber made contact with the armor. This threw Janus back and off balance, while Dallon moved to strike again. This time he aimed for the black scorch line left by the earlier hit and plunged his saber into the armor, going all the way through to the other side. Dallon quickly pulled the blade back out and moved back, assuming a defensive posture.

Janus stood there, his whole right arm limp at his side, the orange blade and gauntlet had faded and disappeared. He was clutching his right shoulder with his left hand. Dallon spoke, "I'll say it again. You are under arrest. Drop any weapons you have and lay flat on the ground now."

Janus responded, "Drop any weapons, you say?"

Zesias spoke first, "Let me introduce to you my pets, Lukrut and Ariria. In case you are unaware, they're terentateks. They aren't particularly fond of strangers, as you can see. But they do love their play time. Remember to have fun."

"You'd kill all these people just to stop me?" Namakwo already knew the answer to that question, but he was just trying to stall while he formulated a plan.

"The subjects are expendable, we can always find more. You, however, are a threat and must be eliminated."

Namakwo stared down his opponents carefully. They were both almost twice his height and were probably three or four times as massive. He quickly ushered everybody behind him, putting himself between them and the terentateks. He looked back at them and sensed their fear. It was intense. Namakwo returned his gaze to the terentateks, which were now slowly approaching him. I have to protect them. He stepped forward and took a defensive posture. He knew he couldn't survive a direct assault, but perhaps he could try a repetitive hit and run strategy. I have to keep the terentateks' attention on me, which shouldn't be too difficult considering that I'm Force sensitive. But I have to get the prisoners out of harm's way.

Turning behind him, "Everyone head for that corner over there. I'll handle this." Namakwo pointed to an empty corner of the room away from the terentateks and Zesias. The Toongs quickly herded themselves over there. The terentateks started to follow them. Namakwo shouted after them, "Hey! You two, over here!" He worked up his speed and went into a slide that took him in front of the beasts. As he did, he used his saber to attack their legs in one broad sweep. He jumped to his feet and turned back around. "You can't attack us if you can't get around." His strike had nearly severed the feet of both terentateks, which both lay on the ground howling in pain. Namakwo began to carefully approach the creatures in order to finish them off. But what happened next he was not expecting. The injured limbs began to reattach and fix themselves, healing in a matter of seconds. The terentateks stood back up and approached Namakwo.

Zesias mocked him, "You didn't think that it was going to be that easy, did you? You're going to have to do better than that to defeat them."

Great, now what do I do? Hold on, I have detonite charges. Well, I guess it's time to use them.

Namakwo watched the lumbering beasts slowly approach him. As discretely as he could, Namakwo armed one of the charges that he was carrying and set the timer for a three second delay. Then the Mon Calamarian turned around and waited until the creatures were just out of arm's reach before he made his next move. He quickly leapt over one of the creatures in a backflip and as he landed behind it, he used his saber to vertically cut the beast wide open. He took the charge, activated the timer and shoved it in the hole that he had just created. Then he did another backflip and put as much distance as he could between himself and the terentatek.

The charge exploded in a bright flash of light that sent pieces of the terentatek flying everywhere. The other one was knocked to the ground nearby and had visible burns all over its body. It took everyone in the room ten or fifteen seconds to shake off the shock and disorientation. The sound from the blast had been almost deafening.

Namakwo, with a smile on his face, turned to face the sith female "Is that good enough for you, Zesias? Or shall we continue?"

Zesias, however, looked unimpressed, "Not quite, Jedi. Not quite."

"What?..." Namakwo started to question, when he heard something behind him. He turned around just in time to see several pieces of the terentatek that he had just blown up fly through the air and reassemble themselves. The burns on the other creature were quickly disappearing. "I don't believe it." Namakwo stood there in shock. "This isn't…this can't be possible." He was so stunned that he didn't notice one of the revived terentateks approaching him. It reached out its massive arm and sideswiped Namakwo across his chest. As it did, its razor sharp claws cut through his clothing and sliced into his flesh. The force of the hit was enough to slam him into a nearby metal crate and knock his saber out of his hand so that it rolled along the floor to another part of the room. Screams of fear came from the Toongs huddled in the crowd. As he hit the crate, he felt multiple sharp pains in his chest. As he slid to the ground, he began coughing and tasted blood in his mouth. He tried to stand up, but before he could, he was violently pushed down against the floor. Namakwo found that his head was now beneath one of the terentatek's giant feet.

With a sadistic smile on her face, Zesias spoke, "Sometimes they like to play with their food first."

The beast slowly started applying pressure with its foot. Namakwo screamed out desperately in pain. He felt like he had the weight of a small building on his head, like it would be crushed at any second. The terentatek could have crushed his head quite quickly, but it appeared to be deliberately taking it slow. Namakwo didn't know how much longer he could last.

Janus used his good arm to reach down to a small compartment near his waistline and pulled something out. "How about this then? Perhaps you should hold onto it." He tossed a live concussion grenade right towards Dallon. The Jedi quickly scanned the room around him and saw that there were large crates of heavy munitions all around him. The only place that it was clear was in front of him. He Force pushed the grenade back towards Janus with the intention of moving it safely past and behind him. Unfortunately, it went off sooner then expected. In a fraction of a second, Dallon crossed his arms in front of him, firmly planted his feet on the ground and erected a Force barrier to protect himself. The explosion caused him to slide back on his feet a little. Janus, on the other hand, was thrown back onto the ground about ten or fifteen feet. Fortunately for him, his armor took the majority of the explosion's force. If not, he'd probably be dead. That being said, as Dallon approached, he saw that the armor took quite a beating. The area around his right shoulder had been totally blown away. Dallon knelt down by his side and saw the tattered remains of some sort of fabric undersuit beneath the armor. Underneath that was the cauterized stab wound made by his lightsaber earlier. A piece of his helmet was also missing, revealing his left eye and surrounding skin underneath. Whoever he was, he appeared to be human. Just then, Janus regained consciousness. Dallon found himself staring at a mismatched set of eyes, the blue one underneath the helmet on the left and the glowing yellow one on the right. When Janus spoke, it was a strange mixture of his natural voice and the synthetic one generated by the helmet. "This isn't over yet Jedi." He tried to sit up but then soon fell back down.

Dallon cut him off and quickly rolled him over so that he could bind his hands behind him. "Yes, it is. Like I said, you're under arrest." Dallon looked on his own belt until he found a set of binder cuffs and a hypo syringe. He applied the cuffs first and then pulled out the hypo syringe. These tiny containers had premeasured amounts of medical compounds inside them. This one was a broad spectrum antibiotic. He took it and injected it in Janus' right shoulder. He considered giving him a mild sedative as well to keep him calm. Then he decided against it when he realized that the blast may have given him a concussion. He shouldn't be giving sedatives to people who may have concussions. He'd have to make sure Janus had a medical scan later.

Now that he had Janus secured, Dallon was curious about who was really underneath the helmet. He reached over and tried to remove it but found it wouldn't budge. Perhaps the blast had jammed some of the components.

"Couldn't resist, could you?" Janus lightly chuckled.

"Well, with all the trouble that you've caused us so far, I'd like to know who to thank." Dallon said sarcastically as he helped him to his feet.

"Oh, there's no need to thank me. I'm just the messenger. You have no idea what's coming for you."

"Is that so? Well then why don't you tell me?"

"What? And ruin the surprise? I don't think so Dallon."

"That's what I figured. All right, come with me." Dallon led him to a nearby shuttle craft.

"What are you doing?"

"Well, from what Namakwo told me, your guys messed up our ship. So, for the time being, I'll be taking one of yours. Perhaps there are some parts we can salvage or information we can use."

"Speaking of which, perhaps you should focus a little less on our plans and a little more on Namakwo," Janus said deviously.

That caught his attention, "Why do you say that?"

"Well, you know, rescuing 25 hostages is quite a challenge when you're also taking on two terentateks at the same time. But what do I know?"

"You lie!"

"Don't believe me? Check for yourself."

Dallon calmed himself and reached out into the Living Force. He could sense the life forces of those around him. He searched around, looking for Namakwo's signature. When he found it, he noticed that it was weak and continuing to fade.

His blue aura began to appear again. "How did you know about this?! What did you do?!"

Janus started laughing, "Did you think that you were the only one who's been talking to me this whole time?"

He must be receiving communications from someone else in the building. He knew what was going on the whole time! He's been stalling!

Dallon turned around, grabbed Janus' right shoulder and squeezed hard. "You've been wasting my time. If he dies…"

"You'll what? You'd better hurry, Dallon. Those terentateks are pretty nasty."

"Ahhh!" Dallon grabbed Janus, flipped him over his head and body slammed him onto the ground on his back. "You will NOT move from this spot until I return!" He quickly applied binder cuffs to his feet and then connected the cuffs on his hands to those on his feet with a third pair.

"Is that clear?!"

"No promises Dallon."

Dallon sprinted out of the docking bay as fast as he could, Janus' maniacal laughing in his ears the whole time. I hope I'm not too late. Hold on, my friend, I'm coming.

Just when Namakwo thought that he would black out from the pain, the pressure on his head disappeared as the terentatek lifted its foot.

Zesias spoke, "We don't want you leaving us just yet."

This doesn't make any sense. None of it does.

Before he could get another thought in, he felt the claws of one of the creatures wrap themselves around his chest. He could barely breath. The next thing he knew, he was hurtling through the air again before crashing into another metal crate. As he lay there on the ground bleeding and bruised, he had an unexpected moment of clarity.

When I first got here and saw the terentateks outside, I was a stone's throw away, yet they didn't sense me. The whole time Dallon and I were here, we never encountered any until now. And even here, they went after the people first, with me in plain sight. It wasn't until after I directly engaged them did I attract their attention. They're supposed to be attracted to Force sensitive blood. When I looked through those surveillance feeds earlier, I did not see a single one. Then there's their revival abilities. It's unreal. Wait! That's it! Master Cordora said the Sorcerers of Tund are masters of deception.

Before he could continue, one of the beasts grabbed the top of his head and lifted him up into the air.

He heard Zesias' voice, "This has been fun. But it's time to finish things. Anything you'd like to say?"

"Yes, but not to you," he said hoarsely before staring straight at the terentateks. "You are not real. You're an illusion, nothing more. I don't fear you. You can't hurt them or me."

The terentateks both roared before vanishing in a brilliant flash of light. Namakwo fell and hit the ground with a thud.

Just as that happened, Dallon burst into the room. He saw Zesias turning around, ready to leave, and Force pushed her against a nearby wall, knocking her out. Then he ran over to Namakwo, who was lying on the floor, motionless. He got down at his side and realized that he wasn't breathing. He began resuscitation attempts while also shaking him, "Namakwo, can you hear me? Come on man, breathe." No response. He continued with his efforts, "You saved those people, do you hear me? I am not losing you now. Breathe!"