The small band of rebels blasted their way through the tunnel at top speed.
"How much longer is this blasted tunnel?!" Zeb growled, "I'm itching to bash some heads!"
"I sense we don't have much further to go," replied Kanan.
"Look! Up ahead!" exclaimed Krol, "There's light!"
Indeed, there was a small speck of light that was quickly enlarging as the group approached.
Zeb's expression quickly brightened, "Ah, finally!" he began to say, but he quickly stopped talking as his expression dropped at the site before the group when they exited the tunnel.
Pa'uans were frantically running around the base, some were attempting to get the slaves under control, some were tending to the wounded, or helping those that had been buried in the rocks, and the rest stood guard, on high alert for more blasts.
One of said guards noticed the group of rebels immediately, and began shouting to his allies.
"Oh Karabast," moaned Zeb.
"Take cover now!" shouted Kanan, as he ignited his lightsaber to block the incoming shots from the very peeved Pa'uans.
A crack sounded through the air and one of the cultists went down hard, with Julian appearing out of thin air as his active camo deactivated. He motioned the group with a wave of his hand, "Come on this way! I'll cover you!" he yelled over the noise of the blaster fire.
Julian was standing in front of another tunnel, laying down murderous fire at the oncoming cultists. Kanan quickly took the initiative.
"Go!" he yelled as he reflected a blaster bolt back to its cultist sender.
While the cultists had numerical superiority, Julian's deadly, staggered, accurate fire and Kanan's practical wall of defense with his lightsaber, alongside the blaster fire from the rebels pushed the guards back into defensive positions.
"What's the plan?" Kanan asked Julian immediately as he reached the cover of the cave.
"Down here is where these cultists are holding Ezra," said Julian.
"Alright, then what are we waiting for?" urged Kanan, "Let's go get him!"
"What about the guards up here?" pointed out Sabine, "They might outflank us if there are more of those cultists down there, and they'll definitely ruin any escaped strategy we might need."
"Fighting in these hallways would be a bloodbath," Zeb pointed out.
"We'll split up then," said Hera, "Some of us will stay here and stave off any more attacks from the cultists, while the rest will head into the tunnels to find Ezra.
"Sabine, Zeb, Lando, and Julian, you all stay here and fend off any attacks. We'll find Ezra quickly and then we're leaving," asserted Kanan.
"Let's go then," Krol urged, and the two groups separated.
Ezra silently crept through the underground tunnels as the sounds of distant blaster fire raged on somewhere unknown to him. So far, he had not encountered any more guards.
Kanan and the others might have drawn them all away if they're here, he thought to himself as he silently moved through the tunnels.
A chill went up Ezra's spine as the familiar presence of the force whispered to him. It sounded like a warning.
Whirling around, Ezra activated his reacquired lightsaber and searched for any immediate threats. When he found none, a confused look came over his face.
"What's going on?" he murmured, confused at the seemingly empty warning.
Then feelings of distress, surprise, and fear swept through his bond with Kanan.
Ezra's eyes widened, "Kanan!" he gasped, and he took off to help his clearly in trouble master.
"I'm beginning to hate tunnels," Krol sighed.
Kanan had to agree with the Pa'uan; the sheer scale and size of this place was astonishing, he very much doubted they had seen even half of it all.
"There's the light at the end of the tunnel," Hera observed.
Passing the threshold once more, the small band of heroes found themselves inside yet another large, hangar sized room. Half of the room was several yards deeper than the other half. Inside the pit was a large horde of metallic war droids.
Standing near the droids, were two Pa'uans, both dressed in black uniforms.
"Welcome Rebels," said the one on the right. Both of the Pa'uans pulled out lightsabers.
"We've been expecting you," he stated, as they both activated their lightsabers, the red light casting a glow over the war droids.
Kanan in turn activated his own lightsaber and took a defensive stance, his back to Hera and Krol.
Kanan didn't know the extent of these two's skills, but he did know one thing; they were outgunned. He cursed himself internally, Julian clearly knew hand to hand combat the best out of all of them, and Zeb's Bo-Rifle could be handy against a lightsaber, Hera was more of a pilot then a fighter, and he doubted Krol would be very much use either.
Then an idea popped into his head.
"Krol, Hera, run up the tunnel and bring Julian and Zeb down here, there more suited to this kind of fighting!" he ordered.
"They will not be able to save you, Jedi," the Pa'uan on the right sneered, "Not like they will get the chance to anyway."
"Kanan," Hera suddenly breathed, panic clearly evident in her voice.
Kanan turned around and all of his confidence quickly dissolved.
Hera was standing perfectly still, both her arms raised in surrender.
Krol was aiming his blaster at her.
As soon as Krol saw Kanan, he gave a chuckle.
"Terribly sorry Master Jedi, but you will not be leaving this place any time soon."
An explosion blew another group of guards back.
"How many of these guys are there?" yelled Sabine, exasperated.
"Enough to shoot, that's all we need to know!" retorted Zeb over the noise of the blaster fire.
The small group was desperately holding the entrance of the tunnel ways, luckily the blasts from earlier and the massive caverns makeup provided plenty of cover for the four allies.
Unfortunately, it provided plenty of cover for their enemies as well.
"There might be hundreds of these suckers down here!" exclaimed Lando.
Peeking from his cover, Julian did a quick survey of the battlefield and quickly noticed a detail that they had missed before.
He had forgotten entirely about the Amani slaves.
The group of aliens were currently still working amongst the firefight. Now however, there were only four guards that had controllers for the collars that was keeping the Amani enslaved.
Seizing the opportunity, he let of two quick bursts fire from his Magnum.
The pistol, while being small, was exceedingly powerful and Julian's aim was true; both guards went down hard.
The sudden death of two of the captors did not go unnoticed by the Amani, who stopped working to look at the corpses of their tormentors.
"Zeb!" shouted Julian, "Hit those two guards by the pyramid!"
"Right!" he shouted back, angling his Bo Rifle, and taking shots.
Both cultist guards went down much like the other two did.
The Amani observed their dead guards in dead silence, their collars were now worthless.
Suddenly, with a roar, the Amani acted as one and charged the Pa'uans.
The four rebels could only watch on as the Pa'uans were ripped apart by their former slaves.
The two groups now stood parallel to each other, watching each other in silence.
Then, the Amani turned and began to walk away, presumably towards the exit.
"Well, that was easy enough I suppose," said Lando nervously, eyeing the Amani warily.
"How could you do this Krol?" pleaded Hera.
"Well, it's a simple little story, my dear Hera," he replied, "Master Jarrus, you must remember a little encounter with someone called the Grand Inquisitor, do you not?"
Kanan paused for a second, gritting his teeth and grimacing, "You knew him, didn't you?" Kanan answered his question with one of his own.
"Knew him? Ha!" Krol laughed, "He was my brother!" he snarled.
"I killed him in self-defense you must realize," Kanan began to reason, but Krol cut him off.
"I am well aware of the circumstances of his death, and as a matter face I am glad he's gone, stupid fool and his devotion to Palpatine."
Kanan looked surprised, "What are you talking about?"
"Get on with it Krol," growled one of the black uniformed cultists.
"My dear brother was taken from our family at a ripe young age to become a Jedi," Krol began, "He flourished in his role, eventually becoming one of the temple guards, a very esteemed position might I add. At the end of the clone wars, he disappeared and turned to the darkside and threw his lot in with Palpatine."
"I watched as stories of his exploits flooded in, as world after world fell to the Empire, and my hatred for the Empire grew and grew as Palpatine held all the power and reserved all of it for himself," he seethed.
"It was at this moment that I discovered this little cult here. By this point, I had become quite wealthy, I happen to own the chain store and brand that hides this magnificent cave, and I offered my services to them. And low and behold, look where I am now, head of this little cult," he said proudly.
"With my money and influence, and their aptitude in the darkside, we discovered more portions of this cave, including the army of ancient Sith war droids and the factories that created them. In addition to the superweapon in the pyramid, we now had the forces needed to destroy the Empire and create a new Sith Empire in its place!"
"What's the matter? Is the Empire not evil and tyrannical enough for you?" said Kanan, the insult not subtle in the slightest.
One of Krols companions answered this time, "One time, long ago, the ancient Sith fielded armies of darksiders. They were proud, feared, and respected warriors, not like the pathetic plastic soldiers of this new empire. Once the dark side ripped through the galaxy, a pulsating riptide of rage and passion as it's servants fed off of its raw power! Now it's but a simple foreboding hum in the background," the black uniformed darksider said with a note of sadness in his voice.
"The darkside does not rule this galaxy, Palpatine does," Krols other companion added in.
"You're all insane!" Hera exclaimed.
"Not insane, ambitious," Krol quipped with an evil smile, "No less insane then you after all, no? We have quite similar goals; our endgames are just different."
"We are nothing like you," Hera said indignantly.
"You're right, because we will be successful!" said Krol in an insultingly cheery voice.
"You can't hope to beat the Empire all in one go," Kanan pointed out.
Krol shrugged, "Why not? This weapon could knock entire fleets in a single shot, and these droids could very easily overrun any Imperial world. All we need to do is kill the Emperor after all. Cut the head off the snake, and the body will wither and die."
Ezra rounded another corner and immediately slid to a halt.
In front of him was a big room, with several entrances.
And standing in front of one of them was the two darksiders, Hera, Kanan, and Krol.
Quickly, he slinked to the side of the entrance he had just come through and observed the situation.
Kanan was facing off against the two darksiders, while Hera was standing completely still as Krol aimed a blaster at her.
Ezra grit his teeth. Another betrayal? The wound from Senator Trayvis's backstabbing still stung a little bit, and now here they were again, with a knife in their back. How many more of their allies would turn against them?
Ezra strained to hear the conversation they were having, making sure to keep himself hidden.
"Why are you doing this?" he heard Kanan ask Krol.
Krol snorted, "Oh, the usual reasons, revenge for my brother, power, glory, money."
"Now, you will come with us and we will begin the ritual with your lowly Padawan and soon our army will have its fuel," said Krol as he began to prod Hera forward, "Master Jarrus, I must ask that you cooperate with us, attempting to take the living force out of a person is a delicate process and having your full cooperation will make things so much easier."
"Don't count on it," Kanan growled.
Krol raised an eyebrow, "Oh, really? And what if I told you that if you don't comply then your lady friend here will die?"
"So that's why you haven't killed her yet," said Kanan, realization dawning on his face.
"Don't do what he says Kanan, they were going to kill me anyway," said Hera firmly.
"I won't do it," said Kanan firmly.
Krol looked back and forth and growled, "How unreasonable, I have made you a very good deal and you refuse it! It's not like the procedure would actually kill you!" Krol sighed and then aimed his blaster at Hera again, "Looks like we will have to do things the hard way then I suppose," he said sadly, as Hera's eyes filled with dread.
Ezra's heart dropped as he began to panic, he had to do something!
Without thinking, Ezra dashed out into the open room and using all the power he could muster, he threw a force push at the group just as Krol pulled the trigger on his blaster.
The force knocked all of them down, Krol's shot going wild and missing it's intended target.
Kanan was the first to recover.
"Ezra!" he shouted, relived, but also worried.
It was at this point the others recovered.
The two darksiders activated their lightsabers, and Ezra and Kanan followed suit.
Krol crawled towards his discarded blaster, however the second his fingers closed around it, Hera blasted him with the stun setting on her blaster pistol.
Noticing that Krol was out of the picture, Kanan turned and pointed towards where they came from, "Hera! Run and get the others, now!"
She silently affirmed his command and beelined up the tunnel.
"How many of these guys do you think there were?" Zeb asked, nudging a downed cultist guard with his foot.
"I don't know," shrugged Sabine, "There might be more, so we should stay on guard."
Suddenly, they heard rapidly pattering footsteps coming from the tunnel where Kanan, Hera, and Krol had gone in.
"Think that's more of them?" asked Zeb.
"I hope not," Sabine said with a hint of worry in her voice as they all aimed their respective weapons at the entrance to the cave.
The footsteps got louder and louder until Hera appeared.
"Hera? Where's Kanan and Krol?" asked Julian.
"And where's Ezra?" Sabine pried.
Hera stopped for breath, "Their both down there fighting two darksiders, Krol betrayed us, we need to get down there and help, stat!"
"Darksiders?" asked Lando fearfully.
"Yes, darksiders," Zeb snapped, grabbing his arm, and pushing him towards the entrance of the cave, "Get moving!"
"This deal keeps getting worse all the time!" Lando complained as he followed the rest of the Ghost crew into the tunnel.
Ezra quickly dodged a strike from one of the darksiders that would have taken off his arm, as Kanan parried another strike.
While both were fighting furiously and to the extent of their abilities, in the long run it wouldn't make a difference. While the two darksiders were not true Sith Lord or even Inquisitors, they were still a threat. And with Ezra's injured leg, and his little training, it was clear that Kanan was going to have to take the brunt of their assaults.
On the plus side though, the darksiders were being cautious, killing Ezra and Kanan would be counterintuitive to their cause.
Neither Jedi noticed that Krol had recovered from Hera's stun blast and was beginning to make his way down to where the Sith war droids were.
Things suddenly went south for the Jedi. Ezra blocked a particularly hard strike from one of the darksiders, but it put him off balance. The darksider took advantage of his momentary weakness and lashed his leg out violently, hitting him in the stomach and knocking him back from the fight momentarily.
Then both darksiders turned their full attention to Kanan and lunged both their sabers down into a saber lock with the outnumbered Jedi.
Kanan struggled to hold both blades at bay, as they both began to push down with increasing force.
It was at this moment several shots were heard and the rest of the rebels came running out of the tunnel in disorderly fashion.
Julian quickly threw himself at the darksider that he had fought in the art gallery, catching him by surprise and knocking him into the pit where the droids were.
Now freed from his saber lock, Kanan began to fight the remaining darksider again as Ezra and the others rushed forward to help.
They stopped for a moment as they heard maniacal laughter.
Krol was standing in front of one of the droids, with a large grin on his face, "These droids may not be fully powered up, but they will certainly be enough to take care of you!" he exclaimed, pushing a button on the metal monstrosity.
The machine shivered to life, its eyes glowing a red color and its weapons activating.
"Ezra! Help Kanan!" Hera ordered.
Ezra nodded quickly and ran off to help his embattled master.
"Ok gang," Hera said, steeling her nerves, "Let's take this thing down."
Julian grappled with the darksider that he fought earlier.
Dodging a swing from his blade, Julian delivered a punch to the dark robed figure and then withdrew to a distance.
Julian was about to charge him again, when suddenly he heard shouting and rapid blaster fire from above.
The Pa'uan he was facing off against curled his lip into a sneer, "Your friends are doomed, as are you, armored man."
Julian shook his head, he needed to get this fight over and done with quickly, not just to help his allies, but also to fulfill his secondary mission.
"I'd like to see you try," he replied coolly, then his active camo turned on and the spartan disappeared from sight.
The Pa'uan laughed, "I don't need my eyes to see you!"
He felt through the force, to show him where his allusive enemy was, and found nothing.
His face contorted in frustration, and he felt for the armored foe again. He could feel his other darkside compatriot, Krol, and he could even feel the rebels.
But there was no force signature for the Spartan.
"What are you!" he shouted at nothing, panicking.
A savage blow to the back of the head was his only reply and he crumpled to the ground, unconscious.
The Spartan appeared over his unmoving body, "That's classified," Julian replied to the incapacitated darksider.
Working quickly, Julian tied up the Pa'uan and gagged him. Then he put an active camo projector and a UNSC beacon on his unconscious foe.
There had been a reason Julian had not killed his Pa'uan foe outright earlier at the art gallery. UNSC high command had wanted a live force wielder, and Julian had decided that this Pa'uan was the perfect candidate.
He moved the body aside, ONI would pick it up later, and he jumped back up into the fight.
The war droid finally collapsed, the amount of sustained blaster fire it took from the rebels finally putting it out of commission. Elsewhere, Kanan and Ezra were still fighting the darksider.
Krol growled in frustration, his war droids were simply too weak to fight off the enemy in their low powered state.
Time to abandon ship.
He quickly activated another one of the towering droids and shouted at his Sith ally, "Come on! This is a lost cause!"
The darksider quickly force pushed the two Jedi back and ran after Krol, who was retreating down yet another tunnel.
The war droid approached the group, its weapons beginning to hum.
"These things aren't so tough," said Sabine.
Before any of them could begin firing at it however, Julian blaster up out of the pit and towards the droid, a blue glowing ball in his hand.
The armored warrior landed on the droid and slammed the blue ball into its midsection, then quickly jumping off again as the droid exploded in a blue flash of light.
"Come on, we can't let him get away!" exclaimed Kanan and the group made after the traitorous Krol.
The tunnel Krol led them down eventually opened up into light, a secret passage way through yet another store.
Krol was nowhere in sight.
But what was in sight, was an Imperial Star Destroyer, sitting high in the sky as TIE fighters swarmed the air space.
"The Empire? Why are they here?" exclaimed Lando.
"And where did Krol go?" asked Ezra.
Kanan shook his head, "It doesn't matter, we need to leave, now!"
As if on cue, the Ghost appeared overhead.
Hera put her mouth to her wrist comm, "Chopper, we're down here!"
The little droid had clearly taken it upon himself to fly the Ghost around in search of his crewmates.
The Ghost landed quickly, and the group hopped on, eager to escape the Imperials.
As soon as the Ghost was in the air, Hera contacted Phoenix squad.
"Sato, stay away from Utapau! This place is a bust," she said as she avoided a shot from a TIE fighter.
"Copy that Captain Syndulla," we will stay clear, Commander Sato responded as the transmission cut.
"Hyperspace now Chopper!" she yelled.
The stars began to twist and contort into the familiar white lines as the Ghost blasted away from the dark side infested planet, escaping danger once more.
A/N: I'm finally back!