20

Death on Two Legs

'Remind me again why we're doing this and not enjoying a space margarita on some tropical beach?'

Kyle Katarn adjusted the straps on his gear and donned his void suit's helmet. He would have preferred the freedom of movement granted by his normal mission attire, but horrible things tended to happen during boarding actions, including vented atmosphere. He ran through an inventory check that bordered on ludicrous: grenades, Bryar pistol, sonic pistol, blaster carbine, detpacks, lightsaber, vibroblade, concussion rifle, hull breaching kit, beard maintenance kit, stimpacks. The only thing he lacked was bubblegum. Jan hadn't been able to find any in the ship's glove box either.

'You know you love the danger, Jan,' Kyle said.

'I swear, I'm getting too old for this.'

'I'm not seeing it.'

'Nice try, Beardface. Get ready, I'm popping the hatch in one minute.'

The Raven's Claw darted through the furball over Kamino, weaving through debris clouds and streams of laser fire as A-wings and E-wings cleared the way. As always, Jan Ors sat in the pilot's seat, the more competent jockey of its two occupants. Unfortunately, Mon Karren, Han's flagship, had been forced by concentrated enemy fire to maneuver away before the other marine boarding teams could be deployed. That left Kyle as the only one able to do the job of taking Iron Maiden. Excellent.

'Ten seconds. Hope you did some stretching, Kyle.'

He'd done it fifteen seconds ago. Kyle Katarn armed his blaster carbine and shouldered the stock as the Raven's Claw decelerated. He felt the hull shudder as Jan activated the courier ship's laser cannons, sweeping fire across the hangar in which they'd landed. Stormtroopers, pilots, and engineers were scythed down as they rose in an attempt to repel the courier with mere blasters. With a hiss of hydraulics, the boarding ramp descended. Kyle ran down the ramp as quickly as he could, sprinting to the exit doors, breached and melted by Jan's continuous laser fire.

'That's my part done,' Jan said on the comm. 'I'll power down, try to hold down the fort here.'

'Stay safe, fly girl,' Kyle said.

'Yub yub.'

Elsewhere within Iron Maiden, a pair of stormtroopers stood on guard duty in front of the armory. Unlike many of their fellows, they'd been instructed to remain at their posts.

'Hey,' said one.

'Yeah?'

'You ever wonder why we're here?'

The second trooper paused to consider the question. 'It's one of life's great mysteries, isn't it? Why are we he-'

This incredibly derivative conversation would have continued quite a while had it not been interrupted by a sudden and acute case of stun grenade followed by repeated application of lightsaber to intact body parts. Kyle Katarn then proceeded to cut the armory door open to restock his ammunition and loot the explosives inside.

As a fire team of stormtroopers raced to intercept Kyle Katarn's bloody path through the ship, one of their number stopped, noticing something strange. It was a cardboard box, completely innocuous at first glance. Judging by the images printed on the sides, it had once contained space cheese. And, strangely, it seemed like it moved.

'GR-523,' called the sergeant, 'what the bloody hell are you doing? Form up back on us!'

'Sarge, I think I've got something.'

Grumbling, the sergeant beckoned the rest of the team over, weapons raised. 'This had better be good, private. What?'

523 gestured with his blaster. 'That box there. Isn't that an odd place for a box of space cheese?'

It really was. Sitting in the middle of a hallway, pointed at a jaunty angle rather than pushed to the side or a corner, it did strike a rather suspicious picture.

'Not really, trooper,' said the sergeant in an exaggerated tone. 'Now come on, let's get moving.'

For a moment, the stormtroopers turned away. The sergeant whipped around again suddenly, blaster aimed as he saw the box twitch ever so slightly. In the air vent above, Kyle Katarn had used the Force to push the box to and fro until the stormtroopers shot it. Now they gathered and bunched up. Perfect.

'Gotcha,' he muttered. Then the stormtroopers put a burst of fire through it, punching several holes through the side. 'All units, this is Gamma 2-1, we've found and neutralized the intr-'

A stun grenade dropped into their midst. Kyle shut his eyes and tilted his head away slightly to soften the effects on his own senses before dropping down. Still dazed, the Maw troopers reacted too slowly to stop Kyle from killing them all with a single wide swipe of his lightsaber.

'He's here! Oh sweet Space God, he's here! No! Back! Stay b-'

The line went static. A Maw Irregular sergeant cursed as he heard another of his security teams go dark. Around him, his A Team, the best men on the ship, sat in cover. It was as good a defense as any soldier could manage with the resources at hand. An E-web covered the corridor leading to the main areas of the ship, backed up by two riflemen with a marksman in cover in the back by the elevator to the bridge. It was just one man! What could one man possibly be doing that would utterly annihilate half of his marines in the space of a few minutes? Surely not even the Jedi could-

That was when the wall exploded. With the aid of explosive charges and creative lightsaber use, Kyle Katarn had managed to cut his way into the maintenance tunnels that snaked throughout the ship before breaching through the wall on the stormtrooper team's left flank. Before the dazed troopers could regain their senses, a pair of grenades rolled into their midst. Not a single one survived the two explosions. Whistling a jaunty tune, the Jedi Master poked the elevator call button and waited.

Lord Calphayus paid no heed to the panic on the bridge, still deep in a Force trance while marines and nonessential officers barricaded the elevator doors. Altis, meanwhile, paced restlessly, lightsaber drawn and eager to taste blood, ready to protect his master at a moment's notice. Where was this intruder? The reports had claimed that he was a Jedi, and yet his use of firearms, explosives, and subterfuge far exceeded what would be expected from such a warrior. The Jedi and Sith of old had been versed largely in the use of lightsabers and other melee weapons, with only basic demolitions training for the sake of destroying large objectives or defusing bombs.

As if on cue, the floor in the center of the bridge gave way as Kyle Katarn detonated another set of demolition charges. Almost immediately, a clutch of stun grenades flew up through the breach, disorienting all save for the Dread Masters. What came next was a mountain of guns, muscles, and beard, lightsaber in one hand and sonic pistol in the other.

'Ah, Master Jedi. Finally,' Altis said, 'I was beginning to think you'd given up and gone home.'

Kyle raised an eyebrow, his smirk visible through his helmet's face plate. 'Kept you waiting, huh?'

'Oh no,' yelled one of the bridge officers, 'he's found us! The Bearded One has breached our defenses! Flee! Flee and lay down your arms before he kills us all!'

The other Maw personnel present didn't need to be told twice. They dropped their weapons, the smart thing to do when faced with a Jedi Battlemaster. Most of them got to work frantically removing the barricades so they could escape down the elevator shaft. Altis shook his head and raised his free hand, lifting the mortal officers with the Force and draining them of their vitality. Calphayus rose slowly, drawing his own saber, an elegant double-bladed affair of polished chrome.

'You made a mistake coming here alone, Jedi,' Altis said, adopting a duelist's stance as he prepared for battle. 'Your folly shall be your und-'

A salvo of sonic fire interrupted the Dread Master's carefully concocted pre-fight speech, pushing him back several meters. Pistol emptied, Kyle holstered his weapon, opting to rely on his lightsaber and loaded weapons now rather than reloading with just one hand. In response, Calphayus tore a control console from the floor and lifted it with the Force, preparing to throw it at the Jedi.

'Insolent child,' the older Dread Master snarled, 'how dare y-'

This time, Kyle responded with a burst of blaster fire from his Bryar pistol, causing Calpahyus' concentration to falter as he futilely tried to deflect the first shots with just one hand, clumsily bringing the saberstaff up to protect himself. Only after taking five blaster bolts to the chest did he drop the debris and focus on deflecting Kyle's shots.

'Dammit, man, would you let us finish?'

Kyle shrugged and holstered the spent pistol, gripping his lightsaber in both hands, using the Force to leap towards the two Sith, opening the melee up with a vicious flurry of strikes that battered at the Sith's defenses. 'Let me guess,' he said, 'you're going to monologue about how you're such hot shit because you're Sith or old or something, then rant about how you're going to kill the Jedi and conquer the galaxy, right? Don't bother. It's probably been said before.'

'You'll regret your mockery soon enough!' Altis roared. He lunged, only for the Jedi to sidestep the strike and punch him in the throat.

'Sorry, what was that?'

Altis coughed. 'I said you'll-'

Katarn elbowed him in the throat this time, bringing his saber up to parry a strike from Calphayus at the same time. Pivoting, he took his lightsaber in an arc that took Altis' saber hand off, eliciting a choked yelp of pain. Before he could deliver the finishing blow, however, Calphayus hit him with a telekinetic wall of force, slamming him into a bank of computer terminals before pulling the ceiling down on top of him. While the Jedi tried to cut his way free, the Dread Masters took the opportunity to escape.

Cursing, Kyle heaved a layer of debris off and sliced at a fallen pair of support struts to get out. The only intact pieces of weaponry he had left were his lightsaber, vibroblade, Bryar pistol, and explosives. His carbine, sonic pistol, and concussion rifle had been smashed to uselessness. Judging by his heads-up display, the void suit's integrity had held. That was one good thing, at least. He rushed to the control station usually designated for navigation officers and tapped a series of commands out.

'Katarn to Mon Karren, I've accessed the navicom. Looks like they were too stupid or too busy to delete its hyperspace jump records. Expect a data transfer in a few seconds.'

Kyle keyed in the commands for a data transfer and punched in one of the Mon Cal Cruiser's comm frequencies. In a few seconds, the transfer was complete.

'Mon Karren here,' Han said a moment later, 'transfer's good. We'll sort everything out later. Trash the bridge and get out of there.'

'Will do. Be advised, I confirm two Dark Siders aboard Iron Maiden. I'm in pursuit now.'

Kyle plucked a grenade from his webbing and set the timer, dropping it on the nav console before he hurried to the frontal viewport. The Sith would no doubt have taken the elevator and probably run to the escape pods after losing so much of the crew. After running the numbers, he concluded that the casualties he'd inflicted, combined with the Sith's callous disregard for employee survival, left the Star Destroyer with insufficient surviving personnel to continue the battle. Those two probably knew that and would almost certainly be looking to save their own hides. The elevator would take too long, and so would retracing his steps. So he decided to try something different. He hailed one of the Alliance B-wing squadrons.

'Thunder Squadron, this is Jedi Master Katarn. Please respond.'

'Thunder Leader to Katarn, send traffic.'

'Requesting a torpedo strike on Iron Maiden's topside midsection, right above the dorsal hangar, over. Two torps.'

A pause. 'We can do that, sir. Two torpedoes, topside midsection above the dorsal hangar. Firing in three.'

Just then, a pair of B-wings swooped low over the Star Destroyer's command tower. From each B-wing, a single torpedo lanced out, blowing apart armor plating and hull to tear open a breach.

'Good hits, Thunder,' Katarn said, 'thanks for the help.'

Lightsaber ignited, Kyle walked up to the front viewport and cut an X into the center. Then he lifted up a piece of debris with the Force and flung it through the weakened transparisteel, smashing it outward and causing the bridge to vent air. He moved with the flow, leaping outwards into space and activating his void suit's maneuvering thrusters with great care, making sure to push himself towards the hull breach. Slowly. Slowly. Easy does it, he thought. A little bit of course correction here, and...there we go.

The Star Destroyer's crewmen were still unaware that their ship was lost. Sitting at their stations and only vaguely aware of the intruder situation, most of the gunners and engineers continued to follow their orders. The marines, of course, were all dead. Calphayus and Altis were virtually unnoticed as they hurried to the escape pods. The younger Dread Master let out a string of multilingual profanity, clutching at the stump of his arm. They stumbled slightly as an impact rocked the ship. Well, at least they managed to escape to fight another day. Calphayus was confident that he could have taken the Jedi on himself, but he had no wish to lose another of his students so soon after Kharak's death. They would retreat, dress Altis' wounds, and prepare for a fight on their own terms. If they could exploit the Admiral's goodwill and intel just a little longer, Calphayus thought, they could strike out on their own, usurp her, and-

The Dread Master's reverie was interrupted by another explosion. With the last of his demolition charges, Kyle Katarn blew the ceiling down on top of the two.

'Found you,' the Jedi growled. Calphayus only managed to dodge at the last second. Altis, distracted by his pain, was flattened by the blast. Calphayus stepped over his student, blocking Katarn's lightsaber as he tried for another killing blow. It was only a momentary respite, however. In these close quarters, Calphayus' saberstaff was an unwieldy, overly long weapon, unsuited for countering the Jedi's short, controlled thrusts and swipes. Kyle ducked a swing from the saberstaff and came in low, swinging his blade upwards and cutting the weapon in two with a shower of sparks. Again, his attempted killing strike was foiled as Altis finally gathered his senses, turning the strike aside with his own lightsaber, a single-bladed weapon more suited for the environment.

For a moment, Altis managed to push the Battlemaster back out of sheer desperation. The Dread Masters were not like other Sith. Though their normal brethren had built up a culture of betrayal and deceit, the Dread Masters fought and lived for one another as a unit, drawing strength from their bonds, a twisted copy of the unity the Jedi displayed in combat. At their height, the Dread Masters would have easily murdered dozens of the Jedi Order's best, using their mastery of the Force, Sith alchemy, and lightsaber combat to reap a bloody toll on the battlefield. But this was not the time of the Old Republic. Altis and Calphayus were rusty, atrophied still despite the hundreds of innocents they'd drained of life in the past weeks. And Kyle Katarn was Kyle Katarn.

Altis could only bring one arm's strength to bear as he tried to defend against the Jedi's strikes. A hammer blow drove him to his knees. Calphayus attempted to tag in for his downed apprentice, only to catch a Force-flung vibroblade to the chest that sent him reeling. Altis roared in anger, leaping to his feet and bringing his saber back for a swing. He left himself open for just a touch too long. Kyle's shorter, faster swing caught him on his mask, causing him to stagger and turn. Realizing what was to come, Altis only uttered a single word to his master before Kyle Katarn ran a lightsaber through his heart.

'Run.'