The Path of Evil

Chapter 4

Three and a Half Minutes

Rathari and his three new companions raced down deck after deck until they reached deck 19. Most of the places they passed were turning on white lights and turning off music as word of the roaring firefight that had just taken place a few decks above quickly spread. Many bystanders stood on the ramp looking either up at the smoke leaking from the Vigilante or down at the broken body in the center of a pool of pulp and blood that used to be a Sith Assassin. Samulous shouted at them to move and shoved them roughly aside if they failed to comply quickly enough. Sounds of panic were increasing in volume and intensity as the seconds bled away. The clock was ticking and there was only about two minutes left when they finally left the ramp and entered the corridor leading to the hangar bay.

The doors to the hangar bay that were formerly attached to the bulkhead were badly bent and lying across the corridor. Smoke spilled slowly from the opening, so, thankfully, the blast doors were not sealed. As they rushed into the bay, they stopped short; transfixed by the grim scene before them and the three people standing amid it all. Their senses were treated to a scene of carnage not unlike the one they had just left behind in the club above. Lining the bulkheads as if they had been tossed against the walls like rag dolls were the smoking bodies of several sentients of various races in trooper armor. Scattered about the rest of the floor of the hangar surrounding the Cartel Contessa were close to twenty more troopers, stealth troopers, and battle droids in various broken poses of death or dismemberment. In the center of the most concentrated area of carnage stood a zabrak female in Mandalorian armor with a techstaff and a massive wookiee with an equally massive vibroblade. Both warriors were covered with an almost ridiculous amount of splattered blood and their stances indicated that some of the blood was their own.

But yes, they only accounted for two of the three people standing amidst the carnage. The third was a giant of a man armored and robed in the regalia of a full Sith Lord. In one hand he grasped a brilliant red lightsaber as he stalked slowly towards the other pair. "Whoa ho ho!" Samulous called out as he sent two fat red bolts flying from his Aikion blasters toward the Sith.

The Sith Lord turned almost nonchalantly and raised his free hand to intercept the blaster bolts. They hit his palm and seemed to just vanish on contact. Rathari stepped forward igniting his own lightsaber. "An impressive display of tutaminis, stranger, let us test the rest of your skills. Admiral, allow me the honor of this kill. Get your crew aboard your ship and prepare for launch."

"You heard the man, prepare for launch! Don't screw around, Rathari…your honor has 30 seconds before we blast out of here!" Rathari's now five new companions all moved quickly up the ramp leaving the two Sith to duel for the right to live. Samulous caught Rathari's attention before disappearing up the ramp and tapped his wristcomp meaningfully.

###

E5-AD felt his circuits begin to cool as he reduced the flow of energy throughout his power matrix and settled in to wait for destruction. Seated in the navigation chair next to the comm terminal on the bridge of the Witch Hawk, E5-AD took a few of his remaining 222,486,425,147,012 picoseconds to contemplate the nature of his existence and the oblivion that would soon consume him. Was his destruction a "death" since he was not actually "alive"? He considered Lord Rathari more than just a master, he considered him a valued friend. Most people would probably challenge what a droid's notion of friendship could actually consist of, but to E5 it was a rather obvious state of familiarity that is appreciated and even missed when absent. He had previously, and would have again, placed himself in direct danger of destruction to protect Lord Rathari because that is what friends do. Regardless of what any biologicals might say, E5-AD knew that he knew what friendship was. He was displeased that this one was about to end.

220,117,741,729,301 picoseconds remaining.

Rising from the navigator's chair, E5 shuffled to the opposite side of the bridge and opened the door to a storage bin that rotated open with a soft hiss. Inside were numerous appendages, attachments, circuit boards, weapons, and spare parts that he could use to customize himself for a variety of mission requirements or effect repairs if he were damaged. E5 wondered if he was merely a collection of parts or if, with the passage of time and the accumulation of memories and experiences, he had become something more. He would never know now. His luminous visual sensors dimmed to about half intensity as he stared at the spare parts and his durasteel frame sagged a little as he reduced the power flowing to his motor arrays. Why bother sending full power to his systems when he would soon cease to exist. If there was a series of electrical impulses through an artificial neural net that could be called despair, that series now cascaded through E5-AD in an endlessly repeating cycle.

197,471,610,589,009 picoseconds remaining.

###

With the others gone, the Sith Lord facing off against Rathari ignited a second red lightsaber. "I am Lord Farevan, and you are about to die." Rathari assumed the starting pose for the Soresu form and turned the rapid fire attacks of his opponent easily. This Sith Lord was using Djem So against him, but Rathari's Soresu was better. The downside was that there was not enough time to wear Lord Farevan down with an impenetrable Soresu defense.

After turning a particularly vicious flurry of attacks, Rathari seamlessly switched to Joyo form and returned the attacks even faster than they were given to him. Executing several seemingly superhuman acrobatic moves, Rathari kept Farevan off balance for a few crucial seconds before springing up in a cart wheeling motion to the underside of the Contessa's hull and taking three long inverted steps over Farevan's head before spinning back to the ground with his lightsaber fully extended in the direction he had just come.

Rathari held the pose of a perfectly executed shiak for a fraction of a second with his shining red blade protruding from the front of Farevan's chest as the light faded from the other Sith Lord's eyes. "I am Lord Rathari, and you were overconfident. Also, your tutaminis seems to have failed you." Extinguishing his lightsaber, Rathari sprinted for the Contessa's waiting ramp but was blocked as two Sith Pureblood warriors dropped from atop the ship where they had been hiding and ignited a red pair of double bladed lightsabers.

###

Turning slowly away from the spare parts and alternate attachments, E5's visual sensors fell upon the main viewport, the hangar bay doors beyond that, and the tiny sliver of darkness and stars beyond that. When main station control had cracked open the hangar bay doors to evacuate the atmosphere, they had effectively trapped the Witch Hawk in her berth and prevented anyone from entering the bay until the atmosphere was restored.

195,333,621,673,898 picoseconds remaining.

…cracked open the hangar bay doors.

195,333,621,672,144 picoseconds remaining.

The radiant flux of E5-AD's visual sensors jumped to about 20 watts brighter than usual as his power levels peaked to 115%.

The hangar bay doors were cracked open.

He could escape to space and Master Rathari would certainly pick him up!

195,333,621,671,879 picoseconds remaining.

Shuffling quickly to the cargo bay, E5-AD opened one of several large gear lockers where Rathari kept a variety of highly specialized items that just might come in handy when carrying our Sith business. This particular locker had four compact jet packs among other items. E5 scooped up all four and draped the straps over one arm.

169,716,357,739,119 picoseconds remaining.

With the jet packs dangling and clanking together awkwardly, E5 made his way to the after most portion of the ship and stepped into the airlock. Cycling the lock, he exposed himself to the cold, hard vacuum of space, but that, of course, did not have any different effect on him than being in the warm, moist nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere produced by the ship's life support systems. If anything, the corrosion he constantly faced was slower now.

141,454,233,167,622 picoseconds remaining.

The atmosphere had been evacuated, but the artificial gravity of the station was still fully operational. E5-AD shuffled normally across the floor of the hangar bay toward where the bay doors were open to the black void of space; the lack of air did not affect his movement any. Once he reached the doors, he used the straps on the jet packs to attach each pack to the next in line forming a string of packs that he threaded through the narrow crack leading into outer space. As the packs passed outside the hull of the Nova Crown, the artificial gravity lost its hold on them, and they floated in a dangling chain hanging out the door. Next, he went to slide through the opening himself and leave the station, but stopped with a solid clank of metal on metal as his hip assembly tried to wedge itself into the crack.

116,257,889,143,627 picoseconds remaining.

No! He was too big to fit through the opening in the hangar bay doors! He quickly tried rotating his hip assembly at a few different angles to make it fit, but every time, the result was the same. Wasting no time to fret over this latest setback, E5-AD extended a short tube from the palm of his right hand and ignited his integrated cutting torch. Alarms and angry red warnings flashed urgently through his neural net and across what biologicals would perceive as the droid's "vision" as the cutting torch ripped a swath of critical damage through his structural supports just above his hip assembly. His entire frame started to shake from the damage to his subsystems and sparks began to fly in showers and intermittent bursts as circuits shorted and power conduits were severed.

101,951,473,221,852 picoseconds remaining.

###

"Pfaagh! We told Lord Farevan that he should not duel you alone. No matter. He was less than a match for even one of us, and we will not make his mistakes."

One of the warriors immediately engaged Rathari while the other began to circle around behind him. Rathari did not take any Sith at their word, but this one at least seemed to speak true. The lightning assault from the double bladed lightsaber immediately forced Rathari back on the defensive and even his Soresu was almost insufficient to keep the deadly blades from reaching out and ending him. This Sith was indeed better than Farevan and, unfortunately, better than Rathari too. As soon as the other was behind him…

Samulous reappeared on the ramp to see Rathari being steadily driven back by his latest attacker and another about to take him from behind. "We DO NOT have time for this!" He drew his blasters and tapped them together activating a couple of hidden switches on each weapon. The twin tracks of recessed metal along the barrel of each weapon sprang to life with pulsing red energy as he brought the weapons to bear.

Rathari admired the attempt by the gunslinger to take on these Sith warriors, but the attempt was really just that; an attempt. Even a laughable one to try against any Sith with even a modicum of talent or skill; and these two clearly had both in spades.

Samulous took a couple steps down the ramp, ripped a pair of hemispherical objects from his belt, dropped them at his feet, and opened fire. The nearest Sith Lord disengaged from Rathari by taking a step back and began deflecting blaster bolts with his whirling and humming saberstaff moving faster than the eye could follow. Some of the blaster bolts came flying directly back towards the shooter, and Rathari that that would be the end of the Admiral until he saw that the two dropped hemispheres were portable shield generators that had deployed a protective screen Samulous now crouched behind. "Rathari, this ends now! Get aboard!"

Even though he knew blasters were no match for Sith, Rathari kept the second warrior at a distance and quickly circled around toward the ramp. The bolts flew from the blasters even faster than Rathari thought was possible from fully automatic weapons, and these were powerful bolts placed with deadly accuracy. If he did not know better, he would have said that Samulous was placing his blaster shots exactly where it would be most difficult for the Sith to parry them. When the saber swung high, blaster bolts flew in low forcing maximum travel from the Sith Warrior's blade only to bring the point of aim back to another position that was even more awkward to spin the staff and parry the bolts. This Sith was very good, but Rathari could tell that he was drinking heavily of the Force to continue deflecting the fury of this attack…maybe even drinking as much of the Force as he possibly could.

Then, the impossible happened. A blaster bolt took him in the hand followed by another that blasted the handle of the saberstaff to pieces, and then about two dozen more that drove him to the deck leaving nothing but a smoking corpse.

The entire exchange of blaster meets lightsaber lasted less than ten seconds, but those were very precious seconds.

Samulous did not even stop pulling the triggers as he trained his deadly hail of fire on the last Sith Lord. Having just witnessed this gunslinger use blaster bolts to outmaneuver a master of blaster deflection, he took a few steps toward the hangar door in an attempt to escape but it quickly became evident that he could not run and deflect Samulous' assault at the same time. He was forced to stand and devote the entirety of his concentration and Force abilities to turning the deadly red bolts aside. It was like he was fighting an opponent with a lightsaber, except that this opponent was twenty yards away and clearly better with "the blade" than he was! He did not even last as long as his partner before he was cut down.

###

The damage to E5-AD continued to mount to critical levels as a dozen new alarms stacked atop those already shrieking at him to find a way to stop the damage from continuing through his midsection, but E5 kept the cutting torch melting though his body until his hip assembly and legs detached completely from his upper functional units. His ocular probes were flashing and dimming rapidly now in morbid unison with the showers of sparks spraying from his ruptured power conduits, but he managed to grasp the outer edges of the hangar bay doors and pull himself free of the station's gravity field and into the freefall of space beyond. Free!

90,447,125,727,004 picoseconds remaining.

E5-AD drifted slowly away from the station trailing small explosions of sparks and spherical globules of thick dark fluid that glistened in the starlight and the light from the sparks. The damage was severe, and his power reserves were now rapidly plummeting with each short circuit from the power cables that snaked behind his torn structure like angry serpents.

32% power and 81,767,880,009,014 picoseconds remaining.

His cranial assembly was jerking violently to one side and one ocular probe was dark as he struggled to make his arms work well enough to strap the jet packs to what remained of his ruined torso. One pack was secured firmly to his back when his left arm suffered final failure from the hydraulic fluid he was now leaking into space. His one remaining arm moved more slowly now, but it managed to secure a second jet pack to his chest.

24% power and 49,110,932,300,201 picoseconds remaining.

Reaching down to grasp one of the hydraulic lines with his still functioning arm, E5-AD squeezed it and managed to wedge the severed tube between two sharp edges of his damaged frame. The sharp edges cut into the tube a little, but the flow of hydraulic fluid slowed just enough that pressure returned to move his left arm again. He grasped one of the two remaining jet packs in his left arm and the other in his right. Spreading his arms wide, he ignited the jet packs to propel himself away from the doomed station. His delta-v was impressive, and he was now 81% certain that he had enough speed to survive the explosion of the Nova Crown. Once the propellant tanks in the jet-packs grasped in his hands were expended, he pushed the packs off into space like he was shedding wings.

He was down to 18% power when a ship roared out of the deck 19 hangar bay just ahead of the detonation that blew the Nova Crown into trillions of pieces.

###

With only seconds to spare, the Cartel Contessa roared our of the Nova Crown's deck 19 hangar bay and into the welcoming void of space. Rathari got on his comlink to send his loyal droid one last message, but time was a thing that could not be manufactured when it was in short supply. "Eee-five, are you still monitoring this freq—" He was knocked to the deck and his transmission was cut short as the ship was rocked hard by the too-close explosion of the Nova Crown. Admiral Samulous was thrown against the bulkhead by the blast and was now running to the bridge. Apparently the explosives were very skillfully planted to force an immediate chain reaction in the station's main reactor.

Sighing heavily, Rathari rose to his feet and made his way slowly to the bridge. He held a heavy heart for the loss of his ship, but even more so for his loyal droid…his friend. It might seem odd to think of a Sith as having friends, but Rathari was not about to let that stop him from appreciating and rewarding E5-AD for the many times the droid had tipped the scales in his favor or downright bailed him out of trouble. The droid was heavily modified to stand up to heavy combat, was a very skilled slicer, and was completely, ruthlessly devoted to his master's wishes and missions. That droid had had more dark side in him than half the Sith Rathari had known. He would be more than missed. He would be mourned. But not where the others on the ship would ever see. For now, he had to be Rathari the Sith Lord.

"Admiral, I suspect you have been briefed on the nature of my oath, but I am displeased at the loss of my ship and my droid. I have lost much and am expecting much from you and your apparent network of friends."

Samulous was hovering over a computer terminal watching Corso skillfully manipulate the ship's controls to avoid speeding debris flying from what used to be the Nova Crown. "Take a seat if you like, Rathari. Otherwise, you have a rack in the guest quarters." Samulous indicated that the quarters were aft and starboard of the bridge with a curt jerk of his thumb. "As I understand it, Baras and the Empire believe you dead, you abandoned your Dark Council appointed post on Nar Shaddaa, and you are currently on the run from anyone who might blow that story for you. You are in no position to be 'expecting' much of anything from anyone…least of all, me." With this last, the Admirals head turned to fix the Sith lord with a punctuating look. A look that seem to say, "You are just cargo, and rather low-standing cargo at that."

Rathari was in shock. No one had dared address him in such a manner in many years. Then again, Rathari had to admit that he was wrong in his belief that he was the deadliest being on the Nova Crown. This gunslinger had just made very short work of two Sith Lords, either one of whom could have killed Rathari handily. He did not want to cross him, and he also had to admit that this team had just saved him from certain death. They had even taken wounds to do so. "My apologies, Admiral. I was out of line. You have acted with honor and I owe you my life. I wish only to live long enough to fulfill my oath to Lord Nightstar."

"Then please, take a seat." Peering intently at the display he was leaning on, he frowned. "There are escape pods in space. Some people got out before she blew. If they talk, this entire op could be blown, not to mention our connection to the Crimson Cartel exposed."

"Captain, there were thousands of people on the Nova Crown! What are the chances that one of those escape pods is carrying anyone that knows anything about us at all?" Risha protested loudly.

Samulous shot a meaningful look at Risha, "Greater than zero."

"We can't just kill them!"

His voice softened, but his resolve clearly did not, "Risha, why don't you head to the med bay and check on Akaavi and Bowdaar. They could probably use a hand." Risha nodded and left the bridge stiffly.

Corso's face seemed to have drained of all color and his hand trembled slightly on the controls. His voice caught, but he was clearly trying to be brave and strong for what his captain needed of him, "Arming turbo-lasers, Captain."

Samulous laid a gentle hand on Corso's shoulder in a manner that was almost fatherly. "Corso, I'll take the controls from here. Make sure everything in the cargo bay is secure. We took quite a blast back there."

Corso tried not to leap to his feet and run from the bridge, but he was clearly relieved that he was relieved of this duty. "Yes, Captain."

###

At his current rate of power drain, he estimated that he had between 90 and 140 seconds of power remaining. He could not gauge the time more precisely because the rate of drain was inconsistent. Each explosion of sparks from the power cables whipping behind him sapped his reserves, and there was nothing he could do to stop the bleeding.

Extending a tiny directional antenna from the side of his cranial assembly, he sent a transmission to the unknown ship to let them know he had escaped. He had no way to be sure, but he had to assume that Master Rathari was onboard that ship. His master would certainly pick him up now that he had survived the destruction of the Nova Crown! A few seconds after opening the channel, the ship cut the communication link.

Opening the channel again, E5 resent his transmission and was again cut off. Again and again the cycle repeated itself.

###

Rathari and Samulous were then left alone on the bridge as the Admiral took the command chair and control of the weapon systems. Rathari watched silently but with great anticipation and even admiration of this utterly ruthless man. Samulous lined up the cross hairs on the first escape pod and tightened down on the trigger until the turbo-laser battery burped out a pair of massive bolts disintegrating the pod entirely. Another pod, another double blast. The communications terminal began chirping wildly as the distress beacons built into the escape pods began transmitting calls for help. "Rathari, silence those incoming comms." The Sith Lord stepped up to the comm terminal and stabbed the "terminate" button each time a new transmission lit up the screen.

Another six pairs of bolts ended six more pods. Rathari had to terminate several more incoming transmissions before the surrounding space finally went silent of all radio traffic. The ship's scanners seemed clear of escape pods as Samulous scanned the space surrounding the remnants of the Nova Crown. No one would talk now.

If there was ever any doubt before about how far Samulous would go for the masters he served, there was none now. This man was a steely eyed killer of the void.

###

E5 watched the ship's turbo-laser batteries quickly destroy all of the escape pods that managed to eject themselves from the Nova Crown before it blew. Maybe Master Rathari had not escaped the station after all, and there was no one on this ship that wanted to receive his transmission. He stopped transmitting to conserve power. His power reserves were falling below 10% now, and non-critical systems were beginning to shut down. It would not be long before more critical systems including his hardened and protected memory archives also lost power.

###

As the last of the escape pod explosions cooled and dissipated into space, Rathari nodded respectfully to Samulous when he looked up from the now silent proximity scanner. Samulous powered down the turbo-lasers and engaged the main engines at ahead 1/8 to move them out of the debris field. It would not be safe to initiate a hyper-space jump until they were in clear space.

###

The unknown ship engaged its main engines and began moving toward the edge of the debris field that used to be the Nova Crown. Not willing to give up yet, E5-AD engaged the jet packs strapped to his chest and his back for maximum delta-v in the direction of the ship. The ship was thrusting under minimal power, and E5 was able to surpass its velocity and begin closing the distance between them. At maximum thrust, the jet packs quickly burned their tanks dry, but now the ship was only 2312 meters distant and closing at a velocity differential of 112 meters per second. He would pass the ship in just over 20 seconds, and then whoever was on the ship would be sure to see him.

E5-AD's power reserves dropped to 2%. With only seconds left, he sent one more weak transmission to the ship that went unanswered just as it made the jump to hyperspace. One final tiny burst of sparks shot out from E5-AD's ruined shell, and his remaining systems went dark in the cold void of space.