The Descendant, Echoes of the Revanchist – Chapter 28
Beneath Manaan's Surface
Hrakert Station
None of the three guards patrolling Hrakert Station's underwater dock took any notice as the submersible vehicle broke the water's surface and parked. Even so, everyone was on immediate high alert, particularly Dahlgen, Maris, Katya and Marsala. Immediately upon arrival, all of them had sensed the presence and power of the dark side permeating the entire facility like a festering wound.
"These three don't seem to be suffering from the same savage madness that the group who attacked us on Bangalore Station suffered from," Dahlgen observed.
Probably because these three have been members of the Order of Shasa for quite some time, Juula suggested, pointing out that all three of the patrolling guards wore the fira sword. They may have conditioned themselves to fight the madness that corrupted the newer members.
"Either that or they're docile simply because they have no target to attack," Maris said.
Dahlgen admitted that was a far likelier possibility. Without a clear target, even dark side devotees could appear docile and harmless. Palpatine was a perfect example of it.
Hyosa signaled her fellow Order members and turned to Dahlgen. We'll handle this. Pretend to have been captured. It could be the only way of getting around them without attracting attention.
"You know best," Dahlgen said.
Hyosa and the others got out of the submersible and walked towards the first guard. They made some kind of gesture to one another and started conversing. Hyosa even pointed back towards the craft and the guard they were speaking to looked in their direction.
"What's goin' on?" Dannix wondered.
"Looks like our friends are trying to convince the others that they've brought some prisoners for interrogation," Dijas answered.
"I'd say you're right," Dahlgen agreed. "Everyone keep your weapons hidden, but handy just in case it all goes down the refresher."
The guard Hyosa and the others were talking with signaled to his two comrades and they all advanced towards the parked submersible.
"Is it goin' down the refresher yet?" Dannix asked.
"Not yet," Dahlgen counseled. "Just keep steady. And remember what Hyosa said everyone. Look depressed and defeated. Pretend you're a prisoner."
Hyosa and the others were close enough now that their conversation could be overheard. That one and that one, she said pointing to Dahlgen and Cronus. They're the leaders and need to be interrogated at once.
You sure about that old one? The guard Hyosa had spoken to originally almost couldn't believe his eyes. He doesn't look like much.
And that's exactly what makes him dangerous, Hyosa argued. His old appearance. She next pointed to Katya. That one is also very wily. I suggest you don't take your eyes off of her.
Force Revanchist understood what Hyosa was doing. By encouraging the guards to keep their eyes on Katya, their eyes would be off the others when the big surprise came. She played it to perfection, lightly drumming her fingers together and eyeing them with a devious expression on her face as if she was already concocting some kind of a plan in her mind.
The first Selkath guard reached down and rather roughly yanked Dahlgen out of the craft. Another pulled Cronus out and they were shoved into the waiting arms of their "captors." Take them away, the first guard ordered pointing to Hyosa and Juula. We'll stay here and guard the rest of these vermin until they are ready to be moved.
Dahlgen spoke to Maris through their special link. Wait for the signal, then do what you've got to do.
All right, she replied. Be safe my love.
I will.
Hyosa and Juula pretended to escort Dahlgen and Cronus through the doorway at the far end of the dock. The corridor beyond it was brightly lit. Made mostly of reinforced transparisteel to withstand the pressure of the ocean depths, it treated anyone who walked through it to a breathtaking view of the Manaan's vast oceans. Dahlgen briefly glanced at the fish and firaxan sharks swimming around outside and wondered if this was the same view that had greeted Revan when he first visited Hrakert Station so many years ago.
There were no other Selkath in the corridor, so Hyosa took a moment to say a few words and remind Dahlgen and Cronus of what lie ahead. Very good acting job Dahlgen, she complimented. Keep it up, as we may run into more of our twisted brethren in the next corridor. Also, there will be at least two guards in the security checkpoint, one at the desk, the other wandering. The one at the desk must be overpowered first as he can set off the alarm.
Dahlgen merely nodded in response as did Cronus.
Continuing onward, Hyosa and Juula led them through the next doorway into another corridor that ran perpendicular to the previous one and ended with an airlock at either end. Two Selkath were returning from the airlock to the right and they called out the Hyosa and Juula, asking if they needed a hand with the prisoners. Hyosa said something in Selkath and waved them off.
"That was close," Cronus muttered.
"Just keep steady," Dahlgen whispered under his breath. "We're okay for now."
Dahlgen wondered if maybe he'd spoken too soon when the four of them advanced through the next doorway into the security checkpoint and found not one, not two, but five guards present. As expected, one was seated at the desk with the second directly behind him. The third and fourth guards were stationed at the northeast and northwest corners of the octagonal room and the final one guarded the door they'd just entered from.
"You were saying?" Cronus whispered to him.
Who are these people? The Selkath seated at the desk demanded to know who these newcomers were.
We found them in Ahto City, Juula explained. They were teaching some new Force techniques to some of the younger members of the Order. Techniques that directly go against the truths that our great teacher has shown us.
Heretics, the Selkath behind the one at the desk hissed.
Hyosa nodded. Yes. These two are the ringleaders. There are others back at the dock who follow them. They may have converted some of our less promising pupils and therefore, must be interrogated.
The Selkath at the desk nodded and turned to wave his comrade forward. The guard behind him walked around the desk and advanced toward them, his fira held at the ready. The human looked like he might be a slight problem if he decided to cause trouble, but the old one would be a pushover in interrogation. Already he was envisioning a plethora of painful methods he could use to interrogate the duo.
When he was only a step or two away from them, Dahlgen sprung the trap suddenly pivoting around to his left and whacking the guard across the head with a spin kick that sent him reeling.
Look out, he's free! Hyosa screamed in false alarm.
The guard at the desk immediately went to sound the alarm but before he could, Dahlgen employed a Force Wave and sent him and his chair flying backwards. Turning to Hyosa, Dahlgen called his saberstaff to his grasp which had been hidden beneath her robe. Igniting it, he spun it around and turned to face his next opponent.
Juula tossed Cronus's heavy blaster to him and he immediately put two blaster bolts into the head of the Selkath that had been seated at the desk. Meanwhile, Juula faced off with her former comrade that had been guarding the rear door. With a feral scream of rage, the deranged Selkath attacked, brandishing his fira over his head and swinging it down with all his might.
Juula brought her weapon up and the cortosis blades came together with a loud clang. Her opponent tried to force his blade upon her with brute strength but Juula angled her blade to the left and forced him to back away. No sooner had he done so than he turned and took a vicious swipe at Juula with his claws. She been expecting this maneuver though and safely maneuvered out of the way before employing a Force Blast technique that stunned and blinded her opponent.
Dazed by the sudden blast of light and sound, the deranged Selkath stumbled backwards. Juula never gave him a chance to recover, stepping forward and driving her fira through his chest. She kicked the body backwards and withdrew her weapon, flicking the blood off the blade onto the floor.
Dahlgen's next opponent turned out to be the Selkath he'd previously cracked across the head. The enraged Selkath quickly recovered and lunged forward, determined the impale Dahlgen on the blade of his fira. Dahlgen raised and angled his double saber to block, then followed up by parrying it aside. A hard kick to his opponent's face and the crazed cultist stumbled back.
Settling into the unpredictable ferocity of Form VII, Dahlgen hopped over his opponent's attempt to cut his legs out from under him and fell back, allowing his opponent to believe he had the upper hand. His crazy Selkath adversary fell for it and he charged forward, hacking and slashing at Dahlgen for all he was worth.
Dahlgen gave a little more ground and continued parrying his opponent's angry blows. The crazed Selkath cultist suddenly switched tactics and tried to claw at Dahlgen. He sucked in a deep breath as he jerked his head back and witnessed the poison tipped claws pass within millimeters of his face. With his Selkath opponent off balance, Dahlgen landed a hard right cross to his face and spun around with his momentum, swiping his saberstaff at the Selkath's head.
His opponent ducked under the strike and thrust his fira at Dahlgen's midsection, but Dahlgen recovered fast and spun his weapon like a giant fan, slapping the fira's blade away. In a near desperate strike, the deranged Selkath tried to quickly reverse direction and slice Dahlgen in half, swinging his fira in a vicious upward stroke. Sensing the attack, Dahlgen turned completely around to his right and slashed down, both blades severing the wild Selkath's head and arms from his body, his now useless fira clattering on the floor.
Dahlgen turned to face any other attackers in time to see Hyosa duck under the powerful swing of the fourth guard's weapon. Outstretching his hand, Dahlgen caught the unlucky Shasa cultist in a Force Stasis, freezing him in his tracks. It would last but maybe a couple seconds and he hoped Hyosa would take advantage of her opponent's stunned state while she had the chance. She did, slicing the frozen Selkath open from shoulder to hip before he ever got a chance to move again.
Using the desk for cover, Cronus shot the fifth guard then whirled around as he heard the door behind them open. The two cultists they had passed in the previous corridor suddenly came into the room, alerted by the sounds of battle. In a rage, one of them leaped at Cronus, intent on disemboweling him with his bare hands. Faster than anyone would've believe possible for a Weequay his age, Cronus snap aimed his blaster and drilled the leaping Selkath attacker seven times. His dead body landed in a crumpled heap at Cronus's feet.
Dahlgen dispatched the final cultist by employing Saber Throw which turned his saberstaff into a hurtling buzzsaw that sliced his screaming opponent into pieces. Satisfied that all was now more or less clear, he called the weapon back to his hand, catching it in mid-stride as he walked behind the desk and used the comm. to transmit a single two word message. "We're in."
Hyosa pulled a small transmitter from under her robe and transmitted its signal. It alerted three of her Order of Shasa purist friends that the security checkpoint had been secured and they were to advance. It would be up to them to guard the checkpoint and Cronus while the rest of them set out on their individual assignments. With that done, she tossed it to Cronus who would use it if additional reinforcements needed to be summoned.
With Juula and Hyosa standing guard, Cronus retrieved the desk chair and had a seat. Tapping away at the console, he accessed the security mainframe in seconds. "That was easy. I've hacked into security."
"Good," Dahlgen said as he removed the phony neural inhibitor from his neck. "See what kind of trouble you can get into."
"I'm workin' on it," Cronus assured him, removing his own fake collar. He entered a few more commands and smiled. "All right, I've disabled all the automatic security measures, motion detectors, infrared beams, that sort of thing. I'm also in the process of unlocking all the doors."
"What about security cameras?" Dahlgen asked. "Can you access any of those?"
"Let's see," Cronus commented. He searched through the terminal's data banks and found the access to the security camera feeds. He frowned. Only about half of the cameras were working and those that were didn't display a whole lot that was useful. "Not a lot I'm afraid Dahlgen."
"How about the kolto or Karala?" Dahlgen asked. "Any sign of either?"
Once more, Cronus entered some commands. "Hmmm, that's interesting."
Something in Cronus's voice got Dahlgen's attention. "Whatcha got?"
"A hidden sub-file in the automatic security measures menu," Cronus said. "No idea what it contains or what it might lead to."
"Can you hack into it?" Dahlgen wondered.
"Not without some serious work," Cronus informed him. "There are a ton of fail-safes around this. Whoever put this file here wanted to make sure whatever's hidden in it stays hidden."
"Get on it," Dahlgen told him. "It could be our only chance of finding either the kolto or Karala."
Cronus stretched out his fingers. "Here we go."
Back at the dock, the Selkath cultist guarding the submersible spun around the instant he heard Dahlgen's message over the comlink. It was all a trick! They weren't prisoners, they were invaders! Yelling in rage, he zeroed in on Katya and raised his fira above his head to strike. He didn't see Dannix nor Dijas level their blaster rifles at him until they were already firing. The luckless cultist took more than a dozen shots in the face and chest and was dumped unceremoniously over the side and into the water.
The other two Selkath guards at the dock hadn't been paying attention and only with the sound of the first guard's sudden demise, turned to face their attackers. They were already doomed. Maris and Katya both Force leaped from the submersible toward them and ignited their sabers in mid-air. Katya twisted to her right and executed a sai cha, cleaving the head off of one guard as she landed. The second guard fumbled for his fira, but Maris was too fast for him. She brought her blade down as she hit the floor and neatly sliced off his weapon arm. Desperate to take Maris out, the Selkath cultist lashed out at her with the claws on his other hand, but she weaved around the attack and planted a fatal shi tok stab in his head. Withdrawing her blade, Maris kicked the lifeless body away and it too ended up in the water.
H
The others were already out of the submersible and heading towards them. Impressive, Dukan complimented the ladies on the lightsaber prowess.
"Thank you," Maris replied for them both.
Dijas and Dannix both aimed their weapons down the next corridor as the door swung open in front of them. No targets present themselves. "Clear?" Dijas asked.
"Clear," Dannix confirmed. He turned to the others and jerked a thumb towards the door. "Let's move everyone."
The team headed up the corridor that looked out into Manaan's vast ocean surface with Dannix and Dijas leading and Maris guarding the rear with Katya. As Katya glanced off to her left, she saw something out in the water. Something huge. What the hell was that? It was far away and she almost couldn't see it, but there it was. She almost couldn't believe her eyes and she had to practically press her face against the transparisteel window for a better look.
That had to be the most gigantic fish she had ever seen! Despite its distance from her, Katya thought it had to be at least fifty meters in length and ten or so meters thick with giant fins sprouting from its body. Could that be the Progenitor that Dahlgen had told them about earlier?
Dannix whistled at her. "Hey! What are you doin' lass?"
Katya whirled around with wide eyes. The rest of the team had moved on through the next door. She pointed at the window. "You'll never believe what I just saw out there Dannix!" She looked out the window again. "It was huge!"
Dannix spread his arms wide. "What? What did you see out there?"
Katya looked out the window again but saw nothing. Whatever had been there was gone now. Had it really been there? Or had her eyes just been playing tricks on her? It was right there a moment ago, she thought. "Oh… nothing," she said. "I guess my eyes were just playing tricks on me."
"Well come on then," Dannix encouraged. "The chief is waitin' for us."
Katya still had the image of that giant fish in her head as they arrived at the security checkpoint. Even if no one else ever saw it or believed she had seen it, Katya was certain she had just seen the Progenitor. She wondered whether it was common for the Selkath to see the Progenitor or not. If not, how many Selkath over the centuries had seen it as well?
Maris and Dahlgen embraced and shared a brief kiss. You okay? She asked him.
I'm fine. He turned to everyone else. "Everyone remember their assignments?"
There were nods of affirmation all around.
"Cronus?" Dahlgen asked.
"All the doors I could unlock have been unlocked," he asserted. "The generator room will have to be unlocked locally though."
"Keep trying to access that hidden file and let me know the minute you've located the kolto and Karala," Dahlgen said.
"I'm on it," Cronus assured him.
Dahlgen turned to the rest of his team once more. "All right everyone, let's do this."
Over Manaan
The Silver Horizon
Rayna glanced over to her left at the Silver Horizon's atmospheric altimeter and then at the sublight engine output readings. Everything was operating smoothly so far. The autopilot held the ship in a gradual turn as it maintained the holding pattern Raquel had plotted into the ship's navigational system since the airborne drop. It had been relatively quiet on the Silver Horizon since then, neither of them saying very much to each other.
Truth be told Rayna probably wouldn't have heard Raquel say anything to her if she'd shouted right in her ear as she was thinking about her father and brother again. It had been almost a month now since they'd both tragically perished on Onderon, yet she was just now beginning to come to terms with it. And while she was still sad that the Empire had taken them from her, she no longer thirsted for revenge against them.
The talk a few days ago with Maris had helped her a great deal. After realizing that giving in to her anger and hatred would just lead her down the path of damnation, Rayna had begun to wonder why she had become so bitter in the first place. Sure, she was upset that her father and brother were dead. That was to be expected. But was that the only reason? And she soon realized it hadn't been.
Even though she had heard Dahlgen promise her that he accepted her as his own daughter, she was only now starting to accept that this existence was her new reality. That this was more than just a nightmare she'd eventually wake up from. Her father was gone. And as much as she loved and had relied on her older brother, he was gone too. She had a new family now, one that loved and cared for her as much as anyone ever had before. And they had all accepted her into their fold without a second thought or questioning glance.
But was it right to view them all in that way? A small piece of her wanted to hear Dahlgen call her daughter and to call him dad in return. But every time she tried to think of Dahlgen as her dad, she felt like she was betraying her real father. And every time she tried to think of Marsala as her little brother, she felt like she'd stabbed her real brother in the back. Even every time she tried to think of Maris as her future mother, she felt like she was putting her true mother through some kind of unseen but very real hell. Kind of like the pain that she had been in when she died. She supposed that was natural but Rayna also wondered if she would feel that way about them forever or if she'd be able to accept them the way they'd accepted her.
She smiled as she thought about Marsala. Little brother? Yeah, right. He'd already acted like more of big brother towards her despite the fact that she was two years older than him. And given how handsome Marsala was, it was hard for her to think of him as a brother of any sort. Marsala was the kind of boy she'd prefer to date as opposed to have as a brother. And there was that little train of thought she'd sensed in him the other night. The thoughts that revealed Marsala thought she was cute.
Meh… probably not a good idea to get her hopes up. She shook her head to clear it. Get a hold of yourself, she thought. A romantic relationship with him wasn't likely to happen at all. Even though they were separated, Princess Hermia had already staked her claim to him and despite the concern he had voiced to Rayna on Nar Shaddaa, he hadn't outright rejected Hermia. He was probably just nervous. Hell, Rayna had been incredibly nervous at the prospect of having her first boyfriend. She imagined the feeling was kind of the same when it came to guys and their first girlfriends.
Her thoughts moved to Maris. Based on what she had learned about her, she had been an important part of Dahlgen's life. And despite the fact that they had been reunited just under three years ago, it was evident that she was still important to him, and to Marsala. She saw how he looked at her and admired her. He had never had a mother figure to look up to in the wake of what happened to his real mother, but in the short time he knew Maris, he already viewed her as his own mother.
And that wasn't a hard thing to do coming from Maris. Thinking back to their one-on-one girl talk they had the other night, she already saw how much she cared about her and her well-being. She wouldn't have come out to talk to her if she didn't. It made her think back to her own mother and the way she would always talk to her with that loving and caring voice and compassionate smile. Unlike her father and brother, she hadn't been taken by the Empire, but by disease. It was something that was completely unavoidable. You could treat diseases and injuries but in the end, if the person died, you didn't really have anyone to blame for their death. She knew that it would be hard to accept someone else as her mother, but it was a mother figure that had been removed from her life long before any other figure had been. And if there was anyone worthy enough to take up the reigns, it was Maris.
Her thoughts drifted back to her father. She could almost hear him telling her, "Look Rayna I did my best, but I know I wasn't that great of a father since your mom died. Let this man take over where I left off. Let his woman take over where mom left off. Let them and his friends be your family now. You're alive. You deserve it. Be happy Rayna."
That was the one thing her father had instilled in her since she was a little child. Be happy. No matter what was going on around you; no matter what insanity might be creeping up behind you, always be happy. Her father had always told her it wasn't always easy being happy. But trying to be happy was a lot easier that struggling to recover from sadness and depression once those had been allowed to set in. All right father, she said to herself. I'll be happy.
"So what's your story?" Raquel finally broke the awkward silence between them.
"Hmmm?" Rayna asked, not quite having heard the question.
"Your story?" Raquel repeated. "I was with Dahlgen and his friends briefly in the Kwymar Sector shortly before the invasion of Onderon. You weren't with this group then. So how did you get mixed up in the middle of all this?"
Rayna smiled and Raquel listened with genuine interest as she told the story of how Dahlgen had rescued her on Onderon. Raquel smiled and laughed. "That's just like Dahlgen," she said.
"What do you mean?" Rayna wondered.
"Doing whatever he can to protect the innocent is just the way Dahlgen is," Raquel commented. "Always has been." She eyed Rayna curiously. "Forgive me if this sounds a little ridiculous, but have you talked to Dahlgen?"
Rayna did indeed think the question was a little silly. "Of course I have."
Raquel wasn't convinced though. "Really? What do you know about him?"
The question took Rayna by surprise. "Well… I… he's from Onderon of course."
"Of course," Raquel agreed.
Rayna thought for a moment. "His father is General Xavier, Onderon's military Chief of Staff," she eventually said. "He's a personal friend of Princess Juliette. He's the descendant or Revan. He's been trained as a Jedi. And… and…"
"And not much else, right?" Raquel finished for her.
Rayna smiled sheepishly. "No. I guess not."
"Did you know he served in the Clone Wars?" Raquel asked him.
Rayna shook her head. "I guess I kind of assumed he had, but I didn't know for sure." She frowned. "He must've been very young if he served in the Clone Wars."
"Younger than Marsala is now," Raquel confirmed. "You were at the Citadel. Did you know that he lived there all alone for the first six years after the Clone Wars ended?"
Slowly Rayna nodded. "Yeah, I do remember hearing him say something to that effect while we were there. In truth I was so distraught over my brother's death, and then later my father's that a lot of what I saw and did there is one big blur."
"I'm not surprised," Raquel admitted. "Still, Dahlgen did pledge to raise you as his own daughter. Don't you think it might be nice to know a little more about the man who would make such a pledge without even being asked to do so?"
Rayna smiled and nodded. "I suppose so."
She was about to say more, when the comlink suddenly flared to life. A garbled message came through along with a lot of static. Raquel reached over and tried to adjust the tuning for a better reception. "Say again guys," she urged. "We didn't copy that."
"… can hear me," Dahlgen's voice returned. "… under heavy attack… been wounded… evacuate… HK's signal… water's surface… shortly."
"Sounds like they're in trouble," Rayna observed.
"What else is new?" Raquel said.
"What do we do?" Rayna wondered.
The Silver Horizon picked up an incoming homing signal and a small yellow warning light began to flash above the control console. It was accompanied by a soft, yet annoyingly monotone beeping noise.
"Off hand, I'd say take us down to water level and follow that," Raquel suggested.
Hrakert Station
Having split up at the security checkpoint, Dahlgen's team had advanced slowly up the north corridor. He now stood in front of the first door on the right with his hand raised, scanning the room beyond it for life signs. The reinforced blast door made the attempt difficult, but Dahlgen focused his concentration on the room beyond.
Finally, he lowered his hand and turned to Maris, Katya and Hyosa shaking his head. "Nothing. Same as the previous room."
I don't understand, Hyosa said. Aside from the few members of the Order we encountered at the dock and the security checkpoint, we've encountered no one else. Maybe they're roaming the city?
"I seriously doubt that," Dahlgen replied. "Revan once told me that if your plan is going exceptionally well, chances are you've walked into an ambush."
Maris nodded in agreement. "I've had a creepy feeling ever since I arrived in this place."
"You're not the only one," Dahlgen assured her.
Cronus's voice crackled over the comlink before anyone else could speak. "You there Dahlgen?"
"Yeah, whatcha got?" he responded.
"I hacked into that hidden file we talked about. And as a result I've found Karala and the kolto," Cronus announced.
"Good work Cronus," Dahlgen said proudly.
"Uh not so fast there Dahlgen," Cronus answered. "You may not be saying that in a minute. Karala is in a secure room located just off the command room north of you. I found a camera feed in the same file. She looks like she's unconscious and in bad shape. I'm no doctor and I'm certainly not Force sensitive but it looks to me like she's hanging on by a thread."
"What about the kolto?" Dahlgen asked.
"That's located in a locked storeroom at the end of the east hall," Cronus answered. "Again, I've got a camera feed looking right at it here."
Something in Cronus's voice caused Maris to feel that there was more to the story. "Why do I get the feeling that you're about to tell us something we don't want to hear?"
"Probably because I am," Cronus replied. "The doors to both rooms are electromagnetically sealed and are run off a separate generator from the rest of the facility. That means even if you destroy the main power generator, the electromagnetic seal will continue to function. On top of that, the computer program that controls that seal cannot be accessed from this terminal. You have to use the administrator's terminal in the main security room to deactivate that seal."
Katya was optimistic. "That doesn't sound too difficult."
"Hold on a second," Cronus replied. "I haven't dropped the other shoe on you yet. And this one is the real killer."
"Great," Dahlgen groaned. "Let's hear it."
"After you get the electromagnetic seal down, you'll be able to access the five-digit combination lock local to each door," Cronus continued. "Here's where it gets ugly though. The combination lock is wired to a high explosive charge and it's also on a timer."
Dahlgen had a feeling he knew what that meant. "So in other words, if we get the combination wrong or we take too long in entering the combination, the explosive charge detonates and anyone or anything in the sealed room beyond goes kaboom," he deduced.
"Along with the door and anyone unlucky enough to be standing in front of it," Cronus confirmed.
"Sorry I asked," Maris grumbled.
"How long is the countdown?" Dahlgen asked Cronus.
"Sixty seconds."
"We need Gee Tee over here," Katya suggested.
"Now just a second," Dahlgen cautioned. "Dannix and Marsala may still need him in the generator room. Let's take care of that electromagnetic seal first, then we'll worry about the door lock. Cronus, make sure Dijas and his group know this. And alert Gee Gee. Tell him to be ready to move to our location the minute he's no longer needed at the main generator."
"I'm on it."
Dahlgen turned to the ladies. "All right, let's keep going. But stay sharp. Something's not right in here."
Like the previous two rooms, the main security station was deserted save for a lone, defunct guard droid in a crumpled heap in the corner of the room. Immediately Dahlgen's eyes spotted a computer terminal in a small alcove to the right flanked by dozens of security camera monitors. He tapped Maris on the shoulder and pointed to it.
Katya and Hyosa stood guard, their Force enhanced senses on full alert as Dahlgen accessed the administrator's terminal. Wow. There were a ton of menus and available command options leading Dahlgen to the belief that this was going to take a while. He scanned over the list of available choices. There, security protocols. That looked promising. He entered some commands into the terminal. Ah, there it was. The subroutine that ran that electromagnetic seal. With a few more careful keystrokes, Dahlgen has disabled the seal on both of the doors that Cronus had spoken off. Okay, that wasn't so hard after all. Maybe this little expedition would follow suit and not be as hard as Dahlgen felt it would be.
A sudden wave of darkness washed over him and Dahlgen shivered. That feeling he'd been having of something not being right around here had just taken a turn for the worse. Someone was watching them and they were close. Very close. He could sense movement. But it wasn't in the hallways. Where was it? Now he heard a soft click of something being unlatched.
Dahlgen flipped backwards out of his chair. "Heads up!" He ignited his saberstaff and swung both blades around like a saw, cleaving the Selkath Order of Shasa cultist that had jumped at him into pieces. The movement he had sensed along with the sound of the click had told Dahlgen they were coming through the air vents. A second cult member landed in the room and Dahlgen cut loose with a Force Wave that sent him reeling head over heels a few times before he came to rest face first on the floor.
Maris sensed the assault at the same time and took a step back, swinging her blade across her body as another Selkath cult member landed in front of her. He was unprepared for the defensive technique and howled in pain as Maris's weapon sliced his chest open. She made his suffering brief, stepping forward and delivering a fatal sai cha stroke that sent his head bouncing away.
Two other cultists dropped into the room near Katya and Hyosa. Katya reacted immediately, her blue saber flaring to life and blocked the fira that one of the deranged cultists swung at her. The Selkath that attacked her then foolishly thought if he used brute Force, he could easily overwhelm her. Using her preferred Djem So form, Katya stood firm and their weapons locked in a muscle aching standoff.
The mad Selkath cultist suddenly stepped back and employed Kinetite, a dark side technique similar to Force Lightning that hurled a ball of crippling Force energy at an opponent. The energy ball surged from the cultist's outstretched hand directly at Katya's head. Holding her ground, Katya used a variation of Force Redirection that allowed her to channel the deadly energy around her saber, then cast it back at the cultist. He had no time to react and he screamed in agony as the energy ball slammed into his face, instantly frying him to death.
Hyosa ducked under the blade of the next cult member who chopped at her head with his fira. Moving away from the assault, she used Force Throw to send a computer terminal crashing into him. Distracted by the blow, the crazed cultist barely had time to get his sword up to block Hyosa's and they rang against one another. Hyosa retreated and flipped the fira around in her hand, slashing at her opponent's belly.
The mad cultist easily moved away from the attack and traded several fast blocks and strikes with Hyosa as they each attempted to gain the upper hand. He suddenly moved to thrust at her again and Hyosa started to dodge the incoming blade. But the attack was a feint and instead, the deranged Selkath used a Force Wave that sent Hyosa flying into the wall behind her. Dazed, she collapsed to the floor.
Her opponent let a snarl of twisted rage as he raised his weapon up for the deathblow. As he began his swing, his action was interrupted by Katya, who's blue lightsaber suddenly punched through his back and out his chest. Screaming in raw, unfocused rage, the Selkath dropped his weapon and it clattered on the floor. Katya withdrew her blade and swung it around, slicing the mad Selkath in half with a sai tok.
Even though the initial wave of attackers had been dispatched relatively easily, more of the deranged Selkath cult members dropped into the room and the hallway behind them. Dahlgen snorted angrily, realizing and accepting that this his brief fleeting hope moments ago for a relatively easy expedition had just gone up in flames. He got on the comlink. "Cronus! Summon the reinforcements now!"
The only response he got was static.
The door to the droid maintenance suite slid open and Dannix scanned the room, his blaster rifle held at the ready. To his right, Marsala stood with his lightsaber humming quietly and Dukan guarded their rear. Dannix didn't like it and he growled in apprehension. "It's quiet. Too quiet." He moved into the room and began checking under the workbenches for any signs of anyone who might be waiting in ambush. Nothing. He shook his head and continued to scan. "I don't like this. Something's not right in this place."
Gee Tee rolled along the floor towards a secluded alcove and spoke up in excitement. "Wow, look at this!"
"What did you find Gee Tee?" Marsala asked as he deactivated his saber and walked towards him. He stopped suddenly as his eyes fell upon a surprising sight. Arranged in two neat rows were six deactivated B2 class super battle droids. "Ah, so that's it."
Dannix was just as surprised as Marsala. "Where the hell did these super clankers come from?"
We purchased them second hand from a droid dealer a few years ago, Dukan explained. At one time, they augmented security around here. Not sure why they've been deactivated though.
"Security huh?" Dannix bowed his head in thought for a moment. "How easy would it be to reprogram these guys to help us?"
Dukan made a visual check of a few things. They're still connected to the mainframe. Assuming their programming hasn't changed since they were last used, it would be very easy.
Dannix smiled under his helmet and pointed to the mainframe terminal. "Okay Chips, you're on. Get to it."
Gee Tee let out an expression that could best be described as a droid sigh, rolled up and plugged in to the mainframe. He still wished that Dannix would call him Gee Tee instead of Chips. Oh well, there were worse things he could be called. He scanned through the database and found the droid's program files. Well, those hadn't been updated in some time. This was going to be easier than he thought. A few tweaks to their recognition subroutines and they'd be all set.
Moments later Gee Tee was done and the droids were active. Dannix looked each of them over like a pompous military officer inspecting his troops. "All right, you boys know who you're new friends are?"
"Roger, roger," one of the droids replied. "We'll follow the orders of Force Revanchist."
"Good," Dannix said.
Marsala suddenly jumped in the air, whirled around and ignited his saber. Using the Ataru form, he bounced off of a workbench and performed a sai cha, severing the head of the dark side crazed Selkath cultist who descended from the air vent. Another jumped down through the same air vent and made a vicious claw swipe at Marsala. He never saw Dannix fire his rifle at point blank range at him. Four shots drilled into his head and the mad Selkath flopped backwards and landed awkwardly on his side.
More of the deranged Selkath cultists jumped into the room and full on brawl erupted. Gee Tee blasted one into oblivion with his built in heavy pistol while Dukan sliced the arms off of another with his fira. Marsala sent one flying into the hallway with a Force Wave and the droids began firing at any target they could see.
Dannix's armor afforded him a little protection from the crazed Selkaths' poisoned claws. One took a swipe at him that Dannix easily dodged. As he weaved away from the strike, Dannix swung his arm up and hooked it around his opponent's arm. He then turned and flipped the cultist over his shoulder and sent him crashing to the floor. Dannix didn't give him another chance, firing three shots into the Selkath cultist's chest.
He turned and fired a wrist rocket at the air vent that the Selkath cult members were entering through. It shot through the hole and exploded on the roof of the vent sending a fireball screaming down the vent for several meters. More than half a dozen of the dark side maddened Selkath were instantly incinerated in the blast.
"Droids, secure the hallway!" Dannix shouted over the roar of battle. "Gee Tee, get us into that generator room!"
"Let's do it!" Gee Tee hollered excitedly as he sped towards the blast door leading to the power generator and Dannix turned to face the next threat.
Dijas rolled his eyes. Cronus had just informed him about the storeroom at the end of corridor and the security measures that protected it. He had also just told Dijas that the kolto they sought was in that locked storeroom. Of course it was. Where else would it be? "And here I thought you were going to have some good news for me."
Cronus laughed. "Sorry. Wish I did."
"All right, thanks," Dijas replied. "Out."
"Speculation: I guess this means we have no choice but to wait for Master Dahlgen to deactivate that electromagnetic seal," HK surmised.
Dijas nodded.
"Statement: Very well. I can monitor the electrical current to the door. I'll know when the seal is down."
"You'll have sixty seconds to figure out the combination and enter it in the correct order," Dijas reminded him. "Otherwise, this mission is a failure. Get it?"
"Sarcastic Response: Really? I couldn't have possibly guessed that. Query: Do you really think I have no sense whatsoever or that the master would program me so poorly?"
Apparently not, Dijas thought. "Whatever. Let's just get environmental control secured and get the temperature in this place down."
"Mockery: What a wonderful idea master Dijas. I couldn't have thought of that myself." HK elected to quit needling Dijas after that largely because he could imagine Dahlgen at that point telling him to shut up.
As with most of the other rooms in Hrakert Station, the environmental control room was empty. Dijas entered first with his weapon held ready with HK behind him. Juula and Chakasa brought up the rear and she pointed to a control panel a short distance away. There, she said. That panel controls the interior temperature.
HK suddenly craned his neck towards the ceiling and raised his blaster rifle. "Warning: The air vents! They're coming!"
The air vent covers suddenly burst outward and the Selkath cultists started leaping at them from all angles. Dijas narrowly avoided a set of poisoned tipped claws by spinning low and away from the deranged Selkath attacker. Turning his defensive maneuver into an attack, Dijas hammered his boot into this opponent's stomach and sent him stumbling backwards. The cultist fell onto his rear, but recovered quickly. Reaching for his fira, he let out a scream of rage and prepared to attack again. Dijas never gave him the chance, leveling his rifle at the crazed Selkath and blasting him five times in the head.
Another cult member landed right on top of HK and appeared surprised when his poison tipped claws met the unyielding surface of his cortosis armor plating. The very idea that any living creature thought it could defeat him by using claws infuriated the droid. "Irritated Declaration: Get off me you diseased fishy meatbag!"
HK grabbed the Selkath by the neck and flipped him over his shoulder, slamming him to the floor. He sensors alerted him to another cultist moving in and he quickly turned. The fira descended towards his head and he raised his arm, the cortosis of the blade whining against his similar frame. Before the cultist could recover, HK jammed the barrel of his blaster in the cultist's mouth. "Objection: It will be a snowy day on Tatooine when a fishy meatbag does me in." He fired and blasted the back of the mad Selkath's head away.
Juula parried the attack of one cult member and used a Force Wave to throw him back. No sooner had she done this, than she was forced to turn and defend herself against another deranged cultist. She shoved her second opponent back and lashed out with a kick that stopped a third one in his tracks. Pivoting to the side, she used the Niman based Pulsing Slash maneuver to slice the third attacker across his chest and Force Throw him backwards. Bringing her fira to a Niman opening stance, she scanned for her next opponent.
Chakasa was just as busy, Force throwing one attacker away and parrying the blade of another. He retreated from the engagement and found himself back to back with Juula where they continued to trade parries and attacks with their former comrades. There's a lot more of them than we thought Juula, Chakasa said.
He sounded worried and Juula tried to give him a pep talk. Maintain yourself Chakasa. Our allies will help see us through this.
HK used his built in flame thrower to incinerate three cult members who had banded together to attack him. The sudden jet of flame passed close to Dijas's head and he quickly sprawled himself on the floor. "Hey watch the hot sauce there HK," he shouted as he shot another attacker. "You don't want to kill us too, do you?"
"Placation: Forgive me Master Dijas. I will be more mindful of where I choose to roast these fishy meatbags."
Dijas made a mental note to talk to Dahlgen about HK's "muzzle discipline." Firing at another attacker, he got on the comlink. "Cronus, we help in here!" There was no answer, only static. "Cronus? Cronus!"
Cronus weaved to his right and the cortosis blade of the incoming fira missed him by millimeters. It rang against the metal desk and its owner pulled it back and swung at Cronus again. Retreating further to his right, Cronus continued to use the desk for cover and he watched the cult member step on the comlink that he had hastily dropped, smashing it to bits.
The attack had come without warning. Cronus hadn't even had time to draw his blaster it had come so fast. He had heard Dahlgen's call for help an instant before these dark side maddened Selkath had stormed the security station. Now there was no way to communicate with them. Still, Cronus knew what he had to do next, if only he could get away from this deranged maniac trying to take off his head.
His three Order of Shasa purist companions were just as busy as he was, fending off multiple attackers each. But at least they had been able to get to their weapons in time. Guess the Shasa cultists thought an old Weequay with only a blaster pistol to protect himself would be a pushover. Well, he had more than a few tricks up his sleeve.
His crazed attacker howled in rage and chopped at him again, extending himself over the desk to try and reach Cronus. His blade sunk deep into one of the computer terminals and it shorted out in a shower of sparks. But the blade became stuck. The deranged Selkath tried to yank it free, but it wouldn't budge.
With a wild stare in his eyes, the dark side maddened Selkath abandoned the weapon and turned to face Cronus hand to hand. He extended his arm and threw a blast of Force Lightning at Cronus. Despite being aged, Cronus was still quick and nimble enough to duck and roll out of the deadly blast's way.
The Selkath leaped on top of the desk, screamed in rage again and took a swipe at Cronus with his claws and once again Cronus was forced to retreat. The deranged Selkath leaped off the desk and advanced, forcing Cronus to seek cover behind it. Cronus finally got his blaster out and aimed it but the Selkath took another swipe at him and knocked it from his grasp. Cronus winced as one of the Selkath's claws tore through his hand and forearm, coating the wound with poison.
Now unarmed and in near unbearable pain, Cronus dodged two more swipes of the deranged Selkath's claws and retreated behind the desk with the mad cultist following. He roared angrily and prepared to deliver the killing strike as Cronus felt something behind him. He grabbed it and pulled on it hard, hoping he hadn't just grabbed onto another Selkath attacker.
It was the discarded fira. Popping free of the terminal it was embedded in, Cronus swung it with all his might, neatly severing the arms off his attacker as the death blow descended. The deranged Selkath howled in agony, shocked at the sudden amputation of his arms. Cronus kicked forward and knocked his attacker to the floor, then stepped forward to drive the fira through the Selkath's heart. Wrenching it free, he brought it over his head in a vicious downward chop and took off the top of the mad Selkath's head, ending his misery.
Cronus's hand and arm burned with pain and he cried out, dropping the fira on the floor. The gash was bad enough but the poison was already going to work on him. He looked back at his Selkath comrades. Damn. Four other cultists were already down, but one of his purist comrades had been killed too.
Another sharp pain and Cronus winced. Stumbling back to the computer desk, he was relieved to see that the transmitter Hyosa had given him was still intact. He pressed the transmit button as fast and as often as he could. A rapid series of short bursts. That was the signal that Cronus hoped would even up the odds a bit.
He eyed his discarded blaster a few meters away and then looked back at his Selkath purist comrades still engaging cultists. He said a short prayer to Quay asking that if this day was to be his final day, at least let him live long enough to see his friends and allies to victory. He would be damned if all of Force Revanchist was going to follow him. He staggered over to his blaster and recovered it. Firing off-handed and using the desk for cover, he began to even the odds even more. Less than a second later, he heard an explosion from somewhere else. Main power to the station suddenly cut out and the emergency lighting came on.
Outside the station, Cronus's distress call was picked up by the Order of Shasa purists patrolling the waters around the station. Without a second to spare, they turned and swam full bore at the facility, leaping onto the dock and drawing their weapons. Shouting an ancient Selkath battle cry, they charged ahead to aid their friends and comrades in arms.
"I got it! I got it!" Gee Tee cried loudly as the blast door leading to the generator room slid open. "Whoa," he immediately said, upon seeing that more than a dozen dark side crazed Selkath waited in ambush on the other side. Two of the newly recruited super battle droids took flanking positions next to Gee Tee and began engaging the new group of attackers.
With the speed and precision that his father had taught him, Marsala used the Soresu based Circle of Protection exercise to deflect the fira attacks from three cultists. A three dimensional variation of the Circle of Shelter move, it was best used when defending oneself from multiple attackers at varying angles. With himself protected, he Force slammed one of his attackers into the corridor wall.
Hearing Gee Tee's excited call, he turned to face his other two attackers. One of them swung his fira mightily at Marsala's head, but using the Shien form, he easily parried the attack and sliced off the crazed Selkath's arms. The third mad cultist moved in to try and take advantage of Marsala's seemingly diverted attention. But as he swung his fira, Marsala used Knight Speed to get out of the way and the cultist ended up cleaving his comrade in half.
Marsala didn't give the third mad Selkath a chance to react. Whipping his blade with a backhanded sweep, he performed a sai cha and the head of the third cultist bounced on the floor. A more immediate threat presented itself and Marsala Force threw the fira discarded by his first attacker, towards the generator. It embedded itself in the chest of yet another mad cultist just as he raised his own weapon to strike, lifting him off his feet and sending him flying back into the generator room. The cortosis blade ended up stuck in the outer metallic shell surrounding the generator, allowing the dead cult member to gruesomely dangle in the air on the end of the blade.
Dannix ducked low and avoided a decapitating swing from another deranged cultist. He didn't give the Selkath a second chance, pressing his heavy blaster against the cultist's stomach and blowing his guts out through his back. As he'd had no further contact with Cronus, he couldn't be sure if reinforcements were on the way. "We can't keep this up forever lad," Dannix bellowed as he shot another cult member in between the eyes.
Marsala parried an assault from a cult member and dazed him with a Force Blast. "Agreed, but we've got all these defenders between us and the generator. Hope you got an idea."
"Sorry to leave the party so soon guys," Gee Tee remarked while he laid down some covering fire. "But I've got to go."
Dannix was surprised. "Go? What do you mean you've got to go?"
"I just picked up a message from Dahlgen," Gee Tee claimed. "He needs me at the command room."
"What the hell could Dahlgen need with you?" Dannix wondered.
"I don't know," Gee Tee said. A cult member swung his fira down and Gee Tee scooted back, allowing the weapon to clang loudly against the floor. "He sounded urgent though."
Dannix fired a flash bang rocket into the middle of the enemy group that was trying to assault from the corridor. One was shredded to pieces in the resulting blast as it exploded right next to him. Those that weren't were momentarily dazed by the flash and loud noise. "You two!" Dannix called out to the two super battle droids flanking Gee Tee. "He needs to get to his master right now. He knows where to go. Cover him!"
"Roger, roger," one of the droids said.
"Come on little one," the other droid encouraged. "Let's go. We'll cover you."
"I appreciate it," Gee Tee chirped. "Let's go!" The three droids scooted off down the corridor just as the stunned Selkath cultists nearby were coming to. They renewed their assault and one of the remaining four super battle droids had his legs cut off. Although it collapsed onto its torso, the droid's blasters that had been built into its arms were still functioning… something the cultist who'd cut the droid's legs off learned the hard way as his head was blown away. An instant later, another cultist pounced on the downed droid and jammed his first through the clanker's head.
"All systems fail…" the droid managed to sputter out an instant before his central processor shut down.
Dannix sized up the situation. A dozen enemy Selkath on either side and and facing them were Marsala, Dukan, himself and three super battle droids. This wasn't good. Dannix briefly wondered if maybe they hadn't bitten off a little more than they could chew this time. He fired point blank at a cultist who got too close and deposited his body with the smoldering hole in its head right in front of his comrades. Oh well, he was a Mandalorian and if today was his day to die, he was going to take as many of these damned crazed lunatics with him.
No sooner had he resigned himself to his fate, than far down the corridor a Selkath cultist cried out in pain and fell to the floor, a wide gash in his back. Then another went down with a similar wound. And then another. A fourth turned to engage whatever was behind them only to have his twisted attack turned back on him. What was going on? Dannix used the zoom on his helmet scanner for a better look. Five more Selkath had arrived on the scene. But they were fighting the cultists! The reinforcements had arrived! Somehow Cronus had successfully summoned them!
With a triumphant shout, Dannix turned his attention back towards the main generator. "Come get it you dirty fishies!" he yelled as he opened fire.
Marsala made a quick glance over his shoulder and saw the reinforcements as well. "It's about time," he said as he parried an attacker's swing and gutted him with a follow up sai tok attack. "Now what about that generator?"
"Get your head down!" Dannix ordered. An instant later he fired an explosive rocket at the generator. Slicing through the air at incredible speed, it narrowly missed the heads of several dark side crazed cultists as it zeroed in on its target. It hit the generator and a violent explosion erupted that cracked the durasteel casing around it and destabilized the generation mechanism. A series of small explosions and arcs of uncontrolled electricity flashed throughout the room, electrocuting several of the cult members.
"Heads up!" Dannix yelled as he and Marsala both dove from the corridor back into the maintenance room.
The generator blew with a deafening roar and an intense cloud of fire enveloped the room, incinerating the remaining Order of Shasa cultists who were near it. Debris from the blast flew through the doorway and littered the corridor. Many of the maddened Selkath had to duck to avoid the chunks of metal, momentarily distracting them from facing their purist opponents. A second later the lights in the entire facility went out and the emergency lighting came on.
Dannix smiled under his helmet. "That's evens up the odds a bit."
The crazed Shasa cultists were starting to get desperate in their assault and resorting to more and more dark uses of the Force. The invaders hadn't fallen as quickly as they had expected. In fact, none of them had fallen. This was curious to them. Their mysterious teacher in black armor had assured them that if they submitted to their rage, they would be unstoppable. But that didn't appear to be the case here. What was the problem? Perhaps they hadn't submitted to their rage enough.
Dahlgen maneuvered his saberstaff around in a whirling pattern of violet lights and parried the assaults of two cultists, each of them looking for a quick kill. Retreating towards the command room, he employed Force Scramble against the locking mechanism and the door swung open. The first mad Selkath that had attacked charged at him and swung his fira low at Dahlgen's feet only to have parried. The cultist tried a high attack which was also parried. Dahlgen gave his weapon a flip and pushed his attacker back as the second attacker moved in.
Swinging his fira high, the cultist's blade met the unyielding energy of Dahlgen's saberstaff and he drove a hard kick to the cultist's face causing him to tumble to the floor. As the first one attacked again, Dahlgen outstretched his hand and gave him a dose of Emerald Lightning. Also known as Electric Judgment, it was essentially a light-sided version of Force Lightning. Rather than disfigure or destroy a target as traditional Force Lightning did, Emerald Lightning merely sapped a target's physical strength and reduced their will to fight. And if it was employed against a Dark Jedi, it also momentarily disrupted his connection to the Force. True, it could still kill if employed against the same target enough times, but as long as one did not give in to anger or rage when using it, the chances of this happening were remote. And even so, more often than not, one dose was enough to knock a target unconscious or make the target run away.
The green bolts of Force energy arced forward from Dahlgen's fingertips and collided with the charging Selkath like a charging rancor. He cried out in pain and fell unconscious to the floor, his clothes smoking. His second attacker came at him again with a howl of rage and chopped at Dahlgen with his fira. Whirling his saberstaff around in a vertical one-two pattern, Dahlgen blocked and parried the attack before leveling the weapon off at a mid-guard.
Nearby, Maris held her saber in a reverse grip as she dealt with another two deranged cultists. With her weapon held in what they interpreted as a very weak grip, they figured she'd pose little threat to them. With an enraged snarl, the first one attacked with an overhead strike.
Her preferred Shien style served Maris well as she ducked and faded back from her attacker. As she did, she twisted her body and raised her hand, catching the cultist in a Force Pull. As the crazy Selkath stumbled forward, Maris swung her blade across his stomach and completed the Deadly Attraction exercise with sai tok evisceration. Quickly changing to a standard grip as the two halves of the cultist's body fell forward, she made a sai cha with a backhanded slash, the pieces of the deceased cult member landing with sickening thuds on the metallic floor.
Taking a step back, she settled into a mid-guard stance to face the second cultist, even as a third one joined him. With an enraged snarl, the second cultist chopped his fira at Maris's left side which she effortlessly deflected away from herself. As he spun away, the third cultist attacked with a strike at Maris's throat. It too was blocked and Maris shoved hard and the third attacked backed off.
Each of the demented Selkath pressed an attack but as they were so disjointed and uncoordinated, they ended up working against one another. Typical. The dark side rarely encouraged teamwork. The second cultist became frustrated and he let loose with a blast of Force Lightning. Maris was just able to get a Force shield up in time and the twisted blue energy crackled all around her for a few seconds before dissipating into nothing. The third one tried to break hear will with the power of Force Insanity, but with the recent training Dahlgen had given her for resisting such techniques, the only thing the wild Selkath got for his trouble was a head full of blaring music.
Maris smiled inwardly as she stepped back into the command room. Though fully focused on her own task, she could feel Dahlgen's presence in the Force nearby. Their combined energies kept one another fully charged and alert, as if they were participating in a training exercise instead of fighting for their lives. She parried another attack and felt a Force shield go up around her. Instinctively she knew Dahlgen had raised it to protect himself. Such was but one example of the benefits derived from their special gift.
The ground rumbled slightly and the lights went out. A second later, the emergency lighting came on. Looks like Dannix and his team took care of the generator, Maris spoke to Dahlgen as she sliced the arms off of the second cultist who had attacked her and fatally stabbed him with a shi tok to the heart.
Looks that way, Dahlgen agreed. I just hope those reinforcements get here soon. He weaved out of the way as a deranged Selkath cult member planted his fira into a computer terminal as hard as he could. As he turned, he attacked with both blades, severing his attacker's arm from his body, followed by the head. I don't know how much longer we can keep this up. Another cult member cast Force Lightning at him and Dahlgen retaliated with Force Redirection, sending the lightning back at the caster and frying him to a crisp, his death howls filling the corridor.
Elsewhere, Katya parried the fira of a maddened female Selkath who attacked her and, using Djem So's Fluid Riposte theory, immediately turned it into a counterattack as she swept her blade at the Selkath's feet. The wild Selkath girl hopped up to evade and brought her blade around in an attempt to slice Katya in half at the waist. The Lethan Twi'lek parried again, the jolt from the hard impact causing the cultist the stumble a bit. Katya's blade was already in motion and she countered with a sweep at the female cultist's neck.
The sai cha complete, Katya turned to face her next attacker as he thrust his fira at her face. Katya weaved back from the attack and turned to the side, smacking the cultist in the face with the pommel of her weapon. Faltering backward, he roared and lunged at Katya again. This time she flipped her blade upward, batting her opponent's fira overhead. He never recovered as Katya lunged herself, driving her blade through the crazy Selkath's heart. With a final stroke, she sliced upward again, ripping the Selkath open from his heart all the way through the top of his skull.
Nearby, Hyosa slammed a hard fist into the stomach of another cult member, then disemboweled him with a vicious slice of her fira across his intestinal region. Another cult member closed in and Hysoa sent him flying backwards with a Force Wave.
None of the attacking Shasa cultists had expected Katya to be so powerful or Maris to be so nimble. Yet the two of them had already accounted for six of their comrades being killed. In a rage, four of them surged forward intent on hacking them both into bloody chunks. Reacting quickly, Katya used Force Stasis, freezing two of them in their tracks long enough for her to get to a better position. Maris Force threw a chunk of metal at the third attacker which collided with his head, knocking him senseless. The fourth one was almost on her now. He was starting the swing that would slice her open from side to side. Focusing on the incoming blade, Maris started to raise her bare left arm to block it. She was taking a huge risk. If she didn't pull this off just right and she was lucky she'd just lose an arm. If not… she didn't want to think about if not. Focus… focus…
What are you doing? She heard Dahlgen's voice cry out.
Focus…
The blade connected with her forearm.
With the never before attempted power of Shatterpoint brought to bear, instead of the cortosis blade effortlessly slicing her arm off, Maris exploited the miniscule faults in the weapon's construction causing it to break apart upon contact with her skin. Whew! That was cutting it too close and she didn't really want to try that one again anytime soon.
The dark side maddened Selkath was so surprised at seeing his weapon essentially disintegrate, he never saw Maris's retaliatory strike come until the blade was already biting into his neck. A second later his head bounced off the floor and rolled away.
Sorry my love, Maris apologized. I was kind of busy for a second there.
Please don't do that again, Dahlgen implored her.
I don't intend to.
As Dahlgen swept his saberstaff across his body, cutting yet another Shasa cult member in half, he became aware of a new sound. It was approaching from the corridor. He guarded against another attack and glanced down the corridor just long enough to see two super battle droids approaching. What the? Where the hell had those come from? He hadn't seen any of those damned things since the Clone Wars.
Dahlgen retreated from his current engagement by leaping into the air. Momentarily switching to Ataru, he bounced off the wall, turned and re-engaged his opponent by bringing his saberstaff down on top of the cultist's head, then disposing of the body with a Force Throw. "Where the hell did those clankers come from?" he yelled.
Hyosa saw what he was talking about. They belonged to us, she explained as she blinded her opponent with Force Blast. There were used to augment security at one time. Your friends probably found them in the maintenance lab.
Hyosa'a claims were confirmed to Dahlgen a second later when the droids began firing at the cult members gathered in the corridor and half a dozen Order of Shasa purists appeared behind them. Shortly thereafter, Gee Tee appeared and zipped towards the command room, employing his neural scrambler on a cult member as he moved. Dahlgen motioned him over and the little droid rolled up to him obediently. "All right Gee Tee," Dahlgen said pointing to the door that demanded his attention. "You've got to figure out the combination and enter it into the lock in the correct order. And you've got sixty seconds to do it or the charge blows turning you into scrap and the prisoner into mush. Go!" Dahlgen went back to engaging the dark side maddened Selkath.
"On a wing and prayer as always," Gee Tee complained and rolled over to the door. He took a brief second to examine the combination lock. There were five digits. Looked pretty standard to him. This should be easy. He could solve this thing and still have half a minute to spare. Gee Tee extended his electronic interface arm forward and plugged in. The timer started its downward spiral.
As Gee Tee sifted through the endless sea of possible combinations, he activated a head up display that kept him constantly reminded of how much time he had left. For a normal person of any species, sixty seconds wasn't much. For a droid of Gee Tee's caliber, it was an eternity.
Six. That was the first number. One down, four to go.
"Everyone over here!" Dahlgen shouted from across the room. If Gee Tee failed and the charge blew, he didn't want anyone else being taken out by the blast.
Still fending off attackers, Maris was the first to reach him. You think he can do it in time?
Dahlgen changed back to the Juyo style and twirled his saberstaff around over his head, parrying multiple attacks. Karala's toast if he fails, he observed grimly.
Four. The second number was four. Gee Tee pressed onward. He had forty-eight seconds left.
Katya retreated into the command room and used Force Wave to put some space between her and her opponent. Another Selkath cultist was foolish enough to think he could sneak up behind her. Just as he was about to strike, Katya thrust her blade backwards and ran it through his chest. The cult member gasped in surprise as she turned, raised her weapon and hacked off his head.
Hyosa also retreated back towards the command room. One of her former comrades rushed her and swung wildly at her head. She weaved back away from the strike and countered with a Force Blast that left him sprawled unconscious in the corridor. She retreated further.
Third number was nine and there were forty seconds left. This was turning out to be a little more difficult than Gee Tee expected but he still had plenty of time.
With Dahlgen's little group minus Gee Tee gathered on the far side of the command room, several Shasa cultists stormed in and tried to overwhelm them. That was exactly what Dahlgen wanted at the moment. He had been patiently building a massive Force Wave that he intended to unleash once Gee Tee got the door open. With a little bit of precision, it would stun them long enough for them to recover Karala and make their escape back to the security checkpoint.
Further down the corridor, cortosis blades rang and sparked against one another as the Shasa cultists battled the Shasa purists. They seemed to be at a standoff. One Shasa purist was driven insane by a cultist using Force Horror and was in turn electrocuted by another purist who made a judicious application of Emerald Lightning.
Fourth number was seven and thirty-four seconds left. One to go.
Suddenly, the Shasa cultists seemed to figure out what the little droid was doing. One of the Selkath outstretched his arm at the droid. Dahlgen couldn't react because of the Force Wave he'd been building and neither Maris nor Katya saw the Selkath move in time.
"NOOOOO!" Dahlgen yelled.
The Selkath cast Force Lighting.
Gee Tee was caught right in the middle of the blast. It caused a massive power surge through his entire chassis. "WAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOWWW!" He screeched that piercing electronic scream that astromechs were known to do when they overloaded. The massive overload forced Gee Tee to violently detach from the door's outlet and he skidded backwards across the floor.
He came to a sudden stop against a nearby terminal that displayed a map of Manaan's ocean floor on a nearby screen. Still screeching and beginning to smoke, several of his access panels and droid tools, began to open and close wildly and his "eye" on top of his disk shaped head, flashed a dizzying variety of brilliant colors.
Dahlgen let the wave loose and sent most of the Selkath surrounding them hurtling back through the doorway and down the corridor. Colliding with the other cultists and purists still in the corridor, they became a giant tangled mess of dazed bodies. With a bit of Force Pull, Dahlgen yanked the Selkath who had cast the lightning at Gee Tee towards him and spun his saberstaff around several times, sawing the luckless cult member into a dozen pieces before he hit the floor. "Cover me," he shouted as he went to check on Gee Tee.
Damn! Gee Tee was totally fried! And what was worse, the timer was still counting down. Twenty seconds to go! Dahlgen put his hand on Gee Tee's head and tried to use Electronic Manipulation in an effort to sort through the droid's internal chaos and get him back online. C'mon little guy, he thought. Work with me here.
Eighteen seconds.
Wow. What a mess. Every time Dahlgen was able to restore on bit of circuitry, he found dozens more malfunctioning circuits. There, that restored his cognitive functions. So at least Gee Tee remembered who he was. And that bit of manipulation got his behavioral core reconnected. Now if he could do this next thing here…
Eleven seconds.
Okay, okay… now Gee Tee's motor circuits were restored. It was temporary, but it would hold for a few minutes. Just long enough to hopefully get out of here. If they got out of here. Now let's see… okay that restored his neural scrambler. But there was still an awful lot of damaged circuitry to sort through.
Seven seconds.
Dahlgen gave up. He used the Force to shove Gee Tee back towards Maris and the others. "Get down!" Dahlgen yelled as he enveloped himself in a Force Shield and stretched his hand towards the sealed door where the timer remorselessly spiraled down.
Three… two… one… zero.
With the Force Shield in place, Dahlgen was able to withstand the immense shockwave that passed over him and the earsplitting roar the accompanied it. The sealed door blew outwards off its track and Dahlgen telekinetically guided it harmlessly off to the side. Anything that wasn't anchored down was thrown in all directions and a searing hot jet of fire erupted from the formerly sealed room. It completely incinerated three Selkath cult members, a computer terminal and lightly roasted everyone else inside the command room. More debris sprayed into the command room some of which was abruptly stopped by Dahlgen's Force Shield. The rest of it rained down all around, lightly peppering Maris and the others.
And then it was over. The shaking stopped. The shockwave passed. The flames died away.
Feeling everything return to some semblance of normal, Maris struggled to feet and gazed in horror at the smoking maw of the formerly sealed room. It looked like an endless abyss as it was impossible for her to see through. Soot coated the edges of the ruined door and she coughed as she tried to fan some of the smoke out of her eyes. With a look of shock and disbelief, she glanced back at Katya who wore a similar expression.
They'd failed. Despite all their efforts, they'd failed. Karala was dead, killed in the blast. Maris buried her face in her hands. She didn't want to believe it, but there was no possible way that Karala could've survived an explosion like that.
She also temporarily forgot Dahlgen was standing two meters away from her with a Force Shield around him.
He hoped his last second gamble had worked. It had to have worked. There was no other option in his mind. Closing his eyes he reached even further into the Force than he already was and telekinetically pulled Karala, also encased in a Force Shield from the ruins of her former prison.
Maris looked up and her shock quickly turned to wide-eyed amazement. Even all her years of her dedicated Force studies under Dahlgen's tutelage had never prepared her for this. Carefully, Dahlgen set Karala down in front of her and finally dropped the Force Shield. Maris checked her for a pulse, still apprehensive about what she might discover.
Incredible! She had a heartbeat! She was alive! She was a bit dazed from her experience and Maris had a sneaking feeling that the Selkath cultists had drugged her or perhaps subjected her to some kind of mental torture. But she was alive. That was something anyway. Maris smiled at Dahlgen and immediately set about using the Force to stabilize her condition.
Dahlgen reignited his saberstaff. The twisted mass of Selkath cultists and purists in the corridor was starting to sort itself out. Katya and Hyosa took flanking positions next to him, their weapons held ready to defend Maris as she worked. Less than a second later, the temperature throughout the station dropped like a rock. Hyosa was unaffected due to the nature of the garments she wore but the Selkath cultists were instantly affected. Many of them dropped to the floor and started to shiver uncontrollably while others with perhaps a little more training merely became lethargic in their movements.
"That ought to chill them out," Dahlgen joked. "Now's our chance. Let's move."
Dijas flipped a cult member over his shoulder and gave his neck as sharp yank as it did. He felt the rewarding snap of cracking vertebrae as he did and the deranged Selkath was dead of a broken neck before his body hit the floor. Another cultist tried to decapitate him with a fast swing from his fira, but Dijas rolled out of the way and blasted a smoking hole into his attacker's head before he could recover enough to attempt another swing.
Another Selkath cultist swung his fira at HK and, as numerous times before, the metal blade whined off of his cortosis armor plating. He simply stared at the surprised cultist who didn't seem to understand why HK was still standing. "Mockery: Oh gee. Bashing the droid with a sword hasn't worked the previous five times we attempted it. So why not attempt it a sixth time!" He shot the cultist dead. "Musing: The very definition of insanity. Do the same damned thing over and over again and expect a different result every time."
Juula stabbed a cultist with her fira and sent him sprawling backwards with a Force Wave. Another was right in her face almost immediately. Chakasa spun his blade around and hacked off the arms of yet another cultist and quickly threw up a Force Shield as blast of Force Lightning crackled around it. Juula could see that he still appeared worried.
There's still too many of them, he complained.
We can handle them Chakasa, Juula encouraged him as she parried another attack. Remember your training. Trust in the Force. We'll be fine. Up ahead, she caught sight of the Shasa purist reinforcements arriving to do battle with their former comrades. See, Juula said. Here come our true brothers and sisters. I told you everything would be fine.
Chakasa nodded but he still didn't seem convinced.
Seeing the arrival of the reinforcements and subsequent division of the cultists to deal with the new threat, Dijas fired a poison dart into the chest of his nearest opponent and got to work on the environmental control station. Dijas had never claimed to be a tech wizard. Far from it. But he knew just enough about it to make a mess when it was required.
Damn, the console was code locked. "Hey," he shouted as he blasted yet another cult member. "What's the access code for this thing?"
Juula swept her blade upward, slicing a cult member open from hip to shoulder. Fifty-two, twenty-six, nine, thirteen, forty-seven.
Dijas tried the code. Nothing. "It won't work!" A Selkath cult member tried to tackle him but Dijas twist around and propelled the deranged cultist head first into the terminal.
HK stomped on the head of the cult member he'd just thrown to the ground. "Suggestion: Try it in reverse."
"Why reverse?" Dijas asked the droid.
"Exclamation: Just try it!"
What the hell? It wasn't too daft of an idea. Dijas re-entered the code in reverse. Success! The terminal sprang to life and displayed a variety of options. "How did you know?" Dijas asked.
HK thought about how he had used that exact tactic to keep as many of the Imperial pursuers off of his and Dahlgen's backs as they'd made their escape from the Onderonian Royal Palace. As he did, a Force Wave slammed into HK and he fell over backwards. Rolling to his knees HK fired at the Selkath cultist who had sent the wave crashing into him. "Irritated Declaration: Of all the indignities! Being thrown around by a fish faced meatbag!" He turned his neural scrambler on the Selkath cultist and gave him an extended dose of it, rather enjoying the sight of the cult member thrashing helplessly on the floor. "Answer: To address your query meatbag Dijas, sometimes even we droids get lucky."
Dijas barely heard him. He was too busy trying to get the temperature throughout the station to drop. Ah, there. There was the main menu and a list of options. Temperature control! That's what he needed. Now an entry her, a tweak there and…
Wow. He shivered slightly as he felt the temperature go down rapidly. Dijas looked and saw that the Shasa purists were prepared for it, but the Shasa cultists not so much. They became sluggish and nowhere near as quick as they had been. Dijas wasn't fooled by it though. Force users of any sort had an uncanny knack for ignoring temperature extremes. He'd even seen Dahlgen ignore bitter cold and sweltering heat with little more than a thought. Therefore, he didn't think the Selkath cultists would be affected by the sudden drop in temperature for very long.
"Now's your chance," Dijas ordered HK. "Get that storeroom open and be mindful of the timer!"
"Mockery: Be mindful of the timer," HK said dryly. "Why of course master. As if I would consciously choose to have the blast door blown off its hinges and crush me into slag. Query: How idiotic do you think I am?" Though not his strong suit, HK did have a computer interface and he plugged in to the storeroom's time lock. Unlike Gee Tee in the command room, HK was successful in figuring out the combination and getting the door open before time expired.
There they were. Three large plasteel cylinders of kolto. They'd need some help getting it out of here and the Selkath cultists were starting to recover from the sudden drop in temperature.
Dijas heard Dahlgen call on the comlink. "Good news. We've found Karala. She's alive."
"Even better news. We just secured the kolto," Dijas respeonded.
Dahlgen made a general announcement. "All right, that's it! Begin evacuation! Everybody back to the dock! Go through these crazed Selkath if you have to, but don't stop for anything."
Back at the security checkpoint, the first thing Dahlgen saw was Cronus lying on the floor by the desk and more than a dozen bodies all around him. "Cronus! What happened?!" he shouted as he knelt beside him.
Cronus coughed. "Sorry my friend. Damned Selkath scratched me," he said showing Dahlgen the deep gash on his hand and arm. "Poison's racing through me."
A scratching noise got Dahlgen's attention and he looked to see Dijas and HK pushing the cylinders of kolto into the room followed by a few Shasa purists with Juula and Chakasa guarding their rear. Maris arrived at the checkpoint next followed by Katya who was carrying the still unconscious Karala, Hyosa, the two B2 class super battle droids, a still smoldering Gee Tee and three Shasa purists who had survived the melee in the command room.
"Oh no," Maris yelled. "Cronus!" She knelt beside him and began checking his wounds.
A dark and sinister feeling swept over Dahlgen. Damn. Those twisted Order of Shasa cultists were becoming used to the colder temperature. It wouldn't be long before they regrouped for another assault. They had to get out of here now. But Cronus was so weak from the poison, he wouldn't survive the trip to the submersible, let alone the surface. As much as Dahlgen didn't want to, they had to make a stand here for the time being.
Dahlgen tapped Maris on the shoulder. "You remember that little trick I showed you some time ago to detoxify poisons?"
Maris nodded.
He pointed to Cronus. "Use it!"
Dannix, Marsala, Dukan, one additional super battle droid and four Shasa purists arrived from the direction of the generator room. They were a bit surprised to see everyone bunched up at the checkpoint. "What's the problem?" Dannix demanded. "Why aren't we moving?"
Dahlgen got to his feet and approached. "Cronus is down. A Selkath poisoned him."
Everyone who was not yet aware of Cronus's condition became concerned. "Is he?" Marsala slowly asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.
"Maris's doing everything she can for him son," Dahlgen said. "But we're stuck here for the moment." He turned and looked down the corridor towards the command room. "And they'll be coming any minute."
Chakasa looked like he wanted to run in terror. We can't stay here. We must escape now!
No Chakasa, Hyosa said. Our friends need our help. We can't ask them to just abandon Cronus to his fate. If a stand has to be made here, then we shall make it. All of us.
And if we're all slaughtered? Chakasa demanded an answer.
Then that is our destiny Chakasa, Hyosa told him.
Dannix smiled under his helmet. "And I actually wondered whether or not I was going to like her."
Dahlgen knew he didn't have much time and the current priorities were getting Karala and the kolto to safety. He turned to the three super battle droids. "You, you and you. Get those cylinders of kolto to the dock and on to the waiting submersible. Then you are to defend the dock from attack."
"Roger, roger," one of the droids responded.
"HK, go with them and take Gee Tee with you," Dahlgen ordered. "He's useless for the moment. And turn on your homing beacon so the Horizon knows where to find us."
"Compliance: On my way master."
Dahlgen then turned to Hyosa. "Karala's safety is of the utmost importance to me and many in this room. I would humbly ask you to select one of your people to take her to the dock and secure her in the submersible."
Hyosa nodded. Juula, take her and go.
Right. We'll call when we're ready. Juula hefted Karala over her shoulder and followed the droids toward the dock.
Dahlgen sensed the Shasa cultists were about to renew their assault. "All right everyone," he said. "Stalling for time is the name of the game now. Once the dock is secure, we fall back and evacuate." He got on the comlink. "Silver Horizon, come in. You guys there?" All he got in response was static. "Silver Horizon, come in. Rayna, Raquel do you copy?"
A faint response. "… again guys… didn't copy."
Dahlgen ignited his saberstaff, whirled it around, settled into a modified Juyo opening stance and prepared to meet the cultists again. "I don't know if you can hear me, but if you can listen up. We're under heavy attack. Cronus has been wounded and we're attempting to evacuate. Home in on HK's signal and descend to the water's surface. We'll meet you topside shortly."
With his message delivered, the crazed Selkath cultists launched their renewed assault from three directions and still more launched themselves into the security station from the air vents. As the battle was rejoined, Dahlgen weaved his weapon around to parry the first strike that came at him, then turned it to a vertical guard to block two more stikes. He started to wonder if they were going to have to fight these deranged maniacs literally to the last man.
Manaan's surface
Hovering only a dozen or so feet above the surface of the water, Rayna and Raquel stood on the Silver Horizon's open port side boarding ramp looking for any signs of the remainder of Force Revanchist. But it was so pitch black outside, they could barely see past the end of the ramp. They didn't dare use any of the ship's searchlights for fear of attracting unwanted Imperial attention. The soft light from the ship's interior spilling out both boarding ramps provided some illumination, but it was barely enough to see the water directly below the ship.
This was frustrating. According to the signal they'd followed, the team should be right here. Yet there was nothing. Nothing except the endless black expanse of the ocean. Where were they?
Fear gripped young Rayna for a second. This couldn't be happening. Not now. Not again. She couldn't have lost her adopted family a mere month after losing her natural family. They had to be alive. Had to be. Come on guys, she thought. Come on Dahlgen. Give me a sign here.
Hrakert Station
Whoa. That Selkath poison was particularly virulent. It was spreading throughout Cronus's body at a rate much faster than Maris previously thought. It was neruotoxic in nature which explained why several of Cronus's body systems were beginning to shut down. No, not now Cronus, she thought. It's not your time yet.
Refocusing on his bodily functions, Maris rode the Force's endless currents in an attempt to isolate the systems which were in the most trouble. The circulatory, respiratory and nervous systems were in extreme danger but his heart was what she had to target first. It almost seemed like a contradiction in terms but if the neurotoxin paralyzed Cronus's heart, that was it. It was almost too late as it was. The heart was already starting to fibrillate and if she didn't block those poison molecules soon this damnable pit would be Cronus's final resting place.
Forcing her consciousness deeper, Maris's efforts to block the poison molecules began having some effect. Recalling what Dahlgen had taught her years ago, she focused all her attention on a single molecule. And as she neutralized it, she slowly began to fan her attention outwards towards other poison molecules. As she continued to spread her healing efforts outward, it began to have an effect on Cronus's heart. Whoa, whoa… don't let the heart speed up yet, she cautioned herself. That would only pump more poison back to it and I'll be faced with the same problem. Good, that was better. She'd have to repair the damage before Cronus could move, but the first thing one did when finding themselves in a hole was to stop digging. She had to get that poison neutralized first.
All right, the heart was clear now. Now for the nervous and respiratory systems. As Maris expected, she found the poison attacking Cronus's cerebellum, spinal cord and lungs. Just as potentially fatal if she didn't do something quick. All right, first the cerebellum. If the poison caused that to seize up, then all his automatic neural functions would stop. Don't rush it, but be quick, she told herself. Focusing her energies on her new target, Maris got to work. Neutralizing the poison attacking the cerebellum was much more difficult as she had to scan every single fold of it for any poison hiding in them. It was tedious process that took up valuable time. Time that she was vulnerable to enemy attack. No she wasn't. Her beloved Dahlgen would protect her and ensure her safety. Maris kept going.
Okay, good. The cerebellum was clear now. Now for the spinal cord. Good. Now the lungs. Excellent. One last thorough scan to make sure she'd neutralized all the poison. Ah, she almost forgot to take care of the poison at its source, the wound on his arm. Wonderful. Now to stop the bleeding and begin to repair the damage. To do that, she'd have to stimulate Cronus's own natural healing processes and get them working faster than normal.
The whole time, Cronus had been fading in and out of consciousness and when he was awake, he was in excruciating pain. But now with Maris working as hard as she could to neutralize the poison rampaging through his body and repair the damage it had done already, his head was beginning to clear. And while his hand was still throbbing sore and bleeding slightly, the pain that had been coursing through him was starting to ebb. His heart felt stronger and his breathing wasn't quite so labored.
He turned to a face Maris who was smiling at him. "I don't know what was in that cocktail you gave me Maris," he said gratefully. "But I'm starting to feel a lot better."
"Well, we couldn't say goodbye to you just yet old man," she joked. She called Hyosa over and tore off a piece of her cloak. With that in her hand, Maris began to bandage the wound on Cronus's arm, slapping a bacta patch on it and tying the piece of fabric tightly around it. "Kind of crude," she said. "But I've done all I can for now and it'll hold you until we get you back to the ship."
"Hey, it's better than being dead," Cronus reminded her.
"You think you can move?"
"You're damn right I can," he said with a defiant tone and getting to his feet.
"Statement: We've got a problem at the dock master," HK said over the comlink.
Dahlgen could hear the blaster fire in the background and he guessed what the issue was. He whirled his double saber around and parried a cult member's attack before driving the blade forward and skewering him to death. "Let me guess," he said. "The dock is under attack too?"
"Answer: Right master. As soon as we arrived more of these fishy meatbags leaped from the water. Karala and the kolto are safe for the moment but I don't know how much longer I'll be able to say that. And there's an additional issue."
Dahlgen slashed upwards, ripping another cultist open from crotch to neck. "Can't wait to hear this. What?"
"Admission: Those Selkath meatbags scuttled the submersible. It's sinking as we speak."
Great, Dahlgen thought. "Can you save it?" he asked instinctively knowing the answer.
"Answer: No chance at all master."
"Standby HK," Dahlgen order him. "We're coming."
Maris leaped to her feet, ignited her weapon and blocked a cultist's mindless attempt to cleave her in half, then shoved him back, spun and sliced him in two with a sai tok maneuver. She could sense Dahlgen's growing frustration. "Would there be any point to telling you it could be worse?" she shouted.
"None whatsoever."
"I was afraid of that."
Off to his right, Dukan had moved to take up the vacant posts left by Juula and HK when they'd headed for the dock. Now he and Chakasa valiantly engaged their former allies alongside Dijas. Three of the cultists pounded away at Dukan's relentless defense. His blade moved and spun with the precision of a seasoned master as he kept the attackers at bay. But suddenly another cultist made a move towards Chakasa. He hadn't seen it and Dukan knew if he didn't do something, Chakasa was as good as dead. He was forced turn slightly in order to employ the Force Wave that saved Chakasa's life.
Tragically though, it was the opening the other three cultists had been waiting for. One of them drove his blade forward through Dukan's stomach and a second deranged Selkath swung his blade around decapitating him. Dukan never felt any pain, nor did he have any inclination he was about to die until the death blow had been delivered. Surrendering peacefully to the death that cliamied him, his spirit became one with the Force.
Chakasa witnessed Dukan's noble end and the sight of his friend suddenly being slaughtered sent him over the edge. NOOOOOOOOO, he screamed. In a moment of savage grief, Chakasa thrust his arm out at the two Selkath who had murdered Dukan and employed Force Horror against them. Twisting their minds around, he forced them to cry out in extreme pain and mental anguish. They both collapsed to the floor where they started going into convulsions.
Another Selkath cultist charged forward but Chakasa caught him in a Force Grip, lifting him off his feet and slowly started choking him to death. The Selkath cultist struggled to breathe as Chakasa throttled him, only releasing his grip after he heard the satisfying crack of the deranged cult member's neck. Only now, Chakasa was just as crazy in dark side induced fury as the Shasa cultists were. Lunging forward, he slashed at yet another cult member with his claws, ripped his eyes out and hit the rest of the cultists around him with a crushing Force Destruction wave that turned most of their bones to dust.
Hyosa witnessed Dukan's end with sadness and Chakasa's sudden transformation with total horror and dread. CHAKASA, she screamed at him. STOP!
But her pleas fell on deaf ears. Chakasa whirled around, his eyes wilder than a hungry rancor in heat and cast Force Lightning at her. Hyosa was barely able to get her fira up to block it but the power from the blast snapped the blade in half, crashed into her chest and she was knocked to floor. Chakasa cast it again, this time at Dijas. His Mandalorian armor afforded him some protection, but he still fell to the floor in pain.
Chakasa cast it once more and to save the lives of everyone else, Dahlgen had no choice but to use Force Redirection, sending the lightning right back at Chakasa. It crashed into Chakasa's body and enveloped it in its searing white hot energy. Chakasa screamed in agony for several seconds as his senses were suddenly overloaded and his flesh began to burn. He felt his life start to fade out of existence as he finally relinquished his anger and fear and stopped using the power. But it was already too late for him. His horribly burned, mangled and smoking body hit the floor with a revolting clunk and he fell forever still.
Taking advantage of the sudden chaos, Katya unleashed a Force Wave that slammed into the remaining cultists, stunning them momentarily. She immediately went to check on Dijas. "Dijas! You okay there big guy?"
Dijas struggled to get to his feet and he nearly fell down again. "My mouth tastes like a glow rod," he complained. "But I'm fine."
She started to help him towards the exit. "C'mon. Let's get you out of here."
Maris was also helping the injured Cronus towards the exit, though he was struggling a bit and insisting he could do it himself. She nodded to Dahlgen who smiled, pleased that everyone was taking advantage of the momentary lull to get out. He looked over at Dannix and Marsala and ushered them towards the way out. "Go, go."
That was everyone. Now it was just him, Hyosa and the seven Shasa purists that remained. As Dahlgen walked over to her, he saw that she had managed to get herself into a sitting position against a wall. "C'mon Hyosa," he said kneeling down next to her. "Time to go. I'll carry you."
Hyosa coughed hoarsely and her breathing was ragged. I'm going somewhere all right Dahlgen, Hyosa said weakly. But nowhere with you. Chakasa took care of my travel plans. Her robe fell open slightly and it was then that Dahlgen saw the massive burn damage to her chest and stomach.
"Oh no," he said. He examined her wounds a bit more and even tried using the Force to stabilize her. But his attempts to use the Force's healing power just poured straight through her. There was nothing he could do except ease her pain in her final moments.
The seven remaining Shasa purists all clustered around them. Slowly Hyosa looked at them all and gave them a motherly nod. The seven of them each nodded to her and made some kind of hand gesture in return before making their exit. No doubt it was a measure of final respect.
Dahlgen… Hyosa said weakly. You are a strong warrior and an excellent teacher. You have a good heart and a strong spirit. And you are surrounded by many who truly care for and love you as you love them. I foresee that your spirit will never be broken, no many how many times those who stand against you will try to do just that. I have a last request of you. Tell Juula she's in charge now. It's up to her to guide those who still embrace the essence of the true teachings of Shasa. She will doubt herself and her ability to lead. And she will have many questions about what the proper path for all of us truly is. I would ask you to share your knowledge and wisdom with her when she needs it.
Dahlgen nodded. "I will Hyosa. You have my solemn promise on that."
A sharp pain wracked Hyosa's body and she drew in a deep breath. Thank you Dahlgen. I am pleased that I got a chance to meet you.
Dahlgen nodded, unwilling to show her his sorrow at her imminent passing. "Me too Hyosa."
The Selkath cultists began to recover from the effects of the Force Wave that Katya had hit them with. Hyosa looked at them, then back at Dahlgen. You'd better go Dahlgen. You don't want them to get you too.
Again Dahlgen nodded but remained silent.
I have died in the service to my home and my people, Hyosa said. There is no greater honor for us. She took another deep breath, followed by several shallow ones. Then she let out one long one and her head dropped to one side.
Fighting back his emotions, Dahlgen reached up and closed her eyes. "You fought the good fight Hyosa. May the light of the Force accept your most loving soul into its embrace for all eternity." He sensed the Shasa cultists closing in again and hit them with another Force Wave, buying himself a few more seconds to escape.
Dahlgen arrived at the dock just in time to see the last bit of the submersible slip beneath the waves and Maris sliced the head off the last cultist who was preventing their escape. The long expression on his face told them all something dreadful had happened. Juula greeted him first, but was a bit distressed to see Hyosa wasn't with him. Where's Hyosa?
Instead of answering her question right away, Dahlgen looked at Maris, who knew through their special link what had happened. He took a deep breath and slowly shook his head. "I'm sorry Juula. She didn't make it. Neither did Dukan nor Chakasa." He intentionally omitted telling her that Chakasa had been responsible for Hyosa's death and he for Chakasa's.
Juula took in a deep breath of her own and a sorrowful expression appeared on her face. No, she said sadly. Not our beloved leader.
"We're so sorry Juula," Maris said.
"She was a fine warrior and a finer leader," Dannix added. "She would've definitely earned the respect of the Mandalorians."
"If I may suggest," Marsala offered. "Try to take some comfort in that she died fighting for what she believed in."
But what will we do without her? Juula wondered. Without her, the Order will surely fall apart.
"Not necessarily," Dahlgen said. "Hyosa did have one last message for you."
Juula looked up at him almost pleading for guidance. What?
"She said that you're the leader now," Dahlgen replied. "And that it's now up to you to guide these other Selkath who still believe in Shasa's true teachings to enlightenment. Hyosa had no doubt that you would have some questions along the way, but that you would also find the answers to those questions."
But I'm no leader, Juula protested. I couldn't even think about taking Hyosa's place.
"That's where you're wrong," Dahlgen said. "I don't think Hyosa would've asked me to deliver this message if she didn't believe in your ability to succeed her. I personally think she may have been grooming you to do just that. After all, who's been by her side all this time?"
Juula had to admit that was true. She had been Hyosa's right hand all along, ever since they'd split away from the Order of Shasa's new teachings. But…
"When you have questions, as you no doubt will, you have but to ask me for my guidance and advice," Dahlgen assured her. "I promise you, I'll do whatever I can to help."
"We all will," Maris said.
"That's right," Katya added.
Juula nodded in appreciation. Thank you, she spoke gratefully. All of you.
A bloodcurdling roar erupted from down the corridor that got everyone's attention. "Here they come again," Dannix hissed. "Don't those whacked out crazies give up?"
Dahlgen didn't bother to answer the question. "All right everyone, into the drink and swim for the surface. Battle droids, take the kolto. HK, take Gee Tee."
I'll take Karala, Juula insisted. Hyosa would want it that way.
Dahlgen nodded. "All right. Cronus?"
"I'll be fine damn it," he said. "Let's just go."
"Last one in is a stinky rancor." Dannix couldn't resist the joke as he leaped into the water.
"Unbelievable," Dahlgen rolled his eyes and groaned as he jumped in, subconsciously appreciating Dannix's ability to crack jokes even in the middle of a crisis.
One by one, they all dove in and swam under the dock structure before turning upward and heading for the surface. Despite being more than five hundred feet below the water's surface, Dannix and Dijas were protected from the water pressure by their armor and an emergency hour long oxygen supply. Dahlgen and everyone else with Force aptitude made use of the power of Breath Control which limited their oxygen need as well as consumption. By making use of such a technique, it effectively guaranteed that they wouldn't need to take a breath during the entire trip to the surface.
Karala was a different story though. Still unconscious and with no Force aptitude, Juula had no choice but to encase her in an air bubble and push her towards the surface. It was a laborious process, but it was the only option they had to keep her from drowning.
A moment later Dahlgen stopped briefly and mentally scanned the immediate area, noting everyone's presence. With it being the middle of the night and the water dark to begin with, it was entirely possible to lose track of someone and Dahlgen wanted to ensure that didn't happen. He reached out with his perceptions and sensed a lot of sea life around. Most were harmless fish, but there were a few firaxan sharks about. Curiously though, they didn't seem to be moving to attack in any way.
Maris suddenly appeared next to him, having sensed he was no longer moving. You okay, she asked him through their special gift.
Yeah, he replied. Just making sure we don't lose anyone. He turned towards Hrakert Station, now a couple hundred feet below them, and focused his senses on it. Are you kidding me, he thought. Those damned Shasa cultists were pursuing them even through the ocean! They were still way down near the station, but being Selkath they were built for swimming. Here they come! Dahlgen alerted Maris. Let's go. Quick!
Turning again, they resumed their upward trek at a more frenetic pace. Aided by the power of Knight Speed, they caught up to Dijas, Dannix and Katya and got their attention. Dahlgen pointed back towards the underwater station and they instantly knew what he meant. He generated a Force Orb, a special underwater technique that created a bubble of air, and hurled it at the approaching Selkath cultists. Though technically an attack, it was not considered a dark side use of the Force because the user only created the air bubble to impede an attacker's progress. Maris and Katya followed his example as Dijas and Dannix fired a couple short bursts from their blaster rifles. Despite firing blind into the darkened ocean depths, maybe their combined assault would deter those dark side crazed Shasa cultists from further pursuit.
Damn. Then again, maybe not. They still approached, more determined than ever. Dahlgen, Maris and Katya launched several more Force Orbs each accompanied by more blaster fire from Dannix and Dijas. Still those damned Selkath cultists approached. They were getting close.
With Maris's help, Dahlgen encased everyone in a Force bubble and launched them further up through the water. Once more, the five of them attacked the approaching Selkath. Even though Dahlgen could sense some of their attacks were finding their mark, too many of them were approaching to be truly effective.
And then Dahlgen sensed something else, something coming in from above them. Something huge. The Force signature it gave off was so odd, Dahlgen couldn't help but look upwards. And despite the darkened water around them, Dahlgen could just make out the outline of the incoming behemoth and the companions that followed it.
Maris had sensed the newcomer's approach as well. Her eyes went wide. What in all the Force is that?
Dahlgen was stunned as he realized that the Progenitor herself was moving in to attack and she was bringing more than two dozen other firaxan sharks with her. That's why the sharks hadn't attacked earlier. They were waiting for Dahlgen and the others to become trapped between them and the rampaging Selakth cultists. Only thing they could do now was swim for all they were worth and hope they somehow made it to the surface. As if that was truly a realistic expectation. That's the Progenitor, Dahlgen told her. Swim for it!
Katya sensed the Progenitor's approach and with wide eyes realized it was the exact same creature she'd seen earlier through the transparisteel windows of the station. Tapping Dannix on the shoulder, she pointed at it.
"Holy!" Dannix exclaimed upon seeing it. "C'mon Dijas or we're fish food!"
"Whoa," Dijas yelled as he broke off his assault.
Dahlgen and Maris brought up the rear as they once again began their desperate swim for the surface. With their combined power intertwined, they sent forth a Force Wave that propelled the other three far to the side out of the Progenitor's path. Good. Maybe they'd be able to make a clear run to the surface from there while the Progenitor and her kin were occupied with the two of them.
It appeared to be the end for Dahlgen and Maris. The Progenitor and her firaxan escorts were directly ahead of them and coming at full speed. Even if they used Knight Speed at this point, that would just propel them into the midst of all the fish. Through the darkened water, they could just barely make out the giant sharp teeth in the Progenitor's huge maw. Dahlgen held Maris's hand tightly and braced himself for the beginning of eternal rest, hoping it would be quick and painless.
Suddenly at the last possible second, the Progenitor shifted course slightly, swam straight past Dahlgen and Maris and continued downward. Completely dumbfounded by the act, the two of them looked on in amazement as the countless firaxan that accompanied her also zipped past them and followed her, all but ignoring the two of them. An instant later through the Force, they felt the alarmed cries of the approaching Selkath cultists as they realized with growing horror, the fate they were about to suffer. With the Progenitor's giant maw wide open, more than half a dozen of the cultists were swept inside in the initial pass and she snapped her jaw shut. The lucky ones were swallowed whole. Those less fortunate were sawed into pieces by the Progenitor's razor sharp teeth.
The feeding frenzy then began as her firaxan escorts attacked, making a meal out of any Selkath they could catch. In a panic, the Selkath cultists scattered in all directions and tried to escape, only to be tracked and eaten by the hungry sharks. A couple of them tried to call upon the dark side in a counterattack, but the Progenitor and her escorts were having none of that. Circling around and attacking again, she bit a cultist clean in half as he vainly tried to use Force Lightning to protect himself.
Another handful were able to draw their fira and inflict some wounds against the rampaging sharks, but the scent of blood only drove them into a further frenzy. One cultist managed to slice the fins off of one shark, only to have his head chomped off by another a second later. Another, bleeding profusely and caught in a shark's jaws, desperately tried to get the shark to release him by beating his fists on the shark's head. It only served to anger the shark further and with four quick bites, he'd swallowed the entire Selkath except his arms.
Dahlgen and Maris watched in stunned silence as the Progenitor herself, circled around once more and swallowed another mouthful of Selkath cultists. The anguished Force cries of fear and despair that had been great immediately before the Progenitor's attack were now disappearing fast as the deranged cultists were devoured. Dahlgen considered the irony of the spectacle. The Selkath believed that the Progenitor was the creator of kolto and of, in fact, all life on Manaan. So it was no doubt coming as quite a shock to the Selkath cultists that their supposed creator had suddenly become their executioner. And with that, he found himself wondering just what had provoked the Progneitor into attacking its own kind.
Could the Progenitor be sentient?
Dahlgen didn't know the answer to that, but it was an interesting theory. But this was no time to investigate that possibility. He tapped Maris on the shoulder. C'mon my love. We need to go before the Horizon leaves without us.
They found Dannix, Katya, and Rayna perched on the boarding ramp as they broke through the water's surface and took a blessed gulp of air.
Dannix let out a shout of triumph and pumped his fist a few times. "Glad you two could make it!"
"How did you escape that thing?" Katya asked.
"We didn't," Dahlgen sputtered. "It attacked those dark side crazed Selkath. They're probably still feeding down there. Everyone else accounted for?"
"Everyone else is aboard boss," Dannix said. "Karala is safe and sound and the kolto is awaiting stowage in the hold."
"Let's go then," Dahlgen said.
Maris Force leaped from the water and landed gracefully on the boarding ramp. Dahlgen prepared to do likewise, but suddenly a crazed Selkath bent on revenge and having escaped being devoured by the Progenitor, leaped out of the water. He threw himself at Dahlgen and those standing on the boarding ramp watched in horror as the two of them went under.
"Bloody hell!" Dannix shouted as he raised his rifle and fired at the spot where the Selkath appeared several times.
"OH NO YOU DON'T!" Maris yelled and she jumped back into the water.
Seconds later, they saw Dahlgen's saberstaff and Maris's single blade ignite under the water's surface. Both weapons spun around a few times, then stopped. Then again. Then Dahlgen's saberstaff lunged forward while Maris's seemed to go to a guard position. Both weapons then spun around once more apiece before they went out. But neither Dahlgen, nor Maris, surfaced right away. Where were they?
Rayna stared in wide-eyed horror at the water's surface. No. Not Dahlgen too. She couldn't lose her brother, her father and her adopted father in less than one month. It would drive her crazy. C'mon Dahlgen, where are you? she thought.
A second later, Dahlgen broke through the surface again, the Selkath who had attacked him no longer a threat. Maris broke through the water's surface a second later.
"All right!" Dannix yelled.
"Woo hoo!" Rayna cheered.
"Yeah!" Katya shouted happily.
Maris once more force leaped out of the water and onto the ramp, followed by Dahlgen a couple seconds later. He took the opportunity to wrap his arm around Maris's waist and pull her close, giving her a passionate kiss. "You didn't have to jump in there with me you know," he told her.
All Maris could do though was look at him with love and admiration and nod her head. "Yes I did," she insisted.
"Why?"
"Because I love you and I'll always find you Dahlgen," she said. "I'll always stand with you because, come what may, my heart is forever yours."
Dahlgen smiled at his Zabrak woman and could do nothing except kiss her again, tasting the saltiness of the ocean on her lips. "I love you Maris. And I'll always catch you if you fall."
Rayna embraced him tightly and refused to let go as if she somehow feared another Selkath would leap up and take him down again. Dahlgen smiled at her and gave her a kiss on the head. "Well done Rayna. I'm proud of you."
Her heart swelled with happiness. That was the first time in – she couldn't remember how long – that someone in her family had actually said they were proud her. She squeezed him a little tighter. "Thanks Dahlgen."
"You're welcome," Dahlgen replied. Another noise out in the water got their attention and they all looked to see the Progenitor herself leap backwards out of the water. As she gave them all a great view of her profile, she flapped one of her flippers and for an instant, Dahlgen read the Progenitor's thoughts.
A gesture of thanks.
She descended to the water and hit the surface back first with a thunderous splash and disappeared.
Dahlgen smiled and threw the Progenitor a well-earned salute. "Thank you my friend," he said. "Keep your home safe from those who would taint it." He smiled and led them all up the boarding ramp. "Let's get out of here. And someone turn the heat up. I'm freezing," he joked.
40
