Chapter 37: My core melts…
(Song suggestion: Volkor X – Beam)
With Nelo on Cato Neimoidia…
It took him almost an hour to set up enough bombs to leave him a getaway AND distract the Separatists long enough for him to do so with no big stress.
The bigger stress was getting into the access towers and from there, taking the lift down to the antigravity devices. The huge, engine-like contraptions were heavily guarded and were located under the surface of the city. There were two of them, equipped with strong ray shields that blocked any approach from the air, from under the "hammock". That meant he could only get to them via maintenance tunnels…curses! Luckily, as the schematics showed it and seemed to imply, blowing at least one of them up should shake the city up enough to pull it from its hinges because of the enormous weight.
Nelo quietly disposed of another guard, dumping the body into one of the sewers, before heading off to another location. Regrets? How could he afford to feel anything now, when all would be said and done soon and many more will fall to their deaths, screaming for their lives…
It was then, sneaking into an abandoned house, that he felt it… the emptiness. In that mental trap that he'd gotten himself in somehow, he can't remember how, he was terrified that he felt cold and calculating enough to do all this. For someone who was almost 17, this was truly creepy. What would his fellow jedi, his troops, if any survived, think of him? What would his parents and siblings say? He couldn't look them in the eyes, for sure, but then, he'd most likely never see them again. This sacrifice, all this pressure, all these sleepless, restless, body-numbing hours of fighting, killing, shooting, sneaking had to pay off, had to be worth it. And worth it they would be!
It felt like minutes to him, this internal debated, but, to his shock, an hour had passed. Having no idea what had happened to him, he got back to his feet and concentrated on covering any trace left in the Force. The sleep, or whatever that was, didn't help him rest at all! He raided the house's kitchen, sifting through different jars and cans and what not. With his mind still jumbled, he couldn't understand what was written on them and Force opened them one after the other until he found something recognizable. His frugal meal and the few gulps of water seemed to refresh his body, but the drain was still there, as if one was trying to fill an endless hole. A very bad sign! He didn't have time to lose!
Nelo exited the house through a back window, carefully checking around the street, before making a run for the tram station. To his dismay, the Separatist forces shut down the system for emergency maintenance and the population was not too happy about it. All ten lines were out and the crowds were booing the droids keeping them away from the military train.
"What do you think you are doing?" called one neimoidian.
"Yeah, do you know who we are?" an elderly, obviously important local added.
Other shouts followed and the droid regiment couldn't do anything against them, as they were under strict instructions not to antagonize the locals.
Nelo too felt his patience giving up, but the crowd offered cover and a lot of opportunities. Chief among them was him wearing a guard uniform. And since the half-mask had a vocoder…
"Move along, go about your business everyone!" he stepped in with confidence.
"Whaaat?" one of the local drawled. "We would if you wouldn't be stopping us! We need to get to the other part of the city!"
"Important bizzinezz awaits." a taller neimoidian flanked by two servants added. The crowd was getting annoyed by his appearance. Hopefully, this might just work.
"They didn't let you proceed? Strange! I was told those two military trains were brought here to ferry you all!" he did his best to pretend, and then, with indignation, he pointed at the chief droid, approaching him. "You keep all those people here despite everything? How dare you!"
"Sir, this unit was…"
"I don't care what this unit was thinking! Let them pass or they will lobby for you sorry cans to be sent to the Felucia!" that seemed to open their minds. Then Nelo carefully used a Force suggestion to get one of the thugs to throw a boulder into a droid, crushing its head. Then another one to shout a "get them!" and the piece was in play.
Smirking behind his mask, the renegade padawan ordered them to hold the line, but, as predicted, the vastly outnumbered droids were stampeded by the crowd that was now rushing towards the two trains. He too was swept along with them, as they entered both trains and kindly asked their drivers to proceed to the next stations.
It was absurd beyond measure, yet it was working. The ride saved him a lot of time and, gazing out the window provided him with another nice panorama of the city that he was about to destroy. A pity!
They reached the first station without any problems, then the second, then the third… until the fourth station, where another droid regiment, flanked by neimoidian security and a few magna guards awaited.
"Curses! They must either suspect I am in the train or they're just taking extra measures. I've got to bail!"
As the vehicle stopped in the station, the platform was lowered and people were descending. The second they set foot on the ground, the inspectors pulled each of them to the side, asking for ID and scanning their faces. There was some diversity amongst the passengers, but a human would still stick out. Driving off was also out of the question, since they told the driver to stay put. If he moved on, they would know something was amiss.
Hivaarr decided it was better to mingle with the crowd and try to mind trick one of the human inspectors. However, he had a better idea!
Going up to the driver, he kindly asked him:
"Is this the last station? What do we have to do?"
The rodian driver scratched his head and gave him a tired look, his right hand gesturing around the cockpit.
"We wait! This day keeps getting crazier and crazier." he complained.
Nelo nodded understandingly, then raised his hand and slowly moved it, his forehead sweating from the effort of channeling a discrete, light-sided technique.
"And it's about to get crazier." the padawan said with a smooth voice.
"That's true! I don't know if I'll reach my pension time with days like this." The driver remarked.
"At least you can do your job! In a couple of minutes, you need to get those passengers to the next station as soon as possible! Your reputation is at stake and you will forget about me!" Nelo drew upon any leftover light-side powers he had, even some sith power, putting all the persuasion to work.
It took a few moments for the mind-addling effect to take root, but it did.
Sighing, Hivaarr joined the last of the passengers. Keeping appearances was no easy feat, but he did manage to put himself in one of the lines managed by sentients, in-between a rodian and another human.
Just when they were about to scan him, the train hummed to life.
"Driver, stop that now! Driver!" the colonel ordered, but the spell was too strong.
As Nelo'd hoped, all soldiers turned towards the vehicle, rushing to board it, shooting at it, while the crowd ran for cover, with him amongst them.
The Magna Guards boarded their speeders and went after it. Other guards soon followed, while frantically reporting that the intruder was there, forgetting about the crowd.
Nelo couldn't enjoy his success, as he still needed to reach the lift that led to the first anti-gravity device. According to the map, it was half an hour away. Vehicles were forbidden, so he had to keep a low profile and get there by foot.
With Inanna Shapish…
Another empty building… she was beginning to lose her patience. There was no trace of him; no transmission, no video footage, no Force residues, no witnesses. How could a padawan trained for open battle and maybe some covert ops be that capable? Plus the Dark Side skills that almost matched her own. Her master was right: she didn't want to kill him and that was holding her back, loathe it as she might. That jedi, Ima Gun Di was right and she had the chance to extinguish that love for him back on Christophsis. Not only did she hesitate, but she spared him and made sure he made it back in one piece. And even now, after everything…
She shook her head. She was in a race against time to find him and stop him from whatever mischief he was up to. The Force was strangely silent on the issue. Her master hadn't contacted her yet either.
Inanna opened the tactical map on her transmitter watch.
"Commander, have there been any sightings so far?"
"No ma'am, the suspect remains at large." The chief of the garrison said.
Come on, there has to be a trace of you somewhere. You have to make a mistake, a misstep, just one and I'll be onto you…
"Any security breaks, any unusual activity?" she asked after a couple of minutes of contemplation.
"Now that you mention it, our riot police have had problems with a few crowds due to the lockdown of the tram lines."
She furrowed her brow, turning her head to the side, as if looking for something on the warehouse wall.
On the other side of the transmission, the officer felt his blood pressure rise. It was known among the brass that those dark jedi, sith whatever, were capable of supernatural abilities, many of them used in horrible torture. He didn't want to get on her bad side for omitting this piece of intel.
"Tell me everything that happened. EVERYTHING!" Inanna ordered.
Frightened for a few seconds, the officer sent her the report on the citizens' revolt at Spark Station.
Inanna closed the transmission and opened the video player. She saw the tension, the baffled droid guards and the shouting match, then the rocks and the stampede, after which the feed got cut. Replaying it again and again at different speeds, she managed to spot something odd. There was one sentient guard, a humanoid, mingling with the crowd, apparently trying to calm them down. At one point he went towards the head droid and pointed towards the trains and the crowd, before all hell broke loose. If one of the head droids would have filmed this, she would have had a face, but the mask and the bad quality prevented that.
A few minutes later, and after a painstakingly slow motion play, she spotted something. The hand of the guard made a few, seemingly normal movements. To the normal droid or person, it wouldn't mean anything. To her, however, it changed everything!
The chief of the garrison thought it was all over. He was about to have a sip of coffee, when the sith lady video called him again. He spilled the liquid all over himself in the attempt to stand at attention.
"You incompetents! He duped you! He's in one of those two trains! Double check them and the passengers! Send me any video feed of it, live if you have to! I'm heading there now!" she shouted.
Inanna signaled her squad to get on their speeders and all 14 of them were headed towards Unity Station.
"The Enemy is on one of the trains. Send a squad after MT#22; we'll take MT#24, asap!" she contacted her other squad.
Sometime later, she got another video feed from the central unit; it was a live transmission from multiple bodycams that was synced.
"Z.23, take over the bike, I need to see this!"
"Yes, mistress." the assassin droid complied.
The inspection team stopped the MT#22 and was scanning the passengers one by one, when the train sped away, defying repeated warnings.
"Quickly, stop it, you idiots!" she ordered. Some droids went after it, while the other troops shot at the train, but it was useless, as it was well-armored.
Remembering her lessons about cold patience and the other case, she rewinded the feed on her other device. Her eyes jumped from face to face, looking for that guard uniform from earlier. Nelo was very, very good, surprisingly so! She had to give him credit for the trick he'd pulled. Just like her on Ryloth, he used the crowds and an external threat to avert attention from himself, quietly escaping notice. She supposed he either hard-wired the train or mind controlled the driver.
"Attention all seekers! Stop those two trains and check them for explosives. The suspect isn't on any of them; I'll take care of him!"
She finally had a sector to search through. Using her command device, she ordered various units to lock down the blocks around that sector and slowly move in, video feed active all the time.
As for the high profile targets in that area: the water works, two electricity plants, a few food storage facilities and the anti-gravity device. The latter was very well guarded and shielded and even a madman like Nelo wouldn't dare to attack it.
With Count Dooku…
This was taking too long. He thought his apprentice would have captured the renegade padawan by now. It seems he's proven himself very resourceful. He had a general idea where the boy might be, but he was somehow eluding his senses, as well as the authorities. His master would like to have a look at this strange specimen of a jedi. Yet, if things went on as they did and he managed to wreak havoc, it might be necessary to put him down. As submissive and conniving as the Neimoidians were, unstoppable terrorist attacks weren't exactly helpful for their relationship with the Separatist Alliance. If Inanna failed, then he would step in.
Returning to his command room, he opened the message feed and saw his apprentice's progress. She just sent him the reports and that she was about to corner him.
"Proceed with caution, Shapish. We don't want him to escape…again. Need I remind you that this is your last chance?" he told her on a very severe tone.
With Nelo…
He was minutes away from his goal, when he had to take cover in one of the trash cans, loathe as he might. It was a neimoidian patrol that did a quick sweep of the streets, before moving on.
Shit! I was so sure I'd duped them with that trick!
He felt urgency and his body almost moved on its own, leaving the hideout and Force rushing towards the entrance. With a few swift moves, he disposed of the four droid guards, before cutting the left arm of the neimoidian commander.
"Now, my friend, you are going to open that door, otherwise you will suffer beyond imagination!" his demonic yellow eyes bore into the alien's green ones.
"I… cccan't! You'll destroy the city!" he whined, deducing why the terrorist was there.
Nelo nodded in mocking respect, then grabbed him by the collar and spat in his face.
"Smart! But guess what: I have very painful ways of getting you to do my bidding." He retorted, throwing him to the ground, before raising his hand. "You have been warned; I tried to be a nice guy, but you just had to be a hero. Tsk, tsk!" Nelo's hand glowed yellow, then orange, then purple, a cloud enveloping the victim's hand, drowning his screams and his judgment, followed by a silent nod on his end.
"Very good! Now open that door and deactivate every alarm you can. After that, if any guards come asking, tell them I ran away."
He did just that. The blast doors and the ray shields were phased out for a few moments, allowing him to get in. His next step was donning a maintenance uniform and ditching these clothes, followed by him kidnapping a worker, knocking him out and locking him up in a shed. With his security card in his hands, Nelo slowly and inconspicuously navigated the vast labyrinth that was the anti-gravity device.
With Anakin and Ahsoka
"Snips, we've almost reached the system. Now remember, the Twilight has a transit visa valid on all neutral systems, which means that we can land on any of these planets, as long as keep a low profile." Anakin said, turning to his copilot.
"I understand, master, but don't they know our ship already? The Separatists?"
"Heh, fair point! It's not the first of its kind and Artoo will change its ID for the moment. Question is: which planet should we search first? Nelo has no transmitter with him and, barring Force Sense, of which I'm not a master, btw, I don't know how to locate him!"
20 minutes later, they reached the system.
"Artoo, prep those documents. We'll try Cato Neimoidia first. We're bound to find something there. Maybe we get lucky; maybe we can hack our way and pinpoint his location!" Skywalker spoke with confidence.
Ahsoka didn't share his enthusiasm. They were way out of their league and were bound to get punished for this little stunt of theirs. But then again, if they did manage to interrogate Nelo, some very sensitive information would reach their enemies. Apart from that, if the planet really was working with- or was under Separatist occupation, then they were vastly outmatched.
Sensing her distress, he told her that they had to do this. It was their duty as jedi, as friends, as family, to help each other. They would make it out safe and sound, he was sure of it!
As their ship was approaching the planet, he felt a sense of foreboding. The Force was both silent and restless; no whispers of what was going on.
"Welcome, jedi, to Cato Neimoidia!" the customs officer contacted them via comm link. "What brings you to our corner of the Mid Rim?"
"Greetings, officer! We are tracking a Separatist ship that was using one of the hyperspace lanes in the system. We need to refuel and see if anybody has any information on it!"
The officer went silent for a minute, and then chatter could be heard on the other end in their native tongue.
"We understand your predicament and will provide you with supplies at a lower price. Come land at these coordinates. As for the ship you've mentioned, we have no information on it and even if we had, we are bound by the rules of neutrality not to divulge Republic or Separatist information."
"Of course, officer, thank you!"
Anakin proceeded with caution towards the planet. He didn't know what to make of the alien's words, as neimoidians were a tricky species. He also knew that they tended to support Gunray, as the previous Invasion of Naboo showed.
"Snips, keep your eyes and ears open. Look for any clue, any trace of Separatists or our friend."
Their ship finally landed in one of the cloud cities. Barring an official invitation, he knew that the capital city was off limits. Thankfully, that wasn't too far away. He could see it in the distance.
Once they landed, they presented their ID cards and were directed to the local sky port, where they could find a restaurant, a bar, a hotel, as well as a guard post.
"Should you need assistance or have any questions, please approach us!" the protocol droid said.
The jedi pair made their way there, followed closely by Artoo, while the ship was locked down.
"I have a spike I could use. We just have to wait for the right time and then we'll be in their external database." Anakin whispered to her, smirking.
Ahsoka went on to order their meals and pay for the refueling. The venue was almost empty, with only three other pilots and what looked like a couple of bounty hunters. Not minding them, she sat herself at one of the tables and enjoyed the first real meal in days.
Meanwhile, Anakin was at the bar, having a drink… or at least pretending to drink. His eyes darted around from patron to patron to the barman. The jedi tried to attract as much attention as possible, in order to allow Artoo to pass unnoticed as the droid subtly connected himself to a network port in the building. Now it was just a matter of time.
With Inanna:
The net was closing around the fallen padawan, she could feel it, yet no one had seen him so far. They double checked half of the high priority targets and they were safe. She ordered additional security and a few street tanks to move in to guard them, while her teams moved on.
Almost half an hour later, the food deposits were secured, along with the water works, which left only one target in the area: the Anti-Gravity device. Either that, or Nelo fooled them once more and escaped somehow.
She left her team to finish the sweep, while she took some Magna Guards and Assassin Droids towards the entry to the gigantic building.
She found a guard that was lying against the wall.
"H…help!" he muttered, drawing her attention.
"What happened here? Did the terrorist do this to you?"
"Yes. He jumped us. We managed to shoot him and he ran when he couldn't get in!" he managed to utter, his body slowly failing him.
Inanna looked at her guards and motioned for them to treat him.
"Have there been any sightings whatsoever?"
"No, mistress. No patrol has seen him." The Magna Guard answered.
"This is D.J. #4, did you detect any intruders in the facility?" Inanna contacted the security service.
"No, ma'am. Everything looks good on this end. Why? Did something happen?" the officer asked.
Shaking her head and releasing a heavy sigh, she turned her head back at the hologram and continued on a dangerously calm tone.
"You incompetents! The guards at the front doors have been skewered by a lightsaber and the assassin is at large! Now be smart about it, before I contact your mayor, you useless, puny man!"
Swallowing hard and trying to calm down, the officer turned to his colleagues and nodded.
"What would you have us do?"
"Check if anyone's opened the front doors in the last hour, asap!"
A few minutes later, an entry was indeed detected. The door was opened by the very guard that lay before her, without an arm. At the news of this, Inanna was furious. She was about to order a full lockdown, when an idea struck her. She smirked.
"Commander, the intruder is in the facility, most likely disguised or invisible. Use bio scanners and keep people on all the cameras. Do not sound the alarm yet, but close down the more important rooms. We'll be hunting him down!"
"Understood!" The transmission ended after which the door opened again.
She turned towards the lying, conniving worm, looking into its eyes. Her body finally picked up on a trace of Nelo's power and it was Body Puppet. She thought it could only be used on dead bodies. But then again, this neimoidian was dying faster when he should have survived. Strange development.
"Leave the worm for the patrol. Inform everyone that they're to surround the facility. Nothing comes in without my approval and nobody gets out, on pain of death!" she ordered, before entering.
With Nelo…
Hivaarr was on alert. No alarm sounded, but the Force whispered of danger.
He managed to get to the battery chamber, where he placed the first bomb and killed the four main engineers. Nobody was going to stop this big bang from happening. He got up to the controller and stopped the supply towards the guardhouse, thus buying himself some time.
Some grenades were left under key parts of the room to wreak more havoc, should somebody attempt a lockdown on that side.
Leaving the room, Nelo headed towards the first nuclear reactor. When he reached the door, he sensed danger and darted back, barely avoiding a vibroblade.
Assassin droids. Shit!
He took his lightsaber out and crossed blades with the klanker. They were locked and the droid's chest circuitry was changing colour to red.
A bomb? Nelo had a few seconds to react. He dashed to the right, grabbed the droid with the Force and hurled him at the other end of the corridor, where it exploded.
FRACK! There goes my cover! Now they know where to look for me.
As if waiting for just that moment, two more assassin droids joined the fray, their blades glinting in the dim light. Something animalistic was waking up in Hivaarr at that point.
He fished out his blaster and shot at them, provoking an attack. Their armor was thick and the plasma couldn't pierce them.
Nelo Force pushed them, locking them on the spot for a couple of seconds, before beheading the first droid and severing the torso of the second in three quick motions. Imagine his surprise when the beheaded droid grazed his shoulder with the blade, the vibrations cutting through cloth, armor and flesh.
"Fuck! STAY DOWN!" he shouted, bringing his lightsaber across its arms and torso, severing them. Finally, it stopped. Just for measure, he dismembered the other droid.
"Crap!" he cursed when he couldn't access Force healing. Since he turned to the Dark Side, all Light Side powers were locked out. He resorted to using the one healing patch he had, binding it over the wound in the left shoulder.
Each second he wasted could bring the pursuers back on his trail.
He stripped the droid of its transmitter and downloaded its map on his datapad. According to it, the reactor was two, closed, blast doors away.
Thinking quickly, he entered a maintenance room, while he tried to figure out a way in.
He heard the almost imperceptible footsteps of a new pursuer near the downed droids. The killed all electronic devices and entered a short Force coma that would hide his presence and his life signs.
The footsteps approached the blast doors and stood there for over a minute, as if waiting for something, then slowly left the area.
Nelo wasn't stupid. They knew he was somewhere around here. It's possible that they had more than one assassin outside, with sound dampeners. However, time was of the essence.
After waiting five more minutes, he slowly he exited the state he was in and started the device. Some clicks away, he knew how to get in.
Quietly, he wrapped his backpack into an impermeable bag, grabbed an oxygen mask and exited the room.
Turning around the corner, he broke into a run towards the heavy water pipe, killing two guards along the way.
Donning his goggles and his oxygen mask, Nelo performed a careful incision into the pipe and saw that the water flow wasn't too fast; perfect!
After stashing away his lightsaber underneath his costume, he entered the huge pipe, pulling the opening back. The currents then drew him towards the reactor. It was a very risky move, but no one would ever think someone was mad enough to try such a thing!
Author's note:
As the title suggests, this chapter is only half of what I intended to upload. I broke the original thing into two. Expect another upload this week.
I have taken your reviews into consideration, especially the one about exclamation marks and dialogues (Thank you, reader "Sidious"). I am Romanian and in my language we have a slightly different way of using punctuation, as you've noticed.
- To the reader "Jacksonion Democracy": read on. A change of heart is happening, albeit gradually.
- To all the other readers: I started writing this fanfic while still in school, 4 years ago. My style changed a lot of naivety and innocence might have disappeared, as you might have noticed. Plus, I now have to keep in mind all the previous chapters plus the lore, what I intend to add etc. Now I am also experiencing intermittent periods of writer's block, plus the usual lack of time.
Anyhow, enjoy!
Disclaimer: music belongs to Volkor X and Star Wars to LucasArts.