Mill tried on several occasions to talk to the two guards surrounding the speeder, but to no avail. The two stared straight at the building and ignored Mill's questions and comments. Knowing full well he was not getting anywhere with them, he left the mission up to Menyoo and waited patiently. 15 minutes passed and nothing changed, the chilly air begins to work at Mill's patience, but he maintains his calm demeanor.
A transmission comes in through both of the guard's helmets, "PSHHHH, This is Interior team D leaving the south wing. Assistance requested from Exterior squads B and C, Unit A remain with the other." On command, the troopers at the doors wave to 4 others several meters off near a small storage facility. They all rush into the quarantine in an ovular formation with their guns level. Mill tries one more time with the guards posted around him, "What is going on in there? My partner is inside, I must see to his safety." Mill charges forward, but is stopped by the guard from behind, "No can do sir, our troops are fitted and trained for these occasions, remain outside and they will handle the situation."
Mill turns his head toward the guard who spoke, "Which is?" a chorus of blasting rings out from the entrance of the facility. 3 bolts let loose, then a trooper yells, followed by another 2 bolts. Mill grips his lightsaber and closes his eyes, awaiting movement from the guards behind him. A trooper is thrown out of the entrance of the quarantine and Menyoo emerges from the cut fabric, sphere under his arm and lightsaber raised. The guards around Mill lift their guns. The one to his right lets off a bolt immediately. Mill, faster than the bolt can travel passed him, ignites his saber and lifts it into the air. He stretches his arm out to reach the bolt with the tip, then with a gentle flick of his wrist sends the blaster bolt back at the responsible guard half a meter behind him. Just as quickly as his first reaction, he cuts a sharp arc diagonally around his waist and slashes left through the other guard's midsection before he could act. Mill begins running up to meet Menyoo, but Menyoo yells to him "Get the Speeder running! We have to move fast!"
Mill jumps into the speeder and starts working the controls. Two guards rush out of the quarantine behind Menyoo and shoot at his back. Menyoo turns gracefully and reflects one of them back at the guard. He holds the lightsaber defensively and waits for second shot, which the guard obliges and Menyoo returns skillfully, dropping him like the first. He reaches the speeder and vaults into the passenger seat with the vaccine in hand. "Go Go Go!" He yells to Mill, "Where?" Mill asks back with the same vigor. "Across the gap! I think we need to get to the opposite end of the building. There should be another entrance." Mill hits the throttle and they rocket toward the bridge that spans over the gorge that dissects the large central building and separates the quarantine into two halves.
The soldiers are caught off guard having no time to prepare. The first set of towers surrounding the bridge has only one soldier armed with a basic blaster. Mill swerves around the bolts hitting the ground in a trail around the speeder. They hit the bridge at close to top speed and sail into the sky several meters up before landing hard, scraping the back end of the speeder against the solid rock below.
Mill says to Menyoo, "I assume you didn't like what you saw in there?" Menyoo stood up in his seat anticipating better prepared forces ahead, then yells to his right through the freezing air rushing by him. "I didn't see much, but the officer told me everything. The two quarantines separate two classes of people. The quarantine area we stopped at had the richy banker types that belong to the clan. None are from here either, all big money bad guy types too priviledged to share the disease or vaccine with the natives."
Mill yells back, "And the other people?"
"Locals, slave labor for the clan that grew up here. A people called the Lurmen. And all doomed if we don't get this vaccine to them."
"And what about the bankers?"
"They'll have to make more." Menyoo says quieter than everything else. Mill looks up at Menyoo and nods in agreement, knowing full well they are going to hear about this back on Coruscant. They approach a second bridge complimented by another set of towers better prepared than the last. Menyoo watches for bolts, readying his blade to reflect what they send, when one of the garages ahead opens and a XR-37 droid tank rolls out. The twin turrets on the bow tilt in, aiming directly at Mill and Menyoo's landspeeder. Mill pulls to the left just in enough time to dodge a shot. Menyoo, although having trouble remaining stable, reflects bolts from the tower, but is unable to propel them back properly due the desultory jerking of the vehicle. Mill turns in a wide arc to the right and zig zags forward, the tank rolls after them.
"What are you doing!?" Menyoo yells to Mill, Mill keeps the same pattern while ignoring Menyoo. Two more shots from the tank ring out behind them. Mill turns one last time, then makes a straight dash toward the tower. The droid tank rumbling behind lets out a last laser shot at the landspeeder. Mill, hearing the photons in rear, turns sharp to the right to dodge the shot. The bolts sail passed them and hit the base of the tower causing it to collapse into the adjacent tower, sending the thugs atop falling into the bluff below. The left side of the bridge loses its composure and begins sinking down as if an invisible quicksand pulls at the rails of the bridge. The soldiers on top of opposite towers begin climbing down, afraid of the entire bridge following. The landspeeder kept course rushing at the bridge, and just barely makes it across before the center gives and the twisted metal sinks into the rocky depths.
"WOOOOOO!" Menyoo puts his arms into the air and shouts out into the sapphire sky. "You are way more fun than my last master!" Then having realized what he had just said, forces a serious look to contain the excitement he was feeling seconds prior.
"Move over, I'll drive from here. I need to find the other entrance." Menyoo Shoos Mill to the side. He releases the controls and steps into the back out of Menyoo's way. Menyoo takes command and steers the speeder toward another gap in the distance. Mill pulls out his lightsaber awaiting further resistance. A landspeeder comes racing up from behind, the same kind as theirs, but dirtier and with a cannon mounted on top. A small bunker lies off to the side of the path and several troopers stand outside, guns ready. Mill closes his eyes and focuses his senses on incoming fire. The troops let off several bolts at the speeder. As they approach, Mill senses them and attempts to send them back to their starting position. In that moment, Mill experiences something he never has before.
When Mill reflects bolts, he prefers to keep his eyes closed and trust the force to guide his saber. He intuits the angle at which the bolt comes at him, and can figure from there about where the gun is that shot it. He then holds the saber at the proper angle to reflect the bolts at that location, maximizing the chances of dismantling the gun and keeping the shooter alive. These objects appear in Mill's landscape as blue pulsing objects against fields of black, jagged topographies. This time Mill, instead of reflecting the bolts like a mirror reflecting light, strikes the bolts as if they were balls against a bat, and aims them directly at center of mass. The targets appear as reddish blobs in his mind. One hits the side of the speeder, the other 4 bounce off his blade. When Mill opens his eyes, a line of soldiers lay dead on the ground.
Mill acknowledges how odd this interaction was, but does not have time to think on it as the payload of the cannon behind them nicks the side of the speeder, making a horrible scraping noise and causing a puff of black smoke to exude into the air. The path narrows and Menyoo hugs a turn in the cliff side, the enemy speeder follows from behind, but slows down significantly, fearing the cliff's edge just centimeters to their left. Pulling out of the last turn, Mill and Menyoo see up ahead a final set of towers surrounding a bridge. This one is different. Anti-tank weaponry is set up in the front two towers, and a contingent of troops sit outside, blasters drawn and ready to defend the bridge. The bridge itself has a steel barricade set up on both ends of it blocking passage. As the pair approach, Menyoo yells to Mill, "Any ideas for this?" For the first time in a long time Mill's body freezes, he becomes stiff and he cannot act. A lump forms in his throat and his thoughts become fogged. He has not felt fear like this since he was a padawan.
"Uhh, drive close and dodge, I'll think of something." Mill says to Menyoo in a panicked tone, instinctively quietly as if he were afraid to draw attention to himself. What can I do? He thinks to himself, he trembles and looks for an openings. The anti-tank lasers unload at the ground around the speeder as the other vehicle creeps up from behind. Menyoo shouts again, "We need to do something!" and like an animal, Mill lashes out. His trembling becomes a tensing in his muscles. He reaches his hand out. His palm faces the center of the bridge, the center of all of his enemies. His hand tightens and he feels weight in the center of his palm, resistance against his fingers. A delusion of an explosion accompanies a searing pain that rushes through his head. He focuses his will on the bridge, then gritting his teeth he squeezes down on the empty air between his fingers.
Siphoning off his fear, desperation, anger, an object of the force manifests in the center of the bridge and yanks at all of the things surrounding it. Mill reaches his hand out further toward what he imagines as a black ball of swirling energy. He pours out his feelings and wills them into the object. The manifestation acts as a singularity and bends the towers down toward it, the metal of the bridge twists into the air in the direction of the dark energy. Explosions are set off steadily as guns are ripped from soldiers hands and collide in the center. The bodies of screaming soldiers follow the guns and collide in the center, smashing and conjoining with floating scraps of metal clumping together around the concentrated will. A cacophony of colliding metal, high winds, and the cries of soldiers rings out across the expanse of open land surrounding the cynosure. The screams of soldiers gradually die out as each consecutive body is hushed upon joining the pile of detritus.
The land speeder begins getting dragged toward the center of mass. Menyoo yells to mill "ENOUGH!" Mill drops his hand. He lets out a breath he had been holding, his shoulders slump, the pain in his head subsides, the destruction stops. All of the matter from the bridge and the surrounding towers drop into the canyon below, the field becomes silent. From behind, the trailing land speeder stops moving, the soldiers throw their guns onto the ground below them and put their hands into the air.
Menyoo looks over at Mill with equal amazement, concern, and fear. "Are you—" "Fine," Mill cuts off Menyoo's question, "We must go ahead before they collect their forces."
The landspeeder behind them reverses into the canyon pass from where they entered, hoping to avoid the jedi's wrath. Menyoo pulls up to where the bridge stood just minutes prior. The edges of the bridge remain, a small pile of rubble supports tilted metal from where Mill's force pulled it up— enough to use as a ramp. "Well hold on," Menyoo forces the speeder full speed ahead and jumps the expanse. Landing on the other end, they continue riding for another minute, the long wall of the other quarantine wing to their right. They reach the end of this side; a door is cut out in fabric, just like on the opposite end at quarantine 1. Two soldiers on the outside watch their approach and lift their guns in the Jedi's direction. Menyoo ignites his weapon and holds it in their general direction. "Get up," He says to Mill. Mill twists his head heavily in Menyoo's direction, 'Think you can handle it from here?"
"I can handle the fighting, but I am not leaving you here. I'll charge in and deliver the vaccine, but you need to secure our ride out and be with me when it comes." Mill nods weakly at Menyoo and climbs out of the land speeder. They both walk up to the guards before they shout at the Jedi, "Do not come any closer! What is it you want?"
Menyoo answers, "we need to bring in the vaccine. Nobody will get hurt if they don't get in our way. Stand aside and everybody will be fine."
The guards look at each other, then back at Menyoo, "Okay, we'll bring you to the quarantine officer. Just be careful where you wave that thing."
"Not good enough," Menyoo calls back, "I'm bringing it directly into the quarantine itself. The Lurmen must have somebody I can trust to administer it. I'm not taking any chances that it will be brought over to the other side."
The guards answer back, "Okay follow us." Mill and Menyoo follow the men into the building. It looks similar to the other side, but much dirtier and emptier. The other side had rooms full of supplies and food, this side was bare save for some sterilizing equipment and arms storage. As soon as they entered into the second hallway, red lights began flashing, bathing the narrow hallway in shades of crimson. A metal door slams shut in the distance behind them. The guards immediately look at the Jedi "I swear it wasn't us!" Menyoo instantly cut the guards gun vertically in half, and kicked him into the room he stood in front of. The other dropped his gun and ran down the hallway. "We have to go fast! Call TC-26!" Menyoo grabbed Mill's shoulder and pulled him farther into the hallway.
Mill picked up his communicator and called the pilot droid, "TC, we need an evac immediately. Pull up low along the building where our sensors tell you to. We will be out soon." They crossed through three hallways, cutting down two guards each hallway, until they reached a corridor with glass doors alongside the inner wall. Looking out through the glass, Menyoo sees a courtyard bustling with small creatures. They are only about a meter tall and are covered in hair. They wear dirty and loose rags for clothing. Most of them have dark brown hair, but some are more hunched with silver patterns in their fur. With great big yellow eyes and fluffy tails sticking out their backs, they look like stuffed children's toys. They are all in a low cower, afraid of the alarm blaring around them. "Cover your face Mill," Menyoo says, then using his lightsaber he cuts through the glass separating them from the Lurmen. As soon as the glass breaks, steel blast doors drop down to cover rooms on the opposite side of the hallway. Troops fill in from both ends, blasters trained on the jedi. Mill says to Menyoo, "Go, I'll take care of them!"
Menyoo flips into the quarantine and looks around at the frightened creatures, "Don't worry, I am here to help you! Is there a leader? Or doctor of some sort?" Howling-like noises break out amongst the crowd. Menyoo pats at this waist for his translator, then an elderly Lurmen steps out from behind a small dwelling. "I am the elder of the group. What is it you protect us from young one?"
"The Virus sir. I have here a vaccine, but the soldiers want to give it to your colonizers. If there is a doctor or herbalist among you, take it to them. It will not help if you are already sick, but it will prevent others from getting it. There are instructions on how to make more, and enough supplies to for it. We cannot stay long," then Menyoo handed it to the elder Lurmen.
"Thank you. We are indebted to you."
"No need, but troops will be on their way to stop you. Inoculate as many as you can." Then turning back toward the hallway, Menyoo yells out, "Mill, are you ready to go!"
Backing up to the hole in the glass, Mill looked in at Menyoo with his tongue slack and hanging low, deflecting a barrage of bolts, "Been ready!" A bolt comes from behind and Mill twists his saber behind his back and blocks that one too.
Menyoo said one last hearty "farewell!" to the Lurmen and joined Mill in the hallway. They backed up into each other and deflected the onslaught of bolts flying from both directions. Mill asked Menyoo, "And you have a plan out right?"
"Uhhh, I do. Hope your legs are still strong. Cover me." Menyoo rushes forward, Mill is close behind still deflecting. Menyoo disarms and grabs a soldier by the shoulder, then stabs his saber through the back of him. Extending the soldier out toward the other troops shooting at him, he aims the soldier's blaster into the air and lets out three bolts. "Follow me!" Menyoo jumps straight into the air several meters. "Hang on!" Mill calls then jumps after him a second later.
Just like in the interior, cutting open the roof set off an alarm that locks down the entire outside of the building. Metal hidden within the intersecting lines of the diagonal bars spring out of thin crevices and click into place, completely surrounding the compound in a layer of steel. Mill made it in enough time to get through the hole before the metal shut closed; meanwhile, Menyoo jumped high enough to allow the metal to close on time before landing. Their ship is hovering over the building with the side door open, TC-23 can be seen in his tiny bubble compartment of a cockpit keeping the ship steady.
Menyoo jumps into the open door and reaches a hand out to grab Mill when he follows. They both land, then after closing the door behind them, run to the small window a short ways off the ground. Dropping down to their knees, they peer outside to see military fighters flying out from the large base in the center.
