A/N

Hello,

I thought I would give Kal another reason to like Jusik.

Sued13

CHAPTER Thirty

SOB HQ, ARCA Barracks

"What is it son?"

Kal had heard Ordo swear under his breath, and that happened rarely, the swearing.

"Neryssa last checked out as a First Responder in a LAATi en route to the Senate District." Under his HUD, Ordo looked as uncomfortable as he felt even using her first name felt wrong; he had never had many dealings with his sister, only meeting her once or twice but he supposed that was what she was. Plus she was pregnant, although A'den hadn't told him, Prudii had, so she was carrying his nephew or niece. He just realised that they hadn't said which, if they had even asked. He couldn't really get his head around that at the moment but she was family and it was upsetting Kal. And that had to be avoided at all costs.

"Buir, the Zillo Beast's on the rampage in that area."

"Monitor her Ordo and let's see who we can get there quickest, if needed."

Kal had a bad feeling in his gut about this, one that just wouldn't go away.

"Is Jaller around?"

Ordo put his hand to the side of his bucket, his stance showed he was listening intently to the information coming through on his HUD.

"Buir, I've got something else."

There was something in the way Ordo spoke that made Kal look up immediately, even though he couldn't see his face; years of living with his boys had honed his senses to their every move, even though he struggled to hear them sometimes.

"A May Day, a clone and non clone medic trapped in a LAATi, near the Senate district. It matches Neryssa's location from her ID transponder."

Fek! Fek! Fek! Everyone was supposed to be safe on Coruscant. I should have kniwn better. I should have insisted she leave.

"Come on son, we need to find out exactly where she is, what's happening and where A'den is."

In tandem they headed out and were just rounding the corner, when they bumped into Walon Vau, who was on his com; he had only just returned to ARCA Barracks after some work he was doing for himself. He was always tight lipped about that and today he was the last person that Kal wanted to see. He didn't have time for any arguments.

"Where's the fire?" He deadpanned.

"Zillo Beast rampaging the city, or are you above watching HNE?" Kal just couldn't resist the jibe, it was automatic after ten years on Kamino.

"I've kept up with what's been happening but thought you wouldn't be interested, as it's the Senate district and not the lower levels."

"I think it's everywhere." Kal was losing this spat, the one he hadn't been going to engage in.

"Let the Jetii deal with it then; they're knee deep in Senators."

The Jetii was something they both agreed on.

"Can't, It's A'den's girl, looks like she's trapped in a damaged LAATi or worse." Pushed out Kal, as he looked at a holographic map of the Senate District, emerging from his com. It showed a red blip; he was doing his planning on the move. Vau saw the look on Kal's face; the man was too emotionally involved, all the time.

"N12's?"

Vau's face was now unreadable.

"Yes but don't go there."

Vau shrugged, he couldn't even if he wanted to; he would continue to feign indifference.

"Haarchak. Bang in the middle of all this Beast osik." Kal swore again.

Vau was much more interested now, although he couldn't really say he was emotionally involved; it wasn't his style. His own Father had made sure of that but he could ensure what needed to be done would be.

"Ordo, can CSF help?"

"On it Buir."

"I'll bring Mird." Stated Vau, inviting himself to help; Kal had already forgotten he was there and was just stared at him, as if not understanding what he was saying.

"He's good at hunting for things, if need be."

Kal wasn't going to tell him about Ryssa and A'den's little surprise; he didn't have time for any more arguments about soldiers getting emotionally involved. What's done was done.

"Ok, let's go."

"CSF's sending an escort. We should get there quicker." Ordo repeatedwhat he had heard in his HUD.

"Buir?" Ordo had to ask, he wasn't sure if he knew. "You know she's….."

"Yes son, I know. Not the best timing, A'den wanted to explain something to me about that but he didn't have time. Get him on the com as soon as you can."

He tapped his com and stood to one side. A few sentences later and the call was finished.

"He's on his way."

"Fierfek!" Was all Kal could manage to say.

The three raced to the landing area, commandeered two GAR speeders and set off with the CSF escort. He was torn between worry for his grandchild, his son and Ryssa.

They were on Coruscant, the Core, the hub of the Republic, full of the best soldiers in the galaxy. They should have been safe.

.

Vau peeled off with Mird, going in one direction, whilst Kal and Ordo took another route, with CSF; it was difficult to determine which was the quickest. Even the CSF escort was held up; the sky lanes were gridlocked with escaping residents, GAR, CSF, Jedi and the inevitable rubberneckers.

Vau toed his speeder, narrowly missing one group of sight seers; he could never understand the mentality of the rubberneckers but he was determined not to be too late this time; when her body had not been with her Mother's, he had at least had some hope. It was well founded, she was here on Coruscant, with one of the Nulls, that part was just his bad luck but he had still kept his distance. It was still for the best; he knew his family, how they operated. She was safer away from them, untainted by their grotesque values. Best away from him, untainted by him.

But he couldn't just ignore this.

He didn't care what Kal thought but then he never did; their arguments were a way to pass the time and he had to admit, he gained a perverse pleasure from them, from how fast it took to wind the man up, although they hadn't resorted to their fists recently. He had to burn of his anger in some way.

Mird was holding onto the passenger seat with his claws, with no fear of flying; his head held high, ears flapping in the wind, he was in hunting mode, not to kill but to save. He knew who she was and would be protective of her; once he had smelled her scent and Vau had explained who she was, he had been fiercely protective of her then. Strills never forgot a scent and they liked females, mostly, and they especially liked younglings.

Now they just had to find her.

Mird whined and swung his large head to the left; Vau could just see the alley coming up and swerved perilously close to the corner taking the shine off this latest speeder he had acquired. Sparks flew, as he scraped the wall and Mird grumbled in complaint. Vau ignored him, he couldn't afford any distractions, this alley was tight and he flew out of the other side, to see the carnage on the walkway ahead.

"Fierfek!"

Now he was sounding like Kal.

It was the LAATi.

"Find Ad'ika, Mird. Find Ad'ika."

Before he could say another word, or even land, Mird leapt off the speeder onto the durocrete, spreading its legs, using its flaps of skin, to reduce its speed of descent; it's six clawed legs scrambling to to get a purchase to slow it down further, as it hit the durocrete; it finally stopped head in the air and stood sniffing. Deep, long sniffs, finally it decided and headed to the downed craft. A crowd that had started to surround it, parted quickly to let the strange, dangerous looking animal through them. It scrabbled at the side of the vehicle first trying to get through the crushed doors but when it couldn't make any headway there, it bounded around the vehicle before finding a small hole and pushing through the mangled wreckage; first his claws scraping debris away for a path in, followed by his large head, pushing aside more debris, as he tunnelled through to his prize. He stopped, sniffed again followed by a small whine. Lying flat on his stomach, with only it's two hindmost legs showing outside the LAATi and its tail swishing; he was giving small little whines that almost sounded like a newborn baby crying.

"Good Mird, stay. Keep Ad'ika safe."

She was alive; Mird would not have been scrabbling to get in the LAATi if she was dead.

.

Tod heard the scraping noise and secured himself himself in preparation for the LAATi to fall again; there was nothing he could do for Ryssa but the craft stayed still.

"What's happening?" Whispered Ryssa.

"Not sure." replied Tod.

Then parts of the wreckage moved and the head of an animal pushed into the interior of the LAATi; it whined. He drew his blaster and pointed it straight at the strange, golden furred animal; he had seen some animals in his time with the GAR but this one took his breath away, literally, it stank. He could barely keep his stomach contents down. And he knew why. He had seen one of these creatures once before, on Kamino, when he was a tiny cadet. It had bounded up close to him and sniffed; he had stayed still on the advice of a black suited Mandalorian training sergeant and the creature had moved on. He had asked what it was.

A strill.

Who the Fek has a strill on Coruscant?

.

A'den was armoured up and out of the apartment faster than any other time in his life; he had spoken to her less than minutes ago. Now he was on the com to Ordo getting an update. They had found the LAATi; he jumped on his speeder and headed straight to the coordinates that Ordo sent him. He was thankful his brother was onto this. He trusted him implicitly.

The traffic was worse than normal; he cut into the CSF com bands, had the HNE on for updates on the beast and Ordo updating him. He had hoped he had seen the last of that beast on the Resolute.

"Fek!" There was wall to wall speeders everywhere; his speeders engines screeched in protest as he pulled upwards into another less congested skylane, to set off in another direction, hoping this would be better. He had an update from Ordo; they had found her.

Trapped!

.

Whatever Tod had given her had stopped the pain but Ryssa knew was it was giving her dreams and hallucinations, as she drifted in and out of consciousness. She had no idea what was reality:

...

The arguing voices were getting louder.

"If the Count knew who she was, she would never be safe."

"Your Father?"

"HE is the Count."

"Is that the best you can do?" Her mother's voice was strident.

...

"Mum?"

"Ryssa? It's me Tod. Someone's found us. Stay with me."

Ryssa moaned again as her eyes closed.

"Fek!" He wished they'd hurry up or there would another corpse in the LAATi, as he was fairly sure the pilots were dead.

...

The soft golden furred body of the strill lay on her feet; she wriggled her toes in its soft warm fur and it responded with a rumble, as she sat at her small desk reading and practising her writing. Mother insisted it be legible and grammatically correct.

"How can you give instructions, if the person cannot read or understand them because you cannot write them correctly. It leads to confusion."

Mother's friend nodded in agreement, as did the strill.

"You can have him in your room, so long as you wipe up after him, ad'ika." The man in black armour had said, handing her a bundle of cloths.

'My name's Ryssa' she thought but she had given up telling him, just as she eventually gave up trying to get the animal, he called Mird, a strill, to stop drooling and simply wiped it up.

...

Ryssa forced open her eyes again and peered into the corner of the LAATi she could actually see. Yes, she was definitely hallucinating; there was that yellow animal from her dreams. It's small eyes fixed on her, cocking it's head to one side, it was sniffing and drooling simultaneously, just as she was dreaming.

Definitely hallucinating, she thought, as she closed her eyes again.

.

Kal and Ordo finally managed to land, half a block away but it was the nearest they could get to the downed LAATi. They pushed their way through the crowds that had gathered around it; it was a rare occurrence to see a military vehicle downed in the middle of Coruscant and Ordo's voice enhanced by his HUD ensured that the crowd parted quickly. As they emerged from the crowd, they saw Vau and his strill standing beside it, or rather the strikes backside emerging from the LAATi and Vau scanning the vehicle.

"It's a mess inside but there are two life forms and only one is a clone; I'm just trying to get through to him on his Com."

Kal surveyed the damage; both pilots dead. Quickly, he hoped. It lay on its side, a crumpled mess. There was no way the sides vents would open, assuming it was just like the normal Med. Evac. vehicle. He couldn't see any modifications.

"Options Ordo?"

"A call has gone out for more First Responders, we need cutting and moving equipment; I'm trying to lock on to the Troopers HUD channel, then I can find out more. They were alive just after impact as the May Day was issued confirming this. It keeps repeating but that's's no guarantee….." He stopped speaking, after seeing the look on Kal's face, just for a second.

"Sergeant can I be of any help?"

The voice of Bardon Jusik cut through the hum of the crowd that surrounded them; Kal whirled around, to see him pushing his way through that same crowd. Bodies moved as they recognised his dull brown robes, as those of a Jedi.

"General. Yes, if there's anything you can do." This was the first time he had been really happy to see a Jedi. Although anybody looking less like a general fighting a war, you would be hard pressed to find.

As much as he hated the Jetii, as a cult, this one was different. He could tell and he had proved himself, and was proving himself again; Kal found himself liking the lad from the moment he met him.

"What have we got?"

"A clone and non-clone, trapped, both alive when they last contacted us."

Bardon Jusik got the 'look' in his eyes, the one that Kal always identified with a Jedi using the Force; he lifted his hand and pushed it out towards the vehicle.

"Yes, Sergeant. There's still two people alive in there."

He knew who one was, he recognised the force signature, even though he had only met her once.

He closed his hand, slowly, into a fist and pulled it back towards him, equally slowly; the LAATi righted itself inch by inch, the durasteel screeching in protest, and moved away from the wall it had hit. It wobbled a few times but finally settled still.

.

Ryssa heard the strill scrabble and whine, as she felt the LAATi move again; she waited for the inevitable falling feeling as they fell off the walkway but nothing happened. There was a screeching sound as the LAATi appeared to straighten and the golden furred animal moved quickly to lay next to her; it felt oddly comforting as she lost consciousness again.