"Irritated statement: The Sith agent is choosing to hide and wait for us to leave, prolonging the assignment beyond the optimal timeframe."
"Caution: The Sith agent is not one to hide from droids, even those of our own design. The Sith agent will make a reappearance soon enough. We must be ready."
A single lightsaber swipe brought both droids tumbling to the ground, followed up by quick stabs to every control module. Even then Kiarna wasn't satisfied, quickly placing explosive charges in the remains before moving on.
It hadn't taken long to determine just how many assassin droids there were. Over two dozen had scattered throughout the settlement, and at least three were anti-Jedi class. She had located less than half of them, only knowing about the rest from their brief communication. Whoever wanted her dead was going to very long lengths to see it happen.
For the moment at least, she had time to plan her next move. The ship was some distance away, and she couldn't maintain Masaka's enhanced speed for long. More importantly, it was an ability the droids were unlikely to know about, and thus wouldn't include in calculations. Quite possibly the only advantage she had over them at that given moment, especially with Carudan out of contact.
"Report: We are approaching the last known location of units Seven and Eight with caution. Anticipating traps or an ambush. Communications will remain open from now on."
Kiarna cursed under her breath as she began moving on through the tunnel, switching her lightsaber back off to minimize the visible light. The thick walls around her had done well to block out their infrared vision so far.
"Taunt: Sith agent! Spare us all the bore of trying to find you by coming to the marketplace! We promise a death worthy someone of your status."
She tugged at the edge of her mask as the robotic voice blasted into her ears. Having the capability to hack into her mask was both terrifying, and rather rude. "I don't make deals with metalheads. You're all devoid of fun."
"Contemplation: It is ironic that you refer to us as 'metalheads', intended as a slur, when you Sith seem to have quite the affinity for metal masks. Perhaps this hypocrisy is a sign of underlying contempt for droids that perform your line of work in a superior fashion."
For a moment, she wanted to tell the commanding droid to shut up, if only to save her ears from the vocals that annoyed her greatly. It was exactly how Maarani had reacted to her own projections.
"It just means that I have no reason to care about anything a droid says, especially one trying to kill me." Kiarna ducked her head down as she reached the end of the tunnel, concealed behind a pile of large drums. There was no turning back to find another way beneath the upper level of the settlement, and she wasn't exactly someone who could blend into a crowd of dirty mercenaries and black market traders.
"Alert: Sith agent located! Engage anti-Jedi tactics and begin attack!"
A volley of blaster shots tore through the drums next to her, bringing the pile crashing down to drive her into the open. There were eight droids up on the surrounding buildings, armed with blaster rifles, and almost twice that closing in with vibrostaves from all directions.
The presumed leader approached, heavily clad in cortosis alloy plates that covered all vital systems and joints. Small radiators were attached to each plate to make it harder still to cut through. Whoever sent them was far too prepared to take Sith down.
"Statement: I did not expect you to actually comply with my earlier request. Seeing as you have however, I am willing to postpone your execution for a few minutes."
Kiarna kept her lightsaber ready anyway, taking careful note of where every droid was located. "Why, so you can monologue on why I'm suddenly on the hit list, who sent you and how much your programming says you'll enjoy cutting me down?"
The lead droid twirled the vibrostaff around and planted it into the sandy ground with a great amount of finesse. "Sarcasm: That is exactly what I was planning to do. You truly are a perceptive one, Sith agent." His head turned to the other nearby droids, who closed in on Kiarna, staves pointing towards her neck. "Statement: You have been messing in affairs the Sith have no business in. Termination is the only sufficient punishment for being a busybody."
"What affairs?" She tensed as one of the blades was nudged in her direction. "I've been killing Jedi for twelve years. They're not cowardly enough to send HK droids out to kill Sith though."
One of the droids clashed his staff against the lightsaber, demonstrating that they were also resistant. She nearly lashed out at him for such a bold move, which would have brought about her demise that much sooner.
"Clarification: You have made contact with the Twi'lek woman, Tegama'Arani. Our contractors cannot allow any Sith who have done so to live. Especially those who seem set on pursuing her."
Kiarna couldn't help sighing at that. "Is she important, then? All I saw was a Republic pilot with a death wish that I couldn't be bothered to kill."
There was another pause from the droid. Brief, but a strong sign she had momentarily confused his programming.
"Sarcasm: Your wit in trying to deceive us into revealing information knows no bounds, surely we are no match for someone of your intellect, Sith agent." He lifted his staff out from the ground, bringing the blade up towards her mask with another fluid movement. "Reassuring statement: Consider this a mercy killing. Any organic who comes in contact with Tegama'Arani will come to desire a release from their torment soon enough. So we are told anyway."
The drive for self-preservation told her to ignore what the droid was saying. Even if the Twi'lek had somehow afflicted her with something, she had direct access to the most powerful Sith in the galaxy. Death was far from her only 'cure'.
"Why not just kill her and save the trouble?" In response, one of the droids behind her began to thrust the staff forward.
Masaka's training came into full effect as she leapt up into the air out of reach, while simultaneously taking hold of her lightsaber with the Force and swinging it at each of the droid's heads. Barely a second had passed between her leap and the loud clatter of fourteen HK-50s smashing their vibrostaves against each other, now deprived of their vision.
Blaster shots were already starting to fly in her direction as she landed behind the pile of metal, which she hastily deflected away from herself.
"Admiration: You certainly have great skill with the Force. Under other circumstances, it might just be entertaining to work with you. But, a contract is a contract."
Kiarna barely had time to turn before the commanding droid fired his own blaster rifle. The shot tore right into her left shoulder, burning down to the bone through the muscle. It took every ounce of strength she had left just to keep hold of her lightsaber. Lifting it back up to defend herself would be impossible now however.
The droid was well aware of that, signalling the others to cease their attack. As the blaster was levelled right at her mask, he spoke again. "Statement: You healed Tegama'Arani out of pity. As I stated, what she does to others is far worse than execution."
A spray of gunfire tore through the alleyway, shredding several of the droids up above before coming into focus on the leader. The sheer impact caused him to stagger backwards, but his armor plating held out.
There was no need for Kiarna to think twice about running towards the approaching vessel, clutching at her shoulder along the way. Carudan was demonstrating impressive skill in piloting her ship as he brought it in very close to the buildings either side of her. With the last of her strength, she leapt up for the open hatch, landing on her bad shoulder in the process.
"Go!" She kicked at the hydraulic arm on her right to push herself further into the ship, narrowly avoiding her foot getting caught as the hatch closed back up.
"There's gunships closing in! I can't come help until we've cleared the system!"
"I'll manage! Just focus on flying! And don't scorch the paint!" Kiarna's neck was now twisted up against the deck as she slowly pushed herself off the hatch ramp. The whole ship was swerving around drastically, presumably as they narrowly avoided incoming blaster fire.
Her lightsaber finally slipped away from her fingers and began rolling along the metal floor. The length of the arm itself was starting to grow numb. She needed treatment very quickly. "Any time now would be great! I am not going to lose my arm over a shoulder injury!"
"You fly the ship around the Hammerhead that just showed up then!"
The ship lurched again as she tried to pull herself back up. Her right hand slipped off the corner of the ledge she had gripped onto, slicing into her palm.
"Hold on!"
She jammed her hand in under her limp arm as the ship rolled abruptly. It didn't do a whole lot to stop the blood that was seeping out over her side, but it did keep her from sustaining any further wounds.
The feeling of the ship entering hyperspace was relieving beyond measure. More so when she finally heard Carudan rush down from the forward section. Strangely enough, she wasn't concerned about how helpless she looked at that moment. "About time, huh?" She clutched her hand in when she was lifted up and carried on towards the rear compartment.
Carudan laid her out on what obviously served as a torture table normally. A quick tool switch would allow it to heal her instead. "I take it you've not been physically injured like this before."
"I don't get into fights with droids that know how to distract Sith often." Kiarna began grasping at the collar of her coat, trying to work the binding free. It only aggravated the slash in her hand. To her frustration, Carudan took hold of her wrist and pushed it back down on the table.
"Give me a few moments to stop your shoulder from getting infected and I will sort out your hand." Mutterings about infuriating bipedals followed as he carefully poured a small amount of kolto into the open wound. Leaving that to begin working, he then moved around to the other side and began attending to her hand. "This medical technology is far more limited than what I'm used to. I mean overall, not the things here you've twisted into torture tools."
Kiarna sighed again at that, trying not to think about the cold lump inside her shoulder. "I suppose they had better methods of healing ten thousand years ago, or whenever you're supposed to be from." A surge of pain nearly caused her to jerk her hand away when he applied more of the fluid to the slash. She didn't like being on the receiving end at all.
Carudan eventually wrapped her hand up to keep the kolto in place. His new concern was getting her coat off, seeing as she had been unable to do it herself. "I suppose you have a personal tailor back on your ship who will get all the bloodstains out, and repair the gaping hole." After some frustrated fumbling, he finally worked the collar bindings loose, allowing her to do the rest.
After some struggle, she finally opened it up and eased it off her shoulders. It exposed the full extent of the blaster wound, around which a large bruise had formed. She would need far more than a jar of kolto. "We need to head back. I can't trust any neutral hospital with those droids and whoever else after me."
"I don't think you have that long before it gets worse. We'll have to chance it if you want to keep that arm." Already he was calculating what the best option would be. They had to keep her from being recognized certainly, and while there were certainly places that wouldn't ask questions, they were also places with poor medical standards.
"I get the impression that you won't take the mask off for any reason, even to conceal your identity. Rather ironic I suppose." Even now he could tell that it was more than just a covering. There was dark energy infused into the metal itself.
Kiarna was quick to reaffirm that sentiment, grasping around the front of it. "There's a black overlay to put over it, along with Sith robes. Neutral hospitals won't question it if they think I'm just another Jedi hunter. Just make sure it's not a Republic hospital I end up in."
A slow nod followed from Carudan as he left her there, headed to her sparse meditation room. Already there were concerns about his choice of investigator to tag along with, which he quickly pushed aside on finding the aforementioned items. She still had to divulge what information she had gathered so far after all.
"Medical discharge, due to mental instability."
Dana tilted her head forward slightly. Maarani had said herself that it was the outcome she expected, but there was a definite tone of disappointment to be heard. "I don't think they give honourable discharges for crashing fighters. Just something to keep in mind."
The Twi'lek looked at the ground for a while, the papers in question clutched tightly in her hand. "After seven and a half years of flying in the Corps, it's weird just knowing that it's all gone for me now. Back to being a civilian." When she finally allowed herself to move past it for the time being, she shoved the papers into an inner pocket of her jacket and looked back to Dana. "I suppose it's going to really hit me soon enough."
"This is what you feel is best though, right? Earlier you said that you were just an average pilot, and it got lonely on the front lines." She stood back up as Maarani began walking back down the hall to keep pace with her. "I can't say I know what that's like, Jedi brat and all, but you've basically got the freedom to go wherever you want now, either way. And now there's not even going to be an issue if you find that one woman."
Maarani forced a smile at that. Finding love was possibly the very last thing on her mind at that moment. "You're the one who's supposed to tell me where to go next. I'm not sure the Council would approve a side trip to tour the galaxy."
The sunlight outside was dazzling as they left the moderately lit building behind. Dana was very quick to adapt, Maarani less so.
"There's fifty thousand places that will sell shades, I'm sure we can find you a pair that suits."
By then, Maarani was shielding her eyes with her hand as they approached the airspeeder provided to them. "Why bother? It'd just make me look like a punk, especially with the jacket and all." She hopped into the vehicle and marked out their next destination down in the lower levels. "So you're sure they said to get a grey market ship to use?"
Dana pulled her cloak up around herself as she got into the seat behind Maarani. "If there's Sith or other groups after you, we need to avoid leaving a paper trail. Jedi won't deal in black market goods, and it's far too costly to get erased from official sources. Besides, older ships have more charm to them." As they launched off, she slowly eased herself into the front seat, finding a view that wasn't blue lekku rather more appealing. "You know how to repair ships, right?"
Maarani slowly turned her head, lips tightened together as she began shaking it. "I assumed you did. Or there'd be an instruction manual we can download and read on the way." She could tell Dana wasn't all too impressed. "I flew fighters, I didn't put them back together when they caught fire."
"Well, reading manuals it is then." As they began the descent into The Works, she undid the clasp on her lightsaber as a precaution. "How much experience do you have with the sort that do grey market deals?"
"I took an old cargo ship that one of my distant cousins used to fly and swapped it for a small blockade runner. I recognized some Rodian as the one I had to trade with to avoid getting screwed over." The smell hit her hard as they passed through the atmospheric layer. Down there, the air seemed to contain just about every toxic, smelly and repulsive particle and scent possible. Yet again, her Jedi companion was unfazed. "Do they sell gas masks down here?"
Dana shrugged at that, concentrating on expanding the pocket of fresh air she had formed to include Maarani as well. "Never needed one. Just stay close and I'll do my best to keep it breathable."
They soon approached a landing deck, bustling with activity from all variety of people and droids. A noticeable space began to form as they noticed Dana's attire, those not already moving hastily away staring at the pair as they disembarked.
Maarani grinned briefly before lunging at the crowd. "Boo!"
Quite a few more began stumbling away, apparently spooked by that. Dana was far less amused by it than the Twi'lek. "Maarani, that's not really a nice thing to do to these people." She began urging her towards the direction of the shipyards, maintaining an awareness of those they passed by. There was no telling when someone stupid enough to jump them would make such an attempt.
As they drew closer, Maarani began to notice a steadily growing amount of droids, most of which were badly damaged or outright non-functional, while the amount of people they passed declined. It was an eerie feeling to be surrounded by so many machines with faces. In comparison, none of them even acknowledged their existence.
"What I wouldn't give for…" Her attention had been caught as they passed by a narrow alleyway. A Khramboan was huddled up on a pile of boxes, filthy rags wrapped around his head and form. On his right was a childcare droid, the only sign of activity coming from its flickering eyes. "Dana, hold up a second."
Dana turned to what Maarani had noticed, rather confused. "A poor Khramboan and a nanny droid. Am I not seeing something?"
Maarani was already approaching the Khramboan, keeping a reasonable distance while she reached into her other pocket. "Hey, buddy. You still with us?"
There was a grumble from the pile of rags. Eventually the Khrambodan lifted his head out of it, blinking several times at the Twi'lek to clear his blurred vision. "Missis want what? Missis bother Koogora why?"
She glanced back at Dana with a grin, nodding her head towards the droid. "What's the deal with the droid, Koogora?"
Koogora grumbled again as he looked at the nanny droid, tapping the clamp around its head with a disparaging sigh. "Missis droid scare others away. Koogora sleep best he can."
Maarani pulled out a small bag of credits, which she proceeded to pour out into her hand. "Three hundred for the droid. Smart guy knows how to get around without being noticed I bet. This'll get you home or wherever."
For a moment, Koogora looked between the credits and the droid, apparently taking a while to make up his mind. After tapping the droid's clamp again, he finally nodded. "Deal." A swift punch to the droid head caused it to blare into life, at which point he scurried off with the credits in hand.
"Mistress! Mistress! Mistress!" The droid flailed all four of its arms out momentarily as it screamed, before returning to a catatonic state.
It was a bit much for Dana, who finally moved up to Maarani's side. "Three hundred credits for that? I can understand trying to be charitable, but there's every chance that poor soul is going to get knifed or worse for those credits."
Maarani was preoccupied with the clamp at that point. It connected to every one of the droid's data ports, presumably a last measure to keep it under control. "This is going to be our mechanic. We clean it up and fix whatever needs work, then download the ship manual into the computer. All it'll have to do is look at a problem and recite what needs to be done to fix it."
After some thought, she took hold of the upper arms and hauled the droid up. It immediately steadied itself, adopting a very standard pose. The head continued to face forward, though the disturbance had caused what remained of the synthflesh to dangle down in peeled layers.
"Even if that does work, we could get an actual maintenance droid for that much."
"One that has a nice figure, and will communicate with words? I can't stand beeps and whistles."
Dana sighed, looking at the droid again. It looked far from nice with the drooping flesh, grimy exterior and caged head. "It's your money, I suppose. Just promise me you'll be more tactful in selecting a ship, seeing as we're buying that on Jedi funds, and we need to breathe air when between planets somehow."
"Yeah yeah, I'll know what we need when I see it." Maarani took a few steps back, watching the droid slowly step forward to follow her. "Guess the legs have crusted from lack of use. They still work at least."
She walked back out of the alleyway and returned to the path towards the shipyards, her new droid following behind closely.
Dana shook her head and followed on shortly after.
Sand was kicked up everywhere as she struggled against the bindings. It earned another shock stab to her side. Shortly after they gave up and began physically dragging her through the scrub by the rope she was tied up by.
Through the sharp grass that scratched her skin while being dragged through it, she could see the torches that marked the tribe boundary. Further in among the tents were many of the tribe members, also carrying fiery torches as they stared at her writhing form.
As they approached the village fire, they began shocking her repeatedly. In the shoulder, chest, stomach and legs, even a few to the base of her lekku. Dragging her had apparently become too difficult, so they were now settling for herding her like a wild animal.
She could hear hissing, feel spittle striking the raw burns left behind by the shock sticks, taste blood in her mouth as she was kicked in the jaw.
"Silence!"
The voice reverberated through her montrals rather painfully, though it was dull compared to what she had just been put through. Feeling the rope tighten around her neck as it was tugged up by the elder dulled those other pains in turn. The rough texture was on the verge of cutting in as she was forced to look up at him.
"Mikan Sol, we have witnessed the crimes you have committed. So heinous they are, we dare not repeat them to others!"
Mikan could see the lightsaber being drawn from his back, shining bright green against the fiery light around them.
"There is only one punishment that comes remotely close to being sufficient. Those who cannot bear to watch must leave now."
She coughed up another glob of blood, which trickled down from her lips as she tried to face the ground. As hands began to grasp her left lekku, her eyes started flickering in amber. It wasn't from the lights surrounding them.
"From this day, Mikan Sol, you are severed from this tribe!"
The elder brought the lightsaber down beside her head in a single swing.
Lasidia's eyes opened. This time, she was overlooking the Sith fleet, what little there was of it anyway. Her departure into the galaxy in pursuit of knowledge had been delayed, not by the Jedi, or the needs of the Sith under her command however.
She was soon standing in front of the reason, staring at her through the small round window. "You triggered that memory, despite being suppressed. How?"
Masaka was visibly trying to smile as she approached the door, though there was no real emotion behind it. "Wouldn't you like to know how?" As Lasidia moved to leave, she pressed her hand up against the small window. "The question you should be asking is why. Why was I trying to see what motivated you to reform the Sith so soon after Darth Traya's defeat?"
The Togruta was silent for several seconds as she stared back at the young Twi'lek. She didn't like having an invasion of her thoughts happen a second time. "You've seen through my eyes what I've already told you, then. Is there anything further to discuss, or were you just growing bored of sitting here in this chamber?"
"It didn't answer the question to my satisfaction." Masaka lowered her hand down again, though remained standing in position. "Cutting lekku off is a very savage punishment. You say you did it to protect everyone from my overwhelming power. But you weren't even actually Sith when they did it to you. Why were they so enraged?"
Lasidia slowly reached for the control panel, unlocking the door with a gesture. As it swung open, she pulled her hood back, bathing the scorched wound in light. "I was exploring powers of the dark side, with a young girl who agreed with me in that such knowledge could be put to use." Her head tilted down a little as her lips tightened. A hint of regret seeped through. "I noticed our skin was starting to shift towards red, something that would've given it away. The tribe found us while I was attempting to conceal the colour shift. I was deep in concentration, and when they broke it, her skin evaporated. She didn't survive more than a few minutes after that."
"And they assumed that you intended to do that, a test to be later used on them all." Masaka slowly folded her arms as she leaned against the doorway. "You were close to this girl, not unlike your closeness with Kiarna. You blame your tribe for her death."
"Of course I blame those bastards for her death!" It took Lasidia a moment to realize she had just sliced her lip open with her teeth. The damage was quick to heal, but it left trails of blood dripping down her chin. Just as it had twenty years previously. "The elders were all Jedi, judgemental hypocrites who tried to cover up anything that they did not agree with. This is why I spent years gathering every surviving Sith who hadn't defected to the light into my forces. Do you now have the answer you wanted, Twi'lek?"
Masaka gave a very half-hearted clap, her slight smile still present. "And yet, you were prepared to spare all of those young Jedi at the training grounds. I remember you had to give the order to kill everyone specifically. Your hate is limited to your people, and the traitors. I was wrong about you, Lasidia." Her gaze darted across her face, taking the opportunity to look at the markings. There were few that marked Sith prowess. "In a way, you have a noble goal for the Sith. You are more concerned with the success of the whole, than yourself."
Her smile grew just a little more as she caught on fully. "You're setting up the Sith to be ruled by Kiarna. The platonic daughter, the darkest of the dark, the woman who was Sith from birth. You don't believe you can lead without the thirst for revenge, but she will go on. Her only reason for existing being the desire to inflict pain."
There was nothing Lasidia could say to dispute the assessment. Eventually she pulled her hood back up and stepped to the side of the doorway. "Do not misuse this gesture of trust, Twi'lek. Your freedom is at my whim, and this time Rak'Sakar will be there to take you down, not my apprentice."
The gesture was a surprise to Masaka, who slowly stepped out of the room in case she was hurled back in again. When that didn't transpire, she turned to Lasidia fully. There was one other question on her mind. "Why are you terrified of my sister? She is a useless waste of flesh. Someone who didn't inherit any capability with the Force from either parent is not what I would consider a threat to the galaxy."
Lasidia might have smiled, if the situation were not so grave in her mind. "Then you do not know her at all. What she represents, what she can do." She began slowly walking back up the long corridor that led to the cell, followed by Masaka after she took her own hood up. "Her lack of sensitivity to the Force is a deception. She is very much alive with it, but someone went to great lengths to make her, and all of us believe otherwise. I don't know where her true power lies, but I intend to find it, and destroy it."
