I know this is a little late in the day, but I want to say "Happy Independence Day" to all my fellow American readers! I hope everyone is doing well and that you all enjoy this new chapter.
Teraan immediately snapped up into action, slapping a new tibanna gas cartridge home into her blaster. Both her and Pulaski's blasters were trained on the entrance to the small chamber they were in. "Rynn, get Henry ready to move."
The twi'lek complied, slinging Henry's good arm over her shoulders and struggling to pull the larger man to his feet. She held the blaster Teraan had given her in her quivering free hand.
Teraan and Pulaski crouched on either side of the entrance. Pulaski spoke quietly. "Nothing's appearing on infrared."
"Maybe they don't register on infrared?" Rynn suggested, drawing a quiet curse from Teraan. They flipped on weapon lights, casting cones of light through the entrance to illuminate the fossilized eggs.
Skritch. Skritch. Skritch. They could hear the skittering of claws against stone coming closer, then stop.
Teraan looked at Pulaski, locking eyes with him through the helmet he wore. She motioned with a small twitch of her head and he nodded. Teraan slowly advanced out into the next room, hugging the wall left of the entrance. Pulaski followed, going the opposite way. They advanced towards the entrance of that room, hugging the walls as they did to minimize the chances of being flanked or cut off.
The quiet shouted into Teraan's ears. The aliens were out there somewhere, searching for them.
Pulaski and Teraan extinguished their torches, plunging them into near complete darkness. Pulaski thought he saw something flit across his vision, a shadow. He pulled out a flare, igniting it and throwing it through the entrance to land amongst loose stones, casting red light and shadows everywhere.
There was some more skittering and the clatter of rocks being loosened and kicked, but nothing came to the flare itself. Pulaski turned his head over to look at Teraan. She jerked her head back towards where Rynn and Henry were now kneeling. The muzzle of Rynn's blaster was sticking out of the entrance, shaking with fear and nervousness.
Pulaski and Teraan slowly began backtracking towards Rynn. Pulaski froze, hearing a new sound. A slow, methodical dripping. Something hit his shoulder. A clear stream of viscous liquid slowly ran down the white plastoid. He flipped his weapon light on and slowly raised it towards the ceiling, still backtracking as quietly as he could.
Instead of the organic coral that made the walls and floor of the structure, the ceiling glinted in the light like obsidian. A head swiveled and an eyeless face peered straight into his own. Pulaski opened fire with a yell, falling backwards as he did.
The aliens detached from the ceiling, dropping down on top of him and Teraan. Teraan dodged out of the way of an alien and fired, hitting it multiple times in the skull, her blaster's power blowing it into a smoking crater.
Pulaski fell onto his back, blazing away at the creatures. He cut one down, but another ran up behind it's fallen brethren and pounced. Iron arms locked around Pulaski's torso and his finger instinctively reacted by jerking on the trigger of his blaster, blowing a hole in the alien's torso.
The creature's blood poured out over his armor, melting through it. Melted plastoid fused to skin as the acid ate its way through the body glove into the flesh underneath.
Pulaski screamed.
Teraan heard Pulaski scream, but in the split second that she saw his spasming body underneath a dead alien she knew it was too late for him. She turned and sprinted towards the entrance to Rynn and Henry's chamber, crossing the distance in a couple strides.
She heard Rynn yell for her to duck, and Teraan immediately dove in a forward roll as Rynn managed to land a hit on the alien that was right behind her. Claws had closed inches from Teraan's neck. She flipped over onto her back and opened up into it with her blaster, blowing holes in its chest.
Acid blood hit the plastoid on her left leg. Teraan tore it off the body glove before it ate through, throwing the ruined piece of armor to the side. Scrambling backwards, she spared one last glance at Pulaski, who was now motionless and silent. Her eyes widened as she spotted one of the grenades smoking on his belt, the acid having eaten into it.
Teraan turned and dove into Rynn and Henry, knocking them to the ground as the grenade exploded. Multiple subsequent detonations followed as the other grenades he had went off, the shockwaves blowing the entrance open and throwing Teraan into the wall.
Crespi fell in step with Barriss as they slowly but steadily advanced through the alien ship. Ahsoka and Kowalski once again taking point, her lightsaber extinguished but in hand. Massey watched their backs with Hoop. Kaeden had taken over helping to carry Easely. It was obvious that Crespi wanted to talk with Barriss about her knowledge of the Force.
"So you were once a Jedi as well?" Crespi asked the question Barriss had been expecting.
"I was," Barriss responded. She didn't want to admit too much. Staying tight-lipped had kept her alive for years under the Empire's reign.
"And?" Crespi asked expectantly. "How did you survive the Purge?"
"I was not a part of the Jedi Order during the Purge," Barriss admitted. "The Jedi in me died long beforehand."
"What do you mean?"
Barriss glanced towards Ahsoka, fearful of saying something that would cause her old friend to go off. The togruta could probably hear them right now. Crespi spotted her wary glance. He probably put two and two together having noticed the anger and distrust that flooded Ahsoka's face whenever she looked at Barriss. Crespi leaned in and whispered. "Did it have something to do with Tano?"
She nodded silently. Crespi got the message. "I understand."
Crespi quickened his pace back to the point group. She respected that about Crespi, he always led from the front even with his accelerated aging. Ahsoka turned her head at the sound of Crespi's approach, but didn't pay it much mind and continued reaching out through the Force in an attempt to locate the aliens through their hate and rage.
Barriss wasn't sure what she should be feeling right now. It had been so many years since she had last seen her friend. The Ahsoka Barriss remembered had been the one standing before the Senate, about to receive the verdict of getting sentenced to death… all because of Barriss. Barriss remembered the disbelief in Ahsoka's eyes when Knight Skywalker stormed in, Barriss dragged in flanked by four temple guards. She remembered the disbelief turn into betrayal as Barriss condemned the Jedi before the Senate.
She never meant for everything to happen that way. Barriss had been trying to help her friend… to save her. Dark times were coming, that Barriss had been certain of. The Jedi Order had strayed from their role as galactic peacekeepers to become generals in a war that they should never have been in. Barriss knew that they would be destroyed by it, but had wanted to prevent Ahsoka from being dragged down with the Order. So Barriss had acted.
The war had corrupted many things in Barriss' life. She wanted to prevent Ahsoka from being scarred forever by the horrors of war. She had felt a bond form between the two of them in the aftermath of destroying the factory on Geonosis and had felt it strengthen when Ahsoka refused to kill Barriss after she had become infected by the brain worms.
Ahsoka was like a younger sister to Barriss, who was a few years older than the togruta. Barriss had tried to get Ahsoka to see that there was more beyond living as a warrior. They had spent many nights on the roof of the Jedi Temple, watching speeders crisscross the sky as they discussed many things: the war, the Force, what their futures would hold. Barriss had expressed her desire to travel the galaxy as a Jedi Peacekeeper once the war was over, healing the communities that had been ravaged by the Clone War. Ahsoka had not known what to do once the war ended. Her entire training had been marked by warfare. Barriss had told her to do whatever felt natural. Whatever Ahsoka felt she should do.
Feelings didn't come with 'right' or 'wrong' labels. You felt what you felt. Barriss knew what she had felt: the imminent destruction of the Jedi. So Barriss had framed Ahsoka for the bombing of the Jedi Temple, knowing that she would be found guilty and sentenced to prison. Barriss would leave the Order in protest, and break Ahsoka out of prison when the Jedi inevitably fell. Then they would lose themselves in the galaxy, helping any struggling communities they came across.
But then Admiral Tarkin had pushed for Ahsoka to receive the death sentence and everything fell apart. Barriss couldn't come forward then, she didn't want to die. Just as she would abandon the Jedi to save Ahsoka, Barriss had abandoned Ahsoka to save herself. Why Barriss wasn't sentenced to death, she didn't know.
And now Ahsoka had been thrown back into her life. She looked different: fiercer, hardened by years of living covertly under the Empire's reign. She was still a warrior… Barriss guessed that was all Ahsoka knew how to be.
Barriss was happy for her friend though. She had seen the way Ahsoka looked at Doctor Larte and had felt the happiness in the togruta of seeing the Doctor alive again. It was similar to the happiness and joy Barriss felt when seeing friends that had survived long, difficult battles. They were obviously good friends, maybe even more than that based on the feelings of pure joy that had radiated out of Kaeden when Fulcrum had first entered the medbay.
Barriss doubted she'd escape this mine alive, that any of them would. They were facing an enemy they had never seen before with limited effective weaponry in an unknown environment.
But if anyone was going to get out alive, Barriss would put her money on Ahsoka.
The corridor twisted and turned, ending at a stairwell leading down deeper into the ship. Ahsoka couldn't sense anything moving nearby, but she did sense something odd. Somewhere in the direction they needed to go, Ahsoka could sense a faint sign of life. Someone was alive… but it almost felt as if they were subdued.
Ahsoka told Crespi of what she had felt, and he nodded gravely. "Perhaps my missing stormtroopers."
They descended the stairs slowly, coming out into a large room with vaulted ceilings. As they came out into it, Ahsoka's face scrunched up as a nasty smell bombarded her. It was the same that had made the dropship so unpleasant.
Mining equipment lay scattered across the ground, strewn randomly. Dark spots stained the ground, with streaks leading down one corridor. Blood trails. Pits and holes dotted the floor, no doubt where the aliens' acid blood had been spilled and melted through.
The coral walls and ceiling were coated in the same glossy resin that the mining tunnels and vented corridors in Charon Station had. Lights had been strung up. "This must be where the miners had come through," Hoop said as the rearguard entered the chamber.
Kowalski rose from his crouching position over a pick-axe that had bloodstains on the handle and a melted metal head. "A skirmish took place here, the bodies of your mining crew were dragged through there." He pointed towards an opening, one through which Ahsoka could feel the faint life forms.
"Then that's where we're going," Ahsoka said.
Easely looked at her like she had grown another montral. "You can't be serious! Those things have to be waiting for us down there!"
Crespi shook his head. "No, I agree with Tano. The way back just takes us back to where we entered. Into the waiting arms of the aliens."
"Better the enemy you know than the one you don't," Kowalski said. "We could be walking into an ambush. At least the other way we'll know they're going to ambush us."
"No," came a voice from behind them. It was Massey, who for the most part had stayed silent about tactical decisions. "The Captain and Commander Tano are right. We won't get anywhere without taking a few risks. We turn back, we're dead. We push onward, we have at least a fighting chance of reaching the other turbolift and escaping."
Easely and Kowalski were quiet for a moment, before they each gave a terse nod. Obviously they weren't thrilled at the idea of going deeper into the ship, and to be honest Ahsoka wasn't too keen on it either, but it was the best option they had. Especially now that there was…
"Movement!" she yelled as she spun to face the entrance to the corridor the miners had used to get to this chamber.
"Hooper," Crespi ordered. "Seal it."
Hoop nodded and everyone not wearing a stormtrooper helmet looked away. The plasma torch flared brightly as Hoop fired it at the entrance to seal it. The stormtroopers stood guard, blasters raised in case something came through before it was sealed.
Something did burst through the liquified coral material. The alien shrieked as it charged, globs of molten liquid hardening on its carapace. Four blasters opened up as Hoop swiveled the torch to hit the alien. The charging creature burst into flames as the blaster bolts cut it in half. Hoop continued working on the entrance as acrid smoke rose from the flaming remains.
Hoop finally shut off the plasma torch. "How much fuel do you have left?" Ahsoka asked him.
Hoop checked and then grunted. "Enough."
There was a shriek from the barrier that had been formed by Hoop's torch. As the material had hardened and solidified, an alien had become trapped inside. It struggled and thrashed wildly, held fast by the altered coral.
"Leave it!" Crespi ordered, pushing the barrel of Kowalski's blaster up and away from the struggling beast. "You shoot that thing and the acid will eat a hole right through it. They'll be behind us instantly."
Kowalski looked at Crespi warily, then nodded and backed off.
The group turned and continued to follow the lights the miners had strung up, now darkened by the cable having been severed by Hoop's plasma torch.
Ahsoka led the way, her lightsaber ignited. Crespi followed, and for a split second Ahsoka could fool herself that she was back in the Clone Wars with Rex at her side.
She pushed that thought aside. It would do no good to get distracted here.
Teraan pushed herself up onto all fours, acrid smoke heavy in the air. She coughed violently, wiping dust and grit away from her eyes. Groping along the ground she found her blaster rifle, pulling it to herself.
Teraan came to her knees as the smoke began to clear. Both Rynn and Henry lay on the ground, moving slightly. Good. They were still alive. Teraan heard the screech of aliens and knew they weren't out of danger yet. Seeing her sidearm on the ground where Rynn had dropped it, Teraan picked it up and leaned against the shattered entrance to the chamber they were in.
She lifted both weapons. Sighting an alien charging, she tracked it with her blasters and began blazing away. Multiple blaster bolts hit it in the head and torso and the alien fell with a shriek.
Teraan was lucky. The entrance to the structure they were trapped in had created a chokepoint. The aliens had given up any pretense of stealth and were attempting to overwhelm them through sheer numbers. The bottleneck the entrance created gave her an advantage over them.
She cut down alien after alien that appeared in the entrance, but they kept coming, clambering over the shattered, bleeding corpses of their brethren. One took Teraan by surprise, dropping down before her from the ceiling. Her pistol ran dry, but the E-11 fired true, multiple blasts from it shattered the alien's carapace, but Teraan had to give up her position to avoid being hit by the acid blood.
She dropped into cover, hastily trying to reload her blaster pistol. An alien leaped into their chamber as she did, its claws grabbing into her shoulder, slicing through the body glove around the plastoid shoulder pauldron. Henry's blaster fire caught it from behind in the joint between head and neck. Its blood nearly missed Teraan as she twisted out of the way, slapping home a new power pack and rolling out of cover to blaze away into the other chamber. Rivulets of blood ran down her arm from the nasty gash on her left shoulder.
She couldn't keep this up for long. Aliens kept dropping down from the ceiling, and while it took a moment for them to attack after landing-a moment she used to fill them full of plasma, her arm was struggling to hold her blaster up. It was only a matter of time until they got her.
Teraan set her teeth and continued blazing away until something grabbed her right shoulder and yanked her backwards.
Rynn had watched as Teraan stood in a crouch, twin blasters spitting death at anything that came inside her killzone. Her face, illuminated by the constant muzzle flashes, was wild and crazed with desperation.
Smoke rose from the alien lying dead on the ground before them, but also from the wall opposite Rynn and Henry. The acidic blood splash had hit it and weakened the wall, forming cracks that she could make out in the dim, smoke-hazed lighting.
She took Henry's blaster pistol, which had fallen back in his lap, and fired multiple times at the cracks. Soon enough, they shattered completely and a portion of the wall fell away big enough for them to squeeze through.
Rynn pulled Henry's good arm over her shoulders and helped him to his feet with a stumble. Teraan hadn't even flinched from the blasterfire behind her. Rynn pulled Henry through the opening and sat him down on the ground, before returning to grab Teraan's shoulder.
Teraan fired as she turned, almost shooting Rynn's head off as she did. The blaster fired into the far wall, Rynn flinching away from it.
"We need to move now! Come on!" Rynn shouted, pointing to the opening she had created.
Teraan nodded, throwing a grenade into the other room and continuing to lay down suppressive fire as the timer counted down to detonation. With a couple seconds left, Teraan turned and ran, diving through the opening behind Rynn as the explosion tore through the pursuing aliens.
Teraan and Rynn helped Henry to his feet and took off through the underground city, leaving the smoking remains of at least a dozen aliens behind.
The path was clear of hostiles, descending down deeper into the ship. The foul stench of the aliens grew stronger and the air was becoming heavier and heavier with moisture. Sweat broke out over unprotected faces. Kaeden's medical officer uniform plastered itself to her skin as she helped Easely hobble down the decline.
Salvia being revealed as a former Jedi was somewhat of a surprise to Kaeden. It would certainly explain the Mirialan's affinity for healing minor injuries and helping to stabilize patients with nasty blaster burns. It could also explain why Ahsoka was so hostile to Salvia. If they were both Jedi, they might have known each other before the Empire's rise. What had happened between the two of them to create so much bad blood… Kaeden could only guess. Given Ahsoka's outburst back on Charon Station, Salvia must have done something that made Ahsoka feel betrayed.
Still, regardless of the fact that they were Jedi no more, two Jedi were better than one. Especially in this situation
The path before them leveled out and opened up into another chamber. There was a generator on one side before what looked like a terminal.
"Easely, see what you can make of this terminal," came Crespi's voice.
Salvia and Kaeden helped Easely limp over to the terminal and set him down before it. He inspected it for a moment.
"Strange… very strange," he said, pulling out a datapad. "This terminal doesn't appear to run like ours do. It seems to be organic in both construction and storage."
Massey's voice bordered on astonished. "You're telling me this shit is alive?"
"Scans indicate that the storage component of this thing is organic, most likely grown. If I can match it with the proper frequency, I might be able to access whatever data is stored on there."
Crespi nodded, clearly not comprehending what Easely had said, but trusting that the comtech was correct. "Do it."
As Easely got to work with his datapad, Kaeden noticed Ahsoka looked… unsettled and kept glancing over at a portion of wall.
The two visible entrances to the chamber were covered by a stormtrooper each. Crespi had noticed Ahsoka's unusual behavior and moved over to her. Kaeden joined, asking a question. "Is something wrong, Ahsoka?"
"I can feel something alive, back there," she said, pointing at the darkened portion of wall. "Not the aliens, but alive like we are."
Crespi tilted his head, before he nodded. "Let's check it out."
"I'll come with you," Kaeden said, unholstering the blaster Crespi had given her back on the surface. At the looks both Ahsoka and Crespi gave her, she responded with: "If someone is alive back there, they might need medical attention." Kaeden saw nothing but worry for her well-being in Ahsoka's eyes, but the togruta gave a reluctant nod.
Kaeden understood why Ahsoka was wary to bring her along. There was safety in numbers, but honestly, Kaeden felt safest at Ahsoka's side. The togruta just projected such a state of confidence and strength that it made Kaeden feel stronger.
Ahsoka led the way in, passing underneath a portion of the wall that had seemed to have collapsed inward. On the other side was something akin to the hell that was the dropship they rode down to the surface in.
Several stormtroopers had been strung up on the walls… no, cocooned was a better term. Some kind of webbing held them in place above strange ovoid containers that sat on the ground, their tops peeled open. Weird crab-like things lay on the ground, dead and motionless. Kaeden recalled seeing one or two on the ground of the dropship.
All but one stormtrooper had a large, bloody hole in their chests, the same wounds that the miners in the dropship had had. Ahsoka moved to the last stormtrooper. "He's still alive!"
Kaeden immediately dropped into 'Doctor mode', checking the stormtrooper's pulse and vitals. Crespi spoke behind her. "It's Choi, one of the squad that Massey took down here."
Choi's eyes snapped open, startling Kaeden into falling backwards onto her rear. His eyes were unfocused and almost mad, and his his voice was raspy when he spoke. "Kill… kill me."
Crespi put a hand on Choi's shoulder. "It's going to be alright, Choi. We'll get you out of here."
"No no no. Please kill me!" Choi screamed as he began to convulse violently. Crespi jerked back as Choi's body spasmed and contorted, a bloodcurdling cry erupting from the doomed stormtrooper's mouth.
There was a cracking sound and fractures opened in the chestplate of Choi's armor. Red blood seeped out and there was a metallic cry as the chestplate cracked open completely. Blood sprayed out onto Crespi's armor and from the cavity slithered a small fanged skull, hissing with malice.
The air hummed as Ahsoka's lightsaber swung down, carving through flesh, armor, and chitin. The alien baby fell in two pieces, acidic blood gushing out onto the floor.
Crespi just stood there, eyes-wide in shock at what he had just seen. Kaeden turned to Ahsoka, who's attention was now focused on the ceiling above them. She turned to Kaeden, fear evident in her face.
"Something's coming," Ahsoka grabbed Crespi by the back of his armor and pulled him with her. "Run!"
A second or two later, a shadow dropped down from the ceiling, unfolding into the silhouette that Kaeden and the others had come to fear.
The alien was here.
Figured it was time for some more action, don't y'all think? It will continue to ramp up in the next chapter as both groups are driven deeper and deeper into alien territory.
As usual, feel free to let me know what you thought of this chapter in the comments. I welcome feedback of all types, including criticism on what I can improve on. If you love this story and know someone else who would, please feel free to share it with them. :)
