Ahsoka flew down the stairwell, pouring every ounce of energy she had into her muscles to run faster and faster. The aliens had awoken, and she had left Kaeden behind with them. The group still had some formidable firepower in the form of Massey, Easely, and Hoop's plasma torch, but Ahsoka didn't trust any of them with Kaeden's safety.
Kaeden was one of the few friends Ahsoka had left in this galaxy. Obi-Wan had disappeared, likely dead at the hands of the Empire, and she feared something far worse had happened to Anakin. Riyo and Lux were both still a part of the Senate, making it close to impossible for Ahsoka to speak to them. They both still believed her to have died in the Purge, something she had agreed on with Bail to protect them.
No, besides Bail and Rex, Kaeden was the only good friend Ahsoka had left in her life. Plus, Kaeden had helped Ahsoka find her feet and her calling after the Purge had left her aimless, drifting from one planet to the next.
Plus, Ahsoka had promised Kaeden that they'd both make it out of this damn mine. And Ahsoka always did her best to keep her promises.
She dashed out of the stairwell landing, nearly getting shot by Easely who had backed himself into an alcove and fired repeatedly at the Praetorians. Ahsoka made it into the chamber and quickly scanned the area around her. Hoop was lying on the ground, attempting to smother the flames that burned his jumpsuit. She could feel Massey somewhere in the darkness, likely snatched by the aliens when they awoke.
Her eyes fell on Kaeden firing away at a few of the smaller crab-like aliens coming from the ovoid objects dotting the ground. She shot a couple, but Ahsoka's heart launched into her throat as she saw one of them spring up at the doctor, knocking Kaeden to the ground, then jumping at her again.
Ahsoka sprinted over as the crustacean looking alien dragged itself onto her face. Kaeden's arms flailed, blindly trying to pull the thing off. Ahsoka screamed her name, pure fear ripping out of her vocal cords as she came to a knee beside Kaeden's now-motionless body.
She saw Kaeden's chest still rising and falling in rhythm. At least she was still breathing.
Ahsoka grabbed at the alien hugging Kaeden's face and tried to pull it off. The leg appendages wrapped around Kaeden's skull held fast and the only result Ahsoka saw from her desperate tugging was a trickle of blood running down Kaeden's cheek.
The realization struck Ahsoka like a Star Destroyer coming out of hyperspace. She wouldn't be able to pry the thing off Kaeden without tearing off Kaeden's beautiful face as well.
That knowledge trickled down from Ahsoka's brain through her body until it hit her heart, where it ignited into a blazing hot fury. Her eyes narrowed as they burned with anger and she swung her head around to glare at the Alien Queen, which sat atop its ovipositor, screeching what were most likely orders to her royal guards.
The Queen had laid the eggs from which the thing that incapacitated Kaeden had hatched. A need to lash out and strike back boiled through Ahsoka's every vein. She saw in her mind's eye what she could do, what she had to do... so she did.
Ahsoka reached out with the Force, feeling the blank void where the Alien Queen existed. She felt along the edges of it, finding a radius from which to act. Ahsoka may not have been able to attack the queen directly with the Force, but she knew in her heart there was another method.
Ahsoka reached out with both hands and found that radius she envisioned surrounding the void. Ahsoka grasped the air surrounding it, and pushed it all inwards toward the core of her radius.
The Alien Queen ceased her screeching, instead swiveling her head to gaze at Ahsoka with what almost seemed to be astonishment. Soon, it began screeching again, this time in pain and agony as all the air Ahsoka was compressing around it began to crush its exoskeleton.
Ahsoka ramped up her hold on the air surrounding the Queen, pressing more and more inside her radius to crush the void. The Queen squealed as its carapace dented under the onslaught, but Ahsoka did not let up. Ahsoka's hands balled into fists and she pushed all her fury and anger into her grip. The Queen gave one final shriek as its exoskeleton gave way. It imploded, chitin shattering apart.
Ahsoka opened her fists and straightened up. She drew her remaining lightsaber and smiled as she ignited it, her eyes filling with morbid satisfaction. The aliens had hurt Kaeden, and she had struck back by killing their queen. And even better? Ahsoka was only getting started.
Subtlety didn't matter anymore. Teraan ran through the ancient city, her blaster rifle constantly scanning the ruins all around them for any sign of the aliens. Rynn trailed just behind her, helping keep Henry on his feet.
Teraan heard the clatter of stones at her 8 o'clock, pivoted, and cut loose a burst of blaster fire that nearly hit one of the aliens. She tracked the alien and led her shots before the loping demon. It ran straight into them, it's body blowing apart in a spray of acid blood.
Teraan did a quick sweep with her eyes and weapon light, but the multitude of aliens charging towards them got Teraan to turn and run after Henry and Rynn. She fired as she went, but doubted that any of the shots had hit. Taking a grenade off her belt, Teraan lobbed it behind her.
The explosion tore through some of the aliens, but it didn't stop two of them.
One of the aliens traversed along the walls and onto the ceiling, skittering past her. It dropped down, forcing Teraan to dive to the side in an evasive roll. Teraan unloaded her blaster into it, firing a rapid burst that reduced the alien's head to a stump.
The other alien ignored her and leaped from the wall after Rynn and Henry. Teraan shouted a warning as she fired at it, missing the rapidly moving target. Henry must have seen it in his peripheral vision because he shoved Rynn to the side, out of the alien's path. The alien swiped with a claw as he stumbled. Henry's stumble avoided the killing blow, but did not clear him from the claw itself.
The alien shredded Henry's back, the sharp claw tearing through flesh and muscle. He collapsed with a scream, the tatters of his clothes stained a deep red. Teraan fired again, barely missing the alien's elongated head. It turned to her, obviously identifying her as a greater threat.
The alien leapt a considerable distance, gaining ground on Teraan before she could react. She fell backwards as the alien lunged, its arms locking around where her chest had been only seconds prior. Instead her feet slammed into its stomach, and its momentum carried it over Teraan's head. She kicked out as she rolled with it, launching the alien in an arc away from her on its original trajectory.
The alien screeched as it impaled itself on a sharp stalagmite. Teraan clambered back to her feet and silenced it with a few shots to the head from her blaster.
Seeing no more aliens in her immediate vicinity, Teraan ran over to Henry. Rynn was already at his side, clutching the rebel soldier's hand, tears in her eyes.
"How bad is it?" Henry asked. His voice sounded pained, but clear and lucid.
"It's bad," Teraan said. From what she saw, she didn't think Henry would make it out.
Henry pointed beyond them. "There. I see an opening." Teraan turned and sure enough, set into the wall near them was what looked like an opening, possibly a way out.
"Come on," she said, grasping one of Henry's arms and trying to pull him to his feet. "I'm not leaving you behind."
Rynn picked up his other arm and they half-carried, half-dragged Henry over to where the opening was. Sure enough, the tunnel sloped upwards at a somewhat steep angle. It was similar to the tunnel they had used to reach the ship's chamber, with plenty of hand and footholds to climb with.
Teraan's head snapped around at the sound of skittering claws on stone and the screeching of aliens that had caught their scent. Henry slumped to the ground despite their attempts to keep him upright.
"Come on, Henry!" Rynn pleaded. "You can make it."
"No," Henry said, his voice calm. "It's too late for me and I'll only slow you down. You two have a better chance of getting out if you leave me here."
Teraan locked eyes with him and Henry smiled. "Can I have a couple grenades please?" Silently, Teraan handed them over to him. He nodded once, and gave her a weak salute. "It was an honor to fight beside you."
She nodded back and gripped his good hand with hers. A silent message of respect passed through the contact, one warrior to another.
With that, Teraan grabbed Rynn and pushed her into the tunnel to begin climbing. A minute later the tunnel shook with an explosion below them.
Crespi watched in astonishment as the Alien Queen imploded before him. Commander Tano stood there, over Dr. Larte's motionless body, as she drew her lightsaber and ignited it. Despite the humidity in the chamber, Crespi almost felt a chill pass through him, as if the temperature of the room had dropped.
With a roar of primal rage that rivaled anything the aliens put out, Tano launched herself at the remaining three Praetorians and however many of the regular aliens were inside the Queen's chamber. She moved as a blur, white lightsaber whirling so fast that Crespi couldn't see a distinct blade, just a blurred sphere of white fire.
Crespi had heard of the destructive potential that Jedi had. Stories about how they moved so fast that they could no longer be tracked by the naked eye and how they could kill a person in less than a heartbeat. Mylar had been fast, but she had never been as fast or ferocious as Tano was now.
Tano tore through the Queen's ovipositor that hung from the ceiling, still connected to jagged bits and pieces of the Queen's fractured exoskeleton. The lightsaber tore through the translucent material with ease and shattered the eggs inside.
Every alien in the chamber zeroed in on Tano. Yet she didn't shy away, instead she charged straight into all of them. Her lightsaber flashed and arced, cutting through the smaller aliens before they had a chance to strike back. One of the Praetorians stumbled as one of its legs was severed from its body. Either Tano was moving too fast to be hit by the acid blood or she just didn't care at this point.
Something flashed past Crespi's peripheral vision and he thought he saw a blur of white armor as Tano reached the opposite wall, jumping off it back towards the toppled Praetorian. She sliced down, carving a good chuck out of the Praetorian's crest. She dropped into a roll and came up, motionless for the first time. Her lightsaber flickered and died, but that didn't stop Tano. Throwing her hands to the sides and slightly behind her, she then slowly brought them both before her.
The air seemed to warp around her hands. It took on a dark, sickly blue-greenish hue as it grew more and more unstable before Tano finally unleashed the awesome energy she had stored up. It flew in a ball towards the nearest Praetorian, but just before it hit the alien Ahsoka ripped her arms apart and the barely contained ball of energy exploded.
Despite the aliens' apparent immunity to the Force, it stood no chance against the magnitude of the shockwaves the explosion sent out. At such close range, the shockwaves tore it apart. The other upright Praetorian staggered and the crippled one was knocked to the ground again. The smaller, lighter aliens were thrown violently into the walls where some of them shattered. Others dropped to the ground in a dazed state.
Crespi got to his feet and turned to look back at Tano, but saw that she had been thrown backwards into the wall by the shockwaves. She did not get up. Crespi reacted immediately, needing to grab the aliens' attention before they could harm her. Crespi picked up the plasma torch that Hooper had dropped on the ground. He primed it and let loose.
The stream of plasma ignited immediately, spewing roaring fire over the remaining alien eggs. That done, Crespi turned and torched the remaining aliens. The crippled Praetorian collapsed as its weakened armor collapsed completely and cooked its insides. The normal aliens shrieked in rage and pain, flailing about until Crespi cut them down with his E-11.
Hooper staggered back to the stairwell landing, his face and chest the recipients of nasty burns. Salvia had made it back as well, levitating Tano and Dr. Larte with the Force. That task accomplished, Salvia turned back towards the Praetorian, ripping more chunks out of the roof and dropping them onto it.
Already weakened from prior combat against the others and Tano and the raging inferno all around it, the Praetorian did not get up from the shots Easely put into it from his alcove. The plasma torch ran dry, and Crespi dropped it before turning back to the stairwell landing.
Kowalski watched in amazement as the aliens seemed to back off. They hadn't posed too much of a threat since the Captain and Commander had left to reinforce the others, probing his defenses to find a weakness. The good news about being at the slash on top of the ship was that he had excellent firing lines, and being a skilled marksman allowed Kowalski to hold the bridgehead with ease.
They had seemed to fall into shocked silence right before the ship underneath him seemed to rumble. Then some backed off, while others charged in a frenzy. Kowalski was able to easily cut them down at range with precise shots. It was quiet for a minute after that, but Kowalski did not let his guard down.
He heard running coming from below and behind him. Kowalski recognized the sound of stormtrooper boots pounding the ground. He turned his head slightly to see Massey, helmet missing, long gauge marks on his armor from alien claws, and some kind of duffel bag slung around his shoulder.
"Massey, what-?" Kowalski's question was cut off by Massey bringing his E-11 up quickly, snapping off a shot that hit Kowalski in the chestplate at an angle.
Without stopping to see if his shot had killed Kowalski, Massey continued running off towards the exit from the cavern.
Kowalski got to his feet despite the pain lancing through his chest. The blaster hadn't hit anything vital and Kowalski's chestplate had dispersed most of the energy from the shot.
Making a split-second decision, he took off running after the wayward stormtrooper.
Crespi took stock of the situation. Only him and Salvia were uninjured. Hooper was holding together despite the burns he had received. The adrenaline must have been pumping so much he just ignored the pain. Easely's leg was messed up from earlier, and Massey had gone missing. Crespi had spotted his helmet lying on the ground, partially melted by acid. He had to assume the worst regarding the former bounty hunter.
Dr. Larte had been subdued by the weird alien crustacean thing. She was still alive and breathing somehow… either the thing was feeding her oxygen or her nose was unblocked. Crespi had a sinking feeling about what the thing was for, though he didn't voice his fears. He had more pressing concerns.
Commander Tano was not in good shape either. She had been knocked unconscious by the shockwaves of the explosion she had caused. Her skin was also covered in numerous small lacerations and burns where she had been hit by pinpricks of acid.
Tano needed treatment, but they couldn't administer it here. They needed to rendezvous with Kowalski, but Crespi also had to prevent the aliens from chasing them up the stairwell. Without the plasma torch, he'd have to blow the archway he currently stood under.
Salvia used the Force once again to levitate Tano and Larte up the stairs, while Easely and Hooper helped each other. Crespi remained behind, planting thermal detonators on both sides of the entrance to blow it on a command from a detonator. He worked quickly, but efficiently.
In the middle of placing the last detonator, Crespi heard a new sound that caught his attention. A sort of moaning wail. A keening sound that cut through the crackling of flames.
Crespi poked his head around the corner of the entrance to see multiple aliens had made it into the Queen's Chamber. Some held fragments of eggs or the crisp remains of the face-hugging creatures that had attacked Dr. Larte. Others looked at where the Queen had once sat, churning out eggs to keep their hive alive.
Morning the dead. Crespi thought somberly. He found it surprising that a species that was so ruthless was capable of feeling such despair.
Suddenly the keening was replaced by a screech of anger. Crespi saw that one of the aliens had found a puddle of blood on the ground.
Tano's blood! Crepsi realized.
A roar went up from all the aliens: a call for revenge against the one that had destroyed their queen. Then their heads all swiveled to stare eyelessly into the passage that Crespi was hunkered down in.
They've found her scent. Crespi thought grimly. He backed away, going up the stairs a bit to clear the blast radius.
The roar from the aliens got louder and louder to the point where Crespi's helmet's sound-dampening system had to kick in. The moment he saw an alien appear in the entrance, he hit the detonator switch.
The thermal detonators all lit up momentarily before they went off as one, vaporizing the first alien and collapsing the ceiling on a second. Rubble poured down, both the aliens' secretions and the walls of the ship itself.
It wouldn't block them forever, but it would give Crespi and the others enough of a headstart to hopefully reach the turbolift. He turned and ran up the stairs after the others.
Kowalski was both hunter and hunted at the same time. At the same time as he ran after Massey, he fled from a few aliens that had broken off from the rest to chase him. Whether they wanted Kowalski himself, Massey, or just human blood, Kowalski didn't know.
All he knew is that there was something up with the way Massey had just acted. Why the kriff Massey would shoot a fellow stormtrooper was beyond him.
Massey was following the lights that the miners had strung up. Kowalski guessed that Massey was gunning for the turbolift that Hooper had said was on the other side of the mining tunnels, and was following the lights in a guess that they would lead to the lift. That meant that Massey wanted out of this mine as soon as possible, damn everyone else.
Had Massey just snapped? Whatever the reason, Kowalski guessed it had to do with the duffel bag that Massey was carrying. Kowalski hadn't seen that bag before, but it was clearly filled with something.
Something that was worth killing a fellow stormtrooper over.
The alien secretions on the walls thinned and then the walls reverted back to the standard altered stone caused by the plasma torches. Kowalski halted momentarily at a corner, sweeping the other path with his eyes to make sure it was clear, and spun to unleash a hail of fire at an alien that had gotten a bit too close.
Accuracy wasn't too important in the combined quarters of the mining tunnels, so Kowalski flipped his E-11 onto fully automatic and sprayed fire all over the corridor. The alien immediately pursuing him was cut to shreds by the hail of fire.
Some extra space between himself and the pursuing aliens, Kowalski turned back after Massey's trail. He found the rogue stormtrooper entering the turbolift, with the doors closing.
Massey fired through the closing doors, forcing Kowalski to dive for cover. Kowalski's return fire pinged off the sides of the turbolift as it began to rise.
Dashing forward, Kowalski pried the turbolift doors open. On the other side of the shaft was a ladder, but Kowalski didn't have time to climb. He needed to keep up with Massey and determine what he was doing.
He retrieved the grappling hook from his belt and fired it at the bottom of the rising turbolift. It stuck fast and Kowalski fastened the loose end to his armor.
As the turbolift rose, Kowalski was carried with it, keeping pace with the rogue stormtrooper.
Well, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Writing Ahsoka's rampage against the xenomorphs was fun and I hope it didn't break how I've already built up the xenomorph's special abilities in relation to resistivity to Force attacks. Feel free to let me know what you thought of it in the comments.
