The mysterious aide handed Parck a tube of skin-color changing solution, and while the other three hastily donned their newly acquired uniforms, she explained how she had rigged the cameras to show a tape of Parck and Luke tucked safely inside to avoid arousing suspicion.
Voss Parck pulled the sentry's hat down low over his piercing red eyes, and with the solution applied he looked decidedly human. Squirming a little at the uncomfortable fit of the uniform she had been forced to put on, Mara tucked her red hair under her hat as she eyed the aide distrustfully. Something rang false in the aide's rescue assistance.
Before long, everyone was prepared.
At a nod from the aide, they marched out of the cell, blasters at the ready. Before they got close enough that the guards could realize that the foursome contained none of their comrades, Luke used the Force to blur their memory of the sentinels that were resting on the floor of the cell.
Luke's breath growled low in his throat when it registered in his mind that one of the guards was a Gotal. The gray-furred humanoid didn't appear to have noticed the presence of any of the Force-users, but it was only a matter of distance. It moved its head slightly, giving Luke a better view of the two cone-like horns which could be the death of him.
Luke cursed under his breath and hissed, "Trouble's coming up. Get ready."
Luke didn't have to tell them twice, for the trio had already tightened their grips on their weapons, and their reflexes were ready to be hair-trigger.
Luke knew that Gotals could sense the presence of the Force as a sort of vague buzzing in the horns, and he also knew that it was a true problem when a single Jedi convict and his two Force sensitive rescuers were approaching one.
Luke abruptly began to turn, but a slight shake of the head from Parck changed his mind. It was too late to turn around. It would arouse the suspicions of the guards.
Mara, watching closely and nervously, saw the change of facial expression in the Gotal guard, and she elbowed Luke harshly as the Gotal registered the presence of the Force sensitives and quietly spoke to one of its companions concerning it. The tentacled being it had confided in straightened and walked towards them, holding a small device. Weapon pointed at them, and the machine readied in a different tentacle, it squelched something out that sounded like, "State your number and purpose."
The black-haired female aide spoke up, mechanically rattling off a number she had gotten from the minds of one of the guards and declared, "We were checking on Skywalker and Parck, making sure the commotion didn't get them riled up."
The creature's attention was briefly preoccupied with its device, comparing the number with a picture. When it finally realized that the holo did not match the physical appearance of the female human, it was too late to do anything about it. A smoking hole, courtesy of Leia Organa Solo's aide, had appeared in the middle of its chest.
Alarms started blaring and blaster bolts flew, lighting the room with an eerie red tint. A lightsaber appeared in the aide's hand as she expertly deflected the bolts, and Luke, not bothering with the borrowed blaster, reached out to the Force and wiped out the rest of the sentinels with one irritated Dark Side sweep.
"Come on!" he gritted, rushing forward. They complied. After a little running, he stopped at a computer. "Does anyone have any slicing skills?"
"I already know the lay-out. Follow me." The unnamed member started forward, glancing over her shoulder briefly to pick off a grounded human who had started to stir. She continued on, her composure not changing in the slightest.
"You do realize that we are going to be flooded with attackers in a minute, Skywalker?" Mara growled, glaring laser bolts into the back of the woman in front of her.
Parck noted to himself that Palpatine's former Hand was distancing herself from Skywalker's rescuers, preferring only to speak to the Jedi. It was hard to earn Mara Jade's trust, but once one did...
Luke didn't take the bait, merely returning, "Yes, and I'll take care of them."
"Oh, yeah, I forgot. You're lapsing into fatherly habits now, aren't you!" the redhead shot, receiving a lethal glare.
However, the expected swarm of angry living assailants didn't come. Instead, a sole disk-shaped machine wheeled forward and quickly uncurled, revealing its insectoid appearance and surrounding itself with a strange blue bubble. The bronze-armored combat automata brought up immense twin blasters at the end of heavy arms, pointing them at the humans and the Chiss in front of it.
Wide-eyed, Mara hissed, "What in space is that thing!"
Luke quickly returned, "I don't know! Shoot it!"
Jade brought up her blaster, and the droid, which was slow and awkward on its three legs when compared to its disk form, readily unleashed destructive energy back at her.
"It's useless, Red," the dark-haired woman informed her dryly as she blocked the shots the droid sent with her lightsaber. "A droideka's deflector shields will block pretty much anything. You'd be here for quite some time before they finally give in. Let's run past it before more come and thoroughly slaughter us."
She didn't have to make her suggestion twice. She helped the others get past the droid by distracting it with her lightsaber, and she finally ran backwards after them.
"Prepare to be hit by something unexpected," Parck advised.
"Why'd you have to say that?" Mara muttered.
Suddenly, the ground dropped from beneath them, and, with a harsh thump, they rammed into hard metal. The ceiling.
Although, technically, it could be called the floor. Gravity had reversed.
They scrambled forward wordlessly (with the exception of a few curses, and grunts if one cares to classify such sounds as words) and as swiftly as possible before being thrown once again, this time on the true floor of the room.
The group bounced back upwards, limbs flailing and impolite phrases flying as arms were found in mouths, then they struck the floor again. They rushed to get out of the room before the gravity could switch again, the aide mumbling that they would take an alternate route.
The Force disappeared. "Sith!" Luke hissed as he wiped away some of the blood that was trickling down his nose (courtesy of his encounter with indecisive gravity), looking around for a ysalamiri backpacker but finding himself thrown to the ground, fur in his face, and long-clawed, triple-jointed fingers searching for pressure points. Luke twisted violently, and somehow managed to throw the stocky beast off him, and into the wall, catching a quick glance of what appeared to be a large, scarlet-eyed shadow, which came snarling back at him.
Mara Jade shot at it, cursed when the Wraith dodged, and swore even more viciously when she was attacked by another which did have a ysalamiri backpack on. A third shadowy Defel stood at the sidelines, shooting stun blasts every which way, before it was finally hit by a well-aimed bolt from Voss Parck, who, with the cool female beside him, carefully looked for an opportunity to shoot at one of the two remaining Defels and their ysalamiri.
Finally, Parck picked off the strange creature, and Skywalker and the standing woman took care of the pair of illusory Wraiths with the Force. Mara snarled, "Took you long enough."
Coolly, the dark headed female informed her, "You should just be glad we didn't let one of them finish you off. Let's go before we're hit with something worse, like oxygen deprivation."
Under her breath, Mara seethed, "Or, even better, you get hit with the butt end of a blaster."
The lady turned to her, eyes flaring, "Watch it, Red, or you'll be spitting blaster bolts for a month."
"I'd rather be spitting blaster bolts than looking like I'd been hit by one!" the redhead retorted.
"Enough!" Luke growled. "Cat fight later, escape now."
Author's Note: Thanks to Brigantia for betaing, thanks to Moy for the droideka thing (and for helping with most of the plot), and thanks to Kitt, as well as for a help on descriptions. Also, thanks to Kitt for the reversal of gravity idea.