Disclaimer: I don't own the Star Wars universe or Star Wars KOTOR, George
Lucas and Lucas Arts do. They also own all the Characters and Worlds
contained therein. The characters created by me for this story are all
that I own.
Escape from Taris
As we exited the apartment, Larrim caught my attention and said that he had a message from Canderous Ordo. The Mandalorian wanted to meet us at the upper city cantina. I thanked him for the message, and we decided to go see what he wanted.
Canderous wanted to get off the planet, he was tired of working for Davik and he needed us to steal the Sith launch codes from the Sith military base. Without those he said anyone leaving the atmosphere would be attacked by the Sith fleet's automated defense guns. He figured we were crazy enough to do it. I had to chuckle, after everything else we had done on this planet why not. What was in this for me, I asked. The means to get off the planet, he replied, Davik's flagship the Ebon Hawk. He knew of a droid we could purchase that would allow us to break into the base and told us where to buy it. I asked why he didn't do this himself and he replied that he was too well known. If he broke in the Sith would send an army down to Davik's estate to get the codes back.
I had to agree with that and we agreed to meet him in Javyar's cantina when we had the codes. Break into the Sith military base I thought, sure piece of cake, it wasn't like I hadn't done things like this before anyway.
Carth took the opportunity of our walk to ask Bastila how she had been captured. She explained that her Force powers had been drained during the battle, when the escape pod landed she had 'misplaced' her lightsaber and had been overwhelmed by the Vulkars. I shared Carth's sense of amusement at this but said that he should leave her alone. I didn't need the two of them angry at each other right before we tried to get the codes. Carth relented and said that she might want to leave that detail out of her reports. Bastila agreed that she would consider doing so.
The purchase price of the droid was 2000 credits; it was a good thing we had picked up so many credits at the Vulkar base I thought as I paid the purchase price. There was only one way into the Sith base, the front door. We watched anxiously as the droid broke the codes on the door and it opened. I grinned and said "show time" and walked boldly into the base.
There was a Twi'lek woman at the reception desk; she didn't believe my tale of having an appointment so I bluntly said "Don't hit the alarm. I don't want to have to hurt you." She asked us not to hurt her and I told her to go ahead and leave, which she promptly did.
I knew we would have to fight our way through this place and our only hope was that we would be able to attack small groups instead of large concentrations of troopers. I said "Ok hit hard and hit fast and take them down before they have time to raise a general alarm, we can't stand up to a large force." Everyone nodded soberly and I used my stim implant and opened the first door. It was a brief and hard fight. Bastila was a very good fighter I noticed, the lightsaber cut through the troopers armor like it wasn't there. And afterward she was able to use her Force powers to heal us. I waved off her help when she got to me, my wounds had already healed. She looked puzzled for a second then shook her head and went to help Mission.
We found a security terminal in the third room and used the system to scout out the base. I made sure everyone had a good look at what we had to face and was able to disable the shield on a particularly nasty looking assault droid as well as disable all the patrol droids. Bless the Sith and their continued reliance on droids, they always made it so much easier for me. There wasn't much else I was able to do but I was optimistic about our chances after viewing the cameras. There were a lot less personnel than I had anticipated in the base.
In the next large room we found the Duros that we had run into and saved during my first trip out of the apartment a few days ago. The Sith had found out he had removed the bodies and were going to execute him. I asked how to get him out and he told me. I examined the panels he spoke of and thought about how to manipulate them so that he would be released and not executed. I could not mess up. I breathed a sigh of relief when the panels all went red and the Duros was released and told him to get out of here as quickly as he could.
We walked along the hallway past the disabled droids and I patted one fondly as I went by it. Bastila looked at me oddly and I chuckled and said "I love the Sith, I can always count on them to make things easy by using a lot of droids." I realized I was treading too close to classified mission information and stopped. But she looked as if the answer satisfied her and didn't say anything else.
The fight in the barracks was the hardest one but even then it wasn't that hard. As Bastila healed everyone again I went through the bodies and found what I had been hoping for a base pass card. She came to heal me and once again I waved her off, this time I just said "good reflexes I guess" and didn't give her time to reply.
The next fight was the droid and I bore the brunt of its attack. I did get hurt in this one. Bastila came over after the droid was down and began to heal me but realized that my wounds were healing as she watched. I grabbed her arm and said in a low voice "you're healing me ok, say nothing about this" and kept her between me and the rest of the group. She look startled but nodded and said nothing but I could feel her eyes on me afterward and knew I would have to tell her something.
We went up to the control tower and there was one person up there the Sith Govenor. I gave him a chance to surrender but he just laughed and attacked. He was using force powers and was more of a difficult opponent than I expected. He attacked Bastila right off and put her on the defensive, leaving himself open to my attack. He had managed to knock Bastila back and off balance using his force powers and was about to attack her when I went for a strength attack and carved through his armor and killed him. I didn't usually do that since it left one almost defenseless if it was countered but he had been in a good position to possibly seriously hurt or kill Bastila and besides, I attacked from behind.
I went over to Bastila gave her a reassuring look, she was a bit pale. It hadn't escaped her notice that she had been in a bad position right before I had killed him. I checked the body and the storage containers in the area and then waved the data pad with the launch codes triumphantly. We had what we came for now to get out of here.
Our luck was uncanny, no one had managed to raise any alarms and no one noticed when we exited the base and walked to the lower city elevator. I coolly flashed my pass at the Sith trooper there and we went down. Mission could hardly suppress her giggles over my boldness.
We meet up with Canderous at the cantina and he said that he would get us onto Davik's Estate by saying we were interested in joining the exchange. Davik would invite us to stay for a few days while he checked us out. We would use the opportunity to steal the Ebon Hawk. Only two of us could go with him and I sent everyone back but Bastila to wait in the apartment. With any luck by tonight we would be back to pick them up.
Davik met us and showed us around his Estate, the tour included the Ebon Hawk. She looked like a fast ship but was protected by shields to prevent theft. We would need to find the codes to lower the shields before we could take the ship. Davik said that we would be his guests for the next few days while he ran some background checks. He told us to not stray past the guest quarters or his security forces would deal harshly with us.
I grinned at Canderous after he had left and said "shall we go see how harsh his security guards are?" Bastila sighed at the both of us and shook her head. For some reason I liked Canderous, even though I knew his morals were very different from mine.
Davik's guards were not as good as he thought, and we didn't have much trouble with them. I noted with amusement that Bastila wasn't as worried as she had been over me getting slight cuts, she came over to check that I was doing ok after each fight and I could see her watching me heal with a curious look at me. I noticed that Canderous seemed to be doing the same thing but at a much lower rate, his implant must not be as good as mine I thought.
We found a man in a torture cage and released him. My luck was continuing, he had been the pilot of the Ebon Hawk and knew the security codes and was more than happy to give them to us in thanks. We now had the codes we needed, it was time to get out of here.
Suddenly something odd occured, the base shuddered as if under heavy fire. Maybe the Sith had found out about the codes we had stolen. I knew that Bastila and Canderous were aware of it as well as we sprinted toward the hangar. We opened the doors to the hangar bay and entered it. The cause for the explosions was obvious, the Sith fleet was attacking the planet. I was dumbfounded; it seemed an odd way to go about attacking Davik's Estate if they wanted the codes back. Who knew what the Sith were thinking anyway, we had more things to worry about as I heard a Davik's voice say "Thieves in the hangar." I saw Davik and Calo Nord running in from the opposite side of the hangar.
"Energy shield's up" I said in a low voice and then continued as Davik and Calo threatened us, "use grenades first, and then close." When the firing began we relied on our energy shields to hold through a few rounds and lobbed sonic and thermal grenades at the two figures. Our trip into the Sith base had netted us quite a few of these and I had of course picked them up when I noticed them in the Sith Armory.
Suddenly Calo yelled "You may have me outnumbered and outgunned, but if I'm going down I'm taking all of you with me! This is a thermal detonator and will blow us all to bits!" He held it up over his head then cursed the Sith. Prophetically it turned out I thought as I saw a large piece of the hangar bay scaffolding fall on him and Davik. We took the opportunity to run over to Davik and verify he was dead; Canderous picked up the body and took it with us as we ran toward the ship. I paused and deactivated the codes and looked at him quizzically, and he said "I want the armor he's wearing, its specialty made." It was a bit macabre but yea why waste good armor, "just dump the body as soon as possible" I said as we entered the ship and he dropped the body by the airlock and nodded to me. We all sprinted to the controls and Canderous piloted the ship back to the city.
It was not just the Estate they were attacking we realized it was the entire city. I was stunned, there was only one reason I could think of for this. They were trying to kill Bastila and were willing to bring down the entire city to do it. Sith madness, I thought. Then with a pang I remembered the Undercity dwellers, maybe they had made it far enough from the city to not be affected by this, they had been on the move for almost three days so there was a good chance they were past the attack radius. I was more concerned about our companions but they were waiting for us at the hangar bay nearest the apartment. And entered the ship as soon as it the boarding ramp lowered. Carth took over the controls and piloted us out of the wreckage the city was quickly becoming. We made it out of the planets atmosphere and Bastila insisted that we head for Dantoonie to seek refuge; Carth interrupted "Incoming fighters." I was already sprinting for the turrets, this was one task I could do. It took me a few passes but I was good with handling gun turrets and was able to take out all the attacking fighters before they were able to do much damage to our shields.
I walked back to the cockpit of the ship, Bastila and Carth were arguing over whether or not Dantoonie was a safe place to go. I sided with Bastila if only for the reason that I needed to turn her over to the Jedi Order before I could go back to my unit.
Bastila said "We can get supplies here and recuperate. The Academy is a place of mental and spiritual healing; something we could all use after what we've been through." Carth replied "Maybe you're right. It isn't easy to witness the annihilation of an entire planet. I know Mission must be taking it pretty hard." "Entire planet?" I asked, I had been in the gun turret and hadn't seen much of the attack of the planet. Carth looked at me and nodded, "they were attacking more than just the city from what I could see." I felt a cold pit in my stomach but realized that I couldn't deal with my own feelings just yet.
Bastila looked saddened and said "Mission will find a way to come to terms with her grief. She is stronger than she appears. We just need to give her time." I thought to myself, yes she is but she can also use a friend, and went to find the young Twi'lek.
I found her working on some tunneling spikes at a workbench in one of the ships compartments. She looked up at me as if just noticing I was there when I touched her shoulder. "Huh? Oh.... sorry. I was thinking of Taris. I still can't believe it's gone! I mean, I grew up there and now it's ... it's... it's just gone." I hugged her and said. "I'm sorry... I don't know what to say."
Misson said "I don't think there is anything you can say. I just have to find some way to deal with it, I guess. It'll take some time." I looked at her with concern and she said "Look, I'm not saying I can't go on or anything like that. It's just... it's a shock, you know? I mean, I knew the Sith were evil and all, but the reality of it kind of slaps you in the face. But I suppose that's why we need to stop Malak, right?" I nodded to her and said "If you ever need someone to listen or just need a hug remember I'm here, ok? and I'm your friend." She nodded and hugged me back and went back to her work. I could tell she was using it to distract herself but I wasn't surprised her emotions about Taris had to be fairly complicated given that there was much of her life there she had hated.
I walked back to the bunk areas to deal with my own feelings of remorse and fear; I knew there was nothing I could have done to change things. I had no control over Malak's decision to bombard the planet but I felt responsible somehow. I guess because I had managed to rescue Bastila. Maybe somehow he had known she was about to get away. But there certainly hadn't been any other choice; it wasn't like I could have decided not to rescue her. Anyway he probably would have bombarded the planet if she has still been a Vulkar captive, he had probably been reacting to how much time had passed without the Sith finding her. I accepted that there was nothing I could have possibly done to stop the bombardment and went on to dealing with the next feeling.
Fear, I didn't want to think about Shaarena, Rukil and Gendar being caught in that bombardment. Maybe the damage didn't go down that far I thought. Most of the paths they were taking were through the sewer systems. It would be amazingly hard from space to manage to strike that far down given how tall the buildings were, maybe the damage was fairly contained to the upper levels I thought. Then I felt guilty for forgetting all the people we had helped, several innocent and kind people existed in the upper levels. I shouldn't be thinking that it was better or worse for the attack to fall on the Upper city as the Undercity. I thought of the kind doctor and all the people I had helped and was overcome with grief. I realized that I needed to deal with these emotions and experience my grief before it poisoned me, besides there wasn't much of a chance that I would be able to retain my calm for much longer.
I sat on the edge of the bunk and let myself feel the grief and anguish, and cried for all of them and for myself. I had always been a silent crier and so was surprised when Bastila sat down beside me and put an arm around my shoulder, I hadn't even noticed her come in I thought surprised. She looked at me troubled and said "is there anything you want to talk about?". She wasn't the person I would have thought of to turn to for comfort but the fights in the Sith base and Davik's estate had formed a tentative friendship between us. She had protected me and I had protected her, and we both knew now that we could rely on the other.
So I didn't reject her offer, instead I leaned against her and tried to explain what I was feeling. I talked about the people we had helped and my feeling of whether or not it had meant anything at all now. Bastila said to me "of course it meant something, even if they are dead now, you were kind to them and gave them their back their freedom to live. Whether or not those lives were long or not, at least they were able to walk about and live without fear of being killed by a bounty hunter after you helped them."
I thought about what she had said and nodded, it was true at least they hadn't died still afraid and hiding in the apartments as I had found them. They had walked out of those apartments with hope, and the length of their lives didn't diminish that in any way.
I opened up and explained what was bothering me the most, all the people that were making the dangerous trek to what was hopefully an underground colony. I spoke of how their plight had moved me when I had first went to the Undercity, my crazy impulsive decisions to help them by protecting them from attacks and by getting the serum for them. Finally I described the search for the journals and realizing that their Promised Land wasn't a myth but had a good chance of being a reality.
I could see her trying to think of something to say after this but I said "I don't know if they are dead or not, there is a chance that the bombardment didn't reach that far down, I may never know. I just need deal with my feelings of guilt over hoping they are alive while knowing that those above them are dead. I just have a lot of confused feelings right now." I paused a moment then asked hoping that she wouldn't choose this moment to go all Jedi on me and asked "could... , could you just hold me for awhile and let me cry please that's what I really need." I waited for her acceptance or rejection and felt her stillness at my request. I thought to myself; don't take it personally if she says no McDonald.
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Bastila had been on the bridge thinking with sadness of all the lives lost on Taris when she felt Cait's grief. She realized with shock that the bond between them which had been almost unnoticeable for the past two years had become stronger now that she was near Cait again.
She was uncertain what to do, she should wait for the Masters council on how to deal with the entire situation but how could she not respond to Cait. These emotions might lead her down the path to the dark side. She reluctantly and with some trepidation went to find her. She found Cait in the bunk area, with her hands over her face crying silently. She went over to the bunk and put an arm around Cait's shoulder and felt Cait start and then look at her. Her eyes were reddened and the pain in them tore at Bastila.
Bastila said "is there anything you wanted to talk about?" She could see Cait look at her warily but then Cait leaned against her and started talking about the people she had meet on Taris, about finding them fearful in different places about the things she had done for them so that the bounties were lifted. Cait was wondering if it had been worth it given that they were probably dead now, Bastila argued with her and told her that surely they had felt their freedom had been worth something to them. Bastila could tell that she was listening to her and that she accepted her words.
Cait started talking about the people of the Undercity, Bastila was amazed by her compassion toward them, obviously something about them had moved her deeply. She had risked her own life several times in order to try and help them. Bastila realized how much it had meant to her to find the journals and to think that they were going to be able to lead better lives once they found the underground colony. Bastila didn't know what to say to her that she wasn't already saying to herself and was at a loss when Cait said as much and then asked her to just stay with her and hold her while she cried. Bastila thought about what Cait had asked trying to figure out what to do, she didn't want to reject Cait, the last time she had done that look at what had happened.
Bastila realized she was afraid of holding Cait because she feared the emotions that it would awake in her. She had convinced herself over the past two years that she had gotten over the attraction she had felt for Revan. Now it was all coming back, the woman in front of her was not the Revan she remembered. If anything she was more attracted to the person Cait was than she had ever been attracted to the brash bold Revan. Cait was much more thoughtful, and oddly enough more gentle, even though she was one of the best fighters Bastila had seen outside of the Jedi Order.
Bastila couldn't reject Cait just because she was afraid of her own feelings she thought, she had done that once before to Revan. She wasn't going to reject Cait's request for companionship now. So she gathered Cait closer to her, stroked Cait's back and was silent while she cried and tried not to dwell on how right it felt. Neither realized when they fell asleep.
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I woke from a wonderful dream, and realized was sleeping in Bastila's arms my head pillowed against her chest. I grinned slightly to myself and thought no wonder my sleep was so pleasant. Reluctantly I levered myself up and glanced back at the sleeping woman; ouch I thought that's going to hurt if she keeps sleeping in that position. "Bastila, honey you need to lie down." I winced and hoped she hadn't noticed the slip but she was still mostly asleep and grumbled at me some. I don't think she really woke up but slipped down into the bunk instead of upright against the bulkhead. At least the clothes she was wearing were loose enough to sleep in; I undressed down to my underclothes then chuckled to myself and slipped back into bed with her. The morning would probably bring me some new thorn scratches but what the hell.
As I slipped back into bed she cuddled up against my back and wrapped her arms around me, I laid staring for awhile wondering if I was reading the entire situation correctly. Maybe my feelings for her weren't all one sided after all, but I would have to go slowly and feel out the ground as I went. I finally fell asleep again, though it was difficult to relax with her breathing softly against my neck and pressed up against my back.
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Canderous went to the bunk area to stow his gear and looked at the two women sleeping so close together and was quiet so as not to waken them then returned to the cockpit. He said to Carth "Well Cait is sleeping well tonight, I don't know how she managed it but she got the Jedi princess to share her bed already."
Carth stared at him with his mouth open; Canderous laughed "You hadn't noticed? How could you not have?" He shook his head and decided to go strip Davik of his armor and dispose of the body before it started smelling, leaving Carth with his thoughts.
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Bastila awoke slowly, pleasantly warm and realized she was lying in a bunk and holding a sleeping Cait in her arms. She froze wondering how she had gotten there and attempted to unwrap herself from Cait without waking her. No such luck though, Cait stirred and yawned and rolled to her back and smiled up at her. "Morning" Cait said, "thanks for staying with me last night, I had thought I might have nightmares about stuff but you must have kept them away."
Bastila grabbed at the proffered explanation and said "of course, I'm glad that I could help you." She made the mistake of looking at Cait as she did so and saw the merriment in Cait's eyes and knew that neither one of them were fooled but Cait was giving her a graceful way out of the situation. Cait nodded and rolled over and sat on the edge of the bed and began stretching.
Bastila couldn't help but notice the full sized tattoo of a crimson correlian sand panther on her back, the animal was depicted crouched, muscles coiled and ready, eyes intent on some prey. Below the front paws was a ribbon with the words "Death comes on silent feet." Bastila watched Cait stretch and thought about how different Cait was from what she remembered of Revan. Jedi Knight Maria's words came back to her, 'she is her own unique person.'
Bastila got up and said "I must speak to the Council as soon as we get on Dantoonie." Cait nodded and she looked sad, Bastila wondered why but Cait said "I expect I will be returning to my unit after we return you to Dantoonie. My assignment to your mission is done, and I expect command will want me to get back as soon as possible for a debriefing."
Bastila blinked and said "But... you must see the council about your Force sensitivity." Cait looked at her and shrugged and said "It doesn't really matter; I can't just go off on my own and make commitments like that Bastila. I don't have that freedom, I'm a Covert Ops officer and I have to report back into my commander no matter what your Jedi Council might want me to do. And I'm not so sure I want to become a Jedi anyway." Cait's eyes spoke her regrets to Bastila but her body posture and the feelings Bastila was getting through the link made Cait's determination to do what she saw as the correct thing clear. Cait had given Bastila the graceful excuse because she thought that she would never see her again.
Bastila thought I shall have to report to the council that if they should decide to train her that they will have to get her command to approve it, she will not even consider accepting the training without those orders. Once again she was struck by how different Cait was, she wasn't blindly obedient, she was proud of being an officer in the Covert Ops and would not act in any way that she thought would bring any dishonor on that position. If only Revan had been as proud of being a Knight of the Jedi Order, Bastila thought.
Escape from Taris
As we exited the apartment, Larrim caught my attention and said that he had a message from Canderous Ordo. The Mandalorian wanted to meet us at the upper city cantina. I thanked him for the message, and we decided to go see what he wanted.
Canderous wanted to get off the planet, he was tired of working for Davik and he needed us to steal the Sith launch codes from the Sith military base. Without those he said anyone leaving the atmosphere would be attacked by the Sith fleet's automated defense guns. He figured we were crazy enough to do it. I had to chuckle, after everything else we had done on this planet why not. What was in this for me, I asked. The means to get off the planet, he replied, Davik's flagship the Ebon Hawk. He knew of a droid we could purchase that would allow us to break into the base and told us where to buy it. I asked why he didn't do this himself and he replied that he was too well known. If he broke in the Sith would send an army down to Davik's estate to get the codes back.
I had to agree with that and we agreed to meet him in Javyar's cantina when we had the codes. Break into the Sith military base I thought, sure piece of cake, it wasn't like I hadn't done things like this before anyway.
Carth took the opportunity of our walk to ask Bastila how she had been captured. She explained that her Force powers had been drained during the battle, when the escape pod landed she had 'misplaced' her lightsaber and had been overwhelmed by the Vulkars. I shared Carth's sense of amusement at this but said that he should leave her alone. I didn't need the two of them angry at each other right before we tried to get the codes. Carth relented and said that she might want to leave that detail out of her reports. Bastila agreed that she would consider doing so.
The purchase price of the droid was 2000 credits; it was a good thing we had picked up so many credits at the Vulkar base I thought as I paid the purchase price. There was only one way into the Sith base, the front door. We watched anxiously as the droid broke the codes on the door and it opened. I grinned and said "show time" and walked boldly into the base.
There was a Twi'lek woman at the reception desk; she didn't believe my tale of having an appointment so I bluntly said "Don't hit the alarm. I don't want to have to hurt you." She asked us not to hurt her and I told her to go ahead and leave, which she promptly did.
I knew we would have to fight our way through this place and our only hope was that we would be able to attack small groups instead of large concentrations of troopers. I said "Ok hit hard and hit fast and take them down before they have time to raise a general alarm, we can't stand up to a large force." Everyone nodded soberly and I used my stim implant and opened the first door. It was a brief and hard fight. Bastila was a very good fighter I noticed, the lightsaber cut through the troopers armor like it wasn't there. And afterward she was able to use her Force powers to heal us. I waved off her help when she got to me, my wounds had already healed. She looked puzzled for a second then shook her head and went to help Mission.
We found a security terminal in the third room and used the system to scout out the base. I made sure everyone had a good look at what we had to face and was able to disable the shield on a particularly nasty looking assault droid as well as disable all the patrol droids. Bless the Sith and their continued reliance on droids, they always made it so much easier for me. There wasn't much else I was able to do but I was optimistic about our chances after viewing the cameras. There were a lot less personnel than I had anticipated in the base.
In the next large room we found the Duros that we had run into and saved during my first trip out of the apartment a few days ago. The Sith had found out he had removed the bodies and were going to execute him. I asked how to get him out and he told me. I examined the panels he spoke of and thought about how to manipulate them so that he would be released and not executed. I could not mess up. I breathed a sigh of relief when the panels all went red and the Duros was released and told him to get out of here as quickly as he could.
We walked along the hallway past the disabled droids and I patted one fondly as I went by it. Bastila looked at me oddly and I chuckled and said "I love the Sith, I can always count on them to make things easy by using a lot of droids." I realized I was treading too close to classified mission information and stopped. But she looked as if the answer satisfied her and didn't say anything else.
The fight in the barracks was the hardest one but even then it wasn't that hard. As Bastila healed everyone again I went through the bodies and found what I had been hoping for a base pass card. She came to heal me and once again I waved her off, this time I just said "good reflexes I guess" and didn't give her time to reply.
The next fight was the droid and I bore the brunt of its attack. I did get hurt in this one. Bastila came over after the droid was down and began to heal me but realized that my wounds were healing as she watched. I grabbed her arm and said in a low voice "you're healing me ok, say nothing about this" and kept her between me and the rest of the group. She look startled but nodded and said nothing but I could feel her eyes on me afterward and knew I would have to tell her something.
We went up to the control tower and there was one person up there the Sith Govenor. I gave him a chance to surrender but he just laughed and attacked. He was using force powers and was more of a difficult opponent than I expected. He attacked Bastila right off and put her on the defensive, leaving himself open to my attack. He had managed to knock Bastila back and off balance using his force powers and was about to attack her when I went for a strength attack and carved through his armor and killed him. I didn't usually do that since it left one almost defenseless if it was countered but he had been in a good position to possibly seriously hurt or kill Bastila and besides, I attacked from behind.
I went over to Bastila gave her a reassuring look, she was a bit pale. It hadn't escaped her notice that she had been in a bad position right before I had killed him. I checked the body and the storage containers in the area and then waved the data pad with the launch codes triumphantly. We had what we came for now to get out of here.
Our luck was uncanny, no one had managed to raise any alarms and no one noticed when we exited the base and walked to the lower city elevator. I coolly flashed my pass at the Sith trooper there and we went down. Mission could hardly suppress her giggles over my boldness.
We meet up with Canderous at the cantina and he said that he would get us onto Davik's Estate by saying we were interested in joining the exchange. Davik would invite us to stay for a few days while he checked us out. We would use the opportunity to steal the Ebon Hawk. Only two of us could go with him and I sent everyone back but Bastila to wait in the apartment. With any luck by tonight we would be back to pick them up.
Davik met us and showed us around his Estate, the tour included the Ebon Hawk. She looked like a fast ship but was protected by shields to prevent theft. We would need to find the codes to lower the shields before we could take the ship. Davik said that we would be his guests for the next few days while he ran some background checks. He told us to not stray past the guest quarters or his security forces would deal harshly with us.
I grinned at Canderous after he had left and said "shall we go see how harsh his security guards are?" Bastila sighed at the both of us and shook her head. For some reason I liked Canderous, even though I knew his morals were very different from mine.
Davik's guards were not as good as he thought, and we didn't have much trouble with them. I noted with amusement that Bastila wasn't as worried as she had been over me getting slight cuts, she came over to check that I was doing ok after each fight and I could see her watching me heal with a curious look at me. I noticed that Canderous seemed to be doing the same thing but at a much lower rate, his implant must not be as good as mine I thought.
We found a man in a torture cage and released him. My luck was continuing, he had been the pilot of the Ebon Hawk and knew the security codes and was more than happy to give them to us in thanks. We now had the codes we needed, it was time to get out of here.
Suddenly something odd occured, the base shuddered as if under heavy fire. Maybe the Sith had found out about the codes we had stolen. I knew that Bastila and Canderous were aware of it as well as we sprinted toward the hangar. We opened the doors to the hangar bay and entered it. The cause for the explosions was obvious, the Sith fleet was attacking the planet. I was dumbfounded; it seemed an odd way to go about attacking Davik's Estate if they wanted the codes back. Who knew what the Sith were thinking anyway, we had more things to worry about as I heard a Davik's voice say "Thieves in the hangar." I saw Davik and Calo Nord running in from the opposite side of the hangar.
"Energy shield's up" I said in a low voice and then continued as Davik and Calo threatened us, "use grenades first, and then close." When the firing began we relied on our energy shields to hold through a few rounds and lobbed sonic and thermal grenades at the two figures. Our trip into the Sith base had netted us quite a few of these and I had of course picked them up when I noticed them in the Sith Armory.
Suddenly Calo yelled "You may have me outnumbered and outgunned, but if I'm going down I'm taking all of you with me! This is a thermal detonator and will blow us all to bits!" He held it up over his head then cursed the Sith. Prophetically it turned out I thought as I saw a large piece of the hangar bay scaffolding fall on him and Davik. We took the opportunity to run over to Davik and verify he was dead; Canderous picked up the body and took it with us as we ran toward the ship. I paused and deactivated the codes and looked at him quizzically, and he said "I want the armor he's wearing, its specialty made." It was a bit macabre but yea why waste good armor, "just dump the body as soon as possible" I said as we entered the ship and he dropped the body by the airlock and nodded to me. We all sprinted to the controls and Canderous piloted the ship back to the city.
It was not just the Estate they were attacking we realized it was the entire city. I was stunned, there was only one reason I could think of for this. They were trying to kill Bastila and were willing to bring down the entire city to do it. Sith madness, I thought. Then with a pang I remembered the Undercity dwellers, maybe they had made it far enough from the city to not be affected by this, they had been on the move for almost three days so there was a good chance they were past the attack radius. I was more concerned about our companions but they were waiting for us at the hangar bay nearest the apartment. And entered the ship as soon as it the boarding ramp lowered. Carth took over the controls and piloted us out of the wreckage the city was quickly becoming. We made it out of the planets atmosphere and Bastila insisted that we head for Dantoonie to seek refuge; Carth interrupted "Incoming fighters." I was already sprinting for the turrets, this was one task I could do. It took me a few passes but I was good with handling gun turrets and was able to take out all the attacking fighters before they were able to do much damage to our shields.
I walked back to the cockpit of the ship, Bastila and Carth were arguing over whether or not Dantoonie was a safe place to go. I sided with Bastila if only for the reason that I needed to turn her over to the Jedi Order before I could go back to my unit.
Bastila said "We can get supplies here and recuperate. The Academy is a place of mental and spiritual healing; something we could all use after what we've been through." Carth replied "Maybe you're right. It isn't easy to witness the annihilation of an entire planet. I know Mission must be taking it pretty hard." "Entire planet?" I asked, I had been in the gun turret and hadn't seen much of the attack of the planet. Carth looked at me and nodded, "they were attacking more than just the city from what I could see." I felt a cold pit in my stomach but realized that I couldn't deal with my own feelings just yet.
Bastila looked saddened and said "Mission will find a way to come to terms with her grief. She is stronger than she appears. We just need to give her time." I thought to myself, yes she is but she can also use a friend, and went to find the young Twi'lek.
I found her working on some tunneling spikes at a workbench in one of the ships compartments. She looked up at me as if just noticing I was there when I touched her shoulder. "Huh? Oh.... sorry. I was thinking of Taris. I still can't believe it's gone! I mean, I grew up there and now it's ... it's... it's just gone." I hugged her and said. "I'm sorry... I don't know what to say."
Misson said "I don't think there is anything you can say. I just have to find some way to deal with it, I guess. It'll take some time." I looked at her with concern and she said "Look, I'm not saying I can't go on or anything like that. It's just... it's a shock, you know? I mean, I knew the Sith were evil and all, but the reality of it kind of slaps you in the face. But I suppose that's why we need to stop Malak, right?" I nodded to her and said "If you ever need someone to listen or just need a hug remember I'm here, ok? and I'm your friend." She nodded and hugged me back and went back to her work. I could tell she was using it to distract herself but I wasn't surprised her emotions about Taris had to be fairly complicated given that there was much of her life there she had hated.
I walked back to the bunk areas to deal with my own feelings of remorse and fear; I knew there was nothing I could have done to change things. I had no control over Malak's decision to bombard the planet but I felt responsible somehow. I guess because I had managed to rescue Bastila. Maybe somehow he had known she was about to get away. But there certainly hadn't been any other choice; it wasn't like I could have decided not to rescue her. Anyway he probably would have bombarded the planet if she has still been a Vulkar captive, he had probably been reacting to how much time had passed without the Sith finding her. I accepted that there was nothing I could have possibly done to stop the bombardment and went on to dealing with the next feeling.
Fear, I didn't want to think about Shaarena, Rukil and Gendar being caught in that bombardment. Maybe the damage didn't go down that far I thought. Most of the paths they were taking were through the sewer systems. It would be amazingly hard from space to manage to strike that far down given how tall the buildings were, maybe the damage was fairly contained to the upper levels I thought. Then I felt guilty for forgetting all the people we had helped, several innocent and kind people existed in the upper levels. I shouldn't be thinking that it was better or worse for the attack to fall on the Upper city as the Undercity. I thought of the kind doctor and all the people I had helped and was overcome with grief. I realized that I needed to deal with these emotions and experience my grief before it poisoned me, besides there wasn't much of a chance that I would be able to retain my calm for much longer.
I sat on the edge of the bunk and let myself feel the grief and anguish, and cried for all of them and for myself. I had always been a silent crier and so was surprised when Bastila sat down beside me and put an arm around my shoulder, I hadn't even noticed her come in I thought surprised. She looked at me troubled and said "is there anything you want to talk about?". She wasn't the person I would have thought of to turn to for comfort but the fights in the Sith base and Davik's estate had formed a tentative friendship between us. She had protected me and I had protected her, and we both knew now that we could rely on the other.
So I didn't reject her offer, instead I leaned against her and tried to explain what I was feeling. I talked about the people we had helped and my feeling of whether or not it had meant anything at all now. Bastila said to me "of course it meant something, even if they are dead now, you were kind to them and gave them their back their freedom to live. Whether or not those lives were long or not, at least they were able to walk about and live without fear of being killed by a bounty hunter after you helped them."
I thought about what she had said and nodded, it was true at least they hadn't died still afraid and hiding in the apartments as I had found them. They had walked out of those apartments with hope, and the length of their lives didn't diminish that in any way.
I opened up and explained what was bothering me the most, all the people that were making the dangerous trek to what was hopefully an underground colony. I spoke of how their plight had moved me when I had first went to the Undercity, my crazy impulsive decisions to help them by protecting them from attacks and by getting the serum for them. Finally I described the search for the journals and realizing that their Promised Land wasn't a myth but had a good chance of being a reality.
I could see her trying to think of something to say after this but I said "I don't know if they are dead or not, there is a chance that the bombardment didn't reach that far down, I may never know. I just need deal with my feelings of guilt over hoping they are alive while knowing that those above them are dead. I just have a lot of confused feelings right now." I paused a moment then asked hoping that she wouldn't choose this moment to go all Jedi on me and asked "could... , could you just hold me for awhile and let me cry please that's what I really need." I waited for her acceptance or rejection and felt her stillness at my request. I thought to myself; don't take it personally if she says no McDonald.
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Bastila had been on the bridge thinking with sadness of all the lives lost on Taris when she felt Cait's grief. She realized with shock that the bond between them which had been almost unnoticeable for the past two years had become stronger now that she was near Cait again.
She was uncertain what to do, she should wait for the Masters council on how to deal with the entire situation but how could she not respond to Cait. These emotions might lead her down the path to the dark side. She reluctantly and with some trepidation went to find her. She found Cait in the bunk area, with her hands over her face crying silently. She went over to the bunk and put an arm around Cait's shoulder and felt Cait start and then look at her. Her eyes were reddened and the pain in them tore at Bastila.
Bastila said "is there anything you wanted to talk about?" She could see Cait look at her warily but then Cait leaned against her and started talking about the people she had meet on Taris, about finding them fearful in different places about the things she had done for them so that the bounties were lifted. Cait was wondering if it had been worth it given that they were probably dead now, Bastila argued with her and told her that surely they had felt their freedom had been worth something to them. Bastila could tell that she was listening to her and that she accepted her words.
Cait started talking about the people of the Undercity, Bastila was amazed by her compassion toward them, obviously something about them had moved her deeply. She had risked her own life several times in order to try and help them. Bastila realized how much it had meant to her to find the journals and to think that they were going to be able to lead better lives once they found the underground colony. Bastila didn't know what to say to her that she wasn't already saying to herself and was at a loss when Cait said as much and then asked her to just stay with her and hold her while she cried. Bastila thought about what Cait had asked trying to figure out what to do, she didn't want to reject Cait, the last time she had done that look at what had happened.
Bastila realized she was afraid of holding Cait because she feared the emotions that it would awake in her. She had convinced herself over the past two years that she had gotten over the attraction she had felt for Revan. Now it was all coming back, the woman in front of her was not the Revan she remembered. If anything she was more attracted to the person Cait was than she had ever been attracted to the brash bold Revan. Cait was much more thoughtful, and oddly enough more gentle, even though she was one of the best fighters Bastila had seen outside of the Jedi Order.
Bastila couldn't reject Cait just because she was afraid of her own feelings she thought, she had done that once before to Revan. She wasn't going to reject Cait's request for companionship now. So she gathered Cait closer to her, stroked Cait's back and was silent while she cried and tried not to dwell on how right it felt. Neither realized when they fell asleep.
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I woke from a wonderful dream, and realized was sleeping in Bastila's arms my head pillowed against her chest. I grinned slightly to myself and thought no wonder my sleep was so pleasant. Reluctantly I levered myself up and glanced back at the sleeping woman; ouch I thought that's going to hurt if she keeps sleeping in that position. "Bastila, honey you need to lie down." I winced and hoped she hadn't noticed the slip but she was still mostly asleep and grumbled at me some. I don't think she really woke up but slipped down into the bunk instead of upright against the bulkhead. At least the clothes she was wearing were loose enough to sleep in; I undressed down to my underclothes then chuckled to myself and slipped back into bed with her. The morning would probably bring me some new thorn scratches but what the hell.
As I slipped back into bed she cuddled up against my back and wrapped her arms around me, I laid staring for awhile wondering if I was reading the entire situation correctly. Maybe my feelings for her weren't all one sided after all, but I would have to go slowly and feel out the ground as I went. I finally fell asleep again, though it was difficult to relax with her breathing softly against my neck and pressed up against my back.
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Canderous went to the bunk area to stow his gear and looked at the two women sleeping so close together and was quiet so as not to waken them then returned to the cockpit. He said to Carth "Well Cait is sleeping well tonight, I don't know how she managed it but she got the Jedi princess to share her bed already."
Carth stared at him with his mouth open; Canderous laughed "You hadn't noticed? How could you not have?" He shook his head and decided to go strip Davik of his armor and dispose of the body before it started smelling, leaving Carth with his thoughts.
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Bastila awoke slowly, pleasantly warm and realized she was lying in a bunk and holding a sleeping Cait in her arms. She froze wondering how she had gotten there and attempted to unwrap herself from Cait without waking her. No such luck though, Cait stirred and yawned and rolled to her back and smiled up at her. "Morning" Cait said, "thanks for staying with me last night, I had thought I might have nightmares about stuff but you must have kept them away."
Bastila grabbed at the proffered explanation and said "of course, I'm glad that I could help you." She made the mistake of looking at Cait as she did so and saw the merriment in Cait's eyes and knew that neither one of them were fooled but Cait was giving her a graceful way out of the situation. Cait nodded and rolled over and sat on the edge of the bed and began stretching.
Bastila couldn't help but notice the full sized tattoo of a crimson correlian sand panther on her back, the animal was depicted crouched, muscles coiled and ready, eyes intent on some prey. Below the front paws was a ribbon with the words "Death comes on silent feet." Bastila watched Cait stretch and thought about how different Cait was from what she remembered of Revan. Jedi Knight Maria's words came back to her, 'she is her own unique person.'
Bastila got up and said "I must speak to the Council as soon as we get on Dantoonie." Cait nodded and she looked sad, Bastila wondered why but Cait said "I expect I will be returning to my unit after we return you to Dantoonie. My assignment to your mission is done, and I expect command will want me to get back as soon as possible for a debriefing."
Bastila blinked and said "But... you must see the council about your Force sensitivity." Cait looked at her and shrugged and said "It doesn't really matter; I can't just go off on my own and make commitments like that Bastila. I don't have that freedom, I'm a Covert Ops officer and I have to report back into my commander no matter what your Jedi Council might want me to do. And I'm not so sure I want to become a Jedi anyway." Cait's eyes spoke her regrets to Bastila but her body posture and the feelings Bastila was getting through the link made Cait's determination to do what she saw as the correct thing clear. Cait had given Bastila the graceful excuse because she thought that she would never see her again.
Bastila thought I shall have to report to the council that if they should decide to train her that they will have to get her command to approve it, she will not even consider accepting the training without those orders. Once again she was struck by how different Cait was, she wasn't blindly obedient, she was proud of being an officer in the Covert Ops and would not act in any way that she thought would bring any dishonor on that position. If only Revan had been as proud of being a Knight of the Jedi Order, Bastila thought.