Author's notes: YEY! Next chapter I hope you enjoyed the last one. Thanks to all of you who did serious reviews, unlike my good friend Jon. Well I hope you enjoy this next installment from, The Titain's Hammer. Oh and I don't own Star Wars.
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Everyone was quiet for the rest of the trip, as they gazed around the beautiful city and at the hustle and bustle of the crowds of Selkath-like creatures with Specs giving little astonished whistles every now and then. They were even more astonished when they arrived at the destination the guards where taking them. A huge fortress ascended to the sky in front of them filling their whole view, with seven large towers coming out of the main body of the fortress bristling with turbo-lasers and gun batteries. The fortress itself was like the rest of the city, pure white, with large vines growing up the towers and large gardens all around the outer grounds.
"Why didn't we see this from space?" Aria questioned as she stared up at the huge towers.
"Because there is a camouflage shield above the fortress." Corr said before the guard could say anything. "You can see the generators on the towers."
Aria stared close at the towers and then she noticed small bulges near the top of the towers.
"Those little bulges at the top of the towers are the generators?" she asked.
"Your Captain has a keen eye; yes those indeed are shield generators. But they are not as small as you may think. The towers are very tall but from this distance they look rather minuscule," the leader claimed in his melodious tone, "Ah, we are here."
He pushed open a very large wooden door. "I must now return to my post," the leader stated. "From here, head straight down the main corridor and you will find the governor's secretary. He will tell you where to go from there." And without another word the group of guards marched away back to their posts.
· · ·
The bridge of the Mandalorian cruiser was alive and bustling with officers and warriors going about their duties, but there was one spot where the urgency and bustle did not break through. A lone figure stood in the open place on the command deck staring out into the vast expanse of hyper space. His battle armor glinted in the light of the computers and instruments that were all around him and while everything around him was a whirl of activity, he just stood there seemingly contemplating something.
A distressed officer ran up to him. "Sir we completely destroyed the Republic cruiser Corsica."
"Good work captain," The Mandalorian said as he continued to stare out of the view port. "Was the whole crew obliterated?"
"Well we thought they had been destroyed but—"
"They escaped didn't they?" The Mandalorian uttered as he turned around to face the officer. "You didn't do a thorough job as you had you had promised me you would."
"W-we can still find them Sir," The officer stuttered, "the probe we sent out to make sure we had destroyed them reported that there was an escape pod heading towards the nearest system.
"Helmsman," The Mandalorian called. "Bring the war party out of hyper space and set a course to the system that the probe stated in his report."
"Yes Sir." The helmsman replied.
"I want no more mistakes Captain," the Mandalorian said as he marched out of the bridge.
· · ·
"What do you mean we can't see the governor?" Corr yelled at the secretary.
"It's exactly what I said sir, the governor will not see you at this time." The secretary replied in a rather frustrated voice.
"But I have to see him now I need to get off this planet, why can't you Selkath just let us leave," Corr Yelled back.
"Sir I would prefer that you would not call us Selkath," The secretary said, now becoming angry. "We may look like our Selkath ancestors but we are not them. We are the Ranath. We take it as a great insult to be called that of an inferior species. Now if you would please vacate this building at once. Here is a tour guide for you. Enjoy your stay and remember to obey the laws of Aquo-Sidus." The secretary growled, as he handed Corr a data pad and walked away.
"Well, he was friendly." Aria said, "Where should we go now?"
"Let's take a look at this tour guide that the wonderful secretary so graciously gave us," Corr said dryly.
He quickly scanned through the files looking for anything of interest, but found nothing.
"I'm guessing these guys don't have guests that often," Aria said as she read the file over Corr's shoulder, "there's nothing in here that we can use. We should go look around for a space port and see if we can get a ship out of here."
"I have a feeling that even if there is a civilian space port around here we aren't getting a ride off planet any time soon," Corr mumbled, as he continued to read but aria couldn't hear him due to a loud noise arising.
"Look over there!" Aria yelled over the noise that was now starting to become even louder.
Off to their left, a large crowd of Ranath were kicking and spitting on another member of their species. Corr and Aria hurriedly ran over to the crowd.
Corr quickly dodged a creature running hurriedly away from the crowd, waving a blaster and yelling something that he couldn't quite hear. Corr looked over at Aria and noticed she was starring at the creature that had just run past them.
"What are you looking at Aria?" he questioned as he started to move toward the crowd.
"That creature was just yelling something about an execution," she said in a trance-like way.
"They are going to execute that guy they're beating on?" he asked.
"I guess so," she replied.
The two of them rushed over to the mob.
"We should ask one of them what is going on," Aria stated.
Corr was already way ahead of her as he ran up to the crowd and grabbed a Ranath by the shoulder, dragging him back to where Aria was standing.
"Ouch! What are you doing?! Get away from me you freak!" yelled the creature as Corr dragged him over.
"What are they doing to that guy over there?" Aria demanded.
"We are practicing our rights as citizens! Now let me go!" he yelled as he squirmed under Corr's grip.
Aria questioned the creature again, "What did he do to deserve the beating he's getting?"
"He broke one of our great rules," the creature said as he tried to stand up straight under Corr's grasp, "he brought food and drink outside his home."
"You have to be kidding me. You guys are beating that poor fellow because he brought his lunch out on the street?" Corr questioned in disgust.
"It is forbidden in our culture," the Ranath declared, "Look; even now they are taking him to the execution chamber."
Corr couldn't stand seeing the creature getting beaten any longer. He was a Jedi he had to defend the weak. Letting go of the Ranath Corr gathered the Force around him and then, with a flash, he made a great leap across the street ahead of the mass. He did a mid air flip and landed a few feet in front of the throng, lightsaber in hand. There was the sound of a crack followed by a constant hum as the saber ignited, casting an eerie blue light over his face as he held the saber in a regular combat stance. He held the lightsaber out in front of his body to shield him from any danger. The crowd, not noticing at first, still raged forward. All of a sudden the then the creatures at the front of the mob realized what was standing in front of them.
"Stop where you are!" Corr thundered.
The few Ranath that tried to stop got trampled by the large mass behind them. They were mere inches away from the tip of his blade when they ceased and a blinding flash appeared over the crowd. Many ducked and others looked up to see what it was, only to be blinded by another flash. Corr quickly deactivated his lightsaber so that no one in the crowd would stumble into its deadly blade. Fighting off the brightness that tried to blind him, Corr looked around the area to see where the flashes had come from. Then he spotted them. Two speeders were hovering ten meters away from the edge of the crowd. In them sat several Ranath security guards, one of which was holding a grenade launcher and shooting flash grenades into the crowd.
Then he felt it. A disturbance in the Force! But it was too late. Someone smashed into him causing him to be pushed into an alley. The person who had pushed Corr was now on top of his back, pushing him into the dirt.
"Don't move. You don't want the security to find you," the voice said.
"Can you at least let me take my face out of the dirt?" Corr asked as he tried to pull him self up, but was pushed down into the dirt again. "Please, let me up."
"No you should have been paying attention. If you had been, you would have seen me coming and maybe you would have noticed the squad of security troops that was coming up behind you," the voice said, sounding slightly annoyed and disappointed with him.
"Well you try being focused when you have a flash grenade shot at you. I still can't even see anything! Who are you anyway?"
The voice started to laugh, "Corr, honey, it's me you idiot. That grenade must have affected more than just your sight. Don't you even know the voice of your only friend?"
"Oh. Well I feel stupid now," Corr said as he shoved Aria off him, "but I still can't see."
"Well then wipe the mud out of your eyes," Aria teased.
Corr proceeded to wipe the guck out of his eyes, feeling like even more of an idiot. Jumping up, he ran to the entrance of the alley.
"The guards are rounding up the crowd and taking them away. It's probably a good thing that they didn't pick us up. We should go and find some place to sleep for the night since it's getting late now."
"I agree. Oh, and you might want to get a change of clothes," Aria laughed.
"Why?" Corr asked inquisitively.
"Because that manure I just pushed you in is going to start to stink," Aria chuckled.
Corr stood there looking at himself in disgust. "I'm gonna get you for that one Aria."
"Oh you can try, but you never will," she laughed as she walked out onto the main street. Corr followed her dejectedly, trying to get as much of the crap off him as possible.
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Well thanks for reading and i will see you next time, Farewell.