Disclaimer
George Lucas: Owner of Star Wars
Me: Bored teenager with way too much time on my hands.
See the difference? 'Nuff said.
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Right after the words had left Aro-Ken's lips, a grenade came hurtling out of the fighting mob towards them.
"Get out of the way!" cried Aro-Ken.
He grabbed Mattan's arm and pulled him back around the corner, the bomb exploding just as Dahna followed him.
"What are we going to do?" Dahna asked him above the roar of the battle.
"I don't know! There's no way we can get inside the palace like this! Let's get out of here!" Aro-Ken said.
Instantly Dahna began to follow him as he turned around, but suddenly he froze. Aro-Ken felt something around him. He spun around.
"My master is in there! He's in danger!" Aro-Ken cried, facing the palace.
He looked down a Mattan's hopeful face.
"Come on. We're going to find another way in," Aro-Ken said with a new determination. He instantly began to walk away from the battle, looking around intently, searching for a way inside the palace grounds.
As he walked about, he saw that the energy shield was up and running all around the palace except for where the two groups were fighting.
"There's no way in. We'll have to come back when the fighting stops," said Dahna.
"No. There is always another way," Aro-Ken said, quoting his master.
Confidently he strode around the grounds, Mattan and Dahna cautiously following him.
He started to get nervous as they began to approach the battle once more. They had walked all around the palace, and hadn't found a single way in.
As they got too close to the fighting, Aro-Ken darted behind one of the large metal posts that covered the shield generators.
He sighed in frustration, turning to Dahna and Mattan. "I don't think there is a way inside."
"No, there has to be! What about your lightsaber?" cried Mattan.
"I'm sorry, Mattan, but lightsabers can't cut energy like this," Aro-Ken said. He looked around one last time. "Come on, we better get out of here before the fighting moves."
As they began to slink away, Mattan froze.
"Mattan, hurry! They'll see us!" Dahna called to him.
"Mom, Aro-Ken, come back here quickly! I have an idea!" the boy excitedly cried.
Aro-Ken was at his side in an instant. "What is it?"
"We can take one of the swoops and fly up to a window! Come on, they keep landing over there!" Mattan excitedly cried, pointing.
Looking around one last time, Aro-Ken saw no other way. "All right. Stay here, I'll come back and pick you up," he said, jogging towards where the Atheists' swoops and speeder bikes were refueling, making sure to keep a safe distance away from the battle.
He stopped and crouched behind a large trash receptacle, cautiously surveying the scene. He saw that there were three or four swoops and a speeder bike refueling. They weren't heavily guarded, just by their riders and two other guards.
Aro-Ken rose and strode towards them firmly, his brown robe flapping about him.
"Hold it! Who are you?" one of the guards said, aiming his blaster rifle at Aro-Ken's chest as he approached.
"Hey, hey, I'm one of you! My bike got shot down back there. I'll need another bike," Aro-Ken said with a small wave of his hand, using the Force to alter the man's mind.
"You'll need another bike," said the guard.
"Right. This one will do," Aro-Ken said, pointing to the swoop closest to him, slightly waving his other hand as he continued to use the Force.
"This one will do," repeated the guard, gesturing to the same swoop.
"Thank you," Aro-Ken said. He hopped on the swoop, started it up, and instantly took off before the other guards could make any objections.
He made his way back to Dahna and Mattan cautiously, flying quickly and occasionally turning sharply so he would look like any other fighter.
He landed, cautiously looking back and forth. No one was watching. "OK, what I'm going to do is take you both to the palace and let you in through one of the upper windows, and then land by one below it and come in. If I leave it hovering by the window you go through, someone will know and follow us. Now hurry, I can only take one of you at a time. This thing only sits two," said Aro-Ken, looking over his shoulder to be sure they weren't spotted.
"I'll go first. Mattan, stay right here," Dahna said.
Mattan made no objection.
"All right, get on," Aro-Ken said to Dahna.
As they took off, Aro-Ken explained to her, "Wherever Del-Mon is, he's probably with Anjos and his wife. I'm going to drop you off closest to where I think he is, and then go back for Mattan," said Aro-Ken.
"All right, but please hurry!" Dahna called to him.
Aro-Ken reached out with the Force. He could feel his master's presence. Without thinking, he went where the Force told him to, coming closer to Del-Mon.
A moment later, Aro-Ken carefully stopped and turned the swoop sideways, moving it in towards the palace until it was less than a foot away. They had stopped near a tower, at the very top window.
"Can you reach it?" asked Aro-Ken, nodding to the window.
"Yes, I can try," said Dahna.
Aro-Ken watched, getting ready to grab her if she fell. Dahna rose and got her feet on the same side of the swoop. She got one foot out, and placed it on the windowsill, straddling the gap.
Out of the corner of his eye, Aro-Ken suddenly spotted another swoop coming towards them.
"Hey, what are you doing?" shouted a voice.
"Go!" Aro-Ken cried.
Instantly Dahna jumped and pulled herself through the window frame.
"I'll be back with Mattan!" he called as he instantly gunned the engine and shot away, the other swoop hot on his tail.
He heard blaster shots from behind him, and knew there was no way he could pick up Mattan with the person after him.
He shoved the swoop down, and it blazed towards the ground. At the last minute he pulled up, hovering just slightly above the ground.
Some blaster shots hit the dirt right next to the swoop, and Aro-Ken could hear the other swoop pursuing him. He did a few neat barrel rolls and weaved in and out of the trees, but found his skills were evenly matched with the other rider.
As he skillfully piloted the swoop about the many trees on the palace ground, he suddenly got an idea.
He looked back, and moved his swoop so he was directly in front of the other person, preventing them from seeing ahead.
Aro-Ken went faster, knowing how risky it was to stay in front of the other person like that. He looked ahead, and saw what he had been hoping to find.
Straight ahead of him, about a hundred meters, he saw a tree with a thick, low, overhanging branch. Aro-Ken slightly eased the controls up, getting his chest level with the branch.
He glanced over his shoulder, and saw the other rider did the same thing, unaware of the branch.
Aro-Ken increased his speed again, going faster and faster. He could hardly keep his eyes opened. He squinted, his vision blurring.
As the tree was just about to collide with the front of his swoop, he jammed down hard on the steering controls and then pulled back up, going neatly under the branch and then back into the air. He came so close he could feel the leaves on the tree brush his hair.
As he rocketed away, he glanced over his shoulder, and saw the other rider as the tree branch hit him in the chest. He was knocked to the ground, his unmanned swoop still shooting forward.
Aro-Ken sharply turned around to pick up Mattan, and heard an explosion behind him as the driverless craft collided with the palace's energy shield.
He sighed in relief as he shot over the battle, weaving in and out of the other swoops and more trees.
Finally, about halfway across the battle scene, he spotted Mattan. But he wasn't the only one who had. Three other people had Mattan surrounded.
As one of his hands slammed down on the accelerator, Aro-Ken started to grab his lightsaber with the other.
He saw Mattan begin to run towards the alleys, and Aro-Ken began to steer in the same direction.
When he cleared the battle, he steered the swoop down over the wall and landed it, jumping off of it instantly and taking off after Mattan and his pursuers. He activated his lightsaber, and the bright blue blade was a blur as he ran.
Looking ahead, he saw the swift boy had ducked into an alley. Aro-Ken ran harder, refusing to tire. He had to save Mattan.
He bolted into the alley, rapidly catching up.
All of the sudden they ran into a dead end. Instantly the three people, obviously unaware of Aro-Ken's presence, began to close in on Mattan.
Aro-Ken kept running towards them, his lightsaber ready. With a cry of rage he stopped running and jumped as hard as he could, flipping and landing on the other side of the people after Mattan.
Instantly he stepped forward, and slashed his lightsaber clear through the barrel of a man's blaster. He heard a vibroblade on his right, and he spun around to face it, easily blocking the shorter weapon's attack.
Mattan on the other hand had used his pursuers' moment of confusion to his advantage, diving at one's legs and knocking him off his feet.
There was an old metal pole on the ground, and Mattan grabbed it, quickly using it to block the other man's vibroblade as he attacked with it.
Aro-Ken had the man's vibroblade on the ground in under a minute, and had his lightsaber aimed at his throat. "Get out of here," he snapped.
Instantly the man obeyed.
Mattan was jumping and moving very agilely, blocking every attack with his pole. Aro-Ken noted that his skill was very great.
After watching a brief instant, he knew they had to get back to Dahna, and stepped into the battle. He disarmed the man easily with his more powerful weapon, and calmly instructed him to leave. The man obeyed without hesitation.
The young Jedi sighed in relief. "Come on, your mother is waiting for us," he said.
Aro-Ken was about to turn around, but suddenly froze. Someone was behind them, he could sense it. And it definitely wasn't an ally of theirs.
He faintly heard the sound of a gun caulking, and he instantly spun back around, his lightsaber out again.
He found two people at the entrance to the alley, and Aro-Ken recognized both of them, one from the holofiles he and Del-Mon had been given before they left the Jedi Temple for Crixxin. It was Prince Talno, who sided with Prime Minister Darmick and the Crixxians. Aro-Ken sensed anger emanating in the Force around him.
Talno looked to be about one or two years older than Aro-Ken, and possibly stronger as well. His hair was blazing red, and his eyes were a deep hazel color. He was armed with a large blaster pistol.
The other person at his side was the same woman who had tried to deny them entrance to Crixxin when he'd first landed with Del-Mon. It was the woman with long, jet-black hair and cloudy light blue eyes. She carried with her a small vibro-ax.
Aro-Ken had barely finished observing all this when Talno fired. The young Jedi easily deflected the shot, but he had a feeling that it wouldn't all be that easy.
"Mattan, be careful! Try to get out of here!" Aro-Ken cried as he jumped to the side to avoid another blast and deflecting second.
Mattan quickly looked around, but saw there was no way to do this. The woman seemed to have other plans in store for him as she advanced, bringing up her vibro-ax to attack.
Aro-Ken tried to jump around as much as he could, knowing it would be more difficult for Talno to hit a moving target. His blue lightsaber looked like an opaque circle as he spun it around, deflecting every shot he could and moving to avoid those he couldn't.
The young boy, on the other hand, was having a considerably greater amount of difficulty handling his foe considering that a metal rod would be no use against a vibro-ax. All he could do was jump, roll, duck, dive, and run to avoid getting slashed.
"We have to get back to Dahna," Aro-Ken thought as he jumped, planted his feet on the nearest wall, and flipped over. His feet hit the ground and he was instantly expertly swinging his weapon again, making it look like a radiant blue shield that encircled him. Aro-Ken did all this while moving a bit closer to Talno at a time.
The vibro-ax fell once more, lodging in the ground where Mattan's feet had been a split second earlier. He was getting tired, and the woman wasn't going to let up any time soon. Mattan knew there was no point in trying to get around her. He would still have to get past Talno if he wanted to get out of the alley.
Finally, when Aro-Ken was less than three meters from Talno, he jumped as hard as he could, flying through the air and allowing himself to flip as he did. He landed right in front of the prince, and swung his lightsaber at his head before the older man could react.
At the same instant, Mattan also jumped, but failed to realize that the woman had feigned an attack before it was too late. He landed to find that he was in a corner, with nowhere to run and a vibro-ax coming at his neck.
At the last possible second, Aro-Ken maneuvered his lightsaber swiftly, twisting it so the hilt struck Talno in the head, knocking him unconscious. A small trail of blood ran from his skull.
Exactly when he was turning back to Mattan, he heard the boy shout long and hard. His eyes saw a brief flash of the woman about to behead the child, but that was all that was needed.
Before he even realized his brain had ordered the action, Aro-Ken's hand shot out towards the limp form of Prince Talno. He used the Force to call the fallen man's blaster to his hand, setting it to STUN with his thumb as he deftly aimed at the woman's back. He pulled the trigger, and the large blue blast hit her square between the shoulder blades, making her fall limply to the ground. The vibro-ax fell from her hand at the same time.
Aro-Ken and Mattan both let out their breath, realizing that they had been holding it in at the same time.
Their eyes locked for an instant, and Aro-Ken quickly said, "Let's go."
He and Mattan ran for the swoop, stopping and getting on. Aro-Ken instantly started it up and they took off.
The trip there was uneventful as Aro-Ken steered about the other swoops and speeder bikes, finally stopping at the window.
"Go, Mattan, hurry!" cried Aro-Ken.
Mattan quickly got one leg on the windowsill and the other on the swoop.
From within the tower, Dahna grabbed her son's arm and helped him inside.
"Both of you try and stay here! I'll be with you as soon as I-" Aro-Ken didn't get to finished his sentence. He was abruptly cut off as a laser bolt hit then engine of the swoop. It coughed and instantly died.
Aro-Ken still clung to the swoop as it went down, spiraling out of control. At the last second, he managed to push his legs off the swoop, and he jumped clear. The swoop hit the ground and burst into flames.
Before he could get on his feet again, a vibro-ax fell towards his chest from above. Quickly Aro-Ken rolled aside, and the ax was lodged into the ground.
He jumped to his feet, igniting his lightsaber again. Instantly he swung it at the vibro-ax as the person brought it down towards his head.
The lightsaber cut clear through the handle of the vibro-ax, and the blade fell to the earth. Instantly his opponent disappeared into the battle, and a blaster shot hit the dirt inches from Aro-Ken's right foot.
He sensed a laser behind him and spun around, angling his lightsaber blade so that the laser would go up when he deflected it.
Something came hurtling above the heads of the other fighters and landed at Aro-Ken's feet. He recognized it immediately as a thermal detonator.
Right away Aro-Ken turned and bolted into the crowd, not caring which direction he was going.
There was an explosion from behind him. He heard screams. The grass was on fire.
Suddenly, there was a creaking, crunching sound behind him. Aro-Ken whirled around, and saw one of the massive trees was falling down to the battle, and the thick trunk was going to land right where he was standing. Instantly he dove aside in to the crowd, rolling on the ground.
He jumped up immediately, and heard screams and a violent crash as the tree hit the ground.
Frantically looking around, he couldn't tell where he was. There were too many people. He spotted the huge red stone structure to one side, and began to slip through the crowd towards it.
Just as he staggered out of the huge battle, a laser hit the dirt right next to him. He knew instantly the bolt had been meant for him.
His head quickly turned, and he saw three guards in heavy blast armor coming towards him.
Right away he held his lightsaber coolly in front of himself, deflecting the lasers easily.
He hit one guard in the leg, and another fell, a laser embedded in his chest.
The final one Aro-Ken proceeded to move gradually closer to, the guard not seeming to notice or care. Finally, after hitting a bolt away, Aro-Ken lunged forward, neatly cleaving the blaster rifle in half and striking the guard in the back with his weapon. The blow dented and cracked the man's armor, and he fell to the ground.
Aro-Ken instantly turned and ran for the palace as fast as he could. He suddenly heard small explosions and felt dirt showering his legs. Glancing over his shoulder, he spotted a speeder bike flying after him, firing lasers from its mounted cannons.
Aro-Ken ran faster, darting in and out of the trees until he finally spotted a window on the wall.
The distance between it and the ground was at least twice his height, but he kept running.
Quickly, he jumped, using the Force to go higher. His fingers closed around the windowsill. Kicking with his feet, he pulled himself up and through the window, finally inside the palace.
- - -
As the troops charged at each other, Elias gave a cry of rage and dove from the balcony, landing on the speeder bike.
"Danya, don't do this! Call them off now!" he shouted at his sister.
"No! I should have done this a long time ago! The other Atheists agree with me! We can't sit around and wait for the Crixxians to strike again! We must fight back!" said Danya.
"No! The king and queen and I have just finished a treaty! It will resolve these conflicts and take power from the Prime Ministers and give it back to the people! We don't need to fight to settle this!"
"Brother, do not oppose me. As far as I am concerned, you are with me or the Crixxians. Chose a side," snarled Danya.
Elias glared at her. "I will not choose a side, because neither one it right. Violence is not the answer!" he shouted.
"You're wrong, Elias!" Danya said.
"No, you've got it backwards. It is you who is wrong. How do you think our father would have handled this? Did he ever try and kill a Crixxian? Did he ever once think of genocide?" asked Elias.
"Brother, do not oppose me. I must help my people. Get off the bike," she said calmly.
"No," Elias sternly said.
"Do not toy with me, brother. Get off the bike!" Danya said, more forcefully.
Elias kept his eyes locked with hers.
"I warn you for the last time. Get OFF my bike!" shouted Danya. She coolly drew a blaster from a holster strapped to her side.
"No. I will not agree with you, nor will I side against you," Elias said.
"Fine," Danya coolly said.
Her finger pressed the trigger. Instantly Elias dove out of the way. He could feel the heat of the shot as it streaked by his side. Then he discovered he had dived right off the bike and was plunging down towards the furious battle raging below.
As he neared the ground, the humming of an engine reached his ears. He turned his head, and saw another bike coming at him, its rider wearing a long cloak.
An arm suddenly shot out, and hit him square in the chest, knocking the wind out of him as it quickly wrapped around his torso and pulled him onto the speeder bike. Elias looked at his savior, and discovered it was, "Wid?"
The person nodded. Elias had recognized Wid's powerful build right away.
"Please don't tell me you're on Danya's side on this thing!" cried Elias.
Wid vigorously shook his head.
"OK, um… Do you have any weapons on this thing?" asked Elias.
Wid let go of the steering mechanism with one hand and opened up a small compartment. He reached inside it and pulled out a vibroblade, passing it back to Elias.
"Thanks. I'll be sure to- Aah!" Elias suddenly cried as Wid's hand clamped down on the back of his neck and shoved him down on the seat.
"Wid, what are you-" Elias stopped talking when a blaster bolt shot over his head. "Somebody's shooting at us!"
Wid let go of Elias, and immediately began to take evasive maneuvers. He turned sharply, so sharp that the speeder bike was sideways. Elias clung to Wid's shoulders even tighter than he had before.
He managed to look to the side, and saw that the person shooting at them was Danya.
"Dammit! Wid, try and land somewhere! She's not going to give up!" Elias called.
Wid instantly made the speeder bike abruptly dive down.
Elias shouted as they went down, coming closer and closer to the ground. More lasers shot past the bike, narrowly missing him.
Just as they were about to hit the ground, Wid pulled sharply up, and they shot back up over the battle.
"Try and get closer to the palace! Other people can't join her as easily if there aren't as many angles for them to shoot at us!" Elias said, pointing ahead at the palace.
Instantly Wid turned the speeder bike, nearly throwing Elias off, and they soared straight at the palace wall. Wid abruptly turned the bike, and they flew roughly a meter away from the palace, going as fast as he could.
All of the sudden, as they shot around a corner, they found a tree directly in front of them.
Elias shouted, and Wid calmly pulled up, and they went clear over the tree, now up near the roof.
Danya followed, coming closer to the tree than Wid had, and still shooting at them.
Wid, being the more skilled pilot, began to zigzag back and forth, the bolts all flying harmlessly past the speeder bike.
A shot grazed Elias's shoulder as they sped away. At the same instant it hit, he had to duck another bolt.
As he put his head back up, Elias said, "She can't have shot that fast!" He looked around, and spotted a gleam of metal from the roof of the palace.
There are snipers on the roof! he realized.
Just as he opened his mouth to warn Wid, one of Danya's bolts hit the bike, shaking it. Smoke instantly began to pour from the engine, and they started losing altitude.
"Jump!" shouted Elias.
Instantly he turned and leapt from one side, and Wid jumped from the other.
As he tumbled head over heels, Elias fumbled with his belt, and grabbed his spare cable launcher. He saw Danya's speeder bike above him, and aimed a few meters in front of it before firing the cable.
As he continued to fall, the cord suddenly went taught as it hit Danya's bike, and was almost yanked from his hands, but he managed to hold it. Elias was towed rapidly away from Wid, being dragged by Danya's speeder bike.
Meanwhile, Wid had managed to seize the edge of the palace rooftop with his fingers, and hauled himself up onto the warm metal.
Instantly, two figures clothed in grey that mixed with the roof swiftly came over to him, aiming blaster rifles at his chest.
"Don't move," one of them said.
The only thing he could do was watch as they quickly reloaded and caulked their weapons.
- - -
Del-Mon led the king and queen inside and swiftly down the hallways. He had no idea where he was going, he simply tried to avoid the guards that he heard tramping down the hallways. There was no way of telling which of them were on Darmick's side and which were not.
He kept his hand near his lightsaber, ready to activate it at a second's notice. "How can we get out of here without being detected?" Del-Mon asked.
"There is a passage that no one uses anymore that leads to the front gate. But we'll have to go through the throne room to get there," Anjos replied.
"Then we'll go through the throne room. We don't have much of a choice. You'll need to guide me on the way there," Del-Mon calmly said.
"This way," said Anjos.
Instantly the small group headed off down the corridor at a brisk jog. All of Del-Mon's senses were alert and scanning the area as they ran, sensing the presence of every guard.
Suddenly, as they rushed around a corner, Del-Mon could sense others nearby. "Stop!" he sharply whispered. He turned to go back the other way, but more guards were coming that way too.
He turned to Anjos, managing to keep a calm expression. "The guards are closing in on us. What is through this door?" he asked, gesturing to the door on the left side of the hallway.
"That's just a small dining hall," Anjos replied.
Del-Mon reached out with the Force quickly, and could tell there were more people beyond the door.
"There are others in that room, but not as many as there are coming this way," said Del-Mon.
"Let's go," Anjos immediately said. He punched in a few commands on the door controls, and the door shot open.
Del-Mon instantly went inside, his hand still near his lightsaber but not ready to grab it.
"The king and queen!" "And that Jedi the Prime Minister wants!" "Quick, open fire! Darmick is offering fifty thousand credits on each of their heads!"
Right away, Del-Mon activated his lightsaber and spun about, positioning himself between the guards and the king and queen.
"Jam the door!" he called over his shoulder.
Del-Mon had all ready taken out four out of the ten guards.
Behind him, Anjos grabbed his wife and quickly shoved her into the doorway, which she quickly jammed.
Anjos then jumped up onto a windowsill, the window frame protecting him as he drew a small blaster pistol. Del-Mon was amazed at how well he handled the weapon.
With Anjos's sharpshooting skills combined with Del-Mon's expert lightsaber handling, they had quickly and easily defeated the traitorous guards.
From outside the door they had entered through, there came an angry cry, "Open up in there!"
Del-Mon's sharp eyes instantly darted about the room, searching for an escape route. The room they were in was bigger than Del-Mon had imagined it would be. There was a large banquet table, surrounded by several chairs. The walls were draped with banners bearing the Crixxian insignia.
As he searched, his eyes fell on the ventilation shaft that was in the ceiling. Luckily, for such a huge room, it was big enough for a man such as himself or Anjos to fit into.
"Quick, we have to go up the ventilation shaft!" he said, pointing up as he deactivated his lightsaber and once again clipped it to his belt.
"Get on the table," said Anjos, quickly stepping up and courteously offering his wife a hand.
Del-Mon grabbed a chair and put it atop the table and then climbed up. He stood on the chair and cut through the metal surrounding the ventilation shaft, and let the grating clatter onto the table.
"You go first, Your Majesty," Del-Mon said to Anjos, who clambered up on the chair and jumped, pulling himself into the shaft.
"Leckura, you go next," said Anjos from above. Leckura silently stepped onto the chair, and Del-Mon held her up so she could reach the shaft easier. A few seconds later Leckura's arms wrapped around Anjos's strong biceps as he reached down to pull her into the shaft.
With his sharpened sense of hearing, Del-Mon detected motion outside the door. Someone was fastening something to it.
"Hurry, Del-Mon! They're going to blow up the door!" Anjos's voice called down.
Back in the dining room, Del-Mon did not come up the shaft. Instead, he grabbed the metal grating from the ventilation shaft from where it had fallen. He threw it at the nearby window with all his might, and the glass shattered.
As fast as he could, he grabbed the cable launcher from his belt. He undid a long length of cable before hooking it to the outside ledge of the window and letting it fall down to the grounds below.
Rushing, he frantically jumped back onto the table, got on the chair, and jumped. As he jumped, he pushed with his legs, and made the chair topple off the table and onto the ground.
In just a minute, he'd erased all evidence of where they had gone, making it look like they'd gone out a window instead. He just had to hope the guards did not notice the missing grating on the shaft.
Del-Mon's hands grasped the sharp corner where the shaft went down and opened up into the room. He effortlessly pulled himself up, and just in time too. As soon as his legs disappeared up the shaft, there was an explosion, and he could hear guards tramping into the room.
"Where are they?" "Look, the window is broken!" "There's a cable launcher here, they must be outside!" the guards' voices reached their ears.
As quickly as they had entered, the guards left, and Leckura sighed in relief.
Del-Mon calmly turned around, finding that he had just enough room to do so on his hands and knees.
"Let's go. How do we get to the throne room from here?" asked Del-Mon.
"It should be this way. Come on," Anjos replied. He began to crawl down the shaft, and Del-Mon and Leckura followed.
As quietly as they could they went along the metal shafts, Anjos quietly whispering directions back to Del-Mon.
Finally, Anjos stopped. "It's just below here. We can't go any further, this is where the shaft stops," he said.
"Let me go down first," Del-Mon said.
Leckura pressed herself against the wall of the shaft, as did Anjos, and they allowed Del-Mon to slip past them. He crouched cautiously at the edge of the gap where the shaft dropped down and led to the grate that opened into the throne room.
"Do either of you have a vibroblade by any chance?" he asked.
He received no reply.
Sighing nervously, Del-Mon unclipped his lightsaber. Lying on his back, he managed to put his lightsaber in his mouth as he pushed himself towards the gap with his feet. He then pressed his hands against the two walls of the shaft and slowly lowered himself down. When only his lower legs were up on the shaft, he stopped, allowing himself to hang there. He grabbed his lightsaber and activated it, slicing through the thin metal of the grate. Just as he sliced through the last of the grate, he seized it with his hands, not wanting it to drop to the floor and make unnecessary noise.
When he finished, the Jedi deactivated his lightsaber and released the shaft with his legs. He let himself fall upside-down until he was completely out of the shaft, and then did a quick flip and neatly landed on his feet in the throne room below.
Looking around, ready to switch his lightsaber on again, he saw no one and discarded the grate.
He looked back up. "It's all right! Anjos, get down here quickly!" he called.
Almost instantly King Anjos jumped down the shaft, landing on his feet and then falling to his knees. He got back up right away.
"Leckura, jump! Del-Mon and I will catch you!" Anjos called to his wife.
"All right!" replied Leckura.
She dropped from the shaft, and Anjos and Del-Mon caught her.
The instant Anjos set Leckura on her feet, the huge door to the throne room burst open, and Prime Minister Darmick barged in, fifteen soldiers following him.
"There they are! Kill them!" Darmick shouted, pointing a fierce finger at the three.
"Leckura, get out of here!" Anjos shouted as he drew his blaster and Del-Mon switched his lightsaber on again.
Leckura instantly turned and ran, but she did not leave the room. Instead she went to the two elaborate thrones, and pressed her hand beneath one of the armrests. The top of the armrest opened up, and Leckura grabbed a blaster from the hidden compartment that was revealed. She was soon fighting at her husband's side.
Del-Mon nimbly wielded his lightsaber as he deflected the lasers again, easily hitting the guards with their own shots.
A few minutes later their numbers had gone from fifteen down to seven.
As Del-Mon grimly watched another soldier fall, he heard a strangled gasp from his side. Instantly he turned, and saw Prime Minister Darmick holding the queen with a rough grasp around her throat. A blaster was pressed to her head.
"No!" cried Anjos.
"Move and she dies! Put down your weapons!" snapped Darmick. He had succeeded in disarming the queen all ready.
Slowly, Del-Mon and Anjos obeyed. The guards moved in and surrounded them.
"You three come with me. I'll need an escort incase I have to kill the queen," he said with that evil, malicious smile. "The rest of you, kill the king and the Jedi. They are of no use."
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