An Unexpected Visitor
I went to the opposite room and to my great delight I found a sonic imprint sensor which allowed sounds and voices to be recorded, spliced, and played back. I managed, with some trickery, to get the HK "Protocol" droid to say the code using the maintenance officers voice. After that I made my way to the airlock terminal, turning mining droids and some large bipedal mining droid type into scrap, along the way. I used the sonic sensor to playback the code and opened the airlock. I went over to the now open airlock, evading some floating mines with the help of the force. A locker next to the outer airlock contained a Space Suit that I managed to put on with some difficulty.
I was greeted by the vastness of space. I walked across the narrow cat walk, steering clear of the toxic fuel coming out of the ventilation shafts. When I reached the center of the metal walkway Atton contacted me.
"It's about time, I'm picking up your signal more clearly… except I'm picking you up on the exterior of the facility, on the asteroid's surface. That cant be right." He said, sounding confused.
"Really? Maybe you should look up." I said sarcastically.
"Huh? What are you doing out there? Are you suicidal?"
"I'm just taking a relaxing walk. The clean toxic air does wonders for my health." I told him. Since I was wearing a helmet he couldn't see my grin."
"You're crazy. Even for a Jedi. Look you need to get out of there… quick." He said excitedly.
"Something wrong?"
"What little is left from the ventilation system is venting fuel out of the facility. Most likely caused by the explosions. They're venting Peragus fuel deposits into space through the exterior vents- right in your path."
He explained.
"Looks like I'll have to hurry, then."
"The vents look like they've been purposely rerouted to vent fuel to the surface and only in the last few minutes…" He exclaimed.
"HK!" I thought.
"Oh, what now… I don't believe this. There's a ship coming" Atton exclaimed. "I have a bad feeling about this."
I watched as a Republic Warship flew towards the station. I recognized it as the Harbinger. I watched the passenger tunnel dock to the ship and a fuel connection line connected to the rear of the ship. "I could use the fuel line to bypass the force field in the fuel depot. Just you wait, HK, you haven't won yet!"
I made my way down two ramps and into the dormitory airlock. Taking off the cumbersome suit I could already hear droids on the opposite of the door ahead. I drew my vibroblade and opened the door. I used a force enhanced sprint and took them out rather easy but realized that they were a bit more sturdy. The adjoining room contained a corpse and an excavator droid, which I quickly destroyed. Upon searching the body I came upon a datapad that warned me of fire extinguishers. I opened a seal door and the room contained multiple lockers and a workbench. I used the workbench to build two vibroswords and armed myself with them. I scavenged the items and turned towards the other door. Beyond it were two fire extinguishers. I destroyed one with two grenades and the other with the dark side power Kreia taught me.
I continued making my way through the dormitory section until I finally reached a turbo lift. Next to the lift was a terminal that contained a holo log of Coorta and his gang trying to escape. It all coincided with the logs I watched in the dormitory. The HK droid mimicked the voice of a miner and set up Coorta. I watched the mining droids enter the room I was in and kill Coorta and his two colleagues. Then the voice of HK rang out. "Mocking Query: Coorta? Coorta, are you dead yet? Smug Statement: Oh I forgot to mention, in case you managed to get this far, that I reversed the code to the lift."
"Good to know, you ruthless piece of dirt." I thought to myself. I entered the code, reversed, I had found in the dormitories and the door opened. I stepped into the lift, taking it up to the administration level, and was happy that things were finally looking up. The turbolift halted and I exited the door. As I approached the door ahead of me it opened. Kreia stood on the other side. "I have felt a disturbance… our enemy is here. We must leave at once."
"The Harbinger? If anything it should contain friends."
"The Harbinger is not under the control of the Republic. The one that fired upon the Ebon Hawk as we attempted to rescue you is in control of the ship. He will not let us go without blood being shed." She explained.
"Then let's go." I replied.
"We must make our way to the airlock on this level. I fear that it is already open and if so we must be on our guard. If we cannot reach the Ebon Hawk, then we must find a way to escape on the ship that has docked here."
"Sounds like a good plan." I answered.
We made our way to the Administration console but while running there both me and Kreia felt a ripple in the force. "Did you feel that?" I asked her.
"Yes… lets move quickly." She replied. Atton was sitting next to the administration computer playing pazaak with the comlink next to him.
He looked up grabbing his blaster but lowered it when he recognized me. He looked at Kreia warily. "What in space is going on? Who's this? Another Jedi? What, did you guys suddenly start breeding when I wasn't looking?"
Kreia looked at the pazaak cards and than at him and sighed annoyed. "How in blazes does she see?" I asked myself.
"Atton, there's no time to explain- grab a weapon and follow me." I gave him a blaster rifle that he exchanged for his mining laser.
"Uh…. All right. I gather that ship that just docked isn't carrying friends of yours."
"Sure isn't, if Kreia here is right." I replied.
We started walking towards the airlock but out of the corner of my eye I saw a silver figure.
"Threat: Master, perhaps I did not enunciate clearly the last time we spoke. I suggested that you should shut down, stay put and wait for rescue." It was HK.
"Who's this?" Atton asked.
"I very friendly droid with a faulty vocabulator." I said sarcastically.
"Oh, well then lets get going." Atton replied.
"He was being sarcastic, fool." Kreia jumped in.
Atton looked hurt. "I know that your ladyship, but I really think we should get going."
"Impatient Query: Could I have your attention please?" HK questioned.
"Yeah, yeah. And, no you were clear, I just don't listen to assassin droids."
"Clarification: 'Assassin Droid' is such a crude term, master, reserved for steel drones uploaded with the most archaic kill programs. The thing I did is referred to as 'wanton slaughter'."
"I must admit you did quite a good job." I said coldly.
"Statement: Thank you, Master. Now I would think it best if you return to the med-bay."
"Sorry, but I can't. I have to get out of here and I doubt you can stop me."
"Statement: We shall see."
He raised his blaster rifle and four floating mines appeared around him. Atton threw a ion grenade at the two mines to HK's right and I threw two grenades at the mines to the droids left. Kreia meanwhile attempted to use force shock on the droid but surprisingly it hardly damaged it.
"Statement: I knew you would try and use Jedi powers. My shield protects me against your arts and now I realize I can collect the bounty on two Jedi."
He managed to shoot Atton in the leg. Atton collapsed and screamed in pain. I used a force-enhanced sprint to circle around the droid but it detected me and rolled to the right, while pummeling me with his blaster rifle. Kreia meanwhile came up behind HK and in a blur of motion decapitated him.
"Self-Destruct activated… three, two," Kreia and I quickly ran for cover. "One." A large explosion rocked the floor. I looked up and saw the droids parts lying about. I found the famed, faulty vocabulator and pocketed it.
"Some help here would be nice." Atton called over.
Kreia and I walked over to him. "We should just leave him here." Kreia said with only the slightest notion of a smile. "He is pretty useless in a fight."
I looked over to her. "Or maybe we should put him out of misery…"
Atton gaped at me wide-eyed. "You're joking, right?"
"Maybe you will explain to me why you were locked up?" I said, smirking.
"You two are certainly not Jedi." He replied. "Well here it goes: I was contacted by a friend of mine a week ago or so. He asked me to fly someone from Peragus to Nar Shadaa, no questions asked. I came here and a man name Coorta met me at the hangar and told me that I should keep the engines primed. He asked me if I had some blasters and when I said yes, he told me to keep them loaded. Some time thereafter after I decided to go in the facility. I was arrested when they found my blasters telling me that I violated some trumped up regulation." He ended his story.
I quickly used the force to heal his leg for which he was very grateful. Kreia looked at my use of the force. "Well done, Exile. Your knowledge of the force is slowly returning."
"Who is Exile?" Atton asked confused. "I thought your name was Simion."
"It is, but she is using my title. I was exiled from the Jedi order so she thinks it best to continually rub it in." I said glaring at Kreia. It was true that it was annoying when she kept on saying that. She made no expression or gestures whatsoever so I remained silent.
"That's nice." Atton answered. He stood up and we made our way to the airlock. Strangely enough it was already open. While walking through the tunnel a cold feeling came over me.
