"Fourth Ground is in Zeta Sector, soldier," the officer growled back. "What are you doing in Beta?"
"Sir, Fourth Ground AM was ambushed by some local gang members. We went in pursuit. We got separated and found these two setting explosives at one of the forward checkpoints."
"Ambush?" the officer frowned doubtfully. "Explosives? Why haven't I heard about any of this?"
"Oh you'll be hearing about it, sir. Right about now!"
Just then, one of the docking platforms visible beyond the window exploded in a sphere of angry red flame. It snapped off from the mooring arm suspending it above the city and swung downward into empty space. All attention snapped towards the explosion.
Except for the three soldiers.
The female soldier tossed a grenade at each of the cannon emplacements, and she threw herself flat on the ground. Both guns erupted with a thundering crack, and the crews of each gun screamed as their bodies flipped limply into the air. Behind the female soldier, the other two soldiers opened fire on the rest of the troopers. Armored bodies collapsed as blaster bolts sizzled through their chests and faces.
The female rolled over her shoulder and came up in a crouch with two blasters in hand. She fired on the two guards at the door, burning black holes into their helmet faceplates. The officer whirled on her in shock and anger, hauling his pistol from the holster on his belt. The Wookiee snarled savagely, and grabbed the man around his throat. His neck popped loudly and he fell limp in the Wookiee's grasp.
The tiny surveillance droid swooped down towards the door even as the female soldier called out, "Now AyVee!"
It hovered in front of the heavy locking mechanism and an interface rod flipped down from its cluster of spindly, spidery arms. The rod sank into an interface port and began to whir and click. Two of the soldiers ran up to the door beside the droid while the Wookiee grabbed up a fallen rifle. The woman prisoner reached under her tabard and ignited a golden lightsaber.
"Canderous, watch our rear," Lal called, tugging her Sith helmet off.
Canderous nodded grimly beside Bastila and panned his massive rifle along the far end of the walkway.
"Looks like the Beks did their job," Carth said, yanking his own helmet off. "Let's hope this droid of yours can reroute computer control before they lock us out…"
Bastila jogged lightly up beside them, her lightsaber singing as she moved. "I could simply try to cut through, you know."
Carth shook his head as he watched Lal's droid work. "Door's too thick. It would take too long."
AyVee beeped happily as the locking mechanism of the door clanked and opened. He drifted back to float beside Lal's shoulder and bubbled forth an excited series of whistles and clicks and beeps. As the door opened, Lal popped a flash grenade inside and they all turned their heads away.
Whump!
Screams and cries sounded from within, and Lal and Carth swung into the room, bracketing the doorway. They opened fire on the blinded troopers within, cutting them swiftly down. Bastila, Zaalbar and Canderous filed in behind them and Lal moved swiftly towards a computer station in the center of the room.
"AyVee," she said, "jack in and see if you can find the codes." The droid acquiesced with a toot, sinking his interface rod into the stud on the terminal. After few seconds, he honked in frustration and disengaged.
"What seems to be the problem?" Bastila demanded.
Lal sighed in annoyance at the younger woman. "It seems that AyVee can't get access. That's what the problem is…"
The droid interrupted with an angry string of beeps. Lal tried to make sense of the droid's harmonic speech, but couldn't understand. Then it suddenly dawned on her. "You need to access a higher security terminal…"
The droid whistled long and low, relieved she finally got it. It pointed a grasper claw to the door directly ahead of them, and floated in that direction.
"Follow the droid, I guess," Lal sighed, jogging after AyVee.
The door hissed open to reveal a long white corridor studded with doors. At the far end, there stood another door. AyVee zipped up to hug against the ceiling and coursed happily down the corridor. "AyVee, wait!"
A door beside Lal slid open and an officer stuck her head out. "I thought I heard blasterfire," she said, her eyes locking on Lal's face.
"You did," Lal said, shoving her gun into the woman's face and firing point blank. The officer fell back into the room, and Lal noticed several other troops sitting down at a table, playing Pazaak. When they saw their officer collapse in a lifeless heap, they scrambled to their feet, reaching for their weapons. Lal popped into the room and shot them down. Carth leaned in behind her, adding his shots to her own.
Behind them Zaalbar and Canderous opened up with their rifles as soldiers appeared through the far door. Carth yanked Lal out of the crossfire, but Bastila simply charged.
"What is she doing?" Lal cried.
"Being a Jedi," Carth grunted, trading shots with the soldiers.
Lal watched in breathless awe as Bastila turned and twisted her blade, deflecting each blaster bolt that hissed towards her. Her lightsaber cried out defiantly as she dashed into the midst of the soldiers. She ducked low and jabbed her glowing blade into a soldier's belly. She ripped free and slashed laterally, beheading a trooper edging in on her flank.
"Is she crazy?" Lal hissed.
Carth did a double-take at her and chuckled. "This from the woman who leaps on Rancors."
Lal glared at him and shook her head. "She'll get herself killed doing that! Canderous, stay here and cover our exit. Zaalbar, hold position here and give us fire support. Carth, with me."
Carth seemed surprised, but didn't argue. The two of them sailed down the corridor after Bastila. They burst into the wide room behind her as she carved a smoking swath through the soldiers within. AyVee slipped in above them, managing to easily stay out of the line of fire by hovering above everyone's heads.
A door at the left side of the chamber hissed open and several more troops filed in. Lal and Carth cut them down before they could target Bastila's back. More tried to push through, but stumbled over the bodies piled in front of them.
Bastila whirled on the Sith, having finished off the rest of the soldiers in that chamber. She whipped her lightsaber forward, hurling it in a spinning disk of golden light. The weapon hummed viciously into armor and flesh and bone, and another body fell. Bastila held forth her hand, and the lightsaber sailed back into her grasp.
Lal would have been amazed if she'd had the time. Instead, she kept pumping shots through the doorway, blasting down the troops who tried to get through. Finally five soldiers stormed into the room and spread out along the walls. They peppered Lal's position with blaster shots and she dropped flat on the floor. Still firing at them, she rolled across the floor and dashed for cover behind a series of deactivated stasis tubes.
She popped a few shots off from behind the tubes, and she heard a scream as she hit one of them. Again, Bastila dashed right at the soldiers, disemboweling the nearest one. Carth fired a quick flurry of shots, taking out the two blasting Lal's position. She nodded her thanks to him from across the room, and he smiled in reply.
Bastila did not pause, however. She hurled herself through the air, crashing her boot into a trooper's faceplate. Impossibly, she twisted her body over in mid-air and shoved off against him with her other foot. He fell back into a comrade and Lal shot them both. Bastila fell to the floor and reached downward to pivot around on her palm. She thrust her foot into the remaining trooper's knee, and he collapsed with a shrill scream. As he fell, Bastila rose upwards, drawing her blade up his groin and belly, unzipping his guts.
"Clear," Bastila informed them, nodded at Carth. He nodded back and dashed forward to the side of the door, covering Bastila as she stepped in. Lal sighed and moved up on the opposite side.
She activated the comm on her wrist and spoke into it. "Zaalbar, move up. Canderous, hold."
Carth glanced at her with a smile twinkling in his eyes. "You're so cute when you're barking orders like that."
"Rule number one: never flirt with a girl who is in a hostile mood and is carrying a smoking blaster."
"Point taken…General Lal," he chuckled back.
"What's that supposed to mean?" she demanded.
"If you two would please control your hormones long enough…?" Bastila sighed heavily. "This would appear to be some sort of control room."
Lal tossed a lingering glance at Carth and stepped into the room. She looked around and saw tall banks of computer consoles and monitors rising up to the ceiling in flickering rows.
"AyVee, plug in," she called to the floating droid above her. AyVee swooped down to hover before one of the consoles. He deployed his interface and jacked in. The screen before him lit up with scrolling columns of alpha-numerics, each flickering faster than Lal could track. Every second or so, the bottom row in the lower right corner of the screen flashed red. AyVee hummed absently and Lal wondered exactly why Janice had programmed the droid with a personality.
She knew very little about computer programming, but Lal was able to tell that AyVee was slicing his way into the very code of the numerous security files on the Sith database. The Arakyd Viper series were all highly independent droids capable of a variety of infiltration protocols. They had slicing software packages which allowed them to access secure files and crack encryptions.
Six months ago, Davik had found this Arakyd snooping through his personal computer files. Lal had blasted the little droid into so much scrap. Initially, Davik had ordered his people to examine the droid's database, to see what it had been looking for. Then, they simply discarded it. But Lal scooped up the remains from the trash and took it to Janice. The Twi'lek had rebuilt the droid from the codes on up. Lal would never have been able to explain why she wanted a droid with such…unique capabilities. But there were a lot of things she did, on vague, wild whims that paid off later.
In one way or another.
Suddenly, Canderous came running backwards into the control room. An icy grin was frozen upon his lips. He glanced back over his shoulder at Lal and the others. "We're going to have company. A lot of company. No way I could hold them all, but I left a few surprises for them."
"Wonderful," Carth growled. "Our exfil is compromised."
Lal glanced around as AyVee continued to search. Looking up, she spied a metal grate sitting flush in the ceiling. "Zaalbar, give me a boost up."
The Wookiee lumbered over and lifted Lal up on his shoulder. She reached up and snared her fingers in the bars of the grate. With a grunt, she popped the it free and peered up inside. It looked like a ventilation duct, but she didn't know if they'd be able to climb the shaft. It seemed to go straight upwards as far as she could tell, and there was no way to know where it would open up.
As Lal squinted to see in the darkness a distant explosion rocked through the walls and floors. Zaalbar stumbled and lost grip on Lal's legs. She cried out and grasped desperately for a handhold.
"One of your surprises, Mandalorian?" Carth growled.
Canderous nodded. "First one, 'Public."
"This is not good," Bastila murmured. "You'll have the entire garrison on our heads!"
Canderous's grin showed he eagerly anticipated it. "In for a cred, as they say!"
"Dammit," Carth hissed. He glanced over to the droid and then to Lal. "What's the story? Can we get out that way?"
"I…th-think so…" Lal gasped, hanging from the lip of the shaft. "Zaalbar…a little help here…?"
The Wookiee grunted and heaved her up. She cried out as she very nearly flew straight up the shaft.
AyVee beeped proudly as he finished his task. The droid glanced around for Lal, but only saw her legs dangling from the shaft.
"I think the droid's done," Bastila announced. "Can we get out that way, Lal?"
"Very soon," Canderous chuckled bitterly, "anywhere will be more favorable than here!"
Another explosion rocked the floor, hurling them from their feet. Lal slid down the smooth sides of the shaft, but her fingers found purchase on a seam on the metal siding. Lal grunted and hauled her legs up. She folded her body, pressing her knees against one side of the shaft and levering her spine against the other side. She flexed her legs and slid her body upwards. AyVee swooped up beneath her and began bumping against her bottom impatiently.
"Hey!" she snapped at him. "Touching me is not a good idea!"
AyVee chirped apologetically.
"Looks like there's a ledge…" Lal said, craning her neck upwards. "Another grate…shush, AyVee…" As Lal stretched to peer through the grate, she caught a glimpse of Bastila crawling up the shaft beneath AyVee. Lal gestured for Bastila to hold her position. Lal peeked through the grate, and saw a Sith officer frantically barking orders to two others.
"We can't stay in this bloody shaft!" Bastila hissed.
"Shhh!" Lal replied. Of course the young Jedi was completely correct; if they stayed in the shaft, with no cover, they could easily be picked off by anyone below. Time was running out for them; Carth was already scrambling up the shaft below Bastila. "Oh damn," Lal muttered sourly.
She shoved forward with her right leg, hurling the grate into the room. As quickly as she could, she pushed her body forward, slithering feet first into the room. She crashed to the floor in a heap and groaned.
The three officers in the room froze in utter shock as she slowly got to her feet. For an endless second, they stared haplessly at her. She returned their gaze and then forced her mind to go back to work.
"Maintenance," she blurted, jerking a thumb over her shoulder. "Inspecting…the…oh the hell with it." She jerked her pistol up and trained it on the senior officer. "You move and you die. You talk and you die."
The Sith didn't move a muscle between the three of them.
Bastila zipped into the room with a bit more grace than Lal. AyVee flew in and bobbed up towards the ceiling. Bastila turned back to the vent and helped Carth crawl out. "Lovely plan, Lal. The entire base is probably in lock-down by now. Which means we have no escape route."
Lal rolled her eyes. She was getting tired of Bastila's mouth. "I don't recall asking you to come along," Lal sighed, keeping her gun on the Sith.
"Someone had to come along to keep you from getting yourself killed!" Bastila fired back.
"Oh, I see! This from the Jedi who lost her lightsaber and got herself captured!"
"I did not lose my lightsaber!" Bastila cried indignantly. "It was taken while I was unconscious!"
Lal swallowed a growl and shook her head. "Whatever. Just take their weapons."
"And that's another thing we need to clear up," Bastila continued. "I only take orders from you at my decision! In fact, you should consider your…orders to be rather more like suggestions!"
"Ladies," Carth grunted, tugging Canderous out of the shaft, "is this really the time and place for this argument?" Once Canderous was safely in, they both turned and hauled Zaalbar out. The Wookiee shrieked as a patch of fur got caught on the seam of the opening.
One of the Sith raised his hand tentatively. "Er…excuse me?"
"What?" Lal snarled at him.
"Er…it's just that…we don't have weapons…being that we're just computer programmers…"
Lal cocked her hip to the side and lowered her gun. "Oh."
"They're programmers," Bastila groaned, pressed her hand to her forehead in dismay. "We probably simply could have come here and asked them for the files."
Lal closed her eyes and gnashed her teeth together. "Are you purposely trying to push my buttons, Bastila?"
Bastila adopted an innocent expression and shrugged her shoulders. "I'm only saying…they're programmers. Not soldiers. They probably would have been quite helpful."
"Just because they're programmers doesn't mean they're not evil," Lal snapped back. "They're Sith! I thought you hated Sith!"
"Lal, I am a Jedi Knight. I do not succumb to hate."
"Of course! You're Jedi! It's utterly beneath you!"
"Um…" the Sith raised his hand once more. "I really don't mean to interrupt, because you seem to be having a…very important conversation…but are you planning on killing us?"
"A bit eager to die, aren't you, boy?" Canderous grinned savagely, shoving the barrel of his rifle under the officer's chin.
"Canderous," Lal called out. "Down. Alright. What is your name?"
The Sith cleared his throat and stiffened his spine. He thrust his chin forward as if he were at parade rest and said, "Junior Leftenant Nam Tanno! Serial Number--"
"Alright shut up," Lal sighed. She glanced at a cluster of computer consoles in the room and waved her blaster at them. "I suppose you could help us, Nam. If the base is in lock-down status, you could open a path for us."
Nam Tanno's stature instantly slumped and desperation clouded his features. "Er…well, actually…You see, none of us wishes you Republic scum any harm, of c-course…eh…but we'd be beheaded for aiding and abetting the enemy. You understand of course…"
"Of course," Lal smiled sweetly at him. She put her blaster away and unsheathed her vibroblade. She clicked it on, and eyed Nam's face speculatively. "I like to gather mementos. I'm partial to ears and noses. Canderous here likes tongues." She slowly pointed the tip of her blade at Tanno's face and brought the buzzing edge close enough to his ear that his teeth began to chatter from the vibration.
"Er…wait! You're Republic!" He cried, clapping a hand protectively over his ear. "You don't…you don't…"
"I'm not Republic. I don't even like the Republic. I don't like the Sith either. I do like ears, though…"
"Gah!" the officer gurgled, "Alright! What do you want?"
"That's a dear," she smiled. "I want you to give us a layout of this base of yours. I want you to clear us a path to the nearest exit, releasing any blast doors or security lock-outs."
"I…okay. B-but you must know, even if you made it, as soon as you set foot outside, you'd be blasted by our troops positioned on the entrances…"
Carth stepped forward to whisper into Lal's ear. "He's probably right, Lal. If we walked out of the door at this point, we'd have to fight our way through the city. Besides which, we couldn't trust him anyway. We need another option."
"Drat," Lal murmured. "You're right, of course…" a thought whistled weakly in her mind, then, trying to punch through from her memory. "Canderous…I seem to recall something…but it was before my time here…When the Hutts still ran the Docks…"
Canderous narrowed his eyes and nodded. "Yes. The bloats had set up an elevator system that led down to LowCity. They were too lazy to slither to the front bloody door."
Bastila glanced at both of them incredulously. "The Sith aren't that sloppy. Surely they would have secured any such Accessway upon arrival?"
"No," Carth shook his head. "They may not have had time. I've seen these sorts of modular constructions before. Hell, they're probably using the elevator for cargo purposes."
Lal smiled back at the Sith and tapped her blade against the computer console. "Get to work, Nam, dear."
The Sith nodded reluctantly, and glanced at his two subordinates. They both tried their level best to appear invisible. He cursed under his breath at them and sat down. His fingers danced across the keyboard, entering commands and walking through menus. He tapped a final command and scooted back in his chair.
Lal and Canderous leaned in to examine the displays on the screen. "I don't see anything," Lal murmured with a frown.
Canderous pointed at a closed off section. "There. They put up security walls around it. I'd bet real money they closed down power to it. Yes. You can tell. These conduits here? The blue ones? They are all active. But you can see one leading to…this junction here…that's not active." He snatched the Sith by his shoulder and yanked him forward. "You. Reactivate this power conduit."
"I…I…I'm sorry! I can't do it from here!"
Canderous grimaced and pressed his blaster into the man's face.
"I wish I c-could!" Tanno cried desperately. "We don't have system access to the power grid from here! We just organize datafiles! I swear!"
"He's being truthful," Bastila told the Mandalorian. "While he does not wish to cooperate, he's too terrified of you to deceive us."
Zaalbar barked out speculatively, drawing everyone's attention to him.
"What'd he say?" Canderous asked Lal.
Lal walked over to Zaalbar and folded her arms. "You sure?" she asked him. The Wookiee nodded and patted an equipment pouch on his bandolier. Lal smiled up at him. "I knew there was a reason I kept you around, Carpet. Alright. Zaalbar says he can reconnect the couplings and restore power."
"Well then," Bastila began, lifting her chin, "I suggest we keep moving."
Mission enjoyed Shopping, she decided. It was a relatively new experience for her, given that she had never had any money. Shopping was one of the few lasting contributions humans had made to galactic society. Oh, there had always been some sort of trade on a thousand different worlds; but only humans seemed to Shop simply for the purpose of mental distraction. Lal had told Mission that Shopping had a meditative value. It focused the mind. Examining—and purchasing—various items allowed one to expand beyond the desperate limitations of the "now." Initially, Mission hadn't understood that; she'd even suspected Lal had been feeding her a line just to keep her from tagging along on their secret mission. But after trying on two luxuriously slinky dresses, Mission began to see what Lal meant.
And since it was Lal's money, that made it all the better.
Carrying several large bags stuffed with clothes, Mission realized that Shopping also meant she was now and forever more a free woman. Even though she drew incredulous stares from the UpCity sales attendants, when Mission flashed her cred-stick, people warmed to her instantly. They gave her a new and obviously precious title: "Ma'am."
Now, as Mission sat back in a new pair of iridescent Firian skin boots, in a lustrous tunic woven of fine Andal silk, she discovered another transcendent ritual associated with Shopping. After having laid down nearly a thousand credits on something called lingerie, she was now being treated to a manicure. The delicate, tiny claws on her fingertips were being polished and painted with a smooth, clear sheen that bent light like a prism. And her lekku hung back limply from her skull, glistening from an acid peel that left them feeling tingly and smooth.
The normally ill-tempered humans of UpCity completely forgot she was a mere Twi'lek alien; now, she belonged. Even if it was only while she spent Lal's money, it felt good nonetheless.
After she was done, Mission decided to take a speeder rail to Pulsar Row, an impossibly high class Arcology of shops and boutiques frequented only by the wealthiest of Taris's upper crust. Her lekku were positively glowing, and she bristled with excitement. She caught the eye of several passengers on the rail, and she smiled. Their attention was different than the desperately lustful stares she'd gotten as a joygirl dancer. The eyes that fell upon her clothes and her shape were…appreciative.
Mission enjoyed it.
A shadow passed across her shoulders and Mission glanced around behind her with a pleasant grin. Her eyes bulged and she gasped.
"Hello, joygirl," Calo Nord chuckled, his lips twisted in a cruel sneer. Mission noticed that he had two of Davik's thugs with him.
Calo plopped down on the seat beside her, pressing against her with the sharp angles of all the weapons holstered on his dense, squat form. He laid a heavy arm across her shoulders and whistled a pleasant little ditty. It sounded obscene coming from his lips.
"I don't care about you, blue-skin," Calo sighed, not looking at her. "I mean, I'd as soon kill you as look at you." He spoke in a conversational tone, as if they were simply discussing the weather. Or arena stats.
He slipped a tiny, wickedly curved knife from the depths of his jacket, and gently trailed the serrated edge along the length of her bare thigh. It slipped underneath the edge of her tunic, and Mission froze. Calo smiled again and pulled her tunic back just enough to reveal the tattoo wrapped around her thigh. He chuckled and tapped her tattoo with his blade.
"This says you're property, little one," he whispered into the conical bone plate of her ear. "It says I can do anything I want to you."
"What do you--"
He pressed a finger to her lips and closed his eyes. He gave a tiny shake of his head to silence her questions. "Before we get into that, let me tell you how difficult it is to saw off a finger with a blade. Not a vibroblade, mind you." He lifted his knife before her eyes, and Mission's heart nearly stopped. "Something…a bit more…traditional. It takes rather a long time, you know? Takes some effort to cut through the bone. But with the right tools and a certain amount of dedication, it can be done. Most efficiently." He brushed a gloved hand down the length of her left lekku. "Do those…things have…bones in them?"
Mission could barely make her lips work. "N-n-no…"
"Ah. Well, they'd be a lot easier to sever completely, then." He drew the flat of his knife down the surface of her left lekku, and her skin curdled. She felt her body jerking away from him, but he clenched her tightly against him and clicked his tongue admonishingly. "Now, now. We're all friends here. Give us a smile, Mission."
With his knife, he gently pressed at the corner of her mouth. Her entire body trembled.
"A smile. Not so difficult, hmm? Eh. Alright. I'll ask this one time, Mission: where is Lal?"
Mission squeezed her eyes shut, knowing what would follow. "I don't know."
His hand flicked. The knife blurred. A gash opened down the side of her cheek. Mission released a scream, but Calo clamped his free hand over her mouth.
"Now, now," he shushed her, "that'll heal just fine. Don't cry. No need for tears. If you wish, I won't leave anything that will make a scar. Or…"
"Dammit," she gasped, tearing his hand from her mouth and thinking fast, "I don't know! She said something about a meeting with a Sith Commander! She didn't tell me anything else! I swear!"
Calo sighed and nodded. "I see." He glanced down at the bags between her feet, and used his knife to hold one of the bags open. "Hmm. Expensive. Good taste. You know what I like about women? Hmm? They're all the same. No, it doesn't matter what species; they all have certain similarities. You don't agree? They are always, always precious things. Precious like a meal to a hungry man. Now some women are smart. They realize their value. They let it work to their favor. You…you're still a little girl. You haven't yet realized your worth, Mission. But it's right there in front of you. This tattoo? That's a hint."
Mission swallowed a dry lump in her throat. She felt a tear roll down her cheek. Slowly, she turned to Calo and narrowed her eyes. "I'm going t-to d-die free, you bounty hunting…scum! So…you…if you're going to k-kill me…spare me the chit-chat…"
Calo chuckled and shook his head. "I'm not going to kill you. I haven't been told to. But you won't die free, Twi'lek. No. Not free. Davik wants you back. And he wants Lal, too. But she, on the other hand, she just might die free."
Lal pumped off two more shots as two more Sith charged around the corner. She dropped them both and glanced at Zaalbar's massive back, huddled over an exposed power relay. "How much longer, Carpet?"
He roared an insult over his shoulder and told her to shut up.
"I don't mean to rush you, big guy," Carth said firing away with both blasters as more troopers appeared. "But we can't hold this spot forever…Lal! On your right!"
Lal dropped to one knee and spun. She blasted a soldier at point blank range in his chest. Zaalbar snarled that he was finished and reached for his rifle. Lal lifted her wrist comp and spoke into it. "Alright Canderous blow it. We're falling back."
Lal backed up, still firing at the troops before her. Carth covered her retreat, and waited for Zaalbar to dash past him before he too, fell back.
The three of them ran down the corridor to the very end where Canderous and Bastila stood flat against a wall. Canderous squeezed a palm-detonator and charges dislodged the wall at the end of the corridor. It fell down flat with a whump, revealing an open space behind the wall. Bastila stepped inside and located a control panel. Activation lights gleamed across its surface beneath a layer of cold dust.
"It's working!" she called out, tentatively punching at the controls with her finger. "Anyone know exactly where this will take us?"
Lal jumped in beside her, her breath streaming in and out in sharp gasps. "Down?"
Zaalbar growled his warbling agreement and joined them. Carth and Canderous fired down the corridor at the troopers steadily advancing on them. Canderous popped a plasma grenade and tossed it down the hall at the Sith. They scattered, but didn't have enough room to escape the blast.
The pressure wave slammed Carth into Lal and Zaalbar, hurling all three down. Canderous flew above them and landed in a crouch at Bastila's feet. The explosion rocked the floor beneath them and Bastila activated the elevator. It shuddered heavily and dropped downward with a groan.
They all ducked as tongues of fire licked over them from the detonation.
The elevator trundled down a dark, creaking shaft, lit only by AyVee's blue and red lights. He squeaked out a tiny whistle as he scanned the shaft. Lal glanced at the palm-display that Janice had given her; it provided a direct link to several of his systems. The tiny screen displayed the results of his scan.
"Looks like the bottom of the shaft is closed off," she warned.
"Predictable," Bastila groaned. She ignited her lightsaber in the darkness. The elevator rumbled to a halt and Bastila's lightsaber flashed. It cut into the wall effortlessly, hissing through solid durasteel plate. She carved an exit into the wall and held up her hand before it. With a nudge of her will, the section of the wall flew free.
They stepped out into darkness. Lal went first, stumbling over a pile of metal boxes. "Dammit," she hissed as Carth caught her. She turned back and smiled to him as he clutched her arm. "Mmm. My hero."
Bastila rolled her eyes. "Please. Can we focus?"
They all climbed out of the elevator and Canderous pulled out a satchel charge. He opened the top and armed it.
"Aw, for crying out loud!" Carth exclaimed, staring at the grinning Mandalorian. "Where do you get all of this stuff?"
Canderous chuckled and tossed the charge back into the elevator behind them. "Relax, 'Public. We don't want them following us down, do we?"
"No," Carth agreed. "But you're still a maniac."
"I'm wounded," Canderous snorted. "By the way, duck."
They all crouched low as the charge blew, hurling a cloud of heat and light over them. Zaalbar roared and clapped his paws against his ears. He chewed off a string of acidic Wookiee curses, firing insults at the Mandalorian. AyVee started whistling and beeping loudly. Carth yelled angrily at Canderous and grabbed him around the collar.
"You idiot!" Carth cried out, balling up his fist. "You could've killed us all!"
"Take your hands off me, dog," Canderous growled back at him.
"Carth!" Bastila called, grabbing his fist before he could punch Canderous. "We don't have time for displays of macho hostility…"
"That's it, Jedi," Canderous grinned dangerously, "call your dog off before I make him beg."
Lal knew a fight was coming. Canderous was eager for it of course, but there was no way she'd allow him to kill Carth. She moved to stop them, but noticed AyVee's insistent bleating. She glanced down at her palm-top and sucked in a deep breath. "Oh hell…"
"What is it?" Bastila asked her while Carth and Canderous continued to yell at each other.
"Down!" Lal cried out.
A brace of blaster bolts sprayed towards them from the darkness. Bastila held up her lightsaber and deflected several of the blasts. But the sheer power of the shots shoved her backwards and nearly wrenched the lightsaber from her grasp.
Something from the darkness took a few clanking steps towards them, and Lal saw a cluster of glowing red lights, mashed together like an insect's compound eyes. A dull hum buzzed towards them, and a gleaming metal shape skittered slowly towards them. It had long segmented legs, like a spider, but its body…its chassis was composed of hard, sharp angles and thick armor plating. It swiveled a flat head, bristling with glowing red sensors and locked onto the group. Behind its head, twin blaster cannons cranked loudly towards them and opened fire again.
Lal and the others scattered across the floor as the blasterfire exploded behind them in a shower of flame and superheated air.
"Sentry droid!" Carth shouted out, his blaster pistols blazing at the machine. "Armor's too thick for conventional blasters!"
Lal was already moving and snapping off a few shots of her own. "Then why are you shooting it? To make it mad?" She jumped into a sidelong roll as a bolt of fire destroyed the floor beneath her. The explosion hurled her through the air and she landed hard on her belly.
"The only vulnerable spot is directly beneath the sensor module," Carth called back. "Beneath the head!"
"It is no match for the power of the Force," Bastila promised, soaring through the air and flipping over the top of the droid. As she landed, she unleashed both glowing blades of her lightsaber. "I will destroy this monstrosity."
Her lightsaber screamed and bled golden light as it tore spirals through the air and sizzled into the armor of the droid. Smoke rose from the droid's body in white clouds as Bastila chopped and slashed and stabbed at it. It spun the twin cannons around and fired point blank at Bastila. She rocketed straight up into the air, and kicked her legs up over her head. Flipping upside down, she brought her blade down in an inverted arc, chopping through the cannons.
Bastila landed in a crouch and closed down one blade. She thrust upwards, spearing the droid beneath the head module. Her lightsaber burned through the top of the head, melting its targeting sensors. The droid shuddered for a long moment, before Bastila closed down her blade entirely. The droid collapsed in a smoldering heap.
Lal and Carth and Zaalbar just stared in awe where they had thrown themselves to the ground seconds before. Canderous picked himself up and snorted derisively at Bastila's efforts.
"Always easier with a lightsaber," he grunted.
Lal stood slowly and placed her hands on her hips. "Okay, I'll admit it, that was rather impressive, Bastila."
Bastila let a smile peek out from her lips. "Well, it's not a Rancor, but thank you, Lal."
Lal's cheeks reddened and she glanced at Carth. "You told her about the Rancor?"
When they arrived back at the Hidden Beks' base, the first thing Lal did was collapse in the chair of the office they'd taken over. Zaalbar howled in exhaustion and dropped his bandolier heavily on the floor. AyVee followed them in and immediately plugged himself into a dusty old power converter they'd salvaged. He released a long and contented whistle.
"Shower," Lal croaked weakly. "That's all I want."
Instead, she got Bastila. The young Jedi strolled into the room, utterly untouched by the fatigue that seemed to burden everyone else. In fact, she was smiling. She paused at the doorway and clasped her hands contritely behind her back.
"Lal?" she asked softly, "May I speak with you?"
Lal groaned and sat forward behind the desk. She propped her elbows on the desk and sighed. "Shoot."
"Well, I…I just wanted to say…Well…what I mean to say is that…I had my doubts…about your plan…and mind you, I was correct that it did not go off without a…a hitch, but…"
"Bastila, you sure have a hard time with apologies, don't you?"
"I'm not apologizing!" Bastila exclaimed defensively. "I honestly don't feel I have anything to apologize for, Lal."
"Then what did you come here to say? That instead of a complete idiot, I'm only a partial idiot? How generous of you."
"That's not…I didn't come here to insult you!"
Lal rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Really? You didn't come here to apologize. You didn't come here to insult me. So what did you come here for?"
"I…I…Ohh! Why do you make it so difficult? You've never been easy to talk to! Nevermind!"
Lal arched an eyebrow in confusion and shot to her feet. "Bastila…"
Bastila ignored her and whirled around to storm out of the office. She walked right into Carth, however. Canderous and Gadon Theck were behind him.
"Lal," Carth began gravely, "we've got problems."
Lal cocked her head to the side to fire off a bit of sarcasm. But a clump of frozen acid burned deep in her belly. "Mission…where's Mission?"
Gadon stepped into the room with a heavy sigh. "Mission slipped out of the compound…we don't know when exactly. I sent out some people to find her…Lal…Davik's got her. One of my people found this at Javyar's."
He handed over a small Holo-card. Lal took it and a message appeared in golden letters floating in the air just above the card's surface:
Mr. Davik Kang Awaits the Pleasure of Lal Sideen's Company
And as it faded, another message appeared:
Don't screw this Mission up…
"Oh hell," Lal murmured, collapsing back in her seat. "Davik has her. He's going to kill her. He's going to kill her…"
"Lal," Carth said, walking over to her. He laid a hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged it off violently. He sighed and pulled back. "Lal, he's not gonna kill her."
"He might as well," Lal groaned. "You know what he's going to make her do. She's too young. She's…she's too weak to survive it. That…that stupid little girl! Why didn't she just stay here like I told her?"
"It's obviously a trap," Canderous said casually. "He's expecting that you'll go to rescue the fool girl. Davik has obviously reasoned that you care for her. And he's right."
Carth glared around at Canderous with a simmering rage burning in his eyes. "You make it sound like caring for anyone or anything is a weakness."
Canderous shrugged. "It is. And it makes you vulnerable. It limits what you are willing to sacrifice in order to achieve victory."
"Caring also gives you something to fight for," Carth growled, folding his arms across his chest.
"True," Canderous admitted. "Men would never fight and die if they cared about nothing. And if there were no men to care, there would be no enemies to learn what it is that they care about…and exploit it."
Everyone fell silent for a moment, absorbing the cold truth of Canderous' words.
"And do you care about nothing, Canderous Ordo?" Bastila asked.
Canderous glanced at her in surprise and chuckled. "Me? Well, if you are asking, is there anything I would die to protect, the answer is yes. Not just 'yes', but of course. But my vulnerabilities are not subject for your inspection and analysis, Jedi."
Bastila thought about what he said and nodded. "Of course, Mandalorian. I suppose the answer is Lal's to give."
Lal glanced up at Bastila. Her brow furrowed at the young woman. A warm rage rose unbidden and unexplained in her thoughts. Lal's hands clenched into tight fists against her thighs and she shut her eyes. Bastila infuriated her for no apparent reason, with her constant talk of the Jedi and the Republic; her superior tone, her incessant arguing. As if she had something to prove.
But it was not Bastila with whom Lal was truly angry. It was herself. She had allowed herself to care about Mission. To…to love her like she was a sister. She was just a vacuum-brained little Twi'lek who was too fragile to survive life in the bowels of Taris. And she was going to pay for it. Stupid girl that she was!
Well, Lal had had enough of charity, of caring. She was sick to her heart of it. She'd already bled for too many people that, by all rights, should have meant nothing. Less than nothing. She had done all she could for Mission already. She owed the girl—no. The woman—nothing more.
Mission was dangerous. She was…a liability to Lal. She was a liability, because Lal did care about her; cared about her well-being. She couldn't simply leave Mission to the fate Davik likely had planned for her. Idiot girl! And of course, Canderous was right; this was a trap. And it was a trap Mission had unwittingly baited. Lal couldn't let this happen to Mission, but she didn't want to waltz right into Davik's clutches.
But Lal also realized; it no longer mattered.
She had to pay a call on Davik. She had to get in and get his ship, the Ebon Hawk. It was the fastest ship on the planet, and Lal needed it. So that was simply that.
She rose to her feet and forced a sheet of calm to settle over her features. "I'm going to rescue Mission." She caught Canderous' eye and the Mandalorian smiled. He knew her plan, of course. "Davik and I have unfinished business."
"Lal," Carth piped up. "I'm with you."
She paused and frowned. Something in her wanted to say no! She didn't want him involved in this business. But it was his business, wasn't it? Their paths had become one. She had no say in the matter.
She nodded at him.
"Bastila?" Lal said, "I…I know you have no reason to help me, but…"
Bastila smiled warmly at Lal. "You don't even need to ask, Lal. Of course I'll help you." She walked over and laid her hand on Lal's. "I…what I wanted to say earlier, Lal…I was wrong about you. You've just shown that. I'd be proud to stand with you."
Lal blinked her eyes incredulously. She opened her mouth to speak, but found no words. "I…I…thank you."
"I'll give you what help I can, Lal," Gadon told her. "Mission's as much family as you are."
"No," Lal said, a bit too swiftly. "No. I won't risk you or your people, Gadon. Zaalbar…I want you to remain here as well. It will be too risky."
Zaalbar howled defiantly and shook his massive fist at her.
"No!" Lal cried. "I don't care about your honor or your debt to me! You will stay here and that's all there is to it!"
"Lal," Carth said, "we're gonna need his help. There's no other way around it. Besides, he's right: he can make his own decisions. I don't understand Shryiiwook as well as you, but it sounds like he's already made his mind up."
Zaalbar nodded resolutely and folded his long shaggy arms across his chest.
"Dammit," Lal hissed at him. "Stupid Wookiee…"
"So," Canderous said loudly, walking around to lean against the desk. "Does anyone have anything closely approximating a plan?"
"You're coming, Mandalorian?" Carth asked, utterly shocked.
"Heh. Not for any sentimental reasons, I assure you, 'Public. Davik has something we need in addition to Lal's little friend. A ship. I see no reason not to punish his actions with Mission by taking that ship from him."
"I hate to say it, Lal," Bastila said, "but Canderous is right. We can rescue Mission and commandeer a vessel. I know how you feel about Mission, Lal. Davik thinks we're walking into a trap. And we are. But we know this. And we can turn it against him."
"I suppose you're right, Bastila. I suppose you're right. And I think I have a plan…"
