A/N: More reccommended listening: "Anxiety" from FFX-2 for the sewers, "Under Bevelle" from FFX-2 for the rancor encounter.
"It's official, Carth," Kagi said miserably. "We are never going to get rid of this smell. We're going to need new blasters, new clothes, new everything."
"A vacation would be nice, while we're at it," the pilot said.
"Seconded."
The only saving grace about the sewers was that there was a dedicated walkway beneath which the sludge and waste of the three levels of Taris flowed. The air scrubbers used to remove noxious bacteria that Kagi saw everywhere were functional, or at least he hoped they were.
Suddenly, Kagi held out his hands to both sides, stopping Carth and Mission. He was staring pointedly at the ground Carth was about to walk on. "Carth, do not move an inch," he said. "Mission, stay where you are."
"What is it Ka- oh Sithspit!" Carth exclaimed, looking down beneath his boot, underneath which was a frag mine.
"Don't move!" the SpecForces commando hissed. Kneeling down near the mine, Kagi reached into his utility pouch and extracted a pack of tools. One of them, a mirror-like strip of metal with an adhesive on one side, he stuck to the bottom of Carth's boot.
As the pilot busied himself by praying to every god he had ever heard about, Kagi took a thin-nosed interface tool and inserted it carefully into a seam on the mine's side. There was a faint popping sound, and he used the tool to push open an access panel on the side of the mine. He then inserted the tool into the mine, working silently and carefully.
A moment later, Kagi sealed the access panel, removed the strip of material from Carth's boot, then reached down and picked the mine up off the ground. "Simple," he said, returning all the tools and the mine to his utility pouch.
"Thanks, Kagi," Carth said, patting the soldier's shoulder. "I owe you one."
Nodding, the soldier walked forward, triggering a hidden infrared sensor that sprung open the door into the next section of the sewers. As soon as the door was cleared, he saw them. Rancid, grey-skinned monsters. Four of them, waiting in the next room.
"Rakghouls," Mission hissed, drawing her blaster pistol.
"Grenades," Kagi said, handing a frag grenade to both of his comrades. He readied and primed his own grenade, then drew his arm back. "Throw."
There was the swishing of their clothing as the three threw their grenades, then a trio of metallic clanks as the grenades landed on the deck. A scant number of seconds later, three explosions went off in such rapid succession that the sound was like that of a single explosion.
Three shrieks greeted the explosion, and a moment later a rakghoul head went sailing past the three heroes. Kagi grimaced at the specter, leveled his blaster rifle, and advanced into the room. It was eerily silent.
Ahead of him, just inside the room, a rakghoul corpse laid on its side, a hole blown into its chest, shrapnel peppering the edges of the wound. The commando nudged it with his boot, and when it didn't react, he moved on. The next rakghoul he came to was still alive; half of its face was blasted off by the grenades and it was bleeding some thick, clear-green liquid, but still alive. A quick shot from his blaster rifle put it down.
Three down, one more to go. Kagi found the last rakghoul crammed up in a corner, not visibly wounded. It was, however, reeling. It had probably been stunned by the blast. Kagi waved Carth over, and the two soldiers leveled their weapons at the beast, and fired a single volley.
Near the now-dead rakghoul was a skeletal corpse, chewed and gnawed by the beasts over who-knows-how-long a period of time. After a quick check of it for credits and a medpac, Kagi triggered open the door near it, proceeding cautiously along the walkway.
Ahead of them, he could hear the grunting and snorting of a Gamorrean. The soldier ran up to the corner and crouched there, peeking around to see a single of the pig-faced aliens walking around on the catwalk. Kagi flicked a switch on his blaster rifle, activating a red laser sight, which he then placed over the back of the pig's head.
His rifle bucked once. The Gamorrean let out a choked-off squeal, then collapsed on the walkway.
"Too easy," he remarked.
Standing up, he motioned his comrades forward, and stalked slowly down the catwalk. Around the curve, a series of closed doors led left, right, and forward further down the hall. With the first two fingers of his left hand, Kagi gestured to the rightmost door.
Mission put her hand on the soldier's shoulder, then crept forward toward the door, pressing her head gently up against it. The two soldiers were astonished by the silence of her movement; either of them could've gotten to that door, but they'd have made a lot of noise in the progress.
After a moment, the young Twi'lek snuck back toward the soldiers. "There's a lot of Gamorreans on the other side of that door," she whispered. "I count at least four, maybe more."
"Okay," Kagi said, giving his mind a moment to concoct a plan. "Piggies are big and strong, but not particularly fast or smart. We frag 'em. We frag 'em like it's going out of style. Mission, you throw in two concussion grenades, Carth and I will throw in frags. Move."
Carth and Kagi moved to take up positions on either side of the door, readying grenades and blasters. Mission stood in front of the door, a concussion grenade in either hand. The Twi'lek nodded at Kagi. He nodded back, then looked at Carth. The pilot laid one blaster pistol on the ground, readied a grenade, then nodded to the commando.
Kagi triggered the door.
Gamorreans squealed in surprise as four cylinders sailed through the air. A series of blasts filled the air, followed by the death-squeals of two of the pigs. Two more were swaying in place, stunned by the concussion grenades. A fifth was lying on the floor, clutching a bleeding wound in its side. The last Gamorrean was unharmed, coming right at Kagi, his vibroaxe singing as it sliced through the air.
The commando flung himself backwards, the axe buzzing through the space he had once occupied. As he brought his rifle down on the pole of the vibroaxe, pushing it farther toward the ground, Mission and Carth rushed into the room, their blasters spitting fire at the other three Gamorreans.
The Gamorrean leader squealed like a stuck pig, trying unsuccessfully to free his vibroaxe from Kagi's rifle. With his right hand, Kagi reached down to draw his trusty vibroblade, flipping it to hold in a reverse grip, then he stabbed over his left shoulder.
And then the Gamorrean was a stuck pig.
The vibroaxe clattered to the ground as the alien stumbled back, green blood flowing from the wound in its throat, the wound that the vibroblade was still buried in. Kagi turned toward the slowly-dying alien, leveling his blaster rifle. Without preamble, he fired a single shot into the Gamorrean's forehead, finishing it.
The heroes took a moment to rest, then Mission moved toward the closed door on the left side of the room. "Hmm, look at this," she said, pointing to the door. "This is one of those old style manual locks. No computer codes or nothing. The sewers are the only place you'll see one of these on Taris."
"Can you open it?" Kagi asked, pulling his vibroblade from the Gamorrean's throat. He grimaced at the green blood that dripped off it, flicking as much off as he could, gingerly wiping the rest off on the Gamorrean's clothing. Satisfied that he had gotten it as clean as he could, he sheathed it. "That's my favorite vibroblade."
"Oh definitely," she replied. "You can't use standard spikes on it, but I worked up a bypass to get around them."
The young girl pulled a tool from her belt and set to work picking the lock. After a few moments, the door slid open. From across the room, a dark-colored mass of fur approached the group.
"You're a sight for sore eyes, Mission," it grumbled in Shryiiwook, the native language of the Wookies.
"I'm glad to see you too, Big Z!" she said, throwing herself against the mass of fur. "You didn't think I'd forget about you? Mission and Zaalbar, together forever!"
Kagi nodded slowly; this was obviously Zaalbar, the Wookie they had come to save. Laying his rifle against his shoulder, the soldier walked up to the pair.
"Who is this?" the Wookie asked, pointing to Kagi, and then Carth.
"These are my new friends, Big Z," she answered. "Without them, I couldn't have gotten you out."
Kagi stepped forward, shifting his blaster rifle to his left hand, extending his other to the Wookie. "Name's Kagi Vayun, Zaalbar," he said in passable Shryiiwook. "Pleasure."
The Wookie, obviously familiar with human greeting customs, met Kagi's handshake with a strong grip. "You know the language of my people," Zaalbar rumbled. "That is rare among your species. I am impressed. You have saved me from a lifetime of servitude and slavery. There is only one way I can ever repay such an act: I will swear a life debt to you."
Kagi nodded solemnly, releasing the Wookie's furred hand. He was well versed with the Wookie culture, and he knew how serious a life debt was to the honor-bound Wookie species.
"A life debt?" Mission asked, clearly shocked. "Are you sure about that, Big Z? You'd better think about this."
"I am sure, Mission," Zaalbar replied. "This is an issue of great importance to me. When the Gamorreans captured me, I thought I was doomed to a life of servitude. I have been saved from such a fate, and the only way I can repay that is through a life debt."
"It is a great honor to be sworn a life debt by such a warrior as yourself, Zaalbar," Kagi said in Basic. "I will not betray your trust in me."
The Wookie nodded once. "In the presence of you all, I swear my life debt. Forever will I be by your side, Kagi Vayun. May my vow be as strong as the great wroshyr trees of Kashyyyk."
"I guess this means you're stuck with me, too," Mission said. "Wherever Big Z goes, I go. I almost lost him once, I'm not going to do it again."
"Welcome to the party, Mission. But we've still got work to do, here."
The Twi'lek nodded. "Right. Now that you've helped me save Big Z, I'm going to get you into the Vulkar base. I don't remember exactly how to get there, but I know it was in the northeast sector of the sewers. I just hope the rancor isn't still there."
"Wait a second," Carth interjected. "Did you say rancor?"
"Uh huh. There was a rancor that made its nest down here in the sewers. Pretty much ate whatever it could get its claws on."
"Oh this just keeps getting better and better," Kagi said. "First a romp in the sewers, now rancors. Well, we'd better move out. Back the way we came, since we already know that way's clear."
The quartet moved out of the prison area, back to the main catwalk. As they passed the Gamorrean corpses, Zaalbar rummaged among them for a few moments, until he produced his personal bowcaster, a fearsomely-powerful blaster type weapon.
Moving quickly, the group made it back to the sewer entrance, and then opened the door they had previously bypassed. As soon as it opened, Kagi held his hands out to either side.
"Nobody move. Got another mine."
The commando laid his blaster rifle on the ground, then withdrew the tools from his pouch. Kneeling down, he went about the process of disarming and recovering the mine. Sure enough, within a few moments, he slipped the mine into the grenade pouch on his belt, and pocketed the tools again.
Just to their left, a force field shimmered faintly as it blocked off a section of tunnel, glowing blue in the dim light. Across from it was an access terminal.
"Let me handle this," Mission said, stepping up to the terminal and punching in commands. After a moment, she called out, "There!"
Kagi turned to the force field, just in time to watch it flicker and die out. "Good job, Mission," he praised, then raised his blaster rifle. "Let's move."
The group entered the sealed-off tunnel, and Kagi could sense that they were getting marginally closer to the surface. The smell was also getting worse, though they were mostly used to it by now.
There was a single door in front of them, which Kagi triggered open. Beyond was some sort of flow control room, with the walkway circling around a large hole in the ground, into which sewage was flowing from above. That explained the smell.
Inside this room, several Gamorrean slavers were fighting off a small handful of rakghouls. Kagi grimaced, then turned back to his comrades.
"Sneak around to the left. Let's try to avoid getting into a fight."
The others nodded, and followed the commando as he swept along the left side of the catwalk, keeping as close to the railing as he could. As the pigs and monsters continued to fight, the group successfully snuck around, slipping into another door that led out of the flow room.
"Shut that door!" Kagi called, firing on a pair of Gamorreans that were in the same stretch of tunnel as them.
Carth joined the commando in firing, while Zaalbar covered Mission, who busied herself by hacking into the access panel for the door they'd just come through. The first Gamorrean went down, his torso reduced to a charred mass. The soldiers shifted their fire to the second pig-snouted alien as the door slid shut behind them, locking in place. Zaalbar came up to join them, taking careful aim with his bowcaster and firing. The face of the Gamorrean simply exploded, and the dead alien pitched over backwards.
"Nice shooting," Carth remarked.
The party continued down the long corridor, and this time Mission stepped up to the door to listen for activity on the other side. She stood there for a few moments, frowned, stepped back, then placed the other side of her head against the door.
"Anything?"
"Nothing," she replied, then reached out and triggered the door release.
It slid open, letting them out into another flow room. Mission wasn't entirely wrong.
As the first blaster bolt spanged off the wall near Kagi's head, forcing the soldier to swear and duck, they noticed the damaged droid floating around on the other side of the catwalk.
They all opened fire, concentrating on the repulsorlift mechanism beneath the droid. Mission's and Carth's shots barely scratched the armor plating, but the more powerful bolts from Kagi and Zaalbar did significantly more damage, sending the damaged droid careening into the flow of sewage falling from above.
Idly watching the droid sink out of sight, Kagi led the group around the left side of the catwalk, altogether avoiding the mine placed on the right side. He bypassed the first door, heading straight for the second one.
The tap of a button opened the door, and he almost walked right onto another mine. Sighing, the commando pulled out his tools, handed his blaster rifle to Zaalbar, and went to work. "Definitely know we're going the right way," he commented off-hand, standing up and putting mine and tools away.
After taking his weapon back, Kagi continued to advance forward slowly, listening for the signs of any enemies in the area. He heard no grunting or squealing of Gamorreans, and he hadn't yet learned any particular sounds that the rakghouls make, other than the screeches when you hit one of them.
Ahead of them, the corridor took a turn to the right, then angled down slightly. He paused at a series of pipes that ran down either side of the wall, looking down the corridor into the gloom. Far ahead, perhaps ten meters, was another door. There was a dark object lying on the ground near it that didn't appear to be natural.
He turned to face his comrades. "Mission, stay here," he said. "Zaalbar, watch her. Carth, let's go."
The two soldiers moved forward at a trot, their weapons up and ready, scanning the corridor around them for any signs of an ambush. Behind them, they could hear Mission and Zaalbar faintly discussing the Wookie's hygienic habits. Smirking, Kagi put their discussion out of his mind and kept moving.
Eventually, they reached the object, realizing that it was a severed arm, blood pooling out of the stump. It was clutching a datapad.
"Oh, that's lovely," Carth said, his face set in stone.
Kneeling down, Kagi picked up the datapad and read aloud from its surface. "'We have synthesized an odor that resembles the favorite prey of rancors. If we place the bait properly, we can lure the rancor into eating something lethal enough to kill it.' Well, something tells me your trick didn't work as well as you hoped it would."
Sighing, the soldier stuffed the datapad into a pouch on his utility belt, then pulled open a sleeve pocket and withdrew three small vials with some sort of liquid-based timing release, and filled with a yellow-green fluid of some kind. Testingly, Kagi lifted one of the vials to take a whiff of the smell that would attract rancors. Almost immediately, he jerked his head back and the vial away from him, coughing violently.
"Oh, fierfek," he muttered, using the Mandalorian word for one of the most displeasing creatures in the known galaxy. "That is rancid. I'd take the sewer smell any day."
Standing up, he carefully placed the vials in an empty pouch on his utility belt, then stood up and nudged the arm off the side of the catwalk with his boot. That done, he signaled for Mission and Zaalbar to catch up.
After a moment, the odd pair walked up to them, Mission asking, "What's up?"
"Looks like you were right about the rancor," Carth told her. "We found one unfortunate fellow who had encountered it."
"What's left, you mean," Mission said, grimacing.
"Seems like him and his group had worked up a lure for the rancor," Kagi said, patting the pouch with the three vials. "I doubt that we could lure it long enough for all three of us to sneak past, but a datapad we found did mention getting it to eat something lethal."
"Grenades?" Carth ventured.
"Probably do it, but where would we hide it?" The soldier sighed, turning toward the closed door. "Alright, I'm going to open this door. I'm willing to bet that the rancor's in there, so everyone be quiet."
The other three nodded their assent, and Kagi stuck his blaster rifle forward, into the range of the infrared sensor that governed the doors. They slid open quietly, admitting a wash of air filled with the scent of death and decay. Directly in front of them, a pile of corpses, some still intact, others little more than skeletal fragments, rotted in the putrid air of the chamber.
Mission turned and ran up the corridor, retching violently over the side of the catwalk. Zaalbar moaned quietly, suddenly thankful that the Gamorreans hadn't fed him. It meant he didn't have anything to reintroduce to the world at large. Carth's face blanched white; he turned aside, putting his hands over his eyes and taking several deep breaths. Kagi gagged, then leaned over and put his head between his knees, pinching the bridge of his nose with the index finger and thumb of his left hand.
That…is without doubt the worst smell I've ever had the misfortune of encountering.
After a few moments, the adventurers recovered themselves. Kagi set his blaster rifle on the ground, then reached into his utility belt, passing a frag grenade into his left hand, and one of the vials of rancor bait into his right. He nodded his head toward the corpse pile.
"I'll drop the bait and the grenade in there. That way even if the grenade doesn't do it, it may choke on some of the bones."
"Be careful," Carth said, sighting his blasters on the rancor, just to be safe.
Nodding, the commando advanced out into the chamber, approaching the pile of corpses. On the far end of the chamber, the rancor was eating something, the guttural growls and slurping sounds of the huge beast enough to make his stomach turn.
Within a handful of steps, he had reached the corpse pile. Ever so carefully, he leaned over them, not trusting his balance to be able to step over them without making noise. Carefully, he inserted the grenade into the eye socket of a large Gamorrean skull, checking to make sure that the moisture-sensitive adhesive he had applied to the safety device was in place. Now certain that the grenade would explode a few seconds after being swallowed, he carefully shook the rancor bait to begin the scent release process, then placed it into the nostril socket of the skull.
Now it was only a matter of time. Not wishing to be anywhere near the pile when the rancor came after the smell, Kagi turned and began to run back toward his comrades.
That was about the time when his boot came down on a ribcage, a series of sharp snapping sounds echoing through the room.
A loud screech rebounded from the walls of the chamber, deafening the adventurers. Kagi's head snapped up, looking in the direction of the sound. His eyes met those of the rancor as the snarling, drooling beast turned fully around, and began stomping in his direction.
"RUN!" Carth shouted from the adjoining tunnel.
Without waiting for a second piece of advice, the commando turned and ran for the other door, opposite the one he had come through. The rancor came stomping after him, plowing right through the pile of corpses, scattering dead beings, the grenade, and the bait in all directions.
Kagi didn't bother to watch where the grenade went; he ran straight through the IR sensor range of the doors, but the failed to open. He swore violently; the sensor must have been damaged somehow.
The commando turned, finding the rancor's right hand, with clawed fingers as long as he was tall, reaching out for him. Suddenly, from somewhere beneath them, the grenade exploded, rocking the area, and causing the rancor to roar out, searching its surroundings for the source of the blast.
Taking advantage of the monster's momentary distraction, Kagi lunged forward, sliding between the rancor's massive legs. Coming up in a crouch behind the beast, Kagi's right hand instinctively drew his vibroblade. Right at the point he was about to strike at it, he paused, turning his attention from the monster to the vibroblade, and back again.
He shook his head, sheathed the vibroblade, then turned and ran.
The beast was soon on him again though, not having been surprised by the grenade for long. Its long, limber arm reached out, fingers snapping the commando up like a blade of grass. The monster's hand clamped tightly around him, drawing him up toward its gaping, drooling maw.
From down below, a ruckus of blaster fire sparked up as Mission, Zaalbar, and Carth opened fire on it. Their blaster and bowcaster shots peppered the beast's side, but did no real damage to it.
But the incessant fire irritated it. The rancor stopped, turning its massive head toward the trio and roaring menacingly. Something clicked in Kagi's mind. He squirmed within the rancor's grasp, trying to get into his utility belt.
His struggling drew the rancor's attention. The monster roared again, blasting Kagi with its rancid breath. Fighting against the blackness swimming around the edges of his vision, his fingers brushed the rounded surface of a grenade. He called out to his comrades, "Shoot it again!"
They did as ordered, another hailstorm of fire slamming into the beast's flank as Kagi freed his arms, passing something to his right hand before drawing it back. As expected, the rancor turned its monstrous head toward the trio and roared. But this time, as it did so, Kagi's arm shot forward, releasing the object he held in it.
The rancor suddenly stopped roaring, clamping its jaws shut, and that proved to be its doom. Half a second later, the grenade exploded in the back of its throat, the concussive shockwaves liquefying what little brain the monster possessed, and blowing a hole in its back, through which foul-smelling tissue was expelled.
The beast let out one roar, sounding more like a sickened gurgle, before it toppled over, the weight of its impact causing the sewers to shudder.
"Kagi!" Mission shrieked, racing forward to where the arm of the monster had fallen. Carth and Zaalbar approached as well, keeping their weapons trained on the mass of monster.
They found the commando struggling to wiggle his way out of the clenched fingers of the dead beast, his own hands planted against its fingers and pushing as hard as he could. The Republic pilot holstered his pistols, running up to Kagi's side and getting a grip beneath his left arm. Zaalbar likewise grabbed the man by his right arm, and together, the three of them managed to get him free of the dead beast's grasp.
"Well, that was fun," the commando remarked, grimacing at the ichor caked to his pants. "Fierfek, I'm going to be in the market for an entirely new outfit here."
"That was close," Carth muttered, looking at the dead monster. "You all right?"
"Yeah, all except for smelling like the wrong end of a Hutt's ass," the commando replied, visibly restraining himself from wiping at the fluid with his hands. "By the Force… Where's my rifle?"
Wordlessly, the pilot handed the commando his rifle. Taking it reverently, Kagi turned and shot the rancor in the face. "Schutta."
Mission raised an eyebrow. "So, now that we've gotten past the rancor, the back entrance to the Vulkar base is right there," she said, pointing to the door on the far end of the chamber. "We ready to go?"
Nodding, Kagi turned away from the dead rancor and made his way up toward the doorway. As they approached, the infrared sensor triggered the doorway to open, surprising the two Vulkar aliens standing near a doorway at the far end of the new corridor. The quartet opened fire immediately, burning down the aliens as they began reaching for their personal shield controls.
Not bothering to check the chewed-upon corpse near their door, Kagi led them forward, toward the next door. It turned out that the door was actually an elevator. Keying it open by way of the access pad next to it, the soldier led the group into the elevator car and pressed the only button on the control panels.
The door slid shut, and up they went.