Disclaimer- I do not own Star Wars.
Chapter 2: Droids and Vibroknives
As the turbolift doors slid open Arielynn felt the shaft shake violently and heard the distant sound of rushing air below her. Acting quickly, she threw herself out of the turbolift seconds before the box was engulfed by superheated vapor. Hitting the ground at a roll, Arielynn came to stop to see the turbolift doors slam shut just in time to prevent the gas from escaping the shaft.
Shaken slightly by how close to death she had just come, that vapor was hot enough to burn the skin right off her bones, Arielynn pushed herself off the floor and pulled out her comlink. "Cutting it a little close, don't you think?" she remarked, although she knew that she probably owed Atton her life for containing the blast as long as he had.
The device stayed silent. Arielynn groaned; either that blast had fried the entire administration level or she was out of signal range. Either way, it meant she was alone now. Turning away from the broken turbolift, she began to survey the area.
Judging by the piles of broken droid parts and tools strewn throughout the area she guessed that she had come up into the maintenance area. Walking towards the closest room Arielynn almost cried out when one of the most horrifying things she'd ever seen came into view.
The body of a miner lay on the ground. Kneeling down beside it, she tried to examine the body. She guessed that it had been a human male based on the rough body structure although it was hard to tell much more than that. Unlike the body of the security officer, who had been brutally murdered but had retained most of his features, this poor corpse had been completely butchered.
His skin had been completely burned off, and in many places the muscle had also been burned away so that charred bits of bone showed through. Both of his legs looked like they had been burned through and tossed aside and of one of his arms had been viciously ripped off at the elbow. What little remained of his uniformed had been seared directly to the body and what looked like goggles had been melted completely to his forehead.
But his face was the worst. Most of the skin and muscle had been melted off and what was left could barely be recognized as human. His eyes had melted away and all his hair had been burned from his scalp. Arielynn only hoped that the miner had died before suffered too much, but the terrifying scream that his face had frozen in dissolved most of those hopes.
"Greeting: It is a pleasure to see you alive, Master. Provided my optical receptors are not off-focus. How may I be of service?"
Arielynn whirled around, bringing up the mining laser and pointed it directly at the voice. But the humanoid droid merely regarded her through emotionless glowing eyes.
It was tall, almost seven feet, with grey-silver casing and a thin frame. Its head was somewhat triangular, sloping down to a flat mouthpiece and its slanted eyes were a dim yellow. Arielynn got the unsettling image of a predator eyeing its prey. Despite its somewhat hostile appearance the droid made no move to attack her.
"How do you know me?" she demanded without lowering her weapon. "I'm not your Master."
"Answer: This unit is a Survivor of the Harbinger, just are you were, Master," the droid replied in its synthetic voice. "Elaboration: With the unexpected termination of my previous Master, you are the only organic which I may now serve."
Arielynn regarded the droid warily. It was certainly a strange model, one she had never seen before her return to Republic space; and that speech pattern was just plain bizarre. But it hadn't attacked her yet and she may be able to get some information out of the droid."
"How did you get here from the Harbinger? And how did I?" she asked, lowering her weapon.
"Irritated Answer: Oh, Master. It is such a long, dull story. And not terribly relevant to our current situation," the droid replied, trying to evade her question
Arielynn raised an eyebrow; this was a strange droid indeed. "Well, why don't you tell me anyways?"
"Hesitant Explanation: That has been the subject of considerable discussion since our arrival here, Master. Many have attempted to claim you and this unit as salvage," the droid commented. And they were willing to kill everyone onboard the station for it Arielynn thought grimly.
"Continuation: I was crudely interrogated concerning our brief history together on board the Harbinger. Before its communication, weapons and engines suffered the cascade failure that disabled the ship," the droid remarked, almost too happily.
"And how come I don't remember any of this?" Arielynn asked. The last thing she remember the Harbinger had been working fine.
"Speculation: It is possible you were incapacitated and locked in the well-shielded cargo compartment as the Harbinger was being systematically crippled, Master."
"Incapacitated?" she asked, alarmed.
"Clarification: Yes, Master. No doubt the flurry of destruction on board the Harbinger somehow drugged you into a stupor from which you could not awake. Most curious," the droid remarked.
"Drugged?" she shouted, anger slipping into her voice. "What do you mean drugged?"
"Placation: Merely a turn of phrase, Master. The implication that your state was due to the result of ingesting large quantities of juma juice was unintentional." Arielynn was sure that if the stupid droid was mocking her, if it was even capable of that.
"Clarification: I meant to communicate only that you were somehow rendered unconscious before you were securely locked in the cargo hold."
Arielynn felt the very strong urge to find whoever had designed these droids and introduce him to her fist. "Care to explain how I was locked in the cargo hold?"
"Clarification: By locked, I meant 'sealed', Master. My vocabulator seems to be malfunctioning," the droid responded, not missing a beat.
"Fine," Arielynn sighed. "What happened next?"
"Recitation: Following the unusual set of coincidences that led to the cascade failure in the Harbinger's systems, we were boarded by a small freighter with unknown ID codes."
"Continuation: It appeared that this freighter had been attacked, and the captain wanted to study it as the freighter appeared to still be space worthy. Your cargo compartment was breached, and we were taken on board the freighter shortly before the Harbinger's systems began to go critical."
Arielynn frowned. That was a lot of coincidences, "Where did the freighter come from?"
"Explanation: I believe it was a smuggler's vessel by the name of the Ebon Hawk," the droid answered. "Speculation: As for its origins, I do not know. Perhaps it was always its intention to play dead, then kidnap you off the Harbinger and rob me of my bounty."
Arielynn was starting to get very suspicious of this droid, "Bounty?"
"Quick Clarification: By bounty, I refer to your life, Master. It would pain me to see you damaged in any way."
"Of course it would. So then we traveled here on the Ebon Hawk?"
"Confirmation: Yes, Master. Suffice to say that once we arrived at this floating rock, our situation became much clearer."
"Oh really?" Arielynn remarked. "How so?"
"Answer: One group of miners seemed intent on selling you. I believe their intentions were to collect on the bounty that has been placed on Jedi."
"And why do they think I'm a Jedi?" Arielynn asked. This droid was up to something.
"Surprised Answer: Why, I told them, Master. You are the exiled Jedi who served with Revan in the Mandalorian Wars, are you not?"
Arielynn briefly wondered how the droid knew that. Such military information was usually kept securely away from common knowledge. "It doesn't matter now. What happened next?"
"Explanation: Three hours after the division between the miners became apparent, accidents began to occur throughout the facility. A result of improper maintenance, I believe." Arielynn thought that the droid seemed rather smug while speaking of the accidents.
"Continuation: Those accidents coincided with the degradation of the mining droids behavioral cores, crude models are prone to such failures, resulting in murderous rampages. The mortality rate of organics in the facility rose quickly."
"So what happened to the rest of the miners?" Arielynn asked, a sinking feeling growing in her stomach.
"Answer: Many miners began to join you in the medical bay as a cascade of flawlessly timed detonations occurred in isolated gas pockets in the lower levels of facility," the droid remarked. Arielynn though she detected a hint of pride in the droids voice.
"Elaboration: The explosions herded the miners into emergency sections of the station, quickly and efficiently cutting them off from communications and facility control, but sadly enough, not the ventilation systems."
The sinking feeling in her stomach got even worse, "Sadly enough? What happened?"
"Response: The explosions had damaged specific sections of this facility's ventilation systems, causing a slow lethal build up of toxic fumes in the dormitory level."
Arielynn gasped in horror, "Anyone escaping to the dormitory level would be killed. We need to see if there are survivors!"
"Discouraging Remark: It is unlikely any miners remain alive. As I said, the dormitory level has been cut off from the rest of the facility," the droid remarked. It seemed not to care about the fates of the other miners.
"There's always another way," Arielynn remarked.
"Theory: You could walk across the surface of the asteroid to the dormitory airlock, but such a route would be extremely hazardous, and I do not wish to see you damaged."
"Those miners might still be alive, and hurt," Arielynn exclaimed. "I'm going to find them and you're going to help me."
"Weary Resignation: Very well, Master. But there is very little that I can do. The airlock is governed by a console that has been voice-printed."
"Musing: In the last days of his life, the maintenance officer," the droid gestured to the corpse, "was quite careful about voice protocols, bordering on paranoid obsession."
"Conjecture: I suspect once he realized something was wrong in the facility, he voice-locked the droid bay functions. A prudent measure, but as you can see he met the same fate as the other organics."
That was a problem. It was a common practice throughout the galaxy to install recognition sensors into a console so that it could only be accessed by select individuals. It was generally an effective security measure too. Unless you had access to some kind of recording device the only way to bypass the security was to rip out the console and install a new one. But she didn't have that kind of time or expertise.
"What happened to him?" she asked, eyeing the droid suspiciously.
"Answer: That is all that remains of the maintenance officer, Master. At the end, he was quite incoherent from the pain, and attempts to facilitate communications with him proved useless."
"Wait, you watched him die!" she demanded, her anger rising again.
"Recitation: Oh yes, Master. The records of his last moments were:"
The droid then proceeded to replicate the voice of a man who was desperately trying to escape from the mining droids. He began crying as the broke through the door and set upon him, mining him like they would a piece of rock. The screams were so horrible that Arielynn had to turn away and cover her ears. The droid meanwhile almost seemed to enjoy the carnage.
Holding up a hand to stop the droid, she turned to him and angrily asked, "If you were there, why didn't you help him?"
"Answer: Master! I am merely a protocol droid, not a lethal assassination droid of unsurpassed sophistication. I am not programmed for combat."
Arielynn didn't like how quickly the droid had mentioned 'assassination droid' but she didn't want to waste any more time while miners were possibly injured. "Whatever, I'm going to go look for a way to the dormitories."
"Exasperated Reply: Very well, Master. If you insist. But I assure you, this facility has been locked down with droid-level precision. You will not find a way to escape."
"Droid-level precision, eh?" Arielynn repeated, her eyes narrowing dangerously.
"Reply: Master, if you insist on repeating every word I say than this already tedious conversation is in danger of becoming even longer."
"You sounded almost proud of the facility's current status," she stated ignoring the droid's previous statement.
"Rebuttal: Oh, Master. If there has been some confusion over the context of my response, I assure you that it is merely a result of a faulty vocabulator. This unit has been under an unusual amount of strain lately and is in need of maintenance."
Arielynn was tired of talking to a droid she suspected knew more about what was going on than it let on. She needed to find a way to get to the dormitory level. Ordering the droid to remain where it was Arielynn began to explore the rest of the maintenance area.
Sure enough, when she came to the airlock she found that it had indeed been locked with a voice-code. Looking through the maintenance logs she didn't learn anything that she didn't already know or suspect. The maintenance officer had been at a complete loss as to why the droids had been malfunctioning, and had assigned the protocol droid she'd just met to work at communicating to the mining droid's behavioral cores. He had been hoping that the droid would be able to learn what was wrong with the droids.
The most interesting thing that she learned was that the maintenance officer had been developing a Sonic Imprint Sensor. The device had originally been intended o be used in issuing voice commands to the mining droids although Arielynn didn't think that'd be happening anymore. Looking through the storage compartments she laughed triumphantly as she pulled out the small device.
Looking back towards where the 'protocol' droid was she grinned mischievously as she was hit by sudden inspiration.
As far as he could see it, Atton was screwed. Ever since that stupid Jedi had disabled those fuel containment fields and almost blew up the entire facility he had been unable to locate her signal. She had probably been incinerated down in those tunnels. Atton sighed as he leaned back in the chair looking at the blank terminal.
Leave it to a Jedi to go and get herself killed and leave him all alone on a bomb floating in space. Oh well, at least there was one less Jedi in the galaxy now. It was almost too bad though Atton thought; she had had an amazing body.
He grinned slightly as he began to imagine some of the nicer things that body could do when the console beeped again.
Amazed he leaned forward and entered a few commands into the terminal, maybe that Jedi wasn't as suicidal as he thought. There it was. Her signal appeared on the display again, but it was coming from outside the facility, on the asteroids surface.
That was crazy though, not even she could be that stupid. Keying up the comm he hailed her frequency, "It's about time you showed up. Where have you been?"
"It's a long story," her voiced responded. "I'll have to share it with you some time. Let's just say if I ever meet the guy who designed those new protocol droids he'd better run fast."
Protocol Droids? Atton didn't even want to know what she was talking about; no one could get into trouble faster than a Jedi, except maybe him. "Right," he replied. "Your signal's coming in clear now. Although I'm picking you up on the exterior of the facility, on the asteroids surface. That can't be right."
"Really?" Atton could hear the smile in her voice. "Maybe you should look up."
Atton didn't know what she was talking about but he did so, and nearly jumped out of his seat. Out on the scaffolding running along the exterior of the complex was someone dressed in a pressurized space suit. As he stared in bewildered amazement the suit raised an arm and waved at him.
"Does the suit make me look fat?" she asked.
What the hell was wrong with this woman? "What the kriff are you doing out there?"
"Oh, you know. I just thought I could use the walk," she replied flippantly.
"You're crazy," he exclaimed. "Even for a Jedi."
"You noticed, how sweet," she replied sarcastically. "I'm heading to the dormitories to check for survivors, if we're lucky the administration officer will still be alive and he'll have the codes to bypass the emergency lockdown."
His next thought was interrupted as he noticed something blink onto the console display out of the corner of his eye. Looking back down at the display he groaned at what he saw. "Listen, you need to get out of there fast."
"It's not as easy to move in this thing as it looks," she bit back. "I'm going as fast as I can."
"Go faster," he demanded. "What little is left of this place's venting systems have just gone active." He brought up a display of the Peragus facility. "And lucky you, it's right in your path."
Atton smirked slightly as the woman swore over the comm, loudly.
"Can't you shut it down?" she asked.
"'Fraid not. I'm locked out of the system," he answered. "It's weird. The vents look like they've been purposely rerouted to vent the gases to the exterior, and only in the last few minutes. It's almost like-"
"Someone wants to keep me from reaching the other side," she finished for him. "That evil tin-plated scrapheap."
"What?" Atton asked, confused.
"Listen," she began. "If you see a durasteel colored protocol droid around, be careful. I think that it may be what's causing all the trouble around here."
Atton was about to inquire how a single protocol droid could be so dangerous when he was interrupted by another beep from the console. "Oh, what now!"
He brought up the command screen to see what the fuss was about. "I don't believe this," he sent over the comm, "there's a ship coming in, sending a docking code."
Atton watched out the viewport as a Republic Capital-class ship came out of hyperspace and entered the asteroid field. The ship itself looked a little worse for wear and Atton didn't know how it was still flying, let alone maneuvering through the asteroid field.
The ship slowed down as it approached the mining facility, coming up to stop beside the docking mechanisms. Atton watched as the console displayed the successful activation of the docking clamp and extension of the fuel pipe.
Atton didn't like the looks of that ship. Not only did it look like it should have crashed a long time ago but the ship seemed completely dead. There was no moment visible through the viewports along the ship's exterior and nothing had yet made any move to cross the docking tunnel. He tried to key up the comm and hail the ship but no one responded.
"I have a bad feeling about this," he muttered.
"I don't think you know how right you are," Arielynn replied. The Jedi had grown almost sullen as the ship approached.
"If you're going to go you should do it now, before those gases get any worse."
"Alright," she responded. "If you don't hear from me in a standard hour than I want you to head for the medical bay, find an old woman named Kreia and head for the hanger. Just forget about me."
Atton wasn't especially crazy about leaving her behind but he had long ago learned that someone could only rely on themselves. "Alright. Good luck, you're going to need it."
As she entered the dormitory level the first thing Arielynn noticed was the mess. This part of the facility had been hit hard by the recent 'accidents'. Thinking back to the protocol droid she doubted that it was just coincidence. Most of the miners would have retreated here, right into whatever trap had been laid for them.
Quietly moving through the hallways so as not draw unwanted attention to herself Arielynn slowly made her way out of the airlock and through the hallways, eventually coming into a large room. The room looked like it had been a storage hold; several lockers and storage shelves were lined up along the walls and a collection of space suits had been placed in a corner. Most of the shelves had fallen over and debris littered the floor.
A single body lay in the middle of the room. Fortunately for her stomach this one was not as badly mutilated as the others she'd seen. The miner was clutching a strange canister tightly in his hands. Kneeling down she pried the canister out of the miner's death grip. Pulling the top off she found that it was filled with a white powder. Highly-refined Andris spice. Arielynn huffed in disgust and tossed the can aside, the miner had been a spicehead and had died trying to get his fix.
Looking around the room Arielynn tried to find something that looked like storage for the mining lasers. She had been forced to leave her weapon behind in order to fit into the space suit and she was eager to find a replacement. She quickly found the storage compartment she was looking for and laughed triumphantly as she pulled out a large advanced mining laser designed to burn through thick rocks and metals.
It was much larger and heavier than her previous weapon and she would have to hold it in both hands to fire properly, like a blaster rifle. Pointing it towards one of the storage canisters she activated the laser. She grinned as she saw the heavy laser cut easily through the durasteel plating. She'd hate to be the droid she used this on.
Seeing nothing else of worth she opened the door to the next room, and threw herself to the ground as a white beam almost took her head. Rolling to the side to avoid another ray she sprung to her feet to view her attacker. The turret swiveled to follow her and shot at her again. Barely avoiding the attack, Arielynn leapt to the side and brought up her laser. As the turret swiveled to attack her again she fired the weapon. One shot was all it took.
After the turret droid was destroyed the ex-Jedi turned to look at the wall behind her. Large patches of it were covered in a white ice-like substance. She reached forward to touch it but pulled her hand back immediately. It was so cold that it burned her skin. Carbonite freezing was a common technique for putting out fires and it seemed that the Peragus facility had installed fire-prevention turrets. Of course the simple droids had been affected the same as all the others during the disaster.
Arielynn sighed; it seemed the galaxy just wasn't going to give her a break. The effects of carbonite freezing on life forms had never been tested and Arielynn certainly didn't want to be the first, temperatures that cold could kill instantly.
Moving past the destroyed turret Arielynn moved towards where the dormitories would be.
It wasn't very long until she was standing in front of the dormitory doors. Pressing the panel to open them she found them locked, probably done so that the miners would be unable to escape and warn someone what was happening in the facility, or call for help. She looked around for a terminal that she could use to open the door and found one behind her. After opening the emergency doors Arielynn remembered what the protocol droid had said about the poison in the ventilation systems and shut them down as a precaution.
Upon entering the dormitory Arielynn let out an involuntary gasp. The floor was littered with bodies. She almost turned and left right then but she had to think about those who were still alive, they needed the override codes.
"Is anyone still alive?" she called out, hoping that maybe someone had survived, against the odds. When only silence answered her Arielynn was forced to abandon those hopes.
Looking around the floor for the body of the administration officer Arielynn tried not to look at the faces of the dead bodies as they stared up at her with blank eyes, pleading for her to restore what they lost. Finding the body she was looking for Arielynn checked the administration officer for anything that might contain the codes she needed, silently asking for his forgiveness. She found a holocube in one of his pockets and took it, trying not to look at the face of the man she was stealing from.
Quickly leaving the room of death behind Arielynn returned to the hallway and activated the holocube. To her dismay all she was able to learn from the cube was the codes to unlock the turbolifts, they would have to find another way to the hanger.
Tossing the small cube aside she looked for a way that she could return to the administration level. If the maps she had seen were correct than there should be a turbolift up somewhere on this level, although it was probably locked down. With no better ideas, the ex-Jedi made her way towards where the turbolifts would be.
A few minutes later she found herself in a mess hall. Like the rest of the level this room had been ransacked thoroughly and there were a few bodies strewn about. Arielynn wondered were the droids that killed them had gone off to. Carefully walking up to the door that lead to the turbolifts Arielynn pushed the panel to open it, and came face-to-chestplate with a large humanoid mining droid.
The droid was much taller than an average human and was wider too. Although roughly human in appearance, one of its arms had been permanently shaped into a mining laser. Arielynn looked up into the droids expressionless red eyes and cursed her foolishness. Someday she was going to learn to listen before opening doors.
The sound of the droid's laser powering up was echoed as three other droids also powered their lasers. Two fire prevention turrets also came online and swiveled to point at her. Arielynn groaned inwardly before the entire room burst into chaos.
Throwing herself backwards to avoid a backhand from the closest droid, she brought up her laser and fired madly into the room. Unfortunately she was unable to get effective aim as she fell and most of her shots went wide. She hit the ground and immediately sprung to her feet. Ducking behind an overturned table she tried to gather her senses. These droids were more advanced than the crawlers and consequently more dangerous.
Standing up and firing off a few shots Arielynn managed to disable the laser arm of one of the mining droids before having to duck again to avoid the freeze ray of a fire prevention turret. Suddenly she was thrown to the side as the droid she hit used its broken laser arm to break through the table she'd been using for cover. Arielynn cursed whoever had decided to make the tables out of cheap materials.
Scrambling away as the other droids fired at her, Arielynn managed to get off a shot that burned through the wounded droids central control cluster. The droid teetered and fell over as she threw herself into a roll, barely avoiding another carbonite ray.
Throwing herself behind another table, Arielynn wracked her brain for options. At this rate she'd be slowly worn down and picked off by those forsaken freeze turrets. Breathing heavily Arielynn tried to concentrate; she tried to feel the Force through her. She had felt it earlier; she was convinced of that now. But try as hard as she could, she just couldn't feel it anymore. Chunks of debris fell all around her as the mining lasers struck the walls nearby, blasting holes into the surface.
Rising to fire another salvo into the approaching droids she wondered if maybe it had all been her imagination. It had seemed too good to be true. And now she was going to die on a barren rock killed by berserk droids, all because she had allowed her shields to be infiltrated by some crazy, old scow.
Scow?
Great, she was hearing things again. She was going to die alone and crazy. Life just gets better and better. Firing off another salvo into a mining droid she felt a sense of enjoyment watching the droid fall to the ground, full of smoking holes. Two down.
You are skeptical. Why?
"Well maybe it has something to do with how I'm about to die," she screamed as she threw herself to the side as the table finally shattered under the strain of the carbonite freezing and laser blasts.
You are trying too hard, the old woman preached. Let it flow naturally before you attempt to bind the Force to your will.
"Yeah, well, it's a little hard to concentrate at the moment!" Arielynn retorted before shouting out in pain as a laser burned into her shoulder. She scarcely had enough time to duck behind a pillar as another freeze ray came within millimeters of hitting her. She could feel the goose bumps on her arm as the temperature dropped below freezing.
You focus too hard on the insignificant. Seek out the true threat and silence it.
That was easy for the old woman to say, she was safely back in the medical wing, away from all the homicidal machines. She did have a point though, those mining lasers hurt but they weren't immediately lethal. The carbonite was. While she tried to destroy the mining droids she was quickly wearing herself down and running out of cover.
Gritting her teeth, Arielynn jumped out from behind the pillar she'd been hiding behind and ran towards the door leading to the turbolifts. The mining droids in front of her raised their lasers and opened fire. Throwing herself into a forward roll Arielynn passed beneath the legs of the mining droids and continued forward, bolting through the door. The carbonite turrets swiveled to fire at her. Throwing herself to the ground Arielynn opened fire. The first turret fell silent as the laser burned through its powercell.
Meanwhile, the freeze ray from the second turret passed over her prone form and struck one of the remaining mining droids in the back, the massive temperature change disrupting the droids circuits and forcing it to shut down. As the turret swiveled to adjust for her new position Arielynn brought her rifle around, pointed it at the droid and fired. The laser burned through the barrel of the turret moments before it attempted to fire its freeze ray. The turret was blown apart as the carbonite solidified inside the barrel and expanded.
With the turrets now disabled Arielynn was able to dispatch the last droid easily. A shot to the arm destroyed it's method of attacking and another to the central motivator disabled it permanently.
The room fell silent as the final droid fell to the floor. Looking around Arielynn saw the bodies of three dead miners lying on the floor. She recognized one of them as Coorta, the miner who had been intent on handing her over to the exchange. Seemed he had fallen victim to his own ploy.
In the corner of the room was the terminal that controlled the turbolifts. Watching the holorecording she learned that Coorta and his friends had been communicating with the maintenance officer in regards to taking her off the facility. Unfortunately for them it seemed that the protocol droid had been impersonating the maintenance officer and betrayed them, ordering the droids to kill the miners. Shaking her head sadly, Arielynn entered the code to unlock the turbolifts.
The turbolift reached the administration level quickly. As the lift came to a stop the heavy blast doors opened to reveal Kreia behind them.
The old woman had changed out of the medical gown she'd worn when Arielynn had met her and was now dressed in a simple brown cloak. The hood was pulled over her head to hide the top of her face. All in all the woman looked like what someone would expect an old Jedi woman to look like.
"I have felt a disturbance," she remarked as Arielynn exited the lift. "Our enemy is here. We must leave immediately."
"Would this enemy have anything to do with that Republic warship?" the ex-Jedi asked, recalling the unsettling feeling she'd experienced upon looking at the ship.
"So you sensed it as well. I had hoped that you might." The old woman nodded, "Yes, he is the one who fired upon the Ebon Hawk as we attempted to rescue you. And he will not let us go without blood being shed," she proclaimed darkly.
"He sounds like a wonderful guy," Arielynn snorted. "We need to get to Atton."
"If you wish," the old woman stated. "We must make our way to the docking area. I fear the airlock has already opened, and if that is so then the fool may be dead already."
"We need to hurry then." And with that Arielynn turned and ran down the hallway, towards the communications center.
Looking back to see if she had left Kreia behind, Arielynn was surprised to see that the old woman was doing a good job in keeping up with her. The ex-Jedi couldn't believe it; the old woman had to be pushing eighty and she wasn't even breathing heavily as they sprinted through the halls. She hadn't heard of the Force being able to be used so effectively; but then, she had never seen the older Masters really do anything.
Turning the last corner and coming into view of the communications console Arielynn was treated to one of the strangest things she'd ever seen. Atton was perfectly fine it seemed and he was standing over the bodies of three human looking figures. As they approached him, Arielynn thought she saw him drop into a combat stance but he quickly returned to normal when he recognized her.
"Another Jedi?" he asked, eyeing Kreia. "Did you guys suddenly start breeding when I wasn't looking?"
Arielynn didn't have the patience to put up with his stupid jokes right now. "Not now, Atton. What happened here?" she asked pointed to the bodies.
"What? Oh, those?" he remarked, as if he had noticed them. "They appeared when that ship docked. Luckily I was able to find a blaster and hold them off," he explained, holding up a blaster pistol. "I'm guessing that Republic ship isn't carrying friends of yours."
"I hope your talent for understatement is offset by your skills piloting a ship," Kreia scoffed. "Otherwise, I feel our time together will be very short indeed."
"Yeah, and I'm also good at running and drinking, your majesty," Atton retorted, glaring at the old woman.
"Okay, okay." Arielynn came in between them. "There's no need to fight amongst ourselves. I think we have enough people who want to kill us without adding each other to the list."
Kreia seemed to back down, "You speak the truth. Come, that ship may be our only way out of this place."
"Well let's get going then," Atton said. "Before something else comes along and tries to slow us down."
The three of them quickly made it to the docking platform and from there they were able to pass over into the Republic ship.
Upon passing through the docking tunnel they were confronted by a virtual ghost ship, there was not a soul to be found.
"Something is wrong," Kreia stated. "I sense no one on board."
Apparently Atton didn't find that very welcoming. "'You sense no one on board'? Sense any assassins like the ones that attacked me?"
"Everyone here is slain," she stated calmly. "Yet there are no signs of battle, no carbon scoring, no blaster fire. This place has been hit by an assassin of a different sort."
"Then what are we doing on this ship?" Atton exclaimed. "You two are supposed to be Jedi? You two are the worst Jedi I've ever met!"
"Well maybe you'd like it back in your cell?" Arielynn replied, icily.
"Maybe I would!" he bit back. "At least I was safe there!"
"We cannot go back to the facility," Kreia intervened. "If the fool is correct and we cannot reach the hanger… be silent, I need some time to think."
Atton looked like he was about ready to explode after Kreia's fool remark so Arielynn intervened before he could reply, "When I saw this ship dock a fuel pipe entered the fuel depot, behind the force field that blocks off the hanger."
"Look, I don't mean to paint a shadow on this, but even if you could reach the ship you came in on, it wouldn't matter," Atton stated.
Arielynn was starting to get fed up with his perpetually negative attitude, "And why is that?"
"You'll need the orbital drift charts to clear the Peragus asteroid field," he answered. "Unless you want to have the shortest flight out of Peragus ever recorded."
"Well wouldn't this ship have the codes? They docked here," she pointed out.
"Of course they have the codes," Atton conceded. "They'd have to. Although they docked almost an hour ago, the codes will be out of date."
"It's better than flying blind. Let's get their codes," Arielynn said. "Then we can worry about reaching the Ebon Hawk.
"We'll have to get to the bridge," Atton remarked. "That's the only problem I can see. But I have a bad feeling about this."
"It is a sound plan. For the moment," Kreia remarked, ignoring Atton. "Let us go. Our enemies gather while we wait here."
"I'm sorry Kreia," Arielynn replied.
Kreia nodded towards the ex-Jedi, seemingly approving of her reply. Atton made a gagging face and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'suck up' under his breath. Arielynn shot him a glare and moved past him towards where the bridge was located.
It didn't take them long to pass through the empty hallways and reach the bridge but what they found there was unlike anything they could have expected. They were faced with the rotten smell of decaying flesh as over a dozen bodies lay on the floor of the bridge, all of them dead.
"What happened here?" Atton questioned upon entering the room.
"I should think it obvious," Kreia replied. "The crew has been slain."
As Arielynn knelt down to inspect some of the bodies she heard Atton respond, "Well I know they're dead. I'm asking how? I don't think the droids would have been able to board the ship."
"No droid did this, Atton," Arielynn stated. When he turned to look at her confused she continued. "These bodies have been dead for days, and look," she pointed out a long slash one of the soldiers had taken across the chest. "Each of these bodies only has one wound, a lethal one. Whoever did this is extremely skilled."
Looking over the bodies she was suddenly struck by a thought, there was no blood. Examining the wounds closely she found they had all been cauterized immediately. Only one weapon she knew of did that, "If I didn't know better, I'd say these soldiers were killed by a lightsaber."
Atton groaned loudly. "You have got to be kidding me," he complained. "First crazy droids, then assassins, and now a homicidal Jedi wants to kill us! Can this day get any better!" he exclaimed, throwing his arms out wide as if to beseech the heavens.
"Shut up, fool," Kreia hissed.
Arielynn heard him say something but she didn't pay him any attention. Stepping around the bodies, she made her way towards the front of the bridge where the navicomputer would be located.
They would need a datapad to store the charts on until they reached the Ebon Hawk. Turning to the others she said, "Atton, see if you can find a datapad lying around." He nodded in response and began to search the area for a storage compartment that might contain what they needed.
Hoping to learn something about what had befallen the crew of the ship, Arielynn located the central command console and logged into the ship's network.
"That can't be right," she muttered as she read the words that appeared on the screen.
"What have you discovered?" Kreia asked, coming up to stand beside her.
"According to this, we're aboard the Harbinger," she answered. "But that ship was crippled, it couldn't have made it this far."
"Do not be so easy to dismiss that which you do not understand," Kreia replied mysteriously.
Arielynn turned to face the old woman. "Are you saying that this ship just floated here through hyperspace?"
Kreia regarded the younger woman silently before replying, her voice filled with both hope and disappointment. "The Force is capable of more than throwing pebbles around."
"Are you saying that a Jedi dragged this entire ship into hyperspace, located Peragus, maneuvered through an explosive asteroid field, and docked with the mining facility?" Arielynn asked in response.
"No. Not a Jedi," Kreia muttered.
"Then what?"
The old woman didn't answer; instead she turned away and began inspecting some of the bodies lying around. Seeing that she wouldn't be getting an answer Arielynn looked back to the computer and began to browse through the ships logs.
This ship had been sent to retrieve cargo and some passengers from the Atrivis Sector. This however was a cover up. It seemed that their main mission the entire time was to pick her up on the planet Atrisia and transport her to Telos. Arielynn was somewhat off-put by that, what could the Republic want her for so badly that they would commission a warship to go and pick her up?
Unfortunately the Harbinger never made it to Telos. When they came out of hyperspace near the Turak system to readjust for the jump to Telos they were hailed by a distress signal from an unknown freighter, which Arielynn supposed was the Ebon Hawk. Apparently the Hawk had been attacked by a Sith warship and was requesting aid. After thorough scans of both the Sith ship and the Hawk revealed no life forms the Harbinger tractored over the freighter, brought over the only body they found on the Sith warship, and continued towards Telos.
The ship began experiencing a series of system failures, throwing them out of hyperspace and disabling their communications so that they couldn't call for help. Then crew members began to go missing and no one could figure out were they went. The captain also remarked that he had seen the Jedi for days. Arielynn realized that she had probably already been locked in the Harbinger's cargo hold by this point.
The last of the logs showed the captain talking about the bizarre occurrences aboard the ship. He began to say something about repairing the Ebon Hawk to transport the Jedi the rest of the way but was interrupted by an emergency call from the medical bay. The medical officer screamed something about 'him' being alive but she was cut off by the sound of glass shattering. The comm went silent for a moment, but when it came back on it wasn't the voice of the medical officer. Instead a deep, gravely male voice sounded, "I have come for the Jedi."
The captain ordered a security team to the med bay just before the log ended in static. Looking around at the bodies on the floor it wasn't hard to determine what had followed. Done with the console Arielynn looked around for Atton, she was eager to get those charts and get the hell out of there.
The card shark was leaning up against an array of consoles on the other side of the bridge, looking somewhat bored. When she waved to get his attention he looked up and showed a datapad that he was holding in his hand.
"You looked pretty busy with those logs so I already downloaded the charts," he stated. "We need to get going. The longer we wait the more out-of-date these charts are going to be."
Arielynn nodded. "Alright then, let's see if we can make it down to the engine deck. From there we can cross over to the mining facility."
"Are you sure that's a good idea? Whoever killed these soldiers could be waiting down there," Atton pointed out.
"We have no choice. If we wait here, he'll just come and find us anyways," Arielynn replied, taking a blaster rifle off of on of the dead bodies. Examining the blaster to ensure functionality she powered the weapon up and nodded towards the others, indicating that they were leaving.
As they moved through the empty corridors Arielynn couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched. Several times she thought that she had caught a glimpse of movement from the corner of her eye but when she tried to focus on it all that she could see were empty hallways. By the time they had reached the crew quarters she was absolutely sure that something was following them.
Slowing down enough to walk beside Atton, she quietly muttered, "Something's following us."
"I know," he replied calmly. "They have been since the bridge."
Arielynn was surprised at both his alertness and the calmness he seemed to be taking the situation with. "What do you think we should do about it?" she whispered.
"They're using personal cloaking devices," he replied quietly. "That's how they snuck up on me earlier."
"So we let them make the first move?"
"Unless you fancy shooting blindly into thin air and risking bringing down what's left of this ship down onto our heads," he replied. Arielynn was shocked at the logic he used, she hadn't figured him for anything more than a skirt chaser and a card hustler.
Atton must have noticed her surprise because he shot her a look of mock indignation, "Oh, don't look so shocked. You don't survive on the Rim as long as I have without learning a few things."
She nodded but then noticed something and came to a stop in front of one of the doors.
"What is wrong? Why have you stopped?" Kreia inquired.
"This was my room," Arielynn replied. "Do you mind if I grab some things?" she asked the others. She knew they didn't really have the time, but everything she owned had been left on this ship when she had been smuggled onto the Ebon Hawk.
"Do what you must," Kreia answered, "but be quick about it."
Nodding her thanks Arielynn opened the door to the room and quickly went about gathering what few belongings she could carry. Shoving what few credits she found into her pocket, the ex-Jedi opened her traveling bag and withdrew the only thing it contained that she would miss. The armband didn't look like anything special upon first glance, being nothing more than a copper band that had been bent to form a circle. But to her, it held a great deal more value.
It had been given to her years before the Mandalorian Wars, when she had been a teenager growing up at the Dantooine academy. A good friend of hers had made it for her to cheer her up when she had learned that he would be leaving the academy to travel with his Master. He had placed it on her arm and claimed that so long as she wore the armband he would return some day, as a Jedi Knight.
She laughed at the absurdity now, but as a young girl of 14 she had been deeply touched. Ever since then she had always worn the armband, even after her friend's return and the subsequent Mandalorian Crusade.
Rolling up her sleeve Arielynn placed the armband on its usual spot on her upper arm. Smiling slightly at the memories it represented she stood to leave. Her reverie was interrupted by the sounds of blaster fire from the hallway. Alarmed she grabbed the blaster rifle and ran back to the hallway.
Atton was busy trying to fend off three attackers wielding electrostaffs while protecting Kreia. He was faring fairly well, although due to the close quarters he was having a hard time getting a good shot off. Every time he brought up his blaster pistol to fire one of the attackers would either knock his hand away or bring the electricity producing end of the staff down towards him forcing him to ruin the shot in order to avoid injury.
Kreia herself had found a blaster from somewhere and was firing at the assassins further away.
Arielynn brought up her rifle to shoot at the assassins attacking Atton but it was destroyed as an electrostaff came down on the weapon. Dropping the useless, sparking weapon the ex-Jedi turned to face her assailant. It appeared to be a human, although its features were concealed by black clothing so it was hard to tell. The creature regarded her through large expressionless red visors.
Acting on her hesitation the assassin struck forward with his staff, aiming to jab her in the gut. Acting on pure instinct Arielynn sidestepped the attack, and as the assassin stumbled forward upon meeting no resistance she brought up her leg and drove her knee into the assassin's chest. The assassin dropped to the ground, unconscious.
Senses flaring Arielynn whirled to block a downwards attack by another assassin with her forearm. Grasping the shaft of the staff, the ex-Jedi wrenched the weapon out of her surprised opponent's hands and brought it around in a vicious backhand that shattered the red visors of his mask and almost tore his head from his shoulders. The assassin dropped.
Turning, electrostaff in hand, Arielynn threw herself at the trio of assassins attacking Atton. Before they had even registered what had happened Arielynn had activated the electric tip of the staff and driven it into the side of one of the assassins. The figure shook violently as thousands of volts poured into his body and then fell to the ground. The other two reacted quickly, lashing out at Arielynn.
She backpedaled, blocking the aggressive attacks with her own staff. The two assassins fought well and Arielynn was unable to counterattack as they continued to batter her with quick attacks, attempting to wear the ex-Jedi down before moving in for the kill.
The left attacker came down with a powerful attack to her head and she was forced to bring up her own staff to block the attack, leaving her flank wide open to the other attacker. The attack never came though. When the right assassin brought his staff back to lash forward there was the distinct sound of blasters and the assassin toppled over, smoking from his back. The other assassin was momentarily stunned by the surprise death of his comrade and that was all the time Arielynn needed. Pushing her foe's weapon up forcefully she caused him to lose balance and then she brought her staff around into a painful jab to the gut and activated the electricity producing tip.
Arielynn turned to Atton and nodded her thanks which he brushed off with a casual wave of the hand and a cocky grin. The grin was quickly replaced by a look of horror. She heard a familiar snap-hiss from behind her and her blood froze. She heard Atton shout out as she turned just enough to see the red blade arcing towards her neck. Dreadfully she noticed that there was no time to bring her weapon up to block, for all the help it would have been against a lightsaber.
The air above her exploded with sparks as she felt herself roughly pulled backwards, falling to the floor. The blade had flown over her head and had struck against the wall, creating a long gash that pierced the power cord for the area. The lights went black but Arielynn was still able to make out the Jedi from the glow that his weapon produced.
The figure that loomed over her was the stuff of nightmares. He was large and powerfully built; or at least he had been at one point. The man looked like he had been ripped apart from the inside out and then put back together, with entire chunks of skin and flesh missing. Dead looking cracked and broken skin covered his shirtless chest, and one of his arms wore a long black glove that stretched up to his shoulder. His face was brutally scarred and entire chucks looked like they had been ripped away, revealing the muscle and bone beneath it. One of his eyes looked like it had been blinded and the other looked down at her with such hatred and pain that Arielynn thought she might wither underneath his gaze.
He pulled his lightsaber from the wall and pointed it at her, the red glow it produced making the monster look even more frightening than he already did.
"You will die, Jedi," the man spoke, voice deep and raspy as if his throat had been partially destroyed, which it probably had.
Before the dark Jedi could attack again, she had been forcefully pulled to her feet by Atton. "I think it's time to leave," he said as he literally pulled her down the hallway, away from the lightsaber wielding figure.
Recovering from the shock Arielynn shook her arm out of Atton's grasp and ran up beside him. Looking back over her shoulder she saw Kreia running just behind her. She also saw the Jedi sprinting after them, approaching rapidly.
"He's catching up," she stated, breathing heavily.
"What do you want me to do about it?" Atton replied. "You're the Jedi."
"I told you before, I'm not a Jedi."
"Well he seems to think otherwise," Atton remarked, jerking a thumb backwards.
Arielynn had a sudden sense of alarm and grabbed Atton, yanking him to the side just before the dark Jedi lunged down with an attack that would have split the scoundrel in half. Not stopping to give the attacker the chance to correct his mistake they continued down the halls, directly into a dead end. The door there had been shut during the deterioration of the Harbinger's systems and there was no way to open it.
The dark Jedi, seeing that his prey had no way to escape, stopped running. Instead he slowly walked towards the trio, confident in his victory. Arielynn brought up her electrostaff in a defensive stance, determined not to die easily but she was pushed aside by Kreia.
"What?" she began confused.
"You are not to die here," the old woman stated simply. Turning to the locked door Kreia raised her hand and the door buckled inwards and exploded open, the metal composing it ripping apart.
Arielynn regarded the woman with surprise; Kreia was stronger than she had thought. The dark Jedi also seemed to notice what had occurred, as he stopped his approach and questioned, "Who?"
When Kreia turned to face him the dark Jedi briefly appeared surprised but that was quickly replaced by rage and hatred, "You!"
Kreia didn't reply, instead she sent the man crashing against the wall. While he was momentarily stunned, she caused the wall plating and cables in the wall to wrap tightly around the Dark Jedi. As he struggled to free himself from the cocoon of metal Kreia turned to face Arielynn.
"Come, that will not stop him for long."
Arielynn wanted to ask the old woman many things, but as the dark Jedi began using his lightsaber to burn through the wires and metal she realized that they didn't have the time. Nodding, she turned and ran through the now open door, towards the turbolifts that would lead to the engine deck and the fuel pipe.
Punching the access panel, Arielynn prayed that it would operate under emergency power. She sighed with relief as the door opened and she quickly gestured for the others to enter. Taking one last look back down the hallway to watch the Jedi free himself from the cables, Arielynn ducked into the turbolift and punched the down panel.
They reached the bottom of the shaft and exited the turbolift into the engine room. The main power had been cut but the emergency back-up lights showered the area in a dull red glow.
"We need to keep moving," she said, "He'll be following soon."
Atton took his blaster and shot the control panel for the turbolift. "Not anymore he's not."
"You are a fool if you believe that will stop him," Kreia remarked. Arielynn noticed that the older woman had become somewhat withdrawn since the appearance of the Jedi, not saying much or offering her opinion. She made a note to ask her of their attacker when they were safe.
"It's a fifty foot drop down that shaft; no one could survive that." His argument was interrupted by the sound of something landing heavily on the top of the turbolift box. Seconds later a red blade began cutting through the roof of the box.
Wasting no time, the three of them bolted away from the turbolift, heading towards where the fuel pipe would be. As they passed through a large archway, Kreia stopped. Arielynn turned around and ran back the old woman.
"Kreia? What's wrong, are you injured?" she asked approaching the old woman.
"Go. I will hold him off," the old woman replied, staring at the broken man as he jumped down through the roof of the turbolift.
"You can't be serious! He'll kill you!" she exclaimed trying to pull the old woman away with her. However, Kreia was unmovable. Arielynn felt herself get thrown back as the old woman used to Force to push her back like a feather. Landing through the archway Arielynn got to her feet just as the large blast doors slammed shut, blocking her off from the old woman.
He cannot kill what he cannot see, and his power blinded him long ago. Kreia's voice rang in her head. Run, I shall be along shortly.
Rushing forward Arielynn pounded on the door, trying to force it open through force of will. But the heavy durasteel stayed put. Arielynn felt Atton's hand grab her shoulder.
"Come on, we need to get out of here," he said calmly. "There's nothing we can do, she made her choice. I doubt we'll never see her again, I'm not that lucky."
Arielynn nodded grimly, and the two of them ran back towards the fuel pipe. Arielynn only hoped that the old woman would be able to escape by herself. Upon reaching the maintenance door to the engine rooms they found that it was sealed tightly. Cursing loudly Arielynn looked around for a terminal she could hack into and force the doors to open.
"Relax," Atton said as he knelt down to pry open the panel on the wall beside the door and began to fiddle around with the wires.
For several painful moments Arielynn stood guard over the card shark as he worked, her hands gripping the shaft of her electrostaff tightly; watching the hallway as if she expected a rancor to lumber around the corner any moment. Finally the door slid open and Atton stood up.
"Pure Pazaak," he remarked with a lopsided grin.
Moving quickly they pressed further into the ship's belly, passing the massive ion engines. Soon they stood in front of the door that the maintenance crews used if the fuel tanks required repairs.
"We're not seriously going to cross back into the facility through the fuel lines, are we?" Atton questioned. When Arielynn nodded he groaned loudly, "This is crazy!"
"The alternative is to go back and say hello to Mr. Scar Tissue." Atton made a sour face but he didn't move. Arielynn looked him in the eyes, "Atton, you have to trust me."
Atton stared at her for a few moments, and eventually nodded, "Alright fine. Let's go." Was he blushing?
Deciding it was just a trick of the light; she turned and began to cross the wire scaffolding leading to the fuel line when her left hand exploded in pain. Falling to her knees she let out a scream of anguish and clutched her hand tightly.
She heard Atton shout out but she wasn't paying attention to him. She was suddenly struck by the image of herself lying on the ground as the scarred dark Jedi stood over her, lightsaber blazing. Her left hand lay close by, fingers still tightly wrapped around her own lightsaber.
She was brought out of the vision swiftly as Atton slapped her across the face. Looking up at him through the tears of pain she saw genuine concern etched on his face. "What happened to you?" he asked.
"Kreia," she managed to stammer. "I think Kreia's been injured."
"How do you know that?" he questioned, helping her to her feet shakily.
"I….I don't know. I just do," she answered, trying to clear her head. Her hand still hurt but it had reduced to a low throb instead of blinding pain.
"Well we better get out of here before Sleeps-with-Vibroknives decides to make us next. Can you walk?" he asked, helping her find her balance.
She nodded. "I'll be fine. Let's go."
They pried open the access hatch into the fuel lines and passed over into the Peragus Mining facility. Kicking open the hatch at the other end, the two found themselves in the Peragus fuel depot. Checking to make sure the coast clear, Arielynn waved for Atton to follow her and headed towards the ramp that lead up to the walkway where they could reach the hanger from. They met no opposition as they climbed the ramp and walked onto the walkway.
As she began to make her way towards the hanger, Arielynn noticed something. A small utility droid had been left beside a console. Ignoring Attons protests she walked over to the droid. It was a small T3 unit, recognizable by the flat cylindrical head. He appeared to be in reasonably good condition, except that he was shut down. Powering him up she jumped back as the droid let out a loud squeal and tried to shock her. Atton brought up his blaster to scrap the droid but she pushed his weapon down.
The droid seemed to realize something and let out a long series of beeps. Arielynn recognized the droid as the same one she had sent to look for an override switch.
"Yeah, I met the 'protocol' droid," Arielynn responded. "He was a wonderful machine."
The droid fired off another high pitched beep.
"Don't blame yourself, T3," Arielynn said, patting the little droid on his head. "If it hadn't been for you I wouldn't have made it off the administration level. Let's get going"
The droid warbled happily.
Arielynn turned and headed for the hanger, smirking at the look of surprised disgust on Atton's face. She had to force herself not to laugh as T3 made a raspberry sound as he passed Atton.
They reached the hanger without any incident. Upon entering the hanger control room Atton ran over to the door that linked to the hanger bay where the Ebon Hawk sat and cursed in some alien language.
"It's locked," he remarked bitterly. "This is ridiculous. We can see the ship from here but we can't get to it!" he exclaimed gesturing towards the large viewport that overlooked the hanger bay. Indeed, the Ebon Hawk was clearly visible from the control room.
T3 let out a series of short chirps and beeps.
Atton regarded the droid coldly, "What is that little trash compactor talking about?"
Arielynn was angered by his cold treatment of the droid but answered him, "He says that he can bypass the security and open the door from the console."
Atton looked at her in amazement, "How do you understand that noise?"
"I worked with a lot of utility droids a long time ago," she replied.
Atton shrugged his shoulders, "Well it's just noise to me. But if he says he can open the door, don't let me stop him."
T3 rolled towards the control console and inserted his interfacing arm into the computer port. In a few moments the droid let out a successful chirp and the door opened.
Rolling back towards the two humans the little droid chirped happily.
Arielynn patted him on his head. "Good job, T3."
Atton rolled his eyes, "Whatever, let's just get the hell out of here." And he stomped towards the door.
Arielynn knelt down beside the droid. "Don't let him get to you," she whispered. "He's just a scruffy murglak." The droid let out a series of amused beeps.
They quickly made it through the hallway and were running through the large hanger bay towards the Ebon Hawk when all hell broke loose. Dozens of humans in silver-metalic armor began to break through the viewports high up on the walls of the hanger and rappel down into the hanger, firing at them.
"Sith!" Atton screamed. "They must've come with that Jedi. Get to the ship!"
Running up the boarding ramp closely behind Atton heard him yell out "Get to the turbolasers and hold them off!" as he ran towards the cockpit. Racing towards the gun mounts she could barely believe it when she saw the familiar shape of the HK-50 protocol droid standing in her way.
The droid raised a blaster at her. "Statement: You have proven to be most troublesome, Je-"
Arielynn didn't have time to listen to the crazy droid so she activated her electrostaff as she ran and drove it into the droid's side, overloading all of its internal circuits and forcing it to shut down. As the droid fell silently to the floor she continued past him and leapt down the tunnel into the chair of the turbolasers, swinging them around to point towards the incoming threat.
The Sith, as Atton had called them, had reached the floor of the hanger and were rushing towards the open loading ramp of the Ebon Hawk. Arielynn didn't waste any time in opening fire, the powerful turbolaser ripping through the soldiers' armor like paper, tearing their bodies apart. Arielynn didn't let her mind dwell on those morbid thoughts as she swiveled the chair to mow down the approaching soldiers. A few of them tried to hide behind crates and cargo canisters but the turbolaser just punched right through the obstacles.
There were a lot of them however and Arielynn was finding it hard to keep track of them all, "Will you close that blasted ramp!" she screamed towards the cockpit as she shot one troopers head clean off his body. "We're going to be boarded at this rate!"
All of a sudden the remainder of the facilities mining droids burst into the hanger, no doubt drawn by all the noise. In an unlikely turn of events, many of the droids began attacking the Sith soldiers, their modified programming not distinguishing between organic life forms. Blasting away the few droids that did approach the Ebon Hawk Arielynn continued to fire at the human soldiers, who were now busy trying to fight off an army of angry droids.
The Hawk's engines finally warmed up and Atton took her out into the asteroid field, away from the facility. Arielynn allowed herself a sigh of relief and pulled herself out of the gunner's seat and headed towards the cockpit.
When she arrived there she found Atton casually adjusting the controls as the ship flew through the asteroid field, avoiding any new obstacles that had appeared since the drift charts had been taken.
"Seems we're out of that mess," she remarked as she entered the cockpit.
"I would not be so sure," came a tired voice from a seat behind the copilot's chair.
"Kreia? You're alive!" Arielynn exclaimed happily, coming up beside the old woman. When she got a look at her though she gasped in shock, "Kreia, what happened to your hand?" Kreia's hand had been severed just above the wrist; the wound was obviously from a lightsaber.
"There is no time," the old woman replied.
"What are you talking abo-" Atton was cut off as the entire ship shuddered.
Arielynn barely remained standing and pulled herself towards the copilot seat, strapping herself in. "What happened?" she demanded.
"Something just hit our deflector shields," Atton replied grabbing the controls and steering the ship out of the path of a large asteroid.
The ship shuddered again. Arielynn read over the displays in front of her. "Shields are down to fifty percent."
"Switch all power to rear shields, and try to figure out what's hitting us," Atton directed.
Arielynn did so and brought up the sensors, "The Harbinger! It's firing at us!"
"What! That Jedi is going to turn this whole field nova!" Atton exclaimed, as the Hawk shuddered as another shot struck them.
"Atton, we can't take many more of those, you'd better start flying better!" Arielynn yelled.
He said something in a language she didn't understand but was sure was an insult. Regardless he did begin flying better, performing an impressive series of maneuvers that took them around multiple asteroids, dodging and weaving quickly through the field. The Harbinger still fired upon them though, turbolasers striking many asteroids, sending chunks of rock spinning through space. Arielynn considered it a small miracle that the they didn't blow up completely; those asteroids must've had a low amount of Peragian fuel in them.
"This is bad," Atton ranted. "Either he hits us and we're dead, or he doesn't hit us and we're dead. Those are great odds."
"Just keep avoiding the shots and fly for the edge of the asteroid field. Hopefully we'll make it out and get to hyperspace before this field's destroyed. If we're gone he should stop firing," Arielynn shouted, trying to convert more power to the shields.
"I'll try. You get the hyperdrive ready to go, we're gonna have to go to lightspeed as soon as we clear the field."
Arielynn complied and began entering the only coordinates they had into the hyperdrive, seems that she'd be getting to Telos after all. To bad the captain would never know that he had completed his mission.
"The asteroids can be destroyed by us as well as them, can they not?" Kreia stated from behind them. "We could fire upon them to distract the enemy."
Arielynn shook her head, "That's just as likely to kill us, and the facility will definitely be destroyed that way. Half the galaxy relies on Peragus for fuel."
The Ebon Hawk shook as it was struck by another shot as Atton avoided an asteroid.
"Shields are down! Another hit and we're spaceslug food," Arielynn shouted.
"We're almost out of the field! I just need another few seconds!" Atton exclaimed twisting the ship out of the path of a very large asteroid.
Fortunately for them his maneuver also saved them from being hit by another shot from the Harbinger. Unfortunately, the shot then struck the asteroid they had avoided. Time seemed to slow down for Arielynn as the asteroid began to blow apart, causing a huge explosion that engulfed several smaller asteroids. This began a vicious chain reaction that soon began to carry through the entire field.
"Kriffing Sith!" Atton cursed as he maneuvered erratically to avoid the explosions as asteroids went off all around them. They were only meters from the edge.
Bursting out of the field, Arielynn punched the hyperdrive just as the entire asteroid field went nova. The orange blaze faded into the bright blue of hyperspace, and the Ebon Hawk was gone.