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Chapter 14: From the Shadows

Morning, as it turned out, came rather suddenly for the survey team, and it came with a wake-up call; or rather a wake-up scream. Within thirty seconds, Corsek and the rest of the combat personnel assigned to the mission were outside, but they only found a disturbed Morquen, still aiming his emptied-out E-11 at the mouth of the cave they were here to explore. Of Valduz, the former Imperial Army conscript that had been assigned as his partner on watch, there was no trace.

"Morquen," Corsek addressed the clearly distressed soldier. When that did not work, he got somewhat louder. "Morquen, what happened here?"

Still shuddering from whatever he had seen, the Alliance soldier shook his head and, only then, looked around, seemingly noticing the amassed complement of combatants for the first time. It was not all that far-fetched an idea, Corsek admitted to himself; he had seen enough comrades dissociate under pressure like this, and a fair number of them had only had little comprehension of their surroundings in this state. Unfortunately, at least partial amnesia was also a part of this reaction and cameras had not been part of the defence grid set up around the juggernaut.

"I… I don't…" Morquen stammered. "I don't know… It was all so sudden and then…"

With only the first words out of the man's mouth, it had already been clear that not a lot could be gained from questioning him. Instead, they were liable to only deepen whatever trauma he had suffered, needlessly harming a comrade who had obviously gone through something extremely stressful.

"It's alright, soldier," Corsek said calmly, while waving over the medic someone must have called from inside the large vehicle. "We'll find out, alright? You just relax now, just relax."

The now almost catatonic soldier was carried out under the watchful eye of the medic, even as the commander of their operation was getting ready to significantly change the mission profile.

OOOOOOOO

It was two hours later when a Lambda-shuttle, packed to the brims with materiel and soldiers, arrived on-site. Even before the reinforcements had shown up, the makeshift perimeter had been changed significantly; where once there had been sensors and lights now stood barriers, and the cave entrance was surrounded by mines and vigilant watchmen, sights trained on the dark chasm in the mountainside. However, the siege had mostly been in vain, for neither across the wide, flat mesa, nor in the mouth of the cave had anything moved. Anything but the probe droids, that is; the little machines had been sent out only minutes after they had found one of theirs missing to quickly map whatever they could. It was that map Corsek was now studying.

"Those caves are larger than we initially thought," he announced to the gathered personnel, both combat and non-combat. "The droids are still going strong, though, and we haven't found a body yet, though there are tracks of something being dragged toward the entrance. They vanish as soon as they reach the rocks, but at least they tell us where to look. Until we know otherwise, this is a rescue mission."

"Yes, Sir," the combatants replied in unison, seemingly eager to find and retrieve their abducted comrade.

"You will work in the squads you have been assigned during training, the squad leaders will be assigned a part of the cave system by myself as soon as this announcement is over," Corsek continued steadfastly, sounding to his ears more assured than he actually really felt; he had been little more than a lowly grunt in the Army, and though he had commanded a few small detachments of troops since joining Harry, Mercer and the others, this was of a scale he had not experienced before. There was one thing he had learned from the holo-vids, though, a certain pearl of wisdom he wanted to give. "Under no circumstances are you to split up. If you have wounded, all of you leave the caves; there will be no scouting ahead or checking out a side corridor. We know that whatever we're dealing with, is fast. Night vision or thermal, no lights. Questions?"

When none came, he barked, "Squad leaders, to me."

The five soldiers that had been chosen as squad leaders, all of them former Imperials distinctly fed up with the current regime yet unwilling to commit to the Alliance for various private reasons, approached him, heads held high with determination. Once again, Corsek consulted the map and began pointing out areas of the cave system.

"Team Aurek, north-eastern and whatever leaves it, Team Besh takes the northern part, Team Cresh to the northwest, Dorn west and Esk southwest." Each of the squad leaders nodded in understanding. "We have five probe droids in there; you follow the path yours took, since they might well have overlooked something. When you're done with your area, you comm in and I will assign a new one. Clear?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Then get to it; we have a comrade to save."

OOOOOOOO

"Doesn't this get boring with time?" Arden questioned, her helmeted head following Harry's movements through the still gravitation-less derelict. He was bouncing from one end of the large central chamber to the other, deep in thought; surprisingly (or maybe not, hard to tell) he had found once again that the absolute freedom of weightlessness both agreed with him and allowed for the kind of deep concentration that otherwise often eluded him. Some emergency power system had tried kicking in, but whatever thing had been living with this ship as its body had effectively made sure that even restoring power could not make the vessel workable again, without replacing the central control module. He was now wondering, how to do exactly that.

"Sorry, what did you say?" he asked, after yet another revolution, only now really realising that someone had spoken to him.

"Forget I even said anything…" the witch grumbled. "Does your thinking at least have some helpful results?"

Harry hummed as he once again passed her, trying to categorise his thoughts in a way that someone other than him would understand; everyone was wired a little differently, after all, and what to him would seem obvious, others might simply overlook.

"Maybe," the captain allowed. "I managed to get one of those droids to talk to me and hand over some data. Apparently, defeating the Builder this ship belonged to would grant me that privilege, even if I am member of a slave species, so at least I have some kind of idea on how it could work…"

"But there's a problem," Arden interjected, sounding neither surprised nor happy. Amusingly, neither of these reactions were all that surprising.

"Yeah, well I blew up the central control station, so we'll have to replace that," Harry explained. "I've been working on a few things that might help, something like mentally controlling a ship or even a droid from afar. We still wouldn't have energy, though."

"That's right, weren't you working on some kind of control device?"

Harry scoffed self-deprecatingly. "Well, that project is just in the initial stages; I have a prototype on the ship, but that really only allows for some movement, basic functions at most. If we ran into any opposition, we'd be toast." Then, he added with even more worry, "Plus, I've never really tested it, and using something like this ship as a test object while we're still aboard…"

He left the implications vague, whether because he was reticent to actually voice the dangers or not really sure about what exactly they were, the wizard was uncertain. In essence, he was walking uncharted territory, with which his ancestral memories could only help in the very limited fashion of providing enchanting knowledge he could work with. Yet, despite the wide array of knowledge at his fingertips, none of them had ever really tried working all that much with non-magical technology. Even if they had, the technology of this world was vastly different from the one he had grown up with; so advanced in some areas, yet somehow almost lacking in others.

"Couldn't you use it on something else first, then?" Arden asked, conspicuously eyeing one of the powered-down droids they had had to fight on their first foray into the ship; now, they were all inert, still, like their cord had been cut the moment the central control unit of the vessel had been destroyed, like the body of a snake after the head has been cut off. "Then we could at least move the ship somewhere closer to Sanctuary, hide it somewhere in deep space, but near enough so that you can pop over and work on it more easily."

The wizard 'hmmed' in response; he liked the idea, would probably implement it, yet there was another problem niggling at him, which was, how easily they would be able to move the ship in the first place, or rather, where to. From what he had been able to glean from the few readouts he could piece together, the hyperdrive was extremely advanced, easily able to compete with and outshine most modern military models; there was, however, one very important caveat: it was only able to home in on planets that were strong in the Force. Sanctuary might even have qualified, not by merit of being strong in the Force, but by the uniqueness of the magic he had placed on it. Unfortunately, he did not think he would be able to use the Fidelius charm as a beacon, considering it was explicitly designed to hide things. If only it was possible to follow other signatures…

"I'll be right back; I need my prototype…"

With that, he dashed (well, quickly floated) out of the core room, faintly registering a 'Finally' coming from the Dathomirian he left behind.

OOOOOOOO

The darkness all around them was… disconcerting. In the oppressive atmosphere, every little sound seemed amplified; every step was an attack, every breath a possible clue, every distant drip of water evidence of an unseen predator stalking their every move. And while the low light amplification equipment everyone was wearing certainly helped, there were those dark corners that not even the most expensive gear could have shown with clarity, without at the same time running the risk of blinding the user.

All of a sudden, the comms-unit in each soldier's helmet gave off a warbled squeak, before cutting out again. Still, it was enough to get everyone riled up something fierce.

"Command, this is Aurek Leader," the former Imperial Army officer leading this particular detachment spoke into the audio pick-ups. "We had some kind of feedback on our comms channel. Please advise."

For a few moments, nothing happened, the silence of the cave system only broken by the occasional 'drip, drip, drip' of some unseen water source and the slightly laboured breathing of the search party.

Even though they were now expecting it, the communication channel suddenly sounding out a reply was still rather jarring. "Team Aurek, multiple teams have reported similar occurrences, most likely interference by the mineral content of the cave walls. Proceed as planned."

"Understood; Team Aurek, proceeding as planned," the officer responded evenly. Then, looking at the team, he added, "You heard the man, let's go."

It was hard to tell the time, even with HUDs that could easily keep track, for while on the one hand, every second seemed so torturously long, the uniformity of it all made it difficult to get an accurate feeling. So, from time to time, when one of the members of the search party looked at the clock in their HUD, they would internally wince, either because they had thought it must have been longer, or because time seemed to have made leaps. The latter was certainly more disconcerting, as the longer Valduz was in here, the slimmer the chance of retrieval became.

"Weeeuuuhhheee…"

Another garbled squeak, longer than the last one, sounded through the comms, spreading gooseflesh over the search team's members' skin. Suddenly, out of the silent darkness shot a barely visible blur of movement, sharp teeth grabbing onto the neck of the rear-most soldier. Everyone quickly had their weapons pointed at the unknown danger that seemed to be easily able to evade their technological modes of detection. None of them dared shoot, though, for fear of hitting their comrade.

OOOOOOOO

"We have to pull our teams back," Mercer argued, looking sternly at Corsek through the viewscreen. "There are already another five people missing; we've almost lost an entire search party. And no one seems to be able to find whatever is doing this. Not the droids, not the soldiers, either with night vision or with flashlights."

"Makes this even more important," the younger man replied heatedly, unusually emotional at having lost four people to the caves and whatever lived within.

"Makes it even more costly," the more experienced officer countered. "You've been at this for a day and a half now, no one can find anything. Please don't make me order you to retreat."

Corsek was visibly gathering himself; for what, Mercer did not know. "Can we at least leave some kind of guard post, someone to keep an eye on things, should anything come up?"

"That we can do," the older man agreed. "Nothing on the ground, though. A repulsorlift vehicle with some sensors, hovering high enough so that nothing can reach it. I have a bad feeling about this, like we could definitely use Harry and Arden, Leia too."

With unhappy not even slightly close to coming anywhere near how he felt about this, Corsek still would not make Mercer, a friend and man he respected, order a retreat, knowing how much it would tear him up inside. There was no way he wanted to be responsible for that.

"Alright, I'm pulling the teams back now," the younger soldier acquiesced, clicking off the viewscreen and activating his armour's audio pickups. "Everyone, we're pulling back. Cover each other's backs on retreat, we still have no idea what is in there. No complaints. If you have something to say, say it later, once we're all safe."

He could already hear the grumbling in his ears; most of the people in the search parties were enlisted men, just as he himself had been. Well, he had been a non-com before deserting, but he had started as a recruit and was, at heart, still simple rank and file. Rank and file were not, at least in the Imperial Army, indoctrinated in the kind of disregard for their comrades both the commissioned officers and stormtroopers were taught. Leaving people behind grated on him on a fundamental level. He turned his gaze upon the yawning chasm the cave had turned into, if only by the change in perception the loss of his people had inflicted upon him.

"We'll get Harry and the others to come back for you," the soldier promised his lost comrades.

OOOOOOOOO

"Are we sure that is a good idea?"

The others who had joined them in their foray seemed equally reticent as they looked at one of the still shut down, but now somehow more menacing, spider-like droids they had encountered when first boarding the Builders' vessel.

"These things did try to kill us, after all," Jane observed, looking at the droid Harry had modified with his prototype system, retrieved from their own ship.

"Oh, that's why you and Leia are armed and ready to shoot should anything go off script," Harry told them. "Arden can't be, I've had to set her as a beacon for the system to follow because she seems to have the most easily distinguished signature as far as these machines are concerned. No reason to make it unnecessary hard for the first test run, right?"

The witch, who had briefly perked up at the mention of being most clearly distinguishable among them all, including Harry (not that she had any idea what exactly being distinguishable to the sensors of a long-dead race of conquerors would give her) began scowling once again. At best, she would have little to do, besides walk here and there, waiting for an essentially dumbed down droid to follow her like a house-trained Kowakian monkey-lizard, while at worst she was being set up as bait; neither option was overly appealing. Then again, if it did take a shot at her, nobody would complain if she tried out a few more of the spells she had learned, would they…

"And no destroying the thing if you can help it," the captain reminded everyone. "There seem to be almost endless numbers of these droids around, but I have only one prototype control system and neither the time nor the materials to build another. If this thing is destroyed, we'll simply have to blow this ship up and take our own back to Sanctuary."

Regretfully, Arden disqualified all overly destructive spells she had in her repertoire should she actually have to use one. That meant no explosions, no cutting, no disintegrating, no flames… not even the neat acid-based one she had made up herself by modifying one she had learned from Harry (Aguamenti, he had called it) with the limited knowledge she had of her own people's spellcraft. A real waste that was, truly.

With tension in the air almost thick enough to be able to cut it with a vibroblade, of which the vibration core had broken, and the edges had dulled, the wizard kneeled down besides the deactivated machine, fumbled around in its exposed innards and then retreated. All eyes on it, the droid rose out of its 'crouch' onto the four spindly, spidery legs and did… nothing. Unlike a living being, a biological one at that, there was no motion of breathing, none of the minute tremors that accompanied the delicate control of disparate muscle groups to counteract gravity (what gravity there was, with their own ship's artificial generators stretched as far as possible) and all of the other forces impacting a body, there weren't even eyes to blink, or in this case, unblinkingly stare ahead into the distance. Until Arden made a step.

Back. The droid followed.

Forward again. The droid followed.

Three to the right, one to the left, one back, one forward. The droid followed.

It was always the exact same distance the witch had gone, though with many more and much smaller steps. Disconcerting really, and a nightmare for anyone afraid of spiders, she would guess. A cold, mechanical spider to copy your every move had to be the absolute worst.

"I think your device works, grease-monkey," Leia observed shrewdly and, upon receiving her boyfriend's questing look, pointed out the various places where messing with the droid's electronics had left lasting impressions of oil on his clothes. "Let me."

Characterised by its effects as some kind of cleaning charm, the spell she used pulled away the stains that would have taken considerable effort to remove conventionally without much hassle, though at least some residue remained, to the Princess' visible dissatisfaction. "Why doesn't this work? It always worked perfectly."

As if to answer her question, not far away, a light fixture that must have been either broken or simply disabled due to a lack of energy jumped into action, illuminating a formerly shadowed portion of the corridor, thankfully empty of any new, gruesome finds. Not that they expected to find anything more gruesome than they already had; it was hard to beat systemic cannibalism and abhorrent conditions of slavery that were all too visible all around the old derelict.

"And, uh…" Jane began, before looking around almost as if caught with her hand in a cookie jar. When no reproach came, she went on. "What now?"

"Now, Jane," Harry responded, moving over next to her and laying a friendly hand around her shoulder, "Now it's time to leave this depressing place and return home. Well, after I've somehow managed to rig my control system into the ship. Then we have to hope for the best and that it actually does follow us in and out of hyperspace. Or maybe it will crash into a black hole, that would be fine by me, too."

OOOOOOOO

"Unidentified contact in orbital sector 7, coming in from hyperspace. Cruiser class."

Anything described like that was, with no question, going to raise a few eyebrows in the command centre on Sanctuary. 'Cruiser class' especially could mean trouble, even for a planet completely hidden from the galaxy, shrouded from everyone who might mean it harm. Shipments and patrols, not to mention passenger ships, could still be shot down, and securing those with a Fidelius was, at the moment, not in the cards.

"Open comms channel, standard hailing sequence."

"Already tried, no respo…" the communications operator was cut off halfway through the sentence when said response actually did come in.

"Sanctuary base, this is Potter. The cruiser belongs to us, a derelict we stumbled over in deep space," the captain's voice echoed through the channel, immediately setting the watch shift more at ease. A ship like that orbiting was bound to make people a bit nervous, though, even if they knew it was friendly. It just painted something of a target on their system. "This ship is steeped in the dark side, no one is to approach it without my express permission."

"Aye, sir; I'll have everyone informed with the usual morning bullet-in."