It was a long hike, but finally, Shaak and Luminara reached the edge of the factory. There was no clear marking as to the border, but they saw a pair of battle droids marching side by side, left to right. The Jedi Masters hid behind two of the forest trees, and the droid patrol passed without noticing them.
They watched them walk off, then Shaak, who was on the left, turned to Luminara and spoke lowly. "Well one thing is for certain, the Separatists are clearly inhabiting this area. Should we investigate further, or return to Coruscant and come back later with our own forces?"
Luminara thought for a moment, then shook her head. "If we wait, and this is the factory, then we miss a chance to take it down before more of the droids are built and used. While we have a chance, we should at least try."
Shaak nodded and turned back to watch for the next patrol. It came a little less than five minutes later. The next patrol came five minutes after that. After the third patrol had passed, the two Jedi snuck across the path the droids had taken and onto the campus. They jumped into the trees and used the foliage as cover while they made their way closer to whatever was being guarded there.
After about a hundred meters, the trees stopped abruptly, and the dirt floor of the planet turned into concrete and metal. A large building, vast, but not tall, rose from the ground. Shaak could see why no one had noticed it earlier. The smoke barely rose at all, and since it was so short, it didn't rise high enough for any of the local Togruta to see it from their village. The Jedi hadn't even noticed it from orbit when they had flown in.
Battle droids, droidekas, and even super battle droids (they really needed a better name than that) were keeping watch around the building. They didn't need to loop around the factory to know that the entire facility was surrounded by the defenses. If they wanted a way in, it wasn't going to be easy.
Luminara studied the defenses, then turned to Shaak. "I have a plan, but you may not like it. It involves us splitting up."
Shaak sighed. "I don't doubt your judgment, but I have no other ideas."
"I will go around to the other side and distract them, keep them busy for as long as possible. When you see a break in the line, you can infiltrate the building and try to find what we are looking for. Maybe even destroy it if possible."
"And what will you do, when I am inside?"
"Hopefully, I will join you inside, but if not," Luminara looked back to the building. "So be it."
Shaak rested a hand on her shoulder. "You will try, though, won't you? The Council still needs you, Lumi."
Luminara looked up at Shaak, surprised that she still remembered her old nickname, back when they were both Younglings. It had been so long ago, back when everything was simple and they didn't have to worry about war, or Inquisitors, or Sith, or Padawans gone Dark. So long.
She nodded, smiling ever so weakly. She was grateful for her support, but she didn't believe it. She couldn't, not anymore.
The Mirialan hopped down from the treetops and onto the ground, and snuck her way to the east side of the building. When she believed she had gone far enough, she pulled her lightsaber from her belt and activated her comlink, as quietly as she could. "I'm ready if you are, Tia," recalling her own nickname for Shaak back when she was too young to handle a lightsaber.
"I'll wait for you, Lumi," came Shaak's response.
Luminara drew a breath, then leaped out from her hiding place in the trees and activated her green lightsaber.
She deflected the blaster shots that got close to her, and the defense forces from all around the facility came to reinforce the side that had been attacked. Shaak waited a few moments, then ran forward once all of the droids were facing the other way. She burst through the doors and sealed them behind her.
Now that she was inside, she noticed a few different things. First, it was much noisier in here, or at least it had been before all of the droids started firing at Luminara. Outside, all that could be heard from the tree line was a faint hum. There must have been some soundproofing in the walls, though, because Shaak could hear full well that there was a lot of large machinery working somewhere in here.
Secondly, Shaak felt a Dark presence that she had not noticed until now. She focused on it and tried to feel if it was familiar. It didn't ring any bells in her mind, so she deduced that it was most likely the Inquisitor. She was young, strong, and a little stressed, which made sense since Luminara was attacking outside. I need to destroy this place before she realizes what's actually happening, she realized, and she sprang into a sprint down the hall.
She decided that until she knew where else to go, she ought to follow the sound of the machinery. Shaak followed her ears, hoping that any Separatist forces would be to preoccupied with Luminara's distraction to be worried about her.
Shaak made her way to a door, and when she put her montrals close to it, she could tell that this was the room the assembly line was in.
She opened the door and hid behind a crate, hoping no one had spotted her. No one was shooting her direction, which was good news. She heard a female voice, high and sickly, shouting at someone. She tuned in to the conversation.
"...is that stupid. She wouldn't just attack our line of defense, not without a plan."
"But ma'am, we haven't seen anyone else here. All we have found is her!" Some battle droid told her.
"Well, if you cross-wired, rusty pieces of junk hadn't shifted all of yourselves to the SAME SPOT, then maybe you would have found something!" Shaak heard metal hit metal, and the sound of a screaming battle droid fell beneath her.
"Reset all of the defenses, after you back up the east sector!" A chorus of "Roger roger"'s followed, and Shaak heard more droids run out of the room.
The Inquisitor began mumbling to herself, and Shaak had to strain to hear her. "Do I have to do everything myself? Those pieces of junk aren't worth their weight in rancor dung."
Shaak stifled a snicker. That's a low insult, even for a droid. It's not like she doesn't have a sense of humor.
Her comlink went off just then, and Shaak hoped the clanking machinery would cover up the beeps as Luminara's voice came through it. "Tia, I'm in. What now?"
"Try to find the generator for this place, Lumi," she whispered. "I'm going to distract the Inquisitor."
"She's here?"
"Yeah, but I've got her. Just find that generator." Shaak closed the line, and peeked around the edge of the crate, trying to get a glimpse of the Inquisitor for herself.
She was hiding on a suspended walkway, over the moving assembly lines. There were three of them, each working on a separate hyperdroid, as Skywalker had named them. On the far left was a control platform, built into the wall. That must have been where the Inquisitor had knocked the droid down, but where was she?
Shaak reached out into the Force and found that the Inquisitor, as it were, was about to come crashing down on her montrals with her lightsaber.
Shaak rolled out of the way right as the blade sliced the crate she was hiding behind in half. She jumped to her feet and activated her own blue lightsaber, brandishing it in front of her. The Inquisitor pulled her lightsaber out of the crate, activated the other end, and spun it at her side.
"It's not nice to eavesdrop," she scolded the older Togruta. "Don't tell me your master never imparted a few manners to you during your training."
"I wasn't trying to be polite," Shaak retorted and ran towards the red teenager.
The Inquisitor blocked her strikes and did so without much effort. Her spinning lightsaber was quite an advantage and made up for her age. They exchanged strokes, with the Inquisitor mostly on the offensive, so Shaak was regularly stepping backward. After a few seconds, they were dueling in the middle of the walkway instead of at the end of it.
The Sister swung one last time at the Jedi Master, who blocked it. The two held their stance, neither backing out of the saber lock. As they struggled to overpower one another, the Sister grunted out, "How did you find this place?"
Shaak wasn't about to reveal that information, so instead of answering, she asked in return, "How did you know about the trap on Xlenia?"
"We got a tip," the Sister retorted. "What about you?"
"We got a tip," Shaak replied stubbornly and grinned slightly.
The Inquisitor yelled out, frustrated, and used the Force to push Shaak back. Shaak, instead of reengaging in the duel, jumped to the control center the Inquisitor and the battle droids had been arguing at earlier. The Sister jumped to follow the orange Togruta, but it was too late. Shaak had already sliced through the control panels, and as they short-circuited and lost power, the lights on the board went dim.
The Inquisitor held her lightsaber to Shaak's throat, almost singeing her lekku. Shaak didn't move but waited for the Inquisitor to speak.
"That doesn't change anything," the Sister told her, menacingly. "A broken panel will slow us down, but it won't stop the factory."
"I know it won't," Shaak replied, and Force-threw the Inquisitor up into the ceiling. She hit the floor with a thud, and after a moment of groaning, the Sister scrambled to her feet, looking for the montralled Master. It was too late, though, Shaak had already left the room.
The Inquisitor pulled her lightsaber back to her and made to follow the invader, before stopping suddenly. If the Jedi knew destroying the control panel wouldn't stop the factory, that implied that she knew what would. The other one, Luminara, must be attacking the generator. It was probably already too late.
The Sister changed her course and sprinted to her ship. She didn't care about these stupid battle droids anyways. They could explode to pieces for all she cared. Right now, she was interested in one thing:
Why hadn't Sideous warned her that the Jedi would be attacking today?
Shaak didn't stop running until she reached the tree line again. She paused for a moment, to catch her breath, the activated her comlink. "Luminara, I'm back at the outskirts of the factory, where are you?"
"I'm almost there," she panted, "but you need to get farther than that. I rigged the generator to self-destruct, but you are going to need more distance than the tree line."
Shaak ran back towards the village, not pausing to look behind her to see if Luminara had caught up yet. The Mirialan was a good runner and was as fast as she was flexible. As long as Shaak made it, Luminara would be fine.
As she ran, she heard a roar behind her. Shaak looked up to see what it was, but the foliage was so thick, she couldn't see through it. She scurried up the tree trunk and peeked through the leafy branches, and she saw a ship fleeing the factory. That must be the Inquisitor's ship, then. Good riddance, thought Shaak, and never come back to the planet of my people.
The factory exploded in the distance, and Shaak returned to the ground. She saw Luminara racing towards her, and Shaak ran to meet her. "Are you all right?" She asked, and Luminara nodded, resting a hand on her shoulder. She looked up and Shaak and smiled.
"It's just like training, remember?"
Shaak smiled. "Just like training."