To be entirely honest Anakin was pretty on edge. He sat down in the back of the briefing room in between his padawan and Master. He watched as Sargent Tris walked up with the Captain. Piper, Kat, Rats, and Donavin sat in the front while a few police officers sat around them.
"Good morning." Captain Halls began. "We need to discuss some important matters, first of all, last night a small part-time Calvary group attempted to take the ship of these Jedi here. As a result, they are holding four, possibly five of their men captive, we have no idea where these men are captive, we need to find them. After this meeting Piper you will interrogate three out of five of the men arrested last night." "And learn where they are so we can get them back, second of all. There was a lot of chatter amongst the Calvary last night, we believe that they are planning something big, but we have no idea what. "Sargent Tris and Kat will be leading an assault team to infiltrate the possible Calvary Headquarters, let's hope we can end whatever it is before it begins. Dismissed."
They all begin to arise and Piper walks back to the three. "Alright, let's see if we can get your men back." She stated confidently.
She led them to the holding cell to where the five Calvary men were held. Then she motioned to a female Qirassh officer. "Hey, Bankston, can you and three of your men get three of these this Calvary's out to the landing port."
"On it." She started nodding to three of her officers.
Piper and the three Jedi watched as the officers aggressively grabbed three Calvary members. A Dathomirian, a Pike, and a Twi'lek."
"What are we doing?" Obi-wan asked.
Piper smiled at him. "We are going to negotiate of course."
Out on the landing pad, Rats and Donovan were messing with their Heli Class A ship.
"So if we just tweak the power drive to 70, and the Piston balance to 400 I am pretty sure we can go fast enough to beat Jay and her crew."
Donovan gave Rats a look. "Are you sure that will work?" Donovan asked. "We don't want the Calvary to get AWAY!" He shouted aloud, then he looked down at Rats and punched him in the arm hard.
"Owe!" Rats yelled.
"Not so loud you idiot!" Donovan grunted, "We don't want the whole station to know about what we are doing!"
"What are you doing," came a voice from behind them, revealing Piper with the three Jedi behind her.
"Piper!" Donovan turned around, not looking at where he was going and knocking Rats over with his crowbar.
"OWE!" Rats yelled falling from the engine block.
"We are just tuning up the engine!" Donovan stated all too revealingly.
"Yeah so you can obviously track the Calvary down faster, and not to beat some criminal race that you and Rats got yourselves into again, Right." Piper crossed her arms and gave them a smirk.
"Right!" Donovan stated.
"Right…" Rats grunted while getting up.
"Right." Piper stated, uncrossing her arms.
Just then the officers came up with the Calvary members catching Donovan and Rats eyes.
Donovan gave her a look. "Really, I just cleaned it!"
Piper began laughing to herself. "Well Donovan if you guys are just using it for the Calvary and not some prized race, it shouldn't matter if it's dirty or not."
Donovan rolled her eyes and looked at Rats.
"She's got us there dude." Rats shrugged.
"Fine!" Donovan stated. "Alright, Rats lets run the engine."
Rats started up the engine to the Heliship while the officer placed the Cavalry members, towards the end of the Platform.
"Watch out, around the engine." Piper told the Jedi, "If you fall off the edge of the Platform, it doesn't matter where you are you'll get sucked into that engine."
Anakin and Ahsoka both shuddered at that thought.
"That doesn't sound too appealing." Ahsoka whispered to Anakin.
"Yeah, that doesn't seem like the most honorable way to go, does it." Anakin whispered back.
"Alright." Piper began. "Bring the first Calvary up here." Piper motioned for the edge of the platform and one of the officers complied.
The first Cavalry member was Darthomian and Obi-wan shivered because he looked a lot like Darth Maul. It gave him some horrid flashbacks and he didn't like it. He looked up at Piper thought as she approached the tied-up man, he was curious to how she would negotiate.
Piper bent down so she was eye level with him. "Okay, so I am gonna ask you this once. Where did you take the troopers that you captured last night?" Her voice spoke with a serious tone.
"HAHAHA! They are not anywhere, it doesn't matter because soon like the rest of you, they will be DEAD! The Calvary are the giver of lives but we take away those lives who are not fit to be in the existence of this Universe! The Force has guided us, to eradicate those who are in ignorance of the universe. Where there is no emotion there is peace! Where there is no ignorance there is knowledge! Where there is no Passion there is Serenity! The Keepers of the New World Order will bring Ultimate Peace through the galaxy by eliminating those who hold values that we speak no of! BECAUSE these things bring chaos and where there is no Chaos there is HARMONY!"
Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Ahsoka all got this horrible feeling in their guts as their spines shivered. Those words sounded all too familiar.
"And trust me when I get out of these chains I will come to you first!" The Dathomiarn spoke to Piper. "I will take you down and tame you til you learn of your place in the world. I will then hurt you till you beg to be dead, and I won't kill you, I will make you watch as we take away all you have worked for away! And then when you are in the in-between maybe I will kill you." The Dathomiean stopped with a creepy smile on his face.
The two other Calvary began cheering him on.
"You say it, Bron!" The Pike yelled.
"Yeah tell that nark the truth!" The Twi'lek cheered.
Piper looked back at the Calvary then she stood up. "Well, that's unfortunate." All too quickly, before even the Dathomiean registered what was happening, Piper stood up and harshly kicked the man in the middle of his chest so he was shoved off the edge of the platform. And then in one second, before the man had time to scream, the man was sucked into the engine of the Heli Ship. A loud shredding noise came from the engine followed by a shower of blood that came out the other side.
Obi wan's face dropped in horror. Ahsoka's eyes widened from shock and a big shocked smile came across Anakin's face.
"Bring the next one," Piper stated.
The officer then brought the Pike to the spot where the Dathomeirn was sitting. Piper then bent down to the pike's eye level and in the same tone of voice she used with the Dathomiearn she began, "Okay, so I am only going to ask you this…"
"THE WILSON HILL OF THE ANGELES CITY!" The pike shouted in fear, not even letting her finish.
Piper then stood up and turned to the Twi'lek Calvary. "Is that true?" Piper asked.
"YES! OH FORCE YES! We have a bunker on the west side of it, at the bottom! That is where they are!"
The Twi'lek bawled.
Piper then began. "Yep, that's more like it." "Take these guys back to the holding cell." She instructed the police. Then she walked back up to the three Jedi, to where Obi-wan was once again speechless.
Anakin, on the other hand, had his hand covering his mouth, but then all of a sudden couldn't keep it in anymore and began laughing hysterically. Ahsoka placed her hand over her mouth. Her Master's laugh was just so contagious.
"WHAT IN THE BLAZE IS SO FUNNY!" Obi-wan angrily shouted at Anakin. "A man was just shredded to bits in front of us!"
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry!" Anakin began as he composed himself. "It's just it got me thinking that if you were to negotiate like that maybe we would actually get somewhere!"
"That wasn't negotiation that was scarring two men with murder!" Obi-wan stated.
"It's not murder if they're not innocent!" Piper corrected.
"It doesn't matter, you scared those men into telling you information!" Obi-wan shouted.
"No I was negotiating, I negotiated with them by trading them information with their lives, the fair is fair," Piper stated.
"If anything it was a ripoff," Donvan stated from the ship as he wiped down the windshield.
"WHAT!" Obi-wan stated
"Yeah based on what those guys have done in the past, it was a ripoff for us." Rats stated from the engine.
"Come let's go tell the Sarge, we gotta come up with a plan," Piper stated to them.
"Angeles City Huh?" The Sarge stated.
"Yep," Piper stated.
"Angeles City is pretty Radiated." The Sarge began. "Let's see here." She pushed a few buttons on the table and a full map of a city appeared.
Obi-wan looked at the holomap, it wasn't even blinking the way that their holomaps bink, in fact, it was so detailed one could make up all the wrecked buildings and even rusted hovercars laying on the road. Tris put on a black glove and began inspecting.
"Where are they being held?" Tris asked.
"They have a bunker that is on the west bottom side of Wilson Hill," Piper stated.
"Hmm that is probably going to be around here," Tris said pointing at the bottom of a large hill. The map then zoomed into it showing all the roads and wrecked houses at the bottom. "That's pretty smart on their part." "That's just out of reach of the 6-mile zone of ground zero."
"What is ground zero?" Ahsoka asked.
Piper and Tris looked up.
"Well, Angeles City is one of the very unfortunate cities that was Nuked." Tris began. "Ground Zero is where the bomb actually hit." Tris moved her figures and zoomed the map out, then she pointed at a section of the city that appeared to have no building whatsoever. An almost perfect circle where there was nothing. The section turned pink. "This is the most radiated spot in Angeles City because this is where the bomb actually hit. Everything in that circle was immediately vaporized."
"It's a little less than a mile in diameter, but it is still extremely dangerous." Piper chimed in.
"It's illegal to go there at all," Tris added.
"Why is that?" Obi-wan asked, genuinely dangerous.
"Well for one it's dangerous!" Tris stated.
"And two things get pretty weird at ground zero," Piper added.
"How so?" Obi-wan asked.
"If you're lucky you will never find out," Piper answered, turning to Obi-wan.
Tris then continued. "The ring around it is the blast zone," She pointed to a much larger area around the pink circle where all the buildings collapsed out from the circle. The Ring turned orange. "This is about 4 miles out where the impact was so massive everything was squashed and.." Tris trailed off for a moment. She felt uneasy. "Mostly or partially Vaporized."
Anakin picked up on her uneasiness, there was something they weren't telling them. Something he probably didn't want to know.
"The next section is the radiated section, there is definitely damage to the buildings but not as bad as the two other sections," Tris stated. An even larger green ring appeared. The ring just barely grazed Wilson Mountain. "If you guys are going to get to that bunker undetected, you will have to walk through there."
"How will they not detect us?" Obi-wan asked.
"Radiation is a real pain most of the time, but it can be used to create camouflage sense scanners can't pick up on life forms through heavily radiated places, such as Angles City," Piper stated.
"That is probably why they have a bunker there," Tris added.
"That is definitely going to be a challenge to walk through there, that will take a full day. How are we going to rest?" Anakin asked.
"We have a radiated hindering bunker halfway through," Piper stated.
"Angeles City is about an eight-hour drive, the Calvary will detect you guys if you take any kind of hovering vehicle," Tris stated. "You'll have to drive the old fashioned way."
Piper rolled her eyes. "Ugh! Driving for that long is a pain in the ass!"
"I know, but it's the only way to get to the edge of the city undetected. Once you have rescued the Jedi's men, get to the top of the mountain and contact me, and Katniss and I will bust you all out of there."
"If we are just going to go out guns a blazing," Obi-wan added. "Why not go in Guns blazing."
"It's easier to get out guns blazing then go in guns blazing," Tris stated.
A loud boom was heard from above them as the building shook for a moment. Before anyone could react though, a man's voice was heard over the intercom. "That was AD Rats and Donovan, false alarm."
Tris sighed. "Oh dear lord." She had her hand on her forehead." "You know what, take Rats and Donovan with you!"
The six walked out to the garage. "Okay, so whose driving!" Rats asked excitedly.
"Do you want to drive?" Piper asked.
"Yes!" Rats stated.
Piper threw him the keys.
"So what is this?" Anakin asked. "I have never seen a vehicle like this before." Anakin inspected the large vehicle in front of them. It looked pretty much like a small ship except one thing, it had wheels.
"This is a four-wheel-drive SUV. Well long before anything could hoover, Sagittarians used to get around with these gas-powered babies." Piper stated. "Purely designed for land travel." "When the world turned nuclear a lot of air speeders stopped working well in certain areas of the world, so people started making these things again." "They are a huge pain in the ass but they get the job done." "I hope none of you get to motion sick."
Piper opened the backside door and pushed down the seat. "Whoever gets the least motion sick goes in the back."
Obi-wan gazed at Anakin and Ahsoka.
"What?" Anakin asked.
"I believe that would be you two, considering that Anakin has such great flying maneuvers." He smirked.
Just before Anakin could protest, Ahsoka rolled her eyes and climbed in the back. "He's got us there Master." She stated.
Anakin sighed. "Fine." He climbed in the back next to her.
Piper pushed the seat back down and Obi-wan climbed in the seat followed by Piper. Rats jumped in the driver seat and Donovan in the Passenger seat.
"Well this should be interesting," Obi-wan mentioned.
Rats placed the keys into the car and turned them forward followed by what sounded like a small explosion. Ahsoka, Anakin, and Obi-wan all jolted at the sound.
Piper put her hand up, "It's okay, it's just the car." The three of them began to calm down. And Piper smiled. "It scared me too the first time I got in a car."
"OH Yes!" Rats smiled. "That is the one thing you don't get from anything that flies, the nice sound of a V-8 engine!"
Rats then stepped on the gas and the car jolted, everyone including Piper and Donovan shuddered at the sudden jolt. "Woah!"Rats shouted. "And 420 horsepower!"
"Rats!" Piper shouted, "We aren't in one of your and Donovan's races so tone it down a bit!"
"Yeah, Rats! If you kill us I won't get to drive!" Donovan shouted, smirking.
Piper made a face at Donovan and Donovan turned back around. Rats drove the car onto an old highway that had other cars on it as well.
Obi-wan began looking out the window, at all the other cars on the road. It was very much so like what Coruscant had, like the hyper lanes but not in the air. I wonder if the modes of transportation ever resemble Coruscant. Obi-wan thought to himself.
"It used to be exactly like Coruscant." Piper's voice interrupted his thoughts. "Once people switched back to cars though, the cities began repaving all the old roads. And since Radiation messes with navigation, nothing is self-driving except truck shipments."
Obi-wan narrowed his eyes. Did she read my thoughts, or was it just a guess.
Piper didn't say anything else after that so Obi-wan concluded that she was just giving information and it was a coincidence.
"Wait how safe is these things!" Obi-wan asked cautiously.
"That depends on what you're comparing it to," Donovan started turning around.
"Other cars! Very safe!" Rats began. "Airspeeders; not safe at all!"
"Can I drive it?" Anakin immediately asked. He was enthralled by the SUV.
"Hell yeah!" Rats smiled.
"I want to try next!" Ahsoka added.
"What!" Obi-wan asked. "No!" "You two will most certainly get us killed!"
"Hey, I'm a good stat pilot! I'm sure I could drive this thing!" Anakin stated back.
"Yes, if you drive this car the way you fly starships I am almost certain we will come out of it alive," Obi-wan stated sarcastically.
All of a sudden the SUV jerked forward and the tires made a harsh screeching noise as Rats stepped aggressively on the brakes.
"Rats what the hell!" Piper shouted. "Are you trying to kill us."
"It's not me, all these cars in front of us stopped all of a sudden." Rats shouted back.
"Really, well maybe if you were watching the road you wouldn't have to stop so quickly!" Piper assertively stated.
"Hey, uh guys." Ahsoka stuttered.
"What is it Snips?" Anakin asked.
"I think you might want to take a look at this," Ahsoka said with uncertainty in her voice.
All five of them looked towards the direction that Ahsoka was looking at. Obi-wan's mouth dropped open. A sudden burst of anger arose in Anakin and Piper just said, "Every goddamn night."
Right in front of the Highway was a very tall bridge, but the six were not horrified at the bridge itself but what was hanging from it. Hanging from the bridge were nine ropes. And at the end of six of those ropes were six lifeless bodies hanging by their necks. All of them dangled swaying back and forth. There were men and women and even one child but they were all presented in the same manner. Their eyes were sewn shut with two red Xs. Their mouths were left wide open because someone cut their cheek flesh letting their mandibles hang all the way down to their necks. Their hands were placed in a position to be holding a sign. Each of the signs had words on them that read: "Ignorant Fag; too Emotional; Family; of; Attachments; to passionate of the wrong thing; Attacker."
The body that read "attacker" caught Ahsoka's eyes, the body was covered in dirt and barely recognizable as a man, but on his calves was the all too familiar blue and white armor she knew all too well.
"No," Ahsoka whispered as she climbed out of the very back seat and opened the door and began running away from the SUV.
"Ahsoka! Wait!" Anakin's voice rang through the air as he stumbled out of the SUV to follow her.
"Anakin!" Obi-wan yelled as Piper, Rats, and Donovan got out of the car to follow them.
Even without the force, Ahsoka ran very quickly, much quicker than Anakin who was for the first time ever finding out what being out of breath felt like.
Ahsoka quickly climbed up the ramp and on two the bridge running to where the bodies were hanging. When she was only a few meters away, three plague doctors seemed to come out of nowhere and start pulling the bodies up. One of them began pulling the 501st trooper up.
"NO!" Ahsoka yelled. "Get away from him!"
The Plague Doctor gazed at her for a moment and then went back to pulling on the rope.
"NO!" Ahsoka shouted once more before she kicked the Plague Doctor out of the way. She then continued pulling up the trooper till his body was at the railing of the bridge. She then grabbed the body by the arms and pulled up the body from under the arms using her entire weight to lean back so she could get the body over the railing.
"Ahsoka!" Anakin yelled out of breath, finally catching up. He leaned down to her eye level, "Don't do tha…" He trailed off however because he finally recognized the armor. "Oh no."
Ahsoka began frantically brushing off the dirt, relief washed over her however when she saw that it was Red, she was scared that it was Rex. Once the relief washed over her she then began to get upset again because she realized that they murdered one of their troopers.
Anakin felt anger boil up in him. That was the last straw for him. The Calvary kidnapped his men, threatened him and Obi-wan, almost assaulted his padawan, has been hurting and murdering innocent people, and now they mutilated one of his men and presented their body on display like he was some kind of trophy. He was going to make those Calvary pay.
"Is it...one of ours." Came Obi-wan's voice came from behind out of breath.
Anakin nodded, although he didn't say anything. He was trying to hold himself together.
Piper, Rats, and Donovan just looked at them with sympathetic looks on their faces.
"This happens almost every night." Rats stated.
"We try our best to stop it," Piper stated. "But there are only so many of us."
Obi-wan gazed at the bodies. He has never in his entire life seen anything like this, innocents mutilated and presented as like a sign for protesters. Anger began flaring up inside of him, he did not like the Calvary. They needed to be stopped. He immediately decided that once they get back to Coruscant he will talk to the council to send republic troops here to help the police out with their battle against the Calvary. He knew that the council would protest, saying that they had their own problems to worry about. But he decided that he would convince them. He didn't say anything of his ideas out loud though if he couldn't convince the council the attack wouldn't happen so he didn't want to give Piper, Rats, and Donavan false hope.
"I am so sorry that you had to see this," Piper stated with sympathy. "This is something you can never get out of your mind, especially when it is someone you know."
"Has this happened to anyone you know?" Obi-wan asked.
Piper nodded. "A few times too many."
Obi-wan was about to reply but he got an eerie feeling that someone was watching him. He looked up and saw a Plague Doctor looking at him. Obi-wan recognized the Plague Doctor, it was the one that attacked them the day before. All the other Plague Doctors were busy pulling up the other bodies, but this one was just staring at him. The Top Hat Plague Doctor then pulled up the other three ropes, the ones that didn't have bodies. He then grabbed the signs that were hanging on the ropes and showed it to Obi-wan as if he was warning him. The words on the signs made Obi-wan shiver. The signs read:
YOU'RE NEXT JEDI