Chapter 28
As it turned out Juhani did not have to stay behind with Sasha. Lurak Sulas the Twi'lek operative from Dantooine had finally arrived just as the teams were readying to disembark for their perceptive objectives. Only after making sure the child was comfortable with her new guardian did Skye relinquish custodianship.
"Well now that little drama is over with maybe we can get some real work done," Canderous commented. "I'm guessing you have plans on how you're going to divide us all into teams as you're likely not taking us all into that enclave."
"No." Skye agreed. "HK, Mission myself and the other Jedi will head into the Enclave. You don't speak well Canderous. To make this work we'll need more talking than shooting." To this the old man grinned. To a Mandalorian the greatest insult you could offer was to tell them they spoke well. Meaning they had as much battle prowess as a diplomat- which according to Mandalorians, was none.
"And how do you propose to get into the Enclave?" Carth asked.
"That Duros we encountered coming out of the Czerka office had the right of it. Grim as it is. We'll have to take clothing off a few of the hit squads out in the Dunes and wrap ourselves in their robes. It won't pass at close inspection but it should get us past their patrol lines long enough to make contact. " Skye explained.
"But I can't hide my lekku in that get-up." Mission muttered.
"I fear your role will be no less alluring than wearing the garments of the dead." Bastila said. "The only way for you to enter the Enclave is as a prisoner."
"You mean a slave," the teenager huffed. "You know "Twi'lek" doesn't automatically mean slave."
"No it doesn't. But if you want accompany us to rescue your brother the role of slave is one you must play until we can establish a dialog with the Chieftain." Bastila tried to smooth the ruffled feathers of the teenager.
"Fine, but I 'aint wearing no chains."
"Clarification: Sandpeople don't use chains to bind their slaves, they prefer leather thongs." HK pointed out.
"Like that makes it any better."
"Appeasement: Leather thongs are not chains."
Mission rolled her eyes.
"Play nice with the sandpeople to get that map- you have anything in mind for the rest of us?" the old merc repeated. "Or you just want us to go out hunt'in them wraids and keep an eye out for Raider strike teams."
"Until we get those maps from either the Jawas or possibly the chieftain, scouting out the Eastern Dune Sea is folly. Unless the contacts you made with mercs or hunters will act as guides." Skye responded.
"I wouldn't trust them to find their own assholes much less a cave with a damned ancient star map that may or may not be guarded by some damned dragon." Canderous answered gruffly.
"Komad Fortuna seemed reasonable enough." Juhani commented. "Would he not be infinitely more approachable than the Sandpeople? He is also a notable hunter; he knows of the dragon's nest within the area, does he not?"
"Only problem with that he's out there in the wasteland." Carth shook his head. "Suppose we could track his last known location see if he's willing to take us to the nest sites."
"That's good idea." The Nagai commended Onasi. "Keep in radio contact; keep us appraised of the situation with Fortuna. In the meantime, we continue as planned, we'll rendezvous back at the gates within twenty-four hours. Until then, good hunting."
It was decided that the Jedi team would take the dewbacks leaving the three swoop bikes for the males. T3 was left to guard the ship- something HK-47 found at first to be hilarious, then became horrified to discover his master was quite serious in trusting the little astromech in safeguarding the Ebon Hawk. T3 felt his core CPU swell with simulated pride in the trust and confidence his master was showing in his capabilities.
The fact a child had been able to stowaway on the Hawk as well the Gizka incident (as it had now become known) sparked a swift reaction with security measures that obviously had proven woefully underdeveloped. That was now remedied.
After the organics left, the little droid enacted the security protocols he and Ravensong had set up which included voice-locking the astronavigation computer. Other measures included quadruple redundancy encryption codes to insure only the Jedi's immediate party could even board the ship without her prior authorized consent. Anyone who tried would get frazzled as they attempted to board the frigate. It'd take a serious tech with top of the line cybernetics to slice into her systems without frying themselves in the process.
KOTOR~ KOTOR~ KOTOR~ KOTOR~ KOTOR~
Ignoring the female hunter seemingly waiting for them just beyond the massive gates the team effectively split up to the designated destinations. There was no time to waste on the issues of others or their petty problems as Canderous stated and for once Skye was in full agreement. Whatever this hunter's issues where she was close enough to the city proper to get aid should she need it. Besides she didn't have the look of panic on her as if she lost some of her crew to either the wraids or sandpeople or the desert. Jedi didn't mean "bleeding heart push-over".
Skye lead the Jedi with Mission and HK towards the Sandpeople Enclave leaving the males to explore the Dunes. Carth and Canderous did not share command; it left the former Dark Lord to delegate the role of leadership of the second team to Ordo. This upset Onasi to no end. But left with the choice or remaining behind on the ship or following the Mandalorian, begrudgingly the Republic solider agreed to follow. However, he didn't have to do so blindly like some grunt.
Five miles from the gate proper wisps of smoke tumbled over the rise of rounded dunes. The swoop bikes rose and fell like salmon upon the upward currents of a river as they navigated the sands to the pillar of smoke. Atop the rise, they saw the source, like some blooded beached carcase of a metallic whale was the rusted hulk of a Czerka sandcrawler.
The men of Ebon Hawk brought their bikes to a halt. Amongst the wreckage- some inorganic some not- were a handful of survivors. All human. Along the detritus were the bodies of four Tusken Raiders and equally the same number of humans in Czerka miners' uniforms. The survivors of what had to be a recent skirmish were busy taking stockpile of their recourses: water, energy clips for blasters, med kits and stim packs.
"Since when do sandpeople hit anything this big?" Carth asked upon seeing the incredulous sight. The treads of the megalithic transport were blasted away, so were several portals and support beams. It had the look of concentrated fire not skill that took them out.
"Since now." Ordo answered blandly. "You, old man, what's going on here?" Canderous addressed the eldest of the miners. They were probably of the same age as the as one another, though the miner's face was more weathered and cracked no doubt due to the harsh twin suns of Tatooine.
His accent was strange- not native to Tatooine- and neither Carth nor Canderous could place it, not that it mattered. "The Sandpeople, they're sun crazy or something. They've been attacking anyone on sight. Well I suppose they don't attack each other but any outsider is as good as dead.
"The Company tried to arm us and even set up remote self-powered turrets along the mining route but that just made things worse," the old man shook his head. "We're not soldiers! They still kill us and take our weapons from our corpses. They've even managed to disable the turrets using Jawa slaves and bring them back to their own Enclave. It's like a fortress now"
"Oh crap." Carth shook his head. "We've got to warn Skye. She won't know they're there."
"So, do it." Canderous responded to Cath but then directed a new question to the miner "Have to say I'm a little surprised they took your turrets. Thought those rag heads detested that kind of tech."
"Yeah, they do, but they love to turn it against us even more," the old minor said. "That goes for our turrets and blasters too," bony shoulders shrugged. "It's not like you need to be a genius to operate them. Heh, they probably don't even bother with the special settings. They just watch for people approaching and switch them on."
"How are Mission and the Jedi going to get in now?" Asked Zaalbar. But without Mission or Skye to translate, the others didn't quite understand him. At most Carth got 'How Jedi in?'
"Same plan as before, at least they'll know the new stakes." Carth answered, or at least hoping he was answering the Wookiee's question.
"Don't know what plan you're talking about but it'll have to wait." The old miner called out. They three companions turned to him. They followed the line of his finger as it pointed east of them and saw another band of Raiders heading towards them. It looked to be about six or seven of the desert aboriginals. "It's another strike!"
"Where in hell are they all coming from?" one of the younger lads whimpered. His nerves were clearly frayed. Onasi had seen plenty of that in the young privates holding the front line back during the war. The kid was visibly quaking in his boots so much so he had a difficult time maintaining his hold on his blaster.
"Bunker down," Onasi ordered. "You're not alone now."
"Going to wipe is his ass too, Republic?" Canderous' snide remark grated on the Commander but he wasn't about to let the kid fall because his ego was taking a beating.
Carth was determined not to be provoked by the asshole. He picked his target- squeezed—the trigger and watched as one of the sandpeople's heads exploded.
His sudden death did not serve as a deterrent to the Raiders. They did not scatter, or find cover but kept their charge. Their gaffii sticks, like Wookie bowcasters, had a primitive look and feel to them yet were capable of hefty energy damage. Where the sandpeople lacked efficiency and precision in their strikes, they made up for in sheer brutality and uncompromising tenacity in their attacks.
Canderous and Zaalbar flanked him each taking refuge behind the detritus of the previous battle. The Wookiee and Carth laid down cover fire letting Canderous select his targets with impunity. The rifle's targeting system established a wireless link to his visors HUD and a thin blue line angled across the drone's feed. This was the trajectory his shots would travel. Canderous angled his carbine disrupter up until the vector turned green: an indication that his first shot would pass directly through the target individual's chest and into the man behind him.
The blasts tore through the sandpeoples' personal shields like soggy tissue paper even at 28 meters. What was left of his targets was nothing more than a collection of constituent molecules (the reason his prototype heavy repeating blaster was outlawed on many worlds. It didn't seem to bother the Mandalorian however.) Two Raiders- the one he targeted and the one directly behind him flew to pieces.
The sandpeople began to break up their initial assault pattern. They had obviously not counted on trained military support. Carth's blasters opened a volley to the right flank pushing the sandpeople back into the circle of Ordo's targeting solutions. Zaalbar had forgone his bowcaster in lieu of a volley of grenades. The teenaged Wookiee recalled how Skye had used a series of adhesive in conjunction with frags when she was competing in the Arena back on Taris.
In his arsenal, he had a few cyroban and plasma grenades- a far more deadly combination. His powerful muscles allowed him to launch the ranged ordinances with great velocity. They landed in the clustered Raiders pining then to the ground. It wouldn't last. Like a pitcher at a claw-ball game Zaalbar lofted the next volley of plasma grenades into the heart of the immobile mass one after the other.
The miners were holding their own, their courage bolstered by the Hawk men. They were not as precise as Ordo or Onasi but they took advantage of the immobile insurgents at the same time Zaalbar was lofting his second round of explosives.
The bodies burned as plasma hit them, disintegrated by the Manndalorian's riffle and littered with holes form Carth and the miners' blasters. Their screams of rage and death fell to the blood-soaked sand.
Carth took an assessment of his companions. They all seemed untouched. Upon further inspection, it seemed one of the miners had not fared so well. He was in no danger of bleeding out, but if he didn't get help soon he was good as dead.
War had taught the Republic officer the importance of triage. He would have easily handed the Czerka man a med pack but with the dangers of the desert, scarifying even one med pack could mean the life or death of his own people. The desert was a vicious bitch that took no prisoners. If you weren't ready to face it she took you, just like the ocean. The Czerka men were not far from Anchorhead. Help could be found there if they didn't dally around a dead sandcrawler.
"Thanks for the help." Old Miner said addressing Carth. "We'd all been killed if you hadn't helped. But we're not staying here. We got to get back to Anchorhead." He turned and looked and the great metal hulk behind him. "We're leaving that thing there," he chuckled dryly as a thought came to him. "Hell, maybe the Jawas can salvage it and sell it back to Czerka. Or maybe they'll hell keep it for themselves. Can you imagine Jawas riding around in a sandcrawler? Probably keep in their clan for generations. Who knows? Not my problem any more after we get back to Anchorhead first chance I get I'm leaving this dust bowl."
The other miners nodded in agreement. No contract was worth their lives. Czerka promised it cared for its employees but at the end of the day every employee was expendable to the corporate office on Coruscant.
Carth watched the Mandalorian and Zaalbar start shifting through the dead Raiders and taking the coveted gaffii sticks from their still warm fingers. There was a bounty to be had—why not cash in? Onasi found it repulsive but he couldn't disagree. It was like Skye back on Taris riffling through the dead swoopers or Sith to take weapons, creds or whatever else she could salvage to use or sell as needs demanded. He suspected that the whole of their mission to catch and stop Malak would be fraught with salvaging from the dead. They were being led by a scout-come-Jedi who saw no ill in such actions; it was necessity.
While the others continued to pick over the dead he activated the radio and made a necessary call to their leader. He relayed all they had learned about the sandpeople.
"This is exactly what we don't need," Skye said over the radio. "At least now we know why the Jawas were taken. Even more reason to rescue them. Sandpeople and tech are not a good combination. We'll have to find a way to neutralize those turrets one way or the other if we can't pacify the Chieftain. Keep me apprised of any other developments. Ravensong out."
The Jedi turned to her companions moving her mount closer to theirs so she could repeat Carth's warning about the Enclave. Just as she finished speaking a shot fired past Skye's dewback.
Using the Force, she leapt form the lizard's back and somersaulted over the heads of the startled Raiders while igniting her blades at the same time. She landed in their midst and beheaded the one that shot at her before he knew what happened. She spun on the ball of her foot and planted the heel of her other foot in the midsection of another, making him fall back into one of his buddies. The latter fell onto his backside dragging his friend with him as he tried to maintain his balance to no avail. They both toppled to the sandy ground in a plume of dust and a tangle of arms and legs.
At the same time Juhani and Bastila leapt to the side as a barrage of gaffi-fire was unleashed form the cluster. They hit the ground in a roll that brought them to their feet just in time to spring clear of a second series of bolts.
Moving with blinding speed of the Force, Juhani raced across the sands, her boots kicking up puffs of dirt behind her with each blindingly fast step she took. A Force leap landed her behind the fray, as Skye kicked the one and had spiralled into the others behind them she brought her blade down impaling them before they could rise.
Bastila whirled to her feet from the roll. The double blades of her saber humming a golden death knell. She didn't brother to block the bolts. Instead, she launched herself upward, her forward momentum caring her high, in a somersaulting leap that arched over the Raiders, and though they fired several hurried shots, none hit her. But even a Jedi Knight could not maintain such a defence indefinitely. She slashed her lightsaber diagonally across her enemy's torso.
As the Raider's corpse toppled to the ground, Bastila turned her attention back to the mob. By this time, they were scattering. The sandpeople had not counted on their prey being Jedi. They had to regroup, protecting their fallen. Fear emanated from them, and deep anger-a hatred so dark it could have blotted out the twin suns overhead.
Heavy blaster in mechanical hands HK had no problem zeroing in on the ragged grabbed meatbags. He was determined to show his skills as personal combat droid over those of his protocol programming he was as he said practically quivering in his gears. "Boastful exclamation: Die meatbags! DIE!"
His blaster bolt zinged into the back of the skull of a Raider who was at the very moment raising his gaffii stick over his head like a headman's axe ready to club his master senseless. His head popped off like a dandelion top; his blood flowered over in a pink-gray mist.
The former Dark Lord abruptly changed tactics, shifting from the conventional defensive positions of the Soresu form to the more acrobatics attack sequences of Ataru. Her opponent tried to turn and pivot to keep Skye in front of him, but the furious burst of action was too fast for his gaffi stick to track. She purposefully directed her body so that she came in at a sharper angle than necessary, leaving barely enough room for the other Raiders to come between her and her target.
Skye raised her left hand and unleashed her power in a storm of righteous green lightning. The other Jedi instinctively used the Force to throw up invisible barriers to shield themselves. The bolts arced through the air, ripping into the unprotected bodies of the Sandpeople and engulfing them in electric agony.
They screamed, their voices rising above the hiss and crackle of the fiery energy coursing through their veins. Every nerve in their bodies exploded in excruciating pain as the force lighting seared their flesh, cooking them in their own rags. They fell to the dunes, curled into their own bodies, their skin blistered and burned. The whole thing had taken only a few seconds.
Bastila looked at the corpses on the desert ground, then back to Revan. She knew that the woman who once claimed the title of Darth was able to use Force Lightning by tapping into the power of the Dark Side. The same lightning that fell the Raiders had torn into the raiding party when she led the assault on the Dark Lord's flagship. It was the deep dark-brilliant purple. To summon it, a dark Jedi tapped into the rage and hatred of the Dark Side. But Skye had, through training and her studies in the archives, unlocked an ancient technique to use the same power but calling upon the essence of determined justice. It was a power nearly as terrible as the Dark Side when unleashed. Long ago the Masters had forbidden this power for its dangers of its user falling.
"Teach us this technique." Bastila said now looking at the woman she once loved and was beginning to do so again. "Should we need to fight the sandpeople or disable those turrets, the emerald lightning would be a great advantage." She hastily clarified her intent.
Skye was giving her a particularly quizzical look then after a heartbeat the former Dark Lord nodded her raven head. "You have a point," she said. "And it's a good one." For the next several minutes she went over the text she had discovered in the archives on Dantooine. It had been a holocron dating back hundreds of years from an old master that had in fact used several forbidden Force techniques. He was one of the first Shadows—a branch of the Councilors. To this day many in the Order believed the Shadows walked a perilous line between the Light and Dark sides of the Force.
A Shadow serves the Jedi Order by being a silent observer and, when action is necessary, a subtle hand. To avoid rash decisions on the part of the Council, Shadows go unseen, gathering information and quietly thwarting those who seek to threaten the Jedi Order. Employing Force techniques that cloud enemy minds, Shadows slip into hostile territory, and when necessary, they strike enemies down with deadly efficiency.
Skye looked again to Bastila who was for the most part already walking the path of the Shadow. Had she not gone into enemy territory (Revan's flagship)? Was she not standing in silence over the Council's decision regarding Revan's reprogramming and playing along with the charade of Skye Ravensong? Skye's mind was most defiantly clouded though she was no enemy... now.
Juhani however was more of a Guardian—a branch of the Knights who were a wall between the good people of the Republic and their enemies- the Guardian stands firm in the face of overwhelming odds and dares opponents to attack. Perfect concentration and use of the Force allows smooth movement even in heavy armor-making the Guardian a hard target to take down. Leaders on and off the battlefield, Guardians are known for inspiring allies to amazing feats, making them invaluable for conflicts of any size.
Skye may have chosen the way of the Shadow but somewhere in the recesses of her memory the way of the Guardian was more familiar to Revan. But her memory was clouded; it had more holes in it than a Kaminoan sponge.
"Okay I'll show you what I learned. It would be easier with live targets but... ah..." the Nagai was interrupted by Mission, who the others had almost forgotten was there.
During the battle the girl had tried to pull off a few rounds but she couldn't get a clean shot with the Jedi in the middle of the fracas. And the dewbacks weren't any help. She had a hard-enough time keeping them from bolting that by the time she got the lizard mounts under control the fighting was over.
"If its live targets you want Skye. Think you got it. There are bunch of those brown lizard things coming this way!"
"Wraids!" Skye smiled in delight. "Perfect."
"Hesitant query: Master, you will not be leaving me behind with the child as you teach Jedi tricks to your followers, will you?"
The Nagai looked back to the droid. "No, of course not. You'll be taking Point Charlie."
"Dissatisfied statement: the rear-guard Master, surely I have proven capable of battle."
"Yeah you have. Question my orders again and you won't be getting off the Hawk," the blue eyes glowered.
"Quick appeasement: No Master, I wasn't questioning your orders. Master, I would never do that."
"Ah-ah."
"This conversation will have to wait." Juhani grabbed their attention. "The wraids are charging. It must be the smell of the battle that draws them."
Skye ignited her black blade leaving the off-hand one on her belt. "Okay like I explained. draw the power from the core of your mind. Tap into the determination. Use the calm before the 'storm' to unleash its power. Lightning is not intrinsically evil. It's a Force power like any other."
"You said the emerald fire was created to sap an enemy's strength and willpower yet you killed with it." Juhani said as she took a defensive yet aggressive stance as the five wraids drew ever closer.
"Yeah well I had to adapt to the situation. Why do you think the Council forbade its use? You can't call it "electric judgment" and then kill with it can you?" she charged forward throwing a blanket stasis field around the wraids freezing them in place. She needed crowd control if the other Jedi were to learn the power. "HK, take out one of them! Mission take another!"
"Excited delectation: Yes master!" As he had with the Raider, HK's HUD zeroed in on a precision shot. Rather than a sniper blow, he let lose a bragged of rapid fire riddling the massive beast's hid with holes.
Still mounted on the dewback, the native Tarisian selected the wraid closest to them on the right. Carth had been helping her with the trickier skills of blaster use. His lessons had paid off. Breathe slow, squeeze the trigger.
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
Four power blasts just behind the massive armoured head plate. Four hits. The softer area that wasn't protected by the shield-like head plating tore open like soggy bread. But it wasn't enough to kill the beast.
Bastila summed up all she had felt for the past day. Her mother showing up asking her to fetch her father's holodisk like some hound; Skye revealing she knew who she truly was but no true memory of who that was. The Council demanding, she continue to lie and deceive and keep secrets that made her feel corrupt and shallow; and the indignity of her capture on Taris- of which she would never reveal how she was taken so easily by a bunch of thugs.
Her fingers tingled. It felt like the after-effects of receiving a rather nasty jolt of static shock. It was like a sneeze that won't sneeze, the burning energy contained suddenly it bursts free. White/emerald lighting shot out of her outstretched finger tips into the body of a wraid. It cried out in alarm, its body shivering at the unexpected attack.
Bastila continued to pour every ounce of what she had been feeling since the day of Revan's capture into the strike. A single bolt splintered as more tendrils of primal energy was siphoned into it- fuelling it- creating a more powerful blow.
On the other side of her, though slower to start the jolt, Juhani's shot into her target was growing in equal power. At first it seemed almost purple in the like of the Sith. The anger she felt towards the fate of her home planet raged within her. Taris! Taris had fallen because Bastila had been there; Skye's precious Bastila- the Councils precious Bastila!
Skye had saved her but in doing so Malak had glassed Taris. Juhani had hated the place but it was still her home... now it was gone. She wanted justice for it! Not vengeance, but true justice for all the dead- for those who had to scrape by in the Lower City and for the outcasts in the Undercity. For all those who the humans believed far beneath them. When the Jedi were there before the Mandalorian Wars it felt a little safer. Then came the first Jedi purge when the Masters had turned on their own Padawans because they believed one of them was going to be the new Dark Lord. Then the Jedi left and the Mandalorians came. Then Revan came and drove the Mandies away. Revan was justice.
Juhani took what she felt from that day- the day the saviour, the Revanchist came and turned it into a battery of power. The lightning turned from purple to emerald. The Cathar took the beloved memory of when Revan had spoken to a little ten-year-old Juhani and told her she had the Force. There was justice that day.
The wraid, completely drained of willpower, had no desire to fight. Its strength left it making the hulk topple over in a pathetic wheezing moan. With no will to even live the creature-died.
"I think it's dead." Skye's voice broke though the Cathar's concentration, "you got the hang of it."
Juhani lowered her hand. Her body tingled. She looked down, certain her fur was standing upright with static charge but it was smooth against her skin.
Stepping closer the Nagai whispered. "You want to talk about what just happened there?"
"No." Juhani said shaking her head causing her topknot to bounce. "Not right now," her tone became gentler.
Skye put a hand on the younger woman's shoulder. "Alright. But if you do, I'll be here."
"Thank you." Juhani turned and headed back towards the dewbacks. While she felt the warmth of justice in Revan's memory, the presence of Skye right now so close to Bastila was a cavity and something the Cathar did not wish brought into the light- at least not for the moment.
Skye turned her attention back to her bondmate. "You okay?"
"Yes." Bastila drew in a long breath. "I can see why the Council of old was so concerned over the power. How easy it is to tap into other emotions."
"But..."
"It wrong of them to ignore this power, we should develop it into a useful technique."
The former Dark Lord nodded in full agreement. What she heard next from Bastila was unexpected. "There are many things that I am beginning to question about the Council. Not the Jedi-but the Council. They are not as omnipotent as they would have us believe," her eyes now boring into the older woman's. "They were wrong to make me keep such secrets from you," she hesitantly placed a hand on Skye's cheek. For a moment, it felt was if she was going to lean into a kiss, but then she pulled back and without another word headed for the mounts.
They had a mission to complete after all.