The water was cold. Anakin tightened his grip on Waxer and tried to hold his eyes up.
They came to the base without problems, and it really wasn't protected underwater.
As they reached the base, Trapper and Wooley looked for a good place to get in, while the rest looked out for dangerous animals, but there weren't any. It seemed that nothing lived in this lake anymore.
Anakin's air in his lungs was getting low, as Waxer tucked at him and swam with him to Trapper and Wooley, who pointed at the bottom of a tube. Anakin nodded and ignited the lightsaber, hoping it would work. It did.
He cut a hole in the tube's bottom, which needed more effort than he thought. Then they got in.
Anakin gasped for air, as he was out of the water. The clones removed their helmets, also catching their breath.
"I wonder why there weren't any animals," Crys said as his breath evened.
"I think… something is… wrong… with the water," Anakin answered, still troubling to get enough air in his lungs. He held his hand up and the clones could see some redness.
Kit was quickly at Anakin's side, looking at his hand. "It doesn't look dangerous, but too long contact with this water could worsen it," he concluded and looked to the others, "I think the animals in this lake died because the water changed. Probably because of some chemical the separatists are pumping in there," he added.
"Alright, then let us see what they are doing and how to destroy this construction. I don't know what you guys think, but I want to go back to our ship," Cody said and got his helmet back up. The others agreed and got their helmets back up, too, and Anakin finally stood up.
They sneaked through the corridors.
"We probably have to check all the doors," Cody whispered, and the others nodded.
So they did. At first, they found nothing special, just once some surprised battle droids which they destroyed. Then they opened the door to a great storage hall, full of bombs big and small.
Curious, they looked through it.
"Those aren't normal bombs," Crys murmured. "I'd never seen bombs like that."
Cody and Anakin went to a computer terminal.
"No access," Cody said and looked at Crys "Crys, come here. We need your expertise."
"Right away, sir," Crys answered and came. He worked at the terminal and got through the installed defenses.
"Wizard," Anakin said, amazed, as Cody and Crys went through the information.
"Those are NBC weapons. Among other things, there are poison gas bombs," Cody said.
"We have to destroy those!" Anakin exclaimed before he slapped his hand over his mouth, realizing that he was too loud. Luckily nobody came.
Cody glared shortly at Anakin but said without anger, "We can't just destroy them, the poison might get out. We have to neutralize them first. They have to have something to do this. Nobody stores NBC weapons without being able to disable them in an emergency."
Cody pondered then said, "We split up. Waxer, Boil, Crys, Trapper and Wooley you search for their power generator. Probably the best way to destroy the base. Kit, Commander Skywalker, and I will search for an option to neutralize those weapons." The clones saluted.
Waxer, Boil, Crys and Wooley left the storage room, while Anakin, Kit, and Commander Cody entered a little room, attached to the storage room. This room was full of ampules which fitted in the bombs.
"These could neutralize the bombs, but how shall we know which ampule is for which bomb?" Kit said, examining the ampules.
"Maybe there is information in the control center or there could be a droid, which knows it," Anakin suggested.
"It's worth a try," Cody said, and they left the storage rooms.
They searched through the whole area, but except a few droids there was nothing at this level, so they entered a lift and went to the upper level.
The both clones and Anakin were greeted by some battle droids. Anakin instantly ignited the lightsaber and dashed forward. He slashed through two droids, while a third aimed at him, but Cody shot it before it could shoot. Then they took care of the rest.
"I think up here will be some more battle droids," Kit mused, and he was right.
They encountered more and more enemies, but with every battle droid they fought better together.
Finally, they found the door to the control center. They looked at each other, nodded and entered.
In the control center were more battle droids, also some super battle droids, two commando droids and a tactical droid.
At first, everyone stood still, then the tactical droid and Cody gave their orders at the same time.
"Neutralize the intruders!" came from the tactical droid.
"We need his head!" came from Cody, and he pointed at the head of the tactical droid.
Anakin ignited the lightsaber and reflected the first blaster bolts, then the clones fired as well. They stormed the control center and searched for protection behind some computer terminals.
The battle droids were shot down easily, but the commando droids concentrated their fire on Anakin and one drew a vibroblade and forced the little Jedi away from the clones, leaving them fighting against the two super battle droids.
The tactical droid held himself back. As it seemed, it didn't have a weapon.
Anakin was forced into the defensive. He never fought against two enemies where one was fighting with a blade and one with a blaster. They pushed Anakin further away against a wall. He already got cuts from the vibroblade, but the adrenalin let him forget the pain. Then he reflected a laser precisely in the head of the commando droid with the sword, which let him stumble back. Anakin used this to his advantage and cut off the arm with the blade. But before he could destroy the droid, he had to block some shots of the other, giving the first droid time to regain his balance and draw a blaster.
It still got easier for Anakin, and he was also able to attack.
Meanwhile, the clones were able to defeat the two battle droids. Immediately, they helped Anakin attack the commando clones from behind. And together they were able to destroy the two.
Various droids laid destroyed on the floor, leaving the tactical droid to be the last. Realizing that, the droid picked up a blaster and began to fire.
Anakin dashed forward, blocking the blaster bolts and beheaded the droid, letting the body fall to the floor.
"We have the head, and now?" Anakin asked, holding the head up. "We need something to read out the data it has in its head," Cody answered.
"I probably can build something out of the things I find in this base. But I first require the right parts," Anakin suggested.
In the meantime, Kit examined the computers.
"Here, I found a map and the internal communication systems. We could order the remaining droids in one room and lock them up, and then we could call out for the others," Kit recommended.
"Do that, Commander Skywalker and I will go to the room, we will send the droids in and lock it up behind them. Then we search for the right parts to build a device to read out this tactical droid," Cody said. Kit saluted and went to work.
The clone commander and the Padawan did the same thing.
Locking up the droids went as planned. Kit contacted the others, telling them to come to the control center, and then he led Anakin and Cody to the storage rooms where they would find most likely the right parts for the device.
They met each other at the control center again, and Anakin and Crys built together the reading device and read out the tactical droid.
"Guys, we might be able to contact the others. The interference is not strong here. They built a jammer in this base, but we can turn it off," Crys said and looked at Cody.
"Good, do this. Commander Skywalker, Kit and I will neutralize the bombs and Waxer, Boil, Wooley and Trapper, you prepare the generator. I want it to blow up the whole base," Cody ordered.
"I don't think we should do that. At least not, while we are down here. I think the sarlacc might not like it when something next to him is blown up and probably destroys his pit," Anakin said.
The clone commander nodded, thinking. "You're probably right. Then, Crys, contact the star destroyer and tell them to get us a gunship down here to get us from this planet and destroy the base. Waxer, Boil, Trapper, Wooley, look if you find some detonators here. I still want to blow up this thing, but it has to be possible that we first get away before it blows up," he changed his orders.
"Yes sir!" was the unison answer.
With the information out of the tactical droid, it was easy to neutralize the bomb and get all the information the base had.
Shortly after, everyone finished their task, they met at the entrance of the base and entered the ordered gunship.
Blowing up the base went as planned, but they had to gain high pretty fast, as an angry sarlacc jumped out of his pit, which collapsed because of the explosion.
Then they got back to their star destroyer.