Chapter 15
Dyna kept retreating as the monster neared her. When the monster pounced, leading with its teeth, she rolled to the side, dodging it. As she rolled, the dust got in her eyes. Dyna got up and stumbled backward as she tried to rub the dust from her eyes. Her vision cleared in time to see and dodge the creature's next attempt to eat her.
A tentacle grabbed her leg, causing her to fall back. The green tentacle began pulling her towards its mouth. Dyna's senses were distorted as she was submerged under the moving layer of dust while being pulled ever closer to the monster.
Dyna gritted her teeth, grinding some of the sand particles that had gotten into her mouth. She kicked the tentacle away and crawled away from the monster. She made sure to close her eyes so as she did not get anymore blinded by the sand. When she decided she was far enough she got to her feet and looked back at the chasing predator.
Dyna ducked as the monster whipped out a green tentacle at her. She ran to the creature's side and jumped on its shell. She was stabbed by some of the small spikes on the shell that she had not noticed. Ignoring the pain, she reached the shell opening from above and gorged the monster's eyes. The monster cried out and tried to buck her off but she held on and continued hurting it. At the end, her hands were stained with the dead creature's green blood.
She jumped down from the shell and looked at her legs which were dotted with bleeding puncture wounds obtained when she was getting on the shell. She made a whining noise as she touched the painful punctures. She saw a green tentacle coming from the dust and had to jumped back in time to avoid it. She looked at the still creature to confirm it was dead and it was. But where were these other tentacles coming from?
To Dyna's surprise and despair, she saw more of the creatures pop up from the layer of blowing low lying sand. There were too many for her to take on, so she did the only other thing she could do. She ran.
/
Kisto was riding on his bike, looking out for the Twi'Lik girl, which was made hard by the low lying fog like sand. He took out his communicator and contacted the other searchers.
"Have you guys had any luck?" Kisto said into his communicator.
Buck was walking quickly through the lonely planet surface. "Dyna! Dyna!" He repeatedly shouted while looking around before he heard Kisto's message through his communication device. "I haven't seen her."
Zack was also scanning the area he was at with a flash light. "No luck here either. Damn sand!" He cursed.
"I know what you mean," Buck said. "I'm worried that she may be somewhere here... that either of us have just passed her by and we couldn't see her because of this sand. I know Kisto warned us about it but I didn't think it would be this troublesome."
"Let's just focus on the task at hand; I'm sure she'll turn up." Kisto said
Both Buck and Zack nodded and put their communicators away only to take them when they would need them again.
/
The Prison Warden walked to his office with a bunch of papers in his hands. They were transfer papers for the newly arrived prisoners. He wanted to get to his office and finish the paper work as soo...
The Warden had to stop when he saw someone in his chair in his office. The chair was turned around but he could see the slender arms on the arm rest and the dark ginger hair peeking over the top of the chair. The commander raised an eyebrow. "Hey, who is in my chair?" He angrily asked.
The chair swivelled around to reveal a smirking Saza Ripper. "I am," she said.
The Warden was startled by this and dropped the stack of papers he had been carrying. "In-Inquisitor Ripper, I'm sorry I didn't know it was you." He said as he bent over and gathered the papers and collecting them into a bunch.
"Clearly," Saza said, looking down at the thin man with a black mustach and balding head.
"I-I was hoping to do my paperwork." The Warden said, hoping that she would evacuate his personal and well earned work space.
"I'm sorry Warden," Saza said putting her feet up on the desk. "But I will have to commandeer this office during my stay here. But I have heard that the cafeteria is a good place to do... whatever you were going to do."
"Oh," the Warden said getting up after he was able to successfully gather all the papers.
"By the way, I need the paperwork for the prisoners I brought here to be done as soon as possible." Saza said.
"Of-Of course," the Warden said leaving his former office with a scewed stack of paperwork in his arms. He crashed into and incoming trooper as he was about to leave, causing the paperwork to fall down again. The Warden cursed multiple times as Canoe helped him collect the paper work while the commander threw insults at him.
"Lieutenant," Saza called out to Canoe, "stop wasting time and make you report."
Canoe left the Warden on the floor collecting his papers while he stepped into the office. The Warden watched as the doors slid close in his face while he was on his knees collecting papers. Canoe stood to attention and gave a salute to Saza who did not bother to return it.
"Now why are you here, lieutenant? Do you have something to report or is this a... social visit?" Saza said leaning closer on her desk to Canoe.
Canoe involuntarily gulped before speaking, "Uhm... no, I mean..." Canoe sighed a little before continuing. "Admiral John Soot is asking when we will be expected to leave."
Saza stayed quiet for some time, while thinking. "Tell him he may leave, we'll get our own ride back." Canoe raised an eyebrow at this and Saza looked up at his face. "Do you disagree with my decision lieutenant Ida?"
"No ma'am it's just... I don't see any reason why we would stay." Canoe said.
"Already tired of my squad, Canoe?" Saza asked while standing and walking around her desk and sitting on the other side, much closer to Canoe.
Canoe wanted to say yes but decided to play it safe. "No."
"You know it's not normal for an inquisitor to have a squad under her command." Saza said. "We are more of the lone wolves of the Empire. So my squad will be disbanded after we leave this planet. But I think that if you stuck with me you could go very far." She said this as she approaching him slowly, like a slithering snake going closer to a dying mouse.
Canoe turned his head so that he was facing her. They kept still for a moment, EACH enjoying the intimate position they were in. Canoe began ever so slightly leaning in but then there was a beep which caused Saza to sigh and lean away. She got off the desk and walked around to situate herself near the communication beep.
"Well we're going to stay here until the prisoners have been processed and then we'll leave." Saza said with her finger hovering over the button to answer the call. "If that is all, lieutenant."
Canoe saluted and left the office for Saza to answer the communication device in privacy. When he got outside he sighed to himself. "I really need to get away from her before I fall in love," Canoe said.
/
Zack was getting frustrated with his and his companions 'lack of results. He began thinking that Buck was right about the difficulty of finding her if she was hurt and was being hidden by the layer of dust. If only there was some other way to find her. That is when he stopped and a thought crossed his mind, "Could I use the Force to find her?"
He did not see why not and it was the only other thing he had not tried. He closed his eyes and began walking forward. After a few minutes of this, he began feeling like an idiot. That is until he felt something. It felt like a feint tug and he sensed that if he didn't follow it, he could lose it. He took a deep breath and tried to feel out where the tug was trying to pull him to. He slowly walked to its direction and felt it get a little stronger but still faint and fragile. While following the tug he tripped on something and fell head forward to the sandy ground.
Zack cursed loudly before getting up and closing his eyes again. He was hoping to regain the tug but he felt nothing. He squeezed his fist and angrily screamed at the sky causing the sand fog around him to disperse in a circle, revealing the ground beneath. Zack, while shouting in frustration, noticed something sticking out of the ground. He stopped shouting the sand resumed its normal flow, hiding the object he saw.
He realised that what he saw must have been what he had tripped on. He walked to where he saw it and plunged his hands in the layer of fog. Once he could feel the object he pulled it up through the dust. His eyes widened when he realised what the object was, it was a scout droid!
"Guys, I just found a scout droid." Zack said into his communicator. "I thought you said the Empire did not know about this planet?"
"They don't," Kisto said stopping his hover bike. "If its still here then that means that it didn't get a chance to report our location to the Empire."
"What if that was Dyna's doing?" Buck said.
"Well it's the only lead we've got," Zack said.
"Agreed! I'll turn my hover bike around to help assist you in finding her." Kisto said while doing just that.
/
Buck felt useless. He wanted to help but he was too far away from Zack's position, so he began walking back to the ship. After some time walking there were bright spotlights that shone on him from a vehicle coming far away. He was surpised to see Kisto on his hover bike, stopping in front of the human.
"Kisto? I thought you were heading for Zack." Buck said.
"I would but I thought it would be best if the both of you looked for her, considering she means a lot more to both of you."
Although Kisto could not see it from behind his visor, Buck was smiling. "Thank you, Kisto."
Kisto hopped off the bike and allowed Buck to take it. The Twi'Lek watched him ride off with his hover bike before he began making his way back to the ship.
Buck caught up to Zack who was already walking in the direction Dyna went. The hover bike stopped beside him and allowed Zack to jump on before speeding away.
"I was expecting Kisto!" Zack said over the roar of the wind whipping past them.
"He thought it would be best if I was here instead." Buck said.
"Okay then, let's go get her!" Zack said before Buck sped ahead at full speed.
/
Dyna kept running. After a some metres, she fell on her hands and knees in exhaustion. Running in the loose sand was harder than she had anticipated. She looked behind her, hoping that she was able to outrun the creatures. She did not see anything and almost sighed in relief but her moment of relief was taken form her when she saw the silhouettes oif the creatures through the sand fog. She sighed before she resumed her running, although much slower. Her breath was shallow and every muscle in her body began burning. She was surprised that she had not yet dropped from exhaustion.
"How... are they... keeping up... with me?" She asked between heavy breathes.
She suddenly fell forward when the ground beneath her feet disappeared. She tumbled forward down a sloping sandy side. Her tumble was stopped only by hitting the ground below. Dyna groggily got up. She looked up and saw that she had fallen into a big hole. She ran to the other side of the hole and began scaling up but the shifting sand gave her no place to purchase, causing her slide back down. She tried again but was met with the same results.
"I-I can't get out!" Dyna said as sand fell into her eyes from above. She rubbed the sand out of her eyes as tears fell down her cheek. The tears started out because her eyes were irritated by the sand particles but then she began crying from sadness and frustration. She looked up while sobbing and saw that the creatures had lined up along the circumference of the hole.
Dyna wiped the tears on her cheek away only for them to be replaced by a fresh stream from her eyes. The creatures just stared down at her, with their glowing yellow eyes penetrating the fog of sand. They all suddenly began walking down the hole. Now that they were fully visible, Dyna could see their multiple crab-like legs helping them to scale down.
Dyna began moving back from the slanting sides of the hole. The creatures had surrounded her on all sides. She stopped at the centre. One of the creatures came up behind her, startling her and making her fall backwards. She looked in horror as the creature exposed its jaggered teeth but before it could gobble her down, there was a flash of light and an explosion in the ground between her and the monster. Dyna looked up at the hole and saw two figures up standing at the top.
"Dyna!" Buck shouted down at her before letting lose a few shots at the creature that tried to attack her. "It took six shots for me to take that thing down!"
"We need to get down there and help her!" Zack said.
"We can't just jump in there," Buck said going to the storage compartment of the hover bike. "The sides look too unstable for us to climb back up. We should ropel down. Let's hope there's some rope in here." Buck said opening the storage compartment and finding a grey rope. "Good we can use th..." He looked to the side and found that Zack had already jumped down the hole.
Zack slid down the side of the sandy hole like he was skiing with his shoes instead of skies. He made sure to avoid the creatures already on their way down. Activating his lightsaber, he weaved in between the creatures to get at Dyna. He jumped on and stabbed at a creature that was close to taking a bite out of her.
"Are you okay?" Zack asked.
Dyan nodded, wiping the tears form her face again.
"Just stay there, I'll protect you." Zack said before fighting the creatures. Zack screamed and shouted as he laid a path of death through the creatures. His focus was so much on the creatures in front of him that he did not pay attention to the ones sneaking behind Dyan. They were stopped when Buck unleashed a few more shots at them. Buck went over to Dyna who was still on the ground.
"Buck!" Dyna said as he crouched near her.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
She nodded.
"Come, let's get out of here." Buck allowed her to piggy bank onto his back. He ran to the hole's edge, shooting down anything that got in his way. "Zack, lets get out of here." Buck said noting that the creatures had begun to run haphazardly in an attempt to get away from the lightsaber wielder.
"You go!" Zack said. "I'm going to take care of these creatures!" Zack said before slicing a creature near him open.
Buck looked around and saw that the panicking creatures no longer needed to be taken care of. He decided not to point this out and continued using the rope he had used to scale down the hole to go up. Dyna clutched tightly to him as he climbed up and out of the hole. SShe looked down at Zack, fighting the fleeing creatures alone andhad to avert her eyes when she saw all the killing he was doing.
/
Night had passed on the planet. The nights were short, not lasting more than four hours. The layer of sand also disappeared with the rising sun and everything was clear, making the ground visible. Buck had seated Dyna some distance away from the hole and had just finished treating her wounds with the basic Stormtrooper knowledge he possed and whatever medical supplies that were in the hover bike.
"Why do you still have your helmet on?" Dyna asked looking at her reflection through the Stormtrooper helmet visors.
Buck took off the helmet to reveal his shiny sweaty face. "Is that better?" He asked smiling.
Dyan managed a weak smile.
"Hey, there we go. You're smiling again." Buck said, helping her to her feet. "You know we were worried about you."
"If you were all worried then why is he still in there?" Dyna said looking towards the hole where the hover bike with the climbing rope still attached to it was. They would sometimes hear the sound of the lightsaber crashing into living matter an Zack shout in either anger or triumph.
"Zack... is going through some things." Buck said. "Give him time. He'll come alright."
Zack had finally finished wih his work. All around him were the bodies of the creatures that had once been alive. He had made sure that none of them survived the battle. He allowed himself to deactivate his lightsaber blade before climbing up the side of the hole using the rope.
He got out in time to see Buck and Dyna walk towards the bike. "Oh good, your out." Buck said.
"Is everything okay?" Zack asked feeling exhausted.
Dyan nodded.
"Good, let's go home." Zack exhaustedly said.
