Tatooine Part 5
Bastila awoke moderately early on the group's third day on Tatooine. Today was the day that they were going to find the star map, and though she refused to admit it, she could hardly sleep with the thoughts of Revan as well as the thoughts of finding her father's remains overwhelming her mind.
When she came to her senses, she heard Revan shouting. At that point, she got up and sprinted toward the noise, making sure that she would get there hopefully before blows would be exchanged between him and somebody else on the crew.
When she got there, Revan was standing on one side with Carth on the receiving end of the verbal barrage from the former Dark Lord of the Sith. Meetra was in the middle of the two while Canderous was right by Revan's side. Bastila could hardly believe what she was seeing. From what she had seen from the mission so far, Revan and Carth never had any real issue with each other. Other than Carth being unable to trust anybody, there was no issue, certainly not one that would lead to something as potentially violent as this. Revan paused momentarily to acknowledge Bastila's arrival before he continued laying into the pilot.
"Why did you do it, Carth? Why didn't you wait for us to get back before you gave her to that man?" Revan asked. His voice was a lot quieter by this point, but Bastila could still sense the anger just simmering below the surface.
"I just did what I thought was right! What did you want me to do? When I gave the kid to the twi'lek, I saw that he was very anxious to get her back to her parents" Carth told him.
"Is that what he told you? Why didn't her parents come to get her, then? Did you ever think of that one, Onasi?" Canderous asked. With her own shock of Canderous showing that he had a heart, Bastila almost missed the look of disbelief cross onto the pilot's face.
"I guess you didn't think of that one. So, what are we going to do about this, now, Revan?" the burly Mandalorian asked. The former Sith Lord was silent. It seemed to those around him that he was still wearing his mask despite the fact that he had hidden it in a spot only known to him after the group left Dantooine.
"Well, I don't see what else we can do except keep going with our normal plan. Like I said last night; we do not have the means to invade right now. We need more speeders before we can invade the slave trade. If we don't have more speeders, we have literally no chance at success in an invasion on such a heavily defended fortress. We can't win yet!" Revan exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air in exasperation.
"So, what is it? You think one more day is going to change anything? What is going to give us a better chance to invade tomorrow? What difference can one day mean, Revan?" Canderous asked, looking down at the shocked expression of the former Sith lord in front of him.
"What are you saying, Canderous?" Revan asked, surprised that the Mandalorian was challenging him, especially since Canderous had always been the one who had been defending him throughout the mission.
"What I'm saying, Revan, is that we need to save the kid, the Cathar, and the little Sith officer. The only difference that waiting one more day could make is that they could be gone, sold by the time we get there. They could be dead by the time we get there. Or worse" the Mandalorian told him. He paused for a moment, to let Revan take in what he was saying, but then he continued.
"Revan, I know you don't think we are ready, but you need to realize something. Whether we are ready for an invasion of this stronghold doesn't matter. I was with General Surik yesterday when we were picking up some intelligence. You know what the sick thing is? I agree with you. We are not ready to invade the fortress yet. If we try to invade, then some of us might die. I'm going to be the first person to tell you that, Revan. But if we don't try, then you sure as hell are going to have them suffer a fate worse than death and it'll be on your conscience. Can you live with that, Revan?" the Mandalorian asked. Revan was silent for a long, tense moment, clearly thinking over every little obstacle that could be in their way to victory.
"I guess I don't have a choice, then. We either invade today or we lose the purpose of our invasion" Revan said, taking out his com-link and linking it to the ship's intercom.
"Attention crew, all members please report to the ship center immediately" Revan said. His voice showed his anxiety and as a result, every member of the crew rushed to hear what he had to say. Once all of them were there, Revan continued.
"I know that yesterday we decided not to do anything about the slave trade until after we found the star map. I have just recently been informed about how potentially dangerous that decision could end up being for our friends. Today, we are going to invade the slave trade and get our friends back. We are going to get them back or we are going to die trying. I hope the later part doesn't happen, but I must warn you. It could happen, but we might" Revan said. He paused for a moment, unable to continue until Bastila put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
"T3 will stay on the ship after he drops us off at the building. He will take the ship back to the dune sea and wait for our call to get us out. Meanwhile, we will invade. Though it is never the best idea to invade right through the front door, we don't exactly have any other idea in this case. We invade, we get our friends, and we kill the leaders, cutting the cancer away at the source. Get your weapons ready, team. I know it will be tough for us to imagine killing so many people, but I hope you will realize how important it is and how necessary it is going to be. We either kill or be killed, just like in real war" Revan said.
"What's the plan then, Revan?" Carth asked.
"Meetra, go get Griff" Revan ordered. She saluted him and rushed off the ship to go fetch the twi'lek in question.
"M4, plug the coordinates into the navi-computer and get us in the air once Meetra gets back" Revan ordered. The little droid did so and Revan turned back toward Carth.
"We will stay together at the start. Once we get in, the plan will be created as we go. We don't know enough about the inner workings of the building to create a plan right now. We will have to improvise" Revan said.
"We will get our friends back. I swear it to all of you" Revan told them, walking into the back of the ship. When he returned, he had his hood pulled low over his face and he had his mask on.
"Let's get to work, team" Revan told them, stalking off toward the exit of the ship, ready to fight for the lives of his friends once again. His impatience was showing when he was waiting for the ship to touch down. Bastila walked over to him and put her hand on his arm.
"It'll be alright. We'll get them out" she told him. He tried to give her a smile in agreement, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. He felt a jolt as the Ebon Hawk ascended into the air.
"I don't have any doubt that we will get them out, Bastila. I just hope we aren't too late to save them. Are we going to be able to get them out before the damage is done? If not, it's all on my head. I should have known that something bad would happen on this mission and made sure everybody was trained before we left" Revan told her.
"Revan, we're going to get them out. I don't care what you think. We are going to get them out and they are going to be just fine. Trust me on that. I was back at the enclave looking over data of the Mandalorian Wars after you disappeared into the unknown regions. You don't lose battles in general, but as they get more important, your record improves. Since your friends are in trouble, how important is this battle?" Bastila asked him.
"More important than any other battle before" he replied.
"Then the past shows that you are going to win again" she told him, smiling again. He shook his head and gently pulled his arm from her grasp.
"That's the problem with the Jedi who have never fought on the front lines. They put far too much stake into stats and the past. This is war. Anything can happen. The sooner everybody realizes that, the sooner we can start winning the war against Malak" Revan told her. He paused, putting his hand over her mouth when she went to interrupt him.
"Silence; take this one step at a time. We deal with this battle first. After that, we will deal with everything else" he promised. Right after he finished talking, he looked at Meetra and nodded. She looked at the rest of the crew who had been listening to the argument. He opened the main hatch out of the Ebon Hawk and saw that they were only one meter off the ground. He looked back at the crew, making sure that his hood was firmly over his head and he was ready.
Then, he ignited his silver lightsaber and jumped out of the ship, down to the Dune Sea with the rest of the crew following right behind him. Once she got down to join the gray Jedi, Meetra forced Revan to stop his attack before it happened. He reluctantly retracted his lightsaber and nodded for Meetra to follow.
As far as the team went, they decided against attacking those outside the building. Instead, they followed Meetra's suggestion of peace instead of Revan's suggestion of attack. Once they entered, they realized that Meetra's suggestion had been the correct one.
There was a gruff-looking man at the desk in the front of the stronghold. The group stalked toward the desk, Revan in front with Meetra to his right and Bastila to his left, both of them about one half step behind him. The rest of the group followed closely. Overall, they had the look of the most comical battalion the galaxy had ever seen.
Once the group got to the desk, Revan hit the bell and waited.
"What do you want?" the man at the desk asked, refusing to look up to meet Revan's gaze. Revan didn't respond. Instead, he hit the bell again.
"What do you want?" the man asked again, anger seeping into his gaze. Again, Revan didn't respond, only hitting the bell again.
This time, the man looked up. To say that the look on his face was comical would be an inaccurate statement. The man looked up to see the Mandalorian mask that sought fear into many men's souls during Revan's reign as dark lord of the Sith.
"Is this some sort of a joke?" the man demanded, trying to stay calm despite the fear seeping through into his tone. Revan stayed silent, only shaking his head at the fearful man sitting in front of him.
"What do you want?" the man asked.
"You are going to tell me what I want to know" Revan told him, using the Force to urge his suggestion. The man scoffed and shook his head.
"No, I won't" the man said simply.
"You are going to tell me what I want to know" Revan said again, pushing on the man's mind farther.
"No, I won't!" the man said again, not impressed by Revan's attempt to dominate his mind. At that point, Meetra decided it was time for her to intervene.
"You are going to tell me what I want to know" Meetra said, using the Force to urge her suggestion on.
"I am going to tell you what you want to know" the man agreed, his eyes glazing over slightly. Revan looked back at the exiled woman and scowled through the mask.
"How is it that you can always get that to work?" Revan demanded, fitting her with another glare.
"That isn't important right now, Avner. Let's just get our information and get out of here" Meetra told him, turning back toward the man at the desk.
"We have a meeting with the bosses" Meetra told him.
"What time is your meeting?" the man asked.
"It is supposed to start at midday. We were told to just go meet the bosses, but we need directions" Meetra told him, keeping up her push on the man's mind strong.
"Of course, miss. They are already in the meeting chambers. Take the elevator up to level four and walk down the hallway to the end. Go down the hallway to the left and at the end of that hallway, there are double doors. That will be your destination" the man said. After that, Revan started to lead the group to the elevator.
"You never saw us" Meetra told him.
"I never saw you" the man said. Then, after finally releasing her hold on the man's mind, Meetra jogged off toward the elevator, sliding in right as the elevator door closed behind her.
"What's the plan?" Carth asked.
"There are 11 slave bosses that we need to kill. If they are not all there, we will need to find the others" Meetra said.
"What do we do if they are not all there?" Canderous asked.
"Suggestion: might I suggest, master, that we just kill the insufferable meatbags without any other thought. Proclamation: I am sure I could destroy them mentally so badly that they would be begging for their deaths. Query: would I be able to do that, master?" HK said. After the droid said that, Bastila hit Revan on the arm.
"Revan, control your droid!" she snapped. He shrugged.
"HK, you will only attack on my orders. If you attack without me giving the order, I swear, I will have you melted down and made into tools we will trade with the jawas!" Revan warned.
"Statement: you are a very cruel master, but I will follow your orders" the bloodthirsty droid said reluctantly.
"Here's my order for you to follow, HK. You are going to follow Meetra's orders. She is in charge until we are back on the Ebon Hawk" Revan said. Though he said it originally to placate HK-47, but the message was clear. Revan was going to follow the lead of his most trusted general during the Mandalorian Wars.
"Follow my lead. Canderous, Griff, HK, Carth and Zaalbar are going to stand with two or three on either side of the double doors. Mission and Bastila are going to be the slaves we are going to pretend to negotiate away. If we need to fight, they can grab their weapons from Canderous who will be holding them. Revan, take off that mask; you and I are going to negotiate" Meetra said. Revan did so and attached it to his belt, hidden beneath his outer robe.
"HK, when we get to the double doors, do a scan of the room. I have a plan" Meetra told them.
Then, the elevator opened and Meetra led the group down the halls toward the double doors that they were searching for. When HK finished his scan, Meetra looked at it and smiled. She told everybody her plan quietly before they got out of their little huddle.
Once they were out, Meetra looked back at the group and made sure they were ready before leading them into the room where the slave leaders would be waiting.
…
The room was dark and gloomy, a nearly ominous feeling of the coming issue that was bound to come soon. Meetra and Revan led the way into the room and through the Force, they felt the nervousness come from the slave bosses that were in the room.
Carth and Canderous took their places to the left of the double doors while Zaalbar, Griff, and HK-47 took their places to the right of the door. Meetra and Revan took seats at the table in front of the slave bosses. The bosses were in a line with a few on each side of one empty chair.
Once they sat down, Meetra looked up and saw that all but one of the slave bosses were in front of them. She looked at Revan and gave him a disappointed look.
"Thank you for joining us. We would like to ask, however, what it is that you want?" a Zabrak boss demanded.
"We're in the market for some new slaves. One of my contacts has told me that you picked up a batch of new slaves yesterday. We are willing to pay a hefty price if you have what we are looking for" Meetra told them sweetly, tapping her hands on the table idly.
"What is your price range?" a humanoid asked. This one was at the end and did not look convinced by their ruse.
"How about you show us what you have first" Meetra suggested, her soft voice leaving for one of calculating intensity. The bosses did not seem happy with Meetra's response, knowing that she was not going to be easy to scam.
"Hold on, I was informed that you are dealing on behalf of Davik Kang. Davik always knows what he is looking for before he sends somebody to deal with him. Why are you here?" one of the bosses, a twi'lek, asked.
"Well, Davik told us to use our discretion this time. Is that a problem?" Revan asked. By that point, he had figured out what Meetra's strategy was.
"Not at all, as long as you are willing to pay as generously as Davik usually does" the Zabrak told him. Meetra looked at Revan and she nodded. Meetra motioned behind her, telling the group to split up. They did so, leaving Carth, Griff, and Zaalbar at the double doors with Canderous and HK-47 going to the only two other doors, unbeknownst to any of the slave bosses.
Revan then used the Force to close all the windows and once Canderous and HK-47 were in position, he tossed Bastila her lightsaber and tossed a blaster to Mission.
Then, all hell broke loose. Blaster bolts came from all directions, some hitting their targets, some missing wildly. But, as quickly as they came, the bolts ceased.
Throughout the entire time when blaster bolts were flying through the air, Meetra Surik was sitting in her chair, leaning on the rear legs with her feet crossed on the table.
A few seconds after the blaster bolts stopped firing, Meetra stood up and stalked around the table before walking up to the side stairs that led to the desks that the slave bosses were formerly sitting behind. Revan mirrored her motions, going up the stairs on the other side of the desks.
They checked the vitals of each and every one of the slave bosses, and when they stood up, there were scowls on each of their faces.
"All dead over here" Meetra said simply, looking around the room and crossing her arms.
"I found one alive" Revan replied. It was the Zabrak who seemed to be the leader, but still was not seated in the center seat. Revan picked the Zabrak up and threw him over the desks, onto the ground at the feet of Bastila and Mission.
Meetra went to the center desk and called for HK and Canderous.
"HK, do a scan on this desk and disable all threats. Canderous, Revan, try and get some information from him" Meetra ordered, gesturing toward the prone, drooling Zabrak. HK went to the desk and did his scan.
"Statement: threats found and disabled. Query: would you like me to shoot anything else?" HK asked. Meetra rolled her eyes and sent HK down to help Revan and Canderous. The Mandalorian and the former Sith Lord were effectively torturing the information out of the Zabrak, and while Meetra did not care, Bastila was not impressed.
Suddenly, Meetra felt the sudden suggestion in her mind to blow the desk to bits. She shrugged and heard it again. This time, she knew what it was. She glared at Revan heatedly, making him hold his arms up in mock surrender.
"Carth, Zaalbar, Griff, can you get these corpses into a pile? Mission, I need you to hack into this computer for me" Meetra ordered. The three went to piling the corpses without any question, but Mission didn't go right away.
"What? Why me?" she asked in confusion. She was still walking to the computer, fully intent on following Meetra's orders, but it was obvious that she just didn't know why Meetra was asking her to do it.
"Who else would be able to break into a computer with such a highly encrypted password? Mission, from what I saw on Taris, you are an expert with computers and you are our best bet to get into this computer" Meetra told her, putting her hand on the twi'lek's shoulder in a friendly manner.
"What about Rev? Wouldn't he be able to do it easier than me?" Mission asked as she started to work her way through the computer's defenses. Meetra laughed hysterically at that, though she tried to hold it in. It took all of Mission's concentration to keep working on the computer and not to look over at the laughing woman next to her.
"You're kidding, right? A Coruscant granite slug is better with computers than Revan is!" Meetra exclaimed, holding onto the large center chair to keep herself standing.
"Hey, I resent that! I am not that bad with computers!" Revan exclaimed, stopping his interrogation for the moment. Meetra looked over at the reformed Sith lord and shrugged.
"At least a granite slug has enough common sense not to blow up the computer before it gets the information!" Meetra argued.
"One time! I blow up a computer one time and I get branded for life!" Revan exclaimed.
"Well of course you get branded for life! It was the computer on in the most heavily fortified room in Mandalore's stronghold!" Meetra shouted back. Revan groaned and shook his head.
"Just because it was in Mandalore's stronghold doesn't mean that it was going to have his location!" Revan snapped.
"Yet you blew it up before we even had a chance to find out. Where was the sense in that, Revan?" Meetra asked. He gave her a sheepish look before he threw up his arms in defeat.
"I was 16! I was just a kid! I panicked! It's what kids do! Kids are just like that! What did you expect?" Revan asked instead.
"I honestly expected you to at least hold back for a little bit! I mean, come on, Revan. You are supposedly the greatest strategist of all time, and you are often beaten by mere computers. Isn't that a little sad?" Meetra teased, making Revan scowl back at her again. By this time, Meetra had ceased in her laughing.
"What are you saying, Meetra?" Revan asked coldly.
"I am saying, Revan, that perhaps if you practiced with computers as much as you practiced with your lightsaber or as much as you practiced flirting with Bastila, I think you would rival Mission with expertise in computers" Meetra told him, holding back a smile at her comment and Revan's expression.
"Practice flirting with Bastila? I don't need to practice!" Revan exclaimed in shock.
"I rest my case" Meetra said simply. Revan looked at her in confusion and thought back at what he would have said to give Meetra victory in their argument. Then, he figured it out. He groaned and turned back to the Zabrak.
"Let's just get back to work" he muttered. Right then, Carth and Canderous both lost it and started laughing. Meetra joined in shortly after, and despite her focus on trying to hack into the computer, Mission could not hold in her laughter either. Even Bastila had to let out a little giggle at Revan getting utterly humiliated in a conversation.
Though, the little time for happiness did not last very long, since the feeling of still being in enemy territory hit the crew and they went back to work just like that.
"Alright, back to work. Revan, Canderous, what did you find out?" Meetra asked after she noticed that Mission was back to work on breaking into the computer.
"We haven't found out very much. His mind is pretty resilient to the Force, but he isn't immune to physical torture, as most mortal beings are. He doesn't know very much, though. He did tell us that there is a detailed map of the building in all the computers" Revan explained. He had stood up and walked closer to Meetra, leaving the Zabrak alone with Canderous and a vibroblade.
"Not too bad, Revan. Does he know the identity of the last boss?" Meetra asked.
"Not enough to go off of. Apparently the last boss always wears a hood and has a deep gravelly voice. Now, while the Zabrak doesn't know much about him, we did find out something very important" Revan told her.
"What is it?" Meetra asked.
"Apparently, this new boss is on his computer nearly all the time. It supposedly has a lot of priceless information that is really going to help us find him and make sure he doesn't escape. It doesn't seem like this guy knows anything more" Canderous explained, wielding the vibroblade threateningly in front of the Zabrak's face.
"If you can't learn anything more, then just kill him" Meetra said, making the injured slave boss let out a sigh of relief
"Hold on, I think he's hiding something, hoping we will kill him before he has to tell us" Revan said. Unfortunately for the last breathing slave boss in the room, it was right before Canderous slit his throat with the vibroblade.
"No, I don't have anything to hide" the Zabrak hissed. Meetra used the Force and jumped over the desk, making sure she landed lightly next to Canderous and looked down at the injured slave boss.
"You are going to tell me what you are hiding" Meetra whispered, using the Force to urge her suggestion on, using all of her concentration. The Zabrak boss held his head in agony and although he tried to resist it, he still nodded, unaware that his mind was being urged on by the enemy.
"My predecessor told me that he saw some very secret files hidden deep in the computer. The folder is called Touchy Subjects. There is a doubly encrypted password in it. The first password is maunadsrdko. The second password is located in the file Corrupted. Go to the file Corrupted Form, you will find a series of numbers. They are sorted by page, line then letter. I don't know about the 4th number. You have to figure that out on your own. I have no idea what is in the file, but it is doubly encrypted so it must be good" the Zabrak said, a monotone voice.
To say that everybody was stunned into silence would be an understatement.
"That's all we require of him. HK, finish it" Meetra said, turning away before the rust colored droid even had time to raise his weapon.
"Statement: my pleasure" HK said, shooting the Zabrak a few times before stopping, sure that there was only one more slave boss in the universe for them to find.
"Mission, how's it going?" Meetra asked, walking up to the twi'lek.
"Almost there! Almost there! Got it!" Mission exclaimed, backing away from the computer and wiping a few beads of sweat off her brow.
"Download the map to this data pad" Meetra ordered. Mission did so quickly, taking the data pad out and giving it back to Meetra. The Jedi gave the teenage twi'lek another data pad and told her to download all the files. Mission did so and once it was all downloaded, she pulled the data pad out of the computer and handed it to Meetra who handed it to Revan. Revan gave it to HK under the direct orders that the assassin droid had to follow.
"You are going to protect that data pad with the same intensity that you would protect me or Meetra. Understood, HK?" Revan demanded, glaring at the rust-colored droid. The droid gave its acknowledgement and Revan turned back to the group.
"Alright, we have got the information that we came for. Now, we need to get our friends out. This is going to get bloody and it is going to get bloody very fast. I hope you all know that. We will find Juhani. We will find Sarna. We will find Sasha. We will find them or we will die trying. Now, listen up and hear this plan" Revan said as the group started to huddle up to receive their orders for the rest of the battle.
Meetra transferred the map onto each member of the crew's datapads and having them show her their comlinks, just making sure that they would have a way to get in contact and meet up again in case something would go wrong.
Once everything was to her liking, she nodded at Revan. He sighed slightly and looked around at the team. When he spoke this time, his voice was subdued, a far cry from his normal speeches.
"This is going to be our first real test as a team. We all know it will not be our last, because we are going to stop Malak, but that does not mean that getting out of this stronghold will be easy. Now, I want you all to hear me out here. I know we need to get our friends out, but we are in this stronghold to cripple the slave trade. In this stronghold, there are hundreds of slavers and possibly even more slaves. We are here to stop the slave trade, by both freeing the slaves and ending the slavers. Today, starting at the top and working our way down, we will go through every room in this stronghold and either liberate the slaves in that room or we will finish the slavers in the room. By the end of the day, we will have control of this stronghold, the slave trade will be crippled, and we will have our friends back" Revan told them.
After Revan's speech, every member of the crew had fire in their eyes and they were all looking forward to cracking some sculls of the slavers.
Even Bastila, who spent hours attempting to formulate an argument to convince Revan not to invade the stronghold was holding her lightsaber tight and focusing on the task at hand, almost spoiling for a fight.
Bastila suddenly felt the strange feeling of pride, though it wasn't her own. She looked over to see Revan looking at her and smiling.
"Today, we fight not for ourselves, but for our friends" Revan said, looking directly at Bastila. By that point, the entire crew was ready to go save their friends from hell.
…
Author's Note: Alright, first off, I am very sorry that it has taken me so long to write this chapter, but real life got in the way, as I believe it will for the next few months. I guess I should tell you guys what I am going to be doing in the next couple months.
So, next week I start college. This is a new experience for me, since I just graduated from high school in June. There is going to be a lot on my plate starting next week. So, next week, school starts, so I will be in college, working two jobs in theory (I have an offer for a second one that I am nearly a shoe in to get, but I am not certain about it just yet), and also playing tennis (should tryouts go as planned and I make the team).
As you can tell, I will not have much time to write. Just know that I will not give up on this story and it will continue with updates on Fridays no longer than two months apart. I don't know if I can update more than that, but I will try my best, for sure. Just don't forget about the story. I won't quit on it, and I hope you guys won't quit on me either.
Now, let's get onto what is happening in the story. So, we are in the slave trade invasion; I am not really at a loss for where to go for the rest of Tatooine, but I do need a little help from you guys. Now, there is going to be a little cantina party after finding the Star Map, and I need to know some ideas for storylines during the party if anybody is willing to help me out on that one.
And looking forward to the other planets, I could use some ideas too; Kashyyyk, Korriban, the Leviathan, Manaan, Lehon, and the Star Forge. If anybody has any big storylines for that time period in the story, or anything that you think would be a fun idea to put in the story. Tell me, and I will think about putting it into my story too.
So, this concludes the long author's note, and I hope that you all please review even with the update that took longer than usual. So, please review for me and hopefully I will be able to update sooner again.