Space Wizard

or

Yer a Space Wizard, Harry!

09

We sat around a big table we'd moved into the hangar of the Dying Light—all twenty-six of us, including Upto. While the pilots of Pliskin's mercenary group, Rimward Firmament, wouldn't be participating in the raid they had come along out of boredom and lack of other tasks, given that both our ships were parked on top of a mesa opposite our target for the moment. Most of us were sipping on various drinks as we waited.

Finally, Upto bleeted and the holographic projectors on the table lit up, displaying multiple views from ten separate drones as they approached the facility. Outside, workers used machinery to expose the entrance—they had already found it with their sensors, all that was left was to remove the dirt.

"Send them in," I confirmed for the droid.

"Get to work on that map," Pliskin instructed, and the two pilots left the main table, moving off to a separate table with its own projector, where they prepared to make a blueprint of the facility.

We watched as Upto sent in a pair of drones and cut into the pipe leading in. The patch I'd put on it was cut out and summarily blown off by the difference in pressure. We listened as the wind howled out of the pipe for a few minutes before dying down. Once it had, the drones went in and began scattering as soon as they could.

"That's a lot of zombies," one of the men muttered.

"Nothing we weren't expecting," Pliskin countered. "You all saw the first recording. This just confirms it. Upto, try to see if you can find the entrance."

Whistling an affirmative, the droid began using drones to open those doors it could. Some of them, however, turned out to be locked.

"Camera three. Bring it in closer," Ikari instructed, leaning in for a closer look. After a moment, she nodded and sat back.

"Well?" Exal asked, and the Chiss shook her head.

"Going to need a closer look."

"Very well," the Sith murmured.

Over the next hours, we watched as the drones moved through the entire facility from top to bottom, mapping out the entire thing. A few of the hired workers, brought on as staff for this job to handle cooking and cleaning for the entire group, brought in food and drinks while we worked. Finally, we had what we believed was the finished product—a blueprint tagged with drone footage of every square inch of the facility that my drones could get to.

Looking it over, Pliskin turned to his second in command, who nodded. "We'll start running drills at night," Thena said, and Pliskin nodded. She turned to our slicer, pointing to Ikari. "This means you too."

"Eh?" the Chiss woman blinked, looking up from the blueprint. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, if we're going to be running drills to memorize the layout of the facility, you're coming with so you know where every door you need to slice is by memory."

"Piss," the woman cursed quietly.

"Quit complaining. Almost all of the floors are identical in layout. Only the last three are different. We'll only have to memorize four floor plans."

"I'll join you. I could use the practice," I offered.

Pliskin sent a questioning look to Exal. "When do we want to move?"

"When you feel your men are ready and we have the entry excavated. We have some time remaining."

"Alright." Turning to look at his men, he said, "Separate into four squads. I'll lead Team One, which will consist of myself, our slicer, our employer," he nodded to Exal, then began listing off other people. I listened to the assignments for the other three teams. Team Two led by Thena, Team Three led by the Zabrak, and Team Four led by the Devaronian. I was on Team Two, along with my droids.

"Teams Two and Three will sweep and clear the halls and unlocked rooms. Teams One and Four will follow behind, opening and clearing every locked room as we go. The big threat below means we can't count on our two Sith for anything fancy, so we'll be doing the brunt of the work here. Those of you not on duty, rack out and try to get some sleep. We'll start drilling as soon as the temperature comes down. Dismissed."

""Sir!"" With that, the group of mercs left.

"Alright. Upto, call the drones back—"

"Hold off on that," Pliskin held up a hand. When I sent him a curious look, he said, "I want another look at that thing down there."

Exal made a face. "It would be best not to antagonize it…"

Pliskin considered for a moment before asking, "Do you think it would be an undue risk to send a drone or two?"

"A risk? Yes. Undue… perhaps not," she allowed. Turning to me, she nodded. "Go ahead, apprentice."

I nodded and gestured to Upto. Taking that as his cue, the droid beeped and we watched as two camera feeds came back online and started moving towards the vault. This time, since the drones were all equipped with laser cutters, the droid sent them further down the vent pipe, splitting off in two different directions. Picking two places that looked equidistant from each other, he had the one on the eastern side of the large room start cutting through the vent first. A few seconds later, the one on the west side started.

As soon as they had holes big enough to fit through, the drones immediately rushed into the room. The one on the east side was destroyed almost immediately, catching only a glimpse of something as it was swatted from the air. The second drone, however, made it into the center of the room, perching on duct work along the ceiling and deploying its spider limbs so it could hang upside down and look around.

The drone quickly found the Leviathan, moving away from where it had destroyed the drone on the east side, slithering across the floor to investigate the hole on the west side. It spent a few moments inspecting the hole before moving away and making its way back to the pile of stuff it was nesting on and around. Finally, it settled down and closed its eyes.

"It's big," Pliskin muttered.

"Not as big as tales of other Leviathans," Exal shook her head.

From head to tail, the thing measured about fifty feet. It was basically a big snake, with tentacles and pincers protruding from its body, and those red crystals all along its back.

"What are the crystals?"

Exal and I exchanged a look. Turning back to Pliskin, she said, "At a guess? Kyber crystals."

Frowning, the merc reached up and scratched his beard. "Aren't those the focusing crystals in blasters?"

"And lightsabers," I nodded.

"Why would it…" He blinked. "You said this thing was an engineered bio-weapon. What are the odds that they figured out how to make it shoot blaster bolts or something?"

"No bet," I immediately shook my head.

Exal winced. "Fair, I would say."

"Fuck," Pliskin grunted. "Alright. We've got shields. Energy shields and a couple of big beskar shields for dealing with enemy blasters. So I'm thinking we set up our shields, open up the vault door, stop it partway, to keep the thing from rushing us, then blast it through the door."

"Bad idea," I countered. When he gestured for me to continue, I said, "Yeah, we could all fire through the opening in the door, but at the same time, it just has to pour fire into one hole to keep us pinned down."

"Is it that smart?"

"Leviathans were said to be highly intelligent, though most of them were being controlled by Sith, so how much of that is accurate, I know not."

Pliskin nodded, leaning back in his chair as he considered. "There's only one real way in or out for our people. The moment that blast door starts opening, it's going to know we're there."

"Oh, I would assume it already knows we're here," Exal murmured.

"Either way, it'll be waiting for us."

Flipping back through the recorded feeds, I paused on one from the drones taking the air vents in. After some guessing at the numbers and the physics, I nodded. "I have an idea. I'll send in Doggo, drop it down behind the fucker, and cause a distraction. While that's going on, you breach the door and rush in. Split into groups and try to pin it with fire."

"And then you and I will attempt to subdue or eliminate it with the Force," Exal concluded, and I nodded.

"Yeah. Except for this to work, well, I'm probably going to need to go in after the bot, just to give him a push here and there."

"…Then you'll be going into the room alone first."

"Yeah."

"No."

I sent her a knowing look. "The mission hinges on our ability to distract it long enough for the mercs to pour enough fire into it to put it down. Laser cannon or not, Doggo isn't going to be able to hold its attention for long. With me there, at least we'll be able to hold it until you get the door open." Exal's lips pulled into a frown and I continued, "I'm not trying to pull some kind of heroic sacrifice play. I'm counting on you to come pull my ass out of the fire as soon as physically possible."

"Nn. We… will talk about this later, apprentice." Turning to Pliskin, she said, "Assume you'll have a distraction while the doors open." The man nodded and she looked at Upto. "Turn the camera so we can see the rest of the room."

The droid whistled and the drone camera turned, giving us a view of the rest of the… crypt, as it turned out. Because there, in the back of the room, beneath a statue of a woman was what looked like a sarcophagus with the statue's likeness on top of it.

"That's it," Exal murmured. "The final resting place of Sorzus Syn. Make sure no harm comes to that sarcophagus."

"That's our target?" Pliskin asked, and Exal nodded.

"Everything else in the vault is expendable, as far as my master is concerned. In reality, my apprentice and I are claiming the rest of the contents for ourselves, so try not to damage anything."

"We'll try, but…"

"I understand." Standing, Exal looked at me. "Apprentice. Let us go have that conversation, and then meditate."

My Sith master was displeased, to say the least—and she made her displeasure known. The angry sex was pretty nice, but the meditation and makeup sex after was even better.

I twirled the heavy scythe in my hands, spinning it around in a circle and cleaving through an imagined foe before sweeping it in low and tripping another, a quick swipe passing through where an imagined neck would be. I was getting better with the weapon, but none of the various lightsaber forms Exal was teaching me fit it—at least, not the moves themselves. The mindset behind each, bits and pieces here and there—which Form VI embodied—could be applied.

Basically, I was using the Force, both the light and dark sides of it, to build up a fighting style for it. It was… coming along, but still behind my lightsaber training. Then again, I think that had something to do with my sparring partner/teacher. Or rather, how we fell into sync when we fought. We had figured out that I was learning far faster than I really should be, and when Exal took a step back and watched me work through everything I'd taught her, she realized why that was. I was copying her—step for step, blow for blow, she said it was like seeing herself in a mirror.

"That doesn't seem particularly useful in close quarters."

My eyes swept over the blue form of Ikari as she sat on one of the meditation pillows, leaning against the wall and sipping at a drink with a bowl of date-like fruits in her lap. Continuing with my practice, I answered her. "It's not. But having a fallback weapon for if your lightsaber runs out of juice, or if what you're fighting is resistant to them, or if you just don't want to alert everyone to your presence with a glowing bar of light is just common sense."

"A practical Force user. Will wonders never cease," she murmured, popping a fruit into her mouth using a two-pronged silver fork. "You use blasters as well."

"When you can hit a moving target at the maximum effective range of your weapon with your eyes closed, there's no reason not to. Really, fitting the weapon to the situation is the only thing that makes sense."

"Mm. Speaking my language," the woman murmured, before popping another date in her mouth. "So, I'm curious. Why are you here?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, using the butt of the weapon to pole vault into the air before bringing it back down in an overhead strike that would have pierced the skull of a particularly large critter—like a krayt dragon, for instance.

"Your master is… atypical for a Sith—both her race and her order. Actually, atypical for many in the Empire. Every time I've interacted with her, she's treated me with respect. Like a person. Not an equal, but I don't expect that from 'nobility.' But not like a servant or slave."

"Exal is pretty different, yes," I agreed. "But then, she can see the corruption of the Sith Order and how it bleeds over to the Empire itself."

"Exactly. And you, you're as different from her as she is from them. You're not a Jedi—not nearly uptight enough to be one of them. But you don't fit the mold for a Sith, either."

I reached out to her searchingly in the Force, but she was slippery to grasp onto. "And how would you know that?"

"Been around long enough to have met a few of both," she shrugged, popping another date into her mouth. "You never answered my question. What are you doing here?"

Considering for a moment as I continued fighting imaginary foes, I hummed. "I arrived on Korriban by chance. Met Exal by chance." I snorted softly. "'Chance' in the sense that it was likely Force shenanigans that ensured I landed where I did, when I did, and caught the interest of who I did. We get along and our goals align. Helping her out helps me. Eventually, I'm planning to explore the rest of the galaxy. See the sights. That sort of thing."

"Hmm." The woman sipped at her drink, nodding along.

I was kind of surprised. Outside of talking about the mission, Ikari had mostly kept to herself. She had joined us for meals on the trip to Korriban, but beyond that, she spent most of her time in her quarters. This was the longest one-on-one conversation I'd had with the woman.

"What about you?" I asked, flipping the scythe through a spinning maneuver meant to deflect a blade. I began considering taking a break soon, because while I wasn't that physically tired, I could do with some water and maybe something to eat.

"Oh, I'm in it for the money. And the adventure."

I sent her a curious look. She was quite obviously not telling the truth, or at least not the entire truth. "That's fair. Got any plans for what you're going to do with your share?"

"Buy a ship," she answered immediately. "I need to make a trip back to Ool to finish some business."

"Not familiar with it."

She caught the hint and explained. "It's a forested world to the galactic west of Csilla, the Chiss home world. Lots of farmland, but there are lots of small settlements that have nothing to do with galactic agriculture and are just trying to live their lives. It's… nice. Quiet. A good place to lay low."

A place to lay low. For someone who could hide their presence in the Force. Who wanted to make money, buy a ship, and go back.

"Leave family behind?"

She stabbed a bit harder at the dates, red eyes narrowing as she considered me. After a few moments, she quietly answered, "My little sister."

Nodding, I considered that for a few moments before asking, "So… Are we going to talk about how you know how to hide your presence in the Force?"

Ikari paused in her chewing. "I don't know what you mean."

"You're good about blending into a crowd, or into the background. But when it's just a few people, it becomes pretty obvious that you're making your presence smaller." She tensed, looking ready to leave. "Of course," I continued, seemingly oblivious to her sudden desire to be anywhere else, "Pliskin and more than half his troops are all subtly using the Force themselves. They were probably Force sensitive as children, but were missed by either the Jedi or the Sith, and their talents stunted from what they could have been. But even then, it's still useful. I'd guess it's what's kept most of them alive. Probably gives them a sixth sense about people and situations, helps with aim, that sort of thing."

Ikari relaxed back into her seat and took another sip from her drink. "In the Chiss Ascendancy, being Force sensitive is considered a shameful impurity. Children who display signs of it are not allowed to cultivate the talent. If they do, they're immediately executed. Or they leave. Or they hide."

"Ah," I murmured. "That's… pretty awful, really."

"Quite."

Coming to a stop, I rested my scythe on my shoulder and turned to look at her. "You know, I've never been to Chiss space."

Ikari raised an eyebrow, her lips quirking as she brought her glass to her lips. "Is that so?"

"Mhmm. Well, think I'm going to go grab a shower and something to eat."

I felt her eyes on me the whole way, until I turned down the short corridor to my quarters.

We stood in front of the excavated doors, going through final equipment checks as the sun set and floodlights around the excavation site turned on. The workers were all evacuated back to the town and the servants were up on the mesa with the ships, safely out of the line of fire.

"Ready check!" Thena called, and the mercs began calling, "Ready!" After the merc company finished, she announced, "Company ready, boss!"

"Alright. You three?" he asked, turning to myself, Exal, and Ikari.

"Good to go," the slicer nodded, settling her pistol in her holster.

I looked to Upto, who gave an affirmative beep. "Ready."

"I am ready," Exal nodded.

"Squads, take your positions! We know what's waiting for us on the other side of that door." The group moved as one and set up a firing line, aimed at the door. "Alright, Ms. Ikari. Go see if you can talk that thing into opening up."

"On it," the Chiss woman nodded, making her way over to the control panel beside the door. She had popped it open and had a look inside it the moment it was unearthed, but this was the first time she had tried to do anything with it.

Several tense minutes later, the Chiss woman called, "Got it!" She tucked away her equipment and hurried back from the door as it began to grind open after thousands of years being shut.

Checking the drone feed on the tablet, Pliskin called, "They're heading for the door! Be ready!"

A few moments later, the doors opened enough for the floodlights to spill inside, lighting up the horde of shambling corpses. "Open fire!" Thena called, before taking aim and sending a red bolt downrange.

At first, everything was business as usual. Ten of the mercs opened fire on the zombies walking towards us, blasting holes through them and, in some cases, exploding entrails into extrails in little bursts of flame as the superheated plasma of blaster bolts cooked long rotten flesh and ignited gas pockets. Zombies fell to the ground as more shambled forward.

Then, the first thrill of fear swept through the mercenaries as those zombies that had been shot and fallen down either got back to their feet, or began to crawl forward. Finally, someone on the far left switched from single shots to full auto. "They're not going down! What the fuck?! How do we kill them?!"

That sent the others into a mild panic—that is, until Exal reached out with the dark side of the Force and crushed their fear. Pulling my blaster pistol in my off hand, I swept my hand from left to right, letting the Force guide my aim. Green blaster bolts slipped between mercenaries and found their marks, exploding heads and sending zombies to the ground for good.

"Headshots only!" I called out, pushing out with the light side of the Force, trying to bolster their courage—embolden them, now that they'd seen that yes, the enemies could be put down.

Panic ebbed entirely and the mercenary company became machine-like in their efficiency as they switched from aiming center mass to aiming for heads. I tucked away my blaster as things fell back under control. Beside me, Exal leaned over just a bit, resting herself against my side.

"You did well," she murmured quietly.

"So did you."

She shook her head slightly. "I can't do what you did."

Turning my head, I met her eyes. "Want to learn?"

She considered me for a moment before her pink lips pulled into a small smirk. "You be the master and I the apprentice? Hmm… I think I may enjoy the reversal of roles."

"Looks like they're almost done with the first wave," Ikari announced quietly from right behind us, drawing a frown to Exal's face at the interruption.

"Right. Game faces on," I nodded, before pulling my helmet from where it was latched to my belt and slipping it over my head. Looking at Exal, I asked, "Do you think it noticed that just now?"

"If it did, it isn't coming after us," she assessed. "Just be on the lookout."

"Teams Two and Three, go," Pliskin called, and I moved forward.

"Come on, handsome. Don't leave my side," Thena called with a sexy little grin as I joined her, my droid and bot following, under orders to conserve their ammunition for now. Spotlights mounted on the mercs armor, Upto, and Doggo provided light for those who needed it to see by.

From there, I'd like to say it was a fun run through a dark facility, blowing apart zombie hordes.

It was not.

It was a grueling, methodical march as we walked the halls, going door by door and opening every one that wasn't locked, taking out everything that moved and wasn't us. We moved at a steady pace—unhurried, taking our time to make absolutely certain we cleared everything before someone painted a red X across every door we had been through already. When we came to an intersection in the path, we cleared both sides, then sent drones down both to confirm what was at either end, before picking a direction, clearing it, then going back the other way and clearing that side.

What felt like hours later, but by my eye's built in chronometer said was actually barely one hour, Thena radioed the all clear for the floor. Her people spot welded the doors to the stairs shut so there wouldn't be any surprises and posted a squad to watch the elevator. Then, we made our way back outside to take a short break. Those of us who needed to took a moment to use the facilities. I grabbed a canteen of water and took a moment to roll my neck.

My hood was pulled back and cool hands found their way to my neck. I turned to look, but Thena pushed my face back the other way. "Relax," she said quietly, beginning to squeeze the muscles of my neck. I groaned quietly as she dug her thumbs in. A moment later, her hands took my head and neck and pulled sharply. A brief pain shot up my body, before everything relaxed, then she popped it the other way.

"Better?"

"Oh God yes," I groaned.

"First mission?"

"Pretty much," I confirmed. "I don't really consider that thing on Nar Shaddaa a mission and before that, well… surviving alone in the wilderness isn't really a 'mission,' per se."

"Fair," she nodded. "Don't worry, it'll pass. It's all boredom while you're waiting for something to happen, a few moments of excitement, and then more boredom while you wait some more. You're doing good so far."

"I haven't done anything."

"Not true. Just being there helps. Without you and your master, the fire line would have collapsed and retreated back to the fallback position and we'd have broken out the heavy weapons when we didn't need to. How'd you figure out the headshot thing?"

"The Force," I shrugged, and she scoffed. "That, and when you think about it, the brain is the control center of the body. So of course, if you destroy the head, whatever is animating the body should fail. Unless it's Force magic bullshit, in which case you need the flamer or explosives."

"I see," she said, then patted my shoulders. "Come on, let's go relieve the other squad and let them take a break. Then after that, organize a group to start moving those corpses outside so we can burn them."

Contrary to my expectations, we didn't push all the way down that first night, or even the second, or third. Pliskin was thorough and methodical about the whole thing. We only pushed down a few floors each night, barricaded them by temporarily welding the stair and elevator doors shut, and cleaned them out before returning to the surface.

Exal was getting antsy at this point, but she remained silent on the matter, wanting to make sure that we didn't lose anyone before the end and everyone was fresh and ready to take on the Leviathan. I listened in as she fielded a call from her master and explained the situation—that there were simply too many zombies to rush through the facility without potentially damaging something and maybe collapsing the facility on top of the very thing her master wanted. That shut the other woman up for a time, but we knew the deadline was coming closer and she might just decide to come to Korriban herself. It was unlikely, but possible.

Finally, after seven nights of delving into the depths of the facility, we came upon the last three floors. The true research labs. These were empty of zombies in the corridors, but we still swept through room by room, just to make certain there were no lurking horrors. It was a good thing we did, as I spotted something in the back of one of the labs, hidden away from view.

"What do you think it is?" Thena asked, studying the object secured in a clear containment case.

I shuddered and pulled my lightsaber. "Back away slowly," I warned her, igniting the blade.

"Harry?"

The egg began to throb and she hurried away. I brought the blade down through it, destroying the egg and its contents before getting on the radio. "This is Harry. If any of you see anything that looks even remotely biological, but especially anything egg-shaped, do not go near it. I repeat, leave it alone. Radio in immediately. Over."

A moment later, Pliskin radioed back, "What's going on, kid?"

"Potential bio-weapon."

I felt a bit of fear travel through the group on the floor at that and Pliskin came back with an answer. "Roger that. You heard the man. You see something fishy, don't approach. Call it in and let one of our Sith deal with it."

"How did you—" Thena started to ask and I shook my head. "Let me guess, the Force?"

"Yeah," I lied. Internally, however, I was shrieking in horror.

Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope! Fuuuuck no! Pull back, nuke the planet from orbit, it's the only way to be sure!

So, potential 'Easter Egg' franchise crossover shit is real? Xenomorphs confirmed. What about Predators? I know E.T. was shown in Episode I. What fucking else do I need to worry about in this shit show?

Feeling Exal reach out, I forced myself to calm the fuck down and focus on the job. I could lose my shit later.

Thankfully, we cleared the rest of the floor and the one below with no further incidents. No one found anything weird. Just a bunch of abandoned equipment and computers.

Meeting up at the elevator, Exal asked Pliskin, "What do you think? Push to the Leviathan tonight, or wait for tomorrow?"

Pliskin looked around at his people. "We're ready, boss," Thena answered the unasked question, and was echoed by everyone else.

Looking to me, he asked, "What about you, kid? You in the mood to climb into a duct?"

I pulled a face and nodded. "Sure."

"Alright. Everyone head up to the surface. Take an hour for break, then we'll come back down and take a crack at it."

With that, we all rode the elevator back to the surface. Exal and I took care of our needs quickly and found a quiet place out of the way of the others, before sitting down to meditate for a bit.

Quietly, she said, "I only sensed a moment of intense danger in the Force."

"It was dormant and in a case. I don't think it could have gotten out, otherwise we'd be dealing with a lot worse than zombies. Korriban would've been overrun thousands of years ago if that were the case. No, it's probably just something Sorzus Syn found and kept to study. I want to see any notes she has on it though. Specifically, where it was found. Wherever it was, we need to mark it as unsafe for the Empire and preferably commence orbital bombardment."

What I wouldn't give for a fucking Death Star right about now.

"I see. Well, let us focus on the battle to come, apprentice." Reaching out, she laid a hand on mine.

Nodding, I took her hand in mine and cleared my mind, settling into meditation as our bodies fell into sync.