"What do we do now?" Are the only words I can say. Loyus and I are in Tara's room in the hospital, overlooking the ruins of the city. The combined power of seven Jedi's that were on Coruscant when the attack began along with the power of Bardo and Tyrik creating a forcefield is the only thing stopping the hospital too from being obliterated.
"Give me a minute." Loyus replies.
I nod. While she is indeed a skilled warlord, she must too be horrified by the destruction Asinis has caused. Her head drops and she cups it in her hands, before swiftly turning around, allowing her robes to flow around her, and walking to the table in the centre of the room.
"Quite simply," she starts, using her arm to throw everything off of the table. "We fight back."
I hesitantly nod; that much was obvious.
"Here!" She grins, flipping an old document over and using a pen to draw out a plan of action.
"If Tarth can use our main ship to distract as many of the fighters as he can, that should just give us enough time to get to the centre of the city and re-activate it's defences. I assume Asinis used an invisible shock wave to wipe them out just before his assault began. Of course, I don't expect Tarth to endanger his life, as soon as he leaves the atmosphere he must activate the ship's invisibility cloaking and forcefield. Of course, that would mean the fighters will realise it's a trap, so we must act quickly."
I'm thrown aback. This might actually work. Of course – I shouldn't be shocked. This is Loyus Montani. Queen of the Rattataki people, renowned as one of the greatest war strategists of our galaxy.
"Got it." I reply, my face beginning to light up.
"I'll probably be more use on the ship."
Loyus and I turn to look at Tara sit up, clutching at her neck as she does so.
"I mean, I'm a spy, I've had much worse injuries than this but..." She grunts and allows herself to drop back into her pillow.
"No, I agree with you." I tell her, and she respectively nods.
"Good, I can't be fuckin' arsed with another fight today."
"Language, Miss Fury!" Oona scurries into the room and instantly begins to tend to Tara's wounds once again. Tara hisses in pain as an antiseptic is applied to her neck.
"Sithspit!" Tara screeches, punching down on her mattress.
Oona sighs and shakes her head, throwing the antiseptic wipe away.
"Sorry for prying in on your conversation, but if I may... I would love to assist you to get back at the Sith for what they have done to my home. I believe I too would be more use on your ship, however..." Oona says, holding her hands together.
She saved Tara's life. Besides, it wouldn't hurt to have a doctor onboard. I instinctively agree.
"Welcome to the team, Oona."
"You all in position?" Tara says through the intercom. She, Tarth, Oona and Mak are all onboard our ship. The rest of us make up the ground team.
"We're ready." Loyus replies to her. We all look out from the window of the hospital as the ship's engines start and it flies into the air. Looks of worry wash over our faces as we wait for the Sith invaders to notice and begin to follow them.
"I hope they know what they're doing." Marduk grumbles, turning from the window. I want to jump to Tarth's defence, saying he is clearly an amazing pilot, but I know it's probably not the best thing to do as I'm clearly more worried than Marduk is.
"Now what?" Charlotte asks, dropping down on to the sofa in our makeshift war room. Loyus walks over to the tables and the rest of us circle around too, waiting for her to brief us.
"It is essential we split up. Two teams must create a viable distraction so that the Sith remaining on the planet do not notice what we're doing." We all simultaneously nod as Loyus continues to explain.
"Beka. You and I will head for the controls to the cities defences. We must be quick. The rest of you will split into two teams and go in either direction. Do whatever pleases you, but keep them away from us and stay alive." Everyone around the table agrees, except for Charlotte.
"Can I not go with you? I know this city like the back of my hand. I'll help you get there quicker than if the two of you were on your own." She jumps in, with a pleading look in her eye.
Loyus considers this for a minute and then swiftly nods, clearly acknowledging that it would be the best way for us to get it done quicker. Bardo is about to speak but is blocked out by the sound of blasters coming from the Sith fighters.
"They've noticed them. Well, that happened a little quicker than we were expecting, huh baldy?" Adriav chuckles, nodding Loyus. Loyus gives her a look of disgust and swiftly walks out of the war room in the hospital, shouting one last line to us as she leaves.
"We must move. Now!"
The second we leave the safety of the forcefield around the hospital we have to duck for cover.
"You little bastard!" Adriav screeches after a blast only just misses her head, pulling out her gun and whizzing after the Sith that couldn't quite get her.
"Poor guy." I mutter under my breath, throwing my hand in the opposite direction to inform the rest of Adriav's team to go after her. Bardo and his team go in the opposite direction, wiping out all of the Sith directly in front of us as they do so.
"Move!" Loyus shouts, rolling out of cover and beginning to run. Charlotte and I follow, drawing our lightsabers in case we're forced to deal with any Sith that our two back-up teams couldn't keep off of us.
"Follow me, I know a shortcut!" Charlotte shouts to us over the sound of blasters, running past Loyus and taking a sharp right turn, jumping over a low wall and dropping to the other side. I instinctively force jump over, landing just in time to help Loyus over and we both continue to follow Charlotte.
"Shit." I groan, as we bump into a group of angry looking Sith. Well, then again, they always look angry. I'm pretty sure it's part of the job description.
Loyus runs past me and does a graceful twirl followed by a less graceful boot to the face of one of the Sith, and finally she blasts him in the head. Charlotte and I put our lightsabers to good use, taking out the blaster users and finally getting ourselves locked into battle with two that are wielding lightsabers. I see Loyus do a roll into cover from the corner of my eye, occasionally popping out to take down a few of the Sith with her blaster.
"Are you-" The Sith begins to talk but I cut him off by almost beheading him, forcing him to duck.
"Stupid, little girl?" He continues, swinging for my legs but I swiftly jump over it and get back into fighting.
"You won't be calling me little girl when I slice through your neck. In fact, you probably won't be saying anything at all." I grin, twirling to lock my lightsaber into his again.
"You'll never stop Asinis. No matter how hard you try." He hisses. I don't appreciate his negativity or his tone of voice, so I take the liberty of stabbing him through the gut.
"We got these ones guys, keep moving!"
I look up to see Adriav's team, composing of herself, Marduk and several of Charlotte's punk friends on top of one of the buildings above us, and they begin to open fire. Marduk jumps off of the roof and lands on top of one of the Sith, crushing him instantly.
"C'mon, Loyus let's move!" I shout, and she quickly follows me as I begin to follow Charlotte once again.
"Follow me!" Charlotte shouts, taking a quick turn into a building. It's empty, so I return my lightsaber to my utility belt. I listen out for any hints that there may be any Sith hiding in here – a footstep, a breath.
But, there's nothing. I'm guessing the Sith decided the best way to wreck havoc wouldn't be to hide out in a random abandoned building.
"This way."
Loyus and I follow in Charlotte's footsteps, through a door and down some steps. I'm about to ask how she knows where she's going, but I decide there are more pressing issues and that is most likely a question for later.
"There are some tunnels that run underneath the city between some of the main buildings. It's easier to live on this planet if you know that." Charlotte grins, continuing to walk down some steps until we finally come to an opening that leads into a harshly lit tunnel. Concrete floors, concrete walls, concrete ceiling, and the bright lights make it feel awfully hospital like. I instantly feel claustrophobia kicking in, and decide walking as fast as I can and getting out of this tunnel as fast as I can will be best for everybody. I guess it's good in some ways though, at least no Sith scumbags will be able to hide in any cracks or crevices and end up jumping out on us.
"Shouldn't take too long. Provided we all go at the pace you're going at."
I'm confused at first as to why Charlotte's shouting, but upon turning around I see my powerwalking has meant I'm at least five metres further down the tunnel than them.
"Sorry," I grin, shrugging my shoulders, "I'm just a little claustrophobic."
"A Jedi, claustrophobic? I thought Jedi's weren't afraid of anything?" Loyus says through a sarcastic grin.
"Yeah, well I'm not any old Jedi. There's a lot of rules they put out that I don't follow." I reply back, giving her a look I like to describe as the 'death stare' which causes the smile to drop off of her face completely.
"I was only kidding with you anyway, maybe one of the traits you did pick up from them is the sincere lack of being able to take a joke." She hisses, walking past me. I roll my eyes because I know there's really no point in arguing with her, unless I want to feel the wrath of a Rattataki warlord, which, at this moment in time I do not. Maybe another day.
"I can't really say I follow many of the rules either. I mean, the day I left the academy I didn't exactly get to serving the order. I came here to find my parents. So far, nothing." I smile at Charlotte as she begins to tell me about herself. It amazes me how similar we are.
"Bardo and I were Padawans until this mission we were sent on." I reply, not wanting her to feel too disheartened.
"What mission?"
I'm surprised for a moment until I remember amidst all the fighting and chaos I never really got a chance to brief Charlotte on what we were doing.
"Darth Asinis is abducting people and forcing them to be a part of his army. I mean, we would have left it to the Jedi master's but they weren't really doing a whole lot. Plus, he's the guy that not only killed my Jedi master, but my parents." My heart drops with my last words. I try to avoid the subject as much as I can but sometimes I have no choice but to bring it up.
"Oh." Charlotte replies. She clearly can tell I don't really want to continue talking about Asinis from there.
"And so we're recruiting a team of the galaxies' most skilled individuals to take him down. Including Little Miss temper tantrum over there."
"Shut up!" Loyus hisses back.
"So, am I on your team now?" Charlotte grins hopefully.
"I guess you are."
"There!" Charlotte shouts, running ahead in front of Loyus to a door.
"It's locked." She cries, desperately pulling on the lock.
"I'll handle that." Loyus replies emotionlessly, nudging Charlotte out of the way and holding her blaster to the lock. And with one blast, the door swings open.
"Sithspit." I groan, as the door swinging open reveals about ten Sith that were clearly put there to stop people like us interfering with their plans. I draw my lightsaber at the same time as Charlotte, and Loyus allows an evil grin to spread across her face.
"Oh, I do love a good fight." Loyus says through her grin, instantly taking down one of the Sith with a single blast. I jump forwards, landing directly behind a surprised Sith, stabbing him through the gut from the back. He drops in a heap, and I look over to Charlotte just in time to see her use her force powers to push the Sith Pureblood she was fighting backwards into several of his allies.
"Nice one!" I shout to her, myself engaging in combat with a female Miralunian. At first I'm overwhelmed by her double-wielding lightsabers, almost being decapitated multiple times, until she just makes me angry and I force blast her backwards into a wall, and stab her before she has a chance to recover. I sense an attack coming from behind me, and I jump just in time to avoid my legs being sliced into.
"Not quite good enough." I sigh sarcastically, twisting with my lightsaber and preparing to slice it into their skull. Unsurprisingly, they sense it and hold their lightsaber up to block the attack. This guy is a male, probably around eighty years old. I'm surprised, the Sith must really be desperate for people these days. What also surprises me is the total lack of facial expression on their faces. Before I have a chance to think about this any further, a blast is shot through his head and he drops to the floor, revealing Loyus behind him holding her blaster out.
"Thought you could use some help." She utters, spinning around and running past the corpses and towards the staircase that leads into the control building.
"Beka! Beka, come in!"
I stop in my tracks as Tara's panic-ridden voice comes through on the intercom.
"I'm here. What's up?" I reply, allowing concern to spread cross my face. Loyus re-appears at the bottom of the staircase and ushers for Charlotte and I to follow her speedily. We don't argue.
"There's nothing more we could do to keep them away from Coruscant. The Sith fighters figured out it was a trap. They're heading back with all weapons armed."
Sithspit.
"Let Adriav and Bardo know to get their teams into cover. We'll be as quick as we can." I reply, running up the staircase as fast as I can. As soon as I'm out of the basement of the building I hear fighter jets firing. I'm thankful that the hospital have the Jedi to protect them, which is more than I can say for my brother and the rest of my allies.
"Bardo, how you holding up?" I say through the intercom as Loyus and I follow Charlotte.
"Er- Look out!"
Bardo's speech is cut off by the sound of a drop followed by an explosion. My heart stops for a second and I struggle to catch my breath, until I hear him breath down the intercom.
"We'll be okay. Just be as quick as you can!" He shouts over the sound of blasters. I breathe a sigh of relief and switch to Adriav's intercom, following Charlotte and Loyus through a door.
"Damn it! I swear if you don't fucking speed up we'll all be dead in a second Beka, get moving!" Adriav screeches before I even have a chance to say anything.
"Just hold up, we're going as fast as we can!" I reply, picking up my pace to run as fast as I can without draining myself of my force powers; I may be needing them shortly.
We come to a room completely filled with glass windows, and before I'm ever through the door a fighter jet spots Charlotte and begins firing. The glass shatters instantly, and Charlotte whimpers before jumping into cover. Loyus and I follow suit, waiting for the guns to overheat.
"Charlotte!" I shout to her, and her head turns to look in my direction.
"When the guns overheat I'll take it down! You and Loyus go put those damned defences back on!" She nods, and then the three of us wait for the blasting to stop.
"Now!" Loyus shouts to me as the blasting cuts off, and I jump over the place I was taking cover in and use the force to fly out of the shattered window into the city and land on top of the fighter. I see through the glass the pilot begin pressing buttons in a panicked frenzy, causing his fighters to spin and swerve in an attempt to throw me off. I draw my lightsaber, clinging on to a ridge in the fighter trying my hardest not to fly off.
"Beka, how long are you going to be, we can't hold them any longer!" Bardo shouts through the intercom, but I'm too flustered to reply.
"Listen you little sithspit, if we die out here my ghost will join Asinis's team and be the one to personally murder you!" Adriav shouts through the intercom seemingly seconds after Bardo. I yell out as I attempt to pull myself closer to the engines of the fighter jet, and draw my lightsaber. The fighter stops spinning for a split second, and I take the opportunity to stab my lightsaber straight through the engines. Alarms begin racing instantly inside the fighter jet, as it spins and begins to hurtle towards the ground. I jump off just before it flies into a building and use the force to propel myself forwards, leaving the fiery blaze behind as I land and roll on to a neighbouring building of the one that just went up in smoke.
Looking around, I quickly see Adriav's team struggling to dodge endless attack from both fighter jets and ground forces.
"Hey Adriav, turn around, you're going to want to see this." I say through the intercom, and her head twists up into my direction. Taking a deep breath, I take a step backwards and allow every last drop of force energy to flow through my body.
I scream as I push my arms forwards, the force flying out of my hands in a huge blast that takes out all of the fighter jets that are burdening Adriav and her team. Marduk too looks up and grins at me, before returning to fighting with the ground forces. The lack of the fighter jets now means Adriav and Charlotte's punk friends can return to aiding Marduk with taking on the ground forces without the risk of getting their heads blown off.
"Nice one, Miss Fenn." She hisses, returning to battle.
I shake off her sarcastic remark and turn away, pressing the button on my intercom to talk to Bardo as I jump from building to building away from Adriav's team who clearly no longer need my help.
"Bardo, where are you?"
"Trying to hold off the fighter jets from the hospital, they broke through the fucking forcefield!" He cries, and it only takes me a split second to jump down off of the building I'm on to stand next to him.
"Thought you could use some help."
The seven other Jedi's that were holding up the forcefield are already occupied with taking on the ground forces along with Or'osson and Tyrik, so it's down to Bardo and I to stop the fighter jet's from blowing up the hospital.
"Loyus, we could really use with you being quick right now." I inform her through the intercom, and I only receive an angry grunt as a reply.
"I can't use the force Bardo, I'm too drained from helping out Adriav." I groan, trying my best not to pass out from lack of energy in general. He nods, and then swings left to use one of his lightsabers to block a blast from hitting the entrance to the hospital. I'm convinced we're doomed. How can two ground-ridden Jedi's with lack of force power take on almost ten fighter jets?
"Need any help?"
Tara's voice comes through the intercom just as our ship appears. It's ten times the size of any of those fighter jets, and she instantly opens fire on the various fighter jets. Through the intercom I can hear Oona, Mak and Tarth cheering her on. In seconds, all ten of the fighter jets in front of us are blown up.
And then, the planetary defences come back online.
The thousands of fighter jets in sight are instantly blown up, along with the rest of them in the areas of the planet we can't see.
"I thought those defences were just for this city." I mumble under my breath, as fireworks of shrapnel begin to rain down on us, as Loyus's voice comes through the intercom.
"You can thank us later. I'll meet you at the ship."
"The Jedi temple has sent aid fleets to help those injured. There will be a service in a few days to honour the dead of today. I personally would like to attend." Loyus informs us all. I nod, looking downwards. I still can't get out of my head the fact that the Sith are recruiting seemingly anyone now. It's running around in my head, as I try to make some sort of sense of it.
"Something wrong, Beka?" Loyus asks me, placing her hand on my shoulder.
"Uh- it's just..." I start, pausing for a moment to clear my throat, "Those Sith we fought in the basement of the control centre... An old man? I just don't get why the Sith would be recruiting just anybody these days."
Loyus's face slowly drops and she takes a deep breath.
"Those weren't Sith. They were part of Asinis's brainwashed army that we took on in that basement. I didn't want to tell you because it may have held you back in your fighting.
Instantly, rage begins to boil inside of me. She knew. We were fighting and killing innocent people and she knew and yet chose to say nothing.
"I'm not surprised you said nothing. It wouldn't be the first time a Rattataki murdered innocent people." I hiss, turning and storming out of the room.
Can you hear the silence?
Can you see the dark?
Can you fix the broken?
Can you feel... can you feel my heart?
Can you help the hopeless?
Well, I'm begging on my knees,
Can you save my bastard soul?
Will you wait for me?
I'm sorry brothers,
So sorry lover,
Forgive me father,
I love you mother.
Can you hear the silence?
Can you see the dark?
Can you fix the broken?
Can you feel my heart?
This chapter was named after Can You Feel My Heart by Bring Me the Horizon.
The latest addition to the team is Oona Thano, the nautolan doctor that has learned to help people; not just by healing, but also by killing bad people.
Uh. So I guess I have some explaining to do. Here goes:
FanFiction deleted a couple of my stories. And like, of course it's always disheartening. This was back in April, and I just felt a bit frustrated. As well as the fact I had to study for my exams, I decided to take a break from the site. I'm back now, and the first thing I did was get back to this story. I expect you to be annoyed, I just hope my apology is enough!
So way back in April before my hiatus *awkward laugh* I asked you: What is your favourite chapter so far and why?
Barrett M107: And my Favorite Chapter? Chapter 5, Hit Me Like A Man - Frankly I just thought it was badass and we got to see a pretty kickass side of Beka and the fighting potential of everyone in a way.
KingOfStories01: Anyway, I liked Hit Me Like A Man. I don't know why, exactly, but just seeing the Jedi and the action was very enjoyable.
Rookie756: Annnnnnnd my fave chapter is Freak Like Me cause its the one Tara was introduced in as well as just having an epic fight scene that involved alll of the characters!
Hazardous by Instinct: I can't really pick a favorite chapter, they're all very, very good.
KjarthofStormhold: As for my favorite chapter, I like all of them really. Favorites are hard to pick for me..
Alice the B-Rabbit: I like Beast Within cause there is an awesome bar fight with two badass characters
Storm229: Favourite chapter... Hmmmm they're all very good, so I don't know :)
So for next chapter, I'm gonna ask you (and hope you all are actually still reading to answer it for me... heh.) Except for Bardo and Beka, out of all the of the characters so far, who do you think would be able to take down Asinis in a one-to-one fight?
Thanks for reading, love you all, until next time (which won't be in like 10 months!) bye! x