Soon after the challenge was given, Kane ordered for the shields to the city to be set up as he, Ben, Faleur, and four dozen of his best men gathered outside Blood Bones Grove's walls. And as crews brought portable computers Ben could feel the temperature decrease rapidly, even through his new clothes. He looked up at the amber sky, obscured only by a few thin clouds. But with all the mountains surrounding them, watching the sunset was beyond him. He sighed aloud, then looked down at the hold-out blaster Kane had given him in his hand, the grip fitting perfectly in his palm.
But it was no replacement for his lightsaber. And despite practicing with it for the past hour, sliding it up his sleeve then quickly pulling it to his hand and firing off a few rounds while nobody was near, Ben couldn't get used to it. And he doubted the person Kane had sent to retrieve his saber from the crash sight would get there before the fighting did.
A person on a speeder bike abruptly wisped past him, pulling up next to Kane. Ben smiled as the boy, couldn't have been over sixteen, dismounted his bike and stepped toward his brother, holding out a cylinder in his hand. Sometimes, it was good to be proven wrong. After Kane said something to him, the boy gave a salute and ran off, a broad grin on his face.
Before Ben could take his first step though, Kane was already sprinting toward him. He had changed out of his first wears, which to Ben, looked just like the kind they wear in speeder competitions, now wearing a skin-tight suite like Lexi, all decked out with weapons and devices on his belt. But unlike hers, he had an armored breastplate, with a worn out symbol painted in red that Ben didn't know or understand, but it sure wasn't the guilds. He in turn, gave Ben the same thing, though replaced the breastplate and weapons with a vest he was told could take cannon shots point-blank range.
Kane came to a stop in front of him, only slightly out of breath. "I think you lost this," His brother said, extending the weapon.
Ben took it in his free hand. "Thanks." Ben said with a half-smile. Then, glancing down at his hand, extended the hold-out blaster. "Maybe you should have this back."
Kane looked at it, but shook his head. "No, you keep it." Before he could reply, Kane turned and walked three steps, then stopped and turned his head back at him. "Who knows, it might save your life some day." And he was off, running back to his people.
Ben watched him until he was out of sight, then fumbling the activator stud, a familiar yellow blade appeared. The humming became mesmerizing to him, drowning out the random sounds of machines being setup or people chatting to one another. A pleasant change, but forced himself out of it. Then after glancing around him, began practicing his quick-draw, now throwing his lightsaber into the mix.
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The smell of sweat, oil, machine and fear was strong in Viper's nostrils as he watched while the camp's construction was finishing up.
After finding a pocket of space inside the thick of the mesas, they brought in their main long-range weaponry that didn't require flight, and even Viper could hold back his grin. The three cannons were almost halfway up the mountains when their long firing nozzles stood at a high angle. At their bases, people scurried around like ants, setting up machines or programming the technical algorithms required for firing. The special ammunition would have to be loaded soon.
Viper turned and began striding down the hill he stood on, calling on the Force to keep his balance. He wanted to watch it personally, just to insure the fools did nothing to ruin his plan. When he reached it though, it was already in good hands.
"Move it, you scum!" A soldier in shining crimson armor barked, gesturing at the cannon with one hand. "The enemy will be knocking down our doors any second now. And I want to make sure we can knock them back."
The Sith Lord almost smiled. Altrin always had a tight grip on things. Maybe that is why the other men call him Viper's 'little apprentice' when they think no one's around. Perhaps they were right to assume. He did not have the Force within him, or he truly would be his apprentice. When Viper first arrived on Taren, Altrin was in the detention hold, and was to be executed for speaking out against a commanding officer. Then he killed him. But after feeling the unbridled anger he held and a quick reconnaissance mission to test his skills, he knew there was something that he could work with. Months soon turned to a year, and in that time he trained the man personally, to where he could get him promoted to the rank of supreme commando. And in that time learned that he and Altrin were one in the same. The young man's life had been just as miserable as his, filled with pain, death, and more.
The commando watched his subordinates around him, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword holstered on his back at an angle. Viper made him construct it like a Sith apprentice would a lightsaber; spending days finely crafting each piece to his high standards. But he did it. And forever would his pain, sweat and blood be etched in its blade.
As would be his enemy's.
"Altrin, you're with me." Viper said, passing the commando and heading for his personalized speeder, the Agony, resting in standby mode at the edge of the camp. Altrin followed closely.
Reaching the bike, Viper swung his leg around to its other side and began the startup sequence. Small lights came to life on the few little screens in front of him as Viper pulled a comnlink earpiece from the console, squeezing it into his ear lobe and tried to ignore the thin cord connecting it to the console. A green light blipped on his center screen.
"Ready?" Viper asked, pressing the device's switch in.
"Standing by," Altrin's pitched down voice replied. Viper turned his head sharply and found Altrin booting up his own bike across the camp.
Switching frequencies on his console, Viper spoke again. "Commander, how long until the cannon's ammunition is loaded?"
"Cannon's One and Two are ready to go," A faint young voice said over the comn. "We just need to wait a few minutes for Three to be loaded."
Viper clenched his teeth. "We need that advantage, commander. Fire One and Two as soon we clear the mountains."
"Acknowledged, sir." Switching the frequency back to Altrin, Viper gripped the throttles of his bike and accelerated into the thin path in front of him, with Altrin following closely behind.
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Ben walked over to Kane, lightsaber in hand and blaster on his belt, but stopped as a team of people hefted a pair of portable defense cannons past him. He needed to ask for a little less then a skintight tunic, simply due to no longer being able to fit the blaster up his sleeve. It was like each time he stretched it out, it grew tighter instead of looser. But when he opened his mouth to speak, Faleur ran up behind Kane and beat him to the punch.
"Kane," Faleur said, reaching out and touching his shoulder. The man looked slightly out of breath. "Scanner's picked up something."
His brother glanced back at Ben before following Faleur, already in a full sprint. He glanced around, wondering what to do, and found his eyes stopping on his master, sitting on the dirt with her legs crossed and eyes closed. Ben could see the freshly sown up seams and patchwork on her robes, and felt her presence even through her healing trance. He had disputed her decision at first, saying she wasn't healed enough to fight, even compromising with just staying in the bacta tank for a few more hours, but per the stubbornness of her Bothan heritage, declined his offer and fell into the trance. With few options, Ben ran over to the console Kane and Faleur were huddled around.
On the largest of the three screens, the one Faleur was pointing at, was a basic layout of the field; a massive oval shape consuming most of it, with darkness taking up its edges with green lines crossing across the screen. Just off center in the oval, was a blue spot about as big as Ben's fingernail, with a tiny bright green blip in the middle of it, flashing on and off repeatedly. And barely past the black edges on the opposite end of the screen, were two red dots approaching slowly.
"Speeders?" Kane asked, not taking his eyes off the screen.
"Looks like," Faleur confirmed, following his friend's actions and watching the dots closely.
Kane whipped around, keeping his expression as professional as he could. "Listen up!" His brother barked. "We've got two on bikes heading our way, and probably a battalion after that, so I want those cannons ready to—" He was cut off by the loud chirping coming from the console.
"Hold that thought," Faleur put in. With a press of a small button, the chirping ceased. Ben glanced over at the screen—
And found two more red dots. Double the size of the first and moving toward them twice as fast.
When Kane got to it, his eyes widened and he look back up at the sky. Everyone followed, including Ben, and though they didn't know what it was, they knew it was coming down right toward them.
"Move it!" Kane called out to a small group of people setting up a cannon. They looked up in union, and dropped what they were doing and dived away just before one of the two boulders crashed into it, as the other landed harmlessly a few feet from anyone.
Rocks? Ben thought as everyone but Kane, him, and Faleur moved in closer to the destroyed cannon. For a moment nothing happened, until the rocks came apart at the middle, rising to reveal a series of short firing nozzles that came out. And in a heartbeat, they began firing.
But it was not energy bolts like Ben inspected, instead being shards of steel dipped in what could only be described as liquid-hot magma. They struck everyone close, shooting through their body's to the next one behind them. Ben's head turned instinctively to Gallai, and felt a shiver of shock at the sight his master. She was on her feet, lightsabers blazing and knocking shards away from the Bounty Hunters. And once it appeared the short, yet effective barrage was over, she broke into a full sprint away from the battle and toward the mountains. The two speeders were in view now, and Ben watched as with a flick of her saber, Gallai knocked it down, soon becoming a blur in the distance.
A shiver of danger sense prickled up his spine, and Ben saw the shard a second before it was at Kane. Reaching out to the Force, he threw a shield around him and his brother, causing the shard to bounce off the edge and continue past them.
Kane sharply jerked his head back, and Ben felt a wave of anger like none other. He turned to discover that his shield had protected he and Kane—
But not Faleur. He was slumped over the sensor console, still as stone with the magma-dipped shard dug into the locks of his blond hair. Ben turned, not sure what to say or if to apologize, but Kane was already charging away from him, blaster in hand.
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A blur passed by Viper before he could get his lightsaber free from his belt. He looked back and found the nose of Altrin's bike cut off, the edges still glowing and watched the commando be thrown from his vehicle as it hit the dirt. "Report," Viper growled.
"A Jedi took down my bike, but my suite took most of the impact."
Viper clenched his teeth together. "Just get to the battle."
His mood lightened as he approached the outside of the structure. Mayhem was everywhere; people scrambling to avoid both the shards that shot out, but the small pools of lava the rocked distributed too, forgetting all about the half-completed cannons they were setting up. Viper grinned as he activated one end of his weapon and struck the crimson blade through the head of a Wookie Hunter.
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Faleur's dead. The words kept repeating in Kane's mind as he charged forward with nowhere to go. They all died while I just stood and watched, frozen by my own fear. Well, I don't care who or why, but someone's going to die.
Something hit his foot, almost making him trip, though caught himself at the last instant. Gripping his blaster, he whipped around. But the anger seethed quickly. A boy, the one who'd grabbed Ben's lightsaber, was on the ground holding another young man about his age, a shard buried in his chest. His eyes were closed, but he was still apparently breathing.
"Boss," The messenger pleaded, eyes bright red with dirty tear-soaked cheeks. "Please help him." His lower lip began shaking.
Get over it, He wanted to tell him. My best friend died, so why should yours get to live? Kane opened his mouth to say the very sentence, but stopped himself. His father, Gonab's favorite saying that never rang more truth then now to him: The grief of one should never be passed to another.
But there was nothing he could do for the boy, not under these circumstances. His eye found a discarded blaster slung over a corpse.
"Protect him," Kane ordered, throwing the blaster to the boy, who caught it with both hands. "and the second a medical unit gets out here, flag them down. I don't care how many bodies you have to drag him over to get there."
The boy stared for a moment, but eventually wiped his face with a sleeve and nodded. Returning the gesture, Kane turned and began firing his blaster at the lightsaber-armed man on the speeder bike, oblivious to the hoards of Sith troops pouring out the path of the mountains and heading toward them.
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Gallai extended her arm, and with the flick of a wrist, severed the nose of the second speeder and sent it crashing to the dirt, throwing its armor-clad driver off. Smiling, she sprinted into the thin path they came from, to find herself face-to-face with a squadron of troopers.
Her weapons were moving before she was, batting away bolt after bolt that came at her. But she could take them all, not without help. Two more boulders passed overhead, their shadows going through the troops and her. Gritting her teeth and suddenly reminded of her goal, Gallai ran along the mountain wall, leaving the troopers in her dust.
They let her pass, she knew. It wasn't their mission to capture or kill her. That was fine with Gallai, it meant less distractions for her. It only took her a few minutes to reach the site from there.
Hidden behind her perch, Gallai was able to figure their operating system fairly easy. The three cannons, pointed almost straight up, were launching the rocks, with people scrambling at the bases to get them re-loaded, but it wasn't an easy process. Taking in a silent breath and rehearsing the first line of the Jedi Code, she leapt down.
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Through the screaming, calls for help and blaster shots Ben forced his mind to stay focused and sharp. Turning his head, he took a quick scan of the area. Kane was out of his sight now, and two new people have arrived, one crimson armored Sith soldier fending people off with a sword, the other a lightsaber-armed being on a speeder bike, cutting down Bounty Hunter after Bounty Hunter from his perch. Two more rocks came out from the mountain tops, and Ben swung around.
He reached out and grabbed Faleur's collar. "I'm sorry," Ben whispered as he pulled the body off the console. Stepping in front of the computer, he went to work. Lights flashed across his face as Ben scurried to activate the shield. The system was complex, but he'd seen this kind before, or something close to it, and with the flip of a switch, the purple energy shield came up around the city.
A second too late, though.
The boulders fell into the gap just before the shield beams connected. Ben's heart ached terribly, feeling all the deaths within the walls. He clutched his chest for a moment and staggered forward, catching himself on the console. But forced himself to stand on his own. There was nothing he could do for those people, despite the nagging pain in the back of his mind, but he could help these men outside.
So grabbing the lightsaber from his belt, Ben ignited the yellow blade and charged toward the one on the speeder, realizing on the way that hoards of Sith troopers were halfway between the mountains and them.
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Beneath the speeder, the repulser's screeched as Viper jerked his vehicle harshly to the right, grinning broadly as he did. The Jedi had revealed himself. Though it seemed almost too easy to fend him off. But this one had a smidge more common sense then other Jedi he'd heard of; deciding to halt his wasted efforts on Viper and move on the approaching troopers. Viper's eye caught a glimmer reflecting off Altrin's armor. . .
"Altrin," Viper said hastily. "Jedi on the right flank."
He turned the second the words left his mouth, stopping his attack on a Weequay mid-strike just in time to catch the Jedi's blade on his own. For a moment, his grin fractured slightly, but tightened and grew as Altrin knocked the Jedi's weapon from his fleeting hands. Then, laser fire started coming from the troops. With no cover or lightsaber, the Jedi could only flip over Altrin, making the bolts that would have ended him simply bounce off Altrin's crimson armor as he turned his back to them and make his way to the Jedi as he ran, sword in hand.
Returning his attention to the fledgling hunters below, Viper beamed with pride.
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Red bolts zinged all around the site, forcing everyone, including Kane, to take refuge where they could get it. Crouched behind one of the used-up boulders, Kane rose and shot three times, all in different direction with two of them connecting and causing the unfortunate soldiers to collapse, then ducked back down and began replacing his blaster's ammunition clip. He stopped after pulling it free as something bumped his thigh. Kane glanced down—
And found Ben's lightsaber resting against his lap.
Reaching down and grabbing the weapon, his eyebrow slowly shot up. Abruptly, Kane jerked his head around, his heart racing until he found his brother. Ben was running away from the battle zone, arms flailing with a crimson armored Sith trooper following closely. He finished the re-loading and leveled his blaster on them, but stopped. Kane knew he was likely to hit Ben from this distance instead of the trooper, and without even his lightsaber, he didn't want to risk it.
A scream through the raging blaster fire caught his attention, Kane whipping his head around to see a girl, no older then thirteen, cowering behind a twisted sheet of steel that had once been a console's hull panel across the field from him, calling out for help as her defense was slowly cut down by energy bolts. From what he could tell, she was crying.
Kane wanted to demand why she was out here, but it wouldn't get anything done. He looked down at the hilt, his thumb finding the activator stud and pushing it in. With a Snap-Hiss, the brilliant yellow blade appeared, its almost musical hum drowning out the wretched sounds of battle. He inhaled a breath. This is probably a bad idea, Kane thought to himself, but when has that ever stopped me before?
Releasing his held breath and gripping both the lightsaber and his blaster, Kane jumped from his spot.
The difference between a lightsaber and a sword were astounding, as he was quickly learning. His swings were wide though controlled, and was even able to catch a few of the incoming bolts on the blade and returned the gesture with a few of his own. Kane's mind was constantly at work; having to focus on where the emitter was at all times so he wouldn't hack off a limb with the weightless blade. A minute and a half later, he was there.
The panel was almost completely gone, and Kane found the poor girl on the dirt in the fetal position, sobbing uncontrollably. Upon closer inspection, he saw she was holding her shoulder, with trails of dark blood trickling through her fingers. He leaned it close.
"Shhh," Kane soothed, trying to keep his voice above the raging blasters. "It's okay, it's okay. I'm here." The crying slowed, enough for her to look up at him. Kane gave her the warmest smile he could muster.
"I know this hurts, but the wound can only get worse out here, so I need you to be brave and get inside the city." He pointed at the closed access door across from them.
"But they won't let me in!" The girl shot back, wincing in pain and gripping her shoulder tighter.
Ducking his head from a bolt, Kane dug into his pocket and pulled his access pass out. "Take this," He said, said, waiting for her to take it. "Now they'll let you in. And get that," Kane gestured at her shoulder. "patched up. Tell them Kane sent you. You'll be the first one they treat."
To her credit, she tried to smile. She didn't fully get there, but it still touched him. After glancing at his blaster's ammo reading, he turned back to her. "Go!"
It took her a few second to roll to her feet with the bad shoulder. But once the girl began running for the door with the card in hand, Kane jumped out from the shrapnel gun blazing and lightsaber whirling, trying to draw their fire away from her.
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Making another pass, Viper bared his teeth in a scowl after seeing the Jedi had returned and got his weapon back. After taking a quick glance around the battle field, the Sith Lord saw no sign of Altrin among the blaster fire. Blood boiling in his vanes, Viper went straight for the Jedi, ignoring the hunters and troopers alike.
The Jedi turned a heartbeat before he was on him, raising the lightsaber to block, but it was all for not. Viper knocked the yellow blade away with a single, powerful swing, sending it skidding away toward the charging Sith troopers. Then after shutting down his lightsaber and jamming it onto his belt, Viper reached out and caught the Jedi in a Force-Grip, pulling him to his outstretched hand by the collar.
He struggled, of course, clawing at the muscled arm that grasped him. Until he looked up at Viper. His eyes were wide and pupils were shrunk; burning a bright orange and almost churning like a slow-moving whirlpool. "Sleep," Viper said slowly, gazing into the Jedi's fading eyes.
Viper caught the Jedi as he slumped down, throwing him onto the back of his bike. Kicking back the accelerator, they were off; going for a different path then the one Viper and the troopers came in from. And with a final glance back at the battle, the Sith Lord released his hold on the Jedi for a moment to unleash a flurry of blue lightning at the last remaining tight-knit group of hunters, and watched as each one slumped to the ground, still as stone.
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The explosion wracked Gallai's ears as she plunged her two lightsabers into the base of one of the cannon's, deafening her for a split-second to the energy bolts passing all around her. But shook it off quickly and moved on. A group of troopers blocked her path to the other two cannons, their guns raised and pointed at her.
Raising her sabers, she deflected the bolts as they came, bouncing off her viridian blades and sending them back to her attackers. In less then five heartbeats, the thirteen soldiers that stood in her path had been reduced to two. Both ran, dropping their weapons and calling out 'Retreat' to the panicking techs around the base, pointing blankly at a thin path across from them.
She let them clear, though none came within ten meters of her and her weapons. Once they were out of the way, Gallai moved in on the cannon's.
They stood parallel from each other, just a couple dozen feet separating them. She charged toward the closest one, releasing a lightsaber and sending it spinning toward the other as she leapt and plunged her first saber into the main targeting computer with a two-handed grip.
The screen shattered in a shower of sparks, forcing Gallai to look away as she jumped back, calling her other lightsaber to her outstretched hand without looking. A thunderous boom caught her attention, and Gallai looked up and saw a final boulder fly up past the mountain tops as the cannon's nozzle from which it was fired from fell apart. The other soon followed.
Closing down her weapons, Gallai sighed loudly, taking a moment to draw from the Force to rejuvenate her weary muscles. Abruptly, the healing ended as like a constrictor to a rat, her heart tightened and in the back of her mind, a sensor went off. "Ben!" Gallai yelled allowed, running to the path she came front and calling on the Force to lengthen her strides.
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His heart beating the edges of his ribs, Ben continued to run from the battle, trying to avoid the crimson-armored soldier's blade and ignore his horrible laughing. He paid no heed to where he was running to; just running . . . running . . . and running. Until there was nowhere left to go.
They had reached the mountains, only a wall of rock in front of them with no paths, except for a cave, stretching many feet over them. The bridge of Ben's foot hit something, sending him crashing down to the dirt in front of the cave. But before he could get fully turned around to stand, the soldier had leapt atop him, using his armored shins to pin down his arms.
He raised his sword over his helmet, blade pointed down at Ben with blood trickling down the steel blade, dripping off its end onto Ben.
"Goodbye, Jedi," The soldier said gravely before thrusting the blade downward—
Only to stop centimeters from Ben's nose as a low rumble growl came echoing from the cave. The soldier looked up, and the growl became a full-blown roar, with warm air touching Ben's skin. Something whipped out from the black hole, a blur that reached out and plucked the soldier from atop Ben, pulling him back to its lair.
Ben looked back at the cave, and winced as the screaming ended as soon as it began with a wet crunch. The Padawan threw himself to his feet and began running back to the battlefield consumed with energy-bolts, deciding it would probably be safer there then it was here.
He stopped as another blur blew past him, whipping his hair wildly about. But Ben recognized the sound of strained repulser's, and looked back and saw it was a speeder. And though the driver was beyond his view, the person lying unconscious on its back wasn't. . .
"Kane!" Ben screamed as the speeder scaled up the wall next to the cave, dropping out of sight through a small indent in the rock.
"Kane?" A small, familiar voice asked.
Ben looked down at his body, searching for the source of Lexi's voice and finding the little receiver on his collar. But before a confused reply could be uttered, Ben caught sight of the violet veil over the city dissipating, and allowing a short single fighter to rise up from just behind its great walls. The fighter began to skid away from the city and toward him.
The Padawan caught sight of the boulders already falling from the amber sky. "Lexi, move away—" But it was too late.
A rock crashed through the fighter's wing, leaving a clean hole as it reached full speed. The fighter buckled for a moment before the nose dipped down and slammed against the dirt, bending it up at a vertical angle. It bounced and skidded multiple times, flipping onto its front before coming to a complete stop between Ben and the battle-zone, leaving a trail of machine, wire, and glass in its wake.
"Lexi!" Ben shouted, rushing to get to her.
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The battle was over, and fewer then a dozen remained from the original four dozen. Ben watched as people helped get the survivors to one of the stretchers lied out, picked up or moved debris from the battle, and cover the cold bodies with a black tarp, lining them up with all the others in a group as large as the battle-zone itself. Ben's insides churned from the sight.
He turned to Lexi, lying on a stretcher on the end of the line with cords of fluid and blood being pumped into her as a small device at her side kept track of her vitals. The two worse wounds she had was a piece of shrapnel lodged in both her shoulder and lower shin. It took the medical officer almost half an hour to extract both, and another hour patching her up and injecting the pain medications. Though with the heavy need of doctors, he did not do anything to heal or clean the variety of small cuts that uncanvassed her body. So Ben did it for her, though to him it didn't feel like enough.
Ben looked up at the next cart, occupied by a ragged looking young man with the boy who'd retrieved his lightsaber standing at his side, asleep clutching his unconscious friend's hand. It looked bad for him at first from Ben's glanced in between Lexi's shrapnel removal, though now it seemed he would live to see another day.
Reaching down, he clasped his hand over Lexi. "I'm sorry," Ben apologized, holding back tears. "Kane's gone, and I didn't do anything to stop it." His other hand coiled into a fist. "I ran from the battle, caring more about my life then others; that's not what I should be, and yet I did it."
Ben gripped her hand. "But I promise I'll get him back." He leaned down and gently kissed her forehead before finishing. "No exceptions."
Standing to his full height, he walked off, forcing himself not to look back. The Padawan stopped in the middle of the field, feeling the uneasiness of everyone around him and leaving him be as he gazed at the mountains. The sky was growing darker by the second. It would be night soon, meaning he would have to search the mountain in black.
"It won't be easy," Someone commented behind him. He glanced back at his master, having not seen her since she helped free Lexi from the fighter. But then returned his view to the mountains.
"I know,"
"Are you ready?" She asked, holding up his lightsaber in her hand. He grabbed it from her grasp without looking.
"As ready as I'll ever be." Ben confirmed, clipping the hilt to his belt. Both inhaled a long breath before breaking into a Force-assisted sprint toward the mountains.