Disclaimer: Copy the last disclaimer, and add it here. I own nothing. All characters and locations is owned by LucasArts and BioWare.
"Man, this place is even more run-down than the Lower City was!" Carth exclaimed astonished, as his eyes took in the sight. Maul could only agree with him, for the place looked like it had been through a rancor and then spit back up again. The tents seemed to be constructed of dirt, and the inhabitants strolled along in the dirt, all of them pale as sheets, for there was no sun. Their shoulders fell low, and they stumbled along, only casting a hasty glance on the two newcomers, before returning to their empty staring at the walls as they bumped into each other. It was eerily silent; something was wrong with them. The despair hung in the air, pressing down on Maul, trying to choke him with its life-depressiveness.
At first no one cared about their presence, but not soon enough two persons came along, claiming they owned the elevator and that it would cost to use it. Maul scared them away with a fearsome snarl, while Carth commented sourly: "Even the beggars are trying to sham you. Unbelievable."
Not soon after, a woman came running up to them, apologizing for the two men's earlier behaviour.
Maul grudgingly accepted the apology, and asked for the village leader, whom he believed to know more about matters of importance than this girl. She was a bit saddened to watch them go, but pointed them in the right direction. Carth thanked her shortly, and then began to walk across the small path clear of dirt with Maul slightly behind, up to the leader, a brown man, whom was also partly pale, for his skin-colour. He introduced himself as Gendar, and he was the one who lead these outcasts from society.
"Have you seen a Twi'lek girl around here? With a large, hairy Wookiee companion?" Carth asked, and sighed with relief when the man nodded.
"Indeed, she and her companion has passed here many times. I believe she did so today. I rarely speak to her, though" Gendar said, his voice old and tired. Bags hung under his eyes, and he stretched with the dexterity of an elephant. "Rukil would like a word with you, I believe. The old man right across from us." With that, he excused himself and pulled back inside his tent, closing the flap behind him. The mentioned man, Rukil, waved at them to come closer, which they did. When they got close, they saw his skin was filled with wrinkles, and a small patch of hair still grew on top of his head, white as milk it was.
"Do my eyes deceive me? Has salvation finally come? No, I cannot speak of this yet, cannot give myself false hope." Rukil's voice was raspy and croaked, fitting with his appearance. Maul had difficulty determining clothing from actual skin. His eyes were filled with a mad shine.
"I need you to do a task for me, stranger. I am Rukil, Wrinkleskin the youth call me. I am 100 years old, and have been searching for… No, not yet. I had an apprentice, whom helped me in my search. She has been lost for some time, and I fear the worst has happened to her. Please, could you help an old man and put my worries to rest?" Maul nodded his agreement, but did not say anything. As he walked away, Carth stayed behind to listen to the old man's tale.
Maul paced toward the large gate, guarded by a man, who carried a pike, but he did not seem to know which end to use, judging by the way he was holding it. A woman stood beside him and wailed to the man, but the man shook his head, refusing to do what the woman asked of him. When he got close enough to hear, he snatched up the woman's begging voice: "Please, open the gate! He is almost here!"
"I- I can't! Not with the rakghouls so close! They'll get inside the village!" the man protested weakly, his hands shaking. Stubbornly, the woman replied: "He will make it." Then she shouted to someone far outside the gate: "Hurry, Hendar! Run! I can hear it coming!" Maul walked up to the gate, knowing that he had to come out somehow, and therefore asked if the gate could be opened. The two people ignored him, as the woman tried to make the man open the gate, while he refused to listen.
Hendar came closer and closer to the gate, and was just a few meters outside when he stopped, waiting for the gate to open.
"Open the gate! Quickly, there isn't much time!" he yelled panic-stricken. From a distance, a growling rose, growing louder for every second. Soon Maul could make out humanoid shapes running toward the unlucky man outside the gate, and quickly went over the situation in his head.
I need to be on the other side. But I won't rescue such a worthless maggot! Should I wait until he has been killed? He pondered for a few more minutes and then backed a few meters away from the gate, hearing the growls of the malicious creatures grow stronger and stronger. The man outside the gate was banging at the gate, but the guard refused to open and even shoved the woman away, so that she would not open the door.
"Open the gate! Please, open it, they're almost here!" Hendar shouted, his voice shrill of panic. The gate guard shook his head, and pushed Hendar away from the gate with the pike, sending Hendar to the ground. Then the rakghouls jumped on him.
Hendar screamed in pain and fright as their teeth teared into his flesh, ripping the meat right off the bone. In a matter of seconds, the screams quieted, and the only sound from outside the gate was the sound of bones being crushed and meat being devoured. The woman who had tried to reach out for Hendar cried and wailed as she ran inside a small tent close to the gate, where her mournful screams rose.
Time to go out, then, Maul thought neutrally, and walked up to the guard, who were staring at the rakghouls outside the gate. When the guard saw Maul, he instantly tried to block the man's path with his pike, eyeing Maul frightened.
"Don't go out! You'll be killed! And the rakghouls will get inside!" he said with a strained voice, his hands slightly shaking as he gripped the pike with whitening knuckles. Maul scoffed, and pushed the man aside, opened the gate and drew his vibroblades.
Smiling savagely, Maul stood poised as the rakghouls approached him. Their hideously deformed bobbing heads dripping saliva from large mouths filled with razor-sharp teeth, their bodies lumbering forward not unlike ape-creatures Maul had seen in his travels.
There were five rakghouls, all of them howling and hissing. As the first one got close, Maul slashed upward, cutting off its head with ease, and then jumped on the second one. He thrust one of his blades into its belly, watching the entrails drip out, and then turned to the third and fourth one, which seemed to cooperate to catch their prey. But Maul was no easy prey, which he proved by cutting off the arms of the third while slashing the throat of the fourth one. But the fifth one had passed unseen, and now pounced on Maul, landing on his back. Throwing himself on the ground, Maul used the horns crowning his head to wound the creature, which howled furiously, and bit Maul in the arm, secreting a slow poison in his body as it bit. The stench of fresh blood was heavy around the beast's mouth, the smell finding its way to Maul's nose. Maul reached out, and pulled the creature off his back, and plunged one blade into the creature's heart. With a gurgle the creature died, bloodied fangs bared.
He slowly fell to his knees, supporting himself with his unwounded arm, as Carth rushed out and grabbed him, pulling him into the village again.
The guard tried to approach Maul, but when he got close, Maul took one of his vibroblades and pressed it against the man's throat, growling at him. Taking the hint, the guard ran away as fast as he could, to avoid Maul's wrath.
"That's a nasty bite there, hero" Carth said dryly and indicated both the wound and the dead rakghouls. Maul merely growled and applied some kolto to the wound, hissing from the sting. Taking some clothes from the backpack, he made some bandages that he tied around the wound.
"I'm ready. Now, we search for that girl of yours," he commanded and dried his blades on a cloth-scrap.
Not more than a mere few meters outside the gate, they ran into a sobbing Mission, who frantically began to pull at their clothes, wailing: "You have to help me! No one else is going to help me, even the Beks won't help me! But you'll help me, won't you? I can't just leave him there!"
Grabbing the panic-stricken girl, Carth held her firmly in place and said soothingly: "Calm down, Mission! What's wrong?"
Tears running down her face, Mission calms down long enough to say that Zaalbar has been captured by Gamorrean slavers, who apparently had been waiting for some time for them to walk into their trap. Then she started crying again, falling into Carths's arms, who held her lightly, whispering encouragingly into her ears. Maul watched as Carth slowly eased away Mission's tears, and realized that he did not understand the complex feelings that emanated from the two.
My Master always said that affection was harmful, that it leads to weakness. I realize now the truth to that statement. Sitting huddled against each other, with enemies close-by, is not the safest thing to do, Maul mused as Carth patted the girl's back, her crying finally subsiding.
Releasing her, Carth looked her in the eye, and then said: "We'll help you find Zaalbar, if you can help us get inside the Vulcar base? Deal?" He stretched out his hand, which she clasped, affirming the deal. Maul scowled at putting his fate in a girl's hands, but did not voice his opinion. Instead he pushed the thought to the back of his skull, promising himself to deal with it at another time.
Then the three of them began to walk, with Mission leading the way. She pointed out a few 'landmarks', in case they would get separated. The wind blew casually, whispering to them.
Suddenly, a group of Sith soldiers, led by one in a crimson-red version of the soldier armour appeared and approached Maul and his allies.
"Civilians? Down here? You better turn around now, or things might get nasty. The rakghouls are vicious!" the leader said to them, but Maul once again flashed his documents, hissing: "My Master gave me all right to be here, soldier. Don't get in my way, or you'll not live to see the next sun-rise on this planet." He put his hands on the vibroblade hilts, to convey his seriousness.
"Oh, I see. Are you here to search for the other patrol? They got lost somewhere south of here. I wish I could go search for them, but my orders stands, even if it means leaving another patrol to die!" the sergeant said furiously. Then he fumbled up a syringe from his pocket, and gave it to Maul, who looked at it questioningly. Seeing his confused look, the sergeant explained: "That is a rakghoul serum. It can cure you if you get infected with the disease. The disease spreads through wounds, so be careful out there." With that, the sergeant and his men left them standing, disappearing toward the village. When they were out of sight, Maul removed his bandaging, and jabbed the syringe into the wound, feeling the icy fluid spreading in his blood, cleansing him from the disease he contracted earlier. Checking the syringe, he saw that there was still enough for two more persons, and then put the cork back over the needle and gave it to Carth, who didn't say anything about what Maul just had done. Luckily, Mission had not noticed, so she only motioned the two adults to follow her.
As they got closer to the entrance to the sewers, Maul noticed a mangled body close-by, grabbing in one hand a datapad. Curious, Maul strode over to the corpse, and removed the datapad. Reading a short snippet of the data stored on the pad, Maul did not hesitate to put it in his backpack.
"Look for datapads, might have some information" he commanded Carth with a cold tone. He then climbed down the rusty ladder leading down to the old sewers.
Mission was already down, impatiently tapping her foot against the floor, arms crossed over her small chest.
"Could you two hurry it up?" she called up to them, which was answered by Carth's gruff reply: "Calm down, kid, we're on our way!"
"I am no kid!" she muttered to herself and turned away from the ladder, staring out over the circular room with the old water drains intact, with several Gamorreans, who luckily hadn't discovered them yet. Then a thud beside her made her yelp in terror, and quickly turned round to be faced with Maul's emotionless face. She slapped him lightly across his face, reprimanding slightly: "Don't scare me like that! It's not funny!" Maul fought down the urge to hit her back, knowing that they still needed her, and that a hit from him would be lethal for her. A few seconds later a grumpy Carth came down the ladder, drawing his blaster when sighting the Gamorreans.
He looked questioningly at Maul who nodded and drew his vibroblades, charging with reckless abandon toward the pig-like creatures. Carth tried to push Mission behind him, but she drew a small hand-blaster and began to fire at the Gamorreans, which earned her a mutter from Carth, who fired his shots with far more precision than her.
Knowing Gamorreans to be clumsy but strong, Maul had no problem defeating the group of Gamorreans, partly because of the blaster bolts that slowed them down, of not taking then down immediately. Those that had been unlucky enough to reach Maul, had been slashed apart by his ferocious attacks.
Cleaning his blade on a cloth taken from a Gamorrean, he motioned the other two forward, as he walked around the large hole in the middle of the circular room, where water from old draining pipes still fell down into the unknown below. The sound was almost deafening.
Knowing that it would be hard to discern any sound in the vicinity of the 'waterfall', Maul slowed down his pace, and straining to hear anything else than the rushing sounds from the falling water.
Judging from the lights fastened to the walls that were blinking in and out of existence, and the many corpses strewn across the halls, Maul surmised that people once had been surveying the equipment in the sewers, to prevent major malfunctions.
A few growls from behind a door alerted Maul to the presence of rakghouls, so he hastily drew his weapons, kicked the rusty door that fell from its hinges, and slaughtered the five rakghouls in the room, that did not have time to react. Then something caught Maul's eyes. A deactivated droid posed in the centre of the room, a combat droid, judging from its appearance. Two blasters were mounted on the large, bulky head, which rested on a smaller frame containing the pistons driving the four legs mounted on the sides of the small metal-frame. A smaller door across the room yearned for Maul's attention, so when Mission and Carth entered the room, he gestured toward the droid, and crossed the distance between the door and himself. This door was slightly more durable than the one he just kicked in, so he drove one of the vibroblades between the door and the wall, and pushed the blade until he could get his fingers, at which point he pulled the door open, his muscles complaining at the unjust treatment, as the door principally had merged with the wall, rust falling off in pieces.
Making a crack big enough for himself, Maul pressed through, and entered a small storage chamber, rusty and leaking. Water droplets fell on his face as he approached a shrivelled body lying in the middle of the chamber, with a large bag pressed tightly to its chest. The mummified person had been a woman, and had been lying there for a year, at the most. Ripping the bag from the corpse's arms, he opened it, and pulled out some old med-pacs, and another journal. He put the journal beside him and then turned the bag upside-down, shaking it, to see if there were other items in it, but only dust came out of the bag. Frustrated, he threw the bag into a corner, took the journal, and pressed himself out the door again.
Mission squealed with delight as the combat droid activated itself, and continued to tinker with it. She managed to make it patrol the area, and shoot at anything that was alive, except for the three of them, and Zalbaar. The droid soon scampered off with loud clunks and disappeared from sight. After a few seconds, they heard blaster shots, and whimpering sounds.
"It worked!" Mission stated triumphantly, while Carth nodded, saying: "Good work, kid."
Immediately she turned on him and said hotly: "I am no kid! What, you think I can't survive out there without Zalbaar? Well, let me tell you mister, I can take care of myself. And I am no kid! I am 14 years old."
"Whoah, calm down there, lady. I try to give you a compliment and you go into a childish tantrum!" Carth retorted, slightly offended by her attitude. Mission almost exploded in fury at the last comment.
"Tantrum! Look, mister, I'm no kid! I don't need to take this!" Carth sighed frustrated, and bit back: "And I sure as hell don't need this. Look, let's just drop this now, alright?"
With growing irritation, Maul looked at his two companions, and then stalked out the room, while the two arguers followed closely, both avoiding looking at each other as best they could. Maul took a sharp right, knowing that the droid had taken that way and probably cleared it from a few enemies. The droid could no longer be heard, but traces of the skirmishes it had been in lay clearly in front of their eyes in the narrow corridor. Smoking bodies of rakghouls and two Gamorreans were the first victims of the droid.
Then Maul heard something; A low growl, like that he had heard many times before from creatures in imprisonment, that had been free before and only wanted to get out. But apparently the others in the group did not hear it, for they did not react to it. Maul followed the growl a few meters, stopping before a door. Drawing his vibroblades, he tried in vain to beat the door's lock, until Mission ran up and picked it, sparing his vibroblades, that already were rather dull from all of the hits in metal and bone they had delivered.
The green-shimmering door quietly opened, swallowed by the wall, giving Maul and his friends an advantage over the Gamorreans across the room, all facing away from the three newcomers. There were five of them, two carrying different axes than the other Gamorreans. They were more beautifully carved, and seemed to have a different balance than the ordinary clumsy Gamorrean axes.
Maul removed a grenade from his belt, a red-coloured plasma grenade, activated it and waited till it were only a few second left of the detonation time. He then threw it, grinning maliciously when the plasma grenade exploded right in the faces of the Gamorreans, ripping their bodies apart, adorning the rusty brown-coloured, water-damaged sewer walls with pink entrails and gore. Mission bent down and wretched at the sight, while Carth only seemed slightly rubbed by the sight. Maul, however, enjoyed the sight, part of him wishing that he could've bathed in their fear and pain as he had when the Force still had been with him.
Then a loud roar made Mission look up, still partly green-coloured around her cheeks, and she shouted happily: "Zaalbar!" She quickly rose up, ran through the remains of the Gamorreans and opened the old door across the room, and was quickly shoved up in Zaalbar's mighty and hairy frame, as he merrily grunted and growled. Mission squirmed in his grasp, and pointed at Carth and Maul, saying excitedly: "Of course I didn't abandon you! These two helped me find you again!" Surprise could be seen in the eyes of the Wookiee, before he put Mission back on the ground, then howled and grunted at the two men, neither of them understanding what he said. Then Mission came to their rescue, and repeated what he had said in Basic.
"He says he will swear a life-debt to you", she said to Maul, who muttered in irritation. "Do you know what that means? That's the most solemn vow a Wookiee can make!" Her last statement was a surprise to Carth, who still didn't quite understand what was going on.
"I have no need for a life-debt!" Maul growled to the Wookiee, who stubbornly shook his head and repeated the same grunt as before.
"Wow, he's serious about this. Well, I guess you're stuck with me too, then."
Well, if nothing else, they could be useful, and if not, they can be cannon fodder. So some use I'll get out of them, Maul thought calculatingly. Any tool that can be used, should be used, until it is completely spent and useless, his Master said. And he'd always been right, so Maul stuck to the old man's advice, for it was one of the things that kept him sane.
"Now, I guess I still owe you a way into the Vulcar base, huh? That was the deal. Don't worry, it is not far from here. Follow me!" Mission began to run, but then hesitated and added weakly: "Oh, I almost forgot. There is a rancor that guards the entrance. I can sneak past it, but I'm not sure about you three." She looked pointedly at them, especially
Zaalbar, who barked offended at her.
When no one said anything else, she sprinted away, trying not to stare at the entrails that slowly slipped down the walls, leaving large slimy paths on the rusty metal texture.
"Well, this is the place", Mission commented as the group stared at the pulsating, humming blue energy field. She quickly entered a code into the small computer panel beside the field, and soon enough the field flickered and died off. Behind it, was a large two-part door, with no lock, so the group of four entered it silently, with Maul now again leading the party forward.
A/N: I finally added this chapter! I won't be able to write anything next week, though, so it might take a while. I've started the next chapter, so I might have something to give in two weeks time. Don't worry, I won't let this story fall down into the dust. I can't, not now. I've put more energy into this story than any other story before. I've never really written a story with such fanaticism.
I can't write anything next week, because a group of Spanish students will come to us in an exchange, and live with us for a week. I won't have time to sit by my computer and write. They will arrive on Sunday, in the evening.