Chapter 5: Speeders, and Droids, and Jedi. Oh my!
Zar was still pretty upset. Jolly could tell by the way he was clicking his tongue against the back of his teeth every few seconds. It would have driven Nicko crazy, Jolly was sure. But it was so regular that Jolly was making up a little song to go along with it.
Surius is dry. Surius is hot. Surius is boring yet it's got a lot. "Click." We're looking for droids. Droids are looking for us. We better be careful or they'll make a fuss. "Click."
Jolly actually chuckled to himself.
"What's the joke?" Asked Zar wearily.
"Me," said Jolly lightly, smiling broadly within his helmet. He was sure Zar could hear it in his voice.
"Do you often laugh at yourself?"
"Oh, yeah," said Jolly, cheerfully. "All the time."
Zar probably glanced at him with that confused look he had, he certainly let out a confused little breath. But with helmets on it was a bit difficult to tell.
There was the tell-tale whirring sound of an approaching speeder and the two of them flung themselves into the shadows of the imposing peaks above them. Three droids on speeders buzzed past them, looking more like something from a dream with the reflection of the sun on the reinforced chest plates meant for surveillance work.
"We're close," Zar said quietly.
"Yeah," Jolly breathed. He blinked rapidly to engage the binocular function on his HUD. The droids kept going for only a short distance before stopping abruptly. They dismounted and took out some sort of drilling equipment from the back of the speeder and began drilling into the mountain.
A chill went down Jolly's spine.
"They're looking for the ore," Zar said grimly.
Jolly didn't reply. He was thinking hard. Find a positive spin, find a positive spin, he chanted mentally. That was what Sergeant Artemis used to tell them. There was no point in being depressed if it made you useless. So the positive spin to this was...
The speeders.
"Hey, Zar," said Jolly quietly. He wiggled out of his backpack and loaded his Deece. "How would you like a shiny new speeder?"
Zar's grin was obvious in his reply. "Just what I needed, ner vod."
"On three," said Jolly. He carefully lined up the first droid with the crosshairs. "Three...two...one."
On "one", both commandos pulled the trigger. The two droids standing guard fell in tandem. The droid with the drill hadn't even noticed his fellows were dead over the sound of the rock being ground away. He fell less than a second later. Two shots to his chest-plate. A bit excessive but Jolly and Zar hadn't decided who was picking off the last metal-man. Zar was in an obviously better mood as they dumped the droids into the gorge and tied two speeders together so that they could pull the extra speeder along. At the last second, Jolly brought along the drill.
Zar had been fiddling with the navigation system and let out a happy whoop. "I know where they've been!" He said excitedly.
"Excellent," said Jolly. He kicked the speeder to life and heard the satisfying sound of a well-tuned engine. Finally, something he could pilot. "Time for some recon. Any chatter on their comms?"
"No comms," said Zar regretfully. "They must have been using droid to droid communications."
"Ah," said Jolly. He glanced at the gorge. "Let's high-tail it out of here before they realize that they're missing."
"Right." Zar started his speeder and they took off. Zipping past the weird rock formations, deeper into the jagged mountains. Following a dry river bed.
Then a lithe shape detached itself from the mountain and flew down towards them. Zar cursed. Jolly was barely aware of drawing his blaster and tracking the half-falling, half-jumping figure. It landed before them and Jolly was already squeezing the trigger as a blue-purple blade appeared in its hand. A lightsaber.
Jedi. Fierfek.
It was too late, both Zar and Jolly had already fired and the Jedi deflected the bolts harmlessly into the mountains. Zar and Jolly skidded to a halt, the third speeder complaining of maltreatment as if swung a bit on its harness.
"I'm so sorry," the Jedi said. She pushed back her hood, revealing golden eyes and long hair that was braided down her back. "I heard the speeders and recognized the Feeling of clones. I'm afraid I didn't stop to think that the first thing you would do was shoot at me."
Jolly wasn't sure what to say to an apology from a General. Especially one he had just met. But Zar wasn't going to say anything so...
"It's all good, General," said Jolly cheerfully. He automatically pulled off his helmet, used to General Beto's insistence that they do so. Zar hurried to follow.
The lightsaber was powered off and the Jedi came forward with a smile. "I'm glad you recognized the lightsaber," she said. She extended her hand to shake Jolly's. Shocked, he dismounted and shook her hand automatically. Zar looked as if he was about to fall off the speeder from surprise.
"I'm Master Isa Bel-Mart," said General Isa.
"Jolly," said Jolly. "And this lovely specimen with the scars is Zar."
Zar glared at him. But saluted the General all the same.
"Pleased to me you," she said. "Sorry, I have to ask, but are you alone? You're Commandos, right? Where is the rest of your squad?"
"We're waiting for them to come rescue us, actually, General," said Zar regretfully.
"Yeah, they're safely on The Nova with General Mag Liano," added Jolly.
"Beto Mag Liano?" General Isa asked. A smile spread across her face.
"Yes, ma'am," said Jolly.
General Isa actually chuckled. "Then we're as good as rescued already. Don't worry, gentlemen."
Jolly and Zar exchanged glances. She sounded very sure.
"My old Master never leaves anyone behind," she said smugly.
Oh. Thought Jolly. That's why.