AN: Okay, first all, I know this hasn't been updated in a long, I think it's been close or over a year. I've been getting over some pretty personal issues and it's changed a lot in my life.
That said, I don't think I could write a story and not finish, which brings us to here. This chapter was different to write for me personally, and it's not one of my longer chapters. I also don't feel like the writer I was, so I don't know how it will translate.
But wither way, here it is. I thought today would be a good day to update, May 4th and all, so here's the next chapter.
"I can't believe you did that." Sabine muttered more to herself than to Dral, trying not to laugh. How he'd won his duel was such a dirty attic she almost couldn't help but find it funny. More from the shock of the fact he even tried it on a woman, and it had actually worked.
She didn't fault him, it was life or death from them and he was losing in a "fair fight", Silri was his better in the fight and she wouldn't have certainly won had he not pulled that stunt.
"Yeah, I'm a real gentleman." He muttered as the Elder's explained what they needed to do.
"You three must travel to base of the mountain." She gestured to mountain in question. "There you will find a cave, in the cave grows a moss that we will need to make your antidote. You must retrieve this moss on your own, then bring it back here."
"Then you'll make the antidote?" Ezra asked.
"Yes, but you must understand, that it may kill you." The elder said.
"Well, that's already going to happen." Sabine muttered "When do we go?"
"Now." The elder said "We don't desire you be here longer than necessary."
"Feeling real welcomed here." Ezra muttered to himself, quiet enough so that the elders couldn't hear him.
"Go now."
The Jungle trek was much harder than Ezra would have anticipated. The air felt oppressive to him, but Dral and Sabine seemed to less affected than himself. When he first notices this, he'd thought it was some sort of failing on his part physically. It was on his soul, in the force. This planets force presence was…generally on the dark side, but what was then that was he hadn't ever been to a planet where the pure essence of the Force just felt heavy.
He'd though Kanan felt it was well. He'd barely been given a chance to talk to his master before they felt, the elders had all but pushed them away. The feeling of being unwelcomed was so heavy, he wondered why they even bothered to give the shot.
There was more to it he thought, but the pure wild nature of the force presence made it much harder for him to feel out the emotions of other's.
Dral and Sabine, he could tell had something going on between them. But that was a far as he could tell. If they were fighting, becoming closer, had both found out some shared secret. He didn't know. He wanted to know, but thought they had more important issues.
Their directions weren't exactly clear, just a general direction and location. How would they know if they found it? He thought that might be another test from them. That's what he thought all these Force based societies did in one way or another, left you to the Force to handle the situation to see if you were worthy.
It was both irritating and comforting at the same time. Irritating in how he just wanted a straight answer, but still the idea that there was some sort design to the actions made him feel like things were going to be alright.
Still though, he felt tired in this area.
"You holdin' up?" Dral's voice came from behind.
"No…I'm fine, I just feel tired , something about the air is draining me."
"Yeah." Sabine cut in "You can see it all over your face."
"The Force here, it feels…wild, exhausting." He sighed and sate on the ground. "I just need to rest."
"Why weren't you feeling this at the village?" Sabine asked.
"I think…I was…a little, but I don't know, now as we get closer to the mountain, the heavier the air feels."
"Are you saying that cave is going to have some Force…voodoo in it?" Dral sneered.
Ezra didn't like it being call voodoo, but that actually hadn't come to his mind. Now that Dral threw it out there, he now was thinking that was the case. If it would be some sort of protective force or just a strong Force area, he didn't know, but given how he was reacting to it now, he wasn't looking forward to it.
Tyber Zann's Flagship
"Sir, we've arrived over Dathomir, your orders." One of his officers said.
This was bad, he'd delayed the ship as much as he could without gaining the interest of the Inquisitors, but he still needed at least to give the Rebels three more days, Minimum. He'd of preferred to given them ten days but his time table had to be moved up. But he couldn't tell them that, and he didn't know if they could sense a ship entering a system.
Urai may be aware and rely the information, but he couldn't count on the maybe. So that left him with one option, direct the forces in a false operation. First, he's taken them to the battle site left over the from the Civil War.
It would likely be abandoned, yet was a reasonable place to set down, it was would make a passible "base camp", and given him a few hours to try and contact Urai and figure out what to do next.
Planet Side Danthomir
"That's an imperial Star Destroyer." Hera muttered at the image Urai showed her.
"Indeed." He responded " Tyber sent me this encrypted message, he will be leading the ship the battlefield from the previous war, from there, he will try to misdirect the operation as much as possible to buy your friends time."
"Well he won't have to try hard." The Witch Silri said as she slunk in from the Shadow.
"How so?" Urai asked.
"Rancor's live in that area now, one the largest herds on Dathomir."
"Still." Kanan added "Even a herd of Rancor won't last long against a full Imperial Battalion." He thought "The heavy artillery alone."
"These Rancor." She said with a smirk "Are not normal. Their armor will resist all but the heaviest blasters. Especially the bulls."
"Bulls?" Hera asked.
"They are two to three times bigger than a normal Rancor, their hide is even tougher and they have large tusks and tails."
"So not something to shake to take lightly." Kanan said.
"No." She muttered.
"What else did you want." Urai said coldly to the Witch and he didn't care for how she just came up to the conversation.
"I want that Bounty Hunter of yours." She said, her voice laced with anger.
"He's not 'own bounty hunter'." Hera said.
"Never the less, I intended to take revenge on him for that humiliating defeat."
"You mean how he punched you in the…" Kanan began but paused, not comfortable with the idea, but then continued "Hit you in the head with that rock."
She just gritted her teeth.
"Your business with him is your own, but you will not interfere on his and other's journey." Urai said. "Fight him when they are done." Silri didn't say anymore but walked off.
"She's going to be trouble."
Imperial Touchdown
The Fog was thicker than he would of thought, but the ground operation was running smoothly. Still, he watched as the Inquisitors and there new…friend walked the perimeter of the camp. He didn't know what they were doing, but it was like they were waiting for something.
As he thought of this, his communicator hummed with and incoming call.
Looking around to see he was alone, which he was, he answered.
"Tyber."
"Urai, how goes the search for the cure?"
"As well as to be expected." He responded "Yet, I must warn you, the area you have set down is dangerous. Rancor are known to inhabit the area."
Tyber considered this for a moment before responding "Thank you Urai, contact me with further update." With that he cut off the communication.
As he did, he thought he might have heard a roar in the distance. This might be a plausible reason to halt further exploration. The environment would be to dangerous to just walk out into it.
He just needed to plausibly feed the idea to the crew to avoid suspicion.
As if on cue, the Crashing came into the Camp. A Rancor, a big one even by the standards of the species, rushed towards the Inquisitors and "The Mountain".
The force users leapt quickly out of the way, the Mountain was struck with such force that it was thrown through the air and into a shipping container, denting it.
Without orders Stormtroopers started firing on the beast. For all the good it did they might as well of thrown stones at it. The hide of these creatures was to thick and tough to be more the superficially harmed by handheld blasters.
Without a proper perimeter defense, it would just run wild in the camp. Looking around he found a mounted blaster and armed it. The larger stronger bolts from this should do some damage.
With the loud shriek from the blaster, and the smell of ionized air, he opened fire. He hit the beast fifteen or twenty times before he realized he was hardly doing any more damage than the smaller handheld blasters.
He'd done some damage it, but it clearly still had a great deal of life in it. IT turned to him, then and charged. He kept firing, knowing he'd never out run it on foot, his only hope was it either kill it or hurt it bad enough that it turned and ran.
Neither seemed to happen. Before he knew it, it was on top of him. He didn't stop, but as it reared up, it suddenly howled and feel back.
At first, he thought he'd hit a vital point, but then he saw it turn and swing, and the creature hand flew away and the beast howled again.
Then he heard a humming and cutting sound and as he climbed down the gun to inspect the scene, he saw the Mountain pulling it's massive vibroblade out of the creature chest, as it bleed to death. Looking at the Rancor's feet and saw one severed at the knee.
The Beast died loudly at first but pattered off and the first them he thought of was "this is where blasters fall short." The blade had lacerated the beast and then when that…thing struck home it was bleed out, rather than the heat dispersing over the hard skin, the solid mass cut deep.
He thought to say something, but the Mountain was already walking back the perimeter. Instead he called out to the men "Hurry up and finish the perimeter."
They didn't respond verbally, but were quick to get back to work.
