Chapter 6

It turns out the nightmare was only beginning. Our weeks of being stranded on this icy rock seemed like a walk in the park compared to what we found inside the building. We crept quietly along towards the nearest light source, and when we got there, I was in shock. We found ourselves on a small balcony overlooking a giant battle droid assembly floor. Not only were we facing an excruciatingly large army of battle droids, but it turns out they had also set up a factory, right here on Mygeeto. Our forces were fighting an infinite army of droids. Row upon rows of parts were strewn across an assembly line literally below the balcony we were crouched on. The three-story high building we originally thought was a base was really just one giant room with some hallways surrounding it. Our men didn't stand a snowball's chance in hell.

Manny broke the silence. "This is bad."

Duh. But someone had to say it. If he didn't, I would've about 2 seconds later. The importance of our mission was now painfully obvious. Either we destroy this factory, or the CIS win the battle on Mygeeto, then the surrounding systems, and eventually the galaxy. This was, indeed, very bad. We had to come up with yet another plan, but we didn't have the luxury of a Republic outpost and trained military strategists to help us. So, we improvised.

There was a strange structure in the center of the factory. It looked like it was pumping and processing molten metal. It reminded me of something from the war history lessons when I was about 5-8 years old on Kamino. Back during the Jedi Civil War, there was a rumored "Star Forge" that took elements from a nearby star's core and used it for manufacturing ships in a relatively short amount of time. It was supposedly what kept the Sith Empire from falling immediately to the overpowering Jedi and the Republic. A man named Revan eventually overthrew the Sith Empire and the Star Forge disappeared into the unknown, restoring peace to the Republic. The reason I remembered this lesson this much was because the Jedi Civil war was the last great war since these so-called "Clone Wars." Anyway, this structure reminded me of the history lessons.

As I watched the device for a while, I noticed a pattern. It collected molten metal, stored it, then when it opened up, the parts were completely assembled, as if it was one piece, just like the ancient Star Forge. Then it collected more metal. But from where? When it dumped the product, all the metal was used. It couldn't have been getting it from any supply convoys or we would've spotted the shipments. There was only one explanation, the molten material was coming from inside the Mygeetian core. That sounded EXACTLY like the Star Forge. Once a Sith, always a Sith, I guess. First the old Sith Empire used the Star Forge, now these Sith that the Jedi Generals are saying control the Confederacy are using something similar. It would also explain the strange prototype tank we fought earlier. No regular factory could probably produce something like that before now, else the CIS would've had tanks like that all over the galaxy.

Okay, so all we had to do was to shut down one machine to save the galaxy from the Confederacy. No pressure.

We were only formulating our plan for about 30 seconds when all of a sudden we hear a metallic voice below yell, "INTRUDERS!" All of us looked down only to see 50 worker droids look up right at the balcony we're crouched on. Various swear words were muttered as sirens started blaring. We jumped up and prepared for the inevitable fight. Two doors on either side of us opened up as battle droids started pouring out. One charged right at me. I dodged the blaster bolts it aimed at my face, and once it was close enough, I grabbed it's chest, flipped it over my head, put a couple blasts through its head with my pistol, and slammed it on the ground. One down, 2,947 to go. I took up a position where I could see most of the oncoming droids and fired away.

As the battle raged on, Zan and Matt had taken up a back-to-back position and were taking droids out with sniper bolts, turning slowly to create a 360-degree killing zone. Not only was Rex taking out tons of droids with his sniper rifle, but he had also mounted his vibroblade the front of it and was using it, quite elegantly, as a very long bayonet. Alex had impressively killed enough droids to create his own bunker, and was currently sniping droids one by one. Manny had joined him and chucked a grenade into the middle of the droids. There was something slightly comical about 30 battle droids flying and flailing through the air in different directions. There was no way this was going to end quickly and easily, and we were starting to run out of ammo. Then there was still the giant "Core Forge" machine problem. I was beginning to doubt our success rate, and our survival rate for that matter. I quickly thought of a plan that would ensure the best survival rate for the rest of my team. But it didn't look good for me.

I jumped into Alex's bunker and drew my vibrosword. Quickly, I carved a hole into the wall and kicked it out. A rush of cold air hit my visor, fogging my vision for a second.

"You two! Get out of here!" I yelled at Manny and Alex.

They argued, "The mission's not complete, yet! We have to stay!"

I saw this coming, I had prepared myself. "You're not staying only to get killed! Not on my watch! Now GO!"

Grudgingly, they jumped out the hole, and landed softly into the snow a story below. Now for the other three.

"ZAN, MATT, REX! COME ON! I'LL TAKE OUT THE MACHINE, BUT I'M NOT LETTING YOU THREE DIE, TOO!"

After getting the same reaction from those three as I did with Manny and Alex, They made their way to the bunker. I didn't see them jump out, I was more focused on my task. I jumped down from the balcony and on to the factory floor, rolling as I hit the ground. Unfortunately, as I came to my feet, a Super Battle Droid was standing right in front of me, wrist blaster aimed at my head. If droids could smile, he would be. Luckily for me, Zan didn't follow orders too well. Instead of jumping in the snow to safety, he followed me and jumped of the balcony, landing right on top of the SBD. I quickly put a bolt through the metal behemoth's head as we both ran towards to machine.

As we were running, I couldn't help but say, "I told you that you weren't going to die with me."

"If MY plan works, neither of us will die," Zan replied. Well, I couldn't say no to that, so we kept running. As we got closer, Zan yelled, "You disable the machine, I'll hold off as many battle droids as I can!" He spun around, skidded to a stop, and starting firing into the oncoming wave. As he was doing so, I looked for a way to disable the thing. I found a control panel on the side, but unfortunately, there was no off switch. That hindered things. As I fiddled with the controls, I realized there was only one way to do this. I pulled out one of my grenades and tossed it into the mouth of the beast. A rumble came from deep within the factory. The whole planet seemed like it was shaking.

"ZAN, RUN!" I yelled as I sprinted towards the factory's main entrance, still constantly firing at our adversaries. We were about halfway there when the explosion hit. The entire factory erupted in a giant fireball as Zan and I (along with a few now broken battle droids) were flung through the air. Even though probably about half my bones were broken, flying through the air was a sensational experience...that is, until I hit the ground. It hurt. A lot. I struggled to look up to see rubble falling back to the earth, the building nearly leveled.

Then, I blacked out.