Innocents of Ryloth
Scene 7
The abandoned city of Nabat, built between high, narrow cliffs.
Nabat was empty. Worse than that – it had been gutted. Dust swirled in the empty streets, gathering in forlorn heaps at the edges of fallen brick and stone; the scarred and wounded homes sat abandoned, doors wrenched off hinges and out of sockets, window grates blasted out. Tattered phreni matelli - the banners strung over the city's pathways, decorated with traditional symbols for peace, prosperity, and harmony – dipped and bowed mournfully in the cool wind. Silence reigned.
Obi Wan could feel the troops' coiling unease. The emptiness was eerie, and the lack of any bodies, of any survivors, suggested a scouring so thorough and brutal that no sentient could possibly be behind it. And none was; he was quite sure. The recon team had reported sightings of droids, tanks, cannon, and more droids, all waiting for them in the citadel's central courtyard.
He could also feel the desperate, starving fear of the villagers themselves. Here within the city precincts, it cried out to him incessantly, a steady lamentation that keened through the Force and begged for rescue. At the edge of awareness, the very walls of the canyon still seeped out terror and shock. The narrow confines of each successive alley gave off a faint toxic echo in the Force. He shut it all out from his mind and focused on the task ahead.
"Nothing, sir," the clone commander remarked. His men followed in loose scouting formation, rifles at the ready, heads turning in every direction – anticipating a sniper attack or an ambush which did not materialize.
"Don't be too disappointed, Cody. I'm sure they'll think of something."
Why did he have to say it? No sooner had the jest been uttered than he sensed it: a rampaging fury blundering its way toward them, a brutish instict-driven whirl of pain and hunger.
"Watch out!" one of the clones warned, hearing the rumble of the impending stampede.
Not droids – animals. Immense, predatory beasts. Obi Wan crouched and gathered himself in the Force, as the monsters came barreling around the curve of the canyon, scattering troops like twigs in a hurricane. They were huge – swollen armor plated bodies, powerful clawed legs in back, tiny grasping limbs in front, their heads all gnashing jaws and small wicked eyes. They looked like a cross between a flea and a gundark.
A detail floated up from recent memory, a bit of information gleaned from his cursory study of Ryloth during transit to the system. Guttkar, the database had said, A native herd animal subsisting primarily by scavenging in the mountainous regions of the equatorial zone. Possessed of a normally gentle disposition, the guttkar indulges in aggressive behavior only during periods of famine.
Yes, well, apparently this would qualify as a period of famine. He sprang aside as one of the gentle scavengers lunged in for the kill, attempting to crush his bones it its slavering jaws. He rolled beneath the legs of the next beast to pounce forward at him. At least these sweet and affable creatures were stupid, he reflected; it was not difficult for him to evade each of their maddened assaults. Glancing up, however, he saw that Cody and his men were not faring so well. Two guttkar fought over the limp form of a fallen clone. The plastoid armor snapped in their teeth like the shell of a crustacean. The troops' sidearms were useless – blue bolts of energy glanced off the monsters' hide in every direction.
"Aim for the eyes!"
"Look out!"
"Fall back!"
Cody was pinned against a wall, futilely pumping blaster bolts into a hulking guttkar as it bore down upon him. Obi Wan reached for his saber, only to find that it wasn't there.
"Blast!" He must have been knocked loose in the course of his evasive maneuvers. Good thing Anakin wasn't here to offer commentary.
He reached out a hand and felt for the guttkar's mind in the Force. It was a simple, frantic and confused point of heat. Oddly, he also sensed a dim web of connection between this beast and its fellows, Obi Wan exerted his own will: come. Follow me, he thrust upon the creatures' awareness. And come they did, turning away from the clones and pacing steadily toward him, making a low purring growl in their throats. They advanced, and he retreated, struggling – but still succeeding – at keeping them all snared in the net of his influence. They followed him, he followed the prompting of the Force, in a weird parade. He backed slowly toward an adjacent side canyon, his new protégés stalking hypnotically in his wake.
"Incredible," Wooley muttered as he passed.
"Quiet, rookie," Cody snapped, no doubt anxious that nothing break his General's concentration.
Obi Wan backed into the side canyon, nothing more than a narrow rift in the walls surmounted by an eroded arch of stone. It was a dead end, making a convenient natural corral. The guttkar followed him deep into its shadows, their dim suspicious minds beginning to rebel against his compulsion. Soon his control would break and they would peremptorily trample him.
"Shoot the bridge!" he called out hoarsely, barely able to issue the command and maintain his tenuous sway over the beasts.
Cody was ready. Well placed shots from the troops' heavy rifles lanced into the stone arch, cracking and disintegrating it. With a catastrophic rumble it collapsed into the canyon entrance, kicking up a blinding cloud of dust. The spell was instantly shattered. Enraged and panicking guttkar surged forward to destroy the puny human who had played the piper to them. Obi Wan jumped clear, running over the animals' backs, launching himself off the canyon walls as the guttkar snapped at his heels, and finally clearing the pile of rubble with a tremendous leap. The monsters, trapped and unable to reach him, roared and hissed in frustration.
When the General practically dropped out of the sky to land crouching on feet and one hand next to him, Cody managed to not even flinch. He did overhear Wooley whisper an awe-struck expletive but decided to let it slide this time. He just handed the lightsaber back to the Jedi – it had been lying on the dusty street a short distance away.
"Thank you Cody."
You would think he had just given the General a hanky, the casual way those words slipped out, but Cody knew better. That weapon was all but sacred to the Jedi.
A metallic scraping sound and a flicker of motion. A sewer grate shifted and began to open. The troops sighted down their rifles, and Kenobi flicked his weapon into life and swept back in a defensive stance. The grate slid aside to reveal a rectangle of darkness descending beneath street level.
"Don't shoot!" the General shouted, waving the men back and deactivating his lightsaber.
A moment later, two white helmeted heads appeared over the edge of the opening and two familiar figures climbed out into the late afternoon sunshine, snapping to attention at the sight of the commander.
Relief flooded through Cody, quickly succeeded by prickling irritation. "Waxer! Boil! Where have you two slackers been?"
The two scouts shuffled about nervously from foot to foot.
"There is an explanation, sir," Waxer insisted.
"We got sidetracked," Boil added quickly.
Up out of the open sewer grate climbed a third person, someone totally unexpected. A little girl – maybe four or five years old. Blue skin, long thin lekku hanging on either side of her head, grimy tunic and head cap. Her large, liquid brown eyes stared at them fearfully, and she ducked for cover behind Waxer's legs. Cody was wordless. This was not the kind of trouble he had been anticipating.
"I think I see what sidetracked you," the General commented sagely. He stepped forward a pace and dropped down to one knee. "Hello, little one," he addressed the tiny Twi'Lek.
She gasped and retreated further behind Waxer.
"She brought us through the tunnels," Boil explained. "Knows her way around them pretty good, sir."
Cody snorted inside his helmet. His best recon scouts had been playing hide and seek with a tail-head preschooler? Just vaping fantastic. But the General seemed intrigued by the clone's statement.
"Lo nallo jan wi'ello?" he tried again, keeping his voice soft and speaking in the girl's native tongue.
That seemed to do the trick. The small creature edged out form behind Waxer, face beaming with pleasure at hearing her own language. Eyes wide, she nodded enthusiastically. "Unee yanna yanna! Ma nerra!" she squeaked at Kenobi.
And there you have it, Cody thought, shaking his head. The Jedi was just plain full of surprises. He made a mental list of Kenobi's known talents: he could leave an impressive swath of destruction behind himself in a battle, move stuff with his mind, see things before they happened, play a mean hand of sabaac, go without sleep for three days running (although you had to admit he got pretty snarky and irritable by the end), tame wild beasts, speak Twi"lek fluently, and who knew what else?
"The girl can lead us through the tunnels to the prisoners," the General translated. "Cody, we will need a diversion."