Innocents of Ryloth
Scene 8
In the tunnel complex beneath the city of Nabat
The girl's name was Numa. She was almost five years old. She had been separated from her family during the droid siege and had been living in the streets ever since, hiding in shadows and abandoned buildings, sleeping in the tunnels and scavenging for scraps. She was cold, lonely, sad, tired, and very very afraid. Obi Wan managed to gather this much from snatches of conversation with the girl as they made their way through the subterranean passages. He took the lead, and Numa rode in the crook of his arm, pointing the way confidently to the central plaza where her family and the other villagers were being held captive. A small escort of troops followed them, hushed and cautious.
"Na leeni tah fello lekku?" the child asked. What happened to your headtails?
"Ma humani. Ni fello tevi lekku." I'm human. I never had any.
"Oh….tima ronu-eh," she said, stroking his cheek with a soft, pitying hand. Oh, I'm so sorry for you.
He chuckled and the sound seemed to invite other inquiries. Are those nerra behind us your family? ( No…) Why are you wearing droid clothes? (Did she mean armor?) What's that thing? (The lightsaber.) What's this on your face? (Twi'Lek males did not grow beards) Do you have any more food? (Apparently Waxer and Boil had given her their dry rations) Do you have any children like me? No? Whyever not? (Well, that was complicated…)
At length they emerged into what seemed to be a detention area, perhaps a jail in the basement of a courthouse. They were near the prisoners now – Obi Wan could feel the presence of the villagers, and also dark eddies of danger surrounding them in an invisible wall of malice. Numa pointed ahead, to a series of wide shallow steps leading up to the light. Late afternoon light spilled over the threshold and illumined the forms of two droid sentries inside the short passage. One stood guard while the other was inside one of the open cells, cleaning guttkar droppings off the floor with a broad brush.
That has got to be the worst job in the entire droid army, Obi Wan thought idly as he sliced the sentry in half with his saber and used the Force to slam the cell door closed on the unfortunate second droid. It uttered an electronic moan, and Numa shrieked in delight at the proceedings.
"Inden cundina!" she exclaimed, pointing straight ahead. Obi Wan handed her to Sergeant Wheeze for safe-keeping.
"I'll take care of this. You keep her here," he ordered, and then took the stairs three at a time, crouching low in the doorway at their summit. He could make out the wide sunken enclosure of the courtyard, now being employed as a prison pit. Scores of Twi'Leks were held captive within it, guarded by numerous sentinels, both standard and super battle droids. The heavy cannon stood in a ring around the hostages – six massive artillery pieces, with meter-long rounds stacked neatly beside them. On the opposite side of the plaza, a flat headed tactical droid sat atop another assault tank.
That droid was expecting a cunning trick, not frontal assault. Time to prove him wrong. A quick signal to Cody on the closed frequency comlink and he sprang forward into the open, followed by three hand picked clones.
He had met and destroyed five droids in his headlong rush to the captives before their processors could catch up. By then, Cody and his men had rushed the courtyard from a different direction, opening up with everything they had. The droids' comparative threat assessment programming honed in on Cody's group, mistakenly concluding that a full squad of soldiers with blaster weapons was a more pressing problem than a lone madman with a single blade. The droid forces rushed to engage Cody, and Obi Wan leaped into the central pit, neatly severing two more droids and flipping his saber into a reverse grip to cut the binders from the prisoner after prisoner. Waxer and Boil gunned down the remaining droid guards while the Twi'Leks looked on with disbelief and wild hope flickering over their faces.
A group of super battle units descended on Cody's group, showering them with heavy fire from the heavy weapons built into their arms. The clone commander ordered a retreat, and the droids pursued, intent and mindless in their narrow objective.
"The Jedi is freeing the prioners!" a single, unusually perceptive droid called out a few paces away. Obi Wan privately congratulated it for its astute analysis of the situation, and then slammed his 'saber down on its headplate, carving it into two halves all the way down to its legs.
"Waxer! Boil! Come with me!" he shouted, and led the way to the nearest cannon.
We're with you, sir!"
Obi Wan reached the cannon first and swept through the two droids guarding it with his saber. He flung the droid occupying the operator's seat across the courtyard, not bothering to moderate his Force push. The unfortunate projectile careened into a wall far distant. In an instant, Obi Wan was at the controls, moving the targeting icon onto the other cannon.
Waxer and Boil grunted as they heaved the first round into the loading chamber. "Ready, General!"
With a bone-shaking explosion, cannon Aurek 1 and Aurek 2 shuddered and went up in flames. The clones struggled to load another round, and Obi Wan intently shifted his weapon to target Aurek 4. The droids were scrambling to respond; their limited programming did not comprehend an attack from their own long-distance artillery. Aurek 4 exploded in a brilliant plume of heat and flame, and then Aurek 5. Only one more cannon remained, besides his hijacked one.
But his time was up. The tactical droid had figured out what its counterparts could not, and had aimed the muzzle of the ground assault tank directly at the Jedi. Waxer and Boil ran for cover. Obi Wan felt the surge of warning in the Force and jumped as far clear as he could.
The shock wave still sent him tumbling in mid-air and a hard bit of shrapnel caught him squarely in the chest, slamming into the breastplate Anakin had designed and made. He dropped to the ground heavily, winded and bruised, and groggily raised himself on one arm, shaking his head to clear it.
A pattering of small feet by his side and a small voice urgently crying. "Nerra? Nerra!" Numa's small blue hands were on his shoulder, nudging him to get up, move. Half stunned, he barely registered her presence.
A shadow fell across them.
The assault tank loomed above, long muzzle of its cannon trained on him at point blank range. From the top hatch the boxy head and torso of the tactical droid emerged.
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha. You lose, General Kenobi,"it taunted in its flat, synthesized voice.
Obi Wan flung a protective arm around Numa, waited for the cannon blast.
It never came. From out of the safety of the tunnels the Twi'lek villagers came pouring, fists waving and throats giving voice to terrible war cries. They swarmed over the tank and overwhelmed the tactical droid, pounding and ripping at it with wild abandon, vengeance and dark emotions roiling off them like searing heat. The droid's last words before its head was torn loose from its socket were, "Does not compute! Does not compute!"
Obi Wan placed a hand over Numa's eyes, unwilling that a child should stand witness to such a savage display, however justly provoked. He stood, half in shock himself, as the former hostages reduced their erstwhile oppressor to scrap.
The battle was won.