Fallout
Chapter 9
Anakin set his fighter down on a convenient ledge of granite beneath the mountains' jagged skyline. Artoo whistled in annoyance as another shower of toxic precipitation pelted down on them, running in thick rivulets off the droid's dome and the Delta's slanted wings.
"Don't worry, buddy, we'll get you all polished up when we leave," the young Jedi promised his cybernetic companion. Inwardly he smiled. Artoo was a little too proud of his gleaming blue chrome highlights; a bit of tarnishing might teach him a much needed lesson in humility. On the other hand, he couldn't really blame the little astromech. Handsome is as handsome does – that's what they said, and it was true.
He peered upward at the sharp silhouette of rocks above, and launched his cable high among them. The grappling end dug in with a satisfying crunch; a quick experimental tug on the line, and he was ascending rapidly to the distant edge, propelled by the retracting cable and a few powerful leaps off the hard cliff-face. At the summit he flattened himself against the wind-swept rock and fished out the clone-issue 'noculars, designed to fit over a helmet's rounded contours.
It took a few minutes to lock and focus, but when the scanning device did locate movement in the far distance, closer to the coast they had passed over earlier, his heart gave a small lurch. He could make out the crumpled ovoid forms of hard atmospheric pods – oversized escape capsules, almost – littering the floodplains east of the sea. From these, in steady trails fanning out over the intervening space, marched tiny glinting spheres of metal. They fanned out over the floodplain, descended the near side of the mountain in tangled threads, spread menacingly into the wastelands beyond. At such a distance, even with the macrobinocs on highest power, he could make out little more than fat disk-shaped bodies and a tangle beneath, which might be appendages or weaponry, or a mixture of both. Some hovered; others lumbered at a gait suggesting a crustacean's ambling crawl. Probe droids, or hunter-killers. In the hundreds.
"Boshuda," he spat. That was no recon mission. Nobody would waste resources on that scale, just to have a look-see. Dooku knew they were here. How, he couldn't begin to guess. But there was no doubt these little numbers had been sent expressly from the Separatist ranks: only Dooku and his minions could afford the Techno Union's exorbitant prices on avant garde murdering machines.
And you could bet your last lame eopie that these units had full comm. interception capability. Any signal they sent up to the waiting frigate would pinpoint their location quite nicely, and the host of seekers would certainly descend upon their prey before Cody could send in reinforcements. Assuming the Republic frigate could successfully move past the other warship lingering in the system.
He shoved the 'noculars back into their pouch and squinted through the dusking night air. To the naked eye, their robotic pursuers were invisible…but the Force carried a shivering current of warning to him, a cold draught amid the prickling of danger from the ambient radiation. Rhellis Massa was a pleasant place to vacation, that was for sure.
He slid back down his cable in one long rappelling motion, gloves protecting his palms from the damage this would otherwise inflict. His boots hit the dusty gravel at the cliff's base with a small thump. Artoo burbled mournfully.
"Yeah. A whole lot of trouble," he answered the astromech's query. "There's an army of seeker droids down there, scouring this whole region. They'll find us sooner or later, unless Obi Wan has some brilliant way of making us completely disappear."
His mechanical co-pilot responded in a long series of whistles and bleeps, accenting his observations with a few snide remarks. Anakin climbed back into the cockpit, shut the canopy, and lifted the agile craft off the small ledge of rock.
"That did occur to me," he shot back. "It wouldn't be the first time he's led us straight into a trap. Like on Cordovia. Remember that?"
The droid made a very rude noise.
"It was not my fault! You're full of poodoo, you know that?" He slammed the accelerators, and they shot forward, skimming low over the foothills and rapidly descending outside the broken dome of Rhe Bhattu.
Artoo's flippant sputter and blip of reply went unanswered by his companion. Anakin vaulted over the fighter's side and jogged toward the city gates. "Come on," he ordered over his shoulder. The blue and white droid jetted out of his navigator's socket and followed behind, rolling bumpily over the cracked pavement.
The city was cloaked in inky blackness. The few stars visible through the sickly pall of cloudcover gave no light; it was like navigating an asteroid field blindfolded. And in the heaviness of unremitting night, the echoes of the dead multiplied and swelled into a thunderous cacophony. Anakin gritted his teeth and pressed on. He discovered Obi Wan inside the blasted out capitol building, waiting for him expectantly.
"Well?" the Jedi master demanded.
"We've been in worse situations," Anakin informed him.
Obi Wan snorted. "That's poor consolation, my friend."
"True," the young Jedi shrugged. "There's well over a hundred new model hunter-seekers spreading out over the region – they had our entry vector well-marked. I'd say it's a matter of hours before they find us, and I'm sure Dooku has a sentinel fleet in orbit, too. I mean, he'd be stupid not to."
Obi Wan's hand went up to the base of his helmet, habitually, and then dropped away when it discovered that there was a wall of reinforced plasteel preventing any beard-stroking from happening. Anakin smirked behind the privacy of his own visor, although his expression, like the gesture itself, was felt in the Force rather than seen.
"Well," the older man decided. "What shall we do?"
Anakin grinned. He enjoyed their new equality, this easy discussion of options. "We could try strafing runs in the fighters- probably pick off half of 'em before they knew what hit 'em."
"And bring the orbital reinforcements down on our tails? No thank you. I don't suppose you have another scintillating idea?"
"Wait and fight it out on the ground. Plenty of cover 'round here. What's the worst that could happen?"
Obi Wan's silence was sufficient answer.
"Fine. You make the plan," Anakin abdicated all responsibility in the face of such obstreperous reluctance.
"We need more time. There is something else I need to look into here… a decoy to confuse the scouts would be ideal."
"So we'll send the droids out in the fighters. They can attract attention, keep moving, lead the probes on a wild bantha chase."
"That's asking a bit much of mere droids, Anakin, don't you think?"
Artoo's shrill whistle of affront cut through the inky air like a knife.
"Well, your unit might be a bit dull-witted, master, but Artoo here has some pretty rugged evasive techniques down pat, don't you buddy?"
The astromech crooned in agreement.
"Very well," Obi Wan agreed. "Just don't scrap the fighters," he chided the droid. "We haven't any other means of leaving this place."
It was a good thing Obi Wan didn't understand most droid-speak, because Artoo's guttural blorp and squeal did not constitute a polite reply. Anakin decided not to translate.
When the blue-domed astromech had scooted away on his stubby tripod, Obi Wan turned back to the deep interior of the gutted building. "Come with me," he said quietly. "I need your help."
Obi Wan pushed onward through the smothering blackness. If ever there were a case of the blind leading the blind, this was it. A part of him wished that he had come alone; for surely it was unfair to drag Anakin into this weird adventure in which he had no clear goal or understanding of his own purpose ? Another part of him was almost childishly glad to have Anakin's company, for with darkness ahead, darkness pressing in on all sides, and darkness clamoring in the Force and hunting after them in the hundreds, the young Jedi's bright presence was like a reassuring beacon burning in a black storm.
The hallways they traversed now were thick with memory; here many had died, suffocating beneath the fallen supports of the building above. As they burrowed deeper, into basement levels, ducking beneath fallen pillars, crawling through tiny gaps amid the rubble, sometimes widening the gaps themselves, he understood that they trod on sacred ground, disturbed the repose of memories and events which had dwelt here in silence for a century. The flitting shards of the past eddied and swirled in the Force around them, as dust that is stirred up by passing feet.
And then they reached the place. The dead end in the lowest basement, the wall where he had discovered and cut away a heavy blast door, only to reveal a shimmering ray shield protecting a second pressure-sealed hatchway. Against the dull red plane of this energy barrier, the still-glowing edges of the blast doors etched a perfect circle, an open mouth of surprise.
"How'd you know this was here?" Anakin managed at last, his helmet and dark tunics outlined in soft red radiance.
"The Force guided me…it's obviously the entrance to some sort of bomb shelter or bunker. We need to get through that shield."
"We do?" Anakin seemed dubious. "Why, master? What's on the other side? The corpses of a few idiots who decided to die the long, hard way instead of going out with a bang? That hasn't been breached in a century."
Frustration threatened to smother him, just as the close-fitting helmet did. "I don't know, Anakin," he sighed. "It's the will of the Force. That's all. I need to go through, down into whatever lies below."
The younger man hesitated another moment, crossed his arms in imitation of his companion's defensive posture. "So when you decide to rush into the unknown, and justify it as the will of the Force, that's okay. But when I do the same thing, it's reckless imprudence?"
Well, that was obvious. "Yes."
"Right. Glad we cleared that up," Anakin grumbled, unclipping his 'saber and advancing predatorily on the pulsing ray shield.
"Have you forgotten what happened last time you tried to cut through a ray sheild?"
Anakin cast an acid look over one shoulder, its meaning abundantly clear even behind the obscuring helmet visor. "And you never made a stupid mistake at ten years old."
"Besides attempting a mind trick on Madame Nu? Of course not."
"Uh huh." Anakin flicked the saber blade into life, angled it expertly against the energy barrier's pulsing surface. An arc of white light leapt between the plasma blade and the translucent crimson shield. There was a painful snap and sizzle. "Hm." He stepped back, mulling it over for a long minute. "Got it. You do exactly what I just did – create a disruption in the matrix with your saber blade, and I'll locate the control circuit."
"This had better work." He flicked his own 'saber into life and held the thrumming blade close to the shimmering barrier, until a shocking finger of fire snapped out of the red field, connecting with the blade's edge and sending a painful, shuddering jolt up his arm and shoulder. He grunted and held on. The tendril of white fire broadened to a crackling spiral, sweeping round the saber's length, sending up unearthly screeches, worse than two sabers clashing. Teeth clenched, he held the weapon steady, fighting a powerful magnetic current between the two energy sources.
"That's good…keep it up…" Anakin muttered, hands pressed against the stone and metal to one side of the ray shield.
Obi Wan swore under his breath as a tendril of white lightning flickered like a serpent's tongue and sizzled through his gloved hand. "I don't suppose you could expedite the process, Anakin?"
"Patience, master. You can't rush genius."
The energy disruption striating between ray sheild and saber blade leapt and danced, tongues of glaring white whipping out like solar flares, arcing dangerously close. The air smelled of ozone, of hot metal. "Anakin…"
"Got it. I can feel it. It's right –"
The disruption peaked, whirled into a tight implosion of reverse-polarized ion particles, and wrenched the saber out of Obi Wan's hands, simultaneously diffusing into the cold air with a sudden release of kinetic power that sent him slamming backward into the far wall. Breath left his lungs and he sagged against the wall, called the hilt of his weapon back into his hand.
"It's straight through here," Anakin decided. "When the disruption peaked I could feel the generator feedback relay pulsing. We just need to cut through and fry it out, and the shields should drop."
"Carry on," Obi Wan grunted sardonically. "I wouldn't want to get in the way." He rubbed at his bruised ribs and examined his 'saber critically. So help him, if that last power surge had shorted out the power cell, he would do far worse than brand his former Padawan's rump in the dojo.
Anakin's saber plunged through the stone wall at a carefully calculated angle, filling the small space with the hot stink of molten rock. The power cell was not fused, which was a good sign. Noise, as Anakin's assault on the wall reached metal on the far side. Obi Wan snapped the cell back in place, made a minor adjustment. Something cracked and exploded on the opposite side of the wall. Obi Wan's blue blade leapt into brilliant life. The ray shield fell away.
He flicked the 'saber off. "You're a lucky man," he informed Anakin's back.
"There's no such thing as luck," the young Jedi smirked.
They gazed at the exposed pressure hatch together. A simple torque seal was set in the center of the convex metallic dome. A quick manipulation of the Force twisted the locking mechanism apasrt, and with a groan like some tormented soul from the underworld, and a hissing of warm air that buffeted them where they stood, the hatch swung open, bathing them in soft, radiant golden light.
"After you," they said in unison, and then stepped over the threshold side by side.