Padawan Neria Halai – Jack of Trades
The pirates had probably been expecting to encounter a lightly-armed freighter crew. After all, it was what the stock version of the vessel was, just a freighter.
When the smoke cleared and the pirates came through, though, it became very clear that the last thing they had expected was a pair of Jedi and a team of clone troopers.
They fired regardless, blaster bolts cutting through the air between them before Neria and her master deflected them, creating a shield for the clone troopers as they returned fire on the small group of pirates.
Given the size of the vessel that had pulled them in, however, there were plenty of pirates to go around, and even as four fell at the entrance, six moved to take up their position. Neria was left at a loss, deflecting blaster bolts in a flurry of movement as it seemed like every pirate that fell was replaced by two more.
The clones held up well, better trained than the pirates by far. They took no hits of their own, assisted by the two Jedi. Neria's master, on the other hand, still wasn't at his full capabilities, his wound slowing him down.
It left Neria trying to make up the difference, a difficult task to say the least. When he started to back up, she did the same. Behind them, the clones crept back, and Kurik remained at the doorway, getting a shot in whenever he could.
"There are too many, Master!" Neria shouted.
"Then find another way!" he told her. "Reach out, find a solution!"
Neria wasn't certain that he could deflect all their fire on his own, but they'd backed up into a thinner portion of the vessel, leaving the pirates clumped even closer together.
The Twi'lek padawan reached out, looking for something—anything—that would help her defeat the horde of pirates. Her eyes fell on a grenade around the back of a Gamorrean raider, the bulky alien in the midst of the group.
Reaching out to them had been difficult enough, but Master Durel was starting to falter, leaving her returning to the fight to continue deflecting the blaster bolts. By now, there were plenty of dead pirates across the deck, but they only seemed to keep coming.
"I have it, Master, I just need a moment!"
"We don't have a moment!" He ducked, a bolt slicing through the air over his head before he slid behind a strut in the wall. "Fight and use it at the same time, like the rest do!"
A tall order, one Neria wasn't sure she was capable of. Regardless, she kept one hand focused on the blaster bolts ahead while reaching out with the other. It took her some time, far longer than she wanted, but she finally managed to grasp the handle of the grenade, depressing the buttons that would set it off before coming back to herself.
"Take cover!" she cried.
Master Durel whipped around another strut, and Neria followed his example, diving forward and behind a thick metal locker.
The explosion nearly deafened her, blowing debris past her position but otherwise leaving her unharmed but for the force of its blast. Once silence was all that remained, she looked up and down the hall to find the pirates gone and their forces unharmed.
"Hey, stop blowing up my ship!" Dilt yelled from the front.
"We'll pay you for the damages, Captain!" Durel shouted back. "Come, troopers, we must continue to their reactor. Padawan, stay with me at the head."
As they ran, it quickly became apparent that Knight Durel's desire to remain in the lead was both to provide additional security for their little group and to keep the pace at something he could manage. He was still a better fighter than anyone in the team, but he wasn't going to be running quite as quickly or long as the rest of them.
The hangar outside was small, meant for vessels like theirs, and they practically stumbled over the bodies of the fallen pirates as they moved on toward the innards of the vessel. There was no alarm yet; she doubted that whoever captained the starcruiser had thought they would break through the boarding party.
The entire vessel was dark, dingy, and dirty. It was a long cry from the capital vessels of the Republic or even the ships of the Separatists. At least as bad as the droids were, they kept their ships clean and free of the foul odor that permeated the hangar.
Although that could've just been the burning holes in the bodies all around them.
At the next intersection, a trio of pirates swung out at nearly point-blank range, opening fire on the team even before they'd settled into a proper firing stance. The shots were inaccurate, but they were close enough that it didn't matter.
Neria was forced to duck instead of deflect, and Tank leaned out from the side to shoot one as the rest of the clones fired on the other two. The padawan pulled up her weapon and easily managed to deflect the next couple of shots away from the clones to her right, needing to do no more as the other two pirates were gunned down.
A wailing siren blasted through the corridor, an intruder alarm. Finally, the commander of the vessel had realized that something was wrong.
Master Durel stared up at the alarm, eyes narrowed, then looked back at Tank. "Reinforcements from the other starcruiser will be coming," he said, voice a little strained from the effort of the fight. "I will stay with Neria as we try to seize the bridge. You take the others to the control room so you can lock down the hangars and any doors that might see reinforcements trying to stop us."
"Right away, General."
"Uh...what about me?" Kurik asked.
"Go with them. You're probably more familiar with the controls and layouts of vessels like these than anyone else, they'll need you."
The smuggler nodded bravely even as fear creased every line in his face. Neria wished that she could've gone with him to ensure his safety, but with Dreamer and Tank on the team, she was as close to certain as she could get that he would be safe.
Kurik ran to catch up with the clones as they moved down one corridor. Master Durel took a moment to close his eyes, and Neria took up a defensive posture next to him in case something tried to attack while he was preoccupied.
"I've got you covered, Master Durel," she told him.
After a span uncomfortably long, the Jedi Knight opened his eyes and looked down the corridor opposite where the clones had gone. Neria watched as his hand clenched around his lightsaber, turning it off.
"Resistance is lightest that way." Instead of the run she expected, he instead stayed at a steady walk that Neria had no issue keeping up with. "Unless they have droid destroyers, I'm reasonably sure we'll be fine. We decimated half the crew or more at the door to our ship."
"If they have droid destroyers, we'll know they were backed by the Seps, at least." Neria shook her head, the small chain of beads attached to her lekku clinking softly. "I still don't get it, Master Durel. These pirates are simple. They here to make credits however they have to. Even if it disgusts me, it's sensible. I don't understand why the Seps are so determined to be apart."
"They found the Republic too corrupt and cumbersome for their liking, simple enough." They paused at the corner to look around, finding the corridor ahead clear of enemies. "Yet they decided to be apart, and that's what I have difficulty with."
"How so?"
"When you face a veritable fortress riddled with enemies and labyrinthine corridors, is it easier to attack it from without or within? Why leave the Republic when it's easier to change it from the inside?"
"Perhaps they're already on the inside."
"The council has suspected as much, but those are spies, saboteurs, and someone we're having difficulty identifying. I'm talking about those diplomats and governments, though, who would rather go to war than try to solve our differences the political way."
"Then we..." Neria trailed off when she felt something strange, a twisting knot in her stomach forming as she looked ahead. "Master—"
"I know, I was wondering when you'd sense them. You're getting better at this already. Come."
The Jedi Knight took off at a run, and she was right behind him.
It was fortuitous for the two Jedi that the pirates didn't yet realize the magnitude of the threat they were facing. Perhaps they thought the intruders to be mere smugglers who'd gotten lucky with the boarding party, but that wasn't close to what came around the corner.
Neria leaped into action, deflecting a bolt back at its owner before sweeping across another's chest with her saber. Knight Durel was just as quick despite the still-hobbling injury, striking away a bolt before slamming his elbow into the head of one of the pirates.
The raider went limp and boneless next to Neria, knocking into her and nearly stumbling the young padawan, but she deflected another bolt just before it struck her chest and slid out from under his weight.
Only one was left, and her master was sending all of his bolts back against the walls and doors around him but remaining in place. Clearly, he didn't want to kill the man, and Neria was sure he wanted her to do something about it.
Neria reached out to the Force, feeling it slowly envelop her in its warmth without the assistance of her anger, tension, or fear. She felt the heat of the enemy's weapon and the energy it violently expended with each bolt. She willed the blaster to her, and the weapon flew from the pirate's hand and into hers.
He stumbled back, not sure what he could do with just his fists, and he surprised both Jedi when he lurched forward to engage Knight Durel in hand-to-hand combat.
Still, it wasn't enough of a shock to catch the Jedi Knight flat-footed. He caught the pirate's punch, then seized him by the shoulder and slammed him into the wall. The pirate recovered unsteadily, but by then, Knight Durel was already reaching out to shove him into the metal of the wall headfirst.
As the pirate slid to the ground unconscious, Neria's master turned to her. There was a mischievous glimmer in his eyes.
"That was well done, Padawan," he told her. "I was hoping you'd find a way to disarm him. You truly are learning quickly."
"Thank you, Master. I think we're probably close."
"Me too." He pointed to a door. "Let's get that open, we can take a shortcut through their reactor."
The two of them had to work together, drawing on the Force to grasp at the center of the heavy door to pull it open.
A whine, and a blaster bolt sliced through the air next to her. The Jedi Knight slipped through the opening, deflecting the blaster fire away from the door immediately. Neria was left to struggle, keeping the door open while trying to shimmy through herself. Moving and utilizing the Force was a difficult balance, but her master gave her the time she needed to figure it out.
The next room was an expansive set of platforms at each of the large reactors required to keep the ship moving and jumping through hyperspace. A trio of enemies were positioned around the room, up high and on the platforms.
Neria had seen Jedi Knights in combat plenty of times, and she knew what she had to do, what Knight Durel would want her to do.
She gathered the Force under her, crouched low, and jumped, using the accrued power to propel her to lengths that no amount of muscle ever could. She landed on the platform right in front of one of the opponents, slicing through his weapon and hand both. As he dropped, crying out in pain, she turned around the reactor to keep her out of the line of fire.
She didn't know if she could jump again, now that both combatants were focused on her. Instead, she settled on another trick she'd seen.
Throwing a lightsaber wasn't quite as easy as jumping, requiring a combination of muscle and using the force to both propel the weapon and make it land. Many preferred to spin theirs in an arc, but Neria merely used it like a spear, sending it rocketing across the room and through the chest of the second pirate.
And by the time she called her weapon back, Knight Durel had already deflected a bolt back into the face of the final opponent. He looked around the dark room, and Neria noticed that there was no exit.
"Looks like I was mistaken," her master said. "This isn't a shortcut."
"Or you're just trying to train me to do these things even though we're in the middle of a combat situation."
"Or that."