Padawan Neria Halai - Assassin Facility
Neria had underestimated her opponent, that much was clear to her.
She'd been comfortable with him for the first five minutes, then the battle had never seemed to end. He couldn't get an advantage over her, and she wasn't practiced enough on the offensive to break through his defenses.
Dreamer was a constant irritant to the instructor, however, cutting in at the worst moments and trying to get a shot in at her adversary. He was too quick for that, but it gave her hope that they'd eventually find a weakness.
But she was getting tired, and he didn't seem to be letting up. Her only break was when battle droids joined the battle, an easier foe that her opponent gave way for in the hopes that the change in tempo would throw her off.
Neria needed an answer for the instructor, and she wasn't sure that she had one. All she knew was that everything burned, that she was being worn down, and Dreamer wasn't managing to get a good shot in.
His saber swept toward her head, and she ducked under it, trying to sweep his legs out from under him with her own weapons. Yet he merely hopped over the lethal beams, and she rolled backward to escape his retaliation.
Her only advantage—assuming she actually had one—was that he had yet to display much active use of the Force. The uncanny reflexes and sixth sense were there, but the brute application that Neria had only just come to familiarize herself with was absent.
Yet he was too quick, his flurries too constant to actually find room to push him away.
They backed through a reactor room, high platforms suspended from around the thrumming generators. Neither of them stopped, continuing back until she reached one of the reactors.
On a whim, knowing that it would put them all in danger, Neria stretched out after a block and cut straight through one of the reactors. With a squelching that rang clear through the expansive room, the reactor fizzled out.
Another duck, another cut higher up, and a piece of the reactor tumbled from the structure.
Behind her, it seemed Dreamer had figured out her intentions, and he opened fire in rapid succession. The gunfire allowed Neria a moment of quiet, a brief peace where she was able to reach out and wrap the Force around the falling object.
The instructor saw it coming, managed to get his lightsaber in front of it, but splitting the chunk of metal apart didn't stop one of the halves from colliding with him regardless.
He tumbled off the path, but a walkway below him caught the falling assassin. Neria hurled her lightsaber at him, accompanying it with the force and allowing it to spin.
The instructor brought his lightsaber up just in time, blocking her weapon. Before he could collect it from the ground, she reached out and brought it back up to her hand. With the instructor unable to summon the Force to him and jump up to the walkway, Neria was left to briefly ponder her options.
The padawan could've leaped down and continued the fight, but the instructor wasn't her objective. Destroying the facility and rescuing their captives was.
With that in mind, chest heaving and sweat starting to trickle down her lekku, her gaze turned to the reactors.
A hit directly to the energy sources within could cause a powerful explosion, but simply destroying the machinery shielding and channeling the energy would end in a catastrophic meltdown that would give them more than enough time to escape.
"Go for the bases!" she commanded Dreamer.
Over the enraged cry of the instructor, the clone started to open fire on a pair of distant reactors while Neria swung at the top of another of the structures.
With a low hum, the power cut off, plunging them into darkness but for the crackling of energy where the cuts had come from. Already, the beams of light being projected from between them start to jump and writhe, giving her the impression that they didn't have too long until a slow and fatal chain reaction was in the near future.
Nowall that was visible in the dark was the snout of the Rodian's face, twisted and lit harshly by the red beam of his weapon. He was livid, and he'd eventually find a way up to her.
"We have to go, Padawan," Dreamer said.
She agreed.
The hallways were dark, now, occasional sounds of battle overheard as they tried to navigate their way through the corridors. They were moving slow, giving Neria some time to rest, but they still moved quickly enough to avoid most the fighting.
"Master," she said over her transmitter.
"Padawan, you're alright," he said. "The facility lost power, was that you?"
"Of course."
"Of course. Do you need assistance?"
Neria took stock. They'd lost the instructor, so it would only be down to the battle droids roaming the facility and if they were lucky, they'd find a few more apprentices for her to easily disable on the way to some sort of meeting point.
"We'll meet in the left tower," she said. "I'm pretty close, I'll try to get there fast."
"I'll see you there. Stay safe."
She wasn't certain that was possible, especially when she heard a sound amidst the silence of the station that caught her attention.
The cry of a baby, soft and scared. She practically stared down the hallway it had come from, then looked at Dreamer. He'd heard it as well, and his head turned to Neria, waiting for her orders.
"Come on," she told him.
The clone trooper followed her as they jogged to the sound, but they were interrupted.
Right in their way, the instructor once again stood, his lightsaber out and at the ready. Neria would wonder how he'd known where they would be, but it was his facility, after all.
He wasted no time, this time. There was no talk, no threats. He just flung himself forward, leaping fully off the ground and his saber clashing against hers. She tried to use her other to spear him in the stomach, but he merely twisted away, and then the fight was on again.
"Come on!" Dreamer yelled in frustration, shooting at the instructor's back only for him to roll away and Neria be forced to deflect it instead.
They transitioned into a small room, and for a moment, she gave it no more thought than she had any other featureless expanse they'd passed.
Then she heard the cries. Babies, younglings. She'd reached her destination.
A glance around found nearly a dozen in metal cribs, the enemy so certain about their chances that they hadn't seen fit to evacuate them. Many looked underfed, all were crying. She had no doubts that the abuse was to start conditioning the youngsters for the life that lay ahead.
"Dreamer!" she shouted.
"I see them, Neria!" The first time he'd ever called her by name, something she chalked up more to their mutual panic and outrage than familiarity. "I'll take care of them, you just take care of him!"
The Rodian sneered at him, but there was little he could do as long as Neria was in his face, and seeing the neglected babies had summoned a second wind in her that saw her drive the instructor back to the door, his red having to move quickly and erratically to match the blue of her sabers.
After so long, neither were particularly able to overcome the other. Her arms still burned, the muscles bunched up at her neck burned, but she couldn't allow him a moment. All she had to do was hold, fend off his red slashes with her steady blue in the darkness of the small room.
Yet even the relative rest of the last few minutes hadn't masked the fatigue she was feeling. It was all too evident in the sluggish swings of her blades, her only mercy that the Rodian seemed to be equally out of sorts.
Just when she wasn't sure how much longer she could put up with him, Dreamer called out to her from somewhere at the rear of the room.
"I've got them!" Neria didn't spare a glance to see how the clone had managed to wrangle up all the babies and younglings, but she still managed a nod. "Come on, let's get out of here!"
Padawan Halai wanted to defeat her enemy and drag him back to the Council, to have something to show for the assault aside from a couple of weak apprentices. Yet she knew she was outmatched, even if only barely. Her best chance for succeeding in her mission would be to simply get away from the instructor and flee with Dreamer.
Yet disentangling herself from the Rodian was no simple matter. He wasn't about to let her leave, and she had no way to see him gone. She was instead left to find something to use, something that could stop him, and her eyes landed on one of the cribs, now empty.
She reached out in between a block and reached out to the furniture, flinging it full-force at the Rodian. He sliced through it with ease, but that gave her enough of an opening to reach forward with her other hand and summon the Force to her.
The resulting push shoved him through the air, sending him crashing to the floor in the middle of an intersection they'd just vacated. She immediately hit the control to close the door, then turned to the clone who'd accompanied her through the fight. He had gathered most of the babies onto a cart, cradling another in his arm.
"Dreamer, the panel!"
"On it!"
He didn't ask what she wanted, raising his weapon and putting a blaster bolt in the panel. It wouldn't keep the Rodian out forever, but it'd give them enough time to run.
They took off at a dead sprint, trying to put as much distance as they could between themselves and the nursery. Once they'd cleared the next intersection, she pulled Dreamer into a small alcove with her. She gestured to his arm.
"Dreamer, tell him we found them," she ordered him. "We're going to try to sneak up to the tower. I'll keep the babies quiet."
She reached out to the terrified younglings and babies, the Force soothing and comforting to the group. They grew silent, and she felt the presence of the Rodian Force-user as he approached. The rescued babies remained quiet, giving no hint as to their location.
Dreamer waited, finger on his transmitter but waiting for the enemy to retreat. For a moment, silence was all that was had, Neria refusing to even breathe.
The Rodian cursed somewhere down the hallway, unable to find them due to his lack of being able to utilize the Force in anything but the most fundamental functions.
Not that she could rightly criticize. She was still just learning, herself.
When he was away, Dreamer depressed the control on his transmitter. There was a beep, he waited a moment, then he spoke.
"General Durel." His voice was little more than a whisper. "We found the babies and younglings. Neria's making sure they don't cry out and give away our position. We're going to work our way up to the tower, but that Rodian is on the hunt for us."
"Roger that, Sergeant," he said. "We're just cleaning out resistance over here. We'll meet up at the tower, and he won't be able to split us up there."
"On our way, General." He turned off the transmitter and looked up at Neria. "Do we need to rest, Padawan Halai?"
Neria searched for some measure of mockery in his tone, but there was only concern. She supposed she understood. He'd helped, but she'd been carrying the vast bulk of the fighting, and it had to be showing by now.
"The quicker we get there, the quicker we have backup to help us defeat that Rodian," she said. "I'll lead the way. Quickly, now."
Again, thank you for all comments/critiques.