Star Wars: Lost Souls

by BAPostma

Zeison Sha Warrior Foyi Imbuma has spent the majority of her life hiding her Force abilities on Yanibar, while training her sister, Tama, in secret. But when Tama is kidnapped by a sadistic serial killer, Foyi must venture across the galaxy, from the Smugglers' Moon to shadowy Point Nadir to the hostile jungles of Felucia, to rescue her sister. Cover Image courtesy of Wookieepedia.

19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Tama awoke with a start, her eyes blinking rapidly but seeing little in the dark. She craned her stiff and sore neck back and forth as she let her eyes readjust to the gloom, taking in the tiny, underground room with its single set of stairs ascending to the unseen upper floors, the empty crates, and bulbous growths of mold and fungus creeping across the floors and slowly lessening the integrity of the walls and the supports of the chamber. She shifted from where she had been leaning against the cool metal of one of the crates, and felt an awkward weight at her side, sliding slightly against her as she moved her own weight about. She looked to the side and down to find Nuri had fallen asleep tucked against Tama's malnourished ribs and bony arm, lost in deep sleep and snoring softly, most likely the first time she had been able to sleep properly since her kidnapping. Tama felt a momentary twinge of annoyance when she recalled that Nuri had promised to stay awake and keep watch over their hiding place, lest more predators or droids discover them. But Tama admonished herself for such thoughts; Nuri had to be as exhausted as she was. In fact, it was likely that Nuri experienced the stress and weariness invoked by the horrendous events of the past week or so more acutely than the Twi'lek did, for Nuri did not have the limitless potential energy source of the Force to draw upon for needed strength and refreshment. Though Tama did possess this ability, she had found it greatly diminished by her own ordeals, and the sorry state her physical form had been reduced to.

Gently, Tama slid out from under Nuri's lightweight mass and helped her fall softly to the floor. She stood slowly, stretching the tightened, sore muscles in her knees and legs, and carefully tested her limbs, determining after a few moments of stretching that they were still serviceable, if weak. She looked back to where she had been seated and saw the vibroknife lying on the floor where she had left it, and gingerly picked up the weapon, turning its bloody blade over in her hands with apprehension. The Nautolan boy's face flashed through her mind, as well as the crazed expression Memmifratus had given her when he had demanded the return of his murder weapon, only moments before the boma had ripped a fatal chunk out of his skull. Tama shivered, wishing she could toss the blade away and never see it again, but realizing that as of now, it was the only weapon she and Nuri possessed. Though she doubted it would do much against an acklay. Or droids.

Cautiously, Tama reached out to the Force, letting her senses expand and take in more information than Twi'lek evolution had naturally intended. The Dark Side was still strong on this world, still whispering to her in a manner more subtle but no less pervasive than the mad ramblings of the being who called itself their "Savior". She could feel living things moving about above their heads and through the dirt beyond the permacrete walls containing herself and her friend, could see them shining like strobing lumas in the Force, the edges of their light tinged with the foul taint of the Dark Side, the infection she could neither quantify nor explain. Some of those lights were large enough she could hear the sound their footfalls made as they strode across the ground, could feel their hunger for fresh meat, for fearful prey as a gurgling complaint in her stomach. The monsters were still out there, still searching amongst the ruins above and below, as trapped by the cage of ray shields as she, Nuri, and the rest of the children were. She wondered how large the cage actually was, what the perimeters and extent of the ray shields were that hemmed them in, though she could not sense that with the Force, save for a dull vibration on her skin telling her that the ray shields were still active, somewhere far above her head. She began looking for more intelligent sentience, for the localized miasmas of fear that might signify the other children, and with some exhausting levels of concentration, she felt some of the presences she sought, no more than a few hundred meters or so away, huddling together in small groups, attempting to stay out of sight of the creatures prowling the night.

Tama's concentration was broken by a loud clang directly above her head, sounding without warning and frightening her enough to cause her to drop into a crouch. She listened intently, and heard other noises, the sound of something metal moving in rhythmic fashion on the floor above. It took her a moment to recognize the noises as those of footsteps, though she could not account for the metallic sound of the feet above. Slowly, hardly daring to breathe, Tama crept to the staircase and tentatively crawled up the steps, coming to the hinged trapdoor that would allow her to exit the small storage cellar. She tested the trapdoor's weight by nudging it gently with her hand, and when it did not immediately budge, she pushed harder, the trapdoor rising by mere centimeters, allowing dim light to filter into the cellar that still managed to dazzle her eyes, despite the low luminosity.

The Twi'lek kept the trapdoor barely open, producing a sliver of space through which she could see no more than four centimeters. She peered through the crack, allowing her eyes to adjust, and extended her senses again, calling upon the Force, though it was becoming far more difficult than even a few moments before. Beyond the trapdoor was a room of nondescript purpose, as most of the floor and walls were covered in spores and mold colonies spreading wherever they pleased, growing out of the detritus of a collapsing building, as well as the discarded parts from unidentifiable machinery and discarded blasters. She could just make out the edge of an open doorway leading into another room, but could see nothing of that room's interior through the gloom and haze of spores. There must have been a difference in air pressure between the room above and the cellar below, for suddenly spores wriggled into her nostrils and the back of her throat, forcing her to slap her hand over her nose and mouth before she coughed or sneezed. She paused there for what seemed like an eternity, waiting, listening, so long she began to wonder whether she had imagined the footsteps. If she was finally losing her mind due to the horrid experiences visited upon it.

Then the sound echoed in the room beyond again, and metallic feet came into view, feet crafted from alloys, moved by servomotors and artificial joints. Feet that belonged to droids. She let the trapdoor lower a centimeter or two as she recognized the muddy brown feet of B1 Battle Droids, two of them followed by a third set of feet, these being a darker gray that may have had a duranium finish at one point in the past, belonging to the frame of a B2 Super Battle Droid. They strode purposefully past her hiding place, pausing to speak to each other at the periphery of her vision. Their voices were thick with static, but they were not so distorted that they had lost the tinny, almost comical sound to their vocabulators, as if their voices belonged to humanoids used to oxygen respiration who had been breathing in helium for too long.

"The Commander said there were two miniature organics somewhere in this building," the first voice said, its voice lilting slightly due to a malfunctioning vocabulator.

"I see nothing so far," came a response in a similarly strange tone. "No sign of small footprints. I don't think they came this way."

"You don't get to do the thinking," replied a third voice, this one slightly more guttural but still possessing that annoying singsong quality. "That's the Commander's purview. You go where the Commander tells you, and if he says there are two juveniles here, then we look until we find them."

"Roger, roger," answered the first two voices in eerie unison.

Still holding her breath, Tama began to creep back down the stairs, trying to completely close the trapdoor and hoping that the entrance to the storage cellar would be concealed from the droids' regard. But as she did so, her foot slipped on the stair directly below it, and her boot clanged against the metal with a sharp, reverberating echo that made her heart jump into her throat. She froze, her blood thumping loudly in her ears, the trapdoor still open a couple centimeters, for to her the sound of her boot striking the metal step had rang like the cacophonous echo of a blaster bolt. The feet of the droids, which had been milling about just on the edge of her range of vision, suddenly stopped moving, and one of the battle droids squawked, "What's that?"

Tama waited while the droids stood unnaturally still, undoubtedly sweeping the immediate area with their sensors. She prayed to whatever divine power might be listening that their sensors were as faulty and unreliable as their vocabulators apparently were. Several silent heartbeats passed, then the lower voice replied to the battle droid's query, managing to sound annoyed in the process. "That? That's nothing. Get back to work."

As their feet began moving about again, Tama let the trapdoor close softly, then practically slithered down the stairs, making as little noise as possible as she crouched at Nuri's side. The Zabrak girl was still sleeping soundly, and while the vocalization of her snores had been mildly comforting before, Tama winced upon hearing them, afraid that the droids might be drawn to the trapdoor because of Nuri's slumber. Tentatively, she poked Nuri's shoulder until the girl began to stir, her snores ending with a choking gasp that caused her to sit bolt upright, her expression twisted into a grimace of panic as her head whipped back and forth in alarm. "Wha-?"

Tama hurriedly put a finger to the Zabrak's lips, then pointed to the ceiling above them with her free hand. Nuri listened, her eyes opening wide in terror when the sound of one of the droids stumbling over something caused a loud bang directly above their heads. Tama removed her finger and leaned in close, whispering hoarsely under her breath, so that Nuri had to lean closer in order to hear. "There are three droids in the building above, looking for us. Sent by that sleemo."

Nuri slowly rose into a crouch, cringing as pain lanced through her weary legs. She glanced up the stairs, then furtively back at the Twi'lek, her voice responding with a panicked hiss. "What do we do?"

Tama bit her lip in thought. Had the droids been organic, she may have been able to use the Force to hide herself and Nuri as they attempted to flee the building, though she doubted in her ability to muster that much Force power in her current state. She glanced about the room, looking for other exits they might take that would not require them having to confront the droids, for the only weapon available to them was the vibroknife tucked in her belt, and it was unlikely to be of much use against the battle droids' armored carapaces. The only entrance, and therefore the only exit, from the storage cellar was the staircase that led into the same room the droids were searching. Even almost two decades after the official end of the Clone Wars, Battle Droids were still considered to be some of the most inane and ridiculous machines of war invented, but she doubted even they were stupid enough to not find the trapdoor given time. Time they did not have, for it seemed likely, judging by the droids' brief conversation, their kidnapper was able to better pinpoint their location, given enough time and lack of movement on their part.

Tama crouched back beside Nuri again, making a decision even though she hated the idea. "We don't really have a choice," she whispered. "We have to take the stairs, and run as fast as we can out of this building, then find cover."

Nuri gave her a look that was a cross between disbelief and anger. "That's not a plan, Tama. That's a sprint straight into suicide."

"We don't have a choice, Nuri," she retorted angrily, but careful not to let her voice rise with her emotion. "If those droids find that door before we make a move, they'll block our only exit and we'll be in a killbox just waiting to be vaped. We plot a course out of here now, or we die."

Nuri gave her an enraged expression, but she was more fearful than angry, and after a moment, she nodded. Tama said no more, drawing the vibroknife and flicking the vibration cell on, producing a barely-perceptible hum. She did not believe that the blade would actually do anything to the droids, but just holding it in her fist gave her a small measure of comfort. They crouched at the bottom of the stairs, waited for the ringing thumping of the battle droids' feet passing the trapdoor, then slunk up the stairs until they were just beneath the door. Tama reached out a grimy hand and slowly inched the door open a sliver, but no matter how long she peered, she could not see any feet or legs of droids. Tama looked back at Nuri, but the Zabrak shook her head; she could not see anything either. Tama risked opening the trapdoor a little wider, beginning to hope that the droids had left the room, and perhaps the building entirely.

There was a burst of static, and one of the whiny voices exclaimed curiously, "Hey! What's that?"

Tama and Nuri needed no further bidding, as Tama shoved hard against the trapdoor, causing it to fall against the floor behind them with a immense clang of metal. Barely had the portal been opend did the two girls race up the stairs and take off running into the room beyond, sprinting over detritus and fungus with wild abandon. Tama shifted her flight to the side, allowing Nuri to take the lead as they passed through the doorway into another room full of spores, debris, and discarded droid parts. These were all the details Tama had time to take in, for Nuri was already leading them toward the exit that would take them outside and back into the ruined city's exterior. Tama could not sense the droids still in the room behind them, but she heard their echoing strides, and the retort of blaster rifles echoed painfully in the confined spaces; a beam of red energy lanced within centimeters of her tchin, close enough for Tama to feel the superheating of the air as it passed her by. The pair continued running as fast as their short, exhausted legs could carry them, bursting through the sliding door that stood slightly ajar due to jammed servos, and out into the humid, musky night air beyond. Tama glanced about, taking in the dark silhouettes of bunkers, apartment complexes, dead power generators, local businesses, and towering edifices that eclipsed the night sky, but nothing looked familiar to her. She had been in a stupor when Nuri had discovered this hiding place, so it was more than likely the Zabrak had taken them to a part of the city she had not visited yet.

Nuri paused, gasping and heaving from the exertion upon her exhausted form the short sprint had elicited. "Which...way...now?"

Tama similarly felt out of breath, but she called upon the Force to sustain her, to keep her upright and breathing properly. "I...don't know. You're the one who brought us here; did you see any other hiding places on your way to the building we just left?"

Nuri whirled on her. "I was trying to get us away from the bomas while carrying your stupefied ass! I wasn't exactly stargazing!"

Tama heard a distinctive "Roger, roger" filtering through the broken windows of the building they had just left; they had run out of time to argue. Without looking to see if the Zabrak was following her, she picked a random direction and began running, angling her flight for a low edifice that looked to have once been a hangar for speeders. She heard Nuri's soft, padding steps behind her, and they skittered over the mud and colonies of mold as they drew within the inky shadows cast by the hangar's exterior. Tama could barely see through the blackness of the shadows, her low-light vision not able to fully compensate for the depth of night surrounding the structure, but she was able to make out the entrance, barred by a rectangular blast door that presumably retracted into the side or ceiling of the building, accessible by a keypad along its edge that had seen damage from blasters. Tama trotted around the edge of the building, Nuri gasping beside her, and looked for another entrance, which she found on the far back corner of the edifice, which had crumbled into dust and ragged slabs of duracrete, probably the result of some sort of explosive or otherwise destructive event. Several stalks of the bulbous species of fungi spiraled and curled about the opening, suffusing soft blue and yellow glows that provided an eerie illumination, without which Tama may not have even seen the deeper darkness of the rent in the wall. She waved Nuri forward, and they slunk to the opening, risking a peek inside, but seeing nothing in the vacuous blackness filling its interior. They glanced out at the street, and saw the trio of droids slowly marching down the street in a sweeping pattern, moving in the general direction they had taken, approaching the hangar, looking for signs of movement or tracks they could follow. Without further hesitation, the two girls plunged into the darkness of the hangar.

Nuri and Tama immediately dropped into a crouch and waited for their eyes to adjust to the gloom, thick with humidity and errant clouds of spores, making the interior of the hangar moist, cloying, and unnaturally warm in comparison to the cool night breeze. The hangar was not overly large, consisting of a single room filled with equipment and tools designed for the refueling and maintenance of speeders and hovercraft of a variety of sizes. There were only a few models of speeders still sitting amidst the thick streaks of dust and settled layers of spores, none of which looked to be in any working order, their repulsorlifts slicked with mold, fungal strands and fronds emerging from the deteriorating upholstery of their seats. Tama was able to identify most of the models with a tiny measure of personal pride, seeing a Tsmeu-6 Wheel Bike lying on its side next to a few STAPs that had definitely seen better days, one of which had been sliced in half by something that left an eerily clean line across the lower portion of its chassis. And on the far end of the hangar, shoved against the closed blast doors as though it had been unceremoniously thrown there, was a wreck of burned repulsorlifts, armor, and equipment racks that may have once been a Trade Federation Troop Carrier, though she could not be certain due to the advanced state of its deterioration. Lining the walls were hewn and blasted droid parts, as well as overturned equipment racks, scattered tools, fungal growths, and unidentifiable wreckage. While the majority of the room was wide open, there was enough debris present to break any sightlines, and provide numerous hiding places, if needed.

Tama and Nuri slowly crept along the perimeter of the hangar, keeping to one wall. The Twi'lek closed her eyes for a moment, blocking out the distractions of sight and tuning out the sounds of jungle wildlife, the distant shrieks and roars of hunting predators. She called upon the Force again, keeping her awareness focused and small, lest she be overwhelmed by the sickening undercurrents of twisted life energies that appeared to permeate this world that Nuri was convinced was the Demon Moon of Onderon. Just as she suspected, she could taste something cold and bitter on her palate, smell sweat and unwashed bodies though she was not close enough to naturally scent such a stench. One of the groups of frightened, tortured children were using this hangar as a hiding place as well. Tama opened her eyes to see that Nuri was moving deeper into the hangar, slowly approaching the overturned wreckage of the Wheel Bike with mild interest, perhaps trying to discern what the moldering pieces of circular metal had once constituted. Tama crept up behind her and put a hand to her shoulder; the Zabrak turned to her with a question in her eyes, and Tama leaned forward and whispered in her ear. "There are some more kids in here with us. They're on the other side of the room, hiding under that old Troop Transport."

Nuri gave her a skeptical glance. "How do you know that? I don't hear anything."

Tama made a motion at the air, referencing a concept rather than any particular object. "The Force tells me. They're just as frightened as we are, and liable to lash out like Memmifratus did. We should approach carefully, and try not to make enough noise to attract the droids' attention."

Nuri looked back to the collapsed section of wall through which they had entered, the only exit from the room as far as they could tell. The only sounds winding into the space from there were those of the night, the chittering of small creatures, the soft breath of wind, and the echoing calls of the predators hunting the ruins. No sound that filtered through that opening sounded like metal or static, which probably meant the droids were not near at the moment. "Or we could leave them alone. They'll probably make a lot of noise if we talk to them, which will draw the droids here. This place is another killbox waiting to happen, Tama. We should just leave them and hope the droids go after them instead of us."

"I thought you wanted to help me get as many of the other prisoners out of here as possible."

"And I thought you like living. Sometimes personal survival means others die."

Tama was taken aback by the callous response, though even she had to admit that Nuri was only voicing thoughts she had had herself. Tama shook her head, denying such thoughts from gaining purchase in her mind. "It doesn't have to be that way, Nuri. We can be better than that. If all we think about is our own survival, then the psychopath who put us here gets exactly what he wants." Even as she said the words, she felt an oily, violating tendril writhing in her brain. She had gone so long without feeling the presence of the madman who had imprisoned them that his reemergence was like a shock from a forcepike, staggering her back on her haunches. The voice said nothing at first, simply making a low, droning humming in her brain that set her teeth on edge and arced pain through her temples, before finally speaking a simple phrase. Pretty Tama. Clever Tama. Dark Tama.

Tama put a hand to her forehead, feeling nauseous, then gazed at the Zabrak, who had gone pale as the voice spoke its own private message to her. "Son of a barve," Nuri cursed under her breath through gritted teeth. "He's back."

Tama waited for the pain and the pressure in her skull to subside, then came back up into a crouch, breathing a sigh of relief. The kidnapper's regard was no longer on her, though this was not necessarily a comfort. Tama ground her teeth together to bring her bearing back to the present, then whispered, "He knows where we are now. We need to hurry and get the other kids out of here, or we're all vape bait."

Nuri sighed, but offered no further disagreement. The two girls crept swiftly to the collapsed Troop Transport, and as they drew closer, they heard indistinct whispers from multiple sources, denoting four other beings hiding in the shadows beneath the wreckage of the vehicle leaning against the blast doors at an angle. Tama and Nuri silently moved to the very edge of the vehicle's perimeter, where they could see the dark space the children were hiding in, but not the children themselves. They were still whispering, but it was merely indistinguishable sounds and syllables Tama was unable to hear unless she used the Force to sharpen her auditory senses. She cleared her dry throat, and softly called into the darkness, "Hello?"

The whispers ceased immediately, replaced by absolute silence. Tama took a risk and slowly crept into view of the space; she could not see anyone in the darkness beneath that haphazard overhang, though she was fairly certain whoever was in there could see her. She kept her hands wide, her expression inviting, her stance loose so that she might spring back if anyone tried to attack her in fear. "Hello?" she ventured again, her voice stronger and more confident. "I know someone's in there. It's just me, Tama. Nuri's with me, too."

There was a shuffling noise, and a quartet of faces emerged from the darkness, faces as thin, wild-eyed, and grimy as her own must have been. Three of them were boys, one a Rodian, one a Twi'lek, and the other a Bothan, while the fourth was a Duros girl. They all gaped at her with expressions ranging from open suspicion to outright hostility, and Tama noticed the flash of metal emerging from the darkness as the Rodian thrust something toward her, revealing a tiny, rusty holdout blaster clutched in his lengthy, awkward digits. Tama had no idea where he would have gotten his hands on such a weapon, but assumed that this small group had found one of the supply caches stashed about the ruins, most likely to provide something for the children trapped in this sick game to fight over. She kept her hands up as the Bothan spoke for the group, his voice strangely cultured, enunciating the Basic words coming from his mouth carefully. "We found this hiding spot first," he hissed, his expression grim and threatening. "You can't have it...there's barely enough room in here as it is."

Tama steadied her breath, her gaze flicking between their regards and the end of the blaster barrel aimed at her. She heard Nuri creep up behind her, then give a soft squeak of fear as the Rodian, startled, shifted his aim directly toward her. Tama waved her hand to get their attention again, speaking slowly. "We didn't come to steal your hiding place. We came to help you get out of here. There are battle droids coming to kill us, and we all need to get out of here before they find us."

"No, you need to get outta here," came the Rodian's response, his Basic so heavily accented Tama could barely understand him. "You brought droids to us. Droids after you, not us, so leave."

The Twi'lek boy gave him an exasperated glare. "No, 'the Savior' was just in our heads a moment ago, and now there're suddenly droids in the area, hunting us down? Can't be a coincidence. They're probably here on their master's orders to kill us."

"Exactly," Tama interjected urgently. "We need to get out of here now if we're all going to survive."

The Duros girl chattered something in a language Tama did not recognize, and judging by the looks everyone gave her, it seemed those gathered had difficulty understanding as well. The Duros repeated her phrase more forcefully, at which point the trio of boys looked to Tama and Nuri. "Do you...know what she's saying?"

Tama furrowed her brow. "You don't either?"

"Not a flaming word," came the Twi'lek boy's disgruntled response.

"She's saying we are wasting time by sitting here and arguing," Nuri supplied in barely more than a whisper. "That we should find a better place to hide. At least, that's the gist of it, I think. I'll admit that my Durese is not my strong suit." Even as she said this, though, the Duros girl was nodding emphatically, gesturing outside of the space they all crouched in, to the hangar's greater interior.

"No!" the Rodian boy said more emphatically, his voice rising to dangerous levels. "We safe here, unless they two stay and bring droids here!"

Nuri leaned forward and gave the Rodian a dubious look. "And what happens if they find you in here? You going to shoot them with that peashooter there?"

"Yes!"

Tama leaned in closer, her patience growing thin and her voice becoming strained with fear and urgency. "If we start firing, the droids will know exactly where we are. Our kidnapper's probably already told them where to look, but they won't find us if we're no longer here for them to sniff out with their lifesign sensors. There's only one entrance or exit from this place, and if the battle droids block us off, we'll be trapped in here. This is no longer a safe hiding place; this is a deathtrap."

The four children looked at each other, communicating with their gazes rather than words, and Tama could see an agreement pass between them. They turned to her again, and the Bothan boy, his slick, grimy fur bristling, replied for the group. "You're right. Let's get out of here."

Tama nodded gratefully and turned to lead them out, but the Rodian was speaking, his phlegmy voice angered. "Wait. Why does she lead? She's one who got us in mess in first place. Convinced us all not to do what Savior said."

"The 'Savior' said to kill each other!" the Bothan exclaimed before Tama could attempt to defend herself. "You really want to be a murderer for a few scraps of rotten food, Farr?"

Farr had no time to answer, for Nuri suddenly interrupted the argument and developing conversation, hissing with a mixture of fear and frustration. "We're too late."

The heads of all those gathered slowly peeked out from the alcove provided by the Troop Transport's ruins, gazing out toward the collapsed corner of the hangar. Through that rough doorway marched the same three battle droids that Tama and Nuri had narrowly avoided so far, walking slowly as they spread out, the two B1s working their ways around the walls of the hangar, while the B2 stalked purposefully down the center, simply stepping over or atop any debris in its way. Tama doubted the droids had found their hiding place yet, else they would have converged on the Transport's wreckage in a straight line, firing their blasters as they came. But their search patterns were inexorably taking them toward the blast door, and thus the alcove they used for concealment, and so it would be a matter of moments before the children were discovered. Tama bit back a curse as she slunk back in the shadows, waving the others to accompany her, her mind racing for a plan, a strategy that would get them past the droids without being riddled with blaster burns. She looked to Nuri, at a loss for what they could do, though the Zabrak seemed to be out of ideas of her own.

Neither Tama nor Nuri had sufficient time to consider their predicament, however, as the Rodian boy named Farr took matters into his own hands, standing up without hesitation and squeezing off a wild shot. The flash and noise of the blaster shot was dazzling in the darkness as the entire hangar was illuminated by an emerald flash. Despite the fact that Farr held the holdout blaster in a manner that suggested he had little experience with energy weapons, his shot actually hit the B2 Super Battle Droid where its sternum would have been had it been an organic humanoid. But the holdout blaster, even in pristine condition, did not pack much of a punch at range of any significance, and thus the super battle droid barely moved as the blaster bolt left an ineffectual burn mark on its duranium armor. The battle droids responded as one with an instantaneous flurry of blasterbolts, and the Bothan barely had time to throw Farr to the ground and behind cover as the fusillade slammed into the blast door behind them with an eruption of sparks and screaming metal. Tama and Nuri threw themselves behind the cover provided by a long slab of rusted metal as blasterfire shrieked over their heads, splashing against the blast door in a crimson storm.

Both the Bothan and the Twi'lek boys were screaming in rage at Farr, but Tama could not hear their angry words over the din of the suppressing fire the droids laid down. The Duros girl had scrambled into the darkness of the alcove and was refusing to emerge again. Tama cowered, covering her ears with her hands and willing the droids to simply go away, irrationally hoping that if she made herself small enough, they would not find her. She glanced to Nuri, afraid for her wellbeing and state of mind, but instead of cowering, the Zabrak had a determined look in her eyes, an expression of rage etched into her features. She scrambled on elbows and knees to the arguing and shrieking boys, pushed the Bothan out of the way, then landed a solid punch in Farr's face. The strike was not particularly powerful, but it was enough to stun the Rodian, allowing her to wrestle the holdout blaster from his suction-tipped fingers and grip it with her own. She shuffled back to Tama's side, then popped out of cover, holding the blaster in a two-handed grip and bracing her forearms on the metal slab before firing a careful shot. The green bolt struck one of the battle droids in the upper left corner of its chest, causing it to stagger backward, where it tripped over a cluster of scattered wires and tools and fell on its back with an anguished wail. Blaster bolts began to track toward her in response, but she quickly shifted her aim and fired again, her second shot hitting the other B1 in the center of its angular head and blowing the appendage off its scrawny neck. The decapitated stump emitted a shower of sparks as the head spun end over end into the darkness, and the droid collapsed to the floor, its digits twitching as it fully deactivated, triggering a trio of ineffectual bolts into the ceiling. Then the Zabrak threw herself prone behind cover as the super battle droid activated autofire on its wrist blaster and stitched the metal slab full of burns and holes. Tama, who had been in a position to see the shots through a sliver of open space in the wreckage, gaped at Nuri, but if she was impressed with her own accuracy, Nuri did not show it. She merely looked grim.

"Nice shots!" Tama shouted over the cacophony.

Nuri nodded. "As soon as I could hold an object without dropping it immediately, my father made certain I could shoot. But I'm going to need something better than this; I can take out Battle Droids no problem, but this blaster won't even pierce that Super's armor unless it's right on top of us, and we'll be dead at that point."

There was a pause in the fusillade as the Super Battle Droid recharged or refreshed its wrist blaster, while a clanging sound echoed in the hangar as the wounded Battle Droid picked itself off the floor. Nuri braced the holdout blaster on the metal slab again and fired past the B2, striking the Battle Droid still standing upright in the lower part of its chest and knocking it over again, though the shot did not look fatal. She ducked again as the super battle droid refocused its aim and let off another staccato burst of blasterfire, chewing holes in their cover while superheating the metal around it. Tama peered through the gap in the wreckage again, and her regard focused on the remains of the headless battle droid across the hangar, but more importantly, on the blaster lying beside it. It was an A280 Longblaster, in far better condition than the droid that had been wielding it, and a weapon considerably more powerful than the holdout blaster, if she could get to it.

Tama's thoughts suddenly turned to what training she had received in the ways of the Zeison Sha, and she gritted her teeth as she struggled for concentration. She turned to Nuri, ignoring the screams of the other children, the echoing impacts of blasterbolts striking the blast door, the metallic stomps of the Super Battle Droid striding toward their place of cover. "Can you keep the big droid distracted? I'm going to try and get you a better weapon."

Nuri grimaced, looking down at her puny weapon with disdain. "I can try. What're you going to do?"

"Facilitate," was all she answered, recalling the words Foyi had imparted to her in the exercise with the stone and hoop. She wormed her way around the cover, keeping her body hidden, but giving her a direct line of sight to the battle droid's blaster rifle. Her right hand stretched out as blaster bolts began to crisscross the air beside her, red lights competing with green, Nuri's shots impacting ineffectually with the duranium carapace of the Super Battle Droid. Even as her hand reached, her mind expanded from her body, soaring past its physical constraints and reaching out to the dead droid and the weapon it had dropped. She could feel its cool metal against the palm of her hand, the residual heat suffusing the barrel from when it had been fired, the pinging sound of cooling metal and swirling tibanna gas within its cartridge. The Force was not alive in the blaster, not like the sentient awareness and spontaneity present in living organisms, but it was still present, still a flow of energy connecting the blaster to the floor, to the droid's cold fingers that still gripped its stock, to the permacrete floor and durasteel walls of the hangar. To her own fingertips, reaching into the air dancing with particles of spores, dust, and chemical compounds she breathed to oxidize her blood and body.

The blaster wants to come to you. You exist merely to facilitate it.

With a gasp of effort, the Force surged within her, and the blaster pulled itself away from the droid's locked fingers, bouncing and sliding across cracks in the permacrete and scattered refuse, until with a severity that made her weakened muscles ache, slapped into her palm. She suppressed a squeal of glee as she rolled back to the slab, the A280 clutched to her chest as though it were a precious toy or object of emotional comfort. Her roll carried her to Nuri's side, who was crouched behind the slab as red beams of lethal energy passed mere centimeters over the top of their cover. Nuri's eyes opened wide as she saw the blaster rifle in Tama's skeletal hands, and the Twi'lek gave a gasp as she squeaked, "Here!"

Nuri said nothing as she snatched the blaster rifle from Tama's hands, then switched the weapon over to full autofire, murder in her eyes. The Super Battle Droid's fire lessened for a moment as it attempted to reacquire its target, and by the sound of its heavy gait, it had to be within five meters of their hiding place. With a yell of rage and fear, Nuri stood, jammed the large weapon against her shoulder, and unleashed a blinding storm of red light, lasers slashing through the air with an acrid stench of burning ozone. The Super Battle Droid did not even have time to fire as almost a dozen bolts stuttered into its chest and lower torso, the lasers drilling through its aging duranium like a vibroknife through custard bread, practically cutting the droid in half. With a hiss of superheated metal and a squawk of static, the Super Battle Droid toppled backward, showering sparks and chunks of glowing shrapnel; as it struck the ground, something unstable within its inner machinery exploded, spreading a burst of flame and shards of duranium across the intervening space. Nuri waited until the smoke and fire cleared, then fired three more shots into its carcass to make certain it was dead, then shifted her aim to the final B1, which had been slowly picking itself up once more, smoke rising from the pair of burns in its chest. It did not have time to raise its own blaster as the A280's hail of blasterbolts cut through it, chewing its thin, moldering torso to slag. Nuri waited a moment, seeing if either droid would attempt to rise again, then lowered the blaster rifle wearily, though there was a feral grin on her face as she turned to face the others.

Tama could not suppress a grin, despite the fact that such a fracas would undoubtedly attract more droids to their location, as well as some of the monsters hunting them. The four other children seemed completely bewildered, alternating their stares of disbelief between Tama and Nuri. The Duros girl babbled something that sounded barely intelligible, even in Durese, but it was the Bothan's voice that spoke the first Basic question. "Who...who the hell are you girls?"

"Sick of this bantha poodoo, that's who," Nuri replied, slinging the blaster rifle over her back. She clambered over the metal slab, careful not to touch the still-smoldering blast points across the durasteel, and trotted over to the body of the other B1 Battle Droid. She hoisted the weapon it had been carrying, and grimaced to see it was a Clone Wars-era E-5 Blaster Rifle; she trotted back to their hiding place and offered the weapon to the Twi'lek girl, who smirked as she accepted it.

"I see how it is," Tama grumbled, inspecting the scraped and scarred carbine. "I get you the good weapon, and you give me the slag one."

"It's not slag," Nuri assured her. "Just don't fire it too quickly if you don't want to burn your fingers." The Zabrak then turned to the Bothan boy, offering him the holdout blaster, which he took after a moment's hesitation, still staring at her as though she were a freak of nature. Nuri brought the A280 to bear again and bit out in a weary tone, "We need to get moving. Anything moving in this city would have heard all the noise, and more droids will be here soon, if not more acklays, bomas, and who knows what else. We need to be gone before they do."

"It's not safe with you," Farr replied, managing to look both angry and sheepish at once. "The Savior will know. He will be angry, and will come for the two of you."

The Twi'lek boy punched him on the shoulder to snap him out of his suspicious reverie. "They're also the only ones of us with blasters. We stick with them, they can actually shoot back, so we have more of a chance with them than without them." He stepped past Farr, then offered his hand to Nuri and Tama in turn. "I am Otar. This is Farr and Fenn, and...well, we're not really certain what her name is."

The Duros girl gave them a look that Tama was fairly certain was one of derision, then pronounced slowly, "Cyran Viridux."

Everyone present looked to Nuri, the only one present who claimed to have an inkling of what the girl was saying. Nuri furrowed her brow, then pointed to the Duros in a query. "You're Cyran?"

The Duros sighed, then nodded. Tama stepped closer to the group, clutching the E-5 to her chest, her body quivering with a mixture of fear and adrenaline. "As great as it is to be properly introduced," she hissed, her eyes darting to the collapsed section of wall that represented their only means of escape from the hangar, "Nuri's right. We really need to move." Without waiting to see if they were following, Tama hefted the blaster as though it were a lifeline, then began moving as quickly and quietly as she could toward the ruined section of wall. She heard the sounds of many feet, and the groaning complaints of Farr, immediately behind her. Together the group climbed over the wreckage of speeders and droids, following her lead. Tama forced herself to keep moving, despite the leaden weights of her legs, the exhaustion and starvation permeating her body trying to slow her down, even drop her in her tracks. She called upon the Force again to sustain her, reaching out into the immediate vicinity with her senses, sharpening them acutely. If she had not done so, she would not have heard the echoing, metallic sounds of automated feet marching across broken permacrete, the sound coming from just ahead of them and from somewhere within meters of the ruined wall. Tama skidded to a halt and felt Nuri collide with her back, then nearly fell over when the others similarly jostled the Zabrak. There was a chorus of grunts and protests, but Tama spun around and began shoving them back, whispering, "Go back! Get to cover! The droids are already here!"

The children all hustled to several different spots of cover, hiding behind chunks of durasteel and permacrete debris, crouching behind collapsed and ruined speeders. Tama swept over to the right, using a STAP covered in mold and fungal stalks to brace her blaster against, while Nuri moved to the left, using one of the torn circles of clawed metal from the Wheel Bike for her own spot of cover, aiming her blaster rifle at the rent in the hangar's wall. The Bothan boy, Fenn, crouched beside a cowering Farr, a defiant but anxious Otar, and Cyran, who had curled into a fetal position and seemed to completely withdraw into herself. The children waited as the first sounds of the droids' marching stomps became audible to those without enhanced sensory perception. Nuri was the first to begin firing, as her vantage point afforded her a direct line of sight through the hole in the wall, bright lasers lancing through that opening from her blaster and the sounds of impacts upon metal armor echoed within the chamber. Nuri ducked behind cover as retaliatory shots answered her own, and Tama gripped her blaster rifle tighter as she waited breathlessly for the first droids to appear. Her vision blurred for a moment as she felt a wave of weariness sweep over her, and she drew on more Force energy to combat it, to keep her upright and aware. Now was not the time to let the strain on her body get the best of her, and she refocused her vision just as a pair of rusting and blaster-pitted B1 Battle Droids strode through, their blasters and the storm of fire they poured into Nuri's position lighting the entire hangar with competing, jagged shadows and crimson bursts of light that dazzled her eyes, the smoke and lasers making it difficult for her worn vision to see clearly. When Tama aimed, the motion was less due to looking down the weapon's sights, and more feeling where the enemy would be. Nuri was pinned behind cover for fear of the heavy fire coming from the pair of droids, but she gained a reprieve when Tama's own fire lanced through the battle droids, burning holes through their chassis before they had even sensed her presence. Fenn similarly fired a trio of shots, though only one of his bolts actually connected with his target, and the battle droid he hit collapsed, though this had more to do with the laser that Tama had drilled through its upper chest.

Nuri gained the reprieve she needed to peek over her cover again, brace her rifle, and began firing through the doorway as more unseen enemies moved into her sights. A tempest of laserfire emerged from the ruined wall in response, revealing the existence of multiple blasters set to autofire just outside, and Nuri rolled to a larger and more encompassing section of cover, where she hunched down as the blasterbolts tracked her movements and kept her pinned. Nuri looked across the hangar, caught Tama's gaze, and yelled over the screams of sustained fire, "They're Supers!"

Tama gritted her teeth, willing herself to call upon more of the Force, to reach to depths she had never before obtained and to expand herself so far past her physical limitations, she might be able to wield the Force in some spectacular way to combat the overwhelming assault arrayed against them. But she found her control lacking, her focus weak, and the Force, despite being so alive, so rampant, and so tainted on this planet, did little more than make certain she could continue standing without collapsing. Deeper shadows darkened the ruined doorway, and the dull gleam of duranium figures could be seen as three B2 Super Battle Droids filed into the room. Fenn began firing as quickly as possible, his emerald bolts making tinny pinging noises on the droids' outer plating, proving to have little effect other than to draw the droids' tracking. The Bothan barely threw himself prone behind cover before the super battle droids lit that whole area up with blaster bolts and explosions of laserfire, causing Farr, Otar, and Cyran to shriek in terror, but giving both Nuri and Tama time to extricate themselves from cover and catch the cluster of droids in a crossfire. Two of Tama's bolts burned through the upper portion of a super battle droid's chest, and it swung its wrist blaster to open fire on her, only to be cut down at the knees by Nuri's flurry of bolts. One of the droids turned to Nuri's position, while the other aimed at Tama, but they were old and hampered by worn, rusting servos, so they could not make snap about-faces like they had once been able to. Both Tama and Nuri took advantage of this, keeping heavy sustained fire on both droids, until their caustic lasers literally chewed the droids to pieces, scattering shards of white-hot shrapnel across the ruined hangar's floor.

An eerie silence descended upon the hangar for a moment, punctuated by the hiss of cooling metal and the frantic, frightened breaths of the survivors. Tama listened intently to the Force, ignoring the calls from the other children who were concerned for each others' wellbeing. There was a bitter taste growing in the back of her throat, becoming something foul and indescribable at the same time discordant music began to drum in her ears, syncopated with the beat of her own hammering heart. It was her danger sense rising, the Force warning her that something bad was coming for them, something they had little chance of surviving if they did not find a more defensible position. She leapt up from her spot of cover, ignoring the pain shooting through her legs as she did so, and yelled across the expanse, "We need to keep moving! Nuri, are we clear?"

Nuri looked as though she were about to yell an affirmative, slowly coming to a standing position, but then the notes in Tama's ears, the acrid scent in her nostrils, and the bitterness on her tongue worsened sharply, and she already knew the Zabrak's response before she said anything. "We've got incoming!" Nuri shouted as she dived back behind the rubble she was using for cover. Tama rolled back to her own position a moment before a quartet of droids rushed through the jagged opening in the wall, three of which were super battle droids, the one bringing up the rear a simple battle droid with a carapace so corroded by fungus and water damage, it looked like a shambling, humanoid collection of spores and local flora. These droids' tactics were more intelligent, as they swept through the opening two abreast, instead of single file like the previous group, already laying down suppressing fire that swept in concentric arcs across the hangar's interior space, forcing Nuri, Fenn, and Tama to remain behind cover or be pulverized by laserfire. The resultant cacophony was horrifying, the sounds of lasers splashing across metal and permacrete and the ponderous clanking of droid steps promising impending death mixing with the screams of fright and fury from the children.

Tama closed her eyes, trying to refocus, recenter herself, trying to pluck up the courage to try and lean from cover and fire back at the droids attempting to kill them. She cast a glance across the hangar to Nuri, who seemed to have courage to spare, standing for just long enough to unleash a slew of blaster bolts, chewing at the armor of one of the super battle droids but not dropping it before the droids focused their aims on her. Nuri threw herself to the floor, and Tama attempted to take the opportunity to fire back, but she had barely peeked her lekku above the fallen STAP when lasers sliced the air within centimeters of her head. She cursed and looked back to the Zabrak, who met her eyes and shouted, "I'm running low!"

Tama checked the charge of her blaster's own power pack, careful not to touch the superheated surface of the blaster's barrel and chamber. The blaster still had plenty of ammunition available to her, but she did not know how long she could sustain return fire before the weapon became too hot for her to hold. The blaster had obviously been designed for beings that did not mind the heat produced by an E-5, such as droids, though already her palms were slick with sweat, and her hands were beginning to chafe. She saw Fenn risk a shot that whizzed past a super battle droid and impacted with the B1 standing behind, producing a cloud of spores and smoke and stunning the droid, but not destroying it. The super battle droids, however, continued heavy fire on all three of the armed children's hiding places, keeping them behind cover as they continued to advance.

The discordant notes and rancid taste had grown nauseating within her, the Force practically screaming impending danger at her. Tama tried to ignore it, as she was already well aware of the deadly intent of the droids marching across the hangar toward them, when she heard a bone-numbing roar from somewhere outside the hangar, a commotion that veritably shook the walls. All the children heard it, for the vociferation had sent vibrations through the floor at their feet and caused much of the wreckage to rattle noisily. The droids ignored it, continuing to keep their quarry pinned as they marched the remaining few meters to their hiding places. Tama could feel the source of that primal howl, belonging to something immense, a force of nature all its own, a boiling cauldron of primal rage, hunger, and curiosity. Then the din created by the blasterfire was overwhelmed by the sound of something massive striking the outer wall of the hangar, hard enough to make the entire building shake and the ground heave as the walls weakened by past combat and erosion collapsed, gaping fractures spidering out from the ruined opening and causing a huge section of wall and ceiling several meters across to blow inward. The children ducked as shards of permacrete and twisted lengths of durasteel bent inward and rolled about them, slamming against the wreckage and ruins already choking the interior of the edifice. One slab of broken wall sailed through the air and crushed a corroded battle droid, the machine somehow having time to elicit a dismayed wail before being permanently reduced to slag. The edge of that slab caught one of the super battle droids and knocked it spinning to the ground, while the other two still standing turned into the thick cloud of dust and debris to face the new threat. Tama coughed on that dust as it threatened to suffocate her, barely avoiding several jagged slabs of permacrete from descending upon her head. She blinked rapidly, trying to clear her eyes of grit as she looked into the swirling dust and saw an enormous shape trudging through the destruction it wrought, hearing the sound of its deep inhalations and snuffling noises. This close to the creature, she could smell its heady, musky scent as an overpowering wave of confusing odors, could taste its thick, fetid saliva and decaying breath as it gaped its maw, hungering for flesh and thirsty for blood. She instinctively scooted back from it as its form began to coalesce in the morass of dust and detritus, and looked on in a combination of wonder and horror as its enormous head leered down upon all those gathered in the hangar, unfortunate enough to be spitted by its baleful gaze.

The creature was an immense, hulking biped of large, humped shoulders crowned with hoary protrusions, from which emerged a thick, stumpy neck almost horizontally from the creature's upper torso. The head that was supported by its neck was large and oblong, describing a blocky face which was dominated by a gaping, lipless maw filled with ragged fangs used undoubtedly for tearing and rending anything unfortunate enough to fall between those powerful jaws. Over the maw was a pair of large slits for nostrils, flanked on either side small, dark eyes that had an unnerving intelligence and predatory intent glinting in their depths. From its shoulders hung lengthy and muscular arms ending in widely splayed claws, while its heaving bulk was supported by legs significantly smaller than its forearms, ending in pachydermic feet that seemed too small to withstand its weight, but propelled it surprisingly quickly across the fragmented floor. Its thick, wrinkled hide was like a sheathe of natural armor over its body, a dark brown in hue, though there appeared to be faded stripes of a phosphorescent pigment scrawled along its limbs, back, and face, as though the creature had allowed someone close enough to splash war paint across its skin. The monster stood well over five meters in height, the ground quivering with each step it took deeper into the hangar, its claws reaching forward in anticipation, attempting to determine which of the many beings in the room it could consume as its potential prey. Tama felt that the creature was familiar to her somehow, as though she had seen it or heard of it before, but in the fright that overwhelmed her just by gazing upon its visage, she could not dredge up any befitting name with which to describe the creature. She continued to scramble backward, propelled by her palms and posterior, as the creature's head slowly turned to look downward and fix its horrid gaze upon her, having chosen her as the first of its prey.

But the Force was kind to her, for even as the monster growled deep in its throat and took a ponderous step toward her, the remaining super battle droids opened fire on the creature, while the third of their number that had been knocked prone began picking itself up. Blaster bolts hammered into the creature's shoulder, neck, and flank with whining reports, and while the beams of energy appeared to do little to harm the creature, it elicited a pained shriek that seemed to split the air itself. Tama threw her hands to her ears, unable to block out the keening wail, and she was certain her eardrums had burst and were bleeding. The droids, not programmed to show fear or concern for their own survival, continued their relentless assault as the creature spun on them and reared back with one of its claws, before striking with a whirling motion that buffeted Tama with the enormous displacement of air. Its claws impacted the two droids still standing and shredded them, hurling their broken carapaces against the far wall of the hangar with a resounding crash, spraying sparks and shards of duranium armor plating. The third super battle droid, because it had still been attempting to stand, narrowly avoided the swing, and began firing blaster bolts, shifting its aim multiple times as it attempted to divine vital areas or weak points on the creature's body, while back up and out of its reach. The creature roared in defiance, and began lumbering toward the droid, its claws outstretched, its body no longer blocking the gaping wound in the hangar's side it had opened in its fury.

Tama saw the only opportunity they may get for escape and desperately scrambled to her feet, hefting her E-5 Blaster Rifle as she did so. She turned to look back into the hangar, then waved and shouted at the other children, screaming over the cacophony of roars and blasterfire, "Come on!"

None of them needed any further urging, all jumping to their feet and running as quickly as they could over the debris and wreckage, making for the gargantuan, collapsed section of the hangar, all running in a small huddle to the outside and into the ruined city. They did not look back as the sound of the lone droid's blaster ceased, followed by a small explosion and a pealing roar from the monster that sounded triumphant to Tama. They sprinted as fast as they could across the street outside, then soon lost themselves in a maze of rubble-strewn streets, alleyways, and thin, snaking passages, choked with the debris of the Clone Wars, discarded weapons and armor pieces, and the mildewed and carbon-scored shells of vehicles of both civilian conveyance and military application. The roars of the monster they had left behind thundered through the air behind them, but they were rapidly fading as the children had lost the predator intent on consuming them. However, roars and shrieks from other creatures of similar size and temperament could be heard calling through the night in answering vociferations, challenges, and exaltations. Tama continued to lead their slowing charge through the wending paths of the ruined city, though she had no idea where she was leading them, and knew that none of them could keep up this breakneck speed for much longer.

The Twi'lek turned down an alleyway and trotted to the end, calling a halt with an upraised palm behind her. Something had prickled her senses, though she did not feel the alarm she would have if the Force was attempting to warn her of something deadly ahead. She peered out from the shadows of the alley as she felt Nuri and Fenn draw to either side of her, peeking past her shoulders. The alley cut between two large apartment complexes that appeared to have been converted to military strongpoints or command posts before being subsequently abandoned or routed, facing a wide open place that may have once been a permacrete sea of monuments or markets, but was now cluttered with rubble and a veritable jungle of fungus, much of it suffusing the area with soft blue, yellow, and aquamarine glows. In the center of the space was a small but sturdy structure of durasteel, appearing to be a bunker of sorts protected by blast doors and battle droids walking about in programmed, circuitous patrol routes. From the roof of the bunker protruded a large dish, rising vertically, with a slight, pulsing light emitted from the antennae arrayed around the dish's circumference. This light rose into the air with bright, twisting columns of energy that became less substantial the higher they rose, until they dissipated into a barely-perceptible field of purple-tinged energy, enfolding the upper tiers of the buildings around and spreading far out of sight to encompass an unknown area of the city. There was a faint hum in the air, and Tama could feel the skin on her face and lekku stimulated by vibrations she was barely aware of, as though a stiff and frigid breeze were washing over her skin. She gave a shiver as she looked at the machinery and the droids that guarded it, well over a dozen in number and heavily armed with modern blaster rifles and disruptors.

Nuri gasped in awe by her side, and whispered hoarsely, "Tama...this is it. This is the ray shield generator."

Tama gazed at the bunker with renewed interest. This had been the goal she had set for herself and all others she could possibly save from this death game, and they had just happened to stumble upon it through seeming coincidence. Perhaps the Force truly was with her. Farr shoved his snout against Fenn's side and squawked in his thick, whining voice, "Who gives a flying mynock? We need new place to hide, before droids spot us staring like scared nerfs."

Otar sidled up, keeping his voice lower and more measured comparatively, but still as fearful. "He's right. Whatever it is we found, we need to get away from here before those droids find us with their sensors."

"No," Tama replied in a tone that brooked no argument. "We need to keep this place in sight, lest we lose ourselves in this flaming city. Let's find a defensible position in one of these buildings, preferably with windows we can use to overlook the generator."

Before anyone else could utter a response, Tama turned around and trotted back down the alleyway, looking for doors through which they could access one of the apartment complexes that hemmed in the alley. She found one that appeared to have been an entrance used by employees or servants or droids, and found that the activation panel continued to marginally function, which slid the door open just wide enough for the children's malnourished and thin bodies to slip through. They found themselves in a service hallway, littered with droid parts, spoiled food, unidentifiable refuse, and loose sheets of flimsiplast. They crept through the hall, passing several doors until they found the main lobby of the building, which was little more than a rubble-strewn space of doors, malfunctioning turbolifts, a reception area that had been converted into a comm relay post, and windows that had been blasted and shattered, though the openings were barred by blast shields erected long ago. Tama wanted to get to the upper floors of the apartments, but did not trust the turbolifts, so they inevitably took a set of stairs encased in a cramped space that wound further up into the complex's heights. The stairs were many and shallow, as if they had been built for beings smaller than medium-sized humanoids, and the exhaustion all of them were feeling soon caught up to them as they tromped up the stairs, making their legs feel like rubbery strands of slippery muscle. To their credit, none of the children complained as Tama led them inexorably upward, until they had proceeded well over a dozen floors, and turned through another half-open door onto the floor beyond. The rooms lining the halls of this floor were all abandoned, some still locked tight behind doors that refused to open, while others stood wide and inviting. Tama picked one of the latter at random, and ushered everyone into a series of rooms that held little more than furniture built for diminutive humanoids and the remains of personal effects scattered across the floor. Some of the walls also had circular burn marks where blaster bolts had splashed across the plaster and metal, and one room had been completely gutted by fire, the walls and floor burned and covered in soot. No one seemed to mind their current surroundings as long as they offered at least a modicum of safety, and they all flopped on various pieces of furniture or across the floor, heaving as they tried to catch their breaths.

Tama drug herself over to one of the windows, which still had transparisteel in its frame, and looked down, grinning to herself to see the ray shield generator below. From this vantage point, she saw that there were far more droids than what she had initially seen, and more were coming in pairs, emerging from alleyways surrounding the square to reinforce the guard on the bunker and the deflector dish. Nuri walked to her side and peered down, a shadow crossing her face. "We are so borked if we go for the shield generators now. That murglak probably knows now that we know where it is, so he's going to fortify it past whatever we can do."

Otar stumbled over to them, his lekku twitching in curiosity. "What are you two talking about? What's so important about that bunker down there?"

Tama pointed through the window and down upon the dish below. "That's our navplot out of here. It's what Nuri and I have been looking for ever since we found out this compound is enclosed in ray shields. If we can knock out those generators, we can get out of this twisted arena we've been forced into."

"And do what?" came Fenn's sarcastic response from where he lay gasping on the floor. He rolled onto his side and gave them a hard stare. "Go where? There's jungle out there as far as the eye can see, and none of us know what world we're on anyway. Even if we could take out the ray shields—which we can't—we'd get lost in the jungles, where there's undoubtedly more rancors to chase us down."

Tama felt a chill race down her spine. "That's what that thing was, wasn't it? A rancor." She remembered stories Pash had told her regarding rancors, how they were vicious and unusually intelligent beasts that were found on an alarming number of worlds across the galaxy. She had had nightmares after he had told her stories of certain crime lords and Hutts who had predilections for feeding those who angered them to rancors they had managed to domesticate just enough to dispatch their enemies in lively and gruesome fashion.

Nuri nodded, her visage similarly pale. "I hoped I would never have to see one in person. This 'Savior' has gathered quite a menagerie to torment us with. Not that he needs to, considering all the horrible things he could have dredged out of the jungles of Dxun."

"We're on Dxun?" Fenn asked, his voice breaking in fear.

Nuri shrugged. "I think so. I can't think of any other jungle worlds with so many dangerous creatures in one place."

Cyran stood, shaking her head, then babbled a long and complex sentence in Durese. Every eye turned to Nuri, who was concentrating on her words, attempting to discern what she was saying with clarity. When Cyran had finished, Nuri's brows shot up, as though she had come to a sudden revelation. "No, that makes sense, Cyran. Now that you say that, I think you're right." The Zabrak turned to the others, announcing confidently, "Cyran says we're on Felucia. It was an important world during the Clone Wars, held by the Commerce Guild and the site of several major battles due to its proximity to both the Perlemian Trade Route and Shaltin Tunnels, though it's never seen a great amount of civilization or industrialization. If we're truly on Felucia, then escaping into the jungle means wandering through miles upon miles of wilderness."

Tama grunted in irritation. "Would any of you rather stay here, at the mercy of our captor?"

No one answered affirmatively to that question, and Tama returned her attention to the bunker down below. She ignored the dull ache of her unfed stomach, the pain of exertion in her limbs, and concentrated on the shield generators below. It did not really matter to her whether she and the others would be able to escape the planet; all that mattered to her was getting herself and as many innocents as possible outside the ray shields, putting as much distance between herself and the maniac who had brought her here as possible. And that required taking down the ray shield generators, which she had every intention of doing, even if she had to die to do so. As long as it meant the ruination of the psychopath's schemes. She wracked her tired, frazzled mind for a plan, and the only idea that arose was something crazy and desperate, something that was unlikely to work even if she were at full strength in body and mind. She recalled the confusing and exhilarating memories of reaching into the boma's mind, of feeling what it was like to live as an animal, to feel animal desires and instinctual urges, the power it took to bond with the animal and to command it, to bend it to her will. Her thoughts rested on the rancor, and she shuddered as the plan rose to her mind, one so insane, it might actually work. Nuri saw the concentration in her face, and the sudden light of revelation that crossed her expression. The Zabrak leaned closer, concern and excitement evident in her presence. "You have an idea, don't you?"

Tama met her gaze and responded with a grimace. "Let's rest up and regain what strength we can first, then I'll tell you my idea for a plan. I want to think it over first, because no one's going to like it in the slightest, but it might be the only shot we have."