Chapter 5
"Sad to see this place isn't as popular as it used to be." Jo said.
"A new casino opened up elsewhere on Takodana, and the people that populated this place spent themselves there, and now they're broke." Maz said.
"So they can't really do anything anymore? I thought those kind of guys would always get more money."
"They do. I was joking."
"Oh." Jo laughed a little bit. "So, uh, why-?"
"They spend time at the said casino."
"Okay."
"Seeing Jo chat with someone else is cute and all, but we're needing to get the holocron." Exar chimed in.
"Very well boys, follow me." Maz told them, ambling to her basement staircase. The team followed her down the dark, dimly lit hallway.
"Um, what are we doing in the basement?" Aang asked.
"I thought you'd have figured it out by now." Maz replied.
"What, does that mean?" Aang inquired.
Maz didn't reply. She turned and entered one of her chambers, quickly unlocked a box and opened it, revealing the glowing-red metal triangle of unknown knowledge.
"You..." Aang was nearly speechless.
"Have the holocron." Exar finished for him.
"Of course. You think it was spotted in the black market?" Maz laughed, shortly.
BOOM
"I know that sound." Maz emphasized sharply. She slapped a button on the wall, and they heard a buzzing sound activating. "Not this time."
"What was that?" Jo questioned. Maz replied by turning and grinning.
"You not only added guns but shields! That's brilliant!" Jo complimented.
"These may be one-way shields, but they are to my advantage. Nothing can come in."
"But things can go out."
Maz mounted stairs, onto a walkway, where many big, powerful guns could be fired towards intruding ships. "I've had these babies for a long time. They've done a lot for me in the past few years, almost instantly shooting down any scoundrel. They really pack a punch, and I'm... I'm not sure this castle would be standing here now if it wasn't for these."
"Spoken like true ballistophilia." Jo said.
"What?"
"Nothing."
At that moment, Exar spotted a transmitter near the counter, and stated, "We should contact our masters and call for reinforcements." Exar jumped down towards it and pressed Rye and Erickson's call numbers, but it didn't work.
"You have to put a credit in the slot!" Maz shouted over a recent 'boom'.
Exar sighed and pulled out a bag from his cloak. He took out a credit and placed it in the slot. The ground of the slot opened up and the credit dropped into the machine. Exar then heard a humming sound within the machine, then he entered the number again. Moments of buzzing and signal-up-picking flew by, and he heard a voice from the other end. "Master Rye!"
"Exar, there you are."
"Sorry master, but we need help here on Takodana. Like now. They did arrive."
"Do you have the holocron?"
"We do. It's safely secured in a locked box in a secure basement in a locked-shield castle."
"Viran's on his way, do-" The signal was interrupted.
"What happened?"
"They probably took out my antenna. Quickly, you may want to get going while you have the chance."
"We're not leaving without the holocron."
"Not what I meant." BOOM "The guns. Fight the intruders off."
"Right!" Exar went back up to the rampart and grabbed the handles of one of the guns. A screen activated on the wall, showing what the gun was aiming at. And they saw a star destroyer dispatching TIE Fighters while firing down upon the shield. "Guys, a little help." Exar insisted.
"I wonder: if they've constantly been firing, what's been powerful enough to cause all those 'booms?' " Jo wondered, also occupying a gun with Aang.
"Oh who knows?" Aang simply stated.
"Well that didn't work as well as I'd hoped." Rye said.
"What happened?" Erickson anxiously asked.
"The signal was cut off."
Erickson contemplated for a moment before responding. "Either this needed more work, or something happened over there."
"Don't get your hopes down just yet. Viran's on his way there."
"Should we send more to help them? I distinctly recall Exar saying that they arrived."
"We can't do anything right now; we need to lead this new squad to battle. To stop a new war."
"This could be our team's last mission."
"Erickson, brother, you know what they've been through, both separately and together. I have full faith they will make it out alright. You should too."
"I have faith in them. It's the power the enemy might now have that worries me. Also, how can you be so sure?"
"Because... I know where they are."
Erickson mouthed the word 'oh'.
Erk marched through the star destroyer's hallway, heading to the hangar where his ship was held. On the way, he grabbed a pilot to come along to help drop him off. "I'm going to drop down to the surface, you're going to fly the ship back here." He commanded as they entered the hangar.
"As you say." The pilot replied.
The Jedi trio stopped firing the guns when they saw that they had blasted every TIE Fighter. Exar recoiled with elation and hollered with joy. Jo mirrored him, then they saw Aang staring at the screen.
"What's up, doc?" Exar asked.
"We're not done yet." Aang responded as the all-too-familiar black Mandalorian ship appeared into view. Jo clenched his fists, and Exar growled.
"We end this now!" Jo snarled as he went back to the guns and rapidly fired at Erk's ship. He quickly grew frustrated when he noticed the lasers had no effect on the ship.
"Of course these kind of guns won't have any effect on a sith's ship. We gotta do this the usual way. Lightsaber combat." Exar proclaimed.
"Be careful." Maz told them.
"Don't worry Maz, we know how to take care of this guy." Aang replied as the team exited the building, just behind the shield. They looked up at the ship, which stopped flying around and simply stilled in the air. They they saw the ramp open up, and the dark, cloaked figure drop down and land only a few yards away.
The team ignited their lightsabers and stepped outside the shields. Erk stood straight up and glared at them, igniting his double-sided black lightsaber. "One more chance." Erk whispered. "Well well. Good to see you in such good condition in such little time after such a battle." The team gave no response, just stanced themselves and raised their lightsabers. "Very well." Erk posed. "Whenever you're ready."
"You wanted another chance at him? We got it." Exar mumbled.
"Aang, you wanna share your invincibility with us?" Jo asked.
"Very funny." Aang said.
"You guys ready?" Exar asked, then shouted, "Go!" They sped towards each other. As Erk was about to strike Exar, Exar jumped over Erk's head and landed behind him. Erk had to be quick in dodging and blocking all their attacks, spinning his lightsaber wildly. He luckily knocked Aang off balance, giving him room and time to disappear.
The team recovered and looked around for Erk. They were slowly spinning themselves around to be sure Erk wouldn't jump a surprise attack on them. Exar closed his eyes and felt for Erk's presence. He remained that way for a moment, then sensed Erk right behind him. He turned around and looked down and saw that he had two shadows. "Gee, that isn't obvious at all." Exar shouted sarcastically loud enough for his team to notice, right before striking down and sideways, forcing Erk up and out. Erk spun like a tornado, making Exar stand back. Exar then charged forward to swing down on Erk. Erk saw this as the perfect time to counteract, so he dissipated into a shadow, then immediately came up behind Exar and used the force to push him into Aang. He then continued to use the force on them to hold them in the air.
"Come at me, youngling. Show me what you-"
POW
Jo knocked Erk a long distance away, using his boot jets to give him a huge boost. Exar and Aang dropped from the air. Erk stood and recovered, shock clearly showing in his eyes. 'What in the name of the force!' Erk thought. "I admit I did not see that coming."
"Bet you didn't see this coming either." Jo said, pressing a button on one of his arms, then Erk started getting electrocuted. Once Erk realized it was happening, he absorbed it, then pulled off the electrocuter device.
"You are full of surprises." Erk complimented.
"Like this one?" Jo then used the force to pull a tree down on him.
"Come on!" Erk exclaimed.
"Are you paralyzed?" Jo asked.
"No." Erk then disappeared, then came up from under Jo, toppling him over.
Erk used the force to hold them all together. Limping towards them, he reignited his lightsaber. "Time to die, heroes." He raised his lightsaber to strike them, but-
PEW PEW
BOOM
Erk was nearly shot, as a blast hit the ground and sent him flying up a couple feet in the air. He landed and the wind was knocked out of him, making him pass out. The team was released, and they looked over to where they thought the blast came from. Through the shields, they scarcely saw that one of the guns had just been fired.
"I don't know why I didn't do that before." Maz mumbled to herself.
"What do we do about that star destroyer?" Exar asked.
"I don't know, but their guns only fire straight, sideways, and behind. It can't do any damage from there. " Aang replied.
Jo looked over to Erk's unconscious body, then saw a little chip beside him. He stode over to it, then picked it up in a flash and backed away. Then he remembered Erk, then smirked as he got an idea. He faced the body, then outstretched both arms. He jerked his arms upwards as hard and as fast as he could, sending Erk up to the star destroyer. Jo ejected his hands from his arms to keep Erk in the air until he reached the star destroyer.
Erk's body flew into the main hangar bay of the star destroyer, jolting the troopers, pilots, and workere. It surprised them even more to see two metallic hands appear with the body. One of the hands waved, then released a detonator into the destroyer. Erk woke up just in time to send it downward. It was barely in the air before it exploded. Jo's hands flew down and reconnected to him.
"Darn." Exar grumbled. "Good try, though."
"Hold up! Look!" Jo pointed to the star destroyer and saw that they knocked out their tractor beams with the detonator. Then the ship started retreating.
"Nice." Aang acclaimed.
Exar noticed the ship heading to their left, then northwest.
...
"Guys." Exar started a little quietly.
"What?" Aang asked a little nervously, noticing Exar's tone and unusual lingering focus on the star destroyer.
"Where was the ship landed?"
...
"The same direction!" Aang shouted as they started dashing to their ship, hoping to save it. "Star destroyers are typically slow on planets, so we might be able to save the ship."
"Not very reassuring." Jo said, activating his boot jets and flying forward. "I'll head them off at the pass."
Maz turned off the shields to her castle and rushed outside, "Jo! Aang! Wait!" But they were already out of sight.
Jo flew as fast as he could, muttering 'Not the ship, not the ship.' the whole time. He flew below the trees, avoiding any chance of the star destroyer seeing him. Again seeing the sky, he thought he was close. And he was. He came out and saw the ship landed. It was alright, but then he looked up and saw the star destroyer approaching. "Gotta hurry." Jo said, rushing aboard the shuttle. He turned the ship on, and it started lifting off. A 'boom' erupted near the back of the ship, knocking it off balance. "Blast! The hyperdrive is down!" Then a constant rain of booms came down upon it, explosions of dirt were going on everywhere as the ship started breaking. "This can't be happening. What happened to the shields?" Jo asked.
Then the ship started rocking around slowly. Jo quickly gave the ship another try, but it wouldn't budge. 'Every half-man for himself, I guess.' Jo thought, then ran to jump out before the ship might explode on him. He got to the ramp as the shuttle started tilting over, her tried jumping, but he started sliding the other way. When he looked up, he saw the tip of the star destroyer and the lasers being constantly fired in his direction. He activated his boot jets and luckily exited the ship untouched. He stopped and tried landing to evade detection. He did so a little too fast, and he dropped to the ground. He got up and looked over to the shuttle, to see it coming apart and falling down the ciffside.
"Sorry, Aang." Jo said, then said to himself, "Well, it was Aang who landed the ship on the friggin' cliffside."
Then, Exar and Aang caught up and saw Jo standing on the edge of the cliff, looking down into the canyon. They gave each other rather unreadable glances, then ran to his side and looked down. They saw piles of ship debris in flames. Exar bit his bottom lip and he and Jo looked over to Aang, who was expressionless. Aang looked over at them and asked, "What? There are plenty more. Come on, we should find a way back from a town or something." Aang pointed out and started heading back. Exar and Jo sighed in relief.
The team arrived back at Maz's castle in the same condition in which they left. Maz was there, waiting for them with the crate. Once she saw them, she rushed over to them with the crate and handed it to Aang, "Take this back safely, and whatever you do, do not let it get into any other hands."
"We know what we have to do, but our ship was destroyed by the star destroyer, we need a ride." Exar said as Aang took the crate.
"I have nothing but a speeder, and there's a town a mile and a half in the West." Maz turned and pointed behind herself.
"We can only hope things don't go South from there on, huh?" Jo joked.
"Funny," Maz said, smiling, "But seriously," She took on a serious glance then continued, "Get to town and get a way back. It's crucial this gets into secret Republic hands."
"Alright, where's the speeder?" Aang asked.
"I'll get it."
Exar chose to pilot the speeder, while Aang held onto the speeder with all four arms. The speeder being small and somewhat cramped, Exar managed to hold the crate in his lap against his stomach. Jo was going to fly along with them, but he wanted to bid Maz farewell.
"I'll see you again soon." Jo said.
"Definitely. Stay safe and don't get killed."
"Funny. I'm living proof I can't get killed."
"Now don't exaggerate. And don't keep your friends waiting; you all have a job to do."
"Right. See ya." Jo said as he wave, ran off, then flew into the air, followed by Exar and Aang on the speeder.
"May the force be with you three."