Chapter 67
Pantora – Black Cliff Prison
The guard tower's reflective glass stared at Fay as though mocking her. She stood tall and proud, glaring forward at the two shadowy glass doors before her. Somewhere in that room, sealed behind three feet of thick, blaster-proof glass, was the same cyborg who had beat up Bultar and Quinlan. He was forcing the entire prison into lockdown, trapping the team below with hundreds of angry inmates. Whoever he was, he had already fought two Jedi Knights and come out on top. Clearly, he knew his way around weaponry.
Fay did not hold a lightsaber. Her belt had no clip for one. It had once, but that was years ago. Now her old hilt remained on a stand in her Jedi quarters, collecting dust. Fay had decided that her connection with the Force overshadowed the need for skill with a lightsaber. Right now, she was half-wishing that she had brought the one she made as a youngling instead of leaving it on her shelf.
She swallowed down the lump in her throat and stepped onto the thin catwalk. Fear was the enemy of the Jedi, and she mentally stamped it out. Her reflection in the thick glass doors of the tower showed a nervous woman on a dangerous mission. Standing straight and confident, she took a step closer, as though daring them to part and show the Kaleesh she knew was behind them. They didn't open.
Marching forward, she stared up at the camera beside the door. The cyborg definitely knew she was there. He was simply refusing to come out. So she would come in. Placing her hands flat against the cool glass, she imagined a sharp needle slamming forward, smashing the glass into pieces. Slowly, a crack formed across the opaque surface. It spread slowly, until the black glass was covered with a white spider web of cracks. One final time, she pushed out with the Force, and the doors shattered.
Fay leapt back as a razor-sharp staff slashed through the still falling shards of the shattered doors. The first thing she saw was the grimy mask of a Kaleesh warrior. The next was the small hold-out blaster gripped in the man's left hand.
His metallic finger jerked the trigger, and a bolt as red as crimson lava shot out at her. Twisting her body around, Fay leapt over the bolt. Her white robes danced around her, blocking her assailant's visions. He took an involuntary step back, which was all she needed. Reaching forward, she grabbed the blaster and pulled it from his grip, throwing the weapon aside. In return, the bladed staff shot forward with unnatural speed. A single lock of Fay's snow-white hair fluttered to the metal boardwalk at her feet, the slight sting of a bloody cut on her temple registering a second later.
She watched as the clawed cybernetic arm reached to the side of the man's jacket and drew a trio of flechettes. The throwing blades darted towards her like seani insects on the hunt. Admittedly, she could have easily dodged their tips, but instead she grabbed each blade with the Force. They rotated around her in a miniature whirlwind of spikes. Slashing back and forth, the three thick blades moved as she willed them. They jabbed forward and attacked their owner, scraping across the metal of his arms and mask. Then they retreated behind her.
Keeping the flechettes in constant movement required ridged concentration. The Kaleesh had trouble keeping up with their rapid, seemingly random movements. But he still managed to grab two of the flechettes as they spun towards him. The final blade spun through the air and slashed into his left shoulder, digging deep into what remained of his flesh. Green blood splattered across the ground, drawing a roar of pain and fury from the warrior.
This way her chance! Reaching out to the Force with all her strength, Fay Force-pushed the Kaleesh away. His legs skidded across the sleek metal and he stamped his large mechanical feet down. The razor points dug into the surface, tearing through the metal as he kept his balance. The reptilian material of his black robes glimmered as the floodlights spun around to face them. The razorstaff spun around easily in his grip.
He let out a loud growl. "Why won't you just die, woman! Who are you to challenge me?"
"Who are you?", she challenged, "Why are you here?"
He barked out a laugh, "You, woman, are about to die at the hands of Kolraresh of Kaleesh. Prepare yourself for a grave burial."
"You honestly believe that your words are true.", Fay nodded. Her senses focussed on her opponent, she could tell that the Kaleesh believed he would defeat her. But he was overconfident, "I believe that you are misinformed."
Kolraresh of Kaleesh let out a roar, pulling the flechette from his shoulder and throwing it aside. Green blood ran down the black material. Again, he charged, his staff jabbing out at her, quick as a viper. This time she caught it with her right hand just behind the blade, using the momentum of his attack to drag the point to the catwalk. Stamping her foot down, she trapped the staff in the tiny gap between the heel and sole of her boot. The staff was ripped from Kolraresh's hands and smacked him in the side of his mask.
Rip!
The sound was so disgusting that Fay could only watch in wrapped fascination. The mask had come loose, and sat akilter on the man's face. He immediately stumbled back and fell to his knees, hand slapped across his mask to straighten it.
Suddenly, a transport skeet flew above them, a small planet-hopper. It banked left and disappeared over the top of the cliff. Visible for less than a moment, most of the prison hadn't seen the skeet. It was only because of the tower's height that Fay and Kolraresh had seen it. It was enough of a distraction that Fay temporarily loosened her foot on the staff. Kolraresh reached forward and grabbed the thick staff. He pulled it back, and Fay found the foot sliding towards him. She leapt back to avoid being slammed backwards.
A voice suddenly burst from the commlink attached to the man's belt. "Kolraresh! Do you read me? We have found him. We have found the asset. Did you get the ship?"
Fay frowned. They were here for an asset? There had been hundreds of new additions to the prison complex daily over the past few weeks. There had been well over a thousand inmates before that. Most were yet to be properly processed. Over three thousand people could be that 'asset'. Which inmate could these assassins be after?
"Oh, and by the way.", the voice mockingly chuckled, "We found a Republic Special Forces team here. They should change their name. They were no challenge at all."
Kolraresh chuckled at that. He, just like Fay, had gotten distracted by the voice. She recovered first, and lifted the brute skywards with the Force. The Kaleesh roared in surprise as he hovered over the walkway. And then Fay dropped him. The boardwalk, already weakened where his clawed feet had dug in, couldn't handle the sudden collapse of a falling cyborg. He crashed through the floor and fell into the empty space below.
Fay ran to try and grab him before he hit the ground, but that was unnecessary. Somewhere deep within his ragged cloak, Kolrarash had drawn a whipcord and it had loosed around one of the catwalk's support beams. He pendulumed towards the ground, rolling as he landed in a flurry of metal and shiny cloth. Fay rolled her eyes. What would it take to get rid of these terrorists? She vaulted over the railing, also landing easily on the pavement, and began to give chase.
Ord slashed through one of the droids and beheaded the next. Both bodies clattered to the floor. He reversed the grip on his blade and slashed back against the final droid. It's parts also joined the pile of scrap scattered around the bridge. The Skakoan was huddling over a console, typing in commands. Ord reached out and grabbed her with the Force, dragging her away from the controls. But he was too late.
"Self destruct in thirty seconds.", an electronic voice buzzed above them.
The Skakoan turned and glared at him through her suit's glasses. "You are too late, Jedi. This ship is going down, with you still on it."
"Why?", Ord growled at her, "Why did you attack Pantora?"
"Only because we were told to.", the Skakoan laughed without humour. It sounded like cardboard trying to sound human "I am just a soldier following orders, my dear Jedi. And now I complete the order, by killing you!"
The countdown spoke again, "Twenty five seconds!"
Ord slammed his fist into the woman's head. She slumped to the ground, unconscious. Quickly, he heaved her over his shoulder and rushed towards the door again. He snatched his commlink from his belt and activated it, "Taggart, I hope you and your men are okay and have found the escape pods. We need to leave!"
"We found them. There are some near the main engine room. You should make it before we leave."
"I won't make it.", Ord said, "Go! There should be something here."
He turned the corner and entered the next corridor. Right there, connected to the bridge wall, were three double-occupant pods. Shoving the Skakoan into one, he fired up the controls and watched as they shot out of the ship and towards the ground.
The Republic troopers, two humans, fired at Kolraresh as he scrambled towards the gunboats, but he just blocked the shots with the beskar plates on his forearms. The bolts dissipated into the metal, and he was about to throw a few flechette's their way when suddenly a heavy boom echoed across the platform. The two troopers flew sideways, slamming into a group of prisoners nearby. Kolraresh was shocked to see the smoking barrel was from the nearest gunboat. He scrambled into the ship, looking at the pilot in the occupied seat. A short Chadra-Fan nodded at him.
"Good to see you again, boss.", she smiled, "I was getting tired of playing soldier."
"Good to see you too, Vinchis.", Kolraresh nodded his thanks. "Now let me fly this bird out of here."
He clambered into the seat and grabbed the controls, distinctly aware that Vinchis's Chadra-Fan skin was shifting to become that of her real Clawdite self. Vinchis was his best operative, able to sneak into any place and get any information. She had been checking up on Teetee Minau, but an opportunity had arisen where she took over the position as Ressa, an injured Republic soldier. And now she had secured their way off world.
The gunboat was designated as an atmosphere craft, mostly because the space used to carry troopers took up any room for vacuum propulsion engines. The turbine engines were four small cylinders attached to the edge of the craft's slim features. From above, the boat was shaped like short spear, with a wide cockpit attached to the front and the 'shaft' being the troop-carrying area. Two heavy rotating cannons stuck out like fangs from the hull's nose. They were built for ship-to-ship combat, and mostly precautionary. There were also several anti-personal turrets set on either side of the troop platform. For such a small ship, this was incredibly well-armed. The engines hummed to life and the ship began to rise into the air.
Spinning the ship around, he hovered for a moment and located Tarrok against the far wall of the interior structure, near where it met the thicker, outer wall that surrounding the prison. He and his party were on a balcony about a hundred and forty metres off the ground. The gunboat twisted towards them and hovered. There were only three of the Tholothian's troopers left, and as they leapt aboard, a volley of shots from behind them took out one of them. He fell to the ground below. Tarrok didn't look back. He just threw a grenade over his shoulder before he jumped.
Kolraresh put his hand up to his face to try and fend off one of the spotlights as it slid across the gunboat's cockpit. "Are we all on board?"
"Yes.", Vinchis answered.
Tarrok appeared in the co-pilots chair. "Take us to the fleet. We need to jump out of here now!"
Kolraresh gripped the controls tightly and spun the nose around so that it faced the huge battle happening on the horizon. Closing the blast doors on the gunboat troop area, he pushed the throttle as far as it could go and they sped forward. What he didn't see though, was the white-robed Jedi he had fought. She leapt high, with inhuman power, and threw a small disk at the gunboat. The device locked on magnetically, then spiralled open. A single red light bleeped in the centre. A tracking device.
As they flew over the grasslands towards the battle, Kolraresh activated the autopilot and turned around. Tarrok was still beside him, his mask covering his face and his custom-built flame thrower slung across his back. Down in the troop area was a very exhausted Neera and Dosa, the only surviving members of the infiltration team. Standing tall in the middle of their group was the asset they had all risked their lives to rescue from the Black Cliff Prison.
He was not much to look at, a short Givin with a sunken, skeletal face and drooping shoulders. He was dressed in the orange jumpsuits most prisoners wore, but had needed to tear off the sleeves for one reason or other. It wasn't for muscle growth. The man's arms were as skinny as a twig. He gave Kolraresh a look that could have either been disgust, curiosity, or relief. The sunken features of the Givin mouth were extremely hard to read.
"Took you long enough.", he growled at the Kaleesh, "I was about to attempt my own escape."
"You have always been ungrateful, Yak'shere.", Tarrok frowned at the Givin, "You need to know when to talk, and when to act. Now sit back until we can get back to the fleet."
The ship shook roughly and Kolraresh turned back to the front, grabbing the controls. He watched as a firestorm appeared on the horizon. Perhaps another of the Republic ships had gone down. He glanced down at the radar, and felt his mouth drop open. It hadn't been one of the Republic ships at all. It had been the Immovable. It had been their escape!
"Tarrok.", he called back, the words automatic, "We can't go to the Immovable. We need to rendezvous with the Admiral directly."
"Then take us up.", Tarrok called forward. He sounded far steadier, "I'll talk to Breedas and get him to come down here to pick us up."
Kolraresh growled in frustration. The Gunboat would only make it so far until the engines stopped, but they had no choice. He pulled back the yoke and they began their ascent.