Chapter 30
Pantora - the Harshplains
Bultar vaulted over the massive crystal, scrabbling towards the platform below. The droid's all turned towards the two Jedi and levelled their blasters as one. A volley of red laser fire zipped towards Bultar from the left – a sniper in the rocks - and she brought her emerald blade across her body to defend herself. The laser deflected back into one of the other droid's heads on the platform, spinning the skull around the neck socket as the metal carcass fell to the platform. The rest of the battle droids squabbled amongst each other as they tried to hit one of the Jedi.
"B1-98R623. Get back in position and fire."
"This is B1C-97T546, we are under attack. We need reinforcements."
"Send up the droidekas!"
"Watch out B1-97R624. Incoming laser sword!"
"Jedi? Whaaa…."
Quinlan leapt over the edge of the platform and rolled back onto his feet, then reversed the grip on his own blade, slashing through two of the B1's easily. The rest were grouped on the far side of the platform, and he ran towards them, blade ready. He slashed through the first's torso and sliced the leg off the next. He was about to move to the third, but a knife flew past his dreadlocked head, nearly decapitating the Kiffar's neck. He leapt back as a black robed guard launched himself forward, swinging a massive sledge at him.
Bultar reached out with the Force and pulled Quinlan back towards her. He stumbled back a step before he regained his balance. The sledge slammed into the floor where he had just been standing. The man yelled something in his native language (was that Mimbanese?), and three more black robed men appeared behind him. They moved to surround the Kiffar Jedi. Each held a large sledge gripped in both hands. They circled Quinlan, jabbing the sledges at him as they looked for an opening in the Jedi's defence.
On the other side of the platform, Bultar swung her blade through the nearest of the 'Hulks', as she had started to internally refer to them, and spun around. Almost half of the droids were gone, and the rest were still milling about, confused and disoriented by the lightning fast attack. She took the slight respite to bend down and study one of the nearest unlabelled crates. It was thick, and when she opened the lid, she saw a series of metal tubes inside.
"BD, can you scan these?", she asked the tiny droid clinging to her shoulder for his dear life.
He chirped in reply and peaked his head around her long braid, sweeping his blue lights across the crates before beeping pleasantly in her ear. Apparently, these were the components for an explosive cylinder. He beeped again, and this time she decided to ask if she had heard correctly.
"Most don't have any reactant in them?", she clarified, and heard him twitter his reply – only 5% were armed, "Well, at least that is something."
A blaster bolt slammed into the crate, and she turned to see another of the Hulks aiming one of its limbs at her. It was a different arm from the others, one that held a single cylindrical cannon instead of the twin blaster cannons. She rolled her eyes, and the emerald blade in her hand spun easily around in a circle. The droid fired with a puff of smoke and an explosive rocket erupted from the cannon. For a second, Bultar was unprepared. Then years of training kicked in. She leapt aside, using the Force to both push her further away and push the rocket into the floor.
The subsequent explosion rocked the platform. Bultar spun to see a pile of flaming crates behind her. One of them had skittered to the side. It gave off a series of small pops, and then exploded. She covered her eyes as the colourful fireball rocked the metal beneath her feet. As the flames rained down, followed by steaming chunks of stone and debris, she turned and stared at the carnage.
"That was 5%?", she asked BD-9T.
The little droid chirped the affirmative. Bultar almost missed a blaster bolt aimed at her. According to the scans BD had just completed, the containers held some sort of reactant made from the sunstones themselves. This platform wasn't just mining sunstones. It was converting them into an explosive fuel that would power the explosive units. Most of the sunstone crates were scorched, but intact. That was good. Although the fuel and the explosive were separate for now, if any of the containers were damaged, they could cause a chain reaction that would bury this entire cave system.
She glanced around the platform. The largest of the droids still stood, trying to decide which of the Jedi to attack. The tower was currently undamaged. The four men duelling Quinlan were still busy, but if she handled the droids, then he might be able to handle them alone while she looked for Altinrose in the tower.
"What have you done?"
At first, she thought it had come from one of the 'hulks', but the voice, while not human, was alive with rage. Droid's rarely showed rage. She spun to see another figure emerge from the thick smoke. The sound of metal scratching against metal clawed at her brain as he dragged a long pole behind him. The crackle of electricity filled the air as the end ignited with purple lightning. The man swung his head around, studying the carnage, then stabbed the crackling pole into the chest of the 'hulk' that had fired at the missile. It fell to the ground, the energy sucked from it's body.
The man stood tall, taller than both Quinlan or her by at least half a meter. A ragged cape flapped against his shoulders, partially exposing black scale-like armour beneath it. The tiniest sliver of deep red skin was visible beneath the armour. The hood of the over his head had been licked by the flames, and he casually tossed it back. Beneath, instead of face, was a white mask. A single black line traced down the middle of the smooth ceramic surface. Bultar knew that kind of mask. It was a Kaleesh warmask.
The man seemed to have been victim to some kind of mad cybernetic physician too. His legs seemed to have been replaced at some point, as he now sported gleaming white appendages in their place. His arms had similar metal, though this had been grafted into the skin to reinforce the bone. On Bultar's shoulder, BD-9T chirped.
She tore herself away from the massive man to look at the exploration droid. "Really? Are you sure?"
The droid's head shifted sideways, and she took that as a withering look.
"Fine then.", she readied her weapon, "If you think that will work."
The Kaleesh drew back his arm and threw his staff at her. She rolled to the side, heard it strike one of the crates behind her and switch off. The Kaleesh didn't seem to notice. Instead, he slid two baton's from his belt and pressed a button on their hilt. They, like the staff, crackled with power. The yellow, reptilian eyes regarded her like a tooka regarding a meal – and disapproving of it, "You seem like a smart lady. Come quietly and I promise that my Master won't hurt you… too much."
"Tempting.", Bultar spat back with malice, "But I have a problem with submitting to crazy men with robot appendages."
She could see the grimy kaleidoscope of yellow and black that made up his eyes, could see the edges of the red scaly skin around them as it twisted into anger and rage. "Very well then, Jedi. I will give you a quick death."
Within the space of a microsecond, he was upon her, the batons swinging to club her in the head. Her blade managed to block them both, and she stepped back. The words of her Master echoed through her head, and she moved with his phantom advice. Her blade flowed easily to block each attack the Kaleesh made. He was acting aggressively, with no real plan of attack. She could feel the power he put behind each thrust, throwing his shoulder, back and arm behind each swing. It was a mistake.
Power was power. If one fought with their anger and emotion behind their attacks, it meant that your focus was solely on your opponent. You focussed on how you could hit them, not how they could counterattack. It was the reason why the Jedi trained to keep their emotions in check. She remained calm despite the constant attacks.
As the man flung a powerful backhand strike at her left side, she sidestepped. Not finding the expected resistance he was now used to, he stumbled forward. It was only a small stumble, less than a half step. But for a millisecond, he was off balance. Bultar grinned. Slashing up with her blade, she knocked the weapon from his grasp. He recovered quickly, using the claws of his robotic legs to find purchase on the metal. Gripping the lone electrobaton with both hands, he swung an overhead cut. She blocked using a Form II technique she wasn't fully comfortable with, keeping the blade at an angle so that the attacking weapon slid down, keeping her opponent off-balance. He let loose a flurry of attacks: forearm, backhand, reverse grip, overhead, underhand. She blocked each, grunting slightly with the effort of doing so.
Unexpectedly, he lunged forward, and the baton scraped along BD-9T's outer shell. Sparks flew as the droid's electronics shorted. It began to convulse violently, and it's little feet that had been holding on for dear life to her robes sprung open. BD-9T fell to the ground. Bultar barely had time to notice before she had to focus entirely on defending against the next attack. Suddenly, a loud, gurgling roar echoed from the tower above. Both she and her opponent's head swivelled up to look at the glass windows.
The man noticed her movement. "Ah, so the Wookiee means something to you, does he?"
"He is a friend.", Bultar dodged the next strike, "One who appears to be in need. If you would excuse me, I need to be over there."
The Kaleesh spun, kicking out at her legs. His metallic appendage collided with her knees, and she stumbled to the ground, her face smashing into the platform. She heard a loud crack, and her vision went cloudy. "But can you get there in time, dear Jedi?"
"Just you wait and see you monster.", Bultar spat out the words, tasting blood as she did.
"I'm sure I will.", he smiled, before drawing a combat knife from his belt, "But I think that this platform has seen better days. I hope that you can save your friend. My droids have had such fun with him. I want to take this with me though." Grabbing her braid, he lifted her up off the ground. Her head exploded with pain, the hair supporting her entire weight as her stared her in the eyes. The Kaleesh let out long, cruel laugh. "Just something to remember you by. Fear not, dear Jedi. I don't need you dead yet."
She crashed to the ground as he slashed through the dark braid's base, painfully hitting her chin against the surface of the platform. Her attacker lifted the severed hair high and let out a primordial howl.
"You won't get away with this.", Bultar got to her knees. Her head was pounding like a drum, and her face felt like it was forming a bruise. She had dropped her hilt, and felt blindly around her leg for it.
He bent down to stare her in the eye. "All I wanted was the first item of my collection, my dear. You see, you will go down in history as the first Jedi to be slain by me. My brother will be proud. I shall watch you perish as you try to save your friend, young Jedi. Just remember, this was all your fault."
With that, he bent down and picked up a fallen blaster from one of the droids. Levelling it with a stack of barrels marked with the sunstone symbol, he squeezed the trigger. More colourful explosions danced into the air, getting closer to the sunstone reactant containers. Her eyes widened as she looked at the highly expensive and explosive sunstone resin.
"To me, my warriors.", the cybernetic attacker stalked away. The four men duelling Quinlan immediately deserted their fight, leaping after their Master. All five disappeared into the thick smoke.
Grunting loudly, Bultar got to her feet. Pain still exploded across her knees where the metal feet had hit her. She saw her lightsaber on the deck, and pulled it to her with the Force. She looked up at the tower above her. Forget the Kaleesh. Altinrose needed her now. Still dizzy, she struggled into a slow, uneven jog. A hand fell on her shoulder.
"Get out of here, Bultar.", Quinlan pulled her back. He forced a pile of metal into her hands, and when she looked down, she found herself gripping BD-9T, still sparking with what little movement he could manage. Quinlan stared at the flames licking closer and closer to the pile of containers not far away, "You need to step back and get that droid to safety."
"What about Altinrose?", Bultar asked, noticing the slur of her words, "I need to get him."
Surprisingly, Quinlan gave her an easy, calming smile, "Don't worry. I'll get him out of there."
There was smoke everywhere. Ever though the tower had seemed untouched from the outside, there were electrical fires licking at every control board, monitor and light fixture. The main room at the top of the spire seemed to be a transmission and communications room, full of schematics and flickering system maps. There were two doors leading to other rooms, and Quinlan vaulted over one of the holotables, baring noticing the droid schematics hovering above it.
One of the adjoining rooms seemed to be a surgery suite, with over a dozen mechanical and cybernetic limbs hanging from the walls. Covering his eyes from the smoke, the Jedi peered around the room. Several of the surgery tables were occupied. One held a Duros male. His injuries indicated that he had been here for a while and had perished long before the Jedi had arrived. The table next to him was a Pantoran, a farmer, judging by the thin leather clothes on him. A large piece of debris had punctured the man's chest, and he now stared with lifeless eyes. The only other occupied table was on the far side of the room, where the lights were nothing but sparking wires. Shadows clung to the walls. But there was an occupied table there.
Leaping through the smoke, Quinlan grabbed his lightsaber and used it to illuminate the table. The dark-furred Wookiee he was looking for was strapped to the surgical table, dangerous tools and droids hanging from the ceiling around him. He seemed to be unconscious. Quinlan slashed through the restraints, and began to heft the heavy Wookiee over his shoulder.
"You seem lost, Jedi.", a deep, thrumming drone stopped him.
He turned to find a large surgery droid hobbling behind him, its two pinchers spinning like blender blades. Quinlan tilted his head at the droid. "Who exactly are you supposed to be?"
The droid tilted its head to the side, sparks cascading down its neck. "I am EV-A6-78. Are you to be my next patient?"
The dreadlocked Jedi rolled his eyes in horror. This droid had been responsible for all this? "Not a chance, you oversized stapler."
"But I need another patient. I need to perfect more lifeforms. It is my programming to…"
Quinlan slashed through the droid before it could finish, then rifled through the pieces, trying to find the neural processor. A low growl came from behind him, and he turned to see Altinrose sitting up on the table.
He let out a questioning growl, then gestured to the room around them, "Where are we, Vos?"
"I would prefer to explain when we are safe, Commander.", Quinlan answered. "I'm just glad I don't have to haul your hairy behind over my shoulder this time."