Chapter 58

Arratak

Caloc slowly wound his way down the cliffs, working hand over hand to repel down the cable Runtan had thrown off her bomber-wing balcony. The weight of the heavy astromech on his back threatened to send him careening from the sheer wall at any second. Fortunately, Runtan had several pair of climbing gloves and rock claws to assist in case the rope failed. She had also offered to lug the scrap of his starfighter down the rope, letting him loose of at least a little of his load.

"So these are stealth robes huh?", he called down.

"The name doesn't suit them, I know.", she replied, yelling to be heard over the rushing river below.

The robes in question here a dark grey, suitable for the shadows if not for the gold thread lining them. Thicker shoulder plates also protruded from the undertunic, emblemed by the Jedi Symbol. He had forgone the thicker over-robes, which had been a stark white. His orange robes, tattered as they were, would do. The main difference was the hood built into the undertunic. It would help to theoretically disguise facial features. At least the new clothes helped to shelter him from the wind that circled through the tiny crevice they were repelling down.

The weight of his freshly reforged weapon clapped against his outer thigh as a stray gust of wind sent him swinging slightly to the right. He dug the rock claws on his boots into the stone to stop himself from hitting the cliffside. It was nice to have the familiar weight of the lightsaber back on his belt again. He had no idea how naked he had felt without it.

"Just a few more metres before we jump!", Runtan yelled up from below him. "Get ready to move quickly after I let go!"

She had explained to him before their descent that the cable would eventually end in the fast-flowing Yoko River. If he fell into that, he and Deesix would be swept away before they realised it. It had taken a while for Runtan to find a way off her platform and to the ground safely. She had built and carved herself a path along the cliffs that led down to a local bridge. The bridge spanned the river where it was wider and calmer. Once they crossed it, the two Jedi could make their way across the Slums towards Mal Torgo and hopefully find a ship ready to take them to Shili.

The rope violently swung below him and Runtan launched herself across the gap to a small ledge three metres away. It was an easy jump for anyone with the Force. It would probably be easy for those without the added help too. With a grim smile, he swung backwards on the rope and then swung forward, launching himself at the ledge.

Under normal circumstances, he would have made it. But with the weight of an astromech strapped to his back, Caloc fell short. He slammed into the rock wall just below the ledge – shoulder first – and bounced away, falling towards the rock face on the other side of the narrow crevice. He reached out and slammed the climbing claws on his left hand into the stone, hoping they would find purchase.

They did, and he came to a jarring halt that wrenched his shoulder from its socket. The left socket, which had been sealed off with a metal plate to stop the Klipton from infecting the rest of his blood and killing him. Metal shifted inside the joint and he gritted his teeth to stop a cry of pain. Quickly, he reached up and slammed the other hand into the stone, the claws finding purchase again. Painfully, he managed to use his right arm and two legs to climb back up the rock to the platform. He didn't dare use his left arm right now, for fear of breaking the seal and allowing the Klipton to flood into his heart and body. Klipton was a healing agent. But it needed to be moderated. Too much and it could shock a nervous system to failure. The amount in Caloc's arm breaking through the seal could cause his nervous system to completely shut down.

When he finally managed to pull himself over the ledge, he collapsed, only pausing to unsling Deesix from his cloth harness. He looked around for Runtan, and found her a few metres away staring down at the water. Her eyes were closed, and a troubled expression on her face.

"Oh, no.", he called over weakly. "Don't help me. I'm fine."

"You should be.", she replied in the sarcastic tone. "You are a Jedi."

"Padawan.", he retorted.

She shook her head slowly, turning the angled irises towards him, "You are more of a Jedi than you realise, kid."

He waved her off and slowly stood. His eyes checked over the metal sheet under the skin of his left shoulder. Thankfully, there was no evidence of the seal being broken, but the skin that wasn't tinged blue with Klipton was already turning an ugly mix of purple, green and yellow. Carefully, he reset the limb, again gritting his teeth against the pain. Stars were beginning to dance before his eyes.

Reaching down to his belt, he grabbed one of his vials of Klipton fuel he kept for emergencies and jabbed it into his arm. Technically, the canisters were meant to hold enough fuel to heal wounds. It was similar to a bacta stimulant. He had discovered in the infirmary on Coruscant that the medicinal miracle could be bio-altered to assist with temporarily numbing pain and short-term cell regeneration. He needed both now. As the small needle dumped the contents inside him, he felt the buzz of Klipton flow through the flesh side of his arm and into his chest. His heart began to palpitate faster. Hopefully that small amount would only heal the scratches peppering his arms.

"I hope you didn't ruin the robes.", Runtan said with a small smile. "Can you feel it?"

"The pain? Yes, I can feel it.", he groaned, "It is quite excruciating."

"No, kid.", she snapped at him, "Feel the Force!"

That caught him off guard slightly. Hesitantly, he closed his eyes and focussed. There was something at the edge of his senses, spinning like a tornado of fear and terror. He frowned as he tried to put a word to the feeling, finally settling with, "I sense chaos."

"As do I.", Runtan agreed with him. Her eyes closed again. "Do you know why it rained last night, Caloc?"

"Atmospheric reactions.", he answered, trying to keep his reply short and let the Klipton heal him.

She smiled at his short answer and elaborated for him, "Ships entering the moon's gravity leave behind latent drive particles and static clusters in the atmosphere react with the pulses of the sublight engines. But yes, atmospheric reactions will suffice."

"My ship entering the atmosphere caused it to rain?", he asked to confirm exactly what she was saying. "Sorry."

"Only a little storm.", she replied.

"That was little?", he couldn't stop himself from asking. He could remember the severity of the rain, how it would push him back across the plains as he marched towards the distant mountains. Those had felt like hurricane-force winds. The rain had been so severe that it had been impossible to see through. And there was that eery purple lightning.

She ignored his question, closing her eyes to sense the Force again. "This will be far worse. I guess we will find out how much worse when the 'chaos' reaches us. For now, I recommend we reach the bridge before the rain begins."

"You think it will be that bad?", he asked.

"Unfortunately, yes.", Runtan replied. "I have seen what happens when it rains in the Slums. We want to be on the other side of the Yoko before it occurs."

"Did you make this bridge?", Caloc asked.

It was a fair question. The bridge was built from thin poles of hardened Baboli stalks, tied together with what appeared to be braided fur or feathers. The surface was several dozen planks of the same stalks, bound together to be a few inches wide. Each plank was thirty centimetres apart. A single misstep could force someone to fall between them and take an unwanted bath. Overall it was about fifty metres in length, and swayed dangerously with the current of the river.

Caloc gripped the straps that held Deesix tightly as he reluctantly hitched the droid onto his back again. The pain as he hefted the heavy droid onto his injured shoulder made him wince. He was conscious of the additional weight. Crossing the bridge would require balance and precision timing. Deesix had already proven a liability in that area.

Cautiously, he followed Runtan out onto the swaying planks, moving one foot in front of the other carefully. He had made it halfway through the planks when a humongous shadow blotted out the sun. For a moment, Caloc was concerned that the storm was already here. Had they been moving that slowly? But it was far worse than the storm.

The shadow belonged to a huge ship, the same beak-nosed frigate that had attacked the Restored Triumph and forced it ground below them. The ship moved to cover the entire sun, growing bigger as it came closer and closer. The heavy laser cannons welded across the belly of the Ubrikkian-shaped hull swung as one to focus on the bridge and the two Jedi creeping across it.

He looked over at Runtan, who had knelt with all four limbs on the one plank, her head tilted to the side as her yellow eyes studied the frigate. Her eyes met his, and he noticed they had narrowed to focussed slits. "Well, this is a great heaping pile of bantha poodoo. Caloc! Ready to run for it?"

"Karabast.", he muttered quietly.

"That is certainly a word for it.", she replied.

Together, they drew their weapons. Runtan's yellow blades spun in an easy circle as she reversed her grip on the mismatched hilts, ready to deflect anything that came her way. Caloc glanced down at the weapon he held. He had felt the heat of the blade in Runtan's shack, seen the cyan light, but this was the first time it was being activated for combat. He hoped it would be sufficient for the task. He flicked the activation switch, and watched the blade blaze into it's incredible existence. It felt so good to have a weapon again. The sabre spun easily in his grip, and he got ready, facing the ship above.

It took three seconds for the cannons to finish their priming sequence. And then they began to spit forth five thick bolts of blaster fire. All of them went wide, slamming into the water with such power that they caused eruptions of water vapour forty meters high. Another round hit the rivers surface, and this time they heated up the water so much that steam erupted from the surface. It wasn't long before the bridge was covered.

"Are we leaving?", Caloc asked. "This seems like the perfect time to run and find better fighting ground. Like actual ground for starters."

"We go much further forward and there is only dry ground and dirt.", Runtan frowned, "No cover and no escape route."

"Well, the other alternative is to just wait here on a rickety bridge and wait for another shot to send us into the water.", he pointed out helpfully. Another volley slammed the water, and this time one clipped the bridge, making it slew to the side.

Both Jedi grabbed the handrails to stop themselves from falling in. Runtan hissed a curse, then yelled another, "Ti Mirakashi Vennimi. Run Caloc! Get to shore. We need to get to the Bone Yards. That is the closest defendable position. We will need to be fast if we want to give ourselves a chance of surviving this."

"Let's do this.", he replied. A sudden sigh of relief flooded over him, but then he recalled what she had just said. The tension returned to his shoulders, "Wait, the what yards?"