Chapter 59

Arratak

The Bone Yards, the name that the locals gave the canyon, were the remains of a millennia old creature that had died on the surface long before the Togruta had colonised the moon. All that remained was the bones of it's tendrils and the skull. All the flesh, skin and corrosive innards had disintegrated over time. Where the body had lain were small, curved ravines, supported by the bones of the ribs and tendrils. The bones themselves, mostly buried in the walls of each ravine, had turned a sickly purplish-white. Several of the bones were growing a grey fungus on their surface that looked like it was moving if one looked too long. The skull sat in the centre of the corpse, facing towards Mal Torgo.

Runtan told Caloc that if they continued to run straight through the Yards, they might make it before the huge frigate turned them to dust. But they needed to double their chances; split up the enemy's forces. The Jedi took separate paths, each choosing a gorge that ran practically parallel. Runtan took the one on the left while Caloc dove into the right one. According to Runtan, they would meet in the centre of the maze, at the skull. It was close enough to Mal Torgo that the local militia might send someone to investigate the frigate firing on the Yards. Anti-warcraft towers around the town would be able to assist if the Jedi made it that far.

Boots thudding dully into the ground, Caloc ran as fast as his legs would carry him. Surprisingly, the ground was soft, almost like freshly turned dirt. It was probably disintegrated biomatter. He had some distance between himself and the next section of cover, and he had already seen the priate's firepower disintegrate the roof of the last tunnel. There would be no respite from the cannon's gunners.

Red blaster bolts slammed into the canyons walls, leaving cratering holes in their wake. Lower-level laser turrets had replaced the heavy cannon's barrage. Those were far easier for the blue-bladed lightsaber to defend against. He didn't know why the pirates had swapped, but he was definitely grateful.

The newly repaired lightsaber flashed back and forth, the light blue blade spinning around his body as it deflected bolts away from him. Caloc could recall the two gauntlets he had used on Menach, and again on Devaron. It would been useful to have those or a shield to help in the matter. Unfortunately, all that he had was the astromech attached to his back and the lightsaber in his hand.

Menachi alloy, called piktos by the locals, could dissipate the energy from a weapon, splashing it across the surface of the metal. Constant heat could weaken the alloy, but he doubted that the pirates had a focussed beam weapon. Those were rarer than piktos or beskar.

"I am definitely getting some new piktos after this.", he promised himself between ragged breaths, "I am going to forge some shields and never leave the Temple without them."

Still hooked over his shoulders, Deesix beeped in acknowledgement. It was lucky that the droid had remained strapped to the Jedi's back. Had he been rolling along on his struts, he would have been an easy target.

The continuous barrage from above was not elegant. Whoever was firing those cannons was not trying to be fantastically precise. But even a broken battle droid processor could hit a slow-moving target. These pirates were firing wildly, keeping the Jedi on the run. And Caloc's legs were starting to hurt.

Leaping atop a fallen rib, Caloc suddenly summersaulted backwards, and the bolt that would have hit his back sailed high, slamming into the side of the canyon wall. The resulting tremor caused a shower of large rocks to come loose. They clattered to the ground nearby. Leaping high, Caloc disappeared behind them for a moment of cover. Unfortunately, the ship above was still moving, albeit slowly. Soon, the nose would pass his position and the cannons would target him once more.

At least he had only the large ship to run from. He could hear the cacophonous row of the starfighters Runtan had on her own tail. He looked back at the rib that he had just been standing on, and an idea formed in his head. Running the numbers over in his mind, he considered the option. It could work. But he would need cover, and these boulders wouldn't suffice. He needed Runtan.

Canon fire slammed across the ground, igniting several patches of the disintegrated biomatter underfoot. Spotfires flared into being, flames of blue and orange dancing like a drunken Weequay on the ground. They could ignite this entire tunnel in seconds if they were allowed to grow. Another of the starfighters came about and began a strafing run, red lasers hitting the wall to Runtan's left. Flaming bits of dirt and stone went flying through the air, skewering the walls with heavy spears of biomatter. Runtan was forced to leap constantly, choosing any direction she could to dodge the strafing runs. But with each dodge, she ran forward. No stopping. Not until she and Caloc reached the safety of Mal Torgo.

Six of these blasted starfighters were chasing her… hunting HER! Each was an ugly, cobbled together machine, with parts from several dozen craft that she recognised, and others she did not. Their engines made a loud, high-pitched screeching noise, accompanied by a green glow of engine emissions. Each was painted in a faded black, though the paint was chipped and faded and scorched at random intervals.

The ships flew in two groups of three, in triangular formations. Their cannons spat plasma in dizzying volleys, and her yellow blades spun in response. Gold light intercepted the red-white bolts with unrivalled speed and accuracy, yet it wasn't enough. As soon as one trio of fighters strafed her, the others came in from the opposite direction. It meant that her movements were limited, the constant motion of her sabres taking a majority of her concentration. She ducked underneath a section of tunnel ceiling still standing and turned to spot where the next attack.

The first trio was coming around again, from her left. She raised the twin blades and stepped back into the sunlight, ready to continue. The Force filled her limbs, giving her the strength she needed to see the attack through. She was a Jedi. Caloc, padawan or not, had knighted her. She was a Jedi! Six ships was nothing the Force couldn't handle.

Suddenly, the lead ship spun. It wasn't the elegant move of a trained pilot. It wasn't even a proper turn. The ship jerked violently, as though it was slapped by an invisible hand. It spun a hundred and eighty degrees, cannons still firing wildly. The two ships following it took scalding bolts across their hulls, but only one lost control and went spinning into the distance. The second triangle of fighter's, startled by this sudden attack by one of their own, spun away as the ship's cannons spun to point towards them.

A shower of gravel cascaded down the side of the open roofed tunnel as Caloc leapt down, a lopsided grin across his face. "How are you going?"

"Are you bringing the frigate towards us?", Runtan stared at him. She knew that he had to be the one who'd made the starfighter attack it's own, but she didn't understand why. They had split up for a reason, to diverge the enemies attacks. "We can't handle it and the fighters!"

"Oh, I agree with that.", Caloc nodded sagely, then gestured at the sheet of metal strapped to Runtan's shoulders. "But I needed to take that back."

"Why?", she asked, confused, "This isn't the best time to…"

"I have a plan, okay?", he barked, perhaps a little too harshly given the circumstances.

She spun her right blade to deflect another shower of bolts from the final starfighter of the first trio, while her left slashed across the straps of the metal hull's harness. The roughly circular metal thudded dully into the biomatter at their feet. Her stomach had tightened uncomfortably. 'I have a plan' had been her go to catchphrase to say to Nikel Nobel. It was interesting being on the receiving end. Uncomfortable, even.

"What are you thinking?", she asked.

"We need to throw something up there.", he stated, as though it should have been obvious. "If we can pierce their shields with a solid object, it will probably bring down the ship."

"And you think that the metal will do that?", Runtan frowned at the scrap, then turned her attention back to the four remaining ships. They were breaking into pairs again.

"It is the most aerodynamic thing we have here.", he replied, then gestured to a section of spine that was nearest to the surface. "But first, I want to test their shields, see if they can stop solid mass. If these are thermal shields, we need to keep running."

She ran their options through her head. Either they allowed for the ship to keep shooting at them while they tried to avoid being pinned down by laser fire, hoping that they reached Mal Torgo before being blasted to smithereens, or they tried fighting back. As good as she was at running from her problems, even Runtan was beginning to feel exhausted. A shadow fell across the stones, and they looked up to see the pointed, Ubrikkian nose of the pirate ship begin to blot out the stormy clouds. It would be in range soon. Incisor's gleaming in a smile, Runtan gave the boy a nod. Then she raised her blade, and prepared to defend them both.

Cantoni stood at the main console of the Black Revenge, her hands clasping the circular control that piloted the main drives. Her gunners were huddled over their stations, and she could hear the dozens of multiple shots being loosed at the Jedi on the ground. Tatsu, her Weequay weapons specialist marched back and forth, correcting a gunners aim here or there. Riggers, her wing commander, was coordinating with the pilots as they led their snubfighters against the Jedi.

Her one good eye watched the two monitors that showed the view below her. Even the fact that there were two Jedi was… worrying. It meant that Tyrannus was right. She needed to kill these Jedi, or it would be the last thing she ever did. He would make sure of that. She had seen what he did to those who failed him. There were rumours of agents who had disappeared once their usefulness was over.

Her other eye, the cybernetic replacement, was tuned into the biometric details of Tar and his team. Her men were fine for now, but her focus remained split between the surprising developments here, and the hunt still occurring on Shili. She had sent reinforcements, and hoped that they were enough. But something didn't feel right.

An alarm broke through her racing thoughts, and she looked down to see a flashing red light glaring at her. The incoming alert? That was strange. Were the Jedi attempting to throw their lightsabers at the Revenge. That would be nearly foolhardy. They would make small cuts, certainly, but little damage. Perhaps it was a fluke, a damaged wire or something. If that were the case, her maintenance droids were about to get a throttling.

Suddenly, the Revenge lurched. Alarms multiplied thousandfold. There were alarms for damage to the hull, reports of a breach, even a series of alarms for a missing cannon. Tatsu glanced up at her, and Riggers was sent flying back into the far wall. The man's head lolled to the size, his eyes staring skywards. The pupils were empty, and she knew he was dead.

Cantoni let go of the wheel, and Nukus, the Chadra-Fan first mate, grabbed the controls from her. She turned on the rest of the crew, her beak open to scream. But she caught herself, and calmly asked, "What hit us?"

"Uncertain, sir.", One of the technical crew answered, "Whatever it was is solid though. Went straight through the shields and into the hull."

"The shields took damage, ma'am. The generators are not responding. Can't say why, either.", another of the crew spoke up, "I've sent repair droids to the generators to find out."

"Tell me the moment they know exactly what happened!", she growled at him.

Another body-wrenching shudder ran through the ship, and it careened lazily to the right. This time, Cantoni was able to catch a flash of something coloured an off-purple crashing straight through the nose of the ship, sheering the metal apart. Her eyes widened. Whoever was down there, they were throwing… bones? That didn't make sense. Those bones had to be over a thousand kilograms each. Did the Jedi have superstrength?

"Get more Screechers out there!", she half-whispered.

The men around her turned to look at each other in confusion, unsure of what she had actually said.

"Get more Screechers out there!", she repeated, this time directing it to Rigger's corpse, "Now!"

"I think that the shields are out.", Runtan commented as she watched Caloc's latest throw. He had thrown the vertebrae first, aiming to simply test their shields. They chose a rib next. It managed to punch straight through and shattered through the frigate's nose.

Caloc nodded as he studied the shot, "Me too."

He grabbed the metal starfighter scrap and held it before him. This depiction of the Ruping had been emblazoned on his starfighter since the time he had received the craft. It felt like he was finally accepting that the small Delta-7 was actually gone.

Letting go of the scrap, he held it in a Force-grip. Master Yoda had said that the Force could make heavy things light. All that it took was concentration, and a clear goal. Slowly, the metallic circle began to spin, until the ruping image was just a blur of black against the green paint. Turning his senses towards the ship above, he began to scan the frigate for where he needed to aim. The bridge had the most signs of life. A Jedi never took life without reason, and that might not be where the most damage could be made either. He could aim for the engines, but there was only one spot that would take the immediate danger – the cannons – offline. The main plasma reactor was midships, near the engine coolant controls. He waited until he almost felt his concentration slip, then launched the spinning metal at the ship above. It sailed through the air, and sliced straight through the hull. Normally, that would be impossible, but the mish-mash of ship parts and metal forming the hull above meant that the integrity had been compromised.

The result was immediate. A geyser of gas erupted from the wound, catching fire as it met oxygen. The fire rippled across the hull, ripping chunks of the ship apart. The engines propelling the ship flickered on and off sporadically, until they died as one. The huge ship began to fall to the ground, slowed by the air currents and the ship's own emergency repulsor power. The starfighters above all turned as one and began to fly back towards the ship, as though they alone could help. Unfortunately, all that did was put them in the path of the explosion. As Caloc and Runtan watched, the ship erupted, raining fiery debris down on the moon.

The fires fed oily smoke into the air, choking the Bone Yards in darkness. Runtan, Deesix and Caloc waited for about twenty minutes until it had cleared enough for them to walk through the wreckage, scraps of fabric tied around their noses and mouths. They searched for survivors, but found none. There were no escape pods, nor were there any starfighters. The entire ship seemed to have just disintegrated in mid-air. Only a few portions of the ship remained intact, and they were completely burned out. The gas explosion seemed to have completely vaporised any crew in its way.

Caloc threw a piece of metal aside, watching it tumble down the slope of the ravine. "I mourn this loss of life. This wasn't supposed to happen."

His companion threw him a concerned glance. "Why? You were acting in self-defence, weren't you?"

"I was.", he bent down to stare at one of the marks in the dirt. Brushing away a few scattered particles, he withdrew a weapon he was familiar with. A Menachi battle spear. He hefted it, then turned back to Runtan. "But I felt that ship before I threw that killing shot. Do you know what I felt? Fear and anger! There were people reacting to what I did. They feared death, and we gave it to them.", he paused for a moment, considering again, "And at something else they feared too."

"At the bones being thrown at them?", her eyes narrowed, and she was clearly thinking about how much control he actually had over the Force. He had done something most Jedi would blanch at attempting.

Caloc bent down and patted Deesix's dome, then shook his head, "I don't know, Runtan. Maybe. Or perhaps they were afraid of something else. Someone else. I felt a presence that was distant, but familiar. Something… dark."

She remained quiet. Runtan had felt a familiar presence too. A presence that was now corrupted and twisted until all that was left was a chewed out, fearful pit of a person. At least now she knew what had happened to Cantoni all those years ago.