Chapter 63
Pantora – the Immovable
The hangers were sealed shut, and the fire seemed to be destroying more Vulture droids as it spread throughout the ship's rear modules. The bomber had damaged the ships critical systems as well as sealing the main hangers, causing catastrophic electrical damage throughout the ship.
Ord watched the screens on Tetcher's armour as the man flicked through the data. Tetcher was the Siniteen genius of the RSF taskforce Gibbs had assigned him. Having successfully infiltrated the ship during the bombing run, the ragtag team's leader, a Senate Commando named Taggart, had ordered for a full download of the ships systems. Any information they could glean from it might be helpful in discovering the crew's motives in coming here.
Thankfully, it seemed that the turbolaser and torpedo weapons were still functional, just locked down until the bridge could sort through the hundreds of systems failures occurring across the cruiser. Speaking of the bridge, whoever was captaining from there had sealed it from the rest of the ship, and every security droid on board still operating had been put in high alert.
Ord fingered his heavy weapon nervously. After his run in with the crab droids in the sewers, he thought he knew exactly what that meant. It would not be pleasant. A blaster bolt flew past him, and he spun to look where it had come from. The emerald glimmer of his crossguard blade flashed forward and slashed the next three bolts aside. Three battle droids stood at the end of the corridor, E-5 blasters raised. Then a barrage of blue bolts flew past the Skrilling Jedi. The droids collapsed to the floor, limbs splayed to their sides in awkward positions.
Behind him stood Captain Taggart, heavy D-12 rifle's barrel smoking as it vented heat. The man nodded to the Jedi and slipped the rifle back over his shoulders.
"Never seen a blade like that before.", he commented, and both of their eyes turned to the weapon.
The three blades of the green energy extending from the crosspiece flared and disappeared as Ord spun the weapon and clicked it to his belt. "The design is somewhat unusual and even archaic, I admit. But it is mine."
"We need to get to the bridge.", Taggart turned back to the troopers. "Keep your weapons aimed and ready. We don't know exactly who is here. All that we know is that they are to be counted as hostiles."
Ord knelt behind Tetcher and enquired on the boy's progress. Tetcher's fingers were flying across the screens, and Ord could see his eyes flicking back and forth as he absorbed the information. Suddenly, his neck snaped back up and turned to look at him. "Almost got it, boss. I've jammed the communications equipment and installed a program to keep us aloft as long as we can, but we still need to get to the bridge for full control. If we plan to take out the gunnery platform in orbit, we need more than just us on board."
"What about the download?", asked one of the other soldiers, Carlos Nee, "Did you get it all?"
Tetcher nodded slowly, eyes back on his screens, "Mostly. I am missing a third of the data. It's heavily encrypted though. I'd need to jack into a bridge port to get through the firewalls."
"I will tell Biggs to move the frigates into the position for boarding.", Ord moved over and gave the command through his commlink. Once he was done, he turned and looked at Taggart. "Well, let's get to the bridge and see what mayhem we can cause."
They moved through the ship cautiously, with two men sweeping both ahead and behind. Every now and then they came across a squad of alert security droids and a short battle would commence. They took a few minor injuries, but no casualties. The droids, used to overwhelming their enemies with greater numbers, fell easily. Eventually, they came across the main cargo hold. There, they ran into trouble. Droids of all kinds stood there. B1-series battle droids, crab droids, Republic security droids, some that Ord couldn't even identify. Hulking grey droids that looked better armed than most armies stood against the rear wall, maybe the ones that Bultar had mentioned. Some mish-mashed droids that had the symbol of the Hutts partially scrubbed away were bunched with a strange HK-series Jedi-hunter design.
Then suddenly, as one, they activated. Their arms twitched suddenly, and their blasters levelled at the Republic commando's. As one, they started to fire. Ord's blades spat into existence. The crosspiece let out a light hiss that sounded electrical, but that was normal. The main blade, as well as the two smaller blades, simultaneously blocked three separate blaster bolts. The rest of the men quickly activated the tiny riot shields they carried attached to their gauntlets. The shields were only about forty centimetres wide, but they were normally retracted into a ten-centimetre strap of metal.
The shields were not made to deflect blaster shots, but they could protect against a few bolts while the soldiers ran towards cover. Most headed for the large fuel pipes to take shelter, though a couple went to the crates of disembodied droid parts. The droids automatically turned towards the larger group of men huddled behind the fuel line. Ord saw the danger immediately. The thick Rudosium that made up the pipe would stop the blaster bolts, but if it heated up, the fuel would ignite regardless. He leapt in front of the pipe and began to deflect the incoming fire. Pushing out with the Force, he sent a group of the droids flying back like tumbleweed. Each slammed into the walls and deactivated.
"Droid poppers!", Taggart yelled to the rest of the men.
They all grabbed the small spheres clipped to their belts and threw them in high arcs that dropped them inside the larger clusters of droids. The spheres clattered to the ground and rolled around the droid's ankles, some being kicked about by the stomping feet. After a count of three, the spheres erupted in a blinding blue light. Electronic pulses surrounded the droids as they sparked erratically, twitching and convulsing in a most pleasing way before they fell to the ground, dead. A dozen droids still stood on the outskirts of the group, but they were smarter and had moved into the corners for cover. The soldiers crouched behind the pipes and crates, taking pot shots when they could.
Taggart managed to shoot the head clean off a B1 battle droid before he turned to Ord. "Master Enisence, we can take care of this. You get to the bridge!"
Ord nodded, then leapt through the fray and into the corridor on the other side. Thankfully, most of the droids ignored him. Unfortunately, one did not. It was one of the modified Hutt droids, that carrying a wickedly sharp vibroblade. It took off after the Jedi, it's metallic footfalls almost silent as they were hidden by the ongoing cacophony in the cargo hold.
The bridge was crowded with technician droids and weird aliens that Ord had never seen before. Standing in the centre of the crowded bridge was a large Skakoan woman, her large hands rubbing across the purple skin of her head; whether from pain of concern, he couldn't tell. The pressure suit that covered her body was pumping loudly as she wheeled back and forth between the stations.
"Can we at least get transmissions back up and running?", she asked one of the techs. The man shook his head. She let out a frustrated growl. "We need to contact Breedas. I hate the man, but he is our only reinforcement in the system, possibly the sector."
Ord crouched in the corridor, listening as the tech ran through a list of the problems the system was suffering from. There was no propulsion, the weapons were jammed and the communications system was fried. The shields were fried and there was also a small issue with the interior lighting.
He would have probably heard more, but a large droid suddenly tackled him. They slid across the polished floor of the bridge, the droid's arms locked around the Skrilling's waist. Ord reached around and grabbed the droids wrist and he threw it across his body, ripping the arms from their grasp. The Skakoan whirled in surprise. When she saw Ord stand, she wheeled away to the corner of the bridge. Ord went to pursue her, but the droid drew a heavy E-5C blaster from its back. Ord's lightsaber deflected the bolts and he leapt forward. The blade cleaved straight through the droid's body.
He spun and watched the dozens of the droids and bridge crew spin and level their own blasters at the Jedi. If he had a mouth, he would have grinned. Instead, the dozen tubes that made up his mouth twitched in excitement.