Dust plumed across the desert plain in great clouds. They swallowed her whole, until she was just a blob of black amidst the sand. Cinder shifted her feet into a defensive stance. Her apprentice stood across the way, engulfed in another plume of dust, marked only by the harrowing crimson of his lightsaber. Her eyes kept steady on the blade.
All she had taught him was for this moment. He smelled weakness, and knew now was his best chance to strike.
He charged.
Cinder kept calm as still water. Her own lightsaber hung limp from her belt. Her hand inched towards it as the boy rushed forward, slashing his blade madly at the swarms of dust. He lowered it into a lancing thrust and prepared to run her through.
Her blade caught the tip of his. She sidestepped and redirected him past her. He rebounded and fell upon her with a downward slash, but again only caught her blade. The lightsabers locked together and thrummed in harmony.
His eyes caught hers. They were simmering coals of sulfur.
A smile crept across her lips. "All that I have taught you and you still rush headlong into the fray." She leaned forward, pressing her blade harder against his until it made him recoil. "The lesson you were supposed to learn was how not to die." She parried his next slash and made one of her own at his throat. He brought back his blade to block it in the nick of time.
"The Dark Lord left you here for a reason," he said. "You have somehow failed him." Each time he swung his saber at her, she countered with deft parries. They were the reckless blows of a child.
Cinder chuckled and stretched out her free arm. Her fingers splayed outwards, and her apprentice went flying backwards. He smacked into the basalt statue of some forgotten Sith Lord of old with a meaty thump. A cloud of fine sand sprung up as he slumped to the ground. She sauntered over to him with the diligent swagger of a noblewoman.
"Is this what you call weakness, Darth Fell?" She jabbed her blade towards his throat, mere millimeters away from singing his sand-flecked brown flesh.
Fell looked up at her. His yellow eyes were bloodshot, irritated by the flying dust.
"Why else would the Dark Lord have left you to die?"
"Your guess is as good as mine." She could not fathom why Darth Ruin had fled Korriban in such a hurry with all his council but her. As his Shadow Hand, it was not her job to know, but to obey. Ruin commanded her to remain here as the Jedi rained down upon their citadel.
"But this squabbling serves no purpose," she said, deactivating her lightsaber and returning it to the loop on her belt. "We will be slaughtered if we remain here."
Fell sighed and gave her a sullen look. "Fine," he said. "He left us behind for a reason." He rubbed dust from his eyes. "And there's still ought to learn from you yet, master."
Sweet relief. She reached out a hand and helped Fell to his feet. She took a moment to peer up at the sky as the boy dusted himself off. It was all a mess, a blur of explosions and laserfire that blotted the night and drowned out the stars.
"Come, we have to go." Cinder turned her back to him and began walking off through the statues lining the training yard. The boy is stubborn, not stupid. He wouldn't dare strike her while her back was turned. Especially not now, after being whipped like a cur.
They were in the center of the Valley of the Dark Lords. The only ones beside them were the ancient dead, who had no need to wake. Ruin's towering spire loomed in the distance to the east, a spiraling black tower with spiked merlons and decorative crenellations thin as needles. Every orifice was alight with dancing fire, and countless lightsaber beams flashed from within the charring ruin.
Is that why he left me here? To torture me so? To make me see all our work burn? She glanced over her shoulder, a thick tangle of blonde hair muddying her vision. Fell trudged through the sand behind her as if he were sidestepping Bantha dung.
"Quit meandering," she called out as she turned away. She resumed her pace. "Else they'll slaughter us both: you for being slow and useless, and myself for being fool enough to remain beside you."
Fell caught up with her in a few moments. Sand and mud covered his blacks from neck to foot. His thick, brown mop of hair danged over his forehead. Sweat dribbled from it and made it cling to his face. He is a man grown now, she thought. And yet I still see that boy from Ord Mantell.
"You mean to leave me here," Fell said, "to die like a dog against the Jedi?" He cracked a smile that she did not deign to return.
She dared not speak, lest she frustrate him and the pair wound up back where they started. Let him draw his own conclusions. That will steer him true.
They made their way through the narrow pass leading up from the valley floor, not towards Ruin's burning tower, but the jagged sandstone ruins to its west that led through the remainder of their settlement. Great stone crags rose high up into the black sky. Boulders rested atop, ready to be loosed upon any who dare intrude upon the valley. Cinder ignored Fell's protests to let them loose.
"Let them have these old fools in their tombs," she said. "There is little more we can learn from them. Ruin bears the artifacts that I do not have myself; the Republic has the rest in their possession already. What do a few more boons of Tulak Hord and his ilk matter?"
"It seems unlike you to willfully see them destroyed," Fell said, shaking his head.
"All to learn here, we already know. And all that you need taught yet, I shall teach." She stopped for a moment and Fell bumped into her. "In due time." She jabbed a finger into chest.
The night had turned black as pitch by the time they reached the tower door, a slanted grey square with thick lips that split it in two. They found their way by the fires in the sky. The war above was all the light they needed.
"Do you think Ruin actually made it out?" Fell said as Cinder activated the door.
"Watch his ship up there and tell me," Cinder said, pointing up at an oblong shape crawling through the chaos above. It was beset at all directions by spews of laserfire and wracked by explosions, yet somehow continued on untouched. She activated the lock on the door.
The door unlocked with a metallic whine. Cinder and Fell took places against the wall on each side. The furious slashing and humming of lightsabers was heard inside. Three, she could tell at once. One went silent, and there was the sound of metal bouncing off the stone floor.Cinder peered around the corner. A single Sith warrior, no more than a boy, lay strewn about the floor between two Jedi. They were gawking at the boy, sabers still ignited. She shot a look over at Fell, who wanted to rush in and kill them both. Cinder shook her head, and silently bid him to wait. One of the Jedi, a burly man with long, brown hair and pointed features suggesting Chandrilan heritage, drove his saber through the downed Sith's chest to confirm the kill. He and the other, a twin in all but shape, exchanged a look before walking off to the east. They are drawn to the flames like moths.
Cinder and Fell drew up their hoods as they stepped inside.
"This is the last we speak until we reach the ship," Cinder said. She did not deign to look at Fell, but knew he was smiling behind her.
They walked through the now-deserted citadel, observing the dearth of carnage around them. A small, open-air bridge lined with spiked crenelations marked their path forward. Over the parapets, Cinder observed the fighting on the terrace below. Jedi and Sith alike fought and died in droves. She watched one Sith—a Rattataki boy she had taught in the academy only a few days prior—fend off a saberstaff-wielding Jedi Knight. The Sith cleaved his foe's staff in two, the yellow blade fizzling out as its crystal fell to the ground, swallowed up by Korriban's endless sands. He drove his crimson saber through the Jedi's heart, and dragged it out through the knight's shoulder. The Rattataki had bodyguards - Sith soldiers, clad in chromed red plate, with pointed helms and smoky black visors - armed with vibroblades. They looked so gallant, like a troupe of crimson knights. But they were cut down like children at play when four more Jedi pounced upon from beyond the veil of dust. Doubtless they had been moving under the bridge the whole time, right beneath Cinder's feet. The Rattataki boy died under blows of viridian, cerulean, violet, and ochre. Cinder felt a gnawing in her chest.
"Master?" Fell was already ahead of her across the bridge, in the sandstone tower across the way. "And here you were worried about leaving me behind." He scoffed and continued on.
Cinder looked away from the onslaught below and returned to her apprentice's side.
"I thought I bid you to speak no more." She glowered at him. "No matter, it's just ahead."
The pair continued through the tower unabated. The door at the end of the hall yawned into a massive stairwell, with drab duracrete steps going from top to bottom. Amid the barren stone walls was the occasional sconce, complete with dancing green flames. Cinder recalled when she and Ruin lit them ten years before. The fires still burned just as fierce now, even in the face of being snuffed out.
Just a few more flights of steps and they would reach the hangar. Cinder wondered how many others would flee. It's not as if I can try them for desertion, she thought glibly. We are deserters ourselves.
A cacophony heralded the hangar's entrance. Klaxons blared, warning lights flashed, and Ruin's blasted broadcast still echoed throughout the hall. She heard worse sounds as the door began to hiss its way open: lightsabers on flesh, blaster fire, thrusters cut short as pilots were slaughtered, and the screaming of ships as they were stopped in their ascent.
"Act like you belong, apprentice," Cinder whispered. She fussed about with her hood to ensure her face was completely covered. She knew they would not recognize Fell. He had never been part of the Jedi Order. She was uncertain about herself. Her last days with the order were relatively recent. Ten years was not a long enough time for memories to fade or grudges to heal.
She and Fell strode headlong into the fray. Cinder kept her eyes ahead, yet remained conscious of the churning abattoir around her. Sith and Jedi fought, their sabers crashing in flurries. She felt the coursing energy of the Force all through the room. It felt so heavy that it could smash them all like the insignificant insects they were. She heard the crackles of dark lightning. The acrid smell of burnt flesh snaked through her nostrils. She heard a Sith sorcerer's cackles cut short by a stab in the back. A salvo of lightsabers silenced themselves with a hiss as they clattered to the ground. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched a Talz Jedi get pelted by a volley of boxes being flung by some far off Sith warrior. Straight ahead, just a few meters more, was her exit.
The Ashen One was Cinder's personal freighter. It had been with her since her Jedi days on Coruscant, when she was gifted it by a shipyard owner after she and her master had dealt with thieves purloining his vessels. That was years ago, and the ship had been fresh off the assembly line then, all shiny and chrome. The chrome, she found out, had been cheap, fake stuff that flaked off with the slightest touch. Years of space travel had turned the entire thing a pale, smoky grey. When you touched the ship, the paint stained your fingers like ash. In her past life, the ship had just been named Ashen. It was when she claimed the Darth title that it became The Ashen One, in homage to her master's code.
The ship was in the shape of three slabs. A large tarp draped off the back like a massive cape. It hid the azure lights of the thrusters beneath a pitch black canopy. Two long spines stuck out from the front, flat and grey with blue-black trim, though the blue was splotched more and more by the ashy paint with each passing day.
The cargo ramp opened at Cinder and Fell's approach. Just as she thought, the Jedi were too busy to come blundering after them. She hurried Fell up the ramp, and told him to make sure everything was set for flight. She stayed on the ramp for a moment, observing the battle. Hopefully it will soon be behind us. She thought she saw a Jedi look her direction but when the ramp began drawing upward, it no longer mattered.
The cargo hold was a sprawling thing. The outside of the ship never seemed like much, but the inside was boasted to hold three thousand square meters of cargo. She would never hope to use all this space. A set of plasteel crates by the far wall housed all her Sith artifacts, as well as sets of holobooks she had pilfered from the Jedi Temple.
She made her way down a winding passage into the terminus, a hollowed out eggshell of a room that connected all the rooms of the ship like a wheel. A utility closet stood at Cinder's left as she walked in from the door to the cargo hold. In front of her was a large holotable, capable of displaying a large range of starcharts. She had carved its communication functionalities out long ago. She made her way toward the cockpit, nestled inside the rightmost of the slabs sticking out of the vessel's bow.
She entered to see Fell hard at work inputting coordinates and checking starcharts. They were surrounded on all sides by computer equipment. It had all once been new, shiny and chrome with glowing green and orange screens and lit all around by little blue bulbs. Now they looked their ten-odd years of age.
"Where are we going?" Fell glanced over his shoulder for a split second before turning back to the navcomputer. The screen was bustling with information: long strings of coordinates, the names of systems popping out left and right in crisp, bitcrushed Aurebesh, and even a rudimentary map of celestial bodies made out of square white blips.
Cinder didn't bother to answer him. Instead, she took her place in the copilot's seat and pulled down a targeting scanner from the overhead hatch. Peering through the green-tinted lenses, she observed the scene in the hangar. Despite the carnage outside, she was calm as could be.
"Master-"
"Be silent, or I will have your tongue out before we leave."
Cinder zoomed in to the far side of the hangar, towards the door that she and Fell had arrived through only a scant few minutes before. She motioned for Fell to take a look himself. He opened his own compartment overhead and peered through the goggles that dropped down. They both watched as the door burst open and a squad of Republic troopers came through. These were the heavies, all clad in white plasteel armor trimmed with stripes of bright orange and decked from head to armored toe in long-strung bandoliers festooned with ammunition and ordnance. The heavies stopped and turned about on their heels, as if on a dime. Two columns faced one another as a man and a woman came striding through. The man was clad in an officer's fatigues: an orange shirt with black trim down the sides and around his cuffs, and puffy, black pants that led down to black boots. Any polish on them had been worn away by a firm cake of dirt and sand.
The woman was a Jedi, albeit one who had not yet partook in battle here. Her robe looked a coarse brown linen with crimson lining the hems. Beneath it she wore a tunic of red accented with black, black trousers, and brown boots that concealed any dust that may have stained them. Fell glimpsed a double-bladed saber hilt notched at her belt when her robe swayed as she moved.
"Who is she?" Fell said. He continued gawking through the goggles, peering at the Jedi's every move.
"A member of the High Council," Cinder said flatly. Deep down she knew the woman, but she could never let Fell know that. She did not even want to remember herself. "Doubtless she is here to oversee this onslaught, so that she may report their victory to the doddering old fools on Coruscant. They'll reward her no doubt, probably with some castle on some Outer Rim backwater."
"The Senate?"
Her eyes asked him if he was stupid. "The Jedi," she said.
"You're telling me the Jedi give out castles and manses while we're stuck tending to a crumbling ruin on this desert backwater?"
Now is not the time for jests. She was just as surprised as Fell when her hand slapped him hard across the cheek.
"The things we do—did—here meant the rejuvenation and survival of our order." Cinder stood up and bid Fell to leave the pilot's seat. She slipped into the chair as he rose. "Do not forget that, child," she said as she punched in coordinates. "We are going to Ossus. You will stay here in the cockpit to ensure we get out of Korriban space. I will wake the droid."
She was pleased when Fell decided not to object. His brown skin had begun to welt and turn red. As Cinder got up to leave, he returned to the pilot seat and began to put her orders into effect.
Cinder found herself in the central terminus again. She made her way past the holotable towards the utility closet. It was an ugly old door, round and painted soot-like black. A keypad sat on the wall to its right. Her fingers danced on it, typing the code quicker than it could even pop into her brain. The sooty door slid open, releasing a shower of dust and paint chips. Inside stood an absolute rust bucket of a protocol droid. The thing was ancient, a relic from the days when Czerka was still Czerka Corporation and not Czerka Arms. How much of the droid's orange coloring was from paint or rust, she could not tell. She approached, coiling her way around the droid's back and reaching underneath his chestplate to find a single switch. She thought it stuck, locked in place after being untouched for the months she'd had him locked in here, but it finally moved between her fingers. She heard the whirring of machinery, the spinning of rotors, and the popping of circuits as the decrepit thing sprung to life.
The droid stumbled forward a bit, exiting the gloom of the closet and into the light of the terminus. It did a little spasm before turning around to face Cinder, who was still bathed in the shadow and dust of the now-empty room. She grimaced as the droid's vocabulator sprung to life, knowing the ordeal she was about to sit through.
"Introduction: Lady Cinder, how nice of you to finally reawaken me. After being deactivated for more than ninety galactic days, I am obligated by my programming to reintroduce myself. My name is HK-47, a Czerka Corporation protocol droid, and I am at your service."
Cinder stepped out into the light and studied the droid. That was all still paint she saw, no rusting to be seen. His eyes were alight like bright fire, creating new reflections on the walls. His body was segmented at the torso, though for what purpose she did not know nor care. His joints were bound together by rudimentary steel rotors. That's probably how they all were made back then. He was a curio, a relic of the Old Republic and its bitter wars.
"Continuation," HK-47 began in his idiosyncratic speech pattern before Cinder could so much as get a word in. "Now that we are reacquainted, I must confess that I found your treatment of me the last time we spoke quite... galling.
"Reassurance: Now, now master. I can see that look upon your face. Take that as a compliment. It is a refreshing and welcome change, given that my previous owners were rather... shall we say, soft. Your frustrations with me were quite valid, and I cannot begrudge you them. Apology: Alas, Master, I still cannot provide the information you seek. My assassination protocol remains locked to you. Addendum: Though I assure you, all homicide directives installed at your discretion are active and ready."
"HK," she said, placing a hand on the droid's shoulder. It was cold to the touch. "That's not why you're awake, nor do we have time to squabble about this now. We are leaving. I need you to man the guns."
"Exclamation: Oh master, I dare thought you would never ask."
They both returned to the cockpit. HK-47 did as he was bid and sat himself in the chair beside Fell, readying his targeting computer. Fell eyed him with apprehension. She remembered he had not been with her when last she saw the droid, and he thought that it had been smashed to pieces. After all, that was the story she had told him.
"Are you just going to sit here or are we taking off?" she said, gazing out the cockpit. The Jedi woman they had observed earlier was now in the midst of battle with a group of Sith. Green whelps, and none she recognized at that. What concerned her more was the squad of heavies, who were taking advantage of the distraction to place explosive charges across the hangar. She watched the officer barking orders; he was now flanked by two new heavy troopers at his side. They had their guns trained at the Sith trainees, ready to fire in case their Jedi Lord fell.
That is her, Cinder thought with a glum smile.
"Gun it, they're going to bomb us out," she said at last. "I'm going to open the bay doors. If I do not return, make for Ossus without me."
Fell nodded in curt agreement. "Droid, train our turrets at those troopers."
HK-47 affirmed Fell's command, stating it as redundantly as possible. He opened the overhead bin, pulling down the targeting computer within, and began to analyze the scenario outside.
"Preparation: The turrets are primed, meatbag."
"Don't call me that." Fell tried sounding brusque, but his voice faltered.
The droid paused for a moment.
"Query: Why be offended I call you what you are?" HK-47 said without even averting its gaze from the targeting computer.
She left them to their squabbling and headed for the cargo hold.
Cinder let the cargo ramp open just far enough for her to climb out. She will be on me as soon as the doors open. Will she recognize me as well? Her only plan was to jump back onto the ramp and escape into the ship when Fell punched the throttle. If they came for her... It would not matter. She jumped gracefully from the ramp and made her way over to the wall across the way. A single button would open the blast doors to the hangar, and then they would be free... of the fighting on the ground. There was still the issue of the Republic warships lingering in the starfield above. She wondered how Ruin was faring in his desperate escape.
Damn him, damn him, damn him, the thought bounced through Cinder's mind as she made her way over to the switch. I must find him, I must figure out what it was he meant to do here. I'm sure he has his reasons. This is senseless, even by him. Her thumb was on the round button. She inhaled sharply and pressed it.
No more alarms could go off than were already blaring. But Cinder failed to account for the noise from the blast doors themselves. They shrieked as they wrenched themselves open, their teeth grinding as they slid apart. Sparks flew from underneath. She felt countless eyes turn in her direction. She scampered off behind some crates and began to snake her way back towards The Ashen One.She did not think herself seen. The cargo ramp loomed just overhead...
Before she could jump for it, blue blaster fire pelted in her direction.
A duo of heavies were coming her way, long-barreled rifles at the ready. She swatted their bolts away with her lightsaber until The Ashen One's turrets responded in kind. Where two soldiers stood, a fat black scorch mark belched smoke.
She heard the officer shout from the other end of the hangar clear as day amidst the clangor. "All fire on that ship," he yelled, his peevish voice hoarse and strained. The troopers who were planting explosives abandoned their previous directive to follow new orders. They might as well be droids. The Jedi woman cut down the last of the Sith with a well placed cleave to the shoulder. Then, she made a curious choice.
"Tell your men to hold, Officer Yakob," her voice bore the surly lilt of an upper crust Corellian, one Cinder knew all too well. "Have them go back to planting the charges. Destroy the rest of these ships to prevent escape. But that one is mine."
"As you command, milady," Yakob bowed his head, holding the tiny bill of his little officer's cap to prevent it from falling off his pin-shaped head.
Cinder walked from the little nook where she had hid - a set of crates in the corner between her ship's landing gear and the wall - and made her way out in front of her ship. She looked up at the cockpit from down below.
"Boy," she shouted up at him, casting off her robes. They reeked of smoke from the turret fire. "Go while you can."
She scowled as her apprentice shook his head. So be it, we die here if you like, you damn fool. "At least tell the droid to hold his fire so that we may return this misplaced courtesy.
Fell relayed this to the droid, who Cinder could tell was none too pleased. HK-47 reveled in wanton slaughter, and despite Cinder's best efforts to curb his more homicidal impulses, he was much too old and set in his ways to be truly reprogrammed.
Cinder whipped around to face the Jedi. The two women strode towards each other, meeting in the center of the hangar.
"Here I am," Cinder said when they came face-to-face. You haven't aged a day. "Did you miss me?"
The Jedi stood there, dumbstruck, as she looked over Cinder.
"No, this cannot be," she said. She shook her head. "You're supposed to be dead, Lysara."
"You of all people understand we don't always do what we're supposed to, Leide." Cinder smiled and placed her hand on her saber hilt.
"Lysara, listen to me." Leide sounded as if she was about to break at any moment from either mirth, misery, or both. "We must return to the temple. We knew you had disappeared, left with Phanius. He was mad, as we all knew. We thought he killed you."
Leide had once been Cinder's closest friend, back when they were still girls on Coruscant. They would spend their time in the Temple Archives, and occasionally undertook missions together when their masters permitted. A rift formed between them over time as Cinder's master Phanius fell more and more into his radical philosophy of the Force. But it had never truly been enough to tear them apart. That's the way love is.
But now her heart pounded instead of fluttered. Her vision was red, and Cinder only tasted red.
"They told you true," Cinder said. The yellow in her eyes gleamed. Her head pounded along with her chest. Her fingers twitched as they danced along her saber hilt. "Lysara Synder is dead. Darth Cinder stands before you now, and I command this citadel in the Dark Lord's absence."
She cut a wry smile as she took her saber in hand and activated the crimson blade. Everything was turning red now. There was an opening at the end, a small little pinhole that promised escape. I have to get there.
"And unfortunately, darling, I intend to get out of here alive."
It was a kind of hot rage that came over Cinder in that moment. Leide scarcely had time to activate her unwieldy double-bladed saber as Cinder fell upon her, hacking madly with her own scarlet blade. Leide's hilt was cut in half. One side clanged to the floor, fizzling out in a shower of orange sparks. The other pulled its way into her right hand, its yellow blade springing to life and meeting Cinder's. The two sparred for a moment. Leide angled her feet and Cinder mirrored her steps. Cinder smashed into her blade with fell blow that made the energy in both their blades warble and hiss. Leide's parries were clumsy instead of deft. Behind the sea of red, Cinder could barely make out the faint tears creeping down Leide's cheeks.
Leide deflected another blow and waited for Cinder to strike again. She kept her lightsaber down at her hip. Cinder feinted, and Leide moved to deflect. She bristled. Cinder found an opening. Unfortunately, we learned from the same masters.
When Cinder feinted upwards, she brought her saber down, then left, and then cleaved to the right. Leide moved to block an overhead slash that never came. The color began to leave her face. She blocked another imagined blow and staggered forward. Cinder was already looking past her when the woman stumbled forward, her torso sprawling clumsily from her legs.
"Your move, Officer." Cinder barely even acknowledged Yakob as his mouth widened in horror. He couldn't find his voice, but Cinder knew as well as his men what he intended to command. Before they could open fire upon her, she was upon them, slashing them to bits as if their plasteel armor was nothing more than painted pottery. She danced her way through the squad before impaling Yakob through his tight black collar. His dainty little cap blew away as she parted his head from his shoulders. In a moment, however, she found herself reeling. She looked to her left and watched a Sith scouting interceptor go up in flames, the cobble walls coming down around it. She heard the sound afterwards. Every corner of the hangar began crumbling in on itself, ravaged by explosions.
She ran faster than she ever had in that moment. She knew in the end the Force would preserve her. She stopped at Leide's corpse for half a moment, and plucked a lock of her hair. She heard The Ashen One's thrusters fire. The ship is ready to go, and she's ready now. She shouted for HK-47 to open fire. Her legs quivered when she first tried to jump to the cargo ramp. The second time, they obeyed.
She watched as another unit of Republic troopers barreled in through the now-cavernous opening whee there had once been a hangar door. HK-47 opened fire without any hesitation, scattering them like desert sand. Those that were not so lucky as to be thrown across the room by the force of the laser cannons were vaporized on the spot, reduced to wisps of smoke.
The Ashen One took to the air. She peered out the narrow opening and took one last look back at the ruin of the hangar behind her. Jedi were now entering the room. They had made it out in the nick of time. Leide was chore enough; her friends would have been an insurmountable slog. Cinder rolled over into the cargo hold as the ramp sealed. She found herself lurching sideways as Fell pulled the ship up hard into the sky above.
Cinder walked back to the cockpit to find Fell and HK-47 focused on their tasks. Steering the bulky freighter through the Republic assault would be no small feat enough, but making the lightspeed jump to Ossus without getting shredded by turbolasers was another matter entirely. She knew Fell had the piloting skills. The boy had been a shipwright's apprentice on Ord Mantell when she found him in the Scraplands. Nonetheless, the risk was enough to turn her stomach.
HK-47 held the turrets under his command as if he were entwined with the systems himself. With his monotone vocabulator, he rattled off coordinates as Fell steered the ship.
"Interjection: Veer up!" The droid never once removed his eyes from the targeting computer. He had one had one hand resting on top of the firing mechanism for The Ashen One's front turret system. A twitching metal finger was coiled around the trigger, and it never lost its place when Fell followed the droid's command and hurtled the ship straight up past the wispy clouds that curtained the atmosphere.
The ship cut through the black sky like a clawfish through the abyss. Why do they not send interceptors to harass us? We were so easily seen. The brightness of the stars glaring through the cockpit glass was like to blind her. All too soon was it all black once again.
She knew immediately what she saw.
"Boy, you are heading straight into the underbelly of a Republic frigate." She laid a hand on Fell's shoulder. Her eyes widened as she saw the vessel above them take shape. Colossal, with smooth angles leading to a sharpened point at the bow. A fat bulb sat directly in the center of the underworks, a sensor of some kind. HK-47 opened fire on it at once, and the fat bulb went up in flames.
"Leave it to me, master." Fell shifted the throttle again and The Ashen One averted its collision, snaking its way under the frigate and bounding up the opposite side.
"Well played," Cinder said low under her breath. "But now you've put us in their line of fire."
Within seconds, a volley of green turbolasers buffeted their ship. Fell bobbed and weaved The Ashen One to avoid them. Cinder could tell he was only moments away from being overwhelmed.
"Query." HK-47 briefly turned to acknowledge her before returning his photoreceptors to the targeting computer. "Master, what are we to do if we are hit? Or, worse yet, if our meatbag pilot is incapacitated at the helm?"
We die. What else? She responded with a glare that doubtless cut him to his deepest wires.
"Resignation: I will repair the vessel as needed... and refrain from making snide comments about the meatbag currently saving us from certain peril."
Cinder turned to leave the room. When Fell turned to ask where she was off to, she offered no acknowledgment.
She felt the ship lurch and wobble with each step she took towards the aft. She never lost balance, but the way her innards seemed to move and churn indicated whatever Fell was doing. When her stomach bounded over on itself, Fell was doing an evasive roll; when he cornered or lurched the ship, her gutropes skipped over themselves; and when he dived, her lungs rattled in her chest. Step by gut-churning step, she found her way into a small corridor nestled just past the engine room. A small grate sat in the room, which was bare on all sides except for a few barrels and a wireframe gantry. She cracked it open and hopped down, finding herself in a turret seat.
This was not part of the ship Cinder had been awarded all those years ago. It was an aftermarket modification, installed after she saved Fell from the Scraplands of Ord Mantell. His employer at the shipyard had offered to install any upgrade of Cinder's choice for retrieving his so-called "finest worker" from the Scraplands. After he spent a few days installing the turret, he didn't even balk when Cinder said she was taking that same worker with her. At least, not after she had slipped him a few credits.
The gunner station was a squat little thing. It was a tight fit even for Cinder, as wiry and slight as she was. There was no room to sit, so she was forced to stand. She reacquainted herself with the controls for a moment, then pressed the button to lower it down. Vents hissed and pistons banged as the turret lowered itself down just enough for the guns to fold out and bare themselves in full. The metal walls morphed into a visual of the blackness of space. Soon enough, they shifted again to reveal a full display of the chaos around the ship.
It was as if she was standing in space. Republic capital ships, frigates, and fighters were all around. Ruin's dreadnought had disappeared. Either escaped or destroyed.She looked down against her better judgment. Korriban was right underneath her feet, all sand-colored and surrounded with wisps of clouds that reminded any passersby that it was a desolate and arid place.
Cinder was pulled back to reality by a proton missile flying just past her side. She took the gun controls in both hands and whirled to find the culprit: a squadron of Republic fighters flanking a lone bomber. It was five ships in total: the bomber flanked at each side by two interceptors. Refusing to free her hands, she used an elbow to turn on the ship's PA.
"Fell, we've got a bomber inbound, right behind us."
"Understood." His voice was all laced with static and somewhat garbled. Cinder knew she'd have to get around to restoring the ship at some point, but that could wait.
The squad that she was watching dispersed. The outermost fighter wing came spearing towards The Ashen One, laser cannons firing in a near constant blur.
They mean to intimidate us, Cinder thought. Intimidate and overwhelm. She aimed the guns at one of the ships. Its wingman had backed off to wait for its lasers to cool down, but this one was still firing at her ship. Cinder returned his fire. He didn't even attempt to evade. The wingman, lasers primed, flying back through the smoke cloud where his comrade's starfighter had been. He was wiser, and made use of deft evasive maneuvers to dance around Cinder's barrage of laser fire. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the bomber and its wingmen head around towards the front of The Ashen One.
"Fell," she said, still trying to land a killing blow on the annoying gnat weaving between her fire, "they're coming around."
The dour monotone of HK-47 answered her instead.
"Reassurance: Do not worry, Master. They are fools to cross us."
She heard a cacophony of laser fire from the other end of the ship. She glanced out the side window once again, where she saw two heavily damaged Republic ships floating behind The Ashen One, aimless. One was the bomber, its cockpit blown open and outer shell peeled apart like rotten fruit. The other was one of the interceptors. One of its wings was blown off and a gaping hole punched through the other. Assorted debris followed behind them..
The lone starfighter that had been harassing Cinder pulled off and retreated for a bit. She was free to look out over the battle again, to form a better plan of action. They were surrounded on all sides. The fighters had not only wasted their time, but lured them into a bowl at the rims of which were frigates and capital ships. They were slow, but they were closing in. One of the capital ships had its hangar bay doors open, its red shield glowing in the fiery abyss.
"Boy, find us a way out of here," she said into the PA. It had been more sharp than she intended.
"You're not scared, are you master?"
"Make the punch for Ossus, and do it quickly." Cinder would not leave the turret until they were all clear. "Do it quickly. Do you understand, you damn fool? I will not have us caught in this cyclone of death."
"We've got fighters..." Fell's voice disappeared as the PA burst into a fit of static and fuzz. Cinder balled up a fist and punched one of the walls. The display flickered for a moment, garbled and multicolored, before returning to the way it was before. She lifted herself out of the turret, arms over head, hands grasping at the smooth metal floor above her. She raised her head, shouted for the droid, and dropped back down.
His metallic footsteps came quicker than she had expected.
"Reassurance: Master, the meatbag has been tasked with controlling the turrets in my absence. All shall be well. What did you need?"
The droid was peering down at her. To Cinder, it almost seemed as if he was laughing at the whole situation. Part of her liked that. Another part wanted to smash him to pieces with the Force, but she knew that would get her nowhere.
"Take my spot here," she said, lifting her hands once again. This time, the droid took them in his own and brought her up out of the pit. He turned back to her, gave an almost mocking salute, and dropped down into the gunner station.
"Do not get out of there unless they're all dead or you're in danger of being destroyed," she called down at him. The droid nodded in approval. "I'll be in the cockpit with Fell if you need me." As she began to walk away, a thought came to her. "Oh, and see if you can fix the PA while you're there. Hell of a time for it to be of no use."
Cinder tuned out his confirmation as she made her way back to the cockpit. Fell had stopped The Ashen One in the middle of the bowl of Republic ships. She sat down next to him in the copilot's chair.
"Is this where it ends for us?" he said. It almost broke Cinder's heart to see him so forlorn, even if it was a sort of comeuppance for his earlier mockery.
"Not any time soon," she said. "You thought me weak, yet here you are fretting like a scared child." She sighed, then pointed at the hangar door she had noticed earlier. "You see that? Their hangar is wide open. That is our path out."
"We'll storm the hangar," he said. He didn't so much as look at her, but Cinder could tell he was trying to gauge her approval. "If they have one door open, perhaps the other is as well. Otherwise, we'll open it ourselves."
"How?" She gave him a wan smile.
"We've only got two options. All willing, we can punch through the blast doors with our heavy lasers. Elsewise there's surely a manual release."
Cinder nodded in quiet approval, the pointed at the hangar bay ahead. "Gun it."
Fell whirled the ship around as if it were a spinning top. He punched the throttle forward as hard as he could. At max speed, The Ashen One could outrun even the most nimble of interceptors. A capital ship would not even be aware of what was coming at them. The twin turbolaser cannons flanking the hangar opened fire at their approach, spewing bright blue flares of death directly at them.
"Deflector shields are up?" Cinder said, readying the target computer.
Fell gave a curt nod as he continued jerking the throttle forward. Cinder's targeting computer gave a sharp chirp as it locked on to one of the turrets. With her free hand, she grabbed the trigger mechanism and felt the trigger drop under her thumb. One of the flat panels outside the ship slid back onto another, and a laser cannon sprung from underneath. Black with soot and bedecked with underslung missile launchers, Cinder watched as it fired a turbolaser burst into the battery at the hangar's right flank. The gun exploded in a brilliant haze of smoke and red sparks. She kicked another trigger with her feet, and the missile launchers belched smoke as they shot forth spiral reapers. Bright streaks of blue traced behind them. In half a heartbeat, the other battery was all aglow in eye-searing bright blue.
Fell eased the throttle to slow his approach into the hangar. "Just in case we have to land," he said as they were about to cross through the glowing red shields. They made it through, but the blast doors closed behind them with a heavy slam. The Ashen One shook from the impact, wobbling a bit before Fell found his bearings. Cinder saw that the other door was closed as well. She loosed every weapon she had at it: a quartet of missiles and a salvo of turbolaser fire. Her efforts left only a scorch mark on the blast doors.
HK-47 was having more luck on his end of the ship. Cinder was sure he was giddy spinning around in the turret. She watched his lasers lay waste to the hangar as Fell stubbornly attempted to continue flying. Republic fighters went up in flames all around them; shells and fuel tanks exploded in showers of shrapnel; and any soldiers unlucky enough to be caught in the midst were torn violently apart or vaporized where they stood.
"You'll have to land somewhere," Cinder said. "We'll have to go for the manual release."
"A pity," said Fell. "The one time we get to board a Republic ship, and we're in all too much a hurry to leave."
"Believe me," Cinder said, rising from her seat, "as much as I would love to storm their bridge, I know it to be a stupid idea. Lower the ramp, I'll go."
"Nonsense, I'm landing the thing," Fell said as he activated the landing gear. "We both go."
"Fool boy. Fine, we do it together."
Fell landed the ship in the center of the hangar, where none of the fires had been able to spread. HK-47 chimed in over the PA before they left. Evidently, he had managed to fix it.
"Stratagem: I will provide covering fire as the master and the meatbag open the blast doors. In the event that you perish, I shall sooner self-destruct than enter into the Republic's service."
The cargo ramp lowered and the pair of Sith stepped out onto the hangar floor. There was no escape from the all-surrounding fire. Even the floor's well-polished reflection bore its burning image. A burning fleet trooper staggered in front of them before slumping to the ground. The pair continued onward through the flames, locating a stairwell far enough away to avoid any damage.
"Fell." Cinder was climbing the stairs, with Fell several paces behind her. "I know these ships, stick with me, let me lead." He raised an eyebrow at her, but Cinder paid him no mind.
Along a charred wall, they found an emergency release switch. It was an ugly, misshapen thing: a triangular grip of unpolished, leaden metal with a squat handle that seemed to do all in its power to resist being pulled.
"Why do I bother," Cinder muttered, releasing the shoddy thing and stretching out her hand. Her fingers curled as if they were wrapping themselves around the lever again, and she pulled down. This time, the simple machine moved. The Force bent all things to its will.
Over the sound of the klaxons and emergency sprinklers, a new alarm blared. A pre-recorded message in a stern voice that could be the admiral's yelled that the hangar doors were now open. Cinder and Fell stood there and watched as they slid open in an effortless motion.
"Quickly," Cinder said, already barreling back down the ledge to the stairs. "They'll have an override in the bridge, we don't have much time 'til they activate it."
"If they activate it," Fell said. He moved behind her. They raced back to the ship, calling upon the Force for a burst of speed, and found HK-47 still blasting away in his turret.
"We're returned, droid," Fell said in between pants "Raise the ramp."
HK-47 sardonically affirmed. Cinder caught herself before she let slip a giggle at Fell's annoyance. They boarded the ramp with haste, and Fell bounded for the cockpit. Cinder sat down on the top of the ramp, observing the carnage in the hangar bay. As it closed, she wondered if storming the bridge would have been worth it. Perhaps we'll get another chance.She let the thought slip from her mind and made her way back to Fell.
"You have the coordinates to Ossus ready, I hope," she said from the hallway. "As soon as we're in the air and you've got her facing those doors, punch it."
"What if-"
"Damn your what-ifs," she shouted. "Do it now!" The Ashen One was rising into position. There was no more time for debate.
Fell obeyed at once. His fingers danced across the keypad, he slammed a button, and he drove the throttle as far forward as he could. The ship was moving forward fast, yet the doors were closing faster still.
Cinder's eyes went so wide she thought they would wrench from their sockets. "Punch it!" she screamed. She heard him slam down hard on a button.
Everything went white.