Annabeth Chase
It took them only three hours to get down the two two seven. Having lights and sirens did come with a few advantages. Three hours in which Annabeth did the flying. Grim-faced Annabeth stared out into the traffic as they made their way through the endless forest of skyscrapers.
Silena had put on her playlist, some new cheerful frontier music with a heavy base, and now she and Officer Levesque were sitting in the back, loudly singing along to the lyrics while she and the freshly baked Officer Zang sat in the front of Annabeth's speeder.
"So, Officer Zang," she said, trying to ignore the spontaneous karaoke party. "How is your probation going?" he asked.
Frank glanced back at Hazel, who was singing her soul out.
"Good, I hope," he said. "I was really worried that mess we got in might cost me the job," he admitted. "You know, republic agent ending up in the hospital. Criminals escaping,..."
Annabeth cracked a smile, despite her annoyance at the two backseaters. "Nah, don't worry. That mess was way above your pay grade."
Frank stayed silent for a long moment. "Agent Chase," he began.
"Yes, Officer?" she asked.
"Why did you invite us?" he asked. "Not that I am complaining, sure beats patrol and looks good on my hour book. But I am sure you could find much higher qualified people to do this. I saw you on the news a few days ago, you were literally guarding the Chancellor..."
"Fair question," Annabeth said. "I would have gone on my own, but on occasions like this, we are supposed two take our partner. Silena thought you two might like to see this through though," she said, deciding to stay honest.
"And you can just do that?" he asked. "You know, request whoever you want?"
Annabeth grinned. "So far no one has told me I can't," she replied.
Finally, they pulled into the two two seven's precincts landing bay, far away from the sun on the planet's surface. Even after all her years on Coruscant, Annabeth had not quite gotten used to Coruscant's under the city. As a country girl, the notion of billions of people living so far from the surface, many never even seeing the sun with their own eyes, still struck her as baffling.
The station was housed rather centrally in a comparatively squat building, nestled in between skyscrapers reaching up to the vaulted cavern ceiling. Much like the one she had lost Percy Jackson to.
Their small group disembarked and headed into the precinct. Learning what they could from the officers in question was fast enough. Apart from the location, they learned little that was useful, and so decided to split up.
Annabeth would take Frank to check out the site of the arrest. Silena and Hazel would make go over surveillance footage, to track their lost charges movements as far as possible.
"So, the guy is a Jedi," Frank said.
She had filled him and Hazel in on most of the progress in the case. Making sure they were in the loop was win-win for Annabeth. She assumed they could stay tight lipped, in which case good for them. And if they leaked Annabeth, aside from Annabeth having to nail the person responsible, the worst thing that could happen was that the pressure on the Jedi Order and her government would grow, forcing them to get active in a manner that would work well for her anyway.
They took Annabeth's cruiser out into the city below. As it turned out Ciana Naminte had been seen on a narrow alleyway lined by nightclubs and bars. Though Annabeth would never be surprised by the stupidity her suspects were capable off, bearing context in mind, it did strike her as a very peculiar location. For the next hour or so they asked around. Asked the clubs bouncers if they had seen the women in location, and on the few occasions they had, from where their suspect had come. It was slow progress, only adding to her frustration that her escapee had literally been in handcuffs mere hours ago, only to be cut lose again.
Suddenly her holo-disk came to life and Annabeth pulled it out and took the call from Silena. "Yes?" Annabeth asked impatiently.
"We managed to track our suspects movements all the way back down an abandoned warehouse at the outskirts of zone two two seven," Silena announced, sounding pleased with herself. "She took public transport, so we have quite consistent coverage of her all the way to the address in question. Looks like a big location."
Annabeth sighed in relief, her efforts to do some old fashioned police work suddenly seeming rather pathetic. "Listen up, grab a few uniforms and meet me at the location in question. Also send me the coordinates. Send out a request for a search warrant. By the time we form up it should have been granted. I want to raid that location tonight."
"You want tactical?" Silena asked.
Annabeth hesitated. Assembling a proper tactical unit down here would take hours at the very least and assuming she had people running interference, it would be an easy tipoff to anyone watching that she was coming.
"Negative," Annabeth decided. "Just have Republic Security bring hardware that packs a little more punch. And send an update to Luke and Malcolm."
"Hard copy," Silena replied. "Bring dudes with big guns. No tactical."
"So Frank," she asked, turning around to face him once the call had ended. "Ready to get your hands dirty?"
Despite not calling in a higher tear tactical unit they took nearly an hour to get into position. What Silena had taken to be a warehouse seemed actually to be a small factory along with warehouses, built right up against the side of the cavern. It was a quiet, mostly abandoned commercial zones, with dark, crumbling buildings, and gaping windows. They staged one street over and then closed the rest of the distance on foot, blasters drawn and at high ready. The main building at this address was built up against the sheer cavern wall.
With the quick help of a Republic Security lock override, they gained easy access to the premises.
With her GX-10 raised Annabeth signaled the dozen officers and droids with them to spread out across the yard, clearing the sheds and a small hut on the outside while Annabeth and Silena stalked up left of the main building door, while a Sargant Mesk, Frank, and Hazel stalked up on the right.
"Okay, guys," Annabeth said. "Let us do this."
They did just that.
Mesk opened the door, and Annabeth slid into the abandoned workshop. The beams of their lights cut through the darkness, casting grim shadows through the old machinery, and work quietly moved through the room, checking for booby-traps, cameras, and other surprises.
"Agents Chase, look at this," one of the officers yelled, pointing his flashlight down at the floor.
A trail had been drawn by someone treading over the dust and grease-covered cement floor. "It looks fresh," Annabeth mused, kneeling down next to the trace. Silena too joined them and promptly took a picture.
"You," she said pointing at one of the officers. "Does this track back to the door?" she asked.
"Yes, Ma'am," he confirmed after a few moments and Annabeth rose to her feet. They prosecuted the trail, right up to a brick wall, where it ended in front of a bare wall.
"Curious," Annabeth remarked, staring at the wall. Annabeth looked left and right. A good old-fashioned boring wall, with paint peeling from the walls and cement crumbling from between the bricks.
They assembled around the end of the trail, facing the bare wall, all thinking the same thing. Frank stepped next to her and knocked on the wall. "Don't know," he announced. "Sounds hollow."
Annabeth looked around the workshop walked over the tools, and found a sledgehammer leaning against the wall. Feeling pleased with herself she heaved up the heavy tool and brought it back to where her people stood assembled and held the hammer out to Frank.
"Officer Zang!" she said. "You are a big fellow, right?"
He grinned and accepted the hammer.
"Ladies, gentlemen. Blasters up!" she ordered, raising her own weapon.
Frank heaved the hammer and swung it at the wall, knocking off a cloud of splinters of cement and bricks. Again and again Frank swung the hammer. Maybe he hit the right spot, or the shock from the blows messed with the electrics because suddenly the portion of the brick wall began to swing open with a pneumatic hiss.
Piper peaked down the passage behind, bringing up her rifle and its beam of light. Now Annabeth liked to consider herself a highly perceptive, observant, and inquisitive individual. She stared at the large, mechanical shape without comprehending. It was tall, hunched over, with a deep chest and bulky shoulders, and a head that perturbed to far forward for comfort. Elbows resting at its side bent ninety degrees. The lower arms seemed to be forked and pointing at her.
A set of glowing orange optics lit up in the strange head and the arms seemed to zero in on her.
Only then did it click in place as recognition settled in.
"Take cover!" Annabeth yelled and dove to the side as the battle droid opened up with its two dual-blaster cannons, lighting the darkness up with angry red plasma.
The others scrambled to follow her example but as she rolled and rose to a knee she saw two security droids and one of the officers caught in the fatal funnel and cut down by the blaster bolts. Suddenly the droid came scuffling out on four crustacean legs and promptly turned his attention on a Twi'lek officer standing to his left. The droid's blasters opened up at point-blank range, killing the man instantly before blasting apart a security droid.
Annabeth and Silena rose side by side, their GX-10s raised and opened fire, along with every other remaining officer. The dark shed was filled with a strobe of red crossfire, with Silena and Annabeth's bright blue bolts adding to the mix. The sound of blaster fire, yells, and screams, lay in the air as thick as honey.
It was one of those military battle droids, Annabeth realized. One of the standard model ones the Sith favored. It whipped around and blasted two security droids apart. It seemed as if their light arms were doing little to no damage.
Annabeth tracked sideways, keeping the fire up, aiming at the targeting optics as she moved towards cover, Silena mirroring the motion. Suddenly the droid began to turn its attention on Officer Levesque. The first shot struck Levesque straight in the chest, knocking her backward with two holes glowing in her torso.
The second blast went wild when Officer Frank Zang exploded forward and lunged at the war machine. North of of two hundred thirty pounds of Republic Security crashed into the armored droid, knocking him off target. Frank Zang roared in rage, wrapped an arm around the droid's neck, and was seemingly intent on wrestling it to the floor through the strength of his arms alone. What it also did was make sure that they were all forced to hold fire, while the droid's bright red blaster bolt sprayed through the room, blasting another officer's face off and then costing a third his left arm.
Though sure that some of the officers, and all of the security droids would have already triggered their distress beacon Annabeth keyed her earpiece.
A second officer from Republic Security charged in while Annabeth began to yell into her microphone, only to be cut off by an ear-splitting screech.
Grimacing she yanked the headset out and and turned her attention back to the firefight just as the second officer that had rushed in seemed to have hooked the muzzle of his carbine in between the armor plates protecting the droids torso and pulled the trigger at full auto. A shower of blue sparks and smoke exploded out of the chinks in the armor and the droid collapsed, its targeting sensors slowly fading to darkness. A moment later it burst into flames.
"Hazel!" Frank yelled and rushed over to the young officer while the second officer, a hard-faced human male in his fifties, dusted himself off.
"Good work Sargent," Annabeth commented, kneeling down next to the man missing his arm below the elbow and applying a tourniquet. The young man screamed as she pulled the band tight and locked it. Then she headed over to Frank and Hazel, and found with relief that it seemed the woman was only stunned, her vest having somehow protected her from the two blasts.
"Twenty years in the Republic Infantry good for something," he replied drily and also began to check up on his men.
"This shit is military grade," Silena commented, stepping over at the droid and pointing at it with her light. "If memory serves me, this thing is from the inventory of the Sith Empire."
"You sure?" Annabeth asked.
"They are the only ones who use it," Silena replied drily. "Weapons don't have much-stopping power for a system of its size, but it makes up for it with fire rate."
Looking around and the bodies and carnage, a very bad feeling began to settle in the pit of her stomach. She was of course aware that every case she had might turn out to be a lot bigger than expected, especially with this one. But this...
Annabeth raised her GX-10 and aimed it down the passageway and slowly began to advance.
"Can someone reach HQ?" Silena finally asked after failing to do so herself.
"Sounds like we are being jammed," the Sargeant replied grimly.
"Hey, Akko!" he yelled at a young male officer.
"Run and get out of the jammers range, try at two hundred meters, if it doesn't work take a cruiser and head back in the direction of the city and call for aid. We need Medical Response and reinforcements ASAP! Call in everyone!" he ordered.
"Yes, sir," the Officer replied and rushed off.
"You sure we are being jammed?" Annabeth asked.
"Yes Agent, I spent half my career being a signals officer," he replied.
"Well Sargeant," Annabeth commented. "Aren't you full of surprises?"
Annabeth gazed down the passageway, trying to make something out.
She pushed forward one step too far, and suddenly the door swung shut behind her. It happened a lot faster than she would have thought possible, and as she tried to stop it was simply knocked further into the passage. It slammed shut with a troubling finality as it trapped her in the darkness.
"Hey!" Annabeth yelled and kicked against the now seamless rock fall. Annabeth raised her GX-10 and opened up on it, leaving behind an impressive array of glowing pockmarks, but little in the way of progress.
"Can anyone hear me!" Annabeth yelled and punched against the wall. Nothing, apart from silence.
Cursing to herself she turned around and aimed her weapon. Now inside, the passageway headed only a few hundred feet further, before turning around. A dozen feet or so in, the clean concrete walls were replaced by a tunnel cut straight out of the bedrock, secured by metal bars.
Slowly it began to dawn on Annabeth that not waiting for a tactical unit was going to become a mistake she might not get the opportunity to properly regret. Slowly she felt the panic begin to rise through the shock she knew she was in.
Annabeth tried to suppress it and began to advance up the tunnel, her blaster raised and finger on the trigger. Yes, it was counterintuitive, but Annabeth had little interest in being trapped at the end of a fatal funnel while her advisory would have a corner to take cover behind.
Annabeth flicked her light back off and slowly advanced, her weapon at high ready. Suddenly one of the metal plates under her foot clicked and her entire body exploded in pain and bright blue arcs of energy struck her body from seemingly all sides as she walked into the trap. For a moment it felt as if every nerve ending in her body was on fire before everything turned black.
When Annabeth woke up again her entire body hurt as the floor slid away under her. It took her a moment to realize she was being dragged across a rocky floor by her ankle.
Annabeth's eye flickered open and she found herself staring at the shadowy outline of a tall and slender droid, walking with a stiff stride.
"Hey!" Annabeth complained weekly and try to pull her foot free. The droid's grip was like iron and it had a blaster carbine hooked to its upper arm.
The droid's head rotated back towards her without breaking stride and its optics looked down at her. "The order for termination order does not extend to you. You will be brought in for verification of orders," it announced.
"Let me go," Annabeth groaned, trying to sort her thoughts.
"Cease resistance," the droid ordered. "Require reevaluation of target parameters."
Her GX-10 Annabeth realized, was nowhere to be found.
Annabeth pulled her pinned leg in, dragging herself closer to the droid while pulling her other leg back. Then she kicked out hard at the droid's elbow joint.
Her foot simply glanced off the metal with a dull thud.
The droid ceased his walking. Then it yanked its carbine with its free arm and twisted it back in a manner that a biological like her would never be capable of pointing it at her.
For a terrible moment, Annabeth thought she might have grossly overplayed her hand. "Cease resistance or your existence will be terminated," the droid droned. Then it resecured its carbine and continued walking, turning its attention back to the front.
It was then that Annabeth realized that her GR 9 was still holstered on her left thigh. Annabeth could not believe her luck, and after hesitating for another long moment, Annabeth pulled it, raised it with both hands and flicked off the safety.
What gave her away was that wine of the coils in the blaster charging up. The assassin droid clearly recognized it as the sound of lethal intent that it was and reacted almost too fast to follow.
Blaster shots lit up the dark tunnel. Certain she was already as good as dead Annabeth kept firing, aiming at the droid's head and shoulders. She saw a brilliant sapphire bolt of plasma strike one of the visual sensors, another at the neck joint, and two more to chest. Each hit sent up a shower of sparks, blinding her.
Finally, the droid's grip loosened as hidden servos lost power and with a dull thud, the droid toppled over. With a heavy groan, Annabeth rose to her feet and shot the assassin droid a few more times, just for good measure. Those things had the bad habit of coming back to life just after you turned your back on them.
Annabeth blasted one last shot into the droid's battered and holed metal skull and snorted too herself when it burst into flames. "Yeah, I have a bad feeling about this," Annabeth muttered and looked around. She was still in a long dark tunnel, both ends lost in darkness.
"Girl, what have you gotten yourself into," Annabeth muttered to herself, still trying to sort her memories. The past view hours,...they were still a blur but she guessed she had stumbled headfirst into some sort of trap that had incapacitated her. Her eyebrows, she realized, were singed off, and she had burn marks all over her body. First, and second degree, she noted. It would hurt, but that was about it.
Her communicator though, Annabeth realized, was also missing. Before leaving the droid behind, Annabeth grabbed the carbine and two additional power packs for the weapon, and what she recognized as a shock baton. Though the kind that could potentially kill, not only stun like the ones she was used to.
Deciding that heading back would not do her much good, she headed in the direction the droids had tried to take her. Her breaths came in harsh pants, and her heart raced as Annabeth made her way through the darkness.
She tried very hard to slip back into the deadly calm that she usually got during raids, but it was all she could do to keep her rising panic at pay. "Come on Annabeth," she told herself. "You are a fucking republic Agent. Pull yourself together:"
Annabeth had always imagined she would confront her own mortality with nerves of steel. That she would boldly face her darkest hour cold-blooded. Now? She was just happy she wasn't wetting herself.
"Come Annabeth, you protect the fucking Chancellor," she whispered to herself. "Pull yourself together. You are an Agent of the Senate, investigating a conspiracy, not some school girl being dragged off to dance for the Hutts." Ironically, she herself had been snatched off the street after running away from home at six years and would have faced that very fate if not for a last-minute intervention by the Aldera's police force. Some Hutt from Nar Shaddaahad even already bought her and she had been mere hours away from being shipped off to some so-called training facility. Sometimes, even as an adult, she got anxious at the thought of what might have happened to her. Still, six-year-old Annabeth, for all her naivety, had possessed more spine than she did today. She remembered throwing herself at the Hutt criminals with a knife, sinking the blade into a thigh until it embedded itself in bone. It had been her first real encounter with this kind of violence.
With her liberated carbine, a sleek, compact, black weapon, at high ready she advanced. Though it was bad form, she had her finger on the trigger and the safeties disarmed.
Annabeth rounded a few corners and suddenly found herself in front of a sealed maintenance hatchway. Carefully she spun the wheel unbolting it and carefully opened it ajar. Some blessed soul had applied a generous amount of grease to the hinges. Even if he hadn't, Annabeth quickly realized it would have made no difference.
With her rifle ready she cracked the door open and was met by the roar of rushing water. The stench of sewage and industrial waste consumed her a moment later.
Annabeth opened the door wide and found herself in a vast tunnel, hundreds of feet across, and disappearing away into the distance on both sides. After standing in the darkness for who knows how long, the faint light of the illimitation strips on the sealing almost blinded her. A riptide of sewage and industrial wastewater rushed down the tunnel at breakneck speed, thousands of gallons of water every moment. Two walkways lined both sides and every now and then pipes, some tall enough for her to stand in, fed this toxic river. Normally Annabeth would not step in here without a rebreather. Even with the generous installation of ventilation, which some civil engineers had installed countless years ago,...well it couldn't be healthy.
This, Annabeth realized, shouldn't be here.
The waste water channels were miles below where she should be, and fed into vast water treatment plants in Coruscant's industrial zones. She stared at the inscription, written in bold yellow letters on the wall. C-Z 225. The classification meant nothing to her and she was no expert on Coruscant's wastewater system.
For a long moment, Annabeth considered backtracking. Then though, she figured that if push came to shove from here she should be able to find her way back to some sort of civilization. Fully aware that she was leaving cover Annabeth stepped out into the concrete walkway and made her way upstream. She passed other hatches but lacked the keys to open them from the inside. Though Annabeth was confident that earlier or later, she would reach some sort of escape route. There were always escape routes in infrastructure systems like that. That was required by code, it had been for well over a thousand years.
Annabeth walked for a while, trying to breathe through her mouth as much as possible. Not that it to her much well. The stench was all-consuming.
Without warning one of the hatchways only a hundred feet away of hers swung open and two men in full-body red and black war gear stepped out. She immediately spotted in insignia of the Sith Empire on their arms. They hadn't noticed Annabeth yet and seemed to be deep in conversation. Otherwise, Annabeth was sure, she would have never stood a chance. She was a cop, and these men were likely mission specialists.
Annabeth flicked her carbine into burst mode and opened fire. No challenge, no demands for surrender like she normally would have. It was a good thing she had liberated the carbine because she doubted her sidearm would have been as effective.
The first burst hit the side of the closer trooper's helmet, blowing semi-vaporized brain and armor plating out the far side. The soldier stumbled and then toppled off the walkway into the riptide below.
Her second burst struck the remaining man in the chest, just as he was bringing his own rifle to return fire. Annabeth squeezed the trigger again, following up with a second burst of blaster fire to make sure he didn't get a chance to shoot himself. The man stumbled back against the open hatch and sank to the floor.
"See," Annabeth told herself. "Not that hard... ."
Annabeth walked closer, keeping her carbine aimed at the limp man in front of her. After putting another burst of blaster bolts into his torso Annabeth finally knelt down and pulled the man's head off.
Blank eyes, that was the first thing Annabeth really noticed. Blank dark eyes staring off into the distance. He had been a young man, with hard Ebony features, and a cleanly shaven head and face.
Finally, though, the gravity of what she had just done settled in. Annabeth had just gunned down two men without a moment of hesitation. What troubled her most, ...was how easy it was. Just the squeeze of the trigger.
Annabeth patted down his duty belt and found a data slate. It was password-protected. Regardless Annabeth strapped it to her belt. Then she also liberated two plasma grades from the man's belt.
"See," Annabeth said, trying to give herself courage. "Found a way."
One might argue, that heading into the hornet's nest was not the smartest thing to do. But Annabeth was still a republic agent, and truth be told she had never really gotten the hang of figuring out when to stop. Emboldened by her kill, Annabeth stepped through the hatchway and closed it behind her.
As she walked, the gravity of what she had just stumbled across, began to sink in. Soldiers of the Empire, active on Coruscant. Of course, at work, they had often joked that you could hide an entire division's worth of men and equipment on Coruscant, and no one would ever find out. They were quite sure that both the Hutt Cartels and the Syndicates had considerable amounts of manpower on station. The galactic capital was truly a Customs Agent's nightmare. Now stumbling across undeniable proof of this fact,... "Well Annabeth, looks like the war is about to heat up again," Annabeth mused, trying to feel somewhat upbeat. She doubted the Republic would take kindly to a bunch of imperial forces running around on its throne-world.
It quickly became obvious that this tunnel was a lot more frequented than the one she had left earlier. Lights hung from the ceiling, fed by a thin wire that looped from socket to socket, and the tread marks on the floor were very fresh. Many sets were only hours old. On a whim, she pulled her blaster from its holster and stuffed it under her ablative vest.
She advanced with slow deliberate steps, her carbine at a high ready, now assuming she was in enemy-held territory. Finally, Annabeth reached a cross-section in the tunnels and hesitated, but then followed the left-hand turn where all the powerlines were being fed from.
Finally, she found herself stepping out into a gallery overlooking what looked like an abandoned old machine hall. It was almost two thousand feet long and wide, and hundreds of feet high with a vaulted ceiling. Only, it was no longer abandoned.
"Oh, fuck," Annabeth muttered, gazing down what looked like a regulation-compliant semi-preeminent Imperial Army base complete with a shooting range, long barrack tents, and all the other things that should be in a military installation. Judging from what she could see, there were at least two companies worth of troopers, not counting the other personnel that would be required to run such a facility and a contingent of heavily armed battle droids. Parked on the far side were half a dozen shuttles, enough, she guessed to embark all of the soldiers.
Her investigation, Annabeth thought to herself, had just become a lot more interesting. And, involving a lot more paperwork, the damaged dyslexic part of her added helpfully.
She gazed over the concrete railing, trying to memorize as much as she could. The equipment the soldiers were carrying, their insignia. Then she spotted him, a tall and imposing figure in dark robes. He had crimson skin. It was a pure-blooded Sith. He even had a long hilted lightsaber hanging from his belt.
As if sensing her gaze, the Sith froze, turned around, and stared right up at her. Though up here, in the darkness of the galley, she should be invisible. It was time to leave, Annabeth was certain of that. It was time to run and live to report of what she had found.
"Troubling, isn't it!" a voice said.
Annabeth spun around, her blaster carbine coming up to point at an unassuming-looking man in Jedi robes. Or he would have been, had it not been for an eyepatch. He had dark hair and a squinty almond-shaped eye. The other was covered by a patch.
"Jedi?" Annabeth asked, lowering her carbine by a fraction of an inch.
The man spread his arms as if to show off his attire. "Ethan Nakamura, of the Corellian Knights," he said, spreading his arms. "Or what is left of them."
"You know about this?" Annabeth asked, not lowering her carbine any further. The last Corellian Knight she had run into had put in her the hospital.
"It is hard to miss," he replied, nodding down at the small army below.
"And you must be Agent Annabeth Chase, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
His casual attitude quirked Annabeth, and with any other person, she would have taken it as confirmation that he was her enemy. But this was a Jedi, and they had a reputation for being calm under pressure. She remembered how Percy Jackson had not even batted an eye before committing himself to a very long fall.
"Corellian Knights?" Annabeth asked, making the connection. "Do you happen to know a Percy Jackson."
Ethan laughed, it was a harsh, cruel, and mirthless sound.
"I do!" he confirmed, spreading his arms wide. "Interesting you should ask."
"You can catch me up later," Annabeth said, well aware that she had already overplayed her hand. She lowered her rifle and let it hang across his chest from its sling and folded her hands behind her back in what she hoped was a strict and stern manner. It was time to leave.
"We need to get word back to Republic Security about all this," Annabeth announced, painfully aware that she was seriously overplaying her hand.
"I am afraid that will not be possible," Ethan replied. That was the kind of answer had been afraid of, and that solidly marked Ethan as her enemy.
"You can try to run if you like, I won't stop you. But I fear you will not make it far," the Jedi said and pulled his lightsaber hilt from his belt.
Contrary to what she hoped it would look like, lowering her rifle had not been a gesture of faith from her side. Only a chance to discreetly grab one of her liberated thermal detonators from her belt and arm it.
"Now it is my turn to apologize, Mr. Nakamura," Annabeth said pleasantly.
"For what would that be?" he asked with polite curiosity.
Annabeth turned on her heel, dropping the grenade just as she lunged forward, away from the Jedi; and in the massage on the far side of the gallery.
She hoped her gamble would pay off, that the darkness would hide her little present just enough.
"Agent," Ethan began and then cursed as the grenade went off with a savage crack.
Annabeth spun around, still retreating backwards, and brought up her blaster carbine.
It was fairly obvious her thermal detonator hadn't actually killed Mr Nakamura and was now advancing on her through the smoke. Annabeth opened fire.
The Jedi activated his lightsaber and a crimson blade of light burst into existence with a spitting hiss just in time to deflect her attack.
"Agent Chase," Ethan chided.
Too late, did Annabeth realized that this was no longer a Jedi Knight.
Continuously firing Annabeth retreated as quickly as she could.
To her despair, she realized Ethan was now deflecting her bolts back at her, only missing by hair's breadth at times.
Finally, almost at the passage in the far side Annabeth turned around and sprinted. She did not want to wait for Ethan to start using force or something. It was an undeniably potent weapon Annabeth knew little more about than what the average citizen did.
Just as she was about to round the corner, something struck her in the back, almost knocking her off her bed. Annabeth grunted as searing heat lit up all over her back. She could even feel her skin bluster on her left side. A last glance back told her Ethan was casually following her. Dozens of armored soldiers had burst forth from where she had come from and were racing across the gallery in hot pursuit.
It took her a moment to realize that she had been hit in the back by one of her own deflected bolts. But whether her ablative armor vest had taken the hit or she was seriously hurt, she did not know. All she knew was that her legs still worked and she could move.
Annabeth sprinted down a flight of concrete steps, downturns, and down another passage until she burst onto another side passage. To her left, the passage headed straight into the base. From there, Annabeth realized another bunch of soldiers were charging towards her. The other way,...she'd be stuck in a fatal funnel and gunned down.
There was no escape, Annabeth realized.
She hastily slid into the passage she had burst out from, raised her carbine, and raked the passage with blaster bolts, hoping she killed at least someone.
Hearing boots thundering down the stairs behind her Annabeth slapped in a fresh power cell, charged up the stairs to the first bend, knowing she had to hold down her position, and found the lead Imperial soldier right in her iron sights.
Annabeth fired two rapid bursts into his chest before he could react, sending the others scrambling back into cover as Annabeth's spray of blaster bolts whipped past them. The man she had hit crumbled and his limp body rolled down the chairs.
Her heart thundering in her chest with pure terror, she tossed her second and last thermal detonator after them. With this side held down for the moment, Annabeth rushed back to the long passage to the machine hall and found the troops advancing again, only this time behind tactical shields.
Annabeth flicked her carbine into fully automatic and let rip, expecting to be gunned down in a moment. Sure enough, angry red blaster bolts snapped past her, close enough for Annabeth to feel their heat. Her own bolts peppered the shield and hit the man holding it in the foot by pure chance, sending him stumbling.
Annabeth followed up with a short burst, before ducking back into the tunnel to deal with the other side just as the ominous red glow announced Ethan rounding the corner with his lightsaber in hand. She tore up her carbine, just as Ethan raised a hand at her.
Brilliant blue lightning lit the dark passage, arcing towards her, and engulfed her.
Annabeth's entire body exploded into agony. She faintly heard her blaster going off at full auto as her cramping hand clutched the trigger. Through her darkening vision, she saw the red strobe of her weapon firing and vagally felt herself twitching and writhing on the floor before darkness took her.