Dear Reader, As always, I first want to say thank you to my reviewers: Ms CT-782, Sued13, Akira-Hayama, ichkak, princess-rey-tano, thaismarendaz, Christina TM, and the secret Guest. This is a fairly long chapter, but things do move pretty quickly. A lot of this part of the story is already written, so it's just a matter of going back and tweaking it. I hope to have a chapter up every week or at least every 2 weeks. Also, for those of you who have gone back and are re-reading the story from the beginning, thank you! That is very flattering, that folks want to read the story a second time. Of course it's also hard to remember everything that happened so many chapters ago! Enjoy! CS
Chapter 129 Mission to Abafar
"What do you suppose they do there in the dark of night? Something that they daren't do in the midst of day? What is it they are hiding? My curiosity lures me closer. My fear drives me away. So, you see, I am still in the same place."
The Moor House
Johnathan McAllister
The doors to the shuttle's access connector opened.
Major Swin stood on the threshold.
She was as beautiful in person as she was via holo. More beautiful, in fact, as a flesh-and-blood presence rendered the full coloring, the detailed nuances of texture and tone, the opaque fullness of form.
But for Rex, her appearance was only something to be noticed in passing. It played no part in the upcoming mission. As long as she was capable and didn't impede the team's progress, that was all that mattered. She might be nice to look at, but there was no call for anything beyond a cursory mental annotation of that fact.
"Major Swin," Rex greeted her with a nod.
"Captain Rex?"
"Yes, Ma'am." Rex swept out his arm, and she came aboard. "Generals Skywalker and Kenobi are on the bridge. I know they want to meet you and go over some things before we arrive at the go-tactical point. I'll take you to meet them."
"Thank you, Captain," she replied.
Donya Swin was a confident woman. Confident around higher-ranking individuals. Confident as one of the few women in a predominantly male profession. Confident in her abilities as an intel analyst, as well as her ability to keep up with the boys from a physical standpoint. She might not have a man's strength, but she had their endurance, their strong mental fortitude, and a superior agility. She was from Alderaan and a member of a fine family with a lengthy history of military service. She was proud to carry on that tradition, even if her means and methods were not always in the manner of the military decorum and protocol of her ancestors.
In other words, she knew she was an eye-catcher, and she had no qualms about using that fact to her advantage. To her mind, it only made sense to use every strength at her disposal, including her looks.
As she accompanied Rex to the bridge, she took a moment to size up this clone captain of whom she'd heard so much. After all, General Skywalker and his first-in-command had developed quite a reputation throughout the GAR as the most unorthodox command team going; and Major Swin was drawn to the unorthodox.
She had expected something much more . . . flamboyant. She had worked with hundreds of clones and seen thousands more, and many of them had found extremely clever and prominent ways to distinguish themselves. She had imagined someone with Captain Rex's notoriety would have something more impressive to separate him from the others than a simple blond dye job.
Still, he was admittedly handsome. The blond suited him. There was a gravity in his manner that was both intriguing and irksome. She wondered if he was half the dare-devil the scuttlebutt made him out to be. Everything about him at the moment of this first meeting seemed formal and well-regulated.
Dull. Boring.
Still, if push came to shove, he would do in a pinch. It was her own sense of superiority that caused the major to regard any high-powered or well-placed male as a test subject upon which she could work her wiles. Not that she did it in every case, but Donya had discovered long ago that those she deemed less attractive were easily manipulated by her beauty. And since she was at the top of the beauty hierarchy, she considered that nearly everyone was beneath her and therefore vulnerable.
She liked to prove to herself—and sometimes to others—that she could take down even the most obstinate and chauvinistic of men, often with nothing more than a look.
The captain of the 501st struck her as one of those men who was going to make a point of pretending that he was not attracted to her. Let him think he was immune. Donya knew she could turn him with the blink of her eye if she was so inclined. But at the moment, she satisfied herself with mere observation. She had other things that took precedence. This mission would be her first field recon mission. Her attention would need to be focused on the task at hand. For the truth was that she had usually been on the receiving and interpretation end of intel provided by field units. But now, here she was actually going out on a mission to check out some of the very intel she had worked on. This was her first time going into a potentially hostile situation under stealth conditions. She could not afford to be thinking about something as puerile as the appearance of those with whom she was working. She might have to depend on them for her life if something were to go wrong.
Yet, despite all that was going on in Major Swin's head, quite the opposite was the case with regard to her companion.
For his own part, Rex saw only a woman in a uniform. Beautiful. Professional. A team mate on this mission. Had he known the thoughts that often swirled through the major's head, he might have regarded her with more circumspection. As it were, she was a senior officer to him from the standpoint of rank, but he was the senior as far as mission command went. He would show her the proper deference, and he expected her to do the same with him.
They came to the bridge.
"Generals," Rex announced. "This is Major Swin."
Immediately, Donya could tell that she had met her match. General Skywalker was an extremely handsome—and somewhat wild-looking—man who did not bat an eye as he turned to face her. She could see something in his demeanor that struck her as odd, even troubling. She expected that the general, as a Jedi, would have a discernible detachment from things of beauty; but Anakin Skywalker regarded her as if she were . . . well, as if she were just like every other officer.
It wasn't fair, really. If Donya had been aware that she was competing with a woman ten times her own attractiveness, she might have been able to comprehend the complete disinterest on the general's face. But as it stood, she was left to wonder at his seeming lack of impressionability.
As for General Kenobi, he appeared so affable, so light-hearted that the major could look at him only in the context of gentle-hearted uncle, in which case his appearance became immaterial.
"General Kenobi, General Skywalker, it's a pleasure to meet you," she said crisply. "I'm looking forward to working with you on this mission."
"Likewise, Major," Obi-wan replied. "There are still a number of things I want to go over, so I'd like to get started right away."
"Gladly, Sir."
They moved back into the passenger bay where the rest of the crew, minus Three Point and Zinger, were called together.
Obi-wan began with introductions.
"This is Major Swin." He stated the obvious. "Major Swin, you've already met Captain Rex. This is Commander Cody, my first-in-command. This is Moog, communications specialist. Pitch and Boom, explosives experts. Redi and Blackthorn are both data analyst with a history in rhydonium. And . . . Sixer, Sempe, Denal and Dogma. They're here to keep us safe. And this is Slider, one of our medics. Up front, we have Three Point and Zinger."
Major Swin nodded a sort of singular greeting.
"Now that that's out of the way, we have some planning to do and some questions to clear up," Obi-wan stated. "In going over some of the communications intercepted from Abafar, Moog noticed that although they all originated on Abafar, some were intercepted directly by passing spy probes and others were intercepted by our listening station on Antar-6. The signal strength of the communications shows a significant variance in the ones intercepted by the probes and the ones intercepted on Antar."
"Yes, General Kenobi," Major Swin replied. "If you've had a chance to read the messages coming from the two different signals, you'll notice they are clearly being sent by two different entities. One appears to be an informant attempting to notify the Republic of the facility on Abafar. The other would seem to be coming from the facility operators themselves. Manifests, orders, manufacturing statistics. All false, if our suspicions are correct. If the facility is not a droid factory, then the data is code for what they're really doing."
"Any idea what they're really doing?" Anakin asked.
"Your guess is as good as mine," Swin replied. "But given that we're looking at a facility on Abafar, there's a good chance this has something to do with Rhydonium."
Redi spoke up. "Abafar is one of three planets that has rhydonium as a natural resource. It's shipped all over the galaxy, yet there are very few actual processing facilities. Abafar itself had only a mining facility; no processing facilities. Yet, in going through the after action reports from the Kettrun mission, I noticed that whatever was on Kettrun wasn't straight rhydonium. Pitch and Fives both stated in their portion of the report that they remembered hearing the warehouse workers say that whatever was being store in those canisters was rhydonium-based. Yet, there didn't appear to be any kind of facility on Kettrun that could have altered the composition of the rhydonium." He pulled up the clearest image of the structure on Abafar. "These images are grainy, but I think we're looking at some kind of new process for refining or changing the chemical component of rhydonium on Abafar."
Major Swin considered briefly. "That seems a pretty great leap to make based on the data we have."
"We know what a conventional rhydonium processing plant looks like," Blackthorn stated, pulling up some more images. "These are the plants on Saracor and Tralgaria, the two other planets where it's mined. These are refineries on Bintaan, Corsus, and Corellia." A pause. "As you can see, these things are massive, billowing out all kinds of smoke and steam. They require massive cooling towers." He returned to the image from Abafar. "This is nothing like the other facilities."
"It could be a purposeful attempt to mislead us by creating a plant that looks different but still carries out the same function," Sixer put forth. "We're assuming they've made no advancement in the refinement technology. Have they?"
"Not that we know of," Redi replied.
Anakin spoke up. "The data on the consoles we found on Pylotta had information that was important enough that the Separatists sent out an entire battle group to track down the shuttle and stop that information from falling into Republic hands. This has to go deeper than something as commonplace as rhydonium processing. Major, did you see anything in the decryptions that would explain what the big deal is?"
"My opinion is that the Separatists have begun mining operations again and that what we're looking at is, in fact, a new technology," she replied.
Anakin was not convinced. "But resuming their mining operations isn't enough to warrant so much secrecy."
"And I suppose that's what we're here to find out, General Skywalker," Donya stated.
"Do we have any idea who our informant on Abafar is?" Rex inquired. He, too, had done his research on the planet and the most recent events there involving the destruction of the Separatist depot and the discovery and death of an abandoned clone commando. It had been profoundly sad to read of the trooper's fate and sacrifice. Yet, now Rex could not help but wonder if the reports of the man's death had been incorrect. Who else on Abafar would have a reason to assist the Republic? No one went to Abafar anymore. Most of the rhydonium was depleted already. The place was a dismal backwater, or backdesert, in this case. The whole thing just didn't make sense.
"None," the major replied. "As I noted in the earlier briefing, the voice is digitized."
"Do you think it could be a trap?" Obi-wan inquired.
"That's always a possibility," Donya answered truthfully. "But if the information you got from the consoles is almost 18 months old, that means it's a trap that's taking a long time to spring. And the transmissions from the informant only began recently. Why didn't they begin back when the data on the consoles was being generated?"
"So, what exactly are we hoping to find out on this recon?" Cody asked. "We can't go in there with just a general directive to look around. What questions do we want answers to?"
"I believe the main thing we want to find out is what kind of facility is this? What is its function? Depending on what we discover, that may generate more questions. The identity of the informant is secondary," Major Swin replied. "And if mining has resumed, where is the product being shipped? Are they intending to try and fly another star destroyer loaded with rhydonium into a particular target?"
Rex knit his brow. "Those consoles had millions of secbits of data on them. Seems like a lot of information for just . . . resuming mining on Abafar."
"Again, that is what we're here to find out," Major Swin replied.
The conversation went on another thirty minutes or so with the discussion of landing sites, approach and entry options, and the general lay of the operation. At the conclusion, Anakin turned to his captain. "Rex, get Major Swin kitted up for the infiltration. Make sure she knows how all the equipment works."
"Yes, General," Rex nodded smartly. Then, as the meeting broke up, he turned to Sixer. "Lieutenant, standard 2-A kit."
"Yes, Captain," Sixer replied, then to the major. "Will you be okay hauling an extra 25 pounds, ma'am?"
Major Swin gave a game smile. "You're not putting me in armor."
"No, ma'am. Just 25 pounds of web gear and equipment."
"I can manage that," she assured him.
"Then follow me."
Donya was taken back a moment. She had expected the lieutenant to simply go get the kit, and the captain would help her learn how to put it on. The fact that he had passed her off to a subordinate was something to which she was not accustomed. Most men could not wait to find a reason—any reason—to be in her presence. The opportunity to come into physical contact with her was never passed up.
This was an interesting occurrence, yet she did not show any untoward reaction. Instead, she smiled and went with Sixer back to the equipment lockers.
"Your captain must have a lot of faith in you," she stated as Sixer began pulling out the various items.
Her remark struck him as odd, but then he decided that Major Swin, as a desk officer, probably was not familiar with the most basic of things in a field unit. One of those being that a first-in-command did not take charge of something as simple as an outfitting.
"Oh, well, it's no big deal, Ma'am," the lieutenant replied. "We do it all the time. We could do it in our sleep. By the time I'm finished, you'll be able to do it in your sleep as well." He looked her up and down for a moment.
Now, this was what she was used to.
Until Sixer noted, "You're tall. You probably need a large web harness."
"Hmph!" These clones liked to act immovable. "Well, make it extra-large. You know, it has to fit over these." She actually pointed at her sizeable breasts.
Sixer was surprised, but he remained all-business. "I'm sure we can make it fit, Major."
Fifteen minutes later, Sixer was finished and Major Swin looked as if she had just leapt from the pages of a military digest.
"You sure you'll be able to carry all that, Ma'am?" Sixer asked. "I know it's a lot."
She simpered. "You're selling me short, Lieutenant. I could carry twice, three times this much and still be fine. I like to be able to keep up."
Sixer smiled. "That's good, good. Did you come with any weapon other than that sidearm?"
"No, this is standard issue for people in my series. We rarely go into the field, and this is what they issued me."
"Can you fire it?" Sixer asked.
"Of course, I can fire it."
"Can you hit anything?" This inquiry came from the front of the bay where Rex had just returned from the crew deck.
"I scored as marksman on my qualifying," Donya replied with manufactured arrogance, pleased to see the return of the captain. She'd known he wouldn't be able to stay away for long.
"Hopefully, you won't need to prove it," Rex remarked, coming over to inspect Sixer's work. "And this isn't going to be too much for you? It isn't going to weigh you down?"
"I'm not some weakling, Captain," Donya sniffed with a playful smile. "You all won't need to protect me. I can hold my own."
"That's good, because if we run into trouble, you become one of us. We won't have time to give special attention to making sure you're alright—"
"Again, gentlemen," she affected a sweet tone of voice. "I'm not helpless. I know you're used to working with men, but I won't slow you down. And I know my stuff." She could not resist. "And I keep myself in shape, in case you couldn't tell."
Sixer gave a shadow of a smile and glanced sideways at his captain. The major was going to be an interesting addition to the team, and neither man knew exactly what side of interesting she would come down on.
"We'll be at the GTP (*Go Tactical Point) in less than two minutes. Internal frequencies only. From GTP to touchdown will be seven minutes . . . unless there's trouble. Everyone has their assignment. Any questions?"
There were none.
Sixer turned to Major Swin. "Your comm is already set to our internal frequency. We have two backups. They're downloaded into your HOPO." He went on to explain some of the protocols for radio security, ending with, "If you need help, don't hesitate to ask any one of us. If this is your first time in the field, it can be a little nerve-wracking."
"I appreciate it, Lieutenant," she replied, allowing a soft expression to narrow her round eyes. "I think I'll be alright."
"Bring us in nice and easy, Three Point," Obi-wan said as they began their descent. "Remember, you have a reputation to uphold."
Three Point grinned. "I'll try to remember that, but I'm pretty sure we'll be bouncing all over the sky. The heat coming off the Void is supposed to generate a lot of turbulence. We might be landing at night, but the hot and cold air is going to make for quite a ride. Hopefully, she won't shake to pieces."
"I have full faith and trust in you," Obi-wan replied. "Long as she doesn't fall apart until we've landed."
"I'll do my best, General."
Three Point's best may have been sufficient to bring the shuttle down safely, but it was also sufficient to bring most of the crew's stomachs into their throats. As the shuttle neared the landing zone, the massive dome shape of their objective could be seen as a somewhat darker hump in the middle of the flat lines of the Void.
"It's huge," Three Point noted. "The coordinates were right on target."
"Conduct a scan," Obi-wan ordered. "Are there any other settlements in the area?"
Zinger complied. "None, Sir. Just some ghost towns. They look like they're long abandoned. There's one twelve klicks due north. That's where we'll be hiding until the team is ready for extraction." A pause. "Infrared shows there's a single structure on the east side of the cylinder, but I'm not picking any electro-magnetic activity."
"Any sign we're being tracked?" Anakin inquired.
"We've been able to stay below radar, but if they're using orbital scanning, they may have already seen us," Zinger replied. "But there's no indication of that."
Three Point spoke up. "Drop-off point in one minute."
And in one minute, the shuttle set down at the base of a low, featureless rise.
The team began to off-load.
"Four hours, Three Point," Anakin said as an unnecessary reminder. "This same location, unless you hear otherwise from us."
"We'll be here, Sir," the pilot replied.
"Be careful," Obi-wan warned. "If there are Separatists here, they might be patrolling the area. The sudden appearance of a ship in one of the ghost towns could raise suspicion."
"We'll be alright, General," Three Point assured him. He, Zinger and Moog would all remain behind. "You all just make sure everyone makes it back here . . . and on time."
Obi-wan could not help but smile at the pilot's relaxed observation of protocol, his familiar manner of addressing his Jedi generals. "Yes, Sir!" Obi-wan snapped lightheartedly, offering a loose salute and slapping the side of the ship, cueing departure.
As the shuttle moved off, Anakin spoke. "Okay, men, it's about four klicks to that facility, and across mostly open space. Let's get moving." He looked to Redi and Blackthorn. "Are you getting any readings from that place?"
Redi was pouring over his sensor pad, Blackthorn at his side. They were both already deeply involved and muttering between themselves. At General Skywalker's inquiry, both men looked up.
"General, that dome appears to be empty," Redi reported. "It's got a diameter of at 400 meters. It's made of a dura-crete composite, but there's nothing that matches it in the database. But that's not all."
Blackthorn picked up. "There's no sign of any power source. Still no electro-magnetic activity. Nothing."
"No droid power readings?" This from Cody.
"No, Commander," Blackthorn replied. "It's completely dead out here."
"But, there is something interesting," Redi added. "There are tunnels below the surface. Stratified tunnels that are clearly in a pattern and not naturally occurring."
"Mining tunnels?"
Behind his visor, Redi grimaced, perplexed. "It's . . . it's hard to tell, Sir. Some of these readings . . . some of the passages look like they've . . . turned into some other kind of rock." He was almost embarrassed at this assessment.
"Turned into other rock?" Cody asked, preempting a Jedi grilling. "What do you mean?"
"There are layers that are clearly not the same as the surrounding rock. A lot of the passages appear to be filled with something else. It's a massive underground system. There are still a lot of open passages, but it looks like skeins of some other solid substance, like an old mine filling up from the bottom, as if it were being flooded."
"Any readings of weapons or munitions?" Anakin asked, looking to Denal.
"Not so far, but the readings are inconclusive," Denal answered.
"Have you located an entrance?"
This time, it was Dogma who replied. "There are no obvious entrances. We'll have to wait until we get closer."
"So, we do it the old-fashioned way and eye-ball it," Rex said, a note of anticipation in his voice – unusual considering how Rex detested recon missions.
"Looks that way," Anakin agreed, sounding equally game. "Major, anything to add before we set off?"
"Not at this time, General Skywalker," she replied.
They moved out. There was no moon in the sky, but the starlight created enough contrast that night vision goggles were unnecessary. The dome remained just discernible, and as there were no hazards or obstacles in between, the team was able to move at a good clip.
After covering about half the distance, Rex sidled up to Redi and Blackthorn. "What kinds of readings are you getting?"
Redi held out his data pad. "There are just too many anomalies between what we saw in the decrypted data provided by Major Swin and what our scanners are showing. We can clearly say it's not a droid factory, but there was no mention in the data of what these passageways might be, and . . . it's—it's impossible to tell if they're really passages at all."
Rex knit his brows in the privacy of his helmet. "Run a liquidity scan and particle density test. Let's see if we can detect from here whatever's going on inside that place."
"Yes, Captain."
Rex stepped away from the two men, and Cody joined him. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?" he asked, muting internal comm.
"What makes you say that?"
"I could hear it in your voice," Cody stated. "You like the uncertainty."
"You know I don't like recon missions," Rex replied. "But this one has some mystery to it. I like a challenge. Besides, this goes back to those consoles we found on Pylotta. I feel like we're completing the circle."
"Still no sign of defensive positions," Dogma announced. "No signs of life. No activity of any kind."
"I don't like this at all," Anakin stated. "Nothing is adding up here. I'm starting to think this is a diversion."
"I'm inclined to agree," Obi-wan nodded. "But a diversion from what?"
"Woah-wait . . . what's going on? Do you feel that?" This from Pitch, and a moment later, the ground's vibration was palpable to everyone.
"Earthquake?" Dogma asked.
"It doesn't feel like—"
"Look! The dome! It's rising!" Boom pointed out.
As they watched, the dome rose, exposing the cylindrical base. It was very much the structure of a fuel tank.
"It is a mining facility," Denal concluded.
"No," Blackthorn countered. "The last intel we have from Abafar shows that rhydonium is mined through drilling and liquid extraction, then it's converted into a gas. Tanks like this have never been used to mine rhydonium." He looked at Rex, impressed that his captain had possess such foresight. "That's why you wanted to run the liquidity scans."
Rex nodded. "That's right. Do you have the results yet?"
"Liquidity was negative. Particle density came back with multiple variations in the strata."
"If this were a drilling operation, there would always be fluid in the lines or in the skeins," Rex pointed out.
"And this place is dry as a bone," Redi noted.
"Well, then, that's a damned big tank for holding nothing," Dogma said, sounding skeptical as he watched the tank continue to rise. It was now easily 200 meters tall.
"It may be holding something, but it's not rhydonium," Rex replied.
"Rescan," Anakin ordered.
After several seconds, Redi shook his head and spoke in a bemused voice. "Sending data to everyone's HUDs. Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" As he asked the question, he stood beside Major Swin, so she could look at his data pad.
"This is . . . crazy," Blackthorn answered, biting back on the reflex to use more colorful language. "The liquidity index is up to almost 4.3. In a matter of seconds."
"Then it can't be rhydonium," Boom asserted. "Rhydonium doesn't change state that quickly."
"It's falling," Redi observed. "4.1, 3.7, 2.8 . . . what's going on? What goes back and forth between solid and liquid that quickly, and at these density levels? This is nuts."
"There's also some kind of energy reading now," Denal announced.
The dome stopped moving. The night fell still and silent once again.
Less than five seconds later, the liquidity levels were at zero once more, as were the energy readings.
"I take back what I said," Anakin grimaced. "This isn't a diversion. Something really is going on here. Okay, let's get in closer."
"Generals, if I may," Major Swin spoke up. "The energy readings just now . . . they're not like any I've ever seen before in any of my intel briefs. This could be a whole new form of energy we're looking at, and we don't know the effects of being in proximity to it."
"That's true," Obi-wan agreed. "Continuous readings, Denal and Dogma. Everyone, this requires an added measure of precaution."
As they crept within 100 meters of the cylinder, Dogma reported, "Confirming subterranean passages. Open space. Still no droid or human activity."
"We have to find a way inside," Obi-wan noted. "Major Swin, recheck the images we took on approach. See if you can find anything that looks like an entrance."
A few seconds later, Major Swin replied, "There is the structure we saw. I recommend starting there. I'm not detecting any exterior maintenance hatches on the tank, but there has to be a way to get into the tank itself for make repairs."
"Rex, take point," Anakin ordered. "Lead the way."
The tank's circumference was over 600 meters, and the structure was one quarter of the way around from the direction in which they were approaching. The ground around the base of the cylinder still showed signs of its construction: large, loose chunks of rock which made for tricky footing and slow going.
When they arrived at the east-side structure, it was obvious right away that it was not manned. Sixer and Sempe accompanied Rex and Cody to clear the building. It appeared to be a small control station.
"It's completely empty," Sempe remarked. "It's not even automated. The consoles are all real. There's actual circuitry behind them, but there's no power. The place is dead. In fact, it looks like it's never been in operation. Look, there's a layer of dust in here . . . no footprints . . ."
"Well, something just made that dome move," Sixer stated as the rest of the team filed inside.
"It could be remotely operated," Boom pointed out.
"Generals." Major Swin's voice. "I think this might be of interest."
She had gone down a short corridor and was standing before a pair of heavy, steelite doors, both of which were open. Beyond was a passageway tunneled through the layers of chalky white rock.
"Time for some exploring?" she grinned, pleased with her discovery.
Anakin returned the smile. "What are we waiting for?"
"Sempe, Denal, stay here and make sure we have no unexpected visitors," Cody ordered.
The rest of the team moved down the passageway, illuminated only by the lights on their helmets. It was nearly fifty meters long, at which point it split into two, each of which ran directly along the exposed duracrete outer wall of the cylinder.
Anakin placed his hand on the surface. He detected nothing unusual. "What are the readings on the other side of this wall?"
Redi checked his scanner and frowned. "It shows empty, General. No liquid. No compressed gas. Just empty space."
"The mystery deepens," Obi-wan quipped. "Blackthorn, are you reading the same?"
"Yes, General."
"Well, then, unless we have two malfunctioning scanners, I say we split into two groups and follow this passageway, looking for a way inside that cylinder," Obi-wan decided. He took Cody, Pitch, Sixer, Redi and Major Swin with him. Anakin took Rex, Boom, Dogma, Blackthorn and Slider.
Less than twenty meters along the outer passageway, Anakin's group came upon a man-sized hatch.
"This looks like a way in," Anakin stated. "Blackthorn, run one more scan. I don't want to open this and find ourselves in trouble."
A moment later, Blackthorn replied, "I'm still not reading anything on the other side."
Anakin considered. "Slider, I don't want to risk you down here. If anything happens, we're going to need you. Go back up with Sempe and Denal."
"Yes, General," Slider acknowledged. "Be careful, Sir."
Slider departed.
"There's no shielding on these doors, General," Blackthorn stated. "And they appear to operate with simple mechanical locks. Shall I?"
"Let me," Anakin replied. "Everyone, back away." Using the Force, he raised the lever. "Here goes nothing." He opened the door.
The lack of any immediate rushing gas or liquid put them all at ease – or, if not at ease, it, at least, lessened the anxiety of the moment.
Rex stepped forward and looked inside. The hatch in which he stood was about a meter and half above the surface within the cylinder – a surface that was purplish-black like sidone and smooth as polished glass. Other than that, the tank was empty. Across the open space, he saw another hatch open; and moment later, Cody appeared. They exchanged waves of acknowledgment.
Anakin came and stood beside his captain. "What are we looking at?"
"I'm not sure, General," Rex replied. "I can't tell if the surface is solid or liquid."
Anakin held out his hand and sent a wave of Force energy towards the surface. It did not move.
"It's solid."
"Yeah, but how solid?" This from Boom, who had come forward and was now looking over the two officers' shoulders with curiosity.
"Are you volunteering to find out?" Anakin asked with a sideways grin.
"As long as you have my back, General," Boom replied.
Anakin carefully levitated Boom down to the surface, slowly releasing more of his weight until he was no longer supporting him at all.
Boom jounced, then stomped, then jumped. "It feels completely firm," he announced.
The rest of them lowered themselves gingerly to the surface as Obi-wan's group did the same on the far side.
"Watch your step," Anakin warned. "We don't know if the whole surface is sturdy."
Rex approached Blackthorn. "What is this stuff?"
Blackthorn pored over his scans. "I don't know, Captain. There's no record of anything similar in our data bases."
From across the tank, Redi added, "It reaches at least twenty meters straight down. But it's also the same stuff that's showing up in some of the skeins, like's it's seeped into the tunnels below."
"This is what was liquid a few minutes ago," Pitch stated. "It sunk down and filled the tunnels in the lower levels. Then it solidified . . . in a matter of seconds. There are thousands of cubic meters here. What kind of liquid solidifies that fast?"
"Do you detect any evidence of rhydonium?" Anakin asked.
"There's always traces of it," Blackthorn replied. "The rock is full of it."
"Get some samples," Rex ordered. "Check for volatility, but don't blow the place sky-high doing it. Boom, with me. We're going to check out the passage that runs around this place."
"I'd like to go along," Major Swin volunteered, moving cautiously across the surface, almost like ice-skating. "There might be other sources of intel hidden in the passages."
To Rex, it was an odd request. There seemed to be plenty to study right here in the cylinder; but then it occurred to him that the major was not a chemical analyst. She was a communications data analyst. For her, it was more important to find written, electronic, and digital communications than it was to take readings of various metrics.
He nodded his approval.
As it turned out, there was nothing remarkable about the tunnel that encircled the tank. There were ten doors, evenly spaced, leading to the interior, and dozens of passageways branching off into the darkness. Rex went a short distance into several of them, passing upward and downward shafts, but finding nothing out of the ordinary, nothing to grab his attention.
"Captain, my scans aren't showing any weaponry in the lower levels," Boom stated. "Or in any levels. There's no sign of droid manufacturing equipment. Nothing."
"So, all of that was faked," Major Swin replied. "But we pretty much suspected that already."
"The only thing that's really here is this facility, whatever it is," Rex concluded.
"With the volume of communications traffic that was going back and forth about this place, there has to be something big here, something important," Donya opined. "Whatever the substance in that cylinder is, the Separatists went to great lengths to create it and to hide its existence."
"Is it a final product, then?" Rex asked.
"That I couldn't tell you," she replied.
"Well . . . maybe . . . maybe you should go back to the control room and see if there's anything on those consoles that's downloadable," Rex suggested.
"Those consoles had never been used—"
"That's not what Denal said," Rex corrected. "He said they weren't powered now. But they might have had power at one time. They have circuitry. It's possible they were used at one point, so they might have data on them."
"I can take a look on the way out," Major Swin replied. "Right now, I think it's better for me to be down here. I need to get as much detail as possible for my report. Other analysts will benefit from the data I bring back."
"I assure you that all the readings being taken by the rest of the team will be sent to GISA for analysis and use by the intel teams," Rex stated.
"Good. They can add their findings to my own," Donya said curtly.
Rex let the somewhat snarky remark roll off him. "Very well, Major. Let's head back to the others."
Donya balked. "I hope we're not heading back on account of me, Captain."
Rex turned and looked at her, glad she could not see his expression beneath the helmet. "It's not on account of you."
Donya set her stance. "It just seems like you want to get me back somewhere safe, that you don't feel as comfortable with me as you do your own men."
Rex was flummoxed by this response. He could see Boom on his left, trying to be innocuous.
"If I had felt you needed protecting, I would have sent you back to the control center when General Skywalker sent Slider," came the calm, even-toned reply. "I suggested checking out the consoles, because I thought you might be more interested in seeing if there was data on them than waiting around while the others took readings in the tank. I assumed you—"
"You assumed wrong, Captain," the major cut him off. "I'll carry my weight. I'll take my own readings."
Rex would not argue. "Then let's rejoin the others. General Skywalker might want to send a team to investigate some of these tunnels."
They re-entered the tank through the door Obi-wan's team had used. One hundred meters away, in the center, Cody was keeping an eye out while Redi took a full 360-degree, 3-dimensional scan.
As Rex started walked towards the commander, a bluish light suddenly filled the tank with a milky haze.
"What is that?" Boom asked.
"Look! Look up!" Dogma shouted.
All eyes turned towards the domed ceiling almost 200 meters above them. Undulating ribbons of blue light wreathed and snaked across the ceiling, increasing in number and variety of thickness as they churned among themselves.
"What is that, Redi?" Anakin asked, his voice taking on the tinge of immediacy that so often marked its owner's dread.
Redi began scanning. "It seems to be some kind of neutrino-based energy field. But it's not quite . . . clean. I think it's a hybrid, General, using a technology we're not familiar with."
Anakin scowled. "I'm getting tired of all these half-assed answers, Sergeant."
Redi did not miss a beat. He knew the general's frustration was not with him, but with the circumstances. "I'm tired of giving them, General."
From a few steps away, Pitch suggested, "I think it would be a good idea to get off this floor."
Before anyone could reply, a narrow funnel of energy whipped down from the ceiling, moving like a miniature cyclone, and where it touched the floor, the surface began to liquefy.
Another funnel followed, and another.
"Everyone! Get out!" Obi-wan shouted, dodging a swirling filament as it made contact directly where he'd been standing.
The floor was now beginning to crack and shift, like ice under too much stress.
From the center, Rex and Cody began running only to have the surface dip and crumbled beneath them. Obi-wan reached out and force-propelled them through one of the open portals with such intensity that they both went crashing into the outer wall of the surrounding passageway, knocking the wind out of them and leaving them dazed on the ground.
Sixer and Pitch had not been far from the door when the light began, and they retreated quickly to the safety of the passageway. Turning to look back inside, Sixer was infuriated to see Blackthorn making his way towards one of the doors, but still continuing to take readings as he went.
"Blackthorn!" Sixer bellowed. "Forget the damned readings and get your ass out of there now!"
Never one to disobey an order from a superior, Blackthorn turned his attention from his scanner to the growing dilemma of making it to one of the doors. As more and more funnels arced down from the ceiling, and as the surface became more treacherous, the route to safety turned into an obstacle course. At one point, he made a running leap across a widening gap between two shrinking solid masses, and in the process, his scanner went flying. He turned to snatch it up, but the sound of Sixer's voice, demanding he leave it, made him abandon the effort; and he skittered to safety just as the mass on which he was running lost its buoyancy and disappeared beneath the surface.
Dogma, on the other hand, had been right beside Blackthorn. When the scanner had flown loose, he'd headed straight for it, had it in his fingers . . . then something lifted him and thrust him through the air, dodging and weaving around the funnels, depositing him in the passageway. The scanner came down beside him.
"What—what the . . . " It was the first time Dogma had ever been Force-propelled. Yes, he had seen it happen many times, but he'd never been on the receiving end. Unexpected, it had been a disorienting thing, and as he got carefully to his feet, suddenly not trusting his own balance, Sixer came to lend a hand.
"Pretty bizarre, huh?" the lieutenant noted. "You get used to it."
"I don't know if I'll ever get used to that," Dogma replied.
"Well, when it saves your life time and again, you'll find it's reassuring to know you have that kind of ability at your back."
The two troopers moved back towards the hatch and looked inside. The blue lights were everywhere now, and what had been a fully solid floor less than one minute earlier was now fully liquid, whirlpooling and churning.
And rising.
Rising very fast.
"Get the hatches closed!" Anakin shouted as the liquid began to spill over the rims of the open portals.
It had the consistency of fast-moving magma, and its intrusion into the passageway was swift.
Even as Anakin Force-closed the portal nearest him, he could see the level continuing to rise. Soon it would come into contact with him and those team members with him. He raised his wrist comm. "Obi-wan, have you closed the hatch on the other side?!" he asked, noticing Rex and Cody skidding up beside him.
"It's coming this way, too, General," Rex reported.
"Obi-wan! Obi-"
"Anakin, I couldn't get a good seal on the hatch," came the harried response. "Some liquid got through before I could close the doors and it completely melted the outer lower hinges, and the hatch won't stay closed."
Anakin looked at the hinges on his own door, and much to his horror, he saw that they, too, had been partially eroded. A small line of the liquid was oozing through, and he feared it wouldn't be long before the hatch gave way.
"We've got this stuff on both sides of us," Anakin reported. "And if it can eat through metal hinges, it will definitely eat through armor and flesh. There's no way I can Force-levitate everyone, I can't even see where the liquid ends that I could put them down. We're going down one of these passageways."
"We're in the access passageway from the control center. We'll continue on and pick up Sempe and Denal."
"Who's with you?"
"Pitch, Boom, and Redi."
"Okay, I've got everyone else," Anakin replied. "We're all accounted for." He turned to Rex. "Where's the nearest passageway?"
"Twenty meters back that way," Rex replied, nodding in the direction from which he and Cody had just come.
"Let's go! Move it, troopers! Fast as you can!"
They covered the short distance just as the purplish liquid was reaching the passageway. Anakin put Rex on point and waited to make sure everyone made it. When he finally entered the passageway himself, he had to make a Force-assisted leap over the encroaching floe.
In front, Rex led the way, using his helmet lights to illuminate the ground before him. The tunnels were smooth and clear of debris for the most part, making it easier for a running man to flee the pursuing danger. Many more passageways branched off, and this gave Rex some sense of relief, for that would spread the liquid out, lowering its levels. But he wasn't ready quite yet to see just how much lower. He continued to run, coming to an area where the tunnel grew wider and higher. His heart was pounding so loudly in his ears that he almost didn't notice the sound of the fluid flow had changed. What had been a fairly quiet creep now sounding like running water. The liquid must be losing its viscosity.
He slowed and turned to make sure everyone was still behind him, and that was when he heard General Skywalker's voice, barely audible above the cacophony.
"Watch out!"
Instantly, Rex was sailing through the air, as if pushed by a giant, invisible hand, skidding to a stop twenty meters down the passageway. Cody came tumbling up beside him. Major Swin, Blackthorn, Dogma and Sixer. They all landed close by.
Looking back, Rex caught the moment that the roof of the cave collapsed where they had just been standing. The encroaching liquid was eroding the ground and the walls as it advanced, destabilizing the entire area.
"General Skywalker!" Rex called out, racing back towards the mound of rubble, parts of which were the wooden and metal support beams that had held up the ceiling and wall-mounted drilling platforms. Pinned beneath one of the drilling platforms, General Skywalker lay face-down, his arms outstretched towards the oncoming flood, holding it back as the level began to rise.
"All of you! Get over here! Grab the other end! Help me get this off of him!" Rex commanded desperately.
"Rex, Cody, get them out of here!" Anakin demanded.
Rex did not reply. Instead, he fixed his hands under one corner of the platform, waited for the others to get in place, then braced himself. "Ready . . . lift!"
"It's too heavy!" Dogma groaned against the strain.
"We need some leverage—"
"I can't hold this back much longer!" Anakin shouted. "Captain, take the others and go!"
Again, Rex ignored the command. "Sixer, that metal strut . . . "
"On it, Captain!"
Sixer and Major Swin retrieved the strut, and Cody directed its positioning.
"You two on the strut," he ordered Sixer and Dogma. To Blackthorn, "Me, you and Rex will lift. Major, when we've gotten it high enough, you pull him out."
On Cody's count, they lifted again, this time raising the platform a few centimeters.
"Come on, come on! We won't get another chance! Lift!" Cody bellowed.
Another few centimeters and Rex crouched down, bracing some of the weight against his shoulder. "Pull him out!"
Major Swin grabbed Anakin by the ankles and pulled him free.
They let the platform fall.
Still focused on holding back the flood, Anakin accepted Major Swin's help in getting to his feet.
"General, are you injured?" she asked.
No sooner had she asked the question than it became clear that Anakin could only support himself on one leg. There was going to be no outrunning the flood.
"I—I think my leg is broken. I can't put any weight on it," he replied.
"Everyone! Cables!" Cody ordered without hesitation. "Up to that ledge. That'll buy us some time." He hooked up his own cable and shot it towards the ledge above them. He shoved his weapon towards General Skywalker. "I'm climbing up on top of that pile of debris. Once you're up top, I trust you to get me out here fast, General."
"You should go up first, Commander—"
"Sir, you might be the greatest Jedi of all time, but even you can't jump up there with a broken leg while holding back that," Cody admonished. "Take it, Sir . . . but keep holding that osik back until I can get out of the way."
Anakin reached out one hand to take the weapon while still training the other on the flood. "I don't know how long I can hold it."
And before Anakin could say anything else, Cody was off and climbing to the top of the heap.
Truly, these clones never ceased to amaze him. He admired and even envied them their selflessness. He would make sure Cody's trust was well-founded.
He turned to begin his ascent, knowing the moment he lowered his arm, the torrent would come rushing down. Up above him, he saw Rex already on the ledge with Blackthorn and Dogma. Sixer and Major Swin were still on their way up.
"Here goes nothing," Anakin said under his breath. He released the recoil on the blaster, and took hold of the weapon with both hands.
Instantly, the liquid broke free and came rushing down the passageway, sounding like a thousand crashes of thunder and making the entire place vibrate and shake.
The shock sent a wave of pressurized air raging down the passageway.
Up on the ledge, Rex braced himself against the wind. He heard a scream and looked down just as Major Swin lost her grip on her weapon and fell back towards the rushing flume below.
And then her movement stopped and she hung for a moment in midair.
One glance showed General Skywalker, now holding onto his own cable with one hand, and with his other, Force-lifting the major back up towards the ledge, the effort clearly putting a strain on him.
"Hold onto me!" Rex ordered Dogma as he reached out over the edge in an attempt to grab the major. She was just within reach . . . a little further . . .
"Gotcha!" Rex snagged her by her web gear just as Anakin's tenuous hold gave way. Through sheer strength, Rex hauled her up onto the ledge. He immediately turned his attention towards his general, dangling below. "General! General, come on!" He looked out to where Cody's island of debris was shifting and shrinking.
"His cable is coming loose!" Dogma pointed out urgently.
"Grab hold and pull him up!" Blackthorn, Sixer and Dogma began pulling, and between the three of them, they had the general up onto the ledge in a matter of seconds.
Anakin corralled what remained of his strength and stretched out his hand towards the commander, still waiting patiently—albeit, nervously—in the center of the flood stream. He couldn't do this gently; he didn't have the energy or the control. So, instead, he swept Cody abruptly towards the ledge with considerable force, hoping and trusting the others to catch him.
Which they did, in a manner of speaking. Cody plowed into the waiting arms of Rex and Sixer, and they all fell to the ground in a tangled heap. But they were all safe.
For the time-being.
Rex got to his feet and went to assist his general.
Anakin scowled at him. "I'd rip into you right now for disobeying orders, except we're not out of this yet. That stuff is eroding everything. We've got to find a way out of here."
"This ledge looks like it ends up there, General," Dogma pointed out, indicating a place fifteen meters or so ahead where the ledge fell off abruptly. "But there's another one on the other side. And there's a passageway, as well."
"Great . . . so we need to get across," Anakin groused. "I don't know if I can get everyone safely to the other side."
"We can use the cables again," Rex pointed out. "The ceiling's high enough that we can swing across."
"Then get on with it," Anakin ordered. "That river is rising fast."
As the others retrieved and prepped their cables, Rex took the moment to assess his commanding general's condition. "Sir, how badly are you injured?"
"I can make it across, Rex," Anakin assured him. "It feels like a lower leg break. I just can't put any weight on it, so I'll need someone to help me on the other side. The pain is . . . I can use the Force to keep it at bay for now. I'll worry about it once we're out of here."
Rex fired a cable into the ceiling. "Let's go, Sir."
Anakin raised an eyebrow. "Uh, you go over and send it back."
"Not a chance, General," Rex refused. "In your condition, you might lose your grip and fall in. We'll go together. It can handle our combined weight."
"Rex—"
"Or we can both die here, arguing."
Anakin actually grinned in a gallows humor sort of way. "You're getting very disobedient these days, Captain. I may have to get your chip checked when we get back."
"Or better yet, you can tell them to remove it." Rex gestured for Anakin to grab hold, and together they swung across to the far ledge.
"And at this point, General, I'll pass you over to more capable hands," Rex announced. "Sixer, Blackthorn, help the general."
He and Cody led the way through the passage for the next twenty minutes, their flight taking them through tunnel after tunnel, and only rarely did any of them take time to look over their shoulders. At last, they found themselves at a dead end with only an upward shaft above them. An old, rusted ladder ran up into the darkness.
Rex looked to Dogma. "Run a scan. How far up does that shaft go? And what's on the other end?"
Dogma took out his scanner and within seconds, he reported, "Fifty meters . . . open air on the other side. It leads out of here."
"Can you make it, General Skywalker?" Cody inquired.
It was clear that Anakin was approaching exhaustion. Whatever his injury, despite his downplaying of it, it was clearly taking a toll. The desperation of the situation had propelled him with an adrenaline-fueled determination, but now he was breathing hard and leaning more and more against the two men carrying him.
"I'll make it one way or another," he replied. "I might need the grappling hook again."
"I could carry you, General," Cody offered earnestly.
That brought a grin to Anakin's piqued face. "Thanks, Commander, but once was enough," he said, glancing at his first-in-command. "Let's start heading up there."
"Dogma, you go first. Once you're up top, drop a cable for the general."
Dogma began climbing, lithe as a batchkit. In less than a minute he was at the top. He opened the metal hatch and fresh air poured into the shaft. Climbing out, he looked around for something to secure the grappling hook to, but there were no natural features. Instead, he used the hatch's locking wheel to wrap the cable around and lowered his blaster down into the shaft.
Three minutes later, everyone was out.
"Close the hatch, hurry," Rex ordered. "Just in case."
Dogma complied.
Seeing that Cody was already tending to General Skywalker, Rex removed his helmet and raised his wrist comm. "Everyone, report."
After a moment's silence, Obi-wan's voice came through. "We made it out and picked up Sempe, Denal, and Slider on the way. We're outside the facility on the southeast side. We're safe."
Rex felt a weight lift from his shoulders. Everyone had made it.
"I've got everyone else with me," he reported. "General Skywalker is injured."
"How badly?" Obi-wan inquired.
It was Anakin who replied, "Not too bad. Just a broken bone . . . or two. But we're going to need a pickup."
%%%
If you're not sure what to make of Major Swin . . . that's how it's supposed to be at this point!