Before the dark times - Deconstruction Site
[Play Star Wars The Clone Wars (2008) OST Main Title (Original) 0:00 - 0:18]
One cannot help everyone, but everyone can help someone.
[Play Star Wars The Clone Wars (2008) OST Recap 0:00 - 0:58]
Criminals empowered!
After investigating the lower levels of Coruscant, at the request of Mace Windu and Master Yoda, Padawan Learner Orion Dusk has made a discovery of a criminal organization known as the Black Heth, who are receiving weapons that could be used to sow chaos on the Republic Capital.
With the Jedi Knights and Masters too far from the Galactic center to personally intervene, the Jedi send in Orion to the construction site that is secretly being used as a base by the Black Heth, with orders to retrieve all information about whoever is selling these weapons to the criminals of Coruscant.
[Play Star Wars Attack of the Clones OST Arrival at Coruscant 0:00 - 1:18]
Orion was in a speeder by himself, making his way through the busy lanes of traffic in the Verity district, slowly approaching the construction site that he was assigned to infiltrate. It was nightfall, and when he left the lane of traffic he was in, he made sure that his lights were off, so that nobody would see him land on the highest platform.
As Dusk got closer to the platform he was approaching, he noticed something almost immediately. Two life forms, a wookiee and a mirialan were already there, and seemed to be going through a pack of gear that they had. The Padawan soon recognized the pair, as Shu and Wradar, and continued his approach.
The two of them faintly heard the speeder approaching the platform they were on and pointed their blasters at it, ready to stun the driver, until they saw who was driving it. They lowered their blasters and the pair smiled, recognizing that their Jedi ally from before had returned and was most likely here to help.
Wradar looked about the same as he did when he had first met the Jedi, having his bandolier strapped around his chest with a pouch on his right side, and a holster for the X1 Carbine blaster he now had in his hands. But he now had a backpack on him as well, which carried a pair of DL-18 blaster pistols, two metal wrist braces with and some lightweight padding that would fit a person the same size as Shu.
Speaking of Shu, she looked the same as well, sporting a blue undershirt over a brown sleeveless vest with pouches on the front, lightweight padding worn underneath her upper set of clothes to serve as protection and padding from melee weapons striking her there, black pants with a brown belt and straps, now sporting holsters for her knife and her blaster, which appeared to be a modified E-1 retrofitted with more modern attachments. She wore brown fingerless gloves and had black boots on as well.
Orion could tell that the pair had come equipped to fight their way through this construction site, which would honestly be really helpful for the boy, as he would need to depend on these two to help ensure this mission goes smoothly. He approached the pair and spoke to them. "I see I managed to make it in time."
"Indeed you did." Shu replied, before giving the Jedi a rundown of what the pair had figured out while they were here.
[Play Star Wars The Clone Wars (2008) OST Anakin And R3 Leave 0:00 - 1:32]
"We don't know anything about inside the building, but after our attempt at getting my sister back in Acora, the crooks here are on the lookout for us. I got a brief glimpse of what I can assume is the bosses of this group when one of the crooks got a transmission from them on a terminal just below us. 'The Triplets' as one of the guys said are Dowutins."
"Oh. Lovely." Dusk replied.
"I can hazard a guess that there's protocol droids stationed on every level, because there was one there that had to translate what the big guy said to his crook." Shu said. "The droids stay near the terminals, and at least one member stays close to the droid to guard it so if we want to get inside without alerting the whole gang to us, we have to take out the droids, or the terminals before any alarm could be set off. I'd say do both, just to be sure."
"How did you manage to gather that much information without alerting anyone here?" Orion asked.
"Wradar and I have been up here for about half of the day." Shu told him. "I told you last night that I would wait until tonight for whatever your Jedi order was going to send. Before you showed up, we were doing a last minute check up on our equipment. When you're ready, we're starting this."
"Hold on. Before you start a shootout, let me at least tell you what my masters and I discussed after I reported what happened to them." Dusk said.
"What do you need to say?" Shu was willing to listen.
"Remember what that trandoshan at Acora said, about how his group didn't have explosives and how out of all of his group, only he had a weapon that could go against my lightsaber?" Orion reminded her. "Going by what he said, we should expect that this group has melee weapons and potentially armor that can block energy based weapons."
"I have a knife and know how to use it. Wradar is a wookiee, a species that is strong enough to rip most people's limbs off. And you have the force on your side." Shu pointed out. "If our blasters and your lightsaber don't work, then just use that or find openings to exploit. There's always a chink in armor, no matter how strong it is."
"I'm just saying that we should exercise caution." Dusk said. "We don't want to make any mistakes and end up putting your sister at risk."
Shu sighed. "What's your play?"
"I'll go down first, and get their attention centered on me." Orion said. "You two will back me up and take out anyone who tries to get away."
Shu had her blaster at the ready. "Whenever you're ready." She agreed to that plan.
[Silence]
Orion moved to the edge of the platform and crouched. He immediately noticed at least five crooks walking around the level they were on, not counting the one that would be right below the trio, and the protocol droid. He took a deep breath, nodded to his two allies and then leaned forward, dropping down to the level below, right in front of the gand that was guarding the gray protocol droid.
[Play Star Wars The Phantom Menace OST Take To Your Ships 0:00 - 1:00]
"Sound the alarm! Intruder!" The crook screamed out. The other thugs on this level heard their ally and immediately started running to where he was.
Dusk moved fast and used the force to push the protocol droid over to the console it was going for, slamming the droid into its screen, and destroying the terminal, while also disabling the droid. "Let's keep this matter between us." He said to the gand, before igniting his lightsaber and slashing through the thug's mallet.
A twi'lek and tognath moved in and began shooting at the young Jedi with blaster pistols, but had no luck in breaking the boy's defenses. The gand then went to punch him, only to end with Orion dodging the swing and knocking him out with a well placed kick to the face.
A kyuzo and aqualish moved in with melee weapons of their own and swung at the Jedi, who blocked their blades, only to see neither of them immediately break. "Uh oh." The boy said out loud. A rodian came in to help out as well, shooting at Dusk from where he was.
As Orion gained all of the thugs' attention, Shu and Wradar leapt into action, jumping off the level above and shooting down the tognath and twi'lek mid decent. When the pair landed, Wradar blasted the kyuzo in the back while Shu landed a headshot on the rodian. Orion took advantage of the aqualish's confusion and disarmed the thug with a few concentrated swings at the same spot on his weapon, breaking it. He then axe kicked the thug in the head, knocking him out.
[Silence]
As the fighting stopped, the three regrouped and Shu spoke up. "That wasn't so bad."
"This was just the first level." Dusk commented as he took the dead kyuzo's weapon and inspected it. "And if this is anything to go by, then it's only going to get harder from here."
"Oh my god. Stop being so negative. You're a Jedi, aren't you?" Shu pointed out. "Have some freaking backbone. Learner or not, you're still better than these idiots."
Orion was quiet after that. While he tended to look at everything in a more logical way, he couldn't deny that he could do with acting a little more optimistic in this situation. "I suppose you're right. Well, considering that no alarms have gone off. I'd say we're clear to continue our descent into this building undetected."
"We'll follow you, Jedi." Shu said as she prepped her blaster, with Wradar doing the same.
[Play Star Wars Attack of the Clones OST Rescuing Mother 0:00 - 0:45]
Dusk nodded, and then went to the edge of the building to poke his head out from the level above, to see what was below. Aside from the crates and construction equipment, there were only four thugs, and no droid or terminal on the level below. "Well that's a good sign."
Orion swung down and quickly hid behind a crate, remaining undetected. He carefully snuck his way towards the first thug, a gotal, but once the gotal noticed the boy, it was too late as the Padawan grabbed the thug and covered the holes that the thug needed to breathe out of until the gotal quietly passed out. Dusk carefully placed the body down before quickly moving to another crate to hide behind.
Shu and Wradar descended down as well, and also hid behind the nearby construction equipment. A roonan thug came walking towards their general direction, and unfortunately for him, when he got close enough, Radar grabbed him, and held his mouth shut, before squeezing hard enough to knock the air out of him and make him pass out. Another thug, who was a bothan was nearby and noticed the roonan was no longer there. He went to check out what happened to him, but when he got close, Shu grabbed the bothan by the ears, and quickly kneed him in the face multiple times, knocking the thug out.
As the last human thug on this level walked around, oblivious to what happened, he was quickly punched in the back of the head by Orion, who had snuck up from behind. The punch didn't knock him out, but it staggered him long enough for Dusk to land another solid punch in the face that did the job.
As the three of them regrouped, Orion found a spot that he could use to look at the next level below. What he saw wasn't very welcoming.
[Play Star Wars Attack of the Clones OST Zam's Dirty Trick 0:00 - 0:24]
He counted at least nine different thugs, half of which were armed with blasters, and one seemed to carry explosives on him. Three of them were guarding a protocol droid that was standing next to a terminal that was just like the one from before. This group seemed to be alert, as they seemed to be not only guarding this level, but they were also guarding some crates that had a symbol of sorts on them that the Padawan was unfamiliar with. Maybe it was the symbol of this group, or maybe of whoever is supplying this group. Either way, it was apparent that taking this level would prove to be more difficult.
Orion turned to Shu and Wradar and told them of what he saw. Afterwards, Shu spoke up. "Take point. We'll follow you down." Dusk watched and waited for the opportune moment. When the thugs patrolling near the group guarding the protocol droid moved on. He jumped down.
[Play Star Wars The Clone Wars (2008) OST Buzz Droids 0:00 - 1:26]
The three guards all saw him and the gran of the trio spoke up. "Sound the alarm! We'll cover you!" The three then charged with their weapons and attacked. Dusk quickly went to block the gran's weapon and when it made contact, it remained intact. He kicked the gran back before moving to block the aqualish's weapon, then pushed him back to parry the duro's weapon. He saw the protocol droid reach the terminal, and quickly used the force to pull the droid away and towards the thugs. As the droid went flying towards the group, Orion jumped up and let the protocol droid's body knock down the duro. As the gran went to attack Dusk again, the Padawan blocked the incoming attack before slashing at the thug's wrist, disarming him that way. Orion then grabbed the gran's mace and struck the thug in the head with it to knock him out, before throwing it at the downed duro's head to do the same. The aqualish thug went for another swing, but was quickly blasted in the chest, by Shu, who had just reached the level with Wradar.
The other six thugs immediately rushed over to their location and opened fire on the trio. As Shu and Wradar took cover behind crates, Dusk used his lightsaber to block and deflect some of the blaster bolts back at the thugs, taking out two of them with their own blaster bolts. Wradar poked his body out of cover and took a shot at the twi'lek thug and landed a shot on the thug's head, before taking cover again. Shu then poker her body out of cover and took a few shots herself, taking down a rodian and a gand before taking cover again. Just then, a grenade was lobbed in their direction, and Orion quickly leapt away before it went off. The trandoshan thug that was present had a grenade launcher in his hands and loaded it up with another explosive. As Wradar poked his head out, the lizard launched it towards the wookiee, who barely managed to move out of the way of the explosive. Shu quickly poked her head out to shoot at the thug, but was forced to move out of the way when another grenade was thrown towards her.
Realizing that this was going to be an issue, Dusk quickly leapt out of cover and made himself the next target. As the trandoshan shot out another explosive towards him, the Padawan sidestepped the attack and used the force to redirect it towards the terminal, blowing it to bits. As the thug reloaded his grenade launcher and was about to fire another shot at the Jedi, he got blasted right in the eye by Shu, who he failed to notice as he was focused on Orion at the moment. As he fell back, he shot out one final explosive towards her, but she quickly jumped out of the way and avoided getting blown up.
[Silence]
The trio soon regrouped after that and made their way to the edge of the building to look to the next level below, only to see that the walls for the rest of the building were already in place. "Oh...lovely. It seems that the construction of this building had been doing well, before these guys took over." Dusk commented.
"So then how do we get in from here?" Shu asked.
"There's most likely a service elevator somewhere on this level that will take us down to the next one." Orion stated, as the three of them moved away from the edge and began to look for the elevator. "It's just now, we'll be going in completely blind, and most likely loud."
Shu had her blaster ready. "Like that's going to stop me."
"You do not let anything get in your way, do you?" Dusk commented.
"Not when family is involved." Shu said, before she noticed a door up ahead. "I think I found the lift."
The three of them soon reached the service lift and Orion pressed the button to call it up. After waiting a few seconds, the lift arrived and the doors opened. The trio then entered the lift. "Alright. Going down." Dusk said, as the doors closed. When the lift moved down, the trio readied their weapons, knowing that there would be someone on the other side of the doors that they would have to deal with.
[Play Star Wars Attack of the Clones OST Dooku vs Obi-Wan 0:12 - 1:03]
The doors opened, and the first thing the three saw was a human thug and a rodian thug. The human noticed the trio first. "Who the hell?!" He was knocked out by the bud of Shu's blaster while Orion pounced forward and knocked out the rodian.
"You don't need to know." Shu replied to the human thug she knocked out, before noticing a quarren thug walk around a corner and spot them. She quickly took aim and blasted the thug in the chest, taking him out.
The trio quickly made their way around the corner and spotted another four thugs, who didn't notice the commotion they made earlier. They decided to take advantage of this opportunity, as Dusk quickly moved over to a nearby crate near the wall on the far side of the room, and hid behind it. He waited until the klatooinian thug got close, then used the force to pull him behind the crate and knock him out.
Shu then moved up and made her way towards the crate that Orion was at, but was spotted by the other three thugs. The weequay, tognath and sullustan took aim, but the sullustan was shot in the head by Wradar, catching them off guard long enough for Shu to shoot the tognath down. The weequay took cover behind a crate near another service lift and tried to shoot at Shu. but Dusk blitzed in front of her and deflected the incoming blaster bolts back towards him, making the thug take cover. Realizing that he was screwed on his own, he quickly took a grenade out, and threw it towards the two in the open to distract them. As the explosive went off and those two got out of the way of the explosion, the thug made a beeline for the service lift he was right by, but was shot in the back and fell dead on the floor, failing to account for Wradar.
The three of them then made their way to the service lift that the thug went for and pressed the button to bring it up to their level. At this point, the three of them were pretty confident in their abilities, seeing as they had cleared out four floors at this point. When the elevator doors opened, a pair of rodian thugs were already inside the elevator, who were immediately knocked out by Wradar shoulder bashing one of them to the wall inside the elevator, and Shu striking the other rodian in the head with the back of her blaster. The pair then dragged the bodies out of the elevator before they and Orion stepped inside it and took it down.
[Play Star Wars The Phantom Menace OST Droid Battle 0:00 - 1:49]
When the doors opened, the three of them were greeted with a little more than they expected. Ten thugs were at the elevator entrance, and they all immediately noticed the group. The kubaz, duro, aqualish, trandoshan and selkath thugs immediately shot at them, while the kyuzo, karkarodon, devaronian, melitto and weequay all had their blades and shock batons in their hands.
The three quickly moved to the walls of their elevator, letting the blasters hit the back end of the lift instead of them. "Well, this isn't ideal." Orion commented.
"We're fine." Shu replied, before pulling out a thermal detonator.
"When did you get that?" Dusk asked.
"I pulled it off that trando from earlier." Shu stated before activating it and handing it to the Padawan. "Do your Jedi stuff, Orion."
Realizing what she wanted him to do, Orion used the force to move the thermal detonator out of the elevator while the group of thugs was still firing at them and moved it in the middle of the hallway that the group was in. The explosive went off and made the group take cover, giving the three inside the elevator the opportunity they needed to get out of it and move in. Dusk took point, activating his lightsaber and engaging the karkarodon and weequay, while Shu and Wradar opened fire, shooting down the selkath and duro, before taking cover behind a nearby crate when the trandoshan, aqualish and kubaz returned fire.
The karkarodon's stun baton was swiftly destroyed by the lightsaber, but he didn't back down, instead, choosing to lunge forward and try to bite Orion's head off. The Padawan backed up, but the karkarodon reached up and grabbed the boy by his robes to pull his head in. Dusk quickly used his lightsaber to impale the thug in the chest, seeing no other way to get out of that situation, then pushed the thug's dead body off of him, before blocking the weequay's stun baton. He then quickly slashed at the section of the baton that wasn't electrified and destroyed it, before spin kicking the thug in the head to knock him out.
The kubaz tried to shoot at the boy, but his blaster shot was deflected back at the thug and hit the kubaz's shoulder, knocking him down. As the trandoshan and aqualish began to shoot at him, Shu and Wradar poked out of cover and shot them down with their blasters. The kyuzo, melitto and devaronian charged at the three, with the melitto using an energy shield to block Shu's shots from hitting him, and the kyuzo using his durasteel hat to block Wradar's shots, before closing in with his blade. As that happened, the devaronian had a metal bat in his hands and swung violently at Orion. "You're gonna regret messing with the Black Heth!"
Dusk blocked the bat, but like the other metal weapons the group had, it didn't cut through. He kept his guard up and blocked a few more attacks from the devaronian, before parrying one swing and switching to offense. He repeatedly swung near the base of the bat, and after enough swings were delivered in the same spot, the bat gave in and was cut in two. The devaronian attempted to bull rush the boy, but Dusk used the force and pushed the thug to the wall hard enough to knock the wind out of him.
Wradar meanwhile was busy blocking the kyuzo's blade with his blaster, before shoulder bashing the thug away and taking a shot with it, knocking the blade out of the thug's hands and giving the wookiee an opening to shoot him in the gut, taking him out.
As that happened, Shu had pulled out a knife and engaged in close quarters combat with the melitto, who also had a knife. The two traded swings towards each other, each trying to get a hit in, but to no avail at the start. However the melitto outstretched his arm too far when going in for a stab, and that gave Shu the opening she needed to grab the thug by that arm and then stab the melitto in the chest multiple times, before kicking the thug down.
As the three were regaining their bearings, a human thug and selkath thug turned the corner and saw the three. The selkath took off in the other direction to alert the others, while the human took aim with his blaster pistol and shot at the three, nearly hitting Wradar. The wookiee retaliated by shooting back, blasting the human in the chest and taking him out. "Let's go." Orion said as he took point and ran in the direction the selkath went towards, with Shu and Wradar following him.
As they turned the corner, another four thugs were seen, all carrying blasters and the four of them opened fire at the trio. Orion used his lightsaber to block and deflect the blaster bolts back at two of them, taking them down, while Shu and Wradar each took a shot at the remaining two and nailed them in their chests. The four quickly ran down the hall and turned another corner, seeing the selkath quickly typing into a console that was connected to a cargo container. When the container opened, the thug ran inside. The three pursued and when they reached the container, they saw what the selkath was doing.
[Silence]
The selkath had a hostage held at knife point, but it wasn't just anybody. The person was a female mirialan, who had short hair and was wearing black pants, with a black and yellow long sleeve vest, and a brown cloth tied around her chest to cover it. Her mouth was gagged shut by a rope, and her hands were tied behind her back. She was on her knees and the knife was pressed against her throat by the selkath. "Back off, or the chick get's slit!" The thug threatened.
The three of them knew that this situation was going to be difficult. On one hand, Shu came here exclusively to get her sister out of here, with said sister being the hostage that was being threatened. On the other hand, Orion knew he wasn't fast enough to close the distance in time. So he deactivated his saber and raised his hands in front of him. "Alright. You win. We'll leave, as long as..." He slowly waved one of his hands in front of him. "You'll move your weapon away from her throat."
After a few seconds of nothing happening, the selkath spoke up. "I'll...move my weapon away from her throat." And then the thug moved the blade away. As soon as he did, the hostage knew what happened and took her chance. She jumped back and tackled the thug with her body, giving the trio enough time to close the distance. Wradar shoulder bashed the thug to the wall of the container and knocked him out, while Orion and Shu reached the hostage, ungagging and tying her.
Once her mouth was free, she spoke up. "Oh, hey sis. Who's your new boyfriend?"
"Not in the mood for your jokes, Mai." Shu said.
"Oh, come now. We're back together, and neither of us are hurt." Mai replied. "I'd say it's the perfect time for a quip."
"Maybe after, you're safely outside of the building." Orion commented.
"Oh, so wise words, from my Jedi knight in plain looking robes." Mai said. "Chivalrously storming this house of thieves, with his trusty wookiee companion."
"Why are you making this sound so fantastical?" Dusk asked.
"To lighten the mood." Mai replied. "I was kidnapped a few hours ago and used as leverage just now."
"...Alright. That is a fair point." Orion admitted. "I trust that you can walk on your own."
"Aw, not going to carry your damsel in distress?" Mai replied before standing up.
[Play Star Wars Attack of the Clones OST Obi-Wan Eavesdropping 0:00 - 2:15]
"I'm not done here yet." Dusk told her. "These thugs are receiving weapons from somewhere. Weapons that prove to be somewhat resistant to energy based weapons, including lightsabers."
"Ooh, fancy." Mai replied.
"I need to figure out where they're receiving these shipments from." Orion continued. "So I'm going to go either find a terminal that has that information, or go to those triplets that I heard about."
"Uh, not to say that you can't handle them or anything, but those 'triplets' are dowutins." Mai told him.
"He knows, sis." Shu said, before handing Mai a backpack.
"Wradar, stay with the sisters and see to their safety until they leave." Dusk requested. "After that, you can consider the life debt paid." Wradar replied to that in his native language before prepping his blaster and giving the Padawan a pat on the shoulder. The boy then turned to the two sisters. "Both of you vacate this building. Take the way we came. It should be the safest way back to the top level."
"What? Wait, why send us away?" Shu objected. "We got this far together. Why shouldn't we see this through to the end?"
"You came to get your sister. That mission is accomplished. There's no need for you to continue risking yourself. Better for you to take your sister and leave." Orion pointed out.
"You barely had any confidence in your own abilities up till now." Shu also pointed out. "Now you want to go and fight an even harder battle, by yourself?"
"You're right. I did have little confidence in myself, before." Dusk said. "But now, after what I accomplished here, I have faith that I can continue this mission on my own. Besides, my masters entrusted me to do this without them." He smiled at the three citizens before giving them a small wave. "Go and live your lives to their fullest." He then took off, down the hall and towards a room that he had yet to enter.
As Orion reached the door, he knew that barging in would be a dumb move. He then looked up and noticed a ventilation duct that looked to lead inside the room. He used the force to remove the vent shaft before jumping into the vent and crawling through it. It was a little cramped, but that didn't bother the Padawan too much. He shifted himself through the ventilation system, until he found another shaft and peeked through it. From there, he could see three dowutins, all of whom were wearing red metal plates on their forearms and shins, and standing in front of a console, speaking to someone that the Padawan could not make out. The dowutin in the middle spoke in galactic basic. "Men have been sent for shipment. Will meet you at landing platform."
"Understood. We'll be there by the hour. Use our material wisely." The person on the console replied with a slightly garbled voice, as if the person was concealing it on purpose.
The transmission soon ended, and the dowutin in the middle attempted to contact the upmost level, speaking in his native language first, but he got no response from the droid that was stationed there. He then spoke in galactic basic. "Top floor. Report." Still no response. He growled before speaking to the other two dowutins in their native language. The three seemed to be irritated and began to walk towards the door.
Seeing his chance, Orion quietly removed the vent shaft and dropped down behind the triplets. He made his way to the computer and began to type into it. As the triplets reached the door, one of them looked back and noticed the boy at the console. He nudged the other two and pointed at the Padawan.
[Silence]
As Orion was typing away on the console, he sensed something, and quickly turned around. He barely avoided getting grabbed by one of the triplets, and activated his saber, swinging at the dowutin. However the attack was blocked by the red metal plate on the dowutin's forearm. Dusk realized that this fight was going to be very difficult.
[Play Lego Star Wars The Skywalker Saga OST Race/Chase 0:00 - 1:06]
The dowutin went for a punch, but Orion backed away and swung at the dowutin again, but the dowutin blocked the attack with his armored arm and went for a counter punch. The Padawan ducked under the attack and went for another swing, but the blade was once again blocked by the armor, and the boy realized that this armor wasn't like the previous weapons. Whatever this armor was, it had a much more refined variant of the lightsaber resistant material, as if it was made purely out of the material. The dowutin quickly charged the boy and went to crush him with a jumping body slam, but the boy dodged out of the way and went to swing at the dowutin's back.
The Padawan was grabbed by the head from behind however and flung towards the wall, hitting his back against it hard before falling face down to the floor. The other two dowutins followed their brother to back him up, and all three of them cracked their knuckles and popped their necks, getting ready to clobber the Jedi that was messing with their operation.
Dusk pushed himself up and saw two of the three dowutins charged towards him. One went for a jumping slam attack while the other went for a shoulder bash. Orion tapped into the force and used it to increase his speed just enough to run under and past the dowutin that went for the slam attack, then jump over the dowutin that went for the shoulder bash. He then saw the third dowutin go to grab him, and he leapt out of the dowutin's reach. By that point, the other two already had their guards back up.
Orion landed on the ground, but one of the triplets quickly closed the distance and went for a swipe with his massive hand. The Padawan jumped over the swipe and went to slash the dowutin's head, but the attack was blocked by the dowutin's other armored forearm. The dowutin then swung that arm forward and backhanded the young Jedi away from him and towards one of his brothers, who got a hold of the boy with both of his arms and began to squeeze, attempting to crush the boy with his strength.
The Padawan could feel himself getting crushed, and struggled to break free, but the strength of the dowutin was too much for his human body and he was beginning to lose consciousness from the air being forcibly squeezed out of him. He tapped into the force to increase his strength, but all that did was just stall for time that he couldn't use to his advantage. He was about to black out.
[Silence]
As the triplets began to chuckle at the weakness of the Jedi in their clutches, they failed to notice the door to the room open up. As the boy was about to be crushed by their strength, one of the three got hit with a blaster bolt to the shoulder, making the one who got hit flinch, and the one who had the boy, drop him and look at who shot his brother.
[Play Star Wars The Clone Wars (2008) OST Train I 0:00 - 1:06]
"Nailed him!" Mai said as she had a blaster pistol in her hand.
"Gloat later, Mai." Shu said as she shot at the triplets with her blaster. The dowutins covered their faces and chests with their arms, shielding them with their armored forearms and letting those absorb the blaster bolts shot at them. "Focus on not getting squashed by these big idiots."
Wradar let out a roar before taking aim and shooting at the exposed hip of one of the triplets, making the dowutin flinch, before he got angry and charged at the trio. Mai and Shu ran in one direction, while Wradar leapt in another. The charging dowutin went after the wookiee who shot at him.
The other two dowutins ran after the sisters, but one of them was quickly kicked in the face by Orion, who was still continuous. The dowutin he hit then went to grab the boy again, but Dusk jumped up and went to slice the dowutin across the chest. The swing was blocked by the dowutin's armored forearms, but his legs were open. Taking advantage of what he saw Wradar do, Dusk thrusted his blade forward and stabbed the dowutin in the hip, pushing the blade all the way through and greatly wounding the dowutin, making him stumble back and fall down, putting his hands on his wound before blacking out.
Orion then heard Wradar roar out in pain, before seeing the dowutin that went after the wookie grab him and begin to squeeze. Wradar palm struck the dowutin in the face and ears over and over again in an attempt to get the dowutin to loosen up, but the big guy didn't budge, instead, headbutting the wookiee in retaliation, then squeezing harder. As Wradar let out another pain induced roar, Orion had closed the distance and drop kicked the dowutin in the face, making him flinch and drop the wookie, who pointed his blaster and shot at the dowutin multiple times in the chest, making the dowutin stumble back and eventually fall to the ground and black out.
Meanwhile, Mai and Shu both leapt in opposite directions away from the dowutin that went after them, avoiding a jumping slam attack and both retaliating by shooting their blasters at him. The dowutin blocked the attacks with his arm and leg armor pieces, which prompted Mai to pull out something. "Hey, big guy! Catch!" She threw a round object in her hands towards the dowutin, who caught it and looked to see that it was a primed thermal detonator. Before he could do anything with it, it blew up in his hand and face. "BOOM!" Mai called out before she and Shu shot at the stunned dowutin until he fell to the ground and blacked out.
[Play Lego Star Wars The Skywalker Saga OST Coruscant Jedi Council/Jedi Archives/Coco Town 0:00 - 1:52]
Orion helped Wradar up, before looking to the mirialan sisters and speaking to them. "I thought I told you to leave."
"Just when things were getting fun? Heck no." Mai spoke up.
"After helping us, there was no way that we were going to just leave you." Shu said to the Padawan. "We owed it to you to at least help you while we're still here."
Orion sighed before replying to her. "Well, I will admit, that help was appreciated. It looks as though these three were all that was left here."
"So this group is toast then?" Mai guessed.
"Not yet." Dusk answered. "Just before I engaged them, the triplets said that they sent a group out to receive another shipment from the arms dealers that they're working with." He looked at the console and saw that it was not destroyed during the fight. "Let's see where they're meeting these arms dealers." He approached the console and typed away on it, while Wradar, Mai and Shu were behind him, watching his back. After a few minutes of looking through the files, he found what he needed. "Landing platform 94. That's not too far from here."
"So that's where we're headed next?" Mai replied.
"Where I'M headed next." Orion stated. "While your help was greatly appreciated, I don't want you three to continue risking yourselves."
"There's no way that we're letting you go alone." Shu told him.
"I won't be alone." Dusk assured her, before getting on his commlink. "Master Drallig, this is Padawan Orion Dusk. Come in."
After a few seconds, Cin's voice was heard on the commlink. "I read you, Padawan Dusk. Were you successful on your mission?"
"Yes, Master. I successfully infiltrated the Black Heth's base of operations and discovered that the group is receiving shipments from a group of arms dealers on Landing platform 94. The two groups are going to meet up at that location within the hour." Orion reported.
"Understood. Make your way there. I'll send in a group of Padawans to meet with and assist you in seizing control of the landing platform." Drallig told him.
"Yes, Master." Dusk said before ending the transmission. "I'll have my fellow Jedi to back me up. Now, let's get out of here." He said to the three who helped him on this mission.
Orion took point and the others followed. The group eventually reached the top of the building and Dusk had called the local authorities to come and arrest any surviving thugs in the building. As he got into his speeder, Shu spoke up. "Hey!" She then tossed him something. He caught it in his hand and looked at it. It seemed to be an address. He looked at her, a little confused. "The address to me and my sister's place. Come by when we're done so we can thank you properly."
A little taken aback by this kind gesture, the Padawan responded to her. "I will. Thank you." He then started up his speeder and took off, going in the direction of his next mission, while Shu, Mai and Wradar got into a different speeder and went in the direction of the sister's address.
[Silence]
After about a half hour of flying through the ever so busy traffic of Coruscant, he soon reached the landing platform and landed his speeder on the furthest platform from where the thugs guarding the area were. Luckily for him, they didn't spot his approach. He took out a pair of macrobinoculars from the speeder and used them to survey the landing platform. There were a few cargo containers already here, but they seemed to carry food supplies and not weapons. Most likely the Black Heth were trading stolen goods to receive these weapons. He did a head count and noted that 15 thugs were here, 13 of which were patrolling around the section of the landing platform that he was hiding on, while two were waiting on the adjacent pair of landing strips across from him.
[Play Lego Star Wars III The Clone Wars OST Castle of Doom (Part 3 Calm) 0:00 - 0:54]
Soon a pair of speeders arrived at his location and quietly made their descent towards him. When the speeders landed, nine people came out of them. These nine were all Padawans, who were sent to back up Orion. He recognized all of them. A human male named Tae Diath, a female sullustan named Elora Sund, a male aqualish named Windo Nend, a male gand named Vaabesh, a female zabrak names Kass Tod, a female human named Aubrie Wyn, and then there was Zule Xiss, Mak Lotor and Serra Keto, who had worked with Dusk to inspect the lower levels before. "Okay. I knew that I was going to receive backup, but I wasn't expecting there to be ten of us in total, on this mission."
"We're dealing with enemies that have lightsaber resistant materials." Tae said. "Master Drallig thought it best to send a large group so we can watch each other's backs."
"What, like a Padawan Pack?" Zule replied. "I feel like this is overkill."
"I don't." Elora said. "Safety and strength in numbers."
"Yeah, but ten of us against 15 thugs and probably another ten arms dealers, is a bit much." Orion stated.
"It guarantees a necessary victory." Mak responded.
"Well, then this'll be over quickly." Aubrie commented with Windo and Vaabesh nodding to that.
Serra then noticed a few ships arriving on the landing strips across from their location. "Eyes up. I think the other party's arrived."
The group then hid as the pair of ships landed and out of them came people brandished in red metal armor, placed on their heads, chests, shoulders, forearms, thighs, shins and feet, with lightweight leather underneath the armor as an added layer of protection.
[Play Lego Star Wars III The Clone Wars OST Duel of the Droids (Part 2 Calm) 0:00 - 0:42]
There were at least 20 of these armored individuals, some of which had slightly thicker armor, but it didn't distinguish them. What did distinguish them was the weapons that some of them brandished. Six of them had custom blasters, while another six had batons made of the same metal as their armor. Four of them had maces that were made of the same metal, while one had a red sword made of the same metal in his hands. He was most likely the leader of this group, as he began talking to one of the Black Heth thugs that was there. As the exchange was happening, Orion used his macrobinoculars to see what was happening.
Kass then spoke to him. "What do you see?"
"I...can't make out their species." Dusk said. "They're completely covered in leather and armor. But they have to be the arms dealers."
"Ok. So what's the plan?" Daith asked.
"If we could place a tracker on one of the ships, then we could find out where these guys are delivering this material from." Lotor suggested.
"That could work. So then..." Orion saw the leader point in his direction. "Uh oh."
"What? What happened?" Sund asked.
"We've been spotted." Dusk said, as the Black Heth thugs on their landing platform were notified and began moving to the landing strip that the Padawans were on.
"Well then. We'll go with that tracking plan." Xiss said as she activated her blade. "We don't really have time to come up with any others now."
[Play Lego Star Wars III The Clone Wars OST Duel of the Droids (Part 2 Action) 0:00 - 0:32]
The rest of the Padawans each brandished and activated their sabers, before all moving down the landing strip they were on, engaging the Black Heth thugs. Six of them had melee weapons and engaged the group of Jedi up close, but were very quickly dispatched, as they were nowhere near as skilled as the Padawans were in close combat, even with lightsaber resistant weapons. The other seven Black Heth Thugs used their blasters and threw some grenades at the group of Jedi, which caused them to back off for a moment, before countering their ranged weapons with well timed lightsaber deflections, reflecting their blaster bolts back at them and taking them out.
[Play Star Wars The Clone Wars (2008) OST Going to Battle 0:00 - 0:42]
As the Black Heth was dealt with on their side of the landing platform. Three bridges began to extend from the other side, towards their side. "Well, that's ominous." Wyn said as the bridges were about halfway to their side.
"Split into three groups." Keto took command. "Diath, Sund, Nend, take the left side. Lotor, Tod, Vaabesh, take the right side. Xiss, Wyn, Dusk, you three, with me. We'll take the middle." As the bridges reached their side of the landing platform, the Padawans agreed to Serra's strategy and split up into the teams that she chose and went to the bridges that they were informed to take.
As the bridges locked in place, pairs of the red armored arms dealers with the long batons walked down the bridges, not even remotely nervous about the fact that they were walking towards groups of Jedi. One of them even spoke up with a slightly distorted voice. "I'm going to break you in half, Jedi."
"Well now, these guys are confident." Zule noted.
"Let's show them what happens when you pick a fight with the Jedi." Keto said, before she ran forward, with her group, and the other two groups on the adjacent bridges following her lead.
[Play Lego Star Wars III The Clone Wars OST Duel of the Droids (Part 3 Action) 0:00 - 1:30]
The red armored men with batons charged towards the Jedi, meeting the groups in the middle and engaging them in combat. However, they weren't alone. Three more pairs of red armored men supported the six from their side of the landing platform, each firing short bursts from their blasters in quick succession.
The armored baton wielders then clashed their weapons with the lightsabers and they didn't break. Unlike the weapons the thugs had, these weapons were much more refined and could easily withstand the Jedi's weapons. Orion engaged one of the baton wielders and attempted to do the same trick he did with the other weapons, striking at the same spot over and over again, but he soon realized that that strategy won't work here, as there was no visible effect on the weapon, even after striking the same spot dozens of times in quick succession. He went for the armored man's body, but the armor was just as resistant, rendering his lightsaber attacks useless.
The other Padawans began to struggle as well. Thanks to the repeating blasters from the armored men in the back keeping them from pressing their attacks, and the energy resistant armor of these arms dealers, the group of ten was struggling in this fairly evenly numbered match against non force users.
Serra, realizing that her lightsaber wasn't going to work, leapt up and over one of the armored men, getting behind him and locking her arm around his neck, pulling his body back. When the two armored men on the other side of the bridge fired on her, she shifted her body to move the armored man she held between her and the blasts, letting his armor absorb the blasts. She then leaned back even further until she was laying on the ground and had her feet pressed against the armored man's back. She then let go of her arm lock on his neck before pushing the man up high in the air with her legs, launching him off the bridge. As Keto pushed herself up off the ground, Xiss got in front of her and deflected another burst of three blaster bolts that was aimed at her ally.
Meanwhile, Dusk saw what she did and attempted a similar approach. When the armored man he was fighting missed a swing at him, the boy reached and grabbed the armored man by the collar of his chestplate and pulled him up close, before slugging him across the helmet, then backhanding him, before uppercutting the man into the air. He then grabbed the man by the legs and swung him to the ground, making the arms dealer land face first onto the bridge with enough force to knock him out. After that happened, he shook his hand in pain, because punching that metal multiple times with the same hand stung, but when the armored men with blasters tried to shoot at him, Aubrie got in front of him and deflected the blaster bolts away.
The Padawans on the adjacent bridges saw that they did and followed their lead. Tae dodged a swing from the armored warrior attacking him, then grabbed him by the collar of his chestplate, before pulling him closer, punching the man in the gut, then tripping him with a low spinning sweep kick, before quickly rising and kneeing the man in the wide while he was falling down, injuring him enough to incapacitate him. Windo avoided his attacker's swing, then did the same trick of grabbing the collar of the chestplate, before grabbing the helmet of the man he was grappling, then using his Jedi agility to hold himself up and balance on the man with his hand, before flipping behind him and drop kicking the armored man off the bridge. As the armored men with blasters attempted to shoot at them, Elora had their backs and deflected the shots away from them.
On the last bridge, Kass dodged her opponent's attack, then grabbed her attacker by the collar of his chestplate, before kicking him in the stomach. As the man reeled and leaned forward, Tod reached out and grabbed the back of the man's chestplate collar, before pulling herself over him, then using that momentum to swing the man's body over hers and slam him face down on the ground, knocking him out. As that happened Mak used the force on the armored man that was assaulting him to lift him up high enough for Lotor to dash behind him, before releasing him and letting him fall back down, so the Padawan could kick him hard in the back and incapacitate him that way. As the pair of armored men on their bridge shot at them, Vaabesh deflected the blaster bolts away.
[Silence]
Over on top of one of the landing strips, the armored man with the red sword noticed the tide of the battle shifting and got on a wrist communicator. "Pilots, start up and launch the ships. We cannot let the Jedi apprehend them. Warriors and soldiers, stall them until your last breaths." He drew his sword and waited at a corner, at the end of the landing strip he was on.
[Play Star Wars The Clone Wars Adventures OST Droid Programming Hard Loop 0:00 - 3:00]
The armored men with blasters all came out of cover and all fired multiple bursts from their rifles, but now that none of the Padawans were distracted with other people trying to swing at them up close, they could all focus on the blaster bolts, allowing them to deflect most of them back at their shooters, battering them with blaster bolts and making them all stagger until they were knocked down on their backs.
Taking advantage of the men's inability to fire at them at the moment, the groups of Padawans ran across the bridges and made it to the end that the arms dealers were on. When the men with blasters got up and attempted to shoot at them again, half of the Padawans used the force to pull the weapons out of their hands and towards them, letting the other half slice them up. The disarmed men weren't dissuaded however and all of them pulled out red metal knives, before rushing towards the group.
As that happened, four more slightly thicker armored men, all wielding maces, noticed the skirmish happening and got themselves in fighting positions, standing guard at the entrance to the landing strip where the armored man with the sword was at. Over at the other landing strip, the ship had taken off, as it finished its preparations needed to depart. As it left, the two Black Heth thugs that were there, as well as two armored men with batons ran down the landing strip, and noticed the Jedi engaging the arms dealers. The two armored men immediately went to support their comrades, and the two Black Heth thugs pulled out grenade launchers, looking to get some payback for the Jedi ruining their operation.
As the Jedi were dodging avoiding the attacks from the armored knife wielders, Mak noticed the four approaching them. "There's more coming!"
Zule then spoke up as well. "And one of the ships just took off!"
"Half of us need to hold these guys off, while the other half rush the other ship before it leaves!" Serra realized.
"I'll help rush the ship." Dusk volunteered.
"I'll go too!" Tae also volunteered.
"Count me in!" Xiss joined in.
"I'll help you out as well." Wyn was willing to help in the rush.
As Keto had her volunteers, she called out to the rest of the Padawans. "Okay, the rest of you hold the line here! Volunteers, let's go!" She and the other four then broke off from the fight and blitzed towards the four armored men with maces, engaging them. As they did so, she spoke up to Orion. "Dusk, go for the ship! We'll keep these guys occupied!"
As Orion realized why she wanted five of the Padawans to do this rush, he did as he was told and used the force to leap over the group of Jedi and armored men fighting, before making a beeline for the ship, pulling out a homing device from his belt and getting ready to throw it. As he reached the end of the strip though, a red blade was swung from around the corner he was at and nearly slashed at his face. The Padawan barely avoided the attack by leaning back and sliding on his knees to duck under the attack. When he got back on his feet, he saw the armored man wielding that sword quickly regain his bearings and dash towards him. Dusk raised his blue lightsaber and blocked the attack, clashing with the red blade for a brief moment, until the armored man used his strength to push the boy's blade and arms above his head, giving the armored man an opening to strike the Padawan in the nose with the pommel of his blade, before going for another swing, which was avoided with a quick backstep. The armored man did not give the boy time to rest however, and dashed in to continue his attack.
Back with the defending group of Padawans, Nend managed to duck under one of the baton wielding armored men, and grabbed him by the top and bottom parts of his chest plate, before throwing him towards the two Black Heth thugs when they shot their grenades at the group, blowing up the arms dealer instead. As four of the armored men had braced from the explosions, this gave Lotor and Todd openings they needed to strike the knife wielders in their exposed stomach areas, making them keel over. The last two knife users tried to attack Elora at once, but she used the force to push them to the Black Heth thugs, slamming their bodies into them and knocking out the Black Heth thugs. The two armored men grabbed the grenade launchers however and shot another pair of explosives at the group, making them leap out of the way of the explosive blasts. Vaabesh was then engaged by the last baton wielding armored man, eventually parrying one of his attacker's swings and grabbing the man by his the upper and lower parts of his chest piece and swinging the man's body over his, slamming it face up on the ground, before kicking the man hard in the helmet, knocking him out. Vaabesh did end up kneeling down and holding his leg in pain for a brief moment though, as that wasn't exactly the best place to kick an armored man. As he did that, Kass and Mak had closed the distance between the two armored men with grenade launchers and disabled those weapons, before stabbing both in their stomachs with their lightsabers.
Over with the attackers, Diath had avoided a swing from one of the mace users and grabbed him by the collar of his chestplate, but when he pulled the man close, the armored man headbutted him with his helmet, knocking the Padawan off of him. He pursued, but when he swung his mace, Tae managed to get his guard back up and block the attack. Aubrie was having similar trouble with her opponent, as the mace user fighting her had also pushed her away when she went to grapple him. She was forced on the defensive and pushed back until her back was against a stacked pile of crates. When the mace user swung at her though, she ducked under and let him get his mace stuck in the crate he hit. She went to attack him, but he let go of his weapon and blocked her with his arms, before grabbing her by the robe and tossing her away from him, so he could pull his mace out of the crate. Zule was on the offensive and swung at her opponent with no sign of stopping. She soon broke his guard, but when she struck his body, his armor protected him from the damage that a lightsaber would cause, but it didn't stop him from getting knocked down. When he fell back, Xiss moved to stab him while he was down, but the armored man managed to land a well placed kick on her shin, making the Padawan flinch from the pain long enough for the armored man to get up and shoulder bash her back, before going on the attack.
Serra quickly ducked and dodged her opponents attack, then when she saw her chance, she parried one of the armored mace user's swings and grabbed that arm, before turning her body and twisting that arm behind her back and over her head. She then swung the man's body over hers, making him land face first on the ground, but Keto made sure he would stay down and kicked him in the throat when he turned his body to try and get back up. As her opponent was down, she was about to help out the others, until she heard a slam come from the end of the landing strip and saw Orion's body hit the wall where he was at, then saw the armored man with the sword punch him in the face hard enough to knock the boy out. "Orion!" She called out, knowing he was in trouble and going after him.
[Play Star Wars The Clone Wars Adventures OST Speeder Bike Loop 1 0:00 - 1:18]
The red armored man with the sword let Dusk's body drop to the ground, but as he was about to grab it, he noticed Keto blitzing towards him, and he leapt out of the way to avoid her potentially tackling him. When she reached Orion's body, she was about to grab the homing device he had out, but quickly had to block the armored sword wielder's blade with her lightsaber, locking blades with him for a moment, before he pushed her off of him. He went to strike her again, but she slid under his attack and swung her blade to the back of his knees. The armored man managed to shift his legs enough to block the attack with the plates, but he ended up tripping from the force of the swing and he landed face down on the ground. Serra went to stab him in his exposed lower back, but he rolled to the side to avoid her attack and grabbed her leg, pulling her down to the ground. She kicked himself off of her, before both of them pushed themselves off the ground and swung their blades at each other, clashing again. As the armored man went to push her back, she leaned back with him, making him lose balance and fall forward. She moved out of the way and as he stumbled forward, she went to swing at his back again. The sword wielder managed to position his blade so that it would block her swing however, before skimming it up and past her lightsaber blade until it reached her shoulder pauldron, scraping that and almost slacking her face. She backed up after that, but the sword wielder immediately dashed at her and kicked her in the stomach, making her briefly finch and drop her guard, giving the armored man the opening he needed to grab her by the hair and headbutt her with his helmet, then punch her in the face hard enough to knock her out as well. As her body hit the floor, the armored man put away his sword, crushed the homing device they tried to put on the ship and grabbed both Padawans before the cargo bay doors on the ship he was guarding opened and he entered with them.
The armored man took their sabers, dragged their bodies into a small cell, then activated the ray shields. He then went to the cockpit and spoke to the pilot. "Are we ready to launch?"
"Yes. We're taking off now." The pilot said as the ship's engines activated and the ship lifted off the ground and into the air.
"Good." The sword wielder replied. "Remove as much evidence of our presence here while we can, then make for Obredaan."
On the landing platform, the other eight Padawans had regrouped and worked together to take down the last of the men on the platform, until they noticed the ship taking off. As Lotor noticed that Orion and Serra weren't on the platform, surmising that they were most likely taken or thrown off the platform, he pulled out a homing device of his own, but before he could throw it, the cargo ship opened fire on the group, making them leap out of the way and retreat from the ships cannons. The ship didn't stop shooting until all of the cargo and men that were on the platform were blasted and destroyed, removing as much evidence there as they could, before leaving the area as the local authorities were beginning to arrive from the sudden destruction.
As the smoke cleared, the other eight Padawans looked up in the direction that the cargo ship took off in, all of them realizing that they failed this mission.
[Play Star Wars The Clone Wars Adventures OST Republic Defender End 5 0:00 - 0:21]
The Cargo ship meanwhile, immediately made its way to Coruscant's orbit and reached the edge of the system. As it did, the pilot plotted the coordinates to their destination and prepared to make the jump to hyperspace, while the sword wielder in charge of this operation, spoke up. "The Jedi's ruination of our operation on Coruscant will not go unpunished. Our new prisoners will serve us well in paying back our lost resources."
"As slaves to sell, or as training dummies to beat?" The pilot questioned.
"The latter, then when they're too weak to fight back, the former." The swordsman answered. "Though considering they're Jedi, they will most certainly last longer than the last group did."
The cargo ship then jumped to hyperspace, taking Dusk and Keto away from their home and into the unknown.
[Play Star Wars The Clone Wars (2008) OST End Credits 0:00 - 0:45]
And that does it for this chapter of the Origin of Orion ark. So yes. Dusk goes after the Black Heth in a construction site with Shu and Wradar and rescues Shu's sister, Mai (pronounced the same way as Mai Shiranui from SNK or Mai from Dragon Ball) After that Dusk links up with Serra and the Padawan Pack from Legends continuity to deal with the arms dealers, who were all competent warriors, sporting cortosis armor and melee weaponry that proved annoying to deal with. Now the journey will continue off of Coruscant and continue in the next chapter. By the way, if you want to see pictures of Shu, Mai and Wradar, I have them on a DeviantArt. Just look up my Username and you should be able to find it. If not, then I'll add it to the links I have on my homepage. Anyway. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and until I decide to upload again. ;)