Chapter 6 - Dark Forces at Work in Ancient Places
"Lets go..." Valek said with a dark tone that spoke his displeasure with the circumstances. The trio began their long and careful descent toward the ruins. As the three reached the midpoint of the steep hillside, they heard a low humming sound behind them, the deep beeping of what sounded like a probe droid. With puzzled glances they waited for but a moment before the dark round machine crested the top of the hill and began to hover down toward them. However, before any of them could react to the sudden appearance, the droid added shock to surprise by suddenly opening compartments on either side of its large spherical body. From one port, a blaster emerged. From the other, what looked to Valek like the hilt of a lightsaber! His assumption was confirmed a second later as with a hiss the green energy blade extended forth. Immediately the two bounty hunters began firing their blasters at the droid, doing only superficial damage in their initial attacks. Sarin opted to hang back with them and ignited his weapon, in the event the sphere made it near, they would need defense against the lightsaber.
Chunks of blackened metal shattered outward as sparks flew, another blaster bolt impacting the droid as it continued it's relentless approach toward the trio. Ray'chish was just preparing to fire again when Valek stepped forward and lifted his hand, the droid was getting dangerously close and something had to be done. The ground before the three was torn into dusty chunks as auto-fire laser blasts were badly targetted by their foe a moment before the attack was released. Force lightning blazed outward from the Zabrak's fingers, striking the sphere and dancing all over it's surface. Smoking and showering sparks after the torrent of energy, it still was not enough to bring down the machine, Valek braced for the fight to come by settling into a defensive stance with his saber lifted. The bounty hunters were giving ground, moving around away from the Sith to avoid giving the sphere a clustered target, still firing, occasionally doing further damage. The sphere engaged the Sith, it's saber whirling in a blinding circle - too much for the wounded Zabrak to take, it slipped past his defenses after only a few parries, cutting solidly into his shoulder. Valek grunted in pain and backpeddled as a final blaster shot hit a vital internal component and the sphere dropped with a metallic thud to the dirt.
"I'm going to check it for parts we can use." came the synthetic voice from the mask Ray'chish wore. However, his approach toward the downed machine was abruptly halted as the sound it was making became clear to them all. The deep thrumming had become higher pitched ..and it was getting higher. "Run!!" yelled Kekku, though all of them were already well on their way to putting distance between themselves and the droid. A moment later the sphere exploded in a tremendous ball of fire, throwing metal shards everywhere, leaving only scorched ground and a column of black smoke rising from the crater.
Once the three had gathered themselves and Valek had bandaged his recent wound, they again began their approach to the ruins which were now very close. Hopefully they would serve as safe shelter for the night if nothing else. The ruins were clearly the remains of what had been a small town, evident that only the heartiest of structures had survived the bombing. The trio set their sights on the largest, a gutted four storie that would likely be the most advantageous to permit a defensable position. As it turns out, the local life of the planet felt the same way as from various windows on all floors of the building blaster rifles were aimed at the approaching strangers. At the last moment Ray'chish glanced upward and caught the movement of one of the snipers, yelling "Get to cover!" just as blaster fire began to cut through the air, most of the shots kicking up clouds of dust upon missing the group.
Either the Force was with them or their foes were simply untrained, their aim was lacking and Ray'chish was able to quickly move up the edge of the building. "Eat this.." he whispered and chuckled darkly to himself, setting the Thermal detonator in his hand, tossing it casually into one of the first floor windows. As the Kel Dorian sprinted away, the mutated human inside only had time to glance over as the sphere clanked against the wall and rolled across the floor. "Ahhhhh!!" he screamed, cut short by the massive explosion that rocked the entire structure. Fire and smoke shot from the first floor windows and holes, the whole building shuddering and groaning as inside, pieces of the roof on every floor came crumbling down on the others hiding about. For a moment it appeared as if the structure might collapse, but the dull rumble subsided. Meanwhile, Valek and Kekku were moving to take cover nearer the structure while Ray'chish had positioned to take further shots at the upper level snipers. As the Sith came near, he lept through one of the windows, saber flashing outward to behead his first opponent in one stroke. The man didn't have time but to gasp.
Meanwhile, Ray'chish was doubling back and to the other side of the building. Entering through a window, he would find Valek standing over the body of the gunman on the first floor - nodding his intent to go upward and clear the building floor by floor. Despite not actually planning the retaliatory strike - things fell nicely together as outside Kekku was still drawing the attention of the snipers at various positions within the building. With their focus on her, Ray'chish and Valek made their way up each floor, taking the attackers by surprise - cutting them down easily with blaster fire or a slash of the lightsaber. After mere minutes the battle was over and Kekku made her way up to join her compatriots on the top floor. Not a moment after her arrival though, from an as yet unexplored room on the top level - two women emerged, surprising the trio with the fact they held Felynish as a prisoner! They had little time to wonder over his survival before the situation would no doubt get violent once again.
Valek sensed the Dark side was strong in one of the two women. An attractive Zabrak female, she seemed confident and strong, holding a blaster at the head of the captive she was dragging along. The other, a Kel Dorian, who appeared unarmed - but as she shifted a glimpse of the lightsaber hilt attached to her belt confirmed his feeling. "We wish no further violence." began Valek, extinguishing his lightsaber and slipping the hilt back beneath the dark folds of his cloak. It occured to the Sith that no creature could actually "desire" to remain on this dead world. Surely, they sought more - especially the young one in touch with the Dark side. By joining forces with these two, who obviously had survived this world at length - chances of escaping this blasted rock would increase. "Join with us ...our desire is only to leave this world and we will take you with us if a way is found." Valek offered the bargain, which after some debate was accepted. Felynish was released and the group set off in the fading light to a secret location known to the two women where they could receive medical aid.
Just before dark the group arrived at the hidden bunker, entering under suspicious gaze, the guards looking the entire party over with obvious ill intent. However, a voice like gravel in a turbine set them at ease. "Let them come forth... I will see them." The sound came from a short being, wrapped in a black cloak, walking with a gnarled cane. "Yessss ...yess ...I am pleased you have arrived." came the voice again from under the dark hood. Valek at once felt the power of the Dark side in this small individual, even past the waves of it coming from all around him. "My apprentice brings welcomed guests." A stubby hand flashed out and a wave of the Force would send Felynish sprawling against the rear wall - a display of power, followed by dry humor. "Have a seat ...make yourselves comfortable." A crackling laugh followed as the hood was at last drawn back and the short mutated creature revealed its face. "Give medical care to the injured, then we will talk" it said with a faint smile, one red eye moving among them.
"I am Darth Mutanis ...and this is my apprentice, Torin" he remarked, motioning toward the Kel Dorian female. "This is Kazria..." he then motioned toward the Zabrak female. Valek bowed his head respectfully to the creature. "We seek your wisdom ..master." he replied with a polite tone. "Our ship crashed on this world and we seek a means to leave. Have you any idea where we might find a starship?" The short creature nodded slightly, glancing between the strangers, then allowing his gaze to fall on Valek entirely. "Yessss. I know of one place ...one place where you could potentially find a way to get back into space." Stubby fingers scratched his chin as he went on. "However, you must take my apprentice and Kazria with you... that is the agreement you must make to gain my knowledge." Valek nodded, "Of course, master ...as you wish." As Ray'chish and Kekku received medical aid, Mutanis outlined the location of another bunker to the east. After explaining all he knew of the location, the creature smiled. "The wastelands are deadly at night - you may leave at first light."
The next day the group set out across the wastes, fresh and ready to take on whatever might await them. Mutanis had only given very general information and they had no idea what might await them beyond the blast doors of the hidden base. A trek of several hours finally brought them to the mouth of the bunker - huge rusted doors lay before them. "I'll see what I can do about getting those open" said Ray'chish, moving over to access the long dead electronic panel. It wasn't long before the bounty hunter had the tremendous doors open and the party was making their way within. A small closet at the entry provided them a few extra supplies, including the some glow-rods to light their way. Descending into the darkness of the long abandoned complex, the group moved quickly but cautiously. After a few more "hot-wiring" jobs on entry-systems, the team at last made it to the back-up generator and determined that it could potentially still work well enough to restore some power. "I'll have this fixed in no time.." said Ray'chish confidently. That was just a moment before he was severely shocked by crossing incorrect wires. "Arrgh.." he groaned as he picked his tools back up and set back to work, successful this time. All over the complex systems whined to life, emergency lighting flickering on above them.
Moving forward the group found their way into a more protected area of the bunker. Unfortunately in reactivating the systems of the base - they had also managed to power up some of the security measures in tandem. As the team moved into a narrow hallway, the room before them was opened to reveal laser turrets at each corner, all of them active. Some opted to run across the room to the next door which Kekku had successfully opened before the lasers began targetting movement. Valek was the first to run into the next room, only to find ....four more turrets. Swiveling to fire on the Sith, his lightsaber was ignited quickly - deflecting the shots harmlessly away as he set out toward the nearest, determined to destroy it. Meanwhile, behind him in the other room - the group was moving to join him, taking shots at the turrets as they ran though. When at last they had all come to the next room, Kekku closed the door behind them.
What should have been a simple sweep forward was quickly turning into a bloodbath. Felynish proved to be the most unlucky of the group. As everyone else had managed to take only token damage running through the 2nd of the turret protected rooms, he was focused upon heavily. Several blasts to the chest and legs sent him sprawling, very evident that his injuries were severe. After several minutes of laying still, the Trandoshan decided it was time to make a break for it. Sadly, the laser turrets caught his movement quickly and fired another volley from every corner. He was dead before he hit the floor. Valek witnessed this and tried to pull him through the doorway with the Force to potential recussitation - but alas, the turrets sensed the target once again and tore apart what remained of his corpse, leaving only a smoking pile of Trandoshan bits.
While each member of the team was making their way forward, they were entering the third room to find strange maniacal droids trying to kill them. Three security droids, all firing wildly with their blaster rifles at the team, using their target assessment matrix to determine where to focus fire. Ray'chish caught a terrible blast to the leg, sending him reeling as he clutched at the mangled remains of his thigh. As Valek turned his attention to the droids, he was able to reach out with the Force and send one of them flying into another - crashing hard with a grinding metallic thud. The impact was enough to actually disintegrate one of them, leaving gears, shards of metal, and other random parts hanging in the air to be used as shrapnel against the surviving droid over and over. The bounty hunters and Kazria continued firing their blasters, taking large chunks out of the metal hide of the final droid. Valek was quite angry at this point and lept forward, slicing forth with his saber in a "Z" pattern to finish off the droid, leaving it to fall into three molten edged hunks. All among the party had been hurt and they had lost one of their number already.
Kazria did the best she could to patch up the team, but conditions for surgery were not exactly ideal. Despite her efforts, Ray'chish would lose his leg. The Kel Dorian bounty hunter though would not be stopped by this, ripping one of the legs from the droids to serve as a temporary crutch. Kekku and Torin also were badly hurt, but Kazria patched them up as best she could. Valek was only slightly injured and accepted no aid, knowing he could trance himself to recovery. "We'll have to stay here awhile. We can't afford to move forward with everyone in such bad shape." All agreed and the team ended up setting up camp for two days in the cramped area. Supplies were limited, time was limited, and the team was diminished significantly - Valek called upon the Force to determine their next move. "As soon as we're ready... we'll proceed this way" said the Sith, motioning toward the left doorway. What lay beyond would soon be revealed...