Eh, it's kinda-sorta-not really long. 2,000 words. Not the longest I've written, but...
Anyway, here it is.
Sorry, couldn't work a hug in there, though :xp:
- - - - -
---Chapter Sixteen---
“Our employer wants things done quietly and efficiently.”
Carth barely heard the words from where he stood in the shadows. Having activated his stealth field, the Admiral hung back and surveyed the situation.
Mandalorians and miscellaneous bounty hunters ringed the room, most covered head-to-toe in body armor, weapons out and glinting. Bastila was captured, and Revan had, for the moment, laid down his weapons in response to the apparent leader’s threats. But there were so many of them…Revan wouldn’t dare do anything that put Bastila in danger, he knew. And there was no way that a lone Republic officer could defeat the small army on display here. Think Carth, think! There just had to be a way.
~*~*~
As the Exile, Atton, and Mira slipped out of the cantina, they failed to notice the stealthed figure watching them. His eyes glinted as they passed, not failing to take in Mira’s shapely form. Even so, as they proceeded, he spoke into the comm. that lay in his hand.
“His companions are on the move.” the man said, “They’re headed north east. I’ll tail ‘em into the West Courtyard, but you sure as hell had better be waiting. This job must be totally finished. I hate loose ends.”
~*~*~
“So then you’re the great Revan.” the head Mandalorian murmured, the barrel of his blaster pressing under the Knight’s chin. “I’d think that the most well-known warrior in the galaxy, the one who defeated even us, would be a bit more intimidating than this.”
“It would, of course, be more helpful if you didn’t hide behind hostages.” Revan said, his voice edged and his eyes flashing.
“Bastard!” the Mandalorian said, and a moment later, the butt of the blaster crashed into Revan’s jaw. The Knight’s head snapped to the side momentarily, but quickly came back to the T-visor. Revan spat out the small bit of blood that had gathered in his mouth as if it were no more than spit, his eyes glaring daggers at the man.
“I hope that wasn’t supposed to intimidate me.” he said. He could sense the man frown under his helm.
Seconds after the Knight’s statement, a shot rang out.
“Hey, watch those…” the leader turned around in time to see the mercenary who was holding Bastila crumple to the ground, a blaster wound in his head. “Blasters.”
Revan didn’t waste a moment. Now that Bastila was no longer in the hands of a merc, the two could get of this situation. Alive, hopefully.
He used the Force to knock the guy holding their sabers to the ground, simultaneously pulling the silver tubes from his jacket and catching them easily, tossing the longer one to Bastila. In seconds, the mercenaries’ blasters loaded as the snap-hiss of the two double-bladed sabers activated.
“Now then,” Revan said, moving so that his back was pressed up against Bastila’s, he jeered the mercenaries, “Perhaps its time to show you the reason why we’re the most renowned Jedi in the galaxy.”
~*~*~
“Sir, we have a bit of a problem.”
“Problem?” the man hissed into the comm. as he discreetly tailed the Exile and his companions. “What problem?”
“The Jedi got out of our trap. We’re holding them for the moment, but our guys are getting cold feet.”
“Damn it.” he hissed.
“What was that, sir?”
After a moment of biting his lip, the man said, “Keep fighting them, though if they kill many more I want you to break rank and let them reach the surface. We’ll be waiting for them. Am I understood?”
“Crystal, sir.”
“Good.” with little more than that, he cut the communication, and switched frequencies. When the man on the other end answered, he said, “I want our men at hanger 31A immediately. We’re falling back on Plan B.”
Once the affirmation was given, he turned off the comm. and slipped it back to his belt, watching the Exile enter the hangar.
I’ll have you yet.
~*~*~
After minutes of fighting, Carth was finally able to slip from his sniper position and join Revan and Bastila. Blasting his way through the mercs, he reached them and pressed his right shoulder against Revan’s and his left against Bastila’s. As he continued to empty rounds, he murmured what information he had to them.
“From what I can see, the hallway back is clear straight up to the sub. If we can reach it before them, we’ll be home free.”
“Unless they have their own submersibles.” Bastila pointed out as her twin blades whirled.
“Point taken.” the pilot answered, one of his blasters kicking back as another mercenary fell.
“Still, it’s the only chance we have.” Revan growled as yet another man joined his comrades on the ground. “On my count, break and run. Ready…One…Two…”
Carth took a deep breath to steady himself.
“Three!”
~*~*~
“Is Revan back yet?” Elron asked as he entered the Hawk’s main hold, where Briana was still diligently reading.
“No,” she said as the datapad winked out, and she stood. Her face was a mixture of confusion and worry, “Should he have?”
“He said he’d meet us here at this time.” he replied, moving to a console as Atton and Mira entered.
“They’re not back yet?” the bounty huntress asked.
“Apparently not.” the Exile murmured back.
The console he was working at emitted a series of beeps as he toggled with the keys. “Revan?” he said, directing his voice at the receiver embedded in the metal, “Revan, this is the Exile. Please respond.”
After a moment of fuzz, he slammed his fist down. “Damn it. They’re still out of range.”
“What do you mean still out of range?” Briana asked, “How long have you been unable to contact them?”
“A long while now.” Elron said, toggling the frequency and the distance. He tried again, with the same result. “I don’t get it! The Hawk can send transmitions between planets, but we still can’t get them!”
“I don’t think that it’s so much they’re out of range,” Atton murmured, “As the signal can’t reach them. Wherever they are, there’s something that’s jamming their comms.
“Bweep deet WHAAAAAIO!!!”
“Now what is the bucket of bolts on about?” the Scoundrel growled, turning to see T3 careening into the room.
“He says we got company.” Elron said darkly, and went to the cockpit. Glancing quickly out the viewscreen, he swore under his breath. “I was afraid of this.”
“What is it?” Mira asked, following him in.
“Mercenaries. And a hell of a lot of ‘em.”
~*~*~
“Are you sure none of them are following us?” Revan asked Carth, nervously glancing at the waters enveloping the sub. “No cloaked vehicles? No ‘dead-in-the-water’ subs?”
“There’s nothing, Rev.” Carth reassured him. “I’ve been scanning the waters constantly, and nothing’s come up. Trust me, I have an intuition on this sort of thing.”
“I hope you’re right, Carth.” Bastila murmured, “For all our sakes.”
Sure enough, their submersible came by no distractions as it made its hasty assent to the surface. They docked quickly, and ignored the questions directed at them by the port officials, and practically ran back to the docked Hawk.
“Elron? Handmaiden? Anyone? It’s Revan. We’re back on the surface and we’ll be at the ship in a matter of minutes.”
“Revan? Force, I thought we lost you.” the voice of the Exile filtered through the comm. “Though while it’s great to hear your voice again, you might want to make those minutes into seconds. We got trouble here. Those mercenaries that were after you had some friends up here on the surface. They decided to come and see if we could play.”
“What?? Where the hell are the Selkath security?”
“No idea, but they’re not here.”
“Damn it. Alright, we’ll be there as soon as we can. Keep the blaster turrets on the ship warm and take out as many as you can. We’ll need a clear pathway to the loading ramp too, if you can manage it.”
“Way ahead of you, sir. Elron out.”
“You heard the man,” Revan said, pulling his saber from his belt and replacing the comm. “Let’s get a move on. We don’t want to miss all the fun.”
~*~*~
“Here they come!” Briana shouted up to Elron, who was currently mowing down mercs from the main turret at the top of the ship. “The cavalry has arrived, make sure they’ve got room to work!”
“Easy for you to say!” Elron shouted back, jokingly. Though the constant jolting of the gun was beginning to give him a headache. “Get the loading ramp down! I’m not really doing much with the turret anymore. We’ll cut a path for them from the ramp!”
He jumped down from the turret, landing crouched like a cat. “T3, keep those secondary turrets running for me!”
There was a beep of response, and the Exile and Handmaiden jogged to the loading ramp, where Atton, Mira, and the others were already blasting away at the mercs.
“Glad you decided to join us.” Atton said, his twin blasters kicking back as he delivered a devastating charged shot. “Took you long enough.”
“Couldn’t leave you to do a job like this,” Elron said, using the Force to push a particularly heavy container on top of a man, “Who knows if it would get done or not?”
“Enough chit-chat, guys.” Mira said, launching off a rocket, “In case you Jedi haven’t noticed, we got a group of five guys coming up on the right. Another five on the left too. Think they’re trying to flank us.”
“Leave the left to me.” Briana said, her saber igniting as she ran to take on said mercenaries.
“Then it looks like I get the right.” Elron murmured, activating his own weapon. He crashed into the first man, his saber slicing clean through his elbow before piercing his chest. The Exile spun round, Force-pushing a merc hard against the hull of the Hawk, and decapitating another. A fourth fell beneath a blast of the ship’s turret, and the fifth to Elron’s flurry.
He turned his attention back to the main group of mercenaries, and watched as several snipers trained their sights on Carth Onasi as he fired off a continuous stream of shots. “Carth!” he called, but his voice didn’t carry over the blaster fire. He glanced around, and saw Briana sprinting towards Revan and his party. She leaped over their heads, and landed in front of Carth, as if to block the shots of the snipers with her own body. At first, Elron didn’t worry. Her Echanii dueling shield was active, and it would withstand the sniper shots. But as he watched, his heart nearly stopped. The pulsating blue field that announced her Echanii shield flickered and died. Its battery had been outlived.
“Briana!! Your shield!!” he cried, and almost as if they were waiting for the sound of his voice, the mercenaries released the shots. His breath caught in his chest as his apprentice deflected most of the shots…but there were two more shots than she could handle, and he watched her crumple to the ground.
He started to run over to them, but saw Carth pick her up, and begin to drag her along as he, Bastila, and Revan dashed for the open ramp. Instead, he ran into the ship, and stood at the top of the ramp and waited for them to get there.
“C’mon, everyone inside!” he said, “Atton, get the engines fired up and ready! We’re leaving as soon as they set foot on the deck!”
A minute after saying this, Elron helping Carth to get Briana on the ship, and shutting the loading ramp as blaster bolts continued to fly at them. “Punch it Atton!!”
The Hawk gave a lurch forward, and they were gone.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a240/BastilaRevanforever/more%20stuffs/23ebea02.gif)