Zeldron started firing his blaster at one of the droids, but it was shielded...thinking quickly he threw a special grenade that neutralised the droid's shield. He then started firing his Mandalorian rifle at it, destroying it.
"Well, that was fun...", he said. Turning towards Zayne he said:"Hey Zayne, need any help?". Then he thought to himself:"It is kind of strange that there are only droids around here...maybe all the Dark Jedi were killed by Revan. Hey Dwain, wasn't there supposed to be a Sith Lord around here?", he shouted.
(Lolz, i thought we had separated and gone through the two paths.)
"Help? Of course i don't need any help!" Zayne laughed maniacally, still shooting at the droid even though it had already been destroyed. He then took out the katana he had grabbed nearby and threw it at the nearest light he could see, which fortunately, where the droid's glowing eyes, destroying it.
"Wow, i was just like psyched," He said, amazed.
"It seems the group is in battle," William whispered. "No use rushing in needlesly, they're grown up."
William then sat on the ground and began to meditate, "But perhaps I can aid them from out here."
The room was atlast ridded of the battle droids. All that was remaining was there metalic scrap corpses.
Dwain glanced back at the group.
"Lets keep moving to the Catacombs. Though we haven't encountered him yet, I think Reaper may be down below, waiting for us at the Super Computer. He may also not be alone..."
"And how do you know there's a Super Computer?" Zayne asked Dwain, kicking the droid hard, forcing the katana to jump and then somehow roll over his neck once before he put it on the holster, "That was totally random and pure luck," He said, quite disbelieving.
"More technically, I guess we defeated these trash compactors because they're primitive. And secondly, I know of the Super Computer because that Republic Embassy told us. You weren't there at the time..."
Dwain clipped his Lightsabers to his belts, and walked over to the next door.
"Point taken," Zayne, then starting to coff, "Geez, somebody should sweep this thing. It has probably 25000 years old dust."
Zayne then felt something wallow up on his throat, "Oh god. Excuse me for a moment," He told them, quickly running to an opening and throwing up at the ground, also throwing up the dust and dust balls that made him throw up.
'That Zayne is a bloody idiot...'
Natalie thought as she followed Dwain quietly, she wasnt surprised that the Sith were using droids, during the war Battle droids made up the bulk of their forces, while hard hitting Sithtroopers did the butcher's work, atleast they hadnt met any of those yet.
"Super computer.... I suppose I could try and slice into it and see what it knows... but if its of Rakatan design it might be alien to me." She said to Dwain as they were walking through the dark halls of the temple.
"...hmmm? Did you say something?" said Dwain a bit distractidly. That was probably not a good responce, especially when he is talking to a girl. "You okay there, Zayne? A bit fuzzy after killin' the droids?" he smirked.
They continued down the dark halls, when all of a sudden, Dwain's boot stepped on something. Something... gooey. He looked down to find a green, stickly puddle of goo.
"Ugh... what is this?" he lifted his foot immediatly, and wiped it on an edge of brick.
He then heard a screech, which sounded monstrous and insect like.
"Yeah, i'm better now. When we get out of this rock, we need to go some place more technological," He replied to Dwain as he followed the crew until a monstruous roar was heard.
"I think i'm having the proverbial bad feeling here."
Zeldron was lagging behind, as he was trying to guard the group's back. When he heard the monstrous roar, he sprinted forward towards the group. When he got to them he asked: "Hey guys, what the hell was that?".
"I don't know... I've got hunch though..."
Dwain stepped forward into the dark passage. He heard the screech again, which again gave him a fright.
He used his senses, and felt the presence of a huge infestation of very large insects.
His fears rose.
"Oh my god... this place is infested with Kretches..." he shivered as he said those words. He had an irrational fear of insects... especially carnivoruous one.
"You're as clueless as i am Zeldron," Zayne had told him.
"Kretches? Aren't those some insects or something? Should be easy, right?" Zayne asked Dwain, "I find it hard to belive that it wasn't a monster or something that made that roar but some bugs."
Natalie looked about.
'Never heard of it' She thought quietly
Dwain thumbled for his Blaster.
"Incase you don't know, I'll try to endure filling you in. Kretches are Scorpion-like insects which are quite as Carnivorous and brutal as Kinraths. Though they are smaller than Kinraths, they are just as deadly..."
He shivered, but tried to keep his "tough-guy-act" still on. It was no joke, he had an irrational phobia of any kind of insects... especially Kretches.
"B-but I thought K-kretches lived on Belsavis... they must have been shipped here or something! What? I'm not afraid... I'm just.... lets get back to work..."
"Come on now, there's no need to describe them like that," Zayne said, "I think you're just overreacting. There's no way it can be THAT deadly."
Zayne waited for an answer but instead just got Dwain trembling.
"Y'okay Dwain? You're trembling. ALOT."
"If they're close enough to kill us we're close enough to kill *them*" Natalie said confidently, keeping her rifle aimed forwards.
She broke in front of Dwain and took the lead, the area in front of them was pretty dark.
"Lets keep moving."
Zayne gave a grin at Natalie's display of courage, "Quite confident there Nat. It's nice to see," He said, patting Dwain on the shoulder, "Come on, put yourself back on. Surely the Republic expects more of a Jedi! Or ex-Jedi, or...well, what matters is you have a lightsaber and the Force."
"So yeah, i've got your back Nat."
"Kretches?! I've never heard of these critters", said Zeldron grinning. "Truth be said, the only place I've been exlcluding Dxun, is this chunk of paradise. Anyway, we shouldn't underestimate these bugs...even cannoks can be dangerous if you underestimate them!". After saying this, he went towards the back of the group:"I'm gonna guard your backs guys...as always. Now, lets get going."
Dwain slowly regained his courage, then moved forward. As he didn't quite fancy the idea of fighting bugs at close range, he decided to pull out his Blaster Pistol.
They moved forward into the darkening corridor.
"I have a bad feeling about this..."
The area became darker, and the scene around them was displaying strange growths on the walls, as if they were getting closer to a nest. The catacomb entrance wasn't far now. The area was so dark that Dwain had to use his Lightsaber as a torch to illuminate the darkness. The blueness radiated around the group, creating a pool of light in a sea of total darkness.
Dwain, being in a state of paranoia and fear, looked in all directions incase of anything unusual and fearsome. Cries and screeches from insects came in all directions.
Suddenly, Dwain heard a slithering... and it sounded pretty close. He held his Lightsaber near a wall, the ground and finally the ceiling. High above, was none other, than Dwain's worst fears; a group of Kretches bared their fangs at the intruders.
((I simply cannot be bothered describing what Kretches look like, so this is where "good-old" wookieepedia (
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Kretch) comes in. This is incase you don't know what a Kretch looks like))
"Dxun.... I remember that battle well.. lines of Republic soldiers charging a thin mandalorian line... by the end of the battle a mass pile of graves was dug for the Republic soldiers... not many Mandalorians fell." Natalie finished speaking and looked around, then looked up noticing Dwain do the same, before even giving the thing the chance to move she fired a shot at it causing it to fall off the wall with a great scream.
She then retreated back a few paces to get to safety around the others.
"Oh, lovely, a dark and wet corridor. How better can it get?" Zayne remarked sarcastically while walking carefully deeper into it. His hand slowly grabbed a firm hold of his katana's grip while the group continued walking. Dwain having a lightsaber was a real help for there, but Zayne didn't think it was enough, since they most probably were going to fight in the dark. Taking his hand of the grip of the katana and going to his back, he searched for his lightsaber, just in time to meet the Kretches' evil face.
"Great," He muttered, quickly taking it out and igniting it, a gentle teal light accompanying Dwain's darker blue lightsaber.
The Kretches climbed down the walls and began to surround the group. Dwain aimed his Blaster at a vicious insect and fired. The first shot only hit a leg, which made the Kretch angry. It ran to attack Dwain.
"Aaargh!" Dwain screamed like a girl, but managed to swipe his saber across the Kretch's head (through a mixture of fear and reaction).
Zeldron pulled out his Mandalorian Rifle and began firing towards the Kretches he saw. "Hmmm, didn't think there were so many of these insects around here...we must have stumbled upon their hive or something", he remarked while being amazed about Natalie's knowledge(sp?)of the battle of Dxun."Hey Natalie, how do you know about the details of the battle of Dxun?Were you or an aquintance there?", he asked curiously.
Zayne defended himself with his lightsaber from the Kretches' vicious attacks. While he himself wasn't a master duellist like a Jedi, he knew how to get around. He then grabbed his blaster pistol, rolled it on his finger and blasted at one of the insectoids.
"Keep up Dwain!" Zayne shouted at their leader, "I thought Jedi were supposed to be afraid of nothing!"
A Kretch then sneaked up on him by his back, biting his shoulder. Zayne yelped for a bit and then brought his blaster to shoot the bug in the eye and then turned to slash the insect in two.
"You watch way too many holovids, Zayne!" Dwain shot an on coming Kretch, baring fangs, in the head. "Besides, I ain't no Jedi!"
A Kretch leaped on Dwain and pinned him down.
"AAAARGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!" he screamed, when the Kretch open two of its jaws revealing sharp fangs. Dwain put the nozzle of the Blaster Pistol underneith the Kretches head, pulled the trigger and the head blew off. Green, ozzy blood spilled all over Dwain.
"Ugh... and the after taste!"
"You've got the wrong man my friend," He told him, kicking a Kretch onto a wall, then hearing his other comment.
"Oh yeah? Then," Zayne said, crouching, leading to two Kretches crashing face-first into each other as he then back-rolled and kicked them in the head, "What's with the Lightsabers?"
"Stay strong guys" Natalie shouted, noticing Dwains slumped leadership and worry.
She fired a volley of shots at a few kretches, and then took out a stun grenade.
"Close your eyes!" She shouted as she rolled the *very* short fused grenade towards the kretches....
Dwain did as Natalie instructed. He closed his eyes and he bang of the grenade was loud. The flash of the grenade stunned only a few of the Kretches, and suddenly Dwain noticed a few of them running to the temporary flash, as if they were attracted to it.
"Wait a minute... thats it!" Dwain shot the stunned Kretches, and pulled out a flash bang grenade.
"Everybody pull out a grenade. Something offensive, better than a Frag Grenade..."
He threw the Flash Grenade down the corridor. Blinding Light filled the area down the corridor, which attracted most of the Kretches. Dwain pulled out a Plasma Grenade and threw it at the group of Kretches.
Zayne sweat-dropped, I wonder if they only went against us if they were attracted by the lightsabers or felt threatened, He thought.
"Oh well," Zayne sighed, quickly getting out a cryoban grenade and throwing it in conjuntion with Dwain's plasma grenade.
"Phew, almost threw the thermal detonator," He said, then noticing the cryoban grenade still in his hand and then looking forward to see the gray-toned grenade.
"Oh crap."
Dwain stared at Zayne, as if he made the most idiotic mistake he's ever done.
"You stupid, son-of-a-b---"
The combination of a Plasma Grenade and a Thermal Detonator had caused a massive explosion which had knocked Dwain on his back. As soon as he got up, the Temple began to rumble. The rock ceiling collasped, and the wrecked stone caused dust in the air. The Kretches have been most liely eradiacted.
As the dust cleared (and to his relief) the corridor hadn't been fully sealed over by rubble. There was a gap big enough for the four of them to squeeze through.
"Lets continue, we're almost there..." Dwain crawled though the gap and pulled out an open hand to anyone coming through the hole.
Natalie stood up, and took Dwains hand as she climbed through the hole.
"We cant offord anymore careless mistakes, Thermal Detnators have extremily bad effects on buildings and foundations, if we're not careful anymore might collaspe it, this temple is thousands of years old I guess, we must be careful."
She lectured, and then moved on.
Zayne very lazily and hurt got up from the blast which was created quite an effect. They should use that more often on better situations. Zayne then suddenly slapped himself, For the next 5 minutes, slapping myself hard shall do well, he thought.
"Hey Nat," He said in the pause of a slap, "Tell me something," Another slap, "I don't know." He then jumped athletically, rock by rock and slapping himself until he needed help to climb.
Dwain tried his best not laughing when Zayne slapped himself. They continued down the dark empty corridor. The blast must have scared the rest of the Kretches... or perhaps exterminated.
They came to a halt at a stone door. Dwain opened it, and it revealed a downward passage most likely leading into the catacombs.
"Lets move!"
He ran down the passage, and halted at yet another door. He opened it, and it revealed a rather strange room.
The floor had some kind of tiles laying on the floor; three x-axis and y-axis, forming a square. ((sound familiar anyone?))
"What the hell is this?" Dwain stood on one of the tiles, and a few of them lighted, forming some kind of pattern.
"Is this some kind of weird way of confusing us?" he scratched his head.
"Oh please," Zayne said giving himself his last slap, "Just forget the tiles and walk over them," He told Dwain, going over the middle column of tiles and then touching the door...
Nothing.
"Okay," He said, then tapping on door, "That won't work so," He got out his blaster and shot at the door but the shot just simply disintegrated when touching the door.
"Alright, we have a puzzle. Never was good at those. Ugh."
Natalie observed all of the tiles closley, and then looked at the surroundings.
"Pattern of some sort?" She asked, she then glanced to the walls, looking for any sort of image or pattern to lead them away....
"You take too long," William spoke in their minds. "Hurry in and hurry out, the longer you stay the more dangerous it becomes, I am growing uneasy as it is becomeing harder to sense your presence."
"What the?..." Zayne muttered, "Must be the place. So, anyway, we've got a 9-tiled square on the ground. My guess is we need to do some sort of pattern like Nat said to open the door or something. Now, pattern, pattern, pattern, pattern," He mumbled while going through the tiles, only then noticing some of them lighted.
"Did you all see what i saw?"
"hmmm... I hate these situations with stupid puzzles!" Dwain stepped on the light-up tiles, while Jason was on it. He paces one some of them, until the pattern formed a "H". Dwain heard a click from the locked door.
"Huh? Err... I think we did something..."
(ZAYNE! Not Jason.)
"You're not the only on-" Zayne said before being cut off by the loud sound of a click from the door.
"Huh? Err... I think we did something...", he heard Dwain say.
Zayne noticed all the tiles going from orange to blue at the same time the click was heard. He went to the door and pushed it, leaving it open.
"Well, whatever we did, we got a way in."
"Well, now that we've solved that problem, let's get in and see what's so special about that computer everyone's talking about", said Zeldron, coming from the back of the group.
Zeldron was right. "The more we wait, the less time we have" was one of Dwain's philosophy... as with others revolving around women.
Dwain unclipped his Lightsabers, and walked to the door. He opened it...
Before his eyes was a large, dim lighted room. In the center was an ancient Rakatan Computer Terminal. But in front of the rusty machine was three cloaked figures. They turned around to face the intruders.
The center one pulled back his hood to reveal the face they had encountered on the Hospital Space Station. Reaper.
"I had not expected you to come this far..." he said in the cold voice.
Zayne was cautious. He knew they were in the presence of evil. Whether it was the minion or the master, it didn't matter for this one alone was enough to kill them. And he himself had two other minions. Obviously, they all had Lightsabers. Zayne slowly grabbed onto his saber hilt and just let the encounter develop, slowly...
"Perhaps now would be a good time to fight," William said as he emerged through the doorwary. "When I couldn't sense your presence anymore I followed you in... guess I was right to do so."
Turning to face Reaper William said, "So your the bothersome thing I sensed repeatedly. I hope you aren't annoying like the other Sith that I've faced, you know, going on and on about the dark side and the power."
Zeldron glanced at Reaper and said:"So this is the all-mighty Sith Lord everyone's been talking about, huh?! Hmph...doesn't look like much to me. Prepare yourself for battle, Sith!", he said boldly.
Idiot, Zayne thought, There is always more than meets the eye.
"Yo Will, while you couldn't have come a at a better time, you could have helped a few minutes back," Zayne told the newcomer to the room, still waiting for a response from the Sith.
"Usually I won't give help unless you truely need it. You can take care of yourself and besides, you became stronger when you dealt with the problem on your own."
William began taking out his dual lightsabers and spoke to Reaper, "I don't like fighting, so lets try not to leap into battle like the Mandalorian would and resolve this with words, though I doubt it to be possible... and no offence Zeldron, but I don't like cocky people."
William's words reminded Zeldron of a training session he had on Dxun when he was younger. He was battling all sorts of wild beasts and was killing them with relative ease. He was confident after killing a bunch of maalras and despite orders to return to base, he went in search of a zakkeg, a large beast that if killed would bring great honor to a Mandalorian. When he actually faced the zakkeg, his pride and arrogance got the better of him and he was overwhelmed. Luckily, his trainer had come in search of him and saved him from certain death, before scolding him: "Idiot!! What the hell were you doing out there? You almost got yourself killed!! Never get into something you can't handle! NEVER! And don't underestimate your adversary just because he doesn't look like much...that's gonna kill you!". Turning back to the present, Zeldron shook his head and thought:"I am still young...and have much to learn".
He then turned towards William and said:"Well, cocky or not, Sith aren't known to be very open to negotiations and these don't look any different."
((Sorry for the flashback...I felt I needed to add something to Zel's background :D))
(Sorry for being away, and no worries JK24)
Natalie stepped out from the corner, and a smile broke across Reapers face.
"We meet again girl... if only your friends... knew what you truly were" He gloated.
Natalie looked at her party members... hoping they would just ignore it.
(Hint hint people :P)
"Well then what are you, omnipotent or something? Or just simply arrogant since you seem to have Lightsabers or perhaps three, none of the above?" Zayne told William, losing his stance and looking at him dumbfounded when he was interrupted by something Reaper said, and although he didn't heard it very well since he was talking to William, it seemed to be directed to Natalie.
"You know," Zayne said, taking a step forward and grabbing his Lightsaber, throwing it in the air, "This is getting boring. Why don't we-" He continued as the Lightsaber then fell as he grabbed it and igniting it, a calm teal blade illuminating the room, "Take action?"