Unite: Chapter Three
The world of Shili is devastated. The vegitation on the ground is scarce. Remnants of settlements are all that is left.
P'yativ's ship quickly dropped out of the sky and landed with a light thump. He jumped out the instant the ship touched down and began looking around, taking in the scene.
Alina landed next to P'yativ smoothly and slid from her ship, landing in a crouch with her lightsaber out already. She stood and walked over to P'yativ. "Looks really dead around here." She looked up at the clouds, which were swirling violently.
P'yativ cape caught the wind as he strode resolutely towards the most devastated looking direction. "They're going to pay for killing living beings," he promised ominously. "Let's go, now."
Picking her way carefully over the destruction,
Alina looked at the devastation while she walked. "Don't walk so fast, P'yativ. My legs aren't as long as yours." She hurried after him, practically running to keep up.
P'yativ did not slow, he even sped up as he fought an internal battle, struggling to regain himself. He felt the strange pulse of anger, felt it sharpen his focus, and give him and iron control over the force.
Alina quickly leapt and moved in front of P'yativ. With effort, she put her hands up and stopped him, using the Force to prevent him from walking further. "P'yativ?" she asked quietly, uncertainly.
P'yativ glared at Alina and gently yet with the suggestion of an untapped strength behind it, moved her aside. "You're slowling us down," he said in a deep, quiet voice. He swept past her, his right hand hovering over his lightsaber and twitching with every few steps.
With a growl that was more feral than anything she had ever uttered,
Alina's twin lekku twitched as she shot her power at P'yativ, freezing him in his tracks with a mental suggestion. "Stop! We can't just barrel in and try to stop it. We don't even know what
it is! We need a plan. We need information. We need..." She looked around quickly and spotted the signs of a settlement to the north. "To go there," she said, pointing the settlement out to P'yativ and releasing him from her grips.
Surprised by the Alina's sudden tenacity,
P'yativ jerked, eyes wide as if awakening from a trance. He shuddered and drew an unsteady breath, then released it and his shoulders slumped. "I'm... sorry," he said looking at the ground. "I just get..."P'yativ shook his head and did not go on.
Resisting the urge to roll her eyes,
Alina grabbed P'yativ's hand and started in the direction of the settlement, effectively pulling him behind her but not looking at him. "Don't worry about it. I studied at Almas. I've been in the grips of the dark side before." She grew quite and slowed slightly, her head down. "It's nothing to worry about if you have the power to control it."
"Then I should worry about it,"
P'yativ joked humorlessly, a bit of his normal self returning. He fell quiet again but moved up to walk at the same pace as Alina.
Alina glanced over at him, her eyes locked on his face so she wasn't watching where she was going. Stepping in a hole, she tripped and barely caught herself before sprawling on the ground.
P'yativ roared with laughter until there was no more air left in his lungs and he could only shake noiselessly and gasp for breath. Recovering a bit, he knelt down next to Alina and grabbed her under the arms and hefted her to her feet.
Alina made a noise somewhere between a whimper and a groan. "I'm sorry. I didn't...I mean...I'm just a little..." She trailed off and looked at the ground. She took several steps away from him. "I have to be the clumsiest Jedi ever."
With an apologetic grin,
P'yativ began walking again. "Your not clumsy, just distractable," he suggested with a chuckle.
Alina looked over at him and stopped walking. With a shake of her head, she continued towards the settlemtn. "I'm clumsy. Always have been. But we've got to keep moving."
"That would be easier if you watched where you were going,"
P'yativ pointed out, playfully punching Alina's arm.
Alina stumbled slightly, then looked over at P'yativ. "Watch this," she said simply, then took off at a run quicker than most anyone could keep up with. She arrived at the village well ahead of him and stood there, breathing deep.
P'yativ caught up to her but his smile faded quickly as he looked about the destroyed and smoking ruins.
A figure came from one of the buildings. He was tall and wore several lightsabers on his belt. He eyed the two padawans. "Hmm...I thought the academy was through sending younglings out,"
Daj'Raen said with little humor in his voice.
P'yativ sized up the man with a cautious smile. He gave a short bow and introduced himself. "I am P'yativ and this is Alina," he said motioning at her. "And you would be?"
Alina stepped behind P'yativ, uncertain of the man in front of her. She sensed the good in him, but also sensed the conflict within.
"I am
Daj'Raen, and also not your concern." He looked at the buildings. "If you seek the Togruta, I suggest you start underground. You won't find any on the surface" With that he melted back into the shadows, disappearing once again.
Alina put one hand on P'yativ's back. "That was odd," she stated.
P'yativ stood still, with a frown on his face. Finally he turned to Alina with a smile and said "I didn't like him," while jerking a thumb in the direction he had disappeared into. "Let's look around. Maybe his advice has some merit..."
Alina walked into one of the buildings. It was dark and shadows were cast everywhere. "I don't like the look of-" she started saying when she took a step on a rug and fell through the floor. "Ow!" was her startled cry as she landed in a heap a good six feet under the floor. "P'yativ! You have to check this out!" she yelled above her. "This has to be the greatest tunnel ever!"
P'yativ bent over the pit and gazed down on Alina with a smirk. "That's quite a spill you took there..." Then he leapt down and landed gracefully beside her.
Sitting up and looking at him, yet still not standing,
Alina pulled out her small handheld light and shined it down the tunnel. "You think anyone is down that way?"
"Not for long,"
P'yativ said casually as he pulled out a frag grenade and hauled back his arm, preparing to hurl it down the tunnel.
Alina gasped before yanking the grenade from P'yativ's hand and throwing it outside. "What are you thinking?!" she asked. "There could be
natives down that way!" She stared at him as if he had lost his mind. "Learn and then act."
P'yativ tilted his head and laughed with mischevious eyes. "I was just kidding, silly" he needled as he snatched the light from Alina. "Let's go!" he called grinning while he walked down the tunnel with a bounce in his step.
With a sigh,
Alina pulled out her extra light. "You know, you are going to be a handfull."
"Aren't I already?"
P'yativ joked. "Besides, you're the one tripping over holes and falling down pits. How am I going to cope with
you?"
A sound echoed down the tunnel from the direction the two Padawans were headed. The clank of two droids walking. A staticy voice sounded. "The ships landed near your position. Find them!" Another voice sounded, This on with a droid accent. "Roger roger."
Alina glanced over at P'yativ and hurried over to him, turning her light off and pulling out her lightsaber. "Now would be a good time to use a grenade," she whispered.
P'yativ stifled a laugh at the irony and unclipped another frag grenade. He engaged it and floated it quickly down the tunnel using the force, it's red light blinking dimly as it went farther from them.
Without hesitation,
Alina sent a force wave outward, setting the grenade off. The sound of disintegrating droids assailed their ears as Alina ignited her lightsaber and ran into the smoke and debris.
P'yativ merely followed at a brisk walk, using the force to push the smoke aside as he scanned the ground for the droids' communicator.
Alina stooped down as she spotted some droid parts. She investigated and found battle droid bits scattered everywhere. A few paces further was a definate staircase. "P'yativ?" she said quietly, trying not to be too loud. "Come and listen to this." Coming from the stairwell was the sound of moaning and crying.
Having found nothing but shards of metal,
P'yativ abandoned his search. He turned and swiftly moved to Alina's side, looking down the stairwell and feeling pained ripples in the force.
Alina led the way down the stairs. Several battle droids stood around a group of Togruta captives. Men, women, and children huddled in a group in the middle of the room. Alina clutched her head for a moment, her lekku twitching. She took several deep breaths and looked up again at the captives.
P'yativ followed her down the stairs and laid eyes on the droids. He force pulled his lightsaber into his right hand and ignited it. Then, reaching out his left arm, he crushed the nearest droid's body and flung it with a sweep of his arm into another droid.
It took the other droids a second to find the disturbance. Twenty more droids fill this room, plus on sergeant. They turned and looked towards the stairwell. "They're Jedi!" the sergeant said. "Attack!" The droids pointed their weapons at the two padawans and opened fire.
Alina swept out her lightsaber and quickly blocked the laser fire, force pushing one of the droids into a wall.
Blocking shots and aiming them carefully away from the captives,
P'yativ leapt into the air and flipped into the midst of the droids, slicing out one droid's legs as he landed.
The
Sergeant saw P'yativ and pointed. "Shoot him!" The droids took aim and fired at P'yativ, some shots narrowly missing the captives. The captives in the middle of the circle of droids hit the ground quickly.
Alina ran into the fray, her lightsaber quickly dispatching the nearest two droids with little effort. She bent down and spoke to the Togruta in their native tongue. "Go, run for the door."
The captives ran to the door, leaving the padawans in the room with the remaining 17 battle droids.
With more blaster fire coming at him than he could deflect,
P'yativ dove away to the side. With his moment of respite before the droids could turn to him, P'yativ lifted his hand to the stone cieling and tore down a chuck of rock, flinging it into the droids' ranks.
Seeing three more of his droids taken out by P'yativ, the
Sergeant turned his attention to Alina, leaving his troops to attack P'yativ. A single shot at the unprotected back of the Twi'lek proved lucky.
Alina hit the ground with a curse, after seeing the last captive out. She turned and looked at P'yativ, the laser burn in her side bleeding. Raising her saber, she concentrated on blocking the Sergeant's shots while leaving the remaining 13 droids to P'yativ.
P'yativ felt Alina's pain through the force and could not contain his sudden surge of rage. P'yativ launched himself at the droid Sergeant and cleaved it in half, using the force to throw the pieces at the other droids, taking off two of their heads. Then he went into a furious attack, spinning into droid after droid, getting in close where they were less effective. Then with only one droid remaining, P'yativ unleashed the dark side, slamming the droid into the far wall with such force it sunk itself into the stone by several inches, before toppling forward into a crumpled heap.
Sinking to the ground,
Alina watched P'yativ battle. She leaned against the wall as he released the dark side. Once the last droid was defeated, she closed her eyes. "P'yativ," she said weakly. "I think I got shot."
P'yativ replaced his lightsaber as he dashed to Alina's side. "You
think you've been shot?!" he demanded furiously as he knelt beside her. Seeing the bloodied area of the shirt, he pulled her across his knees to examine her side more closely. "I hope you don't mind," P'yativ said brusquely, ripping a hole where the wound was.
Smiling weakly,
Alina tried to look at the wound. "Well, that wasn't my best fight..."
With the cloth removed,
P'yativ watched as the wound began to bleed profusely. "Damn droids..." he muttered, unclipping his lightsaber. Glancing up and seeing Alina watching he pushed her head to the side, gently but firmly holding her face away as he activated the lightsaber. Quickly he touched the lightsaber to the wound, burning the flesh, and cauterizing the blood vessels shut.
Alina winced and clenched her teeth. "I'm glad Ahsoka wasn't here. Please don't tell Master Konobi I was shot."
P'yativ raised an eyebrow at Alina and glanced at the wound which at least would no longer bleed. "Someone's going to have to find out to properly heal that..." Standing, put away his lightsaber and held out his hand. "Can you walk?"
Alina nodded and took his hand, using it as leverage to stand. "We have to keep moving anyway." She started to the other side of the room, moving quickly despite the obvious pain she was in. "I don't think we've reached where we need to be." With that, she pushed open a door on the other side, revealing a long, narrow tunnel. Alina hesitated, looking back at P'yativ.
P'yativ flicked out the light he had taken from Alina and aimed it down the tunnel. "Maybe I'll go first this time," he suggested. "But should we leave the Togruta we freed behind? They could simply be recaptured in our abscence..."
Focusing for a moment,
Alina looked over at P'yativ. "They'll be fine. We should go."
P'yativ nodded and headed down the tunnel, shining the light ahead. "Hopefully we can find some medical supplies down here," he thought out loud, and with mutter: "stupid droids."
Alina followed him for a moment before she grabbed the back of his clothes and pulled him flat to the ground. A split second later, a small sensor droid flew quickly over them. She shoved P'yativ off of herself and winced. "Sorry."
"Ugh!"
P'yativ moaned. He pulled himself to his feet. "Stupid droids. This is getting ridiculous," he complained bitterly.
Trying not to laugh,
Alina stood and brushed herself off. "Shall we keep going, then?" she asked innocently.
P'yativ made a face at Alina and trudged forward, muttering less than complimentary things about "little flying droids."
The tunnel ended abruptly in a shed with thousands of disabled battle droids lined up. The low ceiling and pillars made this room extremely crowded. The sound of activating droids came from across the large room.
P'yativ gasped at the spectacle. He whipped around and ran to Alina, shoving her deeper into the tunnel. Then he turned back to the shed entrance and extended both hands, calling on the force to bring down the stone entrance. With a mighty crack, rocks collapsed and quickly filled up the end of the tunnel, shutting the droids in.
When the tunnel collapsed, the ground around both padawans shook and the tunnel behind them collapsed as well, shutting both in.
Alina tripped over a stone and stumbled into the wall just in time to avoid a falling stone. "Okay. Now what?" she asked P'yativ. "We can't go forward, definately can't go back." She looked at the ceiling. "How about up?"
P'yativ assessed their poor situation. "What, cut through the cieling? How deep do you think we are?" he asked surprised.
Putting one hand to the wall,
Alina suddenly smiled. She ignited her lightsaber and, using the fallen stones as leverage, leapt and cut a small hole in the stone. A slab fell where she had just been standing and sunlight poured into the room. Alina landed and stumbled into P'yativ with a smile. "We're under a canyon. Droids won't dig far."
P'yativ looked incredulously at the sunlight coming into the tunnel. "Well," he breathed, "that's uniquely convenient of the droids..." He pulled Alina under the hole and clasped his hands together to form a foot-hold for her to step on.
With another smile,
Alina climbed out of the hole. Quickly looking around, she saw a large structure at the end of the canyon and noticed that they were under the black clouds. She laid back down and put her hands through the hole. "Grab hold," she instructed him simply enough.
P'yativ took her hand and climbed out. He stood away from the hole and dusted himself off, gazing at the building. "What do you suppose that is?" he asked straightening.
"I have no idea..."
Alina said, standing next to him. "It looks like the old images I've seen of the capital." She pulled out her scopes and took a closer look. "Droids..." she said quietly.
P'yativ's eyes darkened. "How many?"
Alina handed P'yativ the scopes. "At least a battalion. If not more."
Lifting the scopes to his eyes,
P'yativ surveyed the scene. "We need to find a way around," he grunted. Then, lowering the scopes to his side he added "or through..." with a glance at Alina.
As they stood there, a pulsing came from the building and shot into the sky, causing the clouds to erupt in a massive show of blue and red light.
Alina jumped slightly as the pulse went out and the clouds grew. "I think we found the problem."
"Oh dear..." was all that
P'yativ said.
Alina took her scopes back from P'yativ and stashed them once more. "Okay, now we know the problem...I think it's time to finish this mission."
Unite: Chapter Four <-- New chapter.
Jedi Mission One
Stumble!