United: Chapter Five
With the droid establishment destroyed, now the padawans had to get out of orbit and back to Coruscant. The Republic cruiser orbiting the planet has several troops of clones and is a good place to regroup.
Anakin eyed P'yativ and moved over to Alina. "What happened down there?"
P'yativ picked up Alina's prone body and stepped carefully but quickly down from the open doors of the LAAT. "Perhaps we'll wait to tell stories once she is cared for..." he replied with a tinge of urgence and impatience.
Anakin nodded and gestured at P'yativ. "Follow me. Talk as we go. Why is she unconscious?"
"It wasn't the droids,"
P'yativ began, "she just had some kind of attack once the fighting was over. I couldn't tell you what it was..." he trailed off hopelessly.
Raising an eyebrow,
Anakin looked over at P'yativ. "How did we fare down there?"
P'yativ gave a half-hearted smile. "Well enough. We took out their matter cloud and destroyed the buildings the droids were based in..." he trailed off and glanced at Alina.
Anakin turned into a room. "Here we are." He activated the medical droid. He gestured towards the bed as the medical droid came out and moved over to Alina.
P'yativ gently laid Alina down on the bed then stood off to the side watchin her and looking melancholy. "Have the clone platoons returned to the ship?" he asked Anakin without turning his head.
Before Anakin has a chance to respond the door slides open revealing Master
Daj'Raen outside. Peering inside with a frown he clears his throat and says. "When you have a moment Anakin a word if you please." then the tall jedi knight steps back allowing the door to shut silently.
Anakin nodded and looked at P'yativ. "This will have to wait. I'll be right back." He walked from the room and looked over at Daj'Raen. "Master Daj'Raen. It's been awhile."
Alina moaned and opened her eyes as the med droid tended to her. She looked at P'yativ. "What happened?"
P'yativ moved to the edge of the bed and smiled a bit. "You tell me," he joked.
The
med droid finished properly bandaging Alina's wound and sank back into it's hole in the wall.
Sitting up slightly,
Alina looked at her now wrapped torse and groaned. "Not again," she said. Her eyes went to P'yativ and she gave him a sheepish grin. "I passed out, didn't I?" Without hearing his answer, she sat upright and looked around. "We won?"
P'yativ gave her a quizzical look. "You stuck around for that part... I'm just worried about our troops though. In my haste to get you out, I didn't find out how many we lost..." he finished sadly.
Alina rolled her eyes and held up her wrist where her comlink sat. "Captain Flash, do you read me?"
"Loud and clear," came the answer from
Flash. "Glad to hear you're awake."
P'yativ simply glared at Alina.
Alina grinned back at him. "Captain, what is the casualty count?"
"We lost 29 of ours, though we destroyed all of them."
"Unacceptable. Next time we'll do better,"
P'yativ declared in a way that left no room for argument.
Alina looked over at P'yativ, her grin vanishing quickly. "Next time Ahsoka won't be in charge to split us up." Alina froze. "Um...where's Ahsoka and Vic-tus?"
Flash's voice sounded over the comlink. "We're looking for them. They were north of Corvala the last we saw them."
P'yativ rounded on Alina. "Don't act like a mistake was made. I had to get you out. I didn't know if you were dying," he exclaimed waving his arm about.
Alina shrank into herself slightly. She looked at her hands in her lap, away from P'yativ. "I'm sorry," she said quietly.
P'yativ crossed his arms and leaned back on his heels. "The best thing we can do for them is to disable the droid control ship," he said frowning.
Looking back up at him,
Alina let her hand travel to her lightsaber. "The easy way or the fun way?" she asked.
"The most explosive way,"
P'yativ said.
With a nod and a grin,
Alina stood, wavered for a moment, then straightened. "What did you have in mind?"
P'yativ's anger faded as he concentrated on the task at hand. "We pound their ship into oblivion with a direct assault. We have the fire power on this vessel and enough fighters to do the job without risking anyone in a covert operation like the way we ordered Flash to do."
Walking over to him,
Alina looked down at her comlink. "You want to be in your own ship, don't you?"
"Wait,"
P'yativ said suddenly, holding up a finger. "We need to capture the living leader in command of these mindless droids." He hesitated, exuding frustration. "We'll have to do a boarding."
Alina swore in a very creative way. "That's just perfect. A boarding. Then we best get going."
P'yativ became very energetic and aggitated. "We need to move quickly to disable their engines to prevent a hyperspace retreat. We don't know if they plan on fighting or running." He then turned and strode quickly past the conversing Anakin and Daj'Raen.
Alina followed at a quick pace, nodding briefly at the two masters. "P'yativ? How are we going to land on their ship?"
P'yativ headed down the hallway in the general direction of the command bridge. "We need to engage them to destroy their engines and take out their shield. Then we can land in the hanger bay. But the two of us can't do this alone against so many droids..." P'yativ sighed. "I wish we had a commando squad."
As they were passing the hanger, a clone in blue came out and nearly ran them down. "Sorry, kids. I didn't see you," he said quickly.
Alina stifled her smile. She looked over at P'yativ. "Commando squad?" she asked.
P'yativ turned to the clone and pointed at him excitedly. "You, you're a commando?"
The clone turned and looked at P'yativ. "Lieutenant
Jester at your service." He wiped his hands, which were covered in red paint, on a cloth. "You kids looking for commandos?"
P'yativ nodded sharply. "Get your squad together. We're preparing for a boarding of the CIS Droid Control Ship in orbit. We need to kidnap someone."
Jester gave P'yativ a measuring look. "
You? You want to kidnap someone?" He nodded. "Alright. This way then." He gestured towards the hanger. Opening the hatch, a dozen ships were visable, the pilots painting thier call signs on the side. "Saddle up, boys. We have a mission." He walked over to his ship, which had an image of a red laughing man on it.
P'yativ walked to a control panel on the hanger wall and commed the bridge. "This is Jedi General Ura'an P'yativ requesting an immediate engagement with the CIS ship."
Yoda's voice sounded from the comm. "Direct from here I will."
One of the
clones pointed the padawans to their ships, which had been brought up from the planet.
Alina hurried over to her ship and smiled at the droid still inside it. "Let's go, P'yativ!"
"Master Yoda, direct fire on the engines. We don't want them making an escape. Alina and I are taking a commando squad in to board them and capture their leader,"
P'yativ said. Then he turned and ran to his ship and hopped into the cockpit.
Jester's voice could be heard over the headsets. "Lash and Fox, you stay with me. We'll focus on the incoming fighters. Wheeze and Spot, stay with the Jedi. Cover them." The ships took off and flew out of the hangar.
Alina started her engine and took off after the clones. "Where are we boarding? I don't exactly see a big sign that says 'boarding party land here'."
P'yativ's laugh was slightly distorted over the headset. "We're going in through the loading bay at the end of the spiral arm," he said.
Countless droid fighters came pouring out of the station as it set itself into reverse. Two ion shots came from the Republic ship, effectively neutralizing the retreating vessel.
"Incoming fighters!"
Jester said over the headsets. "You boys ready?" The sound of clones checking in drowned out what he said next. "Jedi, take the flanks. Clean up duty. I don't want you in too deep. Wheeze, Spot, on either side of them. Let's clear a path." The clones opened fire on the droids, expertly taking them out.
Alina manuevered to the left flank of the formation, shooting down two droid fighters as they came in.
P'yativ took the right and flew in forward loops, firing as he came.
Alina laughed as she fired. "Hey! P'yativ! How are you fairing?"
Anakin's voice suddenly chirps up over the com. "You two concentrate on docking with the ship, let the troops handle the fighters! Master Daj'Raen and I will take the starboard side, call us if you run into anything you can't handle!" then a moment later he added "And may the force be with you both, over."
"Copy that,"
P'yativ responded. He then took his fighter into a spin to evade incoming blasterfire and ignited the afterburners, surging towards the Control Ship's hanger bay.
Alina followed towards the hanger bay, ignoring the fire around her. She smiled to herself. "I think we're landing."
P'yativ pulled up hard on the controls as he dove into the hanger, clipping the wing on the upper edge of the hanger entrance. Just before the ship hit the metal floor, the cockpit bubble flung open and P'yativ leapt away just as his ship crunched into a wall.
The fighter spins wildly crashing into a number of statuesque droid and as
P'yativ lands gracefully a second voice comes over the com, the much sterner voice of master
Daj'Raen... "And padawan P'yativ, can you try for once to return with a ship that will actually fly a second time!!!" then adds witha growl. "Good hunting!"
"Sorry master,"
P'yativ said unapologetical
ly. He then pulled the fighter comm set off his head and tossed it aside, igniting his lightsaber.
A flurry of blaster fire fills the hangar bay as dozens of battle droids spring to life. Three groups of six storm towards the crouching padawan attempting the flank his position while the rest lay down cover fire.
Alina quickly pulled up, just missing P'yativ's head as her ship skidded into the battle droids that had just came to life. She slipped from her ship as it slid across the hanger, taking out most of the droids. She grinned at P'yativ. "Not my best landing!" she shouted. She put out her hand and summoned her lightsaber with the Force, spinning to meet the remaining droids.
While deflecting incoming laser fire back at the droids, P'yativ smiled widely at Alina and her rather useful landing. "Where are the commandos?" he called to her. Then he flipped into the air and landing, sliced his lightsaber through the bodies of two droids.
"Heads up!" Alina yelled at him as the commandos came into the hanger.
Jester landed first, laughing insanely as he did so. His craft landed squarely on a battle droid. "Sorry we're late. Got kind of caught up back there."
P'yativ grinned back at Jester before slapping a laser bolt back into the head of the droid that fired it.
Alina focused on covering the landing clones while moving slowly towards the door leading into the main part of the cruiser. "Lets gooo!!" she shouted at P'yativ.
P'yativ forced pushed an advancing droid, sending it flying to the far side of the hangar and somersaulted to the side, evading more blaster fire when he came up to Alina's side.
Alina laughed and pushed her lightsaber through the door, effectively cutting a hole in it.
P'yativ clambered through the hole then reached his hand back and yanked Alina inside as blaster fire whizzed about the door.
Two clones climbed through the hole behing them. On nodded. "Sir. I'm Wheeze, that's Spot. We're your cover."
Alina nodded and looked over at P'yativ. "Cover me. I have to locate the commander." She sat on the ground and went into her meditative state.
P'yativ pointed at the two clone commandos and indicated that they guard the hole in the door then moved down the hallway to stand in front of Alina, lightsaber ready.
The clones fired through the hole. Spot looked back at P'yativ. "We got it here."
It was only a matter of seconds before Alina was on her feet again. "We need to go up a level!" She shot past P'yativ, grabbing his hand as she went and gesturing for the clones to follow. "He's trying to escape!"
A voice could be clearly heard over the headset Alina still had on. "The droids shot down Vic-tus," Ahsoka said. "We're headed to the cruiser. Sorry, guys."
P'yativ was staggered by the news and remained silent as he ran with Alina. He looked at Alina with an angry glint in his eye and said "We're going to get the general for this," and began to run faster.
In a moment of rare anger, Alina's eyes narrowed and the headset disintegrated, falling to the ground in pieces. She quickened her pace, running fast enough to pull P'yativ along. She reached the lift and instead of using it, pulled the door from the wall with the Force and threw it down the shoot.
P'yativ jumped into the elevator shaft and grabbed onto wires and various metal apertures, using them as hand and foot holds. He swung briefly then began to clamber upwards.
Alina leapt into the elevator shaft, grabbed a hand hold, then pushed herself off again, to another. She made her way upwards until she was at the next level. With an angry gesture, she blew the door outward, into some droids standing on the other side. Alina didn't wait for P'yativ to catch up, she instead threw herself at the droids, slicing them and riping them apart with the Force.
P'yativ leapt into the hall from the shaft and swung his lightsaber into a droid so hard that it broke the droid in half rather than slice through it. Then, calling on the force he flung the door Alina had burst through into an auto-turret on the ceiling, smashing it in a burst of flame.
Alina pulled the ceiling down, taking a move P'yativ had used earlier. She collapsed the floor above onto the droids, also breaking through the wall into the landing bay where a short creature wrapped completely in robes was trying to load his ship.
P'yativ stabbed his lightsaber through the head of a droid struggling under the rubble then strode through the gap in the wall into the landing bay.
The creature turned and pulled a red lightsaber from his belt, igniting it. He eyed P'yativ through the gap in his hood.
Alina jumped through the hole, landing in a croutch next to P'yativ, her lightsaber at the ready.
"Ah," P'yativ said, somewhat surprised by the creature's weapon. He quickly assumed a battle position with the lightsaber held at horizontally at waist height, left foot forward.
The creature held its lightsaber in a similar position, ready to battle.
Alina's snort of laughter sounded next to P'yativ. She shook her head and stared at the creature. "You're no Sith. Back down now before we are forced to injure you."
P'yativ said nothing and began to circle around the creature to put it between himself and Alina.
The small creature looked back at P'yativ, then at Alina. It lowered the lightsaber and dropped it to the floor. Then it took off it's hood, revealing a short Togruta with it's horns ground down to it's skull and it's skin pierced and tattooed so it was barely recognizable. It laughed and looked at them. "Go ahead and take me in. It makes little difference. Darth Tyranus's plans are already underway."
P'yativ suddenly had his face inches away from the grotesque Togruta, lightsaber nearly touching its throat. "What plans might those be?" he hissed.
The Togruta smiled, his teeth yellow and filed to points. "Like I'm going to tell you Jedi scum." He went silent and looked over at Alina. "Maybe if your little friend there does a dance, I might tell you. But I won't promise anything."
Alina gripped her lightsaber harder and shot P'yativ a look.
P'yativ simply drew back his arm and prepared to decapitate the vile creature.
A look came over the Togruta's face as it's eyes went blank and it's face lost the snarl. He slumped back, falling flat to the floor and twitched.
Alina walked over to it, her free hand in a claw aimed at the creature's body. She kicked it in the side repeatedly, all the while keeping control of its mind.
P'yativ deactivated his lightsaber and watched, thinking of Vic-tus to justify these actions that were not the jedi way.
Alina gave it one final kick, audibly cracking some of its bones. She stepped back and released its mind so he could feel the pain.
"Now then," P'yativ said smoothly as he stepped forward. "I'm sure you would like to tell us everything... Before it gets a whole lot worse," he finished with venom in his voice and a persuasive nudge of fear with the force.
The Togruta coughed, blood spilling from it's lips. "It's the cloud," he said with a pained lisp. "It's poison to the Togruta and Twi'leks. It'll slowly eat at their minds until they are no longer in control." It curled up on its side. "Then they can control it to make it do whatever they want. Even destroy its own planet." The last sentence was said very quietly, almost inaudibly.
P'yativ snatched the Togruta's lightsaber away from it and stowed it in a pocket, then looked worriedly at Alina.
Alina snarled at the Togruta. "If it's a poison, there has to be a cure. Where is it?"
The Togruta meerly smiled at Alina. "Wouldn't you like to know?"
P'yativ boiled over. He walked up to the Togruta and delivered the strongest kick he could muster right into the same spot Alina had injured.
As the Togruta winced in pain, Alina bent close and stroked its disfigured head gently. "You know, you could tell me." Her kind demeanor quickly evaporated. "Or I can rip it from your mind."
"I liked the second one best," P'yativ suggested viciously to frighten him.
The Togruta looked at Alina, fear etched on his face. "Okay! Okay! The cure is a plant! It's found on Bakura! Though the plant itself won't do you any good. You need to get the refined cure from the Doctor."
"Doctor who?" P'yativ demanded impatiently.
Impatient, Alina put her hand on the Togruta's forehead, her face twisting into a disgusted look. "He doesn't know. The doctor lives on Csilla. But other than that, nothing." She pulled back and kicked the Togruta hard. "That's for that nasty thought! Don't you ever picture me like that again."
P'yativ took his lightsaber and used it as a club, whacking the Togruta across the head and knocking him unconcious. "Let's get out of here," he said gruffly.
Alina nodded and stood. She pulled out her comlink. "Jester and everyone else, we're getting out of here."
The comlink buzzed back with Jester's voice. "I've got my crew. My guys tell me they lost you two in the hall. So we're all here downstairs waiting for you."
P'yativ decided he didn't want to get too close to the creature so he grabbed its cloak and began dragging it behind him as he headed back the way he came.
Igniting her lightsaber again, Alina grinned at P'yativ. "Going down," she said a moment before plunging her lightsaber into the floor.
"Awww, I was rather looking forward to tossing him down the elevator shaft..." P'yativ complained as he began cutting a semicircle on his side to meet Alina's.
"As fun as that may have been-" Alina started before the floor fell through. She landed in a crouch still on the chunk she had been standing on. "This is easier."
"I guess I'll just stuff him in the storage compartment..." P'yativ mused as he dragged the creature over to his waiting ship. "Now let's get out of here before more droids arrive."
Alina stiffled her laugh as she jumped into her own ship. The clones were awaiting them just outside the hanger bay and Alina didn't want to keep them waiting much longer. She looked over at P'yativ, then started her ship.
P'yativ proceeded to stuff him in the storage compartment then signalled the troops to evacuate and climbed into cockpit, igniting the engines.
Alina led the way back to the cruiser. She flew straight, ignoring everything else. She knew she was exhausted and just wanted to curl up in a bed. When she landed in the hanger bay, she slid from her ship and her legs gave out on her.
As P'yativ rocketed out of the hanger, he was thankful that the cruiser had knocked out the droid ship's lasers and droid fighters, making for an easy flight. He landed roughly and jumped to the ground, quickly tossing the Togruta to the floor.
Jester landed near P'yativ and picked up the Togruta without question, hauling it along behind him as he walked towards the hall. "Sir, you might want to deal with your friend," he said to P'yativ quietly so Alina wouldn't hear.
P'yativ glanced over at Alina, and a kind, sympathetic look came over him. He turned back to Jester. "Thank you for taking care of that," he said nodding at the creature. Then he walked over to Alina and helped her up. "C'mon, let's get you somewhere where you can rest," he said gently.
Alina leaned on P'yativ, then grinned stupidly. "Yeah. I'm tired."
P'yativ turned his eyes upward and said a bit sarcastically, "Clearly."
Alina smiled evilly, then threw her arms around P'yativ. "You should carry me," she said, sounding almost intoxicated. "I like being carried."
P'yativ's eyes widened but he obliged anyway and hefted her up.
Alina's eyes glazed over slightly as he picked her up. They then rolled back as she passed out cold.
"Lovely," P'yativ muttered to himself as he walked quickly out of the hanger.
Anakin turned the corner in a run, almost running P'yativ and Alina down. "Oh no," he said quietly. "Ahsoka just passed out in the med bay."
"Quickly then, there's no reason for Alina to... lie around here. She'll be fine but she needs to rest," P'yativ said. "What about Vic-tus?"
Anakin just shook his head. "He's not going to pull through." He led the way to the hall, then looked over at P'yativ. "Would you like me to take her?"
P'yativ wasn't even listening and looked straight ahead as he talked. "Master, tell the commander to destroy the control ship. We got their general so we should disable the droids planet-side."
Anakin looked over at P'yativ and stopped walking. "Take her to the med bay. I'll take care of the droid ship. You get some rest. We're headed back to Coruscant. I'll see you planetside." He headed in the opposite direction, back to the control bridge.
P'yativ breathed out a sigh of relief and suddenly felt the exhaustion of the long mission. He wearily entered the med bay and kneeled beside a bed, laying Alina on it. No longer on his feet, he felt too tired to bother getting up again and sunk to the floor.
A med droid came over and saw to Alina before turning to P'yativ. "A bed has been prepared for you." It helped P'yativ to the bed, then pushed a needle into his arm. "This will help you rest."
All characters will wake up in their rooms!!!
End of Mission One.
Jedi Mission One
Stumble!
