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« Reply #12 on: March 07, 2018, 01:05:40 AM » |
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Chapter Two: The Trail of Tears
From orbit, Dantooine was probably one of the most peaceful planets I'd ever seen. But as the saying went, looks could be deceiving. WHile the agrarian world, currently in harvest, was outwardly placid and pacific, the force practically vibrated with evil. And the song...
Screams of cacaphony ripped across the solid drumbeat of evil
I flinched away from the horror that rippled through my awareness, my hand squeezing my lightsaber involuntarily tighter. Whatever Mellichae was doing, it as causing a very strong ripple in the force, bending the normal balance of this world to darkness and filling the song with the screams of his victims. The only positive aspect of it was that the ripples were proving to be very easy to follow.
The Wayfarer was airborne, with Two and Mutt suited up and ready to drop if we needed them. We'd landed briefly at the small field adjacent to the Imperial Enclave on the Khoonda plains, not far from a small mining outpost. Despite its antiquity we could both sense the nearby ruins of the old Jedi Enclave as well as the dark echo of the Rakatan Ruins, both also on the edges of the plains. The pull from the enclave was particularly strong, the place shrouded in mystery and cloaked in the force. The song as also distorted there, possibly by the dark energy still pulsing from the Rakatan ruins, but something in my gut told me there was more. Neither of us could sense what, however, and the target before us was too strong, too obvious to be ignored.
We'd both sensed it when we landed: a trail of tears, leading from this landing site, which served as the local space port since the Imperials had moved in just after the battle of Yavin, to a small farming enclave about a hundred klicks to the North, in the rolling heart of the Khoonda plains. With the Wayfarer in overwatch, high enough to be out-of-site from the ground, Arnor and I rented a pair of speeder bikes and set off, following the trail.
The terrain was beautiful. This section of the Khoonda plains was covered by rolling fields filled with cereal crops, all purple, red, and gold in their ripeness, rippling like water as the light breezes played over them. The fields were laced with pathways, mostly lined with blba trees and often sunken down and meandering through the low areas, going from farm to farm. Like bloodhounds on a scent, we criss-crossed through the countryside, following the psycic pathway of the tears, echos of terror and fear reverbertating in the song from the passage of dozens of Mak'Tor healers who had passed this way.
It became evident after only a few kilometers that the pimary pathway was along one of the main roads in the area. We stopped on a hilltop to survey the area and I pulled out my comm link. "Two, we're following a primary road down here. Can you supply an overhead visual?"
There was a pause before a text message came back: <<Overhead Online>>
I tapped the link and the screen lit up with a real-time overhead image of the valley centered on our position. Arnor looked over my shoulder as I traced the road to a small gaggle of buildings. Unlike the rare, scattered farms which were predominantly small, one family dwellings, these buildings were substantial - and surrounded by a security perimeter.
"That's the place." Arnor said, giving voice to my thoughts. "Karm..."
I looked into my wife's worried eyes. "You're worried."
"This is all ... to easy." Arnor replied. "This trail, everything. It ... feels wrong."
I put the map down and sat back in the bike's saddle. "I know. But not wrong, exactly. Just ... dangerous. The "danger" motif is weaving through the song, but there's more. There's a trap, but this isn't it. This is..."
"The opening act." Arnor supplied. "Not the headliner."
I nodded. "Exactly. Part of me thinks we'd be better off pulling back and trying a different tact, but there's something here. Something we need. Not the crystals. Not Mellichae. But ... something." I sighed. "Its shrouded, elusive, but important. Mellichae thinks he's in control, that we're dancing to his tune. We're going to use that against him."
Arnor met my eyes, saw my conviction. I felt her open herself to the force and listen to the song, as I had done. After a moment she sighed and nodded. "Agreed. I feel it, too. It looks like a trap being baited, but ... there's more. Something important but subtle."
I nodded. "So. Lets go find out what's so important, shall we?" I returned to the overhead image. "IF we take these back roads, we can..."
<<<<< >>>>>
It took less than an hour to get into position. There was a narrow defile that ran through the property, between the residence and the primary commercial building, a large barn with massive doors for the huge harvesters employed by the Dantooine farmers. This defile cut right through the noticably new fence line and a double row of blba trees. Our bikes were parked behind those trees and covered by a brown tarp and some loose foilage while we crouched in the defile, wrapped in mottled gray-green ponchos. I was singing a stealth motif, masking our approach in the force, while Arnor did a detailed scan of the compound. She suddenly froze and pointed. "There..."
The building she'd pointed out was different than the rest. Low-slung and heavily built, it looked more like a military bunker than a farm building. But then, none of it really fit. The huge barn was empty. The equipment sheds were static, half-filled with old, broken-down equipment, and we'd both seen what had to be a squad of Sith Shadows emerge from the farmhouse only a few minutes ago, moving out to patrol the fresh perimeter.
I nodded and indicated for her to take the lead, shifting my song from stealth to battle. The song began a building crescendo, the voice of conflict crashing through the quiet song of stealth. No more hiding. Battle would be joined...
Arnor used the force to leap out of the defile, moving with super-human speed across the open ground to the low bunker opening. I was right behind her, opening my senses to the force, reaching out...
I felt the Sith Shadow targeting us before he fired. Arnor and I were fully linked in the battle meld now, my song filling us both with mutual awareness as well as focusing our abilities and the force energies that flowed through us, augmented by the tuned crystals we both carried. Our sabers ignited in unison, screaming to life in the dusky shadows just in time to deflect the rain of blaster bolts that erupted from multiple angles.
Arnor, still in the lead, caught two bolts and sent them sizzling into a sniper's nest on the roof of the barn, tossing at least one Shadow trooper into the air and off the roof. I spun through my Soresu orbits, scattering bolts back around the compound, several back into our attackers. And ... NOW!
Without missing a beat I threw a massive force push against the bunker doors. Arnor added her own push to mine. The combined blast hit the doors just before Arnor arrived on the threshold, tossing the heavy steel doors inward like toys.
She dashed through, engaging the guards inside while I brought up the rear, reaching out and picking up the Shadow troopers and tossing them away as I located them. Sensing more troops still in the house armoring up I reached into the barn, where a disabled combine sat. I lifted it and sent it smashing through the farmhouse, collapsing the building and scattering the troopers and their equipment across the fallow field behind the house. A quick scan confirmed that the hostiles outside were all out of action, and I turned to follow Arnor.
I didn't get far.
Just inside the bunker entrance was a scene of horror. The room was dark, lit by malevolent red and yellow lights, dim and casting long shadows. The lights were centered on a low dais or altar, little more than a raised block of ferrocrete in the center of the bare room. The altar was adorned only with four small metal rings with larger metal shackles, one at each corner. Only in the light of Arnor's cyan blade did it become obvious that room was literally splashed with blood.
Human blood.
I swallowed bile. I recognized the room from my vision. "This is the place..."
"Karm!" Arnor dashed to a dark corner, her blade throwing light into the darkness. There, against the wall, two young women hung by their arms. They had been stripped and beaten and left shackled, perhaps waiting their turn on the altar. One was unconscious, the other awake but her eyes were wide with shock and non-comprehension.
In a moment I was next to my wife, and our sabers freed both women with precision cuts. I shed my poncho and draped it over the shoulders of the conscious healer, covering her and gently settling her onto a small bench that had also been hidden in the corner. "I am Karmack, this is my wife Arnor. We are Mak'Tor Knights. We're here to rescue you."
I pulled a small flask of water from my belt and handed it to her, letting her drink a small amount. She swallowed, blinked, and then reached out and poked my shoulder. When her finger hit resistance she suddenly gasped and cried out. "Oh Maker! You're real! You're really here!" Her mouth opened in a silent cry and she began to cry, tears rolling down her cheeks. "You're real... You're real..."
I reached out and cupped her head in my hand, reaching out to her in the force, flooding healing energy into her, weaving a calming song of peace around her tortured melody in the Song, now that I could identify it. "Yes, we're real. We'll have you out of here very soon. What is your name?"
I felt the song take hold, her mind calmed a bit and her breathing slowed back toward normal. "My name? I am... El'Isa'Tor, Koawan Gray of the Mak'Tor and healer with the Sisters of Mercy..." She gained strength in the recitation, and I felt a new wave of rage roll through me as she identified herself as not only a healer, but also a Knight.
He was looking for stronger victims...
I met Elisa's eyes. "Elisa. I need to know: are there any others here?"
She blinked again, and I could feel her now, gathering herself in the force, humming her own healing and calming songs, getting on top of her own trauma. "No, not here. He was ... preparing the alter ... for me," she swallowed, purposely diverting her gaze away from the bloody altar in the center of the room. "...but then he suddenly stopped and packed up. He has at least five more, they were taken, he left Jo'anne and I to..." She stopped and swallowed again. "...to 'entertain the troops'." She finished in a rush.
I swallowed my rage, felt a gentle caress in the force from Arnor brush up against my incandescent anger, and with an effort I pulled myself back from the abyss. I looked over at Arnor, where she cradled the other healer in her lap, doing her best to heal her wounds. I melded with her again, merging our songs, and boosted her healing efforts, sending a powerful healing song through the room, using the crystals to amplify it.
"Thank you." she said, turning back to her charge.
I smiled at her and pulled my communicator out again. "Two, lock onto these coordinates and extract. We have two wounded. Keep your eyes open, I think we've knocked out all of the weapons but there's always a chance we missed something." The series of beeps and boops that came back were predictably rude. "No, I'm not trying to get you killed. Now get your droid butt down here and dust us off. Karmack Out." I said, making sure I cut the connection before chuckling. "That droid..."
I turned and met the wide-eyes stare of Elisa. "You're Master Ka'a'Mack." She held out her arms, both whole. "These were both broken. I could hold the pain back, but..." She grabbed my hand. "How? How did you do that?"
"I'll show you, later. Right now, we need to get out of here." A roar filled the air, muted by the heavy walls but plainly audible. "And that's our ride. Now, follow Arnor please." I extracted my hand and gently steered her toward my wife, who was leading the now ambulatory but dazed Jo'anne toward the door. She nodded, still wide eyed, and took Jo'Anne's other hand, helping her friend out of the bunker.
I waited until they were around the corner, then turned to where the blast doors laid on one of the Sith Shadow troopers stationed inside. He'd been mortally wounded by the door blasting inward but had been an unintentional beneficiary of my healing song. Now he was struggling, angry and still in some pain, pinned under the heavy door.
I walked over and with a flick of the force I shifted the door off of him, exposing him to the light. I knelt down and put my knee on his chest. Human... I applied force to his sternum while pinning his limbs to the floor. "Tell me where the Zabrek is, and you will live."
"Go to hell, Jedi!" the Sith Shadow tried to sound defiant but his gasping delivery robbed him of the desired effect.
I leaned closer to his face. "Last chance. Tell me, and live, or I will rip it from your mind and kill you, and I'll know anyway." I let my icy fury show in my eyes, my voice flat. "Ok, don't say I didn't warn you. This is going to hurt a bit..."
"Wait!" the man gurgled, the pressure of my knee making it hard for him to breathe. "He's in the old Jedi Enclave. No one goes there..."
I evaluated him in the force. Truth. And ... intent. He was told to deliver this information... "You tell the truth. And so, I will keep my word." I slammed an intense pulse of force energy through his mind, knocking him cold. He would wake up in a couple of days with a raging headache and most likely no memory of the last several hours. My hand twitched slightly, the urge to draw my saber and end his life flaring, but I pushed it down. I'd given him my word, and it wasn't my job to be judge, jury and executioner.
I stood and left, sprinting outside and boarding the Wayfarer as it hovered just off the ground. Two had it airborne before I could hit the ramp control switch.
Arnor was in the infirmary with the two healers. "Where?"
"The Enclave."
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