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« Reply #20 on: June 14, 2018, 09:40:30 PM » |
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CHAPTER 3: A Minor Annoyance
Coruscant. The Second Time. X-Wings streaked across the sky, chasing Coralskippers. Every few seconds, a fighter on one side would destroy one on the other, and it would shriek down to the surface like a meteor, blending with the chaos of constantly dropping artillery. Edda was arguing with Tasrii. The two were alone, separated from their battlegroup. We can’t just leave them! They’ll die! Tasrii shouted. If we don’t get to the objective, EVERYONE will die! Edda screamed back. We can’t just leave them! We have orders! I’m not a soldier, and neither are you! Tasrii ran off then, and Edda felt like howling in frustration, but rather than doing so, set off towards the objective before changing her mind. She sprinted off towards Tasrii, activating her red saber. The alleys were winding, and cramped, and there was no sign of Tasrii. Soon, though, she bumped into someone else; a Yuuzhan Vong warrior, armed with an amphistaff. She brought up her saber, but before she could step forward, something hit her, knocking her onto her back. Edda sprang to her feet and brought her saber up, to find… Tasrii, with an amphistaff buried in her chest. It had been thrown by a Vong warrior on a fire escape above them. Tasrii fell to her knees, and then, with a gasp, Edda was lying in her bed, the sheets soaked with sweat and the blanket thrown to the floor.
She swung her feet off the side of the bed and sat up with a sigh, reaching for the datapad on her nightstand that was tied to to the ship’s nav systems.
Six hours to Tattoine. Great.
What followed was an almost nightly routine for the Templar. She went to the kitchen, and had the droid make a pot of coffee. Then, returning to her quarters, she dug through a chest filled with priceless tomes and manuscripts that had been on loan from the Archive for far longer than they were meant to be, and curled up in one of the chairs in the common room with a cup of the coffee and a book. This would generally last for about two and a half to five minutes, before the book and the coffee were forgotten in favor of turning on music that was both loud and offensive and pacing the ship. The pacing would go on either until morning arrived, or she wore herself out and passed out in the captain's chair.
...
The hard edge of the seat’s headrest dug painfully into Edda’s cheek, which was the first thing she noticed upon waking. The second thing was an awful crick in her neck from sleeping with it twisted, and the second was the collision alarm filling the cockpit as the great red disk of Tattooine rapid swelled in the viewport. She stretched her arms and yawned languidly, then her hands danced over the controls. The ship slowed to a safe entry speed, and she sat back in the captain’s chair, blinking the sleep out of her eyes before bolting upright. It was time for her second daily routine; a shower, a second pot of coffee that she would actually drink, and then half an hour of healing meditation. The meditation served a dual purpose; to lessen the effects the contracture scars covering most of her body had on her movement, and to slow the process of aging. That practice had fallen out of favor among many members of the Templar Order, and the secrets of the technique were shared with only masters of the Order, but Edda wasn’t quite ready to resign herself to the passage of time.
By the time she was done, the ship’s computer had landed it in the middle of the desert. According to Kepressa’s coordinates, the compound she was looking for lie ten kilometers to the south, and that meant a long walk through the scorching desert. She commanded her droids to watch the ship and double checked her gear before setting out. Plenty of water, a datapad loaded with mil-spec slicing algorithms, a pair of macrobinoculars, a quality audio headset and her trusty lightsaber, alongside a handful of other useful gadgets. She wrapped herself in a loose fitting robe made of light brown material, very similar to the garment worn by the native Tusken Raiders, and set off. The walk was peaceful, and would have been almost pleasant if not for the scorching suns high in the sky. It took the better part of two hours for Edda to reach a suitable vantage point from which to plan her attack, as after the first few kilometers the terrain turned to foothills before becoming mountainous. The compound the coordinates led to was nestled in the base of these mountains. It was fairly typical for Tatooine; a handful of low white domes sticking up out of the sand, with a majority of the structure being hidden underground to protect against the elements. Security at a glance seemed minimal, but first impressions are often wrong, so Edda settled in, hiding herself in a stone outcropping and producing her headset and datapad. Before doing anything else, she keyed up a list of booming Mandalorian music. Then, as the angry vocals and rhythmic thumping filled her ears, she she reached for her binoculars and patiently began to watch the compound.
There were routine patrols of Gamorrean mercenaries at the perimeter, but there was no other obvious security. Edda made a note in her datapad; Possible landmines. She kept scanning. She noted peculiar windows near ground level in the domes which could potentially hide snipers, but beyond that, nothing. Hours passed before she saw what had been in front of her face the whole time; a discolored spot in the rocky mountainside behind the building. She grinned and zoomed in on the spot. Under close observation, the rocks could be seen to occasionally flicker and shine unnaturally. Satisfied, she carefully retreated from her hiding spot and picked her way back into the desert. By the time she made it back to her ship and shook the sand out of her clothes, it was midnight. She briefly considered climbing into bed, but decided against it. Instead, she pulled a crate of equipment out of her closet and began to gear up. An unadorned black flight suit with a high collar, some old Hit Squad web gear with a compact sawed down blaster, medpacks, and several thermal detonators hanging from the belt, heavy leather boots and gloves and, finally, something that she didn’t often get to use. A burnished steel mask with a T-shaped black visor that concealed her head and tucked into the collar of the flight suit. Edda picked up her lightsaber, spun it in the air and clipped it onto her belt. It was time to go.
…
The three Gamorrean mercenaries were trudging along the perimeter dutifully, grunting amongst themselves in complaint about the food in the base’s cafeteria. One of them squealed suddenly, and pointed out at a nearby hilltop. Vaguely, against the backdrop of a clear night sky, the silhouette of a person could be faintly made out, though the Gamorean’s eyesight was far too poor for them to be certain. They began to squeal anxiously back and forth, arguing over whether or not to raise the alarm. Unbeknownst to any of them, as they argued a black gloved hand had dropped a thermal detonator into one of their backpacks. By the time it went off with an earthshaking blast, Edda Veek was approaching the domed buildings. A quick probe with the Force had revealed that these building were devoid of life. Edda couldn’t help but shudder, the thought reminding her of the war, and of the Yuuzhan Vong warriors who were invisible to the Force, but it didn’t slow her down. She kicked in one of the glass windows and dropped inside the building just as an alarm began to blare. The room was completely empty save for dust. Should have put snipers in here. she thought to herself with a grim smile as she strode to the door and peered outside.
Sure enough, the holographic camouflage on the mountainside rippled and blinked as as the mercenaries inside rushed out to investigate. She pulled a datapad from her belt and started the music from earlier back up, then counted slowly to five and snapped her fingers. At that moment, one of the mercenaries fell to the ground, then another, then another as sniper fire whistled in at an astonishing pace from Edda’s YVH battle droids hiding in the hills. That was her cue, and she took off at a sprint, lightsaber hilt in hand, out of the building and across the sand towards the rock face as the defenders scattered and ran for cover. She activated her saber as she hit the holograph, the red blade screaming to life as she dashed into the unknown.
It was, as she’d suspected from the size of the opening, a speeder bay. There was a row of old military speeder bikes along on wall and a smattering of different utility speeders along the other. There were half a dozen mercenaries strapping on helmets and night vision headsets by the bikes, and a few were already straddling their bikes and warming the engines. It took a second for one of them to notice Edda and shout, and two seconds for her to lob a thermal detonator, using the Force to slam it into the shouting man’s face as she sprinted for the cover of the utility speeders. The detonator went off a second later, causing a chain reaction and turning the row of bikes to scrap metal and the riders to paste. The door to go deeper into the base was located at the opposite end of the speeder bay, and Edda wasted no momentum, sprinting towards it even as the shouts of mercenaries grew closer. She reached the door before they did, and waited patiently, spinning her lightsaber in one hand and bobbing her head to beat of the music playing in her headset. The door slid open with a hiss to reveal a dozen mercenaries, and the spinning lightsaber became a scythe as Edda charged into them. Within seconds she was the last thing standing, and all of the mercenaries lay on the floor in various states of disrepair. She could feel a Force-sensitive presence close by, along with more panicking mercenaries, but most of them were in the opposite end of the facility. She put a spring in her step, hoping to make it out before reinforcements arrived. It didn’t take her long to reach the room where the boy was being held. Outside of it were two Gamorrean mercenaries, who didn’t even slow Edda down. What did slow her down was the electronic lock on the door, but not for long; she slowly plunged her lightsaber into the top of of the door and began to cut a circle big enough to step through. By the time she’d gotten halfway there, the sound of boots on the hard stone floor approached. Five or six mercenaries rounded the corner into view and began squeezing off rounds, forcing Edda to stop cutting and weave her saber into a defensive pattern with one hand, drawing her blaster with the other. It only took a moment for the flurry of bolts she loosed to deal with the mercenaries, and she went back to cutting. As soon as she finished, she grabbed the center section she’d cut out with the Force and lifted it away.
The room on the other side was tiny, and barren but for a bed. There was no sign of the boy, but she could sense him hiding under the bed. She sighed and deactivated her lightsaber, then knelt and removed her mask. “Hey, it’s okay.” She said, reaching out a gloved hand. She realized that her raspy voice and scarred face might not be terribly reassuring, but it was better than the mask. She hoped. “I’m gonna get you out of here.” “Are you with the Hutts? Is this another trick?” A small voice came from under the bed, shaky and afraid. “No, I’m not with the Hutts. I’m a Templar, and even though you probably haven’t heard of us, I can promise you, we don’t do bad things to little children.” “Do you want my powers too?” “No, little one, I have powers all of my own.” To prove the point, she took the crystal Templar pendant from around her neck and levitated it under the bed slowly. “See? I just want to help you, but we have to hurry.” The boy was silent for a moment, but after a few long seconds, a small hand appeared from under the bed, followed by a head of shaggy blonde hair and a dirty, tear streaked face. Edda helped him to his feet with a smile. “My name is Edda. I need you to stay right behind me now, okay? We have to move fast if we want to make it.” She gently took the Templar pendant from his hand, and placed it around his neck. “Keep this on, and it’ll keep you safe, okay? Now, let’s get out of here.”
The boy nodded, and Edda replaced her mask and drew the lightsaber from her belt. As they ran through the halls, it was only a little while before the ran into the pair of YVH droids, who, having cleared the outside of enemies, had switched to heavy blasters and cleared a path for Edda’s escape. Before they knew it, they were passing through the hologram, and their feet hit the warm sand. Edda picked up the shoeless boy and carried him from there, over the nearest crest of dunes and to her waiting ship. An hour later, and they were safely in space with a course set to Oros, and the boy was in the kitchen, rabidly scarfing down food as quickly as the culinary droid could provide it. “You have to pace yourself, little one, or you’ll make yourself sick.” Edda said, sitting down across from him. The boy swallowed and looked embarrassed. “I apologize, ma’am. My mom taught me manners, I swear, but the Hutts only ever gave me scraps.” “What happened to your mother?” Edda asked. “The Hutts killed her. My dad died in the war.” He mumbled, and a tear began to slowly run down his face. “I’m sorry.” She said sincerely, and point to the scars on her face. “When I was young, maybe only a little older than you, my family’s ship crash landed. Both my parents were killed, and I was burned. I was lucky, though, and I met a group of healers. They saved my life, and taught me to be a healer too.” “The Hutts wanted me to hurt people. They wanted me to be their soldier. I don’t want to hurt anyone.” The boy said with a pained look. “Why did you become a soldier if you were a healer?” Now, it was Edda’s turn to wear a look of pain. “I had to.” She paused for a moment, and a determined expression came over her face. “Little one, I have to make a holo call, so I’ll be gone for just a moment. Did you know that the droid can make sweets? Anything you want, just ask her. I’ll be back soon, okay?”
…
It was sunny on Coruscant as Edda’s ship sat down on a landing pad at the new Jedi Temple. Standing on the pad, with a brown cloak covering his shaggy black hair, was Jorn Bollin. As the ship’s ramp came down, the young boy was the first one to descend it, very nearly running into Jorn, and bubbling with questions. Jorn laughed, a rich, hearty sound, and patted the boy’s head, advising him to take a breath. Edda had also made her way down the ramp, but she stopped and leaned against one of the ramp’s pillars, arms crossed and a smile on her face. As the boy ran back to her, she knelt and caught him in a bear hug, and made him promise to behave, then stood to leave. “Wait!” the boy said, and pulled the pendant off of his neck. “You forgot this!” “No, you keep it. It’ll keep you safe, remember?” She replied with a smile, and giving the beaming Jorn a final nod of appreciation, ascended the ramp and, within a few moments, the ship was lifting off. With a curse, Edda dried a spot of wetness from her eye, and dialed a number into her holocommunicator. The form of a human woman appeared over the console, leaning against a bookshelf and eating a piece of fruit. She had messy, unkempt brown hair, and tanned olive skin. She was abnormally tall, six feet four inches in the measurements of her father’s home planet, and her eyes were a deep brown, and permanently bore a look of sorrow, even though she was always grinning. “Hey Aunt Edda, what can I do for you?” She asked cheerfully. “Funny you should ask that, Rhia. I need you to find some way to tell Kepressa that I gave the child to the Jedi, preferably before I arrive in…” Edda glanced at the clock. “...twenty hours.”
CHAPTER END
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