Chapter 59: Hellhole

I could have tried to deflect it with a telekinetic barrier. But in the split second between my brain registering the action and deciding what to do, I had judged the expenditure of energy necessary to accomplish that task to be more than I could afford to use this early into the battle.

As the first sparks ignited in the Leviathan's mouth, the muscles in my legs tensed just before I threw myself to the side, the sudden explosive movement launching me completely off the turret and into the air. A wave of heat washed across my back, letting me know that I had just barely avoided getting barbecued.

I landed feet-first on the sloped hull of the cruiser, but my boots didn't find any purchase on the rain-slicked metal, leaving me to slide down the incline. Without pausing, I unslung the rifle from my back, clicked the safety off, and twisted my torso to face the creature.

As I did, I saw what had become of the turret I had just abandoned. Inside of the corona of flames, I could see the outline of the twin barrels drooping as they melted in the heat, followed by the main body. Before long, the turret housing would be little more than a huge puddle of molten metal.

I tore my attention away from it before it could distract me and lined up a shot, creating a telekinetic barrier against my back to brace myself. The semi-automatic rifle fired again and again, one shot after another until I emptied the thirty-round magazine.

The high winds and my precarious position were hardly ideal for precision shooting. Thankfully, my targets were the size of minivans and glowing bright red, so there was at least a chance of hitting them. Despite that, all but one of my shots were off target. But that one, last shot was all I wanted.

With the final crack, the Leviathan's head jerked back as one of its lower eyes reflexively shut, cutting off the stream of fire in favor of a roar of surprise before it could sweep it down after me. I doubted I did any damage, though.

I didn't have time to reload before I was forced to turn my attention back to my slide as I was getting closer and closer to the end of the line. Ahead, a gaping hole lay before me, on the other side of which was another turret.

If the ship had been equipped with gunpowder cannons, I might have been worried that the hole meant the magazine had been detonated. Thankfully, that wasn't a concern here.

Slinging the spent rifle back over my shoulder in case I needed it again, I crouched for a moment before throwing myself into a power leap. My forward momentum carried me over the gap and another leap from a hastily conjured telekinetic platform landed me on top of the turbolaser turret.

Power flowed into the weapon more quickly this time. Practice was making it easier, I assumed. Unfortunately, this one was more damaged than the first. One of the barrels was out of commission and I didn't have the time to fix it.

The turret housing clanged and screeched as it swung into position, the energy building deep inside the plating, humming louder and louder as it drew in more power. As soon as it was in position and aimed, the gun let out a roar as it discharged its glowing payload.

This time, the turbolaser bolt caught the Leviathan in the gut, shattering violet scales and sending shards flying. But despite the roar of pain it let out, all it had to show for it was a large ring of burned, blackened skin fifty feet wide. The flash-cooked flesh cracked and oozed orange blood as it staggered back slightly, the ground shaking with each step.

I grimaced. It would figure the center of mass would be more heavily armored. I'd gotten lucky with the arm and hit a spot where the armored skin was weakest.

But the shot had still managed to knock the monster off balance, if only for a moment. Instead of waiting for the weapon to cycle through again, I forced the machinery to dump whatever power it could into it, bypassing numerous safety overrides to do it. I didn't care if it overheated as I doubted I was going to get another shot off after this one.

The "reload" delay was just long enough for the creature to get its footing back and lunge forward. The turbolaser fired again, but I hadn't had a chance to re-aim and compensate for the movement.

The Leviathan was an animal, but even animals could learn. It had figured out that the turrets meant pain and that it wanted it to stop. It lurched to its right, enough that the shot only carved a chunk out of its left side and kept going rather than hit it head on.

The ship shook and rocked as the monster's massive bulk collided hard with the side of the vessel, nearly knocking me from my feet. One of its left pincer arms scythed across the hull, tearing up armor plating as it sought both me and the now-overheated gun. Though my helmet dampened the sound, the shriek as its claw ripped through bulkheads was still ear-splitting.

As the pincer approached, I took a running start and leaped forward, sailing over the limb as it swept underneath of me and crashed through the turret house. Extending my left arm to the side, I willed the spinnerets to begin their work.

In a split second, it was ready. A strand of webbing shot out from my vambrace at subsonic speeds, propelled by telekinesis, and latched onto the Leviathan's left side just under its rib cage. Wrapping my hand around it, I channeled lightning down the length. 

Immediately, the webbing contracted, abruptly arresting my momentum and pulling me along for the ride.

The Leviathan roared again in pain as the electricity traveled down the line and into its rain-slicked body, but that was just a side benefit for the moment.

Two hundred pounds of body weight and forty pounds of armor objected to the sudden change in direction, putting heavy strain on my left shoulder. But thanks to my new enhancements, it took it on with only a little bit of pain rather than my shoulder being ripped from its socket. Nothing I couldn't endure, but I put down web-swinging as something I shouldn't do often in the future, or at least not in full armor.

Hundreds of strands of webbing were still stuck to its hide from the initial trap, dangling off its body limply as the rain poured down. As I swung down under its belly, I generated a charge of Lightning in my empty hand and aimed for the loose webbing around its legs.

The creature thrashed and screamed as electricity flowed into its body from dozens of points of entry, easily passing through its thick hide and pouring into its huge muscles, causing them to spasm and clench uncontrollably.

Like a falling building, it slowly careened to one side as its left leg refused to hold its weight. But as it fell, I got a reminder of just how fast the creatures were despite their size. It twisted around and whipped its skyscraper-sized tail up to meet me as I reached the end of my arc. 

My world exploded into stars and pain as my body was flattened against the solid, heavily-muscled appendage for a brief moment before being launched backwards towards one of the mountains.

A quick, haphazard bubble of raw force was the only thing that saved me from dying right then and there. Instead of turning into a red smear on the mountainside, my body and the bubble around it cratered the rock on impact and burrowed a hole at least fifteen feet deep.

As my barrier burst on impact, I was left with spinning vision, a lack of breath, and a fuck-ton of pain. Despite the disorientation, I was still able to take stock of myself. 

Though my torso had taken the brunt of the hit and my ribs creaked with each breath, the impact had been distributed over my body rather than concentrated on a single point. Nothing was broken or ruptured so far as I could tell, but I felt like a giant bruise. Still, that didn't help make everything stop hurting.

In the end, the best I could do was numb it with Crucitorn, force myself to stand, and crawl out. Just as I reach the lip of the hole, lightning flashed, forcing me to shut my eyes. The boom of thunder was deafening, even with my helmet dampening the sound.

Something wrapped around me, pinning my arms to my side and crushing the breath from my lungs. I opened my eyes to find myself bound in one of the Leviathan's tentacles. It must have recovered and crossed the distance while I was digging my way out.

As the lightning struck again, it lifted me from the ground and I got a good look at the fanged maw waiting to devour me, whole or otherwise. Strands of saliva leaked from its mouth as it beheld its first meal in millennia.

But before it could carry me far a blue light flashed and the creature screamed in pain, its tentacle severed by my lightsaber, dangling by its cord and moved through the Force. As it and I fell, a brief Force push loosened the now-dead flesh from around me and a pull summoned my weapon to my hand.

Before I could fall far, I shot a strand of webbing and pulled myself onto the titan's face, aiming for between its four eyes. It tried to swat at me with its other tentacle, but it flinched away as I burned the tentacle tip with my lightsaber.

I extinguished the blade and clipped it back onto my harness. I was going to need a free hand for what I was about to do.

Placing my palm against its slick skin, I drew in as much of my power as I could manage and unleashed it as lightning. Violet light sparked beneath my hand as bolt after bolt was pumped into its body. 

Scales dried, cracked, and withered before finally peeling away to reveal the softer skin beneath, which itself was blackening under the assault. Its hide, wet from the rain, carried the charge across its body.

The Leviathan screamed and thrashed as lightning sparked and flashed beneath its skin, shaking its head from side to side in an attempt to dislodge me and the pain I was bringing. But I held fast to the webbing and anchored myself by digging my fingers and boots into its flesh.

Its screams took on a higher pitch as the two eyes closest to me exploded outwards, the fluids inside of them flash-boiling from the heat.

It was soon drowned out as lightning flashed. Both my own and that of Corbos.

I don't know how long I clung to it or how much power I used. Time seemed to stretch out until I was finally thrown from my perch when the great beast toppled to the ground, its limbs twitching nervelessly as electricity danced along them. 

My body was sent bouncing and rolling uncontrollably along the cold muddy landscape, each impact blowing the breath out of me. I came to a stop when I slammed back-first against a boulder.

I gasped in deep breaths for a few seconds, simply marveling in the fact that I could. Despite the fighting, despite the power I had been throwing around, my heart was not racing. My limbs did not ache from exertion, but from repeated impacts and injury.

And I was not uninjured, though I did not feel the pain thanks to Crucitorn.

My left arm was twisted in an unnatural direction at the elbow, likely broken during my tumble. Smoke rose from my right hand, now bared to the elements as the lightning's heat had melted through the body-suit's glove. My palm had been scorched black and small burning holes had been bored into my fingers by the lightning.

But a monstrous groan drew my attention back to the Leviathan. Though its flesh was blackened and smoking, it still managed to struggle to stand. Orange blood flowed from its chest, but it still breathed easily. With every second, it was regaining its strength.

It was weakened by injury, but not out of the fight.

I staggered to my feet, using my injured right hand to push myself up. I had hurt it and hurt it bad. But I needed more power to put it down permanently.

Lightning flashed again far away and I found my gaze drawn to the sky above. Ragate's words and a memory came to mind unbidden. If a half-trained acolyte like Sedriss QL could do it, so could I.

I could feel the volatile power roiling in those dark clouds, gathering to strike out at anything that crossed its path. I closed my eyes and reached out for that power, seizing it with a mental hand and slaving it to my will.

In that moment, the rain stopped falling. Everything, even the monster itself, stopped moving. I think it knew its end was coming.

The Leviathan let out one last roar of defiance just before a massive bolt of lightning struck the beast like the fury of an angry god. Even though my closed eyelids, the light was blinding.

At the back of my mind, I felt the spell of concealment shatter, unable to handle the raw power descending from the sky. I felt the screams, which had been hammering at my mind since the battle started, die out one by one until only silence remained.

Opening my eyes, I looked up to see the Leviathan still standing. Its two remaining eyes were dull and lifeless, eyelids drooping slightly as muscles relaxed. Its claws, pincers, and fangs had all melted from the heat, though whether it was from my barrage or from the last bolt, I couldn't tell.

But it stood only for a moment. It started to careen to one side, the wind pushing against its burned flank. Despite how quickly it had moved before, it seemed to take forever for it to finally collapse.

When it did, the earth shook and a wave of mud and water was thrown in all directions. I struggled to keep my balance as the ground beneath me trembled.

I was already moving as soon as it settled, heading straight for where I had stashed my comm unit. With the spell of concealment broken following that light show, I needed off this planet now.

...

I practically dove back inside of the cruiser in my frantic rush to find the comm unit.

Once there, I set it up as quickly as I could and tried to activate it…only for the power generator to spark and die.

I stared at it incomprehensibly for more seconds than I dared to count before I thought to use the Force to diagnose what had happened. And then I immediately mentally kicked myself.

The comm unit and the power generator had been shorted out by the bolt of lightning I had called down. Only now did I realize that my helmet was also deactivated as well as the ship's power core. The only reason I could still breathe right now was because I hadn't activated the vacuum seals.

"Damn it!" I cursed aloud, kicking the fried comm unit. It didn't fix the problem, but it did make me feel better.

I left the device where it was and slung what remained of my supplies onto my back. I also ditched the rifle since I couldn't shoot it one-handed. Quickly making my way back outside, I had to decide what to do now.

Remaining here wasn't an option. Every Leviathan on Corbos would have felt what I did. Already, I could feel the beginnings of the others waking up on the edge of my senses.

I paused my fretting and worrying over the immediate future as I felt something.

The Leviathan was still alive.

My head turned to look at the hulk of burned flesh. It was barely perceptible, but it was there. Its chest rose and fell, just a little bit each time. Not sufficient to pull in enough oxygen to maintain life, but enough to cling to it for just a few more minutes.

I approached the head, half-buried in the mud. It didn't move, didn't react to my presence. It was still alive, but not aware. I thought about finishing it off, but a thought occurred. It was a shot in the dark, but I really didn't have any other options.

Placing my hand against the burned skin, I forced my will into the remnants of its mind. Had it been aware and not at death's door, I suspect it would have had enough strength to push me out with contemptuous ease. But its conscious mind was gone and with it any semblance of a defense.

A hundred thousand minds appeared to my senses. They were all that remained of the people it had devoured over the millennia. Shards of memory and emotion only dimly aware of what had occurred to them.

The collective was too large for me to grasp as a whole. I had to push through thousands of years of junk memory to get even a hint of what I was looking for. After what seemed like an eternity, I was finally able to locate a particular soul that had what I needed.

It wasn't one of the Jedi that had perished during the One Hundred Year Darkness, but a simple colonist, one of the hundreds that had come to Corbos in the centuries since the last great battle.

He had been born on Commenor three years after the end of the Great Sith War and lived there for most of his life. A single father of two daughters, he had taken a dangerous job to provide for them, which he obviously hadn't survived. That job?

Working at a mining colony established on Corbos by Czerka Corporation. The former settlement was close, just on the other side of the mountains. According to the miner's memories, there was a shuttle there that had never gotten the chance to lift off.

Withdrawing from the creature's shattered mind, I gave it one last look over before I shot lightning down its brain stem, finally killing it. As it died, the Force itself seemed to release a great sigh of relief.

I had a destination in mind…and a possible way off this hellhole.

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