Chapter Sixty Seven

Master Dooku and his former padawan led the assault onto the space station, having used the Force to open one of the airlocks despite the best efforts of the mechanical systems to keep it closed. Once inside the two Jedi took up position there, holding the interior against the nearest band of pirates who responded to the breach while the rest of the Wookies funneled in behind them. After dealing with that first group of defenders they split off, Master Dooku heading one way and Komari another, with the Wookies spreading out behind them in every direction.

The Wookies automatically did this, splitting off into various groups, mostly clan, tribe, or family based. It was a weakness of the Wookies that their internecine feuds and rivalries between tribal units sometimes got in the way of their ability to work together towards a common goal. Yet at times it allowed for a certain amount of flexibility, because each family or tribe was used to acting independently. While this could be a weakness, against a rabble like these thugs, it served them very well. They pushed rapidly into the interior of the space station, overcoming the defenders in pockets here and there before they could organize.

This was the first real fight Komari had been in since being rescued from the Bando Gora. She moved forward swiftly, the Force singing around her, her lightsaber flashing out this way and that, batting aside blaster bolts as she hacked through any defenders that faced her. She was reckless but controlled, and had developed a mastery of Force Shield that would have astonished anyone outside of Clan Saa, having watched, fought, and taught with Harry.

That skill kept Komari alive numerous times when she forgot to see to her own defense in lieu of attacking. This allowed her to race further into the installation, leaving all the Wookies well behind. However Knight Vosa's wild charge led her away from the actual control center for the space station.

Master Dooku, on the other hand, took to combat coolly as he always did, disdaining the idea of becoming emotionally involved in the battle behind a certain amount of interest in the challenge. He used his Force senses to find where the minds Fay had shut down were located, and this led him unerringly towards the control center. It also led him directly into the first real impediment to their attack.

The area where this occurred was a slightly more open area, not a concourse or anything of that nature, but a meeting of different converging hallways into a single area with a security post. Here an even dozen assault droids waited, powered up and looking for opponents. They were tall. Far taller and more muscular looking than the combat droids that had been used on Naboo, despite their cobbled together appearance.

One arm on each of them was a double barreled blaster, while the other arm held a large shield device, which was actually the most uniform thing about the droids. It was shaped much like those that the Gungans used and was made of heavy, heat resistant steel, so heavy that most sentients of a similar size would have had trouble lifting it. It was evident that however good their systems were, it did not include any kind of IFF, as several sentients lay around them dead.

They all turned and opened fire immediately as Master Dooku came within sight, forcing him to use his lightsaber to block and deflect their plasma bolts as he moved forward. "Remain behind me," he ordered the Wookies with him. "Fire over me if you can, but let me take the lead here, and wait for my signal before firing a full volley."

The Wookies behind Count Dooku obeyed, their odd, bow shaped blaster rifles firing with the significant thunks of the weapons. Two droids fell, their legs shattered by the blows, and another lost its head, falling to the floor with a resounding crash.

But then the droids showed a remarkable amount of intelligence for the breed. Several of them brought their shields down to defend their legs, while others raised them in front of each other's upper bodies. This shrunk the front of their line, but given the nature of the environment and Dooku's attack, that didn't matter. They then poked their blasters out of the small slits which remained between the shields, and continued to fire.

That and the distance between where they had spotted Count Dooku and begun to open fire on him made for very trying time as Dooku forced his way forward down the corridor. Only one of the droids fell, to an excellent shot from behind him, as he made his way forward.

Yet despite their defenses and the simply monstrous amount of fire, Master Dooku's lightsaber skills and Force Precognition served him well, allowing him to close the distance until he felt he was within range for his newest technique, the same kind of explosive technique Harry had used against him a few times.

He launched the technique down the corridor, and the explosion smashed into the droids, hurling them backwards and breaking their shield wall. It wasn't as powerful as Dooku had hoped, but not as weak as Dooku had feared for a first field test, and he raced forward. "Now!"

Behind him the Wookies redoubled their rate of fire, downing several droids permanently as he raced forward, and before the droids could regain their footing Dooku was in among them. Here the heaviness of their shields encumbered the droids, and he lashed out either way, his lightsaber flashing and cutting them down, and soon the last one fell bisected in half as another one collapsed behind it, its head and chest almost missing from the Wookies' furious assault.

After that Master Dooku turned his attention to the door leading into the control room, hacking them apart quickly and efficiently. The Wookies streamed in, and only Dooku's shout of, "Remember, we want some prisoners. Leave the ones that are already unconscious in one piece!" saved those few from being summarily executed where they lay.

The space station was theirs.

OOOOOOO

In the pirates' main base the fight was much more chaotic. For one thing, there were a lot more pirates. Where Komari Dooku and their assault faced only six or seven hundred before Dooku had captured the control center, there were at least four thousand or more on the surface. Against this, however, the transports had brought in around one thousand three hundred Wookies, with more coming in after the initial breach was in the attackers' hands.

But the pirates in the base also had access to a lot more heavy weapons. Several of the Wookies had fallen to a few of the defensive points, but that only seemed to make the Wookies fight ever harder. And the pirates just didn't have enough in the way of organization to stop the Wookies from pushing ever forward. The more the pirates were pushed back, the more desperate they became.

Several times small groups of pirates attempted to use pleasure slaves as shields or bargaining chips. The trio of attacking Jedi would then be called forward to deal with it. Then they would watch astonished as Force Shields popped into being around their would-be hostages, protecting them and them alone as the Wookies opened up with a roar, gunning them down brutally.

This didn't happen often, however, since Master Fay was there, still using her mastery of telepathy to search the minds of the pirates. There might have been too many of them, and the miasma of their fear was interfering with her powers, but she could still search out minds who were now slowly beginning to feel hope, and shut down any individual who began to think of using them these as shields or hostages.

Following behind one of the larger groups of Wookies pressing forward, Fay exhaled long and low, shaking her head sadly. I've seen too much combat of late. This really isn't my sort of mission, but I suppose we must all do our part.

Feeling movement to one side, she turned quickly, moving to take position at an intersection facing away from the direction the Wookies had moved. The corridor she was now facing was one that sloped downward slightly, branching off into several smaller corridors which looked like they led down into one of the underground generators which powered the base. Most of them had been closed off by small hatches, but now they bounced open, and dozens of pirates came out, charging forward.

"Yes, I knew we could get around them like this! Now we just need to attack those damn walking piles of fur from behind, give our boys some time to recover and…"

The speaker, a Sullustan, paused as he saw Master Fay standing there watching them. The other pirates, however, didn't hesitate, their weapons coming up quickly. "She ain't got no lightsaber! Get the kriffing bitch!"

Fay frowned lightly, being addressed in such a manner irritating her as it would any woman, as did the supposition that she was somehow easy pickings just because she didn't have a lightsaber. Flicking a few fingers forward on one hand she brought a Force Shield into being which caught and absorbed the plasma bolts of their blasters. Another gesture from the same hand shot a massive bolt of red which filled the entire corridor from top to bottom. It raced forward, and before the group of pirates could move the red bolt hit, sending them all into blissful unconsciousness.

Shaking her head, Fay walked around the downed bodies, removing their guns and shattering them one after another with pinpoint Force TK strikes. "An open palm is not a weakness. It is a gesture that if you treat with me in peace, I will do the same. It does not mean I am without recourse if you do not." Once her work was done, she closed the hatches the pirates had come through, then used the Force to slowly twist and break the manual controls so they could not be opened again. With that done she turned, moving to rejoin the group of Wookies.