C1P13

"We're so doomed," I said. Ventress said nothing, her face seemed to be chiseled from ice and her only reaction was to tighten her hands around the handles of the controls.

The two of us had just managed to secure a relatively undamaged STAP when a dull thunderclap alerted us to the giant hurricane took stabilized itself in the distance and began to visibly move at a slug's pace.

I immediately made the assumption that the Jedi were at least partially responsible for the sudden emergence of the super hurricane. It was, I felt, not a bad assumption at all, all things considered. Nevertheless, that meant our position here on Khorm was effectively untenable. The storms would gradually dissipate and the Republic would deploy even more of their forces to secure the world. Even with Gout's Agrocite-Enhanced Turbolasers, I doubted they would be of any use once the Republic attacked in full force.

"We will need to withdraw from Khorm, my lady," I said.

Ventress did not reply.

We were nearing the agrocite mines now, and I saw that Gout had been alerted to our presence. Unfortunately for him, his attempts to order the battledroids to shoot us down failed spectacularly.

"Y-you!" He gasped, backing away fearfully as Ventress leaped from the STAP, letting it crash into the tarmac as she took her lightsabers out and activated them, bloody murder in her eye.

"Eeeeee-!" Gout made a keening noise in the back of his throat and made a run for it. A quick shot to his stumpy feet sent the portly general to the ground.

I set myself down from Ventress' back and hobbled over to the crippled General. Anger was coursing through my very being, something akin to adrenaline was narrowing my vision only for this despicable sack of shite desperately trying to crawl away like the little pathetic slug he was.

"You dropped a mountain on me." Gout turned over onto his back, eyes moving to lock onto me.

He tried to kill me.

"You dropped a mountain on me!" The elephantine general back away, looking for an exit. I raised my blaster rifle and set it to fully automatic, pulling the trigger.

He tried to kill us.

"YOU DROPPED A MOUNTAIN ON ME!" I was practically screeching at him by the time I finished unloading my powercell's worth of blaster shots into his legs. Gout was practically shrieking and crying as I deliberately stepped on his thoroughly cooked legs and grabbed him by the collar.

He deserved nothing less than death.

I hauled him up as Ventress raised her hands, both sabers humming menacingly. Her face was twisted with a toothy smile and her eyes shining with malice as she looked down upon the whimpering mess of a warlord before her.

"P-please...please!" He begged, rasping through the pain. "Please!"

For a long moment, Asaj stared at him. She clipped the saber hilts to her belt, much to the eternal relief of the Khormian warlord.

"Thank you! Thank you!" Cried Gout in tearful relief. "Thank you thank you-urrrk!"

Quick as lightning, the acolyte had her pale hands around the warlord's thick throat. Gout's eyes bulged as Ventress pressed down on him, his still smoking legs kicking wildly as he fruitlessly tried to pry open her unyielding hands. I stared at the warlord and watched as Ventress choked the life out of him.

Gout's carcass twitched as his death throes slowly finished their macabre dance. I offered a metal hand to Ventress, but she knocked it away.

"You have a plan?" She asked tonelessly.

I nodded.

"I have transport ready. And a secure way to get off this planet."

Ventress looked up at me, almost tiredly. She smiled slightly, almost smirking.

"Show me."