Stand Off (4)

Republic Cruiser Requiem

near The World of Thousand Moons

"That may be an issue." muttered Pellaeon.

He was watching warily the multiple moons, asteroids and the shattered remains of dozens of ships orbiting Iego which created a veil around the planet.

"I didn't know that you were such a master of understatement, commodore." I intoned absent-mindedly. "Don't worry, I have no intention of taking the Requiem into that mess. I'll go with couple of LAAT's and a squadron of fighters as escorts. Get a CAP running. I hope that whatever had done in those ships is not around. We don't have time for such complications."

"That's true, sir." My XO agreed.

=RK=

Flying through the mess surrounding the planer and its moons was interesting. It was challenging even for me while I was not relying on the Force to guide my every motion. That gave me new appreciation about the skills of the clone pilots accompanying me.

Two LAATs and six fighters were the contingent I was taking down to the planet. The rest of Raider squadron was on patrol around the Requiem with the remaining small craft ready to launch at a moment's notice.

On the way through the asteroid field which was filled with shards of destroyed ships, we could see a lot of bodies, belonging to scores of different species, frozen solid in the void. It took us five minutes of careful piloting to pass through the ring of debris before we could fly reasonably fast again.

I frowned under my sealed helmet. The Force... It was tugging me in a specific direction. This was not the way it usually tried to warn me about something dangerous. The way it felt, it was like an overly eager puppy trying to pull you somewhere and show you something that had caught its interest. I checked the scanners. There was a power reading emanating from that direction. With a shrug I vectored my craft that way and ordered my troops to follow.

After a turbulent descent through the upper layers of the atmosphere my small force headed towards the heart of a vast city which looked like it was abandoned some time ago. It had a strange feeling about it – a mix of high tech looking building and ancient ones with a lot of spires rising kilometres in the air being a confusing mix from the two.

I landed my LAAT on the platform towards which the Force was guiding me followed by the second troop transport. The fighters circled lazily above us ready to pounce at the first sight of trouble. I got out of the cockpit and joined the twenty Clones who were already out and securing a perimeter around our transports. Half the Clones were carrying blaster carbines with the rest armed with a mix of heavy weaponry – missile launchers, laser cannons and heavy blasters.

"Sir, we are ready." said the sergeant in command of the clone troopers.

"Good. Lets..." I trailed off.

We heard sound of the marching feet of a lot of droids coming towards us and I congratulated myself for insisting that my men break out the big guns. The Clones took what little cover could be found on the landing path and prepared for combat with me in front of them. The fighters were ready to provide air support. Then the clankers appeared from the shadows. B-1 droids marching in a perfect square formation. I could feel a force sensitive approaching from behind them. What was curious was the lack of danger I was sensing.

"Is this some kind of a joke?" exclaimed one of my men.

It was a sentiment I shared when I took a good look at what was approaching us. Was this some kind of an elaborate trap!? Who had the gall to send a bunch of failing apart droids against us?!

The phalanx of machines were carried the sings of being rebuild multiple times with whatever spare parts were lying around. One of the B-1 had a left hand of a Supper Battle droid attached to its torso. Many others showed parts which were coloured differently from the rest of their bodies – darker or lighter depending on how old they were. The machine leading the procession had its head painted in yellow showing it was a command model.

"Welcome to Iego!" they started chanting.

"Do we blast the clankers or what?" asked a Clone.

"It will be a mercy." added another.

"Hold your fire." I said while looking warily at the two vulture droids in walker configuration moving behind the square of B-1's. This was getting weirder by the second.

I walked to the front of the machines and asked: "To what do we own this reception?"

The command droid tilted its head to the left and looked at me.

"His excellency Jaybo wants to meet with you."

"Is that so? Then by all means lead the way." I made a sign for a squad to follow me, while the rest remained back under the watchful eyes of our air support.

Who was this Jaybo? I didn't recall anyone important with that name.

The machines moved with a precision that showed that their condition was not as bad as it looked like and parted leaving a way in the middle of their group. I could see behind them that there was a hammock suspended between the legs of the two vultures. A short, red haired boy was sitting on it and looking at us with interest.

"The Jedi are god damn idiots!" I grumbled. I could vaguely recall this scene from a cartoon I watched so long ago back in my original dimension. It was obvious that this Jaybo was Force sensitive and I was equally sure the Jedi didn't take him in for training when they came here for the bloody root. Probably because he was too old. If the kid was really responsible for all these droids it showed some frighteningly good tech abilities for someone so young and potentially self-taught.

Leaving him behind might be an utter waste. I removed my helmet and took a deep breath of cool, clean air.

"Hi there!" I cheerfully smiled to the boy.

He ignored me and glared at the droids to his left.

"Ahem." the boy cleared his throat loudly.

"Oh. Yes. Roger that!" The machines stammered.

One of the droids who was carrying a fan mounted on a pole, began waving it at the kid. Another came near the hammock carrying a tray with dried fruit and a third which was made into a walking radio started fiddling searching a something decent to play.

The kind obviously liked his creature comforts and did his best with the resources available. I could work with this.

"This a nice set up you've got here. You have a good taste." I said and nodded towards the wall to the right, which was covered with posters of scantily clad women from different human-like species. "Where did you get the clankers?" I inquired.

"The Separatists left a whole warehouse full of the things when they left. It wouldn't do to let poor things rust away, would it?" Came the cheeky response.

"You erased their memories, probably with a macro protocol and reprogrammed them to serve you. Not bad for someone so young." I thought aloud. It was one of the more simple ways to do what I was seeing. It still required interfacing directly with each individual machine but it cut down the time for reprogramming them significantly. It had its downsides – like making the droids much dumber, which was saying something in the case of the B1s.

"Are you a Jedi?" he asked and pointed at my lightsaber which I had started wearing on my belt. With another I built after finding myself in the future stashed in the secret compartment in my armour...

"Nope. What gave you that idea?" I denied.

Jaybo snorted in amusement.

"Lightsaber and clones who appear to be under your command." he deadpanned. Well, it was a reasonable conclusion. It was a bothersome one too. I was no fricking Jedi!

"I do use the Force. However, I am most definitely not a Jedi, kiddo. We are looking for Reeska roots. Do you know where we could find some of those?" I patiently explained.

"Here. There. Everywhere." He shrugged in a dis-interested manner and laid back into his hammock.

"I can pay you to lead us to the roots. Might let you hitch a ride with us back to the civilization if you wish."

"No use. This system is cursed. Or so they say. No one can leave. The last one to try was a friend of mine. He did not make it far." Jaybo frowned sadly.

"I know what shoots down the ships trying to get away from here. There is a weapon array on one of the moons. I have a cruiser beyond the asteroid field which can make a short work of it once it is located." I said. Jaybo's words jogged my memory and I finally recalled what caused that mess in orbit.

The kid jumped from his hammock and looked at me carefully. We locked eyes for a few long seconds.

"You are not joking around, are you?" Jaybo asked with a trace of hope in his voice.

"Nope. And my offer still stands. Both of them."

Before we left to search for the root I contacted the commodore and instructed him to scan the moons for the weapon preventing us from leaving the planet. One way or another that defence system was going down.

=RK=

The kid led us to a canyon to the east of the city. He pointed us towards a couple of green vines snacking down the cliffs.

"No climbing down for us boys." I said to the clones and called one of the LAAT's. The canyon was more than wide enough for the gunship to fit.

I jumped in with a mixed group of heavy armoured troopers and clones carrying simple blasters. We flew down following the vines. Couple of brown creatures resembling mutated bats tried to scare the transport from their territory but few blaster shots discouraged the beasties.

It took us only a minute to find a cave opening in which the vines disappeared.

"Be careful in there. We do not know what may be nesting near the roots." I said and vaulted forward.

I landed ten meters lower on the inside of the dark cave. The clones followed suit and started sweeping the surrounding area. I led the way and when I was near the place where the vines disappeared in the rocky ground the floor fifteen meters in front of me exploded revealing a twisted mass of vines and four huge jaws of carnivorous plants.

"Light up that thing!" I ordered. We should have brought flame-throwers.

The plant screeched when it was hit by multiple blaster bolts. Two rotatory cannons sliced into it with like a huge saw blades. Pieces of plant matter flew in all directions as well as drops of green juice which resembled blood. I pulled an incendiary grenade from my belt and threw it at the thrashing flora. It blew up with a subdued 'Whooosh' and engulfed the still alive being in blue flames. It let a last, ear-piercing screech before falling down in a burning heap.

Huh. So that's why I picked that grenade without even thinking about it back in the armoury. My subconscious obviously remembered more about this mess that my waking mind could recall. Weird.

The rock to my right exploded showering me with stone fragments and from it a pair of green jaws darted towards me. I jumped back away from its path and grabbed the hilt of my weapon. My lightsaber snapped to life and I slashed vertically at the "neck" of the plant which tried to bite me in half. Its "head" tumbled away from the thick vine that was its body and fell to the ground where it continued to snap its jaws in a futile effort to bite something. The sergeant shot it twice with his heavy blaster burning huge holes in its jaws. It gave a long, piteous hiss and finally laid still.

"Good work. Be on your guard. There may be more of those things around." I told my people.

Thanks to the vines themselves I could feel life all around us which was practically identical to the carnivorous plant that tried to eat us. We loaded our backpacks with the precious roots and made our way to the waiting LAAT. If there were more of those plants in the cave they decided that discretion was the better part of valour and stayed put.

=RK=

We gave Jaybo a ride to the landing platform where the other LAAT waited for us with the remaining clones. I contacted Pellaeon who had bad news. Thanks to all the junk floating around Requiem was unable to get conclusive scans of the moons. It was time for plan B.

"So you believe you could lift the curse?" Jaybo bounced on his feet.

"It's a weapons' system. If by lift the curse you mean blowing it up all to hell, then yes. Unfortunately, my ship has a trouble detecting its precise location. We need a bait to find it." I looked at the two vultures which were minding their own business. "Say, kid, how many of those things do you have operational? And how much for them?" I asked cheerfully.

"A few. What do you have in mind?" Jaybo bounced on his feet.

I smiled at the kid and filled him in on my plan.

=RK=

Republic cruiser Requiem

near Iego

Commodore Pellaeon looked over the shoulder of one of his sensor operators. The powerful scanners of the cruiser were barely able to detect the four contacts flying fast from the planet. There were simply too many debris which were giving out sensor ghosts. However, there was no way to miss the massive energy surge emanating from the surface of one of the moons.

A yellow energy beam jumped from a weapon emplacement on the planetoid and started bouncing from pieces of ships and asteroids. It created an energy net in which the four Separatists fighters were shredded.

"Weapons lock on that location and fire at will!" ordered Pellaeon.

Huge, twin linked turbo-laser cannons rotated in their mounts and targeted a specific spot on the moon then fired. Blue bolts of compressed particles lanced through the void evaporating the junk standing in their path. It took Requiem nearly three minutes to blow a hole through the asteroids and debris before its guns could strike straight at the moon. A concentrated salvo from the cruiser board side hit the place from which the yellow beam emanated.

Three broadsides were more than enough to snuff out of existence the weapon holding the populace of Iego as prisoners.

Just in case, Requiem continued to bombard the moon until the side where attack came was a glowing ocean of molten rock.

=RK=

Unnamed city

Iego

I watched the fireworks with a smirk on my face. Many of the people stranded on this planet were outside watching the light show in orbit. They were talking excitedly when they saw the invisible from here Requiem BDZ one of the moons.

"And that's that kid. No more 'ghost'." I declared.

I went in front of Jaybo who was looking at the heavens through a binocular. I knelt and floated my lightsaber over the palm of my right hand.

That got his attention and for the moment he forgot the fires in orbit.

"That's so cool!" the kid exclaimed, looking at my hand with huge eyes.

"Please tell me, Jaybo, has some strange things happened around you? Items moving by themselves? Have you felt that sometimes you see things before they happen?" I asked him quietly.

He looked away from my eyes and muttered something I could not understand.

"What was that?" I my lips twitched in amusement.

"Su'm times when I work on the droids a tool I need floats to my hands..." he murmured.

"It's nothing to worry about, Jaybo. That is just a sign that you could use the Force if you receive training."

He perked at that and a huge grin appeared on his face.

"Does that mean that I can become a Jedi?!" he exclaimed and looked at me with star filled eyes.

I shook my head sadly.

"That is unlikely. You see, in all their 'wisdom' the Jedi refuse to train anyone who is older than a toddler. The oldest boy I knew that they trained was nine and they barely agreed to do it. You are how old? Twelve? Fourteen?" I asked carefully. My face was a mask reflecting how sorry I was about the Jedi's foolish policies.

"I became thirteen last month." he grumbled sadly.

"Ah. It's all right you know. The Jedi are not the only ones who could train you in the Force." I trailed off. "You see..."

I smiled. I had his undivided attention.