Star Wars : The New Sith Crisis

Extermination of droids

Rorn stared at the surface of Yavin 4 as they dropped out of hyperspace ." Aw, stang !" was all he had to say . nearly all over the planet, lights and glowing towers were erected . The droids were intensifying their search for the Jedi . Rorn shuddered, thinking of what would happen if they found the hidden temple . It would be a massacre, the droids with their cortosis ore armor, covered with an inch of durasteel plates, topped off by their top of the line shields, made the droids almost invincible . It would take several shots with a blaster to penetrate the sheilds and even more to breach the armor . Rorn called to Ari for she had gone through her day's personality change almost five minutes ago and had showed it by making Eoghan clean up the interior of the ship . " Ari, Eoghan, get into the lower gun turrets . We're gonna strafe some droids . " He heard the running of feet and smiled slightly, atmoshperic combat was something he had not indulged in for several weeks . He punched at the controls, making Don's freighter go into a far greater dive than it was supposed to be capable of .

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Eoghan slid into the gunner's seat and slipped a headset on . Gripping the firing controls, he looked down at the surface of the planet ." Holy bantha fodder ." he muttered .

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Ari pulled the head set on over her hair and strapped into the seat . She swiveled the turret using the foot controls and saw the planet . " Wow ." she said loudly .

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" This is it, kiddies . Time to rumble ." Rorn shouted into the comm, and dove low, the under-belly of the " Asteroid Skipper " scraping along the tops of the trees . He pulled on a artillery helmet with his left hand as he adjusted their descent with the right . The helmet had probes that linked directly to his brain, where Rorn could fire the forward lasers and torpedo launchers with only a thought . Rorn watched a tall sensor tower come up on his screen and when he had a lock , thought Fire . The green laser from the cannon on top of the ship lanced out and destroyed the tower . Rorn watched as red beams from the lower turrets controlled by Ari and Eoghan, raked across the ground cutting down droids . The droid's sheilds and armor couldn't stand up to ship class lasers . " Going up, take out those fighters . " He yelled . Four droid starfighters shot toward them, their shapes reminiscent of old TIE fighters .

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Ari lined up a fighter in her sights and squeezed the trigger, blasting out several streaks of red that tracked behind the fighter until it was impaled by a blast and exploded . The fighter flying immediately behind it, flew into the explosion and destryoed by the flame and shrapnel .

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Eoghan switched his turret over to ion fire and fired at the two fighters in his side, not even bothering to get a lock . The random blasts of blue fire struck first one and then the other fighter, and they both fell toward the ground . Eoghan let out an exulatatant whoop as they destroyed a sensor tower with thier crash . " Alright kiddies, lets go home ." Rorn's voice said through the comm . Eoghan had to agree with that, he wanted a warm bed . The rocks where Mara made him sleep were not that comfortable .

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Rorn flew low, under the sensor field that scanned the surface of the planet every few seconds . He spotted a familiar stone pinnacle just peeking out of the trees and angled the ship toward it . Moments later, Rorn was setting the freighter down safely inside the hangar bay of the hidden temple . As he shutdown all systems, the young Jedi thought he heard the whirring of servo-motors . Rorn paused to listen, but when he heard nothing, went back to his duties, though wondering why no-one had come out to greet him . Then he heard a scraping sound of metal on stone . Rorn slipped his lightsaber from its pouch and exited the ship slowly . Clang, he whirled to face the direction of this new sound . Slowly walking forward, cautiously glancing about, Rorn came around the corner of a stack of shipping crates . His eyes widened and his stomach came up in his throat . There on the ground in front of him, were the bodies of three Jedi, horribly mutilated . Forcing himself to calm, Rorn examined the bodies a little closer, lightsaber wounds were obvious, and it looked like at least one of the fallen Jedi had been dispatched by a vibroblade . Rorn gulped , his focus on not throwing up .

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Ari and Eoghan walked out of the ship , laughing over some joke that Eoghan had told, when they saw Rorn ." Quiet , Don't come over here . What ever you do don't come over here ." he cried, his voice quavering oddly . Eoghan glanced at Ari and started to walk a little closer . Rorn whirled, " I said, don't come over here . " he shouted , voice nearly breaking . Ari stared at him and then her eyes focused on something behind him ." Look out, Padawan, behind you ." she shouted, pointing at something . Rorn whirled activating his lightsaber, just in time to block a slash from a long vibroblade . A droid stood there, one of the droids that had attacked the other Temple . Rorn brought up the other end between its legs, but it was blocked by the lightsaber that appeared as if conjured, in its other hand . Rorn snarled, angered by what he had seen of this droid's handiwork and brought his lightsaber around again, battering down the droid's defences and bringing the droid's blade and his own, down on its head . He stood there panting from the brief exertion, as the droid slowly toppled . Eoghan stared and then snapped back to reality and grabbed Ari's arm . " Come on, we need to get inside . The droids have found us ." he whispered into her ear . Rorn heard Eoghan's words vaguely and knew he should do it, but he just wanted so bad to go kick some droid tail . Eoghan grabbed Rorn's arm, " You too, big guy ." Rorn let himself be dragged off, while staring back at the crate concealing the Jedi corpses," Good bye, Siri ." he mumbled . Siri had been a young initiate, who looked up to Rorn . He had always kinda liked the little kid , who of the same species as Rorn had not even grown his second set of horns yet . His horns were still in the pattern of all baby Zabrak's horns . Rorn had bought the sweets that Ari pigged out on for this same little kid .

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Corran spun as the outer door opened , and relaxed seeing Eoghan, Ari and Rorn who looked like he had seen a ghost . " I see you found him . " he said," Where was he . . . . " he broke off as Rorn walked past him without even ackknowledging his existence . Rorn walked over to his bunk and opened his trunk, lifting out weapon after weapon . Getting to the bottom, the Zabrak lifted out an Echani sniper rifle . Then an old but well kept Mandalorian heavy repeater was pulled out and tossed to Don who was standing nearby ." Siri's dead . Want to help ?" he said simply . Don seemed stunned by the news, but recovered as Rorn tossed him several ion grenades ." Of course I do ." he said, hooking the explosives onto his belt . A huge Togarian by the name of Kurrm strode up, and growled out," I come to help . You can't stop me . "Rorn buckled on a gunbelt and nodded to the huge alien, then dropped a modified blaster pistol into each holster . A vibroblade went into his boot and a bandolier of grenades was drooped from a shoulder . Don buckled on his own holsters and put a large bore pistol in one and a regular side arm in the other . Corran walked up to them , " You are not going out there . Its too dangerous to carry out a personal vendatta ."he commanded . Rorn tossed a riot gun to Don," Says who ?" he challenged . Corran thumbed himself in the chest ," Me ." Rorn just shook his head and after slinging a blaster rifle over his left shoulder stood and began to walk around Corran . Corran grabbed his arm," Rorn I know your upset , but..." His words broke off as Rorn grabbed his arm and a split second later he was on his back , gasping for breath . Rorn stared down at him ," I wouldn't suggest trying to stop me, when I'm really ticked off, Corran . No hard feelings , ok ?" and left, Don following right after him . Kurrm came a second later, his arms cradling many guns and other weapons .

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Rorn tossed a duffel of weapons into a air-speeder," We need to get back to the temple, all of my heavy weaponry is there ." he said . Don stared at him," Your heavy weaponry ? Then what is this stuff ? " he asked ." Lowgrade stuff, up close and personal weapons ." Rorn answered, giving Don a long slow wink . Don gulped, Rorn was scaring him now . A slow smile slid across Kurrm's feline face," Heavy guns, I like ."

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Don nervously shifted his weight from one foot to the other . Rorn was taking entirely too much time . He looked up as Rorn hissed " Catch ." from an upper window . He moved the speeder to the side and the duffel of weapons that Rorn dropped, fell right into the back seat . Several more duffels fell and then Rorn dropped down beside Don ." Ok, hit it, we need to get out of here before that bomb goes off ." Don stopped and stared at Rorn ." Bomb, you didn't say anything about a bomb ." Rorn clapped a hand over his mouth," Shhh, its an ion bomb, it'll take out any droids or electrical systems within a mile ." he hissed . Don mouthed out ," Oh ." and then shut up, concentrating on piloting .

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Sentry droid T4- Y34 scanned the woodline cautiously . The other droids in the small encampment were preparing weapons for the next day's assault on the the Jedi enclave hidden inside the tall temple, less than a kilometer from them . A tiny sound, a snap drew its attention to a tree across the clearing . Acivating its advanced sensors, T4 stepped toward the tree, the muzzle of its blaster pistol rising ominously .

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Don nudged Rorn in the arm and pointed at a sentry droid that was looking in their direction ." I think its spotted us . Want me to blast it ?" Rorn shook his head," All your guns are too loud, let me get it . " and pulled out his Echani sniper rifle, almost the same design as a Xerrol Nightstinger, as in silent and powerful, but the laser blast was visible, though tiny . Setting his sights on the droid, Rorn pulled the trigger just as it spotted them . The crimson beam cut into its head and it just stood there, all motor and computer functions dis-abled .
Rorn shook his fist at the droid's standing remains and almost laughed . Don finished setting his explosives and gave Rorn a thumbs up, Rorn echoed the sign and threw an ion grenade into the center of the encampment . Don hit one switch and a large projectile shot out of the tube at his side and hit the ground right next to the ion grenade . He quickly slipped a pair of protective goggles over his eyes as the ion grenade rolled over next to the large bomb and glanced over at Rorn , who was staring dis-passionately at the pay-load in the camp, his eyes un-protected . Don turned back to the scene below as a party of droids burst from the work tents erected for weapon maintenance and ran up to the explosives . The ion grendae went off first, a spectacular blue explosion filling the clearing , and its detanation set off the larger bomb which went off in an array of fire and light . Don glanced at Rorn through the goggles and was slightly un-nerved by the display of light, fire and emotion displayed in those yellow eyes . His eyes seemed to burn with an inner fire as the droids below were destroyed in a wave of explosions and destruction . Finally after the entire encampment was destroyed, Rorn dropped to the ground, landing one one knee and hand . Standing slowly, he walked back to his speeder . Don dropped down and scooped up a droid head . Ripping a data chip from the innards, he dropped it and followed Rorn .

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Corran watched the sensor screen in front of him . For the past three hours, droids all aver Yavin 4 were being destroyed in explosions of heat and fire . The heat monitors were reading off the charts, they had to be doing some good, Corran knew, but as long as Luke was gone, he had to remain here with the students, not go out and help . Several students had run off , soon after Rorn and Don left, taking lightsabers and saying that " It was the droids or them ."

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Rorn aimed his launcer and squeezed the trigger, a single rocket coated with energy shooting out at the droid deployer in front of them . A millisecond later, the deployer was gone, a large crater surrounded by ruins in its place . Rorn wiped some soot off of his face and glared at a single droid crawling from the wreckage . Walking up to it, he sneered as it tried to draw a damaged lightsaber from its left forearm . Pulling his own lightsaber from its pouch, activated it ." Even with cortosis ore armor, this blade will penetrate far enough into your entrails to destroy you ." and with a Iridonian battle cry, Rorn brought the saber down on its head, expecting the saber to wink out, shorted out by the ore in the droid's armor . Instead, the blade flickered and threw off sparks and cut right through the armor, killing the droid . Rorn stared at his weapon , Ric must have done something to it, he thought and brought it down again and again, until all that remained of the droid was a black and burned husk . De-activating his saber, Rorn thought he heard an echo of his saber, but the sound continued . Turning in the direction it was coming from, Rorn began to run through the woods, shouting at Don to bring the speeder and for Kurrm to follow . Kurrm paused what he was doing and glanced at Rorn, then with a single swipe of his huge hand, knocked the head from a droid's shoulders and sent it flying into the bushes .

Jumping over a final log, Rorn came face to face with a trio of students from the academy, fighting with a small de-tachment of droids . The droid's sheilds were deactivated, because they were fighting with lightsabers and Rorn drew his blaster pistols . Flicking the safeties off, he began to hose energy into the droid ranks . Droid after droid fell until the last went down under the lightsaber of a padawan . The three from the Academy stared at Rorn, who looked the part of a Kashyyk night demon, his horns glistening with sweat and his skin coated with soot from various explosions, his,clothes torn from the brances of the trees and the grasping fingers of the droids ." What are you doing out here . Its not safe ." Rorn was the first to speak . The largest of the young Jedi, a Keldor in breathmask and flowing robes spoke up , saying " We came to help . The droids have been here too long ." Rorn just stared at them in disgust and motioned to Don who had just came up ." Give them a rifle and pistol apiece along with three grenades per person and they can just head back ." The padawans looked furious and began to shout at him ." We're not going back, we came to help ." Rorn turned back to them and they shrank back, a little scared by the expression on his face ." Its not safe, its not even safe for me and Don . But I am a trained soldier and Don's with me, so we are safer than you would be . Kurrm, go with them to these coordinates and wait there, we'll meet you later, and, Kurrm, let them shoot a few droids, go about three kilometers north of those coordinates, and you'll find some ., but thats it ." He said, staring into their faces . " For now, get out of my sight and back to those coordinates ." he could tell by their faces , he wasn't gonna win any popularity contests with their votes, but he was too tired and angry to care .

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Don glanced over at Rorn, who was lining up another droid in his sights . The Zabrak seemed obsessed with ridding Yavin 4 of droids . Don clicked the safety of his heavy repeater blaster off, and aimed at a stack of fuel canisters . Rorn saw what he was doing and nodded," Aim high, otherwise the lower explosions will blow the non-detonated containers upwards ." he whispered . Don nodded and adjusted his aim slightly . Ptchoo, Ptchoo, the canisters exploded and sent out a shock wave of fire, vaporizing droids in its path . Rorn clapped Don on the shoulder and moved back to the speeder . Don watched the fire catch anything and everything in its path and hesitated . He grasped the Force and reaching out, pulled the air away from the fire, letting it suffocate . No sense in letting all of Yavin 4 burn , he thought .

Back at the speeder, Rorn was checking a sensor scan of the planet ." Sensors say, theres only one more large encampment of droids . Others are just small scouting parties . I figure if we take out the big one, the smaller ones we can take out later ." Don nodded, and began to reload his rifle, but Rorn stopped him ." Lightsabers this time , we're gonna take 'em out the same way they did Siri . " Don dropped his auto blaster, and began to slide the blaster rifle from his shoulder . Rorn placed his own weapons into the back of the speeder and pulled his lightsaber from its pouch . Don placed his one remaining blaster in the speeder and dropped his gunbelt in after it . Rorn leaped into the pilot's seat and Force-lifted Don to the passenger side, before Don could do anything . Don wisely didn't say a word, as Rorn cranked up the engines and the speeder began to move toward the cloud of red blips on their sensor screen . Don slipped his lightsaber from his belt and checked the powerpack, making sure it hadn't been drained in the time since he last charged it . The purple blade shot out as normal and he shut it down , satisfied .

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Kurrm loomed up out of the darkness, a E-11 blaster rifle in each hand, and each speaking its song of death . Droids fell beneath his furious onslaught, even as the Jedi students behind him, spun their lightsabers through the body of any droid that was not killed by Kurrm . Kurrm dropped the blasters as a pack of droids with lightsabers leaped out of the brush . His own lightsaber flew from his belt and into his massive paw . From the non-business end of his lightsaber, a weight hung from a chain . It was this weight or club that he whipped around, smashing a droids sensors . A crimson blade activated and he began to chop and slice at the droids around him . Behin him, Kurrm heard a scream of pain as one of the students accompanying him, died .

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Rorn flew the speeder as fast as he could toward the battle sounds, he had given Kurrm and the students the wrong coordinates, they were right in the middle of the largest encampment of Yavin 4 . Don climbed into the turret on the back of the speeder, his hands flying over the controls, readying it to fire . As they saw the flicker of lightsabers, Rorn pulled back on the controls, giving the speeder some altitude . Don began to pelt the droid masses with laser fire, green bolts of energy melting through armor and destroying droids by the dozens . Rorn set the speeder to circle around the fight and dropped down, his lightsaber in his hand, blue blades glowing . Below him, Kurrm and two students were fighting back to back, deflecting lasers and chopping down lightsaber droids . Don stared as Rorn swan-dived down toward the fight, pulling up at the last possible second to land on his feet . Instantly, his lightsaber began to flash out, cutting through armor and circuits . Don fired his laser cannon at a stack of fuel cannisters, in the midst of a the massing droids . With a huge explosion, they were gone, taking dozens of droids with them . Below him , Rorn vaulted onto a droid's shoulders and twisted his legs, severing the droid's neck . Kurrm let out a mighty battle roar and charged a group of four droid's, his lightsaber held high, and poised to strike . AS he neared them, his howl reaching its loudest peak, the droids parted, and a lightsaber bearing droid shot out of the group . Kurrm saw the hazard and brought his lightsaber down, in hopes of blocking it . Too late, his weapon sliced into the shoulders of the mechanical . Kurrm slowly turned, a smoking, charred wound in the pit of his stomach . Up came the soil to meet him, and he fell . Rorn felt him fall in the Force and was sorry, but for now, there was no time to grieve . The two students left, stood back to back, and were fighting furiously, green and blue blades flying . Rorn flipped backwards over a rear assaulting droid and chopped down , his saber cutting through cables and wires . The mechanical froze, its movement relays cut off . With a kick, the Zabrak took it out of the fight for good . Above him, Don took out droid after droid with scathing laser fire . His long blonde hair trailing out behind him, as the speeder continued on its programmed path .

A tall spindly droid stood up and leveled a Stoukker concussion rifle at the speeder . With a twitch of its metal finger, the flying speeder wasn't flying anymore . As it fell , Don stepped off the side and grabbed a tree branch, letting his weight pull it to the ground . His lightsaber flew to his hand from the falling aircar and its purple blade ignited, lighting the path before him . Landing in a crouch, Don shoved the falling aircar with the Force, re-directing it toward oncoming droids . Even before it struck them down, he was turning to fight alongside Rorn . As they fought the endless onslaught of mechanical beings, the concussion rifle-bearing droid that had shot down the speeder, stood atop a barrel and aimed at the quartet of Jedi . Where he lay, Kurrm stirred, life flowing back into his huge body . Rorn felt the surge of energy and turned to see the droid aiming, its finger tightening ever so slowly and then, behind it , Kurrm rose up like a mighty battleship on storm-tossed seas . His lightsaber was gone, but the raging Togarian had no need of external weapons . The long razor sharp, fighting claws popped out of their sockets and buried themselves in the droid's armor , getting a holding grip, and then the mighty muscles tensed and hurled the droid far out into the brush . A distant explosion marked the droid's collision with the trunk of a large tree . Rorn stared at Kurrm, and snapped out a stiff salute . The huge Togarian acknowledged it weakly as he sank back down to the ground, strength spent .

Don gasped for breath in one of the short times where hundreds of droids were attacking them . They could not win this fight, with their lightsabers shorting out, everytime they struck a droid's armor . Rorn wasn't having too much trouble, what with Ric having done something to his saber . One blade capable of cutting through the cortosis ore with no ill effects, while the other was normal . The two Jedi students who were fighting back to back , screamed in alarm as a droid hurled a grenade at their feet . Too in-experienced to Force push it away, they died there, in a explosion of shrapnel . Rorn glanced at Don, who nodded and they both leapt straight up, simultaneously, tossing ion grenades at the horde of droids . The blue tinged explosion threw droids back, lightning flickering around their limbs . The two Jedi dropped back down to the ground, lightsabers humming in the heat of battle . Rorn drop kicked a pair of droids and followed it up with vicious one-two stabs . Don hacked down a droid and paused, feeling with the Force ." Rorn, help is coming ! " Rorn sliced into the torso of another droid, unleashing a flow of lubricants into his face . Turning he wiped the nasty stuff from his eyes and stared into the jungle . Corran Horn and at least thirty students were charging at the droids . Above them, Wik Dalleeso and his friend Fallo were maneuvering jetpacks around, firing blasters at the mechanical flood . A silvery blade sprung into existence as Corran thumbed his lightsaber's switch and plunged the glowing length into a droid, even as the blade shorted out . The Jedi reinforcments each took on several droids in duels, reactivating their sabers each time they struck armor . Rorn caught a grenade and threw it back at the enemy, from whence it came . Corran reached down and grasped the glowing blade of a fallen droid's lightsaber, using the Force to draw the energy inside him . Standing, his eyes glowed with red energy and he reached out in the Force, grasping every droid around, touching its electrical systems and then crushing them . The Jedi trainees stood and stared as every mechanical around them, froze, weapons poised to attack, but the owners un-moving . A young student, tentatively reached and touched one, causing it to topple, clanging on the rocks . Corra collapsed to his knees, drained by this massive expenditure of the Force . Rorn walked to him and lifted him, though physically tired himself . Don who had contracted some small wound in his side, stumbled over to him, and mumbled," We did it, we can go home now ."

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Hyrinin stood un-happily on the landing bay, watching Ric's ship come in for a landing . As the Sith lord dis-embarked, Hyrinin took a deep breath and let out the bad news ." My lord, the Jedi have defeated your army ." He cringed as Ric stared at him in dis-belief and continued ," A small party of Jedi used guerrilla tactics and wiped out almost the entire force of droids . Later, a group of Jedi, aided by the residing Master, destroyed the main encampment . They are currently hidden, but I fear they will attack here next ." Ric took in the news and waved a clawed hand at Hyrinin ." You failed me, I left you here to keep watch over the army, and it is destroyed ." Hyrinin gasped for air as Ric used the Dark Side to close his throat, " But you are still useful to me, so I won't kill you yet, but mind you, your next failure shall cost you your life . " Hyrinin gasped as Ric released him ." I am too weak to fight them now . That Chiss poisoned me . We will take a blood sample to Coruscant and have it tested . See if we can synthensize a cure ." Ric growled at his subbordinates . They nodded, not ready to take on the Sith lord, even in his weakened state .

Posted by Nate at October 1, 2004 05:48 PM