Turn 6

49T8 watched the big ship finishing docking procedures. His master had not even noticed anything yet. The droid stepped towards the large, transparent docking bay walls to watch for a sign of life. What he was expecting, of course, was the droid responsible for the ship's procedures would open the doors of the ship and come forward.

He was not disappointed - as far as 49T8 could be disappointed first place - in regards of the first part of his expectations. The doors opened, albeit very slowly. The dim light falling out of the opening indicated a not fully activated system. 49T8 was wondering about that - maybe the ship was operating on emergency protocols. Not too suprising after all the years. As the doors fully opened, 49T8 could see a short corridor leading up to a T-section. No one was in sight, droid or organic being.

The circuits in the droid's brain worked amazingly fast of course, weighing the options. He could simply wait, or lie to tell his master the ship had docked on it's own, or he could go in there to find out what had happened and possibly awaken someone who could help him out. Or maybe one of those he knew must be awake would be willing to give him information. He opted for checking the ship out himself. Just in that moment, he felt some vibrations coming from the transport, like many marching feet. 49T8 didn't have information about the different droid armies stored in the ship - that part of the whole plan had never been fed to his predecessor's braisn, so it wasn't part of him either - and he was not experienced enough to recognize the sound based on the info he had. All he knew was that it was not the sound of engine failure or explosions, so he decided to ignore it for now. The lack of instinct proved as the downfall for the station.

As the marching army of assorted droids, including some never made for battle, swept over him and dragged him along, his master had the first sane moment since decades and immediately knew the mission had failed in a very bad way.



"What's that sound?" Semyon, who had just picked enough of a prize to make both his Master and himself happy, stopped in his movements and looked at the Twi'lek. The dull CLONG sound and the vibrations made him shiver, his senses feeling the danger.

The others had heard the sound as well. "Just those crazy droids marching to their own drum," Ban growled, picking up another gauntlet.

"No, he's right." The Twi'lek momentarily seemed to pale. "We have docked. We better get out of here."

Turning to Macron Uzbad handed Gaidal over to him and easily placed him in the vent shaft, meanwhile Drodik stood ready with the lightsaber unignited ready to fight.

"Drodik! Come on" Commanded Uzbad. next Uzbad went up followed by Macron.
The companions slowly made their way through the maze of vewnt shafts. Seeing through one of the vent plates Gaidal noticed a storage room through an opening and alerted the others of the room. Kicking open the plate macron slipped through and checked the room for any soldiers. Slipping through the others came into the room. Now fully healed Gaidal began opening up storage lockers. Within them they contained a number of blaster rifles.

Tossing one to Drodik he armed himself with one himself. "Come on" Gaidals voice was eager. Macron led the way down a narrow corridor to the left of the room and saw three troops walking past just as he looked out. Reluctant that they did'nt notice the team crossed over the intersection one by one. Continuing their way down the hallway the team was startled by the rapid sound of blaster file. Burned on the shoulder Drodik fell to the ground and huddled against the wall with his back towards it. The rest of the team got into position with Drodik and Gaidal on the floor and Uzbnad and Macron standing. Exchanging blaster fire alerted the general of their prescence.


"We've got to go!" Shouted Uzbad. Drodik and Gaidal knelt up crouching keeping up their defense and slowly backed up going down the hall the same as Uzbad and Macron. Making their way to the end of the Hall the companions made a mad dash and began running single file down the hallway and arrived to a room full of consols and control panels.

(Sorry this isn't my best work but we need to keep the story going if it's going to be concluded)

Suddenly the ground started to tremble and the walls were shaking. Gaidal looked around him and felt an enormous presence getting closer to the location of him and his companions. The Guardian loaded his rifle and pointed at the direction he sensed the presence coming from.
“Hold on everyone”, he yelled, “something is about to go down with a blast.”
Koi tried to hide between one of pillars in the corridors, while aiming with his blaster rifle. So did Semyon, who was still obsessed by the duel and could not keep his eyes of the fight. Uzbad and Macron were sitting in the door opening in order to give support in case they had to retreat to the HQ of the Jedi. Drodik looked around and Gaidal knew he felt it too. Like a Force wave coming closer and ready to wipe anyone from the face of the galaxy. The shaking and trembling got heavier, while the Terakius brothers where still duelling with each other. It was like they did not feel what was coming.
Before Gaidal knew it, the wall next to him exploded and all kinds of fragments were on a rampage through the corridor. He fell on the ground and tried to cover his body. It was of no use and so he rolled on his back. What he saw, while lying there, was unbelievable. It was like time itself stopped and he saw a gigantic person jumping through a hole in the wall. In less than a few seconds the creature ignited his lightsaber and jumped towards the fighting brothers.
Drodik turned around to see what happened behind his back, but was too late. When he turned his face towards the brothers’ blood came in his face, leaving spots on his surprised countenance. Shocked and dazzled he saw that the two brothers were killed by decapitation. For one short moment Drodik looked at the huge presence of someone he believed to be a Sith, a true Sith. The creature looked at him, sneered with a devious grin, but by the time he raised his rifle it was gone.
“What was that?”, Uzbad spoke out loud, “that thing was amazing!”
“It… it was a Sith…”, Drodik mumbled, “at least, I think it was…”
“I swear that I hope we never have to fight that thing”, Macron confessed, “we always thought our masters had their special powers and we were convinced that they were the most powerful Force beings ever. In the end they’re mere apprentices compared with this ‘being’. I would simply love to conduct some tests on him…”
“I couldn’t agree more with you, but if we have to fight it we’ll lose more than our lives”, Gaidal concluded while he was getting on his feet and getting rid of the dust on his clothes, “besides, how would you even try to tranquillise such a creature? We can’t even get near it?”
“We should get out of here like Nezrim told us”, Semyon stated, “with or without Sith relics! There is one advantage right now; we’re still alive, but for how long will that last?”

Koi came from behind the pillars and signalled that everyone should be quit for a moment. “Please be quit”, he whispered, “someone is approaching us.”
Gaidal used all his senses but could not feel any Force signature getting closer. The shaking and trembling stopped a while ago and the Force wave was elsewhere in the ship. He listened and heard the sound of something like a turbolift. He looked around and on the other side of the corridor a light started flashing and the doors opened. In the light stood a tall mechanised being; a droid.
“Good day, dearest sirs. I scanned you and the area, so I see you met the Sentinel?”
The travelling companions looked at each other and the droid, who was still standing in the light of the turbolift. None was able to actually see its exterior.
“Who are you? Why are you here? And what is this babbling about this ‘Sentinel’?”, Semyon asked without hesitation.
“Well, there isn’t a lot of time to answer all these questions intensively, but I could give you a short summary, sirs?”
“Please make it so, droid”, Gaidal answered.
“Allright good sirs. I’m 49T8, a sophisticated protocol droid with challenging add-ons in programming protocols. I’m in charge of this vessel, the ‘Usitan Overseer’. My job is to co-ordinate its logistics and condition. These tasks are all in name of my Master.”
“Challenging?”, Uzbad raised his eyebrow, “what kind of challenging?”
“Well, I have all kind of programs in my protocols that allow me to adapt to aggressive situations.”
“Are you saying that you’ve programming protocols that allow to shift to assassination mode, like the former HK-series had?”, Gaidal concluded.
“That’s correct, sir. With the Sentinel running around, you should take every precaution. He’s the champion of my Master and he’s programmed to clear this vessel from any viruses and other possible threats.”
“Viruses?”, Macron mentioned, “Don’t you mean Force sensitive beings?”
“Correct sir, but that’s a matter of perspective. Please follow me, I’ll lead you to the exit of the ship, because you’ve no further use here and you’re all way of course in this sector of space. Just step into the lift and we’ll be on our way. Your transportation have been sabotaged by specimen 284-ZZ, named Goron, so we’ll have to find an alternative in the ship’s docks.”
“Goron? Isn’t that the tall guy that entered the HQ with Lorien and Invictus on his shoulders?”, Drodik asked the others.”
“That is also correct sir. I monitored specimen 284-ZZ entering that room and he had a short communication with specimen 272-BX, known as General Quicksilver. The left the room together and took the other two non-registered specimens with them. I scanned that other area, the one where the normally torture other specimens, but through infrared no signals came up. I have serious reason to believe that your companions are exterminated my dearest sirs, but we have to move now.
They all entered the turbolift and they all hesitated. The companions did not trust the protocol droid with the possible homicidal attitude, as well as they felt bad about leaving their presumed dead companions.
“This doesn’t feel right”, Koi mumbled to Gaidal, “we should never leave comrades behind. We’ll go home or we don’t get home at all.”
“I know”, Gaidal whispered, “but it’s a bit difficult situation right now; a so-called champion on a rampage, a mad General with a crazy army of Force users and a protocol droid which isn’t exactly a protocol droid. We should be careful and wouldn’t want to risk anyone’s death by disobeying this particular and odd droid. He’s a risk and…”
Gaidal stopped and he and all the others looked at the droid who started whistling when the lift started moving. It took only a few moments, but it was plenty of time to look at the droid. Gaidal noticed it was old, rusty and battered. It wore a huge cannon on its back and it looked like it even had a real face with expression. This mechanised life form had survived a few big fights. Interesting, but not right now. Then the lift stopped and slowly opened its doors.
“We’ve reached our final destination”, 49T8 declared with some kind of smile on his face.
The doors finally opened and the comrades saw they were trapped. An entire and fully armed droid army awaited their arrival. It had to be hundreds of them and the ones closest to the doors pointed their rifles in their direction.
“We only have to get passed the droids”, 49T8 sneered, “there is only one problem; they only listen to me and my Master. And my Master isn’t here and therefor can’t help you. I, on the other hand, can help you, but will not. I can never help unregistered organic lifeforms which such small Force signatures. Everyone out please!”
The companions slowly walked out the elevator and all the droids formed a small circle around the organic lifeforms could move. They lowered their weapons and realised it was of no use.
“I think this is it”, Drodik declared, “I always had a bad feeling about this mission, even from the beginning.”
“We can still try diplomacy”, Gaidal grinned, “and otherwise we could also die with pride and dignity. This mission has been a complete failure, my fellow ‘unregistered specimens’.”

Suddenly another door at the other side of the docks opened. The droid closest to that door turned around and aimed. Slowly two men walked out and were led to the other group of organic beings.
“Sorry that we’re a bit late, but we had some minor difficulties with other Force users, a few Dashade and a couple of aggressive droids?”, Tiberius stated with his usual cold sense of ironic humour. He was being followed by the Rodian Ban.
“We tried to avoid everything and everyone. Even met a few Sith from Revan’s days. They weren’t exactly friendly, so we ran away as fast as we could…”, Ban explained.
“And ended up in the most logical place to escape from this thing from hell; the docks. We couldn’t return to the Trandoshan transport, because the way was blocked. We didn’t expect such a warm welcoming.”
“Well, our vessel has been sabotaged by a couple of other Force users. We’re led to this trap by a ‘friendly’ droid”, Uzbad said while he pointed at 49T8.
“Now we’re all together, we’re ready to die”, Tiberius concluded, “aren’t Lorien and Invictus going to join us?”
“Nope”, Gaidal answered, “they’re already dead. We’re left and ready to die.”
They looked at each other in their small circle and started laughing out loud.
“This mission has really been a complete failure”, Drodik laught with tears from his eyes. The droids started loading their rifles and aimed for the eight men in the circle.
“Any last requests my dearest sirs?”, 49T8 asked almost politely.