Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance (20 page)

"Still
no alarms, eh?"

Ula
didn't hear the Twi'lek's reply.

A
massive explosion brought down most of the ceiling, deafeningly loud.
Ula put his back to the stone shield and covered his ears with his
hands. Ash and debris rained on him in thick waves. He closed his
eyes tightly.

When
he tentatively removed his hands, an uncanny silence had fallen. All
he could see were people jostling for position, as pale as ghosts.
Rubble continued to fall from the roof. Beside him, Jet slowly inched
his head upward to view what was going on.

His
expression changed to one of astonishment.

"What
the brix is that?"

Before
Ula could look for himself, a voice spoke, female and full of rage.

"We
do not recognize your authority

A
chill went through him. He had heard that phrase before.

CHAPTER
15

Shigar
stood at one corner of an equilateral triangle, with the young Sith
and Dao Stryver occupying the others. The Mandalorian hesitated,
clearly surprised to see them both.

"It's
a small galaxy, " reflected Shigar.

"You
know him, too?" The Sith's hostile facade cracked just for an
instant.

"You
should both have let it be, " said the Mandalorian. "This
doesn't concern you. "

"You
were killing people on Coruscant, " Shigar said. "Of course
it was my concern. "

"Stay
out of this, " the Sith snarled. " He's mine!"

"I've
beaten you once already, " Stryver said. "Being killed
won't honor your mother's actions. "

The
young woman turned a shade of red brighter even than her hair.

The
Mandalorian raised his left arm and blasted her with his
flamethrower.

Shigar
ducked and rolled, wondering about the scene that had just played
out. Fate had delivered all three of them to the same place at the
same time. They were all after the same thing-whatever it was inside
the vault-and they had a narrow window before the Hutts realized what
was going on and brought the entire weight of the palace's security
forces to bear on them. Stryver would want to move quickly and
decisively. Yet he had stopped to chat to the Sith girl. Why?

It
was clear that all the talk of her mother had been a ploy to distract
her. Her rage was fully enflamed now, which would make her stronger,
if she survived the next few seconds. Shigar juggled several options.
Retreating to the vault and leaving them to it was one, but there was
only one exit from that position, meaning that he would have to face
Stryver eventually. And the Mandalorian had bested him, too. Better
to fight now, when there was at least a chance that the Sith might
serve as a distraction.

Flames
roared after the girl's cartwheeling silhouette. Shigar came at
Stryver from the opposite side, swinging his lightsaber to deliver a
crippling blow to the shoulder. Stryver raised his arm to block, and
Shigars blade skated along the powerful Mandalorian armor, leaving a
bubbling welt but not penetrating. A hatch in Stryver's pack opened
and a collapsible shockstave fired into his hand. Shigar came in for
another strike, and the shockstave stabbed at his chest, blasting him
from his feet.

On
Stryver's other side, the Sith burst from the flames, lightsaber
upraised and hatred blazing in her eyes. Her leap took her over the
flamethrower's deadly jet and was timed to deliver a spearing thrust
to the Mandalorian's domed helmet. He ducked with startling speed for
one so big and thrust the shockstave up at her. She cut it in half,
kicked him off-balance, and returned for another slash.

Shigar
was back on his feet, circling to take Stryver when an opportunity
arose. Again the flamethrower burned, but the element of surprise was
lost. The Sith girl easily batted aside the flames. Instead Stryver
cast a razor net at her. She ducked its piercing barbs and attempted
to shock him with lightning. His insulated suit took the charge and
grounded it into the floor, blackening and buckling it. Shigar took
the chance to Force-push Stryver to his knees, but the Mandalorian
was as solid as a mountain, and he had other weapons he hadn't
revealed yet.

From
a thigh hatch, Stryver produced a stubby pistol. He pointed it at
Shigar and fired a single time. Shigar dodged but not so quickly that
the fringes of the shot missed him completely. He was tossed like a
leaf into the wall and slid to the ground, temporarily stunned.

*
* *

Stryver
turned the weapon on Ax, who dodged more effectively than the
slow-witted Jedi had. She had recognized the weapon instantly and
knew how dangerous it was. Disruptors were outlawed in every
civilized part of the galaxy. She wasn't surprised to see one on
Hutta, in a Mandalorian's gloved hand.

Ax
also knew that handheld disruptors were effective at short range only
and could manage a bare handful of shots. If Stryver kept firing and
missing, the weapon would soon be useless. So she kept moving around
her enemy, practically running on the walls of the battle-blackened
security air lock, goading him on by hurling broken glass at his
joint seals. Twice, he narrowly missed her, and even the fringes of
the beam sent powerful shock waves through her flesh. Only her rage
kept her going. She used the pain to fuel the dark side.

The
third time he fired in their little dance-the fifth shot overall- she
barely felt its aftereffects. The weapon's charge was dying. Grinning
with triumph, she turned her circling run into a headlong launch.
Time to bring the fight back to him.

He
met her attack with a vibroblade aimed at the throat. She screamed,
trying to drive her blade through his armor with all the strength of
her muscles and willpower combined. His buzzing blade was so close it
brushed her skin, raising a fine spray of blood, but still she didn't
let up. The Mandalorian was reeling back on his feet from her attack.
This was the best shot she'd ever had.

His
jetpack activated with a whine. Suddenly they were moving, jerking
upward as though lifted by a giant puppeteer. Taken by surprise, Ax
lost her grip and fell away. Stryver rose above her on twin jets of
fiery exhaust. She rolled to avoid their intense heat and covered her
eyes from the glare.

Stryver
stopped when he reached the domed recess that had once held the
tinkling chandelier, and hovered there, punching commands into his
weapons systems. Ax had just enough time to realize that he now had
the advantage of height before a strong hand gripped her wrist and
dragged her aside.

A
stream of missiles struck the ground, exactly where she'd been lying.
The Jedi had saved her, and she wrenched herself from him, even as
she felt a twinge of gratitude. Surely he hadn't done it out of the
vile goodness of his heart! No, she told herself. He knew he couldn't
defeat Stryver on his own. It was either save her or be the next to
die.

Concussion
missiles blew her and the Jedi into the security air lock's inner
door. They separated to avoid another round, which blasted the door
back into the antechamber, exposing the four vault doors and the hole
through which Ax had entered. She had a split instant to note that
one of the vault doors was glowing bright red, then a rain of
blasterfire came from an entirely different part of the room and she
realized that someone else had joined the party. The Hutts,
presumably, had noticed that their treasure was at risk.

Before
she could take advantage of the shift in the battlefield, the Jedi
launched himself at Stryver, deflecting missiles away from him as he
came. The missiles exploded into the ceiling, bringing down huge
swaths of masonry on all three of them. A large chunk struck the
Mandalorian, dropping him from his superior vantage point. Ax dodged
a slab large enough to crush a bantha and sought her bearings in air
suddenly thick with dust. Shadowy figures danced around her- tasseled
Weequay, officers in Imperial uniforms, Gamorreans, and more-but
Stryver was nowhere to be seen among them. Either a stunned silence
had fallen or her ears were overwhelmed by the most recent
explosions.

Red
light played across the battlefield, then died. Just light, no
concussions. Ax blinked and turned to find the source, remembering as
she did the glowing vault door. Not a random hit from the
Mandalorian's weapons systems, as she'd initially assumed. It was
clear now that the door had melted entirely away, releasing the
vault's precious contents to all comers.

No
one was breaking into the vault, however. That much was immediately
apparent from the splatters of molten metal on the antechamber floor.
It was, rather, the other way around.

*
* *

Shigar
moved closer, weaving around the newcomers to the fight. They had
provided an unexpected but very welcome distraction, yet he worried
now about the danger they were putting themselves in. Stryver was
down but not out, and the Mandalorian had wiped out an entire cell of
the Black Sun syndicate on Coruscant single-handedly. Shigar-his head
still ringing from the near-miss with the disruptor- knew that Dao
Stryver would stop at nothing less to achieve his goals on Hutta, if
he had to.

For
the moment, though, all eyes were on the vault. The Hutts' security
measures had failed. Someone had melted the door and gained access to
the inside. Shigar wondered if they had come up the floor of the
vault, much as the Sith had attempted. But if so, why not leave that
way? Why go to the trouble of melting another exit?

The
pool of molten metal that had once been a door cast a bloody
backlight on the figure that stepped out of the vault. It didn't look
like any kind of being Shigar had seen before. It stood two meters
high and seemed at first to be an ordinary biped, with skinny arms
and legs of equal length. Then it unfolded another pair of arms
attached to its midriff, spaced equally between shoulder and hip
joints. It bore no resemblance, however, to insectile species like
the Geonosians or the Killik. Its body was a perfect hexagon,
stretched vertically. There was no head. Black sensory organs dotted
the central body like the eyes of an arachnid, gleaming in the light.
Apart from those organs, its skin was silver. He couldn't tell if it
was a creature in an environment suit or some kind of construct.

With
unerring steps it crossed the pool of molten metal on feet that were
duplicates of its hands. It turned 180 degrees, revealing a back that
was identical to the front. When it reached the wreckage of the inner
door, it stopped there and swiveled slightly, taking in the ruined
security air lock and the beings it contained: the Mandalorian, the
Jedi Padawan, the palace guards, the Twi'lek, and the Sith.

"We
do not submit to your authority!" it screamed, dropping smoothly
into a new posture. The body became a regular hexagon instead of a
stretched, almost rectangular torso, and its legs bent into a crouch.
All four of its arms splayed out to target different parts of the
room.

Shigar
instinctively tightened his grip on his lightsaber. He lacked the
foresight ability of Master Satele, but every cell in his body
screamed in alarm. Whoever or whatever it was that had broken into
the Hutts' vault, it wasn't going to walk away quietly.

The
hands of the creature spat darts of blue fire that ricocheted off
armor and lightsaber blades and exploded whenever they struck flesh
or stone. The Sith girl stood at the focus of their initial attack,
but when she went down the fire became more indiscriminate. Bodies
dived in all directions, either hit or seeking cover. It wasn't easy
to tell which. The room's tortured walls surrendered still more of
their mass to dust and gravel.

Shigar
stood his ground, reflecting the unfamiliar energy streams back at
their source. The creature's silver skin re-reflected them in turn,
setting up a resonant stream between him and it that only became more
intense with each pulse it fired-then doubled in intensity as it
added an extra arm to the attack.

Shigar
braced his feet and held on, determined not to give in before it did.
The air hummed and crackled with energy along the pulses' combined
path. He had never seen anything like this before.

Finally
something gave. The stream dissipated with a flash sufficiently
violent to blow the creature backward into the antechamber.
High-energy sparks ricocheted around the security air lock, making
everyone duck again.

Shigar
dropped his lightsaber, not his guard. His arms felt like they had
been hit with hammers. The ringing in his ears was louder than ever.
But until he was sure the thing was incapacitated, he wasn't going to
relax one iota.