C8-42 BI-P1-C3

Part 1 - Chapter 3: A Rancor in the Sewers
"So let me get this straight: we’re going to break in to the Black Vulkar base, in the middle of a gang war, steal a dangerous piece of equipment, and then win the most deadly sport in the galaxy!"

"I didn't hear you coming up with any good ideas, Captain. You heard Gadon. The only way we can rescue Bastila is if we win the race. Now come on. We have to find that Twi'lek."

The two soldiers crept through the maze of makeshift tents and huddling peasants, barely able to see as the colossal skyscrapers cast shadows over the entire planet, blocking out the sun completely. Smoking meat tickled their nostrils, cries of suffering hammered their ears.

“Run, Hendar, run!” a woman's voice called in the distance.

"I don't like the sound of that."

"Hurry, Hendar, hurry!"

Nik and Carth discovered its source at the village gate. A man and woman were arguing.

"He’ll never make it. He’s doomed!"

"He will make it! Run, Hendar, run!"

Another man's voice came from the oposite side of the wall. "Open the gate, quickly! There isn’t much time!"

"I can’t, the rakghouls are too close! If I open the gate they’ll kill us all!"

"Please, make him open the gate! Hendar will die if he doesn't!"

Nik shifted his view between the man and woman. "Open the gate. We'll worry about the rakghouls."

"You'd risk your life for a stranger? You're brave, upworlder."

As the gate whined open, the two soldiers drew their weapons once again.

"Here they come..."

"Let's go!"

Before either could strike, one of the mutants a good twenty feet away lunged at Hendar. His lifeless body crumpled onto the dead soil. Another rakghoul set its eyes on the two soldiers. Carth immediately ducked, the first rackghoul soaring right over his head. A few shots from Nik's blaster rifle took down the second mutant. Nik caught movement in the corner of his eye. His blaster rifle trained on something blue.

"Please, please, you have to help me! No one will help me, not even the Beks will help me!"

"Mission!"

Carth slaughtered the first rakghoul and turned to the young girl. "Just calm down. What's going on?"

"It’s Zaalbar. He’s in trouble--big trouble. We have to help him. If we don’t, they’ll sell him into slavery!"

"Wait, who will sell him?"

"Gamorrean slavers. We didn't even have a chance to run! Big Z threw himself at them and then roared for me to run! I took off...I figured he'd be right behind me..."

"Do you know where he's being kept?"

"The Gamorreans make their camps in the sewers. I bet that’s where we’ll find Zaalbar."

Nik perked his eyes. "That’s where the secret entrance to the Vulkar base is! OK, Mission, we’ll help you if you show us where that secret entrance is."

"It's a deal. Let's go!"

The stench of waste products was like being punched in the face by a Wookiee. The Tarisian sewars somehow managed to smell worse than the Lower City, and twice as dirty. Nik tried to ignore the monotonous trickle of water that threatened to lull him to sleep. Mission solved the problem for him.

"Hey Carth, you're a soldier for the Republic, right? You’ve been on a lot of off-world missions, right? So how would you rank Taris to other planets?"

"To be honest, Mission, Taris would rank pretty low. With all the prejudice, the rich spoiling themselves while the poor starve beneath them, it’s not a pretty picture."

"Yeah but that’s only since the Sith occupation. Before that...well, I guess it wasn’t all that different, really."

The sewars rumbled. Nik swore he could see somehing moving in the distance.

"Trust me, Mission, there are a lot of worlds better than Taris--there are worse, too, but Taris is no place for a kid to grow up on her own, even a kid who’s got a Wookiee to look out for her."

"Wait, I ain’t no kid! I look out for Zaalbar as much as he looks out for me. Big Z’s my friend, not my baby-sitter! I come to ask you a question and you give me a lecture!"

Nik felt the ground shake, and the growling sounded closer.

"Uh, guys..."

"Don’t you snap at me, missy! You want a lecture? How’s this? Only bratty little children fly off the handle because of a simple comment!"

"Guys..."

"I don’t have to listen to you, Carth. You ain’t my father...though you’re sure old enough to be!"

"RANCOR!!!"

The twenty-foot beast howled, its rancid breath making the eau de sewar seem like expensive perfume. Fortunately for the trio, while the rancor was a notoriously deadly animal, its oversized frame made outmaneuvering the beast a breeze. Mission and Carth danced around the rancor's legs, ducking for cover. Nik whipped out a frag grenade and hurled it at the large beast. While the monster's thick hide protected it from the explosion, the blinding blast stunned the beast long enough for the trio to escape.

"Let's keep the chit-chat to a minimum, all right?"

The trio continued throught he maze of drainage pipes and rusted walkways. Carth took the lead, with Mission in back, and Nik separating the two.

"All I'm sayin' is I think you should let me lead the way. I'm not the one that led us to the rancor." She dashed around a corner, cutting off the two soldiers. "Come on, I think I recognized this place."

Carth didn't bother trying to stop the young Twi'lek. "How could you? it all looks the same."

"Wait, Mission! There could be--" The door opened, revealing a pack of overgrown pigs who grunted and snarled at the trio. Both sides drew weapons. Nik ducked as a vibro-axe sliced the air in two. Mission and Carth fired off a couple of shots, but the thick animal hide of the Gamorreans' armor absorbed all the energy of the blasts. Carth strangled the pig in the lead, allowing Nik to grab the brute's weapon. Nik was rather grateful that his boasts about Carth's strength were accurate. Fumbling with the oversized axe, he managed to strike another Gamorrean with the blunt end. As Carth continued to choke the first guard, Mission pulled out her own vibro-blade and thrusted the sword into the third guard's chest. Nik cried out in pain as blood spattered on his face and a vibro-axe dug into his neck. The pig's grunt of pleasure turned into a squeal of agony as Mission came from behind and slit the Gamorrean's throat. A roar hollered through the thick metal door. Mission attacked the deadbolt, and before the door could slide open she jumped into the arms of the giant Wookiee.

"Big Z! I thought I'd never find you!" The Wookiee growled a sympathetic response. "Promise me you won't go poking around the sewers on an empty stomach ever again!"

"I promise. And now I owe each of you a life debt for rescuing me."

"Are you sure about that, Big Z?"

"It would disgrace the Wookiee name if I did not."

Nik wiped the warm mess off his shoulder with a damp cloth, soaking up the blood as it seeped out of the fresh wound. The disinfectant stung for a few painful seconds before numbing the wound enough for Nik to wrap his shoulder with some bandages in his medpac.

"All right, we helped you so now you help us. Which way to the Vulkar Base?"

Nik took a survey of the area: oil stained the floor in more places than not, there were traces of blood on the support columns, and the odor of both filled the air. "So this is the Black Vulkar base. Could use a bit of redecorating."

"That swoop part you're looking for should be in the garage upstairs."

"Carth and I will go look around. Mission, Zaalbar, go see if you can find a way to distract the guards." It didn't take the two soldiers long to find the turbolift. They informed their two comrades, but recevied onlly static as an answer. "Mission? Mission, are you there?" A low rumbling echoed throught he corridors of the base, and soon abrupted into an erruption of explosive and destructive blast. Alarms screeched throughout the building, and Vulkars poured from every oraface of the base, hollaring curses and demanding an explanation. The gang was far too confused and outraged to notice the two armored soldiers who slipped into the secure storage area.

"What's this? Looks like we have some visitors. Bek thieves, no less!"

"Handsome thieves," added the guard's Twi'lek companion. Nik groaned with repulsion.

"What is your business, thief?" asked the first Twi'lek.

"I'm just curious--what is it that Gadon want's so badly?"

"Why, it's an accelerator, of course. Not that the Vulkars have it, Gadon's swoop[er doesn't stand a chance."

"Shall I kill them now, darling?"

"Not yet, dear. Perhaps this one could be of use to us."

"Forget it! I'm not here to work for you."

Carth aimed his two blasters at the Twi'lek guard's forhead. "Hand over the accelorator, or we'll blast a hole in you big enough for a star cruiser to fly through.

"Ah, well. Kill them, my sweet."

The two Twi'leks never stood a chance. Carth fired his blaster before the guard had finished speaking, and Nik had shot his companion. However, the Black Vulkar's energy shields absorbed each shot entirely. Blaster fire tore through Nik's shoulder, tearing apart the wound he had mended only minutes earlier. A shot to the chest hurled Carth onto the floor. The energy shields deflected shot after shot, until Nik resorted to beating the guards with the butt of his rifle. Carth used his strangle hold on the other.

Nik grabbed the key card from the male guard's corpse and swiped it through the reader. With one hand he relieved the safe of the swoop part and tossed it to Carth, with the other he signalled Mission on his comlink. "We've got the accelerator. Meet us back at the Bek base."

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