Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: Vima's Saga/Chapter Four

Chapter Four Previous chapter
 * The footsteps of the two humans was strangely echoed through the long pipe as they progressed, accompanied by the soft whirring of the astromech droid's wheels as he kept pace. There was little ambient light to show the way, but soon enough the trio came upon an access hatch. The door hissed open quietly, and, with Vima in the lead, they ventured out into the lower level of the fuel depot.
 * "Coast is clear, let's go," she whispered, before moving on.
 * Despite the elimination of the assassin droid behind the mass slaughter of the facility's staff, yet more rogue mining droids prowled the level. Working together, the scoundrel, the exile, and the astromech unit bashed and blasted their way to a turbolift that led to the hangar bay controls.
 * "Okay, here we go," Atton said. "The hanger bay controls are up on that console. We just have to&mdash;"
 * A staccato of whistles and chirps emminated from the droid.
 * "What's gotten into him?"
 * "He says that the hanger controls have been sabotaged," Vima translated.
 * "How the hell do you know what that thing's saying, anyway?" Atton asked, surprised and a little miffed.
 * "I served with a lot of utility droids during the..." She paused, glanced for a moment at her hands, then back at Atton. "Well, a long time ago."
 * While Atton stood post, Vima and T3 went up to the console and, using the circuit that had been stashed in the tunnel along with the droid, fixed the terminal. As the door unlocked and opened, the three made their way through the corridor toward the hangar access and decontamination chamber. They hadn't gotten more than halfway down the hall before a pair of excavator droids homed in on them. Propelling herself forward through a combination of the Force and experience, Vima performed a tight tuck-and-roll, coming up shooting. Combined with Atton and T3's laserfire, the two droids went down quickly.
 * More droids were waiting in the decon room, but they were dispatched in short order. With T3's help, the decon vents were closed and the port onto the hanger deck itself was opened. After making their way through the short, rocky tunnel connecting the bay with the rest of the facility, they saw it, the Dynamic-class freighter Ebon Hawk.
 * "Nice ship," Atton remarked snidely. "Did it come that way or did you hire some Hutts to redecorate it?"
 * "Cute, Atton," Vima shot back. "Now hurry up before someone else decides to crash the party!"
 * The trio sprinted for the lowered entrance ramp, Atton at the front and Vima bringing up the rear. Just as she ascended the ramp, however, she caught sight of a glint of shiny chrome armor.
 * "Get this thing fired up now!" she hollered toward the cockpit. "Enemy troops inbound!"
 * "It'll take a minute," Atton replied. "This thing has a laser turret! Have some fun while I warm up the engines!"
 * While the astromech droid plugged himself into the ship's computer terminal at the center of the freighter's main hold, Vima took control of the ventral blaster cannon. What seemed like a whole company of armored troops were advancing on the ship, using cover and concealment to minimize their chances of getting hit. Well, that was all well and good against other soldiers, but against a ship-mounted gun, that wasn't enough. Several cylinders blew up under Vima's fire, sending troops flailing through the air, while cargo crates were knocked away, exposing the soldiers hiding behind to the Hawk's ruthless fire.
 * "All set, let's get the kriff out of here," Atton bellowed.
 * Vima abandoned her station to make sure there were no uninvited guests aboard, to find that one had in fact made it. The masked trooper barely had time to raise his weapon before she unleashed a blast of the Force that knocked him flat; Vima dispatched him with a quick shot to the man's unarmored throat. As she rose, she caught sight of Kreia, in the companionway, clutching her left wrist. As the ship roared out of the hanger bay and into the asteroid field, Vima braced herself, then halted beside the oldster.
 * "Your hand, what happened to it?" she asked.
 * "There is no time," Kreia managed. "We must leave."
 * The freighter rocketed its way through the field, green turbolaser bolts from the Harbinger's main batteries filling the space around them with coherent light. Atton was hunched over the console, doing his best to coax more speed out of the ship's ion engines while still avoiding rocks and laser blasts. "Either they hit us and we're dead, or they keep missing and we're dead," he ground out. "What wonderful odds."
 * T3 belted out another chorus.
 * "Somebody shut that rolling trash compacter up!"
 * "Keep as much distance as you can," Vima advised.
 * "I'm doing my best but that's not enough," Atton retorted, "What did you do to make those freaks so mad? Either they hit us or they hit one of the asteroids, and then the whole field will go nova. We'll be as good as gone!"
 * "Keep her steady, Atton, we'll get through this," Vima urged.
 * "What of the asteroids?" Kreia interjected. "They can be destroyed by us as well as them, can they not?"
 * "Oh, of course, but who's to say we won't just be killing ourselves? We might not even get into hyperspace in time!"
 * "Then we die here. Choose now."
 * Vima didn't even need to consider it. Destroying the facility when there was still hope, however faint, that someone might be alive was unconscionable. During the Wars, she had had to send many beings to their deaths, but she had never asked anyone to do anything that she would not do herself. Every erg of the Force that had begun to renew its flow through her told her to hold fast, that they would escape. "No. There may still be someone alive in there."
 * "Hold on! This is gonna get rocky!"
 * Asteroids continued to whiz in and out of the viewport as the Ebon Hawk pitched and rolled in a random, desperate pattern, Atton fighting for every meter of separation. Finally, the last asteroid zoomed by; Atton pulled the hyperdrive levers, and the stars stretched into lines as the glow of igniting rocks lit up the field.


 * "That was too close," Atton muttered as he turned to face Vima and Kreia. "Now that we've just killed a planet, one of you mind telling me what in all nine Corellian hells is going on here? Between assassin droids, cloaked Sith maniacs, a Sith Lord who looks like he sleeps with vibroblades, and being target practice for a Republic cruiser, I was better off in my cell!"
 * "The warship was the Harbinger," Kreia replied, somehow managing to keep an even tone to her voice despite the recent departure of her hand. "It was seized by the Sith on its way to Telos. They sought you, Vima."
 * "Telos? Why would the Harbinger be going there?" Vima asked.
 * "To aid in the recovery efforts there," Kreia replied. "All roads lead to Telos, including ours."
 * "Not that we have a choice," Atton put in. "It's the only point the Peragus star charts had on them."
 * "How were you able to find me?" Vima wanted to know. "It couldn't have been easy."
 * "It was not," Kreia replied. "But coincidence was on our side. When I learned you were aboard, I knew the Sith would be close behind. When we intercepted the ship, it was derelict, abandoned; it was a simple matter to board and rescue you. Unknown to me, however, the Sith were still aboard. Just as we made the jump to hyperspace, they fired upon us, nearly destroying the Ebon Hawk"
 * Vima wasn't convinced. Something about this story didn't add up&mdash;this, combined with her disdain for coincidences, put the exile on her guard. Someone, the Sith apparently, had attacked the Ebon Hawk while en route to Peragus, but someone had also seen to it that she was out of the picture, yet still unharmed. How could the Sith miss such a prize as an unconscious ex-Jedi, ripe for the killing? Vima decided to play along.
 * "Why don't I remember this?" she asked.
 * "You had been rendered unconscious by some means, I do not know how. Though your thoughts were faint, I was able to detect you; you had been sealed in a cargo hold."
 * Vima raised an eyebrow. "That's an unusual set of circumstances."
 * "True, but you know that true coincidences are rare."
 * T3 let loose with another smattering of droidspeak. "Be silent! We're having a conversation," Kreia admonished, but the droid continued its electronic babble.
 * "He says that he fixed the ship enough to get us to Peragus," Vima translated, with no small amount of humor and pride. Whomever had owned this droid before had been a lucky being indeed.
 * "Repaired this ship, my eye," Atton said bluntly. "Next thing you know, it's gonna claim credit for saving our skins. If that little noisemaker fixed it once, he can do it again. Go on, get!"
 * Wanting to get the obvious question out of the way, Vima asked "So why are these Sith looking for me?"
 * "Because you are the last Jedi," Kreia answered curtly. "Once you are dead, then they will have won."
 * Vima paused, choosing her words carefully. "Though my mother was once head of the Jedi Council, they exiled me after the Mandalorian Wars. I am no longer considered a Jedi."
 * "Whatever you tell yourself, the Sith believe you to be the last Jedi Knight, and that is all that matters."

Vima was in shock. She hadn't wanted to accept this when Atton had first told her about it, back on Peragus, but as Kreia said the words, the exile knew them to be true. It was finite and irrevocable, and now she had to accept it and go forward. That simple truth, proved time and again before, during and after a hundred battles, had always been her connection to sanity, to the galaxy, to the Force, even when it was taken from her. Still, this Kreia had answers, answers she needed to fill in the gaps that remained. "What about the Jedi on Coruscant and Dantooine?"
 * "The Jedi Civil War happened," Kreia continued mercilessly. "When Revan and Malak came with their armies, many Jedi fell in battle, while many more were seduced by Revan's teachings. The academy at Dantooine is but an empty shell surrounding a crater that echoes with the voices of dead Jedi. The temple on Coruscant lies empty; the waters in the Room of a Thousand Fountains are silent, in memory of the fallen Jedi, and those now lost. Many Jedi blamed the old Masters for Revan's fall, and the war that followed."
 * Vima lowered her head in thought, her eyes hooded. Her face seemed to age a decade as she contemplated these revelations, but that did not matter; at last, there was time now to dwell on such things. Nomi had died not long before the Mandalorians had begun their campaigns beyond the Rim. This Vima regretted, for she knew that her mother would have seen as she saw, knew that action had to be met with action, as Vima had done at Revan's behest all those years ago. Her mother had been wise, but not hidebound, and she had faced the Sith head-on and bested them in necessary battle. The other Masters had not; indeed, not a single member of the Jedi Council that had banished her&mdash;save one&mdash;had ever known war, and even he had agreed to the pronouncement of judgment.
 * She did not hate him for this; no, hate was not a part of Vima Sunrider's life. All the things she had done, during the Wars in particular, but even before then, had made her who she was. Her training with Ulic had taught her the hard truth of it all: Evil must be fought. She hadn't hated the Mandalorians, though she had slain them in their thousands, indirectly and by her own blade. She didn't hate the Sith, even as they hounded her, anxious for the final blow. She didn't hate the galaxy, the Republic, or the Jedi who had sworn to protect it. But it needed someone&mdash;anyone&mdash;to fight for it, to fight for civilization, and the peace it creates. Though she may be the last Jedi, and right now she wasn't quite ready to accept that, she had to be sure. Vima had taught her share of students, and had had a padawan before the Wars; she resolved right there and then that even if she had to start it over from scratch, there would be a Jedi Order when all was said and done.
 * "If there are others out there, some Jedi who survive, we have to find them," she declared.
 * "Perhaps there are, perhaps not," Kreia countered. "If they live, they are Jedi no longer. If the Sith have not already killed them, then they will not help you, nor can you help them."
 * "Then how do you propose we stop the Sith?"
 * "That...is not an easy question to answer," Kreia pondered. "The threat is greater than you know, and I do not believe it is a battle that can be fought."
 * "What do you think we should do, then?"
 * "Look, enough with the 'we' already, huh?" Atton interjected.
 * "We cannot hope to triumph against them alone," Kreia warned. "To stop them you will need weapons, allies...and a teacher. In the end, I fear that this will not suffice."
 * "You know as well as I do that we have no choice, Kreia," Vima responded.
 * "You fought in the Mandalorian Wars, and it cost you everything. Your mother sacrificed much during the wars that preceeded that conflict, Are you willing to sacrifice as much again?"
 * "It was my choice to fight," Vima replied curtly.
 * "You are not listening to me!" she hissed. "This is unlike any field of battle you have ever fought in. Think hard on your choice. If you choose to fight, if you choose war, it is a path few turn away from once the first steps are taken. It carries with it a terrible price, and in the end, you may find you have nothing left to sacrifice."
 * "If evil is not fought, then we sacrifice the galaxy."
 * "Your fool's words echo of a Jedi. You have much to learn. We have spoken long enough&mdash;and my wound pains me. I shall be in the port crew quarters; seek me out there and we shall talk more."
 * "Hey, don't stop your long, boring rants on my account," Atton piped up. "I was just getting sleepy-eyed."
 * "Also, in private, we will be free from the opinions of imbeciles and fools," Kreia retorted sardonically before turning and walking away.
 * "Look, uh, not that I care or anything," Atton advised, "but you might want to check on our passenger back there&mdash;especially with that hand of hers."
 * "You're right," Vima admitted. "Can you handle things up here?"
 * "The ship's on autopilot while we're in hyperspace," Atton replied. "Until we get to Telos, a droid could fly this bucket. Besides, she really needs your help; she's barely keeping it together. I'm surprised she could stand with all that pain rolling off of her."
 * Vima nodded slightly. "Someone like you would probably be screaming like a stuck mynock, no doubt," she replied, managing to hitch a smile.
 * "A very strong, manly mynock, yeah. In any case, I think she's too proud to show any weakness, especially in front of you."
 * "That's odd."
 * "Is it? In case you haven't noticed, she won't say two words to me, but she'll talk your ear off any chance she gets. What you think matters to her...a lot. She wants you to respect her. Besides, we don't have anything else to do until Telos."
 * Vima nodded again, acknowledging the scoundrel's ability to read people. It was something that she herself was also skilled at, and knowing that she was once again among friends&mdash;perhaps that was too strong a term for the moment&mdash;that she was among allies, made a difference. She couldn't quite explain why. "You're right. I'll go see what she wants. Have fun while I'm gone."
 * With that, Vima turned on her heal and left the cockpit.

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