Muunraker/Chapter 4

Muunraker

Chapter 4 Ball of Fire

On Fondor, MI5 agents Moonreaper, Taproot and Funkistann flew the Durasteel Rancor away from the spaceport following the tracking beacon inside Den Drumb's company speeder. They followed the signal to the edge of Obsidian City where they found a tall, wide building amongst the cityscape. Landing platforms dotted all sides. The beacon led right to the building. As the Rancor approached it, the agents could see large shipping crates stacked everywhere on the building's roof. There were a few smaller ships docked on the landing platforms protruding from the building and some beings wondering around.

The agents landed the Rancor on the roof of the building next to it, which was a bit taller. They couldn't land where the crates were because they didn't want to draw attention. The ship touched down and a maintenance worker came running over. The patch on his overalls read "Mel".

"Hey! You can't land that thing here! This is private property!"

Shasta was the first to walk down the ramp and hear him yelling.

"You hear me? Get that thing outta here, or I'll have you arrested! I'll call the authorities!"

Shasta flashed her badge to the Human. "MI5 business. We are the authorities."

Gruu and Pandolfo exited the ship. Gruu waved his hand toward Mel. "You-sa will allow us-en to land here."

"I will allow you to land here," the Human worker repeated mindlessly.

"Now go about you-sa business."

"I'll go about my business." Mel, in a Force-induced trance, turned and walked away.

"I wish I could pull off that kind of trick," Pandolfo stated as they headed to the edge of the roof.

The building with the crates was below them. It was roughly 50 yards out and at least twice that distance further down. A pretty far jump and a long drop.

"Yeah, there's no way we can make that," Pandolfo said, feeling the breeze from the late afternoon air.

"That's why we have Q'u Branch, boy," Shasta explained. "He gave us those jet-boot-things."

"Yeah, but aren't they designed for Humans?" Pandolfo glanced down at his feet. Gruu wouldn't fit into them either. Pandolfo shook his head. "Q'u..." he muttered, disappointed with the department.

"Well," Gruu said, "Me-sa can Force-jump da gap, plus use da Force to cushion da landing."

"But what about me?" Pandolfo asked.

Shasta and Gruu looked at each other, both thinking the same thing.

- - - - - - - - - -

Within minutes, the three were back at the edge of the roof ready to jump. Shasta was wearing the Jet Boots and Gruu was carrying Pandolfo...piggyback. Gruu was bent over a bit to compensate for the extra weight. He had no idea Nosaurians weighed so much.

"This is so humiliating," Pandolfo grumbled. "Whatever you do, don't tell the other agents about this."

Shasta fired up the boots, just like Q'u taught them. As she was slowly lifted up a few inches off the ground, her body started to wobble. She tried to keep her feet level, steadying herself. It was trickier than it looked. "Alright," she said. "We've gotta move quickly before they see us." She pointed downward. "Land behind those blue crates on the edge of the roof."

The ledge behind the blue crates was pretty small. That area she just designated as a "landing zone" looked to be about five feet wide.

Pandolfo swallowed hard, hoping Gruu was a good-enough Force-User to make that leap.

Shasta dipped her toes downward causing the repulsors in the boots to push her body forward. She then glided out over the edge. She began to fall at a diagonal angle, the repulsors slowing her fall.

Gruu watched her glide down toward the building then closed his eyes, feeling the Force. He opened them and took a few steps for a running start. As the Gungan Jedi leaped out over the gap, Pandolfo's grip tightened around Gruu's throat.

Shasta managed to maneuver the boots just enough that she made it to the ledge. Shutting off the boots, she turned to look up at her fellow agents. They seemed to be falling at a much quicker rate than she did.

Further into the roof, if one of the beings was looking, they would have seen the agents jumping down from the higher building. One of them happened to turn just as Gruu and Pandolfo dropped out of sight behind the crates. Lucky for MI5 he didn't see them.

Behind the crates, Gruu was a bit distracted with the grip around his throat that he almost missed the ledge. His feet landed right on the edge. The Force-cushioned landing didn't hurt, but Gruu suddenly found himself tipping backward from the weight of the Nosaurian on his back.

Shasta reached out and grabbed Gruu's Jedi robes, pulling them back in toward the crates.

Gruu leaned up against the tall stack of crates as Pandolfo slid off his back. "That was...scary," Pandolfo said between breaths.

"You guys alright?" Shasta asked.

"Aside from my heart racing a hundred kilometers an hour," Pandolfo said, "yes."

Gruu nodded, catching his breath. "Me-sa is okey-dey."

- - - - - - - - - -

Shasta peeked out from behind the stack of crates. There were at least a dozen beings walking around, moving crates and loading them on to the docked ships.

"I'm guessing the crates are probably full of weapons," she said to the others. "Gruu?" She nodded toward one of them.

Gruu ignited his lightsaber and stabbed the lock on the crate Shasta had indicated. While Gruu deactivated the lightsaber, Shasta took another quick peek to make sure no one heard the noise. She then pulled the lid off the crate they had just broken into.

"Eureka," she said.

The crate was full of different sized blasters.

"All these crates are full of weapons," Pandolfo stated.

"Then we'll blow the whole place," Shasta responded, pulling explosives and a remote detonator from inside her vest. "Sneak along the rim of the roof placing the mines as you go and we can blow them all simultaneously." She handed some of the remote mines to her fellow agents. "We'll meet back her before we detonate 'em."

"But da beings will get caught in da blast," Gruu said. "Dey will all be killed."

Shasta said, "Put you Jedi Code on hold for a few minutes, Gruu. We've got a mission to accomplish."

- - - - - - - - - -

The three agents went their separate ways, sneaking their way around the roof planting the explosives. As Gruu ducked behind a stack of crates, he noticed a larger crate sitting by itself in a corner of the roof. He suddenly felt something faint in the Force.

He reached out, feeling for...wait! There was a faint life force in that lone crate. He slowly crept over to it, keeping low so no one could see him. Using his lightsaber to break open the lock, he lifted the lid. A Sullustan was inside. It was Den Drumb and he was barely alive. There were blood stains on his clothing.

"By da Force!" Gruu exclaimed. "Den Drumb."

Drumb tried to speak.

"No, no. Don't talk," Gruu told him. "Save you-sa strength. Me-sa is gettin' you-sa outta here.

"I tried..." Drumb muttered. "...tried to...to stop him..."

"Stop who?"

Drumb suddenly went silent and there was a look of horror on his face.

"He's probably talking about me."

Gruu spun around when he heard a deep, booming voice from behind him. He found himself face-to-face with the tall human that had a metal jaw.

"Jaws!" Gruu exclaimed, reaching for his lightsaber.

But Jaws grabbed his arm before he could reach it. Jaws seemed pretty quick for a big man. With his other hand, Jaws grabbed Gruu's throat. Gruu started gasping for air, his elongated tongue dangling from his mouth.

"A Jedi," Jaws observed. "A Jedi could be worth a lot of money to the right people."

Gruu was still gasping, tried to suck in some air. Jaws tossed him down into the large open crate, slamming him on top of the Sullustan. Gruu took a deep breathe, trying to regain himself. As Jaws reached for the lid of the crate, a blaster bolt ricocheted off his metal Jaw, throwing him off-balance.

Not far away, Pandolfo was kneeling behind a crate with a blaster in his hands. "Damn, I missed," he muttered. "That figures... I had to hit the only part of his body that's not vulnerable."

Suddenly, Pandolfo was surrounded by beings wielding blasters. "Uh oh."

"That's it," Shasta's voice was heard over the MI5 communicators. "I'm blowing it right now."

"No, wait!" Gruu responded, climbing out of the crate frantically. "We-sa are still on da building!" He then saw all the armed beings approaching. Jaws was nowhere to be found.

"3, 2, 1," Shasta counted. "Jump!"

Gruu reached out and Force-Pushed Pandolfo off the edge of the building just as he himself jumped. Blaster bolts began flying as the roof of the building exploded. The mines MI5 placed, coupled with the massive amounts of weapons, plus the fuel in the small ships, caused quite an explosion. An enormous ball of fire engulfed the top of the skyscraper. The windows on the next few floors down blew out from the concussive blast, along with the windows on the neighboring buildings.

As Gruu and Pandolfo fell, Gruu used the Force to soften their landing on a landing platform protruding from the building further down. It was a pretty far fall so they both hit hard on the platform.

Gruu landed hard on his left side. Pain shot through his arm. He rolled over on to his back and looked at his arm. A blaster bolt had cut straight through his shoulder. Then landing on it caused some serious pain. He looked back up to see the raging fire and debris above him.

"You alright?" Pandolfo asked. Gruu looked over to see Pandolfo hobbling toward him. He appeared to be limping.

"Me-sa will be fine." Using his good arm, he propped himself up and got to one knee. "How about you-sa?"

"Twisted my ankle on the landing. But other than that, I'm good." He helped Gruu to his feet. "Yeah," Pandolfo said, examining Gruu's wounded shoulder. "We'll put some bacta on there when we get back to the ship."

"You guys okay?" Shasta asked from above.

The two of them looked up to see Shasta slowly and safely using the Jet Boots to float down to the landing platform. Debris was still falling from the top of the building. Shasta swatted some ash from her face as she landed.

"That was stupid off you!" Pandolfo yelled at her. "You could've killed all of us!"

"This building is loaded with landing platforms all the way down," she explained. "I knew Gruu would be smart enough to aim for one of 'em. Those guys up there had you both surrounded. They're the one's that woulda killed you. Besides, we have to do everything necessary to accomplish the mission."

Gruu looked up at the fire above them. "M won't be likin' dis."

"That was a pretty destructive move," Pandolfo added.

"That's MI5 for ya," Shasta responded. "We've got a reputation to live up to," she added, referring to the destruction they caused in their previous missions in recent years.

"Oh, no," Gruu said. "Den Drumb was up dare. He-sa didn't haveta die. Me-sa coulda saved him-sa."

"And Jaws was up there, too," Pandolfo added.

"Jaws?" Shasta asked. "He was here?"

"He disappeared just before the blast," Pandolfo answered. "No telling if he was killed or not."

Shasta looked upward to the burning building. "Well, at least the weapons have been taken care of. Now let's get back to the ship before we have to mess with the local authorities."

"We-sa are MI5. We-sa outrank dem."

"Yeah, I know. But I still hate dealing with those morons," Shasta said. "Come on. Let's get the hell outta here."

Chapters: Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | Epilogue