Jedi Adept: A Path In The Dark Ch. 19

Previous Chapter

---

He neared the gate, and sent the command to activate the doors. They rolled open slowly, even as he accelerated towards the opening. The explosions near the main gate had gotten louder, and he needed to get the children to safety—so he could come back and help Noelani.

Frowning, his eyes flickered around, and instantly he recognized the numerous machines on the far side of the entrance as hostiles.

There were at least a dozen speeder-bikes and around half that many military-grade air-speeders.

He blinked for a moment, weighing his options. When he realized that he had none, he punched the throttle. The girls in the seat behind him yelped in surprise as the speeder rocketed forward. Acceleration pushed them all against the back of their seats, and suddenly they were through the gates, and past the military blockade.

He glanced over his shoulder and saw two of the speeders and around 5 of the bikes racing after him. He knew he could out-run the speeders; while they did have military-grade engines, they also had all the additional weight of their armor and weapons to carry.

It was the speeder bikes that would catch him.

Facing forward, he wondered what he could do; how he could fulfill his promise to Noelani and make sure the kids were safe.

A proximity alarm started beeping from the in-dash console, and he sent the speeder into a sharp dive. The beeping grew more insistent, and he glanced behind himself to find a pair of missiles heading towards him.

"Kriff," he yelled, as he twisted the yoke. Angling close to the nearest building, he skimmed its surface, and let out a sigh as two explosions erupted behind him.

Pushing the throttle forward, he darted ahead, and suddenly he pulled the throttle all the way back and swung the speeder around so that it hovered in the traffic lane; his door facing the oncoming speeders.

Raising his blaster he fired three times, and watched as one of the riders fell away. Grinning, he focused on the next speeder and fired twice more.

Then he noticed movement, and his eyes flicked over just as a rider-less speederbike slammed into the side of his vehicle.

There was a squeal of stressed metal, and his speeder went up on its edges. The bike that had rammed him, careened upwards and towards a building, and his blaster pistol fell down towards the ground beneath them.

Sighing, he pushed the throttle and leveled out the speeder, hunting for a way to escape. Only to find the remaining two speeder bikes coming towards him.

Chase cursed as he swerved the speeder around. The latest in a series of explosions rocked the vehicle up on its side, and he glanced upwards at the military-grade speeders advancing towards him.

His lips pulled back in a snarl, as he pushed down on the stick, and pulled it to the right, sending his speeder into a sharp dive. The girls strapped into the seats behind him screamed, as Huff, bounced up and down in his own seat next to him.

Chase shook his head, realizing that this was the most animated he had ever seen the young child.

Another air-burst rocked the speeder, and he twisted the yoke, sending them spiraling around.

An action which caused Prilla and Jena to scream even louder. He winced as their shrieks dug into his skull.

He leveled out the speeder and set it to hover, and then stuck his hand behind him. "Give me a blaster rifle."

"All right," Jena called out and a moment later the barrel of his rifle slapped into his palm.

He quickly pulled the weapon around, and rested it on the doorframe. He squeezed off a handful of shots, catching one of the speeders in its front air-intake. A smile came to his lips as the speeder careened out of control, heading towards the ground beneath them. Dropping the blaster into his lap, he pushed the throttle forward and once again, almost laughed as Huff started bouncing in his seat.

Suddenly, there was the sharp screech of metal being sheared apart, and the controls in his hand became unresponsive. He looked forward and noticed that they were hurtling towards a walkway. He grimaced, and glanced over at Huff, noticing that he was no longer bouncing in his seat.

Then they hit the walkway, and the impact foam flowed around them.

-------------------------------

Noelani cradled her wounded shoulder as best as she could, while still hanging onto the undercarriage of the troop transport as it flew through the warrens of the Coruscant undercity. She had pulled her Force presence as close to herself as possible, trying to hide herself from the Jedi that she had watched board the next transport over.

The wind tugged at her tunic, and she shifted her head, so she could once more look down. The apparently unending depths of Coruscant flashed by, and she wondered, not for the first time, just how crazy she was to be doing this.

Yet, she needed to be taken to the Guard's base in this sector, as that was the most likely location for where Asyra'mata was being held.

As the other troop transport pulled away, she let out a short sigh of relief. She was certain if that Jedi had sensed her he would have stayed.

She closed her eyes, and stretched out, trying to feel Chase or one of the kids. When she received nothing from the Force, she frowned and once more opened her eyes. Looking ahead, she saw a squat, grey dome directly ahead.

A portal began to open on the top of the dome, spilling warm yellow light into the perpetual smog of the undercity. The transport she was riding in swerved towards the opening, and began descending.

She felt herself grinning slightly, trusting the Force that it had led her to the correct Guard headquarters where Asyra'mata was being held prisoner.

As they passed into the dome, she stretched out once again, this time hunting for Asyra'mata. When she felt the familiar mental patterns of her friend, it was all she could do to not let out a scream of joy.

Instead, she sent a wave of reassurance towards her and then shut down in the Force; knowing that either her mother or that Jedi would be around somewhere.

Finally, the transport's landing gear rolled out; they were long skids on either side of the transport. The repulsor engines began to whine, and jets of smoke erupted from the sides as columns of superheated steam flashed outward.

Almost losing her grip on the underside of the transport, Noelani grimaced as the steam instantly both soaked and burned her.

Then the transport was safely on the ground. A ramp lowered at the rear of the vehicle, and the Guardsmen and their prisoners stomped down the gangplank, heading deeper into the compound.

Finally, the pilot and co-pilot left the cockpit, and disappeared, and Noelani allowed herself to drop to the ground.

The sudden impact aggravated the burns on her back, and she yelped in instinctive alarm.

Her hand slapped over her mouth, and she stretched out with the Force, trying to see if anyone had heard her. When no sense of alarm came back to her, she rolled out from underneath the transport and glanced around.

She spied three cameras between her and the door way, and as she started running, reached out and sent a surge of energy towards them.

She reached the door and gently touched the keypad next to it. Her hand hovered there for a moment as she felt the keys, sensing the different amounts of use each key had suffered.

Hoping that her luck holds out, she quickly punched in the sequence that she had constructed in her head from what the Force told her.

Squeezing her eyes shut, she hit the last key, fully expecting an alarm to begin wailing. When instead the door in front of her snapped open, she stumbled back a step in surprise.

Quickly recovering she darted into the room, and instantly reached out with the Force, hunting for any surveillance equipment. She found some, and flash-fried it with the Force--she wanted her arrival to be as much of a surprise for her mother as possible. Glancing to the left and then the right, she turned left and headed deeper into the complex.

As she neared the first corner, her hand slipped to the hilt of her saber that hung from her belt. In a smooth, quiet movement, she unhooked the weapon, and allowed her fingers to caress the activation switch.

She stuck her head around the corner, and just saw another corridor. Spying a doorway halfway down the hall, she rushed that way, and entered the room.

It was empty, but provided a view of a second landing pad. She watched as two military speeders entered the compound, a third, wreck speeder dangling between them.

The damaged speeder was dropped to the ground, and a group of guards rushed out of the door that Noelani had entered the compound through.

Quickly, they began spraying a dissolvent on the crash-foam. Noelani stared transfixed. She wasn't certain why, but she had to watch. She had to see. Absently she noted that the other two transports had landed. Movement from one caught her eye, and she saw her mother get out of the transport.

Cursing under her breath, she focused once again on the wrecked speeder.

Her mother got closer, and was standing there as the last of the crash foam was dissolved and washed away.

Then the rest of Noelani's world crumbled. She slammed her fist against the plasteel window as she saw Chase, Jena, Prilla and Huff being dragged from the speeder. Their bodies hung limp between the guards as they were dragged away.

Noelani gulped at the air, trying to catch her racing heart.

She slammed her fist against the window again, and it reverberated in its frame. Noelani looked at it, and saw the spiderweb of cracks radiating out from the spot where she had struck it.

Horror sunk in as she realized that she had drawn on the Force when she had hit the window.

Her gaze shifted towards her mother once again, and found her staring directly at her.

Noelani swallowed, and backed away from the window.

---

Next Chapter