FORSAKEN - Target: Zero

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

"I need a vehicle."

"Where are you headed?

"East." Addia checked Addia checked her Navigation Positioning System in which she had loaded the temple's coordinates from the sacred Jedi text.

"The jungle? Forget it. The Mimbanese Liberation Army holds that part of the planet. You might as well surrender yourselves to them when you walk in."

"I don't remember asking you for your opinion," the Fourth Sister.

"Orders from Moff Essada are to—" Major Staz began to choke.

"My orders come from the Emperor, Major. Don't make me promote the next officer in line to carry out his wishes."

"That's enough," Addia said.

The Fourth Sister waited another beat before letting Staz go. "Now, what were you saying about providing us with proper transportation?"

"Right away, sir." Major Staz massaged his sore throat. "Tell Commander Xodell to prepare two speeders ASAP."

"Yes, sir." A stormtrooper saluted.

The women were taken to a staging area, where an officer, in a long green coat who introduced himself as Commander Xodell, waited with two 125-Z treadspeeder bikes.

"What's wrong with regular speeder bikes?" Addia found the ground-based vehicles a step down in technology.

"Same problem as starships," Commander Xodell said. "Why do you think we have to fight in trenches? The lack of air support makes holding ground in the mud fields impossible. Besides, flying at high speeds through this haze would be akin to suicide."

"This will do." The Fourth Sister mounted one of the crafts. Force adepts didn't need regular sight to navigate.

The women took off at full speed to the bafflement of the soldiers, following Addia's NPS. It took them a couple of hours to arrive at the edge of the jungle. The change of terrain meant they had to travel single file at reduced speed. Entering deeper into the jungle, a fallen tree blocked the trail.

"We have to find a way around." Addia consulted her NPS. "We're close, though.

The Fourth Sister grabbed her half-pike lightsaber. "That tree didn't fall on its own."

Patches of foliage moved around them, as camouflaged members of the Mimbanese Liberation Army revealed themselves, training their blasters at the intruders. The red-skinned, subterranean beings had large, round eyes with spiked brows, and no noses. Their weapons and gear were modified to suit their needs from the equipment given to them by the Republic during the Clone Wars. One of them addressed them in his language.

"What the Void is he saying?" the Fourth Sister said.

"He wants you to surrender your weapons," Ilum said to Addia, reading the Mimbanese's mind.

"He wants us to drop our weapons," Addia said.

"The Void we are." The Fourth Sister said. "Tell them to go away, if they value their lives."

"You can't kill your way to the temple."

"Watch me."

The Mimbanese leader repeated the demand.

"Any ideas?" Ilum said.

"Aside from their role in the war?" Addia said. "All I know is they are an underground species of highly-skilled miners." Then she said to the Fourth Sister as she dropped her blaster, "I agreed to take you to the temple, not to be an accomplice to slaughter."