Jedi Fugitive (The Bad Batch)

39

(Astera):

If the planet had been bad, the inside of Dooku's castle was worse. The cold permeated every surface of the room - a thick, oily feeling that settled like a blanket over me the deeper we headed into the building. The office, if you could call it that, was worst of all. The shadows here almost seemed to speak to me, whispering sinister promises designed to tempt me into the dark power it offered. Whispers that took all my concentration to block out.

"Something wrong?" Hunter asked when I shivered again, shoulders hunching against the onslaught of whispering and cold.

"I can feel the Force," I murmured back quietly, blasters whipping for each corner as we descended the steps into the cavernous room, ready for any hidden threats. "The dark side. It's unnerving."

"This place gives me the creeps," Wrecker agreed, staring at the glass artwork of a window. It had probably been beautiful once, but now, shattered holes gaped in several places, harsh sunlight streaming through them and cutting blinding shapes into the floor. The room felt too large to really be called an office; it was something I expected of a throne room: cold, unforgiving, and huge, the ceilings easily stretching a good fifteen metres above our heads. An office fit for royalty.

The main entrance to the office slammed open, an entire squad of clones on the other side of it. Our blasters jerked up automatically, three stuns hitting the middle clone simultaneously before any of them could react.

We were already backing for the display table at the very end of the room - the only form of cover in this blasted space - even as the trooper was knocked off his feet from the sheer force of the blasts, blue fire filling the air as his compatriots returned fire. I squeezed off another few stun blasts before leaping over the sloped surface of the desk, providing the cover we desperately needed. Smoke curled up where the bolts had burned into the desk, more troopers on the opposite end falling to stun blasts each time we risked ducking out to fire. Though with each trooper that went down, another stepped up to take his place, the barrage of bolts never ending as we took cover behind Dooku's desk.

"Any idea how we're getting out of here?" Wrecker fired off two more stuns, hastily dropping back down to avoid the shot flying over his head before popping right back up to return fire. Hunter's visor darted up to the broken windows, calculating our odds of survival if we jumped, to the slight indent in the section of floor we stood on. It dipped subtly with a creak as I shifted my foot back to centre my balance again, still firing stuns as more troops gathered at the entrance.

I frowned, glancing down at the panel I could now see was clearly outlined around us. Hunter's fingers had already pressed to the area, feeling the change of weight as the pressure on it increased, forcing it down further. "We're not going out, we're going down. There's a lift below us. Cover me."

Another two clones went down as Wrecker and I obediently stuck our heads up again, stuns blasts following us out. Hunter went to work on the consoles in front of him, the screens lighting up and several messages flashing across them as he hurriedly began to press random buttons.

The doors on either side of the room had been forced open now too, even more clones charging into the room and down the stairs. The lead clone on the left side was struck in the face with my stun, pitching sideways off the steps and landing on the ground in a crumpled heap with a loud thud. It did nothing to stop his fellow troopers, live rounds doubling in frequency as they sailed past our heads.

"What is taking you so long?" Wrecker paused momentarily to yell at Hunter, jerking back when a bolt skimmed off the desk next to his head.

"I'm trying! Tech usually does this!"