Have decided to listen to Two Steps From Hell while writing battle scenes.
Chapter 2: Time for a Bloodbath
Nar Shaddaa had to be one of his least favourite places in the galaxy. On one hand, at least it was an actual city and not a mud pit. On the other hand, it was a really terrible city filled with some of the worst individuals the galaxy had to offer. And it stank, no matter where he went in it. And even though he tried to clean the residue off his boots whenever they returned to the ship, they still felt sticky and oily afterwards. Thank goodness for his service gloves.
And now they were attacking Imperial forces to relieve pressure on a Republic military outpost, because that would displease the Sith Lord who fancied himself a rival to Lord Baras. Quinn was a loyal man, and would do much to repay the debt he would never not owe to Baras, and to stabilize the Empire, but this situation wouldn’t happen on a civilized planet.
Akuliina didn’t seem to care. She’d left Vette on the ship with instructions to stay out of trouble, and Vette had been agreeable about it – too agreeable, perhaps? Maybe she was up to something. But in any case, the white-haired woman ahead of him seemed no less enthusiastic to be attacking Imperial forces than Republic ones, or Lord Rathari’s apprentice. He’d thought she was as devoted to the Empire as he was; was it possible he was wrong, and she only enjoyed killing?
The Republic base had been breached, and their soldiers still held the high ground, firing from behind thick but hastily-cobbled-together barricades. Closer to the pair of them, the Imperials had thrown together their own cover, but they were getting ready for a push – a big one. Their general turned and saw them.
“You! Halt! I am General Kligton, commanding under the authority of Sith Lord Rathari, appointed to Nar Shaddaa by the Dark Council! Why do you attack the Empire’s men, my lord?”
Akuliina shrugged eloquently. “They fired on us first.” Which was true. But she hadn’t needed to show so much enjoyment in murdering them all. “Tell me where to find Rathari and I’ll leave your men alone.”
The general’s eyes suddenly bulged. “You! You’re the one Lord Rathari said to kill. Bring her down, men!”
He dropped to one knee, sighting, and fired. Akuliina was already in their midst, her lightsabers leaving scarlet streaks through the air. She ignored the general, going straight for the armoured soldiers. They turned to follow her; she was a far greater threat than he was. It wasn’t a terrible strategy, except that he was still very dangerous in his own right.
She whirled and spun, lightsabers twirling in patterns too fast to follow, and blaster bolts seemed to bounce off her as if she was made of mirrors. They’d managed to scrape together some cover and were shooting over it. Cover didn’t help against a Sith. She simply cut through it and kept going. It was a massacre.
And she was smiling. Like this was fun.
There wasn’t time to consider the implications now. His job was to keep her alive and towards that end he crouched behind a crate – cover might not help the other Imperials, but it would sure help him – and fired at anything moving that didn’t have white hair. A few scattered shots came back in his direction and he ducked reflexively, his back pressed to the crate. His cheek stung; he’d been grazed. He popped back out, ready to fire again, but it was all over.
The Republic base was eerily silent now except for the hum of her sabers. The Republic were watching from behind their barricade, and nothing remained of the Imperials except smoking corpses. To a man, they were dead. Horrifying. He stood slowly, cautiously, and took a few sliding steps towards her, blaster held ready. She’d sheathed her lightsabers and looked at him with unconcern before approaching the Republic barricade. The soldiers held their fire; someone inside had the sense not to provoke her. Or were confused about her affiliation, given that she’d just killed all the Imperials attacking them. “I’d like to speak with you!”
After a long pause, a gap was made in the wall of crates and a man in commander’s armour stepped out where they could speak face to face. “What is it, Sith?”
“You risk much, approaching me weaponless,” she commented.
“I doubt a blaster would save me,” the commander said dryly. “Commander Naughlen, 602 Division, Republic Army.”
She smiled broadly. “Very wise, commander. If only all the Republic were as wise as you. Akuliina Volkova.”
“What is it you want, Miss Volkova? A fight? I doubt we can stop you, after seeing what you did to your own side, and I know most Sith don’t accept surrender-”
“Don’t get worked up,” she assured him. “It so happens that an enemy of mine is seeking your destruction, so for the time being, I require you to live and oppose him. However, I will consider this a debt owed me, to be repaid at a time and manner of my choosing.”
The commander sighed heavily, looked away, thinking. “That’s… a fair deal, actually. Very well, Volkova. If your request does not conflict with Republic interests, I pledge to help you. Here’s my comm frequency. I’ll answer your call, you have my word.”
“Good,” she said bluntly, and walked away.
He wondered what she would do with such a favour. It was more strategic than he’d come to expect from her; he’d fully expected her to slaughter the Republic forces with as little concern as the Imperial forces. While it rankled a little to leave the Republicans unchallenged, he had to admit she had a point- her comm was going off already?
Halidrell Setsyn’s voice came through, low and panicky. “My lord, I’m in big trouble. My base is under attack, and my men can’t hold them off for long.”
“Who’s attacking?” Akuliina demanded, breaking into a run; he followed.
“Not sure. Probably Lord Rathari – they’re breaking through the door! Please get back as soon as you can, or I won’t be around to help you much longer! – Oh, no.”
Akuliina pocketed the commlink with a snarl and sprinted ever faster for the road, where they’d parked their rented speeder bikes. He could barely keep up with her; was she using the Force to speed her way? That didn’t seem quite fair. On the other hand, speed was clearly of the essence.
“Come on, Quinn!” she shouted, already astride her speeder, gunning the engine to unhealthy levels and sending it screaming off down the street.
“Right behind you, my lady!” Maybe not quite behind. She rode fast even when she had no particular cause, but when she was in a hurry like now, she was even more reckless when driving than she was in fighting. But she had skill, too, he had to admit. She came so close to flipping her bike so many times, yet she weaved between buildings and traffic and the paraphernalia of the road like a professional racer. She hadn’t ridden like this on the way down, and her concern for her subordinate, for Halidrell was was right and encouraging.
It was still going to take them too long to get back.
Halidrell’s base was nearly empty; only a few enemy soldiers remained, and she cut them down easily. Bodies lay everywhere – the slave trader’s forces had put up a decent fight before succumbing to numbers and military precision. But was that – yes, Halidrell herself lay cold and still; no sign of life, no sign of the Force glowed within her.
Was there some way to discover who had done this? Was it Lord Rathari? Of course Halidrell would have security cams around, in her line of work… the question was, would the intruders have deleted the data?
It seemed they had not. A heavily cloaked Sith entered the camera’s field of view. “You clearly did not know who you were dealing with, Halidrell Setsyn, rat of Baras. Now you pay the price.” He raised his fist and Halidrell clutched at her throat before going limp almost immediately. He must have broken her neck.
As Halidrell’s figure fell to the ground, the Sith turned to the holocam. “You wanted my attention, Volkova, you have it now. I will meet you on the roof of the satellite platform in Network Access this evening. Let us end this swiftly.” The recording ended.
She looked at Quinn. “It’s undoubtedly a trap. He’s being blatantly obvious about it.”
“It is most certainly a trap, my lady. I’m assuming he’ll have back-up forces stationed all over the roof of the building.”
“And I have limited resources here on Nar Shaddaa, now that Halidrell and her agents have been destroyed.” She lifted her chin and looked confidently into stoic deep blue eyes. “Well, time to put that military mind to work, Captain. Find me a solution.”
“Of course, my lady.” Of course he was already puzzling it out. She liked watching him think. “You may have more forces than Vette and me at your disposal. Commander Naughlen and his soldiers owe you a debt, after all.”
“Why Captain,” she purred. “How devious – and bordering on treason.”
He blinked at her. “Perhaps – and yet I believe the ends justify the means. Taking on Lord Rathari and an unknown number of soldiers without reinforcements of our own would be suicide, especially after our exertions earlier today. None of the local Imperial forces will go against Rathari for fear of reprisal, even if they didn’t balk at the idea of killing other Imperials. In this way, you will eliminate your opponent’s support, and possibly weaken the Republic at the same time.”
“Brilliant,” she said, and meant it. “Call them.”
“Yes, my lady.”
Commander Naughlen’s voice came through a few minutes later. “I had a feeling you were going to call, Sith. Can’t say I’m looking forward to this. Let’s get it over with. What do you want us to do?”
“Oh, I think you’ll actually like this request quite a bit, Republic,” she said, smug smile curving her lips.
It all went as planned – Rathari boasted, Agent Dellocon complained that it wasn’t fair, and Naughlen arrived on cue to deal with Rathari’s assassins. And since Agent Dellocon was cowering in a corner, that left Rathari himself for Akuliina. And Quinn, but he wasn’t quite sure how to aid in this battle. If Rathari could deflect laser bolts with the same skill as Akuliina, then his best skill in this situation was nigh-useless. And he doubted she would appreciate him advising her as to placement and strategy during this duel. If she even needed it; she had more experience fighting Sith than he did.
So he kept an eye on everything. On the duel between the Sith, on Agent Dellocon, on the battle between the Republic men and the assassins.
Akuliina wasn’t fighting as recklessly as before, but her eyes were bright with excitement and there was a determined, eager smile on her lips. Her opponent dwarfed her; he was easily a foot taller than her. But she didn’t seem intimidated in the slightest. They circled each other, lightsabers held high, before one or other of them sprang forward to attack and retreated again, testing the waters. Most often it was her. Rathari’s movements were straight, direct, while hers seemed to have an unnecessary number of whirls and flicks. Was it to distract her opponent?
She seemed to decide she’d tested him long enough and plunged in, forcing him back. Rathari did not seem bothered by her aggression, beating away her attacks with powerful counter-blows. She scratched his armour along his left side and leg, but so far she hadn’t gotten in any solid hits – she hadn’t reached flesh yet. And her armour looked thinner than his. She was no longer smiling, and instead looked like she was concentrating very hard. Rathari made a great swing with his purple lightsaber and sent her stumbling back on the defensive, using his superior height and weight to take the initiative. She was losing ground, possibly now even losing the fight – he’d never seen her on the defensive before, and he could tell she was not comfortable in it. If she lost, they were all dead.
Rathari chopped downwards from above; she blocked with both sabers – and slipped, landing on her back. Rathari’s saber swung back… No, stop him!
Quinn dropped instantly to one knee for stability, snapping off a volley of shots centred around Rathari’s midsection. Rathari deflected every one of them. Quinn kept firing, knowing it was futile, seeing the lasers bounce – and several of them were bouncing back in his direction, he was going to get killed by his own shots-
The scarlet flash of a saber deflected them again, out into the smog of Nar Shaddaa. That was all the distraction Akuliina had needed to recover, and now she was back in the fray, back on the attack, where she needed to be. With a roar, she flung herself forwards. A few moments of blistering swordwork later, and Rathari staggered back with a howl, slashed across the right leg and arm.
And that was the end of Lord Rathari. He surrendered immediately. He tried to bargain for his life; killed Dellocon in cold blood when a moment before he had been protecting him. He told her she would surpass her master, and asked that he live to see it.
She refused and cut him down where he stood. It was no more than he deserved, Quinn reflected. But the man’s words bothered him. He knew Sith were vicious towards each other, but surely she would not do something so foolish as challenge Baras. She was good, but not that good.
While he was distracted, Commander Naughlen stepped up. “All right, Volkova, your objective’s been met. May we go now?”
“You did what was asked of you, Commander,” Akuliina replied. “I release you from your debt.” She smiled sweetly. “If we meet again, it will be as enemies and I will destroy you utterly. But yes, you may go. I am not dishonourable.”
Not dishonourable. That was true. Only bloodthirsty.
Commander Naughlen was visibly relieved as he waved his men back towards Republic territory.
As she turned away from them, no longer interested in them, he fell in beside her. “It will be good to get back to the ship and leave this planet.”
She glanced up at him and her lips curved into a wicked smirk. “I think you have an eye for our little Twi’lek back at the ship.”
Emperor’s teeth, now she wasn’t just harassing him for herself, but for Vette too? “I’m not going to dignify that with a response.”
He was left with her cackling as she walked away towards the elevator.