Chapter 50: Attack in the Underworld
A number of thoughts exploded within Rey’s head all at once. She decided to address the most significant one first and blurted, “Wait, you speak Jawa.”
Emi looked over her expression bland and responded, “With my neuro uplink, I'm fluent in over six million forms of communication.”
Rey felt like she had heard this somewhere before but put the subject out of her mind as she asked again, “I need to know, what did the Jawa say.”
Emi looked over to the Jedi and responded, “It was a rather lengthy monolog...”
Rey was impatient and interrupted, “Was there anything about this camera?”
The more the Jedi looked at the broken piece of technology, the more she felt that she had stumbled across an unexpected lead. The cyborg nodded at this and answered, “While, at the end, she thanked you for the money and confessed that her son wasn’t actually sick.”
Rey helped out the scrap and blurted, “The camera, Emi, please.”
The cyborg's expression did not change, but the Jedi could have sworn she was being teased. The aide dutifully answered, “The Jawa said that it was a really nice camera that she got as a gift from her Uncle… before it got blown up.” Rey waited eagerly for more information, though after a couple moments of silent pace, Emi added, “That's was it.”
Everything suddenly became clear. Based on what Rey was feeling and the evidence she had gathered, it was clear the Dark Apostles were tied directly with this Jawa’s uncle… As soon as this thought entered the Jedi mind, she realized she might, in fact, be a little stupid. She decided to step back and think about the situation.
At two different locations, there had been Dark Apostles bases; at each location, there were remains of a similar kind of camera. At one base, everything had been destroyed. On the other, this type of camera, in particular, had been destroyed before their attack had even begun. Thus, the question is, why destroy a camera, not just any camera, a really nice camera. Suddenly, a lightbulb went off in Rey's head, and she started, “Wait, what if this camera wasn't just destroyed by accident.”
They arrived at their speed and climbed inside as Emi responded, “So you're implying the Dark Apostles deliberately destroyed these Northern Dragon brand cameras because they have extra transmitters and backup batteries to ensure even in the case of a power family, they could still capture footage as a means of ensuring they had a clean getaway.” Rey's mouth fell open in shock as the cyborg took her seat and finished, “It's a plausible theory, but how does it help us find the cultists or their leaders.”
In a split second, Emi had ideated a complete theory Rey knew in her heart might have taken the rest of the day to figure out. As grateful and pleased as she was for the help, her heart still aches, knowing she was supposed to be a ‘wise’ Jedi Master. She also had to admit that on the surface, this seemed like a dead end, yet she did not believe her antics, and, in effect, the Force would misguide her.
After pondering the subject, she crossed her arms, closed her eyes almost as if she were in meditation, and responded confidently, “I don't know…” A moment later, she opened her eyes again and finished, “But I'm sure we're on the right track.”
Emi responded in her usual way, “If you say so.”
Rey’s brow furrowed at this as their droid driver arrived in a safe that would lead them back to the surface, but at this moment, something felt wrong. She moved in a split second and tackled her cyborg friend down to the floor. A high-powered blaster bolt blasted through the air where her head had been and instead impacted their pilot. In a frantic voice, she shouted as their ship began to fall, “Stay low; I'll fix it.”
In near-zero gravity, she scraped over the front seat and then severed herself to the right as another blaster bolt impacted the transport where she had been. Pulling out her lightsaber, she ignited it and defended against a third shot. By this point, she had identified where the ambush was coming from, but the spider had also reached terminal velocity. They had, at most, a minute before they impacted the depths below, a landing platform or some other vehicle.
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The Jedi’s growing panic was amplified when two speeders appeared in front and behind her, both full of heavily armed, dark-clad cultists. A momentary standoff between the two forces was broken by a sudden outburst of blaster fire. Surprisingly, this outburst came from Rey’s own speeder and was instigated by her cyborg aide, who was now wielding a dual balster. With the speed and accuracy of an assassination droid, she shot in two directions at once, her head swiveling quickly to analyze the situation.
Three cultists were hit in the chest in this manner, and another two soon followed. This made up around a third of their total numbers and caused the party to slightly panic. They quickly recovered and opened fire. Rey managed to dodge one bolt and deflect two before hiding. One of the deflect bolts managed to hit an enemy in the arm, though during this time, the cyborg managed to pick off another two. They were still falling as Rey shouted, “I didn't know you could do that.”
Emi responded with her expression unwavering despite the looming death, “I was assigned to protect and guide you.”
Rey nodded and shouted, “Thanks.” Emi shot enough cultists while Rey defended against another volley of blaster fire. She shouted a few words she could not use in front of Fama before calling, “Emi, have a plan.”
The woman called back, “I assume it's a bad one.”
Rey didn't have time to get upset and shouted, “Hold onto me.” Emi grabbed hold in a surprisingly tight bearhug while the Jedi cut her lightsaber through their speeder's engine compartment. The gash began to spark in a frightening manner, and at the same time, the Jedi leaped out of the speed, mustering all of the available force powers to assist her. The speeder blew up behind them, giving them cover while they managed to land on the other enemy craft.
Rey almost passed out from the pain that erupted over her body and in her head, but adrenaline helped clear this up. At the same time as this, Emi related a quick bout of martial arts that left even the Jedi feeling a bit intimidated. The cyborg managed to send two more clocked figures off of the speeder, leaving only three. The pilot panicked and tried to shake them off with some reckless swerving and bucking, but he only managed to eject one of his few remaining allies as the two women clung to the vehicle firmly. Rey also used the pilot's insane driving to launch herself at the last cultist and slash his blaster apart with her lightsaber.
Baster fire from the other speeder full of cultists quickly picked up again as the explosion cleared, though it appeared a couple of enemies had been either stunted or injured. The Jedi and cyborg were again forced to take cover; however, this was made more difficult by the remaining cult that drew a stun rod and the pilot that brought out a blaster.
Rey fought through her discomfort and lurched up as Emi engaged the cultist with the stun rod in close combat. Seconds seemed to pass like hours as the Jedi deflected, reflected, and dodged erratic blaster bolts. Emi, on the other hand, made quick work of her opponent and managed not only to disarm them but also to turn the stun rod against its original owner. She then threw the weapon like a large dagger, which missed the driver of their speeder by a hair. The cultist let out a smug laugh just in time to hear a gargled shout as the pilot of the other speeder full of cultists was hit in the shoulder by the weapon. Rey saw her opening as their pilot turned to check on his comrades by reflex and moved in close. She destroyed his blaster with her lightsaber, blocked his shabby attempt to punch her, latched onto his neck with a hand, and then slammed his face into the ship's dashboard.
As the other speeder of cultists panicked to replace their pilot, Rey tossed the cultist she had just knocked out to the ground and took control of the transport. Her Jedi reflexes suddenly tensed up, and she performed a sudden nosedive while shouting, “Emi, hang on.”
Her sudden course of action allowed her to dodge a sudden barrage of sniper fire, which had died down during the melee. Rey flooded the engine with ions and over-taxed the rear stabilizers but managed to turn the speeder around and curve the nose dive into a rapid ascension. Whoever owned the speeder would probably be weeping, but given that they were probably a terrorist, the Jedi didn't mind ruining their transport. The sniper had now lost the angle they needed to directly attack and began to aim for the speeder's engine and power stabilizers. By relying on some driving that had made the cultist's effort to throw her and Emi look tame, Rey managed to avoid any crippling damage.
During this time, Emi had found a defensive spot to anchor herself and was shooting at the cultists in the other speeder, which was now pressing them again. Intimidated by her incredible aim, most of them hid in the back and only took glancing shots, which made the escape effort much easier. After a few frantic moments of dodging blaster fire and pedestrians alike, they surpassed the altitude of the snipers.
Emi shouted at this point, “We won't make it far like this. The snipers can hit our stabilizers now.”
Rey acknowledged this and shouted back, “Right, take the wheel.”
They shuffled around quickly, and the cyborg remarked while giving the Jedi a blaster, “Don't get shot.”
The Jedi thought these were rather lackluster words of encouragement, but given they were coming from Emi, she decided to cherish them. She hollowed back, “You too.”