The ramp off of the shuttle opened up to a graveyard. The bodies of Stormtroopers and a few people that Calen recognized by their clothing as cultists from the Church of Infinite Perception lay strewn about Bay 327.
"Oh, by the space winds..." Bashin's snout wrinkled in distaste for the sight before them. Looking over the carnage, there were considerably more trooper bodies than those of cultists. A surprise attack, perhaps? The four organics and the one astromech droid moved through, weapons drawn and keeping their eyes open for any attack. None came as they passed into Bay 328, just more bodies and carbon scoring across surfaces where shots had not met their intended target.
"I think the Church finally decided to take over..." Niyasa intoned.
"Definite probability." Calen said. "Doesn't change the plan."
"Right. We split up, hit some key systems and make for the power station." Tessa nodded in agreement. "Niyasa and I can take the first vent. Bashin and Y7 can take the next one. Calen, you and Rook have the third."
"I'm not sure that's a good idea." Calen said. "Me taking a vent, I mean."
"What?" Tessa stared at him.
"...Critus is here. He can sense me." Calen said. "And Niyasa, too." The Wookiee barked in a confused tone. "Yeah, Rook, I know."
"How do you know that?" Tessa's face paled. "What are you even talking about?"
"No, I can sense it, too." Niyasa chirped. "Critus is like us...he has the Force..."
"That explains the lack of a welcome party." Bashin grimaced.
"It changes nothing." Calen said. "You guys hit the vents...I'll run distraction." Rook gave a few short, choppy barks. "Sorry, we'll run distraction."
"How?" Tessa asked.
"Doing something...unexpected." Calen said, walking toward the hatch leading out into one of the corridors, to the surprise and exasperation of his fellow human. Rook followed after him, growling and shrugging to the others as he did so. Their course took them down a lengthy corridor, which was devoid of any Troopers, crewmen, or officers. As he drew closer, he felt the pulsing energy...that sickening feeling sinking deeper into the pit of his stomach. The Dark Side.
'The Dark Side is a perversion of the Force for selfish or evil ends. It, too, is a great power, though it comes at a grave cost.' The words of Jedi Master Karras Toph echoed through Calen's mind. He could definitely feel the great power of the Heart, he had seen what it could do...felt the devastation in its wake. As he'd kept Karideph with his friends, he'd been determined to stop it...now, though, he wondered if they could. If he could do this.
His step stilled as he stood there, in this corridor that seemed to stretch on until infinity. It seemed...hopeless. Impossible. Calen could feel the utter power of the Heart, the power that Critus now had at his command, almost as if it were pulsing through the very walls. He stopped, blaster in hand, staring down into that endless pathway that seemed as though it would go nowhere. It was fruitless...pointless. He could already see it: Critus bringing the Vigilant Warden down to Karideph and laying waste to it just as Ayro had Gehenna.
And then he remembered...
"Focus on the here and now. Forget everything else. Just focus here." Niyasa's words to him back on Gesaril flowed through him. He stepped forward.
"Nice shooting, Blue Eight." Bashin's encouragement rang in his ears, fresh from the battle that had only happened hours before. He stepped forward.
"Yeah, so, uh...try not to die out there, alright?" Tessa's request came back to him, the one from before that battle. He'd lived through that. He would live through this. They all would. He stepped forward.
"Keep up the fight for me. Promise me. PROMISE ME!" Ordos' words had him running, full sprint. The hallway before him didn't seem to stretch on so long now, into that dark and empty place. Instead, it led to a lift. The lights came up again as he passed them. He got aboard, Rook joining him.
The Wookiee gave a questioning set of growls, as if asking Calen if he was alright.
"I...I will be, Rook. I will be." Calen said, nodding as the lift took them up to their destination.
The lift opened up onto the bridge. Critus turned to see the young man approaching. With a wave of his hand, he set the others back to work.
"So, you've finally come." Critus said.
"I guess I have." Calen said, his blaster still raised. Rook, likewise, has his own rifle ready to fire.
"You no longer need that." Critus gestured with a hand, trying to remove the object. It moved slightly, but Calen's grip remained firm and soon it settled again. "...strong willed, aren't you?"
"I'm stubborn that way" Calen said, steeling himself.
"It means nothing." Critus said. "The Empire. The Rebellion. They mean nothing. When the galaxy Ascends, they will be nothing."
"Not today." Calen said, his blaster still pointed at the man. "Today is the day where I stop you." Before Critus could reply, he'd opened fire on the man. Rook joined in. The blaster bolts came at him and, like so many that had that day, they stopped in the air right before the holy man.
"Really? Did you think that would work?" Critus snorted, not having moved a muscle to stop the bolts. "I am connected to the Heart...I have been since I was but a child. It's power flows through me...and I will open the Way."
"Yeah, I thought you were going to say something like that." Calen said.
As he absorbed the bolts into his hand, he heard something clatter against the walkway...a silvered sphere that began to beep, and a roar from the Wookiee got his attention. "You fool!" The flames erupted, enveloping the man in fiery light. Calen almost heaved as he was thrown back beyond the flames along with Rook, back into the lift...which slowly began to descend back whence it had come...
Rook, his fur singed, growled at Calen.
"Yeah, yeah, bad idea, I know..." Calen hissed a bit.
* * *
"Attach this to that coupling." Niyasa tossed Tessa thermal detonator.
"Got it." Tessa attached it to the base of the fixture, setting it for a countdown. "How many more?"
"Six." Niyasa said. "If Shinban and Y7 have theirs taken care of, we'll be good to go."
"If we timed this right." Tessa commented glumly.
"The Force is with us." Niyasa said.
"You sound so confident."
"Have to be." Tessa looked at the Mrlssi with surprise. "I don't have a big heroic 'everything's going to be alright' speech in me for every occasion, Tess."
"I guess not, but-on your six!" Tessa fired a blaster bolt, taking out a cultist that had ducked out from behind cover to shoot at Niyasa.
"Yours, too!" Niyasa's blaster picked off two more coming the other way.
"How many of these bastards does this guy have?" Tessa hissed.
"Enough." Niyasa said, keeping at the ready. "Let's mov-whoa!"
"Niyasa? C'mon! Get up!" Tessa said, covering with another shot as the Mrlssi almost doubled over.
With the six remaining detonators, three between them, the two made a beeline down the corridor to the next weak spot.
* * *
"This isn't the end!" Calen slumped against the wall of the lift as it descended into the lower levels, heading for the power station. The sound of Critus' voice thundered in his head. He was alive. Somehow, the Grand Perceptor was still alive. They'd just managed to make him pissed off.
"Kriffkriffkriffkriffkriff!" Calen hissed as the lift came to a stop and opened up, leveling his blaster as he saw two Stormtroopers immediately outside.
"You there! Freeze!"
"No." Calen pulled the trigger twice in rapid succession, sending both troopers flying back into the wall of the corridor, where they laid still.
Rook seemed impressed, having not reacted as quickly as the young human. He moved into the corridor, checking for any other interlopers. Luckily, it seemed, they were alone.
"Rook, let's split up." Calen said. "Take Tube A-54, it should lead you down to the same deck." The Wookiee barked a bit, nodding in agreement. He waved the human goodbye and started off that way.
"This ends now, Calen...you will do as has been foretold." Calen tuned out the voice of Critus in his head. "Every step you take brings you closer to that end..." Calen ducked down a side corridor as three Stormtroopers ran the other way, coming to investigate the commotion. He was honestly shocked that the internal sensors hadn't gone off and every trooper on the ship wasn't swarming to his location by now.
"They are going off. I am keeping them from you, Calen." Calen rolled his eyes as he made his way to a maintenance tube, pulling the access panel aside and sliding in, pulling the panel back into place to cover his entry. "They won't find you here..." He continued to ignore the chattering as he crawled down the length of the tube, heading to the other side and opening a hatch to head down the decks. Slipping the blaster into a holster on his hip, he started down the ladder. "They don't know their place in the opening of the Way, Calen. Ascension is at hand!" Finally reaching the lower deck, Calen reached down to open the hatch leading into the tube. Crawling in, he found...grass.
"I'd give good money if you'd shu-what the-?" Calen looked up, seeing a familiar wooded grove. Looking back, he no longer saw the cold durasteel of the ship's walls, by line after line of trees stretching out to beyond his field of vision. As he stood up, he stood up through a thick fog that shrouded everything around. Not too far away was a familiar banquet table, but devoid of the food it had once held or the pageantry in its decoration it had had the last few times he'd been here. Here, there were just...bones, bodies that had rotted and decayed to nothing more than the frames that their meat had once been upon. Their bodies were covered in ash...the same ash that fell from and rose up into the skies of Pergitor.
"Do you see it, Calen?" The voice of Critus got his attention, and Calen turned to see the man turned away from him. His turban was missing, his head completely bald. Blood oozed down from the top of his head, slipping down into the neckline of his robes. "Do you see it?" Calen looked up, seeing that the man was glancing into the sky above. There was a bright light...no, no a light. "Do you see the light, my child?" The longer Calen looked at it, he realized the brightness wasn't coming from an object, it was being pulled into something. Calen raised a hand to block out the glare, trying to see what it was.
The Heart...
"The time has come." Critus said. "Gehenna is now a part of it...and Karideph will soon follow. Then Coruscant...and any other planet that cannot see Ascension. It shall be opened to them!"
"That's...not...going to happen." Calen said, turning away from the Heart that seemed to float in the air above them and looking to Critus. Curiously, the man did not turn to face him.
"It has already begun, Calen. We are dropping out of hyperspace now." Critus said, the blood soaking the white of his robes. "There is nothing you can do to stop it. It has been foretold to me."
"You keep saying that like I'm supposed to care!" Calen snapped at him.
"Calen? Calen? CALEN!" He blinked. Critus, the forest, the bodies, and the Heart had disappeared. Instead, he was finding himself pulled out of the maintenance tube and face to face with none other than Tessa, who was raising a hand to smack him. He caught the hand as she started to swing toward him.
"Hey! Hey! I'm here! I'm here!" Calen protested, catching her hand mid-swing.
"Good! C'mon! We have to get to the power station." Tessa said. Niyasa was likewise there, running up to Calen.
"You're feeling it, aren't you?" The Mrlssi asked him.
"Feeling what?" Calen replied.
"The Heart..." Niyasa said. "I'm...feeling it, too."
"Critus." Calen said. "It's...it's something...like in that cave..."
"It's like we thought. He's connected to the Heart. Maybe he has been this whole time." Niyasa said. "Living on Pergitor for so long with it buried in all that ash...calling out to him..."
"Well, with any luck...we blow this ship up, it'll go with it." Calen said.
"With any luck." The bird woman nodded in agreement.
"You two! Hussle!" Tessa snapped at them, heading down to the end of the corridor to check both ways, blaster drawn. "We're clear. If Bashin and Y7 made it, they'll meet us there." Calen headed down that way, the trio of Rebels making their way down the corridor toward the power station on this level. A trooper and one of the Church's cultists stood guard before the entryway. A bit of misdirection and a few stun blasts took the pair out, Calen snatching the access card from the Trooper's belt.
"Niyasa, man the door." Calen said. "If somebody gets down here, we're gonna need to close that up real quick."
"On it." Niyasa leveled her own blaster at the door as Calen and Tessa went to work on the control panels.
"We have to set the detonators right in the matrix or this isn't going to work." Tessa said.
"Got it." Calen cycled through the terminal's options, feeling like a cadet back in the Academy and with about the same level of success, too. "Tch! Terminals are for droids!"
"Here, let me." Tessa moved up into his space, working the terminal herself. After a few moments, she realized that Calen was looking at her, and she at him. So very, very little space between the pair of them. For a second, everything seemed to freeze around the pair of them. Neither of them spoke, almost though either of them was afraid of what either of them might say.
"Tessa..." Calen finally started, only for a beeping noise to snap the pair of them back to reality. Tessa turned away from him quickly, clearing her throat as she looked at the monitor.
"...it needs an access code."
"I can supply that to you." A voice from the doorway got their attention. They turned, seeing an Imperial officer in full uniform, hat and all. It was smeared with a bit of blood across the chest, and in his hand was an E-11 being firmly grasped.
"Dax..." Calen stared at the man. "You're still alive?"
"Very much so." Dax said. "And so is he." Behind Dax lumbered a man heavier set gentleman of age. Recognition flashed in Calen's eyes, quickly followed by anger.
"YOU!"
"Spare me your righteous fury, scum!" Ayro was likewise in possession of a blaster and had his trained on the three Rebels in turn. "Any one of you shoots, I guarantee two of you will be dead before the shot hits me!"
"Wanna bet, old man?" Calen glared at the man, eyes burning with a heat that could have cut neatly through a durasteel beam.
"Calen, stop!" Niyasa protested.
"He killed Ordos!" Calen bellowed.
"That man killed himself! I only helped him along his way, boy!" Ayro spat. Calen raised his blaster, intending to blast the High Admiral's head clean off of his shoulders. The next person who shot, however, was Corrin Dax, firing three shots into the ceiling of the room.
"This bickering is pointless!" He yelled over everyone. His voice lowered once he saw that everyone's attention was taken, or at the very least the hostilities had been startled into a halt. "You want the access code to get into the power matrix. I have it. You help us, and I'll give it to you."
"Why should we help you?" Calen asked.
"Otherwise, we can all just sit here until Critus sends some of his fanatics down here to kill us all." Dax retorted. When no argument came, he continued, "Docking Bay 338 isn't far from here. Get us there, we take a transport, and you'll never hear from us again."
"That wasn't the plan!" Ayro protested, very loudly. "We were supposed to-" He was cut off as, very suddenly, he was stunned. Niyasa lowered her blaster.
"My ears were hurting." She shrugged to her compatriots and to the Imperial officer, all three of whom looked surprised.
"...right." Dax slowly lowered his blaster. "My offer is still on the table."
"You can go." Calen said, gesturing with his blaster down at the unconscious Admiral. "He's staying, he has a lot to answer for."
"He comes with me or the deal is off, Darkhaven." Dax's eyes narrowed. "That's the deal."
"I'm altering the deal-" Calen started.
"It's acceptable." Tessa cut him off, raising a hand in front of him.
"What?!" Calen started to protest.
"We'll do it." Tessa said. "You give us the codes, we'll escort you."
"No, no. You escort me, then I give you the codes." Dax shook his head.
"Fine." Tessa nodded. She looked to Calen. "I think we can all agree with that arrangement, can't we?" Calen glared at her, but said nothing. "Good."
"Alright." Dax said, looking to the unconscious Admiral on the ground. "Who gets the bad news?" The three Rebels did not move to help him as they passed around him and into the corridor, so he sighed. "Alright, I guess me." He reached down, slumping Ayro's arm over his shoulder and hoisting the man to his feet.
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