Into Darkness (The Sacking of Geonosis Part 2) (Twilight Sparkle and Trixie Lulamoon) (The Bricklayer)
Geonosis: 21 BBY
Counterattack! With the clone army
stretched in desperate attempt to engage
General Grievous' Starfleet, Separatists
planets that were once thought secure are
now rising up against the Republic. On
Geonosis, Separatist leader Poggle the
Lesser, safe in his newly ray-shielded
factories, creates thousands of terrible new
weapons which march off the assembly
line against the outnumbered clone army.
The Jedi, resolute in the effort to restore
order to the Republic, mount a massive
invasion to retake Geonosis and shut down
Poggle's factories once and for all.... (Source: Star Wars the Clone Wars: Landing at Point Rain episode opening narration)
The troopers' boots pounded against the sandy cave floor, with the distinct clanking of the battle droids mechanical heels right behind them At the very back of the clone trooper squad, blaster fire was laid down along with Twilight throwing out blasts of force energy to keep the injured from being cut down by battle droid fire. Over the comms, two distinct voices were heard.
"We've got no air cover. Two generals on the ground beyond our position. And a mess of bugs surrounding us. The enemy was more than prepared for our attack, sir. They knew our every move." Commander Cody shouted as laser fire could be heard in the background. A second voice, a wiser, more confident and reassuring voice followed it.
"Well, I'm sure General Skywalker and General Mundi will make it to our position. We just have to make sure we're still here when they arrive." General Kenobi's voice reassured. Twilight smiled as she heard the Negotiator, as he had began to be known as for his ability to negotiate out treaties and put out embers before they sparked into full scale wild fires. She was also glad to hear that her squad wasn't the only one having trouble, and that compared to them, someone else had it worse.
"Damn it, looks like we're not going to be getting any help any time soon!" Trixie shouted as she snapped off a stalactite from the cave roof with her force powers and sent it flying into a mess of Super Battle Droids.
"Well, we've been in worse scrapes. Remember that situation on Beta Five? Krayt Dragons all around us, and we survived that." Twilight pointed out.
"And Trixie would like to remind you that YOU got us into it, with you wanting to study them! They sure as Tartarus didn't want to study us, they thought we were food!" Trixie snapped back as a group of clones threw EMP Grenades, or "Droid Poppers" as they called them at a group of battle droids, stunning them in flashes of electricity allowing them to be swiftly cut down by clones holding repeating blaster cannons which took down the droids as if they were simply lined up for target practice. Then, a clone holding a rocket launcher fired a missile at a group of super battle droids and blew them all up sending limbs flying everywhere.
"Funny, I remember things a different way... I think you wanted to challenge them and show off how Great and Powerful of a Jedi you were." Twilight deadpanned as she threw her curved saber into a group of battle droids and it boomeranged right back into her open hand. But the battle droids kept advancing, and as they kept going deeper into the cave, the darkness seemed to envelop them with opening arms, forcing the clones to the turn the flashlights on their rifles on and for Trixie and Twilight to power up their horns, illuminating the cave in a combination of indigo and magenta light, the laser fire only illuminating the cave further.
"Like Sith this is a good idea, we could be walking into a dead end for all we know and then we'd get all ambushed and die horribly." Silas remarked as Trixie helped him along. Just then, the sound of rolling against the cave floor was heard and Silas, Trixie and Twilight's eyes all widened in fear. They knew exactly what sound that belonged to. Destroyer Droids, one of the worst types of droid for any Jedi to face, armed with shields and repeating blasters, they were well known for infamously striking down legions of clones without any help from other droids all by themselves.
"Then again, we'd sure as Hell take a lot of Clankers before those Droidekas catch up with us, so it wouldn't be all bad. We all gotta go sometime." He joked morbidly. Trixie smirked at him, the kind of smirk that let anyone around her know she was about to do something crazy.
"That day isn't today, Trixie thinks." Trixie replied before firing magical blasts at the cave ceiling in various places, with Twilight gaping at her in pure stunned silence as she did so just as the Droidekas rolled up and unfolded with their personal shields coming up soon afterwards and the sound of their weapons cocking brought fear into everyone's minds.
"Trixie, have you lost your mind? You're going to bring the whole cave down around us!" Twilight shouted in fear, not sure if it was from Trixie's seemingly insane tactics or the Destroyer Droids.
"Oh Twilight, I know what I'm doi-" Trixie tried to reassure only to get cut off by her fellow Jedi Knight.
"Getting us all killed?" Twilight deadpanned but was ignored as Trixie continued to fire magical blasts into the ceiling. But soon, her seemingly suicidal reasoning became clear. She was firing at very specific points, and not just at random. And her reasoning paid off, as with a loud rumble, the cave ceiling above the battle droid squadron gave way and collapsed on top of them, burying the droids and also barring any path out of the darkness and back into the box canyon.
"Great, so we've traded one boxed in type of situation for another. Excellent work, Trixie." Twilight deadpanned as she observed the area around them. The clones were starting to panic, she could sense their fear.
"Well, from what I can see, I just saved all of our asses in the process so I think a thank you is in order." Trixie boasted and Twilight found a palm slapping itself to her muzzle.
"Do you see a way out, cause I sure as Tartarus don't!" Twilight snapped as she gestured to the area around them. As far as she could see, there was no way out of the new-found situation that they were in. But then, Twilight took a re-scan of the area around them with her horn and found one cave wall weaker than the others and with a mighty blast of force power, opened another passageway.
"You are going to correct yourself, you are, yes?" Trixie asked with a smirk.
"Shut it, Yoda." Twilight responded as she set up a splint made of hard light for Commander Silas and then the whole group trudged into the newly made passage way. As they walked, Twilight took out a holo-map of the whole cave network, and Trixie raised an eyebrow as Twilight sat down on a rock and studied it closely, mumbling to herself as she did so.
"...Wait, you had a map of the networks this whole time! You were acting!?!" Trixie screeched out in fury and embarrassment as it hit her.
"Yes, consider this pay-back for all the times you've bragged about your abilities and played pranks on me." Twilight remarked simply. Trixie's jaw dropped and she was unable to form coherent sentences for the next few moments. When she finally did regain the power of speech, all she could manage to say was this.
"...Of all the times she picks to grow a funny bone, it had to be now of all times." Trixie mumbled to herself and stayed silent for the next few minutes, a very welcome relief to both Twilight and the clones. Twilight said nothing before she got up off the rock and smiled.
"Okay, I've got good news and bad news." Twilight stated.
"Okay... Give us the good news before you scare us half to death with the bad news." Silas said bluntly.
"Okay, good news, we're right below our target." Twilight said, pointing a finger upwards. Up above them, through miles of caverns was their target, one of two anti-air cannons (The other being targeted by Jedi Knight Lyra Heartstrings and her squad, the 599th.) that was protecting the Droid Factory Poggle was working tirelessly away in to produce weapons of mass destruction. Battle Droids, Super Battle Droids, Tanks, and who knew what else.
"And the bad news is...?" Trixie asked with more then a hint of trepidation, not really wanting to know. And I mean really not wanting to know.
"Bad news... Okay, above us and the only way of getting through these caves are mile after mile of Geonosian hives. Basically, we're walking through a time bomb and one false move or one wrong word said loud enough could set it off and we could all be dead before we even reached the cannon, and who knows what's waiting for us up there." Twilight stated bluntly. This was a quirk of her, stating how bad the situation was and not sugarcoating one bit of it.
"Okay, can I just commit Seppuku now just so I won't be killed by buggers later on?" Trixie asked sarcastically. She was ignored as everyone continued trekking upwards into the caverns. Surprisingly, everything was calm. Too quiet really. The troopers were starting to get more and more fearful, you could cut the tension with a knife. But nobody said anything, in case of alerting the local population to their presence.
"I don't like this... It's way too quiet. By now, you'd be thinking we'd have been detected." Trixie whispered, and then something moved in the darkness, jumping from one hive-hole to another directly in front of them.
"What... was that?" Twilight asked nervously.
"The wind...?" One trooper suggested before he was smacked on the head by another.
"Idiot, it's never just the wind. And besides, wind never takes physical form." The second trooper stated.
"Actually on the planet Beta Nine..." Twilight began before she remembered nobody would probably be particularly interested. Then, she heard loud screams and the sounds of bodies thudding as they hit the floor from behind them and when Trixie and Twilight turned, they found what was left of their squadron cut down by an unseen force. Silas in particular had a lightsaber sized hole right through his chest.
"By the Sun and Moon..." Twilight whispered as she bowed her head in mourning and sent a silent prayer to Faust for these souls to join with the Force in paradise.
"Well, now you've done it Twilight, you've really stepped into it this time, and you've brought Trixie along with you! We're going to die, and-"
Twilight clamped a hand over Trixie's panicked mouth to stop her from rambling.
"One: We are not going to die. Two: We are going to make it through these caverns and take out that Anti-Air Battery. Three: If possible, we are going to find out what just killed our squad. But we're going to have to take this one step at a time. One hoof in front of the other, got it?" Twilight asked in a tone that left no room for argument.
"Now, I'm going to take my hand off your mouth and we are going to get out of here, understand?" Twilight continued and Trixie nodded and then Twilight removed her hand from her fellow Jedi's mouth.
"...Well, at least now we know why our trip through these caves has been so quiet." Trixie finally uttered after a few minutes of silent walking.
"Agreed." Twilight replied before her voice took on a more teasing tone.
"We can hold hands if you want." She smirked before she let out a yelp.
"...That's not where your hand is supposed to go Trixie! Personal space, personal space! Go look it up in a holocron!"
The only sound that followed was Trixie's loud laughter.
Eventually, the two made it to the top of the caverns and out into the light, where the gigantic anti-air cannon was waiting for them, firing off rounds at various Republic Gunships hitting each one with dead-point accuracy.
"Okay, explosive charges, like we planned." Twilight said, and she and Trixie pulled det-packs out of their robes and began to walk towards the cannon when suddenly an invisible force grabbed them from behind.
"Ah, ah, ah. I can't let you do that." A mocking voice laughed, and both Jedi turned to see a black skinned figure with green insect like eyes, long dark blue hair and dressed in dark robes with insect like wings and a sharp horn covered in holes jutting out from her forehead.
"Chrysalis." Twilight snarled, as she and Trixie ignited their lightsabers, and Chrysalis ignited her own, two blood red blades which she spun around in a display of her prowess with them.
"That's Queen Chrysalis to you, learn some respect. (Here she flung Trixie and Twilight into the side of the cannon.) You know, you'd be surprised at how easily these bugs will betray their queen for a higher power... and some extra added "Incentives" on the side." Chrysalis added with a seductive smile.
"And then what, you toss them away like you do all your other lovers?" Trixie snarked and was soon hit by a barrage of red hued force lightning from the Changeling Queen's fingertips, causing her to scream out in pain.
"I said, learn some respect!" Chrysalis roared before she quickly regained her composure. "Hmm, going to have to be quick about killing you, as your deaths will be detected and cause a disturbance in the Force given how powerful you both are, and then the rest of the Jedi will come running. So, soon as I'm done here, I'm leaving for another planet, find another hive location for my babies. I'm going to have to punish you for exposing my existence. You know, I was content to live out my life quietly, but you had to come along and mess it all up!"
Chrysalis sent another barrage of force lightning towards the two Jedi, but this time Twilight was quick enough to react and ignited her lightsaber blade and blocked it. Trixie leapt forwards blades ignited but was soon caught in a force hold but with a mighty blast of force push she got out of it and swung at Chrysalis, who blocked her duel blades with her own. Swords continued to be swung and each time Chrysalis blocked Trixie's blade and even when Twilight came at her from behind, she used one blade to block Trixie's, and her other to block Twilight's own.
"Give up, the both of you and submit. You're only Jedi Knights, while I am a Sith Lord!" Chrysalis boasted.
"Who do you work for, who's your Master? Count Dooku?" Twilight inquired and Chrysalis could only laugh as she force pushed Trixie away and the battle became one on one, and Twilight blocked every blow expertly, despite having a single saber to Chrysalis's two.
"Hardly, those idiots can fight their war and kill each other all off for all I care. I'm my own Master. My only concern is me, myself and I." Chrysalis remarked before she felt a presence behind her and Trixie materialized out of thin air. Twilight's eyes widened, using a combination of the Force and her magic, Trixie had camouflaged herself against the rocky red landscape.
"In-genius. I knew her specialty was illusions, but this is on a whole new level!" Twilight admitted to herself and soon Chrysalis was forced to go back on the defensive as Trixie and Twilight attacked her from both sides.
"Consider this a little payback!" Trixie shouted and holstered her sabers and let loose a blast of blue shaded force lightning causing Chrysalis to scream out in pain as Twilight gaped at the sheer use of a normally Dark Side tactic but the Changeling Queen quickly recovered and grabbed a giant boulder and flung it towards Trixie but it was grabbed by Twilight in turn and flung at Chrysalis and she was knocked over the side of the cliff face and down the sheer drop below. Twilight and Trixie sighed, as Trixie muttered "Good riddance to bad rubbish."
Just as they turned to walk away, they sensed a presence in the force and turned to see Chrysalis hovering in front of them.
"Oh, you Jedi scum should know you can't get rid of me that easily. Now, I've over-stayed my welcome, so I must be going, but rest assured, we'll be seeing each other again, you can count on that!" Chrysalis screeched before flying away into the atmosphere to parts unknown.
"...Well, at least she's gone." Trixie panted as she put her det-pack on the cannon while Twilight did the same. Off in the distance, they could see the other anti-air cannon explode and Twilight mentally thanked the Force for Lyra achieving her task. Now, if only the rest of the Jedi could do their part and take down that factory. But even as she looked upon it, Twilight's gaze found itself drifting off to Trixie. Her fellow Knight had used some decidedly Sith like tactics against Chrysalis, and didn't really care for the life of her fellow troops at times. Twilight had to wonder, just how close exactly was her best friend drifting to the Dark Side? That was the question she would find herself pondering for a long time to come. But even as they stepped back from the cannon and pushed the detonator, the two Jedi Knights turned to each other.
"Small victories." Trixie remarked and Twilight nodded.
"Yeah... small victories." Twilight said, but all the while she looked at Trixie and wondered to herself.
"She hasn't been corrupted, not yet... But for how long?"
END
The Tip of the Iceberg: The Prodigal Daughter Part 1 (Rainbow Dash and Night Glider) 007Ben
A world ridden with crime! Captain Rainbow Dash and her first mate, Night Glider, are making a routine smuggling run to the planet of Nar Shadaa. Unbeknownst to them, this shipment of illegally modified blaster rifles destined for pirates in the outer rim is about to become far more trouble than it’s worth!
An XS Stock Light Freighter glided over the urban skyline of the crime-ridden city-planet of Nar Shadaa. Its roughly diamond-shaped durasteel hull was painted with two sky blue stripes running from bow to stern, a series of thinner stripes between them comprising a rainbow. The Rainboom’s top-mounted turret and side-mounted cannon stood idle as she descended onto a landing pad. Her landing gear deployed and she touched down gracefully as the soft blue glow from its engines faded away.
A loading ramp descended, and a pair of humanoids in flight suits emerged from the freighter. Both had long hair, tails, pointed ears, large eyes, and perhaps most predominately, a pair of feathered wings on their backs.
The first, a female, had navy fur and white hair which had been brushed into a swept back style, giving her blue eyes a full range of vision. A blaster pistol was holstered on the outside of her right leg.
The second was a female whose fur was light blue, and whose hair contained every color in the visible spectrum. She was armed with a pair of blaster pistols, one holstered on each leg. Her brow furrowed as her magenta eyes scanned the docks. She stood at the foot of the ramp and crossed her arms. “Well, where are they?”
“They’ll be here, Rainbow. Give them time.”
“That’s you answer to this? ‘Give them time’? We’ve already rescheduled this shipment, what, three times? I’m beginning to think there won’t be a shipment!”
“They want to get paid as much as we do. They’ll be here any moment, I’m sure.” She had barely finished speaking when a door opened on the side of the dock and three figures began making their way towards the ship. “See? What’d I tell you? C’mon.” The pair began walking out onto the long platform towards the dock to meet the three walking towards them.
“Captain Rainbow Dash, I presume?” said the smooth-talking figure in front, a male human.
“That’s me. Now where’s my shipment?”
“Woah woah woah, easy there, Miss. We haven’t been paid yet.”
“That wasn’t our agreement!” Rainbow shouted, flaring her wings. “Shipment first, or you won’t get anything.”
A Rodian standing beside the human spoke up next. “Cho ba, doshi mawa lakotee. Noshwa b’gana.”
Rainbow stepped forward with her right foot. “I said—”
Night Glider pushed her aside. “Ten percent. No more than that.”
The three figures in front of her exchanged glances. “We’ll take it.”
Night Glider reached into her pocket and counted out the number of credits they had agreed upon before dumping them into the waiting hand of the human. “Appreciate your business,” the man said with a smile. “Come with me and I’ll show you to your shipment.”
As the three turned to walk away, Rainbow punched Night Glider in the arm. She returned Rainbow’s glare with a roll of her eyes. The man led them back into a warehouse. Once their shipment was unloaded from the racks, Rainbow knelt down by one of the crates.
“And if you’ll just pay for the rest and put your name right here,” the man said, “Then you can be on your way.”
“I want to see the shipment first,” Rainbow protested.
“What? It’s all here, isn’t it? Twelve crates of blaster rifles. Specially ordered just for the Captain,” he said with a smile and a wink.
“I said I want to check inside the boxes,” she repeated, rising to her feet.
“Look, you want the merchandise or not? I don’t have to deactivate the sensors on those crates! You won’t even make it out of the atmosphere before security shoots down your ship!”
“Listen. I know when I’m getting scammed! Open these boxes, now!”
“Behind you!” shouted Night Glider. With superhuman reflexes, Rainbow jumped out of the way, just barely missing a blaster bolt. She turned and landed a high kick on the Rodian’s arm, following with a second kick to his head. She used her wings to readjust her trajectory in midair, landing on both feet. She threw her fists up, blocking a pair of punches from the man in front of her. She returned with a swift and powerful punch of her own, knocking him to the ground. Behind her, Rainbow heard a stun blast go off. She whirled around and drew her blaster only to see Night Glider standing over the second human, blaster drawn.
“Let’s see what these goons were trying to hide,” she said as she re-holstered her pistol. She opened the lid on the first crate and scoffed. “That’s what I thought,” she said, pulling a mouse droid out of the crate. “Where is my shipment?” asked Rainbow. The man was lying on the ground, holding his head with one hand while bracing himself upright with the other. “I—I don’t know.”
“Where is it!?” she shouted.
“I don’t know, I swear!”
“If you don’t tell me inside of ten seconds—”
“Rainbow, he doesn’t know!” Night Glider said.
“It’s true,” the man replied. “They’re gone. I have no idea where they are by now.”
“You don’t have it here?” He shook his head. Rainbow knelt down next to the man. “Who did you give our shipment to?”
“I don’t know. She gave me some sort of code name. Didn’t even make sense.”
“Then describe her.”
The man looked up at Rainbow. “She looked—kinda like you. With the ears and the eyes. Not so much the wings. But she had a horn in the middle of her head and—ugh, I don’t know… Just said she’d pay double whatever you’d pay for the modified blasters.”
Night Glider knelt down on the other side of him. “We’ve still got ninety percent of our payment You’ve already paid her for those blasters once. We’ll pay you a second time if you help us track down those blasters.”
“You still trust him?” blurted Rainbow.
“You want to get paid or not?”
“We’re already wasting our time here! I don’t want to waste our money, too!”
“I—I think I can help you out,” the man replied. “You ladies got another ten percent for me?”
“Five!” shouted Rainbow.
The man stared at her for a second. “Deal.”
Rainbow stood on a platform in one of the shadier parts of town. Not to say that the other parts weren’t also shady; this just happened to be one of the worse parts of the undercity. “So this is where you last saw her?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And when was that?”
“About three hours ago…”
“Oh, well that’s not so bad.”
“…this time last week.”
“What!?” Dash screamed. “She could be literally anywhere by now! She might not even be in this system!”
“Look, you asked me to take you here. Now you’re here.”
“No, we asked you to help us track down that shipment. I don’t see our shipment anywhere. Do you?”
Night Glider spoke up. “What else do you know about this shipment and this pony?”
“She came here with about a dozen others. I had a good dozen of my own workers here to deliver the crates. Had some sort of uniform deal going on. Armor, helmets, the whole shebang.”
“Were they ponies too?”
“Some were, some weren’t. Curious thing, too. Don’t normally see too many of your kind this little corner of the galaxy.”
“What was the code name she gave you?”
“You ready for this?” he asked, taking a step closer. “Masked Equality.” While the pegasi exchanged confused glances, the man backed up a few steps and began laughing. “Isn’t that the most ridiculous name you could imagine? Ha ha! I told you it didn’t make any sense!”
“Let’s get out of here, Rainbow Dash. This guy isn’t any help.”
Rainbow glared at the man. “Alright, mister, we asked you to find our crates. Does eighty-five percent mean anything to you?”
“Does five more percent mean anything to you?” the man asked, stretching out his hand. Rainbow shook her head and Night Glider rolled his eyes. “No? That’s too bad. How about zero percent? Because that’s how much of your shipment you’re getting without me.”
Rainbow and Night Glider looked at each other, then reluctantly handed over more credits to the man. “Excellent! Now. Masked Equality said she was going to take the blasters to a nearby warehouse for storage. See, she didn’t know it at the time, but I was using this to listen in on her,” he said as he turned his head to the side, revealing a previously unseen earpiece. "Pretty clever, yes? Increases my range of hearing by over a hundred meters! A bit of noise cancelling for the up-close stuff, though. Otherwise, a normal conversation would practically burst my eardrum! Ha ha!”
“Ahem!”
“Rightrightright. The unicorn said those blasters were going to be very important for… ‘her cause.’”
“We paid you for useful information,” Rainbow reminded.
“I’m getting there! I’m getting there! She told the one right next to her that her organization was working out of this planet.”
“So they’re probably still here,” said Rainbow.
“That’s a relief,” said Right Glider.
“Then she said she’d something about getting back to Sublevel 39, in a warehouse a block past the swoop bike track. Then—then! The guy next to her said her name! Out loud! For anyone with a hyper-implant to hear!”
“And?”
“Her name… was—” The man collapsed on the spot, struck by a blaster bolt.
“What the—”
“Sithspit!” Rainbow caught the man on his way down. His head fell limp, having taken the full impact of the shot.
“Up there!” Night Glider shouted. Rainbow looked in the direction she had pointed just in time to see a humanoid with a jetpack take off.
Night Glider spread her wings and took to the sky. Rainbow spread her wings too, but paused a moment to rifle through the pockets of the dead man. She recovered her twenty percent, plus some extra “for her trouble.” She smiled and stuffed the credits into her pocket before joining Night Glider in the chase.
Night Glider drew her blaster and began firing on the person ahead of her. The target rolled onto its back and began to return fire with wrist-mounted blaster gauntlets. After a few seconds of weaving among traffic and descending a few levels, Night Glider heard an explosion nearby. Directly in front of her, a moderate puff of reddish smoke appeared. Upon flying through it, her eyes teared up and her vision blurred. She blinked rapidly as a burning sensation came to her eyes. She holstered her weapon and stopped to hover and rub her eyes. A moment later, she heard a loud horn. She turned and even with her crippled vision, she could make out the shape of a passenger shuttle barreling down on her. At the last second, Rainbow caught up to her and tackled her out of the way. “Where did he go?”
“I don’t know! I can’t see a thing! He used some sort of tear gas bomb.”
Rainbow sighed. “At least we know where he’s going. Sublevel 39, the industrial park just past the swoop bike track.”
“I’m practically blind. I won’t be able to follow you there.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve got another idea.”
An open-air speeder came to stop in front of the main gate to a swoop bike track. “Thanks,” Rainbow said as she handed some credits to a droid in the pilot’s seat. The pegasi disembarked and the speeder flew away. “How’s your eyes?”
“Better.”
“Can you see ok?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Let’s go.”
“We should be close,” Rainbow said as the pair began walking. “The warehouses shouldn’t be too far from here.”
“How will we know which one is the right one?”
“I’m guessing it’ll be pretty heavily guarded. They’ll probably be making use of weapons with post-market modifications.”
“Our weapons.”
“Exactly.”
“How are we going to get them back?”
“With these,” Rainbow said, patting her left blaster pistol.
“Then what?”
“Then we pay the second-in-command at the docks. And I think we’ll be getting a twenty percent discount,” she said as she pulled a handful of credits out of her pockets.
Night Glider smiled. “Smooth. Snagged those from the conman at the dock?”
“You bet.”
“Then let’s go get our weapons back.”
“You said it.”
From the top of a building, Rainbow looked through her electrobinoculars. “Look over there at the guards in front of that warehouse,” she instructed, passing the binoculars to Night Glider. “Tell me what you think.”
Night Glider peered through the binoculars. “Could be our target. Those rifles have silencers.”
“And high-capacity magazines.”
“Hey! Look at that,” Night Glider said, passing the binoculars back.
“What?” Rainbow accepted the binoculars and looked through them to see a third figure where only two had previously stood. The third was a snow-white humanoid with large blue eyes, pure white pointed ears, and a white coat visible on his neck and wrists. He also had a tail the same shades of white as his hair. “What’s another pony doing out here?”
“That has to be it,” Night Glider said. “Our friend back at the docks said there were other ponies with the group.”
“That’s right, he did!” Rainbow put the electrobinoculars away and spread her wings. “Come on, let’s go!”
The two flew across the street onto the top of the warehouse and walked over to a spot just above the door. “On three,” Night Glider said. “One. Two. Three!” The pegasi dropped down onto the guards, knocking them out. They grabbed the limp bodies and weapons and flew back up to the roof. “Now we put their uniforms on and go in through the side door,” Night Glider instructed. As Night Glider removed her jacket, a metallic object dropped out of it and clanged on the roof.
“I’ve got it,” said Rainbow. She reached her hand out but did a double take when she realized what had just fallen—a lightsaber. “Why do you have that? I thought—”
“Rainbow, can we talk about this later?”
Rainbow picked up the lightsaber. “We both know what this means, Night. A lightsaber is a Jedi weapon.”
Night Glider snatched the lightsaber back. “In my hands, it’s just a tool.”
“You don’t get to choose what that weapon symbolizes,” Rainbow said as she pulled on the uniform pants.
Night Glider sighed. “Rainbow, is this really that important to you?”
“Absolutely!” she replied. “The Jedi showed me purpose, fulfillment, and a reason to believe in something bigger than myself,” she said as she worked her wings through the slits in the uniform top. Lucky this was a pony-friendly operation they were infiltrating. “Then, they took it all away and left me with nothing.”
“Most of the Jedi mean well, Rainbow. Obviously, I don’t agree with everything they do, but if it means that much to you, then I’ll get rid of it at the next opportunity,” she said as she pulled the helmet over her head.
“Maybe you’re right about most of the Jedi, but the Council…”
“No argument here,” Night said as she stuffed the lightsaber into her uniform jacket. With the uniforms on and the weapons in their possession, Rainbow and Night Glider swooped around the block and landed back by the side door. “Who goes there?” asked a unicorn guard.
“Friendlies,” Night replied.
“State your names or show me some ID,” said the human next to the pink unicorn mare.
Rainbow scoffed. “New recruits, eh? Well let me be the first to tell you this. My friend and I go wherever we want, whenever we please. Do you want to be a part of our cause or not? Because I’ve got connections up top!”
“Sorry, ma’am. Y—you can go now.”
The unicorn guard put in the passcode on the door behind him and allowed the pegasi to enter. They entered and the door closed behind them. “You’re lucky that worked,” Night Glider said.
“Aren’t I always lucky?”
“No. In fact, you’re not. You’re overconfident and you don’t think before acting. I had my finger on the trigger the whole time. Remember what happened on Raxus Prime?”
“That was not my overconfidence! That was an unforeseen circumstance!”
“That was unlucky.”
“Fine. Whatever.” Rainbow and Night Glider entered the warehouse racks. Row upon unending row of supply crates greeted them. “Woah. That’s a lot of boxes to sort through.”
“We’ll have to split up. There’s no way we’ll find them in any reasonable amount of time together.”
“How will we know what to look for?”
“Rainbow, you’re holding one of our blasters.”
Rainbow glanced down at the weapon in her hands. “Oh. Right.”
“Call me if you see anything,” Night said, gesturing to her comlink.
“Just to be clear, you’ve officially given me permission to… ‘call you’?” Rainbow asked with a smile. Night Glider smiled back. “Anytime.”
She began to back away, only to bump into one of the racks. She blushed beneath her helmet and began walking down the aisle. Rainbow chuckled at her and walked down the next aisle.
“Anything yet?” Rainbow called over the comlink.
“Nothing.”
“We’ve been at this for hours.”
“You want to get paid?”
“Well, yeah but—”
“Then you know what to do.”
Rainbow sighed and continued down the aisle, inspecting the labels on the crates. She flew up one column and down another, up a third column and down a fourth. She stretched and massaged her aching wings with her hands, preening the feathers as she went. The sound of a distant warehouse droid caught Rainbow’s attention. No, not a droid. Something else.
“Rainbow, we’ve got trouble!” Night called.
“What’s up?”
“My cover’s blown! There’s a firefight in progress over on aisle 110.” Rainbow looked up at the sign at the end of the aisle. She was on aisle 53.
“On my way!” Rainbow rushed to the aisle only to be nearly run over by a vehicle. “Hey!” she shouted. “Give me a lift to aisle 110!”
“So then, you’ve already heard?” asked the driver. “Security breech.”
“You going to go help?”
The driver chuckled. “Nah. I’m just trying to catch the action.”
Rainbow hopped into the cabin of the vehicle. “Well then you’d better step on it if you want to get us there in time.”
The sounds got louder as Rainbow got closer. By the time they got to aisle 90, the sounds had stopped. “Careful,” the driver said. “The suspect is armed and considered dangerous.” He slowed down his vehicle as Rainbow readied her blaster. As they reached aisle 105, Rainbow saw a pair of uniformed personnel dragging Night Glider between them.
“Oh, no.”
“Yeah, looks like we missed it. Bummer that.”
“Y—you can let me off here then.” The driver stopped and Rainbow hopped off. “Thanks,” she said halfheartedly.
“Don’t mention it,” he said as he drove off.
“Believe me, I won’t,” she muttered.
Rainbow turned down an aisle and flew up into the racks. She darted through holes where there were no boxes, keeping an eye on the guards walking down the main aisle. At length, they came to an open area in the front of the warehouse. Rainbow watched as the uniformed personnel dropped Night Glider in front of them. One of the uniformed individuals, the same white-coated stallion from outside the warehouse, approached an office door and knocked. “Starlight! We have a new ‘friend’ we’d like you to meet!”
He then backed away and Rainbow saw the door opened by an aqua aura.
“A new friend, you say?” asked the lavender unicorn who exited the office. “Well what are we waiting for? Gather ‘round! Everyone, gather ‘round!” Rainbow seized her opportunity. She dropped down out of the racks into the shadows and walked out of the racks, approaching Night Glider along with the others in uniform. Her friend was still breathing; she’d probably been hit by a stun blast.
Clad in the enemy’s uniform, Rainbow found her place at the front of the encircling crowd as a pair of uniformed individuals hoisted Night Glider up to her knees and Starlight approached her. The unicorn’s horn protruded from a mask, and she bore a sheathed sword on her left hip. “Wake up,” Starlight said, putting her hand underneath Night’s chin. “Come on, wakey wakey.” She gently slapped Night’s cheek with the back of her hand. The personnel around Rainbow chuckled. Night moaned as her eyes fluttered open. She quickly came to and began to struggle against the guards holding her. “Now, now, let’s not be uncooperative, shall we?”
“You’re in charge here?” Night asked. Starlight’s only response was a smile. “Give them back!”
“Give what back? I haven’t even taken anything from you yet.”
“We were supposed to pick up a shipment of blasters. Where are they?”
Starlight chuckled. “I see. I take it you followed the clues I left behind and ended up here. All you want is to get your cargo and back to get back to your ship. Once you come to… understand our point of view, Captain, you will be free to spread our glorious truth across the galaxy!”
“Glorious truth?”
“Surely you haven’t been living under a rock for the past few years? The Sith have returned. What’s more, they’re trying to overthrow the Jedi. But the truth is… they’re both wrong.”
Night Glider replied with a look of confusion.
“Oh, poor thing,” Starlight said. “So young and innocent, oblivious to how the world really works. See, the Jedi and the Sith are really only pawns in a bigger game. The Force manipulates both the Jedi and the Sith. They aren’t so much wrong as they are… misguided. But I can correct them,” she said with a smirk. “For I have the power to sever connections to the Living Force!”
“What?” she shouted in horror.
“Oh, yes! It’s true! You may not have as much Force Sensitivity as a Sith or Jedi, but you are connected to the Force. I will now do you the favor of disconnecting you from it!” Night Glider struggled as Starlight stepped closer, and Rainbow sprang into action.
Rainbow surged forward with inhuman speed and kicked Starlight’s hand away. An instant later, she used her wings to laterally curve her trajectory in midair while she grabbed the soldier on the far side of Night Glider. She pulled him away from her and threw him at the other guard before reaching into Night’s jacket and retrieving the lightsaber. She ignited it, and its deep blue blade buzzed with energy. With a single clean sweep, Rainbow severed Night’s binders, dropping into a defensive pose a moment later.
Weapons cocked all around them as Starlight stared down the business end of the Jedi weapon. “She said give us our blasters back!”
Starlight collected herself before stepping backwards and raising a fist. The soldiers encircling them lowered their weapons. “So, you are a Jedi.”
“Let’s just say, it’s complicated.”
“You want your weapons? Then we’ll fight for them.” She reached for the blade at her hip and unsheathed an ornately decorated vibrosword. Golden highlights traced a pair of dotted lines up the blade, forming a number of small equal signs. With the press of a button, the weapon began emitting a low hum. Rainbow placed both hands on her hilt and moved her blade close to her right side. Starlight’s blade, held in both hands, migrated to its starting position above her head.
“I have a better idea,” Night Glider whispered. “Let’s get out of here!”
“We need those blasters!” Rainbow replied. “En garde, thief!” Rainbow taunted, lunging forward and leading with a cross-cut. Starlight effortlessly parried, her vibrosword’s cortosis weave rendering it impervious to the lightsaber’s cutting power.
The look on Rainbow’s face made her shock apparent. She had expected to slice right through the sword with her saber. Starlight pushed the blue blade up and away before taking up the offensive. Rainbow dodged an overhead blow, and used her wings to evade an incoming leg strike. She lined up a trio of kicks aimed for Starlight’s head, but the unicorn backed away each time. Another lightsaber strike, another parry and lock. Starlight’s horn began to glow aqua, and her whole body joined her horn. Starlight rose into the air, challenging the hovering pegasus and catching her off guard. Starlight’s vertically-held blade began exerting downward pressure on Rainbow, who resisted as best she could.
“Rainbow Dash, let’s go!” shouted Night Glider. Starlight growled. “Don’t let them escape!”
The soldiers encircling the pegasi readied their weapons. Night Glider spread her wings and thrusted her palms down towards the ground. A rush of air blasted her into the air, aiding her takeoff. Rainbow pulled her legs up and kicked Starlight in the gut before turning to follow Night Glider. The pair evaded multiple stun blasts before making it back to the deceptive apparent safety of the warehouse racks. They flew into the third row from the ground and rested in an empty spot with boxes on either side. Rainbow turned off the lightsaber and put a finger on her opposite wrist. “T4, can you hear me?” she asked her comlink. A series of beeps and blips answered. “We’re going to need a quick pickup Sublevel 39 in a warehouse near the swoop bike track!” A second set of astromech droid noises responded.
“Look! Up there!” called troops on the ground. A moment later, stun blasts ripped through the air around them.
Night Glider called out to Rainbow Dash. “Here. Give me the lightsaber.”
Rainbow did as she was asked, and Night stepped forward and began dissipating incoming stun blasts from the soldiers below.
“Wanna split up?” asked Night Glider.
“I’m not losing you again.”
“Then let’s lose the troops on the ground instead.” Rainbow nodded, preparing to step off the opposite side of the rack. Night Glider stepped backwards a moment later, and the two flew into an empty row.
“Everyone fan out!” Starlight called from somewhere behind them. “I want them alive!”
The pegasi darted through another hole in the racks and into the next aisle over before coming to rest on the top rack. It was here they waited until T4-NK called back over Rainbow’s comlink.
“Good work. Now, I need you to point the Rainboom’s guns at the warehouse and blow a hole in the roof.”
“What!? Are you crazy?”
Rainbow shrugged. “Probably. But we’d be crazier for thinking they’ll just let us walk right out of here.”
Before Night could reply, a massive explosion shook the building. The pegasi instinctively covered their heads with their wings before looking around and assessing the situation. “There!” shouted Night Glider as she pointed at their new exit a few aisles over. The pegasi took off, but renewed blaster fire from below threatened to cut short their escape.
“Don’t let them out the roof or I’ll have your heads!” shouted Starlight. The pegasi resumed their course towards the exit, Rainbow returning fire with her blaster rifle and Night using her lightsaber for defense. Rainbow exited the building first, but Starlight teleported up between her and Night Glider. With no time to readjust her trajectory, Night plowed straight through Starlight, knocking her onto her back. The pegasi located their ship hovering a few meters away. They began sprinting towards it, but Night Glider tripped apparently over nothing. The lightsaber flew out of her hand and landed at Rainbow’s feet. When Night looked back at her leg, she discovered what had caused her to fall. An aqua-colored aura held her right foot in place.
“Night!” Rainbow called out.
“Rainbow!” she replied as Starlight began to drag her backwards. Rainbow stretched her hand forward and formed a loose fist. Night Glider’s momentum ceased. Rainbow pulled her fist towards her body, and Night began sliding towards her and away from Starlight. Starlight growled and wrapped her magic around Rainbow’s hand, unclenching her fist. Rainbow reached out with her other hand, resuming the deadly game of tug-of-war. Starlight responded by magically grabbing Rainbow’s other hand and spreading her arms apart.
“Rainbow, get help!” Night pleaded as she resumed sliding towards Starlight.
“I can’t call the police! I just blew a hole in the roof!”
“No, you’re right. But if Starlight really can cut people off from the Force, then we’re in way over our heads.”
“But—but that’ll mean going back!”
“You have to, Rainbow!”
“No,” responded Starlight, “there is another option…”
Rainbow now found herself being pulled towards the opening in the roof as well. She re-clenched her fists and flapped her wings, overcoming Starlight’s magical grip. She grabbed the lightsaber from where it had fallen and leapt onto the boarding ramp of the Rainboom.
With a final glance over her shoulder, Rainbow watched Starlight and Night Glider begin to glow with aqua auras as then descended into the warehouse. The ramp began to retract as the ship flew away. Rainbow trudged into the cockpit and slumped into the captain’s chair. T4-NK greeted her with an interrogative set of beeps.
Rainbow stared at the star map in front of her long and hard before eliciting a deep sigh. She uttered a single word to the droid: “Coruscant.” The green-and-white droid—short for an astromech, but outfitted with a repulsorlift—signaled its understanding with a series of short beeps. The lightsaber in Rainbow’s hands felt tremendously heavy. She lifted it to her eye level before sighing again. She rose from her seat and began to leave, prompting T4 to ask her where she was going.
“The dormitory,” she replied. “I—I need some time after what just happened.” T4 beeped his understanding before turning his dome to face out the transparasteel viewport. Rainbow retired to her quarters and collapsed into her bed. She sought sleep, but could not find it. She heard the increased whine of the hyperdrive as the ship entered lightspeed. Not even the drone of the hyperdrive could ease her to sleep. She rolled over, facing her small but familiar cabin.
As her eyes wandered, they chanced upon a footlocker across the room. Rainbow suddenly became aware of the lightsaber still in her hand. She sighed and crossed the room to open the footlocker. With the locker open, she placed the lightsaber right next to a second, double-bladed lightsaber which sat atop a brown robe and a Padawan braid.
Rainbow paused a moment, fully aware of the meanings each item possessed. Then, she closed the locker.
(To Be Continued)
Boxed In (The Sacking of Geonosis Part 1) (Twilight Sparkle and Trixie Lulamoon) (The Bricklayer)
"What I worry about is the way this war seems to be drawing out with no end in sight."
"Which it is why it is crucial that our invasion of Geonosis meets with success."
Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ki-Adi-Mundi on the invasion of Geonosis.
Counterattack! With the clone army
stretched in desperate attempt to engage
General Grievous' Starfleet, Separatists
planets that were once thought secure are
now rising up against the Republic. On
Geonosis, Separatist leader Poggle the
Lesser, safe in his newly ray-shielded
factories, creates thousands of terrible new
weapons which march off the assembly
line against the outnumbered clone army.
The Jedi, resolute in the effort to restore
order to the Republic, mount a massive
invasion to retake Geonosis and shut down
Poggle's factories once and for all.... (Source: Opening Narration for Landing at Point Rain: Star Wars the Clone Wars)
Geonosis? What is the first thought that comes into your mind when you think of the planet? For some, it was the beginning of the Great Clone Wars, where a legion of Jedi and Clone Troopers freed Anakin Skywalker, Padme Amidala and Obi-Wan Kenobi from the Genosian Execution Arena. For others, it was where the seemingly never endless legions of battle droids were born amongst loads of other weapons of war for the Confederacy of Independent Systems. For one particular set of Jedi, their thoughts of it was a gigantic dustbowl. There they were, trapped in a sandstorm, wind blowing hard and granules of sand cutting into their robes and fur with only their lightsabers, the ancient weapons of both the Jedi and their age old archenemies the Sith, to light their way, and that was only just, Trixie Lulamoon, and her fellow Jedi Knight Twilight Sparkle were in Tartarus. A windy, sandy, dustbowl of a Tartarus. As they trudged through the nightmarish conditions, complaints from their Clone Squadron began to rise up, as they inevitably would.
"Damn it! Can't see a thing!" A clone shouted from somewhere nearby, his voice just barely audible through the howling winds.
"Equipped for everything, this armor was supposed to bloody be! But I think not!" Another snapped in frustration. That one was an Odd Clone as they were called amongst the bunch. You see, being clones, the troopers were all supposed to have the same voice, if not the same personality. But every now and then, you got an odd one amongst the bunch, that spoke differently with an accent. A mutation in the DNA that even the Kaminoians themselves had yet to figure out. Nobody really minded, as it made things more interesting and a tad less strange for the non clone combatants of the Clone Wars. After all, troopers who spoke with the same voice time and time again could creep one out at times.
"Oh, quit your complaining, we're Clone Troopers! We sure as Hell don't give a damn about the weather conditions. We do our job, and that's that!" The Clone Commander in charge of this particular squadron, Commander Silas barked out from somewhere in the storm. "And what's our job again, you nerfherders?"
"TO BLAST THOSE CLANKERS INTO PILES OF SPARKING SCRAP, THAT'S WHAT!" Every clone in the squadron yelled back on instinct.
"Good, that's what I like to hear from my men!" Silas laughed before to raise their spirits, (In his own, morbid offball way) he began to sing a traditional Clone Trooper Cadence.
"Everywhere we go,
Sleemos want to know
Who we are
Where we come from
So we tell them
We are the 211th!"
And soon the others began to sing along as Twilight and Trixie collectively sighed in unison and thought "Here we go again..."
"Everywhere we go,
Sleemos want to know
Who we are
Where we come from
So we tell them
We are the 211th!"
Trixie turned to Twilight as the squadron trundled on through the sands.
"Just when you think you can't find something worse to hear then the windstorm... You get that." Trixie grumbled in Twilight's ear, who could only laugh nervously.
"W-Well, it... it at least keeps the troops spirit's up... So... so, that's good, I-I suppose?" She commented as the song continued, the second chorus even louder than the first, the beat keeping time to the rhythmic marching of the troops' boots against the sand.
"Everywhere we go,
Sleemos want to know
Who we are
Where we come from
So we tell them
We are the 211th!"
Mighty, mighty, 211th!
Rough n' tough 211th!
We're not the blasted Sithspitting 501st!
And so the song continued on, getting wilder and ruder with each verse. Now, this thing about the 501st, the 211th Squadron had a long standing rivalry with them, nopony knew where it came from or when it came about, but it had been going for as long as anybody in the two squadrons could remember. Now Twilight chalked it up to Commander Cody and his squadron having a higher kill count and success rate (Not that the 211th's wasn't bad, it was pretty impressive in its own right) than Commander Silas's own.
Personally, neither Anakin nor Twilight could give a damn about why their squadrons hated each other so much, and to be honest, Captain Rex, and Captain Solaris, (Silas's superior) didn't mind the other. They respected each other equally. But for the rest of the troops, well... Not so much. Whenever the two squads met up, there was bound to be trouble. Prank wars, Clones challenging each other to stupid dares. Usually, they were harmless like seeing who was better at arm wrestling or things like that. Bit every so often, things could escalate into jokes that ended up downright nasty, like when one Clone challenged another to spend a week with C-3PO and after that, rumor had it the Clone went mad, or chewing the luna-weed as it was called and launched the Clone who had dared him in the first place out of the Resolute in an escape pod just before it went into Hyper-Space. It had taken a week to find the escape pod and the clone afterwards, who had shot himself just to end his loneliness. Now as for the clone who had made the dare... Well, he'd fed the Sarlacc, or vanished completely in the common tongue. He still hadn't been found to this very day. ...At least that's how the rumor went. Nobody ever knew if it was entirely true or not, or something someone with a dark and morbid sense of humor had made up out of boredom. Whenever this possibility was brought up, everyone always thought of Silas. He'd been known for making up things like this before.
Back in the present time, Twilight's sensitive ears had picked up something no-one else had. Clank, clank, clank, the sound went, in a rhythmic manner. Battle droids, a whole squadron of them at least. She could also hear the hum of AAT Armor Assault Tanks. Twilight's eyes narrowed and she looked at Trixie.
"You hear that too?" She asked, and Trixie nodded back in return before she let out a yell of "HALT! WEAPONS READY! GOT A WHOLE SQUAD OF CLANKERS COMING OUR WAY!"
Rifles cocked, and the gunners in the squad's selection of TX-130 Saber-class fighter tanks readied their cannons as the clanking began to get closer and closer. The wind finally died down, and it was revealed to the squad's horror, they were in a canyon, boxed in on all sides with the red canyon walls to the left and right of them, and the droid platoon in front of them, with the tanks dragging up the rear.
"Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide... And outnumbered too." Twilight muttered as she ignited her light green lightsaber blade, with Trixie igniting her own blades, which were azure and purple respectively. She held them in a reverse Shien style grip, and Twilight held her own in the Soresu style.
"Trixie likes those odds." Trixie remarked lightly as the laser fire began to fly and bodies and droids like began to drop while cannon fire was exchanged back and forth.
"You always do." Twilight retorted and as a shell from an AAT tank came towards her, she grabbed it with the Force, and sent it right back into a squad of droids who only had time to let out an "Uh-Oh." before being rendered into a pile of various limbs. A Super Battle Droid, a heavily armored grey design, and more intimidating than its skeletal like counterparts that made up the bulk of the backbone of the droid army, fired a missile towards them and Trixie leaped over it and forced it upwards into the sky where it then circled downwards into a droid tank, opening its cockpit up to the world. Trixie leaped forwards and was soon muzzle to faceplate with a droid pilot.
"Uh-Oh." The droid said and Trixie smirked.
"Uh-Oh, indeed, Trixie thinks." before she lopped the head off the droid and took control of the tank.
"Hey Twilight, you thought what you did was impressive did you? Well, Trixie says... Watch this!" She laughed before turning the cannon towards another tank and blasting it's top half clean off, before Trixie had to leap out to avoid the same fate from another tank and found herself in the middle of a squad of Super Battle Droids.
"Surrender, Jedi Scum." One droid's monotone voice said and Trixie chuckled before flicking her lightsaber blades off to lull the droids into submission and think that she was giving up. But when they closed in even further for the kill, they were all blasted off in various directions by a powerful Force Push with Trixie flinging her arms outwards.
"Idiots." Trixie remarked before she heard the cock of a laser rifle behind her. She turned, only to see a battle droid (Commander class, judging by its orange detailing) with it's laser rifle aimed right at her and snickering. Then, a green blade was sticking clean through its chest.
"But... I just got... promoted..." The droid said before collapsing in a heap with Twilight standing over her.
"Always have to show off don't you?" Twilight asked wryly with a shake of her head.
"Yeah, but Trixie knows you love it." Trixie remarked with what Twilight could swear was an almost flirtatious tone in her voice. Then again, Twilight thought to herself, maybe she was imagining things. After all, Jedi couldn't have loved ones... could they?
"You know, one of these days, this recklessness of yours that you so enjoy showing off to the world and everypony around you is going to get you killed." Twilight lectured, and Trixie just groaned to herself.
"Always with the discipline and the lectures, aren't you Twilight Twinkle?" Trixie asked sarcastically, messing up her fellow Knight's name on purpose just to show how annoyed she was. Twilight just rolled her eyes before both mares' ears registered the sound of laser and cannon fire.
"Right, warzone." Twilight said with a crimson blush coming to her face and Trixie reignited her lightsabers and together, the two mares stood back to back, blocking laser fire and cutting down any droids who got too close. The battle raged on, clone and droids falling like dominos.
"We're in a losing battle here, we need to regroup!" Silas yelled out, before he let out a yell of a different type. Pain, as he was then shot in the leg. Trixie spotted a nearby cave, and pointed to it.
"In there, might be an escape route!" Trixie ordered.
"Or we could just get boxed in even worse!" Silas yelled back, even as Twilight helped him up.
"Do we have a choice?" She asked, and Silas shook his head.
"No... Not a choice at all." He mused before making up his mind.
"Troops, into the cave! The droids will have no choice but to follow us in there, and those tanks of theirs won't fit!" He yelled, and with Twilight helping him along, he limped inside the cave as the remaining clones and Trixie rushed in after him into the darkness...
(To Be Continued...)
