Star Wars: Dark Future

A silence fell over our two groups with these words. The older Bpfasshi was studying me intently now. His cold dark eyes sweeping over me in a measuring manner, as he undoubtedly looked for any signs of weakness or doubt. The lack of fear in both Dark Siders told me this one thought I was simply bluffing, while the younger one seemed to follow his senior unquestioningly.

Something needed to happen to upend this unpleasant balance, and I had an idea what that was intended to be. Which only went to show I was actually capable of learning from experience.

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The silenced slug-thrower offered no conventional warning that it had just been fired several times, but the piercing trill of the Force's warning, plus the rough directionality of that warning, gave me plenty of opportunity to mount an effective defense.

There was a high-pitched metallic sound that was strangely dulled, as the quartet of slugs smashed into the tilted umbrella of force which had appeared behind my party in plenty of time to deny the high-caliber rounds passage. A fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth slug were walked progressively downward of the first four, but I'd created the Force Barrier to cover our group and prisoner right down to ground-level, so these slugs went the wasted way of the first group of bullets.

Expression unchanged by this sudden, but not unexpected attempt on our lives, I questioned the Bpfasshi in a conversational tone.

"Was that the last of Ravara's contingencies, or is there something else I'll still need to weather with minimal effort? It's no trouble to keep Ravara contained, maintain the barrier that's holding your friend with the slug-thrower in check, and continue to cast my awareness in a wide enough net to prevent any unexpectedly competent surprises from coming upon us unawares, but despite my being able to keep this up for days, we are expected elsewhere this afternoon.

Would you like to reconsider your involvement in whatever Separatist scheme Ravara's involved in? Neither of your hostages has come to any irrecoverable harm as yet, so if you were to let go of them and run, I'd be obliged to remain here holding Ravara. She will be going back into permanent stasis, so you won't have to worry about any reprisals from her."

The younger of the two Bpfasshi glanced at the older one to his right as I spoke. He did a fairly good job of keeping his features expressionless, but even through the miasma that was his Force-presence, I could sense the anxiety that was slowly but steadily building in him. Unfortunately, it was his older relation calling the shots, and that one was now scoffing derisively at me.

"Just that easy, eh? We're mixed up with the killing of one woman, we took two more hostage, and we tried to help an inter-system fugitive capture a Jedi Knight, but we're supposed to believe after all that, you'll just let us go? No, we're not that stupid, Jedi.

This is your last chance. Throw down your weapon and surrender before I count to three, or we will kill the hostages. You can pretend not to care for their well-being all you like, but everyone knows how you Jedi prize your reputations as heroic protectors of the innocent and downtrodden, so I think it's past time your bluff was called."

Contrary to my confident show for the Bpfasshi, I was feeling the strain of holding Ravara so tightly while maintaining such a large Force Barrier. When the older Dark Sider began counting, though, I knew I needed something clever. Something that didn't involve trying to split my capacity to use the Force a fourth way.

Fortunately, as I surreptitiously jabbed my pinky fingertip in the direction of the Bpfasshi and the hostages for the fourth time, I had just such a backup plan of my own.

"If only this damnable mist would oblige me with another shift," I thought with a touch of irritation. Patiently waiting for Moenia's pea-soup fog to billow as it had every fifteen or twenty seconds since Crissayel had first stopped us.

"ONE!" The Bpfasshi aggressively barked, one hand tightening on his prospective victim's chin, as the other planted itself more firmly against the opposite side of her head.

A cool and rather damp breeze began to ruffle my hair, as the Dark Sider imperiously snapped, "TWO!"

The city's omnipresent mist had now almost entirely obscured our two groups, with respect to one another, but even as it continued to thicken, I could tell it wasn't going to hide us in time.

My lightsaber's energy shroud vanished as I powered it down and dropped it. Calling out in a loud voice I let some of the anxiety I would otherwise allow to pass through me color my voice, "Wait! My lightsaber's on the ground. You win, Bpfasshi. Ahsoka, drop your lightsaber, now."

The surge of relief mixed with a bullish sort of triumph oozed from the Bpfasshi's aura, as he confidently demanded, "Kick them over here, and get down on the ground!"

"Whatever you say, just don't harm your captives. They're the innocent parties in all of this," I replied in a voice I'd allowed to grow a bit shaky. The fog was almost a solid gray wall in the area surrounding the tavern on our left, and the wider thoroughfare to our right, but it still wasn't quite thick enough for my needs.

Lowering myself to my knees, I heard my apprentice's lightsaber clatter as it was dropped onto the duracrete walkway we stood on. The Bpfasshi's attention was entirely focused on me now. I could feel it like a cold prickling all over my body. He watched, unblinking, as I went down onto my belly, then let out a nervous laugh I was certain he hadn't intended.

The breeze swirled again, and the fog descended like a gray curtain. Cutting of my view of the Bpfasshi with their hostages, just as it obscured the Bpfasshi's view of us.

That's when IG-1 made his move, as directed by my earlier hand signals. The state-of-the-art actuators in the advanced war-droid's legs sending him six or seven meters into the air from a standing start, and carrying him well overhead of our party. I couldn't see it happen, but I knew the droid's hands would be reconfiguring themselves into heavy blaster armatures as he arced over our heads.

I'd slaved over those armatures, to cut the transformation time down to something feasible in a close-quarters shootout, rather than simply being an alternate weapons loadout for the battlefield, and now I was seeing, or rather, not seeing, all that hard work pay off.

The distinctive Bee-weem, Bee-weem sound of heavy stunners discharging echoed back at us from the fog, and then there was the softer sounds of a group of bodies hitting the ground in boneless heaps.

Approximately half a second later, a soft thump and subtle whine told me IG-1 had landed. The shock-absorbing elements in his leg-actuators keeping his frame in perfect balance. Ready to act again, if necessary.

Calling my lightsaber to hand almost without thinking, I rolled onto my back, pinwheeled my legs with a snap of my hips, and corkscrewed upright. Just in time for IG-1 to report on the results of his actions.

"Two of three hostiles neutralized, hostage condition nominal. Pursuit protocol functions available for the next three hours, twenty-eight minutes, and fifty-four seconds," IG-1 announced in his flat manner, as he smoothly continued divesting the unconscious Bpfasshi of weapons.

When he finished disarming the pair, he pulled the arms of the Bpfasshi behind their backs one at a time, then folded a leg up to bring each ankle into reach. Linking them both ankle-to-wrist with the binders he carried in a concealed rear-torso compartment.

"I approve of the proactive thinking, IG-1, but that's a negative regarding pursuit of the shooter.

They undoubtedly know the immediate area better than we do, and any skilled mercenary or bounty hunter that Ravara hired will have had a bugout plan they could put into action the moment things showed any sign of going south. Our priority remains the Senator's," My easy reply to the droid died unfinished, as a great wash of black HATRED and Icy rage washed over me.

The source of these feelings was obvious, so I spun and began to reach out with the Force. Intent on stopping what I already knew I was going to be too late to prevent.

The wet sound of something hard and unyielding hitting flesh was eerily muffled by the fog. The same went for the sharp, choking gasp which followed. All told, no more than a second or two passed, before I swept a wide yet gentle Force-push left-to-right through the air before me. Clearing the fog from our immediate area for a few seconds.

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