Chapter 36: Preparing to Deep Dive, Shocking Find
34 BBY (Before Battle of Yavin) - 2 Years before Canon
Sector/System: Bandomeer
Location: Bandomeer Planetside - Outside 'Meerian Ionite Ventures'
Inside the oxygen room, the Jedi could be seen cross-legged on the ground near the back of the rocky walls, almost huddled together, speaking in soft voices as not to disturb the resting Mandalorians.
"Master Ti, you have a feeling of knowing what they are, yes?" Qui-Gon Jinn asked the Togruta Jedi master with a hand going across his beard
"I was uncertain before, but hearing the pirates' accurate descriptions made things rather clear. The beasts are ancient creations of the Sith of old, created by Sith Alchemy. They are supposed to be in stories, in the past, not here and now." Shaak Ti stated, her red skin a tone lighter due to her worries
"Master Ti, how do we deal with these beasts then, if they are indeed them?" Obi-Wan Kenobi asked, voice filled with worry, hand stopping, rubbing his chin, clear to all he took the tick of his master when thinking
"Since they are five in total, they are a pack and never stray far from one another. These beasts are sensitive to the force, which means they can feel when one is endangered or has found… food." Shaak Ti answered after a short stop near the end
"Could it be possible to disrupt this link they share?" Qui-Gon Jinn speculated in a question
"Unknown, none of us were alive when they were last around, even Master Yoda, ancient as he is, was just a youngling. More likely or not even around either." Shaak Ti said with a clear voice, having calmed herself down
Just at the moment Obi-Wan wished to ask something more, a group of Meerians arrived carrying heavy boxes, from normal crates to long cases.
"Sir! Supply drop." came the gruff voice of an armored Mandalorian, making the Jedi look up and recognize the man they had come to know as 'Wolf 1."
While the Meerians moved further inside to put everything to the sides of each wall of the room, the Jedi could see the sleeping Green-armored man stir awake and get back up from the ground he had been lying on for a while.
— — — — —
After sleeping more soundly than he had wanted, Jack awoke, feeling rather groggy, but that grogginess quickly faded when news of the supplies was given.
"Give me a sit-rap, what we got here?" Jack requested, getting off the ground and stretching his sore muscles to loosen them after sleeping on the rocky floor.
"Yes, sir, we got enough to blow up a cruiser, everything is here… and then some. Butch did not go with the standard stuff." 'Wolf 1' reported sounding rather excited
When Jack looked at the boxes brought over, He could feel his mouth fall open wide from what was inside them after 'Wolf 1' opened one of them up.
What that glorious bastard sent was indeed enough to destroy a cruiser, many times over. It was not just the standard or 'normal things' as we often call the loadouts. Mainly during use in boarding or destruction missions, but this is enough to demolish an entire city block, if used right.
What Jack saw were many cases of the heaviest explosives that stick and bore into any surface, even metal walls. To cling to those surfaces, they use small drills with magnetic clamps or suction cups, depending on the environment. But these explosive small blocks with a small cylinder inside of them are chock full of the good stuff from Bandomeer's refined Ionite.
'Can't believe he got the Micro anti-personal mines that fly and stick to any surface, and follow even the magnetic field living beings give off. The bigger ones could blow holes in hulls and walls like breaching charges. These things are going to be rather helpful, an entire crate of them… and… no way!' Jack thought, looking at these hand-sized boxes no bigger than a box of cards with a small lamp to the side that would glow a pale red when activated. However, when he looked into the large crate next to it, he got a good shock.
"Fuck, he even sends these down?" Jack cursed, seeing the inside of the crate
Inside, he saw these weird-looking, elongated contraptions with some sort of wings on them
'Seekers, heat… fucking… seeker drones! That glorious bastard! How did he even manage to get these? Only those Hutt Executioners have these, even though barely any due to the expenses and because they are against so-called Galactic Law!' Jack was rather surprised at this find.
"Sir, you will love the rest, even heavier hitting repeater rifles, pistols, special grenades, rockets of the highest grades that could blow a hole in the sides of cargoships." The excited 'Wolf 1' spoke up
'Green colored Tibanna gas cylinders… expensive for just blasters, but so much better than what we are using now, for sure. Yellow is what we always use and has good concussive force that could rupture organs or make some thinner-skinned races badly burned and die, but this stuff will pierce a hole in anything soft-skinned… meaning we go for eyes, the inside of mouths, or maybe the underside of the bodies on these beasts.' Jack held up one of the cylinders and held it into the light, casting a slight green glow all around, while thinking of the potential uses
Jack put the cylinder back into the holder inside the crate, then pulled the entire holder out and walked to a small workbench inside the room, quickly starting to dismantle his blasters and rifle. On the workbench lay repair tools normally used to maintain the Oxygen room, pumps, generators, and other equipment, and some of the smaller tools could be repurposed for weapon maintenance as well.
"'Wolf 1', go back and get me Sera, that rifle of hers will likely take the longest, no doubt, to replace the Tibanna gas of off. And if Rin complains, tell her she will only get what's left after everyone else has gotten the good stuff." Jack told the man, seeing him walk off at a brisk pace
"Jedi Master Shaak Ti, was it? Care to tell us what this beast's name is? Maybe we heard of it as you read about, if this is so, we can make plans on how to deal with them." Jack asked while working on replacing the Tibanna gas core of each of his weapons
"I do not know for certain if what was shown to us in the control center is this beast in particular, but it was clearly big with strong muscles and black hide, spikes and horns on the body and head, with glowing red eyes, almost orange." Jack heard her say in her regal tone of voice
"I know that much you already talked about it before, but WHAT! do you think it is? What beast, the name of it. It is not a Wompa nor a Rancore that is for sure, so what sort of beast is it?" Jack stopped his hands for a moment and looked at her with a stern face, since he never put his helmet back on after waking up
"... Tuk'ata…" Shaak Ti answered, seeing one blaster pistol back together and a finger on the trigger while it lay there with the barrel pointed her way
"Was that so difficult? You Jedi tend to keep explaining the things you already had before making everyone walk around in circles or have to play brain gymnastics to try and figure out what is meant by you lot." Jack sarcastically said with an emotionless look on his face
At that moment, Sera walked back into the room clad in her wooden brown colored armor, walking straight to the small workbench with her customised rifle in hand.
Jack finished the last bits on his weapons and put them back in place to make room for her to get to work.
"Wolf leader spoke about what was brought. Rin is basically giddy and mumbling up a storm about what to do with it all. Just a little heads up." Sera said when she arrived at the workbench
"*Sigh* Why am I not surprised." Jack said with a heavy sigh, shaking his head before putting his helmet back on, to Jedi Master Shaak Ti's frowning countenance, clearly not happy and used to suddenly and rudely being ignored
— — — — —
While Jack and his group prepared for a deep dive, Korar had arrived at the small mining base, which had been ignored by the pirates' attacks for reasons unknown.
'Mmm… tall walls and compounds outside the mining entrance. Seems they have been here for a while. However, no turrets, nor guards, nor any patrols?' Korar thought while using his helmet's zoom function to look at the tall gray metallic walls and their direct surroundings
While getting closer using small sand and stone outcroppings and dunes one after the other, he arrived near the entrance, before looking into the base.
'What happened here?' Korar thought in surprise, looking at the damage around and bodies lying about, all clearly hidden from view by the walls.
"Claw marks… shit!" Korar knelt beside a few bodies that showed clear signs of being attacked by sharp claws, some missing entire body parts.
'Fuck my life, I need the command center asap to inform Butch and the others, clearly a beast of the Depth came here, or these idiots brought something else down instead.' Korar grabbed his duel pistols and moved towards the building with a small dish on the roof.
*GRRRR*
Just when Korar arrived at the door, he heard a harsh loud noise from somewhere behind; however, when he turned, he heard the door of the command/communication building open with a hiss, and he felt himself get pulled inside and saw the door close just when he saw a big shadow on the floor a few buildings away.
"Quick, close the door!" a scared female voice sounded just when the door closed again.
"WERE MEERIANS!" the same female voice quickly yelled out just when Korar got back up
Korar, on his part, looked around, seeing many women and children huddling around behind boxes, crates, and consoles, but not a single man in the room.
"What the hell is going on here?" a shocked Korar said, sounding flabbergasted about the surprised pull and also the shock of it even happening.
'Sensors showed no movements inside, guess I'm getting too old if a bunch of untrained civies can pull a fast one over me, better keep this to myself or that brat will never stop annoying me about it… Then again, more reasons for me to beat his face in.' Korar thought before being pulled back to the situation by another female voice
"So Mandalorian, what you wanna do now, huh? You see, we got nothing, just women and some kids here." A sarcastic red-skinned with pale white stripes, almost gray Togruta woman snarled with crossed arms across her impressive chest while leaning against the wall, before walking towards Korar when he looked her way
"I asked what happened here." Korar snarled back, pointing a single pistol at her, watching her stop in the center of the room with wide eyes when the scared Meerian women from before spoke again
"They brought beasts from above, but they broke loose and entered the mines!" the women said in a clear, distraught voice, walking beside the Togruta women, hands waving comically in front, trying to show no threat. Only causing people to shake their heads or have imaginary sweat drops on the back of their heads.
Korar saw she was clearly shaking on her legs and even wobbling in exhaustion with tears pouring from her eyes.
"Beasts, huh? What kinds of beasts, I need to know… NOW!" Korar ordered, clearly not happy about this fact, and hoping beyond hope they are normal beasts he could deal with
"Couple Wompa's and a pack of Rancore's…" a third woman, a young human female, spoke up, watching the footage of cameras on a large screen everywhere outside, and even those on another screen from many parts of the insides of the mine
The woman pointed to a few screens showing a massacre in progress inside the mines, showing how armed men were trying to deal with the beasts, while many were running away or trying to hide, only to be ripped apart when caught up to or found.
'Just my luck… wait… a full pack of adult rancor… fuck.' Korar thought before cursing
"Fuck my life… I'm using your comms. Where are all the civilian men?" Korar stated, walking to a console with a thick cable going into the roof, clearly connected to the dish on the roof itself.
"Either dead or soon to be dead in the mines. The women and children stay in the base while the men work like obedient pets because of us out here." the Togruta woman snarled out again
"'Butcher of Summerfield', this is 'Fast Lightning', come in, you bloody fool." Korar spoke harshly into the mic when contact was established
[What is it, old man?] came an equally gruff voice back, sounding exhausted
"I am in the command room on the surface of that small base we discussed a while ago. Things are bad; it seems they tried to tunnel into the big mine you're at… It's a massacre these idiots brought down Wompa's and a full pack of Rancor…" Korar stated, sounding exasperated at the corporate and pirates' stupidity
[They what? Why would they even do that for? It makes little to no sense… no way…] Butch asked before realising in shock
"Indeed, you fool… they wanted another way in to take the mine over from inside, but use the beasts to try to deal with those in the deep… and as always with those incompetent morons, things backfire spectacularly." Korar spoke in an exhausted tone
[... Did they already connect the two mines? If so, to what level?] Butch asked, getting an answer he was not ready for from the human woman at the console next to Korar
"They got to 'Level 15' just before they brought those beasts down." she said when she looked up from the security screens. She felt as if both Mandalorians looked at her in shock, even if she did not see their faces
"...FUCK" [...FUCK] Both Korar and Butch said at the same time