"Coruscant Underground


Concluding Part."

Directed by:
Paul Burton.
&
Written by:
Anthony Hummerston.

STARRING:

Karnov,   Jimmi,   Niall,   Rojic,    Ta'alan,  Mama
And special guest stars:
Hen3ry , Joe-9T, Trio and 'Blinkie.'
as the droids.
AND
Storm Cutter, their ship, all redecorated in Republic mottled drab green version: 449-1-B1A.

AND VERY VERY VERY SPECIAL GUEST STAR: KIMA VENN.

Meanwhile, (in Cortina D'ampezzo) , Kima Venn and Kory are running along a corridor with Karnov a few steps behind. They duck into dim and dingy and decrepit darkened doorway as a guard passes.

A moment later the three of them are dragging at heavy doors, which leads into a large cavernous arena.

“I’m guessing,” Kima gasps for breath, “Rancor?”

“Yeah, figures!”

“-And….”

“-And trouble, look!”

Across the arena is a raised platform, upon which they can see the distinctive streaks of blaster fire. A second later, an orange bar lights the platform as Niall ignites a lightsabre in the distance. “Here comes the cavalry!” Karnov says, but is interrupted as six Gamorreans emerge from a doorway. “Yeah, three K’s together, Kima, Kory and Karnov!”

“Not a problem is it?” Karnov asks, moving to cover the others.

“Can’t think of one….Except for the narrator of course!” ^{[ 1 ]}  

Karnov peels the Gamorreans from the other two. They run on across the arena, trying to drown out the sounds of Karnov turning her opponents into streaky bacon.

On the platform, Joe-9T opens fire, spraying the room with blaster bolts. The Devaronian manhandles the waitress roughly around. Mama is convinced that she’s a wrong ‘un, but aims for the horned humanoid. – however, in the melee, she hits the girl who immediately slumps to the floor. There is a gasp from the others at the callousness of the shot. Mama is unfazed. – She shoots the Devaronian critically, putting a large hole in his side. His ruddy hue has become bright crimson with rage. Jimmi lifts four of the guards using the force. They start their spinning a second later. A Wookiee roars with rage and manages to unlimber a bowcaster. A shot hits Jimmi. Niall closes on a guard. It’s one-on-one. The guard is joined by four others – now it is five against one. Ta’alan backs up his master with a blaster, killing two. – Now it’s down to three-to-two, –much better odds!

Rojic has shot and hit. Everyone stops for a second to marvel at his new-found skill – However he has shot upwards in fright and hit his head on the glitter ball on the ceiling – Not quite so impressive! From his vantage point, he can see the Balosar woman, the pilot and the Kushiban thief. He has a bead on all three, but decides to pick on someone his own size. He plugs the Kushiban who squeals like a rabbit in a bear trap.

Kima and Kory are close to the raised area. It’s a bigger cliff than they had imagined. – Fifteen meters above their heads, the battle is raging. “To keep the spectators away from the Rancors.” Kima says, matter-of-factly.

“I wish you wouldn’t keep saying that word.” Kory reminds her.

“But we’re stuck!”

“I have a plan!”

“What? Sticky lipstick? You going to sucker your way up there with your lips?”

“Nope. We’re stuck. – So….Sticky ropes!”

“Yay!”

Kory pulls out two pistols. Kima has to ask the obvious. “What you gonna do? Shoot captain Farrell?

“Oh no. The team need our help.”

Kory hands Kima one of the pistols, “Sisters are gonna do it for themselves!”

In unison they shoot the guns at the rail. Two gossamer threads stretch silenty and attach. –like two frail snail-tail-trails. The lines harden in the air and become as strong as durasteel. The guns wind in the lines and the two girls ascend into a furious melee.

Mama ducks behind a table. With a blaster rifle, the Devaronion makes a hole in the table. Nina the Balosar rolls and takes a shot at Ta’alan, but misses. The two Gamorreans take a swing at Niall, keeping him on his toes. –Their vibro-axes swinging threateningly. The Kushiban sees Rojic and immediately enrages. It shoots but only manages to hit the glitterball. – scattering the blast into an array of sparkling colours that play around the room.

The defenders press their attacks. Our heroes are forced to defend wildly.

Joe-9T gurgles to himself. “I got your back.” He says. On seeing the incoming onslaught, he adds, “Though I might be shooting it if they keep this up.”

“You’d turn on me?” Niall gasps, ducking under a ferocious onslaught.

“In an instant….Master.”

Ta’alan is also bombarding Niall, -But with questions. “Master? Can I have a fedora?”

Niall can’t quite do the double-think – avoiding being sliced into Niall bacon and being assaulted with stupid questions at the same time.

“A what?”

“A fedora. –It’s a kind of hat.”

“You could put corks on it.” Mama yells across.

Niall has to ask, “Why?”

“It keeps Toydarians away!”

“Okay. Yes. Get one.” Niall snarls at his padawan, “In fact get a dozen!”

There is a minute lull in the fighting. This is all that Nina and her pilot need to make a break for it. They scramble down over the rail and start crossing the arena to the rear. Kory and Kima make them keep their heads down with a couple of shots, hoping that Karnov will head them off at the pass.

The lack of a hat is hampering Ta’alan. He takes a shot to the chest courtesy of the Devaronian. He is blasted back and skids to a stop near Jimmi. Sensing the life draining out of the young boy, Jimmi drops to a crouch to administer some first aid / last rites. Mama responds with ferocity, making the Devaronian keep his head down. Joe-9T starts paying attention to a Weequay captain. Niall feels the sting of Ta’alan’s injury. With calmness, he steps through the barrage of blaster fire and attacks the nearest opponent. The Wookiee roars intimidatingly. Had Niall had longer hair, it would be blasted back. Niall doesn’t give in to the fear. The Wookiee levels the bowcaster at Niall’s chest. A few miliseconds before it fires, Niall lunges forward, thrusting deep with the lightsabre, running the blade through bowcaster, arm and ultimately the creature’s chest.

Kima drops to one knee and snaps off two good shots into the escaping Balosar. The fight continues at a furious pace. The Gamorreans spinning courtesy of Jimmi suddenly drop. Ta’alan sits up from his prone position.

Prone!

Sighting along his leg, he blasts three of them in rapid succession. He follows this up with the lightsabre, finishing them with reckless abandon. Niall grimaces at his Padawan’s impulsiveness. –Though is relived that it isn’t tinged with anger at least.

Kory, Kima and Nina exchange blaster bolts. The latter is running with her Corellian friend across the arena, and shooting over her shoulder. Rojic is flapping around the mirrorball, taking pot-shots at anything that isn’t watching him. However, the Kushiban is leading him with a blaster. A precise shot rings out, clipping Rojic’s wings. Rojic almost tumbles to the floor. He ducks behind a table to catch his breath.

The Weequay advances on Joe-9T. He has a force-pike. He jabs it at the assassin droid, making Joe-9T rattle until all his rivets feel loose. –It’s a good thing he has no teeth. Joe-9T responds by clubbing his attacker with the butt of Sarah-Jane, before filling his opponent with hot plasma. Mama and the Devaronian are still trading lethal shots. Jimmi plugs another two Gamorreans. Joe-9T kicks out at the Weequay, who dodges back out of range. This is all the range Joe-9T needs, as he blasts the Weequay all the way into next week. More guards and Gamorreans are advancing on Jimmi, who changes tack and uses the force to lift a heavy table. This hovers in the air for a second, while Jimmi adjusts for the feel of it in the force. Then with enormous force, the table is flung across the room, taking out all four of them at once. The squeals of the dying are horrible to hear. One squirms from under his dead brethren. Jimmi calmly shoots it dead.

Having witnessed Mama’s shot on the waitress, Jimmi’s ferocious attack and Joe-9T’s vicious assault, Niall is starting to wonder whether he is on the right side. Mama rolls over and refers to Joe-9T. “His dial must’ve been nudged all the way up to eleven!” She jokes.

Niall considers this, “Why not just make ten more hateful?”

This conversation is cut short as Ta’alan screams. It isn’t a scream of pain however, as he has tackled a burly guard all by himself. He gives the guard a love-tap with the lightsabre, drawing him in. The next blow cuts off 2d6+2 limbs, which fall in a grisly cascade over the rail.

Rojic roars at the Kushiban. “Surrender!” However, his intimidating manner isn’t so intimidating when he’s crouched behind a table. The Kushiban laughs in his face. To one side, a door slams as Challabba has finally swiftly slimed his way out of the chamber. Two guards block the doorway. There is a lull in the fighting. Kima Venn approaches.

Ta’alan is the first to say hello. –Well he would be if he wasn’t so suddenly tongue-tied.

Mama interrupts. –If indeed one can interrupt when the person you are trying to interrupt hasn’t actually said anything. “I don't know whether this is the time or the place to say this, but my mate Ta’alan here is incredibly, incredibly brave.”

Ta’lan finds his voice. “Shut the Hutt up- Bothan face!”

Mama is unfazed. “And I just wanted to say, he’s had tons and tons of girlfriends.”

Kima Venn is rather non-plussed. “He looks a little young….”

“I’m eighteen!” Ta’alan lies.

“Then why do you still go to bed with an Ewok-teddy bear and Astromech onesie?”

Ta’alan realises that his cover is blown. He stalks off.

Ta'alan as a toddler.

There is little time for more introductions. Our heroes hastily search among the dead and the dying for the missing datapad. Rojic is particularly vocal when it isn’t found. Jimmi suspects that the Balosar woman might have it. A thought shoots telepathically to Nina, who is struggling to open a door across the arena. “Do you have the datapad?”

Though she tries to resist, Nina’s mind screams, “Yes!”

Jimmi yells to the others. Kory drops down on the line, and runs to intercept. Niall leaps the rail, using the force to bring him down gently fifteen meters below. Ta’alan follows suit, trying to grab Niall’s coat tails. It all goes horribly wrong as he tumbles to the ground. Instinctive rolling as he hits the dirt saves him from serious injury. Ta’alan’s roar of pain is drowned out by a larger roar.

“Pipe down boy! It’s only a small broken leg!” Mama jokes.

“Rancor!” Jimmi yells as a warning. Sure enough a Rancor bursts from another doorway and leaps into the arena Niall runs to intercept, but the creature leaps for Kory and sweeps her up in its claws.

Rojic fires a hasty shot. It misses the creature but hits Kory!

“Where did you shoot Kory?” Ta’alan asks.

“In the arena!” Jimmi laughs. Niall sets about the best with the lightsabre, dodging its feet and trying to avoid being crushed or eaten. Two flapping Hawkbats emerge from another hidden entrance and start hissing, biting and clawing. Joe-9T has no fear of heights and drops like an engine block to the cinders below. His servos feel a bit funny, but he is otherwise undamaged. –Nothing a bit of re-wiring and a mild panel-beating won’t cure. He sends a stream of blaster bolts into the creature. Jimmi isn’t sure about dropping fifteen meters into a Rancor’s playpen. Mama certainly won’t.

“If I put a massive marshmallow down fist….!” Jimmi jokes. “Or inded if I push Mama off first.”

“You and who’s clone army?” She asks him.

They look around. –Mama with eyes and Jimmi with the force. Challabba has long since slithered slowly away. Two guards remain. Jimmi and Mama take aim. Jimmi wings one, Mama shoots both. They both fall simultaneously in a rather piggy and very dead piggy heap.

Back in the arena, the Rancor is slowly losing its strength from the onslaught. Ta’alan and Joe-9T and Rojic keep filling it with blaster shots. It roars and takes a chunk out of Kory, but then uses her as an improvised club. Niall neatly sidesteps, looking for an opening. Ta’aln is caught by the claws, but they merely shred his tunic. The pilot has escaped into the bleachers, and Nina the Balosar is about to squeeze through the gap between two enormous doors. Joe-9T swings Sarah-Jane in her direction. A small coughing noise comes from the gun, and Nina is shot in the back. She slumps down in the doorway. The Rancor turns to pick up the droid. This is the opportunity Niall has been looking for. He plunges the lightsabre into the beast. It stops dead, before losing the strength in its legs. It topples forward. Joe-9T, Niall and Ta’alan all skip out of the way at the last moment. The Hawkbats swoop in on fresh Rancor meat and even fresher hero flesh. Jimmi shoots one, the others beat off the second . Kory drops from the Rancor’s grasp. Rojic flaps to a vantage point behind some cover – a convenient dead Rancor. Ta’alan and Niall wing the Hawkbat, leading to Rojic blasting it out of the sky. The other Hawkbat is quickly despatched.

Mama and Jimmi watch form the rail. Some sixth sense stirs in Jimmi, who shouts a warning. “Grenade!” Jimmi dives to one side, Mama to the other. With a panicked sweep of an arm, Jimmi uses the force to lift the ball-like device into the arena, where a second later, it explodes.

“Good thinking!” Mama gasps.

“I was aiming for Rojic!”

They search around. There is nobody here capable of rolling a grenade at them, unless….

“Unless….” Rojic says, flapping over. The others retrieve the datapad – still clamped in Nina’s dead fingers.

“Wait a minute….” Niall says, ticking off dead bad-guys in his head. “Where’s the waitress?”

“She was right here where Mama shot her.”

“Accidentally I might add!” She protests. “I was aiming for the Deavronian.”

“He’s here. –Eeew!” Rojic reports.

“Whatever. But she’s not here.” Jimmi tells them.

Rojic goes over things in his mind. “You know I thought it was a bit suspicious that they dragged the waitress halfway across the galaxy to question and use as a hostage.”

“It was a risky move,” Mama says, “I always thought she was a wrong ‘un. –After she ratted us out to the gang back on Coruscant.”

“Why didn’t you say so before?”

“I did say so before!”

“Well she’s gone now. –Either she came back to life, was faking, or Mama didn’t kill her after all.” Kima says, summing up the possibilities.

“Not a mistake I’m gonna make again. Next time I’ll be posting body-parts back to….” Mama searches for the right person.

“Whisper?” Jimmi prompts.

Sotto voce, Mama repeats her sentence, “Not a mistake I’m gonna make again. Next time I’ll be posting body-parts back to….Whipser.”

“Eh? What?”

“Never mind!”

Several alarms start to blare out. “That’s our signal to go!” Ta’alan says. “I need to get a change of clothes.”

“Was the Rancor a bit scary, little man? Do you need a pack of botty-wipes?”

Ta’alan ignores Jimmi’s patronising. They form up and hustle along corridors. There is some panic among the palace guards and staff, besides Karnov has blazed a trail and they make the exit without too much resistance.

“So I took on a Rancor single handed….” Ta’alan is explaining to anyone who will listen, “And then all my clothes fell off…..!”

“In the best possible taste?” Kima asks, not impressed at all.

“In the vest possible taste.” Kory giggles.

Back aboard the safety of Storm Cutter, they start to pour over the datpad. They enlist Kima’s help to break the code. After that it is in a language like that of Rill.

“Isn’t Rill a lizard-like creature from Tattooine?” Karnov asks.

“That’s a Rill.”

“I thought Ryll was a type of drug.”

Kima is getting impatient. “If you’re gonna stand around making snide comments….” She barks at them.

“Sorry.” As one they sit down and resume making comments.

Some hours later, there is nothing more to be said about Rill or Ryll. Trio comes in to ask what they’d like for supper.

“What do we usually have on Thursdays?” Niall asks.

“Your usual, ma’am.”

“Sir.” Niall prompts.

“What…..Ever…..!” The droid responds, “Okay, your usual.”

“Good. –And no messing with the salad again!”

Kima finally has cracked the code.

“Wow! This is dirt on half the senate!”

“What about the other half?”

“Rumours, speculation. There is even a list of separatist sympathisers, corrupt officials, bureaucrats on the take. The whole civil service doesn’t look so rosy either.”

“We can’t give this back to the senator. It’s too much power.”

“But he’s a good guy.” Karnov protests.

“That he may be. But if Nina and her gang suspect what is on this datapad….Then they might have an insight as to who, where, why and what…” Niall warns. “The senator won’t be safe.”

They think for a moment. “Talking of good guys….” Kima prompts.

“Yes? What?”

“Why not pass this to the chancellor?”

“Palpatine? That no-good-dirty-two-faced-slimy, corrupt…..”

“Not that Palpatine the supreme chancellor of the Republic.”

“Very nice man.”

“One of the best!”

“A man we can trust!”

They are decided. They elect Niall to make the call. After passing through several flunkies of higher and higher rank, Niall convinces them to grant him a direct line to the chancellor himself.

“Your excellency, we have retrieved a datapad, upon which is some evidence which –were it to pass into the wrong hands – would be extremely damaging to the Republic.”

“Quite remarkable.” Palapatine’s voice purrs. “I will see to it personally.” He pauses. “You have done the Republic a great service, general.”

“Thank you, your excellency.”

Niall shuts off the holo. “I might even get on his Christmas card list!” He says excitedly, “I think he really likes me!”

“I’m sure he’ll have a very special present for you, when the time comes.”

“Your just desserts.” Rojic scoffs.

Trio emerges from the galley. She turns to Niall. “Your usual ma’am. Order sixty-six!”

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Footnotes: [ 1 ]    The shorthand for Kory is ‘K’ for Karnov is ‘Kv’ and Kima Venn….um…. might have to start using the Aurebesh ‘Krill’ – though isn’t that better for Karnov….Argggghhh!