Diversity Alliance

19

Running inside the shadowy tunnels, ducking to avoid low-hanging support beams, Jacen found a passageway that led farther downward. He saw fallen debris cluttering the ramp, but the passage seemed to open into a larger chamber underneath, which might offer them a place to hide or at least to fight.

“This way!” he said, and ran headlong down the sloping passageway.

Hearing Jacen’s voice, the assassin droids opened fire again and blasted holes in the ancient walls. Tyko Thul needed no further encouragement and scrambled after Jacen.

Jaina, Tenel Ka, and Lowie followed, trying to keep up without running into each other.

They reached the bottom of the ramp, and the midnight darkness of the catacombs became thicker and oilier. The blackness lacked even the faint respite of stars twinkling far overhead. The sluggish air smelled thick and damp, clogged with mildew, as if nothing had ventured down here willingly for hundreds of years. Clouds of dust stirred under their feet as they rushed ahead.

“This is as bad as the spice mines of Kessel,” Jacen muttered.

Lowie scraped his ginger-furred head on an overhanging marble archway; Jaina stumbled on the uneven floor. Grumbling in vexation, she pulled out her lightsaber.

“I can’t see where I’m going!”

Jacen was about to warn his sister not to create so much light, but Jaina ignited the weapon, instantly flooding the surrounding chambers with dazzling electric violet brilliance. She glanced over at her brother and raised her eyebrows. “Those assassin droids can see in the dark anyway—we’re the only ones who were blinded. No sense making it worse for ourselves.”

The companions rushed onward. By the crackling light of his sisters energy sword, Jacen could see that they had entered a broad chamber buried below one of the ancient structures in the crater wall.

Portions of the ceiling had fallen all around, but this underground chamber seemed to have many exits, low tunnels that could be hidden lairs for strange, deadly creatures….

In the violet illumination, Jacen spotted glinting eyes and flashing fangs. He swallowed hard. With his Jedi senses he detected skittering movement and the sudden sharp focus of predatory attention.

“Blaster bolts!” he said as the young Jedi Knights skidded to a halt, wondering which direction to go next. “Maybe this wasn’t such a good hiding place after all.”

Before he could worry further, bolts of sizzling light streaked across the room.

Flashes of destructive fire spat from high-powered cannons carried by the assassin droids as the machines marched into the chamber where Jacen and his companions had hoped to hide or make their last stand.

With a thrumming of metal and a powerful whine of servomotors, the murderous droids attacked. The young Jedi Knights had no place to run.

As one, Tenel Ka, Lowbacca, and Jacen lit their lightsabers and prepared to fight.

Tyko Thul stayed beside them, muttering that he wished he had thought to stash a few weapons outside his ship before the droids destroyed it.

IG-88 himself clomped into the musty chamber and fixed his quarry with his flashing scarlet optical sensors. The chief droid swiveled his body core sideways, bringing up his arm and focusing its built-in laser rifle. He targeted on Jacen and fired.

But Jacen reacted in a flash. Flowing with the Force, he brought up his lightsaber blade in the same instant that Tenel Ka reached out to protect him, crossing her turquoise blade with his emerald one.

IG-88’s deadly bolt struck both lightsabers and ricocheted off, splashing its fire into one of the darkened side tunnels.

A roar of pain exploded from the shadows, and seconds later a mass of jointed legs and flashing eyes and smashing jaws clattered out with a bellow, as if sounding a call for other monsters to join it. The huge combat arachnid launched itself into the fray while other spider beasts stormed out of the surrounding tunnels, disturbed by the battle and hungry for fresh prey.

“Oh dear, not again!” Em Teedee shrilled. “I detest those creatures.”

“This was definitely not a good idea,” Uncle Tyko Said. His face had turned a pale gray, and he seemed much more concerned about the arachnids than the deadly droids.

“I suggest we discuss the merits of our escape plans after <…>