This choice: Realize who they are and ask for help, offering rewards. • Go Back...Chapter #6Reactors and rewards. by: Barlen   If anything the inside of the factory was worse than the outside. The entire line was a twisted, mangled mess of twisted mangled rails and droid parts, with numerous “skylights” installed by the tank’s main gun where sentry guns probably had been, and in many places the lights themselves where either dead or flickering weakly... and in more than one place support beams had been knocked out.
“Welp, you don’t need me to knock this place down, a good sneeze ought to do it.” Scorch says as he looks the damage over with his demolitionist’s eye.
“A sneeze huh?” Sev, or Delta-07, the last, but no less bloodthirsty member of Delta Squad in red armor deadpans.
“... Alright, fine a krayt dragon sneeze. But uh... joking aside this place is seriously condemned, stay the hell away from those busted supports.” As if to punctuate the yellow highlighted clone’s point, a large piece of the ceiling falls off and hits the floor with a loud smack! “See what I mean?”
“Well that’s good enough for me... unless you still wish get a look at the tank and whatever it’s guarding, General Kenobi.” Boss says, praying that the famous Jedi has changed his mind.
“Oh believe me, I don’t want to, but it’s either lie to the council about whatever it’s guarding, or go back and tell them and either get sent back to take a look, or have someone else get sent to take a look instead... somebody perhaps less lucky than we all are.”
“Ah so they’ve told you about our misadventures general!” Scorch replies cheerfully.
“Stow it Delta 62.” Boss immediately snapped.
“Oh it’s fine commander. After all, we’ve all lived though our fair share of our own misadventures, haven’t we, Anakin?”
“Oh you mean the ones Skyguy here caused?”
“Very funny Snips...” Anakin mutters to his Padawan.
“Well I wasn’t going to go that far but now that you mention-“ Obi-wan however finds himself cut short as a loud rumble echos through the factory and all three Jedi feel a surge in the force far in front of them.
“Run!” All over three Jedi say as they turn tail, followed instantly by the commandos... of course they don’t get far before a noise comparable to a jet engine roars behind them, and moments later a large object sails overhead on wings of flame. It crashes down hard, but no worse for wear as it skids, sending sparks flying as it turns a full 180 degree turn to face them. It is, of course the tank, and in no time at all each force sensitive and clone has a gun pointed at them, glowing and humming ominously.
“Oh good, it flies.”
“Discard your weapons and put your hands up, or be annihilated.” Issues forth an obviously mechanical, and quite frankly terrifying voice from the tank.
Anakin briefly considers drawing his lightsaber and igniting it... but thinks better of it and drops it in front of him, along side everyone else’s weapons as he puts his hands up... “Okay, between Me, Obi-wan and Ahsoka, we can use the force to rearm in heartbeat...” he thinks to himself.
At this point the tank’s drones show up, and pop out little grabbers, and waste no time whisking their gear away.
“Provided exactly that doesn’t happen...”
“Okay... we’re unarmed, I don’t suppose you could power your weapons down and let us go?”
“Negative, this unit will not release you here, you will be escorted to the edge of this accursed separatist facility, then you will be released and your equipment returned via drone... it is suggested you do not attempt to return...”
“Accursed? For the record we don’t like them either, we were here to demolish this factory actually.”
For a moment the tank stares at them through the optics on its guns... then dims it’s weapons and asks: “Are you with the republic then... are you... Jedi?”
“Well, yes.”
“Oh thank god!” Not only has the voice raised a few octaves and levels in friendliness, the tank’s weapons power down. “It’s true right? You can move things with your minds, right? Even with glass or something in the way?”
“Yes?”
The tank visibly sags in relief. “Oh hallelujah, the facility is saved! These damn droids found me several weeks ago, and up until I pulverized them yesterday they’ve been trying nonstop to get into my bunker. I was content to simple watch them try and fail to get past the main blast door, it was kinda funny even, the thin ones are pretty stupid!“
“We know... so what’s the problem, and can we have our gear back?”
“Oh! Right, drones give the nice people their toys back! Anyways as I was saying the droids have been trying to get in, they eventually started digging. That wouldn’t be a problem, but... I’ve been here awhile, like tens of thousands of years awhile... I spent most of the time asleep, but I digress, over that time water got in places, like my reactor chamber. The stalagmites looks cool so I let them be... They didn’t hurt anything, until the droids whole them lose that is. Now one is stuck in a reactor feed, and it will explode if it’s not fixed.
The Jedi look at each other.
“A stuck rock doesn’t sound like much of a problem...” Anakin mutters.
“I’d agree with you, if the reactor fail safes weren’t stupid. Because it’s slowly going critical it’s in an emergency state, and I don’t actually have the clearance anymore to get something in there and knock the rock out.
“So how long until you blow?”
“Oh, awhile, it’ll take about a week, but without that feed stabilizer active it will go eventually.”
“Still, no time like the present, lead the way, um...”
“Hypnos, and thank you! Hop aboard, I promise I’ll make it worth your while!”
With that the whole group shares a look.
“Well after seeing what this tank did to those clankers...” Sev says with a darkly amused chuckle.
“Hmm, you’ll have to talk to my captain about that, but I can promise you as soon as you fix my reactor I can get you into medical for a nice nanite infusion! They’re hot stuff, Architect nanites will keep you young and strong as long as you keep yourself feed and watered, and then some! You’ll even be able to modify your own bodies once you full integrate with them!”
“Uh... are there any side effects?” Ahsoka asks as they all find a place on the tank and hold on.
“Side effects? What, you mean besides being immune to all but the nastiest diseases and old age? I mean come on, who wants to die old and decrepit, or at all? There shouldn’t be any side effects beyond that they are Omni-species-comparable!”
“Immortality huh...” Obi-wan mulls it over, a double edged sword to be sure... but, the republic could use powerful friends like Hypnos and his people. Sure the republic was winning, but ending the war sooner would spare lives and suffering. So it’d be best not to turn him down. “I hope no one here was planning on dying of old age.” He mutters.
Before long they reach the end of the destroyed factory and the beginning of the bunker the droids were excavating. It’s general aesthetics are similar to the tank they are riding, but they don’t get a chance to dwell on it as the blast door opens and the tank shoots on through and comes to a stop at the other end of a large garage full of vehicles. Hypnos shoos them along with his drones and leads them deeper into the bunker until they reach the ailing reactor. Once more, all jaws drop, as apparently reactor In... whatever Hypnos’ people are, means tiny artificial star!
The star itself is oddly dim, enough to be looked directly at, and the chamber around it has several devices inside that alternates between shooting stuff into it, and extracting stuff out of it, except one in a corner which has a big piece of rock wedging it’s shutter shut. On its hemisphere the mini star it seems... sick, with a number of sun spots and constant solar flares.
Getting said rock out is no problem, all of them can see it through the glass and it’s loose, just not in a position for the device to rattle it out. It’s something any of the Jedi and trainee present could do alone but as a show of solidarity Skywalker, Tanoo and Kenobi all reach out and grasp the rock with the force and yank it out of the shutter. The device opens and closes several times before emitting a beam into the star that lasts until the sickly section is healed.
“Phew! I really can’t thank you enough, uh, just go ahead and drop the rock into the star, it’ll eat it no problem, and I can extract the extra material to make your nanites and some other goodies for you.”
The three nod and watch as it disappears in a gout of fire.
“Now for your rewards, Mister Skywalker, I’d like to start with you, replace your prosthetic arm.”
“What’s wrong with it?” Anakin asks a bit taken back.
“Nothing... it’s just the nanites I’m gonna give you won’t like it. They’ll eat it and regrow your proper arm the slow achey way, my way’s a lot faster and pain free.”
“Oh, Guess I’ll be back. Watch Snips for me Obi.” Anakin says to his companions as he runs down the hallway.
“Really, Skyguy?” Ahsoka calls back to him, but he’s already gone, Hypnos showing him the way via holograms and he’s soon seated in a surprisingly comfy medical chair... totally unaware of the turn his day is about to take...  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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