Merry Christmas! Below is our final teaser chapter before we release regular installments on Sundays starting January 4th:
Ben Kenobi. Traversing through mutant-infested mines tests Ben's and his fireteam's abilities.
Ben Kenobi.
Commander Ben Kenobi cringed as soldiers’ boots squeaked against the tunnel floor, despite the gripfoam applied to them. The mine's walls and floor were thick with moisture at this depth, so Ben ordered his fireteams to tread cautiously. It demanded patience from the soldiers: slowing them down and paining them with the annoyance of restraint.
There was little time to spare with the Skywalkers’ trial beginning soon. Ben had planned the rescue with a generous buffer, but setbacks already stretched them thin. First the random aircraft inspection, then having to abandon the speeders, and of course, there were “the unclean ones,” the mutant da phelu.
Ben followed alpha team along the neighboring shaft, passing through abandoned miners' quarters. Bunks pushed over, splintered chairs, discarded food packages littering the floor. Mutants had trashed the room.
He scanned the walls. They looked to be marked with the miners' names and the number of months they'd served underground.
Lines crossed out most of the names. No one made it very long. Were the da phelu or the working conditions the reason? Probably both.
Exiting the camp, the tunnel curved on itself, leading to a wider corridor where stopes propped up portions of the ceiling.
"Hold up," said Lieutenant Til'trius on the open channel. "on feed 6 I see something. They're close." Three shadowy figures busy feasting upon a corpse. Ben heard one gnawing lustily on a bone in carnal worship. Disgusting.
"More da phelu," noted Sergeant Chalmers. "Alpha team, can we engage?"
"Negative," said Specialist Aro. "The uglies are just around a bend. I can’t shoot through the rock. We’ll have to close in for stun."
"It’d be my pleasure," said her teammate Ronk.
"No Specialist," Ben asserted. "You'll never have time to stun all three. As wet as it is, you’ll alert them before you get in range. I'll handle this. Direct the drone away from the mutants."
Ronk made a quick objection that Ben readily dismissed. This wasn't about who got to kill mutants; it was about what was safest and most efficient to accomplish objectives.
Ben took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Using the force on his body armor and boots, he dampened the pressure his weight made on the floor. The outfit wasn’t designed to handle his full weight, otherwise he might have levitated by it. It at least made him lighter on foot. Letting the force guide him as to which steps to take, he scaled quietly, passing the other soldiers and closing in on the da phelu. He made it around the bend, the mutants only a few paces up.
The creatures might notice him if he grew closer, their eyes too accustomed to the dark. He adjusted his v-filters for the best picture of his adversaries, and observed they were consuming one of their own. Perhaps an older member of their pack, or a particularly annoying one that these others turned on?
His hand reached into his utility belt, passing by the lightsaber that was too bright and loud, and too clumsy and random for this situation. He pulled out two light vibroknives instead: deadly, silent. Two he'd take out swiftly; the third was a different matter.
Ben threw a vibroknife with both hands. A force-enhanced push made them zip across open space and plant into the necks of two da phelu. He concentrated with the force and clamped the jaws of the third da phelu together. It let out a muffled, hardly audible sound, clawing at its mouth in surprise that it's voice was denied.
No longer startled, the genetic mutant charged him in frustrated fury. Ben's eyes widened. It was fast and by the force, its outstretched claws were enormous. He reached out and with a force pull, knives dislodged from flesh and found flesh again, at the base of this third da phelu’s skull. Falling to its knees, it slumped into a puddle of water. It was over.
"That’s some fancy work, Jedi--ur, Commander," said Sergeant Chalmers, who must have observed this melee via drone feed. "Can’t say I’ve ever--"
"Shh." A rumbling. Ben listened carefully -- the noise wasn't ahead, but above? Likely from a neighboring tunnel.
Eventually, the sounds ceased. Ben broke the ice. "Your praises were nearly unfounded, Sergeant. I feared I hadn’t been fancy enough. Let’s advance alpha team. We can reconnect with the other tunnel up ahead, and get to our first drill spot."
Ronk, who typically ran point, nodded as he passed Ben. Have I earned that skeptical soldier's respect? Maybe he won't question the Jedi's purpose any moment soon.
Ben knew this was the way to affirm the Jedi's value to the galaxy: to be in the trenches with people. Less preaching, more doing. And not just with soldiers, but with teachers, farmers, factory workers, and even miners. Public works were needed more than covert ops.
In the middle of those thoughts, screeches were heard in the vast, cavernous corridor opening up ahead. Ben gritted his teeth. The mutants they'd heard rumbling earlier had found them. So much for caution.
"Get ready Alpha team," Chalmers warned. Obi-wan felt a slight tremor, and the cries of da phelu grew loud. Ahead his HUD identified fifteen, no eighteen, piling out into the cavern. They saw his soldiers, and hissed at Ronk and Aro.
"Ronk, Aro -- fall back," ordered Chalmers.
This many against just the five of them? If the da phelu rushed... Ben might be able to hold them off for a little, but from the sounds echoing in the chamber, even more were coming. They needed reinforcements.
Ben opened a channel. "Beta team, we need your backup. Immediately."
"What’s that, Commander?" came Sergeant Fett’s voice. "Oh hell. Party’s already started? Thanks for the belated invite, sir. We’re on our way."
"Find a target and fire on my mark," Sergeant Chalmers directed alpha team, "And then retreat to safety." This would be a desperate attack. Ben pulled out his lightsaber, and was about to ignite it when the oddest thing happened.
The horde of da phelu ran away.
The ground trembled again, and screams came from the adjoining tunnel they needed to pass through. A few more da phelu ran out. The last one only made it a few paces before something lashed out and wrapped around its leg. The creature screamed as it was wrenched back and disappeared out of Ben’s field of vision. A loud snap and crunch summarized its fate.
"I thought the da phelu were on the top of the food chain?" Specialist Aro asked aloud. Ben's thoughts exactly.
Of course, while theda phelu had made the mines their new stomping grounds, it wasn't unthinkable that even more dangerous predators might follow after them.
The beast was awesome to behold. Nail-like quills coated the back of a multi-faceted carapace, which overlay its massive frame. Despite its size, it was more sinewy and cut, than a mountain of muscles. Rodian mythology’s symbol of death, the ghest, lay before them. Ben wondered how something this large could get inside the mines. It couldn't have entered in through the path they traversed, but there were many tunnels. He brushed aside the thought to deal with the immediacy of the situation.
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