There was no time to think much; I just trusted the Force and ran, the others following me. There was no room left for doubt, no space for hesitation, so not even HK asked what or why, simply fell in line, bringing up the rear. Focusing on the breeze, the Force pulled me along, like a hand holding mine, leading me forward, and I couldn't tell if it was a single presence or multiple... But it did feel like what I experienced once before, when I almost became one with the Force. There was an amalgamation of the Light Side helping us out, maybe Iowi, or it could have been all the Jedi who died in the assault of this facility in the past, being stuck in here.
"This way!" I yelled again, already choosing the corridor when we came across a splintering route, trusting that the others would follow even if they didn't understand why.
Just as I turned, the facility behind us howled like an injured saurian, and an explosion shook something, somewhere. It made us tumble, and I almost fell, holding onto the wall, straightening myself as two pipes, just a step behind HK, screamed as banshees as they burst, spewing searing hot steam everywhere. By the time I began running again, multiple conduits on the walls ruptured at once as secondary and tertiary explosions echoed from behind us. The whole thing was like a nightmare as ancient alarms came online, but they were distorted, sounding like a rancor's death gurgle, layered over one another. It was not the only thing trying to claw at us, though, as I felt the Dark Side surge at our backs, wanting to catch us, probably to keep us down, sensing an imminent destruction and not wanting us to escape it.
But then again, the Light Side's current managed to fend it off and kept pulling me forward, wanting me to leave as fast as possible. I could tell we were heading upwards, as the sloping corridor ahead of us twisted and led us into the truly Sith architecture, which was the most stripped down of its coverings, making it feel like I was watching something being built... in reverse. Well, it was dismantling then, but whatever. I hadn't had the time to ruminate over it as I could feel death trying to claim us all.
"This is wrong!" Vila shouted, sprinting beside me, her voice strained, stepping over ancient skeletons that were clearly wearing rusted armors and torn apart robes. "There isn't an exit anywhere!"
"I know!" I shouted back, "But I feel that there will be!"
"You sure? I hope you are!" Jalo yelled as he was breathing hard behind us, clutching his lightsaber. Glancing over his shoulder, he watched as HK brought up the rear, firing backward in short, controlled bursts from her blasters, lighting up the corridors in dark red, making them look and feel more ominous than they already were.
[Statement: Pursuing units are reorganizing, and they are no longer prioritizing efficiency. Clarification: Meatbag Kael, if we are about to die in the resulting explosion of this facility, I will make sure to use you as a meatshield.]
"Yeah, yeah, yeah! Sure, HK!" I yelled back because the tunnel was now tilting even more, leading us upward.
Then I felt it: how the air began to change, not exactly thinning out, but growing colder and wetter, the faint taste of salt creeping right onto my tongue, making it harder to breathe for some reason. Bingo. Soon, everyone heard the faint howl of the wind through the cracks ahead and the distant roars of the massive waves smashing against the cliffside.
"Back into the storm," Jalo gasped, "I can't believe I am happy to hear that noise!"
"Better than exploding," I grunted.
"No need to repeat that!" Vila yelled as another detonation happened somewhere deep below, shaking the whole facility.
Just then, the tunnel opened abruptly, and we burst out onto a vast, fractured cavern that opened directly to the storm outside, its far wall torn away centuries ago, probably in an explosion or something. Standing there... It all felt so familiar, as if we were recreating what I saw in the vision about the berserker... Only we were watching it from the Jedi's perspective. Gasping for air, I watched as rain lashed sideways through the opening, driven by fierce winds that turned them into tiny knives, making the stone slick and treacherous, chipping away at everything inside. Beyond it, the cliffside dropped away into the ocean and the landing platforms below, where the waves kept churning, sometimes going as high as to swallow one of the lower-placed landing pads. This storm was not joking around...
Just as I thought that, as if answering me, dark-blue lightning split the sky open, illuminating everything, making me take a step back, realizing I was standing on bones. Three, no, four corpses, in fact, three old Jedi remains and probably the bones of the Sith berserker. There weren't many of their bones anymore, of course. I couldn't see a skull or the remains of their clothes... just a hand, maybe a rib or two... a beltbuckle... and ruined, broken lightsaber parts.
"This is it," I said, unable to speak over the wind and the thunderstorm, but Vila felt it nonetheless.
"..." She stared at me, then at where I was looking, at the pitiful remains. "Well," She ignited her twin sabers, turning around, "I'm not going down without a fight."
"No," I agreed, "We are not, and it's a choke point." I agreed with her feeling and did the same, pointing towards the opening we came up.
Behind us, the tunnel narrowed sharply, being the perfect funnel for our pursuers. It was wide enough for only a few droids to emerge at once, which would give us the ideal defensive position to try to trim their numbers or just make them get in each other's way.
"This is where we stop them," I said, louder now, yelling over the moaning winds, making Jalo nod, turning on his green saber.
[Assessment: Terrain advantage confirmed.] HK tilted his head, his optics turning dark red, [Addendum: Probability of survival remains… low. At best, twenty percent... Correction: Good enough.]
"That's damn right," Vila slapped his metallic back, standing with him, facing the dark hole in the wall, "I will cut and deflect, making sure that they are staggered, so make your shots count, rustbucket!"
[Proud Statement: I always do. And don't worry, meatbag Vila, I will cripple them faster than you could.]
"We don't need to win," I said, lining up with them while the rain kept blowing in, hitting us in the back, soaking us with the cold water, stinging against our skin, "We need to hold out only for a little longer!"
"Hold out?" Jalo swallowed. "Kael… they'll overwhelm us until we blow..."
Just then, another explosion deep below shook everything, but I was glancing over my shoulder, towards the darkness, the flashing lightning strikes.
"Yes," I said. "Maybe... But... I have a good feeling about this."
"That's a first," Vila snorted, grinning from ear to ear, "And if you say it, I may even believe it!"
Then, lightning flashed again, illuminating the cliff face, almost like some kind of signal, so I planted my feet, taking a deep breath, as the Force settled around me. Even if the grief in my chest didn't vanish, it stopped taking up center stage, allowing me to calm down and focus on the now. On our survival.
A moment later, the first droid emerged from the tunnel in a spray of sparks, its blinking, malfunctioning optics scanning the cavern, and as it took in the storm and the open space, it died instantly. It wasn't a well-protected one, so HK's shot took its knee, and Vila's blade finished it cleanly, with a snappy, short arc of her two blades that sent multiple pieces skidding across the wet stone. One down... But of course, another followed, then another.
They came faster now, forced through the tunnel two at a time, probably pushed by the rest coming up behind them. The first ones, just as before, were the least repaired versions, getting blown apart, piling up at the opening, doing precisely what I was hoping they would do, becoming an obstacle. Then, finally, some proper variants appeared as their sabers were illuminating the cavern with their red light, slashing against their own, fallen brethren as they cleared the route forward. Still, even then, the confined space worked against the bastards, denying them any kind of formation tactics they'd used inside, and even the programming that operated them could do little to improve the situation.
When one of them finally was repaired well enough to block HK's shots or fend off Vila's strikes, lunging for Jalo, I intercepted it, my saber sliding along its blade, redirecting, before cutting deep into its shoulder joint, disarming it. Stepping back, Jalo followed through at once, severing its head, before HK shot its chest, for good measure.
"Wasn't there about fifty of them?!" Vila shouted, dismantling another, using the Force to stop its hand in mid-swing, even if just for a moment, before its glyphs threw her off... but it was enough to stab through its chest where it was unprotected. "Why are there so many still?!"
"I know!" I replied, parrying a strike from the next appearing one that would have taken my cortosis arm off as they tried to disable my trump card. "We hold! There had to be other stations, where they stashed away the rest! No matter! Keep at it!"
"Good thing we chose to blow it all up! They are worse than we thought!" Jalo laughed dryly, and I couldn't help but agree... Haaah... But still, more came... and more. And a bit more.
Fuck.
By then, the tunnel glowed red with the amount of reflected saber light approaching us, not to mention how heavily the Dark Side kept pressing through it. Even if we used the Force to push them back, to trip them up, throw the dismantled pieces back at them, they didn't want to retreat. Why would they?
The bad news was that they were increasingly repaired versions, no longer affected by HK's shots or our Force powers, even able to resist lightsaber strikes...
"Back! Bastards!" Vila yelled, using the Force to pick up all the destroyed droids, and, with Jalo and my help, we all grabbed them with the Force and shoved them all into the hole, trying to block it, at least for a little while.
[Assessment: It won't hold for long.]
No, it won't... I knew that, seeing red sabers stabbing through the haphazard blockage, hacking at it, to get at us, like in some bad horror holo...
"Kael?" Vila asked, but I didn't answer, because a feeling had nudged me.
I could have tried to follow it and ascertain its source... but there was no time. I felt that there wasn't, and I wouldn't let anyone else die. Not to mention, the feeling was... like a reaffirming hand on my shoulders.
"Jump!" I yelled, shocking Vila, while Jalo just turned towards me, but it was no time for questions.
[Query: Is it time for suicide? I didn't sign such a pact with meatbags.]
"Now!" I yelled, because we for sure didn't have time for questions!
I ignored him, simply pulling him up his feet and dragging him along with the Force as I jumped, Jalo and Vila trusting me, doing the same, all of us in perfect sync. Just then, in a flash, a starship, well, a fighter, screamed past by the hole, making me realize that it was an old TIE-fighter. Its whining was something I was very familiar with, as we all managed to grab onto its wing's top, holding onto like some weird ornament, including HK.
The TIE tipped a little at the impact as we grabbed onto it, but it quickly balanced out, holding the speed just right so we wouldn't be swept off. It was then that an explosion echoed behind us, engulfing the cliffside where we had stood a moment ago, covering everything in burning, orange fire, roaring constantly, melting everything.
"Wooohooooo! FUCK YEAH!" Vila screamed beside me, while HK was cursing something, talking about meatbags or... whatever.
I, on the other hand, simply held onto my dear life, watching as the TIE banked over the land, tilting itself so we could drop down, crash-land on the rocks, but it was better than dying, even though it hurt a lot. Looking up at the rain and lightning-filled sky, I watched as the fighter turned in an arc, its twin ion-engines screaming as it switched to full-throttle... and I finally noticed why. The ship we came in was already ascending, trying to leave... I totally missed the fact that it was no longer on the platforms.
"Damn droids are trying to escape!" Vila yelled, catching the same thing.
"But they won't," Jalo muttered, and, true enough, soon there was a series of green turbolasers firing amongst the blue lightning, blowing it up and demolishing the ship before it had a chance to disappear into the clouds, letting the TIE fly through the wreckage, doing a loop amongst the clouds.
"Kael?" Vila asked, nudging me, seeing me smile.
"It's okay." I chuckled as the TIE took another turn, coming down towards us once again, soon touching down not that far away, its hatch opening, and an anxious, familiar face popping up from its cockpit.
"I was afraid I wouldn't make it in time!"
"But you did," I said, unable to hold back my grin, "Master!"