The Harpy skidded across the ground, crushing the high grasses and leaving a rough trench in her wake. She shuddered violently and came to a stop, just as the firefighter droids arrived from the spaceport.
“End of the road,” Gunn said dismally.
Nuru released his safety belt. “I’m going check on the others.” He went back to the main hold, where he found Sharp and Knuckles already working to release the unconscious Gizz from the floor. Breaker’s eyes were open, and Cleaver was helping him up from the bunk. Breaker shook his head and said, “Did I miss something?”
“We’ll fill you in after we’re all outside,” Nuru said, gesturing to the main hatch. But as he turned, he noticed a leather utility belt lying on the deck. He picked up the belt and looked at it with astonishment. “Where did this come from?”
“I found it near Breaker in the woods,” Cleaver said. “I’m sorry I neglected to mention it, but we were a bit rushed. I suspect it belonged to the sniper.”
Nuru continued staring at the belt for a moment, then reached to his own belt and removed Ring Sol-Ambase’s lightsaber. He secured the lightsaber to a clip on the belt that Cleaver had recovered. “No, Cleaver. This didn’t belong to the sniper.”
The belt had three attached pouches. Two were empty. One was not.
“What the skrag hit me?” Gizz moaned as he sat up on the ground a few meters from the wreckage of the Hasty Harpy, where Cleaver was helping the firefighting droids extinguish the small fires that were still burning.
“Take it easy, Gizz,” Nuru said. “You might have a concussion.”
Gizz looked at Nuru, and then noticed the four clone troopers who stood nearby, listening to an official from the spaceport. The troopers had removed their helmets. Gizz blinked his eyes and scowled. “Something’s wrong with my vision. I’m seeing quadruple.”
Nuru grinned. “They’re clones.”
“Oh,” Gizz said. “Hey, what happened to that armored guy we went after, the one who blasted my swoop?”
Nuru nodded. “He’s dead.”
“This day’s just getting better.” Gizz yawned. “I got a whopping headache. I’m gonna rest my eyes a bit.” He lay back on the ground and began snoring almost immediately.
Nuru looked over to the spaceport official, who was a stern-looking man. The man said, “I should have known Gizz was involved in this crash. Ever since he arrived on Vaced, he’s been trouble. And no one’s going to mourn that gang he hung out with.”
Nuru shook his head. “Gizz isn’t responsible for what happened here.”
“Well, I got plenty of other reasons to send him to prison! Disturbing the peace, public insobriety, failure to pay debts.,. “Glancing at Gizz’s slumbering form, he continued, “I’m going to see to it that Gizz goes straight to some off-world prison, maybe the Spice Mines of Kessel. Keep an eye on him while I get some chains.” He turned and headed for one of the buildings at the spaceport.
When the man was out of earshot, Nuru said, “We’re leaving. Now.”
“You got a weird sense of humor, kid,” Gunn said.
“I’m serious. We’ll take Sommilor’s ship. We’ll take the bodies of Sommilor and his pilots with us.”
“Back to Coruscant?” Sharp said.
“Not immediately.” Nuru held out the utility belt. “This is Master Ambase’s. Cleaver found it in the woods near Breaker. The assassin must have dropped it. And I found this in one of the utility pouches.” He reached into a pocket and pulled out a small disc-shaped device, It was an imagecaster, a compact hologram projector. He activated the imagecaster and a holograph readout materialized above the disc. The readout was a three-dimensional map of the Bilbringi system, complete with navigational coordinates. “Bilbringi Depot isn’t far from here. Maybe the assassin brought my Master to Bilbringi and left him there. I need to find out.”
“Begging your pardon, Commander,” Sharp said, “but shouldn’t we contact the authorities on Coruscant first and let them know what happened to Sommilor and his pilots?”
“No,” Nuru said sharply, “No transmissions to Coruscant. Someone has been tracking us across space, possibly manipulating our movements. We never did find the transmitter on the Harpy, but I am not taking any more chances, we’ll contact the authorities after we investigate Bilbringi.”
“You’re crazy, kid,” Gunn said. “How do you know the assassin didn’t leave that belt behind on purpose? Maybe he was trying to lure you and the rest of us into a trap on Bilbringi!”
“I considered that possibility,” Nuru admitted as he deactivated the imagecaster. “But the fact that the assassin attacked the Наrру suggests otherwise. I don’t believe he was frying to lead us anywhere. He was trying to kill us. We may never know who he was or what his motives were, but we know he won’t harm anyone again.”
“Well, count me out, anyway,” Gunn said. “You helped get me off of Kynachi, and in return, I took you to Chiss space and back. But if I’d known I’d be making a detour to a black hole, tangling with space pirates, chasing a killer wearing a missile on his back, and that the Harpy would wind up like this…” She gestured to her ruined ship and shook her head. “Forget it. I’ll find some other way off Vaced. I’m through traveling with you.”
Nuru sighed. “I’m sorry about the Harpy. I promise, when I return to Coruscant, I will submit a request tо the Jedi Council to have the Republic reimburse you for—”
“You’re assuming you’ll ever return to Coruscant,” Gunn interrupted. “What good is promise if you go to Bilbringi and you get yourself and everyone else killed?!”
“That’s enough, Lalo,” Chatterbox said.
Everyone looked at Chatterbox. He had never addressed Gunn by her first name before.
“Sorry, Nuru,” Gunn said quietly, “I trust your promise is good.” Then she stepped up close to Chatterbox, looked him straight m the eye, and said, “I’d ask you to stay with me, hut I already know your answer. So long, Chatterbox.” She turned and started to move away.
Chatterbox grabbed Gunn’s arm and pulled her back to him. He kissed her. She kissed him back.
Knuckles checked his rifle. Breaker looked up at the sky. Sharp lowered his head and stared at his boots. Nuru fidgeted with the imagecaster. Cleaver walked over from the wreckage and said, “The fires are all out.”
“Nor from where I’m standing,” Gunn said as she drew away from Chatterbox. She reached up, rapped his lips, and said, “Be careful with that mouth of yours.” She glanced at the other members of Breakout Squad and said, “Bye, boys.”
Sharp said, “Where will you go?”
“I might just call an old friend to give me a lift.” Then Gunn walked off toward the spaceport with her head held high. She did not look back.
Knuckles looked at the sleeping giant and said, “Do we just leave him there?”
“He may have a criminal record,” Nuru said, “but he did save me from a nasty crash. I imagine he might be quite grateful if he doesn’t wake up in prison.”
Sharp said, “You’re not suggesting we take him with us?”
Nuru nodded. “I’m trusting my instincts, Sharp. I suspect Gizz hasn’t had an easy life. I believe he deserves another chance,” He looked at Chatterbox and said, “You spent a lot of hours in the Harpy’s cockpit. Think you саn fly Sommilor’s freighter?”
Chatterbox nodded.
“Good. Now, let’s get going before that spaceport guy comes back.”
As they hauled Gizz to Sommilor’s freighter, no one noticed the small, gray magnetic cylinder that was still attached to Cleaver’s left leg.
Almost half an hour after the Hasty Harpy crashed in the grassy field on Vaced, the Suwantek Systems freighter lifted off, carrying a young Jedi, four Republic troopers, a refurbished droid commando, a giant named Gizz, and the bodies of three dead men from Kynachi. As the freighter ascended from Vaced Spaceport, a lone man, standing on a plateau at Shattered Rock, watched the departure through his macrobinoculars.
&nb
sp; Hudu Shiv lowered the macrobinoculars. Satisfied that the Jedi and his allies had left the planet, he walked over to the emergency lifeboat that rested nearby. He had disengaged the lifeboat from his Pursuer just before he had used a remote control transmitter to send the Pursuer after Kungurama’s ship. And then, after using the remote to fire a few blasts at Kungurama’s ship, he had allowed the Pursuer to be destroyed.
Shiv imagined Count Dooku would express displeasure when he learned Nuru Kungurama had sighted a Mandalorian warrior on Vaced. However, Shiv had covered his trail by faking his own death and had also accomplished his primary goals. The men from Kynachi were dead, and a Jedi utility belt had been left at the shooting site.
Shiv climbed into the lifeboat. He had already plotted a course for a nearby space station where he would be picked up by a covert Death Watch transport. He punched the ignition, and the lifeboat launched from the plateau, leaving a trail of water vapor as it raced up through the atmosphere.
He wondered if he might cross paths with Nuru Kungurama again. As much as Shiv prided himself for being a professional, he could not deny he wanted another crack at the Jedi who had failed to kill him.
“You got any more food on this ship?” the giant, Gizz, asked.
“No, Gizz,” Nuru said. “You ate it all.”
“Oh.” Gizz scratched his stomach. “The station you said we’re going to …”
“Bilbringi Depot.”
“Yeah, Bilbringi. We can get more food there, right?” Gizz added.
“I hope so.”
They were sitting on a bench beside a console in the cargo bay of the Suwantek Systems freighter. Nuru had directed the troopers to place Gizz in the cargo bay because the passenger compartments did not have sufficient headroom for the giant. The bodies of Sommilor and the two pilots had been neatly bagged and carefully stowed in the bay’s airtight storage chamber. A nearby window offered a view of hyperspace as they raced to their destination.
Nuru looked at a chronometer on the nav console and said, “We’ll be exiting hyperspace soon.”
“Thanks for not leaving me on Vaced. I overheard the clones talking. They said that I might have woken up in chains or in prison. You didn’t have to bring me with you.”
“You didn’t have to pull me off that swoop before it crashed at Shattered Rock.”
Gizz shrugged. “Don’t give me too much credit. I was probably just saving myself at the time and took you with me.” He looked at the window. “I’ve never been to Bilbringi Depot, but I’ve heard about it. It’s on an asteroid owned by a Hutt named Drixo. Tell me again, why are we going there?”
“I’m searching for my Jedi Master. I have reason to believe he may have been taken to Bilbringi, and—”
“Excuse me, Commander,” Breaker interrupted as he entered the cargo bay. “We may have a situation.” He walked over to the nav console and pressed a series of buttons. “See here.”
Nuru got up from the bench and examined the console’s data display. “What’s this? Frequency readouts?”
“Wait.”
And then Nuru saw a tiny green circle flash on the display. Nuru’s eyes went wide. Calming himself, he said, “So … Sommilor’s ship is carrying a hidden transmitter. You just discovered this?”
Breaker nodded. “Commander, we don’t know what to expect at Bilbringi Depot, but thanks to that transmitter, it’s entirely possible that someone at Bilbringi is expecting us.”
Gizz lifted his girth off the bench and said, “I got news for you, clone. No one at Bilbringi is expecting me.” He placed a massive hand on Nuru’s shoulder. “If anyone’s messing with my little buddy here, they’re in for a galaxy of pain.”
“In that case,” Breaker said, “I guess we have nothing to worry about.”
The freighter dropped out of hyperspace in the Bilbringi system. Nuru had joined Chatterbox in the cockpit, and he watched as the freighter moved past countless asteroids toward the largest one, designated Bilbringi VII, the home of Bilbringi Depot.
Nuru had informed the other members of Breakout Squad about the transmission signal that Breaker had discovered. “Easy does it, Chatterbox,” Nuru said as they neared Bilbringi VII. “We don’t know for a fact whether some enemy is waiting for us. For all we know, we may appear on their scopes as an ordinary freighter.”
Soon, they were able to make out details of the depot through the cockpit window. Bright lights illuminated a cluster of landing pads, modular structures, and docking bays. And then Nuru spotted the barges and a large Metalorn yacht.
Nuru gasped. “That’s Overseer Umbrag’s ship.” He hit the intercom. “Umbrag’s at Bilbringi Depot. No Separatist warships in sight, just some drone barges and Umbrag’s yacht. Knuckles and Sharp, are the laser cannons primed?
“Yes, Commander,” Knuckles responded.
“Breaker?”
“I’m all set with Cleaver and Gizz, Commander.”
“We’re about to dock,” Nuru said. “Be ready for anything.”
Gizz added, “I don’t even know who Umbrag is, but I’m itching to clobber him.”
Overseer Umbrag was lounging in Drixo the Hurt’s former lair, playing a starfighter hologame, when he heard a clamor from the outer corridor.
A moment later, he beard the clattering approach of a battle droid. The droid said, “A Suwantek Systems freighter just arrived, sir.”
Without looking up from his game, Umbrag said, “Tell them the same thing you said to the other ships that tried to dock after us. Tell them the depot is under quarantine.”
“I tried telling them, sir. But they didn’t listen. They just blasted me.”
“What?” Umbrag looked at the droid through his thick goggles and was startled to see both of its arms had been blown off. “This is an outrage! Who dared to defy my order?!”
“Well, there were a few Republic troopers, a very angry giant, a young Jedi, and a droid commando who doesn’t seem to be on our side anymore.”
“A Jedi?” Umbrag said nervously. “Did he have blue skin and red eyes?”
A voice bellowed from behind the dismembered droid, “You must be Umbrag.” Umbrag looked past the droid, saw an orange-skinned humanoid monster standing beside Nuru Kungurama, and fainted.
“That battle went much more easily than I imagined it would,” Cleaver said.
“No kidding,” Knuckles added. “If you ask me, it was too easy. I’m just disappointed we couldn’t find any evidence that General Ambase was ever here.”
“The fight might not be over yet,” Breaker said as he tossed a battle droid’s head into a pile of droid parts they had collected on Bilbringi Depot. “We blasted eleven droids, but they may have arrived here as an even dozen.”
“If there’s a straggler, we’ll get him, too,” Sharp said confidently. He gestured to the pile of vanquished droids. “It doesn’t make sense. Why would the Separatists take over Bilbringi Depot, then leave only a few battle droids to defend it?”
Chatterbox responded with a shrug. Breaker said, “Maybe Umbrag will tell us when he regains consciousness.”
Breakout Squad was standing in the Bilbringi Depot docking bay next to their appropriated freighter. The troopers had removed their helmets. Gizz walked past them, carrying Umbrag over one shoulder as he headed for the freighter’s boarding ramp. Nuru stood at the base of the ramp and said, “Thanks, Gizz. You can put him in the hold for now.”
“Gladly,” Gizz replied as he carried Umbrag into the ship.
Nuru walked over to the troopers and Cleaver. “I transmitted a message to the Jedi Council. I told them what happened on Vaced and also here at the depot. A Republic cruiser should arrive here shortly to transport us back to Coruscant.”
Knuckles said, “What about Sommilor’s ship?”
“It will likely be taken to Kynachi, so the men’s bodies can be returned to their families.” Nuru shook his head. “Those men had counted on me to escort them to Coruscant. I’ll never forget my failure on Vaced.”
As Gizz headed out of the docking bay. Cleaver looked at Nuru and said, “It wasn’t your fault. Commander. You didn’t kill those men. The assassin did. A Jedi can’t save everyone all the time.”
“Cleaver’s right, Commander,” Breaker said. “What’s more, none of us might have survived Kynachi if it weren’t for you.”
“And consider what we did accomplish,” Knuckles added. “We finally nabbed Umbrag! And judging from the cargo in his drone barges, it looks like we may have stopped the Separatists from transforming the depot into some kind of manufacturing facility.”
Sharp said, “With any luck, we’ll also get information out of Umbrag that will help us find General Ambase.”
Nuru frowned. Breaker said, “What’s wrong, Commander?”
“Something just occurred to me. When we return to Coruscant, I doubt the Council will encourage me to continue serving with Breakout Squad. I’m sure they’ll assign you to a more experienced leader. I just want you all to know I’ve learned a great deal from you, and … and I’ll miss you all very much.”
“Commander,” Breaker said, “I think I can speak for all the men, and Cleaver, too, when I say it’s been an honor to serve with—“
Breaker was interrupted by the sound of a starship approaching the docking bay. Turning to see the incoming ship, Nuru was amazed to see a teardrop-shaped transport with a recessed cockpit and a single sharp-tipped maneuvering fin. The ship was enveloped in a luminescent energy field that generated an eerie, pale white light. As the transport glided silently toward the docking bay, Knuckles said, “I’ve never seen a ship like that before.”
“Neither have I,” Nuru said. “Put on your helmets, ready your weapons, and take cover.” The troopers and Cleaver obeyed, moving quickly behind some nearby cargo containers.
Star Wars - The Clone Wars - Secret Missions #3 - Duel at Shattered Rock Page 8