by Colin Cook
horde that had grouped around the bottom of the table, as if they were all shouting 'Fight, Fight, Fight!' in their Replicator language to the siblings duking it out above.
Across the table Jango and Boba were reclining their chairs to keep a safe distance away from the edge, but at the same time were watching the chaos with unmistakable
looks of amusement, and in Boba's case even excitement.
"This would beat a game of Dejarik any day!" Jango called over to me before getting cut off as one of the spiders was thrown from the brawl into his chest. In a snap
decision he picked it up and shoved it back out toward the Replicator it had been fighting, saying something along the lines of 'Get back in there and finish him off!' like
some avid fan on the sidelines of a back-alley Boxing match.
"You're not helping!" I said back to him exasperatedly, earning a laugh and a grin from the two Mandalorians as the fight continued.
"FIVE ON SPARKY!" Alec called into the thrashing maw immediately after I said this, cupping a hand around his mouth and egging the two sides on even further. With a
fierce glare I snapped my head over to him, noticing Yoda now standing on the left armrest of the Guardian's swivel chair, having had to jump to there after the table-top
became a less than ideal spot to be.
Alec himself was leaning forward with two other Replicator spiders sitting around him, one positioned on his chair's right armrest, while the second was perched on his
right shoulder. All of them were also leaning forward and screeching in a manner that could only be similar to Alec's cheering.
Turning and seeing my glare, Yoda could only shrug with a frown, showing that he seemed to be the only person here who shared my sentiments about this situation. Alec
on the other hand only shrugged while at the same time spreading a wide grin across his face.
"Hey c'mon! First rule of Replicator Fight-Club, ALWAYS talk about Replicator Fight-Club!"
Even though Alec's statement was directed at me, the moment they heard his words every spider and beetle watching the spectacle from the floor simultaneously thrust
a pincer leg up into the air and gave a hissing cry of victory, showing that they wholeheartedly agreed with this new idea!
"Yeah thanks for that," I shot back at him sarcastically before returning my attention to the brawl.
"Could we please get some order in here?!" I shouted uselessly, sounding almost like a Court Judge to the bludgeoning machines rolling or being thrown across my line of
sight. At this point in the fight the Iron Man suit, the whole reason for this chaos, had now been all but tossed onto the floor, the table's reflective black surface nearly
completely cleared off by the mad fight.
The beetle made a powerful swipe with the back of its front leg, hitting Sparky in the midsection and sending him flying through the air before crash-landing harshly on his
back directly before me. In an instant the beetle was on top of him, both Replicators locking pincers in a fierce contest of strength, each pushing against the other, trying
to drive their sharp ends into the other's face. Knowing that if I dared try and reach over to pull them apart I might end up losing a hand, I turned to the red and silver
Replicator still perched on my left shoulder.
Throughout this entire fiasco Polly had remained oddly silent, merely twitching his body back and forth between his raging brethren, seemingly rendered mute by the shock
of seeing his family fight against each other so viciously.
"Would you mind?!" I demanded to him, making a jabbing gesture over to the two machines struggling in front of us. Polly momentarily jerked to me in surprise, as if
coming out of a daze, before turning back to the Table-Top Brawl. Immediately he semi-lunged forward, wing-flaps flaring, and let out a horrendous commanding hiss that
resonated throughout the entire room.
Right away all of the Replicator horde stopped in their chanting, while the ones fighting on the table froze in place, even those piled on top of others, and turned their
gazes over to me. After a moment of silence in which several of the spiders actually decided to get off of the ones they were crushing, I gave a short sigh of relief before
raising a calming hand.
"Now…" I began, saying the word slowly and soothingly.
But barely a second after I'd said it, the beetle snapped its body back down to Sparky. With the spider still pinned underneath it, the beetle drew back one of its legs in
preparation to strike.
Amazingly however Sparky proved to be the faster, having anticipated this act of treachery from his sibling. Before the beetle could complete his strike and bury the end of
his leg through the spider's 'head' area, Sparky launched his right leg up and smashed its tip across the front of the beetle's face, delivering the best Replicator equivalent
of whacking his attacker on the jaw!
The beetle gave out a grating noise that could have been interpreted as a grunt, the force of Sparky's punch knocking it off of him onto its side. Immediately the Smoking
Spider leapt up and tackled the barely recovered beetle, sending it sprawling onto its back with Sparky on top of it again.
Seeing that the fight was still hot, the other spiders on the table quickly resumed hostilities, brutally slugging the nearest ones next to them or jumping back on top of
those that had been pinned down earlier!
I threw my hands up in defeat and shoved myself back in my chair, blowing out a very annoyed breath. Polly tried hissing again but this time his orders went unheeded, the
brawling Replicators barely even giving him a second's thought now. Seeing this development for himself, my Replicator friend could only look over at me and shake his
body in a negative way, raising his front pincer legs in another imitation of shrugging.
I slammed the palm of my hand against my forehead in frustration, tightly pulling it down across the front of my face so that it stretched the skin around my eyes and
mouth, momentarily exposing their pink fleshy interiors and making me look like some kind of zombie from Night of the Living Dead before I let go, allowing my features
to immediately snap back to normal.
"This is just sad…" I muttered to myself, absently relaxing within the cushioning of my chair and watching the spectacle with a deliberate look of semi-interest.
Thankfully however this was short-lived, for after only a few moments of the Replicators resuming their senseless fight Master Yoda launched himself into the air from
Alec's armrest, landing in a crouch directly within the center of the table amidst the thrashing machines.
"ENOUGH!" he commanded, his voice ringing clear and powerful, sounding ten times younger and more forceful then his usual tone. As he spoke he snapped both arms
out to either side, palms wide open, and unleashed an explosion of Force energy from within his core. A faint blue shockwave shot away from the little green alien, faintly
rippling the very air around us and passing over every beetle or spider on the table's surface.
Immediately without warning, the Replicators were floating!
The fight abruptly ended once again as each machine was lifted off the table into the air, every one of them squawking with a start and flailing their limbs helplessly at their
newfound weightlessness, all slowly twirling or bobbing upward as if lost in the zero-gravity of space. Each of us blinked in surprise, looking up at the ensnared machines
slowly crisscrossing over our heads. As we did this, Boba was the first to glance around and notice that it was only the Replicators who had been on the table that were
being levitated at the moment, while the rest of the horde surrounding us remained firmly attached to the floor.
"Even I'll admit that was pretty impressive," Boba stated to us with an equal nod
.
"Thank you Yoda!" I professed loudly to the Jedi Master, leaning forward and clasping my hands together in a dramatic imitation of divine praise.
"Now, perhaps willing to listen they will be," Yoda said gruffly in his normal voice before turning and waving a hand through the air. Right away the floating insects dropped
like stones, most of them falling back down onto the table, while several others unfortunately clanged off the edges and tumbled haphazardly to the deck. Sparky was the
one to land roughly on his back in front of me, while his beetle opponent landed on its feet farther off to the side.
However, thinking that it could take this opportunity to finish the fight once and for all, the beetle immediately surge forth and B-Lined straight for its downed spider
brother.
But I wasn't going to stand for that, having had my fill of this childish behaviour for one day.
"HEY!" I barked as I snapped out a hand and caught the machine by one of its back legs, hoisting it up and pulling it over to face me upside down.
"Enough is Enough! If you can't get over this little dispute I'll either throw you out the nearest airlock or have you on toilet duty for the rest of the mission. Is that clear?!"
I shouted directly at it. My tone was the classic poster-image of a military officer trying to scare his troops into compliance, while the words themselves were actually
from one of the first memories I had of Captain Cormier saying something similar to two disruptive juniors during my early days in Officer training.
I could feel the beetle fearfully shaking in my hand; it's body quickly nodding an upside-down affirmative to my demands before I turned and politely dropped it on the floor
amidst its other brethren.
"Now that we've worked that out of our systems, hopefully you can all just stay calm for one moment and let me explain my proposal a bit more. Can you do that?" I
asked all of the Replicators, directing my glaring eyes specifically at Sparky and the rest of the spiders sprayed out on the table. After many of them guiltily turned away
from my hard stare and gave begrudging nods of acceptance, I sucked in a huge breath before letting it out slowly and settling back in my seat.
Clearly and as calmly as I could manage, I began explaining in depth the genius skillset and qualifications of this new Engineer as well as what he would be doing on the ship
alongside the Replicators. For the next few minutes I made sure I put extra emphasis on the fact that this man would not be taking over the Replicators' jobs, but rather
working with them in order to add a tactical 'Human edge' to their machine-horde-A.I. way of thinking, similar to the arrangement between myself and Haxon. After this
clarification, the horde's mood slowly changed from morbid outrage to slowly climbing optimism, making many of them whisper to each other in semi-excitement.
"So what about the forth person?" Boba asked me after the low chatter of noise had died down.
"Yeah, that only makes three so far, who's the last one you're bringing in?" Alec concurred with a nod to Boba. With a sly grin I turned to Yoda, who had walked over and
sat himself down cross-legged on the end of the table near the corridor that led to the ship's cockpit.
"Someone I believe our Jedi Master here will be quite familiar with, seeing as how he's the one who trained him many years ago I believe."
Yoda cocked a curious eyebrow at this interesting fact, while Alec came to attention and looked between the two of us. Across the table Boba was staring at me with
wide eyes and a look of bafflement.
"You're going to bring in another Jedi?" the young Mandalorian spoke out, his eyes briefly shifting over to Yoda. At this Jango subtly shot his son a hooded glare, giving him
a very pointed warning to watch his words.
"Master Yoda and my friend Alec here are not just my travelling companions, they're also my teachers that have been brought here to help me understand how to use
this thing better," I said to Boba with a nod to the Guardian and Jedi before raising my right hand to show him the ring through the holes in my glove-finger.
"My original plan was to have them remain in that capacity throughout the course of this journey, but recent events, and a new threat, have changed the goals of our
mission." Alec nodded immediately.
"Oh yes, his majesty Emperor Lord Viraden himself, the great and powerful Universal Dictator. Shadowed in mystery and worshipped by an army of cultist proxy soldiers…
but also the man who we don't really know anything about. Aside from the fact that he somehow has the power to conquer entire dimensions within breathtakingly short
timespans," the Guardian announced dramatically to everyone with a flippant hand-gesture before propping his chin within his palm.
Boba frowned at this odd statement, looking over to Jango for clarification but only getting a shrug in response since the bounty hunter himself only vaguely knew what
we were talking about.
Giving a (rather dramatic) tired sigh, I briefly skimmed over everything that had happened during my flight in the Iron Man suit while Jango was asleep, filling him and Boba
in on the strange meetings that had befallen me, and how this mysterious Viraden's involvement in our quest was certainly going to have major adverse effects on the
events ahead of us.
As I imparted this knew knowledge to them Jango's sharp perception skills kicked in right away, allowing him to conclude my proposal before I had the chance to.
"You want to bring this new Jedi in to act as a commander for the army we're going to need to raise."
"That's exactly what I want to do," I answered with a nod to the bounty hunter.
"This Jedi has commanded armies like the very one we thinking of building. He's got the know-how, the experience, and the gritty realism needed to whip our future
recruits into fighting shape."
"If we combine his leadership with Jango's training regiment, I can guarantee Viraden will be hard pressed to take this galaxy from us, and even then he would have to rip
it from our cold dead fingers!" I clenched my hand into a fist as I said this, earning a surprised look from Boba and an impressed half grin from Jango.
"I'm beginning to like the sound of this guy," he said to the rest of us.
"Me too. I think it's about high time we met these people," Alec added in with an enthusiastic nod over to the Mandalorian.
"I agree. Time it is to make our alliance," Yoda concurred to me with a short nod.
Looking around and getting an encouraging nod from the others, even Boba, I turned to Polly and gently shoed him off of my shoulder before standing up.
Moving out from my chair, I stood facing the wall across the table from me, squaring my shoulders and widening my stance so as to brace myself for the incoming shock I
was going to experience. Seeing what I was doing, Jango stood up and pulled Boba away from their side of the table, their example being followed by many of the
Replicator horde as they all scattered away from that area.
With the coast clear I cracked the knuckles on my right hand before I extended it forward, tensing every muscle down along my arm.
After focusing my thoughts, I began to feel the effects right away. The ring started to glow its usual colour, growing brighter and brighter as I drew more power from it, as
I focused harder on the people I wanted to summon. An unnatural breeze began to flow through the room, causing everyone's hair to move and Yoda's robes to flap
slightly as the Jedi stood up into a defensive position.
And then at that moment, just as I began to wince from the physical stress the ring was putting on me, three shimmering oval portals swirled into existence, their blinding
silver radiance causing several of us to squint or shield our eyes.
The wind had now picked up even greater speed and was
beginning to press against us full force, causing Yoda's torn robes to ripple all around him as if they had a mind of
their own, while Alec and the Fetts had to reach out a hand and brace themselves against whatever was nearby. As the three portals continued to spread out until they
were almost as big as a grown man, I could see out of the corners of my vision the others preparing themselves for a confrontation.
Alec was still sitting in his chair, one hand holding on to the conference table while the other was resting on the butt of one of Jango's blaster pistols still tucked in his belt.
At the end of the table Yoda was down on one knee bracing himself against the raging wind, one hand raised to shield his eyes while his other firmly held on to the hilt of
his lightsaber, ready to ignite it the moment he saw trouble.
Off to my right I could make out Boba holding on to one of the curved ceiling-to-floor supports, his free hand clenched into a fist and ready to swing at the first enemy he
saw. Beside him I could see Jango reaching far into the left sleeve of his flight suit, from which he pulled out a short but very sharp looking assassin's knife that Alec and
Yoda hadn't found when they had relieved him of his armour, to which he held upside down in his palm.
All around me the Replicators were getting tossed across the floor in every direction by the increasing wind. Some of them were managing to dig their sharp legs into the
metal of the deck and hold their ground, while many others could only screech in fright as they slammed into each other or any nearby objects. Polly was one of the few
who were actually standing firm and facing the three portals, his wing flaps flared and his front pincers ready to sink into the first thing that tried to attack us.
For a few more brief but hectic seconds this continued, until finally the middle portal shimmered brighter than the others. But immediately after that a single burst of yellow
energy fired out from it and struck against one of the ceiling-to-floor supports set up right in-between Alec and I!
"AHHH!" we shouted as both of us ducked down below the surface of the table, the beam disintegrating the center of the support into a mass of steaming grey ooze.