Post 4 of 20
Objective: Do your own thing
Location: Lower Swamplands
The Weequay were still watching the Coway and the Mimbanite slugging it out in the center of the pit.
Behind them, the transport vehicle blocked the view to the body of the Nikto that was slowly sinking into the swamp. Underneath the transport, a gash had been carved through the undercarriage as though by a lightsaber, but with more irregular, jagged edges. The wiring had been pulled out, with a orange colored wristlink looped around where the ignition circuits had been routed into the fuel reserve.
With a vibrating buzz, the wristlink came alive with an incoming transmission. The sudden pulse from the comm unit's battery sending a static charge through the circuitry and into the...
The explosion was more felt than heard. The shockwave knocking everywhere off their feet, disorienting and deafening them. The fireball shot at least twenty meters straight up into the air. A safe bet that was going to register on the Republic sensors.
From the other side of the camp, the Pantoran shut off the HoloBoy Advanced in his hand and pocketed the gaming and commlink device. Crouching down on the branches he was using to brace his elevated position, the boy pulled the First Order blaster pistol from the holster on his leg. Everyone's attention was on the flaming transport, which meant that their backs were to him.
Coming around the trunk of the tree, the boy threw his left arm out as he lined up his first shot. He'd only get two or three at the most.
He pulled the trigger, a red bolt sailing outward as the back of a Nikto's head exploded outward in a red mist.
Ducking back behind the tree, a shout of alarm sent a wave of confusion and panic through the camp. The slavers didn't know which direction that the attack was coming from. Shouts of alarm were passed back and forth. Passing the stormtrooper blaster from one hand to the next, the boy threw his right arm out as he came around the other side of the tree. Leveling the sights on the blaster with his eye, the boy lined up his shot and pulled the trigger. This one caught the last remaining Nikto in the neck, right at the collarbone.
The Weequay were shooting now, though the haphazard firing pattern made it clear that they were just firing blind as the boy ducked back behind the tree. If he'd learned anything from his time with the Hutt Cartel, it was that Weequay were quick to rely on servants to do their work for them. Thus, the Nikto had probably been the only real shooters in the group. Pulling a smoke grenade from off his belt, the boy casually hooked his thumb on the safety pin and armed the detonator. The trigger came free as the boy's hand opened, releasing the timer as he tossed the grenade toward the center of the fight club.
Of course, now, no one could see.
Except Boo didn't need to be able to see. Sliding down from out of the tree, the boy casually discarded the blaster as an amphistaff slithered from the swamp floor up his leg, and then passed into his arms. An electric charge seemed to pass over the snake, as the boy extended the biot out into the familiar staff-like form as he ducked out from behind the tree and into the fine mist spreading from out of the epicenter of the grenade's detonation.
A man screamed. A hideous, tortured sound. Several more blaster shots were fired wildly. A Weequay ran from out of the smoke and into the center of the swamp, clutching his blaster with fear in his eyes as he looked up and down the swamp for any sight of what was happening or a place to escape to. The burly form of the Coway that they'd freed, and forced to fight for their entertainment, came out of the smoke behind him, grabbing hold of the Weequay and forcing his head down under the brackish water.
After another minute, the shouting and the blaster fire had stopped.
When the smoke had cleared, the slaves discovered that their shackles had been cut through. But by what, or whom, no one could say. No one had seen what had happened, and were at a total loss to explain what had happened between the explosion and the smoke.
The hum of repulsors was just barely audible on the wind. Republic troops, dispatched to investigate the explosion and fire in the swamp. They would find the dazed and confused Mimbanites and Coway, along with the bodies of the Nikto and the Weequay. And never be the wiser that it was a Sith who'd saved the day.
Recovering his now slime-encrusted blaster pistol, the young Pantoran looped the amphistaff over his shoulder and quietly ventured back into the shadows of the swamp.
