//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 // Story: Star Wars EQG: Episode 1, Harmony of the Force // by Banshee531 //------------------------------// In a distant corner of the galaxy, everything seemed peaceful. There were no rocks, chunks of ice or ships causing problems. But that soon changed, when a ship suddenly came out of hyperspace. The Shooting Star. Within the freight cruiser, Shining Armor was watching as Flash Sentry stood on his hands with a blindfold around his eyes. "You may not be able to see with your eyes, but you've shown you can see without looking. Now it's time to see how well you can see in this manner. Well enough to stop yourself from getting hit?" In another corner of he room, Iron Core was sitting against a wall with a box of balls next to him. Shining gave him a nod and Iron smirked before making several balls float. They surrounded Flash and as they did, Flash seemed to sense their presence. But before he could react, one of the balls flew at him and hit him in the knee. He flinched as another one flew towards him, hitting him in the chest. Then one hit him in the arm and side. Shining wasn't impressed. "Come on! Focus!" "I'm trying!" "Do, or do not. There is no try!" "What? What does that even mean? How can I do something if I don't try." Shining tried to think of an appropriate response, but frowned. "I'm not sure. Honestly, that one always kind of confused me too. Master Celestia certainly likes to say it a lot." Iron kept throwing the balls at Flash, who managed to dodge a few of them. But way more hit him and he was eventually knocked off balance and fell to the ground. Iron laughed at this. "Seriously, can't even do something as basic as dodging a ball. How you gonna cope when you're getting shot at or chased by a monster?" "Shut up," Flash glared at him as he removed his blindfold. Iron glared back, but Skybreaker and Springer stepped into the room before a fight could break out. "We're almost there. Be ready to head out as soon as we land." They nodded as Iron followed his teacher into the cockpit, Shining stepping over and handing Flash his Lightsaber. "Just ignore Iron. He's never been great at opening up to people." "So he's a jerk?" "He wasn't always. Growing up, he was supposed to have been really friendly. But then something happened to his best friend." Flash raised an eyebrow. "I'm not sure exactly what happened, but it happened during Iron's Gathering." Flash nodded. The Gathering was a rite of passage of Jedi Younglings. Travelling to the Planet known as Ilum and heading into a dangerous ice cave. There, they were meant to find and retrieve the kyber crystals needed to build their Lightsabers. It was a dangerous test and not every Youngling passed. They and Springer joined the other two in the cockpit, allowing them to look out and see the planet they were heading to. Said planet was a cloud covered globe, making it look like a giant cloud of mist located in the middle of space. "That's Vipire?" Flash asked, as Springer nodded. "Yup. Vipire, the gas planet. A mountain covered planet with a gas core that generates and spews out a highly dangerous gas, which is toxic to most forms of life. It's also rich in minerals, which is why the Republic uses it to acquire materials needed for ships, technology and other items." "Thanks Spring," Flash sighed. Ever since Springer had gotten to download information from the Jedi Mainframe, he had been eager to show off his new knowledge. "So...why are we here again?" "There have been several attacks on the mining operations as of late," Skybreaker stated. "They've been unable to mine any materials because whenever droids are sent down to recover them, they're attacked by whatever is causing this." "I get it. Since the metal mined here are so important, making sure the operations continue is crucial." "Exactly," Shining nodded. "The Republic considered sending their own troops in to figure out what the problem is, but they have a tendency to go in guns blazing. That's why Celestia assigned us to look into it instead. Sometimes, the subtle approach is key." "Subtle?" Flash looked over at Iron, who looked anything but subtle. The ship flew into the planet's atmosphere and Flash expected not to be able to see a thing when they entered the cloud. But the mist that covered the planet was a lot further down then he expected. They passed through a thin lay of cloud and saw the main body of smoke was further down. "We're not gonna go into there, are we?" The last thing Flash wanted to do, was fly through a cloud of toxic gas. "Relax," Shining told him. "The place we're heading is above the clouds." They flew over the clouds and as they did, Flash spotted something sticking out the cloud. A giant pointed rock. "Is that..." "The top of a mountain," Skybreaker explained. "The mountains on this planet are huge. So big that they can have hug cities and towns built on top of them. Each of these terras act as their own territories. Some planets are divided into countries. This planet is divided into terra-top kingdoms. And each terra has its own mining business. A lot of them work for the Republic, but others work for non-republic planets or planetless groups. But most of those are the low quality material the Republic wouldn't consider using." Flash nodded as they continued to pass several more mountain tops. Many of them had buildings on top of them, whilst others had large ship docks and whatnot. It was quite interesting to see how different this planet was from the ones Flash had already been on. Eventually, they arrived at a massive mountain top. And just like Skybreaker said, it had a large city built on top of it. At the mountain's very centre, a large castle could be seen surrounded by a circle of mansion that were surrounded by another circle. With each circle, the buildings got smaller and more packed together. As they got closer, the ship's console beeped and asked for authorisation. Shining quickly typed in the code he had been given by Celestia and after a few moments, they had been cleared to land in the castle's ship bay. They flew over the mountaintop city and then slowly flew downwards, as a part of the castle opened up to reveal a large hanger the ship could land in. Once they touched down, the Jedi made sure they looked presentable. "Remember," Skybreaker told them, "we are acting as representatives of the Republic and the Jedi Order. That means we have to be respectable in looks and manner. Understand?" "Yes master," the Padawans nodded before heading out of the ship. As they disembarked, someone stepped into the hanger to receive them. It was a pinkish skinned woman, with purple hair and a single curved horn on her head, wearing a maid dress. "Welcome," she bowed, "I am Shelora. If you would please follow me. My master is awaiting your arrival." They followed her out of the hanger and into a nicely decorated hallway. The entire place looked fit for a king. The humble Jedi all felt very out of place in such a location. They eventually made their way through the castle until they arrived at a set of large double doors. The Jedi quickly did one final check to make sure they were presentable before the doors opened. They found themselves in a large throne room with stained glass windows and silk carpets. They made their way across the room towards a large throne, where a man with similar skin to Shelora sat. He had red hair and a pair of horns on his head, wearing bright red and white robes. They stopped as Shelora turned to them. "May I present, the ruler of this terra. King Benirus." "Your majesty," Skybreaker bowed. "We Jedi are at your service." The others bowed and Springer lowered his head. Benirus stood up and walked down the steps towards them. "And I am thankful to have you. These mining disruptions are causing nothing but problems. If we don't start generating revenue again soon, my terra might fall into an economic crisis." "We'll do our best," Shining nodded. "Is there anything you can tell us that might help us figure out what's happening?" "All we have is the footage from one of our droids," Benirus stated. "When the issue started, we sent a surveillance droid down to see what was going on." He turned to Shelora and nodded, Shelora moving over to a panel and pressing it. Doing so caused the stained glass windows to suddenly go black, whilst the lights switched off. A holographic screen appeared and they watched, as the image from a droid's point of few appeared. Said droid was flying through a cave tunnel, which seemed to be lit the same way the Storm Brigade's mines were lit. He hoped that was the only similarity to that place. They watched, as the droid turned several corners before arriving at an area full of smoke. The same smoke that was surrounding the planet. "You see why we use droids," Benirus stated. "The further down you go, the more gas shafts you find." "Those shafts are what carry the toxic gas to the surface?" Flash asked, Benirus nodding as the droid changed its vision to infrared. It was difficult to watch, but they saw droid avoid several rocks and come to another area. And then, something flew at it hard and destroyed its camera. "What was that?" Iron asked. "We have no clue. But we're assuming it's whatever's causing this situation." "How the heck can anything be down there?" Springer asked. "Are there creatures on this planet that breath that toxic gas?" "There's one. The Relgarians." The screen changed to show some kind of creature. It was ape-like in appearance, but it didn't have a mouth or nose and instead had a bunch of gills on its neck. "They live inside the gas and can't survive outside of it. Despite their own lack of tech, their smart enough to understand machines. We were able to make contact with them many generations ago and started a trade agreement." "What do you trade?" Flash asked, as the screen vanished and the lights came on. "We trade medicines and others essentials they might acquire. In return, they give us a special fruit that can only grow down in the gas. The juice from it is toxic to them and us, but it can be used to make an incredibly effective fuel to run machines on." "And you're sure this wasn't one of them?" Shining asked. "I'm sure. They might not be the smartest creatures in the galaxy, but they're gentle giants. They have no reason to attack us." "If you're sure," Skybreaker nodded. "We'll head down there right away." "Head down?" Flash looked shocked, "you wanna go into a toxic cave?" "Relax," Skybreaker told him. "We have a way of protecting ourselves." Flash hoped he did. "We'll need a map of the mines and the area these attacks are taking place in." Benirus nodded as someone suddenly walked into the room. It was two individuals. One was a two horned woman, with bright pink hair and wearing a white dress with red trim. The others was a taller individual, who had a single broken horn and was wearing the kind of clothing a general would normally wear. "Brother," the woman frowned. "You didn't tell me we had guests." "My apologise," Benirus nodded before turning to the Jedi. "This is my little sister, Shiroara." The four bowed, "and our head of security." "My name is Calvaris," he stated. "May I ask what these four are doing here, your majesty?" "They are Jedi sent by the Republic, who have come to investigate our little problem down in the mines." Calvaris frowned at this, the Jedi sensing some form of annoyance coming from him. "There's no need for them to be here," he told the king. "This is a matter of internal security. We should handle it by ourselves. I'm already preparing a security team to go down there and deal with the problem." "Please don't take this the wrong way," Skybreaker told him. "But you have no idea what's awaiting you down there. And with the poisonous gas restricting your movements, you'll have a hard time if things get bad." "And how are you any different?" Calvaris asked. "You don't know what's down there and you'll have issues if it turns into a fight. That's why we need to be the ones to deal with it. This is our planet." "Calm down," Benirus told him. "I appreciate your hard work. But the more options we have, the better. It's going to take you a little more time to prepare your team to go down. But the Jedi can probably go down into the mines right away." "You know our Order well," Skybreaker nodded. "We'll head down right away and see if we can't find the problem. And if we can't, your security team can act as backup." Benirus and Shiroara nodded, whilst Calvaris looked upset. "Thank you," the king stated. "Shelora will show you to the mine's entrance once you're ready." The knights bowed and all headed out, Shelora showing them the way back to their ship. "So...how exactly are we supposed to go down into a toxic mine without...dying." The three smirked and when they returned to the ship, Flash was shown what they would be using. "What is all this?" Shining had just taken several items out of a locker inside the shooting star. The first was a helmet of shorts, which had an opening in the front that Flash's mouth and eyes would be seen through above the chin guard. The next were a pair of gloves followed by a pair of metal plates shaped like a boot-print. "These are what we'll use to protect ourselves," Shining handed him the helmet. "The Jedi order has members from all over the galaxy. Some of those members also turn out to be super genius, who design and create new technology for us to use." Flash frowned and placed the helmet on his head, though it seemed a little big for him. He then put on the gloves, which had a glass disk of some kind on the back of them, that were also pretty loose. He then stepped onto the metal plates, also too big, still wondering what the heck he was supposed to do with them. "There's a switch on the back of the helmet," Shining told him. "Put your Lightsaber down and flip it." Flash raised an eyebrow, but removed his weapon before reaching back and finding the switch. As soon as he flicked it, the helmet, gloves and the foot plates suddenly shrank to perfectly fit him before his mouth and nose covered by a metal mouth-plate. The next thing he knew, the eye hole flashed and he realised something was filling that part. The bottom of the helmet then unleashing a blue light, which flowed over his entire body. The light connected to the bottom of the gloves and the tops of the plates around his boots, the disks on the gloves suddenly lighting up. The right glove disk had a ring made up of three lights, one green, one yellow and one red. The left disk also had a ring of lights, but these were fifteen smaller lights that glowed entirely green. As soon as the gloves were activated, the light around his body vanished. Flash looked himself over, still confused what had happened. He reached down and touched his arm, only to feel some kind of barrier around it. The same was true for his body, his legs and even the space in front of his eyes. "Force-fields?" "Yup," Skybreaker put his own helmet on. "This suit will protect you from almost any kind of radiation or chemical toxin in the air. They have their limits, but the counter on your right gloves should help you realise how dangerous the environment is." "Got it," Flash nodded before looking at the left glove. "And let me guess. Power monitor." "Got it in one," Shining nodded. "The suits have about fifteen hours at full charge. Each of those lights will help you tell how much long you have. In twenty minutes, one of the lights will turn yellow. Then it'll turn red before dying completely." Flash nodded and moved around the plates under his boots being brought up with him as he walked. "Okay, this is kinda cool." He picked up his Lightsaber and tried to attach it to his belt, but couldn't due to the force-field. "Though they might wanna add a belt to go with it." "Yeah, we've had that issue too." Shining, Iron and Skybreaker were all wearing the suits as well, each carrying their own weapons. Both Iron and Skybreaker weren't carrying traditional Lightsabers, something Flash was only now noticing. The pair saw this and smirked before activating them. Skybreaker's extended a pair of blue energy blades from each end, revealing it to be a double-edged saber that he spun around with incredible skill. Meanwhile, Iron's only sent out one blue blade. But the other side suddenly extended, making it look like a four foot staff with a Lightsaber on the end. "A Lightsaber Pike?" Flash had read about them in the archives, but he didn't think anyone actually used one. "A light-whip. A light-axe and now this. Are there any other Jedi with unusual Lightsabers I should know about? I thought my blade would be the weirdest one in my age group." Skybreaker laughed. "You're not the only one who thought that. Most Jed have the traditional Lightsaber, but this new generation seems to wanna shake things up." They all extinguished their blades before they and Springer headed for the exit, stepping out of the ship where Shelora was waiting. The woman was carrying a tablet that she handed to them. "Inside is a map of the mines and all the places these attacks took place in." "Thank you," Skybreaker took it before kneeling down to upload the info into Springer's database. The more copies they had, the better. Once that was done, they headed out of the castle until they arrived at a large building just beyond the walls. "The maze entrance is in there," she stated. "I wish you all luck." They nodded as she headed back, the five stepping into the building and finding it was rather high tech. A bunch of hazard suits were lining the wall and at the back of the building was some kind of air lock elevator. "Be ready," Skybreaker told them. "The second we head down there, anything could happen." They all nodded and stepped into the elevator, which became airtight as soon as the doors closed. The entire room then moved downwards, into the gas-filled mine. At the same time, someone was in the castle with a strange device in hand. The device projected an image of a relgarian. "The king is sending a bunch of Jedi down. You have to be careful. If they find you, who knows what they'll do to you. Don't let them see you or they'll strike you down before it's too late." The creature, despite having no mouth, made noise. And a device around its neck somehow translated it. "We not scared of Jedi. Jedi heads soft. Rocks hard. Rocks smash Jedi heads like jam." "Just be careful," they replied. "Jedi are no joke." The relgarian ended the call and the figure stepped out of the hiding place they were in, hoping things didn't turn out bad. Down below, Springer and the Jedi finally arrived at the entrance to the mine. As soon as the lift stopped, it let out several beeps before the doors opened. As soon as they did, the counter gloves started beeping and they looked down to see they were in the green. "The gas levels pretty low here," Shining stated. "Nothing our suits can't handle." They all nodded and stepped out of the elevator, looking around at the tunnel in front of them. "Be on alert," Skybreaker stated as they made their way through the tunnels. Their had their Lightsabers at the ready, but Flash suddenly had a thought. "How flammable is this gas?" They turned to him. "Just don't wanna blow myself up by using my Lightsaber?" "Give me a moment," Springer beeped and booped. "I detect no flammable gas in the vicinity. You should be able to use your Lightsabers." They nodded and continued down the tunnel, the lights hanging above them flickering as they made their way through it. As they walked, Flash was right behind Skybreaker and remembered his strange anatomy. Slowly down a little Flash leaned over to Iron and whispered. "I don't mean to be disrespectful, but this is bugging me. What..." Iron rolled his eyes. "What species is Master Skybreaker?" He spoke out loud, catching his master's attention and making Flash gasp. "You don't have to be secretive about it. He's not gonna get upset if you ask." Flash blushed as Skybreaker turned to him. "Master Skybreaker is a hybrid," Shining explained. "His mother was a human and his father was an avian." "Oh," Flash nodded. "Wait, I thought children of mixed races usually came out either the mother's species of the father's?" "Nine times out of ten, they do." Skybreaker smirked as he spread his wings. "But on a rare occasion, you get a blending of their two species to make an entirely new one. Which is what I am. A hybrid." "Cool," Springer smirked. "So you get the best of both worlds? Avian wings and human...feet?" "Yeah," Shining sighed as he looked at his hooved boots. "Really wish evolution hadn't left us with these things. Our ancestors could develop wings and powerful horns, but couldn't find a better way for us to run without tripping up." The others snickered at this, as they continued down the tunnel. After a while, they came to a folk in the road and Skybreaker checked the map. But Springer spoke up first. "The left tunnel will lead us to the closest area an attack happened." They nodded and headed down, Springer continuing to tell them which way to go. They decided to just let Springer lead the way and after a few minutes, they arrived at the area the attack took place. And the whole area looked like a robot graveyard. There were droid parts all over the place. Most of them were common parts every droid normally had, but others were a few specific parts that weren't commonly seen on droids. "Geez," Flash picked up a severed arm. "Whoever did this wasn't holding back." "But where are the rest of the droids?" Iron asked. "The king hasn't sent anyone to retrieve the parts, so they should still be here. But they're not." "He's right," Skybreaker nodded. "That must mean whoever's doing these attacks are taking the parts somewhere else." This made them raise an eyebrow, since relgarians weren't supposed to tech savvy. "And the fact that they didn't take all the droids also raises a point. Either they left what they couldn't carry, or they only took what they needed." "Needed for what?" Flash asked. "That's the question," Skybreaker nodded before telling them they had to head to the next area. They continued through the tunnels until they arrived at another area of an attack, which was also full of robot parts. The same kinds of parts left behind at the other spot. "Okay," Shining picked the droid's leg up. "This can't be a coincidence. Something is attacking these droids for specific parts." "But why?" Springer asked. As he said that, the four Jedi suddenly sensed something. "What's wrong?" He watched the four get into a battle ready pose. "Something's here," Flash told him. "It's getting closer." Springer wondered what it could be and summoned the blaster from out of his nose. Increasing the power to his hover skirt, he floated up so his head was level with Flash's. They stared at the many entrances into the area they were in, unable to tell exactly where the approaching creature was coming from. But then, something came flying out of a tunnel and flew straight towards him. "WOW!" Springer fired a laser and hit the rock, destroy it. But more rocks began flying out of the other tunnels, the Jedi using their weapons to block them. Both Skybreaker and Iron spun their weapons around, their hands moving at a flurry with incredible skill and precision. Flash and Shining stood back to back, their Lightsabers up in front of them as they slashed away at the rocks. Eventually, they all stopped and the Jedi glared at the tunnels. "Who's there!?" Shining cried, not expecting anyone to speak up. But then, a rumbling filled the air and something rushed out of a tunnel. It was a relgarian, who roared as he raised his large fists into the air. He then leapt at them and Skybreaker held up a hand. The next thing the relgarian knew, it was floating in the air. "Raaaah!" Skybreaker pushed him back and the creature was thrown into a nearby wall, but more relgarians began to rush into the chamber with rocks in hand and looking ready to do some damage. "Wait!" Skybreaker cried, as one of them threw a rock at him. He easily caught it with The Force and put it down, whilst the others continued to point their Lightsabers at them in preparation of an attack. "Let's not fight. We just wanna talk!" "NO TALK!" One roared before slamming its fist onto the ground. When it did, the entire room shook and even caused the ground to start cracking. The other relgarians saw this and started slamming their fists into the ground, making the floor crack more and more. Springer and the Jedi realised the ground beneath them had to be hollow, likely another mine or something, and with every hit they found themselves losing footing. "Stop!" Iron cried, but it was too late. One of them slammed the fist down extra hard, causing the whole place to crumble apart. Skybreaker spread his wings and flew, grabbing Iron as he did, whilst Springer remained hovering. But Shining and Flash weren't so lucky and found themselves falling into the hole that was caused. The pair screamed as they disappeared, dust and smoke filling the air and blinding the rest of them. "We gotta get out of here!" Springer cried, as the relgarians had jumped up and somehow grabbed onto the ceiling in order to escape falling. But they were also blind and didn't see the three, as Springer lead them to the closest shaft that also lead downwards. "This isn't good," Iron frowned. "Looks like the relgarians are to blame after all." "We don't know that for sure," Skybreaker stated as they turned a corner and he dropped his Padawan. "Never make an assumption until you have all the facts. Let's just focus on finding Flash and Shining." The nodded and went off to search for their missing friends. Down below, Flash and Shining groaned as they picked themselves up. "You okay?" Shining asked, Flash nodding. "Hold still, better check to make sure you suit's not damaged." Flash let him inspect the helmet, eventually stating there was no damage. At least any he could see. "How's my helmet?" Flash also inspected his, nodding when he saw nothing but a few scuffs. "You should be fine," he stated. "But what was that all about?" "Wish I knew," Shining told him. "Those relgarians attacked us for no reason. Could be a misunderstanding, could be something more. We'll have to get back to the others and try to figure it out." "If we can," Flash looked at the tunnel they had just fallen through. The whole thing was blocked off with rocks, making returning through it impossible. "Now what?" "Good question. Springer and Skybreaker had the maps. We'll have to hope we find a way out of here before our suits run out of power." Flash nodded and they began to make their way up the closest tunnel in search of an exit. Whenever they came to a folk in the road they would take the one that seemed to lead upwards. But whenever they did, they found the tunnels they lead to always headed back downwards. "We're lost, aren't we?" "We were always lost," Shining told him. "Now we're just...more lost." Flash frowned as Shining looked around a corner. "Would you relax. This isn't the first time I've been lost." "Oh, that's comforting." "This happens a lot to a Jedi. It's our duty to protect the galaxy. That means going into places that you can easily get lost in. You wanted to be a Seeker and Seeker explore the unknown." "I get that," Flash nodded. "But I didn't expect my first mission to go completely wrong right from the start." "There'll always be complications on a mission," Shining explained. "It's how you deal with those unexpected situations that test the true measure of a Jedi." As he said that, a noise caught their attention and made them look around another corner to see something coming at them. It was a droid. A mining droid that had a pickax for one arm, a shovel for another and a large stomach that looked like it opened. It was about ten feet tall and instead of legs, had tank treads on the sides. It was currently digging into the wall, the Jedi stepping out and wondering what it was doing down there. But before they could ask, the droid stopped digging and turned to them. As soon as it did, its single robotic eye turned from blue to red. It then moved its body and pointed its tools at them, the Jedi staring at it suspiciously. The next thing they knew, it shot forward at high speed and swung the shovel towards them. "Wow!" Flash ducked under the tool, barely managing to avoid getting his head split open. At the same time, the pickaxe arm suddenly transformed into a drill. A drill that started spinning and tried to impale Shining. But he leapt back whilst Flash rolled under the droid's arm. As soon as the pair were on either side of its, they ignited their Lightsabers and charged. The droid's upper body started spinning around around, morphing it into a tornado with a very sharp edge. Both held up their blades and stepped forward, until the edges of the tornado touched the Lightsabers. Sparks flew as they made contract, the laser swords quickly melting the steel until the drill and shovel were gone. The droid stopped spinning and stared at its now weaponless arms, the Jedi pointing their weapons at it. "Stand down!" Shining announced, but the droid opened its chest and started spinning again. Rocks flew out of it, big enough to do serious damage at the speed they were moving. Luckily, Flash and Shining were able to deflect these rocks with their Lightsabers. And once the rocks were used up, Flash ran forward and swung his blade into the droid's neck. The head went flying through the body and Shining quickly caught it whilst the body went completely dead, the Jedi sighing as the extinguished their blades. "What the heck was that?" Flash asked. "That was not a droid malfunctioning." "You're right," Shining nodded. "The way it was attacking was too focused to be a random glitch." Flash moved over and took the head from him, opening it up and beginning to look through the circuitry. "Do you know what you're doing?" "I spent two years making a living by fixing droids," Flash replied as he took something out of the head. "Before that, I built Springer and helped build half the equipment on the forest moon out of junk. I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing." Shining nodded. "Come to think of it, where did you get Springer? K-9 Multi-Droids were a limited edition droid model." "He was in a box inside the cruiser. Probably being delivered to someone on another planet as a toy. I found him and worked on him in my spare time. Managed to get him working about a year before we left the planet. Glad I did. I don't think I'd have survived Shikoya if Springer hadn't been there. Definitely wouldn't have gotten into that mine and found you if he hadn't." Shining understood that. Every good thing in Flash's life was given to him through sheer chance. If even one thing had been a little different, his life could have been infinitely different. "Hey," Shining told him, "you're not alone anymore. Even without Springer, you've got us. The Jedi Order is a family and no matter what, we'll be there for you." Flash smiled at him, as he found something in the droid. "Hello." He pulled a chip out. "This shouldn't be in here." Shining took it to look over. "This is a combat droid chip," Shining stated. "Why would it be in a mining droid? It might have surprised us, but against seasoned warriors this thing wouldn't be much of an issue." "Maybe," Flash hummed, "but maybe the targets aren't seasoned warriors." The two hummed at this, as they tried to figure out what the heck was going on in this mine. But before they could think of anything, movement caught their attention and made them look around. As several more droids came around the corner. And as soon as they saw them, their eyes glowed red and they pointed their tools at the pair menacingly. The Jedi stood tall and prepared for a fight. Back above, Iron and Skybreaker were following Springer through the tunnels in an attempt to find their lost friends. As they did, Skybreaker held up a bracelet around his wrist. "Shining Armor. Can you hear me? Come on, answer me." But there was no answer. Just static. "Damn it! The rock in this mine is too thick to get a signal through." He tried to change the frequency, but it wasn't easy with the force-field suits around their body. "There's a tunnel that should lead us down to where Flash and Shining fell." But as they turned a corner, Springer's statement caused them to stop. "No!" The tunnel was blocked off, the ceiling having caved in and blocked it off. "You two think you can move it?" Iron stepped over to the wall and placed a hand on it, focusing as he tried to figure out what was behind it. "The pile's several meters thick. And if we just pull the rocks off, we could bring the rest of the roof down on us. It'd take hours to get through there." "We don't have hours," Skybreaker sighed. "If those relgarians attack us again, this isn't the best place to be pinned between. We might not have any choice. We'll have to go back to the surface and hope the king knows of a way to find them." Iron sighed. "We do need to explain what we found." "You wanna just leave them down here?" Springer asked, looking shocked. "We can't help them from down here," Skybreaker told him. "Our best bet is to try and use the Shooting Star's systems to locate them. And we also need to tell the king about the relgarian attack. He might be able to figure out a way to make peace and if he does, he can start searching for them without needing to worry about being attacked. Springer sighed, but knew he was right. As such, they headed back towards the elevator. But as they turned a corner, they found themselves coming face to face with a bunch of relgarians. They did not look happy, all carrying rocks and other weapons to fight with. "Ah," Skybreaker stated. Iron activated his weapon and Springer pointed his blaster at them. "Wait. If we harm them, it could make ending this situation a lot harder." But then, a relgarian charged and leapt into the air. He raised a giant fist, clearly wanting to smash it down on the Jedi. But before they could, Iron raised his hand and grabbed him in midair. "Stay down!" He thrust his hand forward and the ape creature was thrown back towards the others, knocking them all down. "A little excessive," Skybreaker told him. "Come on!" They ran up the tunnel towards the elevator, hoping they didn't run into any more relgarians along the way. The creatures picked themselves up and ran after then, their better speed making it to they were quickly closing the gap. However, as they approached the elevator's tunnel, the relgarians seemed to be slowing down. "What's wrong with them?" Iron asked, the others looking back and seeing them appear to look out of breath. Then, Skybreaker looked down at his gauge and saw it was well into the green. There's barely any toxic gas in this area. They need that to breath, so of course they'd be having trouble chasing after us." They arrived at the elevator and to their relief, it was still there. "Get in!" He opened it up so Iron and Springer could get in, the hybrid stepping in and turning to them. "This doesn't have to end like this." The relgarians didn't get any closer, too exhausted and lacking the gas to continue. One tried to throw a rock at them, but Skybreaker closed the doors before it could land and the whole room rattles at the impact. Unfortunately, the elevator couldn't go up yet. The reason was because the air inside the elevator was still toxic, forcing it to pump said air back into the tunnel. They waited and as they did, the elevator kept shaking due to the rocks continuing to slam against it. They feared they would break the air tight seal on the elevator, preventing it from going up. But finally, the elevator was cleansed and they were soon lifted up into the tunnel leading the the tarra's surface. "That was way too close," Iron stated. Skybreaker nodded and once the new, clean, air was pumped into the elevator, he deactivated his helmet and the force-field vanished. Iron did the same and as they flew up towards the surface, they all thought about the relgarians. "I'm positive now the relgarians are behind this attack," Skybreaker stated. "But the question is, why? The relgarians have never be aggressive before so what's changed?" Iron and Springer wondered the same thing, but were also worried Flash and Shining might be in serious trouble if they didn't find them fast. Back below, Flash and Shining continued to fight against the killer mining droids. The pair were cutting through the machines like nothing, the robots no match for the pair's fighting skills. They slashed through the metal, disarming and beheaded them with ease. But it wasn't overly easy. With the mine's limited space, the two couldn't move as effectively as they wanted to. They also had to be wary of one another's actions, trying their best not to get in each other's way. Eventually, they dispatched the last of the droids and were running down a tunnel. But as they turned a corner, Shining suddenly found himself running off the edge of a vertical shaft. "WOW!" He tried to stop, but couldn't in time to prevent his momentum from pushing him over the edge. He let out a cry and was about to fall, only for his hand to be grabbed. "Gotcha!" Flash had caught him and was currently leaning over the edge, clearly barely being able to keep himself from falling the rest of the way. "Hold on!" Shining panted as he felt himself leaning against the wall of the shaft, the force-field around his body causing him to constantly bounce off the wall. Shining quickly threw his Lightsaber up and over the edge, allowing him a free hand to grasp the wall along with his hooves. Unfortunately, hooves weren't exactly the best tool for climbing up the side of a cliff. "Next time there's a meeting about this gear, I'm going to suggest built in grappling guns." "I'd ask for an anti-gravity options myself," Flash joked as he pulled Shining up with every ounce of strength he had. The pair grunted and groaned until, finally, Shining was able to grab onto the edge and hoist himself up. The pair fell to the ground, panting as they stared up at the ceiling. Once they got their breath back, Shining turned to his apprentice. "Thanks." "No problem," Flash replied. "I gotcha back. That's what Padawans are for, right?" Shining sighed as he sat up, retrieving his Lightsaber as he turned towards the hole that lead to the shaft. He looked over to the other side and saw the hole was about five meters wide. "You can handle that jump, right?" Flash looked to the other side and nodded. "Heck yeah. I did jumps where further then that in training." Shining nodded and they both stepped back, letting The Force surround them before they rushed forward and jumped. They flew over the hole and landed, Flash even doing a cool flip as they moved through the air. Once on the other side, they realized the tunnel was getting darker. The lights in this area weren't as bright. After checking their gloves, seeing the gauge for the gas was close to the yellow, they decided to keep going since they needed to let those on the surface know about the droids being tampered with. They used their Lightsabers for extra light and continued to search for a tunnel leading upwards. But no matter where they went, there tunnels either kept going straight and lead down deeper into the mine. "Can anyone hear me?" Shining was trying his bracelet communicator, but there was no signal so deep underground. As they turned another corner, they came across another robot massacre. The droids were completely smashed to bits, but there seemed to be something more. "Is this...blood?" Flash ran his hand over the wall, which was stained red with something. "Looks like it," Shining examined a droid part. "Weird. I don't remember this area on the map. In fact, this area stopped being mined years ago." "You sure?" "That's what the info said," Shining nodded. As he said that, he heard a whistling sound and stood tall. "You hear that?" Flash nodded and they followed the sound, being ready for anything that might come at them. And as they followed it, they noticed a light up ahead. It wasn't a very strong light, but it was strong enough to be noticeable in the dark tunnel. They quickly found the reason behind the sound was a large hole in the tunnel wall, which was an opening out of the mine. Stepping out of the hole, Flash and Shining found themselves outside the mountain. They were still a few meters in the air, standing on a ledge, but there was a path leading down to the base. The toxic vapour filled the air, their gauges going a good way into the yellow as they stood there. But seeing no other choice, they began to head down the path in search of a place Shining could get a signal. As they approached the ground, Flash noticed some kind of grass was on the rocky landscape, being a brownish green colour and looking rather overgrown. "Can anybody hear me?" Shining spoke into his communicator. But still, there was no return call. "Dang it. They must still be in the mine." "Either that or this gas is somehow blocking the signal," Flash guessed as they reached the bottom of the mountain. Once there, Flash knelt down and brushed his hand through the grass. "Never felt grass like this before." "It's had to evolve in order to survive down here." Shining tapped the side of his helmet. "Most of these plants would probably die the second we take them out of this atmosphere. The same way the relgarians can't breathe our air. "Speaking of relgarians." Flash looked worried. "Do you think there might be some of them out here?" "Probably," Shining nodded. "Which is why we've gotta get out of here as soon as possible." He looked back towards the terra and tried to see if there was a path that lead up the mountain. But after the ledge they had come out on, there was now outcrop higher. "We'll have to try and find a different way to get a signal." He turned to walk off, Flash following. "There's another mountain not too far from here. Hopefully, it'll be more climbable." However, as they continued from the fog-filled environment, the pair suddenly found the ground vanishing out of nowhere. "Huh?" They both looked down, only to find themselves falling a good few feet before crashing into the ground. "AUGH!" They groaned as they picked themselves up, glab their helmets had managed to protect themselves. "What's this doing here?" "Captured!" They looked up and saw a bunch of relgarians staring down at them. "We catch Jedi. Jedi caught." "Seriously?" Flash stood up, "they thought this would keep us in place." "Nice try," Shining told them. "Now release us or we'll be forced to hurt you." "Jedi stupid. Hole escapable not!" The Jedi shared a look before both leaping straight up, managing to get up out of the hole without issue. "What?" The pair ignited their Lightsabers and landed, both standing at a battle ready position. The relgarians charged, several pulling rocks and trees up to use as weapons. The pairs swung their blades around and cut right through them, shocking the relgarians before Flash used The Force to push one into the hole. Shining did the same with another and they both worked together in order to hole the third. The relgarians cried out, all crashing into the ground within the hole and moaning as they laid there. The Jedi stepped up to the hole and stared down into it, giving them a serious expression. "Now then," Shining told them. "Why don't we have a little chat about why you've been attacking us." But before the relgarians could say anything, the sound of a laser filled the air and Shining was suddenly going stiff. "AUGH!" He fell to the ground, his entire body going numb. "Shining!" He turned to the source of the laser, only to get him himself. "GYAH!" He fell to his knees before hitting the ground, moaning as he felt himself beginning to black out. And as he did, someone stepped over to him. Someone who appeared to be wearing a hazmat suit and breathing mask. "I don't think so," they spoke with a muffled feminine voice. "Shiroara!" One of the relgarians cried, as the three pulled themselves out of the hole. Flash let that name sink it and focused on the face mask, where he saw a pink strand of hair and two spots on the mask that were poking out. It was then he realised who had just shot him. "Princess Shiroara?" Flash moaned, "what...are..." He couldn't say anymore, instead blacking out as he heard the princess speak to the other relgarians. "Take them back to the village. We can't let them interfere." The last thing Flash noticed before losing consciousness was that he was being picked up, but couldn't understand what was going on. Why had the princess attacked them? Why were the relgarians listening to her? His first mission was like nothing he expected. Flash could only hope that he would figure out what was going on before it was too late.