We didn't speak after we started moving, doing it slowly and trying our best to make as little noise as possible. It was our luck that the productionline under us was noisy as hell, helping us mask our presence. Further in, the catwalk spread out into multiple directions, letting us split and spread out along its length, each of us finding a firing position without needing to coordinate with each other, as the Force did that for us. Even if the Dark Side below us all was strong, our connection to each other was just as firm... I don't know if it was because I suddenly felt very much connected to everybody... or if it was normal, but there was no time to question it. We watched the droids below, taking aim and choosing our targets without having to signal each other. The DR-0N units continued their patrol patterns, their optics sweeping the floor, never once angling toward the ceiling, probably not even expecting anything to reach this far in...
They didn't expect hunters, that is for sure.
I crouched low, resting my forearms against the rail, my pistols drawn and braced on the metal for a perfectly even shot, to counteract the recoil. The catwalk felt cold and wet beneath my hand, vibrating faintly thanks to the machines working below. Focus, Kael, I told myself while inhaling, slowing my breathing, letting the Force stretch outward, leading my aim, not really thinking about it, but doing it by feeling alone.
[Statement: Optimal firing window detected. Addendum: I recommend immediate violence.] HK said, and as if it were the mark, we began firing.
I let loose first, feeling the Force pushing my finger, squeezing the trigger as I emptied what was loaded into the chamber. The slug left the barrel with a deafening crack, louder than I expected, and the recoil slamming back into my arms was really heavy, watching as the round tore through the air. But all that was secondary; I didn't blink, didn't try to complain or anything, I simply realigned my aim, and fired again.
My first shot had hit a DR-0N unit square in the chest, and the armor he had on couldn't disperse it at all. The hypersonic slug punched into the droid's torso and detonated its internal structure outward in a spray of molten metal and shattered components, coming out from its back. Damn! I would not want to fight against something like this, even if I have a lightsaber. There was no time for the unit to react, and even if it had time to process it and get into a defensive stance, maybe activate and raise a saber, I don't think it could have survived.
Around me, the others' slugthrowers fired too within the confined cavern, the reverberation sounding as if the storm outside had come in, even muffling the rolling conveyor belts and automated machinery. Each impact was catastrophic as the slugs shattered their limbs, punched through their skulls, and tore through servo clusters and power cores with shocking efficiency. I can't believe that in the past we used things like these... So... Uncivilized.
In the end, we had more targets than there were of us, and finally, one of the DR-0N units ignited its lightsaber mid-turn, but it wasn't the last to do it either. I saw how the blade cracked to life just in time to intercept a slug heading towards its head, and for a fraction of a second, it worked. Then the round shattered, and molten shrapnel sprayed outward, bypassing the blade at multiple points, shredding the droid's optics and severing its upper arm at the shoulder. The unit staggered, its saber flickering wildly, before another round blasted into its head, going through it, exploding it like a watermelon of gears and oil.
HK was just as deadly, and he didn't aim at the center mass; he was more focused on incapacitating and then executing. His slugs took out their knees, hips, elbows, joints, where even if they reacted, no lightsaber would reach. One unit lost both legs and toppled forward, its saber carving a glowing scar across the floor before HK calmly put a round through its core, now that it wasn't able to move anymore.
"Damn!" I heard Vila laugh out, fighting the recoil of her weapon.
By then, the assembly line descended into chaos, even if our enemies were droids. Someone had to deactivate the line because the cranes jerked to a halt, and the automated arms froze mid-weld, probably to let the active droids assess the noise and trajectories and see where the attacks were coming from without distractions. Still, in less than a few seconds, eight active DR-0N units were nothing but wreckage, and the survivors reacted too late, giving us time to reload.
I already felt victory being close.
Swapping the magazines, I watched as they spread out, sabers on, their heads finally tracing the attacks, looking upward towards us. One unit raised its weapon toward the catwalk, towards me, but I just smirked. Good luck reaching me with your saber from down there. For me, it took simply to squeeze the trigger once again, and the Sith war machine had vanished in a burst of shattered alloy thanks to my pistols. Then, another got blown apart as Iowi's repeater stitched a line of slugs through its torso...
The last weapon to go silent was Jalo's slugthrower, finishing off the last droid, tearing it into multiple pieces, leaving only sizzling, smoking wrecks that carried the stench of burned metal and ozone towards the catwalk. That was... easy? Thinking about it, I lowered my pistols slowly, finally realizing that my ears were ringing and my heart was hammering in my skull... Ugh... I hope this is not final, these things are damn loud, we should have thought about some ear protection...
"That," Vila breathed, "was beautiful!"
"It was horrible!" I groaned, probably yelling, but I couldn't tell because of my ringing ears.
"Ammo check!" Iowi said immediately as we began using the Force to jump down, landing like cats down below, using the frame of the automated machinery to dampen our fall.
"Not good," Jalo answered as he glanced down at his belt, then back at him, "Half."
"Same for me." I shrugged, throwing away the empty magazines.
It was then that HK landed with a thud next to me, tilted his head, and already scanned the assembly line.
[Assessment: Initial engagement successful. Congratulations to the meatbag Jedi for seeing the glory of using proper weapons. Addendum: Preliminary warning. Remaining dormant units are beginning reactivation cycles.]
"Say it earlier!" Vila yelled at him, and right on cue, we noticed the movements and lights blinking as almost all the repair cradles sparked to life.
Being reactivated, the half-completed droids twitched as power flowed into their exposed cores, the automation hurriedly adding their missing limbs, snapping them into place, even if some of them were now mismatched, some incomplete. Still, one by one, their red optics flickered on and off, struggling to stabilize, but... they were indeed waking up. Shit!
"We've got to hurry!" I yelled, firing into one of the nearest ones, shattering the torso of the droid that began throwing sparks as it was trying to boot.
"Jalo!" Iowi yelled, but he was already moving, sprinting towards the central unit of the conveyor belt labyrinth, skidding to a halt beside a possible control conduit.
"Cover me!" he shouted, dropping to his knees and pulling open an access panel. "I can overload this and set it to carry a chain reaction through the pipes connected to it, but I need time!"
"Just do it!" Iowi yelled as we took aim, trying to decide which droids were going to awake as we had limited shots... and for sure not enough for all of them.
Then, like some beast, a half-built droid lunged toward us, leaving its cradle in an animalistic frenzy... Was it afraid or angry, or was it because it wasn't completed properly? I couldn't really tell, but it moved wrong. Its left arm was dragging a fracture behind it, most of its armor missing in broad plates, its internal mechanisms exposed like the bones beneath skin, bleeding oil and sparking. But it was still fast, and its saber hissed to life in a red arc, aiming at me while I also took aim, firing at it.
The slug tore through its thigh, severing the limb entirely, and before it could reach me, the droid collapsed. It tried to rise, but Vila finished it with a precise shot through the head unit. However, by then, more had left their cradles. I was getting sure about the idea that they had some central control station, like those droids the CIS used in the Clone Wars... It had to be the case because they had a strategy for their attacks. They came in waves now, adapting to our weaponry, throwing the least-repaired ones at us first as sacrifices, knowing the slugs would punch holes through them. They were draining our reserves as each kill cost ammunition that we couldn't afford to lose.
"Kael!" Vila shouted, "We're running low!"
"I know!" I yelled back at her.
My last magazine clicked dry as another droid charged at me, its saber swinging wildly. I threw the weapons down and raised my cortosis hand, grabbing its saber while I drew my blade without thinking, its indigo light illuminating my face as I cleaved it into two. Without its Sith markings... it was easy to get it to fall.
By then, the fight had changed again, because the others were out too, so Iowi's blue and Vila's orange blades met the red ones and counterattacked them the Jedi way. I noticed the change because, with no more slugs to wreak havoc amongst them, the wholly unfinished versions stopped coming, and instead we were facing much better-protected variants... Still not completed units, but close to completion, with greater protection against Force powers and lightsaber strikes.
"They know we are out of our aces!" I shouted, fending off an attack, having to duel two of the robots who were making use of their knowledge, baiting me to use my cortosis-made arm, aiming to sever it from my body before going for my head.
"Jalo!" Iowi yelled, also fighting against two, being set on the backfoot, getting pushed into a corner.
"Just a minute! I'm almost done!"
"This way!" Vila yelled, using herself as bait, jumping up on the conveyor belts, using the Force to pick up the metal pieces, hurling them at the droids, toppling a few of them, trying to lessen the pressure on Iowi.
The way the droids reevaluated the order and ranking of dangers, I could tell they were now going for Vila... Tsk! She might be surrounded and killed if this keeps up! It made me push back, using Makashi's footwork to slip through my opponents, wanting to open a second front and not let Vila get crowded... But that was a mistake.
It was a bait, and I took it... I realized it when I made my second step, and my opponents let me do it. I was already turning around, swiping my blade in an upwards swing, catching one of them in the back, cutting through it... But the second was already rushing ahead. They weren't going for Vila; they simply used a faint... Their actual target was Jalo, and now one had a clear lunge at him.
"Watch out!" I yelled, trying to use the Force to grab the machine, but those damned Sith glyphs flared up, throwing my hand off him, as if an invisible, cold arm slapped it off before I could trip it up.
It was then that I saw how Iowi moved without hesitation, abandoning his own fight, causing one of the droids to slash at his back, leaving a burning trail of his clothes, and painting a painful grimace on his face... but he still stepped between the lunging droid and Jalo, his blade raising upwards, blocking its path. I saw from the left of my peripheral vision as Vila jumped over the droids that were indeed trying to get her, choosing to attack the ones Iowi was fighting with just a moment before, capitalizing on their open backs... She was killing them and I... I was reaching out towards Iowi... but I was too late.
His injury made him slow, and the droid immediately capitalized on it, deflecting a strike, countering his form, and I couldn't stop the red saber from punching through his side. Iowi didn't scream, and he just staggered, still standing, still trying to bring his weapon down as Vila and I arrived the next moment, cutting the droid into pieces in a brutal cross-strike that split it in half, shields or not...
But Iowi was already falling.
I caught him before he hit the floor, my knees slamming down hard as I held him, trying to check... but...
"Hey," he whispered, somehow smiling, "Guess… I won't be climbing out."
"Don't," I said hoarsely, "Don't talk! Stay with me..."
"That's not how this works..." He shook his head slowly, "It's fine... I can feel it. The Force is… so close. Closer than ever..."
"I'm done! I'm done!" Jalo was shouting, while Vila was fighting behind me, holding off the others, and HK was using his blasters to try and push them back... But we had to move, or we would be caught in a trap now, and we would all die.
Iowi's hand found my sleeve, probably knowing the same thing.
"I'm proud," he said to me, "To become one with the Force, while I am side by side… with friends."
"Yeah..." I said, feeling that he was already slipping away, feeling all he was experiencing, and... it wasn't pain. It was... satisfaction and... relief. Especially when I said my last words to him, "As friends."
"That's enough for me." My throat closed when he said that, because I knew, I felt, that he meant it and that he suddenly felt very much at peace with it all, "Finish it," he added, "Make sure this place goes down..."
Then his presence finally slipped away... and I knew he was already part of the Force. Jalo was there the next moment, saying something to me, but for a moment I could hear nothing. Then, as if slapped, the Force, in the form of a breeze, finally woke me out of the sudden stupor, pushing me up to my feet, towards a certain direction, cutting through the Dark Side that tried to use his death... Yes... I felt it well, how the Dark Side was trying to influence us with what we were feeling in that moment, but then again, the breeze of the Light Side blew it away, shielding us and showing us a direction.
"There!" I yelled, pointing it out, "Run!"
There was no time to talk... or to explain anything... Or grieve. The droids kept coming, both repaired and unrepaired ones, sensing the blood in the water, wanting to overwhelm us... And we had to move, leaving Iowi's body behind.