Star Wars Adventures 006 - The Warlords of Balmorra

by Ryder Windham

  Jango threw his body hard to the left and sailed through the hole. He spilled out into an excavated chamber and hit the floor hard. Sitting up, he checked to make sure he hadn’t lost any of his weapons on the way down. He’d barely had time to secure his wrist gauntlets before he’d plunged through the trapdoor.

  Seeing that his weapons were all in place, Jango examined his surroundings. He was in a circular, domed-ceiling chamber with a wraparound wall that was lined with large boulders. Except for the way he’d come in, the chamber appeared to be completely enclosed. Then he heard a whoosh from behind him, and he turned just in time to see an armored figure come tumbling out of the shaft and into the chamber.

  It was the yellowskinned stranger, the one whose head was partially covered by a metal. Judging from the way the stranger held his weapon, Jango was certain the guy was a bounty hunter. Jango briefly wondered where the other two shafts had led to. As the yellowskinned humanoid rose to his feet, a large stone slid back to reveal an open passage that led out of the chamber. From a hidden loudspeaker, Rigorra’s voice crooned:

  “The passage leads to lethal threats,

  Like droids that kill and monstrous pets.

  Choose your exit or choose your tomb,

  For only one can leave this room.”

  Jango faced the other bounty hunter. He was about the same distance as Jango from the open passage.

  “You’re Jango Fett,” the other hunter said, keeping his hands where Jango could see them.

  Jango nodded.

  “You probably don’t know me, but my name’s Skorr. I’ve heard about you and your armor, and I know there’s no way I can beat you.”

  Jango nodded again.

  Skorr said, “You take the passage. I’ll try to find another way out. Maybe back up through the shaft.”

  Without answering, Jango stepped toward the passage. Then he saw the spring-loaded palm-sized pistol appear in Skorr’s left hand. Jango dropped and spun as he drew a blaster and shot Skorr’s hand, knocking the weapon from his grip. Skorr clutched his left wrist and howled in pain, and Jango ran into the next passage.

  The moment Jango exited the chamber, the boulder slid back into position to prevent Skorr from leaving by the same route. With the passage now sealed, Jango was surrounded by darkness. He adjusted his visor for night-vision and kept walking.

  He had entered a subterranean cavern. Sharp-tipped stalactites dangled from the high ceiling, and stalagmites of varying heights stood like sentries on the hard rock floor. Suddenly, he heard the pad of a soft footstep from just a few meters to his left. Jango turned fast to see a gigantic arachnid emerge from the shadows near a row of stalagmites.

  The eight-legged creature had a broad head with muscular mandibles and a long, segmented tail that ended with twin stingers. The creature was so large that it crouched slightly to prevent its back from scraping against the ceiling’s longer stalactites.

  There was a rattling sound as the creature raised its twin stingers. Jango dived between a group of stalagmites, but the arachnid brought its tail down hard. One of the stingers glanced off Jango’s helmet and struck the nearest stalagmite, which was instantly shattered and reduced to a pile of dust.

  Not willing to risk taking another hit, Jango drew both blasters and fired up into the creature’s head. The arachnid recoiled, leaving a splatter of gore across the cavern ceiling before it fell lifeless to the floor.

  Jango lay amid the stalagmites for a moment, listening for any other sign of movement. Hearing nothing, he rose and stepped quietly over one of the dead arachnid’s long legs.

  A worn, narrow footpath was etched into the cavern floor. A few steps later, Jango saw that the path branched off into two large openings against the cavern’s wall. From what he could see, both openings led into passages. The passage on the left was illuminated by a series of glow rods that were secured to the ceiling, and the passage on the right was cast in darkness.

  Although Jango couldn’t see the far end of the illuminated passage, he could imagine that either route had hidden dangers. He was considering whether he should try the illuminated passage or the dark passage when he heard Rigorra’s voice sing from a hidden loudspeaker:

  “The path has forked, but if in doubt,

  Let left be right and light be rue,

  And take a stab at getting out

  Before the deadly fork stabs you.”

  The sudden intrusion of Rigorra’s voice rattled and irritated Jango, and he had to shake off the feeling to concentrate. He contemplated the song’s second stanza, which seemed to hold some clue, when an arrow tipped with two prongs zinged out from a concealed launcher, set between the two openings, within the cavern wall. The “deadly fork” was heading straight at Jango’s neck.

  Moving faster than thought, Jango’s hands whipped out and caught the fired arrow by its long, cylindrical shaft. Then he raised his knee and brought the arrow down over it, snapping the projectile in two. Casting the arrow’s broken bits aside, he took a chance and headed into the dark passage.

  If he hadn’t been using his visor’s night-vision setting, Jango might have fallen into the hole that lay in the passage floor. He stepped over the hole, but the passage soon terminated against a wall of rock.

  Jango returned to the hole in the floor and felt a slight breeze coming up from it. Dropping down beside the hole, he carefully lowered himself into it and found himself in a low-ceilinged tunnel. He crawled through the tunnel and soon emerged at the edge of a ledge in yet another subterranean chamber.

  Jango looked down from the ledge. Four meters below his position, a wide river of molten rock flowed by, burning brightly and sending hot, foul-smelling fumes into the air. He craned his neck out to see where the lava was traveling, but the river twisted and vanished around a high-walled bend. He didn’t know whether the river was a natural phenomenon or an engineered obstacle, but he did know that falling into it would be certain death.

  Surveying the area, Jango saw another ledge on the far side of the chamber, about twenty meters away. The chamber’s ceiling was laced with bizarre, twisted stalactites, possibly shaped by the lava’s incredible heat. The stalactites were within reach, so Jango took hold of one and gave it a sharp tug. The stalactite held.

  Jango gripped the stalactite and swung out over the flowing lava. Then he reached for another stalactite and released his grip on the first. He repeated the procedure, swinging from one grip to the next. He was halfway across the ceiling when the stalactite he was holding snapped.

  Jango didn’t panic. He twisted his left gauntlet as he was falling and fired a snaring cable at the chamber’s ceiling, aiming at an area about three meters shy of the ledge that was his destination. The cable was tipped with a grappling bolt, and the instant Jango heard the clak as the bolt locked into the ceiling, he reined in the cable, pulled up his legs, and swung for the ledge.

  His feet traveled over the ledge, and he kicked his heels into the rock. The heat was almost unbearable as Jango struggled to pull himself onto the ledge, but he managed. Once he was up and standing, he drew a blaster and fired a shot that came within two centimeters of the grappling bolt that was embedded in the ceiling. The shot blew a chunk out of the ceiling and dislodged the bolt, allowing Jango to draw the cable back into his gauntlet. If he had to, he’d be able to use the grappling bolt again.

  Moving away from the river of molten rock, Jango holstered his blaster, and inspected the far side of the chamber. The mouth of a tunnel appeared to be the only exit. The tunnel was about two meters in diameter, large enough for Jango to walk through without bumping his head.

  Jango entered the tunnel. Its walls and floor were flecked with flat, oval-shaped luminescent material that glowed green. As he approached a bend in the tunnel, he stopped at the edge of a two-meter-deep crevice and picked up a piece of the glowing material. Examining it, he realized it wasn’t artificial, but was, in fact, a scale that had been shed by a reptile. And judging from the size of the scale,
Jango could easily determine it had come from a very large reptile, possibly big enough to swallow him whole.

  Hisssss!

  Jango heard the serpent approaching from just around the bend. Peering around the bend, he saw the luminescent-scaled serpent was indeed—like the arachnid he had encountered earlier—enormous.

  Jango jumped into the crevice, lay back on its floor, drew both blasters, and waited. Seconds later, the serpent slithered over the crevice. Jango didn’t feel any need to shoot the creature so long as it kept moving. Several bright scales scraped off against the edge of the crevice and dropped down on top of Jango. The bounty hunter didn’t move a muscle.

  The serpent was still traveling over the crevice when, from yet another hidden speaker, Rigorra’s voice sang out:

  “Snake’s alive! My serpent’s miffed!

  He missed a meal that needs a lift!”

  Jango was relieved that the song was brief, but he then heard a grinding sound and felt himself rising. He realized the crevice “floor” had been rigged on a concealed elevated platform and he was being forced back up through the crevice. His armor smashed into the serpent’s belly, prompting the serpent to twist sharply.

  Once again level with the tunnel floor, Jango pushed the serpent’s body away from his own to avoid being crushed against the wall by the creature. Then he saw the serpent’s head angling back at him, its maw wide open. Jango fired his blasters into the serpent’s head, and a series of rapid tremors traveled through its body, making it whip back and forth within the tunnel. Jango was hurled against the tunnel wall and braced himself for another hit, but after a final tremor, the serpent was still.

  Leaving the dead serpent, Jango traveled through the tunnel until he arrived before a wide metal door. The door appeared to be secured by a locking mechanism that was controlled by a wheel at the door’s center. As Jango stepped closer to examine the wheel, he heard a rumbling sound behind him. Turning fast, he saw a thick metal sheet slide up from a narrow slot in the tunnel’s floor. The sheet traveled straight up and sealed against the tunnel’s walls and ceiling, trapping him in the area between the metal sheet and the door.

  Then Jango heard a clicking sound from above, and he looked up to see that a false rock panel had slid back from the ceiling to expose the open mouth of a large metal pipe. Suddenly, water gushed out of the pipe with incredible force, knocking Jango back against the locked door. In an instant, the floor of the enclosed area was submerged by water and, with each passing second, the water level rose higher.

  Jango’s flight suit was waterproof, so he ignored the water and focused on the wheel at the door’s center. He grabbed the wheel and gave it a hard turn. Snap! It broke free from the door. Jango tossed the brittle wheel into the rising water. He braced himself against the wall beside the door, drew a blaster, and fired a rapid burst of angled shots that tore down through the water and hit the door’s base. The combination of the increasing water pressure and Jango’s firepower was too much for the door, and it burst open, carrying Jango through it with a mighty gush.

  The other side of the door was set in a wall that loomed high above a deep pool. As Jango tumbled through the air, he barely had enough time to inhale a lungful of air before hitting the pool with a loud splash. Plunging below the water’s surface, he opened his eyes to get his bearings and sighted a blood-red, long-fanged stunfinn passing a cluster of submerged boulders. Unfortunately, the stunfinn saw Jango, too. The deadly aquatic creature bared its sharp teeth, and then swam in Jango’s direction.

  Jango’s weight pulled him to the bottom of the pool. He knew that the stunfinn’s organs produced a powerful electric discharge to stun its prey, but he also knew that his own flight suit would protect him from such a shock. Jango was more concerned about the effect an electrical discharge might have on his helmet’s sensors. As the stunfinn drew closer, Jango raised his left arm and launched a dart from his gauntlet. The dart streaked through the water and ripped through the stunfinn’s lower jaw. The creature’s body jerked, and then it swam off, leaving a bloody trail in the water.

  Jango kicked at the pool’s floor and launched himself upward. Breaking the water’s surface, he swam to the pool’s edge and pulled himself out. He had arrived in a cave, smaller than the previous subterranean chambers. Despite its modest size, the cave’s ceiling was covered with stalactites, and the floor was thick with stalagmites.

  From his position at the edge of the pool, Jango couldn’t see any way out of the chamber. Dripping wet, he stood and peered past the rock formations. He saw an open passage, partially hidden by the base of a stalagmite, only fifteen meters away. He was about to make his way for the passage when Rigorra’s voice, sounding a bit miffed, sang from a hidden loudspeaker:

  “You seemed like just a gun for hire,

  But since you crossed the stream of fire,

  And beat the snake and foiled the fish,

  You have me thinking: Don’t I wish

  This clown would just lay down and die!

  But hey, let’s give it one more try.

  Mark my words, ’cause I’m no bluffer:

  My rough game will now get rougher!”

  Suddenly, there was a mechanical grinding sound, and the chamber’s ceiling began to descend. Behind his helmet and under his breath, Jango cursed.

  It seemed Rigorra had rigged the chamber’s ceiling, suspending it from some kind of hydraulic system. As the stalactites closed in on the stalagmites, Jango Fett regarded his situation as something like being caught in the mouth of a giant creature with stone teeth.

  Jango considered diving back into the pool, but he then decided to make a run for the passage. He sprinted fast, dodging and weaving around the rock formations, as the distance closed between the floor and ceiling. Broken fragments of rock exploded all around his running form, and one large fragment toppled in front of the passage. Without breaking his run, Jango drew both blasters and fired at the fragment, pulverizing it. He dived through the dust and into the passage just as the ceiling completely collapsed. Then he rode on the rubble, straight into the next underground chamber.

  At the center of the chamber, on a level dirt floor, stood an Arakyd Industries Mark X Executioner droid. The tall droid was mounted on a dual-tread drive system, and its multiple weapon-arms included a neuron whip, vibro-ax, blaster rifle, missile launcher, flame projector, and a primitive spiked club.

  The droid didn’t move, and Jango picked himself up from the rubble. Jango was familiar with the Mark X Executioner model. The only part of the droid’s body that lacked armor was the small underside patch that lay between the treads, where the droid’s external cooling circuitry was located.

  The Executioner droid remained motionless, so Jango scanned the chamber. From where he stood, he could see the mouths of five small caves that lined the chamber’s walls. Depending on the depth and nature of the caves, Jango imagined it was possible that at least one cave might allow the opportunity for him to exit the chamber or get rid of the droid.

  But as Jango took a cautious step toward a cave, the Executioner droid made its move, rolling forward on its treads and heading straight for Jango. Jango paused. The droid raised its missile launcher and flame projector arms.

  Jango pretended to move forward, then threw himself back as the droid fired its selected weapons. Jango felt the rush of wind as a missile sped past his body and slammed into the wall, and he heard the roar of fire that would have consumed him, had he moved forward. Jango rolled across the floor and into the mouth of the nearest cave.

  The droid fired a second missile and Jango dropped to the cave’s floor. The missile flew over his back and impacted against the cave’s wall. Jango scrambled. He knew that the droid would assume its target had been hit or was trying to travel deeper into the cave, so the droid wasn’t prepared when Jango leaped out of the cave and fired six energy bolts directly into the droid’s exposed cooling circuitry. The area between the droid’s treads exploded, launching the droid so that
its head smashed into the ceiling. Jango continued firing at the droid, aiming at its weapon arms, as the droid fell and crashed to the floor.

  Jango held his fire and watched the droid. It didn’t move. Jango had not forgotten Rigorra’s song, which told of three different droids, each containing a liquid vial that was part of the antidote Jango needed to survive his encounter with the strange, deadly flower.

  Jango examined the Executioner droid’s remains and found a detail that wasn’t a standard feature on the Mark X. On the droid’s chest, a rectangular indentation indicated there might be a concealed compartment. Jango reached into one of his utility pouches and removed a small vibro-blade.

  Jango activated the cutting tool, then made a careful incision around the indent, carving out a rectangular plate. When he was done, he switched off the vibro-blade and pulled the plate free from the droid’s chest. Within the droid’s chest cavity, Jango found a small vial filled with blue liquid.

  Jango returned the vibro-blade to his utility belt and placed the vial into a different pouch. Suddenly, a wide area of the chamber’s wall slid back to reveal the entrance to yet another passage. Jango didn’t bother to wonder about the caves that he had yet to inspect. He rose from the heap of the ruined droid, left the chamber, and headed into the next passage.

  The passage brought Jango into another circular, domed chamber, at the bottom of the shaft below the arena floor, much like the one he found earlier. The chamber appeared to be empty. Jango looked at his chronometer. He was running out of time to gain the antidote he needed to live. He walked cautiously toward the center of the chamber.

  Two wall panels—one to Jango’s left and the other directly in front of him—slid back to reveal excavated recesses. Each recess contained a Mark X Executioner droid. The two droids stepped out from their hiding places and raised their multiple weapon-arms.