The twenty-five droid starfighters hung like deadly ornaments in space. Although the Jedi had destroyed the other twenty-five, Darth Maul believed his Master, Darth Sidious, would be pleased that half the starfighters had been recovered.
Maul considered escorting the starfighters back to Trade Federation space, but he was disturbed by a single detail: C-3PX. It was highly unlikely that the droid had survived the devastating explosion on Ralltiir, but Maul didn’t like the notion of C-3PX’s body being discovered by any enemies. The Sith Lord decided to return to the distant fortress and search the ruins.
Maul programmed the droid starfighters to fly to a Neimoidian base in Trade Federation territory. Responding to his command, all twenty-five droid starfighters angled in the same direction, then fired their engines and zoomed off into hyperspace.
After the starfighters had left the Corulag system, Maul plotted a course for Ralltiir. Then he punched the controls for the hyperdrive, and the Infiltrator blasted into hyperspace.
As he traveled back to Ralltiir, Maul’s thoughts turned to Groodo the Hutt. Darth Sidious had been confident that the Bartokks’ client would somehow be useful if he were to live in fear of the Trade Federation, but Maul wondered… Are Hutts really afraid of anything?
At this point, readers who chose to follow the adventure in the Star Wars Adventure Game Book can return to The Fury of Darth Maul.
The emergency escape pod landed in a dense forest thirty-four kilometers southwest of Curamelle, the capital city of Corulag, and home of Corulag Academy. The pod had crashed down through heavy foliage before setting down between three tall, wide-trunked trees. The pod’s hatch slid open and Groodo the Hutt slithered out onto the grass-covered ground, followed by his son. The younger Hutt was considerably smaller than his father, but he was of healthy size for his age.
Groodo carried a comlink that accessed a HoloNet transceiver in the escape pod. As he punched in a series of numbers to place an intergalactic call, he turned to his son and said, “Don’t worry, Boonda. Your old man’s going to make everything all right.”
“Sure, Pop,” said Boonda with a shrug. “Whatever you say.”
On Ralltiir, at the site of what had only recently been the Bartokks’ fortress, Darth Maul used the Force to lift a heavy boulder from a pile of rubble. Maul had used the Sith Infiltrator’s sensors to scan the fortress ruins for any sign of C-3PX. The sensors penetrated deep below the collapsed floors and fallen walls, searching for any trace of metal that might belong to the golden assassin droid. Now, Maul found himself sifting through the area of what had been a chamber near the fortress’s dungeon.
Maul did not watch the boulder as it levitated away through the air, and he ignored the loud thud, eight meters away, that sounded as he released the boulder from his power. The Sith Lord’s yellow eyes were fixed on something that rested on the crushed floor, staring at something that had been concealed by the transplanted boulder.
It was a restraining bolt. The same bolt that had been placed on C-3PX by the vocabulator-equipped Bartokk.
The droid had escaped from his cell after all.
Darth Maul raised his gaze and surveyed the debris. All around him, thick black smoke rose from the fires that burned beneath the scattered debris. Except for the rising smoke, nothing else moved.
He looked at the Sith Infiltrator, resting on a flat level of earth at a safe distance from the smoldering stones. Although Maul trusted his starship’s sensors, he relied even more on his own senses. He closed his eyes and held his breath. He blocked out the sound of the small, crackling fires, and of the whispering wind that blew over the ruins, sending fine sand drifting down into the canyon. He tuned out all natural noise, and he listened for the faint hum of logic processors, the dull whir of a pelvic servomotor, and the shuffling scuff of metal feet on rocky ground. But in the end, there was only the wind.
C-3PX was gone.
Darth Maul knew Darth Sidious would be expecting a full report back on Coruscant. Maul drew his dark cloak over his head, then walked swiftly to the Infiltrator.
He left no footprints.
At the Jedi chapter house on the ice planet Rhinnal, Obi-Wan Kenobi walked past a group of doctors and entered Adi Gallia’s spacious, brightly lit medical suite. He found Qui-Gon Jinn standing at the foot of Adi Gallia’s bed.
“Welcome, Obi-Wan,” Adi Gallia said. She was seated on the edge of her mattress pad, and her dangling sandaled feet nearly touched the spotless white floor. The suite was designed to accommodate dignitaries, as was indicated by an expensive holocom console and tall picture windows.
Obi-Wan bowed his head. “I’m pleased to see you well, Master Adi.” Despite the fact that Obi-Wan could barely contain his curiosity, he refrained from asking Adi Gallia to confirm that she had once saved Qui-Gon’s life.
“The medics say she’s almost fully recovered,” Qui-Gon informed his apprentice. “We also noticed the lights have come back on. Has the magnetic storm passed?”
“Yes,” replied Obi-Wan. “That’s what I came to tell you. We’re cleared to leave Rhinnal, and both the Radiant VII and Metron Burner are ready for launch.”
“Were you able to get a message through to Corulag?” Qui-Gon asked.
Obi-Wan nodded. “A Corulag Space Traffic Control satellite reported an orbital space battle that took place less than an hour ago. Twenty-seven ships were involved in the skirmish: a Bartokk starfighter and an unidentified cruiser were destroyed. The other ships all sounded like Trade Federation droid starfighters, but they escaped into hyperspace.”
“Could the cruiser have been the Bartokks’ target?” Adi Gallia asked.
“It’s unlikely,” Qui-Gon replied, stroking his chin as he thought. “Bartokks are professional killers, not suicide squads. The Bartokk starfighter’s purpose would have been to control the twenty-five droid fighters. If the cruiser had been the target, the Bartokks would have simply programmed the droid fighters to destroy it.”
“Maybe the Bartokks were ambushed by the cruiser,” Obi-Wan suggested.
“Perhaps,” Qui-Gon allowed. “But we are still left with an awkward question: Who has the droid starfighters now?”
Before anyone could offer an answer, a doctor entered the room. “Excuse me,” she said, “but there’s a HoloNet message holding for Qui-Gon Jinn. It’s from Coruscant.”
The doctor left Adi Gallia’s suite, and Qui-Gon went to the holocomm console. He passed his hand over an ID scanner, then watched as a greenish light emanated from the holoprojector. The light flickered, then took on the unmistakable form of an old alien with wise eyes and long, sharply pointed ears.
“Master Yoda?” Qui-Gon said, genuinely surprised. “We were just about to leave for Corulag.”
“Then late you already are,” Yoda’s hologram replied. “Meet you on Corulag, I will. Matters most urgent await us at the Academy. Go now at once!”
NEXT ADVENTURE:
JEDI EMERGENCY
11.6.18.15.14.5-1
Star Wars - Episode I Adventures 003 - The Fury of Darth Maul Page 5
