10 Mercenary 4 (1/2)
Rodia
Outer Rim
I was glad that my last two Ion grenades all but finished the droids escorting Gunrey. Twenty minutes earlier I had Ferr order the all but a few of the machines stationed on this facility to gather in one place and took out the unlucky droids with most of the grenades I brought with me on for this excursion. Only the six B-1's who were used to make the welcome committee look genuine did not share the fate of their brethren. Until now.
I walked towards Gunray who was even grayer than normal thanks to his fear and the two cloaked figures who were his ”escort”. The Rodians, who were recovering from the shock scrambled to get away from me as I went to meet the Viceroy.
”Gunray. Fancy meeting you here. And you've brought some entertainment supplies.” I nodded at his companions. ”How thoughtful of you.”
The men sent to test me discarded their black cloaks. When I saw them I wondered if they were really twins as they looked like or whether Sidious had some limited success with cloning force sensitives…
They were about hundred and eighty centimeters tall, with short black hair and identical goatees. The one to the left had a nasty red scar running from his right temple, pass his eye, down to the edge of his jawbone. His twin had no visible scarring on the face.
”See Karoc? He does not look like much. I am sure that Grievous kriffed up against Skywalker and Kenobi.” said the twin to the right.
”You saw what he did with the ship and those grenades, Vinroc. Do not underestimate him, brother.” The other favored caution in the face of the unknown. He was probably the brains of their little family operation.
”Doesn't matter. Our Master ordered his death. So he dies. That is all, Karoc.”
”You are correct, Vinroc.”
Mentally unstable brothers... I wondered what else Sidious and Dooku would reveal next. Those two acted like a bad actors from third rate holo-drama.
”So, we have here Dumb and Dumber. Aren't you supposed to be Sith or something? The Jedi are all losing their heads over some supposed Sith Lord that's been running around and messing up their boring lives...” I taunted the idiots. From what I could sense, they barely classified as competent acolytes and that was me being very generous.
”He mocks us brother.” said the scarred one.
”That he does Karoc. We are servants of his excellency Count Dooku and members of the Dark Acolytes.”
”A single Dark Jedi won't stop us! We studied the ways of the ancient Sith and were trained by Dooku himself!” They boasted as one.
Don't you love it when the bad guys start ranting and reveal information you'd have to tear out of their bleeding bodies otherwise? The idiots who let themselves be controlled by the Dark side are no exception.
”You've learned the ways of the Sith?” I asked with a raised eyebrow. ”Then by all means, show me!”
They moved around Gunray, who was hunched and looked like a terrified, wild animal.
”He wished to test himself against us, Vinroc.”
”We are more than willing to oblige him, are we not, Karoc?”
They retrieved simple lightsaber hilts from the depth of their black tunics and activated the weapons which hissed revealing red blades. Karoc immediately went into a Makashi dueling stance while Vinroc fell into Soresu form. I summoned the hilt of my sword and its crimson blade ignited with an eager buzz of scorched air.
I placed my weapon in the traditional low Makashi guard stance and waved the twins to come on. The scarred one came first while his brother went to my right in a flanking move. I dashed towards Karoc, bringing my blade in a sweeping upwards strike. It was easily parried by the Dark Jedi who sneered at me. As a user of Makashi himself he was well aware of that style of combat greatest weakness – it was developed as the ultimate expression of one on one duels and suffered against two or more adversaries more than anything else… if the opponents were of equal training and expertise.
His sneer was short-lived. I erased it from his face when I locked our blades together and pushed his sword to the left. Then I spun around while staying in place and delivered a cracking backhand hit faster than he could react. The armored glove covering my left hand struck him on the side of the face with enough force to send him stumbling away from me. I could see blood leaking from his mouth.
I twirled the hilt of my blade in my hand, changing my grip in a backhanded Juyo one and moved my arm upward in a frothy five degree angle to deflect a broad slash form the other twin. The fingers of my left arm twisted like claws and I made a punching motion at Vinoc's open torso. My palm was mere centimeters from his chest when I unleashed a punishing blast of pure telekinetic force which threw him away as if he weighted nothing.