As I headed through the bodies, I was met with 15 Marines standing guard at the power reactor door, and 50 standing inside, to defend if any of them got through and were hiding in the power generators.
"Where are the Jedi?" Asked Alexander as we stepped up to them. He had joined me once I reached the battle.
"Your Grace! Lord Commandant!" He said while saluting, "The Jedi ran through here 7 minutes ago, following the apparent Sith. They've gone deep into the power reactor, do you want us to pursue?" He continued.
"No, we'll deal with it." I said as I began walking. They all stepped aside and saluted me. Santo, Jon, Robb, and Alexander followed me.
As we entered, I contacted Lux.
"Scan the reactor for heat signals." I said, after a few seconds of silence, a response came.
"My Lord, there are 3 heat signals in the trap doors leading to a trash shaft, used to dispose of dangerous materials, according to precise reports, Qui Gon is engaging him in single combat while Obi-Wan is still in the entrance." He said.
"Try to get that entrance hacked and open it." I said, I hope Obi-Wan doesn't kill him before we arrive, I want my men to gain a bit of Sith experience.
Many would say that it's a waste of time to come here, to learn how to fight a Sith, but when you think about it. It's quite important.
Asaj Ventress, Count Dooku, and Grievous.
These 3 names were a terrifying presence in the earlier times of the Clone Wars, anyone not on the High Council was essentially canon fodder to them, but as the Clone Wars progressed, Ahsoka, Barris, and other Jedi managed to fight them to a standstill.
Why is that?
Because they got experience, the Jedi hadn't fought the Sith for 5000 years, but as they relearnt how to fight them, Ventress and Grievous became less of a danger, Grievous became the usual commander and was priced as such.
I mean his ass was beat by Obi-Wan with a blaster.
Asaj Ventress was countered by Ahsoka, a youngling.
Essentially, I believed the experience was the only true way to become immune to the Sith. If Alexander, Jon, and Robb can fight Maul to a standstill, then Ventress wouldn't be much of a problem.
Because the Sith are different from that of the Jedi, the Sith empower themselves by emotion, meaning they do not make tactical sound moves, they make reckless, hard, and dangerous moves.
This is why there's never been developed a sound strategy to defeat the Sith, they're completely unpredictable, but by fighting Maul they'd get some experience regarding this unpredictability.
Maul with his double lightsaber was one of the more unpredictable Sith.
Additionally, I would be a fool to not think Sidious wouldn't send Ventress after me if I got in the way of his plans, so I needed Jon, Robb, and Alexander to be able to somewhat fight a Sith.
But enough of that. We were currently running through the bridges connecting the power reactor.
We headed past the reactor itself, down a few bridges, and we arrived at the entrance, just in time to barely make the outline of Qui Gon falling.
"Lux! Can you get these doors opened." I exclaimed into my comms.
"Almost got it." He responded
We went silent as we could hear the outlines of lightsaber combat.
"Got it!" He exclaimed after 10 seconds, and the doors shut down.
As the doors opened, two droids swung down from the top of the roof and towards us, mainly me and Santo.
I barely managed to sidestep it, meanwhile, Santo just let him hit him, before grabbing his feet and throwing the droid back onto the bridge.
"Alexander, Jon, and Robb. Go! We'll handle this." I said as I turned to the droids.
They were obviously hesitant, remembering what happened last time, but reluctantly left.
Looking at the droids, I could see that they had been retrofitted, they suffered a bit of damage during the last battle, and lost a lot of their guns, but they had been equipped with new upgrades and weapons.
I aimed my ARC-9965 and began shooting the droid in front of me, while flying backward, toward one of the bridges.
The first 2 shots were dodged, but as I flew backward I hit him in the uppermost right chest, but he didn't even falter and continued on.
I flew to a small reactor platform, not connected by a bridge close to us, forcing the droid to run around to get to the correct platform, while he was doing that I was shooting like my life depended on it.
I hit multiple shots, but none of them seemed to do any damage, except the one that hit his sniper, he likely planned to use it, but now it's gone.
He took out two E-5 Blaster Rifles and began firing while running.
I was forced the dodge around the reactor I stood on, which forced him to cease fire. He knew that if he hit that reactor it would cancel out any power-driven equipment, it would cause this place to fall together and he would die, and Maul.
As he approached I continued to fire with my ARC-9965, but as he entered the correct bridge I strapped it to my back.
I then took out my Commando Pistols and flew forward, the ARC-9965 was meant for long-medium range combat, and accuracy, but that wouldn't hold while flying in a zig-zag pattern.
I unleashed continuous fire as I flew straight towards the droid, he of course dodged them all, but as I got close, I turned my body upwards, which would make me fly over him harmlessly, but of course, he wouldn't have that.
And he jumped straight upwards and began spinning his leg to gain momentum, if I got hit that would knock me out cold.
As I flew forward, I barely managed to put my right gun in my holster and take something out of my belt, as I reached the 1-meter mark, his feet were right in front of me.
That's when changed my trajectory once again, going straight up, halting my forward momentum.
The droid looked as I avoided his feet, he had jumped precisely to meet my previous angle, but not the new one.
But instead of flying upwards, I cut the power.
I flew down until I was horizontal to the droid.
He had stopped his feet to catch himself when he landed.
He didn't expect me to follow through.
That's when I stretched my right arm out, and connected something to the droid's chest.
He of course realized it was there, but it was too late, way too late.
He looked down, just in time to see a thermal detonator.
"Bye-bye," I said as I put both my feet between us and pushed myself away, and started my jetpack.
However, he flew straight down and missed the bridge,
As he flew straight down into the black pit the thermal detonator exploded, separating all his body parts from each other.
This was the plan I devised while in bed, the droids were perfect for single combat, and ranged combat, but they did not have the brain of a tactical droid, they were fighters, not thinkers.
So he would obviously jump to stop me, so it worked out.
I turned to Santo, just in time for him to throw his droids into the black void.
He then roared in victory.
"RHHHHHHHHHHHH"
He didn't even say anything, he just roared.
"Alright, let's go help the others," I shouted as I activated my jetpack.
Santo defeated his opponent at the entrance while I was far away.
He ran through the corridor, not needing to bother about the shields. We exited at about the same time.
Just time to see Obi-Wan fall into the pit from a force push by Maul.
However, Alexander, Jon, and Robb had already been fighting him and they quickly engaged him.
Alexander took point, serving as the main attacker, while Jon and Robb cautiously moved around Maul, unleashing attacks when he didn't expect it.
"Santo, help Obi-Wan up." I said and he ran to the pit.
Meanwhile, I turned to Qui Gon, he had been stabbed in the same spot as in the original, and he was dying. Fast.
I went to him and crouched beside him.
And he started speaking.
"Tell, ugh, Obi-Wan that, ugh, as my last wish, he must ugh train Anakin to be a ugh Padawan." He said, trying to lean upwards. But as he finished that, he laid down. To die.
It seems that in the original he held onto life to tell Obi-Wan this, but now that I was here to transfer the wish, he could finally die peacefully. Although he wouldn't quite die. He would always be there.
I turned around, to see that Alexander was faltering and all 3 of them had switched from the usual tactic to all of them attacking at the same time, it worked for a bit until Maul got used to it and pushed them back.
At the same time, Santo got Obi-Wan up from the pit and he joined the battle.
Alexander, Jon, and Robb stepped back and fell into the usual routine as Obi-Wan unleashed fury with his own and Qui Gon's lightsabers.
The occasional shocks and attempts to kill with electrified blades coming from the Force Staffs seemed to be too much for Maul, and after holding out for 3 minutes, he finally faltered and made a mistake.
He overreached his attack, allowing Obi-Wan to sidestep it, then slash straight through his stomach, splitting it into two.
He then fell into the pit while screaming, I could see that Alexander moved to reach for the upper part when he died, but he looked at me slightly and I shook my head.
Luckily, Obi-Wan didn't notice it due to him running over to Qui-Gon before crouching down and feeling his pulse.
"He died 4 minutes ago." I said as I stepped up to Obi-Wan.
"Did he have any last words?" Obi-Wan asked stoically, but I could hear the sorrow in his voice.
"He wanted you to train Anakin, he told me to pass it on." I said, and a conflicted face appeared on Obi-Wan's face, he now had the decision to anger the Council or abandon his Master's last wish.
However, Obi-Wan quickly got over it and a determined expression entered his face.
"Thank you for passing my Master's last wishes, Count Veridian." He said,
"It was my duty." I simply said. "But we should get a move on. Queen Amidala is entering the city in a few minutes." I said and he stood up, carrying Qui Gon's body in a princess carry.
However, as Obi-Wan left. I saw the hilt of Maul's lightsaber.
I quickly turned to Alexander.
"Pick that up and keep it hidden." I whispered while pointing at the lightsaber, he didn't respond but simply picked it up, and placed it under his armor.
And with that, we walked in silence to the hangar.
While we were walking I contacted Colonel Lux. Ordering him to bring us an LAAT, we would need transport to the Palace, and to find something that would allow us to preserve Qui Gon's body.
Once we reached the LAAT, Obi-Wan didn't hesitate to call the Jedi Council. Informing them of recent events.
As we reached the palace, I could see a Nu-Class Shuttle had already parked there, likely belonging to Padme.
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