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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2914867" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 323Jyren was at least slightly thrown off by the fact that his short trip in the turbolift went completely unhindered. In a matter of seconds, the lift arrived at its destination and the door slid open to reveal a small, grey-white corridor. It looked to go forward for about five or six meters before ending in a door, and also a T-shaped junction. Maybe that explained why there had been no problems...he had no idea where he was actually going.    No. Don’t argue with yourself now. Trust your instincts.    He didn’t, of course, knowing that they had a habit of leading him right into the exact place he didn’t want to be...but at this point, they were all Jyren had. The Force was too...thick with the Dark Side to be able to sense anything else, and the link was...well, it just was. Shadow couldn’t help him. She was busy doing...doing something else.    And so, probably rather foolishly, Jyren just trusted his instincts and headed forward. When he reached the end, he looked both of the other directions. To his right, the corridor only went on for another fifteen or so meters before ending in a few doors and what looked like another lift tube. To the left...the corridor simply made another right turn a good ten meters down. Biting his lip, Jyren made a choice.    He turned, and pressed the switch on the door that was directly in front of him, already. Sure, it was the easy way out, but if he was wrong, it would save him the trouble of having to check it later and be wrong then.    The door opened without any resistance and with the usual hiss that every single starship in the galaxy, save Loki, seemed to echo with, and revealed, amazingly enough, exactly what Jyren had been looking for. It was the backup bridge. Designed exactly like the main bridge of a Star Destroyer, with the two crew pits on either side of a main walkway and sensor stations just near the door, the only difference from the norm was the lack of any viewports. Instead, though, there was a series of viewscreens with holoprojections of the surrounding space outside...and Jyren had to force himself to avoid looking at the constant green and red flashes in the distance.    Truthfully, it wasn’t that difficult.    In fact, it was always very easy to focus on the moment when being shot at. And, just after the door had opened, that was exactly what had happened. Instinct(well, the Force, really, but sometimes he still thought of it as instinct) forced Jyren’s body to move, pivoting back outside the doorway and against the outer wall. Two red blaster bolts scorched the empty air and hit the far bulkhead, leaving black marks on the clean surface.    It was then that Jyren realized he hadn’t even seen what had shot at him, just reacted. While one hand naturally detached his lightsaber from his belt, he very carefully took a quick glance around the corner to see through the still-open door and into the bridge. Obviously, it wasn’t empty like the freighter they’d stolen had been...but Darkwings didn’t use blasters, as far as Jyren knew. Claws and teeth seemed to work just fine for them. So was it more clones...?    It wasn’t. Thin, almost awkward looking shapes marched towards the door, and let off two more shots before he ducked back around and realized what they were. Very, very old model battle droids of some kind...probably held together by luck and some well placed emergency adhesive from the strange way they were walking. But despite the fact that they were probably twice Jyren’s age, the blasters they carried seemed to work quite well. Droids...were they all...?    Taking a quick moment, he reached out through the thick Darkness that held him down and searched the bridge for something...anything...and found nothing. It was devoid of life. All droids? Well, it was cheaper than slaving systems and more reliable, too...and would explain how such a fleet had been gathered by Jen so damned quickly.    It also meant that he could tear straight through every single one of them without even the slightest thought to killing a sentient being. Not that it normally crossed his mind, it was something that had been forced out of him years before any kind of Force training, but it was at least something he knew he was supposed to think about...or pretend to think about.    Focus!    The word in his mind echoed with a blaster shot that caught the edge of the door a little close to where his face had been resting. Jyren jumped back, his sense of smell ruined by the overbearing ozone smell that followed the blaster bolt. But when he landed, both hands came onto the cold, metal hilt of his lightsaber and the switch was thumbed on.    The sharp snap-hiss struck a cord somewhere in him, but was something he didn’t really notice until later. Jyren was...finally, focused.    And so, drawing upon his own strength rather than the Darkness surrounding him, Jyren pivoted back around and charged straight into the bridge, blue-green blade in front of him and already a blur. Two quick cleaves cut down the nearest of the droids that had almost ran straight into him in their path towards the door, and a fast vertical swing caught a stray blaster bolt to send it straight into the chestplate of a third droid. With each droid that dropped, one of the other droids at some console would snatch up some kind of blaster pistol and fire at him.    Jyren quickly cut down the six other droids that had been at the sensor stations closest to the entrance, causing even more to start firing at him from the crew pits as others climbed out or found position of cover...which was exactly what Jyren was doing. He redirected a near-hit back at its origin, sending another droid down with a loud crash of metal, then immediately spun back around behind one of the small extensions that sat between the sensor station and the section of the bridge with the crew pits. It was a wall of sorts, though it was closer to half his size...Jyren did his best to squeeze against the console to take refuge from the barrage of blaster bolts heading straight for him was relative accuracy.    As best he could while still remaining behind his meager cover, Jyren switched to a one-handed grip on his lightsaber and reached down and grabbed his blaster pistol with his left hand. He wasn’t exactly the best shot with his left hand, but it was something and, at this point, he needed all he could get. There were at least...fifteen droids down there, maybe as much as twenty five depending on how many were actually working and how many were guards...or if certain unnecessary stations were left empty. Right. He could do that.    A blaster bolt shot straight past his face, singing the fringe of metallic-blue coloured hair that sat in front of the right side of his face. Jyren’s eyes went wide and he turned to see that the droids were moving into a position that made his cover useless. Damn these bridges and lack of useable cover!    There was no time for a deep breath or any kind of preparation. The droid was firing again, and others were moving next to it to get a clear shot at Jyren. So, with a simple step Jyren left his cover, lightsaber up to immediately deflect a shot aimed at his face before sliding his left arm under to fire a quick shot at the two droids that had gotten around his cover.    The shot was fancy, flashy, and downright stupid.    It also missed.    A quick downward sweep across that side deflected another shot from the same attacking droids, and Jyren took a step back to raise his other arm and actually line up his next shot. He managed to squeeze off a quick shot that caught a droid that had been dashing up out of the crew pit, but yet another bolt came at him from his right side.    This one, he couldn’t defend...mostly because it would have taken his own hand off in the process. Instead, the red blaster bolt caught him in the hand, burning through the flesh and causing him to both yelp in pain and drop the blaster pistol to the ground.    As he stumbled back and tried not to lose any footing while also doing his best to remorph the burn wound, the droids pushed forward.</blockquote>

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