CHAPTER XXXXII: SECRETS

As the forced evacuation of Elysia had caused widespread panic and confusion within the Inner Rim, a silent stranger lurked the shattered remains of Jeranu in search of an object on intense interest to the Sith- the Whill light saber. With beady little yellow eyes and long thin legs which ended in a pair of powerful talons, Coldeth the G’yir carefully moved to and fro amidst the rubble where the Amber Commandos had fallen in the city in hopes of finding a saber intact. It was an almost impossible task, but the G’yir was a supreme scavenger breed that had much patience.

For six months Coldeth had explored the remnants of the city not rebuilt nor even fully cleared of debris. These sections of the city were labeled NAZ (No Access Zone), but the deployed Red Army was too busy with the evacuations to notice a lone G’yir now moving in the shadows. The bird-like reptile had excellent hearing and incredible sight combined with powerful legs that could grasp objects easily and hidden wings underneath a drab colored long coat split down the back from the shoulders down.

The G’yir had recently come across a pair of Varmins exploring the same NAZ and before tearing them apart with its sharp talons got some vitally important information on where to look next. The Varmins pleaded for their vile little lives as they told of spying on Garvin Heights, the Royal Palace of Light, Dreyden Park, and the Sacred Temple complex… but NOT yet near the fallen Crystal Towers That was all the G’yir needed to know as it had torn out the throats of both Varmins and then shredded their remains while dumping them down into the lower sewage system. Now, the G’yir was exploring the area around the collapsed Crystal Towers where a few Amber Commandos had been deployed during the Jeranu invasion.

The G’yir wasn’t doing this so much for the reward of the Dark Master Lord Rexor, but for the discovery of the object itself. G’yirs were scavengers who rarely sold what they had found. They were hoarders who cherished their vast collections so much that their home world Desarat had become desolate. G’yirs had accumulated so much scavenged material that huge wars were fought over rival claims of ownership of property. After hundreds of years of fighting groups of G’yirs took to the stars and moved their vast collections to safer havens on other remote worlds.

Coldeth had come from Tirahnna, having settled in the remote Desolation Valley. When the Sith defeat had been announced six months ago, the G’yir had used that opportunity to infiltrate the Inner Rim transports and land in Jeranu posing as a reconstruction worker. It took months to keep up the appearance of a guest worker but the G’yir had waited patiently and sifted through the rubble along with two million other workers. But every time a light saber had been discovered, the patrolling Amber Commandos and Red Army supervisors had quickly confiscated the fallen weapons. Amber crystals could be found here and there but the G’yir needed a completed weapon to discover its secret construction methods and internal operating mechanisms. So far, no luck.

But with the Varmin spies killed, their tip-off of looking around the Crystal Towers was going to pay off. The G’yir had not thought of looking there because there were no official reports of Amber Commandos being in the area when the Gretches struck the Towers.  But the Varmins had discovered that one Sith Airlyter had been hit by ground fire and made a forced landing near the Towers. A few Amber Commandos patrolling in the vicinity caught them and a firefight ensued before millions of tons of debris came crashing down on both Sith and Whill. When the spires first hit, the street had cracked and then crumbled down into the city’s massive sewage system. The clearing teams had cleared that section of the street but put down massive metal plating down over the huge craters that ran down into the sewage tunnels.

New sewage tunnels had to be dug to prevent a massive back up but the old network of tunnels under the former Crystal Towers had not been cleared of debris. It just might be possible to find the remnants of the Airlyter and remains of the dead Sith Kyries and Amber Commandos, but the G’yir would have to find its way through the NAZ before dropping down to the sewage level.

Slowly and methodically the powerful talons of the G’yir moved large chunks of debris as it navigated through, over, and under the debris until the smell of raw sewage reached the G’yir’s beaked nostrils. The G’yir then moved swiftly over piles of debris before coming to a complete stop at a large gaping hole that led two hundred feet down to the exposed old sewer system. The G’yir lifted its long coat with its concealed wings and jumped into the hole. The fluttering of its powerful wings ensured a slow descent into the pit, the G’yir’s talons coming to rest in a steady stream of raw sewage. The smell was appalling, yet the G’yir’s keen mind was focused on finding a Whill saber intact.

At first the G’yir couldn’t see as its eyes adjusted to the dark tunnel which was cracked in many places. Yet the stream was leading towards a dark object a hundred feet ahead. The G’yir moved through the muck as its extended wings folded back in place underneath the long coat. Coldeth wondered if the dark object could be the Airlyter but soon discovered that it was part of the street that had collapsed inwards. It was blocking the tunnel with only a small jagged opening on one corner that kept the stream of sewage flowing.

The G’yir snorted in disgust but then decided to take a look under the small corner. What it saw was perplexing. In the distance was a charred turbine and scattered parts of some form of vehicle. Piles of soil and charred remains littered the area and then another massive object that was also metal but crushed into an odd shape. Were these Whill military vehicles that were parked when the street collapsed? The G’yir was not too familiar with Whill military technology and could not ascertain what it was looking at. But then the G’yir remembered the Mequin… those mechanical hursas HAD a slung turbine that matches the charred one in the tunnel! The scattered metal was from a Vulkan! That means there WERE Amber Commandos down here!

Coldeth was excited and moved towards the jagged hole before realizing just how small of an opening it was. There was no way to walk through it or even crawl through it. The G’yir would have to slide through it and that meant lying in the sewage. The thought was repulsive but the G’yir had to know if a light saber was intact down here.

With repugnance, the G’yir lied on its back and pointed its wings upward through the hole as it slowly pushed forwards using its powerful long legs. The jagged edges were directly in the face of the G’yir as it slowly passed them and then could sit upright while using its wings and wing talons to push against the other side of the street slab, pulling its long legs through the putrid slush of sewage water.

Raising up, the G’yir quickly rushed over to the turbine and saw that it WAS part of a Whill Mequus! Here and there, the G’yir’s eyes darted in search of what was left of an Amber Commando or a lone saber intact. As the G’yir slowly advanced its powerful talons turned over the rotting corpses of many Sith until its talons scratched the crested helmet of an Amber Commando. The G’yir was elated and flipped the corpse over but no light saber was found. The G’yir became angry and tore through the body, turning it over and casting it aside in search of the light saber. But there wasn’t one anywhere nearby.

Frantically, the G’yir felt its way through the sewage water until it reached what was left of the Airlyter, which was so badly deformed that it bore no resemblance of a flight machine. Dead Kyries littered the area, their KA-47 Hailstorm rifles bent and broken as well. The G’yir was about to give up, but then flipped one fallen Kyrie over, a heavy one at that, when a shiny object dropped into the sewage water. The G’yir desperately fished with its talons and grabbed the cylindrical object. Bringing it up to the surface the G’yir couldn’t believe it- a Whill light saber. Looking at the dead Sith it could see a hole where the light weapon had struck at the heart. That is why it wasn’t with the Amber Commando.

 Dipping the light saber to allow drainage, the G’yir hoped that the object still worked properly. With a push of a button the light of the photon blade lit up the sewer tunnel with brilliance. The G’yir could now see everything in the tunnel and light was reflecting off another object in the corner of the tunnel next to a section of collapsed street. The G’yir ran over to investigate and discovered a second light saber! The G’yir had missed it in the darkness of the tunnel, but now could see that a second Amber Commando was crushed underneath the fallen street. His decomposed hand still held the light saber in place as the G’yir clutched it and tore it out of the corpse’s hand. With a second push of a button it too came alive in radiance!

The G’yir now had TWO Whill light sabers!

Most excellent the G’yir thought to itself as it took off in the custom starship Carrion. I shall give the Dark Master his prized possession while I keep the other one for myself. The Dark Master will be well pleased.

Meanwhile, above on the surface, Royal State Industries at Midlund was working on a secret of its own- the solution to their Slayer problem. It was considered a desperate last-ditch effort, but work had commenced twenty hours ago on a massive maglock-netting device that was to be mated to an independent circular drive system that surrounded a cylindrical core with a small hyper drive unit. The idea was that once the Slayer actually fired the R-Bomb the Whills would wait until it reached a low orbit and then launch the Hand of God to secure the weapon while a hyperdrive unit took it into hyperspace to explode harmlessly.

It was doubtful that the machine would be finished in time with only thirty hours left until doomsday. Computer simulations gave the Hand of God only a thirty percent chance of success due to the fact that a boarding party still had to infiltrate the Slayer and alter the R-Bomb’s internal timer; if not, the bomb would detonate in a matter of seconds in Elysia’s upper atmosphere. The Hand of God would take minutes to launch, ascend, and then attempt to secure the R-Bomb before launching into hyperspace. There would be no way to move the device into position prior to release of the bomb due to Slayer’s fire barrage and no way to pilot the machine either. Therefore, the R-Bomb’s thrusters had to be de-activated shortly after launch. The R2 unit had precisely calculated the timing, so Imperator Bevins ordered it shipped to Midlund.

However, the R2-A2 unit was busy tackling the problems of mating the hyperdrive motivator to the engine core. The astro-mechanoids were too large to fit into the Hand of God’s cylindrical core, so Imperator Bevins had ordered the smaller R2 unit to perform that task as well. Artoo Atoo didn’t much fancy the idea of performing astro-mech duties, but the BT-LR had urged him on. Right now the BT-LR was growing much accustomed to his newfound friend and with a rather distinct voice urged Artoo to finish up. “Do hurry along my stubby friend, the fate of the galaxy rests in your … well… you know what I’m trying to say. Are you sure your neural network pathways are clear this morning?” A series of loud and negative chirps and beeps confirmed that Artoo was functioning within his normal parameters! The BT-LR was disturbed by all the machinery around and decided to return to the maintenance depot for a much needed oil bath.

R2-A2 was suitably able to move around inside the cylinder and was running tests on the hyperdrive unit which due to its small size was taken from Kailen Saro’s own Centurion Falcon. This was the only ship available for the job, the RSI Blue Diamond Mk.II star fighters too small to be equipped with a hyperdrive.

Kialen felt sad that her modified hyperdrive had to be removed from the Falcon, but she could always get another drive and improve upon it. Below the engineering platform Kailen watched the monitoring equipment along with the R2 unit. Work was coming along fine, but there was a lot of work to go on the thruster ring and maglock netting. Kailen’s sadness wasn’t confined to her missing hyperdrive alone but her missing lover Ligris. He had been gone for a long time on Grynd and her patience was wearing off. She missed Ligris deeply… where was he anyway? Time is running out…

At that very moment, Ligris, Bassam Omenga, and the Great Mandras were approaching the infamous Scaffaw. One hour had passed on Grynd.

Would the ship be ready or not? Time waits for no one.