Night Assault

Natasha shook her head and put it behind her. She saw that night had begun to fall, the perfect time for droids to complete a raid. They aren't limited by poor eyesight like organics.

She left the new droids behind and moved into the temporary command building. Inside, Sheva was on her knees meditating. She opened her eyes when Natasha walked in and rose to her feet.

"Are the droids here?" Her eyes traveled up Natasha's body and saw all the welts and burn.

"Yes, how are the fight pits going? Are the Ysanna falling in line?" She crossed her arms across her chest, not worried about how she appeared.

"They have great fighting instincts, but it's clear they don't practice melee combat." She slowly shook her head. "So much potential wasted. This could be a race of fierce fighters but they're no match for the Rattataki for now."

"Good, let's attack the next settlement. I want three tribes under my control before tomorrow." Natasha turned and left.

Sheva followed her out and gathered her Rattataki. They moved to black speeder bikes transported from the Prometheus. Cables were attached to the twenty-two bikes that pulled a repulsorlift sled; The sleds were big enough to fit fifty droids huddled together.

Each of them saddled a bike, leaving fifty heavy assault droids to watch over the Cereans and the Ysanna.

Natasha pulled up the map and found the nearest village. It was a tribe of over two thousand living next to an oasis. They lived like ants that tunneled into the ground near the small pond.

The entrance to the tunnels were trap doors. Just looking at it from above appeared to be smooth ground.

She decided to attack this settlement first. While it looked well defended, they actually backed themselves into a corner. She twisted the throttle and sped off.

The Rattataki saw her move and followed after her. Sheva pulled up next to her and talked to the small communicator attached to the back of her ear.

These were the comms and translators Habitat designed. During the day she had already learned the Ysanna language from listening to them speak.

"What's the plan?"

"They have fifty people scattered around the perimeter as guards. There are no large creatures on the surface of the planet so they should be defending against each other. Fighting over the scarce resources underground."

Sheva nodded in agreement. Rattatak was just like that, the biggest danger was the other tribes. While this planet seemed to be doing better, conflict was inevitable.

"The assassin droids will take the guards out quietly. Then the droids will sneak into the tunnels and disable everyone as quickly as possible. I want to take out this settlement as fast as possible before moving on to the next one."

It didn't take long for them to arrive in the area. The assassin droids left the sleds and moved into place. When they were ready, Natasha gave the signal.

All the guards were stunned at the same time. The mercenary droids came up behind them and bound them and cuffed their hands.

Natasha signaled and they moved towards the oasis. The droids split up and stormed the tunnels.

The night was quiet as they waited above ground. They watched everything happen on their wrist consoles. When the last Ysanna was taken out, the droids began transporting them above ground.

After binding them all, she left two hundred mercenary droids to watch them and moved towards the next location.

This village was hidden in a sea of boulders. Their homes were carved into the very stones.

"Why do all the tribes hide so much?" Sheva was a bit confused at their strange behavior.

"I listened to Khan say the planet was irradiated for a long time. Then others started coming and they chose to wait and see. The ones who came were the Jedi and Sith of old. When the Ysanna saw them battle they chose to remain isolated and hide. They don't remember they're descended from Jedi themselves."

They approached the next area as she spoke. They had to stop further away because the guards were perched atop boulders and could see them approaching from all sides.

It's also impossible to snipe all the guards because of the angle of some of them hiding behind boulders.

This area was too well defended to sneak attack. "We'll divide into five groups, each taking two of the new whip droids. We can't sneak in so we have to rush forward."

"This is one of the bigger tribes in the area with six thousand people. Are you sure we have enough droids?" Sheva looked at the map a bit worried. She didn't want to lose one of her clansmen here.

"We are outnumbered five to one, but it's impossible to lose." Natasha shook her head.

Sheva may not know but she did. Habitat had deployed hundreds of satellites in orbit. Each of them were capable of releasing an orbital strike and destroying this tribe.

But their task was to capture them, not wipe them out. "We have to finish this tonight, the other tribes will notice something is wrong soon. This is the biggest tribe in this area we can attack without the others noticing, we have to take them before they can all rally together."

"I'll lead one of the groups to circle around back." Sheva could only choose to agree. 

The Rattataki broke off into four groups and moved towards their position. They were going to use a five-pointed star formation. This would increase coverage and prevent any Ysanna from escaping.

It took a while for everyone to move into place without the Ysanna seeing them. All four groups signaled Natasha that they were ready.

Natasha looked at the two whip droids next to her and pulled out her lightsaber. "Assassins, fire!"

All the assassin droids fired at the same time, taking out as many guards as they could. "Charge!!"

Natasha lit her blades and charged forward. All the droids started moving but they put a bit of distance from the front.

"Invaders!!" The Ysanna yelled and pulled out a small gun. He pointed it upwards and pulled the trigger.

A plume of red smoke was fired from the gun and left a trail as it traveled to the sky. When it reached its apex, the cloud of smoke dispersed and released a red glow that illuminated the night sky. 

Once the first flare was fired, more soon rose to the sky. The entire world seemed to be dyed red at this moment.

The few Ysanna guards who remained awake fired from behind the cover of their boulders. Their bullets curved through the air and headed straight for Natasha and the whip droids.

Natasha spun her blade like a wheel, the speed so fast her lightsaber appeared to be a circle. She passed her hilt from one hand to the other in one fluid motion. The blades spun around her body so accurately the afterimages looked as though they passed through her body.

At the same time, the whip droid's wrist never stopped moving. It sounded like thunder as their whips cracked and bullets were knocked out of the air.

Those they couldn't stop were tanked by their armor. More Ysanna joined the guards and fired, this slowed Natasha down but not the whip droids.

Their armor was filled with dents and cracks, but they made it to the boulders.

"Jaaaaa!!" The first Ysanna to taste the electric whip shrieked out in pain. It felt as though his nervous system was on fire.

Habitat designed these whips to cause as much pain as possible with minimum injury.

The whip droids moved between the boulders unimpeded, turning the Ysanna's advantage against them. This allowed the other droids to breach the stone maze.

Natasha leaped into the air and landed on a boulder. She jumped across like a graceful ballerina and went straight for the center of the village.

She saw the panicking Ysanna and reinforcements running towards the front line but she didn't care. Her blade continued to spin and disintegrate and bullets fired at her.

Her eyes were locked on the largest boulder in the center of the village. She jumped atop the boulder and her body started spinning in circles.

While she defended herself, her blade was cutting into the stone as she spun around. Eventually, she cut a circle in the stone and fell inside.

"She's entered the sacred temple!! Stop her!!" The Ysanna yelled in a panic when they saw her disappear.

The inside of the boulder was illuminated by her lightsaber. The space wasn't very big, but at its center was a glowing blue cube.

The edges were covered in gold plating and it had beautiful runic markings on all sides. Natasha strode forward and grabbed the Jedi Holocron and placed it in a bag on her hips.

She taped the comms behind her ear and turned towards the door. "Habitat you were right, I've secured the Holocron."

"Good, I wasn't sure if it was a Holocron or not. It gave the same readings as a kyber crystal but stronger."

The stone door carved into the boulder was pushed open and Ysanna poured in. Natasha deactivated her saber with one hand and threw her fist with the other.

Bones crunched and the Ysanna's face masked shattered. His body flew back and hit those behind him.

Natasha leaped forward and unleashed a flying sidekick to the same Ysanna's gut. This caused the entire group to stagger backward and fall down.

Natasha ran out and released a flurry of punches, her eyes shifted from side to side as she dodged their attacks and moved into the crowd so they couldn't shoot her.

Her fist and feet flew, her body appeared so flexible when she moved it made them doubt if she had any bones.