Chapter 39
"It seems we aren't the only ones sneaking around, at this current moment" Alpha's robotic voice sounded quiet in the stone corridors of Gardulla the Hutt's palace.
Scythe, Crow, Spark, and Earl had left to complete their own tasks and Renn, Alpha, and the two tusken raiders had been coming across a steady trail of dead guards inside the palace.
The guards had been killed silently and then hidden away, but not hidden well enough to stop Alpha from finding them. It was making things easier for Renn and the others as otherwise they would have had to do the same thing, but it was quite the coincidence that it was happening now.
"Someone else is probably taking advantage of our distraction. We better be careful though; we don't know how friendly they are." Renn warned them as they moved deeper into the massive palace.
-
The door to the control room for the slave pens was kicked violently of its hinges, its occupants barely having any time to process what was happening before three HK-50 assassin droids rushed in and started slaughtering them.
One gangster tried to reach for the control console in front of him to activate the chips implanted in the slaves, but a wickedly sharp vibro-knife sailed through the air before stabbing into his outstretched hand, pinning it to the console. The man looked at his bloody hand and screamed in shock and pain, oblivious to the fact he was now the last living person in the control room.
"Remember, the enemy cannot press a button if you disable his hand." Spark said in a mock authoritative tone, quoting something he had heard from a warrior of house Dredd long ago.
The other assassin droids chuckled as they began searching the room.
"Sup lil buddy" Spark then said crouching down next to the now crying gangster. "Your gonna show us what all these lovely buttons do now. Aren't you?" He said while waving his had at the command console.
"That is unnecessary, old boy." Earl spoke while examining the command console, "We have a data-chip for Sapphire to upload herself to their systems. It may not be sporting but it is the easiest option." He then began inserting the data-chip so that Sapphire could access the systems.
"Ohh right. Sorry bout that mate, guess we don't need you." Spark said apologetically to the wounded gangster, whose sudden pleas of mercy were cut off before they could fully form when Spark gripped his head and shattered his skull on the metal console.
"Seriously" Sapphires avatar appeared above the console with a look of disgust on her face, "This computer is gross enough already, it doesn't need you painting it with some hapless organic's insides."
"Hehe, sorry" Spark chuckled nervously, while trying to avoid eye contact with the angry computer program.
"Ugh, I'm going to have to shower my core processor in liquid nitrogen after this. Seriously can these people not do any maintenance on their computers." Sapphire complained as she hacked into the palaces systems.
"Alright it's done. The tracking chips implanted in all the slaves are now disabled and all automated security systems are offline. I've also unlocked all the doors so you should find moving around the palace even easier now.
I've started the computers purge process so in a couple of minutes its going to be an unusable hunk of junk, not that its that far off already." Sapphire told them before vanishing.
"Wait! Damn it! Shouldn't have done that." Sapphire then began cursing over the comm.
"What's going on" Alpha's voice sounded from the comm system soon after.
"Err, not sure" Spark said starting to worry a bit.
"Wait, did she say all the doors were now unlocked" Crow asked, and Spark and Earl turned to look at him curiously.
"Look its not my fault, that computer was horrible, I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible." Sapphire spoke up.
"Someone tell me what's going on?" Alpha repeated over the comm with slightly more urgency.
A predatory roar shook the palace and was followed by screams of fright and the sounds of blaster fire.
"Oh, all the doors" Spark said slowly, suddenly remembering the bit of intel they got on the palace about Gardulla having a large collection of dangerous beasts.
"WHAT!? IS!? GOING!? ON!?" Alpha screamed down the comm after he still hadn't received a reply.
"Well, hehe. I may have released a horde of man-eating beasts into the palace." Sapphire said sheepishly. "Sorry."
"…"
"…"
"… Why?" Alpha gave a quiet reply.
"Uhm, accident?" Sapphire said trying to evade the question.
"…. Damn it….
Alright. Spark, Earl, Crow, set up defensive positions around the slaves. Don't let them get eaten! We'll go get Gardulla. No sense being stealthy now if somethings in the way just blow it up." Alpha told them over the comm.
"Yeah, lets blow some stuff up" Spark cheered as the three droids ran out of the room to go try and protect some slaves from a horde of rampaging monsters.
-
Scythe watched the Hutt gangsters dying in the waste ground outside the palace. He had already killed all the men guarding the gate controls and was now in full control of who entered or exited the palace.
The gangsters who had left do deal with what they had thought was a small group of attackers were getting torn apart by Clank and his new sand people friends. The gangsters still couldn't find them in the dark and every second more of them ended up dead.
Soon only a few of the gangsters were left and they fled back towards the palace gate to were they thought safety lay. They banged loudly on the heavy metal doors and shouted to be let in, but no answer came from the other side and the doors stayed firmly shut.
The gangsters heard noises behind them and turned slowly to see an AR-34 enforcer droid flanked by four menacing looking tusken raiders.
"Greeting puny biologicals. Rejoice as your runtime has reached its expiration date." The droid said in its rumbling voice.
The door behind them chose that moment to open and the gangsters turned expecting to see salvation. Instead, they were blinded by the flash of a vibro-sword a series of severed heads dropped to the floor, followed seconds later by a line of now headless bodies.
Scythe sheathed his vibro-sword on his back in a fluid motion before looking at the others and offering them a happy wave.
The four tusken raiders then followed the two droids into the palace, the heavy doors sealing shut behind them, silently listening to Clank complain about 'the quiet one stealing his kills'.
-
Renn and his team were rapidly approaching Gardulla's throne room, since the communication from Sapphire and the others they had given up any sense of stealth as the palace's guards had bigger problems with the hordes of beasts running around the palace.
They approached a junction and Alpha's hand shot out in a blur and he pulled a terrified gangster towards him before Renn could even process the man being there.
"Where's Gardulla" Alpha growled in the man's ear.
"She's in the throne room, its just up ahead." The man answered quickly.
"Alright, but its in your best interest for that to be right" Alpha menaced before dragging the man ahead of him as the group moved towards the door to the throne room.
They turned the corner but then stopped in surprise. At the other end of the corridor a man in silver armour had also just come round a corner and into the corridor leading to Gardulla's throne room.
The man in the silver armour currently had his arm wrapped around the neck of one of Gardulla's men, similar to how Alpha was holding his own captive, and had a blaster pistol pointed at the man's temple.
The silver armoured man stopped and stared at Renn and his group, just as surprised to see them as they were to see him. A tense atmosphere fell between them as Alpha and the man began sizing each other up.
"Err, hi" Renn said and offered a small wave to the armoured man, replacing the tense atmosphere with an awkward one as everyone turned to look at him.
"What? Just saying hello." Renn said looking away. Alpha and the armoured man then shared a look, and a sigh, before relaxing.
They were both clearly against the Hutt, so why not try and work together.