My highschool adventure as a Sith is wrong, as expected (OreGairu/Star Wars) (1.6) (Patreon)

It was good to be on the ground again. JR-1, or Jury Rig-1, resided underneath my cloak, hidden from any wandering greedy hands. My gaze swept over the comers and goers, nearly all of them stopping to look my way. It was rare that someone went up the elevator, but it was far rarer that someone came down. 

Striding forward, I pointedly made eye contact with everyone that looked at me. Most looked away as soon as I caught them looking, but a few didn’t. It seemed I had to avoid back alleys, though going down them when the Empire was on the prowl was asking for trouble. I felt them on me as I made my way to the meetup point -- Padawan wasn’t there, but that was hardly a surprise. Her part was a lot harder than mine so it made sense it took longer. Especially if she was taking care not to get caught. 

Sitting down, I laid a hand on my new astrodroid. It was always unclear just how much droids could really ‘feel’ but the quiet ‘boop’ I got in response told me that it at least appreciated my attempt to reassure it. After that, it was a matter of waiting for Padawan to show up. In a city like Esteria, so long as you weren’t bothering anyone, then no one would bother you. Especially now that the Empire was here to remind the locals that they owned this planet. 

Time passed in relative peace as I waited for Padawan. Time kept passing. And kept passing. And kept passing. The longer I waited, the more nervous I became -- had she been caught? Did I miss her? Was she already back at my base? I had no way of knowing without going there-

My answer came in the form of blaster fire. It seemed to echo through the busy, making everyone go quiet, which made the sound that much louder. I shot to my feet while everyone else fled indoors -- everyone knew that they didn’t want to get in between the Empire and whoever they were hunting down. Except for me, apparently. 

Before I could think better of it, my feet carried me towards the sounds of blasters being fired off. There was more than one, closer to a dozen if I had to guess. I rounded on the corner, smelling the stench of smoke and flash heated sand before I saw I was right on the mark. Two squads of soldiers were firing at a badly damaged pillar. 

Behind it, predictably, was Padawan. She was pressed against it, cornered with every passing second chipping away at her cover. No one saw me approach, hidden behind a stall. This...was bad. This was really, really, really bad. We had to get out of here before reinforcements showed up or this entire thing was a bust. 

The real question was how could I possibly help her? I couldn’t take on two entire squads of Imperial soldiers! The blaster felt like it was made of neuron star for how heavy it felt tucked into my waistline. But...I’ve seen Padawan fight -- all I needed to do was give her a chance, and she would be able to take care of it. 

I searched for something that could work as a distraction and found my target with a few moments. Thanks to the markets, stalls lined the street, but like everything else, they were in a state of disrepair. Closing my eyes, I reached out one of the stalls and bared down on the scrap metal stall. It took a second, I wasn’t strong enough with the force to crush metal, but I found a way around that. The weak points were focused on until the stall gave way, spilling its contents onto the ground in an avalanche.

As expected, the soldiers reacted, expecting an attack. That gave Padawan all the chance she needed. In a blur that I could barely see, she left her cover and dived into the soldiers. They realized their mistake too late, by the time they turned their attention back to her, she had already beheaded one soldier, disarmed, as in she cut off his hands, another and skewered a third. 

Lashing out with a hand, some unseen force knocked half of the soldiers over, letting Padawan fall upon the other half like a force of nature. She was like a whirlwind, her laser sword flashing a brilliant blue as she blocked blaster fire, sending them back into those that shot at her even as she tore into the soldier. Nothing could stand up to her laser sword -- not the armor they wore, and certainly not the men inside the armor. 

The stench of burnt flesh filled the air as shouts, screams of agony as soldiers writhed on the ground, clutching at stumps cauterized so intensely that the stumps still glowed in some places. Padwan was a whirlwind of death and destruction, and no sooner had she finished off one half before they could start to recover, she fell upon the remaining half. 

Only when they were all down did she turn around to me, the kind, almost serene expression she wore before was gone. Replaced by a look of grim determination of the likes I had rarely ever seen before. It was the expression of someone that had committed themselves to a path and would never deviate until it ended, or they did. 

She nodded in my direction before quickly turning her attention back to a skiff with a crate on it. Hypermatter. I thought it would be some kind of liquid fuel, kind of like gas, but from what I could see, it was solid. Pellets roughly the size of a baseball, completely gray, with no distinguishing features. 

I ran over to her as she grabbed the hypermatter and tucked it underneath her arm. “What happened?” I asked as we took off down the road I had just come from. It was still deserted, but I could feel everyone's questioning gazes. 

"A strong-willed soldier happened!" Padawan exclaimed a moment before she grabbed me by the back of my robes to practically throw me down a side street. Not a moment later, a squad of soldiers came running down the road, missing us but only barely. Padawan let out a small breath as she continued her explanation, "I got stopped and searched on my way back. The soldiers thought I was stealing the hypermatter, but when I tried to Force Persuade them, they realized I was a Jedi." 

So her mind control had a weakness. That was good to know if she tried to leave me behind. 

"It seems I owe you another, youngling," Padawan commented before peeking out. "Did you get the droid?" 

JR-1 chose that moment to emerge from my robes to look up at Padawan. *Bo-bo-boop?* It questioned, it's lenses focusing on Padawan before it hopped onto my shoulder. Padawan smiled, obviously relieved that I managed to follow through. Now we had everything we needed to take off. 

"But we have another problem," I said, making that smile fall. "the Empire has blockaded the entire planet. If we take off now, when they know where we're leaving, we won't be able to get out of orbit before we get shot down."

Padawan followed my logic easily enough, "so we must lose our pursuers before going back." With any luck, we could make them think we were still in the city by the time we left. If we used the astro-thrusters, then we could take off on the other side of the planet without them being any the wiser- 

Just as I was plotting how to not get caught by a space patrol, another squad of Imperial soldiers came running down the road. They turned the corner, nearly running into us. 

"Contact!" The squad leader shouted, taking aim directly at me before pulling the trigger. Time seemed to slow as the red laser erupted from the barrel, rushing at me at speeds that my body couldn’t hope to match. I couldn’t even blink, stuck watching the blaster ray to inch towards me. I was going to die. Again. Before I managed to get off-

My darkening thoughts were cut off when a flash of blue raced by my face, bathing it in intense heat before a harsh ping rang out as Padawan saved my life by deflecting the blaster bolt back at the squad commander. It slammed into his helmet, firing off sparks as he collapsed. It was only when Padawan threw herself at the squad did I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. 

I was alive. Even as Padawan made short work of the squad, moving at speeds that I could barely follow and with a grace that was borderline unnatural, I couldn’t bring myself to follow the fight because of one thought that rang around in my skull like a bell. I had nearly died just now. From a stray blaster ray. 

Already, I learned that life is fragile. It was something you never thought you were going to lose until the moment that you did, and just then, I nearly died. Again. 

“Are you alright?” Padawan rounded on me and it was only then that I noticed that she made quick work of the squad. She was crouched down, and Jr-1 echoed the question with a series of chirps. I blinked, once, then twice, this chided myself for zoning out at the worst possible time. 

“I’m fine,” I said, pushing myself up and hoping that she didn’t notice my wobbly knees. Padawan didn’t seem to buy it, but she nodded all the same. Reaching down she took my hand before she took off running, nearly dragging me behind her. “What are we going to do? The Empire will have the city on lockdown and we won’t be able to sneak out over miles of sand.”

And, seriously, could you let go of my hand? I was perfectly capable of running by myself. Though it was fitting the one time I would ever hold hands with a girl was when I was fleeing for my life. 

“I…” Padawan faltered for a moment as we came to a stop when she sensed another group of soldiers to investigate the call of the last squad. I guess what Twi'lek said was true, to a degree -- Padawan was a student. She wasn’t used to making these calls. She was as lost as I was. 

Okay. Taking in a deep breath as we waited for the patrol to pass us by, I calmed my pounding heart. I had nearly forgotten an important lesson that I learned in this life -- true independence. I couldn’t rely on Padawan to come up with the answers for me. Though, that still raised the issue of what exactly could I do to get out of here?

Then my gaze landed on a sewer cap. It was nearly hidden underneath a layer of black sand, I was only barely able to make out its outline. 

“The sewers,” I said after a moment of thought, going towards them when the patrol left us unmolested. “I don’t think anyone’s been in them for...thousands of years. If we can’t find our way out of the city with these, then we can at least throw them off our trail.” I explained as I reached out with the force. 

The image I was going for was kind of ruined when the sewer cap refused to budge. It might as well be sealed airtight from going unopened for thousands of years. Feeling more than a little embarrassed by that, I was forced to clear the lining of sand and let Padawan lift the sewer cap up. 

“Good thinking,” Padawan agreed, lifting the cap up and, instantly, I was hit with the stench of stale air. Coughing, I looked down into the darkness that lay below, JR-1 beeping in my ear, making a comment I didn’t care to respond to. It was pitch black, and the silence coming from the sewer was deafening. 

Looking up from it, I saw my apprehension mirrored on Padawan’s face. Neither of us wanted to go down first. 

JR-1 did, apparently. “Bo-beep!” It announced before it hopped off my shoulder, peering its head over the edge before it turned on a flashlight function. It looked up at us for a moment, letting out a beep that sounded suspiciously like an insult, before it hopped onto the millennia-old ladder built into the wall and made its way down. 

Right. Well, hopefully, this escape didn’t flip genres and become a horror movie. 

With that thought in mind, I followed JR-1 into the darkness below.