When You Give a Man Power 
Chapter 20

Coming out of the smoke myself with the Echani rising back up, the few that were still standing had continued to pursue Aurra. The rest give chase before a metal cylinder is lazily dropped by me and they back away before a deafening explosion blossoms to life.

Getting into the jungle with them not far behind as the scenery changes to that of nothing but green foliage everywhere. Despite the absurd speed I am moving at I make little noise compared to my pursuers who make it rather obvious where they are at since they don’t need to sneak around. A bad idea on their part. The occasional blaster fire can be heard knowing it’s Aurra fighting off her pursuers going for the clearing. I had told her where to go and how far to get to it.

A savage smile grows on my face now letting go of my self-restraint as I move far faster leaving what at one time were my hunters behind as they don’t give up. Two of them rush into a small opening following the trail of noise I leave behind. 

As they look around trying to find me a branch snaps as they look in that direction before a blaster bolt sails past one's head who dodges at the last second as it impacts the tree behind her. Each of the women looks nearly identical with the only real difference being their hair styles. Most have their hair cut short whereas others have long cascading pearl white hair at the smalls of their backs.

Faster than she could recover in time her ally turned far too slowly to help two metal barrels poke out of the plants behind her. 

Boom!

She tried valiantly to dodge but there was no room as the buckshot hit her abdomen but didn't break past her armor to my annoyance. Sent flying back hitting a tree before sliding down the air forced out of her lungs as she groans like music to my ears before the other one rushes me. Blade raised to slice through the plant's halts as fire erupts surging out of the foliage as she pivots before leaping and running along the sides of trees away from the fire before leaping again.

She lands gracefully glancing around ears strained to find me. Swiftly turning around faster than most sentients could hope to keep up with her sword spears through the dark shadow of a hand reaching for the back of her head. A cocky smirk is on her face before I wipe it off ignoring the pain as my hand slides further down the now-restrained weapon to her shock. Grasping the guard and handle of the blade and part of her hand in a deadly grip.

Showing her inexperience or simply surprise she doesn’t let go trying to slice through my hand to free it. But it’s too late as my other hand grabs the back of her head as she lets go of her weapon, grabbing my hand and holding her head as she tries to pry back the individual fingers and break them but to no effect. 

Wide-eyed she tries to kick at the side of my head with her knee but before she gets the chance flipping my hand with the sword still embedded in it around the blade gleaming with the red blood coating it.

Realizing what I aim to do her legs press against my chest to force me back but with far more force than what is necessary shove her head to the blade coming out of my hand. The blade goes through the flesh under her jaw before swiftly piercing through the roof of her mouth and popping out the top of her head her eyes go dull and lifeless not even having enough time to register the pain, dropping her as she falls to the ground like a ragdoll with the blade sliding out of her head.

Deftly avoiding a knife thrown from the side seeing the other one who was shot into a tree standing as she rushes me. Running at each other she lashes out with a slash that would have cut right through my throat had I not stopped faster than she could anticipate at the right moment the cut missing as it stops just off to the side of my throat before she redirects it. 

As it comes back for me my hand snakes out grabbing her wrist and with a squeeze snap it like a twig as she grimaces dropping her sword and I let go. 

Other hand moving for a weapon sheathed on her back as my outstretched hand makes her look at me in worry before a blizzard of frigid air, snow, and ice closes the distance to her as she moves to avoid it not needing to see the flash freeze happening to everything in its path to know it is dangerous. From plants encased in ice falling to numerous little pieces to the air turning to a deadly cold temperature killing most life it touches. 

Flying faster than she could have anticipated it misses most of her besides the leg caught in it at the thigh that is covered in frost as she falls to the ground. Trying to rise off the ground the cracking of ice could be heard coming from her leg as the armor rips and red ice falls through it. Before she can do anything further a crimson bolt hits her in the head silencing her as steam rises from what was once her head. 

Holstering the blaster and removing the sword my hand quickly reforms new bones, muscle, and finally the skin knitting back together all in a matter of seconds. More noises can be heard as a grin is plastered on my face, canines pronounced as I fight off a chuckle. 

Several more come into the area with a few keeping a lookout as a few check on the fallen seeing they are dead. Their forms tense, not knowing where I am yet not afraid. Their hearts beat quickly but not in the way the others had in the past when the end drew near. This is going to be satisfying. I may not be able to kill all of them but I can get some if not most of them before getting to the ship. 

“The force user killed them. Aleesha and the others are on their way. It would seem our little sisters were not exaggerating to save face with Mother about this hunter. He is capable and resourceful.” One with short hair in a bob cut says to another with a long braided length of hair going down her back. 

“It was a stroke of fortune to have him appear here with the former Jedi turned bounty hunter. They didn’t kill her?”

“No. She fought back and was able to fend them off. She was more capable than they expected for a  former padawan.” The bob-cut one rises from the ground from the dead body of her sister.

“A shame. It’s not often we get to hunt a Jedi even if they are not a fully-fledged one or with the order any longer. But we must find this Corvo. He has stained our family's name and we must wipe this stain away. He has proven himself to have access to the fabled force the Jedi preach so much about so he will make a fine replacement for the other one. His death will help ascend our family lineage to that of the legends amongst our people.”

Her talk of bringing glory to their family seems to rouse the fighting spirit in her siblings as they stop looking at their dead siblings and newfound determination can be seen in their eyes.

“Glad to hear you ladies find me worthy. Unfortunately, I don’t see you as anything other than slightly capable thugs. Anyone can set up a trap or ambush. It takes a special someone to fight someone at a disadvantage and win. You all are not that special.” My voice comes from everywhere and nowhere as the sisters bring their weapons to bear as they glance around forming a tight circle around one another.

“Show yourself, Corvo. Let us end this fight here and now.” Says the one I have given the title of leader of these women. I can only shake my head and smile at this one. 

“Very well then.” My voice comes from above them as they look up as a shadow looms over them. 

They quickly step back as my form falls to the ground blade held in both hands lashing out narrowly missing the leader's throat before she and her sisters spear me with their weapons.

Before any of them get a chance to process just what they are looking at as their weapons phase right through like it was a hologram I am upon two of them with the pilfered sword spearing one from behind where her heart was as she falls and a shotgun blast impacts several of them one even getting half her face impacted from the buckshot.

Many of them are sent flying to the ground as the one who is now missing an eye grimaces in pain but rises before like all the others leaps away as several grenades are tossed in their direction. Fading back into the foliage they now chase after where they last saw me. Rushing into the plants as the one with half her face destroyed moves about glancing around much more weary now after seeing my illusion. 

Automatic blaster fire tears through the plants as they hit the deck and whirl about as I manage to hit two more, sending them falling to the ground in cries of pain before the others swiftly give chase. 

Cackling as they fire arrows at me forcing them behind trees and the others who are not being focused by me try to get closer before disengaging as I target them instead tossing the occasional grenade to force them back. 

Some try to use the trees to rain arrows but drawing out my grenade launcher sends them running to other trees if they don’t want to get blown up or fall from that height. Moving further into the clearing noting that some of them are no longer with the rest of the group. They weren’t capable of making little noise moving through the plants before so where did they go?

A feeling of being watched has me ducking under a vibrosword that came from behind that would have taken my head. The sword slashes through several plants not slowed in the slightest before the lady who wields it glares at me. She rushes me down aiming at any vital points on my body as I narrowly avoid her strikes.

Moving to the side avoiding one strike before another sword appeared out of nowhere cutting my arm slightly. Had I been a second slower she would have taken my arm off. Glancing down seeing it bleeding as blood drips on the ground. The two women approached me from either side with swords at the ready. A chuckle escapes me seeing them surprising me thinking they wouldn’t be able to turn the tables.

Blaster fire goes off in the distance as one keeps her eyes on me but the other quickly glances in the direction it came from. Quickly drawing my DL-44 her attention is split but the other one comes to her rescue knocking her out of the way of the shots before I focus fire on the one standing as she charges me weaving around the crimson bolts. The rest can be seen rushing to us.

As she nears me I backpedal holding my hand out. She seems to know what I am about to do leaping back into the foliage out of sight as a small ice storm forms out of my hand encasing the plants in frost and some parts of ice on them chilling the air. 

Not wanting to let them regroup and come for me again I turn and run further into the jungle making my way to the evac point as the sounds of our hunters can be heard all around. 

I have had my fun and not wanting to take any further risks seeing them do something I hadn’t expected. It would be best to leave now while I can.

Every now and then they would attempt to surround me but the occasional grenade would force them back. Didn’t stop them from trying to hit me with a throwing knife or arrows of all things but they were not half bad. One arrow nearly took out my left eye. Using bullet time and moving my head to the side saved me from that.

Almost there just a little further-

“Hurghk.” Is all that comes out of me as I am hoisted into the air feeling something around my throat tightening as I grasp at it. Burning from what feels like a wire or something cutting off my throat from getting air in. Several of the ladies come out of the foliage a sway in their steps as they look up at me in contempt with smug smiles as I try to get the wire or whatever is hanging me.

A sword slashes out when my hand goes for a weapon, cutting my harness with several weapons and my grenades fall to the ground. My hope to be free of the wire is becoming more difficult. 

The leader stalks up smugly smiling at me enjoying my suffering. “I will be the first to admit that I had my doubts that you were as capable as our younger sisters had said. We have now seen that they were not lying. Now our family can rest easy knowing the stain on our honor has been wiped away.” The leader says as the others watch her walk up to me a swift cut along my face sends blood leaking down that quickly stops to the woman's surprise. 

The pain made me want to lash out but getting hung is a good way to stop that in its tracks. The group watches fascinated at the cut knitting itself back together before looking like it never happened.

“Interesting. Well, it doesn’t matter since you can heal quickly will simply mean we get to show you the same courtesy you have shown my sisters and me. We will get to know each other rather well in these next few moments. That is if you don’t die from hanging.” She purrs out stabbing me in the gut as the sword pierces through my armor and goes out the other side of my body.

As she stabs and slices along my body as the wounds quickly heal I glance up seeing one of them further up on a tree branch holding the wire while looking at me with a vicious bloodthirsty smile that makes me grimace since it’s the one who got half her face destroyed by boomstick. Seeing the look on my face of disgust at her face being so badly damaged her smile turns into an angry snarl as she grits her teeth. 

Snarling back at her both hands rise before several of their weapons pierce into my arms at varying positions nearly halting them as they know about my powers. Slowly with great pain, I force my arms further up with the wounds healing to only be reopened as the girls grit their teeth trying to stop me as their weapons cut further into my limbs but I am forced to push on. One hand stops as a white orb forms in it. 

One of them readies to cut my head off but before she does I close my eyes and a flash of light blinds all in the area as they cover their eyes and grunt in annoyance but those that are holding my arms in place keep ahold of their weapons. Painfully I force my hands further up finally grabbing the wire above my head as she has her one eye closed but holds firmly not letting go.

On one hand, electricity erupts from it going up the line. The one holding onto it screams out as her form changes to black and blue sending flashes of light across the jungle as she begins twitching and spasming while below my other hand has a golden light coming it preventing the electricity from going further down the line. The flow of electricity finally ends with the one above smoking and standing still having fallen silent before falling back off the branch still holding the wire.

“No stop him!” One of them yells finally able to see as I rise further up and away from the group. My poor throat feels raw at the quick ascension up into the air. Quickly grabbing the tree branch and held on as the wire went slack to my relief with the sister hanging me on the ground with smoke coming off of her body.

Yanking the wire off heaving in lungfuls of air before hiding behind the branch with several thunks coming from the other side. Glancing over to see many knives on the branch before leaping to another branch and fleeing the group after several of them had quickly climbed up the trees looking like something you would see out of a circus.

With a quick burst of frost, the surrounding branches become slick as snot. As soon as any of the ladies land on one they are slipping and falling back down. Some grab another branch or vine and others are not so fortunate.

Knowing what I am doing they all glare at me. Under and over or around all the tree limbs and branches managing to stay just ahead of them doing my best to slow them down as they catch up to me. Nearing the area hearing the hum of thrusters I leap from the tree and roll before turning around holding my arms above my head and my hands cupped together.

At first, a small ember is there before it quickly grows in size reaching the size of a car. Throwing my arms forward as the overcharged fireball flies forth impacting one of the trees before it's entirely toppled then turned to ash and cinders before hitting the ground with many more trees following it with fire igniting that section of the jungle. To my annoyance, no screams are heard which just tells me they avoided it.

Rushing back to the ship and seeing Aurra there with her rifle aimed to give me cover. She gives me a questioning look before glancing at the roaring inferno that would not look out of place in hell before looking back at me. 

Ignoring it before walking up the ramp as the ship starts to take off. Looking out the window of the cockpit seeing our attackers stare at us from a safe distance and I stare back before the ship takes off leaving the planet behind. This is far from over.

…

Squig and his group of fellow slaves work the carts as they always have for who knows how long. He was sold into slavery as soon as he could walk by his mother and he wouldn’t be surprised if the rest of his fellow slaves had similar stories. Whether they are humans or Twi’lek hell even some Trandoshans all in the end are slaves in this place.

Life is not as horrible as other sentients make it sound. Being a slave isn’t great but it’s also not as bad as other places could be. Here they are not abused so long as they meet quota and even then they are given some leeway if they are sick or have other issues preventing them from properly getting their jobs done.

Of course, there are limits to how far they are willing to give a slave some slack before they become a liability. But compared to other places using slave labor this may as well be a breath of fresh air. 

Glancing around Squig sees the others moving the spice in carts like himself as they quickly reach the surface of the cave tunnel with the lights illuminating the tunnel they reach the incline slowly as the still air of the cave changes to warmer air as the light of the systems sun is now seen as he blinks his eyes several times adjusting to the light.

One of the workers employed by the Hutts waved him along as he brought his cart overfilled with spice. The encampment with the walls surrounding it from the local wildlife has several buildings in rough shape, the older ones being for the slaves and the more intact for the employees and guards. 

Unfair but it’s better than what he has seen before getting shipped here after he was purchased alongside several more slaves. Unfairness goes hand in hand with being a slave, merely be thankful for the situation to not get worse for yourself and keep your mouth shut with any complaints and everything will be just fine.

Movement gets his attention as Squig turns around seeing guards running about as if something is attacking. Then someone cries out pointing up as several massive brown ships come out of the sky landing away from the compound the guards look uneasy as if they know what is happening and whose ships those are.

One of the higher-ranked guards says quietly to another guard but Squig hears them. “The Trade Federation has gotten the Republic to help them. We can’t run. If we do, Juugra will want our heads. We have to fight.”

The other guard speaks back aggressively not liking the order. “Are you kidding me?! We can run right now! Just get one of the ships loaded with spices and we can run away and have some credits to our names.”

“They have the planet in their grasp. They took out the few ships we had in the system and if we got off the planet they would shoot us down. We have better odds fighting on the ground here against their forces and holding out.”

“Kriff that I am not-” 

The blaster shot echoes out across the camp as both slave and guard alike watched the guard who fell silent fall to the ground sporting a smoking chest as he lay on the ground unmoving. 

“All slaves are to go back to the caves and in the main mining chamber. You will not be told twice and hurry!” The guard who killed his coworker shouts firing his blaster in the air for added motivation.

Squig and several slaves quickly run back to the cave as the guards along the walls see something and open fire with the turrets placed along them they open fire before numerous red bolts come back killing some of them as they fall off the wall dead.

Squig now had all the motivation as did his fellow slaves as they ran back to the cave the slaves coming up with other carts looked at us confused before they heard the blaster fire and stopped what they were doing and quickly joined the rest of them as they all ran.

Before long almost all the slaves had gotten back to the main chamber as they all talked amongst themselves with the few guards in the chamber no word had come from the surface everyone worried about what was happening. Then over the constant muttering and talking happening, something could be faintly heard over it all.

The sound of metal on stone. Taps. At first, no one heard it then the sound grew and grew eventually equally and then surpassing the noise in the chamber as the caverns leading to the surface and the different camps had an army of skeletal droids march into the cavern before halting as they stared at all of them.

Squig gulped as the guards looked torn, not knowing what to do as they kept their blasters raised ready to fight to the bitter end. 

One of the droids at the front pulled out a disc-shaped device before a figure in a blue hologram was projected out of it saying something to the metal skeleton. They talk back and forth, no one able to hear them before the figure disappears as the droids all gaze soullessly at them before the leader of the droids speaks.

“Gunray has ordered us to take over this mine. Dispose of the workers they are not needed.” The words sent shivers down all of their spines as they stared wide-eyed in horror as their blasters were raised but didn't open fire as time went on before several figures emerged from the shadows behind the droids.

The light revealed some of the guards from the camp on the surface. One of the guards is just under the overseer as one of his higher-ranked men turns to the droid. “Alright, that won’t be a problem.”

He and the other guards showed that there were far more of them than Squig had initially thought had survived as they quickly came out holding blasters moving further into the cavern past the droids who just watched.

Squig and his fellow slaves along with the few guards who looked shocked seeing their fellow guards raised their blasters but before they could open fire their former coworkers beat them to gunning them down before turning their weapons on all of them as some tried to flee but there was nowhere to run to as they get mowed down with the cavern flashing red as each shot downed someone as screams echo out into the cave until it all turns to black after a red blur is seen heading for Squig followed by pain and then nothing.

Events like this play out all across the outer rim as many of the Hutt's areas of production or businesses are attacked with many assets like the slaves slaughtered.