Kissed by Fire: Cal Kestis

Chapter 33

The swim forward was dark, only lit up by BD-1's headlight and the luminescent plants surrounding the sea floor. Cal's pod had landed in a sea trench, making him swim through a lengthy bit of rocky walls before his vision came upon that of the Fortress Inquisitorius. It was everything Cal had imagined it to be, and yet so much more terrifying. The black spire rose from the seabed up to the surface and far above, the base lit up from below by hot magma that flowed beneath the ground. How Cal would find anything in this base, he didn't know, but he knew he needed to try.

He approached the nearest building in the defensive perimeter of the fortress, finding a small airlock he could squeeze through. It opened as he approached it, and he swam up to the Imperial bridge before looking over the edge. There were a few stormtroopers there scanning the area, but they had already called for it clear. Standing from the water, he gained the attention of the troopers and silenced them before they could call for backup.

Shaking his head, water droplets went flying before he slicked back his hair once again. "Cal, you there?" Cere spoke over the comm.

"Yeah. Good to hear your voice, Cere," Cal responded, heading over to a slice station for BD to pick.

"I've located Y/n and the holocron. Sending you the location now."

BD lit up his map, showing the position where Cal needed to head. "Got it. We're on the move."

"Cal, if there in the same holding facility, there's a good chance this could be a trap," he heard Cere warn him, but he didn't care to think on the idea. Of course it was a trap.

"Then we'll get in and get out before they even have time to spring it," Cal responded before tucking his comm away as BD opened the door.

Almost as soon as he entered the main halls of the Fortress, Cal was overrun with stormtroopers and security droids. There was no way he could beat them all without more being sent on their way. It was a difficult battle, for with each stormtrooper he defeated, two more and a Purge trooper would come his way. Heavy troopers with their large rotary blasters would attack him from the side while he tried to deal with a certain egregious Purge Trooper. He only had so many stims he could use, and he knew that if this was to be a trap for him and Cere, he would most likely need them later.

Once he finally got past the waves of enemies, he looked to BD and said, "This place is where the Empire created the Inquisitors. Where they tortured Cere and turned Trilla to the Dark side. Let's tear it down, BD-1."

Boop-Boo! BD nodded in agreement, letting out what could only be described as a battle cry as Cal charged into the security control room, only to be met with more troopers and a security droid.

Defeating them, he noticed they had unplugged the main power generator, and worked using the Force to reroute the power back to the generator and where he wanted it. After clicking a few buttons on the control panel, an explosion rocked the fortress. Looking out the window through the dark waters, he saw the cloud that was left behind. "Whoa. See that, BD?" he said, but noticed the generator was sizzling out. He stepped back, covering his face with his arm to block debris as the generator puffed a small explosion. "Well, that did something," Cal shrugged. "Let's check it out."

The entire Fortress was now rumbling and shaking, a new feature Cal was glad to give credit to himself. "I've disabled the shields on the outer sections of the Fortress," he heard Cere say over the comms. "Flood the base, and swim to the central keep."

"That's a hell of a plan," Cal breathed, a little impressed. As he reopened the doors of the security control room to the halls, he finally noticed what damage he had done. Small fires were set along the sides of the railings, and water was beginning to drip in from cracks in the transparisteel walls.