Gray

Chapter 6

"No, Vixen 2, we did not just get eaten."

"Are you sure because I saw a giant gaping mouth and we definitely went in."

"It was a tractor beam."

"Are you sure it wasn't a black hole? Or like one of those cosmic storms that show up out of nowhere?"

"Cosmic storms don't 'show up of nowhere. It's a result of plasmic energy that's been gathering for of centuries at least. Plus, that's only happens in the unknown regions."

"Jeez Fahili, how do you know all of that."

"Team, keep your eyes open."

"For what? it's not like we can see anything in here anyways. It's pitch black."

"We should get back in our ships and get the hell out of here."

"Not possible."

"What?"

"We're in hyperspace, and our TIEs aren't hyperspace capable."

"So, we are going to die in the dark in the belly of a ship that we just got conned into flying towards? This is officially the worst mission we've ever been on."

On the floor, lights lit up, dimly illuminating the room while highlighting a path that lead to the unknown. "Yeah, that's not creepy at all," Adara muttered.

"Let's get a better look at our surroundings since we have at least a little light," Fahili said as she scanned the room, which they knew was the docking bay they'd been tractor beamed into. They didn't get a very good look at it before the giant doors behind them had closed. Now she could see that the bay was just large enough for about two dozen small fighter craft.

The group of five was huddled close, each of them with a blaster, save for Ahsoka who held one of her unignited lightsabers in hand. Evaan accessed her wrist comm. "Glaize, this is Vixen Leader, come in."

He didn't respond.

"I've got a bad feeling about this..." Assata said as she scanned the room. As if to punctuate her statement a noise like metal fingers tapping the floor sounded somewhere in the bay. The women paused.

Ahsoka spoke low. "Stay calm, whatever it is we-" A metal sphere sailed in from the darkness and clanked on the ground, right in the middle of their little group.

"Detonator!" Evaan shouted even as they all began to scatter. The explosion elicited a dull pop and a spume of gray, further obfuscating the already dark room.

Evaan coughed as an acrid tasting pepper filled her eyes, nose and mouth. She raised her blaster but if something was there, it would be impossible to see it. To further sharpen that point, suddenly her weapon was snatched from her. Even as she reached out frantically for what may have done it, she knew the efforts were futile. At the speed of thought she decided it better to escape the gas cloud.

Assata kept her eyes open despite the burn, blinking only to combat their furious watering. When the figure showed itself, she fired her blaster. But it moved slick as some feline creature, and caught her arm, twisting it in a cold metal grip, and using its other hand to remove her blaster.

To her surprise, she saw her weapon seem to break down, collapsing in on itself as if being deconstructed. Then in the same motion the arm of this being seemed to expand to overcome and accept these deconstructed pieces. It was then that she realized that though she couldn't tell its color, and could only vaguely make out it's silhouette, even right next to her, that it was some sort of droid. The thing released her and slipped back into the smoke cloud.