Tempted (Kotor Novelization)

Chapter 6

The elevator stopped in Taris' Lower City. I was a bit nervous about passing the Sith Guard and I was quite surprised that he actually believed that we were just a Sith patrol. As the elevator took us down to the Lower City, Carth and I took off our Sith uniforms and put them in his pack. Never know when we might need them again. We both wore simple civvies under the armour, so we virtually had no bodily protection. The elevator stopped and the doors opened in front of us. We stepped out of the elevator and on Lower City territory but we right away witnessed a fight between two alien groups.

At first, the one group called the Black Vulkars was simply just insulting the other group that they called the Hidden Beks but it quickly escalated to violence. I guess these were the two swoop gangs that were at war. I wondered why? Were swoop racers really that cutthroat toward each other? The Hidden Beks put up a good fight but the Black Vulkars slaughtered them. One the Vulkars spotted us and raised his vibrosword.

"You strangers aren't getting out of here alive," he said in his language. I sighed. Why is everyone trying to kill us? I shot the Vulkar that originally picked a fight with us in the chest but there were plenty more where that came from. What gave us a lot of trouble was that most of the Vulkars that engaged us in combat were melee fighters coming at us with swords. Blasters wouldn't help much in close combat. Carth and I got separated, too focused on our own little group of Vulkars that were surrounding us. I shot a couple in my group dead but one of the Vulkars got too close and his vibrosword cut the blaster in my right hand in two, rendering it useless. I shot another right between the eyes with the blaster in my left hand and I noticed a vibrosword cut through the glove on my left hand. That would have been a deep cut if my hand wasn't cybernetic but the force of it sent my other blaster sprawling far away from me. With no weapon in hand, I automatically crouched into a defensive stance and closely observed my opponent for any weaknesses. The Vulkar charged at me with his vibrosword but that ended up with my knee in his gut and my elbow in his back. I looked over at Carth who had just shot his last enemy right between the eyes. I gave him a thumbs up and looked for a blaster to kill the last Vulkar that attacked me with. Suddenly, I heard a blaster shot come from behind me followed by a thump. My head whipped around and I noticed the body of the Vulkar, the blaster shot in his skull still smoking slightly and I looked over at Carth who was standing with one of his blaster pistols pointed at the spot where the Vulkar was. Right behind me. Bastard was sneaking up on me was going to kill me from behind. I walked over to the body and gave it a slight kick. "Coward," I grumbled. Carth walked up to me with a smile.

"So, what's the score? Two-One?" I shook my head.

"Not for long, Flyboy. Not for long." I paused for a few moments. I remembered that I wanted to see if one of the swoop gangs would be willing to help us find Bastila and get off this planet. "Is there a cantina around?" I asked.

"The Javyar's cantina is close by. Why?"

"We'll if there's anywhere where we can find allies it's there. Especially if we want the aid of one of the swoop gangs," I explained.

"Good point. The Hidden Beks are the ones to talk to. Brejek from the Vulkars is unreasonable but Gadon from the Beks is much nicer and might even be willing to help us." Carth said.

"Then let's find Gadon."

Carth and I left for the Javyar's Cantina, picking up my blaster while we were at it, and entered the Lower City's cantina. I found myself relaxing a bit here in the Lower City because of the lack of Sith troops. They probably passed through here, but they hadn't completely taken over like in the Upper City. The Rodian bouncer didn't really pay attention to us as we passed through the door, but he still gave us a warning not cause any trouble. I had a feeling that he said that to everyone though.