Chapter X - Tundak

With everything in place, THEM waited for Greg to arrive. Eventually, a male Anurian and female Human came into the bar and headed towards Yoyo. The Anurian introduced himself as Greg and the woman as his assistant. They ordered drinks and the conversation began. As Greg had already stated that he was not interested in investors, he immediately inquired about THEM. Yoyo danced around the topic and during the conversation, he became aware of a probing into his mind. The Human was a mentalist and was attempting to extract information from Yoyo. Yoyo resisted for a time, but eventually succumbed and felt his mind being forced open. The mentalist learned his identity.

The Anurian broke the conversation abruptly and stated: "Alright, I know who you are. You know she's a mentalist. Now what are your intentions with me?"

Yoyo feigned ignorance for a time, but the Anurian insisted, continuing to ask THEM's intentions. By this time Anaximanda had locked onto him and was ready for an assassination. Thrombosis' intended target was the mentalist. Kolum, who had already wedged the van against the main entrance, had been listening to the conversation through Yoyo's communicator. He quietly stated that Greg sounded wrong, not like a Anurian should sound. He felt that Greg was under the influence of slave juice.

Anaximanda, feeling that the conversation was getting nowhere, decided to act. She opened fire on Greg with her needle beam. The beam pierced the center of Greg's skull and he slumped to the floor. Thrombosis shot the Human, in the head, with his moisture disrupter. She screamed in agony, fell to the floor writhing in pain, and fell unconscious. The battle was over before it began. It seemed too easy.

A few moments passed as the echo from the weapons fire subsided. Anaximanda, Yoyo, and Thrombosis scanned the crowd for signs of aggression, but found none. Suddenly, there was a flash of intense light on the table Yoyo was sitting at. As Yoyo's eyes refocused, he saw a droid standing in front of him. It had a humanoid torso, with a very skinny waist. It's lower half resembled the body of a large bulldog. Thrombosis was the first to recognize the droid. It was a GH9001 series Tundak, one of the most advanced battle droids in existence.

The first thing the Tundak did was talk. It seemed to have a very loud and obnoxious personality. It stated that it was a new droid and that THEM were its first targets. It tried to get the members of THEM to name it, and pranced about the room saying how much of an honour it must be to be killed by a Tundak. Communications were jammed, so the rest of THEM couldn't be called.

Anaximanda started to acquire an assassination on it. As she was concentrating on the droid, a telepathic voice that sounded very similar to Heliozoan told her where the actual vital parts of the droid were. Anaximanda was concentrating on a decoy system, and quickly switched to the actual vital area. Thrombosis headed towards the exit and, finding it blocked by the van, started to kick it to get the attention of Kolum.

The Tundak finally attacked. It was armed with an armour piercing assault blaster rifle and the Tundak wielded it with great skill. Fortunately, most of the members of THEM were not wearing much armour, so the shots made clean cuts. The Tundak was moving with blinding speed making itself very difficult to hit. The members of THEM had to take very aggressive stances to hit it at all. But they did manage to hit it. Yoyo landed repeated hits with his needle beam (when he wasn't slapping medical patches on his comrades) and Thrombosis landed shots with his antimatter rifle. Once Zod got close enough, he managed to pierce it with his force blades a few times. Anaximanda was waiting, concentrating on his assassination attack.

Kolum, hearing Thrombosis, notified the remaining members of THEM and charged in to help. The Tundak was landing hit after hit on the members of THEM. Tapir was the first casualty, as repeated blaster shots fired into his skull. Hecate was next, falling to the floor, a bloody heap of burnt flesh. Kolum fell a moment later, as blaster shots tore flesh from his neck and face. The remaining members were also heavily wounded by repeated blaster fire.

But the Tundak was getting hit too. Its metallic body was soon covered in burn holes and dents. Finally, Anaximanda made her shot. Her needle beam shot out while the Tundak was in mid-leap. The shot pierced the Tundak's outer shell and burrowed into its vital components, causing it to spasm and crash to the floor. As it was falling, the torso disengaged from the lower section. After the fall, the torso remained motionless, but the lower half continued the fight.

Yoyo managed to continue firing at the lower section as Thrombosis pulverized the torso, making sure it would never rise again. The lower section was not as skilled on its own, missing frequently, and not moving with the same skill. The remaining members of THEM continued firing until the Tundak was finally brought down and destroyed.

Tapir and Hecate were dead, but Kolum was recoverable. THEM grabbed pieces of the fallen Tundak, piled Kolum and themselves into the van and left.