) Constructive criticism is appreciated (particularly since I might have been off on certain weapon effects as I was going totally by memory).Min-Na
3 months after the Battle of Geonosis
The cavern more than anything felt old. Coming in a close and disconcerting second was that it felt dead. In even the oldest tombs one could usually find some sign of life. Assorted insects and rodents seemed to have a talent for getting into such places no matter how old or well built they were. This tomb was nothing like that. There was simply nothing there. A silence that was unbelievably complete. Kodan Noor took a moment to examine the wall. It was some kind of black metal he didn’t recognize, and when the light hit it at just the right angle he could almost pick out a green glow beneath the surface. There where strange glyphs on those walls, set in a quicksilver colored metal he also couldn’t identify. His battle-droid escort followed, much to his irritation. He’d been hired by the Confederacy of Independent Systems to investigate the structure, though he wasn’t exactly sure why. The CIS had any number of available archaeologists they could have hired to handle it and yet for some reason they were coming to him. Granted he had a very good reputation for caring little about political alliances, but the cynic in him said that should have been a deterrent to the CIS wanting him on their payroll. After all shouldn’t they be more inclined to hire someone who supported their cause? The only possible thing he could think of was his hypothesis regarding an ancient civilization ruled by droids that had come to the galaxy millions of years before.. that paper had gotten him laughed out of the academic community for the most part, forcing him out onto the fringe, quietly publishing a paper every now and then in some obscure journal as he gathered more evidence. Was that it? Or was it because they knew they could hire him and dispose of him quietly later?
He derailed that train of thought with a growl of irritation. He’d told himself when he’d taken the job he wouldn’t let the Trade Federation’s invasion of Naboo a decade before affect his work for the CIS of whom that same Trade Federation was now a part, but he was still human, and it was easy to believe the worst about the economic consortium that had invaded his homeworld. He forced his attention back to his work. Harder now that the thought had sprung forth and with the forceful reminder of the dozen Baktoid B1s that had been sent down with him. Ostensibly to protect him, and he had to admit that it was a valid excuse. Any number of nasty creatures had been known to make their homes in tombs and that left out the occasional functional defense droid. But a half a dozen? That was almost a full squad and certainly more than enough to handle anything that could fit in the corridors he’d mapped so far, so what was the real reason? Thoughts of assassination flitted through his head again and this time would not be dismissed. But there was little that could be done now, he was already two hundred feet under the surface and surrounded by twelve battle droids with blaster rifles. He kept telling himself that this was far too elaborate a trap to merely eliminate one archaeologist, besides there had been plenty of opportunities for them to kill him if that was there plan. Now he just hoped they new that.
As the scientist and his mechanical escort moved deeper into the tomb something began to watch. Deep within the pyramidal structure systems began to power up, a sickly green glow starting to fill several rooms as ancient mechanisms began to come online, shaking off the shackles of their great age and churning to life in anticipation of the still advancing intruders.
Suspicion was gone now, in its place was an excitement, a delight like that of a child who has just received that birthday present they always wanted. They were droids as far as he could tell, skeletal metal figures, each set in a niche in the wall and with rows of those niches sitting next to each other in hundred meter lengths and upward towards the ceiling. There had to be at least a thousand of the droids, possibly more. His eyes roamed the room. Arcane looking machinery glowed with a sickly green light that made him feel strangely uncomfortable. He couldn’t identify half of what was here in this veritable treasure trove. That was when his eyes fell on the two empty niches. He blinked. He hadn’t noticed any of them being empty when he came into the room..
The beam struck the rearmost battle droid square in the back. The machine made an unidentifiable mechanical sound and Kodan watched in shock as layer by layer it was stripped down to nothing. Two of the droids were advancing on their group, some form of weapon gripped in their metal hands. They fired again just as the battle droids opened up. A storm of blaster bolts sent the mechanical attackers staggering back in a shower of fragmenting bolts and molten metal. Two of the B1s were flayed down to their internal workings as the beams struck in the same instant, a third collapsing as the ancient machines staggered and one of the beams swept over its head, stripping it away along with the arm that gripped the blaster. Normal troops might have frozen at the sight of a third of their number being dispatched so quickly, the droids didn’t though, instead merely redoubling their efforts to bring down the two gray armored figures. Both of those figures were scored in a dozen places at least, everything from burn marks to wounds weeping molten metal like blood. They continued to fire though even as a fresh volley of blaster fire impacted on and around them. Six B1s remained, now five, and at last one of the two collapsed to the ground in a smoking heap, followed quickly by the second but not before it got off one last shot that decapitated a battle droid.
Kodan released the breath he just realized he’d been holding. The four remaining battle droids continued to scan for further threats, heads swiveling back and forth as their charge looked at the two partially-molten forms that lay on the floor. A chill ran through him. Those droids had been incredibly resilient to take that kind of fire, and those strange weapons.. was this what the CIS was looking for? A small army of advanced battle droids? There didn’t seem to be enough of them here to really mean much to a war on the scale of that currently raging across the galaxy.. but what if they meant to learn their secrets instead? He imagined an army of droids, armed with those strange weapons and that far too resilient armor plating and shivered again. Then something caught his eye. There was movement all over the downed droids, tiny mite-like things, the same color as the smoking wrecks from which they emerged. They scuttled and moved to the edge of the blaster wounds and Kodan’s eyes widened as they quickly began to repair them, like a timelapse film of a ship being pieced together. Even the molten metal was pooling, congealing, and flowing back to the machine. He turned to the B1s.
“You there! Quickly, destroy them before they repair themselves!” He said, pointing for emphasis. The machine paused for a moment, probably conferring with its controller in the ship waiting in orbit. It nodded.
“Roger, Roger.” All four remaining droids raised their weapons in unison.. and then two of them collapsed as the staff split them in two. Kodan stumbled back as he took in the figure. Skeletal like the others, but more ornately formed and covered in rotted and moldy wrappings. In its claw-like hand it held a staff, a wicked looking blade on one end and the other emitting that same ghastly glow that had come from the other droid’s weapons. It looked like nothing so much as the skeleton of some ancient warrior-king come to life. The two remaining droids responded with blaster fire and the machine moved to finish them as holes were burned in its ragged cloak. The impossibly sharp blade split one of the battle droids in two before it spun the staff around in a mechanically perfect motion and tore the second apart with a blast from another of those strange beam weapons. Kodan stumbled backwards, turning to run and was knocked sprawling as he ran into what felt like a wall. He opened his eyes, saw the first two droids starting to climb to their feet and scrambled back to his own, ready to bolt. When he turned he came face to face with a nightmare. It was like the other droids, but this one was hunched over strangely, and it held no weapon. It didn’t need to. It reached for him with fingers like knives, faster than any of the others had suggested they could move…
The screams echoed for some time before silence once more returned to the Tombs of Min-Na.
You'd think that nobody coming back out would make them think "Maybe this isn't such a good idea." 
