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No. Like marching insectile feet with sharp claws and hard body armor.

"Then again, explanations can wait," the little translating droid said.

"I propose that we make getting to safety our highest priority!, "Sounds like more combat arachnids," Jacen said, panting and puffing as he ran.

"Lots and lots of them. This place must be infested."

"I thought you said they were rare creatures," Jaina snorted.

"They're a bit too common for me right now."

"Hey, it's not my fault!" Jacen said. "They are rare. But combat arachnids were bred for showcase battles in arenas like this one. So I'm guessing that a bunch of them were brought here for exhibition fights.

These're probably feral descendants of the victorious ones left by the Mandalorians when they abandoned this world."

"Survival of the fittest?" Tenel Ka said, her granite-gray eyes flashing at Jacen.

"They seem fit enough to hunt for their own food!"

"Don't worry, Tenel Ka. I won't let any of them get you again," he said.

She raised an eyebrow at the very suggestion that she would require anyone to protect her now, and kept running.

Lowie turned around and snarled when he heard something else approach.

Something threatening. He pressed a paw against the bleeding gash in his side, ignoring the pain of the wound as he sniffed the air.

As Jacen turned to look, three combat arachnids scurried out of the shadows' in front of them, mandibles clacking, deadly spines extended, positioned to fight as a predatory team.

"They're in front of us! We're doomed!" Em Teedee said.

A moment later, two more combat arachnids boiled out of the chambers behind them, trapping the companions along the walkway precipice that looked out upon the sprawling crater.

"Oh, no! We're double-doomed," the little droid wailed.

Raaba held her battered blaster in front of her. Jacen and Jaina, Tenel Ka, and Lowie each powered up their lightsabers again.

Raaba growled and looked meaningfully, almost apologetically, at Lowbacca, as if she hoped to live long enough to give him all the explanations he desired. She gestured across the bowl of the crater to the broken building tops where her ship, a small inter-stellar skimmer, waited on one flat rooftop.

Thick, dangling chains stretched out from the wall across the yawning gulf, connecting to the distant tower. The chocolate-furred Wookiee bellowed and pointed urgently.

"You want us to climb... out there?" Jacen said.

Tenel Ka strode to the thick corroded chain and grasped it with her one arm.

"You can use the Force to help you balance, my friend Jacen," she said.

"If you concentrate, it will be no worse than walking on a forest path."

"Forest path, huh?" Jacen asked with a gulp. "Sure.

No problem."

Raaba bounded onto the chain as the combat arachnids stuttered forward from both directions, their pointed limbs flailing, multiple eyes blazing with hunger.

Lowie bellowed and lunged back at the creatures, sweeping his molten bronze light saber in a broad arc. He lopped off three limbs from the nearest creature as if they were stalks of grain.

The combat arachnid shrieked and staggered backward into one of its companions.

The second, already-enraged monster struck out at the stumbling, wounded arachnid and the two creatures began to rip at each other.

Greenish clots of blood flew through the air.

The other arachnids ignored the distraction, however, and drove in for the kill, focused on their intended victims.

Tenel Ka stood easily on the rusty chain, legs spread, perfectly balanced in her glittering lizard-hide armor. She reached down and grabbed hold of Jacen. "Come, my friend, I will assist you."

"Hey, thanks!" he gasped. "To show my appreciation, I'll tell you a joke when all this is over, okay?"

"That will not be necessary," the warrior girl answered quickly.

"Please--I require no such expression of gratitude."

With fluid Wookiee grace, Raaba began to sprint across the incredible drop as if the sagging chain were a rope bridge. Her heavy footsteps sent jolting vibrations along the links,