First Dreams
A/N: This is my impossibly late challenge fic for Albur, and I truly hope you do enjoy it. I regret to say that I departed significantly from what I think she wanted. It's certainly about Canderous and there's certainly a romantic aspect but it leans toward a gritty war story. Apologies for the use of an OC. Enjoy! Auros
Canderous turned in his bed. Half asleep, he tossed an arm over what he expected would be the waist of the woman lying next to him. Instead, his arm met her soft legs and he cracked open an eye, slightly. Bright light assaulted it, rendering his eye inutile for a few moments.
As his vision came back into focus, he saw that the woman next to him was not lying at all, but rather sitting up, reviewing a datapad intently. The woman was his long time companion, a slave named Lashiyya. Even lit in unnatural blue light from her datapad she was pretty, with thick black hair and defined striking features. Worth a second look, Canderous always said to himself.
"What're you doing up?" Canderous asked, rather he slurred.
"I was having trouble sleeping," she whispered, he voice cool and steady.
"This isn't going to help," he pointed out.
"Fair point. But I just couldn't reign in my thoughts…"
"You're not supposed to have thoughts," Canderous joked dryly. Whether he was talking about the two of them as soldiers or her as a slave, Lashiyya didn't know.
"Go back to sleep," she insisted, running her hand through his dark hair while keeping her eye on the screen. "I'd rather do something productive than waste time on those thoughts."
"Enjoy your diversion," Canderous said, turning the other way.
A moment later, Lashiyya asked, "What's that supposed to mean, 'enjoy your diversion'?"
"It means: enjoy whatever you're doing to avoid facing the thoughts that won't go away. In other words, enjoy your diversion."
"Diversion, well now, that's a pretty big word for you," Lashiyya slighted amicably.
"Damn you woman!" Canderous said, rising so that his back was positioned on the headboard of their bed. "I'm not gonna spend all night bantering back and forth—"
"No, no!" she interrupted, dismissingly. "I said go back to sleep."
"There's something you want to talk about," Canderous observed. "I know it. And you know that I hate dragging things out. Let's just get it over with."
"Always the romantic one," she said. But she wasn't going to disagree with what he said. She turned off the datapad—supply lists could wait—and placed her hands together. Canderous looked at her. "I had a dream."
"Nightmare?"
"No, it felt like," she hesitated. "I don't want to sound like some whiny Jedi, but it felt like a vision, it felt real."
"What happened?"
"It seemed like just a few seconds," she recounted, as her mind wandered back to the dreadful dream. "I see myself in my battle gear, standing in a street. There was obviously a battle going on. I pull off my helmet, and I'm hysterical. I'm running into a building and screaming, 'I can't go on!' Thing is, I don't know why I'm acting like this…The only thing I could think of, the only thing that would bring me to that was…" She trailed off, but her eyes told the story.
"Did you see me in the dream?"
She shook her head.
"Come on, Lashiyya!" Canderous urged. "First dreams, what's next? Nerf entrails?"
"I know," she said, lowering her voice. "You know me, normally, I don't put much stock in dreams and those kinds of things but…It was so real."
"I once had a dream that I was Mandalore," Canderous explained. "I was commanding a huge squadron, telling everyone what to do. I dreamt that I lived on some jungle planet and everyone cow-towed to me. And it was pretty real too. But it was just a dream."
"I know, I know," she protested. "But I just couldn't stand the thought of…And that's why I couldn't get to sleep."
"So now that you've got that out in the air, what's keeping you up?" he asked, rhetorically. "The fleet arrives tomorrow; we need to get our rest."
Lashiyya sighed in resignation. Tomorrow the fleet would arrive at a rendezvous point—a place known as the Tekrenda Gap, which set between two large nebulæ would give the Mandalorian navy excellent cover for their upcoming operation.
Lashiyya lay back down and closed her eyes; Canderous did the same and they were both asleep in minutes.
A medium-sized gray starship, bearing the markings of Clan Ordo and of Canderous Ordo's family, cut through the vacuum of space with vicious speed. Glowing blue engines propelled the craft invariably toward its destination— the Mandalore's impossibly large starship the Ascendancy, which also served as the flagship of the Mandalorian navy.
Mandalore's ship was to be the site of a meeting of representatives of all of the major families from Clan Ordo, which would have the glory of leading the coming assault upon a nearby star-system. Canderous' ship, which carried not only he and Lashiyya, but also over one hundred Mandalorian warriors from his family and a few dozen mercenaries, had been granted immediate clearance and landing rights.
Canderous' family's detachment was one of the smaller ones. Several hundred other families from Ordo had also answered Mandalore's call to war and would be sending representatives to the meeting.
"This will be a chance for you to distinguish yourself and our family in combat," his father, the Patriarch had said back at home. "Mandalore will be looking for the best and bravest to lead our forces in the coming war. For Honor! For Mandalore!"
His father's bombastic words, spoken to Canderous from his sickbed, echoed loudly in his mind as Canderous piloted his ship towards the Ascendancy; he would not let his father down and he would prove himself in battle, no matter what.
"Almost there," Lashiyya commented, as the figure of the flagship grew ever larger. She pressed several buttons, closely keeping an eye on their distance from the other ship. "I've engaged the docking sequence."
"Good, prepare to cut thrust once were in the tractor," Canderous said, even as a young man expertly guiding his ship through space. "Now."
The ship drifted for a few moments, giving Lashiyya a chance to marvel at the nebula which surrounded them. It was a sight that very few slaves would ever get to see. In fairness to the Mandalorians, Lashiyya admitted, their treatment of their slaves was markedly better than the treatment of slaves by others. This was not, however, due to any intrinsic kindness on the part of the average Mandalorian, but rather a consequence of the prevailing 'if you want something done right, do it yourself' attitude. Slaves were given relatively light menial tasks for which they were rarely held to account.
Yes, for the Mandalorians slaveholding was done for the sake of status not practicality. Lashiyya couldn't help but look back at how she had succeeded in elevating her life above that of every other slave she'd known…
There was something to be said of innate talent. As a child, Lashiyya had learned to run when other children could barely walk. Under the patronage of a dissatisfied house-bound Mandalorian matriarch, she had shown her talents in combat with a sword and been given ample practice. But a marriage deal—for which she and several other slaves were to serve as the dowry—dashed her hopes of moving up in that family.
It was there that she met Canderous, a favorite son of the Patriarch, and set into motion a plan of action to improve her meager existence. She demonstrated to him that she was not the average slave, nearly beating him in a battle-circle competition once, and he took a liking to her. All was going as planned, until she began to fall for him. As it happened, the predator became the prey; an act of simple kindness sent Lashiyya tumbling into love with Canderous.
He loved her as well, but he would never say it. Yet, actions do speak louder than words, and Canderous rarely consented to leave Lashiyya's side and he had chosen her (not without controversy) to accompany him as a lieutenant on his mission to answer Mandalore's call to war.
Lashiyya's view was soon obscured as the ship drifted closer to the Ascendancy. Eventually, it slowed to almost a stop and gentle bumped against the edge of the capital ship. Canderous looked out of his portside window and observed at least a dozen other large ships arriving for Mandalore's briefing.
Two men entered the room wearing dark blue jumpsuits. They would be detaching the ship once Lashiyya and Canderous had disembarked.
"We will be ready to disconnect as soon as you and the lieutenant are off," the captain said, his voice laced with contempt.
"Good," Canderous responded, handing him a datapad with important numerical sequences and turning to leave the cockpit. "One last thing," he added, grabbing the collar of the pilot and lifting him off the floor. "Another cheeky comment like that and you'll be floating out there. Got it?"
"Yes, sir," he gulped, diverting his eyes.
"Please, let him down," Lashiyya asked of him. She was quite used to the disrespect she got from the other members of their unit.
Canderous complied, but only after making sure that the captain knew that he not Lashiyya had decided to let him get away this time. They left the cockpit and went to a docking chamber. The familiar sound of suction was the green light for them to pass from one ship to the other.
"Mandalore extends his greetings to you, and on behalf of the Ascendancy I am most pleased to welcome you aboard," said a slave of Mandalore. "If you have no objections, I will escort you to the command deck."
"We have no objections," Canderous said. He and Lashiyya followed the servant.
"That's what I'm supposed to act like," Lashiyya commented, comically.
Canderous restrained a chuckle but gave Lashiyya a grin.
They entered the bridge. A large deck bisected the center of the ship's nerve center. On either side, technicians worked at a feverish pace guiding the ship safely through space.
There were several other clan family leaders in the room, all without their helmets out of respect for Mandalore. "The conference will begin shortly, you can wait in there." The man was pointing to a pair of doors at the end of the room.
Lashiyya and Canderous followed his instructions. Beyond the doors, they were surprised by the room that awaited them. It was a rather large indoor amphitheatre, but rather than having a curtain concealing a backstage, the backdrop of the room was a massive window open to the stars.
Canderous took Lashiyya's wrist, and with a mild tug brought her out of a day-dream. They took seats toward the front and center. "I didn't want anyone to see you gazing off," Canderous said. "You have to be on your toes at these things."
Lashiyya thought of saying something like 'you didn't have to do that!' but she knew her place, and she knew tact. "Sorry, if that hurt," Canderous whispered, from the side of his mouth.
She thought she knew Canderous; thought she had discovered the boundaries of his limited tenderness and consideration, but ever so often he would surprise her. "You were right," she said. "Thanks."
A loud noise issued from an unseen trumpet and then several more instruments joined in as the Mandalore's personal guard entered the room. The soldiers, decked-out in polished full-body armor suits, made a line up to the platform where Mandalore would speak. And then he entered.
Covered head-to-toe in a suit that made him look invincible, the Mandalore was a sight to behold. Everyone in the room rose as one and bowed to 90°.
"Be seated," Mandalore said. He had taken a few moments to survey the audience through his tinted goggles. "At last, my fellow Mandalorians, the time for war has come!"
The crowd cried a cheer of approval. "Our years of waiting, our years of preparation, our years of unwelcome peace," he said that word with unequivocal loathing, "have come to an end!"
This time an even louder cheer, as various leaders stood up, whistled, cried out, and clapped. The Mandalore held up his hands, a concealed smile on his lips. "And so, the time has come that we should set aside our rivalries. The time has come that you should no longer be a warrior from Clan Ordo and Family Caldaimassa," he said using the example of a respected family head sitting in the front row, "but a warrior of Mandalore! A Mandalorian warrior!"
The electricity of Mandalore's words was undeniable; it was as if from the power and charisma of his words alone, years of divisions had been erased. Canderous noted goose-bumps on his arms. How his word becomes law!
Their godlike leader continued, "If any should be found among you, who in the heat of battle turns against his brother, who dares to defy my law and who betrays all Mandalorians through his factionalism, he shall wish that he had never been born. His body shall be broken, his fate shall be worse than the most dishonorable death, his spirit shall dissolve into nothingness! He shall be dar'manda!"
Even Lashiyya couldn't help but get a chill after this. Canderous had a primal urge to shout Not I! that he would not be found guilty of this unforgivable sin. I will never betray my people. I will never be dar'manda. The phrase, which meant "not Mandalorian", carried so much more weight than the simple translation conveyed. His deepest desire was to show his loyalty to Mandalore. He was fully enraptured in the Mandalore's spell.
The Mandalore looked across the room. Each one of the room's stadium seats was filled by an obedient subject. They were a diverse group, mostly male though there were dozens women; humans made up the bulk of the group along with a smattering of alien races though there were few of his own species Taungs. His were a dying breed, destined to be replaced by the more adaptive and prolific humans. But this was not a concern to him; he was a true believer in the Mandalorians, that their code and way of life needed to continue and prosper and that the rest of the galaxy was just asking to be subjugated.
"It is our sacred mission," the Mandalore began, "to spread the truth! The truth of all sentience, which only reveals itself in battle, in strife, in conflict. Do not be tempted by the ideas of our sworn enemies, who say that peace is desirable and war is evil. Their ignorance stems from their cowardice! Peace is death! War is life!"
The crowd was in a frenzy. An emotion that could not be pinned down to the individual had swept the room. It was formless, colorless, odorless, but you could taste the power of those words. Salty, gritty on the tongue.
And now to the specifics, "Today is the end of the Sacred Week," Mandalore announced, to no one's great surprise. "Our seers on the planet Mandalore have foreseen a great victory. The have prophesied about a great battle in which Clan Ordo showed bravery not seen since the ancients. They have foreseen my successor among those who fight this battle."
A gasp! The whole room gasped at once. And then frantic, disguised looks darted across the room. Am I sitting beside the next Mandalore? Will I be Mandalore?
"But you must not let this concern you," Mandalore picked up, sensing everyone's thoughts. "You must fight as though you were Mandalore! And now you wonder, where is it that we shall gain honor? There is a planet, whose name I doubt you have ever heard: Pshanderon, which sits in the outer-rim just beyond our territories. It thrives just beyond our grasp, and thumbs its nose at our people and our traditions. It offers no tribute for protection. Pshanderon is rich from all of the wealth and resources it hoards, and with those supplies our grand invasion will be much more successful. Your duty will be to subdue the main cities of the planet and to ensure that all of the planet supplies are safeguarded. To Victory!"
"This doesn't sound like the type of mission that turns out the next Mandalore," Canderous commented, his voice just above a whisper. "These people sound like cowards."
"Maybe there's something he's not telling us?" Lashiyya proposed.
"It's so beautiful!" Lashiyya said mournfully, as the Mandalorian fleet jumped out of hyperspace into the Pshanderon system. She was momentarily saddened by the thought of conquering this world, but the more pressing need of guiding the ship to the surface took center stage in her mind.
"Destruction is the counterpart of creation," Canderous responded, quoting some old saying he'd heard. He wasn't about to mourn for the impending destruction of, at least, a large part of this planet. Still, he could admit to himself that it was beautiful—long snake-like oceans, separating large green continents, and a few glimmering silver circles indicating massive conglomerated cities.
"Communications have been jammed," a disembodied voice said. It issued from a communications device connecting all Mandalorian forces.
"Group 988 ready to enter the atmosphere," Canderous said, into the comm system. He had been randomly selected as the head of a group encompassing several other Ordoan families.
"Group 988, begin landing immediately. Use caution, their anti-air batteries are probably intact. Victory!"
As Canderous, signaled the other ships to begin landing, Lashiyya pushed the control stick forward, and the crew felt the ship lurch ahead. She increased thrust and the ship very rapidly entered the atmosphere. The cockpit windows quickly became obscured by air ignited by the ship's speedy descent.
Red flashing lights filled the cockpit. "There trying to take us down!" Canderous yelled, noting the flack exploding in the air all around them. Lashiyya pushed the thrust forward, and they sped dangerously swiftly toward the surface.
The city came into view. It was an amazing sight to behold. It rose like a massive mountain, spreading out over 500 miles in every direction from its center. At its peak, which loomed ominously on the horizon, it was above 10,000 feet in height. The product of thousands of years of development and building on top of the old was about to suffer a set back.
"In a couple million years, this place'll be another Coruscant!" Canderous exclaimed.
"Who needs another Coruscant!" Lashiyya joked, as she rolled the ship from side to side, to avoid the projectiles attacking them. "Open fire!" she called to the gunners.
Plasma rained down on the city as Group 988's weapons were unleashed. They exploded over the city, sending torrents of fire, metal and charred debris into the sky.
"We're ready for the aerial bombardment," Canderous said, contacting the Mandalorian fleet.
Within moments, the fleet obliged Canderous' request by assailing the city with weapons on a gigantic scale. After a few moments, the anti-air barrage ceased as had the aerial bombardment.
"What happened?" Lashiyya asked.
"Maybe we blew up all of their batteries?" Canderous suggested, doubtfully.
"The High Council of Pshanderon has signed an instrument of unconditional surrender," the voice of the Mandalorian fleet announced.
"Ten minutes!" Canderous said, jubilantly. "We're here for ten minutes and they're already surrendering."
"Well, what do we do now? Turn back? Do we need to complete our mission."
"Every mission is to continue as planned. There may be resistance movements within the cities, which may attempt to forestall our taking of necessary supplies. Proceed with caution. Watch for guerilla attacks."
There was their answer.
"Take her down in that square," Canderous said, pointing to a large open plaza, on the edge of the sloping city.
Lashiyya obliged, gently guiding the ship to the surface. Seven other ships from their group also landed smoothly in the deserted square. No one would have had time to flee; the attack had come so quickly. The residents must have gone down to shelters, Canderous thought.
Lashiyya, Canderous and the 50 or so men on their craft exited. The rest of group 998's ships had formed a circle. Warriors poured out into the open and assembled for orders.
"Alright," Canderous said, assertively. "I'm in charge of this mission. I want everything to go smoothly. We're to head up toward the center, secure 20 miles of the city and capture a food storage facility. We're stretched thin for this mission, so we need to cooperate."
"Yes, sir," a few said, unenthusiastically.
"I need one company to stay here and secure this area, pilots guard your ships, the rest of you behind me," Canderous barked.
With Lashiyya at his side, Canderous led a large group of Mandalorians up a large avenue. "Where do you think everyone's gone?" Lashiyya asked, her voice garbled slightly through her helmet.
"They probably have an alert system; they ran for their holes," Canderous said.
"If everybody heeded that warning, we should have an easy job," Lashiyya said, the nagging memory of her dream not far from her mind.
"If," Canderous repeated.
One gray drab building after another passed them by, each one indistinguishable from the other. It was as if they were walking in place—their boots crushing the same soil—and the scenery on either side unchanging. They moved slowly, so that warriors could check the premises of the buildings for anything suspicious.
"What a worthless culture!" Lashiyya commented, hoping it would strike a cord. "These people were asking to be conquered!"
Several nearby men gave hearty laughs. "What did you expect?" a young man said. "Mandalorian culture is the pinnacle of beauty and magnificence and dominisifi—"
He had failed miserably to recite what he'd been taught to think. Canderous stopped paying attention as Lashiyya corrected the man.
He was curious why no one had come out yet. Surely, some brave and curious soul would have poked his head out by now? Yet, as he scanned the buildings' windows he could not see a thing, not even the flash of a head running for cover.
Canderous turned on a thermal-vision function on his visor. Everything around him was above body-temperature; the plasma charges had had the nasty effect of raising the surface temp just high enough to render him heat-blind.
"Captain," Canderous said, to a one of the other leaders who was walking on his right. "What do you make of the situation?"
"I don't follow you, Commander; what situation?" he responded.
"That's what I mean," Canderous said, frustrated. "Don't you find it odd that we haven't encountered anyone?"
"Do you suspect an ambush, Commander?" the captain said, in a tone that made it clear he found the idea laughable.
"All I mean is that—" Canderous began to say. However, he was cut of by the sound of shattering glass and a strange hissing sound. "DOWN!" he shouted.
The explosive projectile which Canderous had known was coming before he'd seen it blasted through the place where he would have been standing. The device hit the ground near the captain to whom Canderous had been speaking, taking little more than a nanosecond to detonate.
Shrapnel, fire, plasma and smoke shot through the air. Canderous' suit absorbed the brunt of the impact—his aural dampeners even did their job by shielding him from the sound of the explosion, which would have deafened him. Lashiyya, was the first thing that came to Canderous's mind when he started thinking again.
He looked beside him and saw her, rustling slightly. "GET UP!" Canderous shouted, "Take cover!" Those who had survived the initial blast uninjured were happy to follow this order. Blaster bolts erupted from the barrels of unseen carbines just as Group 988 attempted to reach safety.
Canderous, Lashiyya, and three others ran for cover in the foyer of an adjacent building. Ducking inside, they saw two men fall to of the ground, felled by bright red blasts of plasma. Beyond them, a massive crater from the impact of the projectile lay ringed by several bodies of fallen Mandalorians.
"Are you alright?" Canderous asked in a single breath.
"I'm fine," Lashiyya responded in kind.
The rest of the group had taken cover in a building across the street, and were returning fire on the building which had launched the ambush.
"They're attacking this building!" an observant warrior said.
"Radio the others, tell them to hold fire on my command," Canderous said to the observant warrior. "The rest of you come with me."
Lashiyya took a second to get her bearings. The entrance was drab like the exterior of the building. This appeared to be an apartment building. Judging from the uncared for state of the place it was a lower-class one. In the corner were a lift and a staircase. Canderous had opted for the staircase and was leading his men up.
"What floor are they on?" Canderous asked, radioing his fellow soldiers.
"Fourth floor!" came the response.
They charged up three flights of stairs, their legs running on stamina and pure adrenaline. Finally, they came to the fourth floor, where they heard the sound of blasters coming from a room at the end of a hallway.
"They haven't noticed us," Canderous said. "We go down the hall and stop on my orders. I'll have them cease fire then we attack."
"Okay."
They reached the end of the hallway, and heard the sounds of repeaters and carbines departing and incoming. "Hold fire," Canderous radioed to the other portion of his group.
"Understood."
Canderous waited for the sound of incoming blaster bolts to cease—and thought he heard ever so faintly a voice from the room ask 'why've they stopped?'—before kicking down the fragile wooden door.
The had only a split second to see a large room with an open layout and about twenty men crouched around energy shields along the façade of the building.
Lashiyya and one of the warriors launched grenades into the large room, while Canderous and the other warrior mercilessly blasted the combatants.
Glass shattered and walls turned to dust as the grenades exploded on the partisans. A few let out screams of terror as they felt the nearly indescribable pain of being riddled with shrapnel, or having their skin seared off, or even taking a blaster bolt to the chest. None of the Mandalorians had a chance to see faces in the clouds of dust created by the explosions.
In a matter of seconds though, it wouldn't matter. They had killed the whole room, without suffering a single casualty. "Threat has been neutralized," Canderous said.
As the dust settled, Lashiyya and another examined the corpses and the room, while Canderous and the second warrior, noticed a half-open door on the wall. Knocking the door down, they found a group of three women, huddled on the floor around a cache of weapons—grenades mostly.
One of the women pleaded in a language neither understood. Slaves, wives, friends, foes it didn't matter. The warrior fired a shot in the tinderbox in front of them and whatever they had to say went up in smoke.
There wouldn't have been time to reflect on the morality of that decision. Not that it would have mattered even if they could have. Civilians die in wars. More so the ones who hide out with partisans, when they should run to shelters.
"All clear."
Canderous led his group father along, halfway to their intended target. They faced sporadic fighting along the way but were never caught off-guard again. They stopped ten miles in, a little while after nightfall, on orders from Mandalore. He did not want his troops marching through hostile territory in the dead of night.
They set up camp inside of one of the city's abandoned apartment buildings, which watches guarding for ambush at all hours of the night. Canderous knew that he had done something good that day, but he didn't realize what it had meant to his subordinates until he heard a few of them talking about him.
He had earned their respect with his quick thinking and action, and more than likely saved dozens of Mandalorian lives.
"You know Canderous," Lashiyya said, as they prepared for bed. "Mandalore will probably get word of this. He's gonna be looking for commanders, people he can trust."
"I'll do what needs to be done," Canderous said, stoically. "If that earns me favor with Mandalore, so be it."
Canderous heaved off his heavy armor and changed into nightclothes, before crawling into bed. He watched as Lashiyya washed dust and dirt from her face, in a small adjoined bathroom. He admired her, as much for her beauty as for her character—though he would never tell her.
She exited the bathroom in a short nightgown and jumped onto the bed. She crept close to Canderous embracing him from behind. He turned and gently caressed the soft features of her face, and she in turn felt the already rough features of his. A night of meaning and rest followed.
At daybreak, Canderous organized Group 988 and they again set out toward their target, which was now around ten miles away. It was interesting the way that the sun rose over the peak of the mountain-like city. What a crowning jewel of civilization it must have seemed like not long ago.
The way was peaceful today. Not a good sign, Canderous kept to himself.
"Do you think they've given up—dispersed?" Lashiyya asked, her breath visible in the cool morning.
"No," Canderous admitted, "I doubt it. Probably consolidated their forces. We could face worse today."
"I'm worried," Lashiyya whispered, making sure that no one else was listening.
"About what?" Canderous wondered.
"My dream," she continued quietly. "This place is so familiar. The background was all blurry, but something about this place…the smell, the taste, something in the air."
"You smell in your dreams?" Canderous asked, aiming for levity.
Lashiyya laughed, and threw her gloved hands on her dirtied helmet. "Please take me seriously," she pleaded.
"I do take you seriously," Canderous said. "But what can I do about it? Fate will do as she wants. We have a mission to complete in the meantime."
What can I say to that? There's no way that I will convince Canderous to run to back to our ships. He would rather die than be a coward, Lashiyya thought.
"Commander," a young warrior said, getting Canderous' attention. "What should we do about that."
The warrior was pointing straight ahead, to a fork in the avenue they were on. Canderous had seen this on the maps he'd review before the battle. They would need to secure the area between the divergent streets and they join back up two miles ahead. We're so close now.
"Alright," Canderous addressed his fellow Mandalorians. "You guys! I want you to come with me. We'll take the street on the left. The rest of you, take the right path. Lashiyya you're in charge."
"Can I have a word with you, Commander?" Lashiyya asked with utmost respect.
"You may."
They walked a few paces ahead of the group.
"We should stay together!" Lashiyya protested, whispering. "We're just asking for another ambush. And my dream! I've got a bad feeling about this. How can I lead—"
"I trust you," Canderous said, with utmost confidence.
Lashiyya looked at his helmet for any sign of expression. His face was hidden behind a blue helmet covered in carbon scoring, dust and dirt—a reflective visor the only window to his expression. "I'll do everything to earn that trust," Lashiyya said.
They returned to the group and lead them along their respective paths. For both the environments changed quickly. The incline of the street Canderous was walking on was becoming very steep: tiring his men even as they encountered sporadic fire every few minutes.
Lashiyya and her group found themselves in a deserted slum. The raw sewage in the streets best characterized this part of town, Lashiyya thought. But unlike Canderous, she faced no resistance as she went along.
Lashiyya's sensors detected movement just as she observed a slight ripple in a rank puddle just ahead. She put up two fingers to signal the others to stop and be attentive. She took her blaster carbine in both hands, eyes scanning their surroundings.
Then just as quickly as before several men burst from buildings on both sides of the street, blasters blazing. The Mandalorians responded in kind, taking cover only after they had brought down a few of the partisans.
Lashiyya and another warrior found safety behind a large bin of some kind, and used the space to fire upon the buildings from which the men had come. But they received nothing in return. A few minutes passed. They're testing us, testing our patience, Lashiyya thought.
The warrior next to her rose to move forward, but Lashiyya grabbed his leg to hold him back. "It's a trap; they're waiting for us to go into the open."
"Lie on your belly as long as you want," the soldier responded brashly. "I ain't no slave coward."
And he left. Lashiyya's suspicions were confirmed a moment later when a round of blaster fire filled the body of the warrior who had left her side. "No, you're just an idiot," she commented, cruelly.
She lobbed a grenade toward their enemy and used the distraction to instruct the rest of the group to open fire. They dispatched this group in a few more minutes.
Pressing on, Lashiyya and the rest of the group were infinitely more attentive than before. Lashiyya once launched an attack onto a piece of cloth whipping in the breeze. Eventually, she came to a point where she had to face the fact that she was entering a place eerily familiar to her.
Yet another street battle began, this time in close quarters with the enemy taking cover behind crude barricades. Lashiyya had no time to think of her dream now, as she fought desperately to defend her self and her group.
A figure to her left, on the periphery of her vision instinctually led her to fire. When the moment had passed and she noticed the body lying in the street, an unimaginable horror gripped her.
The body in the street was that of a little boy, probably seven or eight years old. Even from her distance she could see he had red hair and was clutching nothing other than a loaf of bread. Her heart sunk and emotion filled up inside. What have I done!?
Disregarding the battle that was taking place, she jumped over their barricade and ran to the body of the boy. She took off her helmet, and felt the cool climate-controlled environment leave her, to the feeling of a humid stagnant heat in the air. She was crying uncontrollably as she realized the child was dead.
Nevertheless, she picked up the body and rushed into the nearest building. Perhaps, there was still some life in him. She found the blast mark in the middle of his chest and placed a kolto pack directly onto it, while she tried to resuscitate the boy.
As her efforts became more and more futile, she reached for her radio and tried to call on all the strength she had. "Canderous, this is Lashiyya! Where are you?"
"We've secured the storage facility," he said, jovially. "Where are you? What's that noise in the background?"
"We've been hit with heavy resistance," Lashiyya said, turning from the child in order to clear herself of emotion. "We need help over her, immediately! I killed…My dream!"
Lashiyya's voice had given into the panic within. "What are you talking about?"
"I know what was happening in my dream! I-I killed someone. A little boy. I-I can't—"
But Lashiyya's voice stopped with the sound of a blast from behind, as she fell to the floor in silence.
Lashiyya slowly emerged back into consciousness and pain. A horrible smell filled her nostrils and she knew someone was using smelling salts to awaken her. She opened her eyes to see Canderous above her, concern on his face. She went to speak but gargled out blood instead.
Her back was in immense pain.
"Where?" she barely managed to ask.
"We're on a transport back to a field hospital," Canderous answered, looking at the landscape as the ship flew along. "If you hadn't called for back up just they, your group would have been overwhelmed."
"Did we…" she said, having trouble finishing.
"We did our duty," Canderous answered, hoping that was her question. "Group 988 faced some of the heaviest resistance. We're going to be honored by Mandalore. There's talk of a position for me…"
Canderous stopped himself. Lashiyya was doing the best she could to smile. "Are you in pain?"
"I feel numb. Am I going to be alright?"
Lashiyya's question went unanswered. Perhaps, if he hadn't been instilled with a Mandalorian sense of frankness and honesty, Canderous might have seen fit to lie to her. Utterly speechless, Canderous turned his gaze from the window back on to Lashiyya.
She was heavily bandaged, her neck braced, her hair sweaty and matted. Canderous leaned over her weakening body and pressed a passionate and resigned kiss on her cooling lips.
Lashiyya breathed a sigh of acknowledgment. She could read the signs. "That bad, eh?"
"It's not the end though," Canderous said, years of culture holding back a tide of emotions which battered the walls of his soul.
"No it isn't," she voiced, with transcendent wisdom.
Canderous choked back everything he felt and said, "All good soldiers go to the fight the Great Battle sooner or later. You're Mandalorian, I'll fight with you again."
"I don't think I'll go to the Great Battle," she said, her eyes fixed on a point beyond both of them. "I'm dar'manda. I did something horrible…"
"Don't worry," he said, knowing what she was referring to. "Battle is our penance, we will pay for all our wrongs together."
"I was always a slave at heart Canderous. I'm going to my people, to face their judgement…"
"I want to see you again," Canderous said. "I don't want to live here without you."
"There are more things in the Galaxy than are in our philosophy, Canderous. I will see you again, even if I have to cross the whole of Chaos," Lashiyya said. Words of wisdom which seemed to come from without rather than within.
She was fading quickly. Moment by moment, spent in silence, saw more and more of the spirit of Lashiyya leaving. "I love you," she said weakly. A small sound escaped and her face stiffened as Lashiyya breathed her last.
A monitor in front of Canderous sounded loudly, and a medical attendant burst into the small room. "She's gone?" he asked.
"Yes," Canderous answered.
"Is there anything we can do for you? Losses are hard even on a soldier," the man said.
Knowing that he would need to hold himself together for the rest of this battle, this war, this life, and knowing what Lashiyya would have wanted him to do, Canderous pressed down his feelings for Lashiyya. "Nothing," Canderous said softly. "She was just a slave."
"Oh," the attendant said, shocked. "Why would you waste your time—"
"She was a Mandalorian," he said contradicting himself. "And a damn good warrior. She fought bravely. I'd stay beside all of my men to see them through to the Great Battle."
"I see," the medical attendant mumbled. "I meant no offense."
"I don't take it personally," Canderous said, coolly. "Another warrior like the rest."
The medical attendant pulled a sheet over the face of Lashiyya and left the room, without another word. Canderous walked over to the body, placing rough hands on the top of the sheet he peeled it back. Her face was peaceful, her lips already darkening. He had to check, though. To confirm that his mind hadn't been playing tricks.
And with the truth staring back with lifeless eyes, Canderous replaced the sheet, and moved to leave the room.
Stopping in the doorway he looked back at her. "I love you, too," he whispered, too late for her ears to hear. And closing the door behind him, he left behind an idea of love he would never again grasp for.
"There are more things in the Galaxy than are in our philosophy, Canderous." I loved this line from Hamlet so much I had to steal it and adapt it.