M/M slash in later chapters. Please don't read if this isn't your thing! This was supposed to be PWP for clicketykeys but it instead became a full and proper story in its own right. This is from Corso's POV.
I'm on the ridge above the landing pad when the freighter comes screaming in. The ship dodges a volley of fire from one of the Separatist guns and banks into a tighter turn than I thought possible. Whoever 's piloting her is blasted good. I shade my eyes with one hand and recognize her as one of the XS stock light freighters. This must be Skavak's smuggler. He said he was expecting a delivery today.
I track her with my eyes as she swoops down to the landing pad. Even from here I can hear the clunk of her landing gear locking into place. She's coming in fast, but the pilot keeps it together and drops her dead centre on the pad. I can see Skavak lounging against a wall nearby as the pilot cuts the engines.
In the silence after the engines power down, the deep whud-whud-whud of artillery fire is very loud. The big turrets from the Fort are raking the no-man's-land in front of the durasteel walls. The Separatists must be trying another push at the Fort. I shake my head. The blasted Seps should just give up. A lot of innocent people are suffering for their stupid war.
There's a sudden panicked burst of comm chatter and I have to put a hand to my ear to try to make sense of the babble. Something about the Republic's air defense cannon, and remote control stations. My blood turns to ice when I realize what they're going on about. The Seps have broken in to one of the Republic's communications relays and sliced the big air defense cannon down the coast. They have control of it now, and can aim it at anything they want. I can hear the low roar of an approaching engine and I spin around, heart in my throat. I know what that sound means. A Republic troop transport is dropping down towards the Fort's spaceport, banking slowly to align its bulk with the proper landing pad.
I grab my communicator, keying in one of the Republic channels. I'm shouting into it before I'm even sure it's connected. "Turn that transport back! The Seps have control of the cannon; they're going to shoot it down!" A burst of static cuts me off, and I'm not sure if my message has gone through or not.
The cannon is moving, swivelling with slow malevolence to track the transport across the sky. My hands curl into fists, nails digging into my palms, but I barely feel it. The first pulse of energy washes across the transport's tail, making the massive ship wobble in the air. Whoever's running the thing adjusts their aim and tries again. The next volley of blasts rakes the ship from stem to stern.
An explosion erupts amidships, a bright blossom of fire. It starts a chain reaction, fireballs bursting out of the crippled ship in a horrifying cascade. Dark, oily smoke trails behind the transport as it starts to list to port. I can hear the engines screaming as the crew fights to save her but she's shedding altitude too fast. I can't do anything but watch as the ship heels over and crashes into the bay with the force of a bomb blast.
The sea erupts in a vast plume under the impact of the bow, hissing into steam as the burning wreckage plunges deeper. I can hear the tortured scream of metal shearing apart. It's a good-sized ship. I'm probably watching two or three hundred people die out there in the water. Fort Garnik is boiling like a nest of ants. Troops race back and forth, soldiers scrambling into armour, officers organizing rescue squads. I doubt they're going to find any survivors.
I can't watch any more. I turn away, gritting my teeth. Down on the landing pad, I can see Skavak talking to someone. The stranger has his back to me, but it must be the freighter's captain. Skavak is gesticulating broadly, pointing to the ship and then the air. It's only then that I realize they didn't know what just happened. The landing pad is tucked into the hills. They won't have seen the transport get shot down, and they won't know that the Seps will probably shoot at anything that takes off. They probably heard it, but blaster fire and explosions are all too common on Ord Mantell these days.
I'm running before I even realize I'm moving, pounding down the twisting, dusty path to the hangar. My rifle, slung over his shoulder, clatters against my armoured backplate and bangs into the backs of my legs as I skid down the last few feet and leap up onto the duracrete landing pad.
Skavak looks up at the sound of my boots, instinctively going for his pistol before he realizes it's me. "Skavak!" I pant, taking a big gulp of air and trying to slow my racing pulse. "The Seps! They've taken the air defense cannon. They just shot down a Republic transport." I swallow down a fresh wave of horror. "Captain," I say, turning to the other man. "You can't take off. They'll shoot at anything that launches."
I get my first good look at him and I feel like I've been punched in the gut. I can't catch my breath, and it's not just from the run down from the ridge. The captain is tall, a couple of inches taller than me. He's got pale skin, probably from spending all his time on a spaceship. But there's a smattering of freckles across his nose and cheeks, so he must see the sun sometimes. His short, spiky hair is a coppery brown, and his eyes a rich green. He's got a scar across the right one, slicing down from his forehead to his cheek. It looks like it was made by a knife and I wonder what happened.
He sets his hands on his hips, which only draws my attention to the way his brown leather jacket emphasises his broad shoulders. His white shirt stretches tight across his muscular chest. Get it together, Riggs, I think to myself. This isn't the time or the place.
"You got a name?" he asks, giving me a once over. Stars, having him look at me like that isn't helping.
"Corso Riggs," I say, and he sticks his hand out for me to shake. His grip is firm and warm, his skin very pale against mine. I can feel calluses on his palm and fingers. He's no stranger to hard work.
"Arkanesh Vere'k," he responds. "Pleased to meet you." Is it my imagination, or does his hand linger in mine for just a moment? I swallow hard, turning back to Skavak to try to regain my equilibrium. He's probably not even interested, I tell myself. Not that I would know what to look for anyways. I hope I'm not blushing.
I quickly turn my attention back to Skavak, who's watching me closely. Did he catch me checking the captain out? No, he's probably just worried about the Seps. I know he wants out of here; he's always talking about it. He's never liked Ord Mantell. I sometimes wonder why he's even here.
I met Skavak through Viidu, the wily old merchant I work for. Well, I say merchant. While he's got a number of legitimate business enterprises, he's also got a bunch more under the table, so to speak. The man is a scoundrel through-and-through, but I like him anyways. He gave me a job when I had nothing. Just as a labourer in his warehouse, but credits were credits back then. I made friends with a couple of his guards and they taught me how to shoot and wrestle. I was good at it, and Viidu noticed, so I got a promotion.
It was still another year before I found out about the other side of his business. I guess they don't let the new guy in on the stuff that could get them all arrested until they're sure they can trust him. But that's when I met Skavak. He brought Viidu a shipment of cloth - or so I thought. It was actually Whyren's Reserve, a rare, expensive Corellian whiskey. Just one crate of the stuff could have bought half of Drelliad village.
Skavak never spent much time on Ord Mantell. He was Viidu's favourite errand boy, and he was generally in charge of making sure Viidu's shipments arrived on schedule. I got to know him a little when he was around, though. He considered himself quite the ladies' man and for some reason, women fell all over him most of the time. I couldn't quite figure it out. He was a pretty smooth talker, but it all sounded fake to me. He was well-travelled, though, and could spin a good story. And there was the aura of danger that he carried with him. He had a jagged, swirling tattoo coiled around his right eye and down the side of his face. He had a hundred different stories about it, and even I didn't know which one was true. The girls just ate it up, though. I don't think I ever saw him spend a night with the same girl twice.
"Blast it," Skavak is saying, pulling my mind back to the present. "I'm not getting stuck on this dirt ball." He jerks a thumb over his shoulder at the freighter. "Help me unload, Riggs. Captain, even your fancy flying won't help you if the Seps really do have that cannon. If you want to launch, you're going to have to get it out of their hands."
"What do I need to do?" Arkanesh asks, eyes intent on Skavak.
"They've got some remote control stations around," Skavak says. "They're probably using those to transmit the signal to the cannon. If you can torch enough of them..." he spread his hands and the captain picks up on his meaning.
"They won't have the signal strength to keep the Republic from taking it back from them." Skavak nodded. "I can do that. What am I looking for?"
Skavak gives me a look and I remember I'm supposed to be unloading the blasters. I hurry for the ship while Skavak pulls out his datapad to show the captain the layout of the village and a holo of one of the control relays. I take a quick look back over my shoulder before I climb into the hold, letting myself admire the tightness of Arkanesh's pants. I blush when I realize what I'm doing, and duck in through the door.
Arkanesh is gone when I come out of the ship with the first crate braced on my shoulder. Skavak is at the terminal, frowning as he taps away at the screen. "Hey," I call over to him. "You gonna help me with this?"
"Yeah," he replies distractedly. He doesn't even look up from what he's doing. "Just give me a minute, okay?"
I have no idea what he's up to, but I'm not his boss. Still, he had better not make me unload everything by myself. I said I'd help, not do it all. I set the crate down along one wall and head back to the ship for the next one.
I've just stepped on board when I hear a commotion back in the hangar. There's shouting, then blaster fire, and an explosion nearby. I snatch for Torchy, my trusty blaster, and stick my head out through the hatch.
Separatists are streaming into the hangar. I count at least a dozen, and I can't see Skavak. I duck back into the ship and grab my holo. Skavak had given me Arkanesh's holo frequency a few days ago, and I quickly punch it in. I probably could have called Viidu to send some of his people, but with any luck the captain is still close by. He hasn't been gone long.
He's distracted when he answers the holo, and I can hear something sparking in the background. He smiles when he recognizes me and I can't help but smile back. "Corso," he says. "I just disabled the computer terminal that was running the signal blockers. I'm on my way back."
"Better hurry, Captain," I say, keeping my voice low. "Seps have hit the hangar. We could use another gun." I hear movement behind me and whip my head around. It's Skavak, blaster in hand. "Good, you're okay. We need to get the hangar door closed." He keeps coming, face unreadable. "Skavak?" I glance back at my holo. Arkanesh is watching me closely. His eyes widen and he opens his mouth to shout a warning. I turn as fast as I can, just in time to catch the butt of Skavak's blaster with my cheekbone.