Ord Mantell was almost nice. Certainly nicer than Hoth. It had some nice trees, some ocean views, and was almost civilized.
Jak flattened behind a rock, a blaster bolt flying inches from where her head had been. Pity about all the people trying to kill her. And her hair was in her face again. Trying to blow away the dark lock that wouldn't stay put, she reloaded her rifle. Damn Separatists. Like the Republic needed another war. Unfortunately, they were currently standing between her and retrieving a city leveling bomb. Unfortunate for them.
Peering around the edge of the rock she counted two. Distance was too far to be accurate. Nothing for it, then. Jak swung around the rock and fired four shots in quick succession. Double-tap. Double-tap. The men crumpled to the ground.
"Be careful, Sergeant," Lieutenant Jorgan's voice came over the comm.
"I'm always careful, sir." Pulling off her helmet, Jak tried to stick the ends of her hair back into her hairband but it was still too short. Damn past Jakoava for thinking bangs were a good idea. Damn past Jakoava for a lot of things.
There was silence over the line. A judgmental silence, Jak decided. Lieutenant Aric Jorgan was not her biggest fan. Maybe he had read her file. He seemed like the type who would do that. Maybe he was sore about babysitting her after Havoc Squad came in and disrupted his normal operations. Not that she had asked to be constantly under video and audio surveillance. But right now the rest of Havoc were MIA and they were stuck with each other.
"Almost to the entrance," she muttered into the comm. "You know, who builds a base in a volcano and doesn't think at least once to themselves, 'hey, maybe we're the bad guys?'"
No response from the Cathar over the comm.
Jak studied the entrance. A giant, steel passageway cut into the side of the mountain. Only what seemed to be a token guard out front. It wouldn't be that much trouble to get in. "That was a joke, Lieutenant. You're allowed to laugh. Laughing isn't against regulation last I checked." Now how much longer until they noticed her?
"Just keep your head in the mission, Kolia."
If she wasn't mistaken, he gave an audible sigh as she rushed forward and jammed her rifle into the back of one of the guards' heads.
Jak moved through the Separatist base, sweeping the main corridor left and right. "When this is over, Jorgan, I'm buying you a drink because you definitely need one. Or five."
His response, if there was one, was drowned out by the screech of droids. Where were the Seps getting combat droids?
She moved deeper into the volcano. Sweat collected on the back of her neck as the temperature rose. Sweeping through the groups of Separatists became a routine. Another group of droids. Another flak shell. Ion burst. Clean up the survivors. Carry on to the next platform. She moved forward and forward, stopping only to reload and to rifle butt a remaining Sep into the pool of magma below.
The base continued deeper and deeper. How had they built all this? As far as she was aware the Separatists on Ord Mantell were an isolated cell. Where had they gotten the resources?
She came to a junction. "Which way, command?"
"Up the ramp and to the left. That's where you'll find the Separatists' main terminal. You should be able to disable the ZR-57 from there," Jorgan answered.
"Roger." Jak swung left and blasted two more approaching Separatists out of the way. Somewhere in the distance an alarm blared. It had taken them long enough. No pressure like time pressure. That just made this more fun. Putting a final bolt into the last one standing, she sprinted up the ramp Jorgan had indicated.
She stopped short at the doorway. Jak stared at the room full of Imperial technicians. The Imperials stared back.
"I thought those Seps were a little too well armed," growled Jorgan. "Proceed with… caution." His voice trailed off as Jak grabbed the nearest Imperial and punched him in the face.
Jak grabbed onto the technician and swung him around into the door panel. He hit the wall with a thud and slumped to the ground as the door slid closed. Firing a bolt into the lock, she spun to deal with the next one.
Take out the guards first, then worry about the rest of the techs. She paused as someone chucked a monitor into her back, but it bounced off her durasteel armor. Next one. Elbow to the face. Blaster to the head. Don't get tired now.
Jak felt her implants kick in, pumping her full of adrenals. This was taking too long. The numbers were not in her favor right now. She threw down a grenade and dived behind a desk. Shrapnel flew through the air.
"Please do not blow up the terminal that is vital to succeed at what we are trying to do," came Jorgan's voice.
Jak threw her shoulder against the desk to tip it over and propped her rifle over the top. "Worst case I just find the bomb and disarm it manually."
"That is not the worst case. The worst case is–"
"Can't talk now," Jak cut him off as she ducked back down behind the desk, avoiding the hail of blaster fire.
"You need to have more faith in me, Lieutenant," Jak said as she stood at the terminal rubbing her shoulder, a pile of bodies in the room behind her. A haze of smoke filled the room. It was lucky the Separatists hadn't installed proper fire safety measures because she really didn't want to deal with sprinklers going off right now.
"Just disarm the bomb already, Kolia."
A few more seconds… "Done. The ZR-57 is disarmed, sir."
"Great job, Sergeant." She tried to find the sarcasm in Jorgan's voice, but all she could hear was relief.
Jak shrugged. "I'm good, what can I say?"
"Don't get cocky, Kolia. We're not done yet. Havoc Squad is still MIA and with the Imps here, finding them is priority one. If they've been captured…"
"And the bomb?"
"Since it's been deactivated it's less of a threat, but if you can, try to retrieve it. It cost about forty million credits, so Command would like it back. Havoc is still the main priority."
"That was almost a joke." Muffled voices came from the other side of the door and a pounding soon followed. That was her cue to leave. Windowless room, but there was an air duct. Jak jumped up on a console and shot through the grate in the ceiling. "Jorgan, when I get out of this, tell Command I want a grappling hook."
"I'll be sure to let them know." There was the sarcastic Jorgan she'd come to know and not quite love. As she pulled herself up into the air vent, she idly wondered what exactly would happen if she managed to get five drinks in him. Did the guy even know how to loosen up?
Damn the size of this base. It had too many nooks and crannies and she still hadn't found Havoc Squad yet. They had to be here somewhere. She couldn't be the last of her team. Not again. Dodging another patrol, she backed into a hanger bay. Of course it couldn't be an empty hanger bay, Jak thought as she glanced over her shoulder to see the Imperials. Imperials and a flash of white and orange.
With both relief and worry, she turned on her comm. "Lieutenant, I've located Havoc Squad. They're in Imperial custody and–"
A rifle jammed into her back. "Don't move," a voice whispered in her ear. Wraith. She hadn't noticed the Mirialan circle behind her.
Jak slowly held up her hands. "We're on the same team here."
The pressure in her back increased. "Just move forward."
Jak slowly walked toward the shuttle in the center of the bay. Had Wraith sold out Havoc? Commander Tavus and the others came into view, Tavus deep in conversation with an Imperial commander, Fuse and Gearbox helping load the ZR-57 into the shuttle.
"We've brought you your new toy–" Tavus cut off and Jak and Wraith approached. "Kolia, I thought my orders were very clear. You aren't supposed to be here."
As far as Jak was concerned, Havoc wasn't supposed to be here either. "Havoc was MIA, sir. Lieutenant Jorgan sent me to investigate." She glanced around the room, assessing. No Imperial guns were pointed at Havoc Squad. "Please tell me this isn't what it looks like."
"You came through the entire base by yourself?" Tavus stared at her. "What a waste." He shook his head. "You're a damn good soldier, Kolia. A born warrior. I had hoped it wouldn't come to this. There wasn't enough time to make you understand."
Jak was still very aware of Wraith's rifle in her back. "Understand what? Defecting? You're right, sir, I can't possibly understand that."
"Can't you? The Republic cast us aside, Kolia, when we needed them most."
Defecting. The best squad in the Republic defecting. She wasn't sure if this was better or worse than the rest of her squad being blown up. "That doesn't make the Empire better!"
"You weren't with us on Ando Prime when the Republic abandoned us to die." He stared off into the distance. "I told Garza that this was the wrong Op to give Havoc fresh meat but she was so insistent. At any other point you would have been great on Havoc, Sergeant. I'm sorry it has to end this way."
"Commander," said Gearbox. "If we don't break atmo in the next few minutes we'll have every gun on the island aiming for us."
Tavus nodded then looked back at Jak. "I had hoped after everything you've been through you'd see it our way, but at least you'll have the luxury of dying with your ideals intact."
"Then you don't know me very well," spat Jak.
"Do you know yourself, Kolia?" Tavus turned and barked, "Havoc, load up. We'll let our new friends clean up. Thanks for the ZR-57, Sergeant. We owe you one for that. Too bad you'll be dead."
Covering shots from Needles and Fuse caused Jack to duck and roll as the shuttle lifted off. "This is not the end of this," she shouted at the retreating shuttle.
She only just heard the blaster bolt go off in time to duck out of the way. It would have been too much to ask for all the Imperials to have shipped out. "I climbed a mountain." Blam. Blam. "Shot my way through a volcano base." Blam. Blam "And this is supposed to kill me?" Blam. Blam. "This is insulting!" She realized Jorgan must still be on the line. "Jorgan, did you get all that?"
"All of it. Get back to Fort Garnik, Kolia. ASAP."
"Right, I'll just fight my way back through the enemy base." A remaining shuttle in the hanger caught her eye. That was better. Pulling identification off the Imperial Lieutenant at her feet, she ran over the shuttle. "Hey, Jorgan, if I fly in on an Imperial shuttle, can you make sure I don't get shot down?"
There was a sound that suspiciously sounded like Jorgan's hand meeting his face.
Jak made it back to Fort Garnik with the minimum amount of trouble flying an Imperial shuttle into Republic airspace could bring. The halls were quiet as she worked her way back to Jorgan's command room. Maybe word of Havoc's defection hadn't gotten out yet.
Striding into the command center, she found Lieutenant Jorgan arguing with another man. "General, with all due respect," Jorgan said in a tone that could not have been said to be particularly respectful, "How can you do this? I've served with your Infantry Command for years."
The other man–the general–cut him off, "That's enough, Jorgan. This wasn't my choice. But a defection of this scale–someone has to swing, and the powers that be say you."
"Will all due respect, sir," Jak cut in, "There's no way Jorgan could have seen this coming. I'm the remaining member of Havoc Squad, I should be held responsible for my squad's defection and my inability to stop them."
The general turned toward her. "That's very noble, Sergeant, but as I said this is out of my hands."
Jorgan had looked slightly mollified at her words but resumed scowling. Well, she had tried. Her career was already enough in shambles; she would have taken it on. Her promotion to Havoc Squad had come as a complete shock after the last two years of repostings, and now it definitely seemed like a cruel joke.
"Well done with the disarming of the ZR-57, Sergeant Kolia," said the general. "Even though we didn't recover it, all the Imps are left with is a giant, radioactive paperweight."
"What exactly happens now, sir?" asked Jak. "Not to be selfish, but I'm kind of down a squad and C.O."
"As the last remaining member, you're being promoted to Lieutenant and given control of the squad."
Jak blinked in surprise. "You're putting me in charge… of myself."
"Not just yourself. Sergeant Jorgan here is being reassigned to Havoc."
Jak made eye contact with Jorgan, who wore the same shocked expression she was sure she did. This definitely had to be a cruel joke. As if what she needed was someone who would fight her the entire way. Jorgan was at least a professional. Overly professional, she would say. He should be able to follow orders. That didn't mean he was going to like it.
It took a lot of effort to say, "I'm sure Sergeant Jorgan and I will have a lot of… fun together." Jak winced at her own words.
Jorgan scowled deeper but shrugged. "I'll take the Havoc patch and Sergeant stripes if it means I get to grind them into Tavus's face before we kill him."
"This is the best I can do for you, Jorgan. You're a good man and we need good people now more than ever." The general clasped his hands behind his back. "I don't know what Tavus is planning, but he knows the inner workings of our military better than anyone. The destruction he could cause is limitless."
"So we kill every last one of them before they can do anything–at least I assume those are our orders, sir?"
"I'm not the one handing out your orders, Lieutenant. You'll be boarding a shuttle that will take you to the Fleet. From there, Coruscant where you'll meet with General Garza. She'll be running the Op."
Orders directly from the head of SpecForce herself. As if Jak needed any more prompting to grasp the seriousness of the situation. "Understood, sir." Jak turned to Jorgan. "I assume you need time to pack? Rendezvous at the shuttle at sixteen-hundred?"
"Copy that… sir," and he turned and strode out of the room.