Vhetin's chest felt like it was on fire, but he couldn't let it affect him. Not while Ramser was pinned down and needed help. He scrambled from speeder roof to speeder roof, aware of the Berserkers retreating just behind him. Jay was also at his side, struggling to make it through the clogged street. A disorienting mix of comm static and the roars of Trandoshans almost drowned out his helmet's audio receptors.

"Come on!" he shouted and ducked as a shotgun blast rang out just behind him. He saw that Mandos who had already retreated a safe distance were massing at the head of the street to hold back the Trando advance to buy the Canderous tanks time to get into position. As he sprinted closer, he saw the long line of soldiers raise their rifles.

"Volley!" someone shouted.

"Shab!" he shouted, gesturing at Jay. "Get down!"

He dove behind the cover of a speeder, Jay right beside him. The colossal clamor of over a hundred rifles firing simultaneously overloaded his helmet's receptors for a moment. There was a blinding flash of light as hundreds of multi-colored blaster bolts flew overhead.

He spun and looked back at the advancing Trandos just as the volley hit. The aliens in the front row crumpled instantly, dead before they hit the ground. The advancing lines, driven on by their frenzy for blood, tumbled over the bodies. Trandos toppled over each other with roars and hisses of surprise, slowing their approach.

"Okay," Jay said, looking back at the Mandalorian lines. "They're gesturing for us to move up. We're clear."

"Let's not keep them waiting," he grunted, grimacing as he hauled himself to his feet again.

They reached the corner of the street without further incident. The Mandalorians there were milling about, watching the approaching Trandoshans intently. Every few minutes they would release another deadly volley of blaster fire at the Trandoshans. Jay had to cover her ears at the explosive sound of hundreds of rifles firing at once. The volley was louder than the firing of a Star Destroyer's turbolaser cannon.

As they slipped through the Mando lines, a white-armored medic stepped forward and caught Vhetin's arm.

"Hey vod. Are you all right?" the man asked, gesturing at Vhetin's bloody flight suit.

He shook the man off. "I'm all right. It's just a flesh wound."

"You need to come with us to the first-aid tent. You need that wound dressed right away."

"I have orders from Shysa that say I don't have time."

The medic sighed and muttered, "You damn Supercommandos never listen… all right, just take this and administer it as soon as possible."

Vhetin turned just as the medic tossed him a thick round canister. He caught the canister and cocked his helmeted head at the medic questioningly.

"Medfoam," the man explained as two other medics struggled toward him, hauling a bloodied Protector between them. "Apply it as soon as you can and it'll stop the bleeding for a time."

"Got it," Vhetin said, clipping the canister to his belt.

"Then get your ass to the medical tent!" the man called after him as he set off again.

Jay suddenly called him back. He turned and cocked his head in curiosity. She shouted, "What's wrong with comms?"

He shook his head. "Something's jamming us. We don't know what it is. We've lost all our long-range comms and the short-range channels are breaking down as we speak."

She frowned and thanked him before turning and nodding to Vhetin. They set off at a sprint down the street in the direction of the coordinates Shysa had given him.

"So where is Ramser?" she asked as they ran.

"A local bank," he explained. "He's holed himself up on the tenth floor. From what Shysa's been able to pull from nearby traffic cams, the Trandoshans are trying to get into the building. There are quite a few of them, apparently."

She hefted the shotgun she'd stolen from the dead Trandoshan and muttered, "I don't care how many there are. Even they can't withstand a shotgun spray to the face."

"That's the spirit," he said. He chuckled quietly then broke down in gasping coughs. He rested an arm against the building face next to him to prop him up.

Jay was almost instantly standing in front of him and staring at him with a concerned gaze. "Hey," she said slowly, "are you sure you're okay?"

He nodded. "I'm fine."

"You may have a punctured lung from that shotgun blast," she said. "Maybe we should see the medics before we head out."

"Ramser won't last that long," he said. He straightened out and took several long, deep breaths. "See? I'm fine."

She narrowed her eyes at him, obviously unsure whether or not to believe him. After a few moments she sighed and said, "All right then. If you say you're fine then let's go."

They set off at a jog in the direction of the bank where Ramser was pinned down. It was a few blocks away from the main Protector lines, but Vhetin could still hear the explosions and loud discharges of blasters in the distance. As they drew nearer to the building his helmet's audio receptors picked up a deep, pounding thoom, thoom, thoom coming from the direction of the main battlefield.

"Sounds like Shysa got those Canderous tanks deployed," Jay observed. She must have heard the sounds as well. "Those mass driver cannons will tear those Trandoshans apart."

"Keep on guard," he reminded her. "That group was just a small force of slavers. This entire city is occupied."

She looked up at the rooftops uneasily. "Don't remind me."

As they ran he gave her the run-down of what he'd learned about the building so far: known as ConfiBank, the building used to be a trusted bank used by many of the Tachadori upper class. Then, about ten years ago, someone had broken in and stolen over thirteen million credits. After that, ConfiBank had burned through osikloads of money trying to beef up security. They had completely remodeled the building so the interior was built like a maze.

"A maze?" Jay echoed skeptically. "And Ramser's stuck in the middle of it?"

"Exactly. And so are about thirty Trandoshans if Shysa's readings are to be believed."

"What about escape routes?"

"With the remodel came the idea that there should be no escape routes. Fire escapes were too convenient getaway routes for potential thieves."

"So they sacrificed safety for the sake of security? That's just stupid."

"It's what we're going up against," Vhetin said. "Each floor is completely devoid of fire escapes, windows, or skylights. There are only four ways in or out of the building and they're all on the ground floor."

"So we'll have to fight our way up ten floors to get to Ramser, then fight our way back down ten floors to escape. I'm filled with confidence about this plan. Are there any access shortcuts?"

"I'm looking into that now," Vhetin said. He pulled up the building's schematics on his HUD and scanned through the blueprints. "It doesn't look… wait. There's a lift that runs through a central pillar structure all the way up to the tenth floor. The only problem is-"

"Let me guess," she interrupted. "It has no power."

"Yeah." He glanced at her sideways through his helmet faceplate. "How did you know?"

She gestured along the street, specifically to the overhead halolamps that were set up on each street side. "None of the lights are on. My guess is that the Trandos hit the city power generators underground before starting their full attack."

He nodded, impressed. "Good thinking. But you're right. The turbolift has no power. But if I can get into the maintenance access nearby, I can reroute the power flow to pull energy from my suit. It should power the turbolift long enough for you to get up there and get back down."

"Pulling power from your armor? Are you sure that's safe?"

He nodded. "Just as long as you don't take too long and drain my batteries."

She laughed and said, "Now you're just being a smartass."

"Only partially. If you're not back down within fifteen minutes I'm going to have to unplug or risk losing all my HUD systems. That includes long-range comms, life-sign scanners, and motion trackers."

"Oh. That would not be good."

"In a situation like this? No. It would not be good."

They rounded a corner and the tall ConfiBank building came into sight. Ten stories tall and painted a dull greenish color, the building looked like a huge block of duracrete. There were no windows or external access ways of any kind save for a single door at ground level. Vhetin scowled. He had to admit that Jay was right. Turning a building into a veritable prison wasn't exactly prudent planning. It was just irresponsible.

There were two Trandoshans standing guard on either side of the door: a tall and lanky slaver and a squat Trando minor. They prowled back and forth in front of the door, hissing and growling to each other in their guttural voices. They both carried shotguns.

He nudged Jay in the shoulder and nodded toward the two. "When we deal with those two, you may want to stock up on shotgun ammo."

She looked at her weapon and Vhetin saw that it was indeed running low. There were only five cylindrical ammunition shells in its magazine.

"I'll keep that in mind," she whispered. "How many lizards are holed up inside?"

Vhetin switched his HUD over to its powerful scanner mode. The entire area lit up blue, with the Trandos in front of the door flashing orange. Just inside the door were three other aliens milling around the main atrium. There was a sea of orange figures scrabbling around on the sixth floor, and about fifteen more on the tenth floor. There was a single orange-colored shape on the other side of a heavy blast door on the tenth floor.

"Ramser is definitely in there," he said, switching off the scanner. "I can see him on the top floor. Apart from that it looks like you'll have fifteen lizards for company. The rest are on the sixth floor."

"What are they doing?"

He shrugged. "I can't see. They're probably trying to get into the money vaults to get their claws on some Tachadori heirlooms and jewels. This was a pretty high-spec bank, after all."

"That makes sense," she said. She nodded toward the two Trandos out front. "What about those two? If we rush them, they'll raise the alarm."

"I've got them," he said. He rummaged in his belt-pouches for a moment. He hesitated as he noticed that the comlink Brianna had given him was blinking green; he'd missed a call.

It was probably Bri calling to check in on me, he thought. He briefly considered calling her back before deciding against it. Ramser needed his help now. He'd call her once they were through here.

After a few more moments of searching he finally pulled out a pack of five razor-tipped darts and clipped them into a receiver on the side of his right gauntlet.

"Darts?" Jay said. "Those aren't part of your normal arsenal."

"I don't usually use them. They're too inaccurate for my taste and the poison they use can be traced. But they're part of the uniform Protector kit and they may come in useful here."

He loaded a dart into the launcher on his gauntlet and raised his forearm, bracing it with his other hand. His helmet's rangefinder swung down and the tiny targeting reticule inside zoomed in on the tall Trandoshan's throat. He let out a quick breath and fired.

There was a quiet puff of compressed air and the dart slashed through the air, hitting the Trando in the throat. The alien twitched and clapped a hand to its neck. It pulled the dart out with thick, clumsy fingers and stared at it with reptilian eyes that wavered in and out of focus. Then it simply toppled over and began frothing at the mouth.

Its fat companion started in surprise and began hissing at the writhing lizard on the ground. Vhetin quickly dropped him with a dart to the stomach. He joined his companion on the ground.

"Nice shooting," Jay said as they sprinted for the door. She grabbed the fallen Trandoshan shotguns and quickly reloaded her weapon, tucking the extra shells into her combat armor's belt packs.

"Remember the plan," he said as they flanked the door. "Get up the turbolift quick, clear the room, and get back down as fast as you can."

She nodded and racked back the loading rod that protruded from the side of her shotgun. "I'll be as fast as humanly possible."

Together they got set for a door breach. They each flanked the door while Vhetin primed a breach charge. He counted off on his fingers before slapping the charge against the door and looking away so as not to be blinded by the explosion.

The heavy door blew inward with a loud blam and Jay threw herself into the room. Vhetin waited the length of a heartbeat so she could get clear of the door before following her. He stepped inside just in time to see Jay fall to her knees and fire her shotgun. The pellet spray from the weapon caught one of the Trando guards in the chest and blasted him off his feet. He snapped his short-stocked rifle up and caught another Trando in a barrage of blaster fire as she barreled into the last alien. She rammed her shoulder into the lizard's chest, knocking him against the wall, and finished him with a hard knee to the face. The lizard groaned and slumped to the floor, unconscious.

He surveyed the suddenly still atrium before nodding and clipping his rifle to his belt. "Nice work, Jay."

She beamed at the praise and said, "I've been practicing since our last contract. Venku's been saying my melee combat skills are lacking."

"Hm. Not any more." He gestured to the lift behind her and said, "Remember the plan. Let's get Ramser out of here."

She nodded and strode toward the lift doors, which were currently jammed shut by power loss. Vhetin switched his HUD to scan the room, looking for the power junction that supplied energy to the turbolift. His HUD quickly found the power cables leading into the turbolift and picked them out in bright green. He tipped his head up and followed the cables as they disappeared into what looked like a maintenance crawlspace in the ceiling.

"Gotcha," he murmured. He grabbed a nearby ladder and set it under the access panel in the ceiling. Once he'd clambered up the metal ladder, a single powerful punch to the access panel knocked it loose from its housing. He slipped up into the maintenance hatch and called down, "Hey, Jay? Do me a favor and move this ladder for me."

She appeared under the access hatch, craning her neck up to look at him. "Why?"

"In case another Trando patrol comes through here. I want to camouflage my location."

"Oh. Okay."

While she was hauling the ladder back to its original location, he slipped the hatch back in place and popped it back into its housing. He switched to Jay's comm channel and said, "Okay. I should be good from here. I'll tell you when I've got power to the turbolift."

"I'll be waiting."

He was forced to crawl on his hands and knees through the maintenance crawlspace – no small feat for a Mandalorian in full battle armor – until he found a small black box set into the wall of the shaft. He pried off the protective lid of the box, the screws popping out of their sockets as he did, and tossed it aside.

Inside were several fuse boxes and power supply sockets, all currently switched off. He quickly found the fuse marked Ground Floor Turbolift and pulled a length of transfer cable from one of his belt pouches. He plugged one end into the power socket next to the fuse, and snapped the other into its socket in the back of his helmet.

There was a loud snap and a shower of sparks. Then a tiny light next to the fuse lit up green.

"Okay," he said over the comm. "You're clear. Get up there and get Ramser."

"I'll be quick," she said. "I promise."

"Make sure you are."

He listened to the sound of the turbolift car slowly rumbling up to the higher levels of the building, then settled back and waited.


Jay bounced on the balls of her feet nervously and flexed her grip on her stolen shotgun. She could hear the lift car rattling as it brought her closer and closer to the tenth floor, to Ramser, and to the horde of Trandoshans trying to kill him. She double-checked that her weapon's receiver was fully loaded and let out a long breath.

Now I know why Mandos like all that armor, she thought. I would feel a lot better about storming this place if I was covered in beskar.

Then again, she thought, looking down at her own composite battle armor, I have to admit this is better than my armorleather jacket. I bet this stuff could stop a blaster round with no problem.

She watched the readout above the lift door as it slowly approached the tenth floor. She flexed her grip on her shotgun and tensed as the readout showed she was passing the sixth floor.

Wait a second, she thought with a sudden rush of adrenaline. If the power was out, the Trandos would be sure to notice the sound of the lift car approaching. If so, they'd be covering the door, waiting to open fire on anything that was waiting inside.

She looked around the small lift car, looking for some way she could keep out of sight. When she couldn't find anything, she sighed and thought, I guess I'll have to do this a little simpler.

She laid down on her stomach on the floor of the lift, much like a sniper in prone position. In this position, any Trandos firing into the door would shoot right over her head and leave her free to fire at them.

She narrowed her eyes as the car passed the eighth floor, then the ninth.

What is it that Vhetin says in situations like this? Oya?

There was a quiet ding as she reached the tenth floor. She heard the lift car grind to a halt and the locking mechanism on the door click open.

Let's hunt, she thought. Then the doors hissed open and she instantly heard two loud explosions. She winced as shotgun spray flew over her head. Then she adjusted her grip on her own shotgun up and squeezed the trigger.

A Trandoshan was blasted back off its feet with a hissing roar. The other one started in surprise and aimed its angular shotgun at her. She cursed and rolled to the side before the alien could fire. She scrambled up and charged into the room, slamming her shoulder into the Trandoshan and knocking the lizard off its feet. Once done, she rolled behind a desk for cover.

As she peeked out from behind the fancy desk she saw that the room was little more than a collection of durasteel vaults with desks set up in the center of the room and privacy booths along one wall for viewing the contents of deposit boxes. There were about eight other Trandoshans prowling around, sniffing at the vault doors or fighting over boxes of valuables.

If Vhetin's scan had been correct, Ramser had locked himself inside one of these vaults to cut himself off from the Trandos.

She sighed and thought, Well, I think I gave up the chance of any subtlety when I decided to take a turbolift up here.

So she took a deep breath and shouted, "Ramser? Trayc Ramser?"

Every Trando in the room spun towards the sound of her voice and she quickly ducked behind the desk again. Shotgun blasts tore into the front of the desk and the tiled floor around her. She reloaded her shotgun and shouted, "Ramser, I know you're in here! If you can hear me, I could sure use some help out here!"

She stuck her head out from behind the desk and fired the shotgun, taking down another lizard. The rest of the aliens, now wise to the fact that she had a weapon, scrambled for cover. They hissed orders to each other in their guttural language and roared barely-understandable obscenities at her.

She peeked out again and quickly looked around the vault room, surveying her tiny battlefield. All the Trandoshans were in hiding now and she could hear them hissing and growling at each other from behind other desks. She quickly ducked back behind her cover and pulled a stun grenade from her belt. She pushed the primer button and the hourglass-shaped explosive let out a loud whine. She quickly tossed it out in the room and covered her ears.

The floor seemed to buck underneath her and she was almost deafened by the loud thoom of the flashbang exploding. A blinding flash of light erupted from the device and she heard lizards hissing and screaming as they were simultaneously deafened and blinded.

There wasn't a moment to lose. She scrambled out from behind cover, sweeping the room with her shotgun. The Trandoshans were all sprawled across the floor, groaning or rubbing at their eyes. Green blood trickled from their stumpy, leathery ears.

She wasted no time in stepping past them and surveying the huge doors of the vaults. There were five vaults in all, each with a high-security code pad mounted next to the door. The doors were huge, circular portals made of high-grade durasteel. If she had to guess, she'd say they were probably about two feet thick.

She could see why Ramser had decided to barricade himself inside. No amount of Trandoshan firepower would be able to blast through those doors. She doubted even a lightsaber could melt through them.

She pounded a fist against the first door. "Ramser?" she shouted. "Are you in there? I'm a Protector. Shysa sent me."

No answer. She moved on to the next door and repeated her actions. Again, there was no answer.

"Come on, Ramser," she shouted. "I haven't got all-"

She suddenly screamed in surprise as she felt a pair of big leathery hands grab her from behind. The cold blade of a dagger was pressed hard against her throat and a voice by her ear hissed, "No ssuch luck, human."