CHAPTER 10 LOST AND FOUND
Azoth stood with his blaster at the base of the Mandalorians skull "Kinda late for a stroll?" Azoth commented.
"I like the solitude of the night no one really bothers you when the stars are out." The Mandalorain replied
"Well can't argue with that." Azoth shrugged as he quickly swung around whipping out the dark saber cutting the blaster of the mandalorian that was coming up behind him "Thought you liked the solitude?" Azoth asked.
"Well a good friend is always nice to contemplate the verse with." The first mandalorian said
"And few is better than one right?" Azoth said as he looked around "You all can come out now." He called out, as four more mandalorains come out of hiding in the woods.
"Alright I guess we can drop the pleasantries, you are out numbered surrender and no harm will come to you." The mandalorian said lowering his hands
"Well surrender is not really in my vocabulary." Azoth replied
"We should just kill this jedi and be done with him, Al'verde." one of the mandalorains stated.
"No he is no jedi that is the dark saber only way he could have gotten that is from killing Vizsla, and that is why I am offering surrender to him." The commander said "Him and his death watch have been the mortal enemies of the true mandalorains since the founding of the divide."
Just then the heard the sound of a CIS gun ship coming in. "Sir we have enemy tin heads coming in"
"From the way your man is talking about those buckets of bolts we have a common enemy." Azoth said relaxing his stance a bit "Here is the offer we work together to deal with those bots and then discuss this situation like civil adults." He offered
"Very well." The commander said as Azoth lowered his blaster and returned the dark saber to his back. "Name is Atin Kar" the commander introduced himself offering a hand.
"Call me Night Angel." Azoth said taking the hand.
The group moved up to the clearing that the droid gun ship was dropping off its load of super battle droids.
"Alright Ragna I want you to hit that gunship with the rocket on you pack the rest of you spread out and hit those battle droids in a cross fire. Night Angel I want you to stay close…" Atin began but Azoth cut him off
"To keep an eye on me?" Azoth asked already knowing the answer only to get nod from the mandalorian commander.
"Well at least you can read the atmosphere around…" the commander began but looked to see Azoth was gone "Vaii Haran Slanar" just then he saw a burst of fire coming from the far side of the clearing getting the super battle droids to move toward it and begin to fire on his position. "Damnt engage take out that gunship!" Atin called out as a rocket from one of his mans' pack shot off and destroyed the ship and they quickly dispatched the remaining droids. Once the fighting stopped Azoth walked out of the woods to find the mandalorians all having blasters on him.
"Well isn't this a little turn of events." Azoth joked.
"Give me a good reason not to blast you right now?" Atin asked
"We have a common enemy and I can give you a good scape goat." Azoth replied
"Go on." Atin said with a hint of eagerness in his voice already seeing what was being offered.
"From what I gather you don't like either the CIS or the Republic but the CIS is the current threat." Azoth began to explain not getting much but a small nodding of the head from the mandalorains. "Well they know we had drop ships come down here and they will be searching for any survivors especially after this patrol doesn't report in. they will double their search for me and may run across you. You can't simply kill me because that won't stop them from searching and if they find my body they will look for what did kill me." he explained squashing any idea of killing him. "So I offer this I will take out that research facility and call in my ships to eliminate any other facilities by orbital bombardment and leave, the CIS will see the planet as compromised and not return, as for the republic I will keep you out of the report and we will leave you be."
"Sound like a fair deal but how do I know you will keep your promise?" Atin asked
"I have a causality you take care of him and hold him till the fleet leaves other than the ship that is taking me and my man out of here." Azoth replied
"You would do that just for one man?" Atin asked
"I don't leave my people behind." Azoth replied
"Very well deal." Atin said shaking Azoth's hand "Haat, ijaa, haa'it"
"Good now follow me." Azoth said as he turned and walked toward the cave where HK was waiting guard.
"Question: I heard blaster fire master, why didn't you call for me? was it because of these new meat bags?"
"Handled it with the help of my new… associates." Azoth says with a pause on how to introduce the mandalorians.
"Confirmation: they are not to be blasted…yet." HK responds
"Exactly." Azoth said as he walked into the cave followed by the mandalorians who all jumped and tensed at the sight of Kira.
"You didn't say your wounded man was a jedi." Atin said
"Never said she wasn't just I had a wounded man, used a generic term like trooper or solider." Azoth said with a grin "and you already agreed to the terms."
"Sir you can't allow this you of all people know what they did to us." One of Atin's men protested.
"He is right we made the oath and agreed to the conditions, we will follow through with it." Atin said as his men got upset. "Now pull out that litter so we can move her to a more secure location and patch her up properly." He said as his men followed the order with a grumble and curse.
As they were walking Azoth walked up to Atin and asked "I always knew there was bad blood between the jedi and mandalorians but it seems more personal then that here."
"There are three factions to the mandalorian culture." Atin began "there are the ones who live on the planet who just want to work politics and play 'warrior' when it suits them. Then there are the two factions who have been at each others throats since they split apart the death watch and the True Mandalorians."
"Yes you mentioned that before. Actually I was a member of Death Watch Mandalorians for about an hour before I killed Vizsla and disbanded them."
"And your allegiance now?" Atin asked tensing up
"To myself and my home world that is far far away that nothing I do by helping you will harm them." Azoth said as Atin relaxed a little.
"Well the True Mandalorains ideals were to sell our skills as mercenaries and bounty hunters to always sharpen our skills in battle or to find a cause we found just and commit ourselves to it. Each mandalorian can choose their path and how to follow it. But Death Watch wanted to re-establish the mandalorians as an empire like during the times of the mandalorian wars to wage war just to wage war. The fighting between us and the death watch was known as the mandalorian civil war once we won the war the 'new mandalorains' we had fought for turned their backs on us and banished us as if we had been the death watch ourselves." Atin said punching a nearby tree splintering the bark.
"I'm sorry about your people, they never understand the sacrifices we make for them and always question our actions when they have never had to make such a split-second choice that could mean the end of theirs or another's." Azoth replied
"Very true." Atin said calming down a little "Well after that we did what we did best hunted down the death watch searching for their leader. We thought we found someone that could help us find him and did a job for him dispatching a rebel faction on his planet. But he was working with death watch the whole time and called in the jedi to wipe us out I only survived because I was knocked out by a stray rocket that blew me away from the battle and covered me in snow." He explained "When I came to every one of my brothers was dead, but we took out just as many jedi if not more." He said with a hint of pride in his voice. "I had found out later that Jango survived but he was just so broken from it all he didn't want anything to do with it anymore and became a bounty hunter permanently. So I re-established what I could and built up my forces of True Mandalorians but we are a shadow of our former selves."
"I under stand your hatred and distrust for the jedi. But we are here just to complete our mission that is all we have no quarrel with you." Azoth said as they came up to a forested area where he saw a bunch of camo netting over top of tents and equipment.
"And from what I have seen and heard you say I believe you and your jedi friend will be safe with us till you finish your end of the deal." Atin said as his men took her into the medical tent, and Azoth turned to follow.
Azoth walked into the medical tent where a man not in mandalorian gear was looking over Kira's wounds and already began treatment.
"What you say doc?" Azoth asked
"She is pretty bad possible internal bleeding, broken ribs, and other broken bones lucky you got here when you did." The doctor said "what happened?"
"Gunship was shot down and it was a hard landing." Azoth said
"Well I should check you out as well." The doctor said looking to him
"I'm fine not the first time I been shot down." Azoth said as he turned to HK who had been behind him the whole time. "If anyone tries to kill her you get them first."
"Joy: I certainly hope some one does." HK responds
"Leave the doc alone, he will do better work if he isn't stressing out about you killing him if he fails." Azoth replied
"Disappointment: Understood master." HK sulked as the doctor slumped a little in relief and Azoth walked out and found the command tent Atin was at and looked down at the holo map on the table.
"Alright this is the main faculity they do R&D here as well as that massive cannon that took out one of your ships in a single shot. There is a reactor deep inside the facility you blow that you will wipe out the research facility and the rest of the base surrounding it crippling their forces around the planet." Atin explained "We have attempted a few strikes but to no avail lost a lot of good men"
"Alright I'll head out in the morning and hit them at nightfall." Azoth said
"I'll organize a strike force to accompany you." Atin began
"Negative this is a stealth op I respect your abilities as warriors but I will be more effective at this if they don't know I'm there." Azoth explained and got a concerned look from the hardened commander "Don't worry I have been training and fighting like this for years."
"Very well I will trust your judgment." Atin said as Azoth nodded and walked out the door
"Why are you trusting him so much?" one of Atins men asked
"I don't but if he can take down that facility great if not, well it is no loss for us." Atin replies to the man
Azoth took a speeder and quickly made his way to the CIS base and found a convoy coming through the main gate.
'Too easy' Azoth said to himself as he activated his camouflage unit and slipped through the main gate and headed toward the large facility with a what looked like a massive satellite dish that was pointing straight up 'That must be the weapon they fired at our ship. Thing is huge.' He said to himself as he placed his hand on the access panel and Durzo hacked it and the door slid open
"Seems that most of the patrols are outside" Durzo observed.
"Well they would never suspect someone getting this far without being detected so they have gotten pretty lax on security." Azoth replied as he moved down the halls and found a door that said 'Security.' "Well this one feels like a winner." Azoth said as he opened the door and saw two droids look up him from the council and he quickly shot them and closed the door and began to hack the council.
"Alright found the reactor we need to take out to blow this place." Durzo said as a map of the facility came up and a path from their location appeared. "This just seems way to easy."
"Yeah I know." Azoth said then something caught his eye. "What is that." He said as a section appeared that said 'Prison block: Interrogation: 1 prisoner.'
"You just had to find a way to complicate things, didn't you?" Durzo sighed
"Hey if it's one of our men we need to get him out of here he may have intel on this place we may need." Azoth replied
"Or its just you can't leave a man behind." Durzo replied
"Take your pick." Azoth said as he turned around and headed toward the interrogation section and found very few droids or aliens on his way there. "they are seriously under staffed or really don't believe there is any threat."
Once Azoth made it to the room that said 'Interrogation' he stopped and quickly opened it to find a tactical droid, with a few battle droids around him along with a single clone attached to a vertical table being electrocuted. The droids turned to see Azoth standing in the door and went to raise their weapons but where quickly blasted but the tactical droid just looked at him.
"How could you have penetrated our defense?" the droid asked in shock "And all to rescue a single clone, it is illogical."
"Well I just don't like leaving men behind." Azoth said as he blasted the tactical droid in the head then went over to the clone.
"Sound off trooper, identify yourself" Azoth ordered
"ARC 77 sergeant Fordo." Fordo replied catching his breath
"Well sergeant I am Commander Night Angel." Azoth said as he ripped the bindings clean off the table setting him free
"Thank you, sir, but you don't look like a clone trooper." Fordo said
"I'm not I am a mercenary hired by the Republic." Azoth explained "What did they do to you?"
"Alright well if you are with the Republic that is all that matters, but they captured me a month ago after an op gone wrong and my whole unit was wiped out." Fordo explained "They have been trying to get me to talk ever since but I gave them nothing they then found a chip in my brain they thought might have been preventing me from talking they removed it but still got nothing."
"Well can you still fight?" Azoth asked
"Yes sir." Fordo said as he walked into a side room where he found his armor and began to put it on.
"Good because we are taking out this facility." Azoth said as Fordo came out in red painted armor and what looked like eyes on his helmet.
"Good I been itching to take this place down." Fordo said as he put on his helmet and picked up a blaster.
The pair moved quickly towards the center of the facility where the main generator for the weapon was located.
"Alright it should be just down this hallway." Azoth said as they turned the corner and found a platoon of droids walking down the hall.
"Intruders blast them." the droid commander called out as they all began to fire at them forcing Azoth and Fordo to take cover.
"Intruders in the reactor section." One of the droids called over its com link before Azoth blasted it. That was when the alarms began to blare
"Shit." Azoth said as they finished off the last of the patrol. "Well guess going with plan B." he sighed
"What is plan B?" Fordo asked
"Blast our way into reactor room and blast our way out." Azoth shrugged as they moved down the hall toward the reactor.
"Always like plan B." Fordo chuckled as he followed him to the large door
"Cover me while I hack this thing." Azoth ordered
"Yes sir." Fordo said as some droids came around the corner and he quickly blasted them. After a minute the door slide open and the two fell back into it and resealed the door.
"Alright that should hold them for a few minutes while we find a way to destroy this thing." Azoth said as they turned to see a massive crystal that seemed to be pulsating with energy.
"What is this thing?" Azoth asked in astonishment
"It's a… Kyber crystal." Fordo answered "But I have never seen one this big before."
"A what?" Azoth asked
"It is the crystals jedi use in their lightsabers but this one is absolutely massive I can't even fathom the amount of energy it can put out." Fordo said
"Enough to take out a capital ship in orbit at least." Azoth said as he walked up to a panel and had Durzo begin to hack it.
"Alright looks like it has some regulators here, here and here." Durzo said as it appeared on his HUD "We take these out we will have maybe two minutes before the thing blows and it will be a big one."
"Alright here." Azoth calls over to Fordo as he tosses him a few detonators. "Place them on those regulators over there." He says pointing at what he wanted destroyed
"Right away sir." Fordo says as he quickly makes his way to plant the charges. Once they were done planting them they came back to the center council and looked at where they had come in and saw the door was starting to get red at the seams indicating they were cutting through it.
"Well that way is a no go." Azoth sighed
"All sectors have been alerted to our presence and they have already converged on the exits to the reator." Durzo explains.
"That is just great." Azoth sighs again.
"Sir I saw what looked like a service elevator behind those regulators that looked like they went all the way to the top." Fordo explained as they went over to the regulators and found the elevator that did indeed went to the top of the weapon. After they took the elevator up they ran to the edge only to find a massive drop down to the ground.
"Well how the hell do we get down from this?" Fordo asked
"Hang on." Azoth said as he picked up Fordo bridal style and jumped off the edge and activated his jump boosters just before landing.
"Damn sir I feel like a princess being saved from the evil castle." Fordo said sarcastically only to get dropped unceremonysly into the mud "Right sir back to the mud and grunt life." He said as he picked up his blaster and stood up. They quickly ran and found a pair of droid speeders and hopped on to them as he activated the detonators and they ripped out of the enemy base. The entire base was enveloped in a massive explosion.
"Well sir where too now?" Fordo asked.
"Back to our friends and hopefully they honor the deal." Azoth said as he took off followed by Fordo.
END CHAPTER 10
A/N
Alright I know there is some inconsistencies about Fordo's rank in the series I am going with sergeant because that is what Obi-wan called him in the series and it is easier to have him stay with Azoth where he is a lower rank instead of the closer rank.