Solasta watched from the balcony as the republic shuttle descended smoothly into the mouth of the volcano.
and began to visibly shudder as the super-heated gasses from the lava below bounced it around like a leaf caught in a violent breeze once it dipped below the shielded landing bay opening that was carved into the side of the volcano wall a few meters above her. As she watched, she could only imagine the fight the pilot was having to keep the ship steady when she heard shouts from the separatists who came to investigate the unscheduled shuttle that arrived.
Looking over the edge of the railing at the Commando's running up the catwalks below her, Solasta grabbed her last three plasma grenades and threw them to the landing far beneath her and watched as two bounced around the metal grating at the feet of the soldiers while the third rolled into the lava and detonated immediately. The roar of the volcano masked any sounds of the explosion, but the resulting explosion forced a column of molten rock to shoot upwards and onto the separatists, and the blood curdling screams were short lived before the other grenades exploded, silencing their suffering.
Returning her attention to the shuttle that now bobbled across from her, she watched as the outer door slid open and a republic soldier standing inside motioned for Solasta to come to him while he mouthed the words 'jump' as his voice was also drowned out by the roar of the volcano and the whining of the shuttle's engines fighting to hold a position. Dropping her cannon, Solasta backed-up a few paces before running to the balcony's edge and pushing off from the railing with her feet to leap across the short void and into the open door on the shuttle where the soldier grabbed her by the arm and guided her inside.
Flying back to Fort Garnik, Solasta took a seat and looked out the small window at the jagged volcanic landscape that passed by outside and tried to reason why the rest of Havoc Squad would defect to the Empire. What happened on Ando Prime that would push the Republic's entire elite assault squad to this? How did I not notice this? I should have suspected something when they all treated me at arm's length, she thought.
Her wonder turned to anger and embarrassment when the shuttle began approaching the landing pads and she realized that she would have to face Lieutenant Jorgan soon, how could I have been so wrong about the Lieutenant? I was certain he was the mole, passing information to the Imperials, when all along he was being manipulated by Commander Tavus and the rest of Havoc as well, she thought.
Rushing from the shuttle pads to HQ, Solasta stormed into the Ops Room but slowed her pace when she found Lieutenant Jorgan pacing in front of a tall, thin, balding man wearing a field uniform and a General's insignia. Deep inside she snickered at the sight of the General's mustache that ran along his upper lip and draped down each side of his mouth like a door frame, and despite appearing to have both his biological eyes, he had an optical enhancement implant mounted to his forehead above the left one. Nearing the two men she could hear the heated conversation that was taking place in lowered voices and took a deep breath to strengthen her resolve. She wondered if it would even be possible to conceal her embarrassment and guilt at having accused Jorgan; even if it was only in her mind, when his Cathar abilities to observe her body language would be just as finely tuned as her own.
"General, with all due respect, how can you do this? I've served with the Infantry Command for years," growled Jorgan as he paced.
"That's enough Jorgan. This wasn't my decision. A defection of this scale— someone has to swing, and that powers that be say it's you," said the General in an even and calm tone.
"Sergeant Solasta Dinn, reporting in, sir," and she came to attention, saluting the General crisply.
Jorgan spun around to face her and pointed a finger at her saying, "Your squad of traitors just destroyed my career, I've been demoted to Sergeant— command can't punish them, so they're burning me instead."
If Solasta hadn't already been feeling the weight of falsely accusing him, he had just taken a clear shot at her that would make any visible uneasiness understandable.
The General returned the salute before speaking, "You must be our last loyal Havoc member. I'm General Vander, Republic Chief of Ops for Ord Mantell. It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Sergeant Dinn. Please stand easy." Solasta remained in a stiff and prone stance and clasped her hands casually in front her as General Vander continued.
"On behalf of the Republic and people of Ord Mantell, I want to thank and congratulate you for your courageous actions in neutralizing the ZR-57. Your heroic efforts saved countless innocent lives. In recognition of your valiant service, I hereby promote you to the rank of Lieutenant. Congratulations."
A sharp and angry chuff sound escaped Jorgan as he thought, this kid gets a promotion while I'm being offered as a scapegoat for Havoc's defection. She should be held equally responsible, if not more since she should have seen this coming.
Ignoring Jorgan, the General continued, "Lieutenant Dinn, as the last remaining member of Havoc Squad, the duty of rebuilding the squad falls to you. Havoc is now under your command, and to get the process started I've assigned Sergeant Jorgan as Havoc's first new member."
Solasta looked at Jorgan and forced her enthusiasm as she said, "I'd be glad to have you in the squad, Sergeant."
"I'll take the Havoc patch and sergeant stripes if it means I get to grind them into Tavus' face before we kill him," growled Jorgan between clenched teeth.
Solasta watched as General Vander's face softened and he sighed. "This is the best I can do for you, Aric," and extended his hand to Aric.
Aric looked at the Generals hand and hesitated for a few seconds before extending his own hand and shook it.
The General smiled before saying, "You're a good man, and we need good people now more than ever."
The general turned his attention to the both of them and said, "Dinn, Jorgan - I don't know what Tavus is planning, but he knows the inner workings of the republic military better than anyone. The danger he poses is limitless."
"Sir, did we get a fix on where the traitors are heading?" asked Solasta.
"Unfortunately they slipped off-world before we could track them. You'll have to hunt them down and bring them to justice. In any case, your work here is done and a shuttle is being prepped to take you to Coruscant for your next assignment. Once you arrive, you'll report to the head of SpecForces, General Garza. She'll be issuing your orders from now on."
"Understood," said Solasta, and they both saluted General Vander as he dismissed them.
Stepping outside HQ Solasta looked at Jorgan and said, "Sergeant, meet me at the shuttle pad in two hours, there's something I have to do on the mainland before we leave."
Jorgan raised his hand in protest saying, "I'm not letting my new CO wander around the mainland in the middle of a civil war."
"I'll be fine. Go get packed," and she turned towards her barracks to go change her uniform when she heard Jorgan's voice behind her.
"Respectfully Lieutenant Dinn - No sir."
Turning back to look at Jorgan, she could see the commitment in his stone-faced expression. "Alright, go change into some civilian clothes, bring a concealed blaster only, and meet me at the shuttles to the mainland in fifteen minutes."
Without blinking Jorgan said, "Understood," before turning on his heel and walking briskly in the direction of his barracks.
Solasta returned to Havoc's barracks and opened her locker to retrieve the datapad so she could update General Garza but as she dug through her uniforms she realized it was missing. Whoever planted it there a few days earlier had retrieved it.
Walking through the mainland base, they headed straight for the ground transportation yard and Solasta motioned Jorgan towards the row of speeder bikes and said, "get us something unmarked and bring it here," as she stepped into the small pillbox building inside the gates surrounding the yard, and waited. When Jorgan rode up, she began tapping at the console while he read out the speeder bike's registry number so they could sign-out the vehicle.
Once everything was in order, Solasta stepped outside and stood staring at Jorgan until he noticed her, and said "Hop on."
"Do you know where we're going, or how to get there unseen?"
"Well... No, sir."
"Then slide back," said Solasta as she motioned for him to move to the passenger seat behind the driver. Jorgan grunted his displeasure but slid back so she could throw her leg over the speeder, and sitting on the speeder bike she revved the engine and set them into flight while calling out "hold on" over her shoulder.
Riding for nearly thirty standard minutes through the rough terrain of Ord Mantell, and well off the main speeder paths, the cooled lava formations of igneous rock that jutted violently from the ground occasionally broke into broad flat stretches of fertile fields that were used by farmers for crop lands and ranchers for their herds of Gapillian or Nerf. Leaning against Solasta's back to get closer to her ear, Jorgan yelled, "Where are we going, sir?"
"To a storage facility just ahead. There are some items I need to retrieve," answered Solasta, and she could feel Jorgan nod an affirmative as his chin gently bumped her shoulder.
When the storage facility came into sight and Solasta reduced the throttle so they could park the speeder bike next to a large hole in the wall that surrounded the unmarked complex. Carefully, Solasta crept through the massive hole in the wall that an incendiary device had created and began to worry that the storage units had been damaged, or worse, looted. Jorgan following closely behind her with his right hand inside the chest of his jacket and grasping at the blaster pistol he had hidden inside.
Walking between the rows of buildings, Solasta noticed the scoring on the walls from a blaster fire fight and thought, if the separatists did attack, clearly they weren't successful at getting into any of the units since none of the doors appeared to be forced open.
When the familiar storage unit came into sight, she sped up her pace and quickly keyed the lock on the door, and a sense of relief washed over her when the door let out a groan before it released from it's captive position, opening slightly so she could push it wide enough for her and Jorgan to walk through. Inside, Jorgan studied the antique Desler speeder that rested on supports in the middle of the narrow room and whistled low saying, "now there's a piece of history,"
Solasta walked over to the power cells that were connected to a charging station that sat against the wall and groaned when Solasta realized the station no longer was powered. Picking up the cells, hoping one of them may have been able to retain enough charge for one last use, she approached the speeder and placed them on the speeder's bonnet.
Inserting one cell after another into the power receptacle on the speeder, Solasta held her breath each time until she was rewarded with the telltale hum of the systems coming back to life and resumed breathing as she walked to the rear of the speeder, keyed the access code, and pulled out two locked security boxes from the cargo compartment. Handing one to Jorgan, she said, "Let's get these secured to the speeder, then get the hell out of here."
She watched as Jorgan stepped outside before pulling the power cell from the speeder's receptacle and place it next to the other drained cells on the driver seat. Resting her hand on the windshield, she affectionately grinned and whispered, "I have to leave this piece of you here, Dad."
Picking up the security box in front of her, Solasta noticed the dulled orange and white Waveboard that leaned against the wall, covered with dust, and stared at it briefly and thought, goodbye to you too.
Outside, she met Jorgan at the speeder, and they returned to the mainland base without saying a word to each other.
"Where's your cannon, sir?" asked Jorgan when he noticed that Solasta only carried her pack as they walked together through the busy base towards the spaceport.
"I had to leave it behind in the separatist's base when I bugged out, sergeant."
"Didn't we just have that flown in for you from the mainland? I hope losing your weapons isn't habit of yours, sir."
"No, but losing my boots is."
Jorgan stopped walking as a quizzical look came over his face and he asked, "Boots, lieutenant?"
Solasta kept walking and said, "Yes sergeant, and don't get any ideas— I hate nicknames."
At the spaceport, they found a shuttle waiting for them, just as General Vander had said, and hurried on-board when they noticed the crew were ready to launch and appeared to only be waiting on them. Solasta stowed her gear and sat, motioning for Jorgan to take the seat beside her, but he walked past her without making eye contact and sat by himself at the other end of the shuttle; stretching out in his seat and closing his eyes, without saying a word to her.
When the shuttle door was closed and they began their ascent, someone from the cockpit spoke over the intercom saying, "Apologies Havoc, we have been asked to make a stop at Carrick Station. Once we arrive you will have approximately one standard hour before we continue onto Coruscant. Feel free to disembark and do some sightseeing."
Leaning back in her set, Solasta closed her eyes and slept until they arrived at Carrick.
Once they were clear to open the airlock door, Aric and Solasta walked across the shuttle bay to the elevators where they rode up to the public section on one of the upper rings of the station, and walked around in the pale artificial light that bathed the section.
"Let's get something to eat, sir." said Jorgan as he pointed to a cafe that had a modest patio where they could watch the pedestrian traffic move around.
An overly cheerful host-droid seated them with menus that had been printed onto sheets of flimsiplast, and reassured that their serving droid would be along shortly. Solasta looked around at what other people had ordered at the nearby tables, but didn't see anything that interested her so she asked, "any recommendations?"
Jorgan looked up from his menu with a fixed expression and asked, "Lieutenant, how did you know about that storage facility or the boxes we retrieved?"
"Sergeant, the information regarding the facility and boxes is classified."
Jorgan furrowed his brow and grunted, "Figures."
"Is there a problem?"
Jorgan blew out a breath and the usual hardened expression on his face relaxed slightly before he said, "No sir. I'm still mad at Tavus and the rest of Havoc, but I suppose that's no excuse for me to take it out on you. You're new to the squad and were just as surprised as I was at the turn of events. It's just going to take a little time to adjust to the changes."
Solasta briefly considered sharing with Jorgan that she had suspected him of being the Imperial mole but decided against it since she knew that it would deeply offend his Cathar sense of honour and loyalty. It also meant she could continue to hide her embarrassment at having suspected he was involved. The serving droid that approached and interrupted her thoughts was a welcome break to the awkward silence.
When their food arrived they both relaxed and talked as they ate; Aric told stories of his days as a member of the Deadeyes, and Solasta sat quietly listening until they needed to head back to their shuttle and continue their travels to Coruscant for a meeting with General Garza.