Meku opened her eyes. She was tired, having tossed and turned all night. The ship's lights were flickering, sparks were coming down from a ceiling light. "What's going on?" She got up, and sat at the edge of her bed, reaching out with her senses.
She sensed danger. Her eyes widened and her body snapped awake as the adrenaline coursed through her. Danger. The Redemption was under attack! She stood up and clutched her lightsaber. "Hello?"
Silence. It was as if she was on this deck alone. The floor rocked beneath her as the ship got hit with some sort of explosive. Did nobody come get her? Come look for her? She debated yelling again, louder, but decided against it. "Don't wanna give myself away if the Mandos are around." She stuck her head out of the door, trying to look around. Assess the situation.
The hallway of level M1 was dark, the lights were all off. She tried to reach out and sense with the Force. She was alone, and her feelings were clouded by darkness. She pulled the flashlight from her utility belt and turned it on. It sparked and failed. "Seriously? No light at all?"
With nothing for it, she decided to walk down the hall, feeling the walls with her hands to guide her. She could hear nothing. The ship had clearly been through battle, but there were no gunshots, footsteps, or shouting. Nothing that she could see or hear.
Suddenly, she sensed a presence behind her. A hostile presence. In one fluid motion, she rotated around and activated her lightsaber, the long, purple blade illuminating the hallway for the first time.
At the other end, she could make out a shape like a Mandalorian. He was facing away from her. "How does he not see me?" He had his gun pointed towards a Republic soldier who had surrendered.
"Please, don't kill me, I surrender!"
"Surrender? Pathetic. There is no surrender!"
"Someone, please help!"
"Hey," she shouted, "leave him alone!"
The Mandalorian ignored her, instead setting his blaster from stun to kill.
"Hey!"
He touched the barrel to the soldier's forehead. The soldier, shaking in fear, closed his eyes as he anticipated the inevitable.
"NO!"
Meku ran towards the Mandalorian and sliced his weapon in half, before he could shoot. Finally, the man turned to her and acknowledged her existence. He pulled out a bloodstained vibrosword and, without saying a word, started swinging at her.
Meku parried his blows, seeing his every move with the Force. Its clarity had returned, and she could see, just as the purple of her saber allowed her to physically see the hallway. She Force-pushed him, knocking him over. She swung her saber down to deliver the killing blow.
The Mandalorian rolled away and got back up. He swung his blade in a sideways motion, to cut Meku in half at her chest. She jumped over the blade and, as she came back down, slashed in a diagonal motion. Her saber cut through his exposed neck, and the momentum of the blow buried the saber deep within his chest armor. It'd actually become stuck in the Beskar armor. "This stuff is nothing to mess with," she thought as she occupied herself tugging it out.
With a final yank, the saber came out of the now-decapitated Mandalorian. Turning the saber off would've been faster, she mused. "But that seemed easy." She looked down at the corpse. Wires came from his chest, as if he was part droid.
She heard another saber ignite down the hallway. She looked up and saw, of all people, Master Kunas! "Oh, thank the stars," she sighed in relief. "I had no idea you were gonna join, Master! I'm glad! But quick, are there any other survivors? Let's try to find out what's…" She trailed off as her senses warned her of something.
Kunas said nothing, and held his saber in an aggressive stance, as if to attack her. "Master?" He said nothing, still in his aggressive stance. "M-Master. It's me. Meku, remember?"
"TRAITOR!" He screamed at the top of his lungs. His saber, normally green, became red. She looked down at hers; also red. "What?"
"Get off my ship," his voice bellowed. His saber switched between green and red.
"This isn't your ship!" Meku's saber was also switching. The hallway was lit up in green, purple, and red as the colors switched.
"Get off my ship," he repeated. "Before I force you off. Get off my ship!"
"Force me off? What in the blazes? Is he okay?"
"Get OFF my ship!" He raised his color-switching saber over his head, in an attack pose.
"No!" He'd clearly gone crazy and she'd have to disarm him. She ran at him, and he just kept repeating. "Get off my ship, get off my ship, get off my ship..."
…
"Get off the ship. Hey, Meku. C'mon, we've got orders, we gotta get off the ship!"
Meku awoke, bolt upright, gasping for air. The Knight she met last night recoiled backwards, unsure what to do. Her chest rose and fell as she caught her breath. She looked around the room, frantic. Lights on. No shaking from any attacks. She could hear all the usual sounds of footsteps and talking through the open door. And there was no hostile presence; just three concerned-looking Jedi Knights.
"Sorry if I startled you there, you must've been having a real bad dream."
"Yeah… bad dream." She hoped. Meku blinked, her face still blank, mind still adjusting to being in the waking world. "Sorry, what are we doing again?"
"We've been given our orders," the excitement was palpable in his voice, "and we get shipped out!"
This snapped her awake. "Where to?"
"Well, we're going to the 440th Mechanized. But I dunno where you'll be going; all of us are going somewhere different. Your deployment is on your datapad. Transports taking off soon, you should get going!"
"Thanks, I will!"
With that, the three Knights walked to their transports. Meku brushed her teeth and freshened up before leaving. While on the elevator, she checked her datapad.
"PFC(J) Mekumi Sakaroto
Transfer from RNV Redemption (CDF) to RNV Hearth (16BG).
Position: Marine Infantry
Board transport in hangar bay at 0745."
She had no idea what any of that meant. It may as well have been Huttese. "RNV Hearth? That's a ship name, isn't it? And what is 16BG? What's all this?" Thankfully, she'd report to the ship's sole hangar bay, and a transport would take her to the Hearth.
When the elevator doors opened, the hangar bay was full of commotion. Hundreds of Jedi hustled about, being guided by crewmen. Transports were being made ready; not the mid-sized Ministry-class, but much larger ships meant to carry hundreds. She sensed a few were outside, waiting, their pilots growing impatient. She stepped off before a stressed-looking crewman asked, "Name and serial number."
"Uh," she was caught a bit off guard, "Mekumi Sakaroto. Um, my serial number-"
"-It's on your ID if you don't remember," he cut in. She could sense his deep annoyance from having to explain this to hundreds of Jedi. She opened up her bag to dig out her ID, she didn't have it on hand. The crewman's impatient face made her cheeks turn bright red.
"You should know better!" After what felt like ages, she found the card and read her serial number aloud to him.
"You're in group 7. They're over there." He pointed to a group of about 40 Jedi. "You're going to the 16th battle group. You board soon, next Hera after this one takes off."
"Hera?"
"The transport. Uh, Hera-class."
"Oh!" she noticed his rank; Lieutenant. Higher than her. She snapped to attention like she saw in the video. "Thank you, sir!"
His expression lifted just a little, she could sense his pleasure that she was at least trying to act the part. "At ease." He then waved her off as his face resumed a grumpy expression. "Move along, there's a lot of you."
"Yes, sir." She stepped off, and walked to group 7 as the Lieutenant addressed the next Jedi to come out of the elevator. Meku stood awkwardly on the edges of the group as she awaited her transport. She reached out to feel the energy of the ship. It was alive, buzzing with myriad thoughts.
She could feel the Hera transport pilots, impatient, eager to "just get going already." The crewmen, starstruck at seeing their heroes, but stressed as they managed the fine details of transporting hundreds of them across the galaxy. And, of course the Jedi. They were feeling much the same thing she was. A motley mixture of excitement, fear, drive, purpose, and trepidation.
"Meku! Glad to see you again, and glad to have you with us!" She saw Jan walk towards her, flanked by Neff and Rula. He walked with confidence, taking a natural place as the leader of his little entourage. A winning smile adorned his face.
"Jan, of course I'm with you on this. I wouldn't miss this for the world."
He smiled, "Oh I know that. No, I meant with us as in, going to the same place." Meku gave him a confused look.
"You're headed to the Hearth with us," Neff clarified.
"That you are. After your amazing work yesterday, I made that request to the Quartermaster. Said you were part of my group. If you're as good at fighting as you are at bringing people together, we'll win this war in days!"
Meku was smitten. She barely knew these people, and they made her part of their team. She was a part of them now. She wasn't sure how to feel. "Oh, it wasn't that difficult. All I had to do was knock on some doors." She ran her hands through her hair.
"Hey, it helped us enormously. Without people like you, there'd be way less of us here. Mandos would still eat us alive."
"Thanks." She gave a smile, "It was the right thing to do."
"You're damn right. Glad to have you aboard." Jan sensed her worry. "Hey, something got you down?"
"Oh, it's nothing."
"Come on now." He lay his hand on her shoulder. "We're a team, I want to make sure you're all in tip-top shape. For all of our sakes, please be open." He smiled warmly.
"I had a bad dream. I, I'm not sure it was a dream." She hoped it wasn't a vision, though she knew the line between those two things were often blurry for Jedi.
"Tell us about it. Maybe I can help interpret it."
Meku stared off as she told him every detail. Jan, Neff, and Rula listened attentively. After she finished, she felt a little better about it. After thinking on it for a few moments, Jan proclaimed, "Sounds like a dream. You're a Jedi, but you're human too. Stress makes you dream weird things, just like for laypeople."
"You really think so?"
"Oh yeah," Rula chimed in, "Sounds like something I'd see if I had one too many spicy spud-stuffers!" They all shared a chuckle at that. Meku felt a weight lift off her shoulders. She may have been heading off to war, but she was happy to at least have these people on her side.
After several minutes, the group boarded, talking among themselves. Meku felt more comfortable as the transport took off and jumped to hyperspace.
"So Jan, what else do you know about the Hearth?"
"Not a whole lot. Hammerhead, probably. I do know it's part of the 16th Battle Group, over Randon. We'll be a part of the ship's crew, I think. Neff's gonna be a pilot."
"No way, you can fly?"
"Heck yeah! Gonna blast some Mandos outta the sky!" Neff's lekku twitched in excitement as his eyes lit up at the prospect. Meku could feel inside him; a burning desire for justice and revenge.
"The rest of us are just gonna be Marines."
"What does that mean?" Meku asked.
"We're part of the ship's troop complement. We can fight in space, or on the ground, wherever we're needed." Meku nodded. This was all new to her, and a lot to take in.
The transport jumped out of hyperspace much later. Looking out the window, Meku could see Randon, a blue-green garden world. She could also see the 16th Battle Group stationed in orbit over the planet. Several Hammerheads, Forays, and others gathered around a massive disc-shaped ship with a rectangular superstructure jutting out of the "bottom." It was about ten times longer than the Hammerheads that surrounded it. This disc looked more like a space station; only the blue glow of its engines gave it away as a starship.
"Look at the size of that thing!" Rula gasped in wonder.
"Inexpugnable-class," Neff said. "3.1 kilometers long, central command ship for the Republic Navy. We lost one, the Courageous, at Serroco." He had been doing some reading. Meku felt woefully unprepared, like she didn't know anything.
"Hard to imagine how you can even kill one of those," Jan mused.
"Just goes to show how tough those Mandalorians are," Neff replied. "Can't underestimate them."
"You're right about that," Jan replied.
Their transport docked on the Inexpugnable-class, where the many Jedi were split up and put on the tiny Conductor-class transports, and shuttled off to the ships or bases they'd be deployed to. Their shuttle docked with the Hearth, another Hammerhead cruiser. It, like most ships in this fleet, bore battle scars. Carbon scoring pockmarked the red paint and some bits were visibly smoking or sparking.
This continued inside the hangar bay. Most of the twelve Aurek fighters and Chela bombers, six of each, were scarred. One fighter had its engine bay open, the repairmen scrambling to fix it while the crew chief bellyached. "No, I need a higher strength polywire here for this circuit, so it doesn't short when the shield gets below 10%. What do you mean, we don't have it? S'supposed to be shipped in last week. Check again with the QM!"
Some troopers were posted outside of the Quartermaster's, trying to patch up their armor. Others were looking for gun parts or ammunition. Meku reached out with her senses and could feel the ship. It felt like a wounded, hungry animal. The soldiers had been beat at every turn, even the machinery felt tired.
"Atten-HUT!" Meku was shaken out of her feelings by the sharp call. She noticed two people walking towards them. One, a black-skinned man, was dressed in a clean and pressed Captain's uniform. He looked confident, but betrayed feelings of fear and desperation. The other was a shorter, muscular woman with brick-red hair that matched the paint on the ship. She burned with wrathful, bright fire. Meku could sense her mind constantly working, constantly planning, trying to get an angle. She wore standard black and red fatigues, but the patches gave her away as someone of higher rank. She forgot most of the ranks already, but thankfully it was easy to keep track of. "I'm the lowest, so I just stand at attention for everyone."
Meku stood at attention, along with her new team. The Captain beamed, while the woman furrowed her eyebrows. She was the first to speak, "You, white-hair, eyes straight forward. Stop looking all around when you're at attention."
"Yes, ma'am." Meku fixed her gaze forward, wondering what chip this woman had against her.
The woman smiled towards the Captain, "They can't even stand straight, how can they fight the Mandos?"
He smiled and raised his eyebrows in a "suuuuuure" gesture. "Give 'em a chance, Foster, they'll grow on you." He turned to the thoroughly confused Jedi. "At ease."
"Welcome to the Hearth," the woman continued, "This is gonna be your home for the rest of the war. Or, until someone says otherwise. He is your Captain, Leto Abel. I'm Commander Maxine Foster." She looked at the Jedis' blank faces. "You do know what Captain and Commander mean, right?"
Meku could sense this woman's need to test them, to put their feet to the fire. She wondered what the purpose of all this was. Nobody said anything, so she pointed to Meku again, "White-hair. Name."
"Mekumi Sakaroto."
"Wrong!"
Meku gave her a confused look. "What? I'm pretty sure I'm right about my name, crazy woman."
"I'm sorry?"
"You address me as ma'am! 'My name is this, ma'am.' 'I'm sorry, ma'am!'"
"Yes, ma'am. My name is Mekumi Sakaroto, ma'am!"
"Better," replied Commander Foster. "Do you know what our ranks mean, Private Sakaroto?"
"I know you're both higher than I am, so I follow to everything you say." Captain Abel cracked a big smile. Foster's eyes narrowed, but Meku could sense her laughing inside.
"She's got the right idea, Foster. That's what really matters, eh?"
She choose not to respond, instead turning to address the rest of the Jedi. "The Captain is the master of the ship, he controls the entire vessel and commands the crew. The ship has a troop complement on it. Four hundred men. At least, that's what it was. We're almost half that now, thanks for taking your sweet time. We land planetside, repel boarders, board ships, and do anything else that requires boots on the ground. All of them answer to me, and I answer to Captain Abel, understood?"
The Jedi replied with a chorus of yesses. Meku, not wanting to embarrass herself again, was the only one who curtly said "Yes, ma'am!"
"No, you say 'yes, ma'am!' Like she did. Again!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
"Better. You'll be assigned to different squads." She paused. "Do you know what a squad is?"
"Basic unit, ma'am," Neff responded, remembering from the video. "Five people. Twenty squads in a maniple, ten maniples in a legion. Uh, ma'am."
"That's true for ground-based infantry. On a ship, all squads are under the Commander's authority. No legions, but bigger ships have maniples. It won't do to have one grenade take out all of you at once, so each of you will be attached to different squads in this complement. Except..." she looked down at a datapad, "Volmar? Neff Volmar?"
"That's me, ma'am," he replied.
"You're gonna be with the fighter squadron. The rest of you will be on infantry squads. Got it?"
"Yes, ma'am."
She paused and sighed, "I understand it's important for you to train together and meditate and do your Jedi thing together. So, what accommodation can we make for you to have those things?"
They all paused, unsure. Jan was the first to speak. "I think, once a day, we should have some time set aside for that. Meditation, debriefing, that kind of thing."
"How much time?"
"Two hours?"
"That'll work. Two hours per day, once you get off duty, and you get to do the Jedi thing together. Anything else?" No one said anything. "Very well," Commander Foster continued. "You'll get two hours. Volmar, report to the Flight Leader over there. Jan Lassar, you'll be leading the 92nd squad. Rula Olim, you'll be leading the 5th. Sakaroto, you'll be in the 36th. All of your quarters are on deck M1; that's the garrison deck. You'll want to get going ASAP. Your squad is your new family. They'll be the ones who have your back in a firefight. The sooner you get to know them, the better."
"And by the way, we are glad to have you," Captain Abel conceded. Foster nodded - despite her hard exterior, Meku could feel the subtle thankfulness underneath, the gem of hope.
"Yes. Yes, we are. To walk out on the Council, that took guts. Thank you for being here. I know we'll be able to take those damn bucketheads." She stopped and gave a teasing smile. "But anyone who asks to put in a waterfall or a pond will get thrown out of the airlock, Jedi or no Jedi. Welcome aboard the Hearth, boys!"
Neff walked towards the fighter squadron and introduced himself. The Jedi walked towards the elevator, Jan saying something about how he'd start a group message to arrange their meeting times. She was hardly listening, just trying to take it all in. Her stomach rumbled, she realized she hadn't eaten in almost two days. "I need a good meal. Maybe that's how I'll get to know the squad, over some nice food. Speaking of… what're they gonna be like?"
She arrived at the door. She could sense their presence inside, and she closed her eyes to gather her strength. Finally, she knocked, eager to meet her comrades.