The stars were distant and dimmed, but they could still be seen through the blue and violet veils of Thull's Shroud. They were deep inside the tangled sprawl of nebulae, stardust, and scattered space rock. Lukas Briggs had no idea how far; he was just a stormtrooper, and right now the men and women of Razor Company were just about the most useless beings on Voidwalker.

They tried not to dwell on it. They tried to keep busy. They especially tried not to think of the hundreds of thousands of Imperial soldiers who'd just died at Karfeddion. It seemed like everyone had known somebody on another ship. Leila's two roommates from the academy had been aboard Admiral Branth's flagship. Mynar's former drill instructor had just taken a sergeant's rank on the Sarreti. For Lukas it was a couple good friends from the Resolute. During the last week-long shore leave they'd taken a blistering tour through every cantina they could find over Bilbringi; it seemed like a week and forever ago.

Stormies weren't mechanics by specialty, but they were taught how to take care of their equipment, and that included their drop ships. Lukas' squad had been delegated the task of looking over the ones in the hangar, checking every system inside and out to make sure nothing had been damaged during the escape from Karfeddion.

As they surveyed the interior of the cockpit, Mynar told him, "I got dragged down to help reinforce the bulkheads around the port shield generation. You know, where the hull breached?"

"You mean where we lost fourteen guys, including the XO?" Lukas grunted as he ran tests on the ship's sensor console.

"Yeah. My point is, this is a lot better than that."

"I can imagine."

"Explosive decompression. Not the way I want to die."

Lukas looked at him. "Did you see-"

"Not really. Most of 'em got sucked out into the vacuum before we jumped."

"Stang."

Mynar shook his head and sat down. The pilot's seat sagged under his weight. "I heard the shield generator is salvageable. They brought over some spare parts from Shieldbreaker to get it working again."

"I heard that too. Be nice if we had, y'know, official confirmation on that."

"Why bother?" Mynar shrugged but his voice was bitter. "Us stormies, we're just cargo."

"Are you still whining in there?" a voice came from the cargo hold. "You're supposed to be working, Cevorn."

"Sorry, sir."

Mynar got to his feet. So did Lukas. Sergeant Malkin stepped inside the cabin, hands-on-hips. Even with his white armor he still looked like he could take on a roomful of enemy heavies. "Everything check out?"

"Yessir, Sarge."

"Good. The rest of 'em look good too. Out on the deck."

The rest of their squad had already assembled in the hangar. The yawning space was nearly filled with TIE fighters and support ships but the deck crew was absent except for two beings in red jumpsuits checking a TIE-X hanging from the rack overhead. Everything felt like it was waiting.

"Any word from Major Sligh, sir?" asked Lukas.

"Nothing new." Malkin scratched his beard, black scattered with shots of gray. "I figure we'll review our kits next."

"We already did that," Mynar said. "When are we going to get out of this kriffing nebula?"

"Language, Cevorn," Malkin said, not that he didn't use worse all the time. "We leave when the Captain decides to move out. That's all."

Leila came up beside them. "Are they waiting for repairs to finish on that shield generation?"

"Need to know, Marsh," Malkin said, then added, "But I think that's pretty much it."

Lukas looked out at the Shroud. "Do they think we'll have to fight our way out of here?"

"We're hiding in the enemy's home turf now," Malkin reminded them. "It looks like we've got a good place to be now but if we run for it we might catch their attention."

"I wouldn't want to fight more Mandos without a working shield," Leila admitted.

"Where's your fighting spirit?" Mynar said.

"I left it at Karfeddion. Where do you think?" she said sharply, killing the banter before it had a chance to start. Everything had been like that the past few days. That battle was a shadow that would hang over them for a long time after they escaped from the Senex Sector.

If they ever escaped.

The roar of a TIE fighter's engines drew all their eyes back to the hangar mouth. Voidwalker and Shieldbreaker had been keeping up a steady rotation of sending out a pair of TIE-Xs each to fly patrol cap around the two frigates. Their little nook protected them from outside scanners but it also meant they were just as blind to a possible ambush. Coming in right now wasn't the pair on cap; it was one ship with a matte-black cockpit ball and stretched-long eight-sided solar panels adorned with all manner of sensor equipment: Voidwalker's sole TIE Stalker. Unlike all the other TIEs, the recon vessel was long-range with a working hyperdrive. Lukas had to admit that were he in the pilot's place he'd have been tempted to just keep jumping until he was out of Senex entirely.

"They've been sending out a lot of those lately," Leila muttered.

"Have they?" asked Mynar.

"Of course. Haven't you been listening to the rumors?"

"Not those rumors, I guess. What is it?"

"The Stalkers have been making lots of jumps," Malkin confirmed. "Making sure we've got a clear way out, presumably."

"It only took us three jumps to find this place," Lukas said. "Shouldn't we know the way out?"

"Maybe it's blocked," said Mynar. "Maybe the Mandos found it. Or maybe all the nebulae drifted in fast and closed it off."

"Maybe it's something else," Lukas muttered.

"Like what?" asked Leila.

Lukas shrugged. Malkin said, "Okay, enough chit-chat, okay? Next on the schedule is to clean our kits. Again. And when Captain Lorn and Prince Fel and all the others on the bridge decide to let us know what's what, then they'll tell us. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," all three of them said, and they followed Malkin and their other squad-mates back to the barracks.

They were soldiers, stormtroopers. They followed orders and did they jobs. But all that couldn't stop them from wondering.

-{}-

Since Karfeddion they'd been having meetings of all the senior staff once a day, when the shipboard chronometer said noon. While ultimately Captain Lorn had the final say about everything, they began with every section head going around and summarizing what his or her division had been doing. Davek had less to say than most; it made him feel useless but also lucky. As chief engineer, Nemez Daharr and his staff had been working nonstop to get the shield generator repaired with the parts loaned from Shieldbreaker. As a Yaga, Daharr was used to going standard days without sleep, but the rest of the senior staff besides Captain Lorn were all human and clearly tired. Trenn Holden and his scant medical staff- three more people, not counting a couple droids- had been forced to undergo the grisly task of confirming the deaths of all fourteen crew members. The gunnery chief, Mobed Sarl, might have had it worse. He was a mere junior grade lieutenant like Davek but thanks to relative seniority he'd been in line to replace Transi Khomal as first officer, which meant that in addition to making sure all weapons were working he had to coordinate the rest of the repair and recovery operations as well. He looked like he'd slept as much as Daharr since Karfeddion.

That meeting- their fifth since finding this hiding place deep within the Shroud- finally brought some good news. With a weary, satisfied smile, Chief Daharr said, "I'm proud to announce that full repairs have been completed on the shield generator. We should be ready to test this afternoon."

The roomful of officers were too exhausted and Imperial to break out in applause, but the silent relief on everyone's faces was good enough. Everyone, it seemed, except Captain Lorn.

"Excellent," Lorn said seriously. "Have your crew standing by for a rest at 1400. Lieutenants Sarl and Fel, please make certain you're at your posts before that time."

Both of them nodded. Sarl asked, "Do you want to perform live-fire tests as well?"

"Nothing elaborate. Too much of a fireshow and we might give ourselves away. I just want to test-fire our guns. Clear our throats."

"Do you expect to have to fight our way out of here, sir?" asked Davek.

Lorn glanced at him, held his eyes, then looked away. "That remains to be seen. Major Sligh, please summarize the activities of your stormtrooper squads."

Davek restrained a frown and barely paid attention as Sligh ran through his update. As chief tactical officer he was well aware that they'd been running TIE Stalker patrols over and over. They only had one pilot trained to fly the stealth reconnaissance ship, but he'd been going out twice a day with orders directly from Lorn himself that Davek wasn't privy to. He'd hoped that was nothing to worry about, but a quiet, off-the-record talk with Lieutenant Pelky over on Shieldbreaker confirmed that Captain Dobriss was also sending his TIE Stalker out on secret missions too, usually when Voidwalker's pilot was catching rack time.

What it all meant he didn't know. The fact that both captains were keeping a secret from their crews was the most worrying part but he wasn't going to call Lorn on it, certainly not now.

After Sligh, Commander Samar gave his report. Despite losing six pilots as Karfeddion- six pilots left behind, mostly from Grey Squad- he'd made no change to the squadron rosters. He made no mention of the TIE Stalker missions, so there was little to say. These meetings had become almost routine by now, and when Lorn dismissed them the only different from the past four was that now they had the shields fixes and guns to fire, and if all the tests went well they should be free to try and slip or fight their way out of Senex-Juvex and back to Imperial space.

Before Davek could leave, Lorn called on him to stay. The room emptied of everyone except Davek, the captain, and Lieutenant Sarl, who looked weirdly torn between exhaustion and embarrassment. The man was only as old as Davek's brother and clearly hadn't expected to find himself executive officer on a ship stuck behind enemy lines. On a ship of Voidwalker's modest size the official chain of command only went three officers deep and Lorn has so far not named a second officer to take Sarl's place; there had been so much else to do.

Davek had no idea what he was being asked to stay behind; he hoped it was for some explanation about the TIE Stalkers. He frankly believed he deserved to know, being chief tactical officer, but from the stern look on his captain's face he understood the Muun still had secrets to keep.

"Lieutenant Fel," Lorn asked, "Have you spoken to Commander Samar about making changes to his squadron roster?"

"Ah, no, sir, I have not. As CAG, shouldn't it be his decision?"

"The formation of our mobile assets it one of your chief duties as chief tactical officer."

"He also outranks me, sir." Davek felt stupid, stating the obvious.

"Very true, but you've also been known to make your opinions clear when you think it's for the good of the ship. Even if you jump up the chain of command."

"Sir?" He frowned.

Lorn waved a long hand. "Karfeddion. I'm not complaining, Lieutenant. If you hadn't shown initiative we'd have all died back there."

"I can't claim the credit, sir. Ensign Por Dun was the one who figured out that the interdiction field was weakening."

"Ensign Por Dun is smart but she'd also a meek as a week-old ranat." Lorn leaned forward intently. Lieutenant Sarl looked awkwardly at the bulkhead. "Intelligence is a key asset in a good officer. So is boldness. But there's another one you need to work on if you're going to be my second officer."

Davek glanced at Sarl who still looked away. Then it was back to Lorn. "I'm honored, sir."

Before he could ask for a reminder on just what a second officer did, Lorn held up a finger. "You don't have the job yet. Tell me, Lieutenant, is there another reason you've been avoiding Commander Samar?"

Davek had a feeling what he was getting it. It felt difficult to say and he found himself evading. "I just didn't see it as my place, sir." Lorn looked disappointed and sunk back in his chair. Davek's mouth snapped open again. "I will say, sir, that I think there has been some… tension between us. So perhaps I've not been as forthright with Commander Samar as I might be otherwise."

"What kind of tension?"

Davek licked his lips. "His six pilots, sir. I did everything I could to make sure we had time for them to all to land before we had to jump. I failed, sir."

"Do you think it's your fault?"

"I think we had no choice, sir."

"That's not an answer."

"You're right. I know you made the right call to escape when we did. Still, I do have a hard time thinking about those pilots we left behind. They were my responsibility, as tactical officer. I know it's not my fault they had to be left, but logically, it seems like it should."

"Is it logical to project those feelings of guilt onto Commander Samar and awkwardly avoid working with the CAG?"

"No, sir. I'll talk to him about rearranging his squads and distributing some Gold Squad pilots to fill the hole in Grey Squad."

"Very good." Lorn's expression didn't relax. He wasn't ready to let it go. "Lieutenant, how many beings were aboard Voidwalker when she left Imperial space? I'm talking all crew, pilots, troopers. Everyone."

Davek knew the standard crew count for a Kontos-class frigate by heart; it only took him a few seconds to tally the mobile units. "One thousand and forty-seven, sir."

"And how many are on this ship right now?"

Another second to subtract the dead. "One thousand and twenty-seven."

"It would be zero if we hadn't left those six pilots. We'd have one-thousand and forty-seven more dead. Do you understand?"

"I do, sir."

"In your head or in your heart?"

He swallowed. "In my head, certainly. My heart… is learning, sir."

Lorn looked at him hard for another moment before his expression relaxed. "I am glad to hear it. Lieutenant Fel, you are now second officer. Should Lieutenant Sarl become incapacitated and be rendered incapable of fulfilling his duty, his responsibility will fall to you."

"Thank you, sirs." Davek snapped a salute.

Lorn nodded. "At ease. Lieutenant Sarl, please take our second officer to the bridge and fill him in on his duties."

"Yes, sir." Sarl saluted too.

The two lieutenants walked step-by-step out of the conference room for the bridge. Neither said anything as they approached. Davek knew Sarl was as overwhelmed by all the sudden changes as he was.

As they got to the command deck Davek asked, "The second officer's duties aren't actually that extensive, are they?"

"To be honest," Sarl said, "I think I've forgotten what they were. But give me a moment. I'll remember."

Davek nodded, understanding. If someone were to ask Davek what his job had been a week ago, he would have felt like he was looking back years.

-{}-

It was Marasiah Valtor's second time flying patrol around the two attack frigates. She and Gold Three skirted around the edges of the pocket of clear space they'd found inside the Shroud. All the gases played hell with their sensors so they relied on simple vision to spot possible intruders. Fortunately, after five days, there was still none to be had.

She'd always felt at home inside her cockpit and even now she felt so. The hard part had been sitting around, laying around in Voidwalker's barracks with the other pilots, waiting for her turn to come. Each patrol flight was scheduled to last two hours, and with fifteen sets of two pilots each that meant over two days of restless waiting passed between flights.

The pilots had been assigned three separate bunk-rooms to sleep in: twelve beds and one squad per room. The segregation had seemed like a barrier between Gold Squad and the other pilots at first; it still felt like that but now Marasiah was glad for it. Things were different after Karfeddion, where they'd lost six pilots. Pilots from Grey Squad, which had lost five pilots including their leader, whispered that their friends had been left instead, but so far they were only whispering it.

Marasiah's had been the first called back and the only squad to land all its birds. The new squad was the only on intact and the Grays and Blacks resented them for it, even if they mostly kept a lid on it. She'd wanted to protest to Samar that it wasn't her fault, that she'd been acting on orders from Lieutenant Fel. That she hadn't run. Doing so would have made her look weak, insecure. She also wanted to ask Lieutenant Fel why he'd pulled back first, but that was another conversation she knew would never go well.

"I heard somebody cornered Peshkin in the mess today," Sheren Marth said from Gold Three.

"Who?" asked Marasiah, annoyed to be dragged from private reverie.

"One of the Greys, I can't remember which."

"No, I mean, who is Peshkin?"

A pause. "Stalker One." Like Marasiah should have known it.

But she should have known. He had known. Stress and boredom were like opposing tidal forces playing havoc with her thoughts. "Of course. Go on."

"They asked him straight-up what he was doing flying all those recce missions. In and out, in and out. Peshkin just sat there and ate his chow. Refused to respond or even look at him."

"Stalker pilots perform missions with tight operation security. He'd never just be out with it in the mess. It was stupid to try and corner him in the first place."

"I know, Lead. But a lot of people are on edge. Especially the Greys."

"Did Lieutenant Norvok intervene?" she asked. It felt strange saying Lieutenant Norvak. Up until five days ago he'd been a flight officer; then Grey Leader had been lost at Karfeddion and suddenly the FO had a whole squad to command. A lot like Lieutenant Sarl, who'd replaced the XO. They'd groused that it was hard to advance ranks quickly in peacetime; in the wink of an eye they had the opposite problem.

"Norvok wasn't there," Marth explained. "Samar was, though. He straightened things out."

The CAG, Marasiah decided, was good at that. He was not the most approachable or friendly officer she'd served under; if anything he was more stern and authoritative than most. She'd decided she liked that approach better, especially in this kind of situation. She'd never share Sartinaynian brandy with her CAG but she'd follow his orders in battle without question.

"You do wonder, though," Marth said. The woman was Gold Squad's worst gossip and Marasiah wish she'd have flown this cap with Kosh Vendark like last time. He, at least, knew when to be quiet.

"I'm sure we'll find out in time," Marasiah said.

"If the Captain would tell us sooner everyone would be in a lot better mood."

"That depends on what he has to tell us."

Marth seemed to mull over that one. Eventually she said, "You've met Captain Lorn, Lead, which is more than the rest of us can say. Do you think we can... trust him?"

Simple words could ask so much. It was natural for a crew to doubt its captain if it seemed the captain was hiding something. It was also natural for a crew to be damned nervous if they were stuck behind enemy lines with no clear escape route. There were also a lot of crew aboard who never felt quite comfortable serving under a non-human captain, even if they didn't say it aloud. In truth it felt strange to Marasiah also; Kolfax Minor's meager population was human to a head and Lorn was the first alien she'd been subordinate to. Sharen Marth was from a similar backwater and didn't even bother to hide the accent.

"The captain has a fine service record," Marasiah said. "There's nothing in there to make us doubt him."

"I know, Lead. But he earned his rank doing police actions and skirmishes. Nothing like this."

That was another very normal, very valid concern, and Marasiah had no way to dismiss it. So she said, "We follow the chain of command and we trust our captain, Gold Three, whoever that captain is. Now please, let's pay attention to our patrol."

"Of course, Lead. Sorry, Lead," Marth said, and nothing thereafter.

Sometimes you had to put your foot down. As Commander Samar and Captain Lorn both demonstrated, it was more important to be obeyed than to be loved.

-{}-

Everyone was doing their best to carry on like normal; it was the only way to keep fear and grief away. Razor Company and a large chunk of the normal crew kept on a normal schedule, sleeping and eating when they were supposed to. There was no way to ignore the somber quiet in the mess hall now.

At least word of the shield generator's repair had fielded a new spread of rumors to keep them entertained. Mynar was always the first to pick up on them and right now he was trying to explain to everyone he could that the TIE Stalkers had found a back way out the Shroud that would allow them one straight hyperspace jump to safety- once they got past the Mando ships guarding the exit.

"Where did you hear that from exactly?" asked Lukas.

"I was talking to one of the pilots from Gold Squadron," said Mynar.

"Your girl from Kolfax Minor?" asked Leila.

"What? No, I've never talked to her." Mynar shook his head. "It was another pilot, Tosh Rennar. Anyway, he says he heard it from someone who talked to the Stalker pilot."

Lukas rolled his eyes. "Not exactly verified information."

"Yeah, but it makes sense, doesn't it? We sit here for days, risking discovery, just to fix one shield generator."

"Without that thing we'd be dead in a skirmish," Lukas reminded. "Better safe than sorry. And, you know, scattered into a billion atoms over this forsaken sector."

"Well, who's to say we won't have to fight our way out?" Mynar said defensively. "If those Mandos know we escaped to the Shroud they'll have to be sending out search parties."

"That's if they know." Lukas paused and looked around. "Do they?"

"Hells if I know," Leila shrugged. "But if they haven't found us yet it probably means they're not looking."

"Hopefully."

Mynar stabbed a fork at his tray. "Well, even if we do have to fight out way out, it won't be us that does the fighting."

"You really want to tangle with Mandos one-on-one?" Leila asked skeptically.

"At this point, yeah, I do." He scowled. "You're telling me you don't feel useless sitting on your butt? You're telling me you don't want payback for Karfeddion?"

Leila didn't answer; neither did Lukas. It was pretty hard to object to either of those points.

The awkward silence got interrupted by Sergeant Malkin stomping up to the table with a younger man in a medical officer's plain white tunic behind him.

"All right, Briggs, on your feet," the sergeant said.

Lukas hopped off the bench and stood up straight, sparing just a second to notice the confused expressions on Leila and Mynar's face. He snapped a salute before Malkin waved him at ease.

The sergeant jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. "This is Neel Vorman, assistant to the Chief Medical Officer. A request's come down to get more trained staff to the infirmary. You're the squad's designated field medic, which means it's your lucky day."

Lukas glanced at Vorman. "I didn't know there were still injured in sick bay."

"Sick bay is clear," Malkin said gruffly. "But they want more staff anyway."

"I see." He swallowed hard. The only reason they'd need more medical staff was if they were expecting casualties. Maybe Mynar was right after all. "Is this permanent, sir?"

"If Razor Company gets put into action we'll draw you back into armor," Malkin said. "But right now, you're gonna need a new set of whites."

"Understood, sir." He swallowed again and looked a question at Vorman. The other man shook his head a tiny bit; he didn't know either. Lukas wasn't sure if that made him feel better or worse.

-{}-

When Davek stepped into the conference room he shivered. It wasn't just the cool recycled air; the lights were dim and only Captain Lorn and Lieutenant Sarl sat at the far end of the table. He realized he was about to find out the truth behind all the rumors scurrying around the ship, and he had a feeling they were nothing good.

"Thank you for joining us, Lieutenant Fel. Please sit down." Captain Lorn said. He tapped a button on the table and said, "Captain Dobriss, can you hear us?"

"We hear you," Dobriss replied over the comm speaker in the middle of the table. His voice was low, gravelly; it occurred to Davek that he'd never heard Shieldbreaker's captain speak before and only seen him from a distance.

Lorn continued, "I have my first officer and tactical lieutenant with me."

"As do I," Dobriss said. "Let's get going."

"Very well." Lorn tapped another button the table and brought up a holo-image that lit up the room. "Look carefully, gentlebeings. This is what our Stalkers have been scoping out the past few days."

Davek leaned closer to the holo. It was space station with a roughly disc-shaped body and five evenly-spaced docking pylons stretching outward. Two Mandalorian capital ships were attached to each one. Davek counted six Crusader-class corvettes, three Teroch-class frigates, and what looked like a supply vessel.

"Our scouts were looking for a safe passage out of the Shroud," Lorn said. "We believe they've found one. But they've also found this."

Davek glanced at Sarl. The first officer was looking at Lorn rather than the holo; he must have been briefed on this already.

"Captain Lorn and I have been discussing out options for some time," Dobriss said. "We've reached an agreement. Scans show this waystation is lightly-defended. You'll see twin turbolaser batteries on either side of the disk, plus civilian-grade shield generators. That's all they have in way of defenses. We believe that a fast attack can destroy this station and its support ships."

Davek's mouth went dry. He heard Lieutenant Pelky say, "Sirs, have we seen any Mandalorian ships moving around outside the waystation?" She was the opposite of Dobriss, heard but never seen.

"None. Not even Beskad fighters flying patrols," said her captain. "The station was never meant to be defended because it was never meant to be found. The only real threat posed during an attack would be the ships in dock."

Six corvettes and three frigates. Just one of those Teroch-class vessels was a match for an Imperial Kontos-class frigate. If they got in fast, before the Mandos could scramble to their ships, they'd have a chance. But speed was essential. Speed was the difference between life and death.

Lorn, perhaps seeing skepticism on Davek's face, said, "Captain Dobriss and I spent many hours evaluating this. We have not come to this agreement lightly. You may be thinking that we have payback on our minds, that we want revenge for the lives lost at Karfeddion. You're not wrong, but it's more than that. We have no idea what's going on outside the Shroud. None. Our allies have no idea what's going on inside. If we can destroy this waystation we can deal a crippling blow to the Mandalorian fleet."

"Sir," Davek said, "As long as that Yuuzhan Vong worldship is still fighting, the Mandalorians are a secondary concern. Aren't they?"

"We can do nothing against the worldship," Dobriss said. "But we can do something about the Mandalorians, someone no one else is in the position to do."

"I know we can do this," Lorn said. "What matters is forming the best possible plan of attack. This battle will be decided in the first two to three minutes. That's why we have to plan everything perfectly."

Davek looked at the holo. It was a tempting target, he had to admit. "This station is in a pocket of clear space inside the Shroud, correct?" Lorn nodded. "How many routes are there in and out of the pocket?"

"Four," said Dobriss. "Each one is unguarded, as we said, but there's also an unmanned communications buoy near each one that links them to the other stations in the Shroud. We'll have to destroy those first."

"We only have two hyperspace-capable ships."

"Four, counting the TIE Stalkers," said Lorn. "Which, I might add, are equipped with short-range communication jamming equipment that can mute two buoys until our TIE-Xs destroy them."

"If we break up our ships, we won't be able to communicate in the Shroud either, will we?" asked Lieutenant Pelky.

"That's correct," Lorn said. "So as I said, it will come down to precise timing and planning."

"Do we have routes through the Shroud mapped?" asked Davek.

Lorn tapped a button again and the holo-view zoomed out. The station shrunk and a series of luminous pathways branched off from it, representing the routes through the Shroud's dust and gases. In one corner of the holo, very near Davek himself, two small rectangles represented Voidwalker and Shieldbreaker.

"Let's chart our courses, gentlebeings," said Captain Lorn. "And make sure we do everything right."