CHAPTER 12: THE CALL

Din tried to warn them, he yelled for them to run, but they were vaporized in front of him. Suddenly, Moff Gideon was standing in front of him and he lifted up the Dark Saber between his eyes. The weapon's white bolt of energy suddenly struck Din in the chest just as he was going to lunge for Gideon. The crackling energy was also enveloping a beskar shielded pram that was just out of reach. He watched in horror, he was frozen, helpless. Gideon slowly advanced and raised the Dark Saber over his head, and with a final echoing laugh the Saber came down on Din's head…

Din woke with a start, covered in sweat, and everything hurt. Even his eyelids hurt. He remembered the feeling of being cooked, and he also felt like every nerve ending in his body was still buzzing with the energy that had coursed through him. His helmet was on but the familiar weight of his beskar was missing, and he was thankful, that weight might have been more pain than he could bear…

Tarre!

Din forced his eyes open, and realized he was in the sewers, in the old covert, where they had converted the sewer colony into an infirmary before the battle.

Tarre, can you hear me!

Din couldn't feel Tarre at all. He forced his head to turn right, he could see the Armorer in the cot next to him, she seemed comfortable and well. He forced his head to turn left, and there he saw Tarre's pram, it was open, but it was above his line of sight so he could not see his ad'ika.

Din grunted with pain as he forced screaming limbs to lift his body up and reach out for the pram. He lunged and grabbed its edge, then pulled it down to his height and found Tarre still unconscious inside.

"Tarre!"

"Din! Stop! You're going to rupture a muscle moving like that!" The Armorer put a hand on his shoulder, but Din would not stop until he had picked up Tarre and put him on the cot.

Tarre did not wake but felt the warmth of his father and curled up close to him.

Din finally laid back and felt sweat dripping down from his hair which was stuck to his forehead, and rolling down his neck and chest. He couldn't catch his breath.

"Slow your breathing, Din Djarin. Slower still," she sat on the edge of his cot and looked up at the medscanner above his head. "You must move slowly. The weapon had the worst affect on you, as you carry the most beskar of the entire Tribe. A few more seconds and you surely would have been vaporized faster than me."

Din looked back up at the Armorer and asked weakly, "Are you alright?"

The Armorer nodded, "I am injured, but I am recovering."

"How long —? What is happening?" Din whispered.

The Armorer put a hand on his chest. "The battle has been raging two days. This is the morning of the third. Both you and Tarre are the last to recover from the first attack at the Gate. The militia is holding its ground, and it appears that Gideon's forces have limits. The Star Destroyer above us does not contain a full compliment."

Din's heart quickened at that news, because it meant they had a chance.

"The Mandalorians have been conducting strike force and sniper warfare, instead of creating large lines that are an easy target for the weapon, but Gideon has not produced another copy of the same weapon since Tarre-Haal destroyed the first one."

Din's arm instinctively curled around Tarre a little tighter.

"Cara Dune has been a mastermind of the defense of the city," the Armorer added.

Din looked up at the mention of Cara's name. "Where is she?"

The Armorer tossed her head to the right. "She is assigned to the Gate again today. She was here last night with you and Tarre."

Din sighed, "I cannot leave the Tribe and Dune to this fight alone."

The Armorer looked at him, "You cannot fight in this condition, either. Besides, you must ensure the safety of your Foundling. Ultimately, he is what Gideon wants."

Din nodded, then his insides spasmed at that thought and he twitched slightly.

The Armorer reached up to change his bacta infusion bag, but Din stopped her.

"Let me get up and move a little," he pleaded.

The Armorer helped him move from supine to seated, and Din settled his sleeping boy in his left elbow. When she pulled Din from sitting to standing, however, the pain shot straight through his chest and he faltered.

"Your muscles were all broken down by the weapon, Din. The bacta has healed the damage and inflammation, but if you do not return to movement slowly, they will tear apart."

Din nodded and he could feel the cramp in his left arm where he held Tarre. With shaking arms he laid Tarre back inside his pram. Then he looked back up at the Armorer.

"Have you contacted Mandalore since the battle began?"

The Armorer shook her head, "Standard Imperial siege protocol, all communication has been jammed."

"Not all communication," Greef Karga walked up, with a tight smile. "My pirate network has been using the slow frequency bands for as long as I've known them. They are less efficient and therefore considered noise by the Empire. If you use enough encoding, it's like floating a sub under the ocean in a cyclone."

Karga put a hand gently on Din's aching shoulder, "Good to see you up again, Mando."

Din nodded, "Thank you."

Karga tossed a glance at Tarre, "He's still sound asleep?"

Din sighed, "The first time he over extended himself to save me, he was down for two days. I don't know how long it will take him to recover from this one."

Karga frowned, "You were asking about communication?"

Din looked up at Karga, "I need to speak to my brother, he needs to hear about what is happening here. We need Mandalore."

"To what end?" The Armorer asked.

Din looked up at her, "We thought we were just finishing off the remnant of Gideon's forces. But now Gideon is still alive, which means he will be coming for Tarre, AND he has a weapon we did not anticipate. To finish off Gideon, we are going to have to take down that Star Destroyer and cut off his resources. We can't do that without starships. We need Mandalore to help us, but before we can ask that, I must tell them of the weapon."

The Armorer nodded, "Gideon obviously stole the information from the Imperial archives on Mandalore, because he said Thrawn built the weapon once before with the help of the Saxon Clan. There may be someone on Mandalore who knows how to stop it."

Karga nodded and extended a hand, "Come with me, the comms are in my office."

Din reached over and closed Tarre's pram, put on one of his vambraces to reactivate the proximity tether, then took Karga's hand. Karga put Din's arm over his shoulders and the Armorer took the other side, then together they started the painful journey to Karga's base office further down in the sewers.

Din sat heavily, even with wearing only his coveralls and his helmet, he was having trouble just holding up his head.

"You've sweat right through your coveralls, Mando," Karga said with concern. "You're going to get dehydrated."

Din put up a hand, "I promise — I'll take any treatment offered — we just have to make this call."

Karga looked up at the Armorer, and then reached around Din to the ancient looking machine. He typed in a pass code, then adjusted several switches.

He pointed to the monitor which showed a band of hazy white noise toward the top of a black screen.

"That is the jammer of the Imperials. Now, watch down below it…"

He tapped on a signo-grapher. He tapped three times, paused and then tapped again. With each tap a small burst appeared on a line in the space well below the jamming signal. Karga laughed and pointed to the Imperial jamming signal.

"You see? No change. They did not even adjust once to interfere with any of those taps. Now, if I modulate your message even more to continuously span across this spectrum below their jammers, even if they do detect us, we can keep them one step behind long enough to get your message through."

Din looked up at Karga, "Pirates and smugglers, eh?"

Karga grinned, "All in a day's work."

Din took the hand mic when Karga handed it to him then pressed the button on the side.

"This is Din Djarin, Clan Vizsla, to Mandalorian Outer Defense. Moff Gideon is alive and he has the Dark Saber. He also has a weapon that vaporizes Mandalorians using their beskar armor. To defeat the enemy we will need star ships. This weapon may determine the fate of Mandalore. Return communication to ONLY this signal."

Karga nodded, then modulated the message as he described, sending it out.

"I'm going to have to stay in here, just in case we get a response," Din said quietly, feeling the strain of the activity.

Karga looked around, "We'll need to give you this room, Mando, otherwise you won't have a place you can eat in privacy."

Din leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees as he fought a wave of nausea, "Not sure I could eat right now anyway, Karga."

"He needs fluid more than food. Find him a couch or a cot and I will get supplies for them," the Armorer said decisively as she walked out, headed back to the infirmary.

Din was about to put his head down on the desk when suddenly he felt a quiet voice, Buir…

Din's head shot up, and he turned to Tarre, who was looking at him with sleepy eyes and a small smile. Din reached over and pulled the pram to him, leaning on it instead of the desk.

Tarre…how do you feel, ad'ika? He offered a finger to Tarre and he took it, and held onto it but closed his eyes again. Din felt nothing but peace from him, no pain, no fear. Soon Tarre was snoring again.

Din felt his eyelids becoming heavier and then he fell asleep on the chair leaning over the pram.

"WHERE ARE THEY?" Someone was yelling down the hall and it echoed through the sewers.

"In here! They are sleeping! Calm down!" Karga's voice was easy to recognize.

"Are they okay?" Cara's voice was now unmistakeable.

Din forced himself to get up, and slowly hobbled to the door, which he opened, startling both Karga and Cara. Din leaned against the door frame but tried to hide his pain at the effort of walking.

"Tarre woke up finally a few hours ago. Just for a minute, but he's okay," Din said quietly.

Cara walked over to Din and threw her arms around him. He grunted slightly from the assault on his muscles, but he was so glad to see her, completely healthy after three days of battle, that he did not stop her.

Without any of his beskar plates, he suddenly seemed much leaner in stature to Cara. He was diminished. But she reminded herself what the Armorer had said, due to his heavy beskar, the weapon had affected him the worst, and he was going to be physically weaker than he had ever been before. With her arms around him she could already feel his limbs shaking from the effort.

"Come on, sit back down," Cara kept an arm around his midsection and guided him back to his couch. "Has Paz returned your call?"

Din shook his head, "Not yet," he sighed after he sat down. "He will."

Karga was emphatic, "We are holding them back. We will be able to last until we hear back from the Mandalorians. We need to start thinking about getting you and Tarre out of here."

Din shook his head, "No. We can't leave you."

Karga put his hands on his hips, "What exactly do you think you are going to do that can help us now? You can barely move! We have all the warriors we need to hold out. Go, and get Tarre out of here. This battle is the perfect distraction! You can slip between Gideon's fingers. And then we can crush him!" Karga made a fist and had a slightly wild look in his eyes.

Cara could not help but smile at Karga's optimism. She looked back at Din, "Well he's right about you and Tarre being useless to the battle right now."

Tarre suddenly gurgled and squeaked in protest. Cara smiled and reached into the pram, "Hey my little warrior! You're right! You saved them all! Including your Dad!"

She held him in her arms and tickled his nose, he sighed and grabbed for her fingers. She let him hold them and smiled down at him.

Din looked at her, "It really was just him? I didn't dream that?"

Cara smiled up at him, but her eyes shone with tears, "Yeah. It was all him. We would have lost every Mandalorian at the Gate if it wasn't for him. As it is, we lost ten of the sixty we had, in just seconds. Seven from the Tribe and three from the Mandalorians who came with us to help."

Din put his helmet in his hands. He started to second guess his plan. But then he came back to the same conclusion, the weapon plans had to be destroyed and a defense had to be developed. Or it would be the end of Mandalore.

Karga spoke up when he saw Din's plate still half full sitting on his desk, "You barely ate, Mando. You're going to have to do better than that."

"Karga," Din growled, "I'm doing the best my insides will allow."

Karga shot Cara a look. And Cara rolled her eyes and nodded.

"I'm gonna hang on to Tarre for a few minutes. You need to drink more, and get a few more bites in," Cara stood up.

Din actually reached up after Tarre, but then pulled his hand back in as a fist.

"Fine," he muttered, resigned.

Cara and Karga walked out with Tarre and closed the door behind them. Cara sat down and Karga stood next to her as she looked down at Tarre.

"Kid — I just need you to listen to me. We have a plan, and we will talk to your Uncle about it too. But we have to get you and your Dad to safety."

Tarre frowned.

"I know, don't look at me like that. We never would have gotten this far without you and your Dad, but it's time for you to go now. And, don't worry, I know your Dad can't do this alone — I'm coming with you," Cara said quietly.

Tarre's ears fully extended for the first time since he awoke and he smiled. Karga patted Cara's shoulder in approval.

"This is Outer Defense, calling Nevarro base. We have Clan Vizsla who desires to speak to Din Djarin."

Din heard the comm panel going off despite a deep slumber, but he was slow to come out of it. Karga and Cara burst into the room and Tarre was squeaking as Karga started to flip switches and Cara picked up the mic.

"This is Cara Dune at Nevarro base. Din Djarin is injured, may I speak to Clan Vizsla?"

There was a brief pause, "Cara? What happened? Where is Din?" Paz's voice rang out.

"Paz! He was hit with the weapon he told you about in the message. He survived, but we have to evacuate him and Tarre!"

"Cara, we are coming," Paz voice sounded strained. "The weapon you describe is known to the Clan. It was last used on Mandalore before the Battle of Yavin when it was destroyed. It was thought that was the last one in existence. It looks like we were wrong."

Din managed to sit up and struggled to stand, Karga went over to help him to the desk, and Din put a hand on Cara and the desk to hold himself up.

"Paz! Do we have a defense? A way to stop the weapon?" Din managed to say through gritted teeth.

Cara nodded, "Tarre-Haal destroyed the first one. But we have to assume they have more."

"We do not have a defense. Zaral found Bo-Katan's report on the weapon. The report only said that Sabine of Clan Wren managed to reprogram the weapon to use the armor of the Stormtroopers against them in the same way it attacks using the beskar."

Din shook his head, "Did Bo-Katan's report include the specs?"

"No, Din, but we have already prepared a team to infiltrate the Star Destroyer and retrieve the information. Cara, how are you going to evacuate my brother?"

"The Razor Crest is intact, Paz. I just need cover fire to fly Din and Tarre to the hyperspace lanes," Cara said quickly.

Din shook his head again, but his legs were already unsteady from standing, "I'm NOT leaving, Paz, there's no way I can let any evidence of this weapon exist in the galaxy!"

"DIN," Paz silenced his brother with one forceful word, "this is NOT your mission. Your mission is with Tarre-Haal. In fact, you may be able to accomplish both that mission and help in the fight, if you would just listen to us."

Cara stood up and moved Din into the chair she was sitting in. He sank into the chair, then leaned onto the desk and took the mic, "I'm listening."

"When Zaral showed me the information about the weapon and Sabine of Clan Wren, she also told me about the unanswered calls to Countess Ursa Wren. So I put out a call to Tristan, Sabine's brother. He and I fought together with Bo-Katan representing our Clans while you were still with the Fighting Corps. And today, he responded."

Din's breath caught in his throat.

"I explained your situation and the news of the weapon and the Dark Saber. Tristan and the remainder of Clan Wren are now on their way. And he brings with him the last known path of a ship signature — that carries Sabine Wren."

Din huffed, the closest he could come to a laugh, "She can help us with the weapon."

"And, Din, she travels with someone who may be able to help you and Tarre-Haal. Tristan says the two Jedi who delivered the Dark Saber to Bo-Katan are now dead. But Sabine travels with one who trained with the Jedi Order."

Din was stunned, "She travels with another Jedi?"

"No, but apparently she is a legendary Force wielder who fought in both the Clone Wars as well as with the Rebellion. Din — I need you to leave, and go find that ship."

Din turned to look at Tarre who was sitting up in his pram with very wide eyes. He knew what Tarre wanted to do.

Din then looked over at Karga who gave him a knowing glance, and lastly up at Cara, who lifted a brow at him. Then he turned back to the mic and pressed the button.

"OK, Paz, when you arrive, we'll be ready to go."