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CHAPTER FORTY TWO
The operations tent had been set up but Gregor didn't think that they would be here for very long; the smouldering ruins of the town, confirmed that for him. It would be a clean up operation. He hadn't seen devastation like this since the Clone Wars, and he had been responsible for some of that devastation himself, so he knew exactly what had caused it.
No. They would not be here very long.
He wondered briefly, what this town had done to deserve this level of reprisal, other than be supportive of the rebel cause, or rather their planetary Senator had been found out to be sympathetic to the rebels and this was her home town, her birthplace.
It had not ended well for the Senator either; an unfortunate accident just as her ship reached the edges of the atmosphere at Imperial Centre.
As if Ugnaughts could fly.
Palps loved his revenge; the Empire thrived on it.
Sensing someone approach, he turned to see Dekkar running towards him; looking as if he was going to break the galactic sprint record. He was a good lad Dekkar and had the makings of a good soldier but what the Fek was he doing now.
Gregor waited for him, hands on hips, ready to pull him to a stop. He didn't need to as he skidded to a halt in front of him.
"Sir…" he struggled to get his breath.
At least he knew how to address an officer.
"Slow down and take a breath lad."
Dekkar took a deep breath, "The Hall, over there." He pointed out the small one storey building, at the corner of the town square, across from where they stood. "I think it's booby trapped."
"With me." Gregor instructed, as he started walking, simultaneously raising Wolffe on the Comlink.
"Fekking possible booby trap, Ner Vod. School building. Coordinates….." He stopped as he turned the corner and saw the youngster Maya standing in front of it her hand on the door handle.
"No!" His voice boomed out, across the square, and she jumped away from the door as if the handle burned her. It took her a few seconds but then she asked.
"Why? Ana's already inside."
"Aw, Fek, Fek, Fek!"
"I….I told them to stay outside." Dekkar felt the need to explain that it wasn't his fault. Gregor put a hand on his shoulder. "Good lad."
"Wolffe. Get here now!" His voice boomed out again.
.
It took what seemed like an eternity, for her mind to process the carnage that she saw inside that building. From the child like drawings all around the walls and the large letters in basic on the teaching board, to the bodies of the teachers covered in blaster burns, as they obviously tried to protect the children.
The children.
Ana didn't count; she daren't.
Their ages she could guess.
How they were killed she saw.
She forced herself to look at each one, in turn; it wasn't easy but they deserved to be remembered. She would remember them. All of them. The images would be burned in her memory forever.
Who or What in the Nine Corellian Hells did this?
Finally the sights became too much and she had still not found who had been crying. There was no movement, nothing. No more sound. She looked around the grotesque room again but there was no movement; she needed help to search. If there was someone who was just wounded then maybe they could say who did this. Although she had guessed. She turned to the door and put her hand on the old fashioned handle. The crying started again; twisting around there was still no movement anywhere and now she heard it again, she realised it was coming from the door. She started to push the handle down again and heard a click; looking up she saw what looked like a ball with lights on.
"Oh Fek!" She whispered and broke out into a sweat. She thought she knew what that was and why it was flashing.
.
Why the Fek did she have to go inside? Wolffe asked himself; she was supposed to be safe with them. He stood outside the school; the rest of the team a safe distance away. They were waiting for demolitions to come, to see if they could determine how to sort out the booby trap. Safely.
Usually they just sent in a tinnie in but that wasn't going to happen this time.
"Fek. Fek. Fek." He chuntered.
"Any idea how do we do this?" Asked Gregor, as he came up beside him, silently.
"No idea, Ner Vod; lets see what demolitions come up with."
"Let's hope they come up with something or Rex is going to go kriffing mad."
"They will…or I go in myself."
.
Ana tried to calm her breathing down, she struggled to breathe, as soon as she realised that there was a booby trap in the room and that she had walked straight into it. She was an idiot and had ignored the warnings because she had thought there was a child in here. She strained to see the small device, not that she knew anything about them but it looked as if it was counting down. The digits were disappearing off the counter; now she didn't know what to do.
Should she move?
Or would it simply go off sooner.
"Fek!"
Then she heard Wolffe's voice, "You okay Ana."
She replied, trying to sound as confident as possible. "I'm fine." She heard Gregor mumble something in the background.
"Don't move!" it was Wolffe again, even though she wasn't quite sure how she knew, but she did. "We're getting demolitions to you; they'll be here soon."
It went quiet.
"Ana?"
"Yes." the reply was squeaky, she could barely speak.
"Stay calm, they won't be long."
"Okay."
She didn't feel any better.
.
Finally. thought Wolffe as the Demolitions/Bomb disposal expert eventually arrived; it was a near humanoid, pale skinned, who sported pointy ears sprouting tufts of grey hair with matching eyebrows and who looked older than the clones. No one actually knew his species; there were rumours that he had been engineered just like the clones.
Aw! We're Fekked.
He remembered who they had with them for demolitions.
Sallon slung his duffle off his back; it hit the floor with a resounding clank, followed by gentle tinkling noises.
"I'm 203 standard years old, so I'm not old, just middle aged with lots of experience." He asserted, having met with the same kind of worried reaction before.
"I saved my old master from being blown up on numerous occasions, but was he grateful? no the Mother Kriffer was not, so one day I sodding blew him up myself." He opened his duffle and took out a tiny flexible length of tubing. "Served him sodding right."
He unfurled the tubing, "so some idiots got themselves booby trapped. I say we leave them there, if they're that sodding stupid."
Wolffe bristled.
"That's not an option."
"Okay. Let's see what we've got." He slid the tubing under the door, attached a transmitter to the end and powered up his datapad.
"Ah. I see."
Wolffe stood behind him arms folded looking impatient and on the verge of bursting a blood vessel.
"Yes?" He growled.
"It'll be sodding difficult."
"That's why we called for you." He struggled not say more.
Sallon jiggled the tubing along and, in and out from under the door to get a picture of the whole area that would be affected.
"Hmm."
He moved it slightly further to one side and back again.
"Ahhh."
This time it went further into the room and he heard a shriek.
"You still Okay, Ana?" Asked Wolffe.
There was a muffled reply.
"Ah – ha! Sloppy, very sodding sloppy. Yep, should be able to do it."
"So can you do it?" Wolffe needed more concrete confirmation.
"Of course I can. There was never any sodding doubt about it. It's just deciding how."
"So, explain."
"The Sizzle paste that we got from the last attack; the sodding stuff that the Imps use to board ships with. Got it from that last supply run, always wanted to use it." He was nonchalant about the whole process which just wound Wolffe up.
This is way better than any thing I could do, thought Gregor, with a hint of admiration for their demolitions expert .
"So how does this work?" Wolffe asked, forcefully, his control gene kicking in again.
Sallon looked at him and tapped the end of his nose with a blunt forefinger.
With that sign, Wolffe had had enough and grabbed Sallon by the collar, pulling him up until they were nose to nose. The shorter man just managed to keep his toes on the ground and some semblance of dignity.
"She had better… not…. get hurt." Wolffe growled, and then dropped him back down.
The demolitions experts smoothed down his ruffled coat; it didn't make much difference.
"Oh, it's like that is it?"
Wolffe turned and fixed him with a stare. "We don't lose anyone, okay?" It didn't seem to make any difference.
"Yep. Now give me some sodding room."
Everyone stepped back at least six paces; Sallon turned and indicated with a nodding motion of his head that he needed them further back. Everyone stepped back another six paces; Sallon motioned his head again. A further six paces back for all concerned and then Sallon considered the distance again before he indicated that he was happy. He rooted in his bag for his sizzle paste. He found several large tubes and what looked like a small nozzle. He opened up a tube and attached the nozzle before squeezing the tube carefully; using the nozzle like a stylus he delicately drew a line of the paste on the door. It surrounded the lock and into the door. Wolffe strained to see but couldn't identify exactly what he was doing.
Sallon stepped back and considered his handiwork; he considered himself an artist and breathed a sigh of relief as he did so. Then out of his duffle, he pulled what looked like a roll of fine filament wire and attached one end to the sizzle paste and the other to a power cell. Not entirely the correct way to detonate this but it would have to do.
"Right then, everybody ready for the sodding fireworks?"
Everyone stepped back a few more steps and put their hands over their ears.
He leant nearer the door, "Ana is it? Won't be long now. Just cover your ears. Soon be out." Stepping back he dragged some battered ear defenders, out of his bag, pulled them on, closed his eyes and pressed the red button.
There was a little pfutt, followed by the sound of sizzling Roba meat, as the sizzle paste ignited and burned around the lock.
The sizzling stopped and there was silence; then the door fell outwards and Ana stood looking out, blinking in the now bright sunlight. She appeared not to know where she was.
Sallon stepped forward and held out his hand to her; resting her hand on his she stepped onto the collapsed door. As soon as she stepped off it, pandemonium broke out Maya and Wolffe rushed towards Ana. Gregor started ordering people around and Sallon went inside to look at the explosives attached and ensure that they were all deactivated. Several looked inside but didn't stay long and most came looking green or just shaking their heads, if they actually had a strong stomach.
Wolffe and Maya walked with Ana to the operations room; she could not stop shaking now as the shock took hold.
I need to be better than this.
She straightened up trying to stop the shaking but it just wouldn't.
"Drink this!" Gregor shoved a hydration pouch in front of her face but she pushed it away; the thought of actually drinking something made her feel ill.
Ana spent the next few minutes with Maya and Wolffe vomiting. Again.
