Our next month passed slowly. We ran few missions for the black sun, as the syndicate portion based on Coruscant went into hiding in order to save its business. On the few assignments we ran for the syndicate, the Republic was always there, they knew we were on Coruscant, and wanted us dead. The casino stayed open and we moved merchandise or funds for them occasionally. But it had been quiet the past week or so, and we took the opportunity to rest.
"West, I think we need to set up a Beskar Forge, we have all this Beskar and nothing to use it for." Colt said entering the room, Kat and I were sitting on the bed in the room we now shared.
"We do need to, but we can't do it here." I told him
"We can get the parts for one though." he said leaning against the door frame, I turn to Kat
"What do you think?"
"We need one, that's pretty obvious, I've developed some plans with Mitken, we could make some new gadgets." she said
"We need one, West." Colt follows up, I sigh quickly,
"Gather everyone in the leisure room, let's have a chat."
"I'll go get Alli and Mitken." Kat pipes up, she jumps up and walks out the door
"What are we doing?" Colt asks
"I think we're leaving Coruscant." I say
"What!? Why would we leave?"
"Colt, we're wanted by the Republic, the Jedi, and whoever rules Mandalore now. We can't stay."
"I guess you're right, let's see what the others say." he says. I nod and walk to the leisure room.
I sit at the couch next to the hologram table table and bring up a map of the galaxy. I glance at the planets in the inner core, it seems none of them will be suitable for us, all Republic Controlled, we need somewhere the Republic doesn't care about or occupy. Somewhere in the Outer Rim, or maybe Seperatist Space. While I'm looking over the map the others come in and sit around the table,
"What do you have in mind, West?" Colt asked
"We should leave, before the Republic or Jedi catch up with us." I say, I hear a sigh and a groan coming from the girls
"Already?" Alli moans
"We've just gotten settled in!" Kat says, I figured they'd be upset, no one likes leaving their home.
"I get it, but we need to get out before the Republic finds us, we can fight our way out but there are millions of clones versus the five of us." I say, the girls sigh and groan but they know I'm right,
"We'll get the parts to build a Beskar forge, then we'll leave. Set up somewhere in the outer rim, or maybe Seperatist Space."
"I don't like it," Alli says,
"I know, it's been good here but we can't stay. We'll get our ship and go." I tell them, I hear sullen agreements around the table.
"Is it still in the hangar at the casino?" I ask looking to Mitken
"That's where I parked it." he replies, I nod and stand
"Gather your things, we leave as soon as we can." I announce. The others slowly separate and return to their rooms, I follow Kat to our room she sighs and sits on the bed a moment.
"If I'm honest, I don't want to leave." she said
"Believe me, I don't either. But we need to, before the Republic sets a garrison on us." I tell her
"I understand… but… we had our first kiss here." she says smiling, I chuckle
"We'll have plenty more somewhere else. We'll find a better place I promise." I say, she smiles at that and seems satisfied; she stands
"Let's gather our stuff." she says
"Just pack it in a crate, I'll grab one, we'll leave them in the hall and pick them up when we have the ship."
"Okay. Where did you put the Beskar?" she asks
"It's hidden in some panels in the ceiling, that will be the last thing we'll get." We pack our things and I go grab a crate to put our stuff in.
"Pack my things in these crates, please. I'm going to get the ship with Mitken." I say placing four crates in our room
"Okay, be careful, please. I'll have our stuff packed by the time you're back." she says from my locker, I grab my helmet from the table and kiss her on the forehead before heading out the door. Mitken is waiting for me in the hall and pulls him helmet on as I pass him
"Ready?" he asks
"Yeah." I say pulling my helmet on, we walk through the apartment and out the door. Our speeders are still parked by the door. We mount up and head to the casino. We land in the bay and dismount.
"Where did you park it?" I ask looking around, I can't see the shuttle anywhere.
"Uh, it was in bay four." Mitken says.
"Dammit, let me talk to the warehouse manager, maybe it got moved." I pull my communicator from my waist and call the manager
"Tennor!? Are you there?" I ask
"Yes, I'm here Mando. What do you need? I 'm quite busy at the moment so you know." He adds quickly
"Where is our ship? We parked it here and it's gone!"
"Blast… a lot of our ships were impounded in the raid, yours must have been one of them." he says
"My only guess is that all the ships are in the impound at the Republic Customs Office." he says
"Damn." I say before ending the call
"So our ship was impounded?" Mitken asks
"Yes, it seems that way. We'll gather everyone, we'll need to leave the minute we get it."
"What about the beskar? We can't leave it."
"And we won't, we'll lock it in the casino warehouse, we'll stop by and get it before we jump."
"Where are we even going West?"
"I don't know yet, we'll figure it out. Let's get back." I finish, we load back up on the speeders and head back to the apartment.
When we get back the others come out on the pad, they all have their helmets and weapons ready.
"Where's the ship?" Alli asks
"The Republic Customs office, they impounded it." Mitken replies, Colt sighs
"So we have to go get it now?"
"Yes, we do." I reply
"Okay, well what's the plan?" Kat pipes up
"No plan, we don't know where it is, and the Republic already knows we're here, we'll go in guns blazing." I say
"Is that really the best idea?" Mitken asks from my side
"You have a better one?" I answer, he shakes his head quickly,
"Load up, bring your weapons, and bring the Beskar, we'll put that at the casino." they all scramble to the speeders as Colt brings the container to the rear of my speeder, I chain it to the rear and hop on, Kat jumps behind me with Colt and Alli on another, and Mitken alone again.
We make our way to the casino and lock the Beskar away in another bay. We headed directly to the Customs center after. I set our speeder down in alley way, just south of the border fence, the others flank me on either side.
"What now, West?" Colt asks. I look around quickly and notice a tall building next to us.
"We'll jetpack up to the roof here," I say pointing "We'll have an overlook of the whole complex from here." I get nods and agreements all around, so I fire my jetpack and hover a moment waiting on the others, they all quickly get off the ground and hover next to me. Once everyone is up I quickly fly up to the roof and set down, the others join me quickly. I lower my rangefinder and look over the complex. It's a large compound with a ten foot wall. I can see six lander pads and a large hangar towards the center of the complex, our ship is probably in there.
"Six guard towers on the north side." Alli says
"I see them, are those ion cannons on the walls?" I say
"Looks like it, but I see a power station on the southwest side." Colt says
"Good, that'll be our target, once there in the dark we'll find our ship." I say
"It's probably in the hangar." Mitken says,
"More than likely, how many troopers are there?" Colt asks
"That building just east of the power generator, it looks like a barracks to me." Kat says slowly, I drop my rangefinder and look at the building she mentioned, I switch to scanning for life-forms, there's at least a hundred in there. Kat says what I'm thinking before I can
"Damn, there's a whole battalion in there."
"There is, but we'll have to make it work. We'll fly around the south side of the complex and land at the power center and disable it. From there we'll move to the hangar."
"Sounds good enough for me." Colt says quickly,
"Are we ready?" I ask I get nods all around and raise my rangefinder,
"Keep up," I say as I dash forward off the roof. I fire my jetpack as I jump and turn south, I hear the others jetpacks fire behind me. I quickly fly to the wall and land on it. The others land beside me, before I can check on them a bolt flies past my head, one of the guards saw us.
"Blast! Colt you're with me, The rest of you, cover us!" I shout as I jump down off the wall to the power station. I hear the others start firing as I fire my jetpack to slow my landing. Colt lands beside me immediately after.
"Are we blowing it up or disabling it?" he asks, I hadn't thought about it beforehand, so I decided to destroy it.
"Fire a rocket at the plasma coils!" I shouted to him, I dropped my rangefinder and targeted the coils. Once I had a lock I leaned forward and fired, Colt's followed mine exactly. It took three seconds for our rockets to strike the coils. The explosion went off before the entire complex let out a screech and the complex went dark. The firing from the clones on the towers ceased as soon as it was dark.
"Let's get back up to the others, be quick, emergency power will come on any minute now." I said lifting off again, I flew up to the others and landed beside them,
"Okay, they're distracted for now, but that garrison is gearing up, right now! Let's get our ship and get out!" They all nod quickly and we run along the wall toward the hangar single file, me in the lead. Colt behind, then Kat, Alli, and Mitken is last. We take more fire from two towers, but we dive into the shadows and they lose sight of us. I spot a path that runs down past the hangar and jump from the wall to it. I run down the path to a door into the hangar I stop to the side of the door and say,
"Kat, Mitken, get this door open, cut it, blow it, whatever you have to do." they both quickly kneel down to it and get to work, they both light F-187 cutters and start cutting at the bottom of the door, I hear the sound of troopers running towards us, they aren't far,
"Dammit...Kat, how long do you need?" I say slinging my rifle from my shoulder.
"Not long, hold them back as long as you can." she says, I can hear the troopers yelling now,
"They're breaching the hangar!" one yells, the same voice follows up with
"They're wearing beskar, ready thermal detonators!"
"Blast, Colt, Alli, cover this hallway." I shout leveling my rifle down the hall. Allit takes cover in a doorway and raises her rifle as well, Colt does the same. I hear the troopers running getting louder and louder until I see a trooper round the corner. I hear another trooper yell
"No wait!" I aim for the trooper's head but Alli drops him before I can fire. He drops back and I see smoke rolling from his breastplate. Troopers begin firing from around the corner and I take a shot in the shoulder, it feels like a speeder slamming into my shoulder, followed by a massive amount of heat, I recoil back and take cover in another door frame. Kat looks up from cutting and starts toward me,
"West!" she calls out
"No! No! Cut the door, I'm fine!" I shout to her, she looks at me a moment longer before going back to cutting. I stand back up and start firing towards the corner of the path. Two troopers are peeking around the corner. One kneeling down the other standing with just their heads showing, I line up with the bottom troopers visor and squeeze the trigger. The visor explodes as the trooper falls back. The top trooper recoils back slightly, before I see him fly back as well, Colt or Alli must have taken him. There's silence for another three seconds before I hear the sound of troopers marching and six troopers come around the corner with riot shields raised. They're blocking the whole hallway and I can see the rest of the battalion behind them. The lead troopers with the shields spread slightly and blaster bolts rain from between the shields, I dive for cover in another door frame as bolts continue to fly past my head.
"Kat! Mitken! We need that door open now!" I yell to them,
"We know, West! Any second now!" Kat yells back, I peek out and the troopers are starting to advance toward us. I peak out again and fire a few bolts toward them, none of them penetrate the shields.
"We're through!" Mitken yells. I hear the clang of the door falling into the hangar.
"Get in there! Cover us getting across!" I yell, Mitken goes first, Kat follows quickly. They both lean back out and start firing at the troopers. None of them drop, but the shields close up, the fire from the rear troopers stop.
"Alli, you go, then you Colt, I'll follow!" Alli doesn't respond, but she quickly dashes across the hall into the hangar, Colt follows her. I follow her seconds behind, we enter into a long wide building with an open wall on the north side. There's six pads where ships are being pulled apart and searched, I can see ours at the end.
"Get this door blocked!" I yell, the others start moving and drag a large toolbox over. I hear the troopers getting closer. They throw the toolbox in front of the door, it falls and blocks the bottom half but leaves the top open.
"We need more! Find something else!" I yell, they run off again, but before they get anything else the emergency power comes on and a blast door slams down. I step back and look back toward the others,
"Nevermind, we're good! The emergency power came on, must be a lockdown," I yell again,
"West, that may be worse for us… the ray shield on the hangar door is up again!" Mitken replies, I look up and see he's right, the ray shield on the hangar door is up again, we can't take off.
"Mitken, Kat, get on the rayshield, Alli go with them and cover them if they need it. Colt, let's get our ship ready." Mitken, Alli and Colt run over to an astromech panel and kneel down in front of it. Colt runs to me and we start toward our shuttle at the end.
"Wait, wait, West, look!" Colt says pointing next to us, there's a Kom'rk transport sitting there, a Mandalorian built shuttle. It's heavily armored, armed, built in hyperdrive, and can support twenty four people for two full months. It's perfect for us.
"We'll take it, get it fired up." I yell to him, we dash over and I lower the ramp,
"Get in there, I'll deal with the lock!" I say, he runs in as I duck under the shuttle to disable the magnetic lock. It's a simple mechanism, but while the base is under lockdown I can't do anything without explosives,
"Kat! Get over here and help with this lock!" I shout out, Kat looks up from her panel, she looks back at Mitken for a second before he nods, she looks back up and runs over to the shuttle.
"Get this lock off!" I say, she kneels down beside me and slides her astromech prod into the port, she looks at her gauntlet,
"Ugh! I'll have to bypass the lockdown protocol, Mitken will have the ray shield down in a second, but this will take a while." she says,
"How long do you need?"
"All the time you can give me,"
"They aren't getting through that door, we have time, use it." I said putting a hand on her shoulder.
"West, ray shield is down!" Mitken says over comm,
"Good job, come help Kat with this clamp, cut it if you have to!"
"On my way!" he yells back. I stand up and hear the ships engines activate.
"Ships ready! How's the lock coming?" Colt asks
"Nothing yet, it's in lockdown mode." Kat responds, just then Alli and Mitken get over, they both kneel down beside the panel and Mitken jumps in beside Kat,
"Let me look at it, I've messed with those before, I have a small charge if we need it as well." Colt says as he runs out of the shuttle.
"Alli help all you can, Kat come with me, we're going to check the old shuttle." I say
"Are you sure? Do you guys have this handled?" she asks
"Yeah, we've got it, we're probably going to cut it just to save time." Colt says, Kat nods and stands beside me, we quickly start down the row of shuttles until we reach ours. The ramps down and I can see they've already started stripping out the insides, there will be nothing of ours left.
"Blast, they've already searched it, there's no point. Let's get back to the others." I say. Kat nods and looks up,
"Look out!" she yells, I turn and see two Republic gunships coming into the hangar. I roll out of the way and raise my blaster, I fire one shot and manage to hit the pilot. The gunship spins and slams down, the doors slide open and four troopers and a Jedi rush out, the other gunship lands and more troopers and two more Jedi run out, I draw my staff and raise my blaster, Kat raises her's as well.
"Blast, Kat, get back to the shuttle, I'll cover you." I say
"No. I'll stay with you." she says, there's no persuading her, I know that,
"Stop there, Mandos!" a female voice yells, it's the jedi, the same one I met in the prison. I can tell by the brown robes, and the fiery voice. The troopers stop but the jedi dashes forward slightly in front of them. I can see her now, she has a tan complexion, deep blue eyes,with dark hair and eyelashes.
"Sorcerer, you know how this ended last time, I almost killed your…. Padawan or whatever you call the young one that follows you around." I say to them, but before she has time to respond the other two jedi run beside her and flank her,
"Silence, murderers! Surrender before we kill you!" The boy yells. He's a young boy with olive skin and black hair in a clone trooper haircut. The younger girl from the prison stopped to her right, but stayed quiet.
"I concur with my padawan.., mostly, surrender, now." she says with the fire in her voice again, she raises her sword and holds it in a backwards grip, I stay quiet but ready my staff, Kat aims her blaster at the sorcerer. I hear the Jedi sigh again,
"Troopers, open fire!" she yells, but the trooper stay still they're all listening to their comms, the older sorcerer holds her head with one hand, there's an eerie silence that takes over,
"Master?" one of the younger ones says,
"Watch out!" the older one says, as she turns back igniting her sabre. All the troopers begin firing on the jedi, repeatedly, emptying their rifles at them. All three jedi quickly begin deflecting the shots as I turn to Kat,
"Run! Now's our chance!" I say as she bolts to the shuttle, I follow close behind her before I hear a voice behind me,
"Wait, Mando's!" Kat and I turn back to see the Jedi have killed the troopers, it was the older one who called out,
"Be quiet, Jedi, before I decide to kill you all." I say turning back away
"Mando, please… I've studied your kind,I know your code, you have to rescue people in dire scenarios." she said, that stopped me in my tracks she was right, but she was a jedi, an enemy. Kat stops in front of me and says
"West, shes right, we have to help them," I turn to her,
"Kat, these Jedi are the ancient enemies of Mandalore, they hunted us!" I say to her,
"They did, but this one doesn't, they're doing what they think is right, the same as us." she says,
"Please, save my padawans, at least!" the jedi yells, shes right, I can't just leave these people to die,
"Fine, follow us, now." I yell to them, the Jedi and the Padawans quickly follow us toward the shuttle. As we pass by our old one, two more gunships land,
"Blast it all, Jedi, get to the Gauntlet shuttle, Kat, go with them, I'll hold them back." I tell them, Kat looks at me a second longer,
"Go," I tell her, she nods and takes the Jedi toward the shuttle. I raise my rifle and fire four shots, four troopers drop, but six more have poured out of the gunships, they raise their blasters and fire a volley at me, I take two shots in the arm and chest, but they don't penetrate the Mandalorian Iron, I recoil and fire three whistling birds, three more troopers drop as the whistling birds hit their helmets, the other two troopers have reached me now, one on left, and the other on the right, they are firing at nearly point blank. I swing my staff around and strike the left trooper in the neck, I hear his neck snap as he drops, the other trooper rushes me and punches at my helmet, I take the blow, and sweep his feet out from under him. He drops with a clatter and pulls himself into the fetal position. I fire a blaster bolt from my handgun into his head. He stops moving. Once there's no one else I walk back to the shuttle.
I reach the shuttle to see Colt and Mitken have the Jedi at blaster-point at the bottom of the ramp, the older one in the middle and the younger two on either side.
"Colt, stop. We're taking them with us, they'll be killed if we leave them." I say, he looks up at me,
"What? We've been warring with the Jedi for millennia, how can we let them live?" he yells,
"Colt, their foundlings now. The clones have turned against them, they'll be killed." I say
"Foundlings? This one is more than of age, she could never be a foundling!" Mitken says
"Please… save my padawans at least." I hear the woman whimper, I now notice someone's hit her, she has a black eye starting,
"Colt, I could care less about her age, she's in need, we have to help them." I say approaching him,
"Stay back, West, your no Mandalorian if you won't kill these Jedi scum." he says, I sigh heavily,
"Jedi, get on the ship, find Kat and Alli, they'll take care of that eye. Tell her we're ready to go." I say,
"No, West, this is not the Mandalorian way!" Mitken yells
"Not the Mandalorian way? The Mandalorian way, is to save those in need and to kill those who stand in the way of that." I yell at them, that sways Mitken and he wavers a second before he lowers his blaster, the Jedi walk past and board the ship, Colt levels his rifle at me.
"Colt, this is what we need to do," I say
"No, no it's not!" he says,
"Colt, lower your blaster. We're both Mandalorians."
"You are no Mandalorian if you sympathise with a Jedi," He says, just as he finishes another gunship lands,
"We don't have time for this, get on the ship!." I yell. He sighs and runs onto the ship, I follow up the ramp.
We board and Colt heads down to the cargo bay. He's not happy with me, I can tell. I head to the cockpit, Kat and Mitken are sitting in the pilot and co-pilot seat, Alli is behind the two of them, the three Jedi are seated on a bench behind them.
"Are we ready? More clones just landed."
"Yes, lifting now." Mitken says, I feel the shuttle lift off the ground as the thrusters begin to roar louder, he walks the shuttle forward until were perpendicular to the ray shielded door, there are six gunships now, all blocking our path, the gunships are surrounded by troopers as well.
"Kat, roll the wings forward." he says, i see the wings roll forward,
"West, activate the forward cannons on the panel over there." he says, pointing to the panel on our right, I walk over and flip the switch labeled 'forward cannon one'. I hear a hum in the front of the ship as a cannon unlocks. I walk forward and look out the front window again, I see Kat flip a switch and press a button on the side of her stick, two cannon bolts fly from the front wing mounted cannons, three of the gunships explode into flame as the troopers dive out of the way. Kat fires twice more and the other gunships are obliterated, we slowly fly over the wreckage and out the door, the guard towers start shooting at us, I hear bolts hitting the hull, I walk back to the panel and activate the shields. Mitken throttles the ship up as we exit the hangar,
"Master… Why are we going with these… murderers." I hear one Jedi say, it's the young girl.
"There not killers, they're..." the older Jedi trails off,
"You're going with us because it was your only option." I interject,
"You tried to kill me!" The girl says,
"You got in the way of my job, I did what I had to." I tell her without looking, the older Jedi sighs,
"Look, Zan, Arlesh, I know this isn't where we want to be but we have nowhere else to go, the clones have turned on us." the Jedi says
"But Master Athmos, why don't we go back to the Jedi Temple?" the young one, Arlesh, I presume, asks.
"That may be a problem," Mitken says from the pilot seat. I look out the window and see the Jedi Temple with smoke rolling out of it, and troops marching up the front steps.
"What is happening?" the Jedi asks, she's standing beside me now, I can shock, and what almost looks like terror on her face. The two younger ones come up and look out the window as well, I see the shock and fear dawn on their faces as well.
"Why… Why would they do this?" Arlesh says,
"I don't know Padawan, I don't know." the master says.
"Get us to the casino, Mitken, we'll load our stuff and figure out what to do with these three." I say,
"Casino? What? No. we need to get off of Coruscant!" the Jedi says,
"Your lucky, Jedi, we're leaving the planet as well, we just need to gather our things from the casino." Mitken says quickly,
"Okay, where did you plan on going?" She asks
"We haven't decided yet. Just know we can't stay here." Kat adds,
"Is there any chance we could-" the Jedi is cut off by a sudden shudder that runs through the ship,
"What was that?!" Kat yelps,
"West, we've got V-wings behind us, five and seven o'clock!" Colt says over comm,
"Ready the rear cannon, there's a screen that you can aim with on the panel." Mitken says calmly. I walk over to the panel and activate the rear cannon, when it kicks on I see the screen light up. It gives me a view from the rear cannon. I can see the pair of V-wings behind us, I adjust the cannon until the aim reticle rests on the left fighter. I squeeze the trigger and cannon fires a pair of bolts that strike the V-wing directly in the center. It erupts in flame and falls away behind us. I line up another shot with the other fighter, but another shudder shakes my aim away from it. The fighter keeps firing on us, I manage to line up another shot and the bolt strikes the rear of the fighter, the engines explode and the fighter falls.
"We're clear for now." I say,
"Good we're approaching the casino now." Mitken says,
"When we land, take Colt and get our crates, Kat and I will stay with the Jedi." I order,
"Are you insinuating something?" the Master asks,
"No, I presume you'd like someone to take care of that eye." I add, the Jedi looks away and sulks down.
We land moments later and Colt and Mitken run out to gather our things. Alli, Kat and I stay onboard, Alli and Kat are tending to the Jedi.
"If we're going to be traveling together, we may as well learn your names." the young girl suggests
"Are you kidding? These savages don't have names, they just call each other 'Mando'" the boy pokes
"This Mando may just leave you here if you don't mind your tone." i say slowly, I hear Alli giggle under her helmet while tending to the Jedi's eye
"Well, I'm Arlesh Rhenna," the young girl says, she's a blonde, pale girl with braids and black robes,
"I'm Zan Vekres." the boy says, he wore beige robes.
"I'm Jildec Athmos" the master said,
"I'm Kat, this is Alli and that's West," Kat said gesturing at each of us,
"I know him," Jildec said "We've met before this."
"The other two are Mitken and Colt," Alli finishes
"I'd say it's a pleasure, but it's really not." Arlesh says quickly, that got a giggle out of Kat, maybe they'll get along okay, Colt and Mitken come back shortly after, they load the crates on board and we take off. We introduce Colt and Alli to the Jedi and they seem to get along decently, for ancient enemies. Alli is the first to remove her helmet in front of them, when she shakes her dark hair out from under the helmet, it seems to lock the attention of all three Jedi,
"I've never met a Mandalorian before this," Jildec said,
"Now you've met four." Colt said removing his helmet, Mitken and Kat followed suit shortly after, the boy's eyes locked on her for a minute at least. I left my helmet on, old habits die hard, I guess.
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