Miriah eyed the closed door and felt Corso tense under her legs, which were wrapped around his waist. Not really the way I like to do this, she thought, but here we are. She tapped his shoulder and he pulled her around, setting her feet on the cold stone floor with a feather light touch. "I don't like it," Corso growled, and Torian agreed. "How are you handling this?"
Miriah took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. Her foot throbbed and she was growing tired, and if she were honest, she had to pee, too. "I'm okay," she said. "Whatever is in there, we'll either talk our way around it or kill it. Either way, we're heading out of this damn tunnel." She allowed a small smile to cross her face and heard Torian chuckle.
"Sounds like a plan." Torian stood between Miriah and the door, determined to be interference for whatever lay behind it. With a slight step forward, the door swished open, and they were met by the barrels of blaster rifles pointed at them.
"Commander, you look… different, somehow. And you arrived even earlier than my most ambitious estimates." The speaker was a droid, but had a hologram for a head.
"I think I'd remember meeting a… you, before," Miriah said warily. Corso snorted beside her, but she didn't look at him.
"We'll have an opportunity to get reacquainted later, in person. I'll see to it." The droid moved closer to a control panel. "The firing sequence is already locked in. My calculations leave no room for error or intervention." The droid then started to walk across the room toward them, and Torian immediately stood between it and Miriah. "You may defeat my remote droids, but not before the orbital defense cannons obliterate the Republic fleet." The droid pulled a weapon from a back sling and leveled it at them. "All units, begin combat recording protocol Aurek. Let's see what you're truly capable of."
Aric paced as he watched Magdalane's face. The force connection she shared with her sisters was convenient, but Miriah was strong enough in her own right to block anything she didn't want Mags to know. "Anything?" he asked again, probably for the thousandth time since they'd arrived back in the room where they'd used the holo.
"Nothing," Mags said, her lips in a grim line. She could tell that Miriah was losing her temper, and that she was ready to be on her ship, but her sister had not sent a direct message since they'd started down the tunnel, and that was worrisome.
Caly had gone back to the ship, too worried to be still and she knew her nervous energy was not helping the situation in the small room. She couldn't help but worry, with her parents and husband essentially on their own. Torian is more than a match for most, she thought, but who knew what they were facing. And Mom, without her blaster or her kolto, who thought that was a good idea? She pulled out things to make a meal, one to replace the one she'd cleaned off the galley floor, and tried to ease her stress with cooking, her heart heavy.
Torian muttered a Mandalorian swear and activated his personal shield. "Commander, take cover," he yelled, and before she could speak, Corso had pushed her unceremoniously behind a crate, urging her to crouch.
"How's your blaster power?" he asked, checking his own.
"I'm good," Miriah muttered. Never again, Aric, she thought, struggling to wrap her small hand around the grip of the snub nosed weapon that Corso carried as a spare. "I'm not just going to sit here and let these droids kill us," she declared, and Corso grimaced.
"Darlin', do what you can but be careful. We have to interrupt that firing sequence, but we also have to be alive to do that." Miriah saw his concern and determination in his eyes, and nodded.
"I'm with you," she said, and stood braced on the crate to fire.
The droids were feeling the effects of the super heated plasma that Torian was unloading on them, and Corso's blaster began to glow as he disabled one droid with a shot to the middle of it's abdomen. The blaster that Miriah had was very deadly at short range, but the droids were too far away for her to do much damage. It was also not made for heavy use, and her hands stung where the grips were growing warmer by the second. Finally, she threw the weapon down, frustrated and full on mad. She could feel the force around her and then Mag's voice in her mind. I can feel you, Mir. You can do it. Focus on the energy ball we first made together, remember?
Magdalane fell to her knees, alarming Aric and Maura, and entered a force trance. Aric started to walk to her, but Maura held him back. "Let her work," she whispered, and reluctantly, Aric nodded.
I do remember, Miriah said, feeling Magdalane's force being added to her own limited reserve. She could see things as if in slow motion. Corso firing at the droids, making them jerk and spark. Torian's rifle in auto fire mode, sweeping plasma across the room, the droid he'd been working on finally slowing and sparking as it dropped to the floor. The force surged around her and she shot out her arms, flinging the droids that remained across the room and into the panels of controls, the resulting electrical surges taking the last one to it's knees before crumpling into a pile of scorched metal debris.
Corso turned to his wife with amazement. "How did you do that?" he asked, coming to help her up from the floor, careful with her injured foot.
"I'm not sure, but at least it worked," she replied, taking his arm to stand. "I have a feeling the reason we fell had to do with a rocket attack on the city. We were part of a diversion, while this was being done." Corso looked hard at her, and she saw his shoulders relax when he worked out that she was probably right.
The final droid spoke as it's power drained away. "Impressive," it said. Corso shot it once more before stepping over it on the way to the control panels. His fingers flew over the buttons, but he looked at her and shook his head. Flipping the communications switch, Miriah started her message.
"Republic fleet, raise your shields! Imperial forces set the planet's defensive guns to fire upon you. I'm disabling them now, but they may have other tricks up their sleeves." She motioned for Corso to hand her his blaster, and with a great deal of concern, he finally did so.
"Understood. Shields up! We'll pull the fleet to a safe distance and maintain alert status," Captain Persid replied. Miriah flipped the comms channel to a different frequency.
"Tau. This whole attack was a diversion. The Imperials tried to use the defensive cannons to attack our fleet, but we managed to stop them."
"That's great to hear, but I'm not sure anyone told these guys they're just part of the diversion. Think you could give us a hand in the throne room?" Miriah could hear the tension in her friend's voice.
"We're on the way," Miriah replied, and saw Torian point at the elevator through another door in the room. They hurried over, Miriah finally being carried along between the men. Finally, the door opened and they were back in the main building. Mags, come to the throne room, Miriah said through their link, and almost laughed out loud when Corso swung her up and onto his back again.
The sliding door opened as they arrived, and they could see what looked like a noble woman, standing over two bodies, her foot pushing one to face up. "He was Akoru, leader of the Untamed," she explained. "They follow the old ways of the Beast Riders, or at least their version of the old ways."
Miriah again slid to the ground, her bare foot already purple with bruising. She tried to project the Commander, but she wasn't sure if it was coming across until the woman spoke again. "Commander, I am Senator Nebet. I thank you for your heroism- and your timeliness. The deadliest of the attackers were his followers. They're violent isolationists that want all off-world influences killed or driven away." She looked around the room at other bodies in armor, ones that Miriah hadn't seen at first. "The rest are the king's own soldiers, led to their deaths by Petryph himself. And some kind of droids I don't recognize."
Miriah sighed. "The droids are Imperial. Remote-piloted. We fought more of them in the control room for the orbital cannons. They actually spoke to me. The woman controlling them claimed to know me, but I didn't learn any more than that." Her words seemed to resonate with the senator, who became more animated.
"The coded messages. The Empire must have convinced Petryph that we were plotting against him. Before he retreated, he kept ranting about reclaiming his throne. Though, how the Empire could have gotten the Untamed to fight alongside the king is beyond me." She took a deep breath. "Let's see to our wounded and determine the extent of the damage, then we can reconvene to discuss strategy."
Miriah nodded. "It was a pleasure to meet you, but I wish the circumstances were different." She could hear Mags and Aric behind her, and turned to them. "We'll reconvene here in four standard hours," she told them, tapping Corso's arm. He crouched and she climbed aboard his strong back once more. Magdalane covered her mouth with her hand, trying not to laugh at the sight as they formed a shield around them.
Caly paced on the ship. She knew that Torian was safe and back at the palace, but she wanted to see him with her own eyes. She was looking out on the palace from the bridge of the ship when she saw them heading her way. She ran to the air lock, and when it cycled and opened, hugged the first person she saw, which happened to be her husband. "Torian," she whispered, and felt him kiss her ear. "I'm so glad you're all back."
"Me, too, hon. It's been a day," he told her and moved aside to let the others through. He could feel her tremble beneath his gloved hands, but knew that the Commander needed medical attention more than Caly needed reassurance. Ushering her aside, he reached to help Miriah off Corso's back, and she thanked him gratefully.
"Sugar, I appreciate the assist," she told Corso, who steadied her in his arm.
"Let's get Mags to fix this up," he replied, and carried his wife to the sofa. Magdalane put her hand on Miriah's ankle and worked silently. When she was done, Miriah jumped to her feet and made a run to her quarters, Corso on her heels. When he saw that she was going into the refresher, he hesitated and sat on the bed to wait for her.
Aric put his own weapons in the armory, and that's where Maura found him. "I was wrong," he said softly. "Mir is probably furious with me."
"I'm sure she's just going to go forward, hon. You know her, she doesn't hold grudges with family. Especially since you had good reason to keep her in diplomatic mode." She unlatched her own chestplate and took it off, letting her breathe easy for the first time since she'd put it on early this morning.
"I hope so," Aric said, hugging his wife. Her lack of energy worried him, and he intended to discuss it with Mags. Taking her hand, he led her back into the galley and over to where Caly had made fresh caf.
Corso saw Miriah's relieved face as she came from the 'fresher, her hair brushed and her face clean. She went straight to her drawers and pulled a pair of her thick socks out, and sat beside him to pull them onto her feet, then her spare boots. She opened the trunk at the foot of the bed and strapped on her blaster belt, checking her kolto gun before storing it. Her shotgun was next, and Corso had to smile as she chambered a round with one hand before sliding it home in the sling on her back. "Feel better?" he asked, and was rewarded with a broad smile.
"Sure do," she affirmed, and he followed her out into the lounge, where the whole family waited. "So, the whole ground opening up was a direct result of the Untamed attack, and that was a diversion to keep us from seeing that the anti-aircraft guns had been trained on the fleet. What else don't we know?"
Aric rubbed his face and shook his head. "I wish I could say. The senator seems to have her finger on the pulse of this place, but even she was surprised."
"I'm just glad you got back to us. This one," Maura pointed at Aric, "was about to start chewing the carpet."
Aric blushed, the tips of his ears turning pink. "I was so shocked when you guys fell," he told them. "And I see you've remedied the unarmed status."
Miriah grinned. "Now, what's next?" They ate and drank, knowing that things were far from settled on Onderon.
Rukisa had already been alerted about the possibility of a blockade, and she grinned in anticipation when her ship dropped out of hyperspace and saw the line of Imperial ships. This should be fun, she thought, and had only looked around the bridge when Mandalore's ship exited beside her. Yes, she thought. This should be fun indeed.