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Soron's heart pounded in his chest as he held Vis' broken lightsaber aloft in his hands. His eyes shot through the spotlights aimed down on them as he attempted to assess the situation under the barrels of ship-destroying guns aimed at them from the ship above. It was an AIAT/i gunship, a modified Mandalorian class, just the one Lerti had described to him all those years ago, and he'd never forgotten her warning.
The ship didn't open fire, but Soron assumed as much. If they'd wanted to shoot him they'd have done it already. This mission wasn't a hit and run, this was about revenge of the sick and twisted kind.
Soron's ear suddenly pricked up as he heard a voice yelling above the sound of the enormous twin engines of the gunship,
"SORON! THIS IS THE BAD THING. THIS IS THE REALLY BAD THING!" Vis yelled at the Shistavanen from where she crouched next to the hatch leading back down into the ship… Their ship containing Jedi-artifacts from Vis' temple.
"CHOL! HOW'RE WE LOOKING ON THE ENGINES!?" Soron yelled into his commlink to the Mon Calamari pilot.
"Still a few more minutes! But sensors show they're right above us, right!? Taking off fast might be a problem if they keep us grounded!"
"THEN WE'LL NEED TO GET THEM TO MOVE!" Soron shouted back, "EVERYONE EXCEPT VIS AND CHOL GET OUT HERE. THEY WANT A FIGHT SO WE'RE GOING TO GIVE THEM ONE BEFORE WE GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE. USE ANY MEANS NECESSARY OR DESIRED PLEASE."
Soron heard Nek give a "whoop!" over the comm channel before cutting out. Soron gave one more look at the hovering ship before keying in a private comm channel to Lerti, "Lerti," he began as quietly as he could over the roar of the engines, "Are you up for this? You know why he's here. We won't let him take you."
Silence filled the comm for a moment before a cold response came, "I'll enjoy seeing him try."
The hatch to the roof burst open as Nek, BX, and Cenden climbed out. Cenden immediately ignited his lightsaber and threw the captain his own carbine and raising an eyebrow upon noticing Vis' saber in the captain's hands.
"WHAT'S GOING ON!? WHO ARE THESE GUYS!?" Nek screamed towards Soron.
"LOOKS LIKE WE FINALLY GET TO MEET THE EX." Soron called back as he watched Nek preparing his grenade launching prototype.
Nek's eyes went wide, "Oh geez…" Soron saw Nek mutter to himself.
Suddenly, Lerti burst through the hatch, her rocket launcher strapped over her shoulder and jetpack ablaze as she launched herself several meters into the air. Taking aim, she pulled the trigger.
The ship hovering above them rocked. The blast sending smoke and a bit of debris raining down on them.
Their shields held.
But Soron knew that wasn't why Lerti had shot the ship.
The spotlights cut out.
"Vis. Get out of here." Cenden commanded Vis who still sat watching next to the hanger hatch.
The AIAT's own hangar door suddenly gaped open. Shadowy figures could be seen standing in glinting armor, as they stood pressed up against the starry sky.
From next to Cenden, Vis suddenly cried out in pain and clutched her chest, "no no no no." She muttered to herself, her eyes going wild. Her head shot up to look at Cenden, "There's something very wrong, it feels so cold…" she whispered.
Cenden's eyes widen as he turned to look towards the open hatch. Without looking back at Vis he whispered, "Go down now."
Vis didn't hesitate this time, scrambling down into the ship and Cenden took his place to defend the only opening on the top of the ship. Above, Lerti still hovered on her jetpack, expressionless beneath her helmet and her rocket launcher still propped up on her muscular arms.
The shadows standing in the stalled ship shifted to life and launched themselves from their platform. Three took to the skies, circling Lerti from where she hovered, and three more dropped to the deck of the ship where the crew waited.
In the light of the pale moon, six figures had emerged wearing Mandalorian armor painted similar to Lerti's red and black with one noticeable difference. The crest of horns that sat utop the helmet's top, like the design of a wreath. One Mandalorian that hovered in front of Lerti had what looked to be a half-cloak secured under his right shoulder bell. It fluttered in the breeze as the two looked at each other under the expressionless gaze of the helmet visors.
"Crimson… Where- Where have you been?" A deep voice spoke from beneath the helmet of this Mandalorian crew's leader.
All was silent and nobody moved. Both sides waiting for their cue to strike.
Lerti was silent.
"What have you done without me? Did you find what you were looking for? Or are you still just as miserable as you apparently were with me?" he continued waiting, just watching her.
Lerti said nothing.
But shouldered her launcher once more and took aim.
The scene around them exploded into motion as the rocket launched, and the lead-Mandalorian dodged the missile.
It sailed through the air, botching the ship that still hovered behind them.
Lerti flipped through the air, locking the launcher onto the clip on the back of her jetpack, and unholstering her hand-blasters in one fluid motion as the firing began from the two others using jetpacks to flank her.
Below, the fighting also erupted.
Cenden and Soron stood back to back as Soron fired into the air, lending Lerti some cover fire and Cenden repelling blaster fire using the reverse grip on his yellow-bladed lightsaber.
Nek laid down as much cover fire of his own as he could manage while up close and personal with the three on the ground. There was nowhere to take cover on top of the ship's hull, and without any spoken agreement, the crew knew they couldn't let these people reach the inside of their ship, or they'd be trapped.
In the air, Lerti twisted and dodged as blaster bolts ripped through the air about her. From below, Nek called up, "LERTI! TO ME!" Lerti heard the signal and spun into a dive towards Nek before igniting the pack to repel her backward, towards the horizon and a second later Nek launched his grenades at the two following with the intent of knocking them out of the sky.
The two saw the incoming explosives and attempted to repel themselves backward, but the blast did that without any work on their part. Two of the horned Mandalorians were sent spiraling into the sky and Nek ducked for cover as the cloaked-leader suddenly rained fire down on him.
BX jumped over to block the blaster bolts from searing through Nek's flesh and without taking a beat took aim and fired at the Mandalorian who skillfully dodged the assault but at least had stopped firing on the engineer.
From beneath BX, Nek saw a shadow descending on the droid, a blade flashed in the moonlight, ready to strike through the robot's chassis.
Nek's hands flashed to his double-bladed vibrostaff strung across his back and was nearly knocked back with the force of the impact as the figure's own blade dung into the metal hilt of his staff. Nek took his stance and spun the blade to twist the opponent's weapon lose and swing the lower blade up into the gut.
The lithe, horned figure moved with the twisting of his staff, arching their back to avoid the swing to the gut, jabbed their own thin vibroblade forward to strike Nek's open chest as his hands were near his head.
Nek jumped back, but not far enough that the figure's leg that flashed forward didn't strike where the vibroblade had been intended for his chest, sending him sprawling to the ground.
"You're pretty good, but not good enough." a soft, girlish voice spoke to him from beneath her black visor.
As Nek's eyes adjusted at that moment, he realized that unlike the others, this one's horns weren't decorations on a helmet. 'Oh Bantha-fodder…'
The figure lept to strike, BX's own vibroblade intercepting to meet hers not even seconds after her body had begun moving.
"Oh. Another Jedi-killer. Let's see how well you were made." she spoke softly, the only thing covering her face was a dark visor stretching from ear to ear to hide her eyes Her dark hair was pulled back into a tight braid that laced its way around her horns. She smiled and her blade began its journey to reach the destination of BX's skull.
Nearby, Cenden had taken on the offensive. Running forward, he sliced easily through the blasters of the two still focused on fighting the Jedi and captain, but like the truly horned figure, they too carried vibroblades, and knew how to use them. Cenden AND Soron were both forced to bring their swords to the gunfight.
The old Jedi artfully dodged about the one Mandalorian's blows, and Soron fought to keep Vis' blade in his hands, receiving an onslaught from the other horned-hunter.
Soron cried out as the vibroblade sliced through his thigh, taking out a chunk of his leg. The Mandalorian's arm thrust forward to cut through Soron's throat when the attacker's chest burst with yellow light and the man crumpled to the ground, revealing Cenden had launched his saber from several feet away from his open palm.
As Cenden's attacker moved the strike the Jedi from behind, Soron twisted Vis' broken saber with his eyes as tightly shut as he could. A bright light erupted out of the hilt and Cenden's attacker stumbled back, tumbling off the ship.
Cenden moved to help his captain when they abruptly heard Lerti shout from above. The two saw Lerti tumbling back, smoke trailing from her chest plate from where she'd been hit.
She righted herself in the air, the hit wasn't fatal, the armor absorbing the damage but not the pain.
"DARIUS YOU PIECE OF SITH-SPIT. LEAVE US ALONE." Soron suddenly bellowed from his place on the ship's top and took aim.
The wounded captain fired several shots from his carbine aimed at the figure in the air before the one called "Darius" began returning fire. Cenden ran and tackled Soron to the ground as Darius flew forward to rain down fire.
At that moment, Lerti dove in from above, using all her weight and momentum to drive both heels down into Darius' back. The action sent Darius sailing into the ship's haul, leaving a dent. Yet the fall did little more than phase him as he pushed up from his place on the ground and used his jetpack to attempt to spin himself and knock Lerti's feet out from under her.
She flipped backward through the air, avoiding the strike and spinning to kick her heel across his jaw.
Darius pushed his hand into her heel, accelerating her movement and throwing her off balance. He pushed forward, fist extended to strike. The swing connected across her face and sent her toppling to the ground.
"Just like old times, eh Crim?" He shook his hand, before diving forward to grab her and drive her shoulders into the ground.
Cenden reached forward from where he'd tackled Soron to the ground and built pressure in the Force.
A blaster bolt ripped through Cenden's shoulder as one of the two Mandalorian's that Nek had blown away vaulted down from the sky. Cenden lay in shock for only a moment, but a moment long enough for the other two to be on top of Lerti. Pinning her down and grabbing her arms and legs.
"I'm sorry babe. But we have unfinished business, and I need you back home. There's so much you need to be caught up on." Darius cooed at the struggling woman.
Still, Lerti remained silent.
"NO!" Soron called out as he attempted to rise from the ground, blood still spilling out of his leg.
Now on nearly the other side of the ship, Nek took notice and called out to Lerti as he began to sprint towards them. Darius reacted to this by opening fire on the small alien. Nek rolled to dodge and amazingly found cover behind one of the ship's satellite dishes.
At this, Lerti began to howl. An inhuman sound, like the sound of an animal that'd been caught in a trap. That's all she was to him after all. Prey to be hunted until the end of time. Or until her time was up.
From below, those standing atop the roof felt a jolt as The Raving Titan breathed to life.
"Move her to the ship NOW," Darius ordered and then suddenly paused as he noticed one of his men laying motionless on the ground. He turned to Lerti, "WHAT. HAVE. YOU. DONE!?"
His foot struck her hard where her kidney was, and she doubled over in her captor's hands.
BX, who'd been busy keeping a very nimble and slippery opponent from entering into the hatch on the ship, had gained enough information about his opponent's patterns to look up from his task and scan his surroundings.
"Success rate is dropping." He gave himself an update of events, "Let's change the odds."
BX twisted his blade before dropping his weapon into her hands and jumped to deliver a solid blow to her lower jaw. The weight of his metal foot enough to flip her head straight back into the ground.
And with that, the light in BX's chest glowed. And for the first time, the droid experienced only what he could describe as a feeling.
Nothing that he could truly emote, but something he could surely act on.
He grabbed his assailant by the legs, spun his weight and threw her. Her body that was sent sprawling like a ragdoll through the air landed impossibly far and impossibly hard against the head of one of the horned-Mandalorians carrying Lerti, sending the two to tumble to the ground and Lerti's head to hit the deck.
Her head hit where Lerti immediately tossed her body back, her legs yanking free from the grip of the other captor as she managed to flip over to land on her knees, raising her fists and standing to face her opponents. The attacker launched forward to knock her across the head, but this time Lerti was ready, she ducked under the blow and stood, her helmet making contact, and head-butting the attacker hard enough to knock him back.
Darius ran swiftly forward but BX dashed impossibly faster and drove his clawed hand into a back-handed slap across the man's chest. The armor crunched with the force and Darius flew backward, tumbling across the ship, his cape twirling about him. He managed to grab onto the ship's edge before he fell off and noticed the ship was now taking to the air.
He howled in anger and suddenly spat from beneath the calm face of the helmet, "FALL BACK."
Igniting his jetpack, he flew up into the air and onto his ship which was suddenly rocked about with far more force than a rocket's blast as Chol opened fire with the ship's cannons. Nothing to bring it down on top of their own vessel, but enough to drive it away.
The four remaining attackers took off for their ship. The one with a truly horn-crested head hesitated, she seemed to be glaring at where Cenden now attempted to stand, his flesh still sizzling from the blaster wound.
BX appeared beside her and made a move to grab her. She slipped from his grasp and launched herself into the air, without a jetpack, and directed her movements several meters up so as to land on the ship's deck as the vessel turned to leave.
Chol made no hesitation and the ship suddenly lurched and took off in the opposite direction, nearly sending his crew flying off into the grassy fields below.
Those of them who could still stand made a mad dash for the hatch, BX only stopping to heaved Soron onto his back, and soon all were inside.
In the corridor leading to the roof hatch, Vis suddenly rounded the corner, and gasped as she saw them all. Her eyes locked onto Lerti and she ran to her, enveloping the woman in a hug.
They were suddenly saturated in the silence, the only sound coming from Vis' crying… except the sound wasn't from Vis.
Lerti suddenly shoved Vis away. The young girl looked shocked by the motion but didn't object.
Now, from beneath Lerti's expressionless mask, they could see the tears flowing down her neck.
With a heartstopping bellow that shattered the silence, Lerti suddenly threw off her mask. Her face bruised and deeply-woven in fury and sadness, she threw her helmet to the ground right where the stem met the helmet's earpiece and that section exploded on impact. The sound of static from a comm-channel interference burst to life before being immediately sputtering out.
And they all stood looking at the broken mask in silence.
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PS from ZaZa again,
I also highly recommend listening to Lindsey Stirling's: Masquerade, I listened to it the whole time I wrote this chapter. watch?v=RYqQVLnrzLs