Disclaimer: Nope, still not mine.
Chapter 6:
It was about three hours into Myn and Kirney's second watch when the two droids started twittering anxiously over the comlink Kirney kept clipped to her belt.
Nineteen hours, Kirney thought to herself, took them a little longer than I thought it would. She knew it would take Corva's men no longer than twenty-four hours to catch up with them, but she'd been willing to bet that they'd be there in less than sixteen.
She wasn't entirely sure whether that was good or bad. On one hand, it had given them time to prepare for their arrival. On the other hand, it may mean that they'd managed to accumulate more troops.
Myn reached for his sniper rifle, the roof hanger had some large beams and supports in which he could sit, undetected. The construction had favored lighter, smaller beams as opposed to solid, heavy supports. The load-bearing members had plenty of room for a sniper to balance under them, with a open view of the hangar below. From there, he could gun down just about anyone in the room without having to worry about return fire. He would, hopefully, be outside their effective range.
They'd sent a rope up the side of the hangar. It blended in fairly well with the wall behind it and was difficult to see if you didn't know it was there. As long as these guys weren't too bright, he could probably down three or four of them before they even knew he was there. Minos and Gus, along with the children, had fortified themselves in a room where they would make their last stand; if it came to that. If it did come to that, the odds were that the battle was already lost.
"Any idea how soon they'll be here?" That was the longest sentence Myn had spoken since their shift had started.
"Not long," Kirney shook her head, "This is the only actual structure on the planet. It won't take them long to check to see if we're here."
Myn nodded, "you ready?"
"Yeah." Kirney nodded back at him.
She picked up her blaster rifle and checked its charge. She wasn't sure exactly how extreme cold affected Tibanna gas, but she'd seen snowtroopers firing these rifles in temperatures almost as cold as this.
Myn didn't seem worried about it, and he knew a lot more about how blasters worked than she did. That was good enough for her.
"How do you think they'll play this?" Myn asked.
Kirney shrugged, "they know we're here, they know we're waiting for them, and they probably lose a portion of their bonus if any of them get hurt or killed. They're probably going to try to talk their way in first." She paused for a moment, "they may even try a bribe. They know we have no vested interest in keeping Gus and his family alive, other than the paycheck they represent. They'll probably figure that if they can out-bid him without significantly affecting their profit margin; which, incidentally, they probably can; they may be able to grab all eight of them without firing a shot."
Myn smiled a little, this really was Lara's strength: her ability to out-think her opponent, to look at all the angles.
"You have any extra power packs for that?" He nodded at Lara's rifle.
Kirney nodded, "Two, but if it comes down to a flat-out firefight, you're going to be needed far more than I am. I plan on ducking behind something hard and waiting for the blaster fire to subside."
Myn knew that he couldn't take them all down quickly; but he didn't need to, really. All he needed to do was make himself into a more serious threat than she was. Make them concentrate on him rather than her.
Gunning down one or two of these mercenaries would accomplish that nicely, he figured.
He looked around the hangar. Time had deposited a number of large boulders within its huge expanse, so Lara certainly wasn't without cover. But there was nothing in the hangar which could protect them from him on his high perch.
"Okay, I'm going up to the crow's nest." He looked up at the large, riveted support beams that crisscrossed the ceiling of the hangar.
"Myn," Kirney called to him as he turned to leave,
"Yes?"
"If you have to make a choice, I want you to favor killing them over protecting me."
"What?"
"Minos, Gus, they have a family, kids. Me, I'm…" She paused, finding the right word, "expendable."
"Lara…"
"Promise me, Myn." Kirney's voice was quiet, but firm.
Myn looked at her for what seemed like an eternity, his dark eyes locked on hers, as if trying to see the inner workings of her mind. Kirney looked away first, suddenly finding something absolutely fascinating about the section of metal floor about eight centimeters in front of her toes. Finally Myn nodded. She didn't actually see him nod his head, but she felt him understand.
"Now, I want you to make a promise for me."
"What's that?"
"That I won't have to keep mine."
He turned away before Kirney could respond.
Myn was glad he didn't have vertigo.
He sat in the support strut, where two thin beams came together to form a V-shape; leaving a small where he could sit comfortably. Once he'd secured himself to the beam, he was perfectly safe, of course, but nearly fifty meters down on the hangar floor, Lara looked awfully tiny. He unstrapped the sniper rifle from his back and gently swung its high magnification scope over the width of the hangar doors.
Lara was seated, cross-legged by the fire, facing the hangar doors with her rifle laid across her lap. She apparently had a lot of faith that the mercenaries, however many of them there would be, would not try to gun her down; at least not at first.
Or, for that matter, that he wouldn't. With his rifle, he could gun her down so easily, avenging Talon squadron with one shot. It would be so easy to shoot her and blame it on the mercenaries.
It would be so easy. He'd been willing to blow his commanding officer out of the sky with a pair of torpedoes to kill her before. Now, nobody stood between her and him. No innocent victims to be caught in the crossfire. He could end the cries of Talon squadron for justice with one squeeze of the trigger.
And he certainly heard those cries. Ever since he'd come to Corellia, ever since he'd come with her to Hoth, he could hear the screams of his eleven squadmates as they were massacred one by one. As if by helping her, he was betraying them.
All those nights hearing the cries of Talon squadron in his mind, seeing each of eleven X-wings evaporate in a ball of fire, hearing the agonized screams of each of his pilots as the pressure within their spacecraft vented almost instantly into a hard vacuum, bringing the blood in their veins to a boil at their own body temperature. He knew he could bring them all to an end, and deep down he knew that Lara probably wouldn't hold it against him. The New Republic would probably even honor him as a hero for bringing down a traitor.
He had so many reasons to pull that trigger, but only one not to.
He didn't want to.
Kirney very nearly missed the first hint of movement at the Hangar door. They had dressed in white, and against the almost-pure white background, they vanished. She could see four of them now, but she knew that there had to be more of them that she could not see. She sat, unmoving, watching them through the fire. She forced herself not to open fire until they tipped their hands.
They stepped onto the metal floor of the hangar, moving smoothly, professionally. Unlike the gunmen who had attacked her at the tapcaf back on Corellia, these men carried a variety of different weapons. Some of which she knew well, others which she couldn't recognize. Some of them dated back to the Clone Wars. She didn't see any sniper rifles. That was a stroke of luck, although mercenaries generally tended to favor power over accuracy.
There were eleven of them, she could see now.
Myn watched the eleven mercenaries approach in a very tight, professional formation. Lara had been specific about letting her fire the first shot.
Actually, she'd been pretty specific as to exactly when he should start shooting, assuming everything went according to plan. But he didn't consider that terribly likely. Mercenaries had a nasty habit of doing the unexpected.
They were within range now, but still too far off. They were approaching carefully, but confidently, knowing they had the advantage of numbers on their side. They knew that the sound of blaster fire would raise the alarm, and they weren't willing to alert their prey over one young woman with a blaster rifle.
Ghent had worked for Corva for eight years now; but never had he been given a job this big. Twenty thousand for each of his men upfront, and a thousand bonus for him for each man still alive and uninjured at the end of the operation. With a crew of over twenty (not including the pilot), there was a lot of money to be made on this one. Corva apparently wanted his daughter back pretty badly. The current plan was to send eleven of his men in a fake frontal assault, while simultaneously sending in a smaller force of four men in from the rear. He could only see the one woman in the hangar, although he knew that they were a group of at least ten; including the children. Corva had been specific in his orders: "kill the aliens," he said, "bring my daughter and the only children worth keeping alive to me."
Although he didn't seem to be too worried about his daughter and granddaughters getting killed. He viewed his daughter as something of a traitor to her species. Someone who, in his mind, didn't deserve the life she had.
He smiled. There was no way she could defend the hangar and the rear entrance. If he played this right, he could have Corva's daugther back to Corellia in time for dinner.
Nik stood at the small rear entrance, playing with a small shaped charge. He'd laid a thin line of explosives around the door. They were designed to cut through the solid metal door, rather than blow it up. The advantage was that he could get through the door very quickly without making much noise. And, if all went well, Ghent would have whatever resistance they could put up occupied in the hangar while he and his men grabbed the target and made off with it.
The three men with him stood in a half circle around the door, poised to push their way in the instant the door was opened.
"In position, Ghent." He whispered over the comlink.
Ghent did not acknowledge Nik's call verbally, but simply responded with a double click on his comm. He didn't want to give anything away, at least not yet. Nik new to blow the door as soon as he heard blaster fire over the com. He also knew exactly where to go. They'd taken a thermal scan of the base from orbit, and knew the exact room where the target was staying.
Now.
Kirney leapt to her feet, squeezing off a burst of blaster fire in the general direction of the mercenaries before her. Then, as they opened fire, she dove and rolled behind a large boulder, pressing herself up against it as blaster fire roared around her.
Nik smoothly pressed the button on the detonator home. With what barely amounted to a pop, the door was flung free to crash to the floor a few feet inside. The four men stalked in. The room was dim, as only the light which managed to penetrate the ice around it illuminated it. This was the room where the rebels had kept the beasts they rode during their time at this base. While that would be fascinating to historians, Nik really didn't care. He was here to find Corva's daughter.
They moved quickly and silently down the hallway.
Myn opened fire. The first two shots hit the mercenaries unawares. They hadn't anticipated a sniper being positioned directly above them, holding a far superior position. Two mercenaries dropped, limp, to the ground. Their bodies effectively cut off from their central nervous systems.
Sniper. Ghent's mind immediately registered. He cursed himself for not having realized it sooner. He'd made one of the most fatal mistakes any leader could make. He'd underestimated his opponents.
"Charge!" Ghent pushed himself forward, if he could get his people close enough to the woman, the sniper wouldn't dare fire.
Nik came to a stop outside the door. They wouldn't need to blow this one opened. After all, the family had got in there somehow.
He gently pushed the door open. It swung silently on its hinges. The room beyond was pitch black. Even light amplification goggles wouldn't help in this room. They needed light to amplify. He stepped gingerly into the room, hearing the quiet footsteps as his men followed him.
"Prepared for extraction."
Ghent didn't show the relief he felt. In a few seconds, he would able to order his ersatz attack to retreat, and they'd be on their way back to Corellia.
Myn saw them rushing, and knew he would never be able to take them all down before they reached Lara.
Promise me, Myn.
There had to be some way he could protect her and stop them.
He smiled, and swung his sniper rifle upwards.
Nik whirled around as he heard the door slam shut behind them, and the lock slide into place.
Almost immediately, the room was bathed in bright light, blinding after his eyes had adapted to the darkness. Before his eyes adapted to the bright light, a large object slammed into the side of his head, flinging him with bonebreaking force into the metal walls. He heard a number of screams, although he could not tell who was screaming, as his men were similarly flung aside. He heard someone firing a blaster, but the firing wasn't the controlled, accurate bursts they'd trained to use, this was panic firing.
The supports to the hanger had been built hastily and with very little margin for error. They'd also been stressed for pressure from the outside. Snow pressing down on them, wind pressing against them. The whole hanger was designed to withstand remarkable mechanical forces, but only from the outside, and only as long as the supports were intact.
Myn opened fire at the very end of one of the support beams, where the mechanical stress was the greatest, and the protection against it was the weakest. He fired as many shots as he could into as tight an area as he could, melting the bolts which held the beam in place, assaulting its structural integrity.
Only a faint groan warned Ghent to look upwards as the support beam buckled under the stress, bringing a whole section of the ceiling down directly above them. He saw the woman leap backwards, diving under the hull of her spacecraft for protection, he ordered his men to retreat, knowing full well that he would lose some of them.
Nik's eyesight finally cleared, and he wished it hadn't. He saw one of his men being assaulted by two of the most deadly creatures on Hoth: a pair of Wampas. Off to his right he saw a second of his men being slowly flattened as a third Wampa pounded his giant fists into his body; grinding each of the 206 bones in the human body into paste. A fourth Wampa had the third of his men by his ankles, and was swinging him like a long club, beating him against walls, floors, any unyielding surface.
In desperation, Nik ran for the door, knowing that he'd heard it slam shut and lock. He pulled on the door, as if he could force it to open by sheer force of will. He desperately pounded the uncaring metal, begging whoever had closed the door behind them to open it; trying to appeal to the mercy of whoever stood on the other side of that door, and feeling guilt in what he knew would be his last moments, knowing that had he been the person on the other side of the door, he would never have shown any mercy.
He screamed in terror as one of the Wampas gripped him around the waist, dragging him backwards, slamming him into the floor.
The last thing he saw was the gigantic balled fist swinging down at his head.
Mercifully, his brain was flattened within its vessel before it had the chance to perceive any pain.
Ghent dove backwards as tons of snow, ice and metal rained down over his men. He didn't look back to see how many had been caught in the avalanche. He was certain he'd seen someone crushed by a section of metal beam. He didn't stop.
When the roar of the collapse died down, he and four of his men were still standing.
"Men," he announced, "withdraw."
Round one goes to us, Myn thought to himself as his feet once again touched the ground.
"Good shooting." Lara walked up to him.
"Kirney?" That was Gus' voice over the com, "Your trap worked. They went straight into the Wampa room."
Kirney smiled. Wampas were attracted to warmth, so they'd set up the portable heaters in what had once been the War Room. It had attracted the Wampas nicely; and had given the illusion that the family was occupying the room.
Myn shuddered. That would not have been a pleasant way to go.
"We won this round," Kirney announced, "but they'll be back."
Kirney gingerly climbed over the mound of rubble which now stood in front of the Hope. They would be able to clear it rather easily, when the time came. It was mostly snow and ice, and some well applied fire from the Hope's forward blasters would clear it up nicely. The hangar was still mostly intact, except for the section that had collapsed.
She dropped to the ground, looking back out at the entrance of the hangar. They'd come with a bigger force than she'd expected. They'd attacked with at least fifteen men, and she was willing to bet that they had at least another ten. You don't plan an operation like this without planning to screw up.
She wondered what they would do next.
She felt a blaster push up against the back of her neck.
"You scream, you die."
Kirney whipped around, finding herself face to barrel with a heavy blaster pistol.
"Gara Petothel. Don't even bother denying it; I never forget a face when it's attached to as high a bounty as yours."
Kirney didn't move, she glared at the man who held the blaster on her.
"You killed eleven of my men today, Ms. Petothel. As a consequence, there are very few things I would like more than to make a nice blaster bolt-sized hole in your forehead."
Kirney remained silent.
"You have a lot of people on both sides who would love to get their hands on you, Gara; and I would dearly love to be the one to take you in."
"Gara Petothel's dead." She told him.
"Yes, but imagine what it would be worth if someone were to tell the Republic, or the Empire otherwise."
"Probably a lot."
"Oh, don't get me wrong, I would love to take you in, but right now, you're not worth as much as the eight people you're harboring."
Kirney frowned. She knew where this was going.
"So, that gives you room to negociate. You give me Corva's daughter, and I won't bring you in this time."
"And if I don't?"
"Then I make sure the Republic, the Empire, every small security force and every bounty hunter knows exactly how to identify your ship."
"You son of a—"
"You know you can't win this." He cut her off, "you only have four people who can shoot. Even if you can keep us at bay, you know we'll never stop coming. So you can give up the woman, her daughters and the aliens and get a couple more weeks of freedom; or you can keep fighting us off until we finally beat you." He smiled nastily, "it's your call."
Kirney glared angrily down the barrel of the blaster.
Finally, she nodded. "Okay. Come back here after nightfall."