Last time: Cien and Sasha become friends.
Now: They arrive to Talokore and the battle begins.
Chapter 17- The Battle of Talokore
Kyr and Viran pulled the levers back, bringing them out of hyperspace. Before them, the forest moon of Talokore awaited. In orbit, they could see the twin dagger shape of the Bloodstorm in orbit already.
"They beat us here." Cien said, critically, sitting in the engineers seat behind Kyr.
"Not by much though." He said over his shoulder. "Tac, you able to figure out where they are on the ground?"
"Damn that's a big ship." Kitsu called over the comm line.
"Sure is." Oppie agreed, he was standing in between the two back seats.
A small alarm went up. "Heads up." Kyr said, more for Kitsu, "Their CAP is coming out to meet us, bearing straight ahead."
"Roger roger." Illara called out in their familiar joke.
"When is that backup supposed to arrive?" Kitsu asked.
"In their own time." Kyr said, as he started preparing for evasive action.
"This is where the fun begins," Viran said with a cocky smirk on his face.
Outside, the Bloodstorm was repositioning itself to bring its guns to bear on their new target. The patrol of a dozen fighters swept in. Older, somewhat more clunky fighters from a bygone age, but dangerous nonetheless. Streams of turbolaser and standard laser bolts started pouring out of the hundreds of turrets that studded the hull, trying to keep them from reaching the surface.
Tac whistled and beeped as he gave them the coordinates where the landing party was on the surface. Kyr dove the ship down towards the planet at an oblique angle, trying to dodge the spray of plasma bolts, trying to keep the fighters in between the Shadow and the dreadnought.
"Breaking right, race ya to the surface." Kitsu said, was mirroring his maneuver, as the other half of the flight element screamed after them in their ship.
Sasha clung to her seat that was behind Viran as the ship continued to maneuver. It had been so long since they ever did this kind of flying. And Sasha partially missed it and didn't at the same time. She then looked up at Oppie. "We should get on the guns to help them."
"Yeah," Oppie agreed. Tac warbled a disappointed phrase as they left the cockpit.
Kyr drove the ship into a rolling scissors with one of the fighters.
"Heads up," Illara called out, "more incoming, at least one hundred."
"Kriff." Kyr said under his breath, "Tac, you sure our message got to them?"
He beeped an affirmative.
Suddenly, almost directly in front of them, the immense bulk of three Imperial Star Destroyers jumped out of hyperspace in a wedge formation. Kyr had to turn straight upward to avoid plowing into the upper hull of the leftmost ship and avoid the engine exhaust.
"Attention, unidentified vessel." The Imperial ships said, blanketing the coms, "Stand down and prepare to be boarded, this is your only warning."
Only a moment passed before the Bloodstorm shifted fire from the two Mandalorian ships, and the fighters that had been incoming reformed to attack the Star Destroyers.
"Tac, did they pay us the bounty?" Kyr called back. Turns out sending the specs for some unknown Star Destroyer and saying he had encountered six Force users garnered quite a strong and immediate response from the Empire.
Tac whistled back.
"Firefeck." The response from their cashiers office was not so immediate.
"Now it's three Star Destroyers?" Kitsu called over the com line.
"Kyr, was this your back up?" Sasha asked, her voice oozing shock over the comms.
Kyr ignored both of them as he dove, trying to win the race. The two Mandalorian ships had been all but forgotten as the forces of the two Empires clashed in orbit. Flights of TIEs were pouring from the Star Destroyers to meet the Sith fighters, and the four capital ships were bellowing out fire, turning the space between them more into a cloud of ionized plasma. The Shadow Runner dove around the far left side of the engagement, and Kitsu went around the far right side. A few half hearted potshots were taken at them by some available gunners, but they dodged them easily as they entered the upper atmosphere.
"This is insane," Viran commented as he kept a steady hand on the controls. "And I'm loving it. Damn, I love flying."
"You think this is fun? You are the insane one, my dear," Sasha's voice chimed in over the in ship comms from the turret she occupied.
"Ladies and gentleman, this is your captain speaking," Kyr called out, quite enjoying himself. He could see Cien rolling her eyes behind him in his visor's surround view. "We're approaching our final destination, the outside temperature is a cool 15 degrees C-"
"SHUT UP KYR!" Sasha and Oppie shouted over the comms.
"Spoil sports." Kyr said under his breath. "Tac, take over." Kyr said as he got up from the controls. "Showtime, people." He announced over the comm line.
Everyone rushed to the ramp compartment. There was a small, red light over the entrance. Kyr looked at the Jedi and the Sith, "You sure you don't need parachutes or something?"
"No." Oppie replied.
Viran was grinning ear to ear. "This is going to be great."
Tac warbled over the line. Kyr translated, "10 seconds."
Everyone formed up on the ramp, tense. The light switched to yellow, and the ramp opened, exposing them to the slipstream as the Shadow came in low, dodging over the conifer trees that dominated the landscape here at the foot of the mountain Dracul's forces were assembled at. The ship slowed abruptly, and the light went green. "Go! Go! Go!" Kyr yelled.
The five of them rushed down the ramp, Kyr activated his jetpack. Looking over, he could see Kitsu and Illara entering the battlefield the same way. And off in the distance Dracul's ground forces were rushing forward to meet the new threat.
Above them their ships shot away. Tac taking the Shadow to a secure location to provide fire support, and Kitsu's ship on its own autopilot moving to fly patrol over them in case anything got too close. The three Jedi and the Sith landed within seconds of each other, each cushioning their fall with the Force, and falling into a kneeling stance before standing up, and the three Mandalorians arrested their fall with the jetpack, coming to a hovering stop behind them. Almost as one, they ignited their Sabers, and the Mandalorians landed, aiming down their sights at the onrushing Sith troopers.
"Let's do this," Sasha said in a determined tone. One that would match the many Jedi Generals from the old Clone Wars. She then looked over to Cien and their eyes met. "Together."
Cien nodded. Beside Cien, Oppie spun his sabers to loosen his wrists. Viran did a flourish or two to loosen his wrists as well then he flipped the blade in a fancy rotation so it landed just behind his head and into his ready position.
"Man, I wish someone had gotten a video of that." Kyr groused as they pushed forward as one to meet the Sith troopers.
The Sith troopers laid down a withering storm of blaster fire as they formed a battle line, but the Jedi and Sith deflected it away, most of the fire ricocheting back into the trooper's line. The Mandalorians, using the cover of the lightsaber protection, returned with their own answering storm of fire. The troopers held the line until the Force users were nearly upon them, and the rank started to fail just as the lightsabers started cleaving through them. Kyr rushed forward, taking precise aim at the troopers who looked most threatening, the same as Kitsu and Illara.
The trio of Jedi and Cien fought valiantly through the troops. Cien was taking the troopers down without even a single thought. She would slice them in two, behead a few, send many flying with the Force, and cut them down to size. Oppie and Viran were weaving their way through the troopers. Disarming them, cutting them down, and even landing a few solid punches or kicks to send the troopers reeling. Sasha, on the other hand, had never taken another life before. The fighting and taking down the troops was nothing to her, but she wasn't going to kill them. However, she did wound them pretty severely. She even removed a few limbs here or there. But her luck of not killing them didn't last long. A trooper that she thought had been defeated tried to take her down from behind at one point. Sasha sensed him approach, but she lost her footing when she turned to attack him. That caused her saber to spin wildly as she tried to regain her balance and inevitably sliced the man in half. She stared in horror as she realized what she just did.
"Fight now, mourn later," she heard Cien bark from nearby.
It took a second for the shock to wear off. Once it did, she shook her head and moved away from the body. Sasha knew Cien was right. As much as she hated to admit it, Cien was right. Now was not the time to mourn those who were killed. Now was the time to fight and take down Dracul. But in the back of her mind, Sasha couldn't truly shake the fact she had just killed her first living being of probably many more to come. And she hated the thought of it so much, but they can't let Dracul win this day.
While Sasha was dealing with all of that, Viran was practically running on unlimited energy. For the first time in his life, he was right on the front lines. In the heat of the action. Something he only dreamed of, but never got to experience during the Clone Wars as he was too young at the time. So he was practically unstoppable in this moment. He moved with such agility and strength that all of the training over his lifetime was finally coming into use. Well actually, the last time he found himself in a situation similar to this was when he faced Cien a couple of months ago on Arbortarum. Now to be fair that wasn't his first duel as that one was a year ago against Kopesh. But this was different. This was his first real battle and he was enjoying every second of it.
However, Viran also knew the gravity of the situation. Their goal was Dracul and these Sith Troopers were just in their way to get to him. So even though Viran fought with such energy, his mind was focused on the here and now as well as their main objective. That is what Oppie always taught them to do. To never lose sight of their goal. But he also taught them to be adaptable in any situation, which they had plenty of experience of over the last sixteen years from always being on the run. While they technically might still be on the run from Palpatine and the Empire, this day they were free to be Jedi and fight for what is right.
Oppie swung his off-hand saber, reflecting a blaster bolt back to its owner while he sliced another trooper down. He spun, another trooper was cleaved in two as he pushed forward. He looked up, one trooper was taking aim at Sasha while she hesitated, looking at a trooper that she had just killed. He Force pushed him, sending him flying meters backward. Another three were taking aim at him. He pulled the center one to him, Oppie's main hand saber running the trooper through while the shots from the other two troopers were absorbed by the armored body of the trooper he had just skewered. The dead trooper dropped to the ground. Another set of troopers were setting up a crew served cannon. He pulled the cannon towards him, off of the tripod, swinging it around and using the barrel to bowl over a swath of troopers unlucky enough to get in its way. This was like the Clone Wars, but he was fighting against the armored troopers instead of battle droids - no, this was like Order 66. The troopers taking aim at his charges, his friends, his family, single mindedly trying to kill them, regardless of their own lives.
A grenade fell at Oppie's feet, the audible countdown only giving him seconds. He pushed both arms down towards it, creating a compression of Force energy that forced the blast out away from him, back at the element of troopers that had thrown it, but they were too far away to be affected by the blast. As the bright, fiery explosion and smoke cleared from their view, Oppie brought his sabers up, staring them down as he strode forward through the dust. The look on his face caused them to hesitate, and as they brought their rifles up to aim at him he used the Force to send them flying back. If Viran and Sasha could see his face they would not recognize him. He had fallen into the kind of mood that had let him face down armies of droids. The kind of state that had sent Master Redika to seek guidance for how to handle a Padawan he was worried about. Oppie was at war, and none of these troopers would hurt him or any of the people he cared about.
Kyr, Kitsu and Illara swept through, taking care of any troopers the Force users weren't able to reach, or taking out the ones who were too far away for the Jedi and Siths elegant blades. As the last troopers fell to Cien's saber, the party regrouped near a rock formation that gave them some shelter. All of them went prone, edging up over the small rise and could see more troopers arrayed against them in the distance, but could not make out any particular details. Beyond them was a rocky hill with a cave in it, probably where Dracul was.
Kitsu was kneeling and looking through her scope as everyone crawled forward on their stomachs to get their own view. "There's another two hundred troopers, some guy in what has to be an officer's uniform, and some kid with a lightsaber and a weird look on his face."
"Kopesh." Cien said, distantly.
"Yeah, they're walking out to meet us or something." Kitsu added.
"What? Why the hell are they doing that?" Kyr and Illara asked at the same time. Kyr and Illara looked at eachother, then back over the ridge.
Kyr looked over at Illara. "You got the officer?"
"Always." Illara said with a smile, getting a good cheek weld on their rifle.
"Should we see what they have to say?" Oppie suggested. "We might avoid more bloodshed."
The three Mandalorians from their prone positions, their rifles ready to take the shot, slowly rotated their heads to look at Oppie. "But their commander is right there." Kitsu finally said for the three of them.
In their private comm channel in the buy'ces, Illara commented, "This is why they lost the war."
Sasha looked at Cien laying next to her. "What do you think? You used to work with them. What should we do?" she asked.
"It depends on which commander it is." She said, trying to think who would be left aboard the ship. Most of the commanding officers would be loyal to Dracul. She looked over at Kyr who was on her other side. "Hand me that rifle."
"Sure." Kyr said, handing over the scoped carbine to the Sith without hesitation. Kitsu and Illara both stared at the exchange, then glanced at each other before returning to their scopes.
Cien hefted the rifle and looked through the scope to try to make out who the commander was. Her jaw went slack. General Varden was there, with Kopesh, following the Sith out towards their position. Her hold on the rifle loosened a bit as she realized what she was seeing. Varden had betrayed her. Just like Kopesh had done in the throne room when he had attacked her because of Dracul's manipulations. Her heart pounded, that meant Dracul had wanted her to escape. But why? She cast sideways glances at the Jedi and the Mandalorians, tensed for combat. They wouldn't believe her. They would think she had led them into a trap.
"Cien, what is it?" Sasha asked, her voice laced with concern as she noticed Cien's body language change slightly. "What do you see?"
Cien looked at Sasha, subtly but visibly shaken. "It's General Varden." She said, looking Sasha in the eyes. "He's the one who helped me escape, he held Dracul at bay so I could get off the ship. He should be dead. Dracul knew. Dracul should have killed him."
Sasha frowned and briefly glanced past Cien to Kyr. He gave Sasha a simple nod before she turned her gaze back to Cien. "Alright, what do you think we should do? We are with you on this," She said gently.
"He betrayed me." Cien said, still shaken, "Dracul wanted me to escape." She continued, her voice turning to a growl. "If he wanted me to escape then we need to find out why. If they want to talk, let's talk." She said, her voice chilling.
Viran, who was on the other side of Sasha, looked over to Cien with narrowed brows. He opened his mouth ready to say something in rebuttal to her strange behavior as it was kind of suspicious. However, Sasha suddenly reached over and gripped his arm that was closest to her, and without looking gave it a tight squeeze. While she did that, his gaze met Kyr's. Even with the bucket on and he could feel the daggers that were piercing through to his soul. Viran took both of their reactions as a warning to not say a damn word. So he closed his mouth and subtly tried to pull his arm from Sasha's vice grip.
Oppie was keeping an eye out in case any of the less injured troopers were coming up behind them from the previous battle. As the exchange happened his attention slowly shifted back to Kyr, Cien, Sasha and Viran, and he couldn't help but feel slightly confused, but bemused by the tableau, especially as Viran was subtly trying to edge away from Sasha, trying to extract his arm. "So we go meet them, then?" Oppie said, liking the idea since it had, actually, been his originally.
Cien got up, not caring to wait for a consensus from the committee. She started walking forward across the meadow. Sasha immediately got to her feet, as did Kyr, collecting his rifle where Cien had carelessly left it behind. Viran and Oppie immediately got up as well.
"Tac, ready airburst, indirect. I'll relay coordinates." They could hear Kyr saying into his buy'ce as he hurried to catch up.
"Oh, yeah we'll just stay back here then, don't worry about us." Kitsu called forward as they walked away, somewhat snarkily.
"Stay out of my line of sight!" Illara called forward.
Cien came to a stop in front of General Varden and the Thrall that had been Kopesh. She studiously paid no attention to the walking corpse, and gave General Varden a death stare. "You should be dead." She growled.
Varden ignored her, playing the role of a good soldier standing to the back left side of Kopesh and looking straight ahead. He glanced at Cien, but then returned his gaze to the far distance.
Kopesh spoke, "Lord Dracul would invite you to end the bloodshed, before you are injured." Kopesh said in a calm, collected voice that had a slightly airy quality about it.
Viran stared in disbelief that this man before them was the same lunatic that attacked him a year ago. "The hell?" he said under his breath, slightly spooked.
Cien looked at the Thrall. "No." Then she looked back at Varden. "You betrayed me." She said in a low, dangerous voice.
"Oh come now Cien, you have already been serving Dracul for years." Kopesh said, as if she had brushed off a polite invitation to a party. "It will be so much easier to serve him if you aren't maimed first."
She looked over at the Thrall, "speak again, and you will not return from death a second time."
Kopesh's countenance changed from the euphoric presence, as though confused and angered. "Cien, don't be like this. You know you will serve him either way, you don't want to disappoint him."
Cien's head slowly rotated from the General to look the Kopesh-thing in the eyes. "I will never serve Dracul again. Your mind was so weak that the little spark that was Kopesh may be trapped, but I will not fall so easily. You died because you were an idiot, and you live again because you are an idiot." She said, her voice filled with death and malice.
Kopesh twitched, and his hand reached for his saber in an instant. His face filled with rage.
A blaster shot rang off before anyone could react.
Suddenly, behind him, a hundred blaster bolts shot off from the troopers, and the other half the troopers fell forward, dead.
Kopesh ignited his saber and brought it for an overhead swing to cleave Cien in half, not even noticing that he had just been shot in the back. Cien's saber snapped to her hand instantly, she parried his blow slightly to the side so his saber swept past her, and she stepped in, rotating her wrist down, and bringing her saber up through his stomach, up through his sternum and through his head. The two halves of his body stayed in place for a second before he fell apart, his saber extinguishing, falling to the ground. Cien stood frozen at the end of her attack for a moment.
Sasha, Viran, Oppie and Kyr stared in shock at what just occurred in the manner of seconds.
As the body fell, Sasha's hand clapped to her mouth frozen in horror. Viran's eyes widened as his jaw dropped to the floor. "Brutal…" he mumbled.
Oppie and Kyr just stared at the corpse.
"I see why you like her vod." Kitsu called over the private comm. Kyr turned and glared at her across the field behind them, and turned back in disgust when she laughed over the comm line.
Cien kept her saber ignited, but lowered it, turning her full attention back to Varden. "Explain yourself. Now."
Varden, as imperturbable as always, put his blaster pistol back in his hip holster. "Dracul ordered me to 'rescue' you. He wanted you to escape, I do not know why. It was my only way to make sure you survived." He said, simply. "I've always been loyal to you. You know that." He gestured to the troops that had just massacred the other half of their fellow troopers in one swift blow, and as one they saluted Cien. "We will not serve Dracul any longer, we are yours to command, my lady." Varden said, saluting to Cien as well.
"Why did they kill each other?" Oppie asked, gesturing at the ranks of troopers behind them.
"They were loyal to Dracul." Varden answered, glancing at the Jedi, then back to Cien. "I stocked the ranks for this mission so that those you attacked before, and the ones we killed here were the most loyal to Dracul, the most likely to put up resistance to an…" He paused, "irregular change of leadership." He finished.
Cien raised an eyebrow at the general. She felt nothing but honesty from Varden, and a sense of finality about him, a sense of vindication, and most of all loyalty. She smiled.
"Prepare your troopers, gen-" Before she could finish the command, thunder rolled from the hill beyond, where Dracul was. Her smile fell, as dark clouds appeared in the otherwise bright sky that sat above the forested meadow they were in. Sprays of red lightning shot up, into the forming clouds, as if charging a capacitor. Then it shot back down to the earth, seeking out the dead from the combat thus far. In front of them, among the troopers that had just been shot, and behind them, at the formation they had just fought through. Peels of thunder started rolling continuously as more and more lightning shot out, and the corpses they hit started to twitch and rise.
As one, the Jedi ignited their lightsabers as the hordes of dead rose. The troopers, Cien's troopers, the troopers still living, started firing as they knew all too well what this meant.
Kyr looked at the Jedi and Cien. "We can handle this, go stop him." He hefted his rifle, and then stopped, turning to Sasha and Viran. "Wait," he said, reaching into his pouch. "I was going to wait for a more formal time, but here. They might save your shebs like Op." He brought his hand out of the pouch, two coppery Mandalorian heart pieces hanging from leather strings. "Welcome to the clan." He said, hurriedly.
Sasha and Viran took the heart pieces from Kyr with a look of surprise initially then they gave him a determined nod as they both placed the heart piece around their necks.
"Thanks, Kyr," Viran said with a smirk as he saluted the Mando with two fingers.
Sasha placed a hand on his shoulder plate. "May the Force be with you… vod." She said with a smile before turning to the others.
"Watch your own shebs." Oppie said, patting Kyr on the shoulder before running off.
"Oya manda!" He called to them, his tone of voice a smirk, as he turned, taking aim at the corpses and moving to join the battle.
Cien had watched the exchange play out, for once a snide comment did not come to her mind as she witnessed the display of solidarity, of family. She turned away, pushing aside a feeling of loneliness, and started making her way up to the mountain. Behind her the Jedi immediately followed. Between them was the battle between the living and the dead; Cien's forces and Dracul's. They swept through, pushing aside any opponents that barred their way in a drive to make it up to Dracul, to end this madness.
As they ran towards the cave, Viran slowed to Sasha's side so they could run together.
"Hey, Sash," Viran spoke up as they ran, talking loudly enough that she could hear him over the battle.
"Yeah," She responded as she shot a side glance at him.
"This might be a bad time, but I want something to look forward to if we survive this," Viran started. Sasha shot him a confused glance. "So I wanted to ask you something very important. Something I have been wanting to say for a while now."
"What's that?" Sasha asked as she avoided a couple of blaster bolts with her saber deflecting them.
"Will you marry me?" Viran asked. His voice full of sincerity and love as a smile grew on his face.
Sasha looked at him shocked. "Are you serious?"
"Dead serious," He said genuinely as they still ran.
"Vir... that's a hell of a way to ask a girl to marry you," Sasha scolded slightly. "In the middle of a battle of all places."
"So is that a yes or a no?" He asked.
"It's a yes, you idiot," Sasha said as she reached over and grabbed his shirt. She pulled him into a kiss. A brief kiss but a loving one. "Now let's go take down Dracul."
Viran smiled as he grabbed her hand and they continued running after the others, smiling as they ran for the cave opening. However, their moment of love and joy slowly disappeared as the sense of dread filled their veins as they reached the cavern opening.
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