Author's Note: This chapter will be broken up into smaller parts as well. Sorry this took so long, I wasn't in a writing mood. Hope it was worth the wait…
Chapter Seven: Resistance at All Cost
General Vaklu had been walking along the secret corridor for the last hour and a half. The corridor led from the military command post down one kilometer underground then became a long shaft that ran right underneath the palace and ten kilometers out at a slight incline leading just outside the Great Wall. Vaklu now stood at what was supposed to be the way out. A decimeter thick durasteel door stood before Vaklu at a slant. It opened out just on the other side of the Great Wall right at ground level...that is…when it actually opened. Vaklu had hit the activation plate five times now only to get an electronic buzz and the slight grinding noise of locked gears.
Vaklu had just expected the door to open even though this escape route hadn't been used since the days long before the Beast Wars. Apparently it hadn't been maintained over the decades and now might as well be an impenetrable shield between General Vaklu and his freedom.
Vaklu hit the door with his fist out of frustration and immediately regretted it as a sharp pain cut through is hand and up his arm. His mind racing Vaklu looked around what might very well become his tomb. Just before panic could set in he remembered something he had noticed when he had first come across the schematics for this corridor while looking through his predecessor's personal files after he had taken over the position of General of the Onderonian Royal Military. Rushing back the way he came he covered two kilometers before finding what he was searching for. There, set into the wall just over two meters up, was the air shaft Vaklu had remembered. The air shafts were set every two kilometers to facilitate at least a modicum of air flow, especially in situations where there were large numbers of people traversing the passageway. The air shaft was just big enough for a man to squeeze through, even one who possessed the slight gut that Vaklu had acquired over years of high ranking service. If he remembered correctly, the air shaft rose in a steep incline to the surface and ended in a vent that should be easily removed. The only possible problem was in the fact that the vent ended inside the Great Wall, which meant he could potentially be faced either with debris from the attack covering the vent, or a squadron of Mandalorians scouting for survivors. Fortunately even if this shaft didn't yield a viable exit, there were still four others along the corridor to try.
Vaklu hadn't yet formulated a plan for how he would then managed to escape Iziz once he did find a way out of this poor excuse for an escape tunnel, but at the moment survival was first and foremost on his mind. Hoisting himself up into the air vent, General Vaklu began the lengthy climb to the surface.
First Lieutenant Holden Yiim of the ORM had been staring at the enemy blockade at the base of the Sky Ramp for the last three hours and thirty-four minutes trying, desperately, to find any indication of a weak spot, some point which he could infiltrate. It was maddening. The enemy didn't seem to have weak spots. They were like droids with their precision and attention to even the most minor of details. Five soldiers were at the post at all times. Whenever there was a shift change the replacement soldiers would take position behind the departing shift and be on guard before the departing shift left. At no point was there any communication of any kind between shifts…not even so much as a nod or a greeting.
So far the weakest point was whenever a squad of Mandalorians would come or go. The squad would approach the Sky Ramp and immediately the two guards on either side of the Ramp entrance would move to flank the squad, their blaster rifles at attention. The remaining guard would salute the commanding officer of the squad and move aside to let them pass.
Lieutenant Yiim had no delusions that they were merely letting anyone in Mandalorian armor pass. He was willing to bet that they had some indication or some kind of device that transmitted identification and maybe even orders between the Mandalorians so he scratched the idea of merely trying to capture Mandalorian armor and sneaking into a squad formation.
The only thing Lieutenant Yiim had discovered in the last couple hours was that the duracrete rubble he was sitting on was very hard and not at all comfortable. Of course that wasn't a problem for him. Yiim considered himself a real soldier, not one of the pomp and regalia types that seemed to make up the ORM. He would sit in this spot for another three hours, or another three hundred hours if that's what it took. Unfortunately that wasn't very conducive to finding a way to turn this situation around.
When the Mandalorians had attacked a day and a half ago, it had been fast and brutal. Holden in a small way had to concede that it was carried out masterfully and that he was impressed. Their precision was amazing and their execution was flawless. They had played on the almost inherent Onderonian aversion to cultural change in relation to the rest of the galaxy, an aversion that was based on a xenophobia that seemed to lie just below the surface of every Onderonian. They also played on the fact that not an Onderonian alive believed that they would ever see a Mandalorian threat again. No one except First Lieutenant Yiim.
After the last time the Mandalorians had attacked Onderon, and had subsequently been beaten back so effectively, the Onderonian people saw themselves, in some respect, as impregnable to outside attack and they saw the Mandalorians as so little a threat as to not warrant attention. The Onderonian military rarely attributed the successful repelling of the Mandalorians to the large assistance given by both the Republic and the Jedi, though Yiim knew that the Queen herself was a great supporter of the Jedi, and even had close friends among their Order.
While Holden had been alert and able to snap into action at the first sign of an attack, the rest of Iziz was truly caught off guard, which was obvious by the sluggish manner in which the rest of the military assembled opposition to the attack. Even Yiim's commanding officers had been taken by surprise, but Yiim hadn't. Deep in the back of his mind he had, in some small way, known this would happen someday.
Holden's grandfather Duram Yiim had served the ORM as a Major during the first attempted made by the Mandalorians against Onderon. Major Yiim had been much like Lieutenant Yiim in many ways as far as his attention to soldiering was concerned. Major Yiim was a man's man and a soldier's soldier. Tough, competent, and slated for quick ascension through the ranks. In the close to twenty years that Duram Yiim had served in Her Majesty's Armed Forces he had gone from being a mere Enlisted man, just a Private, to being a fully commissioned Major, something that, for the ORM was rarely heard of. Usually the only Majors found in the ORM had started out already with their commission as Second Lieutenants. As such, Duram Yiim was well respected amongst his peers and subordinates. When the Mandalorians attacked, Major Yiim fought tooth and nail with the Republic and the Jedi while many of his compatriots cowered in their quarters. He retired from service shortly thereafter, a Hero of Onderon!
As was the case with most serious career military men, Duram Yiim had always hoped that his son would follow in his footsteps, maybe even attain a higher rank then he had. Holden's father, Gran couldn't have possibly turned out to be more of a disappointment to his father's dreams if he tried. Gran Yiim had always been very meek as a child. He hated confrontation and had a very delicate and tender demeanor. Gran Yiim was a very, very big disappointment to his father. No matter what Duram did to try and "toughen" up his son it seemed Gran only moved further from the path his father had taken, the path his father had hoped for him. Gran openly protested the Onderonian Military, despite the fact that it wasn't much of a military presence to begin with. He considered himself an "intellectual" and felt that military mentality was barbaric, a thing of the past that was beneath the "modern enlightened" of which he considered himself a member.
When Holden was born Gran had hoped he would follow in his footsteps, that he would go to university and study philosophy and higher thinking. Holden proved to be as big a disappointment to Gran as Gran had to Duram. Even at a very young age it was obvious to all that Holden was meant for military life. He was brave and sure and spent a couple nights every week with his grandfather bivouacking just outside the Great Wall of the city, something even the bravest citizens of Iziz would never think to do. Holden was also a distinguished member of the Royal Scouts and quickly surpassed all the other scouts in Maalraas Troop. Duram Yiim taught his grandson to shoot his rifle and Holden was only ten when he shot and killed his first maalraas. Unfortunately Holden's bravery had the occasion to get him into trouble such as the time Holden talked his four best schoolmates into sneaking outside the Great Wall with him. Holden "appropriated" his grandfather's rifle from its place of honor above Duram's hearth and the five friends set out. Sneaking past the Great Wall without authorization or supervision wasn't an easy task, but Duram had taught Holden all about stealthy movement and infiltration and Holden had been a very quick study and an apt pupil.
Within moments of leaving the city behind, Holden and his friends were set upon by a boma. The beast managed to knock Holden over before the young man was able to raise his grandfather's weapon. The boma then turned on Holden's friends. In a flash Holden was on his feet and lunging for the hungry creature. The fight was very uneven and for all intents and purposes Holden shouldn't have lasted long but suddenly the boma let out a pained roar and fell away, Holden's scout knife sticking out from between its ribs. When Holden's four shaken friends ran back to the Wall the city guards had hauled Holden in and called his parents to pick him up. Gran yelled at his son for hours, and then yelled at his father for being such a poor influence on his son. Though Duram outwardly held a disapproving face, Holden knew that inside his grandfather was proud of him. From there it was only a matter of waiting until he was of legal age to defy his father and join the ORM. In the two years since then Duram had not spoken a word to his son and Holden figured he never would again.
Another ten minutes had passed of Holden staring at the blockade as if by merely looking at it he could will the Mandalorians to break formation. Finally Holden gave in and moved deeper into the rubble he was using to remain hidden. The debris had once been part of a shop of some kind and Holden had to step over small piles of children's toys and the occasional bits of produce. He had had enough presence of mind to grab the odd loaf of bread or vegetable, after all, he couldn't be sure when he would next be able to replenish his rations, if such a time would ever come.
Continuing forward Lieutenant Yiim suddenly felt a slight stirring of air on his pants and looked down. At his feet was a vent of some sort, about the size of a large man. Holden bent down and examined the vent cover, removing some debris that was blocking it. Using his utility knife he removed the cover and began examining the air shaft to see if it might be useful as a hiding place. It could even lead to another part of the city; maybe he could use it as a route to get around unobserved.
Putting his palm above the opening Holden noticed that the air coming from the shaft was cold and dank, to Holden this indicated that the shaft led very deep underground. Picking up a small crumbled piece of duracrete Holden tested this by dropping it into the shaft. He listened closely as it slid down what sounded like a steep incline but didn't hear it hit bottom before he could no longer hear it at all. Too deep then. It was unlikely that the shaft would be of too much purpose, but Holden made a mental note to return and investigate it at length later on.
Pushing himself back onto his feet, Holden pressed on. He kept his blaster rifle close and his senses alert for even the slightest change to his surroundings. Lieutenant Yiim hadn't made it more than four meters when he heard a shuffling noise behind him accompanied by soft grunting sounds. Lieutenant Holden Yiim spun on his heel bringing his rifle up in front of him and prepared himself for an attack.