Scaisum IV
The Orress touched down in a clearing among the dilapidated ruins of what were once mining structures, the miner's barracks, foreman's office, utility sheds. It was the only suitable area for the freighter that would put the Mandalorians at the desired distance from the settlement. The heavy rains whipped against the hull and the cockpit viewports.
Scaisum IV was a desolate and rocky planet, defined by sparse vegetation, low hills comprised of boulders, and driving rainstorms. The frequency of the storms blocked most of the sunlight from the surface, shrouding the planet in perpetual darkness. The evidence of sentient habitation existed in the countless derelict mining rigs and abandoned shafts. The centuries old relics littered the region. The story of Scaisum IV was a familiar one seen across the Galaxy, a planet exploited for its resources and quickly abandoned once the mines played out. The only inhabitants were those too destitute to escape when the economy collapsed, or the fugitive keeping a low profile.
The crew of Mandalorians assembled in the main hold of the freighter. The brothers Kack and Ikan prepared the four balutar swoop bikes, as they would remain with the Orress, while Adenn, Haurn, Tyl, and Songh procured the necessary replacement components. They were armed for a fight; it was a necessity for Mandalorians. Adenn holstered his WESTER-35 and strapped his custom-made disruptor long gun to his back. Haurn equipped her E-11. Tyl served as the heavy weapons support, armed with a rotary blaster cannon. Songh preferred her custom twin WESTER-34 blaster pistols.
The four mounted their baltar swoop bikes and charged out of the cargo hold in the direction of the settlement. Each Mandalorian fitted a jetpack, but the weather conditions on Scaisum IV hampered their operational capacity. The replacement coil would require a repulsor sled to make it back from the settlement, as the full component could not be hand carried. The jetpacks were there in the event the acquisition devolved into blaster exchanges.
Over the rock covered ground, the swoop bikes flew. The hard driving rain tore like small pinpricks on the jumpsuits of the Mandalorians. They kept themselves focused, drew on their warrior upbringing to ignore the discomfort. A lightning flash cast a glow, illumining the rusting hulks of drilling equipment and the slowly decaying mining structures. After nearly an hour, the lights of the settlement beamed in the distance.
It resembled every other boom town long past its zenith. The tightly packed buildings haphazardly constructed with a main thoroughfare that ran the length of the settlement and purposely kept clear. The structures were a mixed assortment of prefabrications thrown up quickly. There were those built of more traditional and expensive materials once the credits started to flow. The years of recession wore the once functional buildings to their current derelict state. Less than half were structurally sound. In its heyday, the settlement supported a population of nearly half a million. Now, only a few thousand inhabited what remained.
Entering the outskirts of the settlement, Adenn and the party brought their swoop bikes to a halt at the first inhabitant they saw. The inhabitant, possibly human, was so disfigured his species was difficult to truly determine. He looked up at the four Mandalorians. Each side exchanged their unwavering glare.
"This town have a junker?" Adenn broke the silence with his question.
"Heh," the man uttered with an indolent expression.
Adenn repeated the question.
"Heh," said the man in reply.
"You deaf, or just stupid?" Haurn accused.
The man continued to wear his dull face, as if he found the question only able to be understood with great difficulty.
"A junker, someone who sells salvaged parts for starships," Adenn said, this time asking in the trade language of Sy Bisti. "Where can we find the junker!?"
"No no no! Check cantina, down road, go!" the man replied in a broken Sy Bisti dialect.
He pointed to a dim cantina further along the thoroughfare, saturated with faded exterior lights displaying the function of the establishment. Deciding the man was no longer worth the effort to question, the four powered their swoop bikes and covered the short distance. They parked in front of the cantina and dismounted in unison. Adenn was first, with Haurn at his side since the entryway was just wide enough to accommodate two persons.
The Mandalorians were through the doorway, into the interior of the cantina when they stopped. Seated at nearly every table and several stools at the counter were thirty, armed New Republic Troopers. The Troopers lounged about, a few partook in moderate libations, others enjoyed the respite earned. It could be inferred the platoon quartered themselves at the cantina. Their attention quickly focused to the four newcomers.
The Troopers locked onto the Mandalorians, though none made a sudden move. So far, neither side provoked hostilities. The trigger hands made ready to draw blasters should the current armistice drastically alter.
"What the hell did you get us into!" Haurn whispered to Adenn.
"How was I supposed to know the Rebels were running ops here!?" Adenn countered.
Leaned against the tables, by several of the New Republic Troopers, were their A280 blaster rifles. Others had DH-17 blaster pistols either holstered or laid before them on the tabletops. The situation remained tense, as many prepared for what seemed to be an inevitable blaster fight.
"Let's play it calm," Tyl spoke up. "I'd rather not shoot it out if we don't have to."
Tyl nudged his shoulder past Adenn and Haurn, as he started slowly toward the counter. His pace was relaxed and deliberate, ensured none of the Troopers perceived his actions as a threat. Songh also pushed her way forward to follow. Adenn and Haurn soon matched the others. The Troopers furthest from the Mandalorians slowly rose to their feet. Though they were sure to keep their hands clear from their blasters, their intention was a show of readily available force.
The barkeeper, a Gran, was a browbeaten resident of the settlement and haggard in appearance. He grew ever more anxious by the situation and shifted his protruding ocular extensions about to visually scan the new arrivals. The Mandalorians walked up to the bar and sent him into a near crippling panic attack. Tyl, Adenn, and Songh leaned against the counter, while Haurn kept her back turned to watch the patrons.
"Who in this settlement barters ship parts?" Tyl asked, his voice the only one to break the silence.
"I…uh…Nemmon Vogf," the Gran barkeep struggled to word his response. "Owns the large yard on the east side. He won't open up until morning."
"You Mandos break your ship?" a voice to their left interrupted.
Seated at the counter was a corporal dressed in the grey fatigues of a New Republic Trooper, his modified combat helmet rested on the bar, as did a nearly consumed glass of ale. More Troopers were up from their seats, cautiously gathered their blasters, and slowly approached the Mandalorians. The corporal, a Twi'lek, either feigned intoxication or was truly inebriated, judging by the unsteady motions he made to remain upright.
Adenn dropped a hand to the grip of his holstered blaster on his belt, prepared to draw if needed. Haurn, Tyl, and Songh did the same for their weapons. There were thirty New Republic Troopers, but the Mandalorians were prepared to kill them all if necessary. Depending on the protective qualities of their beskar armor, their experience fighting while outnumbered, and their brutality, it would be messy, but the Mandalorians preferred the odds.
"What did you do to break your ship, Mando?" the corporal scoffed. "Mercenary work for the Imps? Job for the Hutts? Black Sun? Or you just like killing for the fun of i…."
Before the corporal could finish, in a quick motion, Adenn drew his WESTAR and pressed the barrel directly into the face of the impudent Twi'lek. Haurn leveled her old E-11 on the closest perceived threat, adopted a tactical stance. Songh raised twin WESTAR-34s from the holsters on each hip. Tyl aimed the small plasma thrower mounted to his left vambrace, able to incinerate a sizable proportion of the cantina, the preferable option since his heavy rotary blaster cannon was strapped to his back and required considerably more time than was available to power up.
In response, the New Republic Troopers trained their weapons on the Mandalorians. Each side stared the other down, none fired, but all prepared to unleash a volley of blaster bolts. The barkeep immediately dove to the cover provided beneath the counter, fearing the carnage that was sure to ensue.
"Ask another question," Adenn said in a harsh voice. "And I'll reshape that deformed Twi'lek skull of yours."
The corporal felt the cold steel of the blaster's muzzle burn into his protruding forehead lobes. He nervously gazed into the lifeless helmet of the Mandalorian. Adenn stood rigid, his hand steady on the grip of his blaster and prepared to pull the trigger, unconcerned with the prospect of taking a life.
A few of the New Republic Troopers were hardened veterans. Evidenced by their unwavering demeanor, having yet to replace the Rebellion patches on their sleeves for those of the newest regime. Most were newly recruited, they flocked to the cause after the Emperor's death in hopes of seeing the Galaxy liberated. The untested Troopers revealed their inexperience, as they quivered while aiming their rifles or fumbled to draw their blasters.
"ENOUGH!" a voiced bellowed from the rear of the cantina. "Platoon! Stand down and lower your weapons. That goes for you Mandos as well! We aren't looking for a fight here."
The stern orders came from a captain and the obvious commander of the New Republic Troopers. The captain's appearance resembled that of many of the Duro species, pale blue skin, the larger head and eyes when compared to a human. Approaching the Mandalorians, through a sea of nervously trained blaster rifles that gradually lowered as the officer passed, the captain interposed himself between Adenn and the corporal, gently pushed the Twi'lek to withdraw.
"I am Captain Staktan," the Duro said. "Four seventy-third Sky Mobile Battalion. My men have not come face to face with Mandalorians before."
"Doesn't look like they've come face to face with anybody," Adenn quipped, holstering his blaster pistol.
Captain Staktan was not entertained by Adenn's insinuation at the inexperience of the Troopers. Several of the veteran Troopers formed a cordon behind their captain, not taking any hostile action, rather posturing in the face of the opposition.
"What business do you have on Scaisum IV?" Staktan asked. "What draws four of the scant remaining Mandalorian people to such a desolate backwater?"
"In the market for a vacation home," Adenn humored, before receiving an authoritative grip on the arm from Tyl.
"We are not looking to involve ourselves with the affairs of the New Republic," said Tyl, brushing Adenn aside. "We seek no confrontation with you or the Empire. Our wish is to do business with the local starship parts junker. Our reasons are our own. That should be sufficient. Once concluded, we will be on our way."
Tyl was older than the rest of the Mandalorian crew. His near sixty standard years showed when compared to his younger vod'e. Yet he was still a formidable warrior, pure muscle and built like a sandcrawler. The constant, facetious remarks, and antics on Adenn's part often wore his patience thin, but Tyl had respect for the young man's father, for the young man's piloting ability and ruthlessness in combat. His loyalties were sworn to Clan Adenn, and he would serve the Clan with honor.
"Suppose what you say is true," Staktan folded his arms and ran his large eyes over the Mandalorians, focused on Tyl. "Things in the Outer Rim can be ignored; people can go about their business. The problem is you're in the Mid Rim. This is the New Republic. We can't simply look the other way. Especially when we have verified the chaincodes of wanted terrorist Lenk Adenn and fugitive war criminal Sonya Haurn."
The veteran New Republic Troopers closest to Staktan, the ones who served throughout the Rebellion, moved in with blaster rifles raised. Behind them, the other Troopers around the cantina slowly took up positions, ready for the inevitable contest. Adenn locked eyes with Staktan. The Duro staring back at the darkened visor of the Mandalorian's helmet, recognition on the captain's part assuming this was Adenn.
"You should have shot us when you had a chance," Adenn muttered, as a loud blaster shot broke the tension.
The action took place in an instant, yet for those participants it felt as if time had stopped to permit the violence. Staktan's gut recoiled from where the bolt penetrated his flak jacket and delivered a fatal wound. Adenn's WESTAR-35 was out of his holster, held at the belt level from the quick draw that shot the captain dead. Action was always quicker than reaction, so the Mandalorians preached.
The Mandalorians knew how the situation was going to end before Staktan and his New Republic Troopers could proceed with their arrest. They expected Adenn to fire first, as he was quickest on the trigger. When he made the quip, they knew it was time to start shooting.
Haurn fired her E-11 quickly from the hip to drop two of the closest Troopers, she was easily the best marksman of the group. Simultaneously, Songh activated the whistling birds from the launcher mounted on her left vambrace. The deadly guided munitions flew forth sounding their distinctive tone. A total of eight projectiles left the vambrace, sought eight individual targets and cut them down with lethal precision.
The fight commenced so suddenly, the Troopers were barely able to fire a shot in retaliation, while nearly a third of their force lay dead, including the commanding officer. Their response was to immediately shelter wherever they could. The Mandalorians took advantage of the confusion to hurl themselves over the countertop and seek cover behind the bar, with the cowering barkeep now absolutely terror stricken and screaming uncontrollably. All four pressed their backs against the bar and prepared for their next move.
"Do you have any idea how difficult whistling birds are to get?" Songh scowled, raising her twin pistols upwards. "I was saving them for an emergency!"
"What do you think this is!?" Adenn replied, agitation in his voice. "Seems like an emergency to me!"
The New Republic Troopers regained cohesion. Many overturned tables or ducked behind the structure's support pillars for protection. They returned fire, blaster bolts tore into the front side of the counter and impacted the wall behind. Serving mugs and bottled libations exploded into pieces when hit. The barkeep screeched in the pitch only the Gran species could achieve.
"Will somebody shut that thing up!" Adenn grunted, out of reach to do it himself.
Haurn, closest, slammed the butt of her E-11 into the barkeep's face. The sound of bones cracking distinguished itself among the carnage. Blood started gushing from the snout of the Gran, who managed to stop his screams, brought his hands to his face in response to the injuries. This was all overwhelming for the barkeep. Terror-stricken, he leapt to his feet to escape to safety. The Gran had not advanced more than two or three steps when the bolts of the New Republic Troopers riddled his body. He jerked and convulsed before he dropped to the floor, dead.
Adenn and Songh alternated, raised themselves enough above the top of the counter, blasters trained, and fired at their enemy. Mostly it was scatter fire, as there was no time to stay exposed for a precise shot. It had the effect of driving the Troopers to cover and keeping them from advancing forward. The proximity of all in the confined space meant the Troopers could not hurl thermal detonators without risking injury to their own.
Meanwhile, Tyl detached his rotary blaster cannon from his back, attached by a cable to feed from the generator that powered his jetpack, and began the charging process. A few more seconds and he would be set. The incoming blaster fire worked its way through the counter. It would soon be shot to pieces, leaving the Mandalorians vulnerable.
"I'll clear the cantina so we can leave," Tyl said, prepared to act. "You all get airborne and cut down anyone who follows us outside."
All three, Adenn, Haurn, and Songh, nodded to the elder Mandalorian. They gripped their weapons and readied to fire their jetpacks. Tyl slowly rose to his feet and extended his left wrist outward, the rotary cannon held by his right hand and slung on his shoulder by a strap. The Troopers fired at the visible target, their blaster bolts deflecting off the heavy beskar worn by Tyl.
A plasma round shot out from the vambrace launcher. The heated energy projectile sailed across the cantina, impacted next to the entry door. In a terrific explosion, debris of durasteel, ceramic, and the salvaged junk used in the cantina's construction blasted apart. The energy discharge vaporized the New Republic Troopers who were closest. A cloud of smoke from the ensuing fire blanketed the interior in a thick haze, aided by the dust thrown up by the destruction.
Tyl pulled the rotary cannon from his shoulder. The blast sent the remaining Troopers to shelter. His right hand held the trigger on the rear of the weapon, while his left grasped a trigger in the middle section, designed to be carried and fired from the hip. Placing his left boot on the edge of the counter, Tyl gave it a forceful kick. The sustained blaster fire weakened the already ramshackle bar and the section to his front collapsed. With a clear line of fire, Tyl opened up with the weapon.
The quad barrels of the heavy rotary blaster spun to alternate shots, to avoid overheating. This allowed for an extremely high rate of fire. The blaster bolts from the rotary cannon raked through the remaining defilade. Tables and other improvised barricades were instantly obliterated by Tyl's weapon. Load bearing pillars were blasted in two, the building shuttered from the sudden loss of integrity. The cannon laid waste to every New Republic Trooper in its path.
Screams and howls were faintly heard, drowned out by the destructive capability of the weapon. Bodies twisted and contorted until limbs were sheared off or torsos split apart. The limited size of the cantina meant there was no place to hide to escape this weapon. A dozen Troopers were dead in only a few moments.
There was not time to inspect the work Tyl completed with such cold efficiency, no chance to gloat over the dead strewn about. Once Tyl let up on his suppression fire from the rotary cannon, the Mandalorians fired up their jetpacks. They took off from the crumbling bar, passed over the wreckage, and shot out of the opening blasted by the vambrace plasma round, upwards into the night sky.
In a scenario as this, they prearranged to take up positions on either side of the street from the air. Each would search for ground targets, hovering in position to completely enfilade the street below. To their surprise, they were not the only ones vying for the airspace.
A screech caught the attention of the Mandalorians, as a U-Wing folded its S-foils forward. The craft touched down at the far end of the street and was in the process of discharging its complement of troops. Four more flew past in an escort formation, covered a Bantha-class assault shuttle that landed in a large open yard a block over. The bay doors were already opened, and the Troopers aboard ready to deploy.
What appeared a desolate mining town was now host to a large New Republic landing force. Another Bantha-class dropped out of the clouds, flashed its ventral spotlights, as it searched for a suitable landing site to accommodate the assault shuttle's immense size. In no time, New Republic troop numbers would be in the hundreds.
Adenn weighed options, as the others looked to him for their next move. They came for a replacement ship part, but things spiraled out of control. He glanced up, noticed a U-Wing break from the overwatch formation and accelerated to an intercept course.
"We've been spotted," Adenn communicated to the others. "Scatter and evade. We'll the…."
He was interrupted by a salvo of laser fire, but not from the U-Wing. Several green bolts fell upon the New Republic craft from above. It exploded in a bright orb of immolation that lit up the darkened structures and shacks of the settlement. Locked in a steep dive, a TIE Fighter quickly shifted its fire onto another target. An entire squadron of Imperial Fighters followed the lead TIE and pursued, the now evasive, U-Wings.
The four Mandalorians dropped to the nearby roof of a three-story building. They knelt and braced themselves against the meter-high barrier that ran the perimeter of the building's top. At one point, the building served as a recreational sports facility, but the decades of abandonment long eroded that function. The rooftop itself was a maze of condenser units, piping, and power transformers rusted out from exposure.
"Well, I can see things are going according to plan," Haurn snapped at Adenn.
"It's always something with you!" Adenn fired back. "If I knew the Rebels and the Imps were planning a shootout, I'd have broken our ship elsewhere, you stu…"
"ENOUGH!" Tyl bellowed, forcing the arguing pair apart with each hand. "That does not help our situation. We need the hyperdrive in the Orress operational if we're going to get out of the system. The alternative is shooting it out with whoever takes the planet."
"That last part is fine with me," Haurn said tongue in cheek, lifting her blaster.
A line of Imperial Sentinel-class landing craft dropped rapidly from the sky. Rotating their flight stabilizers vertical, they came in for a combat offload. Their forward laser cannons, and crew operated E-Web repeating blasters, poured suppression fire on the New Republic Troopers scattered in the street below. The white armor distinctive of the notorious Imperial Stormtrooper Corps radiated against the glow of blaster exchanges, as they charged from the holds of the landing craft.
The infantry on opposing ends of the street mercilessly fired at their respective foes. They took cover amongst the rubble to shoot at targets, made their way through the ruined structures. It was vicious urban combat that began to spread throughout the settlement. New Republic and Imperials were cut down in droves, as more landing craft came into deposit reinforcements.
"Lucky for us, the part we need is fairly common," Songh took over the conversation. "Odds are in our favor the junk shop will have hyperdrive power couplings laying around. Even if they are CEC, Lenk can sort that out later, we just need to get out of the system."
"Hauling 'em back is going to be the issue," Adenn said. "Fortunately, I have a plan."
"Enough of your plans," added Haurn. "Look where your plans keep leading."
She gestured at the warzone. A loud crash sounded nearby, just across the rooftop. Two New Republic Troopers kicked open a heavy door and bolted out from a roof access staircase. One, a Mon Calamari, held a marksman blaster rifle with a human spotter in tow, a sharpshooter team looking for an elevated vantage point.
Bewilderment overcame the pair from the discovery of four Mandalorians not a few meters away from where they stood. Adenn unslung the disruptor long rifle from his back and had it pressed against his chest throughout their deliberations. At the sight of the interruption, he swung the disruptor rifle toward the New Republic sharpshooters. Without hesitation, pure instinct, Adenn squeezed the trigger.
Instantly, the Mon Calamari disintegrated in a glowing orange mist with an appearance of a flame abruptly burning out. The molecular structure of the foe was being torn apart, as the cells ceased to physically exist. The human spotter could do nothing, but let his jaw drop in horror at the sight of the comrade's death from the illegal weapon. Not a second had passed when Haurn put a bolt from her E-11 through the spotter's head and he slumped to the ground, dead.
"Like I was saying," Adenn continued, casually ejected the spent disruptor slug, and loaded a new one as if nothing happened. "Under this amount of enemy fire, we wouldn't get far on the swoop bikes. You three get to that junkyard and find us the part, I'll work on transportation."
"And what do you have in mind when you say 'transportation'?" Tyl asked with an incredulous undertone.
"That," Adenn replied and pointed upward.
A U-Wing buzzed low over the rooftop, actively chased by a TIE Fighter. The New Republic pilot did everything they could to outmaneuver their pursuer, darting sharply to the left and then the right, rolling, climbing, and diving abruptly. Adenn turned to Haurn and tossed her his disruptor long rifle, which she awkwardly caught. He then pulled three slug cartridges from his chest bandolier and sent those over as well.
"I'll fly better without it," Adenn spoke to Haurn. "Just make sure you get it back to me in one piece. The rest of you, I'll meet you over at the junkyard on the east side. Light a flare when you're ready for pickup. And call the brothers, tell them to have the Orress spun up and ready to leave."
Without the opportunity for the others to ask questions, or more importantly voice their objections, Adenn powered the thrusters of his jetpack. He shot upwards quickly and maneuvered his flight path, kept low over the derelict buildings to avoid being easily spotted by fighters from either side. By now, a flight of X-Wings joined the battle and relentlessly hunted down the TIE Fighters, who also saw reinforcements quickly arrive to supplement their losses.
"So now what?" Tyl muttered his question.
"We get the part," Songh replied. "No sense wasting time here. Let's get moving."
Songh opened a communications channel to Kack and Ikan, whichever would answer. She relayed the message to the brothers to have the ship ready, as they would most likely need to make a hasty escape.
"When Lenk formulates a lunatic plan," Haurn turned to Tyl. "He will see it through."
The three Mandalorians activated their packs and tore off into the sky. They too kept low and close to the rooftops. It made them harder to select as targets and quick enough to pass tracking sensors undetected, given all the fighting. Blasts from stray rockets threw up debris around them, as they maneuvered through the tightly packed structures. Enfilades of blaster bolts shot past uncomfortably close, fired by panicking troops below. The Mandalorian speed and dexterity with the jetpack put them well beyond the combat area without any casualties.
Adenn raced over the battle, artfully guided in and around obstacles and debris that only minorly impeded his path. From a young age, he trained to master the sacred Mandalorian art of combat with the jetpack. Many accidents and injuries, and many hours devoted made Adenn highly adept to the practice. Flight was his most comfortable element.
The chaos below raged, bodies dropping lifelessly into the street. Others were hurled violently from explosions or blasted apart from turbolaser fire landing on their position. It was impossible to discern which side held the advantage, which side was winning. By now, he knew he was over the New Republic lines. The number of troops rushed forward, and their blaster bolts fired in the same direction. This was where he wanted to be. Not a moment too soon, Adenn spotted what he sought, a U-Wing came in low with its S-foils rotated forward.
The craft hovered less than a meter from the ground, as eight New Republic Shock Troopers leapt from the interior to join the fray. Once the passengers disembarked, the U-Wing's pilot increased lift to the repulsors and the craft tilted skyward. The addition of the main thrusters added acceleration to quickly climb to a safer altitude.
The side door was still open, and the S-foils had not retracted to flight configuration. There was a door gunner, a human, manning a medium repeating blaster and searching for targets below. Accelerating his jetpack to full, Adenn shot straight toward the opening. Ten meters away, he cut the power to the pack and let himself be carried by the forward momentum.
Distracted, the door gunner was oblivious when the armor-clad body collided with him in a painful crash. Bones were heard to crack, as Adenn slammed the door gunner against the opposite bulkhead. Adenn's shoulder burned from a sharp pain that ran from right to left and then down his back. There was not a moment to devote to convalescing the injury.
At once, Adenn seized the crippled door gunner by the man's chest rig. With a turn, the injured gunner could not hope to counter, Adenn tossed his broken body out of the open door of the U-Wing. The man screamed in agony from his sustained wounds, as he plunged to the ground below.
The co-pilot of the U-Wing turned in her seat to inspect the commotion. Adenn barged into the craft, caused it to sway. The pilots wrestled with the controls to level out. To the horror of the co-pilot, she watched the gunner be tossed from the compartment and the Mandalorian turn in her direction.
She shifted quickly in the seat and hastily fumbled for her DL-44 sidearm. When she turned her gaze back, the blaster in her hand and ready, the Mandalorian was gone. The terror sent her into a panic.
"What is it!?" the Sullustan pilot barked his question, as he fought to evade through the battle raging with the Imperials.
"There's a kriffing Mandalorian back there!" the co-pilot shouted back, distraught. "It just threw Josejay overboard!"
"What!?"
The pilot was too focused on keeping the U-Wing from being shot down to fully process what took place aboard his ship, let alone the hysteria in his co-pilot.
"If there's something back there, go take care of it!" the pilot barked.
Nervously, from her seat, the co-pilot pulled herself up and let her boots land on the walkway that led to the main compartment. Just before her, she held the DL-44 up and at the ready. Slowly, she traversed from the flight deck and took a cautious step, shifted the blaster from left to right.
Pressed against the portside bulkhead, just enough so as not to be seen by someone in the cockpit, Adenn waited. He extended the thirty-centimeter blade from the forearm of his left vambrace. The darkened beskar forged blade sharpened to a razor point plunged into the chest of the quaking co-pilot, as Adenn threw out his arm to intercept her path. The blade cut right through the flesh, the vibro components activated, made the perforation instantly lethal.
Withdrawing his arm, Adenn retracted the blade and let the dead co-pilot slump to the deck. He stepped over the lifeless corpse and moved toward the cockpit. The U-Wing banked sharply, as the pilot avoided incoming fire. The pilot was so focused on maneuvers and evasion the enemy, he failed to callout to his co-pilot. He assumed whatever spooked the co-pilot, she handled it.
With his gaze diverted, the Sullustan pilot did not notice the small canister bounce along the deck and land next to his seat. The canister shot a plume of thick smoke. It blinded the eyes and sent the pilot into a coughing fit since he did not have the flight respirator fitted. Gasping for breath, the pilot fought to retain the flight controls while trying to bury his mouth in the fabric of his sleeve to inhale. This left him nearly blind to the actual flying of the craft.
Adenn relied on the thermal imaging built into his helmet to see through the dense cloud. He effortlessly climbed into the co-pilot's vacated seat and familiarized himself with the controls. The smoke was drawn out the open side doors with a long plume trailing the craft. To observers on the ground, it appeared the U-Wing suffered damage and struggled with an onboard fire. That served to deflect some of the attention.
Blindly jamming the instrument panel, guided by muscle memory, the Sullustan engaged the automatic pilot feature. The U-Wing leveled out and began a straight flight on a set course. One situation addressed, the pilot uncoupled his restraints and pulled himself out of the seat. He stumbled to the opened doors for fresh air. The large eyes of the Sullustan were especially susceptible to the smoke, as they inflamed and burned from exposure to the Mandalorian's chemical substance.
How he went unnoticed by this buffoon of a pilot, Adenn did not know, as he watched the Sullustan grasp his way along. Tactfully, Adenn deactivated the automatic pilot program and took manual control. He turned the flight stick hard over to starboard, as he pulled the flap controls. The U-Wing responded with a violent roll that tossed around anything not secured.
The hard turn knocked the Sullustan from his feet. In his near blind state, he thought he saw his co-pilot fall through an open side door. He then felt himself slide toward the opening and reached out a hand to grab onto any sort of anchor. What felt like a bar, which comprised the center seating bench, banged against his hand. He tried to hold on, but it slipped through his fingers. In another moment his body felt untethered by it surroundings, as it plummeted.
Adenn made a cursory inspection of the main compartment and saw the last of the passengers were disembarked. The U-Wing was under his control and now free of all onboard opposition. The smoke grenade had finally depleted and the last of the fumes dissipated. Now with the task accomplished, Adenn adjusted his course to rendezvous with his comrades.
Simultaneously, as Adenn fought his way aboard the U-Wing, Haurn, Tyl, and Songh flew toward the junkyard. Briefly, they had to evade small arms fire from troopers on both sides. Mostly they were bolts directed upwards, as the infantry were surprised by individuals under powered flight and fired in response. The flightpath took them over a section of the settlement that had not yet seen any fighting.
A large open yard came into view. It differentiated from the surrounding structures, as it was littered with the wrecked hulks of shuttles, light starships, heaps of parts and various components. The three Mandalorians each executed a summersault midair, maneuvering their jetpacks from providing forward thrust to a retro burn to arrest their descent rate. Performing a landing flare, they reduced both vertical and horizontal speed to allow a near zero-speed touchdown.
On the ground they moved quickly with their weapons raised, along the paths cut through the mounds of ship parts. The sounds of battle raged in the distance, bright flashes from blaster exchanges illuminated the darkened sky.
"How are we going to find what we are looking for in this mess?" Haurn posed to the group over their comm channel.
"Looks like they got a front of house," Songh replied, her boots planted in the oil-stained soil of the junkyard. "I'll see if the owner is cowering somewhere inside."
The entire yard was ringed by a high perimeter wall that separated it from the few structures in this section of the settlement's outskirts. A single-story shack, which resembled the surrounding dwellings, stood as the vestibule between the street outside and the compiled scrap. It was a safe assumption the structure was the office and perhaps the residence of the yard's proprietor.
Songh sprinted to the rear entrance. She pulled a magnetic breeching charge from her belt, affixed it to the door, and stepped out of the blast radius. A contained detonation removed the door from its frame and created an opening. The shop's illuminators were out and cloaked the interior in darkness. Activating her headlamp, Songh scanned from side to side. The cramped shop was lined with rows of shelves, each overflowed with piles of smaller components and parts not able to be left outside. Only one familiar with the nature of this establishment could make sense of the organization.
There was a crudely built countertop against wall nearest the entrance from the street. The spilled mug of caf, steam still trailed upwards, suggested it had not been abandoned for long. Songh touched a key on her vambrace for the thermal imaging display within her helmet. A glowing object radiated from a crawlspace located directly beneath the counter. Songh kicked aside a crumpled-up rug to reveal a small hatch. She stomped her heavy boot several times against the durasteel hatchway to make her presence known.
"Open up and I won't hurt you," Songh ordered. "I will give you to the count of three. If I have to come in there, this won't end well for you."
Nervous seconds ticked, as far-off blasters and explosions interrupted the stillness. Then there was a pronounced click and the hatch receded by means of a powered mechanism. Shining her light inside the blackened crawlspace, Songh observed the distressed Rodian shopkeeper cowering within.
"Climb up here slowly, and keep your hands where I can see them," Songh barked, training one pistol on the Rodian, while holstering the other to free up a hand.
"Please…please, don't shoot," the Rodian anxiously stuttered.
Making his way up the ladder to exit the crawlspace, the Rodian's upper body emerged. Songh grasped the shopkeeper and forcefully hauled him the rest of the way out. She slammed his head into the counter and held it in place with her left hand while pressing the muzzle of the pistol into the Rodian's back.
"Please, take whatever you want," the Rodian pleaded. "I don't have many credits, but I…I can get more. Or spice? I know someone in town. I can get you spice. Is that what yo…"
Songh lifted the Rodian by the back of his shirt collar and smashed his head back down again. It had the desired effect and the Rodian immediately stopped talking.
"I need a hyperdrive transfer coupling," Songh began. "Rated for 0.85. You have one of those on your lot?"
The Rodian nodded.
"Y…yes, yes," he said nervously. "Back left quadrant of the yard. There's a row of cargo pods. Couplers are in the third and fourth ones."
"Then we're going to take a walk and you're going to show me," Songh hissed in response.
Songh pulled the Rodian shopkeeper to his feet and shoved him forward. All the while, she maintained a solid grip on the shopkeeper's collar to prevent the terrified being from making an escape. They exited the shop building through the blasted opening and were in the yard. Haurn approached at a quickened pace and braced against a pile of scrap that offered suitable cover, waving a hand to Songh to do the same.
"What's the problem!?" Songh inquired at a shout.
"That!" replied Haurn with a finger pointed to the sky.
Three Imperial LAAT/le gunships zoomed overhead and swiftly altered their flightpath to an overwatch patrol. The pilots spotted Tyl among the scrap. The Stormtroopers on the door guns swung their weapons around to target the lumbering Mandalorian.
Tyl shifted when he heard the gunships approach. The rotary cannon was already detached from his back and powered to a full charge. When the lead gunship turned to provide the door gunner a clear shot, Tyl opened fire. The bolts burst forth in rapid succession, as the barrels turned and unleashed its barrage. The weapon cut through the Stormtrooper on the door gun and shredded the seven others traveling in the troop compartment.
The rotary cannon's bolts were so numerous, so unyielding, they tore through the fuselage of the gunship. The pilots were too slow to evade the destructive blaster bolts. The gunship erupted into flames, as several flight critical components succumbed to the fusillade. The repulsor system failed and the gunship plummeted to the ground in a hulk of twisted metal.
No respite was offered for Tyl, as the second gunship came about. The pilot lined up the gunship's forward laser canons and unleashed the full fury of the weapons onto the ground below. The bolts tore open chunks of the dirt from the ground and penetrated through the piles of junked craft.
The gunships presented a complication for the Mandalorians. There would be no way to secure the replacement components if the Imperials held air superiority. Pressing her hand to the Rodian's back and forcing him to run bent over at the waist, Songh guided the shopkeeper over to a flatbed repulsor sled parked a few meters away. Just before reaching the sled, the pair had to conceal themselves behind a low barrier, as a salvo of blaster bolts were fired at them from the third gunship.
"A little help!?" Songh shouted over to Haurn, who was in her line of sight.
"Make a run to the sled," Haurn replied, hoisting Adenn's disruptor to her chest. "I'll keep you covered."
"How!?"
"Will you just shut up and trust me!"
Heeding the command, Songh again pulled the shopkeeper to his feet and shoved him forward. A door gunner aboard the LAAT/le spotted the pair moving quickly and swung the side mounted E-WEB repeating blaster to a position to gun them down. Haurn sighted the gunner through the electro-scope affixed to the disintegrator. The Mandalorian marksman had her shot and squeezed the trigger.
To the horror of the crew and Stormtroopers aboard, the gunner dematerialized before them in a fast-consuming energy burst. Haurn pulled the bolt action of the weapon back, which ejected the spent cartridge. Immediately, she slid one of the spares into the breach and released the catch to drive the spring-loaded bolt forward. Charged with another round, Haurn fired on the next Imperial foolish enough to make a grab for the E-WEB. They too disintegrated in front of their comrades. The pilot of the gunship took the hint by the last casualty and abruptly moved the gunship out of the perceived sniper's line of sight.
The repulsor sled featured a cargo flatbed with a small driver's seat at the front. Songh forced the shopkeeper into the driver's seat while she climbed into the flatbed behind, the barrel of her blaster pressed to his head. She ordered the Rodian to drive to the pods. Haurn jumped onto the rear of the sled, with the disintegrator aimed skyward, hunting the next target.
The Rodian shook with terror, as he engaged the sled's forward drive. The vehicle sped off into the labyrinth of piled scrap. The Imperial gunships came around for another pass, but they did not engage in a strafing run to attack the ground targets. Rather, they each selected a cleared area large enough to accommodate their craft. Flying in low, hovering at just a meter, they deployed their Stormtrooper contingent. With twenty Stormtroopers on the ground, the gunships returned to their overhead station.
The Stormtroopers spread out through the wrecked hulks in tactical formation, their weapons trained and guided by the gunships above. Taking a corner quickly in the direction of the pods, the Rodian piloted the sled into an avenue overrun by Imperials. The Stormtroopers peppered the sled. The blaster bolts instantly cut down the Rodian shopkeeper, who fell from the driver's seat, dead. Songh rolled over to brace herself against the small lip that ran around the flatbed of the repulsor sled, which kept loose cargo from shifting. She leveled her blaster and returned fire on the Stormtroopers, killing three of their number. Haurn ducked behind the flatbed's rear fender. Bolts from the Stormtroopers raked the side of the sled, eating their way through its composition. Tyl was nowhere to be seen. Haurn found she could not reach him through the comms, suspecting the Imperials were jamming via one of the gunships.
Their options appeared to be running out. A gunship flew overhead, its gunner firing the mounted E-WEB. Songh, forced to leap from the sled, escaped its destructive onslaught. While jumping from the flatbed, a chance bolt fired from a Stormtrooper's E-11 caught Songh in a gap between her beskar armor, just behind her knee cap.
The shot was incapacitating, rendering Songh unable to stand. She did her best to muffle a scream, biting into her cheek until her mouth filled with blood. Haurn saw her fellow Mando'ade slam into the ground. The inability to stand properly caused a harder impact than expected. Haurn crawled over to the wounded Songh and sat her against the wrecked sled.
Bolts pinged against the flatbed, stopped by what remained of the nonfunctional repulsor vehicle. Haurn raised herself slightly, swapped in the E-11 slung at her side, and fired at a group of advancing Stormtroopers. She killed one and wounded another before they broke off their advance, covering behind a nearby scrap heap. Satisfied she checked this advance, Haurn knelt to examine the extent of Songh's injury.
"Let me take a look at that," Haurn said, ripping away the torn fabric around the wound.
"It hurts like a bitch," Songh cursed. "How bad is it?"
Haurn made a cursory examination of the damage inflicted. The bolt burned through a sizable portion of Songh's right knee, leaving only a small strand of muscle, ligament, and skin attaching the leg. Quickly, Haurn pulled a small tube of bacta spray from a belt pouch and applied it to the wound.
"It's a leg, probably," Haurn answered, as she sprayed the bacta. "Unless this bacta works and that med droid aboard the Orress can work quickly enough to restore the damage. That is, if Lenk fixed the droid's motivator."
"When we get out of this," Songh muttered. "I'm going to kill Adenn."
They both laughed at the mutual sentiment. A thermal detonator landed at their feet, interrupting the joviality. The spherical explosive blinked several times. Reacting quickly, Haurn scooped it up and instantaneously hurled it back. The thermal detonator exploded in mid-air, as Haurn felt relieved and resumed picking off Imperials with her E-11.
The hulk of a YT-1300 freighter lay partially disassembled on the right flank of the Stormtroopers. Haurn blazed away furiously to keep the Imperials at bay. Racing to the sounds of the blasters, Tyl activated his jetpack and boosted himself over the aisles of scrap. He used his jump jets sparingly, as they also fed power to his rotary blaster cannon. One final jump, Tyl planted his boots on the hull of the YT-1300. A gunship overhead strafed the area with a heavy fire from its E-WEB, forced Songh and Haurn to keep their heads down. The Stormtroopers brazenly emerged from their concealment to fire on the Mandalorian position. The Imperials had them pinned down and vastly outgunned.
Tyl remained unnoticed, arrayed himself atop the freighter's hull. Wielding the rotary blaster cannon, Tyl pummeled the exposed Stormtroopers. The rapidly discharged bolts tore through the Imperial ranks, downing five or six by Tyl's count. From confusion and panic, their flank under attack, the Stormtroopers shifted their attention. The gunships turned to face this Mandalorian with the heavy weapon.
The distraction was enough to let Haurn make her move. She passed the disintegrator to Songh and pulled a magnetic thermal detonator from the clasp on her bandolier. Firing up her jetpack, Haurn launched upwards and toward one of the gunships. The gunship turned; its gunner sighted the E-WEB on Tyl. At that moment, the gunship's pilots spotted the hovering Mandalorian.
Haurn locked eyes with the pilots. The pilots jerked the controls and move their gunship out of the way. Haurn was faster, throwing her thermal detonator. The detonator magnetized itself to the transparisteel windscreen. The explosion engulfed the cockpit in a fiery inferno. The pilot and co-pilot dead, the gunship rapidly fell from the sky and collided with a tower of stacked ARC-170 fighters. Haurn turned and readied for another detonator to destroy the last gunship. The wary gunship pilot accelerated their craft to escape from the combat zone. Haurn wound up her arm to throw the charge when a blaster bolt caught her in the beskar cuirass.
The shot, though stopped by the armor, spun Haurn from the force of the impact. It nearly knocked her from the sky when a second bolt struck her jetpack and destroyed the number two thruster. With insufficient thrust to remain airborne, Haurn plummeted rapidly to the ground.
The landing site was not ideal, as Haurn fell upon the dorsal section of the YT-1300, only a short distance from Tyl. There was a thin antenna, less than a meter in length that jutted upwards from the derelict freighter. Haurn struck the hull, the antenna impaling her gut just above her left hip. The pain was excruciating. She tried to get up but found herself immobilized. Haurn supported her upper body with her hands, pressed down on her right knee to take some weight from the pierced side. The blood stained the legs of her flight suit and pooled beneath her on the hull.
Tyl rushed over to where his wounded comrade struggled with the thin antenna protruding out of her lower back. He bent down to examine the extent of the injury and render what assistance he could. Haurn tried to pry herself loose, an effort that could only do more harm than good. Tyl placed a hand on her to stop, as there was a barbed tip at the end of the antenna. The barb could easily rip away a significant section of flesh. The situation was further complicated when the gunship returned for another pass.
The Imperial LAAT/le lined up for an attack run. The pilot aligned the forward cannons for the killing shot. Tyl looked back towards the charging gunship. His rotary blaster lay at his feet, its power running low. The weapon would need several seconds to spin up. Crucial seconds both he and Haurn knew they did not have. They prepared themselves to meet the warrior's fate. Tyl grasped Haurn with his right hand and pointed the launcher on his left vambrace at the gunship. He knew it lacked sufficient ordinance to take down a LAAT/le, but it was better than nothing.
An explosion tore through the air. The gunship bursting into flames with burning slag descending onto the remaining Stormtroopers. Laser cannon shots rang out, blasting apart the ground where the Imperials stood. The destruction was so intense and consuming; it was doubtful anything could survive. Tyl and Haurn looked up to see a low flying U-Wing race over their heads.
"I got our ride," the voice of Adenn sounded over the formerly jammed comm channel. "Looks like you ran into some shit."
"That's an understatement," replied Tyl. "Land nearby and grab a med pack if that Rebel ship has one onboard. We have wounded here."
"How bad?"
"Songh's got her leg damn near blown off," Haurn cut in. "No thanks to you!"
"No thanks to me? Hey Duchess, I just saved your ass from the Imp gunship. That's another one I can add to your ever-growing tab!"
"Songh is behind the repulsor sled," Tyl broke into the conversation. "From the sound of it, I don't think she can move. Get a bacta patch for her leg if you can find one. Haurn here skewered herself on an antenna. I'll cut her out and get her aboard. You get Songh."
"Jate."
Adenn banked the U-Wing into a hard one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn. Activating the S-foil control, he guided the dropship in for a landing using the repulsor lifts. The landing gear extended, the craft touched down in the wide aisle between the destroyed sled and dismantled YT-1300 where so many Stormtroopers had fallen. Adenn pulled the medical kit affixed to the bulkhead and stepped out of the port side door.
To his left, movement. A Stormtrooper he missed leapt to their feet. They did not appear to have any fight left and took off running away from the scene upon spotting a Mandalorian. The fewer witnesses to report actions of the Mandalorians the better, especially in these trying times. Pulling the WESTAR-35 blaster from his holster, Adenn squeezed off a bolt. It struck the Stormtrooper in the back, knocked the Imperial to the ground.
Tyl examined the point where the antenna connected to the freighter's hull. He placed a hand at its base and gave a light tug to judge the tension. There was no way to detach it from the hull without risking serious injury to Haurn. He regretted not having a laser drill, which could easily cut the antenna free.
"You don't happen to have a cutter with you?" Tyl asked Haurn.
"I did," Haurn sighed. "It was in the utility bag on my swoop bike."
Unable to conceal a brief chuckle at the predicament, Tyl stood up to study the antenna's point and where it protruded out from Haurn's back. He wrapped his right hand around the barbed end and positioned his left just below for leverage.
"Hold still and it won't hurt as bad," Tyl cautioned.
Before Haurn could respond with an inquiry as to what was happening, Tyl snapped the barbed point off with his hands. The antenna was steadied enough that reverberations did not aggravate the puncture wound. Placing his arms around Haurn, Tyl helped slowly guide her up and off the antenna. She was free from the impalement and immediately the blood began to seep out in a greater quantity. Retrieving the bacta spray canister from Haurn's belt kit, Tyl went to work applying the regenerative substance to the entry and exit perforation.
Adenn crouched next to Songh; her shattered knee splayed about. The wound only partially cauterized by the blaster bolt, it was draining blood rapidly and soaking the soil a dark red hue. Songh remained calm, stoic even, as Adenn applied a bacta patch from the medical kit to encase the affected knee. It took several moments before the patch was effectively applied and the wound covered. Right away he knew this would cost Songh her leg. Even when they got her back to the medical droid aboard the Orress, and yes, he had replaced the motivator, the damage was too severe.
Leaning over to get a hand around her back to lift her, Adenn felt a vibro-blade placed against his throat. Songh held the blade outstretched with one hand and grasped the back of his helmet with the other.
"Gar cuy utreekov," Songh cursed him, enraged at everything that was going wrong.
"Udesii!" Adenn sharply replied. "Gar ori'narseryc? K'atini!"
Songh did not appreciate the inference in Adenn's words, but she understood what he meant. It was a reminder to toughen up and endure the pain. She did not cower in the face of the opposition and carried out her duty with honor. Glowering about the predicament would be of no benefit to her or her Mando'ade. Songh lowered the blade and put her own arm around Adenn's shoulder for a better hold, as he lifted her up.
An eerie quiet fell over the junkyard from the cessation of hostilities in this section of the warzone. Tyl and Haurn arrived at the U-Wing, as Adenn approached with an immobilized Songh carried in his arms. Haurn was able to walk on her own, but clutched the puncture wound in her gut. Every step she took was agonizing, as the movements shot bursts of pain throughout her body.
Tyl's armor was blackened from extensive carbon scoring. He had borne the brunt of a full salvo of automatic blaster fire from a Stormtrooper with a T-21. The beskar did its job and absorbed every bolt that impacted. The elder Mandalorian concealed a sizeable gash near his left elbow where a section of shrapnel imbedded itself deep in the flesh. Having tied off the laceration with a strip of cloth. It was in Tyl's nature not to draw attention to himself, least of all an injury.
Adenn helped Songh aboard and strapped her into one of the jump seats that lined the center of the passenger compartment, elevated her leg on a section of bench to keep it still. Haurn bit her lip to endure the pain in her gut, as she took an agonizing step into the U-Wing and moved toward the cockpit to take the co-pilot's seat. Adenn waited as Tyl boarded next, observing the red soaked cloth wrapped around the elder's left arm.
"Let me get a look at that," Adenn said, as he made a grab for the wounded arm.
"It's nothing," grunted Tyl, batting the hand away.
"You stubborn ruug'la jag!"
"Copaani mirshmure'cye, vod?" Tyl threatened.
"Gar shuk meh kyrayc!" Adenn responded, genuinely concerned.
The remark went unheeded, as Tyl knelt beside Songh to check the bacta patch and ensure it was properly administering the medicinal substance. Shaking his head out of frustration, Adenn made his way to take his seat at the pilot's station.
"Junker who owns the place says the couplings are in the pods lining the back left quadrant of the yard," Songh yelled up to Adenn in the cockpit.
"Got it," said Adenn, pulling back on the throttle.
Soon, the U-Wing hovered above the line of pods. Adenn engaged the repulsor lifts to keep the craft airborne and the controls in the care of Haurn. She knew enough about flying to handle stationary flight. The pod required a quick glance, there was no need to land the U-Wing. Engaging his jetpack, Adenn stepped from the open door of the passenger compartment and used the pack's thrusters to arrest his descent.
Opening the door of the closest pod, Adenn activated the headlamp on his helmet and passed the beam through the interior. There were pallets inside stacked to the ceiling with coils of hyperdrive transfer couplings. He reached out a hand to one nearest the door and scanned the inscription. It was a Kuat Drive Yards make.
A manifest was attached to this stack of couplings. His curiosity piqued; Adenn pulled up the holo document for a brief examination. The pod was not a collection of spare parts the junker compiles as stock. Rather, it was a cargo bound for an Imperial shipyard that had presumably been intercepted and never made it to the recipient. Adenn considered the options; the intact shipment could benefit the Tribe.
"Sonya," Adenn comm'd Haurn. "Activate the U-Wing's mag-clamps. We're taking the whole pod."
"You're serious?" Haurn responded, perplexed. "Where is the clamp control on a U-Wing?"
"Green and white striped lever on the center console. That extends the clamps, press the button on the lever to magnetize."
"Elek!"
Haurn carefully maneuvered the U-Wing over the pod, relying on the transparent lower canopy to see below. Following the instructions, she pulled the controls that extended the magnetic clamps. The clamps were two rectangular components that protracted from the ventral hull. Once over the indicated lift points on the pod, the autopilot helped fine tune the alignment, Haurn activated the magnets, and the cargo was locked.
A TIE Fighter dashed by in a low flying pass. Two X-Wings in pursuit fired their wingtip mounted cannons. Stray beams fired from the X-Wings struck the ground and piles of scrap in the junkyard, blasting the stacks apart in areas. Fortunately for the Mandalorians in the hijacked U-Wing, the New Republic pilots were too preoccupied to question why one of their own craft was outside of the general engagement area picking up a cargo pod.
The comm channel of the U-Wing was abuzz with New Republic chatter. Adenn used his jetpack boost to propel himself upwards to reboard the dropship. He detached the pack and was settling into the pilot's seat to engage the forward flight. The S-foils locked; the U-Wing shot off toward the Orress. They could finally leave this forsaken rock.
"Kack," Adenn paged one of the brothers who remained on the freighter.
"Me'copaani?" the heavily accented voice of Kack responded in Mando'a.
"We're coming in with the parts, plus a large cargo pod we're taking as spoils. And have Ikan wake TB-202 to prep a med-bed. Songh got banged up pretty good…"
Adenn muted the comm and turned to Haurn.
"You sure you don't want to see the droid?" Adenn asked.
"I'll live," Haurn responded, folding her arms across her chest in her typical manner.
"Just the one bed for Songh," Adenn spoke again over the comm.
"Understood," came Kack's response. "I'll get the holding cage folded up. We talking standard pod size?"
"Yep, GR-75 standard."
"I'll make room."
"Elek, we're about fifteen out."
The Orress soon came into view in the abandoned mining site where they initially touched down. Kack was outside the loading ramp, extending the magnetic lifts that ran on rails attached to the ceiling of the cargo hold. The rails extended from the interior of the freighter to pick up large containers. Adenn maneuvered the U-Wing and released the cargo pod in front of the bow, then reversed the dropship to land just behind. The clamps from the Orress positioned over the pod, energized, and retracted into the hull with the pod in its grasp.
Ikan emerged once the pod cleared the ramp, pushed the hovering medical bed to the side door of the U-Wing. Tyl and Ikan gently transferred Songh, then sent the patient to the waiting TB-202. Adenn stepped out with Haurn. Taking a final look at the U-Wing, he could not help but admire the resilient craft. The dropship handled quite nicely and a fleet of them in Mandalorian service could prove useful.
Adenn nodded to Haurn and she back. Each pulled a thermal detonator from their belts, armed the delayed timer, and tossed them into the passenger compartment. Their last view, as the loading ramp of the Orress closed, was the contained explosion tearing through the U-Wing's interior, effectively destroying the craft.
The surgical droid attended Songh; she waved Adenn off when he tried to offer a word of sympathy. TB-202 was the abbreviated designation for the 2-B1 surgical droid Adenn procured for the Orress. The droid could amputate the remaining section of the shattered leg, treat the wound, and prepare the tissue to be fitted with an artificial limb. The armorers within the Tribe could fabricate a suitable prosthesis that would not interfere with Songh's combat effectiveness.
While the droid went to work, Adenn opened the cargo pod. With their combined help, Adenn, Tyl, Kack, and Ikan freed a transfer coupling from a pile two pallets from the pod's opening. It was a perfect fit to accommodate the Class 0.85 hyperdrive of the Orress, the cable rated for 0.6 drives.
They enlisted the two ASP-7 labor droids assigned to the Orress to convey the heavy transfer coupling from the cargo pod to the engineering compartment, as the coupling itself weighed over four hundred kilograms. Tyl remained by Songh, as the surgical droid did what it could for the leg. Adenn left the brothers to supervise the droids while he climbed the access ladder to the cockpit.
Haurn was already waiting in the copilot seat, engaging the sublight engine startup while pulling off the bandage from where she was impaled to redress it. Adenn entered and sat down in the pilot's chair. The engines throttled, repulsors gently raised the freighter off the ground. Nose up, the Orress shot into the sky once the thrusters engaged.
The battle for Scaisum IV engulfed the region. The freighter's comm/scan array picked up significant fleet activity, a task force of Star Destroyers engaged a flotilla of New Republic cruisers in orbit of the planet. Adenn piloted the Orress over the continent and away from the fighting, crossed to supersonic. Over the southern pole, with no chance of traversing the running space battle of the opposing fleets, the Orress climbed to an escape velocity.
Leaving the orbit of Scaisum IV and traveling toward the large star of Scaisum, Adenn shut off the engines and allowed the Orress to drift. Rigged for low power running, the freighter operated with minimum life support systems to reduce their signature. The Orress would appear as useless space junk on any comm/scan. The star's gravity captured the freighter and pulled it along, away from the naval engagement. This allowed Adenn to travel back to the engine compartment and oversee the transfer coupling's installation.
The process took two hours to complete. Much of the time was split between detaching the bolts from the old coupling and testing the power regulation flow of the replacement. Satisfied, Adenn was once again on the bridge and plotting the hyperspace jump. Moments later, the Orress left the battle in its wake, as the freighter slipped into hyperspace.
Their course required a series of expertly calculated jumps. Their final destination was, out of necessity, difficult to reach and a well-guarded secret. A ship had to navigate a series of poorly charted hyperspace lanes through navigational hazards most captains would rather avoid. The Mandalorian crews safeguarded the navicomputers on their vessels, the first item destroyed if the order to scuttle was issued.
"War criminal?" Adenn said to a resting Haurn.
She turned towards Adenn, scowling at him behind the cover of her Mandalorian helmet.
"That Rebel Captain in the cantina," Adenn continued. "Said you were a 'war criminal' when he ID'd our chaincodes."
"We paid a lot of credits to those slicers on Canto Bight," Haurn abruptly shifted the conversation. "They were supposed to remove our chaincodes from every identification database in the Galaxy."
"Guess they weren't thorough enough."
"Guess not. If we ever make it back to Canto Bight, I'm going to strangle them. Call it a customer satisfaction review."
Adenn laughed at her reply. Even Haurn cracked a half smile. Her thoughts traced back to the time spent in the Imperial Military. It was a long time ago, a painful part of her past she did not like to reminisce. The death of her close friend haunted her in the years since.
"So, you want to know about Mimban?" Haurn uttered, her gaze affixed to the hyperspace void. "You ever see a Mimbanese?"
"Can't say I have," Adenn responded.
"And you never will, thanks to us. I did five consecutive tours of duty in those trenches. When we weren't engaged in suicidal frontal assaults or having our lines overrun, we were going through their villages. It was search and destroy at first, we'd go in looking for a weapons cache or villagers harboring combatants. After a while, command gave us extermination orders. We just gunned everyone down, didn't even bother checking for contraband. This was going on planet wide; the Empire hunted their species to near extinction."
"Not unlike what they did to Mandalore?"
"Mimban was messy. They learned from their mistakes when enacting the Purge. I can only assume the New Republic is matching Mimban deployments against Imperial service records. Anyone who was there gets tagged as a war criminal."
Haurn maintained her transfixed view beyond the cockpit window. Adenn felt sorry for evoking the memory and placed a sympathetic hand on her shoulder.
"You lost something more significant there?" asked a somber Adenn.
The cockpit was silent, except for the hum and pings from the ship's flight equipment operating normally. The flashes of the brutal trench warfare raced through Haurn's mind. The bloody hand to hand slaughter in the appalling conditions, having to survive in the squalor caused by the inhospitable planet. A final vision, finding his lifeless body collapsed in the mud.
"He and I were…close," Haurn replied, taking a pause to collect her words. "Damn fool, actually believed in the Empire, thought it was improving the Galaxy. He never lost sight of that. We served since the beginning and made it through just about every scrap together. Days before we finished our deployment, he bought it, some stray bolt. After that, I couldn't stay. First chance I got, jumped a resupply transport and drifted to the Outer Rim."
"That battered E-11," Adenn stared, adding reverence to his tone. "It was his?"
Haurn only returned with an affirmative nod. Hours passed and she did not utter a word. Adenn decided not to press her further, he figured she had fallen asleep when she slumped awkwardly in the chair. They had all been up for hours with little rest, having also fought their way off Scaisum IV. With nearly twelve standard hours left in their journey, the hyperdrive functioning normally, and no issues to report, the Mandalorian crew could afford a well needed respite.
000
Adenn had his family aboard the frigate and watched it disappear into the night sky. The crowd, left behind in the hangar, was a wave of emotion. Some desperately made for other points of the space port in hopes of finding a waiting transports to spirit them off this nightmarish Moon. Others wept, resigning themselves to hopelessness that they would not escape Concordia and would likely meet their fate soon. Adenn did not bother with them, rather, he made his way from the hangar to where he parked the family's airspeeder that brought them here from their estate house.
Accessing the luggage compartment of the airspeeder, Adenn opened the large metallic trunk within. The trunk held his personal suit of beskar armor, helmet, cuirass, pauldrons, vambraces, and jetpack. Hastily, he donned the protective armor and slid the helmet to conceal his face. The family safely off Concordia, Adenn abandoned the airspeeder, for the more agile and faster jetpack, to escape the Capital. He fired the pack's jets and was airborne.
Out in the country, he could hear the bombardment echo in the distance. The escape went unnoticed, as he made his way to the secluded research facility of Adenn Astronautics. Two armored Mandalorians stood guard at the gated entrance to an underground tunnel, the fellow members of Clan Adenn. The facility was built in the cavernous void of a played out beskar mine. The deep vein in the ground served well to conceal it from outsiders. Within, the extant of Adenn Astronautics weapons developments were housed. This included satellite relays to receive real-time data from the test underway aboard the Thorn.
The guards recognized Lenk Adenn, their fellow Clan member through his armor, and permitted his entry. Through the gate, he boarded the mine's repurposed freight turbolift and quickly descended to the depths of the main facility. Everything was in a blur, the planet, the moon, the rest of Mandalorian Space, under attack. The day started like any other and in a matter of hours, an entire way of life was destroyed. Millions were already dead, and there would be more before the Empire was finished. It was a burden that weight heavily on the young man. Things were never going to be the same. Adenn tried to focus his mind on the rehearsed contingency plan. His family was off Concordia at least.
The lift doors opened into a small rock hollow with a heavy beskar clad door blocking access to the opposite side. An armored Mandalorian warrior manned an encased sentry post and provided Adenn with a nod of acknowledgement. With the input of an authorization code, the heavy door began to retract to permit entry.
The door led to a corridor that ran the ring around the facility. At its center was a massive cavern the stretched upwards for hundreds of meters. It was all exposed rock that had been excavated over the centuries in the mining of the valuable beskar. The corridor had panes of transparisteel to allow those traversing to see below. Several control rooms and engineering labs were built into the sides of the cavern, all connected by the corridor. On a landing pad in one area of the central floor, the Orress fueled in preparation for launch. Three Q-Carrier transports were readied on an adjacent pad.
Adenn turned to the right and quickly made his way down the corridor to the main control room. The scene was chaotic, as staff feverously worked to destroy as many data servers and processing terminals as quickly as possible. Others pulled on their armor, tightened belts, and fitted helmets. Blasters and carbines were handed out from an armory cabinet. One of the Mandalorians, already in their armor with a helmet tucked under his arm, recognized Adenn.
"Lenk, glad you made it here safe," the Mandalorian said.
"Likewise, Voth," replied Adenn. "How bad?"
"Bad. They've hit Sundari, Enceri, Bralsin, Norg Bral…heavy casualties. Their Base Delta Zero bombardments were more accurate than we predicted. TIE Bombers are finishing off what is left. Your father…"
Adenn paused to let the severity of the situation resonate. It was difficult to overcome the stress of the current plight of the Mandalorians. Those in the control room did their best to suppress what anxiety and fears they held, the time for despair, mourning, was not now. They maintained their focus and carried on with their duties. The Thorn was moved out of the system and safe, for the time being. The next phase of the operation was to destroy the research and technology at the facility. Crews were busy loading what they could salvage aboard the waiting freighter and transports for evacuation.
Enraged by the actions of the Mandalorians, the Empire arrived to ensure the Mando'ade would never again be able to menace the Galaxy with their unpredictable and warlike tendencies. The bombardment was not merely a strategic plan to cripple Mandalorian infrastructure, destroy their ability to perpetuate hostilities. This was a campaign of extermination. Every Mandalorian was an enemy of the Empire, and they were to be hunted down to the last.
"I heard," Adenn replied. "And the Thorn?"
"She jumped to the coordinates," said Voth. "When we confirmed the Imperial contacts on the scope."
Crorr Voth grunted, the tan skinned man had a prejudiced feel about him. His square face, a narrow nose, and dark eyes grimaced coldly through anyone opposite. Voth served Lenk's father as a trusted right-hand man, unquestioningly loyal to the Organization and the Clan. With the patriarch dead, his service now pledged to the primogeniture Adenn.
"How does the Empire keep an operation of this scale hidden?" Adenn speculated out loud, though the rest in the control room were just as dumbfounded.
"Our network failed us, allies abandoned us," replied a sardonic Voth. "Bo-Katan working with the Rebels invited it. You would think the Alliance spy network would've tipped us off. Who knows, they probably sat on the information, figure they could use this for their propaganda purposes."
"Any word from our Fleet?"
"Losing badly at the last report. The Imperials are bringing in ships faster than we can blast them apart. They have reserves, numbers, we don't."
Adenn slammed his fists down on a nearby workstation out of frustration. There was more to the conflict and as he matured, he would understand its complexity, the true nature. For now, their focus had to concern the project, the continuity of their people. One of the engineers approached Adenn and Voth with a small data card, outstretched. The engineer handed it to Voth, who stared at the card for several moments, before he turned to Adenn.
"There is still much to do," Voth said, embracing the young Adenn in the warrior's bond. "Honor your father by your actions today, do your duty to your Clan, and ensure there will be a tomorrow for Mandalorians."
Placed into Adenn's hand and covered up by Voth balling the fingers to form a tight grip, was the data card. Both knew the significance, everyone present was aware.
"Get to the Orress," Voth began. "Leave this Moon while you still can."
"Crorr, but you are coming as well," Adenn asked with an incredulous tone, succumbing to the anxiety caused by the burden thrust upon him. "I can't do this without you."
"I am afraid this is your path to walk now, young Lenk. You are more capable than you give yourself credit for. I know your father would be proud."
"My father," Adenn scoffed at the unpleasant recollection it invoked.
Voth grasped Adenn's wrist, who reciprocated in kind, and they held the warrior's embrace. It was a show of respect from one honorable Mandalorian to another.
"We cannot change the past," said Voth. "But what you do now will decide our future. I must remain behind and ensure there is nothing for the Empire to pillage. This is the way."
"This is the way," Adenn and all those in earshot responded in unison.
One final handshake and Adenn gave Voth a departing nod. Voth was a trusted friend of the family and Lenk would have preferred the mentorship in this trying time. The control room was cleared, and Adenn made for the fueling Orress with the retinue of Mandalorians. The facility was cleared of all personnel, the technicians, engineers, and even the security. They numbered around seventy, who all divided themselves among the freighter and three transports based on prior arrangements. Many desired to make the defense of the facility their last stand, to die with honor in the face of the enemy. The more sensible Voth convinced the staff their expertise would be needed in the days to come and senseless death would offer no advantage.
A waiting Ghax Tyl offered an outstretched hand to pull Lenk onto the extended boarding ramp of the freighter, Adenn being one of the last passengers to embark. The youth took one last look at the cavernous facility, at the obsession that consumed his father for so many years. The lone remaining Mandalorian, Voth, stared back from the viewports of the control room. He raised a farewell hand to bid the Mando'ade fortunate speed on their journey.
The cargo ramp retracted, and the seal locked with the hull. The pilots from the cockpit alerted the passengers aboard to ready themselves for takeoff and to brace for evasive maneuvers. Those aboard knew they were not yet safe. The Empire controlled the skies and were only deploying more TIE Fighters to Concordia to secure air/space superiority. Word spread the Imperials indiscriminately targeted ships and transports, as they fled the Mandalorian worlds. It would be a race to jump to hyperspace before being shot down or halted by an Interdictor.
Adenn did not say a word, as he took a seat in the cargo hold against the bulkhead. The center space was entirely consumed by pallets and crates of essential supplies, systems equipment, and weapons components, everything they could salvage from the effectively defunct Adenn Astronautics.
The concealed hangar door, camouflaged among the ridge that comprised the old mine's exterior, retracted. The opening large enough for a variety of Mandalorian built freighters to pass. Traveling swiftly, the Orress and her three Q-Carrier escorts, which comprise the last convoy off Concordia, made their way to orbit. The flight had not gone unnoticed. A shriek, a sudden roll to port threw unsecured passengers and cargo against the bulkhead, as a squadron of TIE Fighters blasted away at the formation.
Shaking his head after striking a loose cargo container, Adenn pulled himself to his feet. All around, the other Mando'ade did the same, or assisted comrades. He did not like the feeling of waiting helplessly in the cargo hold of the freighter, wanting to make himself useful. Instinctively, Adenn dashed for the cockpit, up the access ladder.
The flight crew appeared to have their hands full. The pilot wrestled vigorously with the flight controls to evade the Imperial fighters. The co-pilot regulated the engine power and reangled the deflector shields to protect the hull in vulnerable areas when they came under direct laser fire. The flight engineer at the tactical station worked at a desperate pace to identify and track the hostile targets, as they strafed the convoy.
Adenn was at the hatchway, wanting to enter and do what he could to assist, despite the fact there were no vacant stations for him to man. His presence would only hinder the focused, and overwhelmed flight crew. A hand grasped Adenn's shoulder. Surprised, he turned swiftly to see Tyl.
"You'll only get in the way here," Tyl said to the young Adenn. "The dorsal gunner turret needs a warrior to man that station."
There was no need to issue a reply, other than a nod to acknowledge. Adenn brushed passed Tyl and made his way to the gunner's turret. He traversed the length of the Orress along the top deck's footway to the station. Climbing inside, Adenn took a seat in the circular compartment topped with a transparisteel dome reinforced with girders connecting the panes. The gunner's seat featured an attached tactical display and rotated with the turret.
Once Adenn sat down, the seat elevated from the deck below into the turret. From this view, he spotted the Imperial fighters on their attack runs. The TIEs unleashed their bolts of green charged energy onto the Mandalorian ships. Adenn swung the turret around by depressing a rotation control pedal with his boot. An Imperial TIE locked in his sights. The targeting computers flashing the acquisition and aided by data forwarded from the cockpit tactical station. Adenn aligned the quad laser cannons mounted to the turret and squeezed the firing handle.
The overcharged yellow bolts shot from the barrels of the turret. The yellow hue caused by the increased energy fed to the tibanna gas during the ignition phase, inflicted more destruction upon impact when the bolt found its target. The first slew of bolts perforated the large panel of a maneuvering TIE, which foolishly exposed the solar collection array to its opponent. The craft exploded in an immense conflagration, as flaming scrap plummeted to the ground below.
Bolt after bolt let loose from the cannons mounted to the turret. Adenn managed to down three TIE Fighters, yet more converged on the convoy seemingly out of nowhere. A squadron of TIE Interceptors joined the fray. Their maneuverability gave them an advantage over the tracking systems onboard the Orress. Adenn tried his best to take manual control and spray the area with enough bolts to create a field of flak, but to no avail.
Shouts were heard over the Mandalorian communications channels. One of the Q-Carrier transports suffered critical damage, as the result of a coordinated Imperial strafing run. The transport was separated by the converging fire from the TIE Fighters and being blasted apart. The port thruster erupted into flames and the ability to remain airborne quickly diminished. The ship was lost.
Then a most peculiar sight, especially to those Imperial pilots in their TIEs. Hatches, escape panels, and the cargo ramp were thrown open. Armored Mandalorians, the passengers aboard the stricken Q-Carrier, crawled out and along the hull like insects escaping a drowning hive. One by one, they activated their jetpacks, as they let themselves fall away from the doomed transport.
The Imperial pilots paid them little mind after they shook off the initial consternation of the evacuation actions. None seemed to notice the Mandalorians under the powered flight of their packs return to the combat zone. A TIE pilot felt his craft shake, as a loud thud struck his hull. The sensor suite did not register an energy blast. Looking up, the pilot gasped in alarm. Holding on to the exterior canopy hatch was one of the Mandalorians who fled the transport.
The Mandalorian fired their grapple to ensure they could not be dislodged from the TIE Fighter and reached for a thermal detonator. Slamming the thermal detonator to the canopy, the pilot frantically jerked the flight controls in every direction, the Mandalorian detached the grappler and fell away until a safe distance to reignite their jetpack. Seconds passed, the TIE flying erratically, then a blast engulfed the cockpit suspended between the two arrays. Thick smoke trailed the wrecked fighter, as it too plummeted to the ground.
The scene played out in a similar fashion, with airborne Mandalorians grappling onto TIE Fighters to plant detonators. One by one, enemy craft fell from the sky. The Mandalorians and their small, maneuverable jetpacks made them extremely difficult for the Imperial pilots to counter. The only evasive action was to dive quickly away from the engagement. This cleared the way for the Mandalorian ships to make a break for orbit. And so, the survivors remained behind, fought a delaying action while their comrades escaped with the vital cargo.
The Orress was too heavy, too large a freighter to make the jump to hyperspace within the gravitational pull of Concordia. The freighter needed to get beyond the atmosphere before the jump could be executed. Having shaken off the squadron of TIE Fighters, they now had to contend with the Star Destroyers and Imperial light cruisers actively bombarding the Moon. The two Q-Carriers took up position on either side of the Orress, as they slipped beyond the atmosphere into the serene darkness of space.
The calm did not last more than a moment when the warning lights indicated the proximity of Imperial ships. Four escorting Arquitens-class light cruisers and an Interdictor-class cruiser broke from the main Imperial flotilla to engage the escaping Mandalorian formation.
The pilot of the Orress was desperate. The Interdictor activated its gravity generators to manipulate the gravitational forces within the proximity of the Moon. The mass shadow prohibited a hyperspace jump. The Orress and her escorts were trapped, unable to flee into hyperspace. Vastly outgunned by the superior firepower of the cruisers, there was no possibility they could hope to match their opponent. An honorable last stand would have been the final order, had they not been burdened with the project equipment and supplies vital to the future of the Mandalorian people.
Adenn understood, as he saw the situation take shape by the indications on the turret's targeting screen. He felt as those in the hold did, everyone onboard, frustration. They were prepared to make a stand and die fighting, but they knew the stakes if the cargo was lost. The Mandalorian pilots across the three remaining ships were in communication with each other. They prepared to fire their thrusters to maximum and run like hell. If only to escape out of the range of the Interdictor and its gravity projectors. The Q-Carrier pilots agreed to ram their craft into any Imperial if it would buy the Orress additional time.
The Imperial ships were in range, their turbolasers rotated toward their Mandalorian targets. The Mandalorian pilots called upon their thrusters, pushed them beyond the red-line output. An explosion accompanied by a bright flash illuminated the cockpit and bridge view screens of the ships from both sides. All manner of emergency alarms rang out on the bridges of the Imperial light cruisers, their crews scrambled to damage control stations. As the crews regained awareness and turned to their sensors, the true extent of the damage was revealed. The Imperial Interdictor cruiser split apart, the bow and stern sections slowly drifted in opposite directions. Cutting through the hull of the Imperial vessel was the immense prow of the Keldabe-class battleship, Kom'rk.
The Mandalorian Home Fleet was virtually annihilated following an ambush as it assembled in the Concord Dawn System. The few surviving Mandalorian ships, among them the Kom'rk, redeployed to protect evacuating transports, make a final stand protecting the Mandalorian people above Mandalore.
The Kom'rk was a capital ship of the Home Fleet dispatched to render what assistance it could to Concordia and had narrowly escaped the ambush. Withdrawing from the battle, the Kom'rk traversed through hyperspace and its navicomputer detected a mass shadow anomaly, just as they came within proximity of the Moon. The capital ship shuttered and was jolted from hyperspace, violently thrown back into realspace. The collision alarm sounded, and the helmsman tried to alter course, but it was too late.
The hull screeched and the impact threw nearly every crewmember to the deck. Systems blared, consoles overloaded, and small fires broke out on many of the forward decks. The Kom'rk was torn from hyperspace by the Imperial Interdictor. Through some twist of fate or influence of the Force, if anyone still believed in that archaic mysticism, the battleship'sreturn to realspace drove them right through the Interdictor cruiser, severing it in twain. Not a moment was lost, though the Kom'rk incurred damage to its bow, she remained combat ready. It was a welcome arrival for the Orress and her two escorts. The Interdictor was destroyed, the gravity generators could no longer inhibit hyperspace jumps.
Quickly the ships of the Mandalorian convoy prepared their calculations and readied for lightspeed. The Imperial light cruisers quickly reversed course to meet the new, and more immediate threat. The heavy turbolasers of the Kom'rk loosed a devastating broadside. The flashes of golden beams collided with the light cruisers. The complement of M3-A Scyk fighters launched swiftly from the hold of the battleship, ready to match the TIE Fighters hastily deploying from the nearby Star Destroyer.
Final glimpses caught by Adenn in the turret saw one light cruiser blasted apart from sustained fire and another founder, being heavily damaged. The battleship turned its focus on the Star Destroyer, as it launched a salvo from its mass driver missile tubes. The Orress jumped to hyperspace and lost sight of the battleship's last stand. The Kom'rk would not run, not from the space above Mandalore and Concordia. She would drain the last drop of energy to the turbolasers and ion cannons, fire every missile onboard. When those ran out, the order for ramming speed would be issued. There was no hope of victory in this fight, but they would meet death with honor. This is the way.
000
