Chapter 22: Sey'les
Antar 4
In the dark forests of Antar-4, a Republic Nu-Class shuttle descended, lowering to the ground to deploy Team Muun. After two days of eclipse, most of the moon's surface was well below freezing.
Sey'les and Team Muun, dressed in dark-blue cold weather jackets, with nighvision goggles affixed to their helmets, were about to disembark and proceed to their target on foot.
"Remember Agents," Captain Ozzel's voice suddenly came through the feed into Sey'les's ears. "You need to be fast, but not too fast. Stealth is key. The other team is depending on you not being spotted."
Sey'les's ears batted in annoyance, as if fending off annoying insects. The Bothan had almost forgotten Ozzel had assumed complete control of her mission. "Roger that, brisk tactical walk, got it everyone?"
"Solid copy," Weequi said.
"Copy that," Hashtivar said with a sigh of relief.
That little Chelidae is probably just happy he doesn't have to run, Sey'les scowled.
The other members of Team Muun nodded in acknowledgement.
The Bothan proceded out the door and looked in every direction. No heat signatures other than those from the transport. "Clear. Rally on me," she whispered into the comm.
The rest of Team Muun hopped out gingerly and walked up to her. Hashtivar fell in immediately behind her followed by Nor, F'laro, Weequi, and Wulf at the rear. Without another word, their transport ascended into the sky.
As Team Muun advanced towards their objective, the only heat signatures Sey'les could make out were her own team, the dim glows from the trees, and the thick puff of hot breath coming from her snout when she exhaled. Antar 4 had been in the eclipse of Antar for two days. Every region on the planet had cooled. It was now just a little above freezing temperature so there were not even any insects flying around.
Sey'les wished she could jog to warm up. However, they maintained their brisk walk through the night-time air. When Sey'les was growing up in a sub-polar region on Bothawui, she grew a thick winter coat and could have tolerated these temperatures. After years of living in the more temperate part of Bothawui while attending the Martial Academy, and then almost a decade on Coruscant, her fur never grew in quite as thickly.
Occasionally a member of her team would step on a large branch and it would snap loudly, making everyone nervous. There was no sign of a reaction however from anyone or anything.
A cold wet sensation hit her nose. She looked up; it had begun to snow lightly. After a few minutes, Sey'les's ears began feeling like they would freeze. "Anyone else need to put on a warm hat?" Sey'les asked, feeling guilty about not having covered her ears already.
"Yeah," Hashtivar said.
She felt foolish when she realised Wulf already wore his blue beanie under his helmet.
"Okay everyone, rally one me. Wulf keep a look out. Everyone else, put your warm hat on if you need it. Be quiet though," Sey'les instructed, taking her backpack off and opening it slowly. She pulled her blue beanie from the main pouch, lifted her NGVs from her eyes, took her helmet off, plopped the beanie on her head. That's better.
"Muun Leader?" Captain Ozzel said, adding, with a bit of dry humour: "Is everything all right down there? Our telemetry shows you have either removed your helmet or have been decapitated."
"Yes, sir. I just took off my helmet. No decapitations here. It is just colder than I was prepared for, sorry, sir, Muun Leader is putting on a hat," Sey'les admitted awkwardly, putting her helmet back on.
"Very well Muun Leader, don't tarry too long," Ozzel ordered in a huffy tone.
"Almost done sir," Sey'les whispered, waiting for Hashtivar to finish zipping his backpack up.
I should probably be a bit less harsh on them, Sey'les thought guiltily.
"All right, let's move," Sey'les whispered, then spoke into the comm again. "Hats are on, Muun is oscar mike."
Team Muun continued on without stopping. Eventually, they arrived at a clearing where the trees began thinning. Light from their target structure was visible from the second floor and third floor. The lowest floor, the one they were supposed to breach, had no windows. It looked like the scaffolding was more or less a series of ramps connecting to the second floor.
"Does that look suspicious to you Wulf?" Sey'les asked.
Wulf paused for a moment, then said, "Yep. That looks very suspicious. Now that I'm closer… I think whoever's inside enters from the second floor. The bottom floor looks deserted."
Sey'les scooted back behind the tree line with her team. "This is Muun Leader to Judicator Actual, over."
"This is Judicator Actual," Captain Ozzel's voice replied.
"I am requesting permission to breach the second floor."
"The second floor?!"
"Affirmative," Sey'les answered. "It's a long story but now that we are closer, my team and I agree that the occupants of the building probably aren't using the first floor to enter. It may be storage or even just abandoned. I think the building plans we have are outdated. If we actually want to hit the people inside, we need to hit them where they actually are."
"Muun Leader, perhaps we could do a compromise given the information you provided."
"A compromise sir?!" Sey'les asked in a shocked whisper. Her eyes went wide under her NGVs and her snout hung agape.
Wulf, Nor, and Weequi laughed in whispers.
"Compromise!" Hashtivar exclaimed. "I don't think Captain Ozzel knows what he is doing Sey'les," he whispered quietly after muting his mic.
What could Captain Ozzel possibly be talking about?
"A compromise," Ozzel repeated. "Rather than breaching the first floor loud as a distraction, enter it quietly and ascertain the situation as Team Aurek lands on the roof. Maintain communication with me of course. If it turns out our building plans are right, then sneak up the stairs as Team Aurek lands. I imagine the building could hold servers or something on the ground floor, servers which the occupants may be desperate to erase."
"So, Team Aurek will be the only loud breach now?" Sey'les growled nervously. Her fur flattened tightly into her body in fear.
"Correct. I will brief Team Aurek. My working plan is for Yellow-2 to deploy Team Aurek onto the roof and they will breach it loudly while you sneak in."
"Copy that Judicator Actual…" Sey'les croaked in an uncertain voice. Working plan?!
Team Muun sat in the bushes, waiting for Ozzel to give them the go ahead.
A few minutes later Captain Ozzel called back. "Team Muun, you are clear for a silent breach."
"All right move to the structure silently and form on me, Wulf, you scan the door," Sey'les ordered as she stepped into the clearing, Wulf alongside her. The light from the building was glowing in her infrared and the walls were dimmer.
This seems almost as stupid and spontaneous as Hrelduussk's plan.
Sey'les stood at the wall with Weequi, Nor, F'laro, and Hashtivar behind her each one with one hand on the other's back. Across the doorway Wulf was scanning the door for traps with a rod-shaped device.
Wulf passed the results on his readout across the door to Sey'les. "NO THREATS DETECTED."
All right. Sey'les pulled her demagnetiser out of her vest from the opposite pocket her door charges were in. She silently handed the demagnetiser to Wulf without saying a word.
Without saying a word, Wulf stuck the flat circular demagnetiser on the door. After five seconds the door seal unlocked itself and the demagnetiser fell onto the wet grass.
Sey'les moved her fist and tapped Weequi, who tapped Nor, who tapped F'laro, who tapped Hashtivar. Then Hashtivar tapped F'laro and the tapping went all the way down the team back to Sey'les. We're ready.
Cautiously pushing the door open, Sey'les ran to the right-side corner and then turned to the left, Weequi went to the left side corner and then turned right. All the corners in the entry are clear.
Sey'les moved into the next room and turned right again, Weequi turned left, Nor followed and Hashtivar followed Sey'les.
"All clear," Sey'les whispered.
"All clear," Weequi agreed.
"All clear," Wulf said, aiming his blaster into a closet inspecting a bit more closely.
"Jeeza geewaz." ["It is clear,"]F'laro said.
Sey'les started focusing more on the centre of the room. There were dozens of random old wooden desks. It looked almost like they were arranged in a way that forced whoever wanted to cross the room into the centre—almost forming walls. There was a staircase beyond the desks, not accessible from the corner Sey'les was standing in. A complex maze of pipes spanned the ceiling, but they looked like they transported liquids. This was certainly not a datacentre.
Team Muun regrouped towards the centre of the room where the desks formed a clearing to the stairs.
"All right Judicator Actual, we are in the building," Sey'les whispered.
"Very well, Team Aurek is clear to land."
Moments later, the ceiling began shaking as the Nu-Class Transport descended on the third floor.
Sey'les suddenly noticed a new light had turned on. The room suddenly began feeling hotter.
"Not clear," Sey'les whispered first and began edging towards the exit backwards. "We need to fall back."
Targeting lasers emitted from several walls, one aiming right into Sey'les's goggles.
Sey'les was the only one moving. She yelled to her team, "I SAY AGAIN NOT CLEAR."
"What is it is Muun Leader?!" Captain Ozzel's voice bellowed into the comm.
"NOT CLEAR! FALL BACK!" Sey'les yelped.
Wulf jumped on a desk climbed onto into the pipes above the lasers, "No time to fall back CLIMB!"
Sey'les climbed on the table under Wulf.
Wulf grabbed Sey'les with his upper two arms at his shoulders, then passed her feet to his lower two arms closer to his waist. He dangled Sey'les up upside down.
Sey'les's helmet nearly fell off. Blood rushed to her head. Sey'les adjusted her helmet straps, then grabbed Hashtivar who had just climbed onto the table, pulling him up. The Bothan struggled to get the Chelidae above the laser line.
Wulf reached down with his upper two arms and pulled Hashtivar up from Sey'les's grasp. Hashtivar and Sey'les were now both dangling under Wulf like parts of a chandelier, with Hashtivar dangling slightly lower.
Climbing was so far from Sey'les's instincts that she would have never thought of it. Wulf's idea made sense, however, even as she dangled upside down.
"CLIMB! EVERYONE CLIMB!" Sey'les yelped urgently.
Blasterfire began ringing out in the floors above them. Weequi and Nor jumped on two different desks struggling to get higher, but none of the short beings could reach the pipes or jump as high as Wulf had.
F'laro jumped onto the table Wulf, Sey'les, and Hashtivar had used and grabbed Hashtivar. He began trying to use Sey'les to climb higher screaming in Bocce. He was tugging out tuffs of Sey'les's fur in a panic.
Sey'les grabbed F'laro and tried pulling him up to her. She could get him in the air, but not above the laser line.
"I can't pull you all!" Wulf yelled in a panic.
"PASS US INTO THE PIPES!" Sey'les roared, but it was too late.
The lights from the lasers started to become blinding in Sey'les's night vision goggles.
A searing jet of plasma emerged from one of the lights in one of the corners and connected with Weequi and the desk he was on. The Ugnaught was cut in half and the desk burst into flames.
Nor screamed for a moment before another jet of plasma from another corner caught her, searing through her body diagonally like a lightsaber. Her armour vest shattered under the heat in a deafening crack louder than she had screamed.
A wave of plasma scorched horizontally through the entire room from a new bar of light extending from where the staircase ended, all the way to the opposite wall. Hashtivar's backpack, which was hanging very low, was hit directly by the plasma as it sliced into F'laro.
Sey'les screamed as the fire spread from her gloves to her sleeves, but she did not let go of F'laro.
F'laro's entire lower body vaporised. Sey'les let go as the flames spread to her more intensely and F'laro's lifeless torso fell into the fiery abyss.
The temperature in the room rose at least 80 degrees. Sey'les and Hashtivar screamed in terror and pain over Captain Ozzel yelling incomprehensibly into her comm. Sey'les could feel that some of her fur was on fire. I am going to burn to death!
To Sey'les's horror, Wulf let go of one of her legs and allowed her to swing precariously. He took his free arm, reached into his pack, and threw a smoke grenade into the blaze. The room was quickly blanketed the room in thick cool smoke which choked out some of the fire. Wulf dropped Sey'les and Hashtivar onto a burning table, then leapt down beside them.
Sey'les screamed and collapsed on her knees.
Hashtivar's shell was on fire and he screamed even louder.
Wulf leapt down, pulled his cold weather jacket off, and threw it onto Hashtivar's shell. The fire went out, but the jacket melted and sizzled.
"AAAHHHHHH!" Hashtivar screamed once more.
Sey'les let off another yell herself. Every breath felt like it was burning her. She began coughing and vomited. The room smelled horrifyingly like Nuna bacon. All she could smell was her breakfast. "AAAAHHHH!" she yelled herself, tears welling in her eyes. Her snout, face, neck, wrists, hands felt like they were on fire. No not 'like' they were on fire. They had been on fire. I am going to die. We are all dead. I am going to roast and smell like some food.
She felt a tug at on her backpack. She looked over and saw one of Wulf's Ardennian arms grab Hashtivar. Sey'les fell back onto her buttocks and allowed herself to be pulled. She could see only a meter in any direction through the smoke. The view in her NGVs was beginning to crackle and become staticky.
"MUUN LEADER! SEY'LES!" Ozzel's voice yelled into her earpiece, Sey'les was able to finally focus on it over the sound of her own screams. "We aren't getting any readings from F'laro, Weequi, or Nor! Your telemetry shows the air is nearly boiling temperature! GET THE KRIFF OUT OF THERE! TEAM AUREK GET THEM OUT OF THERE!" he bellowed.
The cold Antarian air engulfed her the moment Wulf pulled them through the doorway but all she could now see was "ERROR" in red letters on a black background. She ripped off her night vision goggles from her helmet, dropped them to the ground, and gazed around in shock.
It was now pouring down snow. Wulf collapsed in a slushy snow puddle and yelled in despair after laying Hashtivar and Sey'les next to each other.
Hashtivar was on his belly with his burnt back shell exposed through Wulf's melted rain jacket. It was still smoking.
Frantically, Sey'les began patting mud and slush onto her own fur. She got on her knees, grabbed a blob of mud and snow, and splashed it on Hashtivar's smoking shell. His shell had a hole in it where his backpack had burned away.
"I can't feel my legs…" he moaned.
"You're the medic, tell me what to do!" Sey'les ordered, starting to ruffle through her backpack for a few first aid supplies. Hashtivar's med kit had been vaporised.
Hashtivar moaned, saying nothing helpful.
Blasterfire was still going on in the house.
Sey'les thought of grabbing a blaster and aiming it at a window in case someone shot at her, but then realised she had dropped her blaster when she grabbed Hashtivar.
Wulf started angrily replying to Captain Ozzel in the comm. "This is Muun-2. COMPROMISE! Compromise? I've got a kriffing compromise for you Ozzel. I got Sey'les and Hashtivar out alive, with serious burns, Nor, Weequi, and F'laro dead—"
"Wulf!" Sey'les yelled with dread after looking in Wulf's direction. "Your face is on fire!"
"AAAHHHHH!" Wulf yelled in a panic and started splashing snow onto his face. His grey fur stopped smoking as he collapsed on the grass moaning.
"This is Muun Leader," Sey'les coughed. Then she growled, "to say we need immediate rescue is an understatement. Savit, Team Aurek, stay clear of the ground floor. It's a trap filled with plasma torches and lasers. Hashtivar is burned to a crisp but alive, Wulf and I are burned, Nor, F'laro—" Sey'les started sobbing as she noticed the Nuna bacon smell again, this time accompanied with a more generic smell of charred meat. She vomited in shock once more and lay in the grass dry heaving.
"Muun Leader? MUUN LEADER! SEY'LES?!" Captain Ozzel yelled again in a panic.
After Sey'les stopped dry heaving she yelled "KRIFF," in a throaty dying voice. "Give me a smoke grenade Wulf."
Wulf passed her one.
Gasping in pain as more of her skin and fur came off as she gripped the smoke grenade, Sey'les stood up and started concocting a plan. "Judicator Actual, I am going to fill the basement with smoke again and—" She stopped as all of the lights turned in the building off.
"Hold your position Muun Leader," Captian Ozzel said.
"That won't be necessary Sey'les," Savit's voice consoled. "Hold on tight. We have cut the power and are moving to your position to assist."
A door opened onto the scaffolding and six humans emerged from the building with their flashlights turned on.
Sey'les stood there holding a smoke grenade, snout hanging open, still torn between throwing the smoke grenade into the basement or waiting for Savit.
Cas gasped in shock as she got closer to Sey'les. "Sey'les sit down!" she urged, her med kit already out.
Sighing, Sey'les said "check on Hashtivar first," and pointed her singed muddy glove in his direction.
"KRIFF!" Cas yelled in shock as she walked up to Hashtivar.
Hashtivar began sobbing.
"Sey'les," Savit urged as he approached her. "Sit down please. You are injured. You can't go back in there."
"We need to get F'laro, Nor, Weequi and our lost equipment," Sey'les choked her words out.
Fenron and Savit each grabbed one of Sey'les's shoulders and forced her to sit down. "We'll get them, what exactly is the situation in there?"
"Plasma torches," Wulf moaned while lying in the grass. "There are plasma torches guided by lasers. Burnt desks. The lasers can be blocked by smoke. Hopefully when you cut the power you turned them off too."
Fenron, Savit, and Tonkins entered the smoky room. 30 seconds later Sey'les could hear Fenron dry heaving, then vomiting, then telling Savit and Tonkins he will be okay.
I wonder if humans can smell that too, she thought, then stopped herself as she felt like she may vomit again.
As Sey'les calmed down, she started to realise exactly how she had been injured. Every piece of her that was not covered in armour or a uniform was singed. Her sleeves had burned off up to her armpits and singed them too. Her boots and legs seemed to be fine. Sey'les looked at Cas, Rigel, and Archard fumbling around with Hashtivar.
"Hashtivar, can you speak?" Cas asked sternly. "I don't understand your anatomy. My instinct is just to put bacta on your shell, what should I do?"
"Ughhh…" Hashtivar moaned. "Put some on it. It couldn't do any harm," he groaned. "Also, please put some between my plastron and carapace. Hopefully, some Bacta will get in when I retract my arms."
"Plastron and Carapace?" Cas asked.
"He means his top and bottom shell," Sey'les groaned. She got up and started walking closer. Cas, Archard, and Rigel looked at Sey'les, clearly wondering whether or not she should be walking.
"I am sorry," Cas said as she wiped some cream on Hashtivar's little arms.
"The humans are just trying to help," Sey'les said, sitting down in the wet mix of slush and mud near Hashtivar. "They don't understand, it's okay though you just have to explain."
Hashtivar pulled his arms into his shell then plopped them back out. He laid his head on the muddy frosty slushy grass not saying a word.
Sey'les could hear two Nu-Class shuttles rotating around the building. One shone a spotlight on her and everyone in the grass. Snow fell through the sky, casting tiny shadows under the spotlight.
"Hashtivar, what hurts?" Cas asked.
"Medic to medic," Hashtivar started, "I am going to be crippled—"
"—I am sure they can find you a new shell" Cas replied consolingly.
"This isn't Voof the Chelidae Assassin Cas," Hashtivar said sharply. "That's not how it works. This is not a HoloCartoon. My spine is in my shell. They don't kriffing come off any more than your spine can. My spine is burned, and my ribs probably are too. Honestly, there is a good chance I am dead already but can't feel it."
"You're going to make it," Sey'les insisted sternly. "We aren't going to be doing that run around the Judicial Arcology, but you are going to survive." She wanted to pat Hashtivar's head but was afraid it might rub off his skin and cause more damage. Kriff. My own hands…
Rigel knelt next to Sey'les and began wiping a Bacta burn cream on her snout. "How do you feel Sey'les?" he asked.
"I got burned on everything that wasn't covered in uniform or armour," she said in a forced calm. "My armpits and snout hurt the—OUCH!" Sey'les yelped as Rigel smeared some burn cream directly on her nose. "OUCH!" she yelped again as the burning sensation became more intense.
"Sorry Sey'les!" Rigel said in a terrified voice.
"It's okay," Sey'les snarled. Her stood on end, no longer flat. "I need it. My nose is burned too. Just give me some warning. Human, imagine if I took two fingers covered in cream and just stuffed them in your nose without telling you I was going to."
"Sorry, I didn't know—"
"—I said it's okay," Sey'les sighed. "Thank you."
"No worries," he replied in a relieved voice and started putting globs on the other side of her snout.
Now all Sey'les could smell was the wheaty scent of Bacta. At least I won't have to smell them anymore, Sey'les thought, and then began crying once more.
Rigel took of Sey'les's gloves, globbed some onto her hands, and then wrapped her hands in thick layers of gauze.
Once her hands were bandaged, Sey'les grabbed her bag, pulled out her thick blue cold weather trench-coat and slipped it on. She grabbed a spare blanket out and dropped it on Hashtivar's back. That's better.
"Sey'les, could you take off your helmet?" Cas asked after she walked over. "I just want to make sure your head is alright."
Sey'les took off her helmet, took off her beanie, and hung her helmet from one of her canteens.
"Good, your ears and head look fine," Cas said as she shone a flashlight on them. "No burns there."
Sey'les wiped the tears out of her eyes with the sleeve of her trench-coat. She winced as she felt some fur and skin come off under the sleeve. That was a mistake.
"Rigel, could you help with my arms?" Sey'les asked sniffling, pulling up her trench-coat's sleeves.
"Sure Sey'les," he said and began applying burn cream to her arms.
"Wulf how are you doing?" Cas asked as she plopped down next to Wulf. Wulf began explaining everything that hurt. Cas took Wulf's four-armed blue trench-coat from his backpack and helped him put it on.
Savit, Fenron, and Tonkins emerged from the building carrying parts of her fallen team members. They all wore looks of horror on their faces before they turned to go back in.
Sey'les wanted to help, but she knew it would do no good. She was often frustrated by being ordered to hurry to a location and then sit around doing nothing. This was a new extreme. She and her team were burned and sitting around while two perfectly good ships orbited overhead.
On the third trip out, Savit emerged holding a pile of blasters. To Sey'les's amazement, hers was intact. "That's mine, thanks," she said, stretching out her bandaged hand.
Savit looked for a moment like it may not be a good idea to let Sey'les use her hands but handed it to her without saying a word. He looked completely haunted.
Sey'les stuffed her blaster in its holster and felt much better. Even though Sey'les had been burned, even though she had lost three beings under her command, she felt very guilty for having lost her blaster in combat. It was drilled into Judicials at the Academy to never lose one's blaster.
"Savit?" Sey'les asked.
"Yes?"
"Thanks for getting them out. I know it wasn't easy," she said sadly.
"It was necessary," he said simply. "You would have done the same in my position."
"Yeah," Sey'les croaked. She was finding it difficult not to growl. "What's going on Savit? Why are we still here?"
"Captain Ozzel says four unidentified ships started firing on the Judicator. We can't do much until the situation is resolved and the intelligence team is—"
"WHAT?!" Sey'les asked in shock. "Four ships? Like I reported to him on my after-action report yesterday, right?"
"This is the first I am hearing—" Savit started.
"—Kriffing Jedi…" Wulf yelled. His face was now covered in Bacta burn cream. "Suldor must have not told Captain Ozzel what we saw!"
Sey'les wrote about having seen the Gotal Assembly communicating with ships in orbit but Wulf was right. Suldor must not have told anyone. Captain Ozzel probably had not read her report yet.
"Savit?" Cas asked interrupting their conversation.
"Yes?"
"The longer we let Sey'les, Wulf, and Hashtivar sit in the cold mud down here, the greater the risk of infection. I would like to get them up to a transport even if the transport can't return to the Judicator immediately. Hashtivar is not even warm-blooded so there's a chance he may run into complications from how cold it is."
"You're right," Savit said. "Move Sey'les, Wulf, and Hashtivar towards the clearing between here and the tree line. There is no way I am letting the transport land on that roof. Do we have any heat pads for Hashtivar?"
"There should be one on the transport," Cas shrugged.
Sey'les and Wulf stood up as Cas and Fenron gingerly picked up Hashtivar and put him on a stretcher.
The glob of burn cream on Sey'les's face was beginning to feel very cold. At first it was soothing, but then it started to become uncomfortably cold as the wintry air and snow blew in her face.
As she sat in the new landing zone, suddenly a blinding flash of light that lit up the entire clearing, followed by a loud sound from an explosion. In her earpiece and everyone else's earpieces, a general distress yelled "This is Yellow-3 we are going down!"
Sey'les looked up in terror. The second Nu-class shuttle, the one that was higher up circling overhead. The one carrying the Judicator's intelligence personnel was on fire and crashing out of view.
The Nu-class sitting stationary overhead began ascending to get to a higher altitude. An explosion emitted from two of its sides as unseen projectile cut through it. Debris rained down on the Judicial teams below as it started spinning out, tumbling towards the ground.
Sey'les instinctively lifted her blaster and turned to face the direction the loud noises had come from. The humans were panicking.
Savit began yelling "Judicator, this is Aurek Leader! We have lost both Nu-class transports. I say again we have lost both—"
—The nearest Nu-class crashed 30 meters from where they were standing. The shockwave knocked everyone over. The heat was the warmest Sey'les had felt since being burned in the basement. Cas screamed in terror. The crash was completely un-survivable.
Sey'les had suffered far too much loss for her Bothan brain to be any sadder or any more shocked. Now, she saw everyone else panicking and felt like she was the only one with her wits about her.
"Fall back behind the tree line!" Sey'les yelled in croaky growl, putting her blaster back in its holster and picking up half of Hashtivar's stretcher. She waited for one of the humans to help. Her hands felt like they were blistering under her bandages.
"Sey'les is right!" Savit yelled, "Grieve later! Fall back!" He started helping Cas up.
Fenron grabbed the other half of the stretcher and he and Sey'les began running behind the tree line. Sey'les could hear footsteps and Gotals yelling orders and baaing excitedly in the distance.
"They are almost here!" Sey'les yelled in a whisper. Once she set down Hashtivar's stretcher, she grabbed her helmet which she had hung off her vest and put it back on. The humans were forming a defensive line along the trees. Wulf held two blasters and hunkered down next to them.
"This is Yellow Leader," Lina's voice sounded in Sey'les's earpiece. "We have lost both transports. They are trying to shoot me down with a rail gun—"
"—Get to a higher altitude!" Savit yelled into his comm.
Sey'les could hear explosions from something shooting into the sky in the distance. Another sound drew closer—the sound of a speeder of some sort. Sey'les turned from Hashtivar's stretcher, faced in the direction of Savit and his team, and whispered "I hear a—"
A stream of rapid blaster fire cut between the trees at the edge of the treeline, impacting several trees immediately behind Sey'les. A bulky civilian speeder had floated in front of the house into the middle of the clearing with a makeshift turret on top.
To Sey'les's shock, Tonkins lifted her blaster—
"Wait!" Savit whispered in an order.
Simultaneously Sey'les whispered, in alarm, "Hold your fire!"
Too late. Tonkins had already begun squeezing her trigger. A blaster shot emitted from her pistol and hit the side of the speeder. Tonkins took cover as the speeder blasted a stream of much more accurate fire in their direction. Archard, Tonkins, and Cas screamed in terror as blaster shots impacted centimetres over their head, branches and globs of steaming smoke falling on them.
"FALL BACK!" Sey'les snarled, grabbing Hashtivar's stretcher and dragging it all by herself. "CRAWL!" she added in a yet angrier snarl as the humans looked like they were going to run towards her, right through the Gotal line of fire.
Tonkins. Kriffing human idiot!
Wulf, Savit, Tonkins, Cas, Rigel, Archard, and Fenron crawled towards Sey'les's position. A tree fell down and the blasterfire stopped.
Sey'les yelped in horror, unable to see if it had crushed them. They're all—
—Right as Sey'les began to assume everyone had been squashed, Savit clambered over the fallen tree and fell clumsily onto the other side, now covered in mud. Wulf fell right next to him. Archard, Cas, and Tonkins found a space wide enough to fit under and crawled through.
Once they were sufficiently far from the clearing, Wulf cautiously stood up and everyone else followed him and began walking to Sey'les.
"Yellow Leader this is Muun Leader requesting immediate fire on the clearing—"
"—Muun Leader this is Yellow Leader. I strongly recommend moving through the forest to the North. No amount of air support I give can stop this. I am now detecting over 100 heat signatures on the ground and several dozen are cutting through the woods in multiple directions to your location. Hopefully the situation in space will resolve itself by then."
"BLAST!" Sey'les replied. "100?"
"My targeting computer says at least 107. They are a swarm. Pull back to the north—"
"—Republic forces," a booming Gotal voice on a megaphone drowned out every other noise. "You are outnumbered and surrounded. Surrender."
Fenron stopped walking and turned around to face the noise. "Kriff that!" he whispered angrily. "They kriffing cut off Master Tursk's head. Kriff that!"
"I agree," Savit whispered. "Fenron, if you don't want your family back on Coruscant to see you get decapitated by one of those psychopaths live on the Galactic news, then I suggest you MOVE AGENT!" he whispered harshly pushing Fenron forward.
The comment reminded Sey'les of how young some of these humans were. Fenron must be 21 or 22, she thought.
Cas helped Sey'les with Hashtivar's stretcher and everyone began walking away from the clearing as fast as possible.
Walking backwards while wearing a trench-coat was a challenge for Sey'les. She had to deliberately not step so far backwards that she stepped on her coattails. She winced as she felt one of her blisters pop under her bandages.
Her thoughts wandered to guilt over how useless she was when she caught fire. When we caught fire. If it weren't for Wulf, they would have all burned alive. She thought she was tough enough to keep her wits about her in any situation. The pain of catching fire was indescribable. Smelling her team burned to a crisp was almost bad. She could not even think about it without crying.
As guilty and useless as Sey'les felt, she was very impressed with how Wulf performed. I suppose I never thought 'catching on fire' was a likely situation. We need to keep everyone alive, the humans and my team. No one else dies—
"—I am detecting eleven heat signatures closing in right where you are walking to," Lina's voice said. They are less than 50 meters away, walking close to one another.
"Wait here," Savit said, "Wulf, Fenron, Rigel you are with me!" he said.
Sey'les and Cas set down Hashtivar's stretcher.
"Don't shoot unless I say so," Sey'les growled to her as she aimed her blaster into the dark trees. "And tell me if you see any. My night vision goggles melted."
"I am sorry Sey'les I—"
"—We don't have time for this. This is not a reprimand. I am stating facts. Three of us are dead, Agent. Wulf, Hashtivar, and I are burned. There are over 100 of them. If we want to survive, we have to be sneaky," she whispered, flexing her hand trying to relieve the pain. Sey'les took a deep breath into her nose and smelled only Bacta.
Blasterfire and the sounds of Gotals and Koorivars screaming echoed from where Savit, Wulf, and Fenron had gone.
"All clear. Come to our position," Savit whispered a few seconds later.
"On our way, don't shoot us," Sey'les whispered as she picked up Hashtivar's stretcher. Cas picked up the other end.
"Hashtivar?" Sey'les asked
"Yes?" he replied in a quiet whisper.
"Are you doing all right?"
"Getting a bit cold, other than that, the same," Hashtivar whispered.
Tonkins followed Cas and Sey'les a few moments later, cautiously looking back and aiming her blaster in the trees.
Savit, Wulf, and Fenron were standing amongst a pile of dead Gotals and Koorivars. One of them had a comm in his ear. Someone was baaing into it on the other end in a language Sey'les did not understand.
"Do you speak Gotal, Sey'les?" Fenron asked.
"Nope," Sey'les whispered, then she took a swig of water from her canteen. "Everyone drink-up!" she whispered.
Savit did not argue and took a sip from his own canteen. Wulf and the humans did too.
Hashtivar had a look on his face like he wanted water.
Sey'les tipped her canteen near Hashtivar's face and poured some into his mouth without asking.
Hashtivar took a few gulps.
"All right, let's move," Savit whispered.
o.o.o.o.o
Twenty minutes into their retreat into the forest, Lina informed Savit and Sey'les that their path ahead looked clear, but she was being called back to the Judicator and could no longer provide intel. The Judicator sounded like it was in trouble and Captain Ozzel had not spoken to them since immediately after the botched raid on the Gotal Assembly structure.
Thirty minutes, forty minutes, then a miserable hour went by. Every time Sey'les or Savit messaged the Judicator there was no reply. If anything, anything less than a full-on space battle is happening right now, Sey'les thought, I am going to shoot Captain Ozzel in the kriffing face when I get back.
While the immediate pains of her injuries had been relieved by the burn cream, Sey'les was beginning to feel new pains everywhere. Sore muscles, spots where her newly exposed skin on her arms was chafing. Blisters continued forming and popping on her hands.
Wulf looked absolutely miserable too.
The ground had very little snow on it but every once in a while, a huge glob would fall from one of the tree branches landing amongst them.
"I don't think he has forgotten about us, Cas," Savit said as the humans began arguing again.
"Shouldn't we be the ones complaining?" Wulf said gesturing to Sey'les and Hashtivar. "Why is it always you guys?"
Sey'les wished that Suldor had allowed her team to go to the state reception. Unlike Sey'les, Wulf and Hashtivar were very impatient with these humans. They never got to know any of them, and it would have been a great trust-building exercise for Wulf and Hashtivar to interact with them outside of work.
None of Wulf's or Hashtivar's friends on Coruscant were human, but all most of their superiors were. Sey'les thought Tonkins was an idiot, Cas was always thinking of home and would not stop catastrophising, but Sey'les trusted Savit, and Rigel seemed nice enough.
I would probably be thinking of home too if I had kids, Sey'les thought, thinking of Cas. "Calm down Wulf," she growled. "We are all on edge. We've all been shot at. We are all outnumbered."
Annoyed at her constant growls, the Bothan tried moaning to see if she could make a voice that wasn't a growl. All that happened was a whiny sore-throat noise. Damn.
"Are you all right?" Cas asked in a concerned voice.
"My voice is messed up," she answered. "Probably the fire, screaming, yelling, vomiting, seeing—seeing them die, smelling them die," she said, tears welling up in her eyes. Damn why do I keep doing that.
"We need to grieve later," Savit whispered in a worried voice as if afraid she might break down.
Sey'les felt like she might get angry with him if she said anything. He's right, she thought. I don't think I can just put that loss on hold though. Under her beanie, she suddenly realised she could hear rustling from somewhere…
"Shhh, I think someone's over—" Sey'les stopped in horror as she stepped on a squishy, living thing that yelled.
"AAARRRRGH!" a Gotal covered in webbing with leaves to blend into the ground screamed as Sey'les stepped on his arm.
Cas screamed and Fenron yelled obscenities.
Sey'les dropped Hashtivar's stretcher, pulled out her blaster, and shot the Gotal in the head. "They're everywhere!" she yelled while crouching onto her knees, motioning for Cas to set down the other end of the stretcher.
"Sey'les!" Savit yelled. "You can't just shoot anything that moves!"
"Savit, they are everywhere. You might not be able to hear it, but it is an ambush," Sey'les whispered in an urgent growl.
"How could we not see him!?" Tonkins yelled smacking her night vision goggles as if that would fix them.
Blasterfire came in from every direction. A blast hit Tonkins in the back and she fell over without even crying out.
"Tonkins!" Rigel yelled.
Wulf began firing in the direction some of the blasts were coming from. His blasts glowed as they impacted trees. One of his blasts impacted a shadowy figure who screamed.
A large figure came out of nowhere and grabbed Sey'les from behind. Adrenaline surged once more into her system. She snarled in a panic and climbed up him instinctively, biting at his throat. Blood surged into her mouth. Feeling his veins pulsing, she unclamped her snout from his neck.
The Gotal she had bitten fell backwards onto tree roots, grasping at his throat and coughing, dragging Sey'les down to the ground with him.
Getting up on her hands and knees, Sey'les pulled out her blaster and ruthlessly shot the Gotal in the head. Rolling over next to the Chelidae's stretcher, she the Gotal's blaster to Hashtivar.
Lying on his stomach, Hashtivar took the blaster and began firing randomly into the darkness.
Sey'les spat a huge wad of saliva mixed with the Gotal's blood onto the ground.
"Night vision goggles off!" Savit screamed to his team, none of whom seemed to have figured it out. "They don't—AAAHHH!"
Sey'les spun around. She saw Savit stagger back after being shot, and then take three more shots to the chest. "SAVIT!" she screamed, then began firing into the darkness in the direction Savit had been shot from.
Cas ran over to Savit and took cover while examining him.
Rigel crouched for cover and took off his night vision goggles.
An arm grabbed Sey'les from behind again, this time grappling her blaster. Sey'les tried spinning around. Her bandages began slipping off with the blaster. "AAHHHH!" she yelled in rage then heard a blast.
The figure she was grappling collapsed. Fenron had shot him.
Fenron, Cas, Archard, Rigel, and Wulf fell back to Sey'les and Hashtivar's position. Fenron had to pull Cas away from Savit's body. Rigel and Cas both had tears in their eyes. Wulf looked even more miserable than he had before.
The seven survivors crouched in a root-filled area between four trees. The roots were fairly wide and provided some amount of cover. There was also one log.
"Surrender!" an unseen figure yelled from ahead in the trees. "You are surrounded!"
Archard lowered his night vision goggles from his helmet.
"Archard," Sey'les growled, "our night vision goggles don't work. They are covered in something that blocks them."
Whispering excitedly, Archard exclaimed "Sey'les, I can see his megaphone. It is lit up on the infrared!"
"Blast him then!" Sey'les ordered in a growly whisper. "Blast their leader!"
"You have 60 seconds! If you do not surrender by that time we will—AHHHHHHH!" the voice screamed as two shots lit him up. Sparking brightly, the flames of his megaphone revealed a Gotal, shot in the chest, standing wearing a ghillie suit. Before the sparking ended, his megaphone made a disgusting screeching microphone noise that made Sey'les's fur stand on end.
Gotals were yelling and baaing in every direction. The Judicials had clearly killed someone very important.
"TAKE COVER!" Sey'les yelped right before blaster shots flew over their heads from every direction.
None of the Judicials were hit by the first volley but some of the Gotals screamed, accidentally shooting their comrades in friendly fire. Now, they all yelled, screamed, and baa'd at each other amidst the crossfire.
The Gotals had surrounded the Judicials too well.
Hashtivar started cackling madly from his stretcher. "Kriffing morons killing each other! HA!"
"Hashtivar, shut—" Sey'les started, but then stopped.
A blue lightsaber and a green lightsaber ignited in the forest. Sey'les gasped. Suldor? Tursk? she wondered.
"Agents take cover!" an unfamiliar female voice ordered.
Nope. Some other kriffing Jedi.
All of the fire shifted in the direction of the two lightsabers. Sey'les could hear the Gotals dropping dead. A few stray deflected shots hit the trees over her head.
"TAKE COVER!" Sey'les ordered once more.
In spite of Sey'les's orders, Cas got on her knees and lifted her head over one of the large roots to try to see the fight between the Gotals and Jedi.
Sey'les lost it. Still surging with adrenaline, she snarled and pulled Cas back from the roots pulling her onto her back. "Take cover! All humans take cover! We are not going to lose anyone else! KRIFFING HUMANS! TAKE COVER!"
Cas said nothing and laid on her back.
Shots began hitting the logs and flying over their heads from every direction.
"WULF! HUMANS! ROLL ONTO YOUR BACKS!" Sey'les snarled. "If any Gotals approach and stand over us, we shoot!"
"Copy that," Archard said calmly rolling onto his back aiming his blaster at the sky.
Sey'les rolled onto her back looking up at the falling snow, prepared to shoot any face that emerged over the logs, roots, or from behind the trees. Sey'les lay down on her back, between Cas and Fenron.
"Sey'les—" Hashtivar stammered.
"—No, Hashtivar. You don't have to roll on your back," she growled.
More screaming could be heard in the distance. An eerie blue and green glow cut through the darkness. The sabers were not close enough to be seen directly, but everyone could see the glow of their light.
"I know you are curious," Sey'les growled in a sore raspy voice, trying to sound consoling, but her normal voice was completely lost. "We have lost too many people today. It is not worth indulging your human curiosity to get a peak. I am not going to lose anyone else. We are going to survive. The Jedi are right here and mopping up the rest of those Gotal scum."
"Sorry Sey'les," Cas finally sighed. "It was stupid."
Blasterfire was still going on. The sound of lightsabers slicing through flesh occasionally interrupted the firefight.
"It's all right. You lost two people. I lost three people. You're not thinking straight, I'm not thinking straight. We need to sit tight and not just throw our brains out the airlock," Sey'les urged in another growl.
Hashtivar laughed a little at her voice.
Sey'les felt angry at him for it but couldn't react. He was badly hurt as it is.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, all fighting sounds stopped.
An unfamiliar male voice yelled "We are clear!"
"Agents, we are approaching your position to assist," the same unfamiliar female voice said. "Hold your fire."
"Hold your fire," Sey'les growled as crunching snow noises grew nearer.
A female humanoid emerged standing on the roots looking down on them. She had brown human-looking skin but purple pupils that glowed in the darkness. Instead of hair, she had fleshy white tendrils. Sey'les sniffed hard trying to identify her species, but only smelled Bacta.
A pale middle-aged human male with black hair and a scar across his face appeared. He stood over them, examining the curious scene of Judicials laying on their backs holding blasters at the low ready.
"Well Agents, don't you all look cute!" the male Jedi said.
"Speak for yourself!" Wulf yelled up sarcastically.
Kriff I don't have time for this, Sey'les thought, feeling exhausted. We just nearly died. We lost five Agents. I am burned, one of us is crippled, and you are all making jokes.
"I am Master Stass Allie," the humanoid female with white tendrils said.
"I am Master Tholme," the human male said, "who is in charge?"
"I am Agent Sey'les, leader of Team Muun, acting leader of Team Aurek, probably acting leader of some taskforce," Sey'les growled cynically. "Apologies for my voice Masters Jedi," she said as she stood up, brushing the moss off her trench-coat and holstering her blaster. "I have been burned, vomited, and lost my voice somewhere along on the process. Team Aurek's leader, Agent Savit is," Sey'les snapped her jaw shut gulping back a sob, tears streaming down her eyes again. The humans had saved the rest of her team but made huge sacrifices too.
"Dead, along with Tonkins," Fenron said sadly gesturing towards the bodies of Savit and Tonkins.
"As are Agents F'laro, Weequi, and Nor," Wulf said in an exhausted sigh. "What's left of them are back at the structure."
"What's left of me is—" Hashtivar started.
"—Stop it Agent," Sey'les growled. "I know you are hurt and feel betrayed by incompetence. So am I, and so do I, but we have been—"
"—I know rescued," Hashtivar sighed in an exhausted laugh waving his arm around.
"I am sorry for all of your losses, all of our losses today," Master Allie said solemnly.
"Thank you, Master Jedi," Cas replied.
"Very well, Agents, retrieve Tonkins and Savit now. We will get the others at another time," Tholme ordered.
"Did Captain Ozzel send you?" Cas asked curiously.
"Sort of," Allie said with a groan as she helped Fenron lift up a stretcher carrying Savit's body. "We were on a diplomatic mission in Nashal, Taulus. The High Council became aware of the deteriorating situation here when we received footage of Master Tursk being murdered. Captain Ozzel asked for help."
"The Jedi Council ordered us here," Tholme added. "But we were not told initially that we would be rescuing you. Captain Ozzel is currently engaging ships in orbit and we narrowly avoided the firefight. After we arrived in the system, Captain Ozzel asked if we could recover you."
"Recover us?!" Wulf exclaimed.
"Yes. Your telemetry has shown you all as dead for over an hour for some reason. We received reports of over one hundred insurgents in pursuit of you at the time of last contact," Tholme explained. "It wasn't until shortly before we heard blasterfire that I sensed any of you were alive."
"I suppose I do feel more 'recovered' than 'rescued,'" Hashtivar muttered cynically.
Archard and Rigel picked up Tonkin's body after unravelling yet another stretcher.
Sey'les and Cas picked up Hashtivar. Sey'les's hands ached more than ever.
As they walked towards the road, the sky began getting brighter. The sky was far too cloudy to see the sun itself, but it happened much faster than a sunrise.
Well, at least it won't be freezing anymore, Sey'les thought to herself, then kriff this moon. The snow now fell out of the sky as slushy rain.
Despite having been rescued, or perhaps 'recovered,' despite the sky now being bright, the last ten minutes of walking was the most miserable yet. The burn cream ran off Sey'les's snout in a runny liquid, dripping onto her lips with the rain. She could taste the bitter taste of the medicine in her mouth. Her saliva built up, drooling to push it out.
In the light, she could now see that puss and blood was leaking through the bandages on her hands.
The trees ended suddenly, and the group stepped onto a gravel road. Four unarmoured human Judicials, probably in the Diplomatic Security Corps, were standing around a massive 100 meter-long Consular-Class Republic Space Cruiser.
"Rail gun rounds won't get through those shields," Master Tholme said confidently as they approached the ship.
Three of the Judicials gasped as Sey'les as she drew nearer. One of them rushed forwards and offered to help with the stretcher.
"Thank you," Sey'les said and passed handed her end to him.
Another one replaced Cas, and the final two ran forth to help Master Allie.
"Sir, this was a recovery I thought! We don't have a sickbay on board!" one of the humans gasped alarmed as he saw how injured Sey'les, Wulf, and Hashtivar looked.
"It's all right, we are taking them to the Judicator. This is a good thing, there were survivors," Tholme replied as if it needed to be said. He walked up the ramp ahead of everyone else. "These seven Agents," he gestured at the seven survivors, "travelled more than eight clicks, and held off over forty camouflaged Gotals in a firefight before we arrived." He gestured to Sey'les, Hashtivar, and Wulf, "those three Aliens did so in their current injured condition. They did not get those burns from blasters, Girond. They could probably survive all the way back to Coruscant if they were ordered to."
Normally, Sey'les's large ego would have been stoked from being complemented by a Jedi. Even a reminder of what happened, however, made her feel like she was going to choke to death. She took a deep Bacta-smelling breath through her nose as she walked up the ramp.
o.o.o.o.o
Sey'les spent most of the first few minutes of the flight looking out at the clouds. The air inside the cruiser was now warming Sey'les up, but she now felt growing pains on all of her extremities. She was panting a lot, trying to cool off as her body temperature increased. All she wanted was silence. Most of the Judicials were silent too, just contemplating what had happened to them in silence.
Somehow, Fenron and Cas felt differently. They were having an animated conversation about the time Sey'les bit a Gotal's neck. Cas seemed to be concerned that Sey'les might contract some Gotal disease.
A few minutes into their flight, Captain Ozzel's voice came from the comm. "This is a general emergency message from the Judicator to all Antarian and Republic craft. A ship has collided with Skyhook 1. I say again, a ship has hit Skyhook 1. All ships in the Temba area, beware of falling debris!"
Cas and Fenron started yelling in a panic, staring out the window. Several Judicials swore loudly, gasping as they saw whatever was unfolding outside.
Everyone seated on Sey'les's side of the cruiser stood up and ran to a window on the other side.
Sey'les staggered, instead, to the cockpit and gasped the second she could see through the window.
A huge black shadow swayed in the clouds, lowering rapidly to the cityscape. Bits of fiery debris were raining through the clouds on either side of it. As one end of the black shadow reached the cityscape, a fiery explosion glowed from behind the buildings. It continued descending, eventually encompassing a section of city in a cloud of dust.
Sey'les growled "kriff." Her heart sank as she thought of all of the Antarian police and their families who must be on it. Too kriffing much.
Stass Allie and Tholme both hunched over at the same time, clutching their chests as if physically injured by the disaster unfolding outside. Tholme let out a gasp of shock.
"Get us to the Judicator, now!" Allie ordered.
As the ship's cockpit pointed straight up to the sky, Sey'les felt collapsed, completely losing consciousness.