Hark closed the distance between himself and Tristan in seconds, lunging forward with his beskad blade in an attempt to gut Tristan. Yet the Wren brother clearly anticipated this, and evaded backwards in a roll, before coming to stand again.
Hark attempted to strike again, bringing the blade across in a sweeping motion, aiming for the weak points in Tristan's armour. In response, Tristan moved his blade in a similar motion, clashing with Hark's and causing the supercommando to stumble slightly under the blow.
Tristan then seized his offensive, launching a leg outwards to land a kick to Hark's abdomen. The blow knocked the wind out of Hark temporarily, before the supercommando regained his balance and countered with his own melee assault.
The two warriors became locked in a game of patience, both waiting for the opportunity to strike where the armour was weakest. Beskar armour was among the strongest in the galaxy, and could withstand most things short of a lightsaber. Yet even then it had weaknesses, something that both Mandalorians knew, and both sought to exploit.
All it would take was one well-placed blow to a gap in the armour pieces and the fighter would go down.
Hark attacked again, this time feigning an attempt to assault Tristan's right hand side of the body, before shifting at the last minute to attack the left. Tristan, unprepared for the deception had little choice but to attack himself.
Both warriors' blades clashed against their opponents armour, scratching a deep groove into the armour plating, but not bypassing it. Both warriors jumped back again in frustration, before Hark growled under his breath and charged again, not giving Tristan any time to recover.
The supercommando unleashed a flurry of aggressive strikes, swinging his blade in all directions. Tristan evaded what he could, and redirected the others, trying to throw Hark off balance.
But the supercommando kept of coming, his aggression only increasing as the duel went on.
From the sides of the duel, Tiber Saxon watched with a sinister smirk on his face.
Tristan countered another blow from Hark, before careening forward himself and elbowing Hark in the face. The resulting clang of elbow against helmet echoed around the room, and Hark stumbled back dazed from the blow.
Tristan then seized his opportunity, angling his blade for the supercommando's neck and lunging.
But Hark retaliated, bringing his own blade upwards to clash with the Wren's. The two suddenly found themselves in a blade lock, despite the size of the blades.
Both pushed with all their might, trying to overpower the other duellist.
When it was clear that neither were gaining any ground, Hark pulled his blade to the side.
The sudden force of the move wrenched the blade from Tristan's hand, sending it across the room and out of reach.
"Oh kriff!" Tristan muttered to himself as Hark advanced on him with another flurry of strikes. Without a blade of his own he was in trouble.
Evading another blow, Tristan brought his hand up to grasp Hark's wrist, specifically the one that held the Beskad blade.
The two wrestled against one another for control of the blade, their free hands, coming to lock trade blows on other parts of the bodies, before too locking together into the ongoing struggle.
The room around them was near silent, the only sounds being the struggle between the two Mandalorians.
Once again, neither warrior gained any ground, and it was clear to Tristan that Hark was the superior fighter. That meant he had to end this before it went any further.
Tilting his hand slightly, Tristan began to redirect the point of the blade towards Hark's thigh.
Then, with as much strength as he could muster, Tristan pulled the blade down.
Hark yelled in agony as the blade was sent thundering downwards, piercing into the gaps of his armour surrounding his knee.
Tristan pulled the blade back out as Hark collapsed to the floor, blooding oozing out of his kneecap.
Not waiting for Hark to recover, Tristan brought to blade down again, this time into the gap between Hark's helmet and torso.
The blade pierced into Hark's neck, who released a pained gurgle, before slumping to the floor dead.
Tristan stepped back from the dead supercommando, before glancing over to his team.
"Ha ha! I knew he could do it! Didn't I tell you Kenobi?" Hondo boomed enthusiastically, whacking the Jedi Master on the back with joy as he did.
"Yes Hondo, you did." Obi-Wan replied simply, his eyes watching Tristan.
Shifting his gaze, Tristan noticed both Sabine and Rau nodding their heads in respect. Clearly they had underestimated his skill.
Tristan was about to turn back around the face Saxon when he heard two sharp sounds, one after another, in quick succession.
The first was the sound of a blaster firing.
The second, a lightsaber igniting.
Ahsoka had watched with bated breath during the fight. She had full confidence in Tristan to handle the situation. He had more than proved himself so far. But right now, she had bigger concerns.
She didn't trust Saxon to uphold his word. She knew that many Mandalorians were honourable, but from what she had heard of Tiber Saxon, he was the exact opposite.
So when he had offered a duel to the death in the style of Mandalorian honour, she had been sceptical. There was no way he was going to keep his word.
So she waited and prepared, her hand resting on the hilt of her saber discreetly, waiting for what she believed was inevitable.
Whilst everyone else watched the ongoing duel, she kept her eyes locked solely on Tiber Saxon, watching and analysing his every movement, no matter how minimal. If he made any such move to strike, she would be ready.
The duel went on, and Ahsoka waited. She could see by the look on Saxon's face that he was planning something. Even at this distance, she could see the spark of deceit in them.
A roar of agony erupted around the room, flooding her senses. The sound didn't match Tristan's tone, so it must have been Hark.
But rather than shift her gaze, she kept watching Saxon, judging his reaction.
The Mandalorian governor's face contorted in shock and rage, a clear sign that his man had lost.
It was then that Tiber Saxon began to reach for his blaster.
In response, Ahsoka drew the hilt of her lightsaber.
Time seemed to slow for a moment. She was aware of Hondo booming out in joy, as well as the rest of the team breathing a sigh of relief. But that didn't matter. Instead, with speed she didn't know she possessed, she moved to Tristan's side.
The sound of a blaster firing echoed in her montrals.
'No you don't!' Ahsoka thought as she moved between Tristan and Saxon, igniting her saber.
The white blade shone in the centre, and Ahsoka swung the blade in a vicious arc, deflecting Saxon's shot back at him.
Ahsoka watched as the Mandalorian governor's face froze in horror, before his own blaster shot hit him in the chest, sending him sprawling to the ground.
Chaos erupted in that moment.
From behind the tall boxes, a pair of imperial AT-ST's emerged, blaster cannons firing down upon the rebels, who by now had figured out Saxon's deception.
The team sprang into action, even as the remaining imperial supercommandos joined the fight. Some perched on top of the crates, whilst others flew around with their jetpacks.
Blaster fire resonated around the storage bay, blasts impacting on walls and the armour of the imperial walkers. The AT-ST's would prove a serious problem unless the various lightsaber wielders could get close enough to destroy the legs.
Though at the moment that wasn't possible, thanks to the supercommandos. The imperial elite troopers were actively defending the walker's weak spot. They had clearly been trained well, not that Ahsoka expected anything less from Mandalorians.
"Gregor, use the rocket launcher!" Ahsoka could make out Rex's voice among the commotion, and glanced to the side in time to see Gregor mount the heavy weapon on his shoulder.
Gregor pulled the trigger, launching the projectile towards the imperial AT-ST. The missile hit the cockpit, shattering the head of the walker into pieces, killing the driver and rendering it out of the fight.
That just left one. Shifting back to the battle, Ahsoka found herself face to face with an imperial supercommando wielding another Beskad blade.
Dropping into a ready stance, Ahsoka prepared for what would be an interesting duel.
The commando lunged with his blade, before swooping it to the side, trying to catch one of Ahsoka's swinging lekku.
It was a sound strategy. Togruta relied on their lekku as a major sensory organ. Even with access to the force and all the power that presented, Ahsoka often found herself falling back to her Togrutan biology in situations. The passive echolocation had saved her life many times before. If this supercommando landed even one blow to them, let alone with a blade, it would seriously impair her ability to fight.
Jumped back out of range of the supercommando's lunge, Ahsoka brought her shoto blade forward, mimicking the supercommando. There were no lekku to target on him, but that didn't really matter when she had a lightsaber.
The commando responded as expected, evading backwards, out of reach of the deadly white blades in Ahsoka's hands. She opted to push the offensive, swinging up with her primary blade, aiming for his face, whilst leaving herself open on the other side. Her hope was that the supercommando would try to capitalize on her 'mistake'.
Said supercommando did. Evading Ahsoka's swing, he lunged forward with the beskad blade, aiming for Ahsoka's unarmoured side.
Allowing a small smirk to come to her face, Ahsoka sprung her trap, bringing her shoto across her front. The blade made contact with the supercommando's arm, severing the limb holding the blade from his body, before pivoting round and swinging her primary blade, decapitating the supercommando.
Ahsoka didn't stop to watch the head roll off the body, instead she turned her attention back to the fight around her.
The remaining AT-ST was approaching her position, cannons roaring at her.
Evading to the side again and again to avoid deadly cannon fire, Ahsoka waited for her opportunity.
Only, she didn't have to. Moments later, a rotating red blur came speeding over her head.
Maul's lightsaber.
The Zabrak had clearly thrown it, manipulating the rotation via the force. The rotating red blade sliced through the legs of the walker, causing it to topple and crush one of the supercommandos beneath it providing support.
Glancing behind her, Ahsoka locked her blue eyes with Maul's golden one. The Zabrak nodded his head, summoning his saber back with one hand whilst choking a supercommando with the other.
With both walkers down, the fight began to swing more in the favour of the rebels. One by one, the remaining supercommandos fell, until there were none left.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Ahsoka extinguished her blades, moving back to the centre of the room where her team was gathering up.
"Good work everyone. We outwitted that trap." Ahsoka spoke with pride as she approached the others. Sabine was busy clasping her brother's shoulder in a gesture of pride, one that Tristan seemed embarrassed about.
"I should have guessed Saxon would try something like that. He always was one to spurn our deepest traditions." Fenn Rau spoke with a sneer in his voice. Ahsoka would have questioned why a Mandalorian was so willing to go against tradition, but she first-hand had seen it done time and time again, and not just by Mandalorians.
When times were desperate, people did anything to win.
"It matters little now. We need to keep moving. I'll contact Hera again, make sure we're on the right track." Ahsoka spoke to the team, receiving several nods of agreement. The unspoken reason behind such a statement was allow a brief respite for the team after such a battle.
Tiber Saxon heard voices. He felt pain in his chest, a searing burn that cascaded throughout his body.
He had been shot, that much was clear. But what surprised him was that he had been shot by himself.
In a manner of speaking.
He knew it was foolish to attack a Jedi head on. That was why he had aimed for the Wren sibling instead.
What he hadn't anticipated was the Togruta moving at an unnatural speed to defend her comrade.
And promptly deflect his own shot back at him.
Tiber opened his eyes despite the pain in caused. His vision was red, most likely due to the pain, but right now he cared little. From his position, slumped up against a crate, he could see the Togruta. She had her back to him, talking to her team members, no doubt congratulating them.
"Togruta bitch!" Saxon mumbled under his voice. He glanced around slowly, making sure not to be seen, and found what he was searching for.
Luckily, when he had fallen, his blaster had not gone far. Reaching out, he grasped the weapon, bringing it into his hands, and aimed.
His vision began to degrade, getting blurrier and blurrier over time. The figures before him became mere shapes, each different sizes, but aside from that, indistinguishable.
Still, he knew where his target was standing.
"Jedi scum!" Saxon mumbled again, this time louder. His sights were trained on the leader, on the Togruta who had done this to him.
Saxon took a breath, and squeezed the trigger.
His blaster fired once, a red bolt erupting from the end of the weapon.
Through his distorted vision, Saxon saw the bolt hit, and witnessed a figure go down from the bolt. He heard the pained yell, and well as the shocked responses from the assembled rebels.
And then he felt it. A barrage of blaster fire hit him in the chest, searing hot.
This time round, Ahsoka heard the blaster shot before she could react.
Once again, time slowed for her.
She felt something slam into her, knocking her to the floor. She crashed down with force, a searing, agonizing pain present in her rear lekku.
She was aware of the shocked yells of her team, as well as the responsive blaster fire from Fenn Rau.
Time remained slow, the pain in her lekku not fading as she hoped. Whatever had happened was bad, she could tell.
The only question was what exactly had happened?
Author's thoughts
Dun, dun, duuuuunnnnnnnnn!
Talk about a cliffhanger huh?
I hope you all enjoyed the duel in this chapter. I could have had it last a long time, but I figured that with Mandalorians, that sort of fight is going to be relatively short, considering warrior culture and all. Still, hope you liked it, even if the Supercommando's went down somewhat easily.
In Memorium: Tiber Saxon
Saxon may not have been very important in this story, but since he is the first imperial leader to die since Krennic I figured he should have a 'In Memorium' moment.
Tiber Saxon is pretty much the most un-Mandalorian Mandalorian in Star Wars Canon. He is very willing to toss aside every aspect of Mando culture for his own gain, as shown both in this chapter and in rebels. In a way, I can respect his pragmatism, and kinda wish we got to see more of him in rebels, aside from the five minutes of screentime he got.
Still, he had to die in this AU as well. No way Fenn Rau was going to let him live. Though it seems that there now may be lasting consequences of Tiber Saxon's final actions.
Anyway, a quick update this time round since it was a shorter chapter again. Hope you liked it.
Next time round we deal with the aftermath of Saxon's last actions. What could have possibly happened? Place your bets!
As normal, comment and speculate at will. Speaking of which:
Cranky Paws: I'm glad you enjoyed the Thrawn and Yularen aspect. I wasn't sure people would enjoy their side story going on. I expected most of the attention to be on Ahsoka and her team.
See, now this is what I like. Everyone has different opinions about things, and none of them are wrong. You see Anakin and Vader as two different entities, which is cool. I however do not. As far as I am concerned, Anakin made the decision to cut of Windu's hand (he deserved it to be fair), and Anakin made the decision to fall to his knee before Sidious, therefore in my opinion, Anakin must be held completely accountable for the actions of Darth Vader, and thus is not deserving of redemption in my eyes. But hey, each to our own right. No one is wrong. :)
FossilQueen1984: Glad you liked the chapter. The Thrawn/Yularen side plot is only coming on slowly. Hope you like where it goes.
jamese765: Tristan won... Yay!
But Saxon's last actions... what had he done?!
SLE's fave guest: Thanks for the wishes, and glad you liked the chapter.
Yeah, Ahsoka vs. Saxon would have been boring, but Mando on Mando violence was not. Hopefully I delievered.
Yes, Hark was the guy who questioned Saxon in rebels season 4 opener. I decided not to use his opposition this time, as it didn't really fit the scenario.
LukeDude: Hey, no worries. I expected many of my reviews the be busy over the end of December period. Hope you had fun.
I'm glad you liked all of the additions in the chapters. They were fun to write, even the darker moments. (Wolffe and Ryder's deaths for one)
Hopefully the rest of the story keeps you engaged. We are edging ever closer to the end now.
Mysterious guest number one: I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter. Hopefully the duel was good. :)
Chiara Polairix Edelstein: Glad you enjoyed the previous chapter.
If my estimations are corrects, and I don't decide to add in any more chapters, or split one I have planned into two, then yes, around chapter 45 will be the ending of this story. Still a while to go yet though. :)
Travis Middleton: I'm glad you enjoyed the Thrawn section of the chapter, and you are welcome in regards to answering your question.
Hope you enjoyed the Mando on Mando violence. I tried to make it short but sweet.
As for what planets will be targetted in Operation Cinder, I'd guess any that are targetted in canon, so Naboo is probably on the list as well.
Maliwan: Glad you liked seeing the Thrawn and Yularen dynamic. Let's hope Chimaera is repaired in time to escape.
Tiber Saxon was never going to keep his word. And to be fair, I doubt Ahsoka would have either. :D
Mogor: Here is more. Hope you liked.
Operation Cinder is a contingency plan should the Emperor ever die. Rax and Versio are in charge of it in this AU.
And Tristan gets to live. Yay!