The Clouds Align For Battle

Chapter 29: Gambling

I own not those situations I borrow from Disney Properties, Lucas, Mechalich or Thomas Benjamin DeMayo. This is a dramatization from my mind on a character created from the meld of table gaming and so on. Special thanks to ideas Drew Karpyshyn and Tim Lebbon fermented. Special thanks to Morihei Ushiba who formed Petre with his wisdom. Like any mind construct this is an exercise and my own work building on other ideas from the past.

This is a Zeison Sha story, set in what is known as the Star Wars EU.

Shanev

BBA

The Shanev were upset they could not stake out the 20 captives left from the battle for the large cats of the world, but they respected their Liger and Jagord, the two Sha who had kept their society from destruction so far and honored their wishes.

Jahn's first move after tending to Dar'n was to go find Shay. The Zeltron Flying ace was just coming out of her battle meditation that allowed her to stand her ship on its tail nose or side and expected her young brother's arrival, after all the Force had shown her he would be there.

When he arrived she held up one finger to both Jahn and the ecstatic dancing Kae.

"I am not in the mood for that Kae, not now, not yet." And she exhaled a huge breath "How in the HELL do you do that Bra?"

Jahn shrugged his shoulders "You get used to it, over time, all the input."

"I do not want to become like you, not yet. This… is enough for me, probably forever." Then she turned to Kae who was stunned as her normally outgoing partner in crime was not only an ace but …. Subdued. "I know this is a shock, but I entered a larger world, he taught me not to fear it, but man! It is like sensory overload! No wonder you hide in your clothes all the time!" Jahn pulled off his glove and wiped a tear off Shay's cheek. The two siblings knew just what that really meant and Shay felt better.

"Kae, I need to take Shay somewhere, alone and do NOT!" he pointed to her excited perverted face while shaking his helmeted head "even think that! It is another family matter I need to show her."

"What should I tell the others"

"Tell them I am taking her to the copse, oh and begin cleaning intruder three. We will hold a funeral for Sharona." That at least took Kae down a notch. "Contact Ced, he needs to be here for that too."

Jahn climbed into intruder 2 for an easy flight around the mountain to the copse.

"Jahn."

"Yes?"

"Did he suffer?"

"Only for the past 10 years." Jahn sniffed "You will see."

"How?"

"One of our gifts, psychometry, I will guide this one, when you are ready I will teach you more and I will paint a regimen for you to take. I sense you do not want to be Sha or Jedi or really involved that way. If there is a way forward for you to be a clothing designer and pilot, I will find it. Because that is what this whole war will truly be about."

"Choice, I know and Thanks…. But Why?"

"We do for those we care for, what we can with what we have, so they can grow. Yanibar's rules.."

"Not mine!" she chuckled his refrain. "Kae is scared."

"You watch the tape of what you did from Starkey's POV, you will understand. Your creativity invented flight moves that simply would have killed anyone else, just from the g-forces. 100 pilots against you and you, in that craft, could have beaten them all by yourself." He sighed "I am glad we made the intruders so robust just for that reason, otherwise, you would have broken it apart." Then he began to land the craft. "We have arrived."

When the bird shut down, he removed his helmet before he helped a wobbly legged Shay out of the craft, both wore gloves as they needed more input like they needed a hole in the head, or at least until they could not avoid it. Silently they walked to the fallen tree and a few bodies the predators had not the nerve to scavenge yet. Jahn walked over to the trunk and lifted it away. Then the magazine bay opened and the destroyed Starkeys flew into it. Two lightsabers flew to his hand while Shay stood beside her brother.

"He chose to die like this?" and her sense of the macabre came out "Would it have been simpler to stuff a lightsaber up his ass?"

The peals of laughter at the image her words conjured had them releasing tons of negative energy, when they laughed themselves out they were in a tight hug.

Then Jahn took off the gloves and held out his hand touching the hand and lightsaber as they relived her lost brother's life in a few short seconds. They were both covered in beads of sweat when they rose.

"For that, he deserves a funeral." Shay began "But there is one nice thing about all this." And Jahn raised an eyebrow. "He left us one hell of an inheritance!" she laughed "And I know the key." She reached into his pocket for a data chip.

They strapped his and the other three bodies onto the ship.

"Where is Akumi?"

"Oh you had to bring that up! We will probably find out at our return, Malcomb better not drop the ball again."

After the funerals Jahn however stayed in seclusion with Dar'n and the Sha in Puffy after he loaded his canopy less intruder into Puffy. He held the sending funeral in his armor for Sharona and the lost, and he took her unburned parts with him onboard for a reason no one else could get out of him. He still was somewhat reclusive even after being declared a "Hero" by Major Jai'Don after he found out WHO (but not given a name just "he did") set the battle plan opting for the anonymity of the EVA battle armor he wore.

Above Shanev a prepared Malcomb stood awaiting the arrival that evening of the star destroyer Punishment. As expected when it entered a system with a pair of Star Destroyers with shields up it was cautious.

"This is Captain Piet commander of the imperial star destroyer Punishment, to whom am I speaking"

"This is Captain Malcomb Bax, of the Kalat Alliance Raven."

"Stand down and submit to boarding, you are in Imperial space with a warship however… damaged."

Malcomb screwed up his face in a "like really?" look before responding. "I have no desire to thump a third star destroyer in as many days." He turned away cutting audio looking like he gave orders and the Crow maneuvered to bracket the Punishment and the guns slewed to battle stations. "Look, Captain to Captain right? I obviously have SOMETHING that gives me an advantage, battle-scarred or not. It is not my or the Diskblade Alliance's idea to go to open war." He cleared his throat "Since you core folk obviously HAVE open war a little closer to home." He let that sink in.

"What do you propose" Captain Piet asked acutely aware of the recent troubles in the galaxy.

"Captain to Captain, we live in, were part of and maintain our own space. What you do out there if it does not effect us, does not interest us. But make no further mistake like the last four warships demanding our surrender. Flying to a place and saying "we own this now" because you have a bigger gun does not endear, inspire loyalty and quite frankly pisses us off."

"What do you suggest I tell the Emperor?" Piet asked nervously.

"Leave, don't cause trouble and we will not invade your space either. But we will send you about, how many is it now? Three hundred one Zygerrian heads. Just a reminder of how much we despise slavery and repression."

"Anything else?"

"I think that will do it as your scans and these videos… sanitized a bit and poor quality recordings show we mean what we say."

"Very well, I would like to exchange prisoners."

"Good good, do you have any?"

"I was expecting YOU to have some."

"Fair enough but its not really an exchange when I am the only one giving."

"May we please have our forces back."

"Ok, in the interest of peace, I have 20 who did not fight to the death, almost all pilots, one is a Sergeant Major. I will send a Freighter, a YV-666 to you with them."

"Very well I will clear a dock." Piet started to wave something.

"You will send a shuttle and they dock between us where we can both keep our itchy trigger fingers on each other."

"Interesting tactic, why"

"I have a daughter and a son, Gitrazin born, you know the story, mustered out post war, bit of a gambling problem, its all there in my file. I went to Gitrazin to avoid war and got married." He then waved his arms up "And then you brought war to me! What in the hells were you thinking? I have never lost a battle even outmatched!" he showed he was angry "So take your bloody 115,000 loses and be damn glad Coruscant or Kuat are not smoldering! We wish to be left in peace to our own devices."

"I will deliver your message to the Emperor."

"I will deliver your actions here, turn to channel 618425, that is Correscant News Network." he showed him some slicers had already broad waved the spliced together show into the core holo net with a wave. "You piss me off and I will show the rape of Gitrazin women for fun BY YOUR SAILORS my daughter showed me."

"Dreadfully sorry about that, how is it OUR fault?"

"Your military did not bring the turds to justice, executed a doctor, and shot the complaining witness in the street as she was un armed, MY WIFE!" at that Captain Piet blanched.

"You will let us go"

"And deliver our message as 618425 seems to be experiencing "technical difficulty" right now."

"Very well, I should expect the prisoners in?"

"Two hours. The Shanev still want to stake em for the Ligers. They get feisty about that sort of thing. Kill their people and they for some reason want to watch you get eaten by felines. We will get them as soon as we can, hopefully whole and unchewed. You can thank the Sha if the process is hurried, they would rather go back to making medicine and making more food and safe water is available." Malcomb cut transmission on Piet's shocked face.

Two hours…. Soon to be a half hour to stave off further investigation.