The Mandalore Wars

Book one

The Resistance

You know, I kicked around the idea of publishing my memoirs. But several publishers all asked me, how could I remember everything. With all the wounds I received? All the years I served. How could I remember everything? Especially since I joined the KM's and saw more combat in a single deployment than most soldiers ever saw during the entire war.

So, I asked the publisher, if you walked into a Czerka Store and saw three employees shocking a wookie with force pikes until they killed him, could you forget that? Or let's say you're driving your speeder, and land it in front of your house, and accidently land it on a nek, and kill it, could you forget that?

Both of those moments would only last what, five seconds? Not even a bump on the road of life.

Both of them told me, they doubted they could ever forget that.

So I ask, could you forget shooting the head off another person? Or the sound a sword makes when you lop someone's limb off? Or the cries of pain followed form firing a canister shot from a cannon?

No. I can't forget any of what I've done. I must remember. So other people know what this was like.

So others don't know.

Chapter 1

We drive through the barren landscape to the speeder, few words being exchanged.

Tanner looks at us, then says "Lie about your age when you're asked. Kell, you're 25 now. Bork, whatever works," Tanner advises us.

"Why?" I ask.

"More likely to get a better position, and into fighting," Tanner tells us.

"Tanner, you're 20. I'm 19. Who is going to believe me when I tell them I'm 25?" I ask.

"You never gain anything without taking a risk," Tanner tells me.

I am finally motioned over to a male Twi-lek in a military uniform.

He grabs a datapad, and asks "Race, sex, name, and age."

"Human, male, Kell, and 25," I tell him.

The Twi-lek doesn't even bother to look at me when I tell him. He just types into the pad, then asks "Any useful skills?"

"I worked on speeders," I tell him.

The Twi-lek types a few more things, then hands me the datapad. "Get on the freighter."

I take it, and walk up the loading ramp of the freighter.

It had at least 20 seats, but only six others were in it.

I take an empty seat, Tanner sitting across from me.

"You ready?" He asks.

"For what?" I ask him.

"Who knows," he tells me.

I lean my head back, and close my eyes.

I try to think of mom, dad, my brother, Heather.

Their faces were fresh in my mind. Everything about it.

I fail to keep track of time, but am jarred back to reality when I hear the loading ramp raised.

I look around and see the freighter was full.

Then I feel the engine start, and the freighter starts lifting.

I look around at the other survivors.

Humans, rodians, Duros, Twi-leks, Bork our resident Cathar, and a trandoshan.

"Holy shit," I hear someone say. I look around and see everyone looking around out a view port. I turn and wonder what everyone was so enthralled about.

As the freighter lifts into the sky, we could see all of Corsin.

The ground was either blackened, or on fire. The fire lapped at the horizon, and dark smoke filled the skies for as far as the eye could see.

Corsin was no longer a world with brown and green land, and a beautiful blue sky. Now, it was a barren waste land, set ablaze by the Mandalorians, the sky filled with dark smoke of the fires. It looked like hell itself had consumed Corsin.

I am knocked from my sleep when I feel the freighter shudder.

That didn't feel normal.

"All right boys, we are getting hit unexpectedly by the Mandalorians, so hold on," I hear the captain say over the intercom.

I grab the restraints in my seat, gripping them with my fingers, and take deep breathes.

I didn't want to die before I had even done anything.

I catch my breath as the freighter drops in altitude again.

I didn't have to see the freighter dropping to know it was. My stomach would jump into my throat, my shoulders would hit the top of the restraint, my lower eye lids would even be forced up.

"We are taking fire boys!"

I tense the muscles in my groin, my bladder wanting to empty itself. I close my eyes and try to focus.

Shit shit shit. What the hell is happening?

I am ripped from my attempt to keep my bladder from going when I feel warm liquid hit my face, and a loud bang goes off in my right ear, and my hearing goes.

I open my eyes, and look down at myself.

I was covered in blood. My right arm was covered in blood, my right torso, I could even feel the blood on the right side of my face.

I lean my hand up and touch it, then look at it.

Am I dead?

I look up and see Tanner staring at me, big eyes.

Then I notice, he isn't staring at me, but at something next to me.

I grit my teeth, and look over.

Next to me, was a Trandoshan. Or what was left of him.

Something had torn him apart, his body little more than a mass of skin with metal shards stuck in it.

Then I see in my seat, a sharp piece of metal that would have gone into my head.

Blood was dripping from it, but I didn't think it was mine.

I reach up and push the metal fragment back through the seat in to the seat next to me, and hear it fall with a wet landing onto the Trandoshans body.

"We're landing!" I hear yelled over the intercom. "Prepare for a hard landing!"

I feel relief flood my veins. At least on ground, I felt like I had a chance.

The freighter manages to land without more incident, and the restraints are loosened. I push up and jump out of my seat, and head for the exit ramp.

The ramp lowers, and I run out onto the ground, and fall to the ground.

I grab the dirt, and rub it in my fingers. It felt different.

But it was a blessing to finally be out of that death trap of a freighter.

"All right boys, here is the plan! Stay down, and don't move! You are on a battlefield, and you can be killed. So don't be stupid!"

I look around, and run over and jump into a small crater.

Bork and Tanner jump in with me.

"What hell happened?" I ask.

"We were forced out of hyperspace, and Mando fighters forced us down. And looks like something shot us down," Tanner says, noting the damage in the freighter.

"Shit, I slept through that?" I ask in disbelief.

"I thought you were dead," Tanner admits.

"We survived," Bork says. "Be thankful."

Around an hour and a half later, a Col. Leading what I assumed was left of his unit 'rescued' us.

I didn't feel very safe though. This Col., while he was young, called himself, and was called by all his soldiers, Sanity.

He had us all lined up, standing at attention in front of him.

"You've got to be kidding me," Sanity says, staring at us.

"What? I think I did damn good job," the ship captain says.

"And the freighter?" Sanity

"Dead," freighter captain, answers.

"Damn it," Sanity curses.

The forces of this Resistance were very different from what I was expecting. Sanity was a white human male, and a pretty big one at that. He was just as tall as I was, 6'2" but his frame more filled with muscle. And the extra armor also helped.

The captain of the freighter, was a bothan. I had heard of bothans and knew of them, but I had never seen them before.

I notice a soldier run up to Sanity and whisper something, then Sanity turns and yells "Soldiers, found a recruit, make them your buddy. We are heading back for the base, and you are escorting them. Keep them alive!"

"You! Tall skinny kid!"

I turn after hearing that to see another soldier pointing at me. "You're with me!" he yells.

I jump into a small crater, and crawl to the front of it, staying below the ground level.

We had slowly been making our way through the street, taking cover behind rubble, pairs of us running in together through the rubble.

We were doing this crossing pattern, where the lead group would slowly advance, the second and third staying close. They were the soldiers. All of us led by Sanity.

The man who decided to help me was named Canti. Unfortunately he was a corporal, and closer to the front, as we work our way forward.

The group ahead of us runs out of cover for the next cover spot.

I take a deep breath, knowing what that meant. I would have to run across this street, to the right side and take cover.

Canti and I crawl closer to the edge of the crater. Canti puts his hand on my shoulder, and says "Ok, get ready."

He and I both get up, and run forward.

Then we all hear the sound of what must have been a cannon going off, but it was close.

I sprint for cover, and come to a sliding halt behind some rubble from a fallen over building.

Then I look back and realize Canti had taken the sniper round. He was sprawled out in the middle of the street, face down.

"AMBUSH!"

That was Sanity up ahead.

I shrug down below the rubble, fear flooding my veins.

I am pulled from my thoughts when a massive explosion goes off further up the street.

I slowly lean over, and look out.

Then I see the massive crater that I assumed, was the product of the explosion.

I get back behind cover, and little bits of rubble and duracrete rain down on top me from the explosions.

I slowly look back out and look down the street.

The soldiers down the street were firing at something, but I had no idea what. But they weren't advancing. It looked like they were falling back.

Shit…

I was going to be left here.

I turn when I hear someone sliding down next to me, and see Sanity and another soldier.

Sanity grabs my shoulder "Let's go kid!"

He pulls me into the bombed out building, and forces me through a small bombed out window.

"Where are we going?!"

"The hell away from here!"

I follow Sanity, and his other soldier, I didn't know the rank, but his name was Mark, through the bombed out landscape of this city. Buildings had been destroyed, toppled over, and it made for a vast field of rubble, with no real pathway or network for how to get around. It was just the blind leading the blind.

"So…what's the plan?" I ask.

"Shut the hell up," Mark tells me.

I curb my tongue, and blush feeling embarrassed. I look at the two soldiers, feeling short compared to them, and I was 6'3"! Sanity with his armor, was bigger, and taller than me. But Mark, was something entirely different. He wore the same armor, but had a huge weapon, and two belts that went around his chest with grenades and blaster clips held in their compartments. Mark was also much taller. He was at least 6'8" and weighed probably 250 lbs.

"Don't worry about him, Mark isn't a mean ass hole, he's an extremely mean ass hole," Sanity tells me.

"Screw you Sanity," Mark retorts.

Silence befalls on us, until we get to a small room in a collapsed basement. The ceiling had cracks in it, with some light shining in. Sanity tells us to stop, and I take a seat.

Meanwhile, they begin looking at their weapons. I look at them, and watch as they rub off their weapons from the dust, check ammo in the rifles, and the Mark takes his canteen out.

"So…how long have you been fighting?" I ask.

"Four years," Mark answers.

"Longer than that," Sanity adds.

I sit down, and try to get a hold of myself.

In a single day, my world had been destroyed, and I was thrown onto a field of battle, with no weapons, nor armor, no training, nothing.

I hear footsteps, and look up to see Sanity staring down at me.

His hand is outstretched, and I notice its holding a big blaster pistol.

"What's this?" I ask.

"A heavy blaster pistol," Sanity says. "You'll need it more than I will."

We all jump into the crater that was probably 15 meters in diameter and maybe 3 meters deep, while more mortars whistle above us. We didn't know where they would land, but I didn't want to find out.

"Where the hell are they coming from!?" I yell.

"No idea!" Sanity yells.

I turn around and slide down, until I see what laid across the crater.

It was a soldier, the head missing. Blood had spurted out from the neck, and stained the shoulders and collar of the uniform.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" I yell, kicking my feet out, pushing myself away from the corpse.

"Hey! Hey!"

I turn to see Sanity staring at me, having a reassuring look to his face.

"You're gonna be ok," he says, smiling.

How the hell are you smiling!?

I gulp down my fears, and nod my head.

"Who is he?" Sanity asks.

I look and notice Mark had crawled over to him, and was checking the left arm patch. "Looks like the 17th. They had a bad day."

"What happened to them?" I ask Sanity.

"They were attacked," he answers.

"And?" I ask. I was expecting a better answer instead of just They were attacked.

"You have a lot to learn about this war," Mark says from across the trench.

"Mark, let it go. Kell, grab that guy's armor and kit. You'll need it. Mark will help you put it on," Sanity commands.

"It's the uniform of a sergeant," Mark says.

"And you're not a captain. Get over it," Sanity says. Sanity then turns and looks out towards the front of the trench.

I stare at him, then at the corpse.

Sanity looks back at me, his face looking angry. "NOW!"

I quickly crawl over to Mark, while he is busy taking the extra trappings off the armor.

"So…the blood stains," I tell him.

"Yea, that happens," Mark says. "Look at the bright side."

"What bright side?" I ask him. I was expecting him to tell me it came with a free promotion to sergeant.

"The blood is dry," he tells me.

I finish putting on the gear, and grab the rifle.

I look at Mark then back at Sanity. I felt dirty doing this, but had little choice.

I crawl back to the front of the crater next to Sanity, and ask "So what's the plan?"

"We keep working our way back to base."

The silence and routine of running and taking cover behind rubble, in craters, and whatever else we find, falls again.

We work our way through a field of rubble and pot holes, until we get into another building.

We silently walk through, and while I didn't know any military tactics or have any training, Sanity and Mark taught me basic tactics so I could fight with them. We begin working through building, carefully, and slowly.

Sanity told me that normally, if the building was populated with Mandalorians, our procedure would be very different. Normal procedure would have been after opening a door, chuck in either a frag grenade or plasma, then have a few run in, to different places in the room, guns blazing. He told me the main goal was to make the room a kill zone.

We continue walking through, until Mark breaks the silence. "Sanity, this was a powerplant."

"What makes you say that?"

"The machinery. The generators. Too big for anything else. And the power coils and massive power packs mounted to the wall when we first entered," Mark observes.

"Does it still have power?" Sanity asks.

"Impossible to know," Mark tells us. "But it would be dangerous to find out."

"You think we could use it?" Sanity asks.

"Not without it getting bombed," Mark adds.

"Oh well," Sanity says.

We continue walking through.

Silence continues again until we come to a large pool. A massive, strangely clear pool of water, in this building. I walk up to the edge of the pool and look down, and see a bridge had sunk to the bottom. And the pool stretched from wall to wall, so the only crossing was the bridge. Or had been the bridge before it sank to the bottom. The room was massive, at least 50 feet by 50 feet.

Something told me this wasn't a pool.

"So, what's this?" Sanity asks.

"Employee rec pool?" Mark suggests.

"Why would it have a bridge?" I ask.

"Well, that was the preferred option," Mark says.

"What was the other?" Sanity asks, walking up next to me.

"Well, the fact this pool looks to be like, 100 freaking meters deep, I doubt it," I tell them.

Mark walks up on my right, and says "Well, I can see the ladder in the bottom. And what looks like power cells."

"You wouldn't put a powercell in the bottom of a pool. It would lose its charge," I correct Mark.

"So what is it?" Mark asks.

I look up, seeing the room had no ceiling. The walls towered high above us though, going 200 feet into the air above us. But why would it have no ceiling… "Oh….shit."

"What?" Sanity asks.

I look back down, and could see the thick structures in the bottom of the pool. "Either a fission or fusion power production area."

"What makes you so sure?" Mark asks, turning and looking at me.

"I worked on speeders. And while most of them were complete crap, a few wealthy clients used the garage, and they had mini versions of this in their speeder. Made it fast, silent, didn't require fuel-"

"Can we swim across?" Sanity asks.

"Depends," I tell him.

"On what?"

"Which it is," I tell him.

"What's the worst case scenario?" Mark asks. "For both."

"If its fission, that water is radiated. If any of those reactors down there have water in them, could be electrified. And if there is water in one of them, the water will be extremely radiated."

"How extremely radiated?" Sanity asks.

"You'll die before you get super powers," I tell him.

"And if its fusion?" Mark asks.

"Could be electrified. Radiation isn't as likely. And could be super hot," I tell him.

"We'd feel it in the air if the water was 2000 degrees," Mark says.

"Good point," I concede. "But I'd rather it be fusion. Then it's just a cooling pool of water, and not a potentially radiated pool of poison."

"Would it be safe to swim across?" Sanity asks.

I take a deep breath. This was more nerve racking than being shot at.

"Well, in theory, maybe. But I also worry about the ripples of the water."

"What, you can't swim?" Mark teases me.

"No, if water is in the reactor, I don't like the idea of ripples of water sloshing around the delicate components in there," I tell them.

"Oh," Mark says.

"And can you two swim in metal armor?" I ask.

"Kell, can you swim?" Sanity asks.

"Yea," I tell them.

"Great, you'll escort me over," he says, heading over to the water.

"What?!" I ask.

Sanity walks over to the pool, and pulls out the ammunition to his blaster rifle. "I can't swim in heavy metal armor. Give your rifle to Mark. And get in."

I take a deep breath, and lay my rifle and pistol down, then slowly walk over to Sanity.

Sanity slowly wades in, and I follow.

The water soaks through my uniform, and I could feel the cold water surround my body. Every place it touched felt like a thousand needles pressing into my skin. It was torturous when my groin finally met the water.

Sanity swims over to me, sinking more than swimming and wraps his arms around my back. "Let's go, this is freezing."

I quickly swim over to the other side of the pool, refusing to put my head beneath the water. Luckily, Sanity and I swim across without incident.

Then I swim back over, and help Mark swim over.

We get halfway across the pool, when we hear something screeching overhead.

I stop moving, and hold onto Mark, trying to keep him above the water. He was heavy, but I managed to help keep him above.

"What the hell was that?" I ask, through my shivers and chattering teeth.

"Basiliks," Mark tells me through his chattering teeth.

"What?" I ask.

"Nothing good," Mark says. "Keep going."

I keep swimming, but the sound of more basilisks fly overhead cause me to stop.

"You going to stop every time that happens?" Mark asks.

"Come on you two!" Sanity yells.

I keep wading across, until I hear something that sounds like a crack.

I keep swimming but look at Sanity. "Sanity, what was that?"

"The ceiling," He observes, looking at something above us.

"Is it…collapsing?"

"Keep moving," Sanity commands.

I swim faster through the water, until we hear another loud crack. Then a loud splash behind us, and a wave that pushes us forward, pushing me under the water.

I quickly swim back up, and freak out. "The hell was that?!" I yell.

"The blasted ceiling," Mark says in anger. "Keep freaking swimming!"

I look down into the pool. I could see a massive rock falling for the reactor.

"Oh shit…"

I begin a panic free-style swim. Adrenaline starts taking over, giving me new found endurance, and blocking out the coldness of the water.

I feel the water begin to shake, and look down.

The massive brick had hit the reactor, and whatever it was doing…I didn't want to find out.

Sanity runs to the edge of the pool, extending his hand.

We get closer, and Mark grabs his hand.

Sanity pulls him out onto the ground, then turns back around and extends his hand to me.

I grab it, and he pulls me out with surprising strength. I scoot away from the pool and lay on my back.

Sanity looks back at the pool, the water shaking, laughing at the close call. "Well, that was close wasn't it boys?"

"You're telling me," Mark says. I look over at him, and see him getting his canteen out, and unscrewing the lid.

I slowly get up, and walk over to the pool, and look down. Still shivering.

The rock was still falling, or looked like it was. But if it hit the reactor, it would have stopped. Or should have…unless.

I try to remember the engines I would work on that had these in them.

The power was stored in various things, like tubes, coils, cells, and the like, usually underneath the mini-reactor with the fuel above and off-center.

Wait…

I stare at the rock closer, and notice it is slowly getting bigger.

Oh shit.

I hit Sanity and yell "GET BACK!" and jump backwards.

Behind me, I could hear the electricity released as the rock surged throughout the pool and collided with the power cells in the bottom of the pool.

Then what felt like a snake bit in my leg and electricity surged throughout my body.

My muscles went limp. My mind went blank.