Here's Chapter Ten! All hail her Beta-ness, NYCitygurl!
Chapter 10: Fatality
Jaina spun around the corner, stunning the oncoming squad of stormtroopers. She held both blasters in front of her and let fly in a fiery arch. Lovely thing about Imperials, she thought: they always kept their blasters at full capacity.
Jaina, half hoping it would work and half just for the fun of it, stuck her leg out as the stormtroopers approached. Sure enough, one tripped over the outstretched limb. Jaina shot the downed trooper in the head while the others charged. When the brawl was over, two of Jaina's allies had to carry a third back to the cells. Jaina frowned. This wasn't going well.
The stormtroopers kept retreating, leaving their wounded behind, while Jaina had to dedicate troops to caring for her own casualties. After that first impassioned brawl the stormtroopers had gotten used to the prisoners' tactics and had, probably under the command of one of those rare Imperial non-commissioned officers who could actually think creatively, adapted. They were using guerilla tactics, hit and run, and Jaina's group, pursuing them, was forced to meet guerilla with conventional, which was rarely, as the Old Empire's Civil War had shown, a good idea.
Slowly, blasters held at her sides, Jaina led her troop's advance. One of the former soldiers, a private named Joll Ekal, came up beside her. "Ma'am, I'm worried."
"As am I," said Tenel Ka, jerking her spear out of a trooper's back.
Jaina nodded. "Me too. They're using hit-and-run tactics and they're not burdened with their wounded," she said, frowning at the last. She was a frakking smuggler and she didn't leave her allies to die. These people called themselves soldiers? No, she thought, they called themselves stormtroopers. Soldiers were the people she'd fought and fought side-by-side with on Adumar. Soldiers might have honor, but stormtroopers? It was trained out of the vast majority of them.
"But we have to keep going," she continued, "unless anyone has any other ideas?"
"I've got one," said one of the unarmed soldiers. Jaina struggled to remember his name. Rebar Irris; that was it.
"What's that?" asked Kev. The blond woman and the armed soldiers were standing at the rear of the group, guarding against attacks from any of the side corridors they'd passed.
"We retreat. We make our stand at the cells; force them into a bottleneck at the entrance. We have the weapons, we have the advantage." He cringed slightly when he mentioned the cells.
Jaina nodded. "Sounds good. We have to get out of here eventually, but we can wait for the reinforcements we told you about?"
"The natives?" said the solider doubtfully.
"Don't underestimate them."
They retreated.
-----
Kirana Ti got a report from one of her clan-sisters, relayed magically. The turrets were down, the two legged machines falling with ease. All was going according to plan.
She led her troops through the Imperial compound, following the feeling of Tenel Ka's presence. They dispatched any stormtroopers they met without hesitation. Occasionally they came upon groups with one or two off-world weapons, and on some of these occasions their numbers were fewer when they were done, as was to be expected in war. They paused to close the eyes of their clan-sisters before moving on.
-----
They made it back to the prison area without incident. Jaina, Kev, the leader of the prisoners, and the armed soldiers knelt down in firing positions a short way inside the main room, Tenel Ka standing behind them with he spear held diagonally before her. It wasn't long before their enemy was upon them.
Those armed with blasters were firing almost continuously, and still a few of the troopers got through. Most of these Tenel Ka dispatched, but a few got past her. The prisoners fell upon them with great enthusiasm. Soon bodies littered the floor inside and in front of the doors.
There was a pause in the fighting; this round of stormtroopers was done with. Jaina was breathing hard, adrenalin rushing through her veins. The blond prisoner looked. Tenel Ka, when Jaina glanced back at her, appeared completely calm. Then another round was upon them.
-----
Jaina was barely even bothering to aim; she wouldn't have done so at all if it hadn't been habit. There were so many of them that nearly every shot hit, and through shear numbers more and more of them were getting through. Another two managed to sprint past her. She didn't turn around, trusting Tenel Ka to take them out. A loud scream indicated that she had done exactly that to one of them. Where was the other? Jaina didn't have time to look, but then there was another scream, choked and muffled, from her left. She turned around and saw that the second trooper was trying to strangle Irris, who dropped his blaster. A third trooper took advantage of her distraction, got through the gap in the blaster fire, and grabbed the pistol. She ducked before he even pulled the trigger and lunged at him, taking his legs out from under him. It was too late. She heard another scream as she shot the trooper in the face, looking straight into his eyes as she did it. She spun, firing into the mass of enemies, until she was facing Kev, down with a shot to the gut.
Then Tenel Ka was beside her, visibly struggling to stay calm and shouting in her native language. The warrior probably thought it was magic, but it wasn't doing any good. Jaina had to turn back and keep firing; the troopers were getting past and the prisoners were screaming in fear now. The blonde woman was shouting at them, but she wasn't turning around. She was still firing; Jaina should be too.
"Jay..." Kev rasped. He coughed, blood spraying out of his mouth. Tenel Ka was still shouting, almost frantic. "Love you, Jay."
She reached out and took his hand. "Love you, Kev."
"I'll tell Millia you said hi." And then he was gone.
-----
Everything seemed too slow. She was angry, so angry. At the troopers, the Empire, the Dathomiri, Tenel Ka, herself. It was boiling up inside her, a tangible force.
Jaina stood.
So slowly. They were moving so slowly.
She moved.
Shot to the gut, one down, this is for Kev. Shot to the head, two down, for Millia. Three, for Adumar. Four, for preaching law and order and letting piracy like that that had trapped them here run rampant in the less populated regions. For gangs on Nar Shaada. For frakking Alderaan. For crime lords. For what they had done after the slave rebellions on Kessel and Kashyyyk. For- for- for-
All stormtroopers down. Jaina dropped her blasters and fell to her knees, sobbing, completely drained, as Kirana Ti and her contingent rounded the corner ahead.
Too late.
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