Chapter Eleven: "You must have missed the part about there being very dangerous weapons down there."
"You guys left him?"
"We didn't know," Kithera explained for the tenth time. She was becoming more frustrated with every vindictive question and comment. The entire squad had gathered in the Hawk's cargo bay to discuss the specifics of the mission and what had just happened.
"Stop making accusations," Ski ordered his group, "especially if you were not there to do something differently." He narrowed his order to the members of his Ops group, who seemed to think that they would not have left Jaren if they had been in the situation. "We're in this right now and it doesn't matter what might have happened." He let out a brief sigh of frustration. "Sergeant Bullwinkle knows the situation and is on his way."
Danya waved her arm for attention, her other hand pressing her earpiece in an attempt to listen to Intel's further instructions. "You guys aren't going to believe this," she said, still paying attention to some of the feed. "They've known about this base all along."
"We've figured out that much just from our suspicions," Rinin said, his lekku twitching in agitation. "What are the schutta saying now?"
The hacker ripped the piece from her ear and threw it to the ground in annoyance. "Well, they've taken what intelligence we've sent them and made up a bunch of garbage about knowing the schematics and every detail of this base," she said, her frown telling her opinion of that particular piece of information. "That's probably the dumbest thing I've ever heard."
Kendrick shrugged, knowing little of the intelligence the Talons had gathered. "Wouldn't that kind of stuff be held in the code that Trika picked up?"
Danya shook her head. "Trika may be many things, but she's not an idiot," she told him and the rest of the group. "She didn't risk running a decrypt program while gathering the intel because it would have cost her time and possibly given away their position. It probably would have taken her ten times as long to do it."
"They couldn't have decrypted it themselves?" Quis asked, also unknowledgeable about hacking and their intel.
Danya again shook her head. "They haven't had enough time," she scoffed. "I doubt that Trika and I will have it all decrypted by next week."
Stone interrupted with a rather important point as he started filling the emergency bacta tank. "Sorry to be the party-pooper, but Trika's not going to be doing much of anything if we don't get her back to Coruscant," he reminded everyone. The solemn reminder did not fall on deaf ears, and the squad's reaction was equally somber.
Captain Ski took the helm. "Sergeant Bullwinkle will be headed back to Coruscant," he said. "Rubi, I want you to escort Trika back to the Nest and make sure she gets into a bacta tank. Stone, you'll head out with them to keep an eye -"
The medic shook his head and interrupted for the second time. "Negative, sir," he said. "I'm with Intrusions." Seeing the surprised looks of his squadmates, he explained. "Look, I was useless after Muir sucker-punched me. Once the tank's full, there's not much more I can do for Trika except keep her airway clear, and Rubi can handle that. Besides," he added, making sure to soften his voice, "if Jaren wasn't injured before his capture, he might be when we get in there."
No one would directly look at Telia, but everyone knew that any sort of words she had ever spoken about Jaren were horribly misleading. Her entire facial expression betrayed everything she had ever said about him, and it was evident that the female sniper still had feelings for the missing Talon.
Captain Ski gave a respectful nod Stone's way. "All right," he acquiesced. "You'll get your chance to go in with Intrusions, however we might split the team. Danya, did they send the schematics?"
The hacker stood from her makeshift seat on the cargo bay floor and placed a projector in the center of the circle of Talons. She set the controls and backed away, giving an explanation along with the diagram that was shooting out from the top of the projector. "Intel High Council has given us this layout to go by, which will probably be confirmed by the data we collected from the terminal just inside the northeastern corridor," she told them, pausing for the roaring engines of an Intel transport to pass overhead. Apparently, Sergeant Bullwinkle had just arrived, for the engine noise seemed to be getting closer to the ground. "The base has a basement level with entrances outside of the base at these locations," Danya yelled over the noise and pointed to four separate "secret" entrances that appeared to be deep in the woods surrounding the base. "The basement has four rooms underneath these entrances that are connected by four hallways that form a square. IHC suspects that these rooms house weapons, and a lot of them. Supposedly," she rolled her gray-green eyes, "they have received several atmosphere scans that indicate chemical and radioactive substances below the surface. They're coming down to assist in the collection of these items and the capture of several wanted enemies of the state, which is our newest objective. So far, from their estimates, there has been little evacuation of the base. It seems that they think we've left for good, or they're protecting something very valuable."
The projector shut down after displaying the hazy map. The Talons looked at each other for a long moment. Milan spoke his mind first. "That's absolutely ridiculous," he said in his normal, gruff tone. "I don't appreciate being a pawn in a game with no regard to my or my teammates' well-being." From the bloodstains on his shirt, he was one of the first people who had a right to question orders.
"I don't like it, either," Mekial admitted. "I don't think we can trust people who hide intelligence from us."
"...not to mention endanger us," Rubi said, particularly sore in both body and mind. "I wouldn't be surprised to hear if Jane Muir herself was a setup, to one day kill us all in our sleep."
"Quiet," Ski said calmly, and to his relief, the Talons fell silent. "I'll be the one to sort out this mess once we get back home, but our choices right now are rather slim." He looked at his chrono. Daylight was nearly at its apex. "Intel should be arriving in a few minutes for the party above ground, and that should give us a decent distraction to go in below."
"So we're going in even though we don't know if Intel is lying to us or hiding something else?" Quis asked while looking more and more worried as the conversation continued.
"Yes, and there are several reasons," Ski answered, a little agitated. "I have no intention of disobeying direct orders, which would earn us all either a quick trip to a desk job, a military court, or a prison." Some Talons knew which exact fate they would be forced to take. There were a couple who doubted they would remain in a Coruscant prison for a week before being tried and executed or shipped off to a very dark cell on a very distant planet. "Second, I have no intention of leaving a man behind, as some of you, I am sure, understand." Telia turned away and looked into the forest outside of the ship, hiding her pained expression and revealing eyes. "Third, I really don't get any warm feelings from recalling such a blatant and upsetting defection. Jane Muir may be a new member of Intel's public enemy list, but she's definitely number one on ours. I will not be disappointed to apprehend her.
"Stone, you've just received a temporary promotion to head up the intrusions team," he continued, assigning positions. "Danya, the way should be effortless, but in case the team runs into something, I'd like you to be the intrusion slicer. Milan will join the team, and Mekial will fill in as an extra gun. The rest I want ready for a quick getaway. When you hear Intel coming from the sky, be ready for my signal. Stone, get your people ready."
The group broke easily, understanding the need to move quickly. Stone was gathering supplies and his group, discussing specifics about infiltration and positioning. Captain Ski made sure the Talons were moving before he headed to the front of the transport to prepare for their new mission.
"Sir?" Telia called to Captain Ski from behind. "Sir?"
Kevin paused and turned around to meet the sniper's sad eyes. "Thirteen, I -"
"Sir, I'm going with the intrusions team." She boldly stated her announcement as a fact. She felt stronger about nothing else than the need to save Jaren. "I don't care what you say about it, but I'm going. You can't stop me, either, so don't -"
"Telia, I was just going to agree with you."
She went silent instantly and just looked at him, her eyes full of questions.
"Look, Telia," Ski began, brushing a hand through his black hair, "I know that you have some personal reasons for going in there and getting Jaren." He stopped briefly after watching her redden from the comment. "Join up with Stone. I trust you to do what is right and I expect you to bring him back."
Telia didn't waste another moment looking stupid. "Thank you, sir." She saluted him quickly, running to the back to join the intrusions team.
Before she could fully reach Stone, Danya, Milan, and Mekial, however, another familiar figure popped up from nowhere.
"Did I miss somethin'?" the ever-disturbing Sergeant Bullwinkle called, watching the Talons move about in a hurry. "Y'all seem to be uppity 'bout somethin'!"
*****
Lieutenant Jaren Kai sat on the cold, durasteel floor in the depths of the mysterious Black Fire base. He had examined his surroundings several times, looking for anything that could be used to attempt an escape. It wasn't a big possibility that he could escape, but at least it was something to occupy his mind while he waited for something, anything to happen.
It appeared that he was in one of several basement rooms, and this particular room happened to be filled with locked crates. He had tried to open one, but they all seemed to be built sturdily and locked efficiently. His leg wasn't helping matters, but he had effectively stopped any bleeding and had wrapped it with a ripped portion of his left sleeve.
This was the first part of whatever interrogation lay before him. He understood that Jane Muir had done this sort of thing before, and he knew that she was probably pretty good at it. At the moment, he was supposed to contemplate exactly what was in store for him. The waiting process let a sense of fear and hopelessness invade the prisoner's mind and soften his defenses.
The fact that he knew what to expect did not, however, make it any easier to sit through. His mind kept wandering over the mission and consequent battle, filing away memories of the mistakes that had surely caused him to wind up here.
Jaren hadn't been paying attention too well to his exact location. He remembered coming down a long ladder through a forest entrance and being dragged down a series of nearly identical and very perpendicular corridors. He had then been unceremoniously dumped in a corner room after, of course, being roughed up a bit by a couple of extremely bulky security officers.
Almost to be expected, he thought, touching a finger to his split lip. Enemy spies and snipers are probably the most hated individuals in a war. They fear the fact that they can't fight us openly and that fear causes them to hate us. There probably isn't a person on this base that doesn't want me dead despite the information I might provide. He chuckled morosely even with the bruises on his side. Either way, he was still dead. That they eventually would kill him wasn't in question. It was merely a matter of time. He wanted to make sure they killed him before he told them everything he knew, but he had seen better men give in to the torturous ways of even lesser enemies.
There was the possibility of a rescue, but he knew it was slim. There was no way the Talons knew about the underground section of the base. The intrusions team might have gotten that kind of intelligence from the data they had collected, but it would take several days to find it out, and by that time, he would surely be dead. Even if they raided the base they might assume he had been taken off-planet. Realizing that he faced his own death, Jaren suddenly regretted his decision to join the New Republic, to become a sniper, and to accept the invitation to join up with Talon Intelligence Squadron.
If I hadn't done those things, I wouldn't be here, he thought bitterly. He had risked a lot by joining the New Republic, and he had even denied his Imperial family's inheritance to do so. Everyone who had ever loved him disowned him when he signed up, and he doubted they would care when they received word of his death.
A stray memory made him stop his pouting for a brief moment. He was gazing through the scope of his rifle, watching a pair of soldiers beat a helpless woman protecting her child. At the risk of compromising his sniping position and the entire mission he had shot both troopers dead, saving both the woman and the child. He could still remember the look of surprise and gratitude on the woman's face as she gazed around, looking to acknowledge the person who had just saved her life. She was thanking a man she would never see or know. Those choices he had made early in his adult life had saved that woman, secured strongholds for the now strong New Republic, and ensured freedom for many, many worlds in the galaxy.
No, he had known the risks when he had signed up. He had served well and had accomplished a lot of good during his career. He couldn't regret that.
Then why am I so upset? he demanded. He was almost surprised to find out that the only thing he really regretted was the fact that he had not gotten the chance to make up with Telia Aris. He hadn't had a proper chance to clear the air between them. The walls that had separated them from regaining at least some of their friendship were still there. He regretted not being able to say he was sorry for hurting her, for making her mad at him. He wished he could see her just one more time. He regretted not being able to touch her one more time.
No, he thought sadly as he leaned against the hard wall, I don't regret dying. That happens to everybody.
I truly regret not living more.
*****
"What the hell is all that?" Stone demanded of his teammate Milan. The large Kiffar had been messing with a number of items that Stone definitely thought was unnecessary.
"Flash grenades and some explosive units," he explained, strapping two more bombs to his tactical vest. "I want to be prepared."
"You must have missed the part about there being very dangerous weapons down there," Mekial smirked, already finished with her preparations and awaiting Stone's final orders.
Milan shook his head. "I didn't miss a thing; I promise I'll be extra careful." The unusual, yet dry humor snatched a chuckle from the entire group.
Stone rolled his eyes, understanding that even in his best condition and with the help of three other people he couldn't hope to pry the toys from Milan's grasp. Instead, he let the man have his moment before continuing the rundown of their plan. "We're going in defensively," he told them, his grim face letting them know that he, too, was unsure of the intelligence they had received from above. "While Intel distracts them with the heavy guns, we'll run the length of this underground base from the furthest forest entrance. If any stragglers come from above, they'll choose the closest entrance, where we won't be. We'll find Jaren and disable anything we deem dangerous on the way, including operatives of Black Fire. And if Jane Muir just happens to be one of those 'dangerous' things we disable..." Stone shrugged, mock-helplessly. "What does Command call it? 'Fog of war?' Of course, I never made the suggestion." A chorus of knowing nods met the pronouncement.
A buzz from his side alerted him to the initial signal to go ahead. "Let's move out, team," Stone ordered, tucking away his comlink and beginning their roundabout trek through the forest and to the designated entrance. Danya, Mekial, Telia, and Milan followed closely, remaining as relaxed as conceivably possible.
"If my family knew I was doing this, they'd be absolutely scandalized." Danya took a deep breath, trying to keep the mood light.
"What do you mean?" the friendly Mekial asked in a surprising response.
"Where to even start?" Danya snorted. "I come from a very wealthy Imperial family. You probably know the type?"
Mekial just chuckled, a sign that she knew exactly what Danya was talking about.
Danya elaborated anyway, her nervousness making her more talkative. "They were all well-to-do, upstanding citizens. My parents especially. In fact, they were so very upstanding that they believed themselves superior to pretty much every other form of life, Human or otherwise. I come from a proud tradition of totally shallow, money-crazed snots."
The bold comment even caught Milan's attention. He smirked before moving ahead.
"They never saw me as anything but property," she continued, a hint of bitterness evident in her tone. "A pretty little doll to dress up and show off to all their snobby friends in hopes of marrying me off into some family with even more money. So, of course, I found all sorts of ways to show them that they couldn't control me." A proud little smile tugged at the edges of her lips. "It drove them absolutely crazy to think that their precious daughter was capable of riding speeder bikes and hacking into private databases."
Telia rolled her eyes despite her consistent worrying over Jaren. She understood Danya's predicament completely. "I can't imagine whatever you are talking about," Telia replied with as much sarcasm as she could muster.
Danya chuckled despite her apprehension. "Imagine if they could see us now..."
She abruptly trailed off as Stone threw a hand behind him in a gesture to keep quiet. The group quieted as ordered, seeing the forest entrance ahead. With a few more deep breaths and a couple of silent prayers, the new intrusions team prepared for whatever was before them.
*****
Kendrick sat in the pilot's seat of the Hawk, apart from the rest of the preparations in the cargo bay. They were to be ready for a quick escape, but it appeared that the Hawk's more specific job was going to be directly within the battle above ground. As ridiculous as it sounded, the transport was going to see a bit of action. The more orders they received from the Intelligence High Council, the more Ken found out how ridiculous all of the leading officers really were.
He tried to avoid thinking about Jaren. Every time he thought of his capture a flood of unwanted memories came back to him. He repressed a shudder as he unconsciously wandered back to his teammate. This was not the first time something like this had happened to someone Ken had known.
Special Ops was no place for the weak. Kendrick had long ago been assigned to ground missions with the prestigious group, but those missions were places where one would be more likely to leave his friends behind than come back to them. A man named Jeryl Lang had been a good friend to Kendrick in those days, but he had also been more of a father to Ken than anyone he had ever known.
And Ken had left him to die.
"Don't worry 'bout me. Get going. I'll be right behind you."
"Don't try to fool me. You're hurt."
"You're an observant one." Lang's sarcasm could not be quenched.
The blood from the blaster wound was started to ooze through his fingers.
"Relax. I'm getting you out of here."
Lang swatted Ken's hands away. "The mission is more important. Get going before they get here!"
There was a shout from behind, and they saw the dark silhouettes of Imperial troopers running toward them. They'd been discovered. Lang leaned close, managed a small grin despite the pain. He had his blaster in one hand. "I'll tell them you said 'hello,'" he whispered. With surprising strength, he shoved the younger man behind him. "You have a job to do."
Ken had left Lang in the dirty back-alleys of Ord Mantell. He had left him for the Imperials, for the torture droids. He'd hoped many nights afterward that Lang had been given a quick death. Deep down, however, he knew the Imps would never have been so kind.
It wouldn't happen again. He wouldn't leave another friend behind. For Jaren's sake, Kendrick had to do everything he could do on the surface to give the intrusions team time to get Jaren back.
"Ken, you ready to fly?" The voice was that of cheerful Kithera Rinani. "We just got word that Intel has arrived and is ready to party."
The pilot rolled his eyes at that statement. "Did Captain Ski give any instructions or am I just supposed to fly around and watch the fireworks?" The [i]Hawk and Eagle had been given clear instructions to not use their most dangerous firepower, like the transports' turrets, because of the potential Intel action on the ground. How the Talons were supposed to contribute to the battle, Ken did not know.
"Actually," Kithera began, not sure of how to explain their current situation, "Captain Ski is on board the Eagle and will be running the escape scenario for the intrusions team. Rinin, Ty, and I will be joining you and making sure you're causing some damage."
"How's that?"
"We've found some stuff in the back that will work well from twenty meters and up," she said, but gave no indication as to what they had found. "The captain is taking Quis and Kaiba, and they're loaded with some of it, too. We're going to need to see some low flying stunts on this run. Think you can handle that?"
Kendrick began to get a number of new voices over his comm, likely Intel beginning their first sweep upon the Black Fire base. "What exactly is back there?"
*****
"You can't really mean to dump it all," Ty said solemnly. He understood the situation, yet he was still trying to find a way around it. All of his hard work and sneaking around was for naught.
"It'll be all right," Rinin promised hollowly, putting a blue hand upon his friend's shoulder. "Just remember the recipe and you can always make more."
Kithera had returned from the cockpit and was making herself busy with the few bottles they had on them. She carefully poured the last bit into the last container and stood from her work. "It smells rather cheap, anyway," she said with distaste. "You could probably make better stuff with Bullwinkle's mopping solution."
Ty and Rinin turned around, looking offended. "The cheap stuff is always the best!" Ty pointed a threatening finger at her. "And don't forget those words next time you're begging for some of my brew."
"At least Captain Ski isn't as furious at you now that it proves useful," Rinin consoled Ty. "If he had found all of this earlier, you would have kitchen duty for at least a standard month."
"I have kitchen duty for twenty whole sessions anyway," Ty spat, upset over the punishment. "You'd think some people would be thankful."
A jostle in the ship signaled its rise into the air. "We're hot for battle," Kendrick called from the front on their comms. "I see some ground resistance in the northern sectors. We'll be engaging in ten."
Kithera ignited the first three bottles, the mixture below fueling a very large flame, just as Ty had sworn the substance would do. She passed one to each of her teammates and the trio began to walk toward the edge of the cargo bay. They must have been flying at a decent altitude to get such a windblast, but as soon as Kendrick began his decent toward the ongoing battle, all three armed Talons were glad to be strapped to the interior holds. The jostling shook Kithera so badly that she almost dropped her bottle.
Suspended above the battle, they could see the Intel ship reeking havoc upon the mercenary base. Hundreds of operatives were now fleeing the base by whatever means they could, and the scramble below was only the beginning of whatever carnage Intel had in mind. "There." Ty pointed toward an extremely large transport vehicle, overturned and badly damaged already from the fighting. "Nail its undercarriage."
"Why?" Kithera asked, although the roars of several smaller craft were making it difficult to understand each other.
"Who's the mechanic?" Ty retorted with a sly smile, and without waiting for another word, threw his flaming weapon through the cargo bay and directly at the transport. Rinin and Kithera followed his lead, and as Kendrick pulled tightly to the left, they swung around in an arc to witness the largest explosion they had seen in a long time.
"Sarca sil," Kithera cursed, seeing the flaming transport flying into a dozen large pieces. Those pieces would surely split again and cause a fairly extensive chain reaction across the field where the mercenary group had parked all of their vehicles. "How did you know?"
Ty swung around in his harness and landed safely near the back of the cargo bay, ready to pass around more of his brew. He lit the three bottles on fire before explaining. "I've had a couple of commanders in the past provide me with some experience using those things. The earlier EE models have extremely loose sections that have flammable parts holding them together. I figured," he said, passing Rinin and Kithera another bottle and swinging back into place, "that they still haven't found a way to fix them without totally replacing them. We used to joke that 'EE' stood for 'Extremely Explosive.'"
The three shared a laugh before getting jerked around once more. "Sorry," Ken called to them through their earpieces. "Intel is making this fairly difficult for me. You guys ready?"
"Roger that," Kithera called back. "We're ready for a second round."
"Swing by the western side," Rinin told him. "That's where that terminal access point was, right?"
"Yeah," Ken affirmed. "And that's where the majority of the evacuation is taking place."
"Let's join the fun," Kithera smiled, the three ready to barrage the ground with Ty's deadly brew.
*****
He heard her footfalls long before she arrived at the door. The outside control panel took at least thirty seconds to disengage, and a painful thirty seconds it was. Jaren gave one more look around the room for something... anything that would help him, but he figured his captors wouldn't have left him in the room with anything of real value.
The heavy durasteel door opened, and in walked Jane Muir, looking a bit more relaxed in her official Black Fire uniform. Its medium-gray tone set off the rank, insignia, and medals to the point of nausea. It was overly apparent that Muir was an important ranking officer, and she indeed looked the intimidating part.
"Lieutenant," she began, a trio of officers following her entrance, "I've a few questions for you that I hope you'll be so kind to answer."
"I've got a few for you, too," Jaren said, backing up to the wall and appearing nervous despite his preparation. "What kind of ridiculous demotion landed you a traitor's position with the Talons, and who did you have on the inside, Lieutenant?"
The tall, slim woman bent low and slapped Jaren across the face. "It's Captain, now," she corrected him, standing up tall in an effort to show her superiority in more than just rank. "I have both a higher rank and pay with my real position here. As for an insider, Black Fire's reach is far beyond anything you can imagine, so I wouldn't worry yourself with the details of how I came to be."
It sounded rather stupid, but his next question still bought him more time. "How can you be working for the enemy?"
Muir crouched down to look Kai straight in the eyes. "The enemy, Jaren, is whoever is not paying me the most." Muir, with years of experience in E.I.F.T.E., knew that he was stalling. Her partial answer would suffice for his inquisition. With a brief glance over her shoulder, she motioned for her minions to hold him down.
To Jaren's credit, he did manage to knock the first two officers aside before the third wrapped his arms behind him and locked them tightly. The first two quickly regained their composure and aided the other by grasping Jaren's black hair, pulling it back, and holding down his legs. Jane Muir stood back until they were finished and gave a large smile. "I assure you that even with my experience in this line of work, you'll be happy to know that I am in no way as practiced as my employers, who will be sorry to hear that they didn't get to meet you."
As she approached, Jaren tried to jerk away once more. He tried to ignore the agonizing pain in his left leg and the sharp object in Muir's right hand. Just before the pain began anew, he was sure he heard a commotion aboveground. It was no matter, however. His distressed cries drowned out any other noises that may have been present.