Chapter 36
The Fools Gambit II
"Okay, everybody knows what to do, right?"
There was a chorus of nods from each of the ringleaders. All seven of them, including Naruto, were crouched in a huddle, looking over and correcting the last few points of this daring escape attempt. He looked over each of their faces, and with a nod of his head, he rose to his full height, followed by the others who then moved to their own concentrations of men and women.
Once again the blond haired Ninja took stock of his quarry and their weapons inventory: he estimated that there were somewhere between twelve to fifteen hundred detainees, of whom some eight hundred were non-combatants – civilians who wouldn't even know which end of a blaster to point at someone - while another two hundred or so were too old, too injured, or too sick to take part, leaving the remaining few hundred – soldiers who were ill-equipped, dehydrated and starving. There were only enough blasters for a quarter of the men who were even capable of fighting; the rest had to make do with knives and crowbars. Naruto even exhausted the vast supply of weapons he kept sealed in scrolls on his person at all times…and still came up short of being able to arm every soldier.
Regardless of their current state of combat readiness, the battle plan was simple enough to be able to pull off with what they had on hand. The soldiers who were armed would move out first and clear out the corridors. Once they gave the all-clear, they would proceed to herd the rest of them through and hold it until they were safely away. The company of Neimoidian shock troopers and his own contingent of ARC troopers would be providing sniper support and suppressing fire. As to ammunition and extra blasters, those men and women without would have to scavenge from those they killed, and if someone with a blaster was killed, then the nearest sentient would pick up the weapon and continue on. Those soldiers who were elderly, injured and sick would travel with the non-combatants and try to arm themselves along the way – this way, the civilians would have a "last line of defence" should it be required.
A low mewl sounded, and Naruto turned to flash a narrow smile at the towering form of his Wookiee bodyguard, still hefting the huge blast cannon he had supplied him, "Yeah, I know, brother. I don't much like the plan either."
There was a grunt of agreement followed by a growl. Naruto did not know how to speak the language of these proud creatures, but he somehow knew what he was saying. Since his visit to Kashyyyk and the Jedi Conclave, he had come to hold the Wookiee people in very high regard – he had even mused to himself on occasion that he might be a Wookiee at heart, such was the kinship he felt with this extraordinary race of creatures. The Wookiees had taken possession of most of the heavy weapons that Naruto had brought with him: blast cannons, rocket launchers and a few grenade launchers, termed as heavies by the rest of them.
"Well, then," Naruto said to himself as he drew his duel blaster pistols and checked their magazines to make sure they were at full power, "Let's get this show on the road, shall we? Squads one and two with me: let's get this party rolling!"
He walked briskly and purposefully towards the main hangar bay doors, followed by his Wookiee companion and two platoons of blaster-wielding soldiers just behind him to his flanks. The only sounds that Naruto heard as they approached the inner blast doors were the smack of three dozen pairs of boots against the concrete, the clinking of weapons, and the beating of his own heart in his ears.
"Is squad three in position?" he asked.
One of the soldiers to his right, a human man with a balding head and a lean build answered him, "They're in position on the roof, and squad four also reports ready on the adjacent hangar roof. They'll give us the sniper fire we need."
"Excellent. Inform the squadron commanders that they're to stay in position for three volleys, and then rejoin with the main formation," Naruto ordered as he pumped chakra into his feet, releasing several faint pulses to gauge any movement at the other end of the blast doors. His chakra pulses acted like a sonar beacon, each one bouncing right back to him a second later. He detected thirty-two humanoid-size figures, formed in what felt like four squads of eight, and from the positioning that each chakra pulse detected them at, they were all jogging their way in said formation.
Naruto turned to the human figure he was passing orders through, Giggs, if he remembered his name correctly, "Thirty two people are heading our way at a brisk jog – probably a platoon of stormtroopers. In five seconds, order Squads Three and Four to fire on them. We have to keep their attention away from the blast doors."
"Got it, Boss."
"Boss?" Naruto asked in slight confusion, eyes sweeping towards Giggs. An image of a grinning Konohamaru Sarutobi suddenly flashed into his mind as Naruto heard the man call him the name that Naruto's old self-proclaimed disciple and rival had first given him. The image left as quickly as it came, but not without causing Naruto to smile nostalgically for a brief second.
"It's what we've decided to call you, and it's probably gonna stick," the man offered with a shrug and a smirk.
There was a snigger from the Neimoidian beside him, this one female by her more slender form, "The human comes in here, instantly assesses our situation, and rallies us into some kind of battle order. I think the term 'Big Boss' suits him better."
"You're right: 'Big Boss' does fit better," A Togruta male agreed with a nod and a grin of sharp teeth.
"Hmm….well, I suppose there are worse nicknames to be stuck with," Naruto allowed humorously, already hearing the sounds of blaster fire and shouting outside.
He instantly straightened up and addressed his troops, "Alright people, look sharp! It's time to make our grand debut!"
A roar of agreement from his self-appointed bodyguard, followed by laughter from the other three Wookiees taking part, made him sigh.
'Yeah, I think "Big Boss" is probably gonna stick,' he thought to himself resignedly. He raised his blasters to head-level, muzzles pointed to the ceiling, as he raised his foot and slammed it into the door with a chakra enhanced kick. The inner door immediately gave way and flew outward, taking part of the encasing wall with it as the squeal of tearing metal and the grinding sound of tearing concrete could be heard. The blast-door-turned-projectile slammed into a makeshift bunker and crushed a stormtrooper.
Naruto leaped over the threshold, pointing his two blaster pistols at the nearest group of Imperial soldiers, and opened fire, catching one in the faceplate as he rolled to his feet. He then began advancing, shimmying left and right all the while to avoid their blaster fire while bombarding them with his own. He was followed by his makeshift infantry platoons, quickly forming into ranks and unleashing volleys of blaster fire upon the now-confused Imperial soldiers and stormtroopers, whose numbers had already been cut in half by the sniper fire coming from above.
The gunfight barely lasted twenty seconds, ending with all of the Imperials lying dead on the ground and only one injured on his side - not a bad opening play if he did say so himself. Naruto surveyed the open ground between them and their objective: there were three Frigate-sized ships that he could see, but the one they were looking for was easy enough to find, with the flashes of blaster fire around it.
"That's our objective," Naruto shouted, pointing towards the other firefight with the pistol he held in his right hand, "Everyone hold your position while I send out a few scouts to do some recon!"
"Scouts?" one if his troopers asked warily, unwilling to volunteer to get himself shot while running out in the open by himself.
Naruto's response was to use his two pistols to form his signature cross shaped hand seal, a smirk in place as he called out the name of his first high ranked Ninja technique, "Taiju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
Nearly a hundred clones popped into existence, which then fanned out and moved across the open ground of the runways towards the commandeered Frigate. It didn't take long for the memories of his dispersed clones to flow back into his mind. Naruto took them in and opened his eyes to look across the battleground.
Turning to his troops, he informed them, "The runways are littered with troops in reinforced positions. My clones will do what they can to whittle them down, but we're all going to need to be ready for a tough push forward."
He turned to see a mass of bewildered faces, and it took a moment before he realised that none of these people had ever seen a Shinobi in action before, let alone seen him create a hundred shadow clones and send them out to fight. Naruto looked up to the night sky and considered his own stupidity before turning back to the crowd of gobsmacked onlookers, addressing them lightly and smartly, "Come on people, I know I'm awesome, but that's no reason for you to slack off!"
Most of the soldiers shook themselves from their stooped frame of mind and moved out, other unarmed soldiers were already filing through the hole Naruto created in the hangar entryway to collect the weapons of the fallen Imperial soldiers and join those already attempting to create and secure a corridor. Naruto looked at the darkened open ground, and realised that Celeste had done more than target the barracks; she had hit the power generators as well! Besides basic emergency power for the running lights, the space port was almost completely dark.
"I love that woman, I swear," Naruto smirked as he created another twenty clones and led them out into the killing fields, another dozen of his original wave had been taken out and their memories were sifting into his mind, building a picture of the area and the resistance ahead. Streaks and flashes of blaster fire lit up the surrounding area as he moved. Seeing a trio of black-armoured Imperial troopers, he quickly downed them with a volley of his blaster pistols as he passed.
Another half dozen clones were dispelled, and with a frown, Naruto created another wave of twenty and sent them out into the field. He idly noted that the way battles played out here was quite different from his battles back in the Elemental Nations: numbers didn't mean as much here as they did when he was fighting in the Fourth Shinobi War. The invention of weapons like blasters had made his clones less effective than he expected. The memories he received showed him that three stormtroopers took out three times their number in shadow clones before they were overwhelmed by the rest.
There was a roar from overhead, followed by an explosion. Naruto turned his head and saw with trepidation that it was the hangar across from theirs, the one where one of his sniper platoons had taken position. The Imperials were calling in air support, faster than he had given them credit for. He pressed the comlink secreted in his ear to hear the chatter.
"Squad four has been wiped out."
"Come in squad four, do you read!?"
"Shit," Naruto growled under his breath before tapping his comlink to join in the conversation, "Squad three, this is Big Boss! Get your asses off that roof right now!"
"Roger that, Big Boss!"
Naruto would have let out a sigh at how the nickname stuck, but he was too engaged in trying to keep order within his ranks and assess his situation, "Squad four, anyone still alive up there!?"
There was a moment of silence, followed by a cough, "This is squad four. We've lost five people uphere. The bastards used a proton bomb on us!"
"You have the same orders as squad three: Pull out and regroup with the main formation on the ground!" Naruto nearly shouted through the receiver, skidding to a halt and ducking as a blaster bolt zipped past him. He turned his pistols towards the duo of Imperial troopers rushing him and downed them before they could react, "Get your asses off that roof!"
Another roar of engines overhead, another detonation resonated through the air. It wasn't aimed at the hangars this time, but at the runway. Naruto could just make out the ventral section of a ball-shaped cockpit as it passed by, illuminated by the light of the flames from its bomb before vanishing into the night sky again.
"We've lost squad two. I repeat, squad two has been wiped out."
"Shit, we need help."
Naruto had never commanded soldiers in action before, at least not since he arrived here. He hadn't taken into consideration the idea of air support, and he hadn't taken into consideration the fact that the stormtrooper units of the space port would be able to adapt and continue operating after their main headquarters had been taken out, such was the demeanour of elite shock troopers like the Stormtrooper Corps. He realised he was still thinking like a dirt general, one who operated with ground units and not with air or space units, and berated himself for his stupidity.
There were just too many variables that he had no experience dealing with in this situation. He needed help.
Rex didn't hesitate as the door opened.
He went straight in, raising his dual blaster pistols and taking out the two guards with well-placed fire. The three technicians rose from their seats and fumbled for their sidearms, but his two comrades were right behind him and they dispatched them with a few well-placed shots.
He lowered his blaster pistol as Carmine and Rev scanned the control centre. A thumbs-up from Carmine let Rex know that the area had been cleared. The former Director of Confederate Intelligence and the Admiral walked into the room with Jolt bringing up the rear, looking around wearily for a moment before continuing into the small antechamber.
"Will this suffice, Admiral?"
The Neimoidian walked towards the nearest console, grabbing one of the technicians by his collar and pushing him out of the way before he began to push runes in the console, "It's encrypted. Can you break it for me, Sull?"
The Intelligence agent walked over to the console, nudging the Admiral out of the way as he began his work, pushing runes as he sat down on the swivel chair the now-dead Imperial technician had occupied a few moments before. "It's a level-four encryption programme, difficult for most…" he quickly pushed a few remaining runes before stopping, "…but not for me. I'm in."
"Can you bring up a map of the battle in the surrounding space of the system?" Swell asked, looking at the centre of the three-pronged console and the holo-generator in the very centre.
"You do know who you're talking to, right?" Sull asked with a good-natured jest before getting to work again, within moments a holographic image of the planetary system flickered into life before them, another brief moment showed red and blue specks of light representing the Imperial and Confederate vessels in the region.
A growl resonated from Swell's cracked lips as the Neomoidian studied the projection, "They've managed to split the fleet."
"Into three segments by the looks of it," Sull added as he continued to type into the console's keyboard, bringing up a closer image of the battle, "The largest portion of the fleet is here. Looks like they're mingled in with the Imperials pretty good, to the point where they're fighting each other side by side…the second largest segment seems to be fighting for control of the planet's orbit and there's a smaller flotilla at the edge. Looks like they were split from the main body but were able to break away from the ambush the Imperials set for them."
"What about the forces over the planet?" Swell asked as he leaned over the Intelligence operative, hand on his shoulder to give him a better vantage of the situation. "What are they made up of?"
"Looks like half a dozen Lucrehulk-class Battleships and a few Providence-class Carriers."
"What's happening on the space port?" Rex asked.
Sull frowned at the former commander, but began typing in commands into the console, the image on the hologram changed, showing the perimeter of the space port down to the finest of details. Red dots lining the surface and appearing as two lines that were broken in several places leading to a Frigate immediately stood out, a half dozen blue forms of ball-shaped fighters with rectangular wings performing attack runs against them.
"That must be Naruto's group," Rex surmised with a growl, "He's trying to lead the prisoners to that Frigate."
"They're getting torn apart," Rev said, earning him a glare from his commander.
Rex sighed after a moment and scratched the back of his head, "Naruto is an excellent frontline soldier, but he's never led men in battle - at least not officially. He's inexperienced in fighting a modern war; bet he didn't even consider air support and heavy weapons."
"Sull," Swell said, catching the former Director's attention, "Can you get me into contact with our forces in orbit?"
"Easily, but the Imperials will know our location the moment we send the transmission," the Intelligence Director stated with a nod, "I won't be able to mask the signal - not with this equipment."
"It will do," Swell said without any room for argument, "Send this message to the ships in orbit on an open channel. By order of Admiral Swell, a squadron of fighters is to break through enemy lines and descend to the main Sorenno spaceport with all due haste. We need to clear the skies for our forces to get off-planet. Transmit now!"
"On it," Sull nodded in agreement as his hands danced along the console, inputting commands, crashing security servers and firewalls and generally disintegrating the spaceport's network as he sent the message to the ships in orbit, uploading several viruses as he did so to try and mask his trail, and partially succeeding, "The message has been sent, with your personal identification and command codes, I hope they don't consider it a trick, my friend."
"I hope so too, my old friend," the Neimoidian Admiral replied with a nod before looking up at the ceiling, "We can only hope that the powers that be are on our side."
Rex looked over to Jolt, seeing him nod his head before turning to the two former Confederate commanders he had volunteered to save, "We need to move now."
"Commander?"
The battle wasn't going well.
"Commander!"
Who was he kidding? He wasn't like Admiral Swell. He may have had the ability to rally the fleet and set them upon the goal, but when it came to the battle itself, he just wasn't adequate. The fleet had been split, they were being decimated, and he could not think of anything but to continue on with the objective. Commander Novak Sova looked upon the battle and the fleet he had been entrusted with as they were slowly torn apart.
"Commander," Sova turned to a young ensign with a datapad in hand, who seemed somewhat confused, "We have received a message…from the surface?"
"Terms of surrender, I take it?" Sova asked, trying to keep the cynicism out of his voice.
"No sir! Orders from Admiral Swell!"
It took Sova a long moment to digest the information before turning back to the ensign, "What did you say?"
"What I said, sir, was that we have received orders from Admiral Swell on the surface," the ensign replied, "He was able to escape his capture thanks to some rogue clones and a crazy rescue mission, and he has issued orders for air support around the main Sorenno spaceport to allow him and those under his command to escape."
"It is a trick," Novak said after a moment of hesitation. "There's no way we could be that lucky."
"I thought that as well, sir, but not only are his command codes and personal ID authentic, but he sent an additional message he was sure you would catch." The ensign explained.
"And what would that be?"
"Get off your lazy ass, Sova, and get me some fucking air support!" the ensign answered, before looking at his commanding officer with an apologetic smile, "That's the message we received, and it was word for word."
Novak Sova was silent for a long moment before a smile spread across the Neimoidian's features, "I think we kept three squadrons worth of drones in reserve didn't we?"
"Yes sir."
"Launch them," Sova ordered without hesitation, "And send them to the spaceport. Get that old bastard some air support."
"Yes sir," the ensign responded with not a little enthusiasm as he immediately jumped on his assigned task.
"There's no way they're going to be able to get to us."
The Neimoidian Commander growled low in his throat in agreement as they looked at the holographic projection of the battle taking place several hundred meters away. Flask watched the battle play out as he put a cigarette in his mouth and lit it with his trusty lighter.
Naruto may not have been experienced in his new office as a dirt commander, but at least he could tell when a strategy wasn't working. The moment the air support came in he ordered the troopers attempted to make the corridor to fall back to the hangar. It looked like casualties were down to a dozen or so, mainly from the sniper team on the roof and a few unlucky men caught in a strafing run.
The former Sergeant thought it over for a moment, inhaling the smoke of his cigarette before blowing it out again, watching as it expanded into the stale air before disintegrating. He then turned to the trooper standing to his right, a former commando combat engineer named Ravage, "How's the ship?"
"Fully fuelled and armed," the engineer replied with a nod, "The droids and drones have been removed, probably scrapped, but other than that she's completely flight-worthy."
"Does that include the gun emplacements?"
"Yeah."
Flask was thoughtful again for a moment, the idea he was planning was risky, but at the moment it was probably the best option they had left, "Spool up the engines and get her in the air. Bring the gun emplacements online and have them fire at anything with an Imperial transponder code. Can we sync the weapons systems to fire automatically?"
"Pretty easy to do…though we'd need about five minutes to do it."
"You've got three," the sergeant replied, lifting his right hand to show him three fingers, "That's about how much time we've got until the engines are ready to get this heavy bird in the air."
"Got it," Ravage confirmed with a quick salute before moving towards the exit of the bridge, pointing to two idle troopers to follow him as he left.
"What are you planning, Sergeant?" Commander Noka asked with unkempt suspicion, hand moving slowly to his sidearm, "You're not planning on leaving them here are you?"
"Of course not," Flask replied with a wave of his right hand, "They can't get to us without huge casualties, so I'm improvising. We're going to go to them."
The grip on his blaster pistol loosened, hand moving instead to massage his chin. "That'll take some careful flying, if you're going to bring this beast over beside the hangar."
"Commander, who the hell do you think we are?" Flask asked with a smile, smoke rising from his half burned away cigarette. "Compared to the maneuver I pulled at the Battle of Mygetto, this is nothing. Better get your troopers in here. This is going to be one hell of a bumpy ride."
"Well, didn't this just go right down shit's creek without a paddle?"
That wasn't actually a bad analogy of their situation, Naruto thought, as he reloaded his blaster pistols. He had ordered a full retreat back to the hangar, and he and about two dozen survivors of the spearhead were taking cover in a semi-circle of sandbag walls, blaster fire was blazing over their heads as the Imperials began to mobilise their ground forces. There were already nearly three dozen bodies of Imp regulars out there, alongside a half dozen of their own hastily-put-together force.
There was already a quartet of light-armoured troop transports coming to a stop in a similar semi-circle, more black-armoured Imperial soldiers pouring out of them and taking cover behind their transports, letting the armour take the brunt of the damage while they returned fire from the sides. Blaster fire zipped and blazed over their heads, pinging and sizzling as it hit and burned their barricade or the walls of the hangar.
Of course, Naruto's troops weren't exactly helpless, either. They were pouring fire onto the vehicles, and the Wookiees and their heavy weapons were essentially keeping the Imps pinned, stopping them from overwhelming their position. The blast cannon of his self-appointed bodyguard was rattling away, and a rocket flew past and impacted the side of the transport on the far right with a brilliant flash followed by a resounding boom as it went up in flames.
"Why the hell aren't they just calling in the fighters to finish us off? I don't get it!" someone yelled from across the barricade.
"They want to take most of us alive. I'm guessing the slavers are in charge, here," someone else shouted back.
"Fucking inbred mother fuckers!"
Naruto gritted his teeth as his left pistol clicked empty, followed a few shots later by his right. Cursing just as colourfully as the rest of them, he allowed the empty power cartridges to fall to the concrete as he pulled out a few fresh ones to replace them. Blasters may have been cheaper on ammunition than slug-throwers, but they ran out of power the same way the latter runs out of ammunition.
Shadow clones wouldn't help them, here, either. They'd just overcrowd the barricade, and he couldn't make the time to use Jutsu, either. He would need to use hand seals and sitting down while doing so wasn't very good on precision. He also didn't much like being riddled with blaster fire, so that discouraged the idea even more. All he could do was use his blasters like everyone else.
"Oh, fuck me! Is that a tank?!" a yell was heard from Naruto's right.
Naruto looked in the voice's general direction and cursed again, there, coming right towards them was indeed a hover-tank: a TX-130, by the look of the long thin barrels protruding from the sides of the cockpit. It was termed "Heavy Cavalry" by the Grand Army and their successor - an anti-personnel light battle tank.
"Well, this sucks. It looks like we'll need a miracle!"
"No shit, genius!"
Naruto had to agree, but before he could shout out a reply he was taken by surprise when a body slammed against the side of the barrier right beside him, a blaster pistol was immediately pointed at the newcomer, only for the trigger finger to stop with millimeters to spare when he recognized who had arrived. The relief pouring off of him probably showed on his face but he didn't care.
"I take it things went better on your end!?"
"You bet," Rex returned with a grin as he brought his carbine over the edge and fired off a few rounds, managing to down an unlucky Imp who had leaned a little too far away from his spot at the side of the central transport, "Definitely better than this clusterfuck!"
"Thanks a lot, Rex," Naruto returned deadpan as he fired off a few shots.
"I'm not blaming you," Rex replied, squeezing off a few more rounds before taking cover behind the sandbag wall. "You actually did pretty well in ordering the retreat instead of going all gung-ho and getting everybody killed. Whether you like to admit it or not this was kind of a suicide mission to begin with."
"Yeah, I know," Naruto allowed.
"It's a good thing you have me here to get your ass out of the fire," Rex continued, "Admiral Swell was able to get a transmission out to the fleet in orbit. If we're lucky, we'll still be here by the time the drones arrive to tackle the air support."
"That still leaves the ground!" Naruto shot back, pointing with his left handed gun towards the now slowing down nemesis, "I don't know if you're aware but there's a hover-tank coming right this way."
"It's already here," Rex stated, looking up with a pale face. Naruto looked over as well, a chill creeping up his spine as the main turret swiveled round, showing twin anti-personnel repeating blaster cannons aimed right for them.
There was a flash of crimson, followed by a bright flash as the tank exploded in a stream of shattered metal and fire. Another volley of heavy fire lanced into the surrounding vehicles, turning two of them into bright detonations of crimson flame. Naruto could only look on, bewildered before hearing the low hum of ship engines and it was getting louder.
It was the Frigate, Naruto realized hovering in their direction just about a dozen meters off the ground, its laser cannons firing streams of energy upon the now scattering fighters. There was a cheer from the survivors around him as those Imperials not caught up in the initial barrage retreated in what could only be called a rout, all the while the Frigate closed the distance in a heartbeat and lowered to a land barely thirty meters away from them, laser cannons firing away.
The main landing ramp lowered and a small force of twenty Neimoidian Home Guard troopers exited, taking up positions around the entrance as a single, white-armoured ARC Trooper walked nonchalantly down the ramp and waved in their general direction.
"That's our cue, people!" Rex roared, rising to his feet as he spoke, "Create a corridor and get those civilians on the ship, women and children first!"
The two dozen survivors moved from their entrenched position, meeting with the incoming Legionnaires in the centre and creating two lines with five meters between them. The double doors opened and Celeste poked her head out, looking over at Naruto and Rex imploringly to give the all-clear.
"We're clear! Open up the main hangar doors and get everyone onboard!" Naruto shouted over to her, seeing the former Jedi nod her head before disappearing back into the hangar. The blond looked up, seeing the tracer rounds as the Frigate's laser cannons fired at everything and anything not around the hangar.
"How did you get into the hangar?" he asked Rex at last.
The former Commander looked over at his comrade in arms, leaning his carbine against his shoulder as he flashed him a smirk, "There's a whole labyrinth of underground tunnels and catacombs down there - more than we originally thought. It looks like this place wasn't originally a civilian spaceport and the Imps were using it as their main Centre of Operations. We took a shortcut and managed to find an entrance from the underground to the hangar beside yours."
"Hmm," Naruto nodded with a look, "That was lucky."
"It must be rubbing off from being around you so much," Rex quipped.
"Yeah, yeah, I have more luck than brains."
"That's the understatement of the year."
"Shut up."
The huge doors to the hangar opened then with a great shudder and a squeal of hydraulics and motors. The mass of recently-freed people filed out before the hangar doors even finished opening, led by Celeste, who had the Twi'lek child from earlier in her arms, and the two ARC Troopers Naruto left her with. Moving everyone as quickly as they could without creating a stampede, Celeste and the troops stayed focused and continued giving orders while maintaining crowd control. Naruto doubted that they would start trampling each other, though; most of them needed the support of each other just to move. A mass of dirty, dehydrated, hungry and injured victims of the Sith – they didn't have the strength to stampede, so all Naruto had to worry about was making sure they could actually move fast enough to get on board the Frigate without possibly being gunned down.
"We did a good thing today, Rex," Naruto said lowly so that only his friend could hear him.
"That we did," the former Grand Army Commander agreed with a nod, "We did a great thing today, and hopefully this will be the first of many."
"The day's not finished yet, though," Naruto finished, holstering his pistols and digging his hands into his pockets as he walked towards the open boarding ramp of the Frigate, "Come on, we may have severed their chains but we still need to get them off this planet."
"There's still the Sep fleet getting pummeled in orbit," Rex added as he walked beside his new commander, blaster carbine held idly at his side as he reached into his utility belt and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter, "We'll need to get them out of there as well - maybe gain a strong ally along the way."
"Since when do you smoke?" Naruto asked with a light smirk.
Rex shrugged as he flipped the cigarette in his mouth and lit his lighter, "Not really very into it, but after a firefight like this I've found it kind of calms the nerves."
"You got a spare?"
Rex looked at Naruto for a long moment, before reaching back into his belt and pulling out another cigarette, giving it to Naruto and lighting it for him as he placed it into his mouth. The blond took a deep drag, and then broke into a series of hacks and coughs which made the grizzled war veteran chuckle.
"How the hell do you smoke these things?" he asked between coughs.
"Lots of practice," Rex replied. "I wouldn't recommend making a custom of it though. It's a bad habit."
"No kidding," Naruto responded.
If there was one thing Boba Fett had learned since entering the employ of Jabba the Hutt it was that when the crime lord wanted a job done, he made sure you knew about it. The current job was one such time, though the young hunter couldn't really blame his employer for wanting this done as quickly as possible - not with the threats the Emperor was making at the moment.
The young bounty hunter walked with a purpose, now dressed in his father's armour as he made his way towards his ship, not slowing even as the double blast doors opened for him as he passed through. Beyond was the Hutt crime lord's main hangar bay, located in the underground below his Tatooine palace.
The hangar bay was quite large, easily capable of holding two dozen freighter-sized vessels - a huge cuboids-shaped space. The only exit for the ships was a large rectangular exit at the far end, blast doors fully opened to allow the Tatooine sunlight to blaze through. His vessel was midway along the line of ships: the unmistakable form of his father's own craft, the Slave I, an experimental Firespray 31-class Patrol and Attack Craft his late father was able to commandeer.
His son still used it, even to this day.
The boarding ramp was already open, and the young hunter ascended into the confines of his ship, the small side cloak billowing as he was encompassed by the dim lights of his vessel. Idly, Fett considered that it was time to replace those lights - another cycle and they would burn out completely. He walked through the ship's cargo hold, stopping just long enough to touch the control pad and open the door to the cockpit.
He was greeted by a small mist of cigarette smoke and absently raised his hand to swipe it away as he entered the cockpit and looked at the figure lying lazily on the co-pilots chair, a lit cigarette in her mouth as she exhaled another mass of smoke, "Hey, welcome back."
"Can't you do that outside?" he asked as he walked up to the main console, pushing a few buttons and opening the emergency ventilation vents. The smoke flew out as the ship replenished its breathable air, leaving the girl looking at him with a bemused expression as she plucked the cigarette from her mouth and put it out on an ashtray on her side of the console, alongside a dozen others.
"Go outside every time I want to take a drag, are you crazy?" she asked in a slightly accented voice.
"It's a nasty habit."
"It calms my nerves," She retaliated easily, "Especially with you being in there for so blasted long."
The young Mandalorian could do nothing more than sigh as he reached up and undid the locks around his helm, taking it off and placing it to the side as he sat on the chair and began inputting commands into the main console, there was a whine as the main ramp closed with a hiss of hydraulics, followed by the cockpit blast door as the Slave I became airtight.
"So we got a job?" his partner asked.
"Yeah, a big one," Fett replied as he hit the starter, feeling the engines come to life before the low hum kicked in to prove it, "We're going after a big fish, a rebel who's been a real thorn in the Empire's side."
"Sounds big," the girl said as she leaned back in her chair, drawing her blaster pistol and twirling it around slender fingers. "What's the bounty on him?"
"Around five hundred thousand," Boba replied, and he suppressed a smirk in seeing her almost lose her grip on the pistol.
"Five hundred thousand?" she asked in disbelief.
"That's just for him," Fett continued as he began doing safety checks to the ships internal systems. "It's one point two million for his entire crew."
"Dead or alive?"
"Alive for him, the rest they don't seem to care about." Fett answered, giving his partner a brief glance, "I need you're A-game for this one, Sin."
"You got my A-game for this one, Bo."
Sintas Vel was another child bounty hunter, the same as him. She wasn't a Mandalorain though; in her case, she was a Kiffar who had decided early on to take up a life of bounty hunting shortly after her parents had died. She was an attractive woman with long black hair done up in a ponytail, piercing blue eyes, high cheeks bones and a small pointed chin. Her cheeks were adorned with three black stripes a piece, marks of her people bestowed upon them at birth. The two of them had decided on a temporary alliance for a tricky job and had been partners ever since.
"So what's the name of this guy?" she asked as she holstered her pistol.
"Naruto Uzumaki," Fett replied, seeing a slight widening in her eyes, "What?"
"Nothing," she replied as she leaned back in the co-pilot's seat, placing her hands behind her head as she looked up at the ceiling, "It's just that I swear I've heard that last name somewhere before: Uzumaki."
"Strap yourself in, Sin," Fett said as he clipped his safety harness into place, watching as she did the same. He was about to push the throttle and bring the Slave Iinto hover when a proximity alarm blared from his side of the cockpit. He removed his hand from the hover throttle and watched as a familiar ship came into view.
"Your Ex, I take it?" Sintas joked.
"Not funny, Sin," Fett replied as he watched Aurra Sing's skiff leave the hangar.
Author's Note: Merry Christmas, I was hoping to have this chapter done and uploaded by Christmas Eve but better late than never eh? Once again thanks goes to my betareader for sifting through the crap for me.
A lot of people have been asking me about what Naruto's main role in the rebellion is going to be, if he would be leading it, to be honest I'm not so sure myself, but he isn't going to be the overall leader. I've seen too many fanfiction where Naruto becomes the centre of everything, kind of annoys me to be honest. So no I don't plan for him to be the overall leader, the Jedi, the Clones and the Seps have their own leaders, and Naruto wouldn't want to be bogged down, he'd much rather be out there on the frontlines, something he wouldn't be able to do if he was a member of the council.
On another note, the relationship category of this story, a lot of people have been asking if I would add Celeste into the mix with Naruto and Aayla. I've been trying to say no for a long time, but a lot of people have asked if I will do it. So I've decided to leave it in your hands, a new poll is on my fanfic page, just go there and vote on what you want to see, yes or no.