Last time: The Militia, 19th, and the family come up with a plan to find Cordova.

Now: They put the plan in motion.

Chapter 14- Cerrasses

Sasha and Viran walked hand in hand as they walked through Cerrasses a few hours after the debrief. They had arrived in town about ten minutes ago and their family split up into teams of two to start looking around the city while the Copperheads surveyed the area around the town for anything out of line. They had decided to split into couples to make them stand out less, except for Kyr and Cien who did nothing but stand out in their shiny beskar armor.

As they walked, Viran looked at Sasha, who was looking around the street they were walking down.

"Credit for your thoughts?" He asked her.

Sasha looked at him. "I'm just anxious is all. I sense that we are so close to ending this. And I admit," she paused, "I'm afraid of what we will find."

Viran squeezed her hand. "We will find Cordova and make him pay for everything he has done to our family. To you. It'll all be okay," he assured her.

"I know, but I still can't believe we are so close," Sasha admitted.

"Neither can I," Viran agreed.

"You know," Sasha said after a moment, "I'm very proud of you. You really stepped up on this mission. Like more than I have ever seen from you before."

"Really?" He asked, surprised by that compliment.

"Yeah. You have really matured over these years. And even more so recently. I don't think I could have gotten through a lot of this without you being there for me and everyone," Sasha said genuinely.

Viran smiled at that as he blushed. "Well I had a good role model," he said before leaning over and giving her a kiss.

Sasha and Viran stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and held the kiss for a moment before pulling away, smiling.

"We should keep going," Sasha said, quietly. "We can continue this later."

"Sounds good to me," Viran beamed as he squeezed her hand and pulled her along the road.

"Eeeewwwww." Kyr's voice said over the family comline.

Sasha and Viran looked towards him with a not so subtle glare.

"Oh shush." Cien said next to him, rolling her eyes.

"So gross." Kyr said into the private com between the two of them.

"Are you five years old?" She asked, exasperated.

"In spirit, yes." He said, surveying the area around them. "You see that candy shop yet?"

"Yes, it's over there on the corner." She said.

Kyr chuckled, he knew if anyone would know precisely where it was, it would be her. "Want to go shopping?" He asked.

"We're here on business, maybe later." She replied.

"Who are you and what have you done with my cyar'ika?" Kyr asked her, in mock concern.

"Business now, candy later." She said forcefully.

"Okay." Kyr said.

"Are they expecting to be… covert?" Kait asked at Oppie's side.

"I think Kyr goes for the 'it's so overt it's covert' style of covertness." Oppie replied, frowning as they walked down the street.

"They aren't exactly going under cover." Kait observed as the two Mandos walked down the street, their armor gleaming in the light and drawing the eye of any of the townsfolk who were around.

"I suppose not. But they're wearing armor, they kind of take their cover with them." Oppie said, enjoying the stroll with Kait despite himself, and the present circumstances.

"Not what I meant." Kait said wryly. "Do you have armor like that?" She asked curiously.

"No." Oppie said, "well, just one piece." He fished his Mandalorian heart piece out from under his shirt. "Sasha and Viran got one too when they were adopted." He said, handing it over.

"This is heavy." She said, a little surprised.

"It is beskar, I think it's supposed to be." Oppie said.

"I suppose." She said, handing it back to him and surreptitiously looking around. "I'm not really seeing anything yet." She said more quietly.

"Me neither." Oppie replied as they strolled past an alley. "Want to duck back here and see what we can make out?"

Kait looked at him a little startled at his wording before she fully processed what he said. "Oh, yeah sure." She said as they casually ducked in the alley.

Sasha noted that they passed the candy shop and were walking towards the alley behind it. Her and Viran slowed to a stop and glanced down the alleyway.

"Do you think that print is still there?" Viran asked, gesturing with his elbow as they looked in.

"Let's check," Sasha said, pulling him into the alley.

They walked over towards the area where they saw the mark from before. However, they slowed when they noticed other tracks covered it.

"Well that's not useful," Sasha grumbled as she looked at it.

"Yeah, looks like a delivery truck or two have been through here since and ran over our old mark," Viran observed as he knelt down to examine the tracks.

"There has to be more around here right?" Sasha asked, looking around hopeful.

"I don't know," Viran shrugged. "Let's keep looking around and see if we find another track."

Sasha nodded and they moved deeper into the alley, looking out for anything else before they reached the other side of the alley.

A group of four men came out of the diner in front of them, down the street. They glanced up at the two mandos who were approaching, almost like they were expecting them, but not trying to let on. Cien and Kyr continued, but Kyr read them as they turned towards them. They would casually pass by them in another forty meters or so.

"What do you think of these guys?" Kyr asked Cien over their private com, their exterior amps muted.

"Soldiers. Ex military. That one has a knife up his sleeve. They're tense." Cien said.

"They're stormtroopers." Kyr said as they kept walking.

Cien paused for a second, "would the cartel hire them?"

"Evidently." Kyr said, "want to go down that alley up there, see if they follow?" He asked her.

"Sure." She said.

Kait and Op emptied into the back street from the alley. They would be around the corner from the back of the candy shop, and there were plenty of vehicle and boot prints here to obscure anything that was in the dirt and grime that covered the paved pathway.

Oppie looked up and down the alley, suddenly feeling uneasy. "See anything interesting?" He asked Kait, as long dormant senses prickled the hairs on the back of his neck.

"Not really." She replied, "feeling a little exposed, though." She said, glancing up and down the alley, the same as him.

Oppie looked for doors around them that might hide an ambush. But he didn't sense anyone nearby, at least anyone with hostile intent towards them. They walked a few meters down the alley, trying to get a sense of anything around them, and keep their eyes out for clues.

Viran slowed to a stop as they walked down the alley, keeping their gaze to the ground trying to find anything. He suddenly noticed what looked like a small truck-like vehicle's tracks leading in a sharp left into… a wall. He raised an eyebrow at that, confused. He followed the tracks and stopped at the wall, looking for any sign of a seam.

"What did you find?" Sasha asked as she had walked further ahead of him and hadn't noticed he had stopped.

"Well how likely is this a garage?" Viran asked as he pointed to the wall.

Sasha made a face at that before she walked over. She then noticed the tracks.

"Not very likely from the looks of it," she observed. "But this is really strange."

"Wanna check?" Viran asked her.

Sasha nodded. She placed a hand against the wall. Suddenly not only did the images of the candy shop fill her mind as she scanned with the Force, but so did a hidden path leading down below the city. She gasped as she opened her eyes and looked at Viran.

Before either said anything, a loud clicking sound was heard and the wall started to retract up into a hidden mechanism, very slowly.

"They have to know we've tagged them." Kyr said quietly, even though their exterior amps were still muted.

"Maybe they don't care." Cien said, looking up at her surround view as the four ex-soldiers stepped down the narrow alley about ten meters behind them, fanning out to cover the full breadth of it.

"Pretty gutsy for four guys to take on two mandos, usually they're -" He stopped as another four men stepped in front of them, down from the other end of the alley.

"You were saying?" Cien said.

"You want to take front or back?" He asked.

"Surprise me." Cien replied.

Something was definitely wrong. Oppie could sense it in the air. They were being watched from multiple vantage points, he was sure of it. Kait picked up on his tension and her own senses were telling her she was being watched as well.

The air was also deadly silent, like the quiet that happens when a predator is stalking nearby in a forest. Or before an ambush from the CIS… or by the Rangers.

He wrapped an arm around Kait and pulled her bodily backward into cover behind a dumpster, just as a sniper's blaster bolt hit the pavement where they had been.

Sasha and Viran backed away from the door as it slid open.

"What did you do?" Viran asked her.

"Nothing. It just opened on its own," Sasha explained. "But I saw a tunnel going under the city through the wall. Or, well, door."

"Where does it head?" Viran asked as he knelt down, trying to peek into the slowly opening door.

"I'm not sure. I can't sense that far," Sasha said.

"Well we may have figured out where Frey went," Viran said looking at her. "They said his tracker stopped around here. And this is why."

"I'm calling the others," Sasha said before placing a finger to her ear piece. "Guys, we may have found something. A tunnel."

Kyr and Cien spun back to back and brought their arms up. Four whistling birds flew from Kyr's right gauntlet, flying out and killing the four that had been down the alley.

Cien's hand closed into a fist and all four of hers, the ones who had entered the alley behind them, lifted up, and then smashed into the ground so fast they were a blur.

"We just found former stormtroopers trying to kill us." Kyr said into the comline.

"We're pinned down by a sniper!" Kait called into the comlink as Oppie unhooked his lightsabers. They were several meters down this back street, behind a dumpster that was the only cover, if they tried to get out from behind it they would easily be picked off.

"Get ready." Oppie told her.

"We can't run that." Kait stated, looking at him like he was out of his mind.

"No, just walk." He said.

"What -" She was interrupted as he got into a low standing position and put his hands out to the dumpster they were behind. She froze for a second as it started moving.

"Go." Oppie said, as he started dragging the heavy, filled dumpster along with them.

She started back up with the dumpster providing them cover. "Not just for baked goods, then?" She asked.

"Nope." Oppie said, with a little strain in his voice.

"Kriff, get back," Viran cried as a spray of blaster bolts shot out from under the door as it was now barely a meter off the ground.

Sasha ducked away as she pulled out her lightsaber. Viran did the same. Two men clambered out from under the opening and turned to face the Jedi. They both lunged to attack Sasha and Viran. The two Jedi activated their lightsabers and deflected bolts back into other walls of the alley.

Managing to catch a glimpse of each other, Sasha and Viran gave each other a nod as they deflected more bolts away. Then as one they Force pushed the two men into each other. The cartel men collapsed to the ground in an unconscious heap.

"Okay tunnel entrance clear," Viran said into the commline with a smirk.

"Op, Kait, you guys okay?" Kyr asked, swinging his carbine up to his shoulder as Cien pulled her saber into her hand, leaving it unignited. They started moving down the alley to where Viran and Sasha were.

"Yeah," Kait replied, with the sound of screeching metal in the background, "Op's covering us, we're making our way back to the alley entrance."

"What's your position and where's the sniper?" Kyr asked as they hurried along.

"Down the alley that was about half a block south of the candy store. Sniper was somewhere north of us." Kait reported.

"They were in a three story building at the north end of the alley." Op's voice cut in.

"Okay, rendezvous at Sasha and Sports position." Kyr ordered.

"Copy." Kait said as the dumpster came to a stop when they were within reach of the alley entry. "Who is Sport?"

Oppie unhooked his sabers. "Viran." He said with a slight smirk as they ducked out of the alleyway to go make their rendezvous.

Viran carefully peeked into the tunnel with his torch light to see how far down it went. Sasha remained outside, keeping guard and a close watch for any snipers. She relaxed slightly as she spotted Kyr and Cien round the corner into the alley.

"Are you guys okay?" Sasha asked, looking between Kyr and Cien.

"Yes." Cien said as they slowed, looking at the tunnel and the two unconscious men. "Where does this lead?" She asked.

"I can't tell. But it's a long tunnel from what I can see," Viran called over his shoulder as he continued to look down the tunnel.

"We think this is where Frey disappeared," Sasha added. "This is the exact spot the tracker dropped off at."

"Is it time to call in the 19th? They were taking kill shots at us." Oppie said as they walked up. Both he and Kait were looking around guardedly, and he had his saber hilts in hand, though unignited.

"I'd say so-" Kyr stopped, looking down at the ground. Among the various tracks that lead in and out of this road, supposedly going to this secret tunnel along with deliveries was the footprint of a walker, as they had described. It had a distinct pointed oval shape and a sharp claw protruding from the front. "Osik." He said, looking around a little, before holding his hand up to the side of his buy'ce to mash his helmet a little more tightly to his ear. "Copper Actual this is Copper One," he called into his mic, speaking to Scamp. "Be advised we have at least one AT-ST operating in the area and we have been engaged, recommend we call in ground support and request close air on standby."

Sasha and Viran exchanged a nervous glance at that.

"Copper One this is Copper Actual," Scamp responded. "Roger that. Preparing to call in reinforcements."

"What about the tunnel?" Sasha asked, gesturing to it.

"We should check it out before the AT-ST gets here, I think," Viran voiced as he looked to the others, still holding his torchlight in his hand.

"Copper One, this is Copper Actual," Scamp suddenly called back over their commline.

"Copper one here." Kyr called into the com.

"Kyr, we've got a problem," Scamp said. "We just picked a large number of enemies closing in on our area. We are going to need some support until the others arrive from the Defiant." He explained, an edge to his voice as he sounded like he was preparing for battle.

Kyr glanced at the others. "You guys want to take the tunnel, and we'll go help the others?" Kyr asked, gesturing at Cien as he asked the other four.

"Sure," Viran nodded. "Take care out there."

Sasha looked at Cien. "Please be careful."

"You too." Cien said, looking at her and then the others.

Viran gave her a smirk with a nod, thinking the same thing as what Sasha said.

As Kyr and Cien ran off to go join the rest of the Copperheads on the fringes of town, Oppie looked at Sasha. "I'm glad they didn't say it."

"Me too," Sasha said, knowing exactly what he was referring to.

Kait glanced between them in question, but left it for later. "The tunnel?" She asked.

"Yes, let's go," Sasha said, nodding to her.

Viran nodded and started down the inclined path into the tunnel, keeping his torch light pointed in front of them.

Kait clicked on her own torch and played it on the walls, then down at the ground. Oppie took up the rear with his sabers in hand, unignited, as they all stepped into the tunnel. Sasha's hand twitched near her lightsaber as they descended down the ramp, just in case someone was there to greet them. But as they reached the base of the incline, the tunnel became illuminated by lights on the wall. Viran slowed to a stop as he flicked off his torch and looked around. There were three speeder bikes parked next to the wall. And the tunnel stretched out for kilometers before them.

"Looks like this is our only way down the tunnel," Viran guessed, gesturing to the bikes.

"Are these Imperial scout trooper bikes?" Oppie asked, a little surprised they weren't regular swoops.

Viran squatted down as he examined them. His brows furrowed. "Yeah. They are."

"First the AT-ST then now this?" Sasha asked, shuddering slightly. "Do you think the Empire or even remnants of it are here?"

"I don't know," Viran said, standing back up. "I hope it's just surplus bikes they got their hands on."

"Either way, I'll drive." Kait said, swinging her legs over the bike closest to her.

"I'll take this one," Viran said as he climbed onto the one he had examined. He patted the seat behind him. "Hop on," he said to Sasha.

She nodded and climbed on behind him, flipping her ponytail over shoulder as she wrapped her arms around his waist.

Oppie awkwardly swung his legs over the back seat and loosely held on to Kait.

"Hang on." She said over her shoulder as she took off.

Viran revved the engines and shot off after them.

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