A few weeks later

The Hertalian Road was the perfect place for an ambush. The densely packed jungles and narrow roads made it difficult for large vehicles to maneuver and large groups of droids had to travel by foot in long columns on the flanks of their transports to protect them from any attackers. Thus, the Separatists were unable to field their two greatest advantages in warfare: overwhelming firepower and numerical superiority.

Once Commander Tamm had acquired the strength and route of the next convoy, Karel decided the ambush would be carried out in a canyon known in the Mikkian language as Izevarinue. The canyon was deep and wide at the top but became narrower at the bottom where a river ran from west to east perpendicular to the kilometer-long bridge that connected the two sides of the canyon. The bridge was narrow too, barely wide enough for transports to cross. On each end of the bridge the road was flanked by thick brush and just after the south end was a sharp turn to the right, which meant that any approaching vehicles would have to reduce their speed drastically.

As the sun reached its zenith over the jungles of Mikkia, Karel waited patiently from his position overlooking the bridge. He and his father set up their position on a high rock in front of the bridge's south end next to the turn in the road, giving them a clear line of sight of the choke point where the ambush would take place. Because they had strict orders not to engage the enemy themselves they were there only as observers and to coordinate the rebels in their attacks. The two were laying prone as they waited in silence for their enemy to walk right into their trap. To avoid detection they had covered themselves in large nets covered with branches and leaves, making them all but invisible to the untrained eye. Karel had found out the hard way that the jungles were one of the environments he liked the least. The humidity in the air was asphyxiating even with his armor's environmental control systems running at full power, making the hours feel like days with no way to pass the time.

"And here I thought Kashyyyk was bad," he thought to himself.

Sensors placed on the north end of the bridge picked up the sounds of engines and marching feet, alerting them to the arrival of the enemy. Karel and his father looked at each other for a moment, then nodded as they both knew what was soon to come. Karel pulled his rangefinder over his visor and looked towards the north end of the bridge, where a large mass had appeared.

In the distance a column of eight Separatist vehicles heading south filled his view. Two NR-N99 snail tanks led the way, followed by an AAT and two MTTs. Behind them was another AAT, and at the rear of the column were another two snail tanks. As Karel had predicted, a group of twenty super battle droids traveled in single file on each flank of the column.

"That's not good," he whispered in shock. This was only his second mission since Akiva and the first time since then that he had faced a B2, and his mind went to dark places as the sounds of that battle started haunting him once more.

Noticing his son's unusual distraught, Hamar lowered his rangefinder too as the mass in the distance grew bigger. His blood ran cold as he caught sight of the enemy tanks and battle droids approaching them.

"What is it? Are they here?" Arathor asked through the comms.

"They're here," Hamar replied solemnly. "Three tanks at the front, two transports in the middle of the column and three more tanks at the rear. Twenty B2s on each flank."

The gravity of the situation dawned on everyone as the convoy reached the middle point of the bridge. Hamar looked again at the enemy column through his rangefinder, then turned to Karel and placed a hand on his shoulder, pulling him out of his trance with a jolt.

"Karel, what do you want to do now?" he asked.

Karel stayed quiet as he considered the options. At first glance it seemed the droids had the advantage. The strength of the enemy convoy was considerably higher than their intel suggested and the B2s were much tougher opponents than the B1s. Not only that, but the enemy also had a clear advantage in terms of firepower and armour. However, the rebels had the element of surprise, and for once the enemy's advantage in numbers was much smaller than usual with their droid infantry outnumbering the rebels only by about 10 droids. Furthermore, the enemy's formation and the small space limited the firepower they could bring to bear.

"Wait for my signal, we'll stick to the plan," was the younger Mandalorian's response.

The jungle fell silent save for the sounds of marching droids and their vehicles. In the brush the rebels held their breath and readied their weapons as the droids got closer and closer. Soon enough the first tank was clearing the bridge and began turning to the right. To avoid a crossfire, Arathor and half of the rebels would attack the droids at the front, while Veria's group took care of the ones at the rear.

Once they were close enough Karel scanned the two transports using his helmet's thermal vision. Inside the first transport he found no heat signatures other than those of the machinery and the droids inside, but the second transport had a lone organic passenger sitting in its hollowed out cargo bay. They were most likely a high-value prisoner, and that was more than enough reason to retrieve them by any means necessary.

"Keep the second transport intact. Destroy everything else," Karel ordered.

Suddenly the lead tank was sent flying meters high into the air by the explosives buried in the road. Its ammunition ignited, engulfing it in a ball of fire as it came crashing back to the ground. The fiery wreck now blocked the road for the other vehicles, which came to a halt as the earth shook violently. Explosions through the bridge sent it crumbling down to the bottom of the canyon, taking with it the last two snail tanks that hadn't cleared it yet, as well as the last 5 super battle droids from each flank.

The Mikkians came out of the jungle and all Kessel broke loose. They took care of the transports first, throwing EMP grenades that disabled their systems but left them undamaged. Veria aimed at the droid commander of the rear AAT with her blaster carbine and fired two shots that destroyed the droid before it could hide inside the tank and close the hatch.

The battle, however, quickly started to change in favour of the droids as they recovered from the initial shock of the ambush. At this point only 20 of the 30 rebels were left standing, while a similar number of super battle droids remained and were left scattered through the length of the convoy. Being programmed to fight until the end they started firing with both of their wrist blasters at the treeline. Karel watched helplessly as a yellow-skinned Mikkian was hit by two blaster shots on the chest and collapsed in front of one of the B2s, who riddled the Mikkian with blaster bolts in a merciless display of its killing capabilities. Slowly the strength of the attackers started wavering while the droids, though with limited tactical thinking, were smart enough to regroup and start forming a barrier around the second transport.

"We need help!" Veria shouted into her comlink, then accidentaly dropped it as she rushed for cover.

Karel checked and saw her taking cover behind the rear AAT while the droids fired at her. To her right was a crippled B2 with its legs blown off and its armor casing ripped open on the right side of its torso, exposing the circuitry inside. Its photoreceptor flickered as it focused all its remaining power into turning towards her to get a good shot. Karel glanced at Arathor at the front of the column, who was also pinned down by enemy fire as he took cover behind the wreck of the lead snail tank.

It wasn't uncommon for Karel to act before thinking, and this was no exception. He stood up and revealed himself to the enemy droids below, while his father yelled at him to get down and hide. The JT-12 jetpack on his back ignited and he rose through the skies, leaving Hamar confused and annoyed, though not surprised.

The crippled B2 supported itself with its right arm as it aimed at Veria with its left wrist blaster. She glanced to her right and was caught offguard as the droid fired at her and she raised her arms in a reflex. At that moment Karel appeared, landing harshly in front of her and pinning her between himself and the tank using his arms.

"Hi there," he greeted nonchalantly as three blaster bolts hit his armor. The force of the shots hitting his backplate pushed him slightly forward towards Veria as she looked up and saw her reflection in his visor.

He drew his right blaster and turned towards the droid, firing three green bolts that destroyed it for good. His and his father's WESTAR-35 blaster pistols were unlike any other as they had integrated the circuit-frying tech of a pair of DC-17 pistols and adapted them to use the same power packs, while also keeping most of the technology and components found in most Mandalorian blasters that made them so reliable and deadly. The combination of these two technologies resulted in their blasters firing unique green bolts, with the added benefits that it made it easier for them to spot where their shots were hitting and adjust their aim properly and that it made logistics easier as they didn't have to get special power packs and just used the same as those of the rest of the army.

The droids protecting the transport started firing again and Karel quickly took cover with Veria behind the AAT. He drew his other blaster too and laughed briefly, then said, "I can't believe I was missing out on this."

Veria didn't respond instantly, still surprised by how he had protected her from a certain death. The blush on her cheeks didn't go unnoticed by Karel even during the heat of battle and he smirked at her expression. She turned away from him as the blush on her cheeks deepened in color even more.

Blaster fire from the droids hit the front of the tank and they were reminded of the situation they were in. Karel peeked out of cover for a moment and fired back at the droids, then turned to Veria and asked, "Do you have any grenades?"

She finally seemed to react to the situation around her and shook her head to clear her mind. She looked down at her belt and saw that she had ran out of EMP grenades, then looked up at him and replied, "I'm out!"

"Kark it, there goes my plan!" he exclaimed in frustration. He had acted on instincts once he saw Veria was in danger and didn't have time to think about what he would do after that.

"Well, what exactly were you planning?!" Veria shouted as she reloaded her blaster.

"You mean besides saving your life?!" he shot back. She didn't reply and instead stepped out of cover to fire, but she quickly got back behind the relative safety of the tank once she noticed her blaster didn't fire when she pulled the trigger. He also stepped out of cover for a brief moment, then after taking cover again he turned to her and asked, "What's wrong with your blaster?"

"I don't know, it's jammed," she replied, then tried to pull the power pack in vain.

"Give me that," he ordered, taking the weapon as Veria drew the DC-17 holstered on her right hip.

Karel inspected the weapon and quickly found what was wrong. When Veria had reloaded she had accidentaly inserted the power pack backwards and jammed the mechanism. He couldn't simply pull it out using brute force as it was too far inside the loading mechanism so he would practically have to disassemble the entire weapon and he didn't have time for that. The combined blaster fire from half a dozen super battle droids was slowly but steadily weakening the front armor of the AAT like waves breaking against the shore. All it took was one lucky shot to hit the ammunition inside and they'd be blown to oblivion.

"This is what I get for being a hero," he mumbled to himself as he desperately tried to come up with a plan.

"Mandalorians don't have heroes, Karel," his father corrected him through the comms.

Out of nowhere Hamar appeared, landing on top of the second MTT then rolling and running to the back of the transport. He jumped from the roof of the transport and turned in the air towards the droids. The whistling birds on his right gauntlet fired and flew towards their targets, embedding themselves in the super battle droids and cutting through their duranium frames with ease, then detonated and fried the droids' circuits as Hamar landed on the ground between the transport and the tank. The battle was dying down as the rebels once again gained the upper hand and encircled the remaining droids at the front. Hamar turned to look at Karel, glaring at him as he came out of cover and their visors met.

Karel opened his mouth to speak, but he was cut off as Hamar spoke in a harsh tone and said, "Not now. We'll talk about it later."

Karel nodded stiffly. He had crossed the line this time and he knew that now, but now it was too late to mend his mistakes.

The explosion of a thermal detonator coming from the front of the formation caught their attention, after which Arathor spoke in the comms.

"The droids are destroyed, we won!" he announced triumphantly over the comms, which was met by cheers from the other Mikkians.

The Janseks looked at each other for a moment, then both nodded as they headed to meet up with the others, their blasters now holstered but always at the ready. The smell of burnt tibanna gas and fried circuits was accompanied by the calls for help coming from the wounded. Most of the survivors were visibly shaken by the ordeal, with only a handful of them having enough composure left to help the wounded, Veria among them as she tended to a Mikkian that had been hit by a piece of shrapnel on her right leg. And then there were the Janseks, calm and stoic as if nothing had happened. No emotions could be read on the faceplates of their visors, at least not by anyone there other than each other. They simply kept walking through the column, cool as a pair of dead stars.

At last they met up with Arathor in front of the transport. The man tried to give off an aura of confidence as if everything had gone according to plan, but it didn't take an expert to know this was a facade he put in front of his people. His only relief was seeing his niece was safe and unharmed thanks to the young Mandalorian now standing in front of him.

"How many?" Hamar whispered, leaning towards Arathor.

"Four are dead," Arathor replied solemnly, then muttered something to himself in his native language, which Karel supposed was some type of prayer for the dead. "Eleven more are wounded, three are in bad shape."

"Get the wounded back to the camp. The sooner they get help, the better their chances are."

"Of course," the Mikkian replied, then signaled to his people to do as they were told before turning to the transport in front of him and asking, "How long will this thing remain disabled?"

"Enough for us to find out what its cargo is," said Karel as he began climbing the side of the transport.

Once he was on top of the armoured cockpit he turned to look at his father. Hamar tossed him a cylinder-shaped device slightly bigger than his hand, which Karel caught with his free right hand.

"What is that?" Arathor asked, watching as Karel laid on his belly and stuck the charge over the hinge of the frontal hatch.

"The armor of this thing is too thick for our explosives to blast through," Hamar replied. "That over there is a thermite charge, once we activate it it will melt the hinge off and we'll get to what's inside the transport."

Karel slid down the hatch, landing in front of his father and the Mikkian. "It's not a lightsaber, but it's good enough."

"Get back, everyone!" Hamar shouted to the rebels. About a dozen of them were gathered in front of the transport and readied their weapons once again, aiming at the center of the hatch as they took a few steps back.

The two Mandalorians looked at each other and nodded again, after which they both drew their blasters once more. The thermite charge ignited and the substances in it reacted violently to each other. Light and sparks flew off from the hinge and in a few seconds it was gone, completely melted away as the hatch fell to the ground with a thud. The rebels anxiously waited to see what was inside the transport, their sight of the inside covered by smoke generated by the thermite.

"Please, don't shoot!" an elderly voice shouted from inside.

Karel held his blasters firmly as a silhouette cut slowly through the smoke. To his surprise, the rebels all lowered their weapons as soon as they saw who was inside the transport and started murmuring among themselves in their native language. Hamar slowly lowered his blasters, and Karel followed suit as the now freed prisoner walked towards him.

A short, elderly, green-skinned Mikkian woman stood in front of Karel. She was dressed in a long and tattered khaki robe and her left hand grasped her walking staff, the crown of which was etched with various ancient Mikkian symbols. With her right hand she covered her eyes from the sunlight. Her head-tendrils were flat and short and waved slowly and close to her head. Around her neck hung multiple amulets made of wood, bone and other materials. As her sight started to adjust she lowered her arms, her cerulean eyes fixing on the Mandalorian in front of her.

"You are not the warrior I was expecting to see," the old woman said, her voice raspy due to her age. To Karel's own surprise she seemed unimpressed by him, and as she moved closer to him she tapped the forehead of his helmet with her staff and squinted her eyes, analyzing the details of his armor as she hummed now and then in thinking, all the while he stayed still.

"Julara," Arathor whispered in shock, his knees nearly buckling.

"You know this woman?" Hamar asked.

The two Mikkians turned to look at him. The old woman inspected Hamar like she did with Karel, leaning close to him and even trying to look under his helmet. While this was going on, Arathor spoke.

"For those of us who follow the Path of Sendara, Julara is our guide," Arathor explained, speaking of the old woman as if she was some mythical figure.

Julara approached him and laid her right hand on his shoulder, then smiled warmly and spoke in Mikkian. Arathor visibly relaxed under her touch, reminiscent of a child feeling safe in his mother's arms.

"Vedlaranosenya," she whispered, to which Arathor smiled back.

"Mediralaatemuno," he whispered back.

Julara walked through the rebels, who bowed respectfully to her as she greeted them one by one like she did with Arathor. As this was going on, Hamar spoke to his son through their comms so no one else could hear them.

"You heard anything of this "Path of Sendara" before?" he asked.

"Not much. From what I gathered it's a religion, one of many in this planet. Old lady's some kind of shaman or priestess," Karel replied, remembering what he researched of Mikkia when they were assigned this mission. "Is it just me or this is beginning to feel too similar to Kashyyyk?"

"Yeah, I was thinking that too," Hamar replied with a smirk, reminiscing of their adventure on the Wookiee homeworld.

As she finished greeting the others, Julara turned to look at Karel, who had returned to his father's side in front of the transport.

"Arathor, who are these men?" Julara asked, turning to look at the Mandalorians. "They don't look like Jedi to me."

"Julara, these men are helping us fight the droids. They're from the Republic," the red-skinned Mikkian explained.

"Is that so?" she asked, skeptical of the Mandalorians.

"Lieutenant Colonel Jansek, ma'am," said Hamar, then nodded at Karel. "This is Master Chief Jansek."

While neither one of the Mandalorians believed in a particular religion, they found it best to learn about the customs of the locals they met during their missions. They stood at attention, then bowed slightly to Julara.

"We should get going," said Karel. "Droids probably called for reinforcements as soon as we attacked, they could get here anytime."

"Of course," Arathor replied.

Hamar handed his son two thermal detonators. While Karel tossed them on the inside of the second transport, Hamar threw two more explosives next to the lead transport's left repulsor cooling fins and they set the timers.

The rebels retreated into the jungle once again, leaving the destroyed vehicles behind. Most of the rebels surrounded Julara, with Arathor walking next to her as they talked in their native language. Hamar led the main group, while Karel walked a few dozen meters ahead of the main group to scout the road back to the camp.

The ambush was over and the rebels victorious, but this would not be the place to decide the war on Mikkia. Back in his mansion in Sodra, Governor Quontera was being hailed by Count Dooku himself.