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Valley of Heroes, Vallis Marineris, Occupied Mars
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The blades of the Kholm-grass quivered slightly. They stood in large clumps among the hundreds of acres of gomex moss that grew atop the rim of the great valley.
It wasn't the windstorm that had blown for days across half of Mars that shook the grass. Several figures, dressed in CX-2000 holographic ghillie suits that mimicked the deep greens of the gomex moss, slowly crossed the open moss-field. Occasionally, one of them would bump into a strand of Kholm-grass, sending it and its neighbors into fits of quivering shakes. Thank the Force for the windstorm, or their enemies would surely have spotted their approach by now.
Gomex moss was a plant heavily used by terraformers to transform the surface of planets into useful regolith. It usually devoured itself after a year or so, leaving rich soil up to a meter in depth behind. It could still be found in some remote areas of Mars. The southern rim of the Valley of Heroes was incredibly thick with the overgrowth, leaving the ground too spongy to even walk on without sinking up to one's knees with every step. Belly crawling was a time-consuming but effective alternative. It also had the added effect of sinking the intruders into the moss as they advanced, leaving them out of view of anyone on the alert for approaching enemies.
The tower housed only a handful of defenders. The power monitoring station had been captured early in the Confederate invasion before retreating engineers from the 212th had been able to destroy it to prevent its use by the Earthlings. Surrounded on two sides by the kilometer tall cliffs of the Vallis Marineris and on one side by the deep gomex moss, the new owners of the tower thought they only had to defend against the eastern side, which consisted of open plain and the roadway that led back to Amidala City. Earth troopers patrolled the upper stories and kept a close eye on the viable approach to their bastion.
The tower itself had been part of the AquaPower Dam Hydro-Converter, which was the main source of power for Imperial Mars. The Confederacy stationed nearly an entire regiment of troopers at the site to prevent its sabotage or destruction, as well as a quick-reaction armor force. Not to mention they were less than an hour by chopter from their major bases outside of Amidala City in case more reinforcements were needed. With so much security in place, the tower had been converted into a make-shift maximum security holding cell away from other facilities at Camp Biden and Area 52, until its high value prisoner could be transferred back to Earth.
From between the blades of Kholm-grass emerged the rangefinding lens of a pair of military-grade macrobinoculars. The rim of the lens was dulled with black tape to prevent any light reflection giving away its user's position in the wind-swept moss fields.
The strike-team leader studied the target ahead. The tower was eight stories tall and had a modest trivium generator at its peak that was connected by power couplings all the way back to the nearby dam. The tower had once had an electrified death fence encircling it, but the new occupiers of the site hadn't figured out how to run it and had knocked it down for better fields of fire for their defending patrols. Near the top of the tower was a landing pad, where the strike team had observed an Iroquois attack chopter land and take off several times during the past rotation. Its current location was unknown, but the strike leader assumed it was out patrolling the Valley of Heroes.
He did note several Legionnaires talking to each other up on the landing pad. Their weapons held ever at the ready while another pair of the elite Earth troopers walked a perimeter patrol around the building. They were the top of the line when it came to enemy troopers. Trained from younglinghood to be some kind of super commandos, each was unconditionally obedient to the will of their President. Each one fancied himself to be a wannabe ARC-trooper, the strike leader thought. He didn't underestimate them, however, as he had seen how capable they had been in the initial landings here on Mars and the capture of Amidala City.
The macrobinoculars shifted west down the great valley's rim. Three more towers stood in that direction, each about two kilometers apart and guarded by an equal number of Legionnaires. The line of power relay towers stopped at the massive AquaPower dam atop the lip of the valley. It was there that the Yos River cascaded down seven kilometers before crashing into the bottom of the Vallis Marineris, shrouding the Valley of Heroes in an unending mist.
At the bottom of the near fathomless waterfall stood the great statue of Emperor Yos. His visage gazed down at the river that bore his family's name as it weaved past his feet along the valley's floor. Legends said his grave was somewhere nearby, but that its location had been obscured by orders from his daughter, the current Empress Phasma Yos. Three more occupied pedestals stood just down river from the late Emperor's. Each of them held a great hero of the 2nd Galactic Empire. Standing half as tall as the Emperor's statue were the stone images of Moff Kuantus Kuat, Grand Admiral Yutu and Grand Moff Tarkin.
He zoomed in on the smaller statues' feet as his eye caught something interesting. Confederate combat engineers were emptying large amounts of explosives from the backs of several Kodiak engineer tanks. Their officers were ordering them to place the detonation charges around the legs of the smaller statues. Even from nearly ten kilometers away their intentions were clear. They were trying to erase the history and the pride of the surviving Imperials on Mars. The strike leader gritted his teeth in silent anger. If he could have he would have flown to Earth and knocked down that lady statue of theirs that they had rebuilt after the last war with a towering sword instead of a torch to show that the Earth was undefeated, or some other nonsensical Earth notion of defiance.
"How sure are we that the Moff is in there?" One of his troopers whispered to him.
"Well, our spies in Amidala say she's here, and they've been right so far." SF-4738 told the young trooper. The Confederacy hadn't had a lot of time to turn many spies yet, but pressure was starting to grow. Everyone could feel it after the last defenders on Olympus Mons had surrendered the week before.
SF-4738 was relieved and worried this particular trooper was at his side. Mahan was his oldest son. He had sent him here to Mars to train as a naval officer at the Martian Academy. And just like his father, the boy had been swept up by the Earthling invasion and trapped on Mars, parsecs away from their home on Anax.
SF-4738 had experience with sending troopers under his command into battle before. He was well aware of the risks they took and the fact that not every one of them came back from every mission. It was part of the job and just how the Galaxy worked. It was a different matter altogether when one of the troopers you were sending into combat was your own kid. An uneasy primal fear lay just under the surface for the ex-Sergeant.
It wasn't that Mahan was in any more danger than other troopers. The kid had proved he had the stones for battle during the siege of Olympus Mons and during their clandestine night escape through enemy lines. A mission that had prevented most of his unit, the Irregulars partisan band, from being captured and marched to Camp Biden with the rest of the 212th Legion.
SF-4738 would just have to protect the kid as best he could without the other Irregulars accusing him of nepotism or favoritism. Of course, if the boy got hurt, he'd never forgive himself. Even worse Baobab would absolutely murder him when he returned to Anax.
He put such thoughts aside, though they were never far from his mind. He activated his comlink, "Jacen, I've got a squad of Legionnaires on the outside of the tower with another squad suspected inside. Plus, multiple cannons."
"Copy that, Colonel." Came the voice of Jacen Quan, the medic who had joined them along with the Jedi B'asia shortly before the 212th's surrender. "We're moving into our attack position now."
Speaking of their new Jedi ally, B'asia's voice cut into the comm chatter. "Colonel, doesn't it seem suspicious that the Solars would move the Moff so far from Amidala City?"
"The Moff has many friends. Not just the ones who sent us our orders from Palpatine Prime, but also still here on Mars. The Confederacy probably locked her up out here to prevent someone in Amidala City from attempting to do what we are about to do."
Jacen had a strange paternal way of answering for both him and the Jedi. SF-4738 recognized it whenever he talked for his own younglings. "That may be true, but I'd put nothing past these Harris sheb-lickers." SF-4738 chuckled at the insult. It wasn't one he'd heard before. "We're in position, Colonel."
"Copy, Jacen. Over." SF-4738 replied. He turned his head slowly so that he could face the majority of his camouflaged strike team. "All right, Irregulars. Check your fire for the captive. We're going in the front door on my lead."
The partisans spread out and brought their weapons to the ready. SF-4738 looked over to his son, who seemed to be squirming and fiddling with the straps on his shoulders. The kid, along with a handful of other partisans had been issued screamer jumper jetpacks to aide in aerially assaulting the complex. "What's wrong with you?"
"I wish I had more practice on this jetpack." Mahan complained. Ironically, he had some of the most experience of all the members in the Irregulars, having at least been given a familiarization course with the devices at the Academy before the invasion.
"You're an Imperial Naval Cadet. I'm sure you'll pick it up on the fly." SF-4738 didn't wait to hear the usual groan from his kid whenever he made one of his clever Pa Puns. Instead, he started to climb to his feet. His ghillie suit fell off his shoulders and to his feet as he stood.
There was nothing between him and the tower except for four hundred meters of open, spongy moss-covered ground. SF-4738 watched as the two Legionnaires at the front door spotted him and pointed in his direction. He could hear them shout at each other. "Target acquired. We have a single target approaching from the south."
The ex-sergeant waited a few seconds as more Legionnaires poured out of the building. As he did so he reached behind himself and pulled a device from the back of his belt. He pointed it to the sky and blasted off a single, brilliant, black flare.
As the flare climbed into the sky twenty partisans on both of SF-4738's flanks jumped to their feet and formed a single blasting line with him in the center. The enemy took a step backwards. "Correction. Multiple targets. We have multiple targets."
"Forward!" SF-4738 screamed. The partisans rushed forward. As they did so more partisans rose from the moss and started blasting towards the Legionnaires exiting the tower.
Mahan and the other Jet Troopers took to the sky as Legionnaires focused their fire on the flying targets. The cannons underneath the tower's landing bay opened up on the Irregulars rushing across the open ground. Their blasting was slow and testified to the inexperience of the Confederates manning the captured Imperial gear. SF-4738 and the rushing partisans had little trouble avoiding the visible cannon fire as they closed with the tower.
Mahan on the other side drifted erratically across the sky. The boy was having trouble with his jetpack's flight controls and landed directly in front of the cliff's edge. It was at that moment that B'asia, Jacen and two dozen more partisans emerged from over the rim. They had spent all morning climbing the edifice until they were in position to assault the tower from the other direction. Now the Legionnaires were caught between two attacking forces and had to divide their defenses to deal with them. SF-4738 however wasn't about to give the enemy a chance to react that quickly.
Legionnaires atop the landing pad blasted down at the two wings of the attack. B'asia stood her ground and deflected several blasterbolts back at the elevated defenders with her lightsaber, dropping them one by one. Jacen stood behind her and launched a shoulder fired RPS-6 missile. The projectile slammed into the heavy trooper armor of a Legionnaire sniper blasting from one of the tower's top floor viewports, silencing him for good.
Three more Legionnaires, each on a different floor, poured suppressing fire down on the attack. B'asia yelled for the others to step back. "I'll handle it."
The young Jedi sprung impossibly high into the air, drawing fire from all three Legionnaires. She landed on the viewport sill in front of the lowest defender and plunged her bronze blade deep into his chest. As her knees flexed, she rocketed up the side of the building decapitating the second Legionnaire as she passed by heading for the top floor. She grabbed hold of the last viewport edge as the enemy pointed his blaster down and into her face. With a pull of what SF-4738 assumed was the Force she ripped the enemy trooper from his position and hurled him over her head.
The body plummeted to the ground with a sickening thud at Jacen's feet. The medic looked up at the dangling Jedi above. "Show off."
The Legionnaires on the ground had been transfixed by the Jet Trooper attack and the Jedi's acrobatics. So much so that SF-4738 and his men had rapidly closed the gap. The retired Stormtrooper launched a round house kick into the first Legionnaire's head, dropping him to the ground. He ducked under the blaster fire of the second before launching a power-gloved upper cut under the jaw of the enemy's helmet. Even as the move was finishing, he had popped the blasting cap on a thermal detonator which he hurled with his free hand towards the nearest auto-cannon. The impact blew the turret completely off the side of the tower. Before the two Legionnaires could recover, they were blasted down by the combined firepower of SF-4738's onrushing partisans.
At the same time, Mahan had taken to the sky again only to land a few meters from the tower. He landed on shaky legs and immediately triggered the thrusters on his jetpack for a split second causing him to flip over and land on his head. The boy jumped back to his feet. "This is not as much fun as it looks."
The kid looked to be struggling with a misaligned jetpack and whether by design or accident shot into the sky once more. His screams drew the attention of the last two Legionnaires outside the tower. The enemy troopers aimed their knock-off E-11s at the flying misfit and blasted away. Luckily for Mahan the kid's wild flight path avoided the bolts as they whizzed by him.
Suddenly the cannon turret SF-4738 had knocked out crashed into the ground behind the two Earthlings enveloping them in a cloud of dust and smoke. Momentarily blinded, they instantly lost track of the flying cadet whose errant jetpack sent him hurling back to the ground directly next to the burning defense turret. "I can't see him."
"Just keep firing." One of the troopers kept blasting unaimed bolts up into the now empty sky.
SF-4738 could see the whole thing play out and started to rush to his youngling's aide before the Legionnaires found him. The kid, however, was quicker, and armed with a TTT-54 Thumper. He put a single thermal detonator into the ground in between both Legionnaires. The resulting explosion sent their mangled forms flying in opposing directions.
SF-4738 was about to give the boy a well-earned thumbs up when the cadet fired off his thrusters again, hurling him into the side of the tower and back on his head again. The kid was lucky he had a hard skull. He must have gotten that from his mother, SF-4738 reasoned.
A whirring noise carried on the wind, turning SF-4738's head toward the next distant tower along the canyon rim. Two large objects were descending from the sky next to the enemy occupied power relay station. SF-4738 raised his macrobinocular and studied the two intruders. Large V-280 Valor chopters swooped down to the ground between the far tower and the one the partisans were attacking. As they did so they detached their cargo. The two walkers hit the ground with a thud that could be heard even a kilometer away.
The bipedal walkers, AMP-5s, were the newest generation of Confederate walkers based off stolen gyroscopic stabilizer designs from the Empire's AT-STs. SF-4738 remembered their predecessors from the last war on Earth. A Stormtrooper with an E-11 could turn them into that weird hole filled cheese the Earthers were so fond of in a matter of seconds. Unlike its ancestors this generation had an enclosed cockpit for two crewman and armor that was designed to deflect blasters with anti-laser coating. Almost immediately the two walkers opened up with their MK-19 grenade launcher chin cannons and the dreaded .50 cal machine slugthrowers on the sides of the cockpit. The sound of the weapons brought SF-4738 back to a battlefield millions of kilometers away where hundreds of Stormtroopers had fallen to the heavy slugthrowers in Las Vegas. Not again, he swore.
Mahan arrived back at his side and spotted the new intrusions. "Well, this just got more and more . . ."
"Interesting." SF-4738 snapped at his son. "The word you are looking for is 'interesting'."
"Nope. Just 'more'."
Mahan and the other Jet Troopers took to the air again. The AMP-5s made the same mistake and focused their attention on the few partisans fluttering about in the air before them. SF-4738 noticed the Earth walkers had to ground themselves before they could fire. Anything they blasted off while moving went wildly off course. Which must have been frustrating to their crews as the airborne troopers were constantly in motion preventing aimed slugs from striking them. If the crews had been trained in anti-airspeeder tactics they would have known how to lead their targets if they wanted to strike them. Oh, well, SF-4738 thought, he wasn't here to teach abos how to do their jobs properly. War had a large learning curve and if you didn't learn quickly, it would smash you like a bug.
The flying Irregulars were just as ineffective with their blasters. Their bolts impacted futilely against the Confederates' armor or ricocheted uselessly off in every direction. The distraction served its purpose though. Still standing in the open SF-4738 unslung his Amban phase-pulse blaster and lined up his shot. The disintegration bolt slammed into the nearest walker, snapping off the right machine slugthrower from the AMP-5's 'ear'.
The walker pivoted on its new assailant. The chin cannon turned in SF-4738's direction forcing him to dive for the ground. The grenade was fired with enough velocity that it buried itself half a meter into the mossy ground before exploding with enough force to lift SF-4738 several centimeters into the air and slam into down into the ground again.
"Pa!" Mahan tried to rush to his side.
The boy was too late. The last three Legionnaires inside the tower rushed outside and positioned themselves between father and son. Two of the enemy troopers pinned Mahan behind the footpads of one of the walkers while a third removed a stun device from his belt and struck the prone SF-4738 with it. Electric shocks burned through his armor. It was agonizing but SF-4738 had felt worse in the Stormtrooper Corps. However, at his age, it knocked the wind out of him, and he dropped back to the ground. He turned to where Mahan was hiding, "Stand down, ET, or he dies."
The other walker had chased the other Jet Troopers into hiding on the other side of the tower. Without anything to do he took up a position behind the three Legionnaires and SF-4738 and aimed its slugthrowers down towards Mahan's position.
Nearby, Jacen and B'asia holstered their weapons and put their own hands up. The Legionnaire standing over SF-4738 cocked his weapon and yelled at the Irregulars. "Surrender! Now!"
Mahan holstered his blaster causing the mouthy Legionnaire to chuckle. His laughter didn't last long. Above their heads a Dumbfire torpedo streaked through the sky and slammed into the cockpit of the walker above SF-4738. The crew probably never knew what hit them before the armor piercing projectile completely eviscerated them in a fiery explosion of titanium armor and cheap Earth fuel.
The Irregular sniper Savushh, along with two more flying partisans, raced in from the west. The Ubese partisan was dropping his missile launcher and activating a Z-6 rotary blaster that one of the other partisans had carried for him. In a matter of seconds, he was raining a typhoon of bolts at the remaining walker.
The Ubese shouted at the immobile Mahan in his own garbled language. A dialect SF-4738 had only recently picked up after serving with Savushh for several months up on Olympus Mons. "Don't just stand there. Protect your Pa!"
"The cavalry has arrived!" The medic Jacen shouted as he pulled out his own blaster and laid down suppression fire on the three Legionnaires.
One of the partisans landed next to the furthest Legionnaire and dropped him with a well-timed round house kick followed by two close-range blaster bolts through the enemy's armored face plate. Savushh fell on the second with his rotary cannon blazing. Hundreds of rounds penetrated the Legionnaire's armor before he could draw a bead on the diving partisan.
"Fall back. Abandon the base." The last Legionnaire shouted and ran. Another hidden pair of Legionnaires emerged from the tower and joined him in his flight.
The fight wasn't over as the other walker turned on Savushh and the new arrivals. SF-4738 gained his footing and charged forward. His blaster firing as he drew the walker's attention back on him to protect his troopers.
He served his purpose well as the walker had no chance of spotting the approach of B'asia from behind. The Jedi leaped impossibly high and activated her bronze lightsaber. The Togruta's lethal weapon slashed downward and straight through the walker's right knee joint. It wobbled for several seconds like a trooper that had one too many eblas before crashing helplessly to the ground. Its front glacis plate buried itself deep in the spongy moss.
SF-4738 couldn't waste any more time. He raised his blaster and pointed at the tower. "Irregulars, follow me."
His partisans charged forward to search the building. Mahan led the jet pack equipped insurgents up to the landing bay, while the Jedi B'asia simply leaped up to the top. They watched the three retreating Legionnaires flee to the next tower in the distance from their new perch. There were no signs more enemy reinforcements were on their way.
SF-4738 exited onto the landing pad with several of his most trusted Irregulars. Mahan turned to him. "Where is the Moff?"
"The tower is empty." SF-4738 snapped in frustration. If the mission was a bust it was also a colossal waste of ammunition and supplies at a time where they were barely hanging onto their continued existence by a thread. "There is no one here."
Savushh and his escorts flew in overhead before landing on the edge of the platform. Savushh saluted his commander and addressed him by the rank he was known as throughout the Irregulars. "Sarge, it was a trap set to lure you in."
SF-4738 sighed. He knew the Ubese was right. It was the only possibility that made any sense with all that had happened in the few days since the 212th's surrender. Savushh continued. "Mon Orrelios received the intel from Confed sources inside the city but couldn't get word to you. The Confederacy is jamming all transmissions. I came to reinforce you."
"Thank you, Savushh. The Irregulars are going to need all the help we can get if we are going to kick the abos' shebs off of Mars." SF-4738 admitted. He turned to Jacen Quan. The medic was also carrying one of their few hyperwaves. "See if you can contact Orrelios."
"Yes, sir." Jacen, B'asia and the rest of the partisans went back into the tower. They needed to start working on their exfiltration before more Legionnaires came back. SF-4738 stayed up on the landing pad and took a long look down on Mars. The green moss around the rim of the Valley of Heroes soon gave way to the red plains south of the enormous canyon.
Mahan had been the sole partisan to remain on the platform with SF-4738. Now he came forward and stood with his father. "You know, Mars is very different than our home world."
SF-4738's mind traveled back to Anax. Surely the boy hadn't meant Teth, the world of SF-4738's birth back in the Home Galaxy. He was right. Anax was now a world of deep forests that grew faster than anyone could cut them down. Few lived or wanted to visit there. It had its own sense of peace. Mars, however, had always been a world of activity. Ever since the Empire arrived and terraformed it. It had been the 2nd Galactic Empire's cradle and salvation in their hour of greatest need.
"Once upon a time, these plains had been covered in agricombines just like the north rim. Mars had been full of life."
"Before two-thirds of the planet's population left for the colonies. We learned that at the Academy." Mahan interrupted.
"Yes, but it was much more than that. Mars is the Empire's home world. More so than Palpatine Prime. This world shaped us just as much as we shaped it."
"Maybe. Maybe this is your chance to help change things here. You're the best around at this sort of thing, Pa." Mahan was right. Mars under the Empire was peaceful. The Confederacy was a stain on that. A stain that needed to be removed.
The door to the tower burst open with Savushh and Jacen Quan emerging back onto the landing pad. "We've got incoming, Sarge."
Savushh pointed to a dust trail being kicked up by an old BARC speeder bike approaching from the east. SF-4738 recognized the BARC as one of the few that belonged to the Irregulars. It carried two riders, a driver and an older passenger bundled up under several blankets in the side car. SF-4738 told his partisans. "Let's go down and meet them."
They descended the tower and arrived back on the ground just as the BARC pulled to a stop at the front entrance. The driver was a plain-clothed younger clone from New Mandalore. There had been several hundred of them doing business on Mars when the CEN had invaded. He turned and helped the older man, an elder version of himself, out of the side car. The older clone spotted the Amban on SF-4738's back and smiled.
"Alpha-17, any news?" SF-4738 asked the clone who until lately had been the caretaker of the Academy Museum in Amidala City where they had met during SF-4738's post-invasion search for his son. He would only have been sent if their spy Mon Orrelios had learned dire information.
"The Confederacy has changed their plans. They're moving the Moff back to Amidala City via the lower valley roadway, for a public termination." Many of the nearby Irregulars gasped. Killing a Moff was almost akin to harming a member of the Royal family. A Moff hadn't died since old man Kuat over twenty years ago and that had been the result of an accident. The only other two Moffs that had ever been killed here in the Milky Way had been done away by the hand of Empress Phasma herself.
"We need to move quick." SF-4738 snapped at his men.
Jacen Quan held up a finger. "Something else, Colonel, um, I mean Sarge. The pick-up team called. They say we've got two hours to deliver the Moff, or they're gone."
"Kriffing pirates." SF-4738 swore. "Get back on the horn and tell them that if they are planning to bug out, they need to move the rendezvous site closer."
"Where to, Sarge?" Jacen asked.
SF-4738 pulled out a tracking signal and activated it before attaching it to his belt. "Tell them to come to me."
Jacen just smiled and got back on his comlink. He sure was a strange trooper, SF-4738 mused. But not for long. They needed to get moving. Within minutes he was back on the ground outside the tower and issuing orders. The lower rim roadway was a long winding road that hugged the Yos River as it cut along the floor of the Valley of Heroes. It was a lot of ground to cover and not a lot of time to do it in. He sent partisans in every direction in the hopes that someone would spot the prison transport before it was too late. It would be impossible to consolidate his Irregulars again for a proper ambush so he would have to wing it with which ever men he had available near the target's location.
It took just under an hour for SF-4738's scouts to locate the convoy. As luck would have it many of his command group where within a few kilometers of the canyon rim above the enemy transports, including the Jedi, B'asia and his best sniper Savushh. On the other hand, Mahan was probably the second or third closest Irregular to the Confederates when the spotting report came in and SF-4738 would need every hand he could get to hit those transports.
SF-4738 reached his son and a handful of other Irregulars a few minutes later and dismounted from the dewback he had been using to skirt along the canyon edge. The large animals didn't seem to have any trouble with the spongy gomex moss, nor did they kick up much of a large dust trail for Confederate troopers at the AquaPower Dam to spot. Most of the partisans in Mahan's small group were either armed with jet packs or swoop bikes. SF-4738 approached from behind them and then belly crawled to the lip of the canyon. Mahan handed him his own macrobinoculars.
"What do we got?" SF-4738 asked as he pulled the optical gadget to his face.
Jacen Quan had arrived with B'asia and pointed out the convoy to SF-4738. "There. I'm scanning a single passenger with no armor in the center transport. The one most heavily guarded."
A trio of VPK Bumerang V APCs were hauling shebs across the lower valley roadway. They were escorted by four scout version Legionnaires on Polaris quad runners. SF-4738 assumed the front and rear APCs were carrying half a dozen Legionnaires each, while the one in the middle probably carried the target as well as several guards or Confederate officers. "Dank ferric. I was hoping we'd nab General Dritwright as well."
"Our orders are only to snatch the Moff, sir." Mahan reminded him. The kid was too young to know just how far orders could be bent when the fighting started.
"If we attack the lead landspeeder, the Moff's transport will fall back." SF-4738 suggested. "Then someone can sneak up and sabotage those stoopa wheels they like to use so much, forcing it to stop."
"By then the rest of the convoy will be too far ahead to do anything about it." Jacen stated. SF-4738 wondered where the medic had picked up such knowledge on ambush tactics.
"So, who's going in?" Savushh asked. The rest of the Irregulars looked nervously at each other. Not even B'asia stepped up, which was fine because SF-4738 needed her to take care of the escorts and maybe one or both of the other APCs.
Mahan had an annoying smirk cross his face. With the fearlessness of youth, he spoke up. "Yeah, that sounds like a 'me' plan."
SF-4738 gave his son the side-eye. "Are you sure? You haven't exactly mastered that jetpack yet."
"Hey. I got it." Mahan replied, causing each of the other Irregulars to roll their eyes at the kid's oblivious smugness.
Savushh spoke up in Ubese. SF-4738 nodded in agreement. "If you think so. Alright, boy. The job is all yours." SF-4738 handed his Amban to the Ubese sniper and then signaled for another partisan to take the hyperwave from Jacen. "Be ready to jam their comms as soon as we start."
"Yes, Sarge," The young Irregular saluted and strapped the hyperwave radio to her back.
The Irregulars spread out to get ahead of the convoy and take up their assigned ambush positions. The prisoner convoy had slowed down through a narrow gorge but were now picking up speed as they entered a wide flat part of the valley. The Yos River flowed past the Earthlings to the right of their convoy. As they neared SF-4738's position he noticed four Legionnaires sitting on the center Bumerang V with their slugthrowers at the ready. SF-4738 recognized the BARs from the last war. The nasty weapons were far more effective than their joke faux E-11s. Of course, nothing beats the real thing, he thought as he slid the safety off his own E-11.
Mahan slipped away to his own position but offered one last farewell. "Go easy on them."
"No chance." SF-4738 replied.
SF-4738 stood up on the edge of the cliff and studied the approach of the enemy convoy. As they neared his position, he took one step forward and dove off the cliff. He plummeted face first for nearly a minute covering nearly five kilometers during his fall. Five hundred meters above the convoy he activated his jet pack.
The shock almost knocked his breath out as he was suddenly and violently jerked backwards by the infernal device. Stang it, I'm getting old, he felt.
He swooped down close to the ground directly in front of the lead Bumerang, surprising the crew of the lead APC. He veered past the racing armored car, missing it by centimeters as he raced down its side. He pulled up out of his dive directly in the oncoming path of the middle Bumerang.
The Legionnaires behind the wheels of the APC dropped their jaws in shock as the Irregular commander in front of them activated a G-20 Glop and hurled it at them. The grenade burst on the front viewscreen of the landspeeder, immediately covering it in green foam.
The driver panicked as planned and slammed on his brakes, causing the trailing Bumerang to ram it from behind. It fell back again and turned its 57 mm autocannon towards the flying Irregular. The slugthrower cannon opened up with the long familiar ripping noise that SF-4738 recalled from long-settled battles on Earth.
Unlike his son, SF-4738 had plenty of practice with jet packs and effortlessly ducked underneath the slug stream ripping over his head. The escorts on the quad runners were trying to unholster their own weapons as he flitted past. SF-4738 wasn't too concerned with them. He was more focused on the one surprise the enemy had just sprung on them. The four Legionnaires on the top of the center Bumerang took to the air with jet packs of their own. He didn't even know the Confederacy had made them for its troopers.
He swept to the rear of the convoy drawing all of the enemy fire back in his direction. He had hoped to draw the blinded APC off from the others, but the distraction of enemy jet troopers had torn his focus for a second, allowing all three Bumerangs to turn onto an ascending path that led up from the canyon's bottom along its northern cliff. Their new path was narrower and was barely wide enough for two APCs to drive side by side.
As SF-4738 exchanged wild blasts with the Jet Legionnaires he activated his comlink headset. "Now!"
Jacen Quan came racing around the corner ahead of them, driving Alpha-17's BARC speeder. Standing on the back of the seat was Savushh, blasting away with the Amban, the Ubese balanced on the speeder bike like he was a crazed nerf buster.
They sliced through the column in a flash of titanium and blaster bolts. As Jacen spun the bike around to face the rear of the convoy Savushh clipped a Legionnaire in one of the rear Bumerang's blasting ports, vaporizing him with a bolt to the neck.
While the enemy's fire turned on the speederbike, SF-4738 dove towards the nearest quad runner. He approached its driver from behind. The Legionnaire scout could see him coming but was having difficulty turning in his seat and drawing his blaster on the partisan leader. SF-4738 never gave him a chance to figure it out.
SF-4738 slapped the blaster away as the scout attempted to train it on him. Then slamming the butt of his E-11 in the Legionnaires face plate to distract him he grabbed the handlebar throttles and gave them a twist. The quad runner thrust ahead with SF-4738 hanging on and running along the small vehicle's right side. The flying Legionnaires tried to blast him without hitting the scout causing their shots to go wide. SF-4738 helped them out by grabbing the poor scout by the back of the neck and yanking him out of his seat. The Legionnaire scout crumpled to the ground as the convoy sped away without him.
SF-4738 ran along the quad runner for several steps before flinging his leg up and landing in the seat. He leaned away from the APCs as he went past. More Legionnaires tried to blast at him from the blasting ports. Several bolts hit the quad runner but didn't hit anything vital, especially the most important thing, his precious hide. SF-4738 could hear more blasting as Jacen and Savushh squeezed down the left side of the APCs between the convoy and the cliff face.
As the Jet Legionnaires swooped down to keep the BARC speeder away from the central APC, SF-4738 gunned it towards the quad runner at the lead of the convoy. Its driver turned and blasted wildly over her shoulder at the onrushing Irregular. Her attention was torn away from the road just long enough to miss the figure in the roadway ahead.
B'asia Ti watched the convoy approach with steely determination. She had heard them blasting all the way from the valley floor. The young Jedi activated the bronze blade of her lightsaber, drawing all of the attention of the closing prisoner convoy.
The Knight charged right towards the lead quad runner, leaping into the air and pouncing on the front of the quad runner. The sudden impact drove the front tires into the ground and flipped the vehicle back over front. The Legionnaire scout flopped onto the ground. She was too stunned to move before the lead APC ran her down and crushed her under its tires.
B'asia's leap had propelled her off the quad runner and upwards to land atop the lead Bumerang. The Jet Legionnaires turned on the Togruta. Maybe it was the exotic weapon or her alien appearance, but the Legionnaires were much too eager to kill her. They cut each other off and flew much too close to the Jedi. B'asia deflected their bolts with her lightsaber. She bounced one round back into the nearest Jet Legionnaire and then Force pushed a second one onto the front of the middle APC. The poor sleemo was instantly stuck in the glop foam.
The Togruta drove her weapon down into the turret of the lead Bumerang, destroying it with a single slash. From the remaining quad runners and Jet Legionnaires to the Legionnaires still inside the three Bumerangs all enemy eyes stared in disbelief at the awesome power of the Jedi that stood before them.
Which only meant that not a single Earthling noticed the lone Irregular with a jet pack racing up behind the rear APC. The last Bumerang had started to edge up alongside its comrade carrying the suspected Moff, so that it could clear a better field of fire on the Jedi, leaving the rear of the convoy exposed. Mahan let out a powerful burn from his thrusters and shot forward until he reached the back bumper of the prisoner Bumerang. He cut his jets and then started climbing underneath the hull to get a better shot at disabling both sets of tires at the same time with a well-placed thermal detonator.
On the rear APC a hatch popped open, and a Legionnaire crawled out of the vehicle carrying a long sniper rifle which he turned on B'asia. He wasn't quick enough for Jacen, who hit him with five rapid fire blaster bolts in the chest and stomach. The stricken Legionnaire fell over the side of the APC and under the prisoner carrying Bumerang. His corpse nearly clipped the dangling Mahan as he fumbled with his set charge on the undercarriage.
The sudden appearance of the body made Mahan lose his grip for a split second. That was all it took. He took one bounce off the ground, which luckily for him activated his jet pack again just as his left hand blindly caught the rear bumper. With a tug he pulled himself up quickly to where he was standing on the bumper and holding onto the rear hull for dear life.
The thermal detonator had fallen away and exploded behind the vehicle. The explosion had drawn the attention of at least one Legionnaire who opened a side panel on the machine and peered out. Luckily Mahan had just pulled himself up and into cover before he could be spotted.
The two guard Bumerangs pulled alongside one another at the front of the convoy. Several Legionnaires climbed out of the hatches of both vehicles and attempted to assault B'asia with knives and side arms while the surviving Jet Troopers circled overhead blasting down at the Jedi.
The Jedi maintained her stance atop the first APC dispatching the Legionnaires as they attacked one by one. With their uneasy footing atop the speeding armored car B'asia was able to make quick work of them and soon green armored bodies were falling along the sides of the ascending roadway.
Suddenly both Bumerangs were rammed from behind by the blinded prison transport. The impact crushed the glopped Legionnaire stuck to the front of the vehicle and nearly caused Mahan to lose his grip on the rear. The unexpected jolt knocked one of the enemy troopers attacking B'asia off the side of the Bumerang and caused the Jedi to lose her balance and tumble. She grabbed a hold of the right side of the hull and clung to the armored hull between the two racing APCs.
They would have come back together and crushed her if the rear prison transport hadn't pushed between them, giving B'asia time to climb back up on the lead APC. The Bumerang on the outside came perilously close to the edge of the cliff as Mahan's APC shoved past. Its driver stuck his head out of his hatch and peered down at the narrow roadway to better steer the Bumerang. It was a poor move as Savushh spotted the movement and took careful aim from the back of the BARC speeder bike. The Amban barked once and hit the driver squarely in the face. His whole body disintegrated in a flash of heat leaving only his armor behind. There was no time to recover or for another Legionnaire to take his place as the front right wheels spun off the edge of the cliff pulling the rest of the armored car with them. With a screeching tear as the metal undercarriage scraped along the rocky cliff edge the Bumerang teetered and then plummeted off the side, taking its crew and passengers along with it.
SF-4738 pressed on his brakes to let the convoy catch back up to him. The first to pass by him was the out-of-control prison transport. As he came alongside the rear of the vehicle, he spotted Mahan clinging to the rear. His son saluted with his free hand causing SF-4738 to roll his eyes in astonishment. Well, at least the kid was staying on mission, of course a proper Stormtrooper would have disabled the APV by now. He slammed on the brakes and fell into position at the rear of the two surviving APCs.
On the left side of the lead APC Jacan and Savushh fell back under fire from the two remaining Jet Legionnaires and quad runner scouts. The enemy struck the BARC speeder which began to spark and smoke. Jacen maneuvered it to the front of the rear APC to use its hull for cover, but it was evident the speeder bike wasn't long for this world. Savushh pulled out an E-11 and handed it to Jacen before readying the Amban.
"I'll take the two on the left." Savushh seemed to indicate in a mix of Ubese and ill-pronounced Basic.
Jacen nodded. "I got the two on the right. Break!"
They both leapt from the doomed speeder bike seconds before it ground itself into the roadway, landing on the front end of the rear speeder. Jacen swung around and sprayed suppressive fire at the Legionnaires causing them to break apart. At the same time Savushh swung onto the roof and put a well-aimed pulse beam into the gut of the nearest Jet Trooper. In a rain of ash and steam the Confederate trooper burst apart in mid-air.
SF-4738 shifted gears on the quad runner and charged forward. He could see B'asia grappling with several Legionnaires atop the rear APC. She hadn't had time to draw her lightsaber again since climbing back onto the deck of the Bumerang. Savushh was just forward of the Jedi engaged with the last escorts. His shots kept them from blasting B'asia in her side while she dealt with the Legionnaires.
B'asia ducked under the punch of one Legionnaire using his momentum to toss him over the side of the APC. She traded blows with a second, which SF-4738 thought was foolish to do with someone wearing a suit of armor. It was quickly evident the Jedi was more used to fighting with a lightsaber than with her fists. What did they teach their Padawans on Wadarae, he wondered? She eventually resorted to the Force and shoved the enemy trooper off the side nearly hitting a scout Legionnaire on a quad runner alongside the Bumerang.
SF-4738 was on it. He crept unseen behind the scout. The engines of the vehicles masking his approach. As he rode up alongside the Earthling the enemy finally noticed him and tried to turn his blaster pistol on the partisan. SF-4738 was too quick for him and blasted the other quad runner's engine from point blank range. The small vehicle sputtered once and then flipped over, leaving the scout collapsed in the convoy's dust.
B'asia was under pressure from the Legionnaires on the remaining guard APC. She retrieved her lightsaber and jumped off the side, landing squarely on the back of SF-4738's quad runner. "How are we doing?"
"It could be worse." SF-4738 admitted. By some miracle they hadn't lost anyone yet.
B'asia deflected several bolts from the last Jet Legionnaire trailing them. "Yeah, keep telling yourself that, Colonel."
Single shot bolts came from above them which the Jedi narrowly blocked. Up atop the Bumerang a single Legionnaire balanced on one knee and carefully aimed down at them. With an acrobatic flip, B'asia hurdled herself back atop the armored car, spun around and with a back-handed slice cut the Legionnaire down with her bronze blade.
SF-4738 raced ahead to the prisoner transport. Mahan would need his help.
B'asia planted her feet and squared off in the High Block stance. She practically dared the last Jet Legionnaire to take his best shot. Before the enemy could do so the hatch beneath the Jedi split open causing the Togruta to drop into the crew compartment of the Bumerang.
The interior of the vehicle was unlit by any light other than her blade and the sunlight coming in from the hatch above. Five Legionnaires raised their blasters and slugthrowers and held them on the Jedi who had fallen into their midst. They had her surrounded. "Drop your weapon."
"I have a better idea." B'asia smiled revealing her predatory fangs. She raised her empty hand and closed it, pulling the hatch above her head closed with the Force.
The bronze blade was a whirring tornado as it whipped through the compartment. The Legionnaires were brave. None of them screamed out as they were cut down by the exotic weapon. A pair of bolts were all they managed to fire but they were easily brushed aside as the lightsaber struck again and again in the dark confines of the APC.
Within seconds it was over. As B'asia cleaved through the last Legionnaire she detached the trooper's hand before plunging her blade straight through his chest. There was a small thud as the detached appendage fell to the deck. B'asia looked down to see a small round object roll away from the hand; a grenade.
"This is where I get off." She swept the upper hatch open again and started to leap out of the doomed APC. But it was too late. The explosive blast caught her just as she was escaping the vehicle. She caught a shoulder and shin full of shrapnel as she exited. The concussion from the weapon knocked her out cold and tossed her in the APC's wake.
Jacen Quan saw the Jedi struck and screamed. Through the flames of the now burning Bumerang he blasted down the last Jet Legionnaire. He broke off his part of the attack on the prisoner transport and ran back to where the Jedi had fallen.
SF-4738 ignored both of them. He was too focused on the last APC and completing the mission. "Mahan, Stop messing around and get the Moff out of there."
Mahan finally climbed atop the Bumerang's hull. "Yeah, I'm working on it."
A hatch ahead of the kid popped open and a Legionnaire stuck his head out, looking in the wrong direction. Mahan blasted him in the back of the head. As the body collapsed back inside the young officer jumped in after it.
Mahan grunted as he hit the bottom of the crew compartment. He wasn't alone. Beside the driver and the co-driver a prisoner sat on a bench in the back of the vehicle with metal binders on her wrists. Mahan wanted to stand and properly salute Moff Hinter, but the driver turned in his seat to attack him.
The Earthling pulled out a pistol and tried to aim it at him. Mahan reacted quickly and snatched the man by the wrist. As he twisted it away from himself and the Moff the slugthrower discharged, blowing a gory hole in the driver's head. The Earthling slumped across the controls as the APC surged ahead with a dead man at the wheel.
By standing, Mahan had the high ground. But the co-driver was still able to stand and struggle with him for control of the slugthrower. Moff Hinter stood and charged. She smashed her shoulder into the Earthling causing him to fall backwards. The co-driver's head struck a periscope above his seat. The impact emitted a sickening popping noise as the enemy trooper collapsed limply to the deck.
"Are you with the Irregulars?" Moff Hinter asked.
"Yeah, I'm with the Sarge." Then perhaps realizing again who he was addressing. "I mean, Yes Ma'am. I serve under Colonel Antilles."
"You're his kid. I remember you." Moff Hinter held up her binders. "If you would be so kind, Ensign."
Mahan blasted them off. As he did so there was a shout from outside the hatch. His father was riding alongside the vehicle and screaming something at them. Mahan stuck his head out and found his father. "What?"
"Get out! There's a cliff!" His pa was yelling.
"A cliff? What cliff?" Mahan turned and saw what the elder Antilles was trying to indicate. Sure enough, the ascending pass took a sharp turn around a mountainous spur causing the direct path they were on to end at a steep and kilometer deep drop-off.
He dropped back down into the compartment and faced the Moff. "We need to get out of here, like immediately, ma'am."
"How good are you at extractions?" Hinter asked.
"We will find out. This is my first." He admitted.
"Kid, get out of there!" The Colonel's voice came in from the hatch.
Mahan removed his jet pack and strapped it onto the Moff. "Take this, ma'am."
"How will you get out?"
"Trust me. I'm better off without it." Mahan shoved the Moff towards the hatch and lifted her up and through the exit. Dank farrik, he thought, as he manhandled Hinter through the hole, did I just touch the shebs of a Moff?
There was a lurch as the APC plummeted off the side of the cliff. Gravity inside the compartment fell away as Moff Hinter blasted off into the air. Mahan fell away from the APC as it plunged towards its doom on the valley floor.
SF-4738 skidded his quad runner to a stop as the Bumerang raced over the cliff edge. There was a small flare as Moff Hinter ignited the jet pack and as the APC vanished from his view the Moff circled around and landed next to him. A few seconds later Savushh ran up to him just before Jacen and an unconscious B'asia Ti arrived on the back of another captured quad runner.
"Quick! Get to the side." SF-48738 shouted orders to the other partisans. He wanted to cling to any hope that he hadn't just witnessed his eldest boy fall to his death. "He might have jumped and grabbed the side."
There was a mighty roar from below followed by a great grey shadow passing right in front of them. As it rose from the canyon it took the shape of a YT-2000 stock freighter. Atop the freighter stood a very happy, and very alive, Mahan Antilles.
A Duro pilot in the cockpit waved to them before spinning the ship around to expose the crew loading ramp. Standing in the entrance, gripping one of the ramp's braces was a Firrerreo woman with colorfully wild, long hair. Mahan clasped his hands together in triumph and then used a dorsal access hatch to climb down into the freighter.
SF-4738 looked at his chrono and then shouted to the pick-up team. "Cutting it close."
"We've got company!" The Firrerreo shouted to them.
She wasn't kidding either. At just that moment, the screams of engines raced up the valley from behind them. A pair of X-Wings appeared with their weapons blazing. A string of bolts stitched their way across the ground causing Savushh and SF-4738 to dive to safety at the last second. The bolts caught SF-4738's quad runner and turned it to scrap. One stream of icy blue bolts thumped into the top of the YT-2000 causing it to dip at its shields absorbed the impact.
The X-wings broke off their attack as they flew past. They started to circle back and would return in less than a minute.
"Moff Hinter we need to move now." The Firrereo yelled.
"She's right, ma'am. Our mission is to get you off Mars." SF-4738 told her.
"Is she hurt?" Hinter pointed at B'asia.
"Yeah, she got banged up pretty good back there, but it's nothing a bacta tank wouldn't clear up." Jacen reported. He seemed overly protective of the Jedi. "Not exactly something we've got in the Irregulars."
"Give her to me." Hinter crossed to Jacen and the two of them removed the unconscious Jedi from the quad runner. "Force users are not to fall into enemy hands. That's directly from the Empress and the Grand Master."
"Not someone I'm keen to cross." Jacen said.
"What about Mahan? He's still on the freighter." Savushh said in Ubese which Hinter didn't understand.
SF-4738 pointed to the ship. "That officer has vital information for Naval Intelligence. He needs to go with you."
Hinter's eyes narrowed. "He's your son, isn't he, Colonel Antilles?"
"Aye, ma'am." SF-4738 admitted. A lump caught in his throat. Would he ever see his family again? It didn't matter as long as they were all safe.
"I'll see to it he returns to the Empire." Hinter wrapped her arms around the prone Jedi and ignited her jet pack. The X-wings had completed their turn and were lining up their next attack. On the quad laser atop the YT-2000 Mahan had crawled into the gunner's seat and was blasting at them to keep them at bay. The kid had no idea what his father had just done to him.
Hinter zipped across the loading ramp of the freighter where the Firrereo helped her stabilize the wounded Jedi. The crew woman took B'asia aboard.
As she did so Moff Hinter turned back and faced the three Irregulars. They were already climbing aboard Jacen's quad runner to make their own escape. "Tell them all, Colonel." Hinter yelled as the YT-2000 started to pull away. "Tell them I shall return."
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