Twenty Seven


"It's not him."

There was no mistaking the disappointment in Darman's voice as he rolled over onto his back.

Niner closed his eyes and thought for a moment.

Fek it! This now complicates things.

Rede on the other hand, maintained position, keeping a close eye on the man they were sent to find.

And return.

They had taken the craft Roly had promised them, and flown to Abafar in the outer rim.

They had originally thought they were going to Mandalore after Darman struck a deal with Melusar, their CO. But as fate would have it, they were sent to retrieve a clone reported by an opportunistic alien after a moderate reward.

Darman, Rede and Niner had spent the day on surveillance of a small mechanics garage watching the man come and go. Hidden high amongst the buildings they had found him without a problem.

Both Niner and Darman had hoped, through some miracle, it was Sev, but as soon as their contact turned to face them Niner knew they had made the right decision not to tell Delta of their mission.

"What do you mean it's not him? It's him alright." Rede didn't understand.

"What do you want to do sarge?" Darman ignored the young trooper and threw it back to Niner.

"Let's head back to the ship."

"What?" Rede questioned, "we've got to bring him in. He's a deserter."

The second he said the last word Niner knew there would be no chance of convincing the youngest member of their team to desert along with them.

That's how Niner saw it all going down.

The trip to Abafar, whilst inconvenient, had bought him some precious time to think about the mission to Mandalore.

Darman got up and began to walk towards the ship.

"Dar, sarge? Wait! We can't just leave! This is our mission."

Darman switched to closed comm.

"There's your answer about Rede sarge."

Niner remained silent, thinking and clicking his tongue as he always did when mulling over a problem. Darman was right. There was no way around it. Rede was now the problem they knew deep down he would be from the very beginning.

They continued on in silence, Rede couldn't understand what was happening and scrambled to his feet, quickly collecting his kit.

"What do you want to do Ner'ika?"

Niner swung around fast and grabbed at his vambrance, "look Dar, this is our chance, our only chance. Let's load up, prepare to launch, they'll get the signal on Trip Zip loud and clear. We cut our chips, disable the ships tracking device and for all intents and purposes, we crashed taking off. We're off line. Forever."

Darman could hear the desperation in Niner's voice and immediately knew he meant every word. He could tell he had thought it through and everything he said was plausible.

Niner held onto Darman, wanting, willing him to give him the nod.

Melusar's word repeated in his mind, "revenge is a dish best served cold," and he knew that as much as he wanted to remove the Jedi from Kyrimorut permanently, he now wanted to see his son more.

Niner was right.

And he could still get rid of the Jedi there. An old piece of Awa bait and a kid, how hard could they be? The tale of getting Altis and the rouge Jedi group was just to get a fekking ship off the very people that owed him more.

"That's all well and good, but we'll have Roly send another team to Mandalore if we don't go."

"No, it was our contacts that was going to get him Altis. He knows that. We have the connection with Kal, not the others. Old Roly is no idiot."

Darman thought for a minute as they began the hike back to the ship.

"Hey! What about the clone? Sarge, Dar?" Rede was furious that they had just abandoned a mission.

Darman looked over to Niner, who refused to meet his gaze.

"Fix it," was all he said as he turned the volume and the HUD off in his bucket.

If he didn't hear or see it, then maybe it didn't happen.

But it did, and it would be something that he would spend the rest of his life atoning for.

.

"You men thinking of bugging out without me?"

They were caught completely by surprise. Niner stumbled, annoyed that he hadn't turned his bucket back on. He stood quickly, blinking frantically and faced off with the man they had been charged with bringing back to Coruscant.

"You're free to go brother. We didn't see you OK?" He said as he quickly pulled in his vibroblade, the one he was about to use to cut out his own microchip.

"No, not OK. I want to go back, I'm no deserter, I need to get back."

"Look, don't you watch the holonet?" Niner couldn't believe this guy and was losing what little patience that remained. "What was your unit?"

"Foxtrot, attached to the 212th during the battle of Sarrish."

Niner knew it was one the Republic's monumental losses and while he felt sorry for the soldier, he wasn't interested in getting to know him anymore than what he was just told. Both he and Darman had disabled the tracking system of the craft and were about to remove their chips when he wandered into their camp, suited up in his white plastoid marked with yellow.

They thought they had planned it perfectly, but they didn't count on a soldier who wanted to be found.

"Listen ner vod, you're free. You don't want to go back there, believe me. Things have changed - ,"

"You're not listening to me," he shouted, "I need to get back."

Darman stepped forward from behind the ship, "take it easy buddy, we're all on the same side here."

"Just like your buddy behind those bushes. I saw what you did back there."

Darman shucked his DC forward and pointed it at the other commando and there they all stood.

"Easy Dar, we can sort this out. Do you have a name?"

"Gregor. You?"

"Niner, sergeant first class Omega Squad."

"You're one of Skirata's boys."

"Yeah, that's right," Niner's voice was calm and instantly diffused the building tension.

"Get rid of him sarge, the balls already rolling."

"What's your hurry Gregor? We'd think any of the commando units would want to stay off the grid."

"I would and believe me there are worse places to live than out here, but," he stopped for a moment, "I have someone I need to get back to."

"A woman! Sarge, lets drop him and bug out!"

"You're buckets on bishwag." Gregor yelled at Darman who for the first time in a long time, was all out of words.

Niner removed his bucket tout suite and looked at it in his hands, "you're tuned into our HUD?" It had been his biggest fear ever since the Empire was formed. His paranoia was at the highest it had ever been, and now it had been validated.

"Yeah, I've had to modify everything since I was left for dead. Listen, I don't want any trouble, I just want to get back to Corrie OK?"

"Argh!" Niner roared and threw his bucket hard onto the ground. This whole mission had turned south and all he wanted to do was get to Kal and the others on Mandalore.

Darman followed suit, their helmets were of no use to them now their comm link had been compromised.

He was good, Niner gave him that, and fit. He had obviously kept in shape even though he had been abandoned in the middle of no where. Gregor slowly removed his helmet and that's when they saw it. The left side of his face had been burned, the scarring continuing down his neck.

It instantly reminded the two of Atin and a pang of melancholy hit them both, hard.

"You've seen some action ner vod."

"I'm not your brother," Gregor hissed back, not wanting any of their platitudes or sympathy. "I just want to get home, period."

"We have another mission on the back of this one," it was all Niner could come up with on the fly.

"Nerf osik. The Empire wouldn't have sent you if you weren't here to bring me back in. I've seen the reward amounts and I knew if I reported myself, someone would come. We're expensive remember, and they need us to balance the books."

He had done his homework as well. But then again, they'd expect nothing less from one of their own.

.