***
The battle droids were unleashing their firepower upon the downed soldiers while Lina crouched behind the dais, her shoulder pressing against the Wookie’s back. Smoke was filling the chamber and forcing a cough from her, but she narrowed her eyes as she lined up a shot.
The Wookie roared something, looking down at her. Lina shook her head and was about to say she could not understand, when Mardek leaned over her.
“He wants you to wait before you take your shot!” he said, strangling his own coughing fit.. “They’re fighting the clones right now, and I have the grenade armed. Wait until after it’s thrown!”
Lina nodded and peered over the dais. That moment was coming up fast. The clone soldiers were mostly down, unable to withstand the sheer firepower of the guard droids. Lina could see two of the four droids on the ground, broken apart and burning from concentrated blaster shots. One clone was still fighting, reduced to trying to work a vibroblade under the armor of the nearest droid, but he too was felled as the droid leveled a blaster at his temple.
As the last clone fell, smoke escaping from his helmet, there was a moment of quiet. Lina could feel the ringing in her ears as she and the rest looked around their small cover. The moment seemed to stretch for an eternity before the remaining droids turned towards her and the field group.
“Now!” Mardek growled, rising from his crouch, and lobbing his grenade. It bounced twice before rolling in front of one of the guardian droids. The droid looked down at the object, gears whirring, before it went off in a storm of muted lightning. The droid spasmed as the currents arced up to it and the lights of its photoreceptors began flickering.
With explosive force, Votosh, Beak, and Willpo leaped from the dais and charged at the droid who escaped the blast. The Barabel lunged with his spear, catching the droid in its unprotected shoulder, and Beak swung down at its knees. The Wookie, in violent pragmatism, swung his axe in a two-handed grip at the droids’ head, knocking it clean off the torso and sending it up the corridor.
The stunned droid had nearly finish reinitializing and was moving its arms to aim a blaster shot when Lina stood from her own crouch and loosed a crossbow bolt. The droid gave an electronic grunt as the bolt struck its neck, lodging between the armor plating. Votosh took advantage of the momentary pause to try another lunge, but the blow glanced off the armor plating.
Beak, however, came through. Swinging his stun baton, the M3PO unit struck an unprotected segment of the guard droids’ torso, and another flash of arcing lightning played across the body. Lina was reloading her crossbow as the protocol droid battered away at the enemy, doing little actual damage but keeping it from being able to retaliate.
Mardek, turning another cough into a frustrated growl, held his rifle up at his shoulder and took a quick shot at the battle droid. The blaster bolt hit the droid’s armor-plated chest, sending up sparks and exposing the circuitry beneath. Votosh, seeing the opportunity, lunged again with his spear, striking cleanly through the droids’ body.
With an almost anticlimactic whirble, the droid slowed down, systems powering off. The battle droid sagged against the spear and the lights in its eyes faded out. In the wake of the thunder that had filled the cavern earlier, the silence was almost overwhelming for Lina.
“All right,” Mardek said, slinging his rifle over a shoulder, “we won’t have long before that Commander either comes back with reinforcements or just pitches a thermal detonator down here to clear the lot of us. Let’s get going before he gets any ideas.”
Willpo growled in the affirmative and knelt down next to the stone tablet, readying to lift it into his satchel. After lifting the stone and moving it slightly, the Wookie’s grip slipped and a corner of the tablet struck the cavern floor with a heavy thunk. Shaking his head and snarling to himself, Willpo resettled his grip on the tablet and, moving with more care this time, put it down in the satchel. Lina was slightly alarmed at the Wookie’s strength; that artifact had to weigh better than forty kilos.
“He’s getting tired,” Mardek said, watching the Wookie work, “and that stone isn’t going to help him any. We need to get him to the shuttle; I don’t think any of us can carry that thing.”
The others nodded and set about clearing the path for the Wookie, namely moving the droids and soldier bodies away from the tunnel and back into the chamber. It was during one of these moves that Lina heard a faint sound from nearby. It sounded as if a piece of glass had bounced off of the ground. She looked, but could not see anything nearby that even remotely resembled glass.
Mik, standing close by, followed her gaze with a puzzled expression. “What is it?” he asked.
Lina shrugged. “I thought I heard something,” she said. “Might just be my ears ringing from the fight.”
Mik smiled at that, and they pressed on. Hurriedly, they made their way out of the cave and Lina, blinking against the sudden brightness of daylight, tried to scan the countryside for any signs of the Commander.
“There are no warning spirits near us,” Votosh said, tongue flicking out to taste the air. “But there is something about our craft that sets them on edge.”
“Meaning?” Mardek asked, arching a brow at the Barabel, who shrugged his scaly shoulders.
“No idea,” Votosh said, hefting his spear into a firmer grip. They approached the shuttle cautiously until they were at the ramp. Before Lina could ask if there was a plan, Votosh, Willpo, and Mardek charged up the ramp and into the cargo hold.
There was the sound of someone yelping in surprise, but it was choked off suddenly. Everyone else hurried up the ramp after the three to find a bizarre tableau: Willpo had the stone-laden satchel resting against his leg and his vibro-axe resting on his shoulder, Mardek training his rifle on the center of the cargo hold, and Votosh holding his spear in a lunge against a stranger, with the pointed tip dimpling the humans’ cheek and drawing a bead of blood. The man was tall and built stoutly, dressed in dark street clothes covered in sweat and grass stains.
“Wait!” the man said, starting to move his hands to signal surrender, but Votosh leaned a little into his lunge and drove the spear tip a centimeter further into the mans’ face. “My name is Taran and I work with Taggert! I was sent out to make sure the other group couldn’t succeed in stopping you!”
Votosh hissed something in his own language. Lina turned to look at Beak.
“He asked how we could trust him about this,” the droid translated, “since there were humans working for the Commander.”
“I’m not a clone!” the human said, trying his best to hold still. “I don’t look anything like the…what, two or three human faces that are out there. I swear, I’m here to help!”
“Why are you on the shuttle, then?” Lina asked. “How did you help us?”
The human, Taran, moved his eyes to look at Lina with a plaintive expression. “The Commander had some air support ready,” he said. “I sabotaged what I could, but I only took down one fighter. He’s bound to have the second one, a Z-95 in the air soon, if not already.”
Lina stared at the other human, weighing her options, but nodded. “Stand down,” she said to the three warriors. “We need to get away from here soonest. Can you help on the ship, Scarn?”
Taran nodded. “I’ve some experience in ship combat,” he said. “Just tell me where you need me.”
Lina nodded again, mostly to herself. “Everybody, get to your stations!” she said, raising her voice to carry. “We’ve got to get out of here. Beak, with me!” She started to walk toward the cockpit but paused to look back.
Everyone started to move, but then a long moment of pause ran through the group as they stared back at Lina. Willpo rumbled a statement at her.
“We don’t actually have stations, Captain,” Beak translated. “No one has ever been assigned to one or knows what they can do on the ship. They took whichever station was available for the flight here.”
Lina glanced from Beak back to the group, her eyes widening. “Oh, shavit,” she muttered.
***
“Strap in!” Lina said, suiting words to action as she fell into the pilots’ seat. She looked over at Beak, who was calmly setting his own restraints. “Get the engines powered up. Don’t worry about the pre-flight list; we’ll make it without it.”
“Yes, Captain,” Beak said, a worried tone in his voice as he typed in commands on his screen. “I must again remind you that I am not yet rated on –”
The comm system crackled to life. “Captain, I can see a starfighter going airborne, not far from us,” Mardek said from the dorsal turret.
Lina grimaced and flipped the engine control switches to active. The whine of the engine startup sequence went up two octaves as she fed power through the throttle and kicked in the repulsorlifts. The Myatil lurched from side to side as its systems were flooded with energy, but the engines gamely added thrust and the ship leaped into the open air.
“We won’t be able to hide from the fighter,” Taran said from the sensor station. “That Z-95 will have us on his scanners by now. He’ll follow us to anywhere in the system.”
Lina looked at her own scanner screen and switched the view to topographical, searching the landscape. “There’s a dried-out ravine on the eastern side of the hills,” she said, twisting the controls slowly to let the Myatil lean in that direction. “Could we lose him in there?”
Taran looked back at his screen, slightly confused. “Maybe?” he ventured. “I don’t know how to read this system all that well.”
“If I may, Captain,” Beak started, “I believe it’d for the best if I –”
“Z-95 has angled toward us!” Mardek said over the comm. “He’s lining up for an attack run!”
“Going evasive!” Lina said, leaning hard into her turn. The Myatil slewed heavily to the right before the repulsorlifts kicked in and bounced off the rise of a nearby hill, launching the ship further into the open sky.
“How far to the ravine?” Lina asked, glancing between the sensor screen and the diagnostics board. She had never cold-jumped a ship before; the practice went against everything she knew from her apprenticing years.
“Approximately twelve-hundred meters,” Beak said, “at three-two-five-oh-eight.”
Lina twitched the yoke and the ship was pelting forward in the direction of the ravine, engines screaming in the atmosphere. They were not moving as fast as she would prefer, Lina knew, but the unexpectedness of the launch and drive might, just might, have distracted the Z-95 pilot enough to…
A scattering of laser bolt impacted the dry rock of the hillsides to Lina’s right, and the Myatil went over the ridge and plunged into the beginnings of the ravine. If they had been barely a second slower, she thought, they might have been hit and driven into the hillside.
There! The ravine walls were beginning to rise in her viewport. Lina angled the ship to take advantage of the new cover.
Willpo roared something from the ventral turret. Lina almost elected to ignore the Wookie, but knew he was too experienced to do so.
“Translate!” she barked at Beak, who was hurriedly typing in commands on his screen.
“Willpo suggests someone else take his station,” Beak said immediately. “He has a limited experience with ship weaponry, and is not confident in his accura–”
Lina pushed the Myatil further into the ravine, and the earthen walls narrowed quickly as the ship built up speed. “Whoever can shoot the damn things, get to Willpo’s station!” she said. “We’re a bit busy up here!”
Mik’s voice crackled over the comms. “I can,” he said. “On my way. Votosh needed help with an idea of his.”
“Acknowledged,” Beak said. A sharp pinging sound rang from the sensor board. “The starfighter has followed us into the ravine and is giving chase.”
“Keep an eye on him,” Lina said. The ravine was starting to wind through tight turns, and the Myatil lurched into a leftward bend. “Can you get our shields up?”
Beak’s eyes flashed briefly as he scanned his controls. “I can,” he reported, “but I believe Taran’s station is better suited for that task.”
“Trying it now,” Taran was saying, voice strained as he was pushed against his restraints in the ships’ turn. “Still not sure what control does what, though.”
“This one might be able to keep the iron bird away,” Votosh hissed into the comm system. “Lower the ramp.”
Lina fought her reflex to stare at the comm speaker, instead twisting the yoke back and sending the Myatil into a hard right turn. “What are you talking about?” she eventually asked. “We can’t lower the –”
“Ramp lowering,” Beak reported suddenly. “He must have found the override circuit.”
“Votosh!” Lina called at the speaker. “What the frink are you doing back there?!”
Through the open hatch of the cockpit, Lina suddenly heard the roaring of air currents in the cargo hold, followed by a flat thumpt sound. A sharp crack and explosion followed a second later.
“Spirits!” the Barabel snarled. “This one missed.” There was the sound of someone clumsily handling a heavy object. “How do you reload a grenade launcher?”
Lina almost crashed the Myatil into a wall as she tried to comprehend what she had heard.
Taran hit the releases on his straps and stood, grabbing onto available handholds. “I’ll go check on him,” he said. He pointed at Beak. “Droid, take the station. Your Wookie is here, by the way.”
There was a rumble from the hatchway, and Lina watched out of the corner of her eye as Willpo took the unoccupied co-pilot seat and strapped in.
“He says he is a better pilot than gunner,” Beak translated. “I have sensors and shields.”
Lina felt the downshift in engine power as the shield generator came online and as Mardek took a few shots at the Z-95 with the autcannon. Sliding the etheric rudder to an opposing angle, she twisted the Myatil through a series of tight turns, giving the two gunners better odds of lining up their attacks.
Willpo’s fur-covered hands were flying across his control board, feeding energy to engines and repulsors. The Myatil rolled to present her belly to a ravine wall and suddenly bounced away as the repulsorlifts pushed against the stones. Trimming the recoil of the bounce, Lina heard another thumpt sound from the cargo bay, followed by a much closer explosion.
“Got him!” Taran crowed through the speaker. “His shields took the blast, but he’s vulnerable now.”
There was a sudden impact from the aft part of the ship, and Lina was thrown against her restraints.
“Iron bird was mad about our gift,” Votosh hissed over the comm, sissing out a low laugh. “This one does not think he can throw another grenade.”
“Raise the ramp!” Taran called. “Lina! Can you get another angle for Mardek and Mik?”
Lina was rolling the ship through a suddenly narrowing bend but spotted an outcropping further down the ravine. “Possibly,” she said. “Beak, can you target that rock tower ahead of us?”
“Yes, ma’am,” the droid said. “Rock tower is target-locked.”
“Good!” Lina said and leveled the Myatil as the ravine widened into what must have been a former small lake in the ravine system. The ship shot forward toward the outcropping. “Everybody hold on to something!”
There were startled acknowledgements as Lina flipped a circuit she had, up until this point, avoided touching. The circuit sparked and a button underneath it glowed a sullen red. She knew from her training that the Myatil shuttle was built with only point defenses in mind, meant to discourage planet-side marauders or pirates. The ship typically did not have any other offensive means.
But Captain Olto was the kind to plan ahead, and had installed a small concussion missile launcher just under the nose of the shuttle. Lina pressed the newly-lit button and watched two rockets flash out from their launch tubes. In mere moments, they impacted the rock tower, sending out shards of superheated rock along with the shockwaves from the explosive packages of the missiles.
The rock tower itself, as it began crumbling from the missile strike, broke off the point of impact and started a deceptively slow fall toward the Myatil. Lina dipped the shuttle until she heard and felt the underbelly scrape against the valley floor and then kicked in the repulsorlifts.
The Myatil shot out from underneath the falling rock tower. The Z-95 pilot, intent on his target or perhaps confident in his own ability to follow through the same maneuver, was struck by the plummeting outcropping. There was the sound of metal striking stone, and the blast from ruptured engines.
“Z-95 is destroyed,” Beak reported calmly. There were hooting sounds of cheer elsewhere on the ship. “I believe we will have safe skies back to the rendezvous.”
“I certainly hope so,” Lina said as she pulled up on the yoke and sent the Myatil out of the ravine system and into the open air. “I don’t want to try that again.”
But she felt her shoulders relax as the ravine walls fell away and the shuttle glided through the air currents. It had been a near thing, she thought, but they had succeeded. The tablet was theirs, the new crew survived, and the new enemy was thwarted.
All in all, a good afternoon. Lina grinned to herself as she banked the Myatil back to Cove Town.
Taran Scarn held back a relieved sigh as the mercenaries, called the Field Group by their Xexto captain, placed the stone tablet on the floor next to Taggert’s feet. He had a moment of worry that they had damaged it during the attacks and flight, but they had strapped it down after they had boarded the Myatil shuttle. Apparently, these people knew what was expected of them when it was time to be professional.
“Excellent,” Taggert was saying, leaning to one side and pulling the satchel to reveal the tablet to him. “I heard you encountered some strong opposition out there. I was not expecting them to go in such force.”
“I hope you weren’t planning for this to be a quiet operation,” Mardek said, stifling a cough and rubbing at his chest. “Once the guard droids were active, that request went out the airlock.”
Taggert waved a negligent hand. “I was expecting something to happen when you took the tablet,” he said, “but I thought it was going to be something simple or easy, like a bunch decade-old junk that you could’ve dealt with easily. Granted, I wasn’t expecting there to be old elite security droids and a squad of clone troopers, but I did expect you to make some noise on your way out.”
“Any word about the Commander?” Taran asked his superior officer.
Taggert shook his head. “Word is that a shuttle was spotted making for the location of his post,” he said. “If it’s true, then they’re long gone. With that in mind, here you go.” From a hip pouch, Taggert took out four credit tabs and placed them in front of Olto. “Twenty thousand, as agreed.”
“Master Taggert,” Lina said, her voice hesitant. It was an odd contrast, Taran thought, to how she was during the ravine chase. “I am concerned about something. This stone tablet looks like it has part of a starchart engraved on it, and we had to fight through hell to get it to you. What’s at the end of that map?”
Taggert gave Lina a long and measured look before giving her a half-smile. “To be perfectly honest,” he said, “I don’t know.”
Several members of the Field Group looked surprised. “You don’t know?” Mardek asked. “I thought you said it had some significant mathematics.”
“To people I work with who know how to read it, sure,” Taggert said. “I’m just here to collect it from you and make sure it wasn’t taken by the opposition. You went there to get it from its hiding place. Once I’ve given it to those knowledgeable people, I might be told what it’s for.”
Taran could see that Taggert’s answer was not satisfactory for most of these people, but Olto nodded and picked up each credit tab. “At the amount you’ve paid us, Master Taggert,” he said, “you’ve also bought our discretion. We don’t need to know what it is, either.” He gave a significant glance to his subordinates. “Right?” he asked, cheerful warning in his voice.
Everyone, including the Barabel, gave quick confirmations. Taran was impressed.
“Then our business is concluded,” Olto said, pocketing the tabs and presenting one of his hands out to Taggert for shaking. Taggert shook the proffered hand and pointed with his free hand at Taran.
“Scarn here,” he said, looking from Taran to the Xexto, “is one of my more junior field agents. I’ve been meaning to give him an extended leave of absence from us and let him work aboard a cargo ship, if just to get him out of the office for a little while. Do you think you could take him on for a few months, Captain?”
Olto turned and peered at Taran, smiling as he did so. “I was told you have some interesting skills, Scarn,” he said. “Anything you think you can use to move freight?”
Taran raised an eyebrow at Taggert but shrugged at Olto. “I’m not sure, sir,” he said. “But Master Taggert is right; I do need more experience than what my terminal can provide.”
“We can find a place for you,” Olto said, nodding vigorously. “Welcome aboard! Will that be all, Master Taggert?”
Taggert nodded once. “That’s all from my side,” he said. “Scarn, I’ll be checking in with you in a couple months and see how you’re doing aboard ship. If I end up needing you, I’ll call for you.”
Taran nodded, accepting both the words and meaning behind them. His next mission was probably already loaded in his datapad, which was back in his ‘temporary’ quarters aboard the Sidewinder. He would check it this evening to see what needed doing.
“Well then, Field Group,” Olto said, ushering everyone out with gentle pushes, “let’s head back to the Sidewinder and get those repairs and restocking done! Thanks again, Master Taggert!”
Taggert had leaned back in his chair and was pulling a mug of dark ale toward him, waving them goodbye.
“Welcome to the Sidewinder crew, Scarn!” Olto said. “You’re going to have a great time working with us!”
Swift's Corner 