Commander of Wolves

Chapter Fifteen: Siege of Mandalore

On the flight down to Mandalore in the LAAT/is, both Ahsoka and Nya, though they are in different ships, both receive the holotransmission from the capital city of Sundari. Not to Nya's surprise, it's the newly reinstated Prime Minister, Almec. An aruetii, a traitor, to Mandalore and a very disliked man among the Nite Owls. In fact, many of the young Nite Owl warriors practice knife throwing at a picture of his face.

A beep on his comm alerts Wolffe. When he answers the comm, a troopers voice comes through to the ship, "Commander, I have Prime Minister Almec of Mandalore on the comm."

"Put him through," Wolffe orders.

Nya moves close to Wolffe's shoulder and once the holotransmission appears, she turns around to face the blue, holoprojected image of Almec.

"What is the meaning of this invasion? The Republic presence here is a direct violation of our treaty."

"Your time has come, Almec," Nya says. "We know you're Maul's puppet, and we are coming for him."

"Ah-ha! Miss Nyathera, the traitor. I should have known you and your mother were behind this incursion. Siding with the Republic will make you both enemies in the eyes of the people."

"We're both fine with that," Nya says, venom now lacing her voice.

Once the holocall disconnects, Nya turns back to face the other troopers as they continue to descend nearer to the city. After they are within comm range, Nya comms the warrior who she knows was put in charge of monitoring the entrances and exits of the city. Her cousin, Korkie Kryze.

"Korkie, can you confirm the target's location?" the young warrior asks.

"I can only confirm that Maul has not left the city. All of our other attempts to locate him have been blocked. Saxon is already scrambling his defenses," Korkie says, his features blocked by his helmet, but his body language betraying everything. He's worried.

But so is everyone else. There are only two ways that this akaa'nar can go. The Nite Owls and their allies succeed, which ends with Bo-Katan on the throne of Mandalore. This is the hoped for outcome. But there is one other possible outcome. That the Nite Owls and the Republic fail. In which the ending is Maul still sits on the throne of Mandalore, and all but two Mandalorian clans are wiped out.

Just then, the LAAT/is are rocked by blaster fire and the comm call ends.

"We've got incoming!" the LAAT/i pilot says.

He makes swerving motions to avoid being hit by rockets fired by Maul's army. The doors then open and the Mandalorians Nya brought with her begin jumping out. Nya joins them and they begin a one-on-one fight with the warriors of Death Watch. As Nya jumps backward out of the back of the LAAT/i, she asks her former men,

"What are you waiting for? Get out there!"

Nya locates Ahsoka, who is using only the Force to get herself safely down to the surface. And she is protecting the clone troopers with her lightsabers while she does it. Once Ahsoka lands inside an LAAT/i after kicking the two members of Death Watch out of it, Nya directs herself over that way. But before she can reach the other LAAT/is that were taken over by Death Watch, a traitor arises from her own side.

A yell makes its way through the internal helmet comms. A strangled and ugly sound. The sound of death. But for it to be coming over the comms of the Nite Owls, it had to happen to one of the warriors Nya brought.

"What just happened?" Nya demands, hovering in the air. After a moment's pause she continues. "Check in, now!"

Everyone begins to comply with her orders. For some it takes a moment, but they still check in.