Star Wars (Legends):The Eternal Conflict. Book:2

Chapter 27 (The Battle for Naboo's Son)

Location: In the skies above The Great Grass Plains, on the planet Naboo!

"Creeeek!"
That sound was really starting to get to Mirta.
Ever since the Tra'Kad she had been travelling in had breached Naboo's atmosphere, the beast of a ship seemed to be protesting gravity's reassertion of dominance.

The small annoyance was especially irritating, due to the fact that her mind couldn't afford any more distractions right now. She was moments away from Battle, and her psyche was still reeling from the past 12 hours. She had been at home enjoying a quiet dinner with her husband, when Sintas and Goran had broken the news.

Goran, had dressed it up all pretty too; some wonderful tale of : "The Mandalore receiving devine blessings from The Great Oversoul to guide his people to one last glorious battle, then enraptured by the Manda, sealing his place for all time in..." Blah, Blah, Blah.

Her response was Classic Mirta: "Cut the poodoo, Bevine! The Hut'uun (Coward) off'd himself! Didn't he?
The response came, not from Goran, but from Sintas. A non verbal response.... A Mandalorian response.
Even now, her cheek was still swollen and bruised form the humbling blow her grandmother laid upon her. She had great respect for Sintas. And if the woman was that vehement in her defence of Fett, then there had to be a good story behind it.

But... All that family messiness, would have to wait until the mission was over. Mission? Or  Holy Crusade? In a matter of a couple weeks. It had gone from: "Protecting the livelihood of the underground fringe", to: "The reemergence of an ancient Mandalore. A conquering Mandalore."

Things had gone from strange to surreal with the addition of this new Sith Leader, with his new Biot army. She had worked with both, the Sith and Biots, in the past. It had been disastrous! Did she really believe things would be different? Yet, the lure of glory and battle drove her forward.

A moment or two of additional contemplation, could have led to her fully understanding why Fett did what he did.

But it was not to be...

Her concentration was broken by another "Creeeek".

"Dammit!" She shook her head in frustration.

The groan of the troop carrier was suddenly replaced by Thud... Thud.... Thud, Thud, Thud..." as the vessel hit the tops of trees on the edge of the swampland.

A couple more thuds and bangs and then:  The relative silence of air rushing over the hull, as the Tra'Kad cleared the swamp and entered the grasslands.

The new found peace inside the carrier, came to an abrupt end as the ship made groundfall. The Tra'Kad was not a pretty little ship, built for an elegant landing. It was through and through Mandalorian. It was made for breaching the toughest of enemy defences. It was a wrecking ball! The ship made contact with ground at high speed and came to a skidding halt.

A muggy wind, came gushing into the troop hold as the ramp/hatch was deployed. There was no hesitation or delay. Super camandos and Yuuzhan Vong, on either side of her, came pouring out through the hatch; some on foot, and some by rocket boosters.

And these were not alone! Several other Tra'Kads had landed at the same time, disgorging their chache of warriors onto the battlefield. All of them with a single goal... A single target: Luke Skywalker.
Malgus had made that clear... it was all part of the his great scheme: