STAR WARS: Knights of the Old Republic

Chapter 18

An odd and boisterous series of noises and hollers began emitting from the assassin droid's vocabulator, the message projecting clearly and carrying well through the open air. As soon as the sand people heard it, they all stopped in their tracks. They looked back and forth at one another through their grotesque wraps and masks. One of them stepped forward and addressed the droid with a series of grunts and growls.

"Translation: He demands to know why we are here and why we are trying to speak with them."

"Tell him," Venar said, "That we mean them no harm, that we simply seek an audience with their leader to barter. Tell them we seek their knowledge and wisdom of the desert."

The droid relayed the message through another series of harsh barks and growls. The tusken raider seemed puzzled by this, but it was clear he still held a great amount of animosity towards the newcomers.

"Translation: He says he will take you to their chief, only because an outsider has never attempted to communicate before. He wishes to make it clear that he still does not like you and does not wish you well and that we must surrender our weapons. Shall I space him now, Master?"

"No, just tell him that we are grateful and that we will surrender our weapons as he has said."

"Expostulation: Master, I would like to remind you that I just received this blaster and have not yet had a chance to fire it. Now would be as good a time as any..."

"Just do it HK," Venar said, handing his lightsaber over to the warrior.

"Despondent Statement: Goodbye, old friend," HK said as he handed over the blaster rifle.

The Mandalorian Wars. Planet: Onderon. Carth sat in the mess hall on board the Hammerhead-class cruiser Vanguard. They were positioned in orbit around one of Onderon's four moons, Dxun. Reports were that a Mandalorian stronghold had been found on the surface that required expert precision to infiltrate. For that, the Jedi Commander Meetra Surrik had been brought aboard with her special strike force codenamed Phantom Squad. They were made up highly trained black ops commandos headed up by none other than the Jedi Master herself.

Until the mission launched, the Vanguard had remained hidden in a nebula to avoid detection. Carth and his squadron had been asked to remain on standby during the infiltration in case they needed air support. Carth didn't know the details of the mission other than that. Everything was highly classified when it came to Phantom Squad.

As such, Carth was surprised when a man he hadn't seen before sat down across from him wearing the insignia of Phantom Squad on his armband. He was a young man, probably not much younger than Carth, but he had striking features and dark hair. He also wore a medical wrap around his hand.

"You're from Phantom Squad aren't you?" Carth asked the man.

"Yes, I am," the man said, extending his uninjured hand.

"Carth Onasi," he said, shaking the man's hand.

"I'm known as Phantom Two," the man said, "I'm the pilot and technician of my team."

"Always nice to meet another pilot," Carth said, "I'm the leader of Red Wing Squadron, used to be part of Striker Squadron."

"Oh sorry to hear what happened to Striker Squadron," Phantom Two said, "That was a rough battle over Jedha. The Mandos were foolish to try to attack a Jedi world though."

"Yeah we lost a lot of good men that during that battle."

"Red Wing Squadron though," Phantom Two said, changing the subject, "Those new Aurek-class fighters are pretty nifty, huh?"