"Kuiil! Are you there? Come in, Kuiil. Kuiil come in!" Kasia and Din exchanged panicked a look, and without a word Kas grabbed the commlink from the Mandalorian's hand.
"Kuiil? Are you there? Do you copy?" she paused to give the Ugnaught a moment to answer. After a long moment of radio silence she spoke again, her voice was heavy with emotion, sadness and fear seeping into every word. "Kuiil! Kuiil!"
"He's not there, Kas," Cara said quietly as Din gently took the commlink from her vicelike grip and gave her shoulder a small squeeze, his sorrow for the Ugnaught's suspected state and fear for the child's fate mirroring her own. Not paying much heed to either, Cara glanced towards Karga, "Is there another way out?"
"No," Greef answered with a note of solemnity in his voice as he stared out the window at the rows of Storm and Death Troopers. He gestured towards them with his blaster, "That's it."
Kasia followed his gaze, unapologetically allowing herself to slip in and out of the minds of all those close enough to her that she was able as she struggled to come up with an escape plan; she may not know much about this city, but the two men accompanying her and some of the Stormtroopers outside certainly did.
"What about the sewers?" the words flowed from her mouth before her brain even seemed to register the image she had seen in Din's mind of the massive underground labyrinth of sewers—she would have felt guilty about looking into his brain without explicitly asking, but he had given her his permission earlier to look if a situation was dire enough to call for it... and this situation was certainly very dire.
"Sewers?" Karga repeated, confusion in his voice.
"The Mandalorians have a covert down in the sewers," Din explained, understanding instinctively what Kasia was getting at. "If we can get down there, they can help us escape."
"Yeah, sewers are good," Cara's words were spoken in breathless agreement, for lack of better option.
Din nodded back at her, flipping a switch on his suit's control pad. At the movement and subsequent beeping noise, Kasia gave him an odd look as though to say what the hell are you doing, this is not the time to be playing with your Mandalorian toys.
"Checking for access points," he explained as he continued to look around the room.
Kas's lips formed an 'o' in understanding. "If we get out of here, you're letting me try that suit on whether you like it or not," she informed him, running a finger down the side of his cape.
"I'd have to take my helmet off to do that," was his pointed response as he continued to scan the room.
She wrinkled her nose at him, "Oh please, I already know what your face looks like. Besides I have my whole blindfold thing anyway," she reasoned. Across the room, Kasia felt a beat of confusion from Cara and she rushed to explain, "He showed me an image of his face once with the whole image-projection-mind thingy. I wouldn't suggest trying, I practically had to beg for it."
Under his helmet Din rolled his eyes as Karga and Cara both chuckled.
Ah, makes sense, Cara remarked silently, pausing a moment before adding, so a blindfold?
Kasia couldn't help the slight blush that crept up the back of her neck. She was saved from having to respond, however, when a flash of movement by the Stormtroopers caught her eye. Peeking around Din's body, she squinted slightly, "What the hell is that? I mean I like my guns and all but that looks like some heavy-duty shit right here."
Cara followed her gaze—and cursed loudly a moment later as she turned back to the others with disbelieving eyes, "They're setting up an E-Web."
Greef shook his head and murmured, "It's over," as Kasia risked another glance around Din's Beskar.
She frowned. "I'm not sure why, but I always envisioned E-Webs being bigger," she trailed off as Cara's disbelieving eyes fell to her, shrugging a moment later as her friend scoffed. "Don't get me wrong, it's still cool. Plus I prefer smaller guns anyways," she lifted her twin pistol blasters in emphasis.
"I found the sewer vent," Din cut in, nodding towards one of the back walls.
"Let's get the hell out of here," Cara replied.
Kas sighed in relief as Din and Cara began to jog in the direction of the now-located sewer vent, both taking care not to step into the window's line of sight while she and Karga remained next to the window, keeping an eye on the troopers assembling the E-Web. Behind her, Din and Cara began to pull on the metal bars of the sewer grate, grunting with effort.
"It's assembled," Kasia barked over her shoulder in warning as she and Greef both spun to peer at the two struggling members of their ragtag team. She gulped slightly as her eyes swept over the progress they had made on moving the vent—or rather lackthereof.
"How long until that thing's cleared?" Greef asked from her side.
Cara ignored him as she spoke to Din, "Blow it."
"I'm out of charges."
Cara's jaw clenched as she thought for a moment before the ex-shock trooper grabbed her weapon from where she had placed it down. "Get out of the way!" she commanded and then without another word of warning leveled her heavy blaster upon the metal grate and fired a torrent of blasterfire, the sound echoing off the walls of the destroyed room.
Kasia sighed a moment later as Cara ceased her fire and attempted to kick in the steaming grate—to no avail.
"Your astute panic suggests that you understand your situation," the tie fighter-superhero-ringlord fucker from earlier called a moment after the sound of blasterfire stopped. "I would prefer to avoid any further violence and encourage a moment of consideration. Members of my escort have completed assembly of an E-Web heavy repeating blaster. If you are unfamiliar with this weapon, I am sure that Republican Shock Trooper Carasynthia Dune of Alderaan will advise you that she has witnessed many of her ranks vaporize mid-descent facing the predecessor of this particular model."
At the man's words, Kasia didn't have to glance towards Cara to know her friend's eyes were hooded as she glared at the Imp. She blinked away the onslaught of images which flowed from the woman.
"Or perhaps the decommissioned Mandalorian hunter," Gideon continued, "Din Djarin has heard the songs of the Siege of Mandalore, when gunships outfitted with similar ordnance laid waste to fields of Mandalorian recruits in The Night of a Thousand Tears."
As he finished, Kasia didn't resist her urge to glance wide-eyed over her shoulder at Din, the Mandalorian standing still in the way she had come to recognize to be a defense-mechanism to avoid giving away any unwanted emotion through his movements.
Are you okay? Kas's eyes were wide and soft as she stared at her Mandalorian, her brows pinched. He gave a small nod.
I think... I know who he is.
"In fact, among all of you it is likely only Kasia Torelo, escapee of the destruction of Eulentia, cheater and liar extraordinaire, that has never seen such a weapon before, the fall of her planet achieved through the use of other, less deadly weapons," the asshole went on, halting the silent conversation that Kas and Din had been engaged in.
At the words, Kasia felt a shot of emotion that was more akin to indignation than anything else—there was certainly always an instinctual sadness that arose at the mention of her planet, but to have it thrown in her face so cavalierly by this fucker as a means to show that he knew who they were... yeah it pissed her off pretty damn badly.
Still, the very fact that he knew who they were, that they knew Mando's real name... well, they were pretty much fucked.
"I advise disgraced Magistrate Greef Karga to search the wisdom of his years and urge you to lay down your arms and come outside. The structure that you are trapped in will be razed in short order and your storied lives will come to an unceremonious end," the Imp finished.
Razed? Unceremonious? What kind of pretentious fucker uses such damn good vocabulary? Just say destroyed and untimely like the rest of us, you asshole.
Cara and Kasia shared a look as Karga yelled back to the Imp after a moment, "What do you propose?"
"Reasonable negotiation."
The four of them scoffed in unison, before Karga responded, "What assurance do you offer?"
"If you're asking if you can trust me, you cannot. Just as you betrayed our business arrangement, I would gladly break any promise and watch you die at my hand. The assurance I give is this: I will act in my own self-interest, which at this time involves your cooperation and benefit," he paused for a moment, and Kasia could barely make out as he glanced over his shoulder towards one of the planet's suns. "I will give you until nightfall, and then I will have the E-Web cannon open fire."
With that, Gideon turned on his heel and walked away, his cape swishing dramatically behind him.
Kasia turned casually towards the others, "So I think we can all agree that whatever we choose, trusting that asshole is at the bottom of our option list."
"I say we hear him out," Karga argued, causing Kasia to frown.
"Okay, I stand corrected. Save one dumbass, we can all agree that whatever we choose, trusting that asshole is at the bottom of the list," she muttered crossing her arms. Din, the only one close enough to hear her after having moved to retake position at her side, chuckled.
"The minute we open that door, we're dead," Cara ground out, shaking her head at Greef.
"We're dead if we don't," Karga shot back. He gestured with his blaster, "At least out there, we've got a shot."
Oh yes, four sparsely armed fighters against a few hundred Storm and Death troopers armed with not only blasters but a E-Web. The odds are certainly in our favor.
"That's easy for you to say," Cara said as she grabbed a few of the nearby fallen Stormtroopers' blasters. "I'm a Rebel Shock Trooper. They'll upload me to a Mind Flayer."
"Those aren't real. That was just wartime propaganda," Karga tried to argue.
Cara merely narrowed her eyes at him, "I don't care to find out," she snapped. "I'm shooting my way out of here."
Karga glared at her for a moment before glancing towards where Din and Kasia stood, his eyes passing over the Eulentian woman as he evidently already knew her vote, and inquiring, "What about you, Mando?"
Din was quiet at Kasia's side for a moment before he glanced down at her and, rather than answer the question, informed them quietly, "I know who he is," he paused, and at Kasia's short nod, revealed, "It's Moff Gideon."
"No," Cara's response was instanteous, her voice taking on a slight breathlessness as she argued, "Moff Gideon was executed for war crimes."
Kasia frowned at the woman's immediate recognition, signaled by both her words and the fear that rose in the other woman's chest.
Huh, Kas mused to herself, I really need to catch up on my ex-Imperial gossip apparently. First not knowing what an E-Web looked like and now being out of the loop on who Moff Gideon is? This is so not a good look.
"It's him. He knew my name," Din argued, glancing back to Kasia as if looking for support.
She shrugged, "I have no idea who this fuckturd is, how in the hell he knows Din's name, or even how he knows that your real name is Carasynthia—fucking cool name by the way and I'm honestly a little offended I didn't know that Cara wasn't your full name—but I can confirm that his name is Moff Gideon based on both his and the troopers' thoughts."
Karga gave her a strange look. "How would you know other people's thoughts?" he asked, incredulity in his voice as Kasia was reminded that they had never actually told him about her ability to read minds because, well, even if she grudgingly trusted the bastard enough to allow him on the mission, she wasn't about to tell him her entire fucking life story. A slight oversight it now seemed, being that he was disinclined to mindlessly believe in her ability to read minds and didn't appear to know about the Eulentian race. Before Kasia could open her mouth to explain, however, Karga shifted to Din, "And what does him knowing your name prove?"
"Besides from Kas, I haven't heard that name spoken since I was a child," Din explained, his hand brushing against Kasia's. She smiled faintly at the gesture as Karga spoke again.
"On Mandalore?"
"I was not born on Mandalore," Din answered.
His words made Karga frowned as the Guild leader tried to reason, "But you're a Mandalorian."
"Mandalorian isn't a race," it was Cara who answered before either Kasia or Din could explain.
Not missing a beat, Din completed the explanation, "It's a Creed."
As he finished the statement, Kasia saw flashes of memories rise in his mind, memories of his parents as they rushed him to shelter, memories of the Mandalorians descending from the heavens like archangels and sprinting him away from the fighting to safety, memories of the life he had lost as a mere child.
Without a word, Kasia holstered one of her blasters, knitted her hand through Din's own and squeezed, uncaring if Cara or Karga saw. The glove of his hand was surprisingly soft in her own as he gave an answering squeeze, the movement like a response to a question which Kasia hadn't even realized she had asked.
You okay, Beskar-brain? she had asked.
So long as you're here, cyar'ika, he had answered.
"I was a foundling," Din began to explain the story Kasia was already knowledgeable of. "They raised me in the Fighting Corps. I was treated as one of their own. When I came of age, I was sworn to the Creed. The only record of my family name was in the registers of Mandalore." He glanced down towards Kasia as he added, "Moff Gideon was an ISB Officer during the purge. That's how I know it's him."
Kasia nodded in understanding before glancing towards Karga and explaining what he had not allowed her to earlier, "In addition to everything Din just said, I am, as Moff Gideon mentioned earlier, an Eulentian and as a member of such a race, I can read other peoples' minds if they're close enough to me," she explained curtly.
He stared at her wide-eyed. "You can read minds?" he repeated slowly, obviously not believing her.
Kas rolled her eyes, "Yes."
"Mindreading. That's a real thing?"
"Yes."
Greef stared at her for a long second, "What am I thinking right now?"
"That you want to kill dumbasses who choose to disbelieve people who are obviously telling the truth? Oh, wait that's what I'm thinking. My bad," Kasia snapped, a sarcastic smile on her face which dropped a moment later as she sighed. "You're thinking that you really wish you had decided to eat that third portion of dinner because now you're going to die on an empty stomach. Happy? And also, why the hell did you get two servings when I scarcely got two bites to eat?"
"Anyways," Cara cut in as Karga continued to stare at Kasia gape-mouthed, his eyes practically bulging out of his head, "Since he was an ISB Officer during the purge like Mando said, that's how he knows who we all are."
Din nodded before remarking, "He says he needs us, which means the child got away safely. I was worried when the Ugnaught didn't respond, but if they'd captured the kid, we'd already be dead."
Kasia's heart jumped at the notion, some of the dread in her chest clearing as she nodded in agreement.
"Hail them again," Cara commanded as she made her way back towards the front of the building, leaning against one of the walls.
Quickly, Din retrieved the commlink from his suit, switching it on as he spoke into it. At his side, Kasia held her breath. "Come in, Kuiil. Kuiil?" he tried, sighing loudly as he got no response. "Nothing."
"They might have jammed the link," Cara suggested a moment before the comm suddenly beeped, the sound of the child cooing suddenly filling the destroyed tower. At the familiar noise, Kasia exhaled loudly, relief crashing over her body as she leaned against Din's frame slightly.
"Kuiil has been terminated," IG-11 informed them, his mechanic voice audible alongside the sound of rushing wind in the background.
Din's grip on the commlink tightened as he gritted out, "What did you do?"
"I am fulfilling my base function."
"Which is?"
"To nurse and protect," the machine answered, and Kasia could not help but smile a sad smile, somehow hearing the Ugnaught's voice in the machine he had saved.
The comm went silent with that statement, and Cara was the first to speak, her words voicing the confusion all in the room felt. "To nurse and protect?" she repeated. "What the hell does that mean?"
No one responded until suddenly the sound of blasterfire grew closer and slowly a smile crept across Kasia's face as she let go of Din's hand in favor of drawing her own gun. She gestured towards the destroyed from of the room where outside, troopers were shifting towards explosions in the distance—and in their wake, a single IG unit, blasters hefted and a giggling child strapped to its metal chest. "It means that our backup has finally arrived."
Din and Kasia exchanged a grin—well, Kasia grinned wildly at him at least—before they simultaneously made their way towards the door which led outside, Din in front to protect against any immediate blasterfire as Kasia threw a "Cover us!" over her shoulder to Cara.
Turning back towards the door, Kas twirled her blasters in her hands once before nodding at her Mandalorian to open it, "Let's go kick some ex-imperial ass, Beskar-brains."
*.*.*
Oops, I missed the Monday update in favor of posting on Tuesday for the second week in a row... my bad haha
Also just curious but do any of you guys watch kdramas? Bc I'm obsessed...