this is actually an older draft that i just got around to editing
the next bit is only half written but is at least 3k words so far 👁👄👁
reader is a mandalorian 😩😩
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The incoming ship dropped out of hyperspace before the bridge officers could relay the message.
It was a civvie ship, heavily modded, and it moved faster than Commander Wolffe expected it to.
Another rumble shot through the cruiser, making Wolffe stumble.
"Men! Do we have any information on the new ship?" Wolffe's Jedi General was stressed, his voice falling from the usually serenity it held.
"Negative! Our sensors are shot—" the console blew, and the officer speaking crumbled.
Another officer dragged him away before shouting— "our deflectors are down, hyperdrive is offline, and our weapons are only half functional."
Wolffe glanced to his general. The Commander didn't have to be force-sensitive to know what the Jedi was thinking. "Give the order."
Wolffe stepped forward, signaling for an bridge officer to open the shipwide intercomm.
The civvie ship began to move, accelerating towards the attacking Separatist Command ship.
"Civilian ship is on an intercept course for the command ship!" Wolffe finally got a good look at the civvie ship— long and sturdy, unusually sleek for a modded vessel. It streaked towards the command ship, a shard of light glimmering in the rays of a nearby star— a bolt of hope, racing past the darkness chasing at its heels. The ship pushed through the space dust and rocks, bouncing off in a shower of muted sparks—and halted. It drifted past the deflectors of the ship like debris drifting in the endless blackness of space.
"What are they doing?" the bridge officer asked, a note of hysteria creeping into their voice.
The ship was there one moment and gone the next, the only sign of its presence being the silent splitting of the command ship and the spark of searing light at the core of the wreckage.
General Koon was silent for a moment before he tensed. "All hands," he shouted, voice echoing through the intercomm. "Brace for impact!"
The bridge watched in silence, watching the Separatist command ship split apart with building apprehension— like lightning before the thunder shakes the ground. The ship grew brighter, hypermatter out of the wreckage, turning everything into a blinding white.
The cruiser shook and creaked, groaning from the reactor explosion.
There was a minute of quiet before Wolffe looked back up.
The ship was still there one the other side of the wreckage, small scrapes tracing down the side, marring the paint job.
A console pinged. "The ship is initiating a handshake, General. The ship's signature reads as the—" the officer halted, squinting at the aurebesh on the console "— 'Antarian Ranger Battleship Soleil'."
General Koon paused, a spark of recognition seizing his frame. "Establish contact with the ship."
"Did you see—"
"How could it have survived—"
"Of course i saw it, di'kut—"
The holoprojector chimed and the blue projection of a Mon Calamari person appeared. The bridge quieted to watch. "It seems we owe you thanks," the General said, his voice warm.
"Not at all, sir. the Antarian Rangers are always happy to help the Jedi." the Jedi General straightened.
The Kel Dor man seemed deep in thought. "Forgive me if this seems presumptuous, but could your people help with repairs?" Wolffe shot the General a wide-eyed glance, hidden beneath his helmet.
"We have a base nearby, if your ship is capable of surface landing."
A quick glance to an officer prompted a response. "We are capable of surface landing, sir." The bridge officer shifted before adding a quieter "not sure about getting back up again."
The Mon Calamari Ranger nodded. "The base is at the coordinates I'm transmitting now." A console beeped as it received the transmission. "See you there, Master Jedi." They gave a nod that edged closer to a bow and the hologram flickered out.
Commander Wolffe turned to stare at his General. The Jedi General seemed almost sheepish as he turned to Wolffe. "Apologies, Commander, for not consulting you. But the Antarian Rangers can be trusted."
The Ranger ship turned starboard, carefully avoiding remaining debris. The starboard side was painted, glimmering orange spelling out 'soleil' in flowing aurebesh.
"And who are the 'Antarian Rangers', exactly?"
"A millennia-old ally of the Jedi." the Jedi General moved about the bridge, checking on various troopers and murmuring assurances. "They are non force-sensitives and ex-Jedi younglings that still dedicate themselves to the Jedi Order."
The planet was beautiful— and utterly desolate. Outside of the few settlements and the Atarian Ranger headquarters, wild mountain ranges and dense woods stood proud, cut through with gaping ravines and ravenous rivers.
Commander Wolffe and his General were the first to have boots on the ground.
The soleil touched down a moment later, setting down into a dry dock that the Rangers seemed to have cobbled together.
General Kon and Commander Wolffe made their way to meet the Mon Calamari Ranger they spoke to earlier— Ranger General Mycenia, a quick perusal through the HoloNet informed him.
It seemed someone had beat them to the Ranger General — a short human dressed in a strange mix of armor and overalls scolded the Ranger General, menacingly waving a piece of a motivator at the admittedly taller Ranger General.
"How the kriff did you manage to fuck up the landing mechanism that bad?"
Wolffe thought the Mon Calamari Ranger looked sheepish. Or maybe intimidated, considering the fact that the piece of the motivator the human was waving kept getting closer to their face. "We couldn't get the hatch to open for a quick pickup, so we used the landing gear instead."
The short human sputtered. "You— what?"
The Ranger General actually stepped back then. General Mycenia glanced to Commander Wolffe and General Koon, face relaxing. "Oh! Good! Come, come. This is the head engineer I'm assigning to repair your cruiser, Master Jedi."
The human engineer stiffened and turned around. "Master... Jedi?" They said, voice impossibly quiet.
Wolffe suppressed a chuckle. The engineer seemed to have lost their bite.
"Go on, introduce yourself," the Ranger General said, and murderous intent flashed through the engineer's eyes. It blinked away a moment later.
"You can call me sparky," the engineer inclined their head. Wolffe and his General nodded back at them. They shifted nervously, seeming awkward. "I designed the Soleil," they bursted out.
Jedi General Koon made a sound of approval, closer to a rumble— "the Soleil is a fine ship. It cut through the Separatist ship in a way I have never seen before."
The engineer's eyes widened. They whirled around, almost bursting with excitement. "It worked?" Sparky's voice was high, breathless, bursting with hope and awe and pride and—
The Ranger General nodded.
"It cut through a Separatist command ship," Commander Wolffe supplied, nodding at the engineer.
The engineer was practically bouncing with excitement, the bouncing only messing up their already-messy hair. Sparky turned heel and bolted to the Soleil.
"Uh," General Mycenia started. "They might've forgotten about your ship."
General Koon laughed, a deep, rumbling chuckle. "No worries. Commander?" The Jedi turned to Wolffe, catching the Commander's attention. "Would it be possible for you to retrieve the engineer and make sure they get back on track?" Wolffe gave a sharp nod. "Politely."
Commander Wolffe wasn't good at polite.
So he watched Sparky from a little further away, wondering how the kriff did they manage to scramble up to soleil's hull so fast, tracing their hand along the hull. The engineer had a helmet tucked under their arm.
They partially turned to Wolffe and tilted their head. Commander Wolffe suppressed a sigh. "Do you think you could start repairs on the Jedi cruiser—?" He almost added another word, but he bit his tongue as the engineer turned to him fully and he could make out a distinct t-shaped visor on the helmet they carried.
"right!" They shoved their helmet on and slid down the ladder to the platform, landing hard enough to make Wolffe wince. They didn't seem to notice as they made their way to him.
"Show me the way, soldier."
Commander Wolffe eyed the engineer out of the corner of his visor.
"Commander Wolffe, I thought I had told you to be polite," Jedi General Koon chided. Wolffe stepped back quickly at the sound of his General's voice. The Jedi had seemingly come from no where.
"The Commander has been perfectly civil, Master Jedi," Sparky said with a polite nod, taking off their helmet. Their messy hair made sense now.
"Has he?" the Jedi's voice was amused now, as he moved to stand in front of them. "I thought I had sensed some antagonism, but I must've been mistaken." Sparky tilted their head and glanced at Wolffe. The Commander's heels clicked as he stood at attention. "General Mycenia sent most of the mechanics on duty to my cruiser." They gave the Jedi General a quick nod.
"I'll head to your cruiser right now to start on repairs." The engineer started moving off. General Koon looked at the Commander and inclined his head to Sparky. Wolffe suppressed a groan and instead settled for rolling his eyes beneath his bucket, following the engineer and ignoring his Jedi's chuckle.
Commander Wolffe sent out a comm to the rest of the battalion to keep an eye on the Antarian Rangers. It wasn't necessarily out of distrust or suspicion— although Wolffe wouldn't trust anyone outside of the Wolfpack that easily— it was more to make sure that the mechanics didn't wander too close to anything with high clearance level.
Wolffe assigned himself to the head engineer, even though some of his vode volunteered— eagerly.
The blast doors of the engine room slid open and the engineer let out a low whistle. "The hyperdrives are gorgeous," they said, stepping forwards and resting a gloved hand on the threshold. Their voice echoed around the hyperdrive chamber. "And shot to hell." The center consoles were blown and some of the consoles affixed to the hyperdrive reactant silos were blinking. A trooper popped up from beneath the center consoles.
"Are you the Ranger engineer?" the trooper asked desperately.
"Affirmative."
"Oh good. Our hypermatter is leaking and all the senior engineers are in the med bay and I don't know how to fix this," the trooper sounded on the verge of tears. Or passing out.
"Osi'kyr."
"Ni ka'mi." I know, the trooper said, dejected.
Spark turned to wolffe. "How fast can the ship be evacuated?"
"Under 10 minutes." Wolffe's hand was already moving to the comm. Commander Wolffe had learned a little about hypermatter back on Kamino—likely nothing as in-depth as the engineers aboard— but enough to make him never want to use hyperspace travel again. Hypermatter leak— he was surprised they hadn't vaporized in that space battle.
Commander Wolffe issued the order to evacuate.
By the time the hypermatter leak was patched, the Jedi cruiser only had enough for a single jump back to Triple Zero.
"I'll comm HQ and get a clean up crew for the hypermatter leak. Nico," Sparky said, turning to the junior clone engineer they'd gotten to know. Nico snapped to attention. "Udesii, verd." Nico slumped, exhausted. "Anything else that needs to be patched?"
Nico shook his head. "no, sir. thank you— I'm sorry I cou—"
"Don't beat yourself up, kid. Let's get off the ship so the cleanup crew can work, and i can get you troopers some food." Sparky gave the junior engineer a pat on the shoulder and steered him to the blast doors.
"Food?" Nico said hopefully. sparky suppressed a laugh.
Sparky slowed as they approached Wolffe. "You never told me you troopers spoke mandalorian."
"You never asked."
"Mir'sheb." Nico looked horrified and the head engineer looked pleased.
"Copikla," he retorted, a teasing edge creeping into his tone. They punched him. Not hard enough to warrant a fight, but enough as a warning. Nico made a choking sound.
"You're not getting any food then, Commander." Wolffe couldn't explain the thrill of fighting. The back and forth prodding of it. So when Spark snapped back at him, cocking a hip as they remained untouched by what he said, it gave him a thrill.
They glanced at Nico. "I think we should get Nico here some food before we traumatize him anymore."
"Please."
"What— is it?" Boost pushed at the food with his fork.
"A tamall. you gotta take off the husk first, kid." Spark reached in with their fork to take the husk off the tamall and Boost narrowed his eyes at Wolffe, who tracked Sparky's movements just a bit too closely to be normal.
"Why do you have so many?" the Antarian Ranger headquarters were huge— and they had a complement to match, but this food looked handmade, and there were enough to feed the whole crew complement of the Triumphant.
"I like tamalli." Boost started to grin mischievously at his commander. "I have enough for you troopers to take with you, if you want." Boost put a hand over Sparky's. Wolffe shot a glare at his trooper from his seat beside the engineer.
"Thank you so much! You're really too sweet." Boost leaned closer. "And really pretty, too," he drawled out. Wolffe knew why exactly Boost was doing this.
"Boost, stop flirting with civvies."
"I'm not a civilian," the engineer said, words falling on deaf ears. Sparky put a bite of the tamall in their mouth.
"Commander, just because you won't shoot your shot—"
"Finish that statement, trooper, and I'll make sure you clean the latrines for a month." Boost narrowed his eyes as his jaw snapped shut with an audible click. His hand was still on Sparky's, rubbing small circles into their hand with his thumb.
"Man! We should probably get back to the cruiser," Nico broke in, voice strained. He shot up from his seat. "Right, Sparks?"
Sparky mumbled a yeah through a mouthful of tamall. They stood up and cleared their throat, Boost's hand falling away as their hand moved.
"Lemme check if the cleanup is done."
The Antarian Ranger mechanic huffed a sigh, slinging an arm over his half-folded knees. "Okay, let me phrase it like this—" Wolffe's jaw ticked "—the hyperdrive motivator is like the part of brain that tells your legs to move. but in order for it to know where to move, it needs input, right? The Paralight system is the part of your brain that translates the info from your eyes— the sensors— into things like 'pathway here' or 'barrier there'." The mechanic taps the housing for the Paralight system with his tool, the dull thud echoing through the maintenance hall. "Right now, the Paralight system is a goner."
"Can you fix it?"
the Antarian Ranger mechanic raised his hands in surrender. "Sir, I'm just a mechanic. I fix machines and engines— I don't look at software."
Wolffe almost growled, the sound low and boiling in his throat. "Then who can fix it?"
The mechanic's mouth pursed, pressing into an expression of thought. "Spark's the resident jack-of-all-trades. If anyone knows how to restore a Paralight system—" he shrugged.
Wolffe turned on his heel, striding out the maintenance hatch.
"Hey— wait! where are you going?" Wolffe heard the mechanic scramble, presumably rising to his feet. He followed Wolffe through the halls, having to jog to even try to keep up with the commander's strides.
"Tit get the engineer to fix this." The mechanic huffed. Wolffe moved faster, trying to shake off the mechanic that had gotten under his skin. He stepped through a hatch.
"Sparky's off-duty—" the hatch slid shut.
Wolffe froze in the entrance to the west wing of the ranger headquarters, staring down the long hall of unlabeled rooms. His gaze flicked to the chronometer. The Antarian Rangers had shifts according to this planet's own rotation as opposed to the 18-hour days every ship-bearing legion was accustomed to.
The sunrise on this planet was in three hours. The day shift crew was dead asleep by now.
Commander Wolffe ground his teeth.
He didn't even know where Spark's quarters were.
Approaching steps from behind prompted Wolffe to turn around.
A Twi'lek woman sauntered into the kitchen adjoined to the hall Wolffe stood in.
She moved to a caf brewer, the motions practiced. The Twi'lek Ranger glanced to the hall and jumped.
"Uh— hi, trooper." She glanced back at the caf brewer and pressed a button before devoting her full attention to Wolffe.
"Why are you lurking ominously in the hall?"
"Where is the head engineer's bunk?"
The Ranger quirked a brow.
"I need their assistance with repairs."
"'Repairs'," the Ranger drawled out, leaning on the counters and donning a sly smile.
Wolffe stiffened. It was suddenly too hot in the headquarters. "The on-duty mechanic told me Sparky was the most likely to be able to repair the Paralight system." The woman pursed her lips.
"I'll give you some caf to bring to them." She started towards the caf brewer as a pleasant chime indicated it was done brewing. The Ranger paused. "Do you want some caf?"
Wolffe nodded a bit too fervently and the Ranger laughed.
The ranger pointed Wolffe to Sparky's room with a smirk. Wolffe clutched the mug of caf that the Ranger had pressed into his hands, telling him if you give them caf, they'll love you.
Wolffe stopped in front of the door the Twi'lek woman had indicated. His hand hesitated for a moment over the retrofitted buzzer.
He rang the bell and a buzz sounded.
The commander heard a shuffle and a small thud, accompanied by a quiet swear.
When the door slid open, he almost regretted coming. The engineer gave a yawn and stretched, the sleep shirt riding up, giving Wolffe a glimpse of the way the lounge pants sat low beneath the curve of their waist.
"Al'verde?" they asked, voice rough and low with the ghost of sleep. "Me'copaani?"
Wolffe cleared his throat. "The mechanic team was having trouble with the Paralight system." They hummed in acknowledgment.
"I'll be out in a second, Commander." the door slid shut again. Wolffe exhaled, steady and slow, not thinking of the column of Spark's throat and the low collar of their sleep shirt.
The door opened again, Sparky now wearing thicker, work pants and boots. The engineer still wore the sleep shirt and they stretched again.
"If you don't mind me asking, why did you come and get me? I'm pretty sure some of your troopers could do the same?" Wolffe didn't really know— they were right, one of his troopers could've handled it. He was sure at least one would've been trained on the inner workings of the system— rather than Sparky's jack-of-all-trades status.
He shrugged and held out the mug of caf.
"I suppose you just wanted—" they yawned again "—my amazing company." They looked at his outstretched hand. "Is that for me?"
"Bi, it's for me. That's why I'm holding it out to you." Sparky narrowed their eyes at his tone.
"Shabuir." Wolffe rolled his eyes, but a smile tugged at his lips against his will.
"Copikla."
The repairs were nearly done when both generals called for a meeting with Wolffe and the engineer.
Sparky's face was almost ominously blank. "You're joking, right?"
Ranger General Mycenia opened their mouth to speak but Sparky cut them off. "I haven't even had time to run a systems diagnostic or an inspection of the Soleil." Their voice grew in volume. They started gesturing with their free hand, growing more frantic. "We don't know what effect the rapid acceleration and deceleration has on the actual body of the ship— for all we know, it could accelerate into pieces the next time it goes FTL!" They froze, eyes widening.
"Ranger Captain," General Mycenia snapped. "Stand down." Spark's posture straightened.
"Yes, General. Apologies, General."
The silence lasted for a second longer, the steel rapidly fading from General Mycenia's gaze. They sighed.
"Your concerns are duly noted. You are dismissed." Sparky somehow stood straighter, clicking their heels together before turning on their heel and striding out the room.
Wolffe watched them leave from the corner of his eye before returning his gaze to the Ranger General.
"Forgive the interruption, gentlemen."
General Koon nodded and rumbled his assent, but spoke anyway. "The engineer does raise a valid concern, General Mycenia."
The Mon Calamari Ranger sighed, nostrils flaring. "Yes, they do. But your cruiser is not yet flight capable, and the Soleil is one of the most effective vessels our detachment has. Most of our equipment is outdated— the Soleil gives us a chance."
"A chance is all we need, General." General Koon inclined his head toward General Mycenia. He turned and walked out of the briefing room, Wolffe following at his heels.
Wolffe halted in the threshold of the door. "General Mycenia, if you don't mind my asking, why is Spar— the Ranger Captain your head engineer if they—?" he cut himself off, unsure of how to phrase it.
"'If they're such a smartass and a pain'?" the Ranger General finished. They smiled at him. "I challenge you to find someone as qualified as my engineer that doesn't have a overbearing ego to match." They laughed, but there was a note of weariness.
"Understood, sir." Wolffe turned on his heel and left the briefing room, striding quickly to catch up with his Jedi. He missed the familiar figure entering the briefing room only seconds after he turned into another hall.
He missed the way they slammed their helmet on General Mycenia's desk and pleaded assign me to the mission with a reckless fervor.