It's May the 4th!! Happy Star Wars day!
Omega was allowed to keep the Zygerrian bow she picked up in Old Ord Mantell. Training had begun for the girl.
Omega released another pink charge, aiming for the center of the target, but it nearly took the head off of a person who had just entered the parlor. Just as quickly as the Weequay came in, he was running back out in fear.
The squad had been on Ord Mantell for a total of twenty six hours. They slept in the Marauder and found themselves back at Cid's parlor where they had been training Omega ever since their breakfast–which contained a singular ration bar each—had settled.
Omega drew her bow back again, arms shaking violently as she struggled to keep it pointed at the target.
"Steady." Echo coaches from his crouched position next to her. "Arms level...and keep your eye on the target."
Wrecker sat in the booth, feet propped up on the holotable. He crossed his arms behind his head, watching the scene play out.
Bolo, the Ithorian local, raises his glass. "You can do it, kid!" He shouted supportively.
Ketch, the Weequay, the second regular attendee to Cid's bar, shook his head. "Not a chance. Miss! Come on! Miss!"
Malaina rolled her eyes. "Can I do something about him?" She asked, looking up to Hunter for permission. He immediately shook his head with a scolding look. Omega had to learn to tune out distractions, that's true, but she could do without the negative comments for now.
Omega released the pink bolt, hitting the outermost ring for the second time. She jumped up in excitement. "Ah! Got it!" She shouted proudly.
Echo nodded. "Good. Again." He urged, turning her back around to face the target.
Malaina leaned her side against the wall, using the lack of lighting in the spot to her advantage. She was less likely to be noticed if someone were to recognize her upon walking in the parlor. And maybe she was a little paranoid, but after what was done to her on Arkanis, she feared to go back.
Which was ironic, considering the teachings from Sidious, who heard such things from his Master, that emotions in humans were a fatal flaw. The same characteristic that fueled their need to form strong bonds and believe that all life was sacred made them compassionate to a fault. Inquisitors were not supposed to feel fear. Inquisitors were not meant to feel anything but anger and power.
Sidious and the Grand Inquisitor failed in training Malaina.
And she was glad for that.
A nudge from Tech pulled Malaina out of her thoughts. "Pardon, you just appeared a little lost in thought." He muttered, leaning against the wall with her. "Are you alright?"
Malaina nodded. "Yeah, I'm good." She confirmed, her skin heating up when the backs of their hands brushed together. She moved hers away, but her shoulder remained to touch him. Tech didn't notice, she didn't think, because of the piece of armor he wore that blocked his body from hers.
But he had in fact noticed, and was internally panicking, unsure if he wanted to move away, stay as he was, or get closer to her. He had a strong urge to do all three, which was a major conflict for his usually decisive brain.
Malaina pressed her shoulder further into the plasteel shoulder pad and rerebrace, unable to stop herself. She heard Tech's sharp intake of breath, and she only briefly considered moving away, but she couldn't. Like she was magnetized to him.
Omega whined, tired of shooting her bow, failing to hit the target almost every time. "I've hit the target three times already." She argued.
Echo placed a hand on her shoulder. "Out of 12. That's luck, Omega, not skill. Soldiers need to be consistent." He explained, squeezing her shoulder in encouragement.
"Okay. Double or nothing she chokes." Ketch bets, toasting his drink with Bolo.
Malaina's blood boiled. "Another comment from you and you'll be the one choking." She threatened, already flexing her hand to prepare to go through her murderous intentions.
Hunter gave Malaina a disappointed look, shaking his head while his lips thinned into a tight line. Surprisingly, she found herself backing off.
Omega released the bolt and it bounced off the ceiling, hitting a holotable and severely damaging it. Her shoulders slouched and she sighed defeatedly. Bolo and Ketch start cackling. "I was doing better until those two showed up!" She raged.
Echo crouched down again, looking her in the eyes. "You have to learn to tune out distractions, which comes with practice." He replied, standing to his full height. "Again." He ordered, crossing his arm over his scomp.
Omega drew her bow and shot again, hitting the wall space above the door, nowhere near the target. That was the worst one yet.
Wrecker leaned closer to Hunter. "Not exactly a natural, is she?" He whispered. Hunter nodded, mouth threatening to rise into a smirk.
Malaina raised her eyebrows at them. "You're not seriously expecting a kid to just pick up on shooting a deadly weapon after one lousy lesson, are you?"
"Well, we kinda did." Hunter shrugged innocently.
"Bettin' you picked up on killing real easy." Wrecker responded. Malaina glared at him and he backed down.
But yes, yes she did.
Ketch kept laughing for an obnoxious period of time. Malaina was fed up and she raised a hand behind her back, taking one of the many empty glasses of beer that sat on the table behind the Weequay, guiding it to his head and smashing it onto him.
That had both him and Bolo fleeing from the bar in fear of a ghost.
Tech turned to look at Malaina, the only one who could have done that. "Are you satisfied?" He asked, not an ounce of negative emotion in his tone. He actually sounded kind of impressed.
Malaina shrugged. "For the moment." She nodded. "Can't say I won't do it again if they return though." She admitted, which made the spectacled clone smirk.
Cid appeared out of nowhere, punching Wrecker roughly. "Okay. Playtime's over. We need to talk." She declared, pushing Wrecker's feet off of the holotable. "I'm assuming you boys know what a tactical droid is?"
The squad gathered around the holotable to listen in on the Trandoshan informant's words.
"They were the opera-"
Tech pushed Echo out of the way, standing between him and Malaina while raising a finger. "The operational brains of the Seperatist military-"
"Babababa, this is my briefing, Goggles." Cid interrupts.
"Welcome to the nickname club, Goggles." Malaina muttered with a smirk. Tech looked at her, eyes flickering across her face wordlessly.
"Oh look, Riding Hood has a face." Cid mocks, rolling her eyes before continuing the briefing. She displayed an image of the original conversation topic. "Tactical droid intel has tremendous value, which is why you're gonna break into this decommissioning facility on Corellia and retrieve one before they're all destroyed."
Hunter looked at his squad for a few seconds before facing Cid. "We haven't decided if we're gonna work for you or not."
Cid fought the urge to roll her eyes again. "Allow me to decide for you. You're in!" She retorted, making Hunter flinch back and squint at her. "I'm talking a mutually beneficial arrangement. You make money, I make money, and I watch your back."
The squad shares a few looks, beginning to realize this may not be so bad for them after all.
"With the heat on you, it's the best option you've got." And Cid was just outwardly saying what they were thinking.
Hunter sighs. "I guess we're in." He determines.
Cid crosses her arms. "I know you're in. I just told you you're in." And then she turns to Omega, pointing a claw at the kid. "And you, you're releasing too soon because of those weak noodle arms. Build up your strength." She took the bow from Omega and fired a series of shots, all of which landed dead-center of the target.
Cid handed the bow back to Omega. "Lesson over."
Malaina held a finger up, walking past the squad to be the first out the door. "Let's go swipe a tactical droid."
–
"This old trick?" Echo asks, looking through the windshield, eyes meeting the bottom of a transport ship they had attached onto, using it as their way into Corellia while remaining undetected.
The spectacled clone twists to the side to face Echo, gesturing with his hand as he speaks. "It gets us past the planetary sensors every time."
Omega knitted her brows together. "Why is a tactical droid more important than the other droids?" She wonders, turning to Echo to receive an answer.
"The more tactical droids fought, the more they learned...and won." Echo responded.
Malaina crossed her arms, pinching the skin of her biceps while her eyes, unblinking, stared at the approaching planet. She was a little uncomfortable with how close they were getting to the Empire, her fear of returning to Arkanis now constantly haunting her mind.
Wrecker chuckled. "Yeah, except against us!" He exclaimed, punching Tech's shoulder.
Tech looked vaguely annoyed at the rough contact, but was used to Wrecker's antics and quickly moved on like it didn't happen. "With clones now serving the Empire, knowing how to defeat them just went up in value."
Malaina finally blinked, shaking her head. "Cid could have just put me in contact with her buyer and I could have told them how to defeat clones." She chimed, crossing her legs and leaning back into her seat. "You guys might not like to hear this, but a clone was one of the first things I learned how to hunt." Though Malaina herself actually never physically laid a hand on one. She wouldn't do it. But she was forced to watch the other Inquisitors hunt the clones like prey.
And there were painful consequences to her refusal, but she didn't care.
Malaina had to work her way up to Jedi, and at one point the Inquisitors had to hunt each other, bringing the ones they found to near death. And some did actually meet their demise.
Hunter was taken aback by Malaina's words. "You hunted clones?" He asked in a hushed voice.
"Not by choice." Malaina said quickly. "But yes. A few clones were brought on base and we had to hunt them. Though I never touched one, don't worry. If we learned how they operated, we would move onto someone more challenging, then Jedi, and then each other."
"You're saying you ended up being hunted at one point?" Tech questioned, keeping one hand on the steering wheel while turning his body to look at her.
Malaina nodded, eyebrows partly raised. "Ended up spending three weeks in a bacta tank to heal a mangled arm and a shattered hip." The way she said it made it sound entirely normal, which was extremely concerning to the clones. Especially Omega, who had been a medical assistant for quite some time and understood exactly what kind of injuries Malaina sustained and how much pain she had to have been in.
"Let's put this conversation on hold, we don't need to traumatize the kid." Hunter determined, unaware of Omega's vast medical knowledge.
Malaina just closed her eyes, tilting her head back against the seat and letting out a deep sigh. If she thought back hard enough about that day, she could feel a brief sharp pain in her hip. That's one thing she will always remember, is the pain. And not just from that hunting accident, she would remember all of the physical pain ever inflicted on her during her time on that retched planet.
"We're approaching the decommissioning site." Echo chimed a few minutes later. "We can land at the industrial dockyard and go in on foot."
Tech detached the Marauder from the bottom of the cargo transport, descending the rest of the way and landing in the designated spot.
Malaina threw her hood over her head, though she knew it probably wouldn't stay up if things got too intense during their asset retrieval. She followed the squad down the steps of the ship.
Her feet made contact with the wet concrete, which told her it had just finished raining not too long before their arrival.
How that helps the mission, Malaina doesn't know. The state of the weather just caught her attention. She hated rain, though.
The squad ran about a half mile to the decommissioning factory. The windows of the building shone orange light, which would be the flames and bubbling lava coming from the pit where all the droids fall into.
"Cid didn't mention this place was guarded by police droids." Hunter said quietly when everyone had stopped to crouch down for cover from the rotating guards.
"I'm gonna guess we're not the first ones to try and come retrieve a tactical droid." Malaina chimed, resting her elbows on her knees while she watched Tech assess their situation. "They felt the need to put security to ensure no one else was able to get to the factory."
"They're operating on a rotating quadrant scan." Tech determined, pausing to adjust his visual on a group of two police droids. "If timed correctly, there's an entry point in their blind spot. Follow me."
Everyone did as he said without question, allowing Tech to lead them across the yard, through the timely blindspot. The squad didn't stop moving until they reached the side of the building, which was dimly lit and stupidly unguarded for the time being. Hunter went up the ladder first, trusting the others to follow in suit.
Malaina reached the top with Tech right behind her. He accidentally brushed his side against her as he passed, moving to mess with the door's panel and override the locked controls.
Malaina held her breath for a few seconds, brushing a hand over the area his body made contact with, her skin warming the more she thought of the action.
She quickly forced her mind back onto the mission when the door slid open. She followed behind Wrecker, immediately noting how much warmer the inside of the factory was compared to the cold night that blanketed Corellia.
The squad divided amongst the splitting bridges over the conveyor belts covered in battle droids. Though nobody had spotted a tactical droid just yet.
Malaina remained with Wrecker, afraid that her head would be unable to stay focused if she went with Tech. She really needed to get it together and figure out why Tech did something like that to her by just making brief physical contact.
Echo, Tech and Hunter focused on locating and retrieving the droid while Malaina, Wrecker, and Omega stayed up on the bridge, keeping lookout for any workers or commissioned droids.
"Being lookout was Crosshair's job." Wrecker complained, dragging his feet along the metal flooring.
Malaina turned to Wrecker, understanding that his current assignment was something he considered boring. A smirk found its way onto her face and her mind lit up with an idea. "How about this, let's see who can take down the most workers in the time it takes for those slowpokes to retrieve the droid." She challenged.
Wrecker chuckled excitedly, squaring his shoulders. "Oh, I think we both already know who's gonna win." He exclaimed, taking off in one direction. Malaina went to the other, her smirk turning into a smile as she approached the first factory worker that had just spotted some of the clones on the lower level.
She wasn't here to injure anyone, so Malaina just settled with a Force stun. She figured it was fair since Wrecker had his own superhuman ability that he could use to his advantage in the challenge.
Malaina had taken down three workers before she noticed Wrecker peering down with his binoculars at something. She quickly realized he was talking with the other clones through the comms, which she was unable to participate in. She was yet to receive a comm.
There were two women, disguised as workers, who had become known to the squad. One stood in front of Omega, who had her bow drawn defensively. The other was surrounded by Hunter. Tech, and Echo.
"Security breach! Lock it down!" One of the actual workers ordered, who had come to notice the handful of intruders inside the factory.
Seconds later an alarm was blaring and the workers evacuated the premises, locking Malaina, the clones, and these two random women inside.
Police droids began flooding in, all equipped with blasters. A squad of eight in particular had come through the entrance right in front of Malaina.
The brunette pulled out her vibroblade, letting out a deep sigh and shaking her head. "I brought a knife to a gunfight." Literally. Malaina pushed both hands out in front of her, blowing the squad of police droids back through the entrance they just came through. Then she launched her vibroblade, managing to land it right in the center of the control panel, jamming it and locking the droids on the other side.
Calling her vibroblade back to her hand, Malaina watched Wrecker swing across a pit of lava, flailing himself over to the main control panel.
Though his landing was anything but good, the sound of his head banging against the hard metal was enough to make her cringe. It sounded so bad.
And it must have hurt as bad as it sounded, because he didn't get up from his position on his hands and knees. He even lowered himself further onto the metal flooring, hands holding onto his helmet.
Running across the bridge, narrowly avoiding getting blasted in the head, Malaina makes her way across the factory, jumping across the gap between her and the main control panel. She landed next to Wrecker, remaining undamaged.
Wrecker groaned and hissed, fingers pressing hard into his helmet.
Malaina crouched down, eyebrows raised in concern. "Wrecker, can you hear me?" She asked, bringing her head down to look into his visor. She could hear Echo and Tech's voices faintly through the comm in his helmet.
So she placed her hands on either side, removing the piece of armor and placing it over her own head. "It smells like Wrecker in here." She says to herself.
The helmet was a little too big for her head, but it still worked. "Tell me what needs to be done." Malaina says to whoever was on the receiving end.
"Malaina-what–where's Wrecker?" Echo asked, rushing to get the words out in the middle of an intense blaster fight.
Malaina glanced down at Wrecker, his gloved hands now resting over his bare head, eyes squeezing together and jaw clenched in pain. "Wrecker's...out of commission. Just kriffing tell me what you need done!"
"What do you mean Wrecker's out of commission?!" Hunter shouts, his voice loud in Malaina's ears. She cringes at the intense volume.
"Malaina, you need to flip the large lever to reboot the facility." Tech responds, taking over for Echo.
Malaina immediately grabbed onto the biggest lever she saw, pulling it down with ease. "Okay, done. T-T-Y-L." She says quickly before ripping the helmet off and falling back down beside Wrecker.
"My head." Wrecker groans, eyes peeling open. He grits his teeth, his brown eyes beginning to darken and narrow. He shook his head, like he was fighting against his thoughts. "Good soldiers..."
Malaina frowned, figuring she misheard him. "Pardon?"
"No. No. No." Wrecker grunted, hands squeezing into fists.
Malaina felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up and she ducks just mere seconds before a blast whipped by. She turned her head at the two police droids standing across the lava pit, their blasters pointed at her while firing with every intention to kill. "Can you not? I'm busy!" She shouted to them, resting a hand on Wrecker's armored shoulder.
She launched her vibroblade into the head of one, and then muttered a curse while looking around aimlessly for something to hit the second with. "Usen'ye!" She grumbled, unable to pay attention to whatever Wrecker was mumbling through the ringing sound of blaster bolts hitting metal mere inches from their heads.
Malaina took her shoe off, launching it with all her strength, knocking the head off of the police droid. "Droids." She scoffed, focusing all her attention back on Wrecker. She smacked his cheek a couple times, resting her other hand on the top of his head where he had hit it. "Come on, buddy, you just rung your bell a little too hard. You'll be alright soon." She muttered, watching his eyes begin to soften.
Malaina grabbed his helmet, waiting patiently for Wrecker to work himself up onto his knees instead of all fours.
When he did, she slid his helmet back over his head. "Alright. Let's wrap this up."
May the Force be with you, see y'all in two days for another update✌️