A/N: i'm back :))))
Astera:
The beaches of Aynaboni were among the most beautiful in the galaxy. Crystal clear water, pearly white sand. Sunny, cloudless weather. Even the jungle trees were lush like no other. It would have been the perfect place to relax.
If it wasn't for the enraged pod of aggrocrabs intent on murdering us.
Echo skidded straight into the water, tripping over several sticks in the mud and face planting with a splash. Hunter, right behind him, was already pulling him roughly to his feet, his urgency forgoing all sense of gentleness.
"Go, go, go, go, go, go!" Wrecker screamed, easily overtaking me despite his larger size and the extra weight of the crate he was carrying. Seven of the very large crabs were right behind, stumbling and stomping all over each other as they scuttled after us, angry at having their sleep woken. We had a headstart on them, but the gap was closing fast.
"We went over the plan five times!" Echo yelled at Wrecker, brandishing his only hand at the larger clone. Of course it had been Wrecker to wake the pod, the large clone chronically unable to pull off any sort of stealth mission.
"I got the package, didn't I?" Wrecker protested loudly, holding it up as proof. After crashing into several sleeping crabs while I was supposed to be levitating said package out of the nest.
"Just keep moving!" Hunter urged from behind us, still checking over his shoulder for any crabs that might have closed the distance between us.
"How do you manage to wake an entire island of aggrocrabs, Wrecker?" I panted from his other side, legs pumping hard in an effort to keep up with them. The first real mission I'd been cleared for since my injury - one that didn't include only keeping watch and staying out of anything too taxing - and Wrecker had managed to make a mess of it before I'd even had a chance to levitate the package out. "It has to be a talent, really!"
"Tech, we've got the cargo." Hunter's hand pressed to the side of his helmet, the comm channel activating in the rest of ours. "But we could use some firepower."
"Wrecker woke the pod, didn't he?" Tech's dry response was not really a question at all.
"Yeah, and they're not happy. We need a pickup!"
"Copy that," Omega's voice joined Tech's. "We're on our way."
Another crab shot out from the treeline, claws snapping right for Echo; he dived under its deadly weapons fluidly, Hunter blasting at the offending crab. His shots scorched harmlessly off its bulletproof shells, only serving to enrage it further.
"You might want to hurry it up a bit!" More crabs were pouring out from the trees behind us, adding to the horde screeching for our deaths. They were fast, much faster than us - the distance between us and them was rapidly closing. At this rate, the crabs would get to us before Tech did.
"If you wanna use one of your Jedi tricks, now would be the time!" The power was already gathering in me before Echo had spoken, heels throwing up sprays of sand as I twisted back to face the looming wall of crabs. They looked even larger up close, beady eyes and each ridge on their deadly claws in perfect, sharp detail. Perfect for shredding me apart.
I shoved both hands outwards before I could lose my nerve, channelling the Force in a blast of rippling air that hit the crabs like a solid strike. The front wave was sent flying back into the rest behind them, knocking several on their backs with legs thrashing uselessly in the air. It did nothing to deter the infuriated animals - they merely stampeded over their downed companions, pincers snapping and shrieking louder than ever.
"Uh-oh." That wasn't good. I took off again, after the clones that hadn't gained enough distance. A claw snapped shut right next to my face - yellow burst from the end of a lightsaber instinctively whipped out, severing the tip of the pincer. The offending crab squealed in pain and fell back, letting me put on an extra burst of speed to catch up with the three clones who had not gained enough distance.
"Weren't you supposed to slow these things down?" Echo fired blindly behind him, more bolts glancing off the crabs' exoskeletons with nothing more than blackened burn marks. They were catching up again, beginning to lunge for our heels with their claws. I slashed at another one, sand rippling and melting into glass underneath the heat of my blade. Momentarily distracted, the crabs fell back against the onslaught of my lightsaber, unsure what to make of a weapon that could actually pierce their tough outer armour.
And as if our luck wasn't already bad enough, the second pod of crabs scuttled out from the gap in the treeline in front of us, cutting us off from our escape. We were trapped.
"Tech, where are you?" Wrecker skidded to a stop, dropping the crate into the sand with a wet thud. He was already reaching for the blaster at his side when The Marauder shot out from around the bend, forward cannons firing into the mess of crabs intercepting us from the front. And underneath the ship, connected only by a thin grappling line, a tiny dark shape that looked a lot like a certain young girl who should be in the ship with Tech.
"Is that Omega?" I squinted at the small figure dangling in mid-air, pink bolts flying from the indistinct weapon attached to its arm. Definitely Omega then.
"Why is Omega hanging off the ship?" Hunter demanded into the comms, disapproval radiating from every word.
"It is an..." Tech trailed off, searching for a viable excuse, "unscheduled study break!"
Right. I could only snort at the response as the girl hopped back onto the landing platform, her fire never holding up even as she fluidly unclipped the grappling line from her belt and sent it back down, the ship jerking around to hover right on top of us,
Wrecker was already running for the clip even as the crabs started to close in, pressing into a tight circle around us. They were nearly on top of us - I pushed out with the Force and threw them backwards again, hooking out a blaster and starting to fire with a lightsaber still gripped in my other hand, fending off the attacking pincers. We already had our backs to the package between us, slowly retreating further as the wall of crabs reared closer and closer, pincers snapping far too close for comfort.
My knees hit the back of the crate; without breaking fire I scrambled onto it after Hunter and Echo and disengaged the lightsaber, the crate rising into the air and crabs around us finally collapsing on top of each other as our shots found purchase in their unprotected flesh. Still they kept coming, legs driving into each other's shells and heads as they leaped and claws grabbing for us even as we ascended beyond their reach, screeching angrily at the loss of their target.
The Marauder veered away from the island the second we were inside the ship, blasting away from the island with the crabs still waving threatening claws after it.
I couldn't be gladder to get away from the beach for once, dragging off my helmet with a quiet sigh and rolling out my right shoulder experimentally. The joint had more than fully healed in the months Hunter had forced me to stay on the ship, though I still found myself checking it occasionally, a nervous habit that had developed after Kamino.
Wrecker groaned, setting the package down next to Hunter with a heavy sound. "I thought the beach was supposed to be relaxing."
"Appreciate the backup," Hunter told Omega, half collapsing into the nearest seat and resting his helmet on his knee, "but try staying inside the ship next time."
"I'll try." She removed her own helmet - an old thing I'd found on Ord Mantell's markets a few weeks back and used the last of my credits to buy for her - a sheepish smile already plastered on her face. "But it was still pretty fun."
"Nice job, kid." I bumped her shoulder as I passed by her. "You're getting good with that bow."
The grin only widened in response as she trotted after me into the back room, leaving the newly coloured grey and orange helmet on one of the seats. I thought new gloves and pants would be the extent of my armour modification after our escape from Kamino, but Omega had insisted on redecorating my armour with the rest of the Batch. Now that I was one of them, she argued, I should look like one of them. I'd been unable to say no; the once black and silver beskar was now several shades of grey, accentuated with bright sections of orange and violet. She'd also somehow acquired a scarf from somewhere, the burgundy fabric now draped around my shoulders. An unorthodox look for any Mandalorian, but it wasn't like I could call myself a traditional one to begin with.
"Can you do it again?" she begged, half bouncing in front of me. I couldn't help but smile at the look of excitement on her face. No matter how tired I was from missions, she was too difficult to say no to.
"Alright," I relented. "What do you want me to do this time?"
"Gonky," she replied immediately, looking at the defective battery droid tottering around in the back room.
I held my hand out and concentrated hard, calling on the Force. The air around us reverberated with a subtle boom, and the unsuspecting Gonky's feet left the ground, making loud noises in surprise. Omega giggled, watching him float through the air with his stumpy legs wiggling around uselessly.
"Astera." Hunter called me back, Gonky drifting back to the floor with the droid immediately beginning to waddle over to me with angry noises. I dodged him easily, darting around his unwieldy body back to the cockpit with Omega hot on my heels. "We're back."
**********
"Greetings!" AZI floated towards us as soon as the door hissed open. "It is I, AZI-345211-"
"Yeah, yeah, we know," Wrecker interrupted the former medical droid, marching past him towards Cid's office with the crate in his arms. AZI continued on, undeterred.
"You are all quite late. Mistress Cid has been extremely vocal about her displeasure."
Echo only snorted in response. "Well, there's a surprise."
Cid wasn't behind her desk as she usually was as we entered, instead standing on the other side, her back to the door. She twisted at the sound of the door opening, Wrecker dropping the crate at her feet. "Well, well, well. The space lugs decided to finally show up."
"Better late than dead, I always say." The woman behind Cid's desk leaned back in the chair, legs swung up onto the desk itself. I frowned; Cid never let anyone else behind her desk, much less put their feet up on it. Whoever she was, she was probably important.
"And who are you?" Hunter's eyebrows furrowed as he noticed her, drawing together in a suspicious glare. Cid had certainly never mentioned her before. Was she another client? I could only hope that the resulting mission wouldn't be another zero intel job like so many others in the past few months.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" She smirked, drawing the words out as she snatched up her drink, walking around from behind the desk to get a closer look at us. "So, this is the top team you've been talking about? The rogue clones on the run from the Empire huh? How juicy."
Hunter's glare moved to Cid. "You told her?"
He shifted almost imperceptibly, putting his body between me and the pirate. His concern was more than Phee knowing about them. It was knowing about me that was the real danger. If Phee knew I was Jedi... that was one more person who could sell that information to the Empire.
"Don't get twitchy." Cid dismissed him immediately. "Phee's a friend. She's the most trustworthy pirate I know."
"Is that supposed to be comforting?" Echo demanded incredulously. I couldn't blame him for being suspicious. Pirates and trustworthy... They were two words that had no business going together. Especially not after I'd met the likes of Hondo.
"Aren't clones supposed to look alike?" Phee questioned dubiously, ignoring Echo and gazing at the squad with a raised eyebrow. "So much for quality control."
She moved even closer, scrutinising us individually.
"This one's too big," she pointed a crooked finger at Wrecker first, then Omega beside him. "This one's too small. This one's got a face tattoo. Yeah, real subtle."
Phee scoffed at Hunter, her attention switching to me behind him. "This one's shaped all wrong-"
"That's Astera," Cid cut in. "She's the Jedi I was telling you about."
I started forward, the objection rising in my throat, only to die out as Phee merely glanced me up and down and moved on with a disinterested 'hmm'.
"Oh, hey now." She had noticed Tech, her demeanour instantly softening, becoming almost playful. "Got a name, brown eyes?"
I cringed at the blatant familiarity she referred to him with, though Tech didn't seem nearly as bothered by the not-so-subtle attempt to flirt.
"Tech," he answered brusquely, readjusting his goggles once again. "However, the phenotypic eye colour for all clones is brown. Iris pigmentation was not affected by our mutat-"
The look on Phee's face told me she was already bored with him.
"Well as fascinating as this has been, I have places to be." She drained the rest of her drink and dropped it into Cid's hands, who caught it with an outraged look, moving past her to tap Wrecker on the chest. "You. Let's see those muscles in action. Grab that, and follow me."
"Uhh, yes, ma'am." Wrecker was too stunned to do anything but comply, lifting up the heavy crate yet again and following the tall, eccentric pirate out of Cid's office.
"And Cid," she called over her shoulder before disappearing out the door, "That intel is not free. I expect a cut if your 'top team' comes through."
The rest of us were already turning to Cid before Phee was gone. Hunter shifted his helmet under his arm, glaring at Cid.
"What is she talking about?"
"Your next mission." Cid arched a scaly brow, like it should have been obvious already. "You lot are heading to the Outer Rim."
She jabbed a button on the holotable in front of her, the holographic layout of a castle blinking into existence on top of it. I blanched at the sight of it, each tower and curve of that cursed place as familiar to me as the Temple. I'd never been there myself, but each and every Jedi had learned of it since the war had begun, learned to avoid it and the planet it lived on like it was plagued. "You can't be serious. There's no way I'm going anywhere near that place."
"Why not?" Omega peered curiously up at me. "What's wrong with it?"
"That is Castle Serenno," Tech informed the young clone before I could. "The former home of Count Dooku."
"Who's that?"
"A Jedi who betrayed the Republic and led the Separatists in a war." Echo's eyes were flinty as he stared at the image of Dooku's castle. At least I wasn't the only one who remembered the destruction he had wrought on the Republic and his betrayal.
"And a Sith Lord," I added furiously. "He was a traitor to the Order."
Cid ignored us all, as always, focused on the thought of the credits this job could bring in rather than our complicated history with its previous owners. "With him being dead, his entire war chest is up for grabs. The Empire's already started pillaging his palace, but there is still time to strike before it's all gone."
"No." I folded my arms with the flat refusal. "Raxus was one thing. I am not setting foot in Dooku's castle."
"This isn't about you, Mandie," she snapped. " It's about the score we could get from it. Even one of those chests would be worth more than that ship you sold me."
"That war chest is tainted. You want it? Find someone else to get it." I turned and stalked from the room before she could reply. To hell with Dooku's war chest. I never wanted anything to do with the Sith Lord again.
The urge to ignite a lightsaber and slash it through Cid's bar was strangely overwhelming, but despite the satisfaction it would bring, it would only end up in more problems for me. I settled for slamming my helmet on the bar, drawing confused glances from both Bolo and Ketch as I grabbed the nearest bottle and clean glass, pouring a drink and downing half of it in one swallow.
I didn't look up as a shadow fell across me, firmly fixating on tracing the newly coloured orange sections on my helmet on the bar in front of me. I didn't need to - I already knew who it was. "I don't suppose you're here to convince me to go."
"No." Hunter slid into the seat next to me, propping an arm up on the bar casually. "I'm with you. It's too much of a risk."
I couldn't help a small smile of relief glancing up to him, catching his eye for just a second longer than necessary. With him on my side, there was no way we would be going. Though all of us had left the Republic and the Empire far behind, the Batch still regarded Hunter as their leader - whatever he said went. I was more than happy to follow; although my old position still technically outranked him, I had no desire to lead unless it was absolutely necessary.
Omega trotted over then, holding out a datapad and asking for us to quiz her on the classes of Imperial transports. I broke eye contact with Hunter with a quiet clearing of my throat, returning to the drink in my hand and downing the rest of it. Tech was busy talking to Cid, in fact, they were all busy talking to Cid, in hushed voices too low for me to make out. I paid it no mind, too distracted by looking at the clone next to me for too long and instead trying to focus on Omega's questions, the girl answering each of them confidently.
"I'm in." Despite Wrecker's attempts to be quiet, his voice still carried over easily to us. Hunter raised his head, eyes meeting mine in a quick flash before watching the group at the holotable a little more closely, heads all bent together conspiratorially. They were planning something. And it didn't sound promising.
"Good, then we're in agreement." Cid jerked a not so subtle head towards where we were at the bar. "Now we just have to convince dark and broody and Mandie over there."
"Convince us about what?" Hunter was suddenly in the space between Tech and Wrecker, I myself squeezing in between Cid and Echo. Only Wrecker had the grace to look shamefaced, the rest of them stubbornly determined.
"Uh, well, we took a vote, and we wanna go after the war chest."
"It's unanimous," Cid confirmed, staring pointedly at me. "Even killjoy over here agreed."
She swept a hand towards Echo, who couldn't do much more than look stunned at the nickname she had labelled him with.
"It's a bad idea," I insisted. "The chest isn't worth it."
"I wasn't asking you, Mandie." Cid waved my protests away, now intently focused on Hunter, staring at the holotable with a hard expression.
"Serenno is Imperial occupied," he said eventually. "We've stayed off the Empire's radar since Kamino. Why chance it now?"
"Because the contents of just one of those containers would be worth more than all the other jobs you've pulled for me combined." For once there was no malice in Cid's tone, only enthusiasm at the thought of the money it could fetch her. "You can buy your freedom."
"We're already free."
"It's cute you think that," Cid scoffed at Hunter. I only rolled my eyes - apparently she'd forgotten Omega had more than paid off our debts to her playing dejarik all those months ago. "Clearly, you're not paying attention to what's happening out there, but I am. It's only a matter of time before the Empire comes here. And then my little operation is over, which means no more jobs for you."
"She does have a valid point," Tech reasoned. If he was on her side, then Hunter would already be that much more likely to agree. And Cid knew this. Seeing her advantage, she pressed for the kill.
"You wanna really be free? Then pull off this heist, and you'll have the means to disappear. No more risky missions, no more living hand to mouth. You can have a future. Isn't that what you're after?"
She had a point, and I hated it. Even with the decent amount of credits I'd gained after selling my ship to her, it had been depleted all too quickly, with a never-ending need for food, equipment, and new blasters after I'd lost mine to the troopers on Daro. We needed money and she knew it.
I knew it was over when Hunter glanced away, to Omega sitting at the bar. He wanted a future for her more than anything, and that meant he'd agree to just about anything to achieve that. "I guess I'm in."
Five pairs of eyes flickered to me, waiting for my answer. I could only sigh, shoulders slumping in defeat. I was already beaten. It was either stay here with Cid or go. And I knew which choice I preferred. "Does it really matter if I say no?"