(Astera):
Serenno. I glared at the image of the planet on the screen, despising every second the ship travelled closer to it. Of all Separatist war chests to loot, Cid just had to choose Dooku's. It was bad enough the castle was already Imperial occupied. But after seeing the way the former Jedi had been twisted by the dark side... I wanted nothing to do with the loot he'd exploited from the very people he was supposed to protect over the Clone Wars. It would surely be stained with the dark side as he had been.
"I know why you agreed to this mission." Echo's voice had me jerking, twisting in my chair to look up at him. But he wasn't talking to me, rather to the clone that sat opposite me. "But we can do better things with Dooku's fortune than hide, Hunter."
Hunter gave no indication at all that he'd heard him, instead focusing intently on the star charts in front of him.
"With what we're up against, we have to be prepared to fight. That means numbers and weapons."
"That's not the life this kid deserves." He finally spoke, sparing Echo only a brief glance before returning back to the star charts.
"Our lives are like this because of Omega."
That got a different reaction. Hunter immediately stood and bundled Echo away from the gunner's mount that doubled as Omega's room, glancing back over his shoulder at the curtain like he was afraid she would hear. My eyes had already shifted towards it, sensing the young girl behind the closed curtains. I could only hope we were far away enough that she couldn't hear.
"Where do you think you would be if you'd left her on Kamino?" I asked quietly, more for her benefit than anything else. "We'd all be at the bottom of the ocean if it weren't for her."
"Taking her off Kamino was the right thing to do," Echo admitted, "but there are others out there that need our help. We've seen what the Empire is doing throughout the galaxy. We should be doing more."
I couldn't help but glance at my lightsabers, hidden away in my holsters at my sides. I'd made my choice a long time ago, to walk away from the Order and everything it stood for in favour of my own people. I'd made it again when I refused to join Rex in his bid against the Empire. I wasn't going to fight someone else's war again. But I still couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt at Echo's words, even as he walked away and Hunter returned to the star charts. I was once a Jedi. I should be doing more.
I glanced back over to the curtain that hid the young female clone's room, needing a reminder that I was here for a reason. I'd chosen to wash my hands of war. I hadn't returned when the Martez sisters or Rex had asked, and I wouldn't. I was more than tired of fighting other people's battles. My priorities had shifted. And try as I might, I couldn't find it in myself to regret that choice.
*****
Dooku had been dead for months, yet I could still feel a lingering chill in the air stepping off the Marauder, remnants of the dark side that pressed on me in dark shadows. I shivered at the feeling, goosebumps rising onto my skin despite the maroon scarf looped over my shoulders. Hopefully this mission would be a quick one.
Wrecker glanced around the bare strip of land Tech had landed the Marauder on, like the palace would be hiding behind one of the many boulders strewn about. "So where's this palace?"
"The city is on the opposite side of this mountain range." Tech pointed to the mountain range in question, the clones already moving for the patchy path worn into the ground in front of us. Omega lingered on the steps, quieter than normal.
"Are you coming?" I shouldered my pack a little higher, grimacing uncomfortably at the unfamiliar weight on my back. I still wasn't used to carrying one around, accustomed to having everything at easy reach on my belt. But with the nature of such a mission, it would probably be better to have one.
She didn't respond to me, hopping off the Marauder's landing ramp before it closed and starting down the path too, trailing farther behind than normal with a disquieted expression. She hadn't heard us on the ship, had she? Hunter had moved Echo out of earshot, but in a ship as small as the Marauder, there really was no place to hide anything. But I found myself staying quiet as well, unwilling to bring it up, instead walking at her side in silence.
We were halfway down the other side of the mountain when we saw it, the obliterated ruins of what had once been the city of Serenno. I'd studied the architecture of its buildings as a Padawan, always fascinated by the sweeping, elegant curves and Now, even the foundations had been turned to rubble, nothing left but grey stone and ash.
"That's the city?" Omega spoke for the first time since arriving on the planet, staring down at the skeletons of the buildings. "What happened to it?"
"Imperial orbital bombardment." Echo's words were tight, clipped. "Same as on Kamino."
He marched off down the mountainside again before anyone could reply, shoulders stiff and angry. This was exactly what he'd been talking about when he said he wanted to fight against the Empire, I realised. How many civilians had once lived in this city, before the Empire had come and wiped them all out without warning? How many families? And this was only Serenno. If they had done something similar on two planets, they had certainly done it on others. Thousands of lives at best, lost, just like that.
Dooku's castle had been the only building untouched by the bombings, though now it was overrun with Imperials. Three Class Four transports were loaded to the maximum with containers of what was undoubtedly Dooku's war chest. One was already in the midst of taking off; Tech pulled out his macrobinoculars to study the grounds better.
"It appears that they are beginning to transport the war chest off-world. Our window of opportunity is quickly closing."
My rangefinder snapped down as Tech handed the macrobinoculars to Echo, vision suddenly magnified enough to make out the troopers on the ground. Clones, not the new TK troopers, judging from the design of their armour. And lots of them.
"There's over forty troopers down there." Echo got to his feet, handing the binocs back to Tech with a subtle shaking of his head. Wrecker only laughed and thumped his fists together.
"Ha! That's nothing."
"Stealth, Wrecker," Omega reminded the larger clone. "Remember?"
The first transport was now well in the air; on the ground, two fighters powered up with the unmistakable whine of ion engines, loud and impossible to miss. Tech watched them soar up on either side of the transport, contemplating. "Imperial escort ships. Standard protocol for when high level cargo is being transported."
And it would only make the mission that much more difficult if something went wrong. We needed a way to take them out. Just in case.
"Get to the nearest container and grab what you can." Hunter seemed to realise this too, finally tearing his eyes away from the transport to give his orders. "Astera and I will be the eyes on the ground. If things go sideways, we'll divert their forces and buy you some time."
Translation: If things went sideways, better that I be on the ground than in an Imperial ship. Probably a good thing - the shadowy feeling had only gotten worse the closer we got to Dooku's war chest, and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to handle getting into a container. I was sure that there were some sort of dark side artefacts in there, but I didn't want to see it for myself.
Despite the nature of the mission and the logical reasoning behind the split, I couldn't help a small thrill spark through me at the thought of being paired with Hunter. An annoying moment that seemed to have become a mutinous habit of my subconscious since Kamino had fallen, every time he had me go with him for any mission. I chalked it up to the excitement of the missions, though I could never explain why it only happened with Hunter.
We split up down the mountainside; Hunter and I heading left, towards the array of fighters still on the ground, and the others right, for the transports. I could already hear the roar of the second ship firing up, the containers starting to peek over the tops of the trees as it pulled away from the castle. Only one transport was still on the ground. We were running out of time.
"In position." Echo's voice crackled to life in my comms just as Hunter and I made it to the edge of the treeline. "And the second transport's launching."
Hunter noticed the guard on patrol first, a flung out arm stopping me behind the nearest tree trunk, his other hand activating the comm in his helmet. "We've got roving patrols. Stay alert."
We waited until the clone on patrol had rounded the bend and another two fighters had taken off before dashing out, thermal explosives already in hand as I went for the ship farthest from us, Hunter taking cover behind the wing of the second one to watch the clone continue his path around us.
"Final launch in ten mikes." The sounds of passing clone voices had me diving for the floor after I'd stuck the explosive, rolling under the ship for the other wing. Too quickly - the side of my pack hit the ground with a too-loud thump, its weight throwing me off. At the other ship, Hunter's head jerked up at the noise, the enhanced clone darting back for the safety of the tree-line. Dank farrik. My body tensed in anticipation, waiting for something, anything. If he'd heard it, then the troopers stationed behind us surely had.
"Did you hear that?" Two pairs of white boots appeared around the edge of the wing, legs and torsos slowly coming into view the closer they got to the ship. They were coming to check it out. I needed to move. Now.
No sooner than I'd hopped over the short wall at the edge of the castle, the clone stuck his head underneath the wing of the ship, finding nothing out of the ordinary. He turned back to his companion with a short shake of the head. "Ah, it's nothing."
The breath lodged in my sternum loosened seeing both of them return to their posts. My heart was pounding away in my chest, chest tight from the rush of adrenaline that poured through me whenever the regs got too close to me. But at least I hadn't frozen. Months of meditation and careful work on my reactions had seen to that.
"Hunter, Astera, I think we're about to have some company." Echo's report came in before I'd even made it back to the tree-line, hunched low to avoid detection from the patrols. I didn't even want to ask why - it probably had something to do with Wrecker, like always.
"Are you clear?" Hunter waved me over from a spot deep into the forest, far enough we wouldn't be affected by the explosions. Perfect, considering it seemed we were about to need them anytime soon.
"Negative. We could use that diversion about now."
"On it." The detonator was already in my hand, watching the two clone troopers that had heard my blunder walk away from the rigged ships. Waiting for them to move out of range.
They were knocked flat by the explosion, remnants of the burning ships and fire raining down around them. Alarms instantly began to go off, wailing klaxons and frantic yelling from both clones already on their knees filling the air.
"Explosion on deck!"
"Send damage control!"
Good. The distraction had worked. We didn't stick around long enough to witness the aftermath, forging deeper into the trees towards the third transport ship with a quick warning to the others still in the ship. It would only keep them occupied for so long, and I had a feeling they would send the transport off as soon as they realised the explosion was no malfunction.
"Where are the others?" Wrecker was the only one waiting for us in the trees, dropping a large crate to the forest floor. The others were nowhere in sight. I could already hear the transport beginning to fire up, all doors to the containers firmly sealed. They had better be out by now, or there was gonna be trouble.
"Still in the container," Wrecker responded to my question, turning back just as the transport hissed loudly, a sure sign it was ready to leave. Dank farrik. If the container doors were still sealed, it meant Echo couldn't get them open with his scomp link. This wasn't good.
Hunter's hand was already to his helmet, comm activating with a buzz. "Tech, the ship's taking off. Get out of there!"
"Hunter, we're trapped in the container!" It was Omega who replied instead of Tech, panic lacing her words. "We can't get out!"
"On our way!" He made to start running down the hill for the transport, only for Wrecker to bring him up short, seeing something by the edge of the perimeter.
"Uh, boss? I think they know something's up." The regs had returned in full force already, three of them forming a rigid line by the remaining containers on the ground and another three running past. They must have caught onto the explosions already, realising it was no accident. That was going to make our job a whole lot harder.
Hunter sighed in resignation, blaster already in hand. "We're done hiding anyway."
All three clones directly in front of us went down to our stuns before we'd even broken the tree-line, collapsing with no chance to fire back. Our actions did not go unnoticed - distant shouts sounded from further down the perimeter, more abandoning their posts to chase after us. Our stuns mingled with deadly live rounds, clones in front of us falling as their own bolts sank into the container, the transport, the trees far behind us.
I ducked to the side as a shot flew past my shoulder, narrowly missing Hunter as it hit the transport and firing on the offending clone before he could get too close. His companion collapsed a second later under Wrecker's fire, all three of us dashing around the cover of the ship as more regs ran after us, blue fire following close on our heels.
The transport was taking off - I scrambled up the ladder as it lifted away from the ground, Hunter throwing himself up after me. Wrecker was still shooting at the remaining clones, laughing uproariously as he leaped for the rapidly rising ship, stunning two more clones even as he hauled himself up the rungs of the ladder. "Ha ha! Come and get me!"
The two remaining clones were still firing at us even as the transport steered away from Dooku's castle, carrying us out of range. A bolt embedded itself in the wall next to me - I jerked back, slotting my blaster away an both hands gripping tightly onto the ladder. With the increasing distance between us and them, there was no use firing back on them when my stuns wouldn't even reach that far.
The second shot clipped Hunter's gauntlet, his fingers slipping off the metal with a pained grunt and sending him tumbling past Wrecker.
"Hunter!" My hand shot out on instinct as he fell, electric power already tingling at my fingertips. It would be a bad idea to use the Force here, especially when we were so exposed, but right now, it was the furthest thing from my mind. I had to catch him if he fell too far. I wasn't going to let him fall.
He caught the bottom rung at the last second, body dangling over the trees that were rapidly blurring together as the transport picked up speed. The sight was dizzying; I had to blink and look away before it all began to swirl together. I was no Wrecker, but since Daro, heights had begun to make me nervous. Even if I knew I could land safely with my abilities. At least the firing had stopped, allowing me to focus on other things.
"Oh, I'm starting to regret this." Wrecker made the mistake of looking down, clutching himself tighter to the ladder with a groan. Hunter swung his other arm up to grab the rung, unable to pull himself up any further. There was no way we were getting inside the transport, and it had risen too high for us to jump to the ground safely. We were stuck.
"We gotta go." He wasn't looking at either of us, but rather at the sloping domed roof of Dooku's castle. I could almost see the plan formulating in his head, calculating the distance to the roof, if we could make the jump there safely.
"Go where?!" Wrecker clung onto the ladder for dear life, sounding like he would be sick if he had to move. He had a point. There was nowhere to go, even if we could make it to the roof. Though I knew better than to doubt Hunter when he had a plan.
"Jump!" I ignored the flashes of another forested planet, memories of freefalling through empty space racing through my mind, and let go of the ladder at Hunter's shout, throwing myself clear into empty space. For all of three seconds, my body was completely weightless, stomach dropping as I did, and then we hit the castle.
My back hit the roof hard, my breath saved only by the unwieldy pack still on my shoulders. I was already twisting, vibroblade ejected at the clench of my fist and stabbing it into the dome. Sparks flew, metal squealing on metal, but it did the job well enough, slowing me down just enough that I could land upright on the jutting curve below us.
"This isn't any better!" Wrecker moaned, hanging off the edge of the roof by one hand as Hunter and I reached out to pull him up. He scrambled to his feet almost immediately, the three of us watching the final transport ascend into the skies. We wouldn't be able to get the others out. They were on their own for now.
"Hunter, where are you?" Omega demanded into the comms as if she'd heard my thoughts.
"Sorry, kid. We got a little sidetracked." Hunter slotted his knife back into the sheath on his forearm, my own retracting back into its vambrace. "You need to get off the ship before it jumps to hyperspace."
"If we gain access to the ship's main hold, we could commandeer an escape pod," Tech reasoned.
"Do it," Hunter said immediately. "We'll get to the Marauder and recover you."
"That's gonna take a while." I stared down at the grounds of the castle, seeing the three clone squads that had finally mobilised us. The sounds of blaster fire pierced the air again - I ducked behind the antenna in front of me as a shot sparked off the wall next me, leaving a molten orange mark behind. We needed better cover. We were sitting ducks out here.
"Quick! Inside!" I was only too glad to follow Hunter's orders, hunched low as we snuck away from the still firing troopers below us.